Session 3 – Wolves in TechnoSheep’s Clothing

Dramatis Personae:

Loot:

  • The Navigation Chip to a Starship (No Credit value as of yet);
  • A small cache of busted computer bits taken from Knight Seeker Able Tut’s corpse (200gp total / 50gp each);
  • a captured Banudim, drugged with jet. (No credit value as of yet)

Body Modifications:

  • Virgil paid the Techno Priests to fix his robotic arm. The arm’s issue was more complex than the priests knew how to handle at first, but eventually the High Priestess found a lump of black hardened gel within the structure of the arm. She removed it, replaced it with fresh gel, and the arm now works like a normal, super long arm. The repairs were offered to the party at cost, but even so they cost 900 credits.

Injuries Sustained:

  • Roninna was very nearly a victim of the Banudim. As it stands, she lost her nose, broke the side of her jaw open, lost 2 points of charisma, is shaken, took 1 bleed, and 1 pain. Over the month of rest between this session and the next Ronnina’s injuries will heal (though her jaw will remain tender for some time.) However, due to the severe disfigurement she’s suffered, Ronnina’s Charisma loss is permanent.

NPC Relationships

  • Muta Bro was present during this session, but contented himself with standing around quietly holding torches. It’s what he’s paid to do.
  • The Party gained Knight Seeker Able’Tut of the Techno Faith as a companion. Fortunately for the party, Able’Tut was killed by a convenient festival of Banudim.
  • High Priest Tsaros – A plump woman. High priest of the secret chapter of the Techno-Faith within Dukes of the Dome territory. Tasked with finding new relics in Dukes territory, and smuggling them back to Technotopia before the Dukes even know they exist. The party impressed her with tales of visions and quests for The Past Gods. She believed their lies, and sent them into the world in possession of the most valuable piece of technology her expedition will ever find. When the dead body of Knight Seeker Able’Tut is found, she may begin to question her own wisdom in this matter.
  • Clint Blerkinmen – The PCs made his life a bit of a hassle first by making him go to his contact and ask for more money (as if that wasn’t embarrassing enough), but then they sent him along with another message that seemed to concern his contact greatly. He doesn’t know what a “Nav Chip” is, but he knows blackmail when he sees it, and he doesn’t appreciate being involved with it.

Rulings

  • A night’s rest, with a good meal, and a soft bed, recovers 1 hit die worth of HP, as well as removing 1 bleed or pain from the character.
  • The Bushcraft skill can be used to recognize a creature from its spoors, and identify some very basic information. It cannot be used to determine monster weaknesses.

Session Highlights

The party is ushered into the Techno Priest outpost. Services are just beginning, and they’re urged to attend, since the High Priest will be too busy to talk to them before services are over.

Turns out Techno-Faith services consist of a room full of faithful on stationary bikes pedaling like mad for an hour and a half to charge a car battery.

When services end, the party tells the high priest they were told to come here and visit room 404 by a Techno-priest they met out in the sewers. High Priest Tsaros (assuming they must be talking about Knight Seeker Able’Tut’s reconnaissance group) invites the Knight Seeker to join the conversation. He acknowledges that the party did give him proper offering, but that he certainly didn’t tell them anything about Room 404.

Thinking fast, Umquat says it must have been a vision she received in a dream. A successful bluff interaction convinces Tsaros, and she takes the party to room 404. They make a big show of looking over the technology there before dramatically holding the Nav Chip aloft. They say they’ll take it where it needs to go, but Tsaros is reluctant to let such a valuable piece out of her sight. She doesn’t know what it is, but it’s clearly the most valuable piece of tech she’s ever held in her own two hands.

Taking a cue from Umquat, Virgil begins having a seizure accompanied by “visions” of his own, saying the party is meant to take the chip throughout the dome to be worshiped by the faithful. Tsaros is trepidatious about this, but successful bluff checks convince her to allow it. Though she insists that Knight Seeker Able’Tut accompany them as a spiritual guide, since none of them are priests themselves.

The party stays the night, and Virgil finally gets his robotic arm working. After a night’s rest, the party sets out through the sewers. They encounter shells of two dozen sprats, and the party mocks the referee for his lack of biology education. The referee smoothly passes his lack of knowledge off as simply being really good at running NPCs like Able’Tut, who themselves lack a good biology education.

The party manages to avoid the sprats, but runs headlong into a group of Banudim. An epic battle ensues. Ronnina uses magic for the first time, and is brought to death’s doorstep. Galens knocks over the Banudim’s tower (which thankfully had not yet been blessed by the croaking ceremony). Umquat and one of the Banudim get caught in a Zone of Bad Luck for nearly the entire battle, both missing each other over and over and over again, until outside help intervened. Knight Seeker Able’Tut is slain, and his bones are stripped by the Banudim. The battle is long, but the party is victorious.

Once they make it to the surface and back to Fighting Mongoose territory, they hit up their contact, Clint Blerkinmen. They’re dissatisfied with the 3000 credit reward for the nav chip, given the difficulty they underwent to acquire it. They ask for medical expenses, but their negotionation attempt fails. “Injury is part of the job.” The party then decides to blackmail their mysterious employer, and send the message that they know all about what the Nav Chip does.

The party is summoned to meet their mysterious employer, even as they consider shopping around for a better buyer.

NOTE: This session did not end in media res. The next session will take place 1 month after this session, allowing everybody to heal up, and to spend time pursuing whatever interests they may have. However, we’ll open next session with the meeting with the mysterious employer, and we’ll jump ahead one month when that meeting is over.

All in all, a solid session. We finally got through the first adventure, everybody made it out alive, and it was fun spending time with errybody. I really enjoyed seeing all the art from Ronnie and Lindsey. And David made my black little heart warm when he said this game is one of the highlights of his week.

Looking forward to Session 4.