Sector 55 Blues - Prog 10 - On A Road To Nowhere

Sector 55 Blues is a Judge Dredd Campaign using the Savage Dredd unnofficial Savage Worlds Expansion.  This is an online only game with members from Dragons Keep Roleplay Club.

Bad News

In the morning Judge Uhtred sets up the Sat Comms gear and relays a situation update to Sector 163 the response they receive is both puzzling and alarming

+++ MC1 SITUATION ALERT BLACK ALPHA +++ NO SUPPORT AVAILABLE +++ YOUR MISSION CRITICAL +++ RETRIEVE PERP NESBITT PRIORITY +++

A Black Alpha Alert means that Mega City One is dealing with a city wide disaster or epidemic and Justice Department resources are strained to breaking point.

Judges Cully, Hammer, Teal and Uhtred head out into the wasteland accompanied by the pirate ships Pinacolada, captained by Scurvy Jack, and the Saint Mary, captained by El Diablo.  The pirates have charted a route on the map which leads them to a refuelling point known as "Nowhere".

 

Day 1 - Dust Storm

At midday a dust storm blows in,  Searing hot winds winds carry abrasive dust which gets everywhere clogging the bikes air filters.  The pirates lower the rear ramps of their ships with Cully and Teal boarding the Saint Mary.  Uhtred struggles to get his bike onto the Pinacolada and Hammer needs to go back out and help recover his bike.  Both bikes are damaged and take some fixing to get running again. 

Visibility outside is very poor down to about 20 feet and the ships are sailing on instruments alone.  They crawl onwards through the blackness.  

Dust storm

Night 1 - Acid Rain Storm

As night falls the storm shifts to acid rain and the ships grind to a halt.  El Diablo explains that the rain turns the dust to mud and the ships will just dig themselves into an early grave if they try to move.  They must wait it out until the storm passes.

Hammer and Uhtred find Jethro amusing himself playing a tin whistle.  They engage him in coversation patched across to all Judges via their helmet radios which are fortunately still working.

Jethro explains that he is glad that the Judges are going to get him to Black Oil Mesa.  He doesn't fancy their chances of beating Muldoon, but as long as they get him there he has a chance of finding the thing that Muldoon stole from him.  He also reveals that Muldoon betrayed him a long time ago.  Muldoon used to be a big thing in Mega City One some 15 years ago until he was stranded in a stratbat crash where he was badly injured.  Jethro rescued him and nursed him back to health.  Together they discovered the secret of the wild hair beasts and tamed a few.  

Over the years this turned into a lucrative business and they traded hair beast meat with the free towns a welcome alternative to square pigs.  Muldoon always yearned to return to Mega City One and he managed to make contact but was refused entry having spent too long in the Cursed Earth.  In the following months Muldoon's mood darkened and he betrayed Jethro forcing him to flee for his life.  Muldoon began to ruthlessley expand his empire soon after.

Day 2 - Homesteaders

After a fitfull night of sleep, the Judges wake to the smells of sizzling square pig bacon.  The pirates are already hard at work swabbing the deck with vinegar water and repairing rigging.  It is not long before they are once again moving.

The Judges decide to once again take out their bikes and ride as escorts greatly increasing their range and firepower.  Around 2pm the pirates spot smoke on the horizon and the team head out to investigate.Cresting a dune reveals a small flat valley floor with a small farmstead at its center.  Two black vehicles, a van and a sedan, are hurtling around the building and their occupants seem to be attacking the homestead. 

A Mutie Homestead

The Judges gun their bikes towards the farm and Teal strikes a lucky hit with his Cyclops Laser Cannon on the sedan which explodes showering the ground with scrap metal and body parts.

Hearing gun shots from inside the building, Cully heads for the front door and through a window spies a woman and a man with a shotgun.  "This is the Law" she cries and orders the man to put down his weapon"

Teal rides round to the rear of the property.  The van is parked with its side door open and 2 perps are trying to gain access to the building.  He lasers the van melting its engine block and shoots one of the perps at the door dead.  Uhtred follows suit melting a hot wide channel through the side of the vehicle.  Hammer's laser malfunctions and he opens up with his bike cannon collapsing the porch on the remaining perp at the door.  Five perps in the van fire back winging both Hammer and Uhtred.

Cully busts open the door and two 10 year old mutie boys flee the building.  She takes up a firing stance on the man who appears to be trying to reload his shotgun but her aim is blocked by the female mutie who pleads with her "Don't Shoot".  Teal fires an incendiary into the van which bursts into flame and two perps bail out from the vehicle and run away on fire.  Uhtred checks the van for survivors as Hammer punches his Lawmaster through the flimsy farmstead wall into the bathroom.

Cully pushes the woman out of the way and pistol whips the man with the shotgun to the floor.  She opens the door and drags the badly injured perp inside.  Teal chases down the fleeing perps and puts out their flames with a well aimed stumm gas grenade rendering the pair unconcious.  Whilst checking out the burning vehicle, Uhtred encounters some of the farm's livestock a six legged horse, a two headed goat and some chickens the size of large dogs.  He briefly considers calling sector control and having the Animal Squad come out to deal with them but remembers he is a long way from home.  Concerned that the crime scene could still be harbouring perps, Hammer checks the remaining rooms discovering two empty bedrooms and confidently shouts "CLEAR!".

Hammer interrogates the injured perp, Bob 365, revealing that this raiding party are mulgoons from Black Oil Mesa and were in regular contact with home base.  When they don't check in Muldoon will send more men in this direction. 

Next Prog ->

Back Issues

Prog 1 - Suits You Sir - Mosh 55 rob Zlooty Slute's Suits You and a body is discovered.

Prog 2 - Hair Today Gone Tomorrow - Rock Dwayneson's apartment and carnage at the Yes-A-Bout

Prog 3 - It's Ugly Out There - Fun and Games at the Ugly Pageant 

Prog 4 - Down, Down, Deeper and Down - Entering the sewers under RESYK

Prog 5 - The Big Wig - Confronting the beast below the city

Prog 6 - Last Orders at The Two Ways Pub - A shootout in Sector 163

Prog 7 - Into the Cursed Earth - Judge Ezquerra orders a manhunt 

Prog 8 - Avast Me Hearties It's the Easter Pirate Kangaroo - Black Ice Kanga 

Prog 9 - Scav City and the Pirate King - A Deal is Made

Pulp Hero - Buller the Wonderdog

 A couple of years ago I played a Hollow Earth game set in the 1920's. 

It was a fabulous adventure which leaned heavily on the pulp serial aesthetic of Indiana Jones, Doc Savage Man of Bronze, King of the Rocketmen, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon to name just a few.

My character was the intrepid adventuring archaeologist Yorkshire Smith who was never more than a few feet from his faithful Bulldog Buller.  A few weeks before the game began I ordered a set of Bob Murch's 28mm Pulp Figures PHP2 Rugged Personalities which contains 4 iconic pulp adventurers (an Indy, a Doc Savage, a pith helmet wearing British explorer, an American pilot and a bulldog.

Yorkie Smith vs The Doom Turtle

Whilst I quickly painted my character I just couldn't find the enrgy or inspiration to paint the dog.  I've never been any good at painting short haired animals like horses or dogs which often have their own pieballed patterns breaking up the solid colours of their body.  These are complex and hard to pull off without making the mini look like it's been painted in some sort of innovative camoflague pattern.

This week I managed to crack it with Buller and finally got round to finishing him.

Buller the Wonderdog

Now if only I could find where I've stored Yorkie I could reunite him with man's best friend.  

"Buller, go find Yorkie!!"

Reaper Bones #35 - Ragnaros, Evil Warrior

The last of my Reaper Bones evil warriors (for a bit), say hello to Ragnaros.

Ragnaros, Evil Warrior - Bobby Jackson (SKU: 77150)

I wasn't terribly enamoured with this sculpt to begin with.  He is basically an acre of plate and scale armour with a couple of skull motifs and a crude shield.  It wasn't until I got stuck in painting him that I decided that the shield was his best feature.

I painted it like dragon scale.  Ragnaros is so hard that after besting a huge red dragon he peeled off the side of it's face and stuck it on his shield (teeth included).  

Totally ridiculous, but then aren't the best fantasy bad guys totally ridiculous? I'm looking at you Damodar!!

Ragnaros, Evil Warrior (SKU 77150)

Bones Progress

Newsround 4th to 10th April

My weekly roundup of news and what I found on the internet. 

Goodman Games Acquires Dark Tower from Judges Guild

Dark Tower Judges Guild

 

Dark Tower is probably the most beloved of the Judges Guild supplements originally published back in the dawn of time (1980).  Considered to be a mega dungeon masterpiece it was re-released back in 2007 and original copies command a high price on eBay.  

Thankfully Goodman Games and Judges Guild have done a deal which could see this iconic scenario coming back in a ready to play format with revisions for both Dungeons & Dragons 5e or Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC).

According to Goodman Games, the new version will be targeted at PC levels 8 to 12 and will include a whole bunch of new material designed to extend this module into a mini campaign.

This is definitely going on my wishlist and something I would love to run at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club using my go to fantasy system Castles & Crusades.

The Other Godzilla Movie You Haven't Seen

 

Shin Godzilla (aka Shin Gojira) was released to Japanese aufiences back in 2016 and takes a more traditional approach to the Kaiju movie.  Whilst the movie does include some top notch CGI it chooses to employ the classic man in a rubber suit approach made popular through the TOHO Studio classics of yesteryear.

 

A peculiar movie with lots to say about the geopolitical dominance of the US and it's shared history and ongoing relationship with Japan.  It's hard to make a Japanese movie about Godzilla without touching on the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings, the miltary occupation and the Self Defence Law of 1954.

 

Shin Godzilla by Francoyovich (Deviantart)

This movie focuses on the incompetence of the ficticious Japanese Government and the rigid power hierarchy which neuters decision making.  I have seen criticism of the absolute cavalcade of one line actors whose entire purpose seems to be appear deliver their line and then disappear.  However, it does give a fairly realistic impression that in a state of emergency there would be a lot of beuraucracy and conflict in those types of meeting.

I particularly love the Defence Minister (Kimiko Yo) who is itching to unleash the full destructive power of the SDF like a true hawk.  There are some really great moments in this adaptation of Godzilla which make it truly worth the watch. 

The Man who Made Catan 

 

I've been playing a lot of Catan Universe lately and YouTube did it's thing again where it suggests videos from my search history.  It struck gold this time with a mini documentary about Klaus Teuber, the German dentist who designed Settlers of Catan.

The worldwide success of Catan has made this a family affair with both of Klaus sons now also play full time roles in the company.

HMS Evergiven Gets Stuck in Vital Shipping Canal

Unles you've been hiding under a rock for the last week you will be familiar with the plight of the Golden class container ship the Ever Given which managed to get itself wedged between both banks of the Suez Canal.  This one little incident demonstrated how our modern supply chains are so finely balanced that blocking this one canal can bring about massive economic turmoil.

I had to laugh when I stumbled upon the very creative fantasy version created by Limitron and available in both day and night versions on his Patreon.  

I love a bit of nautical action in my Dungeons & Dragons and this is an encounter map just itching to be used in an upcoming campaign.

HMS Evergiven by Limitron

Sector 55 Blues - Prog 9 - Scav City and the Pirate King

Sector 55 Blues is a Judge Dredd Campaign using the Savage Dredd unnofficial Savage Worlds Expansion.  This is an online only game with members from Dragons Keep Roleplay Club.

Onward to Scav City 

With Black Ice Kanga and Toecutter riding in their land dinghy Judges Cully, Hammer, Teal and Uhtred ride due south in search of Scav City and the Pirate King.  As they ride they notice that they are being stalked by large dog shaped creatures which periodically reveal themselves on the dune tops both East and West of them.  When asked Kanga says "they're Rad Dogs, like big wolves, dangerous at ground level and smart, real smart.  They hunt in packs."

After 3 hours it begins to get dark and the team decide to stop and make camp.  Teal puts the bikes on overwatch mode set out at cardinal points.  They pitch their tends in a smaller circle with the pirate dinghy in the middle and settle in for the night.  

Several times throughout the night the bikes radar is triggered and on one occasion Hammer's bike fires off 12 rounds from its bike cannon.

In the morning Hammer checks what his bike was shooting at.  Nothing, just a patch of dune which took the cannon burst and collapsed in a landslide.  They pop their Rad Pills, eat some ration bars, pack their tents and head out.  

Day Two

The morning goes without incident, the Rad Dogs are still following them.  At noon they see a cloud of dust and smoke ahead, a vehicle heading South.  Keeping pace with the dinghy it takes an hour for them to catch up to a ragged looking bus filled with fleeing refugees.  The bus slows to a stop and a short stumpy mutant gets out pleading for help.  

 

Mutieville Refugee Bus

 

He explains they have just escaped Mutieville and they have wounded on board.  The Judges agree to help and Cully administers first aid using her med kit.  The muties reveal that they escaped Mutieville a week ago, fleeing for their lives.  They lost three of their party, Harry, Dutch and Benjy to Lord Muldoons Hair Beast trackers.

 

Two days ago they ran into a pirate ship.  A huge wheeled monstrosity with a big skull for a figurehead.  They were attacked and five of their party were wounded but suddenly the pirates called off the attack and drove off East.  They are heading to Barter Town, the only free town left now that Mutieville is in the hands of Muldoon.  There are no menfolk left to defend it and they women, old people and children who remain are completely at the mercy of Lord Muldoon.  All the able bodied men have been taken to Black Oil Mesa to work the oil fields.

 

After patching up the wounded the bus departs and the Judges continue their journey until nightfall when they make camp just like last night.

 

Five hours after dark all hell breaks loose.  Hammer's bike fires off a sustained burst of cannon fire at something fleeing to the the West.  Langa bursts into Cully's tent screaming "They got the Toecutter... Dinosaur...  snatched my... first mate.

 

Hammer jumps on his bike and fires the cyclops laser into the darkness.  The laser melts a channel through the dunes like a hot knife through butter.  It illuminates the dunes and the Judges get a  brief glimpse of a pair of Rad Dogs howling atop one of the dunes 300ft away.  Returning to her tent Cully discovers a terrified Kanga cowering in fear.  

 

Slapping him across the face as directed in section 215 of The Book of Law (Disaster Response and Civillian Casualties) she shouts at the visibly traumatised pirate "Pull yourself together you scurvy dog, are you positive it was a dinosaur?"

Hammer and Teal examine the bird like three toed tracks which came from the South, made a beeline for the pirates and then a 90 degree turn exiting East.  A trail of blood accompanies them and as they enter the dunes they find a severed human leg bitten off at the thigh.  Whatever took Toecutter was big and fast.  Even if they could find Toecutter in the darkness he would have bled to death in minutes.  

 

The team decide to abandon the dinghy and ride through the darkness with Kanga riding pillion on Teal's bike.  As the sun rises over the horizon the rusty tangled scrap heap of iron that is Scav City looms in the distance.

 

Scav City

An Audience with The Pirate King  

The bulk of Scav City is not a permanent fixture rather it is a jumpled mess of pirate ships clustered around a central fortified tower.  The Tower itself is protected by ramshackle walls made from scrap iron and cars with a large oil filled moat encircling it.  The walls are festooned with spikes and sharp rusty iron blades making it look like a hedgdehog squatting in the desert. 

 

As the Judges ride over the drawbridge they are surrounded by armed pirates brandishing swords, spears, harpoon and crossbows.  A man carrying a ping laudry basket orders them to put their weapons in the basket.  "Noone sees the Pirate King carrying a weapon... It is the Pirate Law!!"  

Teal makes a point of telling the man that if anyone touches his gun other than him... "it will go boom!!"

The Pirate King

The Judges are led into the tower and into a throne room lit by hundreds of oil lamps and candles.  On the throne sits an old pirate.

 

"Welcome Law Men.  Thank you for returning Kanga to me, I will deal with him later, but first I want to raise a glass and discuss what you are doing in the Cursed Earth.  Yo Ho Ho a bottle of Rum"

 

"Yo Ho Ho, fetch a bottle of rum and five glasses!!"  he shouts at one of his attendants who scurries off and returns with a shiny chrome car hubcap carrying 5 shot glasses and a bottle of rum.

 

"Everybody out!!  I will parley with the Lawmen alone." bellows the Pirate King.

An Old Judge and a New Law

With the room cleared the Pirate King explains his problem.

 

"Muldoon is a threat to Scav City.  He's taking over this part of the Cursed Earth and we don't have the firepower to defend ourselves.  There's an old lawman outpost North of here.  If you were to gain access with my men then we could get weapons and defend ourselves."

 

Judge Hammer thanks the Pirate King and extends a hand in the universal sign of friendship.  The Pirate King does likewise and Hammer grabs his hand turning it over to reveal the fading Justice Department ID tattoo on the back.

 

"You are a Judge!" Hammer exclaims.  "A long time ago maybe, but I learned that you can't teach Mega City Law to the Lawless.  You need a new Law.  Pirate Law.  I am old and won't be around for much longer and I need someone who can replace me.  Think you got the cojones boy?"

 

"Twenty men and two ships crewed by my best captains.  What do ya say? Do we have a deal?"

 

The Judges ponder their a situation.  Muldoon has the perp and perhaps the outpost has equipment they can use to get in and neutralize Muldoon and exfiltrate Nesbitt.  They reluctantly agree.

A Pirate Shindig

With a deal struck the doors to the throne room are opened and a throng of pirates enters bringing food and drink.  The Judges are introduced to the two captains who will be accompanying their expedition Scurvy Jack and El Diablo.  

 

As the revelries continue Teal notices one shadowy figure who appears to be surfing tables grabbing half finished drinks.  He corners the figure and engages him in conversation.

 

"The names, Cross Eyed Jethro.  I knows Muldoon's secret, He's like you from the Mega City.  Get me on your excursion and I will tell you everything.  The Pirate King has never met Muldoon, but I know him well." 

 

Teal tells the Pirate King that he wants Jethro on the expedition to which he agrees.

Next Prog ->

Back Issues

Prog 1 - Suits You Sir - Mosh 55 rob Zlooty Slute's Suits You and a body is discovered.

Prog 2 - Hair Today Gone Tomorrow - Rock Dwayneson's apartment and carnage at the Yes-A-Bout

Prog 3 - It's Ugly Out There - Fun and Games at the Ugly Pageant 

Prog 4 - Down, Down, Deeper and Down - Entering the sewers under RESYK

Prog 5 - The Big Wig - Confronting the beast below the city

Prog 6 - Last Orders at The Two Ways Pub - A shootout in Sector 163

Prog 7 - Into the Cursed Earth - Judge Ezquerra orders a manhunt 

Prog 8 - Avast Me Hearties It's the Easter Pirate Kangaroo - Black Ice Kanga