[HOE] The Great American Mall of... [part 1]

[Theo McGuckin <tsm@jlab.org>]

I know there's really only one topic on the list right now, but life goes
on (and has to) so here goes:

I'm going to try and post a part of my mall adventure every few days or
so. Part 1 will basically cover intro and such.

Spoiler
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The adventure begins with the posse running into a band of mutants camped
outside the mall. The mall can be located inside a ghost storm or on its
own (several malls out west are actually located outside of cities on
their own from what I understand). You can leave the mall outside a city
if your posse is ghost storm-shy.

The mutant band is a less severly transformed bunch (no trogs or grundies
or anything). They have also obviously been camped outside the mall for
some time (weeks) and are in very poor spirits. The leader of the mutants
is a severly scarred man named Stu who has a peg leg. He is a friendly and
open man, despite his appearance (he has the mutation that makes him scar
really easy).

The posse is initially greeted with reservation and suspicion, but
assuming they don't start blasting the mutants or something the band
quickly warms up. If the posse has either any obviously mutant-friendly
types (doomsayers or obviously mutated characters) then Stu will ask for
their assistance very early on. If the posse is obviously very powerful
(cyborgs or sykers or such) then they will be treated a lot more
suspiciously, but also much more strongly asked for help later on.

Stu takes the group aside and fills them in:
The band arrived here and saw what looked like a fairly un-touched mall
that was probably full of good salvage. To be safe Stu sent in a small
group of scouts to see if the mall was clear of if some other group had
already laid claim to it. The scouts never returned. Around this time a
Toxic Shaman that called himself "Walks the Line" showed up. He offered to
go in and check out what happened with a few more mutants. All he asked in
return was whatever salvage he could carry out. They agreed. They to have
not been heard from since.

Stu: "I know this is going to sound really bad. But can you help us? We're
missing almost a third of our group now and can't really afford to send
anyone else in, but we also can't leave our friends and family behind
without knowing what's happened to them. You bunch look like you can more
than take care of yourselves, would you be willing to go in? I'll give you
the same offer Walks the Line got, anything you can carry. We'll also
patch you up afterwards as best we can if you get hurt and give you some
of our fuel [if they have a vehicle] to help you get on your way..."

Assuming the posse agrees then they can head into the mall however they
want [maps and such forth-coming]. The parking lot is eerily empty (the
mutants have camped at the outer edge of the mall behind some destroyed
secondary buidlings). There are, however some abandoned vehicles parked
haphazardly outside different entrances (these are the vehicles of groups
that went in to loot the mall and were killed by "security"). Marshals
should put whatever vehicles they want out there, but bear in mind that
any posse worth its salt is going to want to take everyone of those
vehicles with them. Two options here:
1. The vehicles are several years old and have, as such fallen upon really
tough times. Maybe an acid rain storm came through, or they were just
picked over by people smart enough not to go into the mall.
2. The vehicles have been shot to hell by machinegun and heavy weapons
fire. In this case Roy (the heavy can "guarding" the mall) has destroyed
them. This can act as an eeiry warning of what the posse is getting itself
into.

Play up the strangeness or fear of the vehicles. Either a LOT of very nice
vehicles has been left out in the sun to rot (something that should bother
any waster) or else it's like walking through a graveyard of dead
machines. Smart posse members might realize that all the shots came from
inside the mall, which could lead into a very tense (and ultimately
pointless) assault to get into the mall.

As soon as they enter the mall they come face to face with a holo-display.
A four foot tall head of a very average and friendly looking man appears
in the display.
The face smiles warmly and says in a soft yet firm voice, "Welcome, ladies
and gentleman, to The Great American Mall of..."
The voice changes to a mechanical, computer voice "... insert name of city
or county here."
The man's voice returns, "Please enjoy your shopping experience at the
Great American Mall of..."
"... insert name of city or county here."
"And remember, you came in through entrance 56."

With that the lights in the rest of the mall turn on and musaque begins to
play softly in the background.

I'm going to use the West Edmonton Mall for the adventure, mainly because
it has a really ripping website with good maps:
http://www.westedmall.com/mallmap/mallmap.html

The only change I'm going to make is that "World Waterpark" is not there
(just to make it easier).
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Well that's a start anyway. I'll try to send more over the next few days.

Theo McGuckin - SysAdmin, JLab


	"Powerful like a gorilla, yet soft and yielding like a nerf-ball." 
	  						- Homer Simpson