Session Capture: Bad Company Session 3, Oh h*ck! This fight is hard! Oh, and there are some new guys.

A swarm of bad guys!

So, the party decides to crash a party, more like a seance maybe? And there's a ton of doom children, and they save the remaining prisoners yet to be sacrificed, and then they get into a really heated argument when they find out that there was some backstabbing going on, and finally they are attacked by a large detachment of demons that aren't just rank and file peons. Let's see how that goes.

The Cast

Newly introduced characters in bold.

• Cassana - Cassana is a Cat-Folk priestess who decided because of a vision from her god to travel with the crew of Bad Company. Her supernatural healing makes her a readily hot commodity. She is a prudish bore though, and spends her free time reciting passages and praying.
• Elizabeth - A burly thing of a girl who was raised among rabbit-people. She tries hard, but she doesn’t have the chops for the business. Her adopted father was abducted by a man named Salazar, and she has joined a band of pirates to hopefully secure help in finding this man. She is the support member, and a jack of all trades. She has a horse named Al Freido who helps protect the belongings of her and the party.
• Gordon - A wood elf archer savant that has no clue how to interact with other people. Fiercely loyal to the mission of protecting nature from those that would transgress against it, his memory of the past is riddled with holes. Did something awful happen? Why can't he remember?
• Mr. Tapioca – A bunny-man samurai, and a master of martial arts and strategy, and former, disgraced captain of the guard for Emperor Dyson. He was framed for the assassination of the emperor and now uses his skills to help those he can while on the lam. Introduced to Captain Burbank by Emilio the Goldfish, Mr. Tapioca took Captain Burbank as his liege and master.
• Sheek - A half goblin/human hybrid who after a strange turn of events, has recently gotten in touch with his human emotions. Goblin society hasn't prepared him for this, and as his clan has been almost rendered unto nothing, he has decided to travel with the only people that have ever shown him a modicum of respect.
• Xelin - Son of Van Zandt the Blight, though he was only a child when the story of that man took place. His lineage is a secret he must keep closely because of the unspeakable atrocities of his father. Unavoidably lead down his inevitable destiny to power and mastery of the cosmos, misfortune follows closely after him. For unfortunate reasons, he finds that the only people he can trust are themselves absolute dregs, and thus finds himself in the hire of Captain Burbank.

The Summary

The party looks down from a bluff and
sees an altar and several captive
sacrifices.

The party looks down upon a grisly scene from atop a bluff that Doomchildren, and causes a huge distracting chain reaction of violent explosions, luring another cadre towards them. In similar fashion, he again throws another explosive fireball, which even at the high clip of the doom kiddos, struck true creating another explosion.


gives them a visual advantage. They hastily patch together a plan to rescue the prisoners, as Mr. Tapioca recognizes one among them as his friend Emilio the goldfish. The party removes the goods from the back of the horse to lighten it's load, and Mr. Tapioca and Elizabeth ready to charge recklessly down the switchbacks of the bluff towards the prisoners. Xelin readies an explosive fireball and aims at the crowd of

These two explosions worry the guards in front of the prisoners who are successfully distracted. Hitherto unknown, Gordon, an angry wood elf was readying to destroy the demons single handedly for despoiling the pristine island. As the two doomchildren watching the prisoners rushed off, he successfully shot one in the back, causing an explosion that wiped out his partner.

as-Sharak

Peshkali

Elizabeth and Mr. Tapioca freed the prisoners as Xelin and Cassana dragged the heaping supplies down the switchbacks so that they could commune with their colleagues and relish in the smoking craters of incalculable destruction. Emilio reveals that the reason why he was on the island in the first place was because of a scheme he hatched. The map he sold to Captain Burbank was accurate, but the island was far too dangerous for Emilio's (now dead) captain to traverse himself, so he thought to rob the expedition party on their way back, except all of a sudden, a legion of demons had them surrounded, captured them, and built a sacrificial altar for unbeknownst reasons.

Mr. Tapioca is deeply offended by this treachery and immediately, despite the situation challenges him to a duel. At this point, the party notices among the other prisoners a friend, Sheek. Also, there's Chadwick, no one really knows who he is. Sheek has no idea why he is here, and is confused by everything happening, especially the sudden escalation of violence. Elizabeth and her horse go off in a non-confrontational manner towards the altar to see if they can take anything from the altar. Cassana, Sheek, and Xelin struggle to defuse the situation fruitlessly, and then things get bad.

Demon of Old

Suddenly, from the altar, appears 5 as-Sharak, a Peshkali, and a towering demon of old. They appear so close to Elizabeth she has a panic attack [Cowardice] and permanently acquires a new mental quirk [Suspicious of Horse, and doesn't want to be near it by herself.] The party snaps out of partial surprise quickly and readies up for combat. None of the party knows Demon Lore... but Emilio does. He warns the party that the as-Sharak each have a powerful breath attack they may only use once, and that the Demon of Old doesn't keep his heart inside his body.
Xelin readies up a lightning wall which nearly exhausts him, and one of the as-Sharak breathes on the party, nearly exhausting Cassana as well. Once again, Gordon, by himself is unseen in a high tree and quickly shoots down two of the as-Sharak, knocking one unconscious with a single arrow, the other is reduced to 0 HP but continues to stand. One of the as-Sharak breathe towards him as he is easily noticed this time, and he dives out of the tree preferring the falling damage to the tremendous power of the as-Sharak. Cassana begins praying and luckily, her deity, Abuelito, responds in two seconds, she prays for him to reveal the heart of the Demon of Old, and her god responds in the extreme affirmative [she had a reaction of 16] and not only does he reveal it, but smites it with lightning, striking one of the drains on the altar, and the demon collapses immediately. The Peshkali rushes towards Mr. Tapioca who parries and retreats out of the range of her remaining attacks, and then the session ends.

After Action Report

• The session was "generally fun."
• I attempted to use some multi-media by showing images of monsters on a TV while fighting, and playing ambient music, which was received well.
• The planning felt really unfocused. "Too many cooks."
• "This game has a lot of rules, but I'm really liking how you can do so much in GURPS, I think I want to buy a copy of the Basic Set to do a psionics campaign."
• The party had a bunch of lucky breaks, so even though this fight was incredibly dangerous [it's a boss encounter!] they've already neutralized two powerful targets, and exhausted a great deal of the as-Sharak's breath attacks... two more for those counting.

I don't know how to address the unfocused problem. I think we need a way to make sure that everyone talks in order. I get overwhelmed when three players ask at the same time if they can do something, and I'm not done helping a fourth person, but maybe that means the desperation and chaos of the session was immersive enough. Also, interestingly, the combined CER of all the as-Sharak, Peshakali, and Demon of Old was 666. I found that amusing.