TOPIC: Savage Worlds - Wolfenstrahd

WOLFENSTRAHD 2 / Session 4 - Part 1

Victor Moonstruck completes his transformation into a savage werebear and lunges for Guy Hades. Guy II grapples the hulking lycanthrope and successfully pile-drives him through the floor. The Barenzerker recovers quickly and retalliates with a blow that breaks most of Guy's ribs. Guy II is incapacitated. Doctor Brack grabs Sophie as a hostage and drags her toward the exit. Veleda conjures a wall of ice to cover their escape, blocking the stairwell. Moments before she completes the barrier, Rex Ossa takes a shot through the rapidly shrinking opening and hits Brack in the neck. The doctor releases his hold on Sophie to apply pressure to the wound.

Dhrall Blood-Drinker hurls an empowered Bolt at the Barenzerker, blowing a huge flaming chunk out of the beast's flank - yet the enormous bear is already healing! Rex loads a literal silver bullet into his sidearm and takes aim at the furry space between the Barenzerker's eyes. Skeletal finger hovering over the trigger, Rex makes a final, desperate bid to get through to Victor - who he knows must still be in there somewhere (Persuasion -4 versus the Barenzerker's Smarts to break through Brack's mental conditioning). Rex's words quell the Barenzerker's rage, and remind Victor that he is more than just a mindless monster.

Cassius is retuning from the zoo when he spies Doctor Brack and Veleda escaping from the lodge. Even at this distance he can smell the blood spurting from the wound in Brack's neck. Commanding Frater II to stay put, Cassius charges into melee. The Hexenkrieger interposes herself between Cassius and the doctor, casting a spell to freeze the dhampir inside a block of solid ice. Cassius is Entangled + Bound. A portal appears and both Dhrall & Rex step through (Tom spent his last Advance to learn two new powers, one of which was Teleport). Rex shoots Brack in the leg to stop him running off. Veleda moves to defend the doctor, the tip of her icy spear tearing a hole in Rex's suit jacket. Rex rolls to persuade the Hexenkrieger that her manufactured loyalty to Brack is a sham, and manages to get through! Veleda freezes the metal cage around her head and shatters the bars, finally free of Nazi control.

Veleda tells Taskforce M that Alistair Crowley is holed up in Hotel Adlon, the swankiest lodgings in all of Germany - or at least, they were. The entire building has been displaced from our reality and now straddles the border between Earth and Hell, simultaneously existing in both planes - and neither. It's confusing. Don't dwell on it. All that's left in Berlin is a smoky/translucent shadow where the hotel once stood.

Dhrall opens a portal for the witches to leave Berlin without slogging though the sewers. Veleda gifts Rex her amulet, enabling him to cast his existing powers with the ice trapping. The party also plunder several other items from the sanctum; a Witch's Broom (fly speed 24"), a Bag of Infinite Toads and a Voodoo Doll.

The monsters catch Victor up on the events of the last five(!) years, and take a well-deserved rest. Taskforce M will continue to use the lodge as their base of operations while in Berlin. Victor hangs back to rest his brain and babysit Doctor Brack.



When the team are ready, Dhrall opens a portal to the demiplane Hotel Adlon has shifted to. They appear in a lavishly appointed foyer bustling with wealthy guests. No-one reacts to the appearance of four armed monsters, which strikes the team as mighty odd. Dhrall rings the bell for service, and an immaculately dressed man sporting a neat pencil moustache appears behind the counter. Dhrall catches the distinctive whiff of brimstone. The man introduces himself as the Manager, and asks the monsters to sign the guest book, gesturing to an elaborate quill and inkpot on the desk. The monsters all sign fake names. The Manager tells them Crowley is staying in the penthouse suite, on the top floor. Unfortunately the lift is out or order, so they will have to take the stairs.

The first floor is crawling with bugs. Rex casually strolls into the corridor and is immediately set upon by hundreds - if not thousands - of biting insects. He casts Blast to clear a path, but the swarm is completely unaffected. Rex backs up, empties a particularly large centipede out of his skull, then uses the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind to fly down the length of the passage. The rest of the team take it in turns to fly across using the Witch's Broom.

The carpet on the second floor is tacky underfoot and quickly turns into sucking mud. Again, the monsters bypass the obstacle via flight.

On the assumption the remaining floors are going to be some kind of skill gauntlet, the monsters force open the elevator doors. The space beyond is less an elevator shaft and more a bottomless pit, that is also very much on fire. Flames belch from the pit and Guy II is injured, despite his innate resistance to fire damage.

On the third floor, the monsters are confronted by their own self doubt and inner demons made manifest. Rex is reminded of how he failed to protect his wife and child from a cabal of wicked sorcerers, who targeted his family for no better reason than to get to him. Cassius recalls living rough on the streets of Florence, a filthy, flea-ridden urchin - before being adopted into the Barbastella clan and given the 'gift' of their cursed blood. Guy II is forced to confront the knowledge he was grown in a lab. Is he even a real person?! Does he have a soul?! Dhrall remembers the dozens of innocent people he slaughtered during his rampage through Ye Olde London Town following the botched ritual that loosed him into the world. He enjoys reminiscing over past glories and revels in the suffering he caused.

On the fourth floor, hateful whispers urge the monsters to turn on each other. Guy II gains the Suspicious hindrance and begins to watch his teammates warily, anticipating their inevitable betrayal.

The fifth floor is straight-up on fire. Cassius steels himself against his fear of open flames, then dashes through. Guy II pulls a door off its hinges and uses it as a fire shield. Everyone gets through the flaming corridor with superficial burns.

The Manager is waiting for them on the sixth floor. He offers to grant their innermost desires if they abandon their mission to reach Crowley. He promises Rex he can reunite him with his dead family. This - it turns out - was the wrong thing to say.

"Keep my wife's name out of your f***ing mouth!" Rex yells, unloading his pistol into the Manager's torso.

The bullets pass through harmlessly in little puffs of sulphurous smoke. Contemptuously, the Manager turns to Dhrall Blood-Drinker.

"I can teach you how to break the church's binding!" he offers.

"I think I've got that covered." Dhrall shrugs. He has an inkling who the Manager really is, and knows making any kind of deal with him is a very bad idea.

Disappointed, The Manager disappears in a cloud of brimstone. Taskforce M ascend to the top floor of Hotel Adlon.

TBC

WOLFENSTRAHD 2 / Session 4 - Part 2

Taskforce M burst into the penthouse, interrupting a party in full swing. A long bar running the length of the suite serves complimentary drinks to dozens of carefree revellers, and a live band is playing the new hit single Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy by The Andrews Sisters. The monsters spot Crowley reclining in a jacuzzi with a trio of scantily clad swimwear models, overseeing the bacchanal like a contemporary Dionysus. He is a short, sweaty man with a bad comb-over and a silver pentagram medallion nestled between his hairy moobs. Adam spends a Benny to establish Rex and Crowley are already acquainted from a past case.

"Good lord! Rex!" Crowley exclaims, clambering out of the bubbling tub and pulling on a silk robe, "How long has it been? Whatever happened to your organs, old bean?"

Rex introduces his old frenemy to the rest of Taskforce M. Dhrall takes this opportunity to cast Mind Reading. He rifles through Crowley's memories and witnesses a montage of disjointed events leading up to this moment: Crowley offering his services to King George VI as Royal Magician and being publicly humiliated by rejection > Crowley being recruited by Himmler as Germany's envoy to Hell > Crowley brokering an alliance between Azazel and the German High Command. However, having seen the might and savagery of the demonic host poised to attack Earth, Crowley has come to regret his role in facilitating the invasion. He wants out, but is being held against his will by the Manager - who is really the Greater Demon Mephistopheles!

Taskforce M agree to extract the diabolist in exchange for his help infiltrating Himmler's secret base. The Manager arrives to stop them leaving. He snaps his fingers and the other guests disappear - mere illusions conjured to trap Crowley in a prison of his own vice. That just leaves the hotel staff; the servers are revealed to be incubi (demonic gimps with wicked-sharp blade arms), and the swimwear models as sucubi (dominatrix demons with long whip-like tongues that inflict pain & pleasure in equal measure). The Manager teleports to the DJ's booth and starts playing music from the DOOM (2016) soundtrack (goddamn demons and their contempt for the linear passage of time!).



Dhrall produces the bottle of Sibirskaya he got from Marshal Zhukov and invites the Manager to raise a glass - hoping the Greater Demon will get as sloppy as he did in Week 2. Crowley snatches the proferred tumbler and tips the contents down his gullet. He immediately passes out. Lightweight.

The biggest incubi is armed with a club-like rubber phallus (ribbed for her pleasure), which he swings with wild abandon. Time seems to slow down as the business end slaps Guy II in the face and knocks him prone. Dhrall casts Banish (his other new power) to send the three sucubi back to Hell before they even get to act. Rex uses Veleda's amulet to cast Blast with a wintry trapping; several incubi are impaled by spears of ice emanating from the centre of a medium blast template. The Manager/Mephistopheles seems impervious to all damage, and the monsters suspect he has some specific/pre-determined weakness they have yet to discern.

Taskforce M defeat the demons. The party is over, it's time to leave. Guy II slings the insensible Crowley over his shoulder. With the diabolist out cold, the sorcery sustaining the demiplane begins to unravel. Hotel Adlon is split straight down the middle, one half of the building snaps back to its original location on Earth - the other half is left stranded in Hell. The monsters escape the collapsing building - except for Guy II who is entombed beneath a pile of falling rubble. He is buried alive, incapacitated and bleeding out. Fortunately, Frater II is able to guide the other monsters to where Guy is buried, and the rest of the team dig him out. Dhrall heals Guy II with a burst of blood magic.

The monsters return to White Rose Lodge. Once they manage to sober up Crowley, he should be able to give them the location of the S.S facility.

TBC