Monday, January 3, 2011

[HS6E] Hawaii Action- Session 10 & 11

Why does it feel
Like the sun is just burned out
-Sevendust, Burned Out

The roof, the roof is on fire -Bloodhound Gang, The Roof Is on Fire 
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Last we checked on the Beach Brigade,  they were waiting for the "Old Man" to call them to let them know the trinket to open the door would be ready.


So the gentleman calls Lisa/Diamond the NEXT DAY (after saying it would be a week, despite Jumpshot trying to negotiate for faster time).

This surprised all the players as we were counting on a week so Jumpshot could regenerate body damage taken during the fight with the jetsuit dudes at the parking lot a couple runs back. It's not a week, so he has not regenerated and is down body at the moment.

So the phone call happens and Lisa/Diamond calls everyone and they all arrive at Legends of the East to find out what to do. Paiyun Fo instructs Lisa how to use the charm that will open the door to the dragon road. The charm is a shirt of 'Nani's, which is to be held something akin to a divining rod, and it supposedly will "pull" in the direction of where 'Nani is being held.

He warns us that the "key" is essentially one way- it only opens the way IN. We have to figure out our own way out, and the guy we believe is holding 'Nani is likely to be a tricky guy with backup escape routes figured out. 

The group all heads off to the mountain immediately near where the Porsche had been found. Lisa leads the way with the shirt in her hand, and as soon as she steps on the weird wavy line, a translucent road appears. The Ultras step onto the road, and they are in a completely different universe.

Think of those walk through aquariums- the big tubes under water that let you look into the tank as you travel around. That's kind of the impression I got from the GM's description; except the stuff surrounding the group wasn't water, it was lights and colors. Different colors streaked past like contrails of illumination, other roads were visible, and the entire thing was very, very surreal.  Various other paths wandered around but they all seemed to converge vaguely "UP" from the group, and the nexus was an intense, blinding light.

We follow the road we're on, and it too heads towards the really bright nexus, and as we're going along, a "hornet's nest" kind of pod becomes visible under the nexus. The token leads us to the nest/pod, which has three "roads" coming off of it- the large one we are following, and two smaller ones on other sides.

We get to what we believe is the door of the pod, and Lisa attempts to open it. It's the first thing to actively hurt her in a while, which surprises her.She tries again with the same result. Lisa's just stubborn, and tries yet again and gets zapped by the door again. She turns it over to Jumpshot or Steel Warrior (not sure which) and it finally opens after a couple more tries. (It was a magic door, and did damage to anyone without the special defense trying to open it.)

We get inside and it's the GM's take on a dungeon, which is different and fun. ( I forgot my camera- I really wanted to show off the awesome terrain and layout he had set up.) On the far side of the room is a middle aged Japanese guy dressed in a robe and weird capri like pants, doing something near a cauldron. There's a set of bookcases and an altar type thing, with 'Nani hanging by her arms in chains inside the vestibule area of the altar.

As the Ultras step through the door, the older "Mage" guy seems surprised at our arrival. He makes vaguely threatening noises about "we won't get out alive" and then starts chanting. 

Lisa/Diamond heads straight for the altar, where 'Nani is chained. The rest of the Ultras follow behind her, coming out of a narrow doorway into a much deeper, bigger room. The group generally splits into left side and right side of the cavern/dungeon area, with Lisa in the middle.

The group trades blows with the "Mage" guy as he is shooting bolts at them and so on,  while Jumpshot makes a directed effort to block off one of the exits. Due to this approach and the general layout of the room, Jumpshot ends up fairly close to the "Mage" and gets hit with at least a blast or two. Steel Warrior starts accosting the "Mage" verbally, and then a curious thing happens.

The Mage transforms into a Demon type entity. The Demon throws around a blast or two, and then he teleports away to the other side of the cavern, close to a different exit. Syphon decides to give him a BIG hug, and drains some of his abilities. Jerry Riggs takes a few shots at him with his weird bulletless gun (it uses CHI, not bullets), and Freestyle is trying to assist as well.

The battle between the "Mage/Demon" rages on, with Steel Warrior, Jumpshot, Jerry Riggs and Syphon getting their licks in as Lisa/Diamond completely ignores the combat in an effort to reach 'Nani. She finally gets to the vestibule, and discovers that her lady love is suspended above the ground, and so Lisa has to find a way to reach the chains. Lisa begins demolishing a ruined wall to get pieces of rubble to stand on.

The fight continues, and Jerry Riggs realizes that he isn't doing a lot of damage to the Demon Dude, so he heads over towards Lisa to see if he can help free 'Nani from the chains.

Lisa and Jerry cooperate to try to get 'Nani loose while the rest of the Ultras continue to battle the Demon, who has now changed back to a Mage. There are two chains, which go up to an opening at the "roof" of this cavern type place,  and Jerry cuts one with a chi-sword. As he cuts it, the chain retracts up into the hole/opening, and a "clink, clink, clink" and a rumbling noise is heard.

Lisa looks up to see what could be going on, and the roof above her begins to glow a dull, angry red and the room gets VERY warm. Lisa quickly remembers that all the "Dragon Roads" met at a nexus- the caldera of a volcano. She then deduces that this cavern/magical universe is directly below the caldera, and realizes that the Ultras are in SERIOUS danger.

Lisa catches 'Nani and yells across the room to Freestyle. As much as she doesn't like his mind link, she asks him to turn it on. She relays the information that the roof is about to cave in, with hot lava to follow, and the Ultras start doing their best to get out of the area.

As the chain breaks, the Mage teleports away from the major fracas on the right side of the room and jumps into the “rabbit hole” at the back end on the left side, taking the door with him. Jumpshot has been guarding this door, so he's on the left side.

The Ultras start pouring out of the cavern as fast as they can, and the roof continues to threaten to cave in, allowing a stream of lava to enter the cavern. Molten rocks start dropping from the ceiling, and the Ultras make way for an exit on the FAR side of the cavern.

The group gets split up as the lava falls and expands faster than they're able to wait for each other. There's a group very near the door they came in from, and two others (Syphon and Jumpshot) are in the middle of the room. Both Syphon and Jumpshot have been doing everything possible to assist the Ultras in getting out of danger, and they've gotten stuck behind.

Syphon decides to use herself as a human "umbrella" and holds open a "curtain" of lava that is falling from the ceiling so that Jumpshot can get through the divide between them and to a door. Jumpshot insists that he has another way out (a door on the other side of the room) and convinces Syphon to leave. She doesn't like it, but as she's getting out of the collapsing room, she sees Jumpshot heading through the other door.

The larger group heads back onto the Dragon Road, sans Jumpshot. End Session 10.

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Session 11 opens with us on the Dragon Road- 'Nani is unconscious, Syphon is severely burned, and Jumpshot is separated from us. Freestyle and Jerry Riggs see him on a different road fairly quickly, and we figure out how to get to him and head that way.

We follow the Dragon Road we are on up towards the Nexus, and around to the road he is on. As we are moving along the outer ring/platform surrounding the nexus, we clearly see a person sized pocket or shadow in the bright light. We get onto the road Jumpshot traveled to, and we get him picked up. He is surprisingly not burned anymore- he appears to have healed all of his physical injuries, but is still unconscious. Freestyle uses telekinesis to help carry Jumpshot along the road, and we follow it to what we believe will be the exit.

Both Freestyle and Jumpshot start to notice small imperfections in the road and catch glimpses or scents of the outside world through these "vents". The road is also narrowing, and appears to drop off dramatically very soon. Jerry Riggs and Steel Warrior deduce that this might be the best place to exit into "reality", and set about to find a way to open a door.

Jerry has this wuji sword that is made of chi rather than metal, and he uses it to "cut" a hole in the space in front of us, hoping to make a doorway. It takes some work, but the sword slices through and he starts to drag downwards, trying to make a seam. While he is doing this, Steel Warrior is trying to manipulate the chi around the opening to help loosen it or make the opening wider. This goes on for a little, and Syphon decides to drain the area around the opening. This weakens the slit and Jerry makes a large rip. Steel Warrior pulls it open kind of like parting a curtain, and we all exit the Dragon Road.

We come out onto the driftwood beach where we fought the fishmen many runs back. As we look behind us, we notice that the opening is still obvious, and Steel Warrior has little "shreds" of reality in his hands from where he "tore" the fabric between the worlds. We decide that someone should guard the opening so that no one wanders into it, and Steel Warrior stays there to help with this effort.

A quick call is made to Paiyun Fo to find out what to do about the hole. It's discovered that it will heal on its own, but it is undetermined how long it will take. Agent Williams is also called, asking if he can help cordon off the area since we may need a rest from guarding the ragged door.

Diamond takes Syphon, Jumpshot, 'Nani and Freestyle down to a boardwalk after having called for an ambulance. Jerry Riggs flies off to his lab to get a device that he's been working on that can help with healing.

Freestyle heads off to the army base to check on Williams and the ambulances arrive. Lisa loads Jumpshot and Syphon onto ambulances to go to the hospital, declines sending 'Nani, and the EMT dispatches out descriptions of who he's taking along as he's doing triage.

Diamond calls Jumpshot's family, and lets them know Jumpshot is on the way to the hospital. She lets them know she will meet them there.

Diamond walks to the hospital, carrying 'Nani. She's decided to go ahead and admit 'Nani after all, and as she arrives Syphon flies in, carrying JumpShot. Though a mind link, we discover that Syphon was attacked by ACME agents, and she managed to escape.

Freestyle arrives on the scene after getting Agent Williams over to the beach, and discovers that the ambulance is missing. He backtracks and finds it along the road, tipped on its side. The driver is buckled in the front seat, but in bad shape. The passenger isn't immediately visible, but as Freestyle goes around the back of the vehicle to assess the damage, he finds a trickle of some kind of fluid. Further examination leads him to believe it's blood, and that the EMT is under the "bus".

Freestyle calls for another ambulance, and they and police arrive on the scene. They question Freestyle pretty extensively about his mask and identity, but eventually agree to let him go. The EMTs are dispatched to the hospital (and morgue) and  Freestyle takes off.

Diamond arranged for Syphon to stay with Jerry in his lab (The Pineapple) as it appears to be the safest location available. ACME has found her several times in multiple locations, so the thought process is to get her settled somewhere unknown. She & Jerry head off to the underwater location.

She also got 'Nani and Jumpshot admitted and lodged together in the hospital, and awaited the arrival of  Jumpshot's family.

If there's more than this, I don't remember it- I think we called it a night at this point. End Session 11.

3 comments:

  1. --- Both Freestyle and Jumpshot start to notice small imperfections in the road and catch glimpses or scents of the outside world through these "vents". ---

    How did Jumpshot notice this? As far as I knew, my character was supposedto be unconscious for the whole run and thus I wasn't needed at the gaming table.

    Not trying to be critical, just sort of wondering...

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  2. You're talented. Shush.

    Also, it was Jury-rig.

    The Joe

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  3. GD: No, it wasn't Jumpshot, it was Jury-Rig. I was working from notes with abbreviations and typed the wrong thing.

    TheJoe! Wow. A comment! Woohoo!

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