The Facility [Session 8, 12/4]

Lithium, Want and Duke started moving into the bowels of the Facility, in search of the Nerve Center where Lithium was held captive all those years. Lithium started having flashbacks about her worst tormentor, the one they called "Grandma" - who looked like a nice old lady but put the children through the longest and most painful experiments. Some of these flashbacks were even experienced as memories from Grandma's perspective, as Grandma had been siphoning off psychic energy from them.

At the entrance to the Facility complex, the guards were trying to shut the gate. Maple jammed through with one of the cars, and the 10,000 Maniacs used the car as a makeshift ramp to squeeze through. They jumped over it one by one, guns blazing. Piss and Carlos rode shotgun with two of the bikers and began to secure a perimeter, while Cupid set up a mobile infirmary in one of the SUVs. Maple and Carlos went into the lab area to catch up with Lithium's group, and Piss went off in search of supplies and loot.

Want and Lithium came across a group of scientists and guards in the old "Playroom", and the situation quickly escalated into a Mexican standoff. Carlos and Maple entered the fray and tried to take the enemy by surprise - they managed to take out most of the guards, but one of them shot up Carlos in the face in the process, and Maple put a motorcycle helmet over his head to at least hide the bleeding. The two of them opened their minds to the psychic maelstrom - Maple had a revelation that the artifacts in these Zones were somehow unstuck in time (and possibly other dimensions), and Carlos had a flashback to his side-journey to the White Castle Zone where the Crown artifact disappeared from his grasp.

Piss and two of the decreasing-numbers Maniacs, Jared and Ass-Face, found some car batteries, but they also found some guards who killed Jared. Continuing on they found some kind of biology lab where various organs and bodies were floating in glass containers, and they were attacked by monstrous "pigoons" (pig-hippo-things). Cupid was trailing Piss and Ass-Face and helped them take down the creatures; he found a particularly interesting living-organ-in-a-jar that he didn't recognize and took it for further study. Finally they stumbled into a computer room where they took down some guards and grabbed some electronic parts, and they headed back to the gate.

Want found an interesting black gem that could be used as a weapon and killed one of the scientists with it. Lithium ordered the one remaining scientist to take them to the Nerve Center. They walked down a deep circular staircase (tossing the scientist over the side of the pit) and finally reached a room where children were arranged around a column in a circle with helmets connecting them to the Nerve Center. One of them appeared to be Duke's daughter! And naturally Grandma was there - she had some kind of flying/levitation power and descended from the ceiling. The worst part though was that Maple and Lithium immediately realized that Grandma was somehow but without a doubt an older Maple Slugknuckle.

Back at the gate, a powerful inter-dimensional creature that some call an "Angel" appeared and began to attack. Cupid and Piss saw that they could no longer hold their position and decided to try and lure it away from the Facility. They sent Skizzbucket into the lab to alert the others and left a car for everyone else to escape in. Then the entire motorcade of Maniacs and SUVs took off from the Facility, with the Angel giving chase.

At the Nerve Center, there was complete pandemonium as Lithium and Maple tried to resolve their new truth, while Grandma made psychic attacks that distorted reality. Lithium could not let Maple grow up to become Grandma, so she fired a shot that ended up grazing Maple's face; ominously a scar appeared on Grandma's face in the same spot. Carlos, thinking he was attacking Grandma but confused by one of Grandma's psychic abilities, knocked out Lithium with his pistol and started dragging her away. Maple, knowing that the children were providing Grandma with her power, killed one of the kids with her shotgun and yanked the helmet off another. Want took a bunch of mushrooms and put on the helmet to try and connect to Grandma and the Nerve Center; he also tried seduction to distract Lithium but to no avail.

Maple shot at Grandma, and Grandma began to retreat upwards. Lithium, in a frenzy, used her abilities to make Carlos' muscles fail, and he collapsed. She pulled out her gun again to shoot Maple; Carlos tried to stop her and got shot up, rendered unconscious and bleeding out. Lithium shot Maple in the leg, and seeing no other choice but to fight back, Maple fatally shot Lithium.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Last Time on Overgrowth... [Session 07]

The aftermath of the battle was gruesome. The 10K Maniacs were slaughtering people like animals that get slaughtered. Flapjacks was backed into a corner, but held Barker hostage. Duke made a deal with her, letting her and her surviving men leave with use of an SUV, if she released Barker. Lithium thought this was all a ruse and opened fire at Flapjacks’ SUV as it was leaving, but no one backed her up and Flapjacks drove over her with the car. Duke stabilized her, but it sent him through the Maelstrom. While there he learned from a two-faced deer with the voice of Keith David that The Zones do not grow but with the artifacts, their phenomena are spreading outside their borders. Indeed, it has been said that with the artifacts, humans can eventually turn the whole Earth into a single, vast Zone. 

Barker made a break for it but Want and Duke went after him, leaving Lithium beind and engaging in vehicular combat. Barker said he’d take Duke to the facility and get his daughter in exchange for Lithium (which some of the group wanted to do), but tt this point, Want brained him with a tire iron.

The group decided to go the Facility and utilize the old Chewbacca Ruse. Lithium also realized that no one else could understand her mutliple movie references. She also didn't know why even she knew them. Weird shit. Lithium used In-Brain Puppet Strings and commanded Barker to take them there on threat of death.
A small party (Duke, Lithium, Want) proceeded to the facility. Avoiding a bandit attack, they made camp in an old diner. Lithium found a strange clay ball called an itcher. She determined it was not soap by tasting it. She's still not sure what it does.

The group made it to the gates of the Facility which Barker got the open. He then ran inside and told the guards to open fire, which was a dumb ass move because Lithium immediately exploded his brain. Duke gunned it for the closing gates and managed to jam the SUV, which wrecked it but got them inside. However, the guards are now closing in on them.

Nov. 13th Session [Session 06]

When last we left our group, they were all huddled around one individual, whose name was Pingo. Pingo was cowering on the floor as we talked about his impending fate. Lithium had taken off after some guy who had grabbed Twi, a little girl captured from Duke's village, and was trying to hunt him down. Pingo begged for his life as we discussed ending it in front of him, and he eventually told us he could help us in some way. We grabbed him and stalked after Lithium and Twi. Eventually we found them, and the guy who had grabbed her. Twi and Lithium were okay, but this gentlemen seems to have been shot in the chest somehow. He dead.

Once we all got together and Duke had the opportunity to ask Twi some questions (Or, you know, not. Ted was unhelpfully high for that segment of the game), we heard a rumbling come over the hill. We spotted a convoy of large armored vehicles and bikes coming over a ridge. We figured out that they were the The Rookery, a rival gang led by Flapjacks, who were enemies of the 10,000 maniacs. Luckily, we had enough time to either make a run for it, or face them head on. Piss, the ever valorous leader, choose for us to hightail it out of there. The 10,000 Maniacs left for the rendezvous point, 1 mile north of the almost deserted city, while the group had to manage their way out of the structures without being caught.

As they made their way through the structure, they were met with a variety of obstacles. The only memorable one (meaning the only one I remember) was where Duke had to disrobe, taking off his armor and weapons, and snuck through a large AC unit that had collapsed. A lucky roll and some help from his compatriots, the team made it out of the structure, but not before hitting Pingo with the butt of his machete and leaving him unconscious on the ground. They met up with the 10,000 Maniacs to discuss next steps.

Duke spent the night by Twi's tent, protecting her from the eventual sex crime that would have taken place. The rest of the group chatted about next steps. Once morning came, Flapjacks and the rest of the The Rookery were holding court in the middle of deserted town. In what we think was an attempt to gain power, they were interrogating those few fools who stayed. We decided on a two-pronged attack, one from the front with the 10,000 Maniacs, and one..FROM THE REAR...with Duke and Maple. Safe to say that we laid them low. Like real low. Like lower than low. They were laid to the near Kelvin 0-point of lowness. That's low guys.

Enter the Mill [11/6, Session 05]

We left off having successfully avoided the bandits as we headed our way north to the Mill. We semi-successfully talked our way past the guards and within the Mill's walls, where we found a charlatan of a priest cloaked in broken CDs named Vip trying to preach to his followers. Not one to share the market of religious sheeple, Wont started a hostile takeover and denounced him. THe crowd was only semi-swayed by Wont, and Lithium saw this as an opportunity to prove what a good partner she could be. She seduced Vip to get inside the limo where they could "talk".

When Vip's hands got a little too friendly with Lithium, she ended up tazing him and beating him as he was half-naked. Piss, who was standing outside the limo, decided to add insult to injury by breaking the glass with his elbow, dragging Vip half-way outside, and then opening the limo door so that his followers could see his exposed nethers.

Maple and Cupid went to perform acts of healing to gain barter, and ran across a guy who had some problems with his junk. He said he could pay for treatment with information, and let on that he knew something about the kidnapped kids. Unfortunately though Cupid popped one of Want's mushrooms and passed out instantly for a few hours. Maple grabbed Cupids medical supplies and convinced the guy to show him where the merchandise was. Maple discovered a girl from live oak in a cage who displayed psychic powers and could be bought for 5 barter. Maple gave him a down-payment of a barter, and then went back to join the group.

Piss and Cupid were playing cards when they noticed a quiet had overtaken the town. They set off to explore, and found Piss's gang beating the piss out of the rival religious group's followers, and Piss quickly joined in. Cupid managed to drag Vip away and stabilize him, who revealed that A) his house was full of treasure to repay cupid and B) flapjacks had been tailing us since the rookery in a caravan of humvees seeking revenge. Piss commanded his group to ride out, but one of them ended up giving him some lip. With a little unwanted help form Cupid, Piss put him back in his place, and the team started to ride off.

Maple and Lithium went back to arrange the deal for the girl, but things went south - one of the goons ran off down a hallway with the girl, but Lithium ran after them, caught up to the goon wearing football pads, and shot him dead. She also left a trail of gasoline behind her as well.

[Cupid]

News from the Overgrowth 31/10/2016 [Session 04]

Riding full throttle away from Live Oak, the 10,000 Maniacs split up into smaller groups, so as not to attract the attention of the bandits that they know to be roaming this region. Want, Lithium, Maple, Toadstool, and the truly indispensable Taint ride together toward the Mill.

Shortly into the journey, a giant tree unexpectedly fell across the path, crushing Taint and his motorcycle. Taint lay on the path screaming obscenities and crying for his mother, while the others gathered to examine his injuries. Lithium went to examine the base of the tree, only to find that it was not cut, but only rotten in a very localized region. She opened her mind to the Maelstrom and learned that the Overgrowth was attacking them.

Want and Lithium stepped to the side to discuss what was to be done with Taint. Want bade Lithium to do shuffle him loose the mortal coil, as they had no way to transport him or even remove him from under the tree. Want wandered off to gather flowers while Lithium approached Taint and tried to guide him into a restless sleep, from which he would never wake. Her humane approach did not work, since too much adrenaline coursed through his veins, so she shot him in the head. Toadstool took it pretty rough. Want returned with special flowers and performed a ceremony for Taint, helping Toadstool more than anyone else.

Want alerted the group, that while gathering flowers, she/he had stumbled upon a small hut that she had seen in a vision. The small hut was resting high on pilings over a strange dodecahedron, connected by many wires and humming of electricity. Their curious silence was broken as an old man wearing a colander hat, stepped forth and demanded an explanation for their presence. Through much dialogue, they learned that the man was Chips and that he was worried about robots in the woods and that perhaps he was a little out of his mind. He tried to bargain for some food to lead us around the woods, but Want learned from the Maelstrom that Chips really wanted to lure them to a put to test out a transporter on them. Want pressed for more information, but received little from the crazy old man. Maple drew a shotgun and forced him to the ground, demanding more answers, while Lithium grew bored and headed back to the convoy.

Lithium returned to the car to find that Toadstool was missing, so she grabbed her bike and followed some fresh pigoon tracks into the woods.

Want asked Maple to borrow his shotgun, in order to extract more information, but instead immediately emptied a shell into the back of Chips head before handing it back to Maple. She explained that no good would come of Chips, and if they left him, he may be able to tip off the bandits to their route. They searched his hut and retrieved some hand made maps.

Lithium stumbled across Toadstool just as her bike began to run out of gas. He was in the clutches of a 15 ft robotic monstrosity that seemed to ooze organic material from the seams. She engaged in a game of chicken with the robot, but was forced to ditch her bike at the last minute as it smashed into the robot’s shins. Maple and Want arrived on the scene as the smoke cleared, just in time to see the robot snatch up Lithium and run off into the forest. With Toadstool now safe, Maple suggested that they chalk it up as a win and head back. Want had to explain to her that perhaps Piss would not be the kind to listen to reason when they showed up without his second in command, and so he reluctantly sped off to save Lithium.

Lithium freed herself from the robot’s claw just as Want approached, and she hurriedly jumped on the back of the scooter. Want sped back to the camp, but not before gifting Lithium the rest of the flowers she had gathered, while there was no one to see. They returned to a slightly disappointed Maple and a relieved Toadstool, before driving on through the night.

[Want]

AW: Overgrowth - Session 3 Recap

We jumped forward a day or so and open with the group having arrived in Live Oak. Piss was offscreen, trying to keep the 10K Maniacs in line while we stayed in town. Lithium and Duke went to meet with Gog, the leader of Live Oak, who's also an old acquaintance of Duke's. We completed the deal for the guns we had brought (which we established that we took from another gang called the Old Bastards, which we wiped out). Gog paid us 10 barter for the guns, but Lithium angled for a little more. Gog told them that there was a small group of bandits nearby that have been raiding the town and if we took them out, he'd throw some more reward our way.

Meanwhile, Cupid and Want were in the market looking for some weapons. They met a seller named Lamprey and Cupid tried to buy some arrows from him. Things got awkward as it turned out he was actually Cupid's brother-in-law and because Cupid is crazy now, he didn't remember him at all. Things got tense for a moment and two guards came over and separated everyone. Want ended up taking mushrooms with his/her guard, who promptly blacked out and walked away. Cupid managed to intimidate his guard into leaving him alone. Want also spoke with a group of his/her students who he discovered had cornered the market of gasoline in Live Oak and were thinking about leaving town. Want convinced them to stay and gave them a big bag of mushrooms.

Eventually Lithium came back and found Want, who had started up a new deal with Lamprey who was thoroughly annoyed and trying to leave for the night. Want was attempting to buy a Derringer, but Lamprey was reluctant. Lithium offered to trade a 9mm Glock she had for Derringer, which Lamprey took and then left as fast as he could. Lithium then made Want come with her to her room to talk in private. Things took a turn as it became awkwardly clear that Lithium was trying to bone to Want. She gave her/him the Derringer as a token, but then got VERY sexually aggressive. Want turned down her advances, but managed to smooth things over. Lithium then ate some mushrooms and went dancing through the night. Eventually she found Cupid wandering around and through a weird interaction mind-controlled him into going to sleep.

Meanwhile, Duke went off look for cigars. He found out that Tricia, his dead wife's best friend, had some. He went to visit her and they reconnected and had some tender moments. Then they boned hard, because Duke is a stone cold pimp. Tricia made it clear that she wanted Duke to stay with her in Live Oak, and while he told her he had to leave, he seemed to indicate that he would eventually come back to her.

The night before, prior to being put to sleep by Lithium, Cupid had treated a rich guy for his various STDs. The guy told him about a town to the north called The Mill, where there were some shady characters who were looking for children to buy essentially. Specifically they were looking for Brainer children. Cupid thought that this was probably where Duke's daughter was taken to, or at least it could be a clue on that path. The next morning he told the group about it and suggested they go to The Mill and check it out. At hearing of the description of the kidnapped and sold Brainer children, Lithium totally freaked out, tackling Cupid and screaming nonsense. Eventually, despite her protests, the group decided that the best plan of action was to go check out The Mill and try to avoid the bandits that Gog had told them about.

AW: Overgrowth Recap Session 2

Back in The Rookery, we were still surrounded by the crowd of Vulture's former men, with Vulture himself dragged out in the middle of the small wooden fort. Piss commanded some answers as to why we should spare the life of him and his people. More so for his people really as it was clear Vulture was not long for this post-apocalyptic world. He mentioned a golden orb that can grant wishes in White Castle in one of the zones and that perked our ears up. But Lithium was getting tired of his blathering and whipped out her pistol to put an end to our chat. Duke snatched the firearm from her, which caused her to go into hysterics and be carried off. He eventually gave it back but sans ammo. In the interim Piss declared some guy Newton their new leader as he was bereft of any effects from the zones. It was then that a contingent of Rookery vehicles were heard driving up towards The Rookery with its seals adorned on their vehicles. Want and Maple hopped up on the catwalks to get a bead on the situation. But with the gates open, they saw something was amiss with our limo The Exec parked inside the walls. Gams (Yams?) got out of one of their autos and made her way up. And Lithium saw this as an opportunity to... do something weird or something. Want tried to rally the people of The Rookery to our cause but failed horribly and they began to turn on us, climbing over the The Exec and taking down Newton. And Gams (Jams?) was onto Lithium's bizarreness and began to draw her sidearm when Maple took her out with a single shot. The Rookery vehicles scattered back into the woods, we mowed down the majority of the folk, and, as evening drew nearer, Piss spent his nighttime constitutional murdering any survivors.

Duke also had a bit of late run in with Applesauce, who was actually being psychically controlled by Lithium to try and get the bullets back to her pistol. But ol' Duke is a light sleeper and caught her in his room, only for her to try and seduce Duke. But Lithium (all unbeknownst to us) ended up just frying Applesauce's brain. Mott's ado about nothing. Maple came running towards the gunshot but Duke simply and somewhat truthfully said he awoke to her with her hands in his pockets. Maple dragged the body out to loot and dispose of it but Cupid, fresh from a seemingly rocky trip with Want to their psychic playland plane while in Vulture's storehouse where Piss had a vision of a desolate campus strewn with ruins and corpses. Want saw Vulture stuck up to his waist in glowing slime. So when Cupid demanded Maple drop the body, Maple obliged as there wasn't much to loot anyway. Dragging Applesauce along, Cupid then added her body to the pyre.

We drove off the next morning, initially with plans to set off for White Castle until Want and Duke suggested we finish the job of running guns to Live Oak first. Piss concurred and so we oriented ourselves in the right direction and hit the dusty trail. On the way The Exec blew out a tire so we pulled over for repairs. Lithium saw this as an opportunity to sneak up to Duke and retrieve her bullets, which she slyly accomplished. With more bodies to dispose of while Maple changed the tire, Want led Duke into the forest to send the dead back to the earth as mushrooms or some such ritual even he didn't seem to have a firm grasp on. But the tree they stopped at bore the markings of... boars. Big ones. Monster pontoons. And lo and behold, as they were dropping the dead men off, they saw the giant creatures deeper into the forest beyond. Duke slowly began backpedaling to the car while Want was stuck, afraid and now soiled. Duke shook him out of it, though, and they were able to make it safely. Want changed his pants and then we were back off to Live Oak.

Session 1: Dice & Vice

• Piss burned a dude alive for not cleaning his bike off
• Maple and Carlos were attacked while scouting up ahead by bandits
• The rest of the crew caught up and defeated the bandits.  
• Maple got some masks from Porcupine, a kid.  Porcupine joined the gang.  They learned the bandits had been sent by Vulture Burbridge, Hardholder of the Rookery.  They were probably sent because Piss fucked Vulture's mom, Flapjacks.
• Carlos, Cupid and Want infiltrated the Rookery under the guise of bringing religion and medical aid.  Want incited an orgy among their followers.
• The others scaled the walls and slaughtered the guards.
• Vulture was dragged out.  He offered to give them details about the Zone in exchange for his life and the lives of his followers.

World/Character Gen

The apocalypse is a rebellion of nature: massive jungle covers the known world; plants and animals are actively hostile to humans.  When you wake up in the morning, plants, moss, and fungi have already started to grow on your shelter, vehicles, and gear.

There are also Zones: areas of strangeness, devoid of overgrowth but far more dangerous.  However, if you are willing to brave the lethal physical and psychic anomalies, you may emerge with powerful artifacts of unknown origin.  Overgrowth density and strangeness increases approaching a Zone before clearing completely -- are Zones the eyes of the hurricane?

To the North somewhere is the Facility.  To the East is the holding Spanish Moss.  To the South is a Zone.  To the West is the holding Live Oak.

The survivors are a roaming gang that coalesced in Spanish Moss about six months ago.  Piss (Chopper, Jon) seized control of Winky’s biker gang.  Piss maintains control with the help of Lithium (Brainer, Andy), a psychic girl who escaped the Facility.  Want (Hocus, Karl), a member of the gang, formally left the gang to grow his cult, known as the Students of the Green.  Duke (Gunlugger, Ted) and Cupid (Angel, Brad) left their hometown of Live Oak after the Event, when the town was raided by a mysterious force, during which Cupid’s wife was killed and Duke’s daughter was kidnapped.  Duke, a Student of the Green, has brought Cupid to Want as a follower.  They are joined by wheelman Carlos Camero (Driver, Rito) and mercenary Maple Slugknuckle (Battlebabe, Adam).

The gang primarily deals in guns, drugs, and artifacts, as well as doing protection and escort work, and collecting tithes from Students of the Green.  Scarcities include stable shelter, gasoline and other refined equipment, communication, and knowledge.