Savage Hyboria Forgotten Islands: Episode 4 "The Tomb of Voltannox" Part 3

After fighting their way through the jungle and into the ruins the band of ex slaves decided to take refuge in a small building that was still mostly intact.  Tired and wounded from their journey they fell asleep without even setting a watch.
Suddenly Rozlynn awoke to an eerie howl.  She immediately shouted an alarm to the others "Wake up!  The creatures are upon us!".  

 More of the undead creatures attacked them along with several twisted and mutated undead hounds.  The hounds attacked with even greater ferocity than before.  Again the party suffered several wounds before destroying this threat.  This time they decided to set a watch before going back to sleep.
 

 Rozlynn took over watch after Racket had his turn.  She noticed a strange winged statue on a nearby building that she had not seen earlier.  Eventually fatigue overtook the Aesir and she began to fall asleep.  Suddenly the roof shook beneath her feet with a loud thud.  Snapping out of her stupor she saw the statue before her raising a taloned claw to strike her.  She barely managed to deflect the strike with her sword as she struggled to her feet.  Racket had heard the commotion on the roof and rushed outside to aid his companion.  The Argosian drew an arrow from his quiver and fired but the missile was deflected by the monsters stone-like skin.  Rozlynn screamed as a taloned claw ripped into her thigh as she rained blow after blow onto the creature.  Though she struck with great strength she did only minor damage to the beast.  Again the creature struck and sent the warrior reeling.  She barely managed to keep from falling off the roof.  Seeing that his bow had done no damage Racket gripped his spear and hurled it at the creatures back with all his strength.  The spear struck the creature square in the middle of it's back and pierced it through it's torso.  The creature screamed and crumbled into many pieces.
Shortly after the battle with the stone creature the sun came up and Rozlynn woke the rest of the party.  They were all amazed that such a battle had not woke them during the night but they decided to be more cautious.    

 As they made their way through the city again they heard the echoing howls of the undead hounds.  They saw a large pack approaching from their front and a small one approaching from their rear.
 

 The creatures discordant barks and howls echoed from the buildings and stone pavement.  The Argosian and the Hyrkanian shot several arrows at the creatures felling a few but the pack charged into them snapping at them with their teeth and slashing at them with their claws.  With no where to run the party fought desperately against the hounds.  The two Aesir stood their ground slashing left and right with their great blades felling several hounds but suffering grievous wounds.

 Within moments they were completely surrounded by the rotting creatures.  Racket and Mon Tau fired arrow after arrow into the beast as the others fought.  Racka and Aziz held off the creatures charging from the rear and Alenna did her best to keep the beast that broke through from attacking their archers.
Eventually the beast were defeated but they were again forced rest in an ruined bakery.

 Near the middle of the ruined city Racket spotted a familiar looking building.  "There at that temple!  That is where Melampos found the clues to the location of the tomb".  The adventurers entered the temple as night began to fall.  It was sparsely decorated but there was a large plaque on the far wall behind the alter inscribed in ancient Stygian.  "I think I can translate this with a little time" Raka said.
 

 Heimdal and Mon Tau took up a position to guard the door.  "Look there!" Mon Tau Shouted.  A hoard of ghouls charged towards the temple from across the square.  "We are going to have company!" Heimdall Shouted.  Mon Tau began to fire arrows into the crowd of ghouls killing several even at great range but still they charged on.  Racket climbed up to the roof and Rozlynn guarded the back door.
  

 Before Racket could fire any arrows into the approaching ghouls one of the flying stone creatures swooped down and attacked him on the roof.  Another attacked Rozlynn at the back door.

 Heimdall and Mon Tau fought at the front door as Raka began to translate the inscription.  Alenna rushed to Rozlynn's aid and they managed to destroy the stone creature trying to get inside.

 After a fierce battle with the stone creatures and the ghouls it looked as if the battle was about to come to an end.  Only a few ghouls attacking the back remained.  As the party closed in on the remaining creatures one of them lashed out and slashed Rozlynn across her mid section.  The Aesir fell back into the temple covered in blood.  Her companions charged the remaining ghouls and destroyed them.

 "Look here Mistress!" Aziz exclaimed "There is a loos stone behind the alter.  Raka removed the stone and uncovered two scrolls.  On one of the scrolls was a map to the Tomb of Voltannox and on the other was a riddle of some kind.  "We can use these to help us find the tomb more easily" explained Raka "Go and check on the others Aziz".

Alenna used her skill and divine power to revive Rozlynn and after they had rested to party assembled and began their journey to find the Tomb of Voltannox.

Notes:  We played this session over nine months ago so this account is somewhat more invented than the others.  The players have finished this adventure but I still have the final chapter to post after this one.  Their final encounter at the Tomb of Voltannox.  They have also had another adventure since then.  We played it just a couple weeks ago.  Hopefully I will get caught up on this campaign soon.   

Savage Hyboria Hero Upgrades for the Forgotten Islands Campaign!

We are about to kick off another leg of our Savage Hyboria Forgotten Islands campaign.  Most of the party have reached the "Seasoned" level in the Savage Worlds rules system and they also just looted the tomb of an ancient undead sorcerer so I decided it was time for an upgrade of their miniatures to more accurately reflect their new gear.  

Project Wraith Episode 2 "Information is Power" game report.

 This is Episode 2 of my new Solar Empires role playing game called "Project Wraith".  The player characters are playing specialist who have had their identity stolen by some kind of hacker known as "Casper".  Casper has been sending them on "jobs" for unknown purposes.  In Episode 1 Casper sent the party to the Greek camp of Jupiter's Trojan asteroids to search for a doctor who had discovered the cure to a dangerous Martian biological weapon.
In this episode Casper sent them to Titania right in the middle of the war zone surrounding Station 42 to meet with a contact who knew the location of Casper's hacker friend known as Starfire.  Casper sent three of his agents.  Spider is a female hacker from Titania.  Vogue is a female public relations specialist from Callisto, and Lone Star is a; gambler, drifter, gunslinger, from Titan.  They met with Casper's contact several kilometers South East of Station 42.

 Unfortunately for the party the meeting was a trap set by the Hell Knight mercenaries.  Six mercenary scouts ambushed the party when the team discovered the true identity of their contact.

Vogue updates her facebook about rolling a critical on her "Look at my boobs" roll she used to distract the bogus contact while Spider maneuvered behind him.

 Spider attempted to subdue their contact while the rest of the team engaged in a gun battle with the mercenary scouts.

 Eventually Spider managed to knock their contact out and then engage the rest of the scouts.  The fire fight was difficult.  Most of the scouts had cover while the team was out in the open.  Eventually the final scout fled the scene after Spider killed the last of his companions.
After defeating the scouts the bogus contact was "convinced" to reveal to the team that he did indeed know where Starfire was hiding but he assured them that the Hell Knights would get to the hacker before they did.

 The team arrived at a small compound about 20 kilometers further South East of their landing position.  Several armed militia members were on the rooftops of the simple structures that made up the compound.

 After convincing the militia members that they were friendly and on an important mission for one of Starfire's associates they were able to meet with militia leader Jim Dutton.

 Just as they were warning Dutton a Hell Knight LAGAREV transport arrived on the scene and blew up one of the small compound buildings with it's scatter laser.

Spider, Lone Star, and Vogue.  I can't remember what was so funny.

 The team immediately took up defensive position to help the militia members defend the compound.  About 10 Hell Knight mercenaries dismounted their transport as the transport's gunner covered them.

 The mercenaries split into two groups and took up positions in cover just outside the compound.  The mercenaries were armed with laser rifles while most of the militia had assault rifles.

 The mercenary LAGAREV was eventually destroyed by; Vogue, Spider, and the militia members.  Lone Star joined Dutton to engage the mercenaries hiding in the rocks.

 Eventually only one mercenary remained alive and only one militia member had been killed.  The mercenary warned the team that they would never get off Titania alive.

The team met with Starfire who told them she had irrefutable proof that the Smith and Wilson Agriculture Company had engaged in illegal dealings with several members of the Titania government and that their seizure of farms and Station 42 was a completely illegal action.  

Starfire agreed to flee Titania with the team but suggested that they gather a force to escort them since the Hell Knights knew where their ship had landed.  

 Before the battle Father Padre, another team member, joined them.  He had been on a separate errand for Casper who had sent him to Titania City aboard a civilian transport to aid them. Jim Dutton gathered his militia including his men and four improvised armored vehicles.  Dutton's forces were joined by a robotic force owned by the enigmatic "Rosie" of Station 42 who also piloted her own Cyclopes mech.
When they arrived at the landing site the Hell Knights had already arrived with three LAGAREVs, one Hobelar tank, an Incubus light mech and two scout squads.
  

The battle was bloody.  Most of Dutton's men were killed and more than half of Rosie's robot troopers were taken out of action.  Rosie's mech was also destroyed but she managed to eject to safety.  The Hell Knights lost half of their infantry forces and two LAGAREVs.  Their mech and tank were also heavily damaged.
The team managed to make it to their ship during the fighting but as they were making a run for the landing ramp a LAGAREV and a lone trooper with a grenade launcher fired on the.  Spider and Lone Star were wounded in the exchange and Starfire was badly wounded and in danger of dying.

As they took off in their ship Father Padre managed to stabilize Starfire with his medical skills.  The team had managed to escape Titania but the militia forces had sacrificed quite a bit for it.  With Casper's resources they should be able to use Starfire's information to completely expose the true nature of the Station 42 War.

Check out the System News Network news report here:  http://systemnewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2014/04/notorious-hacker-starfire-escapes.html
Notes:  This was a tie in between our No Limits campaign on Titania and my new role playing campaign.  We wanted to do an rpg tie in to help us bring the Station 42 War into it's final stage.    

The Scrap Dogs! A space pirate band for Solar Empires

I've got about 20 of these Games Workshop Chaos Cultuist for Warhammer 40,000 which I picked up to used as a pirate band.  The only problem is that they only come in five poses so I'm doing some conversion to add some variety.
These guys will be called "The Scrap Dogs" and will be from the Asteroid Belt.  I've got a mech I'm working on for them as well.  I'm trying to make them look like scavengers which I think the cultist are pretty suited for.  The only problem is that I got the first group together and base coated before I figured out what I am doing with them and I intend to add some scrap piles to their bases.  I think I can just work around the painted ones and either hand paint the junk piles on their bases or hit them with another coat of spray paint.

ESF Strike Force Finished!

I finished up this Earth Security Force Strike Force today.  I know it's small but I don't yet have all the models for this force and as it stands I think this is still over a 1000 point No Limits force.  I'm pretty happy with the way it is turning out so far.  The drones were a pain to get right.  I scratch built their stands then had to epoxy them to them.  It was hard getting the epoxy to set fast enough.  
Next up I plan to add a squad of robotic troopers.  I'll probably go with 6-8 robots for the squad.

Closeup of Ghost Troopers and Wraith Battlesuit WIP: Solar Empires

I'm working on more stuff for my Earth Security Force.  This is a Wraith battlesuit.  It is made from a M.A.R.S. robot toy and is almost five inches tall.  The base is actually some kind of stop plate to keep doorknobs from breaking holes in drywall.  I picked it up at Lowels for two and a half dollars and it is takes paint just fine.  It's solid plastic and looks just like a large model base from GW when painted black.  They also had a larger diameter one that would be good for a larger mecha model.  

Here is a close up shot of one of the Ghost squads.  I'm only adding it here because I got a few request for a larger shot.

Earth Security Force Ghost Troopers

Probably the most feared unit in the entire Solar System the "Ghost Troopers" of the Earth Security Force are highly skilled special operations jump troopers and the only living members of the ESF.  Like everything else associated with the Earth the origins of the Ghost Troopers is a highly guarded secret.  Some speculate that they are all clones or highly advanced androids and it is almost certain that they are cybernetically and or genetically enhanced.  Each trooper wears a holographic suit and a helmet armed with a pair of mandible blasters for close combat.  Regular troopers carry a light rail gun and each squad is supported by a trooper armed with an advanced scatter laser.  Each trooper is also equipped with a jet pack and are trained to be experts in their use.