Time for some thrilling heroics

Booker (or technically Barnabus Dayson - have I mentioned he had a make-over and a name change?), pretending to be Sergeant Anderson, got picked up by Coalition States troups and brought into Lone Star. Meanwhile, Jayson and Gorbash hid a bit away from there, waiting for The Signal.

While he didn't manage to get an audience with the Emperor, undercover Booker did manage to get close enough to lob the Orb of Solomon at him. It grew in size and out popped the naked lady. She was quickly shot to pieces and as things were kicking off, Booker got out of there.

Eventually finding his way to lab and shown the way by monkeys who showed him the way out - or at least the way to the rats.

The Signal was signalled, as it were, and Gorbash turned himself and Jayson invisible and flew in. Who'd have thought his Dance skill finally came into good use, dodging through the air? The duo reunited with Booker and a magic portal was opened to a bit further away, everyone got out just in time for the Coalition States to set off 16 missiles on where we had just been!

And then we flew a bit further away, but as we hadn't teleported away we managed to get away alive. And it does seem like the Orb of Solomon was successfully delivered to the Emperor. Question is how he's going to use it.

We clearly don't have enough enemies

In this gripping episode, Valgai started to train the city guards (they clearly need improvement) and Elindra went undercover to try and find out more about the cultists lurking around Toad's Square. They are up to something, planning an attack. Nefarious creatures.

Murmei, locked up in a tower like Rapunzel, had a mysterious visitor - a man in noble clothes, wearing an owl mask, promising glory and whatnot ... but the problem is that he was trying to recruit Murmei of all people ...

The session ended when Valgai had a knock on the door. A dwarf woman came to the door, said some words in foreign, stabbed herself in the guts and died ... and turned into smoke. Her words were a warning from the old king of Symbaroum: "I'm coming for you."

An adventuring party? Here? With OUR dice rolls?

In this first proper instalment of the new adventure, we eventually managed to name our airship - The Lady Peregrin (yes, Ladyhawk was a consideration) - and take it to Myth Drannor and when out adventurising we ended up inside some kind of beast. It was okay, we killed it before it killed us. It was admittedly very close, because our dice rolls were garbage most of the night.

We made friends with Viconia, a Drow battle cleric of Kelemvor. We learned about the Silent Forge, and how it's headed by a red wizard of Thay (Elani's favourite people) who is also a lich. Yay, combo bonus!

And we finished off by getting an unsettling dream about three Orc gods who were now among the greater gods. What does this even mean???

Headbutting the axe by accident

Ahem.

Our Victorian characters came across some Greek-or-Roman deities. Attacks were made. Damage was done. Mars/Ares had his weapon taken off him by a cheeky Irishman and Achilles was frozen in time and then stabbed to death, because people like him are not supposed to be alive and real and stuff - especially not if they're foreigners! (Groan.)

In the end, we moved back to our modern day characters who ended up at some kind of carnival/circus type thing, because that's never creepy.

Apparently I'm going to Tolkeen

In this session, Booker was finally told that Gorbash can remove the symbiote off his back. Problem is, the symbiote is quite handy to have ... even if it is a Splugorth creation/abomination. But when it saves your life, you know, you sort of get attached to it. Or it's some kind of Stockholm Syndrome going on.

Speaking of Gorbash, he thinks the Cyber-knights should set up a council or something to police their knights and such to ensure that they don't go rogue (like that Josh guy), because Cyber-knights are supposed to be the pinnacle of something or other. Though Jayson explained that there are sometimes people like Josh who are the exceptions to confirm the rules, Cyber-knights are not 100% infallible, because they're still human.

Stop making me out to be space Jesus!

We made it back to the (formerly) Imperial dreadnought and were patched up as well we could. Sarge still hasn't quite got his eyesight back, but maybe he will. Someone decided to put a torpedo next to Nole's sick bed in a bid to be friendly (it wasn't a gun so it didn't really work).

NG was less thrilled to have us back - mainly because the condition in which we returned the ship ...

Then we were fired upon. All hands on deck to blow the attacker out of the sky! Kon, flowerless but in much better health than some of her shipmates, pushed the dreadnought to its limits. Unfortunately, the intruders still managed to get on board, but that's what guns are for, right?

No prejudices, but ...

This session was primarily about planning how to move forward with what we were going to do next. After all, the mission is to break the blockade in the sector.

On the plus side we now have an Imperial Dreadnought on our side. Problem is it's short-staffed by about 600 people, so we went on a recruitment drive.

Ran into a bit of an issue when a ship came along demanding we hand over Konvoru because reasons. In turn, we called in a favour from some friends ... and a frigate ship showed up, hastily dismantling the intruder ship. For some reason we got a pretty clear run after that ...

Oh, and we also learned a bit too much about Nole's sexual preferences. Yeah, let's not talk about that.

The Rebels made their presence known today

Sarge's majestic shot from the previous session seems to have turned into him shooting down the Death Star single-handedly ... Well, when you're epic, you're epic, right?

To throw a spanner in the works, a bounty hunter showed up in town asking for Nole's whereabouts. Much to everyone's surprise, Kon didn't cash in on the bounty. The bounty hunter did track her back to where the rest of the party were hidiny., on the other hand.

Trying to be nice and give the lady some flowers as a token of his appreciation, Nole ventured outside the walls ... and was shot at. Kon, running to the ship in order to dismember dismantle the threat also got shot.

On the plus side, neither were killed, and for those to whom it matters, the gun that shot them was pretty damn awesome. Just the kind of gun the party could use for assassinating the governor, as a matter of fact. Unfortunately, the bounty hunter got away ... with his awesome gun.

Wounds patched up by Doc, it was finally time to launch the plan. Complexes were infiltrated, droids were placed in places to suggest they had broken down and triggered alarms. NG went scouting and became mistaken for one of the security droids and had to do the rounds.

Shots were fired, but the governor had a pet Force user to save him. Running and more shooting ensued, but at least the Rebel message was broadcast as planned. As everyone made it to the ship, the building exploded and Sarge was lost in the ensuing rubble. OR WAS HE?

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away from taste and decency

We're starting off the new year with some Fantasy Flight Star Wars roleplaying, because let's face it, who isn't in the mood for some Star Wars shenanigans these days? Or as the GM put it (cue theme tune):

It is a time of chaos. In the
months following Emperor
Palpatine's death, IMPERIAL
GOVERNOR ADELHARD has
begun forging an IRON
BLOCKADE around the Anoat
sector, preventing its planets
from learning of the Emperor's
fall.

Desperation and rebellion
grow in the shadows of the
blockade. The people, turn
to local crime bosses for the
goods they need to survive.

Word has been sent to the
fledgling NEW REPUBLIC, who
even now assemble a strike
team to liberate the Sector....

(If the mental image of that doesn't give you goosebumps, then something's clearly wrong with you.)

Guess who the strike team are? That's right - us!

• 3N-G1: an IG model droid and the ship's engineer/mechanic
• Karl "Doc" Smythe-Williams: A Mon Calamari medic
• Konvoru: A Twi'lek explorer/scout with a flower arranging obsession
• Nole Gerran: A human mercenary with a gun obsession
• Rhan Korne: A human soldier/commando

So from the scrolling text, we pan down ...

Morality is overrated in the 'Verse

Again we were a couple of players down so we decided to play the Firefly boardgame with all the expansions again (except the Kalidasa expansion, which we didn't know about until we had finished). This time we actually managed to get a winner, and with a little time to spare! It was a closely fought match.

People were eaten by Reavers, the Alliance space deck was reshuffled an ungodly amount of times and fun was had.

First, however, we start with some "before the session" chatter from Facebook because this is why I love our group!

There are Reavers in St Albans

Again we were a couple of players down so we settled in for another game of the Firefly boardgame. This time we played with all the expansions - specifically, the Blue Sun expansion which we hadn't tried previously.

We also had another player joining in, as he saw us setting up and hadn't played the game. Unfortunately none of us actually won by the time we had to start putting all the stuff back in the box, but we were quite happy to just enjoy the ride along the way. After all, the Firefly 'verse is pretty darn shiny.

If everyone hates you, you have to be clever

Here's another collection of quotes from our Victoriana game, played over a few weeks in July and August 2012. This is part two of the character generation session, so nothing in particular happens, aside from generating characters and talking bollocks.

We were going to be playing Rogue Trader, but unfortunately one of the players called in sick, so we played Forbidden Stars, a 40k boardgame, instead, which I inexplicably managed to win. But, in the words of Orson Welles, "If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story", which is basically what happened.

The 40k universe is lovely

Here is a post containing quotes from two sessions: first, the character generation session and then the first actual session.

The crew are aboard the Arkadius, and went to look for a derelict ship that disappeared around 50 years ago but appeared to have been stranded near a planet for thousands of years.

Most of the player characters decided to have a look outside the Arkadius, except for Rusty, who sent Brian the trainee instead, because s/he didn't want to risk another ship getting stolen from under his/her nose.

The player characters are as follows:

• Fulgentius Sophus, Explorator and mostly metal
• Nemiel, Librarian (not the Syfy channel or Dewey decimal kind, the Deathwatch kind)
• Orlandis of House Dravonica, Rogue Trader and Captain of the Arkadius
• Rusty, Voidmaster of unknown gender who is a leaf on the wind

Do orcs need toes?

We nearly died in an attack - two players down, yay - but managed to get back up and win the day. We found the Wyvern Tor and a cave full of orcs and an ogre, and finally managed to take a hostage. Unfortunately, the spitting little git didn't know anything, so the "Lawful Good" Tan cut off his thumb, which Hematite dutifully bandaged. Then the party decided to dangle the orc over the side of a cliff and let him drop ... only to cast Feather Fall.

Long story short, he's now pining for the fjords.

On the way back to the Yellow Brick Trail, we encountered a group of goblins. Since goblins were the ones who actually had something to do with the Rockseeker brothers, we managed to take another prisoner who DID know stuff. He was hogtied in a very ... umm ... imaginative way. Let's just say it would appear Karak-Dag has some very exotic interests ...

Running with Molotovs

For the epic final showdown, we found ourselves dungeon-crawling for the better part of the session. We went to the place where we thought Trevor's sister was being held (she was kidnapped last session), but there was no on there. In the park was just a building for a junior football club or something like that. However, in the cellar, there was a hidden door ... and underneath it: dungeons!

The dungeons were mainly empty, save for a chav that was scared off by someone pointing a gun at him, and a creature that could make itself invisible. We found a stone table (no Aslan), and eventually emerged in a wide ditch, where Agatha and the (useless) bodyguard were tied to a big rock. There was some kind of Lovecraftian-looking creature there, previously known as Smith, and zombies.

We might have eaten through Willpower points and Conviction like they were candy, but by golly we saved the world Derby! :D

We don't need no edumacation!

In a bizarre, Matrix-esque twist, we kept coming across people called Eric Smith. One of whom was Eddie's brother Daniel - who was in two places at once. One version was Dan the Man, the other one was a clean-cut Daniel in a crisp, white shirt. A very disturbing sight. While looking through some files, we also discovered an Eric Smith who was the spitting image of Lord Trevor ... and an Erica Smith, looking like Dr Tilly's twin.

There were also scenes in university lecture halls, posh restaurants (Trevor paid, so we like him), kebab shops, mansions and terraced houses. Oh, and Lord Trevor decided to hire himself a bodyguard for lots of money. The two university lecturers, less well-endowed money-wise, had to settle for living on the same street as Eddie, and Eddie takes care of His People.

Oh, and the next table over had a delightful singalong, which we managed to hijack. :D

That's why they put the I in FBI

After a prolonged re-cap to get the two very special agents up to speed after the three-week gaming break, Mulligan and Cully actually found clues. And plot. And all sorts of things that meant we progressed a whole lot more than normally would be expected.

Cully's dice rolls were consistently awful, but on the other hand, she had had a big scare the night before. Still, as Mulligan's rolls were pretty good, we still made headway.

We found out that the hat had belonged to a doctor, who disappeared four months after the murder of a writer in 1928, whose corpse had similarities with the present day killings. The doctor's forwarding address shortly before going missing were close to where the first and fifth murder took place.

Might this be some sort of weird transcendental time travel, with a doctor possessed by a creature from another dimension? We don't really want to believe this one.

Dude, where's our beer?

Okay, well, I couldn't quite stop myself to jot down a few comments, primarily mentioned while driving. Roadtrip!!

These are comments between Vianden in Belgium and Munich in Germany ... where we may have gone to the Oktoberfest. We'd post a review, if it was that kind of blog, but it isn't, so instead, some craziness. Mostly about our Germanic neighbours.

Read everything in a German accent, and you get the idea. In fact, you should have heard one of the tour guides at one of the castles visited. He spoke English in German. Sort of like Arnie, except with an even heavier accent. So read some of the comments in that accent for a giggle.

Are you ready to sort some magical shit?

Since we finished the Call of Cthulhu game, we have had a session of character creation (very few quotes) and the session this past Tuesday was partly more character creation, and partially actually playing. To make up for lost time, we're throwing in a few lines from the last ChimeraCon as well.

In Shadowrun, the characters are an orc with muscles, a human hacker, a troll mage enforcer and an eco warrior dwarf. The troll and the dwarf were hired to find a guy who had gone missing. They, in turn, hired the other two ... and then had some pizza. Like you do.

The universe wants us dead

It's not going well. After last week's party deaths, Reynard removed Sam's steam-and-ghost-rock-powered Gatling gun from the burning remains, to ensure it wouldn't blow up, while Slick helped himself to the contents of Gunney's pockets. Slick then decided the best thing was to put a bullet through the steam canister to make sure it wouldn't blow up in our faces - so it blew up in his instead. Pretty much.

Mary dealt out some healin' to the reluctant alchemist, and we headed off down the maze. We managed to find our way out of it eventually, only to find some aliens with force fields for protection. They were really difficult to shoot at. In fact, not until Slick put out Slumber Gas and Greek Fire did we manage to even damage one of them - but sadly, Slick died in the process because those aliens do pack a helluva punch.

Our previous encounter meant that we were getting low on chips (Mary had to use her two legend chips not to lose limbs), and once you're out of chips, you're out of life. Or, if you're Reynard, it doesn't matter, because you can't spend chips to negate wounds anyway. First Slick went down, then Reynard.

Fortunately (?) both quickly felt much better, even if they looked very Death Becomes Her, so to speak. Mary is now the only original PC left standing, but hopefully, with two Harrowed in the party, maybe she, Jackie and Scraps the dog can still manage to save the future. At least four of them have died trying.