GM: Paul
Players: Cary-Cody/Zerk, Brad-Ian, Jon-Simon, John-Alexander, Matt-Dusty, Bob-JD and Brandon-Prof
Game Date: April 29 – 30, 2018

As we are approaching the house, which is a large modern home on Lake Geneva. We hear dogs barking and two gunshots. One of the dogs lets out a high pitched whine. Ian and Joseph pull out their guns (Joseph has an AR-15) and run toward the house. Cody, Alex, Simon and the Prof hang back but also draw guns and go up slowly.

They see a bear-like creature at the house. Joseph aims with his AR-15 and his night vision scope, and fires a shot. Upon hearing this, the others behind begin running up the hill but they are a ways behind.

Joseph and Ian see Sean open one of the windows of the house and start fire a pistol at the bear. Joseph opens up with his AR-15. The bear slumps over, dead. We move up to examine it, and it looks like a normal bear. When we get closer, we see that it has strange bifurcated claws on each paw and massive teeth. It is also bleeding black instead of red.

We go inside to check on Sean and his family, and they are okay. One of the dogs was eaten, but the three kids (Zane, Robert and Anneke) and his wife Rhea are okay. There is a support beam in the home that was completely sheared in half by the bear.

The Prof attempts to take off the bear’s claws with a hacksaw but it is difficult to do. We start doing introductions when they notice Alex and start freaking out. Ian explains that he is indeed an alien but he is friendly. The Prof immediately begins explaining how the solar flare coincided with Alex’s ship going through the solar system causing it to crash, but their heads are spinning.

The Prof helps Sean’s attractive 17-year-old daughter to bury her deceased dog, which she appreciates.

Speaking more with Sean and his family, he offers us some alcohol and some take it. He asks what we are doing here and we explain that we are trying to get to the observatory to study the satellite that we saw go up a few weeks ago. He says that they saw it go up but don’t know what it is either. They offer to let us use their 30 foot steam boat to traverse the lake. We figure that we could fit the cart and horses on it.

Sean lets us know where we can sleep, and we all start heading to bed. Anneke has been flirting with Cody, and she invites him upstairs, grabbing a bottle of alcohol first. The parents don’t seem to mind as clearly she doesn’t get a lot of company. They go upstairs and visit for a while and listen to music and snuggle. Simon walks past, slightly jealous.

Simon finds some books on local history that he reads about the region and the observatory.

In the morning, we wake up to food cooking. They have root vegetables for us to eat. They offer to let us use their shower, as well. Joseph takes advantage of it.

Cody asks the Prof to help him load all of his music on Anneke’s iPod for her, which she appreciates.

Sean gives Ian and Joseph some ammunition for their guns. Joseph gives him a fragmentation grenade for defense, which Sean really appreciates.

We load up the cart and horses on the boat along with the rest of our gear, and we cast off with Sean driving the boat. Sean tells us that the people at the observatory are pretty friendly. He usually deals with one of the students named Damien Martin. He also knows the Faldors who live across the lake. There are others who have migrated in as well over the past couple of years so it is a bit of a mix.

We get to the middle of the lake and the boat suddenly rocks to the side. Everyone loses their footing but is able to recover except Alex, who has a high center of gravity. Cody grabs him. One of the horses falls into the lake. We see a huge fin come past us. Joseph raises his rifle and shoots it, wounding it badly and forcing it to move off. It is a giant sturgeon, at least 25 feet long.

We scramble to help the horse back into the boat using ropes and the boat’s cargo winch. It takes us quite a long time and we are all exhausted from the effort, but the horse is brought back on board. It is wounded but okay.

Sean says that he will come with us to the observatory. He also muses about improvements that he needs to make on the boat, including a harpoon gun and some steel reinforcements to the hull.