The Junkyard is a dreamlike place, the environment evokes a brain-fog that makes experiences seem not altogether real. For most travelling through it is a disjointed, picaresque experience, highlighted only by sudden violence and aching lack. These are a few examples of what PCs might encounter on their trek through the Junkyard.
Junkyard Encounters, Part 1
Highschool Student, Peter Cabbage
Funny name, right? All his friends think so too. Peter’s an average student at an average school in an average town who most likely would have grown up to work an average job and have an average family. He’s decent and down to earth: works hard, plays sports, loves his parents, gets okay-to-good grades and loves his girlfriend. Unfortunately she died along with the rest of her family in a car accident out on the interstate five months ago. Peter didn’t take it well, sleepless nights and school absences got a hold of him. He coped by seeking anonymous support online and there, in some dark recess of the internet, he found an answer.
Long story short, he’s been stranded here for several months. He wants to go home. The Junkyard has eaten his favourite relationship, which has kept him alive so far. Detective Anna Moines is looking for him back in the real world. Depending on what part of their trek the PCs meet him in he’ll be either cooped up inside an old school bus with a cache of food and water left behind by Saturn’s Bulls (who may arrive at some point, it’s worth 15% to a Supply pool) or making a desperate, lurching trek towards what he thinks is the Pit.
Straw Dogs
It seems unusual that pets should show up in the Junkyard, especially those who were not only unloved but given as a thoughtless gifts before being discarded at shelters and rest stops by their new owners. It happens anyway.
Mostly dogs, some cats, rabbits and birds and a handful of other animals; they operate as a singular, ravening swarm, sweeping over whoever they encounter with an insatiable insectile hunger for the connection they were intended to symbolise in life. Resolve the swarm as a riot (see pages 94-96 of Book 2) with no modifiers, that goes off regardless of the initial result. The swarms are large, there will usually be enough time for the PCs to prepare: take cover, try to flee, try to fight. Any enterprising soul looking to harvest the swarm for food will be disappointed. They’re hollow, tearing one open reveals that its innards are stuffed with old straw.
Ambulance Graveyard
Cresting a rise reveals a crater the size of several football fields and in it, ambulances haphazardly packed together in a sea of red, white and flashing lights. A lot of people die on the way to the hospital and the ambulances they were travelling in all congregate here. Some of them are untouched and contain valuable medical supplies, but most have been picked over by scavengers. The easiest way to tell is to check whether the original occupant is still inside. The best result in a group Notice roll will replenish a Supply pool by its sum. Any regular failures indicate an encounter with other scavengers, matched failures a booby trap, and a fumble indicates an ambush by both.
Huxley Says Hello
Huxley is always curious about newcomers. He’s learned to steer clear of the raiders and the slavers, although neither have managed to catch or hurt him and has a similar opinion of the Saturn’s Bulls. The Ballards strike him as kindred spirits but haven’t been welcoming in the past.
Huxley wants to know everyone’s story, specifically he’s interested in the parts that brought them here and their connection with the people they’re looking to rescue. He assumes that’s the only reason anyone would ever come here and would be distraught to learn otherwise. If anyone is willing to feed his curiosity he will delight and savour the story. Parcelling out this information is enough to earn his friendship and help. He will be elated to act as a guide for his new friends, using his Junkyard’s Pet identity to deftly navigate any hazards between them and their goal. Huxley is a bit absent and has limited contact with people as it is, it’s likely at some point he will lose track of his friends and disappear only to wonder where they went. He may return at some later point if they need help, if they mistreat him he will vanish forever.
Scrap Labyrinth
Teetering wreckage piled so high that once inside the artificial gorges you can barely make out the grey light coming from the sky. The labyrinth is too large to go around easily, the options are to either take several times as long to travel the outskirts or try to find a way through. The second choice is possible but dangerous. Resolve travelling through it as the labyrinth unnatural phenomenon on pages 83-84 of Book 1: Play. The beast does damage directly to the favourite relationship instead of wound threshold, unless that is depleted. Some of the wrecks still have people inside of them, flailing and screaming at long ago accidents despite being trapped under tons of twisted steel.
In some places special care needs to be taken to avoid upsetting and being crushed by the stacks, clever PCs could use this to escape or kill the beast or be trapped by them when it ambushes them. The slavers have a special reverence and hatred towards the beast of the labyrinth, bringing them its heart is a surefire way to get something you want from them.
Gas-n-Go
This gas station is an unheard of sight in the Junkyard, the only other buildings are those manufactured from the wreckage. It is an eerie place, clean and deathly quiet. The shelves are packed with food and drink and the gas pumps run freely (provided someone pushes the button on the counter console). No matter how much you take it restocks itself when no one is watching and remains free from the dust and the filth of the world outside. All long-term inhabitants of the Junkyard avoid the place, they’ll use it as a landmark but never set foot inside.
No matter how much someone eats or drinks from the Gas-n-Go it will only seem to fill their bellies, the gas will burn but the heat and drive it produces is an illusion. Looted provisions spoil rapidly, spreading their rot through anything they are stored with. In game terms anything from the Gas-n-Go will only appear to provide for the needs it is supposed to fill. Observers will be able to perceive this but those under the influence will only see the truth away from the Gas-and-Go.
Penalties invisibly accrue as sustenance, warmth and travel is neglected. More than one person has met their end emaciated and starved on the gas station floor, grinning and surrounded by empty candy bar wrappers and soda cans. Of course the place cleans them away quickly enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment