Session 44 – Decompressing

Dramatis Personae

+Linlin Kins as Umquat
+Ronnie Whelan as Ronnina
+Adventures of the Mind as Don Harper of Mars

Loot

Tranquilizer Pistol: Attacks as a ranged weapon, with +4 if the character is attacking from stealth. On a successful hit, the target must make a saving throw versus Poison. On failure, they will fall unconscious in 1d4 – 1 rounds, and will remain unconscious for 1d6 + 2 turns. If the attack roll exceeds the target’s AC by 6 or more, then the target has been struck in the head or groin, and does not receive any saving throw, instead falling unconscious instantly. After use, the gun requires 1 round to reload before it can be used again. Some targets may be immune to the gun for a variety of reasons, at the discretion of the referee.

NPC Interactions

Sheniqua – Was touched that Ronnina let her have the cover, and stepped out to stand in the danger herself (Loyalty raised to 9)
Lugud – Was also impressed with Ronnina’s loyalty to Sheniqua, and hopes to earn similar loyalty himself one day. (Loyalty raised to 5)
Norno – Was pleased with Umquat’s use of flanking, rather than just charging into combat like a greenhorn. (Loyalty raised to 6)
Albert the Great – Always enjoys a good adventure with his buds.
ASCII – Agreed to join the party on this adventure, to find out what happened to Galens Brook, whom she quite liked. (ASCII’s bond has yet to be calculated under the new system. I will endeavor to do that as part of my work on the NPC thread)
Christian Preacher – Assaulted by the party. Kidnapped, and taken to Trumpquatia where he is imprisoned.
The Succubus – Fucked Don Harper. Walked away with a goodly supply of his semen.
A group of 12 Outsiders – Common foot soldiers. The party assisted them in doing their job, which they appreciated.
The Eight Weirdos – Reminiscent of Twitchy Man. Hostile. Unclear what their deal is.

Highlights Recap

Truthfully, the lion’s share of Session 44 consisted of the referee drinking, chatting with his buds about a variety of topics, and generally decompressing after a challenging day. That being said, some progress was made.

After concluding a gun auction from previous Haven Turn,m the party decided to set out upon their long delayed quest to discover the cause of Galens Brooks’ disappearance. Umquat, having received the location of Cult Quarterly’s offices from the Christmas Beast, contacted ASCII, who was happy to accompany the party to finally discover the fate of her old friend.

Shortly after setting out from Trumpquatia, the party came upon a chuckling crowd surrounding a street preacher. They moved in to investigate, and discovered that the preacher was not advocating for The Black, The Past Gods, or even for some known minority religion. He was, instead, preaching the bizarre faith of some unknown deity called ‘Geezuz,’ or something. The party joined in mocking him, and Don Harper decided to test out his new Tranquilizer Gun on the man’s neck. Turns out it works quite well! The crowd thought it was hilarious, but weren’t too interested when Don Harper turned around and tried to start preaching Akiovasha to them.

Figuring that you can’t win em’ all, the party made a quick jaunt back to Trumpquatia to stuff the priest in a cell.

Now ready to set off for real, the party settled in to make 6 encounter checks. Things went pretty quietly at first, and the party used the time to spend some money in their phone’s appstore, checking Mars-O-Pedia to learn about themselves. Don Harper is apparently a “Quantum” level Internet operative, while Umquat is listed as “Diamond” level. Both found pictures of themselves, as well as some general details about what missions they had performed for The Internet. They also looked up the Cult of Akiovasha, which was listed as a sting operation perpetrated by The 404, and supported by The B Team. (All of which is accurate).

Don Harper edited his Mars-O-Pedia entry to contain generous information about his dick size.

Appropriately enough, shortly afterwords, a gorgeous woman stepped out of a dark alley and started hitting on Don Harper pretty fuckin’ hard. She was dressed provocatively, with flaming feet and curling horns. The party correctly identified her as a succubus, an accusation she did not deny. (Indeed, she seemed to think the characters were kind of dumb for acting like they figured something out. She didn’t exactly hide her intent.)

Don was willing enough, so with a quick chomp on a Giga Zucchini (make better!), he allowed himself to be led behind the nearest dumpster, where he had his world rocked for about 30 minutes before the lady went on her way, saying she’d gotten what she needed. (Umquat wants it to be noted that she made sure to take a picture of the woman, for future reference.)

On the party’s 5th encounter roll (they got stupid lucky with their “safes” and “rations”), they bumped into a group of 12 Outsiders, fully clad in war kilts and wielding their great swords. The group was marching with rapid intent, and the party decided to follow them. (ASCII was slightly annoyed to be getting distracted from the real goal, but was willing to tag along.)

As the group approached where they were going, green beams of light started flying among them, and they dove for nearby cover. In reasonable safety, Umquat asked what the heck was going on. One of the Outsiders replied that a group of tall, gangly folk with strange weapons had been caught trying to abduct a settler, and they had been called in to help. That’s all they really knew.

Indeed, hiding behind a car were 8 of these not-quite-normal-folk, laying down surpressive fire with their ray guns. The party split, casting spells, arrows, and gunfire at the creatures from all sides. The Outsiders (curious to see what the PCs would do) mostly stayed out of it.

The party managed to deal a significant amount of damage to the odd folk, but couldn’t do it fast enough. Each round, 4 of the group disappeared in a manner almost identical to the way Twitchy Man disappeared back in Session 38. They got away without a single casualty, much to the party’s frustration.

Before moving on, the party contacted The Hangman to see if the the Internet had picked up some unusual energy signatures, or anything which might indicate what went on here. The Hangman replied that they didn’t scan for anything like that. After all, the Internet was the only one using any technology within the Dome.

The party shared what they’d learned, and the party asked them to come in for a full debriefing ASAP, which the party agreed to do as soon as they completed their current quest.

The session ended In Media Res