Aniara - The Great Escape (2)

So our continuous adventure into outer space wasn't as action-packed as the last one, but it worked out fine.  Sector 8 was peaceful enough and joined us without much trouble, I got a promotion to Senator-General and then a year passed. Binding together 5 floors with our we had a solid ground to stand on for a society, and then sector 12 began an anarchistic revolution. I don't know how they got the idea, but somehow they saw me as a tyrant. Me? The Senator-General? What utter nonsense! Not only that, but we had two runners from sector 9 that we hadn't smoked out yet. One even attacked the italian chick (Jane I think her name was) who quickly kicked him in the groin after he stabbed two of my guards, then Jane kicked him to the ground and sat on him until backup arrived and he was executed right on the spot.

Meanwhile Dr Grübber was preoccupied going through the dental records of the 1000 people in Sector 9 to find the missing runner... who turned out to be his head-nurse. Back to Jane, she entered  Sector 12 and found it being overrun by anarchistic mexican gang-members, The East side Locos. And after some questioning she made my guard shoot the closest gang-member with a spray-can. Without authorization. The PR-department will have a rough time cleaning this mess up. So after the report I put the place in lockdown at the moment so it doesn't spread while I gather a small team of soldiers, Jane and the head-nurse to negotiate with the leaders of Sector 12.

Talking with the very friendly anarchists I tried to at least make sure there is no hostilities between the area I control and theirs. So I make them a deal they can't refuse, they can keep their Sector, but they stay there and agrees to trade with us and we will not interfere with them and provide access to necessities such as electricity and such. And as compensation they get to kill the head-nurse, an eye for an eye if you get my drift. The security team then cleaned up the mess and dumped the body over the balcony. No one kills three of my guys and gets away with it.

While this is going on Jake Smith is trying to reroute the controls, but the systems are bust and the cords are fried. So we seriously doubt that that we can control this chunk of metal. On other fronts weapon research have hit some breakthroughs, I got my Molotov Cocktail, but not the flame-throwers (and this was due to a lack of communication on my side with the DM). So the main characters have dinner in the lunch room when suddenly the alarm goes of. Sector 4269 is in distress and apparently the Thing is loose. Bump goes the air-ducts above us and I really want my flame-throwers. After some discussion about the fire security I'm able to get the research team to reverse-engineer our fire extinguisher to flame-throwers (I thought on that earlier, but forget to mention it, therefor missing out on a whole year of pyromanic awesomeness). The floors goes into lockdown and out of the vent falls... the Captain, who survived the meteor crash and lived in the vent for a whole year living on rats. Medic test are set up to test the personal for any infestation (you know the blood and fire test). The Sky-Marshal goes missing and all player characters are tested negative (non-infected). All in all one person is found out and burned to a crisp by our newly developed flame-throwers. The blood sample left is taken to our newly constructed blood-scanner that Smith threw together (insanely good roll) that starts scanning of the whole ship to determine the spread of the infection.

Turns out 200 floors are beyond saving so with some hacking skills and passwords from the Captain, Smith disengage those floors out to space, saving the rest of us as we have it more manageable the few infected in our sectors. And this is were it mostly ends, open-ended interpretation. Do we find a planet? Are we able to control the ship? Our are we doomed to wander aimlessly around in space until all systems fails and everyone dies. It was more or less up to us what we wanted to happen after this point. All I know is that I became the highest ranking officer in charge with the Sky-Marshal gone and the Captain out of commission more or less since the experience with the Thing had broken his sanity. So full  title should be Captain Sky-Marshal Senator-General Zachary Foxx. Then next objective was to locate the Fort Knox of the ship and put all its content in my hands. If we survive I'm the richest guy on the colony, or if we wanders until we die, I will die as the richest man on the ship. Win-Win either way and flames to the face upon those who disagree.

Aniara - The Great Escape

What a weekend. First a reunion of the political science people (plus other people who are always fun to meet) After abstaining alcohol for over a year I first of all almost couldn't remember what I usually get to drink. And then I believe I almost drank to much cause I'm not used to that much alcohol anymore, I spent around 1-2 hours just trying to keep awake when we were out at the club. The night ends with four of us on a kitchen floor eating macaronis, chips and so on, one of us sleeping on the floor and the other two sending messages to other people. And I'm still awake and sobering up... WIN! Of course the next morning didn't feel that well since... well, hangover. Body aching all over, small headache, abrasion on my heels, but it was well worth it. Been a long time since I had that sort of fun. 

Next thing up was the DnD group, our Sci-Fi adventure in outer space. It was AWESOME! All begins somewhere around the 3:e millennia, the earth is dying and humanity have started colonized the Jupiter moon Titan and terraforming Mars as a last escape plan. In an apartment in the former Canadian territories of the United States, former military commander, now turned bounty-hunter Zachary Foxx (and yes, the name is taken from this show) is sitting in a chair, pointing his pump-action shotgun toward the door, smoking a cigarette. A knock is heard on the door and the military Sky-Marshal enters with a couple of soldiers offering a ticket to Sahara and 4 million credits for the job as security commander. Foxx's eyes gleams with greed as he hears the proposals and take the ticket and begins to prepare for the flight to Cairo in four hours.

Somewhere else a lottery is being held to pick 8000 people to fill the 18 000 people that are to be rescued from the earth (the other 10 000 people paid for their place on the ship). Three of the lucky few are computer technician expert Jack Smith from the UK, medical doctor Frances Grübber from the recreated Prussia and... gym-owner italian chick who's name escapes me. They all travel to Cairo and onward to the Saharan desert to witness earth final hope, the spaceship Aniara. All four of us are living in Sector 7G (yes, that's a Simpsons reference) for four days without trouble, then disaster strikes. A meteor hits the cockpit completely destroying it sending us of course without any means to steer it back. The impact knocks Jack to the floor, but he quickly links his computer bracelet directly to the ships AI Mima to get live status reports. Grübber begins to check for damaged people and set up a temporary hospital together with the italian chick. I join with the technician protecting him for the moment. Grübber and the chick meets up with the Sky-Marshal which me and Smith meets up with to organize rescue relief and stave of chaos. Smith hooks up at Mima's computer central in Sector 7 while I found the rest of the security guards in this sector.

While this was going on, we lost contact with sector 8 while sector 9 was put in isolation due to a chef and cooking personal going berserk and killing of the rest of the people in that sector (there being 1000 people in each sector with the cooking staff being around 100). Sector 6 was still open and we began coordinating the people and our resources. The deck below us we lost contact with and the same is probably true about those above us. Anyway, I positions groups of guards at the exits toward the hostile areas (a minimum of 2 guards in each group, preferably 3 or more) as well as patrols in the sectors to show them that there is an authority that will uphold order. Then the power is cut and where is the power source you might ask, well in sector 9 of course. Want to know something else, apparently the technician has figured out how to reroute the ships control so that we can steer it back on course, but the most optimal place is in... you guessed it, Sector 9. What a coincidence huh?

So we have to take back Sector 9 from the insane cooking personal (who by the way killed of the others in that sector with rat-poison and meat-cutters). So I assemble a strike team of 20 people (mostly hunters and other military trained people since I need my better trained men keeping the civilians safe), a couple of maintenance robots as well as Jack Smith to start up the power source and reconfigure the controls. So we head toward the ventilations, who somehow has been forced open from the Sector 9 side. Haven't time to think more about that we stealthily sneak in and localize the insane people in the dining hall and the kitchen. Without any heavy weaponry (the best we have is my shotgun and some hunting rifles while the ordinary security guards are wielding glock's) we take the gas tanks from the maintenance robots welding equipment and use as grenades, throwing it in from the vent and doors in the dining hall. A blast later and the room is silent when we walk in. 52 dead bodies we find, but I don't know how this happened, but when this went on people from the kitchen sneaked up on us and abducted 3 of my men. They even took the guy with the sonar equipment who was supposed to warn us if something like that was going on. We localize the kitchen, but are unsure how to proceed until Smith gets an idea. We find a garage (it is a huge ship), take one of the vehicles and empties the rest on fuel, putting the canisters on the transport. Then he builds a small detonator, places it in a puddle of petroleum and then start the machine up and runs for our lives when the car crashes into the kitchen at the same time as Mima closes the blast-doors in this sector to diminish the explosion (since the kitchen also contains gas-canisters for the ovens and such). A huge explosion occurs and the bastards are all dead.

Unfortunately for us the optimal place to reroute the ships control was caught in the explosion, but at least we were in control of the main power source that Smith started up. When that happened the doors to Sector 8 opened up. Now, this wasn't that good since we had no idea what the hell was going on in there since all the cameras in that sector had turned dark. All we could hear on the other hand is that the people there had turned their hope to the computer AI referring it to God, forming a cult around it and their chanting was now closing in around the doors and... this is when the session ended. Awesome is it not? A pity it will have to wait till sunday for its conclusion and then it's over. At least I have time to think out contingency plans and necessary steps to act preemptory in case of other crisis scenarios. Hopefully we only need plan A or B to contain the current primary threat of the cultist, cause otherwise it will be messy. And all this before the first week on the job. At least I was able to talk the Sky-Marshal into a raise since this wasn't in the job description.

Along Comes A Spider

Another sunday have passed and that means yet another session of DnD. Last time we had entered the Vault of the Nine to restore it to its former glory. There we found ghost and ghouls of the Nine protecting a chamber were we set up camp. As we started our path was blocked by a metal door with a magic lock upon it. While the magic user tried to figure out a way to unlock it I went to the ghost and asked them about the door. Apparently it was sealed by some cloaked man and then I asked if the ghost could help us open it. I don't know what happened, but the ghost that went forward evaporated out of existence when touching the lock. That was a bit unnecessary. I don't know if that somehow made the spell void since the next thing that happened was that the barbarian, avenger and swordmage pushed the door open. And that even after the swordmage already taken 2 damage from messing with the lock earlier.

Before us was a corridor which had a turn, but at the end hanged an axe surrounded by 2 candles. The barbarian was in the lead so she lead the way. Lucky for her the traps she set of all missed her. Being the awesome ranger I am, I disarmed a trap by firing at a crossbow in the roof and then masterfully jump up and grab my arrow  Recycling. Of course we suspected that the axe was booby trapped so we sent the swordmage forward to grab it and then teleport away instantaneously something seemed suspicious. That was never needed since he managed to avoid the traps and retrieve the axe. The magic wielders deduced that it was cursed and gave it to the barbarian... which would be a bad mistake in the end, but it was from her clan so we had not much to say about that. We continued and entered a new room with an arm in some rubbles. Suspicious we tried to determine if it was dangerous, cause you should never trust an arm. The thing is that the barbarian recognized the hand and decided to put the axe in it. The arm grasped it and suddenly sounds from the other corridor was heard. The sound something with many legs coming near. We all jumped behind a table and prepared to fight the oncoming enemies. 

Out comes 2 goblins, 3 spiders and a hobgoblin. Since we have the element of surprise we strike merciless. Our rabbit swordmage jumps forward and attack with some fire sword magic that strikes the goblins and 2 of the spiders all the while avoiding the axe-wielding undead arm right beside him. The goblins turn invisible while our avenger runs forward and lays his attack upon one of the spiders beside the rabbit. Our bard cast a protective spell upon us and mocks the hobgoblin to take damage. I continue up the attack by firing two arrows at the hobgoblin, one hitting and the other missing. The barbarian runs up beside the avenger and smash the spider even more. Then our fearless psionic magician cast an anchor supposed to trap the two spiders and goblins the rabbit struck before, but unfortunately he get caught in the blast of magic and is trapped as well still having the arm swinging the cursed axe around him and bringing his health down.

The monster begin the next round to counterattack with one of the spiders jumping right in front of me striking with its fangs. Lucky for me it misses (thanks to the protective spell the bard put up). From here on out it turned into a war of attrition when the spiders jumped all over the place trying to bit as many as many as possible while infecting us with poison which our bard tried to counter with healing those who got struck. At times it looked bleak as the bard, myself and my cousin the psionic was poisoned, the avengers knocked to the ground and the barbarian and swordmage turned to stone by a mist emitted from the cursed axe as it struck the rabbit. One of the goblins almost escaped as well due to the psionic convincing it to leave... the way it came for. The final act our rabbit swordmage did before turning to stone was to strike the goblin down. After some intense fighting we stood victorious, but shaken as we tried to regroup and heal those who had turned to stone. While the others did that I searched the pockets of the hobgoblin finding 30 pieces of gold that we shared equally among us as well as a document warning the creatures about us traveling down the tunnels signed with the mark of a spider with a skull. The drow knew we were coming so what awaits us further in could be more dangerous than anything we encountered before (which for me is just a gelatin monster and these spiders and goblins). Realizing we are hardly capable to stand in another fight we retreated back to our earlier camp protected by the ghosts to rest up and then venture further in at our next session. Anyway, we also leveled up so now we are level 3.

Also, next session with this game will not be until 3 weeks from now since the bard has other business and we don't stand much chance without him so it will be some sci-fi two-shots game during the intermission. So it's character building time again.

The Story of Vorsilder Wolfhunter (part 2)

Where were we? A yes the political debate, a real interesting battle between the ideological differences against the governmental organization and... what? You don't want to hear about that? Alright fine, let the story continue.

So when they arrive they meet Tyrell the Swift, an half-elven bard fencer. Together they join forces as the Silverhawks (and yes, that is a reference to this show) and they all have hawk feathers in there wardrobe. Vorsilder has two in the hair, Stargazer two in his quarterstaff and Tyrell has several sewed to his arms (he is the dramatic one). This leaves the main character with symbols of hawk, wolf, puma and bear which is a reference to this show. Anyway, they act likes mercenaries for roughly 60 years until they are tasked by some lord to investigate disappearances in some area and they uncover a secret Drow Cult that are preparing a sacrificial offering to Lolth. Tyrell gets captured and prepared for the altar. Vorsilder and Stargazer prepares a rescue and succeeds to saves him and the rest of the prisoners destroying the cultist in the process. They get out, but unfortunately Tyrell have damaged his leg and are forced to leave the Silverhawks in order to find healing. 

The Silverhawks disband with Vorsilder and Stargazer traveling to Baldur's Gate. There they meet Vorsilders cousin for the first time and then travels onward to the north and Neverwinter. They have just time to arrive and spend some days in the city when the cataclysm strikes. Casting the city into disorder and ruin our heroes mount rescue attempts to save as many civilians as possible. They get separated and disaster strikes as Vorsilder almost fells down the rift that opens up in the city, having buildings falling over him, almost crushing him to death. He is saved in the nick of time by an eladrin paladin named Cygnus Swanfeather (and yes, Cygnus is latin for swan so it is Swan Swanfeather). Vorsilder falls into a coma and sees the light at the end of the tunnel, seeing it as a sign for Corellon pushing him to believing in the god at a higher level. A strange twist since the devoted Cygnus loses his belief in the god due to the destruction of neverwinter and suffering of the people. Vorsilder wakes up at the church of Corellon, reborn as the finally have come to terms with the death of his brother and curse of Cybele. Stargazer finds him, but decide to travels back to the Dalelands to meet with Tyrell once again.

After recuperating Vorsilder sets out again, traveling the north in hunt for enemies of Corellon, drows and orcs. That goes for around 30 years (somehow 30 years intervals were very easy to go by) when Vorsilder for some reason (I haven't been that detailed) ends up in Silverymoon. There he meets up with the Elminster and joins as a bodyguard together with a Knight in Silver (that is what I least think the second person was). Then it's onward to Neverwinter where our adventure began. 

The Story of Vorsilder Wolfhunter (part 1)

Since one of the players is sick (the one that house the sessions as well) there will be no game today which at least makes it easier for me since I now don't have to miss the most important event of this year... the political debate between the eight party leaders of the swedish parliament. What? It's really interesting to see them debate with all their budgets out... OK, maybe mostly for the political scientists. So what should I write about for this week? Maybe I should describe my character for the DnD-game, Vorsilder Wolfhunter. Yes,the name could probably be better, but that's what it is. If we look at Vorsilder, the name is a cross between Draco (latin for dragon with the c and a thrown away) and Silver and looks a lot like Isildur. When did I invent that name? Somewhere around 4-5 years ago for a character that was supposed to be a silver dragon (get it? Silver Draco? Yeah, I've never been good with fictional names). Wolfhunter then? A spur of the moment random name when the other players wanted some extra backstory info about my character. It actually works pretty well even though it's pretty cliché. Why? Well, if I got it right,my character is supposed to be from Baldur's Gate, where there is a forest in the vicinity with werewolves. Talk about random family development by accident.

So who is this Vorsilder? He's a 150 year old elven archer ranger trained since birth to hunt and avoid danger in the woods. His first hunt at 20 (yeah, maybe to young according to elven biology, but that's what you get without proper research) ends with him hunting down a puma/panther on foot. Forward 10 years and his little brother is maimed by a bear on his first hunt when Vorsilder was in the city leaving his brother alone. Vengeance is sought as Vorsilder hunts down the bear across the land for 1-2 months, ending in a Predator-like trap scene in a forest following it up with an elf with a dagger on bear fight. Of course the bear is slain (imagine an epic melee combat scene between the 6´ 11´´ or 2 m 10 cm tall elf and a huge bear which end with the elf stabbing the bear in the heart with his dagger) and he drags the body back and turns it into his hide armor. Recycling when it's at its best. 

Still, although blood has been spilled the blame haven't left so he set out on a trip, traveling south to the Forest of Mir meeting a dryad named Cybele and an elven druid by the name Shane Stargazer. The next 26 years is just Vorsilder guarding Cybele while Stargazer is traveling the world and returning from time to time to teach Vorsilder together with Cybele certain abilities as Bridge of Roots, a magical way to make a bridge. How otherwise would an elven ranger learn such a thing? So then the Spellplauge happens turning the Forest of Mir to the Spires of Mir, turning Cybele into stone. Misery is a great way to forward character development is it not? Anyway, Stargazer returns from his travel and take Vorsilder back to Baldur's Gate. 4 years of therapy and it's of again with Stargazer to the east, the Dalelands. What adventures awaits them there? Check in the next post.