Monday, March 28, 2016

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)

 

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