Alien - Hope's Last Day

This weekend we tried a new RPG/boardgame - Alien. The RPG is from Free League Publishing, who produce many great RPGs including The One Ring, Dragonbane, Mork Borg and Symbaroum to name but a few. This game is a one-off scenario that details the final hours of Hadley's Hope as it falls victim to the xenomorph incursion depicted in the film Aliens. Six players sat around the gaming table to suffer the stress testing of our GM.

Alien RPG - Hope's Last Day

The game is very much based on the mounting stress a character undergoes as a scenario plays out, using a very neat d6 mechanism to portray the stress and what can be achieved whilst under the influence of fear.

Another promo picture of the adventure

Anyway, onto the scenario, which takes place on the mining colony of Hadley's Hope - LV426 (from the log of Samuel Sung - mechanic)...

Dramatis Personae (to be edited as and when I get further information)...

G : Science Officer

J : ?
K : Chief mechanic
M : Samuel Sung (Mechanic)
R : Base team leader
W : ?

The grinding sound that came from the underside of the tractor got worse as we headed away from Hadley's Hope. We were ten clicks out when the drive train gave up altogether. We tried to call base but all we got was static on the comms.

As it was no good trying to carry on, and we were closer to home than our destination, we decided that we would suit up and walk back to Hadley's Hope. The walk was wearing on some of our number due to the harsh weather and terrain, but we all made it back in one piece.

The South Gate looked OK on our arrival although it was closed; the green light was on but things were very quiet. We pressed the button and opened the door, noticing a strange clear, sticky substance on the hand rail of the entrance.

Inside the base, the lights were flickering, a sure sign that the main generator was experiencing issues. As we stepped over the threshold, we noticed that the main entrance floor grid had a massive corroded hole in it - it looked like the corrosion also affected several levels below. We found a few cones from the storage rooms to either side and marked it off as unsafe and proceeded to enter the base, closing the door behind us to shut out the worst of the weather.

Whilst exploring the Geolab, Sterile Lab and the Survey Office, we noticed that there were many half-drunk, still warm cups of coffee and half-eaten donuts - meaning that the rooms were probably only abandoned thirty minutes ago. Some of the team were hungry, so they gathered what sustenance they could and ate their fill. We also noticed a lamp on the floor of the Sterile Lab with a little blood on it, and an air vent that looked like it had exploded inwards in the Survey Office had some of that clear goo smeared on it.

We left J in the Survey Office whilst the rest of us headed towards the stairs (we didn't trust the lifts what with the current electrical issues). He returned to us very quietly and with a shocked, pale face to tell us that in a chair in the corner of the office by one of the computer terminals he noticed a dead body - the face was half-missing - but the person was identifiable as Miranda Reynolds, a Weyland-Yutani executive, from her pass card.

We made it to half-way up the stairs when the lights suddenly went out completely. This caused a few of the team to cry out but the emergency lighting kicked in a few moments later.

It was as the emergency lights began to switch on that the movement tracker carried by R sprang into life; there was movement in the ducts above us. We tried to get a bearing on it but as we passed the morgue, the movement stopped.

We managed to get to Ops without any further incidents but found that all of the systems were dead. A quick tweak managed to get the CCTV working but everywhere we looked was dark and we could make out very little except for a shroud-covered body on the table in the morgue and a brief glimpse of a humanoid shape that moved in the surgery room along with a worm-like thing.

Once we got a few more terminals up and running we were able to interrogate the system to see what had happened. We were able to ascertain that the Ops manager reported 34 people missing, many staff were locked in their rooms and that there were three or four creatures on the loose. We all looked at each other at this point and wondered whether the things that we saw on the CCTV were these creatures. We tracked the identity chips implanted into everyone's bodies who work here only to find that almost all were located by the heat exchangers - had they gone there to hide? K and I began to weld the vents to the room shut as we were a bit skittish about the mention of creatures on the loose and the movements within the ducts displayed on the tracker earlier.

It was also reported that Weyland-Yutani staff were present; Miranda Reynolds and Theodora Kominska. We had found Miranda but there had been no sign of anyone else so far. Theodora had made an entry in the station log stating that a parasite had been removed from a person's face, but the person had died. The specimen was in a suspended animation tube in the Stasis Room.

As the Stasis Room and med lab were close by we decided to go take a look but picked up more motion on the tracker in the maintenance centre, in the morgue and the med lab. Suddenly, one of the welded air-duct covers flew open and there were some massive bangs on the door to Ops, but as the cameras were down for the corridor outside we could not see what was causing it. K began to weld the door shut to keep whatever it was out there as the door began to buckle. The route to the med lab was easiest so we headed there only to find the room in an absolute mess; a large egg shaped thing was settled on the floor, a metal table was half-melted and two legs stuck out from below it.

As we looked at the legs, we noticed that whoever they belonged to was still alive; it was Theodora Kominska. She was in a frightful state and R, the only other woman in the team, had to slap her to get her out of her hysteria as nothing else would work. Whilst Theodora was being administered to we investigated the egg and looked for other ways out of the lab. The egg seemed to have something moving around in it. It was only when Theodora was fully removed from under the table that we noticed another opened egg was under there with her.

Whilst I was waiting to see what we would do next, some of that clear goo we had seen earlier dripped onto me as I was stood under one of the air ducts. This, and the fact that the banging at the Ops door had stopped gave us the wherewithal to make for the other exit from the room only for it to suddenly burst open. K slammed it shut again and locked it whilst we decided what to do. A small xenomorph ran around the room, over the table and disappeared into an air duct. It all went quiet.

Taking Theodora by the hand K exited the room with a curse and headed towards the stairs to get out of the base and away from the danger. Unfortunately, the large xenomorph that had been banging on the Ops room door only moments ago returned from the stairwell at that same moment. R shot at it with her bolt gun but the xenomorph shrugged off the projectiles. W was stood rooted to the spot so I took the only other weapon we had from him and shot the creature again. The xenomorph grabbed R and then, with some weird internal mandible, ripped her face off. This caused J and G to run away in terror (J to the Maintenance Centre and G back into the med lab).

Part-way through the scenario we are attacked by a xenomorph

It was at this point that the way was clear for K, W and I to run past the xenomorph whilst it dealt with Theodora in its grisly manner. Luckily, K had grabbed Theodora's pass card on the way out of the lab, so we could get onto the shuttle parked a short distance away on the landing pad.

The three of us got downstairs without any further incidents, and to the main entrance when there was a massive explosion from the Ops centre. G had managed to set off a seismic charge to blow out the windows in order to escape, but the only place he had to go was the roof.

We found a number of tractors outside in order to drive to the landing pad, but it took a few attempts to get one of them going. Just as we pulled away we saw G on the roof being attacked by several small xenomorphs, and a basic synthetic droid at the main South Door. We did not wait for it as we drove to the landing pad.

The gateway to the pad was locked so W got out and went into the gatehouse in order to try to open the gate just as another tractor smashed straight through it. W quickly jumped back onto the tractor and we followed what turned out to be J and the aforementioned android to the pad itself. We had to climb the metal steps to the pad above us but just as we got to the level top several of the small alien creatures jumped us. I was at the back so most of them got onto me and the android but K, W and J got into the shuttle.

This was when my main directive cut in. I had to save the xenomorphs at all costs, so I picked up two of them and flung them into the slowly closing airlock ramp without any of the ship's inhabitants knowing. I then tried to shoot out the windows of the shuttle with the bolt gun I had picked up but the plexi-glass was too tough.

I watched the shuttle take off knowing that I had secured two xenomorphs aboard, and the base was now overrun by them. The company would be pleased with my work.

Addendum: It turned out K was also an artificial person, and when the shuttle took off, with only two stasis couches, he volunteered to not go into one. W and J got into their couches and perished at the hands of K who found a nest of xenomorphs already aboard the shuttle.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#27) - The Spire III

Day 61 - continued

After waiting a minute or so at the ready, the threat did not materialise. Confused, at the no-shows, we set about returning to the entrance room to see what had happened to those that set off the silent alarm. We advanced cautiously, but when we got there we found nothing but footprints in the blood from the previous fight.

We decided to carry on with our scouting mission as we didn't have nearly enough information yet, but headed south this time. We entered a large room with two sub-chambers to the north. The main room was an armoury of some sort as it contained a large array of weapons (at least 120 spears, tridents and war hammers) and benches upon which to prep for war. The two northerly rooms were full of other war accoutrements; belts, buckles, straps and so on, along with hides, leathers and studs for making armour.

As there was not much in the way of loot (except a bit more of that glowing blue seaweed and some more shells - which we pocketed just in case), we headed south again into a very large chamber with a few extra rooms in it. There were several pillars holding up the vaulted ceiling and all the walls, and floors, like the rest of the complex, were made with quality stone. The three smaller rooms contained what looked like accoutrements for leaders - there were fewer beds and benches in them, but all were in complete disarray. These side-rooms were also, strangely, not as good quality as the main rooms.

Again, finding nothing of interest, we decided to complete the circuit back to the room with the sledge hammer and caskets of seaweed. Whilst milling around trying to figure out what was going on, Drakkon, our fighter on look-out duty, thought that he heard a groaning sound coming from the southern corridor.

Navda investigated the sound and returned to us saying that there was a room to the south with several Sahuagin milling about; including a couple of types we had not encountered before, and the room had three arches leading out of it. From his vantage he couldn't see much more. We decided to go and investigate and also maybe try to find out what the groaning noise could be.

We were spotted as we got towards the end of the dark corridor, and arrows and magic began to flow in both directions. One of the Sahuagin priestesses cast a Spiritual Weapon at Gladreth, which annoyed her royally. Not messing around, she Fireballed the entire room. This had the desired effect and we were able to mop up the survivors in short shrift.

Map of the dungeon under the spire

A Prayer of Healing or two returned most of us back to full strength, so that we could explore our new surroundings. We scouted each archway to see where they might lead and followed the sound of the groaning into the northern chamber via another portcullis system.

This opened out into a long room supported by four large pillars, behind one of which was a chained up human. There was a bowl of some foul smelling brown gruel in front of him, and upon investigation we found a huge trough of the stuff in the south corner of the chamber. The man wore spectacles and had ripped trews. It turns out that he was a member of one of the previous adventuring bands sent to investigate the tower but he had been captured and tortured. We tried to Heal him so we could get him out of there, but none of our spells or potions seemed to work. However, it did take him out of his trance-like state enough to answer a few of our questions.

Apparently to the south-west there was an underwater city with hundreds of Sahuagin inhabitants led by a powerful priestess. It would need specialist underwater equipment to get there, but his comrades had managed to acquire some to which he gave us directions. Unfortunately, the rest of his party were captured or killed there.

As we felt bad for the man, we freed him from his chains and tried to move him to his feet, but a gush of black-red fluid erupted from his mouth all over Navda. The man fell to the floor - dead.

Gaming Weekend 2 - Alien and D&D 5e

This weekend just gone, I was invited for a second weekender gaming session with my fellow D&D Thursday Nighters. This time round we got to play a couple of different games away from the ongoing Saltmarsh campaign. First off, we immersed ourselves into the sci-fi genre with an Alien RPG/boardgame, before returning to the fantasy realms with the first section of another D&D 5e adventure; but this time with some pre-generated characters.

For both games we had a GM and six players, although towards the end of the D&D adventure we lost two of the players and had to continue on without them. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a list of the character names, so I will have to refer to them either by their class or player's initial in this summary write-up. Hopefully, the DM can supply me with a list of the characters in each game and I will be able to add them to the after action reports on these soon; right after the write-up of last Thursday's Saltmarsh outing.

The Alien RPG/boardgame was called something like Hope's Last Day, and it involved a bunch of terra-formers trying to make sense of what happened to their home base when they returned from an aborted mission to the out. They returned to Hadley's Hope a few days before the colonial marines arrived on the scene; they are the last survivors (other than those in the Aliens film), and this is their last few hours. We each played a character that had their own agenda for the final few hours of the colony's existence.

Hadley's Hope LV-426 is the scene for this RPG/boardgame

The Alien game's characters were all pre-generated handouts:

G : Science Officer

J : ?
K : Chief mechanic
M : Samuel Sung (Mechanic)
R : Base team leader
W : ?

The D&D adventure was the first part of the Waterdeep : Dragon Heist campaign. Our characters were all 2nd level for this game. If we take this forward, we will most likely rename, or at least amend, the names of our characters.

Waterdeep - a new D&D 5e campaign

The D&D game's characters were also pre-generated:

G : Wizard - (had to leave early)

J : Fighter - (had to leave early)
K : Ranger
M : Rexius Trannyth (Bard)
R : Zorrion Oakwood (Rogue)
W : Cleric

Next up should be the latest Saltmarsh campaign session, followed by write-ups of the Alien and Waterdeep adventures.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#26) - The Spire II

Day 61 - Continued 

Navda, our trusty rogue, was quick off the mark with a well-placed arrow-shot that brought down the first of our assailants, before the main melee was joined. Our fighters, Druss, Drakkon and Dharion, went toe-to-toe against the three remaining Sahuagin. It was a bloody affair that required the use of my Healing skills, but the fighters dominated the combat and won through quite quickly with the aid of Navda's archery skills and Gladreth's magic.

There were three exits from this chamber, and after taking a quick peek along each corridor, east, west and south, we decided to travel eastwards. Dharion set an Alarm to alert him of any being that passed through that room.

After a short while, we came across a side chamber that was different to the rest of the complex; rather than the usual very well-dressed white marble that was throughout the complex so far, this room was completely covered in dark green tiles. It contained four coffers, one of which glowed blue, and a well-worn sledgehammer. Not knowing what this all meant, we just opened the coffers and took a look at the contents. One contained a pile of white sea-shells, two contained plain green and red-brown seaweed and the blue-glowing casket contained a blue-glowing seaweed. All of the seaweed was damp to the touch but not sodden. We pocketed a small amount of each.

Inside the Spire

Whilst the rest of the party investigated the chamber, Dharion and I were supposed to be watching the corridors. Unfortunately, my attention must have been elsewhere as I completely missed seeing the true-thrown spear from the southern corridor that hit me. Three Sahuagin warriors followed straight after.

I retreated into the room to nurse my wound and the fighters stepped forward to block the entrance. Druss took the first Sahuagin warrior down very quickly and then Drakkon joined the fray. Unfortunately another Sahuagin warrior, very well armed and armoured, joined the melee from the south, and Dharion was sorely pressed in the northern part of the corridor as a few more Sahuagin warriors attacked him; for some unknown reason he missed the Alarm that he had set in the last chamber we left.

Navda, shot his trusty bow from the shadows and managed to take down another one of the warriors, and Dharion's retreat from the Sahuagin in the north part of the corridor brought him face-to-face with the armoured Sahuagin warrior. He didn't break stride as he slew the champion and joined us in the room.

The last part of the melee was a bit of a blur. I cast a Prayer of Healing on my compatriots whilst they dispatched the rest of the Sahuagin warriors: Gladreth with a series of Magic Missiles, Navda with his bow, and Druss and Drakkon with their trusty swords.

After the melee we paused to catch our collective breaths, but just as we thought that we should get out of there, the padding of feet and war cries filled the air from the south, and Dharion's Alarm screamed at him that more warriors were on their way from the north. So much for sneaking in and out unnoticed.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#25) - The Spire I

Last night we managed to get together to start on the next chapter of the Saltmarsh campaign. It was a two-part session as we levelled up (to 6th level) part-way through - we will most definitely need that HP and skills boost if any of our past dice rolls and luck are anything to go by.

Day 60

It was inevitable that our days of rest and recuperation would come to an end. We were summoned to a secret council meeting in the marsh where the underlying threat to the lands around us was discussed. It was a long moot session, with the local lizardman and merfolk populations also involved; hence the location. Although we were there primarily to be on guard, we did pick up on the gist of the meeting; none of the local populations were involved in this threat - it seemed, from the evidence gathered, that there was a threat from a band of Sahuagin raiders.

Day 61

Just as we thought that we would not be called upon to act in this latest kerfuffle, we were summoned by the mayor of Saltmarsh to a council meeting. The town hall was heaving with dignitaries, guards, adventurers and general members of the town, when we got there, and we were announced to loud cheers. The mayor took us off to a side room to discuss the latest plans. From the meeting held in the marshes yesterday it was ascertained that a large Sahuagin insurgency had taken up residence in the swamp to the south, and the threat needed to be observed and calculated so an appropriate reaction and defence could be formulated. We would be needed to go to the encampment, a tower in the swamplands about an hour's journey south of the marsh border, and observe enemy movements, numbers, armaments and so on and then report these details back to the council within a two day period.

After some negotiation we settled on a suitable level of recompense and requested a restock of supplies, ammunition and means of getting there. We were given all we needed as well as a crude map for directions and a keel boat with two guards to take us here.

The journey only took a few hours to get to the drop-off point, where our guides told us to return to the following day at dusk. They would not wait for us either at this point or when it came to the pick up - we would be on our own. This would give us a little over a day in which to find the tower, reconnoitre the base and return with our information.

Luckily, the map showed our path would be along a wooden walkway that headed due south through the marshlands. This made the going quite easy despite the thick mists laying around about. After about an hour, the temperature dropped quite dramatically and the fog thickened. We began to notice small lights moving through the fog in the distance that winked in and out of sight on occasion, and the muddy ground to the side of the path showed the occasional set of footprints, that could have been from Sahuagin or, perhaps, crocodiles.

It was at this point that Dharion and Navda decided to scout ahead just in case we were heard; especially me in my heavy armour. After about an hour the scouts returned. The sun was beginning to wane meaning we only had a few more hours of daylight left to get to the tower and investigate what we could. They reported that what appeared to be the tower was only a short distance away, and that the flickering lights were torches carried by pairs of well-armed Sahuagin sentries - they had worked out the sentries' patrol patterns.

The Spires of Saltmarsh

We made our plans to infiltrate the tower and, when the guards had moved away from the man entrance, we headed for the large ledge upon which the smooth stone doors were ensconced. It took our rogue, Navda, but a few moments to work out how to open the doors and we made our way safely inside. It was pitch black, so I cast Light on a number of objects to help those of us in the party without infravision to see. 

Unfortunately, the Sahuagin in the room were waiting for us and attacked without mercy. We were stunned to begin with but soon took the guards down before any of them could sound the alarm on the large gong in the room. After the melee, we moved the bodies into a corner, out of sight, and mopped up the blood. We also disabled the gong and closed the entrance doors.

The walls and floor of the inside of the tower were very well made and not as rough as the outside of the tower would have us believe. We readied ourselves again and headed to the south as that was the only way that we could see to go. Unfortunately, the way was blocked by a heavy wicker portcullis. However, there was a mechanism on both sides of the portal that allowed us to raise it high enough for us all to pass under it. A counter-weight kept it in position so it did not fall back to the ground and block the corridor again.

Map of the Spire

Just as we began to pass under the wicker portcullis, we were made aware of several more Sahuagin in the room beyond. We would be in for another fight.