So the story begins with all the waking up in their barracks at the Department of Public Safety, where all the PCs have worked together since they began their career as mercenaries. The Department, or DPS as it is more popularly known, is an ad hoc police group set up by the PCs boss, the shadowy politician Saulus. They are summoned to Saulus office by their company sergeant Blizzo, a Goblin who the PCs affectionately refer to as Dickbreath. Blizzo is bossy, unpleasant, and an ass kisser, and I made sure the Players knew why their characters hated him.
So Radar, Hiro, Slippy, Ivan, and Otserif followed ol' Dickbreath to the office of Saulus. The office is overly opulent; the Elf inside has an equal pretense, only greeting the PCs when they are at attention before him. Saulus tells the PCs about suspicious activity in the DPS's sector of the sewers below Capitol City. They are told to scout out what has been reported as a Verm invasion force massing below. Saulus tells them to get a scope of the invasion force, but not to engage them and cause a premature invasion.
Okay, so let's back up here, and I will give a little primer on the criminal organization known as the Verm. The idea for the Verm started with my love of Skaven from Warhammer Fantasy Battle. For those poor souls who do not know what the Skaven are, sweet jeebus are you missing out. They are this race of insane rat-men, twisted by the dark powers of some evil-ass meteorite. They use crazy, self-destructive warmachines like the Ratling Gun, Warpfire Thrower, or the redonk Doomwheel. They have more destructive power than any of the other races, but half the time this power blows up in your face. Luckily, it is even more fun to destroy your own shit than it is to destroy your opponents. To be honest, I only play Fantasy Battle anymore to play with the Skaven, meaning if they were in any other game, I would play that.
And that is pretty much why I created the Verm for my novels / game - 'cuz fuck miniature games and their terrible prices! The Verm aren't really the same thing as the Skaven, as they are more a criminal organization like the Yakuza, or for those who don't know what that is, how about the fucking Foot Clan from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? The Verm are primarily made up of Chinese immigrants who were forced underground due to racist policies (Chinese are rat-men, so resemble the Skaven) but they also have many different races in their ranks, including other subterranean races like insect-men or bat-men.
The entrance to the sewer is near the DPS stronghold, so the PCs make there way there and descend into the stinky depths. The encounters I devised for the introductory excursion was fairly simple, partly because I was extremely rusty with the rules, and partly because I had no idea what the characters could handle. In the labyrinthine maze of the Capitol City sewers, they first encounter a group of three Verm laborers, lightly armed with the statistics of lowly goblins, which were easily and enthusiastically dispatched by the raging barbarian Ivan. I mean, he did some serious damage, easily four times that of anything else, even the twisted Rat abominations they were to face in just a bit.
Mysteriously, the ceiling had fallen in some places, so they were forced to take slim sewer pipes to progress. They encountered a few of the Verm in these tubes as well, but they were not much of a challenge either, even with the tight spaces of the stout tubules. As they ventured deeper into the sewer, they met large Rat Ogres, an abomination created through evil magic. Even though I came up with a good reason for these things to exist, they are a blatant rip-off of the Skaven Rat Ogre, and mostly I just wanted to use them 'cause I have some bad ass R'ogre conversions that I wanted to use in the game. I was hoping that these huge monsters would provide some challenge, but my rolls were abysmal, and Ivan just dealt way more damage than I thought was possible at fourth level.
Eventually, the PCs found a large cavern with thousands of Verm camped out, quite blatantly an invasion force of horrible magnitude. With the scouting completed, they made their way from the sewers, but found another of the small tubes, and decided to investigate. After fighting off a carrion crawler, they found a gaunt man fighting for his life against another of the worm-like crawlers. They killed this monster as well, rescuing the man, who introduces himself as Robert, a civil engineer who had been trapped since a cave-in left him stranded there four months ago. With that, the PCs left the sewer, completing their first quest.
Overall, I introduced a lot of the main plot lines that are still going in the campaign today, and I got to feel out the party without completely killing them off, which can be a real danger. WE called it a night, and I texxted them their experience points, enough to level up. I will freely admit that the CR and experience points have been my most problematic issue, and I know for a fact that I gave way to many XPs that day. No biggie, though, who doesn't like their characters to level?
Next week, the players re-enter the sewers, only this time, the Verm are ready for them. Thanks for reading!
