Friday, October 30, 2015

The Great Electric Hell Gate Halloween Event - An Alternative AD&D/Dungeon Crawl Classics Occult Pulp Mash Up Campaign


If you've been following the events and background of The Great Electric Hell Gate adventure that's winding down now. The PC's are playing descendants of pulp era superhero mercenaries trying to free the soul of their mentor Captain Freedom from the clutches of the Devil and his bounty hunter of souls Madam Satan! Its the future of 2009, and World War II has dragged on for decades now after a crimson comet has hurled between the Earth and the Moon. Hitler and his army of cybernetic horrors have reduced Europe to a wasteland and now the monsters and extra dimensional horrors from Thule have made matters worse. Things are downright dangerous as Hitler cybernetic and android forces have made pacts and cut deals with certain dark wizard cabals. Now is not the time for this! Our adventurers are the descendants of Shock Gibson, Captain Freedom, The Black Cat, Ted Parrish (movie actor and master of disguise), plus Pat Parker  and her Girl Commandos.


The PC's were able to hold the forces of Hell at bay for the moment by wrapping the elderly Don Wright (Captain Freedom) in a circle of protection and placing him in a state of suspension by way of their wizard Dr. Parrish master of the mystic arts. The rest of the team barely held off Madam Satan ( succubus & 8th level black wizard) along with her demonic host.
The PC's lost Thrid of the Ice Walker clan a warrior and barbarian from Thule to the forces of  Hell! The journey into the Terror an area on the Texas/Mexican border was  dangerous and frightening. Scorpion squids, alien Lovecraftian horrors, and worse call this area home not to mention the muaurders, bandits, black wizards, mutants and other monsters.
The adventurers were able to banish the vile villains for now and after burying their friend began the journey out to the wizard's tower that held the crown of power. The only artifact to save their mentor's soul! Out in the 'Merican wastelands the PC's ran afoul of a gang of drug smuggling Neo Nazi clad cultists belonging to the Claw. The Claw are a bunch of mutated villainous scum who get their cybernetic systems from Hitler's forces and act as fifth column agents out in the wastelands. The Claw loves mutants that sport 1d6 mutations or at least three major ones. Their leaders are often 4th or better wizards or clerics.  These in turn worship a rather dangerous demonic cat demon petty god, Zethros  The Cat of the Blackest Abyss.
 The fire fight wasn't pretty and resulted in one blown shipment of Neo Heroin on the part of the Claw and two wounded heroes.



The wizard's tower was on the outskirts of a border town and wasn't what the players were expecting at all. The tower had an almost organic look to it and it wasn't until they ventured inside that its real secrets were revealed!
The adventurers had to do a good deal of dungeon crawling up through the tower and that's when they started to find dead Brothers of the Crimson Cross throughout the tower as they made their way up the tower. The tower itself was one giant organic bio mechanical nightmare that had been summoned from the Outer Darkness. It was originally a construct that belonged to the Elder Things.



The crown of power is or was the only thing anchoring it to this world! The Brothers sought to thwart our heroes efforts but ended up becoming the victims themselves as the tower wasn't quite as unoccupied as they believed! The Elder Things and their proto shaggoth servants had comeback to retake their property back!
After a harrowing series of events with the Elder Things & two PC's loosing hands and arms to the the slime and the tower the PC's were able to claim the crown of power!
The party was able to claim some loot as well left behind by a previous team of adventurers.

They did have to fight some zombies to get back to the border town and some heavy duty magickal healing but this was very expensive. They're team mates acquired cybernetic hands and arms to compensate for the lack of limbs. Eventually they did manage to free their mentor's soul from the clutches of Hell but the price was terrible and high indeed! All in all this was a really good game for Hell night and not a bad mashup at all!

The real life saver here was the Crawling Under A Broken Moon issue #5 which has some He Man style rules, classes, artifacts, etc.  that cover some of the material that Crimson Dragon Slayer creates! This is really a match made in Heaven and saves a DM lots of  hair pulling. The mutant powers blend nicely with both AD&D 1st edition and Dungeon Crawl Classics!


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