A Gamma World® play-by-post adventure run by gammaworld_gm
Before leaving, Abe gave you 3 chemical energy cells for your energy mace (each cell lasts 15 minutes of constant use), the 5 energy grenades in the belt, 5 specialized arrows (your choice of what type of arrows they are), and a month's supply of food and equipment.
Finishing his self diagnostic, Geo says, "The sthecurity botsth should be activated any time Howard. The portable atomic core is being installed as we speak." Geo takes a moment to uncross two wires and closes the plate on his chest. All unneeded "th"s would now be removed from his speech.
Entering the security station, you see Gallus watching dozens of monitors, one of which shows Kicker and Lamia entering the bathroom. Another shows Abe's group leaving. One camera even shows a small dust-covered ship in the maintenance bay. Deciding not to watch the women, you quickly leave the security station, knowing Gallus 5/13 is safe there.
Leaving the bar, you head to the gift shop. You jimmy open the gift shop door with a tool from you Tech Level III toolset. Entering, you see hundreds of trinkets, stuffed animals and post cards. All marked at over-inflated prices. The first interesting things you find are a red whistle, different colored sun glasses and a small yellow stuffed duck which talks when you pull its string.
Then you feel a rifle barrel touch the center of your back, "Freeze thieving mutant dirt bag. You are under arrest. Ask yourself, do I have 5 shots or 10 shots in this heavy laser rifle? Do you feel lucky, punk?"
Ok, go to the map. Of course you will see Haven (in blue) at the top right of the map. Then go to the Starport in the center of the map (in yellow). Go straight down the map from the Starport (down is South). The Flower Lands are somewhere on your side of the mountains (or in the mountains) across from the city Datil (in blue). Datil may even be Timon's home base.
Remember some of these mountains are very tall and snow covered the year round, even though there are desert and badlands far below them.
"Waugh!" Howard raises his wings/arms as if to surrender. "I had it on good authority that thisth place wasth destherted!" Howard recalls a pan of the outside of the gift shop that showed a dark, abandoned shop. He can only assume he's facing a pesky lizard man, as who would camp out in an abandoned Starport waiting for a thief to show up?
If his detainee lets him, Howard will non-threateningly and slowly turn around. If words don't get him out of the mess, whether or not he is allowed to turn around, he'll use his teleport object ability to try to teleport the "barrel" (if it is indeed a gun) to his own hands.
Howard has no fear. The next pan of the gift shop should show Gallus that he's probably in trouble, and no doubt the cavalry will be on their way....
"You move one feather or even try to turn around and I'll make Duck-Fu-Yong out you Mr. Peking Duck!" With the barrel of the rifle against your back you are pushed into a dark broom closet and the door is closed and locked behind you. "Now you're in real trouble, just you wait and see!" Crossing the gift shop, the unknown thief catcher locks the jimmied door, cleans the floor, straightens the disrupted gift shop items, and then hides behind the counter in the darkened gift shop.
Lights come on throughout the entire Starport as power is restored. Almost a thousand robots of all sizes and shapes come alive and begin their assigned tasks. Only the gift shop remains closed and dark. A sign in the window says, "Closed Four Days For Easter!" The nearby restaurant begins cleaning and preparing for the afternoon buffet.
Music starts playing in the gift shop. A very deep ancient voice sings, "You're going down, down... in a burning ring of fire!"
What do you do Howard?
Meanwhile back at the bar...
Yelling loud enough so that everyone can hear it, Gallus exclaims, "Geo, Howard's gone and got himself caught shoplifting by the Gift Shop janitor. Someone is going to have to go save his feathered butt!"
Leaning on the bar, I turn to Jonn as he walks by. I put out my hand to stop him abruptly as would any cocky Roosteroid. "I say, I say there boooy, I was thinking it might just be better if I stayed here and roosted in the security room, since it is my specialty, ya know."
I take 3 energy cells for my blaster, plus whatever supplies and grenades they'll let me score.
"Hey, Josh," I say to my newly-found robo-son, "why don't you and I go rescue Howard from the nasty ol' broom pusher?" Secretly I hope that no one else comes along---some time alone with my son will give me the chance to ask him some much-needed questions.
"Ok. We can handle this," says K-11 to everyone else in the bar. Together, you (K-11 and Jake) leave the bar and walk around the corner to the gift shop. The gift shop is dark and a sign in the door says, "Closed Four Days For Easter!" Testing the door, you find it to be locked. Using his godlike strength, K-11 pulls the door open, breaking the lock.
Pausing, the K-11's red glowing eyes look into you (Jake) deeply. "I'm still Josh, at least some of me. I wish I could be who I was originally." Wanting to touch you, he instead turns away.
"This is not going be a good day," thinks the janitor, readying his mop handle.
Putting my hand upon K-11's shoulder, I say, "Son, as far as I'm concerned, all of you is Josh and I'm happy that you are here with me. Please, when we get the chance and you can stand to talk about it, tell me what happened; I swear by Yahweh that I will do anything I can to make things right!"
"Helloooo!" I call out, "I'm sorry about the door, but the previous proprietor lost the key. That's the first thing that will have to be fixed."
Removing the "Closed Four Days For Easter!" sign from the door, I change the store's regular "Closed" sign to "Open" and look for the janitor-bot.
"Why Captain, if you think Geo's robot army needs some watchin', I'm sure you and Gallus would serve the need fine. But are you sure you want out? We could be gone for quite a while, and we could use your expertise with security systems, while Gallus could probably handle the monitors and direct the service robots himself. It's your choice, my friend, but I should also point out that those chicken-lovin' mutant flytraps are still hanging out downstairs!" Jonn claps the Roosteroid on his shoulder feathers and then heads behind the counter to the security room.
"Hey Geo, you're with me. We need to chat," Jonn says to Geo in passing. Entering the security closet, Jonn says to the disembodied security bot's head, "Gallus, what's on DodgersVision™? I bet the ol' duck is up to no good in this week's episode!"
"Who does he think I'm with this time?" Geo wonders electronically, and follows the Pure Strain human to the security room, closely mimicking his gait as best he can.
Jonn pulls up a stool, and motions the robot bartender over next to him. "Geo, I have a feeling that Timon was the one who sent the hunter/killer robot after us. I also think that he may have bugged you with that device, to learn of our plans. Did your self-diagnostic reveal anything? Why do you think you malfunctioned?" Jonn asks, then notices Gallus zooming in on some commotion in the gift shop monitor. "Oh, look, K-11's bustin' down the house!"
"I will tell you more later."
With the lights turned on, a four foot tall robotic janitor (with a mop) exits from behind the counter and stops in front you. "It's about time someone opened us up. That sure was a long four days!" (4 days = 256 years) Crossing the room, the janitor opens the broom closet where Howard is standing unhappily. Jabbing the Duckoid with his broom handle, the janitor says, "Get out of there Peking Duck! That's my room!" Once Howard comes out of the closet (GM thinks of including a pun here but doesn't) the janitor enters and closes the door behind him.
Unless someone continues their search of the gift shop, I assume you (Jake, K-11, Howard) return to the bar to get ready to leave.
"I knew it was a broom handle! I knew it!" Howard pleads to Jake and K-11. Surmising that his humor is lost on the likes of them, Howard gives up and throws his feathered arms in the air. Before he heads back to the bar, Howard grabs a pair of purple sun-glasses, one of the red whistles, and the duck that talks when one pulls it's string. Any other interesting baubles Howard finds he'll gladly pocket.
"I told you before Jonn, my sexual programing is limited to females only!" noticing Jonn's hand on his shoulder. "Yes, Blackbeard/Timon would be a good suspect. Stramagix did tell me between naps that a flying robot did come into the bar and even fired on him while we were gone, but he was immune to its effects. Checking for bugs, I discovered only two." Geo lays out an electronic bug and a large insect on the table in front of you. "Both have been disabled. My self diagnostic revealed I had two wires crossed, nothing more."
"Watch this Jonn." You see Howard saying "I knew it was a broom handle! I knew it!" As Howard leaves the gift you see him take a pair of purple sun-glasses, one of the red whistles, and a stuffed duck. "See... I told you he was a criminal duck!" says the security robot head. A different screen shows Lamia and Kicker in the bathroom talking.
A few minutes later, Howard returns to join the conversation.
Back at the bar... "Hey Dukasth! Look what I found!" He shows Jonn the toy duck and tries the pre-war contraption out. Howard pulls the string on the stuffed duck, and it says "I'm rappin' cool duck and this is my sound... quack, quack! If ya' wanta get with me, you hafta get down... quack, quack!"
Chugging the last of my sarbis beer, I wait until Jonn leaves the room. I glance around, still seated on a bar stool. I feel lost in this new environment. What should I do? I see Howard walk by and think he would look much better as a female mutated duck. I look at my empty beer bottle suspiciously.
The distinctly male mutated duck notices Leghorn's stare, and gladly approaches to show Leghorn his new find, pulling the string again on the toy duck.
"I'm rappin' cool duck and this is my sound... quack, quack! If ya' wanta get with me, you hafta get down... quack, quack!"
"Great, isthn't it?" He claps Leghorn on the shoulder, which makes his headdress and wattle wobble. "Stho, ready to go, Leghorn?" Howard is oblivious to the fact that Captain Leghorn wishes to remain behind.
Howard stashes all his gear in his backpack, including any duck-sized parkas Abe might have brought with him. Then again, he's a duck, and can stand the cold a bit easier than most warm blooded humanoids.
The next adventure will begin tomorrow morning, besides... how long can two women really stay in the bathroom anyway? <grin>
Putting the last of your filled canteens into your large army issue backpacks, everyone prepares to leave.
"I will carry your backpack, Father, and anything else you wish me to carry. Even someone else's backpack if needed," says the robot, taking Jake's backpack and putting it on. Its strength is far above that of any human.
"I can carry one person's backpack," says the much smaller robot called Geo, looking up at the 6 foot-plus tall, solidly built K-11 security robot and wishing a bit more metal had been added to his own frame. "It's not like I'm ever going to play ancient basketball on level 6 anyway," he computes to himself.
I pause from my primping to consider Lamia's question about noncommittal males. Many secrets are exchanged, and advice given on both sides. Indeed, we loose all track of time.
Suddenly, an odd feeling grips me, and I look all around. "Lamia," I say, "I have the weirdest feeling that we're being watched! What say we stroll out to rejoin the gang?" Before we exit I whisper, "Now remember, we surely aren't going to head out on our mission tonight---we talk them into having a good night's sleep and starting fresh in the morning. Tonight's your chance! If that doesn't work, there's always the 'oh-my-what-a-storm-we'd-better-double-up-in-one-tent-for-warmth' plan. Good luck!"
Inside I smile. Her infatuation with the human is rather sweet. Hmmm, I could use a good book to pass the time. I wonder if the gift shop's open?
"I too have that 'Big Brother' feeling," I say, looking around and trying to set up that perfect trademark Jamie shot. "I think they're planning on leaving right now. Thanks for the advice, Kicker. I bet Jonn would fall for that one. I think I did see one book on lions, tigers, and cougars in the window." We enter the bar and join the others.
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