The Eight Track Mind #21
Ramblings on RPGs, SF, Fantasy, and Stuff
Virgil S. Greene, Resident Scribbler
Well, summer is here and with it heat, humidity, road work, bugs, and other joyous things. Summer ceased to be particularly worthwhile when "summer vacation" wasn't a regular part of life. Enough of my odd viewpoints! On to the...
OFFICIAL TOPIC: MAGIC ITEMS
The Orb of All Worlds
The Orb featured in one (rather bad) campaign I ran, and in a different form in a one shot game. In the campaign, it was a device that allowed random interdimensional travel. It really was just a plot device to allow for whatever kind of adventure I felt like running. In the one shot, it was a device for interdimensional summoning that allowed an evil wizard to summon Cthulhu Mythos monsters into a basically RuneQuest setting.
The Orb had no particular origin story; in the campaign it was found by the party and in the one shot it was a sort of trophy that was stolen from the player characters' Lord and they didn't know about its powers until the monsters started showing up. If I used it again it'd have both sets of powers and would be a mysterious, dangerous to use item of uncertain origin.
I should note that the Orb had no relation at all to the Orbs in the series Brisco County Jr.; it predated them and had rather different powers.
STORY OF A ONE SESSION WONDER
I've been wanting to do a one session adventure for some time. I'm not really in a position to start up a campaign, but I still want to do some GM'ing. So, I elected to work up a scenario in my "Shifted Lands" setting (see IR #17) to run on a Monday holiday. I ended up also creating a selection of characters as a time saver; I was running in GURPS and it can take hours to create a character, plus some of the potential players weren't all that familiar with GURPS. Things went really well, but not exactly as planned.
The Basic Premise
Rich investor Ivan Trump's girlfriend Andrea Mills has left him for another man. Trump, using an odd form of scrying involving poking holes in a newspaper and then reading the resulting text, has determined that she's under mind control and her new flame has some sort of draconic connection or is perhaps a vampire or something. Andrea and her new beau have left the civilized area around Boston for the wilderness of the Black Hills of what in our world is South Dakota. His scrying is not necessarily reliable, and Andrea's new boyfriend Andrew Guzman doesn't seem to be anything evil as near as can be determined.
The player characters, all of whom owe some sort of debt to Trump, are sent into the wilderness to convince her to return to him. They will be stuck in the wilderness for about a week, so they have camping and survival equipment and will have horses waiting for them when they arrive. Some of the characters have guns for defense from the wildlife which in The Shifted Lands has little or no fear of man as there were no intelligent beings on this world before the Shift. They can hunt, but there are laws against hunting megafauna (the big mammals that died off in the Ice Age on our Earth) and "fantastic" creatures like unicorns and jackalopes. Out in the wilderness they will be on their own to a great extent; while they can phone people back in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, law enforcement agencies and the like are unlikely to help them out if they get in trouble in the backwoods.
The Characters
Rather than design an optimized party of adventurers I elected to create several wildly different characters for the players to choose from. I did not pay much attention to point values and just gave abilities that seemed to fit the core character concept. I gave a short background that explained the character's abilities and why they agreed to go on this trip while (hopefully) allowing for players to personalize the characters.
1. The Veteran
The Veteran fought in the war with the Sh'Krann (evil alien necromancers) ten years ago. He was captured and subjected to horrible experiments. Ivan Trump was one of the soldiers who rescued him and that's where his sense of duty to Trump comes from. His fear of bears comes from the appearance of the Sh'Krann; they looked like teddy bears with Cthuluesque tentacles where their mouths should be.
The Veteran is skilled in hand to hand and armed combat, plus tracking and stealth. Like almost all Shifted Lands humans, he has telepathy and a few spells, particularly healing and light spells. He also has Danger Sense (Precognition) and Combat Reflexes. Unfortunately, he also has Flashbacks (from GURPS Supers) to his imprisonment and torture and a fear of bears that includes teddy bears.
The Veteran was played by Gil Pili, who dubbed him "Sargent Rock". He emphasized his battle-hardened nature and his trauma.
2. The Were-Cat Zoologist
The Were-Cat is a zoologist with an interest in mythic animals. She's an old girlfriend of Ivan Trump; they broke up due to his possesiveness and allergy to cat hair. She got a loan from him for school, and never quite paid it back.
The Were-Cat is highly skilled in zoology and other sciences, and has a decent knowledge of "mythic" creatures that exist in the Shifted Lands or that only exist as stories. She also has a useful assortment of animal related spells. As a were-cat, she has fast regeneration unless she's in contact with silver.
The Were-Cat was played by Mark Sabalauskas, who dubbed her "Cissy". He made great use of her animal magic and played her as resentful of Trump.
3. The Goblin Alchemist
The Goblin Alchemist wanted to be a Mage, but lacked the aptitude. He decided that being a great alchemist was the next best thing. He was experimenting with new potions and one batch blew up and destroyed a building owned by Ivan Trump (note: this was out in the country, alchemical labs are never in cities). He made a batch of what might be anti-dragonbreath potion just for this trip.
In addition to his alchemical knowledge, the Goblin Alchemist has some knowledge of the sciences and herbalism; he also has some water and plant related spells. He has some alchemical equipment with him, and a few potions for healing, luck, "invulnerability" (enhanced damage resistance) and of course the "anti-dragonbreath" potion.
The Goblin Alchemist was played at first by David (forget his last name), who dubbed him Goblinge. He had to leave, so for a bit Goblinge was an NPC and finally ended up being played by Lois Folstein. Lois played up his innate goblin impulsiveness.
4. The Half-Elf Illusionary Artist
The Illusionary Artist studied to become an enchanter, but decided she'd rather be an artist. Her parents were displeased and cut her off, but she managed to survive as a street performer. At one time she was using hallucinogenics to get "inspiration" and had a bad trip manifesting as a horrid monster illusion (note: Some GURPS illusions have physical affects). Ivan Trump saved her from an extended time in jail for destruction of public property.
The Illusionary Artist is a potent Mage and has some skill in enchanting, but her magic emphasis is on illusions for artistic purposes. However, a skilled illusionist can produce illusions that are virtually the same as the real thing and should not be underestimated. As a Mage, she also has access to a couple potent healing and defensive spells. She's a bit absent-minded.
The Illusionary Artist was played by Scott Ferrier, who dubbed her "Freedom Zanawitz". He played her as an eccentric artist type; a bit of a "Hippy Chick". He made very effective and creative and use of her illusionary magic; beyond what I'd expected, actually.
5. Mr. Resistance
This character works as a negotiator or arbiter. He is considered particularly trustworthy due to his inability to magically or psionically influence others and the fact that he can't (seemingly) be psionically or magically influenced. He got his start working for Ivan Trump.
Mr. Resistance has very high resistance to magic and psionics, plus a strong will. While he cannot cast spells, he does have telepathy and can send mental messages and shield against mental contact like most humans but can't read minds. He also has psionic healing abilities. He's a skilled negotiator who is skilled in law, psychology, diplomacy, and accounting. He's also handsome.
Mr. Resistance was played by Peter Maranci, who dubbed him "Armand John Resistance". He played him as a long term employee of Ivan Trump, and played him as a very businesslike and level-headed person.
Every character had some sort of healing ability, riding skill, some survival skills, and those who could use magic had powerstones (GURPS regenerating magic storage). The Illusionary Artist had two powerstones, a Mage's Staff, and a cloak and blouse with Fortify enchantments; she's an enchanter after all. All but the Artist had .308 bolt action rifles and the Goblin also had a shotgun. The players could add some equipment and little quirks to the characters and defined them as they saw fit.
"The Search For Andrea Mills" or, "Players do the Darnedest Things"
After the players got settled in with their characters, we started with their arrival in the Black Hills. They were greeted on their arrival by Jo (short for Josephine) who runs the general store by the landing field. After helping her load some of her supplies into her horse drawn wagon, they walked to her store and picked up their horses and got directions to Andrew Guzman's home. When they got fairly close to where Guzman's place was supposed to be, they decided to scout ahead. Cissy the were-cat (Mark) used the Animal Possession spell on a hawk and, in the body of hawk, saw the burned shell of Guzman's house.
Comments: So far, so good. Things went pretty much as expected, although I hadn't expected the use of Animal Possession. I should have, of course; it was the smart thing to do.
After determining that there weren't any potential threats in the area, the party rode to the ruin. There was a bit of excitement when Sargent Rock (Gil) saw a gopher that somehow, maybe a trick of the light, brought back an unpleasant vision of his past and he proceeded to empty his rifle into the poor rodent. They searched the wreckage and found no bodies (other than the gopher), but found an unusual large calcite crystal and a trap door in the floor of the building. The crystal was from a Black Hills cave noted for such large crystals; it fascinated Freedom (Scott) who examined it for quite some time.
When some of the party members opened the door, they found a ladder leading to a tunnel. They followed the tunnel to a large natural cavern, and noticed some footprints. Some looked to be those of a man, others looked to be those of a tall woman or a short man with claws on its toes. In one corner of the cavern they discovered a pile of treasure; mostly gold, with some jewels and three items that stood out by being nether. Cissy discovered that there was some sort of invisible wall in front of the hoard. After Freedom's attention was finally diverted from the calcite crystal, she confirmed that it was a magical wall. She wasn't able to dispel it, however. Cissy had Freedom create an illusory monkey that she could possess, and it managed to walk through the wall and dig around in the treasure trove. It couldn't carry anything out, however.
Night was falling, and the party decided to rest and set up watches. Freedom didn't take a watch since she needed her rest, but did create an illusory servant to wake her and everyone else up if something bad happened. She offered to make an illusory warrior that could handle a rifle to help watch, but the rest of the party thought that to be a bad idea.
Comments: Again, things happened pretty much as expected. Gil's interpretation of Sgt. Rock's trauma was entertaining, and fit the combination of his phobia and the flashbacks. The one big error I made was in allowing Animal Possession to work on the illusory animals produced by the Create Animal spell. The GURPS Magic book doesn't say just to what extent the resulting animal is like a real animal, so I allowed the possession to work. Upon reflection, I rather doubt that a created animal is an exact copy down to the neurons so it shouldn't work. Things would have happened pretty much the same way; Cissy would have just had to possess a squirrel or something instead.
The night passed with a bit of minor excitement. A small herd of mammoths came close by, but was led off when Cissy possessed the lead mammoth and changed their path. She also found out that the mammoths were getting away from some sabretoothed cats; she warned the rest of the party and the cats were discouraged from attacking them or their horses by an illusory fire, complete with a smiley face.
From tracks around the house, the party determined that the fire was set, and figured out where the perpetrators were heading afterwards. Since there were no bodies, and a computer check by Mr. Resistance (Pete) showed no signs of any financial or phone activity by either Andrea Mills or Andrew Guzman, the party decided that one or both of them were taken captive. They followed the trail.
Comments: I didn't expect this, but I should have. The clue to Andrea's location was actually the crystal, but it was much more reasonable to assume that she'd been taken captive since there weren't any tracks other than those of the arsonists.
While riding through the woods, they heard gunshots. Sargent Rock was able to determine that they were from a semi-auto rifle; a type not legal for civilian use in Massachusetts. Rock and Cissy rode towards the shots. There were some more shots, and out of the woods came a wounded unicorn. Cissy fired some shots randomly into the woods to discourage its pursuer, which inspired a yell of "What the hell are you doing!" and some return fire. The man who was chasing the unicorn found cover and there was a brief confrontation which ended when Sargent Rock demonstrated his superior skill with a rifle, inspiring the pursuer to surrender. Sargent Rock ordered him to lie on the ground, and he was interrogated while the rest of the party caught up. Freedom performed an awesome and surprising bit of healing (crit roll) on the unicorn. It turned out to have a collar and a tag stating that its name was "Lulubelle"; owned by Harvey Witherspoon. The tag also had Witherspoon's phone number.
The party's captive claimed that the unicorn was an "abomination" and his "game". He tried to escape by stunning Rock with a Mind Blow (telepathic attack), but Rock was too tough for that and discouraged further attempts by firing a warning shot into the ground. Rock sensed something dangerous in the area, and warned the party but didn't go for cover himself. A shot rang out and Rock went down; badly wounded. The captive made a run for it, but was dropped by a sleep spell from Cissy. The shooter was dropped by a shot from Goblinge (NPC at this point), and she joined her boyfriend in captivity.
Using healing magics, the party brought Rock back to consciousness and treated the wounded shooter. Mr. Resistance checked out Harvey Witherspoon and found out that he was a potent sorcerer who'd moved out to the Black Hills a few years earlier. He called Witherspoon, who informed him that the party's captives were members of a group calling themselves Pure Men; they regarded non-humans as the Spawn of Satan and magic as the Work of Satan. Witherspoon arrived to pick up Lulubelle and the Pure Men couple on a flying carpet. Mr. Resistance asked him if he could scyre where Andrea and Andrew were, and Harvey agreed to look into it.
Comments: Here things happened way, way differently than I had expected. I had figured on the party confronting the Pure Men hunter, but I expected a stand off with no shots fired. I'd not expected the PCs to start the shooting. Once Cissy (Mark) fired into the woods, I decided that the paranoid radical Pure Man hunter would go for cover and shoot back.
The party continued on the trail, and found the Pure Men compound the next day. They managed to determine that the trail of the arsonists ended there. Cissy possessed a mouse, and snuck into the compound to look for Andrea. She found no sign of her, but did find out that there were a couple dozen Pure Men engaging in military training and a lot of weapons. After failing to create some mischief as a mouse is too weak to pull the pin out of a grenade, she jumped the mouse into their well and abandoned that body. The party determined that an attack on the compound would be ill-advised.
Mr. Resistance got a call back from Harvey Witherspoon; he could not find Andrew Guzman at all; not dead, just absent from this world. He'd also found that Andrea was changed in some draconic fashion. He told Mr. Resistance that she was in a cave noted for large calcite crystals and gave him directions.
The party proceeded to the cave, stopping for the night to rest. They had to discourage some sabertooth cats (the same ones from before) but had little other trouble.
Comments: This whole bit was improvised. I'd figured the party might run into some other Pure Men, but hadn't thought they'd end up back at the compound. An attack on the compound would have been, well, interesting. :)
The party had little trouble finding the cave. Being cautious sorts now, Cissy possessed an animal and went in to scout. She found Andrea, sort of; a sleeping Andrea with scales, wings, and claws but retaining feminine beauty. She had a rifle, some deer meat, a bag, and some other items with her.
Mr. Resistance had been keeping Ivan Trump up to date on the situation all along, and informed him that his ex-girlfriend was now some sort of dragon- woman. Trump still wanted him to convince her to return, so Mr. Resistance resigned himself to the attempt.
The party decided to pave the way by sending in a programmed illusion of Mr. Resistance to tell Andrea that he wanted to talk to her, accompanied by a Cissy-possessed mouse to hear her answer. She'd awakened, and was cooking a breakfast of deer meat with her flame breath. While she was startled (and grabbed her gun if memory serves me correctly), she agreed to speak to him.
Goblinge (now played by Lois) offered Mr. Resistance a potion, but then realized that his magic resistance would pretty much negate any potion. Mr. Resistance pretty much had to rely on his diplomatic skills in dealing with the possibly dangerous Andrea, but that was enough. She told him that she had hidden in the cave under Guzman's house when the Pure Men came to burn the house down. They had seen her flying around after her change, and this apparently inspired their actions. Andy Guzman was "away", somewhere. Afraid that the Pure Men would hunt her down, she hid in this cave. After voicing some of her complaints about Trump and about Guzman, she agreed to go back to Boston.
Meanwhile, a man walked out of the woods in the direction of the party. Sargent Rock, apparently worried about the possibility of a Pure Men attack, immediately fired at the man and missed. Much to his surprise and to everyone else's surprise, the man turned into a large red dragon! Freedom promptly dropped to the ground and covered herself with an illusion of a rock. Sgt. Rock proceeded to apologize to the fearsome creature who, while angry and observing that he sure didn't look like a Pure Man, elected to not attack.
Mr. Resistance came out of the cave with Andrea, and discussed Andrea's future with her and the dragon, Guztorflorax or as he is also known Andrew Guzman. Guztorflorax was resigned to Andrea's departure, and flew off to even a score with the Pure Men.
Comments: I had a few ideas for how the party would find Andrea depending on their actions. This worked out pretty well. I should note that Pete engaged in truly excellent role-playing here; resolving the situation in a matter totally in keeping with the character's skills but not needing any dice rolls or magic or psi stuff. And he successfully pronounced "Guztorflorax". :)
Sargent Rock's (Gil) shooting at Guzman was a complete surprise. I'd figured it was about time for Guzman to come back and as a potent magical entity it was not much of a problem for him to find Andrea. It was quite entertaining to see everyone's reaction when the dragon appeared. Considering Rock's skill, it was surprising that he missed, but a good thing. If he'd hit him, something more drastic would have happened.
It was still a few days before the next shuttle would come to take them back to Massachusetts, so the party decided to head to Jo's General Store where there were some cabins to wait. They travelled with the non-humans disguised by Freedom's illusion magic in order to avoid conflicts with the potentially heavily armed Pure Men.
When they got to Jo's, there were a couple of Pure Men in military garb shopping. Sargent Rock and one of the Pure Men got into a bit of an argument, and Freedom decided to have a bit of fun by making one of the Pure Men look like a Dwarf. It took a bit of doing, but she managed to get them into a knock down drag out fight that got them thrown out of the store at the point of Jo's shotgun. Mr. Resistance had by that time gotten himself and Andrea away from there and called Ivan Trump to arrange for an emergency shuttle to get them out quickly. The shuttle arrived a few hours later at a nearby clearing and they managed to get home in one piece.
Comments: It was getting late, and the adventure was pretty much over so I went for a quick wrap up. I'd figured on something along the line of a few days of waiting in a couple cabins, but this worked.
Final Assessment: This was great fun, and allowed me to create characters that I'd never be able to play as a PC myself. I think that the Shifted Lands setting and my own personality may work best in such limited games as opposed to a standard campaign. One of the reasons for this scenario was to introduce the dragon-women or "Drakals"; I'll have a Critter Fitter on them in the next issue.
TIME AND MELANCHOLY
Unfortunately, due a general "down" feeling and other stuff I didn't start on the zine until the last minute. More stuff next time, hopefully.