Re: [HOE] The Great American Mall (a plea for help)

[Theo McGuckin <tsm@jlab.org>]

> > > > Spoiler space non-marshals (Including you Bob Fletcher!) go
> > away
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> > > 
> OK, filler encounters for a Mall, but first, lets remember the set up
> for this adventure:  (Reposted from your first email on this
> adventure) 
> 
> 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..."
> 
> 
> OK, so the posse is there to find the toxic shaman, find the lost
> muties, and find the best salvage they can carry.  
> 
> If you want to force the party to deal with Henry and learn about
> Sally, something needs to keep them in the mall other than the above
> (After all, whats to stop them from getting in, looting, finding a
> couple of bodies and getting out?)

Another thought I just had was for a female mutant to approach the posse
and tell them that her son (Little Billy) snuck in with the last group
when she wasn't looking. She knows that he's probably gone <sniff> but she
just needs to know one way or another for sure. And then they see this
little kid in a cell back near the Primary Security Center...
 
> I would use a combination of the following:
> 1)  The Mall AI thinks its after hours at the mall, so has locked the
> doors since the party came in, they can wait till morning, or try to
> figure out whats going on....

This is a pretty good "incentive" idea. I figure most malls by then will
have bullet-proof glass, so...

> ++the posse stumbles upon an old Orange Julius/Cinnabun/Ice Cream
> Store that happens to have some of its refrigerators /ovens still
> working - this should lead to some good RPing while the posse gets to
> eat ice cream/ sugary snacks for the first time in years...

Oh! Henry cut off Sally's arms and legs to keep her from getting away (and
to make her power consumption more efficient). But, being the efficient
little 'borg he is he didn't want to throw away potential spare parts, but
he also needed to put them someplace cold so they wouldn't go bad or mess
up the mall. Guess what the posse'll find at the bottom of that ice cream
case (you know, the one they've been eating ice cream sandwiches out of).
Even better, since she's an infiltraitor/light can, they look like a
normal woman's arms and legs that have been chopped off, and they're too
new/clean looking to belong to some of the mutants. Good
medicine/cybertechnoloty(yeah right) rolls will reveal that their are
pre-war cyborg parts in them.
 
> ++they find the still living but heavily wounded toxic shaman, and
> have to convince him (he is delerious, and cant see well due to his
> injuries) that they dont mean him any harm.  They also have to decide
> what to do about a wounded, raving toxic shaman.  Leave him?  Taske
> him witht hem when they cant keep him quiet?  If they have magical
> healing it helps somewhat, but he is clearly sick, and has probably
> taken some brain damage from his wounds, anything short of the
> templar grater reward for lay on hands wont completely cure him.  

Not sure about this one. I wanted the Toxic Shaman to either not come into
play really (they find his dead body, maybe with some clues/info) or to
help them out (if the group lacks firepower somewhat). I didn't really
intend for him to be a burden on the group. Although he could go nuts
later on, like when he gets attacked by Henry (again).

> ++ they find the mutants - probably dead (we dont want the wasted
> wwest to be a happy place do we? and we dont want the posse to get
> too much information too soon).  THey had managed to find a cosmetics
> store/beauty parlor, and a couple of them appear to have been killed
> while trying to make themselves look more normal with cosmetics...
> something didnt approve of shoplifters. (Maybe it wasnt even Henry
> that tdid it, it could have been a cosmetic monster of some sort...
> Im thinking a creature made of goo: shampoo, lifstick, all that stuff
> found in a beaty parlor.  The party has to decide weather to kill it
> and save the mutants bodies, or flee into the rest of the mall, where
> Henry might be waiting, attracted by the sounds of the commotion. 

I like this one. I got the idea that creature has covered a mannequin and
is masquerading as a human. It wants the group to tell it how beautiful it
is (it is a cosmetics abomination), and truth-be-told it is. But good cog.
checks start to reveal that it doesn't move quite right, or look right
when it talks. It's lips move, but the facial structure (of the mannequin)
doesn't seem to change any. When someone does finally call its bluff it
dissolves into two entities. A goo monster and a rock-hard mannequin
dummy, that the group have to fight.

> How are those, are they what you are looking for?  Need more?

These are good, and you're giving me ideas to expand things. Thanks. If
you have any more, feel free. I'm going to start writing this up after
this weekend (I'm finishing up my Deadlands campaign for awhile), so then
I'll be able to work on it more seriously.
 
> Are you planning on fleshing it all out and posting it? or just
> letting the individual marshals who want to use it flesh it out for
> themselves?

What I'll probably do is give a list of encounters (with details/stats)
that the marshal can throw in at any point, a list of encounters that
should happen in order (the first couple robot encounter, hearing Henry,
finding the arcade, finding the security station, finding the primary
security station, saving Little Billy and possibly Sally). Then give a
paragraph on "other ideas" that a marshal can flesh out if he wants.

Theo McGuckin - SysAdmin, JLab, Safety Warden (Bldg. 85)


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