MCC Recap - A Door Too Far

This week I ran the second third (I think) of A Fallen Star for All with a ragtag band of seekers trying to breach the uncovered ancient stronghold.

• +Craig McCullough as Tarn the Rover
• +Alex Perucchini  as Flik-flak the Sentinel
• +andrew lyon  as Sinclair the Mutant (Chitinous armor)
• +Paul Go  Agutter the Healer
• +Forrest Aguirre as Piertramp the Setntinel
• We also have +James Walls as Cypher the Shaman of ACHROMA, but he couldn't make this session...

Spoilers for the first bit of A Fallen Star for All ahead...

New player! New character! +Forrest Aguirre (a.k.a. the other host of Glowburn) joined the group this session (I'm Judge to the stars now I guess) as Piertramp the Sentinel. I started play off by filling him in on the lead up events of the starfall and explained that he was with a group calling itself the Tribe of the Golden Frog, but had been separated during an attack. He found himself weaponless and approaching a patch of strange jungle that seemed untouched by the apocalypse of the starfall. Within he could see the forms of two beast-things being apparently consumed by the plants, and one of them had a huge bone club! Piertramp risked an approach so that he could arm himself, and was rewarding with a two-handed greatclub doing d12 damage! He also grabbed a strange fruit from the jungle before escaping its entangling vines.

Meanwhile the others, now with the mutant Sinclair in tow, had left the ancient structures behind and were making for the starfall crater where helpful artifacts could be found.I informed Andy that Sinclair could not remember how he got to the buildings but that he had been separated from his group, the Tribe of the Golden Frog, in an attack. This had the effect that I hoped when the group met up with Piertramp and made the meeting go a little more quickly (and with less bloodshed, although a PVP TPK could have been hilarious). Sinclair made a snack of the strange fruit that Piertramp had found, and then tried to get some more with Flik-Flak's help. The two of them came away empty handed however as the carnivorous jungle was more than a match.

Opting to go around the strange plants the group ran into a strange creature. Short with soot dirty white fur and long ears it saw them and retreated carefully. They attempted to talk with it but it seemed unwilling to entreat. Further attempts were put off by the sighting of a pair of beast-things at the rim of the crater. Approaching carefully the group found the pair at the opening of a damage structure of the ancients uncovered by the fallen star.

Combat ensued with the group quickly wiping the two creatures out in a single round but not before their champion could emerge from the ruins. With a swipe of its mighty axe the champion downed Tarn but was easily dispatched by the group while Agutter set about to save Tarn's life. Exploring the interior of the cave with a makeshift torch the group found a number of artifacts but decided not to take the time to study them and instead moved on, crossing the crater by circumnavigating the rim to a second exposed structure.

Within this space they found a strange metal door that was extremely difficult to open because Cypher was zoned out communing with ACHROMA. When the group finally levered the door open they found a dark shaft leading downward, the walls of which were studded with strange ovoid pods. Prying a couple open they found a pair of flame retardant suits and a strange sphere. Agutter tried to get another pod open but fell into the shaft and luckily grabbed hold of the pod to arrest their fall. (Aside: AGutter's player Paul couldn't settle on a male or female pronoun and so we determined that Agutter is apparently genderfluid).

While hanging in the shaft Agutter opened another pod and released a hostile robot that attacked them. The others, clustered around the door above attacked with bows and spears and Gauzer pistols until Piertramp smashed the robot with a one-handed swing of his mighty club while hanging onto the doorway with his other hand (a 14 on a d14 attack roll!). The falling robot impacted with something about 20 feet below (30 feet below the doorway) and Agutter decided to try and climb out of the shaft but slipped (again) and fell (again) taking some damage (2d6 but I rolled low) when they landed in in a heap on the remains of the robot. Investigating Agutter found that this was a machine, apparently capable of navigating the shaft up and down. It was lacking power but used C-cells and grabbing one from the Medi-pack Agutter was able to power the lift and get back to the rest of the party. Now they had a way down into the structure, and planned to see what they could find within...


Least shocking thing we learned about MCC:

• A good swing with a d12 damage weapon will really cut short a combat. 

Most interesting behavioral change:

• Apparently the time and possible detrimental effects of artifacts checks are making the group more cautious. They are careful to clear away from the artifact in question, and generally try to parallel path artifact checks between characters to save in-game time.

Most Clutch moment(s):

• Forrest's new Sentinel, Piertramp was a machine. With his d12 bone greatclub he critted against a beast-thing champion (d12+d8 damage, OUCH!). He also managed a 14 on a d14 when one-hand swinging his club while dangling into an open elevator shaft. 

Interesting (to me) Rules Adjudications:

• Piertramp wanted to lean into an elevator shaft and one-handed swing his bone club at an enemy (using the other hand to hold on to the doorway). Two dice steps down seemed appropriate. 
• Agutter lost their grip twice while climbing. I allowed a luck check to grab hold of the wall after falling 10' rather than a simple plummet to near certain death. I still inflicted 1d6 damage for the 10' of fall though in the form of wrenched muscles in arms and shoulders. 

In Memoriam: 

• none, but we had a couple of close calls