All posts by jon

Border Princes

Session 26 – Kettle Khorne

The horses thunder toward us and the men who aren’t mounted start going toward the house. We see the civilians on a second story balcony of the house and Vedasi yells at them to get into the house.

They run past us and Jean is struck but is still standing. The others try hitting but none of the riders fall. As they are departing, Maruviel shoots one in the head twice but it doesn’t fall. Tobruk hits one and knocks him off of his horse, dead.

They turn back and come toward us again. Eogard charges one in red armor and it hits him four times. He is dead after the second strike but he continues hitting two more times, bashing his brains out.

After seeing that, Brokk decides that we should do a tactical retreat, and tries to reason with Tobruk, telling him that this isn’t a fight we can win. Tobruk refuses to leave but Brokk restrains him and pulls him behind cover. The riders lose interest and go back to destroying the farmhouse and killing everyone there.

We ride away two hours from here, even though Jean is wounded. We camp but we notice that there are not many animal sounds in the area. Putting our heads together, we think that these chaos warriors are followers of Khorne, who just focus on killing as much as they can.

The next morning, we wake up and there is one bird making noise. It is kind of strange. Brokk heals Jean by 50%. Vedasi heads back to the farmhouse, trying to stay concealed. He sees that the farmhouse has been burnt to the ground and the slayer’s body along with most of the others are gone. The only thing there is the fallen chaos warrior’s body. Vedasi drags it back to us and Brokk checks it out.

Brokk sees that the armor is not fused to its body as has been rumored and it has thick skin like leather, which has been branded with symbols of Khorne. It has one eye gouged out and sharpened teeth. Tobruk chops the body up with his axe.

Vedasi and Brokk look around the farmhouse and don’t see much. There is some blood and the remains of the house. Brokk convinces Tobruk to look as well, but nothing is there.

Border Princes

Session 25 – Be Franc With Us / Cranium Gladiators

It has been two weeks since the battle. We have many refugees at the keep, so many in fact that we are concerned about food.

We get a delivery from Edelhart saying that he will send troops down to Castenea on the river rather than sending them through the mountains. This will just be some assistance and not an occupying force.

We are consistently seeing many haggard people coming from that area. We hear from the wood-elves that the city was breached in three places, but after a while the orks have gotten bored and have moved north through the pass. There was only one more engagement with about a dozen of them, but most of them just moved into the mountains.

Hauptner abandoned the city and started to go south about a week ago. We decide since the city is abandoned, we will go check things out and see what is there. After this we may head south to let Giovanni know that Hauptner and Gilemet are together so this may be a good time to take them both out.

At Groghaven, we hear the sounds of dogs. Some buildings are still intact, but much of it is destroyed. The grain silos have been fired and are destroyed.

Suddenly we see a shape running through the streets. Brokk calls out but he keeps running. Vedasi catches up with him and knocks him down. He has a sack of moldy bread and cheese and a small dagger of orcish manufacture. We check him out and he has smooth hands and tattered, but fair, clothes. We ask him his name and he hesitates a moment before saying “Franc.” He says that he’s from this town and that he’s a scribe. We don’t quite believe him. Jean asks him to show us where he used to work and he takes us to the keep.

The keep itself is in ruin, as most of the furniture and tapestries have been destroyed. We get to the main audience chamber and Jean and Vedasi see a painting that resembles our friend almost exactly. Underneath the painting it reads “Baron Hauptner.” Talking with him more, it’s clear that he’s lost his marbles. We ask him to take us to the Baron’s workplace and he heads downstairs.

We go through the dungeon to what looks like it used to be a safe room. There are some dead people here and we smell a strange smell. We find skaven tracks and Hauptner freaks out and almost goes catatonic.

We bring him out and admits that he is indeed Hauptner. He says that after the attack, he sent his double to sit on the throne and retreated down here. The town was sacked and then his men were attacked by skaven who came through the tunnels.

Brokk binds him and Hauptner takes us upstairs to his desk. Everything here has been ransacked, however Tobruk finds a sack of 25 gold in a false-bottom drawer. Jean finds a scroll case at the back of a drawer. There are some maps and drawings, strategies of how he would attack Giovanni or Sasha, scouting reports, and other materials.

We decide to stay here for the night and then make for the Crossed Lances in the morning. We barricade the skaven hole as best we can and stay in one of the guard barrack houses. Brokk keeps a close eye on Hauptner.

The next day we head back, but Hauptner is getting more and more paranoid. We put a sack over his head and have him in a room to keep an eye on him.

In the morning we talk to the innkeeper and we give him 500 gold to help keep things going in the area. He is astonished but promises to help us.

We head through the mountains toward the dwarven keep of Din Borim and a bad storm rolls through. We stay the night on the road and then get to Din Borim the next evening. The place looks much cleaner and they have gotten the forge going. We stay one night and then continue heading south.

We get into the hilly lands to the south and we can hear the thunder of hooves. We head to a small hill and hide. About a dozen riders come near. They are fully decked out in plate mail that is black, red and bronze. They appear to be riding toward a small village. Tobruk and Vedasi look up to see them coming and they notice Tobruk’s hair. They turn toward us, yelling “blood for the blood god!”

Border Princes

Session 24 – An Arrow to the Knee

Our goal is to patrol our area and harass any orks coming in. Jean is hoping that his sponsor will send help by road or by sea. We continue ranging out and we see signs of a large party up ahead quite a ways. We see one scout and the elves turn it into a pincushion with an arrow through its head, eye, and one through each knee. It bleeds out and we advance past. There is a camp up ahead a couple of miles and we sneak toward it.

We see in the camp a bunch of knight goblins  including a spider rider, shaman, several orks, a  swarm of snotlings, a stone troll, and a squig (a fungus-based animal that knight goblins use for mounts and also food). There are probably thirty creatures here. Some of them are arguing and kicking around the smaller creatures.

The elves approach around a hill to the west and the dwarves go to the east. The elves take out a couple of goblins without anyone noticing, but one of them starts screaming and the orks begin running toward them. The spider rider is also taken out, with Jean burying an arrow up to the feathers in its large abdomen and the elves finishing it off.

Tobruk and Eogard see the stone troll and run straight toward it around a hill. Brokk follows them initially but breaks off when he sees the swarm coming toward the elves. Screaming, the slayers slam into the stone troll and kill a nearby knight goblin. Seeing this, the troll picks it up and tries to eat it. Tobruk promptly cuts his arm off and Eogard finishes him off.

Brokk runs through the middle of the battlefield toward the camp and takes out a knight goblin and an ork. The squig charges up and bites him in the arm.

From out of one of the tents comes a war boss and a shaman. The shaman chants something and a dark aura comes out.

Brokk kills the ork that was on him and bisects the squig.

The shaman fires a magic missile into Brokk’s chest but his armor takes some of it. Jean fires an arrow and it goes through the shaman’s leg.

The war boss is fighting both slayers and strikes Eogard savagely. He is overwhelmed and starts to flee. Tobruk catches up with him and continues attacking, and Brokk joins in. The elves finish him with arrows.

Looking around the area we see a small idol to their god, a bunch of mushrooms, a war chest of 500 crowns (in various types of coin).

 

Border Princes

Session 23 – Scorched Earth

We decide to head back to the keep near the crossed lances and see how things are faring there. The rest of our escort stays at the dwarven keep. Going overland, we don’t pass many travelers. We are close enough to the river to see boats. Later on, we see smoke to the northeast where the Khyprian road crosses the river. Jean references the map and imagines that it’s near Volchbach. We are probably 10 miles away. We can hear the sounds of screaming.

Since this is on the way to our keep anyway (Volchbach is 20 miles away from our keep) we head toward the town. We see fire and flaming things shooting through the air. People are fleeing a massive horde of greenskins. There are probably thousands in total. Everything from orks to snotlings running around, there are boar riders, wolf riders, etc.

We think about what we know about orks. They must have come here for a specific purpose, to sack this city. They are all about fighting so they will probably not be sending scouts toward our keep. We head to the keep quickly and see how things are going. The dock area is more finished than when we were last here.

We have a total of five boatmen (one missing a hand), the two halflings (Sleeves and Thomas) and the lumberjacks and their families here.

We are going to have the lumberjacks create a palisade to protect us from any siege. The elves will talk to the wood-elves nearby to make sure they are on alert, then they will head out to find any refugees and bring them back so we can shelter them and they can help defend the keep. The dwarves look at fortifying the keep and getting supplies from town.

The wood-elves promise to send some supplies. The dwarves get to the Crossed Lances and everything seems to be in order. It is more packed than usual, and we see some people who are definitely refugees. Tobruk looks around and sees another slayer in the corner with a large mohawk. This guy is wider than Tobruk but not taller. The dwarf says that the axe Tobruk is carrying belongs to him, because he got it from his dead brother. His name is Eogard Mungrinsson. He is from Karak Kadrin which is out in the mountains of Sylvania. The name does ring a bell to Tobruk. He knows that the axe does come from a smith that is there. Tobruk refuses to give it back so Eogard decides that he will come along with us. We direct the people at the Crossed Lances to send supplies and also anyone who is able to the keep.

The elves bring bows, arrows, nets and other supplies to us. Civilians start showing up and we start training them. We setup daily patrols and start ranging to the road to see what is going on. We go out four miles all around the keep. We will engage with any parties of 30 or less. During this time we see groups of about 10 and take them out, but haven’t seen any larger parties or groups riding mounts as of yet.

Chicago Runners

Session 3 – Isaac pumps up Franz

Things have calmed down after the action from last time.  Mari got a settlement from Saeder-Krupp to keep it hushed up.  She is going to use it to help her mom, and she is incredibly happy and thankful around us.  She knows we saved her from a bad situation.  We are finally back on regular duty.  The runs have been mostly boring, but there does seem to be an increase in gang violence.

Things have gotten a little rougher around the neighborhood, and the regulars at the Triple Tap are carrying more weapons.  We still hang out there several times a week.  One night we are hanging out there when Isaac gets a high priority message from Dr. Hyun.  Her 20-year-old nephew Ayun has been missing for 3 days.  He was part of a young person’s organization that went on a humanitarian project in the slums.  He has not been seen since.  They have not found anything around his last known location.

We recognize the symbol as the Universal Brotherhood.  They have a cover as being an organization about the sharing of universal truth and companionship.  However, we know they have a violent side as well and they have gathered weapons.  The founders of the group created it to promote peace, however they both got sick and committed suicide.  At a guess there are 18,000-20,000 members in the Chicago area.  We decide to keep our eyes and ears open but keep doing our regular runs.  We cannot afford to get in trouble again.

The next day we go back out on patrol like normal.  We get a call around midnight on Thursday.  We notice that the name is Franz Donner, Thumper’s cousin.  The signal is coming from down by the docks, which is nowhere near the restaurant.  It is coming from a warehouse.  As we pull up, we see several Eagle security units with bullet holes in their cars.  The ping from his bracelet is coming from inside this building on the south side.  We get the cops to move and then pull the ambulance to the south east corner of the building.  There are no doors on this side.

We sneak around to the West side and find a side door, along with Edge and Scales, the shadow runners we ran into before.  They try to wave us off, but we come up anyway.  They say there is a blood bath in there and we might not want to go in.  Thumper tries to break the door but fails.  He shoots out the hinges and then runs into the room, yelling for Franz.  We see the same orcs that were bothering the Triple Tap, part of the Sewer Rats.  As we move into the room, we see a group of trolls on the other side.  Many of them are people that Thumper knows, but some of them are dead and others are wounded.  They are in bad shape.

We manage to stabilize Franz and get him on a stretcher.  As we are loading him up one of the trolls says they were selling the weapons so that the gangs would destroy each other.  As we start moving towards the door, the big garage door explodes inward and a combination of Eagle Security and Corp Sec busts in.  They immediately start exchanging fire with the orcs.

The EMTs look in the bins and find some riot shields.  They grab them and use them to cover the stretcher as the group starts moving towards the door.  The trolls start following us, and the orc gang members start shooting at them and us.  Espadas drops one gang member who gets close to us, and Bright swings at another and wounds him.  The orc gangers and the corp sec keep exchanging fire.  A couple of the troll gangers take wounds.

Icebox gets the stretcher and Franz out the door, while Espadas drops another ganger.  Thumper also kills one.  The group piles out into the alley and runs for the ambulance, with Ryoshi and Thumper covering the rear.  We all head for the ambulance, and two of the troll gangers also escape.  Isaac keeps working on Franz, who seems to be getting worse.  We keep driving to headquarters and rush him into emergency surgery.

Isaac helps with the triage and surgery.  Thumper waits at the emergency room.  Franz is in surgery for three hours, but he does pull through.  Espadas and Ryoshi go back to the restaurant.  A few of the trolls that are usually there are not anymore.

Franz wakes up around mid-morning.  He is covered in bandages and very weak, but lucid.  He says that 3 months ago he was approached by corporate guys who said they could make money while the gangs tear each other apart.  Franz wants to get rid of all the other races, metahumans and otherwise, then trolls could take over.  Corp security shows up soon after to question Thumper and Franz.  Icebox rolls up behind them and starts telling them they cannot question him now.  They leave.

Thumper gets the details from Franz about the weapons shipments.  There were 8 shipments with assault rifles, pistols, armor, shields, and cannons.  The shipments come from Germany and are smuggled through customs then they sell them to the gangs at cost just to move more of them.  The meetings were anonymous (his face was masked), but we have the location and time.

The cops come back and separate Thumper and Franz.  They grill Thumper in their paddy wagon.  He cooperates and tells them what he knows.  Eventually they let him go and he comes back to the restaurant.  Ringo had no idea that any of this was going on with Franz.

Our next move is to try and meet with Edge and Scales to see what they know.  Thumper’s fixer does not know how to contact them, but suggests we get a message out on Noose-net.  Isaac wows us with his hacking skills and can find a way to contact them.  We also find out there are possibly thousands of sewer rats and other gangers underground that come out at night, commit crimes, then go back underground.  A user named SuperWiz has tons of information about them including maps of activity.  We also find that Edge and Scales work with SuperWiz, and they are helping law enforcement.  We decide to try and meet them at a restaurant near us and send SuperWiz a message.

We agree to meet at a nearby noodle bar in the afternoon.  SuperWiz shows up and asks is we have some information on the Sewer Rats.  Thumper and Icebox talk to him and agree to share to their knowledge about the weapons deals.  Icebox will give him the video from the warehouse fight (minus Espadas face of course).  They arrange for a drop point.  The decker reveals that his actual handle is Charlie Zero, and SuperWiz is an alternate username. After the drop we get a message says he has it and will be in touch.  We go back to work for Doc Wagon.

Chicago Runners

Session 1 – A baseball bat and two grapefruit

It’s September 2054 in Chicago, more than a year after the Spiritbane incident. We are a team of medics and security personnel for a DocWagon High Threat Response (HTR) unit that patrols the streets and rescues clients.

John – Ryoshi, elf physical adept and sniper
Bill – Thumper, troll street samurai
Matt – Icebox, human medic
Paul – Espadas, troll physical adept and sword fighter
Jon (NPC) – Bright, human street samurai and former medic
(NPC) – Mari “Gearz”, dwarf rigger
(NPC) – Dr. Hyun, human doctor and team leader

We spend the end of our shift at DocWagon sitting around the station and talking.  Thumper shares that his family has a restaurant nearby and invites us all for dinner and drinks, including Mari.

We go to the restaurant and meet his wife and daughter.  Some sewer rat gangers come in and start pushing around his daughter and other customers.  Thumper goes and and speaks gently to them, at which time they decide to leave.

The next day we spend most of a boring shift just riding around in the ambulance.  However towards the end of the shift we get a call about a car accident with gunfire.  We pull up and a green car with gangers has crashed into a silver coupe that has our patient and four others.  We pile out of the car and the gangers seem like they are threatening the car.  Ryoshi quickly shoots off the side mirror of their car and the gangers all hit the dirt.  There are also two shadowrunners there, Scales and Edge, who say the green car rammed into the silver one and they are there to help.

The runners stay out of our way as we move in to stabilize the patient.  Just then the window of the building next to the scene explodes as a desk come flying out of it…followed by two grenades.  Everyone dives for cover.  Thumper and Espadas dive on top of the victim and his friend.  Dr, Hyun and Icebox are stunned and knocked flat.

Espadas runs and vaults off the desk up into the open window.  He hits and kills one of the 3 guys there with his vibrosword, effectively cutting him in half.  The rest of the team starts to move the patient to the ambulance.  Ryoshi drops another ganger in the window, and Espadas slices the last one.

Just then another truck crashed into the intersection.  The team is able to get the victim in the ambulance, along with Dr. Hyun who is still stunned from the grenade.  One of the gangers shoots at Bright as he is moving back, but Ryoshi shoots the ganger.  Thumper drops a ganger and Scales drops another ganger.  Dr. Hyun finally gets up and is able to get in the ambulance.  Scales waves at us to indicate danger and shoots at the truck.  We start getting the other people into the ambulance, but the panel of the truck pops open and a ganger pops out.  He shoots a missile launcher that catches our med tech, two of the victims, and Icebox.  The medtech is down.

Bright pulls out his SMG and drops the guy with the missile launcher.  Another jumps out but Thumper drops him.  Two more gangers pop out from the van and shoot at Thumper, but miss.  Ryoshi kills one of them.

Eagle Security shows up and the last ganger cowers against his car.  We get the rest of the people in the ambulance.  The last ganger shoots at Thumper but Ryoshi drops him.

The gangers all had Sewer Rat paraphernalia. However they usually do not attack in large groups in public, and they usually do not have this kind of hardware. The med tech expires.

The original victim who called us in is Locus Pendleton.  Icebox recognizes him as the son of a Corp from Shiawase.  Locus is a well known celeb partier, and we recognize his girlfriend as well.

Eagle Security contacts DocWagon and lets them know that the danger has passed, and they are investigating what happened.

The next day, Dr. Hyun is reassigned to a post at the hospital across the street as the director of the ER department. As a result, Isaac “Icebox” is now the team lead on the ambulance and will have two med-techs under him.

Cataclysm

Session 30 – Future History

GM: Paul
Players: Ian-Brad, Alex-John, Dusty-Matt, Jon-Simon, Bill-Chet
Game Date: Oct 28-Nov 6, 2003 / Jan 19, 2019

We get off the street into an alleyway. Luckily, Ian says that he knows someone who lives a few blocks away from here that he was in the service with in basic training. We walk toward there and Ian knocks on the door. A man answers but he doesn’t recognize Ian until he gives him more info. After the two catch up, the man agrees to give him some food and $60 cash.

We go to CVS to Ian gets a hair kit and some razors, as well as a new shirt and pants from a thrift store. He cleans himself up and then is able to go to the bank. When the rest of us see him, he actually does look a few years younger. We head to the bank and he withdraws $5000 in cash.

We head across town to a motel and get two rooms for the night. We clean up and get a good night’s sleep. The next morning we wake up and head to the store to get some clothes. We pay $2400 for a used minivan — Ian talks the guy down from $3000. We load up and head north to Milwaukee.

We stay another night in a different hotel, then head into Milwaukee the next afternoon. Ian drives us to Donges Bay Rd. to his uncle’s summer home and picks up his stuff, as well as his SUV.

Simon remembers that AJ is living on the East Side, on 1509 E. Kane Place and Oakland, right near Pizza Shuttle. Simon and Alex go to AJ’s apartment and knock on his door. He agrees to speak with us outside at a picnic table. Simon tries to explain that he knows things about AJ and that he needs his help. AJ doesn’t believe in the supernatural but agrees to the “mind link.” Simon tries and the mind link and it goes horribly, creating backlash on Simon. He crumples in pain.

Alex does a mind link with AJ and shows him some Talolan things, and he seems curious. Simon recovers and he shows him things from his life and also from the future. He starts to believe us.

We head up to his apartment and he sends his girlfriend out for pizza. While she’s gone we start telling him about the future, but Alex is not sure that we should share specifics. Ian and Simon disagree, saying that more information would be the most helpful, because we don’t know how it will affect the future. Alex agrees but says we should also tell him of his death. Ian tells him and he takes it pretty well.

After a while, his girlfriend Karin comes back and he tells us to zip it. We head down to  Caesar Park and talk for a couple of hours more, and Chet goes to get a case of beer. At 11 PM, we all have a strange sensation like our souls are being pulled from our bodies, but it goes away. We can’t figure out what caused that.

AJ says that he needs to get to bed, and we thank him for his time. He tells Ian to ditch his phone since that could be tracked. He will get a burner phone or call from a payphone. He gives us his cell number. Before we leave, Chet asks him if the government is aware that this disaster may happen, and AJ says absolutely not — there are not even scenarios being run for this.

The next day we meet again and he says that he was able to find something. He says that the sun is going through a very active period, and the time we arrived coincided with a huge solar flare. It was so large that it actually took out the “SOHO” monitoring satellite. We don’t know if there was another solar flare at 11pm the previous night.

We head back to St. Charles, thinking that we should be there when it’s time for us to go back so we can help those who need us. Also, our stuff will be there. We spend some time buying things at CVS so we have drugs and other supplies, knowing that these will be useful if we get snapped back to the future. We even sleep in our clothes in case it happens at night. However it’s several days and we haven’t gone back. We start thinking that it may not happen. But on the 6th of November, we are suddenly snapped back into our time.

It is very cold here, even with our clothes on. We hear rumbling in the distance and there are two Sno Cats coming toward us. Ian uses his scope to see who is driving and he sees AJ. We are all pretty shocked but happy. He comes to meet us and asks us if it worked out. Dusty shows the T-shirt that he was wearing over 15 years ago. We have changed the future, but who knows how much.

Cataclysm

Session 29 – Future History

GM: Paul
Players: Ian-Brad, Alex-John, Dusty-Matt, Jon-Simon, Bill-Chet
Game Date: January 5-19, 2019

We return from the museum. Ian looks at the gear that was found in the sheriff’s office and finds a smartwatch of some type; the backpack seems to hold data and provides power. He gives it to Simon to see if he can do an object reading. Simon does so, and he is able to rewind back really far — to the time that the watch was created. It was given to the man, “AJ” Gary Johnson who was an agent with a Division-like organization in Milwaukee.

From his POV, Simon sees the events that happen during the cataclysm including AJs wife’s death and his subsequent work helping with the aftermath. He was one of only five agents in the Milwaukee area and all of the others were killed between 2012 and 2018. He went into the Sheriff’s office to scavenge for supplies. There he was stabbed by the beast we ran across and bled out.

From this, we find much more information about the state of the government after the disaster. There is part of a functioning government but everything seems to be mostly local like it is here, since there are no communications. At one point martial law was declared, and there have been several presidents in the past few years. DC was nuked, there was radiation fallout in New York, and also in the Dakotas. We also find info on the Talolans; there are some in the southeast US.

The watch is functional and has maps and reports on it. Reports still came in after AJ passed away. He has some areas tagged on maps — The Orphanage (run by Cassidy MacLoughlin). 18 kids are here, 8 adults, etc.

AJ was getting people in touch and helping them, but in many cases it’s only 5-10 people.

Alex is working on the Blues project with Lucy over the next couple of weeks and things are quiet. However, on the 18th of January during the day we see a big fireball coming through the southern sky and we see a mushroom cloud. There is basically an earthquake here and a wall of snow blasts toward us. Some people are hurt from falling ice and all the glass is shattered on the cabins here. We figure that the impact happened in Chicago.

We work on getting those who are injured to the infirmary and board up the windows. Dusty checks on the livestock and they are very anxious but okay.

We check in by radio to all the people we know and everyone south is in trouble. We decide to head south and see what we can find out. Meaghan goes to the southwest to help some people and the rest of us go straight south.

The Ironwood Golf Course sends some sno cats and a bunch of people and supplies. Ian coordinates with several other settlements. He goes to address the hub before we leave. He asks everyone to be prepared to suffer some hardships in the short term as we are helping more refugees and everyone needs to help out in order for this to work.

We pack up our gear, food and medical supplies and head out the morning of the 19th. We camp overnight and the next day we find a settlement near St. Charles, IL. There are several people here who are injured and one with severe internal bleeding. We patch them up and Alex uses his psionic healing on the one with internal bleeding, however we don’t let them know that he’s a Talolan. We offer to have them come with us. Simon finds an old snowmobile in a small shed. The spark plug is messed up and we replace it. Then we head to bed as it’s 11pm.

The next morning we head out, leaving the people some supplies and instructions on where to go if they want to start moving.  We see multi-story buildings that are flattened. We find another group with lots of people injured, and help them out. We search around and find 5 more survivors. They are trapped underneath a building, but we’re able to dig them out.

We head out and suddenly there are wooly mammoths. We try to skirt around them and suddenly a group of sabretooth tigers jump out and attack us. We gun the snowmobiles and barely escape. As we zoom away, one slashes at Chet and his thick jacket just saves him.

We head closer to the impact site and see a huge crater, over 3.5 miles wide and as high as the Empire State Building. We see something huge and Alex and Simon recognize it as a main drive from one of the ships. Suddenly there is a huge flash and we all feel strange. Some of us feel like our clothes are loose and we realize that all of our buttons have been pulled out, and anything metal is completely gone. We see grass underneath our feet and look around to see Halloween decorations.

We realize that Chet has a length of rebar stuck into his leg. Alex helps him pull it out and heals it almost immediately.

A man pulls up in a car and asks us if we need help. We are confused and not sure what to say. He asks why we are wearing such warm clothes and we say that we’re getting ready for a Halloween party.

Simon checks out the man’s license plate and it says that it expires in Feb of 2004. So, apparently it’s Halloween 2003. We discuss and decide what to do.

Cataclysm

Session 28 – Sheriff’s Office Scavenging

GM: Paul
Players: Ian-Brad, Alex-John, Dusty-Matt, Jon-Simon, Bill-Chet, Paul-Meaghan(NPC)
Game Date: January 3-5, 2019

We are back at the museum, which has piles of books taken from the library. The corridor between the two buildings is no longer used. Chet has a suit of armor that he wants to take back, but he can’t carry it. He puts it on the sled to be dragged back to the Hub.

We head into the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office to look for leftover cop gear. As we head inside, we are all shocked at the sight of a huge mass with tentacles everywhere. The stench is horrible. Simon falls to the ground, stunned, and the others unload with firearms on it. The thing strikes back with a tentacle and nearly impales Meaghan and then Dusty, but they are able to dodge out of the way. Simon stands and takes a shot at the thing, then Alex uses his psionics to put it to sleep.

Simon asks Ser about the beast and he says that it’s fairly common, and predatory. Best to be avoided.

We sneak past the thing and Ian and Meaghan look in the storage closet. Someone had barricaded themselves in here in an effort to get away from the beast, but he’s been dead a long time. There are some supplies that he had with him. Ian picks them up.

On our way out we decide that we should kill this thing so no one else can get attacked by it. Ian puts his gun into its strange beaked mouth and blows it away.

We follow Ian through the rest of the Sheriff’s Office. It seems mostly undisturbed because this monster ate anything that came in here. We find a few other items in the building including a parking boot that Simon finds.

In the last area, we notice a police tactical SUV that has fallen off of a ledge. We hook up a winch to pull it up so we can get inside and get some of the tactical gear. We find a bunch of things that are really helpful.

We stay another night at the library and give them some 7up and also some of the guns we find. We head back the next day, January 5th.

Cataclysm

Session 26 – Blink Raccoons

GM: Paul
Players: Dusty-Matt, Jon-Simon, Bill-Chet, Paul-Meaghan(NPC)
Game Date: December 26, 2018

It’s the 26th of December. Ian, Sean and Alex have an “emergency” to attend to and leave. We’re not exactly sure what it is. Simon, Dusty and Chet are in the bunkhouse and Meaghan comes in and asks us how we are doing. Dusty didn’t get much sleep last night

We get a call from the Milwaukee Library that they heard an SOS from a local couple in Mount Pleasant have been raided and people stole all of their food stores. We decide to go and help them.

We get some supplies together and some very warm clothes and gear as it’s extremely cold, around -10 but sunny. We take 2 snowmobiles with a sled behind each and Dusty’s two dogs.

Mount Pleasant is only a few miles to the northeast but it’s rough country. After a while we stop to check if we’re going the right direction and we do see some smoke. Meaghan is getting a bit cold but the rest of us are doing okay.

We get to the house and Simon and Meaghan go in and introduce themselves. The couple are named Jay and Jaclyn. They say that someone or something broke into their garage and took most of their stores, and smashed the rest.

Dusty and Chet check out the damage and it looks like a mess. There are a lot of pawprints. They think it might have been raccoons but they aren’t sure.

Simon takes a look around and decides to use his newfound Object Reading power to look back a day and see what happened. He is very surprised to see that a raccoon teleports itself inside the garage and lets several others in. They coordinate and put things into bags from the storage, and then make off with it. He tells the others about it and they are pretty astonished.

Jay is confused as to how the raccoons could have gotten in and Simon says that one must have hid inside and let the others in somehow. He seems to accept this.

Jay and Jaclyn say that they will come to the Hub, if we have room for them, as it will be nice to be around other people for once. We say that we’re happy to help them get there and we have room for them to take some things. They start packing things up.

In the meantime, the rest of us go to check on the raccoons. They are holed up in a culvert with piles of rocks on each side, clearly not enough room for raccoons to get by. They must be teleporting in and out of here.

We start digging out to see if we can get a glimpse at them, the dogs doing a great job. Meaghan carries two rocks at once, impressing everyone. Dusty pulls a rock out and it rolls against his leg, injuring it pretty badly. Chet binds it up but Dusty decides to sit out the rest of the excavation.

After a while we are able to clear enough space to see through and suddenly raccoons start piling out and attacking us. Some of them seem to be teleporting. One jumps on top of Angelo, Dusty’s dog, but Meaghan is able to slash it with her axe. Simon tries to slash at one with his knife and misses, hitting Chet instead but it doesn’t go through his armor. Red, the wolf dog, grabs one of the raccoons and shakes it to death. Chet blasts another one with his shotgun.

There are many more inside, we hear them screeching and chattering, so we decide to retreat. We have two dead raccoons that the dogs can chew on. We head back to the house and the husband and wife are almost done packing. We help them finish up and then head back to the Hub.