Something is Not Right in the House of Mald (Part 2)

 

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This is the second half of an actual play write up of a Necro-Cavaliers of the Astral Galaxy game. The first half of the write up is here. Also, did you know that you can get the game on my itch.io page here?

Back to the adventure: Anomi used her necromantic magic to make the ward sealing the door to the basement disengage. Down in the basement, she discovered an alien creature that matched the drawings she had discovered on Micah's dataslate; the creature was being kept in a cage with laser-bars and it had some sort of wound in its side. Attempts to communicate with the creature yielded nothing. Deputy Durango was sent upstairs to make some tea while Anomi pondered her next move.

Unfortunately, when he returned he was vaporized by a laser rifle blast from Sperlington Mald at the top of the stairs. Anomi was able to talk Sperlington down and get a better picture of what was going on at the homestead. Sperlington said that the alien creatures had abducted Micah and Joela, and that he had captured the one currently in the cage in hopes of trading it back to the aliens for the return of his family. However, when Anomi questioned Sperlington about what was in the barn, his eyes glazed over and blood began to trickle from his nose; something was not letting him remember what was in there. 

Sperlington also informed Anomi that a trap by the back entrance of the house had claimed the life of a traveling Bible salesman. Thinking fast, Anomi convinced Sperlington to take the corpse of the Bible salesman to Captain Varrigan and pin the death of Deputy Durango on him. Sperlington loaded the corpse into his hauler and set off for the constabulary office. This gave Anomi time to investigate the barn on her own. Inside, she discovered crates of large, flat stones that were inscribed with the same symbols depicted in the woodcuts she had found while researching the strange alien creatures Micah had been drawing. There was also a laser etching machine in the barn presumably used to mark the stones.

As the storm intensified, lightning struck a spot out in the fields near the Mald homestead, leaving behind a humanoid figure. Anomi recognized the figure as Joela Mald. Anomi rushed out into the field to retrieve her; the woman had been left behind on a stone embedded in the field with the same markings as the ones she had found in the barn. Anomi got Joela inside and into a bath and began to question her. Joela didn't remember her time as an abductee, but she was sure that the creature claiming to be Sperlington was not, in fact, her husband. She noted his changed behavior, particularly his reluctance to have his son treated for whatever blood condition was afflicting him. As Joela dressed, she asked Anomi for a laser pistol; a confrontation with the creature calling itself Sperlington Mald was inevitable. 

As indeed it was. Sperlington arrived back at the homestead with Captain Varrigan in tow. As they exited the hauler, both armed themselves with laser rifles. Anomi asked Joela to stay hidden, and to come out firing should it prove necessary, while she got herself into position for an ambush. As Captain Varrigan came through the door of the house, Anomi leapt out and slapped necromantic handcuffs on him--effectively taking him out of the fight. Lightning flashed again outside; Anomi could see that another of the alien creatures had appeared atop the summoning stone out in the field and was now making its way to the house. A firefight broke out within the house between Joela and Anomi on one side and Sperlington on the other as the alien strode into the melee. After taking quite a few blows from the alien, which absolutely ruined her couture, Anomi buried her sword into it with ballet-like precision and managed to blast it into oblivion. 

Anomi and Joela dragged the body out to the summoning stone. Another stroke of lightning fell and Micah was exchanged for the alien. Anomi called for further aid and the farmstead was soon crawling with galactic agents. As the pieces fell into place, it was revealed that the Mald family (as well as others on Ogra V, such as Varrigan) had long been in league with the aliens--who were pursuing ways of hybridizing themselves with humankind to facilitate a hidden invasion of the Empire. Micah's blood disorder was evidence of their most successful hydridization to date; he was the template for the coming invasion--an invasion that had been disrupted by the actions of the sly and stylish Anomalisa Monalisa of House Satomi.

Director's Commentary

I stole the outline of this scenario from the movie Devil's Gate. Crap movie, but made for a fun session. 

Something is Not Right in the House of Mald (Part 1)

Photo by Tim Mossholder
 on unsplash.com

It's not often that I get a chance to play an rpg one-on-one, but the other day I had the chance to run Necro-Cavaliers of the Astral Galaxy (my science-fantasy hack of Lasers & Feelings) for Anne of DIY & Dragons. Anne's character was Anomi Anomalisa Monalisa, a noblewoman trained as a necromancer and cavalier of House Satomi, a family attached to the God Empress's court as historians and scholars. 

Anomi was called upon to visit Ogra V, a backwater agricultural planetoid. A woman named Joella Mald and her son Micah were expected for a visit with Joella's sister Selenia, but they never arrived at Selenia's home. Anomi's first task was to locate the homestead of Sperlington Mald, Joella's husband and Micah's father. Anomi's initial face-to-face with Captain Varrigan, the constabulary administrator of Ogra V, did not go particularly well; it was clear that Varrigan was trying to dissuade Anomi from investigating further. He posited that perhaps Joella or Micah had fallen ill and forgotten to notify Selenia.

Anomi returned to orbit to delve into the records on her data slate to get a little additional information. Her first suspicion was that Sperlington Mald had run afoul of some enemies and his family had been abducted, but she uncovered no obvious enmity. However, she did discover that Sperlington and Joella had been taking their son to a variety of blood specialists. Delving deeper into the medical records, she found out that Micah seemed to be suffering from an unknown blood ailment that had so far resisted all treatment. In fact, there was something in his blood that seemed...inhuman.

The time had come to investigate the Mald homestead directly. The homestead consisted of a two-story house and a large barn surrounded by soybean fields. Mald's hauler was docked at a nearby landing port. As Anomi made her way up to the porch of the house, she heard a beeping sound that became more and more rapid; she realized, too late, that she was about to fired upon by a laser beam trap! Fortunately, she was tackled out of the way just in the nick of time by a handsome, clean-cut man raised on Wonder Bread. After extricating themselves from each other, he introduced himself as Deputy Durango. Captain Varrigan had assigned him to watch the house for "intruders," but he had found someone by the back door who had similarly fallen prey to the house's traps.

Anomi and her new lackey Deputy Durango resumed exploring the house. The house was in good order, with nothing notable missing, save for the occupants of the house. However, Anomi did discover Micah's data slate, which he mostly used as drawing pad; the first few images were normal, but then it began to seem like Micah was obsessed with drawing a strange alien creature with elongated limbs, dead black eyes, and a mouth full of fangs. Anomi's attempts to search the databases of known alien beings turned up nothing, but she did find strikingly similar creatures depicted in the woodcuts of one culture's historical treatises on witchcraft--these creatures were regarded as "demons" in the historical record.

However, one item in the house caught Anomi's attention: the door to the basement was not just locked with a conventional keypad; it was also being held shut with a necromantic ward made of black magic and bits of ribcage. What secret was it hiding in the depths of the house of Mald? Tune in next time to find out.