The Hunt At Nourishing Moor

 Relationships in Emperor’s Getaway can be a complicated, ever changing dynamic.  In one encounter, two gangs could be blasting away at each other, and in the next they could be side by side clubbing little bugs and other beasts over the head.  

After a brutal bash fest between six new gangs that resulted in one gang, the Wastoids being knocked senseless, those same six gangs now were presented with a tempting offer while looking for deals at the local trading post.  

Beasts are common in the lower hive.   Flooding, hive quakes or emerging predators can rile them up and send them stampeding.  When too many congregate in one area it can be a hazard.   So it’s time for a bug hunt. 

Nourishing Moor is neither nourishing nor really a moor.   It is a bit dark and has many places for little critters to hide.   It’s up to our newly armed young lads to get to work and collect those hides. 

Game Notes-Nourishing Moor is a six foot by four foot board with four entry points represented by the four doors on one of the short table edges. As usual, individual gang members will enter the board as their die is pulled from the cup.  There is no rule against entering the table and immediately shooting another gang member in the face.  But then who is left to kill the beasts?

The beasts are represented by chits located across the board. No beast is revealed until a gang member comes within 6” of a chit. When this happens, the ganger stops immediately and then the chit is flipped.  If it is blank, no beast.  If it is marked, a D20 is rolled to see what kind of beastie is revealed.  The revealing ganger then makes an immediate initiative roll. If the ganger passes, then the beast does not immediately act but instead has a die thrown in the cup for later activation. The ganger then finishes his action. If the initiative roll is failed, the beast immediately acts and likely charges, or if endowed with a ranged attack, launches that attack. 

It is possible to trigger more than one chit per action. -End of Game Notes-

Much like the ancient ritual on Terra of old known as the Blackest Friday, members of six gangs lined up at the doors to rush in to grab beasts. This event would likely be only slightly less violent than the ancient shopping rush. 

Festivities kicked off in an ominous manner.   A little green boyo from a still secretly named gang skipped forward and revealed the first beast.   The Bounce Vine is a gnarly piece of shrubbery that has a tendency to lob a stinky, smokey bomb from its innards that targets the closest group of clustered threats.  

The little green dude failed his initiative test and watched as a stinky bomb sailed over his head and landed amongst his comrades behind him.  While smokey, the Bounce Vine’s bomb is kind of weak.   Three green dudes were knocked  over by the blast, but it was a member of the Mid-Waste Bears who happened to be standing in the area, who was wounded by the blast   A giant smoke plume spread through the group, causing disorientation.  

The gang known as the Pale Veil entered a building far away from the boom, and creeped up a ladder only to run into another Bounce Vine. Fortunately, the veiled fellow passed an initiative test and charged rhe plant. Unfortunately, the attack was so clumsy, that the club wielding juve fumbled his attack and was choked by the vines of the plant.  He would crawl around injured for some time before going out of action as the first loss of the hunt.

The Wastoids were gunning for redemption and marched into the moor on a mission.  One masked fellow downed a giant rat, and three others downed a Bloat Fly, a Millisaur , and another Bounce Vine respectively.

Bloat Flies can provide a nasty surprise as rhe luckless pointy greens found out. When killed, there is a chance the Bloat Fly will explode sending sticky shrapnel into the immediate area. Two greens were uninjured but knocked down by the blast from one of these bugs  

The Kroot of The Shrouded Path and their human interpreter split into two groups. One went high and one went low. The “high” group crossed a long covered bridge and encountered a Prowler Bird but shot it down before it could spew flame into their tightly packed group  

Progress in hunting down the wild beasts was uneven for the six gangs as they swept forward through the moor.  The Pale Veil was initial swamped by a giant swarm of rats but beat them back and collected their tiny pelts.  The sneaks also bagged a giant spider, a spikey bug and a mini-Nigel (more on that later.). One poor juve was taken down by the rats, but the pelt count was rising for the Veil.  

The Mid-Waste Bears were bogged down. A millisaur poisoned one of the group while two others decapitated a giant hound. The Bears were falling behind in the pelt race. 

The Wastoids were awash in pelts.  Beast after beast was flushed from dark holes and under rocks to be stabbed by the ashers, who eschewed the more popular club for a stabbier knives. 

The Shrouded Path fared the worst as Kroot after Kroot was chomped on by giant rats, strangled by vines from bounce vines and pierced by the teeth of sump worms. Half the Pathers were down, including their human interpreter who was bit by a giant worm, crawled around wounded and went out of action. 

The shirtless muscle bound boys, who continue to secretly guard their name also joined in the hunt and immediately had their hands full when they entered an old hab and were beset upon by a a giant spider, a hopping mad, and a toothy tiny worm.  The boys beat the beasts with clubs to claim their share of the bounty. 

 Overall, the hunt was a smashing success….until it was realized that there was a problem.  

Timple and Egus Grand founded the Society To Aid Beautiful Beasts as a way to protect and nourish the often overlooked and misunderstood little guys of the hive.  They established the Nourishment Knoll Beastie Sanctuary as a place where their flock could exist in peace.  Sometimes those beasts would migrate to the adjacent Nourishment Moor.  

Unfortunately, the Grands never bothered to tell anyone, and if they did, it probably wouldn’t matter as not everyone sees the cuddly side of a giant rat.

So it was that our six gangs met the founders of the Society To Aid Beautiful Beasts. Timple and her power broom…

Egus and his spiffy sandals…

And Bonnie the Sump Bear…

These three guardians of Nourishment Moor and all its living things were not going to allow some young punks come into their sanctuary and cause any more havoc.  They arrived to the moor and they meant business. 

Did we mention Nigel?

While the gangs all but ignored the three newly arrived protectors, and one muscle bound  juve even shot at Bonnie, momma Grand put her fingers to her lips and whistled for Nigel.  And Nigel came a runnin.  

Meet Nigel 

Nigel doesn’t bave much of an attention span or much intelligence, but he moves quick and smells bad.  Nigel came loping onto the moor and immediately sniffed the little green dudes.  Sounding a bit like a very loud cat spitting up a hairball, Nigel spewed psychedelic sump juice all over a pair of the greens causing one to become paranoid and start shooting his auto pistol in random directions while another rolled around on the ground while hallucinating that bugs and other creepy crawlers where climbing all over him (given Nigel’s diet, this might not have been a hallucination.) Nigel’s attention span was reached so he wandered away toward the Waste-Side Bears. 

The gangs now decided it was time to go.  It was at this time that the realization hit the Juves that sometimes small vermin hide so that you walk right by them. The gangs turned to run, but they now had to deal with more beasts that sprung up between them and salvation.  

These included…ducks with human hands around their necks…

Ducks with knives…

Ducks with heat…

And even ducks with grenades…

The gangs began to bleed (literally) members as they fled from Nigel and his family.  The bare chested muscle boys tried to pile in on Bonnie the Sunp Bear, but were torn to pieces.  The few remaining Kroot ran into worm trouble and only a single avian fled uninjured. 

A brave Waste Bear held off Nigel to save his friends only to be taken down by a duck. 

Pandemonium was the way, as each gang tried to flee the nightmare moor.   A happy hunt had turned to horror.

In the end, the Pale Veil pulled the most hides, but also paid the biggest price.  Three Veils were amongst seven total juves killed during the day’s hunt.  Many others came out with chest wounds, leg wounds, arm wounds and old battle wounds.  It was a costly lesson, to not anger the lady with a broom and her very large family.