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Really Wild West “Doomstone” Campaign — After-Action Report (Game Session 7, part 2)
Continuing the after-action report for Session Seven of the Really Wild West: Doomstone campaign. The Knight rangers have headed out in their converted Martian Excavationg Machine, now known as The Armadillo, to the Montana city of Hellgate as part of their quest to find and defeat Professor Barkane Adrameliche, who has become the darkling Lord, the Venom King.
Notes adapted from the notes of my wife Lj, a player in the game, and told from her point of view.
>>Campaign Day 31
· About an hour after we set out, we see Waterlily (a ranch hand from the Circle Axe Ranch) riding up behind us
· We pull over and she hands us a large, fancy, international letter that arrived right after the Knight Rangers left the Circle Axe.
o Formal Eastern European letter
o Carries appreciation and amazement at our accomplishments from Princess Allegra Gullveig of Stythencia (a tiny Tiefling City-state in Eastern Europe in the Carpathian Mts. near Transylvania).
o She wrote and sent it, referring to the Knight Rangers by name, about six hours after we decided on our group name. Info doesn;t travel that fast without magic.
Camping first night, spot a glow-in-the-dark figure on a horse coming toward the camp. Skeletal man in law officer duds, with a badge that says he is “Deputy D. Nails.” His horse is bandaged like a mummy and has a necklace of severed heads. As the figure approaches it gets cold and snow begins to fall – not cloudy
· The heads – there are at least three – are from men who fled when the Knight rangers attacks the Venom King’s forces at Neblin Hill.
· He says he’s taking over after Deputy B. Hill was recalled. He’s hunting the grave jumper (Venom King).
· We trade information. The Knight Rangers learn the Prof. has split himself in to two – flesh and bone – but they’re right next to each other. He’ll be at full strength in 180 days from tonight if not stopped – he needs a specific conjunction to accomplish this so it cannot be rushed. His vulnerability is the metal from coffin nails, not silver or cold iron, that have been used to keep bodies in the ground.
· If the Venom King isn’t brought down soon, “the Marshall” will come down to earth personally and get him.
· Deputy Nails heads away toward Montana
Campaign Day 32
· Pass through Rollings, WY
· Get to Rock Springs, WY
o Stop here to camp and resupply
Day 33
· Eden, Farson, Boulder, and Pinedale, WY – all of which are wrecks – wiped out during the WotW
· Stop at a battlefield on our path – the centaur paladin stops to honor the dead
Day 34
· Come to a pass through the mountains – gorgeous
· Stop in Hoeback
Day 35 (fifth travel day – May 5th)
· Idaho Falls, far eastern Idaho – decent sized town
· Bear River too deep to cross in the Armadillo
· Use the cattle bridge and end up in the edge of town
· A crowd gathers, looking at the amazing converted Martian tech. Begin to cheer, because they think the Knight Rangers took it from the Martians
· Cartographothurge Technomancer gets off to resupply
· Centaur paladin gets on the train station platform and tells a tale of defeating the forces of the Venom King’s snakeperson allies, who are quickly dubbed “the Scorpion Gang.” Though she tells the tale accurately, the crowd is already making it bigger that she tells
· We head out five miles from town to camp
· A handful of horsemen come out to us – five
o Three young men, one older man, and a middle-aged woman
o Professor Virgil, and students from the Eastern Idaho Technical College
o They want to ask about the Armadillo
o They brought us potatoes au gratino They talk to the technomancer roboticist, talking to dawn and learning from her. Invite her to come lecture whenever she likes
Campaign Day 36, which is determiend to be May 6th
· Around noon, we spot a herd of brontosauruses.
· We slow down and drive by at a safe distance
· Soldier outlaw with DaVinci wings goes out and flies over them – sees the babies
· The technomancer sketches his heart out
Later that day, the Knight rangers reach Rexburg, and head to the nearby shield volcano to visit Bo Hoss’s family.<<
What do they find!? We’ll discover that tomorrow, in part 3!
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Really Wild West “Doomstone” Campaign — After-Action Report (Game Session 7, part 1)
After nearly a month break, I finally ran by Starfinder-Really Wild West-Doomstone campaign again, and people have been asking about getting to see the after-action report. So here’s a write-up adapted from notes taken by my wife Lj (who is playing the fenrin operative bounty hunter named “Sawyer”), mostly in second person, as a report for Session Seven!
You can find Session One here: Part One, Part Two.
Session Two here: Part One, Part Two.
Session Three here.
Session Four here.
Session Five here: Part One. Part Two.
Session Six here.
If you don’t recognize a reference, it may (or may not) be in a previous session, or at the updated campaign notes page.
A lot happened in this one, so it’s been broken into multiple blog posts.
>>We’ve traded the digging bits of the Martian Embanking Machine we captured (that had already been partially-converted by Professor Adrameliche, who turns out to be the Venom King) to the Circle Axe Ranch in exchange for the parts, materials, tools, and assistance we need to convert it into our base of operations. Conversion takes two weeks, during which time we are guests of the Circle Axe. The group decides on a group name (the Knight Rangers), and name the soon-to-be-finished mobile base of operations “The Armadillo.”
The local Fonts and Bismarck Station Chief, Adler, comes to visit and receive a briefing on the Knight Ranger’s recent activities. Agrees to use official Fonts and Bismarck channels to make inquiries about whether Professor Adrameliche has been seen in Montana. Also helps discover that the Professor’s style of technological invention is very similar to that found in several train robberies (performed with the aid of a robotic derailing machine) performed a few years back that accrued a great deal of cash.
Since the Knight Rangers believe the Professor is in Montana, the fenrin operative bounty hunter looks up bounties in Montana.
· The situation is complicated, with the state new to the Union and in a very unstable place due to massive damage from Martian Walkers during the War of the Worlds. Various Copper Kings (like cattle barons, but for copper) are in near-open warfare and set bounties on each other, many with local (though not legal) support. State bounties are legal, but often lack local support and are likely to anger one or more factions. Mostly only official Federal bounties are seen to have the weight needed to be legal and not likely to bring reprisals.
· An exception is that the rare bounty placed by “Gotham Jo” – Josephine Fiery, are also respected throughout Montana.
o She is a madam and business owner of a hurdy gurdy house in Helena
o She’s married to a man who’s present, but not in charge. In fact she seems to have him under her thumb, with lcoals knowing not to allow him to drink or gamble.
o has a reputation for taking care of her employees, and only put out bounties on those who have wronged her people, never on an ex-employee
· There are currently no active bounties safe to take
Knight rangers made some inquiries about Beard-cutter Ben (who sold them “walking meat,” a chewing gum that turned out to attract the Monstrous Jerusalem Bugs that attacks the PCs back in Session Two.
· Upon hearing they are looking for him, he shows up at the ranch to apologize and offer us refunds and reparations. He got the material from the East Hudson Fur Trading Company. He will never do business with them again, and he’s spreading word that it’s bad, hired a lawyer to sue the EHBFTCo.
· We ask him to tell us when he finds out more information
· As part of reparations, ask him to give discounted shaves for law enforcement. He also gives some cash.
Station Chief Adler reports Professor Adremeliche has been spotted in three places in Montana in the last 60 days.
· Helena, the capitol (It is 680 miles from here – if Knight Rangers go there, can visit Bute-Silverbow on the way. Economy fueled by lead, silver, and gold mining. Capitol buildings under construction. Most millionaires per capita in the US. Many movers and shakers – includes Gotham Jo. The Copper Kings who are so influential elsewhere in the state have very little control here. Population 13,000. No real bad part of town. Almost no unemployment. The rich people compete in charitable giving.)
· Butte-Silverbow (Closest to the Knight Ranger’s current location – 450 miles. Population of 15,000 – biggest city in Montana. Center of War of the Worlds refugees in the state. Major EHBFTCo. base of operations–no Fonts and Bismarck office there. Center of where the Copper Kings are waging war against each other. Center of the Asteroid Mining Co. – mine adamantine and other star metals. Growing copper industry. Center of Martian tech research in the state. Two scummy red light districts. Grimy and smoke-filled. Gangs based on foreign national or ethnic origins divided up the town, most with ties to one or another Copper King.)
· Hellgate (800 miles from here – due to limitations on moving the Armadillo through mountains and damaged infrastructure from the War of the Worlds, have to go around a forest to get there. Third largest city in Montana – pop. 3,400. In Hellgate Valley [Sections of which were choked with bones due to French fir traders fighting with natives, which is how it got its name. Fur trade has moved out.] Now largely trades in lumber. Home of Hellgate University [oldest in the state and includes the only accredited and licensed school of necromancy not in Eastern Europe]. Next to the Rattlesnake Mts. One of only two places in the world with a Badlands City embassy.
Most information comes from Station Chief Allison Flynn of Helena, Montana.
· Her information was gathered under the radar. She is convinced Professor Adrameliche is connected with one of the power structures in the state. Found a picture of him for us – he wears black with accents of the same green as the Venom King. He is, of course, the Venom King. Mechanical arm. Cane with human bones and a green skull pommel – [Likely the Venom King’s actual bones.] Eyes = black with tiny, green dots
The Knight Rangers decide they are going to visit the university in Hellgate first, to see if they can find a way to put down the dead spirit that is the Venom King, and who now seems to inhabit Professor Adrameliche.
· We can make 40-50 miles per day in the Armadillo. Get to the university in 16 days using an alternate route. Our route will take us through Yellowstone, Idaho Falls, Salmon, Hamilton, Lolo, then Hellgate
Around Day 10 into the 14 days it takes to put together the Armadillo. Dwargus invites us up to the big house for supper and new. Circle Axe has been granted 75% of the disputed lands they were arguing with the vicious Hippogriff Ranch – including Neblin Ridge.
· Dwargus gives us a Federal salvage deed for the Armadillo from the Sixth Federal Circuit Court in Ohio. It might be overturned, but it should at least take a court case to do so.
· Mention that Texas Helium Magnate Tex Tanner has sent word he’s sending a representative to make an offer to buy the Armadillo… but the rep won’t arrive until two days after the Knight Rangers have left. We decide not to wait for him.
Around Day 12 into the 14 days elven ranch hand Waterlily wants to talk to us. She mentions the Ogre ranch hand Bo Hoss has a problem he doesn’t want to bother us with. His family lives in a shield volcano near Rexberg, Idaho. Communication with them has ceased. Dwargus sent an inquiry – got no information. They’re all ogres – only a few speak English – mostly immigrants of Pacific Islander descent.
A Shirren lady comes to measure Liam for some clothes. As a sensate, she asks if she can lick the Armadillo. The Knight rangers are okay with it, and she experiences 15 new flavors she’s never tasted before. In thanks, she gives us all spider silk umbrellas (+2 KAC/EAC against liquid-based attacks if held, but only 1 HP and takes damage if attack it is used against does any damage).
On Campaign Day 31 – it’s time to head out to Hellgate
· The roboticist mechanic and operative bounty hunter are the best drivers, with the cartogramancer technomancer a close third.
· The centaur paladin can drive, but her armor gives her penalties
· The others we set up on rotation to learn
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Really Wild West “Doomstone” Campaign — After-Action Report (Game Session 6)
It looks like there is enough interest in session notes from my Really Wild West: Doomstone campaign for those to become a regular feature. So here’s a write-up adapted from notes taken by my wife Lj (who is playing the fenrin operative bounty hunter named “Sawyer”) as a quick report for Session Six!
You can find Session One here: Part One, Part Two.
Session Two here: Part One, Part Two.
Session Three here.
Session Four here.
Session Five here: Part One. Part Two.
If you don’t recognize a reference, it may (or may not) be in a previous session, or at the updated campaign notes page.
Session Six
I decided to playtest my idea for Spotlight Tokens in this session. I got some useful feedback, I may or may not keep using them in this campaign.
These notes are from the point of view of the PCs (specifically my wife Lj, and I adapted them from her notes for her character, the fenrin operative bounty hunter Sawyer).
The Svirfneblin host us and feed us. Dinner includes large roasted pill bugs that taste like lobster. Mushrooms, snails (escargot-style), slugs, beer.
· The svirfneblin give us papers and a copy of The Pact to give to Dwargus Hardfist, with whom they hope to open formal trade.
· The svirfneblin give us “the Door,” a complex set of nested crystal spheres. It will seek a spot within the serpent people Hollow World near its center, and then can be activated (with a combination of three successful Engineering and/or Mysciticm checks in a row) to close the serpent people Hollow World for a century or so. Once activated, it must be guarded for 1-2 minutes (1d10+10 rounds), after which it will open a portal. It then cannot be stopped, but anyone who doesn’t go through the portal will be trapped in the Serpent People dark Hollow World for a century.
· The Svirfneblin can have their Hollow World (the Vault) overlap the serpent people’s Hollow World (Aakath), and deposit us near where we will need to set up “the Door.” As soon as we open the door, the powerful Venom Champion known to the serpent people only as “Her” will know, and is sure to arrive.
· Once Aakath is cut off, the serpentfolk who are currently out in our world, will be stuck. They will still be able to teleport, but will have weaker arcane powers and less eldritch strength.
· The Svirfneblin the PCs found and buried have returned their essences and minds to the Svirfneblin communities. Their “soul sparks” have become soul gems, which those who have fallen offer to the PCs (one each) as thanks for putting them to rest.
o “Who they are” has gone back to the community
o These are the fuel that drove their essence, minds, and bodies.
Soul Gem
· all are +1 Resolve Point (only to stabilize)
· Then there are cuts, each with a different power set.
o Trillions +1 to all saves
o Navette +2 against all afflictions
o Cabochon +4 to all saves against poisons
Into the breach — The Svirfneblin perform the ceremony to place us in Aakath.
· We all take anti toxins
· Things dwell there that are worse than serpent folks
· Be prepared for darkness that defies simple concepts such as evil
Aakath — the Endless Cavern
· Darkness so gray, it might as well be black, but we know it isn’t
· Settlement with inhuman architecture in distance, outbuildings nearby
· Thin glowing green sickly line in the far distance
· Vapor clings to the ground
· Crunching noise beneath our feet
· An alien howl of alarm goes off
· The Door draws us toward a nearby fountain, but there are things between us and it.
FIGHT!
· “The unclean thing” – (GM describes it ‘the bezor that the otyugh spit up’). It is a shapeshifting mass of waste, raw, pulsing organs, and foul ichors.
o It spews digestive juices and waste as an attack out of a sphincter it forms for the purpose
· The alarm turns into chanting
· The green glow flashes and two figures teleport in
o One is a Four-armed Huge snake-legged serpentfolk, with glowing venomous pistols, a green gem in her head, and wicked dagger – this is clearly “Her”
o Also with HER is a Size-large serpent with ridges on its back
o Damage to HER appears on the serpent, until the serpent is slain.
· The serpent charges for the bounty hunter operative fenrin.
· A Size-large four-headed serpent appears
· The centaur mercenary paladin protects the human robotocist mechanic and half-orc cartographer tecnomancer as they get the mechanism activated.
· Another unclean thing shows up – a minor version
· We finally get everyone down
· The portal opens as we see siege weapons and giant coils rolling this way
· We flee
AFTERMATH
· We all make it through. End up in the same cavern as the Martian embanking machine, beneath Neblin Ridge.
· Heal up
LOOT from Her: Pocket hollow world (clear gem) – teleport (self only, 440-foot range) CL10 as a move or swift action once per day – (goes the the centaur paladin); warmaster’s gloves (swap out weapon you are wielding with those stored on your person without taking an action) – goes to human soldier; Martian capacitor (1ce/day supercharge a weapon as part of the attack) – goes to human mechanic.
The Tess drives the Martian Embanking Machine out of the mine. We all take a turn driving it. Go back to the Circle Axe Ranch.
· They give us burgers
· Bring Dwargus up to speed. Learn Felspark has been “Recalled East,” by the east Hudson Fur Trading Company.
· He makes us Trustees of the Circle Axe Ranch
· We can take out the tunneling stuff from the Embanking machine and turn the engine into a mobile Base of Operations. Decide to do so before hunting down the infamous Professor Barkane Adrameliche, who we believe has beocme the Venom King, and we think is in Montana.
Divide up the $4000 worth of bounties between us. $800 each.
XPs: 1920
18,970 (23,000 to 7th)
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Really Wild West “Doomstone” Campaign — After-Action Report (Game Session 5, Pt. 2)
Here’s part Two of the Session Five notes for my Really Wild West: Doomstone campaign, adapted from notes taken by my wife Lj (who is playing the fenrin operative bounty hunter named “Sawyer”).
You can find Session One here: Part One, Part Two.
Session Two here: Part One, Part Two.
Session Three here.
Session Four here.
Session Five here: Part One.
If you don’t recognize a reference, it may (or may not) be in a previous session, or at the updated campaign notes page.
Session Five (Part Two)
Still Day 13
The characters see that the heaviest traffic out of the Big Cavern is through the left-hand tunnel, which was clearly made by the Embanking Machine. This also shows signs of the svirfneblin-drawn sled they saw bring green ore out of the mine when observing the camp outside. This is the route the take.
- There is a breach in the tunnel that clips some underground complex that was already there. (The players later learn this is the Svirfneblin Vault)
- The end of that tunnel opens up beyond the breach
- The centaur paladin, in the lead (with her darkvision) is attacked by monsters disguised as rocks at the entrance. They’re grick!
FIGHT!!!
- The grick don’t seem to take electrical damage, fire damage either
- The human soldier criminal grabs the Warhammer the Chimera Kid was using and uses that on the grick – bounces off. The magic fusion that was on the warhammer has already been moved to the mechanic robotisit’s drone’s bite attack (her drone looks like a mechanical dog).
- The grick don’t do a lot of damage, but anyone near them has to make a Reflex save or take some damage from their flailing tentacles, on top of their bites or acid spit. And the grick are reducing every attack that hits them by 10 points of damage, so seem nearly invulnerable.
- There are two Sverfneblin here. They speak some kind of old German. It takes Culture checks for people who know German to understand them.
- The centaur paladin and fenrin operative work to asks the Svirfneblin to call off the beasts – the svirfneblin explain they do not control the gricks
- The human soldier criminal called out the name Drungeldan Smyreonot – the name of one of the ‘neblins we talked to after death
- Bullets don’t work against the gricks either
- The half-orc technomancer cartographer makes a Mysticism check, and says it takes magic damage to hurt the grick. He then casts overcharge weapon on the paladin centaur’s lance.
- The lance kills one. The human soldier has an automatic pistol with a magic rune on it, and he easily kills the other one.
AFTERMATH:
- The centaur paladin casts a spell that allows her to speak to the Svirfneblin
- They need to get to their Headman
- He is being held hostage in the back
- We will have to bypass the serpentfolk and some pact guardians
- The Pact Guardians are varied – some mechanical, some monsters. They protect the svirfneblin, but also obey the pact, and thus don’t currently attack the serpent people who took over the pact by stealing blood of pact scion – Dwargus. Thus as long as Dwargus does not elave the area, the serpent people can come and go in the Svirfneblin Vault. (PCs realize this is why the manticore kept killing off Dwargus’s cattle–so he couln’t retire and leave).
- Only the authority of the pact scion can get us to bypass the pact guardians
- The PCs try the writ given to them by Dwargus allowing them to investigate the area on the door in this room, which is a Pact Guardian itself.
- It works!
- There are serpentfolk on the other side of the door!!
FIGHT!
- There is a gorgeous small green snake, a serpentfolk with a gun and serrated jawbone of an ass sword, and a human carpetbagger with a staff and wearing a beautiful green operacloak
- The two ‘neblin cast spells to aid the PCs
- When the pretty cobra dies, it turns into a pool and evaporates
- The soulstaff dissolves
LOOT: Sharpened jawbone of an ass that is bane vs humanoids (5,000- 10,000-year-old artifact); Who’s Who in Montana 1890; guardian greatcloak (Goes to the technomancer cartographer, and changes from venomous green to midnight blue with silver nautical symbols, route lines, and compass roses when he puts it on).)
Guardian Greatcloak (magic item, level 5): If you take an action that provokes an attack of opportunity, you may expend a Resolve Point without taking an action and not provoke the attack of opportunity
LOOT: One shotgun
PCs move through the rest of the Vault to get to the headman, using the Writ from Dwargus to bypass traps and guardians of the Pact. Final room. Locked and trapped door. The mechanic roboticist bypasses it, and recognizes the handiwork/design skills of Professor Barkane Adrameliche, whose handiwork was also found in the Martian Embanking machine.
- The Svirfneblin Headman is inside
- He asks if he can close the vault, using their authority with the Writ from Dwargus – PCs all say yes
- The Headman explains Professor Barkane Adrameliche IS the Venom King (“Toxin Krieger”to the Sverneblin)
- The Professor found the idea of a “Venom King” while studying Martian Black Gas, and began to hear whispers. As he experimented with and perfected ways to use the Black gas, the whispers grew louder and louder, and eventually the Professor became the Venom King as much as he is Barkane Adrameliche.
- The Professor/Venom King is a Darkling — a human who has embraced the darkness so totally he is a native outsider, and on his way to becoming a demigod. He is one of six “Dread Fates,” six unspeakable ways to die.
- The Professor had six Lts.
- Dathaca (who was the Chimera Kid)
- Gaotma – (the only one with a Doomstone)
- Athath-ka
- Venomancer (the spellcasters the PCs *just* killed)
- Female serpentfolk in the other tunnel. Called “Her” in fearful tones by other serpent people.
- One Unknown
- The Professor and his six lts are the only ones who will ascend, becoming demigods
- None of the other six Dread Fates currently has a physical body. The Professor is trying to bring about one of them, his closest ally, the Dread Fate of Torture (who has a drop of blood as his icon, like the blood cultists encountered earlier on Neblin Ridge).
- The Professor is currently in Montana.
- Sverfhaim is a Hollow World– a place that is as much a concept and planar pocket as it is a material place. So is the Serpent People home. Also, the serpentfolk seek another “Hollow World“
- Headman offers PC hospitality for the night
- Sends his folk to watch the upper caverns
- PCs need to get into the serpentfolk city, set up a mystical “door” (a device the Neblin headman can create), go through it, close the door
- Then the serpent city will cease to have access to our world and we would be on Neblin Ridge
End of session. XPs: 2650
LEVEL UP to 6th!!
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Really Wild West “Doomstone” Campaign — After-Action Report (Game Session 5, Pt. 1)
It looks like there is enough interest in session notes from my Really Wild West: Doomstone campaign for those to become a regular feature. So here’s a write-up adapted from notes taken by my wife Lj (who is playing the fenrin operative bounty hunter named “Sawyer”) as a quick report for Session Five!
You can find Session One here: Part One, Part Two.
Session Two here: Part One, Part Two.
Session Three here.
Session Four here.
If you don’t recognize a reference, it may (or may not) be in a previous session, or at the updated campaign notes page.
Session Five
Day 13
The fenrin operative bounty hunter takes the mask of inconsequence once used by the Chimera Kid. This magic item allows you to make Stealth checks, opposed by observer’s Perception or Sense Motive (whichever is greater) to appear to be no different form the majority of people around you. It only works when you are not in combat, and does not work against anyone directly interacting with you or who is in combat.
So equipped, she heads into the mine to do Stealth recon. She overhears a conversation between two guards – they know there was a ight outside, and if anyone comes up they don’t recognize the guards will will shoot first, ask questions later. They are awaiting the return of “the Professor,” who the guards obviously fear. The Professor specifically warned them not to use the “embanking machine,” which is taken by the group to be a Martian embanking machine from the War of the Worlds.
The players decide to make a blitz attack, since these guards and part of an operation that has used slave svirfneblin labor, and mercilessly killed and hid the bodies of a dozen or more of those.
- The centaur paladin charges in to begin the fracas, impaling an enemy operative (one of two) with a critical hit on a lance change before he has a chance to do anything. (“Yep, that’s a crit. What IS the crit effect on your lance?” “He dies?”)
- There is a spell-casting serpentfolk in here. It casts a defensive spell, then alternates between supercharge weapon and firing snakes as arrows from a 3-limbed bow.
- The surviving operative sniper trick attacks the centaur, and gets his own critical hit on her before she rides him down.
- The human soldier criminal PC exhcages fire with numerous gunslingers, and two axe-lords (people with magic rune brands in their hands allowing them to make special throw-and-return and multiple-target ace attacks, an old Nordic tradition). He gets shot with a snake arrow, but doesn’t go down
- One crook, “Mr. Green Jacket” gets away out the front of the mine and since he agreed to flee “into the desert” and not come back, and the PCs took a lot of damage, they opt not to chase him down.
AFTERMATH
- There is a Martian Embanking Machine here, which has been used to dig dozens of tunnels. It looks like a 20-ft. wide mechanical centipede, and has been converted to be steered by human controls. The human mechanic roboticist disables it by taking out aprt of thsoe adapted controls and in doing so finds a gear with a patent he reognizes–it was created by the infamous Professor Barkane Adrameliche, a citizen of the Ottoman Empire who helped create the first automatons. It is suspected he might have known Gaotma, the Manticore.
- This room also has a series of Martian atomic batteries, which have been salvaged from other Embanking machines. These are not as powerful as a Tripod Generator (like the one serpentfolk tried to steal in Session One), but these three have been hooked to a capacitor designed to concentrate their power, though it takes several days to power up to a generator’s power level.
- The capacitor is hooked to an array that clearly once had a spherical device hooked up inside it. This is right next to an empty storage area which the fenrin can tell 9with Scent) used to have Martian Black gas cannisters. Also, the iron box with the Doomstone taken from the manticore gets hot near the area.
- The PCs conclude the Venom King is using the Martian Batteries to infuse Green Iron (taken from this mine) with the toxic properties of the Black Gas, the most virulent poison now known on Earth. This creates the “Doomstones,” such as the one they recovered, but can only make one every week or two. If the Venom King had a Tripod Generator, he could make a Doomstone every few hours.
LOOT from thsi fight: High-quality handaxes x4; Allin needle guns x2 (one for Liam); Ajax revolvers (x5); three-limbed serpent person bow (no arrows), bag with 8 snake eggs; golden bullet (magical) – put it in any projectile weapon and it has a one-shot built-in supercharge weapon (given to the fenrin operative bounty hunter); gallon of butane
Cast grave words on the bodies the Serpentfolk just hisses words at the PCs. The All of the rest of them talk about weird smells and weird dreams
There are two paths deeper into the mine. The PCs go left.
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Tales of the Intrepideurs’ Guild, Pt 3 (Game Session 0)
This weekend, we actually had “Session 0” of my Fantasy AGE game, where players made characters, including asking about the world, talking about relationships to one another, and so on.
Despite all the work I had done on the Intrepideur’s Guild itself, I had not yet spent any effort on the region the PCs will be starting in. As with the guild and the entire campaign concept I didn’t need much–just a frame upon which I could hang a paper-thin narrative for the adventures. But players generally have more fun when there at least a few concepts and place names for them to build their own stories and ideas off of.
So, I took 5 minutes to create the loosest of frameworks for a town. But I wanted the players to be more invested in it than if it was just a long list of imaginary words and sounds with dashs and hyphens thrown in for fantasy flavor. So, instead of naming everything myself, I creates a Mad-LIbs-stype series of options, and asked each player to fill in two of them.
Here’s the framework I used.
Welcome to the major trade town of [Adjective][Word Associated with Elves], located on the shores of the [Word associated with seas or oceans] and bordered by the [Word associated with rock or stone] Mountains with the [Terrain feature] Woods, and an important part of the [commodity] Route.
It is a [form of government], ruled over by the [Any fantasy species] King, [Impressive or noble adjective][word GM picks based on the king’s species].
Then after each player gave me a word I tweaked a tiny bit (I originally had swimmingly forest, which I disliked, so I jogged it slightly to Forrest Swim, which I think is a great town name and immediately makes me begin to wonder how it got that name.
Welcome to the major trade town of Forrest Swim, located on the shores of the Sextant Sea and bordered by the Igneous Mountains within the Outcropped Woods, and an important part of the Silk Route.
It is a Dictatorship, ruled over by the Unicorn King, Gloryhoof.
Then we got to making characters. Everyone choose to roll for ability socres, rather than use point-buy, just to get a feel for how Fantasy AGE feels when done that way. We restricted ourselves to the Basic Rulebook, and had characters done with plenty of time left for a quick adventure.
I used a single house rule, allowing characters to pick a specialization at 1st level.
The players all worked together, comparing ability scores and social status results, talking about what they’d like to see the party be able to do, and so on.
In the end, our heroes came out thusly–
Drahul (orc warrior, two-weapon fighter with battleaxe and longsword)
Folas (elf mage, arcana of healing and heroics)
Hannah (human rogue with assassin specialization, sister to)
James (human warrior, two-handed spear fighter)
Winter (elf mage, arcana of lightning and power)
The game notes, adapted from those taken by my wife Lj, are short but to-the-point.
Session 01:
We’re all tin-level Intrepideurs. We’ve all been on our initial quests with overseers and passed our evaluations. We’re ready for the bigtime.
Only Hannah and James know each other. The Guild recommends this group of 5 band together, at least initially, as an Intrepideur’s party.
We take our First quest: Escort quest (pays 50s per member of the group) – A request to the Guild from King Gloryhoof, himself
- Five orphan children, arrived by ship. Need to be taken to a holy site of their order up in the Igneous Mountains. Their escorts were killed by Pirates, who were paid by a cult known as The Fists who want to kill the children. The pirates were driven off before they could harm the children.
- Four days to the end destination, then four days back. Have a cart for the children, and the Guild provides food and basic supplies.
Day 01
Ambushed by 5 members of the Fists on the road. GM says this fight LOOKs too tough for us and it may be a TPK, but since part of this is playtesting and getting used to the game, we all agree to play it out.
- Everyone knocked out at least once, and in the end everyone but Hannah and James are killed.
- Except the GM retcons having a near TPK in the first session, as a blessing from King Gloryhoof for those carrying out his errands keeps the “killed” PCs from quite dying.
- We get the kids to the mountain and back
Day 09
- We get 50sp each + another 60sp from selling the gear we took off the Fists. Several characters take light chain recovered from the Fists. Including Winter, a spellcaster.
GM says to level up to 2nd level, and everyone gets one common temporary magic items to represent adventures between now and the next game.
So, that’s it. I ran the game… and nearly killed all the PCs with a fight WAY too tough for them. And that’s okay, we all got to use the death and dying rules, which often don’t get played with much, and learned I was right–that fight was WAY too tough!
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Really Wild West “Doomstone” Campaign — After-Action Report (Game Session 4)
Since people still seem to be enjoying after-action reports of my Really Wild West: Doomstone campaign, here’s a write-up adapted from notes taken by my wife Lj (who is playing the fenrin operative bounty hunter named “Sawyer”) as a quick report for Session Four!
You can find Session One here: Part One, Part Two.
Session Two here: Part One, Part Two.
Session Three here.
If you don’t recognize a reference, it may (or may not) be in a previous session, or at the updated campaign notes page.
Day 12
- Heroes spy on the enemy encampments on Neblin’s Ridge. There is a camp at a mine entrance at the base of the mesa, and on top an outpost with a tower and a wind sock, and a couple of miles away a telegraph hut with a wire trailing off to the East. There are multiple species present among the gang running the camps, including seprent-folk.
- Using ask the wind their name, PCs determine the following:
- A Large serpentfolk (with a snake lower body) wearing onyx armor is Aakath-ka (naga form). He is a Monstrous humanoid, venomous, spell caster
- The human who seems to be a foreman is – Boston Bob (bowler hat)
- No special powers, has a price on his head ($200)
- Busted during the war for smuggling refugees out of cities on military trains for money
- The PCs form the following plan
- The human mechanic makes a timed cutter box to go off an hour before dawn, to be placed on the telegraph wires
- Human soldier watches the camp for the day
- Fenrin operative flies around to check the telegraph (using DaVinci wings), plants the cutter, looks for a way up, and checks the outpost
- Centaur paladin keeps our camp safe, secure, and secret
- When the cutter goes off, we immediately attack the outpost up on the mesa
- Then, we attack the camp at the mineshaft at the base of the mesa within the hour
- Recon
- The fenrin operative finds a switchback good when it’s dry – will take 3 hours to get from there to the outpost
- Set the cutter on a particularly difficult place to repair on the wire
- Spot 3-4 criminals in the outpost watching the Western skies (the direction of the Circle Axe) – packing pistols
- There is a manticore nest next to the house and a platformed tower with a crane and a windsock. Think this may be Gaotma‘s base of operations, and his minions don’t know he’s dead yet–just late.
- The human soldier spends a day observing and notes
- Sverfeblin come out of the mine, escourted by some humans and a snakefolk, and pulling a sledge. One of the sverfneblin appears to be in charge of them – has questions for Boston Bob, isn;t happy with the answers
- Some kind of strange questioning going on – sverfneblin taken to a blackout tend and peered at from outside (are the gang member checking the deep gnomes for some radiation glow?)
- There is an underground storage, with a trap door in the camp, and boxes from the sled (which seem to be very heavy) are lowered into it.
- The rowdies who came out of the mine undergo some kind of procedure in a tent that takes 30 minutes
- They come out rubbing their faces and somewhat cleaner
- Different rowdies escort the sverfneblin back into the mine.
Day 13
The attack on the Outpost on top of the mesa takes too long and is too noisy, because half the player’s skill and attack rolls were 1 or 2. Even so, manage to defeat all the rowdies, including one dressed in red who apparently could cast spells, but only when accessing his own blood.
LOOT: Sawed off shotgun; 3 bowie knives; cultist wavy dagger; emblem (of a twisted barbed wire, held by pliers, blood drops coming off the barbs, similar in style to the poison emblems fund earlier); $50; piece of paper from a writing desk
Soldier/mystic talks to the dead. One says: “Dark days are coming, mortals will not survive, ascension is the only option”
The letter was as folows:
I understand your doubts and concerns, but I assure you this venture is worth the risk. Allow me to address your concerns individually.
The Daemon Darklings are mortals best route to gain the powers needed to protect ourselves against the outer powers. Of the Six Dread Fates that have proven able to empower a Darkling, Venom seems most within my reach now that I have accessed the alchemical process of the Aresian War Clouds. That will not be enough, of course. I’ll need a Genus Foci, a Concept of Thought, to draw the lingering spirit of the Comte de Adalgiso back to the Material Plane.
The cost of such an operation will not be insignificant. But with the promise of unlocking the ability of Ascension, and the Theosophic formula to prove it possible? I believe I will be able to procure the needed patrons.
What I lack is the martial backing to ensure our patrons remain our allies rather than our masters. With backers from the Material world, I could perhaps just hire the needed defenders. But against the Scale of Aakath, I have no doubt more… experienced warriors will be needed to protect our interests. My belief is that your contacts, especially Gaotema and his band, will allow us to deal on equal footing.
And yes, old friend, there will be money in it well before we make our fel godlings. I have already received interest from numerous individuals of means, and am sure
This letter was handed to players as a prop, crumpled and stained. Also a few letters had a tiny drop of gold ink in them. The players noticed, and wrote out the gold-flecked letters to discover the spelled )-B-E-Y. With this information, they release the letter had a secret magic message OBEY that compelled the addressee.
Then, the PCs attacked the camp in front of the mine shaft at the base of the mesa.
And discover the Chimera Kid is there, even though they never noticed him in their recon.
- The human solider opens by tossing sticks of dynamite into the tent area, taking out number ruffians.
- Akatha-ka casts spells
- Another red-clad cultists that uses blood magic, but has a neat wire on his wrist he can pull to just shed 1 drop of blood for each spell.
- The Chimera Kid engages the Centaur Paladin, with ram’s head hammer, poison pistol, and fire pistol. He severely damages her, and she him, but then he flies away to engage other targets with his own DaVinci wings, and he drops.
- Akatha-ka targets the fenrin operative with a psychic thrust attack – hate
- The operative fenrin focuses on Akatha-ka with her awareness – she is able to see through his blur
- The human mechanic and her dron Pinion use two sticks of dynomite to take out ruffians in a rifle position, then hold a spot in the middle of the camp for the rest of the conflict. She is poisoned by the Chimera Kid’s pistol as he flies by, though the centaur paladin’s lay on hands later fixes that.
- The centaur paladin turns out Akatha-ka with her smite… and he is of the dragon type. He has significant DR, but the smite ignores it, and the centaur paladin takes him out, then takes out Boston Bob.
- The human solider, rifle in hand, manages to take out the flying Chimera Kid
Aftermath:
- There is an irradiated mutant plant behind a bulwark
- It was growing out of Sverfeblin skull
- Dug it up from a grave
- PCs wonder why did the gang kept it? But decide to destroy it and the skull) with fire.
- The soldier/mystic uses Grave Words on many of the bodies. The Chimera Kid’s corpse says – “You can’t confuse other worlds with other planes or you’re gonna have a bad time”
- Within the storage under the trap door are twelve ammo boxes – all hooked together like it’s gonna be lifted all at once
- They are all locked – no keys on any of these bodies
- The human mechanic picks one open
- Inside are lumps of unrefined green iron ore – it glows. And gets on her skin through her gloves. She has to clean her hands thoroughly to stop having glowing specks.
LOOT: Six miner hats (butane lights on them)
The PCs choose to pause here, recuperate, then go into the mine itself.
XPs: 2400
Bringing the PCs to 14,400 (15,000 to 6th)
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Second Really Wild West Session — After-Action Report (Part Two)
After the first Really Wild West: Doomstone game session After-Action Report, and its Part Two follow-up, numerous people indicated they were excited to keep learning about the campaign as I run it. So, it’s two weeks later, I’ve run another session, and adapted notes taken by my wife Lj (who is playing the fenrin operative bounty hunter named “Sawyer”) as a quick report.
We did Part One yesterday. Here’s Part two. If you don’t recognize a reference, it may (or may not) be in a previous session, or at the updated campaign notes page.
Still Day 4
After recuperating from the fight with monstrous Jerusalem Bugs, the PCs come to a fork in the road. One path leads to the Circle Axe Ranch, the other to the Vicious Hippogriff. There are five people on horses hanging out there, in the middle of the road.
- When they get close enough, the PCs can see they are cowpokes, the one covered weapons and collar that covers his face, stopping the PCs. They won’t let the PCs pass. Nor will they tell us who they work for (just insisting it’s “the Ranch” without saying which one.)
- The PCs move away to talk about our options. They glean some information about the cowpoke’s leader. -James “Burning Jack” Byrne, a gun-for-hire. Wears fire-retardant gear and then covers himself in flammable material. Also, carries dynamite.
- Burning Jack is clearly crazy.
- PCs decide to go around, trusting their map and Brone Mallory the half-orc cartographmancer to get them through the badlands. T’ll come back later.
The map indicates that along the route to get to the Circle Axe while avoiding the trail there is–in the middle of nowhere, with no trail or nearby town or even apparent water sources–an inn the PCs can stay at called Tombspider Inn. Skill checks tell the PCs that a Tombspider is spider-based flesh golem construct with built in melee weapons for legs.
- On the way there they find a ridge that has collapsed about 2 miles shorter than it should be accordign to the otherwise VERY recent and accurate map. Earthquake?
Tombspider Inn
The Inn is veru large and well-maintained… but tumbleweeds blow by right in front of it.
- Kobold greets us at the door. Seems confused as to why we are here. Says he’s never actually had a customer. His name is Mr. Scrapgnaw.
- Apparently, this inn was built so that people can fight “the Tombspider” when it returns. It’s been 110 years since the last appearance. Ulysses S. Abernathy was the last, and only, other name in the log book. This is the name of an engineer whose name is a brand of thingamabobs (UPBs) and who created the “phantom pocketwatch” spell. He also built this Inn, and corresponds by mail once every quarter or so.
- Rooms are free since the PCs are on a quest. Tinned food. Room-temp drinks. Will take awhile to heat up the water for baths.
- We all partake in the dark gray liquid from a keg marked with a dead dog. Tastes like rum and coke. Not bad!
- Mr. Scrapgnaw says there’s not been an earthquake per se. Instead, he’s had wonky feelings over several nights recently. He thought it was just tommy-knockers.
- Scrapgnaw shows the PCs where the Tombspider will supposedly appear in 1936. It’s down below the Inn in a cavern.
- A rock covered in blood shows the symbol of the spider, but with guns for legs instead of blades.
- Each Inn room is set up for many people, weapons, wash tubs, curtains, radiators, and gas lamps.
- We forget to set watches and just enjoy the sleep and the fluffy beds.
Day 05
- Breakfast: strong coffee, strong tea, cookies.
- A few Pcs mention they now plan to retire here.
The PCs arrive at the Circle Axe Ranch
- Sprawling fenced compound.
- PCs stop at the gate where there is a tall, lanky elf woman. Waterlily.
- She gets “Bo-hoss” a large ogre to take her post. He sports a rock bandoleer. (A broad leather strap with pockets for 8-10-inch smooth rocks perfect for him to throw)
- Waterlily takes us to Forman Dwargus Hardfist
- Hardfist carries a hand cannon (1-shot, 8-gauge shotgun pistol)
- Has a complex timepiece with multiple functions
- His family helped establish the ranch, and it was Hardfist’s mother who found the circle-axe the ranch is named for. She claimed it was an old Nordic relic, perhaps tied to the Hardfist family members who helped Leif Erikson explore North America.
- As a stakeholder, he gets a cut of each Roundup. For the past three years, each time his cattle are separated out they, and not anyone else’s, keep getting eaten by a manticore. No one else ever sees it. If Hardfist can get one more good sale of his share of a roundup, he plans to retire.
- It’s not the ranch owner’s family doing it.
- Doesn’t seem to be a curse.
- This all seems to have started when Felspark, the East Hudson Fur Trading Company representative, arrived as a guest at the Vicious Hippogriff ranch, which is also when relations between the two ranches went bad.
- Not an illusion.
- The fighter/mystic, who can both speak to animals and cast grave words, speaks with the skull 0.o
- PCs hear scared moos from the skull
- The fighter/mystic hears “Ow! Danger! Danger to the herd! I die.”
- The skull shows signs of poison. The fenrin;s scent ability allows her to determine the poison is the same as that used by the serpentfolk on the train.
What PCs want to know
- When is the next cattle round up? (Anytime — it’s been delayed until hardfist could get some help)
- Where could the serpentfolk and a manticore be hiding?
- What’re the forces that link the serpentfolk, manticore, and East Hudson Fur Trading Company together after? Water rights aren’t enough for this much trouble.
- Other ranch may want the water, so they let the manticore folk use the land.
- Venom King … what’s he after?
- What have the tripods awoken? Did the black gas seep down and wake something up?
- What if they’re headed to the hollow world?
- And the Trading Co would have a monopoly on the passage to the hollow world from the USA.
- Hardfist is convinced none of his people are leaking information.
- There were supposedly invisible rattlesnakes in these parts. “Smoke snakes.”
- The are given the seasonal bunk house to work out of.
XPs: 400 each (PCs now at 11,050, need 15,000 to reach 6th)
Thanks to Our Sponsor!
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Lands of Theia 5e, Pathfinder 1e, Pathfinder 2e
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Second Really Wild West Session — After-Action Report (Part One)
After the first Really Wild West: Doomstone game session After-Action Report, and its Part Two follow-up, numerous people indicated they were excited to keep learning about the campaign as I run it. So, it’s two weeks later, I’ve run another session, and adapted notes taken by my wife Lj (who is playing the fenrin operative bounty hunter named “Sawyer”) as a quick report.
If you don’t recognize a reference, it may (or may not) be in a previous session, or at the updated campaign notes page.
(Sketch of the Chimera Kid by Jacob Blackmon. The Kid is a figure in RWW: Doomstone the PCs have heard about, but not yet me. Jacob is awesome at capturing character designs in sketches like this, and you can hire him to do it for your characters!)
Session 02
The player running the human mechanic roboticist can’t make it to the game session, but wants us to proceed. That character is determined to have to stay behind in Cheyenne to repair her drone, and will be escorted to the ranch the PCs are heading to in a few days, when the Fonts & Bismark patrol comes back into town so they have spare people to do it. Since everyone wants to play, no one picks at the logic of this too much.
Most PCs stay at Mr. Satin’s Satin’s House of Refined Delights. Discover there is a bastet Norwegian Forest Cat named Caesar who is a professional cuddler. Fantastic purrer and snuggler. From a line of French pillow warmers (on his mother’s side) and a Bostonian chimney-sweet (literally crawls into a chimney and cleans it by moving through it, using token Spell to clean himself off when he’s done).
Day 3
PCs gather at the Fonts & Bismark station-house in Cheyenne to pick up the gear they are being given. Station Chief Adler introduces them to a new potential companion — Brone Mallory, a half-orc cartographer technomancer with a Doctorate in Theosophy from Oxbridge University, who is a mail-order theosopher who was hired to help survey the border between the Circle Axe and Vicious Hippogriff ranches. But the survey company went bankrupt while Mallory was in transit, so now he is between jobs. PCs agree to bring him along.
PC skill checks suggest he may have connections to the “Brone,” Normandy orc warcasters from the 900s AD, and possible the Mallory family of humanblooded spells-for-hire that operate around the Appalachians.
PCs decide to head to Circle Axe first. On their way north out of town, they are accosted by a human man with 4 mechanical arms run by a steam abckpack (in addition to his own 2 arms) grooming utensils. He declares he is “Beardcutter Ben, the Shaver’s Friend,” and makes his sales-pitch
- He claims to be able to solve any problem we have.
- Centaur Paladin buys a ring of oral hygene
- Human Fighter/Mystic buys ten water pills (each pill turns into 1 gallon of water)
- PCs get Beardcutter Ben’s calling card – a small gear-clockwork that when plugged into the Babbage-Bell grid tells you his last known location (he’s a wandering peddler)
- He offers us a free sample of “Walking Meat” (gum). Says he can;t get anyone to buy it, but it makes long foot travel more pleasant. The human fighter/mystic accepts a piece. It tastes like unseasoned pot roast.
The PCs head north. It’s two day’s travel to the Circle Axe.
Brone writes down the lyrics to a song Sawyer sings on the trail, and does a couple of sketch portraits of her.
At camp the first night, shortly after sundown, the PCs see a figure approach them, with points of light for its eyes, and his mount’s eyes.
- Skeletal male, humanoid, casually walking toward us. Rifle on shoulder. Pauses at 100ft.
- He comes from the North, and is headed into town.
- Wears a deputy’s badge with a skull on it — not a symbol anyone recognizes
- Smells of turned earth, ashes, and heather
- PCs can’t identify what he IS, but conclude he’s not an undead
- He says he is “Deputy B. Hill,” works for “The Marshall.” Someone has “grave jumped,” and he thought it might be one of them — but now that he is here, he sees they are all on “the right side of the dirt.” His prey keeps covering its tracks, “Like a snake shedding its skin fer feathers.”
- PCs suggest he (might*be hunting the same foe they are looking for. Offer to maybe help. Deputy Hill says he’ll mention the PCs to The Marshall. If Deputy Hill can’t track down the grave-jumper himself, the Marshal may send a less discerning senior deputy, Or a full posse, which can cause “collateral damage.”
- Deputy Hill rides off, calmly. Later, his horse’s footprints disappear with soft, eerie sounds.
Day 04
A green meteor crosses the sky in the morning. East to West. In the Northern sky. No one is sure what it is, though it could be sky metal.
- The human fighter/mystic seems to be permeated with a carrion smell, though only the fenrin operative bounty hunter can smell it (has scent).Fighter/mystic’s mouth is dry and foul.
- Token Spell doesn’t help.
- The cavalier’s ring of oral hygiene doesn’t help either.
- Players determine this is an affect-effect of the Walking Meat gum, Determine to Have Words with Beardcutter Ben when they get back to town.
About half a day from the ranches, monstrous Jerusalem Bug (size Small) burst from the ground and attack, focusing on the fighter/mystic at first. PCs ID that these bugs burrow and eat carrion.
- PCs look at real-world pictures of Jerusalem Bugs, and declare them “A Big ol Bucket of Nope”
- The PCs identify these eight creatures are Rowdies (first time I have used those rules in a game).
- They bite and spit entangling resin. Also, rub their legs together making static electric jolts and dust clouds.
- Fighter/mystic moves to not be surrounded, suffers a knockdown crit. Draws a long knife to fight rather than pistol (has Cleave and there are many AoO possible with so many melee foes)
- PCs roll BADLY, and the Jerusalem Bugs get multiple knockdown crits.
- Brone Mallory, the half-orc technomancer, mostly just maintains microbot assault through the whole fight, but the margin makes a difference several times.
- Tough fight. The fenrin operative bounty hunter loses all Stamina Points, though the player identified she kept taking unnecessary risks.
- PCs win. Fighter-Mystic heals fenrin operative bounty hunter’s Wound damage, and then most characters take 10 minutes and expend Resolve to regain Stamina Points.
End Part One!
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First Really Wild West Session — After-Action Report (Part 2)
Apparently there REALLY IS a big demand to hear more about my first session of “Really Wild West: Doomstone.” You can read Part One (which covers the first fight on a train) here, and may find some useful context from the campaign notes I developed from this session.
After the fight, the PCs introduce themselves, and compare notes.
- According to the Transit and Portage Guild’s bylaws, since the PCs were instrumental in defending Old Number Seven, they have the right to a payment from the train. The acting conductor (the halfling porter) offers them a cut of the valuables from the robbers, or passes for free rides any associated vehicle in perpetuity (the end date on the passes is officially “Kingdom Come.” Every PC decides to take lifetime free travel.
- The soldier/mystic says he’s gonna talk to Vardalos, the dead Kasatha. PCs all follow, The soldier/mystic casts “grave words,” and the corpse says the following:
- Stormfront rolling
- The grass is all blue
- The venom king has returned – the signet ring
- My manticore gang – on the revolvers
- All is lost
- The teacup is in the meadow
- Bandersnatch
- One of the Fonts & Bismark agents confirms a theory of the centaur paladin that the robbers wanted to send the train over the cliff and recover the item from the bottom of the gorge.
- The soldier/mystic goes to see Vardalos’ *very* strict and loyal pony, which he can talk to. Discover’s the pny’s training means it accepts help from and takes orders from only who its owner approves. It’s owner is now dead, but the owner had allowed the porter to feed it, so it takes orders from the porter. No PC or the porter wanting the pony, it’s decided to give it to the nice Moyer family (1 father and 5 kids, headed to a farm owned by the father’s sister, in Kansas for a fresh start. The mother died during the War, and the father need help raising the kids).
- The mechanic roboticist helps with the bridge – cuts the repair time in half
PCs arrive in beautiful Cheyenne – which was sacked by Martians.\Is the state capital… but the state and its capital are a mess. Notes about the city:
- Opera house biggest building left in town, serves as city hall for now.
- The Tivoli building is almost finished as new construction. It is a Pabst beer distribution center, and has “Mr. Satin’s Satin’s House of Refined Delights (an all-race, all-gender brothel) on the second floor.
- There is a cheap, reliable Cheyenne Citizen Hostel
- Also some homes that will let a room
The Fenrin Bounty Hunter checks on new Bounties:
- Chimera Kid is now worth 650c as of yesterday
- Bounty for “That Goddamn Manticore” 1000c posted by Ranch Master Dwargus Hardfist (a dwarf), go to the Circle Axe Ranch for more information
General:
- This place is crawling with bounty hunters, assassins, guns fire hire, bodyguards, ugh-me-toughs
- Why? No clue.
- Old Blue (a fenrin bloodhound on the sheriff’s porch) says a “Year and a day” ends in a couple of weeks
- Records house burned to the ground, lots of people died, so there is a lot of land no one knows who owns it. It was decided you can lay claim to land it and if no one has a better claim within a year and a day, it’s yours. Those first year-and-a-day claims come up in a few weeks, and everyone is expecting there to be some trouble over it.
The PCs are invited to a meeting with Fonts & Bismark Station Master Ralston Adler (who turns out to be in a wheelchain) at 5pm, to discuss the mysterious package the bandits tried to steal.
- The Item is being held for a client who’s coming to get it (no details on who or when available). The item is a Martian crystal (tripod’s power core)
- Nineteen duplicates were shipped at the same time for security. Eight were attacked
- About the scrap of paper
- The handwriting appears to be that of one Felspark Klein – elf woman Regional Director for East Hudson Fur Trading Co. She is new to the position (her predecessor died choking on a chicken bone).
- She is staying at Vicious Hippogryph Ranch, adjacent to Circle Axe
- Significant disagreement about who owns what plots of land
- Biggest area of dispute has all the water
- Adler agrees to get the PCs a copy of an excellent map of that area (+4 to know where we are)
- Adler also knows that Dwargus hardfist of the Circle Axe has been claiming for months that a Manticore is loose in Wyomingn and feeding on ONLY his cattle
PCs decide to go check it out. They will wait until the map is ready before they take off to see about this manticore, and checkout Felspark Klein.
Fonts & Bismark agrees to equip the PCs with horses and supplies. Also note that a couple of other people are asking about these events, and if Adler is convinced they are assets, he’ll diect them to the PCs in the morning to see if the PCs want to join up with them.
End of game. XPs: 650 per PC.
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