Detroit Suck City: Episode 12

 After gathering some intelligence from the locals the crew learns that no firearms are allowed in the Kill Box and the Kill Box is basically an gladiatorial arena. Wilhelm locks up some gear and sets a trap on the tank that makes use of a musket and a stun grenade. Wilhelm leads the way and the crew comes across a large structure that is made up of stacked rail cars with the words "Kill Box" painted sloppily along the sides. As the crew heads towards the building, Parrot notices a scuffle between some of the rail cars and the crew decides to intervene. 

As the crew gets closer they call out and realize that three star children were beating up to city militia and as the Star Children realize they were caught they take off running past of the crew. The crew were able to down one of the Star Children but the rest got away. Wilhelm called for more militia and everyone was interviewed about the situation. 

Once the final statement was taken, the crew swings by the booky's office to place bests for their friend (who has 7 to 1 odds) before entering to watch the main event. As they entered the Killbox they are met with stadium seating filled to beyond max capacity of yelling, sweating, and drunk spectators. The only thing more awe inspiring then the horde of people trying to escape their bleak existence was the stench of death mixed with body order. The crew manages to fight their wait to the second floor and all the way to edge so they can get the bet view.

As their eyes travel down to the ring, they are met with a shirtless tattooed, scarred psychopath who is screaming at the crowd, throwing various items found on the ground, swinging a large chunk of concrete at the end of a bent metal pole around, and wondering between the various piles of junk and scattered gore. From the noises of the crowd, it appears this guy is the reigning champion and his name is Hezad. 

Before they know it, Kamanja is dumped unceremoniously out of a box into the ring and as soon as Kamanja gets to his feet he is charged and takes a solid shoulder into his stomach which sends him sprawling some drums. As Kamanja struggles to his feet, he realizes that he was hit so hard he literally crapped his shorts but the Hezad wastes no time. He reaches into a pile of junk and throws a Habatchi grill at Kamanja which goes and Kamanji takes this opening and pushes Hezad into the junk pile. As Hezad struggles to get up, Kamanja picks up a sharpened golf club and tries to stab Hezad but misses.

Kamanja then quickly backs up into a defensive position but before the tattooed man can find something else to through the sound of the crowd is broken up by screeching metal and one of the metal tubes in the ceiling (that the crew is just noticed) opens up and drops a flaming corpse close to Hezad which explodes in a fiery mess. Hezad then takes a swing at Kamanja with his make shift sledge hammer and connects as he backs up into a more defensive position. 9's takes notice at his friends serious disadvantage and starts to concentrate on Hezad's weapon - it does not take long for the metal to heat up and Hezad to scream outloud, drop the weapon, and yell obscenities to the crowd as he realizes he was being messed with. 

Kamanja charges at Hezod with his golf club but Hezod is able to stop out of the way, pick up an old rusty flail, and make contact with Kamanja's backside as he moves past him into a better position in the arena. At this time another one of the ceiling tubes open and an odd metal barrel falls out and explodes into a cloud of noxious gas in a far off corner of the arena. 9s again, takes it upon himself to help his friend and Hezod screams out in pain after giving Kamanja a flail to the face. Parrot tugs on 9s shoulder and nods over to the entrance of the floor. 9s sees a small bug like creature with two rather large looking security people scanning the crowd. Parrot whispers, "that they must have a way to tell if other abilities are being used but he does not think that have pinpointed you yet. I would calm it down." 9s nods his head in approval and he turns back to the match to catch a big box of ball point pens drop from one of the tubes which scatters between Kamanja and Hezod.

Kamanja takes the advantage and reaches into one of the junk piles and pulls out a small orange television screen that screams to life as the face of the man from the lab appears on it and starts talking - explaining how dead he and the rest of his friends are. Kamanja throws the television at Hezod (which misses) and then tries to use that distraction to charge. Connection is made but as Hezod counters with another strike of his flail but over extends and twists his ankle, falling to the ground. Kamanja takes this chance to create distance between him and his opponent as one of the ceiling tubes opens up and a giant bird with two heads (known as an Oub) flies out with a screech. 

As the crew sees this, multiple members spring into action simultaneously. Huey teleports into the ring and starts taunting the bird teleports into the ring and starts yelling at the bird to distract it. Wilhelm stands up on a chair and starts winding the crowd up and explaining how the game is rigged to take their money. The crows quickly explodes into anger and starts rattled the fences and starts to destroy whatever they can. Huey rips of his shirt, exposing his Masters of Clean tattoos and yells, "Come and get me" to both the bird and Hezod. This gives Kamanja the time to reach into one of the piles of junk to hopefully find something more useful then a television and pulls out a cooling rod from a micro reactor. With one mighty swing, Kamanja makes contact with the side of Hezods head and Hezod instantly goes pale and splotchy as the radiation wracks his body and he falls to the dirty ground, lifeless. Wilhelm turns invisible and pills a pin out of one his grenades to help Kamanja but then sees Hezod drop and struggles to put the pin back in as he notices dive for Huey. 9s concentrates on the bird to heat it up as Parrot unleashes a mental blast bouncing the bird closer to Wilhelm as Wilhelm throws the grenade at the bird. The subsequent explosion was the last straw as the crowd bursts into a full fledged riot breaking the arena fence down, trampling people, fighting, biting, and it some cases trying to eat each other. Wilhelm then tries to throw a medikit down to Kamanja but misses his mark and the kit gets lost in one of the many piles of junk. 

Just as the rioting crowd makes it into the arena a nails on the chalkboard sonic sounds reverberates inside everyone's skull and everyone starts to rush to the exits in an every man for himself mentality. The crew makes it down to the arena floor by fashioning a rope out of clothes and other items from the scattered bodies of the riot and helps Kamanja to his feet. The crew reunited, heads to the exit.

As they make it to the surface streets they realize it is utter chaos. People are getting robbed, there are fights, and buildings on fire. The crew decides to pay the booky a visit as it is on their way but the office is closed with a sign that says, "ALL BETS ARE OFF" in hastily written letters. Vengeance is sworn on the booky as Kamanja won but it is best left for another time as the crew deemed it more important to get off the dangerous streets and to avoid the increasing amount city militia spilling into the streets to control the crowds.

The crew eventually makes it back to their rail car.

Just another day in Detroit Suck City...

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PLAYER THOUGHTS: It was definitely an interesting situation watching another player in a situation where they were own their own. The GM was using custom gladiatorial combat rules that acted as a mini game and depending on the result of the roll every turn determined what you could do on your turn. It seemed to work really well and was very entertaining. The player who played Kamanji had some serious bad luck with dice rolls and I think some tactical errors were made during the combat but the rest of the players were able to help him out. It was a good experience and we also started a riot that was bad enough where the city had to disperse mind effecting sonic technology or powers to get the crowd to disperse. Everyone was also pissed about the booky and if anyone runs into him, it will not end well. 

 Oh, and as for the pooing of the pants? Well that was on the critical hit table...though to be fair there are worse things on that table.