Our Heroes, the De Facto Explorers, have returned to Riverbend. War is in the air downriver and the participants are still largely unknown. Three strange human individuals have shown up in town, and now threats have appeared on the outskirts.
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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 outbuildings around Farmer Yulius' farm were a wreck. A giant wolf, five foot tall at the shoulder, and emitting an odd shimmer across its fur, stook in the open. The lifeless body of the young mutant worm Twitchy, in its mouth.
Sonny led his militia contingent from behind, completely out of position. The Restorationists reinforcements where just reaching the farm, while Squiggles emerged from digging through the soil, and Pete following the raised trail in the ground from the worm.
Pete took the first shot on the creature, striking its body. The weasel quickly sought shelter within the canopy of a nearby tree.
The wolf quickly turned and with near-supernatural speed, rushed the tree. Squiggles barely dodged the beast, while it struck the tree with its shoulder. The whole tree shook, sending Peter through the branches until his sternum caught his fall on a large branch. The wolf then turned around and struck the tree with its hind legs, compromising the root network, ripping the base from the soil and tipping everything over. The weasel, with the wind knock out of him, was now staring parallel to nearby roof.
Lathar came charging in, riding No-Name, but the Stegon hesitated at the last minute, forcing Lathar to dismount and fire, hitting the wolf in the leg. With the wolf in a dither, was also shot by Sonny. The sunflower's combat leadership began to diminish, as one of his militia friends cut and ran, while the others were quite tentative as they flanked the beasts.
Squiggles, risking it all, decided to use his Telekinetic Hand mutant power to poke the eye of the wolf, but failed. He could feel the invisible extension of his brush the nearly steel-like head of the wolf.
Pete leapt across from the downed tree, onto the roof. He was the only one out of range of the wolf's wrath. It spun around in a circle, confused by the wounds it received from all directions. It's spinning around grew wider until it struck and rended one of the militia, wounded a second. Lathar had the creature in his sighs, until the wolf veer to the right, crashing through the damaged shed to tackle Sonny. The wolf seemed quite confused over it's newly captured quarry, sniffing around the flower of the sunflower. One or two musket shots and rifle shots from the militia and Restorationists were futile, and a few more fled from the area.
Lathar shouted at the wolf, forcing it to look at the barbarian. Lathar then promptly shot the beast in the face with a blaster. Somehow the wolf was injured, but just angry.
With the wolf distracted, Sonny teleported to the top of Farmer Yulius' roof, safe... for now.
Squiggles used his telekinesis to pull down the remainder of the what used to be Sonny's shack, the debris more of a distraction to the wolf than damaging.
With one shot from the roof, Pete force the wolf to flee up the river road. It generated great speed as it disappeared into the night. Lathar fired off a few bursts from his new "AR" weapon, but no one knew if they were effective.
The damage to the farm was surprisingly minimal, one destroyed shed and one uprooted tree. Only one militiamen, Zeke Hardtack, perished, along with Twitchy the mutant worm. A second militiamen and Sonny were wounded by the beast, while Pete held his ribs from his escape from the wolf. With a guard posted, to ensure no return visitors, everyone grabbed some much-needed sleep.
The following morning, the dead militia member was sent back to town for a proper burial. Squiggles had buried Twitchy on the farm, overnight. despite the protests of Pete. Fearing old wives tales, he wanted all the the bodies burned, less the curse of the wolf haunt them all. The others' sense of sensibility won the evening.
That morning, Pete and Squiggles investigated the escape route of the wolf. It seemed the creature was quite powerful, ripping open the ground with each stride... and each stride appeared to be longer and longer. There was quickly talk of gathering supplies and following the trail of destruction the fleeing wolf created. Low on energy cells, the group tabled the expedition for now...
Of course the newest story in town came to light when Sonny arrived in town. It appeared that their three new human guests were gone. Reported missing was a washboard, two muskets from the armory, and the remnants of the keg of plant mead that the Explorers had sold them....
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