With the Overgrowth agitated and threatening to overrun the town, RANGER pointing fingers at the Financial Institutions, and Machonis Company circling into the area to profit on rumors of a new disease, travelers and locals flooded into Barker for a large trade meet. Find out what exactly went down (or didn't) during our August Premiere Event.
Friday Night
The first night of the trade began with a bang. Botadens Researchers—local Overgrowth scientists and experts—came into town both afflicted with Wildwood Fever and bringing samples for research into this new virulent and fast-acting disease. They didn't leave, however, without first infecting several in their rages.
Meanwhile, the first visit to a Machonis Company site—part of promised audits—revealed worrying information and an Infected Bear-ver that had to be put down. Simultaneously, Marshal Ephraim Butcher continued his hunt for Murder Inc., speaking with several people in town before revealing some organization members and attempting an arrest.
Butcher later interrogated A. Walker, Sainthood of the Postal Service, who experienced strange and adverse reactions while questioned about Murder Inc., mainly about "The Lockes" and "The Atlas," before dropping dead from a brain hemorrhage. After the town endured psionic fallout from a powerful Aberrant's final death, Walker's zed (a Brilliance Breaker psionic undead) was put down by several Survivors in a harrowing fight—including those close to Walker in life. As the night wore on, folks rescued Deja from the Mortis, and the Mortis Stranger, which had been menacing the town, was dealt with.
Saturday Morning
The financial institutions held a festival Saturday morning that lasted into the early afternoon. Those in attendance had plenty of fun, but several spirited researchers sought to progress their research into Wildwood Fever as the symptoms worsened throughout its victims. Fiona Machonis paid a visit, completing research for pay and pausing Wildwood Fever with injections of her proprietary Purifying Bad Brain. The head of the Rolling Coalition, Pacman, visited the Mayor, warning him against working with RANGER. Making his war and demands for blood publicly known, Pacman and Shift left the town expecting members of RANGER and info sent their way.
As if that wasn’t enough chaos, a RANGER member assaulted folks gathered at the festival. Once stopped, they implicated Machonis in harvesting a root in the Overgrowth, causing the agitation and Wildwood Fever to spread. Taken out of town and immediately executed by the Rolling Coalition, the RANGER member (one of the Grace Rovers) yielded a cipher key for cracking codes at the Machonis sites.
Saturday Afternoon
Another Machonis audit Saturday afternoon yielded similarly troubling results and a fight with some Infected Boulder Puma. Butcher returned to town hunting for Nicholas, who struck back with murderous intent—only for Tarth to jump in the way of the blows, taking their final death, which reverberated through the town. Tarth emerged as a Broken Angel, fitting for a Sainthood Saint, and was defeated as the mourning Survivors remained.
A third Machonis site audit put pieces together with a fight against Infected Radbits, leading several brave people to meet with Fiona Machonis and attempt diplomacy. As her plans and motives unfurled before them – seeking the Moonwort within the Overgrowth, which she saw as a potential panacea at any cost, and believing the Wildwood Fever to be a solvable problem, Fiona was prepared to take on the town and die if necessary in pursuit of a better world.
Realizing the nature and possible source of her convictions, several agreed to work with her. An experiment occurred, sacrificing a member of town to Wildwood Fever so Fiona could study the effect of the Fever and Physis, her experimental serum, to prevent Infection loss from the Fever. Diving into the resultant Mortis scene, Fiona's past became known—once a Digitarian member of the Nuclear Family, she'd lost her family after her experiments on a Haze Raider ended with the Haze Raider's other half breaching their facility and leaving her as the sole Strain survivor. The genesis of the now-Tainted's ambitions to control others and keep her people, her Valued Host Nuclear Family of Machonis, safe and on top became clear.
Saturday Night
The night still young, a Wildwood Fever casualty, and the Haze Raider-ized version of town member Phoenix pushed several to the brink of death and even to death from Wildwood Fever. Fiona came to town to give those at (raidery) death's door a brief and tenuous pause to their progression towards death. In the middle of a speech about taking control of the situation and the town, Fiona looked shocked as two peculiar Haze Raiders marched Warpaths into town and the town scrambled to their defenses.
““They’re here for me,” Fiona revealed as the Raiders pushed past the town and sought out the doctor. A pitched battle resulted in the town saving Fiona and earning her trust that the potential cure they’d discovered—a mixture of diluted Blood Sap into the water supply—could work. ”
With her and others' help, the town fought their way through and defended the poisoning of the water supply against Overgrowth and Critters, managing to apply the cure and end the scourge of Wildwood Fever.
The End of the Gather
In victory, the town spent Sunday unwinding, discussing new laws, fighting Undead and other threats still assaulting Barker, settling back towards some semblance of normal. Some members of the Graces came into town upset at how their misguided family member had been treated at the festival. They negotiated a meeting with the Rolling Coalition with the caveat that the Mayor would not be the mediator. When the gather concluded, despite significant losses, the Barkers and their compatriots had made hard choices and fought tirelessly against the scourge of Wildwood Fever and the machinations of their now-ally Fiona Machonis.
With rumblings of strange faith activity in Barker kicking up and elections around the bend, who is to say what the future will bring for Barker Meadow and its residents?