I scheduled the session over someone's Delta Green game, which lost me some players. In attendence:
- Larry Lippman, One-half of a man on the run. (Explorer Lvl 2)
- Dwayne Brutananadilewski, Big Guy & Rock (Bodyguard, Lvl 1)
This group had Perception and Athletics to spare, unlike the Coal City gang. This would later prove decisive.
Dwayne Brutananadilewski was in town to crash with his brother Carl, after failing to get a square job in Coal City. He took his van down to the Love Shack, where he knew his brother was staying, and picked up Larry on the way. They were both occult Outlaws on the run from Coal City, and quickly became fast friends.
At the Love Shack, Carl the Rock was overjoyed to see his brother. He offered to carve out a place for Carl to stay in the love shack basement. Larry suggested that Carl accompany him into the dungeon to complete the mapping job from last week. They purchased a pair of gas masks, from the Love Shack storage locker and set off into the underworld.
The exit from Adrian's darkroom was sealed with a stone wall. After some confused wandering, the explorers discovered that the sealed door in the radiotherapy room had been replaced with another stone passwall, which let them through into the abandoned facility.
They went South to the abandoned rail tunnel, where they investigated an abandoned rail siding they'd skipped exploring last week. They found three hazardous materials cars filled with hydrazine. They struggled to read the safety data sheet on the side, and decided not to mess with the obviously dangerous chemicals. For now. They went South to the Underworld Frontier.
With gas masks, the pair had no fear of the airtight chamber which the gang had avoided the previous week. The yellow mist that came billowing out didn't injure their exposed skin, but the worms that came crawling out with the cloud bothered them a lot. The trio of tied up corpses bothered them a bit more.
The next chamber was covered with graffiti. Someone had tagged the room for the SEEKERS OF THE PATH, then over that, SERVANTS OF THE KING OF THE UNIVERSE, then SEEKERS OF THE PATH again, and so on. The chamber after that was crackling with electricity, from a set of live wires dangling into a pool of water. They decided not to risk crossing it, and went back to investigate the tunnels they'd explored last week.
The sleepy puffballs from last week hadn't grown back yet. The next room was full of sleeping troglodytes, nesting in a big heap. The duo tried to sneak past them, but woke the beasts up. They took a beating until Dwayne got his flamethrower on target, scaring off some of the creatures. The troglodyte mystic countered with a shroud of magical darkness, and the pair retreated rather than fight ape men in the lightless chamber.
Satisfied that they hadn't been pursued, they sat down for a rest in the meeting room they trashed the previous week. They decided to try the North tunnel from the puffball room. Dwayne narrowly dodged a rock to the head from a lurking troglodyte, and they ran North to try their luck up there.
The door was heavy. A skull with a brass snake tongue served as the handle. Dwayne didn't trust it. He used his crowbar to batter it open. The pair snuck through into a mysterious library on the other side. They heard footsteps. They ran back out and closed the door. They heard voices. They knocked.
"It's open!" someone shouted from inside.
Inside were five priests with pistols. They asked why the miscreants had bashed their door open. Dwayne apologized. They had a short conversation, where Jephthah told the Gangsters
Both Dwayne and Larry easily jumped the electrified water. The path ahead was clear.
The chamber ahead stank like boiling, rancid fat. They were near their destination. Dwayne spotted a rust monster in the tunnel ahead. He hatched a plan: hand all his metal objects to Larry, then rush it with his wooden club and beat it to death.
Larry opened up with the flamethrower and singed the rust monster. Dwayne rushed in and struck it with the club, but failed to achieve much. Larry lassoed it with his climbing gear, trying to tie it up. The rust monster chirped and tapped him with its antennae, destroying his flashlight and the metal components of his climbing gear. With the flashlight gone, they could see daylight from one of the chambers beyond. They ran toward it, rather than fight the rust monster in the dark. It ignored them, busy chewing on the leftovers of Larry's gear.
They stumbled past pillars of heaped gristle, out into the light. The exit opened onto the shore of the Sink. A crater full of rancid meat drippings, pouring forth out of pipes from the rendering plants above. They had reached their destination.
They also had no climbing gear to get out of the pit, and no flashlight to go back through the tunnel. They debated flagging down a meat worker for help, but discarded the idea. They knew there was a corporate war on between the pit's owners (United Meat Train) and their archrivals (Delicious Weenie).
On the other side of the pit, a group of yellow hazmat suited figures descended a rope ladder to a wound in the side of the pit. They had flashlights on their belts, and Larry decided to sneak into the tunnel after them and steal one. He set out across the side of pit, nimbly skipping across the fleshy slope. Dwayne looked down at the surface of the blood pool at the bottom of the pit. He saw it beat like a heart. Like it was alive. He yelled at Larry to come back. Larry got back into the tunnel without being spotted by any of the workers on the pit edge. Dwayne explained the pit was alive, and they needed to leave.
They decided to use the pilot light on Dwayne's flamethrower to illuminate the tunnel ahead of them. They searched the weird meat columns for loot, ran past the rust monster, leaped across the electric water, and scampered back to the derelict rail line. A group of strangers passed ahead in the dark without spotting them. They made a hasty retreat through the facility, back to the Love Shack.
They caught up with Adrian the Exploring Kid at the bar. He paid them the promised thousand dollars in exchange for the map to the Sink. They asked him if he knew anything about the pit being alive. He said they should ask Loy, the Urban Shaman. Loy was in the den, busy bending an aluminum can into weird shapes and screaming at voices only he could hear.
Dwayne went to sleep in the cubicle his brother Carl carved out for him. Larry drove across town in Elsa's car to a hotel.
Rested up, they reconnected the next day for more dungeon exploration. The trip back through the abandoned facility and rail line uncovered nothing noteworthy, and they decided to explore an alternate entrance to the geothermal cave southeast of the ruins.
The caves held little of interest. The duo dutifully mapped the sweltering chambers, dodging scalding steam and skirting deadly magma. The most interesting thing they found was a room full of rock people, which they avoided disturbing. They encountered a strange creature amusing itself in the magma, but avoided attracting its attention as well. Satisfied that there was nothing more of interest in the lava cave, unless they wanted to pester the rock people, they returned to the train tunnel.
Dwayne decided to stock up on dangerous chemicals. He searched the old locker room for a bucket, and opened the valve on one of the hazardous tankers. The pressurized fluid sprayed out and he narrowly avoided being coated. It pooled on the floor, and he started to worry about the amount of caustic, toxic, carcinogenic, incredibly flammable liquid flowing into the rail tunnel. He tried to climb on top of the tanker and turn the valve, but he fell into the liquid and got burned. He rinsed the worst of it off, but still felt lightheaded.
They decided to explore the remainder of the old offices in the rail tunnel, instead of playing Dudes of Hazmat with the tankers. They heard someone moving on the other side of the locker room door. They waited in suspense.
A lizard man jumped through the door. The locker room became a verdant garden with a tree and a single apple. The lizard shouted
"BEHOLD! YOUR GOD! I, THE SERPENT, WILL GIVE YOU KNOWLEDGE OF this is totally wasted on you because you aren't who I thought you were."
The serpent realized he wasn't talking to the "bible thumpers". His friend, an ape man, came through the door with him. They were illusionists, John and Jo. Seekers of the Path, from the occultist collective, arch rivals of the Megachurch. They freaked out when they learned about the hydrazine, and forced Dwayne to decontaminate under the locker room shower while they went to get Drue the Technomancer from their lair. She came in wearing a hazmat suit and cleaned up the spill. Turns out, John and Jo were even good friends with Dwayne's brother Carl.
Dwayne and Larry went back to the facility. They ran into Carl, who was headed out with the other chthonicists to visit the rock people in the geothermal caves.
Radna was back in the Love Shack. She thanked them for finding a route to the Sink, and asked them not to fuck up Adrian's mind too much with their presence. She posited that the heartbeat effect in the pit was caused by a flesh hulk or other undead that had animated under the water. With all the meat dumped in the pit, it would be getting larger and larger under the pile.
I've been trying to make the factions more friendly in the early game, in order to make the choice of who to work with less obvious for the players. In Coal City, they sided with the Red Caps because the Red Caps were nice to them when everyone else was indifferent. Everyone being so nice makes the dungeon seem too safe, at first. The turning point will come when they stop giving out freebies and expect the players to toe the line and do their bidding, and get upset when they don't.
Dwayne Brutananadilewski was in town to crash with his brother Carl, after failing to get a square job in Coal City. He took his van down to the Love Shack, where he knew his brother was staying, and picked up Larry on the way. They were both occult Outlaws on the run from Coal City, and quickly became fast friends.
At the Love Shack, Carl the Rock was overjoyed to see his brother. He offered to carve out a place for Carl to stay in the love shack basement. Larry suggested that Carl accompany him into the dungeon to complete the mapping job from last week. They purchased a pair of gas masks, from the Love Shack storage locker and set off into the underworld.
The exit from Adrian's darkroom was sealed with a stone wall. After some confused wandering, the explorers discovered that the sealed door in the radiotherapy room had been replaced with another stone passwall, which let them through into the abandoned facility.
They went South to the abandoned rail tunnel, where they investigated an abandoned rail siding they'd skipped exploring last week. They found three hazardous materials cars filled with hydrazine. They struggled to read the safety data sheet on the side, and decided not to mess with the obviously dangerous chemicals. For now. They went South to the Underworld Frontier.
With gas masks, the pair had no fear of the airtight chamber which the gang had avoided the previous week. The yellow mist that came billowing out didn't injure their exposed skin, but the worms that came crawling out with the cloud bothered them a lot. The trio of tied up corpses bothered them a bit more.
The next chamber was covered with graffiti. Someone had tagged the room for the SEEKERS OF THE PATH, then over that, SERVANTS OF THE KING OF THE UNIVERSE, then SEEKERS OF THE PATH again, and so on. The chamber after that was crackling with electricity, from a set of live wires dangling into a pool of water. They decided not to risk crossing it, and went back to investigate the tunnels they'd explored last week.
The sleepy puffballs from last week hadn't grown back yet. The next room was full of sleeping troglodytes, nesting in a big heap. The duo tried to sneak past them, but woke the beasts up. They took a beating until Dwayne got his flamethrower on target, scaring off some of the creatures. The troglodyte mystic countered with a shroud of magical darkness, and the pair retreated rather than fight ape men in the lightless chamber.
Satisfied that they hadn't been pursued, they sat down for a rest in the meeting room they trashed the previous week. They decided to try the North tunnel from the puffball room. Dwayne narrowly dodged a rock to the head from a lurking troglodyte, and they ran North to try their luck up there.
The door was heavy. A skull with a brass snake tongue served as the handle. Dwayne didn't trust it. He used his crowbar to batter it open. The pair snuck through into a mysterious library on the other side. They heard footsteps. They ran back out and closed the door. They heard voices. They knocked.
"It's open!" someone shouted from inside.
Inside were five priests with pistols. They asked why the miscreants had bashed their door open. Dwayne apologized. They had a short conversation, where Jephthah told the Gangsters
- He serves Christ, the Tetragrammaton, the King of the Universe
- The troglodytes are sinless beings and must be left alone
- The Seekers of the Path are assholes who practice vile proscribed magic
- Nobody is allowed to enter the Serpent Ruins to the North.
- To get to the Sink, travel Southwest from the graffiti room.
Both Dwayne and Larry easily jumped the electrified water. The path ahead was clear.
The chamber ahead stank like boiling, rancid fat. They were near their destination. Dwayne spotted a rust monster in the tunnel ahead. He hatched a plan: hand all his metal objects to Larry, then rush it with his wooden club and beat it to death.
Larry opened up with the flamethrower and singed the rust monster. Dwayne rushed in and struck it with the club, but failed to achieve much. Larry lassoed it with his climbing gear, trying to tie it up. The rust monster chirped and tapped him with its antennae, destroying his flashlight and the metal components of his climbing gear. With the flashlight gone, they could see daylight from one of the chambers beyond. They ran toward it, rather than fight the rust monster in the dark. It ignored them, busy chewing on the leftovers of Larry's gear.
They stumbled past pillars of heaped gristle, out into the light. The exit opened onto the shore of the Sink. A crater full of rancid meat drippings, pouring forth out of pipes from the rendering plants above. They had reached their destination.
They also had no climbing gear to get out of the pit, and no flashlight to go back through the tunnel. They debated flagging down a meat worker for help, but discarded the idea. They knew there was a corporate war on between the pit's owners (United Meat Train) and their archrivals (Delicious Weenie).
On the other side of the pit, a group of yellow hazmat suited figures descended a rope ladder to a wound in the side of the pit. They had flashlights on their belts, and Larry decided to sneak into the tunnel after them and steal one. He set out across the side of pit, nimbly skipping across the fleshy slope. Dwayne looked down at the surface of the blood pool at the bottom of the pit. He saw it beat like a heart. Like it was alive. He yelled at Larry to come back. Larry got back into the tunnel without being spotted by any of the workers on the pit edge. Dwayne explained the pit was alive, and they needed to leave.
They decided to use the pilot light on Dwayne's flamethrower to illuminate the tunnel ahead of them. They searched the weird meat columns for loot, ran past the rust monster, leaped across the electric water, and scampered back to the derelict rail line. A group of strangers passed ahead in the dark without spotting them. They made a hasty retreat through the facility, back to the Love Shack.
They caught up with Adrian the Exploring Kid at the bar. He paid them the promised thousand dollars in exchange for the map to the Sink. They asked him if he knew anything about the pit being alive. He said they should ask Loy, the Urban Shaman. Loy was in the den, busy bending an aluminum can into weird shapes and screaming at voices only he could hear.
Dwayne went to sleep in the cubicle his brother Carl carved out for him. Larry drove across town in Elsa's car to a hotel.
Rested up, they reconnected the next day for more dungeon exploration. The trip back through the abandoned facility and rail line uncovered nothing noteworthy, and they decided to explore an alternate entrance to the geothermal cave southeast of the ruins.
The caves held little of interest. The duo dutifully mapped the sweltering chambers, dodging scalding steam and skirting deadly magma. The most interesting thing they found was a room full of rock people, which they avoided disturbing. They encountered a strange creature amusing itself in the magma, but avoided attracting its attention as well. Satisfied that there was nothing more of interest in the lava cave, unless they wanted to pester the rock people, they returned to the train tunnel.
Dwayne decided to stock up on dangerous chemicals. He searched the old locker room for a bucket, and opened the valve on one of the hazardous tankers. The pressurized fluid sprayed out and he narrowly avoided being coated. It pooled on the floor, and he started to worry about the amount of caustic, toxic, carcinogenic, incredibly flammable liquid flowing into the rail tunnel. He tried to climb on top of the tanker and turn the valve, but he fell into the liquid and got burned. He rinsed the worst of it off, but still felt lightheaded.
They decided to explore the remainder of the old offices in the rail tunnel, instead of playing Dudes of Hazmat with the tankers. They heard someone moving on the other side of the locker room door. They waited in suspense.
A lizard man jumped through the door. The locker room became a verdant garden with a tree and a single apple. The lizard shouted
"BEHOLD! YOUR GOD! I, THE SERPENT, WILL GIVE YOU KNOWLEDGE OF this is totally wasted on you because you aren't who I thought you were."
The serpent realized he wasn't talking to the "bible thumpers". His friend, an ape man, came through the door with him. They were illusionists, John and Jo. Seekers of the Path, from the occultist collective, arch rivals of the Megachurch. They freaked out when they learned about the hydrazine, and forced Dwayne to decontaminate under the locker room shower while they went to get Drue the Technomancer from their lair. She came in wearing a hazmat suit and cleaned up the spill. Turns out, John and Jo were even good friends with Dwayne's brother Carl.
Dwayne and Larry went back to the facility. They ran into Carl, who was headed out with the other chthonicists to visit the rock people in the geothermal caves.
Radna was back in the Love Shack. She thanked them for finding a route to the Sink, and asked them not to fuck up Adrian's mind too much with their presence. She posited that the heartbeat effect in the pit was caused by a flesh hulk or other undead that had animated under the water. With all the meat dumped in the pit, it would be getting larger and larger under the pile.
I've been trying to make the factions more friendly in the early game, in order to make the choice of who to work with less obvious for the players. In Coal City, they sided with the Red Caps because the Red Caps were nice to them when everyone else was indifferent. Everyone being so nice makes the dungeon seem too safe, at first. The turning point will come when they stop giving out freebies and expect the players to toe the line and do their bidding, and get upset when they don't.
No comments:
Post a Comment