More than Nothing: The Goat Getters

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Ug (Juris), Rou (Rose), Ma (Mom) and Jerg (DL) are young cavemen out to prove themselves on their first unsupervised goat hunt, armed only with their wits and fists. It's a ritual of the "Goat Getter" tribe (PC named) that has followed this massive herd of goats over the years. 

Having tracked their prey to the foothills of the Black Mountain, Ug accidentally spooks the goats which sends them running. A sabertooth cat takes advantage of this, killing one goat and running off. Somehow the team loses track of the herd but finds the cat tracks and not willing to return empty handed follow them to a lone tree beneath which is the goat carcass.

The sabertooth strikes from hiding, mauling Jerg but Ma kills it by bashing it with a rock and saving him. They take both dead animals back their nomadic camp but on the way find a group of weeping, dark skinned mountain folk who have been brutalized and or killed by something. The hunters decide to go past quietly.

Back at base, tribe leader Mama Yapa is happy with their performance, beating even the veteran hunters who returned bruised, scratched and empty handed. Over dinner under a pitch black night lit only by two stars, Ug overhears the veteran group boasting about their exploits against the mountain tribe.

The next day the four are off hunting again but this time Rou spots a child seemingly made of light high atop a cliff. They go to investigate and the celestial child, "Sunny" asks for their aid in rescuing an ally from his enemy who will not expect the intruders to be more than nothing, and in exchange will lend them his power if they are successful. They agree and are instructed to leap off the cliff onto an invisible bridge. Ug goes first and sure enough he doesn't fall, so the party follows the bridge directly to a tear in the sky, leading to a realm of dark and freezing cold - a large, chained wolf imprisoned beyond icy stalagmites.

They work quickly to free the creature (taking cold damage over time) when a voice commands them to stop. It is the darkness, and it doesn't want Sunny to gain more power than he already has so instead offers to give them a weapon to kill the child instead. Ug tricks the darkness into gifting him obsidian blade (an ever sharp rock) with a false promise of slaying Sunny. They free the wolf, who turns out to be Luna, and exit just in time.

As a reward, Sunny teaches them how to summon his light: to stare directly at the sun and yell "I am bright!". The pair then vanish and since night is fast approaching the young hunters return to base, noticing there is now a moon in the sky. The peace is interrupted in the village when a giant "centipede" made of a mass of congealed corpses arrives and starts killing their tribesmen, by folding them in half and putting their heads in their asses. 

Ug distracts it while Jerg locates the puppeteer mountain tribe caster on a nearby hill, using a dead baby as a hand puppet to control the creature. Jerg kills him with a large stone then tears the baby corpse in two, destroying the monstrous centipede.

Mama Yapa decides to move the survivors off the cursed mountain to pursue the goat herd into the misty forest beyond.

[Inspired by Hole in the Sky and Swords of the Serpentine] 

Fallout Shelter: Horrors in the Dark

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

While their new accommodations were cozy and quite self sustaining, it soon became clear that Yazan's group were quite deprived of female attention much to Charybdis and Hawkes detriment. Now with "fresh meat" available they soon came to forcing themselves upon the rest of the females in the group whom they divided and "conquered".

Seeing that conflict was inevitable, Smedley began rallying his crew but a shrill scream signaled the presence of a new threat.

There in the living quarters they found Luna, decapitated by a giant radroach... and more of the vermin soon crawled out from the vents looking to feast on their new visitors! Any thoughts of fighting each other quickly vanished as both teams began battling the insectoid invaders but had to fall back against the increasing enemy numbers.

Totally heading the way of Terraformars here...

Eventually even the amazing skills of Guin are not enough as the tiger man is brought down by the horrible foe. This causes the remaining survivors to panic and flee.

Insight: Survival mode is serious business and makes everything harder! Don't jump straight into it like I did here!

Fallout Shelter: Vault 40

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

They didn't know what triggered the explosion, but Smedley knew that it was bad. He quickly took his nearby crew of Carol Black, Payday, Maxine, Nicki Law (who had escaped captivity), Bardo and Lanfey to a safe shelter he knew about that had imprinted on the entrance in large, faded letters "Vault 40". Accompanying them were also his two prized prisoners, Luna and Jane (whom Payday captured after her previous appearance).

By the time they reach there, another more colorful group - composed of Yazan Barghouti, Guin, Rage Metalhead, Shocklord and their two slaves Hawkes and Charybdis were already at the door, trying to gain entry. After a brief standoff, Smedley and Yazan agreed it would be better if both groups simply worked together and so entered the foreboding bunker as one.

What could go wrong?

Insight: Each room uses a different stat to operate, and power is most important because without power nothing else works.

Shadowrun: No Appointment

[Part of the Shadowrun Chronicles.]

With the square secure, Sarah reveals Luna spilled the beans about the Dragonslayer gang working as muscle for the Aztechnology corporation. Carol, Halon, Zue Zue, Thunderb0lz and Ratdoktor are sent to pay her company contact a visit at their office which is heavily guarded by sun mages and tough jaguar adepts who can survive point blank shotgun blasts to the face.

As they fight their way up, Zue Zue is gunned down for being too forward and getting flanked. Similarly, Thunderb0lz is "jaguared" when she is too far back and is caught by an elevator lobby ambush.

Jaguar Adept table top version.

When the team arrives at the target's office, they are too late as he is executed just as they enter. The assassin jumps out the window and leaves a powerful blood spirit to cover his escape. The monster evades the initial salvo then forces itself into Halon's mouth, effectively drowning her.

While it is doing this, Ratdoktor unloads her shotgun into Halon, killing both her teammate and the spirit. She and Carol then grab what data files they can and flee the scene.

Shadowrun: No Escape

[Part of the Shadowrun Chronicles.]

Sarah learns a few things from Luna, the first in regards to a bunch of live captives the Dragonslayers have been collecting for experimentation. Carol, now trained in automatic weaponry thanks to Halon, is tasked in rescuing them.

She brings Hakon, Thunderb0lz and elf mage Zue Zue in their stolen ambulance to the secret location and finds a very tough fight awaiting them with mostly heavy weapon Dragonslayers on patrol. Even the new rocket shooting drone of Thunderb0lz has trouble taking them down.

They only manage to rescue one test subject who hadn't yet been turned into a headcase. On the way out the squad runs into infected Dragonslayers who obviously are more hard core than the regular variety. The team almost makes it back to the ambulance when Carol suddenly finds herself mere feet away from a brute wielding a heavy machine gun.

Blinding pain accompanied by the deafening roar of gun fire fills her before everything goes black.

If the main character goes down, a time limit to win appears.

Shadowrun: Ninja Magic

[Part of the Shadowrun Chronicles.]

During Carol's recovery back at base, Sarah's investigation led to her arrest by the forces of Knight Errant (police) and is now in need of rescue. After getting fake ID's from Jane, Carol assembled her team of Halon, Thunderb0lz and Hangover the dwarf ninja who is really good with her katana.

Using some tunnels to get to the precinct leads into a small skirmish against headcases but nothing the team can't handle. Breaking Sarah out of the prison is even easier, though the Knight Errant forces up their game during the pursuit through the warehouse district.

You can tell they're up to no good.

After a trying combat, the team is able to escape and a battered Sarah is able to give them the current location of Luna the dragonslayer boss. Carol leads her team to the rooftops where they clash against Luna and her gang in earnest. Hangover manages to win her duel against a chainsaw brute only to have the teleporting Luna blast her off to her death.

This puts the fat magician in a bad position though, and the remaining squaddies incapacitate her for questioning.

Shadowrun: The One that got Away

[Part of the Shadowrun Chronicles.]

Accepting Carol's request, Smedley teams her up with the hacker, Jane and Al'sia, an elfin mage, to raid Dragonslayer controlled docks to find their leader, Luna. While Al'sia's magic is devastating to the guards, it has little effect on the automated turrets. Fortunately Jane takes care of all of those and hacks a computer that indicates Luna's location nearby.

Carol and Al'sia hoof it to the designated apartment building and after Al'sia bribes the janitor with some beer, the pair gain access to the power system - shutting off the lights and the automated defenses.

Jane is quick to comment.

They find Luna, a fat lady dressed as a clown, in conversation with her mage underling. Luna quickly teleports away while the underling uses mirror images to battle the pair of intruders. His tricks don't fool Carol though, and she carves him up with a machete. A minor victory but the big fish got away.