Post by lysimachus on Nov 1, 2016 14:34:36 GMT
Being a tale from the Malifux Campaign in which our hero, brave and plucky Leviticus, leads his crew of mercenaries, demons, manifestations of the void and strange semi-mechanical undead things towards his glorious future.
The story so far - after sending his crew of assorted ruffians out on various missions, from each of which they have returned victorious and only slightly bloody, our hero has now decided to lead them out in person, feeling the hand of destiny gently pushing him in the back, thrusting him towards who knows where. His first effort to do so was slightly embarrassing as Leviticus picked up the first “injury” his crew had suffered, a bounty placed upon his head by the nefarious Neverborn. In this week's episode our leading man has heard tales of forbidden knowledge scattered around some ruins in the Quarantine zone. Looking for revenge on those who’ve wronged him, he hopes to discover new weapons and powers. Unfortunately the shifty and secretive “Ten Thunders” society also thinks that this spot is a nice place to hide out and commit one of their foul rituals. Now read on for this (even more poorly written) description of events:
“Well, at least the ground is drier here boss” Friedrich muttered as he strode forwards in his Strong-Arm suit.
“Yes, yes but keep your eyes open, I’m sure we won’t be the only ones looking here” Leviticus testily replied. He’d heard rumours that a collection of tomes and writings on arcane matters had been left in this part of the quarantine zone and was sure that he wasn’t the only one. A quick trip in to “salvage” the books and then back home before they bumped into anyone else, especially any Neverborn looking to collect the bounty, would suit him fine.
“Over here boss” called Hannah as she spotted an interesting looking folio just outside one of the damaged buildings. “Looks like the rumours are right”.
Leviticus turned to his crew “OK, you all know the drill. Fan out, find the books and keep everyone else away” and, so saying, he turned and strode into the nearest ruin.
Dust and Ashes swept round one of the ruins and his eyes glowed as he spotted another sheaf of papers blown up against an ragged hedge. However, as he moved towards them several shadowy figures slipped forwards, hurling small discs of metal at him before dancing away. Stung by their impudence the winds swirling round Dust and Ashes rose in ferocity.
Leviticus’ attention was drawn towards the enraged demon. As he looked he spotted several heavily armed figures moving towards his crew before they seemed to disappear behind a cloud of steam. He threw himself into cover as he shouted at others to do likewise. Friedrich, clearly trusting in the protection from his armour, instead headed around one of the buildings towards another volume that apparently lay discarded on the ground. As he did so a giant of a man, surrounded by what appeared to be servants, emerged from the steam to unleash a torrent of fire at Friedrich from his huge canon, physically battering the Freikorpsman back into the building. Then, with a roar, a tall, bald and heavily muscled rail worker stepped out of the mist and hurled burning coals at the staggered mercenary. Somehow, despite covering poor Friedrich, they fell away from him and inflicted no further hurt.
Leviticus was enraged to see his employees treated this way. “Make him suffer” he shouted as Alyce opened up with her trusty Collier pistol. The burly rail worker twisted and turned, but couldn’t avoid all of the fusillade. Then Leviticus himself stepped forwards, extending his hand and pulling at the bonds that made the shovel wielding man who he was. As his target slumped to the ground, undone in the face of this assault, a weird wind shrieked across the land. Leviticus felt a rush of warmth, a sense of being unmade himself, and then found that he was atop a strange, seemingly undead, mount with a feeling of power rushing through him.
Over to his left Ashes and Dust was still being harassed by the metals stars thrown by the masked strangers, but he had swept forwards and turned one of them into a vicious little abomination that was now chasing the others while the rest of the Freikorps were moving up.
Jayanne stepped forwards to attend to Friedrich’s injuries, but for some reason despite all her power the wounds would not heal. Enraged, Friedrich threw himself into the cloud of steam, raining down blows on the huge man with the large Gatling cannon. As big as he was, he was no match for the power in the suit. But Friedrich, in his anger, had not spotted the other shapes in the mist. From left and right he was struck again and again, mobbed by rail workers and man in an ornate, far eastern, suit of armour. The rest of the crew pushed forwards and his assailants fled, but not before leaving Friedrich unconscious on the ground.
Looking round Leviticus could see the rest of the attackers falling back and away. “Let them go” he called to his crew, “We’ve more than enough to do here”. He turned to the survey the ruins. Perhaps the rumours were true as he hoped, maybe somewhere in one of these buildings was the secret of banishing the strange spirit of a young child from this world forever. As he mused on this and dismounted his unusual steed, he heard the sounds of approaching hoof-beats. Looking round he smiled as he saw the approaching rider. “Yes” he thought, “it is beginning…”
So, a large (90 SS or so) game against Dean’s Ten Thunders crew. The Strategy was “Squatter’s Rights” with Levi on the attack again and Dean needing to contest the central marker as the defender I went for “Make them suffer” and “Assassinate” as my schemes, Dean for (I think) “Bodyguard” and “Arcane Ritual”. The special terrain were a couple of arcane tomes that allowed the drawing of two cards on an interact action. . The game was pretty much over by the end of turn three. My scheme runners quite quickly grabbed the necessary strategy markers. Dean tried to run his three Tokerage against Dust and Ashes. On finding that not only was D&A immune to poison, but he had a very nasty threat range, could turn them into Abominations on a charge and that he could come back from being destroyed the remaining two moved away along Dean’s deployment zone. In the middle, Dean tried to create a firebase with two rail workers, Kang, Fuhatsu, a Samurai and Mei Feng, who vented steam a lot to provide a cover bonus. It didn’t quite work as it was a little too far from the central marker, Dean seldom had a good hand to cheat fate and the Black Joker popped up when he tried to shovel coals all over the Strong-Arm suit. It didn’t all go my way, I drew the Black Joker when trying to heal the Strong-arm suit, burned a fair number of soulstones to get Kang, and then my Red Joker made its first appearance when flipping for the Strong-arm suit to be finished off! Before going down the Strong-arm had, with Alyce and Leviticus, accounted for Fuhatsu, Kang and the Samurai as well as the activations of both Rail Workers. With most of his big hitters down Dean chose to avoid any further unpleasantness. I think a bit more pressure on D&A and/or Levi might have paid off as both were low on wounds, my waifs weren’t in great places and the parts of D&A are tough but could be knocked out by a concentrated effort.
I've written these two up as the event for this week of the campaign meant we were playing story encounters. I make no claim to any quality as a fiction writer, but if people would like to see more write ups like this I'd be happy to try and oblige.
Mike
The story so far - after sending his crew of assorted ruffians out on various missions, from each of which they have returned victorious and only slightly bloody, our hero has now decided to lead them out in person, feeling the hand of destiny gently pushing him in the back, thrusting him towards who knows where. His first effort to do so was slightly embarrassing as Leviticus picked up the first “injury” his crew had suffered, a bounty placed upon his head by the nefarious Neverborn. In this week's episode our leading man has heard tales of forbidden knowledge scattered around some ruins in the Quarantine zone. Looking for revenge on those who’ve wronged him, he hopes to discover new weapons and powers. Unfortunately the shifty and secretive “Ten Thunders” society also thinks that this spot is a nice place to hide out and commit one of their foul rituals. Now read on for this (even more poorly written) description of events:
“’Hold on! That's my Apocalypse!’ or ‘Where's my Avatar?’"
“Well, at least the ground is drier here boss” Friedrich muttered as he strode forwards in his Strong-Arm suit.
“Yes, yes but keep your eyes open, I’m sure we won’t be the only ones looking here” Leviticus testily replied. He’d heard rumours that a collection of tomes and writings on arcane matters had been left in this part of the quarantine zone and was sure that he wasn’t the only one. A quick trip in to “salvage” the books and then back home before they bumped into anyone else, especially any Neverborn looking to collect the bounty, would suit him fine.
“Over here boss” called Hannah as she spotted an interesting looking folio just outside one of the damaged buildings. “Looks like the rumours are right”.
Leviticus turned to his crew “OK, you all know the drill. Fan out, find the books and keep everyone else away” and, so saying, he turned and strode into the nearest ruin.
Dust and Ashes swept round one of the ruins and his eyes glowed as he spotted another sheaf of papers blown up against an ragged hedge. However, as he moved towards them several shadowy figures slipped forwards, hurling small discs of metal at him before dancing away. Stung by their impudence the winds swirling round Dust and Ashes rose in ferocity.
Leviticus’ attention was drawn towards the enraged demon. As he looked he spotted several heavily armed figures moving towards his crew before they seemed to disappear behind a cloud of steam. He threw himself into cover as he shouted at others to do likewise. Friedrich, clearly trusting in the protection from his armour, instead headed around one of the buildings towards another volume that apparently lay discarded on the ground. As he did so a giant of a man, surrounded by what appeared to be servants, emerged from the steam to unleash a torrent of fire at Friedrich from his huge canon, physically battering the Freikorpsman back into the building. Then, with a roar, a tall, bald and heavily muscled rail worker stepped out of the mist and hurled burning coals at the staggered mercenary. Somehow, despite covering poor Friedrich, they fell away from him and inflicted no further hurt.
Leviticus was enraged to see his employees treated this way. “Make him suffer” he shouted as Alyce opened up with her trusty Collier pistol. The burly rail worker twisted and turned, but couldn’t avoid all of the fusillade. Then Leviticus himself stepped forwards, extending his hand and pulling at the bonds that made the shovel wielding man who he was. As his target slumped to the ground, undone in the face of this assault, a weird wind shrieked across the land. Leviticus felt a rush of warmth, a sense of being unmade himself, and then found that he was atop a strange, seemingly undead, mount with a feeling of power rushing through him.
Over to his left Ashes and Dust was still being harassed by the metals stars thrown by the masked strangers, but he had swept forwards and turned one of them into a vicious little abomination that was now chasing the others while the rest of the Freikorps were moving up.
Jayanne stepped forwards to attend to Friedrich’s injuries, but for some reason despite all her power the wounds would not heal. Enraged, Friedrich threw himself into the cloud of steam, raining down blows on the huge man with the large Gatling cannon. As big as he was, he was no match for the power in the suit. But Friedrich, in his anger, had not spotted the other shapes in the mist. From left and right he was struck again and again, mobbed by rail workers and man in an ornate, far eastern, suit of armour. The rest of the crew pushed forwards and his assailants fled, but not before leaving Friedrich unconscious on the ground.
Looking round Leviticus could see the rest of the attackers falling back and away. “Let them go” he called to his crew, “We’ve more than enough to do here”. He turned to the survey the ruins. Perhaps the rumours were true as he hoped, maybe somewhere in one of these buildings was the secret of banishing the strange spirit of a young child from this world forever. As he mused on this and dismounted his unusual steed, he heard the sounds of approaching hoof-beats. Looking round he smiled as he saw the approaching rider. “Yes” he thought, “it is beginning…”
So, a large (90 SS or so) game against Dean’s Ten Thunders crew. The Strategy was “Squatter’s Rights” with Levi on the attack again and Dean needing to contest the central marker as the defender I went for “Make them suffer” and “Assassinate” as my schemes, Dean for (I think) “Bodyguard” and “Arcane Ritual”. The special terrain were a couple of arcane tomes that allowed the drawing of two cards on an interact action. . The game was pretty much over by the end of turn three. My scheme runners quite quickly grabbed the necessary strategy markers. Dean tried to run his three Tokerage against Dust and Ashes. On finding that not only was D&A immune to poison, but he had a very nasty threat range, could turn them into Abominations on a charge and that he could come back from being destroyed the remaining two moved away along Dean’s deployment zone. In the middle, Dean tried to create a firebase with two rail workers, Kang, Fuhatsu, a Samurai and Mei Feng, who vented steam a lot to provide a cover bonus. It didn’t quite work as it was a little too far from the central marker, Dean seldom had a good hand to cheat fate and the Black Joker popped up when he tried to shovel coals all over the Strong-Arm suit. It didn’t all go my way, I drew the Black Joker when trying to heal the Strong-arm suit, burned a fair number of soulstones to get Kang, and then my Red Joker made its first appearance when flipping for the Strong-arm suit to be finished off! Before going down the Strong-arm had, with Alyce and Leviticus, accounted for Fuhatsu, Kang and the Samurai as well as the activations of both Rail Workers. With most of his big hitters down Dean chose to avoid any further unpleasantness. I think a bit more pressure on D&A and/or Levi might have paid off as both were low on wounds, my waifs weren’t in great places and the parts of D&A are tough but could be knocked out by a concentrated effort.
I've written these two up as the event for this week of the campaign meant we were playing story encounters. I make no claim to any quality as a fiction writer, but if people would like to see more write ups like this I'd be happy to try and oblige.
Mike
