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!