Monsters! Monsters! the setting!

[devadasi]

Sad Sack slinks through the high grasses toward the campfire to get a better view, peeking around a small boulder.

The campsite ahead is full of dwarves. Sad Sack can't understand dwarven, but he knows the sillhuette of a stumpy when he sees one. The fire terrifies him, but the smell of roasted turkey legs coming from the raucus dwarven campsite causes him to drool on the rock. A hapless beetle drowns in his rancid slobber.

He notes that they have three of their number stationed on watch, at intervals of 30 feet, who stand 25 or so feet away from the main group. Eyes watchfull. The one farthest from Sack is actually stationed higher up, and thus able to see more from his vantage point in the ridge's early incline.


Sack returns to the group and tells them what is ahead.

"Looks like we don't need to save this donkey for later after all." Says the landshark, chomping off the upper portion of the beast of burden. But when no one else is interested right now, he stashes the rest in a tree, like he has seen the sabrecat do.

"More for me I guess, though I plan on filling my belly with dwarfmeat in about ten minutes."

"They look vigilant. We would be wise to plan our attack."

This sort of thought process is generally lost on the landshark, but the jaegermonster IS wearing that fancy hat, and uses all those big words, so the landshark aquieses.


The group decides to skirt WIDELY around the campsite, then circle back on it from the other end, this time gaining the advantage of elevation for themselves.

No one fails a 1st level stealth;luck roll, so nothing happens to give away their postion. No cracking sticks, no flushed out quail.... just five monsters preping an ambush.


Soon the uppermost dwarf is visible again, now about thirty five feet below them on the shallow incline.


NEXT: chaos, and combat!

[devadasi]

"Thess, I grab the chaos muppet, wad him up and throw him at the back of this dwar'fs head." says Patrick

"What?!" says Hannah Jane.

"he 25 feet away, 2nd level St roll, followed by 3rd level Dex roll" I say.

Patrick succeeds easily on the Strength roll, then proceeds to roll two sets of doubles plus another high number for the Dex SR.

"Whaaaaaaaag!" the muppet sails through the air, barely maintaining his grip on the blunderbuss. Patricks Dex roll was trhree levels over what i required, so i rule that Oafy hits this dwarf "SMACK!" in the back of the head with tremendous force and accuracy, knocking him down, and scattering a few of his teeth over the terrain. He drops his fancy dwarven repeater crossbow with its six bolt clip.

"Can i get up?" asks Hannah Jane

"Yep you are fine."

Dwarves below have realized something is up and shout "we're under attack!"

Another shouts " I seen 'em.. its Monsters!. Monsters!"

The two dwarven watchemen who were at the far end of the camp rush towards their friends, ready with crossbow repeaters, but still out of range.

" Can i shoot at anyone?" asks Hannah Jane
"Yep. fire away."

Hannah Jane also rolls several sets of doubles, which always gets her excited. She ends up with a 5th level SR roll when a 2nd level roll was requested.

" You hit one of the pickaxe weilding dwarves square in the chest with the full force of the blunderbuss. His pickax spins in the air, almost in slo mo, before hitting the ground, followed quickly by his body- he land on his back dead= gaping hole in his chest.

There are 12 dwarves left, all rushing the monsters with sharp pickaxes and two with the remaining repeater crossbows.

The demoness steps over the body of the first fallen dwarf and picks up his repeater, while knocking him upside the head with the butt of her flintlock.

The crossbow is a thing of beauty, obviously well made and expensive with lots of inlayed silver.

But when Lenara rolls to fire it, she gets a 4, and instead of firing, the crossbow ejects its clip, which clatters loudly to the ground.

"Blast!" she says, dropping the whole idea.

The jaegermonster casts Hidey Hole on the party.

"Where'd they go?" shouts one of the dwarves.

Sad Sack fires his longbow from inside the invisibility shield and sinks an arrow deep into one of the dwarves collarbones. Though he is not yet dead ( all of these dwarves have MR of 30 each), a luck roll from the monster determines that he does drop his pickaxe and loose the ability to use it this round.

Oafy is reloading his blunderbus.

The demoness fires a flintlock shot with more success than the crossbow, and takes another of the dwarves out.

"They gots a Wizard!" shouts one of the dwarves " i can't see them!"

"Hit the ground!" yells another.

The dwarves fire repeaters into the general area, but can't actually SEE their opponents.. all shots miss save one... which hits the landshark ( by virtue of a poor dex roll) his armor absorbs much of the impact, and he pulls the bolt from his arm with only 5 point Con loss.

round two being invisible. Oafy and the demoness are reloading their guns this round.

The jaegermonster fires off another TTYF! Sad Sack finishes off the dwarf he injured last round with another well placed longbow shot.

The dwarves, now down to 9 in number begin falling back. "Circle up brothers! circle up!"

On round three the group fires off two more gunshots and another longbow arrow. The longbow and the blunderbuss go wide, but the flintlock hits its mark, dropping another dwarf.

The invisibility shield fades away and Sad Sack rushes down into melee.

"Get ready to meet your foul maker monster!" the lead dwarf says, gritting his teeth. But when the landshark crests the hill behind Sad Sack his confidence wavers.

The landshark is taking pickaxes to the belly, back, and forearms but doesn't care. He takes six points of spite but still wins the round against the three he is involved with, swallowing ne whole, the dwarf's boots kicking frantically in the air for a moment before sinking into the landsharks gut.

Sad Sack is whipping the chain of the cuckoo clock into the heads of his own opponents, but he loses the round against the three he is engages with, and after spite, he has lost 10 Con.


However, next round the rest of the monsters arrive in the melee and the tide turns.

"You will pay for this you bastards!" the last dwarven miner says as he goes down swinging.


"Dinnertime" says the landshark.

And time for experience. 1,000 points each. that brings Oafy to 2nd level, so HJ gets exited and starts thinking about what stat to pad out.


That was the final game fro a month. I will be in India for all of January.... so play reports to resume in February.

[mahrundl]

We have to wait a whole month to hear more?

This has been wonderful to read, devadasi! Have an Exalt to take with you to India.

[unclecranky]

Have two!

[Burraggha]

Are we there yet??? Can't wait to read more!

[devadasi]

I got back from India yesterday. Spent some time on the long plane trip planning and brainstoming for my high level (9-10th) TnT game, back also doing some thinking about this game.

We will probably be able to start playing this game a week from Sunday, though I am still; trepidatioously crossing my fingers to play THIS Sunday. That would require some of the "just got back from abroad and now a million things to do" energy dying down, but its always possible.
Definitely assume that there will be more to read soon, whether its getting help brainstorming the dwarven miltitary complex, its architacture, defenses, and strange features, or adding a play report earlier than expected. I AM back.

[grrraall]

Feb 1, 2013 8:32:27 GMT -5 devadasi said:

I AM back.

Good to see you back, Devadasi.

[devadasi]

Super Bowl Sunday" Monsters! Monsters! " the only game in town.

Players: Lenare playing Madam Guilfoil the half demoness
Ana playing the weresabrecat
Eric playing the landshark
Patrick playing the jaegermonster.
Ganesha playing the abombination of dead flesh.


Son and daughter being with the other parental unit this night, Sad Sack the bigfoot goblin went into one of his weekly tantrums and wandered off grumbling about how he didn't like eating dwarf and the landshark should have "saved some goat for others....." Because sharing is caring.

Oafy, the chaos muppet ate 12 tins of miner's dry biscuits at the dwarven campsite, and having been made a bit dizzy by being tossed about in the battle, settled into a quiet stupor amongst the grasses.

However, expert tracker by way of smell, the sabretooth werecat has now caught up with the group and is ready to go "mess with some stumpy", and hopefully aquire a platinum necklace or three.

"When did you get back? " the landshark asks her

( As a GM, the casual and wacky nature of this setting, along with enough motivations to get new characters interested in wrecking the system, has been a pleasure. It means players can come and go on a weekly basis and its really not going to disrupt the flow of the game or create a continuity crisis.)

"that patchwork zombie followed me here by the way."

the sabrecat gestures at the abombination of dead flesh NPC, tonight played by Ganesha. The abombination of dead flesh was last seen taking part in the noble engenue's wedding party raid.
Ganesha on the other hand, was last seen playing a demon ape that was eaten by the landshark before ever making it through the adventure's intro scenes. He is like the Spinal Tap drummer. Characters played by Ganesha need to be replaced often.

"I though something smelled fishy." says the landshark.
the jaegermonster raises an eyebrow at the landshark, but the landshark doesn't notice.
"yeesh." mutters Madam Guilfoil.

"Onward" says the landshark.
"Don't touch my hat" says the jaegermonster to the deadflesh abombination, whom he has smacked before for said offence.


Nimbus clouds roll in along the ridgeline, signaling a late winter thunderstorm. Cold, and even unpleasant, it nonetheless provides good cover and camophlage for the three hour uphill hike. The monsters reach the top of the ridgeline about three hours before dawn. The highest point of the Big Battle Ridgeline now appears to be home to a small settlement, though the innovative impressiveness of its temple archetecture contrasts with the small, almost semi permanent nature of the community.
more after i rest

[devadasi]

Through the storm our morose monsters plod onward. As a group there is some consternation at the lurching and ponderous pace of the Abombination of Dead Flesh, but what's a flesh gollum to do?.


At the top of the rise looks to be what is largely a temporary settlement, as a number of the stuctures appear to be made of mud and thatch as opposed to carved in stone. However, some structures do stand out from this hodgepodge. The first, on account of its being closest, is an open aired, pillared pavilion. ( it does have a roof however, protecting it from the rain itself.)

The pavillion seems to serve as recreational space, that is, it is a place where a body may purchase strong spirits, and then imbibe them in large quantities.

Dawn is perhaps two hours away, and most of the dwarven revelers are snoring and farting through alchohol induced unconciouness. Five, however, remain awake. Four of those are slurring through a gutteral dwarven argument about the finer rule points of a drinking game that they are currently engaged in. Another stands behind a makeshift "bar" some ten feet away from his fellows..... wiping the lip marks from a used metal mug.


The other unusual structure is unusual in much the same way as the pavillion in that it also appears permanent, ( though not as old.) i But t is also unusual in its architecture. Its clearly a temple, as a stern and bearded iron face gazes down from above its central entrance, And it encorporates a smokestack ( as most dwarven temples are wont to do). Its central stack is larger than most, but that is not what makes for its second most unusual feature.

While the front of the temple gazes out over the rez, the flanks of the structures have small sidebuildings which have a fins at four cardinal points, making them look like rocket ships embedded in the earth. They are also surmounted by large rotating searchlights currently trained down into the reservation.

"Bastards." says the landshark.

The final building of the temple enclosure appears to be a glass dome encased in a steel cage. This shines with a light from within, which illuminates the rainy night for some distance. Inside, a tree? appears to be growing?

"Time for an ambush" the landshark states, gesturing with his toothy maw toward the pavillion.
"Wait!" says the jaegermonster " i need to consult with the thinking hat."

After a moment the jaegermonster speaks. " We want to smash the faces do we not? Let us look for acess points decending the ridge."

Thus they investigate the ridge line. As a result they are able to locate an iron staircase with several switchbacks that decends the cliff face. The rez and its water source, the western Satilla are visible 600 feet below.

"Aha! The hat has worked!" says the jaegermonster.

I explain that the staircase is labeled in dwarven runes, but no one can read dwarf, so its secret lies unrevealed. The monsters follw the stair case down three hairpin turns, only to have it end at a balcony obviously designed to be a latrine.

"Bastards" grumbles the landshark.

Disappointed and befuddled, the monster troop clangs back up the staircase. Frustration amongst this group invariably leads to violence.

"AMBUSH!" this time the landshark isn't waiting for any new "thinking", he is already loading his crossbow.

Sloshing up to the pavillion and taking cover behind one of the pillars the frustrated landshark lets loose with a crossbow bolt aimed at the lone bartender. But his shot misses wide, embedding itself in the wooden shelves behind the bar. The shark succeeds at a luck check though, and the inebriated bartender never notices. In fact, he casually hangs the metal stien he was polishing on the crossbow bolt peg and begins polishing the next glass.

"UUUrrrg!" the landshark bellows in frustration.

Madam Guilfoil the half demoness, decides to aim for one of the revelers.... in this case the one animatedly bloviating about how he will definitely be "last dwarf standing by the time three more rounds finish!"

M. Guilfoil's aim, tonight, is true. Her shot lodges firmly in the braggarts neck after Lenare rolls three sets of doubles! Its a clean, "perfect" kill. i ask her for a subsequent 1st level luck roll, which she also succeeds at.

The dwarfs compatriots laugh as the braggart lurches to his side, dead.

"HAW! HAW! I told you he was all talk! Dacron always says he's going to win only to pass out cold at the last minute!" a second dwarf snatches a gold coin from the hand of his now dead comrade. "I am going to be the King of Beer tonight I say!"

The demoness smirks at the landshark. Angier than ever he loads up a second shot.

The werecat takes a crossbow shot at the NEW braggart. Having a high dex, she doesn't need to roll doubles to make her 2nd level SR ( 15 feet away, easy unresistant target) Again she rolls a level higher than the roll requested and a second braggart goes down. One of the two remaining dwarves starts laughing hysterically at this turn of good fortune, but his mate squints his eyes a little, as if he feels something amiss.

" Take that you fool! on the smart one" says the jaegermonster.

"I am NAILING that bartender!" says the landshark

The TTYF "lights up" the wise guy, and he twitches in the chair as sparks breifly shoot out his eyes and ears. He falls over backwards.... not dead, but smoking, with not a lot of fight left in him.

The landshark misses again!, barely, this time. The bolt goes right through the bartenders hair, giving him a new, and handsome part on the side. Comicly his arms flail for a moment before he ducks down behind the bar.

"ARRRG! " the frustrated landshark belows, putting away his crossbow. "I walk right up to the bar and order a drink!"


"I'll shoot that last drunk idiot if i can." says Madam Guilfoil. Since the sabrecat shoots him as well, i rule him dead..


a landshark walks into a bar.....


The dwarf behind the bar peaks up from behind it and the landshark leans over.

"Give me a strong whiskey"

The dwarf squints for a moment, unsure of what he is seeing, then with frightened eyes, ducks back behind the bar.

"I'm waiting..." says the landshark, drubbing his fingers.

the dwarf comes back up from behind the bar, but this time he is nervously holding a blunderbuss
"We don't serve your kind here!" he shouts before pulling the trigger. "Die FIEND!"

"AGGH!" the landshark yells, taking 23 points of damage ( after armor protection was deducted. "Now you've made me mad!"

"Can i eat him?" Eric asks
"Well he definitely can't reload." I say

The bartenders legs kick briefly at the the air as the injured landshark stuffs him whole, and headfirst, into his huge toothy maw.

"Maybe we should take one of these guys hostage." drools the flesh gollum.

"They're dead." says the sabrecat

"all of them?"
"all the one's that weren't already passed out drunk."

"why not one of the passed out drunk ones?"
"because they are passed out drunk." says the sabrecat.

the gollum nods. "should we try the temple then?"

"any strong grain alchohol behind the bar?" the jaegermonster asks.

"couple of bottles."

"I take those."

"As explosives go, that's not going to amount to much." says the abombination of dead flesh.

"maybe i'm thirsty." replies the jaegermonster.

[devadasi]

With a commando's caution the Monsters! (TM) approach the front entrance to the temple. The searchlight towers flanking either side of this religious ediface have their lights trained on the reservation below, and the group approaches the front entrance unchallenged at this hour.


Inside the temple, it is hot, a fact attested to by the blast of hot air issuing out of the open entryhall. The central smokestack looks climbable, but if made of rivited iron plates.

"I don't want to burn my paws" says the sabrecat. Front entry it is then.


Inside the doorway, to the left and right are two small seclusion rooms with windows facing out over the central stack. These enable worshippers to gaze at the riveted iron face of the foepounder which gazes out over the central stack at the far end, without being exposed to the tremendous heat of the central chamber. Under that stern face is a huge alter, shaped to look like the business end of a giant hammer. The "hammer's" iron handle forms a bridge over the inferno at the bottom of the central stack, though that gazed upon chamber seems likely to ignite clothing were it exposed to such.

As "luck" would have it, a pious dwarf is praying in the right side seclusion, gazing longingly through a window at the face of the foepounder.. He is drawn from his reverie when the shadow of the landshark darkens the doorway.

"Unclean beast!" the dwarf hisses "your presence defiles the sacred flame! By the Forgelord you will regret your arrogance. taste my hammer!" the dwarf pulls a heavy hammer from his belt loop.

"I charge him and eat him!" says the landshark

"I shoot him with a bluderbus!" says the flesh gollum

"you will be shooting into the melee and will likely hit the landshark as well..." I offer

"that's okay. I shoot!" says Ganesha.

"3rd level dex roll." I say.
Ganesha rolls a 4.

" 2nd level luck roll?" I ask
Ganesha fails again.

the Landshark takes the full damage from the blunderbuss. He started the night with 70 CON. Having taken two shots from a blunderbus in the last hour though, he is now at 22. (currently with 12 armor points).

"AAAAGH! " shouts the landshark " I am gonna eat this guy then I'm coming after you!" the landshark turns and shouts at the gollum, but when he turns back to his prey he gets clocked upside the head with a hammer.

The jaegermonster casts" Take That You Fool!" on the dwarf, who trembles and shakes a moment, but maintains his hold on his hammer.

Next round.

Sabrecat joins the shark in the direct melee against the dwarf, casting "cat scratch fever" on her claws. Its overkill. The dwarf is torn to mincemeat.

" I shoot the landshark again" says Ganesha, now reloaded.

"WHAT?!" a collective response.

"Well, he's coming after me.... i might as well sieze the day."
BLAM! the abombination fires.

"I TTYF the abombination!" says the jeagermonster.

"Can I try to dodge it??" asks Eric.

" If you can make a second level dex roll, I will halve the damage"

Eric succeeds. The gollum is strobe lit by the jaegermonsters TTYF. Madam Guilfoil shoots the gollum with her flintlock.

The damage gets halved. Ganesha roll several 1's in his damage roll. The once tough landshark, is heavier by several pounds of buckshot, practically CLINGING to life with 5 CON.


The gollum is dead.

"Dammit Ganesha!" I shout "these NPC character sheets take time to create"

Blightus probably creates these flesh gollums by the dozen" Eric offers "and kicks them out just as quickly..... change his name and re-use him. Good as new."

"hmmmmm. excellent thinking, Eric" I laugh. Its like the bard character in "Dorkness Rising"


They throw the corpse of the gollum down into the incinerator. The landshark eats the dwarf. "Prefer my meat fresh."

"I don't think this temple is going to get us down into the head." says the jaegermonster, the lightbulb on his thinking cap showing a brief intermittant life.


"Lets go break through that glass dome". Says M. Guilfoil.

"I was thinking the same thing." says the sabrecat.

[devadasi]

No one can read the dwarven runes clearly posted on the steel framework surrounding the dome, not that they would have known what "biohazard" meant, nor would they have been likely to "keep back" just because a "bunch of letters" said to.

The landshark uses the butt end of his blunderbuss and smashes it with all of his might into the glass. The glash clouds up, and a noticeable concave dip appears in its surface.

"Its not smashed, but one more blow like that would probably shatter it."

the sabrecat speaks up "I'll smash it on that spot with my staff".

A hole opens up in the glass. Shards fall, disturbing velvet petaled, yellow flowers. a yellow cloud of pollen is ejected into the air, and is sucked out of the hole by wind pressure. The cat gets a faceful before the heavy rain washes the rest of the pollen cloud out of the atmoshere and into puddles on the ground.

the sabrecat begins coughing and gagging like a victim of the cinnamon challenge. Her face and eyes burn. She fails a 2nd level CON check. She doesn't know it yet, but she has just been infected by yellow musk creeper. She knows its unpleasant, but finds it to be mostly innocuous, a rather week natural defense system. The jaegermonster is smashing a new hole on the far side of the dome.

The second hole creates a vacum , and the thick yellow cloud inside the room is pulled out into the rainy night and washed to the ground before anyone else has to inhale it.


The sabrecat feels sick. The jeagermonster lights one of his liqour bottles with a rag and drops it down, burning the flowers and foliage of a good 1/4 of the plant away, but leaving a thick network of vines exposed, a possibly useful method of decent.

The sabrecat hauls the electric trident off her back and attaches it to the cannister engine. The cathode tube on the top of the energizer starts to hum and whine as the trident begins charging. She intends to take care of the rest of the vine.

"that might not be the best idea in this weather." the jaegermonster says... his thinking cap light becoming brighter.

"hmmm. maybe not. " she looks at the landshaark and asks "you wanna try it?"

"Nope!"

It is agreed that they group should be safe enough decending the vine at this point, as most of the pollen cloud has gone and the closest section of vine has no more foliage anyway.


The sabrecat climbs onto the steel cage and through the glass.

The secret underground military complex has been penetrated.


NEXT SESSION 2 weeks.

[devadasi]

map of the summit settlement (left page), front view of the temple (right top) and temple main room (right bottom)

Attachments:

[cram]

AWW-SOME! and exalt

[trrebmahl]

Noice! Exalt. Always enjoyable to read these write ups.

[ProfGremlin]

I concur, Devadasi, great write ups...

The gollum's story arc, esp. The Landshark Conflict, was great. Poor landshark... friendly fire isn't. I'm curious as to what character Ganesha will play next. While her track record thus far is hardcore crash-and-burn she does a great job getting there. Exalt! by proxy!.

I look forward to the return of Oafy the Chaospuppet next session. What can I say, I like muppets...