Post date: May 28, 2012 5:20:32 PM
Quick Recap:
7/4
Wrapped up After-wedding party, where Wayne spoke with Veronica at great length and learned she has a unique edge (High Notice d10, Smarts d10, Measure of a Man-make a perception check, success learn Edges, Raise learn Hindrances)
7/5
Next day they went to Veronica King's Orchard and saw she treated her slaves well and had a large group of jannisaries.
After arranging taking some Mutafruit jam to Coos Bay for some fish guts, Wayne confronted her on the issue of slaves and perhaps being a slaver herself.
She explained that she inheritted this position from her father, whom she clearly misses alot, and does take care of her slaves as the slavers do so rarely come down here and as such she is in charge of breeding them. She would cease her practice should the council abolish slavery.
Group also arranged with Crystal (the food and drink vendor) to take a whole bunch of sausage to trade for Seaweed
Then arranged with Rainer to take some junk (mostly novels and pencils) to trade for an equivalent weight of junk he didnt already have.
7/6
After checking with BW where it was clear he was not well enough to travel (and slipping him some laxative), the group went to Coos Bay.
After the first night they got to talking about Love and Tragedy (interlude time).
Doc started the ball rolling explaining the whole relationship disaster that was the Conner sisters. It turns out he had a huge crush on Denise (the cute one) and fudge his GOAT exam to be with her in Robotics. After building a robotic flower that didn't scream he went to ask her out, but saw she was fawning all over Otis Stinkmeaner - who, while an ass to most, was also the most handsome jock.
Heartbroken, Doc decide to get back at Denise by courting Donna, who had entered Nursing. So after ACE fixed Docs record, he got in to class and slowly learned to actually like her, but when he asker her out and she said yes, he didn't notice that that "yes" was really a no. So after arranging to meet her in a dark place for some private time, he met, they did the horizontal mambo, and when he woke up in the morning and turned on the light- to his horror he found he had slept with Deborah (the weathered one). He later discovered that Deborah had a thing for Doc, and Donna knew it. So he quietly slipped out and was glad that the three of them were going into cryo-sleep soon.
Wayne shared another perspective to this night of horror, for it was that dark room where they met that Wayne was stashing his comic books from the predatation of Otis Stinkmeaner, and accidently left one on the bed where Doc and Deborah did their thing and sadly it was unreadable after that night.
Grim, also shared that during that very same night she had interrupted the coupling of Denise and Otis by playing to the old vault legend of the crazed mechanic who lived in the air vents who had a hook for hand, and scared them silly.
During this whole time ACE dreamily accounted her one secret crush was is the for the famous Mad Scientist Dark Lord Madrid, who is surely out here in the wastelands. (Wayne then explained to the rest when she was out of earshot, that Dark Lord Madrid is a villian from the Captain Cosmos series and not a real person, and he hasn't the heart to tell her).
The rest of the journey to Coos Bay went without incident
7/8
Party arrived at Coos Bay, walking past the shot-up welcome sign, to which ACE noticed the Posiedon Oil logo. After crossing several miles of sand dunes the group spots the distant flotilla of ships. The biggest in the center was a Posiedon Oil refueling ship.
After making contact with a smaller boat, where they see they are using some sort of compressed gas engine, they store the brahmin and bear in a small fortified spit of land that the sand has not completely swallowed before arriving at the boats proper. As they wander to meet Captain Barton Finch they see that they use Electrical Distallation to get water. That there is a strict no smoking policy.
Upon meeting the late 30's dreadlocked and heavily tattooed Captain Finch they arrange to have dinner with him to discuss trade, they noticed the captain was always accompanied by a fully tatooed man who, instead of artistic tatoos, was covered in snippets of writing and chemical formulas.
At dinner they made the appropriate trades, discovered the other man was named Paulson and was known as an Engineer. They use hypnotic techniques and tatooed Memes to remember things that are important to the functioning of the community. They are not slaves, but instead a seperate caste, who are identified when young and then when they stop growing up are tatooed with the appropriate memes.
ACE inquired about the Poseidon Oil connection, where Captain Finch explained that this whole town was a ship repair facility and a reserve oil depot for naval vessels. But after the war, it was clear the great sand dune park was swallowing the town as a whole and they moved out to the sea. That this is a slave-free city, where everyman is free with the exception that all answer to the Captain.
They warn the Captain about the Super Mutant threat, which he takes with a grain of salt. They also explain they are here on behalf of Doc Hardy who is in need of some Albino Rad Scorpion Venom. Finch says he can take them there tomorrow morning.
After dinner and the Captain and cronies left, they get to talk to Mitch, Captain Barton's son. Mitch asks them all sorts of questions about the outside world and shares with them that he used to see flying lights in the night sky several months ago, but thas recently stopped. He also told them about his greatgrandfather and grandfather, who between them, was responsible for making many of the innovations that keep the city functioning. He then took them up to the Bridge allowed them to use the Captains Binoculars (which included low-light vistion) to see the great dunes about them as well as the skeletons of what were fueling piers out at sea. When Wayne asked if Mitch knew anything about the ships "Graduation" and "Dedication" he pondered for a bit and recalled some Corvallis rangers had stopped by a while ago and asked about them, but no one here knew anything about them.
When Doc noticed the ships radio was tuned to the broadcast of Thorne, Mitch explained that about 7 years ago the broadcasts stopped suddenly, but on occasion they hear music if the weather is just right and the cloads are just over the mountains.
7/9
The next morning they met Captain Finch early and he takes them to the less-sand spit where their beasts where kept and along with his son Mitch enter the largest building there and find at first impressions it looks like a junk yard, until they make out what they are looking at is a giant school bus with a tractor blade in front and metal grates over the windows. The wheels are solid object affairs clearly designed for going off the road. Behind this beast they spot the fram of a smaller car as well as what appears to be a giant still of some sort.
Mitch keeps hauling buckets of what appears to be water into the bus's passenger compartment though the rear emergency exit, while the Captain climbs aboard in the front.
Barton explains his Grandfather built this to help range farther out as the sands swallowed more and more of the region each year. Where as ACE deduced that this semi-closed system used electro distillation to seperate the water into Hyrdogen and Oxygen and then mixed them in the engine compartment explosively and then took the vapor and remixed it back in. It was truly a water powered bus and quite the feat of engineering. She noticed that someone was trying to replicate the engine process on the frame of an old prewar Corvega. When ACE inquired, Mitch explained that neither he or his father had the spark of their Mad Boy Grand Parents and are thus trying it out on their own while ensuring they do not disassemble what was done by their forefathers.
Up front was a crank powered gattling gun that had a small arc of fire out the front, but it works well when one needs to clear out some pesky rad-scorpions before disembarking.
When asked what dangers there were in the sands Barton mentioned Tan Mole Rats, Rad Scorpions in abundance, and Sand Snakes that can get to 6 feet long (or longer) and burrow in the sands and will attack anything that moves. He also mentioned a raider problem, it seems a group of raiders with Motor Bikes and Cars has come from the south and have been making hit-and-run attacks. He has had no deaths from their antics but they are clearly getting bolder in their efforts.
After inserting a key to complete the circuit the Bus sat quietly for a few moments before enough fuel was converted to start the process of the engine going (so takes about a minute to start the bus). And waving goodbye to Mitch out the metal gate they went into the sands.
The bus made good time, faster than a sprint, slower than a death-train. The drove over great dune to where Barton dropped them off outside a dark opening. "In this ruin you might find what you seek, if not there are others we can check around the area."
Stealthing inside they find several rad scoprions and their young, and after initiating the firefight an Albino Rad Scorpion, the tough battle still found the Gotham Knights victorious.
A terminal in the back enabled ACE to unlock a door that lead to a sub-basement, and through a massive metal door found a room with a half-dozen bunks and shelves.
On the shelves they found an abundance of ammo, on the bunk they found the skeletal remains of a man. Next to him was an extremely well made and locked briefcase. Grim was able to pick the lock and inside they found a bottle of fine whiskey, an access keycard for the U.S.S. Boise (with fancy holograms), and a note that was an appology for messing things up and here was the correct keypass for the secure storage.
Also of note was along one wall was hanging two flags. One for Poisedon Oil, another for the Enclave.
As they left this bunker, they heard the sounds of small arms fire and high pitched engine sounds. Dashing up the stairs and outside to the bright lights they found Finch bleeding on the sand and the sounds of motorbikes retreating in the distance. Doc ran up and treated Barton who explained he had come out of the bus to check on them and was jumped by the raiders before he could make it to the protective shell of the bus, they dashed off, probably to get reinforcements, so they best get a move on.
2Do next session:
Give everyone 2XP
BW will play the role of Barton Finch for the combat portions, at least until they return to Coos Bay.