welsh
Junkmaster
Since those that might be joining Lone Wanderers for the first time might not have the time to read all of chapter 1 and 2 (and its a long damn document in Word), and because some of the new members have asked, here is a summary.
Many of the events of Chapter 1 and 2 fit into an overall story but there are a number of subthemes and sub-stories moving through. One such theme is the issue of destiny and fate. Another is about family and loyalty. The chapters involve humor, horror, action and character development.
Thus the posts tend to be longer than most, and the characters fairly developed. As mentioned before, this is more like a cooperative novel than a game of dungeons and dragons.
The rule of No post in 5 days means you could be killed applies, even if it hasn't been executed.
PS- If I miss anything, older players are more than welcomed to add in.
Chapter 1-
Begins with a random event. Most of the current major characters (Rogue, Grim, Fang, Caleb) meet in a bar (The Rusty Nail) in Tabis. All for different reasons. Rogue is looking for lost family, Grim is seeking revenge against Kroeger (an arms dealer), Fang and Caleb's reasons are unclear. What is important is that Fang, a Slayer, and Caleb, a Blade are sitting at the same table. Although we know of no words passed between these two, other parties take notice and suspect that there may be a Slayer-Blade alliance in Tabis that that might upset their plans.
Caleb, the blade, decides to intervene when a barmaid is hassled by a group of Raiders. In a quick and bloody gunfight, all six are killed, and then Caleb and the others leave before the local police come. It is later revealed that these Raiders were meant to deliver a message two people Kroeger (the arms dealer) and Mckinner (a local offical who manages the caravan routes) that another group of raiders has been defeated.
Fang disappears for the night, bunks down and is out till the next day. Rogue goes to the caravans to see if there is work and is told that the town is under a blocade from raiders and no caravans are leaving. Grim is investigating, and learns that Caleb is being observed. Indeed, an attempt is made on Caleb that night which is interrupted by Grim. Grim leaves word for Caleb to meet him through what he thinks is a neutral messenger and returns to the Rusty Nail. There he meets Rogue as well as learns that Kroeger and McKinner are having a meeting. This is the final meeting before the conspiracy plans to "take" Tabis.
Meanwhile Caleb takes the message and is in route to meet Grim, but is ambushed and dragged to the Tabis junkyard where the raiders have a base. The plan is for Claire McKinner, (who we learn latter is an agent of the conspiracy) to torture Caleb to find out if there is a Slaver-Blade alliance. The raiders begin the torture, during which Caleb discovers that the raiders plan to attack a large Blade encampment near Tabis.
Grim and Rogue split up, Rogue to meet with Caleb and Grim to deal with Kroeger. Grim attacks Kroeger in the meeting, before McKinner's arrival, but Kroeger escapes. Meanwhile Rogue learns that Caleb has been kidnapped and plans a rescue.
Soon Grim and Rogue again meet and decide to rescue Caleb from the raiders. Caleb has plans of his own and makes good his own escape just before Grim and Rogue are to attempt their own. There is a brutal gunfight in the junkyard, but Grim and Caleb finally meet up. More importantly, the heroes also learn of a third party that has interests at stake, the Ghouls. Finally a fourth party makes his appearance, Mandrake- an assassin that is working for "the conspiracy."
The ghouls offer the heroes an escape from the onslaught of raiders, through the abandoned sewars of Tabis. However, Grim refuses and goes to help Rogue. During this engagement he is wounded and knocked unconscious. Caleb confronts Mandrake for the first time, but neither get the upperhand. Rogue survives and the ghouls assist in their escape underneath, followed like a shadow but the elusive Mandrake.
Underneath Tabis, the heroes are taken to large cave in which the ghouls have made camp. In Fang's world, the ghouls are something of an untouchable class, doing low class work and being discriminated against. However, the ghouls are also one of the most organized and sophisticated of the dwellers of the wasteland, collectors of science, literature and history and technically proficient. They are the ones who operate a reactor located somewhere in the wasteland. Under Wally's care, Grim and the others are healed, and take time to recover.
It is now morning, and Fang has woken up and begins his investigation. He learns from the border patrol that Kroeger is in Tabis, and that there is a conspiracy afoot to blocade not only Tabis but all the towns of the wasteland. Someone has recruited the different raider clans and supplying them with weapons (Kroeger) and now they serve an unknown conspiracy's goals. McKinner and Kroeger are part of it. Caleb also makes an attempt of Kroeger's life, but again Kroeger escapes. Caleb later meets with two or three other Slayers and more importantly a ghoul that eventually brings Caleb and company down into the ghoul cave.
There is a discussion where ideas and info is shared. The group begins to speculate about what is going on, and who can be behind it. But there is delay. Meanwhile, the raiders are searching the sewars and Mandrake is hunting. It is at this time that we meet Skik, a ghoul thief who likes grenades, who has a confrontation with Mandrake. It is a fiery and explosive meeting, in which both Mandrake and Skik are lucky to survive.
At the end of the day, Caleb and Grim get frustated with the delay of the others. Caleb elects to head off on his own to give notice to the Blades. Grim decides he's going to get payback on Kroeger and Mckinner personally and leaves with Skik. The others remain behind to help the ghouls escape from the raiders who have, by now, discovered the cave.
Caleb leaves with Wally and Patch, another ghoul. But in the escape, through a water treatment works, they confornt Mandrake for the last time in that chapter. The fight is desperate, and Patch is killed. Wally returns to the sewars and Caleb climbs over the wall to go, on foot, to the aid of his brothers.
Grim and Skik learn that the conspiracy has a plan to destroy the Blades from far away, through the massive artillery piece which Kroeger had found from out in the wastes. They secretly sabotage the gun, which explodes when the conspiracy tries to use it to take out the Blades. Later, Grim and Skik are able to sneak back into the junkyard, where finally the McKinner and Kroeger are to make their meeting.
Kroeger has been having second thoughts. The presence of this new group has created many uncertainties and he is unsure of how to go forward. Mandrake leaves, taking with him Claire as payment. Before he meets with McKinner, Grim and Skik strike. Trapping McKinner in the warehouse in the junkyard, Skik tosses a pair of high explosive grenades through a window. This sets off the other explosives in the building and virtually blow the building apart.
Kroeger witnesses this and figures its time to split. He goes to McKinner's safe to grab Mckinner's treasure, but is assassinated by unknown parties.
Thus more or less ends Chapter 1. The party is divided even if the conspiracy that had planned to take Tabis is now frustrated.
Chap 2 is a bit easier-
Caleb heads out in the wastes to find he is too late to save his brothers. In dispair he buries them, during a period in which he either has a prophecy or an hallucination of meeting death. Later he is captured by Slavers and brought back towards Tabis, but engineers his escape. He learns that it was raiders that killed his brothers (an amazing feat considering the power of the Blades) but that some of the Blades were sold off to slavery and have been shipped to Tabis. He returns to Tabis to reunite with the others.
Grim, who has been waiting at the Rusty Nail for the others to show up, also learns of this event and decides he must go out to see about Caleb, if he has survived or is out there in the wastes. But first he elects to reunite with Skik and see about the others.
Skik, has gotten into a bit of trouble shooting at local slavers. The slavers have decided to trap him in the sewars and kill him.
Rogue had been involved in the fight in the sewars that helped the ghouls escape, got seperated from Fang, and is now trying to find her way out. She hears the sound of fighting in the sewars.
Fang and company are unaccounted for.
Mandrake is also still around. After assassinating a local drug manufacturer for the conspiracy he unites with a local "control" the darkman, who we learn later is named Marcus. Marcus instructs Mandrake that Mandrake is to take Claire Mckinner to Red Waters where she is to be displayed as a symbol of what happens when the conspiracy is displeased. Mandrake steals a cart from Ibis, the local funeral director and mortician, and the last we see of him in Tabis is riding like mad out of town, Claire Mckinner screaming in the back. Claire's fingers have been removed, her eyes have forks inside them, and she has been under of diet of narcotics that perpetuate a series of hellish hallucinations.
Ibis is something of an outcast and a mystic. He has seen prophecy of what has happened to the Blades and can foretell bad things coming, in whcih Caleb plays a critical part. A fire in town brings him into Tabis to help out with the fire, but being old and frail he learns of some of the details that it was more than just raiders that attacked and destroyed the raider encampment. A prostitute, Fantasia, leads him to her place to get the story from a witness, a wounded raider who has deserted his group. But the raider is killed, and an attempt is made on both Fantasia and Ibis's life.
At about the same time, the Tabis police are investigating the large presence of slavers in town. Neil and Paul are assigned to look into the matter.
Down in the tunnels Grim and SKik meet up, and there is a battle in which both are almost killed, and Grim is grievously wounded. They attempt to escape and in a long running battle are able to reunite with Rogue and Caleb, who has also returned to the town and is trying to reunite with the others. They also meet a new comer, Gabriel, a member of the sub-group of the Slayers, the Night Blade- highly trained assassins that specialize in night and hand-to-hand fighting. Skik brings the group to an old abandoned fort in Wainright park, then Rogue and Skik go back to get help from the town, namely from a friend of Grim's Yacob, who is the proprietor of the Rusty Nail.
Neil and Paul's investigation leads them to the sewars, where they discover the violent aftermath of the sewar battle. It also leads them, eventually to Wainright Park where they meet up with Caleb, Gabriel and Grim.
SKik's choice of hideouts is a curious one. Wainright Park is invested with deathclaws. While the deathclaws are not interested in ghouls for food, the smell of humans awakens their appetite. The fights here are desperate. Grim, who has been patched up, is again wounded helping Gabriel escape the deathclaw and is essentially out of commission for most of the rest of this chapter. Inadvertently, Gabriel and Caleb give Grim ghoul plasma which, mixed with effects of psycho, will have long lasting ghoulish effects on Grim.
The deathclaws attack the fort, and Paul and Neil are both killed. Meanwhile Rogue has mangaged to track down and save Ibis and has been able to form a group of rescuers centered around Yacob, his brother, some caravan guards and thre bordermen. They try to get to the fort in Wainright by going over the "El" and elevated highway.
However, these recuers are not on the El very long when they discover they are being followed by over two score of slavers. The battle on the El is between the rescuers trying to outrun the slavers while also confronting the deathclaw that are in front of them. Apparently the local police chief has been coopted by the conspiracy.
This battle is especially brutal. The rescuers barely make it into the fort, losing two of the caravan guards and two of the bordermen on the way. But in doing so the devestation on the slavers is especially bad. Most of the slavers are killed, with only a small group, centered around the leader Jeeva, making it to the Fort.
It is at this moment that Caleb makes a critical choice between killing the slavers or letting them in. Against his own judgment, he lets them in, figuring that the slaver numbers will be needed against the deathclaw.
Also joining the group is a small group of ghouls centered around Skik and Wally. This group takes some losses helping the rescuers into the fort, but eventually also join forces.
Thus the fort is composed of a mixed bag of wounded, slavers and non-slavers, and ghouls. Most of the deathclaw have faded back under daylight, but they have not gone completely. The wounded cannot be moved safely until they are rested, so the group is basically stuck to get through another night.
Shortly before the second night, Jeeva and his slavers learn that an old generator could be used to help in the defence, by electrifying the razor wire that surrounds the old fort and the door. They make this attempt and barely finish before the deathclaw attack, killing a of their number before the rest can escape. The group decides to wait for day break to make a go at the fort.
During this night Skik takes Gabriel back to Tabis through the sewars. The plan is to assassinate the police chief who apparently has locked the gate back into Tabis. Unless this gate is unlocked, the group is virtually trapped in the fort by the deathclaw, as the wounded cannot be moved through the sewars. In town the leader of the border guards, some of the local police and wife of Yacob are urging for another attempt to rescue the wounded men.
Gabriel assassinates the police chief, who had been coopted by the conspiracy. Indeed it was the conspiracy that had sent the slavers after Rogue and the first rescue attempt as well as into the sewars to kill Skik, Grim, Caleb and Rogue. Gabriel also learns that Fantasia has also been assassinated. When he investigates he has a run in with the darkman, Marcus, who has been the one manipulating events in Tabis. Marcus and Gabriel both survive and go in different directions.
With the police chief assassinated a second rescue is attempted, and Gabriel is able to join the supply group, led by Yacob's wife.
WHile the rescue force tries to force its way into Wainright, the survivors in the fort attempt a break out, as well as an attempt to trap a deathclaw.
We are currently at the point where the rescue force and the group escaping the fort are about to link up, and Chapter 2 is near its close.
There is more, so please offer any thoughts or questions you might have. Again, other players are welcome to add to this.
Many of the events of Chapter 1 and 2 fit into an overall story but there are a number of subthemes and sub-stories moving through. One such theme is the issue of destiny and fate. Another is about family and loyalty. The chapters involve humor, horror, action and character development.
Thus the posts tend to be longer than most, and the characters fairly developed. As mentioned before, this is more like a cooperative novel than a game of dungeons and dragons.
The rule of No post in 5 days means you could be killed applies, even if it hasn't been executed.
PS- If I miss anything, older players are more than welcomed to add in.
Chapter 1-
Begins with a random event. Most of the current major characters (Rogue, Grim, Fang, Caleb) meet in a bar (The Rusty Nail) in Tabis. All for different reasons. Rogue is looking for lost family, Grim is seeking revenge against Kroeger (an arms dealer), Fang and Caleb's reasons are unclear. What is important is that Fang, a Slayer, and Caleb, a Blade are sitting at the same table. Although we know of no words passed between these two, other parties take notice and suspect that there may be a Slayer-Blade alliance in Tabis that that might upset their plans.
Caleb, the blade, decides to intervene when a barmaid is hassled by a group of Raiders. In a quick and bloody gunfight, all six are killed, and then Caleb and the others leave before the local police come. It is later revealed that these Raiders were meant to deliver a message two people Kroeger (the arms dealer) and Mckinner (a local offical who manages the caravan routes) that another group of raiders has been defeated.
Fang disappears for the night, bunks down and is out till the next day. Rogue goes to the caravans to see if there is work and is told that the town is under a blocade from raiders and no caravans are leaving. Grim is investigating, and learns that Caleb is being observed. Indeed, an attempt is made on Caleb that night which is interrupted by Grim. Grim leaves word for Caleb to meet him through what he thinks is a neutral messenger and returns to the Rusty Nail. There he meets Rogue as well as learns that Kroeger and McKinner are having a meeting. This is the final meeting before the conspiracy plans to "take" Tabis.
Meanwhile Caleb takes the message and is in route to meet Grim, but is ambushed and dragged to the Tabis junkyard where the raiders have a base. The plan is for Claire McKinner, (who we learn latter is an agent of the conspiracy) to torture Caleb to find out if there is a Slaver-Blade alliance. The raiders begin the torture, during which Caleb discovers that the raiders plan to attack a large Blade encampment near Tabis.
Grim and Rogue split up, Rogue to meet with Caleb and Grim to deal with Kroeger. Grim attacks Kroeger in the meeting, before McKinner's arrival, but Kroeger escapes. Meanwhile Rogue learns that Caleb has been kidnapped and plans a rescue.
Soon Grim and Rogue again meet and decide to rescue Caleb from the raiders. Caleb has plans of his own and makes good his own escape just before Grim and Rogue are to attempt their own. There is a brutal gunfight in the junkyard, but Grim and Caleb finally meet up. More importantly, the heroes also learn of a third party that has interests at stake, the Ghouls. Finally a fourth party makes his appearance, Mandrake- an assassin that is working for "the conspiracy."
The ghouls offer the heroes an escape from the onslaught of raiders, through the abandoned sewars of Tabis. However, Grim refuses and goes to help Rogue. During this engagement he is wounded and knocked unconscious. Caleb confronts Mandrake for the first time, but neither get the upperhand. Rogue survives and the ghouls assist in their escape underneath, followed like a shadow but the elusive Mandrake.
Underneath Tabis, the heroes are taken to large cave in which the ghouls have made camp. In Fang's world, the ghouls are something of an untouchable class, doing low class work and being discriminated against. However, the ghouls are also one of the most organized and sophisticated of the dwellers of the wasteland, collectors of science, literature and history and technically proficient. They are the ones who operate a reactor located somewhere in the wasteland. Under Wally's care, Grim and the others are healed, and take time to recover.
It is now morning, and Fang has woken up and begins his investigation. He learns from the border patrol that Kroeger is in Tabis, and that there is a conspiracy afoot to blocade not only Tabis but all the towns of the wasteland. Someone has recruited the different raider clans and supplying them with weapons (Kroeger) and now they serve an unknown conspiracy's goals. McKinner and Kroeger are part of it. Caleb also makes an attempt of Kroeger's life, but again Kroeger escapes. Caleb later meets with two or three other Slayers and more importantly a ghoul that eventually brings Caleb and company down into the ghoul cave.
There is a discussion where ideas and info is shared. The group begins to speculate about what is going on, and who can be behind it. But there is delay. Meanwhile, the raiders are searching the sewars and Mandrake is hunting. It is at this time that we meet Skik, a ghoul thief who likes grenades, who has a confrontation with Mandrake. It is a fiery and explosive meeting, in which both Mandrake and Skik are lucky to survive.
At the end of the day, Caleb and Grim get frustated with the delay of the others. Caleb elects to head off on his own to give notice to the Blades. Grim decides he's going to get payback on Kroeger and Mckinner personally and leaves with Skik. The others remain behind to help the ghouls escape from the raiders who have, by now, discovered the cave.
Caleb leaves with Wally and Patch, another ghoul. But in the escape, through a water treatment works, they confornt Mandrake for the last time in that chapter. The fight is desperate, and Patch is killed. Wally returns to the sewars and Caleb climbs over the wall to go, on foot, to the aid of his brothers.
Grim and Skik learn that the conspiracy has a plan to destroy the Blades from far away, through the massive artillery piece which Kroeger had found from out in the wastes. They secretly sabotage the gun, which explodes when the conspiracy tries to use it to take out the Blades. Later, Grim and Skik are able to sneak back into the junkyard, where finally the McKinner and Kroeger are to make their meeting.
Kroeger has been having second thoughts. The presence of this new group has created many uncertainties and he is unsure of how to go forward. Mandrake leaves, taking with him Claire as payment. Before he meets with McKinner, Grim and Skik strike. Trapping McKinner in the warehouse in the junkyard, Skik tosses a pair of high explosive grenades through a window. This sets off the other explosives in the building and virtually blow the building apart.
Kroeger witnesses this and figures its time to split. He goes to McKinner's safe to grab Mckinner's treasure, but is assassinated by unknown parties.
Thus more or less ends Chapter 1. The party is divided even if the conspiracy that had planned to take Tabis is now frustrated.
Chap 2 is a bit easier-
Caleb heads out in the wastes to find he is too late to save his brothers. In dispair he buries them, during a period in which he either has a prophecy or an hallucination of meeting death. Later he is captured by Slavers and brought back towards Tabis, but engineers his escape. He learns that it was raiders that killed his brothers (an amazing feat considering the power of the Blades) but that some of the Blades were sold off to slavery and have been shipped to Tabis. He returns to Tabis to reunite with the others.
Grim, who has been waiting at the Rusty Nail for the others to show up, also learns of this event and decides he must go out to see about Caleb, if he has survived or is out there in the wastes. But first he elects to reunite with Skik and see about the others.
Skik, has gotten into a bit of trouble shooting at local slavers. The slavers have decided to trap him in the sewars and kill him.
Rogue had been involved in the fight in the sewars that helped the ghouls escape, got seperated from Fang, and is now trying to find her way out. She hears the sound of fighting in the sewars.
Fang and company are unaccounted for.
Mandrake is also still around. After assassinating a local drug manufacturer for the conspiracy he unites with a local "control" the darkman, who we learn later is named Marcus. Marcus instructs Mandrake that Mandrake is to take Claire Mckinner to Red Waters where she is to be displayed as a symbol of what happens when the conspiracy is displeased. Mandrake steals a cart from Ibis, the local funeral director and mortician, and the last we see of him in Tabis is riding like mad out of town, Claire Mckinner screaming in the back. Claire's fingers have been removed, her eyes have forks inside them, and she has been under of diet of narcotics that perpetuate a series of hellish hallucinations.
Ibis is something of an outcast and a mystic. He has seen prophecy of what has happened to the Blades and can foretell bad things coming, in whcih Caleb plays a critical part. A fire in town brings him into Tabis to help out with the fire, but being old and frail he learns of some of the details that it was more than just raiders that attacked and destroyed the raider encampment. A prostitute, Fantasia, leads him to her place to get the story from a witness, a wounded raider who has deserted his group. But the raider is killed, and an attempt is made on both Fantasia and Ibis's life.
At about the same time, the Tabis police are investigating the large presence of slavers in town. Neil and Paul are assigned to look into the matter.
Down in the tunnels Grim and SKik meet up, and there is a battle in which both are almost killed, and Grim is grievously wounded. They attempt to escape and in a long running battle are able to reunite with Rogue and Caleb, who has also returned to the town and is trying to reunite with the others. They also meet a new comer, Gabriel, a member of the sub-group of the Slayers, the Night Blade- highly trained assassins that specialize in night and hand-to-hand fighting. Skik brings the group to an old abandoned fort in Wainright park, then Rogue and Skik go back to get help from the town, namely from a friend of Grim's Yacob, who is the proprietor of the Rusty Nail.
Neil and Paul's investigation leads them to the sewars, where they discover the violent aftermath of the sewar battle. It also leads them, eventually to Wainright Park where they meet up with Caleb, Gabriel and Grim.
SKik's choice of hideouts is a curious one. Wainright Park is invested with deathclaws. While the deathclaws are not interested in ghouls for food, the smell of humans awakens their appetite. The fights here are desperate. Grim, who has been patched up, is again wounded helping Gabriel escape the deathclaw and is essentially out of commission for most of the rest of this chapter. Inadvertently, Gabriel and Caleb give Grim ghoul plasma which, mixed with effects of psycho, will have long lasting ghoulish effects on Grim.
The deathclaws attack the fort, and Paul and Neil are both killed. Meanwhile Rogue has mangaged to track down and save Ibis and has been able to form a group of rescuers centered around Yacob, his brother, some caravan guards and thre bordermen. They try to get to the fort in Wainright by going over the "El" and elevated highway.
However, these recuers are not on the El very long when they discover they are being followed by over two score of slavers. The battle on the El is between the rescuers trying to outrun the slavers while also confronting the deathclaw that are in front of them. Apparently the local police chief has been coopted by the conspiracy.
This battle is especially brutal. The rescuers barely make it into the fort, losing two of the caravan guards and two of the bordermen on the way. But in doing so the devestation on the slavers is especially bad. Most of the slavers are killed, with only a small group, centered around the leader Jeeva, making it to the Fort.
It is at this moment that Caleb makes a critical choice between killing the slavers or letting them in. Against his own judgment, he lets them in, figuring that the slaver numbers will be needed against the deathclaw.
Also joining the group is a small group of ghouls centered around Skik and Wally. This group takes some losses helping the rescuers into the fort, but eventually also join forces.
Thus the fort is composed of a mixed bag of wounded, slavers and non-slavers, and ghouls. Most of the deathclaw have faded back under daylight, but they have not gone completely. The wounded cannot be moved safely until they are rested, so the group is basically stuck to get through another night.
Shortly before the second night, Jeeva and his slavers learn that an old generator could be used to help in the defence, by electrifying the razor wire that surrounds the old fort and the door. They make this attempt and barely finish before the deathclaw attack, killing a of their number before the rest can escape. The group decides to wait for day break to make a go at the fort.
During this night Skik takes Gabriel back to Tabis through the sewars. The plan is to assassinate the police chief who apparently has locked the gate back into Tabis. Unless this gate is unlocked, the group is virtually trapped in the fort by the deathclaw, as the wounded cannot be moved through the sewars. In town the leader of the border guards, some of the local police and wife of Yacob are urging for another attempt to rescue the wounded men.
Gabriel assassinates the police chief, who had been coopted by the conspiracy. Indeed it was the conspiracy that had sent the slavers after Rogue and the first rescue attempt as well as into the sewars to kill Skik, Grim, Caleb and Rogue. Gabriel also learns that Fantasia has also been assassinated. When he investigates he has a run in with the darkman, Marcus, who has been the one manipulating events in Tabis. Marcus and Gabriel both survive and go in different directions.
With the police chief assassinated a second rescue is attempted, and Gabriel is able to join the supply group, led by Yacob's wife.
WHile the rescue force tries to force its way into Wainright, the survivors in the fort attempt a break out, as well as an attempt to trap a deathclaw.
We are currently at the point where the rescue force and the group escaping the fort are about to link up, and Chapter 2 is near its close.
There is more, so please offer any thoughts or questions you might have. Again, other players are welcome to add to this.
