Out From The Thoolian Swamp - - A Warriors of The Red Planet & Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Hybrid - Actual Play Event

While I've been down with a wicked head cold, I realized that I had not posted the wicked outcome from Down & Out In Ignarh. .

For my  Warriors of the Red Planet & Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Mars Campaign Setting. I used  a post Colonial Mars of Burroughs, the Northwest Smith stories (1933–1936) by C. L. Moore & the Mars stories  published between 1940 and 1964 by Leigh Brackett. And using this in conjunction with Clark Ashton Smith's Lovecraftian Mars along with a healthy dose of later Edgar Rice Burrough stories  just to stir the pot. The real backbone of last night's game was developed back Feb around the second which you can read here. 

The party are members of the Stellar Legion gang known as the Har's ha' or Hardtimers a group of outlaw adventurers made up of Venusian, Martian,Human & Hyperborean outlaws. The PC's found themselves deep within the Thoolian swamps after obtaining a map of a strange Martian city from a rogue/Martian scribe.They found themselves on the run from the of Green Martian warrior clans that have a blood debt against 'the hard timers'. They lost their Venusian assassin/sharp shooter in a duel with one of the Green Martian warriors. After the bastard had 'obtained' ie kidnapped a minor noble's daughter. The daughter was actually a mentalist with several strange artifacts from the floating city. Our heroes obtained the map she was holding onto for several black gate agents but the Green Martians wanted her instead.

So following the Green Martians our heroes figured out that they were on their way to the ancient floating city. The party made several inquiries among the local tribes obtained the services of a guide. The adventurers sold off some of the jeweled mind crystals they had aquired from the kidnapped girl's quarters for a swamp boat. They came face to face with several Martian white apes in the swamps. But it was then they lost their guide to claws of one of the white apes! More apes began to swarm from the trees! The PC's were forced to flee! It was then that the PC's found themselves in a clearing in the swamp face to face with a city of the 'first ones'!
White Apes by Bronze Age Miniatures

The PC's found the ancient Martian floating city that belonged to one of the 'first one races'.  It was then that they came up against ancient re animated warriors from various ages of Mars recent and ancient past all under some weird alien control! The PC's lost one of their Hyperborean warlock to the swords of these strange Martian murders! This put the PC's on edge as they braved to secrets of the floating city.
Vathegrg is the type of ancient Martian cities that one sees in nightmares, the design is archaic & highly indicative of an ancient alien presence millions of years old. The PC's wait till night & then sneak aboard the floating city. They find the corpses of the Green Martians pinned like insects to the deck of the place and being feed on by ancient reptilian horrors that had been hinted about in the Scrolls of Thon. One of the things takes notice of them but its quickly dispatched with sword & magic.

It was aboard the Vathegrg that the PC's encountered and fought with a group of unknown alien mercenaries. There were several lower tier black gate priests armed with super science weapons & artifact that proved to be trouble for the PC's. They muddled through these encounters only to find themselves face to face with an alien priest of a very Lovecraftian aspect. It was sacrificing the princess to some ancient demonic monster of the Outer Darkness when they blundered in! It attacked right then and there!


The 'priest' let them have it with two wands & a spell the next round. The party finally managed to dispatch the evil scum at the last second after losing two more of their number to a partially working Hyperborea teleport unit. The heroes managed to destroy the evil priest but there are others coming down the metallic hallways! Will our heroes survive? What secrets does floating city of the Vathegrg hold? Who runs the ancient forbidden Martian city?!

1d20 Random  Deep & Dangerous the Thoolian Swamp Encounters Table

1. 1d8 Deep One priests on their way to a nearby shrine they are armed with 1d6 radium pistols that operate under water. They are accompanied by a baby shoggoth. 
2. A lone Martian black wizard on his way to a local black magick hide out who will kill anyone he comes across 
3. 1d8 Martian Babblers on the hunt! 
4. A group of 1d6 artifact hunters of the swamp men Red Martian clans on a find mission 
5. 1d4 War machines looking for prey 
6. 1d8 Grey warriors on patrol looking for easy targets on hover bikes 
7. 1d6 Red slavers on a raiding party armed with radium pistols, knock out grenades, and sleep gas on giant swamp lizards 
8. 1d10 giant leeches in a blood frenzy 
9. 1d6 giant blood worms who have been sent into a violent frenzy due to a nearby artifact 
10. A dangerous war machine of Hyperborean design on a rampage! Tentacles flaying and armed with a ray projector that does 1d6 +3 damage 
11. A pack of Martian lizard men on patrol armed with laser cross bows and bad attitudes 
12. A group of Red Martian traders looking to trad supplies for minor artifacts 
13. Dark Young that has come from beyond the temple gateway on a rampage for the flesh of the young! 
14. Weird and strange dimensional gate way see appropriate matrix 
15. There are 1d12 green warriors on the backs of swamp lizard monsters on the war path for anyone wishing to break into local ruins 
16. 1d4 8th level Black Gate sorcerers on hunt for sacrifices for their Lovecraftian masters! 
17. An ancient pack of giant fire breathing wasps on the hunt for human souls! 
18. 1d8 ancient fast moving Martian zombies who are very hungry 
19. 1d6 Evil Martian witches on the hunt! 
20. A lost and starving mad man from the ancient city of Helium whose been cast forward in time by forty thousand years!