Mutant Future Campaign Session 2

      The flu has thrown me off on posting my Mutant Future Sessions, not to mention I had to cancel the last game because I was still sick.  It's pretty long and probably overly detailed but several of you have commented you enjoyed the first write-ups about the campaign so here goes...

Mutant Future Session 2

     Our trio of heroes barely paused to congratulate themselves on their rescue of Brother Thomas, while the old school and former lair of The Goatlords burned to the ground behind them, they gathered (looted) what gear they could from the fallen goatmen, a few axes, and rusty blades, and smelly hide armor. They'd hoped to search their enemies' lair more thoroughly but the fires kept them from doing a thorough search of the old school; however, they did recover a functional gas mask and several pieces of ancient jewelry from the Goatlord's hoard, as well as, the Kevlar armor worn by the laser wielding goatman. Tink quickly laid claim to it and the pistol, when he found an additional energy clip in The Goatlord's belt he gave a whoop!
     Meanwhile a short distance away an old manhole cover slid aside. The faint scraping metal sound unheard by the heroes. Cautiously, carefully something emerged from below. A bright yellow gloved hand could be seen, followed by…a small hula dancer, affixed to an old motorcycle helmet, soon a humanoid figure crawled out of the hole and looked about blinking in the waning sunlight.
     Nearby Brother Thomas the healer tended to both Tink and Sherman's wounds, both had taken quite a beating. Bishop unfortunately was in bad shape, he was unconscious, Brother Thomas said his talents only worked on living creatures not robots or synthetics. Tink and Sherman tried to help him, but the ancient tech that made up the android was beyond both of their talents to repair, or barely even understand. The group could tell Bishop wasn't dead, Sherman theorized some kind of "reboot" was happening. Not that he really knew what a "reboot" was (he'd heard a travelling Programmer back home use the term and it sounded technical enough for him to use now). They unfolded the hi-tech wheelchair that they had found earlier and put Bishop in it. It would slow them down, but they couldn't just abandon their friend.
     Natorg could tell immediately that he had come upon the scene of quite a battle. By the look of things he had only just barely missed it in fact. The former lair of the Goatlords was burned to the ground, the bodies of several goatmen along with a dead scaley hound lie scattered about. He cursed his poor vision, in the tunnels it hadn't been such a burden but up here on the surface he soon realized it would be a problem. He could make out movement in the distance, clutching his sword, he wasn't alone!
     They spotted a lone individual making his way up to the carnage. He wasn't a Goatlord, actually he looked like a human, well a mutant human anyway, his skin seemed to have an odd sheen about it and by his wardrobe he wasn't from "around here". Sherman cautiously approached, a dialogue was engaged and an alliance was formed (Sherman can tell when someone is lying; one of his innate mutant gifts, so he was the perfect choice to check out this newcomer). Natorg joined the group of heroes, he spotted Brother Thomas, or the person he figured was the healer…the man going around healing people. He'd join these warriors, make the trek with them to Gaxville and then see how his fortunes might change. They'd need his help to make it back to Gaxville, safety in numbers don't ya know.
     But first they'd need to camp somewhere; at least one of the Goatlords had escaped during the fight, who knew if he had other comrades nearby that might be plotting revenge. Tink paused for a moment something had caught his eye in the distance, out of the northwest something moved along the skyline, darting between buildings. Natorg thought he heard a flapping noise coming from the same direction. The fire and smell of burned goat would no doubt attract predators/raiders or worse….
     They began to make their way to the northwest of the burned buildings, towards the direction that they had came in, several of them (except for Natorg) spotted trouble ahead. Several winged, orange scaled apemen were moving in their direction. It was difficult to tell how many as they bobbed and weaved in and out of the ruined buildings. They weren't so much flying as leaping from rooftop to rooftop, rubble pile to rubble pile. Before long they were surrounded. The apes didn't look too happy, but it was hard to tell. Tink readied for combat, but Sherman thought a more diplomatic approach might be worth trying. The apes didn't immediately attack, they seemed more curious than anything else, but cautious, when one spotted Tink wielding the laser pistol formerly used by the Goatlords, they entire pack got riled up and bared their teeth. With Sherman's prompting Tink lowered the laser pistol (he hadn't quite mastered how to use it anyways). Sherman theorized that these orange scaled apemen had experienced run ins with the Goatlords and their laser pistol before. Brother Thomas knew little of this area and wasn't much help, though he proposed a peaceful solution was always preferable to violence. Bishop sat in the wheelchair oblivious to what was happening. Natorg thought he'd heard of these creatures…Gargorangs he believed they were called and he thought they laired in a large ruined tower not far from here but he knew little else.
     Sherman attempted to engage in a parley with the group, he offered them the bodies and remaining stuff on the ground to the Gargorangs in exchange for letting the party leave the area without a fight. There were some tense moments, but eventually the Gargorangs agreed, and the orange scaled apemen proceeded to enjoy a feast of barbecued goat! The party moved away from the area, but seeing as how night was approaching they found a nearby intact structure and sheltered down for the night, although they were well aware that a Gargorang had perched itself on the roof of their building to keep an eye on them. Watches were assigned and the group bedded down weary from their day's adventures.
     Later that night during Sherman's watch he eyed the apemen cavort about enjoying their feast of barbecued goat. The orange apes seemed to be quite enjoying themselves. Apparently there had been some bad blood between these two "peoples" and the Gargorangs were more than happy to celebrate their enemy's misfortune. Then Sherman spotted a fearsome looking beast perched on a nearby building directly over the Gargorangs. The scaley apemen seemed completely obliviously to its presence. Sherman realized it was only through his enhanced mutant sight that he was able to detect the creature. It was apparently invisible to normal eyesight. The enormous mutant winged worm was perched on a ruined wall, getting ready to apparently pounce on one of the Gargorangs. Sherman later learned from Brother Thomas it was called a Blight and was a terror of the wastelands. Sherman didn't know what to do, he was thinking of crying out a warning to the apemen, although they were quite a ways away from him, but before he could act, the Blight struck with amazing speed unleashing a bright blinding light as it attacked, the other Gargorangs shocked and surprised briefly saw the mutant worm as it attacked one of their number then both it and its prey were gone in a second. When the apemen recovered they vainly tried to find their comrade, but he had been taken away in the dark night. The party huddled in fear for the rest of the night, posting an extra watch, they didn't know if more Blights were out there or if the Gargorangs might turn on the party in anger, frustration. Neither happened, and dawn finally arrived. As dawn marked a new day, and renewed the need to get back on their hurried return home they set out, the apemen were long gone, nothing remained of the goatmen or their gear. The group traveled for several hours, pushing Bishop along in the wheelchair slowed them down and forced them to take a slightly different way back but it couldn't be helped, they couldn't leave their android companion behind.
     After a couple of hours travel through the ruins, the group hear some sort of noise coming from up ahead. A cantankerous cursing can be heard followed by the braying of a…mule?!...followed by more cursing and more braying…. Cautiously they creep up and are taken aback by what they see. A large roughly humanoid(ish) crab was pulling the reins of a pack laden mule, trying with minimal success to get the beast of burden to move. Sherman noted the ornate, heavily customized black powder pistol holstered at the crabman's "waist", as well as, other bits of gear some of which could be hi tech weapons. Conversation ensued and the crab man introduced himself as Trader Crab.

     The group got along quite well with the mutant crabman. In exchange for the gems and jewelry taken from the goatlords, the heroes got some needed gear including a damaged nail gun rifle (that Trader Crab said once belonged to a member of the Nailgun Disciples Gang) and an extra power cell for Tink's laser pistol. The big deal maker however, was when Sherman offered Trader Crab a copy of the map he had made showing the way through the Maze, including the safe areas where they had blocked off access to the Trog tunnels. The appreciative Trader offered Sherman some damaged but useful Kevlar armor. They talked about the different gangs in the area, and remembering their mission parted ways with the Friendly Trader.


End of Session 2 (Part I)

 Tune in Next time for...
The Return of the Goatlords!, Trog Terror!, Come here Fido! and The Church of St. Vermayne!