Thursday 14 June 2018

GURPS Blood Drive Session 10: The Neon Demons

Benedict Con - Humourless Repairman
Geordi Hawking - Callous Rifleman
Kaktis - Super-Strong Cactus Mutant
Krin - Bald, Numb Mechanic NPC

Prep Time
Ben and Geordi spent the first couple days repairing some of the water-logged gear from the flooded armoury, and then sold the rest for NanoBoost and car parts, which they used to upgrade the Doom Buggy's armour at the cost of speed and handling.  Kaktis, meanwhile, went about looking for a recruit to fill their fourth seat; unfortunately, Ben, between Bully, Callous, Jealousy, and Hates Nerds managed to chase off Prim and Newton, both skilled gunmen.  In the end, though, the party managed to recruit Krin, a bald female mechanic, who installed a spare blood drive grinder from the wreck of her old crew's ride.

Kaktis spent a day asking around, and found out that the gang that patrolled the outskirts of the Safe Zone were known as the Neon Demons, and were led by a madman in a giant truck named Mr. Smiley.  He then managed to recruit two more crews to form a convoy of sorts; three mutants (through kind words and aid), and four teens whose families had been killed by the Neon Demons (through violence and threats).

The First Leg
Early in the morning on the 8th day since their arrival, an announcement came from loudspeakers located all around Orlando.  A smooth, robotic feminine voice declared that the gates of the Safe Zone were open for the next 5 hours.  The party, and Krin, got suited up in their armour, loaded up all their guns, NanoBoost, and car parts, and set out, along with 30 or so other vehicles.

Despite warnings that the best way to avoid Neon Demon patrols was to go off-road in the swamps, the party opted to stick to the highway to take best advantage of both the other drivers, and their own "meatshield" convoy.  The teens blew a tire on a spike strip, and Ben just abandoned them because he's so Callous, so the mutants' morale took a hit.  Shortly, a swarm of neon-painted cars and motorcycles emerged from the swamp off the road in front of the large group of friendlies, and everybody split off to try to break pursuit.

Two bikes and two cars peeled off to follow the party and the mutants, and one of the passengers tried to jump onto the Doom Buggy but was splattered when Ben slammed on the brakes and ran him over, but a second landed on the hood of the mutants' car and kept his footing.  The cars pulled up alongside to open fire, and one of the mutant passengers had his chest blown open by a shotgun blast.

Geordi took aim with his shotgun and then killed the guy on the hood of the mutant's car, while Kaktis fired a burst from the turret's LMG and took out a bandit driver, but the shotgunner reached over and grabbed the wheel.  Krin's semi-auto shotgun, a gift from the party, injured the other car's driver, but they were still able to drive.

Ben took a revolver shot to the torso, which was absorbed from the armour, but Geordi took a grazing hit to his unarmoured face, and retaliated with a burst from his shotgun that killed the offending bandit.  Kaktis spun and unloaded on one of the motorcycles, shredding the rider and sending the bike spinning off the road, while the chase rounded a corner and Ben sped ahead of the Demons, ending at Short range.

The remaining bandits were unable to inflict any damage at range, bouncing a single revolver bullet off of Kaktis' heavy combat armour.  Geordi took out the shotgunner who had taken over driving the one car, Kaktis took out the remaining motorcycle by hitting its gas tank, causing it to explode and send the driver into the stratosphere, and the remaining car retreated, leaving the party to continue on their trek to the Safe Zone.

An Old Friend
Off on sidestreets to the right of the raised highway, Kaktis saw the heavily-armoured, automated car he had met back in Junction with one flat tire being pursued by a Neon Demon pickup truck splattered with pink and yellow paint.  A harpoon gun was mounted in the bed, and the raider manning it fired a harpoon which latched into the rear of the robot car.  The party universally agreed to help, and Ben jumped the car off the highway through a gap in the concrete barrier.

Geordi opened fire and spooked the driver of the truck, who crit-failed a Dodge and sped into a concrete divider, flipping the car and crushing the gunner.  Kaktis jumped out of the Doom Buggy as they sped past, and punched one of the bandits hard enough to collapse his lungs as they crawled out of the wreck, and the other surrendered; Kaktis just walked away and let the Demon live.

Kaktis then took point and talked to the automated car, which greeted him and thanked him for the assistance.  The party, led by Geordi, used some of their car parts and took 30 minutes to repair its tire and some other damage from the harpoon gun, and the car agreed to help them on their way to the Safe Zone.

The Second Leg
With 4 hours remaining, the party ignored the carnage they passed on the road, and were likewise-ignored by the other refugees.  Ben remarked that their convoy was better than when they had started, now that they had lost the teenagers.  Shortly, they saw a walled outpost right beside the highway around a water tower adorned with a giant smiley face in neon yellow paint, with a river to the north and ruins to the south.

For some reason, the party decided to just drive right on past them than sneak around, and were immediately set upon by a large force of garishly-painted Neon Demon vehicles that emerged from the outpost consisting of two each of trucks with harpoon guns, cars, and motorcycles.  A pair of Demons boarded the mutants, and the cars tried to ram them, but failed.  The trucks opened fire and Ben nimbly dodged one harpoon, but the second sailed straight through the windshield and directly into Krin's chest, doing 72 injury after her riot armour and instantly killing her.

More handgun fire inflicted light blunt trauma through Geordi's armour, and some damage on the cars and in response, the automocar deployed a rotating LMG mount (Serendipity from Geordi to give him a weapon) and opened fire, taking out a truck's tire, slowing them down.  Geordi took out one of the boarders on the mutant car, but Kaktis just missed with his burst.  Ben continued to duck and weave, and the Demons' trucks and cars tried to ram again, but only managed to take out one of their own motorcycles when the mutants' driver juked out of the way.

The Demons' passengers' shots were all either dodged or went wide, because they gave up trying to hit through the Doom Buggy's armour, though one of the boarders hit the mutant driver through the windshield.  Geordi took out the other boarder, but Kaktis' machine gun jammed, so he started to ready his cinderblocks.  Ben managed to expertly weave between two wrecked cars and broke out to Medium range.

The flat tired truck's harpoon gunner missed badly and hit a telephone pole, which brought it to an abrupt stop and took it out of the chase.  The mutants and automocar exchanged fire with the banditos, but neither did any major damage.  Geordi failed to take a motorcyclist out of the way, but Kaktis actually succeeded at throwing a cinderblock at a speeding car about 30 feet away, and slightly injured those inside.

With most of their vehicles taken out, the Neon Demons dropped back, and allowed the party to continue.  Kaktis asked Krin to repair the gun turret, and then Geordi, when he realized she was dead, suggested they throw her into the grinder ("Grinder to grinder, blood to blood").  While they drove, Geordi repaired Kaktis' jammed LMG so he'd have something other than his cinderblocks to use.

Hyperstorm
Geordi noticed an electrical tingling and his hair standing on end just in time to shout "HYPERSTORM" before a tornado hit the ground shortly in front of their car, as a heavy deluge and hurrican-strength winds battered the car.  Lightning bolts surged out of the storm and towards the cars, and Ben crit-failed his Dodge roll, and got hit by two, frying the car and its inhabitants.  As quickly as it appeared, the storm dissipated, and they inspected their allies to see how they had faired.

The automocar had managed to avoid the worst of the lightning and seemed no worse for wear, but the mutants' car had broken down.  Ben refused to stop, and they abandoned their second group of allies... before stopping after a few minutes down the road so that Geordi could repair the damage to the Doom Buggy.  They also popped one NanoBoost each, which fully restored everybody's HP before the final battle.

The Last Leg
In the distance, the party could see a pair of long, two-lane causeways, which had had many concrete barriers, piles of dirt, and other miscellaneous crap strewn across them.  As they approached the close side, an ear-splitting roar from the loudest engine anyone had ever heard split the air, and a monster truck painted with a giant smiley face jumped onto the road behind them and opened fire with a turret.

Ben deftly wove his way around the debris, but found it difficult to gain ground because the monster truck just drove over the dirt ramps and easily kept pace while an LMG gunner opened fire and hit Kaktis with a trio of bullets to the torso, only for him to take no damage thanks to his combat armour.  He returned fire, and took a big chunk out of the tire, but not enough to blow it.  The automocar jammed its gun during a burst, and fell back to let the party take care of the monster truck.

Geordi, meanwhile, switched to his laser shotgun and fired a (6x10 RoF!) burst at the gunner, through the window, and was able to penetrate the apparently armoured glass and slightly burn the gunner with several beams.  In an attempt to widen the gap, Ben took the Doom Buggy over the ramps, and managed to maintain control.  Mr. Smiley tried to ram into their car and crush it, but Ben dodged by going underneath him after a jump.

Mr. Smiley's gunner landed a decent burst, and did more damage to the Buggy than Kaktis or Geordi, even though both were hit multiple times.  Geordi and Kaktis continued to shoot the gunner and tires, respectively, chipping away at their HP.  Ben continued jumpin' the ramps, but the Buggy (and its passengers) got slightly crushed as Mr. Smiley brought his monster truck down on top of them; luckily, their upgraded armour brought the damage down from 25 damage to only 15.

More fully-automatic fire from Mr. Smiley's gunner hit Kaktis twice; the first inflicted only light blunt trauma through his combat armour, while the second hit him in the face, but his mutated organs meant he took only 1 point of injury.  Geordi fired another burst with his laser shotgun, and finished melting the armoured glass in front of the gunner away.  Ben took a ramp and (with 20 MoS on his Driving) jumped over to the adjacent causeway, and made it to Long range!  Concrete walls became visible in the distance; they were just a few kilometres from the Safe Zone.

Notes:
No XP, as this is the finale.  I'm 90% sure Kaktis has 10+ points he forgot to spend, but it's too late now.

We were about 30 minutes short of finishing the campaign, which is too bad.  We probably could have made it if people had thought more about what they were going to do in the lead-up week in advance, because that took a full hour.

I allowed a "Defensive Driving" chase action, with -2 to Chase Rolls and +1 to Vehicle Dodge.  Seems fine, especially against large numbers of enemies, where they run a much higher chance of being hit.

I also allowed for the driver to dodge for everybody, which might be too powerful, because sitting dodges are pretty bad.

For the Last Leg, they either have to escape, disable Mr. Smiley's monster truck, keep their car intact for 8 rounds (down to 5 now), OR survive and steal a car in the two hours they have left.

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