A Party Rift [Session 15, 2/12]

We open to a crying Lithium as she gives her axe away to the MossBoss. As she hands it over, she begins crying into the shoulder of Piss, who has no idea what to do with a crying woman. Eventually Lithium finds her way into the arms of Carlos, who is much more prepared to comfort a distraught Lithium.

As Want, Cupid, and Duke are headed to LiveOak, Cupid makes a speech about wanting to liberate the people of LiveOak for the glory of Aries. Duke becomes a little suspicious, and when Cupid asks for a weapon, Duke gives him a half loaded shotgun. Cupid seems to take this as an opportunity to prove himself to the rest of the group. The three of them found a fast and safe route the leads half way to LiveOak from the Piss Pot.

Back to the other group, Piss seemed to have functionally communicated with the MossMen, letting them know his intentions and asked if they'd be able to help track down and kill Cupid. The MossBoss obliged, adding 15 MossMen to the dwindled numbers of the 10,000 Maniacs. After some Yub Nubing and boozing, the party sets off to Hound's Town to check in with Harriden.

Back to the other group. Cupid has a vision in the maelstrom of his previous life melded with a Greek villa. Some of his memories from his previously life were restored, and now he needs to reconcile this new life with his previous one. Duke and Want strategize on how to deal with Cupid, who is becoming increasingly creepy and unstable. Duke suggests a quick shot to the head will do, but Want, in his everlasting wisdom, has a greater plan in mind. Reconciliation sounds better than a dead body to him.

From here, Lithium has a vision of a glowing blue sword that is stranded at LiveOak, and she must have it. Could this be the replacement for the axe she was forced to give away?

We then had a long conversation about gang size and if gang size is stackable.

With Cupid in tow from a sickness brought on my some bad mushrooms, Want and Duke head back to the Piss Pot in hopes of making nice and deescalating a situation that would likely have ended in blood. 

As Carlos fights in the THUNDERDOME and Piss looks for new recruits, the scene is set for a mending of broken trust...or a creation of broken bones!

The Grand Featherex [Session 14, 2/5]

The 10,000 maniacs discovered a fresh cache of whiskey in the Piss Pot, and decided to get drunk become violent off of it.  Standing around the campfire, Cupid suggests to Piss they go out on a raid for the Glory of Ares, to which Piss agrees and slaps him on the shoulder for coming around - a friendly gesture that would be the last for a while.  Piss rounds up the gang, gets their bikes, and heads out with Cupid and Want to the overgrowth to find something to hunt.  Cupid navigates through the overgrowth, and they hear the roar of a Grand Featherex.  To aid in the search, Want pops some mushrooms and begins vomiting immediately, but notices tracks on the ground.

At the Railyard, Carlos and Lithium are debating about whether to talk to the hardholder about purchasing concrete.  Carlos wants to go in and ask for a smaller amount for their own person defense, or say a furnace, but Lithium convinces him that even a small amount may tip their hand and is not worth it.  They set out with Duke back to the Piss Pot, but Maple was not mentioned and her whereabouts are unknown.

Carlos, Lithium, and Duke run into the marauding party.  Duke wisely decides that he needs to check on his daughter and heads back to the piss pot, but Lithium and Carlos join the hunt.  Lithium becomes the big spoon to a vomiting little spoon named Want on the ground, when the Grand Featherex bursts out of the Overgrowth and corners Carlos.  He guns it through the Overgrowth to get away, but the Featherex is right on his heels.  He barely manages to get his car into a cave, and while the Featherex is unable to get to him Carlos is cornered.

Cupid unloads a clip into the side of the Featherex to distract it, which gives Carlos the opportunity to gun it out of the cave.  Lithium takes a running leap and brings her axe into the side of the beast, spilling it's guts out in a messy fashion.  The 10,000 maniacs hoot and hollar in victory, and Cupid sets about pulling the teeth from the mouth of the beast to adorn his weapon.  Piss tells him not to take any of the teeth at the back of the mouth because he wants to mount the head at the Piss Pot and doesn't want it to look like the party killed a toothless dinosaur.  Cupid responds that it is his kill and he'll use it as he sees fit for a sacrifice to Ares, and that's about when things went south hard.

Piss storms straight towards Cupid to try to grab him by the throat and slam him against a tree.  Seeing the advance, Cupid fires a few non-lethal shots to get him to stop but to no avail - Piss muscles through and grabs him by the throat.  He tells Cupid to drop his assault rifle, but Cupid holsters it across his back.  He orders his crew to secure Cupid, and Carlos attempts to persuade him to not to do anything rash. Piss responds he promises not to kill Cupid - at least not immediately, he says.

Want tries to steal Piss's bike, but quickly runs into moss men surrounding the group.  What do moss men look like? Well, it's all in the name.  Want tells the group that there are visitors, and Cupid gestures at Piss with his eyes first to the Moss Men, then to the 10,000 maniacs holding him.  Piss tells them to go ahead and continue restraining and disarming him, to which Cupid responds by breaking free. The 10,000 maniacs continue to surround Cupid, and Want rides Piss's motorcycle off into the overgrowth.  

Cupid asks Piss if they should join together and fight off the moss men, or battle each other.  Piss tells his men to continue attacking Cupid, to which Cupid responds by unleashing SMG fire and killing 8-9 of the maniacs.  The Moss Men start to close in, and Lithium comes at Cupid wielding her axe.  They duel, with Lithium taking serious fire but causing Cupid to drop his weapon.  Cupid flees into the woods as Lithium is captured and dragged by Moss Men.

Want makes their way back to the lake where they see the silhouette of the fishman.  Having enough danger for one day, he turns the motorcycle around and sprays the fish man with mud as they take off into the woods.  Something pursues Want for a few moments, but they manage to escape and meets up with Cupid.  Cupid states that Want should drop their ruse - it's been fun, but now was the time for Psyche to drop their false identity and embrace their true nature.  He's been searching for Psyche for ages, but now it is time to face reality and embrace their role.  Want says that they should head back to the Piss Pot and regroup, and then will follow Cupid's lead.  Cupid says he's not one for plans, and will trust Psyche/Want.  Want tells him it was a test, he passed, and they pop some mushrooms before they both head off for the piss pot.

Back at the Piss Pot, they run into Duke, who Cupid tells it’s probably best to leave since there was a bit of a disagreement and it’s probably not the safest environment for the brainer Children.  Duke tells Cupid to fuck off and that no one tells him what to do with his daughter, but Want convinces him that it’s for the best.  They talk their way past the Harlots, round up the Chillun and load them into the three Humvees.  Before they leave, Want leaves Piss’s bike behind with a note for him in it.  Cupid notices, says he trusts Psyche to do what’s best, and tries to kiss her.  Want then friend-zones Cupid hard with a hug before they head off to live OAK.

Back at the battleground, Piss addresses the Moss Men and finds out that they’re angry because the Featherex was their god or dog or something.  Piss convinces them to take them back under heavy guard to their leader, where he convinces them that a rogue member of theirs was to blame for the death of the Featherex, and they were innocent.  He offers up Cupid’s assault rifle as a gift to show his goodwill, but they demand the other tool used to kill the beast – Lithium’s axe.  Lithium refuses, and thus endeth the session.

[Cupid]

[Session 13, 1/22]

The celebration for our new hardhold kicks off, after debating what to do with the two pigoons the poachers had caught, with a pigooBQ. Roasted pigoon, broiled pigoon, pigoon stew, pigoon kabobs… these were but a sample of what we may have been able to consume with more resources. But the pigoon was delectable and, being a well-known post-apocalyptic aphrodisiac, giving folks the vapors. So much so that even Maple unwound a bit and found herself under Cornflake’s sheets for the night.

The morning after was less delightful however as, with all three gang leaders failing to provide proper instructions to their crews, everyone awoke to a field of excrement. This earns poor Scrote a BJ (barrel jaunt) with a side of doody down a long hill from Piss after his Maniacs are reluctant to lift a finger, let alone a piece of excrement. Lithium also chastises his Harlots for the same negligence while Want puts his followers to work cleaning up. Everyone has ample reason to awake shamefully.

But sometimes this is how lessons are learned. And Maple, looking to capitalize on this embarrassing, poop-covered opportunity, thought it’d be a good idea to approach Lithium and Want and Piss about fortifying the new surroundings and making the hardhold secure. Want agrees and offers up Lumpy to train with Maple each morning and learn about self-defense, firearms, and being totally radical. Piss also agrees and anoints (after her self-anointment) Maple as Head of Security. They also concur on a drawbridge (NOT to be made of shit, to be clear) be constructed over the newly suggested shit moat, or shoat, though the matters on Cornflake’s emotional instability are quickly swept under the rug for the time being. Lithium is similarly in agreement and offers to let  Maple help train some of the harlots for defensive purposes as well.

While Maple is performing her fortification due diligence, Want, Duke, and Carlos begin searching through the buildings of the refinery to see what sort of items we can take stock of. Want finds themself a pallet of oil barrels that happen to be near a pair of dudes who have clearly not yet learned that we claimed this territory a mere few hours ago. The audacity is too much for Want and he begins to tell them to beat it when the bigger of the two gents comes at him mid-conversation. But Want counters and gets his knife to the guys throat. This frightens the skinny dude who is then frightened further when Duke and Carlos hear the commotion and appear. Skinny dude wants none of it but Duke wants even less and wastes the waif. Big guy attempts to flee but Want juliennes his hand and they capture and drag him back to the main part of camp.

Upon returning, Lithium wanted some intel. She got the guy to squeal alright: he said Winky’s Riders told him about the oil derrick. They were heading west as of a few weeks ago after Ratbutter found some weird talking sword. Turns out these are the deposed former Maniacs that high-tailed it after Piss took over. That was all the guy knew and so Want took possession of the soon to be vegetablized fella as he’ll be brainer kid puppet string practice.

Maple, Carlos, Lithium, and Duke headed to The Railyard with a barrel of oil to exchange for some fortification goods, stocking up on corrugated aluminum and lumber and tools and the like. Only Mitsubishi carried concrete though. But that’s essentially where we left off I believe: Run MCLD at The Railyard and Want and Piss holding things down at the Piss Pot. 

To be continued...

[Maple]

The Founding of Piss Pot [Session 12, 1/15]

• On our way to Railyard to offload the computers we stole from the facility
• Exploring ruins. hear a mechanical winch noise. we find a lone oil pump thing that's still going.
• Find intact oil tank, three stories high and full of oil
• Decide to create hardhome
• Piss and Lithium stay behind to guard, others go to Railyard to sell computer gear and scout out the situation
• Ford, guard in power armor, asks the party at Railyard to undergo decontamination
• Blackjack is missing. Piss and Lithium tell everyone to buddy up. Then Fester lets Piss know that there are footsteps leading into the forest, and it appears Blackjack was dragged away.
• Back at the railyard, they bribe the guard to get by without decontaminating (most people because it would hurt, Want because he/she doesn't want to reveal his/her gender). The Railyard has automatons and androids walking around, lots of tech.
• Arms dealer named Lincoln -- the party buys some crap
• Two want followers are trying to sell rats to an automaton and are getting into a scrap. Want convinces them instead to just eat some mushrooms. in exchange for resolving the matter, the automaton lets Want choose a DVD to keep. Want takes an AOL CD, but the automaton cautions against it. Want chooses Sweating to the Oldies.
• Cupid takes mushrooms and vomits. They all decide to leave posthaste, since they didn't take decontamination.
• Back at the hardhome, which Piss names the Piss Pot, the party decides to hold tight while Piss leads his gang, and Lithium part of hers, to go find Blackjack and his abductor. They track into the forest where they find a camp with two humans and two automatons, with Blackjack tied up and also a captured man with a tentacle coming out of his face.
• Lithium is sneaking through the woods with some of her girls when a robot puts a gun to her head. The robot tells her to surrender, but Lithium snarls some hard shit and puts a big fucking gash in his robot neck with an axe.
• Piss takes advantage of the diversion and lays down suppressive fire while the maniacs swarm the camp and kill all the captors but one human, whom piss questions and then stabs to death. Turned out they were just dumb neural-grease hunters from the Railyard.

[Piss]

Rebellion part 2: The Ballad of Leonard [Session 11, 1/8]

The party had hatched a magnificent plan to overthrow Glue Boy in favor of Harridan the madam.  Carlos and Maple stood in the middle of the thunder dome, their enemies slain on the ground at their feet, raising their arms in the air and begging the audience’s attention.  Want held firmly to the bars of the cage, suspended halfway up the side of the dome and now feeling the weight of the crowds’ eyes, drawn his way by a shot in the air from Lithium’s gun.

Want delivered a rousing speech, pointing out the cruelty with which Glue Boy ruled and empowering the crowd to rise up and overthrow him.  The empowered crowd did rise up… and rip Want from the side of the cage, to carry to a public execution.  Lithium ran to her aide, but received a knife to the gut for her efforts.  Lithium dispatched her attackers and ran to Glue Boy and his goons to take matters into her own hands.  Cupid, who had found himself in the ring playing referee led the charge to free Want of her terrible fate.

Piss and a few thousand maniacs (3) sauntered over to Lithium, in hopes of joining in the fray against Glue Boy.  More well armed, they dealt a heavy blow to the henchmen.

Want delivered a final rousing speech with a noose around his neck, turning the mob to her side, and sending them off to fight Glue Boy’s occupied minions.  A quick burst of machine gun fire was enough to send those peasant running though, and once again leave the party alone to fight.  Want, Carlos, and Maple ran off to grab the cars, since the caper seemed to be taking a darker turn.  In their absence, Cupid entered the psychic maelstrom and called forth an amorphous angel, seemingly made of nothing and encompassing everything.  Duke welcomed it into the material plane with a hail of gunfire.  

Lithium finished off the goons and claimed Glue Boy’s head as her prize as the convoy pulled up to make their escape.  She tossed the head into Maple’s car and climbed in behind it.

Cupid made a mad dash for the cars with his own monstrosity hot on his heels.  Watching from the safety of the limo, Want saw 3 of her younglings trying to escape the clutches of the angel.  Quickly he sprang forth from the sunroof, but judged that the situation was too dire to save all 3.  She made the brave, noble choice and kicked out Leonard’s knee from the side, driving him to the ground in a fit of horrible screaming pain and incomprehension, affording Want time to grab the other 2 kids.  

As they drove away, cupid watched as Leonard was sucked up by the Angel and disappeared, in a somewhat foreboding fashion.  

That night at camp, Piss called Want over to discuss the state of the children, as they were more mouths to feed, and perhaps more trouble than they were worth.  After much deliberation, they agreed to keep the kids on as a weapon, and Want would foot most of the bill, with a portion coming from the upcoming sell of some loot at the Railyard.

The following day, en route to the Railyard they encountered an odd fish man posted up beside a lake, with a net full of drowned debris he had recovered.  Cupid bought the whole lot, with an odd organ he had found.  Lithium fronted 2 rations of food, for the creature to fetch mushrooms for Want, and Piss put in an order with the creature for more high tech equipment from the zones, before the crew made their exit         

Rebellion [Session 10, 1/1]

• Want spends their own barter to support the brainer kids, and begins their tutelage in the Green.
• Maple and Carlos wake up.  Want explains to them that Lithium is alive.
• Harridan asks Lithium and Duke for help taking over Hound’s Town by overthrowing the hardholder, Glue Boy.
• Cricket recruits Maple and Carlos to the fighting pits.
• The crew meets and decides to accept Harridan’s job.  Harridan gives them some intel on Glue Boy, and also informs them that Live Oak was hit by bandits about two weeks ago.  She also tells them that the best bet for repairing the roller coasters would be the savvyheads in the Railyard.
• To the fighting pits!
• Mushrooms are dumped in the communal beer troughs to incite chaos. Cricket is enticed into making a speech after Carlos proves his mettle by stabbing an unsuspecting gladiator. Glue Boy is spotted.
• In the Thunderdome, Carlos shanks Corbit, Maple shanks Belch, and the frenzied crowd’s eyes are directed to Want.

Hound's Town [Session 09, 12/11]

• In the Facility, Duke encounters Future Lithium, and they go to the Nerve Center.
• Everyone bails from the Facility and reconvenes outside of the Zone.  Lithium is welcomed by Piss.  The Maniacs hold the perimeter while Cupid heals people.  Lithium spots a black obelisk within the Zone, but has a bad feeling about it and turns back.
• They head south and find a train station.  Cupid and Piss, who can read, find newspapers from the 2080s that mention a plague wiping out civilization.
• They come to Hound’s Town, a hardhold built on an amusement park with a penchant for gladiatorial combat and dogfighting. 
• Cupid picks up work with the local veterinarian, Toulouse.  Lithium and Piss attempt to buy ammo from Tum Tum, only to find that Harridan, the brothel owner, has stockpiled it.  They bust into her establishment, Whores Galore, and take out her guards in a forced buyout.
• Duke and Lithium go into the fighting pits at the behest of Cricket, where they kill Master Blaster to the delight of the crowd.
• With a bit of work and stability to be had, the gang holes up in Hound’s Town for a spell.