Session 21 – Under Siege

Westmore tries to recap what has happened in the past few years. Gao Fang, Emperor of China, has invaded Pearl Harbor with a flight of dragons, and annexed Japan. They have formed a “Pact of Steel” with Italy and Germany, which has taken over Russia.  The allies against them are America, Canada, Great Britain and Romania (which is lead by a vampire).  Stalin was killed but has been brought back as a Frankenstein-like monster.

We do not have any mystical forces or artifacts on our side, unfortunately, but we do know that the Spear of Destiny is in the Vatican.  The Vatican, along with the rest of Italy, is in the “Pact of Steel”, but the Catholics have been unwilling to share the actual Spear.

Britain is under constant aerial assault. The Chinese are using dragons and mystical solders to fight.

While we figure out what to do, Goodwin creates a spark pistol.  The rest of us arm up with flak jackets, Tommy guns, and

We decide to speak with the Atlanteans about the situation. We bring them up to speed with the history of the world and the status of the war.

 

Session 20 – Jormungundar

We take the raft toward the Viking battleground. On the way Tom senses that we might be being watched by something, but nothing appears.

Thinking about what motivate the vikings to help us defeat the guardian of the volcano, Slate mentions that in Norse mythology there is a giant serpent, Jormungundar, who is Thor’s arch-enemy. Thor defeated him and walked 10 steps before dying himself, from the serpent’s venom. If we mention that this is the world-serpent, they may help us in our effort to kill the beast.

We come to the battleground and see weapons, armor and skeletons lying about. Slate notices a huge skeleton sticking out of the ground, it looks like a large serpent or dinosaur.

Gabriel finds armor, a helmet and two maces in the rubble and starts to descend into the crater. As he does this, some of the spectral viking warriors start swirling towards him. The giants, ogres and trolls do not seem to care about him. He sees something towards the center of the crater and climbs over the rubble to get it.

Finally getting to the bottom, he sees that the shiny object is a weapon — a hammer. He tries as hard as he can, but can’t lift it. Slate thinks that this may be Thor’s hammer, and it’s possible that we may not be able to lift it because according to myth, only Thor could do so.

We all head down into the crater to check it out. Whitmore reads the runes on the hammer and it indeed says “Mjolnir”, which is the name of Thor’s hammer. Whitmore is able to translate to the Vikings. We ask them for their help in defeating Jormungundar, but they say that he has already been defeated. We attempt to explain that we have all been trapped here and they think that this is in fact Valhalla, so are disinclined to try and leave.

Whitmore suggests that we try and talk to the spectral Thor, who is very prideful — we may be able to exploit his character flaw. He coaches Gabriel, who then approaches Thor and says that he is a weak fool (in Norse).

Thor hurls the hammer at his head and Gabriel narrowly dodges. Thor asks him why he thinks he is so easily defeated, and Gabriel says that if he had a hammer like Thor’s he could defeat him. Thor obliges, gesturing, and the physical hammer floats towards Gabriel and he finds that he can lift and use it. He moves to attack Thor, and they fight it out for several moments. Gabriel strikes and actually knocks Thor off of his feet. He starts pounding on Thor as he is flat on his back, and Thor pushes him off with little effort. He asks how he was defeated by a mere mortal.

We change the subject and ask him if he will help us defeat the fire serpent to free us from here. He agrees, but he says that the Atlanteans must help us in our task so we will all fight for our freedom. He gives Gabriel a less powerful version of his hammer to use in the battle. We go to the Atlantean city and talk to them, and they decide to join us. We all journey to the volcano and ascend to a cave, and sure enough we find the lair of a giant red tyranosaur and some of his dinosaur friends. His eyes glow as if they are on fire.

Goodwin hits the T-rex severely with his flying machete, and then Slate and Whitmore take shots with their firearms unsuccessfully. Gabriel flings his hammer at him and slams him for more damage. After quite a long battle, Gabriel slams him with the hammer and a jet of flame courses out of it, narrowly missing him. There is a white light and everything disappears.

We wake up on a beach, and we see pillars like we saw when we first arrived to Atlantis. We also see our zeppelin in the distance. Professor Westmore is waiting near the zeppelin and he has food for us.

The cat people and Atlanteans are here. The Norsemen are here, but they are being picked up by valkyries and carried away. The t-rex that we defeated is here, dead, but we hear other dinosaurs in the distance.

Westmore tells us that we have been gone a while, and he heard that an island popped up in the middle of nowhere so he thought that he would check it out. He shows us a newspaper and it says May, 1944…which is 8 years after we left! There is a war in Europe, and it is not going well for the Allies. He suggests that we discuss what to do.

Session 19 – Wrath of the Juice Monkey

We start building the raft, and Goodwin builds a headgear device for Gabriel so that it is difficult to mind control him. We cast off and only a few minutes or so later we arrive.

As we approach we see that the island goes up a hill and we see a city in the distance. We come up and suddenly see several velociraptors approaching, and they attack. After a moment, though, we hear a roaring sound coming from the woods behind them and one is tossed out toward us. A huge ape comes from the bushes and is thrashing around. He seems to be attacking just the raptors, and is covered with dirt, wires and test tubes.

After the raptors have been taken care of, the gorilla attacks Gabriel. We all pile on him and take him down. Slate gives him a couple of shotgun blasts and he falls. He has some tech that Goodwin takes for future use.

We head further up the hill and it looks like the gorilla had taken out dozens of them in a path of destruction.

Soon the land drops away and we see ahead of us the city, all made of stone buildings. Some strange energies are at work to light things up. Strange alien-looking creatures are walking around here, some with high-tech sticks that look like weapons, and holsters with small guns. There is a stockade with some cat-creatures and an arena for combat. The technology and architecture seems to be making use of orichalcum.

When they see us, they lower their sticks at us. Goodwin speaks in Latin and tells them that we found their gorilla. They say that the gorilla was theirs and they sent it after the velociraptors. They ask him what we are doing here and he says that we arrived here out of our time and we are trying to figure out what is going on. They will not let us into the city gates.

The guards fetch an older man named The Seer and he asks about us. Goodwin asks him if they are aware of any of the ancient cultures, and if they know of Gao Fang. The Seer says that Gao Fang predates even them, he is an old evil. He is one of the beings who are trying to control the whole world, and is systematically getting rid of any threats, the Atlanteans being one and the lizards and tiger-men another.

The Seer says that they have a theory of how to leave, but they cannot do it themselves. They believe that the nucleus of the dimension is inside the volcano, but they cannot destroy the creature that is inside. There is a large lizard creature, bright red, who guards it and has his own minions as well.

He also describes the viking ghosts, fighting an unending war to the north, and asks about them. Goodwin says that they are also from our history, about a thousand years before us, and they are from the north part of Europe. The Seer asks if we might be able to sway them over to our cause. We think that if we defeat their enemies, the giants, they might be looking to fight someone else. We ask to take some of the Atlantean weapons with us to see if they can damage the ghostly giants.

Session 18 – Land of the Lost

We check the area to which we’ve awoken and find that our former compatriot Clayton Whitmore is also here, and he is with someone we haven’t met before, a man in an iron suit who introduces himself as Howard.

We start looking around and find that this is a jungle setting with a large lake, huge cliffs that go up into the clouds and a smoking volcano in the distance. We go walking for quite a while and realize that the sun hasn’t moved, and there are no birds or other small animals here. There are strange tracks that look like large cat feet as well. We see a pterodactyl fly above us. There is an island off in the distance. This place seems unnatural.

After walking for what seems like a whole day, the sun hasn’t changed position and we decide that it’s time to rest. We set up camp and Tom volunteers for the first watch. After a short while we are approached by a cat creature with a spear. Howard uses his suit to punch the cat and takes him out. On him we find some bits of metal that Goodwin recognizes as orichalcum, a rare metal with magical properties.

We discuss and eventually surmise that this must be a pocket universe consisting of all the “lost” things from our world, which explains the eclectic mix of animals and terrain. We realize that the cliffs surround us on all sides and this is a fairly small area.

We make our way toward one of the small cat-people villages, and they let us in but ask for our weapons. We are shown to their leader, a tiger-looking man named Chaakkra. He asks us where we came from and we describe Gao Fang and tell of how we were transported here. Chaakkra says that his people were removed from their home many thousand years ago, from what they can tell. They have not aged in the time that they have been put here.

He says that they do not go to the rock fields to the north; strange pale-skinned fair-haired spirits / bad magic are there, and they look human. They war with strange hairless creatures there. Also there are more people, who also have magic, who previously enslaved the cat-people who live on the island near here.

We head out and begin work on building a raft to visit the island.

Session 17 – On the Waterfront

We decide to team up with Ran Goon and go to take out Gao Fang at one of his waterfront warehouses. Initially we think about putting explosives under one of the docks but opt for infiltration. We cut through the fence and climb through, but then we see that most of the workers here are dead.

We head into the warehouse and find a ton of guys here. Gabriel jumps through the window, ripping it from its frame. Ran follows and leaps to a nearby crate, and uses his staff to crack a ninja in the face. Ahead we see Gao Fang!

Gabe throws the window at Gao Fang’s face which proves ineffectual. After a battle, Gabe, Ran and Goodwin take out all of the ninjas and gangsters here, but Gao Fang manages to take over Ran’s mind then casts 3 green skulls at Gabe.

Before he can be defeated, Gao Fang holds aloft the two ruby eyes (ours was obviously a fake!) and there is a blinding white light.

An undetermined amount of time later, we awake with the sweet taste of grass in our mouths. We have been transported somewhere strange and deserted.

Session 16 – Shanghaid

At the Dragon of the Black Pool Restaurant, Egg Foo Chow tells us that Lao Che runs a shipping business at the docks of Shanghai. The contact that can help us with more information is named Ran Goon; he can be found in a bar near the docks.

We depart, taking the zeppelin from San Francisco through to Hawaii, Japan and then finally Shanghai. On the trip, Goodwin works in the lab for most of the time; Gabriel sleeps; Slate reads.

The group’s pilot, Tom “Tailspin” Kennedy, tells us a bit about his history and his plane that we previously didn’t know. He was a pilot in World War I, and was shot down over Germany. He was held prisoner in a hole for several months, but eventually was able to break out and stole a plane, flying himself to safety. The plane was an experimental aircraft that had several enhancements, one of which was night vision. This is the plane that Tom still has and is attached to the zeppelin.

When we are within hours of Shanghai, suddenly several planes fly by us. Slate and Gabriel run to man the ship’s guns, and Tom launches off in his plane to fight them off. Goodwin uses a gadget he created, the Fantasmic Pulser, to create an obfuscating cloud around one of the planes. The pilot, blinded, loses control and crashes his plane. We shoot down the other two planes, and Tom notices that the planes have the upside-down pyramid symbol on them.

We land and look for the bar that Ran Goon frequents. After a while of searching and unsuccessful attempts at talking with the local folk, we see several people being tossed out of the front door of a nearby bar. They are all nursing their wounds on the sidewalk. The guy who manhandled them saunters back in the bar, laughing; he is a short, stocky man with a red face and permanent grin. He looks just like the photo we have of our contact.

We walk in and find him back at the bar, drinking. We ask if he is Ran Goon, and he says that he is; apparently he speaks English. Gabriel immediately challenges him to a fight, and he laughs and agrees. Goodwin, who speaks Mandarin, tells Gabriel how to insult him properly in his own language. Slate tells Ran that if he beats Gabriel, he will drink for free for the rest of the night.

Gabriel takes the first shot and knocks Ran down hard. He gets back up but misses Gabriel badly, smashing through a table and falls down. Gabriel picks him up by the scruff of his clothes, and Ran doesn’t seem to be fighting any longer. Goodwin notices that he might have some internal bleeding.

Slate tells Gabriel that we need to take him back to the zeppelin. Goodwin uses his medical machine on him; after a moment he is healed and is sober, which is very disorienting to him. We begin asking him about Lao Che, and he explains that he runs an import/export business which is legit, but he also runs opium. Ran also knows the layout of Lao’s facility. He has been doing work for Egg Foo Shen who will send him money to do miscellaneous tasks, and after he does them he blows all of it on liquor.

Lao has two docks on the water, and two gates that are large enough for trucks. The warehouse has a high fence, and a two-story office building attached. There is a secondary warehouse and a crane for loading cargo onto his ships. He also owns a hangar at the airport.

We ask Ran about the upside down yellow triangle symbol, but he is not aware of any group with the symbol.

Session 5 – Spiders

We get further into the affected area and see abandoned areas. Finally we see a large room with lots of webs and radioactive barrels. They seem to have a company name on them — we snap a photo.

Moving along we come to a small body of water. A behemoth, a hippo-like creature, emerges and attacks us. We shoot at it with little effect but two well-placed manabolts by Skaale bring him down.

Alamos 20k, a humanis policlub seems to be behind the radioactive waste.

Session 3 – Gear Up

We gear up for the run, buying radiation suits and guns that we won’t mind getting rid of after we complete the mission, since the rads will likely affect anything we bring with us.

Session 2 – Goodwill Run

There have been more strange occurrences and we try and figure out what has been going on. We ask Smoke Jaguar who we should talk to and he sets up a meeting with the “underground.”

Jack tries to meet with a city alderman. He says that they have encountered radiation in certain spots and it may have caused things to mutate. He says that if we can manage an investigation and removal, he will pay us 10k nuyen. We feel that although the payday is very light, none of us are hurting for cash and it will be a decent goodwill run.