Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, have returned to Riverbend. Random attacks keep occurring, and scouting has only netted the group a few bad cases of the glow.
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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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As the skull's voice dies out and its metallic structure falls silent, Sonny and Justinian exchange uneasy glances. The strange message has left them with more questions than answers. What was Project Aegis? Who or what was the Alpha Coordinator? And most pressingly, what dangers did "hostile elements" in the vicinity pose?
Sonny places a careful frond on the artifact, ensuring it’s fully deactivated. "We need to figure this out, fast. This could be connected to the attacks, the glow... everything." His sunflower face turns to Justinian, worry evident in his usually calm demeanor. "It mentioned defensive protocols and hostile elements. What if it's alerting something or someone?"
Justinian, visibly concerned, examines the artifact’s remains with a keen eye. "This isn’t just an old relic. It's dangerous. I felt it when it powered up. There’s something bigger in the background, something watching. I think... I think it's still active in some way. We might have just poked a sleeping beast."
Quickly, they wrapped up the item and quickly left town, away from the river....
Lathar had managed to get his mother safely back to her home and headed off to the farm. It been nearly a day of resting and drinking until one of them finally asked, "Where's Sonny?"
Squiggles was the only healthy one and began a search. The only rumors from the townsfolks was vague, "Sonny was with Justinian outside of the Restorationists' compound."
Squiggles was concerned because Justinian never left Ascension Hall unless it was absolutely necessary. A trip to Ascension merely confirmed that Justinian had left to look at something.
Squiggles was afraid that the pair had left for the hills and the tunnels. to find more of the metal skeleton. Lathar shared that worry, so they hike expanding loops around the town to pick up any hint of a trail with no luck.
The next day they were called into town: Justinian had returned... to the center of town first. Squiggles ran into town, encountering him walking down the street back to Ascension Hall. He had the look of illness like Lathar and his mom had.
"I tried..." He put his hand on the shoulder of Squiggles in a weak sign of comfort and walked past him.
Squiggles was distraught, and quickly found Sonny in the tavern.
A large crowd had assembled inside, and, after pushing through the crowd, Squiggles could see one of the White Hand standing atop a table staring down at the remains of Sonny. The Sunflower was a sickly brown color, many of his stem no long stable. The White Hand was panicking because he knew that there was nothing in his med-kit that would help this plant.
"This man doesn't need medicine, he needs fertilizer and sunshine, post-haste!"
Squiggles dispersed the crowd and carried him outside, towards the town gardens. Grabbing buckets of water and fertilizer planted him into the ground. The local gardeners provided twin and posts to support the floppy sunflower to be in direct line with the sun.
Squiggles sat and watched over his friend for three days, adding water and fertilizer whenever he felt appropriate. On the third day, Squiggles raised his head from a short morning nap. He woke up to see Sonny, his chest thrust out, his flowery head straining towards the rising sun. The massive wingspan of his arms strained the twine holding him back.
All FOUR of his arms.
Squiggles: Wow.... Sonny, what happened to you?
Sonny: What? When?
Squiggles: You went out with Justinian, you come back, you're near death, you've been out for the last three days.
Sonny: Did we get rid of the skull thing?
Squiggles: I didn't know you had the skull thing!
Sonny: It's no good....
Sonny recounted his realization that everyone was getting sickened from the skull thing. He had relocate it to an abandoned shack. He then convinced Justinian to help him and with a power cell, it came to life. It spoke about a Project Aegis, an Alpha Coordinators, and coordinates. Justinian wanted to take it outside of town and Sonny followed. Two days in, things started getting fuzzy, and now, days later, he had four arms!
Squiggles untied Sonny and held him up, to stay in the sunlight.
Once gaining his strength, they visited Justinian at Ascension Hall. He too had been sickened by the glow leaking out of the artifact, but was further along his recovery.
Neither remembered where the artifact was buried, and Justinian thought it was a good thing.
"It is not here anymore, and that is all that matters... The effects of that device is why we don't travel into the glow zone."
Justinian repositioned himself on the couch, "I was going to look for Lathar, but now that you're feeling better, I'll relay it to you."
"We've seen a group of Hissers across the river that last few days. It's surely a sign that they wish to communicate. Now I know all of your men were victims to the skull, but if they wanted to fight, they would have crossed the river over to us by now. We definitely need someone to go over and talk to them...."
GM Notes: Powerful radiation in Gamma World sucks, but if it's in that narrow corridor, mutations are possible, if the player survives. I didn't want to emphasize the Christ-like comparisons to Squiggles stringing up his friend to save him. The whole three days, that apparent resurrection... Heck this whole storyline started with a meal at Lathar's mom's house.... The last supper, so to speak, before things went crazy.
Next: #85 - A Very Hinged Date
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