Black City Game 16

We took a "Hobbit Holiday" last weekend for a mix of Christmas prep, and letting folks get out to the movies to see "An Unexpected Journey".  Since we skipped gaming, I'm tardy on the last game report from two weeks ago - but since we play tonight night again,  here goes.

The crew had just survived the vicious ambush by Visin Thorsteinson and company, and then spent some time in a secure series of rooms resting and healing.  In a previous week, they had promised to return to Odin within 9 days, and the days were growing short.  ("Odin" is an otherworldly  entity they discovered on the other side of a portal in the top of a lonely spire in the city).

During the long march down the Transit Tunnels, they took a detour up to "Central Command", a domed structure on the surface, accessible from the deep tunnels by a ladder hidden behind a secret door.  The party was carrying an irregular "holographic crystal" which fit a device only found in Central Command; they also knew that it would be quicker to exit the ruined city by going topside rather than continuing through the dungeons, so this was also a shortcut.

Unfortunately, a detachment of rubbery alien servitors was waiting for them.

During a game sessions weeks ago, while they were in Central Command the first time, they had inadvertently opened a hailing channel (like a video call) to various control rooms in the depths of the complex, and some servitors were dispatched to "quell the unruly bipedal mammals that were abusing the delicate equipment".  There were a pair of strong guys, a stretchy guy, and a hypno-unit that was able to put the mind-control whammy on the "primitive hominid cortex".

This turned into a great, edge-of-your-seat fight, where the probability of a TPK loomed large.  The alien servitors started attacking as the player characters cleared the top of the ladder, and the players were hard-pressed to clear space to let more folks get up the ladder.  The heavy fighters paired off with the tough-guy aliens, while the hypno-alien used mind-control to take some of the guys right out of the fight.  The stretchy guy would reach long distances with his oversized hands, snatch a character out of the melee, quickly wrap them up in a bear hug, and then secrete acid and dissolve whatever he was holding.  It was nasty. Ayerick the Fighter was killed by the stretchy guy, and Vitaly the Elf narrowly escaped getting dissolved into elf-soup a couple of times, slipping out with lucky rolls.

After surviving the fight, the group decided not to mess around with the holo crystal.  They had less than a day to get back to Odin, and I guess they didn't want to risk any kind of sidetracking.

The rest of the game was getting back to the top of the Tower of Astronomy, stepping through the magic portal to "Asgard", and consulting with "Odin".  Odin's powers were greater after the group had reconnected power conduits to Central Command in a previous week, and he gave them some new ideas for additional missions while they negotiated potential rewards.  They also learned about opponents with powers similar to Odin, such as the rogue god "Loki" who was trapped in a strange blue obelisk, and the villainous Zoltan the Welder, who was also scheming to extend his power in the undercity.

One of the players is pretty much convinced that "Odin" is an alien supercomputer, and wondered if these other "gods" are more of the same.  I can neither confirm or deny such speculation.

After what seemed like two months in the dungeon (6 or so game sessions) the group finally returned to Trade Town, a chance to rest back in their permanent camp and take a few days to score experience points.  They now have a level 3 cleric, a level 3 fighter, a retainer advanced to henchman status, and Ayerick joined the campaign dead pool.

Cast of Characters
Agnar Beigarth, a Northman fighter (L2)
Mustafa of Arabia, a scimitar wielding desert warrior (L3)
Brutok the Strong, a dwarf (L2)
Borghild, a Norse cleric of Odin (L3)
Timur, Russian Elf (L1)
Vitaly, Russian Elf (L1)
Dominicus, Byzantine magic user (L1)

Retainers with the party:
Tribunas, Byzantine magic user (L1)
Brick Bunnybreaker (halfling L1)
Bottvild (cleric L2)
Ivar the Bow-bender (specialist L1)

Dead:
Ayerick the Young:  melted by acid