Grey Ranks and Swords for the Boy King

Grey Ranks (9 am - 1 pm)

There's not much to write up about the Grey Ranks playtest. There was no gm per se. We all played Polish teenagers in WWII trying to succeed in mission goals against the Nazis and personal goals as the Russian army approached the city.

Spirit of the Century: Swords for the Boy King (2 pm - 6 pm)

This was light pulp fun. The players were heroes who served a young king. The king had impressive powers for things like healing and perhaps prophesying, but he was young enough and weak enough that he needed heroes to defend him from those who would take the throne from him and from some kind of evil cult.

John -- GM

Beth -- Merick the Shadow, master of stealth

Me -- Torin the Mighty, big and strong

Nathan -- Captain DuLane, dashing, with a schtick of having men at his command. Interestingly, the next in line for the throne after the king.

William -- Osin the Archer, master of archers

Evil cultists tried to kill the king. Torin picked one up and tossed him into some of the others.

GM: 20 more come bursting through the doors.

Torin: Okay, now there's food for everyone.

Our Heroes dealt with all of the attackers, as the king's bodyguards got him out of the room. Alas, a noblewoman with a wound in her shoulder staggered out to announce that the king had been taken. A delicate flower of a lady, beloved by DuLane, even the mere scratch she received had her half fainting. By now, I think all of us knew what was up, but in character, we trusted her completely.

Some of the PCs traced the kidnappers into the noble quarters, while others traced the escaping thugs to a house in a worse quarter of the city. Our Heroes regrouped and talked about how to find the king and how extensive the cult seemed.

Torin: We won't know until we kill them all.

Someone: So, after we kill all the nobles, then what's your plan?

Torin: No, I mean people trying to kill the king, not the nobles.

Someone: Oh, that makes more sense.

Someone: What's the difference?

Eventually, the heroes found out that the king would be sacrificed in a ritual which would transfer his power to someone. They disrupted the ritual, discovering that the cult leader was none other than the fainting noblewoman. Alas, though Torval broke the chains holding the king down and carried him out, ignoring various missiles stuck in him, he was knocked out by demons who took the king.

This had nothing to do with the cult. Instead, an undead wizard had stolen the king. Our Heroes made their way to his tower.

The wizard was annoyed and unimpressed, and he told the PCs that they could have the city. He just wanted the king. Our Heroes, likewise annoyed and unimpressed, attacked him. They were much tougher than the last group of heroes to do this, and DuLane and Torval each resisted the wizard's attempt to hypnotize them. Eventually, the group rescued the king and wore down the wizard.

Someone: Kill him. Oh, right, he's dead. Kill him some more!

The wizard was extremely dead when the heroes returned to the city with the rescued monarch.