Strange Aeons meets Shadows of Brimstone

[Litebrite]

Hi Scott,

All the Lurkers in these scenarios are from the Shadows of Brimstone game.  The Stranglers come in the City of Ancients Base set. Here is a list of what is in that base set:

1 X Goliath ( You will see him in the upcomming scenario)
3 x Night Terrors
6 x Tentacles
6 x Stranglers
12 x Void Spiders
4 x Heros: US Marshal (figure I used for Gus), Bandito Hero, Saloon Girl, and the Gunslinger.

Lem

 

[Litebrite]

Well, my buddy and I were able to get together and play the scenario.  Here are 4 pics from the game.  Pic 1 is the overall Cave Terrain board we played on. I will be working on the write-up over the next few days.

Lem

[Litebrite]

Turn 1

Threshold wins the initiative and moves first

Joseph rounds the corner and sees a sobbing female lying on the ground in an alcove of the cave (See Pic 1),  He called out to her, but she does not respond to him in any way. Clive moves up as well.  Clem moves past both Clive and Joseph to get ready for what is coming

Scene Cut The Watcher had been following the Cthulhu spawn Goliath as ordered by his master. He comes through the Portal into a Cave Tunnel (See Pic 2 and 3). He senses there are no other Portals nearby and his prey is approaching. This is not the place to be caught by his prey (it would have a great advantage). He immediately moves back through the Portal and will bide his time waiting on the otherside.

The group hear and feel heavy stomping approaching them from ahead.  From down the tunnel (See Pic 4), the huge monstrosity appears into the eerie glow in the tunnel and moves towards the party (See Pic 5).  All the party, are shocked at the sight of this spawn from Hell, but keep their wits about them. As the creature comes within range, Joseph shoots his rifle at it but even though he hits it, there seems to be no effect.

[Litebrite]

Turn 2

Threshold wins Initiative again

Clem also saw Josephs bullet have no effect on the thing and decides it is time for some heavy duty stuff. He draws a stick of dynamite out of the satchel, lights up the wick and throws it at the creature. The dynamite bounces  through its legs when it hits the ground just infront of the thing back towards the party ( rolled a miss, then deflection of only 1". ). The dynamite explodes and it definitely hurts the thing as it howls in pain ( first wound of six).

The Goliath having been wounded decides to use its psychic ability of "Screams of the Damned" and pushes forth its ability.  Clive and Joseph stagger under this onslaught but maintain their focus.  Clem on the otherhand falls to the ground unconcious (See Pic 1). The Goliath senses something of dangerous power with Clive. He then moves forward to engage this pueny human but doesn't quite reach him.

Both Clive an Joseph move in different directions to attempt to draw the creature away from their fallen comrade. Clive feels a heat developing in his pocket where he has kept the artifact ring they discoved on the fallen hellbat some days ago and he takes it out of his pocket. It has a faint glow about it and seems to be drawing him to put it on (See Pic 2).

( OK, I know..... it's not the ONE RING )

[Litebrite]

Turn 3

Threshold wins Initiative yet again

Clive puts the ring on his left hand.  Time seems to stop and he sees a view of a sandy desert with this one solitary figure standing about 20 feet away from him who seems to be eminating pure evil.  The figure is dressed in a yellow hooded robe and speaks to him while not reveiling his face. "You battle the spawn of my enemy. I will aid you at a price."
Clive asks "What price?".
It only answers, "Accept or die".
Clive knows he is likely damning himself , but the enemy of my enemy could be my ally and he knows this Goliath thing they are fighting right now will likely defeat them and then loose itself on the world, so he responds "I accept".
Clive can feel the evil begin to affect his soul upon acceptance. ( 2 Dark Marks)

The Goliath detects a change and it seems that the other human that ran the other way seems to have become more powerful. ( Upon Clive's acceptance, psychic power was chanelled to Joseph to make him appear more dangerous ) The Goliath sends forth a Psychic attack again. Clive  feels it but is not affected by it.  Joseph this time feels the need to run away which he does.  The Goliath charges after Joseph (See Pic 1). Joseph shoots at the Goliath and achieves a critical  hit into one of its eyes (2nd wound of 6 ). The Goliath screams again in pain.

During this time, Clem has regained conciousness and stood up.

Turn 4

Threshold wins Initiative

Joseph backs up away from the Goliath into a scction of the tunnel which is narrower than the Goliath in hopes the Goliath can't reach him. He then shoots at the thing, but with no effect.

The Goliath charges after Joseph, but is brought up short by the narrow tunnel and it screams out its rage (See Pic 2).  Still, the tongues whip out and contact Joseph in the side of the head, he falls to the ground with a major Injury.

Clem prepares another stick of dynamite to throw.  Clive moves toward the female who is still huddled on the ground in a fetal position whimpering.

[Litebrite]

Turn 5

Lurker wins Initiative

The Goliath turn around and moves back towards the central chamber (See Pic 1). As he rounds the corner, Clem (ready with the stick of dynamite) lites up the wick and throws it at the monster. Right on target this time and the Goliath howls out in pain with another wound ( 3rd wound of 6), The Goliath also pushes another Psychic attack.  Clive remains steady. Clem feels the frenzied rage in him boil and he charges the beast, dodging through its flailing tenticals, to reach its body and drive his knife up into the softer area of its inner thigh ( Critical hit causing 1 wound -- 4th of 6 wounds) (See Pic 2).

Clive seeing Clem have engaged the Goliath, throws caution to the wind and also charges in to fight the creature.

As he is moving in, he notices that he doesn't feel the pain from his ribs of back any more and lets go of the wooden stick crutch he had been using up until now.  He succeeds in striking the monster, but its very tough skin doesn't allow his knife to penetrate. (See Pic 3)

Clem attempts to repeat his earlier blow, but is unsuccessful.

Turn 6

Lurker wins Initiative

The Goliath first attempts a Psychic Assault, but both Clive and Clem shrug off the mind pain and noise even though it is quite strong. It then makes a Tenticale attack against both Clive and Clem. Both of them manage to dodge its sweeping tenticle arms but not inflict a wound either.

Clive then attempts to wound the thing, but with no success. Clive yells loudly to Clem (their ear drums are still ringing from the earlier explosions), "You have to disengage and get another stick ready to throw, even if I am still fighting it". Clem endeavors to break free from the combat but is unsuccessful.

Turn 7

Threshold wins Initiative

Clive gets an opening and plunges his knife into the soft area of one of the creature's tentacle  sholder joints causing a wound (Critical hit ) (5th wound of 6).  The monster seems partially stunned by this and Clem takes advantage to pull away from the combat and ready a stick of dynamite.

The Goliath pushes forth its Psychic attack, but again Clive and Clem whither the onslaught and remain concious. The Goliath then attempts to stomp Clive and almost succeeds (Tied high rolls of 5),

Turn 8

Threshold wins Iitiative

Clive manages to exricate himself from the fight and moves back towards Clem. Clem lites the stick of dynamite (having shortened the fuse) and throws. The stick flies straight and true right into the mouth of the Goliath and explodes, obliterating its head ( Rolled 3 sixes in a row {Critical Hit and then max damage} and then a 9 (adding +7 for Injury). Both Clive and Clem have pieces of the thing splattered all over them, BUT, they have won against this ungodly monsterous hellspawn. (See Pic 4)

[Litebrite]

Post Game

Due to their hearing reduction from the explosions of dynamite, Clive indicated to Clem via hand signs to go check on Joseph, while he would check on the lady in the alcove. CLive looked down the tunnel where the glowing light was coming from and saw a shimering blue (almost watery) wall at the end of it.  He had read in the Threshold journals about something like this. It was likely a Portal.  This must be from where these daemonic horrors were coming from into our world. It would need to be blocked somehow.

As he reached the lady, he could barely hear her. She was definitely in shock and speaking out gibberish about something, She recited nursery rhymes and in between spoke of the "Eye" always looking and seeing.  Clive offers words of support and after some time she allowed herself to be assisted to rise up and stand.

As Clive was dealing with the woman, Clem arrived at the side of Joseph.  He was breathing, but had a really big gash on the side of his head that was still bleeding.  Clem took out some bandages from the rescued stachel and cleaned (as best he could) and wrapped up Joseph's head wound. After about 10 minutes with him Joseph roused from unconsiousness and felt odd. He no longer felt that anything could frighten him ( Rolled a 64 on the Major Injury Table -- Basket Case, which means he never again needs to rest resolve for Psychology).  Clem tells him the events of the battle after Joseph fell and Joseph smiles, knowing that they had walked into the valley of death and emerged victorious. Joseph stands up and then both of them head back to where Clive is with the lady.

By this time Clive had managed to find out that the lady's name is Juanita Ompas and that she was the sister of  Hector who lies dead outside the cave.  She had been abducted by some strange creatures (her description of them is familiar to Clive {Stranglers}) from near the city of Brimstone and brought here for some reason she did not know.

He then remembers the strange ring that he put on and the deal he made.  Clive tries to remove the ring, but it won't come off his finger (Cursed!!). and inwardly he thinks "Oh God, what have I done".

Clive steels his appearance and looks towards the portal as Clem and Joseph approach. He says "We have to blow that doorway to Hell shut".  Clem looks into his satchel bag and sees that only 3 sticks of dynamite remain. The Stone wall and ceilings look pretty solid in this area of the the cave to Clem and says as much. But he will try.  Clive and Juanita move away to start exiting the cave.  Joseph stands guard as Clem sets the charges as best he can.  Clem lites the long fuse (to give them time to get away from the cave-in that will hopefully happen) and they both run towards the exit. After about 4 minutes, they hear the explosion.  Clive has Clem and Joseph go back to see if the portal is fully blocked.

As the men near the cavern area, the can still see the bluish glow in the room and when they get to a point they can see, the portal is only partially blocked. Creatures from hell can still come into our world.  They rush back to  Clive and Juanita to report this.

Clive says "Well, there is nothing we can do right now my friends. We will have to head back to Brimstone to re-equip and come back here to finish this."

The 4 survivors exit the cave and begin the long road back to Brimstone.......

The advancements will be resolved when we get together next time.  Both my gaming buddy and I have been using the 1st Ed. of SA for these games, but now since we have the 2nd Edition we are going to review the rules and adjust our teams stats to reflect the updated system.  I hope that you have all enjoyed reading this continuing AAR.  We should be getting back to the intrepid adventures in the next 2-4 weeks.

Thanks for coming along for the trip.

Lembit  

[Legionnaire]

I have enjoyed this read immensely, a very nice mini campaign and nice story telling. I shall invest in SA 2nd edition by the end of the week and probably buy High Moon from THW's as well to cannibalise for ideas for my Twilight Trail setting  .

Well done indeed and looking forward to any more exploits,

Legionnaire.

[Litebrite]

Thanks Legionnaire.  I look forward to reading the further adventures of your AARs.

Since starting this campaign, FFP has released a number of new models for their game.  I will be converting them to SA Lurkers. Here is what you will see in the future:

Burrower(This is a great figure for a 2nd Instar Cthonian)
Guardian
Tredaran Raiders
Trun Hunters
Serpent Men and Shaman
Giant Slugs
Harverstors
Vermin Rats
Darkstone Brutes (although these are good for an alternative Undead Constructs).
Void Sorcerer and Void Hounds
Lava Men

Lem  

[Litebrite]

I finished assembling and painting the Burrower from SOB today and thought I would share the pics of it with you (Pic 1 is so you can see the size of this mini in realtion to humans {Clive agreed to be the poster boy} or the UMW Watcher).  I am working on SA stats for this model as a Cthonian (2nd Instar). It is MEAN......

[EndTransmission]

Wow, the size of that thing is insane. Sadly I'm going to have to wait another year for the rest of my Brimstone bits as I can't justify spending an extra $100 to split shipping into multiple waves.

[Argonor]

Splendid stuff!

Were the tunnels on that cave-board somehow molten into the foam (assuming that it is made from insulation foam)?

[Litebrite]

@ EndTransmission

I KS'd for a Minecart for SOB, but both my son and I have been ordering minis we really are interested in either from FFP or online retailers to have the stuff as released or fairly soon there-after.  Once I get the KS stuff, I will decide then if I want to keep the items I have bought retail, or to sell them to re-coup costs.  

@ Argonar,

We used the foam insulation (3 sheets) as the core for the terrain board. Cut the tunnel patterns out from the top two sheets and glued them together. Then used plaster to cover and texture the rocky interior. Finally spray-painted the plaster with grey acrylic paint.

Lem  

[Litebrite]

The Jargono Slugs. Playtesting my SA Stats for these new Lurker conversions this week.

[Litebrite]

 NOTE This is a long text only update, so those who don't like to read all the "Fluff", you can skip this post .

It took the party a week to get back to Brimstone.  Along the trip Juanita recovered her composure.  She was distraught that her brother had died attempting to save her and resolved to join the group. She was no longer an "Innocent" to the darker horrors of the world and wanted to help however she could to keep others safe (and exact retribution on those things from Hell that cut her brother's life short).

The final episode was basically a "Rescue the Innocents" scenario and a 2 was  rolled on the Table for her. She is a Civilian with a base PP of 0. We also performed the advancements in which Clive was given the automatic advancement (increased his Move stat to 6), and Clem successfully rolled and added Explosives Expert to his Skills. We also adjusted all the characters profiles to SA 2nd Ed. rules. No character became psychic. A Re-equip was performed as well and I will list the revised stats for the characters at the end of this post

Upon arriving at Brimstone, Clive went straight to the telegraph office and sent a message back to New York city detailing in brief the discoveries made and requesting some financial and material support from HQ.  SInce the aura of evil was even stronger than when they left, they booked lodgings at a Hotel near the eastern edge of town.  Clem decided that he needed to learn how to use Dynamite better and began learning from an explosives expert (currently un-employed and quite happy to train for some cash).  

The Town Sheriff (having heard they were back) came around the next day to see what the situation was. Clive told him the tales (much to the disbelief of the Sheriff) and learning of Gus' demise, said he would handle getting the bad news to his family.

Things moved slowly and it wasn't until six weeks later that the group was ready to head back out to the cave/mine to finish the job they had left undone.  In this time, Clive had learned that this portal to hell was not the only one that had appeared in the mines around Brimstone (he relayed this information back to HQ with a request for additional teams to be sent to Brimstone to quell this outbreak).  He heard speak of other hellish fiends/deamons that now walked the land of god's earth and that would have to be dealt with. His dreams had become filled with images of a tenticale headed humanoid being. Clive sensed that this had something to do with the ring he had put on and the deal he made.  The being always seemed to be trying to destroy Clive in his dreams (Clive's Nemesis - a Void Sorcerer working to conquer Earth with both his non-earthly deamons and his growing number of earthly minions).

Team Cost Total:  18PP + 15 EP = 33 BPs

Clive Saunders (Character)  8 PP + 5.5 EP
M   Dex   Con   A   W   Res
6    3+      6     3    3    3+
Weapons: Net Gun, Rifle, Fighting Knife
Skills: Command, Ambush, Fearless, Inspire
Wounds: Crippled (1 Action only),
Items: Cursed Ring Artifact
2 Black Marks
 
Clem Connor (Deputy) 6 PP + 4 EP
M   Dex   Con   A   W   Res
5    3+     5      1   1    4+
Weapons: Colt .45, Dynamite, Detonator, Fighting Knife
Skills: Accurate, Ambush, Tough, Explosives Expert
Wounds: Weakend (-1 Attack {already reflected above})
               "Hate" Night Terrors

Joseph Stormcrow (Indian Scout) 4 PP + 4 EP
M   Dex   Con   A   W   Res
5    3+      5     2   1     4+
Weapons: Elephant Rifle, Hatchet
Skills: Tracking, Ambush,  
Wounds: Basket Case (No Psychology tests)

Juanita Ompus (Civilian) 0 PP + 1.5 EP
M   Dex   Con   A   W   Res
5    5+      5     1   1     4+
Weapons: Colt .45, FIghting Knife
Skills: None

Next Scenario: Once Again, into the Breach....

Hopefully my gaming buddy and I can get together to play this Thursday.  Our schedules haven't co-operated recently.