Harrowed Halls

Evil Mike as the GM. He’s Evil.

The Scum of the Earth:
Ben as Hobo Jack: (I’m sure he has super powers. I just haven’t seen them.)
Lee as Mal “Hex” Hexington: can go insubstantial and packs a powerful punch when substantial.
Shawn as Viridian: Greatest Atlantean scientist ever! (Just ask him.)
Steve as Strike: Produces and controls lightening at will.
Mike as Arclight: A super sorcerer and a handy guy to have around.
Owen as Professor Moriarty: Able to animate inanimate objects with just a thought.

Disclaimer: My notes for this game were stolen by a V’sori hacker who wiped them clean off my device. That means this write-up will be from my memory. And as you know; what I don’t remember, I make up.

We continued our monthly Necessary Evil adventure. This time Dr. Destruction ordered us to steal something from the laboratory of Hydra. Hydra was killed when the V’sori took over his secret base. We know the location of the base, but Dr. Destruction first wanted us to seek out a former V’sori battlelord who we may be able to convince to help us. The battlelord controls a power relay station. If we can convince him to “black out” the base, then the V’sori will not be able to send any distress messages while we’re there.

Hex insubstantially delivers a message to the battlelord to meet us at a discreet location. The meet goes well. It turns out that the battlelord has a grudge against the Warlord Shavak, who controls the base. He gives us a pen and asks us to show it to Shavak before we kill him so Shavak will know at whose hand his destruction came.

At this point I should mention that the object we are going to steal is something the size of phone booth. Dr. Destruction described it to us, but didn’t tell us what it was. We plan on having Dr. Moriarty animate so it can walk out on its own. We also want to destroy the lab. Mostly so the V’sori won’t know what was stolen, but also to keep the rest of Hydra’s experiments out of their hands.

As we stealthily approach the base. I think it was Strike that critically failed some roll that alerted the V’sori drones and K’tharen troops. The battle began.

Hex had insubstantially gone ahead to scout out the laboratory. To his amazement (and ours), the guards there had a device that could harm his ghost-like form. He spent the rest of the game incapacitated. The rest of the team either couldn’t get to him or didn’t have any reason (Hindrance) to help him. Yep, we’re a “Team” spelled with an “I” in there somewhere.

The battle was fierce. So fierce that Shavak decided it was time to leave. He headed for a V’sori Stingray parked nearby. We tried to stop him, but he made it to the ship and was gone. With the V’sori now leaderless, the tide of the battle quickly turned in our favor. We were able to get the phone booth (or whatever it is), destroy the laboratory, and be gone before V’sori reinforcements arrived.

Chaos Steve

Evil Mike as the GM. He’s Evil.

The Scum of the Earth:

Ben as Hobo Jack: (I’m sure he has super powers. I just haven’t seen them.)
Lee as Mal “Hex” Hexington: can go insubstantial and packs a powerful punch when substantial.
Shawn as Viridian: Greatest Atlantean scientist ever! (Just ask him.)
Steve as Strike: Produces and controls lightening at will.
Mike as Arclight: A super sorcerer and a handy guy to have around.
Owen as Professor Moriarty: Able to animate inanimate objects with just a thought.

Our monthly Necessary Evil game continued this week. Owen joined us for the first time as Professor Moriarty. Ben’s new character, after the timely death of his last one, showed up as well. What didn’t show up were the figures we used for our supers. Evil Mike forgot to bring them. We were all able to find replacements, but next month we’ll be completely confused trying to remember who is who on the map. There was much talk about all of the new upgrades for our new lair aptly named “The Wretched Hive”. (We each gave one or two power points to get these upgrades.) Evil Mike informed us that the lair does not have these upgrades yet. They are all sitting in crates waiting to be installed. That means our lair is currently just a big dank hole in a bridge support near Star City. I guess we’re called the Scum of the Earth for a reason.

We are still trying to get back in Dr. Destruction’s good graces after some previous “unforeseen circumstances”. Since we were on our way back from Aruba, Dr. Destruction had a new super villain, called Professor Moriarty, watch over The Wretched Hive. Apparently it was immediately overrun and taken over by a K’tharen warlord named Surgot. (Thanks Professor.) The professor did escaped with his life. (So much for giving his all for the team like what’s-his-name did.) This warlord seemed to be a K’tharen traitor. Per Dr. Destruction, it’s now our job to convince him to join the resistance and to get him the heck out of our lair. Let’s see how that goes…

There was much discussion on how to approach Warlord Surgot without killing him or being killed ourselves. Had our upgrades been installed we could have just overridden the Evolving Mind-Like Computer Core (or EVIL MIKE for short) and take control of the lair back. As it was, we went with a plan from Hobo Jack. We should have known better.

Hobo Jack entered the tube lift that leads to our lair. He carried a com-link that had Viridian on the other end ready to plead our case and win Warlord Surgot over to our cause. Warlord Surgot is not impressed by this tactic and had his men attack Hobo Jack. Arclight goes in to smooth things over while Hex tries moving through the floor insubstantially.

All attempts at negotiation fail.

Our team “Negotiating”.

Hobo Jack takes two wounds from the failed negotiation attempts. Arclight is able to soak his two wounds. Professor Moriarty shows up and animates a crate that attacks a K’tharen. Strike has had enough of the nonlethal approach. He steps in the room, fries a K’tharen and Shakes four others.

Hobo Jack runs and hides.

Arclight, still thinking we’re negotiating, merely ensnares a group of K’tharen. Finally Viridian shows up and mind controls the warlord. Viridian has him order his men to stand down.

To get the warlord on our side, one of us must fight him. We all point at Hex who we know packs a powerful punch. Hex agrees to fight. In the meantime we discover some K’tharen war spheres. We think these are Surgot’s ace in the hole if things go badly for him.

The fight begins. Surgot acts first and misses Hex. Evil Mike spends a benny and he still misses Hex. Hex pounds the crap out of the warlord resulting in two wounds. Surgot responds by giving Hex two wounds of his own. Hex gets off Shaken an attempts to intimidate Surgot. He fails on the first attempt…and second attempt.   Next round Hex gets to act first. He attempts to intimidate once again and scores a raise! Warlord Surgot concedes and agrees to join the Resistance. He will also give us back our lair in exchange for the one we cleared out in Aruba. Being a shrewd negotiator, Warlord Surgot also gets one of our lair upgrades.

Dr. Destruction is quite pleased with our results and we’re back as one of his go-to teams!

Can’t wait to see where Hobo Jack next time! Or what nefarious plans Dr. Destruction has for us.

Chaos Steve

Evil Mike as the GM: evil, cruel alien being from another planet.

The Scum of the Earth (no, really, that’s their cell’s code name).

Ben as Mr. Smith: able to duplicate himself with ease. (Lord help us!)
Lee as Mal “Hex” Hexington: can go insubstantial at will and packs a powerful punch when substantial.
Shawn as Viridian: greatest Atlantean scientist ever! (Just ask him.)
Steve as Strike: produces and controls lightening at will.
Mike as Arc-Light: a super sorcerer and a handy guy to have around.

(This week the talented new guy who wrote last session’s write-up has been replaced by a guy they found loitering behind Burger King.)

After the debacle of our last mission, Dr. Destruction was not pleased. We were the laughing-stock of the super villain community, while Dr. Horrible was credited with preventing the presidential family from being executed live on TV.

Nevertheless, Dr. Destruction gave us a chance to redeem our self-respect. We were to find Dr. Horrible. Supposedly he knew another source from whom we could get the information Dr. Destruction had wanted from the first family. We found Dr. Horrible in a hole-in-the-wall bar thoroughly enjoying his moment in the villainous limelight.

He was happy to see us. After all, his newfound popularity was because of us. He revealed to us that the man we were to look for was named Vijay Gupta. Gupta was the assistant to the villain called Dr. Devolution. (To be a real villain you must have to get your doctorate.) Dr. Devolution was killed during the alien double-cross that destroyed the super heroes of the world. When he died, most thought the location of his secret laboratory died with him. There’s a chance that Gupta may know the lab’s location. If so, Dr. Destruction hopes it holds the information he seeks.

Strike set out to intimidate a few thugs to see if they knew anything of Gupta. He was less that successful. Arclight took a different approach. Through some clever connect-the-dots research, he determined that Gupta was acting as a servant in the very home that Dr. Devolution used to own. It was now owned by a V’Sari General.

We cased the place and spot Gupta leaving. Mr. Smith tracks him to an open-air marketplace. There we confront him and he eventually agrees to help us. He does mention that to find the lab we will have to be shrunk down to the size of…well, a size where ants seem huge. We are to meet him that night in the garage behind the house.

Feeling uneasy about the entire arrangement we do let Gupta shrink us. We suspected Gupta of some kind of double-cross, but that never happens. The V’Sari kill him first. Using the shrink ray alerted the V’Sari. They stormed the garage; literally bringing it down upon our heads and blowing Gupta to…goop-ta. Fortunately for us, our super small size enabled us to survive.

Gupta died before telling us the whereabouts of the lab. Viridian, being a mechanical super genius, McGyvers together a device that will be able to locate the lab’s power source—we hope. We head off into the jungle…er, tall grass of the backyard. Ants of monolithic proportions ambush us! (Ok, they are regular ants, but we’re so small as to make them seem huge!) We are immediately in trouble. Both Veridian and Arclight are incapacitated with life threatening wounds, leaving Hex and me to deal with the ants. Right away I kill three with my lightning strike. There are still plenty more. Hex cuts one in half with his vibro-knife.  We’re doing ok, but we’re not killing them fast enough! That’s when Evil Mike (the GM) gets a joker. Somehow Hex and I survive. The ants begin dragging Veridian and Arclight off into the grass jungle.

Oh, I completely forgot about Mr. Smith! He and his clones are surrounded by ants. I try a few times to kill some of them (the ants, not Mr. Smith and his clones) and fail miserably. Mr. Smith attacks and critically fails. He ends up with three wounds. Hex realizes that two attacks are better than one and begins killing two ants a round by smashing them to a pulpy goopta. Hex saves Veridian and Arclight from a fate worse than death in the ant queen’s harem. (I’m just guessing at what the ants wanted with the two of them.)  I get a joker and attempt to save Mr. Smith. My lightning strikes fail to hurt the gigantically tough creatures. Mr. Smith dies under the ant onslaught. We’ll miss him greatly.

Hex and I eventually kill the rest of the ants. We both roll Smarts to figure out how to use Veridian’s healing device. We both fail our rolls. Hex spends a Benny and with his élan, he makes it. Hex revives Veridian. Veridian uses the device to heal one of his own wounds. Then he revives Arclight.

We rub ant juices on ourselves to hide our scent from any other ant patrols. Battered, wounded, and short one party member, whose name I can’t remember, we follow Veridian’s device to the laboratory.

We find the lab. It’s cool. Hex goes insubstantial and recons the lab for us. Unfortunately, Hex fails to notice the spiders of monolithic proportions hiding in the rafters. They surprise us. Arclight is incapacitated again. Veridian is incapacitated again. Thanks to Ben pointing out he had élan he does not die. Ben’s new character, Stalker, bursts out of one of the cryro tanks and aids us against the spiders. My lightning is slightly more affective against huge spiders than it was against huge ants. Stalker helps me finish off the last of the spiders. Hex uses the equipment in the lab to heal Veridian. The machine works on Veridian, but fails to work on Arclight. The whole place begins to shake and we realize that the V’Sari are digging up the yard! Hex comes up with the great idea to grab the hard drives and look at the data later. We also grab a prototype shrink ray device on our way out. Using a drilling machine we discovered earlier, we escape the lab.

So in this adventure we say goodbye to…that other guy and say hello to Stalker. Arclight and Veridian come away with lots of cool scars and Hex emerges as one heck of a two-fisted fighter. I realize that I need more power in my lightning bolts. (Giant ants? Really!?)

Strike

Evil Mike as the GM: evil, cruel alien being from another planet.
Ben as Mr. Smith: able to duplicate himself with ease. (Lord help us!)
Lee as Mal “Hex” Hexington: can go insubstantial at will and packs a powerful punch when substantial.
Shaun as Viridian: greatest Atlantean scientist ever! (Just ask him.)
Steve as Strike: produces and controls lightening at will.
Mike as Arc-Light: a super sorcerer and a handy guy to have around.

Once again Dr. Destruction contacted us. There is a power source deep under Star City created by a now-dead super, Terron. Terron had created this power source for his super lab. The exact location is unknown, but Dr. Destruction has faith that we’ll find it. He also gives us some hints on where to look. But before we went power source hunting, we went to the warehouse to pick up something—a power relay.

At the warehouse we met Arc-Light, a super sorcerer that Dr. Destruction thought might be handy to have around. Since we had lost what’s-his-name in the last adventure, we gladly accepted Arc-Light’s help. Then we had the problem of how we were going to carry this 600 pound power relay device. Mr. Smith suggested we use a fork-lift. There were several problems with this idea and spared no details telling them all to Mr. Smith. Using his sorcery, Arc-Light was able to carry the power relay.

(A note about Arc-Light: Mike’s other character, whose name escapes me, was quite worthless. He couldn’t even absorb a few (hundred) bullets. Arc-Light on the other hand was quite handy to have around. Let’s hope he lives through this episode.)

We ventured underground looking for the elusive lab of Terron. There was a group of humans living down here called the undergrounders. We hoped we would run into them and then ask them if they knew where this lab was. Instead of finding undergrounders, we found mean and ugly G’roks. G’roks are big, tough, and have a lousy attitude towards guests. They quickly injured Arc-Light and Mr. Smith. Arc-Light again summoned his super sorcery only to critical fail the roll. He lost his powers for two hours! Holy G’rok lunch Batman! After some pleading Hex became material (he travels around insubstantial) and killed the G’roks with his mighty super melee attacks.

We waited two hours for Arc-Light’s super powers to return so he could heal himself and Mr. Smith. Another G’rok attacked us. I blame the GM. Arc-Light managed  to heal most of the wounds.

We found a small partially hidden tunnel and followed it until we came upon the undergrounders. We were honest with them—a strange tactic for all of us. In return for some food and medical supplies, they told us the location of Terron’s lab.

The lab was guarded by one of Terron’s trademark robots. We had forgotten to ask if Terron has any trademark items of destruction, so we were taken by surprise. Mr. Smith and Hex surrounded the mammoth 8’ tall iron monstrosity. Strike got the joker and decided to go first by casting his lightning at the thing. It should be pretty susceptible to lightning. Sadly, both Mr. Smith and Hex were in the lightning’s blast radius. Strike didn’t care. Arc-Light and the power relay were safely back with him. Once the robot was dealt with they could easily hook it up and then escape to garner the praises of Dr. Destruction. Hex and Mr. Smith could be replaced. Strike hit the robot with his lightning and roll 3d6 damage. Each dice rolled a 1! That’s a total of 3 points of damage, plus 2 for the joker, for a total of 5 points! Holy crap. Hex and Mr. Smith would survive after all.

The robot was destroyed. The power relay was hooked up and turned on. Then we all returned to the lavished praises of Dr. Destruction.

Steve “The Chronicler” Todd

Evil Mike as the GM: evil, cruel alien being from another planet.
Ben as Mr. Smith: able to duplicate himself with ease. (Lord help us!)
Lee as Mal “Hex” Hexington: can go insubstantial at will and packs a powerful punch when substantial.
Shaun as Viridian: greatest Atlantean scientist ever! (Just ask him.)
Steve as Strike: produces and controls lightening at will.
Mike as Silverback: a silverback ape with all the powers of an ape with a blaster.

We started a new monthly Savage World game last weekend. Evil Mike is running us through the Necessary Evil (NE) plot point campaign. If you’re unfamiliar with NE, imagine a world with supers where all of the heroes have been destroyed by aliens and the aliens now control Earth. It’s now up to the super villains to save the planet…and that’s where we come in. We are all super villains; loosely banded together to save the planet from the aliens so we can go back to our own brands of villainy and perhaps take over the planet for ourselves.

Our first session was a blast, with one super not surviving. I know what you’re thinking—it was me. You’d be wrong…this time.

Our story begins inside a V’Sori prison barge. We are all prisoners with nullifiers around our wrists. These nullifiers nullify our super powers. Things look grim until an explosion outside the ship causes it to crash. Our savior is none other than Dr. Destruction, leader of the Omega resistance movement. “If you want to live, follow me.” We followed him and are soon flying in his ship away from the V’Sori. We are still locked in the nullifiers though. Then Dr. Destruction reveals why he saved us. “I’d like you to join me as one of my Omega Cells.” With that, we are ejected from his plane and plummet to earth—still wearing our nullifiers. In our minds we hear, “Do you agree to follow me?” We agree. The nullifiers explode off our wrists and we’re able to survive landing on the roof of a building complex.

In our minds Dr. Destruction tells us that we have fallen onto a V’Sori prison. We are to break out a villain named MindJack. If we succeed we will become his newest Omega Cell. Failure will not be tolerated.

Alarms are going off all around us. Strike decides it’s best to get off the roof and attempts to blast open a hole in the roof with his lightening powers. Strike failed to notice that the roof was metal. The lightening blast stuns everyone and fails to break through the roof. (Strike is not the brightest of Villains.)

Viridian uses his mechanical genius to shut down many of the electrical systems at the prison. Hex uses his insubstantial ability to go insubstantial to locate the cell where MineJack is being kept. Mr. Smith and Strike take on the drones protecting the prison. Mr. Smith takes a few wounds as Strike continued to add to his own drone body count. Silverback spent most of the time just trying to get into the prison. Once there he was soon shot to “death” by the drones.

At this point we needed to take a vote. Mike (i.e. Silverback) did not like the fact that supers could only die under certain extraordinary circumstance in NE. He thought this reduced the “risk” the supers where actually taking in the game. He wanted to use the incapacitation rules from the core Savage Worlds rules. We put this to a vote and decided to use the core rules as Mike suggested. Mike failed his rolls and Silverback died.

We released ALL of the prisoners, including MindJack. Dr. Destruction picked us up along with a many other supers and whisked us to a warehouse in Southpoint. This was to be our HQ. It was then that Viridian mentioned that he already had a lair that, if we agreed to help fund it, could serve as our HQ. We all agreed (with fingers crossed.)

What dirty deeds will Dr. Destruction put us up to next time? What new super villain will take the place of Silverback the dead dirty ape? These and other questions will be answered next time.

Steve “The Chronicler” Todd