After a few minutes of frantic battle, the owner operators of Dinotours Excursions LLC secured their safety for the rest of the evening. Wraith surveyed the battlefield to ensure they were safe and found that the area showed signs that this was not the first conflict with the ghosts as there were remains of many locals scattered about.
The following morning they spent some time looting the golden age hotel they had discovered. Florida man and Butch managed to break open a safe containing a pile of golden age cash and a diamond necklace, which though obviously expensive was ultimately left behind because neither of them thought to collect it.
Socket was eager to get back to base camp to report on their findings and so Ray with a relatively large bundle of golden age furniture, flew them back while Butch and Florida Man headed home on foot.
Florida Man and Butch eventually encountered the large area that Socket had them avoid on the way up with the moldy ruins of some kind of town in the center. Throwing caution to the wind, Florida Man decided he was going to investigate and quickly encountered the spectral children that Socket had them avoid. Instead of provoking them, he channeled his inner child and spent some time playing on the playground. After a short while butch caught up with him and managed to convince him leaving was a good idea.
That evening they reached base camp and found everyone relaxing. Wraith had gone off earlier in the day to see if he could make contact with the 'Mice' and Socket was deep in the middle of constructing a magical Mega Damage Concrete recycling and processing machine.
When Ray returned from the tunnels, he brought a pile of armor fragments that he discovered and showed them to everyone but socket. After some prompting from Lexington, Kage became a bit perturbed and tried to distract Florida Man, managing to distract Wraith as well. When they were off in the woods trying to figure out what Kage was pointing at, Kage explained that the armor should be stowed and hidden for some time because it was from Splugorth assassins and this would likely distress Socket quite a bit given his history; which, though he probably shouldn't have, Kage related a tiny bit of to Butch. Butch did not like the idea of hiding the information and Kage convinced him to just wait until a better time to tell him.
Florida Man had found a really awesome stick, which was actually more of a sapling tree, and had begun vaulting the stream that Wraith had made while he was laboriously landscaping the business grounds. After a while thought Kage rounded everyone back up and asked them to report and was curious about the plume of smoke to the north the day before that was almost in the direction they had come from. Butch and Florida Man could not explain it and had not noticed it either. There was a brief discussion about what to do next and that is when Kage noticed another plume in almost exactly the same spot. Butch suggested that Wraith make a fly over and Ray was all to happy to oblige.
Ray did his best to sneak up to the smoke and first came across a village ruin that was obviously burned to the ground and after making note, proceeded to the fresh smoke. He found another village that was embers and in complete disarray. Bodies were strewn about and the place was a mess of footprints. Some small bare foot prints headed west and many large booted foot prints were heading to the east. Wraith attempted to follow the small prints but quickly lost them. While he was trying to find the trail again, he heard some whimpering from a near by building ruin and discovered a wickedly wounded woman with a baby and 4 small children. Ray did his best to heal the woman but nothing could be done to her extensive wounds. As soon as she laid eyes on him, she sighed, thanked him for coming and then passed away. Ray did his best to explain to the children but simply couldn't eventually settling on taking them back to base camp to see what he should do.
When he got back to camp, Kage freaked out and Lexington immediately took the baby and was doing his best to calm it. There was a lengthy discussion about what to do and when Kage explained they had to take the children to the Kopar to be cared for because it was more than a little hazardous to keep them around, Lexington handed off the b aby and proceeded to go into his workshop and rampage. Kage said he would get over it soon enough and then they made preparations to leave.
Socket prepared a floating nursery on the only working grav platform and they all headed to the Kopar settlement. When they arrived, Ray acted as spokesman and they all eventually made their way into the settlement to see where the children would be cared for. Satisfied that Tanya, Joel, Abigail, Jeff and Babe would be properly cared for, they headed back to base camp. On the way Back Butch had a conversation with Socket about the Splugoth assassins.
The following day, there was a lot of discussion about what to do next. the investors had come and gone and expressed an interest but the first batch of tourists would be arriving in a week. Many discussions about merchandising and safari attractions were had and everyone got ready to go speak with the SEEGA clan about possible shared services contracts.
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Thursday, February 16, 2017
So it is OK if you really want their stuff or if you are really curious...
The next day Kage called a meeting in the new conference room. He explained to everyone that his business plan involved investors that would be there in the next 3 to 5 days. He expressed that he hoped they would have some attractions to show off by then and tasked everyone to go find those attractions.
After running through the options and what they had already planned Butch tossed around the idea of creating an urban legend about a dragon but it was shot down somewhat quickly.
While the other deliberated, Ray headed off to consult the 'neighbors' and found out that to the West there were many large predators and to the North there were a few large predators. The group had decided that it would be good for the safari to have a way to watch large predators and so they set off to the North to investigate.
Not long into their travel, they encountered a small group of people. Florida Man tried to sneak up on them but they were on alert and were observing what they assumed was a large predator approaching from the same direction.
They attempted to warn and stop Florida Man, but he was loud and they were afraid he would attract the attention of the large creature, which in reality was Ray pretending to be a spinosaurus.
Having stopped, they had a chance to observe a group of large quadruped foot prints heading north as well. After a few minutes of investigation they continued in that direction and eventually happened upon the same group of four people.
The travelers appeared to be trying not to get noticed and were in dense foliage. Florida Man again hoping to surprise them sneaked up near them and listened to their conversation. Once he heard them talking about getting paid for delivering something he radioed back that he was going to try and accost them. Butch just turned off his radio and Socket radioed back which alerted the group of people, who then took cover.
Going full raider, Florida Man hopped from his hiding place and attempted to intimidate the group by firing his plasma caster at them while yelling something to the effect of, "Reach for the sky". This resulted in a large portion of tree tops catching fire as he bungled handling the large weapon. Not knowing what was going on and fearing for their lives, the group responded by opening up with a hail of Ion pulse fire catching Florida Man square in the chest but he was either too excited or too belligerent to be hurt by it.
Hearing the volley, Socket waddled forward and shredded one of the people through a tree with his ice blast shotgun while the mechanical whine of Butch's mini-gun sang the death song of the other three. Moments later while the smoke cleared, Florida man hopped into the clearing to investigate their 'stuffs'.
First on the scene, FM discovered a glass jar with a small quantity of some kind of liquid in it in the shredded remains of one of the travelers packs, among the debris of numerous other shattered jars. Narrowly avoiding cutting his hands, he found the hand holding the jar went completely numb. Ray examined the effect and concluded the jars must have contained a very powerful topical anesthetic.
Cautiously, Socket stowed the undamaged jar in his pack and they took a good look around to see if they could figure out where the group was heading. Socket, the one in the group who is the least capable of dealing with people, was the only one who attempted to correct Ray's misinterpretation of the current situation but alas the young dragon walked away from the carnage thinking that it was OK to butcher people if you liked their stuff, wanted it or otherwise were just very curious about it. Form the direction they were heading, they decided the group must have been heading to the city of Char and realized that whoever was buying from them, probably was better left alone.
While Butch attempted to figure out a way to hide or dispose of the bodies and Florida Man continued to rifle them, Socket and Ray picked up the tracks of the quadrupeds again and headed a bit north and west to a small stream. A short distance off, they saw a large herd of Stegosaurus and even closer they spotted an Allosaurus stalking the herd of large herbivores.
As they observed, the Allosaurus pounced and ate one of the creatures. The other stampeded down the stream toward the group but everyone had a good amount of time to get clear. Butch and FM showed back up and they all went to investigate the dead animal. Butch recovered a tooth and FM went around hacking off bits and pieces to stow in a cache to retrieve later.
After Socket took copious notes on the data pad about the dinos they encountered, they got back on the trail north and continued walking. After a short distance, they encountered a ruin that was strangely devoid of trees and had odd equipment in the middle of it near a moss covered ruin of a building.
Socket inspected it from a great distance with his tehcno magical goggles and discovered a large amount of odd spectral children playing in and around the ruin. Not wanting anything to do with this, they all decided it was better to take some extra time and avoid the whole area. So sticking to the wood line, they continued north toward the base of the mountains.
Eventually they arrived in an area that was close to the mountains and everyone put on their survivalist caps. Collectively they followed some golden age clues and managed to discover a some what oddly intact building that had not been plundered through the years. Being as it was getting dark, they settled in and Ray took watch.
Not long into the night Ray heard a noise off to the east. Florida Man was also awake and inspecting his equipment when Ray told him he was going to investigate. Morphing human, Ray headed down to the forest and encountered a large group of spectral men with rifles on spectral horse back. Hurriedly he ran back to the building and hid with FM. The group of riders came to the building as well and then settled down as if they were camping for the night. Some obviously tending imaginary fires and others milling about. Wondering if the spectral riders were malevolent, Ray called out a tentative hello and was acknowledged with a hail of spectral gunfire.
Next week we see how the group manages to get out of this pickle.
After running through the options and what they had already planned Butch tossed around the idea of creating an urban legend about a dragon but it was shot down somewhat quickly.
While the other deliberated, Ray headed off to consult the 'neighbors' and found out that to the West there were many large predators and to the North there were a few large predators. The group had decided that it would be good for the safari to have a way to watch large predators and so they set off to the North to investigate.
Not long into their travel, they encountered a small group of people. Florida Man tried to sneak up on them but they were on alert and were observing what they assumed was a large predator approaching from the same direction.
They attempted to warn and stop Florida Man, but he was loud and they were afraid he would attract the attention of the large creature, which in reality was Ray pretending to be a spinosaurus.
Having stopped, they had a chance to observe a group of large quadruped foot prints heading north as well. After a few minutes of investigation they continued in that direction and eventually happened upon the same group of four people.
The travelers appeared to be trying not to get noticed and were in dense foliage. Florida Man again hoping to surprise them sneaked up near them and listened to their conversation. Once he heard them talking about getting paid for delivering something he radioed back that he was going to try and accost them. Butch just turned off his radio and Socket radioed back which alerted the group of people, who then took cover.
Going full raider, Florida Man hopped from his hiding place and attempted to intimidate the group by firing his plasma caster at them while yelling something to the effect of, "Reach for the sky". This resulted in a large portion of tree tops catching fire as he bungled handling the large weapon. Not knowing what was going on and fearing for their lives, the group responded by opening up with a hail of Ion pulse fire catching Florida Man square in the chest but he was either too excited or too belligerent to be hurt by it.
Hearing the volley, Socket waddled forward and shredded one of the people through a tree with his ice blast shotgun while the mechanical whine of Butch's mini-gun sang the death song of the other three. Moments later while the smoke cleared, Florida man hopped into the clearing to investigate their 'stuffs'.
First on the scene, FM discovered a glass jar with a small quantity of some kind of liquid in it in the shredded remains of one of the travelers packs, among the debris of numerous other shattered jars. Narrowly avoiding cutting his hands, he found the hand holding the jar went completely numb. Ray examined the effect and concluded the jars must have contained a very powerful topical anesthetic.
Cautiously, Socket stowed the undamaged jar in his pack and they took a good look around to see if they could figure out where the group was heading. Socket, the one in the group who is the least capable of dealing with people, was the only one who attempted to correct Ray's misinterpretation of the current situation but alas the young dragon walked away from the carnage thinking that it was OK to butcher people if you liked their stuff, wanted it or otherwise were just very curious about it. Form the direction they were heading, they decided the group must have been heading to the city of Char and realized that whoever was buying from them, probably was better left alone.
While Butch attempted to figure out a way to hide or dispose of the bodies and Florida Man continued to rifle them, Socket and Ray picked up the tracks of the quadrupeds again and headed a bit north and west to a small stream. A short distance off, they saw a large herd of Stegosaurus and even closer they spotted an Allosaurus stalking the herd of large herbivores.
As they observed, the Allosaurus pounced and ate one of the creatures. The other stampeded down the stream toward the group but everyone had a good amount of time to get clear. Butch and FM showed back up and they all went to investigate the dead animal. Butch recovered a tooth and FM went around hacking off bits and pieces to stow in a cache to retrieve later.
After Socket took copious notes on the data pad about the dinos they encountered, they got back on the trail north and continued walking. After a short distance, they encountered a ruin that was strangely devoid of trees and had odd equipment in the middle of it near a moss covered ruin of a building.
Socket inspected it from a great distance with his tehcno magical goggles and discovered a large amount of odd spectral children playing in and around the ruin. Not wanting anything to do with this, they all decided it was better to take some extra time and avoid the whole area. So sticking to the wood line, they continued north toward the base of the mountains.
Eventually they arrived in an area that was close to the mountains and everyone put on their survivalist caps. Collectively they followed some golden age clues and managed to discover a some what oddly intact building that had not been plundered through the years. Being as it was getting dark, they settled in and Ray took watch.
Not long into the night Ray heard a noise off to the east. Florida Man was also awake and inspecting his equipment when Ray told him he was going to investigate. Morphing human, Ray headed down to the forest and encountered a large group of spectral men with rifles on spectral horse back. Hurriedly he ran back to the building and hid with FM. The group of riders came to the building as well and then settled down as if they were camping for the night. Some obviously tending imaginary fires and others milling about. Wondering if the spectral riders were malevolent, Ray called out a tentative hello and was acknowledged with a hail of spectral gunfire.
Next week we see how the group manages to get out of this pickle.
Thursday, February 9, 2017
How not to get rid of pesky neighbors
The Ankylosaurus were busily chomping away at the encampment walls while Lexington and Kage frantically raced around trying to figure out what to do. Butch went hunting for flammable material, hoping that he could deter the creatures by setting their shells on fire while Florida Man tried every kind of thing he could to wedge their heads in place with their own shells. Being enormously strong and damage resistant creatures, niter individual made much headway in their efforts to deter them from a really nice and easy food source.
Eventually Ray showed up and decided to use some of the trees composing the palisade to lure two of the monsters away from the rest of the wall. Seeing this, FM was emboldened and used the power of his mind to plant the suggestion in one of the beast's mind that the Lankton's knot patch to the north east was a wonderful place to relieve itself. Meanwhile, Butch stopped stomping around the top of the creature he was assailing and instead made an effort to befriend it which met with great success.
After a good bit of time, the two creatures Ray had been luring toward 'the mean faeries' home, arrived and Ray proceeded to toss a pair of slightly chewed stumps into the patch. The two Ankylosaurus, having brains only slightly less developed than the average house fly, chased the food directly into the hazardous patch of sticky acidic plants.
One of the lumbering monsters decided that the plants that were sticking to it and burning its flesh were too much hassle to continue pursuing the easy food and veered out, the other however was not so lucky. Its soft unprotected underside completely covered in sticky acidic plants, the other collapsed a few feet from the food that Ray had thrown into the patch. This greatly perturbed Ray causing him to go full monster and in dragon form he let loose a torrent of flaming breath.
Sadly only after the Block Buster atomic bomb in the center of the Lankton's Knot patch, which Ray had previously thrown in as a retaliatory action for being tricked by the faeries, had detonated, did everyone realize what a bad idea setting fire to the plants was. The resultant explosion killed all the Ankylosaurs around the patch as well as the faeries and just about anything else that was near the center of the blast. Ray was thrown three quarters of the way back to the settlement and the resultant crater was filled in with water from the neighboring pond revealing a pile of trees that had obviously been trampled into the shallows by the Ankylosaurs.
Kage rushed to Ray to make sure he was alright and Florida Man sat on Ray's belly gently trying to comfort the dazed dragon. After some confused explanations about a 'mean home' and a 'big bomb' Kage understood what happened and everyone went to go investigate the new crater. Here they discovered that the pile of trees had trapped socket under the waters of the pond in a kind of igloo that he had built to sleep in. They freed him and he immediately began the process of cleaning up the radioactive fallout that the bomb had deposited in the charred remains of the surrounding forest. Butch showed up riding Carol the Ankylosaurs and they headed back to the camp to see what had happened there.
With Lexington assessing the damage, Kage decided that it would be in their best interest to focus on finishing the settlement building and expressed regrets that the rubble to the north was one of the only close good sources of building material other than the area to the south. They decided that they would go check out the southern rubble again and found that only two of the bone crested dinosaurs from before were there. Everything seemed to be going OK as the group approached riding the back of Sheryl the Ankylosaurs but then the one of the bone crested dinosaurs noticed them and got very aggressive towards the Ankylosaurs.
Lowering its head for a charge, Butch underestimated the neck and beak strength of Carol the Ankylosaurus and after the first charged smashed off the shoulder armor of the creature, the second charge from the bone crested dinosaur slammed directly into Sheryl's face causing the massive creature to go limp. It took a moment for everyone to realize that their 'tank' had just died but the Stress was too much for Florida Man who went into a berserk rage and leaped from the back of the dead creatures shell landing with his vibroblade cleaving the bone crested beast in two. Beside himself, Flrida man proceeded to strip naked and attack everything, including inanimate objects for the next hour while Ray, borrowing Butch's survival pack, dressed the dead dinosaurs and headed back to the encampment to begin smoking the meat for reasons he did not explain.
When everyone finally got back to the camp, they found Lexington attempting to have a conversation with a group of barbarians. Kage stepped in and they learned that the group was from a settlement just a bit to the south west that apparently called themselves the 'Seega'. They came to investigate the explosion and found the settlement. The group of barbarians took the opportunity to shamelessly promote their dinosaur arena called 'Primal Rage'. The leader, who was later identified as Elroy, produced an encased flyer for the arena stating that his ancestors in the golden age had created a similar arena and this was their tribes destiny.
Lanaroy, a woman barbarian had taken a liking to the nude Florida Man and after someone mentioned the Kopar barbarians, the Seega got a bit cold and decided they had to head home. As soon as they were gone, a group of Kopar barbarians showed up and began to chat with the employees of 'Dinotours Excursions LLC' before they noticed all the golden age stuff lying around and made some hasty excuses to leave. Kage later explained that the Seega and the Kopar don't get along and that the Kopar believe that golden age anything is cursed and thus shun it.
Shortly thereafter a man named Malcolm showed up on a hover cycle and began talking to Kage. Apparently he was not supposed to arrive for a few more days but he had finished his business early and decided to stop by. Also he was worried about Kage because he had learned that Kage borrowed money from some seriously unsavory individuals to make his hasty flight to the swamp. Being pressed by the rest of the group for information about what Malcolm said, Kage explained that he borrwed a heafty sum of 200k credits from a crime syndicate but was not super forthcoming about which one. Malcolm mentioned it was one though that would not act with mercs but had sway with the Coalition and Dog Men accompanied by power armored troops would be who came to collect. Ray asked if the Golden age weapon smiths would be interested in purchasing two golden age Block Buster bombs and Malcolm mentioned he would look into it before heading off with haste.
It was at this point that Lexington explained that with the water in the nearby pond now irradiated past drink-ability and the tents demolished, they were going to run out of water in short order. Kage suggested that while he stayed to help Lexington work on a water tower/cistern, the others head to 'The Underground', which was the center of the Kopar civilization.
So the following morning Butch, Florida Man and Ray headed out to the east to find the Underground. After about half a says travel they found the settlement and headed inside with a skull that Kage had them harvest from one of the Bone headed monsters. Butch got all kinds of bad looks because he was carrying an obvious and large piece of golden age technology but the other two seemed to blend right in. Ray was still wearing the tattered remnants of his Dinotours jumpsuit and Florida Man had created an ensemble that he thought looked after the fashion of the local barbarians but really just looked like a bad costume from some movie about prehistoric times.
They eventually were able to trade the skull for two large water bladders and some coinage. They filled the bladders and after Ray made sure that he would be able to sell his 'hooch' here, they headed back to the settlement.
The following day, Lexington had seemed to finish his cistern and it began to rain in earnest. Kage was anxious to get the primary building in the settlement constructed and so asked the team to double up their efforts to find usable material to build with. With that, Butch, FM and Ray headed east to see what they could find because the day before on the way to the Underground, they had spotted all kinds of larger rubble structures in the forest. Socket stayed behind with Lexington attempting to get one of the anti-grav sleds working enough to allow them to use it to transfer anything that the others found back to the settlement, as well as create a technowizard concrete saw that could be used to harvest the material.
Ray, Butch and Florida Man meanwhile reached the building and began to investigate. The interior was remarkably well preserved and there were all kinds of Mega Damage relics to harvest here, but there was also a kind of pleasant sweet blood smell on the air. the whole site was surrounded with strange plants emitting the smell and a couple interior walls had been blown in allowing dirt to accumulate to the point where a lot of these plants were growing throughout the building. Every one began to feel a bit tired and dizzy and so they took a step outside to get some air.
They observed a hatchling Tiger Raptor walk up to one of the plants and then pass out as it breathed in the plants secretions. Ray quickly rescued it and then made sure that it made it back to its pack. Florida Man lost his patients and after tying a rag around his nose and mouth, proceeded to attempt to butcher the plants. A few seconds into his assault, he went down in a cloud of secretions. Butch realizing that the plants were trying to puncture their shoes, jumped into action with Ray and they dragged Florida Man out. Ray gathered some samples to fool with and Butch grabbed a really nice Mega Damage Naugahyde chair to bring back with them.
Back at the settlement Ray put his still in working order and experimented with the plants he gathered while the others prepared to go gather the material for the building. Ray brewed up a batch of stuff that tasted awful with the plants he gathered but the aromatics of it laid Florida Man out for a few more minutes. Realizing that he might have something good, Ray headed to the Underground and met with a steel tree worker as well as an herbalist. He made a trade agreement with the Kopar around steel tree saplings and learned some useful recipes for herbal brews that would sell well. The herbalist was able to identify the plant excretion as Seep Fern and knowing it was valuable, Ray headed back to the place where they knew it was growing in a large patch.
Meanwhile the others had arrived at the site and cleared the plants before starting to dismantle the golden age behemoth. Ray collected more plant samples and headed off to sell them before returning to camp smartly dressed in local leathers. By the end of a couple of days, they had the building moved completely finished the construction of their new base of operations. Ray and Butch spent some time building a nice themed wall on the front of the encampment with wood and Ankylosaurs shells and they all settled in to begin their business.
Eventually Ray showed up and decided to use some of the trees composing the palisade to lure two of the monsters away from the rest of the wall. Seeing this, FM was emboldened and used the power of his mind to plant the suggestion in one of the beast's mind that the Lankton's knot patch to the north east was a wonderful place to relieve itself. Meanwhile, Butch stopped stomping around the top of the creature he was assailing and instead made an effort to befriend it which met with great success.
After a good bit of time, the two creatures Ray had been luring toward 'the mean faeries' home, arrived and Ray proceeded to toss a pair of slightly chewed stumps into the patch. The two Ankylosaurus, having brains only slightly less developed than the average house fly, chased the food directly into the hazardous patch of sticky acidic plants.
One of the lumbering monsters decided that the plants that were sticking to it and burning its flesh were too much hassle to continue pursuing the easy food and veered out, the other however was not so lucky. Its soft unprotected underside completely covered in sticky acidic plants, the other collapsed a few feet from the food that Ray had thrown into the patch. This greatly perturbed Ray causing him to go full monster and in dragon form he let loose a torrent of flaming breath.
Sadly only after the Block Buster atomic bomb in the center of the Lankton's Knot patch, which Ray had previously thrown in as a retaliatory action for being tricked by the faeries, had detonated, did everyone realize what a bad idea setting fire to the plants was. The resultant explosion killed all the Ankylosaurs around the patch as well as the faeries and just about anything else that was near the center of the blast. Ray was thrown three quarters of the way back to the settlement and the resultant crater was filled in with water from the neighboring pond revealing a pile of trees that had obviously been trampled into the shallows by the Ankylosaurs.
Kage rushed to Ray to make sure he was alright and Florida Man sat on Ray's belly gently trying to comfort the dazed dragon. After some confused explanations about a 'mean home' and a 'big bomb' Kage understood what happened and everyone went to go investigate the new crater. Here they discovered that the pile of trees had trapped socket under the waters of the pond in a kind of igloo that he had built to sleep in. They freed him and he immediately began the process of cleaning up the radioactive fallout that the bomb had deposited in the charred remains of the surrounding forest. Butch showed up riding Carol the Ankylosaurs and they headed back to the camp to see what had happened there.
With Lexington assessing the damage, Kage decided that it would be in their best interest to focus on finishing the settlement building and expressed regrets that the rubble to the north was one of the only close good sources of building material other than the area to the south. They decided that they would go check out the southern rubble again and found that only two of the bone crested dinosaurs from before were there. Everything seemed to be going OK as the group approached riding the back of Sheryl the Ankylosaurs but then the one of the bone crested dinosaurs noticed them and got very aggressive towards the Ankylosaurs.
Lowering its head for a charge, Butch underestimated the neck and beak strength of Carol the Ankylosaurus and after the first charged smashed off the shoulder armor of the creature, the second charge from the bone crested dinosaur slammed directly into Sheryl's face causing the massive creature to go limp. It took a moment for everyone to realize that their 'tank' had just died but the Stress was too much for Florida Man who went into a berserk rage and leaped from the back of the dead creatures shell landing with his vibroblade cleaving the bone crested beast in two. Beside himself, Flrida man proceeded to strip naked and attack everything, including inanimate objects for the next hour while Ray, borrowing Butch's survival pack, dressed the dead dinosaurs and headed back to the encampment to begin smoking the meat for reasons he did not explain.
When everyone finally got back to the camp, they found Lexington attempting to have a conversation with a group of barbarians. Kage stepped in and they learned that the group was from a settlement just a bit to the south west that apparently called themselves the 'Seega'. They came to investigate the explosion and found the settlement. The group of barbarians took the opportunity to shamelessly promote their dinosaur arena called 'Primal Rage'. The leader, who was later identified as Elroy, produced an encased flyer for the arena stating that his ancestors in the golden age had created a similar arena and this was their tribes destiny.
Lanaroy, a woman barbarian had taken a liking to the nude Florida Man and after someone mentioned the Kopar barbarians, the Seega got a bit cold and decided they had to head home. As soon as they were gone, a group of Kopar barbarians showed up and began to chat with the employees of 'Dinotours Excursions LLC' before they noticed all the golden age stuff lying around and made some hasty excuses to leave. Kage later explained that the Seega and the Kopar don't get along and that the Kopar believe that golden age anything is cursed and thus shun it.
Shortly thereafter a man named Malcolm showed up on a hover cycle and began talking to Kage. Apparently he was not supposed to arrive for a few more days but he had finished his business early and decided to stop by. Also he was worried about Kage because he had learned that Kage borrowed money from some seriously unsavory individuals to make his hasty flight to the swamp. Being pressed by the rest of the group for information about what Malcolm said, Kage explained that he borrwed a heafty sum of 200k credits from a crime syndicate but was not super forthcoming about which one. Malcolm mentioned it was one though that would not act with mercs but had sway with the Coalition and Dog Men accompanied by power armored troops would be who came to collect. Ray asked if the Golden age weapon smiths would be interested in purchasing two golden age Block Buster bombs and Malcolm mentioned he would look into it before heading off with haste.
It was at this point that Lexington explained that with the water in the nearby pond now irradiated past drink-ability and the tents demolished, they were going to run out of water in short order. Kage suggested that while he stayed to help Lexington work on a water tower/cistern, the others head to 'The Underground', which was the center of the Kopar civilization.
So the following morning Butch, Florida Man and Ray headed out to the east to find the Underground. After about half a says travel they found the settlement and headed inside with a skull that Kage had them harvest from one of the Bone headed monsters. Butch got all kinds of bad looks because he was carrying an obvious and large piece of golden age technology but the other two seemed to blend right in. Ray was still wearing the tattered remnants of his Dinotours jumpsuit and Florida Man had created an ensemble that he thought looked after the fashion of the local barbarians but really just looked like a bad costume from some movie about prehistoric times.
They eventually were able to trade the skull for two large water bladders and some coinage. They filled the bladders and after Ray made sure that he would be able to sell his 'hooch' here, they headed back to the settlement.
The following day, Lexington had seemed to finish his cistern and it began to rain in earnest. Kage was anxious to get the primary building in the settlement constructed and so asked the team to double up their efforts to find usable material to build with. With that, Butch, FM and Ray headed east to see what they could find because the day before on the way to the Underground, they had spotted all kinds of larger rubble structures in the forest. Socket stayed behind with Lexington attempting to get one of the anti-grav sleds working enough to allow them to use it to transfer anything that the others found back to the settlement, as well as create a technowizard concrete saw that could be used to harvest the material.
Ray, Butch and Florida Man meanwhile reached the building and began to investigate. The interior was remarkably well preserved and there were all kinds of Mega Damage relics to harvest here, but there was also a kind of pleasant sweet blood smell on the air. the whole site was surrounded with strange plants emitting the smell and a couple interior walls had been blown in allowing dirt to accumulate to the point where a lot of these plants were growing throughout the building. Every one began to feel a bit tired and dizzy and so they took a step outside to get some air.
They observed a hatchling Tiger Raptor walk up to one of the plants and then pass out as it breathed in the plants secretions. Ray quickly rescued it and then made sure that it made it back to its pack. Florida Man lost his patients and after tying a rag around his nose and mouth, proceeded to attempt to butcher the plants. A few seconds into his assault, he went down in a cloud of secretions. Butch realizing that the plants were trying to puncture their shoes, jumped into action with Ray and they dragged Florida Man out. Ray gathered some samples to fool with and Butch grabbed a really nice Mega Damage Naugahyde chair to bring back with them.
Back at the settlement Ray put his still in working order and experimented with the plants he gathered while the others prepared to go gather the material for the building. Ray brewed up a batch of stuff that tasted awful with the plants he gathered but the aromatics of it laid Florida Man out for a few more minutes. Realizing that he might have something good, Ray headed to the Underground and met with a steel tree worker as well as an herbalist. He made a trade agreement with the Kopar around steel tree saplings and learned some useful recipes for herbal brews that would sell well. The herbalist was able to identify the plant excretion as Seep Fern and knowing it was valuable, Ray headed back to the place where they knew it was growing in a large patch.
Meanwhile the others had arrived at the site and cleared the plants before starting to dismantle the golden age behemoth. Ray collected more plant samples and headed off to sell them before returning to camp smartly dressed in local leathers. By the end of a couple of days, they had the building moved completely finished the construction of their new base of operations. Ray and Butch spent some time building a nice themed wall on the front of the encampment with wood and Ankylosaurs shells and they all settled in to begin their business.
Thursday, February 2, 2017
How not to alert others to your presence
The following morning the team awoke and began milling about gathering equipment for the days foraging. After a brief conversation with Kage about what they still needed they headed out into the forest to see what they could find.
They decided to head north to a cave of some sort where there seemed to be a way to go underground. When they arrived the found an aged chipped metal enameled sign that read MARTA. The cave headed down with a set of stone stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs the group found a large open area with tile and concrete everywhere and a large vehicle of some sort. Wraith decided it was a 'Rocket ship' and everyone but Butch went on board to start seeing what they could scavenge. Florida Man and Wraith were very interested in the chairs while Socket spent his time gathering controls and levers from the drivers compartment.
After a few minutes Butch heard a noise down the end of the tunnel heading Northwest and called into his companions to warn them that something may be afoot. Wraith took heed and went out to investigate with Butch.
As they reached the 'end' of the tunnel they found a large barrier made of debris and junk that looked like it had been there a while. The barrier was steady leaking water and it was obvious that there was a large quantity of water putting pressure on the debris. As they watched it appeared to be weakening and so as Wraith transformed into a dragon to hold the barrier for a few more moments, butch ran and warned the others and every one made it to the stairwell in time.
The water burst the barrier and sent Wraith crashing along with a pile of debris down the tunnel a ways causing him to crash into the 'rocket ship' and then get stuck in the mouth of the tunnel leading southeast.
When the water subsided, they went top side and Socket deftly hid their acquisitions with an invisibility device and then they headed back down to investigate the tunnels.
After a short walk down the tunnel they encountered something ahead of them that was roughly human size but had really large ears and a strangely shaped head. Butch fired a shot down the tunnel and the creature bolted. Scamper ran after it and Wraith followed suit. Eventually the chased it down to a room off the side of a tunnel and waited for the others.
Butch threw in a ration pack and then had to throw another because Wraith had caught it and stolen the chocolate out of it. After some cautious conversation they were able to coax the Rat Man out of hiding and they discussed his fears. Apparently he was weary of humans and outsiders and did not want to tell them too much until he talked to the 'King Hirgg'. They arranged to try to make friends with the creature and parted with a promise to return later for more conversation because Florida Man and Socket were obviously getting agitated because they were bored.
They continued to head through the tunnels with Socket finding more controls and eventually found themselves in another 'cave' with stairs leading up. Here they encountered three humans wearing Rat skins. They identified themselves as members of the Kopar tribe and they were there hunting the Rat men. Wraith did not like this idea and went off to warn the Rat Men they met.
Eventually they headed back to base camp with their salvage and told Kage everything they encountered. They decided to head to a large building to the south so that they could get more material to build the compound with.
When they arrived they heard a really loud cracking noise and then they saw a large herd of dinosaurs with prominent bone protrusions on their heads that were having some kind of altercation. Florida Man thought he would play Dino Lord again and jumped out int he middle trying to control all of their minds only to realize he simply was not strong enough to do so; the dinosaurs proceeded to try and flatten him.
Socket rigged up some confusion 'grenades' while Wraith tried to confuse them as well. The grenades worked well and only after Butch shredded one with his mini-gun and the rest were confused by Socket's devices, did they make a tactical retreat.
They made notes about the place and then headed back to the base camp to heal Florida Man and rest. That night they woke to the sounds of something crunching the walls around the camp. The Trysia faeries from the Lankton's knot had come back for revenge leading a large herd of Anklyosaurs to the camp who were eating the fortifications.
Next week: How to move a tank when it can think!
They decided to head north to a cave of some sort where there seemed to be a way to go underground. When they arrived the found an aged chipped metal enameled sign that read MARTA. The cave headed down with a set of stone stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs the group found a large open area with tile and concrete everywhere and a large vehicle of some sort. Wraith decided it was a 'Rocket ship' and everyone but Butch went on board to start seeing what they could scavenge. Florida Man and Wraith were very interested in the chairs while Socket spent his time gathering controls and levers from the drivers compartment.
After a few minutes Butch heard a noise down the end of the tunnel heading Northwest and called into his companions to warn them that something may be afoot. Wraith took heed and went out to investigate with Butch.
As they reached the 'end' of the tunnel they found a large barrier made of debris and junk that looked like it had been there a while. The barrier was steady leaking water and it was obvious that there was a large quantity of water putting pressure on the debris. As they watched it appeared to be weakening and so as Wraith transformed into a dragon to hold the barrier for a few more moments, butch ran and warned the others and every one made it to the stairwell in time.
The water burst the barrier and sent Wraith crashing along with a pile of debris down the tunnel a ways causing him to crash into the 'rocket ship' and then get stuck in the mouth of the tunnel leading southeast.
When the water subsided, they went top side and Socket deftly hid their acquisitions with an invisibility device and then they headed back down to investigate the tunnels.
After a short walk down the tunnel they encountered something ahead of them that was roughly human size but had really large ears and a strangely shaped head. Butch fired a shot down the tunnel and the creature bolted. Scamper ran after it and Wraith followed suit. Eventually the chased it down to a room off the side of a tunnel and waited for the others.
Butch threw in a ration pack and then had to throw another because Wraith had caught it and stolen the chocolate out of it. After some cautious conversation they were able to coax the Rat Man out of hiding and they discussed his fears. Apparently he was weary of humans and outsiders and did not want to tell them too much until he talked to the 'King Hirgg'. They arranged to try to make friends with the creature and parted with a promise to return later for more conversation because Florida Man and Socket were obviously getting agitated because they were bored.
They continued to head through the tunnels with Socket finding more controls and eventually found themselves in another 'cave' with stairs leading up. Here they encountered three humans wearing Rat skins. They identified themselves as members of the Kopar tribe and they were there hunting the Rat men. Wraith did not like this idea and went off to warn the Rat Men they met.
Eventually they headed back to base camp with their salvage and told Kage everything they encountered. They decided to head to a large building to the south so that they could get more material to build the compound with.
When they arrived they heard a really loud cracking noise and then they saw a large herd of dinosaurs with prominent bone protrusions on their heads that were having some kind of altercation. Florida Man thought he would play Dino Lord again and jumped out int he middle trying to control all of their minds only to realize he simply was not strong enough to do so; the dinosaurs proceeded to try and flatten him.
Socket rigged up some confusion 'grenades' while Wraith tried to confuse them as well. The grenades worked well and only after Butch shredded one with his mini-gun and the rest were confused by Socket's devices, did they make a tactical retreat.
They made notes about the place and then headed back to the base camp to heal Florida Man and rest. That night they woke to the sounds of something crunching the walls around the camp. The Trysia faeries from the Lankton's knot had come back for revenge leading a large herd of Anklyosaurs to the camp who were eating the fortifications.
Next week: How to move a tank when it can think!
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