Starstones Campaign Chapter 7

 Chapter Seven

 Following their recent diversion to Egypt, Professor Hodgeson and his team, accompanied by Lady Amelia Bufton-Tufton and her servant, have returned to the Balkans. Once there ARSS headquarters has tasked them with hunting down the ancient vampire clan that appears to have been assisting Von Leiche in his experiments and obtain the Starstones that are believed to be in their possession. Pre-operation research by ARSS agents has identified the probable base of the vampire clan, in a remote region in the Bjeshket e Nemuna or The Accursed Mountains in Northern Albania.

 Local folklore in the region would indicate that the vampires have been operating in the Accursed Mountains for at least three centuries. However, recently there have been rumours of new activity which may indicate a change in the vampire’s activities. According to legend, the majority of the vampire’s victims simply died, with the occasional unfortunate rising to join the clan as a new vampire. Recent reports now speak of many more of those killed by the vampires rising from their graves, not as new vampires but as an army of reanimated corpses under the control of the senior vampires.

Arrangements have been made for the party to travel to Gusinji, the nearest sizable town to the region, which will serve as the base of their operations. From there the party’s instructions are to investigate the reports and ascertain if they are the results of Von Leiche’s experiments, if that is so then to gather research into the technology used. However, the prime purpose of the mission is to eliminate the vampire threat and retrieve any Starstones in the possession of the clan.

As well as the vampire clan themselves, and whatever servants they control, it is expected that Ottoman forces will be attempting to disrupt the party’s investigations.

On arrival at Gusinji you find the town swarming with Ottoman troops and local thugs, all of whom appear to be looking for you! It would appear that someone has put a price on your heads, large enough to persuade a lot of the local lowlife out from under their stones. It would be expedient to move quickly to your new base of operations. However, whilst en-route it might it not present an opportunity to demonstrate to the locals that whatever price is being offered is not commensurate to the risk?

 Set Up: Streets in Gusinji, in the centre of the northern edge is the ARSS base of operations.

Deployment: Deploy all PCs along the southern edge, then deploy foes randomly but not closer than 8” to any PC (if a foe appears closer than 8” from a PC, place it 8” away).

 Foes:

2 x hordes of 4 local Bandits

2 x bandit thugs

3 x hordes of 3 Ottoman Soldiers.

Trap: There are no Traps.

Ambush: A bandit leaps out from the nearest cover and attacks the closest PC.

 Reinforcements: 3 bandits enter from a random table edge.

At Our Back: 3 Ottoman Soldiers entre from the southern table edge.

Complications: None

Game Event: An Ottoman Iron Man enters from a random table edge. Leave the card in the deck, the Iron Man acts as a normal foe for drawn cards, except it also activates if the Event card is drawn.

Wandering Monster:

Bandit thug

Covering Fire.

A gatling gun is positioned by the doorway of the base. If any foe activates in LOS of the door they will be fired upon (roll once for each foe DL +1 shoot). If more than one foe/horde activates on the same card, shoot at the largest group. Note: PCs block LOS.

Victory

The game ends all PCs are inside the base of operations or dead.

The table layout, the objective is the flat roofed building at the top of the photo.

A street view before every thing goes to Hell, a local bigwig is choosing the drinks and entertainments for his forthcoming party.

Not the best start, both Lady Amelia and Professor Hodgeson have jammed guns and Jack takes down two Ottoman soldiers charginf towards them, but misses the third!

Singh takes out the last of the Ottoman soldiers in hand-to-hand, but that has allowed times for two hordes of local bandits to gather. Singh now finds himself staring down 8 rifles barrels. In the next activation, a Monster Frenzy card and some awful dice leave him with 2 wounds.

Singh pulls back to allow Lady Amelia to administer some first aid, whilst the lady's shotgun and Jack's revolver remove the first horde of bandits.

The Professor throws an exploding globe, which accounts for the next horde!

With the base in sight, Singh prepares to cover the Professor and Lady Amelia's andavce across the square. The Professor rushes forward to the door of the building, but Lady Amelia stumbles and an ambushing bandit charges out of a nearby doorway. Fortunatly he is felled by a shotgun butt whacked across the side of his head.

Once the PCs came into LOS from the ARSS base, the automated gatling gun was activated to provide covering fire.

A series of back Activations has brought on a whole heap of trouble, fortunatly at the far side of the table from our heroes!

As a Bandit Thug rounds the corner the automated gatling gun, mounted on the balcony over the door, springs into action!

Jack urges Maisie to run for the base, but a Bandit Thug is closing in behind her. Jack turns and cuts the rogue down by empting his revolver into the bandit's cheat.

With Lady Amelia, the professor and Maisie safely inside the base, Jack and Singh start to cross the square. A Bandit Thug ruses at Singh and somehow avoids the hail of fire from the gatling gun. Both men draw their knives and close with one another, each inflicting a punishing wound. Singh is back down to 1 HP (again)!

But Jack rushes up and cuts the thug down with his blade. There is nothing left to prevent the two men from reaching the door to the base now.

With Singh suitably bandaged, the party enjoy a well-earned afternoon tea on the sunlit roof terrace.

It was an easier game than expected, but after a dodgy start, with jammed weapons all over the place, we got lucky. Once the party got close to the objective, all the new foes entering the table seemed to arrive at our starting point, so never got close enough to be a threat. The Iron Man's card never came out of the deck, so we didn't have to deal with that. On the other hand, Singh took 3 wounds, fortunately Lady Amelia was able to administer some healing before he collapsed.

Vampire hunting starts next!