Re: [HoE] Apocolypse Now!

["The Rusty" <therusty@vallnet.com>]

> Mike "Putting in the ALIENS CD" Dukes
a reply and story


My group just got done running it not to long ago, let me give you my spin
on it.
  Da Posse:
1) Maarkus Damarth - Doomsayer Heretic (Them's the purple robes) also
functions as main negotiator for the party.
2)Jed the Scrub - Secretly a Harrowed Templar, and a veteran of the Weird
West and our sister game in the 1800's (He DM's Deadlands, I DM HoE)
3)Mad Mike - A Voodoo Gurus Psycher, he is also our Tactical expert.
4)Joe Singer - Semi-truck driver and tale teller.  The quiet leader of the
group.
5)Ivan Gregarin - A Russian foreign exchange student stuck in the wasted
west the last 13 years, learned his skills as a gunner for the convoy.
6)Bob, a Bolluxed ex-Black Hat the party met during the adventure, I'll
explain in a second.
7)Greer, the NPC.

***SPOILER STUFF FOLLOWS***





Maarkus and Jed met Mad Mike on the path to Trinity Springs, where Maarkus
showed his goodwill by loaning him the (Cash?) to buy shoes...(More on THAT
in a minute).  The three of them saved Greer's bacon from the Black Hats
thanks to a Superb 4 Raise Nuke from the Doomsayer...wiped out 2 jeeps, 2
bikes, and like 6 men.  Greer took them back towards town, where the Syker
snuck into town with his powers (Skinwalker I believe) then managed to sneak
across in a boat under the cover of darkness to bring the party back over.
  In the old tavern, they helped kill a few black hats, and added Ivan and
Joe, two Independent truckers caught in Trinity Springs at the wrong time.
They used Joe's rig to create a diversion, ramming it into a sandbag
barrier, and the Syker and the Doomsayer showed off their awesome powers.
The woman sniping in the church was a real problem, so Jed jumped off the
back of the moving semi, picked himself out of the blacktop, then headed up
the tower to do battle.  Turned out he had a relic, a "Lightsabre" created
by a junker, but with only 10 rounds of power.  It sure cleaved her head off
her torso, though.
  With the truck again drawing fire, the PC's and the NPC's assaulted the
school in two seperate groups, which ended in Mad Mike confronting the
General directly....one Brainburst later, Mike found himself in possession
of a battlesuit.
  Just as I started to calculate radius damage for the blast, Ivan informs
me that he DOES have demolitons 4, and calmly defuses the dynomite.
  Greer finds out they left town with his daughter, and he and the party
take off after the Black Hats.  Along the way, they find a Black Hat
stripped to the waist tied to a tree, with a big scorch mark on the tree,
and a jeep somehow stuck 15' in the trees.  The group used the winch on
Greer's Hummer to get the jeep down, and then interrogate the Black Hat.
Bob, the name he gives us, is Bolluxed, and mechanical gadgets give him a
hard time.  When he "parked" the jeep in the trees, it was too much for his
commanding officer, who beat him, tied him to a tree, then went to blow his
head off, but the damn thing malfunctioned.  The party figured he might be
useful, and he did have a 7.62 Assault Rifle in the jeep and 300 rounds of
ammo (part of the town's plunder,) so they figured they could use him.
  The party decided to park the vehicles (jeep, hummer, and Doomsayer's
Hoverbike) about 5 miles from the Air Field and check it out on foot,
finally entering through the parking lot.  They got embroiled in a fight
with the "trash bots" and then the Junker's Bot, (I forget the name from the
module) led them to the cowardly Black Hat Junker.  He needs their help to
get off of here, and part of that is them scavenging parts off the
helicopter in the other hanger, so Joe Singer, Jed, and Mad Mike go
a-scroungin'.  They find (and hastily BURN) the manual for the ghost rock
bomb, as they were sure the Doomsayer would try to set it off.  On their way
back towards the hanger the Junker is in, both them and the hanger got
attacked by Wormlings, while something else was fighting in the parking lot.
At this point, I spent a blue chip and rolled a huge success to take control
of Jed's Manitou, who tried to gorge himself on the Syker's brain, (he was
in the process of trying to HEAL a serious wound to the head of the Syker at
the time.  The Syker was forced to use several rounds of SMG fire to the
head of Jed to kill him, again.
  Back in the hanger, wormlings tore a hole in the siding, and the
Doomsayer, Ivan and Bob were barely able to hold them off.  It was the
battle in the parking lot that turned the tide.  A junker, a librarian, and
a Grundy overwhelmed the bots and broke for the other groups of humans.  All
sides killed the wormlings and made introductions.
1)Mix Master was the name the junker gave.
2)Arlen Vonnegut, a young librarian, and
3) Dennis Boyd, aka D.B. Gumby, the grundy.
The two decided to join forces to go into the tunnel, while the junker and
his grundy friend stayed to help the Black Hat junker, and to be sure they
do not get betrayed.
  In the big fight in the tunnels, Bob was slaughtered while running away
from a warrior, while Mad Mike showed his hatred of authority figures by
doing away with the Harrowed antoganist, (and taking his shoes, BTW.  Its a
disorder he has, he ALWAYS takes their shoes if he can, and yes, he took
Bob's too.)  Several other people were on Heavy and Serious wounds, when
they made it to the Helicopter with about 5 minutes to spare.  After a
vietnam-ish liftoff where they had to kick wormlings off the chopper, they
made it to the safe zone just in time to see the blast (a religious
experience for the Doomsayer), and yes, guys, I had it burn into my
Librarian's Oakleys, an experience which put his FAITH at -1 (TOTAL!)
faithless Bastard.
  All in all, I thought it was  a good adventure, and as sick as it sounds,
I was happy two characters died.  It helped reinforce that this is a
DANGEROUS world, and nobody can get too complacent.   The librarian was a
replacement character, as was the junker, Bob being given to another player
before dying.  We only get together about two days a month, so I try to get
players back in as soon as possible.  As for your party in question,
obviously you will need to adjust the figures, but in any case your players
will get all they can handle.
 I DO have some questions for the list from my game experiences.
1) How do you determine cargo capacity?
2) Can someone with Weaponsmith break apart the caseless ammo into powder
and primer?
3) HOW is Spook Juice made?  This seems like a REALLY important thing to
leave out.

Thanks for letting me tell about my game, If I don't get flamed to death
I'll keep posting updates...half the party is in Yuma Federal Pennitentary
right now, searching for stuff for the librarian, and fighting with the
Abomination there.

,
  Rusty "You are using your MIME skills?  That's it, Mike, fork over a white
chip."