Why are we in a field and who are you?

Filler post, so here's where the Victoriana adventure begins!

Three people wake up in a field on a fine English summer day. The first one to wake up (Cid) is dressed, but the second (Bob Afette) isn't - he's stark naked. The third is Baldrick Unlike. Neither of them know any of this, because they're all suffering from amnesia.

Cid turns out to be wearing Bob's clothes. Following a smoke plume a bit further away they discover an airship crash site and a dead parrot. They decide this is where they came from, and finding some fetching clothes Cid changes into these - ladies' clothes, for some hitherto unknown reason - and Bob gets his clothes back.

But where are they? WHO are they? And what the hell happened?

The OTHER Black Forest

Further adventures in 1960s Soviet Russia. This time it included a trip to the Black Forest. When pointing out that the Black Forest is in what was then WEST Germany, it was decided that there was obviously also ANOTHER Black Forest ... somewhere in the Soviet Union.

This should eventually have landed us back in Victorian England (and our third set of characters), but the quotes don't reflect that for some reason. o.O

You can definitely feel the d4

Carrying on up the river, the threat of having his li'l Captain forcibly removed made the keelboat captain sing like a canary. Not that he had that much to say that the party didn't already know, but still.

The unconscious crew were set ashore a few hours upriver, while the party then moved on. After stopping off at Summit Hall to rest up, have a meal and dump the keelboat captain in a dungeon, they continued further upstream to where the people from whom Shoalar obtained a certain set of books had been ferried across. They then found the place of the ambush and made their way to the suspected hideout of the water cult.

It’s a very entertaining scene

The party respectfully relieved the slain cultists of their earthly possessions before moving on down to Womford.

When investigating the village, they came across villagers who wanted to be left alone, a number of ruffians, and a jolly sea captain who had some interesting books to sell. Later that night, Kyla entertained the people from the ships which gave the other party members time to search one of the keelboats for clues. It seemed very likely that at least one of the boats was water cult-related.

After all the sailors having gone to bed drunk, an attack was made. The crew summarily slaughtered, the party tried to interrogate the captain ... by promising that Aial would do very bad things to him indeed. Then they stole the boat and headed upriver, horses and all.

Okay, duct tape bandage it is

This is the episode in which we get tooled up - at B&Q and a local garden centre, of course, we're not savages - and begin a dungeon crawl. The end of the world - and the campaign - draws near.

The cave system somewhere outside Leamington Spa had baddies in it, like a vampire and a werewolf and a Russian bear, and they had also abducted Eddie's brother. Things that generally put us in a bad mood. Armed to the teeth (in Rommel the pseudo-dog's case literally, he was carrying a knife in his mouth) we went after them.

Having found a chamber which split off in three different directions, we split up the group - with all the PCs going down the same route. There, we first found a table with chairs and some very familiar mystic symbols. Trevor, Zolistagol and Alex sat down by their respective symbols, and immediately zoned out. Worried, Eddie and Tilly quickly jammed something between the table and two of their party members' hands (well, there was just the two of them) ... leaving Alex connected to the table and thus able to hear the vision presented to them. A vision from a long, long time ago, and which might possibly be helpful when we find the Burning Man.

The abductees were drained of blood, but we managed to find Eddie's brother and heal him a little before he expired. There was a vampire there. Heroic Molotovs, axes and other weapons came in handy. Then we heard a scream, and discovered one of the other groups in trouble. One of them got stabbed in the back by Eddie's axe (he was aiming for the Russian bear), but on the other hand we also managed to get the Russian bear after a number of Molotovs, shots fired and grenades thrown.

To be honest, it's a surprise we're all still alive. Just-IIIICE!

If you haven't got the XP, it's not dead

We continued our foray into the Wave Echo Cave system. There were skeletons and bugbears and stuff in there. It's a good thing we have Malinda in the party - she whittled five bugbears down to one in one round of burning hands. Result!

We also managed to find a door that said bugbears had barricaded. Turned out there was a big, flaming skull behind there. We decided to close the door and explore one of the other directions ...

The appropriate barbecuing of goblin chefs

Having liberated an owlbear by killing it rather than setting it free, we continued to explore Cragmaw Castle with our new friend Theren. We found the kitchen, where we basically stormed in and killed a bunch of people without warning, thus making one of us remark, "You realise this is like someone running into Chimera and gunning us all down, right?" or words to that effect.

Well, in D&D you kill first and ask questions later. It's like a rule and everything.

In one of the rooms, we came across some scrolls - one of which was Revivify, which allows you to resurrect a dead character within a minute of their demise. If only we had had one of them to hand last session ...

It would appear that we have finished exploring the castle, so can now be on our way back to Phandalin to hand in the quest and get rewarded.

No bodies, no problem

We contined our investimagations and the cameras we put up in the basement of the wine shop finally paid off. The weird monster tried to come in through a smoke cloud, but because of the ball bearings scattered all over the floor, it couldn't materialise. Fascinating.

As it happened, we then had to get out of there to find where the thing would materialise instead. As it turned out, a couple of nutters who wanted to become "vampires" were there with it. And they all disappeared, in a puff of smoke ...

Shaddap-ah you face!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. We finished Shadowrun, then started creating characters for Victoriana, then I was away for the next session, and because I'm actually the one running the Victoriana game, I have less time to write down what people are saying - because I'm too busy GM:ing!

So, we might finish the adventure on Tuesday, and then I'll write a post with the quotes I've gathered from the game. Meanwhile, here's some more Shadowrun madness for you to enjoy!

In this bit, Dru the dwarf and Mr G the troll hire a hacker (Will) and some orc muscle (JDog), and try to convince them to help find an ugly elf who needs his head to still be attached. Oh, and experience the 'Shaddap-ah you face' pizza, courtesy of Mario at Pappardelli's.

The Emperor willing, Space Marines are go!

After last week's character gen, we finally got going with the adventure. Here's how it begun ...

Inquistor Valek to Commander Urien: Regarding my investigations on Ixion V. As you know, the dissapearance of Lord Midel has been most troubling. I have found out that [Comments Redacted] as you can see, the situation is most troubling. I am requesting your assisstance in this matter. As you are responsible for this sector, I defer to your experience, but would suggest that the situation may need more support.
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Commander Urien to Inquitor Valek: I will see to it. Inform me of what you need. Praise the Emperor.
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Inquistor Valek to Commander Urien: Praise the Emperor indeed. I need a team of marines. Quickly. Due to the anaomlies around Ixion V, I may not be able to communicate again soon. And Things have gotten worse since my last post. I have reviewed a list of names of battle-brothers I think would be suitable.
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Commander Urien to Inquistor Valek: These Astartes are very specific. I hope to the Emperor that you know what you are doing, Valek.
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Inquistor Valek to Commander Urien: Time is wasting Urien! I need those brothers. If you can see why I picked them, then you should know to send them! I'm proceeding to [Message terminated]
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Commander Urien to Inqusitor Valek: Do Not Presume to Speak to Me That Way, Inquistor. I will Send Them When I deem it fit
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Commander Urien to Inqusitor Valek: Valek?
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Commander Urien to Inqusitor Valek: I am Dispatching the Brothers

We are the worst saviours of the future EVER

We were heading toward Salt Lake City The City of Gloom by train - well, except we had to catch it first, and had only just missed the previous one by a day. We had to camp out and Gunney attacked by a big maggot-looking thing. Not that he knew anything about it, he was fast asleep. Its smouldering corpse was ground down to powder by Slick, who added mint and called it a fine gum, but then again, his tastebuds have become rather peculiar as of late.

We then had the idea of flying to Devil's Tower, which ultimately ended in Reynard falling out of the damned craft (it had no seatbelts, see, because those things hadn't been invented at the time) plummeting to his death. Except he's not called "Lucky" for nothing. If he HAD died, though, he would've actually become Harrowed. Alas, he's still in the world of the living ... somehow. Well, at least until the next session.

Now we're stuck in the middle of nowhere, because our method of transportation decided to crash land because it wasn't made by our Sam. Sam, in turn, had his horrible cough cured by Mary, and the black gunk in his lungs turned out to be souls ... which Slick saved some of in a jar. Like you do.