Campaign Turn 5: Setup On Sardis!

 After tangling with the Cult of the Wyrm on Weber’s World, Captain Stevens and his crew decided it was time to leave and pursue their quest for the Supreme One’s deadly super-soldier program elsewhere in the galaxy. In transit to their next world, the Invictus ran afoul of an asteroid field, and only the expert navigation and pilot skills of Grimbol Sawtooth, the Revengers’ Feral tech specialist, did they come through unscathed. 

They soon arrived on Sardis, a backwater world featuring a thickly jungled super-continent with two main cities (Alpha and Beta) and not much else. While they required no license to seek work, they soon found out that their two rivals from Weber’s World had followed them—the Twist Gang and the Cult of the Wyrm both had elements on Sardis, and they were watching the Revengers. 

Afflicted by a constant haze from its 100% humidity and steaming jungles, Sardis is also rumored to be under threat of invasion, but the exact threat is unknown. 

Meanwhile, the crew members fanned out in Alpha City to explore, trade, and find work. Luckily, Bayonne, Inc. [Persistent, Clean] also has offices on Sardis, so that patron is there to fall back on. However, Roger Stevens beat the bushes around town and found another seemingly more lucrative option, and eccentric and fabulously wealthy merchant and collector of oddities named Arlomas Peri. 

Peri offered top pay [+3 credits, roll twice, take the highest] for the crew to run a covert mission into some jungle ruins to find a secret clue to a lost treasure visible only under the light of Sardis’ full moon [Sneak mission from Freelancers’ Handbook]. While Bayonne, Inc. offered a decent payday, Peri’s offer blew it away and the Revengers jumped at it. 

What the crew didn’t know is that they were being setup. 

Peri was an agent under the sway of the Cult of the Wyrm. While Rourke’s decoy work had kept them and the Twists off of their trail, they had contingencies setup. 

The foes in the jungle ruins were “interested parties”—a rogue Salvage Crew bolstered with extra muscle [Escalating Battles from Trailblazers Toolkit]. 

Gant’s Gleeners, a crew of hardened Salvage Dogs. 

Caught off guard, the Revengers watch as the Gleeners move up through the thick jungle.

Revengers finally move up, but between the haze (12” visibility) and thick jungle, it’s slow going. 

Captain Gant and Rob-7 get into shooting position. 

Left flank of initial Gleener incursion. 

Escalation! On round 2, three more enemies arrive! 

Corvus Craneis forced to flank these new foes—and takes two out with his Hyper Blaster!

Cpt. Roger Stevens moves up to take the fight to the Gleeners with the objective in sight.

Morgna stuns, but doesn’t finish off, a Gleener. 

Sawtooth pops the Insta-Wall. 

Escalation again! A sniper shows up! 

Even the peace-loving Sawtooth gets aggressive as things get desperate. 

Sawtooth stuns, but does not finish, his sparring partner. 

Meanwhile, Stevens stuns another Gleener, but again doesn’t finish him!

Sawtooth gets gunned down!

Crane takes out another foe!

Sasha Rourke fells Rob-7!

Captain Gant blasts Captain Stevens! He has to use his Luck to survive! 

Out of the frying pan, and into the field of fire! Stevens goes down!

With two Revengers down, and the foes mounting, it seemed a good time to invoke “It’s time to go!”

So the combination of the Escalating Foes rules and the fact that I forgot to make panic checks for the enemies did me in on this one! It was a rough one. A clear loss where we had to use a precious campaign resource, but that is what it’s there for! 

In the post-battle, Sawtooth and Stevens both survived with School of Hard Knocks results. 

The turn was a not a total loss, as we accumulated two rumors, including a Quest Rumor. I also did a bit of storytelling, deciding that all of the extra foes meant that Arlomas Peri set us up, and was an agent for the Cult of the Wyrm.  

We’ll see what our next turn brings on Sardis! 

More terrain ready for the campaign

 TT Combat hab Units done! 

Campaign Turn 4: The Wyrm Turns

 Mission Background

Retired General Hakir again called on the Revengers for their assistance. It seems his good friend, Imperial Prosecutor Rynn Huang had been murdered by agents of the dreaded Cult of the Devouring Wyrm, jeopardizing the case he had built against them and their activities on Weber’s World and beyond. 

While all digital evidence Huang had on the Cult had been expunged by their hackers, the brave lawyer had left physical copies with Hakir. Now he wants to pay the Revengers to carry this satchel of documents to the Tower of Justice itself in downtown New Brighton. 

But the Cult had gotten wind of the mission (Deliver, pg. 90), and sent a team of crack operatives to slay the Revengers and anyone aiding them. With the local law enforcement cowed by the Cult’s air of menace, the Revengers are left on their own. 

Complicating matters, Gleebo Nixx, another member of Captain Roger Stevens “class” of ersatz super-soldiers has joined the Cult. He knows Stevens and his crew are looking for the secret lair of the Supreme One, and he wants to stop them! 

Revengers (L to R: Sawtooth, Stevens, Rourke, Lykos, Morgna, and Crane).

The Cult with three-armed super-soldier Gleebo Nixx. 

New Brighton—Justice Row!

The crew seizes the initiative and quickly leaves Hakir’s prearranged transport. 

Stevens carries the satchel, trailed by the recently recovered Morgna. 

Lykos does not want to face that Rattle Gun in the open!  

Meanwhile, the Wyrm cultists move up with Nixx in their vanguard. 

Crane is getting good with that Hyper Blaster! But only a stun. 

Rourke seeks the high ground too! 

Lykos enters a deserted shop to get up high with his Shotgun.

Stevens is in position to deliver the satchel, and a reluctant Sawtooth pages behind. He’s a pacifist! 

Sawtooth Deploys the Insta-Wall as Stevens completes the mission! 

But the fight has just begun, and Crane draws first blood again!

Agressive and impetuous, Nixx lets the hated Stevens have it up close! 

Driving him back with machine pistol fire!

Morgna retaliates with his infantry laser, but Nixx employs his Luck to cheat death! 

The dreaded six! The Insta-Wall fails! 

Morgna goes down in a hail of autogun fire! 

Double sixes = double dead!

Lykos gets stunned, but not KO’ed.

After letting it cool down, Crane again brings the Hyper Blaster to bear. 

Sasha Rourke fights from on high.

Nixx again pursues his vendetta, but an out of Luck Stevens saves himself with a Stim-pack. 

The sure-shooting Lykos takes Nixx out!

But he gets blasted in return, and expends his stim-pack. 

Overcoming his aversion to violence, Sawtooth shoots at a cultist and misses!

Stevens goes on the warpath and takes out a cultist.

Rourke joins Lykos as he authorities unleash smoke canisters and visibility drops to near zero (7”).

Even in the smoke, Stevens makes and amazing Shield throw to take out the last Cultist!

This was a great battle that went eight rounds and resulted in the Revengers holding the field. A few notes on the game and how I am playing it:

* I am adopting the new ranged attack rules from Freelancer’s HB. I think I will like them better. 

* I have started using WYSIWYG for weapons for my AI opponents, especially if it makes them deadlier. In this scenario, I rolled Cultists as an opponent. I had a number of options for models, but I chose to use my Genestealer Cultists. It was also great to work in that three armed Kelermorph as the super-soldier rival to my Captain. 

* I can’t generate a quest rumor (or any rumors) to save my life! I am only 4 rounds in though, so we’ll see. I really want to start trying to track down the Supreme One, the evil scientist responsible for Captain Roger Stevens’ existence, and a powerful force for chaos in the galaxy. 

* I burned a lot of resources to survive this one. Two Stim-packs and three Story Points. 

* I am slowly building and adding some new, TT Combat scenery. I am trying to paint this differently from my other more Grimdark terrain. 

That’s all for now! This game is such a pleasure to play and model for. 

Thanks for reading! 

—Scott.