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Old 09-07-2020, 04:38 PM   #3
wyze2099
Hench Mutant
 
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 323
Session 1: "Neighborhood Ruckus"

Last time, I ran a player through a prologue session in which her character, Johann, was mutated into a shark during Old Hob's mutagen bombing of Union Square Park.

This time, I skipped ahead six months to the events of IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #101. I began with the following introduction:
"It's been six months since everything changed.

"Six months since an organization called the Mutanimals detonated a mutagen bomb in Union Square Park in Manhattan, altering the DNA of everyone touched by the fallout.

"Six months since the Earth Protection Force, under the orders of newly-elected Mayor Baxter Stockman, erected fifty-foot walls around New York's East Side, containing and trapping the mutated citizens.

"Six months since Old Hob's Mutanimals became the policing body within the walls, enforcing their own brand of order while the EPF zealousy patrolled outside the walls.

"And in those six months, the several city blocks that comprise Mutant Town have fallen into neglect and disrepair, and that's on top of all the damage that had befallen the area thanks to recent wars fought by crime families, ninjas, mutants, and even aliens.

"It's February. A harsh winter has accumulated a blanket of snow on the already-depressed area. Many people in Mutant Town are homeless, jobless, and increasingly desperate. The last supply shipment into Mutant Town was weeks ago, and the Mutanimals have held a tight grip on those supplies. That has led to the Black Market as an illicit possibility that some of become desperate enough to partake in.

? "Johann Sebastion Shark: You have recently been contacted by a group of entertainers called the Ratt Pack, who have set up shop in an abandoned theater. They're looking for entertainers, such as a pianist, and you'd like to prove your skills to them. All you need now... is a piano.
? "Stan "Stinkbomb" Schemmel: You haven't read any new comics in six months. Much like pianos, they're not considered essential supplies and are therefore not a priority for shipment. That's thirty-two weeks -- not counting fifth-week events -- of Wednesday arrivals you've missed out on. Not even reading every back issue available at the Book Wyrm and other Mutant Town book establishments have been able to satisfy that craving. But you've been assured the Black Market will hook you up.
? "And Crank ... just Crank: You've been contacted by Jeri Garcia-Smith, a nurse at one of the Mutant Town hospitals, to obtain medical supplies. Between the Mutanimals' brand of violence and the vigilante activities of a certain mutant turtle, hospitals have been filling up, and supplies have become scarce. But this shipment should have the supplies you're looking for, and you're just the billy goat bike messenger to deliver them.

"Which brings you all to a man known to hang out in an alley near the entrance to the abandoned 18th Street Subway Station. He's your Black Market contact, a man dressed in stylish '80s clothing straight out of reruns of 'Miami Vice'. It's after dark, but he still insists on wearing sunglasses. He's known as Fast Eddie. Oh, and he's a sloth mutant."

As the three player characters converge on Fast Eddie from different directions, he realizes maybe he should have scheduled his rendezvous with his clients better, because three of them crowding him would draw undue attention to him. He resolves to make this quick... which is precisely when he has one of his periodic slow-motion attacks, causing him to move and speak at the speed one would expect from a sloth.

Just as Fast Eddie returns to his usual speed, the party overhear a college-aged lizard woman (Mona Lisa) being harassed by a couple of low-level Mutanimal hoodlums: a raccoon (Bandit) and a large platypus (Puggle). They've cornered her in an alley not far from Alopex's shelter.

Johann and Crank intervene, the former attempting a peaceful resolution while the latter ready to fight.

Stan, meanwhile, uses the various discarded objects in the alley as cover for his stealth skills. As he looks around, he spots a little albino turtle girl huddling under a pile of boxes in the same alley. Wanting to get the girl to safety before a fight breaks out, he attracts the attention of everyone in the alley by standing up on the dumpster and shouting, "DISTRACTION!" The little girl bolts out of the alley, leaving footprints in the snow.

Tensions escalate between the player characters and the two Mutanimals. A short fight ensues, with Crank headbutting Puggle's duckbill, Stan going stealthy and getting to the lizard woman, and Johann tanking Bandit's nail-ridden baseball bat before convincing the two Mutanimals that the fight isn't worth it.

Puggle and Bandit run off, threatening to tell Diamond about this. It turns out the lizard woman, Mona Lisa, is carrying an unauthorized quantity of food which she had actually stolen from the Mutanimals' food bank. The Mutanimals had been hoarding the food supplies, contributing to the food shortage as supply drops have been increasingly rare.

As Mona shows her gratitude to the party. Johann gives her his name and number, telling her to call if she needs anything. Johann and Crank then return their attention to Fast Eddie, while Stan heads off to track down the mysterious white turtle girl.

Mona stands around awkwardly, realizing she now has to walk the rest of the way to Alopex's shelter by herself. Alone. Carrying contraband items liberated from the Mutanimals.

Stan follows the little girl's trail of footprints out into a sidewalk with quite a few more footprints of various shapes and sizes. He's able to keep tabs on which footprint is the little girl's. She bumps into a turtle woman wearing a gray hoodie and what looks like a yellow scarf. She introduces herself as Jenny; she asks if Stan has seen a young girl fitting the turtle girl's description. The two combine their efforts in order to locate the missing girl.

Johann and Crank catch up with Fast Eddie, who has been spending the entire conflict trying to make a run for it. He's moving in slow-motion again, so he's only made it to the subway entrance. Johann and Crank question him about the Black Market supplies they were promised. Fast Eddie returns to his usual speed; because he was in the middle of running, he ends up tumbling down the flight of steps leading underground. Johann and Crank catch him before he breaks something.

Grateful but wary, Fast Eddie promises to uphold his end of the deal and escorts him into the subway station that various members of the Mutanimals have made their own. The trains running through the subway stations under Mutant Town no longer make stops there. They just run straight through, leaving the Mutanimals to turn the Mutant Town stations into dens of iniquity.

And yet, a train does pull into the station and actually stop. The doors open, revealing a pair of figures wearing black and dark gray ninja attire. It's the Foot Clan, pushing a couple of large crates on flat rolling carts. As the Mutanimals set about opening the crates for their contraband items, and Crank talks to some friends of his, Johann spots a mysterious figure standing in the subway car. As the train departs, Johann realizes he's looking at a tall hawk mutant, who locks gazes with Johann. To be continued...

Next Session: "Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap"
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TMNT: Mutant Town
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