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| Kenshi |
Loot
One goat (haunted?)
Dramatis Personae
- Kestrel
- Hipsap
- Scramps, Village of Hog vagrant swineherd
- Binocco, Village of Hog machine kid
- Jospel, Village of Hog machine-centaur shovel sanctum keeper/gardener
- Ooze Mutant, the Hover Brigand
Worldbuilding
- High Noon lasts for four hours in the land of deadSun -MAXIMAL-.
Recap
5th of Lastmonth, Year 1V39
We picked back up with the Company making their way through the yellow deserts toward the Village of Hog. Along the way they encountered a duo of gas-mask wearing goatherds who greeted the party kindly. The party immediately began debating amongst themselves if they should kill them to uphold their pact with the sword god, but instead decided to return the greeting. The goatherds welcomed them to the lands surrounding the Village of Hog and gave them directions, then made an offer to sell them a goat. The second goatherd was walking at a distance apart from the rest of the flock with the goat for sale on a leash.
Using the Door Sword, Gemini contacted the Sword God and attempted to see if the goats counted as valid murder targets for fulfilling their pact. They did not. Curiously, though, the goat that was for sale made the Sword God pause in consideration - "perhaps counts for half," he said. They also noticed the goat gnashing at its leash angrily and drooling profusely. For 5 copper pieces they bought the goat and left the goatherds on their way.
Hipsap Sanvalli attempted to record the interdimensional thoughts of the goat using her Communicate Dimensions spell and play them back. She heard a bizarre ranting and raving, like one side of an argument, considering sorcerers, molecules, the nature of the universe, and the consumption of sorcerous brains.
The party continued onward and arrived in town at High Noon.
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| Village of Hog (Vaults of Vaarn, Eigin Oasis) |
The Village of Hog turned out to be a few scattered adobe buildings around a central oasis. Upon arriving they were quickly accosted by a down-on-his-luck swineherd, who excitedly asked if the Company were "the regulators they had been waiting for". The party agreed and the swineherd introduced himself as Scramps and began raving of the "undead scourge rising from the northern canyons" and the "consternation loose among the freeholders of our fair village", promising them more information if they bought him a drink.
The party agreed and he lead them to a tavern staffed by a solemn fungus-ridden man in a wide-brimmed hat. Kestrel convinced Scramps that the water from their canteen was a fine artisanal Northern spirit and poured him a glass. Scramps made a show of artfully sampling the fine spirit and then told them what he knew. He claimed that the town was facing a dual onslaught of crystal-ridden Empyrean zombies from the northern canyons and hoverbike-riding brigands from the south, who each passed through occasionally, stealing hogs and slaughtering townsfolk. The zombies carried gold, he said, and the brigands rode gaudily-colored hoverbikes.
The Company deliberated about whether zombie would count towards fulfilling the pact, and Scramps said he could take them to one if they bought him another drink. Hipsap bought him a real one this time and one for herself, and the fungus-ridden bartender poured her two flutes of neon turquoise syrupy wine. Scramps led them across the village towards a building whose yard was littered with mechanical debris and scrap metal. Knocking on the door, it was opened by a pissed-off nine-year-old, who Scramps addressed as Binocco.
Binocco waved them in through a room absolutely packed with heaps of wires and terminals and heavy machinery, Serial Experiments Lain style. In a large glass tube at the end of the room was a trapped Empyrean zombie. The players pointed their sword at it, and the Sword God confirmed that killing undead creatures would not count toward fulfilling the pact.
Scramps took his leave to return to the bar. The party chatted with Binocco a while and Hipsap and him bonded over both being afflicted with blood curses. Binocco said he was born cursed to age backwards and he was performing research about how to reverse his reverse aging, hence the zombie and all the computers. He had about nine years left until he disappeared, he reckoned, and invited the party to join him in his research in the future, as he could put a group of people who can handle themselves with a blithe disregard for their own lives to good use researching the Ancient Machines Of The Past. By cross-referencing the seven Spy Kids ass holo-projector watches on his wrist he could confirm that the brigands rolled through town about once a week, but Jospel the lawkeeper might have more information at the town sanctum.
The party took their leave and went to speak with Jospel, a massive wiry machine-centaur being, who they found weeding a beautiful lush garden. They offered Kestrel some motor oil, which they politely partook of. Jospel asked the Company what sort of travelers they were, and the party muttered about being recruiters... retainers... renouncers... regulators? Taking them for bounty-killers, Jospel handed them a poster detailing a bounty on the leader of the brigands, a huge bug man named Papa Mandible, and said they believed their hideout was somewhere in the southern hills, not far from the main road. The party asked what was in the sanctum, and Jospel told them it was kept empty except in the event of emergencies, such as undead or brigand attacks.
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| The Village of Hog, adventurer's perspective |
The Plan
Many methods of mass-slaughtering the townsfolk were debated throughout the session. Eventually they settled on the bandits as their quarry. They left Mischief behind at the village corral and set off with their new goat, Kestrel's skull rat companion, and the hoverbike they had looted from the brigands last session. Checking the glovebox, Hipsap found a crude map that pointed to a place in the southern hills near a bend in Rat Creek. Kestrel made a wager that they would be able to send a precise distress signal using the hoverbike's onboard radio/GPS systems that would make the bandits send nine of their weakest men in staggered waves of three to their current location, calling it a milk run.
The wager failed.
The players quickly found themselves surrounded by a group of the brigands. "Did you really think I would be that stupid?", said the Ooze Mutant they had let go last session, "I saw you all run off with that bike." A half-dozen mutant heads poked their heads over the nearby hillsides with their rifles trained on the Company. The Ooze Mutant outlined his terms. 1) The Company would return the stolen hoverbike immediately, as the Better Ought Nots would not tolerate dilution of their brand. 2) The Company would hand over 2,000cp as funeral expenses for Craig, the man they killed in the woods during their last encounter with the bandits.
Weighing their options, Kestrel hid their rat companion under the hood of the hoverbike before passing it over to the Ooze Mutant, and the session concluded. Tune in next week for more!
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