Harrowed Halls

More on the Tarsa Setting can be found on the Tarsa Backround Post.

Players:
Alex – Lucas – Mega Cyborg.

Due to some irregularities in our gaming schedule, I ran Alex through a solo game of Tarsa that takes place prior to him being rescued by Logan, Sy and Neo.

Lucas returns to base from patrol with his squad. As soon as he comes in he’s told to go see the CO, Captain Parker (the guy Logan, Sy and Neo run into when they first arrive on Drakos). When he arrives, he sees his old military buddy, Pythos, sitting down with his CO. Parker says they have a special mission. Apparently the Overminds have a defector who has been riling up the masses, complaining about the inhumane work of their government.

This guy, named Onak’a, wants to get smuggled off of Drakos, but the only one he’ll trust is Pythos. Parker wants Lucas to head up the mission since Py will need a lot of help if the Meganauts pick up on the fact that he’s there. Onak’a is currently at the Drakos spaceport where he’s effectively trapped. He knows he won’t be able to get out the doors and he can’t get on another ship, so he’s in a tight spot. But he could be a major ally against the Meganauts and the Drakonian resistance can’t really pass him up.

Py, Lucas and Lucas’ squad, slip into the spaceport uncontested and scout it out. There does not seem to be anything out of place in the spaceport so Lucas makes contact with Onak’a who is sitting in a waiting area near one of the monorail access points. Pythos joins him and tells Onak’a that he’s not a fan of the Overminds as they have done some pretty despicable things, oh and also are trying to kill one of his good friends.

Onak’a says he has information for Sycrom and he knows that Py has a ship that can get him off planet. Lucas is dubious about Onak’a’s truthfullness. Onak’a says he is willing to open his mind to Lucas, but Lucas knows that would give Onak’a access to his mind as well. Instead Lucas has his squad do some investigation and they are able to verify that Onak’a is wanted by the Overminds and that the Meganauts also have a watch out for him. So far Onak’a has escaped notice at the port due to his mental ability to convince the Meganauts that he is Drakonian. Unfortunately, the sensors at the access ports can’t be fooled by mental tricks and that’s why he’s stuck in the spaceport.

Lucas decides to help Onak’a and figures he’s going to have to have a few of his squad spend some time in a Meganaut holding cell. He has them start a fight with each other to cause a distraction as he, Py and Onak’a sneak out and head to one of the less busy access doors. As they are approaching the access door a vigilant Meganaut spots them and before Onak’a can put the mind whammy on him, the Meganaut hits the alarm.

Lucas blasts the Meganaut but the alarm has sealed the access door. Lucas has his squad go full scale and they begin attacking the Meganauts with improvised weapons, then use the Meganaut weapons against them (they had to disarm in order to get in). Py takes Onak’a toward the cargo area and they slip in undetected.

Lucas goes back to help his squad. Lucas blasts his way through several Meganauts, but the Meganauts have taken out his whole squad and their gas grenades are too much for Lucas. When he wakes up, he’s sitting in the forward hold of the Pythorian, a little confused on why he’s aboard Py’s ship.

More on the Tarsa Setting can be found on the Tarsa Backround Post.

Players:
Alex – Lucas – Mega Cyborg.
Lee – Logan – Kantorian master of matter manipulation.
Mike – Pythos – Former military cybernetic being with mercenary tendencies.
Shawn – Sycrom – The most intelligent dense person (like really really tough to hurt) you’ll ever meet.
Steve – Neo – Shapeshifting infiltration expert.

Starting from where we left off, Neo, looking like a Meganaut is bringing Sy and Logan into the forward hold of they Pythorian where the Drakonian prisoners are being held. As he opens the door he blasts the Meganaut guard…which doesn’t phase him much. Lucas takes this opportunity to blast the guard with his built in laser, and kills him! Sy quickly runs up the stairs to get to the cockpit while Logan uses his matter control to cause all the cuffs on the prisoner to dissolve. After quick introductions, the entire resistance gets armed with steel spikes thanks to Logan.

The fight begins in earnest as the Meganauts hear the fighting going on and set off the alarm. Neo gets the Joker and decides to throw both grenades at the Meganauts on the cat walk and he hits with both!  But the damage is typical for Steve.  :(  Meanwhile, somebody has fired off the escape pods…

Logan and Lucas are fighting Meganauts on the second level. Logan keeps raising walls, and using the ships interiors to do it. Soon the alarm is sounded as the structural integrity warning goes off! Neo eventually makes it to the cockpit to find Sy collapsed in some Psionic induced coma. Lucas chases down a Meganaut and finds out that Th’Lak, the Meganaut commander that shot off Pythos’ legs, was in charge. That can’t be good.

The heroes wrap up the fight and rush to escape the hanger before the Meganauts send in reinforcements. As they are flying out, they are chased by two fighters and a light cruiser. Logan does an excellent job flying, but he is outgunned by the cruiser and it just as they are making speed away from Drakos, they are hit with four wounds and wrecked! The cruiser and fighter break off the chase and return to Drakos.

Meanwhile the Pythorian is dead as it hurtles towards the asteroid belt around Meno. The Drakonian resistance proves resilient and they get the power back on along with life support but they only have enough energy for one week and just as they get the sensor back, they crash land on an asteroid! One of the Drakonian fighters is killed, but the sensors are still working. They detect a power source on the asteroid and even more shocking, the Pythorian has a special sensor just for the energy signature of Py’s legs…and he (or his legs) are somewhere near that power source!

Logan carves a tunnel through the asteroid to the power source and they find a Meganaut base…hopefully Sy wakes up soon!

More on the Tarsa Setting can be found on the Tarsa Backround Post.

Players:
Lee – Logan – Kantorian master of matter manipulation.
Mike – Pythos – Former military cybernetic being with mercenary tendencies.
Shawn – Sycrom – The most intelligent dense person (like really really tough to hurt) you’ll ever meet.
Steve – Neo – Shapeshifting infiltration expert.

Our terrific trio make their way to Drakos to pick up the Pythorian (with Steve the shapeshifter playing the role of Pythos). They soon arrive and are hailed by one of Pythos’ old friends who happens to be in the Drakonian resistance. He requires an urgent meeting at a location that is well known to Pythos. Unfortunately for Steve, he has no idea where that is and can’t risk exposing that to Sy and Logan who he does not know. He manages to search through the data on the Pyro and make a good stab at where the meet will be. He does well and shows up at the right place.

Parker (I can’t remember the name I used, so it is now Parker) lets them know that Logan led the Meganauts right to one of their few secret bases on Drakos. And on top of that, he had lost his whole regiment of resistance fighters because of it. They come up with a plan to enter the base through a back ventilation shaft. Unfortunately, luck was against them as they tripped a sensor before the junction room and the portable perimeter defense guns started firing! Unfortunately for Parker and Neo (as Pythos) they took the brunt of the attacks (of course Sy had little to worry about).

Logan quickly brought up a wall to block the fire and Sy took out the guns and the Meganauts on the other side. Unfortunately the damage was done and Neo lost consciousness losing his Pythos shape. His horrible visage nearly shook up the Sy and Logan, but the shock of realizing they had not in fact rescued Pythos was more jarring.

Not sure what to make of their companion, New quickly explained. Pythos had asked him to go to Mero 10 and make the deal for him so Pythos could do another job that was more pressing. He even loaned him the Pyro for the job. Clever players would then realize Py is probably somewhere on Drakos since the Pythorian is here.

The group quickly decided to accept Neo at his word, and because his shape shifting ability was particularly useful at this moment. Neo morphed into a Meganaut and scouted out the hangar to get the Meganaut count. Determining that there were approximately 12 Meganauts aboard the Pythorian, along with 15 or so Drakonian resistance prisoners, and that they were close to hacking the final system they needed to take the ship, the group sprung into action using the classic, “I found some prisoners” rouse.

As the cliff hanger ends, our group has just entered the holding cell to drop off the “prisoners” on board the Pythorian…

Next Time…”Meet the Terminator”

More on the Tarsa Setting can be found on the Tarsa Backround Post.

Players: Lee – Logan – Kantorian master of matter manipulation.
Mike – Pythos – Former military cybernetic being with mercenary tendencies.
Shawn – Sycrom – The most intelligent dense person (like really really tough to hurt) you’ll ever meet.

Logan and Sy survey the cavern they find themselves washed up in. Logan senses the rooms around him and feels a lot of steel in the next room and below the water where they came in.

Sy decides to explore the water depths where he finds a railing. Apparently this underground complex is connected to the other one. Meanwhile Logan discovers a couple of guards nearby. Just then, a very large shadow moves over Sy. He quickly gets out of the water and before he can tell Logan to stay clear of the water, Logan partially closes off the passage to the guards with his earth manipulation, and a giant Crocodile nearly bites him in two!

Sy attempts to shoot the Croc in the eye (noticing that a simple blaster would probably not penetrate the critter’s hide). But even Sy’s excellent shooting skills are not up to hitting that tiny spot. Logan’s two wounds don’t keep him from sliding out of the Croc’s jaws and getting behind the nigh impenetrable Sy.

The noise attracts the guards who let slip that they have a prisoner nearby that needs to be moved and that somebody named Lord Garmin should be warned. The one of the guards starts shooting randomly into the room.

That’s when Logan decides to open the wall between the rooms and create a tunnel for the croc to grab some dinner in the next room! The plan works perfectly (got him a benny too) and the croc munches the first guard down. Sy then blasts the Overmind in the room for two wounds. Logan and Sy also get their first glimpse of the beaten body of Pythos hanging in chains from the wall (“They didn’t even ask me any questions,” he grumbles.)

Logan quickly taps into his Kantorian powers and uses the metal chains to bind the Overmind. Sy then runs in front of Py to act as a shield, as the Overmind (Lord Garmin), slips his bonds and out the back door. The Croc makes short work of the remaining guards as Pythos and Sy run out to where Logan is.

Unfortunately, Lord Garmin is coming up the back hall and Puppets Pythos and makes him try to shoot Sy in the head. Even with all of Py’s skill, he is too weak from his wounds to succeed. Logan opens up the walls to try and get the croc to attack the Overmind, but the Croc has fed enough and just wants to get back to the water. So, Logan distracts Lord Garmin as Sy runs around and blasts the Overmind (with +2 from Logan’s distraction) and kills him.

Pythos quickly leads them out of the caverns where they find they are under the Hopper House. The trio quickly get in their ships and start to make their way back to the Pythorian, safely ensconced in a secret location on Drakos that nobody could possibly find.

More on the Tarsa Setting can be found on the Tarsa Backround Post.

Players: Lee – Logan – Kantorian master of matter manipulation.
Mike – Pythos – Former military cybernetic being with mercenary tendencies.
Shawn – Sycrom – The most intelligent dense person (like really really tough to hurt) you’ll ever meet.

Logan decides to make a quick (several hours) journey to the Pythorian to see if he can dig up any additional information, while Sy cools his heels in the local Big House. Turns out Mero 10 is not big on separating the accused from the convicted when waiting for trial!

Sy spends his time chatting up the other inmates and making notes on the warden. He finds two very interesting things. First, the warden is making money off of holding people in jail regardless of their crime. And second, Pythos was seen in this very jail AFTER he was supposedly incinerated in the Hopper House.

Logan finds nothing of value on the Pythorian that was hidden in an abandoned military complex on Drakos (Mero 9) and returns to Mero 10.

Sy was brutally tortured in some hidden facility (but of course it didn’t hurt him at all and oddly, they asked no questions). When Logan returns, Sy fills him in on what’s going on so Logan uses his matter control to enter the jail.  He did a great job on being stealthy, but the guards did a better job of looking for trouble!  Logan and Sy hatch a plan to free all the prisoners and then find the secret entrance. After the prisoners get free, Logan decides not to go hunting for the location and just opens a hole in the ground to try and find it.

Sure enough they find a maze of tunnels under the jail and Logan quickly leaves Sy in the dark only to stumble across a hive of spiders that quickly web him up! Sy goes as fast as he can to find him and does just in time for Logan to break free. Meanwhile the jail guards have come down to the caverns looking for the escapees. Sy heroically kills two of the spiders before getting wrapped up himself – at which point Sy has a sudden realization that the glue guns and the no-question torture really indicate that his arch enemies the Overminds may be behind this whole set of circumstances and Py was only bait!  Logan who is now facing four guards, emulates a godlike posture and causes everyone around him to be shaken!

Just then, three meganauts and an Overmind enter the room where Sy is held by webs and Sy suddenly realizes his worst fears are true! Logan, thinking quickly fires his blaster full blast at Sy, shredding the webbing in time for Sy to get a shot at the Overmind causing three wounds! He quickly ducks back into the room with the well, and jumps in telling Logan to run for it!  Logan gets shot for two wounds but quickly follows Sy using his matter control to make a bubble of air as they narrowly escape the trap!

They wash up some ways down the underground river into another set of caverns where Sy and Logan heal Logan’s wounds and they begin to plan how they can save their friend from Sy’s worst enemies!

More on the Tarsa Setting can be found on the Tarsa Backround Post.

Players:
Lee – Logan – Kantorian master of matter manipulation.
Mike – Pythos – Former military cybernetic being with mercenary tendencies.
Shawn – Sycrom – The most intelligent dense person (like really really tough to hurt) you’ll ever meet.

Logan gets a generic distress communication from Py stating that he’s in deep shit.  So of course, Logan reaches out to Sy and they high tail it to Mero 10 where the Pyro (Py’s shuttle) is located and where the distress call came from.  Mero 10 is a backwater scum and villainy planet with the kind of clientele only desperados, hard luck cases, and Py would hang out with.

When they get there, they find that the Pyro is nearly ready for demolition by the local salvage operation. They salvagers want a ridiculous amount of credits for Sy and Logan to buy the ship back so they pay them to hold off on demo for a few days. They also board the Pyro and Logan is able to decrypt Py’s appointment calendar to find he had a meeting scheduled with somebody at a bar called the “Hopper House” and so they go to investigate that.

At the Hopper House they find that Py was shot by a blaster and was vaporized. Something that doesn’t usually happen, but several parties are in agreement did happen.  Sy was not able to confirm or deny it with his readings of the DNA splattered on the floor.  The story is a couple of Meganauts came in and Py just beat the crap out of them then some bald dude came in and blasted him.

Logan and Sy then go to the nearest medical facility (at the nearby spaceport) to see if they can find out more about these Meganauts. The medical crew seem to be oddly morel as they refuse to disclose any information, so Sy causes a distraction by jumping in front of a commuter tram!  In the confusion, Logan hacks into the computer and determines that they Meganauts were not part of the local military and seem to be normal guns for hire.

Logan and Sy decide they need to find the Pythorian (Py’s interplanetary ship) to see what can be found there, so they decide to just steal the Pyro so it (and any evidence it may have) won’t be destroyed by the salvagers. Unfortunately, things do not go well (means Shawn was rolling more ones than a one sided die…or something like that). Logan was able to skedaddle with the Pyro but Sy got shot by the local “peace force” with glue guns!

Here’s a link to the setting information for Savage Tarsa, a space opera type setting!