Moon Soldiers Must Die! AP (Part Deux)

As it was the last time I ran this scenario, I prepared with a rough Adventure Funnel and Scene Map. I knew that I'd start with the party in the lounge of the Venusian Queen; probably warm up with a non-lethal combat or Target Number roll; and then hit them with an invasion of Moon Soldiers. From there, it was totally up to the party, though things were likely to progress down one of about a half-dozen likely paths. I had a final scene in mind, but I wouldn't push too hard to get there.

For my last group, things went almost entirely as I planned. The party fled the wreckage of the Venusian Queen, ran a gauntlet of Moon Soldier space cruisers, crashed into the jungles of Venus, and made a dangerous journey to the secret base of the Moon Soldiers for the final confrontation. That the party stuck so closely to my expectations was largely due to my familiarity with the players.

Image captured from Dr. Grordbort's Infallible Aether Oscillators Promotional Video

I was pleased and amused at how differently things played out this time around. We began with the obligatory lounge scene and I used a few "harmless" encounters (if you call picking a fight with a squad of colonial space marines harmless) to ease the group into Risus. We also established some of the character's personalities and motivations. Sir Pennington turned out to be all talk (and have a glass jaw) while his trusty "manservant" (real gender unknown) managed most of the real work. As an assassin-for-hire, Fanny Fairbottom invented a mission to murder the CEO of Venus Venus, one of the premier casinos in the highlands of Vespurgia. Though I didn't know it at the time, this would wind up the goal for the whole session and determine our final scene (see below).

Though I gave everybody a chance to spot the danger, nobody noticed the armada of Moon Soldier warships emerge from behind an asteroid until their landing boats deposited raiders. With the klaxuns blaring, everybody tried to prepare for the fight while hoards of screaming dilettantes scattered for cover. When the Moon Soldiers entered the room, they proceeded to vaporize the squad of colonial marines, leaving it up to the party to defend the civilians. Mikov the Robot led off with a decommissioned chain gun [BANG... click... click... click... BANG... BANG... click... BANG]. Rod Zoom waded in with his fists, even though he had a perfectly good "disevaporator" at hand. "Jeeves" used my house rule for declaring facts to invent a weakness for the Moon Soldiers: they could not breath the  atmosphere of the ship and were vulnerable if their breathing tubes were cut.

When the party defeated the Moon Soldiers, they made their way to the bridge only to find it empty of crew. With the artificial gravity failing and the ship listing towards Venus, they could see countless Moon Soldier shuttles ferrying prisoners back to the mother ships. Pennington, of course, tried to call for help. His exchange of pleasantries with the ground-side authorities was a hoot, especially since they were under orbital bombardment and could use reinforcements themselves. But the party managed to convince the colony to open up with its anti-orbital guns, if only they could lead the Moon Soldier ships to the other side of the planet where they could be targeted.

Image captured from Dr. Grordbort's Infallible Aether Oscillators Promotional Video

The party's plan was to fly through the outer edge of the atmosphere in attempt to stay one step ahead of the Moon Soldiers. It was exciting chase (executed with Risus combat rules), but the party was overmatched. Despite some really cool tactics, they were forced to abandoned ship. As a parting gesture, they did manage to take out a Moon Soldier cruiser when they rigged to Venusian Queen to self-destruct.

From there, it was a surprisingly easy trip to the Las Venus. Too bad the city was under direct assault by waves of Moon Soldier raiders. The party managed to land without notice, commandeered a spaceport trolley, and drove to the ruins of the famous Strip. The entire post-apocalyptic scene was lit by the burning pyramid of the Venus Sands casino. The Venus Venus was on the other end of the Strip.

Image captured from Dr. Grordbort's Infallible Aether Oscillators Promotional Video

Moving up the Strip, the party encountered a Moon Soldier land fortress and decided to upgrade their ride. Rod Zoom led an assault on the gun turret while Fanny took a direct hit with a Moon Soldier ray gun. Fortunately for her, she was behind phlogiston-resistant glass of the spaceport trolley and "only" lost her her outer garments. Pennington achieved surprise by finding a belly hatch. As it turned out, the vehicle was transporting raw Moon Soldier troops and Pennigton dazzled them with his authority just long enough for Mikov to gas them with some experimental chemical weapons. 

With the captured land fortress, the party met with no more resistance. The drove up the Strip and raced into the remains of the Venus Venus. Inside, Fanny spotted her target, tied up by a group of indigenous Venusians who were facing down another group of angry Moon Soldiers. Into this tense situation, the rest the party charged in guns-a-blazin'. Fanny quietly fulfilled her commission from the safety of cover while the rest of the party slaughtered Moon Soldiers, Venusian partisans, and the occasional screaming human with great enthusiasm. When the dust settled and the threat of disintegrations abated, "Jeeves" would later discover that the Venusians had actually been rescuing human civilians from the Moon Soldiers. She kept this to herself, thereby allowing her human masters the illusion of a job well done.