Axe - Mutant Hulk
Cap'n Chang - Lucky Nomad
"Lieutenant" Vaolt - Mutant Trooper
Player Absent:
Ai - Experienced Tech
Day 81:
The party waited four days while the Wizard constructed their gifts: anti-grav jump boots with a 50m range for Axe, hypervision goggles for Chang, and a backpack-mounted water cannon for Vaolt. He also gave them back the demoleculizer, though had apparently done something incomprehensible to the battery. After much conversation and long-winded explanations, the Wizard was convinced to transport them to Japan using a hovercraft, which he trained Chang to pilot.
Day 87:
Before going to Japan, the party headed back to their ship to grab Chung, who was still apparently fine thanks to Pandaborg putting him into a coma, their food, and the rest of their gear.
Day 95:
As they approached the Japanese coast, the party and the Wizard came up with a plan. Apparently, any land vehicles would be bombarded and destroyed the second they touched land, as many of Japan's pre-war automated defenses were still functioning, so they resolved to leave the hovercraft slightly off-shore and wade in the rest of the way. The Wizard was able to walk on the water thanks to hoverboots, and turned invisible once they were ashore.
The chosen landing was a long flat beach near the "Industrial District", which would probably have autonomous factories capable of producing another Takahashi Machine. "Near" was a relative term, however, and it would still take several days' travel (by the Wizard's estimation) to reach the district, and so the party continued on through forests and fields of tall grass. After only an hour or two, a metal eagle flew overhead and descended until it was close enough to tell that it was about 15' long, and had autocannons mounted on its wings.
It opened fire while still far above the ground, hitting Axe with a spray of bullets, which sent him into a berserk rage. Chang fired off two bursts from his shotgun, which managed to tear its head completely off, and Vaolt finished it off with a rifle bullet down the neck which ricocheted around inside until it was fully disabled. The Wizard stabbed Axe with some kind of needle to get him out of his rage and offered him pills to help... something, but Axe refused, bored by his long explanation.
The Wizard then stated that the eagle's death had sent out a radio signal listing their coordinates, and warned that the area was likely to come under mortar fire shortly, so the party sprinted away, barely making it out of range before they heard a series of whistles followed by huge explosions in the field behind them.
Several hours later, they came to a town of ruined buildings, the streets filled with more of the mindless "null" zombies they had seen in the Philippines. The party voted to go around, and had a run-in with a trio of steel jaguars instead. Axe jumped forward and cut one down, while Chang and Vaolt took out another at range, only for the dead jaguar's heads to separate from their ruined bodies on slim, spider-like legs, while the survivor shot a laser beam out of its mouth, badly burning Axe.
Axe took out one of the spiders, and caved in the surviving jaguar's skull, while Chang finished off the other spider, and the party continued on until they arrived at a ruined house. Chang took a look around and found a set of silver cutlery, some worn dress clothes (on a pair of skeletons), a one-person food chip (a much smaller Takahashi Machine), and a bolt-action rifle with a single bullet.
The party decided to take a brief rest, as Axe was still wounded from the metal eagle and Chang had a splitting headache, only to be interrupted by a group of six aggressive nulls. Though annoying, the nulls were dispatched without injury taken or ammo spent, and the party continued resting for a bit.
Later on, the party were in a wide forest path with impassable brush to either side, where they rounded a corner to find a 10' tall steel samurai robot resting against a tree in the middle of the path. The Wizard announced that this model was made to command others and was equipped with laser katanas and energy cannons, but if challenged to a duel, would honourably not use its ranged weapons. It would also be possible to distract it by duelling it, so that others could shoot it from behind.
Axe bellowed out a challenge, to which the robot responded in Japanese and drew two laser katanas, and the two began to circle. Axe managed to catch the samurai while it was off-balance, and crippled one of its arms, but it then destroyed his axe and cut him twice in an X on his torso, the blades all but ignoring the mutant's rocky hide, and sent him into a rage again.
Chang and Vaolt finished sneaking into position and took their shots. A pair of shotgun slugs from Chang slightly wounded it, while Vaolt's water cannon seemed to have no effect. The samurai, realizing its foes were not honourable, flew 10' in the air and its surviving arm changed into a beam cannon. It aimed at Axe, but Chang managed to disable the cannon before it could fire with a well-placed slug.
Vaolt knocked the samurai down with his water cannon, and Axe pounced on it, harmlessly beating it with his fists. Chang stole one of the (15lbs!) laser swords and stabbed it over and over, while Vaolt shocked it with his taser hands. The Wizard gave Axe another needle, and then announced that there was another bombardment coming, so they all started to sprint away. Axe passed out shortly after picking up his axe's ruined pieces, causing Vaolt to turn around and drag the heavy mutant behind the tree and into cover just in time.
The Wizard then told Chang that Axe would be slowing them down and should be put out of his misery, and, when asked if he could heal him at all, let slip that Axe now had some kind of berserker nanobots, and that the pills he had offered before, which would have stimulated his regeneration, would now only make him more uncontrollably angry.
The party decided to rest off the side of the path for the night, and Chang was able to Camouflage them well enough that no robots spotted them. Overnight, Ai was able to repair Axe's destroyed axe, much to his delight.
Notes:
We were all surprised that there is no example water cannon in either Basic Set or High-Tech. Its stats are based roughly off of the Water Jet spell, and missile spell ranges and accuracy.
The robot's sensors work better at night, so travelling during the day is better. This works out, as only Chang has Night Vision through his goggles, which seem to cause a severe headache.
Ai has the healing goo, and nobody's sure of what it does, so we're waiting for next session to heal Axe.
4XP, MVP was Axe for almost dying twice.
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