[Savage Worlds] Gamma World, Session 3: Finale!

The Mutant Buddhas met again at Games and Gizmos in Redmond, Washington, last Friday. CR returned playing Rose the two-headed mutant, BB cam back as Artie the lizardy mutant, KW and BW reprised their roles of Riff the Warrior and Briar the Thief/Technologist, and new member MW played Jeremiah the Florintine Fighter. Unfortunately, CS and CB were unable to attend.

After a quick reprise of the previous two sessions, the game started with a fight with mutants! The group quickly came to order, fighting through the mutants and taking little damage. Unfortunately, close proximity to the mutants prompted another round of radiation sickness, with Artie's head growing larger and able to read the giant Lizard/Robot's mind.

With the giant Lizard/Robot wandering the city, being able to "hear" it's thoughts brought some measure of security to the group - they'd have a chance to avoid the giant rampaging creature because Artie could sense it was near.

The party continued to sneak through the ruined city, avoiding several roving bands of mutants, on their way to a lab they received directions to from the green glowcube high-tech device from last session.

While traveling to this lab, they spotted several strange vehicles approaching them on the road. Two were convertibles with wheels (a Cadillac and a Lincoln) and the other was a covered hover car with opaque windows. Driving the vehicles were silvery jumpsuit-clad Androids, former servants of the Ancients but also betrayers of same Ancients (according to Rose's Ancient Lore roll).

Artie let the group know that the Lizard/Robot was held off from the Androids by some means, prompting some speculation - maybe the Androids were responsible for the Lizard/Robot's rampage. They let the Androids drive past and lost them around the building with the lab in it. Wandering around the building exterior, they surmised that the Androids used an underground entrance.

The first three floors of the building were wrecked, burned out and empty. Climbing up the elevator shaft from the first floor, they found nothing much on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The doors leading to the 4th floor were sealed with some sort of welding and the 5th floor turned out similar, with three of the four doors jammed shut. Riff, with the help of Artie and Briar, managed to open the last door but giant vines snaked out of the doors, grabbing Briar and attacking the other characters.

The battle was fierce - Briar tried to cut himself out of the vines but they kept crushing him in their grip. The other PCs battled the vines, with Jeremiah using his Florintine skills to fight two vines at a time and Rose shooting towards the mass of the plant monster with her Slugthrower. The plant monster shot spines with green goo at the PCs but missed them and was very difficult to kill (the first time as GM I started using my "bennies" in game) but Riff threw two grenades into the heart of the plant monster to kill it. Finally defeated, the PCs entered the 5th floor, finding a garden with edible fruit trees and more of those spines with green goo that they figured they'd use as crossbow bolts.

The Lizard/Robot made it's appearance outside the building and they used the green glowcube high-tech device to control the robot part of it, causing it to smash into the building, breaching the 4th floor. A cloud of gas came out of the 4th floor and enveloped the giant creature, killing the lizard part of it, which fell off the robot part.

Examining the robot half, they learned that there was a controller (Briar disabled it) as well as a socket to stick a lizard (or lizardy mutant like Artie) into to create another gigantic Lizard/Robot. There was much discussion on this turn of events and I said to BB "Don't you want to try out being a giant Lizard Mutant/Robot?"

With a bribe of 5 "bennies" for himself and 2 each for the rest of the players, Artie's player BB plugged his character into the machine. The technology increased his Strength, Vigor and Smarts, creating a smart giant monster.

The Androids showed up then, tried to control Artie/Robot but failed because of the disabled controller. With a "You will pay for your interference" the Androids attacked the PCs with Pain Guns. Artie/Robot ran down three of them, crushing them beneath his robotic treads, while the rest fought valiantly. Briar figured out how to use the green glowcube high-tech device as a weapon and disintegrated two Androids. Several Jokers showed up in the initiative cards, to the benefit of the players, and many "bennies" were spent, but the Androids didn't have a chance and were soundly defeated.

The characters managed to capture a half-dozen Pain Guns, the three vehicles and some assorted silvery jumpsuits and the campaign ended with the PCs heading home, richer in Ancient Devices, and two of them mutants, including a giant Artie/Robot.

This was a great 3-part campaign. I tried to give the players plenty of opportunities to direct the game to places they were interested in, which I think showed up well in play. There was a lot of good roleplaying and everyone did an excellent job of rolling with the comments of each other.

On a sad note, Mutant Buddha founding members KW and BW are headed back to Texas next month. They've been constant participants and excellent gamers in the first 5 sessions of the group and will be missed. I gave them a copy of Savage Worlds in the hopes they will continue playing it with any groups they join in Texas, continuing the cycle of Savage Worlds evangelizing.

Safe trip, guys, and good gaming.