GM: Paul
Players: Cary-Cody/Zerc, Brad-Ian, Jon-Simon, John-Alexander and Stacy-Ned
Game Date: September 21 – 22, 2016

Since we have found the items we needed and are exhausted and hurt from the battle with the Blues, we decide that we’ll need a spot to hunker down and get some rest for a while. Dusty remembers that there  is a place further west on Bluemound that may be a good spot for us.

We arrive at our destination, an apartment building complex, and start to unpack our belongings to get ready for the evening. Cody sets up his tent on top of the building and a few of us sleep there in case someone is in the building. After we are unpacked, Cody says that he is tired and will be turning in early, and asks the others to take an extra watch.

In the morning we notice that Cody and Alex are moving a bit more slowly than normal. Dusty asks Alex what is going on, and he says that it has been a hard trip but he’ll be okay. Cody is sticking closer to the group than normal as well.

We are able to get to the library by the end of the day, and we don’t get jumped by anything. On the way, however, Dusty notices that Alex has some strange blue spots on his skin. The spots seem to be blurry or fading in and out. Simon doesn’t notice at all. The library staff notices it right away and freaks out a bit, but he explains it away as an allergic reaction. They are also alarmed to see a tiger, bear and wolf with us, so Ned keeps the tiger and the bear outside.

Simon offers to help research Alex’s condition, and he agrees and asks him to also look into the strange artifact we found. Cody helps out and it seems like people are finding other metallic items with strange markings. They have made recordings of the markings and they don’t seem to be like anything we’ve seen before.

Ned attempts to retrain the tiger, as this is the same tiger that he trained for a while when it was a cub. Surprisingly the tiger quickly starts to regain some of the familiarity with commands even though it’s been quite a while since it was trained and it has been cooped up and scared.

Steven Riggenback is our contact at the library.

Simon finds a passage in one journal regarding finding a den somewhere near Beloit that contained a strange metal tube (with working lights on it), and inside they believed it to be an alien. Before they could explore it much, small robots appeared and drove them off. Simon researches more accounts from the Beloit  area to see if any other info can be gleaned.

The next morning, Cody takes Simon aside and tells him that he must have been bitten in the recent battle, because his skin is turning blue. He shows Simon his arm and it is already badly infected. Simon says that he will do some more research quickly and then we should get going to the compound to see if the artifact can help to heal Cody.

During his research, Simon begins charting the location of all of these strange reports to see if there is a nexus of alien technology.

As we are heading out, Alex says that we need to head northwest to Menomonee  Falls to find some more alien technology. He believes that something is there that could heal Cody, and he has researched and thinks he knows how to operate it. He declines to say how he knows that it is there; Simon asks “Did the aliens tell you it was there?” and he sarcastically (or not) says that they did.

On our way to Falls, we are jumped by a group of giant feral wolves. One of them falls right in front of Simon and he shoots it in the gut, killing it. Before we can make further attacks however, automatic fire showers the area and all of the wolves lie dead at our feet.

We see a group of men surrounding us and prepare to surrender, but they seem to be friendly. Cody runs up and embraces one of them…they are apparently members of his old group and are very well armed. They are currently camped at Lapham Peak and are scavenging the area for equipment. Their leader is a guy named JD.

Cody explains that he rolled with them after the event but there were disagreements so he split off.

We continue on and reach the Falls in the evening. Alex takes us into the sewer and there is alien tech everywhere. Simon asks how he knew these things were here, and Alex explains that he is an alien. He presses a button and shimmers, revealing two extra arms and pitch black eyes. Simon is super excited, saying that he has read sci-fi since he was young and that this is the greatest day of his life.

Everyone has questions, but for now we need to concentrate on saving Cody. Alex is able to activate the machine to heal him, but he needs to use his chameleon device to do it, which means he will not be able to use it again.

He starts to explain, saying that our races need to work together if we are to survive…

Alex relates his tale:

“I have existed on this planet for 137 days, however my species and my race is millions or billions of years old. Our planet was dying; our resources were used up, so my species built an ark. We couldn’t actually put all of the life forms on the space ship, however we could put their genetic sequences in stasis. So, the ‘fire hydrant’ we came across is one of these containers that has these samples. The people who found it were able to open it and get infected, which is why they were sick.

I was a scientist on the planet and did not go on the ship, but my genetic material did. The ship was looking for an arid planet like ours, and it would first reconstruct our scientists (like me) to help restart the species. That was the original plan.

I don’t know exactly what happened, but I’ve been able to guess that for whatever reason, our spaceship crashed on your planet about the time of the solar flare, which means that the flare probably caused us to crash.

So, whatever it was, something caused us to crash here, but this is not where we want to be, since it is far too humid. Whatever caused us to crash also broke our technology — my pod was supposed to be functional days after we landed, but it has been several years.

There could be another one of my race near Beloit, according to the research that Simon did.

Some of the other things on your planet, like the seekers, are unfamiliar to you but is familiar to me. The seekers are smaller on our world and live in the desert. The ‘blue’ is something that we created to amplify our psychic power, and is a beneficial parasite. But here it has mutated to combine with the original virus and made something else. I was able to fight off the infection myself, but it took some time.

I was not able to find any others of my race, so this report near Beloit is the only other lead I have for another survivor. That being the case, we should find this other Purana. This is what we call ourselves.

Both of our races are clearly in danger, and I hope that we can work together to save us all.

As technology goes, I have no power source left, as the last of it was used up to heal Cody. It could have lasted for years keeping my hologram up, but it is now gone. I can protect myself and do some healing, but I don’t have much offensive capability.

When I awoke I found some books in a nearby structure and began to learn and observe your species. I spent the first 50 of your solar cycles trying to remain hidden and watching you. I tried copying weapons from books and things I saw, but I abhor violence so this does not come naturally to me.”

We stay the night here. The next morning, we decide to first help Alex to camouflage his stuff, and then we are going to head down to the Beloit area, but first we need to get back to the compound to re-supply.

We get back to the compound and Alex goes undetected back to his room to pick things up. The rest of us gear up. Cody gets Alex a shotgun, but since he has never used one before, he needs some training.