(Gamma World) Not a Test #124 - A Return to the Wrong Celery

Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, have decided to embark on an epic quest to reach Lathar's long-lost father.  They have left Fair-Town after a lengthy stopover, but after only a half-days travel, they encounter a woman and a severely hurt mutant mycelium that appear to need their help!

==============================================================

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 attacked and kidnapped then left for dead by an unknown group, looking for revenge 

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. 

===============================================================

After a night of rest, it was finally agreed that they should take the half day to return to Fair-Town with Trekk and his apparent savior Mirella Quince.    They strapped the mushroom man to a litter a top of No-Name.   Mirella kept up with the group, describe her noticeable limp.  She stayed alongside the stagon, watching her new mycelium friend.

Mirella Quince, Random Traveler from KIA Academy (with a photo bomb by Sonny)

By mid-morning, they were met by a surprising sight.  A group, dressed like Fair-Town guards, brazenly strolling down the road, five wide.  They wielded a variety of melee weapons, two of them with rifles of the ancients slung across their back.   They acknowledged the party and asked if there were any problems.  

It appeared the discussion with Captain Brom Halloway back in Fair-Town and produced immediate fruits, as these five men, members of the supplemental militia, were ordered to perform the first ever patrol of River Road.  

"Any worries?  Any problems?"

Sonny: Well, if you asked....

The group showed the militia the wounded and unconscious mushroom.   The militia were shocked (confirmed by Pete's telepathy), and once it was mentioned they were taking him back to Fair-Town for help from some of his own kind (What human would differentiate mushrooms from mutant plant plants?), the militia offered to escort them back to town... 

Pete sensed much fear in them, in so that none of the militia had ever left Fair-Town this far downriver.  

The rest of their travels were uninterrupted, and their militia escort even got them through the gate without delay or entry fee.   

The Explorers followed the main boulevard back to the Wrong Celery, Lathar carrying Trekk and asking for Duncan, the bartender.  

The little mushroom person was put into a backroom.  

Duncan: "We'll put him in the dark and feed him a line of shit... We'll take it from here, friend of plants... and non-plants like this lad."

Lathar: "Wait, mushrooms aren't plants?"  

"All plants need the sun to feed our bodies and our souls.  Your friend here is nothing like that.. but we share similar likes, and prejudices against us."

Once the injured mushroom got the help they needed, they reaffirmed Mirella if she needed anything else.  The former resident of the KIA sub-levels had no connections in town and few skills but was resolved to make a go at it.  She may have shook off some advances from the always amorous Lathar, but finally took 50 domars from him to start her new life. 

By the time they resolved everything, they just had enough time to leave town again and reach the temporary camp they used the night previous.

Thankfully, the rest of the the travels down to KIA was unexciting....  with no traffic coming from that city....

Next: #125 -  Allocation is Under Review