GURPS -- Spellgate Campaign


Session Logs


What Has Gone Before

Session #1: Mark, Devon, and Jordan investigate a series of brutal attacks upon students of the local university. Their investigation leads them to an abandoned and long-forgotten private campus several miles from town, and into conflict with the now-elderly but still powerful Ahnenerbe sorcerer who lived there.

Session #2: Devon and Jordan take a vacation to Walt Disney World and, upon checking into their hotel, discover that a strange emerald-and-opal necklace has found its way into Devon's suitcase. The girls get caught up in a madcap game of "Necklace, necklace...who's got the necklace" as three different factions attempt to recover it.

Session #3: Mark, Devon, and Jordan are inadvertantly kidnapped by a time-travelling art thief who dumps them in the year 1899 not far from Vienna. Shortly after they arrive, they find themselves siding with a lone Englishman against a group of gunmen. The Englishman turns out to be Dr. John Watson, who was in Vienna visiting Sherlock Holmes (currently being treated by Sigmund Freud for cocaine addiction). The gunmen are members of the Bavarian Illuminati, although they are using extremely anachronistic equipment. Further investigation leads the PCs to a time-traveling cyborg...and a squad of soldiers from the future (including Geoff) that are hunting him. When the PCs and the soldiers assault the cyborg's stronghold, they are joined by a vampire gunfighter from the American Civil War.

Session #4: After returning to their hometown, the PCs are joined by Kylie, a mischief-prone pre-teen who serves as a sort of mascot for the group. When a group of skinhead punks seize her school and demand a ransom, Kylie manages to slip away and begins to fight a one-girl guerilla war against them until the other PCs can find a way into the building in order to help.

Session #5: The PCs head to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and so that Devon can attend the opening of an art gallery that is featuring her work. One of the individuals attending the opening is Robert "Big Bob" Hermann (a new PC). The affair is crashed by masked figures intent upon destroying as many of Devon's paintings as they can, but they are beaten off by the PCs.

After the gallery opening, the adults head to Bourbon Street to enjoy the festivities. While they are gone, however, Kylie is kidnapped by a small army of skinheads supported by zombies. Mark, Devon, Jordan, and Big Bob trace the skinheads to a warehouse and manage to rescue Kylie. They also learn that the skinheads were in the pay of a cabal of Ahnenerbe sorcerers who have a magical gate to a secret base elsewhere.

26 FEB 05

After more than a year-long hiatus, the Spellgate campaign finally restarted. The PCs involved with the current adventure are: The PCs were traveling by plane from Milwaukee to a science fiction convention in Atlanta. Shortly after takeoff, a steward attempted to stab Big Bob with a switchblade knife. The would-be assassin committed suicide when captured; a quick examination of the body by Jordan revealed a skull-and-crossbones tattoo -- the sign of the Knights of the Skull (Big Bob's Enemy).

About an hour into the flight, the plane encountered unexpected turbulance. A visible wave of blue light swept through the plane, knocking the PCs unconscious. When they regained consciousness, only they and a couple of other passengers (NPCs named Bruce and Jack, played by a pair of drop-in players) were still aboard the plane; all that remained of the rest of the passengers and crew were clothing.

Although it had been a daytime flight, looking out the windows revealed it to now be nighttime and the plane was over a city that appeared to be in the eye of some sort of violent storm. The only PC with any pilot experiance was Jordan, who had recently learned to fly a small single-engine plane; she called for help on the radio and managed to raise a voice that claimed to be Air Traffic Control for an airport in Austin, Texas -- a city that had been nowhere near the plane's flight path. The voice gave Jordan directions for a runway upon which to land; Jordan then lost contact with the voice, but after several flybys succeeded in landing the plane.

Upon landing the plane, the survivors decided to head for the nearby terminal. The air outside of the plane had a rank, fishy smell completely unlike what would be expected for Texas. There were also several large birds circling the plane. As the PCs gathered at the foot of the emergency slide, one of the "birds" swooped down and attacked Bruce. It was not a bird, but some sort of flying creature that resembled a leathery black flying wing with a long narrow neck equipped with a stinger. The creature began sucking Bruce's blood before it was detatched and killed by the PCs.

The party then sought shelter in the airport, with Big Bob ripping an access door off of its hinges. They found themselves in a small maintenace lobby; Big Bob fashoned light clubs from the handles of several mops, brooms, and shovels located in a nearby alcove. Several of the group then made a mad dash to one of the cargo buggies in order to access the plane's cargo compartment and recover the group's baggage. They fought off several more attacks by the strange "birds", one of which left Mark with a serious head wound, before the party was able to return to the relative safety of the maintance lobby. When one of the "birds" landed and transformed into a strange toad-like creature with razor fangs, they realized that they would need better shelter. Even more distressing was Mark's discovery that his limited magical healing abilities didn't currently function; the PCs had apparently found themselves in a no-mana region.

Armed and equipped with their checked baggage (which included several firearms -- but no ammunition!), they went into the terminal itself. A search of a nearby gift shop provided the group with several knapsacks, disposable lighters, and other sundries...as well as unearthing a human head that appeared to have been bitten off of its body -- by human teeth.

As the party headed towards the main terminal, they reached a security checkpoint and found the headless body stuffed into the x-ray machine. It proved to be the body of a security guard, but it was missing its gun and ammunition. Further along, the party investigated a couple of rooms. One was an employee lounge in which was hiding a very scared junior stewardess; the other was a security office from which all the guns and ammunition had been taken. Jordan tried to call out on the telephone, but kept receiving a message that all circuits were busy; the voice was the same as that from the air traffic control tower.

As the party approached the baggage claim area, they noticed a couple of young children playing among the suitcases. Mauna Loa approached them, and was attacked by the blood-spattered creatures. The rest of the group rushed to assist, but the pair proved extremely difficult to kill. By the time the battle ended, Mauna Loa was critically injured with several deep bites and a broken foot.

It was then that the PCs noticed that Bruce and Jack had vanished, along with the young stewardess. They also realized that there was a taxi cab idling outside the terminal. Although the taxi had a driver, the PCs decided to give it a wide berth and instead saw a Texas Department of Corrections bus not far away. Inside the bus were the torn-apart remains of several men in both police and prisoner uniforms, but with the doors closed the bus proved to be able to provide adequate transportation for the entire party.

(End of session)


30 APR 05

Note: The only players available for this session were Julie (Jordan), Danielle (Devon), Chelsea (Kylie), and Ted (Geoff).

With two members of their group (Bruce and Jack) missing and two more (Mark and Mauna Loa) critically injured, the PCs have sought refuge in a Texas Department of Corrections prison bus that appears to have been the sight of some sort of horrific carnage. A quick cleaning (which primarily involves removing the various body parts) and rapid conversion (accomplished by the simple expedient of Big Bob ripping out several of the seats) made the vehicle reasonably secure against the "toad-hounds" and "leatherwings" proawling around the airport.

Meanwhile, the flight to Atlanta has landed and the passengers disembarked. Only Kylie and Blackcat seem to recall that the others were on the flight; even Dalton, who has met them at the airport, momentarily believes that only the two of them were supposed to be coming to Atlanta. Questioning the airline staff and looking over the passenger manifest "proves" that their friends were not on the plane; their seats are listed as being vacant, and nobody remembers the attack upon Big Bob, either. A check of the electronic booking shows that the missing PCs never reserved the seats.

Dalton casts a Pendulum spell in order to attempt to locate the missing PCs and appears distressed over what he learns. He says that he can send either Kylie or Blackcat to join them, but not both at once; the impulsive Kylie insists on going first. She loads up her ever-present knapsack and skateboards through the magical gate that Dalton opens for her...

As the PCs are getting ready to drive off, they see a vertical silver disk appear next to the bus. Through the disk appears Kylie, who is quickly hustled into the bus before the monsters can get to her. The disk then vanishes like a soap bubble. Kylie explains what appears to have happened, and the PCs head into the city in search of some guns and ammunition.

The first stop is the college stadium, where the annual game between the Aggies and the Longhorns has taken a bloodthirsty turn. When the gigantic Big Bob declines to take the field for the Aggies, the PCs are attacked by several rabid fans and barely escape. During the struggle, Dalton apparently manages to open another small gate and send through a crystal flask containing a mysterious black fluid -- an elixir of some sort that is obviously meant for use by Mark. Exactly what the fluid is remains a mystery, however, as Mark keeps slipping in and out of consciousness. Equally disturbing is the fact that the PCs learn that the city has been like this for at least 12 hours.

The next destination is a pair of searchlights that have been waving back and forth across the sky. En route to the mysterious lights, however, there are a series of thumps on the roof of the bus. Within minutes three holes have been dissolved through the roof and large worm-like creatures fall through. Geoff and Devon are the only PCs in position to attack them, and manage to dispatch the beasties before they can do more than inflict some acid damage to Geoff's hand.

The searchlights turn out to be from a movie theater that is showing "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". There are people inside the theater, but of more immediate interest is a small shopping center nearby. They raid the mall in hopes of acquiring some ammunition, but only manage to acquire basic sporting goods, some butane lighters, and an assortment of knives.

The next stop was a strangely vacant Walmart; the parking lot was nearly empty, the lights were off, and the doors were closed but not locked. After having him pry a pair of doors open, the PCs left Big Bob to guard the injured while they went in to explore. They made a bee-line for the sporting goods section where they finally managed to load up on weapons and ammunition for all of their weapons and even managed to acquire some rifles. They also gathered together an assortment of camping supplies.

Kylie wandered off to the toy section and encountered another kid who asked if she wanted to play soccer. Before she could answer, however, the "kid" attacked her. Kylie's screams brought the rest of the group, who shot the monster.

While Kylie was recovering from her fright under the watchful eye of Geoff, Jordan and Devon headed to the pharmacy to stock up on medical supplies. Jordan was a bit surprised that there was no Aleve to be found; not even any spaces for it on the shelves. Then Kylie started to wonder how come she couldn't find any games for her Gameboy. A quick check of the electronics section revealed no digital cameras, no cell phones, no computers...

The PCs suspicions were verified when they checked a nearby rack of calenders. All of them were for the year 1984...

(End of session)