Into The Shadows — Game Session — 014

by: Charles Plemons - January 21st, 2020   Filed under: Gaming, Shadowrun 1 Comment

Game summary for January 21, 2020, Into The Shadows campaign, Shadowrun 5th Edition, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Ballyhoo (Human Augmenter played by Andrew Renfrow), Clutch (Human Transport Rigger played by Peyton Harmon), Dell (Human Technomancer played by Shane Bradley), Hollywood (Human Combat Medic played by Chris Harmon), and Octane (Elf Razor played by Casey Scruggs). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Dell and Hollywood worked hard to provide triage and first aid to members of Kaur’s Farm.  Meanwhile, Clutch rallied some of the tech-savvy of the people and began tearing into the generator with aplomb, discovering it would take several hours of work.  The group got more information from Singh and Donnie and decided to go south to investigate a squatter settlement that no one had heard from in a week.  The team drove a rust bucket pick-up truck down there and found a scene of horror.  Dead animals were everywhere, and the camp was filled with dead people. 

The group used a forensics kit provided by Donnie Hua to investigate and spent about three hours gathering information.  They learned the people died from a combination of animal and human/metahuman injuries.  Oddly, only the bodies of males and women over 50 were found among the dead.  Several bodies were obviously missing as well.  Around the camp, they discovered bait stations that would draw in predatory animals close to the settlement.  They also found mountain bike tracks all around.  Hollywood made the horrific discovery that the bodies had been partially eaten by human-like bites, but pains had been taken to cover up this fact by mutilating the bodies. 

They returned to Kaur’s Farm to report their findings.  In the meantime, Clutch had fixed the generator.  Dell was able to discover some bait stations around the farm as well, and they matched those at the settlement. 

The group went north to the microbrewery to investigate the scene where the first body that had drawn Hua out here had been found.  There they discovered several more bodies and pieced together more clues.  Several key pieces of evidence pointed to a Gabriel hound as being the culprit, but some of the facts did not add up.  Ballyhoo was able to sense that some sort of spirit had been involved, and its residual aura did not match the magic he had sensed on the corpses of the dead animals back at the farm.  The group also found that one of the sprawl gangers had unloaded a magazine into “something” that flattened the rounds.  Perplexed, the team got back into their truck to return to the farm. 

Into The Shadows — Game Session — 013

by: Charles Plemons - January 14th, 2020   Filed under: Gaming, Shadowrun 1 Comment

Game summary for January 14, 2020, Into The Shadows campaign, Shadowrun 5th Edition, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Ballyhoo (Human Augmenter played by Andrew Renfrow), Clutch (Human Transport Rigger played by Peyton Harmon), Hollywood (Human Combat Medic played by Chris Harmon), and Octane (Elf Razor played by Casey Scruggs). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team landed the stolen chopper on the Ares ship and made the exchange, collecting their fee.  They then remotely called in Clutch’s boat and abandoned the helicopter, letting it crash into the sound.  Then they took a two-week vacation to the California Free State to lay low a while. 

After returning to Seattle, they received an early morning call from Fast Freddy who got them in touch with Donnie Hua, a retired Lone Star officer.  He convinced them to accept a run to the Redmond Barrens to investigate some deaths, some strange animal attacks, and to bring in needed medical and mechanical supplies.  However, they had to leave in 3 hours to get generator parts to Kaur’s Farm before nightfall. 

The group gathered their gear and traveled to the infamous Crusher 495 bar to meet up with a Crimson Crush convoy hired to take them to the farm.  They met Arona, a female troll member of Crimson Crush.  The team watched the various riffraff and desperate denizens of the Barrens negotiating passage on the convoy.  The trip was mostly uneventful; the Crush disabled one IED, but otherwise were not harassed. 

Once they arrived at the farm, they found piles of dead animals and lots of tired and wounded people.  The gear was unloaded, and Hollywood went off to help tend to the injured.  Clutch was asked to help with the generator repair.  Octane and Ballyhoo accompanied Donnie and Chaaya into the compound to meet with the patron of the farm, Bhagat Singh.  They discovered him to be a massive troll armed with a sweeping curved sword.  They exchanged some pleasantries for a few minutes while Hollywood and Clutch were doing what they could to help out. 

Into The Shadows — Game Session — 012

by: Charles Plemons - January 7th, 2020   Filed under: Gaming, Shadowrun 1 Comment

Game summary for January 7, 2020, Into The Shadows campaign, Shadowrun 5th Edition, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Ballyhoo (Human Augmenter played by Andrew Renfrow), Clutch (Human Transport Rigger played by Peyton Harmon), Dell (Human Technomancer played by Shane Bradley), Hollywood (Human Combat Medic played by Chris Harmon), and Octane (Elf Razor played by Casey Scruggs). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team piled into the elevator as both Dell and Clutch tried desperately to hack it.  Finally, they succeeded, and it ascended to the 55th floor.  The group piled out, and Octane used his foam explosives to blow up the stairs in the two stairwells before the guards could make it to the top while the others jammed the elevator doors open with office furniture.  Octane then rigged the elevator to blow in case they needed it to.  The group then went out and hid under the helipad awaiting the chopper.

The helicopter landed, and two armed men emerged obviously having trouble with their comms with building security.  VP Muller was quickly ushered off the roof and into the stairwell.  The team emerged and hijacked the helicopter from the pilot.  They plunged off the roof right as one of the guards returned and opened fire.

The group cheered as they began to speed off into the night.  However, one of the building windows exploded outward as a western dragon burst forth and took up pursuit!  It lashed the chopper with flaming breath, badly damaging the vehicle, but Clutch was able to keep it aloft.  Octane threw open the door, and the team unleashed a barrage of bullets and spells at the dragon.  Some struck true, others bounced off its thick scales.  Ballyhoo hit it with magic as Clutch began to outpace it.  Out of range of its breath, the dragon hurled spells of its own.  It knocked Dell unconscious and rocked the chopper.  Again Clutch’s expert piloting skills kept them airborne and moving.  With some impressive maneuvering, he dodged around buildings and left the dragon far behind!  The group then headed out to sea to rendezvous with the Ares vessel to make the drop. 

Ruins of Undermountain — Game Session — 027

by: Charles Plemons - January 3rd, 2020   Filed under: Gaming, Harm Incorporated, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Ruins of Undermountain Add Comment

Game summary for January 3, 2020, Ruins of Undermountain campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Harm Incorporated. Session included: Boran Gibbs (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Kalil Bakran (Human Sorcerer played by Parker Harmon), Paddy Brandywine (Halfling Bard played by Preston Harmon), and Rumbald Shieldcracker (Dwarf Ranger played by Peyton Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The group came across a gorgon and a ghoul deathspeaker.  The team unleashed a barrage of spells, and badly wounded the gorgon.  The ghoul cast wall of ice to slow the onslaught, which worked to limited extent.  Rumbald chopped through engaged the gorgon.  Paddy moved up on the ghoul to put pressure on him, and he attempted to drive him away with banshee blast without success.  The ghoul protected himself with mirror image and then turned invisible.  Kalil was still able to see and target him, so he dropped an obscuring mist on the area.  The team was slowed just a bit, but they were able to back off and blast away with area of effect spells.  The group then searched the room and moved on further into Undermountain. 

The party came across a shrine being dedicated to Bane.  A pair of baneguard warriors shuffled to block the team’s progress, and a massive banelar slithered up behind them.  The team unleashed a barrage of fireballs and started to approach.  The vicar standing at the altar summoned a fiendish tyrannosaurus and protected himself with shield of faith.  Boran was snatched up into the dinosaur’s jaws after dispatching the baneguards.  The vicar struck Paddy blind, and then he obscured the team with plague storm, which inflicted the shakes upon Kalil. 

The team kept pressure upon the dinosaur and banelar, so the vicar divided the party with a blade barrier while the dinosaur killed and ate Boran.  The vicar used greater forbid action to prevent Rumbald and Paddy from casting spells and then dropped Paddy to the ground with greater command.  Rumbald tried to use arrows through the blade barrier with little success while Kalil was killed and eaten by the tyrannosaurus as well.  The dinosaur died because Kalil was poisoned by the banelar and was poisonous to it!  Paddy was able to get adjacent to the vicar, and he began channeling negative energy while the banelar stung the halfling and weakened him with poison.  Rumbald gave up on the ranged attacks and plunged through the blade barrier to chop down the banelar.  The vicar then used power word blind to blind the two remaining party members.  Rumbald got hold of him and grappled him to the ground where he channeled negative energy again, killing Paddy.  The two wrestled a bit, and finally Rumbald picked up the priest and ran bodily through the blade barrier while crying out for their merchant ally, Ludavic Snerd.  The whirling blades killed both of them!

With the area “safe”, Snerd’s doorway appeared, and the merchant peered out and saw the carnage.  He used magic to raise Paddy, and he was able to acquire the magic required from the merchant to recover his allies.