Difference between revisions of "The complete PA notes, Unabridged"

Latest revision as of 16:01, 20 February 2007

Post Apocalypse blurbs

1.)setting issues: I'd like this game to be something more than just “mad max”. But what? I'd like there to be weird machine/bio machine creations. I'd like there to be psychics. I'd like there to be mutants/transhumans. But what is the backdrop? 2.)One idea: a double apocalypse: first, human society gets increasingly advanced, and begins to depend on earth more and more on imports from off planet, particularly for raw materials for nonorganic products and for energy. Enter a huge intergalactic storm that makes any sort of space travel impossible. Those off planet are trapped there, those on planet are trapped as well. The long term result is that the world becomes more and more strained, with eventual war breaking out between different powers for resources. In the end, using the ultra advanced weaponry that have been developed (chemical, biological, nuclear, etc.), humanity on earth basically obliterates itself. The few “life boats” that make it back from the colonies find earth essentially devastated back into the “stone age”. All the colonies die out. 3.)This setting would open the door to a mix of very advanced vs. very primitive technology. Fusion, for instance, would probably survive, although maintaining it might be prohibitively expensive, and so exist only in very specific locations. Not sure how else it would matter. It would mean that we could tell the players about the second apocalypse without telling them about the first. 4.)Mutants/Transhumans and Psychers, in my opinion, are things to be feared and should be very rare. Alternatively, mutants could be very common. No matter what, psychic abilities should be rare beyond anything else. Characters with psychic abilites would be required to hide it from the other characters. I'd also like there to be a “world power” that consists of a society of essentially matrix style robots: however, with the lack of raw materials and the tremendous loss of knowledge, they should be really primitive: that would be hella funny. They could be native american/medieval folks...particularly since their tough bodies would make them ideally suited to close combat. Not only that...but they FEAR mechanical stuff, because of a long standing stigma that came from the nanoplagues that wiped them out in the war on earth. At the time they were probably just servants, etc. Sweet. 5.)Of course, there will be some dictatorship style groups. But what else? If it's mad max style, how does shit get around. Well, since for a long time people relied on more advanced forms of energy, a lot of the supplies of oil, coal, etc. have been replenished, although now they are tightly controlled by whatever groups can hold them. This allows for the development of cyberpunk style nomad gangs. Furthermore, because the replenishing of the damage to the world's ecosystems has not yet occurred, agriculture is essentially impossible (in most places), precluding the development of large states: in essence, hunter gathering is again a viable method of sustenance. There are, of course, areas where agriculture is possible: in these areas, the power in charge has an iron grip, but they are rarely strongly represented outside of their range. 6.)Ok, on to game play issues: first, players need to have the threat of death, not something that is inherent to the champions system. So: 0 body = death. At below 3, make a con roll every post segment 12 or lose another body. At 0, make a con roll. If you fail, you are beyond saving. Anyone able to revive a person at 0 body must have advanced medical skills 7.)Oh, that reminds me: skills. My thoughts, after reading everybody's emails is that rather than making skills more expensive (they are already quite expensive), I propose a “skill tier” system. That is to say, you can only buy certain skills if you have the prerequisites: they aren't more expensive, but the higher up the tree you go, the more specialized, and thus, better, you are at what you do. So: mechanic would, as proposed by dieter, allow you to do basic shit, like unjam a gun, change a car battery or tire, etc. But to, say, fix burned wiring you would have to tier up to electronics. To actually fix some sort of electronic device, you would probably have to get a PS: electronic repair. That is to say, Tier 3 is for actual in depth understanding. If you then wanted to be able to repair computers, that would be Tier 4, and if you wanted to be able to build shit from scratch, that would be Tier 5 or 6. This will make stuff very expensive. I also think it's fair to apply modifiers to the cost of skills based on how useful they would be. PS random shit job might be background appropriate, but essentially useless except for very rare situations. Two ways around this: 1.) define what sorts of abilities are included in the PS/whatever. 2.) Assign mods based on the “limited power” disadvantage. 8.)Other character creation business: For Gabe's sake, we needs strong guidelines. He won't like my shit in #7...oh well. Back to this later 9.)As for gear. All gear will have the risk of breakage. To reduce the risk will, say, double the price for each number you reduce it by, to a minimum of 4 for most things, and 3 for some really special stuff. Powers can forego this but will have to be “independent if they are tech. 10.)We should strictly enforce/use disadvantages. Hunted will mean that anytime the characters get in a fight, unless they have specifically made sure their hunters aren't around, they have to roll or pull more enemies into the fight. Or alternatively, each GM could roll at the beginning of their “shift” and if the roll comes up “yes”, the baddies will show up that run. This condition will make it less appealing to make a super high powered character. I think it might be fun to have a “tax free” bracket too. What I mean is, if a character takes less than

Skill Modules: 1.)certain skills are more expensive vs. a skill tier system.

New Skills: scrounging and blacksmith

Limits: no more than 8 combat value. Not including penalty levels

General Knowledge Apocalypse: cataclysmic war (??)

Three rivers: city state: population: 1100 adults (50 skilled laborers, 800 farmers, 250 guards/administrators) location: former kentucky. Seven surrounding cities: Five city states: Three rivers, The Forks, Hillside, Falls, Edgewood Three rivers: oil derrick and a freshwater oasis, agriculture, large trading pavilion, river (water 100% year). Government: Mayor/Magistrate elected every 5 years, no term limits. 10 elder parliament, also act as jury. Fairly corrupt, Magistrate has power of life and death. Every townsperson has a vote, each squad of soldiers has a vote, and each farm collective has a vote. Also an underworld boss who deals in illegal shit. Laws of the Land (standard for most towns): 20% on all traded goods. Murder, Grand Theft, Rape, are capital crimes. Forced labor for theft, assault, forgery, etc. Currency is coin: silver, gold, copper, in that order. Foreign relations: most powerful around, bully other towns. Everyone comes here to trade. Do need things from other towns. Food: can produce grains, but not much else. Raw materials for smithing/tech. No war right now. The Forks: largest in terms of population/land area. Not enough resources to take over, jealous. Constantly making espionage and maneuvering to unite the states of the valley under their banner. Communist society run by hereditary right. Hillside: most removed: hills and forest: most independent, but very primitive. Isolationist. Falls: fishermen, water power: not at peace but not at war with three rivers. Next most powerful after three rivers. Very technical, but it is sort of a religion. Not so much mechanics, but more electronics. Edgewood: like valley, somewhat warlike, and “hold the line” against a band of mutants in the woods and against a nomad biker gang. True commune. Family commune. The Valley is largely protected by its location: it is found in a large mountain range largely unaccessible from the surrounding countryside. As a result, there are only these two major threats. Rumors that there are ruins on the other side of the Western mountain range.

Outside: what do the players know? Few well known traders: some of these go outside of the valley even. One or two might buy passage from the biker gang and have been outside of the mountain range entirely. What is the maximum distance players will have been allowed to travel? Inside the valley.

Archetypes: See Jason's notes

Topics: Supernatural (Jason) Psychics (Ben) Magic (Jason) Cybernetics (Ben) Space Stuff (Jason) Robots (Ben) High Tech Items (Ben) Precursor Tech (Ben) Computers (Internet) (Ben) Strange Societies (Jason) Mutants (Jason)

So..Damn, what an awesome character creation session. Lots of good vibes, the equipment tables are the shit. Speaking of which, I need to do some work on the gear the different characters got, notably: 1.)Matt: one piece of awesome armor 2.)Gabe: History of the Last Days 3.)Justin: Precursor Artifact 4.)Jason: solar sail, and a rare wpn (sniper rifle, good quality) 5.)Me: Books, High Quality CC Wpn., 2 grenades, poly-cell 5, Pet!

Lots of these relate to the history of the world. So let's start to work that out. Circa 2100 expeditions were sent to the corners of the solar system, a mixture of robots and humans, to set up “colonies”: at first just for study, but quickly, as the environmental crisis of the previous two centuries came to become realized, also for the disposal of waste, the harvesting of raw materials, and the manufacture of dangerous goods and power. The transport of power in complex wave patterns particularly made this approach viable, including the maintenance of many of the dangerous fusion reactors off planet where the risk to the population was minimal. What could have been a horrible crisis was surprisingly well rescued by the marvels of technology. With the beginnings of this frontier, there was plenty of space for everybody, and each power largely cooperated and expanded amicably in their own direction. The end result was the emergence of a small number of vastly dominant powers: lesser entities on Earth, largely dependent on Earth's dwindling resources, became less and less prominent, being largely absorbed. The major powers were: 1.)China, renamed the Galactic People's Republic 2.)The USA 3.)The Russian Bloc, a conglomerate of largely legitimized organized crime syndicates 4.)The EU, including Canada 5.)The Technocratic Associates Conglomerate, formerly known as Japan and Southeast Asia, a group of high powered tech companies. 6.)The Popular Union, a conglomeration of smaller nation that, combined, managed to retain their autonomy. This included parts of south america (Brazil, Colombia, Cuba) and parts of Africa and India.

These powers each established off planet bases and prospered as a result. This led to a second golden age, where, over the next two hundred years, expansion continued, with a few out of system bases being established by the TAC and the US. All was well, with more and more advanced technology developing, until the Ion Storm. The origins of the storm are unclear. Physicists had recently discovered a number of principles which were believed to make the possibility of faster than light travel a reality, and it is believed that the Ion storm might be tied to some of these same theories. The simple version is that a tremendous intergalactic storm struck, unexpectedly and almost without warning. All sensor systems on non atmospheric craft, and much within the atmosphere were destroyed. Several moon colonies were instantly destroyed as all their systems failed: Those on Saturn, Mars, Venus, Uranus, and Jupiter, with some or much atmosphere, were largely spared. The fate of the out of system missions were never determined. Nevertheless, the storm continued to rage for years: without aid from earth, all the colonies rapidly had to be abandoned (possibly some were not?), the survivors setting out in life boats that were essentially hurled blind or manually piloted back to earth. Obviously not many of them made it. What they found upon their return was a terse peace, each power mourning their losses, reestablishing proper communcations (all the satellites and space stations had been demolished), etc. To the credit of the powers, the attitude of cooperation persisted for some time: nigh on a hundred years or so. During this time, there were hostile actions, but they were all covert, as the different powers assessed their position and evaluated what they needed to survive. The conclusion was universally clear: there was not enough for all, probably not even enough for one. War was, obviously, inevitable (possibly begin last days history). Any historian could have seen it, and all was needed was a catalyst. It came in the form of an artificial intelligence takeover of the TAC: the Ais calculated the inevitability of war, and decided that striking first would be beneficial. Thus they launched an all out attack on The GPR, devastating them, capturing their nuclear stockpiles, and obliterating their government. Surprisingly, especially for the Ais the rest of the world had almost planned for this: they too had Ais, but not rogue, sentient ones (or at least not admittedly sentient). As a result, the Other superpowers ganged up on the TAC, which, although arguably the most powerful, without access to space, were at a severe disadvantage and were destroyed, albeit not without taking a heavy toll on all their enemies. Finally, the fight for the spoils made even the remaining allies turn on one another. The SSS (southern scientific syndicate) had developed advanced Tech Plagues that were used largely by the USA (against the recommendations of the SSS): this did minimize casualties against the TAC, but the resulting spread caused panic and heightened hostilities. The Popular Union was destroyed next, followed quickly by the fragmentation of the EU: this unit was not immediately destroyed because of their continued alliance with the SSS, leading to a significant technological advantage. The SSS was breached and largely destroyed by US forces, although the retaliatory attack by the temporarily reunified EU and the Russian Bloc destroyed the US. The russian bloc then fell upon the quickly fragmenting EU, and was torn apart from within. The tremendous release of radiation, biological, chemical, and nanotechnological weapons had left the world in a complete ruin. Casualty rates are estimated between 99.9-99.999% of all considered populations. Over the 120 years or so between the Ion Storm and the end of the War, much technology was lost: even more was destroyed by the tech plagues. Research largely ended after the Ion storm except in the TAC, though this research largely went on without the knowledge of the human handlers. In fact, very little of the TAC survived the War, with only a few cracked out, insane Ais sequestered in deep bunkers on Japan surviving. It is these mechanical monstrosities that represent the greatest threat to those that would risk the Web: they are, so to speak, the spiders at the center... However, The SSS had been experimenting with some early elements of liquid metal, essentially a mechanical immune system. It was transplanted initially into experimental robot systems in the Bay Area, the last place it was seen before the War. This rendered robotics in this region at least partially resistant to the plagues, and it is here, in the kingdom of Bairea, that the Court of the High Asimov is maintained, along with all the Baronies and Duchies. The kingdom is large, and represents one of the largest states. It is also among the most xenophobic and the least expansionistic. They deeply fear outside influence for fear of the plagues. Also, they have very little in the way of raw materials: they can only recycle died Bots. Their only real operations are mining, although they do some fishing and farming to trade with their neighbors. Few can challenge them, since th e knights errant of the realm are essentially tanks on Destriers, but they cannot really threaten either, given their hatred of advanced technology. Thus, much of the california central valley and coast is Bairea. The Northwest should be the playground of mutants/supernaturals. The Midwest is the Dustbowl, where only desert nomads roam, ekeing out an existence. The Eastern Seaboard was largely obliterated by nuclear attacks, but the South is now the heart of the Confederate Nations, which is to say an uncompromising, xenophobic dictatorship. They have established some arable land and manage to be somewhat agricultural, but still must scrounge for much of what they have. Mexico was basically sunk in a series of earthquakes. South America was hotly contested, and still is a “hot zone”: nukes were not deployed here because of the resource value. However, plagues, biological and technological still run rampant. No large central power has established itself, but there are near constant wars between hundreds of factions, mutants prominently among them. The tech plagues here decimated any robotic presence. Africa is essentially a giant desert, destroyed before even the first Ion Storm. The Middle east contains only automatons, still mindlessly harvesting oil. There is much wealth here, but the entire area is a highly radioactive, biological, chemical, tech plague sheet of glass, so it isn't exactly easy to access. Southeast asia is a rich repository of TAC waste, although there are few humans around to claim it. Remnants of the GPR make forays, but are faced by ferocious mechanical monstrosities. The GPR and the old Russian Bloc are largely just warring tribes.

So, that's not a bad background, for now: on to specifics

Gabe's “A Written History of the Last Days” By St. Ignatius di Ignum PREAMBLE Let it not be said that the Lord's words were false. Let none, here, upon the brink of the very abyss, ever doubt it. Once, unbelievers might have spoken. Once, even the faithful might have been swayed by their slander. But here, gazing into the flames of our sins, into the maw of our divine punishment, as Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, let none say it is so. For how could it be, when all happed as it was foretold? Did we not rise to the height of hubris? Did we not think ourselves above God? Did we not commit the depths of depravity and forego no sin? And did not the LORD cast us down? Some would claim that it was our own folly, but to them I say this: when man competes with man, must there not be a winner and a loser? When man battles man, must there not remain something? Let us look, and we shall see that NOTHING remains. Truly, this is the end of days, and I, St. Ignatius di Ignum, hereby intend to engage in the sacred duty of recording the LORD GOD's final action upon his creations. (followed by a few similar paragraphs relating to St. Ignatius' origins)

CHAPTER 1 Catalogue of Sins Clearly, when one speaks of the end, one must consider the cause: cause and effect have been the laws of the sinners, and they shall be tried by their own methods and still found guilty. Within this first sacred chapter, let the great wrongdoings of man be recorded, so that none can doubt that it was these crimes that brought down the LORD's wrath. 1.)Greed, of this, it is in the continent of Rusland most fouly practiced. They, the demon's servants, who turned most readily to the services of Satan, have feasted on the entrails of the Pluribus Unum of the Evropaian lands. 2.)Lust, that most tempting and most poisonous of fruits, tainted the warm southerly lands, and fornication led them in their folly to attack the faithful and fall. 3.)Sloth, great sin of the beast of the GPR, who stood still, as the maw of the demons calling themselves the TAC, but truly the servants of Satan in metal skins, closed around their throats. 4.)Gluttony, that demonic legion of the TAC, choking upon the feast of its enemies, so that it became blind to the sword of the faithful aimed at its heart and vitals. 5.)Envy, by which the Pluribus Unum tore itself apart so that it might be consumed by the Greedy beast of previous repute. 6.)Wrath, by which the faithful, moved beyond the Love of the LORD, struck down the sinners rather than welcoming them into GOD's kingdom, our great native land, and so became victim to 7.)Pride, the truest and leastest of sins, but the sin by which the LORD GOD tests the faithful, and by which we, The Pluribus Unum of the Manifest Lands were made low by the claws and jaws of the lowly sinners, when the LORD GOD turned his eye from us. (The chapter continues with similar, extensive lists, which echo this list: much of it is repetitive, but all refers to wrongs done by various named persons or places, and that they were subsequently destroyed by demons, servants of satan or the faithful. None of the locations sound familiar to you.)

CHAPTER 2 The Righteous Fury of God Thus, having catalogued the sins of the world, let none doubt that it was rife for destruction by the LORD GOD's righteous wrath. SO it was that having seen the great evils in the world, HE set the sinners and the false faithfuls at one anothers throat, each against the other, and vice versa, so that each fell upon the other's sword. Yay, there are many who would claim the title of scholar who claim simple, endlessly intertwined reasonings for the END: that the world rotted like overripe fruit, that the distant teats that fed us, dried and left the young to eat only one another, but to them I say: lay these into the chapter the first, for are they not but more evidence for the LORD GOD's benevolent and magnificent JUSTICE? Thus refuted, I shall continue onto the truth of HIS righteous fury, by which he laid low the false and the sinner alike, and took us all to Judgement. In HIS infinite wisdom and justice, the LORD permitted us, the faithful, to smite many of the sinners, and at the same time let us pridefuls be torn down by the very sinners. It was but a simple task, for he tossed us upon the rocky seas of WAR. A holy war, fought by all, each against the other, and all great weapons deployed, so that none and nothing might be spared. (The chapter continues with a long catalogue of names of individuals that led various “legions”. Each of these is followed by a formulaic description of the legions battling each other and everybody getting killed on both sides. Descriptions of people getting killed are quite colorful and sometimes illuminated. All the fights are described as occuring with hand to hand combat, Pestilence, Death, or Famine.)

CHAPTER 3 THE END Having slain one another with the righteous fury of the LORD's WAR, let us now proceed to HIS holy gates, and make our amends, proceeding through the purgatory, much like that weapon of DEATH previously described, and make our claims at the LORD's throne, begging HIS forgiveness. For many are the claims, and herein I now intend to record those most legitimate and those most foul and false, so that hearing them, we might clamor for YEA when the LORD GOD gives just judgement to the fair, and clamor for NAY when the LORD GOD gives just judgement to the foul. For the sparing of the plagues from the Northmen, albeit they sided with the sinners of the Evropaian Pluribus, let it not be said that the faithful did not remain faithful, though for their pride they justly were punished. E'en now, as I write this great text, those lands still stand, but scourged and purged of man, but yet stayed like Adam's paradise, that the LORD GOD might again place man and woman there, not to be tempted, greater mans and womans to repopulate his great gardens. Likewise, the Gardens southerly spared largely, yet made foul by sinners, yet the faithful were not party to this and should be spared. The Dark Desert Lands, to be said the lands of the dark men that is a desert, and the great Glass Desert, both doings of the sinners e'en before the end, let the sinners greatly rue this warning, and let the faithful mourn for they did not neither heed this warning of their PRIDE. But let not the faithful be punished for these deeds, that did the LORD GOD do as a sign and warning that went unheeded, so let them only be punished for their PRIDE in not heeding it. And let the faithful also be accounted for their smiting of the great beast of TAC, against whom they bore Gabriel's sword most justly to its beastly satanic heart (The rest of the chapter contains more examples of who should be spared or punished for their deeds)

CHAPTER 4 The reawakening For us, the faithful, let us bear purgatory and emerge in HIS paradise, to watch as he repeoples, to say remans and rewomans HIS lands, HIS gardens, and makes HIS creations greater, and let us rejoice in their greatness. Let us look upon them and rejoice, rejoicing in the sight of them. (this chapter becomes consistently more incoherent, but seems to speak of some sort of arrival of a “golden age” he mentions some locations, but none of them are familiar. There are also some abstract sketches, some of which could be maps, but they are clearly poorly drawn by somebody clearly unqualified to draw them.

Ok, that was Gabe's now on to Matt Matt is a circus performer, and he stole the ringmaster's special armor. Possiblities: “Technicolor dreamcoat”: Long coat, visible effects, but fractalizes light, making him hard to hit: +2 to DCV: Visible, probably charges. May be too nasty with Matt's powers, although could make it a different effect “Knights armor”: shiny, adds to presence for impressing/intimidating. High PD/ED, but heavy and cumbersome. “Field” a beltscreen. Super fancy. “Spidrillin armor” a silk shirt with armor. Also very super nasty for this character.

I like the technicolor dreamcoat: 1 charge a day, so he can only turn it on when he really needs it, but then it is on all combat. If it needs more charges, we can give it that. Also looks stylish.

Justin Precursor artifact ideas: the “spider ball” a little spider robot that is just a shiny ball when he finds it. He must figure out how to activate it before the spider bot will come out. After that, as long as he can keep charging it, it will work like a slightly smart pet. Think I will go with this.

Jason think this is all worked out.

Background for Garson The robot calling himself Garson was birthed by Mater approximately 30 years ago. As with all other Baireans, his suite of abilities was randomly shuffled in accordance with Mater's evolutionary codes. Being created from serf class materials, he began his life as a miner, scraping out metallic residues from the strip mines found throughout Bairea. Here, he was well known for his sharp tongue, which got him into not a few altercations. Incidentally, he won nearly all of them, as apparently he had been equipped by mater with a series of high quality combat suites. The first to become evident were his hydraulic actuators, which could give him significant strength for short periods of time, placing significant drain on his RAPS (Random Access Power Supply). But when his enemies, defeated in the Noble Sport of man to man combat realized that they couldn't beat him at fisticuffs, they resorted to throwing things. This revealed the second of his combat suites, his Missile Trajectory Analysis and Interception (MTAI) suite. A very rare find, the Baron Steelshanks decided to make an exception despite Garson's serf status and relegated him as a squire to one of his lesser household knights. Here, Garson quickly learned the martial arts: swordplay, proper shield posture, and riding and jousting. His short posture made much of this difficult and made him a common subject of derision, but Garson seemed reasonably happy with his circumstances. It was Garson's dream to be selected for the Knights Errant, the highest order of knights, equipped with full plate armor and sent into the surrounding lands to negotiate and guard the Bairean traders. However, his application to their ranks was repeatedly denied by Steelshanks, citing his low birthing status and lack of respect his resulting flawed habitus would generate. The final straw came when, attending Sir Copperbolt on various errands, including border patrol, they came one day upon an injured human. The man had been shot repeatedly, and was rapidly expiring from his wounds. Coming to him to administer the last rites, Garson entered a trance like state as his medical suite became activated. The man's life was saved as the magic serums within Garson flowed through their syringes and his various medical tools extended from his arms and body, but Garson's life as a Bairean was ruined. Any sort of healing, being tied to mechanics and thereby to the Plagues, was the exclusive domain of the Tech Priests, who practiced only the most basic forms and ritually purified themselves constantly. To engage in healing of biological sentients was tantamount to heresy, corresponding closely to the evils foretold in the Holy Discs. Nevertheless, his gruff loyalty had won over the lowly Sir Copperbolt who, taking pity on Garson, allowed him to escape before being exorcised (read, cut open and his circuits scrambled). The man he had saved, equally eager to leave the robot lands, agreed to lead Garson out of the region. Thus, equipped with little but the bolts in his back, Garson set out East out of Bairea. The man had been a trader, and he returned with much joy to his caravan. Although deeply distrustful of the little robot, they permitted him to tag along with them after the Man's (Jared Whilewalker) story. They aided him in crossing through the High Pass, and he proved himself invaluable in the numerous skirmishes and following medical emergencies. However, as the caravan gained more and more members, distrust of the robot grew. When they passed through Falls, they heard of a mechanic very interested in Robots, and finally kidnapped Garson and traded him to the Mechanic. At first afraid and prepared to escape, he quickly realized that they could have a mutually beneficial relationship, particularly since it is Garson's belief that it is his destiny to learn the “forbidden healing arts of the tech priests”, of which he believes, in some sense, that Gabe's character is a member. Although his servility suite means that he is inclined to follow orders, since his discharge by Sir Copperbolts, he can pretty much give his service as he likes, but once he chooses someone, the compuction sticks.

Character notes for Arc #1 Sam Hunter: knows that there have been conflicts with the mutants. Mutants use mostly cc wpns and medieval ranged weapons, with few guns.

Outside report: should the characters return to Ma Krominer, they will hear a report of a similar massacre but of some biker nomads East of the valley, report brought in by merchants.

Matt: You shudder as you run past the carnage: You've seen something like this before. Back in your circus days, as your crew was leaving a town, you passed a group of bandits. It wasn't your usual territory, so when you came by a farmhouse a bit of a ways off, Your boss decided to raid it. He didn't organize everyone, like for the Circus Rumbles, near ritualized bouts against the two other groups canvasing your area (Fat Friar's Fun House, and Aladdin's Magical Theme Park...and of course the BigTop, but nobody rumbles with the bigtop, nobody sane, anyways), he just sent in Razor Jack. You knew him before that as a knife thrower, not even that big of a guy. But he left a mess and had everyone else begging for mercy inside of a minute...

Dieter: Back when you were little, Grandma Krominer used to tell stories of a horrible monster that stalked the Creek Valley: she said there was proof in three dismembered bodies that had been found in the woods, a grizzly sight. Ma Krominer didn't believe in monsters, though, only monstrous people, and she always interjected that it was probably the hermit: a lonely, grizzled old fella who hated other people and always chased them off if they came near his property. Perhaps, Ma Krominer would add, getting into the storytelling herself, they had failed to see the “no trespassing” sign...

The backstory: "Grave Robbers"/Treasure Hunters from a town in the mountains unearth an emergency service hatch to an underground area: the entrance was concealed in a cave that has collapsed and is now exposed. The men cut open the the sealed door and break it down for scrap: quite a lot, it's a heavy door, although it is slow going because it is metal with about a foot of concrete between the metal pieces. They head into a narrow staircase/tunnel which takes them to another tunnel, which they follow. They find it blocked by rubble, but there is a side door, clearly never used. They open the door and find themselves in a "precursor tomb": a chamber clearly part of ancient and mysterious technology, because it contains three strange metal tubes and a computer. They take the computer apart, it being worth a fortune in trade...but when they do, it changes something about the tubes, because the metal retracts, as does glass beneath it, spilling liquid into the room and depositing three bodies, a man, a woman, and a child into the room. They take them for dead and continue with their scrap haul. Suddenly, one of the bodies, that of the woman, goes missing. In short order, all of the treasure hunters are slaughtered by the three. One escapes with most of the "loot" in the truck. This can be another thread for the characters to follow. The three are part of the "messiah harbinger" project: a project in the "Hatred Portfolio": the portfolio was a series of military experiments conducted by the US army in the run up to the second apocalypse. In it, they created a series of assassins, attempting to create the "perfect weapon" in their battle with their enemies. The first project, title "Archvillain" resulted in the production of a cybernetic killing machine which was very, very good at killing things, but far too easy to detect for the slightly more technologically advanced EU. The second project was titled "Predator", and this produced the main assassin/black ops teams used by the US forces in the early parts of the second age. Predators worked in teams of four, usually one undercover and the rest in support. But they were hindered by cost of production and an inability to use them as solo agents, which made them ill suited for very high secrecy insertions. Thus began project "messiah harbinger", named for a serial killer in the late 21st century (Ed's character may be able to recognize the name once the characters find the base). In this project, using the latest in neural cybernetic enhancement, three potential assassins had their minds fused with a neural grid designed from top assassins and sociopaths, with the hope of creating the ultimate "empty vessel" for an assassin. The project initially seemed to work perfectly. The subjects were extremely cunning, their bio-cyber made them nearly impossible to identify as modded, and they exhibited no morality whatsoever. All this changed during the first Ion Storm that occurred after the projects inception, for which the subjects were outside the training facility. The subjects had been fitted with neural inhibitors to modulate some of their behavior, and it was assumed that they would become slightly less functional in an ion storm, a huge storm tied in some way to the storms raging in space that still made space travel impossible. The result, in fact, was terrifying. Running a combat simulation during the storm to test the effects, the ion storm deactivated the neural inhibitors (and any other unshielded electronics), and the subjects went totally berserk, becoming feral monsters in search only of slaughter. All participants other than the subjects in the exercise, both friendlies and "hostiles" were butchered in brutal fashion. Needless to say, the project was immediately terminated, but those who had developed the subjects froze them down into cryosleep in the depths of Command One, one of the major military installations, in the hopes of reviving their creations some day. Incidentally, when Command One was hit with bunker busting nukes, which caved in about 90% of the installation and killed everyone there, the deeply buried storage areas, such as the ones containing the "messiah harbinger" project, were spared (along with potentially some other parts: could make for some interesting dungeon crawls.) s an assassin in more "civilized" times), she is left wandering until the characters find her. She will take the name of one of the daughters from this distant part of the clan. Once at the scene, the characters will find a grizzly sight, with every animal and person killed. It would be good to give the characters a "news brief" that r"dentally, the cryosleep, including brain dance, has actually unhinged them further. Once having disposed of the treasure hunters the three, who despise one another, headed off in different directions. The girl, codenamed "???", ended up going towards the valley, where she found

the residence of part of the krominer clan. There, she stayed with the people, planning how to get away with enough things to make her way to a bigger town, when the Ion Storm hit. No one survived. However, leaving the place in a feral rush, and without any survival skills (trained aple. tracking will reveal nothing, because the storm was so severe. Journals/Records will indicate a few noteworthy and some not so noteworthy things: it will include lots of details of mining operations and such. It will include a note that a few mutants have been "run off", killed, or wounded, as well as some folk from outside the valley, referred to as "nomads". It will also include intel, bought off a mutant scout, that people from a not so far off valley have made some finds that might be interesting to people of the valley. The notes will say that they are planning an excursion in that direction to investigate. Maps in the truck will indicate the route they took.

suggests that mutants from the Northwest have been seen near the valley, and patrols have been increased, just to throw the players off track somewhat. Clues: one clue, a crucial one, will be a diary written by one of the young girls in the family: she is a sort-of-psychic, something the characters will not encounter again for a long, time, if I can help it. She will write a chilling presentient account of what is about to happen, describing the "monste as covered in code (she has some of the liquid metal in her that allows her to see biomorphs), and will describe where "it" is coming from. There will be no sign of a break-in, but it will become clear that guard dogs were killed first, followed by the animals, followed by a brief struggle, followed by the peoA child was included in the project for two reasons: one, nobody would suspect a twelve year old girl of being an assassin, and two, she could be "raised" into the mold of a killing machine. Inci

061030 Wow...a for reals second arc. This arc begins, although the players don't know it, with the computer that was taken from the messiah harbinger compound. In Falls, it has caused computers to freak out, because it has connected to remnants of the web and allowed the TAC Ais to infiltrate viruses into the system. This has resulted in malcontentment in Falls,so that the luddites, who have gained control largely in Forks, to begin fomenting revolution in Falls. The characters found themselves worshipped upon entering the town, because they were accompanying Garcon, a robot, who unfortunately went catatonic because of his fear of technology. But on the current night, there has been a large explosion and suddenly, the streets are full of technology hating savages. The Setup: The characters currently have control of the temple compound. They have just downed about 20 of the attackers, but there are two groups of 4 advancing on them: one has scaled the wall, the second is moving along the wall towards the group. Once the characters have dispatched these two groups, they will have about a minute breathing space before the next “wave”. If during this time they take time to look, they will notice two groups of four descending via ropes onto the dam from the cliffs above. If they do not, the teams will enter the main dam engine room and place explosives. They will then move through the compound, bent on killing the oracle and Garcon. They will be alerted to their presence when the teams kill the first two guards, at which point it will take the teams three full turns to reach the oracles room and go to work on Garcon and the oracle. As this is going on, two large mobs will be organizing in the scribe's district, moving towards the compound. In the rest of the city, things have devolved into house to house fighting between frightened citizens, fanatics, and the soldiers of the city. The soldiers are by far the best equipped, so having lost the initial surprised state, they will now be beginning to turn the tide. Having regrouped at the most important locales (machine shops, town square, they have begun sweeping the streets and basically killing anyone armed in the streets. About 60% of the guards are still alive, and of these about 75% are outside the compound, clearing up the city. That leaves perhaps 20-30 guards at the compound. The two large mobs will begin assailing the compound against the guards. The end result of this will be that the guards protecting the compound and both large mobs will be dead by the time the characters return downstairs. Characters that stay below can get involved if they have ranged weapons. They will basically be unable to miss, but have a 20% chance of getting hit each round with something equivalent to a longbow shot. This won't change the outcome, but it will give the characters an advantage in the next “phase”. At this point, regardless of whether garcon is alive, the characters have several options. They can high tail it out of town, although without a truck they have no way of transporting their goods or garcon: if they choose this option, all their things that they cannot carry will be lost. They can stay to defend the temple, in which case they will be assailed three times by groups of a dozen enemies, each with a 20% chance of carrying a bow. They can move out into the city, in which case they will see groups of 4-12 enemies moving throughout the city. They have a 20% chance of encountering a group each full combat turn. It is three full hexmaps to the edge of the city by the front gate. If the characters go to rescue the girls, they can post up there, in which case their attack situation will be the same as at the compound. If they do not go to rescue the girls, when the smoke clears half of them will have been kidnapped, the other half raped and left in the house. 2-3 will have been killed. The large machine shop will stand, but the small one will fall. The small one can be saved by the characters if they wish. The characters may do as many of these things as they want, just depends on how much appetite for fighting they have. The result of the near destruction of falls will be dire for the valley: Three rivers will see this as an act of war on the part of forks, whom they will now regard as an intolerable threat: together with hilltown and edgewood, they will prepare to subjugate the recently fanaticized Forks. This, of course, will leave edgewood, open, with a resultant massive influx of bandits into the valley that will take a very long time to clear out, and who will largely prey on Falls while the shit hits the fan. This will also fan expansionistic greed in Three rivers, for people who see this as an opportunity to annex both falls and forks simultaneously. The characters can try to intervene in all of this however they want. If the savages succeed in bombing the generator, at the end of the night I will make a demolitions roll of 11-. If it succeeds at or below 8, the dam explodes and breaks, flooding the city and destroying the scribe quarter, the temple, the town square, and most of the houses near the canal. If it succeeds at less than 11, the dam is destroyed beyond easy repair, and leaks, destroying the temple only. If it fails below 14, it is destroyed but could be repaired with commonly accessible parts by someone like sarah. If it fails above 14, the bomb is a dud.

The characters succeeded in saving the dam, saving the brothel (after Grant killed seven guys in a single round of auto fire fire.), saving garcon and the oracle, and preserving some of the city, so props to them. They have now left the city in pursuit of Salome and Dog (who they do not yet know much about). The events that will now unfold: Without player intervention the caste system in Falls will disintegrate: one of the reasons the city allowed the characters to leave so rapidly, besides shell shock, is that faith, by and large, is dead there. People no longer see technology as a true deity because it failed to protect them from the horrors of the attack. As such, the most economically viable caste in fall, the craftsmen, will take over, forming an oligarchy of sorts. Seeing the situation of falls, they will realize their only real way to save the city is to provide technology that no one else can provide: as such, they will attempt to enter into an exclusive monopoly with the krominers, who are now the major source of iron in the valley. It will be greedy on both sides, and as such dangerous. Meanwhile, the greedy in three rivers, as well as the frightened, see this as a perfect opportunity to destroy forks. As such, the city will largely be mobilizing for war, with a call to edgewood to aid them. The big problem is: the biggest edge of Three Rivers, their APC and other combat vehicles, will be totally useless in the swamp that is the southwestern valley. Not only that, but the forks folks are very familiar in their terrain, and the luddites are excellent guerilla fighters. As such, a campaign against forks, while initially successful in destroying their major cities, will only be a protracted campaign, devolving finally into essentially a terrorist war. This is bad, because it essentially will turn most of forks into little more than the bandits that will use the war as an opportunity to invade the valley. Once the three forks are destroyed, the situation in the south will deteriorate, becoming more and more lawless, and will eventually have to be abandonded: as such, the valley will lose its natural topographical advantage, which will inevitably erode the unity of the valley and as such bring the utopia to an end. Like I said, bad. At some point, Three rivers will also realize that Falls is trying to get back in the game and try to undermine them, making things even worse. Obvious Actions the characters can take: 1.) Assist Three Rivers: The best way for them to help would be to infiltrate the forks area and kill the major leaders of the luddite movement. There will be probably three to four major religious leaders, pilgrims that wander from town to town, as well as probably 5 or so major guerilla leaders. This will be basically impossible, of course, with Garcon along: sarah's eye won't help either. They would also have to talk the krominers out of allying with Falls. The people of lonesome hills might be able to help, but they have become much more xenophobic since one of their own was killed within their own walls, so the reward would have to be considerable. Still, they would make a big difference. Might be an opportunity to play alts... 2.) Assist falls: a likely road for Sarah. Not sure what this will entail, but getting some sort of treaty from Three rivers would be critical. Also beneficial for Three rivers. 3.) Get the hell out of dodge: always an option. 4.) Continue to pursue Salome. They will undoubtedly catch up to her: she isn't trying to run from anyone, just staying as inconspicuous as she can and heading towards lonesome hills. At this point her real destination is the compound where the messiah harbinger setup is. She will investigate the site, communicate on her radio, make extensive notes and drawings, spend the night, probably in the chamber, and then move on to lonesome, from where she will move on down into the 66. If they keep following her, they will discover her purchasing a robot, similar to Garcon but bigger and bulkier and in bad shape, and then head east, back towards the bigtop. If the characters try to ambush her, she will put up a minimal fight: Dog will fight to the “death”: he will regenerate later and pursue until Salome makes her escape. Her suit is effectively impossible to remove without surgical equipment of extremely high tech: it is a mark II spidrillin suit and as such tougher than most weapons the characters have. The plasma torch would do it, at significant suffering to Salome: if sarah tries this, Salome will disarm her and turn the torch on her and take her hostage. Even if she notices the characters following her, she will ignore them.

The BigTop The BigTop, also called the Carnival, is the last of the four circuses of what is left of the Southwest. It in one sense or another spawned the other three, although this is far in the past. The Carnival is run by the Great Milenko, as he calls himself. Unbeknownst to even his own people, he is a cybernetic aberation, composed partly of the last great human breakthrough in the field, Liquid Metal. He is quite old, born from liquid metal parents (one parent, his mother). Disillusioned and disgusted with the world as it is, he studied everything he could get and sees the current situation as proof that organized society is doomed to fail (he knows quite a bit about the fall, but not about the fact that the ion storm precipitated the second fall), and that organization can only be predicated on the proven merit of all participants: ie, one rotten apple will spoil the barrel. Now, he seeks to bring together the “strongest”, ie the best creatures he can find, to form what he believes will be a worthy society. He is very non-judgemental of those he recruits, but they must prove their worth, and prove it not infrequently. Furthermore, he has a very nihilistic view of the world, and believes that the quality of life is defined through these “tests”: essentially, he believes that life is heightened by the struggle to survive, and thus he makes everyone under him dance the dance of death, in one form or another. Eventually, it is is intention to take the BigTop on the road, to test other, weaker societies, and force them to break out of their “shell”. Currently, he supports the BigTop through trading, raiding, slaving, and entertaining powerfull 66 lords, as well as some lords from the Land of Rivers, Lonesome hills, and the Valley, who pay well for the bloody spectaculars he can put on (not all, obviously, to the death). Strict rules of protocol must be observed on the BigTop's grounds, and those that violate it often end up part of the entertainment instead of watching it. There are somewhere between 20-30 “Cast members”, including the most fiercesome animals. Milenko will not make any attempt to capture or cajole Sarah into coming to him: he wishes to see if she is strong, and as such wants her to find him, preferrably angry and with allies. She, he believes, is the last person who might know the location of the Palace of the Sun, a mansion from before the fall he has read about that was designed to be something of a Noah's arc, in particular for genetically modified animals, located somewhere in the midwest. In fact, it's remains are within the great Dust Desert, but still actually maintained by the automated systems and a topographical isolation in another, smaller valley. The location of the mansion, in terms of approximate descriptions (a journal entry beginning in the goodfalls commune and giving mostly distances and landmark descriptions) was in a book sarah did see as a youth. Whether she remembers it or not will depend on an eidetic memory roll. If she fails, too bad. Of course, Milenko will not believe her, but we'll worry about that when we get there.

061111update The characters arrived at three rivers and traded a bunch. Sam and Grant investigated Salome, and Sam told the constable that she might have been involved in falls. She got arrested, which also resulted in the characters meeting Chester Chierlpwoifarfaersz (cripple-witz), the town's major arms dealer. Salome was shortly released, but not before the characters set up a deal with chester to trade away 80 sticks of dynamite for a ton of weapons and other equipment. Sarah received the package with the removed tattoo from her ex boyfriend. Pierre offered to do a job for chester in exchange for a laser sight, at which point chester asked him and sarah to take salome to the old military base and to lonesome hills. They agreed, but then decided that she might be trying to get past the iron door. After they left, the other characters decided this possibility was too much of a threat, so they set off after them to stop salome. They caught the group at the base, but are now at an impasse as to what to do. If the characters decide to ambush salome, she will try to surrender: if the characters do not permit this...so be it, but shennong will suffer psychological consequences if this is the case. She will offer to give the characters all her loot, which is a considerable stash (probably 500 gold worth of stuff, if you know the right people): but if they rob her or kill her, the wrath of the bigtop will be on them soon. If she gains the upper hand (very unlikely, but not impossible) she will ruin their means of transportation, probably injure several of them, wreck their medkit and other medical supplies, and then go off to contact her superiors to come and pick them up. If she surrenders, or in the heat of battle, she will try to escape at some point. Dog will stay in the fight in order to allow her to escape. And will probably not use his special deally until it wopuld really be a crippling blow. Since dog alerted her to the heated argument in the night, she will now be wary, and will wear her headpiece for the rest of the trip. Because of the advanced level of the tech of her suit, sam's new rifle will not count as AP against her armor (it will against mk I spidrillin, like matt's armor). Once in lonesome hills, she will do some trading, etc., and then head southish, to go buy the robot and head home (as previously described.) before that she will reveal to sarah that she knows where her boyfriend is, and, since she doesn't seem to be getting the clue, even tell her that he's at the bigtop. Hmm...why not make one of the guys in lonesome her ex or something? Anyways, the characters are welcome to keep following her, attack her, whatever. If they head back to edgewood, they will see basically a scene of homegrown terrorism: training camps, complete with monkey bars, explosives brewing in bathtubs, stacks of arrows, gun cleaning, the whole bit. The Edgewooders don't know much, but they know fightin'. Old men and women will be left behind to guard agains the gangs (!): still better than most, but not good enough, and they will pretty much know it. If wik stays back in three rivers, he will be met by a strange man, maybe numbers, who will ride in on a lone horse, at twilight, etc. He'll challenge wik to a game of cards, or some other buisness, and at some point he'll raise the stakes: if wik wins the hand, he'll tell him “lifesaving” information, if he loses, he won't. Numbers will skew the game so that Wik wins, and he will tell him that his old carnies know where he is, and they are on their way to come and get him. This, of course, is a lie, set up by Salome for a 'bit of fun': essentially to test wik and see what he's made of, how he responds to the threat. 061113 update things have changed a bit. First off, wik wants to recruit his own “crew”. As such, asking around in town will reveal that there are unsavories around (aka mercenaries traveling with the merchants): more investigation will reveal that there is a bar called the “outskirts” in and under a barn about two miles from town, where they have pit fighting, gambling, prostitution, drugs, you name it. If they think Wik is “for real”, they will invite him over. Why would numbers be around: he probably won't be right away, but milenko keeps many of his agents out, recruiting, finding out information: he's not interested in protecting those that can't protect themselves, and incidentally the least combat oriented (at least overtly) tend to be best at that. Milenko has contacted him based on Salome's information, and sent numbers into town to find out about the characters, and specifically Wik, and briefed him on Wik's background. The noose, so to say, is closing on Sarah: since salome has reported that she has not taken the bait, Milenko will up the stakes so to speak: eventually, he will capture wik: one way he may do it is by having Numbers offer him a job, if he finds out that wik is looking for one, take him out into the country where Archibald “the blade” can meet up with him, and then drag him off with a sound drubbing. Or, even better, maybe archibald will be at the bar, and Numbers will encourage wik to fight him, then deliver the shot from behind. The blade is after wik because his old crew has put a bounty on him, and numbers has summoned him to help him deal with the sarah situation. If numbers has no luck, the blade may challenge him to some sort of stand-off, and numbers will be the sneaky attacker from behind. As for the dynamite the characters want to track down. Where did it come from? This is a very good question. Hmmm...time to think about the origins of the luddites. I think that they should be recruited from towns all over, slowly building in strength. The movement was begun by “the man in black” a powerful mutant or freak of some sort with origins in the Kingdom of Heaven who left because he thought he had a quest. He traveled across the land, converting many people, and then left. The key, though, will not be him: he has moved on, purging and purifying...maybe he should be part of milenko's crew now :). Rather, his story was taken up by the Prophet, a man with a flair for story, who began telling the story of the exploits of the man in black, of how he converted men everywhere, how he has been changing the face of the world. It is these stories that have raised up many men to follow someone who is essentially a myth now. Thus, noone in the crusade now has actually ever seen the man in black. They have heard his stories, heard how their forefathers or townships were visited, but that's it. They are an eternally mobile band, terrorising wherever they go, and living by hunting and gathering. The way they get their nasty weapons, the zomb-05, the dynamite, and possibly other stuff in the future, is through vision quests into the black lair, the resting place, it is said, of the man in black. This will be in the mountain range near the messiah cave, but further southeast, where there is another entrance to part of the same complex. The dynamite was actually not part of any weapons depot, but rather made from certain construction materials that were found in part of the complex. The caves are highly radioactive and most people die eventually that go there, hence the vision quest deal. Yes, the man in black will be part of milenko's crew now: he was captured, tortured, but in essence only to “test his faith” (as milenko says), which was already fucked up to begin with, but now he essentially buys into the only the strong survive idea: he was tested, and so shall all others. Since his soul has been proven pure, he does drugs, has sex, etc, since none of that can touch him. This character represents a way to truly destroy the luddite movement, if the characters can capture him (milenko won't let him go now that he's part of the crew), find the luddites, and arrange some sort of spectacle that must, of course, include the prophet, who is the only one who has actually ever seen the man in black. Explosive rules need to be reworked as well: they will be much nastier than any weapons, with an “instant death” radius, followed by a grenade radius, followed by a stunned radius. The edgewood folk will know that to the southeast, there are passes through the mountains that have seen use by large numbers of intruders: the edgewooders have killed several of them but they are adept at stealth, poorly armed and so they haven't bothered too much, especially given the increase in activity by the gangs. This will get the characters on their trail: they will probably have to capture some of them to find out about the caves. Currently the luddites are trying to come up with a good way to move lots of their people sneakily into forks: most of their troops are moving across the mountain passes that are not really patrolled by the edgewooders to support forks, while their families and such are camping out near the vision caves so that they can be delivered new weapons from God... 061120 update Well, the characters certainly gave a boot to any semblance of group unity. The characters began at the cave, where Pierre and Sarah took Salome and Dog to lonesome hill. There, they were briefly detained because of the wanted poster of Sarah, so they had to bribe their way out. Back at the cave, Shennong, Grant and Sam tried to figure out a way to collapse the tunnel but were unsuccessful. When sarah and pierre returned, they all spent a bunch of time dicking around and investigating: Shennong and Sam went back to the large collapsed entryway, which is highly radioactive, and thus got radiation poisoning. The characters then split up, leaving Sarah behind, Shennong and Sam riding ahead, and pierre and grant in between. In the end, Pierre arrived back at the Krominers first, and took off straight to three rivers. Grant arrived next and stayed: Sam arrived and headed to three rivers. When sarah returned, she also went to three rivers (after running out of gas), while shennong stayed and gathered herbs. Meanwhile, wik got suckered into numbers' fake “hit” and went out to fight archibald, who kicked his ass. Milenko planned to use him as bait for Sarah, but things got more complicated when Sam and Pierre went way out of the valley trying to find Wik: the result was that when Numbers and The Blade noticed that they were being followed, they came back and ambushed each of them one by one. The result was that now Sam, Pierre, and Wik are all captured, and fuming. The other three characters will have to gather up and attempt a rescue operation. Of course, the situation is not quite what it would seem. It is true that Milenko plans to use the characters as collateral to make Sarah do what he wants, but he doesn't really see the captured characters as “prisoners”: Pierre and Sam have proven that they are competent warriors, while Wik has his reputation, so that Milenko will merely need one more 'demonstration' to see him as a valuable asset to his crew as well. In short, after they awaken, he will invite them to dine with him, informing Wik that he will simply have to prove himself, but that until then Milenko will take it on faith that he is strong after all. If the characters get out of line, get very rude, try to escape, whatever, Milenko will respond with considerable force: initially he will try to subdue the characters, but since that's unlikely to work, he'll start maiming and/or killing them next. Let's hope they play it smart. So like I said, he will wine and dine them, be relatively honest with them, and so forth. His main goal here will be to try to discover their motivations, since he does not want them interfering with his plans regarding either the cave they have shown him nor regarding the oasis he is seeking. As such, if he discovers that the characters are interested in the luddites, he will feed them the location of their camp, and even offer to help them figure out what is going on there (he'll send some low level “goons” to help out, people he can afford to lose). If the characters make a lot of trouble for him, he'll just lock them up: it will be up to sarah, grant, and shennong to decide how to rescue them. If that set of three makes a lot of trouble, they'll get captured too. If all of the characters end up in prison, Milenko will send them, unarmed and unequipped, along with one of his goons (a clever/useful one that won't be easy to kill) to the site he wants investigated: in all likelihood, he'll send them out that way in a trailer or something, and they'll get unbound when they get there. Milenko will offer to trade Sarah's boyfriend to her for the information she has. If she refuses, he'll have Ryu executed, and offer one of the characters. If she gives up the information, Milenko will need to be convinced that the characters have something more pressing to take care of (to which end he will carefully try to interrogate them), or he will press them into service to find the oasis (largely unequipped). The group may be split up to this end. While he is trying to ferret out their motives, he will also be trying to win them over to his way of seeing things. He'll offer them access to slave women, to liquor, to fine foods, and to tours of the “establishment”. Wik's test will be quite the opposite of what he expects: not to fight his friends (too much of a waste) but to finish what he started: Milenko has captured what remains of the now leaderless and reckless Circus Freaks, and he will give Wik a gun in the main tent, and tell him to execute his old compatriots. He will make whichever members of the group are there watch (not that they'll care). If wik turns the gun on Milenko, milenko will lock him up, since he doesn't want to lose the group entirely. The bigtop sits in a heavily forested valley: it is in the remains of a quarry. The grounds proper are surrounded by a moat and a wooden pallisade: there are small outposts, easily defensible on the rocky outcroppings on it's eastern side. One of his lieutenants will be up there, with a sniping rifle. This location is well concealed. There are patrols of two men that circle the walls essentially constantly, reporting at each of the four gates at 20 minute intervals. There are probably 12-15 lieutenants, each of which has a “crew” of 5-6 guys. The “crews” take turns going out and raiding, taking prisoners for slaves, capturing loot, and hunting up food. 061210 UPDATE I've decided to have the players make alts: my current thought is to have gabe, dieter, and ed make a group of mutants from the native american group, who will somehow come into contact with the three characters at the tent (although this will be less rapid, since they are in prison) while the other three will make a group of “brotherhood of steel” agents, who will come to aid the other three characters, depending on what they go out to do. I think it was a bit of a mistake to tell Dieter's character what was up, but now it's too late. I think I will make him wander up to Joey's place before he changes his mind though. I'll use Jason to handle off players, and sick bored players on making their alts. Above, I've outlined how things will largely go for the captured characters. They may attempt to escape, and they may even be successful, but it won't be easy, especially for pierre, who isn't particularly stealthy. Is there a chance that Milenko may let them go? Only if he feels confident that they won't mess with his shit. As such, he may drive them blindfolded back to the valley, or drop them off somewhere random, or very far away. This may actually be a good way to permanently, or semi-permanently split up the group. Yes, I like this: Milenko will give them a tour, feed them, give them whores and entertainment, make Wik kill his own crew, and then put them up in a fairly innocuous “cage”: wooden, with a semi-simple lock, with nice sleeping bags and stuff. They will be under carefull surveillance by the beastmaster and likely one other person, maybe the seer lady I'm envisioning. When/if they try to escape, Milenko will cart them off, assuming he thinks they are a lost cause. If they don't try to escape, he'll try to interrogate/ferret out of them what they want etc. If he carts them off, this will give them a good opportunity to meet the mutants, probably from the land of rivers...nice. As for the other characters: They will need very serious planning to get out of the valley. I think, just to cluster fuck them some more, Garcon will disappear. Maybe. Anyways, if they just book it out of the valley, they will get ambushed fairly regularly by gangers and luddites. They have no idea where the bigtop is, and frankly, not that many gangers do either: the location isn't secret, per se, but it's not public knowledge either. They will know that it's east on a successful streetwise roll...if they fail, they will say a different location. If they lose a fight under these circumstances, they will be sold as slaves, and will be rescued by the brotherhood of steel people, probably because of garcon (if he's still around) or because of...something else. If they avoid this fate and manage to find the bigtop fast, hurrah, the group is reunited. Unlikely, but it would be simple and they'd get phatty xp for pulling it off. If not, they may wander a bit, in which case I'll probably try to suck them into the luddite storyline again, or the dealings between the krominer's and Falls. So, as for the Brotherhood, I think this idea has a ton of potential. But who are they? A semi-monastic order? I think they should be an offshoot from the Southern Scientific Syndicate: perhaps a super secret spy organization that was inserted into the US shortly before the fall: so secret that even it's members had their memory deleted. They were modified with limited amounts of liquid metal in order to protect them. Or perhaps, even better, allies of the SSS in the US, protectors of reason, who formed secret enclaves, and, at the warning of the Syndicate, holed up underground. After the fall, they sought to preserve knowledge and technology, but in a very rational way. Unfortunately, they know that with the tech plagues, they have to basically keep everything completely locked up, so although they have the knowledge they can't use it much. Also, they keep their initiates largely in the dark. The job of these initiates is to go out and search for ways to prevent the tech plagues/see the extent of their coverage. Also, all their generators were inadequately protected. Or perhaps best of all, they are an organization that went underground at the time that the TAC attacked. They wanted to preserve things with Technology the rightful servant of mankind, and their forefathers helped spread the tech plagues. Now, they fear the influence of the TAC across the world and are trying to eradicate it. Hmmm.... The Iron Knights (Equites Ferrei) are an order established to preserve the balance between life and technology. Once, Technology made society, and Then, destroyed it. The Equites Ferrei, blessed by the 3 Saints: Auster, Sapientia, and Factio, were preserved from this destruction in order to safeguard the Vault, a great repository of knowledge and power. However, not all is well in the world: the balance between Man, Nature, and Technology must be restored before the Vault can be unlocked and its secrets revealed to the world. As such, the machine monsters known only as the TAC (and their agents Taces) must first be scoured from the land. Second, worthy men and women to shepherd the power of the vault must be found, and finally, the dissemination of its power must be protected from the corruption that led to the loss of the balance in the first place: Humanity cannot affort to repeat its previous mistakes and be undone by its own creations. You Three are a coven of initiates: the high guardians of the vault have trained and schooled you to search the land for signs of the TAC, of knowledge worth preserving, of those worthy to shepherd knowledge, and of evil men who might disrupt the balance once the vault is unlocked. Covens are always trained as threes: as there are three saints, so there are three in each coven. Thus, you three have been together since the age of about 10: Covens are sent out for their “Walkabout”around age 18-20. You may discuss as you wish to decide what sorts of abilities you might have. Red Cloud Clan: Among the Tribe there are many clans: families made by birth, marriage, and blood- and life-bonds. Many of these clans overlap, of course, but one of the most ancient is the Red Cloud Clan: they are fabled to be makers of destiny, to have the most daring members, and the most willing to step forth to undertake difficult missions for the good of the tribe. Recently, the Shadow Beast was sighted, and with the growing threat to the Land of Rivers from the invaders from the East and the Barbarians in the West, this threat cannot be ignored. Only one man ever dared pursue the Shadow Beast, some say even to the gates of the Accursed Zigurat itself, the man calling himself the Great Hunter, Sam. Though he was no friend to the Land of Rivers, he was no enemy either, and though it appears that he was unsuccessful in catching the beast, he is the only one who has ever tracked it, and thus the Red Cloud Clan has been called up to find the man, and hopefully together with him find and kill or subdue the Shadow Beast, before it begins anew it's Feast of Bones.... You are a group of brothers/sisters by birth, marriage, or blood/life-bond (blood brothers, life boon) from the Red Cloud Clan. You have known each other all your life, have fought together, etc. You are all mutants, so make your alts according to those rules. Leave the last year of your history blank, but the rest of your history and stuff about Red Cloud, etc, you may discuss and/or ask about. 061222 UPDATE I think that we will likely pursue the adventures of hunter, wik, and pierre tonight. This is because both shennong and sarah may/will be missing