Starstones Campaign Chapter 8

 Chapter Eight

 Once settled in the new base of operations in Gusinji, the party review the new intelligence, collected from local sources by the ARSS investigation team who preceded the party to set up the base. Whilst chaotic and fragmentary, it is apparent that the vampire clan are definitely increasing their activities in the region.

 The most promising lead concerns a village in a remote valley in the eastern Accursed Mountains.

A mysterious illness had killed over half the village in a single week before stopping, as suddenly as it began. But within a few more days the survivors had fled the village, saying that their dead friends and families had come back to eat them! The latest intercepts from the Ottoman military revealed that a “special unit” of soldiers had been despatched to the village, but they had failed to report back.

 It has been decided that Professor Hodgeson’s team would investigate the site. But before departing the Professor sent an urgent requisition order to ARSS Mediterranean HQ for some new equipment.  He also spent some time in deep conversation with the priest at Gusinji’s church.

 On arrival at the edge of the deserted village the party see a strangely thin wolf tearing at the bloody remains of a man in Ottoman uniform.

 “Hey! Get out of it!” Jack yelled, picking up a rock and throwing in at the wolf.

 The wolf turns to face them and silently bares its teeth. It’s fur and skin have a strange, bluish tinge and its eyes seem to almost glow with a red light.

 “This creature does not appear normal.” exclaimed the Professor.

 The wolf let out an eerie howl then charged at Jack. He drew his revolver and shot the creature through its heart. The impact of the bullet knocked the wolf over, but it sprang back up and leapt at Jack with its jaws agape. Jack’s second shot blew the top of its head off and the creature dropped to the ground in a limp heap.

 “Well, that certainly did not appear normal!” Singh remarked drily.

 As if in reply, from the village ahead they heard more mournful howling….

 Set Up: A small village. 6 corpses (or the remains of corpses) are scattered around the village, some still clad in the tattered remnants of Ottoman uniforms. There are also 4 strange pits, like tears that have opened up in the ground. The PCs need to search the bodies to see if they can find anything of use, then exit the table (all the party must leave from the same edge).

 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:

3 x hordes of 4 Ice Revenants

2 x Ice Revenant Wolves

 

 Trap: A pit opens up at the PCs feet and an Ice Revenant emerges and attacks. Mark the spot as a future ambush point. Replace the card in the deck.

 Ambush: An Ice Revenant emerges from one of the pits and attacks.

 Reinforcements: 1-6 Ice Revenants enter from a random table edge.

 At Our Back: 1-6 Ice Revenants enter along the southern edge (or 12” behind the rearmost PC).

 Complications: Pack of 6 Ice Revenant Wolves enter from a random table edge.

 That will come in handy: See a bunch of fresh garlic through the nearest window. The PC must enter the house to retrieve it.

 Game Event: A Lesser Vampire emerges from a random house. Place “A Vague Disquiet” card in the deck. Because it has recently fed, the vampire has 3 HP.

If the Vampire is reduced to 1 HP it will attempt to flee from the Northern table edge.

 Wandering Monster

Roll 1d6 for location, 1-4= table edge, 5-6 = nearest cover to centre of table.

1-2: 3 x Ice Revenants

3-5: An Ice Revenant Cossack

6: An ice Revenant Creature

 Searching bodies: This takes 1 action, roll 1d6.

1: Mallet and wooden stake

2: Fresh Garlic

3: Amulet against Poison

4: Sprig of Wolvesbane

5: Hand crossbow with 6 silver tipped arrows (range 12”, shoot as pistol -1)

6: 3 vials of Holy Water

A repeat roll indicates that the body has nothing of value

 Victory Conditions

The game ends all PCs have left the table or are dead.

5 XP plus 1XP for killing the lesser vampire or carrying a comrade’s body off-table.

New Foes

For the Vampires' undead hordes I wanted more recently animated corpses rather than the skeletons from the original Sellswords and Spellslingers rules, so I created my own "revenants".

ICE REVENANT DL 10 HP 1 DMG 1 MOVE 4”

Raised Dead, Immune to poison, disease, Vulnerable to Fire: DL 6 vs Fire, Headshot

Horde

These are your basic Zombies/Walkers/Zs,/Wights etc

ICE REVENANT WOLF DL 8 HP 1 DMG 1 MOVE 6”

Raised Dead, Immune to poison, disease, Vulnerable to Fire: DL 4 vs Fire, Headshot

Horde

Exactly what it says on the tin!

ICE REVENANT COSSACK DL 12 HP 2 DMG 1 MOVE 4”

Raised Dead, Immune to poison, disease, Vulnerable to Fire: DL 8 vs Fire, Headshot

Obsolete rifle Max Range 12”, Poor shot DL2 if shooting – if activated within 4” of PC will charge PC rather than shoot, Horde

The Vampire clan's original bodyguards who have maintained some of their military skills in the afterlife (unlife?),

ICE REVENANT CREATURE DL 13 HP 3 DMG 1 MOVE 4”

Raised dead, Immune to poison, disease, Vulnerable to Fire: DL 9 vs Fire, Horror Check +2 within 4”

Ferocious Blow: if a PC rolls a 1 in melee with a Creature, the PC suffers 2 HP damage.

Take one of von Frankenstein's failed experiments, kill it, then reanimate it. Nice!

Headshot: If hit by mundane missile fire (except shotgun or explosion) roll 1d6, on a 6 the model is knocked down, but does not lose a hit point.

So how did it go?

The village layout. The PCs enter from the bottom edge, the red splatters are the Ottoman corpses.

                                       

It all starts so well. Jack rolls three successes and rushes forward to reach the nearest corpse. Then Maisie rolls two fails, the first activates the nearest wolf to charge at Jack.....

                                       

.... and the second brings on a pack of revenants right at the PC's backs! They turn and blast away, but roll appallingly, only hitting one of the foes. Singh and Lady Amelia both fell their attackers, the Professor misses, but successfully parries but Maisie takes a wound. By the time the PCs (well Singh and his big knife to be honest) have finished off the rest of the revenants, Maisie is down and out of the fight! Professor Hodges administers first aid and she recovers, but with 1HP with -2 to all rolls and movement limited to half speed. We decided it was safer (for the rest as well as her) if she returned to base. Not good for the end of the first turn!

Lady Amelia and the Professor move forward to join Jack but Singh's attention wanders somewhat (three failed activations). A rather large "thing" makes an appearance to the right of him and a large horde of revenants turn up to the left. Stuck in the middle with who? 

To cap it off, now a vampire emerges from one of the buildings.

The Professor toasts the big critter one one of his exploding globes and Lady Amelia finishes it off with a shotgun blast to the head.

As the Vampire and the horde of revenants close in on Singh, his gun jams and he retreats to join Lady Amelia, who blasts the impudent undead hussy with both barrels! Reduced to 1HP, the vampire will attempt to leave the table rather than attack the party.

While this is going on Jack is franticly gunning down the mass of undead wolves and other revenants closing in on him from all sides.

The Professor throws another of his exploding globes at the horde. Before.....

....and after. Unfortunately, the vampire wasn't caught in the blast.

As the PCs attempt to get back together, Lady Amelia is startled by a revenant appearing from a hole at her feet, but the a swift application of a shotgun butt to the skull deals with the creature.

At the same time Jack and Singh are charged by the remaining wolves after Jack's gun jams. Having dealt with the "oversized dingoes", Jack searches the corpse and finds a strange amulet.

 Lady Amelia is ambushed again from the same hole in the ground, but with the Professor's assistance removes the annoyance.

Things then went quiet for a bit (never a good sign) and the Professor rushed forward to search another corpse, finding a bunch of fresh garlic. Flushed by his success, and the lack of visible foes, he promptly dashed across the table towards a distant body by the northern edge. Two more revenants rounded the corner of the fence in front of Professor Hodgeson. He reached into his knapsack and drew out the small cloth bag the village priest had given him before they left that morning. He pulled out three small glass vial and threw them at the approaching undead. The first missed, but the second struck the leading monster, showering in in holy water, blessed by the priest. The creature instantly dropped to the ground like a limp rag, the evil will that bound it to unlife banished! The Professor swiftly dealt with the second revenant in a similar manner.

But when Jack tried to follow he was intercepted by a horde of shambling undead.

And Lady Amelia found herself ambushed, yet again! In all she was ambushed 7 or 8 times during the game. We speculated if it was her new eau de toilette that was attracting all the attention?

The Professor searched yet another body, this time finding a bunch of wolfsbane, which he stashed in his knapsack. A single revenant rushed towards him, but the Professor downed the creature with a well-placed .455 calibre Webley.

The party now gathered together. The Professor, his blood up, was all for continuing to check the remaining corpses or else following the vampire as she fled from the table. But as Lady Amelia was down to one HP, the rest of the party were in favour of a retreat in order to regroup. The matter was decided by the arrival of another of the huge revenant creatures, with Lady Amelia badly injured and the Professor having exhausted his supply of exploding globes, even he decided that the better part of valour is discretion, and they left.

Recovering over pre-diner gins at their base camp, Professor Hodgeson reviewed their discoveries.

"What I do not understand, is why the Ottomans were carrying Wolfsbane?" he remarked.

"They probably feared those resurrected creatures." Singh offered, "Many men would".

"But if would not affect those, " Jack explained, "it would only work on werewolves."

He paused for a moment.

Maisie looked up from where she lounged on the chaise longue.

"Uncle, do the Turks know something we are unaware of?" she asked.