Gamma Aeon: King Beavers Quest

Last blog described a book that has had me dreaming weird stuff and feeling repulsed by flesh and even odd fruit at shop. So all a good influence on my fantasy brain - i tip my hat again to Brian Aldiss too.

I intended these characters to be expendable and players have learned to love them. I agreed after winter training any stat below 9 is 9. gee im nice. I still getting hang of lethality style of the game again. So im being a bit nice to not explode players much.

Starring in Game 2 of this campaign

Johnny 1111 (Mark)
From Bunker weakling to wasteland warrior - his Gamma Eyes zap the best foe out in most battles. Happy with his B-type Slug gun he is the best scavenger and still looks human.

Deathport 0002 (Matt)
The bat winged wonder chef, who has discovered joys of being party heavy weapon hoarder. Grenades, a las pistol, a sonic blaster, plus some dynamite make him a heavy hitter.

Fishtank 2414 (Carolina)
The human unicorn and pyromaniac joined the Radioactivists with suspected results. At first she turned albino so she got some sunglasses and a hood like any good mutant. Priest offered more "wisdom of the atom" and she developed a really cool power. She has been working as a brewer, arsonist and fireman in the village. She was in a book burning club in the bunker.

The heroes have dwelled in village for 3 months and winter setting in. The Mayor offers them ammo and recharges for aiding the village and other aid plus whatever they can loot. The mayor recommends anything to slow the gangs would be good so they hunted them using Johnny as bait in his bunker jumpsuit looking all awestruck at the sky.

The bandits approached - a mutie otter, the human leader and a teeth on psuedopods abomination on a chain. Fishtank sneaking up behind saw a really really fat Porcupine woman trying to blindside Johnny. Johnny took of his shades all cool and zapped the leader - bam KO. Fishtank attacked the porcupine with her axe while it tried to grab her. Johnny fired his gun at the loosened abomination charged and chomped him. Deathport flew through the tree canopy and lasered down the otter trying to drag off his leader. He was fired a poison xbow bolt and kept dragging.

Johnny kept backing off and shooting - 2h-handed grip point blank. Fishtank got grabbed on leg by porcupine and got shocked by a mutation. With her new shape mimic power based on touch she duplicated the porcupines powers and form (and she has kept it since). Two kebab coated porkers battled away swearing at each other. Deathport fried the otter and was in turn shot by a cyborg who hung back calling HQ. He was a partial face job with a full arm. Deathport was kinda taking his own medicine for once. Fishtank was knocked out and Deathport backed off after a second laser hit. The abomination biting Johnny fled with the borg.

The party took their prisoners to the village and licked their wounds. Scored a few muskets and a xbow with poison bolts.

Resting a bit and wowed a party member is now a porcupine the gang rest 2 weeks and get some healing berries from the mayor and ammo. The guys drink mutation potions. Deathpool develops military genius making him quite a bit deadlier and Johnny developed heightened precision also making his every attack deadlier. The lads made girlfriends and some unhappy village fathers while nobody will kiss a porcupine.

Deathpool leads them to the sealed door he has lusted after with his sonic blaster but the Sleeth dwelling there said they would all die if he did. So they spent a day prospecting and found some crap like lead pencils in a box and a toy ray gun that would fool many. Fishtank found 40 eggs and a fuel drum stash. They traded them with sleeth (kept cool toy) who said they were gator eggs and paid more than humans who would just eat them. They traded all their bulky food, beer and chocolate for food pills. They walked home in the dark and saw a gang ahead. Fishtank went first and climbed silently up an escarpment and almost surprised a lady blue skin mutant with pink hair. The mutant saw her and assumed she was her tribal sister and scolded her. Fishtank attacked. The rest of the evil gang back on the ground level saw the fight and just cheered instead of helping.

The abomination and cyborg were in the group with a fox woman (spotted cooking a hot dog with burning hands), An ex bunker-mate with a musket forced to join the gang and mutie medic lady with blue skin. Well Deathpool dropped a grenade and Johnny threw dynamite at the distracted gang. Blam. The bunker kid was blasted into chunks, the blue medic teleported and the fox jumped into a parallel universe (gone for at least a week). The others were seriously battered and the cyborg and deathpool lasered each other again. Fishtank jumped on the abomination, pinning it and shocking it. Johnny walked up and killed the damned abomination at last. The cyborgs head exploded from a laser and they cut off his arm. His home base radioed him during procedure which always feels a bit awkward.

Home again and a winter of training. So i bottomed up their worse stats. Acolyte Fishtank studied mutant lore, Deathpool improved his raygun skills and Johnny improved his number of attacks with guns (double tap!). By spring the party was sent by mayor to Beaverton with a letter to the Beaver king. They sailed by giant sea otter and were welcomed by beavers and given apartments. They traded some tat at market and saw a battered ruin of a 1.5 tonne life ray, going cheap. Fishtank got a blowpipe and met some real porcupines. She also swapped her bunker brand ciggies for beaver cigars (rolled on thighs of beaver maidens). Every one in future cancer proof so smoking makes a comeback. Met some tortoises trading lettuces. The beaver folk were mostly true-breed mutation proof ani-men aqua laborers. Some were ordinary mutant animal beavers. Party met first talking tobacco plant and saw pack triffids (ok when you cut their heads off).

The beaver tabernacle was 8 floors high and 24  m wide with other log domes around it. Some hangers and parts of the old airfeild were off limits. Beavers had a reactor, industrial pumps and several armored cars. Humans were second class but not unhappy as the Beaver Kings law was pretty good. He even married a human for his controversial 5th wife. So they met the king in his throne room and were invited to a feast.

At dinner the party acquitted themselves not to well. Johnny offended an aristocratic dueler beaver with his refusal to admire delicious wood chips and methanol. Deathpool tried to boast about the party deeds (talked a bit down) and beaver ladies yawned  behind their fans. Fishtank as a porcupine got on fine and they all liked her concern for fire fighting. She thought sea otter folk smashing crabs on their chests and hugging adorable. The ape ambassador frowned at them the whole time and gossiped with Johnny's new enemy. He was hoping to have apes and beavers unite in a crusade. But good king beaver likes Mormons and friendly people over war or any species.

Then they were taken to king beavers lab. They saw his models of wooden cities and wooden rockets made from iron skinned mutant redwoods. Sadly no apes would volunteer yet. Gave party police stars and letters and a passbook (or logbook for beavers) and letters or trade. He offered them batteries and bullets and apartments. Fishtank got a ww2 style flame thrower her arson dreams come true. Johnny got a beaver made bolt action .303 with bayonet. Deathpool got a high tech riot helmet with megaphone, radio, gas mask, thermograph vision and POLICE across front. King beaver wanted them to first check out the island and get to know it, perhaps do some old bunker looting. But his real goal was a secret in a chest.

The contents were a hideous metallic pod with a grimacing skull face and some input ports. Inside the peeled metal was a human skull with no teeth and massive brain pan with a tiny mummified baby like body plumbed into the exosuit. He explained this thing was found in a crater five yeras ago freshly dead in a wreck. He accessed its exoskeleton logs to discover it was a scout of a branch of humanity that has been in space for over 200 years and now planned to return. They were all big brained with stunted bodies and needed their exosuits to live. It had observed moon bases, orbitals and a warden class starship orbiting the moon. You can also see ruins of Earths beanstalk in Africa. It had sent a message home stating Earth had been found and needed terraforming - too much oxygen.

Good King beaver explained he needed the superior bunker bred technical knowledge of party to find functional space hardware and marshal defenses against these returned to earth horrors. The party all fully impressed accept their quest. Deathpool volunteered to join the Beaver brand of Mormonism on the spot. He is debating putting word BEAVER or MORMON on his helm next to word POLICE.