Monsters! Monsters! the setting!

[trrebmahl]

hmmmm. Some henchmen. How bout:

Tattooed Tommy- He's a tall thin guy who has shaved all the hair from his body. He likes to wear as little clothing as possible to show off the tattoos that cover his entire body. He has a tattoo representing every monster he's killed and he especially relishes killing a new monster type to add to his ink. He will taunt monsters about how he is going to add them to his collection. He wields two thin poniards that he calls his "needles".

Shorty. Shorty is in fact a huge guy. His dirty little secret is that his grandmother was a meat troll of some sort. He is acutely ashamed about this and is in constant fear that his associates will discover that he is not a "pure" human. This fear drives his brutality towards monsters and he can be very sadistic. He collects the dried ears of his vanquished monster foes and wears them on multiple necklaces. He calls them his "precious trophies". He is very mentally unstable and if separated from his trophies, which are the only thing that symbolizes self worth to him, he will likely suffer a breakdown. He wields a giant scimitar that he calls "The Trophy Taker".

The Advisor. Nobody knows the Advisor's real name and that's the way he wants it. He has a dark past that he likes to keep buried (along with all witnesses to his past crimes). He is Rip Tides' political advisor and PR man. He has already conveniently and quietly removed several of RT's potential political rivals by running aggressive smear campaigns on them and then having them disappeared amidst speculations of scandal. He is trying to maneuver himself to be the real power behind RT's bid for political office. He is a master of throwing knives and poisons keeping many bottles in small pockets sewn into the inside of his jacket.

[trrebmahl]

and to add... this campaign is looking more and more awesome. It must be a blast for all involved!

[ishtar]

How about a moat around the manor with a pirate boat (not a ship, ship's too big for the moat) and the pirates fire cannon balls or spell bombs from a little cannon mounted on the boat?

Carnivorous fish in the moat? Killer seaweed?

[devadasi]

So many VERY fun and kewl ideas! I am absolutely going to use ALOT of these! (especially love the tattoo guy!) i knew i could rely on the bridge when my creative juices got stretched too thin.


So okay, Since its only a few more days till the next game, I better finish transcribing all of the events that have already happened, so the task doesn't get overwhelming.

When we last left off, our Merry Monsters had finished ambushing some rednecky centaurs and effectively sent them to the glue factory.

Now, sun having fully set, and the walls of Saltine being illuminated by intermitant torchlight, the group makes its way to the North Gate, which also so happens to be the least trafficked.

The half-demoness is wearing her Godsmen uniform and hat, as is the weresabrecat, who has switched to her fully human form. The Jaegermonster and the land shark are hiding under hay in the cart the centaurs had with them. The Bigfoot Goblin ( bugbear), Sad Sack is strapped into the centaurs harness and forced to pull the cart behing the two disguised Godsmen.

They are hailed by the Sgt. of the Gate, when they approach.

"Evening govnurs! What's this? You know no beasties is allowed in town limits!"

Lenara, the demoness, continues expressing her newfound role-playing prowess.

"Indeed not! But we have on absolutely reliable information that there is ANOTHER monster being harbored in this city on this very night, and this unclean thing is aware of its location. Do you wish to be the man who stands between justice and our righteous arm?!"

Nice! Because the actual roleplaying there was so good, i ask only for a first level charisma roll to obtain successful entry. The demoness get its it with a couple points to spare.

"Hrmmm. Well, no, yer lords. If there's monsters afoot, i trust no one so much as the Army of Salvation to see to it that they are brought under control. I hope you suceed before sunrise though sir. There could be an outcry over that smelly beast come morning."

"We shall achieve our intent swiftly and severly, I assure you."



The group is allowed into Saltine. Discussing the issue prior to entering town, they decided that a distillery would need water and would likely be located next to the creek that flows through the western side of town. The were sabrecat asks if she call pick up the "scent" of the creek, and after a 1st level luck roll, it is determined that she can.

the two females, in their disguises head west through the streets ( mostly quiet now... near this gate anyway), bugbear pulling the cart with the other two.

The closer to the distillery district the monsters get, the more the streets smell of piss and vinegar. Drunk riff-raff and thieves trying to sell hot items saunter about, but move into dark alleyways when it becomes clear that Godsmen are nearby. Seems the Godsmen aren't so well respected in this particular nieghborhood.


The group finally arrives in front of what is obviously a distillery. Obviously, because a huge sign with a grinning dwarf with a red beard and two gold teeth reads: " Apple Jack's Hard Dwarven Cider"
Beneath this facade, standing on a loading bay are four rough and ready looking dwarves.

"We are looking for a distillery." says the demoness to the dwarves.

"See here Godsman! The case of Grognash versus the Army of Salvation clearly affirms the legality of producing alchohol for sale in the Republic! You have no authority here. Begone!"

"I'm coming out!" says the landshark.

"No!" Lenara says. The landshark stays in the hay.

" We have no quarrel with you this day dwarf ! We have on authority that a monster is being harbored at the Rip Tide Rye Whiskey Distilley, and we merely wish to have its location pointed out.!

All the dwarves beginning smiling exitedly, and take on sly grins.

"That sounds most certainly TRUE my Lords! In fact, Dargen here has seen them taking in all manner of beasties! Ain't that right Dargen!"
Dargen's eye's light up. Its clear the dwarves at Apple Jack's have no love whatsoever for their rivals over at Rip Tide's. "True INDEED! Monsters they have! With red beady eyes! ... And sharp gnashin teeths!.... and claws what hangs nearly to the ground! using them for labor.. thats what they say anyway!"


"Just down the street. Two more blocks your Lords" the first dwarf says.


The monsters smirk. Then head down the street.

[devadasi]

"Rip Tide's Rye Whiskey!... Buccaneer's Pride!" the sign reads, surmounted by a picture of a dashing man in a tricorn hat giving the thumbs up, and winking his eye.



Below the sign on the loading bay are four gaurds.

"Were is the monster child? Give him to us, and we will not have to make things messy." the demoness says to the gaurds.

One of the gaurds gets angry immediately, gesticulating as he talks.

"That's a lie! It's a rumor! Probably started by those no account dwarves up the street. Mr. Tide is an influential citizen. You can't come here and toss these flimsy accusations about Godsman. If you want to play your silly games, go get a search order from Kingscourt. Don't come around here with some flea bitten critter you found and think you can intimidate someone like Mr. Tide!"

"I peak out from beneath the straw and cast Take That You Fool on this guy." says Patrick, the Jaegermonster.

Brrrrzzzzt! the bolt of energy knocks the gaurdman back, and IT IS ON!


"Landshark comin' out!" calls Eric

"What manner of treachery?!!" the gaurds call out. The three still standing fire their crossbows. The sacrecat dodges her bolt, and with a higher than required dex roll, also manages to leap up onto the loading bay. The demoness is hit, but after armor only takes 1 point of Con, the landshark is hit for 9, but his armor takes 5. ( a shield) The demoness fires her flintlock and rolls a huge success, splattering the guys brains all over the wall, and even on the "rye whiskey" sign.

ROUND 2: The landshark and the demoness make for the ramp acess to the loading bay. Two of the gaurd move to intercept... getting a combat advantage from being on higher ground all the while yelling:

"MONSTERS!, MONSTERS!"

despite the advantage however, the landshark is just to much to be overcome in a faceoff. He chews off much of his opponents torso. The gaurd and the demoness are unable to score any hits off the other.

The gaurd who was tazed goes to help his friend fighting the weresabrecat, but when the jaegermonster fires off another ttyf, that fight turns lopsided.

fight over. The bodies, are hidden under the loading bay, and the cart hauled up onto it. The characters slide up the warehouse door and enter the distillery.

[devadasi]

Inside the door is an antechamber arched stone cieling, but not a high one... not here. There are approximately fifteen burlap sacks full of rye grain on the eastern wall, and nearby is a doorlike compartment built into the wall.

( this is actually a trapdoor leading to a slide used to slide rye down onto the distillery floor, but no one investigates it, and it remains unused despite its potential "fun factor". If I could have do overs, i wouldn't have put the door there... just the open chute)

Everyone is drawn instead to the panarama of a much larger space opened out onto by the antechamber. Stepping out onto a steel balcony (with attached staircase with a single hairpin turn) they find themselves looking out over a busy distillery. Copper tanks and hoppers bigger than any hag's cauldron line the floors, with metal tracks and carts installed to move ingrediantes easily. The temperature inside is very hot, and the alchohol fumes are almost enough to make a body woozy.

The sabrecat runs and takes a flying leap off of the balcony. Making a 3rd level dex roll means she can land RIGHT ON one of the distillery workers and take no damage herself.

"GAAHHH!" he cries as she tears into his throat.

Anastasia, playing Sad Sack immediately follows suit, but she wants to fire her captured crossbow as she jumps. I ask for a third level dex roll for the crossbow, which amazingly she makes ( 2 sets of doubles) and the bolt sinks deep into the collarbone of one of the workers.

She lands slightly more awkwardly ( making only a 1st level roll for the jump ) and she takes 1d6 damage. That doesn't stop Sack from bashing yet another workers head in with his morningstar though.

The demoness and the land shark opt for the stairs, with her in the lead. When she is the first to reach the distillry floor, a hulking foreman is waiting for them. He holds two enormous conch shells curled around his fists, like immense pairs of brass knuckles.

"I am about to put you in a world of hurt girly!" he intones. But then the landshark exits the stairs onto the platform. The forman turns tail and runs, demoness and landshark in hot pursuit.

I ask for a dex roll when the demoness tries to leap forward and grab him, but she misses the roll by 2, and I rule that she tears a strip of cloth from his pants, but he gets away. Meanwhile another worker steps out of the latrine to find the landshark in front of him.

The landshark bites him in half at the waist. Then he wads up the legs and attempts to throw them like a basketball into one of the copper vats. He also rolls two pairs of doubles and its all net as the legs splash down in a vat of rye whiskey.

The jeagermonster is on the balcony firing crossbow bolts into the melee.

The landshark heads to wear the demoness has the forman cornered. He has locked himself in the office and the sound of furniture being moved in front of the door comes from behind it.
"smash the door" says the landshark, slamming into it with his shoulder.

" Back OFF! I've got a blunderbus back here!" yells the forman. But he isn't waiting.

"BOOM!!" the wooden door shatters into splinters. The landshark succeeds at a dex check to avoid, but the demoness fails. The full damage will kill her, but i rule that since the blast had to travel through the wooden door first, she only takes 5 points to her Con. Still, she's hurt.


Inside the forman now has a bottle of 130 proof rye whiskey in his hand with a rag in it and is holding it to the coal burning fireplace to light the wick.


He tosses the bottle, but this time both shark and demoness pass a dex roll. the fiery, spinning bottle lands instead on the soaked distillery floor, and suddenly the whole distillery is ablaze. The landshark tosses the desk aside.

"where is the monster boy? " the demoness asks the foreman.

"Mr. Tide, has taken him to his mansion!" the foreman yells, "please don't eat me!"

"Hmmm." the demoness stands up, wondering what to do next.

" I eat him." says the landshark.


Hurrying now, to get out of town, the Jaegermonster begins loading barrels of whiskey onto the cart. Four will fit, and still leave room for the jaegermonster and the landshark in cramped conditions.

Sharkie will pay top dollar for high grade rye whiskey back on the rez.

One the way out, the landshark insist on piling at least one body on the cart as well.

"Long trip." he says.

The group has left the NorthGate and are well into the surrounding fields when the fire bells are heard.

they hurry toward the rez, and the payoff from Sharkie.

[devadasi]

Game prop- political flyer for Rip's mayoral campaign. It SHOULD generate some animosity.

Attachments:

[ishtar]

Oh, yes. It surely will.

[devadasi]

Beautiful unpredictability.


So my players returned to Sharkie's with six barrels of premium rye whiskey to pawn.

"Last batch of Rip Tide's ever made." The jaegermonster says to the troll, smiling with crocodile teeth.

"Very nice! i am thinking you are GREAT monsters......now how much you are wanting?" the troll is clearly mostly business. He's not one of the gulches top entrepreneurs for nothing.

After some debate the group decides they will take 100 coppers cash, plus two hundred coppers credit at Sharkie's EACH, for the sumtotal of the six barrels. Sharkie agrees, and in celebration of one of the largest premium spirits hauls of the last few years, he has a couple of black goats butchered for a feast.

Our "heroes" are even given a luxurious curtained room in the back of the cave..... with a hooka... and chairs with cushions. tattered cushions yes, but nonetheless, easier on the ass.

Our two new player characters the Tratyr ( troll/satyr) and the flesh gollum, ( whose creator Blightus has grown bored with him and kicked him out of the tower) have their curiousity aroused. Niether has more than 100 coppers to her/his name, and these strangers seem loaded!

When Sad Sack the goblin sasquatch heads to the outhouse, the tratyr attempts to relieve him of his purse. NOT to steal but to prove she has skill and should become part of the group. With a second level dx roll, she succeeds.

Sad Sack is loosening his belt inside the outhouse in preparation for relieving himself, when even through his dense mind he notices no jingling coins as the belt is loosened.

With his pants down around his ankles he turns around and charges out of the outhouse.

Awaiting him is the tratyr who says "i'm not gonna keep it, i just wanted to show you that i might be of value to your group."

"NGARG!" the bugbear isn't having it. He smacks the troll upside the head with his hairy meaty fist. The tratyr does not try to defend, and suffers mightily for that. The blow is powerful, and knocks her back several feet, leaving her with birds and stard swirling around her head. Sad Sack steps over her prostrate form and gets his coinpurse back, pulls his pants up, then goes inside to tell the others what happened.

Somewhat interested, and mostly needing a toilet break anyway, the group files out to the cave courtyard, full of rubbish and litter. Outside the tratyr is still trying to get he r wits.

For some reason, the gollum decides this way actually a good tactic, and he lurches over to the jaegermonster and "borrows" his hat, putting it on his head. The player, Jason, is unaware of the jaegermonster's hat fetish. until now.

a gasp goes out from the player.
"nice hat" the gollum slobbers.

"Take That You Fool!" says the jaegermonster.

and the gollum finds himself tazed, twitching from the hot current. It reminds him of the electro- convulsive therapy Blightus used to apply when feeling sadistic. It reminds the gollum of home. But not before it saps more than half his con score and leaves him in semi fetal position on the ground. The hat rolls off. The jeagermonster picks it up, dusts it off and puts it back on his head.


Despite the rather hostile nature of this first encounter ( and hey, monsters will be monsters), the group decides to take the newcomers in, promising only a fair share of any plunder.

After a nights rest in Sharkie's, they wake up to a foggy morning and head for the western wall, hoping to make Saltine by nightful.

But a random encounter would drastically change the direction of the adventure, and give me hope that we can do this all sandbow style after all.

[cram]

Whoa...Cram gets busy for a bit comes back to find this wonderfully wrought piece of GM-man-ship Holy Flirking Schnitt!!!
[Cram wallops Devadasi with biggest exalt pillow he can lay his paws on]

[devadasi]

Thanks Cram! I really appreciate the feedback. Whenever I am not sure its worth the effort to put this stuff up or not, feedback like that helps me one to make another post or two.

This game played its 5th session last night. I mean to get around to transcribing some of the details of the last two.

The kids were around for the game last night also ( kids being my daughter and son). Kit plays "Sad Sack" when he's present for Monsters! Monsters! games ( which was easy, since Anastasia, who has been playing Sack, couldn't be there last night)


But my ten year old daughter didn't have a Monsters! Monsters! character yet. I was unwilling to put the game on hold entirely to help her generate a character, so she kinda had to watch this session..... but afterwards we were brainstorming for something that would be lighthearted and fun to play, but still monstrous enough to be isolated on the Buzzard's Gultch Rez with the rest of these riff raff.


We came up with Oafy.... the Chaos Muppet. His stats are unmodified 3d6 rolls. I used TARo to get the 27.

Attachments:

[ProfGremlin]

Oh, that's cute, Devadasi!

"C is for chaos, that's good enough for me!" I wonder if he can bake a special weapon - Oatmeal Raisin Shuriken


How are your kids handling the more mature M!M! game?

[devadasi]

Well Prof, last night was the first time they were actually at the table as the game was in session. Usually M!M! is on Sunday nights ( when the kids stay with my ex. But on Thurs they are with moi, so they wanted to join in.

The M!M! game has hit on a couple of maturish themes..... but the general atmoshere is still pretty zany, and cartoony.



After the "distillery incident", ( related previously) the monsters headed back toward the town of Saltine, in hopes of finding Rip Tide's mansion. However, a random encounter roll meant that while skirting the border of Gnarlian's wood heading south, they were perchance to pass a small caravan. A caravan of noble looking knights and gaurdsmen.... escorts to what appeared to be a young noble maiden in a sedan chair.

Despite a heavily armed group of bodygaurds, the monsters found this too difficult to resist. The landshark bumrushed the sedan chair before the others even had a change to give input .


He was immediately fired upon by two of the gaurds to the western side. One blunderbuss and a flintlock pistol drew blood. But the landshark has a shield and a tough hide. He was reduced from 43 Con to 19 Con nonetheless.

Still, he did succeed in slamming into the sedan chair with such force that both of the eunuch loadbearers on the western side are crushed beneath the weight of the heavy carriage.( Strength roll 4th lvl)

The landshark is trying to eat the noble virgin, but she is screaming and kicking . The landshark's DEX and Luck are both so low that even a first level save requires rolling some doubles. the princess stuffs his mouth full of feather pillows on two consecutive rounds, forcing him into a rage, and a coughing fit. he nearly asphixiates on goosedown. His jaws don't seem to be able to open wide enough in the confines of the carriage. He bumps his head for one more point of CON.

Meanwhile, the rest of the gang has taken some pretty serious Con damage... with only the werecat unscathed. But they are alive. And all of the gaurds at the end of round 5 are dead.


They are also rich! At least by Buzzard's Gultch standards!. Misstress Gwyndolyn was carrying her dowry with her to Hylax.... no one would have expected this sort of brazen daylight ambush.


The group, now with plenty of loot, needed somewhere safe to stash it. Right away.

And to their monster minds, the best place to do this was Beula the talktipuss woman's Cowpatty Hill hideout. So they headed there with the stash.


Beula asked about her boy. They didn't have an answer, so they ate her.


That was the end of the previous session.... which is where we opened last night.

I had originally been somewhat frustrated to have the gang return and eat Beula. That was toward the end of the game, and i was tired, and wondered if the whole storyline was shot.

Instead i decided to have Rip come to them. In a flying pirate ship. With a whole gang of hilarious pirates like Tatooed Tom, Davey Jones, Stinkbeard, Cold Cutlass, and Rotten Johnny the leprechaun.

The game last night began with the Monsters hangin out in their new digs.... when they heard a booming voice from outside.

( redneck hillbilly pirate voice):

"C' moan out now Beula! We need to tawk! Now you and me both know you done somethin makin yosef resposible for what happened in my distillery! That's my livilihood you messed with Beula! And I'll tell you what else Beula. Them Monsters done slaughtred an innocent girl on the way to her weddin! Is that acceptable to you Beula? Come on out now. Maybe we can figure somethin out! Maybe we can work something out where you can keep the boy!"


Last nights game wasn't a long one, just long enough to fight off Rip and his gang... at least for now, but it was still hilarious and a lot of fun.


We need a Deluxe edition M! M!

[unclecranky]

Agreed. Now convince the Buffalo to quit squatting and get it out here, where we can BUY it.

[devadasi]

I don't see it happening under the current paradigm. Personally, i think THE most awesome way to go would be to include a M!M! supplement in a big DELUXE TnT box set. You know, in lie of any kind of Monster Compendium thing.