Cataclysm

Session 20 – Man Eater

GM: Brad
Players: John, Bob, Jon, Cary, Paul
Game Date: September 12, 2018

We continue moving north, on the east side of Highway 45 across from the zoo. We see more of the pink mist in that area and are looking for high ground to get a view on where it might be coming from. Alex thinks that they may be a kind of a mutated spore from Talol that can knock you out.

We come to San Camilla’s hospital as a good option. Of course it has been completely ransacked and a lot of the windows are broken. Most of the supplies have been raided as well. In one area we see some evidence of a fight. There are blood spatters, drag marks, spent casings and a makeshift barrier here. Even a bloody hatchet. We all grab a handful of the brass so that they can be refilled later.

We head to the top floor and look out toward the zoo. We don’t see any lights, movement or smoke from here. From the vetrinary center  at the zoo, we see the smoke and a bunch of pods with vines around them. They are writhing around. Zerc also sees some things that look like alien technology. He suggests that we go down there and check them out. JD and Meaghan agree, but Simon and Alex don’t want to. They are overridden and we head out.

On the way across to the zoo, we see some people approaching. Meghan recognizes them from the observatory. They see her and they greet each other. They see Alex and are surprised but Meaghan quickly explains about him and the compound that we’ve used as our base. We also talk about the Black Templars and they say that they’ve seen them as far west as Madison. We let them know about the shortwave radio as well. We show them the map, and they mention that there is an airport and also a National Guard Armory in that area. We thank them for the share and tell them to stop by the compound sometime. We bid them farewell as they are off to Milwaukee now.

We head to the fence line and cut a hole. We head in with hatchets ready for any vines that may attack us. We see bones that Alex identifies as both human and animal. They seem not to be too disturbed but there is a thin crust of dried goo on them. We find a backpack with a few items in it. While we are looking around a vine snakes its way over to Meaghan and tries to grab her. She gets away from it and we start running toward the building. Before Simon gets into the building a vine grabs him around the waist and hauls him off the ground something that looks like a venus flytrap comes down to try and eat him. JD pulls his machete and hacks the vine off, and Simon falls to the ground. Zerc fires his rifle at it. Simon pulls out his machine pistol and fires a burst into it, and it falls dead. He yells in victory, and Meaghan shouts “All right Simon!” He gets up and runs into the building along with JD.

In the building we find some oxygen gas tanks and some acid. Alex rigs up a rudimentary flamethrower and acid gun. JD and Simon take them, respectively. We head outside toward where we saw the canister. We see two more of the venus flytraps in trees nearby. JD torches one of them with his flamethrower and Simon shoots the other with acid. He tries to cover all of the vines on the ground with acid but the sprayer breaks and he gets acid all over himself. He quickly runs and jumps into the nearby flamingo pond.

Zerc finds and grabs the cannister and starts running toward the fence. Meaghan fishes Simon out of the pond and they start running as well. Alex creates a barrier in the shape of a tunnel to protect us from vines as we run.

Cataclysm

Session 19 – Air Shrimp

GM: Brad
Players: John, Bob, Jon, Cary, Paul
Game Date: September 11, 2018

Back at the compound there is a discuss regarding what to do about the Black Templars. We hear from others in Beloit and the Milwaukee hub that they’ve found dead bodies in exactly the same configuration. We decide that we are going to head up to Menomonee Falls and grab Alex’s gear. We are heading straight up Highway 45.

The air is crisp and cool here in mid-September. After a bit of travel time, we see ahead of us a pinkish cloud, like a puff of vapor, is rising through the air. We observe it and see another one come up. We move toward it and see some houses here. We see some activity at a house on the other side of a divided highway with a barrier down the middle.

As the wagon trundles up, a shot rings out and Zerc cries out in pain. He has been shot in the arm. He returns fire right away to what appears to be a sniper in the upper level of one of the houses. Alex creates a barrier to try and protect us but the bullets continue flying. We take out several guys with guns. After a few moments it is quiet again and Meaghan tries to see if anyone else is in the house. She looks into the front door of one of the houses and suddenly a man with a knife attacks her. JD runs up to the house to help her just as she jams her knife into the man’s throat. She then stabs him in the groin for good measure.

We decide to search the houses and find tons of equipment, supplies and weapons including a sniper rifle and kevlar armor. JD finds a cache underneath a loose floorboard with maps and notes outlining Milwaukee and Beloit as operation areas. Most of the information is in code, though, so not possible for us to read. There is a picture of an airplane and a picture of a handgun near West Bend. On one sheet there is a picture of a Black Templar logo. The dead guys are basically cosplayers as their dress is almost exactly like Black Templars from 40K. They have purity seals, and under their armor they have ritual scarring. Meaghan takes a machine pistol and gives it to Simon as a present.

We look through the third house but don’t find anything. As Alex is looking over the bodies he notices a psionic vibe on them. He thinks that they were being controlled by someone using psychic power. Zerc also is glowing with energy because he was just healed.

Chronicles of X

Session 3 – Shopping

Once the crew get’s to Sarris Warehouse’s Varan meets up with another Vanguard and heads off. Chance is not interested in heading out into the crowds. This leaves X on his own.

X hops a train and heads off to meet up with a contact to pick up some armor. When X arrives he makes his way to Robert Sweeny’s establishment. X does not see Robert sitting in his usual chair when he arrives so he make a call to him. After a short conversation Robert invites X into the back.

When X walks into the back he sees at least a dozen armed guards. X asks Robert what is up. He explain that there is a very rare shipment coming in. Eventually a heavily armored transport arrives and off loads a vibrio cage which contains alien creatures. Robert explains that they were found in the outer rim on a ship unlike anyone has ever seen.

X is amazed by what he sees but excuses realizing that Robert is itching to have him leave now. Robert asks what X wanted purchase. X explains that he was looking to buy some armor.  As X is leaving he catches Robert with a concerned look as X is still there when the buyer for the animals show up. The limo that pulls up has Brabit printed on it.

Up front a young lady guides X to the armor and then she gestures to the special products room. X says to her “Are you coming in with me?” She pauses  then slap him. Once in the room X receives the woman’s number.

Two more customers filter into the special part of the store. One, a robot, makes his way around the store. After wandering around he makes his way to the bathroom.  The other customer makes his way around the area also.

 

Chronicles of X

Session 2 – Ore Storage

After the previous job, X lets Varan and Chance know that one of the barrels we recovered was full of a rare and expensive ore known as Tyrite. However, he thinks that it would be suspicious if we offloaded it right after the job. Varan says that we should hide it, and X agrees.

We land at a the Bezmer Space Docks, a small outpost on Earth in what used to be South America, and the three of them go to a nearby supply area and buy sturdy sewage waste containers — a larger one for the waste and a second one to put the actual ore in.

Varan disguises himself because this is work that no Vanguard would be doing. X helps him cover his face  and dirty up, and Varan feels for a moment like X has done something to him. He looks but doesn’t see anything. He tells X to keep his hands to himself.

We load up the ore, Varan and Chance doing most of the work because X’s wounds are still healing. It is a tough job and Varan is sweating, not used to manual labor. After a while all of the ore is loaded up and surrounded by sewage in the larger container.

We will need to take the container to the storage area ourselves. We find a place nearby which seems pretty slummy but should work. The woman behind the counter is old and ugly, with a face tattoo and a vape stick. She says “15 credits a day and you can’t sleep in them, 33 a month and you CAN’T sleep in them and 500 for a year AND YOU CAN’T SLEEP IN THEM.” Without doing the math, Varan slides her 500 credits with a disgusted look on his face. She walks away and leaves a cloud of vapor. X nudges Varan and says that he overpaid — the monthly price is better. When she comes back, X asks for 6 months at the monthly rate and she refunds part of the money. She gives us a strange looking security key and leaves again.

We push the ore through a set of doors and to our small storage locker, while we are recorded by several security drones. Chance lifts the crate into the unit and is sure to slop some sewage over the side so no one gets curious. He has feces all over his gloves.

We leave, and as we do Varan notices that the security key has a recording device and GPS on it. X thinks that we should go back and get our stuff, but Varan blurts out “I could probably re-route the signal so it can’t track us, but will need some help with the hacking.” X covers his mouth so he doesn’t say more. He finds some oil and grease and covers the key so we aren’t recorded. He also takes a small audio player and turns it on so the key is recording just the music.

Varan washes up in a local restroom, getting the grime off of himself, then contacts a hacker and has the GPS signal and recordings from the key re-routed to a random server. It costs 5 credits a day to keep it from recording us.

We go back to the ship. Chance uses a blowtorch to clean off his suit and gloves of all the sewage, but the whole ship smells like burnt feces now.

X takes some painkillers to deal with his still un-healed wounds. He downs them with a beer which makes him a bit woozy. Varan notices this.

Before we go, X asks Varan to help him fix a laser rifle. Varan takes a look at it and is able to fix it as it had solid internals, however it fires blue whereas most fire red or orange. X likes the color.

Varan, disgusted with this place, says that they should leave. X suggests that we go to meet a friend of his where we can find parts for the robot and also some “companionship”. Varan asks him to lay in the location and the robot is hooked up to help with navigation, though it doesn’t have any arms or legs.

Varan asks Chance to pilot, but X asks if he’s ever piloted and he says “Once in boot camp.” Varan looks alarmed and says that he will pilot. X assures him that he can fly better than either of them even in his slightly addled state, but Varan says absolutely not and takes the helm. X, resigned, drops into the co-pilot seat. The robot also asks if he should take over since Varan seems less than skilled. Annoyed, Varan says that he will do it.

The robot gets the coordinates set. The team gets permission from ground control to leave, and Varan activates the thrusters. The robot reminds him to turn on the shielding and deactivate the docking plates, which Varan does with a loud curse. However he has bumped the stick and they are off course. X takes over piloting and rights the course. Varan relents and lets him fly.

The robot philosophically says “Remember, he may know how to fly, but he does not own his own ship. Each needs one another.” Varan loudly tells him to shut up. In response, the whole ship turns off. Varan panics but the robot says that we should remember that he is part of the ship now. Varan is spooked and says that maybe we should have left the robot on the ship we found it on. X says that he  is on the robot’s side.

The ship turns back on and we resume traveling to our destination. X has been calling the robot “B” but asks  it what its name is. It says “Norro”. X agrees to call it either that or “B”.

Within minutes we arrive at Sarris Warehouse, a massive warehouse that has been added on for over 200 years to be one of the biggest indoor markets. X says that we should not take any valuables with us when we go into the market.

Cataclysm

Session 18 – The Greenhouse

GM: Brad
Players: John, Jon, Bob, Matt, Paul, Cary
Game Date: August 26-29, 2018

We have invited some folks from Beloit to live at our compound. Some have also come from Orlando to live in Wisconsin, and others went to Orlando from our group.

Ian begins showing symptoms of some illness. Alex checks him out and finds that he has the beginnings of the Blue virus. Alarmed, Alex gives him the only dose of the antidote that he had previously synthesized. We allow him to rest.

Scotty, who is the leader of the Beloit group, suggests that we travel back to the observatory and let them know about the new compound. This will also give Meaghan a chance to get the rest of her things.

The next morning we travel to the Observatory, and arrive there at the end of the day without trouble. They welcome us and ask what has happened since we left. We fill them in.

JD calls Sean and lets him know that we are back in town. He doesn’t want to say too much as others may be listening on the channel, but Sean says that he may come down to the observatory in a couple of days.

Meaghan speaks to the observatory’s medical “doctor” for a while then returns reading a letter. She says that her previous boyfriend (Robert “Bobby” Williams) has left her a cache a few miles from here in a greenhouse.  She says that she would like to go take a look at it, and wouldn’t mind some company.

We stay the night, and Meaghan spends some time talking to the others here and reassuring them that the new compound is safe. In the morning some of them already have their things packed.

The next morning we have our things packed and move out. Meaghan says that we need to bring a shovel.

Several hours later we arrive at the Pesche’s Greenhouse north and east of the observatory, just off of Hwy 50. Zerc and JD watch the road while the rest of the group looks for the cache. Right by the wooden sign is the spot we need to dig. It takes us a while to dig deep enough, but we are rewarded with a nice hunting rifle and an extremely powerful assault rifle with an under-barrel mounted grenade launcher. There is also two pistols, a bunch of ammo, MREs, water purifying tablets, some backpacks with Camelback hydration, some multi-tools, butane lighter, and a few more things.

As we are finishing bringing things out of the cache, JD hears some crunching nearby. He looks around and doesn’t see anything. After a moment he sees through one of the nearby greenhouse windows a humanoid shape. He throws a rock at the rest of the group to get their attention. Meaghan jumps down the trench and readies the gun.

A moment later a Blue smashes through the window and starts running toward us. Meaghan pops her head up and fires at it and kills it instantly with a headshot. We breathe a sigh of relief but then over a dozen more start coming at us from several angles. We all fire weapons at them. JD tosses a grenade and Alex uses his psionics to create a 40 foot wide barrier in front of them to slow their progress.

Suddenly we see a huge Blue come out of one of the buildings toward us. Dusty’s dog and wolf begin to attack it. JD aims an assault rifle at it and fires several shots. The first takes off its leg and the other two go into its chest, killing it.

Meaghan fire grenades behind the barrier and kill a bunch of the Blues. The barrier goes down and one more Blue comes out but slips on the guts of his friends. While he is down, Alex creates a new barrier right on top of him so he is like a specimen on a slide. Alex will use him as an experiment to find a cure for the Blue disease.

Looking inside, we find a pistol and a few other items, as well as gardening supplies.

After we are done, we head back to the observatory with the Blue bound and gagged. When we get back, the people who are coming with us are all packed and ready to go. Only a few are planning to stay behind. JD gives them the pistol for self defense.

The next morning we head back to our compound. Less than a mile away, we see three bodies in the middle of the road. We investigate and Simon sees that they have a symbol from a video game, the Black Templars from Warhammer 40,000. The others don’t believe him at first but Meaghan agrees with him. Dusty suggests that they were “Nerderers”.

Chronicles of X

Session 1 – Chronicles of X

The year is 3021. The human race expanded to other planets in the solar system in the mid 2000s due to advances in metallurgy, making super solar batteries. On Earth, the further away from the equator, the poorer you are likely to be, but due to technology, nature is now making a comeback. Poorer people are in large cities. On Luna there are cities and places that are safe, but on Mars it is completely lawless.

Aliens, in particular those of the Vanguard race, have taken notice of humans now and live among them. The Vanguard are just like humans but are smarter and more technologically advanced. They achieved spaceflight capability hundreds of years before humans but only revealed themselves after the humans started traveling to other planets.

Our group is a team of independend consultants named Axaniax “X” Zadra (pilot), Chance Sol (soldier) and Varan Stel (Vanguard, mechanic and captain). We have a small ship with two shuttles that can have mining capability. We are located in what used to be London, but the city is now made up of thousands of skyscrapers built on top of what used to be called London.

A man named Captain Bannell Racket contacts us looking to retain our services. Varan looks him up to see if he is legit, but only finds references to a “Col. Banner” instead. This Captain Racket seems to somehow be associated with Banner. We decide to meet and take a shuttle. At the appointed place there is a hangar where we see a gigantic ship. There are many people working here loading items and doing maintenance on the ship. X camouflages himself and observes. He sees a lot of people among the workers who are ex-military and have cybernetics.

Captain Racket comes out with some soldiers who are casually holding weapons. He greets us warmly and invites Varan and Chance inside. Chance notices that he is older but due to his uniform’s insignias was probably a former high ranking airforce officer. Varan starts recording everything so X can see what is going on. Chance is acting as Varan’s bodyguard.

Racket tells us that they run a mining and shipping business, and recently almost $270k credits worth of copper and silver were stolen by pirates. They cut into the ship, destroying the mining pods they were in and making off with the goods. They were coming from the sun to earth, and afterwards the pirates probably went to the moon.

During the conversation, X sneaks his way onto the ship and shows up just as the group is getting the briefing. Racket is not rattled and welcomes X. He continues to say that he wants us to find the shipment and return it. He offers us one third, or $90k credits for the safe return of the cargo. X tries to negotiate the price, but Racket says that don’t have any extra funds for us on this. He seems serious so we don’t push it. They do have data on where the pirates went. When we go to the moon, we will get free docking fees if we have to dock. We take the job, and Varan says that he has made a good choice — we will do everything we can to return the cargo intact.

As we are leaving, X asks around the docks and finds out about a source named Bobcat and finds that the pirates may be orbiting the moon. Varan contacts a friend of his and he calls Bobcat, telling him that we are interested in buying. We fly up to orbit and meet with them, docking our ship with theirs. There is another ship nearby but no one else that we can detect. Varan and X go over to the ship while Chance mans the helm and weapons in case something goes south.

Varan and X board the ship and see that there are three men on board. They check on the product they have here. It seems legit, but the pirates are nervous. X notices that one barrel has chromatic copper and the other barel has silver mixed with extremely rare Tyrite ore and the third barrel has more ore. X does not say anything about the Tyrite to anyone. It doesn’t seem as thought the pirates are even aware of the Tyrite. The pirates are unwilling to negotiate, tempers flare and the trade is a bust. The pirates order us out and they open up on our ship. Chance has been waiting for this and lights them up takeing out one of their guns. A firefight starts and X shoots a pipe next to the pilot with his laser pistol which spills cooling fluid on him. Varan finishes him off with his rifle. In return X takes a shot in the chest from the other pirate. X shoots the other guy in the leg, but he spins and shoots a fuel barrel. It explodes taking out the whole room. Varan and X are seriously injured but the pirate dies in the process.

X asks Varan to secure the hallway in case there are any  more pirates. X grabs a hand full of Tyrite and hides it in his g-suit.

Meanwhile, Chance shoots the second ship straight through the center taking off its cannons and disabling it. He sees a third ship rabbit and notices that they cut their cargo before they left. It is the missing ore. The crew travels over to retrieve the three abandoned ore containers. Chance space walks to attach a teather to the ore containers and X gently manuevers everything back to the disabled pirate ships.  Once back at the ships the crew salvages as much from the pirate ships as they can. They retrieve 3 g-suits, 2 laser pistols, 1 laser rifle (not working probably easily fixable) for gear. X states that he will be taking a g-suit, laser pistol and the rifle. They top off fluids (7000 credits worth) from the ships.

Then they call their employer to come retrieve the ore containers. Racket is extremely impressed that all of the ore was retrieved and happily pays what was promised. They also run a scan on the two pirate ships and find that there are 25K and 11K credit bounties on them. Varan notifies the authorities of the the ships and retrieval vessals are dispatched. The group departs after a job well done and a bunch of extra cash in their pockets.

Cataclysm

Session 17 – Orlando

GM: Paul
Players: Brad, Cary, Jon, John, Bob, Bill, Dave Z, Dave L
Game Date: May 29 – June 1, 2018 / June 30, 2018

We are in a shipping container and a curtain opens. We see a heavily tattooed Latino man and he asks us who we are. It seems to him that we have been here for a long time. We tell him that we’ve just arrived and we are from Wisconsin. During this, Simon introduces Meghan as his “friend” which she clearly doesn’t like. Glaring at him, she introduces him as “my boyfriend Simon.” The man we met says that we are in Orlando. We smell a lot of burning wires and see some smoke.

Everyone especially Joseph bring up their guns but we agree to de-escalate. We see that their generator is completely toast.

A man they have called Dave says that it seems like alien technology. Alex asks him why he might think that, and he explains that his theory is that the meteor that was seen during the solar flare was an alien spaceship, and it crashed and spread radiation, mutating plants and animals. He thinks that either the aliens were just passengers and are friendly, or that they are evil.

Amazed at Dave’s guess, Alex reveals himself as an alien and explains his backstory and about his people. Shocked but seemingly accepting this news, the Orlando colonists explain that they had brought the shipping container here recently and just powered it up. When we came it it had blown the generator, though. We explain that we have our own compound similar to this in Wisconsin, and we could make a teleport connection between us to trade and communicate.

We are inside an old resort that used to be known as the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center, and there are around 200 people here. This is the largest colony that we have ever seen. They explain that the place is now called Lordville. They offer to give us some steaks and fresh fruit. We have not seen an orange in 5 years.

Dave goes to a council meeting and tells them about us. They come back and give us a tour of the compound. We see many young children, more than we’ve seen anywhere else. Dave explains to the people that the generator is down and it is going to get very hot in here for the time being. It is also said that they have Seekers here in Florida (they call them Blimpies) and need to be careful about major power sources.

Flaco, the latino man, stays up and drinks with us. In the morning, he comes to our room and tells us that breakfast is ready. We go downstairs to a large buffet.

Later it is decided that we should take a small boat up Bonnet Creek. From there we can get into the Magic Kingdom park and find some generators.

After we have been traveling in the boat upstream for a while, using an electric trolling motor, Ian and Simon see some large (4 foot long) iguanas in a tree ahead. Simon sounds the alarm to stop the boat and shoots at one of them, but misses. The lizards spit goo down on top of us and it paralyzes Cody. Dave falls backward into the creek.

JD, Branson, Ian, Flaco, Simon and Megan all begin shooting at the Giant Geckos. JD lets loose with a spray from his AR sending some of the Geckos fleeing.

Alex runs to the back of the boat and shuts the motor off. He tries to throw a rope to Dave to pull him up but misses. He creates a psionic barrier behind him so he can’t go downstream any further. He tries again with the rope but accidentally gets it caught in a tree and tangled in his leg. He falls out of the boat upside down into the water, hanging from the tree.

A few of the geckos jump into the boat with us, and we are able to attack and kill them. We pull Alex and Dave out of the water and clean out the boat before we continue on our way.

We get to Bay Lake, the west side of which has the Disney Contemporary resort which is adjascent to the Magic Kingdom. We hug the east shore of the lake just in case there is something in the deeper water. Flaco notices that there is a curved structure above the trees ahead.

Suddenly a huge crocodile leaps into the boat and tries to attack us. He grabs Scotty in his jaws and goes underwater. Joseph tosses Ian a grenade. Ian pulls the pin and shoves it down the croc’s throat. It explodes but the croc doesn’t immediately die. Flaco tries to pull Scotty out of its mouth. Dave throws a bag of goo that he had collected from the geckos but it goes onto Scotty. Branson shoots him with a shotgun and it finally is killed. Flaco and JD try to pull Scotty out of the alligators mouth. Branson heals him as he is a pre-med student. Ian takes a couple of teeth out of the gator before we leave.

After the altercation, Meaghan approaches Cody and expresses how impressed she is with his actions during the battle. Simon seems a bit dumbfounded and doesn’t say anything. Flaco tells Simon that he will help him win the girl back.

We bale out the boat as we troll away since it has taken on some water. We get to the north side of the lake and see some slips where boats were but they have sunk. We see ahead the structure that we saw earlier, and it appears to be a part of the Talolan ship. Underneath we see a lot of overgrown flora, some of which are Talolan.

We go to the warehouse nearby but the area is protected by a sonic field just like the compound in Wisconsin. As we are checking it out, Dave is grousing about the “aliens”. Ian confronts him and says that if he doesn’t stop verbally attacking the members of his team, he will take him out. They yell at each other for a while.

Alex and Scotty go inside the warehouse. They find the controls for the sonic security system, and also two generators, cloning vats and robot tugs that can move things for us.

We decide to add the people here to the system so they are not affected by the sonic barrier. Then we go to take some of the nearby boats in storage out so we can take a generator back to the base. It takes us a couple of days to organize everything.

We check out the other nearby warehouses and see all kinds of materials, solar panels, and lots of decorations. Simon has a field day here and takes lots of merchandise with him. Flaco sees this and advises Simon to tone it down so he can get Meaghan’s attention back. She actually does notice, and Simon invites her to take a look at the things he’s gotten. She agrees. But later, Ian, Joseph, and Simon are walking through the warehouse and see Cody and Meaghan together in one of the aisles making love. Simon does not outwardly react but is very upset.

The group spends two days referbing two more tour boats so they can bring back the plasma generator, large generator, 3 smaller generators, and the Disney trappings that Dave gathered for the residents of Lordville. Dave explains that the Disney stuff should help morale.

After a few more weeks, we have the plasma generator in place and determine how to set up trade between the colonies. Dave allows anyone who wants to go up to Wisconsin from Lordville to do so. There is still a lot to be determined.

Cataclysm

Session 16 – The Satellite

GM: Paul
Players: Brad-Ian, Cary-Cody, Jon-Simon, John-Alexander, Brandon-Prof. Politavo, Bob-Joseph/JD , Matt-Dusty, Paul-Meaghan(NPC)
Game Date: May 1 – 3, 2018 / May 28 – 29, 2018

We decide that we have all we need and start heading back from town, with the cart in tow and two motorcycles. We load our things onto the boat and Sean takes us back. The boat trip is about 45 minutes. When we return it is evening and we pretty much crash.

Simon goes off with Meaghan. Her mood is completely changed from before the trip, and she is really excited to have been part of the action. She drags him off to her bedroom.

The lead professor from the observatory asks Alex some questions about his physiology and his home planet. The Prof joins in on the conversation. Information is shared and the professors from the observatory share info about the Near Miss Meteor:

Length 3200m
Diameter 900m
Speed 195,000 km/h
It was roughly cigar shaped
It had a slow rotation along its axis

Ian cleans up one of the shotguns we found and gives it to Sean.

The next morning, Meaghan and Simon look exhausted. Everyone has breakfast and then Cody and the Prof begin working on the telescope. Cody brings jacks in and lifts the telescope up and the Prof replaces the wheel. The project takes all day but they make good progress. One of the female students is on the telescope near Cody and she loses her balance. He barely catches her and she is very grateful.

Ian continues to work on the guns.

Later that evening, the Prof gets the telescope prepped and turned the right direction to see the satellite. The students help him. Focusing in, he sees that it is a cylinder with a cluster on one end that looks like a dandelion in bloom. It looks like a satellite of some sore. The professors share information that they observed the night of the launch and, with the observations from Lapham Peak, calculate that it originated from between Union Grove and the freeway.  When zooming in, it’s seen that there is writing on the side of it. Alex translates that it is “Travel Relay 23”. He explains that this is a relay satellite.

The next day we decide to head out and go toward Union Grove. We leave the motorcycles because they don’t have any fuel. Meaghan comes with us. On the trip, we see a dog, what looks like a wolf hound, following us in the woods. We stop the cart and the dog stops too. Its fur is matted and it smells terrible. Dusty is able to bring it in with some jerky and it seems tame enough. He decides to bring it with us.

We set camp but after it gets dark we see a light in the distance. There is a house nearby. We set up watch but do not disturb them. In the morning we see a farmer outside the house. We break camp and leave toward Union Grove. The town is much like the others that we’ve seen. The Christmas decorations are still up and there are rotted out homes. We stay to the outskirts and move to the east side.

We get to the area that was marked on the map. We split the group into two — Cody, the Prof, Simon, Meaghan and Ian (along with the horses) go off following Cody. Alex, Dusty, the dogs and Joseph go the other direction. After a while of looking, Alex’s group runs into an invisible field that makes them nauseous. They call the other half of the group on the walkie and they meet back up. Joseph and Dusty are recovering and Alex comes out of the woods. He says that he has found the base station for the satellite. There is a sonic defense of some kind that turns on when it senses a non-Talolan.

Cody and Alex walk toward the relay with difficulty because of the sonic defense. They take a look and come back. Alex decides to go by himself and the defenses allow him to get in. There is a power station, defense turrets, and force fields around it and the crater from where the station launched. However, he can’t take down the defenses or use the station to teleport anywhere.

Alex relates all of this to the group, and we decide that we need Scotty’s help in order to help us with this. It takes a few days for us to get back home and then return with Scotty. He looks at it for about an hour and then he asks us to follow him. He will be entering our DNA into the system so we can enter the base and others that may exist.

Scotty says the facility is fully operational. There is a plasma generator and the guns are plasma cannons. The generator is extremely valuable and we must protect it. We decide to relocate the supplies and as many people as we can from Beloit to here. And since the satellite has the ability to relay a teleport signal, we could conceivably build or fix other stations like this around the area and teleport ourselves to them.

A while later, we have relocated things to the base and settled here a bit. On May 28th there is suddenly there is a notification on the computer that another relay has come online. Alex lets us know that we can now use the teleporter to go somewhere else but we won’t know where. There may be other aliens there.

May 29th, 2018 – After preparing their gear Alex, Scotty, Joseph, Ian, Simon, Meaghan, and Cody all go through the portal. Everyone but Alex is woozy. We see humans here, well armed and with cables everywhere. We ask them where we are and they say we are near Orlando.

Cataclysm

Session 15 – The Observatory

GM: Paul
Players: Cary-Cody/Zerk, Brad-Ian, Jon-Simon, John-Alexander, Matt-Dusty, Bob-JD and Brandon-Prof
Game Date: April 30 – May 1, 2018

Sean leads us into the observatory. The building is shaped like an “L” and is quite large. There is a fountain and green space in the front that is pretty overgrown. We see about a dozen people who are coming out as we approach. Some of them have guns.

They greet Sean and Joseph and the Prof let them know what we are looking for. They say that they can help us out, but the big telescope is broken. They also saw the launch but don’t know that it is either.

We notice someone we know — it is Dusty along with his wolf companion. An older man introduces himself, and there is an attractive couple. A woman with a 12 year old girl. Finally, another older guy standing back from the group.

They invite us in and we go to the telescope to take a look. Damian Martin (the young man), Andreas Baraza (a bookish looking man), Mikayla Abravski (younger woman who looks like a student). Andreas says that he was an instructor here and some of these people were his students.

We introduce Andreas to Alex and he reveals himself as an alien. Andreas is surprised but immediately says “I knew it!” and discusses how they saw the spaceship crash. He is very interested in speaking more with Alex and learning about his planet and history.

Simon goes off with a girl named Meaghan and they bond over comics and pop culture from the past few years. She confides in him that someone from the group very recently died. We hear from Andreas that the person was killed by a huge wolf. She also says that one of the group members was trying to go south and was captured by raiders. She managed to escape and made it back.

The group diagnoses the problem with the telescope and see that we need a 12 inch steel wheel and jacks to hold up the apparatus while we replace the broken one. We will go into town to find a new one.

Simon invites his new friend Megan to come along with us, but Ian thinks that she will be a liability. She convinces him that she can hold her own by showing him her Glock and that she knows how to use it.

Alex, noticing that Megan and Simon are taking a liking to one another, says that he is interested to see human mating in action “for science.” Joseph says that he may want to “skip this one.”

Joseph asks Megan why there are more women in their group than men. She comments that it’s because men are more likely to get killed because they go off thinking they have something to prove. Alex tells Joseph that sometimes after a person has lost someone of a certain personality, they tend to seek someone who is the complete opposite. (Referencing that if her ex-boyfriend was adventurous, she may be interested in Simon now because he is the opposite.)

On the boat, we head out and almost immediately we see a ripple in the water. The big fish is back. Everyone starts firing on it including Meagan with her glock. Alex uses a “spell” that creates a long wall in the way of the fish and it slams into it instead of the side of the boat. It does not break. Simon fires on it with his gun.

Ian saunters up to the side of the boat, raises his enormous Peacemaker pistol, sighting the gun with one eye, and blows a massive hole straight through the fish’s brain, spraying innards over the water and into the boat. A massive cloud of smoke rises from the gun and he blows over the end of the barrel, grunting as he lowers it.

Alex asks for a sample of the giant fish so we slice some off.

We get to shore and start looking through town. Meagan nudges Simon and tells him that there is an old comic store near here. They peel off and no one notices. The Prof is actually so distracted that he trips and falls and hurts himself. Alex fixes him up.

Everyone notices that Simon and Meaghan are gone and start looking for them. They are found in a comic book shop down the street looking through longboxes. Ian is angry that they are wasting time here but Simon shows him a very rare comic book that is in pristine shape. Ian asks if it is made of iron or something that we can eat. Simon retorts that “this is culture, if we don’t have this then we have nothing!” Meaghan pulls him by the arm and suggests that they go.

The group finds the Post Office and goes inside. Suddenly Meagan pulls her pistol and grabs Simon’s arm and says that she sees something. There are a group of shapes ahead. Joseph sees it and tosses a grenade into the mix and it explodes. We see several blues and start gunning them down. One attacks Simon but Meaghan shoots it down. The group shoots several more and Meaghan kills another one. Simon’s jaw drops and he asks her how she learned to shoot like that. She nonchalantly says that they practice a lot.

After the commotion is over, Dusty bursts in expecting a fight.

We clean things up and do find a wheel that should work for what we need on the telescope. Joseph also finds a shortwave radio and two handheld radios that work with it.

We go across the street to the Harley Davidson dealership and find some leather jackets. Alex finds one that has heavy pads on its elbows. It is large enough to fit him with all four arms. There is also a gun safe in the back that is turned on its side. Everyone grabs the safe and rights it, then the Prof walks up and says that he could probably beat the lock. He explains the science behind the locking mechanism and listens for the tumblers as he turns the dial, and it pops open a few moments later. Everyone just stares at him. The gun safe contains several nice guns and ammunition which we take. There is also some food and a solar charger.

Cataclysm

Session 14 – The Bear and the Sturgeon

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.