[HoE] The Combine, Iowa, Etc...

[Poe336@aol.com]

    Well, so far, all of you have given me quite a bit of food for thought.  
I have begun to revise my concept a bit:

1) The Vault the posse hails from is just outside Cedar Rapids, not Iowa City 
(Iowa City's gonna come up in a big Famine-related storyline soon. (the 
posse's first Fearmonger).  
2) Cedar Rapids is home to quite a few mutants, who are at a sort of war with 
a small survivors settlement called Markston just across the Cedar River.  
However, the real foe is the Black Hats.  They haven't made it to Markston 
yet, as they've been too busy with the muties' guerilla attacks. 
3) The Biker Gang who raided the Vault and awakened the posse passed through 
here.  They made an alliance with the Mutants, attempted to help them defeat 
the residents of Markston (and failed), then broke their pact and killed the 
leader of the mutants.  One mutie has begun to rile the others up, claiming 
the gang were actually spies sent by the townsfolk.  He is trying to talk 
every mutie in the city into attacking Markston.
4) The people of Markston think the gang (called the Injuns) is still helping 
the mutants, and is preparing for a war.  They are afraid, and ask the posse 
to go into the city and discover what is happening.
5) The truth is, a group of Black Hats saw the mutant army massing, and 
thought it was against them.  The Black Hats ambushed the unprepared mutants, 
and battle ensued.  Many of the mutants are dead - the rest are filled with 
torment, and hate for norms of all kinds.  The Black Hats, victorious, are 
combing the city, looking for survivors to kill and supplies to pillage.
6) The posse, chasing the gang who killed all their companions, are going to 
head into the city to try to determine what's going on with the gang and the 
mutants, and are going to walk right into the battlefield.  The Mutants don't 
care that the posse aren't wearing Black Hats - their armed norms, just the 
same.  The Black Hats don't care that the heroes aren't mutants - they're 
obviously not Combine allies, after all.

So, that's going to be the state of the first adventure for my posse.  When I 
run it (in a few weeks), I'll let you all know how it went.  Now, as for your 
suggestions:

Ouroboros - The sniper NPC is great!  He'll definitely pop up in a future 
story.

Durasat - 
    The Action Storyline - FANTASTIC change of pace!  That is a definite 
must!!!  I'm way into that---my posse'll NEVER know what hit 'em! <evil grin>
    As for the Famine/Food thing, I've been thinking the same thing.  For 
example, the posse is going to run into a creature in the ruins of Cedar 
Rapids (while helping a Librarian) who was once a librarian herself, before 
the War.  This creature is obsessed with retrieving a number of books that 
were never returned  before the bombs hit.  I feel this is famine-themed in 
that this creature is a glutton for the books she loved in life.  She hoards 
them, refusing access to them to anyone.  She fears no one will ever return 
her precious books again, so no one may touch them.  She "Starves" other 
people, while she hoards more than she will ever need.
    The other idea is my "Food of the Gods" adventure.  This is going to have 
a very heavy miser/hoarder theme to it, a group who keeps the liquid to 
themselves, refusing it even to those who may need it for their lifeblood.

Poe