accomplished
CHARACTERS:
Melanie Franconi (KathyB) - Cat Burglar/Thief
Wendy Saltman (Angela) - Courier/Street Thief
Sandra Mitchell (Ellie) - Librarian/Magical Dabbler
Lucas Wells (Mark) - Businessman/Realm Runner
Andrew Quilling/Andar (Peter) - Transformed (Living Land) Athlete
April 25th, 2017
Several weeks have passed since the Storm Knights’ previous adventure, and the player characters have started to make Philadelphia home for a bit, most of them being at a bit of a loss as to what to do next. Andar has established a small tribe of primitive humans and several edeinos who’ve rebelled against Baruk Kaah just outside the Philadelphia hardpoint, though he does spend a bit of time (grudgingly) inside the Core Earth city, as he refuses to abandon his “tribe”. The other player characters in Philadelphia proper are still treated as heroes, and some of the ordinary people around them still look up to them. Lucas Wells, who seems to be the default leader of the group of player characters, is approached by a small group of concerned citizens led by one Damian Rogers. Rogers asks if Lucas can gather the other heroes, as they’ve got a bit of a problem. Once the player characters (Melanie Franconi, Wendy Saltman, Sandra Mitchell, Lucas and Andar) are assembled in the old office building, Rogers gets down to business.
He tells them that several weeks previously, a group of scientists and well-travelled adventurous types left the city on an exploration mission. The group consisted of thirteen individuals, including three people who “have abilities similar to yours”, though one of the scientists, Janine Thompson, refused to leave her son Harper on his own in Philly, and she took him along. Yesterday morning (the 24th), two of the survivors of the expedition returned, Thomas Johnson and Sigmund Alfredsson looking emaciated and haggard. They told of how the group was ambushed by edeinos from the Redjaws tribe, a vicious tribe loyal to Baruk Kaah, and how everyone was killed. With some exceptions... Harper Thompson, the 14-year-old son of Janine Thompson, was taken prisoner of the edeinos, but the three individuals like the player characters - William White, Joanne Arveldis and Simon Dacree - went missing. Rogers asks the player characters if they’re willing to go out into the Living Land and find out what happened to the expedition, rescuing Harper Thompson and perhaps retrieving White, Arveldis and Dacree in the process. Andar immediately agrees to do so, as he says that he wants some revenge on the Redjaws for the injuries and deaths they’ve inflicted on his new tribe. “Well, that settle it then, doesn’t it?” says Sandra. “We’re going after them, aren’t we?” The others agree that it does, and Lucas tells them all that they’ll leave at sunrise the next morning. The meeting breaks up, with the Storm Knights remaining behind to get more information from Damian Rogers about the expedition and its proposed route of travel. Rogers tells them that the group was working for a shadowy organization calling itself the Delphi Council, and their secret agenda was to find what the Delphi Council representative called “artefacts”. This give the player characters a few things to think about. When Sandra asks whether the Delphi Council has sent any missions out to find the expedition, Rogers says they haven’t, considering the team to be “somewhat expendable”. Wendy says she’s not sure she’d want to work with such a group, as their humanity seems to be lacking somewhat.
While the Storm Knights make preparations for their departure for the rest of the day, they also try and learn what they can about the expedition and its members. Wendy and Melanie go in search of information about the other three like them, and learn a limited amount. William White was a professor of archaeology before the start of the Possibility Wars, while Joanne Arveldis is a track-and-field star of the city and Simo Dacree is a Native American traveller and something of a shaman among the Kitchsahee tribe. All competent individuals. Lucas and Sandra go about purchasing supplies for the characters, and also obtain a large jeep for their travels through the Living Land. Upon meeting up with the others back at the hotel they’re staying at, Andar is puzzled by the jeep, but Lucas assures him that “it’s rugged, can handle most types of jungle terrain, and will get us wherever we need to go.”
The next morning, the Storm Knights rise early, and set out in the jeep for the jungles of the Living Land. Andar is riding with the jeep, though he’s not happy about it. Melanie teases him about the matter, but Lucas tells her to desist after a while; the primitive Storm Knight nods his thanks to the realm runner. As the Storm Knights travel towards the southwest from Philadelphia, through Wilmington and leading to Middletown, Delaware, they can see that a large tract of forest is getting larger and larger. They come upon what appears to be several bodies in the forest, in various states of decay. Drawing his weapon, Lucas tells Andar to go with him to examine what’s left of the bodies, while the others stay with the jeep. Lucas is able to determine [using a Drama card] that the skeletal remains are at least a week old, human, but are missing some limbs that appear to have been removed in a most distressing manner - perhaps blown off? Andar searches around and finds several bones and the like that might be from the decayed bodies. Lucas concludes that the bones were removed by a forceful attack, as several of the bone ends are cracked. They return to the others, and continue on the route based on the map that Rogers had given them.
As the Storm Knights near the edge of the forest, it is obvious that several groups of travellers have been in the area. Andar tells them that it was edeinos, and some of the tracks are pretty recent. Andar feels that something is not right, and tries to convince Lucas to slow the vehicle down, but to no avail. As they skirt over a small area of hills with sparse vegetation, a blast rocks the jeep from below and only Lucas’s driving skill and luck [with the help of a Second Chance card and then an Action card] prevents the characters from having a major accident. [The vehicle was attacked by a hrockt shoot land mine that was planted in the area by the edeinos.] As the vehicle careens around, it is rocked by a second explosion as it comes in contact with another of the land mines, and Lucas loses control, the vehicle flipping over completely and slamming into a tree! Diving out of the jeep or being thrown out of it, the Storm Knights are each wounded very seriously [and have to make Soak rolls, Andar having to use a Second Chance card (that Sandra claimed with a Master Plan card, and then traded to him) and a Possibility]. The characters are stunned by the events, both physically and mentally, and it takes them a few minutes to recover from the ordeal, checking to see how badly they’ve been injured. Picking themselves up, Melanie and Lucas go and check out the jeep, only to find that it’s pretty much a write-off. Scavenging what food, supplies, and equipment they can, the Storm Knights move off and away from the jeep’s remains. Andar urges them to haste, as the Redjaws may well be on their trail soon, after the explosions from the Living Land boom-sticks. The others concur, and pick up the pace somewhat, Sandra and Wendy complaining a bit.
Continuing on, the Storm Knights reach the edge of the forest - and find themselves confronted with a swath of blade grass. The characters, with the aid of Andar, are able to move around it (though Sandra is cut by the grass [for 3 Shock], and make their way into the forest. And it is there that the characters are attacked by a group of edeinos with hrockt spears and bone knives. The edeinos attack through surprise, and the various Storm Knights defend themselves, but all take a minor injury here and there [ranging from 2 Shock to 1 Wound and 2 Shock]. Andar strikes at two of the edeinos [using a Multiple Target action, and a Drama card and a Coup de Grace card], taking the two creatures down. Melanie strikes at her edeinos, but merely injures it, while Wendy is unable to harm her attacker, and Sandra is forced to retreat around a couple of trees. Lucas kills one of the edeinos with his 9mm pistol [he spends a Possibility and a Coup de Grace card]. The battle continues, but in the middle of it Sandra spots the leader of the edeinos is wearing what appears to be a leather jacket bearing the logo “Harper” on it [she rolled a Find of 42!]. Sandra shouts to the others that the edeinos leader is wearing the jacket of Harper Thompson. The edeinos leader shouts, “Haa-paa!!?” and immediately tells his people to stop fighting. It is at this point that Andar realizes the edeinos are not the Redjaws.
Taking a few moments to tend to their wounded and injured, eventually the Storm Knights confront the edeinos leader, Kap’akt, Lucas taking point on this one with Sandra. The Storm Knights learn that the edeinos are members of the Greenleaf tribe, opposed to the Redjaws to whom they once belonged, and have been skirmishing with them since they were betrayed. The Greenleafs know of the human expedition, that most of its members were killed, and that only four escaped - “Haa-paa” being captured by the Redjaws and their leader Slk’tok, and three others “like you” fleeing into the wilderness to a series of ruins they had spotted a day or so before. One of Kap’akt’s people, a scout named Frt’ka, sketches out the area, including the Redjaws encampment, and deciding to camp for the evening with the Greenleafs, the Storm Knights hatch a plan of their own…
Last night's game session of Torg Eternity with the Friday night group was an enjoyable evening of gaming, and launched the start of a new adventure for the group in the Living Land. The players got some good roleplaying in this session, and seem to be getting a good handle on their characters, though Peter was hoping for a bit more fighting this session. *sigh* You can't win 'em all, right? :)
So, another enjoyable session of Torg Eternity in the books with the Friday night group. I'm looking forward to the next session of the campaign.