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Category Archives: Savage Worlds Games

Necessary Evil Episode 4: The Wretched Hive

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”.

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

World War II: Mission 4, Holding the Bridge

War Master (Owen): Yes, a great War Master Indeed.

Lambert’s Losers
Lt. Dick Dan (Ben): Our fearless squad leader, Distinguished Service Cross.
Private (E-2) Destry Lambert (Evil Mike): Our commando medic.
Private (E-2) Charlie Winters (Mike): Not sure what he does, Distinguished Service Cross.
Private (E-3) Hector Goldman (Steve): Armored Vehicle Crewman, bronze metal.

We’d had a long hiatus from our Savage World War II game. I think we were all ready to see just how well we could hold the bridge against the German onslaught. Some of us were less than prepared. I brought an old character sheet and Ben’s character was still written on a small yellow piece of paper. Oh well. (Later, I did find my latest character sheet tucked away in my Weird War II book.)

Since it’s been awhile, I’ll recap our mission. Hold the bridge until reinforcements arrive. If we can’t hold the bridge, we’re to destroy it.

Lt. Dan and Goldman check the buildings on the German side of the bridge. The buildings are clear. Winters and Lambert do a dramatic task to set the demolition charges under the bridge. On the first round they get a club and Winters needs a 7 (after all of the penalties) for a success. Lambert’s help gives him a +1 and together Winters ends up with exactly a 7! …using his d4 demolition skill. One success down and four more to go. Things didn’t go well after that. On the fourth round they still need three successes to get the charges set. They managed a single success for the round. Now they needed two on the last round. Winters critically fails his demolition roll…BOOM! The damage is rolled. Lowest damage ever—only 6 points. This Shakes Winters and Lambert. That could have gone much worse. Thankfully they are lousy at demolition.

A German truck followed by a Panzer IV appear at the edge of town and are heading towards the bridge. Lt. Dan and Goldman open fire. About that same time a French women with a baby carriage is also heading along the banks of the canal towards the bridge. She loses her grip on the carriage and it rolls into the water. “Epargner mon bébé !” she cries. (Translation: Save my baby!)

Winters rolls another critically failure while trying to climb around under the bridge. He falls into the canal. He can’t swim.

Lt. Dan fires the bazooka at the German truck and rolls 8 points of damage. I point out that he’s rolling the wrong dice for the damage. He rolls the correct dice and gets 13 points of damage—still not enough to stop the truck. (Loser.)

The French woman jumps in the canal to save her baby. She doesn’t appear to know how to swim. Lambert skillfully does a somersault dive off of the canal bank into the water. He plans on saving the baby and the women. Winters splashes to the canal’s steep bank. (At least he didn’t drown.)

As the truck turns down a side street near Goldman, he throw a potato masher into the open window of the truck. Goldman doesn’t have a throwing skill and its medium range and it’s a difficult shot. A -6 penalty. Goldman rolls an eleven and makes it! The explosion kills the driver and the truck hits the building Lt. Dan is in. The Panzer IV shoots at Lt. Dan’s position in the building and misses. The shot goes wide and hits the building across the street where Goldman is. The building partially collapses, but Goldman is unharmed. Lt. Dan jumps out of a second story window onto the truck and rolls a critical failure! He takes 18 points of damage. Lt. Dan soaks it all. (That’s our leader!)

Write-up note: My notes from my iPad says “Winters doors a German.” I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean, so I’m going with “Winters shoots a German.”

Winters shoots a German. He was one of two German officers that were heading along the canal banks apparently searching for the French woman. Lambert is able to grab the baby.

Now the battle with the Germans is in full swing. Goldman is having a continual firefight with Germans who are continually outflanking him, but he is holding his own. Lambert now has the baby and the French woman and is heading for the Allied side of the canal to get them to safety. Winters has scrambled out of the canal and moves towards the action to help Lt. Dan and Goldman. (Write-up note: it occurs to me that for this entire time Lt. Dan and Goldman have been holding off a truck full of German soldiers and a Panzer. Yeah, that’s the stuff we’re made of.)

Lt. Dan drives the truck out of sight of the panzer. A German throws a potato masher through the window of the truck. Lt. Dan takes a wound but soaks it. The truck takes a wound (its door is blown off and the steering is affected. The truck can’t turn left.) Another German notices the truck but not Lt. Dan. He assumes a German is driving the truck and jumps in beside Lt. Dan. Lt. Dan draws his pistol and shoots the German besides him. This is the beginning off a short, up-close gun battle between the two. It ends badly for the German.

We sight more Germans entering the town—a tiger tank and halftrack. The allies are coming towards the town from the other direction, but we can see they are woefully outgunned by the Panzer and Tiger tanks. Lt Dan calls for us to blow the bridge. Unfortunately the bazooka is laying in the road. Only Goldman has a chance to grab it, but he’s doing a fighting retreat against a squad of Germans. . Lambert, the baby, and the French woman all make it out of the canal and head for cover.

As I said earlier, the gun battle in the truck ends badly for the German. Lt. Dan Kills him then throws the truck into reverse to get the back to the bazooka.

The panzer destroys the oncoming Allied Sherman tank.

Goldman runs across the street and grabs the bazooka.

Lambert and girl run towards the Americans.

Winters and Goldman jump into the truck.

Another German Tiger tank shows up.

Lt. Dan backs the truck out from behind the building and heads towards the bridge…in reverse. Somehow Goldman and Lt. Dan switch positions in the truck. Goldman’s now driving and Lt. Dan has the bazooka in the back of the truck. Winters grabs the bazooka from Lt. Dan and shoots the panzer IV for no effect.

Us escaping backwards in the truck trying to cross the bridge and escape the advancing Germans.

Us escaping backwards in the truck trying to cross the bridge and escape the advancing Germans.

Goldman crashes the truck (intentionally) on the Allied end of the bridge and bails out. Knowing the Panzer will shoot the truck next, the smart move would be to jump into the canal. Goldman has a phobia of water so he instead jumps to the nearby shore—well within the burst radius of the panzers shot. Winters and Lt. Dan are still in the truck.

The panzers shot misses the truck and hits the bridge! The bridge collapses. The truck falls into the canal. Winters and Lt. Dan jump free.

A perfect ending for us! The bridge is destroyed. We’re all safe. And by the looks of it, we followed our orders perfectly.

Lt. Dan gets the Distinguished Service Cross for acts of heroism. Goldman and Winters get nominated for metals, but only Winters gets one—the Distinguished Service Cross! Unfortunately Goldman’s goldbricking past still haunts him when it comes to medals and such.

Write-up note: I know the guys (especially Mike B.) will read this and catch that the account for Winters is a little off towards the end. That’s because my notes conflicted about just where he was during the end of the battle. So I went with something I made up.

Oh, and image you just read this as an entry in the journal of Pvt. Goldman. I forgot to write it that way, but I’m sure you have a good imagination.

Pvt. Goldman, E-3

Necessary Evil Episode 3.1: The Lab in the Grass

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

Necessary Evil Episode 3: The First Family

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.

Dr. Destruction called the villains via his telepathic link to meet his emissary at the Crooked Nose bar to find out the details on their next mission.  Striker was left out of this mission as this one calls for subtlety well beyond Striker’s skills.

The contact (Dr. Horrible and his moist sidekick) told them they were to rescue some prisoners from a V’Sori compound in Connecticut. They are being held in a renovated state police headquarters building. The team seemed more interested in getting paid for their troubles than finding out just how much trouble they would be in. Assuming they live through this, they may be more curious about the specifics next time. Dr. Horrible was less than impressed, but Mr. Smith surreptisously took a mug that Dr. Horrible used in order to frame him later.

They quickly headed to the airport in their disguises. Mr. Smith and Arc-Light had no trouble getting on the plane. Hex seemed to think his disguise as a mild mannered graphic designer would be sufficient and Viridian was certain his “Big Momma” drag outfit would fool any TSA agent based on his past experience at airports. They were both wrong. Lucky for them, the TSA just had them removed from the airport as they had “real criminals” to look for.

So, while Mr. Smith and Arc-Light waited patiently in Connecticut, Hex and Viridian rode the train. Hex, turned ghostly and spent most of the ride trying to find Viridian. Viridian built himself a fancy coffin with HDTV and a coin operated vibro-bed (might as well have) and shipped himself to Connecticut.

Finally getting together, the unlikely voice of reason (Arc-Light) suggested they steal a vehicle to get to the coordinates. Mr. Smith insisted on talking to a bank manger, taking out a loan, getting Dr. Destruction to co-sign it, and then leasing a van…where he would then place the stolen mug to frame Dr. Horrible. Eventually reason won out as they realized (after the GM re-read the line about them being villains) that Dr. Destruction is not concerned with how “legal” they are.

Finally arriving on scene, Hex and Arc-Light sneek onto the property…Hex is soon convinced by Viridian that since he can be seen in his ghostly form, he should go underground, then just pop up behind the bad guys as necessary to take them out. All Hex needs to do is make a simple Smarts roll (d4) to not get lost under ground…sometimes it’s a pleasure to be a GM when the players can’t re-roll critical failures! Hex spends the next 4 rounds hopelessly lost underground.

Meanwhile, Arc-Light is inside the building…but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Viridian and Mr. Smith decide it’s time to make their move. Viridian, pops the locks on the front gate, rewires the cameras to send a looped signal back to the monitors, set’s up a broadcast station to send the real camera video to his helmet and directly into his brain. Not bad. Mr. Smith spends 6 rounds moving 3″ at a time towards the enemy.

Now back to Arc-Light. He’s inside the cell block, killed a drone, (invisible and intangible) and desperately avoiding detection by the mass of drones and K’Tharen troops. He finally figures out what he’s going to do just before the prisoners are to be taken outside.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Scum are focusing on taking over the large M’Bunta ship, even though all the K’Tharen and drones seem to be concentrating on the smaller Manta. Hex finally pops up out of the ground (8″ behind where he started) and has worked his way to the drivers seat of the M’Bunta…except he can’t pilot…when he realizes that the smaller ship is more likely where the prisoners are headed.

Viridian has been mind controlling the crap out of drones and K’Tharens leaving openings for the rest of the Scum. Mr. Smith has moved another 9 inches…but then finally gets to open fire, drops a few drones. Arc-Light, rapid teleports into the midst of a K’Tharen squad and tries to teleport blind with the three prisoners, but fails. The K’Tharen’s beat on him but his toughness proves to be too much!

Now with the prisoners outside Arc-Light tries once again to teleport the prisoners and succeeds! With a mighty shout of “Suck It!” to the K’Tharen Warlord sitting in his ship. Shavak decides better to kill the prisoner than lose them, and as he flies away, he blasts the prisoners to smithereens…the Scum escape in the M’Bunta but know they must ditch it in minutes or risk dying from the V’Sori Man O’ War bearing down on them.

Dr. Destruction is not happy and certainly will not be donating to their lair…Dr. Horrible spends months basking in the glory of being identified as the mastermind behind the plot based on his fingerprints being found in a van nearby. His status among the other villains is growing quickly!

World War II: Mission 4, The Taking of the Bridge

War Master (Owen): Fair minded and makes beautiful sounds when he speaks. (Yes, I still need Bennies.)

Lambert’s Losers
Lt. Dick Dan (Ben): Our courageous (stupid?) squad leader.
Private (E-1) Destry Lambert (Evil Mike): Our commando medic.
Private (E-1) Charlie Winters (Mike): Still not sure what he does.
Private (E-2) Hector Goldman (Steve): Award Winning Armored Vehicle Crewman.

Journal Entry June 4th 1944 (still)

This has been a pretty busy morning for us. I’m not sure why they need the 16 million other guys.

Our next goal was to take over a nearby bridge and hold it until reinforcements relieved us.  The bridge was in some nameless French town. We stealthily advanced upon the town. That’s when the German machinegun opened up on us hitting Lambert and Winters. Fortunately neither was wounded. I laid down suppression fire in the area around the machinegun and Lambert rushed the building in true commando style.

During Lambert’s assault on the two German’s manning the machinegun, Evil Mike needed to roll a 6 on a d6 to hit one of the defenders. Mike was rolling FIVE d6’s. He missed—not a single 6. So he through in a Benny and rolled again. He missed again—no 6’s. Evil Mike spends a second Benny and rerolled. He missed a third time! Not a single 6 was rolled after rolling FIFTEEN d6s! Now Lambert is stuck in a room with two angry Germans.

I did manage to kill one of the two Germans with Lambert right away. It was close though. I tried twice more to kill the remaining German but my gun (dice) went cold. I eventually killed the last German. I have no idea what Lambert was doing while I was trying to save his life.

In the meantime, Lt. Dan and Winters where cleaning out the buildings on the other side of the street. Winters took a couple of wounds during the action and decided to join Lt. Dan. With the Machinegun nest cleared out, I laid down suppression fire so Lambert could make it to the building where Lt. Dan and Winters were holed up. Lambert patched up Winters.

The fighting through the rest of the buildings went pretty smoothly for us. In no time at all we were ready to assault the bridge.

Lambert and I took one side of the bridge’s defenses, while Lt. Dan and Winters took the other side. Our plan (Lambert and me) was for Lambert to assault the bridge while I covered him. Unfortunately we didn’t count on the superior reflexes of the Germans (nor the incredible Agility rolled by the GM.) I watched as the Germans cut down Lambert like so much Swiss cheese. Enraged, I charged the bridge with my combat knife. Fortunately Lt. Dan and Winters had easily handled their side of the bridge and were able to come to my aid. My assault with my knife failed miserably. Also fortunately the German solider I attacked was so surprised he missed me with his attack. Lt. Dan killed him. I’m able to kill the remaining German and bridge is ours.

Now we must hold it. What could go wrong?

Private Goldman

World War II: Mission 3, A Tank in the Woods

War Master (Owen): Witty, thorough, and handsome. (Yes, I need Bennies.)

Lambert’s Losers Lt. Dick Dan (Ben): Our fearless squad leader.
Private (E-1) Destry Lambert (Evil Mike): Our commando medic.
Private (E-1) Charlie Winters (Mike): Not sure what he does.
Private (E-2) Hector Goldman (Steve): Armored Vehicle Crewman, bronze metal.

Journal Entry June 4th 1944 (still just before dawn)

It was just before dawn (see, I told you) as we tramped through yet another endless countryside. We needed to find the damn Nazi mobile artillery, but it kept moving. Lt. Dan finally ordered us to steal a ride. It was easily done and soon I was driving us all down a nice country road. We were still hunting the artillery, but at least we weren’t walking.

We had to backtrack, but eventually found where the mobile artillery trucks had left the road. We followed their tracks into a lightly wooded patch of ground. We stopped. (I don’t remember why.) While stopped we heard the clanking and creaking of something coming our way. Our worse fear was realized. It was a tank. We all scrambled to cover; hoping it hadn’t noticed us. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of being one with the tree I was behind. Right up until the air around me was filled with machinegun fire. The tree was ripped and tattered, but I was only a little rattled (Shaken). I leaped out from behind cover and fired a burst from my Thompson at the tank commander who was looking out of the top of the tank. I missed. Uh oh.

Fortunately Winters and Lambert had my back, or rather the tank’s back. They actually climbed onto the back of the tank. By this time the tank commander had retreated down into the tank and had sealed the entrance. Lambert eventually realized to snap off the tank’s antenna so they couldn’t radio in our position. Lt. Dan spent some time fumbling with his bazooka. (I’m not sure where he got a bazooka.)

There were some tense moments as the tank exchanged shots with us. Lambert was hit and wounded once he and Winters jumped off the tank. Lt. Dan finally hit the tank with the bazooka. He damaged it, but didn’t destroy it completely. The tank escaped into the morning fog.

After the tank encounter we patched up Lambert (Hmm, maybe Lambert patched up Lambert. He IS the medic after all.) Then we went looking for the Mobile artillery. We found it. We called in the airstrike and got the heck out of Dodge.

Now we are trudging to a bridge that we are supposed to hold until relieved—all in a morning’s work for us.

Private Goldman

World War II: Mission 2, Vierville-Sur-Mer and the Artillery

War Master (Owen): A no holds barred master of war.

Lambert’s Losers
Lt. Dick Dan (Ben): Our fearless squad leader. Private (E-1) Destry Lambert (Evil Mike): Our commando medic.
Private (E-1) Charlie Winters (Mike): Still not sure what he does.
Private (E-1) Hector Goldman (Steve): Armored Vehicle Crewman and one-man army.

Journal Entry June 4th 1944 pre-dawn

Lt. Dan led us into an ambush on the way to the village of Vierville-Sur-Mer. One minute we are walking along quiet-as-you-please through a wood, the next moment grenades are landing at our feet. We kept our heads though. Winters quick reflexes allowed him to throw back one of the German potato mashers. Unfortunately, it hit a tree branch and ended up landing at his feet. It exploded. Winters was unhurt, but Lt. Dan took a couple of wounds. I already had my Thompson out and began shooting lead into the surrounding Germans. We escaped to fight another day. And that day is today.

Scouting out the town we saw the arrival of the mobile artillery we were supposed to call an air strike on. An air strike in town would kill many innocents. Lt. Dan ordered us to wait until the artillery moved out again. Also, HQ ordered us to hole up as the big thing they had plan was postponed a day. We waited in a barn. Private Lambert recently completed his Commando training…or so he told us. Lt. Dan must have bought it hook, line, and sinker because he let Lambert go back into town. I’m thinking his only scouting would be to find him a pretty French woman.

Soon we got word that Lambert had been captured. Lt. Dan asked for volunteers to rescue Lambert. Everyone took one step back, which made us all look pretty silly. Lt. Dan ordered us into town to rescue Lambert.

We made a sensational raid on the main German headquarters in town–lots of guns blazing and grenade explosions. This would have been great had we not been on a covert mission. Now the Germans were probably suspicious as to why we were even in the area. Lambert was already acting on his escape plan when Goldman arrived shooting up the place and the officer interrogating Lambert. The officer shook off the bullets like they were nothing. Lambert finished him.

We escaped town. Now we have to continue our search for the artillery and call in that air strike—all before the big day.

(Game Note: Lt. Dan has National Identity which allows him to recover a spent Benny if he rolls a 6 on a d6. This never seems to work. During this evening’s session, it worked several times for Ben, which is good. He needed them.)

(Game Note: Steve got two jokers!)

(Game Note: Rumors have started going around that the guy playing Goldman fell asleep during the game. Those rumors are unsubstantiated. Remember, loose lips sink ships, so stop gabbing around.)

Pvt. Goldman

 

World War II: Mission 1, A Gun Not Too Far After All

War Master (Owen): A deadly opponent in any arena.

Lambert’s Losers
Lt. Dick Dan (Ben): Our fearless squad leader.
Private (E-1) Destry Lambert (Evil Mike): Our medic.
Private (E-1) Charlie Winters (Mike): Not sure what he does.
Private (E-1) Hector Goldman (Steve): Armored Vehicle Crewman.

Journal Entry June 4th 1944

One quick note about my squad mates, specifically our medic, Lambert. Although the kid’s a smart as a whip, he seems to miss the most obvious observations. (Game terms: 14 skills, but no Notice skill.) I think he’ll be ok though, as long as he doesn’t step on a German mine like our last medic.

There was a rumor going round that on June 5th something big was planned. So it was no surprised that our unit found ourselves covertly assaulting a beach in the dead of night on June 4th. Our primary mission was to destroy a coastal gun emplacement, but we also had two secondary missions: locate some mobile artillery and call in an air strike, and locate and hold a nearby bridge. We must be the best of the best.

Our landing went well, except for the part where our rudder got caught on a floating mine. Lt. Dan did a fine job of risking his life to get us free. Next we snuck by the German sentries on the beach and climbed the cliffs to reach the area where the gun emplacement was said to be. For once intel was right.

We easily found the bunker that housed the gun. After some tense moments at the entrance, we silently entered. Grenades were freely tossed back and forth between us and the German guards. Since those failed to killed the guards, we resorted to the old fashion way: bayonets and bullets.

I managed to save one of the guy’s lives with a dead-on spray of bullets from my Thompson. After that is was routine kill and cleanup. We destroyed the gun and got the heck out of there.

After saving what’s-his-name’s life in the bunker, Lt. Dan put me in for a Bronze Star and a promotion. Seems I’m an E-2 now and out rank the other guys. I’m never going to live this down. (Game note: The only way I could get a promotion was to roll a 20 on a d20—which I did. I’m that good.)

We have a 5am deadline to find the mobile artillery. Fortunately we’ll have the help of the French Resistance. Hopefully there will be some beautiful French babes like you see in the movies that will be made of the war later. We can find them (both the resistance and the babes, I hope) in the village of Vierville-Sur-Mer. (Did the Muppets name all the French villages? Just asking.)

We have until 10am to find and hold the bridge. We’re to destroy it if we can’t hold it.

Sounds like another beautiful day in the army.

Pvt. Goldman

Necessary Evil Episode Two: The Undergrounders

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

Necessary Evil Episode One: Jail Break!

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