Welcome, Traveller...Khaine's Not Dead!

** Welcome, Traveller... **

We've had two (2!) sessions of Traveller since we last posted the summary here.  The following are GameDoc's session notes for both sessions, taken from our private social media.

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Scouting Run

Riley and Klaes manage to observe the moon-bound craft and determine they include a small transport and a pair of fighter escorts. The fighters are identical to the ones previously encountered in the recovery of the Kingfisher and in the jungles near the alien ruins.  Returning to the spaceport, they discover that Khaine has managed to gather all the information he can on the black market for dead bodies.  He plants a tracer on a body and the entire crew boards the ship to observe its movement from low orbit.

They are able to determine that the criminals dump bodies in a pile near the coast where another party picks them up and transporters them over the sea and then overland on the northern continent to a previously unknown space port.  The crew then observes another small transport with fighter escort depart and head for the moon. Trailing the ships, they decide to run silent and make a pass over the moon and see where the ships land.

The Kingfisher's Ship Record

Unfortunately they are detected. The fighter escorts turn to intercept and are joined by two more craft from the moon. The Kingfisher makes easy work of the smaller craft, but sustains some hull damage.

Below, the crew discovers a crater that has been conferred to an airfield where a dozen more fighter craft are beginning to scramble for launch. On the rim of the crater is a large, round structure. The transport approaches and enters through a large hangar door on the top. 

Hernando is able to capture transmissions from the installment but they are in the same alien programming code encountered with the cyber-organic creatures they’ve fought before.  The crew determines to make a break for it rather than face a full squadron of enemy fighters. The Kingfisher lacks armor and isn’t equipped for a prolonged fight. They break orbit and head farther out into the system before looping back to Tinath and landing.

All loser look at the body dump is needed. Hernando implants a transponder on Khaine, who then puts himself into a psionically induced state of suspended animation. While Klaes repairer the ship’s hull and Hernando countinues working to crack the alien code, Sally sells Khaine’s “body” to the one of the criminal gangs. 

Sally and Riley then follow the transponder signal to the dump site. Khaine, along with a number of actual dead bodies, is dumped on the heap. One of the criminals approached the window of a small structure and some sort of exchange is made before the criminals get in their vehicle and depart.

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Khaine's Not Dead (Yet)

Shortly after Khaine (still in a state of suspended animation) is left at the body dump, a g/transport arrives and two people begin loading the bodies. Knowing that Khaine is about to be shipped halfway across the planet, Riley decides to try and sneak on board the transport. He discovers the controls have been attached to some sort of autopilot mechanism. When the two humans loading bodies finally notice him, it is clear they are nearly delirious on some sort of drug. He is able to easily convince them he’s a security guard sent to check on them.

Sally returns to the starport to update the others. Klaes has repaired the hull of the ship and Hernando has finally begun to crack the alien coding language. The crew decides to head back into orbit and be prepared to descend on Riley and Khaine’s location if needed. While in orbit, they manage to salvage part of one of the alien drone fighters they destroyed, giving Hernando additional technology to study.

Planetside, Riley and Khaine arrive at the alien starport. 

The bodies are moved from the g/transport to a cargo shuttle. Riley follows along and although several cyber-organic soldiers are about, none seem concerned for his presence. Riley boards the shuttle and discovers another group of drugged humans arranging the bodies in the hold. One is more lucid than the others and is able to explain what is happening.

The alien cyber-organic beings have been kidnapping humans for some time and transporting them to their facility on the moon. Some are used as forced labor, while those that don’t survive are harvested for other purposes, as are the dead bodies they’ve been acquiring on the black market. The laborers are used to assemble mechanical parts and occasionally a group are pulled aside to come back to Tinath and pick up bodies or new captives.

Riley decides to remain on board and allow himself and Khaine to be taken to the lunar facility. He is able to coordinate with the others, who plan to follow behind and attempt to communicate with the aliens. Hernando is able to decipher their code well enough to at least communicate a lack of hostile intent and a desire to meet. The Kingfisher is instructed to touch down on the landing field near the lunar facility. An entryway into the facility is visible. 

Inside, the transport lands in the hangar. Riley is warned that if he is seen armed, he’ll be accosted. He finds a tarp and is able to conceal his rifle. Exiting the ship, he is immediately confronted by two humans and ordered to empty his pockets and hand over any belongings. It seems a gang of human collaborators helps control the prisoners in exchange for more freedom and better treatment. 

Riley flashes his gun and is able to intimidate them for the time being, but the thugs note that there are two cyber-organic guards nearby that will attack at the sight of an armed human. They refer to the creatures as “troxbolgs”. 

The bodies, along with Khaine, are taken out of the hanger by still more human laborers and dumped in a cold storage room. The human thugs indicate that Riley needs to get on the nearby elevator so he can be taken for processing as a prisoner.

Outside, the others don vacc suits and exit the Kingfisher. They are met by four troxblogs (also in vacc suits) who escort them to the entrance, which turns out to be an elevator. The external doors close abs the chamber pressurized. The internal doors open into a hallway and the crew finds themselves staring at Riley, surrounded by prisoners and troxblog guards.

One of the human collaborators attempts to snatch Riley’s converter rifle away but isn’t fast enough. A shootout occurs and the crew makes quick work of the troxbolgs and capture the two human collaborators.

The Funnel of Death

The following is from GameDoc's session notes in our private social media.

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Each player had five randomly generated 0-level characters that explores the dungeon. Out of 35, only 20 survived. Each player then chose one of their survivors to advance to 1st level.

THE PORTAL UNDER THE STARS

The town of Ünmann is dying. In truth it’s hard to say it ever really lived. Unlike most of the towns along the Tradeway, it has never thrives. Some say it sits on a cursed spot. The rubble strewn hill that overlooks the town is said to have once held a tower that belonged to the last warlord of the orcs.

The orc wars ended centuries ago and the Tradeway was built across orc territory, connecting the Old Kingdoms of the north and south. As human settlements and farmsteads popped up along the Tradeway, the orcs were pushed further to the fringes of their former lands. But the prosperity most humans found never took hold in Ünmann.

Most have left and only a handful of villagers remain, including the faithful acolytes of the local Shrine of Saint Iambulus, and a handful of dwarven merchants.

The town elder, Old Robert lays dying with no family to mourn him. As the last villagers pay their respects, he tells a tale of his youth, some fifty years ago. On the night of the Empty Star, he climbed the old hill, and in the rubble he discvoered a magic portal. Beyond he say the gleam of jewels but when he entered, he was chased away by “iron men” with spears. He wished he’d been braver and made the effort to recover the treasure he knew must lie within. Better to have died than return to the misery of scratching out an existence in Ünmann all the years afterward.  

As Robert finishes his tale with his dying breath, one of the locals realizes that the night of the Empty Star is only two days hence. The villagers give Old Robert a proper burial and make ready to ascend the hill.

Two nights later, they discover Old Robert was true to his word. The portal appears amid the rubble of the old tower, and a corridor leads to a gem encrusted doorway.

The villagers endure a series of deadly hazards in the dungeon beyond. Beams of light that disintegrate you where you stand. Moving iron golems that hurl spears with deadly aim. Shambling piles of bones and a demonic serpent. And a statue that shoots jets of flame at all who pass. Some live and some die.

The recurring theme of the dungeon seems to indicate an ancient tribe of primeval orcs under the command of a strange alien sorcerer. At last the villagers breach the innermost chamber to find a large clay statue of the sorcerer surrounded by a battalion of clay orcish soldiers. The statues animate and attack the villagers. More fall in battle, armed only with hand tools and clubs. When at last they bring down the statue of the sorcerer, the soldiers freeze in place again.

The survivors locate a hidden chamber. Within lies the inanimate body of the alien sorcerer. Peering into its crystal orb, one villager is confronted by a demon who explains that the sorcerer rose to power with its aid. The sorcerer retreated to this sanctum after his last battle and projected his mind outward to explore the cosmos. But his mind become severed and lost, never to return to the World of Urd. 

The demon offers a similar pact to the villagers, who reject the offer in horror. Demons are the bringers of chaos and strife and none want to sacrifice their souls.

Among the treasures, one villager also located the sword and armor of his ancestor - Sir Roderick the Guardian - a hero of legend said to have died in the towers collapse.

With a cache of treasure that can be sold and noting left to return two in Ünmann, the remaining villagers decide to head north along the Tradeway in search of new opportunities and adventures.

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The Arcane Alienist corroborates all this on his podcast here!

The Mythic World of Urd: The Tower of Azhug

Recently, we were all sent to our deaths by our local GameDoc.  I got to play Zelligar the Unknown, a legendary wizard! 

The following is from his post-game summary in our social media group:

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Here's a summary of the first session (which is like a prelude to the campaign).

Thanks to everyone for helping with the playtest.

THE TOWER OF AZHUG

The Hinterlands is a region long home to various bands of orcs. The orcs live close the land, hunting, gathering, and driving herds to seasonal grazing grounds. But over the past several decades, they have become increasingly hostile to the human kingdoms to the north and south of their territory and the last generation has known nothing but war and aggression.

The orc warlord Azhug III is the third in a dynasty that has held the orcs under one rule. Azhug belongs to the Standing Stone band. In generations past, this band has been regarded as lore keepers and holy people among the orcs. At some point, the band became more aggressive and began subjugating other groups. Azhug I (the current Azhug’s grandfather) was the first warlord to claim rulership over all the orcs of the Hinterlands.

The Old Kingdoms and the Free Cities of humanity have had enough and banded together to stop the orc hordes. But the orcs have proven particularly difficult to break.

Amid those fighting for the human armies is the elf adventurer, Mallonn and his companions, the thief Khaine, the paladin Sir Roderick, the halfling Seamus, and the dwarf Hanksite Irongrits. After a skirmish with an orc patrol, they are approached by a lone orc, Garzal, who surrenders and offers to lead them straight into the warlords camp if they promise to end the Azhug dynasty once and for all. Garzal in an orc traditionalist who longs to return to the old ways and abandon the endless war and conflict.

Knowing the mission will be difficult, Mallonn calls upon two of his old adventruing companions, now retired: Zelligar the Unknown, a powerful wizard, and Rheagen the Fearless, a legendary fighter.

The heroes make their way to Azhug III's base and discover that he has erected a tower ringed with a stone wall. 

The legendary party sets forth...

Scaling the wall, they see that the courtyard is filled with clay automatons made in the likeness of orcish soldiers. They are able to bypass the courtyard and the lower levels of the tower using Sir Roderick's magic rope of climbing.

Their climb leads them through a window and into the stairwell directly outside Azhug's champers. 

After a quick battle with the warlord, his son (Azhug IV), and the house guard, and a hill giant that has squeezed up the stairs, the heroes are victorious. 

Hanksite unveils a new type of device his clan has invented - black powder guns!

However, one orc escaped the battle - Azhug's queen, Gemti. During the fighting, Azhug was overhear telling her to "go to the Old One". The heroes track her up another flight of stairs to the top level of the tower.

At the top level, they find the orc queen attending a figure seated on a throne. The figure is humanoid, but alien and unlike any species anyone has ever seen. Zelligar deduces that he is one of the  ancient First People, from whom humans, orcs, elves, and halflings are descended. 

It is the Old One that has bent the Azhug line to his will and stirred them to conquest and war from the shadows. He mocks the heroes, telling them their species have degraded much since his kind brought them forth upon the World of Urd.

The heroes engage the Old One and surround him. His magic proves to be powerful as he obliterates the life force from Garzal with one word and paralyzes Seamus, Khaine, and Zelligar with a touch. Nonetheless the heroes gain the upper hand and the Old One flees into a magic portal behind his throne. Sir Roderick is able to dive in after him while the tower collapses around the others.

In ages to come, the heroes will be remembered for their defeat of the Azhug dynasty and how they sacrificed their lives in the destruction of the tower. But the secret of the Old One will remain a secret, lost in the rubble now piled atop the hill where the tower once stood.

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The Arcane Alienist speaks about this session in his podcast here!