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.

GM: Paul
Players: Cary-Cody/Zerk, Brad-Ian, Jon-Simon, John-Alexander, Matt-Dusty, Bob-JD and Brandon-Prof
Game Date: April 28 – 29, 2018

After two days of travel from Lapham Peak, the Professor and JD arrive in Beloit on his electric bike. The Professor finds the complex and askes for Zerc, who he says sent him a letter. Zerc doesn’t recognize him at first since he has lost weight, his hair has grayed and he is wearing road clothes and carries an M-16. They begin to talk, catching up. Prof thought that Zerc was dead.

The conversation ends abruptly when Alex walks in and JD begins to freak out. He explains who he is and the planet he comes from, and the Prof starts asking all kinds of questions. Alex explains that he arrived on earth a few months ago after millions of years traveling from his dead planet. He was on something of an “ark” that had the genetic material of all species on board. The Prof actually pulls out one of the vials that he had found through his travels and gives it to Alex. Alex sees that it is the material for another Talolan (one of his race). He thanks the Prof.

Scotty comes out and meets JD and the Prof. The Prof continues to pepper him with questions about where their planet is in the sky, and if it’s in this galaxy or another. Scotty actually doesn’t know where their planet was located. The Prof says that there was a launch that occurred 3 months ago and a new bright light has appeared in the sky and hasn’t moved — something is in geo-synchronous orbit directly above us. The Prof says that he would like to get to the Yerkes Observatory, the largest refraction telescope, in Lake Geneva to study the object and determine the possible origin of the Talolans. Zerc remembers vaguely seeing the launch a few months ago.

We pack up and leave the next morning for Lake Geneva. We take County Highway B using the electric scooters (the Prof and Bob) and the rest of us on a horse-drawn cart. We stop for lunch to eat and recharge the solar batteries. As we start moving again, Ian and the Prof see what looks like a thunderstorm ahead. The Prof thinks that it is something much more dangerous, so we start to look for cover. Some of us remember that there is an electrical substation.

We get to the substation in a few minutes, just ahead of the storm. There does appear to be some sort of precipitation coming, and we can taste and feel something strange in the air. The door to the station is locked, and Zerc and the Prof pick it after a few minutes. We get everything inside and shut and bar the door. There is a hatch in the middle of the room to an underground room. We get it open and climb down. As the storm goes over us we see the electricity in the pipes around us and the horses are spooked.

After about 15 minutes it subsides and we go up and check things out. The horses are okay but looking outside, it has rained and there are trees down. It looks like scorched earth with grass and foliage burned up. The storm is moving northeast toward Milwaukee, and we worry about who may be caught outside in this.

Thinking about what may have caused this, Simon thinks that perhaps it is instability in the earth’s magnetic field that is causing all of the problems. The Prof takes all kinds of readings and records them for later. There’s a good chance that we could get more of these.

We pack up our gear and continue on toward Lake Geneva.

Recap of sessions on April 6 and May 4, 2015.

GM: Paul
Players: Cary-Cody/Zerc, Brad-Ian, Jon-Simon, John-Alexander and Matt-Dusty
Game Date: May 2017

The group shifts their base of operation.

GM: Paul
Players: Cary-Cody/Zerc, Brad-Ian, Jon-Simon, John-Alexander and Matt-Dusty
Game Date: April 16 – 17, 2017

We have given our weapons up. The men are holding strange energy guns at us. They ask us what we are doing. Simon says that we are not looking for trouble — just are in search of supplies.

They take the ammo from our weapons and say that we can go. We ask if they want to trade and they say no, that they don’t need anything. They mention that their engineer built their guns. Simon asks Alex if he thinks they are also aliens. Alex says that he is not sure. Sensing something is off, they start to get nervous and tell us to leave.

Alex says that he really wants to meet the engineer. They say no, then Alex says that he may have something in common with the engineer and raises his two extra arms. They are surprised but speak something in an alien language to Alex. They say they’ll take us to the engineer but they have to blindfold us. We comply.

At the end of our journey we stop and Alex is taken to meet the engineer. A few minutes later, they return and the blindfolds are taken off. The engineer introduces himself as Scotty. Alex introduces the group and we go inside.

Alex explains the mutations as Scotty was not aware of any of them. Also the giant ants and other creatures. He asks that the two groups pool their resources.

Scotty brings us in and we see that they have a bunch of warehouses in their compound, essentially an industrial park. They explain that this used to be a corporate storage facility. They have set up solar panels for power.

Scotty was able to contact a still-active satellite. He wants to use it to start scanning for signals on Earth, depending on what sensors it has.

We go lower into the compound and see that there are quite a few people here — it seems like hundreds. They are making beer, growing crops underground, and have running water. Alex says that Scotty may be able to help “wake up” some of the species fro the DNA case that Alex had, and maybe another of their race as well. He means to get the other items from his cave in Falls and show them to Scotty.

They bring us some food and drink and offer that we can take showers and wash our clothes here. They even have old video games; Dusty starts to play. Everything is done by trading here. They have only a few types of medicine, however, and most of them have lost their potency. Alex may be able to help.

We decide to stay the night and plan on leaving in the morning, though Dusty seems addicted to the video games.

We talk about long-range communication either through radio or the satellite, if it has that capability.

The next morning, we start heading back to the compound. We get back in 4 days’ time. When we return, Ian announces to the people in the compound that Alex is in fact an alien, and explains everything that happened after the solar flare. He gives them the choice of going back and staying in Beloit. He gives the group the evening to make the choice. The compound is abuzz with activity.

In the morning, people start congregating and making decisions. Of the 40, only 6 decide that they want to stay. We have only 3 wagons but also some horses and other livestock. We leave one wagon for those who are staying. Things are packed and we head out for Beloit.

GM: Paul
Players: Cary-Cody/Zerc, Brad-Ian, Jon-Simon, John-Alexander and Matt-Dusty
Game Date: April 13 – 16, 2017

A short while later on the way to Beloit, we stop for the evening in a house that Cody found, that seems to be in good shape. During the first watch, however, Ian suddenly feels a strange goopy substance dripping onto his head. Soon it is completely covering him and it is burning him terribly.

The rest of the group wakes up and tries to get it off of him with little success. The goop seems to dodge any physical attacks, moving itself out of the way, and water has no effect.

Ian falls to the floor and thrashes around, amazingly getting away from it. At the same time, Dusty hits it with a lit torch. After several minutes and a long battle, we finally kill it.

Ian grabs all of his stuff and goes outside, then beds down in a nearby abandoned car. Dusty and Cody search around in nearby homes for clothes, and are able to find some pants and a flannel shirt for Ian. Luckily his boots were untouched.

After a couple more days of travel we arrive in South Beloit.

We sleep the rest the night and then start looking around the town as soon as it is morning. We consult the map and head down toward the river to see if there are any caves.

Cody and Dusty check out the cave, and Alex follows. It’s clear that something was here, but it is completely cleared out now. There is no trace of anything.

We head out, and suddenly we see that Ian is being held up by several people with guns. They tell us to drop our weapons, and we comply.

GM: Paul
Players: Cary-Cody/Zerc, Brad-Ian, Jon-Simon, John-Alexander and Matt-Dusty
Game Date: April 10 – 12, 2017

Alex spent the winter trying to create a way to track the alien metal, to make finding the other Crintarian easier, but it is slow going. Dusty attempts to train his pet wolf to track it, as well.These efforts are slow.

The winter has begun to break so we have decided to travel to Beloit finally.

We stay off of the beaten path, and make 20 miles in the first day by going west on Hwy 100 and then working our way south.

The next morning we head out and try to make it as far as Muskego. We find part of a portable radio. That evening, Alex is able to make a rudimentary alien metal detector.

The next night, we are able to find a garage in the side of a hill, which is secure and also nice and cool.

During day 3, Cody notices the glint of a gun up on a hill pointing down on us. He tries to roll off to the side and hide, but they fire on him and he is hit. He raises up his gun and fires, taking the guy out.

After we take one more out, there are a few more shots and then everything suddenly goes quiet. After a few minutes, we go up and search their bodies. The others seem to have run off. We find two .22 rifles and a total of 27 rounds of ammunition, as well as a canteen and a knife.

We calm the horses down and gather ourselves, then get a move on.

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.

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

We pack up our things and travel to Timmerman Airport, to a large locked hangar. After almost killing himself climbing up on the roof, Cody breaks in and lets the rest of us in. We see two pristine propellor planes. We get fire extinguishers from the planes and check the fuel levels — there is fuel, but it is low. Since the planes have never been raided, there are a lot of sundries here and 16 gallons of oil in a 30-gallon drum. Since it is so heavy, we’ll have to come back another time for the oil. We stay the night here.

Traveling through the next day, we stop at an office building, Paramount Supply Company, off of Bluemound Road in Elm Grove, that seems not to have been raided yet either. We break into a door off of the loading bay and check it out. We find a travel iron in its case. Venturing into the next room of the building, Ian and Simon hear a growl. Thinking that it’s a Blue, Simon tells everyone to get out and they do, except for Cody who stays frozen. He asks Ned and Dusty to come in, and they do, cautiously. They see that a large tiger is trapped in the building. Ned goes in and tries to calm it down. As he is doing this, Cody is searching the room and finds a gun rack attached to the wall. After breaking the lock on the rack, he sees that one of them is salvageable but needs some work. He also finds a safe in the wall nearby, but he can’t break the lock.

In the next room, Alex finds a file cabinet with the schematics for the warehouse, and Cody looks and finds the location of the things we need. We venture into the warehouse and look for the correct row. Ned still is working with the tiger.

Ahead in the warehouse Ian and Cody see a sinkhole in the floor near where they have to go, and walk around it. As they approach, a bunch of Blues and spiders appear from the sinkhole, crawling up from underground. They begin attacking and Cody jumps to fight them.

The fight is joined, and suddenly Alex makes an inhuman sound and all of the enemies freeze. We start taking them down but they are encroaching on us, so we disengage and run outside. Cody attempts to climb up one of the shelves. Luckily, the Blues follow us outside and we are able to pick them off one at a time.

Now that they are taken care of, we search the warehouse for more supplies.

GM: Paul
Players: Cary-Cody/Zerk, Brad-Ian, Jon-Simon, John-Alexander and Stacy-Ned
Game Date: July 26-27, 2016

This is the third or fourth swap meet, and there are more people here than before.

Towards the gate we are hearing a commotion. Ian gets a strange look on his face and asks everyone to come with him, except for Simon and Dusty who he asks to stay and watch the cart.

Ian heads up towards the cart and they are trying to kick someone off, saying that they are “infected”. The bear helps clear people out of the way.

Ian is positive that the woman is his wife, but she is unconscious and has a strange scar on her forehead. They ask Ian who he is, and he says that the woman is his wife and was killed two years ago.

They say that can’t be the case, because her name is Fiona. Ian shows them the pictures of the two of them together and of their son, Travis. The man says that they found her washed up on the lake shore, unconscious, and helped her out. Ian asks what is wrong with her now, and the man tells him quietly that she was bitten by a Blue.

Alexander gives her a sedative and she seems to be resting more comfortably.

The officials, carrying large guns, tell the crowd to disperse and go about their business. They ask what is going on, and Ian asks if they have a doctor who could look at her. They agree, for a price, and send for him.

We take her away from the commotion and speak to the people. They are apparently the people who were calling for help on our way here and we didn’t stop to assist them. Alexander says that she is not infected, but they say that’s impossible because she was definitely bitten.

The officials say that Alexandra has to go into a jail cell since she was bitten. Ian agrees, but says that he will go in with her. He asks Simon to be in charge of trading things for the group.

We look through several booths and see quite a lot of stuff, including some submachine gun rounds but no guns.

Cody sees that one of the vendors is someone he knows, named Daisy. She has about a dozen 50 caliber rounds that they found at a military base, but there is no gun to use them with.

We are looking to trade our 12 batteries and a generator for some stuff. We trade 2 of the batteries and Cody’s brass knuckles. We trade 3 more for a 5 pound container of liquid propane, 2 quarts of motor oil, and a baseball bat taken by Dusty.

Another vendor has a few uninteresting items but Cody asks if he has anything behind the counter. He does, and it ends up being a 50 caliber machine gun. We trade the generator for the gun, and give him a battery to bribe him to say he never sold it to us. He says to come back anytime and ask for him. He introduces himself to us as Hugo Altimas, and says to come back anytime.

We spent 2 more batteries on a chainsaw, a pair of boots, and 15 rifle rounds.

Another 2 batteries gets us a music box, Irish whiskey, binoculars, and a can of tennis balls.

Back in the cell, Ian’s wife wakes up and suddenly remembers Ian, making the situation very awkward. She explains that she fled the encampment during the attack and was shot and fell in the lake. She also reveals that she was pregnant during the attack and now has a daughter who is his, named Brianna. Ian offers to take in all of them, including Alexandra’s friends.

The doctor says that she is completely fine, and is really astonished. He asks to draw some blood and she agrees.

The rest of the group comes back to see Ian and Simon sees Alexandra for the first time, and is astonished. Ian explains the situation to the group and Alexandra introduces her companions, Adele Hazelwood, Larry Cifuentes, and Paul Woods.

Ian says that we will head out to pick up Alexandra’s two other companions Isabella and Damian, and Ian’s daughter, along with some other supplies on the way back to the settlement.

We decide to stay the night before we head out. Around the campfire the leader of the settlement, a man covered with tattoos, discusses what’s going on with us. He, Ian and Cody start talking about how we can help one another with things like trade routes, safe zones, communication, and protection from the Seekers.

Communication will be the first plan; we will start with animal trainers and birds, and then afterwards set up some wired or wireless communications. We will meet in one month to discuss further, at 175 and North Avenue.

GM: Paul
Players: Cary-Cody/Zerk, Brad-Ian, Jon-Simon, John-Alexander and Stacy-Ned
Game Date: July 24-25, 2016

We continue on toward downtown but suddenly hear Seekers in the area, huge monsters with tentacles. Alexander says that they are attracted to electricity. We find a place to hide in a 12×12 container. There is a door; Ian opens it and is immediately grabbed by a humanoid creature with fur and tusks.

We fight the creatures off but can’t leave, as we still still hear the Seekers off in the distance. The room has a horrible smell, but there is some salvage here as it looks like this place . We find a 9mm pistol, a journal, a police baton, a dog’s leash, some disposable razors, a mountain bike and some sort of strange black fire hydrant.

Zerk reads the journal and it contains a lot of gibberish, but at one time the author seems to have been human. It describes their descent into mutation and madness, and it all seems to have been caused by the fire hydrant over the course of a month or so.

Alexander tries to figure it out by pressing a few buttons, and it lights up and opens, and a small container emerges. We determine that it would be too dangerous so he figures out how to close it and we will take it with us.

In the morning, we check for baddies again and head out. Later that day we finally get to the swap meet.

The meet is at 72nd and Ryan Road at and old prison, and it is a little surprising because we’ve never seen this many people in one place in a while. There are men manning huge machine guns, defending the place. It seems like they have food everywhere.

Ian thinks that he sees his wife in the crowd, and goes to the gate to check.