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"Return of the Rod of the Seven Parts" - D&D
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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3993449" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Module 105 - Chapter 3, “The Hellstomers” </strong> </p><p></p><p>The dwarf introduces his team as “The Hellstormers”. He says that he is General Gral Hellstormer, and the others of his team are Major Wellstone, Captain Timmbar, and Sergeants Harback and Rondry. The party introduce themselves, but the names “Silver Moon” and “Phlooredah” mean nothing to these dwarves. The group tells them that they are looking for a magical rod. “We know, so are we,” Gral replies. </p><p></p><p>Gral begins to explain to the party who he and his team are, and why there are there. As he does this, Ron Luther and Alton “translate” some of the technical jargon into words/explanations that the other Silver Moon characters understand. Similarly, Ebony (who has now spent five months with the Silver Moon) translates that further into terms that the other two hengeyokai will understand. </p><p></p><p>Gral begins by explaining that “The Confederation is an organization of ninety-two different autonomous sentient worlds from seventy-eight different solar systems.” He tells the man on the scooter “Show them Sergeant”. The man presses some buttons, and from a light at the front of the scooter a starchart picture is projected onto the wall. Ebony panics, thinking that a window has mysteriously appeared in the room, until Alton calms her down, telling her “It’s like an illusion.” </p><p></p><p>Gral continues, telling them that “Most of these solar systems are adjacent to each other, but there are a handful of outlier systems. There are also another twenty non-confederated worlds within the region of the Confederation, who are classified as neutral but restricted trading partners.” “What was that about a prison” Lono asks. Pointing to the unconscious men with the sunglasses Alton asks “Were they prisoners”. “No, their parents were,” answers Gral. “And what a wonderful upbringing they must have had,” Lono sarcastically comments. </p><p></p><p>The Hellstormers explain that the party are all currently on a Confederation Prison Sphere. He says that the worlds of the Confederation send their prisoners away to spheres of this design which are each approximately one mile in diameter. Depending upon the physical size of the specific race each sphere can house up to 200,000 prisoners. Multiple spheres are then linked, in a variety of different configurations, by half mile diameter and length cylindrical Guard Tubes. Guard Tubes, in addition to housing the prison guards, are also where the docking mechanisms are for space craft, to limit the possibility of a prison escape. They then project pictures of several different configurations of multiple spheres and tubes. </p><p></p><p>Gral then gives a short history lesson, saying that “A little over six decades ago the Confederation was attached by the Signor-Bram Alliance, an coalition of four warrior races bent on intergalactic conquest. These races had accumulated a massive fleet of heavily armed warships, and their leaders had far more combat experience than their Confederation Military counterparts. The tide of the war quickly tipped in the Alliance’s favor. Desperate times lead to desperate measures, and the Confederation negotiated an arrangement with the non-aligned Dentari, an amoral race of science-oriented beings who had descended from octopi rather than mammals.” A picture is then projected of a Dentari, a green creature with orange eyes, and four tentacles as feet and another four as arms. </p><p></p><p>Gral continues “Two hundred top Dentari scientists were assigned to a group consisting of eight hundred of the Confederation’s top scientists, doctors and engineers, for the express purpose of designing new weapons and genetically engineering combat troops to fight the Alliance. A Dreadnaught, the largest class of vessel in the Confederation fleet, was assigned to this group. Dreadnaughts are approximately one-and-a-half miles long, one mile high, and one mile wide, and are typically used to ferry vessels and troops across great reaches of space. These massive vessels also have the most advanced of Confederation armaments. </p><p></p><p>The Dentari required that sentient humanoids for used for their experiments so, despite the protests of the Confederation Humanitarian Council, were granted permission to use a prison sphere housing 120,000 of the most hard-core and non-rehabilitate human prisoners in the Confederation. This Dreadnaught, named the Illustrious, towed this sphere and its attached Guard Tube to a secret location in the uninhabited Bi-Trax III solar system, where they established a permanent orbit around the planet nearest the sun for use as a continuous energy source.” A picture of the Illustrious with the attached Guard Tube and Prison Sphere is then projected onto the wall. “Wow” Dennis exclaims. “What’s the name of the planet?” asks Lono. “It doesn’t have a name, it’s uninhabited,” Gral states. “Fine, I’ll call it Fred” Lono replies. </p><p></p><p>Gral then says “As a result of this research project, significant advances were made in weapons technologies and put into service of the Confederation Military. The tide of the war quickly turned in favor of the Confederation, who thoroughly defeated the Alliance within a decade. However, before the war’s end, approximately four years after the Illustrious had begun its mission, a prison revolt occurred. Using experimental weapons, a group of cyborg prisoners (while a picture is projected of a half-skin, half-metal man) successfully overpowered their guards, and managed to disable the locking mechanisms and control shackles of the other prisoners. A bloody battle followed, during which the guards lost. They were, however, successful in activating the self-destruct mechanism in all three of the Illustrious’s engine rooms, permanently stranding the ship in its present location. </p><p></p><p>The Confederation Military attempted, but was unable, to retake the vessel. This was because the prisoners were able to deploy experimental weapons on the Illustrious that were far more advanced than any of the Confederation. As the Confederation was also still fighting the Alliance at the time they had few additional resources to commit. After the war, it was decided to just avoid the ship and leave that part of space alone. That prison revolt occurred fifty-eight years ago. In the time since then the Bi-Trax III solar system has been marked on all Star Charts as a area to avoid, and the occupants of the Dreadnaught destroyed the few ships that ventured close. There was, however, one exception to this. </p><p></p><p>Approximately fifteen years ago a small group of rogue anthropologists…” The party burst out laughing, not expecting to hear the phrase ‘rogue’ and ‘anthropologists’ used together. Multiple bad jokes are then made. Gral finally picks up the story again “A group of rogue anthropologists, using a cloaking technology, were able to infiltrate the vessel and secretly observe its occupants. After a month of study they departed and reported their findings. </p><p></p><p>They deduced that in the years immediately following the revolt the overwhelming majority of the prisoners killed each other. The 120,000 prisoners had all been male, and viciously fought over the hundred-or-so human female scientists, doctors and engineers that survived the initial revolt. The surviving prisoners eventually formed a half-dozen separate gangs, each with approximately a thousand members, who carved out their own exclusive sections of the Dreadnaught, Guard Tube and Sphere. </p><p></p><p>The gangs continued to have constant fights and loose alliances with the rival gangs. By the time that the anthropologists had arrived almost all of the original prisoners had died from either the continual gang warfare or from radiation poisoning caused by deteriorating shielding.” “Oh great,” comments Ebony, “In addition to being trapped in cell in the air, we will also now die of disease.” Gral says “No, the amounts of the radiation are so low that it would take years of exposure before it has any effect on you.” This does not seem to reassure her any. </p><p></p><p>Gral continues “The six gangs were now comprised primarily of their second generation, totaling only one hundred to three hundred men per gang. There would be no third generation. The Dentari had been commissioned to produce a race of soldiers and prior to the revolt had genetically modified all prisoners to produce only male offspring. By the time of the anthropologists visit the few remaining women had passed their child-bearing years, so this current generation was also destined to be the last. Unlike their fathers, this generation did not appear to be suffering any ill effects of radiation other than their optic nerves, which had become mutated and required protective eye cover.” “So all we have to do is take off their glasses” comments Alton. </p><p></p><p>Gral then says “The Confederation’s official position following the release of this report was to continue to leave the vessel alone and wait for the remaining occupants to die off. The military posted a small fleet to deter any and all ships from nearing this solar system. That worked, up until last week.” “Last week?” Min-Mae questions. Gral says “Yes, last week Mogart the Merciless, the villainous ruler of the non-confederated planet Screegrat, managed to infiltrate and steal three prototype power rods being examined at the Confederation Grand University on the plant Sapphire-Rex.” A picture of Mogart is shown on the wall (basically Ming the Merciless, from the old Flash Gordon serials. This prompts The DM’s wife to comment about not letting him use the Internet ever again.) </p><p></p><p>The story continues “Mogart and his chief assistant Tiffany fled Sapphire-Rex in a Cardalon racing vessel, designed primarily for speed, with the Confederation Military in hot pursuit. Mogart was apparently aware that this solar system was deemed “off limits” to the Confederation, and saw it as a place to escape to. They managed to make it to the Bi-Trax III system, maneuvered past the scout force, and transmitted a plea for assistance to the Dreadnaught Illustrious. This transmission included a visual image of both himself and the female Tiffany, and seeing the female, the gang occupying most of the Guard Tube convinced him into docking his spacecraft there. </p><p></p><p>The Confederation Military immediately employed long-range weapons to incapacitate Mograt’s craft, but the Illustrious was able to then pull in and dock the vessel with a tractor beam.. The Confederation next contacted my team, the Hellstormers, to pick up the pieces of this mess. The Confederation Council has some concern that the inhabitants of this ship may be able to employ the power rods or repair Mogart’s vessel, but their real concern is that Tiffany will now mother a whole new generation of these enemies. She is of a very long-lived race, similar to the high elves of your world, and her hybrid offspring could potentially have a lifespan of many centuries.” “Wait a minute, how do you know about the high elves of our world?” Dennis asks. Gral answers “Because it’s the same world that we Hellstormers came from.” </p><p></p><p>“Hold on, you said that you never heard of Phlooredah” states Timothy. Gral answers “No, it must be from another part of the world than we know, we are from a place called New Rockhome.” This leads to a discussion by the party, with them stating that New Rockhome is part of Zalpar. “The Zalpar Kingdom is adjacent to the New Rockhome Kingdom,” Gral answers. </p><p></p><p>“What year did you come from?” asks Alton. The dwarves explain that, based on the Aldornian Calendar, they came from the year 873 and have been here for six years. They served in the New Rockhome Army during the great wars known as the “Uprisings of Evil”, and had been on a mission from King Telbar inside of Mount Karjjil in the year 873 when they fell through a through a dimensional gate into this universe. The party explains that it is now the year 1019, and that 146 years have past since then, despite the fact that these dwarves have only been in this universe for six years. They point out that King Telbar still rules the New Rockhome dwarves, as he was resurrected in the year 1012 after being dead for 138 years (thus, he died in the war the year after Gral’s team fell through the gate). </p><p></p><p>Gral explains how his team, which originally numbered seven and have been serving as an elite squadron for the Confederation Space Marines since shortly after their arrival here. They were chosen for this particular mission because one of the power rods has the same quantum signature as they did, indicating that it recently had come from their home world. The scooter has a quantum-tracker to locate this rod, which attunes itself to the signature of its user. It was this that led them to the adventuring party, as they picked up the influx of new quantum signatures from their same home world.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 3993449, member: 8530"] [B]Module 105 - Chapter 3, “The Hellstomers” [/B] The dwarf introduces his team as “The Hellstormers”. He says that he is General Gral Hellstormer, and the others of his team are Major Wellstone, Captain Timmbar, and Sergeants Harback and Rondry. The party introduce themselves, but the names “Silver Moon” and “Phlooredah” mean nothing to these dwarves. The group tells them that they are looking for a magical rod. “We know, so are we,” Gral replies. Gral begins to explain to the party who he and his team are, and why there are there. As he does this, Ron Luther and Alton “translate” some of the technical jargon into words/explanations that the other Silver Moon characters understand. Similarly, Ebony (who has now spent five months with the Silver Moon) translates that further into terms that the other two hengeyokai will understand. Gral begins by explaining that “The Confederation is an organization of ninety-two different autonomous sentient worlds from seventy-eight different solar systems.” He tells the man on the scooter “Show them Sergeant”. The man presses some buttons, and from a light at the front of the scooter a starchart picture is projected onto the wall. Ebony panics, thinking that a window has mysteriously appeared in the room, until Alton calms her down, telling her “It’s like an illusion.” Gral continues, telling them that “Most of these solar systems are adjacent to each other, but there are a handful of outlier systems. There are also another twenty non-confederated worlds within the region of the Confederation, who are classified as neutral but restricted trading partners.” “What was that about a prison” Lono asks. Pointing to the unconscious men with the sunglasses Alton asks “Were they prisoners”. “No, their parents were,” answers Gral. “And what a wonderful upbringing they must have had,” Lono sarcastically comments. The Hellstormers explain that the party are all currently on a Confederation Prison Sphere. He says that the worlds of the Confederation send their prisoners away to spheres of this design which are each approximately one mile in diameter. Depending upon the physical size of the specific race each sphere can house up to 200,000 prisoners. Multiple spheres are then linked, in a variety of different configurations, by half mile diameter and length cylindrical Guard Tubes. Guard Tubes, in addition to housing the prison guards, are also where the docking mechanisms are for space craft, to limit the possibility of a prison escape. They then project pictures of several different configurations of multiple spheres and tubes. Gral then gives a short history lesson, saying that “A little over six decades ago the Confederation was attached by the Signor-Bram Alliance, an coalition of four warrior races bent on intergalactic conquest. These races had accumulated a massive fleet of heavily armed warships, and their leaders had far more combat experience than their Confederation Military counterparts. The tide of the war quickly tipped in the Alliance’s favor. Desperate times lead to desperate measures, and the Confederation negotiated an arrangement with the non-aligned Dentari, an amoral race of science-oriented beings who had descended from octopi rather than mammals.” A picture is then projected of a Dentari, a green creature with orange eyes, and four tentacles as feet and another four as arms. Gral continues “Two hundred top Dentari scientists were assigned to a group consisting of eight hundred of the Confederation’s top scientists, doctors and engineers, for the express purpose of designing new weapons and genetically engineering combat troops to fight the Alliance. A Dreadnaught, the largest class of vessel in the Confederation fleet, was assigned to this group. Dreadnaughts are approximately one-and-a-half miles long, one mile high, and one mile wide, and are typically used to ferry vessels and troops across great reaches of space. These massive vessels also have the most advanced of Confederation armaments. The Dentari required that sentient humanoids for used for their experiments so, despite the protests of the Confederation Humanitarian Council, were granted permission to use a prison sphere housing 120,000 of the most hard-core and non-rehabilitate human prisoners in the Confederation. This Dreadnaught, named the Illustrious, towed this sphere and its attached Guard Tube to a secret location in the uninhabited Bi-Trax III solar system, where they established a permanent orbit around the planet nearest the sun for use as a continuous energy source.” A picture of the Illustrious with the attached Guard Tube and Prison Sphere is then projected onto the wall. “Wow” Dennis exclaims. “What’s the name of the planet?” asks Lono. “It doesn’t have a name, it’s uninhabited,” Gral states. “Fine, I’ll call it Fred” Lono replies. Gral then says “As a result of this research project, significant advances were made in weapons technologies and put into service of the Confederation Military. The tide of the war quickly turned in favor of the Confederation, who thoroughly defeated the Alliance within a decade. However, before the war’s end, approximately four years after the Illustrious had begun its mission, a prison revolt occurred. Using experimental weapons, a group of cyborg prisoners (while a picture is projected of a half-skin, half-metal man) successfully overpowered their guards, and managed to disable the locking mechanisms and control shackles of the other prisoners. A bloody battle followed, during which the guards lost. They were, however, successful in activating the self-destruct mechanism in all three of the Illustrious’s engine rooms, permanently stranding the ship in its present location. The Confederation Military attempted, but was unable, to retake the vessel. This was because the prisoners were able to deploy experimental weapons on the Illustrious that were far more advanced than any of the Confederation. As the Confederation was also still fighting the Alliance at the time they had few additional resources to commit. After the war, it was decided to just avoid the ship and leave that part of space alone. That prison revolt occurred fifty-eight years ago. In the time since then the Bi-Trax III solar system has been marked on all Star Charts as a area to avoid, and the occupants of the Dreadnaught destroyed the few ships that ventured close. There was, however, one exception to this. Approximately fifteen years ago a small group of rogue anthropologists…” The party burst out laughing, not expecting to hear the phrase ‘rogue’ and ‘anthropologists’ used together. Multiple bad jokes are then made. Gral finally picks up the story again “A group of rogue anthropologists, using a cloaking technology, were able to infiltrate the vessel and secretly observe its occupants. After a month of study they departed and reported their findings. They deduced that in the years immediately following the revolt the overwhelming majority of the prisoners killed each other. The 120,000 prisoners had all been male, and viciously fought over the hundred-or-so human female scientists, doctors and engineers that survived the initial revolt. The surviving prisoners eventually formed a half-dozen separate gangs, each with approximately a thousand members, who carved out their own exclusive sections of the Dreadnaught, Guard Tube and Sphere. The gangs continued to have constant fights and loose alliances with the rival gangs. By the time that the anthropologists had arrived almost all of the original prisoners had died from either the continual gang warfare or from radiation poisoning caused by deteriorating shielding.” “Oh great,” comments Ebony, “In addition to being trapped in cell in the air, we will also now die of disease.” Gral says “No, the amounts of the radiation are so low that it would take years of exposure before it has any effect on you.” This does not seem to reassure her any. Gral continues “The six gangs were now comprised primarily of their second generation, totaling only one hundred to three hundred men per gang. There would be no third generation. The Dentari had been commissioned to produce a race of soldiers and prior to the revolt had genetically modified all prisoners to produce only male offspring. By the time of the anthropologists visit the few remaining women had passed their child-bearing years, so this current generation was also destined to be the last. Unlike their fathers, this generation did not appear to be suffering any ill effects of radiation other than their optic nerves, which had become mutated and required protective eye cover.” “So all we have to do is take off their glasses” comments Alton. Gral then says “The Confederation’s official position following the release of this report was to continue to leave the vessel alone and wait for the remaining occupants to die off. The military posted a small fleet to deter any and all ships from nearing this solar system. That worked, up until last week.” “Last week?” Min-Mae questions. Gral says “Yes, last week Mogart the Merciless, the villainous ruler of the non-confederated planet Screegrat, managed to infiltrate and steal three prototype power rods being examined at the Confederation Grand University on the plant Sapphire-Rex.” A picture of Mogart is shown on the wall (basically Ming the Merciless, from the old Flash Gordon serials. This prompts The DM’s wife to comment about not letting him use the Internet ever again.) The story continues “Mogart and his chief assistant Tiffany fled Sapphire-Rex in a Cardalon racing vessel, designed primarily for speed, with the Confederation Military in hot pursuit. Mogart was apparently aware that this solar system was deemed “off limits” to the Confederation, and saw it as a place to escape to. They managed to make it to the Bi-Trax III system, maneuvered past the scout force, and transmitted a plea for assistance to the Dreadnaught Illustrious. This transmission included a visual image of both himself and the female Tiffany, and seeing the female, the gang occupying most of the Guard Tube convinced him into docking his spacecraft there. The Confederation Military immediately employed long-range weapons to incapacitate Mograt’s craft, but the Illustrious was able to then pull in and dock the vessel with a tractor beam.. The Confederation next contacted my team, the Hellstormers, to pick up the pieces of this mess. The Confederation Council has some concern that the inhabitants of this ship may be able to employ the power rods or repair Mogart’s vessel, but their real concern is that Tiffany will now mother a whole new generation of these enemies. She is of a very long-lived race, similar to the high elves of your world, and her hybrid offspring could potentially have a lifespan of many centuries.” “Wait a minute, how do you know about the high elves of our world?” Dennis asks. Gral answers “Because it’s the same world that we Hellstormers came from.” “Hold on, you said that you never heard of Phlooredah” states Timothy. Gral answers “No, it must be from another part of the world than we know, we are from a place called New Rockhome.” This leads to a discussion by the party, with them stating that New Rockhome is part of Zalpar. “The Zalpar Kingdom is adjacent to the New Rockhome Kingdom,” Gral answers. “What year did you come from?” asks Alton. The dwarves explain that, based on the Aldornian Calendar, they came from the year 873 and have been here for six years. They served in the New Rockhome Army during the great wars known as the “Uprisings of Evil”, and had been on a mission from King Telbar inside of Mount Karjjil in the year 873 when they fell through a through a dimensional gate into this universe. The party explains that it is now the year 1019, and that 146 years have past since then, despite the fact that these dwarves have only been in this universe for six years. They point out that King Telbar still rules the New Rockhome dwarves, as he was resurrected in the year 1012 after being dead for 138 years (thus, he died in the war the year after Gral’s team fell through the gate). Gral explains how his team, which originally numbered seven and have been serving as an elite squadron for the Confederation Space Marines since shortly after their arrival here. They were chosen for this particular mission because one of the power rods has the same quantum signature as they did, indicating that it recently had come from their home world. The scooter has a quantum-tracker to locate this rod, which attunes itself to the signature of its user. It was this that led them to the adventuring party, as they picked up the influx of new quantum signatures from their same home world. [/QUOTE]
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