Dead Space Necromorphs

[GreatWyrmGold]

After much consideration, I decided to combine Supernatural Durability (weakness healing magic, because that wasn't present in Dead Space, I notes-justified it as an ultratech virus, and revive kills zombies) and several suggested Injury Tolerance advantages. Once again, thanks, and I'll post a description of how the sessions go.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Let's start with a quick description of the characters.
Alexander Dark is a very tall, very creepy mage who is the reincarnation of a very powerful mage. He knows a wide variety of spells, notably fire spells and Entombment. Alexander also doesn't need to breathe, so he can entomb himself, stay conscious, and not worry about air.
John is another somewhat tall mage, one who focuses on healing and fire spells. He is hated by a wizard's guild (-40 point enemy) and secretly betrayed a thieves' guild to a dragon (-30 point secret). He was raised by gnomes, which means that he has access to gnomish technology (he bought 20 grenades).

The first session was...interesting. A strange shooting star struck the earth near where Alexander was traveling, knocking him out. The next day, John tried to walk out on a bar tab in a settlement that I had noted was mainly supported by adventurers. Using a combination of experience and strange magical artifacts I made up on the spot (my favorite being the spear-thrower that cast a Sleep spell on whoever was hit by a spear), the city guards captured him. He was given an option: He could pay his tab and an additional fine (John had no money) and then spend a few weeks in prison; or he could join a few other adventurers put together to investigate the fallen star.
These adventurers were: Matthew, a stuttering, nervous mage focusing on air and water spells who was convicted of something I don't really remember; "George" a goblin* who was suspected of some crime BECAUSE he's a goblin; and [some kind of grunting noise], an orc who was convicted of assault and vandalism for smashing someone's head through a door in a bar fight. With John taking point, hopefully far enough in front to not harm the others if his grenades went off, this band of four misfits struck out for the site of the Fallen Star.
(*In my campaign, goblins are small, blind cavern-dwellers with acute hearing and smell and echolocation--I used Scanning Sense to try and represent that.)
Partway there, George mentioned that he heard something, walked right past everyone else (he was at the back of the group), right in the bushes, and started checking a human for signs of life. He's alive, and John (wearing a black cloak) shakes the person awake. Alexander, still groggy from the concussion, at first mistakes John for death, but then his vision clears. Alexander stands up and begins to walk towards where the Fallen Star had fallen. Lo and behold, it was an artificial structure being patrolled by some small, blue metallic creatures! Alexander greeted them, but rudely, they ignored him, although one wen inside the strange metallic object (which I noted had a door high enough for even Alex to fit into comfortably). As the ramshackle adventuring group approached the object (which Alexander's player had figured out long before was a spaceship), the door re-opened, revealing a small, gray humanoid wearing a robe and a large, avian humanoid wielding what looks like a strange spear. Partway through greetings, everyone notices that Matthew is casting a spell.
John tries to interrupt him by patting him on the back, which, given how much he stutters, is enough to cause a horrible mishap: The earth in the area erupts into a plume of dust. As Matthew starts to cast another spell, John casts Deathvision on him, which makes him shift his gaze to the metallic creature still in the field. After casting a strangely ineffective lightning bolt at it, the creature draws something that I described as "a crossbow without a bow" and fires some kind of energy at him. Matthew collapses, eliciting two responses from the two characters: Alexander buries the body with Entombment, and John tries to loot it (leading to a response from the gray humanoid of, "Are you sure he's not mentally damaged?"). After that failed attempt, John goes on to yell at the metallic creature which was not very affected by magic and easily killed another mage, which lead to Alexander choosing to entomb John. After a bit more conversation and the "revelation" that the creatures come from he stars, the session ended.

Hopefully this isn't too much of a Wall of Text. And don't worry about John; I've got plans to unentomb him involving the accidental detonation of twenty gnomish grenades.

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by GreatWyrmGold

Let's start with a quick description of the characters.
Alexander Dark is a very tall, very creepy mage who is the reincarnation of a very powerful mage. He knows a wide variety of spells, notably fire spells and Entombment. Alexander also doesn't need to breathe, so he can entomb himself, stay conscious, and not worry about air.
John is another somewhat tall mage, one who focuses on healing and fire spells. He is hated by a wizard's guild (-40 point enemy) and secretly betrayed a thieves' guild to a dragon (-30 point secret). He was raised by gnomes, which means that he has access to gnomish technology (he bought 20 grenades).

The first session was...interesting. A strange shooting star struck the earth near where Alexander was traveling, knocking him out. The next day, John tried to walk out on a bar tab in a settlement that I had noted was mainly supported by adventurers. Using a combination of experience and strange magical artifacts I made up on the spot (my favorite being the spear-thrower that cast a Sleep spell on whoever was hit by a spear), the city guards captured him. He was given an option: He could pay his tab and an additional fine (John had no money) and then spend a few weeks in prison; or he could join a few other adventurers put together to investigate the fallen star.
These adventurers were: Matthew, a stuttering, nervous mage focusing on air and water spells who was convicted of something I don't really remember; "George" a goblin* who was suspected of some crime BECAUSE he's a goblin; and [some kind of grunting noise], an orc who was convicted of assault and vandalism for smashing someone's head through a door in a bar fight. With John taking point, hopefully far enough in front to not harm the others if his grenades went off, this band of four misfits struck out for the site of the Fallen Star.
(*In my campaign, goblins are small, blind cavern-dwellers with acute hearing and smell and echolocation--I used Scanning Sense to try and represent that.)
Partway there, George mentioned that he heard something, walked right past everyone else (he was at the back of the group), right in the bushes, and started checking a human for signs of life. He's alive, and John (wearing a black cloak) shakes the person awake. Alexander, still groggy from the concussion, at first mistakes John for death, but then his vision clears. Alexander stands up and begins to walk towards where the Fallen Star had fallen. Lo and behold, it was an artificial structure being patrolled by some small, blue metallic creatures! Alexander greeted them, but rudely, they ignored him, although one wen inside the strange metallic object (which I noted had a door high enough for even Alex to fit into comfortably). As the ramshackle adventuring group approached the object (which Alexander's player had figured out long before was a spaceship), the door re-opened, revealing a small, gray humanoid wearing a robe and a large, avian humanoid wielding what looks like a strange spear. Partway through greetings, everyone notices that Matthew is casting a spell.
John tries to interrupt him by patting him on the back, which, given how much he stutters, is enough to cause a horrible mishap: The earth in the area erupts into a plume of dust. As Matthew starts to cast another spell, John casts Deathvision on him, which makes him shift his gaze to the metallic creature still in the field. After casting a strangely ineffective lightning bolt at it, the creature draws something that I described as "a crossbow without a bow" and fires some kind of energy at him. Matthew collapses, eliciting two responses from the two characters: Alexander buries the body with Entombment, and John tries to loot it (leading to a response from the gray humanoid of, "Are you sure he's not mentally damaged?"). After that failed attempt, John goes on to yell at the metallic creature which was not very affected by magic and easily killed another mage, which lead to Alexander choosing to entomb John. After a bit more conversation and the "revelation" that the creatures come from he stars, the session ended.

Hopefully this isn't too much of a Wall of Text. And don't worry about John; I've got plans to unentomb him involving the accidental detonation of twenty gnomish grenades.

Ok- so you have two players? John and Alexander. John has a near-terminal case of PC stupid going on; But what was Matthew's (seemingly GM controlled) reason for being stupid (I try to cast a spell that needs speech with stuttering, against an alien that is friendly, for no applicable reason- and I fail badly, so I try again!)?

Also John may have a few too many intense social disadvantages; powerful enemy, terrible secret, and seemingly dead broke; even if you let him survive this encounter and his case of PC stupid abates he's not going to be long for the world.

[GreatWyrmGold]

A. The first time, he was freaking out (I did mention he was nervous, right? Anyways, this was all pretty much inconceivable to him from when he saw the spaceship), and only failed because John distracted him. The second time, John had cast Death Vision on Matthew (a detail I might have forgotten), and so he was attacking the being he saw was going to be responsible for his death, causing said death in the process.
In short, Matthew had a panic attack due to heavily armed, unimaginable creatures, his nervous personality, and the fact that he wasn't a PC.

B. Not Dead Broke, just spent all of his starting money. And yes, he took lots of major disadvantages. Before that, he tried to pass off the most minor of delusions imaginable as -15 point ones. Yeah, on his own he'd likely die in a few adventures to wizard's guild attacks, but John's player spent those points on a large number of spells and Unkillable 1. I think it would be interesting to play Alexander's enemy (a powerful mage that Alex's player specifically told me was left to my interpretation from his past life whom I forgot to mention) against John's. Should be...interesting.

[GreatWyrmGold]

We did a quick session today. Not a lot of importance happened, but Alexander freed John, John squicked out the alien by explaining that the meat the orc put in the stew was actually from a squig (subrace of orcs), and the characters are bringing the aliens to meet with the local leaders.

I suppose this is a good time to mention some stuff I think I forgot to mention. The aliens' leader introduced himself as Aun'ui Shal'ah Go'ge'lar, and said he was a member of the Tau race. Go'ge'lar correctly pronounced the orc's name as Grut. In addition to the armored guards metallic creatures, there are a few tall, avian creatures under Go'ge'lar's command. One of these and a diplomat are coming with Go'ge'lar. And yes, I am basing the aliens off of WH40k.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Another session tonight.

Go'ge'lar, his escorts, and the party reached the town again. Go'ge'lar requested to go to the capital city...without John. Alex agreed, and they set out. A couple days in, they saw another falling star as they were setting up camp. Alex asked if t was more of Go'ge'lar's people, which Go'ge'lar responded to by packing up quickly.

The next day, John was leaving the little town/village place. The ran into a mage in white robes with tattered gray trim who requested to know if anything odd happened over the past few days. After being irritating and untruthful, the mage pulled out a strange metllic object (an energy pistol, not that the characters could know that) and threatened John with it. When that didn't work, he called a friend. A large, heavily armored friend. He is what they later learned to be a space marine (also 40k-style). The space marine grabs John, who is trying to escape, and drags him back. John spills his guts, mentioning a wizard they found who cast entombment on him (Alex) named "something like Dark Alexander" (his actual name beng Alexander Dark). The wizard offers a plasma grenade if John tells him more about the wizard. John reveals that the wizard was tall and had a deep voice, which causes the mage to grin. He offers John gold if he leads the mage to town. John agrees.
Meanwhile, some wizards in light aqua robes meet Alexander, Go'ge'lar, and Go'ge'lar's entourage. The two wizards ask about a wizard similar to John, and, after asking them to share their spells (mostly air, water, and healing ones), Alex reveals roughly where John is.
John meets with the space marine one night for payment, also running into Grut and George. The space marine hands out gold and departs. John leaves, going over bridge over a stream, when he is struck by a lightning bolt. (The wizards were taking shifts and had alerted some fellow guild members.) This knocks John down to 0 hp, but one deus ex space marine later, he discovers himself indebted to a large person from outer space. (George also is indebted; the white-robed mage might or might not have helped this serendipitous event along.) They go to a crater, with a large metallic object in the middle. The space marine retrieves an object (smallish hovercraft); he, another (slightly shorter) space marine, the mage, John, and George get in. The mage identifies himself as Gideon, and the one whom Gideon used to threaten John with was earlier revealed to be named Arcanus. They speed off into the night.
The next morning, Alex, Go'ge'lar, and the others notice a strange sound in the distance, which causes Go'ge'lar to flee as fast as his tired pony can take him. Alex uses Entombment, putting suspended animation on the others and utilizing his lack of need to breathe to stay awake. As he vanishes, Gideon, John, and the others arrive. After cursing, Gideon transmutes some of the ground to air and drops some (bartered-for) gnomish explosives down the narrow hole. This causes a bit of a deeper hole to be blasted into the ground, prompting Alex to unentomb himself. As Gideon begins a lecture to Alex, several light-aqua-clad wizards appear, firing lightning bolts which do nothing to Arcanus and knock over the other space marine. Gideon transforms into a creature like a rotting slug with two large tentacles and started beating on the mages alongside Arcanus, who drew a massive sword and a massive hammer. half fled before dying. Gideon continued.

In a past life, Alexander ran an underground institute for psykers ("I suppose you call them "mages" on this world.") Gideon taught Imperium-sanctioned psykers, and was tasked with killing Alexander's past life. He did. Gideon, Arcanus, and the others were sent to see if this planet could be integrated easily into the Imperium, or if it was going to be used as a testing ground for a new bio-weapon. The latter was chosen. Gideon explained this weapon to be a virus which raised the dead to attack the living. John shot the container holding the virus, releasing it onto the mages' corpses (which Gideon noted was pretty much what he was going to do), and Alex tried to use a fireball to incinerate it. Gideon and Arcanus got into the hovercraft, started to lift off, and had an exploding fireball, courtesy of Alex, explode in between them. Arcanus wasn't affected, Gideon was knocked out, and the hovercraft crashed. After John, relying on player knowledge, shot the corpses in the head, Alex lead the others on a chase into the woods. When they got there...
...they saw a flaming piece of wreckage, with no-one in sight. Alex extinguished the fire and told Go'ge'lar to search for weapons and papers (there were none). They returned to the path, and noticed that some of the bodies were missing. The others were burnt (after the space marine was killed, by utilizing a spell that is the rough equivalent of pouring burning magnesium onto his then-exposed neck), and six gems and two amulets were noted in the ashes by John. Go'ge'lar had also retrieved the weapons from the space marine's body: an auto shotgun (given to the...well, it wasn't identified by species name, but there was a Kroot along with them who go it), a laser rifle (claimed by John), a space marine combat knife the size of a short sword (claimed by Alex), and a two-handed (for humans) sword (...not sure what happened to this). The armor was found to fit Alex (I mentioned he had gigantism, right?), and the group split into two: Alex, Go'ge'lar, and John toward the capital, and George, the Tau diplomat, and the Kroot warrior back to the town.

Yeah, the second group's going to be in trouble.

Hoping to warn the world about the walking dead before it's too late, John and Alex go along the path. As they do so, the magic items are identified by Alex: The gems as being able to enhance healing spells, and the amulets as being able to reduce the energy cost of air spells. Each gets an amulet, and Alex gets two of the gems (part of their barter agreement, and anyways the gems work by the square root of the number of gems they have).

And that's as far as we got. Tune in...Next time!
Preview: I can't claim to know the specifics, but there WILL be necromorphs!