Dawn, Session 3: Smells Like Teen Spirit

 

EPISODE 3 - March 19, 2024

Month: March
Weather: Cloudy
Shift: ?
Setting: The Uni
NPCs: 2

• 1 decently armed guard (see Episode 2)
• 1 person or group who created pamphlet (see Episode 1)

Settlement stats:

Settlers: 19, all healthy
Food: D12
Water: D10
Ammo: D10
Medicine: D12
Security: D4

Threads:

• Murder of prisoners looks like a ritual killing; seems like it's connected to the leaflet that Clove found.
• Old Bear finds an address for one of the killed prisoners. May be worth checking out.

Chaos Factor: 6

Roll

Roll on Dawn's mission generator, D100, result=59, Baby left at settlement
Roll, d12, result=10, baby is 10 months old

Someone left an infant at the Uni's "doorstep"--a healthy baby girl. She was heard crying by at least a half-dozen settlers and was taken straightaway to one of the shelters and looked over by someone with medical knowledge. A few settlers went out to see if they could find the mother, but who knows how long that baby had been sitting out there and where the parent(s) could have gone, but folks thought to try anyway. Dawn hopes that they come back one day, whoever they are.

A few of the settlers are already falling in love with her and are privately thinking of names. But first, the settlement needs to find her formula.

Roll

Roll for # of sites, distance, and direction; result=3 sites so rolling 3 times for distance and direction;
1st possible site=nearby (6 hexes away), south
2nd possible site=nearby (6 hexes away), south east
3rd possible site=Really far (10 hexes away), south west

Back at Dawn's "office," Dawn consults with Old Bear about where they can find formula. The office is fairly large, probably the former office of one of the University's Deans. There's a map of Portland and a map of Oregon hung up on one of the walls with pins, notes, and other markings. They decide that there are three possible areas where they would most likely find what they need.

They pull out another map (one of those you used to get from gas stations) and mark the three sites with a red marker. Two are fairly close together and they decide to go to the area just outside of Downtown Portland, the Pearl District. If that's a bust, they'll go east across the bridge and check the second site. The third one is a bit too far, too risky.

The Old Bear will go. And since Old Bear is going, Crow will go. Clove who hears about the baby and suspects a scavenging trip will soon be underway, hovers outside the building where Dawn's office is. She volunteers to go. Old Bear decides that she handled herself well enough last time that he agrees.

Roll

Roll for shift, D4, result=2, Day

There's still plenty of daylight left so they decide to leave immediately, hopefully they can make it back before dark. They have to cross the Willamette and decide to use the railroad bridge, having to walk their bikes across which slow them down a bit. But other than that, no trouble.

They head south and Old Bear decides to go across the old industrial area instead of the main road. Hopefully they can avoid any trouble by going this way.

Roll

Roll for stress for going to unexplored hexes:
Old Bear, D8, result=8, pass
Crow, D8, result=6, pass
Clove, D8, result=7, pass

Roll

Encounter table, d100, result=44, two teenagers
Reaction table, d10, result=3, indifferent
Clove, roll for Recon, D8, result=7, success
Roll on various NPC creation and narrative tables

As they enter the industrial area, Clove spots two teenagers, a boy and a girl. They look about seventeen or eighteen. Both are sitting against one of the walls of an office building and are taking drags off a cigarette and drinking from a bottle filled with brown liquid.

They're both wearing what looks like cloaks, but on closer examination are either blankets or raingear or a cobbling of both. Underneath that, they seem to be wearing brown work uniforms, most likely looted from one of the surrounding industrial buildings. Their shoes look new, the kind you go running in.

The group confers and decide to approach them carefully. Old Bear decides to hang back a bit, to cover them if necessary, and to give the young people someone closer their age to talk to.

Crow decides that Clove should try first, since they look like her age. They slowly approach (leaving their bikes behind) and the two teenagers don't notice them until they are about 15 or so feet. The two teens hardly react though and look almost like two deer in headlights, but not exactly afraid, just unsure of what to do.

"Hi, I'm Clove," she says.

"Hi, do you want a drink?" The boy says after a few moments, waving the bottle at her.

"No, thank you. Are you two alright?"

They take a moment to think about the question, a question they haven't asked themselves in a while.

"We're okay, I guess."

The girl chimes up, "We're hungry. Do you have any food?"

Clove produces a bag of nuts and the settlement's version of deer jerky from her backpack, gets a little closer, and tosses it at them.

"There's more back where we live," Clove says. "We have a community where we take care of each other, watch out for each other."

Roll

Roll, empathy, D10, result=8, success.
Roll on Mythic, Do they decide to join? Using the successful empathy roll, I judge it as very likely; result=31, yes.

The girl takes a final drag of her cigarette before putting it out.

"Where?" she asks.

Clove explains to them where. They nod, pretending to know where she's indicating.

"Can we go there now?" the girl asks.

The group confers and decides that it's best if they bring the two back to The Uni now rather than wait until they sober up or bring them along in their mission.

Result of Scene

NPCs: 2;

• 1 decently armed guard; no further information, except likelihood that this person is connected to leaflet
• 1 person or group who created pamphlet

Stress:

• Clove: 0
• Crow: 0
• Old Bear: 0

New threads:

• Baby left at settlement. Who are the parents?
  • Baby needs formula
• Recruited two teenagers, a boy and a girl. Found them drinking and smoking.

Chaos factor: 6