Sunday, May 22, 2022

Dune 2d20: Session 7 - THIS IS KANLY


Klamm Orlok, bastard son of Marquis James Orlok, and Kleft, defacto commander of the Sulfur Dragoons,  held Lydia Amaru, Agent of House Viracocha, at gunpoint in Klamm's apartment on the Acid Spit, the Sulfur Dragoons' spar of the aerostat Dhal on House Orlok's home planet Rulag.

 
Lydia convinced them that she was actually Cappy Viracocha, daughter of Earl Alejandro Viracocha and valuable hostage. She didn't have a signet ring to back up any of her outlandish offers in exchange for freedom, so the pair had her confined to the state room next to Klamm's apartment while they decided what to do with her. They hadn't alerted the rest of House Orlok yet, which was good.

Mockingbird the Face Dancer disguised themself as Klamm and told the guards to bring Lydia out. They almost made it off the Spit, but were interrupted by the return of Kleft. Mockingbird changed faces into a random trooper before Kleft spotted them. Disguised Mockingbird told Kleft that Klamm had ordered the prisoner removed. Kleft assumed it was a coup, and ordered the other Sulfur Dragoons to kill disguised Mockingbird. Mockingbird ran out through the pentashield Lydia tried to follow, but didn't have a keycard, and bounced right off the prudence door.

With Lydia in captivity, the rest of the Agents considered their options. They had a squad of Watchers and another of Free Shooters ready to deploy to the aerostat, a Face Dancer who could change their appearance at will, and a dissembler keycard that would let them into the prudence door protecting the base. A military operation would rescue their operative and give them a chance to capture the Sulfur Dragoons' leaders and destroy their base of operations, all while looking stylish.

The Free Shooters, in concert with the bravos the agents recruited, would cause a distraction too large for the aerostat's constabulary to handle, drawing away Dragoons from the Acid Spit. Mockingbird would take down the prudence door from inside, and the Watchers, led by House Viracocha's Warmaster Huascar Quilago, would attack. They would rescue Lydia, capture or kill Klamm and Kleft, do as much damage as possible to the spar, and then escape via the shuttle bay.


Courtesy of Dr Ichuri, the House Viracocha forces dosed up on every antidote in the Assassin's Handbook, wary of the chemical assault the Sulfur Dragoons would unleash on them. They chewed coca leaves to imrprove their performance in low oxygen environments, so they could survive longer with their shields at maximum opacity. They used Marcus' guild contact to get to the aerostat without getting caught in customs. Then they went to work.

The bravos started a fight on the aerostat's promenade by imitating the matachines, flailing around with their swords until the whole crowd was afflicted by violent dancing madness. When a troop of Flame Cataphracts showed up to roast everyone, the Free Shooters sprang from ambush and killed them. The situation was getting out of control, and the Sulfur Dragoons couldn't resist a chance to upstage their rivals the Cataphracts by putting down the insurrection. Troopers in MOPP gear poured out of Acid Spit, weakening its defenses. The disguised Watchers waited for them to clear the entrance, then Mockingbird took down the prudence door. They activated their shields. Huascar led them forward into the Spit.

The Watchers had studied the Sulfur Dragoons through the extensive footage provided by House Viracocha. Despite lacking their raw skill at arms, this careful study let them match the acid-happy mercenaries in battle. The Watchers forced the Dragoons back while Mockingbird snuck past in an attempt to rescue Lydia. They were stymied by Klamm himself, who stood guard over the stateroom to ensure nobody else disguised as him snuck in to let Lydia out. Mockingbird disguised themself as Kleft and told Klamm the attackers had brought atomics. Klamm grabbed "Kleft" and ran for the exit.
 
By me
 
The Watchers chopped up a squad of Dragoons and fought their way through the officer's club, in a push-pull battle that seriously damaged the spar's infrastructure with careless use of corrosive chemicals. They rescued Lydia, who attached herself to the squad while Huascar ran ahead to prepare the extract. Mockingbird-as-Kleft was interrupted before they could incapacitate Klamm by the arrival of the real Kleft. They fled back into the Spit and were set upon by a unit of Dragoons, who cornered and killed them.

Huascar got into the shuttle bay in time for a shuttle to arrive. It wasn't his, it was full of mercenaries from the Minor Iris, joining the fray on the side of House Orlok. He hid from them, then snuck into the shuttle and fired it back up. He spun it around wildly, using the nose of the shuttle like a big rotating blade to keep the martial arts masters from closing on him. The Watchers held off the remaining Dragoons while Lydia fled to the shuttle bay. The leader of the Minor Iris group struck upward at precisely the right moment, hitting the spinning shuttle with a shielded fist and sending it off its axis. The shuttle skidded along the floor of the bay and collided with the exterior bulkhead. Its shield protected the nose, but the collision left the shuttle embedded in the wall, nose sticking out into the planet's acidic atmosphere - which began flowing in through the gap into the bay.
 
Huascar opened the shuttle's boarding doors to distract the Minor Iris from Lydia, and to funnel them so they couldn't overwhelm him. They beat the shit out of him, but couldn't finish him off. The structure was failing drastically, and Lydia made it worse by baiting the pursuing Sulfur Dragoons into hosing the wall of the shuttle bay down with powerful corrosive substances in an attempt to coat her. The acid ate through the bulkhead the shuttle was embedded in, freeing it for escape. Lydia caught a mouthful of toxic atmosphere through her shield, but made it on board the shuttle, only to be pummeled by the Irises as Huascar pulled out of the shuttle bay through the gaping hole and left the Aerostat. The spar, critically weakened by the fighting, collapsed behind them as they pulled out, sending the Acid Spit and everyone left on it tumbling into the crushing, poisonous depths of the planet's lower atmosphere.
 
In the shuttle's cargo bay, the Minor Irises beat Lydia within an inch of her life. They backed off when she pointed out that if they killed her, Huascar would have no reason not to just dump them into the planet's toxic atmosphere. they reached a compromise, Lydia and Huascar transferred to another ship arranged by Marcus' smuggler friend and the Minor Irises took the shuttle back to the aerostat. From there, the two agents exfiltrated via a passenger boat on the next Heighliner out.
 

At cost of two squads of mercenaries and a face dancer, the House Viracocha agents destroyed the Sulfur Dragoons' base of operations on Dhal, and got some great footage while doing it. The video would make them look like total badasses after they edited it. The remaining Viracocha agents on Rulag weren't exposed as part of the operation, they'd have an opportunity to filter off planet after the heat died down. They didn't catch Klamm or Kleft, but for a suicide raid they didn't come off half bad.

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