Session Four - Divided We Stand

Day 8 - additional


With a fair bit of cash in his pocket Andy sets himself up in one of the nicer rented accommodation in town and pays for a week in advance whilst he figures out his next move.


Day 9

At the mine word of the race through mineshaft two is spreading like a virus and preparations are well underway. Our heroes awaken to find many have been working all night and a selection of super-powered cars are on display as the other miners add armour and weaponry to what is evidently going to be quite an enthusiastic race. The contestants currently include:

- a group of crazies who are attaching weapons to places weapons should be, assuming they don't blow themselves up they might do quite well

- a group who have gotten their hand on a pre-rifts mini cooper in full working condition and have covered it in so much armour plating it's now too heavy to move (they're working on it)

- a group run by a techno-wizard who are building a car from scratch with as many enchanted parts as possible

- a motorcycle and sidecar, the sidecar equipped to rotate one hundred and eighty degrees to make use of the cannon that is also equipped

- and finally a very secretive group who seem to have customised their car with a variety of spiked rams

Ian realises he has fallen behind and needs to kick it up a notch, or at the very least buy a car, and enlists David to help him. However, lacking a way of getting back to town Ian decides, quite nonchalantly, to steal a truck and get there that way. David asks no questions as Ian returns with the "borrowed" truck to pick him up.

Liam decides the capital isn't for him but not really feeling like mining he decides to enter a few games of chance with whoever is hanging around at 'The Burrow' saloon. But Alan seems to think he missed out the first time and with no idea they're in a stolen truck he tags along.

Andy wakes up and goes out to explore the town looking for work. He finds his way into the upper class district where he sticks out like a sore thumb and approaches a jewelers which also operates as a bank for the rich and powerful. He blunders inside and is immediately stopped by a guard who can see right away that he is not one of the select few who would make it onto their client list. Andy explains he is a specialist and is looking for work, but worried his appearance will reflect badly upon the company the guard escorts Andy outside and tells him that if he is serious he can wait around back and somebody will come find him.

Our new trio of Ian, David and Alan roll into town and not wanting to raise questions by turning up in a stolen, sorry, "borrowed" truck they park outside of the town and hide the truck in a cave. Approaching on foot, which still gets some curious looks as it seems to the town guard that the three of them have been walking through the desert without armour or very much in the way of weaponry, the trio enter the town. David and Ian progress to a car lot David spotted the last time he was in town whilst Alan goes exploring, specifically looking for a local mages guild.

Back at the mine Liam carouses three of the miners into a few trick shooting games, namely shooting over bottles, shooting coins out of the air and going on a short hunt to catch the best local critter. They start with the bottles, six shooters only, the simplest game, in theory. Liam goes first to show off and whipping out his hand mirror decides to shoot over his shoulder at the targets. His first shot misses wildly and hits a passerby knocking him down. The game only pauses briefly, once they see the man getting back up they decide to continue and Liam shoots down four of the bottles with his remaining five shots.

His opponent then sets himself up. He shoots down four bottle with his first five shots but his sixth shot goes much too wide and hits the passer by as he moves away from them, this time killing him. The group decide to leave it as a draw and move away from the scene.

Finding a new clearing they take to the second game, shooting coins out of the air. The opponent this time is a partial conversion borg with three arms who wants to make it interesting by throwing a whole bag of coins into the air and seeing who can shooting the most before they fall to the ground. After a moments hesitation Liam agrees and the game begins. This time the borg opponent goes first and when the coins fly she draws a gun with each of her three hands and proceeds to shooting into the cloud. They gather the coins up and seperate the damaged and she scores and impressive tally of seven hits.

It comes to Liams go and the coins are thrown high once more, but noticing a small flaw in the fine print of the competition Liam pulls out his shotgun instead of his revolver and unleashes both barrels into the cloud of metal. The coins are largely obliterated and Liam is declared the winner. Having made a pretty penny and receiving the evil eye from the borg Liam decides to quit whilst he's ahead and declines from entering the third challenge. He returns to the living quarters where the cars are being prepped for the race decides he would mind a piece of this action. Liam tries to befriend the techno-wizards group and offers the group some advise on weaponry. They decide to take him on board and he becomes a part of their team.

In town Andy waits outside of the rear of the bank and eventually somebody exits one of the employee entrances and ushers him inside. He is led through the workshop to the bosses office to meet the man in charge. The man in question is a seven foot tall extremely thin humanoid whose legs and arms are freakishly disproportionate to the rest of his body. Unfamiliar with the mans (if it is a man) species Andy smiles politely and tries desperately not to offend him. The boss asks him what makes him think he qualifies to work in such a prestigious establishment and Andy produces an exquisite dagger he made early, encrusted with some of the jewels from his personal collection.

What it lacks in material value it makes up for in detailed craftsmanship, but the boss seems unimpressed though a little surprised somebody who looks like Andy (a scruffy, leathery skinned Russian who stinks of alcohol) could make something so exquisite. He decides to give Andy a trial run, taking him on as an unpaid assistant for a week to test his skills. Andy accepts.

Ian and David go to the car lot and find they can't afford a decent vehicle so David decides to buy an old banger and a broken down armoured vehicle to harvest for parts. This works out considerably cheaper but they don't have the facilities to do the work their car needs so after a quick negotiation with the car lot's mechanic they secure the use of his garage to work on the vehicle for the rest of the day. Meanwhile Alan has managed to track down the mages guild but unfortunately it's less of a well organised group of like-minded mages trying to further the study of magic so much as it is a group of grumpy old men who meet three times a week in the back room of a nearby pub to gripe and moan about the state of the town.

He does however learn a little bit about the state of the county and how the mages guild used to be important until the mayors office shuffled them out in favour of a new magic advisor who does not represent them at all, the main gripe of the grumpy old men. Despite this Alan decides he'll have better luck finding magic related work in town so decides to stay and coincidentally rents a room in the same motel as Andy, although neither of them have any idea the other one is there.

Andy returns to his room and gets some rest, feeling satisfied with his days activities. Before he has time to relax however, he is awoken by a strange feeling and finds that he cannot move. Looking around the room he sees Raz and the two thugs who destroyed his homemade foundry up at the mine. Raz calmly explains that they didn't like the way he spoke to them so decided to keep an eye on him just out of idle curiosity, but when they saw him entering the bank in the rich part of town they realised an opportunity may be presenting itself. Seeing where this conversation is going Andy reacts by unpolitely telling them to leave and Raz summons a sword of psychic energy into existence and stabs him through the gut with it.

Andy screams in pain and confident he now has his full attention Raz explains the situation to him. He represents a very powerful psychic who watches over the entire county, escaping from his gaze is impossible and getting away with murder is not a problem for them. The bank is obviously a very high profile target but being so closely guarded they've never had the opportunity to make a move on it, until now. Andy's unique position could be used to their advantage. He instructs Andy to come meet with them the follow night, giving him an address in the slums to go to. To make sure Andy agrees they ransack his room, taking a few items and all of his money, leaving him one hundred credits only behind to pay for another night in the room.

The three of them leave and after a few moments Andy finds he can move freely again. Severely wounded and slowly bleeding to death he performs a quick patch job on himself using supplies from inside the room and does a remarkably good job, in fact he pretty much sews himself back up. Not wanting to have to answer questions at the local hospital and with no knowledge of a freelance medic around he decides to leave it at that and get some rest.

David finishes his work on the car and him and Ian drive it out of town, returning to the "borrowed" truck and loading it into the back. They climb back into the cabin of the truck and head on back to the mine. As they approach the road leading up to 'The Burrow' they see a roadblock ahead, along with Ramirez and his gang on patrol. The roadblock is a series of concrete barriers preventing anything from coming in or out of 'The Burrow' just past the fork in the road leading up there. Ian and David now have a choice, they can stop and turn back or take the turn and drive to what on their map is a dead end down at a lake. Either way they have to hope they can outrun the law enforcement who have surely spotted them.

Unfortunately for David, Ian is driving, and stubbornly determined to return the "borrowed" truck he chooses the third option which is that he reckons the truck will make it through the barrier. What he'll do after that is a bit of mystery, but he's not one for forward planning. David can do little to stop him as Ian accelerate to the trucks maximum speed and heads straight at Ramirez who stands defiantly in the middle of the road. Thinking fast David puts on one his own psychic inventions, a cowboy hat that calls down an ectoplasmic disguise making him look like somebody else. Theoretically if they get through the barrier there's a good chance they won't know he was in the truck and he can scurry and hide.

As it becomes apparent Ian is going to ram them Ramirez's gang start to scatter but Ramirez himself remain still and simple pulls out a hefty magnum and begins firing into the truck. He causes immense damage to the engine block but not enough to keep Ian from accelerating towards him so as they approach he removes an explosive device from a pack he is carrying and throws it out into the road in front of him. David braces himself but Ian continues ramming speed. As they pass over the explosive Ramirez detonates it and ducks down as the truck is launched upward and flips over the top of him and the concrete barrier, landing upside down on the other side.

Ian is barely hurt, David's has been crushed and is unconscious. As Ian looks out of the cab windows from his upside down position he sees Ramirez and his gang surround the vehicle so he fumbles to get out his uzi and fires wildly out of the front windscreen at them. He misses but the gang panic and begin firing back. They miss Ian but a couple of them shoot David's unconscious body. Ian calls out a surrender and pulls himself out of the cab. The gang surround him as he drops his weapon and allows Ramirez to handcuff him and put him into a nearby car.

He watches as the gang pry David's body out of the cab and they run for 'The Burrow' doctor who comes back with a stretcher. They load David into another vehicle and move enough of the concrete barrier for the two cars to get past and drive away. They drive to town and Ian is immediately put into a holding cell whilst they rush David to the hospital for treatment.

As the day draws to a close Liam returns to the living quarters and climbs into his bunk. He looks around and realises the surrounding four beds are all empty. He shrugs it off and goes to sleep.

More to come ... Session Five - Talking Turkey, Turning Canary and Doing Bird

Session Three - Road Trip!

Day 7

Andy's wares are suitably impressive and he has managed to gain some interest but so far everyone seems to just be window shopping and few paying customers are coming forward so in order to tempt people in he fashions an exquisite knife of the greatest quality and ornate design you could imagine. This works ... in a manner of speaking.

Around midday three visitors enter Andy's makeshift workshop, all three too smartly dressed to be part of the mining crew and a little too familiar with Andy's capabilities, seeming to be aware of exactly how powerful Andy can make his magical weaponry. The leader explains that he will pay handsomely for some powerful weaponry and produces a bag of money. However, if you recall Andy's character description he doesn't make weapons for just anybody, he only works for a worthy hero. Not being very good with words Andy decides to express this by reciting a simple incantation and setting fire to the bag of money.

After stamping out the fire the leader of the group, Raz, lost what was left of his patience and called in his reinforcements, a ten foot tall seven hundred pound mountain giant who unsubtly enters the building by kicking down one of the walls. Andy holds his ground and makes no reaction as the leader attempts to threaten him into working with them. Become increasingly irritated by Andy's ignoring of them Raz orders his mountain giant cohort to tear the makeshift workshop to pieces, which he dutifully does. As they do so Andy calmly walks away refusing to allow them the satisfaction of getting a reaction out of him.

Meanwhile work carried on as usual for everyone else though as word got around about the race Ian's interest in being a driver brought him to the attention of the foreman of mineshaft two who runs the deliveries around the county. Mineshaft two is short one driver and need someone to do a deliver to the county capital tomorrow. Ian jumps at the opportunity and they advise him to put together a group to act as guard since the deliveries sometimes get attacked by bandits.


Day 8


Ian gets Andy, who thanks to his encounter the previous day wants to get away from the mines as quick as possible, and Liam, who has recovered from his illness, to come with him as his protective detail. Several of the miners who have been caught up in the excitement of the upcoming race are powering up their cars and planning for the event and having some technical knowledge David stays behind to get involved. Alan stays behind to work and gather more body parts, animal or human, whatever he can get his hands on.

The delivery truck is a large vehicle, not normally something Ian would choose to drive as it's hardly sporty with a top speed of 40mph, designed with a separate front cabin and cargo area. With Ian driving and Liam riding shotgun, Andy chooses to ride in the cargo area and they set off. The truck joins the main highway through the wilderness as the group leave the area of 'The Burrow' but they are not alone, already driving the highway are a gang of three vehicles, their occupants off their faces, driving erratically and shooting at anything that moves.

One of the three pulls up along the drivers side of the truck and matches speed with it whilst the other two weave in behind. The gang are clearly high on something and not acting rationally so in an attempt to calm them down Ian unloads his uzi into the vehicle at his side, killing the gang member hanging out the passenger door and waving a shotgun around. Suddenly the group are in a fight.

Andy kicks open the rear doors to see what is going on and watches the other two vehicles swerve back and forth across the road. Liam uses his door mirror to get much the same view and takes aim at the cars behind them. The gang themselves are obviously enthused by the sound of gunfire and start firing wildly back at the truck, although Andy is now the most prominent target. Ian continues to offload his excess bullets into the car beside him sending it out of control. Liam shoots at the vehicles to the rear using the cars mirror and his trick shooting skills. He manages to hit one of the gang who is standing atop of the vehicle firing an automatic pistol at Andy and blows his head off.

Forced into taking action Andy grabs his hammer and leaps from the rear of the truck, still traveling at 40mph, onto the gang vehicle immediately behind. He lands on the front of the car as he swings his hammer down through the engine block. The car goes into a spin and Andy allows himself to fall free of it and roll onto the roadside. He takes some damage but he can handle it (it probably would have killed any of the others). As this car spins out of the control the third car plows into it wrecking both of them.

Meanwhile as Ian continues to fire until his clip is empty the front car swerves wildly and goes straight under the enormous tires of the truck squashing it flat, the truck only taking minor damage. Ian brings the truck to a stop to inspect the damage and loot their would be attackers. This also offers the opportunity for Andy to rejoin them although this is more of a lucky coincidence than anything else as neither Ian or Liam noticed him jump out of the rear of the vehicle. The gang don't have much that wasn't destroyed by the crash but the group salvage some ammunition and Ian picks out some car parts but the real find is by Liam who comes across the gangs stash of illicit substances. However, since none of the trio have any knowledge of such things they don't actually know what they are so Liam pockets the "drug portions" for later use.

The rest of the journey continues relatively uneventfully although they do pass a side road that's not on their map and is blocked by a police barricade, which they make a note of. The counties capital is a large fortified structure, the entire town enclosed in a circular wall with armed guards at the only three roads in or out. Being an official vehicle the truck passes through the checkpoint without any problems and our trio deliver their cargo to a factory on the south side of the town. Whilst the truck is being unloaded and refilled with equipment that they need to take back to the mine the three of them have time to explore the town.

Andy immediately takes off with no intention of returning whilst the others explore the town. Liam approaches the sheriffs department in the hope of getting his old job back as a prison guard but the department is stretched pretty thin as it is so no real luck there. Ian goes about looking into getting a vehicle for the race and finds a car lot and a mechanics, but he needs some cash so goes off to familiarise himself with the rest of the town.

Discouraged by his trip to the police office Liam wanders into the nearby slums in an attempt to become a drug dealer. Of course with no real knowledge of the streets or any idea what it is that he's selling this generally consists of him walking up and down the slums approaching any disheveled individual and asking outright if they want some drugs. This largely gets him a lot of strange looks but eventually he finds somebody interested in what he's selling. Attempting to be smooth he offers the man the goods and dances around a price until the guy suggests one himself. Unfortunately he has simultaneously attracted the attention of some real drug dealers an as he exchanges "drug portions" for money with the man a local thug approaches and catches the corner of his eye and his enhanced senses kick in.

Having to react without knowing what to react to Liam grabs the man he is dealing to and puts a gun to his head, holding him hostage as he turns to the thug who also has a weapon drawn. They are frozen in a curious stand-off, Liam with no idea what's really going on and the thug not understanding too well himself. Liam's twitchy demeanor manages to scare the thug away and now alone in the street with the addict held hostage Liam proceeds to mug him, take back the drugs he sold and run away. Before he can find his way out of the slums Liam notices he is now being followed by two men. Again his brain implants kick in and he makes a snap decision, that decision being to jump for cover whilst shooting wildly at them. The street clears in a panic as the gunfight breaks out and with the police surely incoming the situation needs a quick resolution.

Ian returns to the factory to collect the truck with no obvious sign of his friends so he decides to give them an hour or so before going back by himself.

In the slums Liam continues his shoot out with the two stalkers having seriously wounded one of them with his initial diving attack. The wounded man stands stunned and Liam quickly finishes him off with another shot. The other man has taken cover and knowing he needs this to be over sooner rather than later Liam jumps from his hiding place and unloads his gun into the remaining guy taking him down before running from the slums as quick as he can.

Meeting back up with Ian the two them wait to see if Andy shows but when he doesn't, worried their pay may be docked for being late, they leave and return to 'The Burrow'.

More to come ... Session Four - Divided We Stand

Session Two - Accidents In The Workplace

It's important to note that the events of the game as a whole are either the result of the players actions or the result of failed dice rolls, be these rolls skill tests or just tests of luck. Remember that ...

Our "heroes" are at a loss as to what to do with themselves and in a search for honest work join a recruitment bus for the mines on the other side of the county. The armour plated bus travel the length of the county to reach it's destination, what is laughable called a town, 'The Burrow'. It's a large shack with the rudimentary amenities of a small town enclosed inside. Just north of this shack are the workers living quarters, a circle of six long thing army barracks style buildings filled wit bunk beds and surly miners. The mine has an open door policy, they're desperate for labour and will accept anyone prepared to do the work. The pay is pathetic but it does come with a free bed and all the gruel you can eat.

'The Burrow' is technically run by a man named Benny, a happy fellow who is greets everyone cheerfully and has all the authority of a wet sponge attempting to turn the tide. In reality 'The Burrow' is really run by it's self appointed sheriff, Ramirez, as mysterious character who is always accompanied by a small band of rowdy youths that seem t be his deputies. Ramirez is not actually a sheriff, his authority is not recognised by the county, but without him 'The Burrow' would be a much more chaotic place.

Our players arrive and are shown to the living quarter, six huts one of which is half burnt down and another of which is crumbling to pieces due to what is clearly an array or bullets and laser fire from both inside and out, so only four that are actually inhabitable. The journey has taken most of the day so they are led immediately to their bunks to settle in and the only chance they have to socialise with the other miners is a brief conversation with a nearby bunkmate who offers to sell them something to "help them relax". They politely decline his offer whilst Andy drinks himself to sleep instead.

Day 1

Alan, Andy, Ian and Liam proceed to work. Unfortunately David disagreed with the previous nights meal and is unable to leave with them. Boarding the workers bus they are led up to mineshaft one (of three) and let out. Mineshaft one is a fairly open structure, aside from a single checkpoint that the bus had to pass through there is little security and it seems the workers take full advantage of that, many of them lounging around outside playing cards or just basking in the heat. There also seems to be little in the way of training, in fact there is no training. If you're strong you pick up some tools, if you're smart you man a machine and everyone heads down their designated tunnel to hack at the walls around them. It's extremely slapdash but our players aren't complaining, it seems easy money.

Having dislodged as much of the wall as possible the workers are then required to simply load the rock into a conveyor piping system that is fed down every tunnel for it to be sorted in the factory at the mines entrance. Andy chooses his own magical weaponry for the task, Alan grabs a pickaxe from the supplies but bring up the rear of the group Ian decides to make use of a less conventional set of skills and manages to find a big bag of dynamite he can take down with him. Liam decides to stay up top and see if he can make friends with some of the slackers hanging around up there.

Andy proceeds to use his mighty strength and mighty weapons to hammer the wall into submission, Alan proceeds to strain several muscles attempting to do the same and Ian, not being entirely sure what he is doing, proceeds to jam sticks of dynamite into any cracks in the rock, lighting them and running like hell, much to the surprise of the others. Before too long they have a couple of visitors, a full conversion borg and a native American who seems to be comprised mostly of muscle. Neither of them seem particularly friendly as they explain that they are the welcoming commission come to give the new guys their initiation.

At least this is what they were probably saying, they don't actually get the chance to explain themselves as without putting too much thought into it Ian lights a stick of dynamite and chucks it at them endangering friend and foe alike. Everybody dives for cover as the dynamite blows. As the only one not inside the blast area Ian remains standing draws his gun as the rest of the group groggily drag themselves up. Andy manages to right himself first and jumps on the borg engaging him in hand-to-hand whilst Alan summons a fireball and throws it at the native American (note they have no names as they didn't even have the chance to introduce themselves). The native American morphs into a mountain lion and charges Alan with Ian firing wildly after him. Fortunately Alan was quick thinking and summoned a magic net which the native American failed to dodge and became entangled in.

Meanwhile Andy and the borg fight, both pretty well matched in strength and skill the borg produces a retractable blade from his forearm whilst Andy wields his magical sledgehammer. The borg gets it a few good cuts before Andy strikes him in the head massively disorienting him. The borg swings wildly but Andy takes the hit, the forearm blade lodging itself in his stomach, Andy swings the hammer down severing the arm and with one last swing caves in the borgs chest killing him.

Whilst this is going on Ian has picked up his big bag of dynamite and wandered over to the trapped mountain lion and decided the best way to deal with this is to light as many sticks as possible and jam them in the holes of the net. With little time to decide what to do before the net is dispelled and with nobody stopping him he does this and Alan decides since it's going to happen he might as well help. Being a character of high morals Andy wants nothing to do with this and walks away. As Andy walks up the tunnel the explosion erupts behind him and the brief distraction means he bumps into Ramirez and his goons coming down the tunnel towards him.

Ramirez asks him what's going on as he followed the workers bus up here to keep an eye on the new recruits and heard that a few known troublemakers had been heading your way. Andy has no choice but to lead Ramirez and his gang back down the tunnel to the carnage below where the group attempt to awkwardly explain themselves. Ramirez says nothing whilst his men poke around the remains of the bodies. Once our trios story is finished all he says is for them to get back to work and he leaves.

Having made little progress socialising Liam decides to join the others and enters the tunnel to find the crushed body of a cyborg and an assortment of mountain lion pieces sprayed all over the floor and walls. The other just smile and wave.

Day Two

Still aggrieved by the cuisine of 'The Burrow' David remains in the toilet, however, he is joined now by Liam. Not in the same toilet obviously but they can keep each other company between violent expulsions.

Ian, Alan and Andy proceed back down the tunnel to continue mining. Curious about the undisciplined nature of the job Andy attempts to devise what minerals it is they are mining for by examining the rock but aside from what you would expect to find he can't deduce anything. Whilst he is busy doing this Alan and Ian are loading up the conveyor pipe and simultaneously chuck in large lump of rock which collide. The pipe system makes a horrifying of gears breaking and pistons popping and a quick glance up the pipe reveals that the rocks are jammed inside. The conveyor pipe shakes in it's somewhat flimsy holdings and starts to come loose, steam projecting from a number of broken pistons.

Ian jumps into action and runs away, fleeing up the tunnel. Alan dives for cover. Hearing the commotion Andy comes over the see the pipe break free of its supports and begin writhing around the tunnel floor like and angry snake. Sighing at his cowardly teammates he runs at the pipe, skillfully jumps aboard and begins riding it around the tunnel. As things get worse and the pipe begins to crack up he fearlessly reaches inside in an attempt to dislodge the blockage. Ignoring the pain in his arm as it pushes against the grinders inside the pipe he takes a hold of the rocks and manages to pull one of them out. The pipe calms down but is no longer functioning.

The mineshaft forum sees the disturbance in the monitoring station up top and comes running. He demands an explanation but Ian and Alan's lies confuse the situation and he simple sends them all home, docking all three of their wages for the day.

Day Three

Ian, Andy and Alan soldier on. Alan unintentionally uncovers a poisonous plant whilst digging. It spits acid in his face and using his total lack of medical knowledge Ian chucks a bucket of water over him in an attempt the help. Alan leaves for medical attention but he permanently scarred.

Day Four

Alan raises his pickaxe high above his head, the blade comes loose and falls on him knocking him unconscious. Andy laughs so hard he is not paying attention to what he is doing and dislodges a rock which crushes his foot.

It is at this point that with a face full of scar tissue and a head wound for Alan, and with a minor stomach wound, a slightly mangled arm and a broken foot for Andy the two of them decide mining might not be for them.

Day Five

Andy stays behind to see if he can make some magical tools he might be able to sell to the workers, Ian and Alan proceed to the mine but only Ian goes inside, Alan instead searches the nearby area for anything of interest and much to his delight finds a graveyard not too far from the mines entrance where deceased employees are laid to rest if nobody comes forth to claim them. He makes a note of it's location and spends the rest of the day basking in the sun. In the tunnel Ian seems to have no trouble now that he is by himself.

Day Six

Andy builds a small workshop in the living quarters hut that was half burnt down and gains himself a couple of clients interested in some unbreakable equipment. Alan inquires at the mess hall to see if he can work in the kitchen instead of the mine. He is not a bad cook and they are happy enough for him to work for free which he is happy to do as in reality all he wants is the opportunity to steal animal bones from the food stores. Once again, now that he is alone, Ian has no trouble down the mine, however, he is getting restless and strikes up a conversation with some of the other workers that it would cool if there was an organised race around here.

This snowballs surprisingly quickly into one of the group declaring that he could smuggle them into mineshaft two one night and they could race there, no one would ever know and perhaps more importantly (to most of the listeners anyway) it would offer the opportunity for a big gambling racket, though all that Ian is really interested in is the opportunity to drive like a lunatic.

More to come ... Session Three - Road Trip!

Intro & Session One - Never Strikes Twice

This is a Rifts: New West campaign based around total freedom for the players. I mapped out an area, essential a safe zone (relatively speaking) in the desert where a number of towns can be found. I populated this county with a random assortment of characters that I am constantly adding to and then threw the player characters in, all with homes and lives of their own, associated with each other in so much as they all lived in the same very small town. Aside from the first session which was planned to force the players to reassess their simple lives my plan was to run the entire game by improvising and just running with whatever the players wanted to do.

The players had free reign of characters from across Rifts Earth, mostly because between us we own all of the books and there's always something from somewhere that we want to play as and everyones taste rarely lines up, so it's just easier to have free reign. Since the aim of the game is more about survival and the players will be able to get up to most anything they like everybody tended to go for more practical applications for character choices, albeit slightly strange uses.

Our Players:

Alan - publicly he's a farmer, lives on the edge of town and grows crops. Privately he's a reformed necromancer from eastern Europe trying to lead the nice normal life of a farmer, but it's not so easy to leave your old life behind you and rather than hire farmhands grave robbing and resurrecting a few zombie minions seemed a whole lot easier. Keeps to himself mostly to avoid people finding this out.

Andy - the town smith, originally from Russia, makes tools and basic metal supplies that famously never breaks. This is because he's a mage whose training is specifically in the forging of magical weapons, however, he has an oath to only ever provide weaponry to a worthy hero so relies on making basic supplies but instills them with magical energy making them stronger and more reliable than normal. Unfortunately is an alcoholic and also brews his own alcohol, though doesn't sell it as it's not entirely user friendly.

Dave - the town mechanic, originally from south America specialising in enhancements and modifications that push equipment to the max and beyond. The beyond element will often push a machine to it's breaking/exploding point, but until then it will run like it's never run before. This is due to a unique range of psychic abilities that he has which means he can create devices that mimic those psychic abilities.

Ian - professional driver, originally from Australia, who worked mostly on deliveries between his home town and the surrounding areas, however, his skill goes far beyond that and he is an extremely skilled stunt driver  who is somewhat obsessed with car crashes, something he has a unique talent for surviving. All in all a slightly unhinged person.

Liam - the only local boy of the group, having grown up in the county itself. At some point in later life decided he wanted to become a gunslinger, but with no desire to undertake the years and years of training that requires decided to have a whole load of dangerous brain implants to simulate that training, becoming what is known as a "wired gunslinger". His brain implants give him heightened senses and allow him to always act first in any given situation making him nearly impossible to surprise. Unfortunately wired gunslingers advanced reactions mean they act before they actually know what's going on. This is just as likely to helpful as it is unhelpful and results in the accidental shooting of so many innocent people that suicide is quite high amongst wired gunslingers.

Session One - Never Strikes Twice:

Here's what you need to know, because this isn't technically on the New West map or in any of the Rifts books: the county the game takes place inside of is enclosed in a valley, essentially trapping the players as traveling outside of this area is far too dangerous. There are two ways out of the valley aside from up one of the many cliff sides to wander the surrounding desert, and those are a train line to the north or overland to the south but that territory is owned by the CS, the heavy military force that likes to think it owns the place. The only other option is the crater. You see the valley is just a crack that was created by something much larger, a massive crater several hundred miles across of unknown origin with a nexus point in the middle. It's best avoided but that doesn't stop people traveling there.

The players begin their lives living in a small town in the north-west corner of the county, a place simply called 'Valley Station' rather obviously because it's the valley's train station, the only secure connection to the rest of America. The train itself is of techno-wizard design and travels along ley lines linking up the various counties in the surrounding states.

We open on an average day in the lives of this oddball group with them all going to work, with the exception of our truck driver Ian who has just come back from an overnight delivery. As their day begins  Liam is at the sheriffs office watching over some prisoners, David goes to his workshop, Andy is at home getting ready for the working day, Alan watches over his zombie farmhands and Ian arrives home and prepares to get some rest.

Liam has been left alone at the sheriffs office as the sheriff and his deputies have been called away to deal with a cranky old man chasing children off his lawn with a shotgun. This problem quickly turns into a hostage situation which turns worst when the cranky old man reveals that he has a home made tank in his garage and proceeds to have a dangerous shoot out with the sheriff until they manage to break into the tank and arrest him. David witnesses that arrest on his way to his shop.

Meanwhile a storm is rolling in, and I don't mean that metaphorically I mean an actual storm is coming. Heavy rain cloud, thunder and lightening are approaching fast, not a common occurrence around here but nothing too exciting, until it arrived overhead with surprising speed. Early bird Alan watches the storm as it arrives over his field until a bolt of lightening fires down from the sky and vaporises one of the several zombie workers he has out there. Before he has time to react two more bolts of lightening destroy the remaining two workers out in the field. Watching the field curiosity overcomes Alan and he orders one of the zombie workers currently in the house to go outside. As soon as the zombie exits the building it is struck down just like the others.

The rain comes down heavy and the rumbling of the storm drowns out all other noise.

The town can do little but watch as the storm increases in intensity until the lightening strikes, lightening that began tearing through buildings and blowing the townspeople into tiny pieces. The storm attacks the town ferociously sending its citizens and our unfortunate players running for cover.

The storm launches Alan's tractor through his kitchen, flattens David's workshop, throws a truck that crushes half of Andy's house and rips open the roof of the sheriffs office killing all the prisoners Liam was watching over.

Hearing the ruckus outside Ian runs out of his house and confronted by the chaos jumps in his car and attempts to flee town, but the roads are not safe. Going cross-country Ian heads north, skillfully avoiding the lightening he joins the train track and begins to follow it away from the town, down the narrow valley and tunnel it takes. This doesn't go entirely according to plan as he soon meets a train coming the other way. In a panic he attempts to drive up the wall and wedge himself between it and the train. It doesn't work. He flips his car and is now upside down in front of the train. He climbs out of the car and runs for cover as the train strikes it and smashes it aside.

Andy rushes out into the street to be greeted by the devastating arches of lightening that are tearing his hometown apart. He looks up into the abnormal cloud and senses a presence. He can make out some giant mass up there, hidden by the cloud itself.

David jumps clear of his workshop as it is destroyed by another lightening blast. He stands out in the street unsure what to do and with no immediate form of transport seems a little helpless. However, from his vantage point he can see the old mans homemade tank.

Unsure what to do without orders Liam waits for the Sheriff to return but as he and his deputies escort the old man down the street outside they are struck by a bolt of lightening that annihilates them. Liam watches on and suddenly realises he is the only remaining member of law enforcement in the town. He runs from the station seeing Andy wandering the street as he goes.

Alan makes his way through his farm to the barn on one side, jumps onto a horse and rides as fast as he can away from the scene.

Andy sees Dave down the street and makes his way towards him. Liam sees them and with no better idea follows too. Dave goes to the tank and he and Andy arrive there at the same time. Andy explains his thoughts about the cloud so being a rational human being and with few other options David jumps into the tank and begins firing wildly into the cloud.

The could seems to scream and darken. Suddenly there is a roar and clap of thunder, the ground shakes and as the sound fades and the players stabilise themselves they see the cloud dissipating and the sky is clear once again.

Our players look out over the devastated town, homeless and/or jobless and surrounded by a disaster zone life suddenly just became a little more complicated.

More to come ... Session Two - Accidents in the Workplace