Dramatis Personae

Previously . . .

Things start with Stitch going out and searching for dead bodies, but none are nearby that is in usable condition while the guards threaten to move the group along forcibly if they don’t do so willingly, and as Finn gets closer the more guards show up on the wall with makeshift firearms pointed at them. Walking away, they discuss with the prisoners what they want to do with Stitch giving a rather bad speech with at least one of the minions and the two supers coming along.

With 5 of the minions refusing to leave, the group takes their burnt out radios and keep their guns. The ones that resist are allowed to keep their armor and load bearing vests and combat knives, letting them leave. The last mercenary left, Kenneth Larkin, stays with the group being rather attracted to Stitch. The group head south towards New York City Library and Bryant Park and the radio signal.

You’re What Now?

Bone Daddy, N0va, Stitch, Terra, The Ghost
The Librarians Militant Stronghold
Day 2, 9:00 am
476 5th Ave, Manhattan, NY 10018

When they get to the park, they find it walled in with a rather solid and nice looking stone wall made from concrete and stones reinforced with cinder blocks. Stitch wanders around and notices a camera on the walls with one of them following him. The sole entrance appears to be a giant wrought iron gate from a cemetery. Inside they can see some people walking around doing daily tasks inside. Stitch speaks with the team, asking Ruby and Finn to take the lead with the diplomatic introduction and admonishes the rest to keep a low profile.

Eventually, one man wanders up to the gate with a well worn AR-15 in tow. They speak with the man, who tells them that the food isn’t passed out until closer to sunset. Finn explains that they’re new in town and they wanted to get the lay of the land while Ruby asks if they can set up a shelter outside. Instead they’re invited inside as long as they give up their weapons which will be stored in storage lockers where they’d get one key and the quartermaster would have the other.

Viper is taken away to a medical ward, with some warning that he be on his best behavior while the rest stay in place waiting for The Abbot to come out and speak with them. Some checking and Finn finds that they have some working walkie-talkies and computer screens giving off radio frequencies. Inside the fortifications are gardens, half-buried turf roof houses, a large greenhouse. Finn offers some candy to children that are watching them and answers some questions about what they are while Stitch offers some of Finn’s stash to the guards and asks for a bit more information.

They’re informed that the black fog wasn’t the entire problem and that the Abbies, the people with powers, went crazy and started fighting each other. Things went crazy there. At least ten years of winter occurred and when they sent some scouts up north to check on “Kanada,” they found some rather fast moving glaciers. Ghost investigates Viper’s situation, finding him being treated nicely with fairly good medical with surgical tools and clean room. They ask about if any of the abbies are still around, and the abnormals still are the guard says. Stitch tries to convince the guard that it’s politer to call them Metas, which causes him to get some suspicious stares from the guards as he tries to convince them that it’s just something they picked up from travelling. Asking about the Abbot, they find his name is Castigliano.

Stitch comes back and speaks with the group, letting them know what he heard from the guard and that an hour later they’d speak with the abbot. When he comes around, he’s wearing a dirty apocalypse grey robe. He looks quite a bit older look than most of the men so far. Ruby requests that they have some shelter for the night, which is granted in a small room along with food. In exchange, they request knowledge and Ruby offers what she can. The Abbot leads them in to where they can sit down and share. The ground floor of the library has been cleared and the useless books such as tax law has been removed with all the technical books on gardening has been concentrated in one place. Sectioned off areas with cubicle furniture with lab equipment therein.

Stitch asks to see the books and speaks with Deluge about how much he knows about water, mentioning that he knows about philosophy. The group try to tell them about things that they know about, Ruby about geology, Stitch speaks about sewing, Bone Daddy about climbing, and Finn about computer related topics while Ghost pretends to speak over the radio about guns. After they’re done, they’re showed to the printing press room where they’re shown the Gutenberg press from the Natural History museum where they use iron gall ink and modern binding techniques.

Apparently the Abbot is rather kind, too altruistic, in that he hands the group a book called What Comes After? which explains what the current condition of the world is along with survival techniques. When asking about abbies and other people, they learn the conclave had someone there named Elizabeth (?) who was a rather significant researcher previously before the apocalypse but she left several years ago to investigate Wendigo in “Kanada” along with a lot of men, none of which have returned.

Finn investigates their computer lab and finds it just a slapdash thing which seems strangely brand new along with a blade server and a printer that doesn’t seem to be used often due to the difficulty in replacing the cartridges. Finn isn’t able to find anything interesting in the computers but he does memorize their radio frequencies.

They spend the night in the conclave, enjoying food where Viper rejoins them from the medbay. The house is built partially underground and are given cots. The group isn’t special as they find out, in the morning there’s another passerby that gets invited in and given food. Stitch asks about other settlements, the largest being the Central Park compound, along with the tree people that actually live in the giant tree. Also asking about local fauna they find that the primary protein source is birds while there’s also some escaped animals from the zoo that have established pecking orders of the jungle.

The group gets to meet someone entirely new, William, who informs them with dead eyes and rather flatly that they aren’t going to be able to stay. They are allowed to come back later, but there isn’t much else. They’re warned to find some shelter and get some better clothing for the winter that is coming in about eight weeks. As they leave and get their weapons, the Abbot gives them a backpack full of supplies, telling them to come back with books they may find. He’s also asks about if they’ve seen the black fog and then warns them about going north.

After parting, they check the bag and find food and medical supplies while Finn tries to figure out where to go next. The Bronx is the least affected while the main MAPs headquarters looks like a demilitarized zone. While waiting for a destination, Finn peeks into a local storefronts checking for some leftover junk and parts, finding something that he could use. Hidden under the counter behind a false backing is a rather futuristic rifle, that doesn’t seem to be terrestrial origin. Communing with the machine, Finn finds that it’s a Plasma weapon with several organic looking power cells behind it. Not finding anything else, they head for the MAPs building to find it firebombed.

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Bone Daddy, N0va, Stitch, Terra, The Ghost
The Librarians Militant Stronghold
Day 2, 1:30 pm
448 E 173rd St., The Bronx, NY 10457

The group tries to figure out where to go from there, deciding to go to the next nearest MAPs outpost which was also firebombed. Going through they find ragged furniture, trash, junk. Giving up, they read the book which tells them to search out suburban areas, but the nearest is at least two hours away by car. They head for the place where Viper and Deluge stole the “Transistors” from. The door is locked and seems to be barricaded from within, Bone Daddy can’t find any bones inside while Ghost pops through the door and unbars it. They find some canned goods and a makeshift sleeping area with a backpack full of odds and ends that they take.

Going through the back room, they find an electronics workshop where they scrounge up an Electronics Repair Kit along with about thirty pounds of junk. Finn takes apart one of the microwaves for its motor before finding shells that the “transistors” came in. Finn is unable to figure out anything with it using machine communication and Stitch’s arm doesn’t seem to be happy about it, though it’ll touch the shell if they can touch Kenneth. Nothing happens.

After discovering nothing happens, they hear someone coming in from the now unbarred front door. Pulling off their hand and eye, Stitch sees a group of six that are freaked out by her and run away. The hand gets it reward of giving Kenneth a stroke before reattaching.  Finn, having had enough interruptions closes and bars the door before investigating the file folders, which while most is redacted, they find information on a Project Spearhead which has high level physics information that Finn can’t make heads or tails of but they pack up nonetheless before checking all the other points of egress, finding them either welded shut or barred.

Being that the place they stole the “transistors” from is in the Bathgate Industrial Park, the team has other warehouses around for drug and food distribution along with some schools that they could check out. They find the drug distribution center and finds that it’s occupied by a gang. Approaching them, one of the men pulls a switch blade and threatens an unimpressed Stitch. At least until they break out into flame. Staring them down fails to intimidate them and two others start showing powers of earth control and flight while the fourth doesn’t show anything as Bone Daddy activates his bone armor.

Stitch runs up to the earth controller and pops a one-two combo knocking him out of existence and into dream land. The fire controller throws a fireball at Stitch that dodges out of the way with Deluge knocking the fire controller out of the way with a wave of water. As the air guy rises into the air, Bone Daddy charges the fire controller with bone spears and KOs the man. The Ghost draws his gun aiming at the air guy. The normal guy opens his mouth and screams really loudly, causing immense pain in people and knocking Finn out while everyone else is mostly upright.

Stitch swings around and throws a blow at the sonokinetic that he dodges. Deluge charges at the sonokinetic while the flier flees. Bone Daddy spears the sonokinetic in the arm. Ghost moves outside of the area of the fight while the sonokinetic screams again at Bone Daddy and Stitch, boiling their brains a bit more while Deluge throws an ice spear. The flier continues to flee and Bone Daddy spears normal guy in the torso. The normal guy is finally taken out with a flurry of punches.

Aftermath

Doing triage, they find Normal Guy completely dead with the earth and fire controller unconscious and bleeding with Finn getting treated by Stitch and the gang members healed by Bone Daddy. They they heal each other with Stitch claiming the dead body. With Finn out of commission they drag him back to the Transistor Factory to heal and eventually wake up.

After Action Report (GM)

Today’s session was really fun. I’d looked forward to it all week and I couldn’t wait to get back in the GMing chair for it. I asked the players the previous week if we could start early because I had so much I wanted to cover. I was really happy when everyone showed up. Overall, this session was more exposition and the search for things for the coming winter. I told the PCs over and over and over through NPCs about the harsh winters. I’m not sure they understand how bad it will be. But they’ll find out soon enough. Improving a couple of the scenes was fun and I got some use out of my GURPS After the End 2: The New World in the form of the scrounging rules. So of course the PCs rolled something super-duper-special right away (the plasma rifle). Overall, another great session despite a few lulls here and there.

Other Notes

This was a 6 hour session (a rarity for my online games) because we started early and Emily passed out about half way through (not because she was bored, but rather she got called away).

Soundtrack

“Shout” by Tears for Fears (Opening Song)
“Send Me On My Way” by Rusted Root
“Come On Feel the Noise” by Quiet Riot (Closing Song)