What are y'all up to these days?

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The kids abruptly asked to play D&D again so I made up a bunch of stuff off the top of my head. Luckily I sketch things as I run the game so I could pick up from last time, plus they remembered where we left off. So Mystic and Iron Will explored the underground levels of the Temple of the Dog and then ascended a staircase up to the monks' sleeping chamber, which had been befouled by orc excrement as they learned my orcs just defecate and urinate wherever they happen to be and don't care if it's where they eat or sleep. Then they entered an adjacent kitchen/mess hall occupied by three orcs eating some kind of raw, recently killed meat. Iron Will shut the door quickly and cast his Hold Portal spell and the two elves fled back the way they came to seek another way up. Iron Will only had 3 of 13 hit points left at this time. So they returned whence they came and entered the Temple of the Dog via the main entrance and ascended a spiral staircase where they surprised the head orc digging through the monks' treasury. Mystic decided to take advantage of her higher Charisma and the circumstances and tried to offer the head orc the chance to surrender, but Iron Will ruined things with a clumsy threat.

Meanwhile the three orcs from the kitchen were coming up the stairs behind the elves, so the head orc decided to attack since he had a numerical advantage. Mystic beheaded him and since one of the three advancing orcs rolled a 1 I declared a fumble. I chuck dice in the open so everyone knows it's fair,and it turned out the orc's sword flew out his hand and I said,laughing, "Okay, if I rolls 6 he gets cut by his own sword, if I roll a 5 it may cut someone else, otherwise it just clatters against the stone wall." Sure enough after rolling it ended up the orc accidentally decapitated himself, which my kids found hilarious as I described the head spinning and rotating in the air until it landed atop the treasure chest.

The remaining orcs failed their morale check and fled upon realizing their leader was dead and their companion had just cut off his own head. Mystic and Iron Will let them run away and merely shouted threats and warnings after them. They then rifled through the treasure chest and selected some choice gems and precious objects to stuff into their backpacks before exploring the rest of the temple.

In another tower they found the imprisoned leader of the monks, named Schmendrick, chained and manacled. They rescued him and explained they were hired by his brothers Bendrick and Hendrick to clear out the orcs. Finding no orcs anywhere else in the temple, the duo went back to the boathouse and crossed the river to collect their reward. Realizing now that the treasure they took before made them thieves, they gave it back to the monks and apologized, explaining they thought it was the orcs'. The monks, being impressed by the elves' honesty, gave them a larger reward than the originally agreed upon 500 good pieces each.

Mystic and Iron Will now want to return to their elf village to spend some of their money and try to learn some new spells.
 
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Just finished the first model in my new Fimir army, the Battle Standard Bearer...

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I ran another session for First Son. I'm now proud(er) with him.
He met a quest-giving wizard NPC, and he tried to slap him:grin:!
Good instinct:devil:!


After that, he agreed to help a random NPC mermaid to deal with her problem:
The evil undead pirate Captain Moriarty and his crew of zombie pirates have been trying to take over the underwater world! And they had built a tower, where they had summoned the Kraken to help them in their plundering! Soon they'd have all the underwater under their thumbs, and could begin pillaging the overlanders' ships!
So now they're looking for black pearls to raise skeletons who would help them with the zombies. And they'd have to find some way to deal with the Kraken as well.
First Son has suggested "a rocket" and "making the water around the kraken very hot". There's no rockets in this world, but he might be able to find a spell for frying boiling the Kraken...

Anyway. They're now looking for black pearls, after he foiled* the first attack by two zombie pirates who were there to capture the mermaid. Turns out, Captain Moriarty keeps mermaids in his throne room so they could sing to him, like songbirdsfishes. Anyway: one of them captured her in a net and started dragging her away, the other attacked him with a trident. First Son killed him in singletime** and I decided this gives him time to chase the zombie dragging the mermaid. He made his rolls again, but the zombie dived under the sword and kept dragging the captive towards the palace with the Kraken. If it reached the distance where the Kraken's apendages could reach them, there would be no chance of escape!
And more zombies were at the rescue to the single zombie.
...which is when First Son slashed at the net to free the mermaid instead. Success, and the zombie didn't notice at first...so they made their rolls to escape!

This is where we stopped.


*Well, more like decapitated. He's not good at imagining how to use a foil, but a sword is all fine. He even thought of beating the trident aside to get in close (or at least that's how I interpreted his moves - he kinda explains his combat moves by LARPing them:grin:)!
**For those that don't track my terminology, it means he killed the zombie as a counter to its first stab. There was never a second one. He even managed to snatch a purse with a black pearl from the zombie's belt.
 
Looks like this time I've got it right!
Ran a session for First Son last night, at his request:thumbsup:. It's the first session where a player falls asleep while thinking of how to react to an "en garde" call to begin a duel.

Ran another session for First Daughter after this. I was accused of ending it on a cliffhanger, while actually I just ended it during downtime. Then she just didn't want the session to stop, but it was getting late.
So we had to, but she made me promise to run after I finish work (and I'm home anyway:devil:).
 
Tulpa Girl said:
A small update - the players whose PCs got ganked all decided to create new characters to (and I quote) "avenge the fallen."

As an aside, when I first ran the BF game for these kids I gave a "I am not Matt Mercer" speech to help manage expectations. I am both amused and flattered to find out that the young DM in question gave a "I am not Tulpa Girl" speech before beginning his game.
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That's awesome. Are they going to run the new characters in BF :thumbsup: or 5E :thumbsdown:?
 
second round of mythras shadowrun tonight. a couple people can't make it, but we are running 4e food fight converted over for the sake of getting a feel for combat. I've added mythras panthotaurs, sans their intimidation. the guy who is playing that is playing a raven shaman, so I am pulling that together. it's sort of freeing for me to just work on system stuff and have someone else run the game.

tonight is just tweaking characters and combat.
 
And that went better than I expected.

I had made some fairly combat heavy characters for the previous session, so we used the same ones for last night, which was a conversion of food fight from 4e. Because things were new to the folks, I explained a bunch. A lot of warnings that this was far more deadly than they had experienced before.

turns out I was right. In the first action point, three people went down, one pc and 2 NPCs. There was a lot of shooting and Cover and people were quite awakened as to how lethal this could be. The troll moved in finally at the end and removed someone’s arm with his club and knocked him back 5m through a friend dropping them both prone.

the surprise winner for me was the npc mate who put up damage resistance and just started ignoring handgun fire, and the player who whines about his character going down saying that he actually liked that his character went down and they go down just as easily.

also, despite it being an instructional night, despite being on Roll20 and kibitzing and gossiping, combat went faster. A lot faster.
 
3rik said:
Since you started them on BF I was hoping they'd, you know, take over the baton. Oh well.
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It's cool, they're doing their own thing. I'm not about to tell them they're doing it wrong. Quite frankly, they should have a different take and approach compared to someone who's three decades older than them.
 
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Like a Mad Titan dusting the universe, in any series of articles on martial arts it feels like this weeks entry was ... inevitable.

Dive into our take on Togakure-ryū Ninjutsu, as we explore the history and and powers attributed to the ninja.

Martial Arts In Metahumans Rising Part 16: Togakure-ryū Ninjutsu - House Dok Productions

A fast, deadly style that relies on subterfuge and evasion. Author’s Note: In both the real world, and the gaming world, there is perhaps no martial art more universally romanticized than ninjutsu, which is in itself a misnomer. Like the ninja themselves, much of their history is steeped in...
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#Metahumans #MetahumansRising #Superheroes #RPG #TTRPG ##Ninjutsu #Ninja
 
Played 2 more sessions of Basic D&D yesterday and today and promised we can play again this evening if they want to give up screen time.

In yesterday's session, Mystic and Iron Will decided to return to their elf village with their treasures and hopefully do some shopping and get some possible magical items identified. (I've made much more magical loot available for them than I would if I were running this for grownups, but still not massive amounts. They fairly broadcast what they'd like to find and I make it possible if it's reasonable.)

Their village was determined to be upriver from the Temple of the Dog. However, since they failed to tether the one boat and the monks of Anubis used the other to go back to their temple, Mystic and Iron Will decided to hoof it along the riverbank. Along the way, they came upon two dwarves locked in a wooden cage and a mess of footprints leading away around a bend in the river. The dwarves told the elves that some orcs had captured them and were planning to eat them when they returned, so Iron Will smashed open the cage and let the dwarves go.

The elves then continued and came upon a quartet of orcs: two fishing in the river while the other two stood lookout. Asking no questions, Mystic and Iron Will drew their short bows and began raining arrows upon the orcs. After a short, fierce battle two orcs lay dead, one orc lay seriously injured, and the fourth orc surrendered and begged for mercy. After some dialogue, Mystic and Iron Will learned that the dwarves they frees may have in fact been criminals and the orcs claim they were just transporting them to jail and fishing for their lunch. (Basically I was trying to make the kids understand they can't just assume everyone they meet is honest. They ask more questions now.)

Eventually they returned to their village and stayed the night at Uncle Filbert's elf treehouse. It was determined that the elf village is very similar to the Ewok village in Return of the Jedi as far as appearances go. They heard a story about trade being disrupted by trolls who have occupied a stone bridge across the river and decided they would put a stop to it. They acquired information about trolls and loaded up on torches and oil flasks. Additionally, they visited an elder elf to have him identify some treasures they recovered from their prior adventures. Amazingly it turns out Mystic has possession of the magical sword known as Trollslayer! What a coincidence. Although I think she'd be even more excited if her cat Lilliberry were magical, as she keeps trying to get wizards and scholars to examine her cat for magical properties. Oh, they also had a handful of potions identified for future use.

While in the village they met up with their sister Amber, who I am told dances around at night and is otherwise very lazy. They also decided to store most of their loot in Uncle Filbert's safe. (Iron Will found an elf cleric and paid him to regenerate a finger that got cut off by a trapped safe that maybe I forgot to mention in one of the previous recaps.) The elves rested and healed up to make sure they were at maximum hit points before venturing out to tackle the troll problem. Did I mention they were 2nd level elves now?

Next I'll post what they accomplished in today's session but I have some chores to attend to first.
 
I thought tomorrow's game was going to end up being another Brave and the Bold-style session of Zera + (PC X), but it turns out PC X and PC Y can both come, yay! As long as neither of them cancel last minute, lol.

I actually really enjoy running the occasional 2-player session, but it's not something I want to do all the time.
 
Kids' Basic D&D update:

Mystic and Iron Will did some shopping at the elf village market. As Iron Will learned from a sage that trolls are vulnerable to fire and acid, he stocked up on flasks of oil, torches, and flint and steel before they headed out across the bridge over the river and past the elf sentries who guard it. They soon entered a forest that was fairly peaceful at the edge closest to the elf village, but got darker and scarier the deeper they ventured into it.

They caught brief glimpses of animals in the treetops and along the trail, and heard natural and possibly unnatural noises as the cautiously proceeded. Suddenly they were attacked by a pair of giant spiders descending from the canopy by silken threads! (My son is afraid of spiders for whatever reason and they both didn't want spiders to be in the game, but I explained that they don't get to choose what they encounter, only how they react to it, which they understood and accepted.) Fortunately I rolled very poorly for initiative and to hit, so the elves made quick work of the spiders without suffering so much as a scratch, although both were not happy when I described the green spider guts and goo splashing out of the corpses all over the elves. Whatever other spiders may have been lurking in the treetops then audibly fled, realizing they were no match for Mystic and Iron Will.

After that, the pair encountered a young wolf with a thorn in its paw and argued about who should try to help it. I made them roll initiative against each other but they kept tying so I just ruled they both acted simultaneously. The wolf licked their hands in gratitude and began to trail them as their newfound friend.

There were no further encounters in the forest, and the elves soon reached the other side, where there was a clearing and a stone bridge that crosses the river to another village. This is the bridge they were told trolls have taken over. Mystic drew Trollslayer and sure enough it glowed bright purple (my daughter's favorite color), indicating the presence of trolls even though none were in sight. They advanced towards the bridge and suddenly saw long, warty green arms with clawed hands grasping the sides of the bridge as a pair of trolls clambered over. The trolls demanded payment for use of the bridge, with the threat of death as the alternative. Iron Will made some threats of his own and lit his torch. Combat was fierce and both elves sustained injuries, but with the aid of fire and Trollslayer one troll was soon decapitated and the other reduced to a burning corpse. But Trollslayer was still glowing! Two more trolls clambered over the bridge to exact revenge! However, the end result was the same as Iron Will doused them with oil and set them aflame and Mystic hacked off arms and heads.

Using Trollslayer to confirm there were no more trolls in the vicinity, the elves headed to the human village to announce their deeds and were immediately welcomed and invited to a celebratory feast where they ate cakes and pastries made in their honor. They were invited to stay but decided to head back to their own village to make it known what they had achieved this wondrous day. The journey through the forest was peaceful this time, as the giant spiders dwelling there had learned to fear Mystic and Iron Will. We'll pick up again in the elf village.

Next I'll post about the other adventure they had in the same campaign world with different characters, and explain why that happened.
 
Dumarest Dumarest I just want to tell you that I really enjoy the adventures of your kids:shade:. Apart from the system, of course, but they seem to be doing the best they can of it:grin:!

Tulpa Girl said:
It's cool, they're doing their own thing. I'm not about to tell them they're doing it wrong. Quite frankly, they should have a different take and approach compared to someone who's three decades older than them.
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Until they grow up by three decades and learn better, right:thumbsup:?
 
Hi all! I'm new around here, but thought I'd share what I'm up to these days.

I'm running a more historical take on Paleomythic for my regular weekly group. The game is set in the Aurginacian period (about 35,000 BP) in what is now southern Germany, with the PCs being a group of the first anatomically modern humans moving into the area. It's going pretty well, but we'll probably wrap it up in a few more sessions.

I'm also running an every other week campaign of Mork Borg, with a rotating cast of PCs. We're playing a series of the published dungeons, and the game has been very fun. The setting is kind of surreal, over the top, and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but that hasn't seemed to dampen the fun at all :smile:

Finally, I'm working on an adaptation of the Year Zero Engine rules to run Gothic Horror/Fantasy. This is one of my favorite genres, and there are a bunch of settings I'd love to run games in (Ravenloft, Krevborna, Gloam, Innistrad), but I've never found a ruleset that I really like for this type of game. Vaesen is almost good for this, but the tone is a little different ("cosy horror" vs. "Gothic horror"), and the game (which is great, BTW) is a little too tied to its Mythic North setting. A campaign to test my rules adaptation using Krevborna will be our next game, once we wrap up Paleomythic.

All of this is being played over Zoom. The weekly game is all local folks, but the Mork Borg game is friends who have scattered and has players from Alabama, Seattle, Portland Maine, etc. I'm very lucky to have players who are willing to indulge my GMing ADD and try out lots of funky little games.

John
 
My oldest daughter (we'll call her "J") now lives 4 hours away and my middle daughter ("S") lives at home. S loved my monthly Masks game, but between COVID concerns and work schedule, that group hasn't met since February.

Last night we started an online Masks game, using the Apocalypse Sonata playset from Masks Unbound, which is described as a "space roadtrip" setting. So weekly for the next few months, I'll be joining my girls for some space opera superheroics.
 
johnmarron said:
Hi all! I'm new around here, but thought I'd share what I'm up to these days.

I'm running a more historical take on Paleomythic for my regular weekly group. The game is set in the Aurginacian period (about 35,000 BP) in what is now southern Germany, with the PCs being a group of the first anatomically modern humans moving into the area. It's going pretty well, but we'll probably wrap it up in a few more sessions.
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Welcome John. Sounds like a lot of good gaming on your schedule. Paleomythic sounds pretty interesting. I don't think I've ever played anything that pre-civilization. How's your group been liking it?
 
under_score said:
Welcome John. Sounds like a lot of good gaming on your schedule. Paleomythic sounds pretty interesting. I don't think I've ever played anything that pre-civilization. How's your group been liking it?
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They actually like the prehistoric/more historical take on things as a change of pace from the usual "kill monsters and get treasure" mode that we often play in. System wise, everyone enjoys it (Paleomythic uses a light, d6 die pool system, reminiscent of the Year Zero system, but wothout the option to push rolls, which we are missing). The campaign has focused on survival, hunting, gathering materials, crafting tools, and interacting with other tribes in the area in a quest to find a new home.
 
I think I'd enjoy that for a change of pace, and because I enjoy hiking and survival stories. I don't think most of my current game group gets outdoors very often though, so might struggle with the concept. They're more at home in the dungeon.
 
My Call of Cthulhu group finished up their investigation of the Crack'd and Crook'd Manse last night. This one took us two sessions - last week they researched the history of the manse, explored the premise, encountered something, and fled into the night. Last night they returned to put an end to it, and we had a terrifically fun game of cat and mouse throughout the manse, ending in a wonderfully weird showdown. They prevailed at the last instance due to an incredibly well timed Critical from the unlikeliest of heroes. It was one of the most fun sessions I've run in months, and I feel quite lucky to have been able to assemble a group of randos that click so well together and fully buy into the horror and excitement of the genre.
We're taking next week off so I can settle on the next investigation for these increasingly damaged characters. So far they've blown up something at Blackwater Creek (sacrificing one of their own in the process), banished an entity in Edge of Darkness, and... dissolved the unexplainable at the Manse. I still want to move the group Delta Green at some point, but everyone is enjoying seeing their characters fall deeper into this mess, why mess up a good thing?
 
under_score under_score I've not run it yet, but I've always thought Mr. Corbitt would make for a fun investigation. That's also in the Mansions of Madness book. Which edition of Call of Cthulhu are you using?
 
3rik 3rik we're using 7e, but I'm starting to work in some of the sanity stuff from Delta Green as the PCs are a bit more developed. DG's bonds seem like a really good fit for our game.
I've run Mr. Corbitt once before. It's a fun one, but too similar to Crack'd and Crook'd to run in the same game I think. I'm considering the titular Mansion of Madness, for something a bit more sprawling and with more NPCs to deal with.
 
Well, I've broken down and started running a GURPS Harry Potter game. I dunno, the last one was a disaster and this one's mostly the same players. I've told them it'll be much tighter this time and I intend to rein in power creep and stomp on unruly students hard. I might do campaign logs for this one. It's time consuming but I suspect it'll run a long while and it's useful to be able to review the last session in detail.
 
David Johansen said:
Well, I've broken down and started running a GURPS Harry Potter game. I dunno, the last one was a disaster and this one's mostly the same players. I've told them it'll be much tighter this time and I intend to rein in power creep and stomp on unruly students hard. I might do campaign logs for this one. It's time consuming but I suspect it'll run a long while and it's useful to be able to review the last session in detail.
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Power creep? In a GURPS game? I wanna hear the story.

And I don’t know your players but make sure you don’t stomp too hard; after all, HP & crew were considered fairly unruly in their day, and only coasted by with Dumbledore’s patronage — or so it seemed to me.
 
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Making the kids listen to Blood on the Tracks while we play a 2nd session of the 2nd Basic D&D campaign in the same setting with different characters run by the same players...will post summaries of both sessions when I get time. In the meantime, here are the characters Storm and Ember, both now 2nd level elves:
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So...the 2nd campaign and why it exists!

I forget what day it was, but my son wanted me to run another Basic D&D adventure but his sister said she didn't want to play. I told my son that since the two of them were in the midst of an ongoing adventure, he could roll up another PC and have a solo session. He wanted it to be in the same world as the other adventures and I said that's fine, but it's another location so he doesn't have access to information and equipment his other character gained.

He rolled up another elf, this time named Ember, and we started in another elf village where the Council of Elders assigned Ember a coming-of-age mission to recover an Indian statuette of the Elf Goddess that was stolen by a group of orc and human bandits some time ago. Everyone else who has attempted the mission has failed to return.

Ember departed the village with directions to the suspected bandit hideout and his basic equipment and soon was ambushed in the far hills by a pair of orcs. He easily slew one orc and chased the other who fled after failing his morale check. He caught and slew that orc as well and was fortunate to find that the fleeing orc was running back to the bandit hideout, with boot prints and ruts from wagon wheels leading within.

Right about that time my daughter entered the room wanting to play as well when she realized she was missing the fun. To make things quick, she rolled up another elf named Storm and we just had her copy down the exact same equipment that Ember had. It was decided that Storm had ventured out on her own to recover the obsidian statuette and restore her family honor, as it was decided that her family oversaw the temple from which it was stolen.

The two elves entered the cave and explored, following the ruts to a wide door. Busting down the door, they startled a pair of orcs sitting eating a meal at a small fire amongst bags of loot and a wagon led by a pair of donkeys. Ember and Storm made short work of the orcs. I can't remember whether they were injured during the fight, but the noise and violence caused the donkeys to run away and exit the cave. Ember tried to jump into the back of the wagon to see what was in it, but failed and almost landed in the fire.

Anyway, they found the bags of loot just contained oats and seeds and other foodstuffs and so continued past the donkey wagon down a tunnel where Ember triggered a trapdoor and fell down a slide. Storm decided to follow of her own volition. At the base of the slide, the elves discovered the main chamber of the bandit hideout, where two human bandits were discussing something with a big fat orc chieftain on a raised chair.

A fight ensued and both elves were badly wounded but after they decapitated the orc chieftain the two humans surrendered. While the elves checked through the bandits' loot they found the obsidian statuette as well as some coinage, gems, and other treasure. Only after gathering all they could carry did they realize the two human bandits had somehow silently fled the room.

Ember and Storm checked for a hidden exit and soon found a concealed door that led to the opposite side of the hill wherein the bandit hideout was located. The elves soon came upon the donkeys grazing in a field and climbed aboard the wagon. Although they found nothing more valuable than donkey feed in the back, but used the wagon to ride home to their village in triumph.

Ember was rewarded with 500 gold pieces, which he split with Storm, who had restored her family honor by returning the obsidian statuette of the Elf Goddess to the Council of Elders. Additionally, each elf had several hundred gold pieces in gems and coins taken from the bandits.

Ember and Storm had another adventure today, but I'll have to post about it later as it's getting late and I'm going to sleep as soon as I take a shower.
 
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Our final martial arts takes us to France, as we explore the foot fighting style of Savate. This article was actually submitted by a fan, so a big thank you gores out to AsenRG AsenRG

Martial Arts In Metahumans Rising Part 17: Savate - House Dok Productions

A fast, hard style that focuses on vital areas of the body. Bonus Material Provided by AsenRG Some say Savate was French sailors getting acquainted with some variant(s) of Muay Thai or it’s Laotian or Campodian counterparts, during trips to Indochina (stories vary from Cambodia, Laos or...
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PDF: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/277614/Metahumans-Rising

#Metahumans #MetahumansRising #Superheroes #RPG #TTRPG #Savate
 
Introducing Lord Tech, a high tech alien from planet Calo who came to Earth in his spaceship Stealth 2.0 to prevent evil aliens from Tynos from adding Earth to their empire.
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My daughter is still working on her superheroine.
 
Dumarest said:
Introducing Lord Tech, a high tech alien from planet Calo who came to Earth in his spaceship Stealth 2.0 to prevent evil aliens from Tynos from adding Earth to their empire.
My daughter is still working on her superheroine.
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That actually looks like a pretty solid character. Hopefully he won't lose his pistol and have to resort to punching his way out of a jam.
 
HEPCATS Episode 19: Death from Above! Also, Ping-Pong.
Present: Ayu, Sargoth Trio, Zera
23 November, Rhino Year (busiest day ever??)
Real life date 30 July, 2020, online

Part One
Wren uses fairy magic to pop back to the Fairy Realm to take care of some fairy business. She leaves her teleportation disk behind and Sargoth Trio uses it to transport himself onboard the EZS Galactic Dominator, where we last saw Ayu and Zera. Ayu and Zera fill him in on the details of their stealth mission, but also, it turns out they had been broadcasting on their video phones the entire time, so he already knew.

The scientist, Dr. Baxter West, reiterates that he’s not evil and only works for Evil Emperor Zeke because he’s scared. After a brief discussion on the matter of, how culpable is one for evil, if they’re not evil themself, but knowingly let evil happen? They decide to accept Dr. West’s help.

Knowing that Evil Emperor Zeke is at the ceremony to receive the keys to the planet, the idea is floated to steal one of Zeke’s fighter ships, fly above the ceremony, and assassinate him with a precision missile strike. When Ayu wonders aloud if the HEPCATS organization will be cool with the team committing assassination, her wristwatch video phone glitches and plays back the portion of the mission briefing were the team was tasked with stopping the invasion “by any means necessary.” Zera wonders if there’s another solution because she is “(sigh) trying to be a good person,” but ultimately, everyone agrees to Operation: Missile Assassination.

Dr. West says that Evil Emperor Zeke never asked him to develop any stealth technology, since Zeke’s military MO is based on intimidation through massive numbers. But Dr. West, out of his own interests, has developed a prototype stealth unit for fighter ships.

The team and Dr. West proceed to the fighter hangar, where they find a few guards standing around and about a dozen mechanics. Two of the mechanics are playing table tennis and the rest are watching intently. Dr. West passes the team off as his assistants, and the head mechanic, Bob, invites them to form teams of two and join the single-elimination table tennis tournament they’re about to have. After several fiercely competitive matches, the team of Sargoth and Zera wins the tournament!

To be continued...
 
Since there's been an influx of new blood here lately, here's a little background: HEPCATS is a genre-hopping adventure campaign I run that uses the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition rule system. HEPCATS is an acronym for" High Expertise Professional Covert Action Teams" (Or is it "Highly Expendable"...)? And the PC's team was named Team Zero well before the current season of Umbrella Academy came out. :smile: Anyway, here's the next bit.

HEPCATS Episode 19: Death from Above! Also, Ping-Pong.

Part Two:
Ayu, Zera, and Sargoth manage to convince the guards and mechanics that it’s pretty lame that they’re all stuck on the ship while everyone else is at the fun and exciting ceremony, so most of them decide to go crash the event. A few had been reluctant or just not that interested, but when they see that everyone else is going, they fall in line, too.

It takes some time, effort, and false starts, but the team is able to get Sargoth into the pilot seat of the fighter, get the stealth unit installed and turned on, and get the fighter launched, with only minimal damage to it.

The stealth unit is very effective and Sargoth is able to fly unnoticed and get a missile lock on Evil Emperor Zeke, who is on a raised platform with bunting across from King Longwang McGregor, who holds the keys to the planet. Just as Zeke reaches out to accept the keys, the missile strikes, killing him instantly, as well as two of his six bodyguards.

Incidentally, since Zeke was a 16-year old Evil Emperor, he had exclusively hired women as bodyguards, and equipped them with not-very-practical armor.

A few of the fighter ships that had been parked on the parade ground scramble, and, although Sargoth’s fighter is still in stealth mode, they manage to figure out his position and launch missiles, destroying his ship. Sargoth uses the ejection seat just in time, but descends toward the ground at a much faster-than-safe speed!

Zera uses her winged self to fly up and catch Sargoth, “bridal style” (her words). The catch is successful, but Zeke’s four remaining bodyguards throw laser spears at the pair. It looks like Zera will take massive damage and fall out of the sky, likely killing both of them, but Sargoth manages to position himself such that he takes the damage instead, and they fly back to the ship.

With Zeke dead, most of his forces quickly fall into disarray. Armed Dragonfolk pop up lining the battlements, half of the Dragonfolk marching band whips out serious weaponry, and Zeke’s forces realize that, while they still have a significant numbers advantage, the other side has significantly better training, equipment, and tactics, and has them covered from an elevated position.

King Longwang tells the crowd that those who are interested are welcome to stay and become citizens of Planet Kelsey, and those who wish to leave are free to go. “If anyone really wants to die, you’re welcome to try fighting us, but I did give you two other options.”

None of Zeke’s forces choose to fight. Even his former bodyguards reluctantly surrender.

To be continued…
 
rigging and decking are on my mind, as well as my impending vacation. I think I have enough writing for my vacation to keep me occupied between goals for a promotion and the two above. I am excited to be working on it actually.
 
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