SESSION 07: TROUBLE IN BRAHMIN TOWN
General Summary
Previous Session: SESSION 06: FROM STARSHIP TO WONDER DOG
Next Session: SESSION 08 - ALL-AMERICAN CITY
Players: (The Heroes of St. Louis): Lex Garridan, Linda, Mister Man, Mouse, Zero *May 11th, 2317*
(Adventure Day 17)
The group stood in the ruins of Marshall, Missouri, at the bronze statue of Jim the Wonder Dog. A cadre of Reavers gathered before them. There was tension in the air.
The Reaver's leader, RAM, stood close to Linda. He waved a plastic jug in her face, ordering, "Drink this Loose Juice. I mean, tough juice."
The group were alarmed by RAM's change of tone. They readied themselves for anything.
"Drink it, mutie!" RAM commanded angrily.
"Linda's not a mutant!" she roared, taking up the jug and striking RAM with it.
Conflict erupted. The Reavers drew their laser guns and fired. Zero and Mouse, having sampled the "tough juice," (now revealed to be Loose Juice) dropped to the ground, stunned by the effects of the chemical agent. Zero was especially affected. He had a brief vision of Jim the Wonder Dog, shining with majesty. The dog bade him to be loyal and peaceful, and to always follow his canine example. The experience was profound, but wore off quickly.
Lex fought the Reavers at range, taking close aim with her hunting rifle. Mouse pursued a similar strategy, alternating between his bow and Paladin Hector's prized .44 revolver. Mister Man split his time between energy blasts and healing Linda, who took the brunt of the Reaver's damage. Zero went toe-to-toe as usual, his sharp knuckles tearing open bleeding wounds.
Linda, newly equipped with a Flamer from Pyro City, sent a stream of flaming liquid into her enemies. The fire spread between nearby Reavers, exterminating many at once. But even with the potent weapon, the Reavers were difficult adversaries who healed each other and fought back with precise shots. But after all, Linda and her group were victorious and the Reavers lay dead. The group looted their defeated opponents, retrieving the jug of Loose Juice and RAM's custom laser gun.
Tired and injured, the party chose to make camp for the night. Curiously, though they hadn't eaten since the previous evening and hadn't drunk in hours, neither Mouse nor Zero felt any hunger or thirst. They treated their injuries and slept a full night, undisturbed.
*May 12th, 2317*
(Adventure Day 18)
The group rose with the sun, heading north to the old Elson Reservoir. There they found a series of industrial trailers ringing the artificial lake. The area had been picked by scavengers before, but a careful search revealed useful loot, including metal leg armor and some Molotov cocktails.
Moving on, the group doubled-back to the southwest, eventually reaching the Elmwood Hatchery. The hatchery turned out to be a series of long pre-fab buildings hosting artificial ponds in which Santiago Elmwood raised catfish. He sold both raw catfish and deep-fried catfish fingers for reasonable prices. Looking for some food free of radiation, Lex purchased some catfish fingers and Santiago set to frying them up.
While he cooked, Santiago looked at the group conspiratorially. He eventually said, "Hey, you look serious. Like, heavies? There's a guy in Gravestone who ripped me off. He took 250 caps worth of my fish for his restaurant but refused to pay. His name is Willy and he manages the Burnt Ends Barbeque in Gravestone. Maybe, if someone made sure he stopped ripping people off, that'd be worth 300 caps from me."
The group noted that they might be interested in this task and Santiago elaborated: "And maybe, like, you make sure Willy never rips off anybody again? Ever."
Lex agreed energetically, entirely unaware of the darker implications of Santiago's request.
Soon the fish was ready and the group parted the hatchery amiably, headed west to Higginsville.
Higginsville sat on the western edge of the Ozark Mountains region, where the rolling hills of central Missouri give way to the enormous expanse of the Great Plains. Entering the village, the group spotted the conspicuous wealth of the LaGrey Estate, an elaborate home roosting atop the community's only significant hill. They also noticed a great commotion at the local Ranchers' Co-operative. A crowd of ranchers and ranch hands were holding a meeting, and tempers had flared.
After watching the argument and then asking a few questions, the group gathered that a Higginsville citizen, one Ophelia Howe, had been arrested in Harrisonville. She was charged with contaminating that town's grain depot, a crime that the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel had declared an act of terrorism on the part of Higginsville. As punishment, the Brotherhood had canceled their contract to buy meat from the Higginsville Ranchers' Co-op and Ophelia was going to be executed. The ranchers of Higginsville were about to take an enormous loss of profits and would have to lay-off many of their workers. The Co-op's union steward, a ghoul named Tracy, was looking to remedy the situation, but few had confidence in her abilities. Some of the ranch hands the group spoke to suspected that Ms. LaGrey was responsible for the situation. As the wealthiest rancher in the area, she had the resources to buy out all of her troubled competitors and rule with a monopoly in the brahmin trade.
Looking to help the village, but also having their own concerns, the group first went to the Red Shanty Market, where they sold their excess supplies and worked on their gear. Still focused on gathering resources, Zero suggested they next go to Debbie's Scrap Dominion and the party agreed.
Debbie didn't have anything particularly useful to sell, but she did have a story about Ophelia Howe. By her account, Ophelia had come into the village three years before and Debbie had given the newcomer a job at the junkyard. The arrangement had been satisfactory for the first two years, but then Ophelia began abusing some chem that Debbie could never identify. Six months ago [November, 2316], Debbie offered to buy Ophelia an Addictol treatment and cure her chem dependency. Ophelia refused and Debbie fired her. In mid-March, Debbie had seen Ophelia begging outside Bob's Saloon. She looked distant and sickly, and was accompanied by a strange man with red hair and an eye patch. Debbie hadn't seen her since.
On top of that, Kurt, a young man that Debbie had taken in, had fallen in with some kind of cult. There was a strange religious group based at Loyalty Field who worshipped the consumption of a drink they called Loose Juice. Kurt had quit his job at the junkyard and gone to Loyalty Field to study their faith. Debbie was afraid to approach the cult on her own, and would pay the group 25 caps if they could convince Kurt to leave.
The party assured Debbie that they would look into both matters [eventually] and left. They next went to the home of union steward Tracy, looking for more information about the Ophelia Howe situation. But speaking to the labour leader, they discovered nothing new, only that the Ranchers' Co-op would pay a reward for Ophelia Howe's lawful release or the restoration of their contract with the Brotherhood.
Learning that Higginsville had moped races that offered serious prize money, the group went to Rapidity Speedway to join the contest. Lex, Mister Man, Mouse and Zero all paid the 5 cap entry fee with only Linda sitting out, her significant weight being too much for the diminutive motorcycles. Lex purchased an agile racing suit and both her and Mouse's engines were tuned.
Though the racers on the yellow and green bikes clearly had more experience, the group dominated the race track. Lex opened up her throttle, pursuing a direct course to the finish line with careful attention to her motor. Mouse was close behind her, driving his moped hard, but taking a few opportunities to smash his neighbours. Mister Man and Zero were on missions of total destruction, crashing into any worthy competitor in order to leave Lex and Mouse in the clear. Linda cheered from the sidelines, her forceful voice carrying over the whine of the small engines.
Lex zipped toward the finish line, poised to take first place, but a last ditch burst of speed from Mouse put him over the line just a moment before her. The racer on the yellow moped, the obvious favourite to win, finished in third. The race for fourth was hotly contested. Zero had crashed so many times that his moped had stalled out and was ineffective. That left Mister Man to outrace three competitors, his bike on the verge of dying. But luck came through for Mister Man; he took fourth. The group won a total of 300 caps in prize money, having only spent 44 caps on entry, a racing suit and engine mods.
The sun was going down and the group decided to head to Bob's Hostel and Saloon. All except for Mouse, who thought it would be prudent to investigate the LaGrey Estate. Expertly sneaking through Ms. LaGrey's guards, Mouse found himself in the master bedroom, looking through the contents of her open safe. There was a stack of paper documents, a hunting rifle and a bag of loose caps. Given the noise it would make and the time he had, he knew he could take the rifle and caps, or the documents, but not both. Mouse chose the documents and left in a careful hurry.
Speaking to a ranch hand at the Saloon, the group discovered that Ophelia Howe had been a regular fixture outside of the Saloon. She had sat there begging almost every night, until late March when she suddenly disappeared. People noted that toward the end they had seen her with another beggar, a man with red hair and an eye patch. But no one could identify the man and no one recalled ever speaking to him.
Mouse returned with LaGrey's documents and the group rented a series of rooms for the night. In the privacy of a hostel room, Lex poured over the papers. She discovered that the documents proved that Ms. LaGrey had been cheating the Brotherhood for years. But the records also clearly showed that LaGrey had very few liquid assets, and didn't have anywhere near the resources necessary to buy up Higginsville and establish a monopoly. The rich landowner would stand to gain nothing from the Ophelia Howe situation. In a catastrophic turn of bad luck, Lex slipped and knocked many of the papers away. The dry and fragile documents made contact with the flames of Mister Man's propulsion jet and were turned to ash. Though not all of the papers were gone, those destroyed were the critical statements detailing LaGrey's misdealings with the Brotherhood. Copies of the documents would surely exist in the Brotherhood's base in Gravestone, but they had no evidence in hand.
*May 13th, 2317*
(Adventure Day 19)
The group went to bed early, rising at 4am, before the sunrise. Eager to finish their investigation and leave the town, the group went to the village's brahmin pasture to talk to the ranch hands. All save for Mouse, who took the cover of darkness to return to the LaGrey estate. Feeling justified by LaGrey's corrupt business practices, Mouse went back to the safe, stealing the hunting rifle and the bag of caps.
At the pasture, the party woke a sleeping cowboy who introduced himself as Jake Erikson. Linda was interested in the brahmin, so Jake showed her that the animals were friendly if one fed them razorgrain by hand. They asked Jake about Ophelia, and he told them that he would often go to Debbie's Scrap Dominion just to visit Ophelia. But a year ago, it was clear that Ophelia was abusing some kind of chem. She fell apart quick and began begging on the street. Jake didn't see her much after that, but three weeks ago [late April, 2317], she had approached him while he was working. Ophelia said that things were turning around for her. Jake had assumed that she meant she would get an Addictol treatment from Doc Wallace, but instead she just left town.
When the group asked Jake about a red-haired man with an eye patch, the cowboy's demeanour sank. He admitted that he was interested in Ophelia romantically, and was disheartened to hear that she might have someone in her life. He clearly had not heard of this man, and didn't know his identity. They promised Jake that they would help Ophelia [eventually] and moved on to the town clinic.
The sun now up and accompanied again by Mouse, the group entered Doctor Wallace's office. Dr. Wallace was a pallid, austere man who was defensive and vain. He spotted Mister Man's diagnostic module at once and inquired about the medic's credentials. Upon learning that Mister Man had studied at the prestigious Vault 40 medical school, he was impressed and treated the group much more cordially. On the subject of Ophelia Howe, he spoke dismissively and with judgment. He reported that upon learning there was a chem addict begging in the town, he had set up a payment plan for Addictol treatment. He felt that a sum of 145 caps, paid over the course of a year was more than fair. But he made no mention of this to Ophelia, and she never came to the clinic. When asked about Ms. LaGrey, Dr. Wallace lamented that Higginsville was populated by rough and ignorant labourers, most of them illiterate. Ms. LaGrey was the only person in the community he found had substance, and he greatly enjoyed her company.
They parted from the doctor's office and left Higginsville, carrying with them many new questions...
Next Session: SESSION 08 - ALL-AMERICAN CITY
Next Session: SESSION 08 - ALL-AMERICAN CITY
Players: (The Heroes of St. Louis): Lex Garridan, Linda, Mister Man, Mouse, Zero *May 11th, 2317*
(Adventure Day 17)
The group stood in the ruins of Marshall, Missouri, at the bronze statue of Jim the Wonder Dog. A cadre of Reavers gathered before them. There was tension in the air.
The Reaver's leader, RAM, stood close to Linda. He waved a plastic jug in her face, ordering, "Drink this Loose Juice. I mean, tough juice."
The group were alarmed by RAM's change of tone. They readied themselves for anything.
"Drink it, mutie!" RAM commanded angrily.
"Linda's not a mutant!" she roared, taking up the jug and striking RAM with it.
Conflict erupted. The Reavers drew their laser guns and fired. Zero and Mouse, having sampled the "tough juice," (now revealed to be Loose Juice) dropped to the ground, stunned by the effects of the chemical agent. Zero was especially affected. He had a brief vision of Jim the Wonder Dog, shining with majesty. The dog bade him to be loyal and peaceful, and to always follow his canine example. The experience was profound, but wore off quickly.
Lex fought the Reavers at range, taking close aim with her hunting rifle. Mouse pursued a similar strategy, alternating between his bow and Paladin Hector's prized .44 revolver. Mister Man split his time between energy blasts and healing Linda, who took the brunt of the Reaver's damage. Zero went toe-to-toe as usual, his sharp knuckles tearing open bleeding wounds.
Linda, newly equipped with a Flamer from Pyro City, sent a stream of flaming liquid into her enemies. The fire spread between nearby Reavers, exterminating many at once. But even with the potent weapon, the Reavers were difficult adversaries who healed each other and fought back with precise shots. But after all, Linda and her group were victorious and the Reavers lay dead. The group looted their defeated opponents, retrieving the jug of Loose Juice and RAM's custom laser gun.
Tired and injured, the party chose to make camp for the night. Curiously, though they hadn't eaten since the previous evening and hadn't drunk in hours, neither Mouse nor Zero felt any hunger or thirst. They treated their injuries and slept a full night, undisturbed.
*May 12th, 2317*
(Adventure Day 18)
The group rose with the sun, heading north to the old Elson Reservoir. There they found a series of industrial trailers ringing the artificial lake. The area had been picked by scavengers before, but a careful search revealed useful loot, including metal leg armor and some Molotov cocktails.
Moving on, the group doubled-back to the southwest, eventually reaching the Elmwood Hatchery. The hatchery turned out to be a series of long pre-fab buildings hosting artificial ponds in which Santiago Elmwood raised catfish. He sold both raw catfish and deep-fried catfish fingers for reasonable prices. Looking for some food free of radiation, Lex purchased some catfish fingers and Santiago set to frying them up.
While he cooked, Santiago looked at the group conspiratorially. He eventually said, "Hey, you look serious. Like, heavies? There's a guy in Gravestone who ripped me off. He took 250 caps worth of my fish for his restaurant but refused to pay. His name is Willy and he manages the Burnt Ends Barbeque in Gravestone. Maybe, if someone made sure he stopped ripping people off, that'd be worth 300 caps from me."
The group noted that they might be interested in this task and Santiago elaborated: "And maybe, like, you make sure Willy never rips off anybody again? Ever."
Lex agreed energetically, entirely unaware of the darker implications of Santiago's request.
Soon the fish was ready and the group parted the hatchery amiably, headed west to Higginsville.
Higginsville sat on the western edge of the Ozark Mountains region, where the rolling hills of central Missouri give way to the enormous expanse of the Great Plains. Entering the village, the group spotted the conspicuous wealth of the LaGrey Estate, an elaborate home roosting atop the community's only significant hill. They also noticed a great commotion at the local Ranchers' Co-operative. A crowd of ranchers and ranch hands were holding a meeting, and tempers had flared.
After watching the argument and then asking a few questions, the group gathered that a Higginsville citizen, one Ophelia Howe, had been arrested in Harrisonville. She was charged with contaminating that town's grain depot, a crime that the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel had declared an act of terrorism on the part of Higginsville. As punishment, the Brotherhood had canceled their contract to buy meat from the Higginsville Ranchers' Co-op and Ophelia was going to be executed. The ranchers of Higginsville were about to take an enormous loss of profits and would have to lay-off many of their workers. The Co-op's union steward, a ghoul named Tracy, was looking to remedy the situation, but few had confidence in her abilities. Some of the ranch hands the group spoke to suspected that Ms. LaGrey was responsible for the situation. As the wealthiest rancher in the area, she had the resources to buy out all of her troubled competitors and rule with a monopoly in the brahmin trade.
Looking to help the village, but also having their own concerns, the group first went to the Red Shanty Market, where they sold their excess supplies and worked on their gear. Still focused on gathering resources, Zero suggested they next go to Debbie's Scrap Dominion and the party agreed.
Debbie didn't have anything particularly useful to sell, but she did have a story about Ophelia Howe. By her account, Ophelia had come into the village three years before and Debbie had given the newcomer a job at the junkyard. The arrangement had been satisfactory for the first two years, but then Ophelia began abusing some chem that Debbie could never identify. Six months ago [November, 2316], Debbie offered to buy Ophelia an Addictol treatment and cure her chem dependency. Ophelia refused and Debbie fired her. In mid-March, Debbie had seen Ophelia begging outside Bob's Saloon. She looked distant and sickly, and was accompanied by a strange man with red hair and an eye patch. Debbie hadn't seen her since.
On top of that, Kurt, a young man that Debbie had taken in, had fallen in with some kind of cult. There was a strange religious group based at Loyalty Field who worshipped the consumption of a drink they called Loose Juice. Kurt had quit his job at the junkyard and gone to Loyalty Field to study their faith. Debbie was afraid to approach the cult on her own, and would pay the group 25 caps if they could convince Kurt to leave.
The party assured Debbie that they would look into both matters [eventually] and left. They next went to the home of union steward Tracy, looking for more information about the Ophelia Howe situation. But speaking to the labour leader, they discovered nothing new, only that the Ranchers' Co-op would pay a reward for Ophelia Howe's lawful release or the restoration of their contract with the Brotherhood.
Learning that Higginsville had moped races that offered serious prize money, the group went to Rapidity Speedway to join the contest. Lex, Mister Man, Mouse and Zero all paid the 5 cap entry fee with only Linda sitting out, her significant weight being too much for the diminutive motorcycles. Lex purchased an agile racing suit and both her and Mouse's engines were tuned.
Though the racers on the yellow and green bikes clearly had more experience, the group dominated the race track. Lex opened up her throttle, pursuing a direct course to the finish line with careful attention to her motor. Mouse was close behind her, driving his moped hard, but taking a few opportunities to smash his neighbours. Mister Man and Zero were on missions of total destruction, crashing into any worthy competitor in order to leave Lex and Mouse in the clear. Linda cheered from the sidelines, her forceful voice carrying over the whine of the small engines.
Lex zipped toward the finish line, poised to take first place, but a last ditch burst of speed from Mouse put him over the line just a moment before her. The racer on the yellow moped, the obvious favourite to win, finished in third. The race for fourth was hotly contested. Zero had crashed so many times that his moped had stalled out and was ineffective. That left Mister Man to outrace three competitors, his bike on the verge of dying. But luck came through for Mister Man; he took fourth. The group won a total of 300 caps in prize money, having only spent 44 caps on entry, a racing suit and engine mods.
The sun was going down and the group decided to head to Bob's Hostel and Saloon. All except for Mouse, who thought it would be prudent to investigate the LaGrey Estate. Expertly sneaking through Ms. LaGrey's guards, Mouse found himself in the master bedroom, looking through the contents of her open safe. There was a stack of paper documents, a hunting rifle and a bag of loose caps. Given the noise it would make and the time he had, he knew he could take the rifle and caps, or the documents, but not both. Mouse chose the documents and left in a careful hurry.
Speaking to a ranch hand at the Saloon, the group discovered that Ophelia Howe had been a regular fixture outside of the Saloon. She had sat there begging almost every night, until late March when she suddenly disappeared. People noted that toward the end they had seen her with another beggar, a man with red hair and an eye patch. But no one could identify the man and no one recalled ever speaking to him.
Mouse returned with LaGrey's documents and the group rented a series of rooms for the night. In the privacy of a hostel room, Lex poured over the papers. She discovered that the documents proved that Ms. LaGrey had been cheating the Brotherhood for years. But the records also clearly showed that LaGrey had very few liquid assets, and didn't have anywhere near the resources necessary to buy up Higginsville and establish a monopoly. The rich landowner would stand to gain nothing from the Ophelia Howe situation. In a catastrophic turn of bad luck, Lex slipped and knocked many of the papers away. The dry and fragile documents made contact with the flames of Mister Man's propulsion jet and were turned to ash. Though not all of the papers were gone, those destroyed were the critical statements detailing LaGrey's misdealings with the Brotherhood. Copies of the documents would surely exist in the Brotherhood's base in Gravestone, but they had no evidence in hand.
*May 13th, 2317*
(Adventure Day 19)
The group went to bed early, rising at 4am, before the sunrise. Eager to finish their investigation and leave the town, the group went to the village's brahmin pasture to talk to the ranch hands. All save for Mouse, who took the cover of darkness to return to the LaGrey estate. Feeling justified by LaGrey's corrupt business practices, Mouse went back to the safe, stealing the hunting rifle and the bag of caps.
At the pasture, the party woke a sleeping cowboy who introduced himself as Jake Erikson. Linda was interested in the brahmin, so Jake showed her that the animals were friendly if one fed them razorgrain by hand. They asked Jake about Ophelia, and he told them that he would often go to Debbie's Scrap Dominion just to visit Ophelia. But a year ago, it was clear that Ophelia was abusing some kind of chem. She fell apart quick and began begging on the street. Jake didn't see her much after that, but three weeks ago [late April, 2317], she had approached him while he was working. Ophelia said that things were turning around for her. Jake had assumed that she meant she would get an Addictol treatment from Doc Wallace, but instead she just left town.
When the group asked Jake about a red-haired man with an eye patch, the cowboy's demeanour sank. He admitted that he was interested in Ophelia romantically, and was disheartened to hear that she might have someone in her life. He clearly had not heard of this man, and didn't know his identity. They promised Jake that they would help Ophelia [eventually] and moved on to the town clinic.
The sun now up and accompanied again by Mouse, the group entered Doctor Wallace's office. Dr. Wallace was a pallid, austere man who was defensive and vain. He spotted Mister Man's diagnostic module at once and inquired about the medic's credentials. Upon learning that Mister Man had studied at the prestigious Vault 40 medical school, he was impressed and treated the group much more cordially. On the subject of Ophelia Howe, he spoke dismissively and with judgment. He reported that upon learning there was a chem addict begging in the town, he had set up a payment plan for Addictol treatment. He felt that a sum of 145 caps, paid over the course of a year was more than fair. But he made no mention of this to Ophelia, and she never came to the clinic. When asked about Ms. LaGrey, Dr. Wallace lamented that Higginsville was populated by rough and ignorant labourers, most of them illiterate. Ms. LaGrey was the only person in the community he found had substance, and he greatly enjoyed her company.
They parted from the doctor's office and left Higginsville, carrying with them many new questions...
Next Session: SESSION 08 - ALL-AMERICAN CITY
Missions/Quests Completed
Character(s) interacted with
Report Date
06 Jun 2021
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