Lacking Natural Simplicity

Random musings on books, code, and tabletop games.

WVHTCF Necessary Evil, Session #12: That Dastardly Dr. Desctructo!

T. Kurt Bond

Comments

WVHTCF Necessary Evil, Session #12: That Dastardly Dr. Desctructo!

Date:

2012-08-15

Version:

2021-08-09 10:53:06

This is an actual play report from the Savage Worlds Necessary Evil plot point campaign from Pinnacle Entertainment Games. These actual play reports will be available in html.

Attending

Clockwise round the table, starting with the GM:

  • M.A.H. — GM

  • C.A.H. — playing Force Caster.

  • T.K.B. — playing Raum, a vaguely demonic creature.

  • B.MC. — playing The Stygian Veil.

NPCs

  • Quilik — Our Fin?

Actual Play

Note on Teleport Tube: Press Red Button to go to Atlantis, press Blue button to return.

Fin traitor went with Dr. D.

Before the V'Sori destroyed Atlantis it was in regular contact with the rest of the world. Since the comm systems haven't changed, our comms should work there.

Stygian Veil went first and was able to send and receive teststs. We have Atlantis-rated (underwater) flashlights!

When activated, the Teleport Tube ends up physically in Atlantis, while here in our hideout it is out of phase.

One building in the district — gold in color — seems unscathed. Stygian Veil notices at least one unexploded V'Sori bomb.

Killed 8 V'Sori: 2 fusion grenades each, V'Sori blaster rifle, special bandoleer for underwater work. Fin body suit could be modified, +2 armor $15000 to buy. 10 lb & humanoid flesh. [???]

Both medallions (the one we brought with us and the one Raum found [???] along with some scrolls in a ruin) both glow slightly.

8 more V'Sori killed.

The first V'Sori scroll said V'Sori started colony long ago on [V'Sori word for Earth] at [V'Sori word for Atlantis] under water because of large reptiles — eventually contact with [Atlantis] was lost. When they came back to retake [Atlantis] the resulting fight with colonists who evolved into Atlantians killed off the dinosaurs as a side effect (not quite nuclear winter, but close).

The second V'Sori scroll had V'Sori descriptions of ritual.

Force Caster puts on medallion and skips into temple: 2 stairwells going down. He is attacked by and damages a swarm of insane ghosts. Raum pulls him out while wearing the other medallion. We looked for and found the high priest's medallion in another ruin. Stygian Veil went in, killed swarm, rest came in, left our Fin on guard outside.

Stygian Veil telekinetically picks up the crown. Mad Atlantean steps out and says “You must die for stealing that crown!” We talk him down by telling him we're working for folks who want to get the crown back to the Atlantean King. He agrees to come with us. We ask if there is anything useful besides the crown we can take back to help defeat the V'Sori and he suggests the sacred library. We put it in the portable hole. He recognizes the portable hole as the “Satchel of the Ocean”, a powerful Atlantean artifact.

The Mad Atlantean Priest's name is Aden.

Our merc says some other Fins attached a timer to the big bomb: 30 seconds (5 rounds) and counting down. He books it back to the Teleport Tube.

So do we, and we escape before the bomb explodes.

There is a Legend that a Legions of Atlantean Warriors went into deep sleep for Atlantis's hour of need, to be summoned by the rightful Atlantean King only, with the crown of Atlantis.

We scan in the scrolls, working all night, while the Mad Atlantean Priest sleeps.

The Transporter Tube was already phased out, so the teleporter still works.

100K credits each from Dr D!

Send scrolls, crown, and Mad Atlantean priest to Dr. D with a minion we know is his.

A few hours later all comm links blink and Frank says “there's a worldwide broadcast coming in!” It is Dr. D: he is an Atlantean — he is King Merrous [spelling [???]], the greatest hero of all. He is backed by the Neptune Guard (including Mechnoman (formerly the infamous Anvil), Hydra, and others). He has infiltrated all evil organizations and super villains.

We check, and he has deactivated the Transporter Tube — it was remote powered. (We got him the power plant.) We remove a few essential bits so it won't work and hide it someplace.

We move all our financial assets before Dr. D can confiscate them and set up new financial accounts, communications, and computer accounts.

Vince calls to tell us that Ricky Six-Fingers put out a hit on us.

The Fin's code of honor is to follow their boss as long as their boss is alive and paying, so our Fin is with us as long as we pay him.

We move all our stuff, including out Ants, to the caves under the Chinese place. The owner and his son don't know about the caves, and have never seen us coming and going. We have room to expand. The caves are connected to a network of caves.

The whole planet is engulfed in chaos: Atlantean vessels rising from the sea, V'Sori ships swarming about, etc.

Encrypted message from Mr. Fixit — for the moment he's willing to play along with our suggestion to spy on Dr. D for us, but he's an engineer, not a fighter.

Aftermath

We each got +5 XP.

Raum has an extra bennie for something.

Reflections

“Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!”

Questions

  1. I don't remember anything specific Dr. D said about the Omega Force (that would be us) in his broadcast. Did he?

  2. Since we weren't invited to play in his sandbox/army, I suppose he is blackening our name. Do we hear about anything like this?

  3. What's the reaction amongst the other super villians.

  4. What's his problem with us, anyway? All we ever did was do his dirty work and on rare occasion maim known V'Sori collaborators.

RuneQuest 6 Arrived

T. Kurt Bond

Comments

My copy of RuneQuest 6 by Nash, Whitaker, & Friends at The Design Mechanism arrived today. (2020-03-04 Update: This RPG is now known as Mythras.)

It is a nice big paperback book. I've had time to scan it quickly and incompletely. I like the cover, with its nod to the Chaosium RuneQuest cover. I like the layout and typography. I like the layout. It looks very complete. It looks a bit more complex than my current taste.

This might be the ideal d100 variant for folks wanting more complexity, and OpenQuest the variant for folks wanting less complexity, and Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying for folks wanting a multi-genre system.

Idol of the Orcs, Session #6

T. Kurt Bond

Comments

This session lasted from 4 pm to 6:30 pm.

Attending

Clockwise round the table, starting with the Labyrinth Lord:

  • T.A. — Labyrinth Lord

  • M.A.

    • Gustavio, a male Gnome Magic User. HP 4, AC 5. (green lego base)

    • Karl, a male Dwarf. HP 4, AC 6. (yellow lego base)

  • T.K.B.

    • Orm, a human Cleric of Thor. HP 5, AC 3. (red lego base)

    • Skeggi, a human Cleric of Vidar. HP 6, AC 4 (3 with shield). (blue lego base)

  • E.A.

    • Semiriah, an Elf Ranger. HP 3, AC 5 (4 with shield). (sparkly pink lego base)

    • Maury, a human Thief. HP 5, AC 6. (tan lego base)

  • L.B.

    • Avarey, a male Half-Elf Cleric. (light green lego base)

    • Sallee Marie, a female Halfing Fighter. (light blue lego base)

Actual Play

Started in town: down through idol, through secret door, first door on west of North end of corridor. Chalice from pedestal — mysterious runes, very fancy. Avarey carries it. Found Bat room — someone saw 4 really large bats, halfling to dwarf size. Karl is afraid of the bats. We fled. In another room Maury found the place where you could walk through walls, and Orm went in after them when they didn't come back out. In teleportation trap found 3 corpses: #1, in a tattered robe, had 150 gp and a wand of detect traps; #2 had chain armor, shield +1, longsword +1, pouch with 150 gp 24 sp; #3 had chain armor, mace, shield, holy symbol, bag of holding with 160 gp 34 ep. Took stuff, and then Semiriah pulled us back with a 10' pole. Wrote “Trap!” on wall around teleport trap in every language we knew. Avarey sick. Skeggi smashed chalice with mace, but it didn't hurt the chalice or help Avarey. Tried to put through wall, but it didn't go. Tied rope to Avarey and have him hold on to a 10' pole — Avery steps through, chalice does not. Cure light wounds gave Avarey back HP, but by the time were' back to town Avery didn't have many left. Rotting because he took the chalice, we surmised. Back to dungeon to room with altar. Put chalice on altar and wrote “Trap!” nearby.

1 gp to each hireling.

Wand of detecting traps went to Gustavio, the +1 longsword to Karl, and the bag of holding.

Selling non-magical equipment.

Idol of the Orcs, Session #5

T. Kurt Bond

Comments

This session lasted from 3:30 pm to 6:40 pm.

Attending

Clockwise round the table, starting with the Labyrinth Lord:

  • T.A. — Labyrinth Lord

  • M.A.

    • Gustavio, a male Gnome Magic User. HP 4, AC 5. (green lego base)

    • Karl, a male Dwarf. HP 4, AC 6. (yellow lego base)

  • T.K.B.

    • Orm, a human Cleric of Thor. HP 5, AC 3. (red lego base)

    • Skeggi, a human Cleric of Vidar. HP 6, AC 4 (3 with shield). (blue lego base)

    • Also played L.B.'s Avarey, a male Half-Elf Cleric. (light green lego base)

  • E.A.

    • Semiriah, an Elf Ranger. HP 3, AC 5 (4 with shield). (sparkly pink lego base)

    • Maury, a human Thief. HP 5, AC 6. (tan lego base)

    • Also played L.B.'s Sallee Marie, a female Halfing Fighter. (light blue lego base)

Actual Play

Hirelings: Ragnar, Symna, Dwalin, Zenith (has chain mail), Roger, Gloin.

Orm & Semiriah break in the last door on the first level, barricade gives way and 4 orcs are surprised. Common area. Stuffed manticore head (no teeth, must have died of old age). 550 gp worth of silverware. Tapestries 4×100 gp. Maury sticks here hand down the manticore throat. We found the mom and child orcs in a sleeping room. Escorted out, threatened them with death.

Tribe of the hidden dagger.

Ngarsh held feast, Idol spoke and demanded something to eat. Ngarsh gave Ido sacrifices — left food at feet of Idol. 2 small rooms off sleeping chamber, one with door and the other without. 2 elves and halfling. Boxes of edibles, decomposing. Keys from Ngarsh check for traps then use them. Room with door has three chests! Treasury! Too heavy to move with 10' pole. Opened middle chest (#2) - 2 spring loaded daggers were released, but missed since Maury opened the chest with short sword. 1500 sp and small statue worth 500 gp — the orc god of fire. He has three hands, one holding a hammer, one a sword, and one, in the center of his chest, holds a ball of fire. Chest #1, on left, 2300 cp. Chest #3: Locked. 15 gems: 5×100 gp, 7×150 gp, 3×250 gp, two healing potions, three potions of speed, 1 gaseous form potion. Went back to town and sold stuff.

The +1 longsword went to Sallee Marie. The +1 shield to Semiriah.

We got 638 XP! We already had 219 XP, so the total for each of us is 857 XP, not counting any personal XP bonus..

2556 ÷ 8 = 319.5 from this adventure.

We pay the six hirelings each 5⅓ gp; that's 4 gp from each PC.

We returned to the room with the hollow idol. Enter through the Eyes (it's a squeeze for larger folks), down to the sitting room in the chest, and then down the ladder, Semiriah and Gustavio first.

We find Talen Zyn, who wears robes without any armor or weapons. He's been living here and tricking the orcs into giving him food. He heads back to civilization on hearing that we've cleared the upper caves. We search and find a secret door.

Trophy room, missing the trophies, but having pale ghostly forms where they were. Black Bear materializes when we stayed too long. Avery took 2 points of damage and we retreated. Other ghostly trophies were starting to materialize, too.

Followed other passageway, several rooms, find stairs down, but the room beyond had a wight. Skeggi got initiative, recognized it as a wight, and we all fled! All the way back to town.

Recent Reading: July 2012

T. Kurt Bond

Comments

  • Voices of Dragons, by Carrie Vaughn, copyright 2010; ISBN 978-0-06-179894-8.

  • Hot & Steamy Tales of Steampunk Romance; copyright 2011 by Jean Rabe and Tekno Books; edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg; ISBN 978-0-7564-0689-9.

    Most of these were not to my taste.

  • Skin Deep, by Mark Del Franco, copyright 2009; ISBN 978-0-441-01743-0.

    A Laura Blackstone novel.

  • Weddings from Hell; ISBN 978-0-06-147268-8.

    • Till Death, Maggie Shayne; copyright 2008 by Margaret Benson.

    • Happily Never After, Jeaniene Frost, copyright 2008.

      Chance becomes involved in one of Bones’ obligations.

    • Ghouls Night Out, Terri Garey, copyright 2008.

      The main character is Nicholette Nadine Styx, who can see ghosts.

    • The Wedding Night, Kathryn Smith, copyright 2008.

  • Eve of Destruction, S. J. Day; copyright 2009 by Sylvia Day; ISBN 978-0-7653-6042-7.

    The second Evangeline Hollis novel.

  • Eve of Chaos, by S. J. Day; copyright 2009 by Sylvia Day; ISBN 978-0-7653-6043-4.

  • Witchcraft, by Caitlin Kittredge, copyright 2009; ISBN 978-0-312-94362-2.

    A Nocturne City novel.

  • Hexed; copyright 2011 by Penguin Group (USA) Inc; ISBN 978-0-425-24176-9.

    • Magic Dreams, by Ilona Andrews. A Dali Harimau story.

    • Ice Shards, by Yasmine Galenorn.

    • Double Hexed, by Allyson James. A Janet Begay story. Interesting setup.

    • Blood Debt, by Jeanne C. Stein. A Anna Strong story, about a bounty hunter turned vampire.

  • Shadow Bound, by Rachel Vincent, copyright 2012; ISBN 978-0-7783-1343-4.

    Kori Daniels is able to travel from one shadow to another.

    An Unbound novel. There is at least one other book in the series, Blood Bound.

  • Shadow Kin, by M. J. Scott, copyright 2011; ISBN 978-0-451-46404-0.

    A novel of The Half-Light City. Interesting fantasy set in a city where humans, vampires, shapeshifters, and fae coexist.

  • Fated, by Benedict Jacka, copyright 2012; ISBN 978-1-937007-29-4.

    An Alex Verus novel.

  • Street Magic, by Caitlin Kittredge, copyright 2009; ISBN 978-0-312-94361-5.

    The first Black London novel. Fun.

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Lacking Natural Simplicity is one, not particularly flattering, definition of sophisticated. This blog chronicles my journey through our at times too complicated and sophisticated world.

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