4/18/2014
Journal Date: April 21st, 1898
Cast: Lady Selene Eva Thana (Eternal Noble), Reginald Thistlethorpe (Psychic Medium), Nigel Loring (Hunter/Adventurer/Explorer), Fangzhi (Wudang Initiate), Captain Oswald Chance (Sky Baron)
Notable NPC’s: The Foreboding Gent
Plot Summary:
After planning extensively at the ogre lair, our brave team of adventurers led Sister Evangeline, Cozric-Tigh, and the ogre raiding party north-west to the Obscura base of operations and aerodrome. Waiting for nightfall, Fangzhi laid out their plan for the team: after the ogres created a diversion on the eastern edge of the base he and Reginald Thistlethorpe would infiltrate the buildings on the base while the rest of the team captured the airship. Although it wasn’t clearly defined at the time, the party had two other significant challenges to deal with, both the steam-enhanced T-Rex and the rocket launching pylon. Once everyone was sure of their roles the party split up and prepared for the assault.
The ogre diversion was a bit of a massacre. Five of the monstrous beings charged onto the airfield, raising spears, clubs, and stones in defiance toward the Obscura forces that for so long caused their kind pain and suffering. Despite a strong showing, the ogres were no match for the guards and their bolt-action rifles. Before the ogres could get off the field the nearest Obscura cultists opened fire, forcing the ogres to make their hasty retreat off of the airfield. But before the ogres could leave the base’s perimeter the rocket crew targeted the center diversionary force and unleashed a single high-explosive round incinerating three primitive souls. The remaining two ogres ran back into the woods with five of the Obscura guards in close pursuit.
The diversion, while unfortunate for the ogres, was still useful for the inquisitives. Fangzhi acted first, quietly jogging out of the jungle’s edge straight at a guard outside of a nearby building. Just before the guard saw the martial artist, Fang threw his sleep inducing satchel bomb, created earlier by the Martian philosophe Cozric-Tigh, at the guard. Perhaps it was the alcohol he was consuming earlier, or maybe just the fact that he was a big tough guard, but all the device did was stun the target. Groaning, Fang ran into the cloud himself to finish the job, and despite a strong backhand to the Obscura cultist’s face, he remained standing. The same could not be said for Fangzhi, who fell into the guard’s arms as he passed out from the sleep inducing smoke Reginald Thistlethorpe made short work of the guard, telekinetically commanding his Zulu spear “Headtaker” to do the work for which the weapon was named. Running forward Reginald took a look at Fangzhi, and despite slapping him lightly on the cheek, the psychic medium realized that his pal wasn’t waking up any time soon without a more direct method. Taking a break from trying to wake Fang, Reginald looked inside the window of the building that he was adjacent to. Great fortune be praised! Inside were three guards watching over a prison holding some Indian technicians, African workers, and a half-dozen Martians!
Meanwhile on the other side of the action, Nigel Loring crept out of the jungle toward another Obscura guard with knife in hand. Carefully sneaking behind the guard, Nigel jammed the blade into his target’s neck and dragged him into the woods. Gathering the rest of his team, Nigel led Lady Thana, Captain Chance, Sister Evangeline, and Cozric-Tigh across the airfield towards the edge of the Obscura airship. Nigel could hear five voices on the deck of the airship, so he had his other two armed teammates stealthily climb over the rail of the ship where they say four Indian technicians working on the vessel and a single foreboding gentleman commanding them. It appeared that the vessel was marvelously advanced, with all of the newest innovations gracing the craft, from steam-driven turbines to liftwood panels smuggled off of Mars. Believing the dark robed gentleman to be the subjugator of the rest of the Indians, Nigel tried to sneak up on him with his knife but was quickly made out. Bolts of dark and gray fire poured out of a miniature void that the man created in the air in front of him, severely burning Nigel and causing him to stop in his tracks. Before Lady Thana and Captain Chance could shoot the man, the Indians’ eyes all turned white and they raised their screwdrivers and hammers as weapons against the party. Their minds were being controlled, that was certain, and Lady Thana didn’t want to harm them, so she did her best to push forward and continue firing on the robed figure with her pair of pistols. Once she was next to Nigel, however, the dark gentleman created a larger void above the two inquisitives and three Indians that were nearby, raining dark fire on all of them. Nigel passed out as the flames severely burned his head and face, while Lady Thana struggled to shake off the heat. All three Indians were immolated in the attack. Giving it her all, Lady Thana carefully aimed her shots on the next go-around, and dropped the shadow priest before he could summon any more flames.
While Captain Chance started working with Raj, a technician who had been forced to work on the airship, Fangzhi and Reginald worked to free the Martians and other prisoners. The guards inside the building had heard the gunfire and were going out to investigate, which gave the two inquisitives the perfect opportunity to infiltrate. Sneaking inside, Fangzhi took one look at the bars of the jail and wedged a shovel between them. Using his incredible strength the Chinese martial artist bent the bars wide enough for all of the prisoners to escape! Reginald then led them all outside and told them to make a run for the airship. There were a trio of jailers to deal with, and Fang faced off with both and pummeled the ground below their feet with Ch’i energy, knocking one out completely, and sending the other flying fifty feet away. Reginald continued to herd the prisoners towards the vessel.
By now the steam-driven T-Rex was moving towards the airship to investigate, and Captain Chance was nearly ready to take off. But the Sky Baron needed a few more minutes before he could get the craft in the sky, and further diversions and defense were needed. While Reginald and Fang guided the prisoners up the side of the airship, Lady Thana and Nigel used the deck guns to launch harpoons. Nigel’s attacks were focused on the rocket tower, but despite Sister Evangeline’s healing skills that were used on him earlier when he was near death, the hunter was still in a lot of pain and couldn’t connect with the rockets. Lady Thana focused on the T-Rex, which was an impressive and imposing creation! The dinosaur, when it approached the craft, took a huge bite into one of the deck guns, pulling it off and away from the airship. Not wanting to give the beast a chance to do the same to her, Lady Thana pointed her harpoon launcher at the monstrosity and fired a volley of harpoons with one planting itself right in its chest. No amount of armor plating could save the beast, as the mighty T-Rex collapsed in a heap!
The rockets started firing from the rocket pylon, and things were getting hairy. The first rocket missed, but it was very close, and Captain Chance yelled at Raj to move faster down in the engineering section. Reginald finished getting the prisoners on board and saw that there was one more guard nearby, who also was short work for his psychic skills. Once the psychic medium was aboard the craft, the team was ready to roll. Captain Chance pulled the ship into the air and started to blast off towards the cloud line. Despite being a massive ship, three times the size of his previous craft the Nova Victoriana, the Obscura airship was exceptionally fast... but not fast enough to outrun a rocket. The rocket pylon, still functional despite Nigel’s attempts to knock it out of commission, managed to unleash one last missile at the airship. As it flew towards Captain Chance’s new craft, however, Nigel decided that he was finished with this expedition once and for all. The big game hunter leaned over the starboard rail, took aim with his elephant gun, and shot the rocket out of the air. Their next stop was Cairo, where the party rested and recuperated before taking the remaining Martian Philosophes back to Ravenswood College in England. It had been a long and difficult mission, and everyone was looking for a bit of a vacation.
Quotes:
“That’s a pretty pathetic Pokemon collection!” - Brian wanted to collect more than just one Martian.
“Have you ever seen Uncommon Valor?” - Jim to Melinda
Craig - “It’s hard to fight with a parasol up”
“Melinda - It’s tough but I’m a lady, and I make it work!”
“Knock yourself out!” - Brian
“I wanted to deflect it with an Indian!” - Frank’s character Fang definitely wanted to rescue the Martians, but the rest of the freed slaves were free game.
“You can’t double-tap a harpoon gun!” - Jim to Melinda, who was getting carried away with the rule she just learned about.
“See, there’s another reason for you guys to keep me around!” - Lady Thana, not just another dainty lady.
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