Ticking off the Checklist

While hunting for Pure Spring, the adventurers continue visiting the towns on the list they were given by the TCDL.

First they go to:

Borderline (map P114ts1 guarded by \”the circle\” warrior-mages, a Battle Magi squad who went AWOL and settled here led by Lord Ultim (p49tw3)). Very Evil and obviously un-eager to Help Ultims men guard the ruins of Borderline. Half of the town is slagged, There are bits of Skelebots sticking out of the lava plane surrounding the town. It seems the Coalition attempted an invasion 3 days earlier. Ronin asks Ultim’s guards to see Ultim. Ultim will not speak with Ronin who bangs on his tower angrily, before being removed by the other players after hearing the tower’s magical defenses powering up in response to Ronin’s battering. Drago heals wounded villager children and one tells him she saw Pure Spring headed west a few days ago.

So the adventurers head west to..

Chimera (Mizereen) pop54000 capital of barony, Ruled by Wallace Cromwell, Mayor p87 ts5 west of #10 on conflict map.

Upon entering town a TW UFO Drone approaches them and asks them to register their vehicles with the town authorities. A fee of 10credits per vehicle registered is digitally paid using BATLAK credits. They are informed of town ordinances on noise (keep it down), sanitation laws, and Speed Limits. Weapons and Armor are Legal but their use is strongly prohibited, with fines starting at 10,000 credits per infraction.

Identifying themselves as TCDL shows any TCDL badges glowing green in sync with the Drone and gets audience with Cromwell. Otherwise, the Drone advises the characters should ask the local Tourist Office for additional information.

If brought in as TCDL:
Very respectable. Cromwell personally invites them to his estate and welcomes their aide against the coalition. Cromwell oozes charm and welcomes them at Chimera anytime.

He asks for a campaign contribution for his next election. He wants 10k. Drago offers him 8k in Garnets and he admits Drago to his private study. Cromwell Then offers information that Pure Spring was riding west on a horse when last saw by his scouts.

\”Bad news my friend, it seems a Vampire infestation has come to the west, with the number of attack reports climbing daily. Your Pure Spring was seen to fight with the vampires before my Scouts intervened and prevented her being slain. They led her to the boarder of Iowa, which is Coalition disputed territory then departed. She went on alone, and one of my scouts was lucky enough to see her later with his eyepiece being intercepted by a group of men in a hover truck who seemed to peacefully lead her towards Hogwaller.\”

He mentions that a TCDL Operative named Pure Spring was through this town earlier this week. She said she was headed to Hogswaller next. Cromwell will offer to introduce the party to the Feral Dog-pack Lieutenant Harvy who is in his town\’s army who saw Pure Spring to the border of Mizereen. If so he will lead them towards encounter #1 then depart.
Tour guide drones says commertials for town armorer, gas station, restaurant\’s and Marina locations.
Shes not here though.
Hogswaller (TS1p115).

Conditions: Heavy Astral Mites, Clear Skies, Characters will hear gunshots in the distance as they approach town.

Encounter #1: Sundance Vs. Vampires

Yes Sundance p145 Mercenaries aka Sundance Kid of pre-rifts legends…

Regardless of how they try getting into town, they will see a skirmish between Sundance, 2 of his friends and 3 Vampires. Two of his friends are hypnotically being controlled and fed on while he tries to get their attention through gunfire.

1 Melee after the first shots are fired the situation is as follows:

Sundance outside a small clearing to the left of the road into Hogswaller. In the clearing sits a decrepit abandoned looking trailer home. Screams can be heard from within and numerous red eyes can be seen in the darkness…

Sundance\’s crew was robbing a stage coach which now lies on its side, the horses having broken loose and fled in terror. While commiting the robbery, they both were attacked by vampires.

Things of note:

Stage Coach: Has a heavy chest with 10,000cr in Silverno Silver coins. Inside is the corpse of a well to do looking man and his wife. No valuables, both will rise again unless beheaded and burned. Ronin doesn’t believe Sundance, and takes the chest for himself into MAGE’s mountaineer.
Trailer: Inside lurk more Vampires, along with Sundance\’s now dead boys.
Sundance stands on the carraige reloading revolvers. One vampire seems shot in the heart in the yard in front of the Vampire. Another one crawls to him slowly, multiple gunshot wounds to the leg and kneecap driping horribly. From whatever vantage point the characters see him from, they notice two vampires sneaking up BEHIND him!


Behind the Trailer is a truck with 2 Dghouls manning it.

During combat this truck fiees unnoticed.

This is the vampire armies forward scouts, While attempting to flee, they will report on the characters to the main army, and will call in an airstrike from the X500\’s medium missile launchers if needed! Troops will arrive within 1d4 minutes of them sending the distress call. After killing the vamps Sparticus realizes the Dghouls are stealing his powerarmor and they give chase in the Mountaineer. One of the Dghouls killed has an amulet with 3 Eyes in a Triad formation. The other Dghoul flees capture by turning intangible.

Sparticus was a victim of the vampires as well, lying in the trailer. The other pcs kill the vamps and rescue him and Sundance. After seeing Sundance, Sparticus wants to kill Sundance or mug him for his armor but Ronin wont let him. They finaly work out a deal where dorgo guards sundance in the ATV with Dameon. They gamble while Ronin and Drago go running around in the line of fire.

Finally getting into Hogswaller, Sundance will tell them he has seen their girl being taken to a house outside of town.. He knows the way…quietly. He will claim it was a shame his family was bushwacked, and attempt to right the carriage, locate the two fled horses (now one dead by MAGE’s railgun pellet to paste Ronin in gore as a joke)

, and drive it back to Hogwaller with two horses tethered behind.
Sundance leads the group to a small house surrounded by a dense forest of evergreens.

He will wait outside the house and points out the nephew if anyone else doesn\’t see him.

Sundance says he needs a new crew and this group looks good enough. He\’ll stick with them until they get back to Tolkeen.
Encounter #2: Doc Summers Residence

(#5).Abandoned house with doctor\’s plaque out front. Pure spring was being in his basement when the Vampires invaded town. They tracked her scent of blood to his home, where now can be found the corpses of the Doc and his wife (they have risen as vamps and lair here). The house is trashed and shows obvious signs of a battle. Nephew hides out in shed watching players search house. He will attempt to talk to anyone human telling then to \”be wary, e.everyones dead in there…\” He wears huntsman armor, and carries a NGSUper, 10Grenades 2eclips, and a .357Magnum revolver with Silver Bullets (50) +5strike. At one point the players take him hostage while fleeing. (do they still have him?)

In the house is the following.
Searching it finds the following: 1st Floor Empty & Smashed Up, entry to 2nd Floor, Basement
2 Vamps in basement coffins. the door to the basement is filled with the remnants of a piano and various pieces of rubble, taking 1d6minutes to clear. Hidden in the rubble are the following:(roll once per minute one person can dig at a time).

1 Grenade Trap (5d6×3 10ftradius), 2 Poisoned spikes(save vs 16non leathal or lethargic for 1d6hours -3a/s/p/d), 3-4 1d6+1 Tomb Worms Dead Tomb Worms are worth 50credits a body to alchemists, 5-6 Nothing. (p167 convo)
The basement has 5 cases of medical supplies worth 10k credits each. There is a torture room at the bottom of the stairs, with 2 coffins. The girls torn clothing can be seen bloodstained in one corner, as well as a few strands of her hair but she is gone. Drago and Ronin enter the basement, loot the chests and kill the Doctor’s wife before putting the Doc in the torture chair. He turns to mist and tries flying, drago frys the mist to death with his fire Breath.
2nd Story has a keycard lock. Ronin hacks at it with his psiswords taking electrical defense system damage before breaking in. The room contains a study with the following art pieces:

art: solid gold idol of Romanesque god (10 lb.) (500cr)
art: large well-done wool tapestry (500cr)
art: black velvet mask with numerous citrines (80cr)
art: silver chalice with 2 lapis lazuli gems (150cr)
art: silver chalice with 3 lapis lazuli gems (160cr)
art: silver-plated steel longsword with jet jewel in hilt (600cr)

In a Vault behind the art: large well-done wool tapestry (600gp) lies the following:
art: 3 Carat sapphire pendant on gold chain
art: golden circlet with four 4 carat aquamarines
art: 1 Carat Ruby Quartz jeweled electrum ring (3,000gp)

The vault has a fusion block trap which ronin engages. There is a computer in the vault which has information on spying activities against Tolkeen.
After hearing this Ronin sends a TCDL message to Cardinal.
“We have located the trail of Pure Spring. We have discovered evidence for imformation regarding tolkeen. they were using coalition intero tactics. be on alert. -Sir Ronin”

Encounter #3: Entering Hogswaller…
This encounter takes place after visiting the Doctor\’s home. It goes on for 1d4 hours followed by Malory\’s concert. Possibly enough time to gain allies or fight with locals.
A small wretched mudstain of a town. The green center of town near the well is overrun with throngs of travelers and has a HUGE tent set up in the middle of town square. Around the tent is a small circus type setup of stands.

Since its arrival a week the town has grown to roughly 5x its original size. There are over 500 people outside the main event tent advertised to start TONIGHT! and quite a party atmosphere, like a mini woodstock. each hour after the 1d4 till her concert 1d4×100 more people show up. There is a very beautiful brunette woman\’s portrait outside the tent, along with the name \”Malory\’s Disco Inferno Show\”. Entry is 100 credits and the line goes forever to get in. Heavily armed, 2 SAMSON, Buncruncher +10 Carnie security with clubs. The tent has a protection circle around it in faint black sand and cannot be entered until the intelligence establishes its portal with earth. Once it does so, the circle is lowered.
Before you get to the tent there are throngs of people visiting 1 Fortune Teller, 10 Freak Booths, 6 crude rides, and a pair of Worm Riders entertain the crowd while they await Malory\’s performance.

The Nigh Arcade & Freakshow are in Hogswaller.

The moans of 2 banshees can be heard which have taken up to haunting the dark alleys between Malory\’s tent and the Hooters bar.
#2 Hogs haven bar probably looks the friendliest, outside are tons of bikes. Hog the owner will point the pcs to #4/#7 for rest, or bobs or the manheim /bobs for buyin stuff in town. Inside is a 20 man strong biker gang that goes by the name of \”hermanos de bikers\” aka the biker brothers. They all wear heavy leather sdc armor and have mostly melee clubs and automatic sdc weapons with a few having energy pistols. Led by Hermano Diablo, they claim to be in town to see Malorys Disco Inferno. When the battle breaks out, the Hermanos de Bikers all burst out into the street, most trying to fight to their bikes to flee! Diablo claims he saw Pure Spring get into Malroy\’s sold out show last week. Most of them die but their leader Hermano Diablo along with Sundance (who was fleeing but got caught up in their fight trying to steal a bike) fight their way out.
,
#4/#7 Miss Sally\’s & Worchefski\’s Boarding houses full of vamps who empty onto the streets, feeding and herding people towards the tent.
Encoutner #4: The Show

After some time of searching around town and having townies mess up the hydrolics of one wartroll, the arm joint of another, and remove MAGE’s mountaineer door…MAd Melody puts on her master show. A concert! By Pulling an estimated 900ppe from 500 willing partiers Malory opens a rift then she summons Ixyotl! Intel immediately begins sending out 4 tentacles and dragging back the first four people into its lair. Then he continues to greedily strip the area of humanoids.
As Bouncers admit hundreds of people into the tent the woman choosing admitees don’t choose them, the characters try fighting their way in. MAGE casts cloud of smoke, and charges the Tent, repelled. Carnie thugs descend on him and beat him mercilessly before he flys away. Drago and Dameon battle Bonecruncher and the Carnies before Ronin comes out of his trance and quickly strikes Bonecruncher from behind and then kills him. (how knightly :p) Drago loots Bonecruncher’s belongings while, Ronin charges into the tent with Dameon.

Ronin blocks the rift as the intelligence retracts its newest set of victims inside. The Demon bangs on the Telekinetic force field while Malory Call lightnings it.
While this occurs Shes casts debilitating magics at resistors while being guarded by 2 NG

SAMSON Vets .Once mage blasts here with magic and down’s her Armor of Ithan, she shadow melds and is extracted by one of the Fleein’g SAMSONS. Charging while dodging magic nets from the 3 Vampire cultists and 3 Vamp Line Walkers watching over the entire thing from enclaves above the tent framework, Ronin beheads the other SAMSON, also damaging its body. While Dameon and MAGE and Drago keep the other Vamps busy Ronin leaps into the portal, puts up a forcefield between himself and the girl, cuts her cian and flees.

Bonecruncher p150 +10 carnies guard the entrance to the tent.
+10 troops in bushman w/l20s 3clips start rounding up people and taking them to the tent for consuption. Sparticus blows up a few with grenades before fleeing while the battle rages on.
On the other side is a horrid mass of tentacles around an eye. Hideous laughter can be heard emanating from it. A Sunaj stands next to it along with the girl Purespring attached to a chain.
Ixotyl sends in tentacles starts snatching people which it deposits into the waiting vampires on its side of the portal.
MAGE was the one who figured out how to remove the inteligence’s circle magic barrier. He was given a flash of knowledge from someone (Kymnarkmar) which burned him with runic symbols that he could not forget.
MAGE: Upon fighting the vamp intelligence MAGE gets this message in his head (noone else hears it) and saves vs DOMINATION spell ss13
\”SURRENDER TO ME MORTAL. I KNOW WHERE YOUR PATH LIES AND WHAT ARE DOOMED TO BECOME. BUT IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE. GIVE YOURSELF TO ME WILLINGLY AND I CAN GIVE YOU POWER BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS. IF YOU COME WILLINGLY I CAN FIX THE ROT INSIDE YOU. I SMELL THE ROT OF SPLUGORTHIAN WORK COMING OFF YOUR FLESH LIKE STENCH FROM A CORPSE. THEIR MAGIC IS WEAK.
IT WILL LEAVE YOU CRIPPLED SOON, THEN SHORTLY THEREAFTER YOU WILL DIE A SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH AS YOUR ORGANS ROT AND YOUR BODY BECOMES BLOATED LIKE A ROTTING CORPSE. BUT I CAN GIVE YOU A NEW LIFE MORTAL! CHOOSE THE PATH OF IXYTOZ! SURRENDER TO ME AND CHOOSE ETERNAL LIFE, OR BE DESTROYED FOR DARING TO DEFY ME!\”

Drago managed to teleport in and grab a small chest with 9 gems and scrolls in it.

XP for 1-18th-20th (note before the I made each player think up a goal for their character. who evers goal was worse was sure to encounter horrible things later… 1st prize 100xp 2ndprize 75xp 3rd prize 50xp)
MAGE The Eye of Eylor BioBorg 7th Level Ley Line Walker And Emissary 1
(45065 needs 50921) Skills +200, +2000birthday xp, +100 clever idea naming the group “The Emissaries”, +200 best goal (leadership to complete missions), +150rp, +100 clever idea researching spell “White Life” to counter “Black Death” magic. +25 killing minor menace (fleeing defenseless horse), +100 rp about loot, +100 mystic portaling ideas, +50 arm rp, +100 optics cloud+100 rp, +500 finding pure spring +100 showin up +400bonecruncher&vamps learning of Cromwell and M +50, learning of Ultim +50 +100 negate mechanicsing the SAMSON railguns
+100 good idea building powerpack and forcefield into bodyarmor (49590 needs 50921 only1335 more)

Drago the 6th Level Handless Hatchling (34000 needs 50000)+150 skills, +200 teleporting attempts to survive, +100 daring theft of chest, +100 playing in character to keep chest vs Ronin +!00daring hit while trying to flee with chest, +50 hypchondriac idea, which was worse thus loosing Drago one hand to Bonecruncher and one arm to Ronin, at the end of the adventure. +150 argue rp, +25 killing Torgo with tree while cleaning, +300 healing 3 near death children at Borderline, +100 insight into pure spring’s wareabouts found from wounded villagers +100 good idea paying off Cromwell, +50 dorgo RP, +500 gets Pure Spring, +100 showing up,
+400bonecruncher&vamps learning of Cromwell and M +50, learning of Ultim +50 +500pvp+200savin ronin from Ultims tower

(36725 needs 50000)

Ronin the 6th Level Cyberknight defeater of Drago (27425 needs 35521) +400bonecruncher&vamps +50 defeating SAMSON +175 skills +100 rp +100 rp loot for Torgo and Dorgo getting shares (hah! Dorgo want pay! Buy suit! this annoys everyone as Dorgo was supposed to guard the equipment while it was vandalized and he was inside gambling with Sundance) +100 defeating Drago, +500pvp +200 intervening to save Sundance’s life from Sparticus’s murderous rage, +100 puting doc in torture chair +75 second best goal to hunt space Time Kid, +100 rp faerie Dance with Brownies outside Hogswaller, +100 pursuing Lord Ultim at all costs (daring), +500 gets Pure Spring, +100 showing up +100 clever idea sending back TCDL messages, learning of Cromwell and M +50, learning of Ultim +50 (earned 2800, 30225 needs 35521)

Dameon the 5th Level Highwayman with Knob (18426 needs 24501) +800 top d8 roll of first 3eD Rifts game of 2008!, +100 clever idea gambling with Dorgo and Sundance in back of Mountaineer, +100 theft of medicines, +375 skills, +50 3rd place find family rib recipe idea, +100 daring climbing in tent, +100 daring standing with Drago against Bonecruncher, +100 good idea “merchandising”, +400getting dm beer, learning of Cromwell and M +50, learning of Ultim +50, +100 buying crude sensory psi-implant (good idea), +100 buying cybereye, (20851 needs 24501)


Sparticus the Emissary of Truth 3rd Now 4th Level Zapper (7775 needs 8251) +400 killing humans in bodyarmor with l20s +300 gets Pure Spring, +100 showing up, +200skills,+100rp with kid, +50 use less sensors (?) learning of Cromwell and M +50, learning of Ultim +50 +400 excellent lying rp +100 jury rigging broken equipment +100 making deal with Sundance +100 daring against near railgunning, (9725 needs 16501)