This
was the first session we’ve had where a group member was unable to attend. Max’s player got called into work for some
overtime, and he doesn’t have the luxury of saying no. I was concerned if he would take offense at
the session going ahead without him, given his relative inexperience with
tabletop gaming, but he was pretty gracious about the whole thing. I’m not really surprised, he is a cool guy, but when it’s the first
time gaming with someone you still have to play some cards carefully until you
know how they’ll react. At another
friend’s insistence (the guy who plays Carlin), I tried to get yet another
friend to fill in on Max for the session.
Unfortunately, he had an online algebra exam to take for college; so in
the end I wound up running Carlin as an NPC, a concept I am uneasy with. As a GM I always hate running player
characters as NPC’s; mainly because I set the stage to get a reaction OUT of
the players, not to play out the reaction FOR them. Also, it makes it hard to be an objective member
of conversations and planning when you know the inner workings of the
plot. I’m thankful that Max is played as
a relatively quiet outsider, as opposed to one of the more vocal or boisterous
members of the party. It also makes
combat a tricky proposal; killing a
character when their player isn’t present is a taboo in my book, but that
doesn’t mean the character should be invulnerable in the absence of the person
who should be pulling the strings. That
exact conundrum raised its ugly head this session.
Session 3: Martyrs
in the Mine
At the
end of the last session Vincent had been locked in psychic combat with a
strange smoky figure in astral space. After
trying to explore the mine from astral space he had noticed a strange glow down
one of the passageways, but as he followed the light it began to dim until he
was left in utter blackness. The
menacing voice of Uriah greeted him, and then the black figure crying tears of
silver formed from the surrounding darkness.
In its hands a psi-sword of a deep red, glowing like a blade fresh from
the forge, threatened to sever the thin silver thread which linked Vincent’s
consciousness to his body. It had
underestimated Vincent’s prowess though, and he unleashed a torrent of psychic
force which pushed the creature back and gave him the time he needed to escape
its reach and return to his body. The
rest of the players, unaware of what was happening, were startled when Vincent
suddenly bolted upright in a cold sweat.
With Vincent’s consciousness safely back in Calico, the players tried to
organize themselves and come up with a plan to deal with Uriah Fray. They had just under a week before the TK Iron
Horse would arrive, a mine full of cyborg miners to liberate, a strange and
powerful creature to contend with, and a psychotic cybernetic preacher
seemingly behind it all.
Despite
the late our, the players approached Winston, eager to find out if he or Mina
had any information on the thing which had chased Vincent. Winston expressed surprise that there had
been anything other than the cyborgs in his mine, but refused the party access
to Mina. He tersely explained that his
daughter was prone to episodes of extreme migraines, a side effect of her power
which had plagued her for years. She was
resting, and Winston warned that he had seen her flay a man’s flesh from his
bones with her mind the last time she had been interrupted. Despite the party’s insistence, Winston still
refused. They would have to wait until
Mina was sufficiently rested. Winston
did, however, grant the party access to one of his best robotics technician in
order to analyze the neural translator that the party had recovered. Winston commented that the cyborg who had
dropped it must have been Jeremiah Ward, his former mine foreman. Jeremiah had always argued in favor of
increasing the miner’s share of the profits, Winston explained, but had never
given any sign that he was willing to resort to taking the mine by force. I asked those present at the conversation
with Winston to save vs. psychic attack, but no one made their roll, so they
were unaware that Mina had been
psychically eavesdropping on their conversation.
After
returning to the RV the party agreed that rest was in order, they would never
be able to look at the problem objectively if they were exhausted. Ivan, pragmatic to the last, decided to
station himself outside on the edge of Calico facing the mine while he slept. If there was any motion coming from the camp,
his sensors may have a chance of catching it before the party was caught
unawares. It was around dawn that just
this occurred, though the commotion at the mine was too distant even for his
enhanced vision to detect. He alerted
the rest of the group, who shook off their exhaustion and gathered at the edge
of town. To find out exactly what was
happening at the head of the mine someone would have to attempt to sneak into
the mining camp. Eve, being the most
highly trained among those with the prowl ability, volunteered to make the
reconnaissance as long as the party stood ready to assist her if required. As she began to pick her way carefully
towards mining camp under cover Carlin and Max walked to Leonard’s shop and
began to work with him on breaking the encryption of the neural
translator. With help Leonard was able
to identify the code, but was unfamiliar with the encryption used on it. Luckily, Max was a skilled hacker. Though he would not be able to fully operate
the neural translator Leonard would be
able to program a wireless frequency that could disrupt it, essentially
paralyzing the miners. All that was
needed now was to find the frequency that Uriah was broadcasting his control
commands on.
Meanwhile,
Eve had finally arrived at the outskirts of the mining camp. She crept from building to building to the
best of her skill, but was unable to avoid being noticed by the advanced sensor
systems of the cyborgs. Two of them
flanked her as she approached the vantage point she hoped to recon from, and
Ivan prepared to come rushing to her aid.
Strangely neither of the cyborgs attacked, they simply stared at her
before the lead of the two pointed with his drill toward the front doors to the
main mine shaft. Rounding the corner at
the cyborg’s silent insistence Eve finally saw what had tripped Ivan’s sensors
at daybreak. The cyborgs had constructed
a crucifix from two segments of thick steel girders. Upon this metal cross they had welded
Jeremiah Ward, the foreman who had slipped them the neural translator the day
before. His frame bore signs of heavy
damage, no doubt done by his enslaved compatriots at Fray’s direction. They had even ripped off the drill from his
right arm and thrust it through his left side in a grim parody of the Spear of
Longinus. As Eve sat staring at the
grisly spectacle before her the cyborgs walked slowly past her back towards the
mine. With a final look back one of them
reminded her that they were warned not to return. Eve was not going to wait for permission to
leave, she made her way back to Calico as fast as her legs would carry her,
meeting Ivan halfway back to relay news of Ward’s death.
Playing the Long Game
The
party reassembled, they needed to discuss how they were going to proceed. Something besides Fray was down in the mine,
or at least protecting it from psychic intrusion. Furthermore, how has Fray known that Ward had
given the party the neural translator?
Eve and Vincent each voiced the opinion that Mina warranted closet
examination, despite the risk that was associated with disturbing her. As the most powerful psychic in the area she
should be able to provide them some insight, though Vincent voiced his concern
that Mina herself might be the problem.
Carlin objected, Winston was their employer and had made his opinion of
contact with Mina perfectly clear. It
was better to risk whatever was in the mine than a company of hostile full
sized combat robots. Opinion on how to
proceed was split, so the group decided to try and obtain a bit more
information before proceeding. Izzy and
Eve went to the central building of the camp, where the outfit kept their
supplies, food, and liquor. While there
Eve would keep an eye out for Mina while Izzy used a spell to enhance her
charisma and speak to members of the mercenary company who might be able to
provide some insight on Mina. She
succeeded with both rolls, though there was not much information to be
had. Mina had been with them since late
adolescence, and Winston never hesitated to use her when he felt the need was
called for. Everyone was aware of the
migraine episodes she would get with the exercise of her powers, but it never
seemed to cause Winston to hesitate.
Ivan,
struggling to find a way to make stay useful as the day passed, began to hop
radio frequencies in the hope of finding something out of the ordinary which
could indicate the channel Uriah was broadcasting his control code on. He succeeded, though not quite as
spectacularly as he hoped for. He found
the frequency itself, but discovered that Fray was using a rotating encryption
that changed every 10 minutes. Ivan was
familiar with encryption, but was only able to crack one of the four ciphers
that rotated on the command channel.
Once Leonard finished his work on the neural translator the group would
have a way to take out the mining cyborgs.
The trick was, they would only have a ten minute window to act inside
of. And they still didn’t have a means to broadcast the signal. Carlin and Ivan suggested walking one of the
robots to the edge of the mine camp to broadcast it, but Leonard commented that
the strength of the signal coming out
of the mine was stronger than what he would be able to push out a combat
robot’s systems. Izzy and Eve also
reminded them of the threat that Fray had made to detonate the mine’s
explosives if the robots approached the entrance. Leonard offered a spare radio module off of
one of the robots, but it was easily over 400 pounds and would only work over a
short range (GM Note: 50 meters). Ivan
could carry it, but it would be slow going.
The means to neutralize the cyborgs was theirs, now they turned their
attention back to Mina.
Eve and
Vincent agreed that they would take a closer look. Eve would station herself at the storage
building where Mina and Winston stayed, while Vincent attempted to use psychic
clairvoyance to see if a vision of the future could give him any insight into
Mina’s condition. He succeeded in seeing
a glimpse of her future, but only a vague image of her curled on her bed, knees
clutched to her chest as she wept in a dark room. Winston had been telling the truth about what
her powers did to her. Eve, having spent
several long hours waiting, finally caught Mina as she left her room for a
bottle of water. Her eyes were tired and
bloodshot, and she was not inclined to answer Eve’s questions. She denied any knowledge of a force in the
mine, stating that upon their initial arrival there had only been a grigleaper
nest in the lower tunnels. Furthermore,
she had scanned Uriah on his arrival but found no sign of his intent. She insisted that only a jumble of religious
rambling and imagery filled the cyborg’s mind.
She refused to answer further questions, and left Eve frustrated in the
storage building as she returned to her room.
Carlin, Eve, and Izzy took this information to Winston, hoping to
persuade him that Mina was possibly involved with what was occurring in the
mine. Without evidence, however, they
succeeded only in angering the veteran commander. Though he acknowledged that Mina had blamed
him for her condition (his mother had been a psychic, and they suspected that
Mina’s power had been inherited from his bloodline), he refused to consider the
possibility that his daughter would betray him.
Unintended Consequences
It had
been two days since the group’s first contact with Uriah, and time was running out. While they still had no Carlin had begun to
grow restless, insisting that if they were going to take action they needed to
do it and be done with the whole affair.
Eve and Ivan, while neither relished a frontal assault, agreed that they
needed to act sooner than later. Vincent
and Izzy were hesitant to take direct action, as the need to preserve life was
equal in importance to keeping the mine intact.
One way or another the group needed answers that only Mina could
provide. Vincent, desperate to avoid
unnecessary violence, decided that he would risk the wrath of Winston and
confront Mina with their suspicions. She
had finally come out from her seclusion, and was taking stock of the camp’s
equipment when Vincent found her. The
conversation was blunt, and while Vincent attempted some degree of subtlety and
compassion Mina almost immediately ascertained Vincent’s intent. She attempted to scan him, but his psychic
powers allowed him to block her intrusion.
Things were getting tense, and Mina was quickly losing control. Vincent asked her if she knew what had
happened to Jeremiah, and a look of suspicion and concern crossed her
face. He explained that Uriah had Ward
killed, probably for learning that he had assisted the party in discerning how
Fray was controlling the miners. Mina
demanded that Vincent open his mind and allow her to see it for herself, she
would not take his word on face value alone.
He consented, and Mina saw the truth for herself.
Mina,
overwhelmed with guilt, finally acknowledged the truth. She had been helping Fray all along. Somehow he had known about the price of her
power, and when he had first arrived in Calico he had shown her how his promise
of cybernetic conversion could take her power (and her curse) away. Caught up in this vision, she agreed to help
him take the mine from her father. He
would use it, and both the copper and the profit from it, to help create a
force of converted cyborgs to spread his vision of the third testament. Enslaving the miners, and killing Jeremiah,
had never been a part of the deal though.
She admitted that she had attacked Vincent in the mine, though she only
intended to scare him and keep him from exploiting one of Fray’s few
weaknesses. She warned that Fray had
brought more of his converted bandits through an old side passage into the
mine, and had set up some sort of broadcast equipment they had carried with
them. Vincent asked for her help, but
she refused to involve herself in a way that could betray her involvement to
her father. She implied that he used her
like a tool, exploiting her abilities when it suited him with little regard for
the price she paid. She would stay out
of the party’s way, and stop helping Fray, but she needed something in
return. Once the mine was back in her
father’s hands, she wanted the party to get her away from Winston. She didn’t care how they did it, but she
wanted to escape his grasp. Vincent
agreed, even convincing her to escort him through astral space to discover the
layout of the mine and location of Fray and the miners.
Safely
back from the astral realm, Vincent relays his findings as the party makes the
finishing touched on the mobile broadcast unit.
Beside the seven remaining mining cyborgs (five of which were on guard
on the surface at the entrance to the main mine shaft) there were seven people
in the mine split between two chambers, though Vincent was unable to find out
which one was Fray. Eve, Vincent, and
Izzy (following Mina’s directions) located the dried aquifer which Fray had
used to smuggle his bandits and their broadcast device into the mine. Though time was running short, they
unanimously agreed that given the time sensitive nature of their assault a
proper reconnaissance of the tunnel was in order. It took laborious hours of crawling on their
hand and knees, but the three of them eventually found the bandit’s path. Eve even managed to detect the hasty landmine
trap which had been set up near the end of the tunnel, easily disarming it with
her knowledge of advanced demolitions.
Marking the passage the three pulled back to Calico, rest and planning
was called for before the final assault began.
Shots in the Dark
Reassembled
and rested, the party plotted their approach to the mine. Two goals needed to be accomplished in a very
confined timeline if they were to be successful in retaking the mine with
minimal casualties.
11.
Unless they wanted to deal with seven enslaved
full conversion cyborgs, the broadcast unit Fray was using to interface with
the neural translators had to be destroyed.
22.
The detonator for the explosives Fray had rigged
in the mine had to be destroyed, or they would all die if he had a chance to
trigger it.
The group, wisely, reasoned that since the cultists in the
caverns were split into two groups it stood to reason that the broadcast unit
was in one location, and the detonator at the other. They would split into two groups, each tasked
with one of the groups. Vincent, Max,
and Izzy would use the aquifer to access the rear entrance to the mine, with
Max using his pyrokinesis to burn a hole through the steel bars which blocked
the end of the tunnel. They would recon
the mine, hoping to locate the detonator and the disposition of the two mining
cyborgs in the main before their comrade’s arrival. Since Uriah’s psychic spy in their midst was
gone, they knew he had no knowledge of their ability to disrupt his neural
interface with the cyborgs. In order to
capitalize on this, the first group would make a frontal assault in order to
draw as many of them as possible out before triggering the interference
device. Eve, Ivan, and Carlin would take
the front entrance, blow the main generator on the top floor of the main mine
shaft, and then descend to the mine and regroup with the others. Once down they would send the elevator back
to the surface, and then blow the secondary generator in order to stall the
five borgs on the surface if their assaulted ran beyond the ten minute window
their interference would buy them.
Timing was the crucial element, and as the team split to attend to their
respective tasks, the evening sun began to set.
The tunnel
group made their way to the aquifer and down the passages and into
position. Max burned a hole through the
wall on schedule. As they made their way
into the tunnels they were relieved to see that Max’s pyrotechnics had not
attracted any attention. They were in an
abandoned section of the mine, and the cultists had obviously trusted in their
hasty mine trap to alert them to any possible incursion. They crept quietly into the heart of the
mine, and found a group of three armed men, not unlike the bandits from the
highway camp, seated around a box with multiple wires and cables running
through into it. They had located the
detonator, but would the guards fight to protect it? Or just trigger it? After the suicidal display at the highway
camp, there was no telling. The tunnel
group opted to wait until the surface group arrived, in order to coordinate
their assaults to minimize any chance that either of the cultist groups coming
to each other’s aid while Eve attempted to defuse the detonator. Though it burned precious seconds, the
important step of locating the detonator had been accomplished and the most immediate
threat to their success was in their sights.
The tunnel group made their way to a side passage off the mine shaft
elevator, where the two bottom cyborgs had come alert at the commotion on the
surface, and waited.
Following their
predetermined timetable, the surface group made their approach just as Max was
making entry into the mine. They strode
calmly and carefully right up to the front door, past the grisly corpse of
Jeremiah Ward, and straight into the main doors. The five cyborgs Fray had stationed on the
surface approached them, their drills springing to life with ominous whines. Ivan hit the radio scrambler, and smiled to
himself in satisfaction as the miner’s drills sputtered out and their massive
metal forms lurched to a halt. The
interference had worked, but the clock had started and it was only a matter of
time until the preacher’s cipher rotated and brought the miners back under
Uriah’s control. Eve took aim and
quickly destroyed the main generator on the top floor of the elevator shaft. After several seconds of anxious waiting, the
back-up generator in the mine kicked on and the surface group stepped onto the
elevator platform and began the three minute descent. The tunnel group, waiting patiently, watched
as the miners on the ground floor suddenly froze in place. The elevator ground to a halt at the base of
the shaft, and their comrades stepped out.
Quickly relaying the location of the detonator, the tunnel group and the
surface group reformed into two assault teams.
Ivan, Eve, and Carlin
sprinted down the tunnel towards the cultists guarding the detonator box. It took the bandits several seconds to
realize they were under assault, though they had assumed defensive positions
behind two mine carts full of ore which blocked the access tunnel the players
were coming down. This engagement had to
start and end quickly, if enough time elapsed that Fray felt there was a real
risk of the detonator box being disabled once shots were fired he may remotely
detonate it anyway. The exchange of fire
was brief, but Carlin and Eve’s well placed small arms fire allowed Ivan to
forcefully move the mine carts out of the way.
Just as the last wounded bandit of the group was crawling towards the
detonator box, Carlin leaped atop a mine cart and managed a critical headshot
which put the deranged fanatic down in a spray of red mist. Eve, being the only player formally trained in
demolitions, quickly began work on the detonator box. Though it was a complex rigging job, the
bandits had not possessed the skill, or forethought, to put anti-tampering
devices on the box or its wireless receiver.
While Carlin sprinted back to the second group, Ivan stood guard as Eve
dismantled the detonator box and receiver.
Though Carlin might wish he had taken a bit more time in a few moments.
Izzy, Vincent, and
Max rushed forward into the second access tunnel as the Ivan, Eve, and Carlin
assaulted the cultists guarding the detonator box and rounded a bend that would
lead them to the second group of cultists that Vincent had located through
astral projection. Their reckless rush,
however, turned out to be very dangerous as a withering storm of laser fire met
the group as it came around the curve in the tunnel. Max, caught full in the chest with a critical
shot from a rifle, was thrown backwards against the tunnel wall and slid
motionless to the floor. Eve and
Vincent, unable to help their friend as multiple shots glanced off their armor,
attempted to take the fight back to the ambushers. Vincent, psi-sword in hand, valiantly charged
the cultists (who had also taken cover behind ore-laden mine carts blocking the
tunnel). With an acrobatic leap he
landed in their midst and immediately engaged two at close range. Izzy, meanwhile, used both her spell craft
and pistol to suppress and distract the third bandit, though her shots often went
wide as her view was complicated in the narrow confines of the darkened tunnel. Vincent was holding his own in the melee, despite
being forcefully grappled and stabbed multiple times with a vibro-knife, he even
managed to knock one cultist’s pistol off target twice before he could take a
fatal shot. The third cultist finally
succumbed to Izzy’s attacks, collapsing backwards in a heap. Desperate to aid Vincent against his
assailants she cast a multiple image spell which gave rise to five illusionary
Izzy’s surrounding her and rushed to the barricade. It would prove to be a fatal moment.
Carlin, finally arriving after leaving the detonator box to Ivan
and Eve, rounded the corner to find Max collapsed and pandemonium raging in the
final access tunnel. He sighted down his
rifle, took careful aim at the head of one of the cultists peaking above the
barricade, and pulled the trigger.
Whatever the reasoning, his shot did not land as intended. Instead, the charged bolt of his TK rifle
struck Izzy full in the back as she attempted to scale the barricade to reach
Vincent. The multiple images she had cast
slowly blinked out one by one until the only thing left was her crumpled,
smoking form on the floor of the tunnel.
Though he had the sense to help Vincent finish off the last two bandits
between them and the chamber with the broadcast equipment controlling the
miners, he was reeling in shock from the realization of what he had done. Time was drawing short, Eve and Ivan had
finally arrived and there was less than a minute left before the control frequency
rotated and the miners were once again under Fray’s control. Ivan and Carlin rushed towards the chamber as
Vincent and Eve, both with the paramedic skill, desperately attempted to save
Izzy’s life.
Within the last chamber of the mine Fray, bible in hand,
slowly rounded the large broadcast array which was sending out his control
frequency to face his assailants.
Without hesitation Carlin took aim and sent one of the last bolts left
in his rifle ripping through the broadcast array. It sputtered, spouted electrical sparks which
showered Fray, and died with a low whine.
The control frequency had been shattered, the miners were free. Fray wordlessly opened his bible to reveal a
remote detonator. He cocked his head at
Ivan, approaching with his massive cybernetic vibro-axe in hand, and pressed
the button. When nothing happened Fray,
realizing that the group had managed to locate and disable the detonator box,
dropped his bible to the ground and spread his arms in a mock show of martyrdom
just as Ivan’s axe crashed down into the side of his neck. The impact drove Fray to his knees, and as
Ivan wrenched the axe free for another swing, he reached towards a gear set
into his chest and twisted it. With a
rapidly quickening series of clicks the gear began to quickly turn. Ivan and Carlin, realizing the mad prophet’s
intent, sprinted from the chamber and took cover just as his twisted form
exploded in a shower of metal and fire.
The priest and his henchmen were dead, the mine was back in
Winston’s hands, and the miners were freed with Jeremiah Ward the only casualty
from the work force. The players,
however, were not as lucky. Max was near
dead, clinging to life through will and the frantic efforts of his
comrades. Izzy was dead. Despite Vincent and Eve’s best efforts, her
soul had slipped its earthly shell and departed. Wounded, demoralized (haunted in some cases),
and exhausted by their tribulations, the group stepped onto the platform which
would return them to them to the light of the surface.
GM NOTES: SPOILERS!
1.
I hate killing PC’s. I will, but it is not something I
relish. Taking joy in the destruction of
a party is a running joke among GM’s, but it is rarely something a GM
relishes. My opinion is that any GM that
does is not worthy of the name, and should be avoid by players at large. I attempted to give Izzy several
chances. Her end came about due to a
critical failure roll of a natural 1 when Carlin took aim at one of the
cultists. Given the tight confines of the
engagement, and the multiple images swirling around Izzy, I felt that friendly
fire was the appropriate course of action.
I gave Carlin the chance to roll for which of the images he would hit,
and he rolled the real Izzy. I then gave
both Vincent and Eve a chance to roll their paramedic skill to save her, but
both failed. Izzy’s player is new to RPG’s;
this is her first PnP game, and her first PC death. To her credit she took it well, and has some
interesting ideas for her next character.
I still feel like crap every time I tell a player to reroll, even if
there are some circumstances where the dice simply do not roll the way anyone
might like them to.
2.
While I hate killing PC’s, it is necessary to
remind players that there are consequences for rushed actions or ill devised
plans. Firing a rifle down a dimly lit
hall when there are multiple friendly players who could veer into the path of that
bullet is dangerous. I don’t think
Carlin’s player was being stupid or reckless; it was a calculated risk he took
to play towards what he had built his character to be (essentially a magical
sniper), and this time it bit him in the ass when the d20 came up 1. This is a game, and the rules are to ENABLE
the fun, but without some degree of enforcement there is no sense of risk. Without risk, the fun in the game is severely
reduced.
3.
Max would have been dead if his player had been
present and made the same decision I made in accompanying the players out into
the ambush. As he was not present, I was
not going to allow his character to die unless the entire group was
overwhelmed. In this case, with Izzy
outright dying, I am stuck in something of a catch 22. I had to kill Izzy, but couldn’t kill
Max. I hate situations like this, but I
think the group understands why I made the decision I did to allow one to die
and the other to live.
4.
Once again Rifts shoddy system needlessly
complicated things. Without exhaustive
research I just don’t see how combat could flow with any sense of pop or
rhythm. Every action has to be referenced
against obscure and seemingly arbitrary rules, with frantic and exhaustive page
flipping in multiple books. Is this
covered by the main book’s original combat rules? Or the alternate/revised shit in the GM’s
guide? A great game device I employed,
starting an ACTUAL 10 min timer when the players switched on their interference
device, got derailed outright as the complexity of the rolls drew the
engagement out. I have made the decision
that, when the time to take a break from Rifts arrives at the end of my current
plotted story arc, I am going to research a new sci-fi system to use in place
of Palladium. Keep the setting, ditch
the rules. If there is anything to say
about Rifts, it’s just that.
5.
This is not the end of Uriah Fray. The one they killed was, in fact, another of
his disciples who had volunteered to stay behind as Fray made his escape at the
first sign of trouble.