ZEITGEIST The affirmative action racial recruitment team of the RHC


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Andrew Moreton

Adventurer
We started off at the railroad , El Kevin and Ulvaar were in charge of Security and decided that mercenaries were needed to protect the track behind them particularly the bridges. They thought that as this was Ber it must be possible to hire trolls to lurk under bridges so after a moment of thought the Steelhead Mercenary company was invented lead by a number of Half Giants and Minotoaurs the company employs Troll and Ogre shock troops . These highly paid mercenaries were soon lurking under and around the bridges supplying Griento enterprises. Ulvaar soon noticed that scare stories were being spread around about the problems ahead and brought in Griento to rally the workers spirits which was a success particularly with the infusion of capital from Risur.
In a strategy session they decided to hold onto the high morale of the workers and plug away with a steady 2 miles a day (using the steam gang) until they hit the bridge, then put on a surge and blow through to the finish faster than the Ob can react.
Maths for this
Day 1
1 materail , 1 mile
Day 2
2 Material 2 miles Wealth drops to 6
Day 3
2 material 2 miles
Day 4
2 Material 2 miles
Day 5
2 material 2 miles
Day 6 Bridge
5 material, 3 morale used and wealth drops to 3
Day 7
3 material, 1 morale 3 miles wealth up to 5 morale down to 2
Day 8
3 material, 1 morale, 3 miles morale 1
Day 9
4 material, 3 morale (spending 4 wealth) wealth down to 0
Railway completed

Security continued on the 3rd day and El Kevin inspecting the steam gang noticed that they were actually built to combat specifications. They notified Risur but did not bother to warn the locals. In Risur Harkover organises a crack down on Pemberton industries to find any combat constructs in Risur.
Early on day 4 Nevla and Manuel arrive their work elsewhere done , immediately the team plans a pre-preemptive strike on the keepers of Cheshimox. Manuel performs an aerial recon and sees nothing unusual just missing Rush and Murton departing the area after having dropped off an Ob assassin construct.

The team enters the tunnels and the undead detect them and start to prepare their ambush,the clockwork assassin spots the team and contingency programming kicks in it tries to kill Ulvaar fails and is beaten to pieces. Manuel takes the pieces for study.
As they approach the main cave they spot the army lieing in wait on either side and attack. El Kevin throws a puny fireball right while Nevla leaps into the army on the left and triggers a detonate spell which obliterates all on the left. The ghouls rogues charge Nevla and inflict a light wound then she and Padme despatch them in mellee with a series of critical hits. Manuel fires a shotcannon right taking out the priests and half the Zombies and El Kevin launches a second fireball killing the rest. Ulvaar thinks he has a bad initiative score.

Then a skeletal construct bearing the head of Cheshimox lurches into the cave at the same time a Kobold Lich sorceror drops invisibility and fires a cone of cold , signifignant damage is done. Ulvaar , Padme and El Kevin engage the mirror imaged sorceror damaging him , Nevla drops a burst of Radiance on him which blinds him and his second cone of cold only damages Ulvaar and Padme. The dragon thing attacks Manuel who has just Nock gunned it and hurts him.

Nevla drops a flame strike on the lich but its magic resistance blocks the spell,Padme and Ulvaar injure it but it then dimension doors out to recover. El Kevin sitting on the shoulders of Manuel shoots at the skeletal thing and the attack of opportunity nearly drops him, but instead his bullets smash it to debris.

The group heals and goes looking for the lich which is also healing. It attacks again trying to blind them with gloomblind bolts from range. Ulvaar hastes the party, Nevla hits the lich with a dispel magic which drops its mirror images and Manuel rushes forward with a redlined suit and gets a rifle shot into its face, before El Kevin drops it with a hail of revolver fire.

They contact Risur to see if anyone there knows how to find a lich Phylactery and Haqrkover Lee volunteers they leave him to deal with it while returning to guard the rail camp.He melts the entire area destroying the phylactery and teleports back to Risur .

At the camp a rabble rousing Murton is caught and asked to leave and Manuel 'The Knight' catches Rush planting an immovable rod , with this evidence they turn him over to the local Executores and he gets beaten before being turned loose. El Kevin really wants to do something more permanent to them but is talked out of it.

At this point they are able to get the railway finished faster than Lya is able to get hers done and before any more schemes against them can take shape

Next session -- they meet the Bruse and Ulvaar realises just how useful his new ability is as it renders the entire party immune to Agony gas by protecting them inside a life bubble
 

Andrew Moreton

Adventurer
With the railwy challange succesfully completed the team are summoned by the Bruse to hear the results, they are fairly confident that barring massive bribery or mind control they have beaten the Ob. So they start trying to work out how he Ob will snatch tinker. For some reason they think that printing out a map of the throne room indicates there will be trouble there, they settle on a strike team coming out of the Bleak gate but are not sure about the logistics issues of getting the Iron rings or Lanterns in place. Nevla is concerned they may pull the Daedelus option and kill Tinker so he can't make a Collossus for Risur. They then debate if he could as it seems the steelshaper and mindmaker played a large part, this briefly diverts to working out who the other X-Men are.
They turn up at the Throne room ready for a battle, and sit through the Bruse announcing the winner and being dissapointed they were mostly boring although he admits to finding Lya's failure to start a war as amusing, agains demonstrating he is well informed if rather lazy as a ruler. El Kevin points out that this is gurther evidence he is a pupper ruler for his Kobold Intelligence chief and the secret dragons behind him. The others point out this is silly but El Kevin knows the truth. They also notice Kenna not eating and don't think it signifigant, instead watching Lya and her people. They have also come to the conclusion that in a fight they should not kill Lya as she is by far the most senior Ob member they have met who they beleive to be a genuinely well intentioned person and so someone they could turn.
As Tinker arrives they are expecting the Ob to make their move instead Lya and her team graciously wait in the waiting room (Ob Wizards have prepared to intercept the teleport and pull the constables and Tinker into an ambush). They speak briefly with TInker ,Manuel and El Kevin discuss mad science and can just about follow TInker and conclude he realy is a Genius and worth recruiting,Then they hear shellfire incoming.
Manuel and El Kevin react faster than Tinker. Manuel triggers his steam suit and steps to hold his shield over the Bruse and Tinker, El Kevin shouts a warning. The agony gas shell hits and the only person in the room effected is the Bruse as the constables are shielded by Ulvaar's magic, they do find the lack of visibility annoying. Then Tinker pulls out a bomb and the team comes to the conclusion that he is a construct and is in charge of the attack. Manuel curse going first as he is now standing next to a bomb. Nevla runs up and grabs the bomb from Tinker , with Padme as a bodyguard , then the five elite guard/terminators attack 2 go for Manuel, 1 for El Kevin and 2 for Nevla inflicting wounds, Kenna starts trying to Kill the Bruse and is making good progress, then going last Ulvaar uses his TK to throw the bomb out of Nevla's hands and into the maze.

To be continued
 

Andrew Moreton

Adventurer
El Kevin took a step back and opened fire on the Elite guard in front on him and was shocked to see his bullets bouncing off and armourec chassis , he shouted out "Watch out they are metal" and prepared to be hit. Manuel stepped away from his attackers and activated Overdrive punching Kenna and knocking her twenty feet to the edge of the Balcony. Padme flanking one of Nevla's attackers shredded him with a series of sneak attacks, Nevla ran away from the other attacker , taking an attack of opportunity before hitting Kenna with a forceful smite spell through her estoc which damaged Kenna and knocked her back 5 feet over the edge of the balcony fortunatly for her landing after the bomb had gone off. 2 Elite guards laid into Manuel inflciting some pain while another smashed El Kevin around leaving him badly injured, finally Ulvaar extended one of his life bubbles around the Bruse, while the last elite guard attacked the Bruse.
Padme moved to flank and elite guard attacking the Bruse and dropped him, Manuel fired his suits Nock gun into an elite guard dropping him , El Kevin ran away through a side door, Nevla fired an erosion ray at Kenna further damaging her and delaying her attempts to climb up the wall 2 elite guards attacked the Bruse the Bruse smashed away at one of them ignoring the constables shouts that he should retreat, unseen in the gas a line of swarmers volley fired muskets wounding the Bruse and Manuel. Ulvaar used lightning to heal the Bruse (No one has worked out how he does it but it works!). A wall of fire appeared between the Bruse and the balcony
Manuel moved to block the the swarmers from shooting at the Bruse again as they reloaded, El Kevin sneaked in and fireballed some of the swarmers, Nevla dispelled the firewall, the Bruse and Padme dropped an elite guard, Ulvaar moved in and hit the last elite guard as he attacked the Bruse. The swarmers reloaded.

Manuel started to activate his shotcannon, El Kevin launched another fire ball dropping 2 swarmers, Nevla tried to persuade the Bruse to retreat, Padme attacked a swarmer but without a flanker her attacks were less deadly, te Bruse roared his defiance . A volley from the swarmers hit Ulvaar and Padme the Bruse being safe behind hte massive shield , a Flame strike dropped on the Bruse , Manuel and Ulvaar they were now certain a spellcaster lurked in the fog. Ulvaar leaped amidst the swarmers lashing out with his lightning blade and dropping 4 of them.

Manuel blasted the last 4 swarmers with his shotcannon and Lya in the fog stumbled into Pardo and attacked him, with the last foe located Ulvaar, Padme and Nevla were able to attack bringing the Gnoll Duplicant down before he could get off another spell.

The contables contined to protect the Bruse as information came in about attacks by duplicants all over Ber, killing several other authority figures, but other attacks lacked the set up and planning of the succesful attacks and the attack on the Bruse they concluded this was a hastily launched Coup but could not work out why Pardo and Tinker were working together. Finally their paranoia and a commune spell revealed the truth Pemberton was Gradiax and he was leading the gnoll cultists in a revolution. They did not tell El Kevin or the Bruse about the draconic ties. Calvallo was called by Bruse to organise the naval assault on the Gnolls as he prepared the army to follow up the naval spearhead , his call wa respectful and Cavallo answered.

The constables agreed with Lya to cooperate on attacking the island with the first team in getting the first crack at Tinker. They are unsure how much Tinker is willingly part of Pembertons scheme and how much is him just being a mad inventor and not liking the Bruse.
Finally Nevla went back to Risur to consult with Harkover (who they are almost certain is a dragon) they asked about Pemberton/Gradiax and after Harkover consulted the King were told about the ancient agreement to take in refugee Dragon Tyrants and it was confirmed that Gradiax is is breech of the agreement and no longer protected by the crown. They asked if there were others and it was confirmed there were and they had not breached the agreement . The Dragon in the room was not addressed and the Nevla did not ask if Harkover was a dragon. Manul recovered the Subway bomb and a portable hole to take with them so they had a weapon capable of hurting a Great Wyrm red dragon.

El Kevin and the Berans remain ignorant of the dragons. The constables have decied that Gradiax/Pemberton is probably a third party not tied to the Ob as they don't think he is in charge and could not see him in a conspiracy they did not lead.
They have a lot of paranoia about possible Ob involvment and draconic conspiracies.
Manuel was suprised that Pemberton was behind the coup he liked him , and thought he was a charming inventor and Business-dragon.

Next week the assault on the Volcano and soon we will find out were El Kevins loyalties lie ( I don't know)
 


Andrew Moreton

Adventurer
Manuel has been trying to build bigger versions and none lethal versions in case of future problems like the collossus and they feel a potential Great wyrm red dragon is worth a doomsday bomb
 

hirou

Explorer
In my campaign, Risur has weaponized Nem defense reaction from Sidjen planar ritual. A competent spellcaster only needs less than half an hour and a bit of spell reagents (with golden plate of variable size being the most expensive one) to potentially clear a whole city district from all low-level living creatures, which makes this a weirdly terrifying fantasy weapon of mass destruction. Let's all pray that Grandis Komanov doesn't learn this secret.
 

Andrew Moreton

Adventurer
Interesting that is more El Kevins side of things planar and arcane magic , while Manuel is an alchemist . I will think about it and maybe give some ideas to El Kevins player
 


Andrew Moreton

Adventurer
We start off this session with the big reveal to El Kevin, in which they reveal that Pemberton is Gradiax and that they are going up against a Dragon. He takes this calmly and is convincingly loyal and certain that things can be resolved with out a direct confrontation with a dragon as he is certain that Pemberton is not on the island as if the Beran army makes contact with a real Dragon Tyrant everything will fall apart for his plans as the Berans launch a crusade to kill him. He expects a fake dragon which 'fooled' the Gnolls to be there or something. They have not mentioned to El Kevin that some of them believe Harkover is a Dragon as well, in fact the players are split on this El Kevins player is convinced Harkover is not a Dragon, Manuels player is convinced he is, Nevla's player thinks it probable but is worried they are seeing hidden dragons everywhere.

The team decides to take him along and also infiltrate seperatly from Lya and her team. They contact Nevla's Unseen court contacts and get a SEAL team of Selkies to land them on the island with Ulvaar providing a breathing bubble to each of them. They land on a beach and discover that the Gnoll Beach watchers are already dead killed it appears by Kobold Commando's.
They move inland undetected with Manuel carrying Ulvaar as in his Steam suit he is still stealthier than anyone else and Ulvaar does not weigh anything like enough to encumber him even with the cannon , shield and other small arms.
They avoid contact with further Gnoll patrols easily as a Gnoll just cannot see Manuel Master of the Night and his apprentices as they slide through the shadows.
Reaching the entrance they notice the water pipes and carpet but seriously consider looking for another entrance but finally decide that any other entrance will be really well hidden and trapped , while the main entrance may not be trapped given Gradiax's current arrogance and their belief that most of his horder has been converted to stocks, shares and other investments as he is a very modern Dragon/Businesswyrm.

They appreciate the decor as they sneak in and are interested in the electric lightning working out that anyone who gets lifted into the roof is going to get electrocuted. They also put up the first of their fire protection spells just in case of fire wielding minions, they really hope to avoid fighting Pemberton himself.

As they approach the pump room they realise they cannot sneak around the guards who they can see on the catwalks so instead they decide to launch a rapid assault and quickly overrun them. The Scarab of Golem Bane detects that at least one Gnoll is a duplicant.

To be continued
 

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