Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, have decided to embark on an epic quest to reach Lathar's long-lost father. They have stopped in Fair-Town, for municipal meetings, bread-encrusted sausages, and random encounters with your first litter's breeding partner.... And now Squiggles, the furry mutant worm... is missing.
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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. The two-time champion of the Fair-Town Queen's Joust. Recently married to the now-pregnant Thunnelda Haycock. Just received a letter from his long-lost father, and has convinced the others to accompany him to the Wildlands.
Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout. Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers. Apparently addicted to his newly uncovered yellow powder found at "The Pool House"
Sonny Helianthus: an over 10' tall sentient sunflower artifact examiner with four arms, and trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable, but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades. Sonny may have recently detonated an atomic device in the petrified woods... although no one else knows.
Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble in all the wrong places, 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. Recently gave birth to another pile of baby worms.
and two new additions....
Poppy and Speedy: Two of Squiggles' offspring from his first... litter(?) They're now teenagers in worm years, old enough to grab diminutive muskets and help their Manchi and his friends on this epic quest.
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Despite the best efforts of the De Facto Explorers, they could not get the young worms, Speedy and Poppy, to calm down about their "Manchi" Squiggles missing for a considerable amount of time.
Sonny: "Kids, this is what your Manchi does when he's in this town. It's a thing."
Pete: "See, nothing to worry about."
Lathar: "I don't worry about Squiggles, he's the luckiest guy among all of us. He disappears and just shows up happy and slippery afterwards..."
Pete: "A little disgusting with all that fur..."
But Sonny realized Squiggles' "benders" happened in the early summer... and the fact that his first breeding partner was in town, and talk of her place "under" the town wall, made the sunflower conflicted.
"Okay, the last time someone wandered around the wall with a female equivalent, they ended up strapped to the front of a vehicle being used as bait for a monster... if it was anyone else I'd start right now, but let's give him the evening and we'll hunt him down tomorrow morning."
Lathar: "We might need a protocol... even we're going to a bender or an orgy, we should probably let the rest of us know."
Sonny: "I'm amazed with you animals sometimes..."
In the morning, Sonny , top hat balancing on his head, lead the group along the inside of the tall stone wall protecting three sides of Fair-Town.
Along the upriver side of the wall, they came upon a group of folks staring at a collapsed portion of the wall. Some neighborhood bystanders were looking from a distance, but most appeared to be guards or town laborers. Most of the stones collapsed inward, but the 10-foot tall sunflower was tall enough to peer over the others and see a crater on the outside of the wall.
The guards told them of reports of an explosion, but no other signs of foul play.
Squiggles children were alarmed, but wanted to keep walking along the wall, just in case this wasn't the spot.
They stretched their legs around edges of Fair-Town, past the Kirothian enclave, past the Joust grounds, past the Bug-Mart, and back around to the downriver gate, where a commotion was occurring. The biggest surprise, and discouragement was the appearance of the White Hand... multiple White Hand members rushing out the gate.
Sonny inquired to what happened.
"They found bodies... monsters, outside."
Sonny made the children stay their with the others, and the sunflower pushed his way passed the crowds around the gate and out towards the group of folks 150 meters down the road.
One body, covered with a sheet, was visible. A second uncovered body was white, furry, with numerous syringe needles sticking out of him.
Sonny was relieved and even more troubled. "Is he alive?"
The White Hand responded, "He's alive... I don't think he's actually injured.... it's like someone used the needles to draw a LOT of fluid out of him."
Sonny peaked under the sheet. He assumed it was his breeding partner, Ubenda. She too was stuck with numerous needles, but far more desiccated than Squiggles.
Squiggles begin to wake up, wincing in pain, "That... wasn't right."
Sonny: "I don't know about worm physiology, but most animals need to stay hydrated for happy time."
Squiggles: "I'm not exactly sure that's what happened. What are all of these things sticking out of me?"
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| Squiggles... just add arms, legs, and a coat of white fur. |
Sonny: "Medical needles, someone has taken out whatever they extracted."
Squiggles: "Somebody took stuff out of me???"
Sonny: "I've got some bad news about your girlfriend...."
The White Hand did the best they could to hydrate the worm, and remove the syringes from his body. Squiggles moved on his own power, but he just wanted to go back to the inn and rest... after a quick reunion with his very relieved children.
Once back at the Triple Comfort Inn, Squiggles sits at the bar, still sipping... well water... much thinner than a few hours earlier.
Lathar, Town Councilman Lathar, was now the target of local citizens complaining about various town issues.
Pete used his complete lack of bedside manner to pepper Squiggles with questions.
Pete: "What's the last thing you remember, Squiggles?"
Squiggles: "Drinking water with you guys..."
There were few answers, just flashes of memories.
Dogs... very scary, very massive dogs, face to face with him...
And one human, bald... with round glasses, staring at him with the faintest of wicked smiles.The next morning, there was debate whether to send the worm children back to Riverbend. Squiggles felt and looked better, but had flash nightmares of Ubenda, and the dogs and the guy in glasses, now in body armor, then more dogs. There were accusations of their acquittance Razorback might have known the dogs... Lathar vehemently defended the mutant wolf, who might be somewhere in town.
| The Driftwood is to the right of the marooned boat marking Fair-Town along the Big River |
- "Mr Holt" didn't know where they took Ubenda's body.
- He hadn't seen anything involving syringes before.
- The rudimentary tests on Squiggles had... changed. He wasn't familiar with with all his tests with worm, but Squiggles could be pregnant?
GM Notes: There was long conversation about various reproductive practices of worms and sunflowers, and why Pete is the only weasel in the world.
Next: #121 - A Stage Four Vanishing Act



















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