Geordi Hawking - Callous Rifleman
Kaktis - Super-Strong Cactus Mutant
Having heard of the Safe Zone on the east coast, the party decided to leave the small village of Rona, on the outskirts of the ruins of LA. They scavenged a car from the ruins, repaired it, and headed northeast...
Scavenging
During their first couple days on the road, Benedict and Geordi repaired their car as best they could. In an abandoned survivalist shelter, Geordi found a large ammo cache, and an electronically locked vault that probably contained riot armour, but couldn't open it. Kaktis found a single frag grenade, and Benedict grabbed a syringe of Nano-Boost, a type of healing nanobot.
The party drove down a raised highway until they discovered that part of it had collapsed, so they retreated and found another way to the south of a city, driving slowly around the rusted hulls of abandoned cars. Geordi heard what sounded like welding, and warned the others just as a pair of primitive robots emerged from the wreckage.
They were made of a single trunk mounted on treads, with two welding arms hanging off the side. There were sensors on the trunk, a large antenna on top, and many loose hydraulic lines running down the arms. Ben tried to evade them as best he could, but in the close confines of the scrapped cars, the slow robots kept pace, and started welding their car apart, while Geordi and Kaktis unsuccessfully shot and punched them.
Ben came to a stop to fire a shot with his rifle, which disabled a welding arm, and Kaktis used his claws to rend a small hole in the other, before accelerating again, this time managing to outrun the welding bots in a cleared section of road. In the distance, the party saw a scrap metal wall, and a man in a tower waving them in. Ben drove in as a drawbridge lowered, and pulled into the trading town of Junction as the robots retreated under fire from the man in the tower.
Several townies came over, led by a fat, balding, red-faced farmer who accused the party of causing "the robot problem". Ben insulted the fat man, and another townie had to restrain him from attacking them. They exchanged insults for a while, until a tiny blimp floated down, waving a white flag, and a man began to speak through a speaker. The man explained that he and his entourage had tried to shut down the robot factory, but had made a mistake which sent it into maximum overdrive.
He had been chased into a building at 3510 Smith St by the newly-enraged robots, and needed help to shut the robot factory down, once and for all. It was then interrupted by a townie who shot it down, and the fat man apologized to the party for slandering them, as clearly this other outsider was responsible for the robot problem, and that they should be left to their fate. Kaktis volunteered to help shut down the robot factory, and the man from the tower offered to guide them through the town.
Benedict argued against helping until he was interrupted by an explosion to the east. A group of villagers came over to say that a group of robots with rocket launchers had blown up Old Man Jenkins' tractor. With the ways out blocked, Ben reluctantly agreed to help, in exchange for the robots' weapons. They decided not to take the car, because it would be far more likely to be spotted.
The Ruins
The man from the tower turned out to be called Joe, and he informed the party that there were two types of robots to watch out for: the welding robots they'd seen earlier, and fragile but more dangerous discbots, which were 1' wide but only 1" tall, but sported fully-automatic rifles mounted on top. After sneaking past a pair of robots, the party came across a larger patrol of ten discs, which was moving towards a camp of mutants.
Kaktis ran over and told the muties to run away from the incoming robots, and, trusting their fellow mutants, they abandoned their camp. The party arrived outside 3510 Smith St, and found it to be a battleground, with plenty scrap metal, weapons, and oil scattered over the area, though it had been partially cleaned up, as there were no visible weapons. Geordi noticed that some of the scrap parts seemed way more advanced (and shiny) than the other robots they'd seen, and took them for future use.
Through a truck-sized hole in the wall, they found a warehouse with most of the shelves empty, and nothing obviously valuable remaining. In the back was a freight elevator, with a dead man lying beside the controls, which had been destroyed. Geordi took a closer look and discovered that the dead "man" had a chrome skeleton underneath a thin cover of skin, while Benedict searched the area for other robots.
After a few minutes, Geordi had the freight elevator working again, and lowered it down, revealing a heavily-armoured semi-truck, where even the windows had been replaced with steel, making it impossible to see inside. The same voice they had heard from the blimp-bot thanked them and introduced itself as Lucifer, and, after dodging some questions about whether or not he was a robot, refused to exit the armoured truck.
The party still ultimately agreed to help, and rode on the back of the semi, where a crude truck bed was installed. Several times, for no obvious reason, Lucifer reversed and changed course, prompting hushed conversation about whether he was with the robots. After a short while, they came to a concealed alley behind the robot factory, which sported the word "ROOMBA" on the side in a bold, futuristic font. Beside the chain-link fence at the back of the shipping yard were a pair of robot turrets armed with miniguns.
The Factory
Lucifer explained that he and his entourage had disabled the turrets on their first visit, but that about 3/4 of the security cameras were still active. One of his group had been able to figure out where the blindspots had been, but he was dead and his equipment lost. Lucifer then explained that they could run a cable from his truck to the AI core inside the factory, so that he could hack it remotely. Nobody in the party was able to figure out where the blindspots were, but they managed to sneak across the shipping yard and up to a door.
Inside, past derelict machinery and stacks of "dead" robots, was a recently-converted automated assembly line, which was adding armour plates to a four-door car. Nothing inside the factory bothered or noticed them, and the party followed a conveniently-placed sign pointing towards the AI core, which was apparently behind a grid of crisscrossing security lasers.
Geordi used a computer terminal embedded into the wall, and, after a few minutes of typing, was able to shut down laser_wall.exe. At the end of the hall was an armoured steel door, which appeared to be accessed by a card reader with a blinking red light. Cracking the case revealed a port that matched the cable Lucifer had given them, so Geordi plugged him in.
The card reader's light flashed green, and they walked into the AI core: a small, chilly closet, crammed with rack upon rack of computers, and a central control console, which they plugged Lucifer into. After about 10 minutes, his voice crackled over the PA system, and told them that the factory was shut down.
On the way, however, they noticed that the armoured car assembly line hadn't stopped, and watched, guns ready. It continued for only another minute before it, too, shut down, and they took a closer look. The car had an antenna, and, much like Lucifer's truck, almost all of the windows had been replaced with heavy steel plates, with the exception of the front passenger side window. Kaktis smashed it and unlocked the door, then slide over to the driver's seat.
He looked around and noticed that the entire rear seat had been replaced with an elliptical, sealed, steel object. Suddenly, the car started on its own, and sped out of the factory, though it quickly had to slow down to make it through the ruined robots and cars in the city streets. Kaktis stuck his head out the window, and a robotic voice from the radio asked who was sticking their head out the window.
He said that he was Kaktis, to which the voice responded "Impossible, Cacti cannot speak", all while the car continued driving itself. Kaktis replied "No, with a K" while fiddling with all the buttons he could find, and the robot replied "Entry not found". The voice then explained that it was going to explore the world, and said that Kaktis with a K was welcome, but that it would be going nowhere in particular.
Kaktis declined, and asked to be dropped off, so the armoured car came to a stop, let him out, and the voice said "Good luck in your future ventures" before driving off into the sunset. Benedict found Kaktis after a couple minutes of jogging, and they both headed back to the factory, where Geordi was grabbing scrap parts under the watchful eye of Joe.
They went back to Lucifer, who left after saying "Good luck in your future ventures", and then grabbed as many of the rifles (AK-47s from a completely-looted gun store, apparently) from the discbots as they could carry. On the way out of the ruins, they passed the group of mutants that Kaktis had saved, who cautiously let the party by. They made it back to Junction without further event, but were welcomed somewhat coolly; apparently their earlier rudeness hadn't been entirely forgotten.
Geordi traded a bunch of ammo and some spare AKs for a tool kit for the car and more shotgun ammo, and then the party settled down for the night in their car, ready to loot the ruined factory the next morning.
Intermission
They drove back to the factory, and threw about a dozen AKs into the back of the car, along with all the magazines they could find. Geordi repaired the damage the welding bots had inflicted, and then scavenged spare robot parts, though he was annoyed by Kaktis' attempts to "help". Benedict spent a day and found some Patch-Up Punch, while Kaktis gathered up some cinder blocks to throw out the back of the car during chases.
On the road, scavenging proved much more lucrative; in an abandoned national guard outpost, Benedict found a large cache of ammo, and a safe that had the words "XV419-J Prototype" stencilled on. The safe had two locks, which would have to be activated simultaneously, but Geordi proved up to the task, and the door swung open to reveal a metallic "gun" with a strange barrel, incredibly advanced sights which picked up a heartbeat when pointed at Geordi, and a cylindrical "magazine", with the bottom coated in black material.
After some examination, Geordi proclaimed it to be a plasma rifle, though not in the best condition. Highly accurate and capable of piercing heavy armour, its battery could recharge fully in a day of bright sunlight. Benedict claimed it as his, and threw his old rifle on the pile of AKs.
Topeka
After several more days' travel, the party found themselves in the ruins of Topeka just after nightfall. The city had obviously been nuked, but far less radioactive than expected, and was inhabited by a majority mutant population. A bustling town had sprung up, and the party headed to the bottom floor of a collapsed apartment building which had been converted into a bar/hotel of sorts. Behind the bar was a sign, which read "10 bullets for a room; no questions".
Kaktis went up and slid the bullets across the counter for a room, and received a key and a recommendation to check out the Festival of the Fallen Star, which was due to start in a few hours, from the three-armed bartender, who then spat from another mouth not visible from the front. The party figured they may as well, and went to join in the festivities.
Outside the old city hall, tables had been set up with food and drink, and "music" was played by a band of mutants using miscellaneous garbage strapped together as somewhat-functional instruments. After an hour or so of festivities, a 15' tall mutant wearing a crown of hubcaps walked out of city hall, and proceeded to give a long speech about how the fallen star had given their people new life one hundred years ago, and had bestowed upon them and himself, the Grand Supreme High Mutant, its gifts.
As he continued to speak, people in the crowd murmured and pointed to the sky, where a shooting star caught fire, and then screamed overhead, before shooting off to the northeast behind the cover of buildings, and impacting with a huge explosion far in the distance. After a moment of silence, the Grand Supreme High Mutant declared that this was clearly a sign, and whosoever could recover the fallen star, would receive riches beyond their wildest dreams!
Large chunks of the crowd dropped what they were doing and ran towards their vehicles, and the party followed suit, heading out of the town and to the northeast. Groups of riders in vehicles opened fire on each other, but Benedict made sure to avoid the worst of the fighting and stuck to side-roads. As they got further from Topeka, and it became apparent that there was no obvious impact crater or similar, they decided to look for help, and stopped at a small village of wood cabins on the edge of a lake.
Gator Gulch
Benedict shouted out, asking if anybody had seen the falling star, and an old, two-headed man sitting in a rocking chair said that he had, and beckoned them over, alternately smoking a corncob pipe with each mouth. Kaktis gave the man two bullets, and they were informed that he would tell them where the star had fallen, but only if they helped him out first. An albino killigator that the locals called The Duke had moved into the area, and was eating the old man's crop of pigs. If they could bring back its head, he would tell them where the star had fallen.
Another group pulled into the village just as the party were heading into the swamp, received the same offer, and offered to kill the foul mutant, eyeing Kaktis on their way by. The party found parts of a pig-carcass near the man's "fields", and Benedict did his best to track The Duke, but only realized that they were being led in circles when the albino gator leapt at them from the reeds...
Notes:
This party is more combat-ready, but FAR less socially capable: Kaktis is the party face with a single point in Diplomacy, and the highest Reaction bonus at -2. The only reason they didn't get into a fight with the mutants when heading back to Junction is because they rolled a nat 17 Reaction roll. They would have attacked on anything under 12.
Was Lucifer a robot? Maybe. He asked the party what they thought of robots and Benedict said "Fuck 'em", and then refused to exit the semi-truck. He also said that his entourage was at least partially robots.
XP was 5, MVP was Geordi for basically solving the robot adventure on his own.
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