Sunday, March 20, 2016

Hell on Earth Reloaded: Campaign Journal Session 1

Real World Date: March 12, 2016

Campaign World Date(s): July 4, 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.

Jet Li is a master of Kung Fu fighting with a signature "Ka-Doosh!" power. At some point during his wanderings across the Wasted West, 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 afraid of things that go bump in the night. Played by Justin.

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.

 
Readin' the Sitch

Mission: Recon the Hellbore

·         Out of desperation, the team has decided to take up a mission for the town of Junkyard. They've decided the rewards are worth it. First up, there's two weeks of canned rations—the good stuff, not the recycled gunk served up in the camp food lines. Second, and more importantly, if they complete the mission, there's Junkyard citizenship. It’s nothing to scoff at, especially with food and resources in the camps and shanty towns continually in such short supply.

·         They met with Ike Taylor, the mayor of Junkyard. He explained that during the Harvest, the Combine used a Hellbore, an enormous digging machine, to burrow under the Rockies to flank Junkyard from the north up around the town of Logan. A huge army emerged from the tunnel and started marching towards Junkyard. Fortunately, Junkyard was alerted to this in time to react. The town had a MOAB bomb squirreled away, and Ike ordered it dropped on Logan. The innocent people of the town would be collateral damage, unfortunately.

·         Ike wants the team to go to the site of this tunnel and determine if the Hellbore is still there. He warned the team that he had sent scouts into Logan previously and none had returned. Ike didn't know what was in Logan, but he advised the team to be prepared for anything.

·         Ike gave the team a palmcorder complete with a map to where they need to go. Once there, the team was to use it to record the area, as well as get some interior shots of the Hellbore. If they bring back this information, the food and Junkyard citizenship are all theirs.

Mission: Get Rich or Die Trying

·         The team had another reason to travel north. In one of his scavenging hunts, Groot had found a journal from a sky pilot, now presumably dead. The journal stated that the pilot's plane had passed through the ghost storm at Saltmarsh and crash-landed inside the Deadland. Only half of the 8 man crew survived the ghost storm and the crash. 3 out of the remaining crew died walking out of the Deadland through the ghost storm. The pilot seems to have quickly lost his mind after this ordeal, as the journal turns to gibberish shortly thereafter. The plane was full of ammunition and weapons for the Harvest War. The team would be rich if they could recover it. Of course, there's a good chance that they could all die.

 
The Tell

Fight against the Walkin' Dead

·         The team rolled into the ruins of Logan in Groot's truck and Max's motorcycle. They were promptly ambushed by walkin' dead.

·         Groot was unnerved by the sight of the undead and had a heart attack. Then he took a head shot that ripped open his skull. Luckily, Max grabbed the missing skull piece and slapped it back on Groot's head. Groot survived the wound, but now his head is horribly disfigured. [Justin played the Hot Iron and Whiskey Adventure Card].

·         Tituba dropped the leader of the walkin' dead with one well placed magic bolt to the head.

·         After the combat, the team performed CPR on Groot and managed to restart his heart. There's was nothing they could do for his gruesome head wound, though.

Interludes

·         Solomon, Tragedy. Lost his daughter Ripley recently. Frederick the priest took Solomon and Ripley under his care. He inspired Solomon to become a Templar. While Solomon was away, Ravenites attacked Frederick's church, killing the holy man, and kidnapping Ripley.

·         Tituba, Victory. Has a sister named Mercy, who ran a town called Road Kill Alley. Tituba was supposed to take over a town called Dead Man's Mark. Something happened, though, and Tituba ended up as a refugee in Junkyard.

·         Jet Li, Tragedy. Jet had a friend, "Kung Pao". The two survived the Fall due to being in the freezer at the Chinese restaurant where they worked. They lived on frozen food for several weeks. A man named Angus Bond recently killed Kung Pao.

·         Max, Love. Before the Fall, Max had a girlfriend, Crystal. They were both mercenaries and assassins, and they were hired to kill the Pope. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, someone popped him instead. As he lay dying, the ghost bombs hit. He's wandered the wasted west for 16 years, hoping to find Crystal.

·         Groot, Desire. Sticky Bob stole a steering wheel named Charlie from Groot. The steering wheel supposedly talked to Groot and made him a better driver. Groot wants to find and kill Sticky Bob, and get Charlie the steering wheel back.

Scavenging Logan and Exploring the Hellbore

·         The team scavenged the ruins of Logan. Jet Li found a memento, a golden, plastic cat with an arm that waved up and down. It brought back happy memories of his time before the Fall as a Chinese food delivery driver. [A Memento acts as a one-time Benny that the PC can save and play when necessary.] 

·         The Hellbore sat about 100 yards away from the tunnel it had created. Its nose consisted of huge grinding drills which gleamed dully in the sunlight. The Hellbore measured at least 100 feet in diameter and about 100  yards long. Along the flanks of the huge cylinder were large tank-like tracks designed to drag it through the earth’s crust. The team could see windows at the very top of the Hellbore.

·         Jet Li scampered up the Hellbore, then lowered a rope for the rest of the team. With a mighty Ka-Doosh!, Jet smashed in one of the windows. He was greeted by a terrifying sight: a ghostly, fiery, screaming apparition.

·         Jet was not impressed by the ghost. Solomon, on the other hand, took one look at the fiery creature and promptly dropped from a heart attack. Groot reacted quickly and punched the Templar right in the middle of the chest, starting his heart back up. Solomon rose and slew the creature in one blow with his Templar sword.

·         The team found themselves in the control room of the Hellbore. They recorded images with the palmcorder. They were reluctant to explore the rest of the machine due to Combine devices tending to explode.

Battle with an Automaton

·         The team heard a "clank, clank, clank" sound from the outside. Looking out the window, the team saw a large, metal, mechanical, roughly humanoid shape approaching the Hellbore. On the top of the machine was a clear plastic bubble that held a rotting human head with red glowing eyes. Max was so terrified of the thing that a streak of white appeared through his hair. [Max failed his Fear Check, then rolled the Mark of Fear on the Fright Table.]

·         The team engaged the automaton. Things looked grim for the party until Groot rammed his truck into the unholy machine, destroying it. This activated the automaton's self-destruct mechanism. A huge fireball engulfed most of the party.

·         As the debris was clearing, the team saw a group of humans emerging from the tunnel. They were wearing distinctive black and red helmets. Combine forces!

·         And that's where we stopped for the night.

·         Groot - 2 Wounds

·         Max - 2 Wounds


XP 

2 XP earned. Tituba earns 9 XP (!?@#$%) due to being a power spanking Munchkin and playing "The Hard Way" adventure card, which turned her 7 Bennies into XP.

Tituba gains an Advance!


Character

Old XP

XP Earned

New XP

Raisin' Hell

Groot

0

2

2

1 Mutation, arm like a gnarled tree branch (Brawny Edge), 1 Heart Attack, 1 Scar (-1 Charisma)

Jet Li

20

2

22

1 Mutation, metallic sheen to skin (+1 die bump Vigor), 1 Memento

Max

20

2

22

Harrowed, Paranoid (Yellow Hindrance, Mark of Fear (-1 Charisma)

Solomon

20

2

22

Lame Hindrance, 1 Heart Attack

Tituba

0

9

9
 

 

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