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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Flynn" data-source="post: 4105300" data-attributes="member: 1836">A One Shot Diversion 03/12/08Good Morning, All:Last night, we had two players out, one for Spring Break and one due to work. Because of that, we decided to try a One Shot instead. The players decided they wanted to try a Lost World-style Pulp adventure with Nazis and Dinosaurs, so while they created characters, I made a few quick mental notes and looked up some dino stats in the Savage Beasts PDF that can be found online for free. This is what happened...The Synopsis:The Professor (sadly I can't remember the character's name, save that his initials were Z.A.P.) was engaged in an expedition deep into the heart of the jungles of Africa. He was accompanied by his "guardian", an ex-Mafioso named Thaddeus Black, who had the bad habit of speaking of himself in the third person. The Big Game Hunter Cotaro served as the expedition's guide. Sadly, the expedition was ill-fated, as an explosion in the boiler room forced all to abandon ship, and so it was that these three came to be in the same rowboat, literally up a creek without a paddle. After a few hours of floating, the boat drifted down a side tributary that slowly began picking up speed.Around noon, the band of three heard the roaring of a waterfall ahead, and so sprang into desperate action, trying to get the rowboat to shore before it could plummet into the depths of a mysterious valley that lay ahead. Using the stocks of their rifles as paddles, the three put forth a valiant effort and made it ashore without going over.The Big Game Hunter sought out an animal trail that could hopefully take them through the jungle to a point where they might find other people and make their way back to civilization. Instead, they found a mechanical contraption that lowered a platform into the valley below. Curious as to the traffic in this area, the party looked out into the valley. Both the Professor and the Big Game Hunter spied a heavily walled and fortified encampment in the valley below, and the Big Game Hunter noted through his scope that it appears to be inhabited by German military forces of their new Nationalist-Socialist party. As he watched, the Nazis brought in a beautiful native woman clothed only in the traditional native leather bikini. Being heroic, as well as in need of a radio for help, the party decided this was the quickest path to find their rescue.A few minutes of puttering around, and the Professor was able to rig the platform to descend slowly without someone at the controls in the station above. It was a long ride down, through clouds and fog. Along the way, they noted numerous locations where gold ore was exposed on the valley's walls, as well as blast marks that indicated that the Germans were mining the ore, probably to help their depressed economy. In addition, the three noted that their descent had attracted other attention as well: a large pteranodon just like the model hanging up in the museum soared through the air en route to the platform.The Big Game Hunter, spurred on by this prize, aimed for the oncoming beast and once he was within range, shot him with his Sharps 50. Though shaken, the beast kept moving forward, aiming for platform and the people upon it. Thaddeus Black began emptying ammo into the beast, as the Professor unlimbered his Aetheric Discharging Device and pumped some lightning into it. The creature barely made it to the platform when the party finally slew the beast, sending the carcass plummeting into the clouds below.More watchful, the party continued their trip through clouds and fog, to finally make it to the valley floor below. High up in the trees of the jungle around the clearing, the three noted the mangled corpse of the pteranodon. Seeing a road well travelled leading from the platform site into the valley towards the walled encampment that was likely miles away, they elected to travel in the jungle close to the road to avoid unwanted attention. The Big Game Hunter noted a game trail frequented by large reptiles and barefooted natives parallelled the road, and so the three moved rather quickly through the underbrush.Soon the game trail opened onto a large clearing, where several wooden posts had been set up, more than a man's height, with chains and manacles mounted from the top of each post. At the base of one lay a few boxes marked with swastika. Before the party could investigate, however, four large and brooding Neanderthals skulked out of the jungle and approached the boxes. The party watched as the four primitive near-men began picking through the boxes, only to be interrupted from a spear thrown from the underbrush on the opposite side of the clearing. A band of native humans began to attack the cavemen, and the party quickly chose to support their species.The fight with the Neanderthals went rather well for our heroes, as they dropped the primitive leader (who bore an old flintlock pistol that fired a single shot before it was discarded), and chased the other warriors into the humans. The Professor's lightning gun did a great job on one of the warriors, and Thaddeus Black dealt quickly and swiftly with the other two warriors, delivering two devastating punches that dropped them dead in their tracks.With that, the three explorers quickly made friends with the surviving natives, and learned that they sought Deloba, the woman they saw captured earlier in the Nazi camp. The natives' leader, Anan, bargained with the party through pantomimes and drawings in the dirt: he would help them if they went with him to rescue Deloba first. The three agreed, and so after raiding the boxes for supplied (food, whiskey and a small bag of gunpowder) the small force of seven men (four natives and three adventurers) worked their way through the jungle towards the hills around the valley's lake, where the Nazi camp lie.At the base of the hills, the party heard a terribly large beast rumbling through the jungle in their general direction. While the natives hid, the Big Game Hunter prepared his Sharps 50 to fire upon the beast, should it come in their direction. Out of the trees ahead, a huge tyrannosaurus rex stepped out, seeking a noon-time snack. The Professor let loose with an exclamation that drew the beast's attentions, so instead of just passing by, the t-rex decided the party would make a good snack.It was a messy and brutal fight, as all of the natives save Anan fled into back into the jungle, leaving the three to fend for themselves. The thick hide and sheer size of the beast protected it from all but the most well-placed shots, and it became desperate times for the party as a whole. Thaddeus Black had several close calls, losing his shirt and taking several wounds to the t-rex's vicious onslaught. Finally, the Professor came up with a plan to throw the gunpowder into the dinosaur's mouth and then explode it with his lightning gun. Sadly, he missed the mouth of the beast, so he had to slip up close to the beast and try again. Grabbing the gunpowder, he cast it into the mouth but was unable to hit the explosive bag with the last of his lightning gun's energy. Thaddeus Black, however, stepped up, putting his gun into the beast's roaring mouth and pulling the trigger. The gunpowder exploded, blowing a dagger-like tooth into the Professor's shoulder as it brought the dinosaur near to death. A final, well-placed shot shortly thereafter laid the King of Beasts low.And that's where we ended the session and the One Shot...The Commentary:Man, but dinosaurs are tough, particularly the T-Rex. It's almost as bad as a dragon. It took some wild maneuvers and called shots to get through its sizable Toughness. Fortunately, its Huge size helped to offset some of the penalties for striking a particular hit location. That last encounter gave the PCs a taste of what a dragon might be like, and they are now concerned for the dragon that lies between Newport and Synovia in the regular campaign.It was just a lot of fun coming up with characters in less than half an hour and still playing a full adventure on the spur of the moment in a brand new genre. In less than three hours, the party fought a pteranodon, a group of cavemen and a huge T-Rex. They seemed to have fun, though the lack of bennies in the last combat made it very, very challenging.While this isn't a continuation of the normal campaign notes, I felt I should include it here as an example of the versatility of Savage Worlds (and things you can do when all your players can't make it but you still want to game.)As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to post them.With Regards,Flynn</blockquote>

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