Session/Game: Savage Worlds Orion 13
Date: 4/23/2006
Episode 13: Wedding Bell Blues
Campaign Date: Royal Orion Year 314, Day 1-4
Characters:
Sir Hollis Dupont, human, seasoned (Andrew Smith)
Sir Bloodblade, Kong, veteran (Marlon Kirton)
Squad of two apeman gunmen and a kong heavy weapon gunner (NPC)
Sir Connor O'Reardon, human, seasoned (James Gallagher)
Angus, Dwarf Engineer (NPC)
Sir Henry "Machinegun Hank" Poole, seasoned (Charles Fleurie)
Sir Tar Ravenseye, Sybockian, Seasoned (Chris Maloney)
Sir Grimnak Sleestack, Saurian, Seasoned (Bob LaForge)
GM: Dave "Dr. Skull" Nelson
Log:
Day 1: Sir Hollis’ Wedding at the Royal Clambake, Orion
What was supposed to be the happiest day in Sir Hollis’ life (for the 17th time or so) turned out to be a disaster1. The Clambake was attacked by a series of pre-planted robotic terror teams, presumably by the LeRoy clan in their bid for the throne. Sir Connor and Sir Bloodblade had to defeat two deadly Killbots who were targeting the Brown Monk. The pair had been trying to ditch both the Brown Monk and Sir Eustace Plumbottom when the Killbots bore up from beneath the sand, injuring Sir Eustace in the process. After some hard fighting both killbots were destroyed.
Meanwhile, Machinegun Hank and Sir Tar were distracted when Captain Skip Skylark of the Royal Guardians got into a heated argument with Archbishop Eusebius over whether they were eating “shrimp cocktail” or “prawn cocktail.” This altercation led Captain Skylark to shove shrimp into the bishop’s face and forced Tar and Hank to try to subdue the Captain. The attack however was a ruse and distraction, diverting everyone’s attention while a squad of Krylon warriors deployed and began shooting up the guests. Tar and Hank defeat the Krylons at last, but not before both are injured and the bishop was severely injured and several guests were killed.
Sir Hollis and Olga had indeed been married by the King, much to the dismay of Olga’s relatives, due to the obviously extreme drunkenness of Sir Hollis. The pair was whisked away to the consummation chamber. Sir Sleestack, acting as best man, however, noticed that the ice sculpture of Sir Hollis’ mother was quite peculiar, and in fact contained deadly chemicals. He grabbed it and teleported into the nearby bomb-disposal room, teleporting out again before the outer ice layer had melted to release deadly nerve gas. Back in the consummation chamber, it turned out that “Olga” was in fact a deadly fembot who attempted to murder Hollis using built in machineguns. Sir Hollis used the famed robot-slaying Sword of Drogo to eliminate the assassin.
Days 2-3, Orion
The knights heal from injuries and make inquiries. Sir Sleestack is granted a Royal Boon for saving the king’s life from the nerve gas; he chooses a rocket cycle. Hollis discovers that Olga had had a physical exam shortly before a shopping trip to Scarasia City on Scara, and she had been a human then. Sir Tar and Sir Henry discover that Captain Skylark, who had escaped the melee on the beach, was also from Scara, in fact was a cousin to the treasonous former president of the High Council. Sir Connor and Angus discovered that the capsule from which the killbots had emerged bore a Darbusto Industries marking beneath one of the welds. Sir Bloodblade attempted to ask the Brown Monk for favors, but was not successful. The entire compliment of knights met on Bloodblade’s star-yacht to discuss plans. They agreed to go to Scara and attempt to shake things loose there.
Day 4—Scara
After Marveling through to an island on Scara, the knights call to James Butler, the lodge manager, to send a space bus to pick them up. A few minutes later a blue, unmarked police speeder arrived and strafed them with a laser machinegun, injuring Sir Sleestack. Sir Henry, however, fired an RPG and blew the craft out of the sky. Sir Hollis called the lodge again, and James Butler said that he had not in fact received the earlier call, and immediately set out in the lodge bus to make the pick up. Sir Connor berated him for tardiness.
Sir Tar and Sir Henry bought a big bucket of prawns (or was it shrimp?) and went to the Defense Force Arsenal to requisition several explosive charges2. They took a trans-oceanic flight to Westos City where Captain Skylark’s family home was located. Tempered by Tar’s Sybokian pacifism, they decided not to blow the house to pieces but merely used the charge to cover the house with bits of rotting shrimp3.
Meanwhile, Sir Hollis and Sir Bloodblade track Olga to a hair dresser, and question Miranda Chapman, the stylist who had fixed her hair, From her, they find that Olga had been involved in a notorious traffic accident involving a limo and school children, and was then whisked away to Dr. Toblerone’s exclusive private clinic for medical work when she was here three weeks earlier. Angus and Connor tried to track down information in the seedier section of the flying city of Scarasia, but had no luck. Sir Sleestack bought a nice selection of raw Grundorian cutlets.
Hollis, Sleestack, Bloodblade, and Connor entered the Toblerone clinic, and after brutalizing the receptionist, discovered the back room was filled with a squad of Krylons. After a brisk fight in which Sir Hollis was locked outside most of the time, the robots were destroyed. Inside, Angus discovered that Olga had been there, and was taken out alive some time ago, and that Skylark Shipping (Captain Skip’s family business) was involved somehow.
After Tar and Hank had returned from Westos in the evening4, the knights decided to raid the Skylark Shipping building in Scarasia City. As they were planning, James Butler notified Sir Tar that he had visitors. Three members of the Cult of Slag-Bah5 were at the door and when Tar arrived, they decided to kill him. In self defense, Tar blasted the cultists to fragments with psionic force.
The knights proceeded to the raid on Skylark Shipping. They drove the bus to the loading dock, scared the dockmen into submission and took the elevator up to the control center. There they were stopped by a dozen heavily armed security troops. A fight broke out and the troops were destroyed. The door ahead was locked, and the enemy flooded the room with nerve gas and locked the elevator behind the knights. The gas only managed to kill the dock worker they had brought along for information, since the knights were in sealed armor. Sir Henry used one of his explosive charges to blow through the door where they were met by another dozen troopers, 2 killbots and a machinegun crew. Hank used another RPG to wipe out the machinegun crew and a pair of troopers. Sir Hollis used the sword of Drogo to destroy one killbot, and Sir Connor used telekinesis to turn the other’s weapons against itself. Tar, Hank and Bloodblade accounted for the rest of the troopers, through not without some wounds received.
After the fight, the knights discovered that the security troops had some sort of identification labeling them “The Royal Army,”6 indicating that they must be involved in the LeRoy conspiracy. They also found documents indicating that the Leroys are planning a public coronation and open defiance and rebellion soon. Skylark Shipping, the mining concerns on Yellbane, and possibly Darbusto industries are all involved in supporting the plot. There are apparently a large number of troops in the so-called “Royal Army” and legions of robots now as well7.
Finally, the plotters had one more card to play, as Scara was of no more use, they had sabotaged the grav generators holding up the city. The knights fled to the lodge, marveling out and taking the lodge staff with them, as the city started to slip toward the ground8.
The knights returned to Orion for rest and boons. Sir Connor recruited James Butler and his staff to help establish a knight’s lodge on his colony of New Dublin.
1. Sir Hollis, as a royal boon, had been granted the right to run the annual New Year’s Day Royal Clambake, and had decided to combine it with his latest wedding to Olga of the MeatyMan Meat family.
2.These were standard Orion B.O.O.M. charges, used for demolition (5d8 damage, 3 pounds, small burst template).
3.Or perhaps prawns, the records are unclear.
4.They had been briefly detained at the Westos Skyport, but the guards decided that Knights of Orion weren’t likely to have stooped to childish vandalism such as blowing shrimp over someone’s house.
5.The Cult of Slag-Bah had put Sir Tar on its death list for some as yet unrevealed cause.
6.There is in fact no legitimate Royal Army, Orion ground troops coming either from the Royal Marines or the armies of the member worlds.
7.And presumably Grundorians by the ton, even perhaps Grundorian super soldiers.
8.The city itself was completely destroyed as a functional entity, but was designed to deal with such a calamity to minimize loss of life, and only several hundred people were actually killed.