Episode Two - Mine of the Brain Lashers (part 1)

Game session on 15 November 2009

Dramatis Personae:

Clyde - A dual-brained Mutie who secretes an intensity 7 level poison

Clem - A twin-headed Mutie with the Damage Turning mutation

Zed - A scaled Mutie with Thermal Vision and Quick Mind mutations

Marcus Truman – A Normal warrior who fights with longsword and dagger. Think Grey Mouser.

Max - A Normal armed with a Mark II Laser Pistol and a bad attitude

Puccini - An Animal Mutie (or mutant animal in rules-speak). Looks like an intelligent, bipedal turtle-man with the Empathy mutation

Kendrick – Another Normal warrior.

Der Spielmeister – The deranged Mutant Lord

Mutant Lord's note: For those who follow the exploits of our ne'r do wells, it may be noticed that there are more characters this time around as compared to the previous episode. Yes, this is true. I had to bring in these newcomers as the reality of my gaming group is that I have quite a group of players who want to play but can't play due to real life concerns. It's a reality I really have to struggle with.

This adventure is my take on the sample adventure found in the Mutant Future rules. I took the core and mutated it to suit my needs.


Our Story:

The group camps out in the wilderness on the western shore of the banks of the Lesser Azure River. No wandering beasts, mutants or critters came close to the camp that night. Nonetheless, Puccini and Zed spy out some bestial, shambling humanoid figures out in the distance on the opposite bank of the river. By morning, they see nothing but glimpse some curiously shaped footprints in the mud.

They start the next day’s travels by paddling anew up north. By midmorning, they find what appears to be an abandoned riverboat drifting aimlessly near the eastern shore. Covered by the readied crossbows of his companions, Zed gingerly boards it. Upon searching he sees little signs of a struggle. Curiously, he finds no metal articles of any kind aboard. The crew is missing. Barrels of ale appear to have been broken open and their contents spilled about. Boxes of salted meat which appear to form the rest of the boat’s cargo are also scattered haphazardly about.

The boxes appear to be missing the metal nails which hold them together while the barrels’ metal hoops are also gone. The boyz decide to boards the boat tow their canoes behind. Max insists on gathering up much foliage from the woods by the shore and emplacing them on the riverboat to break up its silhouette.

Presently, they come upon a fork in the river, with a smaller tributary heading east. They decide to follow the tributary eastwards. The river here is heavily forested on both sides.

Shortly after midday, they come upon a barren stretch of shore. The remnants of ruined walls stony mounds as well as an ancient crumbling road are evident. The crew comes ashore to investigate the ruins. Finding nothing of value, they re-embark and continue eastwards.

Upon leaving the ruins Max and Puccinni begin feeling ill. Both begin to retch uncontrollably over the stern and shake all over. It is suspected that they all took a whiff of radiation while they searched the ruins.

By midafternoon, they glimpse a mountain rising in the distance. Later, the tributary gently turns left and empties into a small lake adjoining a sheer mountainside. There is a cave in the mountainside and the waters empty into it in what appears to be the entrance to an underground river. The crew disembarks on the left shore of the lake and secure their boats.

They see the overgrown remnants of another crumbling ancient roadway some ways from the shore. It is just visible enough to show that it snakes up the mountainside, continuing up the slopes into a large artificial cliffside overlooking the lake. After a hurried discussion, they decide to travel up the mountain following the ancient road.

Picking their way up the overgrown, scrub-covered slopes, they attain the artificial cliffside and find two bunker-like stone structures on the far end. They decide to by-pass them and continue up the forested slopes, sticking as much as possible to cover. Someways up the group comes upon a barely-evident footpath which goes even higher.

The footpath abruptly ends at what appears to be a jagged tear in the rock face of the
mountainside. Before them is a rough, cave-like opening more narrow at its width than it is high. Water trickles into the opening from the mountainside.

Approaching gingerly, they are greeted by a weird machine-like humming as two dome-like constructs, smooth and worn with age come to life. One is emplaced beside the opening while the other, a few feet away from the footpath. The group scatters as tiny apertures on the constructs’ faces iris open and shoot reddish-green beams of energy which are painful to the eyes. Anything the beam is struck instantly burns with bright flames.

The group retaliates with a fusillade of bolts, missiles and the occasional laser beam. They manage to destroy both but not before Zed takes a nasty burn on his side. They salvage the burnt-out shells of their erstwhile attackers for valuables, and creep up close to the opening.

The find themselves looking into a cave which opens downward into a natural chamber of stone fifty feet below. There, in the center of the stone chamber below them, is a pool of water weirdly giving off a steady flow of steam. There are three exits from the chamber – caves by their looks.

Puccini takes a deep breath and attunes his Empathy Sense. He feels what he later describes as bestial hunger pangs emanating from inside the chamber. These sensations quickly fade out, as if their source had wandered off through one of the chamber’s exists.

They look at one another and after another hurried conference, they decide:

“We’ll have to climb down.”