Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[SavageGamerGirl]

Episode 19: The Night of the Walking Dead

Hitoshi got the unconscious body of John Trask to safety while much of the rest of the party ran to the church. Many of the townsfolk had stopped there on their march through town to the Trask townhouse, and were demanding that Father Bruce turn Luke over to them to face justice. Janette led off many of them to the townhouse, which they also burned down in their mob mentality. This had a beneficial effect in that fewer were left behind to oppose Father Bruce, and he was ultimately able to persuade them to lay aside their desire for revenge on Luke. The boy had done nothing wrong; the only guilt he had in the killings was to be related to the real villain. Eventually, the crowd dispersed save those who agreed to remain behind to monitor the burning houses to ensure that the fire didn’t spread.

The following day, things in Trask Manor had calmed down considerably. The party wanted to interrogate John Trask, but he was still too injured and delirious from his injuries to even manage speech. They concealed him in the stable, lest the villagers find him and carry out their desire for revenge against him. Life seemed to be beginning to return to normal, but for the storm clouds overhead. They had been building since the day the heroes arrived in town and were worsening.

To express their gratitude for all the party had done, the villagers began planning a celebration for that night. There would be a feast for their rescuers.

They wanted to interview Mordu again, as he had told them that he would have evidence for them today that would prove the existence of the mysterious swamp god he called “Leeds.” They got a little more information from him, as he revealed that he’d left ‘traps’ and ‘bait’ for Leeds out in the swamp, and was going to check them today. The party could come along if they wished. While they were preparing for the trek through the Pine Barrens, Hitoshi took Mordu to the stable to see if he would identify John Trask as the eerie “dark man” he’d seen conversing with Leeds out in the forest. Mordu knew him as John Trask, but didn’t indicate that he was the dark man.

A few hours later, after a winding journey through the barrens listening to Mordu’s insane ranting, they came across a clearing with a large iron animal cage that held a singularly horrific-looking creature. The mad man was ecstatic, pointing wildly at the thing in the cage and proclaiming it to be Leeds. He called it the “thirteenth child” and the “spawn of Hell.” The creature was slightly smaller than a man, with featureless black skin, a slender pointed tail, and sleek horns on its head. It had no discernible face, and large, leathery wings flapped frantically on its back. (Cthulhu fans will recognize it as a nightgaunt. Cryptozoology fans will recognize the ‘thirteenth child’ reference as one of the legends surrounding the origin of the infamous Jersey Devil. That’s why Mordu was calling the nightgaunt Leeds; he believed it was the Jersey Devil.). Curious, Hitoshi pulled John Trask’s hooded black cloak from his pack and asked if it was similar to the one the “dark man” wore. Mordu confirmed that it was, indeed!

As the party recovered from their amazement at seeing the creature and were discussing what to do, it seemed to become more and more excited. Its wings thrashed more violently, and its tail whipped back and forth like a wounded serpent. Mordu wanted to keep the thing in the cage and bring it back to town to prove that he wasn’t mad. He even went off on an odd tangent of wondering what would happen if he tried to breed it with humans. At this point, the nightgaunt began tinkering with the lock on the cage door, and Gunther blasted off one of its hands with his musket. It thrashed even more, and after another brief discussion, the party decided it was best to destroy the thing before it got free and wreaked havoc. They promised Mordu that he could have its body, as that would still prove that it existed would be the evidence he wanted. He very reluctantly agreed that it was probably too dangerous to allow it to remain free and sighed quietly as Gunther put the creature down. Much to Mordu’s dismay, its body withered away into a wisp of fetid black smoke and vanished. Thankfully for the party, Mordu was quiet on the return trip to town. They saw nothing more of him for the remainder of their stay in Trask Manor.

Once reassembled in town, they decided to search the old cemetery. It had been sealed off long ago, and not even Peirot knew why. The gate had been bricked over, forcing them to scale the wall to gain entry. The old cemetery was overgrown with brush and trees, and long-lost tombs lay abandoned amongst them. Walking in the old cemetery was difficult as it had not been maintained in decades. They eventually found the boot-prints of someone who had apparently been recently walking amid the ancient graves, and the unusual tread — with a cross-like shape on the heel — matched those worn by John Trask. The party eventually made their way to the largest single structure in the old cemetery, the Trask Mausoleum. It was a large marble building with stained glass decorations encircling the top, situated in the far back corner. They had to break the rusted iron chain that held the doors shut to gain entry. Once inside, they found more footprints like those outside, and a broken section of windows demonstrated the means of entry. After a spark of strange insight, Hitoshi put the cloak on and willed himself to fly. To everyone’s amazement, he lifted off the ground and found that he was able to control his speed and direction in mid-air. The cloak enabled its wearer to fly! Again, the foot prints appeared to simply be meandering amongst the dead. They found the tombs of the original Trasks that settled the area, and the foot prints seemed to pause at each one in their circuit around the room. Finding nothing else unusual in the old mausoleum, the party returned to town.

That night, the heroes joined the townsfolk in celebrating their victory. There was music, dancing, laughter, and food. The beer and wine flowed freely. As the evening progressed, the storm clouds continued to grow in intensity, and lightning flashed through the sky. The festivities were brought to a premature end when, at long last, the storm broke and it began to rain. Everyone retreated to their homes as the storm grew in intensity and the rain pelted down in great sheets. Janette and Frederick were secured in the constable’s cottage, while the rest of the team were sheltering in the common room of the inn.

Several hours into the storm, there was a knock on Janette’s door. It was Father Bruce, soaking wet even after the brief walk. She let him in, and he apologized for the lateness of his visit. He old her that Luke was talking again, this time speaking a different verse that made little sense to him. “Look for the scroll where the old rest fine, behind the stone where six stars shine. The finding, however, will cause much pain, beware the time of the falling rain.” It made little sense to him, but he thought Janette or her companions might be able to figure it out. She thought it might refer to the stars that were etched onto the name plates in the Trask Mausoleum in the old cemetery. Father Bruce continued, telling her the tale of the night John Trask brought his brother to him. Mark was badly injured, and despite his best efforts Father Bruce could do nothing to help him. After a long pause, the regretful priest admitted to his hubris in thinking that he could restore life to Mark Trask using a scroll he had found long ago. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Mark Trask died in his distraught brother’s arms, his throat torn apart by what John Trask insisted were the living dead. That was three and a half weeks ago, and the following day the mysterious deaths and disappearances began to plague Trask Manor.

Meanwhile, back at the inn, the others were gathered in the common room sharing drinks and stories with some of the other villagers. Suddenly, the door flew open and a man ran in drenched from the rain. He was terrified, and as he staggered forward he screamed that the door be shut and barred. He collapsed by the fireplace and, through gasps for air, told everyone that an army was marching on the town, an army of the dead! The heroes ran to the windows and stared out into the driving rain. They could see very little, but once in a while a powerful flash of lightning would illuminate the skies, and in those brief moments they could see shambling corpses staggering through the town streets.

They immediately had the villagers pull the window shutters closed, and ordered them to seek safety upstairs. They decided that the constable needed to now what was going on, and Pirate Pete agreed to stay behind and help the townsfolk in the inn mount a defense if need be. (By this point in the game it was getting late, and Pete’s player had to leave, so this was as good an excuse as any to explain why he didn’t accompany them.) Getting their weapons and their spirits ready, the party dashed out into the rainy, zombie-infested night to make their way to the constable’s cottage. They managed to avoid the wandering dead, arriving safely at the cottage to alert Janette about the undead. Father Bruce hurried back to the church to keep an eye on Luke, and Janette informed the others as to what Bruce had told her. They, too, pieced together the clues about the six stars, and immediately made their way to the old Trask Mausoleum.

This time, they found the name plates on the floor removed, and a dark staircase leading down into the depths of the earth. Cautiously, they followed the stairs until they opened up into a large hexagonal room well-lit by torches along the wall. In the middle of the room, surrounded by another summoning circle on the floor, stood a frail-looking woman with long black hair, clad in a silk kimono with her back to the party. There were six coffins along the walls, their lids rattling as they undead occupants within struggled to free themselves. At the far end of the room, on a fine throne-like chair surrounded by skulls, was the desiccated corpse of Mark Trask… only it was moving! He stood, and spoke in an eerie, echoing voice, “Welcome to my domain. I am the lord of the undead. Give me what I seek. Give me the scroll of the six signs… or join the rest of Trask Manor in living death!”

With that, the six coffin lids flew off and the original Trasks, now grisly-looking wights, crawled from their graves. The female figure in the circle turned around to face the party and screamed, her mouth distending in a wide, wicked grin filled with sharp teeth. Hitoshi recognized her as an oni, of a kind similar to Yama-uba. He knew that she was there for him; the coincidence of encountering a Japanese demon here was too great for that not to be so. The demonic woman hissed that she was to be Hitoshi’s bride, and attacked! The battle was joined. The heroes squared off against the demon, the undead lord, and six wights. It was a difficult fight, perhaps more difficult than any battle in which the heroes had been involved. Mark Trask was not only a master of the undead, but was also an accomplished wizard. He blasted the party with spell after spell whilst they took on the more immediate threats of the wights and the demoness. The undead Trasks were the first to be defeated, but only after they very nearly killed Mr. Chesterfield and Janette. Dr. Rutherford was able to make it to Mr. Chesterfield in time to heal him of the wounds inflicted by one of the wights, and he, in turn, was able to help Janette before she passed on. Hitoshi, Gunther, and Paul battled the demoness as she hissed and wailed at them, attacking Hitoshi primarily. The scar on Hitoshi’s chest began to burn once more, increasing in intensity the longer he remained in her presence. Finally she, too, was defeated and vanished with a disturbing, inhuman wail. Mark Trask attempted to flee, but had been weakened by several attacks that had been directed at him. His teleportation failed, which injured him further. The party had no mercy for him despite his pleas for it, and ended his accursed existence.

At long last, the nightmare that had come to the village of Trask Manor was at an end. The party limped back to the inn to recover. Although they had solved this mystery, Hitoshi was faced with even more. What was the secret behind that odd scar on his chest? What did that oni mean about being his intended bride? Why would Mark Trask have summoned her specifically in the first place? As for the group, they had yet to decide what to do with John Trask as well. That would be a problem to solve tomorrow. As for now, they desperately needed their well-deserved rest.
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

[SavageGamerGirl]

Episode 20: Flight of the Aeolus

(For this adventure, I’m adapting the Necromancer Games d20 module The Siege of Durgam’s Folly. I promised Dr. Rutherford’s player an adventure that had more to do with weird science than the supernatural, and this is it.)

Another month or so had passed since the end of the tragic events in Trask Manor. The party turned John Trask over to the townspeople to face justice, and he was soon swinging from the end of a rope.

Each member returned to their homes and regular lives, at least until such time as they received yet another letter of invitation from yet another natural philosopher. This time, rather than Dr. Rutherford, the invitation came from Silas Howe, the gentleman they’d helped in Clermont those few months ago. Mr. Howe was excited to reveal to them his latest invention, and insisted that they come visit him at his new workshop on Long Island. He also requested that they clear the next two weeks from their schedules; truly this was a momentous occasion for him!

Dr. Rutherford was extremely interested in making the trip; not only did he relish the opportunity to engage in scientific discussion with so intelligent a peer, but he also wished to show off his own latest creation. Inspired by Mr. Howe’s work in the field of automatons, Dr. Rutherford had succeeded in creating such a device of his own. It stood a few heads shorter than a man, but stood upright like one. It possessed a remarkable clockwork brain and was capable of intelligent speech. He had named it Narcissus.

The party assembled in New York and traveled together to Mr. Howe’s manor house outside the small town of Jericho. The large barn-like workshop to the rear of the main house was alive with activity. Workmen moved to and fro, and the sounds of industry — hammers, saws, drills, and the like — resounded from within. As they approached the odd structure, some of them noticed that the eaves of the building’s roof were hinged, as if to allow them to open.

Mr. Howe ran out to greet them, and excitedly shook their hands and welcomed them to his greatest hour. He and Dr. Rutherford spent some time looking over Narcissus, and Mr. Howe was amazed and humbled at the intricate workings of the automaton’s mechanisms. Soon the time came for Mr. Howe to reveal his great invention. He brought the party into the large workshop, and to everyone’s astonishment they saw a sailing vessel unlike any they had ever seen before. Its sails were set on masts that jutted from the sides of the ship rather than over the deck. Where the sails of a regular sailing ship would be, this vessel had a large cloth canopy that could be inflated by means of a hot air blower bolted to the top deck. This ship could fly through the air! Standing before it like a proud father, Mr. Howe christened his ship the Aeolus, and it was his intention for his dear friends and allies to join him on its maiden voyage.

(The Aeolus was directly inspired by La Minerve and other such fanciful imaginings from the late 18th/early 19th century. I saw a model of this balloon in the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum years ago and have long wanted to include such a thing in an RPG. Other links of interest:

http://www.the-visitor-center.com/pages/smithsonian-air-space-museum/slides/smithsonian-air-space-250.htm

http://www.the-visitor-center.com/pages/smithsonian-air-space-museum/slides/smithsonian-air-space-252.htm

http://www.the-visitor-center.com/pages/smithsonian-air-space-museum/slides/smithsonian-air-space-253.htm)

Mr. Howe explained that he was going to use the Aeolus to deliver some much-needed supplies to his mentor and peer in the sciences, a man named Dr. Theodocious. Their trip would take them into upstate New York to one of the many forts along the Canadian border, Fort Durgam. Dr. Theodocious had moved to Ft. Durgam some months ago for secrecy. It was Mr. Howe’s plan to use the maiden voyage of the Aeolus to demonstrate to the new nation the convenience, speed, and ease of air travel, as it was his intention to sell the plans for the incredible vessel to the government. A journey that would take several weeks by caravan would only take them a matter of days.

After informing them of the nature of the expedition, he introduced the ship’s officers, Trina the Captain, Theresa the First Officer (Thevik in the original module — I wanted to give her a name more appropriate to colonial America), and Uli the Quartermaster (name unchanged). Despite traveling in the company of a strong and unusual woman such as Jeanette Herbert, the party were somewhat surprised to see two women in positions of authority on board the ship. Despite their misgivings, Christina proved to be an effective ship’s captain, running the ship with almost clockwork efficiency. The First Officer, too, was proficient in her duties, and maintained a firm hand over the deck and sail crew. The Quartermaster was a different story, however. He was somewhat brutal in his treatment of the crew, and seemed to strongly resent being subservient to two women. He was brusque, rude, and dismissive of the heroes. His authority was carried out by means of insults and intimidation.

After a few more days of final preparations, the Aeolus was ready to begin her magnificent ascension into the clouds. The magnificent balloon rose above the town of Jericho and turned west to begin her journey. The appearance of the floating ship caused much excitement in New York, and Mr. Howe proudly waved to the people below. He remarked how he couldn’t wait to return to civilization to see how his remarkable invention was reported in the local news. Thus began their journey over the Catskills and northwest to Ft. Durgam. Along the way, Mr. Howe gave Dr. Rutherford a more thorough tour of the Aeolus, including showing him the lower level of the ship where his automaton (the one the heroes saved from an angry mob back in Clermont) toiled away at a screw gear, providing power to the ship’s rear-mounted propeller. One evening, the party sat around the mess table and recounted stories of their past. (One of the players had recently purchased Savage Worlds Deluxe and I wanted to try out the Interludes rules.)

A few days into the journey, all things were going well. The Captain had taken the ship through a few trials and practice runs, and she had performed admirably. Mr. Howe was ecstatic that everything was going so well. That mood changed on the fourth day. They were to land at the village of Hansonburg, as the fort was situated on a mountain top and had little room to accommodate the Aeolus. The vessel could land there if need be, but it would be perilous and Mr. Howe preferred to set down in relative ease in one of the many open meadows near town.

As they passed over the town of Hansonburg, they noticed that the streets were devoid of citizens. There were no people milling about on their daily errands. There were no sounds of the market, no cries of man nor beast. On edge, they landed near the village and quickly made their way into town. Their fears were confirmed. Hansonburg was abandoned. There was not a soul in sight. Some doors stood open, and only a few overturned carts in the market give clues to the fate of the citizens. Captain Trina ordered the crew to fan out and search for Hansonburg’s inhabitants, and the party assisted them. They found a few splashes of blood here and there, but very few signs of struggle. After some time, one of the crewmen gave a holler that he had found something. Just outside of town in the soft earth was a large footprint. It was humanoid and appeared to have been made by a tremendous bare foot. Skilled in the art of tracking, Paul was able to find more such tracks and follow them roughly in the direction of Ft. Durgam. Mr. Chesterfield got a good look at the tracks, and surmised that they belonged to an ogre-like creature called an U’tlun’ta. He described it as a monstrously strong brute, nearly twice the size of a man, with an elongated index finger on its left hand. These creatures were also known as spearfingers due to the incredibly sharp claw curling from the tip of that long finger. Paul returned to the group to report that he had found many more footprints of such creatures, and that they had apparently come from the south and circled Hansonburg a few times before moving in for the attack. Afterwards, they headed north, apparently bound for Ft. Durgam.

Janette insisted that they all return to the Aeolus and make due haste to Ft. Durgam. Captain Trina agreed, and began to call back the crew for takeoff. Another crewman came running, shouting that they’d found one of the ogres that had sacked Hansonburg. Much to Janette’s frustration, Trina ordered the crew on board to continue preparations while she accompanied the crewman back to the ogre. The other heroes joined her. (This encounter was supposed to happen a day later on the journey to Durgam’s Folly, but since the characters a) have an airship that wasn’t in the original module and b) were eager to get to the fort as quickly as possible, I decided to compress time a bit and have them find the ogre far sooner.)

They found a spearfinger ogre passed out in a ditch, surrounded by empty beer kegs. It seemed that the creature had raided the local tavern and imbibed more than even his large body could handle. It was groaning pathetically, holding its head, while Uli and three of the crewmen were raising their muskets to kill the thing. The party wanted to interrogate the ogre to find out what happened in the town, so they called for Uli to lower his musket. He was reluctant to do so, and told them that he was going to show the creature the same mercy he and his kind showed the people of Hansonburg. (Here, I got to try out the new Social Conflict rules, as the party tried to convince Uli not to execute the ogre before they got a chance to interrogate it.) Eventually, they convinced him to hold off on his vengeance until they could speak with the ogre. It told them that a great leader had arisen among their kind and was calling them to gather under his banner. They had sacked Hansonburg two days prior and had taken the villagers to the fort on his order. That served to enhance the heroes’ desire to get to the fort as soon as possible, so they allowed Uli to execute the brute so they could return to the Aeolus right away.

Speed was of the essence, so despite Mr. Howe’s misgivings about proper landing areas by the fort the airship was once again cruising above the trees towards Ft. Durgam. Half-way through the journey, the party spotted a large golden eagle in the distance. It seemed to be approaching far more quickly than usual, and they ultimately realized that it was a bird of monstrous proportions! It was nearly the size of the Aeolus itself, and it’s wings crackled and sparked with lightning. It was a thunderbird! (This encounter was originally with a roc, but since my campaign is in North America rather than a generic medieval fantasy setting, I’m replacing some of the encounters with appropriate creatures from native mythology.) Hitoshi donned the cloak of flying he took from John Trask and leaped overboard to go intercept the great bird. It responded by shrieking and sending an arc of lightning at him. Luckily, he managed to avoid the deadly attack. Seeing that the beast was not in the mood for parlay, Gunther took a shot at it with his musket. Seeing that it had no effect on the massive bird gave him some concern about their possibility of survival. If that beast attacked the ship, they could all plummet to their deaths. Meanwhile, Mr. Chesterfield waited until the creature drew nearer. He raised his hands and began chanting in a loud, clear voice that rang out through the sky. The great bird turned its large eye to him and regarded him cautiously, squawking in return. It wheeled away, allowing Hitoshi to make it back to the safety of the Aeolus’ deck. Mr. Chesterfield continued to chant, and soon the great bird turned and began flying off in the direction of Hansonburg. Afterwards, Mr. Chesterfield explained that he had the ability to speak with such animals (via the Beast Friend power — I was using the stats for the roc from the Fantasy Companion and that power explicitly mentions that it works on rocs). He had found out from the thunderbird that there is little food in the forest, and its young were starving. Since it was just hungry, he had given it directions to find the dead ogre by the village. The depredations of the ogre gang now had implications far beyond what had happened in Hansonburg. They were stripping the area of all resources, forcing creatures such as the thunderbird to take drastic measures just to survive.

The party regrouped below decks to converse with Captain Trina and Silas Howe about how best to dislodge the ogres from Ft. Durgam.
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

[SavageGamerGirl]

Episode 21: The Siege of Durgam’s Folly

(This session was almost entirely combat, so the description is going to be a little short. Since Durgam’s Folly is a fort on the American frontier in this setting, I upgraded its defenses from catapults to field artillery. Likewise, I downgraded it from a medieval stone fort to a wooden palisade typical of those lining the frontier in the 18th century.)

The party eventually decided to bring the airship in close to one of the fort’s towers and try to take over the cannons. Crewmen from the Aeolus would man the cannons while the heroes entered the fort to engage the ogres in an attempt to drive them out. Captain Trina agreed to the plan, and released two of her men trained in artillery to the heroes’ command. She and the rest of her crew would remain on the ship to provide air support with musket fire if need be. The plan went smoothly, all things considered. Hitoshi used his cloak of flying to quietly enter the fort and scout it out. The ogres were having a riotous party in the central structure, and were loud enough that they failed to hear the Aeolus approach the northwester tower until it was far too late. The heroes rappelled over the side on ropes — or were lowered down if they doubted their ability — into the tower. Gunther helped one of the crewmen turn the field gun around to face inward, then took up a defensive position on the tower as the man began the process of loading it. Jeanette and the other crewman dashed across to the northeastern tower and did the same.

Unfortunately, the ogres did eventually hear the airship hovering overhead and began charging out in a rage. Hitoshi blocked their advance out of a nearby door, stalling them long enough for Gunther to snipe them from his high position in the tower. Other ogres spilled out of a set of double doors on the east side of the central structure, and another battered a hole through the wall around the corner from Hitoshi in order to make an exit that Gunther was not covering. Unfortunately for them, Mr. Chesterfield was covering that side and held them at bay with his blasts of lighting. By then the other ogres had made their way around from the eastern side of the structure, just in time to face cannon fire from two directions on the towers. Luck was against the heroes, however, as the ogres avoided significant injury from the canister shot. The ogres engaged Hitoshi and Paul on the ground level, taking withering fire from Gunther and Mr. Chesterfield. An ogre charged up the ramparts to Jeanette and pummeled her with its great club, badly injuring her and forcing her into retreat as Paul ran to her defense. He and the crewman held off that ogre and managed to bring him down. Another ogre hurled his club at Gunther, but the Hessian was able to shake off the worst of the injury and rejoin the battle. Meanwhile, another troupe of ogres managed to escape from the central structure to a stone gaol near the southeastern tower — a structure far too small to accommodate so many creatures of that size. Something was certainly unusual about that situation.

The heroes managed to defeat the initial wave of ogres and took a few minutes to lick their wounds. When the dust cleared, they searched the fort structures for the survivors of Hansonburg. They looked in the stable, and to their shock and disgust they discovered that the ogres had butchered all of the animals for food. Even worse, some of the hanging remains appeared to be human. The nearby smithy had been completely cleared of all of its tools, including the anvil. Another two buildings proved to be storage rooms, one of which had been completely ransacked. The other was more pristine and contained worked leather, twine, chains, ropes, bolts of cloth, and many gears and cogs of various sizes. Another structure was a living quarters of some kind, but it had been completely cleared of all furnishings. The gaol was empty, but they located a trap door that led to a staircase that descended into tunnels beneath the fort. The mystery of the disappearing ogres had been partially solved.

The survivors of the fort’s soldiery and the remaining citizens of Hansonburg were located in the stone chapel, badly abused and shackled. They were extremely grateful for their rescue, and told them a harrowing tale. The soldiers said that the ogres had come on them in the night, quickly and quietly, led by an unusually intelligent ogre that called himself Grimulak. The worst, however, were the creatures that came up from below! They were automatons, of the sort Dr. Theodocious had been working on, but were monstrously proportioned and did not heed the orders of the fort’s commander. Attacked from two fronts, the fort fell and the ogres stormed in.

More searching led the heroes to discover, in the main central building, a partial journal penned by Grimulak. He mentioned in his journal that he heard a voice in his dreams. The voice revealed to him a secret means by which he could enter the fort and come to the tunnels below. He followed these instructions and encountered a “great beast of steel and magic” that commanded him to raise an army of ogres. Grimulak soon started to refer to himself as ‘the voice of The Voice’ in his journals, and found that the spearfinger ogres in the nearby mountains easily answered to his call. It was as if they, too, heard The Voice and were compliant. Captain Trina was disturbed at this news, as it confirmed her fears: Dr. Theodocious’ creations had somehow run amok. She provided them with information about the first few rooms of the tunnels below, and insisted that they try to save her mentor from his own creations.

With the survivors rescued and their wounds tended to, all that remained was the dark trap door that led to the mysterious tunnels below. What horrors awaited them down in the depths of the earth?
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

[SavageGamerGirl]

Episode 22: The Tunnels Below
(The current party composition is:

Bob Chesterfield, Veteran magician with Pact Magic (a homebrewed AB)
Dr. Mercurius Rutherford, Veteran weird scientist
Gunther Boesesmensch, Veteran mercenary
Hitoshi, Veteran half-Japanese, half-Dutch martial artist
Janette Herbert, Veteran fencer
Paul Rowlend, Veteran warrior

And another new player joined the group. His character is:

Ohanka, Veteran Iroquois psychic

This is the second part of the module The Siege of Durgam’s Folly, and is essentially a dungeon crawl. The session was shorter than usual because the new player had to make a character, and since it was basically all combat the journal entry is fairly short.)

Once the fort was secured and thoroughly searched, the party readied themselves for the journey into the tunnel complex below. One of the survivors of Hansonburg was an Iroquois native by the name of Ohanka. He had come to town to trade with the villagers when the ogres attacked. He was not badly injured in the fighting, and was well enough to insist on accompanying the party to get some measure of revenge against the butchers that slaughtered an entire town.

The stairs led into the depths of the earth into what was apparently a natural cavern that had been artificially expanded. The first room was bare save for a large desk and two chairs. Two doors led off to the west and north. Along one wall were six grisly statues apparently made from human corpses. They were cruel mockeries of the human form, slatted together with dowels, leather straps, bolts, and gear works. No sooner had Paul and Janette approached the northern door than the statutes creaked and groaned with life! A hideous ticking sound erupted from their forms as the clockworks within them engaged and they shambled towards the intruders. Choking back disgust and fear that clawed at their hearts, the party engaged the monstrous automatons in battle. Mr. Chesterfield was able to incapacitate some of them with his entangle power, while Paul and Janette backed into the corner by the door and held the others at bay. Gunther, Hitoshi, and Dr. Rutherford joined the fray with gun, fist, and gadget. Much to Gunther’s dismay, Dr. Rutherford reported that the clockwork warriors had no apparent weaknesses; there were no weak spots to aim for. Ohanka unleashed his mental bolts on the enemies, and found that they had no minds to assault. The thought processes of these inhuman things were replaced entirely by some manner of machine.

After defeating the clockwork warriors, the party entered the door to the north only to once more be assaulted by visions of a ghastly nature. That room was a charnel house, a horrible operating theater in which lay several recently-slain citizens of Hansonburg. Their guts were strewn about in haphazard piles, and their bodies, now little more than empty shells, held springs, gears, and cams slowly churning away. These pathetic creatures, too, rose from their places and staggered at the heroes, but they were incomplete, and posed little threat. They were soon put out of their misery. This bloody room also led to another room in which even more grotesque half-machine corpses lay sprawled about. Given their sorry states, the party guessed that this room contained the failures of whatever terrible experiments created the clockwork warriors.

Continuing on to the western door in the first room, the party found themselves in a stone labyrinth. They made their way slowly through the strange maze, and at one point Janette narrowly missed being grabbed by an amorphous creature that hurled a pseudopod at her from around a corner. The amoeba-like creature was easily dispatched, and the party continued feeling their way through the maze. At one point, a corridor that Janette had told them extended for some way proved to be far shorter than she had claimed. As the ventured down the hall, a portion of the wall surged forward and nearly trapped Dr. Rutherford in a small alcove. The very walls of this maze could move of their own accord! Somehow, Dr. Rutherford managed to stop the wall from moving until other members could squeeze past it to the mechanism that powered it. A clockwork cart attached to the back of the wall allowed it to move, and a shot from Gunter’s musket destroyed the gear works. (This was quite a funny moment! I was rolling terribly that night, and Dr. Rutherford, with the Elderly Hindrance and a d4 Strength, managed to hold off a mobile wall with a Strength of d12 for at least 2 rounds! Dr. Rutherfor is pretty spry for an old guy!) They finally found a door, but it was extremely sturdy and there was no apparent way to open it. After some examination, Dr. Rutherfod concluded that there was some locking mechanism with controls in some other portion of the tunnels. They had to find it if they wished to continue.

After many more false leads, dead ends, and yet another mobile wall that was every bit as easily dispatched as the first, the party came to a set of large double doors that opened into a massive workshop. There were work benches and tables along the walls that contained all manner of tools, gear works, text books, and fasteners. Dr. Rutherford was delighted! Along the eastern wall were three large, crab-like automatons that were apparently inert. The party cautiously moved into the room, and Janette ventured up to a t-shaped intersection of hallways at the far end of the room. With the party now spread out in a thin line, the ambush was sprung! With a grinding, whirring sound, the three crab-like clockworks sprung to life surging across the floor with a deafening cacophony of metallic clangs and ticking. Meanwhile, Janette found herself surrounded by three more of the grotesque clockwork warriors. They were no match for her fencing abilities, however, and she was easily able to keep them at bay. The clockwork crabs attacked Gunther, Hitoshi, and Mr. Chesterfield. The latter was hit hard, but managed to avoid being grabbed up in the giant claw. The heroes’ best attacks merely bounced off their metallic shells. This was a battle that would not be easily won!
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

[XcomSquaddie]

Bump.
_________________
Jack the sound barrier. Bring the noise.
-Rat Thing B-782

[SavageGamerGirl]

I'll post the most recent session soon!
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

[SavageGamerGirl]

Episode 23: The Dreadful Fate of Dr. Theodocius
(Ohanka’s player didn’t come to this session, but we got another new player, who’ll be running Pirate Pete as his own character now that Pete’s player has gone back to playing Janette. Hopefully Ohanka’s player will be back! In the meantime, I ruled that his character was knocked out during the fight with the clockwork titans. The current party composition is:

Bob Chesterfield, Veteran magician with Pact Magic (a homebrewed AB)
Dr. Mercurius Rutherford, Veteran weird scientist
Gunther Boesesmensch, Veteran mercenary
Hitoshi, Veteran half-Japanese, half-Dutch martial artist
Janette Herbert, Veteran fencer
Paul Rowlend, Veteran warrior
Pirate Pete Tork, Veteran sailor and two-fisted brawler

The mechanical brutes proved to be all but bullet-proof! Gunther noticed that they had stiffened leather at the joints, and reasoned that delicate gear works lay beneath. He let the others know, and with several well-aimed attacks, the heroes finally managed to bring the nigh-invulnerable clockwork monstrosities down. Janette finished off the three clockwork warriors menacing her, and the group took a much-needed breather.

In the brief down-time, Dr. Rutherford felt a strong desire to satisfy his curiosity about how these automatons functioned. They had apparently been non-functional when the group entered this workshop, and even though the good doctor had created an intelligent automaton of his own it was unable to activate on its own. Working quickly with his own tools and others found in the workshop, he eventually managed to remove a section of the steel plating covering the internal mechanisms of the clockwork titan. There, he found a strange ceramic cylinder attached to the gear works with thin copper wires. He removed this cylinder, and with a gentle shake he deduced that it was filled with some sort of liquid. A lid was sealed tightly closed with a thin leather gasket to keep the cylinder water-tight. A device filled with electrical fluid, perhaps, more efficient than the usual clockworks and alcohol-fueled aeoliopiles? He didn’t dare risk opening the jar just yet, so he asked Paul if he’d mind carrying it for him until he had more time to examine it.

Meanwhile, Pirate Pete, bored with sitting around watching the soldiers get Ft. Durgam back into defensible shape, ventured down into the tunnels and eventually managed to find the others.

Janette reported that the hallway where she made her stand against the clockwork warriors had a door at each end, and the party investigated the one to the left. The door was locked, but Pirate Pete got out his lock picks — that is, his fists — and soon the door was wide open. The room here was dim, and roiled with a vaguely bluish haze. Mr. Chesterfield immediately recognized a protective circle etched onto the floor with chalk, and his familiar whined and lowered his ears. At the far end of the room they could just barely make out a humanoid form chained against the far wall. The figured looked up as the door opened, but said nothing. Hitoshi felt the strange scar on his chest begin to ache, and he knew at once that this creature was demonic. Pirate Pete demanded to know the creature’s name, and a strange, hollow voice responded, “I will only speak to the one with authority to command me…”

(Ok, so this was the first time I tried using the Adventure Deck in one of my games, and, out of the blue, Pirate Pete played the Love Interest card on the mysterious being in this room. If you’ve played through the d20 module The Siege of Durgam’s Folly module you’ll know what that was an interesting choice. If not, read on to find out why that’s so interesting… )

Not accustomed to being spoken to so impudently, Pirate Pete strode carelessly into the room and backhanded the chained creature with all the strength his considerable muscles could conjure up. The humanoid creature was stunned from the blow, but bowed its head when Hitoshi approached. He repeated Pirate Pete’s question, and the vague humanoid shape resolved into a buxom, beautiful female with sharp teeth and small horns. She gave her name as Gorrush Karr, a succubus and soldier in the army of Orcus, one of the lords of the Underworld. (Yeah, so Pirate Pete’s Love Interest card had the effect of turning the half-fiend Gorrush Karr into a full-fledged succubus, somehow completely smitten with him. This is going to get… interesting… ) Since she had chosen to submit herself to Pirate Pete’s will, and was obliged to obey Hitoshi for reasons he didn’t quite understand himself, she freely answered their questions.

She had been sent here by her master to find out more about the Brain Gear. It seems that knowledge of this remarkable invention and transcended the boundaries between this world and the next, and Orcus was interested in harvesting its power for his own use in an upcoming war. As she spoke, pieces began to fall into place for Hitoshi. This was not the first time he’d heard about demons marshaling forces, and the threat of a war in Hell. The scar on his chest was now practically throbbing, sending arcs of pain into his body with each pulse. Gorrush revealed that she knew where to find the Brain Gear, but she had been ambushed and rendered powerless before she could steal it. The human, Dr. Theodocious, had placed her here under magical wards as a further source of unnatural information. She claimed that she could lead them to the Brain Gear if they freed her.

With help from Hitoshi, Pirate Pete managed to pull the chains free from the mortar, leaving Gorrush Karr’s hands still manacled. He picked up the loose end of the chain, led her along. Hitoshi explained who and what Karr was, and excused himself. He took Mr. Chesterfield aside, and explained to him at last about his odd scar. Mr. Chesterfield reported that it looked like an old arrow wound. He could also feel the arrowhead still lodged in Hitoshi’s chest. The fact that it only seemed to pain him when he was in the presence of demonic creatures gave Mr. Chesterfield pause; perhaps it was somehow linked to the forces of evil! As they returned to the others, Mr. Chesterfield’s familiar told him that his master had ordered him to kill Gorrush Karr. After a moment’s thought, Mr. Chesterfield refused, saying that Karr could yet provide some useful information. (And with that, Mr. Chesterfield took a −2 to spellcasting rolls for a week, for committing a minor sin of disobedience, and after a long, long time I’m finally getting to the meat of Hitoshi’s back story!)

The others were wary of Karr’s presence, but with Pirate Pete leading her around on a chain and Hitoshi’s assurance of her obedience to them, they continued on. The other door opened to an empty room with a large hand-crank on the far wall. In the back corner was a pit that led to a narrow tunnel leading off to the northeast. This was a secret tunnel to allow passage in and out of the fort in times of trouble, and was most likely the means of escape for Grimulak and the other ogres the party had chased down here. Dr. Rutherford deduced that the hand-crank turned the mechanisms to open the door they’d found back in the maze, and he proved to be correct. That door led to another short hallway and another door.

As that door opened, the party was assailed again by three clockwork warriors, and a fourth creature more hideous than any they had yet encountered. He retained more of his human appearance than the others. Based on the look of his face, the party reasoned that this was Ben Lecter, Dr. Theodocious’ assistant. (Benelek, in the original module). His mechanical limbs were more robust, and were well-incorporated into the creature’s frame instead of being crudely bolted into place. He moved with much more grace than the others, and his eyes sparked with a cunning intellect. His left arm had been replaced with a rivet gun, with which he opened fire on Pirate Pete and Paul, who’d opened the door. The three other clockwork warriors moved to block the door and Ben Lecter ranted and raved. He shrieked about how it was far, far too late to stop the Brain Gear, and the best they could hope to do was delay its plans. Tired of hearing Lecter’s ranting, Gunther blasted his jaw off early in the combat. One by one the clockwork warriors were beaten down, and the party moved into the room to fight Ben Lecter, rendered even more hideous by his missing jaw. With all of the party arrayed against him, Ben Lecter soon fell completely silent.

This room was also a finely-appointed workshop, and Dr. Rutherford couldn’t help but notice that the further they delved into the tunnels the sleeker the technology was becoming. The first clockwork warriors they encountered were little more than patched-together corpses animated with gears. The clockwork titans were another step forward, with no apparent organic components. Likewise the clockwork warriors Janette had fought in that workshop were more human-looking. The three in this room would be all but indistinguishable from normal humans had they been properly clothed, perhaps in long coats and gloves. Ben Lecter, too, was a great step forward, for he had apparently retained his human intelligence and the capacity for speech. Whoever this Dr. Theodocious was, his experiments were advancing at an incredible rate, with few failures in between.

A door in the far corner of this room let do yet another, and at long last the heroes beheld the mysterious Dr. Theodocious. And they pitied him. This room contained the bent, broken form of an old man, likewise with his limbs and organs replaced with clockworks. He was held in this room by a chain, and not allowed to go far from his drafting table. Whatever this Brain Gear was, it had consumed him as well, its creator, and was forcing him to perfect his designs. As the party beheld this pitiable sight, another clockwork warrior stormed from the darkness. It was taller than the rest, its metallic limbs burnished to a mirror-like sheen. As they fought the guardian, they caught sight of Dr. Theodocious mouthing the words, “Kill me…” Paul decided to put the poor man out of his misery, and hurled the ceramic jar at him, thinking that the ‘electrical fluids’ Dr. Rutherford had mentioned would do the trick. The jar shattered, and to Paul’s disgust a withered human brain rolled out amidst the strange liquid within. Thus was the strange intelligence of the clockwork titans revealed. They, too, had an organic component after all. Soon, the party had dispatched Dr. Theodocious’ guardian, and, sadly, carried out the doctor’s wish for release from his torment.

Another door stood at the far end of this room. Gorrush Karr hissed that the Brain Gear lay beyond.
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

[XcomSquaddie]

Excellent! Thanks for the update.

[SavageGamerGirl]

I'm flattered that someone is enjoying it enough to give it a bump. I didn't think anyone was even reading it.
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

[haterofshame]

The Arcane background you made (pact magic) do you mind posting it, sounds interesting!!!!

Yeah reads all the updates, good stuff...

[SavageGamerGirl]

Here's the Pact Magic AB:

http://www.peginc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29659
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

[Timon]

I am reading your reports avidly - thank you for taking the time to write up this campaign.
_________________
Biting! It's like kissing but there's a winner!
The Doctor's Wife

[SavageGamerGirl]

Episode 24: TALOS!

(In this session, we came to the end of the Siege of Durgham's Folly module. Anyone who's read or played through that adventure will note some significant differences in the end. I tweaked the end of the story to help explain where all of this advanced technology came from. I also gave the Brain Gear an origin more suited to the setting.)

The party ventured through the door, which led to a short hallway before opening up into another room. This room was littered to a knee's depth with the cast-off junk of failed experiments. Heaped here were broken cogs, splintered wood, tangled mainsprings, and various other leavings from the Brain Gear's rapid advancement.

Hitoshi, unhindered by the treacherous terrain thanks to the flying cloak he'd taken from John Trask, flew to the exit across the room and reported the presence of a round pit in the center of the room. The other party members began to move in, their passage slowed by the heaps of sharp junk. Suddenly, a strange skittering sound erupted from the pit, rapidly followed by a swarming mass of tiny metallic insects! These creatures, somewhat like cockroaches in general appearance, were likewise miniature clockwork drones. Dr. Rutherford marveled at the sight of them, amazed by the skill it would require to craft such tiny and intricate automatons. His amazement was cut short by the pained yells of Pirate Pete and Gunther. Apparently, the little beasts had teeth...

There were far too many to target with a musket or a spear, but Pirate Pete came up with a pragmatic defense: his feet. Like bugs, they were easily crushed, and after several brutish stomps the clockwork swarm was scattered. The party barely had the time to shake the rest of them from their clothing and hair when two more such swarms surged up from the pit! (Gunther's player played an Adventure Card that had more enemies appear, but which gave every player another draw). This time, there were a few too many for even Pirate Pete to squash, and the heroes backed away from the room to get better positions. Dr. Rutherford tried out one of his new inventions: a device by which he could call forth creatures from the very elemental realms themselves! (He picked up Summon Ally with his last advancement.) A being of living fire sprang up beside Hitoshi and did its best to melt what clockwork insects it could. The swarms surged forward, biting at everyone in the hallway and entirely covering one of Mr. Chesterfield's poor dogs. Having seen the effectiveness of Pirate Pete's tactics, the others began to stomp and roll (in the case of the dogs, as directed by Mr. Chesterfield) to eliminate the tiny terrors. They were ultimately successful, but sadly not before Mr. Chesterfield's faithful hound was killed, gnawed nearly to the bone. His remaining dog was his familiar, and was unhurt.

Once they'd removed the last remaining clockwork insects from their hair and clothing, they party continued on past the junk room down the corridor. It ended in a massive door seemingly constructed of a multitude of complex interlocking gears. The party found no way to open this door, but took note of a large keyhole on its face. They had found no matching key, but a quick search of the carcass of the fallen guardian back in Dr. Theodocious' room uncovered it.

The door opened to reveal a library the likes of which even the learned Dr. Rutherford had never seen. Floor-to-ceiling bookcases held all manner of tomes and scrolls, and even a cursory examination revealed that many of them were of great age. A large reading pedestal in the center of the room held a single massive tome with parchment-like pages. Across from the entry door was a short dais leading to yet another door.

Mr. Chesterfield and Dr. Rutherford approached the pedestal to examine the book, finding it to be written in Greek. Mr. Chesterfield never studied Greek, but the doctor had, and he was amazed at his discovery. The book was entitled Talos and the Secrets of Hephaestus. In it were contained many of the ancient lost secrets of science and technology, said to come from lost Atlantis itself. Notes in the margins lead Dr. Rutherford to suspect that this book had been in the hands of Leonardo Da Vinci himself. The front page indicated that many of the formulae therein contained were first discovered by Heron of Alexandria!

Before any of the others could explore the library any further, however, the door at the top of the dais began to open. In a moment, the title of the book Dr. Rutherford still clutched in his eager hands made perfect sense. Before the party stood a tall statue, seemingly forged of bronze, bearing the appearance of a handsome Greek hero. In a booming voice that seemed to simply echo from everywhere and nowhere, the bronze statue introduced itself as Talos, and promised each of them death. This, at last, was the being that Grimulak had referred to as "the voice of the voice," the "great beast of steel and magic."

It was at this moment that Gorrush Karr, the succubus, chose to act. She whispered to Pirate Pete that the Brain Gear was in the room beyond, and needed to be found. Talos engaged the party fearlessly, attacking with a great sweeping fist that, luckily, everyone avoided. (Actually, luck had nothing to do with it: Hitoshi's player played an Adventure Card that made his attack a critical failure. Good thing, too, as Talos had drawn a Joker! For the critical failure I ruled that Talos didn't get the benefit of having a Joker.) While the party battled Talos -- their attacks simply bouncing off ineffectively -- Gorrush Karr and Pirate Pete slipped past the bronze being to search the room for the Brain Gear. Dr. Rutherford used his new device to bring forth a creature of living earth and stone, well-matched with Talos' strength, to aid the party. He and Mr. Chesterfield then took cover to try to recall all they could about the familiar name 'Talos,' and were struck with inspiration. In Greek Myth, Talos was a construct crafted by the god Hephaestus to guard Europa on Crete. If this Talos was anything like the mythical Talos, he would have a plug or nail on one heel that held in his godly ichor of molten lead. They relayed this to the others, who noticed that this Talos had metal plates, like shoes, that covered his heels and removed that particular weakness. Talos' next attack also failed, for he felt compelled to reveal that his plan was to perfect the fusion of men and clockworks to craft an unstoppable army the likes of which the world had never before seen! With this army he would bring back the glory of Atlantis! (Yes, another Adventure Card, which forced Talos to spend a round monologuing... )

Since their attacks were entirely ineffective (Talos had Heavy Armor) Hitoshi and Gunther also slipped past Talos to search the room beyond for the Brain Gear. Once Gorrush Karr heard their plan was to destroy it, she knew she had to act. She used her enchanting abilities to convince Pirate Pete to help her, and for a moment he blocked the efforts of the others. He managed to break free from her mental control with their help, and at last a loose stone was found behind which was a puzzle box. They managed to keep the box away from Gorrush Karr, who'd dropped her alluring facade and revealed her true demonic appearance in her rage. They tossed the box to Dr. Rutherford to see if he could discover how to open it. Janette faced off against the succubus, and after a fearsome duel she finally managed to put the beast down. Karr vanished in a puff of bloody brimstone smoke. Hitoshi also received assistance from an unlikely source: the waterfall kami he had saved in Limbo appeared before him, urging him and his companions to run. She joined the battle to help where she could, but she insisted that they could not defeat Talos without additional help. If their attacks couldn't damage Talos in any way, perhaps the field artillery up in Ft. Durgham could! The group called for retreat, and Pirate Pete bodily picked up Dr. Rutherford and draped him over his shoulder so he could continue to work on the puzzle box as they fled. As they exited the library, Gunther closed and locked the clockwork door, hoping that it would slow Talos' pursuit. Dr. Rutherford did manage to open the puzzle box to reveal the most delicate and complex analytical engine he'd ever seen. Whoever crafted the so-called Brain Gear was an unparalleled genius.

It did, and the party soon were back in the open air in Ft. Durgham. They quickly informed Captain Trina and the others about Talos, and enlisted the help of the crew of the Aeolus and the remaining able-bodied men of the fort and Hansonburg to help them reposition the cannons.

Minutes later, Talos burst from the gaol in a rage, determined not let these puny mortals interfere with his plan any longer. The puny mortals' only reply was the thundering reports of four field cannons. The cannonballs slammed into Talos, staggering him but not stopping him. He managed to reach the cannon Janette had chosen to command, smashing it to bits and sending her artillery crew running for cover. She evaded the bronze man's attacks and ran to join the others. The party's saving grace was Talos' slow, deliberate pace, and they were able to get off a few more shots from the cannons. Knowing that Talos had to be slowed to allow the artillery crew time to reload, Pirate Pete and Hitoshi, along with his water kami, charged him courageously. They grappled him, combining their strength to hold him and risking the threat of cannon fire to ensure his defeat. The water kami even sacrificed herself by flowing into a crack in Talos' armor caused by a successful shot, solidifying some of the liquid lead inside Talos and injuring him severely. One final volley from the cannons burst Talos apart at the seams, killing him and sending liquid lead splashing in all directions. Hitoshi and Pirate Pete were able to leap to safety, however, and came to no harm.

But the battle was far from over. Once they'd healed their wounds and had a moment to speak with Captain Trina and Mr. Howe, they learned that a small army of ogres were marching on Ft. Durgham! Silas Howe could take the injured and other non-combatants to safety at Ft. Herkimer a few hours flight away, but it might be days before that fort could supply troops and march back to help. Whoever didn't go on the Aeolus would have to remain at Ft. Durgham to hold of the ogres as best they could. The heroes all agreed to stay behind, with Gunther already lending his military expertise to formulating a battle plan to resist the siege. Many of the soldiers from the fort and most of the remaining men of Hansonburg also agreed to remain behind to gain some measure vindication against the ogres.

After all this, it appeared that the true siege of Durgham's Folly had yet to even begin.
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

[Jordan Peacock]

Wow! What a way to go! "My, what marvelous little -- AIEEE! OW OW OW OW THEY BITE!"
_________________

[SavageGamerGirl]

Here's the backstory, if you're wondering how it all comes together. It's different from the backstory in the actual module.

Dr. Theodocious somehow gained possession of the Talos and the Secrets of Hephaestus tome, which contains the plans for creating a Brain Gear and a living construct like Talos. After many failures, he finally succeed in creating the marvelous analytical engine, only to find out that it tapped into some aetheric consciousness which allowed it to communicate telepathically. The origin of this consciousness is unknown... perhaps it's the essence of Hephaestus, or the collective wisdom of the great inventors such as Imhotep, Daedalus, and so on, or perhaps its...



... NAAAAAAAAAH... just some weird pseudo-philosophical cosmic consciousness that imparts the secrets of the universe.

Anyway, the Brain Gear assisted Dr. Theodocious in creating Talos, knowing that it would need a nearly invincible body to carry out its plans. The re-created Talos, now the Brain Gear's lieutenant, forced Dr. Theodociouis and his apprentice, Ben Lecter, to refine the art of fusing clockworks and organics, starting with themselves!

And that's when Grimulak came in. The Brain Gear contacted him to bring more specimens -- the spearfinger ogres -- and also used them to herd the soldiers of Ft. Durgham to Dr. Theodocious' workshop. Later, it sent them out to gather the citizens of Hansonburg as well.

This is where the PCs came in, and the rest is detailed in the previous session logs. The inert clockwork titans that fired up on their own when the heroes entered the workshop did so because they received a mental signal from the Brain Gear itself. The oddness of having the library locked from the outside so Talos was unable to easily escape once Gunther locked the door behind them? Well... the Brain Gear could open the door remotely when it needed Talos to get out; the lock was intended to keep others from getting in.
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

[Timon]

I read the description of this module and was not at all inspired, whereas you description of actually playing it makes me want to run it for a group asap. I think it works much better in your setting than in the original one. Thanks again for posting these play reports!
_________________
Biting! It's like kissing but there's a winner!
The Doctor's Wife

[SavageGamerGirl]

I've also run the Siege of Durgham's Folly as a Star Wars adventure using the Saga Edition. I've never run it in the typical high fantasy setting it was intended for.
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

[SavageGamerGirl]

Episode 25: The Battle of Fort Durgam

(There really isn't much of a session journal to write for this session. I used the siege rules from the Fantasy Companion, modified so that each battle roll represented 1 day instead of 1 week. As a small-scale siege, I figured that would work better for my purposes. Also, reinforcements from Ft. Herkimer were coming in 4 days, so it upped the drama by having multiple rolls instead of just one.

I also ruled that the ogres would get a -1 morale penalty per day since the local forests were over-hunted by the previous ogres occupying the fort. It would be difficult for them to find enough food for all of them.

The ogre commander Grimulak had a d4 in Knowledge (battle), and Gunther had a d6. With all the various modifiers, the heroes were at a disadvantage. I ran the individual character actions incorrectly, I admit, because I assumed that the bonus gained wouldn't stack for each participating character. What I did was let the players make cooperative rolls, which had the effect of capping the PCs' contribution to Gunther's battle roll at +2. Then again, had each PCs' action contributed individually, they would probably have curb-stomped the ogres on the first day. In the end, though, I guess it all worked out.

Ohanka's player never came back, and the guy who had been running Pirate Pete in the last two sessions wanted his own character. He is:

Connor, Veteran Mohawk 'assassin', modeled after the character of the same name from Assassin's Creed 3.


The 50 ogres marched on Ft. Durgam, and the heroes, thanks to Gunther's military experience, stood with 20 soldiers and combat-capable villagers to repel them. The heroes, realizing they had time, set firebombs and other traps in the field and forest before the ogres' arrival. (I have them a bonus to their battle roll on the first day for this.) The ogres killed several of the men defending Ft. Durgam, but the heroes managed to hold the fort until the reinforcements from Ft. Herkimer arrived. The day was saved!

Their morale broken, Grimulak and twelve ogres tried to flee. The heroes pursued them, bent on ending their threat forever. Bob Chesterfield obliterated several ogres at a time with his jet power, and the others were pretty easily able to pick off ogres one-on-one. They far outmatched the ogres in single combat. Grimulak turned invisible early on and harried Hitoshi for a while, but soon decided that Gunther was a greater threat as he picked off ogres with his musket. Grimulak made the mistake of stopping to engage Janette, cluing Gunther in on his location. One head-shot (and the remainder of my GM Bennies) later, Grimulak was killed. The soldiers from Ft. Herkimer mopped up the remnant ogres, finally bringing an end to the Battle of Ft. Durgam.

Many weeks later, the heroes were honored in New York City for their brave defense of the fort. As civilians, they had no real duty to stand in the face of such adversity, but they did so valianty, and for that they were duly recognized by Governor Clinton. They received commendations for their acts at the Battle of Ft. Durgam, and Gunther was given a pardon for his acts during the American Revolution as a member of the Hessian forces. (Thus removing his Wanted Hindrance) Even Mr. Franklin, despite his great age and failing health, made the journey to New York to attend the ceremonies. Dr. Rutherford was less than happy to see him, giving his long dislike for Franklin -- Dr. Rutherford had long suspected that Franklin was envious of his inventions and wished to steal his ideas. Put off by Dr. Rutherford's cold reception, Mr. Franklin turned his attentions to Janette, who likewise rebuffed him.

The heroes settled in for the winter, and in the ensuing weeks Dr. Rutherford experimented more and more with the Brain Gear. It didn't communicate directly, rather when he was in close proximity to it while it was functioning his mind was filled with cryptic visions. Mathematical formulas, brief glimpses of diagrams and plans, numbers, letters, and other mysterious characters would flash through his mind's eye, inspiring him in ways he never dreamed possible. The secrets of the very nature of the universe were being revealed in snips and snatches. One vision was especially clear, however, almost burned into his subconscious. After some thought, he realized that they were longitude and latitude coordinates. After a brief conference with some local sailors, he was able to plot the exact location the Brain Gear was trying to reveal to him: a point several miles into the Sargasso Sea.

Meanwhile, Hitoshi worked closely with Mr. Chesterfield to find out more about the strange wound on his chest. After a brief exploratory surgery, Mr. Chesterfield found that it was indeed an arrow wound. The silvery arrowhead was still embedded in Hitoshi's breastbone. He dared not remove it, however, as his studies revealed to him that this was a demon-slaying arrow! After conferring with Hitoshi, Mr. Chesterfield reasoned that Hitoshi was indeed half-Japanese, but his Japanese mother was not human. The demon-slaying arrow was keeping Hitoshi's oni side suppressed -- to remove it might very well cause him to fall completely to his evil nature. The mystery remained, however, as to who shot Hitoshi, when, and why.
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

[SavageGamerGirl]

Episode 26: The Devil’s Triangle

Months have passed since the heroes’ last adventure. The winter of 1786 set in, and each went to his or her respective home for some much needed rest and holiday cheer. Dr. Rutherford spent the winter months studying the Brain Gear, and found while most of the time he would receive flashes of scientific insight, one on occasion he clearly perceived the nameplate of a ship, Il Cercatore. He had a strong feeling, perhaps not entirely his own, that the longitude and latitude coordinates he had envisioned earlier had something to do with this vessel. The Brain Gear was leading him somewhere.

Once the weather broke and spring to the colonies, Dr. Rutherford once more sent letters to his traveling companions. He was curious about the Italian ship and what may lie at the ocean coordinates, and felt that his adventurous friends might be interested in coming with him. He had secured passage for all of them on the Golden Skull, Pirate Pete’s ship, as, unfortunately, Mr. Howe’s remarkable Aeolus was undergoing study by the government of Pennsylvania for possible inclusion into its militia. While his friends were assembled and deciding whether or not to agree to this admittedly vague mission, Dr. Rutherford brought out the Brain Gear and announced that he would destroy it. Pressed for his reason, he admitted that it had been sending him diagrams with which he might rebuild Talos, the Bronze Giant. The more he consulted the Brain Gear, the more often it would show him only those plans and nothing else. It seemed that the clockwork construction was withholding further scientific information in return for the furtherance of its own goals. Knowing that Talos was meant to be the vanguard of a clockwork army, Dr. Rutherford realized the danger this presented. Although it pained him to lose such a remarkable device, for the greater good it had to be destroyed, lest Dr. Theodocioius’ fate befall him as well. With that, he brought out a sledge hammer and battered the delicate machine into its component parts.

Soon the day came in mid-March, 1787, when the party set out from New Jersey, destined for Bermuda. (Many thanks to Jordan Peacock, for his awesome map expansions for Pirates of the Spanish Main. His North Atlantic map was indispensable for this portion of the adventure! You can find them here: http://greywolf.critter.net/savageworlds/pirates/houserules.htm. It’s not labeled on his map, but Bermuda is the little dot left of center on the Atlantic Ocean map, due east of Florida.) The journey would take them about two weeks, and Pirate Pete swore to get them there as fast as the winds could carry them. Soon, the island sands were beneath their boots, and they spent a few days there to rest and plan the next leg of their journey: southeast directly into the region of ocean dubbed the Sargasso Sea. The Sargasso was a vast expanse in the doldrums of the Mid-Atlantic, where the lack of wind and the swirl of the Gulf Stream stranded miles upon miles of sargassum weed. Any vessel sailing into the Sargasso was at dire risk of becoming bogged down in the weeds, stranded forever in a massive graveyard of ships and sailors. (Of course, that last part is not true. The Sargasso Sea being a ‘ship graveyard’ is a myth, but a fanciful one and it is indeed true in this fantasized version of the world.)

Despite the misgivings of his small crew, Pirate Pete was dismissive of the legends of the Sargasso. He was too fine a sailor, and the Golden Skull too small a ship to be at risk. As the days passed on the southeastern journey, the crew became more and more uneasy, and soon Pete had to take it upon himself to chastise them back into their duties. Soon, the small ship began passing more and more bits of floating weed, and before long huge mats of the plant could be seen on the horizon. Pirate Pete forged onward, and the heroes couldn’t help but notice that the Skull was indeed beginning to pile up a roll of sargassum on her bow. As the day went on, Pete had to admit that he was overconfident in the abilities of his ship, as the further in they sailed the slower and slower the winds carried them, and even he, with his impressive strength, was having difficulty getting the wheel to respond. As the day drew to a close, he dropped anchor and agreed to go no further lest they, too, become lost to the Sargasso. Tomorrow, the party could take the ship’s longboats further in to see if they could reach the coordinates Dr. Rutherford desired. Hitoshi had some skill as a sailor, and with a chart and the Skull’s navigational tools, he could probably get them within at least a few miles of the place.

That night, the party noticed lights on the horizon, rising in and out of their line of sight with the waves. Keen-eyed Gunther borrowed Pirate Pete’s spyglass, but could deduce little more than could be seen with the naked eye thanks to the distance and darkness. To Pete, they looked like a ship’s deck lights. More superstitious murmurs rippled through Pete’s crew. What sort of ship would be that far into the Sargasso Sea and still have her deck lights on?

The following day, the heroes set out in the Golden Skull’s longboats. Their curiosity had gotten the best of them, and the decided to investigate the area where they’d seen the strange lights. According to Hitoshi’s navigation, that area was on their path anyway. After hours of tiresome rowing, they drew close to a ship, bogged down as so many others were in the cloying weeds. The called out to it, but received no answers from within. Cautiously, they came alongside the derelict and climbed aboard.

Shortly thereafter, the door leading below deck flew open, and there in the doorway stood a haggard-looking old man. His face was nearly lost in a filthy beard, and his eyes glared manically out from under his unruly mop of white hair. He looked them over and demanded to know who they were and what they wanted. By way of answer, the party asked if he was the one who’d lit the ship’s lights the night before. The man admitted that he was on deck last night admiring the stars, and after some suspicious parlay he finally introduced himself as the Eternal Sailor. It seems that he’d long since forgotten his real name, and since it his last memory of dry land was so remote he’d taken that name as his own. The party asked how long he had been stranded here, but the Eternal Sailor couldn’t come up with an answer that made sense. The party were startled when he asked how “that new colony at Jamestown was faring.” Hitoshi replied that it was doing very well—the understatement of the century. Some quick math told Dr. Rutherford that the Eternal Sailor was claiming to be over 200 years old: impossible even in this remarkable age of science and magic! When asked how he had survived this long, the Eternal Sailor said he lived on rainwater and fish. With that, he gestured to several fishing implements such as gaff hooks, nets, and rope.

Once the truce, however uneasy, had been established, the party decided that since they had a man so familiar with the Sargasso Sea that they could make use of him. They brought out their charts, and asked him if he knew of a ship called Il Cercatore. The Eternal Sailor looked over their information, then backed away waving his arms frantically. He told them that the place they wished to go was dangerous, that no sane man would want to go there. Pressed for an answer, he claimed that Il Cercatore was in the territory of the Lusca, a massive octopus powerful enough to drag entire ships into the depths. (Another inspiration: Pierre Denys de Montfort’s depiction of a kraken.) They asked if the Eternal Sailor would guide them there, and he refused, screaming and running back below decks. He punctuated his refusal by barricading the door behind him.

The party returned to their boats and continued on, spending a few more hours at the oars before they finally neared the area indicated by Dr. Rutherford’s coordinates. Before them was Il Cercatore, an old Italian carrack with tattered sails and a mossy deck. The entire vessel looked unseaworthy, and judging from the angles of the fore and aft sections her keel was broken. The only thing keeping her afloat was luck and the sargassum weed.

Paul and Mr. Chesterfield remained behind on the rowboats as Gunther, Janette, and Dr. Rutherford carefully climbed aboard the creaking wreck. Hitoshi flew about them with his flying cloak to keep an eye out for the Lusca. Janette and Dr. Rutherford made their way into the old captain’s quarters, as it was the only part of the ship aside from the top decks not entirely awash. While they were searching, Gunther called out that something was coming. He’d felt an unusual surge rock the ship beneath his feet (via his nifty new Danger Sense edge.) Moments later, the Lusca surfaced right beside the ship. True to the Eternal Sailor’s description, it was a massive octopus, easily 50 feet across from the tip of one tentacle to the tip of its opposite. Huge arms flailed across the deck, narrowly missing Gunther as he took cover by the ship’s unsteady foremast. In the captain’s cabin, Janette stepped up her search, and finally located a metal chest secured under the rotten remains of the bunk. Dr. Rutherford called up a steam border elemental to help fight the giant octopus. Outside, Hitoshi was battling the Lusca, using his ability to fly to avoid the lashing tentacles. To his dismay, he noticed that the giant mollusk was using its powerful beak to chew through the ship’s hull. Gunther raised his musket, but soon found himself buried in a tangle of rotten sails and rigging as the spar on the foremast above him gave way. (I let his player get rid of his Wanted Hindrance after the Battle of Ft. Durgham, and although I didn’t require it he decided to replace it with another Hindrance: Trouble Magnet. This is going to be fun … <insert evil GM smile here>.) Paul and Mr. Chesterfield attacked when they could, but the bulk of the doomed ship was between them and he Lusca, making it difficult to target despite its great size. Mr. Chesterfield struck the beast several times with his blast spells, but to little avail. As Janette darted out of the captain’s cabin to try to make it back to the rowboats. Hitoshi was working with the steam elemental, and when Gunther had finally freed himself from the sails he managed to get off a few shots at the Lusca’s eyes. It seemed to be shrugging off everything they could throw at it! (In hindsight, giving a monster with a 15 Toughness the Hardy ability was a bad idea. I meant for this to be a hard fight, but not an impossible one. It’s ok, though, as Hitoshi’s player played the Angry Mob adventure card.) Suddenly, skipping over the waves, a pod of pilot whales appeared as if from nowhere. They charged the Lusca, battering it mercilessly and chewing on whatever portions of its flesh they could reach. With a massive spray of ink, covering Hitoshi and Gunther in the process, the Lusca released the ship and jetted away as fast as it could go.

By this time, the poor derelict ship had more than it could handle. With a harrowing crack and splintering of timbers, the fore and aft sections separated and turned up into the waves. Gunther slid into the water, but was able to reach the safety of the rowboats. Hitoshi, still flying, also made it back to the boats as the remnants of the old carrack slipped below the waves at last. A moment later, Dr. Rutherford appeared at the water’s surface, moving towards them far faster than any man could swim. In the final moments the ship was above the waves, he had managed to conjure up a water elemental, which carried him to safety as the ship’s stern fell away into the depths beneath him.

Safe and sound once more, surrounded by a pod of helpful pilot whales, they began to make their way back to the Golden Skull. As they neared the ship, the noticed that no one was on deck to greet them. Her sails hung limp in the windless sea, and there were no answers to their calls. The heroes armed themselves and drew alongside the ship. As they climbed aboard, they noticed that the volley gun Dr. Rutherford had installed had been fired. There were some signs of a scuffle on deck: overturned buckets, scattered ropes, and a discarded cutlass. In a repeat of their encounter from that morning, the door leading below decks suddenly burst open to reveal the Eternal Sailor. The wild look in his eye was somehow even wilder now, and he rose his spear and sneered. “I survive on rain water and fish,” he hissed, then glowered at them hungrily and sang, “Heeeeere fishy, fishy, fishy!”

The awful truth about the Eternal Sailor revealed at last, the party moved to attack. Janette, Hitoshi, and Paul engaged the Sailor in melee, but he either deftly turned aside their attacks or simply accepted the injuries they dealt him with impunity. Dr. Rutherford managed to strike him with his bolt power (a gun that shoots clockwork monkeys… *nonomnom*) and Gunther got off a fine shot to the Eternal Sailor’s head, but the man just staggered back and laughed. The gaping wound grew closed and sealed up without a scar. Apparently, he was the Eternal Sailor after all, and his claims of exceedingly long life were true… Seeing that musket balls to the head did little to the Eternal Sailor, Gunther managed to disarm him with shots to the hand. The Eternal Sailor simply drew another weapon from his jangling collection of knives and hooks and continued fighting. Mr. Chesterfield waiting for an opportunity to attack, as his spells were powerful but covered a wide area and his allies were too close. Annoyed more by Gunther and Dr. Rutherford’s ranged attacks than by the melee combatants, the Eternal Sailor screamed and literally ran along the ship’s rail in a mad dash to get past his aggressors and do something about those guns. As he leaped down from the railing, he unfurled a barbed fishing net and tossed it over Mr. Chesterfield and Gunther. His move brought him close to Dr. Rutherford, who blasted him with monkeys again. The little automatons did their job admirably, chewing away large gobs of flesh almost as fast as they could grow back. Mr. Chesterfield finally had a clear shot, but the net was hindering his spellcasting (Remember—if you’re entangled you take a −4 penalty to any action other than freeing yourself. Mr. Chesterfield’s player had an ace in the hole, though. He played an Adventure Card that gives you and an ally a +4 bonus to your next trait roll!). He managed to work a hand free from the barbs, and blasted the Eternal Sailor with a jet of lighting. Clockwork monkeys and bits of the Eternal Sailor flew in all directions, and the Sailor’s body was blasted over the railing out into the sea. He did not resurface.

The party found Pirate Pete and the crew of the Golden Skull tied up below decks, with a large cooking pot of boiling water on the galley stove. One of the crewmen was already dead, but Pete and the other two were merely unconscious. They buried the unfortunate sailor at sea, and raised anchor to finally leave the Sargasso behind them.

Dr. Rutherford and Mr. Chesterfield then turned their attentions to the metal chest. With some work, they managed to get it open and found a large object wrapped in rotting lambskin and moldy wool packing. The object proved to be a large clear crystal, its facets polished to a fine sheen. After some discussion, Mr. Chesterfield surmised that this was an artifact from Atlantis itself: the power crystal that once adorned the temple of Poseidon in that fabled lost city. (I borrowed a bit from Edgar Cayce there.) This, he claimed, was the source of Atlantean might. How it came to be on a 200-year-old Italian carrack in the Sargasso Sea was yet another mystery of that strange place.
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

[SavageGamerGirl]

I freely admit that this adventure was inspired by this movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QU_vvHKuyQ


_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!