I compiled this from several posts on my game’s Facebook page, so please forgive any formatting errors, inside jokes, etc… Hopefully everything still makes sense.
Finally I was able to kick the campaign off this last Friday! I had fewer players than hoped for, but there were three which is enough to give the game critical mass.
We had Tony V playing his still-to-be-named primary character, known from here out as “Tony’s PC” while I ran his NPC Ally wife.
Patrick P playing Steven Abbott Jackson, “Abb” for short.
And Sara P playing Kokoko “Koko” Onnen
The game started with all the PC’s (including the folks who were unable to attend) camping in Yellowstone Park on Oct 18th 2018. Ominous events began slowly with an NPC announcing that they shouldn’t call it Old Faithful, because they waited for half and hour and the geyser never blew.
Next were a couple of minor earthquakes (the PC’s from California id’ed them as being around 3.5 or so). A couple of NPC’s decided to head home because the tremors spooked them. They showed back up within 30 minutes stating that the roads were so jammed with people that they couldn’t get more than a couple of miles.
All the PC’s started gather up survival gear from their cars at this point. After another couple of larger jolts, a ranger’s truck went careening down the nearby access road. Abb at this point decided to investigate things and took Tony’s PC (who is 7’5″ tall) and followed the ranger to the ranger station they knew was down the road.
So after getting to the ranger station and finding the ranger inside talking frantically to someone on the phone about getting a helicopter sent to pick him up, “Abb” confronts him and informs him that “my friend is wondering what is going on” while gesturing to Tony’s enormous character.
The ranger (named Allan) hemmed and hawed and asked them to leave. Abb, on leaving, checked the guy’s SUV and found it unlocked… so he took the shotgun and went back inside to confront Allan. Understandably alarmed by this guy pointing his own shotgun at him, Allan admitted that he knew a guy with access to a Chinook helicopter and was trying to get out of the park, finally admitting that Jackson Lake had “drained” and he was afraid that the entire caldera the park sits in was going to explode.
After disarming Allan, it was decided that they would collect as many as they could from the campground (close to 40 folks) and await Allan’s friend. Tony’s PC went back to the campsite and gathered up his wife. Koko (Sara’s PC) started helping folks gather useful equipment and herding them down the dirt road to the ranger’s station.
At this time there had been several larger quakes and a fairly large fire seemed to be burning in the west. Most of the group were understandably nervous and happy to hear that the ranger had someone with a helicopter that would rescue them.
Fast forward through more preparation and alarming events (quakes, burning rocks falling from the sky, and what felt like a two-foot drop in the ground), Abb is trying to keep folks from panicking and Koko is monitoring the radio and Tony’s PC was just kind of observing while trying to keep his wife safe.
As things continued to get worse, the helicopter pilot radioed Allan to let him know that the whole northern part (where he was coming through from) was filled with smoke and ash that he needed to go around to avoid damage to the helo. All this time they were getting sporadic bursts of what seemed to be CB radio interference announcing the immenent arrival of the End Times and other apocalyptic statements. Most of these only last a brief period but then Tennessee Ernie Ford’s version of Bringing in the Sheaves started blaring out of the radio no matter what Koko did to re-tune it.
A few minutes after Bringing in the Sheaves began one of the NPC’s announced that there was someone walking out of the forest. A group (including Abb and To Be Named) went out to meet what turned out to be an older gentleman wearing what appeared to be Puritan outfit. When closer they could see that the legs of his pants wear burned off below the knees and he was shoeless. The man greeted them by stating that he was “indeed a man of my majority, though I find myself in short britches”. He then introduced himself as Aleazar Mather, and he was there to help everyone.
Against his better judgement Abb let the odd fellow into the ranger station where he proceeded to inform everyone that they should attend his words as he had a bargain for them. He told them that soon a pyroclastic flow would be sweeping through the park and kill all in its path. To avoid this fate, all that was required was that they take his hands, or those of their neighbor and accept the offer being made by his benefactress (he wouldn’t reveal her name).
Right around this time a really big quake hit, (maybe an 8.0+) and people started to panic.
A glance out the window revealed a giant wall of ash hurtling at them (still a couple of miles away, but hundreds of feet high). A variety of NPC’s chose not to take his “devil’s bargain” and fled, as he explained that certain death awaited. The PC’s all reached out to grab nearby hands as the wall of ash approached them, figuring they had nothing to lose. Then the windows blew in at 450 mph.
After a brief unconsciousness (perceived), all the characters awoke, submerged in 4 feet of sea water off a nice sandy beach. All were nude (their players no doubt cursing me for letting them write down equipment from the ranger station), and obviously disoriented. Aleazar was nowhere to be seen, but three men were standing on the beach behind a folding table covered with robes.
Two of the men, who were all wearing suits, helped everyone by handing them robes and gently directing them out of the mild surf. The third man just sat and watched the naked women.
They announced that they were solicitors of the firm Lant, Dunn & Bray and that they represented the PC’s benefactress, named Rigantona (ree-ann-tona) and they were there to help.
After herding everyone up to an abandoned-looking resort hotel, they announced that the local year was 1983 and they were on the island of Herm in the Guernsey chain (in the English Channel).
Cue disbelieving confusion and hand-wringing…
Over glasses (or bottles for Koko) of whiskey, it was told to everyone that they were now indentured servants to Rigantona, who would be having them act as interdimensional trouble-shooters. The world that they found themselves in had suffered a WWIII that evidently included nukes and chemical warfare. The Isle of Herm was safe from radioactive and chemical damage because it was a pre-historic holy site for Rigantona (a Celtic goddess) and she was protecting it.
More disbelieving hand-wringing…
So, the short version is that the characters are stuck here on a pleasant island, with horsies to ride, a partially sunk US naval transport ship to loot for goodies, and a way to visit some place called Nakashima-sans for rest and relaxation.
They just can’t leave the island for longer than 30 days without becoming ill and eventually dying. They also have some cool abilities to help them survive being interdimensional trouble-shooters:
Modular Ability [20]
10 pts (Skills and Mental Advantages only) [100]
Immediate Preparation Required (Requires 1 hour of Meditation) -75%
Fickle (use the Meditation roll as the reaction roll) -5%
Patron [12]
Frequency of Appearance <6
Requires Reaction roll
Damage Resistance 5 [5]
Ablative -80%
Duty [-7]
6 or less [-2]
Extremely Hazardous [-5]
Dependency (Herm Island) [-30]
Monthly: Lose 1 HP per day after missing a monthly dose. x1
Next session will be some exploration and then their first mission!
domibia 