Talons of the Horned King part 7

Last night we played the seventh and final chapter in our Talons of the Horned King arc. My original plan was to put another night of encounters into this thing, but the air was rapidly escaping from the balloon of this story. Since we had all eight players in attendance, I just brought the boss monster out.

Text as always from Talons of the Horned King, from the Dungeon Crawl Classics line from Goodman Games, by Mike Ferguson. Hi, Mike! I just noticed we had some comments on the blog that are over a month old; my apologies for taking to long to notice. I guess I'm used to this blog being mostly a one way street.

Anyway, now that we're concluding, I want to thank the author for putting together a great adventure. We had a lot of fun with it! I picked Talons of the Horned King after a lot of pre-campaign research; it was the perfect way to establish the Thundarr the Barbarian vibe I wanted for this campaign. And I'm pissed as hell that my players didn't want to fight the awesome holographic dragon scene that was in the published adventure. For shame, players, for shame.

Ahem. We opened up in the WARDYN room, where the ship's computer had just revealed that the Cryolab had just woken a crew member, and would be bringing 11 more out of stasis. The vikings ran out of the room and charged into the nearby chamber!

A chill fills the air as you enter this huge circular chamber. It is lined by large white metal cylinders – 20 in all. Each cylinder measures 12 feet high and 6 feet in diameter. White mist billows forth from cracks in the side of two of the cylinders.

In the center of the room is a pyramid-like object, measuring 8 feet in height and 6 feet long at the base of each side. The pyramid, which is made from a bronze-colored metal, is covered with switches and red blinking lights. A small clear globe floats a few inches above the peak of the pyramid. Inside the globe crackles a cloud of electric-purple mist.

To one side of the pyramid is a small metallic platform. Many of the weapons used by the apelike inhabitants of this strange place rest on top of this platform. To the other side of the pyramid is one of these very same dragon-like creatures, operating parts of the pyramid. When it sees you, it begins to press various lights and witches on the pyramid at a hurried pace.

The cryo-chambers were in the back half of the room, with a computer console in the middle. Three figures worked feverishly at the controls: two dragonborn and a large blue robot. In the back a dragonborn specialist wandered around near his pod, still groggy from waking. Additionally, two slasher robots activated at the dragonborn's command and sped forward to attack!



The party took notice of the sparkling blue glode on the top of the computer and tried to break it! Bartix and Varin send shock spheres and dreadful words into the computer; while they failed to damage it, the attacks spent 1d6 lightning feedback damage into the three adjacent figures.


Rurik and Edgar charged one of the Slashers, and Rurik and Oddny charged the blue labor drone, with Oddny hitting with On Pain of Death to give damage now and for the next four rounds. Mendas hugged the far wall and waited for his chance. Finally, the second slasher charged Hermiad and Mendas on the flank of the battle.

The fighters hacked away at their robots, but they were playing conservatively. Most of the robots kept missing, except against Edgar... the Slasher got my first of many crits of the night against him. Erik and Varin kept shooting at the computer, zapping the three operators. Bartix did something cool by running around the console using Prestidigitation to cover the display screen with a glyph of a Blood Eagle, obscuring the operator's vision! The dragonborn cursed at the wizard but kept working, though with difficulty.


The newly awoken Dragonborn had grabbed a rifle, and he wheeled around to blast Bartix. He missed, but now he was exposed to Edgar's charge. Mendas also got engaged in the back of the robots, doing Bait and Switch to move the labor drone and give Oddny room to engage both bots. Eric charged forward and engaged the front-most Dragonborn operator, who had been taking potshots with his pistol. And in the back of the battlefield, another Dragonborn woke up!


But at this point, the momemntum of the battle was swinging against the Dragonborn and robots. Their ability to quickly rouse their companions was seriously hindered, despite the fact that one guy had let himself be bloodied while he continued to work. Bartix set up behind him and cast Thunderwave, damaging him through the electric feedback as well as the wave. Oddny used her Arcing Smite to hit two robots, and Hermiad used Twin Strike to hack away at the Drone.

The woken Dragonborn was in a tight spot: he had no weapons, and had to get to the locker between a wizard and a fighter! He tried it, and avoided Bartix's lunge, but Edgar hit him and locked him down. Then, the Dragonborn Specialist tried to gain some distance on Edgar to use his rifle, and it worked, although Edgar got another swipe at him. His challenges and other Fighter features were really locking down the battlefield.


From here it was a matter of moping up. Rurik came in and finished off the Dragonborn before he could get a weapon, and Edgar took out the Specialist. The last of the robots collapsed. Eric used the flat of his mace (uh, the handle) to hit the wounded comupter operator, and asked him to surrender. The dragonborn put up his hands, turned around, and then with his elbow hit a final button! From the back of the room, a third Dragonborn woke up! Rurik immediately tackeled him.


We ended combat and the vikings tried to determine what to do with the various captives. The computer operator, now completely surrendered, revealed that he was the only one still alive able to safely defrost the sleepers. There was some discussion about what to do... Edgar wanted to wake everybody, hide the weapons, and run around and kill them. Blatant XP farming. Anyway, killing the Dragonborn in their sleep lacked honor, but everyone agreed that they were evil and dangerous.

Bartix had an idea to get Krymath, the Dragonborn captured two sessions ago, to prove his loyalty. He was given a knife and told to kill the operator. That didn't work, he turned on Edgar, and was killed. That settled things: the two conscious prisoners were also summarily executed. The vikings then started to play around with the pods: they found that breaking the glass revealed a frozen body, which could be easily carved!

Next it was time to search the room. Six pistols, eight rifles, six vibro-swords, and eight combat knives were gathered between the storage locker and the bodies. The various cabinets contained 6 healing potions and some 300 gp of arcanic components. Now that Bartix can make potions, that's what I give out now, components instead of gold or pre-crafted potions.

Then, a voice boomed throughout the room:

"You are worthy opponents," it said, "but you have run rampant on my ship for long enough. I challenge you to come to my bridge, and we will finish this!"

Well, obviously, that was the Captain. No one was ready to finish this yet before exploring the rest of the ship. The party set out for the barracks and the mess hall, but found them both empty. Save some healing potions and components, there was nothing to be had.

Next they went to the bio-lab. This was also empty, but the center of the room contained four tubes, standing ten feet tall. In each floated a dragonborn suspended in a blue liquid. The dragonborn were unconscious, but seemed to be dressed in medieval scraps and not the hi-tech sivlery fabrics of the beings that they had been fighting. There was no immediate way to free them, however, so they moved on.

So with the rest of the ship explored, the party approached the bridge:

This chamber measures 50 feet across. It appears more ominous than many of the other chambers you’ve explored – the walls in this chamber are flat black, not bright silver, and the room is dimly lit with cold blue flickering lights.

In the center of this chamber, stretching from floor to ceiling, is a clear glass cylinder filled with sinister green gas. A sword floats inside this cylinder. Electric sparks fly and sizzle as the sword slowly moves up and down. At the far end of this room is a huge clear globe, with images flickering upon it like a giant crystal ball. You see images of figures attacking monsters with both swords and sorcery – after a moment, you are astonished to realize that the images are of yourselves and your recent exploits! A good half-dozen or so metal cabinets with blinking lights are located below the giant globe. Next to the globe is a metal cot and chest.

Standing before the globe and the cabinets is a shaggy ape-like creature. This one appears to be slightly larger than the others that you have encountered, and he wears some sort of curious metallic armor. He holds a glowing sword in one hand, and a bizarre-looking crossbow in the other.

The creature turns to face you. “I have studied your abilities,” it says in a harsh, growling voice. “You are worthy opponents. But I cannot allow you to take my power from me.” He raises his sword. “It is a pity that I must kill you all.”

The captain had brought some friends, including a giant crab robot, two hammerers, and two slashers. The captain himself hovered over one of the platforms in the back.

The vikings discussed what to do, weighing options like starving the captain out, or running in and grabbing the sword. The discussion went a little long, and the robots moved up to block the sword. At this point they just decided to rush 'em and pray.

This was a fun fight: Everyone knew that this was the end, so they pulled out all the stops, with whetstones, daily powers, action points, the whole bit. The party used a lot of group bonuses, juicing their AC, strike, and damage for the whole encounter. And the dice turned high-octane, with very few flubs and a huge number of crits!

The vikings mostly had the high initiative, so they rushed in to take out the little robots. Rurik, and Hermiad engaged one of the Slashers, with Varin and Bartix sending missile support; all this killed it before it could act! Edgar followed up on one of the Hammerers, backed by Erik and Oddny. The Captain's initiative came up in the midst of all this, but he held his action. Interesting...


The Crab-bot used an action point to shoot lightning at just about everybody. Edgar was critted, with Rurik and Hermiad taking non-significant damage. Then the second lightning blast hit Mendas, Varin, Erik, and Oddny. Its job done, the crab retreated a few steps behind the sword.


The robot left flank charged the party, with the slasher engaging Varin and Oddny, and the Hammerer getting Edgar. Both missed, though. Finally, the Captain shot forward and used his flamethrower, hitting Edgar, Hermiad, and Rurik, as well as one of his robots, a computer, a coil... there was medium damage traded all around. And this left the captain out in the open, which would prove to be fateful!


Half the party was faced with this slasher robot. Erik and Varin hit it, and Mendas moved in to back-stab. Oddny then attacked and critted, maximizing her extra-damage die rolls as well! That did it: there was a smoking pile of gears in the middle of the four party members.


The other half of the party had the Captain in front of them. Rurik went first, hitting with his daily and doing high damage. Then, he used an action point and did his second daily, critting! On his turn his greataxe dealt well over a hundred damage! Hermiad followed, using his action point to carve into the Captain four times and hitting each time (though it took Eleven Accuracy to do it). And Bartix followed up, with a demure Magic Missile. But the Captain was down to 15 hit points, and that finished him off! We paused and checked our math, but everything worked. The Captain was a level 10 elite, AC 23, with 206 hit points, and he had lasted one round in direct combat!


So, that left the crab-bot and two of the hammerers, one of which was bloodied from Edgar. The party worked over the turn to take the hammerers down and harass the crab.

The crab-bot shot and retreated to the platform, and I thought he could climb it while his main lightning attack recharged. Barix ahd a plan, though... he used Icy Terrain to knock it prone, which meant that it couldn't do opportunity attacks as people approached! Oddny, Rurik, and Mendas swarmed, with Varin and Erik providing artillery. Once Edgar joined the fight, he had combat advantage from three seperate effects!


The crab bot stood up and tried to fight his way out, but he was on borrowed time. Another round and his 200 HP was gone. Poor robot! And that was it for the dungeon!



The vikings wanted treasure, but the chamber didn't have much. Edgar removed the Captain's armor, and maybe it could be retooled for him. There was also the matter of the sword: it seemed to be a power source, but it was also treasure. What to do?

They made their way back to WARDYN, who answered more questions. The vikings could not access many of the ship's functions, even though the Captain was dead. The computer did provide a list of instructions to work the tubes in the bio-lab. We had a brief skill challenge, and the players puzzled through the controls to release the captured dragonborn. They woke without craziness, with fevered fractured memories of the past week.

Back in the bridge, Erik smashed the chamber and grabbed the sword. The lights went out around the ship, then came back on, with a vocal message that 30 minutes of power were left. The vikings left for the surface.

We'll pick up here in two weeks, emerging from the ship in the valley. Thanks to everyone for a great adventure!

CASUALTIES:

4 Dragonborn Recon
1 Dragonborn Specialist
9 sleeping Dragonborn
Captain Merykare Setep
4 Slasher robots
2 Hammerer robots
1 Labor Drone
1 Crab Robot

Hmm, we haven't recorded beer casualties in a while. Truth be told, I had a stomach flu the night in question, and had neither food nor fluid the whole day. Rebecca said my color turned from deathly pale to healthy pale at the two hour mark. DMing, the miracle cure!

Talons of the Horned King part 6

Last week we played the sixth chapter of our ongoing Talons of the Horned King saga! Hey, are the spiky things talons or horns? Well, Goodman Games, well? By the way, the descriptive text included here is from Goodman Games.

The adventurers woke up outside the strange metal cave and entered into a short discussion about what to do. Perhaps they could have gone to seek additional help from the nearby Lizardfolk tribes, but their captive Thargdar noted that to go through the mountains would be a half a day's walk. With a minimum day turnaround, the vikings decided to forge ahead immediately and go back into the dungeon.

After clearing through the poisonous gas, they immediately ran into the guard station. Here, several robots were stationed. Two dragonborn worked on a mysterious mechanism in the back of the room. Advance scouts Hermiad and Mendas recognized their labor as the reassembly of one of the crab robots they had met outside! Most likely the robot was too large to just walk into the room, and it was being built here... but was not built yet. The vikings did quick counsel and sprang on the automatic sentries!


Everyone with a ranged attack ran in and nailed the unluckiest Dragonborn technician in the world. Bartix used his Odin's Ball (like a fireball, but lightning damage) to hit the guy and nearly all the other robots, but only did damage to the tech and the walker. Hermaid put two arrows in the dude too. Oddny and Mendas came in to the room too, and got charged by one of the robots.

The combat progressed rather quickly. I used a new type of robot which was basically a Mad Slasher progressed to Level 5. He could attack everyone adjacent to him, and got the chance to hit three vikings once or twice. After that, though, the adventures cleared away, with Oddny keeping the Slasher in place, and Edgar doing the same for the Hammerer.


As soon as they were able to, the Dragonborn threw down their hydro-spanners and ran into the hallway. Hermiad gave chase on his turn and did the Ranger Buzzsaw. This dropped the damaged guy, but the other was stabbed but not killed. He risked an opportunity attack next turn to flee down the hallway. Hermiad let him go reluctantly and returned to fight the robots... who were quickly mopped up.


After a Short Rest, the group set out tracking the escaped dragonborn. There weren't tracks, per say, but Hermiad had stabbed the guy and he was leaking blood. The trail went to the mid-ship blast doors and stopped. The vikings got the code from their captive (the third one, the Dragonborn soldier) and opened the door! Beyond it the blood trail stopped after a few feat... it seemed as though he had been met by someone that had staunched the wound. It was difficult to tell where they had gone on this hard, unyielding metal floor. The vikings looked at their drawn map and decided to go to the Storage Center to Treasure Up!

This smaller circular room measures 30 feet in diameter. A raised metal dais 5 feet high and 15 feet in diameter fills most of the room. On top of the dais are a number of metal crates. Also on the dais are several grimy sacks, which look out of place in comparison to the many clean and shiny boxes.

Nigel looked over Mendas's shoulder, and exclaimed, "My precious sacks! So much more grimy then I remember!" He explained that he had kept his gear during his flight in these containers, and he expected to be much more useful with his Alchemist Wand. The party was a bit hesitant to give arms to an Albion, but Rurik had already given him a crossbow, so why not. They did, however, fail to reunite Nigel with his 2000 gold.

The rest of the boxes were filled with more treasure, mostly force-field type things mounted as collars. Of note were two Displacer collars, which could protect the user by teleporting them a short distance. Remember that, it could be important!

Next the party went next door into the Biogarden, as it looked pretty neat on the map.

As you enter this area, you see something quite unexpected – a forest! You can barely make out the presence of metal walls lining this huge circular chamber, which is completely filled with dark, sinister plants that hang ominously over you. Tall, wild black grass covers the ground you walk upon. A dirt path leads to a murky pond near the center of this dimly lit chamber, and then leads to another door on the other side. A grove of blackened trees surrounds the pond. Bizarre fruits hang from the branches, some dark purple, some orange, and some lavender in color.

The fruit was tentatively fed to the Dragonborn prisoner, who licked his lips and thanked them kindly. The rest of the party followed suit, and found:

The dark purple fruits stay fresh for months, and can be used as trail rations since they spoil so slowly.

The orange fruits provide a temporary one-hour bonus of +1 to Strength when eaten.

The lavender fruits provide a similar temporary +1 bonus to Constitution.

Eating additional fruits does not provide a cumulative effect.

The prisoner explained that the orange and lavender fruits would spoil in a day off the vine. Edgar therefore took 23 for his knapsack. Taking a load off, the party checked out their map and noticed they were near a place called WARDYN. "It's like the brain of the ship, you might think of it as the little god in your head," the prisoner tried to explain. This nearly got him killed for the crime of pretentiousness, but Hermiad staid his own hand. As the prisoner explained, destroying WARDYN would make the operation of the ship impossible, as well as many other higher functions. Also, he complained that WARDYN had been made a bit too user friendly, and would answer questions even from alien primitives. The group decided like it would be worth a look.

They saw a mammoth chamber before them, with the hulking mass of WARDYN in the back. Three sentry towers swept the ground in front of them with light, and platforms around the computer held Dragonborn troopers with rifles. The main door had a lot of ground to cover before reaching the computer, but several other doors on the side could offer easier access.

This rectangular chamber has four sliding doors and measures 70 feet long and 50 feet wide. At the center of the chamber is a huge crystal sphere 20 feet in diameter reaching almost to the ceiling. Murky orange-red gas swirls wildly inside the sphere. Holding the giant sphere stationary is a skeletal framework of metallic supports. This framework springs forth from a metal dais in the floor, which is covered with small flashing lights, switches, buttons, and knobs.

Three slender metal poles are spaced evenly in front of the sphere. Each of the
poles is 10 feet tall and has a great light fixed to its top. These lights sweep the floor, narrowing and widening their focus as they go.

The party hatched their plan:

Hermiad would come out the right-hand door and charge one of the sentry station. It would attack him and allow him to teleport up to the platform.


Edgar would do the same thing on the left-hand door and teleport up to the left platform.


Mendas would also be on the left, sneaking behind the platform and climbing up to help Edgar kill the dragonborn and robots.

Oddny would charge the right-most sentry station.

Bartix would attack the left-most sentry station, lying prone behind one of the computer stations along the wall.

Varin would cast Hunger of Hadar on the center sentry station, maintaining it throughout the battle. This would essentially shut it down... it couldn't move and wouldn't have line of site.


So that's several great moves, and SPOILERS, it pretty much worked. Hermiad and Edgar took down their opposing forces, two Dragonborn and a Hammerer-bot. It cost them, though, they were both low on hit points.





The dragonborn were designed to shoot from a distance, and the platforms didn't give them room to manuever. The hammerers tried to push the vikings off the platform, but could never get it to work. Mendas helped Edgar mop up, but Hermiad did pretty well on his own. At the end of the fight, Hermiad pushed the last remaining Dragonborn off the platform onto Edgar's blade. Well done!

As the last of your enemies falls, the gases inside the giant crystal sphere begin to flicker and swirl even more wildly than before. The lights flickering at the base of the crystal dim, then suddenly brighten, nearly blinding you. Almost impossibly, the crystal begins to speak to you in low, rumbling tones that echo throughout the chamber.

“I am WARDYN,” it says in the Dragonic tongue. “How may I be of service to you?”

We'll pick up from there next game!

CASUALTIES:
1 Walker Robot
3 Hammerer Robots
2 Slasher Robots
1 Dragonborn Recon
4 Dragonborn Specialists
3 Laser Platforms

WARDYN Answers your Questions!

Text from Goodman Games:

As the last of your enemies falls, the gases inside the giant crystal sphere begin to flicker and swirl even more wildly than before. The lights flickering at the base of the crystal dim, then suddenly brighten, nearly blinding you. Almost impossibly, the crystal begins to speak to you in low, rumbling tones that echo throughout the chamber.

“I am WARDYN,” it says in the Draconic tongue. “How may I be of service to you?”

Mendas asks:

So our prisoner here… say, what the Hel is your name anyway?

Krymath.

So Krymath here says you can stop the magic worms that are making the outside Dragonborn go insane. Is this true?

The indigent population is experiencing cerebral interference due to ongoing astral-reflect planetary survey, currently at 35% complete. I can stop this program with command-level authorization.

Are you in charge? Can you command the other Ancients? How about the other constructs, do they obey you?

I serve the crew of the Ashardalon under Captain Merykare Setep. I direct the construction of new automations. I update automation programming each 48-hour repair cycle. I can send startup and shutdown commands to all automations with command-level authorization. I can alter automation programming with command-level authorization.

Do you know how many other Ancients there are in this ‘ship’?

The ship's crew consists of 32 dragonborn. 12 crew members are believed deceased. 1 crew member is recorded as missing but is currently present. 12 crew members are in cryostasis, with original scheduled awakening staggered within the next 45 days. Cryostasis awakening has been rescheduled to begin immediately for all remaining members with command authorization.

Tell us about any immediate threats to our survival.

Standing instruction for all crew and automations is the detention or destruction of all unknown phenotypes. Additionally, all crew and automations have received images and decriptions of all 10 of you, with command-level orders for annihilation.

Tell us about that big white dragon in the other room.

Training simulation Elder White Dragon 03 is based on holographic capture from 40-kilometer distant site seven days ago. Last user to complete the scenario was Captain Merykare Setep.

Command-level authorization, huh? How do we get that?

Only Captain Setep can grant command-level authorization to new parties.

48-hour repair cycle? Does that mean all the automations go to sleep every two days? When does that happen?

The automation force has a rolling repair cycle so that some of the force is active at all times. Each automation spends 1 hour in repair for each 47 hours of normal active duty.

Cry-o’-stasis awakening is ‘beginning’? How long does it take to wake someone up?

The first of twelve crew members currently in cryostasis will be fully awake in 17.2 seconds. All remaining crew members are scheduled to wake within the next fifteen minutes.

Images of us with orders for annihilation, huh? That’s… not good. How hard would it be to fool these automations?

Fooling the automations would involve a redevelop of optical recognition subroutines or the possession of dragonborn skin, normal dragonborn body temperature, mature electro-traits, and the correct subdermal implantation.

“Is there anything you can do without command-level authorization?”

I can answer any queries not restricted by command-level authorization.

Talons of the Horned King part 5

Last week we played the fifth part of the Talons of the Horned King. We had nearly a full house, which allowed the party to bring a lot of power to bear! Only Hermiad the elf ranger was absent this week.

We started out minutes from the last game. The party ventured out of the Sword chamber and back to the hallways. The party voted to go to the "Beware - Death Here" room, but on the way there they found a mysterious door. It seemed empty, and Mendas ventured in.

This circular room measures 40 feet in diameter. More humming, strange metal cabinets line the northern and southern walls. In the room’s center are many shelves which reach from floor to ceiling – nearly a dozen in all. The shelves contain several silver-colored boxes.

The boxes were not actually silver, but not steel either. They were unlocked, though. The vikings uncovered eight strange items, mainly in the vein of defensive force fields. The nature of these items was sussed out through a process of putting them on Thargdar the Lizardfolk, turning it on, then attempting to punch him.

Newly outfitted, they ventured down the hall and peered into the Death room. And death indeed...

As you enter this vast circular chamber, you immediately notice something that sends chills down your spine. Sitting on a raised dais in the center of the room is a gigantic white dragon. Mighty chains bind the dragon to the dais. The creature appears to be asleep or unconscious.

The dragon was chained, but the players couldn't tell if it was a guard or a prisoner. The discussion veered towards "prisoner," as it was difficult to imagine a, intelligent elder dragon agreeing to the role of guard dog. Still, no one wanted to wake or possibly confront the dragon unless they had to. They backed off and went to explore the northern corridors.

They found four doors, probably leading to two or three rooms. Picking one, they barged into what appeared to be a lab.

Unlike other rooms in this strange cave, this one is filled with clutter. Amidst all the whirring metal cabinets are several metal tables, located in a circle near the center of the room. Each table is covered with strange objects and scraps of parchment. An octagonal console stands out amidst the clutter near the north wall.

Standing over one of the tables is another of the dragonborn-like creatures. This one does not seem hostile – in fact, it seems startled and scared by your very presence. “Stay back!” says the creature in the Draconic tongue. “I don’t want to hurt you!” It slowly starts moving towards a table at the southern end of the room.

Edgar rushed this dragonborn scientist and intimidated him quite successfully. The vikings forced him on his knees and began to interrogate him. It didn't go on very long... the scientist began to talk excitedly about the ship, how they had been crashed for around 3000 years, etc. Bartix gave him permission to stand, and he made a mid-conversation lunge for his table! Both Rurik and Bartix had an action at the ready... Bartix used Mage Hands to scoop up the scattered papers, revealing a strange hand-crossbow thing. But Rurik flashed out his greataxe, hit for 18 damage, and killed the scientist.

That done, the party searched the room. There were some liquids in vials that could be potions, maybe... no one could tell. There were also some scraps of hide: one sample from a red dragon, and one from a carrion crawler. Intriguing!

The party cautiously went to the next room... crouching as they went, as their sharp ears detected movement in the background. The samples they had found were top of mind, and it was not impossible that the multi-leg-dragging sound could be a carrion crawler!

This gleaming white room is approximately 50 feet wide and 100 feet long. Along one of the far walls are several steel tables and tall, whirring metal cabinets with bright blinking lights. One of the tables is significantly larger than the others, measuring almost 10 feet in height and 20 feet in length. While the rest of the room is immaculately clean, the largest table and a few of the surrounding ones are spattered with fresh blood.

Pacing in the corner of the room is a hideous, insect-like creature with a green hide, measuring nearly 10 feet long. Strange metal boxes appear to have been grafted onto the creature’s back; blood still seeps from the wounds. Hissing and groaning, the creature appears to be in pain.

The vikings set themselves up, and the strange beast charged in from the right!

And from the left, a red dragon!

At the far end of the room is a red dragon! A silver mask appears to be crudely grafted to its head around its horns 30 and its eyes. As it notices you, it roars angrily, and starts to back into one of the far corners of the room. The scarred dragon appears to be quite enraged, and looks ready to attack at any moment.

The dragon charged in, but was hindered by all the laboratory crap and couldn't quite make it. The carrion crawler, however, had other options, and fired a missile from its back into the crowd of adventurers! No one saw that coming! Well, the miniature had a missile launcher on it, so maybe they did, but everyone roleplayed being surprised.

Edgar charged the dragon, and Rurik charged the carrion crawler. These two fighters would stay locked with their monstrous opponents for most of the fight. The rest of the party supported both targets with missile fire, but most quickly determined that the dragon was the greater threat.


Eric cast Shield of Faith on the party (well, everyone but Rurik, who had charged out of range). This was a huge help throughout the rest of the encounter. Mendas circled 'round back of the dragon to start stabbing!

The dragon was my opportunity to remember that solo and elite monsters have Action Points! He blasted the party with his fire breath, modified by the silver mask into untyped energy. It was targeted at five of them, but hit only Edgar. The dragon then put two claws into Edgar. He wasn't bloodied, but I had come close.

Bartix and Varin spread their Magic Missiles and Dreadful Words around the lab, while Oddny charged up next to Edgar versus the dragon. The carrion crawler hit Rurik with a tentacle, slowing him. It then shifted back and used it's action point to blast the viking with its strange metal box.

The party kept trying against the dragon, but not hitting. AC 25, yeah, that's right. They kept playing around at the other defenses, but they were high too. The dragon kept blasting (his breath weapon recharged every time I checked), and took some time to swat Mendas away with its tail.

Rurik had been whacking away at the carrion crawler, but now critted... critting with a magic greataxe is insane. This left the crawler-cyborg with just a few hit points. It could still attack, though, and hit the warlord again, immobilizing him! Rurik killed it the next turn, but how was he going to get across the battlefield?

Well, he needed to save, and Oddny was able to buff that save to get him through two instances. He spent the next round slowly getting across. The rest of the party needed a way to get past this dragon's armor. Finally, Mendas remembered his whetstone! A +2 bonus to everyone that used it! I have been surprised several times now that everyone had decided to save their whetstones, but they had always managed to hit their targets... the dragon was the opponent to break that dam. Nearly everyone magically sharpened up their weapons (or implements, house ruled, natch) and started to hit!

Rurik connected his charge, doing decent damage, but he got bit on the way in. As often as he could, Edgar was making attacks back at the dragon for not obeying the Mark. It's against the solo monsters that the fighter's ability to lock the fight down really shines. The dragon was now bloodied.


At this point we were pretty committed; several party members had used their dailies. Bartix committed with his new Bigby's Icy Grasp for big damage... Mendas followed up with his Blinding Barrage, which blinded it all the way to the grave! Also the dead dragon was still grasped.

Bartix immediately went to town "disguising" their presence by hauling the dragon up on the operating table and removing all of its organs. Good for you, Bartix! Mendas tried to figure out why these experimental beasts were running around loose, and found a depression around a raised area in the back room. The pattern corresponded to a similar depression in the ceiling, suggesting retracted bars, or a magic field of some sort.

The party found some more gear, but it didn't help their bleeding bodies. They knew they needed to bed down for the night, but a few of the party were uncomfortable about letting their guard down in this freaky place. In the end, though, the outside was found to be potentially just as hostile. They retreated to the laboratory, barricaded the two doors with lab crap, and decided on a watch list.

Six hours into their night, a knock came at the door. Some of the party was fully rested, but the two vikings with the first watch were not. "Open up in there!" a dragonborn voice said, "What the hell happened in the lab!" Varin tried to bluff by graveling up his voice, but whomever was outside wasn't buying it. Edgar then tried an intimidation tact, by yelling, "Come in here and I will kill you." This resulted in the normal "god damn primitive" type of thing that we normally hear from these guys. A series of small explosions rocked the doorway, and the door fell down.


We ran the encounter like a skill challenge, trying to get 10 successes before 5 failures. Edgar went first, as he was standing right in the doorway when it went down. The dragonborn had planned to throw grenades into the room, then charge... they weren't expecting someone to rush out! I interpreted this as a difference between modern and medieval tactics, with the filthy primitives winning out this time.

Edgar rushed out into the hallway, swept his blade through two of them, then discharged his lightning sword to all four!

Next, Bartix darted out and cast Sleep on the lot (including Edgar). It was a hit, and a missed save. So now they were shocked, sleepy, and getting sleepier. The rest of the party followed suit, attacking or restraining with rope. At the end of the challenge, we had 10 successes and only 2 failures, with two of the Dragonborn dead and two asleep.

The vikings woke up their two bound captives and began to question them, but flubbed their intimidation roll. One of the guards spit in Edgar's face, so he was stabbed... earning them another intimidation roll! Well, that's why you take two prisoners. This guy talked, and the most pressing information he gave was that a squad of 20 robots would be following their squad if they failed to report in within 20 minutes.

The vikings quickly packed up and ran towards the entrance, with their captive in tow. They heard the metal footsteps of a robot squad, but were now near the ladder. They popped out and disappeared into the jungle, finding their original camp site and bedding down again.

The party had lots of ideas on how to re-enter the dungeon, which we said we'd build out over e-mail. The first action would be an in-depth interrogation of the prisoner.

Captive Dragonborn Answers Your Questions!

Rurik asks:

Draw a map of the ship.

"I've spent a lot of time on the ship, so I can give you a pretty good map."

"Here's the key:"
3-1: Airlock
3-2: Detention Cells
3-3: Sentry Chamber
3-4: Equipment Locker
3-5: White Dragon
3-6: Laboratory
3-7: Engine Chamber
3-8: Experimentation Room (Carrion Crawler)
3-9: Experimentation Room (Red Dragon)
3-10: Storage Center
3-11: Navigation Center
3-12: Biogarden
3-13: WARDYN
3-14: Damaged Storage Center
3-15: Cryogenic Chamber
3-16: Mess Hall
3-17: Biolab
3-18: Crew Quarters
3-19: Bridge


Outline the guard's plans, patrols, passwords, etc.

"I have the current codes that would give you access past the blast door and to the rest of the ship. The only thing I don't have is access to the bridge."

"We haven't been able to bring our security cameras online, which is making things difficult. We send a small drone to check out every room once each hour. If it finds anything out of the ordinary, it reports back, and we send a combat squad to investigate. This system found you in the engine room, but not in the vivisection lab... I don't know why."


What are your culture's motivating ethos (i.e. honor, power, prestige, etc.)?

"I'm confused by this question. I guess our culture is motivated by power, but what else would it be?"


What is the social structure for the crew of the ship (i.e. military hierarchy, business enterprise, etc.). Can leadership be challenged?

"The ship was a military organization. As far as we can tell, though, the rest of the military hierarchy did not survive for the three-thousand years of stasis. I suppose this brings the legitimacy of our chain of command into question, but most of the crew hasn't had a chance to really consider this. Without the support structure of the officers, what else do we have? Actually, thinking about who might mutiny, it's possible that we're being woken up in order of greatest loyalty."


What are the plans / intent for your people and this land?

"They outlined the plans last week in an all-hands. We'll spend the next week reviving the crew, experimenting on local fauna, and learning about the world as it is now. Then we send robot armies to conquer the surrounding fifty-mile radius. We should be able to use the resulting labor surplus to live like kings while our techies find a way to search for other survivors of our civilization."


Mendas asks:

How are you controlling the magic environment?

"Oh, we heard that manipulation of what you call magic might be a side-effect of our active transmission and receiving system. We are trying to build an over-the-horizon map of the world without launching a satellite, as well as trawl the branespace for signs of civilization. I suppose the nanowormholes could affect the magic environment. But I'm not a scientist or a magician."


What do the various buttons do and is there any way to shift magic more than once per hour? Is there an 'off' button?

"Fire, Lightning, and Sword should increase magic in different ways."
"Water and Shield should decrease magic in different ways."
"Sun should be passive receiving and low-level transmission only, it shouldn't affect magic at all. Although it still affects the primitive's minds, apparently."
"Skull should shut down magic entirely."
"Moon is a rapid shuffle of various operational modes. You would see any number of effects in your magic."
"From the external consoles, no, you can't increase the hour-long cycle length. More direct control is available through WARDYN inside the ship. WARDYN is also the only way to shut the effect off entirely."


What did the shield icon on the prison cells do, the one with the green air?

"It's Cadec gas, and it would have a healing effect on prisoners. We use the shockers much more often."


What's up with these swords?

"The shape is largely symbolic, although the point and edges focus the pan-brane charges through the osmium gas to power the ship. If you've got that sword, then the ship is at half power."


What's up with the other fallen star, the little one?

"I'm guessing you're talking about our crashed satellite. It blundered on our power-reserve transmission after, we think, 3000 years, then homed in on us. We think it crashed, but our signal interaction started a full warm-up procedure and woke us up. If you're talking about the energy sphere on the cliffside, it might be a random energy discharge from 11th-brane, caused by our transmission array."

Talons of the Horned King part 4

Last week we played the fourth game in our Talons of the Horned King arc. We hit the meat of this adventure with the mysterious metal cave full of constructs and, it turns out, explosions.

We had five players in attendance: Marcus playing Mendas the halfling rogue, Marc playing Varin the half-elf warlock, Martin playing Edgar the warforged fighter, Matt playing Rurik the tiefling warlord, and Zach playing Bartix the human wizard. At 4:00 that day I would have thought we'd have all 8 players, but by 7:00 game time we just had five. So thanks to everyone that showed, and thanks for everyone that, on other weeks, puts up with a larger-than-possibly desired assembly. It's this large group that makes us fault tolerant and able to have a good game week after week.

We opened with the Vikings having just descended down a ladder into a strange metal cave. Ahead of them in the corridor was a strange metal cabinet, full of blinking lights and soft whirring noises. The party crowded around poking at it, and Mendas tried to pry it open to see what was inside. But that made the thing explode! Everyone failed their Reflex save and took 10 damage! And for the best, I think. The explosion was the result of a random roll, but the result would keep the game moving. The vikings don't need to break every damn thing, I didn't put power-ups back there!

Backing away from the new smoking hole in the wall, the group examined their map:


Sadly, no-one wanted to go to "Beware Death Here," as if Death doesn't equal Treasure or something in D&D. Whatever, whatever, they went the other way to the prisons. The map turned out to be accurate:

A low but ominous hum fills the air as you enter this long, narrow corridor. The corridor, which measures 10 feet wide and 90 feet long, slopes slightly downward. Located along both sides of this corridor are a total of six bulky doors, evenly spaced apart. The doors seem to be made from some sort of strange, greenish metal, and each door is reinforced by hundreds of rivets. In the center of each door is a small green-tinted window. Immediately to the left of each door is a small panel, approximately 6 inches square.

Rising for a moment above the low hum is the sound of a muffled dwarven voice. “I say!” calls out a cheerful voice from behind one of these doors in Common. “Who’s there? Can you kindly let me out? I need to explore this marvelous machine!”

Looking in, the group saw a dwarf peering up against his cell door, pleading for assistance. He was overjoyed to hear familiar language and to see civilized species. The dwarf explained that his name was Nigel Throtenstoat, a nobleman from Albion. He had found this continent in his one-of-a-kind flying carriage, the "Gilded Gull," but it had been shot down in the mountains. He had blacked out and woke here. For the past few days he had watched strange constructs drag lizardmen and dragonborn to these cells, but his fellow prisoners were always taken away shortly after.

The group talked for a while between themselves and decided to release this foreigner into their care/slavery. They played around with the buttons, and found the way to release Nigel. He looked at them all for the first time and resigned himself to being led around by Norsemen. Rurik handed him a crossbow, which might make him a bit more useful until his gear could be located.

The vikings backtracked and made their way to the point at the map marked "Guards." Obviously, this was where a fight would be. Mendas cautiously looked around the doorway and saw four robots, sweeping the area with a focused red light.

The party quickly planned an assault, figuring that the robots would not listen to reason.

Bartix and Varin are the party artillery, and they took first go, blasting the robots with a Shock Sphere and a Frigid Darkness. The players darted in to the doorway to fire on their targets, then darted out again, leaving the robots without anything to shoot at.

Instead they yelled "UNKNOWN PHENOTYPES DETECTED! OPERATION ANNHILIATION!" and rearranged themselves around the door (taking some damage from the darkness full of mouths.

Edgar was the first of the melee troops to go, which ended up being a bit of a short straw. He charged in and was lit up by both the walkers. Just a tad staggered, he connected his charge with the techno-cat in the corner. It had been reserving an action, so it took his hit and bit him back! These three attacks in a row left the warforged bloodied!

Rurik followed him, and hacked away at the cat. The hammerer now triggered and engaged Rurik in the back.


Mendas then moved past their combat to face the walker in the middle of the room. He used Bait and Switch to stab the walker, then trade places with it. That left it in the persisting zone of Darkness! More chewing little mouths!


With this setup, the combat continued. The mages entered the room and laid down fire without being engaged. The techno-cat fell, and Edgar and Rurik quickly took down the Hammerer as well. Mendas kept up his one-on-one with the walker, as it retreated to fire and was then caught... he finally took it out after three or four rounds. Rurik was first into the fray with the other walker, but it had taken a lot of warlock fire by now. Everyone saved their Dailies, though, as this fight didn't seem too impressive.

With the robots defeated, the path was cleared for death! But the vikings decided to head for the sword on the map instead. Hoping to cure the Horned King by recovering the two swords, they went down the left-hand corridor to find the Engine Room!

Like many of the other rooms in this strange cave, this room is square in shape, measuring some 100 feet across. On the northern and southern walls stand huge metal whirring cabinets with blinking lights; the rest of the walls are covered with flat black metal panels. Each of these panels measures 1-foot square and appears to be bolted onto the metallic wall.

Towards the center of the room is a clear cylinder that stretches from floor to ceiling. The cylinder measures 10 feet in diameter and is full of green mist. Suspended in the greenish mist is a sword, which hovers about 10 feet in the air. Occasionally, blue flashes of electricity spark between the sword and the mist. Red lights located at the base of the cylinder flash brightly whenever these flashes occur.

The three coils pulsed with what looked like lightning. The group approached the cylinder in the center, where they recognized the poisonous gas from the entrace. Bartix used a combination of Mage Hands to break open the cylinder and Thunderwave to clear the gas, and the sword was free! But suddenly, behind them, a hostile party broke in!


A walker and hammerer robot backed up a party of strange Dragonborn, clad in strange garments and armed with shimmering weapons and strange crossbow-like devices. They saw the vikings gathered around the sword chamber, and began to yell in Draconic. "Put that down, you savages!" one cried in Draconic. "You'll break the delicate balance that you can't possibly understand!"

We rolled for initiative, and the two winners, Bartix and Varin, decided to use their opening rounds to antagonize the dragonborn further. A Magic Missile and a Dreadful Word sailed into the coils, causing them to shoot lighting into the squares all around them. Interesting...

Enraged, the hi-tech dragonborn fanned out to engage the vikings. The Specialists fired rifles at the vikings, which were accurate throughout the battle and did ongoing lightning damage after a hit. The Recons had some sort of swords and charged in, throwing grenades when they could.

The vikings responded as they could, engaging the robots and dragonborn. They took heavy damage but were slowly able to whittle their opponents down.


Nobody, however, had time to deal with the walker robot. It continued to walk the periphery of the room and fire opportunistically at the vikings. Finally, Bartix had the actions free. He Thunderwaved the walker back into the coils, still sparking wildly. The robot took enough damage to be bloodied. Some other missile fire caused another coil discharge that shut it down!

The dragonborn left some interesting gear behind. Mendas took one of the guns apart, but couldn't seem to put it back together. The party decided to keep the other one away from him. The party decided to keep going before sleeping, moving on throughout the dungeon!

Here's the map of what has been explored so far:



Casualties:
3 Walker-bots
2 Hammer-bots
1 Cat-bot
2 Dragonborn Ranged Specialists
2 Dragonborn Recon
16 beers, I think