Geordi Hawking - Callous Rifleman
Kaktis - Super-Strong Cactus Mutant
The Duke
The giant albino killigator lunged out of the darkness at Kaktis' neck, and brought him down down under the knee-deep water where it started to deathroll him. Ben dropped his flashlight to ready his rifle and yelled at Geordi to get his light on the Duke, and fired off a quick burst once the beast was illuminated. Somehow, the gargantuan lizard dodged the gunfire, landing and spinning around to swipe at Geordi with its tail, but missing.
Kaktis held his breath and struggled, trying to punch the Duke, but to no avail, all while it continued to worry ferociously at his neck. Ben took another shot, this time hitting the beast square in the face, damaging its jaw, freeing Kaktis, and... knocking the killigator right out. They remarked on how lucky they were that it hadn't gone for Ben or Geordi, as either of them would likely have been killed.
After Geordi bandaged Kaktis up, the mutant extended his arm spines and sawed off the Duke's head. The party trudged back through the swamp to the old man, wary of ambush from the other group hunting the Duke, or possibly more killigators. They were uninterrupted, however, and the old man thanked them for saving his pigs and told them that the star had fallen across yonder lake, behind hangman's hill, down by the ol' nucular plant.
Hangman's Hill
They drove around the lake and over the hill to an irradiated wasteland, with sickly black trees and no grass. Geordi informed the others that this area was fairly radioactive, and that it would only get worse, so of course Kaktis drank a Patch-Up Punch to heal his wounds at the cost of more rads. Over a small hill, they found another car's headlights illuminating an argument between a short man with glasses, and four tough-looking, well-armed mercs standing over a dead man and mutant scorpion on the ground.
The party drove up, and Kaktis was able to convince the mercs that the party meant no harm. It turned out that the mercs, led by a man called Jager, had been hired by the merchant, Johnny Four-Eyes, to protect him and help find the fallen star, but Johnny was now refusing to pay death benefits for Rico, the poor guy who had been killed by the scorpion's venom. Johnny argued that their contract specified that he was only to be protected from human threats, and so did not have to pay.
Both sides made an offer: Johnny would give the party "perfectly good, slightly used" environment suits, while Jager would let them take whatever of Johnny's crap they wanted except for the suits, which he wanted as payment. When it became clear that Jager was only going to knock Johnny out and take all of his stuff as repayment, the party was onboard, and let the merc punch him in the face, knocking him out. Jager then wished the party luck, hopped in Johnny's car, and drove off.
Geordi insisted they help Johnny, and woke him up. He complained that he had just lost a lot of money, but begrudgingly thanked the party for the ride. Ben drove into the radiation zone, but, as it was night time and the terrain was sparse, had a hard time locating signs of the star. After everyone had been thoroughly irradiated, they finally came across the impact trail, and followed it, only to find nothing but drag marks leading off to the east.
The Substation
They continued to follow the drag marks, noting to stay far away from the "nucular" plant in the distance, until they crested a hill and saw that the tracks led to a camp with a bonfire about 1km away. Geordi pulled out his binoculars and observed that the camp was in an old substation with about two dozen adults inside, maybe half armed with various pistols and rifles, two children, and several people in a cage, with one being interrogated.
While they were discussing what to do, something landed on their car's hood and said "Don't shoot! Don't shoot! I need help!", which was good, because Ben already had his gun readied. It turned out to be a winged mutant with glowing eyes, who told them that it was his friends in the cage in the raider camp. They had been taken prisoner when one of them, a hot-head named Jacked, had insulted the raiders, but the birdman, Hawk, had escaped thanks to his flight.
The party decided to send Geordi, Kaktis, and Johnny to do the talking, while Ben would provide cover from the darkness with his plasma rifle from the car, ready to swoop in for rescue if needed. Hawk decided to stay with Ben, because he figured that negotiations would fail if the raiders saw he was with the party. The diplomacy team arrived and startled the raiders, who were distracted by the interrogation of one mutant , which Geordi noted was not torture, but mostly threats and a light beating.
They then saw the fallen star, a person-sized cylinder of grey metal, with solar panels lining one side, and a large glass lens at the bottom, and Geordi recognized what it was: a hunter-killer satellite, designed to take down other satellites with a rapid-fire laser out of the lens. After explaining that they wanted the "star" because they collected antiquities, Johnny was able to negotiate a fairly good deal with the raider leader, Brad; the "fallen star", which was useless to the raiders, in exchange for 7 loaded AK-47s.
Kaktis walked back off into the darkness to get the car, left Ben and Hawk in the darkness "in case", and made the trade. While loading the satellite into the back seat, however, Kaktis accidentally smashed the laser lens on the cinder blocks already there. Discussion then turned to the five imprisoned mutants, and, for the rest of the party's AKs and 7.62mm ammo, they were able to purchase four, who were brought forth in chains. The last, Jacked, demanded a higher price, as he was incredibly strong, and the party could not afford it.
They set out into the darkness, where they freed the mutants and reunited with Ben and Hawk. The mutants were thankful, but now had basically no way to get Jacked back, especially now that the raiders had 13 new automatic rifles. Still, they thanked the party for their aid, and set out on foot back to Topeka. Kaktis considered sending Johnny with them, as the satellite was in his seat, but eventually just forced the merchant to sit on the cinderblocks all the way back, resulting in endless complaining.
Reward
As the sun dawned on their return journey, Geordi saw its reflection off another car behind them, which was closing in. It got fairly close, and then a voiced came forth from a megaphone demanding that they hand over the fallen star, or pay the price, as the filthy mutants could not be allowed to possess it. Benedict considered this, but then floored it instead.
Kaktis threw a cinder block out the window and put a big dent in the other car's hood, while Geordi took out a wheel with his shotgun. The other drive managed to regain control, but was slowed down, and that was all the opportunity Ben needed to leave them in the dust.
The rest of the trip back to Topeka was uneventful, and they drove into the town square, where people cheered their return, and they dropped off Johnny to make sure he didn't get any credit. The Grand Supreme High Mutant emerged from City Hall, and invited them within, to choose their reward from his collection. The "fallen star" was placed on a podium within, in front of a mural that was still being painted, and the GSHM gave the party their choices.
- A full set of pre-war combat armour, in perfect condition
- A pair of powered armour arms, which were broken and unpowered
- Two highly advanced looking rocket launchers, with two rockets apiece
- A friendly military-grade GUARDI-N robot named Corporal Punishment
- A mysterious arm-clamp with syringes, which was attached to a small reservoir of swirling grey goo
- The "Doom Buggy", an armoured and super-charged car with two mounted LMGs; one on a proper turret, and one fixed forward
After some deliberation, they settled on the Doom Buggy, and drove it out of City Hall to the cheers of the crowd, towing their old car, which they took to a merchant to sell. The first one they could find was Johnny Four-Eyes, who gave them a good deal on ammo, armour, flashlights, two grenades, and an old laser sight that totally worked.
Intermission
After puking up their guts from radiation sickness for several days, everybody felt a lot better.
The Dragon
After several more days travel, the party were driving down a dirt road through a lush, non-mutated, apparently perfectly safe forest, when Geordi saw a truck barrelling down a hill towards their car. He shouted out a warning, and Ben swerved just in time, as several people with guns emerged from the treeline and opened fire. Kaktis shook his head, as they were wasting perfectly good ammo.
Then, the party heard loud motorcycle engines from in front of them, and Kaktis jumped up into the turret, ready to return fire if necessary. The bandits behind them shouted out "NIGHTS", before scattering, and three heavily armoured motorcycles, featuring plate-armoured riders holding lances, came into sight. Their leader, who introduced himself in a thick French accent as Giles d'Orleans, asked the party if they had had any troubles with bandits, but decided not to chase them, as they would have already scattered away into the forest.
Giles offered to accompany them on the drive to the palace, to rest for the night, as it was only an hour's drive away, and the party graciously accepted. They emerged from the forest, and drove past proper farms, growing proper food, which prompted Geordi to think that they had found the safe zone. Giles explained that the area had been peaceful since the civil war 8 years ago, thanks to the young King George and his father, King Arthur, before him.
As they passed the countryside, and many farmers working their fields. Kaktis tried to spot mutants, but didn't see any obvious ones. The conversation continued, and they were informed that firearms were banned for non-nobility, though they made exception for foreigners, so long as they pay a tithe. The party asked about Giles' strange accent, and were informed that he came from far to the southeast, but that others here spoke normally, which the other two knights, silent until now, confirmed. Giles also mentioned that the area was indeed quite safe, though of course there were always bandits and that pesky dragon to watch out for.
The party puzzled at what a "dragon" was for a few moments, but quickly found out, as something huge flew overhead and covered them in shadow, let out a roar, and descended. The knights shouted "FOR THE KING", and then accelerated to charge the beast with their lances, while Kaktis decided to just shoot it with the LMG. Up close, the dragon was clearly some kind of mutant, and resembled a bus-sized rooster crossed with a lizard.
The dragon flew low and breathed a gout of fire at the knights, and while Giles and another managed to veer away, the third was burned to a crisp, and picked up by the beast's talons. Kaktis ran a burst across its torso, but only barely wounded it before it flew off, eating the dead knight on the way. Giles returned, and vowed revenge on the dragon for killing Sir Cletus. Kaktis offered to drive the deceased knight's motorcycle back, and Giles offered his thanks.
The Palace
As the sun set, the party arrived at the palace: an office building surrounded by a crenellated stone wall. They rode through the gate, and valets and squires ran out to park the vehicles and disarm the knights, revealing Giles to have a thick brown moustache. He led the party inside to a clinic, and told them to wait for the nurse, as he would have to attend a meeting to determine what to do about the dragon with the other knights.
The party realized that the tithe was clearly one of blood, and everyone decided to go along with it after only minimal assurances from the nurse that she wouldn't take too much. 30 minutes and a glass of mutated orange juice later, Giles returned excited, and explained that the party were to receive a great honour: a meeting with the king and his knights. They would be asked to help slay the dragon, and would receive a portion of its riches in return, to which the party agreed.
They were led to a boardroom and seated at a round office table, where the court wizard, Merle was giving a presentation using a projector in the ceiling. The assembled knights numbered only twenty, and the child king looked on, silent but obviously bored. The plan was for the knights, Merle, and the party, to go to bandit country, several kilometers from the base of the dragon's mountain lair.
Merle would set up his dragon slaying weapon while the knights and party protected their position from bandits. Once he was ready, three knights, under the command of Giles would drive off to make a racket and rile up the dragon. Once it was angered, they would lead it back to Merle, who would then fire the weapon and slay the dragon.
The party asked some questions, and got the following info:
- There were several hundred bandits living in bandit country, and many did not respect the ban on firearms.
- The bandits were safe because the dragon is attracted to loud noises, so the knights cannot patrol too closely to its lair on their motorcycles without being attacked.
- The dragon slaying weapon was a pre-war rocket launcher with two warheads. Merle assured the party of his competency, as he had been practising with a grenade launcher and beanbag rounds for a week, which was surely close enough.
Notes:
Kaktis had his damage wrong last session, and now does around twice is much. We're playing with Knowing Your Own Strength, and he didn't have it enabled.
The Duke crit its first dodge roll, and then crit failed its consciousness roll.
The voice I used for Johnny Four-Eyes was apparently super annoying, which was the point.
Surprisingly, the party took Yager's side, but didn't accept any payment, which was odd, because Johnny had a bunch of gas masks which would have reduced their RP gain substantially. I probably wasn't clear enough.
Geordi now has the quirk Charitable (Nerds Only). Conversely, Benedict has Hates Nerds.
Everybody was at negative RP after going through the radiation zone. Kaktis would have been fine, had he not taken the Patch-Up Punch. They decided to hold onto the Nanoboost "in case".
Kaktis' Klutz cost them a gatling laser, but they probably would have wanted the Doom Buggy anyway.
The cost multiplier for high-TL gear causes some problems. Their TL7 car is worth a crapload of money, even though they're fairly common and fuel is everywhere (just bleed somebody). Meanwhile, highly powerful explosives and rocket launchers are dirt cheap. Most higher TL stuff is already more expensive to start with, so this seems kind of like double-dipping. In the future, I'd probably go without, or maybe just have the multiplier affect consumables or fragile electronics, but I'm not changing the rules now.
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