Deep In The Bandit Army Camp - Warriors of the Red Planet/ Hyperborea rpg Session Report Eight

 This session picks right up from last week's & it picks right up with the party dealing with the underground air car. The party hasn't figured out how it operates and the underground aircar cruised to stop at a preprogrammed stop and the party found themselves hip deep in a fungal garden. No one got out and pressed the glowing button. 

The next stop found the party right in a old engineering parts area and lots of construction that appeared to be in ruins. The whole place was covered in strange fleshy veins and weird skin like flowers as metallic  wicked thorns glinted off the pipes, circuits, and other pipes. 
The glowing button and display beckoned and then the party was whooshed into the next tunnel. Then it was several game hours (few minutes) until the party was lifted into a side tunnel after almost crashing into another underground air car. And then they were lifted up into a weird tunnel and started racing to the surface! 
Here the party found it's aircar erupting onto the surface straight under a tent belonging to some 1st level Green warriors! There were about ten of them and the party found itself face to face in a strange sea bottom town! The Green men's tent was totally ruined! And they began attacking the party! The party also came face to face with the Green's mercenary red men Beserkers! So I took the AD&D Monster Manual Beserker entry and then adapted it for our game. 

Berserker by David Sutherland, from the AD&D Monster Manual, TSR, 1977 

I changed the weaponry to hand ax & Martian straight sword minus the armor. These Martian Beserkers are considered legendary and almost exclusively found in the Bandit Nations of  Mars. And I dropped enough hints for this game session and the player's PC's have found themselves 2,000 miles away from thier original destination. Did I happen to mention the fact that the air car slid back underground during the comotation! 
So they are effectively trapped behind enemy lines. And then escaped into the Martian night with a pack of Green Men Catlots on thier tails. 

Down, Down, Into The Martian Underground - Warriors of the Red Planet/ Hyperborea rpg Session Report Seven

 
This session picks right up from here with the player's party having thier fighter Helm now in a medical tank. So to off set some of the cost of healing they headed to a nearby forrest near the dead sea bottom to scout out some ruins for ingredants for the healer/scientist Raz. Things went off the rails from there!  And the Shiekers call when the player's PCs encountered them attracting 3 large Martian White Apes who came with 3 carnivous apes in toe. The PC's quickly slaughtered one of the Throats that they brought with them. And then they hid. 

 As the PC's hid the violent fungus attracted by the Shrieker's moved in slowly on the PC's! There were six violet fungus and the party was in between a rock and a hard place. Thier backs literally against the wall. 
The party's rogue Alara a disgraced Martian princess now mercenary rogue was a able to find a tunnel down deep into the ruined tunnels beneath the floor of the ruins. 

The party dived deep beneath the ruins and came face to face with the main colony of violet fungus. They quickly dispatched two of the colony guardian fungus. And then quickly collected the parts that they needed. 
Greed got the better of them and they found a tunnel! Going deep into the underground space they were able to find an ancient air car garage. The party found one of the fabled round cars that rode on the underground  magnetic tunnels that crisscross parts of Mars. 

And they came face to face with a swarm of Ulsio and decided to climb into the air car. The air car was inactive and the Ulsio swarmed around the vehicle. The party actived the car! And then they raced off down the underground tunnels. Thier destination unknown! We ended the session here! 

During today's game I leaned heavily into the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. Violent Fungus, Shriekers, and Carnivorous apes are all straight out of the Monster Manual. 

 The party ran away from several encounters and it was interesting to see. The party did accomplish thier goal and then took what was essentially a dungeon set piece in this case the air car. And turned it into campaign fodder with the party now going deeply into the Martian underground. 

Assassin Attack! - Warriors of the Red Planet/ Hyperborea rpg Session Report Six

 Tonight's game was a major incident at the trade post with us fighting the assassin Jal Hardos & his hirelings. This assassin destroyed our vehicle with a couple of well placed grenades timed to go off by remote detonation killing our cleric. And tonight's game picks right up from this session on the blog. 
His 5 hirelings were of at least 3rd level and he gave radiation poisoning to another of our fighters with a radium pistol blast! This guy wasn't kidding and with a well placed poisoned dagger took out our Green warrior ally! 

During tonight's game we played cat & mouse with him throughout the trade depot until we dropped a very large stone block on him and one of his hirelings. And then it was cutting down the rest of the hirelings lest they report back to his patron. Whomever that might be. We had to get our fighter stablized and this meant a super science healer whom was down in the lower part of the dead sea basin. So we rented a flier from our Green allies and dashed off after they radioed introductions. Raz Thrals is a healer scientist who studied under the scientists of Helium. 
He did a good job drawing out the radiation but Helm's Charisma took a hit with him losing two points from the hidious scars that he's now got. We were able to pay Raz 500 gold pieces but now we're down some coin. And so the healer provided us with a map of the ruined cities some 2 miles from his place.I'm going wayback to the Best of Dragon Magazine volume #1 James Ward's "Deserted Cities of Mars," as a sort of homage to the roots of Mars old school rpging. 

 

So I'm already rolling up the deserted city and already White Apes have come up as an encounter. I might or might not use them. The party is staying at Raz's place while Helm the fighter 3rd level is in healing tank. The rest of the party is looking to aquire some healing potions and draw up a second flier from Raz. His place is guarded by mercenary Red warriors of 3rd level. So he's expensive but well worth the expense. The party can off set some of this expense by getting him several herbal and dangerous fungal ingrediants. These are from Martian Shrieker and Violent Fungus varieties. The healer warned the party about these horrors! Tune in next week! 

The Trade Depot Fasco - - Warriors of the Red Planet/ Hyperborea rpg Session Report Five

 Let's pick it right up from last session on the blog.  Our party took the riskier route to the trade depot and made it without much incident except for an encounter with two dust devils. This was lon the low end of our encounters after the cannibals. 

The trade depot came into view and there were already a huge caravan meet of Green & Red martian lower bottom dead sea merchants and traders. We got into our reserved space and went on too tell our tale of cannibal red men warriors. And unloaded our cargo and setttled in. 
The first thing we did was get ammo, supplies, etc for our group of adventurers and eyed some of the other merchants goods. We also restocked on water, food, etc. You know the stuff that ERB's skipped over but Brackett went into a bit of detail about. We picked up a job from a red man merchant prince who was looking for some foo erm brave souls willing to venture into the dead sea bottom ruins of one of the ancient cities. 
So for that I'm going wayback to the Best of Dragon Magazine volume #1 James Ward's "Deserted Cities of Mars," as a sort of homage to the roots of Mars old school rpging. But this comes much later on. 

So while everyone is concentrating on the resupplying the party wasn't paying too much attention to the flyer that landed at the deserted tower that made up this dead sea bottom trading post. The flyer belonged to one of the lesser royal houses of Helium's kingdom. What the player's don't know is that it contains Jal Hardos Martian assassin and duelist. The party got all of thier supplies and the pittence for the caravan job because of the Thark mercenaries air strike that they paid for. However they did get a percentage of the overall trade sales as a bonus as per thier terms so they made five hundred gold. 
And this is where our rogue got into a full blown duel with the assassin! And she was able to hold her own for quite a while. The duel drew lots from the Green Martians who were there for trade. But they stayed for the entertainment.  
Jal Hardos made a boast that he could take on the entire party one at a time. He's not kidding either because he's got some really underhanded tactics up his sleeve. Alright so what's Hardos deal? He's a 7th level rogue with a Scientist patron backing him as his 'Q' and is really Chaotic. He's been hired because he get's results. He's got a Paralysis ray up his sleeve literally. He won't use it unless he has no choice.  His aim is to stop the party whose in the past had dealing with black wizards and thier cults. 

Airstrike In the Red Desert! - Warriors of the Red Planet/ Hyperborea rpg Session Report Five

 Tonight's session picks right up here on the blog. We called in an air strike on on position from Thark mercenaries & even though it got really expensive we were able to get rid of a third of the cannibal warriors! 

We lost a third of our pay due to the air strikes but were able to get a third or more of the cannibals out of our escape route. The Tharks used repurposed red men skyships that had been modified for thier frames. 
We've been hunkered down in the outpost since last game session and we've been dealing hand to sword damage to the enemy while conserving ammo. Things have been interesting with our guys dealing with the cannibal low sea landers. They are highly disorganized but fight like undead horrors. Finally after two hours of combat and bombing the battle zone was very quiet. 
And we saw our opportunity! Our wizard cast a smoke spell and provided our vehicles cover. We moved across the battle field while our scouts brought up the rear telepathically doing obersvation on our rears. 
After several hours of game time we got back onto the main trade routes and radioed back to the Tharks thanking them and giving our employer's frequencies so that they can get paid. 
We ran across an ancient lich's litter and caravan while we got back onto the main route. This was only a pass and we telepathically greeted the caravan warning them of the cannibals. 
But we were far behind schedule and we've got to take another riskier route to make up for lost time. This means being exposed to Green Martian barbarians and raiders. But it's risk we're willing to take! Here's where we ended tonight's session! 

Ambush & Attack in the Red Desert! - Warriors of the Red Planet/ Hyperborea rpg Session Report Four

 We sent two scouts out as we hunkered down and began to conserve ammo as the cannibal's pirate fleet and then we brought out two boozka style weapons. The big problem? We didn't have a ton of ammo for this weapon. This session picks right up from here on the blog. 

Meanwhile our scouts had to sneak and pick off any enemies who got into thier way. They one had two battles that were quickly resolved and then found the trade outpost in the dead sea ruins we were looking for. So the next thing we had to do was to take out the small pirate fleet with distractions allowing our caravan to quietly escape! We kept the largest of our caravan vehicles and let the others go while providing several ammo and oil explosions. We waited for the larger ships to come into view and then made the dice rolls. 

These guys were fanatics and even after losing a major destroyer they kept coming! We provided distraction as the other vehicles made it too the outpost. And this outpost had a cache of replacement, equipment, ammo, etc. for the caravan which was another assignment often given on Mars. The scouts made it too the outpost and then got the gates opened. The other cannibals must have realized what they were doing and regroupped to swarm. And the scouts attacked with the heavier weapons and missed! Damn it! A fumble on the dice rolls made things sketchy! The scouts had to provide cover fire for the vehicles while we made our way through a back door trail that the scouts had telepathied back to us. We transferred cargo to the other vehicles and made our way to the outpost and hunkerred down again. Now we've got to radio for support from Thark mercenaries. 

We lost two vehicles and support crew to the cannibals, and these things are not at all reasonable. They attack like undead but die when hit by gun fire. 

Ambush In The Desert ! - Warriors of the Red Planet/ Hyperborea rpg Session Three

 

We're picking right up from where we left off last time here on the blog.  The hills surged with cannibalistic red men warriors who were in a beserk state hopped up from the Gods know what drug that the low lander's master's had cooked up. We brought our rifles to bare and still didn't waver then fired! There were explosions and worse out in the field. And then the fliers crested over the ridge off to our left!

There were various ships from over a dozen nations in various states of disrpair and this didn't matter. The red men seethed with foam coming from thier mouths and then tried to pour into our carvan. We dropped mines and explosives killing scores of them and then the next wave came over the horizon. And there's a ton of these warriors crawling over everything. And that's when the heavy weapons came out! Our caravan hunkered down and we began getting the big guns out! Here's where we ended this week's session! 

On The Martian Caravan Trails - Warriors of the Red Planet/ Hyperborea rpg Session Two

The party investigated a lesser noble's tomb on the South side of lesser Helium but it was both a bust and a set up against a rogue group of 1st level bandits and asssassins. We made quick work of them and collected the artifact they'd plundered from the tomb. We made a quick three hundred gold pieces from the plunder. And this session picks right up from here 

 We signed up with the Green Martian Thurd trading carvans who were on a trade mission with the lesser sea bottom Red Martian tribes. The pay is crap and the conditions are also mimilist these are after all Green Martians. But we met with the carvan master and hired on. Besides we've a vendetta against the Torquas Green Martian horde who killed off a number of our PC's in the last crossover game mini campaign. 

Ravs Thrus The Caravan master 

Green Martian from Bronze Age Miniatures available here. 

Our party was put on the sky guns duty and too look after the back of the caravan from rear attacks. This wasn't our first work with the Green Martians and we got paid up front and a random encounter happened with some flying beasts that wanted to make a quick snack of the caravan! Guns and rifles blasted and it was short work or so we thought. The alien beasts launched lesser drone like leech things and we were able to repulse them. Our cleric got hit good and lost an eye from one of these horrors. We hangled with the caravan master for him to get a replacement as a part of his contract. Several rolls  later and we made camp for the night. Among others who were among the caravan's travellers were a scientist, several rogues(actors), and several drovers returning to thier bottom sea tribes. 
We got guard duty and had our rifles at the ready for river valley banths or worse. The night passed without incident. And we got through the night with only  some wild cadlots who kept thier distance. Our telepath sensed them and we had our rifles or pistols ready. We heard tales of cannibelistic red warrior low landers in the area from our Thurd green hosts. 

Footloose and Fancy Free In Lesser Helium - Warriors of the Red Planet/ Hyperborea rpg Session Report One

 The PC's made  the crossing across the Boreas Winds and ended up taking a caravan to Helium. And here's where things got interesting. The PC's were getting to trade in equipment, weapons, and treasure from Hyperborea into the Twin Cities. Helium is one of the capitals of Barsoom & it's twin cities are trade centers of Mars;"Helium is one of the major kingdoms of Barsoom. It is ruled by the Jeddak Tardos Mors and is the residence of warlord John Carter and his wife Dejah Thoris. Helium is noted, among other things, for the excellence of its Navy as it fliers are among the fastest on Barsoom."  This comes from the Encylopedia Barsoom Helium entry here. 

The PC's ended up in Lesser Helium and began trading in gear & items from Hyperborea. The city is where 90% of commerence and trading happens. Lesser Helium also has it's own Jeddak. 
The PC's ran afoul of a lesser noble who took umbridge with our  Runegraver Ulax Unthe. At higher levels runegravers are not the PC's you wanna get on the wrong side of. There was a very tense moment when Sir Alex stepped in to fight on Ulax's behalf. And the duel was to first blood and was over before it began as our cavilier had him within two rounds with solid dice rolls. 
This encounter with Lexus Mal lesser noble came up in the random encounters from Warriors of the Red Planet. 

We aquired the services of two new hirelings. A Mind Master named Dax Comus 3rd level whose agreed to come along with our party for 50 gold pieces and a share of the treasure. And Lexerus Lee discgraced noble and rogue noble woman 2nd level. We managed to shed our old Hyperborean equipment for Martian desert gear and Barsoomian equipment. We'll get new gear when we make the crossing back to Hyperborea. 
We've heard rumors of a noblemen whose hiring adventurers for a raid into a Martian tomb of his ancestors on the outskirts of lesser Helium.