With some vacation days this summer giving me a little free time to GM we pulled together a group on Roll20 for a six session mini-campaign. We had session zero two weeks ago, and played our first session on Friday night. Here’s an overview of how things went on opening night!
Session Zero
The group worked out that they would like to be independent monster hunters who roam from town to town taking jobs to fight supernatural menaces. To give a some colour to their ideas we set-up a little backstory.
“Long standing monster removal business seeks new younger partners. Earn a share of the profits while working toward full ownership.”
Ironfist Removal Service has roamed the frontiers of the Domain of Man for twenty-five years. They’ve kept a low profile and earned a solid reputation throughout the West by staying small and helping even when the pay day isn’t that big.
Now, most of the principles have cashed out their shares and settled down in some of the small towns they’ve helped to save over the years. Only the founder, Oin Ironfist, remains. Too old and too stubborn to pack it in just yet he recognizes the need to cash out and is pulling together a new crew to get into the monster hunting business and take the reins.
Our heroes have answered the call and are ready for this new and exciting venture.
Cast of Characters
Due to the short timeframe characters start with four advances. We also plan to Advance after every session. Early on the players decided they didn’t want anyone to get “stuck” driving the vehicle so we set up Oin Ironfist, the company owner and dwarven Techno-Wizard, as a non-player character to drive, offer advice, and be a signpost for the players as needed. They went heavy on traditional fantasy races.
- Ardhabrin (Brin for short) – Lyn-Srial Cyberknight
- Iziuel of Clan Vestele – an Elven MARS Combat Mage
- Serac – Great Horned Dragon Hatchling
- Larkin – Psi-Stalker Psi-Druid
- Urgan – Orc Momano Headhunter
- Runbert “Runt” Ironfist – Dwarven Power Armor Pilot (and Oin’s nephew)
- Orion Still-Leaf – Elven MARS Dinosaur Hunter
We Need A Team
Session One opened with an Interlude/Montage of getting the team together for a potential job in Fort Comanche, a Native American city on the frontiers of the Domain of Man. The scene proceeded as Oin and Runt drove the team vehicle, the Scow, to retrieve each member of the group with old Oin making grumpy commentary after each pick up. This was a fun way to do character introductions and allowed everyone to highlight something interesting about their character.
When Pigs Fly
The plan was to follow a ley line most of the way to Fort Comanche. The group had the option of using a magic ritual right out of the gate to enchant the Scow with the fly power and increase the duration from rounds to hours. Since not everyone was magical I allowed support using other skills that made sense to get everyone involved. It was a success and the garbage truck lifted off for a journey to the frontiers.
Unfortunately, the Scow was grounded prematurely as a massive ley line storm erupted. Stuck in the truck to wait out the storm the group did some quick scouting, set watches and settled in for the night. Their doldrums were quickly broken by a radio call in the night. Someone was calling for help! Someone, or something, was attacking their ranch. Help please.
The Call in the Night
This kicked off a variation of the free Savage Rifts one sheet adventure The Call in the Night. Setting out into the storm our heroes attempted to track the source of the transmission using a Dramatic Task. Survival and Electronics could be rolled with no penalty, all other skills used for the task were at -2. Larkin the Psi-Druid really shone in this task earning multiple tokens each round. Hilarity ensued as Serac the Dragon and Brin the Cyberknight kept bungling around, with Serac’s player ultimately narrating the big dragon accidentally breathing fire and nearly roasting the party. Runt the dwarf was the best with electronics, eventually scoring big in the last round to put the team well over the top on tokens. They ended up with four more than required and found the source of the transmission – an isolated homestead on the frontiers.
Approaching the homestead they could see the door was broken down and some of the windows were smashed. Scouting around the outside the group’s fantastic trackers were able to uncover two different types of tracks: paw prints from small canines, most likely coyotes, and “slither tracks” from large human sized worm creatures. As they searched the area inside and outside the cabin a large pack of feral coyotes descended on the group.
Iziuel used exalted detect arcana to determine these coyotes were possessed, and enhanced, by some malevolent force. They were also susceptible to psionic attacks. I wanted to give the players a chance to stretch their muscles so we went full combat rather than Quick Combat…although it was still pretty quick the players did get a chance to show off.
Searc, the Great Horned Dragon, landed in front of a large group of coyotes and caught them all in a cone of fire. They could not Evade and her damage roll was astronomical! She roasted half of the enemy pack in one attack! Orion showed off his shooting prowess by knocking the head clean off of one of the creatures. Urgan leapt out of the window and mixed it up in melee with his TW cybernetics, cutting one down. Brin flew up to the roof and picked off another one with his laser pistol. Runt had bad luck with his laser torch and wasn’t very effective. Fortunately, Larkin nailed another one with her laser pistol.
What everyone found out quickly was that each time a coyote died a number of writhing worms emerged from their corpses and tried to slither away. One got on Urgan and tried to burrow into his ear! Fortunately, he resisted. After Serac went through the area burning every remaining worm the group decided to follow the big worm tracks back to their source.
Worm Cave
Tracking the worms, and their victims, back to a nearby cave the group descended underground. They all had night vision, sensors, etc. and I just gave up and turned off dynamic lighting. Passing through the cave quickly, they avoided some worms dropping from the ceiling at random intervals and trying to burrow into their ears. In short order they approached a large cavern where two women were lying on the ground. An extremely large man stood in the middle of the room obviously tormenting them. Close observation revealed he was not large from too much food but was stuffed full of worms. The heroes could see his skin moving and shifting as they writhed inside of him.
Orion approached stealthily and took a bead on his head waiting until he did something aggressive. It didn’t take long. Further up the corridor Serac was concerned about worms dropping on their heads so she used her flaming breath to incinerate a nest of them. The light and commotion attracted the worm man who moved aggressively toward the group.
As soon as he moved Orion popped him in the head, dropping him instantly. As worms spilled out of his body one of the captives, the younger woman, cried out: “Papa!”. Thus, combat was started and two Worm Wraiths (see Arcana and Mysticism page 188) slithered in from other corridors. The groups exchanged tentative shots but did little to hurt one another. Serac was ferocious but her flame breath did little to really hurt them, but then the worm turned!
Brin charged in, four arms and dual psi-swords blazing with Improved Frenzy. He managed to engage one of the wraiths in close combat. As he engaged with it Orion confidently shot it, wounding it badly and leaving it open for Brin to hack to pieces. Meanwhile, Runt stormed in from another corridor in his Grease Monkey power armor and unloaded his mini-rail gun. The second wraith was shredded by rail gun fire. Iziuel consoled the surviving mother and daughter while Serac went through the caves to incinerate any remaining worms. Although they did nab one for further study.
Weird Worms
The group headed back to the broken down homestead with mother and daughter but were left with a little bit of a mystery. Worm Wraiths can normally send off little offshoot worms who can spy and do other odd jobs but to burrow into something or someone and possess them has never been seen before. Next week we will pick up from here as the group deals with the survivors, study their new worm specimen, and resume their journey to Fort Comanche in search of a job.