Getting Acquainted
We're finally back with the season three opener!
Seems like a weird fever dream that the antibiotics took care of, making us well again, but they eventually ran out and now we've returned to a universe of alien strangeness, crude sexual humor, and the desire to fuck shit up - the skinematic Vengerverse lives!
I was happy to see all the regulars again. 5 or 6 really is the best number of players. Since character creation in Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer is so quick, everyone started talking about what they wanted to play and made their PC right at the table before we got started.
We have the warrior Ha'Ork or Hork; the sorcerer / bard (electric guitar is the focus of his magic) named Billy Bandersnatch, a blue-suede elf; a v'smm priest named Thurberus; a droid priest named Botsterdomus; and Tinker McStabby a pixie-fairy thief.
Giving them the lay of the land, I told them that they knew their own names and bits of pieces of their former lives, but nothing concrete; everything was hazy. Something was preventing them from remembering. Additionally, they had a limiter (got that from Blake's 7 - my review of the first season coming soon), but the players started calling it an inhibitor, which I actually like better. So, they each had an inhibitor surgically implanted upon their temple. When performing certain actions, it would give them a searing brain scorch for about 30 seconds.
I had them roll a d100 to see how many days they'd been there (the longer they were, the greater chance for a mutation), and also a d12 for distinctive markings.
Hork had been there 18 and he could create a dazzling light as many times per day as his level) along with tribal scarification, Bandersnatch only 1 (with numbers and letters laser-grafted onto his forearm, a tag to let the penal colony on Cygnus Beta know who he was), Thurberus 2 (subdermal import jacks), Botserdomus 63 (an organic upper-right section of his torso was flesh rather than machine, making him something of a cyborg rather than full droid, along with a large purple bruise on his shoulder - can't recall his mutation as my note-taking got rusty, apparently), and McStabby 44 (all hair removed with the mutant ability to regenerate quickly)
Alright, so I divided the group up into existing factions wherever they've ended up.
Divide and Conquer
Billy Bandersnatch and Thurberus both assimilated quickly into the Jurtwee faction (heretofore known by the PCs as Jerk-Weed). These guys were anti-technology. A dozen humanoids congregated into a large mud hut, a cinnamon scented incense lit with several large grubs or centipedes giving off a bio-luminescence. Everyone hung their head low in solemn prayer - "Machines are evil - death to Magrose - technology is the ultimate corruptor!"
Minutes later, another from their tribe brought in a drowsy (possibly drugged) humanoid with a prosthetic cyber arm. "What's happening?" the stranger said as the tribe's leader instructed the newest members of their tribe, Thurberus and Bandersnatch, to use sharpened rocks and take the blasphemer's lifeforce, thereby solidifying the bond between the Jurtwee and their god.
Thurberus took the rock and immediately tried to dislocate the cyber arm from the man's shoulder. Bandersnatch stood there wondering how he could get out of there without doing harm to this guy or bringing the wrath of these cultists down on him. After a few rolls, the cyber arm guy fired a small missile from his arm directly at Thurberus' chest, nearly killing him. As cyber arm dude escaped out of the mud hut, Bandersnatch jumped on his back acting like he was attacking him with his sharp rock.
Seeing them make some distance from the Jurtwee, the v'smm priest ran after them. Once they got clear, they let the cyber arm sacrifice go and began to explore.
The other 3 PCs were part of the Zevateef tribe, even more primitive wearing animal skins, and most of them were mutants, having been here long enough to acquire one or more mutations. The tribe gathered in a ruined temple. Each held a cylinder with exterior holes, allowing one to see the bright green radioactive whatever inside. For a moment, Botserdomus had a memory flash - this was a plasma reactor core.
Each held the "holy vessel" above their mouth and recited the sacred words, "This holy vessel is the fruit of our race." As it was passed, the guy before Hork got a drop in his mouth and started convulsing and turning green. Hork did the same and nothing happened. Same with Botsterdomus. But when it came to Tinker McStabby, he got a whole big glob of green goo all over him, and rolled a 1 on his saving throw.
Now, this being the first session, I decreed (as it was in the previous season of the Cha'alt campaign) that any natural 1 would be special in some way, perhaps the equivalent of a critical-success. McStabby survived and gained the mutant ability of intuition.
After the ceremony, the PCs were instructed to follow Raheed into the grasslands to search for a second holy vessel that would be found beneath the black panel of colorful stars. Apparently, the Zevateef tribe wanted another plasma reactor core. So, they left.
Soon enough, all the PCs were in the same general area, a black panel next to a massive wall that spanned 2 or 3 miles decorated with red bars that were the same as the red bracelets that everyone here wore. Next to the black panel was a set of stairs going up. 20-feet up was another level. The "sky" dark but lit by several small suns or large stars and the temperature was always 72 degrees.
A guardian lurked the stairway, stopping people from climbing it. However, occasionally the stairs were clear, allowing folks to scavenge for food or supplies. Here on this level, food was dispensed from nozzles in the wall - a porridge type substance, not unlike shredded wheat.
Raheed had a dagger and the 2 PCs belonging to the other tribe tricked him into believing there was a "super inhibitor" they could outfit him with, if they killed the guardian. Raheed got halfway up the stairs when a giant manta-ray scorpion floated down, eventually stinging Raheed to death. The other PCs wanted nothing more to do with the guardian and instead focused their attention on the black panel.
The sequence of colorful stars or buttons was supposedly implanted in Hork's mind. So, he started pushing buttons... red, chartreuse, lavender, and indigo-blue. Instead of a plasma reactor core, a small panel opened to reveal a special big button that eventually someone else pushed. It created a hologram of a member of the Great Race of Yith that spoke in a foreign language, "Seeklu bla'ath blee zai-kone yavlo."
Therberus used his racial telepathic powers to translate the repeated holographic message and eventually got the following... "The ultra-telluric glyph is the most precious super-science technology on the Venturan - you must save it!"
Not knowing what to do with that information, they filed it away and kept pressing buttons. A viewer popped out of the black panel. Putting their eyes up against it, they saw several people entering a dimly lit rusty metal room as a purple light descended upon them. Within seconds, everyone in that metal room was dead.
Soon, they got a proximity alert that another ship was approaching and preparing to dock. A ship that would transfer its prisoners to the Venturan. Attempting to push more buttons in the hopes of contacting the ship or trying to interact with it in some other way, a couple security droids came by and forced the PCs to move along.
Botsterdomus tried to smack one of the droids and for his trouble got blasted nearly to death. Oh yeah, Therberus' healing powers were accompanied by that searing pain for 30 seconds, but he was still able to heal himself from earlier and now the droid priest.
Wandering what soon became clear as their artificial environment inside a prison ship, they found a woman with pale skin and pink mohawk wearing a black silk outfit named Sass. She was struggling to insert a data cartridge into a rectangular gray box but it wouldn't fit. It was technology she found just outside the punishment dome. She'd just arrived onto the Venturan but also wasn't sure of her memories. But she knew that the sign of voorax could occasionally save people from phenomena similar to the descending purple illumination.
She came with them as the party then encountered a man-sized crab-mollusk creature with leopard spots. He confirmed that they were, indeed, aboard a prison ship. He was once a man, but stopped eating the provided food that contained memory erasing drugs. Instead, he ate the weird plants around here and that accelerated his mutations. This crab dude also had the power to explode peoples' heads, and said he'd help the PCs overcome the stair guardian.
They promised to come back for the crab after checking out the punishment dome. As the adventuring party reached the dome, they heard something on a loudspeaker about the prisoner transfer and security droids should report to red sector-B. The PCs could hear the security droids coming because they were a short distance away from red sector-B.
A door opened that led to one of those floaty corridors between ships and there were port-holes confirming that they were traveling through space.
The PCs had a decision to make, and time was running out as 5 new humanoid prisoners were escorted through the corridor and onto the Venturan. They decided to make a break for it and run into the corridor and to the other ship as Sass distracted the security droids by asking about the two incompatible mechanical parts.
Only the last 2 were spotted by the security droids and got fired upon. Luckily, they missed and Sass ran behind them. Once across and aboard the other ship, Hork pressed buttons to close the door and send the floating corridor adrift. Meanwhile, McStabby used his intuition to find the bridge. A blue-skinned guy holding a big laser rifle stopped them, questioning who these people were, assuming they were stowaways.
They did their best to convince the blue guy that they were part of the new crew just arrived to help man the ship. The PCs were told to wait in the lounge as blue guy went to confirm their story with the captain. As he turned his back, McStabby attempted to backstab but failed and played it off like he was trying to pat him on the back or something.
The PCs explored the ship, finding a restroom complete with 3 seashells, a nearly empty crew quarters that had decent clothes and a laser pistol (Tinker also found a living green leprechaun hat with pink fringe and tentacles that attached to his skull like a symbiote and somehow ate / pooped-out his inhibitor). They saw a vulcan talking to a wookie in the hallway, then wandered into the lounge where a humanoid raccoon was trying to play 17-dimensional chess solitaire. Happy to have some company, the racoon named Jay-vax welcomed them aboard and got Hork some "crisps" from the lounge vending machine - first making sure that he didn't want a pair of used panties, instead.
Jay-vax was the engineer and tech-guy of the ship, so he tried to pop those inhibitors off their craniums. He didn't have the right tool (I rolled a 2 on the skill-check), and couldn't get them off. Jay-vax played 17-dimensional chess with Therberus, winning because he rolled a 1 as they were playing "Albuquerque rules" (it wasn't Albuquerque, but I can't remember the fictional city Therberus claimed to be from).
At some point, Therberus picked up a puzzle piece from a nearly completed puzzle on some random table, and the party visited the bridge so they could talk to the captain and get it over with - surrender themselves, keep up the ruse, take over the ship, or something else.
Turns out that captain Neevo was extremely accommodating. He let the PCs pick their own specialty and join his crew upon the S.S. Motherfucker. Neevo informed them that they'd reach the next destination, a fairly dangerous and somewhat civilized desert planet named Cha'alt in about 5 or 6 standard hours and they'd get a chance to leave the ship and stretch their legs for a couple days before heading out.
That's where we left things. Although, the PCs talked about future plans, like starting their own cult and livestreaming their adventures. On Cha'alt, "like and subscribe" has been replaced by "insert the tentacle." Good times!
Aftermath
The following are some phrases of note. There should have been a few more, but like I said, my GM note-taking has taken a dive since we last gamed. Next time, I'll record more of the good stuff!
- "Some people can't handle their green shit."
- "Banana-shaped shank."
- "Toilet paper turban."
- "Scumdogs in Paradise."
Because of the inhibitor, the PCs didn't get to use much of their class abilities. They'll have ample opportunity (most likely) next session. But to recap, here are the roleplaying incentives we'll be playtesting for this campaign. I've shortened them for ease of use...
- Thieves can earn luck by stealing shit.
- Sorcerers can earn arcana by gaining a better understanding of mystical / magical shit.
- Priests can earn religious renown for bolstering their religion / cult (of personality) and working miracles and shit.
- Warriors can earn epic deeds by being a master of warfare and shit.
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