“The the CAF-1 is an attempt to create the biggest airplane in aviation history for the purpose of moving huge amounts of conventional forces to anywhere the Coalition wants them…Only a year ago, General Drogue discovered the project and resurrected it with dreams of turning this mammoth flying boat into the largest long-range “bomber” ever to fly. After a brief and intense redesign and refitting blitz, the CAF-1 was finished, completed its test flights and was ready for combat.” – Rifts Coalition Overkill

Having escaped the first CS assault, leaving an army of destroyed Skelebots in their wake, the heroes, and their band of displaced refugees, regrouped in the town of Hillcrest. We advanced the timeline by a few months narrating the progress of the war with each person providing an Interlude. We picked up the story with the heroes looking for a way to help break the stalemate.

Stalled Offensive

Using Networking and roleplay the group tried to get a situation report. Victor asked around the general population, Gideon worked his connections in the supply network, and Lady Redmane reached out to her fellow Cyberknights. 

The group learned that the initial Coalition assault slowed to a crawl as magic proved to be a capable equalizer on the battlefield. Defeats like Cochrane made commanders timid and troops fearful. Rumors swirled about a new Coalition commander – General Drouge – who was whipping the army back into shape, deploying terrible new technologies, and escalating brutality on the battlefield. The word from Tolkeen was that a major defeat could force the Coalition to abandon their plans. Unfortunately, Coalition air superiority was heming in the Tolkeen Army preventing them from massing together. Long range, high altitude bombers flying from deep inside Coalition territory could drop munitions with near impunity, despite Tolkeen’s ability to summon flying creatures or control the weather.

I had planned on using an NPC to assign the players to patrol to Sorville (this storyline is based on an adventure in the OG Rifts book Coalition Overkill) but they started taking the initiative to work their contacts and skills to find a mission for themselves. So, I followed their lead and used notes from the adventure and the books to narrate their results. It was very organic and player driven but still on plot. In this case having the storyline, major players, and world info was enough for me to answer their inquiries and move the story forward. 

Behind the GM Screen

The Flying Levithan

Pressing further the group learned that the Coalition was using a massive new bomber, called the Flying Levithan, to rain destruction on towns, cities, and troop formations. The massive high altitude craft was always protected by swarms of Skycycles and SAMAS units and could fly faster than dragons and other powerful allies. Doing some scouting Chalkaza discovered a recent Levithan attack on the nearby town of Sorville.

After a brief debate the heroes decided to risk teleporting to Sorville to save time. Fortunately, they have a Gateway Knight in the group. Using a psychic meditation the group got a Raise and popped into Sorville in an instant. They arrived in the recent aftermath of a bombing run. The town was mostly destroyed and what remained was in flames. We started a Dramatic Task to save as many townspeople as possible.

This is a case where player choices really mattered. In the plot the Leviathan was always going to bomb Sorville but using teleport instead of land travel gave them a chance to arrive early enough to rescue survivors. Otherwise the town would have been destroyed and everyone dead by the time they got there.

Behind the GM Screen

The task went well but was not easy. A lot of bennies were spent to reroll and to draw new cards to avoid potential disasters during a complication – players almost always spend the benny to redraw a Club. It wasn’t until midway through the second round that Victor scored a massive number of successes to take some of the pressure off. After collecting the needed number of tokens in the third round, but with four players left to go, I goaded the heroes into pushing for more tokens to save even more people. Despite a Critical Failure killing one person the group managed to exceed their token count and save more people than expected.

The narration on this task was great as we imagined the heroes picking through the rubble, moving fallen buildings, healing wounds, constructing a makeshift hospital, and using powers to sense the location of additional survivors. Good narration and the high number of tokens meant the task took as long as a combat scene but was a good mix of dice rolling and role play. All credit to the players. During the narration I dropped a few clues related to Shayuri and a connection in  this town.

Afterward the group connected with some of the survivors while Gideon sifted through the town’s defense systems to locate some radar telemetry from the Levithan assault.

Mother of Dragons

The survivors shared the tale of how any of them managed to survive at all. A local dragon, known as Seana, royal frilled with blue and red scales like Shayuri, took to the sky and tried to stop the Leviathan and its escort. She did not succeed but managed to alter its trajectory enough that the town was not completely obliterated. She was last seen plummeting to the earth as a group of SAMAS Power armor peppered the area with rail gun fire – most likely to finish her off.

Shayuri and Chalkazza rushed to the scene and found Seana in her death throes. She was beyond the help of even the most powerful healing magics. In fact, Chalkazza found that her wounds resisted healing and natural regeneration although he could not determine why. Shayuri felt a deep psychic impression from the dragon. Seana was her mother!

The two shared a brief exchange, with Seana expressing gratitude that she was able to meet her offspring before departing this world. Seana also told Shayuri that her father’s name was Aurelor and he was due to return to town soon. The elder dragon would no doubt seek revenge, All went quiet as mother and daughter spent a few final moments together.

I often struggle with using player backgrounds to be part of the story. We worked in some contacts from backgrounds in the networking phase but given we had an adventure that involved dragons from Tolkeen and a hatchling player it seemed like a good chance to pull that mysterious origin into play. Hopefully it also cements the plot hook to deal with the Leviathan.

Behind the GM Screen

Next week we’ll meet Aurelor and try to figure if the group wants to permanently ground the Leviathan.