(Gamma World) This Is Not a Test #11 - On to Koto

Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers in 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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Working their way down the stairs of the apartment the mutant human they were tailing had eluded them lived, there was verbose discussion as to what to do next.  

Lathar carried the unconscious body of Squiggles over his shoulder.  

Lathar

Pete suggested that they take a roundabout route to leave neighborhood and evade any potential tails.  By the time they successful navigated the neighborhoods, and gotten lost repeatedly, they arrive in the downtown.  

Sonny was insistent on visiting some sort of shop that sells maps.  He was attracted to a curio shop called Focused on the Past.  An extra sign in the pane glass window read, "Restorationists receive 10% off on Quarkmah."  Not knowing if it was that time, he led the group in. 

Inside, there were rows and rows and shelves, floor to ceiling.  Behind a counter was a mutated plant, a bush, who had groomed its face to create a large moustache.

"Oooh, a sunflower... and you brought friends."

"Indeed, we are in the market for some maps."

"No offense, but do you folks even know how to read a map."

"We do."

"Then let me show you what I have."

The bush was atop a stool on metal casters.  He pushed himself over to a collection of rolled-up paper.

"Any maps in particular are you looking to catch your fancy?"

"Looking for a particular town... Ulim."

The bush got very quiet, and questioned Sonny of his companions?  Were they all trustworthy?  Did the blonde human a mind reader or read up on the Knights of Genetic Purity a bit too much?  When Sonny assured him of secrecy and loyalty, the bush continued.

"What name do you go by?"

Sonny smiled, "I go by... El Seed."

"You can call me Sore Bush."

"Okay, you know that asking around for the secret location of the lair of the Iron Society is going to get you in far worse trouble than you could possibly imagine."

Sonny opened up his bag, displaying an adequate amount of domars.

"I can provide you a number a maps at a reasonable price, but I don't think any will include Ulim.... Waitasecond... let me see if I can do this the easy way."

A few minutes of searching through maps, and Lathar became a bit bored.  "I'm going over to the bar across the street.  Ramsay, grab Squiggles."

Once they left, Sore Bush inquired if the crew had found anything, "Worst case I just drew this one up for 100 domars."

Sore Bush's map was primitive and showed the town of Jainus and the river leading up to a dam and a couple lakes.  

"Up river, people call the Koto Dam magical.  Lots of glow further north.  Perfect place for a megalomaniacal mutant leader in need of a secret lair."

Sonny sighed, but nodded his head.  "If we could maintain cartographer/purchaser confidentiality, I'm happy to pay."

"But of course.  Neither of us are preferred neighbors to these folks.  Let's not make this more difficult.

Sore Bush answered a few more questions about the growth of the Iron Society's rapid growth in town, and the encroaching Glow, but the after Pete paid an extra 50 domar fee to keep things even quieter and walked out. 

Across the street, Squiggles woke up, wearing sunglasses, squeezed between Ramsay and Lathar  in a U-shaped booth in a bar at the Assorted Bees Bar.

"Where are we?  What happened?"

"You've had a rough day, Squiggles, have a drink," and with that Lathar moved over a cup of liquified manure.  

"Maybe I can lay off the sauce for awhile."

Lathar hailed over one of the servers. "What's next the big town if we head north?"

The server gave him an odd look, "From here, there's full glow two days north upriver. Way downriver is Kia, but that's where you guys came from, right?"

"I hear that there's a good plant community down there.  Kia Pets, they're  called," and with that Sonny emerged from behind the server.  "Can we get extra drinks for us and our friends?"

With the server gone, Sonny tried best to elbow Lathar in the ribs, "Did you not hear Sore Bush say asking around is just a sure-fire way to attract attention?"

The crew did a horrible job of obvious misdirection, if there were any people following them. Lathar paid for all the food and drink, and they left.  Destination: the south gates of Jainus. 

From the southern gates, they travelled outside the walls of the town until reaching the north gate of town.  They then  began to follow the river north: Destination: Koto Dam.

The rest of the evening and the following day were completely uneventful.  Pete and Lathar attempted to copy each others maps by the campfire.

The river was usually quite wide, but extremely shallow. 

Into the afternoon of day 2, Squiggles and Pete spied the familiar black smoke of the flying living metal far, far off into the distance.  Preoccupied with the distant living metal, three larger figures flew down from the trees! 

Three large, feathered, winged fish flew down and attack Lathar and his steed, No Name.  Their jaws snapping, but barely causing any damage.  A terrified Squiggles rolled off of No Name and into the bushes.

The Explorers unloaded a barrage of flintlock fire, but not enough damage to drive them off.   Pete was chased through the brush by the creatures, suffering two painful bites.  Getting surrounded in the bush allowed the party to close in to melee, driving two of them off.

Sonny fire a projectile seed at the final beast, killing it.  

Dinner was difficult to clean, but ending up being very filling.

GM Notes: The toughest thing with Gamma World is the assumption that every town has a cartographer, or a cartographer's society.  It should be noted that most towns in GW are just above primitive, with a few inconsistent dashes of Renaissance tech.

Next: #12 - Tippy Toe, Tippy Tap