mikeawmids1
Explorer
WOLFENSTRAHD
Session 8 - The Finale!
Last week; Taskforce M bust into Castle Ravenloft, warmed to Strahd's elderly manservant Pidwick, killed Strahd's three vampire wives (Tatiana, Natalia & Alina), and explosively redecorated Strahd's throne room with the Blast power. Strahd himself escaped via a hidden elevator beneath his throne, thick metal doors closing behind him to deter pursuit. Guy Hades II cuts a hole through this barrier, depleting the battery of his laser weapon. An 80ft shaft descends into the lower levels of the castle, filled with a complex arrangement of moving lasers.
Guy II turns to address Cassius, only to witness his dhampir companion sucking the last fluid ounces of blood out of Pidwick's wrinkly neck.
"What?" Cassius snaps, "I was hungry!"
"But we were warming to him!" Guy II protests, "He was a fan favourite on the EN World forums!"
Cassius shrugs and tosses the exsanguinated corpse into the shaft. It is sliced up by the lasers before hitting the ground. Cassius spider-climbs down the wall, carefully avoiding the lasers, and deactivates the defences via a big conspicuous OFF switch at the bottom. The rest of Taskforce M follow.
The monsters emerge into a wide concrete tunnel beneath Castle Ravenloft, big enough to accomodate large freight trucks like the three parked nearby. One way leads out of the underground complex, the other opens into a secret hangar, where a large German bomber is being fuelled for take-off. A comically large PHOBOS bomb is being loaded onto the plane, supervised by Strahd who is already on-board. A dozen German soldiers are hunkered down behind sandbags between Taskforce M and their quarry, one of whom is manning a mounted machine gun.
The machine gun opens up, filling the tunnel with the clatter of gunfire. Victor Moonstruck takes cover behind the trucks, but hears something clunking around inside. The something punches the back door of the truck hard enough to buckle the metal outward. Vex casts Blast on the German's position (cos they are all bunched up again, like complete idiots). He wipes out the entire squad with a single spell, and melts the machine gun down to slag.
The rear doors of the three trucks burst open, and one Ubermech emerges from the back of each vehicle; docked, locked and ready to rock. Victor tears two of them up pretty handily, being a big-naughty word-off werebear. The final Ubermech charges toward Vex, who retreats into the much smaller corridor the party entered from. The Ubermech smashes through the door in pursuit, and gets its dumb metal ass stuck. It lunges for Vex, but cannot reach. It is wedged in there real good. Zombie Blade is chilling back here too, as Cassius' player had kinda' forgotten about him until now. Vex is feeling pretty smug, until the Ubermech charges up its laser weapon and fires it down the narrow corridor. Vex dodges the beam, but Zombie Blade is sliced in half at the midrift (still 'alive', but Pace reduced to 2"). Sustained fire causes the battery to overheat, and the Ubermech self-destructs.
Taskforce M hurry to catch their plane. (The history buffs among you may know the Heinkel He 177 Greif was commonly known as the Flaming Coffin, due to frequent engine fires mid-flight, and is totally on point for a vampire game.) Guy II loots the dead Nazis and finds a bazooka! The bomber is taxiing toward the underground runway, which extends 8,000 ft toward a cave mouth behind Tser Falls. The rear cargo bay door hangs open, because of course it does. Flight safety be damned, this is pulp!
Catching up with the plane is a Dramatic Task; the monsters must accumulate 16 successes over 3 rounds to stop the plane taking off, or be on-board as it does (determined by their actions). Guy II fires his new rocket launcher at the plane, taking out an engine. Cassius & Victor start running. German soldiers on the plane shoot at the pursuing monsters. A grenade is tossed out onto the runway; Cassius evades the blast, but Victor is wounded. Cassius calls upon his batty brethren, and commands a swarm into the plane to distract the pilots.
Vex hops into the fuel truck parked nearby and drives down the runway, leaving a trail of kerosene in his wake. Two jeeps carrying more Nazi soldiers give chase. Guy II blows up the first with his bazooka. The second jeep swerves around the flaming wreckage to pursue Vex. Suddenly, Zombie Blade (who had been left behind again) rises from the back seat to grapple the driver! The driver loses control and crashes into a stack of conspicuous red barrels, triggering another big explosion. Ain't no surviving that.
RIP Zombie Blade (fo sho this time, bro)
The hangar is now very much on fire, and the flames quickly spread to the rest of Castle Ravenloft. Vex closes in on the Heinkel. A machine gun turret atop the bomber opens fire, blowing up fuel truck! Vex dives clear of the resultant explosion, and clatters to the ground like a sack full of broken glockenspiels.
Guy II fires another rocket at the plane, rolls a silly number of raises on his Shooting die and completes the Dramatic Task in the final round. Time slows down as the rocket passes through the open cargo bay door and hits the PHOBOS bomb dead on. The Heinkel explodes, skidding along what's left of the runway to teeter precariously over the edge of the waterfall.
Count Strahd steps out of the flaming wreckage, indifferent to the screams of his Germanic underlings as they burn alive. Victor lumbers toward the ancient vampire, but Strahd strikes first and hits the werebear hard enough to punch through his ribcage (Strahd got a Joker in the initiative order, attacked with Impoved Frenzy and exploded several d12 damage dice). Victor reverts to his human form, spewing up black blood as he collapses at Strahd's feet. He seems oddly small when not in his bear form, still just a man after all. Victor convulses for few moments longer, gasping painfully for a final breath that will not come, then lies still forever more.
RIP Victor Moonstruck
Cassius annoints his sword with the holy water provided by their Vatican handlers way back in session #1 (careful not to splash himself) and charges forth to avenge his fallen comrade. The blessed blade cuts through Strahd's supernatural invulnerabilities, and he is pushed back toward the end of the runway.
"Sister!" Cassius shouts over the roar of the falls, "If you can hear me, I could do with some help here!"
A single bat flaps through the curtain of rushing water, taking human shapes as it alights beside Cassius.
"Brother." Adelia says coldly, shaking her wet hair, "I'm only helping you because it will piss mother off when you come back alive."
Cassius strikes at Strahd with the consecrated blade, then tosses the sword to Adelia to press the attack. Slash. Cut. Chop. Strahd may be serpent-fast, but even he can't keep up with the two Barbastella siblings fighting side-by-side. Cassius swings the blade down to sever Strahd's hand. He passes the blade to Adelia, and she hacks at Strahd's neck, decapitating the dread lord of Barovia and ending his reign of terror once and for all! The headless body tumbles over the waterfall and crumbles into ash.
Adelia picks up Strahd's disembodied head.
"I'm keeping this," she says brightly, "It will look nice with all the others."
Cassius doesn't object. He pulls the von Zarovich signet ring from the finger of Strahd's severed hand and tosses it to Adelia.
"Give that to mother when you see her, with my compliments."
Explosions from beneath the castle interrupt this tender moment. A wall of fire rushes down the underground runway toward them. Guy Hades II jogs passed and jumps over the edge of the falls. Vex flies by on raven wings and vanishes through the curtain of water. Time to go! Adelia turns into a bat and flies away. Cassius summons his bat swarm to slow his own descent down to the banks of the Tser Pool. They gaze up at the smoke rising from Castle Ravenloft, as the ancient fortress is consumed by the fires from below. A fitting pyre for their fallen friend.
EPILOGUE
The monsters return to Vallaki to celebrate their victory. There will be time enough to mourn the dead in the days to come, tonight they par-taaaay! Strahd is destroyed and the German forces are in disarray. The future of Barovia is bright! Guy II drinks heavily and dances with Ireena. Vex cannot remember where he parked his car. Cassius steps away from the revelry to brood by himself and sees Adelia driving off in Vex's stolen roadster. She has Strahd's head mounted on the bonnet like a hood ornament. He waves to her as she speeds passed. She flips him the bird. Oh well, at least she didn't try to run him over. That's progress right there.
Their mission complete, it is time for Taskforce M to return to Rome. Cassius promises to leverage his mob connections to replace Vex's beloved roadster as they pass though Italy. Back in the dungeons beneath Vatican City, the monsters are debriefed by Cardinal Gunn. Well done chaps, too bad about Victor, very sad, anyway.... Turns out there truly is no rest for the wicked; an urgent new mission demands Taskforce M's unique skill set! Cardinal Gunn drops a heavy manila folder onto the table, the letters T.O.P S.E.C.R.E.T stenciled across the cover. A photograph slips out, showing an angry looking man with a side parting and a silly moustache.
"Looks like you boys are going to Berlin."
TBC... in April 2026
Taskforce M will return
in WOLFENSTRAHD 2: Hitler Me Baby One More Time
Session 8 - The Finale!
Last week; Taskforce M bust into Castle Ravenloft, warmed to Strahd's elderly manservant Pidwick, killed Strahd's three vampire wives (Tatiana, Natalia & Alina), and explosively redecorated Strahd's throne room with the Blast power. Strahd himself escaped via a hidden elevator beneath his throne, thick metal doors closing behind him to deter pursuit. Guy Hades II cuts a hole through this barrier, depleting the battery of his laser weapon. An 80ft shaft descends into the lower levels of the castle, filled with a complex arrangement of moving lasers.
Guy II turns to address Cassius, only to witness his dhampir companion sucking the last fluid ounces of blood out of Pidwick's wrinkly neck.
"What?" Cassius snaps, "I was hungry!"
"But we were warming to him!" Guy II protests, "He was a fan favourite on the EN World forums!"
Cassius shrugs and tosses the exsanguinated corpse into the shaft. It is sliced up by the lasers before hitting the ground. Cassius spider-climbs down the wall, carefully avoiding the lasers, and deactivates the defences via a big conspicuous OFF switch at the bottom. The rest of Taskforce M follow.
The monsters emerge into a wide concrete tunnel beneath Castle Ravenloft, big enough to accomodate large freight trucks like the three parked nearby. One way leads out of the underground complex, the other opens into a secret hangar, where a large German bomber is being fuelled for take-off. A comically large PHOBOS bomb is being loaded onto the plane, supervised by Strahd who is already on-board. A dozen German soldiers are hunkered down behind sandbags between Taskforce M and their quarry, one of whom is manning a mounted machine gun.
The machine gun opens up, filling the tunnel with the clatter of gunfire. Victor Moonstruck takes cover behind the trucks, but hears something clunking around inside. The something punches the back door of the truck hard enough to buckle the metal outward. Vex casts Blast on the German's position (cos they are all bunched up again, like complete idiots). He wipes out the entire squad with a single spell, and melts the machine gun down to slag.
The rear doors of the three trucks burst open, and one Ubermech emerges from the back of each vehicle; docked, locked and ready to rock. Victor tears two of them up pretty handily, being a big-naughty word-off werebear. The final Ubermech charges toward Vex, who retreats into the much smaller corridor the party entered from. The Ubermech smashes through the door in pursuit, and gets its dumb metal ass stuck. It lunges for Vex, but cannot reach. It is wedged in there real good. Zombie Blade is chilling back here too, as Cassius' player had kinda' forgotten about him until now. Vex is feeling pretty smug, until the Ubermech charges up its laser weapon and fires it down the narrow corridor. Vex dodges the beam, but Zombie Blade is sliced in half at the midrift (still 'alive', but Pace reduced to 2"). Sustained fire causes the battery to overheat, and the Ubermech self-destructs.
Taskforce M hurry to catch their plane. (The history buffs among you may know the Heinkel He 177 Greif was commonly known as the Flaming Coffin, due to frequent engine fires mid-flight, and is totally on point for a vampire game.) Guy II loots the dead Nazis and finds a bazooka! The bomber is taxiing toward the underground runway, which extends 8,000 ft toward a cave mouth behind Tser Falls. The rear cargo bay door hangs open, because of course it does. Flight safety be damned, this is pulp!
Catching up with the plane is a Dramatic Task; the monsters must accumulate 16 successes over 3 rounds to stop the plane taking off, or be on-board as it does (determined by their actions). Guy II fires his new rocket launcher at the plane, taking out an engine. Cassius & Victor start running. German soldiers on the plane shoot at the pursuing monsters. A grenade is tossed out onto the runway; Cassius evades the blast, but Victor is wounded. Cassius calls upon his batty brethren, and commands a swarm into the plane to distract the pilots.
Vex hops into the fuel truck parked nearby and drives down the runway, leaving a trail of kerosene in his wake. Two jeeps carrying more Nazi soldiers give chase. Guy II blows up the first with his bazooka. The second jeep swerves around the flaming wreckage to pursue Vex. Suddenly, Zombie Blade (who had been left behind again) rises from the back seat to grapple the driver! The driver loses control and crashes into a stack of conspicuous red barrels, triggering another big explosion. Ain't no surviving that.
RIP Zombie Blade (fo sho this time, bro)
The hangar is now very much on fire, and the flames quickly spread to the rest of Castle Ravenloft. Vex closes in on the Heinkel. A machine gun turret atop the bomber opens fire, blowing up fuel truck! Vex dives clear of the resultant explosion, and clatters to the ground like a sack full of broken glockenspiels.
Guy II fires another rocket at the plane, rolls a silly number of raises on his Shooting die and completes the Dramatic Task in the final round. Time slows down as the rocket passes through the open cargo bay door and hits the PHOBOS bomb dead on. The Heinkel explodes, skidding along what's left of the runway to teeter precariously over the edge of the waterfall.
Count Strahd steps out of the flaming wreckage, indifferent to the screams of his Germanic underlings as they burn alive. Victor lumbers toward the ancient vampire, but Strahd strikes first and hits the werebear hard enough to punch through his ribcage (Strahd got a Joker in the initiative order, attacked with Impoved Frenzy and exploded several d12 damage dice). Victor reverts to his human form, spewing up black blood as he collapses at Strahd's feet. He seems oddly small when not in his bear form, still just a man after all. Victor convulses for few moments longer, gasping painfully for a final breath that will not come, then lies still forever more.
RIP Victor Moonstruck
Cassius annoints his sword with the holy water provided by their Vatican handlers way back in session #1 (careful not to splash himself) and charges forth to avenge his fallen comrade. The blessed blade cuts through Strahd's supernatural invulnerabilities, and he is pushed back toward the end of the runway.
"Sister!" Cassius shouts over the roar of the falls, "If you can hear me, I could do with some help here!"
A single bat flaps through the curtain of rushing water, taking human shapes as it alights beside Cassius.
"Brother." Adelia says coldly, shaking her wet hair, "I'm only helping you because it will piss mother off when you come back alive."
Cassius strikes at Strahd with the consecrated blade, then tosses the sword to Adelia to press the attack. Slash. Cut. Chop. Strahd may be serpent-fast, but even he can't keep up with the two Barbastella siblings fighting side-by-side. Cassius swings the blade down to sever Strahd's hand. He passes the blade to Adelia, and she hacks at Strahd's neck, decapitating the dread lord of Barovia and ending his reign of terror once and for all! The headless body tumbles over the waterfall and crumbles into ash.
Adelia picks up Strahd's disembodied head.
"I'm keeping this," she says brightly, "It will look nice with all the others."
Cassius doesn't object. He pulls the von Zarovich signet ring from the finger of Strahd's severed hand and tosses it to Adelia.
"Give that to mother when you see her, with my compliments."
Explosions from beneath the castle interrupt this tender moment. A wall of fire rushes down the underground runway toward them. Guy Hades II jogs passed and jumps over the edge of the falls. Vex flies by on raven wings and vanishes through the curtain of water. Time to go! Adelia turns into a bat and flies away. Cassius summons his bat swarm to slow his own descent down to the banks of the Tser Pool. They gaze up at the smoke rising from Castle Ravenloft, as the ancient fortress is consumed by the fires from below. A fitting pyre for their fallen friend.
EPILOGUE
The monsters return to Vallaki to celebrate their victory. There will be time enough to mourn the dead in the days to come, tonight they par-taaaay! Strahd is destroyed and the German forces are in disarray. The future of Barovia is bright! Guy II drinks heavily and dances with Ireena. Vex cannot remember where he parked his car. Cassius steps away from the revelry to brood by himself and sees Adelia driving off in Vex's stolen roadster. She has Strahd's head mounted on the bonnet like a hood ornament. He waves to her as she speeds passed. She flips him the bird. Oh well, at least she didn't try to run him over. That's progress right there.
Their mission complete, it is time for Taskforce M to return to Rome. Cassius promises to leverage his mob connections to replace Vex's beloved roadster as they pass though Italy. Back in the dungeons beneath Vatican City, the monsters are debriefed by Cardinal Gunn. Well done chaps, too bad about Victor, very sad, anyway.... Turns out there truly is no rest for the wicked; an urgent new mission demands Taskforce M's unique skill set! Cardinal Gunn drops a heavy manila folder onto the table, the letters T.O.P S.E.C.R.E.T stenciled across the cover. A photograph slips out, showing an angry looking man with a side parting and a silly moustache.
"Looks like you boys are going to Berlin."
TBC... in April 2026
Taskforce M will return
in WOLFENSTRAHD 2: Hitler Me Baby One More Time
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