Another Round of Rifts

So, we left our intrepid adventurers about 3 miles south of Alliance.

They weren't trying to be quiet, and the explosion at Alliance put everything within a ten mile radius on high alert for anything. Our party was deciding on which direction they were suppose to be headed and got turned about by the confusion that ensued after their departure.

After concluding that they were headed in the wrong direction, they set off towards the way that Roger was leading them. They were traveling towards the southwest when they noticed a tree on top of a neighboring hill. One of the party noticed a humanoid figure crouched at the base of the tree. Roger noticed a glint from a scope and after telling everyone about it, noticed Ralph running towards the tree.

BLAM!

A shot rings out and everyone gets ready to fight. Dirk takes care of his horse, tying it to a nearby shrub after dismounting. Roger starts forward on his floating slab of earth and Ralph keeps running towards the tree. Thunderheart positions himself and his hovercycle in order to get a clear shot at the humanoid figure underneath the tree.

Everyone notices a large sphere of darkness encompass the area where the figure was standing. The sphere was about a five-foot radius around the base of the tree, making it very difficult to see the now standing figure.

When Ralph entered the sphere that everyone was closing in on except Thunderheart, who continued firing from his hovercycle, he knocked the big energy rifle out of the guys hands and put on his Thermal sight. Thermal didn't help at all; this guy wasn't putting out any heat whatsoever. Ralph then switched the Thermal off and got a good look at the guy. He was scary, totally made out of worms that were the size of large snakes, so Ralph took off running in the opposite direction after taking a couple laser blasts from the figure and from Thunderheart.
At this time Roger had dismounted his flying saucer of earth.

The rest of the party saw Ralph booking in the direction they had just come from; all of them thinking that there must be some kind of scary dude in the sphere, but then they all realized that Ralph is afraid of everything. Roger had moved about 40 feet while Ralph was inside the sphere, but now that Ralph was gone, got back up on his floating disc of earth and proceeded to close the gap between him and the sphere.

While Roger and Dirk were closing the distance, Thunderheart continued firing from the hovercycle. Ralph and Dirk noticed as a three simultaneous shots came from the sphere and hit the hovercycle dead on the front of it. Thunderheart somehow kept the craft in the air. Then again, a three-shot burst from the sphere, but this time it hit Thunderheart in the chest with pinpoint accuracy. Still he kept the hovercycle in the air. Agian, one last three-round burst from the sphere and again to the front of the hovercycle. Galantly, Thunderheart tried to keep the craft in the air, but the machine had taken too much damage. Thunderheart, however, had enough wits about him not to crash his cycle into the ground below him. He landed, but hard, knocking some of the components that he had attached loose and some of them completely off of the cycle.

Roger had closed in and had started hurling earth at the sphere, enough to encompass the entire sphere, making sure not to miss. Dirk had also closed in enough to get a clear shot, he took aim and fired at the tree protecting the figure. Dirk had surmised that the figure had used some sort of spell that covered him in darkness and somehow had melded with the shadow of the tree; by taking out the treetop, maybe it would make it easier to see him. Dirk was correct, now that the treetop was gone, the party could make out distinct shadows within the sphere. Roger was already within the sphere when Dirk had taken his shot. Roger was now in hand to hand with the figure and he wasn't as frightened as Ralph. Roger and the figure were now trading blows, each dealing slight M.D. to each other.

Ralph was now back and ready to fight. Thunderheart had picked up one of the guns that was attached to the hovercycle and was firing again. And with Ralph ready to go into the sphere, Thunderheart got a lucky shot and the figure dissipated, but not before one of the worms had attached itself to Roger.

Now that combat was over, Ralph pulled for his alcohol and started pouring it over the worms, which weren't moving at all, and ignited them. Roger instinctively flicked the remaining live worm onto the ground and it slithered away. Dirk approached after a few seconds and saw the remaining corpse of the figure, Ralph had missed a couple of the worms. Dirk pieced together everything that the figure had done with the physical description that his party members had told him. Dirk, after a few moments, stated that he knew what it was that they had just encountered; it was a Worm Wraith.

Afterwords, Thunderheart, Dirk, and Roger followed a trail that led to another tree about 3000 feet away and found a horse with some nice M.D.C. barding and a pack pony. On the animals, the found some nice armor and some more weapons that the Worm Wraith seemed to have collected.

Untill next time.

Rifts: Alliance destroyed

We pick up where we left our intrepid adventurers, down inside the city of Alliance.

Thunderheart focuses his attentions on the computer in front of him. He successfully turns the machine on and it displays a logon and password prompt. The group searches the room and finds a sticky note with a logon and password. It was well concealed on the side of the desk. Thunderheart enters in the logon and password and gains access to the computer's main screen. On the screen is displayed a trash symbol, a folder called Catalog and a drive named C. He tries to open the drive and it prompts for another login and password. He tries the ones he has, but with no luck. Thunderheart next opens the folder named Catalog, which turns out not to be a folder at all but an interactive screen that shows the layout of the entire floor. He clicks on one of the rooms, which then displays the room with the tree on vid-screen. The group slowly watches the tree transform into some sort of living thing. Ralph and the mayor are wierded out by this image.

(It is here that I learn something about game mechanics. Just because a person fails a horror factor check doesn't necessarily mean that they have to make a save versus insanity, so I make a house call on it at that moment. If you roll a natural 1 on the d20 versus horror factor, you then make a save vs. insanity. Luck was with me on this decision, as the mayor rolled a natural 1 and then an 11 on the DC 12 vs. Insanity save with no bonuses. He picked up another insanity, which worked out kind of well for the group.)

Anyways, they get past this and Thunderheart opens the trash icon which Roger so elegantly pointed out that it wasn't empty. Inside the trash folder lies to documents. Since Thunderheart is the only one who has Literacy: American, he reads that the two files are labeled: XYZ and Memo. He instinctively opens the one that says Memo; inside was the following:

AFT

To all AFT members, there is no immediate danger to Alliance. The Simvan army will no attack us. They know what we have however, so we do need to prepare for infiltration. They may send some complete strangers or even well-known friends to confound us. If they find out where the power is coming from, we will need to prepare for battle.

Sincerely,

Major Drew Jackson

The group then questions the mayor. The mayor beats around the bush and the group notices. They get him to tell the truth. They find out that AFT stands for: Alliance Federation of Trade. They also learn that the AFT is a group that was once based in Alliance until the leaders were recruited into the 1st Apocalyptic Cavalry (I screwed this up too, I apologize; I said Army when it is indeed Cavalry) which is based in Fort Prospect (Kearney, Nebraska), about 500 miles from Alliance. The mayor tells them that he has never heard of a Major Drew Jackson.

Meanwhile, Ralph checks out up top in Alliance and sees no guards posted anywhere on the towers. After reporting back, he continues to check for a way out that doesn't require them to go back up to the city (This is after he hears the mayor tell everyone that there is another way out on one of the floors down here). Ralph then continues his search of the two remaining floors, nothing on the ninth floor, just an empty steel room with a light in the ceiling, same exact room on the seventh floor except some wooden crates which contain the same red sauce that he had found in the mayor's house (Mmmmmm). He returns and the mayor tells him that those rooms are just storage.

The group then remembers about the caves they found when they first pressed the first button. They never searched those, maybe that's a way out. They proceed to the caves and after 20 minutes find themselves on the other side of a rotten wooden door. The hear a gun cock on the other side. Ralph issues forward and says,"Hello, may we come inside?"

A voice says to come on in. He is dressed as a preacher. The preacher then tells them about the four monsters, that once described are classified as Simvan, that came running out of down here about two days ago.

The group then decides to leave Alliance behind; with Dirk's vision and all the guards missing being a strong motivation. The group gets to the other side of the river and not an hour out, they hear this huge boom and all who sense PPE get a horrorific feeling of a huge PPE source growing and then, BOOM, nothing left. They then see the town of Alliance in flames.

The group continues onward. About three days after crossing the river, they notice a small group of Simvan, but they also notice the group. The group notice that the Simvan are hurt and have no armor, but are warry since they have never encountered the Simvan before. The Simvan are still getting closer, approximately 200 yards out when Ralph gets a hit with his weapon and the lead Simvan goes splat. 19 MDC damage to a creature that has no MDC armor, yeah, SPLAT!

Thus ends the session