I’ve been a part of a few groups in my time as a gamer. but as I’m sure any DM who has started their own group can attest, there’s something special about forming your own group. This is something i learned about half a year ago when i formed my own group made up of a bunch of friends from other groups cherry picked to make my “dream team” so to speak. Although I wasn’t able to invite all the people I wanted to, this group has been one of my best and is home to some of the craziest game stories I’ve seen, and thus provides the subject of today’s tale.

this was during my time as a DM. I was running a system called Savage Worlds and a setting known as Rippers Resurrected. For those unaware Rippers Resurrected (lets just shorten it to Rippers shall we) is a victorian era monster hunting setting in which the titular Rippers Rip pieces out of the monsters and use them to upgrade themselves using ye old bioware called Rippertech. It features famous characters from victorian fiction and legend like Dracula, Frankenstein and his monster, Springheeled Jack (who is surprisingly a good guy.) and Jack the Ripper himself. Some of these famous people are part of the Rippers, but others are villains made mad by the corruption of the Rippertech. Its an amazing setting and I would highly recommend it for anyone looking for a victorian fix. Or any fan of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or the Brendan Fraser Mummy Trilogy as it has a similar tone and premise.

With that out of the way let me introduce “Fat Cat and His Amazing Friends.” First off we have Doctor Cain Lincoln, the long lost brother of President Abraham Lincoln. He was hidden in Germany after their parents died from a vampire attack. If that seems similar to the plot of Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter, that was the idea. He was the teams doctor and resident creator of Rippertech. Next was Wilhelm the blacksmith. He wielded a hammer larger than most peoples heads and crafted the weapons and armor for the group. He was responsible for saving the party many times with a well made boilerplate insert for an armored jacket. Next on the roster, Bradley Fuch, the former soldier in the German army. He was an expert in the art of fencing and still held on to his cavalry saber from his time in the military. He was stubborn as all hell, with a hatred for fairies. He had a tendency to guess what the culprit of any mission was, usually falsely. As of this session, he held a newfound power provided by god himself. Next was the professor, who none of us can quite remember the name of. He had a gadget for any problem and preferred non violent methods when it came to humans. Finally we have the man himself, Fat Cat. Fat cat was a masked crusader, a superhero. He was a short, overweight man in a cat suit who was surprisingly quick and agile. He was trained in the use of his bladed claw gauntlet. He never once took his suit off. He is the cat scratch. He is the growl in the dark. He is the Fat Cat. And since he was seen at the scene of every adventure, the papers of London associated all of the team with him.

This was their 5th mission if my memory serves me. The team was sent to investigate a village in Germany where travelers have gone missing while passing through. They arrive in the town and are immediately struck with how quiet it is. No one walks the streets, and the normal sounds of village life are silent. They enter the inn with the hope of learning more about the town. Their they are met with a strange sight. The bartender is sitting behind the counter wiping a mug repeatedly and endlessly with a blank look on his face. The party approach and ask him about the town. He continues to wipe the mug and never blinks as he says “Its a fine town, nice and quiet. We have church on Sunday, that’s tomorrow, you should come.” They continue to press and all he says is to come to church, and that they can stay at his inn. He continues to act strange, like a person who forgot how to be a person. They pay for the room and leave to look about the town. By now people in town have begun to move about. All the townsfolk act equally strange, pushing the group to attend service. They return to the inn and lock their doors as they begin to plan

The party knows the town is wrong and that it must stem from the church. They debate burning it down, but what if they are wrong. So they choose to attend the next day. As the church bells ring in the morning the party makes their way to the church, with everyone being eerily pleasant. They enter the church as the sermon begins. They are surprised to see an american preacher come up and begin service. It all seems normal at first until i ask the party to roll spirit. A couple fail and fall under the preachers sway. As his sermon turns to fire and brimstone he asks for “a child of god to approach to be baptized in ‘his’ name.” one of the party members accepts and approaches but is stopped by the rest of the party not under his power. The preacher grows angry at the “sinners” in his house. The illusion fades as the party sees a giant demonic mass that has invested the church like mold. As the preacher whips his congregation into a fervor the mass speaks, claiming itself to be a new god. A Black Mass ready for a sacrament of blood. So the fight begins as the doors are barred behind them.

The preacher starts throwing black hellfire at the party as the congregation turns into raving lunatics. The rippers fight their way through them, making some progress but missing most attacks. The fighting was hard as the lunatics shrugged off lesser blows. The soldier fought with holy might, smiting the evil that faced him. The mad scientist let loose beams of pure condensed light, frying those in his way but leaving them alive. Fat Cat struck out with his righteous cat claws. Finally they clear a path through them to the preacher. After cutting down a number they take down the preacher, running him through. But there are still many lunatics remaining and the black mass chooses one as its new champion, uplifting it to wildcard status. Essentially giving it a level up in the field. With a new champion facing them things looked dire. Even Fat Cat who was known for rarely taking a hit started to get a bad feeling.

Then the blacksmith had an idea, remembering the conversation of the night before. Fire! In his eyes, fire would cleanse evil. Although they where in a house of god, it was a sacred place no longer, a Black Mass was all that would be held there. He ran to a candle stick and knocked it to the ground. Immediately the fire spread. If you have ever played Far Cry 3 that’s how fast it spread. It consumed the church in seconds. and as the fire hit the Mass it screamed, stunning all the villagers in their place. But what the party forgot, the doors had been locked behind them. They just set the building on fire from within. As they began to suffer wounds and fatigue from the fire and smoke, they attempted to lift the bar. But they had been wounded in the fight and it wouldn’t budge, the wood having warped from the heat. In an act of desperation Fat Cat chose to try one last escape. He ran to the wall beneath the stained glass windows of the church, and clambered up. He failed once as his remaining friends looked on in horror before succeeding the second attempt. As he stood in the window, he saluted his friends as the last one fell before flipping out of the window. He watched from the distance as the building collapsed, and any chance of saving his amazing friends was lost. shaken from his ordeal he returned to base and reported the casualties. The handler for the team said to take some time off, and asked if he was still willing to serve. Fat Cats only response.

“I still have eight lives left.”

Thank you all for reading, i hope you enjoyed. And if you want to hear more then why not sign up for my mailing list. I will be sending an email out each time i post a new story or post. I want to thank my party for the fun they have provided me. I want to thank Fat Cat most of all, this was the closest I ever got to a TPK and I’m glad he survived, perhaps one day we will return to the adventures of Fat Cat. Now a little older, and maybe a little wiser.

Also if you enjoyed the art at the beginning of the post, that was provided by a good friend and player of Wilhelm the blacksmith. His name is Shannon Laukka. If you like his art you can find him on twitter at https://twitter.com/ShannonLaukka .