VAARN ACTUAL PLAY MEGA UPDATE: EPISODES 14-16

It’s been a big few months in Vaarn-land. I launched the first zine that details the setting, and had a really great response, much better than I had hoped. However, all the work I’ve been doing on the zine has distracted from updates from my ongoing Sunday night campaign. I’m going to summarise the last few sessions in an abbreviated form so that we’re up to date.

Last time we saw our players, they had escaped the chaos at the Black Lotus nightclub, pissed off their landlady, and set out into Gnomos to find Nashir, the captain of the wind-barge they had travelled on to get to the city. They sought more information on Ancamulla, the Water Baron of Gnomos, their foe.

Our cast:

• Flim-Flam, a two-headed cacogen. Proficient cook. Fights with twin pistols. Owns a cyborg hawk named Midnight.
• Findus, a newbeast. Horse-man with mystical powers. Inhabited by a parasitic spirit entity. 
• Crunk, a true-kin warrior. Taciturn, impulsive. A lover and a fighter. Has a big sword.
• Karak, a gaunt cyborg. Robed and hideous, machine supremacist.
• Nephew (NPC), a mute and enthusiastic fungus-man. Able to fuse his flesh with dead creatures and take on their abilities.

As there’s a fair amount of material to cover, I’m going to be more terse than usual and cover only the basic plot-points.

EPISODE 14

1. Seeking Nashir, the PCs went to the Water Baron’s Bathhouse, which was managed by a cacogen woman named Lindmoor. After some trouble with the doormen, Crunk and Flim-Flam got inside.
2. Lindmoor was not very pleased to see them; Nashir had told her how they abandoned his barge after pledging to work as his guards. However, she eventually told Flim-Flam that Nashir was likely at the chariot racing track.
3. En-route to the track, the doormen who Flim-Flam had threatened caught up with the party. They had brought backup, but were no match for the four PCs and Nephew. The party slaughtered them and Karak took their plasma rifle.

EPISODE 15

1. The party arrived at the racing track. Residents of Gnomos were betting on the chariots, which were drawn by giant birds. Findus, who had a gambling problem, was overcome with the desire to gamble.
2. They ended up wagering on one of the birds, named Gastronomous Hex (I let the players pick names for the racing birds). Findus charmed his way into the high-roller’s viewing box, after sweet talking a hulking New-Tiger bouncer named Slotter.
3. Crunk and Nephew decided to fix the race, by secretly feeding Gastronomous Hex a ‘blood orange’. This was an item of Exotica that Karak had acquired, which induced murderous rage in creatures that ate it.
4. Findus made the acquaintance of Gamblebot, a stick-thin synth who was obsessed with random chance and gambling. Gamblebot gave him a psychic dice, that would always land on the number he was thinking about.
5. Karak approached Nashir, on the grounds that the merchant would not recognise him and might be more inclined to talk. The merchant was confused and scared when Karak began plumbing him for information about the Water Baron, but agreed to meet again in another location the next day.
6. The race began. The blood orange took effect on Gastronomous Hex, who wreaked havoc on the field, killing two other racing birds and coming in first place.
7. Findus went to collect his winnings. There was an angry crowd, convinced the race had been tampered with somehow, trying to tear the winnings booth apart.
8. Slotter the New-Tiger scared the crowd off with a volley from his chaingun. Findus got a cyborg implant: a backup heart. He gave it to Karak, who installed it in his mechanical chest, boosting his CON score.

EPISODE 16

1. The party returned to their boardinghouse. En-route, they spotted a tense situation: a group of Hegemony soldiers were attempting to force their way into a townhouse. An old man was ranting at them from a top-floor window.
2. They learned the householder was a religious fanatic, and delinquent on Hegemony taxes. They decided to help the soldiers, trying to get more Hegemony faction rep.
3. In the course of breaking the siege, they killed the old man by throwing him out of the window (great negotiations guys). His thirteen-year old son survived, fleeing into the streets of Gnomos. Flim-Flam remarked that they had ‘created their own Batman’.
4. After a hard day’s work, they decided to seek out the fanciest restaurant in the city. They headed up the Apex of Gnomos to Salari’s Grill.
5. They were admitted without reservations after the Maitre D’ saw that Flim-Flam was wearing the golden fez that crime-lord Prieval Prise had given him. She told them that Prieval had not arrived for dinner yet, but would soon. They were not entirely happy to hear this.
6. As they were seated and ordered, they became aware of some commotion in the room behind them. They asked a nearby table what was happening, and were informed that Ancamulla the Water Baron had just arrived with his entourage! This was a rare event, as the Baron almost never left his mansion.

At this point we had to leave it on a cliff-hanger. I’m pretty excited to play tonight, as this is their first opportunity to interact with the Water Baron, their declared nemesis, face to face. He has no idea who they are, so this might be a chance to worm their way into his good books. Watch this space…