Unknown Armies - Holiday in Caledonia Playtest 2 Part 2

 

It was winter in Caledonia. Martial was still learning to cope with only one leg and defense of the Veteran Colony fell to the other three men.

• Rusticus the Latinized Barbarian
• Tarquin the Wine Merchant
• Valerian the Street Thug 

Valerian slept in the loft of his house alongside his three children, roof held up by the ancient menhir around which they built the drystone structure with its roof of sod and heather. He woke to find menhir and roof transformed into an enormous toadstool, under which sat a peg legged man with an enormous nose. Peg Leg told Valerian that he was here to help him. Ever since his wife Finngaula died, the old man had just been going through the motions for the sake of the kids. The fairy would take care of them. They'd be safe from everything that was about to happen if he just handed them over.

 

Valerian asked what was about to happen. The goblin showed him torches burning in the woods, men in mail and saxon helms, and a mountain rising up to crush the settlement. And he told Valerian that this next part wasn't him, honest.

The house was on fire when Valerian woke up.

The Colonel's Table: Session Two

 

Two burger warriors showed up for work that night, accompanied by two new recruits to the Cadre.

• Laine Kornell, elderly bombe addict
• Thad Albright, wage slave
• Jazzy Boulevard, ex-con
• Edgar, disgraced cop

Mick and Nadia were off that night but the restaurant was fully staffed without them. Orlock Bonnavera, Ozzy Packard and Fonz Trepanier joined the quartet for a total of seven frycooks. When the restaurant was overstaffed like that, it meant someone was being on a dangerous mission while the others held down the fort. Orlock took the four out back for a "smoke break" and explained what needed doing. He shouted like he was still in the restaurant and trying to be heard over the endless shrieking and beeping of the machines. It was just how he talked.

 

D100 Questions From D4 Caltrops

 

Responses to random selections from the d100 questions list by D4 Caltrops, whose OSE Encounter Activities I greatly enjoyed.

 

Godkiller

 

Jon Godkiller (who they later called Ahuizotl after his father) lived in the skull of a great dead thing filled with crystals. The skull often flooded with the gifts brought by Water, and when it was dry John and his friends spent most of their time killing and eating the great Bloodbats who were the beloved children of the Healing God. This was, you'll recall, after Wolf died and let Fire remake the world. And remake it again and again until the land rose and fell like cheese in molten dough.

 

Jon liked to swim down into the pores beneath the bones, or the mulch as the men from the cities called it, and fish for things left behind from the days before the land melted. He had a collection of such artifacts and he would often ask Teacher, who was a speaker of the Voice From the Cave, for understanding of what they meant. Teacher made up stories but was in truth just as clueless as Jon. He had been thrown out of the Cave for some reason or another, or possibly it was all a plant so he might spread doubt of the other Gods in the guise of exile.

 

It was Teacher who put the idea in Jon's head to rob the great mating caravan that brought Water his annual shipment of wives. These women, chosen by lottery and gathered from across the realm, were given to the God and then drowned in the act of bearing his tadpoles, which he then devoured. Jon wasn't thankful to Water for bringing the rain and wasn't afraid of his priests, and he wanted a wife who was large enough that he didn't instinctively try to eat her.

I'll Take New York: Playtest

 

Claudine Vega sat in the back of a well-loved Ford Escape, flanked by a pair of greaseballs with concealed firearms bulging out of their stained polo shirts. A third wise guy drove the car, and Claudine actually recognized him. Troy Gottardi, a Genovese family hood. Getting into a car with these idiots was a bad idea for a caster, ever since the New York families declared war on all "satanic black magic shit" in their territory. But Vega had an angle. It was 2004, the monsters keeping magick users from gaining charges in New York City were dead. She was going to get a slice of the treasure. If the mobsters recognized her on sight as a sorceress who could answer their questions, it meant her scheme was working.

 

The Colonel's Table: Session One

It was about 9:00 PM at the Wenatchee combination KFC/A&W on the interstate. In attendance: 

• Thad Albright, juvenile delinquent, working the fryer
• Laine Kornell, elderly bombe addict, at the drive through
• Whistle Jack, working homeless, on the register

They were supposed to have backup but they were alone for the night. Nadia, the gun-toting Maoist who usually explained what they were supposed to do for the conspiracy, left a rack of chicken fresh out of the tophet (which the Coterie insisted on calling the pressure fryer) with a sticky note:

 

SERVE THESE

CHOOSE WISELY

 

Into the Nest: Playtest

The Tomb Robber descended the rope ladder into the burial shaft. The freshly exposed pit was home to the enormous burrowing insects harassing the town, but also to an untouched mausoleum hopefully filled with treasure. Delving alone was risky but meant he wouldn't have to share the rewards with anyone. He hefted his sword in one hand and his lantern in the other and proceeded into the tomb, passing under the image of a man with the wings of a grasshopper.

 

Undercroft: The Wastes

Martin

The Wastes are a place where negative energy intrudes into the dungeon from the plane of death and undead. Superficially they’re not all that different from the rest of the Undercity. The Devils help set them apart.

Riverboat Gambler Session Ten

Mayer 

 

Jack Fatherd, Roddy Applecreek and Datura the Elf led a squad of Hsigo into the mastaba. They entered on the third level and took a spiral staircase down to the bottom floor, following the tracks left by the birds. The bottom floor landing had four stone doors, one in each direction.

• North, illustrated with images of crocodiles. The door was open, the tracks led through.
• West, illustrated with a man descending into a watery abyss
• South, illustrated with a sarcophagus
• East, illustrated with a baboon headed man and a beetle headed woman.

Jack opened the southern door in hopes of finding treasure. He stopped in his tracks when he noticed a slot in the ceiling, where a stone slab could descend and trap him in the room.

Datura followed the tracks into the north room. The seven surviving giant woodpeckers stood around a pool filled with sand. They gave warning cries. Datura shot one of the wounded birds and they attacked as a flock. The east door opened and a flood of animal mummies spilled out into the landing.

Undercroft: The Mines

Parker

 

The mines beneath the City were officially closed long ago when they ran dry, and when buildings began to collapse. The opening of the Underworld has filled them up with dungeon monsters and ignited a gang war over the remaining treasure.

Undercroft: The Weald

 

Diefenbach

The Weald is a place where the natural world thrives in the lightless depths of the Undercity, defying physical laws that demand sun and rain for things to grow.

Undercroft: Dungeon Builder and The Weird

This is a dungeon builder for His Majesty The Worm. You use it a bit like the City Builder in the corebook, but for the underworld. It’s based on the one from Esoteric Enterprises, my favorite dungeon builder ever.

His Majesty The Worm Monster Mash: The Triplets

 

The Triplets are a pair of Dark Elf twins raised in a Church orphanage and a Brain Spider who “adopted” them after they aged-out of the program. They like the dungeon because nobody charges them rent or makes them perform religious rituals, and if someone hits you you’re allowed to hit them back. They’re like the Guild, completing Contracts while pursuing personal motivations. They’re tough and confident adventurers but lack emotional maturity.