(Gamma World) This is Not a Test #32 - The Other Stairwell

 Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, assisting the Hissers of Notex with the sky falling....

================= 

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.  Recovering from his injuries from the Glow near Ulmin.

Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with trusted Restorationist ties. 

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often.  Recently "gave birth" to a litter of sentient earthworm babies.

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.  Recent jousting champion of Fair-Town and has been awarded... a peacock he has named Chambray.

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With a new stairwell uncovered in the back of the new cafeteria, it was determined that Sneaky Pete would confirm his nickname and go down them to see where these lead.  After a few flights, the weasel was shocked to see daylight... and the slightest hint of fresh air? The dust on the stairs evolved into layers of fine gritty soil.  The secret to this mystery was a door, leading to the outside, wedged open many, many moons ago, just enough to let in air, light, dirt, and probably some sort of vermin.

Peeking out, it appeared the door to the outside was on the side of the mesa opposite the village.  With the stairwell leading further down, he ran back up to fill in the the rest of the group.  The Explorers decided to follow Pete back down, and, after grasping no further information, Squiggles led the group down the additional stairs.  

Like the the first stairwell they uncovered, the concrete stairs transitioned to an open metal staircase, about half the width, but instead of finding another storage room at the bottom, Squiggles splashed into a large body of water.  

The earthworm quickly jumped up a step, "Water, you know I hate water.  Nothing good comes from it."

Lanterns focused their glow over a calm body of water surrounded by the normal inky darkness.  About five foot above the water, they could see a ceiling of some type, off away from the stairs.    

Sonny used his Plant-hood for the team's advantage to step further and investigate.  He took two steps further and dove forward into the water.  For a plant.. and one accustomed to book-learning, no less, he showed considerable aptitude in swimming, diving further down, and finding a flat bottom to this pool.  

Coming back up, with only the odd glow of the lantern guiding him back, something incredibly large swam by him.  Sonny froze, as best as sunflower underwater could.  The creature, it was definitely not a piece of debris, was much larger than a normal.  

The creature didn't seem to notice Sonny, as it swam around him, but as the scales of it brushed up against him, the sunflower started feeling tired and more lethargic by the second.  He proceeded to surface, his frond arms flailing up first, before his head surfaced and his face went back into the water.

Seeing his friend in peril, Lathar two two steps in to try to reach him.  Squiggles grabbed the barbarian by the belt to hold him steady.

Pete whipped out his flintlock pistol and fired from behind them all, scaring everyone for a half second, before a second scare jumped out of the water.  

The weasel's shot missed a large fish with nasty teeth break the surface of the water and bit Lathar on the lower leg.

You need heart to fight these guys.

The fish put a considerable wound on Lathar and stayed there, although it wasn't latched on.    A shocked Lathar pulled out his sword, stabbed the animal, then swapped to the sword to his left hand, and with his right, grabbed Sonny out of the water and stumbled up the stairs.  

No one noticed that Sonny had still been conscious slowly stabbing at the fish with his dagger while Lathar saved him.  

Pete pulled out his other flintlock and fired, killing the beast.  The water erupted in a churning frenzy as the large fish was torn apart and pulled under the water.

Squiggles and Pete grabbed the sunflower to allow the barbarian to stumble unencumbered back up the stairs to the room with the open door.

As Lathar hit the floor and the other scurried for something to bandage his leg, Squiggles could only yell out, "I don't how many more times we need to learn the lesson.... WATER BAD!"

In the time it took for everyone to stop Lathar's bleeding, Sonny finally felt the ability to talk return.

"That... was not... good."

Pete was happy Sonny was getting better, "If it had been be, I would have been eaten whole."

They all decided to rest up in this room, and got to listen to at least two more explosions outside, similar to the falling items that were falling on Notex.  The remnants of a dust cloud rolled into the room.  

Using the cloud as a sign, the group worked their way back up to Level 2 and down another hall.  Most of the rooms were quarters of some sort, but nicer accommodations.  They accumulated some basic ancient money, worth a few domars, and a number of syringes, filled with a clear liquid.  The syringes were distributed equally among the group.  

Sonny tossed the coins to Lathar.  Lathar looked at him incredulously, "Stop trying to buy my pain."

"Hey, you saved my life, it's the least I can do..."

They found another bathroom, but no bodies littered the floor.  Instead a huge crack in the floor was filled by a iridescent ooze that seemed to beckon them.  

Lathar was near insistent to investigate, "As a pure-human, I'm resistant to these things." but they had no containers to hold a sample of the ooze.   Sonny also kept staring at the large dent on the room's door, where something was hitting it from the inside.

Finding a larger room with four beds, one for each of them, they decided to take another quick break before continuing...

Rummaging through the desks, they found a clear plastic container, holding a toy of a horribly mutated bear.

"Sonny, open the box, we can use it to collect the ooze, " was all Lathar was worried about.

"Hold your steggons, Lathar, we're resting, and I'm looking at this bear thing." 

Sonny sliced that shiney tape that sealed the box and took out the toy.  The toy felt oddly weighted, so he made a small cut with his knife.  Many tiny, plastic beads poured out the toy's bum.  

"Is it dangerous?"  Lathar asked.

"The toy? No, it's normal, by all accounts."

"Then I shall take it, and it's small, round entrails.  It looks cute."

Hundreds of years in the future, Beanie Babies might finally be worth something.

GM Notes:  GM Quandry of the Day.  How look can mutant plants stay underwater?  Not something I could find in the 4th edition rulebook.  I figured plants could survive many minutes in still water, but once they got waterlogged and wilted, it was nothing but doom.  Luckily thirty seconds was all he needed to discover that he was the right character to jump in, although he was still susceptible to the fish's poisonous skin.  

Next: #33 - He's Not a Heavy Colonel

Game Day is Blooming! Unless You're a Mutant Sunflower in Gamma World

I get a long break from "traveling" responsibilities for the rest of the month, so I can truly focus on the Monday night Gamma World game.

Grabbing lunch with a buddy, we swung into a flower shop next door, and I felt a pang of guilt for "Doctor" Sonny Helianthus, the Mutant Sunflower Examiner in the game. 

I sent the picture to the group. Here are the responses:

Sonny:   "What are these monsters doing to my kind?!?!"

Lathar: "Appears sunflower life is cheap!"

Pete: "How humiliating. They stripped them of all their leaves and put them on a stage to sell. ….we need to demand sunflower emancipation!"

I hope they drop the seeds for sunflower reparations too....

Happy Mother's Day 2024

Happy Birthday, Maja!

Fifteen years ago, everything changed when Maja appeared in my life. Now, only a few months away from learning how to drive, I'm getting the right amount of teenager attitude.... still considerably less than Millie (even if Millie's been giving that attitude since age six).  

With a few stumbles, she's still been able to maintain a horrific schedule of volleyball, basketball, track & field, and AAU (dance was forced to go), and she's maintaining honors while enrolled in advanced classes.  She still wants to spend most of the time in her room with her books and her cat Harold. 

Despite zero time for "real" gaming outside of some cutthroat games of chess or Chinese checkers, she still holds interest.  In fact, when given a chance to comment on some of our Monday night online Gamma World game, Maja gave ripping critiques and campaign-friendly advice to the guys, one of them commenting, "... and why isn't she part of the group?"

She's off to NYC today to see "Six" with her Mother.  You only get one "starter kid" and Maja's been an awesome one at that.

(Kickstarter) Space Dwarves 2 by Warblade Miniatures

 Warblade Miniatures is expanding its line of Space Dwarves with the succinctly labelled "Space  Dwarves 2" Kickstarter.  

$42US nets you 11 new metal figures with slotted bases.  The first wave of Space Dwarves and other warbands are available as add-ons. 

(Gamma World) This is Not a Test #31 - Lathar Gets His Green Card

 Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, assisting the Hissers of Notex with the sky falling....

================= 

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.  Recovering from his injuries from the Glow near Ulmin.

Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with trusted Restorationist ties. 

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often.  Recently "gave birth" to a litter of sentient earthworm babies.

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.  Recent jousting champion of Fair-Town and has been awarded... a peacock he has named Chambray.

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

The debate in front of the locked mess hall doors continued for many minutes.  Pete and Lathar kept discussing ways to open the double doors from the hallway, while the chains and lock were securely on the other side.  All Squiggles could do was insist all this could be done by going back down to the main floor and accessing the room from the emergency stairs.  

While Pete stretched out his weasel arms to reach the lock, then taking a crowbar to unsuccessfully dislodge the door, and Squiggles walking laps around the floor, Lathar emerged with a tin of lantern oil with a host of contraptions attached to it.   

"Here, let's see if we can blow this thing option. "

The others scurried to positions around the corner as the barbarian tried to set it among the chains.  The device fell apart as Lathar let go,   The device did ignite, lighting a small portion of oil, which landed on Lathar's fur vest.  The low flame smoldered in the fur, causing an awful stink.  The remaining oil drained out of the contraption and pooled inside the room.  

After Lathar and Peter both tried to shoulder the doors open, with no success, Squiggles finally won the group over to travel back down the elevator and then up stairs.  Once it was determined the previous reactions in the room had vanished, Squiggles began disassembling the cafeteria tables for the larger metal parts.  With the sturdier pieces, he was finally able to pop open the lock.   The heavy, twenty foot long trail chain was stored in a corner.  The lock seemed ruined, but the chain could come in handy.  

With the great question of the day finally answered, the explorers finally began going to door within the complex.  Most rooms were filled with decaying equipment, damage electronics, with barely any oddities of any note.  The rooms had minimal power and lighting, although none of the running terminals could be accessed.

The orange keycard they had obtained gave them access to nearly all the rooms.  One room had a broken keypad and a stuck door.  Pete used his crowbar to pop open the door, and they uncovered... a latrine.  There was considerable moisture, mold, and growth, but oddly the toilet stalls, sinks, and showers were easily identifiable.  

Lathar took the lead and after breaking in some sort of song to check the impeccable acoustics, found a skeleton, with ancient clothes still hanging on a hook.   The skeleton had suffered a broken neck while alive, but had nothing of note on him.  The clothes on the hook, however, netted them a Green keycard off the pocket.

Working further down the hall, they encountered another mess hall, with long, two-foot high metal plates flanking the back walls.  A switch on the walls activated the plates, they rose up into the wall to reveal a long panel of windows to the outside.  Sunlight poured in,  but as the explorers adjusted their eyes, they could see more flaming objects streaking from the sky, crashing around the Hisser village.   Thankfully, most of the Hissers had already evacuated, but the damage and intensity of the attacks was increasing.

A lone metal door in the back of the mess hall uncovered another concrete staircase, this one going down, just as similar to one they had previously traversed.  

As the main entrance hallway essentially stopped at the elevator, this stairwell was leading down to somewhere else.

According to NightCafe Studio, Lathar is ready to attend a Skid Row concert.

Bonus Content:  Thanks to Chat GPT, here's Lathar's song he sings when he's answering nature's call.  Unfortunately, he can't sing a lick so it sounded horrible in the facility latrine:

Oh, gather 'round ye hearty souls, and hear the tale I tell, Of Lathar the Barbarian, on a quest none can dispel. He roamed the lands both far and wide, with urgency in his stride, To find a place to answer nature's call, the call he couldn't hide.

(Chorus) With a rumble in his belly and a clenched resolve, Lathar searched for solace, a spot to absolve. Through forests deep and deserts wide, he'd revolve, A barbarian on a mission, his desperation would evolve.

(Verse 2) From towering mountains to meadows serene, Lathar scoured every corner, with a face quite green. His mighty axe now seemed a burden, his priority quite clear, To find a hidden sanctuary, far from prying eyes and ears.

(Chorus) With a rumble in his belly and a clenched resolve, Lathar searched for solace, a spot to absolve. Through forests deep and deserts wide, he'd revolve, A barbarian on a mission, his desperation would evolve.

(Verse 3) Through swamps and jungles, he pressed ahead, His urgency growing, his steps filled with dread. Oh, the battles he'd fought were grand indeed, But this quest for relief was a different breed.

(Chorus) With a rumble in his belly and a clenched resolve, Lathar searched for solace, a spot to absolve. Through forests deep and deserts wide, he'd revolve, A barbarian on a mission, his desperation would evolve.

(Verse 4) At last, a hidden glade he found, where he could finally rest, Lathar sighed in sweet relief, his quest put to the test. He raised his axe up to the sky, in triumph and in jest, For even a mighty warrior needs a place to take a rest.

(Chorus) With a rumble in his belly and a clenched resolve, Lathar searched for solace, a spot to absolve. Through forests deep and deserts wide, he'd revolve, A barbarian on a mission, his desperation would evolve.

So here's to Lathar's quest so grand, a tale of need and grit, A reminder that even heroes have moments they can't omit. In the annals of history, his legacy's secure, A barbarian who conquered all, even nature's call, for sure!

Next: #32 -

Mandatory AAU Basketball Spring 2024 Rant - Weekend #3 - Communication Breakdown

One basic rule I've developed in my old age is proper communication is key.  I'm certainly no angel when it comes from a failure to communicate, but I've noticed more and more people just omitting massive facts.  

This weekend was going to be another of the "home and away" tournaments for the girls.  I would take Maja up to Scranton, while their mother would take Millie and two other girls down to Philly for their weekend tournament.  Seemed simple enough.  

The plan began to unravel on two Fridays ago, when Maja mentioned they submitted her times/jumps for a track & field invitational almost an hour away.  Good news was, she had already spoken with her AAU coach, and that allowed everyone enough time to schedule afternoon//evening games for Saturday.

That seemed like it was going to work.  Millie's mom would take her down to Philly Friday night.  Maja would take the team bus Saturday to the meet, and I would run her almost an hour north the Scranton for those games.

Then Tuesday came around and Millie casually drops that she too submitted her throws for the meet and got in.  Luckily it was on the way to AAU practice and she could drop it on her coach with some time to negotiate later times.   Now, my side of the transportation remains the same (per the schedule, I need to be an hour and ten minutes away by 3:00pm).  Once Millie's schedule came out, there was no way she would make her 1:35pm game, but 3:00pm was possible.  

Communication folks!  

I normally have some comments regarding basketball officiating, and don't worry, they'll be showing up.  My first rant has to do with track & field officiating and organization, of lack thereof.  

While I must limit my rants regarding basketball based on the fact I never played, and am learning the rules every game, even at this point, I ran four years of track during high school, I helped volunteer and organize the meets I wasn't participating in. 

For an invitational, where qualifying times are submitted, and lane assignments deteremined A WEEK BEFORE, it shouldn't be too hard to organize the kids by heat, take their times, document them, and get the next heat going.   Case in point, when the final call for Maja's intermediate hurdle race was made, appropriately, they were setting up the first of three heats for the 4x100 relay.  

TWENTY-NINE MINUTES LATER she finally started her race.    If it was the beginning of the season, or a bunch of 7th graders, I might understand, but it's May, most are JV 9th or 8th graders, and everyone knows what's going on.  

The field events suffered a similar breakdown, as everyone who ran the boy's shot put, migrated across the complex for the boy's discus, even though there was a perfectly competent team assigned there, and they just breezed through 17 girls in their event.  That left one poor high school volunteer at shot put, and the girls had to wait 30 minutes. 

With these delays, Millie had to leave at least 35 minutes before the Javelin was supposed to happen, and she JUST got to the facility in time to play at 3:00pm.    I simply had to wait for Maja to finish her high jump and we were on our way, with 15 minutes of wiggle room.  

Millie: 6 out of 18 in the shot, 7 out of 16 in the discus.

Maja:  4th in the high jump, massive PRs in the 100m hurdles, 300 hurdles, and triple jump.

Millie's weekend:  The theme for the weekend for Millie's crew was height differential.  They were forced to play teams with a four-inch height advantage on average.  Yet they finished the weekend 4-0 in the A Pool, including a close game that went down to a steal and a lay-up at the last second.  Unlike the last tournament, everyone was there (save Millie for the first game.) 

Maja's has fewer picture and more text:  Guess who didn't show up for the 3:35pm game?  If you guessed the other team, you'd be right.  Times and locations for the tournament, which, by common courtesy, are usually finalized by Thursday night, seemed to constantly change, and the other team didn't confirm with the app on Friday. 

So we waited... and waited... and luckily our program contact was on site, who got us a 9pm game with them, after our 7pm game. 

The first game wasn't even close, as the girls jumped out to a 21-0 lead after four minutes and the coach called off the dogs.  61-19.

Second game, the other team did show up... and it felt like competition they faced in 7th grade.  65-15 win.  

Sunday morning, fearing a schedule change overnight, I was right.  Our 1pm game had been moved to noon, against the winner of a different pool.    This team, from Long Island, was pretty decent, and kept the game within 6 or 7.  One of our new players buster and an and one at the buzzer to end the half at 28-18, and people never looked back.   48-31.  

The final game was against another pool winner, and it was another 21-0.    Everyone coasted, tried different positions, practiced new plays, and they walked away with a 61-14 win.  

While I mentioned the spontaneous schedule changes, and generally poor organization, I did bury the lead:  Maja's group is 9th grade (15U), and they decided to move up to 10th grade (16U) for this tournament.  

I know when the girls go to the big showcases in Atlantic City and elsewhere, they'll get their buts handed to them, but right now the biggest competition they've faced is the Varsity team every Tuesday and Thursday night. 

(EDIT: One addendum I’d like to add.  One addendum I’d like to add since we were stuck on site at a small Catholic school for seven hours, we got the Watch a lot of the other games and I can safely say, as the referees on site for that timeframe or some of the best I may have ever seen.  I could count on my hands the number of missed calls. They kept control of the game. They were consistent.  This is  the fifth year AAU and I can safely say that I’ve never seen that happen before.  It was a pleasure to watch, Even if some of the actual game results were not.  I might collectively give that group to the first a I’d never give any referees.

*Now, the Sunday refs were a D+ and a solid B, at different sites.