Sheba's Bathhouse Bar-B-Que
Act I, Scene I:
The PC's arrive back at the 'Steader farm...finding it utterly burned out. The guard tower has fallen right off the top of the silo, the front gates are wide open and all the buildings have collapsed into piles of still burning rubble. Even the animals have been butchered, their meager remains scattered all about the inner yard. The grain silo is notably wide open and all the grain from the harvest gone. In the midst of it all the PC's find a lone raider picking through the rubble, her armored muscle car parked right in front of the smoldering farmhouse.
Romeo keeps barreling on through the front gate when he spots her, sliding to a stop with the Titan facing her. Mason already has the raider in his sights when Sanguine roars over to the far side to cover her from there. The raider doesn't run or hide and submits to the shouted interrogation that follows. Soon enough the PC's learn that she had originally accompanied the raiders on the siege, a new recruit under the impression they would be hitting the 'Steader farm to steal some grain. When she witnessed the raiders seemingly intent on murdering everyone, even non-combatants, and burning the whole place down, she refused to participate further. She was forced to kill the raider riding shotgun with her when he turned on her and tried to take over her car.
Powerless to intervene on her own against the overwhelming raider force, she hid in the woods nearby until they were gone before moving in to try to help any survivors and salvage the fresh ruins. When she heard the PC's approaching she assumed they must be 'Steaders who were away when all the trouble came callin'. So Karma, as the raider introduces herself, waited to face them and do what she could to make amends.
This doesn't sit well with the PC's, who are inclined to toss her to the crows, until she lets drop what she knows about why the raiders staged the raid in the first place. Apparently someone in the 'Steader farm was complicit, leaving the front gates unlocked last night for the raiders to ram right through this morning. The PC's recognize the name Louis as the younger son of the 'Steader elder, Jack Hilburn. They recognize the name Jesse as well, Louis' contact back in Scraptown. The very same one that set them up and got Nell killed. In short order they've got the whole story, Karma relating that she heard the raiders boasting and joking about this Jesse character seducing the naive young Louis and manipulating him into betraying the 'Steaders. Karma informs them she saw one of the 'Steaders flee the farm just before the raiders hit, in an old, rusty pickup truck. The traitor drove right past the horde unopposed and straight on toward Scraptown, presumably to meet up with Jesse.
Once some level of basic trust is established, at least enough that the PC's aren't likely to gun Karma down out of hand, she offers to accompany them if they intend to seek revenge against Jesse and Louis. Karma is a Tribal, as it happens. So while she isn't opposed to raiding 'Steader farms to steal grain, the pointless murder and destruction the raiders exhibited during the siege has stirred her wrath. And, more to the point, she feels she has to put the hurt to these raiders somehow for the sake of her own honor. The PC's quibble a bit but finally decide to take her on. Sanguine rolls her bike into the back of the truck and claims shotgun on Karma's muscle car, Ghost, in order to man the MG. And because they don't completely trust Karma just yet.
The PC's poke around the ruins of the farm but don't find much of anything to salvage, as the raiders seemed to have done a thorough job of it already. They spend the rest of the day burying the bodies of their former friends and family around the compound, then camp for the night.
Romeo tends to Mason's injuries from the baseball bat to the head he took back in Scraptown. He recovers a point of damage but is still saddled with a damage penalty. Sanguine continues a slightly more polite interrogation of Karma, learning what she can of the raiders and how they're involved with Jesse and Louis. The PC's learn then that Jesse seemed to have been working for someone else, though the raiders never dropped a name that Karma could pick up on. The PC's spend their remaining waking hours discussing how to get to Jesse and Louis in Scraptown without sentinels beating them all about the head with baseball bats again.
Act I, Scene II:
The following morning everyone makes an Extreme Senses/Notice roll, with only Sanguine succeeding. She's awakened by a strange sound coming from the fields outside the 'Steader compound's walls. Rather than running off to go check it out, she wakes the others to call their attention to it. By the time they're all awake and hear the strange shuffling sounds out there, one of the Mutant Ostriches wanders in through the compound's broken down front gate.
The PC's have Initiative but I don't inform them combat's about to erupt (the Mutant Ostriches are particularly aggressive). They snatch up weapons and make ready just in case and decide to watch the critter to see what it does before reacting. I figure that's a Wait Action and let the ostrich's Initiative come up, at which point it screams furiously at the PC's, alerting the rest of the flocks and runs straight at them. Informing the PC's that they're Waiting and can act now if they wish, Romeo fires his shotgun at the ostrich closing in on them. He scores 2 successes, for 24L, that drops the critter dead in its tracks.
Round 2)
Two Mutant Ostriches come dashing into the compound to see what the first was screaming about and spy the PC's, screaming furiously at 'em themselves. The PC's don't Wait this time and open up on them before they can charge next round. Romeo's already spent a shotgun shell so he lets the other three take care of these two, Waiting in case he needs to fire after all. Mason scores 2 successes despite his damage penalty and drops one of the two ostriches right away. Seeing that they seem to fall fairly easily, Sanguine opts for her Heavy Pistol over her Pump Shotgun (buckshot being fairly expensive by comparison). She scores 3 successes and it drops dead where it stands as well.
Round 3)
Five more Mutant Ostriches dash into the compound, milling about for a short moment over the bodies of their fallen comrades before spying the PC's and letting out another scream to alert the flock. Catching on that things seem to be escalating, the PC's edge toward their vehicles in case they need to make a hasty exit. Romeo opens fire, opting to split the buckshot attack on two targets standing close enough to one another. He scores 3 successes, dropping one critter and missing the other when it dodges. Mason follows up, splitting buckshot between two Mutant Ostriches as well and likewise drops one, misses the other.
Sanguine comes next, scoring 3 successes with her handgun on one critter and dropping it, leaving the two others for Karma to take care of. Karma doesn't want to waste Fortune so early in the game on a Dual Action against some birds, mutated or not, so she fires her Winchester rifle at one of them...but it dodges the shot clean.
The two remaining Mutant Ostriches run screaming at the PC's, both of them heading straight for Sanguine (determined entirely at random). They reach melee range but aren't able to take any other Action beyond menacing her terribly.
Round 4)
Eight Mutant Ostriches dash into the compound to skitter about the corpses piling there for a moment, before spying the PC's and their two comrades about to start scratching at them. They let out a scream and prepare to run over to join the fun next round.
The PC's decide it's time to skedaddle, so they dive into their vehicles before the Mutant Ostriches start pecking their eyes out. The two already on their tails immediately turn their attention to the vehicles and attack. Neither manages anything more than scratching the Titan a little with their talons before the other eight have sprinted over to shriek and raise a ruckus.
Round 5)
With ten Mutant Ostriches swarming over their vehicles, the PC's hasten to crank them up and get out of there. Five more Mutant Ostriches come running through the front gates to start shrieking while the ten already on them continue scratching their vehicles. Using the V6 Probabilities Tables (p. 124) I determine one of the Mutant Ostriches manages to get through the Titan's armor and two get through the Ghost's. Titan takes 4 and the Ghost 14. That's enough to convince the PC's to put the pedal to the metal next round.
Round 6)
Twelve more Mutant Ostriches appear at the front gate of the compound, fifteen already swarming the PC's vehicles. Romeo hits the gas and tries to ram straight through the lot of them to get out the front gate.
Homerule: Ramming through crowds and critters
I ruled that a ram attack must be made with total damage of 1/4 of the crowd's total Health in order to ram through. Otherwise damage is portioned out appropriately and the vehicle grinds to a halt before getting completely through. Repeated attempts are perfectly acceptable but until the vehicle is able to do 1/4 of the crowd's Health in total damage, the crowd remains in melee range and the vehicle in question is unable to pull away. The Speed value of the crowd is considered to be 0 for purposes of determining damage.
Any vehicle(s) following directly behind in the same round are able to freely follow a vehicle that succeeds in ramming through but if delayed beyond that same round they must ram through themselves. All of this assumes a crowd large enough to act as a barricade or blockade by their sheer numbers, of course. In this particular case I ruled that the 27 Mutant Ostriches represented such an obstacle.
Romeo rolls 3 successes on the Ram maneuver against the Mutant Ostrich crowd, scoring a total 105 damage. That's just shy of the 108 he needs to ram through, so the Titan runs down 7 of the Mutant Ostriches but doesn't manage to get through to the gate. After deducting for the Titan's ram and armor, the truck takes 35 damage from the ramming maneuver.
The remaining 20 Mutant Ostriches get to pecking and scratching the Titan and, using the V6 Probabilities Tables again, I figure two of them score 3 successes and a third scores 4. That drops 17 more damage on the Titan.
Round 7)
Now in sight of the front gate, Romeo can see out to the field clearly and finds a couple hundred Mutant Ostriches running in from all over the place out there. He estimates they have only a short window to get clear of the commune and the fields beyond before the Mutant Ostriches are swarming them by the dozens, maybe more. Five more Mutant Ostriches reach the crowd swarming him already, bringing their total up to 25. Now Romeo's worried another ramming maneuver will damage the Titan enough to bring damage penalties into play.
The other PC's decide they need to do something to cull the Mutant Ostrich population out there, so Mason drops a spray from the Titan's Heavy MG on the crowd. He scores 2 successes and splits them between 2 Mutant Ostriches, dropping both dead. Karma is right behind the Titan with her car, Ghost, so she angles in for Sanguine to fire its forward pivot-mounted Light MG on the crowd. She scores 3 successes and doesn't drop any of the ostriches, though she does reduce the total Health of the crowd by 30 points.
Romeo crosses his fingers and make another ramming attack on the crowd, still trying to break through. He scores 3 successes for another 105 total damage, much more than the 92 he needs to break through. That drops another 35 damage on the Titan though and it's now laboring under a +1 Difficulty damage penalty. He rams through nonetheless, out of the compound and into the field with Karma and Sanguine right behind him in the Ghost. Two successful Difficult Maneuvers by both drivers get them across the field and out onto the road beyond without being swarmed by Mutant Ostriches again.
Mutant Ostriches
Muscle 3, Understanding 0, Tenacity 4, Appeal 0, Nimbleness 3, Toughness 2
Senses 3
Health: 16
Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Intimidate 2, Notice 3, Stealth 3
Attacks: Talon 7L
Mutations/Abilities: Natural Weapon
Flaws: Cosmetic (big, twisted and pretty freaky lookin')
As a homerule on these critters I let the "natural weapon" mutation drop double up on the damage of the talons ostriches already have, treating the natural ostrich talon as a knife. Hence, M+2L doubles to M+4L (7L). I also made gave them, entirely by fiat, an armor-piercing sort of ability; eliminating a vehicle armor's ability to ignore base damage less than their armor protection value. A vehicle with Heavy Armor (like the Titan) could normally sit in the middle of a mass of attacks with base damage anywhere less than 17 and not take a scratch.
Act II, Scene I:
The PC's travel on towards Scraptown, with no sign of trouble until they draw near. Before they reach sight of the tradetown they stop and formulate a quick plan for getting in without being spotted by the sentinels. Titan poses the most immediate concern, as it's sure to be recognized right off. Karma's muscle car, Ghost, isn't linked to them though so they opt to enter town in it. Titan will be stashed in the woods off the road, just out of sight of the town. The PC's spend half the day getting it deep enough into the woods not to be discovered easily and camouflaging it to hide it from anyone that might stumble across it by accident.
Once done, they load up in the Ghost and head to town. Mason dons his gas mask, Sanguine scrapes the decals off her motorcycle helmet and Romeo just wears some goggles, hoping for the best. They switch a few articles of clothing around amongst themselves as well hoping that will serve somewhat as a disguise. All in all it's enough that they're able to avoid being recognized at a glance by the sentinels at the town gate, while sitting as passengers in Karma's car. Once inside the tradetown though things are likely to get more difficult.
After agonizing over the situation a bit, the PC's can't up with anything clever so they opt to park in the parking lot and send Karma in to rustle up some info. Then, if she manages to find out anything useful, they can move in after dark and do their best not to be noticed. Karma has an Appeal of 2 and only 1 point in Persuade though, so she's not especially great with people. Mason begrudgingly turns over some of his personal trade goods to her to use in bartering for information, should that prove useful. Karma then heads into town, leaving the PC's to hunker down in the Ghost avoiding attention.
Heading straight for the bar the PC's told her about, the one Jesse mentioned to the PC's in the previous episode, Karma hopes to pick up her or Louis' trail there. Though she notices the various games going on and recognizes the opportunity to score a few points with the locals through them, she takes a shot at asking around casually about Jesse and Louis anyway. Scoring a couple of successes on her interaction right off, she finds out very easily that there's a bit of an uproar concerning those two. In fact, the locals quickly take an interest in her for dropping Jesse's name and require some assurances she don't know nuttin' about nuttin' before easing up on her a bit.
Jesse and Louis, it would seem, made off with the sentinel payroll, all Scraptown scripts, just yesterday evening. Right after some thieves broke out of the local jail. Most of the sentinels in town are off down the road, still trying to track them down and get their payroll back. Which is odd in itself, seeing as how Scraptown scripts aren't any good for trade anywhere but Scraptown. Rather begs the question why Jesse and Louis would bother stealing the payroll in the first place. The common consensus in the bar is that it's all some kind of setup. Currently everyone's pretty worried about the sentinels that took off after them, especially considering the whole town's been left with only a couple of sentinels to keep order around the place.
After managing to put the locals at ease a bit, at least enough to get out of the bar in one piece, Karma heads back to the parking lot to inform the PC's that most of the sentinels are out of town. On the way out she bumps into a trio of girls dressed in black studded leather, all sporting short blood-red Mohawks. Accidentally brushing into one of them, who made no effort to make room for her to pass, the encounter gets heated pretty quick. Karma snaps back a bit and does her best to Intimidate the punker chicks. Despite having only 2 in Muscle, Understanding and Appeal, with no skill points in Intimidate at all, Karma nevertheless scores a success that explodes out to 2 more for a total of 3. That's enough to successfully Intimidate all three of them, so the punkers stumble out of Karma's way when she snarls at them a bit.
When she reaches the parking lot, she catches the PC's up on the situation. Only two sentinels are patrolling the streets, according to the bar patrons, and the PC's quickly realize even the two men in the guard tower watching over the parking lot are civilian volunteers. Sanguine removes her helmet and lets her hair lose from the leather ponytail cover she normally wears, as a concession to changing her look a bit. Mason and Romeo opt to keep their gas mask and goggles, as they don't seem to be an unusual fashion choice in the tradetowns they're familiar with. They figure that's the best they can do to obscure their identities and they head into town with Karma to try to pick up some more info.
Heading through the parking lot gate to the market area, the PC's walk right into one of the local sentinels. He's coming to speak to the Tribal who just had a run-in with the three Hellcatz a moment ago. Armed with a shotgun, he brings it to bear when he recognizes the PC's.
Taking Initiative the PC's have him under the gun themselves before he can take any Action, Waiting to throw down if he fires on them. He at least appears willing to hold off on the gunfire for a moment and after a short exchange of Appeal/Persuade rolls it's clear everyone is trying to calm everyone else down. In short order the PC's learn the sentinel isn't especially interested in arresting them or shooting them and just wants them out town. Mason takes a shot and meets with significant success in trying to convince him of their innocence, especially in light of Jesse's obvious guilt for other crimes. Eventually the sentinel eases up and is willing to let the matter slide for now, though it's clear he's still suspicious of them.
Once we reach that point in the conversation the sentinel warns them that the Hellcatz, a sizable girl gang suspected of associating with local raiders, have moved into town. Though they don't seem to be causing any serious trouble just yet he's fairly sure it's only a matter of time. Especially if they manage to figure out the sentinels are so short handed. Mason rolls big again on an Appeal/Persuade roll, with 2 successes exploding out to 4, and convinces the sentinel to unofficially deputize them for the time being. Just to keep the peace, not to go about on patrol trying to stir up trouble or anything. The sentinel mulls it over and finally agrees, and that's that for now.
He wants the pump shotguns back that the PC's took from the jail before they leave, though. Since they're toting them at the moment, that doesn't escape his attention. The PC's resolve to avoid returning them if at all possible.
Following up on additional information that the sentinel let drop, the PC's head for Sheba's Bathhouse, where they hope to find Julian Wing, a local gigolo that Jesse is rumored to have consorted with prior to hooking up with the sentinel Chief. The sentinels haven't gotten anything useful out of him themselves but it's the only lead the PC's have.
Act II, Scene II:
Finding Julian in the "bathhouse" doesn't pose any difficulty since he's sitting at the bar looking pretty at the moment. The first girl they query is able to point right over at him. Mason strides right up on him but doesn't meet with any success questioning him. Julian just shrugs and claims not to know anything. The PC's aren't buying it but don't want to make him defensive by ganging up on him, so Sanguine pitches in with some Teamwork. Mason scores 3 successes then and Julian reluctantly admits he might know something about where Jesse and Louis went...but he can't be sure...his memory's a little fuzzy...
Taking the hint Karma whips out a couple of the cans of beans Mason gave her earlier (to Mason's dismay). That gets Julian's attention right away and he tells them what he knows. Jesse has a boss or something in the next tradetown over, the local Sheriff there, who she mentioned she'd be reporting to when she left town. Julian assumes she and Louis must be there, since the tradetown she mentioned just happens to be in the general direction the two are reported to have fled. Karma tosses the cans over to Julian and the team turns to leave, load up and head out to the tradetown down the road.
Act III, Scene I:
In the meantime, Bitch Hag and her personal entourage of four Hellcatz have already walked through the door behind them and noticed the gang conversing with Julian. And Bitch Hag doesn't take kindly to Sanguine smiling and making nice with her boy. Before the PC's can leave the bathhouse she and her girls are already in their faces, cutting Sanguine down pretty viciously and trying to Intimidate everyone else.
When the PC's try to talk their way out of the fight, Bitch Hag just smirks and throws a sucker punch at Sanguine. That's a surprise round for Bitch Hag but since she's standing right in front of Sanguine and hasn't snuck up unobserved or anything, Sanguine gets a Reaction against it. Bitch Hag then scores two successes on the punch but Sanguine scores two of her own on the dodge.
Round 1)
Romeo shoulders his shotgun and informs the Hellcatz they're all under arrest. While that startles the girls a bit he doesn't get any indication that the fight is necessarily over, so he opts to Wait in case violence continues to escalate. The other PC's follow suit, all having Initiative over the Hellcatz, leaving the raider girls no choice but to back down. Bitch Hag isn't satisfied with that, though. She snarls and snatches at the sawed-off shotgun on her hip.
Romeo opens fire right away, as do Mason and Sanguine. Bitch Hag dodges all three shots but Karma follows up with her Winchester, landing a 2-success hit that she can't dodge. Bitch Hag is hit hard and would have been killed if not for her Light Armor. She's knocked prone though and that prompts the Hellcatz with her to get mad real quick, draw some nasty looking knives and going at the PC's, howling.
One of the raiders takes a stab at Romeo, which he dodges, followed by jabs at Mason and Karma by two of the others that are likewise dodged. Sanguine is hit with 3 successes however, takes 10L (after -2 from her armor) and knocked prone.
Round 2)
Romeo drops the raider chick trying to stab him with a shotgun blast but Mason and Sanguine both miss due to the damage penalties they're toting (Sanguine due to being prone as well). Karma lands 3 successes but the raider she's gunning for gets very lucky with her dodge and she misses anyway.
Bitch Hag is mean enough to fire off a shot at Romeo from down on the floor, not bothering to get up. At +2 Difficulty from her damage penalty and being prone she doesn't hit a thing. The Hellcats trying to stab Mason and Karma don't manage a hit, though the one after Sanguine lands 2 successes, forcing her to drop 4 Fortune points to get rid of them. She can't take anymore damage without risking death.
Round 3)
Romeo fires at the Hellcat on Karma and hits, knocking her across the room dead. Mason hits the one in front of him, not killing her but knocking her prone alongside Bitch Hag. Sanguine then figures it's relatively safe to get up off the floor now, as that double-whammy from a damage penalty and a prone penalty isn't doing her any favors at all. She spends her Action for the round doing that while Karma fires over at the Hellcat on Mason, missing this time.
Bitch Hag decides to get off the floor as well, feeling that's a might bit undignified (and really wanting to shoot someone, which ain't easy to do from the floor). The Hellcat that just landed next to her follows her example, leaving only the one raider still on her feet to take a slice at anyone this round. That one swings her knife at Romeo and hits, dropping 8L on him and making him wish he had some armor. At half his Health with one hit, that drops a damage penalty on him, his knees buckle and now he's the one on the floor.
Round 4)
Romeo jumps right back on his feet before anyone can stab or shoot him. Mason then fires a blast of buckshot (and 2 Fortune points to increase success) at Bitch Hag and the second Hellcat that just got to her feet. He lands 4 successes, 2 each. More than enough to kill both of the already badly wounded Hellcatz. Sanguine's on her feet now and looking at the only remaining Hellcat threatening them, so she fires at her, scores a success and drops 1 Fortune point for the extra success she needs to overcome the Hellcat's dodge. That hits the raider chick full on and drops her dead alongside her sisters.
Bitch Hag (Raider Boss)
Attributes: Muscle 3, Understanding 2, Tenacity 3, Appeal 1, Nimbleness 3, Toughness 4, Senses 2
Health: 20
Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 3, Drive 3, Criminal 1, Intimidate 3, Melee 3, Notice 3, Persuade 1, Scavenge 1, Shoot 3, Stealth 2, Survive 2, Tech 2
Weapons: Knife (Nimbleness, 5L, Short), Medium Axe (Muscle, 11L, Melee), Sawed-Off Shotgun (Nimbleness, 12L, Short, Ammo 6, Cap 2)
Armor: Motorcycle Leathers (2)
Clothing: Motorcycle Leathers, boots, shirt
Gear: Clothing, 2 bottles of transmission fluid, 8 cans of beer
Everybody but Karma is toting some serious injury now, so the PC's decide to take the information they've got and get somewhere safe for the time being. Their original plan being to skip town as soon as they knew where Jesse was, that doesn't seem like such a great idea anymore. They'll probably need a week or more to heal up to full strength and they don't want to go gunning for Jesse in less that tip-top shape. Figuring there must be something akin to a medical treatment available around here, they opt to go find it before anything else threatens to injure them.
Before they can, two of the Hellcatz who came to see what all the ruckus was step through the front door of the Bathhouse, instantly spot Bitch Hag and four of their sisters dead on the floor and turn tail to raise a ruckus of their own outside.
Act III, Scene II:
The PC's figure that means big trouble and don't bother with running after the two Hellcatz to see what exactly is going on outside. They turn and dive right behind the bar for cover, quickly reload their weapons and train them on the front door of the place. They're all down to two or three rounds each after all the shooting and, to make matters worse, Romeo and Mason left their assault rifles in the truck and Sanguine left her second reload of shotguns shells. Karma only has one round left in her Winchester herself and no spare ammo at all.
After several tense minutes listening to what sounds like a dozen or more Hellcatz pitching a fit out in the street, one of the braver ones takes cover at the edge of the door and hollers in for the PC's to throw down their weapons, come out and pay for killing their boss. She warns them that they're prepared to burn the whole place down if they don't. This does not fill the PC's with warm, fuzzy feelings about the situation.
Romeo dashes over to Bitch Hag's corpse and snatches the buckshot from her pockets and from her sawed-off shotgun, then splits them between he, Mason and Sanguine. Sanguine turns her Heavy Pistol over to Karma, for when she fires her last shot from her Winchester. Consulting quickly, the PC's then start rounding up the terrified patrons and prostitutes in the place, getting them ready to break out and interrogating any who might look like they know the layout of the place for another way out. As the bathhouse is built right up against the outer wall of the tradetown there's no back door. However, it is a two-story building and the roof is just a couple of feet short of the outer wall...
The PC's get to herding folks up the stairs to the second floor, then up a ladder to the roof. The Hellcatz outside are still hollering demands, working themselves up to burn the place down, so they have time. With no way down the tradetown wall from up there though, they're left with concocting a plan to use bed sheets from the rooms below to fashion together a make-shift rope. That takes more than enough time for the Hellcatz in the street to get good and worked up, tossing torches, burning debris and Molotov cocktails into the bathhouse to set it ablaze. With no time to spare anymore they get busy encouraging, ordering and outright bullying folks down the rope to the ground outside the town walls. By the time they get a chance to shimmy down themselves smoke is seeping through the roof all around them and the bathhouse is in full blaze beneath their feet.
Outside the town walls the PC's leave the panicked civilians to their own devices and sprint for the town gates several hundred feet away. It takes a few minutes to get back into the town, through the parking lot and the market, and back to the street where the Hellcatz are raising hell. By the time they arrive Scraptown citizens have already armed themselves and a pitched firefight is currently underway. The Hellcatz, woefully outnumbered, lacking any real cover and with a burning building to one side, are clearly on the losing end of the fight. It takes only a few minutes more for the outraged Scraptowners to cut the last of them down in the street.
The PC's spend a couple of minutes assuring themselves that order seems to be well on its way to restoring itself and that no one is going to start shooting at them for some reason. That done, they limp off looking for either a sentinel to report their part of the whole mess to or someone to patch them up a bit. They find the local doctor's office first so they shrug everything else off and head on in there to get themselves seen to. By the time the sentinels in town track them down they've all bartered for a round of serious medical attention, with Romeo and Mason getting their total damage back under the halfway mark.
Considering their recent past with the sentinels, their now being involved with a whorehouse being burned to the ground and the pitched battle that just took place in the streets, the sentinels are none too happy with them. They aren't quite willing to trump up some charges to have them hung by the neck for but they do intend to escort them firmly out the town gates once they've healed up a bit. With that they're told to either stay confined with the doc' until they're healed enough to leave...for good...or go on and do the sentinels a favor and get right to the gone for good part immediately. The PC's opt to heal up first, then leave Scraptown behind them once they've stopped bleeding. The matter settled, with a real threat of being shot dead in the streets if they're seen outside the doctor's office doing anything but leaving town, the sentinels leave them to it.
Act I, Scene I:
The PC's arrive back at the 'Steader farm...finding it utterly burned out. The guard tower has fallen right off the top of the silo, the front gates are wide open and all the buildings have collapsed into piles of still burning rubble. Even the animals have been butchered, their meager remains scattered all about the inner yard. The grain silo is notably wide open and all the grain from the harvest gone. In the midst of it all the PC's find a lone raider picking through the rubble, her armored muscle car parked right in front of the smoldering farmhouse.
Romeo keeps barreling on through the front gate when he spots her, sliding to a stop with the Titan facing her. Mason already has the raider in his sights when Sanguine roars over to the far side to cover her from there. The raider doesn't run or hide and submits to the shouted interrogation that follows. Soon enough the PC's learn that she had originally accompanied the raiders on the siege, a new recruit under the impression they would be hitting the 'Steader farm to steal some grain. When she witnessed the raiders seemingly intent on murdering everyone, even non-combatants, and burning the whole place down, she refused to participate further. She was forced to kill the raider riding shotgun with her when he turned on her and tried to take over her car.
Powerless to intervene on her own against the overwhelming raider force, she hid in the woods nearby until they were gone before moving in to try to help any survivors and salvage the fresh ruins. When she heard the PC's approaching she assumed they must be 'Steaders who were away when all the trouble came callin'. So Karma, as the raider introduces herself, waited to face them and do what she could to make amends.
This doesn't sit well with the PC's, who are inclined to toss her to the crows, until she lets drop what she knows about why the raiders staged the raid in the first place. Apparently someone in the 'Steader farm was complicit, leaving the front gates unlocked last night for the raiders to ram right through this morning. The PC's recognize the name Louis as the younger son of the 'Steader elder, Jack Hilburn. They recognize the name Jesse as well, Louis' contact back in Scraptown. The very same one that set them up and got Nell killed. In short order they've got the whole story, Karma relating that she heard the raiders boasting and joking about this Jesse character seducing the naive young Louis and manipulating him into betraying the 'Steaders. Karma informs them she saw one of the 'Steaders flee the farm just before the raiders hit, in an old, rusty pickup truck. The traitor drove right past the horde unopposed and straight on toward Scraptown, presumably to meet up with Jesse.
Once some level of basic trust is established, at least enough that the PC's aren't likely to gun Karma down out of hand, she offers to accompany them if they intend to seek revenge against Jesse and Louis. Karma is a Tribal, as it happens. So while she isn't opposed to raiding 'Steader farms to steal grain, the pointless murder and destruction the raiders exhibited during the siege has stirred her wrath. And, more to the point, she feels she has to put the hurt to these raiders somehow for the sake of her own honor. The PC's quibble a bit but finally decide to take her on. Sanguine rolls her bike into the back of the truck and claims shotgun on Karma's muscle car, Ghost, in order to man the MG. And because they don't completely trust Karma just yet.
The PC's poke around the ruins of the farm but don't find much of anything to salvage, as the raiders seemed to have done a thorough job of it already. They spend the rest of the day burying the bodies of their former friends and family around the compound, then camp for the night.
Romeo tends to Mason's injuries from the baseball bat to the head he took back in Scraptown. He recovers a point of damage but is still saddled with a damage penalty. Sanguine continues a slightly more polite interrogation of Karma, learning what she can of the raiders and how they're involved with Jesse and Louis. The PC's learn then that Jesse seemed to have been working for someone else, though the raiders never dropped a name that Karma could pick up on. The PC's spend their remaining waking hours discussing how to get to Jesse and Louis in Scraptown without sentinels beating them all about the head with baseball bats again.
Act I, Scene II:
The following morning everyone makes an Extreme Senses/Notice roll, with only Sanguine succeeding. She's awakened by a strange sound coming from the fields outside the 'Steader compound's walls. Rather than running off to go check it out, she wakes the others to call their attention to it. By the time they're all awake and hear the strange shuffling sounds out there, one of the Mutant Ostriches wanders in through the compound's broken down front gate.
The PC's have Initiative but I don't inform them combat's about to erupt (the Mutant Ostriches are particularly aggressive). They snatch up weapons and make ready just in case and decide to watch the critter to see what it does before reacting. I figure that's a Wait Action and let the ostrich's Initiative come up, at which point it screams furiously at the PC's, alerting the rest of the flocks and runs straight at them. Informing the PC's that they're Waiting and can act now if they wish, Romeo fires his shotgun at the ostrich closing in on them. He scores 2 successes, for 24L, that drops the critter dead in its tracks.
Round 2)
Two Mutant Ostriches come dashing into the compound to see what the first was screaming about and spy the PC's, screaming furiously at 'em themselves. The PC's don't Wait this time and open up on them before they can charge next round. Romeo's already spent a shotgun shell so he lets the other three take care of these two, Waiting in case he needs to fire after all. Mason scores 2 successes despite his damage penalty and drops one of the two ostriches right away. Seeing that they seem to fall fairly easily, Sanguine opts for her Heavy Pistol over her Pump Shotgun (buckshot being fairly expensive by comparison). She scores 3 successes and it drops dead where it stands as well.
Round 3)
Five more Mutant Ostriches dash into the compound, milling about for a short moment over the bodies of their fallen comrades before spying the PC's and letting out another scream to alert the flock. Catching on that things seem to be escalating, the PC's edge toward their vehicles in case they need to make a hasty exit. Romeo opens fire, opting to split the buckshot attack on two targets standing close enough to one another. He scores 3 successes, dropping one critter and missing the other when it dodges. Mason follows up, splitting buckshot between two Mutant Ostriches as well and likewise drops one, misses the other.
Sanguine comes next, scoring 3 successes with her handgun on one critter and dropping it, leaving the two others for Karma to take care of. Karma doesn't want to waste Fortune so early in the game on a Dual Action against some birds, mutated or not, so she fires her Winchester rifle at one of them...but it dodges the shot clean.
The two remaining Mutant Ostriches run screaming at the PC's, both of them heading straight for Sanguine (determined entirely at random). They reach melee range but aren't able to take any other Action beyond menacing her terribly.
Round 4)
Eight Mutant Ostriches dash into the compound to skitter about the corpses piling there for a moment, before spying the PC's and their two comrades about to start scratching at them. They let out a scream and prepare to run over to join the fun next round.
The PC's decide it's time to skedaddle, so they dive into their vehicles before the Mutant Ostriches start pecking their eyes out. The two already on their tails immediately turn their attention to the vehicles and attack. Neither manages anything more than scratching the Titan a little with their talons before the other eight have sprinted over to shriek and raise a ruckus.
Round 5)
With ten Mutant Ostriches swarming over their vehicles, the PC's hasten to crank them up and get out of there. Five more Mutant Ostriches come running through the front gates to start shrieking while the ten already on them continue scratching their vehicles. Using the V6 Probabilities Tables (p. 124) I determine one of the Mutant Ostriches manages to get through the Titan's armor and two get through the Ghost's. Titan takes 4 and the Ghost 14. That's enough to convince the PC's to put the pedal to the metal next round.
Round 6)
Twelve more Mutant Ostriches appear at the front gate of the compound, fifteen already swarming the PC's vehicles. Romeo hits the gas and tries to ram straight through the lot of them to get out the front gate.
Homerule: Ramming through crowds and critters
I ruled that a ram attack must be made with total damage of 1/4 of the crowd's total Health in order to ram through. Otherwise damage is portioned out appropriately and the vehicle grinds to a halt before getting completely through. Repeated attempts are perfectly acceptable but until the vehicle is able to do 1/4 of the crowd's Health in total damage, the crowd remains in melee range and the vehicle in question is unable to pull away. The Speed value of the crowd is considered to be 0 for purposes of determining damage.
Any vehicle(s) following directly behind in the same round are able to freely follow a vehicle that succeeds in ramming through but if delayed beyond that same round they must ram through themselves. All of this assumes a crowd large enough to act as a barricade or blockade by their sheer numbers, of course. In this particular case I ruled that the 27 Mutant Ostriches represented such an obstacle.
Romeo rolls 3 successes on the Ram maneuver against the Mutant Ostrich crowd, scoring a total 105 damage. That's just shy of the 108 he needs to ram through, so the Titan runs down 7 of the Mutant Ostriches but doesn't manage to get through to the gate. After deducting for the Titan's ram and armor, the truck takes 35 damage from the ramming maneuver.
The remaining 20 Mutant Ostriches get to pecking and scratching the Titan and, using the V6 Probabilities Tables again, I figure two of them score 3 successes and a third scores 4. That drops 17 more damage on the Titan.
Round 7)
Now in sight of the front gate, Romeo can see out to the field clearly and finds a couple hundred Mutant Ostriches running in from all over the place out there. He estimates they have only a short window to get clear of the commune and the fields beyond before the Mutant Ostriches are swarming them by the dozens, maybe more. Five more Mutant Ostriches reach the crowd swarming him already, bringing their total up to 25. Now Romeo's worried another ramming maneuver will damage the Titan enough to bring damage penalties into play.
The other PC's decide they need to do something to cull the Mutant Ostrich population out there, so Mason drops a spray from the Titan's Heavy MG on the crowd. He scores 2 successes and splits them between 2 Mutant Ostriches, dropping both dead. Karma is right behind the Titan with her car, Ghost, so she angles in for Sanguine to fire its forward pivot-mounted Light MG on the crowd. She scores 3 successes and doesn't drop any of the ostriches, though she does reduce the total Health of the crowd by 30 points.
Romeo crosses his fingers and make another ramming attack on the crowd, still trying to break through. He scores 3 successes for another 105 total damage, much more than the 92 he needs to break through. That drops another 35 damage on the Titan though and it's now laboring under a +1 Difficulty damage penalty. He rams through nonetheless, out of the compound and into the field with Karma and Sanguine right behind him in the Ghost. Two successful Difficult Maneuvers by both drivers get them across the field and out onto the road beyond without being swarmed by Mutant Ostriches again.
Mutant Ostriches
Muscle 3, Understanding 0, Tenacity 4, Appeal 0, Nimbleness 3, Toughness 2
Senses 3
Health: 16
Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Intimidate 2, Notice 3, Stealth 3
Attacks: Talon 7L
Mutations/Abilities: Natural Weapon
Flaws: Cosmetic (big, twisted and pretty freaky lookin')
As a homerule on these critters I let the "natural weapon" mutation drop double up on the damage of the talons ostriches already have, treating the natural ostrich talon as a knife. Hence, M+2L doubles to M+4L (7L). I also made gave them, entirely by fiat, an armor-piercing sort of ability; eliminating a vehicle armor's ability to ignore base damage less than their armor protection value. A vehicle with Heavy Armor (like the Titan) could normally sit in the middle of a mass of attacks with base damage anywhere less than 17 and not take a scratch.
Act II, Scene I:
The PC's travel on towards Scraptown, with no sign of trouble until they draw near. Before they reach sight of the tradetown they stop and formulate a quick plan for getting in without being spotted by the sentinels. Titan poses the most immediate concern, as it's sure to be recognized right off. Karma's muscle car, Ghost, isn't linked to them though so they opt to enter town in it. Titan will be stashed in the woods off the road, just out of sight of the town. The PC's spend half the day getting it deep enough into the woods not to be discovered easily and camouflaging it to hide it from anyone that might stumble across it by accident.
Once done, they load up in the Ghost and head to town. Mason dons his gas mask, Sanguine scrapes the decals off her motorcycle helmet and Romeo just wears some goggles, hoping for the best. They switch a few articles of clothing around amongst themselves as well hoping that will serve somewhat as a disguise. All in all it's enough that they're able to avoid being recognized at a glance by the sentinels at the town gate, while sitting as passengers in Karma's car. Once inside the tradetown though things are likely to get more difficult.
After agonizing over the situation a bit, the PC's can't up with anything clever so they opt to park in the parking lot and send Karma in to rustle up some info. Then, if she manages to find out anything useful, they can move in after dark and do their best not to be noticed. Karma has an Appeal of 2 and only 1 point in Persuade though, so she's not especially great with people. Mason begrudgingly turns over some of his personal trade goods to her to use in bartering for information, should that prove useful. Karma then heads into town, leaving the PC's to hunker down in the Ghost avoiding attention.
Heading straight for the bar the PC's told her about, the one Jesse mentioned to the PC's in the previous episode, Karma hopes to pick up her or Louis' trail there. Though she notices the various games going on and recognizes the opportunity to score a few points with the locals through them, she takes a shot at asking around casually about Jesse and Louis anyway. Scoring a couple of successes on her interaction right off, she finds out very easily that there's a bit of an uproar concerning those two. In fact, the locals quickly take an interest in her for dropping Jesse's name and require some assurances she don't know nuttin' about nuttin' before easing up on her a bit.
Jesse and Louis, it would seem, made off with the sentinel payroll, all Scraptown scripts, just yesterday evening. Right after some thieves broke out of the local jail. Most of the sentinels in town are off down the road, still trying to track them down and get their payroll back. Which is odd in itself, seeing as how Scraptown scripts aren't any good for trade anywhere but Scraptown. Rather begs the question why Jesse and Louis would bother stealing the payroll in the first place. The common consensus in the bar is that it's all some kind of setup. Currently everyone's pretty worried about the sentinels that took off after them, especially considering the whole town's been left with only a couple of sentinels to keep order around the place.
After managing to put the locals at ease a bit, at least enough to get out of the bar in one piece, Karma heads back to the parking lot to inform the PC's that most of the sentinels are out of town. On the way out she bumps into a trio of girls dressed in black studded leather, all sporting short blood-red Mohawks. Accidentally brushing into one of them, who made no effort to make room for her to pass, the encounter gets heated pretty quick. Karma snaps back a bit and does her best to Intimidate the punker chicks. Despite having only 2 in Muscle, Understanding and Appeal, with no skill points in Intimidate at all, Karma nevertheless scores a success that explodes out to 2 more for a total of 3. That's enough to successfully Intimidate all three of them, so the punkers stumble out of Karma's way when she snarls at them a bit.
When she reaches the parking lot, she catches the PC's up on the situation. Only two sentinels are patrolling the streets, according to the bar patrons, and the PC's quickly realize even the two men in the guard tower watching over the parking lot are civilian volunteers. Sanguine removes her helmet and lets her hair lose from the leather ponytail cover she normally wears, as a concession to changing her look a bit. Mason and Romeo opt to keep their gas mask and goggles, as they don't seem to be an unusual fashion choice in the tradetowns they're familiar with. They figure that's the best they can do to obscure their identities and they head into town with Karma to try to pick up some more info.
Heading through the parking lot gate to the market area, the PC's walk right into one of the local sentinels. He's coming to speak to the Tribal who just had a run-in with the three Hellcatz a moment ago. Armed with a shotgun, he brings it to bear when he recognizes the PC's.
Taking Initiative the PC's have him under the gun themselves before he can take any Action, Waiting to throw down if he fires on them. He at least appears willing to hold off on the gunfire for a moment and after a short exchange of Appeal/Persuade rolls it's clear everyone is trying to calm everyone else down. In short order the PC's learn the sentinel isn't especially interested in arresting them or shooting them and just wants them out town. Mason takes a shot and meets with significant success in trying to convince him of their innocence, especially in light of Jesse's obvious guilt for other crimes. Eventually the sentinel eases up and is willing to let the matter slide for now, though it's clear he's still suspicious of them.
Once we reach that point in the conversation the sentinel warns them that the Hellcatz, a sizable girl gang suspected of associating with local raiders, have moved into town. Though they don't seem to be causing any serious trouble just yet he's fairly sure it's only a matter of time. Especially if they manage to figure out the sentinels are so short handed. Mason rolls big again on an Appeal/Persuade roll, with 2 successes exploding out to 4, and convinces the sentinel to unofficially deputize them for the time being. Just to keep the peace, not to go about on patrol trying to stir up trouble or anything. The sentinel mulls it over and finally agrees, and that's that for now.
He wants the pump shotguns back that the PC's took from the jail before they leave, though. Since they're toting them at the moment, that doesn't escape his attention. The PC's resolve to avoid returning them if at all possible.
Following up on additional information that the sentinel let drop, the PC's head for Sheba's Bathhouse, where they hope to find Julian Wing, a local gigolo that Jesse is rumored to have consorted with prior to hooking up with the sentinel Chief. The sentinels haven't gotten anything useful out of him themselves but it's the only lead the PC's have.
Act II, Scene II:
Finding Julian in the "bathhouse" doesn't pose any difficulty since he's sitting at the bar looking pretty at the moment. The first girl they query is able to point right over at him. Mason strides right up on him but doesn't meet with any success questioning him. Julian just shrugs and claims not to know anything. The PC's aren't buying it but don't want to make him defensive by ganging up on him, so Sanguine pitches in with some Teamwork. Mason scores 3 successes then and Julian reluctantly admits he might know something about where Jesse and Louis went...but he can't be sure...his memory's a little fuzzy...
Taking the hint Karma whips out a couple of the cans of beans Mason gave her earlier (to Mason's dismay). That gets Julian's attention right away and he tells them what he knows. Jesse has a boss or something in the next tradetown over, the local Sheriff there, who she mentioned she'd be reporting to when she left town. Julian assumes she and Louis must be there, since the tradetown she mentioned just happens to be in the general direction the two are reported to have fled. Karma tosses the cans over to Julian and the team turns to leave, load up and head out to the tradetown down the road.
Act III, Scene I:
In the meantime, Bitch Hag and her personal entourage of four Hellcatz have already walked through the door behind them and noticed the gang conversing with Julian. And Bitch Hag doesn't take kindly to Sanguine smiling and making nice with her boy. Before the PC's can leave the bathhouse she and her girls are already in their faces, cutting Sanguine down pretty viciously and trying to Intimidate everyone else.
When the PC's try to talk their way out of the fight, Bitch Hag just smirks and throws a sucker punch at Sanguine. That's a surprise round for Bitch Hag but since she's standing right in front of Sanguine and hasn't snuck up unobserved or anything, Sanguine gets a Reaction against it. Bitch Hag then scores two successes on the punch but Sanguine scores two of her own on the dodge.
Round 1)
Romeo shoulders his shotgun and informs the Hellcatz they're all under arrest. While that startles the girls a bit he doesn't get any indication that the fight is necessarily over, so he opts to Wait in case violence continues to escalate. The other PC's follow suit, all having Initiative over the Hellcatz, leaving the raider girls no choice but to back down. Bitch Hag isn't satisfied with that, though. She snarls and snatches at the sawed-off shotgun on her hip.
Romeo opens fire right away, as do Mason and Sanguine. Bitch Hag dodges all three shots but Karma follows up with her Winchester, landing a 2-success hit that she can't dodge. Bitch Hag is hit hard and would have been killed if not for her Light Armor. She's knocked prone though and that prompts the Hellcatz with her to get mad real quick, draw some nasty looking knives and going at the PC's, howling.
One of the raiders takes a stab at Romeo, which he dodges, followed by jabs at Mason and Karma by two of the others that are likewise dodged. Sanguine is hit with 3 successes however, takes 10L (after -2 from her armor) and knocked prone.
Round 2)
Romeo drops the raider chick trying to stab him with a shotgun blast but Mason and Sanguine both miss due to the damage penalties they're toting (Sanguine due to being prone as well). Karma lands 3 successes but the raider she's gunning for gets very lucky with her dodge and she misses anyway.
Bitch Hag is mean enough to fire off a shot at Romeo from down on the floor, not bothering to get up. At +2 Difficulty from her damage penalty and being prone she doesn't hit a thing. The Hellcats trying to stab Mason and Karma don't manage a hit, though the one after Sanguine lands 2 successes, forcing her to drop 4 Fortune points to get rid of them. She can't take anymore damage without risking death.
Round 3)
Romeo fires at the Hellcat on Karma and hits, knocking her across the room dead. Mason hits the one in front of him, not killing her but knocking her prone alongside Bitch Hag. Sanguine then figures it's relatively safe to get up off the floor now, as that double-whammy from a damage penalty and a prone penalty isn't doing her any favors at all. She spends her Action for the round doing that while Karma fires over at the Hellcat on Mason, missing this time.
Bitch Hag decides to get off the floor as well, feeling that's a might bit undignified (and really wanting to shoot someone, which ain't easy to do from the floor). The Hellcat that just landed next to her follows her example, leaving only the one raider still on her feet to take a slice at anyone this round. That one swings her knife at Romeo and hits, dropping 8L on him and making him wish he had some armor. At half his Health with one hit, that drops a damage penalty on him, his knees buckle and now he's the one on the floor.
Round 4)
Romeo jumps right back on his feet before anyone can stab or shoot him. Mason then fires a blast of buckshot (and 2 Fortune points to increase success) at Bitch Hag and the second Hellcat that just got to her feet. He lands 4 successes, 2 each. More than enough to kill both of the already badly wounded Hellcatz. Sanguine's on her feet now and looking at the only remaining Hellcat threatening them, so she fires at her, scores a success and drops 1 Fortune point for the extra success she needs to overcome the Hellcat's dodge. That hits the raider chick full on and drops her dead alongside her sisters.
Bitch Hag (Raider Boss)
Attributes: Muscle 3, Understanding 2, Tenacity 3, Appeal 1, Nimbleness 3, Toughness 4, Senses 2
Health: 20
Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 3, Drive 3, Criminal 1, Intimidate 3, Melee 3, Notice 3, Persuade 1, Scavenge 1, Shoot 3, Stealth 2, Survive 2, Tech 2
Weapons: Knife (Nimbleness, 5L, Short), Medium Axe (Muscle, 11L, Melee), Sawed-Off Shotgun (Nimbleness, 12L, Short, Ammo 6, Cap 2)
Armor: Motorcycle Leathers (2)
Clothing: Motorcycle Leathers, boots, shirt
Gear: Clothing, 2 bottles of transmission fluid, 8 cans of beer
Everybody but Karma is toting some serious injury now, so the PC's decide to take the information they've got and get somewhere safe for the time being. Their original plan being to skip town as soon as they knew where Jesse was, that doesn't seem like such a great idea anymore. They'll probably need a week or more to heal up to full strength and they don't want to go gunning for Jesse in less that tip-top shape. Figuring there must be something akin to a medical treatment available around here, they opt to go find it before anything else threatens to injure them.
Before they can, two of the Hellcatz who came to see what all the ruckus was step through the front door of the Bathhouse, instantly spot Bitch Hag and four of their sisters dead on the floor and turn tail to raise a ruckus of their own outside.
Act III, Scene II:
The PC's figure that means big trouble and don't bother with running after the two Hellcatz to see what exactly is going on outside. They turn and dive right behind the bar for cover, quickly reload their weapons and train them on the front door of the place. They're all down to two or three rounds each after all the shooting and, to make matters worse, Romeo and Mason left their assault rifles in the truck and Sanguine left her second reload of shotguns shells. Karma only has one round left in her Winchester herself and no spare ammo at all.
After several tense minutes listening to what sounds like a dozen or more Hellcatz pitching a fit out in the street, one of the braver ones takes cover at the edge of the door and hollers in for the PC's to throw down their weapons, come out and pay for killing their boss. She warns them that they're prepared to burn the whole place down if they don't. This does not fill the PC's with warm, fuzzy feelings about the situation.
Romeo dashes over to Bitch Hag's corpse and snatches the buckshot from her pockets and from her sawed-off shotgun, then splits them between he, Mason and Sanguine. Sanguine turns her Heavy Pistol over to Karma, for when she fires her last shot from her Winchester. Consulting quickly, the PC's then start rounding up the terrified patrons and prostitutes in the place, getting them ready to break out and interrogating any who might look like they know the layout of the place for another way out. As the bathhouse is built right up against the outer wall of the tradetown there's no back door. However, it is a two-story building and the roof is just a couple of feet short of the outer wall...
The PC's get to herding folks up the stairs to the second floor, then up a ladder to the roof. The Hellcatz outside are still hollering demands, working themselves up to burn the place down, so they have time. With no way down the tradetown wall from up there though, they're left with concocting a plan to use bed sheets from the rooms below to fashion together a make-shift rope. That takes more than enough time for the Hellcatz in the street to get good and worked up, tossing torches, burning debris and Molotov cocktails into the bathhouse to set it ablaze. With no time to spare anymore they get busy encouraging, ordering and outright bullying folks down the rope to the ground outside the town walls. By the time they get a chance to shimmy down themselves smoke is seeping through the roof all around them and the bathhouse is in full blaze beneath their feet.
Outside the town walls the PC's leave the panicked civilians to their own devices and sprint for the town gates several hundred feet away. It takes a few minutes to get back into the town, through the parking lot and the market, and back to the street where the Hellcatz are raising hell. By the time they arrive Scraptown citizens have already armed themselves and a pitched firefight is currently underway. The Hellcatz, woefully outnumbered, lacking any real cover and with a burning building to one side, are clearly on the losing end of the fight. It takes only a few minutes more for the outraged Scraptowners to cut the last of them down in the street.
The PC's spend a couple of minutes assuring themselves that order seems to be well on its way to restoring itself and that no one is going to start shooting at them for some reason. That done, they limp off looking for either a sentinel to report their part of the whole mess to or someone to patch them up a bit. They find the local doctor's office first so they shrug everything else off and head on in there to get themselves seen to. By the time the sentinels in town track them down they've all bartered for a round of serious medical attention, with Romeo and Mason getting their total damage back under the halfway mark.
Considering their recent past with the sentinels, their now being involved with a whorehouse being burned to the ground and the pitched battle that just took place in the streets, the sentinels are none too happy with them. They aren't quite willing to trump up some charges to have them hung by the neck for but they do intend to escort them firmly out the town gates once they've healed up a bit. With that they're told to either stay confined with the doc' until they're healed enough to leave...for good...or go on and do the sentinels a favor and get right to the gone for good part immediately. The PC's opt to heal up first, then leave Scraptown behind them once they've stopped bleeding. The matter settled, with a real threat of being shot dead in the streets if they're seen outside the doctor's office doing anything but leaving town, the sentinels leave them to it.