So far, my quest has been well-fought but hard-won. I’ve lost a few circumstantial allies on occasion, including a poor scavenger who got caught in the crossfire when those no-good Talon Merc goons jumped me, but thankfully, word is getting out: Shrike’s gunning for the bad guys, and the bad guys be scared. Just last night I donned my favorite leather jacket², pumped myself up on Buffout and MedX, and took out an entire clutch of nasty Raiders using only a Louisville Slugger I had affectionately named Pablo. I barely had time to catch my breath as I led my assault, needing to take them out with as much celerity as possible so as to maximize the effectiveness of my chemically-skyrocketed battle prowess. I charged through their compound – one insultingly forged out of the ruins of an old elementary school – and wiped their filthy souls from the planet with minimal injury. Then I slept off my wounds in their own beds, dragged their bodies into a central heap, peed on their dead leader’s corpse, and set them all ablaze with their own flamethrower before leaving the next morning.

I fucking hate Raiders.

What’s next for Shrike? Word is there’s some “family” of villains terrorizing the poor nearby settlement of Arefu. An easy-on-the-eyes dame named Lucy ain’t seen or heard from her folks up there in quite some time. As the new sheriff of these parts, I reckon it’s ’bout time I let these cheeky bastards know who’s now in charge ’round here. Time to go give this family a taste of the Baseball Bat o’ Justice. Pablo’s a close talker, a real social type.

This past Monday night saw another session of my weekly Savage Worlds game. I’ve become a bit slack with this game, owing in no small part to the increasing difficulty of me running games on Monday nights. This campaign’s days are acknowledgedly numbered, but thankfully this most recent session really got my blood pumping again. I eagerly await the ending few sessions of the series, in part because gaming on Mondays is takings its toll on me, but mostly because I really want to know what happens next. The beauty of running this game largely from the seat of my pants is that when it gets me, it really gets me, and I’m as eager to know the future as the players are. I’ll wait a few more sessions before I post things in detail, though.

I’ll end this post with a little idea: Iron Kingdoms, done with Warhammer FRP 3rd Edition. I think it would rock.

Footnotes

¹ PS: thanks for the bitchin’ coat and hat, Luke. RIP
² Tunnel Snakes rule! *shove*

We made the characters way back around the end of November, but only just recently started actually playing the game, as the holidays and various familiar commitments prevented us from being able to meet again after character creation.

• Drake as “Mishka Starov,” a Kossite ex-Widowmaker who deserted the army after seeing many ghostly visions of his possible future deaths
• Emma as “Rosalynd Hutch,” a Caspian Arcane Mechanik, recently graduated from the Mechanikal Studies school of Corvis University
• Robert as “Gregory Vascalho,” a Tordoran ex-watchman, fired for sticking his nose in places where the bureaucracy felt it didn’t belong
• Robin as “Captain Branduff Scully,” a Thurian river smuggler in search of his missing eye, which was stolen along with half of his soul by a wicked imp
• Ryan as “Quinlan Bralazzi,” a Rynnish Noble Wizard with a secret hobby of Infernalism and a sour attitude toward his lessers

In our first session (four or so weekends ago), we introduced all of the five main protagonists. All of them had been contacted through various means by a wealthy Magi from Five Fingers named Unger von Grendelbach. The Magi had recently acquired franchising permission from the Ceryl-based Strangelight Workshop, which focuses its efforts on the investigation and sometimes eradication of supernatural hauntings. Von Grendelbach sought out the five characters for his own reasons, and all of them accepted his offer.

Quinlan and Rosalynd hopped on board a riverboat owned by Captain Branduff, traveling from Merywyn (in war-torn Llael) and Corvis (in Cygnar) respectively. Branduff’s usual trade took him frequently up and down both the Dragon’s Tongue and the Black River, so he was in a prime position to get the two of them and bring them back with him to Five Fingers. After a quick combat scene in which the basics of the rules mechanics were introduced to the new players, the session ended with them arriving in their new city and meeting up with Mishka and Gregory, both locals.

At the beginning of the second session, after handling some basic administrivia, they were met by Urk, the fat goblin manservant of their new patron (von Grendelbach). Urk brought with him a magically-written message offering them employment should they be able to accomplish a training mission. According to the message, von Grendelbach had arranged for the purchase of a building which would serve as the perfect Chapterhouse headquarters for their new operation. However, there was a catch: the house in question was haunted by an entity most foul. Once the new recruits rid the house of the menace, it would be theirs to use.

After getting some alchemical healing for the wounded Captain and dropping off some basic supplies at the Rose & Thistle Inn (their benefactor had arranged for a week of lodgings for them there), they went straight to the old decrepit house. The Applebry manor was a two-story affair built on a gently sloping cliff, reached by following a lonely rocky path off the Beacon Trail Road on the eastern of the two Porpoise Isles.

They reached the house at night time, and the only lights around were the flickers from the two lighthouses on the far ends of the island. After a bit of investigation, they were quite sure that some malicious entity was infesting the house, and set in motion a plan to eradicate it.

24 hours later, after consulting with an insane “grymkin specialist,” hiring the services of a crabby pregnant goblin, and chopping out the steps of their staircase, the heroes manages to rid the place of the grymkin (called a Trapperkin) infestation. How did they accomplish this, you might ask? Why, they just showed the Trapperkin the power of a mother’s love – goblin love can pierce the spirit veil and save the day, after all.

They were officially commissioned by von Grendelbach to establish the Five Fingers chapterhouse of the Strangelight Workshop, and given an initial stipend and promise of weekly salaries. Now this is where the story really begins…

My Observations

The group took to the investigation process with baby steps, which I expected, since this is the first time we’ve all gamed together. Running games with a high amount of investigative content can take a few sessions to get into a steady rhythm with new groups, as it can take time for everyone to get used to each other’s gaming styles and preferences. On the whole, the sleuthing went pretty well. Most of the group consists of players that I’ve not gamed with before, but I think that I catered to a variety of styles and wants pretty effectively in that first adventure.

Follow-Up

It’s been a couple of weeks since I started this writeup, and we’ve had two sessions since then and moved to a Wednesday night schedule. The very next session after this one was mostly administrivia and shopping, and also saw Robert leave due to scheduling conflicts. I’ll write more on the last two sessions soon enough, but all things considered, this game is going well.

So, game-wise, I’m torn. On the one hand, the idea of the characters being both watchmen and criminals in Five Fingers really appeals to me, because the notion of a game set up like The Wire is really damn cool. On the other hand, the idea of them being members of the FF chapterhouse of the Strangelight Workshop (aka, the Ghostbusters) is awesome, if only because I really like the word “Strangelight” and can see it being made into one wicked-sweet logo for the campaign’s logsite.

Lately, my dreams have been incredibly realistic. So realistic and subtle that at points during the day I muse whether or not certain things I remember recently were not actually just dreams. I’m talking about really vivid dreams, but none so crazy that they are obviously hallucinations or dreams.

A post on my friends list by tcpip has led me to look up the Fatal Frame series of video games again. I played #2 for a bit, but it was just too damn scary and the mechanics too damn slow and clunky for my tastes. So, instead, I settled for watching Lisa play it, and at that moment, my lust for watching others play involving video games was born. Anyway, I decided to look up the plot and stories of the three games from the series, resorting to Wikipedia for my information. Warning: Fatal Frame Video Game Spoilers Behind the Link! Jesus Harold Christ, the Japanese really are insane.

Behind the Snip is my new favorite song of the week.