Stalingrad

The Kids finished up the first Dragonlance module earlier this week… and I’ll get back to that… but on Savage Saturday we have four MIA to three showing up so I decided to roll out the WWW2 stuff for a return to the old BPO Campaign….

Stalingrad, September 1942

SITUATION

After the last mission the unit was sent to a remote base in the urals for convalescence and training. They spent some time in the late summer investigating reports of paranormal occurrences that turned out to be nothing and in September were sent south the Stalingrad front.

Yesterday at dawn the Germans launched another attack that took over part of the city that housed the local BPO offices. The Unit was brought in to try and recover or destroy any records, artifacts, or personnel that may have been left behind.

Serzhant Trotsky and his squad were given this mission. Attached was BPO Psykic Leytnant Putyatin and a new recruit Sergei Karamanov (a very sneaky scout which Curtis made up this evening because he hadn't played in this campaign previously)


SCENARIO

The Players need to cross behind enemy lines, locate the ruined BPO office and attempt to recover any records, artifacts, or personnel and retire back across to friendly lines


THE GAME
(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Curtis, Dave, and Amanda and the ruins of Stalingrad.

Without really planning things out they all just tromped across the front following Karamanov. Though Karamanov cross the front like a ghost, Sgt. Trotsky’s squad, who’d perhaps had a bit too much liquid courage befreo setting off struck up a marching song - or something like that – which attaracted the attention of a German squad hiding in some ruins along the front.


There was a brief exchange of wild fire and the soviets scattered to cover. Anya Putyatin started melting the Germans brains with her mind… One dropped to the ground, blood pouring out of his ears and eyes, screaming in agony…


Another couple were similarly dealt with as the Russians consolidated into cover.


Not having great cover Trotsky’s squad decided to dash for a more intact building, but that drew fire from some previously unseen foes.


One of Trotsky’s Squad fell.


The shooters were form a squad of veteran SS that were sitting in the building they were to locate. Unbeknownst to the Soviet team there were captured BPO personnel in there and some rather nasty Gestapo types types…


Another German at the front line is dealt with by Lt. Putyatin, their sole remaining comrades slinks into a corner to hide.


Sgt. Trotsky rushed out of cover to shoot the remaining German.

Karamanov had long since abandoned these noisy idiots and was trying to sneak around the flank on his own…


At almost the exact same moment a team of German Feldpolizei and Karamanov spotted each other another firefight erupted!


Sgt. Trotsky’s squad reached the front of a building across from where the SS and Feldpolizei were firing from cover.


Between the SS and a pair of Gestapo thugs that joined in the fight, two of Trotsky’s squad were shot down, and the remaining two shaken.


Karamanov shot one of the Feldpolizei shattering the others morale.


Another of Trotsky’s men had been shot, but Lt. Putyatin had finally caught up and for the first time in all the games I’ve played made use of the Combat Medic edge and brought him back into play! Huzzah!


Hans and Gunter, the Gestapo Thugs, are shot down by Sgt. Trotsky.


The Feldpolizei taking more casualties.


With Hans and Gunther down the SS moved their LMG team to the side of the building to deal with Sgt. Trotsky. Lt. Putyatin, back on the offensive, scrambled the gunners brain, and Sgt. Trotsky finished the two of htem off.


The last of the Feldpolizei goes down.


Another SS soldier shot down.


Taking no more fire from the building occupied by the Feldpolizei, Karamanov decided to make a dash across – only to be shot down by another MG team down the street which had been waiting, in hiding, on hold... Seven wounds. SEVEN!? I don't think he even knew what hit him?!

Curtis noted that that was the first character he’d played that had been outright killed…. (he had just made him up this evening!)


The SS taking more casualties.


And antoher one bites the dust…

It was a pretty drawn out firefight so I said the important people that were in the building had plenty of time to get away…


Again Sgt. Trotsky’s squad takes casualties.


And, again, Lt. Putyatin brings one back into play!


The last of the SS put out of action.


Sgt. Trotsky enters the building. There was little left behind, that he could see, so he planted his demolition charge in the middle to destroy anything remaining and scarpered.


German reinforcements arrive and they soviets try to make a run for it!


Escaping from the advancing reinforcements meant running directly into the field of fire of the MG that took out Karamanov! Luckily Lt Putyatin had scrambled the brain of the gunner the previous turn and he was unable to recover before the end of the game (seriously he made five attempts to recover from beign shaken and just couldn’t do it!?)


The last few turns endedup being and intense chase through the ruined streets of Stalingrad!


The last surviving member of Trotsky’s squad was shot down and Putyatin, who was also injured, couldn’t save him… again…


A lucky Joker probably saved Lt. Putyatin’s life – who had been shot a second time and was up to THREE WOUNDS. The joker helped her recver from being shaken which got her just about around the corner, out of the fields of fire of the pursuing Germans.


Last turn – Trotsky man-handled Lt. Putyatin over the last wall into cover and relative safety of the soviet front lines…

In Sgt. Trotsky’s report he likely declaired that the building was located and all remaining records and artifacts were destroyed… of course they will never know how much was carted away by the Gestapo before they got there…

Of Sgt. Trotsky’s Squad two were seriously wounded and were finished off by the Germans. The three others were lightly wounded. Two were captured while the third snuck into cover and hid. He escaped back across the front to soviet lines six days later. The two captured Russians were interrogated but assumed to know nothing of importance. They were later transported to a camp in Poland where they remained until they were liberated in early 1945 – miraculously surviving their ordeal….

On the German side… of the five Germans holding the front line three were seriously addled by Putyatin’s psykic attack and were convalesced back to Germany and spent the rest of their lives in an institution. The two others were left unconscious but recovered to return to the lines in a few days – but suffered from terrible headaches and nightmares for some time. Two of the feldpolizei were seriously wounded and evacuated from Stalingrad, the other two recovered quickly and were returned to duty. Two of the SS were outright killed in action, another was seriously wounded, and the remaining three escaped with minor injuries.

Not sure if there’s going to be any games until the new year... It seems like most people are going to be busy with the holidaze and seasonal festivities over the next three weeks. Maybe I’ll run a few more one-offs like this if anyone is available…

Sla-Mori

Early the next morning (of Day 22) Gilthanas lead the group into the Sla-Mori - the secret entrance to Pax Tharkas that only the Elves know about (well… presumably only a few Elves at that… Anyway…. Into the dark carverns our heroes delved…

The first came to the burial chamber of Kith-Kanan – founder of the Qualinesti, who, with the help of the Dwarves built the fortress of Pax Tharkas. Across his lap (for his remains sat in a large throne of stone) was a great sword that Lorena Whiteswan divined to be embued with some very powerful magic and then realized (with a series of raises on a Knowledge: Arcane roll!) that it must be the legendary Wyrmslayer! Norfindel took the sword – thinking the ancient king would understand they had desperate need of it!

Carrying on through some double doors made of bronze they followed a passage that lead to another hall where they were ambushed by…


SLUG EAT YOUR FACE!

(I was so excited reading ahead to discover that there was actually a GIANT SLUG in this adventure and I’d have an opputunity to use SLUG EAT YOUR FACE!)


Of course with such a big party, even making the giant slug a wild card… he didn’t have much of a chance (good thing the sword wasn’t called Slugslayer…)

After slaying SLUG EAT YOUR FACE! They realized that this was a dead end and headed back to explore a different corridor they had passed along the way here. This lead them back to a crypt with many stone doors down a dark hall. Of course Roscoe Thorngage - being “curious” and all – HAD to check them out…


Oh dear!

ZOMBIES!!


GRAAAARRRR!!!


And on the third turn I got a joker… because they hadn’t quit got a line formed up and I had a few characters more or less surrounded I – with the joker and wild attacks and gang-up bonuses I had +4 to +7 to hit (and +4 to damage, if I hit) – which these useless creature needed…

I actually hit Henry FitzArnulf with a raise… then started rolling sixes for damage… a lot of them… when it was all counted up I’d caused five or six wounds… Jackson who was playing Henry for Christian (who wasn’t there!?) roll a two to soak… fail… bennied that and started raising and raising and ended up soaking ALL of the wounds… it was that kind of night…

I also managed to tag Norfindel for a few wounds and one actually "stuck".


Wall o’Zombies hammering on Wall o’Heroes


I pulled ANOTHER joker two turns later… but this one wasn’t nearly so effective…


Eventually the zombies were whittled away…

In the end Henry FitzArnulf and Roscoe Thorngage had each taken out nine! Norfindel had taken out five, Tika and Gilthanas had taken out three each, “New Guy” and Marcus Cabot both took out two, and Magnus Blackburn had beaten down one with the torch he was carrying… Lorena Whiteswan held her light so everyone could see and managed to cast armour on a couple characters… Goldmoon tried, in vain, to heal norfindel throughout the whole combat…

More Skulking in the Darkness

Picking up where we left off last week I came to the realization that, though it’s been a month in “real life”, they’ve been playing one really long day in the game… the day began With the pegasi depositing the group in a mountain pass overlooking the swampy ruins of Xak Tsaroth at dawn. Since then they walked down the mountainside and into the swamp, been ambushed by draconians while crossing open water on a fallen tree, crossed more bridges and made their way to the central plaza, entered the Temple of Mishakel and fought a bunch of Dragon Hatchlings, Fought some draconians in the upper part of the temple, took the elevator down, fought some more draconians.. then some more .. then some ogres… then some more draconians…. That’s a long day… So I convinced them to fnd a moderately secure location to have a bit of a rest or they might have to start making vigor rolls and suffering fatigue. Their first inclination was to press on – a couple of htem nothing that they were pretty vigourous and could take it…

Eventually they were convinced that some rest was required… A couple (game) hours later a patrol of Draconians searching for the intruders interrupted their slumber…


Caramon and RAistlin were on watch and heard the patrol coming and hastily awakened the others (who started the encounter “shaken”).

They all got pretty good cards and rolled some amazing recovery rolls and were, for the most part, all awake and fighting before the Draconians even took an action!

The group went back to sleep for a couple more hours (hoping that no one would miss the patrol or figure out where they had gone…). After some breakfast they continued their exploration – following their de facto leader - the curious kender (played by the five-year-old…).

The Kender next blundered into the Draconians barracks…


I should not that she’s figured out that, while curious, she can exercise SOME caution in the form of entering new areas with some stealth and observation. While very stealthily entering this room, she was completely oblivious to the rumbling of the snoring draconians… it was Tanis, the half-elf ranger, that drastically failed in his attempt to be stealthy that woke the Draconians.


After the first round of combat…


After another round or so…

These draconians that I originally thought would be too powerful are proving to be little challenge to these seasoned explorers…

After that they Kender lead them on a circuitous tour of the ruined under city eventually returning to where they had come down the elevator to check a door they realized they’d forgotten…


Here they found three more draconians. I decided to make one of them a wildcard sorcerer – just to make it more of a challenge.

Goldmoon got beat down pretty good- Incapacitated with one mighty blow!!

Raistlin cast a 3d6 bolt and hit with a raise (making it 4d6 damage and managed to roll this:


What are the odds of that!? 1:1296!?

The two lesser draconians were easily overcome, but the sorcerer eventually realized he was outclassed and cast obscure and scarpered – to go fetch some reinforcements!

And that’s where we had to call it a day!

I have to admit I’m a little concerned the players might be loosing sight of what they came down here for in the first place – Keira at one point (tired of opening doors and finding more monsters to fight) suggested that they just go back up and leave…!? At one point they had started going in the “right” direction, but then decided to turn back and check out other empty corridors… Do I need to send draconians by the dozen chasing them fro every direction other than where they need to go!? Probably wouldn’t work – they’d just try and stand and FIGHT them all!?

Maybe alert them to the sinister sounds of and undetermined “many” approaching draconians could spur them on their way….

Elvenhome

The Elves that saved our heroes from the Slave Caravan led the group on through the Elvish woodland realm of Qualinesti to the capitol of Qualinost. There they had meetings with the Speaker of the Sun and it was eventually decided that they should go to Pax Tharkas to free the slaves (including some of their own families!) and try to take some of the pressure off the Elves by leading the Dragon Army within off in pursuit in the opposite direction… or something like that…

Gilthanas, The elf they’d met in the caravan, was to lead them to a secret entrance to Pax Tharkas known as the Sla Mori (which only the elves know about).

Along the way they came across the scene of a recent battle – and were ambushed by Draconians.


The Draconians were dealt with in short order…


Amid the bodies and carnage they found one survivor, who joined their merry gang.

In the valley that leads to the Sla Mori they ran into some Ogres


It was supposed to be trolls, but trolls look a little bad-ass in Savage Worlds… of course, considering how fast they dealt with the ogres, I probably could have thrown the trolls at them…

Next Week: Into the Sla Mori to infiltrate the mighty fortress of Pax Tharkas!

Skulking in the Darkness

After two weeks of life intervening since our last session, the kids finally got together for another session of our Savage Worlds Dragon Lance campaign.

Once again the curious Kender led the way, since no one else felt the urge to take the lead or convince Tasselhoff to go any other way…

She was determined to see what was back up the street back the way they had came and strode back in that direction – being none to cautious about it. She got out of the ruined building they had been in and crossed the street and didn’t even notice the Draconians back down the street – where they had came from – investigating the dusty remains of the sentry by the “elevator pot” and just about to form a search party (to find the intruders that had vanquished him). They, however noticed her… and Goldmoon, who was the second out the door.


The Draconians rushed them! The rest of the heroes poured out of the building and dispatched the group of Draconians.

The Kender continued to lead them hither and thither, up and down the ruined streets of the subterranean ruins of Xak Tsaroth. Eventually her wanderings led them into a building occupied by two ogres. I think Keira shrieked… (I very definitely remember her saying “I don’t want to be there!)


The Kender ran for a corner to hide in while the rest of the crew stormed into the room and dealt with the ogres handily…

Again the Kender set off to explore with the companions following… The third and final encounter took place in an ancient armoury


Again a group of Draconians.

I think someone was actually injured in this battle… I should take better notes… or do these up quicker after the game – it’s hard to take good notes while trying to keep the game moving along at a fast, furious, and fun pace!

I think in game terms it must be late-late-late at night… perhaps I’ll have to have them hunker down for a couple hours shut-eye before they press on (or start having them roll for fatigue…)

Hopefully Bruce and the gang will be able to make it again tomorrow and the adventures will rage on!