ASE - Thursday Night Campaign round up

My drop in G+ game of ASE has been going well.

The party (a diverse lot with a few stalwarts) has lost two PCs, several henchman and a pack of pit bulls.  They've also fully entered the Anomalous Subsurface Complex and are beginning to wonder why it exists.

Here's a short recap of what's happened since my last play report.

Elves - they're creepy.

SESSION III - IV

Still based in the refugee overrun town of Marsden, the party adventurers return to the Mute Tower, a local landmark that once housed a two headed wizard.  After exploring the majority of the Mute Tower the party contemplated making it a base of operations, but realized that this would entail a lot more money than they had and that they'd have to hire a force to keep it from being grabbed up by refugees/bandits or another gang of wandering thugs for hire.

The most notable battle in the tower was the discovery, in the cellar of a Temple of Science Expedition who had run afoul of a trio of slug-like monsters with small brightly colored shells.  These creatures slime was paralytic, and after they were defeated, a process that included the use of a barrel of salt, the party made a gruesome discovery.  The Scientist, "Dr. Jones", who had been exploring the tower and his two guards had been injected with both paralyzing venom and slug crawler eggs.  The scientist carried a map to a cave on the side of Mt. Rendon that seemed to promise a trove of ancient technology, assuming some "sick rock" was available.  Luckily the Mute tower contained an ancient power system, and a small amount of remaining sick rock fuel.

Heading to Denethix, the sprawling local metropolis, the adventuring band sold the bodies of Dr. Jones and his guards back to the Temple of Science for a small amount and managed to recruit a young Scientist to help them follow the map.

SESSION V - IX

The ancient map led first to the depressing mold farming community of Chemfoldshire, where a grey and brown bog surrounded a few huts made of sagging wood, and then up the side of the imposing Mt. Rendon.  Mt. Rendon's thick magnolia woods proved to contain many kinds of vibrant life, compared with fungal monotony of the town.  Near the top of the mountain the adventurers discovered a cave, slaughtered its peaceful ursine inhabitant and opened the ancient white ceramic alloy door within by the judicious application of sick rock.

The facility beyond the door was ancient, with featureless white walls and identical doors opened by molded ceramic press plates. It's ceilings glowed with a blueish light and the dusty floors crawled with a varied footprints like a hieroglyphic epic.  Reginald Wolfmother, a deadly swordsman of foppish manner and dress died early in the exploration, his left arm burnt aware by some sort of vile acidic slime that spurted out of an ancient showerhead.

Huxley Chuff, Cleric of Lost Things was the gatehouse facility's second victim, crushed by a massive alabaster statute while trying to escape form the statute's trapped chamber with a gold bar. The inhabitants of the facility proved to be a collection of insane robotic servants, gone feral from 3,000 years alone and most of whom had made repairs with the bones of the Gatehouse's long dead human inhabitants.  The party delt harshly with these macabre mechanical lunatics, though they cowed a group of intact automatons into something akin to friendship.

The plundering of the Gatehouse was generally successful, though a room, apparently set up as a testing center for adventurers and containing a pair of fierce animate statutes proved a challenge and cost the lives of Huxley and two henchmen.  Jane Dill, circus illusionist, was also battered near death by the statutes and Nire the Dead almost fell victim to a "practice" poison needle trap, which did leave him permanently purple.

On one of several trips between Chemfoldshire and the facility the party encountered a strange armored man riding a giant bee.  This enigmatic figure, Hexamacht the Apigemon inquired about ancient ruins and offered to buy technology.  He was inadvertantly led to the facility entrance and a few weeks later a group of his armored servant "The Hexmen" appeared in Chemfoldshire.  The Hexmen were not openly hostile, and indeed acted to diffuse tensions with the party, when the adventurers discovered the Hexmen (and a former mold farming ex-henchman named Big Daryll) killing the party's robotic allies for parts.  The party nevertheless decided to betray and slaughter the Hexmen, by leading them into conflict with an ancient battle robot (unimaginatively named 'sarge').  Jumping the hexman after they'd taken care of Sarge, the adventurers discovered that Hexmen were not human at all, but rather some kind of android capable of firing force beams from their hands.  Battered by Sarge's plasma cannon, the hexmen were no match for the gold crazy plundering heroes, and with both Sarge and them dead the party found a long stair leading into the darkness blocked by a portcullis made of a dull green-black metal.

The portcullis opened, sliding into the floor, when Mungo Stroot, Cleric of Impetuousness, pulled it.  Several other events also occurred.  Klaxons wailed and the entire mountain began to shake. When the party rushed outside they noticed search light blazing into the night and heard the sounds of digging as automated machinery excavated several entrances all over the mountain.  Faced with a huge underground complex, the party returned quietly to Chemfoldshire to wait a bit.

SESSION X

Chemfoldshire being a bit hot for them, with bands of savage Moktars and goblins coming in from the wilderness to investigate, three companies of Unyielding Fist marching South and numerous treasure hunters flocking to Mt. Rendon.  Returning to Denethix, Rawr the Moktar and Raymond decide to spend thier wealth on carousing and conducting Science experiements.  Rawr throws a 1,000 Gold Piece fermented milk party and gets a set of ritual scars at it's climax, while Raymond launches a punitive expedition against a university fraternity with improper respect for the Temple of Science and earns an admiring research assistant in the process (as well as a major set of bruises).

Returning to investigate the stairs down, the party finds Mt. Rendon much changed.  By pulling the lever in the gatehouse, the party has ushered in an era of exploration and industry around the mountain.  Must disturbingly a band of androphagic Northern elves are in two.  Five of the gray skinned blank eyed brutes, their leader riding a huge 9' tall human thrall with a ring through his nose.

The gatehouse is breached without incident and the level below is pitch black and made of cyclopean stones, neatly dressed and squared.  The unfortunate remains of a trapped facility resident are discovered in a small room. A dart trap is avoided, and Mungo begins painting black sigils of a offensive middle finger on the walls.  A pack of strange six legged beasts are killed, though they savage one of Quik's attack dinosaurs.  A necklace of gold nuggets is recovered.  A trap that releases terrible clear jelly monsters which are incinerated.  After startling a pair of screaming fungus the party has had enough and retreats to town, feeling a sense of discovery, but very little in the way of wealth.

CURRENT ROSTER OF ADVENTURING TYPES - A rotating cast of nere-do-wells.

RAWR! - Moktar Holy Tom (Shaman) Lvl 2
Quik Trhon - Killer (Assassin) Lvl 2
Mungo Stroot - Cleric of the Impulsive God (Cleric) Lvl 2
Raymond "Numbers" Gamma - Scientist (Scientist) Lvl 2
Wildeye - Plainsman Mercenary (Fighter) Lvl 1
Nire the Dead - Pessimist (Thief) Lvl 1
Jane Dill - Circus Prestidigitator (Illusionist) Lvl 1
Rando - Man of Action (Fighter) Lvl 1
Rando 2 - Holy Pyromaniac (Cleric) Lvl 1
Bluto Clorax - Preist, OCD (Cleric) Lvl 1
Valar Ragerind - Poet and Pugalist (Fighter) Lvl 1
Margo "the Flame" - Dark Haired Pyromaniac (Magic-User) Lvl 1