Session 1: In the Shadow of Mars
Dramatis Personae
Howard U:Peter Conroy - Law student and ardent student leader
Cabot Hope - Law student and member of the Back to Africa movement
Simeon Washington - Theology student, military veteran, brother of Laura
Shaw U:
Laura Washington - Artist, spiritualist, sister of Simeon
Sarah Wylie - Medical student and aspiring scientist
What we encountered
- Shattered sheets of strange green glass, left over from an enormous telescope lens set in the roof of a colossal building. When shards of it were exposed to sunlight, small floating motes of energy seem to spawn and float around within the audience. By concentrating the motes into smaller and smaller shards of glass, the heroes created lanterns with which to explore the rest of the building
- Hordes of skeletons, showing that an ancient battle took place here between four- and six-limbed Martians
- Spike-faced, scurrying, scavenging creatures, ranging in size from a small dog to a rat. These creatures swarmed the heroes attempting to devour them, and effectively prevented them from exploring some parts of the ruin
- A blue-toned copse of plants, reminiscent of Earth bamboo but possessed of a rudimentary intelligence, razor-edged leaves, and a hunger for meat
- A luminous sword, with a blade made of a similar green glass-like material to what they had found earlier.
- A pool composed of dust so fine that it acted like thick mud, with a host of curious tentacular automata living within it
- Gifts brought to the surface by the automata, which included a heady fungus wine, an elegant ear cuff, and an ornate rifle
- An gigantic, red-eyed, tentacular automaton which roared and threw chunks of rubble at the heroes when it could not reach them
- Upon exiting through the roof of the building, an enormous floating object crossing the face of the two moons above and throwing the heroes into shadow...
Session 2: Swords against Slavery
Treachery! The last heir of an ancient royal bloodline has been kidnapped by the infamous mercenary, Ras Koban. Even now, the kidnappers' flotilla makes for the outlaw city of Kul Thaar and its dreaded Flesh Bazaars. A rag-tag group of retainers and hirelings gives desperate pursuit; can they reach their prize before it is too late?
Dramatis Personae
Martians:Ptor Suhn, the Red Blade
Gēn Many-Faced, assassin and spy
Nooma, a Green martian of the Kulian Delta
Dren Dulak, Beastmaster of Venus
Earthborn:
Cabot Hope
Simeon Washington
What we encountered
- Ras Kobaan's fleet: the Panthan's Farewell, an enormous battleship; the Banth of Thuria, a rocket-boosted troop transport, four destroyers, and twelve two-person fliers
- Tam'lu, the loyal pilot of the heroes' ship, the Challenger
- Crystal communicators, handy devices which allow ships to communicate but only within line-of-sight
- Nyan'gau, a race of hyena-headed warriors with a taste for mercenarism
- The tent city of Tian Heen, partly destroyed by Ras Koban's attack
- The dust falls of Arandain, within which the heroes captured two enemy fliers
- The fallen metropolis of Kul Vanaar, once built astride a broad river but now collapsed into itself
- White apes and mutated Green Martian raiders, defenders of the ruins of Kul Vanaar
- Chett, a sympathetic white ape tamed by Dren's beastmastery
- An enormous, climactic battle as the enemy fleet pulled into the docks of Kul Thaar, in which the drop bays of the Banth of Thuria were prematurely opened to drop most of the Nyangau shock troops to their deaths in the poppy fields below, and in which Ras Koban was revealed to be an illusionary double of himself.
Session 3: Blood Sapphires
In the pirate city of Kul Thaar, business is business; and today, a pirate crew is in town looking to do some business with a small gladiatorial troupe. Experienced gladiators make good fighters, and the pirates have brought a box of sapphires large enough to buy out several contracts. Can supply be successfully brought into contact with demand to enable this mutually beneficial trade? Some claw-assisted thieves have a different plan...
Dramatis Personae
Pirates:Shay Cloudstealer, captain of the Good Ship Crux
Baria Nyxx, first mate and skilled negotiator
Gladiators:
Sorka, self-appointed manager of the "Kings of Kul Thaar" gladiatorial troupe
Gamran Hukk, hulking spearman and companion to Sorka
What we encountered
- Calot sleds: in the crowded streets of Kul Thaar, zippy sleds pulled by the muscular Martian calot are the best way to get around. Touts dispatch the sleds to the passengers' desired destination by letting the calots sniff a tassel keyed to that place in the city
- Flitts: street vendors sell this crunchy, deep-fried flying insect from bubbling oil cauldrons throughout Kul Thaar. Locals all carry a metal skewer on their belt, which they hand to the vendor so that five or six flits can be spiked onto it before it is handed back.
- Study groups: well-to-do groups of Red Martian youth from the big cities, accompanied by hulking bodyguards and robed tutors, all headed upland to study rock formations in the Kulian Peaks
- A doomsayer warning all who approach that the twin moons of Barsoom will soon crash into its surface and initiate "a Great Scourging!"
- The Strainers, a religious cult whose members wear baggy yellow dervish pants, and whose doctrines focus on performing public service both in this world and the next
- Kul Thaar has fewer children than a regular Martian city, but what children are born to the outlaws who live here have formed enormous street gangs. One, the "Cool Cings of Cul Thaar" (sic) is friendly to the heroes; another (the "C Urchins") is not.
- A distant famine, which has provoked an influx of refugees to the city
- A heavily guarded cart transporting a dormant White Martian in an ancient stasis tube
- The Red Queen, a discreet tea and opium shop within which the meeting is to take place. The hookahs here are elaborate and allow multiple types and flavors to be smoked at once
- A tense negotiation, in which the pirates settled for a few less gladiators than they had wanted in exchange for a substantial discount on the asking price
- A gang of acrobatic thieves, who used a telescoping metal claw to steal the box of sapphires upon which the heroes' trade rested
- A tent city, in which itinerant entertainers and performers have set up a range of obstacles and through which the heroes chased the thieves
- The Hall of Chains, an accurately titled building (given its decor) which also serves as the administrative center for Kul Thaar's gladiatorial industry
- A pitched street battle between rival street gangs, the heroes, the thieves, and...
- The mighty Ukh-thor the Violent - a heavily-armored axeman and apparent patron of the jewel thieves
Session 4: From Beneath, They Devour
Dramatis Personae
Swordbrothers:Belshazzar, master of insult and swordplay
Camman Ull, whirlwind fighter
Dario of Kal, stealthy backstabber
Dror Gallant, wrecking ball
Bluecloaks:
Nal of Tian Heen, Bluecloak officer and wielder of an Obedience Beam
Kal Karlon, chain-swinging bodyguard to Nal
Inet Ithali, precise fighter
Others:
Sorka, Green Martian gladiator, allied with the Bluecloaks
What we encountered
- Most Kul Thaarians are not born within the city's walls, but rather arrive from elsewhere seeking advancement and wealth
- For the city's poorer inhabitants, the best housing is restricted to those willing to join with others to fight for space. The most violent and feared Squat Gangs have the best places to live, but you need to defeat an existing member to get onto their lists
- Prostitution in the city is run by sex workers' collectives, who contract out fighters to punish transgressions against the profession (such as the use of slaves)
- Railboots are a new craze among the urban youth of Kul Thaar. A few areas of the city have been renovated as railboot parks full of challenging obstacles. Urchin gangs can often be found here engaging in boisterous rivalry
- Kul Thaar has a large market for archaeological esoteries such as the White Martian sarcophagus, but you need to have special contacts to access it
- Together with his partner Mar Zann, the Swordbrother known as Belshazzar has a side business selling tasty lichen cakes
- Tchorl, a violent thief who has a history with Dror, has found employment with the Swordbrothers
- Eyra, the flame of Dario's heart. A ruthless, plain-faced veteran Swordsister
- Makk, a musclebound goon and a hazard to his teammates
- Kul Thaarian technology includes crude automata who pull carts as well as baroque "auto-scrolls" that serve as personal record keeping devices
- Bluecloaks are a vigilante police force, operating in secret lest the powerful criminal factions stamp them out. Their members wear reversible clothing, and reveal themselves by "flying the blue" while shouting out "Bluecloaks! Stand to!"
- Sub-level 12 of Kul Thaar was once far below the city's waterfront, and serviced submersible vessels. Now, it is a dank tunnel gallery lit only by luminous patches of moss. It is where you live if you value privacy and space above all else
- Gral the Grim's minions have an approximately humanoid form, but under their robes they are revealed to be horrid patchwork creatures composed of a rubbery pink gel. They attack without fear or aversion to harm
- Gral is served by ancient automata, three of which were found in his lair. They only attack in self defense, using brute force and chemical projectors that gush fire. They are constrained from harming one another
- Grail's lair was situated above an apparently enormous reservoir of the same pink slime
- Although the scientist himself fled before he could be confronted, the Bluecloaks found ample evidence of his immoral activities, specifically the vivisection of the brains of living creatures
- At the center of Gral's lab, an enormous ten-legged spider of unknown species and origin was found suspended in a vat
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