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.
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
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