Link to Introduction and Week 1
Link to Week 2
Week 3
When we last left our intrepid adventurers the "Pride of Hasauphut" had just exploded. Being intrepid they immediately turn around to loot what remains. Unfortunately for them the explosion of a power plant big enough to run a battle hulk has triggered a secondary explosion of the infernal engine which powers the "Pride of Hasauphut", so the ship had been reduced to a fine mist of brass droplets. Miraculously the space marine who had been taking a nap on-board (player didn't show for week two) is found drifting in space unharmed (Being a "softie" I prefer to have players kill themselves with their own foolishness, than rule them dead because the party did something foolish the week they didn't show). Captain Sabido stands speechless in shock and awe (his player didn't show this week). The party quickly straps Captain Sabido in the co-pilots chair and the Fighter (the farm boy snatched by Negoi off the surface of planet Farmville) assumes piloting control. They set course for the dinosaur planet, as the druid has a strong hankering to see a few of those in action. Remembering Captain Sabido's promise to the githyanki, the party wisely decided to exit the red mist on the opposite side of the red mist. Unfortunately, the githyanki being experienced space pirates have posted a manticore rider here as a sentry to watch for that sort of thing. The party opens fire with everything they've got to take the rider out before he sounds the alarm. However, the pilot decides to take the ship further away from the sentry (new player, after contradictory advise from all the table, I took the standard DM approach quieting the kibitzers down, and saying it's your character, what are YOU doing?). This makes it so when the sentry turns and flees he out of effective range of every one (having lost two thirds of his hit points in the first round he know when its time to get help). For a couple days it looks like they have given the githyanki the slip, then on day three who should appear but five manticore riders on attack vectors moving at flank speed, plus some tougher looking guy on white dragon back. The word "dragon" seems to conjure a susurrus of fear amongst the party, but the druid and the wizard devise a cunning plan. The druid quickly summons his band of invisible pixies and sends them 200 foot out to meet the oncoming githyanki. As the githyanki cross the 200 ft mark the pixies cast polymorph on the dragon, the wizard loans the dragon a "2" from his dice of fortune and voila! space chicken. The githyanki hurtle onwards, although one is slowed by having to retrive his illustrious leader from chicken back. As the they cross the 100 foot mark they are bombarded by fireballs from the wizard and cleric (who knew sun clerics could throw fireballs), as well as being entangled in a wall of thorns by the bard. With grim determination the githyanki press on while the dragon fails to un"chickenize". The party is surprised when the githyanki misty step through the hull, but the opening bombardment has taken too much of a toll and the githyanki are quickly cut down. The dragon still stuck in chicken form gives up and flies off. Thus the legend of the "Space Chicken" is born. The party continues on and lands at the space port on the dinosaur planet which looks like a cross between Mos Eisley and a Mayan pyramid complex. The fifty foot tall posts with lighting bolts shooting between them and the surrounding jungle, suggests dinosaurs nearby. The city itself is inhabited by a fifty-fifty mix of dragonborn and spacefarers. Due to a character flaw the marine find the nearest bar and challenges the meanest looking customer, a dragonborn, to a fight. Although creatures with claws are at an advantage in a bare fisted brawl the marine comes within one punch of wining before toppling over due lack of hit points. The party halls the marine back to the ship to rest up. While the bike messenger sets off to explore the city. The druid and the cleric, and the druid's girlfriend (NPC) sneak out into the jungle. The rest of the night is spent using pass without trace to observe without disturbing the local fauna. The druid gets to add allosaurus, triceratops, pterodactyl, and saber tooth tiger to his list. More next time.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
Spelljamming Post Mortem 2 the return of Captain Sabido
See part 1 here
Week 2
Captain Sabido awakens to find his "Co-Pilots" gone. Being quick thinking and morally ambiguous he purchases a fighter and a magic user (two new players who wanted to learn how to play) from the bat winged Neogi slaver to act as "Co-Pilots". "Co-piloting" the Reasonable Fear involves being strapped in a chair while the ship slowly drains your life force away. By the way none of the "space drow" will ever sit in that chair. Captain Sabido takes off and starts to shadow the manticore riders which are shadowing the "Pride of Hasauphut". Captain Sabido catches up with the manticore riders as they lurk outside the red mist (the magics that allow manticores to fly through the ether are not red mist proof). The manticore riders demand to see his papers that give him the right to fly through githyanki space (just between you and me are no papers that give you right to fly through githyanki space, matter fact if there even is a githyanki space this ain't it). Captain Sabido ask how much to purchase such papers, this is answered with how much you got? They finally settle for 500 gp and the rest when he gets back and let him proceed into the red mist without a fight. He comes into view of the "Pride of Hasauphut" just as the other players emerge from the ship. After the reunoin it is suggested that the extra "space drow" spacesuits (left over from the "space drow" that didn't volunteer for Captain Sabidos crew by laying their weapons down fast enough) might just be the thing for traveling the red mist. Captain Sabido being that kind of captain volunteers most of his remain "space drow" to go check out the third level. The space suits are indeed effective against the red mist, but the comm link soon crackles with "its a trap" follow by "oh my god their killing us" (Never send NPCs to do the PCs job). So the PCs suit up and head in, they bring the last remaining "space drow" after failing miserably to figure out how run the light mech and its laser cannon themselves. They penetrate to the point they see the lead "space drow" sliced in half by bladey things and the rest dead from strange puncture wounds. The wounds make more sense once the phase spiders attack. The mech proves surprisingly ineffective after the phase spider phases the the armor plate to bite the drow in the cockpit. The party slays two phase spiders drives the third one off. Captain Sabido decides to leave the paralyzed drow in the mech cockpit with a dismissive "Oh, he'll be fine just let him sleep it off". They move on and find a strange contraption of silver hoops which on closer examination appears to be some sort of star chart. They encounter encounter a blue slaad sitting on a pile of space marine, although he willing to talk he seems to want do it while murdering people. He injects Captain Sabido with blue slaad eggs before succumbing to the parties ministrations. Unfortunately the "angel" cleric seems to have left his cure disease in his other pants. No worries just hang on at half your hit point with no healing until tomorrow. The party presses onwards. They encounter a antechamber filled with seven suits of power armor in their charging stations. Opening the doors they enter a large hall which has at the far end the 20x20 cube that is the ships power source. Next to the cube is a woman in a green slinky dress (green slaad) and an automaton with a shield (shield guardian). Strewn through out the room are dead space marines. Once the party is entirely in the room the woman in the green dress gives a shout and the space marines begin to rise. The arcane members of the party respond with two quick fireballs. Although this fixes the space marine problem, the party is appalled both that the woman in green dress seems unscathed by the fireballs and that she throws on of her own. Captain Sabido pulls out his trademark spell and casts them into the black void of outer space. Neither the woman in the green dress (being a fiend from limbo) or the automation (being not alive) seem to be bothered much by the black void of space, but it does block their line of sight until they move out of it. Eventually after the shield guardian crumbles away in the hand to hand which ensues, the woman in the green dress also succumbs and reveals her true toad like nature. The party triumphs disconnects the power plant and tries to figure out how to move its several ton mass out of here. No problem the'll get the mech. Well the mech is right where they left it, but the mech pilot has disappeared (leaving him alone with the phase spider,even if they did scare it off for a while, was not the best of plans). However, it turns out that Captain Sabido knows how to run a mech after all. The party exits the space hulk with seven suits of space marine armor, a new power supply, and a star chart. The bicycle messenger claims dibs on the star chart and places it in his cabin on the "Pride of Hasauphut". When the power plant appears to big to fit through the hatch of the "Reasonable Fear" Captain Sabido sells it to the Captain of the "Pride of Hasauphut" for 5000 gp. Both ships power up and prepare to head out. The "Pride of Hasauphut" explodes...
More next time
Week 2
Captain Sabido awakens to find his "Co-Pilots" gone. Being quick thinking and morally ambiguous he purchases a fighter and a magic user (two new players who wanted to learn how to play) from the bat winged Neogi slaver to act as "Co-Pilots". "Co-piloting" the Reasonable Fear involves being strapped in a chair while the ship slowly drains your life force away. By the way none of the "space drow" will ever sit in that chair. Captain Sabido takes off and starts to shadow the manticore riders which are shadowing the "Pride of Hasauphut". Captain Sabido catches up with the manticore riders as they lurk outside the red mist (the magics that allow manticores to fly through the ether are not red mist proof). The manticore riders demand to see his papers that give him the right to fly through githyanki space (just between you and me are no papers that give you right to fly through githyanki space, matter fact if there even is a githyanki space this ain't it). Captain Sabido ask how much to purchase such papers, this is answered with how much you got? They finally settle for 500 gp and the rest when he gets back and let him proceed into the red mist without a fight. He comes into view of the "Pride of Hasauphut" just as the other players emerge from the ship. After the reunoin it is suggested that the extra "space drow" spacesuits (left over from the "space drow" that didn't volunteer for Captain Sabidos crew by laying their weapons down fast enough) might just be the thing for traveling the red mist. Captain Sabido being that kind of captain volunteers most of his remain "space drow" to go check out the third level. The space suits are indeed effective against the red mist, but the comm link soon crackles with "its a trap" follow by "oh my god their killing us" (Never send NPCs to do the PCs job). So the PCs suit up and head in, they bring the last remaining "space drow" after failing miserably to figure out how run the light mech and its laser cannon themselves. They penetrate to the point they see the lead "space drow" sliced in half by bladey things and the rest dead from strange puncture wounds. The wounds make more sense once the phase spiders attack. The mech proves surprisingly ineffective after the phase spider phases the the armor plate to bite the drow in the cockpit. The party slays two phase spiders drives the third one off. Captain Sabido decides to leave the paralyzed drow in the mech cockpit with a dismissive "Oh, he'll be fine just let him sleep it off". They move on and find a strange contraption of silver hoops which on closer examination appears to be some sort of star chart. They encounter encounter a blue slaad sitting on a pile of space marine, although he willing to talk he seems to want do it while murdering people. He injects Captain Sabido with blue slaad eggs before succumbing to the parties ministrations. Unfortunately the "angel" cleric seems to have left his cure disease in his other pants. No worries just hang on at half your hit point with no healing until tomorrow. The party presses onwards. They encounter a antechamber filled with seven suits of power armor in their charging stations. Opening the doors they enter a large hall which has at the far end the 20x20 cube that is the ships power source. Next to the cube is a woman in a green slinky dress (green slaad) and an automaton with a shield (shield guardian). Strewn through out the room are dead space marines. Once the party is entirely in the room the woman in the green dress gives a shout and the space marines begin to rise. The arcane members of the party respond with two quick fireballs. Although this fixes the space marine problem, the party is appalled both that the woman in green dress seems unscathed by the fireballs and that she throws on of her own. Captain Sabido pulls out his trademark spell and casts them into the black void of outer space. Neither the woman in the green dress (being a fiend from limbo) or the automation (being not alive) seem to be bothered much by the black void of space, but it does block their line of sight until they move out of it. Eventually after the shield guardian crumbles away in the hand to hand which ensues, the woman in the green dress also succumbs and reveals her true toad like nature. The party triumphs disconnects the power plant and tries to figure out how to move its several ton mass out of here. No problem the'll get the mech. Well the mech is right where they left it, but the mech pilot has disappeared (leaving him alone with the phase spider,even if they did scare it off for a while, was not the best of plans). However, it turns out that Captain Sabido knows how to run a mech after all. The party exits the space hulk with seven suits of space marine armor, a new power supply, and a star chart. The bicycle messenger claims dibs on the star chart and places it in his cabin on the "Pride of Hasauphut". When the power plant appears to big to fit through the hatch of the "Reasonable Fear" Captain Sabido sells it to the Captain of the "Pride of Hasauphut" for 5000 gp. Both ships power up and prepare to head out. The "Pride of Hasauphut" explodes...
More next time
Monday, April 13, 2015
Spelljammer Post Mortem
Alright back from the multiverse to blog some more. The Planescape game I blogged about in my last post has drawn to a close (only planned to run for the month of March to begin with) and has seemed quite successful. Due to pressing time constraints (never should have signed up for that on-line college course) preparation for the Planescape game consisted of a half hour of bookmarking monsters in the monster manual on the weekend and 15 minutes of picking out battle maps before the game started. Loot was rolled up randomly after each encounter. For the finale she-who-must-be obeyed helped out by spend several hours on the weekend gluing together custom battle maps from the Skeleton Key Dungeon Tiles I printed out.
Prologue:
Captain Sabido blasts off planet Farmville in a shiny metal spherical spell jammer known as the "Resonable Fear" with a crew of six "space drow" and the two PCs crazy enough to ride with him (the bard and the druid). The players were less enthused with the "Reasonable Fear" once they figured out what the co-pilots chair which faced backwards had no control panel and wrist restraints really did.
Week 1
The Reasonable Fear docks at the nearest space bar the "Rock of Fred" a smallish asteroid with a giant neon sign that says "EATS" run by a blue hippo. Also parked at the asteriod a nineteenth century sailing ship with red sails stayed like bat wings, two manticores, a bicycle with arcane symbols woven into the spokes, and a Mississippi Paddle wheeler made entirely of brass labeled named the "Pride of Hasauphut". Inside the bar are two githyanki, several dwarves with funny hats, a 19th century Marine with two flintlock pistols and a muzzle loader, a man claiming to be the angel of light, and a bicycle messenger. After some short negotiations the two crew who flew in with Captian Sabido, the Marine and the "angel" sign on with the "Pride of Hasauphut" as mercenaries to travel to the Moon of brass and help drive the "Darkness" from the ruined cities there and check out a wrecked spaceship along the way. The bicycle messenger rents a cabin to spell him between message jaunts. Captain Sabido is left in his inebriated state to fly the "Reasonable Fear" on his own (after making bold statements about how exited he was to be playing Spelljamer, the player who controlled the captain failed to show for the game). A sharp eyed PC notices the githyanki saddling up and following the paddle wheeler at a distance short after the "Pride of Hasauphut" pulls out. Two day out in deep space the githyanki are joined by two more. Four days out they encounter a zone of red mist, the dwarf captain orders everyone inside. Traveling through the red mist (the githyanki don't follow) they enter a clear area within the mist were floats half of a ruined space ship decorated like a Gothic cathedral but with a skull motif as well. Three decks are wide open for entrance, the party enters the top one, the dwarfs refuse to leave the ship but offer the party hazard pay. The party battles a swarm of shadows in the ships corridors, and reaches the bridge only to activate the automata which guard it. They salvage the bridge for electronics and realize the power is still on they try to descend through a ladder in an access way to the third level but discover the third level is shrouded in red mist. The bard, after watching the bottom his boot dissolve, wisely decided to climb back up. They return to a stairway they passed on the way to the bridge and descend to the second deck. They reach what appears to be the main galley only to encounter two red slaad. After a tough fight (somehow those fire spells didn't work as well as they were supposed to) they gather the loot and head back to the "Pride of Hasauphut" to rest up.
Week 2 next time
Prologue:
Captain Sabido blasts off planet Farmville in a shiny metal spherical spell jammer known as the "Resonable Fear" with a crew of six "space drow" and the two PCs crazy enough to ride with him (the bard and the druid). The players were less enthused with the "Reasonable Fear" once they figured out what the co-pilots chair which faced backwards had no control panel and wrist restraints really did.
Week 1
The Reasonable Fear docks at the nearest space bar the "Rock of Fred" a smallish asteroid with a giant neon sign that says "EATS" run by a blue hippo. Also parked at the asteriod a nineteenth century sailing ship with red sails stayed like bat wings, two manticores, a bicycle with arcane symbols woven into the spokes, and a Mississippi Paddle wheeler made entirely of brass labeled named the "Pride of Hasauphut". Inside the bar are two githyanki, several dwarves with funny hats, a 19th century Marine with two flintlock pistols and a muzzle loader, a man claiming to be the angel of light, and a bicycle messenger. After some short negotiations the two crew who flew in with Captian Sabido, the Marine and the "angel" sign on with the "Pride of Hasauphut" as mercenaries to travel to the Moon of brass and help drive the "Darkness" from the ruined cities there and check out a wrecked spaceship along the way. The bicycle messenger rents a cabin to spell him between message jaunts. Captain Sabido is left in his inebriated state to fly the "Reasonable Fear" on his own (after making bold statements about how exited he was to be playing Spelljamer, the player who controlled the captain failed to show for the game). A sharp eyed PC notices the githyanki saddling up and following the paddle wheeler at a distance short after the "Pride of Hasauphut" pulls out. Two day out in deep space the githyanki are joined by two more. Four days out they encounter a zone of red mist, the dwarf captain orders everyone inside. Traveling through the red mist (the githyanki don't follow) they enter a clear area within the mist were floats half of a ruined space ship decorated like a Gothic cathedral but with a skull motif as well. Three decks are wide open for entrance, the party enters the top one, the dwarfs refuse to leave the ship but offer the party hazard pay. The party battles a swarm of shadows in the ships corridors, and reaches the bridge only to activate the automata which guard it. They salvage the bridge for electronics and realize the power is still on they try to descend through a ladder in an access way to the third level but discover the third level is shrouded in red mist. The bard, after watching the bottom his boot dissolve, wisely decided to climb back up. They return to a stairway they passed on the way to the bridge and descend to the second deck. They reach what appears to be the main galley only to encounter two red slaad. After a tough fight (somehow those fire spells didn't work as well as they were supposed to) they gather the loot and head back to the "Pride of Hasauphut" to rest up.
Week 2 next time
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
