Ok so, this is the story of how I got back into roleplaying games after changing cities.
Table of Contents
Chapter I: In the Beginning
Chapter II: Genesis
Chapter III: Enter the Mullet
Chapter IV: It's the End of the World as we Know It
Hobo Stew
So last time we found out the world was ending. The other party members are getting ready with buying guns, ammo, vehicles, really anything they thought will help out with the coming fight. I spend the next three days getting caught up on 30ish years of history and pop culture. So much lost time... but that doesn't matter, there's an apocalypse to get to!
One thing that I wanted to point out was a slight change Dan and I made to Mullet. We decided that I did age while inside Black Heart of Death™, just at a tenth of normal speed. So we decide to make my character 18. Why? It fixed a lot of the parties problems with "taking a kid along". A minor detail, but hey its just a game.
The party load up into our "possibly misappropriated" Black SUVs and head for the park to meet up with Bob. When we get to the park its full of people, every hobo for hundreds of mile must have been there. One of the cooks from the marquee tent was waiting for us in the parking lot. She is one of Bob's acolytes and leads the party to the man himself.
We make our way through the crowd, we notice that the cauldron had been moved to the center of the park. A line of people were walking by it and dropping various foodstuffs into it. Whole hams, cans of soup, blocks of cheese, loaves of bread, cakes, pies, cookies, everything was going into the cauldron. It smelled worst than before. Stirring the pot with a staff made from the crystal tree was Bob. His robes were clean white linen, his beard been washed and braided, a wide smile on his face. It was terrifying.
As we get closer Eugene hands me a bottle of whiskey and nods. I nod back, same as last time, gotta make an offering. Bob greets us and asks if we are ready to get this party started. I hold up my bottle of whiskey and nod. We each add a bottle to the cauldron. Bob mutters something and stirs it three more times. Loudly he yells "Soups on!" and the crowd cheer. From the folds of his robe he produces a small tin cup. "Whos the first to drink?"
Now, the party is naturally hesitant. Where did the cup come from? How, in any way, is this bubbling concoction safe to drink? Is that an eyeball? Bob is standing there with the cup out waiting for some one to take it, so... yolo. I dip the cup and drink. And I feel great! When the others see that didn't drop dead or vomit, a few of the other drink as well, but not everyone. John Jones doesn't believe in such nonsense and thinks we are idiots for drinking that hobo stew.
Bob turns to the crowd and announces that we are champions against the evil! Now march on the source of all evil in the city! We march to City Hall!
City Hall
The crowd of hobos turns and starts moving down Main Street towards City Hall. Bob and the party are at the center of the mob and we are slowly making our way across the city. As we march along Main Street storm clouds gather and bloat out the noon day sun. Cracks in the sidewalks begin to form as earthquakes shake the city. From these cracks a miasma begins to seep forth, manifesting into living shadows. The shadows are striking at the edge of the crowd, but not doing any harm. Bob had cast ritual spell that granted a divine blessing on all present. Now the mob could harm the Shadows with their makeshift weapons, but the Shadow struggled to harm even the weakest of the faithful.
The mob eventually makes it to City Hall. Large fissures have opened all around the building, blasting the miasma so thick no one could get past it. Bob turns to us, shouting over the mob and rushing miasma, "Well boys, its your time to shine! I'll open the way and you take care of the evil inside!" He claps his hands and begins to grow. He lays his crystal staff across the fissure, the miasma parted by the purity of the staff.
As we cross the gap, something begins to stir in the darkness below. An enormous mass shadow and hate climbs its way out of the fissure and begins to fight Bob. Well damn, there goes our biggest gun. We huddle up outside the main entrance to come up with a plan. And we come up with the best of plans, we split the party.
Now Dan has setup the City Hall building like a dungeon. We can enter any where on the first floor without a problem, but the miasma is preventing us from getting any higher from the outside. So we break off into the "Quite" Group (Eugene, Derek, Doc Ron, and Maurice) and the "Loud" group (Mullet, A.J., and John Jones). The quite group all have silencers for their guns and take the stairs and head up to the top floor. Meanwhile, the loud group is to draw as much attention as possible. So A.J. and I running blocker for John, who is setting up small bombs everywhere.
The cultists inside were not that tough, just office drones in red robes carrying greatswords. After taking one out, I swap out my longsword for a greatsword. This was one of the earliest steps on my road to becoming a legend. I went from one cultist every other round to one per round. I was unstoppable.
While the loud team is hacking our way through the cultists, the quite team is making their way to the roof where the ritual is happening. They are silently taking out the guards along the way and maintaining stealth so as not to alert the building to their presence. They are doing really good until they run into the Chief of Police, one of the mini-bosses, at the entrance to the roof. They have an shoot out in the buildings stairwell and are force to take cover on the top floor of the building.
So, unlike in D&D, we are actually in constant contact with each other via secured radios. So they call for us to get up to the top floor and help them. So the loud team makes for the nearest stairwell, which is through a glass corridor. We begin to cross the corridor when a dozen cultist intervene and try to stop us. John goes for his signature crowd control method, DYNAMITE! So he chuck bundle of three sticks as the group... and rolls a one. He misjudges the height of the corridor. The bundle bounces off the ceiling and lands at his feet. A.J. and I make our DEX saves since we are out in front. John, not so much. Suffers massive damage and fails his CON save and dies. RIP John Jones, live by the dynamite, die by the dynamite.
A.J. and I dispatch the cultist, pop some painkillers and head up the stairs. The quite had managed to finish off the cultists and the Chef of Police on the top floor and waited for us to get there. This is part were I describe the epic showdown on the roof, but honestly I don't really remember what happened. It was mostly a gunfight on the roof. I think I got shot and knocked out early on. A.J. and I were still banged up from the dynamite and remaining cultists. We both got knocked out early on in the fight.
The party managed to defeat the both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor on the roof. The remaining party members destroyed the ritual circle and gathered the magical loot, of which I got none. I spend the next week on bed rest being tended to by Doc Ron. A.J. was up after a few days. While I was out, the world changed. Massive shifts in plate tectonics causing new land masses and entire races had been migrated to our plane of reality. The world had truly ended. And a new one had begun.
So ends this chapter of Guys Night. So how about you, ever have a world sundering event happen during the course of a game? Let me know in the comments. Until next time, Happy Gaming.