Kingbeast's Lair

[ Author’s Note: This is the log for the 2nd session. Instead of posting your standard log of everything that happened during the session I will post “Then” and “Now” sections that summarize the story. The players will need to remember the details as to how it unfolded. This means that the players will be responsible for remembering any loose ends that may come back to haunt them in a later Chapter. [Evil GM snicker.] ]

Then

[ From the journal of Doctor Martin Blumenau (aka Doctor Heiko Krantz). Translated from German. ]

November 12, 1971 – Heidelberg Medical Academy, Germany – Professor Max Born was a genius but his experiments were not applied to a cause with lasting impact. If he would only have listened to me we all could be living without pain in an endless cycle of rebirth. Max suffered much in his last year. My mentor was wracked with acute arthritis and I could only watch him writhe in agonizing pain. Avoiding the suffering that many feel before passing…by cheating death itself…that is a noble goal worthy of Herr Born. By using principals Professor Born laid out in Atomic Physics plus the insights of John Dee in his analysis of the Voynich manuscript I have hit on the key. A serum that will grant eternal rebirth of dying tissue. The only thing that remains is experimentation and trials.

November 15, 1971 – Heidelberg Medical Academy, Germany – I’m on the verge of a breakthrough! Tonight I will become the master of dead flesh! I will be able to make it sit up and dance with me as the conductor! If only these dolts at the university would let me work in peace. Now is not the time to discuss ethics…it is a time of action!

Now

September 16, 2014 – New Orleans, USA –It has taken many years of work and much money but the trials are doing well. Subject 86 seems to be taking well to the changes I made in Lot 66. Like the others his brain is weakened so that he is susceptible to my commands but unlike the other subjects his own thoughts are clear and without confusion. He treats me like a father which although humbling will not be reciprocated. Having an able body to speak with does help break my doldrums.

The Mictlantecuhtli cup recently discovered in Mexico City could help with my research. If the legends are true it could extend the effectiveness of the serum. It is a longshot but worth the investment. I need to find some unsuspecting shill to perform the robbery under my guidance. Afterwards he can extinguished if he becomes a liability.

January 10, 2015 – New Orleans, USA – Working with the vampires has become a valuable, albeit dangerous, association. They get living subjects that are of no use to me and so far they are disposing of them without notice.

[ Author’s Note: This is the log for the 1st session. Instead of posting your standard log of everything that happened during the session I thought I would try something new. Just like the Supernatural TV show I will post “Then” and “Now” sections that summarize the story. The players will need to remember the details as to how it unfolded. This means that the players will be responsible for remembering any loose ends that may come back to haunt them in a later Chapter. [Evil GM snicker.] ]

Then

June 1835 – Netty’s (20) son Cate (5) had a terrible fever and was not faring well in the harsh Louisiana afternoon sun. Netty went to her master, and St. Joseph plantation owner, a Mr. Marcel Scioneaux (32). She begs her master to allow her to care for her son by giving him some medicine. (Specifically Netty asks for calomel which is a type of chloride of mercury. Calomel was believed to relieve fever.) Master Scioneaux refuses her requests and asks that she instead return to the sugar plantation and continue working. When Netty breaks down in tears he throws her out of the plantation house.

That evening Cate’s condition was getting worse. Netty decides to take action. She breaks into the plantation house and raids the upstairs medicine chest. As she tries to sneak out of the house she was caught by the son of the plantation owner, Benoit (12). When the master hears about Netty’s disobedience from his son he grabs some men and goes out to find her.

Netty collects her son and tries to flee into the nearby swamp. By using dogs Master Scioneaux is able to easily track her down. He approaches Netty and Cate near a small copse of trees. He scolds Netty then moves in to whip Cate with a reed. In a rage Master Scioneaux kills Cate. Netty is dragged away from the scene and returned to the plantation.

Two weeks later from a shack on the St. Joseph estate Netty, who is a voodoo practitioner, casts a terrible curse on the Scioneaux family line. At the end of the ritual she sacrifices herself to the dark gods.

Now

Distant relatives of the Scioneaux family have decided to rebuild the St. Joseph plantation house. They have just broken ground on the restoration project. Unknown to the current plantation owners some local hunters have also stirred the bones of Netty and have awakened her ghost. Netty has in turn awakened her son. Each night the son, who is now a Slenderman, is extracting vengeance against the Scioneaux family line.

The current owner of the plantation house and grounds is Ernesto Lombardo. Ernesto is a local mobster and close friend of Winston’s. He has made the grounds available to relatives of the Scioneaux family who wish to restore the plantation. The relatives include the following people, their roles, and their relation to the family:

• David Young – Architect of the St. Joseph restoration project. Related to the Scioneaux clan through his mother.
• Sheryl Costa – Homemaker. David’s brother. Married to Kenneth Costa. Has daughter Cassidy (7). Maiden name is Young.
• Cassidy Costa – 2nd grade elementary student. Daughter to Sheryl.

-== What is it? ==-

The Daring Tales Of Adventure Compendiums (DTOA) are sets of four pulp adventures for Savage Worlds. They are published by Triple Aces Games as part of their Daring Tales series. Currently there are four volumes. A set of characters are provided for use with the scenarios.

These softcover books have color covers and entirely black and white interiors. The books are 6” x 9” and are roughly 112 pages in length. I am reviewing print copies of the Daring Tales Of Adventure Compendiums that I bought. I ran all of the adventures in the first three compendiums. I own and have read all four books.

-== What I Like ==-

My favorite thing about the DTOA adventures is how they capture all of the traditional iconic pulp elements. There are adventures with Nazis that have jetpacks, ancient Hollow Earth tribesman, strange Egyptian snake cults, mad scientists, zeppelins, etc. Each adventure also has several types of encounters. What pulp adventure is complete without a chase!?! Don’t forget a fist fight! Also the crazy locations are right out of the pulps. Ancient Templar tombs, exotic Turkish baths, etc.

The DTOA adventures can also chain off of each other. For example, a bad guy might escape at the end of one adventure to appear in a future story. This is a classic pulp staple.

The Savage Worlds stat blocks for the villains, monsters, and NPCs are for the most part complete and thought out. I did have to make some tweaks based on the changes in Savage Worlds Deluxe but overall the characters held up well.

Triple Aces added several setting rules for the DTOA line to better reflect the pulp genre. My group utilized all of these changes and they worked pretty well. Probably the largest and most important change is that bennies spent to soak are returned if all of the damage is reduced by the soak roll. This means the typical squared-jawed pulp PC can shrug off anything except the most deadly of blows. Also an additional bennie is granted at the start of each combat. That really makes a difference when there might be several combats in a single adventure.

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

The DTOA adventures are based on existing characters that are provided. Personally I think this was a bad choice for the line. In most cases I did not have trouble converting the scenarios so that they would work for the PC in my campaign but at times I could not easily do the conversion. For example, in a couple of the DTOA scenarios the action starts with a flashback where the PC were on some other adventure or story. This is not so easy if the PC did not have this in their backgrounds. If the DTOA products were geared for any group of pulp heroes then they could still have had their own provided PC as an option.

Almost every DTOA story has a scene that I thought did not advance the plot and could be removed. Often these scenes involved some fight with thugs when the PC are trying to gather some clue.

The adventures did not progressively scale in difficulty that well. For some reason my group of PC with less experience than the provided PC were MUCH more combat savvy. It was not a massive problem but it gave me more work than I would have liked.

Some of the DTOA adventures contained rules that were created directly for a particular scene. In a couple of these situations I had trouble as someone who is new to Savage Worlds converting it to Savage Worlds Deluxe.

Triple Aces enhanced the chase rules so that they introduce obstacles. These additional rules are really neat but they can be a bit tricky to convert to Savage Worlds Deluxe. Also chases had to be converted to round. I used the text in Savage Worlds Deluxe to help make the changes.

Artwork in the DTOA books was marginal and sparse. The covers are nice add evocative. The handouts are ok when provided. I would have liked to have the handouts available as PDF from site at a higher resolution so I could print them out easier.

The softcover binding is very tight. I had mine split and spiral bound to try and alleviate the issue. That helped but when spiral bound the text was very close to the binding and overwrote the text in several places.

-== Summary ==-

If you are looking for a set of pulp genre adventures with all the wonderful tropes then look no farther that DTOA. Be prepared for some alterations if you want to use your own PC and Savage Worlds Deluxe.

I give it 7 out of 10 paws.

You can get copies in PDF format at DriveThruRPG at this URL for $10 each. Amazon has the books for roughly $13. Here is a link to the third book. Noble Knight also has copies. Here is a link to the first one on their site.