Camel Paddock"Hey, I understand being on edge, but your powers are flashy and very destructive. Meanwhile, I-" (fire off some keratin spikes at a nearby tree or something) "-can do this stuff relatively discretely. If you're worried about an attack, let us know, but don't just go nova like that unless the danger is right on top of us. That stuff will be useful at the tower - we might even be able to completely destroy the thing with that - but out here, it's just going to draw attention and tell anyone following us where we've been. If they're close enough behind us, they might even be able to tell how long it was since we were here."
[Darrin rolled 1+3+1empathy+1london=6]
[Darrin rolled 2+1+3weird=6]
Darrin tries to give a pep talk. The keratin spike he was trying to launch gets stuck and doesn't shoot out. Dr Stone rolls their eyes. "Ugh, I don't need some Walt hotshot telling me what to do." An obsidian pillar collapses down on the lava field, splashing Balthazar. The air fills with the smell of burned leather, but Balthazar's skin seems untouched. He roars in anger and grabs Dr Stone by the neck and holds the ambiguous stonewarper by the neck above the hot ground.
"THAT WAS MY FAVOURITE JACKET!"
Chloe Fontaine throws up her palms, "Woah, woah, hold on there. Let's keep it cool and just move on before someone sees us coming."
Balthazar drops Dr Stone who scrambles to a cool patch of ground. The group look about: moving on safely may be a challenge with all the ground cracked up and the danger of the bubbling lava. All Dr Amoretto can think about is how delicious the smell of the leather smells, like so much cracked open flesh...
Darrin Amoretto gains +1 hunger.
Postwick Boat GraveyardUse telepathy to confirm or not confirm the degree of hostility and to enable negotiations. Jump off and run to get lost in the tangle of buildings and people if they are ready to fight, and try to negotiate me just buying a boat and walking away. I'm willing to offer the cyberwolf tail, and they should know I'm well armed.. if we fight, some of them are going to die.
[Sandeep rolled 6+2+2weird=10]
[Sandeep rolled 4+4+1empathy+1tail-1mob=9]
Sandeep tries to pick up on the thoughts of those around him. While he can't exactly read minds, he can hear the mental communications that coincide with speaking, hearing in his mind conversations his ears can't pick up. In the group that are coming towards him he hears,
"Are you sure it's him?"
"He has the laser. We'd be unstoppable with it."
"He's a dangerous mutant, we best be careful..."
"It's not worth dying for, let's just leave it,"
"We outnumber him six to one!"
Sandeep reckons he might have an edge to bargain with them, they're frightened of his reputation after all. He pulls out the cyberwolf tail: a wicked spike at the end of a part-mechanical armoured tail.
"This for the boat," he shouts.
"Alright!" shouts the woman on the deck. Mitchel looks aghast. Sandeep throws the tail over to them and Mitchel hops off the boat to remonstrate with his colleagues. In his mind, Sandeep hears the conversation as he begins moving the boat off the dock and down the riverway.
"I can't believe he just gave it up like that," says the woman.
"Gave what up?" says Mitchell.
"The anti-bot laser," she says.
"This is just one of their bodyparts," says Mitchell, "It's not the laser. You gave up my boat for nothing!"
"We- we should try and get it back..."
The thoughts fade as Sandeep heads deeper into the broads on his new narrowboat. Whatever next!
Sandeep no longer has a cyberwolf tail. Sandeep has a canal boat.
[update your character sheet with new empathy and loss of tail]
Spooner RowFollow and remain quiet while they do their thing, trying not to limp too hard because of the arrow in my leg. Also, see about trying to join in on the spying, using my morph’s keen hearing and sight. Dunno if i can record video on it, but if I somehow can, do so.
[P4 rolled 5+2+1wits+1catmorph-1kneeinjury=8]
[P4 rolled 5+5+0connexion=10]
P4 sneaks down with the others, one leg limping. They creep through the dilapidated houses and thick brush to the edge of an encampment. All the while, P4 captures the proceedings with perfect fidelity for playing back in Nexus.
The encampment is a circle of vehicles, including several caravans and heavy trucks. In the centre there's a big bonfire. All about there are tough looking men and women carrying weapons. The group see a scarred woman dressed in black biker leathers walking into huge truck which has a forge chimney bolted onto the back.
"That's Marie's truck," whispers Dell. "This is a bad sign, she's the most vicious of them."
They consider sneaking closer to get a listen, but there's so many people around and they don't want to be spotted.
"Deadman," Dell whispers. "If you want to really show you're friendly, get in and record the meeting. You're a big cat, you could jump onto the roof of the truck and listen through the chimney."
As a show of goodwill on their part, one them cautiously pulls out the crossbow bolt from P4's leg. His self-stabilising internal systems start compensating for the muscle tearing and he feels almost up to scratch again.Ad hoc Keep quest offered:
Record the MeetingRecord the meeting between Marie and the Mob.
Location: Spooner Row
Reward: +1 keep rep, +2 tallies
P4 loses condition: arrow to the knee.
Buried Saint"Lets go ahead and go to Buried Saint now, because the longer we have this thing the more chances it has to escape."
Drive the RV to Buried Saint.
Karen seeing that she needs to find interesting news stories and should get a tourist Uploxed for the Postwick Mob, directs herself towards to [Watton]
The drive to Buried Saint is relatively quiet. The way takes them past their farmhouse in Scole, where Burt is able to get a change of clothes and some food and swap out any supplies. Then they drive on to the Legend stronghold.
In the crumbling remains of yet another once quaint market town, the Legends have built a complex of fleshfactories that spread out under their radio tower. Here, slowly but steadily, new bodies are forged.
There's a long tussle in the vehicle with the ferret but eventually Rovin disappears out with it wrapped up in his bloodsoaked cloak and heads to the complex. He returns a short while later, his face mask heavily scratched.
"Never do favours for anyone, is the moral of that story," he says.
As they're chatting they see a woman walk towards them on the road leading out of Buried Saint.
Karen starts on the road leading out of town and sees a motorhome covered in solar panels. Inside the home is Legend member of some renown, the savage Red Cap known as Rovin. His morph is short and bearded with iron boots and blood red beard. His face is covered in an impassive mask. He wields a long pike and wears a red baseball cap emblazoned with the word LEGEND. He's travelling with what appears to be a middle aged human man with thinning hair, wearing armour made from a kitchen cabinet tied held together with cable ties. On his head is the skull of a cyberdog, undoubtedly one of the GML's morphs.
The Keep”Well, of a sort. It comes with being a tortler”, explain my plans and situation with her, if she wants to know more.
[Auze rolls 3+3+2empathy+0keep=8]
Francine listens as Auze explains his background as a tortler and the unlikely way he managed to come to East Anglia.
"Wow, I always wondered if everything was as crazy elsewhere as here, but if anything the galapagos sounds even more nuts," she says. She cuts the conversation short, as she has to go tend to some orphans who are currently the collective responsibility of the Keep and are a constant source of trouble: Pandrick 10, Dolores 10, Penelope 8, Otto 7
Pandrick has a bucket of batteries that he's scavenged from various buildings and he's currently trying to spark them against each other to set fire to an ancient tapestry; Dolores is trying to converse with George the Tortle in a series of croaks and ribbets that she thinks George understands; Penelope has seven rats in her cardigan that she's feeding her rations to; Otto has climbed inside an old suit of armour and is trying to walk about in it, trailing parts as he does.
Auze has now met some civilised people he could get involved with to help continue his dynasty... but who?Meeting People is complete. Auze gains +1 tally.
Bungay -> AirportThe adventure continues! Take the bus to Cromer to see about evolving mutations.
[Theodore rolled 4+2+3weird=9]
It's not hard to follow the road north and Timmy and Theodore zip along at speed in their double-decker bus. As they get to the outskirts of London, Timmy stands at the top of the bus and looks out for Land Pirates but they manage to get by safely. The going is slow at times and they have to double-back on some roads that are blocked by fallen trees or crumbled bridges.
Somewhere north of Norwich they take a path off the road that leads through an old airport.
"Can we take a look in there," Timmy shouts down from the top deck as they pass by an aeroplane. "I always wanted to fly a Boeing 737 MAX, I'd love to take a look in the cockpit."
Theodore goes to respond and notices his tongue feels strangely warm. Not burning up or anything, but much hotter than a silver tongue should feel. He wonders if it has anything to do with the warp powered engine.Theodore gains condition: hot tongue
DerehamFind a way to the labyrinth and place the spikes somewhere where there isn’t a trap yet. Start constructing the flamer trap[/b
[Sandra rolls 6+5+2wits=13]
Sandra rolls all around Dereham but can't seem to find a labyrinth anywhere.
"Wh-wh-what are you l-l-looking for?" Persephone asks. Sandra explains what's she's up to and the bodysnatcher says, "D-d-don't be s-silly, the l-l-labyrinth isn't here!"
With all the parts assembled, Sandra works on putting together the trap for Terraterror to put in their labyrinth, wherever that may be. While Jager rattles off bullets in the pit nearby, Sandra carefully and methodically assembles a competent flame+tripwire trap, and a spike+pressure plate, all ready for installation.
Pleased with the work, Persephone hands over the cloud seeder.”Thankfully I have a second gun”
Jager switches his arm back into mechanical form and pulls out his PSG1 sniper rifle and blasts the mutant in the head with multiple rifle rounds, hopefully finishing it off.
[Jager rolled 5+3+3body+1gun=12]
In the pit Jager switches to his second gun. The bulbous series of lumps where the things head should be explode when the bullet hits dead on. Finally the mutant veers to a stop.
"QUALITY ENTERTAINMENT! OUR MEGAMUTE WILL TAKE A WHILE TO RECOVER FROM THAT BEATING!" blares one of the drones as Jager climbs out of the pit by a ladder dangled down. He feels his kudos grow as millions tune in to see the fight unfold.
"We've give the cloud seeder to your friend," says Persephone's avatar in Nexus. "But we could give you another one if you wanted? Usually the reward is more weapons... I think we have some semtex lying around here somewhere you could have."
A Little Less Conversation is complete. Jager gains +2 tallies, +1kudos, +either semtex or a cloud seeder.
ScoleAfter a long silence save for the rain outside, sitting with head bowed and brow furrowed in consideration, Ben finally looks over and speaks up.
"Um, so, d'you know where they muties come from, then? What're the robots weak tae? Oh, an'... do ye know what happened to my da'?"
He hesitates before asking the last, not really expecting any revelatory answers, but he watches the bear with restrained hopefulness nonetheless, absently fidgeting with his lash in the meantime.
Finally start asking some questions: the origins of the mutants, any weaknesses of the uploxed and, perhaps even more unlikely to get an answer, the fate of my father. Offer any additional information as requested.
If one or more of my questions proves outside the scope of the bear's knowledge, try and think of something else to ask that might be helpful - maybe where I might find good upgrades for my lash or some such.
Ben sits in the darkness and thinks for a long long time. He drifts off to sleep and when he awakes it's light outside and the rain has stopped, but the bear is still there. At last he asks his questions and the bear attempts some answers.
"Hmm, it's common knowledge that the mutants were made by Walt Labs which, bizawwely, is still going. According to the wiki, all their non-English facilities closed in '27 after it turned out that their cwyogenics tech was totally bogus and their founder and CEO Eve Walter disappeared. How they made them is anyone's guess but they had labowatories in Norwich, London, Swansea, Sunderland, and Canterbuwy.
"The uploxed are immortal, but their bodies aren't anything special. They're vulnerable to cwushing and heat damage, and their internal circuits are vulnewable to electwic surges. They can't easily be stopped with bullets, which can wicochet off their armour. Also, they have to wemain in connection to act, so damaging their antennae, most often hidden on their heads, will defeat them easily. As for permanent harm, short of launching a missile at their satellites, the only weapon known to work is a pwototype overclocking laser, that can permanently cowwupt an uploxed's data. It was last seen held by some mad mutant somewhere east of here.
"As for your father... I don't know. I see no wecords of him."
Disappointed but not surprised, Ben asks about upgrades for his lash.
The bear does a celebratory backflip. "What a factoid I have found! Mawy McCartney, daughter of Linda of the veggie sausages, was involved in the Vegan Upwising of '25. When that was ended, her famous electwowhip was left on display in the office at the family's fake meat factowy in Fakenham. That's about 70 kilometres from here."
With that information imparted, the bear says it's off to see the sights and begins to walk out of the town hall.Quest updated:
Upgrade my lash to improve its combat effectiveness
Spikes and barbs are what Ben needs, but most of the metal one finds is rusted or weak or hard to reshape. The pirates have learned of a razorwire factory in Lowestoft. Their first raid there managed to kit out one of the trucks with gnarly spikes, but apparently there's loads more back at the factory they didn't have the space to take.
Alternatively, there's apparently an electrowhip which would make a great addition, but it's deep in GML territory in Fakenham.
Location: Lowestoft or Fakenham.
Reward: x1 tally
Esso Station -> BungayWhy, it's time to go to Bungay, of course! With all the ruckus the Londoners are causing around there, more than a few popsicles are bound to be shaken out. Who knows? Maybe he'll be convinced this time around. But first, preparations.
Ed buds off a corgi sized offshoot of himself, to clean up and watch over the station while he's out. After that, he puts on his rig, and starts making tracks towards Bungay.
[Ed rolled 6+6+3weird=15]
Ed splits off a smaller part of himself to watch over the station. His distended stomach disappears as the mass is lost to form this new body, but his initial body remains looking almost the same size (though any further splitting is bound to have a marked effect). With that out the way, he sets off towards Bungay. He keeps a sharp eye on his surroundings but he doesn't see anyone on his way over, though in the distance, several times, he could swear he heard vehicles on the move.
Bungay is surrounded by an unnatural vast obsidian wall, surrounded by a rerouted river that makes up the moat. There are a series of gates inside. Ed walks across the drawbridge and someone on high at the wall shouts down, "Brother, welcome to Bungay. Are you known to us?"
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Topic: Warped II! a postapocalypse quest roleplaying game - An End of Sorts (Read 38943 times)