This week I ran the third session of A Fallen Star for All with a ragtag band of seekers trying to uncover the secrets of an 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 Sentinel
- +James Walls as Cypher the Shaman of ACHROMA
Spoilers for the first bit of A Fallen Star for All ahead...
Cypher, who had been in a stupor for several hours awoke from communing with ACHROMA with a mission to "Prevent the matron from leaving the facility." Whatever that meant.
Descending into the complex the group found a hewn stone hallway, lit via strange glowing stone set into the walls. Piertramp fearlessly started walking and observed as he did that they were not alone, as footsteps in the dust indicated that somebody had been walking around here recently. They came to a room with strange shiny walls and found a control panel of some kind. After trying to use it and breaking a lever off an AI appeared and chastised Piertramp, telling him to stop fiddling with that because "you children were told by your father not to do that." Piertramp rebelliously touched the panel again, and got a stern look from the AI. Apparently that was enough for him to start button mashing and he accidently shut the facility's power off in the process. Plunged into darkness it was Flik-flak who managed, via a more methodical interaction with the panel, to restore power.
Moving on from there Sinclair found that the end of the hall opened into another room, one which now had power and there were shadows moving within. Without pause he walked into the room and discovered seven beast things. The party had previously encountered these aggressive mutants on the surface and combat was joined. Some amazing initiative rolls allowed five of the party to act before the Beast Things and quickly enough three of the creatures lay dead. Including one burned down to a smouldering skeleton by Cypher's overly eager fusion torch.
The remaining four Beast Things were not dissuaded however and attacked!
And missed. Every. Single. Attack.
At this point combat became a rout as the players murdered the remaining Beast Things while chasing them down the stairs leading out of this room. They looted the bodies of some rough spears and a pair of poisoned darts, but decided to continue forging ahead rather than backtracking to search the room.
Ahead proved profitable as they found a room full of tools and supplies and strange machinery. The group found a pair of partially charged C-cells, a fully charged F-cell, and a radshot and a medishot. A decent haul all things considered. Unfortunately Piertramp and Flik-flak could not figure out the machine in the center of the room. Before anyone else could try they heard voices in the hall.
Sinclair, the heavily armored bug-mutant, stepped out of the hall to see and found not more enemies but lost friends. Sinclair and Piertramp had both been traveling with other members of the Tribe of the Golden Frog before being separated from their group after an attack. Standing before them were the remaining members of their band including Rodney the Tiger Manimal.
Rodney, Sinclair, and Piertramp exchanged stories and filled the Clan of Cog members in on the story of their tribe's near destruction by the tibbar. Cypher suggested that if the Golden Frog members wanted to join the Clan of Cog they might be able if they helped to retrieve the D.O.P.E.S.W.A.G. the group was after. Rodney was unfamiliar with D.O.P.E.S.W.A.G. and cypher had to explain.
- D.O.P.E.S.W.A.G.
- Deadly Oppressive Pedestrian Equestrian Sensor Wedge Amplifying Gun
As it turned out this was similar, but different, from an artifact that Rodney was looking for, the P.H.A.T.L.O.O.T.
- P.H.A.T.L.O.O.T.
- Photonic Hologram Assaulting Triple Luminar Organic Ocular Technology
Joined by their new zero-level followers the party continued deeper into the complex where they found a bedroom filled with metal boxes and decorated with a strange glowing crystal. Agutter managed to activate the crystal with seemed to contain a mute AI of some kind. Meanwhile The others rummaged through the boxes and found a great many body parts for living metal creatures. Cypher attempted to assemble a working robot but instead caused a minor explosion.
Piertramp, took the damaged torso and fashioned some armor from it, though the sharp edges, heavy metal, and pinching fit made it a dubious gain. (Robot breastplate AC +4, Fumble Die D16). With no desire to further fuss with the remaining robot limbs the party continued and found a strange bedroom for holographic children with electromagnetic screams. Apart from a pair of sunglasses there was little to be gained and they soon moved onward to a room full of tables and cabinets with screens showing various things. Cypher started to take one apart and managed to salvage three partially charged c-cells while Piertramp got one working and played a fun game that rewarded him with some strange sweet fruit pellets which he shared with the group.
With more than enough for another session I ended the game there. Next time we should wrap up and hopefully have time to cover downtime.
Least shocking thing we learned about MCC:
- Ugh, the swinginess of the dice! Seven Beast Things accomplished nothing because of poor dice rolling. Nothing but dying at any rate.
Most interesting behavioral change:
- Apparently good manners survived the apocalypse, or at least that is the conclusion I take from Flik-flak's admonishing of Piertramp for his rude manners when yoinking some loot to try and build some armor.
Thing that my players didn't see coming:
- At session's end I gave them Experience and several had enough to advance to 2nd level. Cheers were uttered. And then I broke the news that they could not level mid-adventure and needed to have downtime to train in order to level. A great many teeth were gnashed in my direction, but I just grinned my Judge's Grin.
In Memoriam:
- Sadly death was on vacation
- "James gets a pizza delivery he won't soon forget, next on Spice."
- Alex breaks the group with a well timed trip down memory lane.
- "God damn fruit."
- Sinclair has a new arch-villain
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