Missile Silo of the Maggot Men

Last night was yet another Vaults of Ur game.  Justin wanted to get it in quick because next week he'll be busy.  In the last session, we were wandering around the harpies' thorn maze and getting beaten upon by Dire Cocks.  At the end of the session, we found refuge in a tower.  That's where we started this session.

Players were Dean as Very Elder Karl, Jeremy as Ripper, Ted as Digger, and me as Thidrek.  If you haven't been keeping score on who's who, try some of my older posts on the subject (Constant Con tag).

We rested for the night after making sure that the tower was relatively secure.  The barbed-wire vines that made up the maze were also growing inside the tower.  Ripper and Karl thought they could maybe use some to fashion new shields, but it was no good.  At the top of the tower were red glass windows (unfortunately not ruby or anything worth cash).  Below, we found a large mound that lots of the vines were growing out of, and an airlock or submarine type hatch (similar to the entrance to the tower).  Thidrek, thinking the vines might be sentient and that we could reason with it, tried talking to the vines.  They began moving, the mound quivering (more immature jokes followed), and as he asked, "Tell me, what is it you want?" the vines attacked.  Apparently they want to eat us.

We escaped through the hatch and found ourselves in some very well preserved tunnels, lit by strange green lighting set in the walls.  Thidrek's ability to read Ancient Ur script finally came in handy, as things were labeled "Breeding Vats" and "Living Quarters" and "Experiments" and such.  Yes, this session played much more like a Gamma World game than normal D&D.  I kept hoping for a chance to roll on the GW mutations tables, but no luck (yet - come on, Justin, a Sleestak with radiation eyes or two heads would be awesome, would it not?).

Exploring the bunker, we managed to create some makeshift shields, and then the Maggot Men attacked.  They were basically masses of grubs and worms in a humanoid shape.  Very gross, yet cool.  They attacked with arms and a sort of chest-burster worm from their chest, and latched on.  We managed to put them down without too much damage. 

After a bit more exploration, we found stairs leading up.  Ripper began hacking the door down as a few more maggot men attacked.  When we had the door mostly open and the maggot men were down, we could smell oil beyond the door.  Our kind of trap.  Calling up the stairs, voices answered.  They weren't vulture men, but didn't want to say who they were.  They didn't seem too friendly, but not immediately hostile, either.  We torched their oil (with screams to freak them out, then charged up the stairs.

We were met by six crossbow-armed Beastmen using tables for cover.  They didn't fire immediately, thankfully.  Also, a group of eight Ur Ghouls (mutant nasties) were charging up the stairs behind us.  Together with the Beastmen we fought off the ghouls, with Karl getting paralyzed and almost drug off down the stairs.  The Beastmen took us prisoner, and took us to a large chamber full of their fellows, where we met up with Caradoc (they'd "rescued" him after his battle with the harpies).  They were very interested in Digger's magic armor, Karl's magic stone fist, and Ripper's magic two-handed sword [Ripper and Digger's items coming from the Chicken-man Boss].

So we escaped from the harpies and vulture men, and are with a neutral force.  They don't want us to kill the Carnivorous Apes, so it looks like next session we'll be going back to Fort Low to negotiate with the Priests of the Great Bear.