The Hathor Campaign Part 2: Bore IV Pacification Level 1

 Hi! 

Yesterday I managed to play out the first of the games from my Planet 28 campaign which sees Inquisitor Fisher arriving at the prison planet of Bore IV to pacify an uprising and follow clues that will lead her towards the resting place of Hathor's Armour.

I again used the random method of creating the scenario using a mixture of story dice, random words from books and a bit of tinkering to make it all fit together. For example, when hearing the distress call, I rolled a trio of dice to see what Fisher would do and it came up with a plane, a cage and a shooting star making it pretty clear that Fisher was going to prioritise getting to Bore IV over her initial lead of chasing down the mysterious monks.

Introduction

The Imperial Corvette Shrike thunders out of hyperspace in the Bore system. Lit by a weak and dying star, Bore is lifeless and bleak, the systems planets uninhabited rocks but Bore IV, the fourth planet in the system was once a mining outpost. Its ore has long since been extracted but the Imperium has retrofitted the facility into a maximum security prison where the sectors most dangerous felons are incarcerated.

Constructed in a great shaft dug into the surface of Bore IV, the prison consists of a central core which acts as a space dock and three levels of tunnels and chambers leading off it like spokes. 

Level 1 is dedicated to loading bays, admin facilities, barracks and a small hydroponics station. Access to the remaining levels is through a secure elevator which only the guards have access to.

Level 2 is the prison itself with four cell blocks housing over two thousand inmates. The inmates themselves are fitted with a Cyclo control unit when they arrive, a piece of tech that is attached to their foreheads which gives the warden and guards the ability to deliver powerful pain, and even death via stimulating the convicts pain receptors in the brain.

Level 3 is the secure solitary confinement and engineering level. Located deep within the planet, the solitary confinement block consists of six cells, each a heavily secured cage to keep the worst of the worst secure. Access to this level is via the main elevator but requires multiple security checks, both Human and AI. The engineering sector contains the plasma core that powers the prison, environmental control and back up computer core.

Rumour persists that there is a fourth level, blocked off during the facilities conversion from mining outpost to prison that may contain abandoned tunnels.

When the Shrike hails the prison, they receive no reply but the ships astropath senses there are numerous individuals alive in the facility and scans from the ships sensors show that emergency power is running intermittently on at least the upper levels of the facility. 

The prisons auto defence turrets are offline and Fisher instructs the Shrikes captain to enter close orbit of Bore IV and sets forth with her retinue and several squads of security troops in a ships pinnace to investigate what has happened.

Upon landing in the docking bay, Fisher must gain entry to the facility and secure the dock from any escapees.

The Cargo Bay

The loading dock is separated into four sectors. Fisher and co must clear each room and make their way to the computer room where they may find clues to what has happened.

The Computer Room

Venturing into the cargo bay of the prison Fisher and her retinue are immediately beset by escaped convicts, some of which are armed meaning that the guards have either been overwhelmed or somehow the prisoners have gained access to the armoury. Gritting her teeth, Fisher orders her companions forward to deal with the scum and seek some answers...

Room 1 contains D3 prisoners with a 50% chance of them being armed which resulted in three prisoners, one of whom was armed with a pistol. For the game I used a deck of cards to determine initiative which represents the flickering lights, possibility of ambush and whatnot and helped make for a more interesting game.

Things start poorly for Fisher as she charges a muscled convict who manages to dodge her power sword and responds by punching her in the face. As her retinue move to support her a second convict lurches out from the shadows but is met with a fusillade of stubgun fire from Vash who badly wounds the convict and sends her staggering away, trailing blood.

The burly convict locked in combat with Fisher fights with the ferocity of a madman and succeeds in pummelling Fisher again with his meaty fists but shouting a curse, Fisher responds by driving her power sword through his chest killing him. The final convict, armed with a pistol squeezes a shot off at Geralt who has just stepped past Fisher as she kicks the corpse of the dead felon out of the way and he grunts as a slug clips him but his return fire sends the convict shuddering to the floor, an explosive bolt round detonating in his cranium.

With the first room secured, Vash moves to fiddle with the doors controls to give the Inquisitorial team access to the next room but a somewhat bruised and impatient Fisher orders him to use his thunder hammer to speed things up a bit. Shrugging, Vash complies and takes a swing with his mighty hammer and in a flash of light and boom of electric discharge, the fortified door is smashed from its hinges and careens into the next room. 

Meanwhile Geralt takes the opportunity to search the cargo stack but comes up with nothing (I gave a 10% chance of finding something useful with a search action, something which will come in very handy as the game continues!)

Rom two contains D3 convicts and D3 armed convicts and there was a 10% chance of a boss turning up to give the team something to worry about. This resulted in one convict, two armed convicts and a boss turned up in the form of Gunther the Mad Axeman of Gelt!

As the team move into the second room, they can see movement and convicts begin materialise from the gloom, several of which seem to be toting pistols. With a grinding, the door at the far side of the room opens and a hulking brute lumbers in trailed by a pair of lackeys. The brutish man stands almost seven feet tall and appears to be a mountain of muscle and his fire axe glints red in the flickering light, clearly he is not to be trifled with and Fishers party is in for a rough time of it.

With a bellow of rage, Gunther the Mad Axeman begins a lumbering charge across the bay swinging his bloody axe above his head while his lackeys rush after him. With a cry of challenge, Geralt rushes to meet him and they meet in a bloody melee which sees Gunther miss every attack but Geralt unable to do much damage.

Vash jumps into the melee and takes a swing with his thunderhammer and manages to strike Gunther a blow that would reduce most foes to paste but Gunther only snarls and lashes out with his axe. Aided by his great strength, the axe penetrates Vash's armour and the Mecanicus cries out in surprise and pain.

Meanwhile Fisher is stalking the gunmen at the other side of the room, exchanging fire with the first before dropping him with a well aimed shot of her own and charging the second, who has run out of ammo (on a roll of a double on a D100 shooting results in the gun running out of ammo or being jammed and the convicts don't have any reloads!).

As the melee continues to swirl, Gunther tries to strike at the stricken Vash but he manages to flail out of the way but things are looking a bit grim for the Inquisitorial agents as more convicts begin to close in on them. Fisher dispatches another foe but sees her team being beset by the horde and decapitates her foe with a swing of her powersword.

Snarling a curse, Geralt redoubles his efforts and parries a boneshaking swing of the brutes axe with his sword and empties his bolt pistol into the snarling Gunthers face, dropping the hulking bruiser. Regaining his poise, a somewhat bloodied Vash takes a swing at the convict who had tried to grab him and sends him sailing back with a booming crash of his thunder hammer.

Possibly cowed by the death of Gunther, the remaining convicts are quickly dispatched and a somewhat battered trio search the cargo and find a med kit (each med kit has D3 doses and heals D6 wounds) 

Fisher used a dose to heal back up and Vash was also patched up from the axe blow he'd received from Gunther while Geralt decided to save the last dose for emergencies and the team moves towards room three.

Room three contains D6 convicts, D6 armed convicts and a 20% chance of a mini boss turning up. I ended up with three convicts, four armed convicts and a mini boss in the form of Alice the Maneater!

As the trio moved into the room they see a massive woman leering at them. She is accompanied by a trio of goons and as Fisher and co enter the room they are met with a fusillade of pistol fire from two directions as they are ambushed by a second group who had been hiding around the corner.

Shots slam into Geralt, who curses as they pierce his armour and Fisher also snarls as shots hit her and before they can respond, Alice is upon them! For a large woman, Alice is surprisingly nimble and she easily avoids Vash's clumsy swing and lashes out with her knives, each finding chinks in the Mechanicus' heavy armour and Vash is reduced to under half wounds in a single combat!

Geralt isn't faring much better as he tries to fend off multiple attackers and is forced to use the last medkit dose as he only had 3 hits left and I was genuinely worried he'd be killed. Similarly, Vash was beset by Alice who took a thunder hammer to the face and only grinned, spat out a tooth and continued to harry the badly wounded agent. 

Fisher, meanwhile had taken several hits from pistol fire and wasn't in too good a shape either as she struggled in the swirling melee to bring down her foe and eventually managed to gut the convict before rushing to aid a sorely beset Vash. 

Fortunately Vash finally managed to strike a telling blow, killing Alice (the combat had swirled for about four rounds at this point and Vash was down to two points of health and I was actually rather stunned at how much of a badass Alice the Maneater was and she may end up making another appearance at some point with a grudge against Vash!)

Similarly, the badly wounded Geralt managed to deal with the remaining thugs, both of whom had run out of ammo for their pistols and were easily dispatched by the grim and bloody figure in battered leathers.

As soon as the room was cleared, the exhausted trio make a search and discover another med kit, recovering 4 hit points to Geralt and Fisher but only one for the badly mangled Vash.

There was only one room left to clear but could the inqisitorial team clear it or would any further attempt spell their doom? Geralt exchanged a worried look with Fisher over the heavily bandaged and bleeding figure of Vash. If they returned to the ships pinnace, they could get the medical aid that Vash desperately needs but would it cost them the ability to find out what had happened to cause the uprising? 

Checking the clip in his bolt pistol, Geralt sighed. Of course Fisher would continue. It was her nature and she needed to find out the whereabouts of Professor Murdoch Foyle, a man he knew she hated above all others as he was responsible for the death of her sister and she would rather die than let him escape so wearily patting Vash on the shoulder he grinned at Fisher and gestured for her to lead the way. "Death or Glory, miss. Death or Glory".

With a tight grin, Fisher opened the last doorway.

Room four contained d3 convicts and d3 armed convicts and a 50% chance of a miniboss and fortunately for the badly battered team, I only rolled up one of each and no miniboss. Possibly the rest had already been dispatched or they'd retreated further into the prison proper but here was the final challenge before clearing the first part of the prison.

As she enters the room, Fisher is met with a blast of fire from the armed convict and he rolls a critical, badly wounding the inquisitor and sending her slumping to the ground. Vash, badly wounded as he is, drags himself after her, firing his pistol with shaking hands and Geralt, incandescent with rage leaps over the fallen inquisitor and descends upon the gunman like the wrath of God. 

By the time he's finished, the room is clear and Geralt, now coated in blood kneels over the prone form of Fisher only to see her open her eyes and drily say "my hero" before pulling herself to her feet leaving the gaping and revealed Wolfbane to stare at her as she marches up to the door of the computer room and rap on it with her knuckles.

"This is the Inquisition. I order you to open this door!" 

Conclusion

After a brief pause, the portal slides open and a disheveled figure peers out. It is the prisons warden and he is accompanied by a blue skinned prisoner and a single guard. They all look like they've been through the wars but they gape at the bloodied and bruised group before them but before they can say anything, Fisher demands medical aid for her companions and eyes up the warden who quails before her steely glare. 

Distantly she hears the thudding of boots as the first of the security teams from the Shrike begin to move into the cargo bay, securing it and dispatching any remaining prisoners and she distractedly grabs a hip flask of brandy off Geralt and takes a swig. 

She will find out what happened here. She will make those responsible pay and she will find Murdoch Foyle and end him!

Whee! What a great game! I have to admit I'd initially thought it would be too easy for the adventurers to clear the level but by the third room, I was seriously worried that they'd all end up dead in the first game of the campaign but it worked out in the end with the trio surviving by the skin of their teeth!

The second part of the campaign will see Fisher seek answers from the Warden before heading deeper into the prison. Is this an isolated incident or does the mysterious Murdoch Foyle have anything to do with Hathor's Armour? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, All the best!