Manhattan Knights The Hand.
Welcome to the continuing story of Three Storm Knights in the game of Torg Eternity, the backgrounds of the heroes can be found HERE, and the very first post in the Series and be found HERE. More information about the game can be found HERE.
Act 4 Scene 3
After unleashing the symbiote onto their enemy the party moved on along the edge between the grasslands and the swamps. The ability to jump into trees and cover was soon out weighted by the slower travel on the wet ground. The party finally ventured back into the grass lands and the easier travel.
As they neared, they came within a few blocks of the are that was once East Harlem they decided to make camp and discuss just what their options were for getting near Tusk’s camp. They didn’t know how many warriors and people would be in his clan, nor what they should expect to face. The wall of black clouds along the other side of the East River was intimidating and the multi-colored lightning was thrashing Long Island.
The wind is blowing from the north east, from the storm, back into their faces and Carlisle is pretty certain that the rain will be upon them tonight or in the morning. They decide to sleep in the tall grass, wrapped in the ponchos they took from the Mall in the Dome.
Rude Awakening:
By luck the rain is still over Long Island, yet another sign that the storm is a supernatural effect that is defying the wind and physics. The clouds are over head and a light misting is in the air but the bulk of the storm is still a ways off.
It’s worse than any reality storm along the cosm border that any of them has ever seen. Far worse than the storm they crossed when they entered Brooklyn in the first place. But the storm is the least of their worries. The massive heavy thump of feet is what has broken their slumber.
Massive dinos being prodded by bands of handlers are marching the creatures through the grasses, and directly toward the storm knights laying in their ponchos.
Kimiko reaches out with her mind and senses two massive dumb beasts and 14 humanoids, 6 humans and 8 edeinos. Both groups are moving toward each other, the dinos being driven back together… somewhere directly over their camp! They cannot just remain still and wait, sooner or later someone or something will step on them. Kimiko debates yelling out, but she’s too late.
BRUTALITY!
Sasha rolls over and crawls out of her poncho, the normally scared Russian pulls a large knife out of the inside of her jack, just as a caveman steps through the grass and looks down at her. He’s not the smartest of cavemen.
He pauses, thinks for a bit and then turns to another caveman standing a few meters away. “Girl here.”
Other caveman, “HUH? Booooooooo SHEET.”
Sasha breaks her fear and moves before the first caveman can reply, she lunges forward and raises to her feet, she and the caveman are both surprised when the “Rambo” special knife plunges into the caveman’s groin and the knife splits his guts all the way to his sternum.
Caveman, “DED!” as his guts hit the ground, steaming, the rest of the enemy freak out and start screaming.
It’s a FIGHT!
The remaining cavemen start running around in circles screaming and barking, they drop their prod poles releasing the 2 triceratopses in their control. There is a massive Caveman who seems to be in control of the whole unit. This is Rogan, he is one of the Tusk’s hand, the Hand is 4 champions who lead a part of Tusk’s forces… I mention all of this as the players didn’t really take time learning about the politics of the area, they just went about killing everything before them and then doing the impossible.
The heroes take advantage of the panicking cavemen and attack first.
As Sasha is the only one who has revealed herself, she uses her telekinesis to make a bunch of false trails through the grass, making it look like a dozen people are moving all around the panicked dino wranglers. 4 of the confused cavemen believe the ruse while the rest of the troops shake it off.
Technology vs Cavemen!
Kimiko launches herself from hiding, slightly affronted that Sasha gutted a man, after all hacking people apart with precision is her schtick! Thumbing on her electric katana and added by her Ion Gusaku, powered armor, the tiny woman dances into the four cavemen and with a single massive sweep of her blade she decapitates them.
Striking a kawai pose, a throw back to her J-Pop Star days, she waves four fingers at Sasha, “I got FOUR!”
Carlisle rises to his feet, shaking his head that he has to babysit two psychotic girls. He takes a single second to wonder if perhaps the Living Lands causes such savagery among its denizens (he doesn’t realize how close to the truth he is in that moment).
The old monster hunter takes a moment to sight down the barrel of his handmade gun and he shoots Rogan in his shoulder.
The massive caveman takes the shot and stares at the bloody hole in his shoulder, “Boomstick! I HATE boomsticks! Coward!” (yes really three exclamation marks).
Counter Attack:
The Edeinos are still shocked that all but Rogan are dead among their human friends. They break their lethargy and hurl flint tipped spears at Kimiko and Sasha. Both girls take wounds from the barrage.
One of the triceratops charges into Kimiko but the j-pop idol manages to roll away while dislodging one of the spears from her armor.
Rogan slams into Carlisle and is surprised when the old man merely blocks the club attack with his rifle and doesn’t move an inch otherwise.
Kimiko finishes her roll and charges at the three edeinos who threw spears at her and in a rapid flurry of strikes and kills them all. Sasha ignores the Edeinos who attacked her and throws her Rambo-knife at Rogan. The caveman warleader barely notices the knife, but he does look toward the woman.
In that second of broken eye contact, Carlisle takes a single step back and bring up his rifle, shooting Rogan in his massive barrel chest. The other triceratops also charges into Kimiko but pulls up short when a loud whistle pierces the air.
Greymane.
A small grenade lands among the melee and goes off with a flash and a bang. The heroes and the Edeinos are both affected by the loud noise.
A tall, long haired man has arrived on the scene, he pulls the whistle from his lips and yells at Rogan, “You fool! We take prisoners alive, what are you doing wasting men!?” He is wearing a tactical vest, several more grenades hang from tabs. A bulky tube hangs from his left shoulder, and the barrel of a rifle sticks up from the right shoulder. His hair is long, unbound, dead straight and steel grey.
Rogan; “F#@* you Greymane, these whelps are mine to do with as I please.”
“No member of the hand is greater than any other. I say again stand down.”
Rogan turns away from Carlisle and the two men stare one another down. Greymane is another member of Tusk’s hand. As the stare-off happens the party gather back together. The fight has actually taken a toll on them and they are each wounded. Worse some of their gear has started to succumb to the Living Lands. [played Law of Decay cosm card, the party is sacrificing gear to gain a bonus on their rolls].
Carlisle’s armored greatcoat has rotted off his body and most of Sasha’s knives and Kimiko’s SMG have all bloomed with rust.
1…2…3… Get THEM!
Despite the fact that Greymane made a non-lethal attack on ALL parties and the fact that he seems more against Rogan than against them, the Party decides to attack both men.
Sasha yells stream of insults at Greymane, and the man seems to be genuinely shocked by the words coming out of the Russian’s mouth. Kimiko launches herself at the old man and despite the dazzling arcs and flashes of her blade through the air… not a single cut mars him.
Carlisle shoots Rogan in the back and merely cuts a small line across the caveman’s neck. Rogan boils over in a rage and charges at Carlisle but he trips and gets in his own way, totally missing the monster hunter.
Greymane, “I tried to be nice.” The greyhaired man raises his hands and a wall of fire erupts between them and sweeps these flames over the storm knights. Sasha realizes that it’s pyrokinesis, and taps into her personal reality to make herself immune to the attack. Carlisle is close to Rogan so escapes getting included in the blast and unfortunately that leaves Kimiko to take the full brunt of the flames.
The remaining Edeinos decide to follow Greymane at that point and they herd the triceratopses away from the fight. Only Rogan still wants to fight.
Greymane; “You have the day to remove yourself from my plain, you’ve fought well, tomorrow if I see you; you will end up in the slave pits.” He then turns and leaves Rogan to his own fate.
Cavemen aint smart
Rogan screams and lashes out with a mighty two-handed grip on his great club and smashes the life out of Carlisle. The old man taps into his possibility energy and cycles through alternate realities where the club doesn’t kill him, and with a snap he changes his personal reality to match.
Carlisle is unscathed by the rage fueled attack.
Rogan is awed by this display; his primitive mind is quite certain that he killed the old man. Sasha screams in Russian and Rogan is actually intimidated. He steps back away from Carlisle and Kimiko blindsides him. Her katana opens up his side and for the first time Rogan seems vulnerable. Three bullets had done little more than make him bleed, but now he’s actually holding his sides. His bravado is broken, his confidence is shot, his eyes betray his fear and they know he will flee.
Carlisle raises the carbine, smoothly working the bolt, he pulls the trigger and places a shot between Rogan’s eyes. One of Tusk’s hand lies dead at their feet.
Aftermath:
This is not the morning wake up call they had expected. The party turns toward the east river, Greymane and the Edeinos are heading north, so the party leaves the plan and reenters the swamps. They need to heal and figure out the rest of their day, maybe gather some more intelligence about what they are entering.
OK… this is the end of Scene 3, it was one long fight scene. The next two scenes are short, but far too long to add t this post. I have been messing around with adding in some of the mechanical behind the scene stuff to the narrative so you get a little sense of the rules being manipulated by the players during the story. Such as my descriptions as the heroes “soaked” some of their damage.
