Sunday, November 25, 2012

Buster Squad 5: A Necessary Evil Actual Play Volume 9





New Session!

The players got off to a good start by successfully recapping most of the previous adventure, scoring a bonus benny each for doing so.

With newly reprogrammed Talos on board, the team was sent headlong into Plot Point Adventure 7, in which Dr. Destruction sent them a pre-recorded message telling them to attack a lab on the Docks, where a V’Sori scientist would be waiting with his hands over his heads. The team was to kill everyone else in the lab and make it look as though the scientist, Dr. Aden, had been killed. Socks asked if they could kill the scientist afterward, but Kale threatened to do horrible things to Socks’ mind.

As the team set out to converge on the Docks, Mindstorm asked Kale to disrupt the power to the facility. Kale dug deep within and summoned the depths of his Atlantean Sorcery to short out the V’Sori power fueling the lab. Talos followed suit by magnetically ripping the doors from the lab. None of the team could see inside, Mindstorm told Kale to generate light. This caused me (as Kale) to comment on being asked to kill the power and then generate light, when Mindstorm replied with “I want to kill communications to the place.”

*facepalm*

Socks rushed the lab to find a lone V’Sori standing behind a table with a blaster, and Socks hurled machinery in his general direction but missed. Talos leaped in and crushed another figure that moved, but it turned out to just be a janitor.

Talos was still gleeful about his kill.

Mindstorm and Kale entered together and Kale was shot by the V’Sori, hurt but narrowly avoiding SEVERE injury. Mindstorm summoned lightning through the skylight of the lab and took the scientist out.

Mindstorm told Kale to heal himself while ordering Socks to dispatch two other V’Sori scientists who had been cowering in the fight. Meanwhile, Mindstorm found Dr. Aden and told him they were there to retrieve him. He ordered the team to depart, but Talos stopped and began to magnetically reach out to the metal frame of the building, ripping it loose and dumping it into the ocean before escaping through the skylight.

The team met with Dr. Destruction’s operatives, a pair of heroes that they had saved many missions ago named Hiro and Lycan, a wandering martial artist and a werewolf.

NOTES: The plan for the adventure is that a silent alarm is set off, dropping Drones, Fins and War Spheres on the place, but Mindstorm’s orders were designed to prevent that, and went off without a hitch, so I rolled with it and let the team have their flawless victory. Socks took Improved Sweep and we took a short break before mounting a new adventure.

The team was met in their headquarters by Dr. Destruction and a very angry half-Atlantean woman named Deja Nal. Destruction explained that he needed the team to return to Atlantis and locate a Geomantic Chamber that the Atlanteans once used for a powerful energy source. He explained that Deja Nal’s father was the Keeper of the Well before his death (and the Ruin of Atlantis), and that he was training Deja Nal to be his replacement. He went on to explain that she is a powerful sorceress herself, and will be able to use the power of the Well to destroy an orbiting V’Sori Man’O’War and then destroy the Well itself. He noted that the teleport tubes around the area have been destroyed, so he would provide them with a submarine.

As Deja Nal led the team to the submarine, she explained that the only reason she is doing this is because a Man’O’War routinely holds 3,000 or so V’Sori…and she’s going to snuff them all out in the blink of an eye.

As the team located the sub, they instinctively dove for cover as gunfire erupted around them!  Talos lunged into combat, and a cold chill went up the spines of the team as a chainsaw roared to life…just like it did the day Bully died. Talos laughed off the chainsaw and deflected gunfire, but Mindstorm was shot and Kale was clipped. Despite realizing they were facing Bully’s killers, Mindstorm made the call for everyone to run to the sub. Kale attempted to teleport in but misjudged and was deflected back to his starting point. Deja Nal summoned a swirling barrier to block the way and the team fell back, with Socks grabbing Kale and running to the sub. Talos was fighting the attack squad to a stalemate as Deja Nal teleported into the sub and Socks yanked Mindstorm and pulled him in. Talos turned to depart, but was cut down by the chainsaw. Jacko, the psychopath with the chainsaw, gleefully moved in for the kill, but Talos managed to his amazing Leaping to hurtle himself for the sub as Kale brought it down into the sea.

Talos began the arduous task of repairing himself, while Deja Nal used her magic to heal Mindstorm. Deja Nal and Kale deftly avoided Atlantean patrols, and the team entered the ruins of Atlantis. Finding the passageway blocked to the tunnels below, Mindstorm used his Telekinesis from the sub to clear the way, and the team used the airlock to descend into the tunnels.

Finding the tunnel to be covered in a glowing fungus, Socks felt the need to get a taste. As the team entered the Geomantic Chamber and saw the Well at the center, they saw a V’Sori explorer and his Fin bodyguards on the other side! The explorer, D’Bloc, said he and his men would be the only ones leaving the Chamber alive, but Deja Nal ran for the well! Talos lunged at the Fins and got swarmed, but laughed away as they tried to take him down. Mindstorm and Kale flanked the Well and Kale tagged one of the Fins ineffectually…before being attacked by Fins himself. Socks moved in to make the save and the energy from the Well began to grow.

Mindstorm was blasted and wounded again, while Socks proclaimed himself an ally of Sugrot and would kill all those who didn’t swear loyalty to Sugrot…getting no takers, he began the slaughter.  With two Fins down, Kale unleashed a power he rarely uses, in part because he saw what happened when Angel’s Bane unleashed it all those months ago…and he moved next to Talos and unleashed his Fear power! He sent the Fins scurrying from the chamber in fright, giving Talos a free shot on one of them, taking him down! Being left with five Fins and all of them in retreat, D’Bloc triggered a Teleport Shunt to disappear, infuriating the team.

Deja Nal channeled the power of the well and sent it hurling through the depths of the ocean and into space, destroying the Man’O’War! Then the chamber began to collapse! Mindstorm retrieved the unconscious Deja Nal from the Well as Talos grabbed Kale and Leaped to safety. As the tunnels began to collapse around them, Kale and Talos became trapped, but Kale asked Leviathan for power and took himself and the robot deep into the tunnel and near the sub. Mindstorm, still holding Deja Nal, dodged the collapsing tunnels but debris came down in front of Socks…who burrowed through it.

The team got into the sub and Kale summoned all of his might into boosting his natural Piloting skill (he’s Gifted, so he doesn’t actually HAVE it) and deftly piloted the sub through the collapsing ruins as the team watched a massive crater opening under the building…and an explosion consuming a mile’s worth of Atlantis.

NOTES: The team TOTALLY got saved on the new Savage Worlds rule of Spirit being used for Fear checks instead of Guts, since none of them ever took Guts, because Kale's Fear radius covered them as well. The Fins just rolled very badly. Socks came out of this session the best, as he ended with 7 bennies and an Adventure Card that allowed him to cash in his bennies for XP, becoming the first PC ever in our games to cross Heroic. He took the Counterattack and No Mercy Edges. Mindstorm also got a new Advance, raising his Smarts die to d8. I also gave them considerable props for coming face to face with Bully’s killers and choosing the bigger objective over revenge. That’s okay…I’m sure they’ll get their chance sooner, rather than later. With the PCs crossing into Heroic, we are very close to the end now. OH...I should mention that Kenny brought over some sweet, sweet HeroClix that he had modded for Socks, Kale and Mindstorm...a piece for Talos may be coming, and a piece for Bully's memorial will be as well.

2 comments:

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    1. This is shaping up to be the greatest campaign I have ever ran. I may have to give up RPGs after this...=/

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