codrus

Wa-ping, the jungle princess
Dr. Chance, scientist
Blake Spade, investigator of dark mysteries
Tristan Leclerc, french commando



While the rest of the crew had rushed towards the attacking Baboons, Leclerc felt that this had to be a diversion. He discovers that the Russian agent he knocked unconscious earlier is awake, and stealthily follows him. After a time, he notices another set of Chinamen, a gang of some sort and decides to follow them.

Leclerc is able to position himself close enough to the gang that he can hear them talking; the gang is going to hit the "strange place" (Cromarty Labs) and try to steal some drugs there. Leclerc returns to see the aftermath of session 2's fight.

When he arrives, Wa-ping and Blake are helping the peasants try to put out secondary fires. They tell him that Dr. Chance has gone down to the docks to radio for the Djinn to bring in supplies. The 3 of them head to the lab to try to stop the gang.

** THE LAB **

Cromarty labs has a small complex here, with a few fenced in areas and a single large building. When the heroes arrive they find a half-dozen gang members firing into the building, with another gang member on the ground, gun-shot from someone inside.

Blake and Leclerc decide to hide in the shadows and strike from surprise. After they've had some time to get into position, Wa-ping makes a loud and flashy entrance.

(organizationally, we have a group of 2 minions, a group of 3 minions, and a solo guy).

Round 1: Wa-ping gets shot at by the group of 3 minions. She returns the favor by leaping in and scaring one of the gang members with her demoralizing stance.

Blake tries to sneak up on the solo individual and strike him from behind, but at the last moment, the guy notices and leaps off the fence he was climbing.

Two knives silently fly out of the darkness from Leclerc...Wa-ping is no longer in any immediate danger.

Round 2: The remaining group of 2 minions try to figure out where Leclerc is, but cannot find the Demon of the Trenches. The scared gang member tries to flee, but Wa-ping runs him down and thumps him. The invidual hits Blake with a pair of brass knuckles, then nimbly evades Blake's counterstrike, almost knocking Blake's baton out of his hand (spin).

Leclerc handily sneaks into the same zone as the two remaining minions.

(Asides here: As far as I could tell, the guy had already taken "damage" from the demo-stance, so he should have already been considered taken out. So I'm not sure I understand why he got thumped. I still have questions about how mental/morale attacks mix in with normal combat -- minions only having one form of actual conflict.).

Round 3: The gang leader hits Blake hard. At this point, Wa-Ping sees that this fight isn't going well, and leaps in with a flying kick, hitting the leader. Blake attempts to hit him but is still offbalance. Leclerc steps in and takes out the two minions with his knife, fading back into the shadows again (no one was in line of sight anyway).

Round 4: The leader strikes Wa-ping and moves around to the front to get reinforcements, only to discover his gang is all unconcious or dead. Wa-ping follows in pursuit. Unfortunately for the leader, while he saw what had happened to his minions, he didn't see who did it. Leclerc appears behind him and guts him like a fish; he spasms and falls to the ground.


** Meanwhile, back at the docks **

Dr. Chance radios to the Djinn and asks them to bring in the ship, along with some extra clips of ammo for his revolver prototype. As he's discussing the situation with his lab assistant, something slams into the radio disabling it. Dr. Chance has been ambushed by 3 gang members.

Dr. Chance steps in and punches one of them in the groin, following up with a viscious kick to a second one. Dr. Chance isn't fighting fair, but to win. (I know I used [Wrong Side of the Tracks] here, along with some other Aspect). A few quick rounds escalate as the remaining minion doubles his efforts to take out the doctor. The doctor tries to defend against the stick (club? stick? I don't remember) with the remains of the radio receiver, only to have it shatter in his hands, beyond easy repair.

(read: I have 2 or 3 stress boxes filled by this point)

Pushing the gang member away for a moment, Dr. Chance draws the recoiless revolver and puts a round through the man's heart, killing him.

One of the gang members floats away in the water, but Dr. Chance hauls the other one to his feet and splashes water in his face. The man wakes to a close and personal view of his deceased friend. Dr. Chance's cold, hard voice whispers into his ear in Mandarin that now would be a good time to explain himself, before he met the same fate. (average Intimidation, +3 situational, I roll +4, legendary!)

Through the rapid-fire babble, Chance manages to make out two things. There are Russian agents here that the gang sells Opium to from the poppies they grow. The Russians also have an interest in some other drugs. But more importantly, the local Cromarty lab is working on some sort of opiates, and the gang members are on their way there.

With a brief stop to drop his prisoner at the magistrate's office, Chance rushes to the lab to help his employees...and to piece together just exactly what is going on.

** The Lab **

When Chance arrives, he finds his friends in a brief stalemate with someone in the lab threatening to shoot them if they come closer. Chance calls out "This is your employer. If you want to be paid ever again, you'll open the door and let us in."

The crew enters the lab to find the man badly injured. There's an odd metallic tang in the air, to which Leclerc pulls out his vintage WW I gas mask and puts it over his head. Chance remarks, "You've been carrying that thing for 10 years, just in case?" "Yep"

The lab scientist babbles something about Jenea going berserk and damaging everything in the lab; the group can clearly hear significant commotion deeper in the building. While the others begin to explore, Chance quickly bandages the now unconscious scientist.

Leclerc is the first to find Jenea, a woman with matted hair and serious anger management issues. She is sweeping things off countertops and smashing glass. He sneaks up and tries to clock her with the brass knuckles on his knife, but only makes her angry. She whips around, her glowing green eyes illuminating the room in an strange light.

round 1: Chance has finished bandaging the scientist, so he moves towards where he knows the main lab room is. Here he finds a frightful sight, more shattered gear and glass, but more importantly the room is bathed in heat from a furnace. Designed by the doctor to mimic some volcanic conditions, it is clearly overheating...and the controls are all smashed.

Blake follows the doctor into the lab. Wa-ping guards the front of the building in case more gang members are on their way.

Leclerc shifts to the side and tosses a throwing knife into the glass beakers behind Janea, sending glass flying into her back. She staggers, briefly [Off Balance]. She strikes back at him.

round 2: The doctor moves to the controls, avoiding the lethal deathtrap of broken glass and sharp metal fragments strewn throughout the floor. The door is jammed open, heat pours out of the furnace.

Blake sees rats in the corner, their beady little green eyes showing the hate they clearly feel. He whips out is gun and starts popping away at the little buggers. Wa-ping hears the gunfire and calls out to Blake to find out what's going on. "Rats!! Lots of rats!"

(Aside: throughout the rest of this, I have no idea how many rats there actually were, I wasn't paying close enough attention).

Having put his opponent off balance, Leclerc steps in and deals a strike he's performed dozens of time in the trenches. (Tag [Demon of the Trenches], free tag [off balance]. He scores a bloody wound (consequence). Janea only seems to feed off the pain, grabbing Leclerc and flinging him through the doorway. He lands next to the unconscious scientist, briefly dazed. "We live in interesting times."

round 3: Dr. Chance takes one look at the controls and shudders...to do this right would take hours and he only has a few moments. But he designed these systems. He knows these systems. He built the safeguards. If anyone can stop this, he can. (rolled a engineering 5, +2 tag Prepared Mind, +2 tag Cromarty Labs, total 9, I wanted lots of shifts to reduce the time.). He begins to quickly work to break the glue and other sabotage so that he can vent this.

The rats move in to attack Blake and Chance. Chance is moving back and forth along the control panel so quickly that he doesn't even notice the rats (who miss him.), while one of the rats bites into Blake's leg. In return, he grabs one of the few surviving pieces of furniture and pushes the rats away.

Wa-ping leaps through the door that Leclerc just exited, using the top of the door jamb for leverage. She strikes Janea with a mighty flying kick. Leclerc takes advantage of the distraction to fling a knife into her arm, targeting the nerve cluster there and (second consequence) [paralyzing her arm]. Overwhelmed by pain, Janea slumps to the ground unconscious, the green fading from her eyes.

round 4: Chance keeps working at the controls. The rats jump up and around the table, striking at Blake, and one of the rats latches on to the doctor. "Ah, Blake, there are rats here!"

Wa-ping, having noticed some alley cats near the front of the building (fate point spent here), uses her [Here Kitty Kitty] aspect and (animal stunt I think) calls for the kitties to come in and deal with the rats. Two join her.

Leclerc enters the doorway behind blake and begins to fling more daggers into the rats with uncanny precision.

round 5: more rat attacks inflicting stress on the Doctor, who cannot be distracted from shutting down the furnace. Wa-ping grabs her two cats and expertly leaps over the table to one of the few empty spots near the doctor. She and her cats deal with some of the rats.

Leclerc tosses a knife pinning one of the rats...into a fuel line! (This is some house rule Dean borrowed from the web...when a player rolls a -4 on the dice, if they can describe something bad that happened, they get a fate point).

round 6: While Chance was almost done with the shut down, the fuel line is a bigger problem. He whips off his coat, pulls out the knife that Leclerc provided, and stuffs the coat in to seal the line so that there won't be an explosion.

Blake and Chance are feeling light headed; they've been in the heat and fumes for quite some time. But both muscle through it (successful endurance checks).

Leclerc grabs a broom and with some strange martial arts maneuver, he sweeps up a pile of glass and debris.

round 7: Chance needs to finish disarming the furnace before he passes out. (Tag [Down to our last chance] on my endurance check). He finishes!

Wa-ping smashes the few remaining rats near the Doctor. Blake pulls the table out of the way so that Leclerc can use his [Magnificent Butcher's Apprentice] technique, flinking a deadly spray of glass into the remaining rats, they are all dead.

round 8: Doctor fails his endurance check. (no immediately stated in-game effect, so I'm probably screwed later *grin*). Almost passing out, he tries to make it out the door but barely makes it into the doorway. Blake and Wa-ping move and grab the two unconscious scientists, while Leclerc helps Doctor Chance. They all exit the building to gulp in some fresh air.

Sometime later, they decide to explore the labs again.

Dr. Chance grumbles and breaks into the supply cage, looking for charcoal and cloth to make some makeshift masks. As he's finishing up the second mask, Blake comes up behind him and says "Whaddya doin' doc?" "Making some filter masks so we can safely work in here." "Oh, you might want one of these then, I found a whole supply cabinet down the hall, marked for emergencies.

(Aside: I had broken into the cage, prepared to do my engineering foo to make some masks. Meanwhile, Blake's player spent a fate point to declare there was clearly a need for emergency masks and such. Rather than get bent out of shape, I weaved a humorous scene to take the doctor down a notch *grin*).

Blake and the doctor find two things of interest. First, a small cultivated field of poppies in the fenced in area to the side of the lab building. But more importantly, a small volcanic terrarium, filled with rocky soil and some sort of flower. The whole thing is being heated by some sort of built-in burners. Blake and the doctor realize that the flower is some sort of unusual lotus. (I think this was my Science roll). Blake realizes that the flower is the strangeness that he's been sensing in the lab from the moment he walked in the front door.

Doctor Chance speculates that this must be some sort of rare lotus that only grows in extreme volcanic conditions. As lotus flowers are known for unusual medicinal properties, it is clear that this is some sort of unusual drug interaction. Blake is unconvinced, there is something here that the good doctor's science cannot explain.

Meanwhile outside, Leclerc decides that it would be a good time to search the perimeter. Hiding in the darkness, he sees the russian agent, with at least a dozen heavily armed goons, heading up the path to the lab!

tune in next week for the next exciting adventure!


Not a lot of game commentary outside of the inline comments. I'm not sure that SOTC needs a fumble system, which the "-4" rule seems to provide. But, I suppose this is a way to encourage players to not always reroll every -4 they get.

I burned a lot of fate points this session, often in pairs to get high results when I really needed them. It dropped me down to 2, although by the end of session we were given a couple each for the next leg. Basically, since we're doing a longer adventure, Dean wants us to not have our fate pools totally drained along the way by the various combats. My take is, I don't mind that my fate points were down, I used them at character appropriate moments, and if in the next leg other people have more fate points, they'll just have more "screen time" than the good doctor.

Still experimenting with maneuvers and declarations, as you can see from some of the examples here.