Sultan's Musings

What follows is a campaign report of Uncanny Earth, an MCC campaign I ran for about 5 months.

Session 0

This was the first character funnel I ran with this group.

I ran it with three players which included Marwan Malik and Abdullah. I will not name their characters because they burned through about six each. Such as the nature of the funnel.

This funnel was a bit of an experiment for me. I had never run an adventure in this style, but I really felt like I had permission to take my gloves off as GM. Normally, I feel as though I can go a bit too easy on my players. The funnel by nature pulls no punches. My worry was that it was gonna become an endurance test. and while I did feel like it dragged a little bit at the end, and I had to find ways to speed up the process. Overall, the players enjoyed the recycling nature of the characters. It was also a great way for them to experience a brand new system of MCC and to get a feel for the type of gameplay that it rewards and punishes

Mutant Crawl Classics is a game of chance. The luck of the dice dictates everything, and yet players have some element of control over that luck, which is a stat and currency here. I think this is what sets the system apart from others. In fact, I think it’s genius putting luck in the hands of the players and making it a finite resource so they can opt to burn it whenever they get the chance, however doing so without conscience of the ramifications will lead to dire results and results do come.

If there is a critique, I have the funnel it is that the funnel is not reflective of how their characters are going to play like beyond this point, there were a lot of mechanics that I felt I could not introduce yet although you can introduce them in a very basic way it still feels like perhaps I could’ve shown them more of what the game had to offer.

I also think I underestimated how much time a funnel requires, as unlike a regular adventure, this particular adventure had reset mechanics. It felt kinda videogamey in a way that the players enjoyed but it kinda got repetitive towards the end. 

I am very excited to see how the system handles an open world sandbox adventure, though maybe, as usual, I have bitten off more than I can chew. More on that in another doc. 

The funnel itself though is mainly designed to be a funhouse. The stakes for death are low, hence a high kill count. Characters are extremely vulnerable, which has me a little worried for the future of the campaign, but for the purposes of a funnel in and of itself, I think it works really well. 

Another interesting observation regarding the funnel concept is that it kind of discourages roleplay, or at least does not offer much to support it. Characters in the funnel are a resource, in this case they were infinitely replenishing, but they do not get a whole lot of opportunity to shine as personalities, maybe to limit cognitive and emotional (kinda) load on the player side, which I get. 

This really sets DCC apart as a system that really leans into challenge based design. Kinda weird considering how much is left to chance, but I think that also enforces the OSR style principle of problem solving. Using powers or abilities without care is a quick way to get killed. Fumbles matter in this game. So moral is if you are rolling, it better matter. I like that and I think my players are familiar with that mindset, considering our prior campaign leaned into that, and Mothership was a meat grinder as well. 

All in all I would absolutely run a funnel again. I have a lot of fun GMing when I can let loose and be a murderer, so long as there is that unspoken contract that its all in good fun. What was absolutely gutting was seeing very high-statted 0 levels get mulched. But then their lifespan was so short no attachment was formed on the player side. 

The funnel’s job is to weed out the weak, and give players more of an out when they inevitably die. There can be areas to explore and loot to find but it would be real shitty to lose that stuff to one loose arrow from a goblin. So it really should be a fast and furious cold open to a campaign, which this definitely felt like. Could have gone faster but introducing a new system always takes a while.

Most of all I think it showed just how swingy MCC can be. I think Marwan in particular loved how unpredictable it felt. Also explaining Glowburn and Luckburn really got the player gears turning. That’s something that’s gonna be interesting to see unfold when they get out into the world. 

Session 1

Players: Frost, Scream, Lezardo, Zuba

Day 1

Session one starts with the Blackbird having crash-landed in the Iron Spine mountains region in the far East of the map. The players had to figure out quickly how they were going to descend from the wreckage which awkwardly placed them a good 50’ above the ground. Of course, nano cord (rope) was used. 

After descending the players encountered the four-armed mutant huntress Tarant and her child followers, Bilbo, Frito and Ghost. Tarant met the PCs with curiosity, hearing about their quest to find the X-Men and offering to take them back to the village of Helix where someone might know something. 

On the journey back to the village the players were met with a random encounter in the hills. The encounter ended up being a band of Pure Strain Marauders. I decided this would be the group of raiders who were supposed to be met when entering the village, the PCs just happened to encounter them on the way there. The marauders were disguised as Manimals. 

After a short battle, the PCs were able to kill the marauder leader, Dogmaster Knut, with Scream taking his dog-whistle from him. The rest of the marauders fled after failing a morale check. Unfortunately, Bilbo was killed in the fight. The PCs discovered that these were in fact pure-strain humans, and not manimals, an important revelation. 

On entering the village of Helix, the party met the village strongman Ward, a carapaced mutant, who told them of the troubles they’ve had with the manimals lately, who have been kidnapping young mutants during nightly raids. The discovery of the marauders being pure-strain added a wrinkle to the narrative, as manimal and mutant relations deteriorated lately over these events. 

Worse yet, the village Mind Mother, Jinna, is dying and needs to psychically pass her memories to her daughter. The caveat: her daughter, Hela, was kidnapped by marauders a short while ago and is yet to be retrieved. The PCs are asked by the villagers to do what they can to find her. 

The hook: Mind Mother Jinna remembers all her past lives passed down through generations of women in her bloodline. If the PCs want to learn more about where the X-Men are, their best bet at retrieving information comes from her. In order for her to share this information, she needs to pass it onto her daughter before she dies. This sets a ticking time clock of 3 days since the PCs arrival in town before Hela is stripped of her mutant powers by the Sons of Stryker, a pure-strain supremacist faction operating from the shadows. 

This hook gives the PCs a clear lead which they can chase if they choose to, and an obvious way to earn the favor of the village. 

The PCs are also informed that should they need assistance in finding the marauder base, they can seek guidance from an exile named Old Longtooth, who has a history with Mind Mother Jinna. Old Longtooth lives near the manimal village as a recluse. 

PCs ended the session having gathered this information and resting in the village. 

Session 2

Players: Frost, Scream, Lezardo, Zuba

Day 2

This session kicked off with the players being reminded of the town of Helix’s predicament. Mind Mother Jinna’s heir has been kidnapped and the village needs her to be rescued or it’s histories will be lost to time. 

PCs were also reminded that should they seek guidance on finding the marauder base they should ask Longtooth, the legendary bounty hunter who was long ago exiled from Helix. 

The PCs were also told of another hermit who lives south of Helix named Eli the Psi Goat Herder. Eli might have seen the marauders prowling the mountains and may know a thing or two about their hideout. 

Seeing that Eli’s shack was marked as closer to them, the PCs decided to ask him first.

The weather rolled that day was bitterly cold, but luckily the PCs had ponchos that could protect them from such harsh elements. 

Upon arriving at Eli’s shack, the PCs discovered purple, one-eyed, goats, who were suspicious of them, however with a successful personality check they were able to dissuade the goats from hostility. Upon meeting Eli, they found the hermit uninterested in the going ons of Helix, and no information regarding marauders. However, Eli mentioned that he’s been having trouble with rust wolves and would reward the PCs with two goats if they killed at least four of the wolves. 

The PCs didn’t realize it at the time, but the rust wolf den and the marauder base are one and the same.  

After gathering this information the PCs decide to return to the village, but roll a terrifying random encounter with the Lygrrr, the region's apex predator. Surprisingly, the PCs were able to survive the encounter, despite some very close calls, primarily through action economy, and defeated the Lygrrr, returning its body as a trophy to the village. 

Scream attempted to fashion a spear out of the Lygrrr’s venomous tail but failed an intelligence roll to successfully do so. However, by rolling a successful luck check he managed to retrieve some venom in an empty vial. 

Day 3

The next morning the PCs set out to go see Longtooth. It was a hot and dry day, unlike the day before, and they encountered a group of manimal foragers who were friendly. The PCs asked the manimals if they were affiliated with Apocalypse. They spit on his name. The Village of Zu is a haven for manimals who want to escape the oppression of the Empire. 

The PCs continued on their journey and passed by the Helix tree where they met Sharpfury and The Growlers. He did not mention his name nor the party name, but he did challenge them to a sporting duel. They declined, not wanting to pick an unnecessary fight (wise move). Sharpfury did mention that if they intend to continue to Zu they must go through him first. Again, they declined. 

So much for a rival party conflict. 

Continuing, the party arrived at Longtooth’s cabin. There they met Sheba, his wife, and discovered that Longtooth had been paralyzed after an encounter with the Lygrrr. Luckily, the party had a vial of Lygrrr venom on them and Sheba was able to fashion an antidote with it. On feeding it to Longtooth he was able to talk to the party, but not move. 

Scream gave Longtooth the dog-whistle to lead them to the Marauder base. He told them that the whistle carried the scent of Rust Wolves, who have a den nearby. Longtooth was also asked if he knew where to find the remaining X-Men. He said they were almost all dead, but he picked up the scent of “old Erik” somewhere in these hills not too long ago. He might be able to retrace his steps once he’s recovered. 

The party used the rest of the day to travel to the rust wolf den. They arrived at sunset. 

Session 3

Players: Frost (then Echo), Scream, Lezardo, Zuba

Day 3 Continued

PCs arrived at sunset at the cave entrance, encountering a full pack of Rust Wolves, including the Alpha their reaction rolled as hostile. Luckily, the party had their dog whistle on them, Lezardo doing the honors of blowing it. The dogs all stand to attention, the whistle calming them down. The PCs took the opportunity to enter Ironback Cave. 

Upon entering they saw the dropoff first and decided to investigate. Seeing the cans set up all along the slope down, the party decided that there would be no way for Zuba to make it through without alerting the inhabitants, so they lay a trap using a grenade and a can. 

The grenade sets off when 3 marauders come to investigate the trap. The marauders are instantly killed but the whole cave is alarmed by the blast. The party hears another group of marauders coming for them and react by blowing the dog whistle. A lucky roll calls the dogs in. The dogs turn on the marauders when they see their hostility to the party. 

The fight with the marauders mostly goes in the PCs favor, however, one crits Frost and due to shear bad luck on the damage roll he is killed instantly. When the fight is over, Lezardo valiantly attempts to resurrect Frost by burning luck and radburning his stats, but he just misses the threshold needed to bring him back. Frost lays dead still. 

The party retrieves his belongings, making sure they don’t fall to the wrong hands. They hear someone approaching from behind. It is four priests of Stryker making their way in. They stun the dogs at the cave entrance with their fazer guns. 

The party proceeds into the prisoner room where they discover Echo, who is newly awakened and chained along with Hela and another mutant and a rat manimal. As soon as the prisoners are freed the party encounters the sons of Stryker who make their way doen the narrow path to the prisoner room. Seizing the opportunity the party sics the rust wolves on the priests. The wolves make short work of the priests, however the dire wolf is stunned and out of action. Unfortunately the saliva of the rust wolves destroys most of the fazer guns the priests were carrying, but Scream managed to retrieve one. 

The party then delves deeper into the caves via the sloping path. The party discovers someone sitting still behind a rack of Manimal costumes, as they go to investigate they fail a luck check and Myrtle jumps out with a knife. Fortunately she misses. Zuba tries to end her, but she dodges and runs away. The party then all wear Manimal outfits, save Zuba. 

The party then enters the main living quarters of the Ironback clan, where the civilians are huddled around Mother Deborah, fearful of the intruders. The party attempts to convince Deborah that they are marauders who captured Zuba as a prisoner, but the attempt is in vain. Deborah calls on guards to force them out, but only one shows up. Not wanting to cause more bloodshed, fearing for his own life, the man tells Deborah that the real intruders are the Sons of Stryker who have made a testing ground of their home. Perhaps these mutants, though they came in hostility, may drive out the Sons of Stryker, who pulled them into this mess in the first place. 

Mother Deborah ponders this, and seeking to avoid further bloodshed agrees that this may be the best course of action. She will scorn them for killing her warriors, though. 

Session ends at nightfall in Ironback Cave. The party has Hela with them along with Yersha and Mink. 

Session 4

Players:  Scream and Lezardo 

Picking up from last session the party was in the living quarters of Ironback Cave. They were given a choice to make, with a chance to eradicate the Sons of Stryker that inhabit the cave. The party decided that before they leave they should destroy the device that was known to remove mutations from mutants. 

The party engaged with combat against the priests of Stryker and managed to kill all of them, but were not able to gain any information from them. Scream tried to understand the machine they were using but did not succeed in his intelligence checks. However, he did notice that the device had a power source that was quite powerful. 

In his attempts to remove it he rolled a critical failure, causing it to overload and self destruct. While the party escaped unharmed the resulting explosion destroyed a huge chunk of Ironback cave, notably their Birthing Chamber. Mother Debora told them to leave and never come back. 

The party exited the cave, but had to wait out Radioactive downpour before making it back to town, where they returned as heroes. Mindmother Jinna, in her dying act passed on all her knowledge to Hela her daughter, whose brain dramatically overfilled with all the new information. Hela needed to rest before she could impart any new information on the party. 

The party were then granted gifts given to them by Ward, who fashioned weapons and armor from the body of the Lygrrr which they had killed, granting them a carapace shield (+2AC), a Lygrrr skull helmet (+1 AC), and a Lygrrr claw (1d6).

After gifts were regaled, the party were introduced to Scry, envoy of the Empire of Apocalypse. He studied them carefully as he gauged whether they would be interested in joining the siege against the village of Ox. The party said they would not want to get involved, which prompted further questioning from him but he let it be. The party told Scry they were travelers from space, a piece of information he relayed across the Empire. 

Ward told the party that in this world you are either with or against the Empire. They may be strong but to challenge Apocalypse is a quick way to get killed, or worse. 

Party then decided to rest. They are now seen as heroes in Helix. They can ask for any creature comforts free of charge and are open to trade with the denizens

Downtime actions: 

Scream: 

Lezardo: 

Session 5

Players: Spike, Echo, Scream, Lezardo

Week 3, Day 1

Session began with the PCs waking up and being introduced to the new player character, Spike, the manimal. 

A recap of past sessions was provided and Scream was given the information on the surviving X-Men from Mindmother Hela. 

Echo decided to use his downtime action to have learned some rumours and hears tell that The Colossus will be lending his aid to the forces of Apocalypse at the siege of Ox. 

After the quick intro and catching them up to speed on events that transpired last sessions they discovered some commotion happening in Helix. The cyclopic mutant, Cheech, was calling for new hires to a dig site called Rooje Hill. Ward was trying to dissuade the townsfolk from joining, warning of their exploitation. 

The party asked Cheech for information on the dig, not promising their assistance but leaving the door open for work. Cheech marked the location of Rooje Hill on their map. 

The party was also given a hook by Tarant during this time: The Blackbird, which crashed into the Iron Spine back in Session 1 has completely disappeared from its crash site. Finding this to be strange and chasing this potential lead, the Party deliberated on their next move but decided to investigate the Blackbird crash.

However in their travel they rolled an obstacle: a rockslide made the mountain pass difficult. The party sent Spike Lee to ascend before them and take up rope with him, but he failed the check required to ascend safely. He took some damage (which he healed with X-Factor) and slowed the ascent but they made it up. 

However the delay necessitated another wilderness roll, which led to a random encounter: The Growlers. My attempts were to make the scene fun and playful, leaning into genre tropes. The Growlers challenged the PCs to a sporting duel, seeking to test their mettle. The PCs tried to dissuade them to match their numbers to keep the fight fair, but Sharpfury was not convinced. So the PCs decided to take up the challenge, and wager a shiny dagger. 

After a grueling battle the PCs lost the fight and were all reduced to 1HP and had spent all their X-Factor on the fight. The Growlers however were grateful for an exhilarating battle and extended a courtesy to the PCs by taking them back to Zu for their recovery. 

Session 6

Players: Scream, Lezardo, Spike, Echo, Odinsun

Week 4, Day 1

Session began recapping the events of session 5 for players who missed and the new player character, Odinsun, played by Rakan. The party spent their downtime in the Village of Zu. 

We spent the first part of the session going through downtime. Everyone unanimously decided to carouse. Unexpected results unfolded. Odinsun and Echo both got glowing veins from drinking a strange mushroom liquor. Lezardo, Spike and Scream got the highest possible result: They were mistaken for Envoys of the Empire of Apocalypse and rewarded as such, by a sect of Manimals loyal to the Great Overlord. However, the catch was that the real Envoy, Scry 4, was visiting today, upon hearing news that someone was pretending at his rank. 

The party were rudely awakened at the start of the day by Sharpfury, who demanded to know why they went around telling people they were envoys of the Empire, in Zu of all places! (Zu exists outside of the Empire’s dominion). He also broke the news that Scry was here looking for them. The village is now under the attention of Scry and Apocalypse’s legion. 

The party learned of an escape route they could take via crossing the lake, but they were warned of the Frog Men of the Lowland Swamp and the risk of contracting malaria. The party decided instead to visit Longtooth to ask for aid in tracking one of the X-Men. Longtooth gave them info on where he last detected Erik’s scent, and also told them about the Frost Cave entrance to the Forbidden North, where he supposes Iceman is holed up. 

With areas of interest marked on their map, the party set course for the Frost Cave entrance, managing to convince Longtooth to guide them there - though Longtooth stressed that he cannot abandon his wife, Sheba, to journey with them past the cave entrance. 

On the way there, the party dodged a patrol of Apocalypse’s legions, stationed outside Zu, monitoring for activity. They also encountered signs of Marauder’s in the mountains, and ran into them in the later watch at sunset. However, the party were in a mood to de-escalate the situation and succeeded in doing so. 

That said, the Marauder’s left with a warning: if the PCs encounter them in these mountains, they will be attacked on sight. 

On arrival at the cave entrance it was dark. Longtooth expressed that he would not suggest the party make their way up at night, as the path to the entrance is treacherous. He warned them of the bore-bugs, and the Sabre-toothed Ice Bear that patrols the top of the glacier.

Day 2

After camping the party woke up to find a hunted goat carcass near them, but the kill was left alone for them to take. Their next move will be to enter the cave and go through the Frozen in Time module. 

Session 7A

Players: Scream, Lezardo, Odinsun

Week 4 Day 2 Continued

Odinsun, Scream and Lezardo made it up the glacier to explore the strange tubes emitting green vapor. In exploring the depths of the tubes they encountered Bore Bugs who were no match for their combined battle prowess.

After triumphing over the bugs, the party made their way deeper into the glacier within the centrifuge of the tubes to find a strange chamber where the smoke is being emitted from a console blinking with many small lights.

Upon inspecting this console the complex's power went through some kind of reboot. Within this power source chamber the party found a tube that they discovered to be a gravity elevator. It's door was slightly ajar, meaning they could open it without interfacing with the disk shaped trigger to open it.

Upon entering the tube they were sent 50' up via anti-gravity. There was an emergency release button within the tube that allowed them access into an indoor garden. However through Scream's deduction they discovered that this garden's fruit was poisonous. The party collected 5 doses of this fruit and moved on.

The party now finds themselves in a foyer with 4 exits, North, East, South and West. The white tiled floor of the foyer is covered with ice and slush. The southwest wall of the room is curved and it's door contains a similar, disk-shaped panel at the center, presumably to open it.

Session ended as the three adventurers decide which door to try in room 3-2.

Session 7B

Players: Scream, Lezardo, Echo, Odinsun (not present)

Week 4 Day 2 Continued

Party began by investigating the source of the snow in the foyer, leading them to a room where the ceiling had caved in from the glacier above. In this room they encountered a hungry Yeti and offered him the Bore Bug, salvaged by Odinsun last session. The Yeti was grateful for the food and the complimentary healing from Lezardo. He befriended the party as a companion, and was named Fury.

Upon exploring the facility, the Party discovered the key to the elevators, which allowed them access to the upper and lower levels. Before testing this though, the party discovered a room where a T-Rex was held in temporal stasis. After an unfortunate attempt by Scream to inspect the T-Rex, and his subsequent lucky escape from its jaws, the party called on Odinsun to fire at it while it is in stasis with his lazer eyes.

The Party explored the upper levels of the facility and found its owner dead in bed, tended to by medical machines. This turned out to be the Time Lord, Kang. In his hand was the master key of the facility. In his brain, Scream found a bio-chip containing the [[Time Skip]] wetware program. In the next door room, the party defeated an Android, modeled after a famous film robot. Upon defeating him they looted all the riches the vault had to offer. The looted items include:

The party then continued through to the lower levels of the facility, where they encountered an Ancient Barbarian, who was trapped here out of time. Shortly after discovering him, they also discovered a time-tagger rifle which had some connection to a panel in the next room. The party deduced that the platform in the next room was a time machine, but did not want to risk using it.

Shortly after their inspection, the facility meltdown occured. The party scrambled to make it out via the lift tubes to reach the caved in ceiling. With the assistance of Fury, the mighty Yeti, the Party were able to ascend via climbing the tunnel up to the glacier. However, Fury himself failed his climbing check and could not make it out on time. He showed the party one last gesture of friendship before the glacier broke off, crushing him under the icy debris. RIP Fury.

The party now stands atop the glacier, where a new slope of icy rubble leads up to the plateau that is the Forbidden North. Behind them, an Icy Spire cuts upwards from the horizon into the heavens.

Session 8

Players: Lezardo, Scream, Echo, Spike

Week 4 Day 2 Continued

Pre session talk filling everyone in on the tragedy of Fury the Yeti, and who the fuck this Viking guy was (his name is Crom).

Session kicked off today at the cliffs. The gang were approached by a timid Yeti. This was my hook to get them to a safe spot. Right after the Yeti conversation they were attacked by the New Hyperboreans. I had them roll for an encounter, 4 showed up. Honestly should have had a set number, but whatever. Encounter was trivial.

Should not have given Scream a Lazgun. Or at least should have targeted the fuck out of him.

However, it showed off some interesting worldbuilding. I definitely should have used the Hyperborean healing factor mechanic. Next time I guess. But I did show off the Yeti snowballs. That was fun.

Also Crom is strong. DCC Fighters are CHADS. I think an all fighter DCC party would actually be a good time. This is potentially where our campaign is going.

After the fight, the Yeti, they named Furball, took them to his hangout. The players encountered a sign of the Iceman. It was a fun moment to come up with. I hope it was sufficiently ominous. But basically they saw snowflakes form the outline of a man then whisp away in the wind. This would later manifest as an Ice Echo.

Shortly afterwards, they noticed a Hyperborean scout. This was a bit of a quantum ogre situation, or perhaps a bit too guided, but I think it helped add one extra scene to the session. The Hyperborean scout was on his own, based on an arbitrary Luck check (I should have prepped this encounter better, but didn't want another fight to repeat). Spike stunned him with a Dazer pistol, can't remember if he passed an artifact check to use it, but whatever. Spike got a Nat 20 on the stun gun, I decided the Hyperborean couldn't save (faster than rolling on a crit table)

Echo decided he would generate an illusion of Thor's hammer to appear over one of the party members who would interrogate him. The man was fooled when he awoke. He saw it as an omen that his people would need a new leader. Crom was the King who returned. Crom couldn't understand a word this guy was saying.

Hyperboreans call the Lowland mutants "Strange Men"

Regardless, the party convinced the Hyperborean that Crom was King, and that they are here to see The Iceman. Despite the Yeti's warnings, they left him alive.

Afterwards, they entered the Secret Yeti Hideout with Furball. Some worldbuilding was established. They met Cold Bones who gave them an overview of what is going on up in this Northern region. He felt very quest-giver NPC, but he is that to be fair. Mention was made of Lich's plans to destroy the tower. He also gave some background about The Iceman, and his relationship to Cold Bones, The Forbidden North, and The Spire.

The party also was given a bit of info to The Ghost of the North. They were explicitly told they can't recruit him. He walks his own path.

Session ended with the Party discussing downtime.

Scream decided to teach Crom English.

Echo, Lezardo and Spike wanted to study the blade with Crom. This will result in the party learning how to do Mighty Deeds.

Let's break down how we can approach this:

Session 9

Week 6 Day 1

Players: Scream, Echo, Lezardo

This session was entirely taken up by combat. The Hyperboreans, spurred by the news that an Ancient One has been spotted, launched an assault on the Yeti hideout, since that is where the players were last spotted.

The Hyperborean leader, Rend, led the charge, slaughtering anyone that stood in his way. 

Cold Bones and the younger Yetis managed to flee the hideout. Cold Bones spoke of a forbidden cave, north of where they are. Hyperboreans dare not go there. It may be their only hope for a new home.

The Ghost of the North (badass Yeti) put up a good fight, using his awesome Blizz Gun, but alas it was not good enough to stop the onslaught and he fell to a Valkyrie’s spear. His body frozen in place as the ice spear jammed in his heart and flash freezed his insides.

A Hyperborean Valkyrie has now earned her wings. And a Blizz Gun. She will certainly shake things up in the future.

The players fought hard against the Hyperboreans but were outmatched. They used everything they had to keep themselves in the fight. 

Crom unfortunately was knocked out and taken away by the Hyperboreans who abducted him.

Luckily, the players were able to down Rend twice. A grenade throw initially took half his health away (stupid fucking grenades ffs…). 

Scream, in an effort to ensure a hit on Rend with his lasgun, burned all his luck to score the roll. A foolish move indeed. He was lucky to leave 1 Luck remaining, for he had to spend it to survive an attack that otherwise would have ended him.

After Rend’s first death they were shown a sign that he may, in fact, have been a mutant, with adamantium claws. Claws that very nearly took out Scream.

After the second takedown, the players used their multitools to restrain Rend. Then Lezardo used his molecular deconstruction ability, with some radburn and luckburn to completely disintegrate Rend. Which happened to be the only way to fully kill the fucker that I actually bothered writing down.

I completely forgot that Lezardo had that. Also forgot he had a grenade.

So yeah, a major boss I had spent the last two weeks building, just wiped out of existence on first encounter.

Such is life. Such is MCC.

Session 10

Week 6 Day 2

Players: Scream, Spike, Echo

The party rested in the Secret Yeti Hideout, licking their wounds after a vicious battle with the Hyperboreans. This event caused the awakening of the Iceman statue within the hideout, but only for a brief moment. The Iceman, communicating through this statue told them that they ought to hurry up and find him, as the Empire have already arrived and are in the process of toppling his tower. He also expressed that they should make an effort to save his Yetis. He will reward them if they do this.

The party heeded his words, but ultimately decided to pursue the Hyperboreans through the snowy wastes of the Forbidden North in the hopes of rescuing Crom, their companion. Luckily, they found tracks remaining from the Hyperborean kill team, leading northwest. While following the tracks, the party encountered signs of another group in that hex, who appear to have fought off the Hyperboreans, leaving corpses behind. Feeling the pressure of time, they decided to keep following the Hyperborean trail until they reached their stronghold.

On approaching the stronghold, the Party saw that it was well guarded, and that a brazen approach would spell their doom. Instead they made the smart decision to climb the nearby mountains, despite heavy snowfall, to gain a vantage point from which they could plot their infiltration. Scream remained atop the mountain, maintaining line of sight on the denizens. Spike decided to make his way down the mountain and up the watchtower to take out the sentry. He was unsuccessful in his stealthy ascent and was spotted.

This unfortunately got the attention of the compound. Luckily, Spike was able to take out the sentry unit and drop down from the tower out of sight of the pursuing guards. Echo also managed to descend and elude the guards. Meanwhile, Scream made multiple attempts at taking out the sentry with his laser rifle, but couldn't land a shot. He got lucky however, and managed to take out the new Valkyrie leader of the Hyperboreans, causing her to drop her newly attained Blizz Gun (which she retrieved last session from the Yetis).

Once the Blizz Gun was dropped, pandaemonium ensued among the Hyperboreans who fought over it like dogs over dinner. This gave Spike the distraction he needed to look for Crom. He stealthily navigated through the Hyperborean Cold Forge (where their weapons are made using ice sourced from statues of the iceman) and into the barracks where he found Crom and broke him free.

Meanwhile, Scream took out the single remaining Hyperborean left standing, who was the new wielder of the Blizz Gun with another headshot. Echo, seeing an opening, charged and retrieved the Blizz Gun before rendezvousing with Crom and Spike.

The party was awarded enough XP for Scream to hit level 3 and Echo to hit level 2.

Session 11

Players: Scream, Lezardo, Echo

Week 6 Day 2

Having successfully retrieved Crom from the Hyperborean Stronghold, the party decided to travel through the night to a more safe area to rest, aiming to reach the Yeti Hideout.

Travelling down the mountains though, they encountered an Ice Bear who tried to warn them off its path. Echo charged it with his katana. The battle was swift.

After defeating the bear and reaching the icy wastes, the heavy snowfall through the night doubled their travel time as they waded through waist deep snow. In a stroke of Luck they found a cave to rest in.

Week 6 Day 3

When they awoke they found a young Yeti waiting for them. Speaking broken English it tells them that the Yeti clan is in need of help. They encountered a monster at the bottom of the new cave they wanted to settle in.

The party, remembering the quest the Iceman gave them, decided to go rescue their furry friends, leading them to the Symbiote Cave. When they reached it, Scream quickly learned the black sticky substance at the cave mouth was sentient and hostile. The party also learned that the ice below them was brittle and caused a cave in. Luckily no one fell, until Scream in his plate armor, decided to test his agility on the descent, and obviously failed with his -8 to movement related rolls. He landed and found himself stuck in room 3, where the black puddle kept him constrained.

Echo made a valiant attempt at rescuing Scream, who succeeded with a critical success in jumping out of the black goo (and getting the sword at the bottom of it). However, they still woke the Symbiote Bear in the next room, who tried to take them for a meal.

During the heat of battle with the bear, Crom tried to climb down and help the party, but crit failed with a Nat 1, falling headfirst into the puddle and taking full damage from the fall, ending his life in an instant. The party then scrambled to defeat the Symbiote, with Scream even taking a fall to its jaws, but coming back thanks to aid from a stimpack by Echo.

With a final slice from Echo, the bear was slain, receding back into the gooey black mass. The party then retrieved Crom's body, learning that intense heat can draw repel the black substance through using their thermal lanterns. Lezardo used his Molecular Integration power, achieving the required result to ressurrect Crom by burning some Luck, bringing his total down to 8.

With Crom revived, the party searched the Symbiote Bear's den. Lezardo got himself a massive bone club (1d10 damage). Then the party searched the final room and discovered the Yetis and the Symbiote Core. The Symbiote told them to feed it a strong creature. In particular it wanted to eat Crom (being a tasty Hyperborean), or someone of great strength.

The party left pondering on this offer, knowing that bonding with the Symbiote could bring great strength, especially in the days to come.

Session 11

Players: Scream, Echo, Lezardo

Week 6 Day 3

The party started the session with a discussion of how to capitalize on the Symbiote’s offer. Lezardo, feeling conflicted, decided not to sacrifice Crom to its maw.

On the way out, Scream proved yet again why full plate armor isn’t practical for stealth. An encounter with the dire wolves in the nearby room showed the party that Crom may be more of a liability than he is worth. After a grueling battle, Lezardo changed his mind and fed Croms unconscious body to the Symbiote, bonding with it as his new patron.

Having rescued the Yetis from the Symbiote cave, the Iceman’s favor shone upon the party, giving each of them 3 Luck points.

Cold Bones offered the party a warning about the Yetis on the Spire: they are all undead and under the command of Lich.

Week 6 Day 4

The party bid the Yetis farewell after a day of rest and travelled to the Spire in the morning. Heavy snowfall slowed them down, but they at least encountered a friendly Yeti, who followed them from the cave and offered his help.

The party arrived at the foot of the Spire in the afternoon to see the forces of Apocalypse already laying siege to it with Thermite and raw man(imal) power.

How they intend to approach the Spire is up to them… but time is ticking and it won’t be long before the Spire falls.

Session 13

Players: Lezardo, Scream, Echo, Boomer (RIP)

Week 6 Day 4

While scouting the periphery of the Iceman's Spire and assessing for threats. The party encountered what must have been an angel in this messed up world of Uncanny Earth - a four legged bear-man with dragon wings and a conical hat. This creature introduced himself as Boomer, an escapee from the slave caravan brought here from the Village of Zu. A winged companion would be most useful here.

The party deliberated on how to send boomer on a stealth bombing run to drop thermite crates on Lich's tent. If only they could get their hands on some thermite without alerting the whole camp.

As fate would have it, a group of Walrus Men pulling a thermite loaded sled pulled up on the party. Due to a lucky result on the reaction roll, the Walrus Men were friendly to Boomer, remembering him and his silly hat from the slave caravan. They were all too eager to give him some TNT when he convinced them (easily) that his companions were with the Empire.

Boomer valiantly carried the Thermite and kamakaze'd into Lich's tent, blowing it up in flames, ending his own life. However, this activated the Sarcophagus Mech within the tent, and alerted the two Omegas on guard. This triggered the timer for the tower's destruction. Luckily for the party it also created the distraction they needed to infiltrate the tower via trebuchet.

Running with the wind on their back, the party made it swiftly to the trebuchet, guarded by the snowfall as though the Frost God himself smiled on them. First to launch was Lezardo, who luckily was caught by the Walrus Man standing on the 3rd floor elevator platform. He convinced the Walrus Man that he would help him get his people out. After Echo and Scream successfully launched onto the 3rd floor (with a close call from Scream) they deliberated first on how to disarm the explosives rigged on this floor to stall the destruction.

The Walrus Men did not care to help the disarmament, they were only concerned with their own goals of escape, and Echo pointed out that their sled was rigged with a parachute, as a potential escape option. Their leader Boqluq had an artifact stashed away in his chamber but was reluctant to give it to the party until Lezardo danced for him. Boy did Lezardo dance (nat 20 personality check), Boqluq fell in love and gave him the key.

The artifact was a Plasma Cutter, a la Dead Space.

They couldn't figure it out just yet how to use it, but Lezardo was able to successfully use Molecular Disruption twice on the detonators in the room to disarm the rigged thermite on the outer rim of this floor.

Meanwhile Echo used his senses to map out the hallway past the north door, behind which they already knew there were two undead Yetis clawing to get in. The party now has a better sense of their situation.

Session 14

Players: Echo, Lezardo, Scream

Week 6 Day 4

The party started the session in the Walrus camp on floor 3 of the Spire and were keen to make it through the northern hallway, if only those pesky Undead Yetis weren't in the way. Thanks to Echo's illusion of a succulent Walrus, one of the undead Yetis at the door got distracted, leaving just one for the party to deal with swiftly.

After a couple of well placed bonks from Lezardo and a final stomp from Scream, the Yeti was swiftly disposed of.

In exploring the hallway, Lezardo, with aid from his symbiote managed to slither down it unseen and find a staircase leading down. The party was however interested in going up, so they explored the room to the South East and faced off againts the gang of Yetis inside. The fight was grueling, and almost took a turn for the worst until Scream invoked his Patron, who granted him boosted Intellegence, allowing him to pull out the Blizz Gun on the next round.

Lezardo also invoked the Symbiote to create a temporary double of himself mid-combat to aid in the fight for 3 rounds.

Against the odds, Scream was able to make an artifact check mid-combat that was a critical success and blasted all the Yetis with a cone of frost, freezing their feet in place, and giving everyone advantage in their attacks. This allowed Echo to swiftly dispense of one with a flourishing strike of his katana (he also critted). The remaining Yetis were dealt with via Scream's chronal feedback loop program which re-inflicted damage dealt in prior rounds.

When the fight was over, a problem lingered. Lezardo had been bit by a zombie Yeti and was feeling the slow creep of Lich's corruption. Luckily, after a few weaker attempts at molecular restoration, he was able to roll high enough to heal his corruption and be rid of it.

The party then ascended to floor 5 where they were faced with a giant steel door, engraved with a massive X. The door opened to Scream's X badge, which he had kept since waking up in Cerebro's Maze (back in Session 0). But the opening door alerted the Undead Yetis in the room West of them who came running after the party. Luckily they made it inside in time to shut the door.

Inside they found an old Cerebro Cortex, with the long dead remains of Professor X still rigged up to it. It was out of power and could only be re-awakened (though briefly) by inserting a Q cell to the generator. Scream had to make the hardest choice of his life to give up the Q cell in his gun in service of honoring his Patron. After much internal conflict he chose to start the machine up and hook himself up to it.

The mutant he searched for was Magik, however Cerebro showed that she was not in this universe at all, but her signal can be felt faintly through a tear inside an active volcano to the south-east of the map. This tear is guarded by a purple dragon.

The three players each got a +1 permanent boost to their Luck scores for this discovery.

After using Cerebro the players took a turn to search the room for interesting features when they found a vent that lead to a room West of them. Echo made the first venture, busting the vent on the other side with a confident punch (another crit).

On the other side he found a massive foot and heel of a giant Ice Colossus, that had been broken off the rest of the body which towers overhead. Echo used his echolocation to find out that the other foot was in a room East with a Frost Golem guarding it.

Scream made the smart decision to remove his plate armor in case he needed to climb. Unfortunately this triggered a dungeon check that resulted in the Yetis encountering them again.

The party decided to kite the Yetis into Cerebro's room and lock them in.

In exploring the area south of Floor 4, they found a large room full of sculptures and relics that led to an opening. With a spiral stair going up the Spire exterior. There was also a glider in the room. The catch: 2 Omegas with Plasma Cutters, and 4 Undead Yetis could be seen here.

Session 15

Players: Lezardo, Scream, Echo

Week 6 Day 4

Scream spent 10 minutes donning his armor for the battle to come.

It proved worth it as the party decided to ambush the yetis and omegas in the glider room. The battle was mostly a success for them, though it had some shakeups. Lezardo's patron invocation of the Symbiote at the start immobilized a couple of the yetis.

Echo's swiftness with the force baton also handled the other two.

One of the Omegas was trigger happy with the plasma cutter, slicing up his allied yetis but missing Lezardo. Scream meanwhile used his chronal feedback loop to disintegrate another Yeti.

Finally the two Omegas were swiftly disposed of by Echo and Lezardo, who showed off their melee prowess. After looting the room and retrieving the harpoon, Gloo cannon, and Bungie Shield, the party advanced up the stairs outside the tower.

However they were quickly descended upon by two flying yetis who quickly grabbed Scream and Lezardo. Luckily Echo got a good hit on one who released Lezardo, who then rescued Scream. The flying yetis were quick work.

Finally arriving on Floor 5, the party first tried to get the jump on Lich by blasting him from cover, but Scream missed the shot. Lich seemed willing to negotiate first though, asking them if they would return with him after destroying the tower. They would be looked at favorably by Apocalypse.

Lezardo played along, getting close enough to cast molecular disruption. His roll was high enough that Lich was badly injured. With one final attack, Lich was killed, but that was but one of his bodies. It was, however, enough for the two Manimals to turn to aid the party in attacking their oppressors.

Even the Iceman lent his aid with one of the statues.

After an epic battle with many twists and turns, the party defeated Lich's forces and were granted an audience with the Iceman, who turned out to be an AI backup of the original, imbedded in the Core, which was currently transmitting a message to deep space to intercept the Phoenix before it reaches Earth.

The party were given a choice of being teleported to Forge's bunker, under the heart of the Empire, or to teleport to a Shi'ar Warship in Deep Space to intercept the Phoenix and claim its power before it reaches Earth.

They decided to go to Space, but the trip had its hazards.

Lezardo miraculously arrived completely fine. Echo arrived with delusions of grandeur. Scream arrived with digestive problems.

When they were reconstructed on the Shi'ar Warship, they realized they ended up in the middle of an intergalactic war over the fate of the cosmos.

Where will they go next....