Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers travelling to the far-off city of Jainus, in search of... The Mutant Master:
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Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with Restorationist ties.
Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often.
Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout. Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.
Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend. He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters. Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does.
Ramsay Kallax: Mutated Ram from the far-off KIA Academy with a predilection for ancient treasures... and the occasional head-butt.
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The party was cleaning up the carnage left by a sneak attack of the Iron Society on the headquarters of the Brotherhood of Thought.
Artemus took one look at Sonny, "It's a good thing I didn't need any help with those hissers back then. That would have been ugly. But, we're all standing, so that's a good sign. Brother Tyrell, get up, we're all standing."
Sonny could only nod, as he was tending to a very confused Squiggles. He had no recollection of anything that happened.
"Artemus, why is the Iron Society conducting an open attack on you?"
"I'm not sure if it's an open attack on us, or you guys..."
"Why would they attack us, what the fuck did we do?"
"I don't know. What DID you do?"
Sonny was at a lost how anything they were working with the Restorationists trickled over to Iron Society.
"Do the Iron Society have a large presence in this town."
"It's sizable, no worse than any other place I've visited. They're territorial in their neighborhoods, but not outside of it."
Sonny recapped their adventures at Level A Inc, revealing some connection between their missing Restorationist and a character called the Mutant Master. Artemus inquired further and admitted he was aware of a blue-skinned mutant raising a ruckus amongst their kind. He wasn't leading everything, but had a very fervent following.
Taking the group to the side, it was decided that they needed to track down some Iron Society members leaving their headquarters and interrogate them for more information.
Staking out the Iron Society neighborhood was easier said than done. The party together would stick out like a sore thumb. Despite being a weasel, Sneaky Pete had the most experience and skill with picking a mark and following them. Lathar could be mysterious enough with a cheap cloak and a little gravitas The rest of the crew were significantly staggered towards the neighborhood border to less volatile areas.
It took an hour and a bottle of wine, but they finally their was one obvious person who stood head and shoulders above the crowd. Nicknamed "Big Jake" by Pete, we has a tall, bald character in a bright white puffy vest.
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| "Big Jake" |
"Big Jake" made a bee-line through the main street, heading right towards the adjacent neighborhood. A behooded Sonny picked up the queues, and Ramsay followed suit a half block later.
Big Jake's strides grew longer and Ramsay could barely keep up, barely keeping within eye contact with Sonny. The three in this pursuit had broken contact with Pete and Lathar, enough so that they missed the pursuit turn up a side street, and they continued into a late afternoon farmer's market, in the process of closing up for the day.
Lathar could only emit an exasperated sigh, but was distracted by a buzzing voice above him.
*Bzzzz* "Lost friend? Need some help?" *Bzzzz*
Above Lathar was a four feet tall wasp, hovering in the air. Armed with a sickle and hammer, he wore a large medallion and a bowler hat with holes for his antennae.
*Bzzzz*"Yeah, we're closing up shop, so if you're looking for something in particular, I can help you out."*Bzzzz*
"Yeah, we're here for a few last-minute items, like some bread."
Lathar bought some replacement provisions, and a selection of baguettes, and Pete selected a candle.
They retraced their steps and ran into Sonny who was looking for them.
Sonny, Ramsay, and Squiggles had kept the tail. The human ducked into a side door of a three story building with an abandoned cheese monger's shop on the first floor.
Sonny slipped into the door as stealthy as he could... and immediately ran into the man, checking his mail from a series of cubbies. Spying the cubby he was looking into as 24, he grabbed a nearby plant in a pot in the lobby, "There you are, very funny..." and walked back out the door. After meeting back up with Ramsay and Squiggles it was deemed more important to find their two missing team members. Sonny told Ramsay and Squiggles to hold their position while he walked down to find Lathar and Pete.
Discovering they found out where Big Jake lived, Lathar was excited, "Well, let's deliver his groceries to him!"
They reunited with Ramsay outside the building. Lathar and Ramsay went through the small lobby and up the stairs. Two steps from the top, Lathar stopped the ram.
"Ramsay, I'll present this dude with the bag of food, but how will we subdue him?"
Ramsay generated some electricity between his horns. "I can zap him...." *CRASH*
A loud ruckus erupted from the second floor, with a lot of thumping and yelling. Lathar dropped the groceries, pulled out his sword and ran forward.
The door for #27 was wide open, with a broken table, and a worm fly on top of it. The worm jumped back up an charged through the door. Lathar followed in pursuit.
The door led to a small apartment. occupied by a older, balding middle-aged human. He was holding back Squiggles with one extended hand. He lifted to see Lathar, "Who the greef are you? Get out." He grabbed a large table leg from a broken table, pushed Squiggles aside, and moved towards Lathar.
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| Kyrl of Jainus |
Ramsay checked in on room #24, all the while yelling through the opened door. "Help, help my friends are under attack!" There was no response from that room, although other heads were popping out of other doors on the floor.
Squiggles got up again, and dove at the human. The human spun around, and hit the worm, sending him flying into a pile of dirty laundry.
"I'm a hard working human, you bandits need to leave me alone and get out of here!"
Lathar sheathed his sword, put up his hands, and slid over to Squiggles, "Buddy, what the hell are you doing? Let's get out of here while we're offered a chance."
Squiggles was unconscious.
Lathar grabbed Squiggles and dragged him into the hallway. The human slammed the door behind them, sending all the pictures on the walls crashing to the ground.
Sonny finally made it up the stairs to see Lathar tending to Squiggles on the ground. The most confusing part was watching Lathar's sword coming out of his back scabbard all by itself.
Sonny fired a projectile seed in the general area, expecting to hit some invisible combatant. The seed flew down the hallway, as did Sonny ran over to grab the sword by the hilt. When he touched the sword, there was no resistance, save Lathar's confusion
Ramsay worked his way down the hallway.
"What's going on, guys"
Sonny turned to him, "Where's our boy?"
Lathar was still quite confused, "I thought Squiggles went into the apartment to follow him, he was somebody else's place."
"This is a debacle, we need to get out of here.
"We're walking out of here like nothing's happening?
"If you can carry Squiggles, then yes."
The worm over his shoulder, Lathar walked back down the hall towards the stairs. The door for #24 was open. From what he could see, the layout was the same, except that a window was wide open, facing the main street.
"I think our guy left."
"So should we..." Sonny replied, nudging his head towards the stairs.
GM Notes: If one wants to run Gamma World, I would definitely suggest having a binder full of various NPCs. The characters talked about tailing an Iron Society member forced me to set up numerous characters, the most detailed being "Big Jake" Let's just say that he was a character that, when provided the knowledge and opportunity to escape, masterfully created a distraction. "Jake" will possibly return.
Next: #11 - On to Koto
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