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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mikeawmids1" data-source="post: 9790542" data-attributes="member: 7030604">WOLFENSTRAHDSession 4The monsters all pile into Vex's roadster and set out on their road trip to the Abbey of Saint Markovia, to sabotage the Nazi excavation beneath the monastery.VEX: "Buckle up everyone! Safety first!"DHRALL: "Pah! Seatbelts are for mortals." ( +1 benny for funny)The sky darkens as the miles roll by, and soon it starts to rain. We treat the journey as an Interlude, where the monsters can share aspects of their back story for the sweet promise of an additional benny.Suddenly, something small, dark and malformed skitters into the road ahead of the speeding roadster, the light from the headlights reflected by a dozen mismatched eyes before Vex slams on the brakes. Squinting (can a skeleton squint?) through the rainswept windscreen, Vex can see no further trace of the weird, spider-like critter. Did he imagine it?Taskforce M continue on toward the abbey. The German dig site is quiet, perhaps even too quiet. Diggers and other excavation equipment stand idle. The monsters find evidence of a one-sided battle the Nazis evidently lost, but no bodies. Cassius detects a trail of blood leading into the mine beneath the monastery. Vex hypothesizes the Germans dug too greedily and too deep, and awoke something nasty in the dark. This theorem is reinforced by documents in the foreman's tent, detailing how the excavation unearthed an ancient creature encased in amber. The Germans planned to extract the specimen and transport it to a facility in Berlin for further study. The foreman's records abruptly stop after expressing this brilliant notion. The orders from Berlin are signed by Heinrich Himmler himself, indicating the S.S are up to their Nazi eyeballs in esoteric naughty word (and foreshadowing events for a possible continuation of the Wolfenstrahd campaign).Taskforce M head into the mine. A pretty janky-looking elevator descends deeper into the earth. The monsters head down. They hear something scuttling around in the shaft, then a loud thud as whatever it is lands on the roof of the elevator cab. Cassius opens up with his tommy gun, riddling the roof with holes (yet miraculously missing the mechanism controlling their descent). The thing in the shaft emits an alien howl, splattering the sides of the shaft with viscous yellow ichor as it retreats (for now).The lift comes to a juddering halt at the bottom of the shaft, and the monsters pile out. They hear more skittering in the dark, and Vex lights a torch to reveal an incalculable number of malformed, spider-like creatures flooding the tunnel. Taskforce M flee from the swarm (Quick Encounter), until Guy Hades thinks to collapse the ceiling behind them, ending the chase - but also trapping the monsters in the mine!Forging ahead, the monsters reach a mine cart station for transporting equipment to other parts of the mine. Knowing it's only a matter of time before the spider-things find a way around the cave-in, the monsters hop into a mine car and set off along the track. Vex handles the controls to ensure the mine cart does not derail. Guy calls out a warning as another cart closes on them from behind, carrying a half dozen sickly-looking monks with glowing yellow eyes, all brandishing improvised weapons with harmful intent. Dhrall casts Havoc to wreck the pursuing train, but not before several monks hop over to the monster's line. Guy repels the boarders from the rearmost car.More spider-things - clinging to the ceiling of the tunnel in ambush - drop down into the monster's train. Cassius is grappled by one of the insectoid horrors. Guy blasts the critter with his hand cannon, splattering them both with yellow goo.Two more mine cars laden with infected monks join the pursuit, speeding along seperate tracks running parralel to the the main line. Vex notices their own track ends abruptly up ahead, and they have approximately 2 rounds (12 seconds) to jump to another line!Cassius makes an Athletics check... and rolls snake-eyes. He jumps over to the left line, not realizing that track also ends in a sudden, dizzying drop. He disappears with an echoing expletive, as the rest of the party speed on without him!The remaining members of Taskforce M all hop over to the right line, moments before their original train follows Cassius into the void. They clear the remaining hostiles and ride the new line to its terminus, another platform for the loading/off-loading of mining apparatus. There is no sign of Cassius, but the monsters assume he will catch up at some point.Up ahead, the tunnel is illuminated by an unwholesome yellow glow, originating from a large fragment of crystallized amber. A dark, alien silhouette is dimly visible, sealed within the phosphorescent shard. The missing soldiers from the excavation site stand guard over the pellucid stone 'egg', their eyes glazed yellow with alien purpose.Vex creeps closer. Dissonant whispers tickle the edges of his mind, urging him to draw closer still. Vex is having none of that nonsense and casts Blast instead, targeting the weird alien embryo. The amber shell cracks open, releasing the eldritch horror gestating within the stone. A truck-sized mass of writhing black tentacles, maddening eyes and gnashing, spitting maws shakes free from its aeon-long slumber. Vex stares agape at the Lovecraftian abomination he has unwittingly unleashed upon the world. He might leave this bit out of his report to Cardinal Gunn, if he lives long enough to write it....The shoggoth (cos that's what it is) is immune to all mundane damage, but vulnerable to magic. Unfortunately the party exhausted their power points punting infected monks off their mine cart. Guy fires his laser weapon at the monstrosity, which the shoggoth does not care for one bit. It lashes out with many tentacles, pumelling Guy Hades into a boneless mass of bloody viscera.RIP GUY HADESHis magic exhausted, Dhrall tries desperately to kill one of the infected soldiers and regain some power points via the Blood Magic edge. With the cold detachment of mindless drones, the soldiers gun the enfeebled sorcerer down. Dhrall's body bursts into flame as his cursed soul returns to Hell, where his corporeal form will slowly - and painfully - knit back together over several decades.RIP DHRALL BLOOD-DRINKERCassius returns just in time to witness the unceremonious end of his two team mates. The wayward dhampir has already made some new friends - a swarm of bats, that he sics on the infected soldiers. He and Vex race for the elevator at the rear of the cavern, promising a swift exodus to the safety of the surface. Vex grabs a bandolier of hand grenades from a fallen soldier in passing.The elevator begins its slow, juddering ascent. The wrathful shoggoth hauls its vast, undulating bulk up the shaft in pursuit, writhing tentacles entwining the cab, weighing it down. Vex pulls the pins from the grenades he lifted, then chucks the belt into one of the shoggoth's many gaping maws. The resultant explosion blows the abomination apart from the inside out, and the severed, charred tentacles release their crushing grip around the cab.The surviving monsters ride the elevator up, and step out into the Abbey of Saint Markovia. The remaining monks all perished (heads exploded) when Vex destroyed the the alien parasite that had spread through their congregation. Vex pokes around amidst the bodies and finds the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, a potent talisman that grants the wearer the power to fly. Large black wings sprout from Vex's shoulder blades, and he gains a pool of ten power points to cast Fly and/or Havoc.Taskforce M burn down the monastery to block the entrance to the accursed egg chamber. The monsters return to Vallaki in contemplative silence, reflecting on the loss of their allies, and the fact it could just as easily have been them that did not make it out. It's almost like they are in some kind of naughty word 'suicide squad'.TBC</blockquote>

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