The Walking Valley: Gamma World (IC)

[InVinoVeritas]

Chapter 1: Hope​

The Hope Junk Shop​

The valley was always a rough place, its people resourceful. Hope had sprung up on the site of a tiny Ancient village--not much, just a little farm community. Everything that everyone needed was either grown or bred. Those that wanted more, had to scrounge. And the best nearby place to scrounge was the Hope Junk Shop.

"Yeah, I'll finish the order for ya. That's gotta be around here somewhere."

Squort turned away from Sleestak and Pilumar to pull out various appropriately shaped pieces of scrap metal. Squort was one of the Pure Strain, unmutated. Still, with a wrinkled face, scruffy beard, and considerable paunch, no one would mistake him for a fine specimen. Still, he was good with his hands, and no one ever bothered him or the Junk Shop. He was a decent shot, but more importantly, he had Queen Mab.

Queen Mab was a spider. Well, not just a spider, a black widow. Well, not just a black widow, a grossly huge black widow. Her body was nearly spherical, almost a meter across, with a legspan that had to reach about ten feet. No one messed with Queen Mab.

The not-so-hidden secret about the Junk Shop, though, was that although Squort was good with his hands, a crack welder, and supplied Hope with most of its swords, knives, and bows, Queen Mab was the one who knew about artifacts.

"Oh, now this is pretty, and very useful! I smell napalm. Are you sure you don't want it?"

Queen Mab turned the grenade around in her pedipalps while Greyhound stood nearby.

"Well, napalm can be held in a gun, but you need to carry a lot of it in a backpack, if you want something with multiple shots. But you might want this..."

She reaches into a locker and pulls forth a large breastplate, with giant shoulder guards. The plate isn't metal, but some kind of milky, translucent material.

"This is Ancient armor. Not metal armor, but strong enough to stop an axe. And it's as light as a feather. And it never gets hot in the sun. What's more, I have a full set, with shin guards, greaves, elbow pads, and a super-strong helmet!"

She pulls the helmet out. It is nearly as spherical as she is, white with a red stripe on it, with some king of canine emblazoned on the side.

"But, if you want something less protective, and more adventurous, I can also trade you this," she tempts, pulling out a small holographic card. "A maintenance pass to The Castle."

The Castle was an Ancient installation on the coast. A well-protected, fortified, forbidding building, it was surrounded by large Ancient vehicles of all kinds of shapes and sizes--and all with wings. Live metal was known to roam the grounds, cleaning the vehicles, and going in and out of the Castle. Something still worked there, but no one dared approach.

Indio/Xanderi and Kuma picked through some of the rusting scrap vehicles and street signs when they stopped. There was something. Kuma hears a low rumble, far too low for most to notice. It gently pulses through the ground in slow waves. It is a sound not heard much in the mountains to the east, but always burrowing across from Diablo Island to the far west, across Walking Strait, through the Tooli wetlands, up the coast.

The Valley will Walk again, in about an hour.

[sblock=Credits]
Photo by anon nona.
[/sblock]

 

[Lukeworm]

Greyhound
Greyhound eyes focused on the ancient armor, it looked more sophisticated then the homemade Metal links mail he wore. Even more the canine icon reminded him of the faded sign on his home wall, the one he was named after. It seemed better then a bomb, even ancient napalm one, and it was not like he was planning to fight an army. Then Queen Mab offered the castle pass and his mind almost started to reel. A safe way in to the castle, a chance to see all those ancient marvels. He knew he could spend days just examining the vehicles. Not to mention all the secrets of technology he may learn there, or the artifacts that must still be hidden in the castle. But the castle was a long march from Hope village, and the armor would protect him on the way there.
“well Queen Mab as always your merchandise is intriguing. I’m tempted by the castle pass card, but as you well know it is a dangerous place. Getting there is easier said then done. So you are offering me to trade a hard earned, perfectly preserved artifact for a chance to some day enter the castle if I can get there at all. Now I’m a practical person and so are you so we know this is not an even bargain, so I’ll tell you what I suggest. How about I throw in this fine armor I’m wearing, it’s not as refined as the ancient one but it is made of solid chromed steel and has new leather padding. I’m sure Squort can get a good bargain for it. So this is may offer the napalm grenade and the chainmail for the ancient armor and the card.”

OOC: Greyhound has a +5 to charm sentient, not sure how this is handled mechanically. Roll if needed 1d20+5=10.​

 

[Mark Chance]

Sleestak yawned hugely, his long forked tongue extending and curling. He laced his clawed fingers and stretched, knuckles cracking. After listening to Greyhound haggle for a bit, Sleestak scratched around on his neck, digging underneath the scales to pull out a fat tick. He popped the bloated arachnid into his mouth and crunched it with obvious relish.

 

[Shayuri]

Even hunched over, Kuma was a massive fellow. Broad across the shoulders, and standing nearly two and a half meters tall, his presence alone was often enough to deter fights...those few fights that weren't averted by Indio's coat of glittering mayhem that was.

For all his physical mass...or perhaps because of it...he was a quiet one. Calm and patient. Even gentle, when the circumstances called for it. His heavy, well-worn cloak covered his head and shoulders. The threadbare, handstitched monk's robes he wore over his armor covered the rest. Underneath it all was someone who could probably pass for a muscular Pure Strain...at least once you got past the three meter height when fully standing. He wasn't even bad looking, though he rarely showed his face.

For a moment his attention had been on the scraps of old metal in the yard. The world outside was obsessed with the Old, bent on recapturing its powers. Because he now lived outside, Kuma amiably went with the flow...but he had little interest in what had come before. The magic that powered them was far outside his knowledge and experience. His interest was far more invested in the powers of the mind; the gift of looking inward to see without limits outward.

He did sometimes wonder if the Old had machines that could affect such things.

Then Kuma felt that strange vibration, up from the bones of the earth under his feet. In another place, another time, he might have thought it the precursor to an earthquake, or even volcano. Here and now, he knew it meant something different.

"The Valley walks again," he murmured to Indio. His voice was a bass rumble, rich and full. "An hour maybe."

(OOC - I may have missed this from the threads...what's the Valley that Walks? )

 

[jkason]

Indio/Xanderi, Cactus Enforcer

Indio and Kuma made for a large, stoic pair, but one of the things Indio most enjoyed about the human was that he understood the sentient cacus' life was far from silent. Even now, when most would hear nothing more than the occasional clank of metal shifting, Indio's stillness was due to his own inner cacophany.

A scrapyard, Indio? What possible use could we find in a scrapyard? You've already fashioned this ridiculous human exo-skeleton, what more could you need? I don't understand why we just can't take root like our kin and--

Fourteen.

I beg your pardon?

No, you don't. And fourteen is how many times this week you've asked me to go back to the copse. Fourteen this week, seventy this month, and the answer won't change. You should save your energy.

For what? sitting back here, waiting for you to sleep so that I can wiggle a few spines? You've stolen me away from our people to wander around on this ridiculous--"

"The Valley walks again," he murmured to Indio. His voice was a bass rumble, rich and full. "An hour maybe."

Indio turned to look around, the spines that mimicked eyes fluttered, flashing in the light they caught. The cactus cocked his head a moment, the spines along his back quivering slightly as if to try to catch the sounds Kuma had heard, and nodded. Xanderi, for the moment, quieted. The Valley was one of the few things that could distract him.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Pilumar perked up, he eyed the stacks of junk. He looked nervously at the hooks and tools hanging from the ceiling.

"An hour? Should we be in here? Perhaps, it would be better to be someplace safe, maybe underground?"

 

[InVinoVeritas]

"You two are in luck! Here's the whole order you wanted. That's a few hundred domar, heh, yeah, that'll do it just fine! Pleasure working with you."

Squort delivers the orders to Sleestak and Pilumar. All the weapons, armor, and equipment they were looking for were in the pile.

Queen Mab considers Greyhound's offer.

"Oh, Greyhound, you delectable morsel, you always know how to speak to a woman. Still, it just wouldn't be right for me to simply give so much for so little. However, I would be willing to, say, invest in you by giving you the access card on spec. All I would ask for in return is first choice of whatever you find in the Castle. The full set of Ancient armor for the grenade and old armor trade-in would still work just fine. Just make sure you have a group who is willing to help out--it can still be dangerous in there, and neither you nor I would want you to fail."

Listening to Pilumar, Squort replies, "Nah, the safest place to be is outside if the valley walks. That way, nothing can fall on you. Some of you animals are still young, you might not remember the last walk too well. Me, I've been through a bunch. There was a huge one about twenty years ago, everything shook like mad, half the buildings in Hope fell down. The walks more recently, they haven't been as bad. Right, Mab?"

"Only four rigors, I believe."

"Yeah, and the big walks are six or seven. I'm not entirely sure how a valley walks in rigors, but the Ancients even called this place the Walking Valley back then, so that's what it is."

Squort turns to Kuma. "You sure about this walk? If so, we'd better close up shop, get those explosives in a safe place, and make sure we find a nice spot away from anything that can fall on us. We might want to let the rest of Hope know."

Further toward the town square, a bell can be heard, ringing slowly, then louder.

"Yeah, that solves it. Batten down the hatches, we're walking."

 

[jkason]

Indio / Xanderi

Indio looks about, and the spines along his body quiver slightly, eliciting a low hum. Quickly he hones the vibrations, and while there is no mouth to move, his speech is clear.

"With this much sharp, heavy metal about, how do you keep out of harm's way during a walk?"

You go home like any reasonable flora and take root away from all this nasty faunal detritus, you fool!

As he awaits an answer, it seems to those assembled that Indio's quivering spines elicit what sounds like nothing so much as a sigh, though Kuma is perhaps the only one who knows what it is he's actually responding to.

 

[Mark Chance]

Sleestak nods to Squort, helping gather up the equipment. He nudges Pilumar, and then jerks his scaly head toward the out-of-doors.

"We'd besst sscuttle to ssafety."

OOC: Head cold kicking my buttocks. I'll try being more active ASAP.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

Since the Junk Shop is more of a yard than a building, it is easy to find a spot away from towering piles of rusting metal or explosives containers.

(Anyone else?)