Epic battle

My head is still spinning. We had our regular Mutant Future game today. Fifteen player characters and NPCs in the adventuring party. Just when I expected them to run, the players dig in resolutely and FIGHT! A reinforced platoon of mutant 'human mercenaries assault their prepared positions. Supporting dragoons make a nuisance of themselves, sniping and harassing.

The result: three solid hours of good old fashioned combat and killing. The final tally: six dead characters and the reinforced platoon of attacking mutant mercs scattered and fleeing. The butcher's bill proved a heavy price indeed.

Two things everyone learned today with a definite emphasis:

First, friendly fire, ISN'T. Mutations harm friend and foe when badly used. Today's use of Killing Sphere came close to wiping out the party as well as the attacking point squad. Reminded me of a wayward arty strike landing on your own positions.

Second, snipers kill from a distance. One of two pure human player characters found out the hard way. I guess he should have been paying more attention and asking why the Mutant Lord was still counting initiative when every enemy in sight appeared to be dead....

Oh well, happy times....

Episode Eleven - Dungeon Crawl

ML’s note: I had a general idea of some plot to spring on the group but as things would turn out, my players had their own ideas. Not that I’m complaining- it was a fun game: lots of role-playing, conflict, interaction and high-grade bantering all around. We finished at about 12.30 a.m. and Doc Ben-g had to be in the hospital at 8 in the morning (ouch!). I found the session a bit disjointed and the group disorganized- but hey, I’m only the Mutant Lord.

It’s really as much my players’ game as it is mine!

When we last left our intrepid band of adventurers, they were holed up the lowest holding chamber of the automated artifact that was once Research Station Gamma in a forgotten age.

They make ready for what they fear is another attack by the guardian ‘bots of the station. The gigantic double doors roll soundlessly to the side. Weapons are raised and a pair of utility ‘bots roll soundlessly inward supported by a globular construct they’ve never seen before.


ML’s note: For want of a close image-analog, I described this somewhat like a larger version of Darth Vader’s interrogation robot from Episode 4.

Sounds of firing and combat filter in from outside and are muffled.

“What is going on?” muses Zed. Shai adds that it sounds like another fight is in progress in the levels above.

The utility ‘bots seem harmless at first. Then Ratchet tries to fool around with one and narrowly escapes getting brained by a mop. All hell breaks loose as the group breaks into a free-for-all, putting down all their attackers. The utility bots’ globular back-up proves tougher to kill but soon ends up similarly as a mass of fused circuits and burning parts.

Knowing that they can’t stay in place all day, Shai orders an armed reconnaissance to the upper levels. Zed, Shai, Link Seyz and Marcus head upwards by rail-car in search of the missing Orua. The android mechs Ratchet and Mirage stay behind with Kyoshi to salvage the wrecked ‘bots. They find that the globular construct is not a robot but a sophisticated vehicle piloted by some geneered dwarf para-human. It was once called a Mini Advanced Field Operative [MAFO] during the Age of the Ancients.

In the rail-car, the recon party surveys the upper levels of the Station and sees it damaged and littered with broken ‘bots. Also, there are many torn and burned bodies of attackers – humanoid pigmen of fearsome countenance. Suidoids! The place looks like it was attacked by Suidoids but these were beaten off.

“Looks like we’ve stumbled into some fight,” muses Shai.

As the rail-car goes higher up the structure, the recon party sees Orua looking down at them from what appears to be the sixth tier within the central column. She also has three humanoid plant-men in tow.

Arriving at level six, the recon party are glad to meet up with Orua. She claims she doesn’t remember much but claims to be able to talk to the ‘brain’ that controls the whole place. She introduces her vegetive humanoid friends as the ‘Xodal’ (they all answer to that name).

ML’s note: Her new-found friends are Vegepygmies – humanoid plants I picked up from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Perfect for intelligent plant mutants.

The Vegepygmies are wary of Orua’s newly-arrived friends. The say the fauna are dangerous – particularly the artificial one (meaning Link, the Android). Despite Shai’s attempts at desperate peacemaking and negotiation, the argument ends badly and a disturbed Link Seyz goes into overdrive mode and shoots one of the Vegepygmies. He is tackled by his companions; both Shai and Orua just barely restrain the others from piling on and trashing the Android.

Shai eventually makes peace with them and as a sign of good faith, hands over the laser pistol of their dead friend Max. Talk turns to humans. “Who’s a human?” asks a Vegepygmy.

“I am,” answers Shai confidently.

Override protocols kick in. Long dormant systems come to life. Link Seyz and his original Terminator- series protocols come to fore. He looks around with new purpose – and finally understands his true nature.

ML’s note: Much of this was fun and loose role-playing. Trust my players to turn this into another intriguing plot hook that drives the story onward. This is when I learned to apply something I read from an improv-gaming book: say yes often, and just let go…

Eventually, they return to the holding chamber at the lower levels. Nobody posts guard at the portal and everyone is busy checking out the stuff scavenged by Kyoshi and his Android buddies from the wrecked ‘bots. Putanesca is thrilled to meet fellow plant mutants.

The stay-behind party did well and managed to salvaged 2 stun pistols, 2 car battery-sized Radioactive Batteries from the utility ‘bots and a working Plutonium Clip from the MAFO. Mirage and Ratchet fairly beam with pride after successfully jury-rigging the stunners to run off the Rad Batteries.

Then, it happens: Link Seyz finally gives in to his prime directives as a Terminator- and attempts to shoot Shai in the back. The group manages to prevent this in the nick of time and end up piling on the Android. They cobble up metal binders to secure his arms and wrists. All the while, the Vegepygmies grow convinced just how crazy and unstable the Fauna can be. Particularly the ugly artificial one. Link Seyz vows to make pumpkin soup out of the pygmies.

As the group is engaged in their private brawl, another janitor ‘bot comes in and begins to clean up the mess on the floor.

ML’s note: The group was surprised as no-one bothered to keep watch. Tsk, tsk. Bad dungeoncraft.

The ‘bot is trashed by Ratchet and Mirage who are eager to try out their newly juiced-up stunners on a moving target. But this is not before it radioed for assistance.

Still engaged with the ruckus with the Terminator, they are attacked by 2 MAFOs responding to the janitor droid’s distress signal. The fight that follows is vicious as it is unexpected. The MAFOs have gravitic boosters and sport plasma pistols. Williis, Shai’s Rat mutant retainer is killed by a plasma bolt. Orua is badly injured by a sizzling blast.

Mirage and Ratchet use the stun pistols effectively on the MAFOs. These are immobilized but at the price of burning out both jury-rigged weapons.
Putanesca changes shape and forms a living mass of creepers. She lassoes one of the stunned, floating MAFO down to the ground. The group piles on and with great difficulty, manage to get it open. Kyoshi finds what he expects to see: a stunted mutant dwarf in a ‘pilot’s’ seat. He violently twists the neck of the dwarfish para-human ‘pilot’ and takes its place at the controls.

He tries to figure out the controls. It’s a tight fit as he is in leather armor while the para-human was naked and just wired in place. He winces at the notion of stains on the seat he now occupies.

ML’s note: I remember a resounding “Eeewwww!” from everyone in the game table.

While the party is engaged, Link Seyz tries to attack Shai again but fails. He is pulled away and the party argues what to do with him. Shai learns from the Vegepygmies that there are supplies at the top of the tower and perhaps a way out. They claim they were stunned in the desert and flown in by their captor droids in a flying ship that landed on the tower’s roof.

They all agree to keep Link restrained and to swiftly ascend to the top so they can find a way out.

ML’s note: I’d have thought things would be easier if the party came together and figured what to do first but as they would have it, some active role-playing still came first.

The other MAFO comes to life and attacks again. Otiis, Shai’s second mutant retainer is killed by a burning plasma bolt. Kyoshi believes he has the measure of his MAFO but sends it zooming out of control. It hits the wounded Vegepygmy and kills it. Its laser pistol-armed companion considers shooting him but again, cooler heads prevail at the nick of time. It was an accident, they claim.

Kyoshi pops the lid and mumbles “ooops”, shrugging sheepishly.

They fire back destroying the other MAFO- wrecking it so that nothing remains for salvage.

The party (much as who remains) piles into the rail car and ascends. They encounter more ‘bots going down to the first level and heading out the exit. The Station appears to be in the process of being sealed. Other droids are cleaning up the detritus from the earlier battle. They are left alone by the ‘bots.

Finally they arrive at the top. It is a huge circular structure honeycombed with chambers, corridors and rooms. There is so much to see, so much to do, they can’t make up their mind where to go.

ML’s note: Later on, my players told me that this game gave them so many options, they felt like they were literally free to do whatever they wished (and could follow their wishes)- explore the place, loot the rooms, bash ‘bots, and so on. I took this as a compliment. At least I knew I wasn’t railroading people in this one.

They decide to explore the rooms. After a while they end up in a large cavern-like garage. Looting the place, Marcus finds a backpack with something like a box inside. They keep it for future use.

Xodal, one of the remaining Vegepygmies, points out an elevator lift platform in the garage and they take it up to the roof deck level. They are standing on the level below the roof of the Station. Above is empty space and then the dome of the hollow shell of the ‘mountain’ above them. They can see for hundreds of feet around enclosed by the shell.

They find an entrance and a lobby into the structure. Not being able to agree the party splits up again.

Shai asks Putanesca to form tendrils (she’s gotten quite good at this already), and together with the Vegepygmies, they climb the roof. Kyoshi flies on ahead and finds a parked aircraft on the other side of the rooftop level. It enclosed by walls. They make for it.

Meanwhile, Orua goes inside the structure. She is attracted by a holographic waterfall on what should be the far wall of the lobby. As she touches it, her hand disappears beyond it and a metal hand suddenly grabs her. She is forcefully pulled her inside the hologram.

Her remaining companions follow cautiously. Perhaps it is the knowledge that the ‘bots tend to tote plasma guns. They see a security ‘bot carrying an unconscious Orua- floating away.

ML’s note: The party had surprise but didn’t attack. Maybe they remembered what happened to Max (and the two Rat mutants…)

They keep following. It enters a door. They follow find it is an elevator. It takes some time to figure it out and when they do, it goes down one level. They are in a passage filled with doors leading into dormitory rooms. More salvaging and looting- Zed finds two cigarette lighters and an artifact that looks like a bracelet with tiny gem-like buttons under a tiny metallic grille. They decide to figure it out later when they have the time.

Marcus was keeping watch in the passage and sees the door at the end of the open. This time it’s a utility droid- carrying the still-unconscious Orua exiting from the room. It disappears down the corridor.

They know they’re back in the labyrinthine center of the structure but they have little aught choice.

They just have to keep following the ‘bots.

Final note: Pardon my writing style if it seems I'm rather disjointed in posting this one. Apart from the fact that this was a pretty loose game, I'm still not 100% operational as I write this.

Have a good week ahead of you all!

Episode Ten (Part Deux) - Into the Blackness and Beyond

Our story:

The survivors from the first group return to Ratsputin’s grounded airboat and link up with the rest of the party. They find Link Seyz awake, aware and apparently fully functional. Link Seyz feels fine –none of that fuzzy half-awareness he had always felt for as long as it could remember. It tests out decision trees and logic synapses long unused. Things test out fine, but there appears to be something vitally important he should be remembering….

“Oh well,” he remarks. “I’ll get to that later…”

Shai fills the rest in on the harrowing fight at the metal mountain and they are shocked to learn that Max is dead.

Together, they set off once more across the wasteland of crunching, glassy sand as the two moons, silver Aleph and green Bast hurtle across Cygnet Delta’s alien sky. Upon reaching the sandy hill forming the base of the metal mountain, they reacquire Orua’s trail and find themselves at a sandy cliff-wall. Zed and Albus brush aside the sand end predictably find the same greyish metallic-hued wall of seamless material behind it. Orua’s tracks end right at the wall.

Upon closer inspection by Mirage, the android finds the last footprint abruptly ending seemingly under the wall itself. Kyoshi and the androids attempt Words of Power learned from their Ancient Lore but nothing disturbs the quiescent seamless wall.

Then, Shai appears to make a fateful decision and, without looking back, resolutely walks into the wall. To everyone’s great surprise, a black disturbance forms when he touches it, and the its seamless surface turns insubstantial, like a black bubble – and he disappears inside it. After much muttering and doubting, the group follows- one by one.

To all there is a momentary feeling of coldness- a numb heart-stopping emptiness through a sea of black, and then they are through. The Androids, on the other hand, feel like an ‘On/Off switch’ was suddenly flicked inside for a moment.

Before them is a great hollow space, hundreds of feet wide are it is high. It is as if they stepped into the inside of a gigantic, seamless, metallic-grey egg. The familiar night sky above Cygnet Delta is replaced by the glossy inner surface of the hollow encompassing the dome above them. The desert sand below their feet is different – there are patches of hardy grass and stunted plants. The smell of moisture is in the air and the ever-present reek of burnt rubber and copper is missing. Under the eerie twilight of the dome about a few hundred feet before them is an even stranger artifact.



It is a building in the likeness of a gigantic mushroom, almost three hundred feet high. There is a great central cylinder rising up from the ground crowned by a disc-like platform of durable grayish stone. They see structures, buildings and machinery built on the platform suspended above. The central cylinder has several massive orbs constructed at intervals rising from the ground until the platform itself. Blinking lights are emplaced on numerous places throughout the structure. It is obviously some temple dating back from the Age of the Republic.

ML’s note: Traveller players will have probably recognized the structure already. All I can say is three words for this: Research Station Gamma.

After recovering from his shock, Shai curtly commands the party to move forward, weapons at the ready. There appears to be an entrance at the ground-level orb visible from their location. They reach the orb but find only a small square panel to the side, at shoulder height. A transparent square and coin-thin slot appear beneath it.

They scrutinize the panel for a while whereupon Zed hits upon an idea. He reaches into his pack and pulls out a small, wafer-thin card of ancient synthetic material, given to him by the Mayor of Jeffton during one of their previous adventures. The blue card with red stripes fits perfectly into the panel’s slot. He inserts it and waits.

ML’s note: I was glad someone had the gumption to remember to properly use the different artifacts they began to accumulate from past adventures. Doc Ben-g caught on very fast!

There is a humming sound and a sharp buzzing. They hear locks disengage and machinery in motion within the orb. The surface before them irises inward smoothly and opens a gateway into the structure.

Entering, they move deeper into the structure. There is an ever-present hum of machinery, all-so-faintly. There is bright artificial light from glowing panels on the ceiling and it is cold compared to the barren wastes outside. Exiting through another irising gateway, they find themselves in the inside of the central cylinder of the structure.


ML’s note: I always imagined the hollow central pylon to look somewhat like the inside of the central cylinder-shaft of Bespin Cloud City in the Empire Strikes back- somewhat like this.

There is a small glass-walled car built on rails running up and down the central cylinder. They check it out and upon entering, Link Seyz finds a wooden stick with a roll of torn cloth wrapped around it. Unraveling it, he finds a stylized smiley drawn on the cloth.

“Orua,” he says. “It’s her sigil. She was here.”

They climb aboard the car but it does not respond to the card inserted by Zed. Shai, being a pure strain human, lays his right palm on the glass square atop the control panel. There is a buzzing sound and the car activates. It moves downward, spiraling ever so lower into the structure until they find themselves in the subterranean levels.

“I don’t like this,” mutters Marcus, drawing sword and dagger.

The car abruptly stops and a disembodied voice enjoins them to “disembark”.

They leave and find massive sealed circular hatches before them. Shai, Kyoshi and three Androids puzzle out the controls and sometime later, they pass beyond the hatches. They find themselves inside a large globular chamber. The ground is rocky and muddy. The walls cannot be glimpsed. Instead, there is a grayish, cloudy sky above from which constant sheets of sleet and rain are pouring. The walls are likewise not evident- instead, they glimpse far-off hills and valleys.

“What is this place?” asks Link Seyz.

They are surprised by a startled squeak from Otiiss. The rat points his rifle to the right, finger twitching on the trigger.

“A cat- a big one!” he yells. “Over there to our left .”

No-one sees anything. Kyoshi, on the other hand approaches a nearby rock after spotting a large furry black and white rabbit. No one else sees the rabbit.

Otiiss fires, but there is nothing to hit. Kyoshi looks around the rock but there are no rabbits.

As the hatches behind them hiss shut, there is a loud carnivore roaring off to the side. The party forms a skirmish line, weapons are drawn. Then they see a shimmering in front of a wall to their side – something large and furry on four legs begins to leap at them, its hide changing chameleon-like. It moved fast!


ML’s note: this is a special random encounter I rolled up. Basic critter is a Sabre-tooth Tiger with upped hit dice. I threw in a few mutations such as Increased Willpower, Chameleon Epidermis, Dual Brain and Quickness. Upon initiative check I won easily!

The feral cat bounds forward and slams into Marcus, pulling him under and repeatedly laying away with teeth and claws. Everyone else piles in and the fight becomes a desperate melee. Albus and Zed are also badly mauled by the time they dispatch the critter.

The ever pragmatic Shai orders Williis and Otiiss to break out the knives and start dismembering the carcass for meat. Food security for the party, he reasons, is still not certain- and food is food.

ML’s note: I didn’t see that coming but trust Justin to turn his kill into rations. Still, it made sense considering they were in the middle of a desert with 3 days of rations left.

While the others keep watch, the rest cut away the meat from the kill.

Then, there is a sharp buzzing and a warning siren in the air. The disembodied voice starts up again – calling for an alert, enjoining all to stay calm and that assistance is on the way. At this, they make ready for another attack. They can’t get the hatches open again.

With not long to wait, the hatches clang open and pull back. A few man-sized robotic forms begin moving into the chamber. The adventurers take up ambush positions, readying themselves for yet another fight.

Episode Ten (Part One) - Robots!

Game held on 5 February 2010

Dramatis personae:

Zed - mutant human (Doc Ben-g)
Albus - mutant human (Doc Ben-g)
Marcus Truman - pure human (JY)
Max Plissken - pure human (Nikos)
Putanesca - mutant plant (Prin)
Kyoshi - mutant human (Matt)
Link Seyz - basic android (Patton)
Orua - autistic pure human (Mika)
Mirage - basic android (Henry)
Ratchet - basic android (Henry)
Shai - pure human (Justin)

Williis - mutant animal- Rat (de facto henchman of Shai)
Otiiss - mutant animal- Rat (de facto henchman of Shai)

Our story:

The party finds itself encamped in a broad expanse of desert as the bloody, rosy sun is disappearing beyond the far west. Orua has turned up missing, the stark imprints of her footprints trailing off to the sandy rise about a mile away in the distance.

A decision is swiftly made to divide the party. Zed, Albus, and the pure strains Max, Shai and Marcus shall be dispatched after Orua. Putanesca and Kyoshi will remain behind along with Mirage and Ratchet, who are still busy restoring Link Seyz’s working systems after they underwent a sudden forced reboot recently. The Rat Otiiss is armed with a Martini-Henry and put on guard duty.

Shai leads the search party which collared the hapless Rat mutant Williis as the group’s scout. Perhaps being very much aware of the fact that a good scout is normally a dead scout, Williis sets upon his task without much ardor and with evident poor grace, whereupon the others bully the hapless Rat into compliance.

Orua’s tracks continue up to the sandy rise far off in the desert. Here, the sandy ground gives way to immense mounds of sand seemingly piled on top of one another, forming a sloping hill hundreds of feet in the air. Everyone is edgy after tromping through crunching sands which, when trod upon, give off a smell of copperish-burnt rubber.

At the base of the hill, the party stops for a short rest. Orua’s tracks continue to their right and disappear around the sandy hill’s base. Being the best climber, Zed agrees to climb the hill, making for the crown which, for some unknown reason, gleams with a shiny metallic sheen in the pale moonlit glow of Aleph.

ML’s note: Zed has the Increased Balance mutation, so he scales the hill without mishap.

Upon gaining the peak, Zed is surprised to find it covered by a dun-colored metallic dome, much like that of the top of gigantic egg. The surface is seamless and smooth. It vibrates subliminally and is hard as granite. Repeated blows don’t even scratch it. Looking around, he finally surmises that the sandy hill he is on is not really a hill, nor is it made of sand. It appears that the hill is, in truth, a giant dun-colored, metallic-seeming, egg-shaped dome, sunk into the ground. It is merely covered with accumulated layers of earth, rock and sand.

The rest of the group are alerted to this and they confirm Zed’s discovery by spotting certain large cracks in the hillside from which the same dun-colored, metallic surface can be seen beneath the sand.

ML’s note: at this point, a possible encounter was called for, and, as luck would have it, a one was rolled – indicating a wandering critter.

Williis is the first to notice they are not alone. From somewhere in the rocks nearby skitters out four many-legged creatures of similar metallic hue, sporting numerous feelers, antennae and limbs- each the size of a largish hound. Weapons are raised but all are reluctant to fire. The creatures appear to be constructs of some sort, with probes which shine a dull reddish glow. Two appear to be scrutinizing Williis while the others are approaching the rest.

“What do we d-do?” mutters the nervous Rat, tail and whiskers a-twich.

Shai orders everyone to stay put, but as the constructs begin to pull out probes with brushes and pointy tips, the group’s discipline gives way to a wild round of gunfire! Two of the constructs are destroyed instantly, riddled with rifle bullets and the occasional laser beam. The adventurers shift their fire rapidly and dispose of the other two just as swiftly, taking no damage.

Then, Zed alerts them from high up above – he sees two large constructs which seem to materialize straight out of the smooth surface of the hillside. These ones are larger and meaner looking: drum-like bodies with formidable steel limbs and rotating turrets on their tops. They levitate a few feet from the ground, and speed towards the adventurers on the ground amidst a droning hum.

“Blast ‘em!” yells Shai, whereupon the party opens up with rifles, shotgun, lasers and Albus’ trusty plasma pistol. Although they concentrate their fire on the nearest one, who takes hit after flaming hit, the robot plods on ominously – and both fire back with energy weapons that spit blinding, bursting fire! Marcus is hit more than once and, suffering grievous burns, drops prone while desperately topping off his scattergun.

ML’s note: While the smaller critters were pesky Exterminator Bot-types, the newcomers were Assault Bots (both from the Mutant Future rulebook), up-armed with energy weapons and fitted with grav lifters instead of robotic legs. The 30-hit dice Assault Bot gives you a LOT of hit points to spare despite the weight of fire being dished out by these desperate players.



Soon, one of the robots is a sparking, smoldering wreck, twitching on its side. As the other begins to float away, the group charges it – and Max takes energy beam fire twice! This is too much even for the indomitable wasteland warrior, and he is promptly killed. The others reach the robot and begin piling on, raining blows with sword and clubbed rifle. Shai leaps unto the robot’s flat top, activating his Warp-field Sword and hacks away at the robot. They discover that the robot becomes unstable on its floating field of force as it is buffeted with blows. It is soon destroyed as well.

Now they begin to wonder if they should turn back – their opposition is stronger than expected. Max is dead and Marcus, badly damaged requiring extensive healing from their scavenged Healing Pack, draining it of precious charges. They finally decide just to come back for the rest of the party – it seems they’ll need every fighter this time and still try find Orua.

Exprience Points for the last game (29th January session)

This is a rundown of xps for all players for the game session of the 29th of January 2010. Each of the 11 surviving characters gets 2,567 experience points. This takes into account a Mutant Lord awarded bonus of 500 xp for the group for what I observed as excellent teamwork which led the group to survive the last battle without any fatalities. Good show guys!

We resume on Friday night, February 5, same time, same place.

Episode Nine (part two) - Thrilling Air Adventures

The group now finds themselves in a dilemma- their orders clearly stipulate that they are to defend the cave entrance at all costs. However, by the sound of it, the cave complex is already being infiltrated by the enemy. After a hurried conference, it is a agreed that everyone is to take up defensive positions nearer to the cave entrance, while Ratchet, Mirage and Max climb down into the Mine to conduct recon.

By now, Putanesca and Kyoshi join the party from the Air Boat hangar and confirm that the Rats appear to bent on abandoning the place.



As everyone crouches down with their weapons trained down the bloody trail, a shadow passes them swiftly, accompanied by a thrumming mechanical sound. They look up and catch a glimpse of a large contrivance cobbled together with string and canvas over a stretched frame. It is a two or three winged aircraft with a large rotating propeller in front. They clearly see the leonine mutant pilot hunched over the cockpit, in his furred leather helmet and flyer’s goggles. The craft swiftly rises and disappears far behind the cliff above. From afar, there is a sound of a machinegun being fired repeatedly.

Max and the two Androids rappel down the shaft and find themselves in a familiar stone chamber with a steaming pool of water – the same place where the Mutant Puccini met his untimely and gruesome demise from the Brain Lashers HERE. The place is littered with corpses of Rats and all manner of discarded gear. Echoes of gunfire and the sounds of combat reverberate from further down the tunnels. If anything, they seem to be getting louder.

The Androids anxiously rush to the erstwhile central chamber where their former masters, the Brain Lashers, set up their command center. They find the place a mess. Scattered equipment and garbage are scattered everywhere. Ratchet arrives at the inner sanctum where the Regen Chamber HERE was left behind by the group after taking down all the Brain Lashers. Alas, it is but a pile of spare parts, having been gutted and cannibalized by Ratsputin and his ilk. Making the best out of a pointless situation, the Androids fill their packs with useable parts and technological odds and ends. Being natural tinkerers, they reason that these spare parts may always be worth their weight in gold when the time comes.

Max alerts them to ever-nearing sounds of approach of the feline mutants. The Cats are using grenades and automatic fire to clear the outer chambers of the Mine and are getting dangerously closer by the minute. Together, Max and the Androids climb back up to the cave entrance. The party then agrees to make for Ratsputin’s Air Boat.

They make it to the Air Boat seemingly with only minutes to spare, as the metallic saucer-like craft is rising from the ground with a thrumming sound. Putanesca leaps into the closing hatch and finds Ratsputin frantically engaging the controls, attended by two of the sorriest looking Rats in his force. She screams for him to hover, and Rasputin, after momentarily fixing her with a calculating gaze, halts the Boat’s ascent. Putanesca uses her Chameleon Metamorph mutation and takes on the shape of a large resilient stringbean (!) thereby providing the party with a rope-like ladder of sorts to gain entrance to the rising craft.

The Air-Boat rises above the crater lips of the mountaintop and zooms off into bloody redness of the setting sun.

They are cramped and crowded within the Boat’s confines and all they could do is look out the many windows along with craft’s sides. There does not appear to be any exists as the hatch they entered through has blended seamlessly to the wall. Below, they see the mountain receding in the distance. The lesser Azure river is evident, as is Krat’s floating fortress, Cat-tamaran, still pounding away at the Mine, with its armed complement of Cats doubtlessly mopping up the remaining Rat resistance.
Kyoshi could not resist watching Ratsputin deftly manipulate the controls on the craft’s dashboard using his long sinewy fingers and pink, ribbed tail as well. Without warning he leaps atop the dashboard pulling a lever here and pushing a button there.

“Watch it!” squeaks Ratsputin, but it is too late. There is a muffled bang within the craft, followed by disturbing groan amidst the hum of its drives. Then, Ratsputin has all he can handle, trying to right the bucking craft, all the while aiming curses and invectives at the diminutive mutant. With difficulty, the Tech-Rat manages to right the bucking craft and fly it straight on.

Link Seyz is the first to see the ominous approaching shapes from the aft porthole.
What appear to be blips from afar resolve themselves as attacking biplanes. Four of them, in V formation bearing the sigil of Captain Krat are gaining on the Air Boat. Ratsputin sees this and once more cursing vehemently, struggles to get the Boat to speed up even faster. Unfortunately, it is apparent that planes are gaining fast.
Mirage sees what look like orbs of flame shoot from the planes racing almost lazily towards the Boat. Then, there is a thump and another ominous mechanical groan as the orb makes contact with the Boat’s hull.



ML's note: This scene is another attempt on my part to up the Kirby-esque-ness of the game. In case you're wondering, the nearby panel is from Kamandi issue no. 7 which features Mutant feline pilots in biplanes. I left out King Kong this time, but I found the idea of Lion pilots too precious to resist!


“Tracers!”, screams Max. “Everyone get down!”

Everyone is thrown about haphazardly as Ratsputin puts the Boat through desperate aerobatics to escape the planes’ fire. They hear the staccato sound of machinegun fire through the Boat’s hull, but the planes outpace them. Like blood-mad sharks, the Lion pilots circle the stricken Air Boat. They feel the Boat losing altitude.
Up front, there is a muffled hiss and Ratsputin’s pilot seat is encased in a web of resilient film. He violently tugs a nearby switch and then both Rat pilot and seat disappear through a deck hatch which irises shut.

“Damn,” curses Max. “The Rat ratted out on us”.

Kyoshi and Ratchet take the controls and through combination of skill and not an insignificant measure of luck, manage to bring the stricken craft under control. As it descends, the Lions break off their attack, with the last one doing a final pass. Putanesca and Link Seyz see the feline pilot momentarily alongside the Boat giving them the finger as a final parting gesture.

ML’s note: Or should I say ‘the paw’ instead of ‘the finger’? We never really figured that one out.

Down below, they see what looks like a vast expanse of desert rolling beneath the Boat. At the western horizon is an expanse of green and what appears to be water, but their Boat doesn’t look like it will make it that far. Orua sees some sandy mountains below them, with gleaming metallic objects on the summits. The craft is put down nearby. To their surprise, it lands itself gently without any mishap.

Stepping out, they are struck by a wash of desert heat and the ever-present smell of sulfur-like sand. Indeed, in the distance to the south is a gleaming topped hill standing out amongst the giant sand dunes marching wave-like in the desert. Orua looks fascinated as it catches the crimson glow of the setting sun.

Evening comes and the party makes camp in the rising wind of the desert. Everywhere, the sand is granular and metallic, making a distinctive crunching sound when walked upon. Shai takes stock of their existing supplies and commandeers the two remaining and demoralized Rats.

In the meantime, Kyoshi and Max have been busy discussing how to return Link Seyz, to his “natural” synthetic state, having convinced themselves that their sentient constructed companion is suffering from delusions that he is human. They hit upon a plan and immediately endeavor to carry it out. Max takes Link Seyz aside and repeatedly warns him that “everything Kyoshi says is a lie”. Immediately, Kyoshi sidles up to Link Seyz and earnestly attempts to convince him that he, Link Seyz, is human. They keep this up without let up, and Link Seyz eventually feels he is losing his mind.

ML’s note: It seems both Nikos and Matt are at it again, in their attempts to play mind games with their Android friend. The session now revolved on a lot of role-playing and tech rolls – all of which were improvised. This was never really touched on in the rules, but it seems that all these attempts to re-boot their fellow Android is taking the game to places I never figured it would go….

As Aleph, the silver moon rises in the skies of Cygnet Delta, Link Seyz feels likes his head is going to burst. He is palpitating, he can’t breathe. To make matters worse, certain words of power are being called out by his companions sibilantly and continuously. Eventually, the camp is shaken by Link Seyz primal shriek as the he collapses bonelessly to the sand. He is turned over to Mirage and Ratchet, the Android techs who appear to know what to do to restore their shut-down brother to his former operative condition.

In the glow of a campfire, the group has a peaceful meal – the first one for the entire day of slaughter. Link Seyz is still inoperative – lying still like a human in a coma. Mirage and Ratchet are attending to him while the others take stock of their provisions. Shai says they have three days of food and water.

It is then that they notice Orua is missing. A hurried search fails to turn up the young human. All they find are her footprints – leading away from camp and heading out in the distance. It seems Orua has headed out towards the sandy dune-like hill in the distance.

The one with a metallic top gleaming in the pale silver light of Aleph.

Episode Nine (part 1) - The Thin Red Line

Dramatis personae:

Spielmeister – Mutant Lord

Putanesca- Mutant Plant

Kyoshi – Mutant Human

Link Seyz – Android

Ratchet – Android

Mirage- Android

Marcus Truman- Pure Human

Max Plissken – Pure Human

Zed- Mutant Human

Albus- Mutant Human

Orua – Autistic Pure Human

Shai – Pure Human

Last session:

After hurriedly being picked up on Ratsputin’s air boat, the characters return to the Mine and are plunged in the thick of a ferocious assault by Captain Krat’s Panther mercenaries.

Our story:

The airboat descends swiftly into the crater. Everyone sees Rats scurrying about agitatedly below. Ratsputin skillfully sets the airboat down and steps out, nervously followed by the party. It is soon made clear from the Rat troopers that Captain Krat’s offensive has succeeded and the Panthers are almost within the Rat warrens of the Mine. Ratsputin sends off his Rat officers with terse commands and speaks to Shai earnestly, with his eyes a-gleaming.

“We have to hold off the Panthers from the cave entrance. We need time to organize a defense. This is why I flew out to collect your entire party – we need help holding the cave entrance up on the cliffside.”

Reluctantly, the party agrees to buy the Rats time.

Ratsputin, accompanied by his entourage of harassed Rats, as well as the adventurers, exit from the crater into a narrow pathway hanging from the mountainside. They climb gingerly downwards until they arrive at a familiar cave entrance. Ratchet, Mirage and Shai immediately recognize their surroundings – as they are back to where they first made contact with the Rats. Zed, Marcus and Max confirm that they have been here before: as this is the secret entrance they discovered into the Mine of the Brain Lashers .

Everywhere, the rumbling sound of artillery can be ominously heard.
Bloody and disheveled Rats rush to and fro from the cave. Ratsputin and his officers try to get things organized. Mirage sees a line of scrawny Rats shuffling forward towards an officer standing beside a pile of weapons. Every other Rat gets a rifle thrust at him and a handful of ammo. The next one in line gets a handful of ammo and an unsheathed bayonet. As the line moves on, the officer repeats a shouted litany, which, to Mirage, sounds like this:

“Every other Rat gets a rifle. When the one with the rifle gets killed, the Rat following him picks up the rifle and shoots!”

“This doesn’t look good,” mutters Max darkly. Ratchet and Mirage can only grimly nod in agreement.

The Rats, with their ears hanging limply and tails dragging heavily behind them, are bullied by Ratsputin down the trail leading away from the cave. They disappear from sight around a wooded bend.

“Here,” says Ratsputin urgently. “You’ll have to hold the line here and by the Great Mikhii- don’t let them get into the cave!” With that, he returns to the trail leading to the sky boat hangar taking Putanesca and Kyoshi with him.

ML’s note: After conferring with my players, we agreed to take Matt and Prin’s characters out of play first as they were still unfortunately delayed due to car trouble.

Ahead of the group is a low wall of rocks which the Rats appeared to have set up earlier in an attempt to fortify the area. After a hurried conference, Shai and Max direct everyone to the wall which, at least, gives them partial cover from frontal attacks. Everyone has managed to pick up a rifle from the weapons and ammo left behind by the Rats. Unfortunately, the rifles come in various calibers and makes – and ammo is in short supply.



ML’s note: To be exact, I rolled for what they managed to scrounge up and came up with six single-shot lever actions and two magazine-fed semi-automatic battle rifles. Antique equivalents (to borrow a Classic Traveller term) of these guns were Martini-Henry rifles and M14s, respectively. Curiously, Henry managed to identify the single shooters ahead of everyone else – could it be due to the rifles’ name? One thing that really appeals to me in Mutant Future is the randomness factor – I tend to do a lot of dice-rolling to come up with something when I’m not sure what I should give the players. The sheer unpredictability of the random rolls is really part of the fun!

They didn’t have long to wait. After a while, it seemed that all the firing stopped. It was deathly quiet- like the calm before the storm.

Link Seyz angrily broke the silence by alerting the group to Orua, who wandered off during the lull, towards the cave entrance. Then, it was too late for the Android to lead River back to the wall as the Panthers began their attack.

They came at them at a run – black Panthers roaring their blood thirsty cries with claws and fangs bared for the kill. Leading them is a four- armed Leopard officer in a steel cuirass. Brandishing a sword-like weapon with a glowing blade of coruscating energy, the mutant officer can be seen chivvying his cats forward.

“Let ‘em have it!” cried Shai, firing away with his M14.

The group cut loose with rifle fire, felling a few from the attackers’ front rank. Despite this, the assault continues ferociously as the cats appear to be caught up in a blood-mad frenzy. Soon, they close the distance half-way to the wall, firing from the hip. Shai curses as his M14 jams up. Then, Link Seyz’s M14 is also out of action. Much to Ratchet’s consternation, his modified musket also fails to fire.

ML’s note: For some reason, my players came up with an inordinate number of natural ‘1’ die rolls, indicating a ‘fumble’ on an attack roll. This, I translated into a high incidence of weapon malfunctions. Who knows, maybe the Rats got gypped into accepting a batch of bad ammo and powder! It was also at this point when I managed to score the needed die roll allowing Orua to slip into ‘Serenity -savant’ mode for 4 melee rounds.

With the nearest attackers only a dozen feet from the defenses, Orua picks up a rifle and blasts the nearest Cat off its paws. She drops the empty gun and picks up another, blasting way at the next closest target.

ML’s note: Patton, who was playing Mika’s character first, seemed to hold true to the adage that the best reload is another loaded gun!

Then, the Cats are reinforced. The group hears the thundering sound of hooves and are aghast to see Krat’s Jackalope Dragoons bounding forward to reinforce the attack. They count at least six Panthers in crimson jackets, strapped to ornate saddles, bounding into combat riding giant horned mutant rabbits, with lances couched.

ML’s note: The Jackalope Dragoons made a brief appearance in this episode, but now, they are the enemy.

The Jackalopes are nothing like any warsteed encountered by the adventurers thus far. They are astounded at the mutants’ prodigious leaps which carry them over the defensive wall and into their rear! Now, they have enemies at their front and behind.
With nothing else for it, they decide to let loose with all their firepower. Zed’s plasma pistol, two lasers, an auto-firing AK47 and Marcus Truman’s pump action shotgun are brought out and fired like there was no tomorrow- adding their weight to the fire being dished out by the Rats’ rifles. To these are added the mutations of the party’s mutants and androids- but the enemy keeps coming on!

Shai grabs Max’s rucksack carrying the blocks of C4 previously issued by Captain Krat HERE. Max confirms there are no detonators, whereupon Shai hurls it with all his strength at the oncoming attackers.

“Blast it with the plasma!” yells Shai at Zed, hoping that the electrical discharge riding along the plasma bolt detonates the lot.

Zed takes careful aim at Shai’s improvised demo charge which is now sitting in the midst of a wave of roaring Cats. He fires, and, although his shot hits true, merely vaporizes Max’s rucksack and its contents.

“Fakes!” screams Shai with consternation. “The bloody felines passed us a bunch of fakes!”

ML’s note: Sooner or later, my players were bound to find out that the good Captain seemed to have his own ideas by passing off some disguised play-dough on them. Funny thing is they never even bothered to ask me about blasting caps or detonators that should have come with the C4. Maybe that should have alerted them to the true nature of the goodies.

“Try this, then!” yells Max, hurling the ancient, seemingly unreliable hand grenade salvaged from the Buggem’s lair. Although dangerously unreliable, the frag goes off with a blast, downing a Jackalope and two Panther infantry.

By now, fighting is at deadly close quarters but the group is still fighting from protected positions. Again and again, the concentrated fire of the energy weapons blow away many of the dragoons from their rabbitoid chargers. In the ensuing melee, Shai breaks ranks and leaps from the stone wall straight at the four-armed mutant Leopard officer. So swift was his attack that the mutant is surprised, providing Shai and opening for a well-aimed vicious cut. Moments later, standing over the headless corpse of the four-armed mutant, Shai bends to retrieve the officer’s Warp Field Sword.

So desperate is the fight that both Link Seyz and Ratchet’s built-in mutations kick in and allow them to perform prodigious feats of strength. Both Androids grapple with the bull-sized Jackalopes and bring these down crashing to the ground.

ML’s note: Link Seyz and Ratchet respectively called up their Ability Boost and Body Adjustment mutations allowing them to doublet their already considerable Strength scores, whereupon they started wrestling with the Jackalopes.

However, the Cats have a final card to play. The Dragoons’ commander had been, until now, content with laying down harassing fire with his automatic shotgun. Now, she was revealed to have a further mutation – Plane Shift! She begins concentrating, and in the midst of the melee, opens a hazy, shifting tear in the fabric of reality.

ML’s note: Quite frankly, I left the Planes of Existence known by the mutant Panther blank when I pre-generated this NPC. I then rolled on Kid Monster’s excellent 75 Random Plane Shift Destinations found at the Goblinoid Games' Mutant Future Forums in July 2009, which I had been saving up for just the right occasion. Rolling on a d100, I randomly came up with this result:

“92: Nurr’Gar’Rak’Ki (Alien Dimension) A Brain Lasher homeworld. The surface of this (possibly once Earth-like) world is a blasted, desolate waste of jagged black glass, roamed by Lasher tripods and nasty alien monsters. Underneath, the planet is riddled with millions of miles of tunnels, which at their deepest levels lead to one of the vast and terrifying cities from which these horrors rule their plane-spanning empire“

Imagine my surprise at arriving at this result. Considering that the cave entrance being defended by my players, was, until recently, the Mine of the Brain Lashers, the opening of a trans-planar gateway to the homeworld of the Brain Lashers, was an awesome coincidence! As you could imagine, the resultant maniacal cackle of the Mutant Lord raised the hackles of not a few of my blissfully ignorant players. Armed with this most intriguing result, I proceeded to run with the ball…

My thanks goes out to Kid Monster for such a wonderful and useful random table. Using this actually served to push the fun factor of the game even higher!

Ratchet and Mirage are the first to notice the horrible things lurking on the other end of the planar gate. Another well-aimed plasma bolt blasts away the mutant Panther but her gateway remains open. Orua, lapsing back to autistic mode, is fascinated by the alien vistas on the other side of the gate and walks towards the undulating tentacle-faced humanoids who beckon to her.

With a scream of horror, Link Seyz grabs Orua and pulls her back swiftly, while their companions open up with a fusillade of beams, bolts and bullets at the Brain Lashers closing in from the other side of the gate. Two of the alien abominations are felled by their fire, but the third is concentrating on a mental attack. Luckily, it is killed by a plasma bolt from Zed’s weapon which is critically running out of juice.

ML’s note: Now it can be told – the third Brain Lasher had that rare (5%) variety of the Ancestral Form mutation which allows it to regress targets down the evolutionary path. Again, I rolled on the spot for the three critters and the last came up with a “05” on a d100 roll. What a night of fantastic dice rolling this proved to be! Lucky thing they plasma-ed it when they did – it was altogether possible that one of the humans or mutant humans could have been reverted to a dim-witted Homo Erectus if that last Brain Lasher lived to get off a mental attack…

At this, the tear in the fabric of space-time snaps shut!

The attackers broke off their assault shortly thereafter, having sustained horrendous casualties. Our heroes did not pursue, being content to hold the line at the stone wall. They suddenly found themselves standing in a blood-stained field littered with bodies of their slain foes. Many are wounded but none so grievously as Ratchet who suffered quite a large loss of 6 hit dice of damage.

Of their Rat allies, they see nothing. The firing has just about stopped but they feel that their foes are regrouping somewhere nearby for another push. They also notice that ominously, smoke has begun to rise from the cave entrance they were detailed to defend. Echoes of gunfire and explosions could also be heard from within.

Now, it appears that the Cats have broken through to the lower levels of the Mine through another entrance.

Episode Eight (part two) - Ratty Allies

Meanwhile, up ahead, after conferring with Urgall, Ratchet, Mirage and Shai reach the mountain’s slopes. It is almost mid-day now. They begin climbing painfully up, gaining ground steadily. They catch a glimpse of the Cat-Tamaran on the Azure’s tributary, far-off. Presently, Urgal leads them to a cliff overhanging a clearing, up on the mountain’s slopes. Below them is a narrow cave-like entrance leading down into the Mines.

ML’s notes: Astute readers will recognize this as the side entrance the characters used to gain entry to the Mines in Episode Two.

A complex arrangement of ropes and pulleys leads down into the narrow opening. Around it stands guard a squad of six Ratmen armed to the teeth. Mirage has Mental Phantasm built into him. He projects an illusion of a Panther warrior looking downward, alerting one of the Rat sentries. He raises the alarm and the Rats make ready to meet an expected attack. In the meantime, the group spikes the end of a coil of rope and lowers it down to the Rats. They look down once more and only three Rat guards remains. Then, Ratchet sends out another illusion – of Panther warriors fleeing in dismay. Urgall then climbs downward. So sudden was his descent that he lands forcefully upon two of the guards, effectively knocking them out. Shai follows close behind.

At this moment, a muffled crump like thunder fills the air and explosions begin to shake the mountainside. The guns of the Cat-Tamaran are blasting away at the Rats’ defenses. It now appears that Krat has decided to move up his attack without waiting for the promised diversion. The Rats weapon emplacements now begin to fire back.

Meanwhile, back at the main group, the rest of the party hears the exchange of fire which only means that Krat’s main offensive is on.

Back at the mountain, Urgall confronts the remaining Rat sentry near the cave entrance. Shai raises his crossbow but neatly and decisively brings it down on Urgall’s skull, effectively knocking him unconscious. He then speaks calmly to the surprised Rat and hands it his crossbow.

“We surrender if you like. We were forced by the cats to fight for them, yet we bear them no loyalty. We hate them as you hate them. We halted the surprise attack of the panthers you witnessed a while ago. We wish to join you and take revenge on the Cats. No one has a right to treat humans this way. We’ll speak to your leader if you wish.”

ML’s note: Not for nothing was Justin made the group’s de facto diplomat. This got me by surprise too but it seemed that Henry and Justin were planning to have the group switch allegiances and bite the cats back. Or was this a ploy to play both sides against each other? I have yet to find out…

By now, the fight is on and from their vantage point, Shai, Ratchet and Mirage could see Krat’s floating fortress sailing implacably closer with guns blazing. Soon, the assault boats will be launched and the storming will begin. Harried Rats are hurrying to and fro- and suspicious glances are being thrown at the characters. Presently, the approaching Rats start whispering something that sounds like a name of sorts.

“Ratsputin. Ratsputin's coming up!”

Before them comes a curious Rat. He is squat, small for a mutant of his kind but his eyes shine ferally with cunning and intelligence. He wears soft maroon-chased robes with arcane symbols, some of which come from the Mikih, Grandfather of Rats. Above his flaring cup-like ears is a headband of arcane, unsmeltable metal studded with equally strange lights and crystals. He sports a tool belt upon which hangs tools, weapons and other devices.

ML’s note: You may have guessed it but Ratsputin is no other than Brutorz Bill’s NPC here created for this game. Ratsputin now walks and talks in the wastelands of the World Under A Blood Red Sky.

Ratsputin confers with the sentry, whiskers twitching while he thoughtfully chews his tail. He eyes the characters curiously and questions Shai who replies just as swiftly and earnestly. He notices that Ratchet is eyeing his toolbelt with frank curiosity.

Ratsputin speaks swiftly after seeming to consider the matter for a moment.
“Yes, we need your services. Come, you shall fight alongside and share in the loot we shall win. Make haste and call out the rest of your band – we need every swinging tail in the fight that’s coming. I shall send two of my Rats to escort you, but return soon!”

Then, he swiftly disappears into the chaos of the Rat’s encampment, calling out orders and barking instructions. Even the biggest, most feral of the mutants appear to jump to do his bidding.

Accompanied by Ratsputin’s troopers, Ratchet, Mirage and Shai rush back to the rest of the party who are, at that moment, following in their footsteps and heading straight to the Rats’ lair. They link up eventually and bring everyone back up to spec on what the situation is. As of now, they prefer the Rats to be their official allies. Not far away, the thunder of the guns rings loud in the afternoon stillness.

All this does not stop Kyoshi from using the words of power on Link Seyz to check their efficacy. He then draws on his previous knowledge of tech arcane and is delighted to see his synthetic companion struggle to gain control of his movements and resisting various override protocols. River joins in once more arousing the already unstable Android to fury.

He yells “Witch!” at the top of his lungs and lands a fist blow at her, knocking her unconscious. The words of power invoked by Matt’s mutant and Plissken appear to be not as efficacious this time around.

All of a sudden, there is a deep throbbing sound in the air and a shadow passes above the group. As they look up, they behold a large ovoid form that appears to be of smooth angles and windows amidst shimmering metal. Some recognize it as a mate to the ancient powered contrivances of the Chief Resident of Sanly Bowitts, save that this one appears to be a type of sky-boat. Their Rat guides appear unsurprised as the sky-boat slowly circles and lands in the grass.

A small hatch appears on the side from which Ratsputin leans out, calling to them urgently.

“Change of p-plan,” he squeaks, whiskers a-twitch. “I was out surveying our defenses. It seems we really need you all to hold back the C-cats. They’re advancing faster than we expected possible.”

With that, the party reluctantly boards the sky-boat. They are astounded to see how well-kept it looks from the inside, with its arcane machinery and controls.
“Hang on!” mutters Ratsputin, as the sky-boat rises swiftly from the ground.

From one of the portholes, Putanesca sees the mountain looming close. Down at the river, the Cat-Tamaran has moved into position to be able to block off the entrance to the Mine. Assault boats have begun to hit the riverbanks. A firefight of intense ferocity has broken out before the Mine. The Panthers’ assault is in full swing. Sounds of combat are heard above the humming of the boat’s drive.

The sky-boat rises to the top of the mountain. Where they expected the peaks to be turns out to be a vast circular hollow in the rock, much like the top of an extinct volcano. Without delay, the sky-boat begins to descend into the darkness.

ML’s afterword: I really wonder what the future has in store for our game. I can’t help but laugh when I heard Matt evilly whisper to Nikos that they’ll be trying to “restore” the Androids to their “factory settings". Maybe they just spent too much time mucking around with their Nokia cell phones.

Episode Eight (part one) -Switching Sides

I have not posted for a long time as I (along with the rest of many of you, I presume), am up to my eyeballs with a shitload of real world worries and concerns. Nonetheless, I am pleased to report a successful Mutant Future game session on the evening of Friday, the 22nd of January. Apart from a lot of my regular players showing up on time, we were very fortunate to have Patton, Mika, Matt and Prin as new players who just joined our gaming group and decided to throw in their luck with the rest of our dastardly crew. The following constitutes the proceedings on said Friday night game-

Dramatis Personae:

The deranged Mutant Lord - Spielmeister

Max Plissken – Pure Human (played by Nikos)

Albus – Mutant Human (played by Doc Ben-g)

Zed- Mutant Human (played by Doc Ben-g)

Marcus Truman – Pure Human (played by JY)

Ratchet - Android (played by Henry)

Mirage - Android (played by Henry)

Shai - Pure Human (played by Justin)

ML’s note: With the demise of both of Henry’s mutants from last game, he came bouncing back with a Basic Android duo. He has a pretty well-crafted backstory which I, admittedly, have not read up completely yet. Suffice it to say that the Androids are constructs of the Brain Lashers. In fact, these Lashers are very much related to the band that occupied the Mine of the Brain Lashers. Justin, on the other hand, is our resident GURPS expert and decided to field a Normal with very developed tactician and merchant skills. Sort of like the group’s strategos-diplomat.

Our new players, on the other hand, came up with these eclectic characters:

Putanesca – Mutant Plant (played by Prin). This was a first for our gaming group, and we were very thrilled to see how a mutant plant would shape up in a game. As things turned out, Prin did not disappoint us. Her mutant resembled an intelligent, ambulatory, thorny tomato. From my recollection, it had the Metamorph mutation and sported inch-long thorns all over its’ prehensile roots and tendrils. ‘Puta’ (as it was affectionately called by all) tended to amble along and had a self-admitted life goal of finding a suitable floral mate.

Kyoshi - Mutant Human (played by Matt). Matt’s rolls on the mutation tables were gonzo. His mutant had dwarfism, making him only one foot tall. He also had the Mind Thrust and Dual Cerebellum mutations. Sure he’s short but then again, so was Master Yoda- and you saw how he squared off against Count Dookoo.

Link Seyz- Android (played by Patton). Pat insisted on having an android who looked and talked like the Terminator (at least that was my take on it). His backstory also provides that the android itself does not know that it is an android. For as long as he could remember, he was just another human. He does not know he has a hidden Energy Ray in his hands, amongst other “mutations”.

Another Pure Human – played by Mika. Now Mika insisted on some value-added enhancements in the interest of good gaming. After a short conference, I agreed. Her human is the Mutant Future version of River Tam from Serenity. Certain ‘triggers’ tend to unlock an extremely focused technical savant aspect of her nature (sometimes when they’re lucky, just at the right time it is really needed). Most of the time, she’s a slightly autistic youngster. As of this writing, I haven’t received info on her character name so I’ll provisionally call her River.

Character generation took up the first third of the evening’s gaming time but this immediately showed one of the strengths of Old School gaming: enabling players to generate characters ready for gaming in a few minutes, flat. It would have been an altogether different story if we were using Gurps. I don’t even want to think about how it would have been if we were playing D&D 4th ed. Probably would have had to dedicate an entire gaming session for character generation. I learned that this was the first time my new players would be playing an Old School game. Happily, Old School appeared to agree with them as will be seen later on.

As an aside, my notes are still incomplete as I write this, so I’ll be constrained to refer to some of the characters through their players’ names for now.
Finally, I instituted a houserule (heeding Brutorz Bill’s sound advice from last game’s comments ) granting each player a single d30 roll usable at any time during the game. A sort of safety net for the players in view of the deadly toll the scorpions’ poison attacks did last time (save or die attacks are very nasty).

Fortunately, no one got to use this during the game.

Our story

The armed panther crew and their leopard officers clambered aboard the Cat-Tamaran, grudgingly hoisting aboard Albus, Zed, Marcus and Snake. They soon discover that the ship is a veritable floating fortress, festooned with guns, rockets, not a few missile launchers, the odd (but formidable) energy weapon, siege engines, and yet even bigger guns. It seems Captain Krat wasn’t kidding when he said they were just about ready to commence the main attack on the Rats.

They are led to a large hallway and kept under guard. Although it was made clear to them that they were not considered prisoners, they weren’t given free reign of the vessel either. Inside, they come upon a few more outsiders, who, upon questioning, reveal that they were “persuaded” to come aboard the Cat-Tamaran as “guests” of Captain Krat.

First, they meet two humanoids who affect the dress of wasteland travelers. These turn out to be Androids, named Ratchet and Mirage. They are accompanied by a Pure Human called Shai, who appears to be quite learned and well-spoken. Ratchet, to their surprise, exhibits an uncommonly keen technical acumen and set out to modify some of the muskets they recently liberated from the Rats.

Later on, they are joined by a strange Mutant Plant bearing a most unsettling name of Putanesca. Putanesca’s other companions are Kyoshi, a foot-high mutant humanoid, Link Seyz, a strange humanoid with a stiff expression and another pure human who appears barely out of her teens. She is named River, who always seems to have a dreamy look in her face and talks in riddles, causing much obfuscation amongst the party. As they all appear to be in the same boat (if you’ll excuse the pun), they decide to band together in common cause.

Later, Captain Krat, joined by some of his officers and crew, enters. He makes a proposition to the party, offering each member a generous sum of five hundred gold crowns, in addition to free transportation to as far as Sanly Bowitts, if they successfully aid him in the coming attack. Along with Urgall, the apparent Homo Erectus ally of the Panthers, they are instructed to infiltrate into the Mine of the erstwhile Brain Lashers using an indirect land route. If things are done right, Captain Krat expects the party to gain entrance to the Mine just before the main attack. The party is enjoined, under no uncertain terms, to create as much havoc and confusion in the Rats’ lair, capitalizing on the element of surprise. This, Krat reasons, should tip the balance in favor of his attacking force, and enable them to overwhelm the Rats’ defenses, which are known to be quite formidable at this time.

While Captain Krat repeatedly makes it clear that he is offering the party a business proposal, they can’t shake the feeling that they’re being pushed into a potentially lethal situation. Not a few are suspecting a set up.

There is a lot of argument and muttering on the side but finally, the party is prevailed upon to accept the job. They are left alone for the rest of the night as feverish preparations continue aboard the floating fortress for the coming day’s assault. Plissken and Shai are crestfallen to learn that the Cats have denied the party’s request for additional firepower. Nonetheless, they consider themselves lucky as Krat agreed to part (albeit with some reluctance) with a box of explosives to be used by the party for their diversion. Shai, the party’s de facto diplomatic adviser, likewise noted about a fighting strength of two hundred effectives in Krat’s force. He also keenly observed the prodigious rate at which Krat’s troops were consuming their supplies.

ML’s note: To be honest, getting started was a bitch as the group still could not quite ‘gel together’ yet. While there was a lot of role-playing and verbal sparring, I also had to keep tabs on a lot of questions (particularly from the logistics-savvy Justin) on crew strength, dispositions, weapons, etc. It’s bound to be interesting to see how things are going to be when these players manage to run their own army.

At dawn, the party is landed on the riverside as the floating fortress sails away in the swirling mist. The blood red sky is just beginning to lighten at this point in time. To maintain contact with the party, Krat turned over a pocket communicator to them, apparently of no mean sophistication. Kyoshi takes possession of the thing.

ML’s note: The comm unit was supposed to be roughly the size of a small cell phone. That meant that Kyoshi carried this much like a PRC-90[?] backpack radio!

The party heads off to the east, their destination being the mountain in the horizon.
Very soon, they notice that River is beginning to wander off with a dreamy look in her face. The others are deep in discussion on what to do next, as they admit that they do not relish the prospect of doing Krat’s dirty work for him notwithstanding his offers of generous compensation. Only Link Seyz notices two malevolent shapes emerging from the waters of a nearby bog, stealthily approaching River. These look like gross, feral Toads, massing about the same as a cow with bloated bubble-like eyes of the deepest red-green. A stick rope-like tongue shoots out from the closest one and narrowly misses River who, right at that moment, bent over to pick up what she saw as a curiously interesting blade of grass.

With a yell Link Seyz charges and hurls a dagger straight at the mutant’s eye.

ML’s notes: This was a tough call. Link Seyz was a 1st level Android and the mutant had a base AC of 4. Since the eye was an even smaller target, I imposed a further -2 to the attempt giving the critter an effective Armor Class of 2. He needed at 17 on a d20 to hit. Despite the odds, Patton rolled a gratifying 18 and hit home!

The mutant’s eye bursts in a spray of ichor-like gore, spoiling its intended attack. Most of the party follows up with bolts and arrows but the unusually tough scales of the mutants prove more than adequate proof against their missiles. The other mutant toad lashes out with its sticky tongue, effectively pinning Link Seyz.

“Use the explosives,” someone yells, whereupon River pulls out a sticky clump of C4 and absently hurls it, sans any blasting cap, at the nearest Toad. The clump of valuable explosive misses widely and falls into the nearby bog, sinking to the bottom.

“My explosives!” yells the dismayed Plissken, running for the water’s edge to search for the C4. In the meantime, River remains oblivious to the fighting while one of the Toads’ bubble-like eyes is glowing malevolently. The air is rent by a pair of fiery burning beams of energy which strike Plissken and bring him down painfully. At this, Putanesca lets up a keening wail of vegetative distress.

Link Seyz frees himself with great difficulty and begins hacking away at the other Toad.

All of a sudden, River straightens up, eyes widening as she takes on an expression of uncanny alertness. It becomes clearly apparent to her that her companion is an Android and something, some hidden feature, is built into his right fist. This may be just the thing he needed to take on the Toad which was beginning to set upon him with huge scimitar-like claws.

ML’s note: Per my agreement with Mika, her hidden “River Tam” qualities were triggered somehow enabling her some incredible intuitive leaps for 1d5 rounds. I rolled a 5 for the fugue’s duration. At this time, I was surprised to note that Henry and Justin were not helping out the party in combat and decided to walk off ahead towards the mountain to carry out their ‘plan’. The change in River caused everyone to sit up and take notice!

Link Seyz appears to take the hint but merely plunges his fist into the Toad’s eye. He misses and connects instead with a meaty splat on the side of the critter’s head. To his surprise, his fist erupts in a blast of radiant burning light- burning much of the Toad’s head. Amidst the smell of burning meat, the freakish, misshapen amphibianoid crashes lifelessly to the ground.

At this, the others charge the remaining Toad, who fires another radiated blast, this time, badly burning Kyoshi. This enrages him and the mutant leaps upward, slashing and parrying with deadly skill.

ML’s note: Matt made clear that his mutant was doing a Yoda-esque maneuver. The mental image was very apt!

Putanesca flails away with her thorns while bashing the Toad with her trusty mace. Zed and Albus keep up a fusillade of bolts while moving to outflank the beast. Plissken finally gets his chance and blasts away with his laser, searing away large gashes on the mutant’s scaly hide. Link Seyz makes a leaping attack, and tragically entangles himself on one of Putanesca’s stringy root-like tendrils. He crashes heavily to the ground.

ML’s note: Patton now rolled a 1 thereby scoring a critical miss. The resultant effect was my ruling to inflict a cinematic effect to his equally cinematic failure at inflicting an Achilles-eque attack straight out of the movie Troy. Nevertheless, it was an inspired try on his part!

River follows all this closely. Somehow, unbidden, arcane words of command come clearly to her mind. Ancient words of power in a language older than Wasteland Norte. An awakened part of her rewired brain somehow makes the connection between Link Seyz’s newly-discovered ability and the code words she now shouts out.

“Menu-seven-sigma-twelve-overide. New protocol -Seven-sigma-thirteen: Engage!”

Link Seyz, who was just getting up, suddenly straightens – and very much against his will, shoots the Toad again with another searing blast. Kyoshi leaps up once again, landing lightly on top the Toad’s skull. Balancing for a moment, he plunges his impossibly sharp dagger-sized longsword into the thing’s eye, and then even deeper. In a moment, the Toad is dead.

ML’s note: Killing a 12HD monster without modern firepower isn’t easy even in Mutant Future. Much of this android override was admittedly a big surprise to me and 100% improvised. Seeing how well my new players took this concept and ran with it, I found it impossible not to go along with them! Tech rolls and Intelligence checks started coming in fast and furious but we managed to move things forward swiftly!

Kyoshi, also possessed a modicum of above-average tech ability and intuition (thanks to his Quick Mind mutation). Together with Plissken, they caught on to this and things got even more- er, strange.

With the mutants dead, the party took stock of the situation. Far off, they catch a glimpse of Ratchet, Mirage and Shai, marching steadily towards the mountain. Kyoshi turns on the comm-link as Krat demands a report. The feline commander is displeased with the slowness of their advance. He abruptly breaks off transmission.

Episode Seven (Part 2) - Wars of Cats, Mutants, Mice and Men

The party pushes on past sunset under the cover of trees. The blood red sun has since set and night comes swiftly and dark on Cygnet Delta. Aleph, the silver moon is rising in the night sky. Everyone is jumpy and on edge after the death of two of their Mutie companions. By now, they can glimpse a familiar river flowing eastward towards the mine entrance. The water swiftly flows under Aleph's light.

In the dimness of the forest, both Zed and Albus, Muties with Thermal Vision spot the intruders first. They are approaching directly head-on about a hundred feet away, through the foliage. Max orders a halt, and everyone climbs swiftly off the wagon, advancing in a skirmish line ahead of the lizards-of-burden.



As they come closer, the party makes out the intruders to be intelligent bipedal rats - a patrol of six advancing in single file. The unmistakable outline of thin-muzzled slug throwers are spotted amongst the Rats.

As one, the party takes aim at the approaching Animal Muties - there appears to be no conserving of ammo this time. Marcus shouts out a challenge in Common Norte. At this, the Rats halt amidst squeaks of alarm and urgency. Marcus repeats his challenge but all they see is the Rats bringing up their fusils to bear.

"Hit 'em!" comes the command and the forest silence is shattered violently by the crack of Albus' AK as well as accompanying fire from laser pistol, plasma gun and the booming of a shotgun. As the echoes die out, none of the Rats are standing.

ML's note: It appears that the death of Henry's muties convinced everyone not to take chances. Everyone broke out the guns and decided to shoot first. Good thing they won initiative on the first round. All rolls hit well and as a result, they blew away all the wandering monsters from that encounter in just one single melee round!

They loot the bodies and find each Rat carrying a musket and ball, with the rearmost appearing to be a leader type. The leader was packing a plasma gun, almost identical to the one they liberated from the Buggems.

They decide to relocate and nervously push on towards the entrance of the mine even in the forest darkness. Eventually, they spot the edge of the treeline and the entrance of the Mine: a cave in the cliffside with a river running right inside it. Only now, there are campfires on the shore nearby and the outlines of more Rats. Lots of them.

ML's note: At this point, the players start arguing. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the Mine of the erstwhile Brainlashers has been taken over by a tribe of Animal Muties.

Just then, the stillness of the forest is again shattered by explosions from their left flank - far off across the river. There are sharp reports of gunfire and then, automatic fire. From their hidden place they see the Rats scatter, grabbing up arms and falling back to the Mine's entrance.

As if this wasn't enough, there is a heavy pounding of hooves and the crash of foliage being knocked aside far off on the right flank. They catch a glimpse of huge rabbit-like mounts, leaping at great speed through the forest. Astride each of the mounts is a feline warrior, saber bared and hanging on for dear life. They count about eight riders charging into the Rats' encampment.

ML's note: At this point, Doc Ben-g rolls up his eyes and says: "This is so Kamandi". I guess from my players' reactions, I really succeeded in 'Kirby-ing up' this encounter. For the record, my inspiration for the dragoons was JDJarvis' recent Mutant Future post on mutant future steeds. Excellent material!

"Panther swordsmen on giant leaping rabbits," remarks Marcus Truman. "What have we gotten ourselves into?"

Then, they sense they are being watched. They see a stealthy hulking humanoid form approaching from the rear. It seems almost human - and approaches with a hand raised in greeting.

Only Max breaks cover and parleys with the newcomer who turns out to be a Homo Erectus. This one seems more intelligent, though. They learn that the Homo Erectus is called Urgall. Urgall is certainly no friend of the Rats and claims to be allied to enemies of the Rats. He adds his friends are nearby.

While this is happening the distant sounds of battle are slowly dying out.



Urgall 'friends' emerge into the bush shortly. As expected, these are more Panther warriors led by what appears to be a tall, spotted feline. The Animal Mutant carries himself like a freebooter - complete with bicorne hat, a brace of pistols and frock coat. For a while everyone is edgy and guns are pointed at everyone else. The adventurers are most uncomfortably aware that they are outnumbered and quite possibly, outgunned. Fortunately, Urgall intervenes.

The Animal Mutants are prevailed upon to hold fire. Their spotted leader (apparently a Cougar) is introduced as Captain Krat. After convincing the Captain that they are no friends of the Rats, the group is 'requested' to accompany the felines away from the Mine entrance. Not seeing much choice in the matter, the group goes along.

By now, the rabbitoid dragoons have returned from their raid bearing bloody Rat heads on the saddles of their furry mounts. Captain Krat leads his band some ways down the river. Our adventurers are surprised to see a heavy, armed merchant boat chugging towards the shore. They group clambers aboard and Krat gives orders to sail away.

Aboard Krat's boat, Max discloses their group's identity: that they were the ones who slew the Brain Lashers and made their way through the mine some weeks back. The felines meow and hiss with derision - claiming this was another baldfaced lie by the hairless weakling Humans. Krat's first mate, a hulking orange furry feline called Tommy-kat suggests getting it over with and gutting the Humans for supper. After all, he argues, the crew is sick of Rat-meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Things are looking ugly again but Captain Krat restrains his crew. He decides to suspend judgment and thinks he has a place in his plans for these Humans and their freakish brethren (drawing dangerous looks from Albus and Zed). He says he means to make war upon the Rats and completely extirpate their kind from the Mine.

By now, the boat has stopped and our adventurers find themselves adrift at the junction the lesser Azure they recognize. Suddenly, out from the misty distance, a hulking mass floats towards their craft, positively dwarfing it. The approaching ship is tall, crowned with iron constructs, galleries and weapons bays. It is an agglomeration of salvaged and machined parts, to form an imposing superstructure.

"Welcome," purrs Krat in a low baritone, "to my ship - the Grand Cat-Tamaran!"

ML's note: The last scene was inspired by one of Sniderman's Thundarr Thursday episodes from the Savage Afterworld, in particular Captain Kordon's eclectic, whacky warship! I just could not resist passing up using the look of the ship as an inspiration for the Grand Cat-Tamaran.




As one, our adventurers ask themselves earnestly just exactly they have gotten themselves into. All of a sudden, life seemed very secure and peaceful back at Sanly Bowitts just now.

Episode Seven (Part 1)- Scorpions!

Game session of 8 January 2010

Dramatis Personae:

Clem - Human Mutie (Henry)

Clyde - Human Mutie (Henry)

Max Plissken - Normal Human (Nikos)

Marcus Truman - Normal Human (JY)

Zed - Human Mutie (Doc Ben-g)

Albus - Human Mutie (Doc Ben-g)

Spielmeister - deranged Mutant Lord

Our story:

After succesfully defeating the buggems in Jeffton, our heroes return to Sanly Bowitts for a few days of rest and recreation. Based in their old hangout, the Strontium Ninety Inn, they indulge in rumor mongering and gossip to get a feel of the local state of affairs.

Amongst the things learned after guzzling dozens of drinks in the bar are the following:

1. Stories of a great and powerful wizard who has set himself up in the Iron Fortress. The latter is said to be an ancient citadel somewhere up north just short of the Barrier Peaks.

2.Mysterious disappearances from outlying villages to the south of Sanly Bowitts have increased. It is said that recent slaver activity from the southern desert is responsible for such disappearances.

3. Horrifying tales of golden statues attacking merchant caravans and travelers of the wasteland near the lake area are spreading. It is still not known what these golden statues are, or where they came from. The militia though, has recently taken an interest in this matter.

Led by Max, our adventurers pay a visit to the town's University, in the hopes of seeking sagacious advice from its leaders. They eventually gain admittance and befriend Oric, an apprentice to the Sage Melfis. After disclosing their identity as those who earlier made a generous donation to the University in the form of a carcass of giant reptile, Apprentice Oric identifies some of the more sundry items they retrieved from their past travels.

ML's note: Much to Oric's (and the ML's) amusement on such item was a miscellaneous pouch containing sterile syringes no-one could figure out how to open. Oric easily pulled the tab of the pouch's zipper thus opening the item for all to see. Nonetheless, all this lighthearted roleplaying was a a lot of fun for everyone after a toxic week at work.

They managed to gain audience to two of the University's sages - the Excellencies Melfis and Ultan. They were bid to return to the University in a few days as Master Melfis expects to have a proposal to make to them at that time.

With this, the group stocked up on provisions and munitions and hitched their trusty wagon as they headed out into the wilds. It was previously agreed that the party will now return to the Mine of the Brain Lashers with a view towards retrieving the functioning Regneration Tank they left behind in a previous adventure.

After crossing the Lesser Azure river north of the fortified town, the party proceeded north on a dirt track. It is end of summer and the journey to the north was most agreeable and peaceful for the most part.

ML's note: I kept getting negative rolls on my random encounter charts so most of the land travel was uneventful. That is, until....

The beginning of the third day in the wasteland found the party what became a familiar stretch of desert west of the Poison Forest. Save for the waves of midday heat and a lignering nausea for Zed and Albus, the party now finds themselves nearer to the riverside entrance of the Mine.

ML's note: Eventually, my players figured out they were at the smaller tributary of the Lesser Azure, a part of which was radioactive desert which took a toll on the party in Episode Two.

Just at this point, Clyde alerts the rest when he sees four sinister giant scorpions advancing upon them. The party lets loose with a fusilade of bolts, a few bullets and the Plasma Pistol now being fired by Zed. Three a killed before they could come to grips with the adventurers. Max recognizes the critters and yells that these are most dangerous beasts: one sting is enough to kill and unlucky adventurer!

ML's note: Earlier this week, I circulated a GM's assessment questionnaire to my players. One noteworthy response was my players' apperent fear and dislike for 'save or die attacks/traps'. Keeping this in mind, I decided to toss them a lifeline and make Max (the group's brainiest warrior)make an INT roll (which he succesfully made by a large margin). I then hinted to them (in very strong terms) that these scorpions had a 'save or die sting'.

Surprisingly, perhaps my players chose to conserve ammo (even if each one had a gun to fire by this point) and use crossbow bolts instead. They soon realized that crossbows weren't that effective against AC2 giant scorpions. Thus it came to this:



The last scorpion closed in for the kill and pounced upon the hapless Clem. Although he already triggered his Damage Turning Mutation, this did not stop the poison from coursing through his veins after being struck by the scorpion's nasty sting. And right in front of his horrified mates, the intrepid Clem simply shuddered and... died.

As if this was not bad enough, the scorpion remained alive and pressed its attack -this time against a frantic Clyde. The unfortunate Clyde took the full force of the scorpion's stinger on his chest while frantically grabbing at the attacking critter. Once more, the poision proved too much, killing Clyde. By a stoke of irony, Clyde's Dermal Poison Slime also killed off his attacker. Clyde's dying rush at the scorpion smeared it in turn with the slime, whereupon it promptly died.

ML's note: This was a sudden reversal having two of the party's more potent Muties die suddenly from one remaining wounded critter that refused to die. Henry (who played both Muties) appeared to be in shock after losing both characters in the space of two melee rounds. I noticed thereafter that my players were more liberal in using their newly-acquired firepower.

At the end of the battle, the group is confronted by a grisly spectacle. Clyde lies dead, impaled by the scorpion's sting while clutching the likewise dead scorpion in a poisoned deathgrip.

With the loss of their much loved companions, the party pushed on to the north, finally coming upon the forested areas near the entrance to the Mine. Even as it was getting dark, everyone agreed to push on until they gain the lake outside the underground river's entrance to the Mine.