Uninvited Guests

A Zina and Zach Slipstream Adventure

After rescuing Roarona the lioness from the rock-men, Zina and Zach lead her back to the rocket ship, pursued by more rock-men. As they approach the ship, Zach begins yelling "We need to lift off!"

The chief engineer called back "I'm not sure if she can handle it yet."

Just then, one the rock-men chucked a boulder that landed a few meters from the engineer. He shuddered and said "I guess we'll find out."

The crew and passengers clamber aboard, just as a boulder strikes the hull. Zach jumps into the pilot seat, opens the throttles, and blasts off!

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A few days later Zina and Zach find themselves on the planetoid Simba, home of the Lion Men, They are guests of honor of King Raorr, who fetes them for saving his daughter Roarona. Yes, Roarona is a princess! On this particularly fine day, the king is hosting an outdoor banquet a short ways from his castle.

Suddenly, there is a roar of engines as a horde of shuttles set down. Out leap squads of Primals (red markers), minions of the evil Queen Anathraxa. With shouts of "Kill them all!" the Primals advance of the banquet-goers.

As the guests (plain circles) flee to the castle, the Lion-Men warriors try to stem the invasion. King Raorr personally leads one warband (second from the right) while he calls Zach (circle) to lead another.

Raorr's wild charge routs a band of Primals while Zina and Zach find themselves in a brutal melee.

Meanwhile, a band of Primals tries to cut off the fleeing civilians.

One group of guests makes it to the castle.

"Zach!" calls Zina as she points to the straggling civilians. "They're unprotected!" Zach looks back and sees the vulnerable civilians. He leads the warband back to cover the retreat.

 The Lion-Men slowly fall back to the castle. Another Primal warband (left) routs.

And another routs, but reinforcements arrive!

Then the unthinkable happens. As Raorr's warband holds off the Primals, a blast echoes across the valley. A ray strikes Raorr in the chest. He collapses! (His band, on the right, routs). His men drag his mangled body back to the castle.

The remaining civilians make it to safety.

Zach leads the rear-guard.

Until his troops can make their escape.

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After their harrowing escape, one of the Queen's rocket ships hovers over the castle.

"Fools! There is no escape for you. You have been sentenced to death by the order of Queen Anathraxa for treason against her most gracious rule, and you shall die on this planetoid!"

Suddenly, a flight of rockets passes overhead, spraying out a fine purple dust.

"Death Dust!" exclaims one of the guests. He explains that the Death Dust will slowly kill all living things on a planetoid. Within months, every plant, animal, and humanoid will perish. Simba will become a desolate wasteland.

A few minutes later, Zina and Zach are called before Raorr, as he lies in bed, struggling for life. They approach and he addresses them.

"Hunter and Marks," he begins (addressing them by their last names) in a labored breath "once again, you have done my people a great service. I cannot thank you enough." He stops for a moment to cough and shudder in pain. "Yet I must ask, for the sake of my people, for an even greater service. It is said that the planetoid Sandpit has discovered an antidote to the Death Dust. I know it is much to ask, but please go to Sandpit and bring back the antidote!"

Raorr collapses back onto his bed.

Zina steps up and says "We will, and it will be our honor to do so."

Raorr smiles, nods his head, and says "Save my people." With that, he passes away.

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A few days later, Zina and Zach are strapped into their new rocket, one of the shuttles abandoned by the Primals. They are checking the controls in preparation for blast off. They get a prompt on their telereceiver. Princess Roarona appears on the screen.

"Our sensors tell us that the Queen's forces have set up a blockade around Simba. Be careful."

"Always." smirks Zach. Zina scowls.

"And remember" Roarona continues "the Lion Men are eternally grateful for your aid."

With that, Roarona signs off, and our heroes' ship blasts off into the teeth of Anathraxa's rocket forces.

Will Zina and Zach get through? FIND OUT NEXT TIME!

Game Notes

• This scene of the Plot Point campaign is another straight up fight. I turned it into a miniatures wargame (with markers instead of minis).
• The rules were an adaptation of FU, as per my other scenarios in this campaign. As I have mentioned before, FU doesn't really work for me for solo play - it's too free-form. For future scenarios I will be looking toward other rules.

Cavern of the Rock Men

A Zina and Zach Slipstream Adventure

In our last episode, Zina and Zach rescued a lioness princess from space pirates, but then were forced to crash land on a rocky fragment.

After the landing, the surviving crew went to work to repair the ship. Zina and Zach decided to investigate the strange planetoid. They were joined by Roarona, the lioness princess.

In their wanderings, Roarona became separated from the group. Suddenly, there were roars and snarls. Zach turned and saw Roarona being dragged off by two large, rock-like humanoids.

Zina and Zach pursued, and witnessed the rock men dragging Roarona into a cavern. Cautiously, our heroes followed.

They entered a corridor (1) that branched out into three directions. Choosing the middle one (2), they entered a cavern. In the center was a fountain with healing properties. They would need it soon. They entered the next room (3) and fell into a pit trap. Scrambling out, they retraced their steps and used the fountain,

In the next room (4), our heroes ran into three of the rock men. Brandishing a sword taken from the pirates, Zach charged. He swung and hit, but his sword barely dented the rocky exterior of the granite-like humanoid. With a contemptuous swing, it knocked Zach across the floor.

Zina began shooting her ray-gun, with deadlier effect. One of the rock-men shattered in a cloud of dust. Temporarily blinded, Zina could not fire again for fear of hitting Zach.

Seeing Zina's success, Zach unholstered his ray-gun and blasted one of the rock-men as it lumbered towards him. It too shattered into pieces. But behind it was another of the creatures. It knocked the gun from Zach's hand and began to pummel him with its rocky hands. As Zach passed out, the dust cloud parted and Zina fired. The last rock-man was pulverized!

Zina used her med kit to revive Zach. Although a little wobbly on his legs, Zach insisted that they proceed to rescue Roarona.

Passing through a corridor (5), the duo was beset by centipedes. Zina was wounded but was able to apply an antidote to the poison injected by the creature.

Finally, (room 6) they found Roarona. She was imprisoned by a massive rock-man. Zina tried to reason with it, but it attacked Zach! With its massive fists, it smashed Zach to the ground. Both the heroes opened fire, striking it multiple times. Finally, it fled through a secret passage. Our heroes let it go, rescuing Roarona and escaping from the Caverns.

But what about their ship? Will they escape from the rocky planetoid?
FIND OUT NEXT TIME!

Game Notes

• In the Plot Point campaign, this scene is simply a fight between the rock-men and heroes. For solo play, it seemed really boring so I created a dungeon (cavern) crawl instead.
• I'm still using FU, but have pretty much decided that it is not good for my solo games. Instead, I'll go back to modifying Four Against Darkness for sci-fi games.

The Goblin Lair

After searching the East Wood, our trio of heroes found a secret lair.

Entering, they found a passage that split into 3 corridors. They took the right hand corridor and entered a square room. Inside was an iron eater! Rikk the Ranger tossed some gold coins at the beast and the party retreated from the room.

Choosing the middle corridor, they passed through a few rooms with goblins and orcs. In one of these, the heroes were beset by 8 goblins. The monsters attacked, and Khamen suffered 2 wounds. Candorra was a master with the bow, taking out half the enemy.

After bandaging Khamen's wounds, the party entered a hall with 3 trolls. They managed to dispatch them quickly, but one revived and attacked. Candorra cut it down, but it immediately popped back up. Finally, all three managed to slice it to bits.

They passed through a doorway and encountered a she-orc reaver, Deko the Dreadful!

Candorra and Rikk loosed a volley of arrows that peperred the reaver. She just howled in anger and charged. The sweep of her broadsword sent Khamen and Rikk scurrying for cover. Rikk was a little too slow, and the blade sliced into his arm. He whipped out his saxe and sliced, wounding the orc again.

Then Candorra stepped into the fray. With a dizzying display of swordsmanship, she slashed and stabbed the reaver multiple times. It fell dead at her feet.

"Huh." grunted Khamen, his mouth open in surprise.

"What?" Candorra asked as she turned toward him, her blade dripping with gore.

"Never saw you fight like that with a sword before. Remind me never to go toe-to-toe with you."

She brandished her sword. "I think this should be sufficient reminder." she announced.

With that, they searched the she-orc and found another ring. Two down, one to go!