(Gamma World) Not a Test #80 - A Lesson In Manners

Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers,  have returned to Riverbend.  War is in the air downriver and the participants are still largely unknown.  Strange goings-on have been effecting the town. 

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Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.  

Sonny Helianthus: a nearly 10' tall sentient sunflower artifact examiner with trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable,  but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades. Just went out of his comfort zone to rescue Lathar from becoming a human sacrifice to "The Beast." 

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often.   He  has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair.

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.   Looking for trouble in all the right places.  Former jousting champion of Fair-Town.  

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The arrival the Shimmer Wolf, and the disappearance of their three new guests forced the Explorers to do something they never did before hastily: split the party.  

Squiggles:  Squiggles knew the wolf was powerful, singlehandedly taking multiple blaster shots, knocking down a tree, then bursting through remnants of Sonny's shed to escape at an incredible rate of speed.  As the beast burst through the forest, the wolf's hind legs literally exploded into the dirts, creating large craters and displaced dirt with each stride.  Worse yet, with each stride away from the village, the distance grew bigger and bigger, and the piles of thrown debris larger and more spread apart.  Squiggles certainly couldn't comprehend each stride extending 30, 40, 50 foot between, before the trail ended at the a tributary of the Old River.  

Squiggles tried to best to pick up clues, but outside of one tuft of fur, there were no odd fluids and such along the path of destruction.  

Pete and Lathar:  Pete was hot to follow the three new travelers, now thieves.   Missing from the village were two muskets from the armory, the near empty keg of vegan mead from Fair-Town that Lathar and Pete sold to The Keg.... 

Leaving the town on foot, they patrolled  the outskirts until picking up a new trail of three sets of footprints in the muddy soil.

The duo were focused on following the tracks and recovering the mead, making great time catching.    As they began to go through a clearing, where the trio stopped walking side-by-side and spread out a big, 

Lathar was hit with a realization. The washboard and muskets were easily transported, but the large keg? It would need a pack animal, a cart, or at least rolling in on the ground.

Pondering this revelation, they were surprised to hear an "Oh shit" coming out of the nearby woods. The woods were filled with six obvious humanoids. Most were frozen in fear, but two casually walked closer to Pete and Lathar. All of them had bony ridges on their skulls instead of hair, and wore leather jackets. One nearby shouldered a musket.

The non-musket wielder raised his hand, revealing sharp claws instead of fingers, "Hey..... Lathar many you should talk to him."

The humanoid responded, "Sup, weasel" 

One of the encounter with Lathar and Pete

Lathar: "Do you have something that belongs to us.... hey hey"

Pete: "I don't think these are the guys... but ask them where they're from..."

Lathar: "Where ya from, where you going? 

Pete noticed a lumbering form moving through the woods, moving towards their rear.

Pete: "Call of your dogs!"

Humanoid:  "Badder will move where he wishes."

Neither Pete nor the speaking humanoid were on cordial.

Humanoid:  "Call off your weasel,human.  Keep you pet in check."

Pete lunged at the humanoid, caught by the collar by Lathar, "I'm sorry, weasels are a bit unpredictable as companions"  

Pete broke free, pulling out his pistol.  The two humanoids made strange motions and went into defensive positions."  

Lathar somehow unshouldered his blaster rifle and got a shot off, while a livid Pete waved his pistol around.  Both weasel and human shots were aimed true, but neither expected the result of their actions.  

Pete's shot from his pistol "Wormburner" ricocheted off some glistening invisible barrier and struck Lathar in the chest, forcing him to stagger away.  Lathar's shot did the same, but Pete flew in the air to dodge the blaster fire.   The weasel landed on all fours, and witnessed the muddy soil instantly freeze, trapping him.  A quick glance as Lathar revealed that he, too,  was frozen to the ground.

The humanoids emerged from the woods.  

"Can we eat them?"

"Not normally..."

"We won't eat them... we're not savages," the original speaking humanoid ended that conversation.

The whole group passed the duo, giving the frozen pair a wide berth.  All, expect the humanoid that talked first.  He stepped on the pinned weasel, but was shocked by the creature, forcing him to stumble away.   

Lathar, still standing in the frozen mud, still holding his blaster rifle, "Lets calm down, everyone got a little excited, let's stop stepping on the weasel."

A few meters away, the speaking humanoid turned back, raking his claws against the trees. "Just be careful the next time.  Not everyone has manners such as us.  Pete realized one additional word spoken inside his head, before he blocked it out.  "DIE"

The trees that were clawed by the being seemed to rot from the inside, portions falling to the ground.

In a final act, the group on humanoids, upon reaching the other side of the woodlands, launched a ball of fire at the frozen pair, hitting the ground, and thawing things instantly.  

Lathar was not deterred.  "Let's find the mead...."

Sonny:  Back in Riverbend, Sonny regretted not handing the Ancients' communication devices , but there were more important things to do, like oversee the townsfolk rebuilding his shed.  Realizing it would take a few days to complete, Sonny ventured over to cemetery to oversee the funeral of Zeke Hardtack, the only militiaman killed in the wolf attack.  Once the mourners left, Sonny stood atop the fresh grave and inserted his roots in the freshly overturned (and worm) upturned soil.   Many of Squiggles children had followed him there, asking "Uncle Sonny" many questions.  Sonny didn't understand the weird attachment animals had to things and people, but he was happy to divulge his wisdom to the willing worm masses.

Sonny was alerted to Thomas, the man he had hired to rebuild his shed, running up the hill to the cemetery.  

"Doctor Helianthus!  Doctor Helianthus!"

"I'm not a doctor, but good pronounciation of my last name.  What's up?"

"Master Squiggles has returned!"

Some of the wormlings were happy, with cries of "Manchi!  Manchi!"

Sonny:  "Why did you run here to tell me?"

Thomas: "We need to run away, fast."

At the bottom of the hill, Squiggles emerged into view, running at full speed.  

He was being chased by a pack of a dozen wild podogs.

Sonny:  "Dig children, dig as deep as you've ever dug before. 

Podog, minus the rider, times twelve.

GM Notes:  This is the second encounter with podogs, althougth the first encounter wasn't a dozen angry, hungry mastiff-plus sized canines.  

Lathar, who is the group's tank, has suffered greatly from shimmer wolf and the powerful mutant renegades.  Into the 30 hit point range, he still demands travelling further into the wilderness to find who stole their keg of Vegan Mead.

Next:  #81 - Murder Dogs