Mutant Creatures (Jason GM)
07/21/2022
Enroute Chaff. 13 days travel to Rogers. Chaff is a day and a half south of Rogers. Mostly uneventful journey except for one point where naturally fallen trees block the road. We arrive at the walled village of Chaff. The wall is makeshift.
We ask to take a tour tonight. We learn the locations of the buildings with missing families. Two families of 4 and one of 5. One of the buildings has a tunnel but not the other two. We take a look at the one with the tunnel. Tunnel is a meter in diameter. The trackers take a look to see what they learn about the creature that made the tunnel. The recognize the tracks as Moaner tracks. They are not really undead but they are not alive. They have the semblance of humanoid and are intelligent.
Psymon knows something about them. Their blood causes a sickness (just from contact - poison blood). Their weakness is bright light. They like to mate with humans. They can also cause radiation sickness. Most of their mutations are not beneficial.
No blood has been found. There are signs of a struggle at the first and third places in the village.
During the trip here, Fenwad brought up a reward for completing this task and making the village safe again. Offer is a Remington Roomsweeper, gas mask, 7 shells for the RR, frag grenade and 500m square piece of land outside the village. He gives us everything except the land now to help us out.
The prophet Kwon, a 3-headed mutant, arrived a few months ago, after the first disappearances. We wonder if there is a link.
The Temple of Kwon plays strange music at night. I ask a nearby guard if this is a nightly occurrence and he indicates that it is.
In the morning, we investigate the tunnel, with Spook going first, then Guile, Psymon, Fone, Azimuth and Sakasi.
We go for about 10 minutes and find a hole to the surface. It is partially covered with brush. We continue along the tunnel another couple hundred meters. Tunnel begins sloping down. Spook gets the feeling that there is a creature up ahead. Guile decides to sneak forward using his chameleon ability and stealth skill. He sees a black centipede up ahead. Its bite is a sleep poison.
Spook, Guile and Psymon defeat the monster with guns and pyrokinesis. Guile is bitten and fails his save so is poisoned with sleep venom. He falls asleep after the battle and may be out for 24 hours.
Mutant Creatures (Jason GM)
07/28/2022
We investigate the Temple of Kwan, also known as the Temple of the True Prophet. They seem happy to see us and usher us in. Their robes are makeshift. The prophet is a three-headed mutant with no arms or legs. Her speaks of a device that can send us to other worlds. He tells us to come back after completing our mission for Fenwad the infidel. Then he falls asleep.
We return to the tunnel and follow it for another 300 yards or so. Then it opens up to a mud pit with a ledge running around it.
Guile moves ahead and checks out each of the other four openings. The first one (12) has light somewhere down there but, while it starts about 2 meters in diameter, it narrows down to 1 meter after a few meters. After a bit, there is a tile floor and fluorescent light and enough room to stand in. Then it narrows down again goes another dozen meters or so and opens up again to a railroad tunnel. We decide to follow it to the north for a kilometer or two. We eventually reach an area where roots grown down and create a jungle-like growth that we would have to hack through. We turn around and head back.
When we get back to where we started, we continue with the plan to travel another 2 km. Then we travel another half a km and the tunnel is collapsed. But just before is a door that is opened. On the other side is a black centipede that we manage to dispatch fairly easily. There is a shaft in the back that used to be an elevator shaft but was used by the black centipede to access the surface. Guile climbs up to note the location.
GM: During the battle, Guile rolled a natural 1 twice with his 9mm, invoking rolls on the malfunction table. The first just resulted in a dud and a need to take an action to clear the chamber. The second resulted in the gun firing normally but the casing did not eject, resulting in the need to take an action to clear.
Psymon scans for Appa to get a specific distance and direction to the town.
Azimuth finds a rotted backpack with a ziplock bag containing five very large shotgun shells. On the side, it says 6 gauge. Also find a nylon backpack in poor condition containing a flashlight, nylon rope, 2 flares, 2 frag grenades and a gas mask.
We head back to the muddy pit - and find 4 moaners there talking. Guile sees them first and they do not see us. Spook will sneak out and toss a frag grenade.
We end the night after 2 rounds of battle. Azimuth is the focus of the attacks but succeeded in his disease save so does not need to make another save.
Mutant Creatures (Jason GM)
08/18/2022
We finish the battle with the moaners, defeating them but Sakasi is hurt and suffers the disease. It could be fatal.
We start down passage 17 but find a gym bag. Sakasi moves it with telekinesis. He opens it the same way. Looks like some sort of game (croquet set).
Head down 17. Go for an hour. Passage looks fairly well used. Go for another hour and reach a 3 way intersection. Hole going up.
Guile climbs up into a building in a forest. Building is dilapidated. It was never a home but had some other purpose. Guile ties off a rope and drops it down so we can all climb out. Once out, we move away and set up a camp so that Spook and Sakasi can go into town and get the ingredients that will heal the disease inflicted by the moaners. Sakasi will run while Spook will Shape Change into a large flyer.
They reach the town with no problem and are able to purchase some ingredients. Then they come back. Sakasi is looking infected so Fone gives him one of the two injections. We save the other one.
Back down the hole and continue along the tunnel for a couple more kilometers. Then see a pipe along the left side and we follow it for a few dozen meters to a hole in the pipe. We could continue in the tunnel or the parallel pipe, which is slightly larger in diameter. There are some tracks going the other way in the pipe. We may follow up on that later.
We go another 10 or 15 minutes and the pipe comes to a T intersection and gets larger (2 meter diameter). We go right. Every 20 meters or so there are small pipes connecting to this one. We go farther and see on the left a hole in the pipe opening to a cavern. The pipe also continues on.
Guile goes into sneak mode (chameleon and stealth) to investigate the cavern. He comes back about 10 minutes later. Building is 500 x 200 feet with a couple of exits. Surprisingly well intact for its age. Fone and Guile fail to identify the large machines. There are broken computers.
As we are investigating, Spook gets the feeling we are being watched (natural 1 with Detect Ambush).
A large creature bursts out of the water and lands on the walkway. It is a land pike - cross between alligator and fish. We defeat it and four more that leap out later. Everyone except Spook takes damage. We head to an enclosed space where we find a dead body with miscellaneous loot. Then Fone begins doing Patch Wounds one those who were injured.
We search some more and find some more loot in a crate that Fone opens with his Pick Locks skill.
Then we continue along the walkway and get attacked by 5 more land pikes but these ones are a lot tougher. Sakasi is staggered (need to roll) and there are 2 left when we finish. Azimuth is bloodied and Sakasi is at 0 hit points (staggered).
Mutant Creatures (Jason GM)
11/22/2022
We defeat the remaining two land pikes and then move out of the room and do some healing, using Patch Wounds and Acceleradose.
Fone pulls bullets out of 10 rounds of .50 ammunition to rig up a makeshift bomb to blow open the rusty door that we find at the top of a long, switch-back staircase. It works and blows about a 60 cm square hole at the bottom of the door.
In room beyond are a bunch of doors, many with key slots but with no power. Fone is able to jury-rig power to the doors and card reader using Spook's Electrical Generation mutation. It still requires a card and the one that Azimuth is carrying (red with silver trim) works.
First door we open leads to a storeroom which has another door leading outside. The storeroom looks to have been well looted already. Fone considers what it would take to fix one of the generators outside but would need some powercells so we discard the idea.
We continue our search and find a garage with a dissembled car, a break room and an office. We find a door leading outside.
We enter the factory. Azimuth steps on a plant and gas spores explode. Azimuth is affected but his CN brings it down to stage I (vs intensity 12 poison). He gets one action per round.
Mutant Creatures (Jason GM)
02/02/2023
Azimuth stumbles out of the cloud. Spook recognizes it as death moss that paralyzes. The whole corner is covered with death moss. They obscure some crates that do not look to have been looted. There are also bones among the death moss.
We use rope and telekinetic hand to pull the crates out of the death moss area. First contains old $100 bills. The second contains a mummified body.
Third crate contains old clothing. There are also some coins, about 6 domar worth of coins.
Fourth crate full of clothing. Also a pair of red, translucent dice (Ceasar's Palace).
Fifth crate contains a large, portable DVD player with screen 30 cm, by 30 cm by 45cm. It has a slot for a power cell that is empty.
Sixth crate contains old clothing with dried blood and 13 domar worth of coins.
Seventh crate contains old shoes. Under a sole are a bunch of gemstones. 8 diamonds of similar size and quality. Each probably worth about 60 domar.
Eighth crate is very heavy and difficult to drag and about a meter square. It is a safe. Fone gets it open (natural 1 skill roll). It is full of $100 bills and lots of coins. At least 800 domar worth of coins (all silver dollars so maybe worth more - 650 silver dollars).
Ninth crate is a small safe (27 cm square). Fone picks the lock and finds it full of gold coins (253 coins). They are all identical.
Tenth crate is full of clothes. Among them is a gem that was sewn into a seam. Probably worth about 110 gold.
Eleventh crate is full of broken pieces of plastic.
Twelfth crate is filled with rags but also has 2 domar.
We search the rest of the chamber.
We head back to the storeroom to rest for the day.
We investigate the door to the right as we return to the factory. A spiral stair leads up to a passage. The passage leads to other passages that are all, eventually collapsed, leaving only the main passage viable. Signs mark the offshoots but the main corridor is labelled "Main Corridor". After half a mile or so, main passage collapsed. Left is Dumont Greenhouse. Right is National Weather Service center. A couple hundred meters and square stairway going up. Up about 20 meters or so and come up in a destroyed building.
Wiley scans and finds a bunch a moaners within a kilometer. He counts up to 75 before giving it up. Anywhere from 30 meters to a kilometer in all directions. Guile moves to the end of the tunnel in full chameleon mode. It looks out over a town. It is a moaner town. Psymon uses Telepathy (mind scan) to get exact distance and direction to Appa (our Rakoxen) in Chaffed.
One odd thing is that there were no tracks from the factory to the intersection. We head back to check out Dumont Greenhouse. 50 meters and then stairway going up.
Greenhouse A map.
Guile hears movement on the other side of the door. The door is in good shape. They are moaners on the other side (visible through a crack in the doors).
Moaners attack with something called white plague. If you can keep the victim alive, they will survive.
Mutant Creatures (Jason GM)
02/09/2023
After Spook scouts the greenhouse, he returns and reports what he found. One of the moaners seemed suspicious of him. We retreat back to the garage and decide to scout. Spook changes to a mutant bird and takes to the air while Guile will scout on the ground.
Moaners do not turn humans into moaners. They can procreate with human women. They are cannibals as well. They commonly carry fatal disease.
These moaners seem too well organized. Maybe there is a leader that can be destroyed, causing the moaners to be less of a threat.
Our focus should be to find out why they are so well organized.
Spook scouts the ruined city and finds a 2 block area inhabited by moaners. He also sees the greenhouses from above. He takes position on top of a 12 story ruined building where he can watch the moaners and watch us cross.
As we are crossing, a worm bursts from the ground and attacks Fone. Some blows are exchanged but then Psymon hits it with an Empathy attack using Fear. It retreats below the ground and we continue on our way.
We set up camp near the roof where we can watch them for a while. We are looking for patterns of behavior, what buildings they enter and exit, etc.
Spook is able to see where moaners are entering and exiting a hole in the ground via some sort of ladder. Most go in and out empty-handed. From the tunnel exit we saw, it is across the street and about 4 buildings down, about 70 meters.
During the night, they light a couple of fires and 2-4 moaners hang out there throughout the night. Other than that, none can be seen walking around.
Moaners at fires might be from a guardroom of some sort.
The night passes uneventfully. We continue scanning the next day.
We did notice that there were no lights on in the greenhouses at night so we decide it might be a good idea to investigate the greenhouses at night.
The best 2 options seem to either go back across the field or to investigate the separated guard post. We decide to investigate the guardpost. We depart our camp near the top of the 12 story building and circle around to investigate the guardpost.
Guile is watching from closer and he sees a moaner walk out of an old store and replace a moaner guard at the fire. As we move up, Guile moves up to look in the old store. In the back he sees a hole in the floor with a ladder leading down. The hole is about 4 feet across.
Guile creates a small diversion and we get the group across the street. We investigate the hole. Map 6.
Mutant Creatures (Jason GM)
02/16/2023
Down the tunnel we go. Guile finds a tripwire and drops a dead weight. We continue forward, stepping over the tripwire. After another dozen meters or so, the tunnel opens into a larger area.
We are in an ancient and thoroughly looted mall from ancient times. We look in various stores but find nothing more than a scented candle in the bookstore.
We proceed further. In an old shop, we find a badly wounded moaner who wants us to give ourselves to him to eat. As this is happening, a sand lizard comes out of the floor and attacks. We quickly dispatch it. Azimuth also kills the moaner and, in a hole behind the now dead moaner, we find a very scared human who has white pox. It is easier to cure if done within half a day of being. It is highly contagious, through body fluids. The man's name is Paradise.
Spook and Sakasi track it back to where the blood started and find the tracks of a mole man that apparently got into a fight with the moaner and almost killed it.
We start to question Paradise about the other humans, the moaner leader and the general area. There is a small passage in the rubble that comes out in another part of this building and then 2 stairs going up. Once up, there is a large area with doors straight ahead that lead to large room with moaners. Take left and than another left down a short hallway. Last door on the right has more prisoners.
Ritual every week where humans are sacrificed. Supposed to happen today and that is why Paradise escaped. It is due to happen today.
How can we out of here? Go towards 29. Corridor on left side, long hallway, rubble, then stairs up to surface in ruined city of Rogers.
Leader is hideous creature that looks like a snake, dragon, crab, octopus. Very big and very smart though it doesn't look like.
In antique store, Fone and Guile find a chess set with terra cotta warriors. Also a silk lantern.
In room 45, there is a woman standing there. She appears to be a robotic device of some sort selling woman's clothing.
In room 46 is a men's clothing store. Guile hears movement and then a clothing rack begins moving away. There is a human boy (PSH) about 8 years old. He is from Walsave. His name is Jimtoe Lastic. He has been down here for about a month.
The last room is a clinic with a blocked entrance. We go to an adjacent store and Azimuth bashes a hole through the wall. A mechanical nurse comes out and asks for the patient to follow her back to the doctor. Azimith goes back and fetches Paradise and Jimtoe. Paradise goes back with the nurse, along with Fone and Spook. There is a robotic doctor. Paradise gets on the table and the robotic doctor gets to work on him. After 10 minutes, the nurse says that we have the the correct remedy for this. Two saw blades come out and come down. Paradise manages to avoid the blades and then Spook cuts the cord, powering down the doctor.
We ask the nurse if the remedy was administered. She says it was. The next doctor (there are 8) administers the remedy to the boy (Jimtoe) but the doctor malfunctions and tries to use a scalpel. Azimuth grabs the robotic arm and bends it.
We look around the clinic and find 4 doses of antitoxin and 7 vials of biocort. The nurse tells us the code for the medicine used (NDX-4723).
We depart and head to location 48.
Mutant Creatures (Jason GM)
03/02/2023
We head to location 48 and find a tunnel that we need to crawl through. Guile hears moaners up ahead. The tunnel ends in another part of the mall. Lots of moaners at the top of the stairs (broken elevators). We think more prisoners are up there and start thinking of ideas to get them out. The best idea is Spook's and that is to have grenades go off on the surface to try to draw them out. We decide to have Sakasi take our 3 grenades and do that while the rest of us rescue the prisoners.
NOTE: Guile and Sakasi did some searching of the lower floor and found a female prisoner tied up with barbed wire and in bad shape. They rescued her and stashed her with the other two we had rescued previously (Paradise and Jimtoe). They also found some boxes of ammunition as well as a 6 gauge shotgun (single shot).
Psymon maintains a mind link with Sakasi. He makes it outside and uses his fledgling ability to fly telekinetically to struggle to the top of a building. Then he throws all three grenades in three different directions. We hear them explode down in the mall and so do the moaners. They begin to start moving towards the surface, by way of the tunnel that we entered from. Meanwhile, we are hiding under the escalators.
One of the last people out to investigate the explosions was a very tall creature that looked human.
Once most of the moaners have passed, Guile sneaks out and up to the upper floor to look down the corridor where we think more prisoners are being held. There are still three guards there.
This is where we stopped for the night.
Mutant Creatures (Jason GM)
03/09/2023
We move up and attack the three moaners guarding the prisoners. Over the course of the battle a half dozen more moaners show up. It is a long and difficult battle and Azimuth is Staggered twice but revived by Fone using Acceleradose both times. We finally defeated them and then freed the prisoners. We did a quick scan of the rooms to make sure we got everyone and then escorted them out of the complex and into the city. We made our way to the edge of the city and found a place to hole up and recover for a day or two. On our way out, we also recovered our previous 3 rescuees (Melanie, Jimtoe and Paradise).
About half of the prisoners are infected with the moaners disease. Our two doctors (Fone and Psymon) will be able to keep them alive if we can get them to a clean, sterile environment. It would also help if someone can sneak back into the complex and recover the medicines that were used to treat Jimtoe and Paradise.
NOTE: There are about 20 prisoners that we rescued.
This is where we stopped for the night.
Mutant Creatures (Jason GM)
03/16/2023
We come up with a plan to ferry people across the field with Sakasi running (he can outrun the Grabits) and Spook flying with both carrying people.
Spook stays in flying form and flies on ahead to Chaffed to get Appa and come out and meet us. The rest of us continue to town on foot with the rescued villagers.
At one point, Sakasi senses some sort of danger ahead so we bypass around it and meet Spook and Appa about halfway. We load the most badly wounded onto Appa and continue to Chaffed. We reach it safely.
The villagers are happy to see us. About a third of the rescued people are from Chaffed but all are happy to go to Chaffed.
At one point during the week, we see a jet fly by very high up in the air and flying very fast. We have the idea to pull out the high tech radio to try to contact the jet but we don't have any luck.
We stick around long enough (13 days total) for all of the moaner victims to have recovered enough to be out of danger.
Psymon has the idea to drop rocks on the greenhouse from high above to damage it.
As we leave, the counselor gives us a cloth to thank us for help them. It is King James Bible.
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