Logs 351-371: d20 Apocalypse 1-21

Logs 351-371: d20 Apocalypse 1-21
Homebrew

JFP Campaign
After JFP ended his long-term D&D campaign and took some time off, we eventually brought many of us players back together to play in his new d20 Apocalypse campaign. JFP created a post-apocalypse version of the Earth and had a plot going on (which we players had to figure out and try to influence the best we could). With homebrew rules, JFP added in mutant powers and limited our HP when leveling.

From 2008-2010 we ended up playing 50 sessions. I played 3 different characters (Dennis Coast, Ovrot Layer, and Killian Oss). NH played Vanda. BG played Dantella and Aura. KG played Jake.

Session 1
Dennis Coast, under the alias of "Rabbit" had been living on the streets and working as "muscle" for a night club, but the love of his life (Gregor) had disappeared and he found himself alone. He applied for a job at a brothel, but didn't realize he was actually being interviewed to join an adventuring group. Dennis passed the tests presented by Dantella and Vanda; the ladies had their own special religion and used the brothel as a worshipping house. When Dennis went to find out about the other religion in town, Father John of the church introduced him to Jacobus "Jake" (who was being hunted down by some ruffians). The group fought off some thugs. When a man in a suit named Kadi arrived for Jake, wanting to take him to New Byzantium, the rest of the group agreed to go there along with him (to spread the brothel religion of Elua).

Session 2
Kadi led Dennis, Vanda, Dantella, and Jake to Bucharest; along the way, radiation poisoning made the group sick. They also battled strange, glowing zombie people. As the group continued traveling and were attacked by biker thugs, Kadi revealed his cyborg implants and helped the team fight back. The team arranged sea passage via a ship to New Byzantium. Dennis and Jake killed some men who tried to take Jake away; the group then created disguises, setup a new brothel, and rested.

Session 3
The city was attacked by the warlord King Doga (who wanted to take down the Psycov Corporation and take over New Byzantium). Jake found out he and Dennis were wanted men. The group went to the Omni building, met with Mr. Ajax, and made a deal with them; they cleared the group from being wanted criminals and had them spend the night at their building. The old drunk homeless guy told us to go to Alexandrai; he was freaked out by Jake. The group went there, found beautiful green farmland, and took jobs as mercenaries. The group defended a farm from 6 gunmen, but Jake was "killed" and the group realized he was a robot. To fix Jake, the group took his body back to New Byzantium.

Session 4
Dennis realized his own healing powers existed. The Omni group returned Jake to the brothel, but his memory had been wiped. The group had to agree to not tell him that he was a robot in order to get him back. In recruiting more people for the brothel's love religion, Jake and Dennis heard screams and rescued people from danger in an apartment. Dennis found Gregor, who said he had "changed" and could "sense abilities" in people (mutants). Gregor mentioned a contact in "the underground" but someone shot him in the head and killed him before he revealed more. The team travlled to Alexandria, found the Knights of Saint Albert "the underground" and let them scan each of the team members, confirming that Dennis, Vanda, and Dantella were mutants. They also tried to convince Jake that he was a robot.

Session 5
The group settled in Alexandria. Dennis dated a girl named Valerie. Vanda dated the businessman Dmitri, who had problems with the local mafia. Dennis came up with a plan to infiltrate the mafia. The others helped cause problems that allowed Dennis to overcome them in the mafia and get promoted. With the intel from Dennis, Dmitri was able to send his people in and destroy the mafia's base.

Session 6-8
Distracted by Valerie, Dennis missed out on some of the fights Vanda, Dantella, and Jake had with their enemies. An inquisitor from the Catholic church (who could actually heal people) met with Dennis and invited the group to go to the Vaticanin Rome. The team took a boat across the Mediterranean Sea, but it lost power and   ended up drifting into a strange community of ships tied together in the middle of the sea. While Vanda and Dantella setup a new brothel in the town, Dennis started dating Morgana. The admiral gave the team a submarine mission; the group went down and found an old facility with a well connected to gia energy - but it was guarded by Morgana. When she had the group pinned down, Dennis decided to "defeat" her by declaring how much he loved her and proposing that they get married. She stood down and shut down the base, thus ending the effect that had powered down all of the ships. Morgana travelled with the team as they made it to the fortified Vatican.

Session 9
The group decided to work for Inquisitor Ignatius at the Vatican. The team travelled out to Filisur, which was supposedly where Jake was from. Dantella convinced Morgana to join the Church of Elua and performed the wedding for Dennis and Morgana. The group went to Mogno and Fusio and found a hidden library, finding info about Avalon.

Session 10
When the group returned to Rome, they found out Psycov had put a bounty out and mercenaries were trying to kill them. After speaking with Cardinal Ezekial and defeating assassins, the group was captured by King Doga's man Lord Chuma (who had an army outside the city waiting for them); Chuma took the team to Turkey to speak with Doga. Doga offered an alliance with the team since they were mutual enemies of Psycov; the team agreed to help undermine and destroy the evil corporation. Using the sewers, the team returned to New Byzantium and waited for Vanda's contact there, Orhan.

Session 11
Ignatius and Dantella were falling in love. Orhan rejected our plan to plant a virus in Psycov's system, saying they had defenses for that sort of thing. Dennis and Jake kidnapped a Psycov guard and tortured him for info about their security practices. The team figured out how to get into the power plants and shut down the power with a plan to then have King Doga attack the city while the power grid was down; the team relayed the plan to the army and Dennis went in alone, taking down a power station.

Session 12
While Dennis took out a power station, the rest of the team was trying to shut down the fusion grid; Vanda, Dantella, Jake, Dmitri, Morgana, and Ignatius made their way to the fusion reactor but ended up barricaded inside. Psycov found Dennis and took him hostage when he tried getting to the others. Everyone ended up as prisoners with a big cyborg guy taunting them. A Psycov lady entered and revealed that Jake was a double-agent who had betrayed the team (notifying Psycov of the plan in time for them to stop it in exchange for letting the team live)! The team was exiled from New Byzantium and found out Doga had failed in his attack. They moved back to Alexandria, where Dennis got Morgana pregnant with twins. Dmitri gave everyone houses; Dantella and Ignatius (who went by his original name of Kasper at this point) got married.

Session 13
Dmitri let the team take a transport to try to meet up with Doga, but on the way the vehicle broke down; the team had to get solar panels to repair the vechile, but they also had to fend off some enemies that attacked. After fixing the vehicle and arriving at Doga's new encampment, the group feasted with King Doga. Doga offered to recruit the team to work for his army. Dennis agreed to join in exchange for protection for Morgana and the unborn children. Vanda, Dantella, and Jake declined the offer. Dennis became "Commander Tiger" for Doga's army while the others continued on to learn more about the Knights of Saint Albert.

Session 14
Dennis (without Vanda, Dantella, and Jake) led missions in King Doga's war against Psycov. In one particular battle, Dennis was in charge of clearing some Psycov-controlled apartment buildings. Dennis threw himself on a grenade to save his men (since he could heal the damage). In another battle, Dennis led the capture of a coastline. As a result of that battle, Dennis convinced King Doga to start integrating and training the soldiers in the use of more technology.

Session 15
On another mission for Doga, Dennis was captured by Pyscov and his men killed off. Meanwhile Vanda, Dantella, Jake, and Kasper recieved a message that Dennis had been captured and that they had to complete a mission in order to get him released. Psycov tortured Dennis by experimenting on him and his powers while the other team members were capturing some girl named Elda for Psycov. When Psycov put Dennis on a helicopter to transport him out to exchange for Elda, he escaped. He told the others to release Elda and they all met back up at the Vatican.

Session 16-17
Dennis and Vanda went back to speak with Doga. Dennis came up with "Operation Condor" which was to bring the Catholic church into the war against Psycov.  Morgana had given birth to the twins, named Alan and Shirley. Vanda seduced King Doga. Meanwhile Dantella, Jake, and Kasper searched for a missing girl. When the team met back up and discussed Operation Condor, Jake suggested that Dennis join the Catholic church and become an inquisitor for them. At dinner, the team was drugged and had to fight thugs.

Session 18
The group killed the thug leaders and went back to the Vatican, where Kasper helped Dennis to become an inquisitor. Dennis decided to use the saint name Valentine as his inquisitor name. The group took a year of downtime while Dennis was fully trained with the church since he had to also become a priest. Dennis "Valentine" recruited Vanda, Dantella, and Jake for a mission with the older Inquistor Oliver (to go to England, which had been cut off from the rest of Europe); as the group sneaked onto the island, Dennis struggled with not being allowed to lie or deceive people anymore. After gathering intel from a small town, the team headed north to a larger city.

Session 19
The team checked out the brothel in the big city and accepted a mission to deliver a package to a guy in Sherwood; ten guys with laser weapons ambushed the team and killed Oliver; Dennis took over leading the mission. The team still managed to succeed at the mission and returned to the big city. Vanda arranged for a meeting with the xenophobic city leader, Lord Hill. After hearing the story of coming from Europe onto the island, he decided to arrest the group; Dantella "performed a miracle" by lifting Dennis up in the air. The team prepared to fight or flee...

Session 20
The team decided to flee from Lord Hill and his men. The team planned to meet up 5 miles outside the city. Dennis was shot until he went unconscious and all of his stuff was stolen; he was left for dead, but regenerated and eventually rejoined the others (who got out). The team secured passage on a merchant ship that was leaving and made their way back to the Vatican. They debriefed the Vatican and Dennis got new gear. Dantella and Kaspar decided to settle down and have a family. Hearing rumors of ships disappearing again Dennis, Vanda, and Jake took a ship out to the Mediterranean Triangle. The team found ten Psycov warships with an oil rig and base. Jake pretended to turn in Dennis and Vanda as prisoners; they realized Jake was the one who had told Psycov about this place. Dennis and Vanda really ended up in cells as prisoners while Psycov trusted Jake. The Psycov agents said they were going to brainwash Dennis and Vanda. Dennis, in a desperate attempt to get out of his cell, risked shooting himself in the head.

Session 21
Dennis woke up in a medical ward, being treated by Dr. "Aura" Aurlynn; he convinced her that he and Vanda needed help and that Psycov was really an evil organization. Aura tried to get Jake to hack into the system and clear the team to leave the facility, but Jake was discovered and captured. Aura convinced Psycov to let her treat Dennis and Vanda on her ship. Some planes crashed nearby; Vanda received a secret message from Dmitri. A spy was sabotaging things. Vanda and Jake both ended up in the brig. Dennis sacrificed himself to Psycov in exchange for the rest of the team being released; Vanda, Jake, and Aura were released on a boat. Psycov put a brain implant in Dennis to alter his memories and make him loyal to them.

[The adventure logs continue with 22-50 in my next blog entry...]