Gears of Ruin: The Ruiner’s Gambit, Session 1, Part 1

(I just landed an unexpected, but very welcome Seminar to prep for and teach in less than 2 weeks, posting schedule will be borked. Expect shorter, less frequent articles, thanks).

Last Friday’s adventure was great.  It was mostly a 3 hour+ set-piece fight but I wanted to duke it out with the players in a no-holds barred slugfest. I cranked damage dealing to the absolute maximum I could without breaking the rules (a design goal of mine). I also did my best to screw with their game plan and use plenty of dirty tricks to give them their greatest challenge in months.

In fact, I did exactly what I wrote about last week.

It was gruesome, tensions rose and player nerves became frayed at times, but they pulled it off without making a single death save (and I tried real hard).

Someone Else is Crashing our Party

We finally started our Gears of Ruin campaign with the most awesome bunch of PCs. We started right where we left off, with the PCs resting for a few hours after their first contact with possessed military grade clanks (mechanical constructs).  They rescued one of 2 agents of Baron Falkenstein’s Intelligence Ministry who urged them to the Factory-mine, some 12 miles further, to save his colleague (he tagged along).

As they moved toward the Baron’s rebellious compound, I described the absence of further opposition.  Ad-libing 100%, I described various acid-eaten gigantic Mortars and broken Boulder-clanks.   The PCs deduced that they had been destroyed by Melorians, the savage, self-replicating, bio-contructs created in the last decade by the previous incarnation of Eric’s Deva Avenger.

As they approached the site, the signs that Melorians were also going there became evident.

Franky: Well, that’s going to be anti-climactic, we’ll get there and the whole place will be a melted puddle of acid.

Chatty: Didn’t you like sleep only 3 hours in the last 48 hours? I’m trying to work with you man.

Unidentified Plot Twist at 6 O’clock!

Shortly before they arrived at the Foundry-Mine where the psychic signal, supposedly at the origin of the Clank uprising, was located,  the Baron’s Spy NPC dropped a rock in the puddle.

Agent: My colleague just died! We absolutely must recover his Watch within 24 hours or his “Transience” (i.e. personality backup)  will be sucked in the Elemental Chas with all he knows.

Rod Stone:  How do you know that?

Agent (points at watch and grins): I’m not supposed to tell you that.

Rod Stone: Can that ‘not supposed to tell us’ tell you where your ‘not alive’ friend is now?

Agent: Wha?

Nar-Beth: Just lead the way to his body.

Agent: Huh? Yeah… That way.

The Falkenstein Works Foundry–Mines

The PCs crested a hill and came upon a the smoke-belching, clockwork-running monstrosity that was The Falkenstein Works Factory-Mines.  A series of buildings and mine tunnels sticking out of a mountain. Surrounded by an electrified, barbed wire palisade guarded by tower-turrets.  The courtyard was filled with refined ore, cranes, piles of crates and drums, huge mounds of dead bodies and clanks walking here and there, some very large.

The compound’s front gate had been crashed open but was apparently unguarded.

Holy Clank: Well, I guess we just need to see what those towers do before we charge…

A flash of light was seen to the party’s right, then a loud thuderclap was heard. A vague odor of ozone and burnt poultry reached them.

Holy Clank: Right, that’s what I thought.

Up next: Mecha in 4e!!!

Credit: Terror Worm image by artist Emerson Tung from The Wandering Men’s upcoming Untold: The Game.