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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7968827" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 75: HOOPLA</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: </p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 19</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Darrien, half-elf ranger 19</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 19</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Gilbert Fung, human wizard 19</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 19</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Genevar, humanoid mutant</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> MARCI, humanoid construct</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 18 April 2020</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>Gilbert stepped outside the stone tower, closed the thick, wooden door behind him, and said the command word that shrunk the entire building back into its pocket-sized form. Then he handed the <em>Daern's instant fortress</em> to Aithanar, who placed it inside the <em>portable hole</em> he carried. That taken care of, the elf folded the hole back up and put it one of his belt pouches for safe keeping.</p><p></p><p><That is a remarkable piece of technology,> enthused Genevar. <I don't even think the Ancients had anything like that!></p><p></p><p>"Pfah!" snorted Gilbert. "That not technology - that magic!"</p><p></p><p><"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,"> quoted the mutant girl.</p><p></p><p>"Oh yeah? Who say that?"</p><p></p><p><It's Clarke's Third Law. He was an Ancient scholar.></p><p></p><p>"Never heard of him. Come on, we ready to keep heading for that desert of yours." Having spent the night in the <em>Daern's instant fortress</em> rather than risk sleeping out under the stars in a world with roving packs of spider-sharks, the group was rested up and ready to go. And having planned on an extended excursion into Gamma Terra, they'd taken the precautions of stocking the fortress up with sufficient provisions. Furthermore, before they made camp for the night the previous evening MARCI had found the plants she needed to synthesize the various medicinal compounds she created within her mechanical form and had announced this morning she was now fully stocked with what Gilbert referred to as "injectable potions." Finoula had made sure to dig up several of the plants to keep them on hand inside the fortress.</p><p></p><p>"How far away is this desert again?" asked Darrien.</p><p></p><p><At least a week, maybe closer to two, depending on what we might encounter on the way.></p><p></p><p>"Don't you know?" asked Binkadink from Obvious's saddle. "I thought you could see the future."</p><p></p><p><I can. But I can't see <em>everything</em> about the future, just glimpses of it now and again.></p><p></p><p>"But you're sure we'll make it to the Eradicator Base?" prompted the gnome. "We're going the right way?"</p><p></p><p><I assume we're going the right way - that's the only desert I know of, and we were in the desert when I saw us find Eradicator Base. But it doesn't matter. I saw us discover the base so we're going the right way no matter which way we go. We'll get there in the end.></p><p></p><p>"I wish I had your confidence," muttered the gnome under his breath, forgetting the mutant girl could hear his thoughts as well if not even better than she heard his words. Still, the group continued their trek from the previous day, heading west from the gateway between worlds that wouldn't open again for almost another whole month. They passed through fields of brownish grasses and forests of small, twisted trees before reaching a rocky area with clumps of ruined walls and the occasional partially-destroyed building, some of them covered in part by the ground itself; the centuries since the buildings had been constructed were taking their toll and the altered earth was reclaiming what mankind had built.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly Obvious stiffened and lowered his head to the ground. "What is it?" asked Binkadink, looking around in the saddle to try to spot whatever danger had alerted his mount.</p><p></p><p>"My siblings!" Obvious answered aloud. "I can smell traces of them - they passed this way within the past couple of weeks!"</p><p></p><p>"What, all of them?" asked Finoula. "Is that normal for jackalopes, to stick around with their siblings after attaining adulthood?"</p><p></p><p>"No, it isn't," Obvious replied. "And we didn't - we each went our separate ways. But this..." - he took a few sniffs of the ground to make certain - "...this isn't all of them, only four of the five. But come on! Let's go find them!" The eager jackalope was ready to pounce on ahead at full speed, but Binkadink held him back with pressure from his legs and a gentle tug on his reins.</p><p></p><p>"Let's not go bounding ahead of everybody else," he warned his mount. "We'll stick together - right?" He looked to the others for support.</p><p></p><p>"Sure," replied Hagan. "Genevar's already said we'll get to Eradicator Base no matter how long we take or which way we go, so I don't imagine making a side-trek to go find Obvious's brothers and sisters will make much of a difference to our schedule." Obvious led the way, keeping his nose to the ground, and now that the two rangers knew the other jackalopes had come this way they found the occasional bit of evidence: a paw-print here, a clump of fur stuck to the bark of a tree there. Eventually, the trail led them to a dilapidated, one-story building ahead in the distance, its roof intact but several chunks of walls missing here and there. To the north of the building stood a large pile of dirt; just before it was a ramped pit leading down toward the building. As one, the group stopped and lowered themselves to the ground, seeing what they could see of the operation going on, for they could hear the sounds of picks and shovels hitting earth and stone. Somebody was undergoing some sort of excavation project here, and it certainly wasn't the jackalopes doing the digging - they wouldn't need tools to do so.</p><p></p><p>As the group watched (Binkadink pulled out his twin spyglasses, which Genevar told him were called "binoculars"), a pair of green-skinned men dressed in rags walked up the ramp-pit with a wheelbarrow filled with dirt, one pushing the wheelbarrow to the dirt pile and the other helping dump it onto the mound with a shovel. Then another load of dirt and rocks were lugged out of the pit, this time by a jackalope pulling a wooden cart. Another pair of green men tossed the rocks from the cart onto the dirt pile.</p><p></p><p>"The jackalope's wearing manacles," Darrien whispered to the others. Sure enough, even without the binoculars the others could see how the antlered rabbit was hobbling; a short chain attached his right front leg to his right rear leg, ensuring he couldn't run - he could barely even walk. Obvious startled making a very unrabbitlike growling sound in the back of his throat.</p><p></p><p>"Those green guys the ones in charge?" Gilbert whispered.</p><p></p><p>"Nope," replied Binkadink, still looking through the binoculars. "There are giant rabbits on their hind legs, standing guard, hiding in the shadows of the building. Looks like they've got swords and longbows."</p><p></p><p><Hoops,> interjected Genevar.</p><p></p><p>"Where?" whispered Binkadink. "I don't see any hoops. What are they for?"</p><p></p><p><No, the humanoid rabbits - they're called "hoops." And the green men are "grens."></p><p></p><p>Darrien asked for the binoculars and scrambled away from the others, belly-crawling to his left and giving the excavation site a good viewing through the magnified lenses. Then he returned to tell the others what he'd seen. "There's a couple of women on guard duty, too - they look pretty much human, but they've got - no kidding - bunny ears."</p><p></p><p><Viera,> identified Genevar. <They often work with hoops.></p><p></p><p>"Okay, let's back away slowly," suggested Gilbert. "We cast combat-prep spells, then we go forward, free Obvious's family." Once sufficiently back and out of sight, the heavyset mage cast a <em>stoneskin</em> spell upon himself and his earth elemental familiar from a scroll. Hagan cast the same spell upon himself and his own weasel familiar, while each of the rangers granted themselves the effects of <em>barkskin</em> and <em>longstrider</em> spells. Binkadink unstoppered a <em>barkskin</em> potion and drank down its contents, while Gilbert followed up with a <em>fire shield</em> spell cast upon himself and Mudpie and then a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell on everyone. <We ready?> Gilbert asked over the link, getting positive responses from the rest of the group.</p><p></p><p><Okay, Aithanar: your job keep Genevar safe - she our only guide here. MARCI, you stick by Genevar, too.></p><p></p><p><Intruders!> came a sudden cry over the telepathic link - or at least that was what it sounded like, as the voice came directly into everyone's heads. They looked over at the building they'd been approaching and saw the three visible hoops on guard duty were all looking directly at them, fitting arrows to their longbows. A fourth stepped away from a partial wall and did the same, and then four arrows went flying towards the heroes. The two hoops at the east of the building had both targeted Hagan, while the two on the west side had chosen Finoula and Darrien as their targets. But the heroes had been prepared for battle and managed to avoid the incoming missiles - a good thing, too, for these hoops were almost nine feet tall and the arrows they shot were much larger than those a human-sized person would use.</p><p></p><p>Darrien whipped his own arrow into his <em>Arachnibow</em> and gave back as good as he got - better, in fact, as his feathered shaft ended up in the throat of his hoop target, followed seconds later by another small cluster in the upright bunny's chest. The hoop coughed blood and fell to the ground, dead. Hagan took out one of the hoops who had targeted him, slaying him with a well-placed <em>meteor swarm</em> spell that singed the fur from the hoop beside the one he slew.</p><p></p><p>One of the vieras stepped up to take the place of the hoop Darrien had slain and she had a longbow of her own. She also had an open-flapped pouch at her left hip and before firing her arrow she stabbed it down into the pouch, revealing some sort of fruit - it looked something like a cross between an apple and a plum - impaled on the tip of her arrowhead. She fired this weapon at Darrien, striking him but not with enough force for the arrowhead to pierce his armor - but the strange fruit exploded upon impact nonetheless, nearly knocking the half-elven archer off his feet. Unseen, another of these viera archers over by the excavation pit, telepathically warned by the hoops, held an arrow at the ready in her own longbow; she also had an open pouch of explosive fruit at her hip but had not "primed" her arrowhead with any of them, knowing once the fruit's skin was pierced she had only a matter of seconds before it exploded. Two more vieras by the pit readied their weapons for combat, but these two wielded longswords, not bows.</p><p></p><p>Finoula raised a hand to her magic amulet and said the command word that sent her flying across the distance to crash into the hoop as a bolt of living lightning, then pivot from his body and blast through the viera archer as well before resuming her elven form just beyond the bunny-woman's reach. Both foes seemed damaged by the surge of electricity coursing through them but neither had been killed by the attack.</p><p></p><p>Spurring Obvious forward - although in truth the jackalope needed no encouragement, given he was rescuing his siblings - Binkadink brought his <em>reverberating glaive</em> swinging into the just-electrified hoop, nearly slaying him outright. Gilbert took the time to fish his twin foo lion statues from his robes and drop them to the ground while speaking the command word that brought them to instant life. "You help Aithanar guard girl!" he commanded as he and Mudpie stepped forward. Hachi and Tsumezhao ("Tooth" and "Claw") growled their acknowledgement, taking position on either side of Genevar and Aithanar, the elf's sword out and ready to strike any enemy who might approach.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly, four more hoops exited the building and advanced upon these unknown enemies coming up on their excavation site from the south. One stood by the hoop Hagan's previous spell had singed badly, while the other three headed west, over by where Finoula, Binkadink, and Obvious were engaging the hoop and the viera archer. Hagan found another pair of overly-large arrows headed his way and one grazed his sleeve, drawing blood; Wezhley hissed in anger at the effrontery of these silly bunny-men attacking his master. The three hoops at the west all shot at Binkadink and the gnome felt a strange sensation right before they let fly with their arrows: it was if his red dragonhide armor, which normally provided him with ample protection in just about any combat situation, suddenly wasn't there! Looking down, he saw two of the arrows had found their mark and were sticking right through his armor, which the hoops had somehow made ethereal - or something very much like that - right as they attacked. He yanked the shafts back out of his shoulder and rib, ignoring the pain in the heat of the battle, and flung them aside.</p><p></p><p>Darrien activated his <em>ebony fly</em> and flew it over the three hoops and the viera squaring off against Finoula, Binkadink, and Obvious, landing over by the top of the ramping pit. From this vantage point, he could see almost a dozen of the grens, cringing along the sides of the pit in terror at the sounds of battle nearby. There was also a hulking brute of a man, about the same height as the hoops but sporting two heads - side by side like an ettin - and four arms, two on each side. This creature was swinging an enormous pick and had just broken through the rock at the deep edge of the pit wall, exposing an open chamber of some sort on the other side. But Darrien couldn't see inside the exposed chamber, for the two-headed mutant's body was in the way. He was also somewhat distracted by the arrow the viera archer guarding the pit shot at him, the shaft digging into the side of his bicep and coming out clean through the other side. Before he had time to react, she'd stabbed a fruit with another arrow and sent it flying at him, its explosion killing the <em>ebony fly</em> beneath him, forcing the <em>figurine of wondrous power</em> back to its statuette form. Just that quickly, Darrien was back to standing on the ground.</p><p></p><p>Hagan cast another <em>meteor swarm</em>, targeting the hoop reinforcement and taking him out as well as the one beside him, now the unlucky recipient of the fiery explosions of <em>two</em> adjacent <em>meteor swarm</em> spells. Another fiery explosion occurred at the same time over on the other side of the building, this one the result of a pair of arrows fired at Obvious with those explosive fruits embedded on the arrowheads. Fortunately for Binkadink, his red dragonhide armor absorbed most of the explosion but Obvious had no such protection. Finoula blasted through the hoop and viera archer again as a living <em>lightning bolt</em>, dropping the archer from the attack.</p><p></p><p>Over at the excavation site, one of the viera swordswomen scrambled down the side of the pit, stepping on a gren's shoulder to do so. Then she was right by the orlen slave, pushing past the monstrosity with her sword out and at the ready. She called for the orlen to follow her into the darkened cavern and he had no choice but to obey. The other viera charged Darrien, her longsword also being put to good use. But Darrien dodged her swing, backed up a step or two, and peppered her full of arrows. She fell to the ground and did not get back up.</p><p></p><p>"Let's move forward," suggested Aithanar, not wanting to bring Genevar into harm's way but not wanting to get separated too far from the others, either. Hachi and Tsumezhao kept apace, with MARCI following obediently behind. Before them, Gilbert and Mudpie were closing the gap towards the combatants, which had prompted the elf's actions.</p><p></p><p>Inside the lower level of the building - a level the hoops and vieras knew from blueprints they'd found above in the chamber of their god but hadn't been able to get to through the sealed door leading to the stairwell in the center of the larger circle of the structure - the viera swordswoman sent her blade stabbing through the throat of a badder dwelling in the chamber they'd just pierced into; the badders had a colony down here, it looked like; this was, by the looks of it, a birthing chamber. But the viera was more interested in the room just beyond, which was directly beneath the room of their god above: a cell recharging station! She grabbed an energy cell from a shelf, placed it into the red column of light beaming down from the ceiling, and watched as the power level indicator on the side of the cell increased dramatically. Then, grabbing up the heart of her god from the red beam, she waved the orlen over and they headed for the stairs: perhaps they'd be able to open the door to the upper level from this side.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink's glaive swung at the hoop before him and as the humanoid rabbit dodged away from the gnome's blade, Obvious caught him up in a toothsome grip, clamping down hard upon the hoop's right arm and holding the grip tight. The hoop frantically tried extricating himself from the jackalope's bite, with no luck. Two of the nearby hoops immediately targeted Obvious with their arrows, but even getting hit with a pair of javelin-sized arrows wouldn't get the jackalope to release his prey.</p><p></p><p>Recognizing their brother, a few of the other jackalopes hobbled slowly toward Obvious, the one in the lead looking like he wanted to take a bite out of the grappled hoop herself. Darrien had to look twice to make sure he saw what he thought he saw, for the jackalope's fur was changing color as she moved, blending in with her surroundings. He looked at the others and saw they were doing the same, perhaps even without conscious volition; this, at last, explained Obvious's name, for Binkadink's loyal steed's fur only changed color when the gnome cast a <em>prestidigitation</em> spell on him.</p><p></p><p>The hoops before him now slain, Hagan cast a <em>fly</em> spell upon himself and lifted himself into the sky and started heading directly over the building from which the hoops had emerged. The structure, he could see, had originally been two overlapping circles, looking somewhat like an "8" with the insides filled in. He flew on a bee-line course to the ramped pit, where Darrien had just slain one of those weird bunny women and was leaning over her corpse - the ranger saw a key worn on a chain around her neck and had figured there was a good chance this might be the key that opened the shackles hobbling the jackalopes.</p><p></p><p>Finoula killed a hoop with her longsword <em>Tahlmalaera</em> as the remaining viera archer shot Darrien with another of those explosive fruits embedded on the tips of her arrows. He retaliated in kind with his <em>Arachnibow</em>, slaying her instantly.</p><p></p><p>Downstairs, the viera and orlen saw another badder guarding the door to the stairs - and better yet, he had a passcard on a lanyard around his neck! While the viera cut him down with her sword - he'd been armed with a primitive morningstar but she'd gotten the drop on him before he had a chance to use his weapon - the orlen saw another pair of the humanoid badger-men approach. He fended off an attack by one of them, using his large pick as a sort of shield, while the other badder turned tail and fled through a back tunnel that looked like it had been dug by hand. <em>Probably getting reinforcements</em>, the orlen thought with one head while the other concentrated on keeping alive long enough for the viera to slay the badder with her sword. Then, once that had been accomplished, they raced up the stairs - the badder's passcard did indeed allow access through the door - and back to the upper level, where the viera eagerly anticipated bringing her god back to life.</p><p></p><p>While Obvious continued worrying his grappled hoop, swinging him around by his grip on the hoop's arm, Binkadink leaped from the saddle and ran forward, striking one of the hoops who'd been shooting at his mount with his arrows. A <em>magic missile</em> spell went whizzing over the gnome's antlered helmet to strike the hoop as well, courtesy of Gilbert Fung, slowly approaching from the rear of the building. Behind him, Aithanar led his charge over to the building, where he decided the safest place for Genevar was likely inside the structure; there were several gaps in the walls on this side by which they could enter. The hoop. however, was still in the fight and struck at Binkadink with his overly-large longsword.</p><p></p><p>With a great effort that left scraps of flesh and fur in Obvious's mouth, the hoop finally escaped from the grip of the jackalope's rodent teeth and fell back. Finoula ran forward to help, casting a <em>protection from fire</em> spell upon herself as she did so - she wasn't sure what those explosive apple-things were all about but didn't particularly want to be taken out of a fight by a piece of fruit!</p><p></p><p>Outside, as Aithanar sent Genevar inside a gap in the outer wall and the foo lions and MARCI followed, the elf's keen hearing picked up a strange sound among the sounds of battle: it sounded like a dull roar and the beating of drums. Stepping momentarily back outside and looking to the southwest, close to the way they'd come, he saw a cloud of dust approaching - and, causing the cloud of dust, an enormous elephant-beast of some type running alongside a great number of what looked to the elf like werebadgers. He quickly alerted the others to the incoming force over the telepathic link they shared courtesy of Gilbert's spell.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink slew the hoop he'd been fighting and then spun at the sensing of another form approaching him from behind, but it was just a hobbled jackalope. "Hold still - I free you," he said in the simple language of burrowing mammals, sure that the jackalope would be able to understand him - after all, Obvious had understood him just fine when they had first met. The jackalope did as instructed and Binkadink's <em>reverberating glaive</em> cut through the chain, allowing <strong>Clover</strong> full movement once again. Behind the gnome, Obvious slew the hoop he'd been fighting, goring him with his antlers and then leaping on top of him when he fell to the ground, crushing the beleaguered hoop's rib cage.</p><p></p><p>"Clover!" Obvious called to his sister, seeing Binkadink had freed her with his weapon.</p><p></p><p>"Obvious!" Clover called out in joy at seeing her older brother.</p><p></p><p>"Inside - safe inside!" Obvious called, ushering his little sister into the building with a nod of his antlered head. "People with me, friends!" he explained, using the burrowing mammal language; unlike him, his siblings had not been the recipients of an <em>awaken</em> spell and had no further speech abilities beyond their own simple language. Running past them, Gilbert Fung cast a <em>spectral hand</em> spell upon himself, not quite sure yet how he'd employ it but deciding now was as good a time as any to get it ready. Mudpie kept pace with his master.</p><p></p><p>Darrien used the key to unshackle another hopper, this one <strong>Quickpaws</strong>, the only male among the four the hoops had currently pressed into service, cutting him free from the leather cords connecting him to the wagon he'd been pulling. Then, unable to communicate with the great beast and not having anyone in his immediate vicinity to fight, he headed for the ramped pit, along the sides of which the grens still cowered. Darrien knew there was a bunny-woman loose in the lower level somewhere and he didn't know what all she might be doing in there: getting reinforcements, for all he knew. Hagan flew above the pit, ready to cast a <em>meteor swarm</em> down at the grens until he saw they were all just harmless slaves, armed only with shovels and wearing nothing but loincloths - these were no enemies! He called down to them to remain where they were, out of harm's way, until he realized they didn't understand a thing he was saying; he'd need Genevar to translate telepathically. But it didn't look like it mattered much at the moment, anyway - they were already hunkering down in place so they were about as safe as could be expected at the moment.</p><p></p><p>The viera had by this time made it back to the chamber of her god and installed the heart - an energy cell - into its chest cavity. This "god" was a humanoid robot, 25 feet tall - actually, even a bit taller than that, given the hoops had welded a pair of metal "bunny ears" to the back of its head to make it appear more in their own image. But the viera hit the switch on the wall that opened the roof and raised the circular platform upon which the Mecha-Hoop stood, the Ancient technology still working just fine after all these centuries. She grabbed up the handset that controlled the god, ordering it to attack anyone not meeting the description of a hoop, a viera, a gren, a hopper, or an orlen.</p><p></p><p>Finoula saw the badders and their armadillephant were getting much closer now, noticing one of those strange badger-men rode upon the top of the massive pachyderm's head. But then her attention was distracted by the rumbling noise from the building as the roof pulled back and the Mecha-Hoop was raised to the roof level. With a sudden blast of fire from its feet, the humanoid construct flew forward, landing with a reverberating thud on the ground before spinning about and facing the pit. Darrien, still at the top of the pit, saw the towering construct looming above him and leaped to the ground as the Mecha-Hoop pointed an arm his way. Some sort of weapon extended up out of his forearm and there were suddenly bits of metal being shot his way at velocities he wouldn't have believed were possible.</p><p></p><p>Hagan immediately cast a <em>polar ray</em> spell at the Mecha-Hoop but found with some surprise his spell didn't make it all the way to the metal man: there was some sort of <em>wall of force</em> or something blocking the way. The ray of cold hit this invisible field of force, briefly illuminating it as it struck.</p><p></p><p>Finoula had also seen this odd effect and used her <em>lightning bolt amulet</em> to blast at the Mecha-Hoop, further damaging the force field surrounding the construct to the point where it winked out. She ended up back in elven form off to the side of the pit-ramp.</p><p></p><p>The Mecha-Hoop swung both arms out wide, blasting both Hagan and Darrien with its twin chain guns. And just that fast, there was a sort of electric hum as the thing's force field snapped back in place, not yet back to full strength but getting stronger every second as it built back up in power.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink and Obvious were now inside the building, the gnome having had to call to the other jackalopes in their own language to get them inside where it was safer. He stashed them in a curving hallway while he headed to the north, from where the sounds of the roof opening up had come from. Opening a door, he saw a workroom of some type, with odd tools he'd never seen before - and, more importantly, the viera holding a small box in her hand and giving the robot instructions the gnome couldn't understand, while a two-headed mutant with four arms stood beside her.</p><p></p><p><Genevar!> Binkadink called over the <em>Rary's telepathic link</em>. <Are you within range?></p><p></p><p><I'm here.></p><p></p><p><There's a bunny-woman in here with me, controlling the golem! Tell her to make it stand down, or I'll kill her!></p><p></p><p><I can't, not without seeing her! And I'm trying to contact the badders outside, to see why they're storming this way!> The mutant girl, with Aithanar as an armed escort, had stepped outside to get within visual range of the rampaging badders and their armadillephant. Unable to get a translator, Binkadink stepped forward and brought the flat of his blade crashing down upon the viera's head. She crumpled to the ground, unconscious. The gnome looked over to the orlen, and it immediately dropped its enormous pick and raised all four hands in a gesture denoting its complete harmlessness. Binkadink set his glaive down and started tying up the unconscious viera with some cords he found lying about.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert was now assisting in the fight against the Mecha-Hoop. <Need to take down shield around him, but it keep coming back up!> he called to others, taking the force field down with a <em>disintegrate</em> spell, while Darrien took the opportunity to scramble through the hole in the back wall of the pit-ramp, where the golem's metal projectile attacks couldn't follow. As he dashed inside the lower level - and saw the dead badder on the ground before him the viera had slain - he cast a <em>cure serious wounds</em> spell upon himself, sealing up the first bullet holes he'd ever received in his life as an adventurer.</p><p></p><p>About this time, Genevar's telepathy had pierced the red-hot anger of the badder army. <The badders had an encampment in the lower level of the building!> she reported to her new friends from Kordovia. <The viera massacred one of their pregnant females and slew another pair of guards - they're here to slay the hoop and the viera!></p><p></p><p><Tell them the hoops are all dead!> Binkadink returned over the mental link. <And there's just the one viera left, and I've got her subdued!></p><p></p><p>There was a moment's pause before Genevar replied, <I can't get through! They're really mad -- too mad for communication!> With a snarl, Binkadink scooped the bound viera up onto his shoulder - he had to raise his <em>gnomish stilt-boots</em> to their full extent to carry her, as she was over twice his own normal height if you counted her bunny ears - and rushed back to one of the holes in the outer wall. By now, the armadillephant and the rushing badders were almost within touching distance; the gnome tossed her out onto the ground before them and several badders veered her way, crushing her bound body with their wicked-looking morningstars.</p><p></p><p>The spellcasters had been kept busy with the Mecha-Hoop in the meantime. Hagan had managed to get a <em>polar ray</em> to hit the robot itself while its force field was down, dealing it some damage but leading the half-orc sorcerer to believe it was at least partially shielded from cold energy. Finoula, fearing the robot's chain guns, had fled back inside the building, but fortunately for Gilbert, Mudpie, and Hagan, the Mecha-Hoop's internal logic circuits had apparently decided the advancing badder army posed a potentially greater threat to the hoops and vieras, for it trained its twin chain guns on them, spraying a hail of bullets their way.</p><p></p><p><You know, maybe we let them fight it out!> suggested Gilbert, dodging back inside the building and commanding his earth elemental familiar to earth glide down into the ground, where it was safe. Mudpie wasted no time sinking below the surface of the earth.</p><p></p><p><We should help the badders!> Finoula countered. <They're the injured party here!></p><p></p><p>"Fine!" grumbled the heavyset mage to himself, not bothering to make his objections noted over the telepathic link. But he cast another <em>disintegrate</em> spell on the Mecha-Hoop's force field, bringing it - momentarily at least - down once again. This allowed Hagan to cast a <em>chain lightning</em> spell on the robot, which looked to do a bit more damage to the construct than the half-orc would have thought. <I think it's vulnerable to electricity!> he observed over the link.</p><p></p><p><Good to know!> Finoula replied, using her <em>lightning amulet</em> to send her blasting back out of the building and into the robot's metal chest, through its internal systems, and back out behind it while its force field was still down. And then, that quickly, the shield was back up again.</p><p></p><p>By this time Darrien had made it through the lower level, up the stairs, and caught up with the orlen in the workshop. The four-armed creature pantomimed its friendliness and unwillingness to fight and the half-elf ranger gave it a quick thumbs up to indicate his understanding.</p><p></p><p>With a crash, the armadillephant's curving tusks went pounding into the Mecha-Hoop, bringing its still-regenerating force field back down and then sending the robot flying backwards with the force of his forward momentum. But the robot's chain guns fired again, slaying the badder perched on the armadillephant's head and sending blood and bits of bone flying from the pachyderm's armored head.</p><p></p><p><I try something,> Gilbert said and invoked the words to a <em>limited wish</em> spell, hoping to turn the metal man to solid stone. But the spell had no effect, causing the mage to swear to himself - verbally only, as Genevar was only ten years old or so and he didn't want to have to explain what those words meant. (Again, he wasn't thinking about the fact Genevar could read minds - it was not something the heroes were finding easy to remember about the little girl.)</p><p></p><p>But now that they knew an electricity overload was its weakness, Hagan and Gilbert gave it a one-two spell-punch, the human wizard casting a <em>scorching ray</em> that took down the force field long enough for the half-orc sorcerer to cast another <em>chain lightning</em> spell at it. It fell backwards and was trampled to pieces by the rampaging armadillephant, the massive claws on its forefeet ripping off one of the welded-on bunny ears in the process.</p><p></p><p>After that, the badders calmed down, enough so that Genevar was able to open telepathic communication with them. They were invited into the building to see for themselves no hoops or vieras still survived and assured the Kordovians wanted no part of the building: it was the badders' to keep - and now they could live on the top floor as well as in the sublevel below, whose tunnel led to their larger burrow some ways away. Finoula passed over the passcard the viera had taken from the badder guard she'd slain downstairs. The badders allowed the hoppers, orlen, and grens to go free; the hoppers would all be coming with the Kordovian adventurers (and their brother, Obvious) while the others were free to go their own ways and make their own lives in Gamma Terra.</p><p></p><p>Obvious made the introductions (the jackalopes universally expressing delight at the adventurers' ridiculous names: "They didn't <em>mean</em> anything!"); besides Clover and Quickpaws, there were two more sisters: <strong>Droopy-Ear</strong> and <strong>Twitchy-Tail</strong>. "But where's <strong>Digger</strong>?" asked Obvious. "Wasn't he with you?"</p><p></p><p>"He was," Clover replied. "He escape. Two weeks ago. Find help. Never come back."</p><p></p><p>"We'll find him," Obvious promised and Binkadink patted his mount's furry neck, silently indicating he was there with him every step of the way.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>So, as a result of this adventure, we now have four more jackalope riding mounts: Finoula chose Clover; Darrien now rides Droopy-Ear; Hagan picked Quickpaws; leaving Gilbert with Twitchy-Tail. We figure MARCI, being the heaviest, will ride behind Binkadink on Obvious (as the gnome is the smallest rider) and Genevar can ride with Hagan and Wezhley while Aithanar's more than happy to ride behind Finoula. Once we hunt down Digger (the goal of the next adventure, naturally), Aithanar can get a riding mount of his own - not that I imagine he's in any particular hurry.</p><p></p><p>I should mention the viera are not normally part of Gamma World; they're apparently from the "Final Fantasy" franchise, which my son Logan and nephew Harry are into big time. So when I saw an opportunity to add them in as allies to the hoops, I took it. And given my version of Gamma World is more "DNA virus bomb" themed than "radiation-caused mutations after a nuclear war" they seemed like a logical fit. That was the same reason I grafted an armadillephant into this adventure, despite it being originally designed for D&D: it fit thematically and gave the badder army a power boost they desperately needed.</p><p></p><p>Incidentally, I used Paizo's "Tech Dungeon" Flip-Mat for the two-level complex the hoops and viera were camped out in. It worked fine, up until the point Darrien and Finoula were on the lower level but I couldn't flip the map over because most of the action was still happening on the upper level. At least all they were doing down there was traveling and not fighting anybody.</p><p></p><p>Finally, for the Mecha-Hoop, I taped some cardboard bunny ears onto the back of a HALO armored toy Logan's had in his room for many years.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>T-Shirt Worn: My "Iron Man" T-shirt, to represent the Mecha-Hoop the hoops and vieras were worshiping.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7968827, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 75: HOOPLA[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 19[/INDENT] [INDENT] Darrien, half-elf ranger 19[/INDENT] [INDENT] Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 19[/INDENT] [INDENT] Gilbert Fung, human wizard 19[/INDENT] [INDENT] Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 19[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 7[/INDENT] [INDENT] Genevar, humanoid mutant[/INDENT] [INDENT] MARCI, humanoid construct[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 18 April 2020 - - - Gilbert stepped outside the stone tower, closed the thick, wooden door behind him, and said the command word that shrunk the entire building back into its pocket-sized form. Then he handed the [I]Daern's instant fortress[/I] to Aithanar, who placed it inside the [I]portable hole[/I] he carried. That taken care of, the elf folded the hole back up and put it one of his belt pouches for safe keeping. <That is a remarkable piece of technology,> enthused Genevar. <I don't even think the Ancients had anything like that!> "Pfah!" snorted Gilbert. "That not technology - that magic!" <"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,"> quoted the mutant girl. "Oh yeah? Who say that?" <It's Clarke's Third Law. He was an Ancient scholar.> "Never heard of him. Come on, we ready to keep heading for that desert of yours." Having spent the night in the [I]Daern's instant fortress[/I] rather than risk sleeping out under the stars in a world with roving packs of spider-sharks, the group was rested up and ready to go. And having planned on an extended excursion into Gamma Terra, they'd taken the precautions of stocking the fortress up with sufficient provisions. Furthermore, before they made camp for the night the previous evening MARCI had found the plants she needed to synthesize the various medicinal compounds she created within her mechanical form and had announced this morning she was now fully stocked with what Gilbert referred to as "injectable potions." Finoula had made sure to dig up several of the plants to keep them on hand inside the fortress. "How far away is this desert again?" asked Darrien. <At least a week, maybe closer to two, depending on what we might encounter on the way.> "Don't you know?" asked Binkadink from Obvious's saddle. "I thought you could see the future." <I can. But I can't see [I]everything[/I] about the future, just glimpses of it now and again.> "But you're sure we'll make it to the Eradicator Base?" prompted the gnome. "We're going the right way?" <I assume we're going the right way - that's the only desert I know of, and we were in the desert when I saw us find Eradicator Base. But it doesn't matter. I saw us discover the base so we're going the right way no matter which way we go. We'll get there in the end.> "I wish I had your confidence," muttered the gnome under his breath, forgetting the mutant girl could hear his thoughts as well if not even better than she heard his words. Still, the group continued their trek from the previous day, heading west from the gateway between worlds that wouldn't open again for almost another whole month. They passed through fields of brownish grasses and forests of small, twisted trees before reaching a rocky area with clumps of ruined walls and the occasional partially-destroyed building, some of them covered in part by the ground itself; the centuries since the buildings had been constructed were taking their toll and the altered earth was reclaiming what mankind had built. Suddenly Obvious stiffened and lowered his head to the ground. "What is it?" asked Binkadink, looking around in the saddle to try to spot whatever danger had alerted his mount. "My siblings!" Obvious answered aloud. "I can smell traces of them - they passed this way within the past couple of weeks!" "What, all of them?" asked Finoula. "Is that normal for jackalopes, to stick around with their siblings after attaining adulthood?" "No, it isn't," Obvious replied. "And we didn't - we each went our separate ways. But this..." - he took a few sniffs of the ground to make certain - "...this isn't all of them, only four of the five. But come on! Let's go find them!" The eager jackalope was ready to pounce on ahead at full speed, but Binkadink held him back with pressure from his legs and a gentle tug on his reins. "Let's not go bounding ahead of everybody else," he warned his mount. "We'll stick together - right?" He looked to the others for support. "Sure," replied Hagan. "Genevar's already said we'll get to Eradicator Base no matter how long we take or which way we go, so I don't imagine making a side-trek to go find Obvious's brothers and sisters will make much of a difference to our schedule." Obvious led the way, keeping his nose to the ground, and now that the two rangers knew the other jackalopes had come this way they found the occasional bit of evidence: a paw-print here, a clump of fur stuck to the bark of a tree there. Eventually, the trail led them to a dilapidated, one-story building ahead in the distance, its roof intact but several chunks of walls missing here and there. To the north of the building stood a large pile of dirt; just before it was a ramped pit leading down toward the building. As one, the group stopped and lowered themselves to the ground, seeing what they could see of the operation going on, for they could hear the sounds of picks and shovels hitting earth and stone. Somebody was undergoing some sort of excavation project here, and it certainly wasn't the jackalopes doing the digging - they wouldn't need tools to do so. As the group watched (Binkadink pulled out his twin spyglasses, which Genevar told him were called "binoculars"), a pair of green-skinned men dressed in rags walked up the ramp-pit with a wheelbarrow filled with dirt, one pushing the wheelbarrow to the dirt pile and the other helping dump it onto the mound with a shovel. Then another load of dirt and rocks were lugged out of the pit, this time by a jackalope pulling a wooden cart. Another pair of green men tossed the rocks from the cart onto the dirt pile. "The jackalope's wearing manacles," Darrien whispered to the others. Sure enough, even without the binoculars the others could see how the antlered rabbit was hobbling; a short chain attached his right front leg to his right rear leg, ensuring he couldn't run - he could barely even walk. Obvious startled making a very unrabbitlike growling sound in the back of his throat. "Those green guys the ones in charge?" Gilbert whispered. "Nope," replied Binkadink, still looking through the binoculars. "There are giant rabbits on their hind legs, standing guard, hiding in the shadows of the building. Looks like they've got swords and longbows." <Hoops,> interjected Genevar. "Where?" whispered Binkadink. "I don't see any hoops. What are they for?" <No, the humanoid rabbits - they're called "hoops." And the green men are "grens."> Darrien asked for the binoculars and scrambled away from the others, belly-crawling to his left and giving the excavation site a good viewing through the magnified lenses. Then he returned to tell the others what he'd seen. "There's a couple of women on guard duty, too - they look pretty much human, but they've got - no kidding - bunny ears." <Viera,> identified Genevar. <They often work with hoops.> "Okay, let's back away slowly," suggested Gilbert. "We cast combat-prep spells, then we go forward, free Obvious's family." Once sufficiently back and out of sight, the heavyset mage cast a [I]stoneskin[/I] spell upon himself and his earth elemental familiar from a scroll. Hagan cast the same spell upon himself and his own weasel familiar, while each of the rangers granted themselves the effects of [I]barkskin[/I] and [I]longstrider[/I] spells. Binkadink unstoppered a [I]barkskin[/I] potion and drank down its contents, while Gilbert followed up with a [I]fire shield[/I] spell cast upon himself and Mudpie and then a [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell on everyone. <We ready?> Gilbert asked over the link, getting positive responses from the rest of the group. <Okay, Aithanar: your job keep Genevar safe - she our only guide here. MARCI, you stick by Genevar, too.> <Intruders!> came a sudden cry over the telepathic link - or at least that was what it sounded like, as the voice came directly into everyone's heads. They looked over at the building they'd been approaching and saw the three visible hoops on guard duty were all looking directly at them, fitting arrows to their longbows. A fourth stepped away from a partial wall and did the same, and then four arrows went flying towards the heroes. The two hoops at the east of the building had both targeted Hagan, while the two on the west side had chosen Finoula and Darrien as their targets. But the heroes had been prepared for battle and managed to avoid the incoming missiles - a good thing, too, for these hoops were almost nine feet tall and the arrows they shot were much larger than those a human-sized person would use. Darrien whipped his own arrow into his [I]Arachnibow[/I] and gave back as good as he got - better, in fact, as his feathered shaft ended up in the throat of his hoop target, followed seconds later by another small cluster in the upright bunny's chest. The hoop coughed blood and fell to the ground, dead. Hagan took out one of the hoops who had targeted him, slaying him with a well-placed [I]meteor swarm[/I] spell that singed the fur from the hoop beside the one he slew. One of the vieras stepped up to take the place of the hoop Darrien had slain and she had a longbow of her own. She also had an open-flapped pouch at her left hip and before firing her arrow she stabbed it down into the pouch, revealing some sort of fruit - it looked something like a cross between an apple and a plum - impaled on the tip of her arrowhead. She fired this weapon at Darrien, striking him but not with enough force for the arrowhead to pierce his armor - but the strange fruit exploded upon impact nonetheless, nearly knocking the half-elven archer off his feet. Unseen, another of these viera archers over by the excavation pit, telepathically warned by the hoops, held an arrow at the ready in her own longbow; she also had an open pouch of explosive fruit at her hip but had not "primed" her arrowhead with any of them, knowing once the fruit's skin was pierced she had only a matter of seconds before it exploded. Two more vieras by the pit readied their weapons for combat, but these two wielded longswords, not bows. Finoula raised a hand to her magic amulet and said the command word that sent her flying across the distance to crash into the hoop as a bolt of living lightning, then pivot from his body and blast through the viera archer as well before resuming her elven form just beyond the bunny-woman's reach. Both foes seemed damaged by the surge of electricity coursing through them but neither had been killed by the attack. Spurring Obvious forward - although in truth the jackalope needed no encouragement, given he was rescuing his siblings - Binkadink brought his [I]reverberating glaive[/I] swinging into the just-electrified hoop, nearly slaying him outright. Gilbert took the time to fish his twin foo lion statues from his robes and drop them to the ground while speaking the command word that brought them to instant life. "You help Aithanar guard girl!" he commanded as he and Mudpie stepped forward. Hachi and Tsumezhao ("Tooth" and "Claw") growled their acknowledgement, taking position on either side of Genevar and Aithanar, the elf's sword out and ready to strike any enemy who might approach. Suddenly, four more hoops exited the building and advanced upon these unknown enemies coming up on their excavation site from the south. One stood by the hoop Hagan's previous spell had singed badly, while the other three headed west, over by where Finoula, Binkadink, and Obvious were engaging the hoop and the viera archer. Hagan found another pair of overly-large arrows headed his way and one grazed his sleeve, drawing blood; Wezhley hissed in anger at the effrontery of these silly bunny-men attacking his master. The three hoops at the west all shot at Binkadink and the gnome felt a strange sensation right before they let fly with their arrows: it was if his red dragonhide armor, which normally provided him with ample protection in just about any combat situation, suddenly wasn't there! Looking down, he saw two of the arrows had found their mark and were sticking right through his armor, which the hoops had somehow made ethereal - or something very much like that - right as they attacked. He yanked the shafts back out of his shoulder and rib, ignoring the pain in the heat of the battle, and flung them aside. Darrien activated his [I]ebony fly[/I] and flew it over the three hoops and the viera squaring off against Finoula, Binkadink, and Obvious, landing over by the top of the ramping pit. From this vantage point, he could see almost a dozen of the grens, cringing along the sides of the pit in terror at the sounds of battle nearby. There was also a hulking brute of a man, about the same height as the hoops but sporting two heads - side by side like an ettin - and four arms, two on each side. This creature was swinging an enormous pick and had just broken through the rock at the deep edge of the pit wall, exposing an open chamber of some sort on the other side. But Darrien couldn't see inside the exposed chamber, for the two-headed mutant's body was in the way. He was also somewhat distracted by the arrow the viera archer guarding the pit shot at him, the shaft digging into the side of his bicep and coming out clean through the other side. Before he had time to react, she'd stabbed a fruit with another arrow and sent it flying at him, its explosion killing the [I]ebony fly[/I] beneath him, forcing the [I]figurine of wondrous power[/I] back to its statuette form. Just that quickly, Darrien was back to standing on the ground. Hagan cast another [I]meteor swarm[/I], targeting the hoop reinforcement and taking him out as well as the one beside him, now the unlucky recipient of the fiery explosions of [I]two[/I] adjacent [I]meteor swarm[/I] spells. Another fiery explosion occurred at the same time over on the other side of the building, this one the result of a pair of arrows fired at Obvious with those explosive fruits embedded on the arrowheads. Fortunately for Binkadink, his red dragonhide armor absorbed most of the explosion but Obvious had no such protection. Finoula blasted through the hoop and viera archer again as a living [I]lightning bolt[/I], dropping the archer from the attack. Over at the excavation site, one of the viera swordswomen scrambled down the side of the pit, stepping on a gren's shoulder to do so. Then she was right by the orlen slave, pushing past the monstrosity with her sword out and at the ready. She called for the orlen to follow her into the darkened cavern and he had no choice but to obey. The other viera charged Darrien, her longsword also being put to good use. But Darrien dodged her swing, backed up a step or two, and peppered her full of arrows. She fell to the ground and did not get back up. "Let's move forward," suggested Aithanar, not wanting to bring Genevar into harm's way but not wanting to get separated too far from the others, either. Hachi and Tsumezhao kept apace, with MARCI following obediently behind. Before them, Gilbert and Mudpie were closing the gap towards the combatants, which had prompted the elf's actions. Inside the lower level of the building - a level the hoops and vieras knew from blueprints they'd found above in the chamber of their god but hadn't been able to get to through the sealed door leading to the stairwell in the center of the larger circle of the structure - the viera swordswoman sent her blade stabbing through the throat of a badder dwelling in the chamber they'd just pierced into; the badders had a colony down here, it looked like; this was, by the looks of it, a birthing chamber. But the viera was more interested in the room just beyond, which was directly beneath the room of their god above: a cell recharging station! She grabbed an energy cell from a shelf, placed it into the red column of light beaming down from the ceiling, and watched as the power level indicator on the side of the cell increased dramatically. Then, grabbing up the heart of her god from the red beam, she waved the orlen over and they headed for the stairs: perhaps they'd be able to open the door to the upper level from this side. Binkadink's glaive swung at the hoop before him and as the humanoid rabbit dodged away from the gnome's blade, Obvious caught him up in a toothsome grip, clamping down hard upon the hoop's right arm and holding the grip tight. The hoop frantically tried extricating himself from the jackalope's bite, with no luck. Two of the nearby hoops immediately targeted Obvious with their arrows, but even getting hit with a pair of javelin-sized arrows wouldn't get the jackalope to release his prey. Recognizing their brother, a few of the other jackalopes hobbled slowly toward Obvious, the one in the lead looking like he wanted to take a bite out of the grappled hoop herself. Darrien had to look twice to make sure he saw what he thought he saw, for the jackalope's fur was changing color as she moved, blending in with her surroundings. He looked at the others and saw they were doing the same, perhaps even without conscious volition; this, at last, explained Obvious's name, for Binkadink's loyal steed's fur only changed color when the gnome cast a [I]prestidigitation[/I] spell on him. The hoops before him now slain, Hagan cast a [I]fly[/I] spell upon himself and lifted himself into the sky and started heading directly over the building from which the hoops had emerged. The structure, he could see, had originally been two overlapping circles, looking somewhat like an "8" with the insides filled in. He flew on a bee-line course to the ramped pit, where Darrien had just slain one of those weird bunny women and was leaning over her corpse - the ranger saw a key worn on a chain around her neck and had figured there was a good chance this might be the key that opened the shackles hobbling the jackalopes. Finoula killed a hoop with her longsword [I]Tahlmalaera[/I] as the remaining viera archer shot Darrien with another of those explosive fruits embedded on the tips of her arrows. He retaliated in kind with his [I]Arachnibow[/I], slaying her instantly. Downstairs, the viera and orlen saw another badder guarding the door to the stairs - and better yet, he had a passcard on a lanyard around his neck! While the viera cut him down with her sword - he'd been armed with a primitive morningstar but she'd gotten the drop on him before he had a chance to use his weapon - the orlen saw another pair of the humanoid badger-men approach. He fended off an attack by one of them, using his large pick as a sort of shield, while the other badder turned tail and fled through a back tunnel that looked like it had been dug by hand. [I]Probably getting reinforcements[/I], the orlen thought with one head while the other concentrated on keeping alive long enough for the viera to slay the badder with her sword. Then, once that had been accomplished, they raced up the stairs - the badder's passcard did indeed allow access through the door - and back to the upper level, where the viera eagerly anticipated bringing her god back to life. While Obvious continued worrying his grappled hoop, swinging him around by his grip on the hoop's arm, Binkadink leaped from the saddle and ran forward, striking one of the hoops who'd been shooting at his mount with his arrows. A [I]magic missile[/I] spell went whizzing over the gnome's antlered helmet to strike the hoop as well, courtesy of Gilbert Fung, slowly approaching from the rear of the building. Behind him, Aithanar led his charge over to the building, where he decided the safest place for Genevar was likely inside the structure; there were several gaps in the walls on this side by which they could enter. The hoop. however, was still in the fight and struck at Binkadink with his overly-large longsword. With a great effort that left scraps of flesh and fur in Obvious's mouth, the hoop finally escaped from the grip of the jackalope's rodent teeth and fell back. Finoula ran forward to help, casting a [I]protection from fire[/I] spell upon herself as she did so - she wasn't sure what those explosive apple-things were all about but didn't particularly want to be taken out of a fight by a piece of fruit! Outside, as Aithanar sent Genevar inside a gap in the outer wall and the foo lions and MARCI followed, the elf's keen hearing picked up a strange sound among the sounds of battle: it sounded like a dull roar and the beating of drums. Stepping momentarily back outside and looking to the southwest, close to the way they'd come, he saw a cloud of dust approaching - and, causing the cloud of dust, an enormous elephant-beast of some type running alongside a great number of what looked to the elf like werebadgers. He quickly alerted the others to the incoming force over the telepathic link they shared courtesy of Gilbert's spell. Binkadink slew the hoop he'd been fighting and then spun at the sensing of another form approaching him from behind, but it was just a hobbled jackalope. "Hold still - I free you," he said in the simple language of burrowing mammals, sure that the jackalope would be able to understand him - after all, Obvious had understood him just fine when they had first met. The jackalope did as instructed and Binkadink's [I]reverberating glaive[/I] cut through the chain, allowing [B]Clover[/B] full movement once again. Behind the gnome, Obvious slew the hoop he'd been fighting, goring him with his antlers and then leaping on top of him when he fell to the ground, crushing the beleaguered hoop's rib cage. "Clover!" Obvious called to his sister, seeing Binkadink had freed her with his weapon. "Obvious!" Clover called out in joy at seeing her older brother. "Inside - safe inside!" Obvious called, ushering his little sister into the building with a nod of his antlered head. "People with me, friends!" he explained, using the burrowing mammal language; unlike him, his siblings had not been the recipients of an [I]awaken[/I] spell and had no further speech abilities beyond their own simple language. Running past them, Gilbert Fung cast a [I]spectral hand[/I] spell upon himself, not quite sure yet how he'd employ it but deciding now was as good a time as any to get it ready. Mudpie kept pace with his master. Darrien used the key to unshackle another hopper, this one [B]Quickpaws[/B], the only male among the four the hoops had currently pressed into service, cutting him free from the leather cords connecting him to the wagon he'd been pulling. Then, unable to communicate with the great beast and not having anyone in his immediate vicinity to fight, he headed for the ramped pit, along the sides of which the grens still cowered. Darrien knew there was a bunny-woman loose in the lower level somewhere and he didn't know what all she might be doing in there: getting reinforcements, for all he knew. Hagan flew above the pit, ready to cast a [I]meteor swarm[/I] down at the grens until he saw they were all just harmless slaves, armed only with shovels and wearing nothing but loincloths - these were no enemies! He called down to them to remain where they were, out of harm's way, until he realized they didn't understand a thing he was saying; he'd need Genevar to translate telepathically. But it didn't look like it mattered much at the moment, anyway - they were already hunkering down in place so they were about as safe as could be expected at the moment. The viera had by this time made it back to the chamber of her god and installed the heart - an energy cell - into its chest cavity. This "god" was a humanoid robot, 25 feet tall - actually, even a bit taller than that, given the hoops had welded a pair of metal "bunny ears" to the back of its head to make it appear more in their own image. But the viera hit the switch on the wall that opened the roof and raised the circular platform upon which the Mecha-Hoop stood, the Ancient technology still working just fine after all these centuries. She grabbed up the handset that controlled the god, ordering it to attack anyone not meeting the description of a hoop, a viera, a gren, a hopper, or an orlen. Finoula saw the badders and their armadillephant were getting much closer now, noticing one of those strange badger-men rode upon the top of the massive pachyderm's head. But then her attention was distracted by the rumbling noise from the building as the roof pulled back and the Mecha-Hoop was raised to the roof level. With a sudden blast of fire from its feet, the humanoid construct flew forward, landing with a reverberating thud on the ground before spinning about and facing the pit. Darrien, still at the top of the pit, saw the towering construct looming above him and leaped to the ground as the Mecha-Hoop pointed an arm his way. Some sort of weapon extended up out of his forearm and there were suddenly bits of metal being shot his way at velocities he wouldn't have believed were possible. Hagan immediately cast a [I]polar ray[/I] spell at the Mecha-Hoop but found with some surprise his spell didn't make it all the way to the metal man: there was some sort of [I]wall of force[/I] or something blocking the way. The ray of cold hit this invisible field of force, briefly illuminating it as it struck. Finoula had also seen this odd effect and used her [I]lightning bolt amulet[/I] to blast at the Mecha-Hoop, further damaging the force field surrounding the construct to the point where it winked out. She ended up back in elven form off to the side of the pit-ramp. The Mecha-Hoop swung both arms out wide, blasting both Hagan and Darrien with its twin chain guns. And just that fast, there was a sort of electric hum as the thing's force field snapped back in place, not yet back to full strength but getting stronger every second as it built back up in power. Binkadink and Obvious were now inside the building, the gnome having had to call to the other jackalopes in their own language to get them inside where it was safer. He stashed them in a curving hallway while he headed to the north, from where the sounds of the roof opening up had come from. Opening a door, he saw a workroom of some type, with odd tools he'd never seen before - and, more importantly, the viera holding a small box in her hand and giving the robot instructions the gnome couldn't understand, while a two-headed mutant with four arms stood beside her. <Genevar!> Binkadink called over the [I]Rary's telepathic link[/I]. <Are you within range?> <I'm here.> <There's a bunny-woman in here with me, controlling the golem! Tell her to make it stand down, or I'll kill her!> <I can't, not without seeing her! And I'm trying to contact the badders outside, to see why they're storming this way!> The mutant girl, with Aithanar as an armed escort, had stepped outside to get within visual range of the rampaging badders and their armadillephant. Unable to get a translator, Binkadink stepped forward and brought the flat of his blade crashing down upon the viera's head. She crumpled to the ground, unconscious. The gnome looked over to the orlen, and it immediately dropped its enormous pick and raised all four hands in a gesture denoting its complete harmlessness. Binkadink set his glaive down and started tying up the unconscious viera with some cords he found lying about. Gilbert was now assisting in the fight against the Mecha-Hoop. <Need to take down shield around him, but it keep coming back up!> he called to others, taking the force field down with a [I]disintegrate[/I] spell, while Darrien took the opportunity to scramble through the hole in the back wall of the pit-ramp, where the golem's metal projectile attacks couldn't follow. As he dashed inside the lower level - and saw the dead badder on the ground before him the viera had slain - he cast a [I]cure serious wounds[/I] spell upon himself, sealing up the first bullet holes he'd ever received in his life as an adventurer. About this time, Genevar's telepathy had pierced the red-hot anger of the badder army. <The badders had an encampment in the lower level of the building!> she reported to her new friends from Kordovia. <The viera massacred one of their pregnant females and slew another pair of guards - they're here to slay the hoop and the viera!> <Tell them the hoops are all dead!> Binkadink returned over the mental link. <And there's just the one viera left, and I've got her subdued!> There was a moment's pause before Genevar replied, <I can't get through! They're really mad -- too mad for communication!> With a snarl, Binkadink scooped the bound viera up onto his shoulder - he had to raise his [I]gnomish stilt-boots[/I] to their full extent to carry her, as she was over twice his own normal height if you counted her bunny ears - and rushed back to one of the holes in the outer wall. By now, the armadillephant and the rushing badders were almost within touching distance; the gnome tossed her out onto the ground before them and several badders veered her way, crushing her bound body with their wicked-looking morningstars. The spellcasters had been kept busy with the Mecha-Hoop in the meantime. Hagan had managed to get a [I]polar ray[/I] to hit the robot itself while its force field was down, dealing it some damage but leading the half-orc sorcerer to believe it was at least partially shielded from cold energy. Finoula, fearing the robot's chain guns, had fled back inside the building, but fortunately for Gilbert, Mudpie, and Hagan, the Mecha-Hoop's internal logic circuits had apparently decided the advancing badder army posed a potentially greater threat to the hoops and vieras, for it trained its twin chain guns on them, spraying a hail of bullets their way. <You know, maybe we let them fight it out!> suggested Gilbert, dodging back inside the building and commanding his earth elemental familiar to earth glide down into the ground, where it was safe. Mudpie wasted no time sinking below the surface of the earth. <We should help the badders!> Finoula countered. <They're the injured party here!> "Fine!" grumbled the heavyset mage to himself, not bothering to make his objections noted over the telepathic link. But he cast another [I]disintegrate[/I] spell on the Mecha-Hoop's force field, bringing it - momentarily at least - down once again. This allowed Hagan to cast a [I]chain lightning[/I] spell on the robot, which looked to do a bit more damage to the construct than the half-orc would have thought. <I think it's vulnerable to electricity!> he observed over the link. <Good to know!> Finoula replied, using her [I]lightning amulet[/I] to send her blasting back out of the building and into the robot's metal chest, through its internal systems, and back out behind it while its force field was still down. And then, that quickly, the shield was back up again. By this time Darrien had made it through the lower level, up the stairs, and caught up with the orlen in the workshop. The four-armed creature pantomimed its friendliness and unwillingness to fight and the half-elf ranger gave it a quick thumbs up to indicate his understanding. With a crash, the armadillephant's curving tusks went pounding into the Mecha-Hoop, bringing its still-regenerating force field back down and then sending the robot flying backwards with the force of his forward momentum. But the robot's chain guns fired again, slaying the badder perched on the armadillephant's head and sending blood and bits of bone flying from the pachyderm's armored head. <I try something,> Gilbert said and invoked the words to a [I]limited wish[/I] spell, hoping to turn the metal man to solid stone. But the spell had no effect, causing the mage to swear to himself - verbally only, as Genevar was only ten years old or so and he didn't want to have to explain what those words meant. (Again, he wasn't thinking about the fact Genevar could read minds - it was not something the heroes were finding easy to remember about the little girl.) But now that they knew an electricity overload was its weakness, Hagan and Gilbert gave it a one-two spell-punch, the human wizard casting a [I]scorching ray[/I] that took down the force field long enough for the half-orc sorcerer to cast another [I]chain lightning[/I] spell at it. It fell backwards and was trampled to pieces by the rampaging armadillephant, the massive claws on its forefeet ripping off one of the welded-on bunny ears in the process. After that, the badders calmed down, enough so that Genevar was able to open telepathic communication with them. They were invited into the building to see for themselves no hoops or vieras still survived and assured the Kordovians wanted no part of the building: it was the badders' to keep - and now they could live on the top floor as well as in the sublevel below, whose tunnel led to their larger burrow some ways away. Finoula passed over the passcard the viera had taken from the badder guard she'd slain downstairs. The badders allowed the hoppers, orlen, and grens to go free; the hoppers would all be coming with the Kordovian adventurers (and their brother, Obvious) while the others were free to go their own ways and make their own lives in Gamma Terra. Obvious made the introductions (the jackalopes universally expressing delight at the adventurers' ridiculous names: "They didn't [I]mean[/I] anything!"); besides Clover and Quickpaws, there were two more sisters: [B]Droopy-Ear[/B] and [B]Twitchy-Tail[/B]. "But where's [B]Digger[/B]?" asked Obvious. "Wasn't he with you?" "He was," Clover replied. "He escape. Two weeks ago. Find help. Never come back." "We'll find him," Obvious promised and Binkadink patted his mount's furry neck, silently indicating he was there with him every step of the way. - - - So, as a result of this adventure, we now have four more jackalope riding mounts: Finoula chose Clover; Darrien now rides Droopy-Ear; Hagan picked Quickpaws; leaving Gilbert with Twitchy-Tail. We figure MARCI, being the heaviest, will ride behind Binkadink on Obvious (as the gnome is the smallest rider) and Genevar can ride with Hagan and Wezhley while Aithanar's more than happy to ride behind Finoula. Once we hunt down Digger (the goal of the next adventure, naturally), Aithanar can get a riding mount of his own - not that I imagine he's in any particular hurry. I should mention the viera are not normally part of Gamma World; they're apparently from the "Final Fantasy" franchise, which my son Logan and nephew Harry are into big time. So when I saw an opportunity to add them in as allies to the hoops, I took it. And given my version of Gamma World is more "DNA virus bomb" themed than "radiation-caused mutations after a nuclear war" they seemed like a logical fit. That was the same reason I grafted an armadillephant into this adventure, despite it being originally designed for D&D: it fit thematically and gave the badder army a power boost they desperately needed. Incidentally, I used Paizo's "Tech Dungeon" Flip-Mat for the two-level complex the hoops and viera were camped out in. It worked fine, up until the point Darrien and Finoula were on the lower level but I couldn't flip the map over because most of the action was still happening on the upper level. At least all they were doing down there was traveling and not fighting anybody. Finally, for the Mecha-Hoop, I taped some cardboard bunny ears onto the back of a HALO armored toy Logan's had in his room for many years. - - - T-Shirt Worn: My "Iron Man" T-shirt, to represent the Mecha-Hoop the hoops and vieras were worshiping. [/QUOTE]
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