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[IC] Mutant: Year Zero: Adventures in the Dead Apple
Neaden
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The Dead Apple. Once this place was the greatest city in the world. The people here were fat and happy, everybody had more than enough grub to eat and clean Rot free water was so cheap people would shit in it. It was light day and night so you could go for a walk on a moonless night and there were so many people around you could never count them all. Everyone was a stranger.
That's what the Elder tells you. Now you've grown up with the same few hundred fellow Mutants and a half dozen or so normal humans. Now grub and water are scarce and nobody shits in it. Now the days can be dark and cold even in summer when the dust comes in and on a moonlit night, no one gets's too far from the fires unless they want to risk getting eaten.
And you're going out into it, leaving the safety of the Ark, maybe for the first time. The walls that have (mostly) kept out the Zone Ghouls and the wild dogs, the stash of food, the rain collectors. You can't even see the Ark, hear the hubbub of mutants, or smell the latrines anymore out here.
You've left the safety of the high ground behind you as well, now you're in the salt water marshes that cover so much of the city now. The buildings stick out into the air, roofs caved in and some walls fallen down, but the occasional building is still strong enough to climb up to get a vantage point. One catches your eye, about a mile off. An old skyscraper is leaning slightly but still looks stable enough to bear someone's weight.
The Oil Rig is farther away, making its way north up the river, towards the Ark. It's moving slow, you can't even tell really. It's closer than it was yesterday though, and the Elder is worried. You could make your way straight to it, but you have time to get the lay of the land too. Maybe you'll find something good, at least you can make sure that nothings lurking behind you, waiting to strike.
That's what the Elder tells you. Now you've grown up with the same few hundred fellow Mutants and a half dozen or so normal humans. Now grub and water are scarce and nobody shits in it. Now the days can be dark and cold even in summer when the dust comes in and on a moonlit night, no one gets's too far from the fires unless they want to risk getting eaten.
And you're going out into it, leaving the safety of the Ark, maybe for the first time. The walls that have (mostly) kept out the Zone Ghouls and the wild dogs, the stash of food, the rain collectors. You can't even see the Ark, hear the hubbub of mutants, or smell the latrines anymore out here.
You've left the safety of the high ground behind you as well, now you're in the salt water marshes that cover so much of the city now. The buildings stick out into the air, roofs caved in and some walls fallen down, but the occasional building is still strong enough to climb up to get a vantage point. One catches your eye, about a mile off. An old skyscraper is leaning slightly but still looks stable enough to bear someone's weight.
The Oil Rig is farther away, making its way north up the river, towards the Ark. It's moving slow, you can't even tell really. It's closer than it was yesterday though, and the Elder is worried. You could make your way straight to it, but you have time to get the lay of the land too. Maybe you'll find something good, at least you can make sure that nothings lurking behind you, waiting to strike.
@Grunt's Ghosts , as the Stalker you can roll Find the Path. A single success means you find a safe path through the Zone and don't get ambushed, you can spend additional successes to:
Find an artifact in the sector, if it’s there to be found. You still might have to struggle to get your hands on it.
Assess the general level of Rot in the sector
Find D6 bullets, still live.
Find D6 rations of grub contaminated by the Rot. It can be edible plants or leftovers from the Old Age.
Find D6 rations of Rot-free water
Explore the sector in half the time
Rush through the sector in a quarter of the time it would take to explore it. You don't find anything though.
Find an artifact in the sector, if it’s there to be found. You still might have to struggle to get your hands on it.
Assess the general level of Rot in the sector
Find D6 bullets, still live.
Find D6 rations of grub contaminated by the Rot. It can be edible plants or leftovers from the Old Age.
Find D6 rations of Rot-free water
Explore the sector in half the time
Rush through the sector in a quarter of the time it would take to explore it. You don't find anything though.
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Helda didn't enjoy being soaked to the bone in the freezing water. The Elder had said it was spring time, but even now there was still patches of snow on the tops of some of the buildings. Helda had climbed a few floors up one place, ignoring the pictures and strange thin black glassed boxes on the walls. Instead, she used her scope across the way, hoping to spot trouble before it spotted her and the group she had been thrown into.
Geth roll 3#1d6 for Finding the Path
On the bottom floor of the building, Vex was sitting on an old desk in an attempt to keep their feet out of the water that seemed to be everywhere. They were staring into a small notebook and scratching out notes in some kind of shorthand. As they finished a page and turned to the next one they grimaced -- it was covered in arcane scratches from the old days and of no use to Vex. Vex tore it out and saw yet another useless page and sighed, closing the book.
Vex looked up towards where they presumed Helda was perched and after a short pause yelled out, "Helda, what have you found?" and then, almost ritualistically, "The Elder demands and rewards your gifts."
Geth, roll 2#1d6 for Inspire
Veritas has found a perch a few floors above the water, where she has a good field of view to notice things sneaking up on them from the direction of the Oil rig and one of their flanks. In one hand, the be-winged dwarf holds a questionable-looking handgun, in the other a strange artifact that is nearly as tall as she is, with black fabric coming out of the bottom that rustles when a gust of wind blows by. Carefully, she eyes her surroundings, waiting for word from their Stalker that a path had been found...
You spot a nice looking brick building as well. It's short, only a couple stories but well built. In the spots where the brick has fallen away there is metal of some kind underneath, like the whole structure was reinforced. Whatever sign was on the building is long since gone, but from what the Elder used to say it could be something important if the Old Folks went through all that trouble to keep it locked up.
As far as the Oil Rig goes you don't see any movement on it except for some birds that have landed. Nothing has eaten them yet which is a good sign. You can make it most of the way to the Rig going on shallows and rooftops but not all the way. You'll have to build or find a boat or just swim out to it.
Zent dragged himself out of the water onto a piece of wetlands at the base of the building. He pulled down his half-mask to reveal a momentary scowl "Now I understand why people don't want to leave the Ark...". He sighed and reached for his belt to pull out a blade. "Not that I didn't understand before, just....this is certainly a good reminder."
He was accompanied by two of his enforcers: Cain, a stone-faced man giant of a man, and Maddox, a thin man with calloused green skin. Once out of the water, he looked over the both of them and nodded. Walking to the base of the building he raised his blade and carved an X into the facade. He then leaned against the building- waiting to hear from those more familiar with scouting the Zone.
The rusting old door creaks open and Vex's head pokes out next to Zent. "Do you have to stake your claim on every pile of old garbage we come across?" Vex looks over at Cain and continues, "I think one of your goons may have--oh, no, I guess that's just his face." They grin widely.
After a few moments of silence Vex continues, more seriously, "Helga found us a couple routes. Looks like we got a quick one, and an interesting one. Whaddya think?"
Wager adjusted his cap and pulled his coat tighter. Why did he volunteer for this trek? His thoughts drifted to his cot and small storefront; it wasn't much but it was at least warm. He spotted the brick and metal structure and nodded. Oh right, he was enticed with loot, and the thought of showing up Fixer Milix, that bastard, warmed him a bit. He pointed at the building.
"I like the look of that, yeah."
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
"I was marking it..." Zent says matter-of-factly "Should one of us get lost.... doubt it would help much in that instance, but you never know."
He sheathes the blade and turns his full attention to Vex
"We're already out here, might as well make the most of it.... Life wouldn't be very interesting if one always took the quickest route." he says with a Cheshire grin.
The brick building turns out to be interesting. As you saw from a distance underneath the brick is metal reinforcing parts of the walls. Walking around the perimeter you can see that not all of the building is reinforced in that way, it appears that there is a solid steel cube in the structure of the building. The door at the front is heavily reinforced but damaged by time and the elements, there might be a way to get inside. Any sign of what was worth all of this protection has been lost with time.
With the shotgun slung over her back between her wings, she turned her attention to the door. It looked solid, but she peered around to see if there was anythig she could use to exploit the places where weather and age has created a weak point...
Actually getting it open to any appreciable degree thanks to all the rust takes a few hard shoves and hitting it with your shoulder a couple times, but you are able to open it wide enough for the group to squeeze in.
Inside is dark, with only the light from the door. The room has a counter on the side opposite from you and a spiral staircase going down towards your left. There are posters up, barely legible anymore welcoming you to the 38th Precinct Municipal Shelter for Critical Employees and preaching the virtue of calmness and listening to the proper authorities. Besides some long dried pens, usable pencils, and some rotten paper and magazines there is nothing of interest on the top floor. The Darkness of the lower level might hold something valuable. Or monsters.
"We need to be careful moving through here. No telling what is living down there, or if there is another way for things to come in. Anyone have a light of some sort?"
Wager rustled about the room, pocketing a few pencils and other small items. Probably worthless, but finding buyers for old world trinkets wasn't hard.
"Careful? No fun in that." He thumbed back to Zent. "Boss 'ere has a way with startin' fires." Wager wasn't the handiest, but he rummaged around for something to light.
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
Veritas's wings flutter excitedly as she looks down into the darkness.
"I'm sure we can find some light... but just think of all the artifacts that could be down there, undisturbed since things fell to pieces. This could be a great opportunity..."
Zent smirks back at Wager. He then looks like he is about to blow a kiss to him when suddenly a small bit of flame escaped his mouth. He grits his teeth and grins jovially for a moment. His face becomes more stern as he looks around the room.
[/quote]
A broken chair leg serves as a base for Vex to wrap old paper and rags around. They wave it in front of Zent's face, "Light it up, bossman." They look over at Cain as Zent's breath starts to ignite the makeshift torch. "I think this is going to be yours, big guys. You excited to find out what's in the basement?"
Small amounts of water have come in through the years and the air is humid, there are small puddles on the ground. There are a small number of cots down here, the mattresses are half decayed and the whole room smell strongly of mildew. A cache of food has likewise rotted away to filth, but a few canisters of water are still good and rot free. The posters on the walls here are too decayed to read, and there is no other real decoration of any kind. Besides the large room, there are two bathrooms and a locked door. The door is flimsy and should break with a good kick but you can hear the sound of...something behind it. Chewing maybe? Or scratching, or both.
The Fixer took a canister of water, ignoring his hoarding instincts and left the rest. He slipped it into his coat and settled his attention on the locked door. The bathrooms, eh, his curiosity had peaked and he slid on his Brass Knuckles before kicking at the door.
"Onward then."
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
Inside the source of the noise is revealed as a ratlike creature the size of a dog hisses at you. Evidently having made it's home here the creature views the group of you as intruders prepares to lunge at you.
Geth roll 1d6 + 6
Geth roll 1d6+3 for initiative
Helda would have laughed at Wager's misstep if it wasn't for the ratdog busting forward. She raised her rifle to shoot.
Zent backs a step away from the door. He reaches for his blade .
"Ah shit!" Wager tried, ineffectively, to stave off the beast while trying to free himself.
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
@Grunt's Ghosts you're up first.
Helda takes aim, looking down the iron sights and fires at the ratdog creature.
Geth roll 3#1d6 for Shoot
Always lothe to waste bullets, Veritas nevertheless drew her pistol and took aim at the rat thing... it wouldn't do for one of them to catch a horrible disease because she was trying too hard to conserve her ammunition...
The room beyond, it's lair, lies before you, dark but apparently empty.
"Well, that was gross," Vex says and scribbles a few more notes in their journal. They give it a shove with their boot to get a better look at it's face and shudder. "Someone wanna go check its shit for valuables?"
Beconing their light holder further into the room, Veritas takes a looks around, searching for any trace of a passage(even rat sized), or signs of digging, or really anything else that catches her eye.
Zent gives the dead rodent a cursory glance and then goes back to the area with cots. Looking at the mostly blank walls, his eyes glance over to the posters. Unable to make immediate heads or tails of. He attempted to discern if he could get some clue as to who had previously dwelled here and if that would give him any insights on what goods, if any besides the water, were stashed away there.
if I can use it here...
"Had it under control the whole time I did."
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth