Inn Too Deep - Part 1

General Summary

On April 18, 2021, I had the opportunity to run the Inn Too Deep adventure for a group of friends and extended family.

The Party

Characters

• Dr. Callus Deimos (played by SpaceSuitIan) - Dr. Callus Deimos was a New Voxelian human doctor who was attached to a Grand Army of Voxelia expedition which, fatefully, stumbled into a pocket of Billowing Hate. After this harrowing experience, Dr. Deimos' perspective on the world was irrevocably shifted, and he left GAV service to seek out a new purpose. He now works for the Ghostleaf Foundation, which has supplied him with a HC-1 "Meantwig" Hazardous Condition Auto-Armor. For Dr. Callus, preparedness is the watchword of the day. Dr. Callus' primary skills are Manipulate Mechanism, Heal, Break, and Assemble.


• Yang Noir (played by Jiroshark) - Yang is an enigma, a female Native Ovinex who trusts the simple power of edged weapons, a srong throwing arm, and the benefit of surprise over any other tactical considerations. Perhaps he followed Cpl. Eavor into the service of Kade's Crusaders, as many of his Civil Ovinex peers have followed their Rostran compatriots into unfamiliar cubes? Whatever the case may be, what his ultimate goals are for joining remain to be seen. Yang Noir' s primary skills are Stealth, Search, and Throw/Catch, and Climb.


• Sgt. Gill Kade (played by Rasuo) - Sgt. Gill Kade is the founder and charismatic leader of Kade's Crusaders, a well-meaning but mercenary band of individuals from across the Voxelian territories. While the Crusaders are as-of-yet unproven, Sgt. Kade has a circumspect mindset and eye for detail which served him well in the Grand Army of Voxelia. Sgt. Kade's primary skills are Influence and Teleport; he is a double amputee, his legs replaced with auto-stilts (burst mode) beneath the knees.


• Cpl. Bruce Longhand (played by Migi_Lambkins) - Cpl. Bruce Longhand recived special chemical warfare training during his service in the Grand Army of Voxelia, including both the use of such weapons and the means by which the injuries caused by them might be treated in the field. Though somewhat silver-tongued, Cpl. Longhand sees more opportunity for advancement in a private outfit than in the service. Cpl. Longhand's primary skills are Poison, Heal, and Negotiate.


• Cpl. Eavor "Wolfhound" Lupara (played by Ashauric) - Cpl. Eavor Lupara is a High Rostran former RACMF member who later joined up with the Grand Army of Voxelia's Foreign Services. She later gained her "Wolfhound" moniker as a result of her hunting prowess. Her perception, acute even in comparison to other Rostrans, gives her an edge both in terms of detecting enemies and in terms of remaining undetected herself while lining up a shot from extreme ranges. Cpl. Lupara's primary skills are Stealth and Track; she has the Scent (1) Creature Feature.

Party Background

I started the session off by giving a brief primer on the Manifold Sky setting, what character options were available, and the current events that were relevant to what the party might be doing. During character construction (~1 hour), everyone except for Jiroshark decided that their characters were formerly connected to the Grand Army of Voxelia in one manner or another, though all had left military service to form a mercenary crew of sorts. As the Game Master, I determined that the party would be considered Voxelia-aligned overall, though it was clear from discussions around the table that this association was tenuous at best.

The Adventure So Far

Before the game actually began, I rolled a die and determined that the party would be going through Scenario II (see the adventure for details).
The story began with the party waiting for a job in Godshead Rock. Sgt. Kade was reading the morning paper when he spotted the advertisement from the mysterious bounty-poster. He called up the local Guild Gazette and placed a personal ad accepting the job on the behalf of the party. Two days later, the mysterious D.D. had a letter delivered directly to Sgt. Kade's door containing instructions. After some deliberation and memorization the party decided that D.D.'s request - to recover an encrypted Dieseltech Computer gasket from the Vestra Inn and deposit it in Club 105 with a maximal degree of discretion - sounded interesting enough to pursue.
Both Deimos and Lupara made the skill rolls required to realize that the mysterious quest-giver was likely the Duke of Drones based on certain things he had mentioned in their correspondences. I took this opportunity to explain a little bit of the lore behind this character.
Sgt. Kade call the Navigator's Guild to request Navigator services, but Longhand took over the call and successfully used the Negotiate skill to bargain away the usual hazard surcharge; Vestra is not quite on the front lines of the War of Reunification, but it is just across the cube it's in from the fantastically dangerous Booming Hills Range. With that, the party was off to Vestra to recover D.D.'s cylinder. I decided at that time that the party should have a small travel-only airship (likely something roughly the size of a

Touching Down

Upon landing at the Vestra airship platform in the late afternoon/early evening, the party was informed that the place seemed rather understaffed. I added a small shack for the 'dockmaster' as an improvisation, placing a bulletin board outside it and noting that it was currently unoccupied. This board featured an ad for the Vestra Inn and a note stating that the party should drop their Guild Contract Card in the mail slot so he can deal with it in the morning. The party did so, conferred with one another for a moment to establish a cover story (they didn't want to let on that they were ex-GAV or what they were in town for - then started down the path to the town.
The party could hear the sound of what they assumed to be some sort of power tool or logging equipment hammering away in the distance, but they didn't seem to suspect that anything was amiss at this point.

Out-of-Towners

When the party reached the base of the hill, I told the players that the street seemed unusually empty. A little ways down the street sat a car with the engine running and the driver-side door open; at this point, Lupara's Scent detected something 'sulfurous' and vaguely familiar on the air, but couldn't identify the source. Lupara and Noir stealthily approached the vehicle to investigate while the rest of the party remained a distance back. The two ladies didn't find the driver, but were suspicious of the house the car was parked in front of. Lupara approached the door to investigate further while Noir made her way around the back to see if there were any other entrances. I informed the party that Noir noticed that someone was looking out the second story window at her, but quickly drew the curtains when they saw her looking back. Lupara confered with Kade via radio about what they had seen, and the party decided that they had to go into town to get a little more information.
The party made it around halfway across town (about half a mile) before they recognized what the 'industrial' sound they were hearing was: duelling volleys from large-caliber automatic weapons, perhaps 20mm crew-served grease guns. They noticed that a clerk in the nearby gas station was cowering behind the service counter. Longhand and Kade decided to approach the man to ask what was going on while Lupara and Noir scouted ahead and Deimos provided overwatch from his auto-armor. When asked about what was going on, the frightened clerk didn't know who was shooting but feared that the frontline fighting had finally come to Vestra and, possibly, that the Voxelians had decided to enforce a claim over the town.
After a short climb, Lupara and Noir crested a nearby hill and saw what the source of the commotion was: someone within the Vestra Inn was exchanging sporadic fire with some unseen, entrenched foe higher on the rocky, heavily-wood hillside adjacent to the one Lupara and Noir were on, across the street from the inn. Lupara noted that she could not see the shooters' positions within the inn; she failed a Navigation roll to identify the religious significance of the tower at the front right of the inn at the moment. They reported this information to the rest of the party via radio. Longhand suggested that he, Kade, and Deimos should cross the street and go to the top of the hill overlooking the inn (as opposed to the hill where the party scouts were overlooking the hidden machine gun nest in the woods). Kade agreed, and the party moved into split positions.
Once everyone was in position, on Kade's command, Lupara and Noir crept through the lowlying trees and up the backside of the hill with the machine gun nest, hoping to catch whoever was there offguard. Meanwhile, Deimos and Longhand went around the other way, moving through the trees on the opposite side of the inn to keep out of the higher machine gun nest's line of fire. Soon, this pair were crouched beneath the fence at the back of the inn. Kade waited for a burst of machine gun fire, then used his auto-stilts to dash down the hill and up onto the roof of the inn, using the observation tower to maintain cover from the attackers on the hill and the sound of the gun to conceal his footfalls on the roof slats. He noted that that the top level of the tower, which was capped with a glass-paneled dome, was an unoccupied bedroom.
Meanwhile, Lupara and Noir discovered from their hidden position that the machine gunners at the top of the hill was a Grand Army of Voxelia squad comprised of two gunners, two scouts in KF "Knave" Fast Attack Auto-Armor, and a commander with a radio pack. They decided to wait and observe the situation; if the squad attempted to attack the party or showed signs that they might be there for nefarious purposes, Noir and Lupara were prepared to intervene.

Going Inn

Under Kade's coordination over radio, Deimos and Longhand stayed low and moved through the fence gate into the backyard of the inn. The party briefly deliberated over radio about what to do. It was at this point that they decided that Longhand should try to see who was inside by stealthily peeking through the back window.
Longhand failed his Stealth roll against the 125 Hands boss taking cover behind the receptionist's desk in the hallway beyond, though the boss' affiliation as such was not revealed as of yet. The boss and Longhand locked eyes. Then, the boss started shouting orders into his own radio and unleashed a volley of 10mm grease gun fire, injuring longhand. Fortunately, the window's thick frame and the walls surrounding it provided Longhand cover amounting to Hardness 3. Unfortunately, entering quietly, it appeared, was no longer an option.
Dr. Deimos' reaction to this turn of events

Deimos, infuriated at the attack on his friend, stepped in and returned fire through the window, taking most of the boss' hit points with a barrage from his own 20mm grease gun. Longhand fired his grenade launcher at the boss, delivering a lethal gout of gas which finished the weakened boss off. Kade gave the order to Lupara and Noir to make contact with the Voxelians and find out what was going on and, hopefully, convince them that the party was not their enemy.
While Lupara agreed, Noir remained hidden in the brush higher up the hill in case the squad decided to turn on Lupara. Lupara approached the commander and introduced herself as a member of the GAV on private orders, then asked why the squad was there. The commander told her to get behind cover and then explained that they had recieved a radio distress call from the inn around 12 hours prior. The squad, he said, had come to investigate, but found themselves under fire when they approached. Noir heard this and voiced suspicion to the party, but did not break cover herself.
With the boss down, Longhand and one of the 125 Hands agents in the lobby exchanged fire, though both characters had significant cover behind thick stone and log walls and neither took much damage as a result. Seeing that the party members at the back of the inn could not break this stalemate easily without assistance and without breaking cover (the motives of the Voxelians were still not fully trusted as such), Kade used his auto-stilts again to leap across the roof and down into the yard, then fired his miniaturized RTC "Thunder Caster" Area Denial Weapon at another agent visible in the lobby, pinning him instantly. The restrained agent tried to fire back, but with his arms pinned at his side, this was too inaccurate to harm anyone. The agent behind cover tossed an incendiary grenade at the gathered party members behind the window and was met with a strong volley from Deimos. Longhand tried to shoot the agent behind cover, but again, this cover proved too effective.
Lupara prevailed on the Voxelian commander to hold his fire until the party could clear the machine gun nest within the building. From the vantage point of the Voxelian squad's position, Lupara could see that the enemies inside the building were firing from the lowermost floor of the tower. She conveyed this information to Kade via radio.
Kade, now armed with knowledge, used his auto-stilts to lunge though the now-shattered back window, coming to a stop behind the agent who was behind cover relative to Deimos and Longhand. From here, he spotted the two 125 Hands gunners in the adjacent room, pinned one with a well-aimed shot of his Thunder Caster, then raised his grease gun and peppered the other gunner with bullets, downing him. He called Lupara to let her know that the way was clear; the Wolfhound started running down the hill at top speed, looking to get into range and shoot the restrained gunner before he could free himself and so that the others could focus on the remaining agents (or, at least, the known ones). Kade noted that the whole lobby of the inn had been heavily fortified against frontal attack, which was likely why the Voxelians on the hill had as of yet failed to whittle down the forces here.
At this point, Deimos used a wrecking hammer and his armor-enhanced strength to batter down the wall around the window and stride into the inn, placing himself within striking distance of the agent in cover. Overwhelmed by the party's onslaught, the agent was quickly felled - just in time for one of his friends to burst from the bathroom on the other side of the lobby and fire upon Kade. Kade managed to evade this attack, but only just. Then, Deimos stepped forward and crushed the agent in the bathroom with two mighty strokes of his wrecking hammer. Lastly, Lupara got close enough to see the restrained gunner and took the fatal shot.
The session ended with Lupara reachin the inn and entering, Noir still providing overwatch from hiding, and the rest of the party catching their breath for just a moment before possibly looking for the (missing) receptionist they were sent to meet up with. The party still is unaware that the 125 Hands are involved, assuming that this whole affair is perhaps simply the result of another team being sent on the same mission in a calamitous case of mercenary crews put at cross-purposes with one another. Suddenly, they heard noises coming from upstairs...

Notes

Grand Army of Voxelia
Crew-Served Weapon

Achievement Progress

• Velvet Gloves - Retrieve the cylinder without being detected.
• Honorary Sister - Complete the mission though total non-violence and without losing any guests or staff members.
• Jester's Job - Complete the mission by working alongside the Grand Army of Voxelia and letting them take the cylinder.
• Crumbling Pillars - Complete the mission by working alongside the 125 Hands and letting them take the cylinder.
• Midnight - Complete the mission with no survivors.
• Botched Bounty - Fail to conceal the cylinder's presence from witnesses until it can be retrieved from Club 105.
• Hero of the Vestrai - In Scenario II, enter the Upper Basement undetected and safely extract the staff and guests from the Inn.
• Duke's Due - Complete the mission by recovering the cylinder and stashing it at Club 105, per instructions.