Great game this week!  The Dude did not get “cast aside like the caterpillar’s cocoon” (Thank you, AutoDoc!), and all the Alien Scuttlers were defeated.  You all were able to convince the people of LARD that, although you did kill two of their kinfolk, those kinfolk would have died any ways.  Folks generally agreed there would have been more deaths if you had not bravely stood up to the attackers.

After the attack, Raaaa noticed Mayor Skaro having a heated argument with two people.  The Dude teleported over and heard one of them say, “… are my terms, so you can take them or leave them.”  The two people then spun around, weapons drawn when they realized someone has gotten this close to them!  A laser cannon popped out of the shoulder of the taller one, and took aim at The Dude.  “Who the fuck are you!?”

The Dude managed to calm the situation, but with a dismissive “Oh… you’re a Fluxer”, the two turned and walk away.  A quick conversation with Mayor Skaro revealed that the two were Magrak Irontusk and his assistant, HK-47.  They are slavers.  They were offering to defend the town, if the mayor would agree to give them a few citizens as slaves.

The party considered attacking Magrak Irontusk and HK-47, but decided instead to offer their services to resolve this reality instability issue.  The instability started to the north of town, but has been spreading.  Mayor Skaro agreed to come up with some kind of reward (including Omega Tech items), should they succeed (Quest!).  He directed them to Kirn, the Blue Tails Negotiator, who he believes may have some information as to the cause.  He also suggested they talk to Old Charlie out by the Sewer Drain, northeast of town.  Old Charlie has been to the MedCen a few times, but will only talk about it after drinking a lot of Carol’s Special.

Kirn remembered seeing a “strange bug” launch itself from the roof of a building in the MedCen about 8 days ago.  It crashed to the ground in a ball of fire a few minutes later, but it was shortly after that the troubles began!

From Kirn’s description, you were able to determine that the strange bug was a helicopter.

Asking around a bit more, the General Store owner, Boontah (no relation), remembered that a porker gang came through LARD around two weeks ago.  The leader was a mountain of a porker named Genghis Tangh.  He wanted to buy bacon, but there was none in stock at the time.  Word around LARD was that the porker gang had been run off from somewhere to the west by the Knights of Genetic Purity.  The gang headed north after a couple days in LARD.

After picking up some of supplies (4 carbines, 4 “units” of ammo, 4 radiation suits, two pounds of bacon, jug of Carol’s Special, etc), the party headed to talk to Old Charlie.  After drinking most of a jug of Carol’s Special, Charlie started rambling about clickies, blood birds, robot sentries and nice warm glowy places. (Charlie seems to have more than a few radiation burns on him)  Once he passed out, the party headed to the north once more, following the main road.

After four hours of travel, the party discovered a gas station.  It seems to have porkers inside, and a flock of blood birds on the roof.  The Dude teleported to the window, took a peek in and saw five porkers, just before one of them saw him.  He teleported back… and this is where we will pick up next time.

Also, I assume you left all your food and other trade goods with Boontah, but you took your horses, wagon and pickup truck with you.  Is this correct?

(Please feel free to add and/or correct any details you feel are important)

peace,
Andy

I had a GREAT time last night.  While it can be said that I am a cruel game master (I love hearing the screams of anguish from PCs infested with alien embryos, for example), I try to also be fair.

After reviewing the alien embryo rules, it appears the proto-alien scuttler only bursts from its host if that host dies from the acid and physical ongoing damage.  This is why the Alien Scuttlers stop attacking once the embryo has been implanted.  Therefore, when Motango laid down the burst of flesh-shredding radiation, he may not have hurt any of the Alien Scuttlers, but he did tear the flesh off the townie writhing in pain.

As the flesh shredded off the poor lad, everyone could see the alien creature which had almost completely taken on his form beneath his skin, before it too was ripped away into oblivion by the radioactive blast.

The Dude can now see the tendrils of the beast within him spreading through his body, as the skin beneath his arms and chest ripples with unnatural undulations.  How much longer before his body is cast aside like the caterpillar’s cocoon, so an alien bent on destruction can emerge from his lifeless husk?  Would it not be better for his companions to kill him now, before he suffers that ignoble fate?!  Food for thought.

As for game mechanics, we are starting Round 3 of this fight.  I believe the Tokeless is currently neither stunned nor gestating.  The Dude is no longer stunned, but is still infested.  He will take 15 acid and physical damage at the start of his turn.  One of the Aliens has been destroyed, another is bloodied and the last two look completely unscathed.

Anything else we want to record?  I know we will not be playing again until January, so I wanted to get some notes down.

pieces of The Dude littered around the zocalo,
Andy

They negotiate for Dabbers return to the Blue Tails in exchange for four Omega Tech Items.

They return to the road, Dabbers in tow, to find their truck and wagon missing.  Find the truck a days journey down the road.  It is covered in blood, and wagon is missing.

Follow tracks back to Boontah’s lair (insane squeaker with eye stalks).  They meet Tokeless (Kitten Swarm Doppleganger).  They defeat Boontah and his gang, with the help of Sniper Kittens (Tokeless).  RMS takes Boontah’s eyestalks and gains a few new powers (cannot be flanked, eye rays recharge on 6), at the cost of 5 hit points (permanent loss).  They also find a stash of five Omega Tech items, and a note from “A” to Boontah.  See below.
******
Boontah,

I understand you are a professional.  I think we can see
“eye to eye” on a few issues.  If you are interested in
harvesting enough eyes to bury you forever, then send a
representative to The Apothecary in Ion City.

Ask for a Detroit Hammer.

A
******

Head back to Road, and go into town of LARD with Dabbers.  Find burned farm house on the way into town.  Blackavar mentions that the stable reality bubble around LARD has become less stable in recently.  No one is sure why.  Things keep popping in from other demensions, then disappearing.  Polar bear in town square, for example.

Return Dabbers to Kirn, old Dabber Merc contact (white hair, drinks strong coffee).  From Kirn, they learn more about the troubles in LARD (reality unstable) and about the famine in Ion City.  Great mountain of metal fell from the sky 10 months ago.  The PCs remember that night.  The “Falling Star/Mountain” passed over Ahwahnee, and woke everyone from their sleep.  It shook the entire village in its passing.

They also turn in bounty on Boontah’s head and squeaker tails (one omega, vibro knife, and five tokens for goods in town) to LARD’s Mayor, Skaro (sounds and looks like a Dalek).

Players resolve “assumption difference” with GM.  The Pickup Truck is a Pickup Truck, no problem there.  However, GM saw the wagon as a covered wagon, while players thought it was the size of a table with two wheels.  Pick up truck can hold 20 units of cargo.  Wagon can hold 40 units of cargo, but then no one can ride inside.

Buy a number of cargo units of food from the Supplies Trader, Boontah (no relation, porker female, sounds like Paula Deen).  RMS makes ice, and they get more food.  Consider going back to Mayor to tell him about dead found at Boontah’s lair and at burned farm outside town, but are attacked by Alien Scuttlers!

Also, they want to talk to Greedo, the Arms and Armor merchant (looks like Greedo).

Arms and Armor VENDOR
Greedo (lizard mutant)

FOOD and SUPPLIES VENDOR
Boontah “no relation” (porker mutant)

MAYOR
Skaro (wheeled cyborg, Dalek)

BLUE TAILS Negotiator
Kirn (Dabber)

After a quick search of the Horl Choo’s lair, the group found the following among the bones: a Smith & Wesson Model 29 (the most powerful handgun in the world… circa 1971), ammunition, an ashtray (Lucky’s Bar and Grill), a board-game, a laptop computer and a cell-phone earpiece.

Inside the car, they found a skeleton in rotting clothing with a metal briefcase chained to its wrist. An examination of the skeleton (and a good Nature check) determined that the bones are at least 100 years old. The Supremacy Arms ID badge around its neck identified him as Dr. Cole M. Lykins, Vice President, Northwest Division (Factory #21).

Raaa puzzled over the seven digit code lock on the briefcase, and after after a few minutes determined that the code is a subset of Dr. Lykins ID number. Inside, the group found a mint condition MK1 Laser Pistol!

The party continued forward, and can’t shake the feeling they are being watched. They found signs of someone or something stalking them, but they never catch sight of it. They scanned the treetops and strain their ears, but only the sounds of the swamp greet them. After another 30 minutes of slogging though knee deep swamp, they came to a clearing.

Sitting in the middle of the clearing was Supremacy Arms Factory #21. The rear of the building had sunk into the swamp, while the front entrance tilted up out of the swamp about 10 feet above the water. After a little preliminary reconnaissance, the party entered Factory #21. The lobby was tilted at a crazy angle, but the Factory’s internal gravity generator allowed everyone to walk as if the floor was level. (Although, it did look a lot like those old villain lairs on the Adam West Batman show.)

In the lobby, the party ambushed a group of four Kai Lins (Lizard Vines) who were feasting on a dead Orlen. Using surprise (and a fusion cannon), the group destroyed the four Kai Lins in the first round. However, there were two more who attacked from the rear… only to be smeared into paste by the group. The party worked together to repair a damaged ShieldBot. Eddie created Visitor Badges for everyone in the group, and they pressed on into the Factory.

After passing through the cafeteria (I can’t believe they did not try any of the yellow sponge cakes in the vending machines) and the kitchen, The Dude opened the door to the Factory Floor, where a Dabber “Blue Tail” Mercenary spotted The Dude and shouted, “Take cover and engage! 12 O’Clock!” TedBob, the Orlen, waded into combat smashing foes with his four fists, one of which was swinging Eddie’s arm as a club. A running battle ensued. Poor ShieldBot was destroyed in the first round.

Yrtti created a rain storm, granting the party cover. Dabber snipers took shots at exposed heroes. Two Dabbers jumped into fork lifts and drove them over our heroes, only to be killed shortly thereafter. The Dude managed to teleport TebBob onto the conveyor belt a few times, causing TedBob to be processed by the Heat Sealing machine once. (ouch!) Matango smacked TedBob with many a projectile, but TedBob seemed almost unstoppable. TebBob knocked out The Dude, twice! But the combined mental attacks of The Dude and Raaaaa proved to be too much for him in the end. TedBob was reeling from mental attacks when Matango’s sling staff finally brought TedBob down! The Dude was knocked out, but stablized. Raaaa moved into position to attack the snipers, but return fire laid her low, and she is currently bleeding out. It is up to Matango and Yrtti to deal with the remaining mercenaries before Raaaaa bleeds to death!

Oh, did I mention that Eddie lost his other arm to TedBob while healing The Dude?! He is currently cowering in the kitchen, armless.

Both of the Mind-Breakers are unconscious, so the remaining party members will have to … gasp… Speak Out Loud! How will this change party dynamics? Tune in next time to find out! Same Bat Time, but Different Bat Channel. See you in Oakland?

As always, please add any details (or your character’s personal heroics) that you feel I left out.

After leaving the Gren community, on the road to Ion City, the PCs encountered a factory supervisory robot, designation EDE3. His human superiors called him “Eddie, for some reason.” He was heavily damaged, missing his left arm and looking for “the local enforcer headquarters”. The Dude and RMS managed to convince EDE3 that they are indeed local enforcers, and asked if they can assist him. Eddie only addresses The Dude and RMS, referring to the other PCs as a trained monkey and minions. The Dude and Matango manage to convince Raaaaa NOT to smash Eddie further.

“Two large men and their trained animals, six of them at least” intruded into the Supremacy Arms Factory #21, defeated the security drones and began to attack Eddie. One of the large men tore Eddie’s arm off and beat him about the head and shoulders with it. Although it is against company policy, Eddie left the factory to locate the local enforcers headquarters.

He had signaled for the enforcers, but they had not responded. In fact, they have not responded to any of his requests for assistance for 148 years, 31 days, 13 hours and 21 minutes.

They attack began 71 minutes ago. The PCs agreed to assist Eddie. After some quick repairs by Matango and Yrtti, Eddie stopped sparking and smoking. He lead the party deep into the forest which quickly turned into swamplands. As they approached the site of an ancient car accident, they were attacked by three Soul Beshes, which awoke a sleeping Horl Choo. Although Matango was seriously injured, the group managed to defeat all foes.

Now, what is that shiny stuff over by the cars?

The PreCogs have alerted us to an upcoming Temporal Event of Substantial Trauma (TEST). The TEST site is ID-10T-L33T, commonly known as Gamma Terra. The Alpha Event, known locally as The Big Mistake, occurred only 150 subjective years ago in the local time line. Most inhabitants are still reeling from the fallout of many possible universes condensing into a single reality. Local reality is highly unstable, and the ruins of multiple time lines are littered across the landscape. This may explain why the local inhabitants are extremely aggressive and often at war with one another.

We have located several Primary Contacts (PCs) who can act as hosts. These PCs are preparing for a journey back to their home of Ion City from a location called Ahwahnee. They have spent the last year in Ahwahnee, as part of a mutually beneficial exchange of citizens between the two population centers.

Ahwahnee has a purposefully low tech culture. Ahwahnee’s inhabitants are known as Gren, or Green Folk, a human-like race from a non-technological worldline. Grens hate advanced technology and are suspicious of those who use it. Initial scans indicate that Ion City is a much more diverse population, both in species and tech levels.

Be prepared to jump within 24 hours. We suspect this will be a long assignment (months, if not years), so prepare yourself for total cultural immersion. As usual, if your PC is killed, we will scrape up what is left of your consciousness and find you a replacement PC.

Finally, the PreCogs have been repeating the following words and phrases. They may provide you clues with what the TEST will be.

———-
Gold

High diddle diddle

The Pig stole the Fiddle

The Chicken ran away with the Spoon

The little fish cried to see such a Craft

And The Emperor took over the Moon

Legion
———-

Good fate to you all.
GM Ped Zhing

You know what they say about Tuesday the 13th, right? Be Prepared!

Again, thanks to our lovely host for the amazing meal last night. Oh, and thanks to our outstanding DM for such a great adventure so far!

Hope to see you all for some Castle Ravenloft or Wrath of Ashardalon before September!

Nearly finished with the first level of the Keep. Wiped out a nasty nest of kruthiks today. Then found ourselves a murder of undead. The Lightning Sphere device did not work as planned. Pity. Too much zinc? Too little mithril?

Little matter it turned out to be. Zog and Cousin Tombor (Jr.) made short work of them. Eladrin wizard Anastrianna’s destructive wizardry was most impressive. Will need to ask her about her Lightning’s Embrace; could be useful for resolving Lightning Sphere issues. Sheehan continues to improve. Over 24 hours without a small mammal’s death.

Cousin tripped over alarm trap. I had to rush to ensure our flank was not exposed, at great personal risk, I would add. Pulled a hamstring. Returned from rear-guard in time to see Cousin splatter three zombies. I am going to have to clean his armor… again. Boy still needs to learn how to clean the splatter out of his creases. That’s how you get ants.

Followed goblin blood. Believe we have found stairway to lower levels. Did we ever find the end of the goblin blood trail? Must remember to go back and check for secret doors. Keep is well built.

Will finish off this level of the Keep once we finish exploring what appear to be crypts with draconic scripts.

Sun Rods
Burglar’s Gloves
Ritual (two?) from Valthrun
Tea
Zombie Out! Armor Polish (Leather formula)