As Napoleon's armies drew near, the master of the nearby castle fled into the woods and dropped a small bundle into a stone well. He had hoped to return and retrieve it, but fate was not so kind, and there is remains to this day.
Centuries later, Bethany LePage and her entourage find themselves in the Netherlands, a stone's throw from Leiden, looking for the stone well that plagued their dreams. They knew the item was in the dark, cold water, but what they didn't realize was that the Servants of Apophis had been following them the whole way...
The cadre from the Soviet Union had found one of the artifacts of Apophis hiding in the States, the gang of "El Dobbie" Gato failed to find one up in Scotland. The dreams of the end of the world had led dilettante Bethany LePage to the Netherlands, to that odd well that kept beckoning her in her dreams.
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| Our Continental Explorers (L-R) Bethany LePage, Suzanne Verlaine, William Scott, and Claire Halloway |
I figured that our heroes had an advantage in the scenario. They were already at the well and needed to spend a turn to go down the well, then achieve three different task successes, one per turn, I figured a decent contingent of cultists when put enough pressure on them, but the heroes would succeed.
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| Miss LePage took it upon herself to go down the well.... |
I did not anticipate a statistical impossibility.
For this game, my daughter Maja ran the third and final league of heroes for the campaign. She had picked her figures, giving her leader, Bethany, no weapons, and the only thing bigger than a pistol was William Scott's shotgun, and William was a mook/minion level character with a Shooting die of d6 (Short range is a 4+ to hit and you can roll higher dice for better characters).
Luckily for her (I thought), the appearance of one cultist with a pistol, one Serpent Priest with spells, and the rest being cultists running amok with big swords should be sufficient.
Early one the cultists attacked William Scott, managing to make him Shaken. The old man shook that off like a winter chill, knocked the cultist out with the butt of his shotgun, and proceeded to track the others down like it was cultist season and there was no limit.
Oh the cultists tried, but William's shotgun kept hitting, and when they tried to reconnoiter around him, Suzanne would turn a corner and gun them down, with enough damage to take out a three-wound hero, much less a one hit mook.
Even the Serpent Priest, the poor Serpent Priest.... he threw curses at the visible characters.
They all saved...
He threw Eldritch Bolts at Claire, she took no damage.... then promptly shot at the priest and hit!
Damage: 6+6 (+1). Dice explode in Savage Showdown, so roll the 2d6 again.
6+5
and again for the final raise
3
Twenty-seven points to the priest was three wounds over maximum, and he failed his feeble attempt to try.
These cultists stood no chance, with none standing turn four, when LePage emerged from the well with the artifact.
Maja's die rolling might have been the most most impressive thing I've seen someone do over the age of ten. She made all but one of her rolls, which she used a Benny to re-roll, and each time she hit she rolled close to maximum damage each time. Meanwhile, the cultists were rolling just below average and couldn't catch a break.
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| We don't know William's backstory, but he might think pulp adventuring is a relaxing vacation. |
I had the pleasure of having my daughter over the Thanksgiving weekend, and I'm proud to say, the first visit as a licensed driver! Her mother and I did run escort duty for her first visit, she driving behind Maja halfway down, and me taking her the second half of the way. She shopped, visited friends, and was super excited to drive me down to my college buddies (+25 years) SATLOF.
Maja completing this episode means her younger sister, Millie, has one, maybe two more scenarios until the campaign moves to Egypt.
After the game, I introduced her to Fishing28 to play while I got ready to go to a get-together with some college friends. She approves of the system, provided some optional rules, and determined Tropical Fruit Swedish Fish are sub-par.
Maja knew her drive was consisted of (a) a trip to her grandmothers in Easton, followed by a (b) a drive to the other side of Allentown for SATLOF. Knowing I needed to do two things around my mother's house, and it's a home of a chronic smoker, I chose a detour to take up extra time.
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| From their website. It was an all-Steam weekend. |
Maja used to be my little train show companion... engineer hat, a million questions, and begging me to do the train races...
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| From the Allentown Train Show parking lot, 2013 |
We've only managed one show post-COVID, so I was worried about the weird surprise I was directing her to.
She might be a teenager, but the second she realized the L&K recreates the Lehigh Valley Railroad (and Reading, and CNJ) and she knew all the locations, it was like she was tiny all over...
I heartily recommend visiting the club during one of their open houses, it's fantastic.
Finally, after my mom's we headed to SATLOF, and none of my back-up games were necessary, as Steve (the host... Squiggles the Worm in our Gamma World games) had gone to PAX and picked up the complete set of Thunder Road: Vendetta with all the bells and whistles!
Another hearty recommendation, we had ages 5 to 51 playing it, it was raucous and exciting... even if all three of my cars crashed into rocks!
Next: Pulp Season 4, Episode 5:
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