Hell on Earth Reloaded: Campaign Journal Session 3

Real World Date: April 9, 2016

Campaign World Date(s): July 5, 2097

 

The Posse

Jet Li is a master of Kung Fu fighting with a signature "Ka-Doosh!" power. At some point during his wanderings across the atomic wastelands, he picked up a mutation and now his skin has a metallic sheen to it. Played by Heath.

Mad Max is a Harrowed road warrior with a motorcycle. He tangled with a supernatural horror at one point and is now slightly nervous about things that go bump in the night. Played by Justin.

Martell is a young child with a completely bald head. He is just beginning to tap his syker abilities. Played by Keanu.

Solomon is a templar. Sometime in the past, a fearsome creature nearly ripped off  Solomon's legs and now he walks with an obvious limp. Played by Jeremy.

Tituba is a stunningly beautiful witch and a descendent of Mina Devlin. Played by Miranda.

 

Readin' the Sitch

The posse has travelled north from their current home in the city of Junkyard. They have two missions:

·         Go to the ruins of the city of Logan. Gather intel on the Hellbore, a huge mining machine used by the Combine during the Harvest War. Junkyard was offering a nice reward for this mission.

·         Enter the Saltmarsh Deadland to find a crashed plane full of weapons and ammo. They would be rich if they succeeded.

The posse had successfully taken video of the exterior and interior of the Hellbore. They had braved the Saltmarsh Deadland, but soon left to search for missing posse members. They found their missing compatriots in the midst of the Road Orcs, a gang of mutant raiders. The posse killed Four Eyes, one of the leaders of the Road Orcs. Then the posse noticed that a storm of Black Rain was rolling in. They quickly found shelter. Max and Tom found a small cave, while the rest of the posse found a larger cave. That's when Max's Manitou decided to take over.  Things did not look good for Tom . . . .

 

The Tell

To Junkyard

·         The Black Rain ended and the posse stumbled out of the caves. They noticed that their buddy Tom was missing. Max said he had fallen asleep and when he awoke, Tom was gone. Tom had just joined the posse, so the rest of the posse assumed that he had decided to go his own way. Doing so in the middle of a storm of Black Rain didn't seem like the best of ideas, but who were they to judge? [Thomas wasn't present for this session, so the fate of Tom is still to be decided.]

·         The posse debated on their next course of action. They decided to return to Junkyard to collect their reward. They would explore the Saltmarsh Deadland another time.

·         In Junkyard, they met with Ike Taylor, the mayor. They turned over the palmcorder with the video of the exterior and interior of the Hellbore. Ike said he would get back with them within 24 hours.

·         Ike also wanted to know if the posse had any information on the Road Orcs. Rumors were flying that Red Fang was summoning all of his raiders to the town of Road Kill Alley, home of the Sisters of Mercy. The Sisters, led by Mercy Devlin, were notorious haters of men. Something big must be going down for Mercy to deign to cooperate with a man.

The Long Arm of the Law Dogs

·         The party was escorted back to Barter Town. During a meal of gruel and algae, a messenger delivered a note to Tituba. The sender had important information regarding her sister Mercy, who had put a bounty on Tituba. The sender wanted to meet Tituba at 6:00pm at Warehouse 13. Tituba, not being wise to the ways of the world, hurried to the rendezvous, anxious for news. [Miranda was playing Tituba's Clueless Hindrance.]

·         Tituba was ambushed by a fat and slovenly Law Dog (if he could be called such) and his deputies (if they could be called such). The witch unleashed her magic on the men. Soon two were dead and the others were fleeing at top speed away from her.

·         Disappointed in not receiving information on her sister Mercy, Tituba returned to the posse.

The House of the Rising Sun

·         The next day the party met with Ike Taylor and received their reward: two weeks of canned rations and Junkyard citizenship.

·         Max acted like an ass for no particular. In disgust, Ike threw the posse out of his office. The posse had just won, and then lost, the confidence of the one man who could most help them.

·         Jet Li had a particular reason for wanting Junkyard citizenship. His daughter, Sarah, was missing. Dolly, a madam of a house of ill repute, knew information about Sarah. Dolly's establishment, the House of the Rising Sun, was located inside the gates of Junkyard and accessible only to those with Junkyard citizenship.

·         At some point in the past, Jet had "accidently" burned down Dolly's previous establishment. Dolly was not happy to see the kung fu fighter again. Dolly told Jet that he must do a favor in return for the information. She wanted a fertility talisman from Judy, a witch and Sister of Mercy, who ruled the town of Dead Man's Mark. Bring Dolly the talisman, and she would tell Jet what he wanted to know. Reluctantly, Jet agreed.

An Interlude

·         Tituba knew about Dead Man's Mark. She told the posse a tragic tale of how her sister, Mercy, had appointed Tituba to take over the town. Mercy had appointed another witch, Judy, to help Tituba. Dead Man's Mark was ruled by two men, Callic and Max.

·         Tituba was supposed to kill Callic and Max. Instead, she had fallen in love (lust?) with Callic and become friends with Max. Things went south quickly. Judy found out what was going. Mercy unleashed her magical fury on Tituba and Dead Man's Mark. Max and Tituba fled the town, while Callic stayed behind in the hope of saving them.

The Secret Way into the Town of Dead Man's Mark

·          Max knew of a secret way into the town, an old abandoned air raid shelter that had a tunnel that led to the basement of Callic's tavern.

·         Max knocked on the door using a secret code. A little old lady opened the door, told the posse to go away, and shut the door on them. After some negotiation, which involved Jet stripping naked to prove he was unarmed, the party convinced the little old lady to let them in.

Confusion and a Plan

·         Eve, the little old lady, introduced the posse to Jenny, a mutant with bright green teeth and a really bad case of halitosis. Jenny introduced the posse to Callic. The three inhabitants of Dead Man's Mark seemed confused by the posse's arrival in town. The posse had come from Junkyard, had used the secret knock, but had no information or supplies for them. The posse also seemed disinterested that the Road Orcs were gathering en masse at Road Kill Alley. Wasn't that why they had been sent?

·         In the midst of all the confusion, Callic and Tituba had a joyful reunion. Max and Callic had been best friends. Max seemed a little put off that Callic was working with Eve and Jenny, who seemed confused and didn't seem to trust the posse. Callic invited the posse up to his tavern. They gathered in a private room in the back.

·         Eventually, everyone was able to read the sitch. The posse wanted a fertility talisman currently in the possession of Judy. The posse was not here with supplies or info from Ike in Junkyard, nor did they care about the seeming alliance of the Road Orcs and the Sisters of Mercy. Callic had become lovers with Judy, and so had been allowed to live. Tituba was not happy with this news.

·         There was a knock on the door and a waitress informed Callic that the crow was here. Shortly thereafter, a crow flew into the room. It landed on the table looked around briefly and then flew off. Callic explained that Judy or perhaps Mercy, has some kind of control over crows and used them as spies. If one came to your house or business, you had to let it in.

·         Callic was willing to help the posse, but he wanted assurances that they would not kill Judy. He was worried about what Mercy would do in retribution. He also said that Judy had a satellite phone that she used to communicate with Mercy. The posse should grab that while they were acquiring the fertility talisman.

The Raid on the Mansion

·         After much debate, the posse decided to sneak into Judy's mansion. They dressed up like servants and put Solomon in a gimp suit. At the back gate of the mansion,, they talked their way into the grounds. Tituba and Solomon (in a gimp suit) then talked their way into the mansion. A servant named Robert led them to Judy's office.

·         Judy was home and working. She looked at Tituba (in disguise) strangely. Tituba's disguise seemed to work, as Judy then ordered Tituba and Solomon (in a gimp suit) upstairs.

·         Once upstairs, Solomon (in a gimp suit) cold-cocked Robert. Out of spite and cluelessness, Tituba arranged the body in a compromising position. She knew Judy would recognize the position from their previous time together and realize that Tituba was responsible. The two posse members then started searching the upstairs.

·         The rest of the posse snuck into the mansion. Martell tried to impersonate a servant and failed. He then knocked over a vase while fleeing. Judy got up from her desk and went to investigate. Jet Li paralyzed the witch with his signature "Ka-Doosh!" power. Meanwhile, Tituba and Solomon (in a gimp suit) found the talisman and the sat phone. Unfortunately, they also set off the alarm.

·         Items in hand, the posse fled. Jet dumped the paralyzed Judy in the latrine outside of the mansion.

The Chase

·         The posse ran for Callic's Tavern. Guards as well as crows were looking for them. The posse dodged and hid from the humans and the birds. After a rather stirring string of events, the posse arrived at Callic's tavern. [We ran a dramatic task based on Stealth.]

·         Once safely at the tavern, Max and Tituba tried to convince Callic to flee with them to Junkyard. Callic was concerned about leaving the town and thought he might be able to divert some of Judy's wrath if he stayed. Tituba used her feminine wiles to try and convince Callic to go with her. Helpless, Callic agreed.

·         The posse and Callic got in the truck and drove for Junkyard. A pair of vehicles emerged from the city gates and pursued them. An epic chase ensued. It ended with Tituba casting a Fear spell, causing the drivers of the trucks to crash into each other. Both vehicles and their passengers were engulfed in a screaming fireball of spook juice.

The Rad Patch

·         While the posse was congratulating themselves on their success, no one noticed that they had just passed a sign reading, "STOP! RAD PATCH!" They noticed a problem when the road started turning green and then started to glow. Yep, they were smack dab in an area filled with deadly levels of radiation.

 

And that's where we stopped for the night.

Vehicles

Vehicle	Spook Juice (in days)	Notes
Groot's Truck	1
Max's Motorcycle	2
Tom's Truck	1.5	Stolen from the Road Orcs

 

XP

Answer the following questions. 1 XP is earned for every yes answer. Min of 1, Max of 3 XP per session.

Did we successfully complete a Mission, overcome a major NPC or monster; or scrounge up a big, fat pile of Scrap from the pre-Apocalypse world?	Yes. The posse acquired a fertility talisman and a sat phone from Judy, a Sister of Mercy.
Did we create a new Mission by learning something new and important about the world or a PC?	Yes. Jet is looking for his daughter, Sarah.
Did we lower the Fear Level of an area?	Yes. We didn't play this out. But news that the posse had wiped out the walkin' dead at Logan, as well as dealing a blow to the Road Orcs, was a morale boost for Junkyard.

3 XP earned.

Martell receives 2 XP because Keanu was late. He also spent most of the night surfing midget and tentacle porn on his phone.

Character	Old XP	XP Earned	New XP	Raisin' Hell
Groot	4	0	4	·         1 Mutation: arm like a gnarled tree branch (Brawny Edge) ·         1 Heart Attack ·         1 Scar: horrible, disfigured skull (-1 Charisma)
Jet Li	24	3	27	·         1 Mutation (VotWW): metallic sheen to skin (+1 die bump Vigor) ·         1 Memento
Martell	2	2	4
Max	24	3	27	·         Harrowed: death wound = hole in the stomach ·         Harrowed: Dominion = 0 ·         Paranoid (Yellow Hindrance, VotWW) ·         Mark of Fear (-1 Charisma)
Solomon	24	3	27	·         Lame Hindrance (VotWW) ·         1 Heart Attack
Tituba	11	3	14
Tom	20	0	22	1 Mutation: Elderly (VotWW)

 

Chase Rules: Deluxe vs. Explorer’s Edition

Savage Worlds Deluxe introduced an entirely different set of chase rules from those in the Explorer’s edition. After using the Deluxe rules several times, I have decided to go back to those used in Explorer’s. One reason is because Deluxe uses an entirely new rule set that differs from anything else in the game Further, those rules are too abstracted, and I am a fan of abstraction. I prefer zones over real world measurements, for example. However, the idea that you were engaged in melee in one round and then the next you so far away that a Shooting roll suffers a -4 penalty is a hard concept to accept. It can be an even harder sell to players who are not interested in abstract concepts of rounds and distance, and who simply want to catch and fight the bad guys.

Another reason to use the chase rules in Explorer’s is that they use the standard initiative system. Using the initiative rules allows you switch from a combat scene to a chase, and vice versa, or even use both, with minimal impact. So the party might be chasing the villain and one of the PCs catches up to the quarry. For a round or more, that PC might be fighting the quarry using the initiative rules, while the rest of the party, using the same initiative rules, is still trying to catch up per the chase rules.

Being able to switch between combat and chasing is important for my group. The chase rules never work with my group when the PCs are the ones being chased. The players have always decided that fighting 1,000 screaming savages was a better idea than being chased by them. This meant that we were using the Deluxe rules for chases one round, then had to switch to the standard initiative rules the next. If it happened in the middle of the round, then some PCs might still be using the Chase rules, while others might be in combat. When am I supposed to drop out of the Chase rules and start using the standard Initiative ones? Further, how far away are the opposing sides?

One rule I liked from Deluxe is putting a duration on a chase. After a certain number of rounds of game time (which actually might be hours or days in the game world, depending), that quarry is assumed to have escaped. There’s a certain amount of abstraction to this too. The party might be less than 1 chase increment away and then the next round the quarry is gone. This abstraction I find easier to justify to players: you crest the hill and the enemy is nowhere to be seen; or you reach an intersection and have no idea which way the quarry went; or the man on horseback spurs his horse and reaches the city gates, which close behind him.

We are currently playing Hell on Earth Reloaded, a post-apocalyptic world that will have a lot of chase scenes with souped up cars on the highways of the Wasted West. I need rules that will move seamlessly between combat and chases. If a PC in a chase scene leaps from his car to the car driven by the enemy, I can continue the chase scene with the other PCs and the combat with the PC at the same time using the same rules for the most part.

Character Backgrounds

Ah, character backgrounds. Some people love them, some hate them. Some players write a detailed background; others may give you a brief paragraph and only after you threaten dire harm to the character. A detailed background often implies a range of experience that a starting character should not have. It can often pin down facts about the character that cannot be changed. On the other hand, a sparse background often fails to tie the PC to the campaign world. It does not let you know why they are adventuring or what they hope to accomplish.

 

I am a fan of character backgrounds because I use them to help flesh out the campaign world. The players get a chance to contribute elements to the campaign that they would find interesting. 

 

In asking players for character backgrounds, I have tried to strike a middle ground. Players only need to give me a small amount of information, but they must answer particular questions. The answers provide details about the campaign world and the PCs place within it. Most importantly, the answers provide hooks for adventures.

 

For the last several campaigns I have used a standard format to gather background info on the characters. Here is what I gave to the players for Hell on Earth: Reloaded: The Worms' Turn:

 

**********

As always, you need a written character background with the following elements:

• Why you ended up in the refugee camp outside of Junkyard and why you've decided to undertake a dangerous mission.
• A brief description of your character concept
• One Friend
• One Foe
• One Location
• Your worst nightmare
• Three Character Goals or Motivations. Traditionally, these would be short, medium, and long-term goals; but any three goals or motivations will do.

Friends and Foes are usually people (normal, mutant, or Harrowed), but it could also be an organization, a dragon or other monster, or a supernatural entity.

 

A Location could be a place you know well or a place you want to visit before you die a horrible screaming death. The place could be real or legendary.

 

Your worst nightmare is a Deadlands thing and is important for Harrowed characters.

 

To remember the world before the bombs, your hero is probably 23 years old or older.

If you don’t provide the GM with a written character background, then you receive 0 XP every session.

*************

 

Players can give me a standard essay with paragraphs that more or less tells a story about their character. Players can also just fill out the answers right on the sheet and give it back to me.

 

Once I receive a character background, I enter the information into my OneNote notebook under a section called “PC Background”. During session prep, I will review all of the plot hooks that the players have given me to see if they can be used. The key to the character back stories is finding a way to insert all of this information into the campaign world.

 

I will often try to foreshadow plot hooks. For example, in our recent Totems of the Dead campaign, a character had a background in which a friend had supposedly died. The player indicated that the friend was still alive, but their PC was under the assumption that their friend was dead. During an adventure against a necromancer, an NPC revealed that the friend had recently visited the necromancer and had inquired about the PCs long lost mother, also presumed dead. (Yeah, most players write tragic back stories for their characters.) Further investigation revealed that the friend was last seen heading southeast, which was the general direction of the PCs home village.

 

Another character had a background that listed a shaman as a friend and a sacred mountain as a location. Over a couple of sessions, I told the player that his character was having unsettling dreams about war and fire and bloodshed on the mountain. I placed the sacred mountain near the first PCs home village.

 

The party opted to head southeast to find out what was going on with both of these plot hooks. This led to several sessions of as the PCs resolved these situations.

 

Other times, I just drop a hook on the player’s head. One player had an Atlantean slaver with a horseless war wagon powered by some infernal device as a foe. The slaver had driven his wagon into the character’s village, and killed or enslaved the PCs tribe. (Yeah, most players write tragic back stories for their characters.) At some point during the campaign, I just announced that the slaver and his war wagon were in the immediate vicinity, collecting more slaves. Naturally, the party girded for war and went to extract revenge.

 

In any case, character backgrounds make my role as a GM easier. Backgrounds give me readymade hooks and plots. I just need to be sure to weave them into the campaign, so that the NPCs and locations provided to me are just other things that the PCs encounter as they wander, sack, pillage, loot, and cause general mayhem in the campaign world.

Hell on Earth Reloaded: Campaign Journal Session 2

Real World Date: March 26, 2016 

Campaign World Date(s): July 5, 2097

 

The Team

Groot is an expert driver and scavenges the atomic wastelands in a pickup truck. While scavenging a ruin somewhere in the Wasted West, he picked up a mutation. He now has an arm that looks like a gnarled tree branch. Played by Jacob. (Played by Steven this session.)

Jet Li is a master of Kung Fu fighting with a signature "Ka-Doosh!" power. At some point during his wanderings across the atomic wastelands, he picked up a mutation and now his skin has a metallic sheen to it. Played by Heath.

Mad Max is a Harrowed road warrior with a motorcycle. He tangled with a supernatural horror at one point and is now slightly nervous about things that go bump in the night. Played by Justin.

Martell is a young child with a completely bald head. He is just beginning to tap his syker abilities. Played by Keanu.

Solomon is a templar. Sometime in the past, a fearsome creature nearly ripped off Solomon's leg and now he walks with an obvious limp. Played by Jeremy.

Tituba is a stunningly beautiful witch and a descendent of Mina Devlin. Played by Miranda.

Tom has wandered the Wasted Waste for years working as a hired gun. Like some other members of the posse, he played too long in the radioactive sandbox and now has a mutation: he has aged prematurely. He has strangely wrinkled skin and unnaturally looking gray hair.  Played by Thomas.

 

Readin' the Sitch

 

The posse has travelled north from their current home in the city of Junkyard. They had two missions:

·         Go to the ruins of the city of Logan. Gather intel on the Hellbore, a huge mining machine used by the Combine during the Harvest War. Junkyard was offering a nice reward for this mission. 

·         Enter the Saltmarsh Deadland to find a crashed plane full of weapons and ammo. They would be rich if they succeeded.

The posse had just finished a fight with a band of walkin' dead, defeated a fiery ghost that haunted the Hellbore, had taken photos of the interior of the Hellbore, and fought an automaton controlled by an undead rotting human head. Just as they thought the worst was over, a Combine force emerged out the old tunnel that the Hellbore had drilled.

The Tell

Fight against the Combine

·         The Combine forces emerged out of the tunnel. They had two prisoners, naked and bound. One was a child with a completely bald head: probably a syker. The other was a man, with strangely wrinkled skin and unnaturally looking gray hair: obviously a mutant.

·         There was a brief firefight. The posse killed the Red Hat, the commander of the Combine forces. With the loss of their leader, the Black Hats retreated back into the tunnel.

Interludes

·         The posse set to work repairing Groot's truck and Max's motorcycle. The two prisoners introduced themselves and told the posse about themselves.

·         Tom was a combat medic before the war. After the Boom, he met Matthew Baxter, who became a close friend. Together they worked on rebuilding civilization, on returning things to how they used to be. Unfortunately, General Maxie Podrax, a particularly nasty individual, captured both Tom and Matthew. They were separated and Tom has not seen Matthew since. He hopes to find and free his friend. Then they can go back to rebuilding the world.

·         Martell has a twin sister, older than him by mere minutes. General Caruso, a cruel man and an officer serving the Combine, had taken the siblings under this care. One day, Martell's sister disappeared. His greatest desire was to find his sister.

·         Combine forces took both Tom and Martell into a cave system. After several days of marching underneath the earth, they emerged out of the tunnel at the ruins of Logan.

Through the Ghost Storm

·         The posse debated as to whether to return to Junkyard to collect the rewards or proceed to the Saltmarsh Deadland, which was on the way to Junkyard. In the end, the posse decided to investigate the cache of arms and ammo inside the Deadland.

·         Groot, Jet, Tituba, Tom, and Solomon piled into Groot's truck. They would drive through the Ghost Storm first. Max and Martell would follow on the road warrior's motorcycle.

·         Groot gunned the engine and drove into the Ghost Storm. He and the others experienced the visceral thrill of a Ghost Storm. It felt like their insides were being pulled apart. They made it through, but a couple of posse members were exhausted from the ordeal.

·         Before Max could follow on his bike, the manitou that powered Max's body with unlife decided that now would be a good time to possess the host's body. A test of wills followed and Max lost. With a hateful chuckle, the manitou turned the bike away from the Ghost Storm and headed south with Martell.

Fight against the Swamp Leviathan

·         The posse had little time to dwell on their experience in the Ghost Storm. The road they were on had disappeared, being replaced by a brackish swamp. Suddenly, large black tentacles emerged from the water and attacked the truck.

·         An epic fight commenced as more and more tentacles emerged from the swamp. Two strangers on a skiff entered the battle, casting spells against the tentacles. Their spells looked very similar to those cast by Tituba. Soon, the last of the tentacles was sliced in half and whatever creature the tentacles were attached to retreated.

The Saltmarsh Coven

·         The two strangers from the skiff approached. They stared in amazement at Tituba. They said that she was a more beautiful twin of the coven's leader, Betty Lou Devlin. When they had a moment to recover, they introduced themselves as Amy and Stacy.

·         The pair said that Betty Lou hated men with a passion. She had recently turned against the male members of the coven, invoking a ritual that turned all of the males into beast men.

·         The posse realized at this time that Max and Martell were not with them. The posse debated as to whether to brave the Ghost Storm again and go in search of Max and Martell, or proceed with searching for the crashed plane with its supply of guns and ammo. They decided to find Max and Martell. The road warrior had the palmcorder with the images from inside the Hellbore. That palmcorder was vital.

The Road Orcs, Part 1

·         The posse walked through the Ghost Storm and again experienced what it felt like when a thousand screaming souls try to rip out your heart. They emerged mostly intact. Once on the other side, they spotted a skid mark from Max's motorcycle that indicated he was headed south.

·         Somewhere down the road, the posse crested a hill and saw a large group of armed mercenaries blocking the only bridge available for at least a day's ride in either direction. A dozen or so cars, trucks, and motorcycles were parked near the bridge. A trading convoy was stopped several hundred yards from the bridge. It looked like the leader of the convoy and the leader of the raiders were talking in the space between the two groups. They also saw an animated Max and a crying Martell near the bridge. Max seemed to be in negotiations of his own.

·         Groot gunned it and made for the bridge. As they approached, Jet made multiple eye contacts with the leader of the raiders. It was Four Eyes, a mutant with four eyes, who was a lieutenant in the Road Orcs gang. Four Eyes immediately called out for the Road Orcs to take Jet dead or alive.

·         Tom had snuck down on his own and hidden in some brush. Once he heard Four Eyes yell, Tom sent a fire arrow into the nearest vehicle. The fire ignited the Spook Juice in the fuel tank. A nice explosion followed, which set off explosions in the vehicles next to it. A chain reaction followed as more than a dozen trucks and motorcycles went up in flames.

·         It was at this moment that the manitou lost Dominion over Max. Now his normal (abnormal?) self, Max grabbed a screaming and crying Martell, hit the gas, and flew north up the road. Tom dove back into the truck. Groot gunned it, turning his truck around, and followed the road warrior north. The Road Orcs, stunned by the destruction of so many of their vehicles, did not pursue.

The Road Orcs, Part 2 (or The Capture and Death of Four Eyes)

·         Jet and Red Fang, the leader of the Road Orcs, had vendettas against each other. The posse thought it would be a good idea to capture Four Eyes and find out where Red Fang was lairing.

·         The other posse members strapped Jet to the hood of the pickup in hopes of convincing Four Eyes that the kung fu master was their prisoner. They drove back to the bridge and convinced Four Eyes that they wanted the bounty for Jet. Four Eyes was happy with the capture of Jet and offered the posse the reward: 200 bullets and a days worth of Spook Juice. He ordered a truck brought forward with several jerry cans of fuel.

·         As Four Eyes grabbed Jet, the kung fu fighter slipped out of his bonds and punched Four Eyes right between his four eyes, knocking him out cold. The rest of the posse then hustled the unconscious mutant into the back of the truck.

·         Tom had snuck up on the truck carrying the Spook Juice. He killed the driver, grabbed control of the truck, and sped off to the north. Groot flipped off the Road Orcs, did a U-turn and followed. Max pulled off a spectacular maneuver with his motorcycle, leaving a number of Road Orcs in awe. A fusillade of shots followed, but the posse made good their escape.

·         Tituba used her feminine wiles, and a little bit of witchcraft, to try and convince Four Eyes to give up the location of Red Fang.  Four Eyes pronounced his love for Tituba but just couldn't give up the location of his boss. Then Tituba planted a kiss right on Four Eyes' mouth. She did so at the same that Max showed his stomach wound to the Road Orc, which caused Four Eyes to throw up a little in Tituba's mouth. Tituba's sacrifice was worth it, however. Four Eyes was now totally enslaved to her and the mutant declared that Red Fang was in Road Kill Alley, discussing some big plans with Mercy Devlin. Four Eyes didn't know what those plans were, but they must be important enough that Mercy would deign to cooperate with a man.

·         As soon as Four Eyes finished his confession, Tom shot an arrow right through the mutant's skull.

The Storm

·         The posse saw a storm approaching. Any storm in the Wasted West was bad news. They immediately scrambled for cover as Black Rain washed down on the land.

·         Max and Tom ended up in a small cave together. The manitou decided now would be a good time to take over Max. The road warrior lost the test of wills. The manitou, now happily in charge of its flesh puppet, had plans for Tom . . . .

And that's where we stopped for the night.

Vehicles

Vehicle	Spook Juice (in days)	Notes
Groot's Truck	2
Max's Motorcycle	2
Tom's Truck	2	Stolen from the Road Orcs

 

XP

Answer the following questions. 1 XP is earned for every yes answer. Min of 1, Max of 3 XP per session.

Did we successfully complete a Mission, overcome a major NPC or monster; or scrounge up a big, fat pile of Scrap from the pre-Apocalypse world?	Yes. Swamp Leviathan, Four Eyes.
Did we create a new Mission by learning something new and important about the world or a PC?	Yes. Two interludes.
Did we lower the Fear Level of an area?	No

2 XP earned.

Tituba gains an Advance!

Character	Old XP	XP Earned	New XP	Raisin' Hell
Groot	2	2	4	·         1 Mutation: arm like a gnarled tree branch (Brawny Edge) ·         1 Heart Attack ·         1 Scar: horrible, disfigured skull (-1 Charisma)
Jet Li	22	2	24	·         1 Mutation (VotWW): metallic sheen to skin (+1 die bump Vigor) ·         1 Memento
Martell	0	2	2
Max	22	2	24	·         Harrowed: death wound = hole in the stomach ·         Harrowed: Dominion = -1 ·         Paranoid (Yellow Hindrance, VotWW) ·         Mark of Fear (-1 Charisma)
Solomon	22	2	24	·         Lame Hindrance (VotWW) ·         1 Heart Attack
Tituba	9	2	11
Tom	20	22	22	1 Mutation: Elderly (VotWW)