What's happening in YOUR randomly generated apocalypse? Part 2!

[crazykiddeath]

Genevieve was begining to regret agreeing to this.
The building had looked interesting, high brick walls, solid steel secuity gate, the works. Almost certainly govenment property from what she could tell, she had shrugged to herself, the gate was open and it couldn’t hurt to look around. The interior had, for the most part, been a disapointment. It had the look of a place that had been quickly but thoroughly cleared out with only standard office furniture left to catch the eye, that was until she’d found a locked door.
After examining it for a few moments she’d been on the verge of dismissing it and leaving, when she noticed the small secuity camera above the door. More importantly she saw it adjusting its focus, it wouldn’t be the first automated system still in operation she had come across but it had piqued Genevieves interest.
She’d examined the door more closely, quickly realising what she had taken for part of the locking mechanism had actually been a comm system… Her rising hopes were quickly dashed however, while there was living people on the otherside they’d wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. It wasn’t that surprising when she stopped to think on it, the pale girl suspected that her appearence had done nothing to put them at ease and with everything that had happened she couldn’t really blame them for being wary, she’d seen enough strange and seemingly impossible things herself after all.
What followed had been an abrupt and terse conversation but in the end she’d agreed to do some work for them. They were going to pay her for the work but more importantly to Genevieve, she hoped it might build some trust between herself and the unknown people behind them.
The first mission had been easy enough, deal with a rogue prototype robot. The “Hub people” as she had dubbed them had warned her of the danger involved but to the creature Genevieve had become it had been easy prey, perhaps if she’d approached it during the daylight hours it might of turned out different but the night was hers and she was packing heat.
They’d seemed impressed with her efficiency and while they were still unwilling to deal with her face to face they had paid her as agreed and even offered her high tech equipment for trade, this mission however, this mission was far beyond the first one.
It had sound simple enough, retieve a CBM from one of their researchers that had been conscripted just before the cataclysm. Genevieve didn’t really understand the finer details but was under the impression that the CBM was designed to record the memories of its user, the Hub People were able to track it and been able to give her rather precise map coordinates to the target, something she suspected the military wouldn’t of been happy about if they were aware. It hadn’t been that far away and she’d headed there immediately, what she had discovered was less an escort and more a small army, worse still they had all turned. This mission was going to take a little more discretion she suspected…

Yeaaaahhhh, not fighting this lot. Genevieve is pretty bad but this is a bit much even for her unless I’m willing to head back to base and get a whole bunch more guns. I guess I’m gonna have to distract them then huck the body in the back of the humvee.

[crazykiddeath]

The mission was a success but Genevieve had been in a foul mood when she’d returned. With her flesh still smoking from acid burns, the girl had pitched the dessicated corpse directly in front of door before going about the grizzly task of extracting the CBM.
They’d offered another mission almost immediately and she’d agreed to at least consider it but Genevieve was starting to get the distinct impression that they considered her very expendable.

The rather bitter girl had been on the way back out to her vehicle when she spotted a small party of survivors setting up camp in the corner of the parking lot, it had been hard to contain her excitement but recent interactions with the people holed up in the Hub had left her more then a little jaded. She had approached openly, while she could see them it was still dark and she had to get quite a bit closer before any of them spotted her.
They’d gone for their guns, not exactly pointing them at her but not exactly pointing them away either. Genevieve had ostensively kept her hands clear of her weapons while they looked her over though there’d been no helping the cestus strapped to her hand, after a muted discussion they’d waved her over.
“Mutant?” he’d questioned in a level voice, Genevieve had shrugged “well, it takes all kinds I guess” he added with his own shrug.
The man had turned out to be a merchent of sorts that provided supplies for the Hub, polite enough once introductions had been taken care of but Genevieve couldn’t help but notice the guards were still tense, splitting their attention between herself and the Hubs main gate. He had quite a stock of useful item and while she hadn’t been carrying much to trade with, she had made a mental note to return later with a supply of her surplus loot. While she’d been browsing the man had kept up a steady stream of chatter, it was during the conversation the topic of the research center had come up.
“Yeah, big place, looks a bit like here but huge. I’d love a crack at it, I’d bet it’s full of trade goods but it’s absolutely infested with dead.”
It wasn’t hard for her to get directions, the man had no intention of heading in there but had noted that he might be willing to trade for some of the loot if she’d found anything of use. With the rough directions in mind Genevieve had soon left and headed straight there, she’d figured a quick look wouldn’t hurt and it would be good to get an idea of what she might be facing. How wrong she was.
The man had been spot on with his accessment, the place had been teeming with undead, like maggots writhing in an open wound they’d spilled in and out of the crumpled walls of the place. For anyone else entering might of been too difficult but the night was still with her and Genevieve had slipped into the building with little trouble, easily ghosting her way past the oblivious dead. What little she had seen of the ground floor had been of little interest, a lobby and food court being the main attractions, instead she had made her way up to the first floor where she had discovered various research areas. What’d followed had been a corridor by corridor and room by room slog, the area was too tight to easily bypass the undead so she’d been forced to fight her way through. While whatever had been done to her in the lab had made her stronger and faster then before she was still only one verses many and the continual skirmishes had sapped her strength and drained her ammo supply.
Still, she had made good progress and successfully cleared most of the floor. Everything had been going well, that was until she’d run into that. An undead in a stained unrecognisable uniform, perhaps a former soldier, leaking some fluid that made the very tiles it trode upon bubble and smoke.
It was the second encounter with such a creature this night, the first had left her cover in acid burns even with her only focused on evading. This time she was caught and forced to fight head on, it had gone poorly. Perhaps fresh and with a good stock of ammo she would of been able to take it with only minor injuries but she wasn’t fresh and her rifle was nearly empty.
At the height of the fight Genevieve had become distracted when the creature had spewed corrosive acid on her, staggering back she had tried to gain some distance but in that moment it had lashed out and with a audible crack her leg had snapped. The pain had been sickening, the pale girl turning nearly grey as she was forced to bite back a wail of agony. Panting heavy she’d lurched back and unleashed her trump card, with a thundering bang the sawn off double barreled shotgun hidden in the forearm of her cestus had gone off, blowing the creatures head apart. More acid had splattered her burnt, smoking form but Genevieve had been victorious.
Now however she was trapped, leg broken, on the first floor of a building packed with zombies, no tools, no ammo, little gear and no blood…

Well, this might be the end. Frickin’ acid support zombie kicked Genevieves ass hard, getting out on a broken leg is probably a no go considering how much of a mess the courtyard is and there’s no food here I can eat! I might have to hole up and see if my calorie count is enough to see me through until the leg heals, thank goodness for the shotcestus, literally saved her ass there.

Genevieve had slipped out of the facility loot in tow, it had amazed her that her unnatural physicology had managed to repair the damage done in a mere 6 days. Healed she might of been but the thirst had been clawing at the pale girl like a physical entity. Perhaps it was a side affect of the rapid healing but the need to feed had become an absolute, already a physical weakness had taken root in her limbs, one that Genevieve knew on an instinctive level would only grow with time.

Her fortune had finally turn on the return journey however, a strange sight, three more poor souls gunned down by the roadside. Under normal circumstances the sight of the murdered individuals would of brought a pang of sorrow to Genevieves heart but in that moment the thirst had risen to a fever pitch and she’d fell on them like a ravanous beast…

Well, she made it. Just. Picked up VitA defiency on day 2 and was starting to get malnutrition messages the very night I left. Ran into another acid sniper zombie on the way out and got messed up a second time, didn’t mess around this time though and blew the git in half with the old shotcestus before hightailing it. Got lucky and found 3 fresh bodies on the way back, will go a long way to getting her back to a healthy calorie count.

[GiggleGrassGatherer]

Is this some joke about smelly football players or just my RNG?

Now THAT took some serious effort to build. Or some serious coercion for it to be allowed being built at all.

The previous picture was of the weirdest bridge I’ve found, but the one nearby was a thing of beauty too:

Really, the only function of that bridge is to make road for 3 small-ish farms blocked from all other directions by water and forests. I just don’t even whatever.

[Sediment]

Miriam, my zoo keeper character, previously found a small town and after a day of plinking zombies with her brace slingshot while skating just out of their reach, she finally cleared out all the undead. She had no skills in archery and the pebbles didn’t do much damage, so it took her a while.

After a fitful night if sleep in some stranger’s bed that she recently brought down, she began loading up her beat up pickup truck with anything she thought would be useful. Nothing exciting in all the loot, a few beat up guns but no ammo, a couple books, food, a locksmith kit and a cheap of basic building materials. There were 2 vehicles that she cannibalized for their batteries and a little gasoline before moving on.

Further up the road, driving along the east bank of a large river, a family farm came into view. It looked pretty unremarkable as she drove nearer, then she saw what looked like another zombie, except it seemed to glow blue and the air sizzled with electricity all around it. Miriam thought there was NO way she was going to try to face that thing head on as she had with the undead in the little town she recently left, so she buckled up her seatbelt and angled her truck straight towards it. Mindful her truck was nearing it’s last legs, she didn’t stomp on the gas before making contact. Instead she ran into it at about 20 or 25 mph and ground it across the pavement, hoping that would kill it and not damage her ride too much more in the process.

The electric monstrosity died and her truck still seemed driveable, so Miriam said a quick thank you for the small bit of good fortune before climbing out and making sure the corpse would never rise again. The noise brought out a few more undead, but they weren’t radiating electricity and her slingshot took over where the truck left off. The farm didn’t have much beyond fresh food out in the fields that she could see any immediate use for. Off in the distance however, she could only just make out a patch of land in the middle of the river. It looked bare, but maybe there was enough space to put up a little shelter and have her own little island refuge from the horrors on land.

Miriam couldn’t swim out to the little island, she was never that good in the water, but maybe she could float out there if she could just get a raft put together. So with that thought, Miriam began pulling apart cabinets and furniture in the farm house. She had way more wood than she figured she needed, but she kept ruining nails as she was disassembling everything. After all her reverse carpentry her back was sore, her hands ached and she was spent. Sleep came easily and deep, and with the rising sun she was off into the fields to pick some breakfast then back to work nailing boards together into something she hoped would float. By late morning, the raft was complete. Just large enough for herself and a couple boxes she hammered together to carry what few tools she had and a little supply of food for her scouting expedition.

Pushing the raft into the water, Miriam said a quick prayer - she seemed to be doing that a lot more lately. It floated! She loaded her supplies aboard and climbed in - still dry. She chuckled to herself as the raft slid away from the bank, she was now a naval power. It was slow and arduous work but the raft began to near to little island. There was nothing on it, not even a single tree or bush. After making land to catch her breath, Miriam squinted out over the water and saw two more islands! Both looked wooded, and wooded meant building supplies and maybe some wildlife. The more northern island was slightly larger though and had a marshy region as well. That was her choice, where she would explore next for her own private refuge.

The trip itself was exhausting just as before, but this time as she neared the shore, fish were all but jumping aboard her raft. There were birds flying overhead and you could see bushes dotted with berries and fruit hanging from tree branches. A group of beavers were playing further up the bank.

This is where Miriam leaves off at the moment. The island looks like it can sustain her but she has to explore to make certain that there are no undead waiting for their next victim.

[crazykiddeath]

The debacle at the research facility had taught Genevieve an important, if painful, lesson. All the readiness and supplies in the world wouldn’t help her if they weren’t on hand when she needed them so with a sense of purpose she had begun the biggest project she’d ever undertaken.
Working hard though the hot summer nights she’d began modifying one of the handful of road worthy military vehicles that had come into her possession, adding all the things that her new life and circumstances required. It had been a difficult task but she’d gone at it with a will, for all her scouting Genevieve had yet to discover even a single other human settlement and there was increasingly less reason to stay in this remote location.
The target of her work had been a battered Armoured Personnal Carrier, old it might of been but it had suited her purposes well. By the end the interior had looked almost entirely different and with perhaps a touch of bitter humour she’d dubbed it the Armoured Personal Crypt for she had long since begun to accept what she’d been made into.
It was at the high of summer when she finally decided her work was complete and with a heavy heart she’d bid farewell to the underground shelter that had been her refuge for so long…

Time to get mobile, spent a whole lot of time travelling and have yet to discover a single town other then the one I started near, max city spacing means exactly what it says on the tin I guess. Not the biggest vehicle I’ve ever made, nor the smallest but it should do what I need comfortably. Time to go find me some magic stuff, artifacts and nasty stuff to kill.

Edit:
Nasty stuff achieved!

[Sediment]

Miriam found a trio of tiny islands in the middle of a large lake. The first was totally barren, no wildlife, no plant life, nothing. The second was slightly larger, lush with fruit trees, bushes loaded down with berries and plenty of birds, fish, beavers and otters to enjoy watching and to provide sustenance. The third island, from a distance, looked similarly wooded as the second.

Life was thoroughly enjoyable. Miriam scouted the island and it was free of undead, so she could walk around without fear of being attacked, without needing to sneak about quietly like a little mouse, she could observe the local wildlife which appealed to her zoo keeper past and most importantly, she could finally sleep deeply and without worry of being eaten alive while she slumbered.

Hard work came naturally for Miriam, so gathering up stones and branches in such an idyllic place was more a joy for her than anything else. Before she knew it, Miriam had a proper charcoal kiln and smoking rack to show for her efforts. There was a lot of tall grass on the island and it made for a relatively comfortable bed once she bundled it up and tied it all together. The weather had been picture perfect, but eventually it would change on her, so a proper structure would be her next order of business. She was hesitant to do so, but Miriam took apart one of the boxes she’d built onto her raft. With a few modifications, it was converted into a small grid like frame and with her trusty shovel, some soil and long grass was mixed together with a bit of water and pressed into the grid like frame. Once they dry, she’ll have bricks to make herself an adobe style structure.

She had books she wanted to read further, books from an old cabin she visited what seemed like ages ago. Books that didn’t speak of topics like repairing an engine or how to speak more confidently, these books spoke of arcane ways that the world seemed to move on from before everything fell apart. She already taught herself how to conjure up a flicker of fire from her fingertips. Nothing substantial, but enough to start a fire with. While bricks for her new home were being made and cured, she read. And read. And read some more.

Maybe it was being so consumed with the work of making bricks, maybe it was from voraciously reading but it wasn’t before a few days in that she heard a thrashing in the water just off the banks of her little island. Miriam’s curiosity and zoo keeper past led her to go investigate what creature was thrashing around so violently in the shallow waters. It was a fish, a salmon, but this was not a normal fish. It was easily as large as a fully grown dog and it was fighting an unfortunate otter who probably thought it would be an easy meal.

Would it attack her? Probably, given how it went after anything else that moved. For now however, Miriam used the beast’s instincts to her advantage. It seemed to attack viciously and mindlessly but didn’t eat what it killed. Miriam let it continue it’s rage filled killing spree and she simply slipped into the water to gather up the bodies of the victims in it’s wake. Her smoking rack would be getting its first test thanks to this giant, angry mutant fish.

[Junknown]

We’ve all probably seen plenty of “towns” made of only four houses. Well I’ve ran into a real ghost town without a single building whatsoever. Although it did have a lot of zombies in the area.

[crazykiddeath]

The building had a strange look to it but unusually for these troubled times there had been no dead in the area, only a clearing where nothing grew shouded by forest. Genevieve didn’t question where it had come from, she had long since decided that if she continued to be surprised by all the new things that had seemingly appeared in the world she simply wasn’t going to last. The place might of been deadly for other less well equipped explorers but the high tech armoured suit had taken care of the greater share of dangers and she’d bullied her was through the rest. At the bottom level she’d come across to unusual items, they had looked old but fairly common but there was an… aura surrounding them. It was hard to describe but Genevieve could just feel it, like static electricity or heat from a fire, she decided to take them with her. The world was different now, understanding it was key to suvival and every new clue was important…

Afterward and after checking her map Genevieve had realised just how close to the area the people at the Hub had wanted checked out she was, one look at the collapsed Office Tower however had convinced the girl that the “good folk” from the Hub were simply trying to get her killed.
This wasn’t a mission for one person, it was a mission for a small damn army. Even driving past she’d spotted hundreds of the dead swarming the area and she suspected there were hundreds more where she couldn’t see and in the tower itself, not to mention the other twisted creatures there.
Well, if they wanted her gone so badly she’d oblige them and they could send some other poor fool to die here. There was plenty more road to travel and, she hoped, plenty of other survivors she could find.

“Well, it cant hurt to have a look I guess… Nopenopenopenope” Maybe if the Hub actually gave a decent reward I’d try but I’m not risking it otherwise. In other news I’ve had some luck with artifact hunting, found two very useful ones in a strange temple to add to the one I got at the bottom of the mine. A ring that gives limited clairvoyance in return for increaed thirst and dropping my speed and a robe that bumps my dex up by 4 in return for dropping my health stat, along with the mine one which is a helm that gives mental protection for (as far as I can tell) no drawbacks I think I’m doing pretty well on that front, though admittedly the helm is less useful considering I’ve got the phase immersion suit. The robe I’ll start looking at come autumn when the weather cools but the ring I carry everywhere, too damn useful not to.

[ComradeSalty]

First post, so let me know if I do something wrong please!

While coming back from a day two loot run on my Bionic Assassin run, a mi-go ran out of the woods and had me cornered against my car. I grabbed my single barrel shotgun but he was upon me before I could reload. I activated my mono molecular blade, adrenaline pump, combat routines, and took him out in 5 hits. He banged my head and arm up pretty good but I am going to spend the next few days in my van healing and reading.

He scared me good, going to back over his corpse to prove a point.

[GiggleGrassGatherer]

@ComradeSalty

a mi-go ran out of the woods

just FYI: mi-gos usually don’t spawn in the middle of nowhere. There must be either dead scientists, dead military or mi-go encampment/tower nearby. Or maybe a portal. idk if they can spawn from a portal, never seen it myself.

[GiggleGrassGatherer]

Random music genre generator strikes(gold?) again:

[Invalid_Username]

Looks like Juggalos branched out before the 'clysm.

[MarcieTheVillain]

It’ll take more than zombies, mi-go, rogue robots, fungus, triffids, and the odd bandit to stop the Dark Carnival, brother.

[MarcieTheVillain]

Been playing Magiclysm for a few days now as an Unwilling Mutant (only Biomancy and Animancy/Animism so far) with an Unarmed build; during one of my first few days out in the wilderness, I had the (what I now know to be) great fortune of finding a Scroll of Vicious Tentacle. I had decided to try the more horrific magics anyways, so I learned it and have been practicing it - but only after casting it a few times did I realize that it has the ‘uses Unarmed techniques’ property. Decided to give it a proper field test and, well…

It certainly does the trick. I’m ecstatic about how well it performed.

EDIT:

After getting some smoking racks set up, I finally took on the owlbear that’s been terrorizing the nearby area; didn’t even get a scratch on me

[Tamior]

Flaming eye stared at me. In passing. Briefly. Once.
A few hours later, the situation got quickly out of hand.
I’m now enjoying a pretty hands-off gameplay of living in the bathroom next to the refugee center, eating pine cones (waiting for the antifungal drug to appear for sale).

[featherball]

Fungicide isn’t hard to make. Does require a tool with chemical making of 2, however.
But yeah, you really want to keep the damned things at arm’s length.

[Tamior]

I’m afraid I don’t have fungicide recipe on my hands.

[crazykiddeath]

Got burnt out on my vampire, she was pretty much set to last forever and was becoming too OP so I figured it was time to do something different.

After a bit of thought I decided to do a bit of a rehash of my Zombie Slayer Challenge but with a different character from that universe. Enter High Elf Archer:

Similar rules, no electricity, no modern vehicles, no CBMs, no guns, no stat mods, etc. I’m making one exception to the electricity rule though, I’m allowing cordless drills since you can’t make chainmail without one when really you should be able to.

The idea behind the character build was to go for the greatbow while nerfing basically every other bonus that comes with high strength that I can, I’ll be aiming to go post threshold Elf-A to fit with the character theme and all the other traits are geared towards that.

Edit: I can’t remember off the top of my head if you actually need electricity to make mutagens but if you do I’ll make an exception for that too I guess.

[MarcieTheVillain]

It doesn’t outright say you need electricity, you can use a Nearby Fire and a Basic Laboratory Analysis Kit (which doesn’t use electricity) to make basic mutagen and Elf-A mutagen; however, you might be SOL on the Serum - I’ve got no clue what has Fine Distillation, but it might need electric power.

[crazykiddeath]

Ah, that’s handy. I can’t remember the name of the tool with Fine Distillation but I’m 99% sure that doesn’t need electricity either so I should be good to go.