Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Golden Bee" data-source="post: 9797519" data-attributes="member: 7041055">Rafe’s Revenge Part 3: Where there’s a VrilAn ancient land of mystery, swarming with evil![ATTACH=full]421832[/ATTACH][/I]There is precisely one Mexican in the Parkhotel Laurin, in the Italian city of Bozen. Wearing a dapper tuxedo, with very slick hair, he is the utter definition of poise... Until he sees someone he knows. Diego Ladrón lowers his mustache at the coat checker, Alexander Bauer, who coughs and asks Diego to meet in the men's bathroom. He does.The Russian spy groans and fixes Devika's disguise.***After weeks of planning, Rafe Lancaster and his ZSS allies are ready to make their move. They’ve been hired by foe turned client, the enigmatic German spy known as Krystal Wolf. Wolf needs to rescue her Romani family, being held captive somewhere within the Hollow Earth. The Abwehr's most dangerous agent has informed the party that such a place can only be reached through invisible “Attenuated Gates” hidden throughout Europe. The ZSS’s best option: infiltrate a diplomatic gala held between Nazi financiers and representatives of Mussolini’s Fascist Italy and find a lead there. Krystal's disguised herself as the elderly Dr. Ruedi Zünd. This is perfectly fine... until the real Doctor Zünd appears.Japanese detective Zelda Saeki interposes herself, making small talk with the Swiss National. The party's newest ally, Major Jonathan Striker, intercedes, perfectly spilling a Cabernet all over real Zünd. Two doctors enter the restroom; only Krystal exits.Rafe, trying to ingratiate himself, makes a donation via fake check, and expert mercenary Calvin Davino follows the paper. The Filipino merc follows Otto Bruhn, and signals the group to follow as the man enters the garden.All of the staff, led by Bauer, exit the party and lock the doors just as the ZSS leave. Nazi hater Krystal has decided to give all the fascist donors a door prize: mustard gas.Otto, unaware, makes his way into the Dolomite mountains. Rafe signals for a cab, and Major Striker asks the man for help opening the trunk. When the fellow exits to oblige, everyone else jumps in and drives away. Rafe and Devi (now carefully removing her mustache and putting it in her purse) are excellent drivers, deftly chasing Bruhn through the switchback roads.The group enters a mountain tunnel and sees a bizarre sight. There's a rectangular metal frame along a cavern wall, and three military lorries equipped with odd-looking metal devices. Rafe doesn't quite believe it, but the frame is a phase oscillator. With a tremendous amount of energy, the Reich has created a teleportal. Between Calvin, Striker and Zelda, it's no issue to overwhelm the troops, hitch a ride with the unsuspecting Bruhn, and cross the barrier... into the Hollow Earth!...Which for a while just looks like caverns. The truck bed has no sightline to the cabin, so the group explores the crates and feasts on premium rations. (It's hard to go adventuring on canapes.)When the adventurers emerge from the tunnel, it's not midnight like it was in Italy; it’s daytime! (Major Striker notes that the hollow Earth is like the British Empire: the Sun never sets.)The truck's searched at the next checkpoint, but the two soldiers are no match for five trained warriors and Rafe. The group (at Devi's insistence) question Bruhn, and Calvin detects that this fellow is also a mercenary. Money is a language the group speaks well, so after handing over some gold cufflinks, the Bruhn gives a lay of the land.The main area is a floating castle, supported by a Nazi base. To get the group past the main security force, they’ll need to split up. Half can get through the main gate in the truck, the others would need to climb over a steep hill and drop past the fence.Devi and Zelda choose that route, along with Calvin, who in a moment of gallantry, forgets that he’s afraid of heights.Devi’s an expert burglar and Striker is plenty stealthy, so the plan works… up until the hillside starts moving. Carnivorous plants attack, and nearly envelop the distracted Calvin before Devi sets him free.The detective is adept at close-range shooting, obliterating one of the two plants. Devi, her mental powers useless against flora, hides in a cave while Calvin cuts into a creature with his ginublade and rips it in half like a phone book!The rest of the infiltration is uneventful, except for Maj. Striker using Calvin's nearly dissolved jacket to distract and disorient the nazi’s star-nosed mole-wolves.The group discovers that the valley below them is piled with ancient skeletal remains. Hulking ceramic bones housed in corroded metal armor rise above the millions of human-sized bodies. It is a place of overwhelming death.As the six make their way into the castle, they discover large flanged stone columns, connected via wire to metal clamps. Devi and Rafe, putting their heads together, realize that the castle itself is providing a magical energy! Putting science and his ego first, Rafe rushes off to the laboratory in the castle east. Devi, as his best friend, is obligated to follow and protect him, even though the mission objectives lie elsewhere.The lab is past an archaeological dig, where the millionaire duo see another oddity. In the bowels of the fortress, Nazi scientists are excavating a mummified bio-mechanical giant! This is the “Todesriese”; the “Death Giant”. A platoon of soldiers and scientists work at a brisk pace, led by female scientist Heilwig Hess.***In the prison (euphemistically described as 'the dorms'), Krystal recoils when she sees her former tormentor, Standartenführer Hugo Fackenheim. The group is surprised to see the master spy display emotion. Using stealth to their advantage, the four start a gun battle with the prison guards. [Hugo is an absolute brute, filling up every stress track and consequence before succumbing to his wounds.] His taunting rattles Krystal, but Striker has the presence of mind to question the commander before Wolf puts the final bullet in. Her family rescued, they explained the reason they were captured: as Romani, the Thules see them as perfect hosts for the Todesriese.Over in the lab, Devi finds a vial of blood labeled Lillian Lamb. Recognizing Rafe's girlfriend's name, she offers it to her mentor.Rafe makes a puzzled expression, then starts laughing.***Escaping with the prisoners proves to be severely complicated. The giant awakens enough to destroy the floor, sending the group crashing to the lowest level of the fortress. There, Calvin and the charming detective Saeki befriend a tribe of demigryphs, strange lion/eagle creatures that love climbing. After a brief encounter with a pterodactyl (which is distracted by Striker throwing his cigarette into its mouth), the group emerges topside. Krystal has them pinned down with the machine gun though! Was this all a Ratzi ruse?!Luckily, no. She’s aiming at them because a gunner is aiming his LMG at Krystal's family!Devi gets Brigadeführer Heilwig Hess distracted yammering, and Zelda shoots the LMG out of the gunner’s hands. Krystal turned her own gun on him, the bullets swarming like metal bees. Chaos erupts!In the middle of this melee, Hess manages to assume control of the Goliath. Rafe and Devi grab a truck and distract the creature, while the rest of the group try and overwhelm a nearby gun emplacement. Unfortunately, there's only so long you can evade an enemy the size of the Chrysler Building, and it puts a foot through the truck's engine block.As the creature grinds the truck into powder, Devi jumps on its leg! The gun emplacement is liberated by the ZSS (and wild demigryphs), but the giant is lumbering towards it...Rafe, who thrice tried to kill Devika, risks his life tying truck winches together, creating a tripwire. As the Todesriese stomps towards the gun, it stumbles, allowing the millionaire orphan a chance to clamber up its back. The creature unties itself, clapping the vehicles together in a giant explosion. But this proved to be a massive mistake, as Devi got a chance to swing around its neck and into its mouth.What she saw inside was horrifying. Hess was being consumed by the machine, her evil heart unable to maintain it. Devi bent one of the creature's teeth out, creating an opening for the gun emplacement. Zelda aimed...aimed... and FIRED, knocking the Todesriese's kopf off its the shoulders!Below, a frantic, sooty Rafe rigged up a fireman-trampoline out of old parachutes. Devi landed safely, and crawled up to her feet.Rafe couldn't stop laughing. She was wearing the mustache.***Krystal, her family freed and her debt repaid, offered the group something besides financial restitution. The woman of a thousand faces, who had led them to such peril, would never darken their doorsteps again.Devi/Diego shook their head. There were some things more confusing than the Hollow Earth.</blockquote>

Verification