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“Jesse, do we really need to have an entire session dedicated to shopping?” Ellie asked as she took her seat at the table.
“Yes,” her game master/best friend answered from behind his screen, “your character has one health point left and your armor is gone. Riley’s about to collapse from exhaustion. Dina’s out of ammo, food, med kits, and her armor is shredded.”
“But shopping’s so boring,” Ellie whined, “Dad, tell Jesse that we don’t need to shop.”
“Oh no,” Joel held up his hand for ‘stop’ while he shook his head, “I am not getting involved in this conversation. Nope, not happening.”
“Dad, you…” she stopped herself when another group walked through the door. She just looked up at Joel with big, wide, pleading eyes. “Please?”
Joel leaned over and kissed the top of Ellie’s head. “Baby girl, you know I don’t get involved in your games. You agreed that Jesse would run the game. He’s saying today is a shopping day.”
“Plus the new expansion is out, Ellie,” Jesse added, “new gear, characters, and companions introduced. You might even find something you want.”
“There isn’t a piece of gear I want,” Ellie crossed her arms over her chest then leaned against the table, “believe me, not one piece of gear.”
“There is the new mushroom healer,” Joel gently nudged Ellie’s shoulder, “and didn’t you say you wanted a new companion?”
“The artwork is so good,” Dina walked up to the table with all her gaming materials, “the colors and the flowing tendrils, the staff, I want a print so bad.”
“I liked the mountain pass,” Riley added as she plopped down in the chair next to Ellie, “it was so realistic.”
“You both really liked the artwork?” Ellie looked between her friends.
“I’m sure the artist will be very pleased to know people are enjoying their work,” Joel teased with a sly smile and a gentle, fatherly tone, “I think the artwork hit the official website about an hour ago. Maybe like and comment?”
Riley leaned over to whisper to Joel. “Mr. Miller, we know you wrote the story. You don’t have to beg us for clicks.”
“Ain’t begging,” Joel answered low and careful so no one could overhear, “just think the artist would enjoy hearing the community enjoyed their work.”
“Already clicked and commented,” Dina flipped her phone around and showed off the screen. The picture of the little town with its colorful streets, the random stalls with various merchants, and the chubby, stubby, mushroom creatures with their huge tops and small faces. The friendly, helpful NPCs that didn’t try to bite and infect the players like the ones in the wild lands did.
“Baby, I’m going to help Tommy. Have fun,” Joel said before he leaned over, kissed the top of her head, then walked away from the table.
“Like I told Ellie earlier, today is a shopping/supply run session,” Jesse grinned at the group then gave a quick recap of previous events.
“The group, tired, hungry, beaten but not broken, in need of aid and a chance to catch their breath, stumbled out of the Hunter tunnels and found themselves surrounded by a group of about fifteen people on horseback. This new group, armed but not as heavily as the Hunters and without any visible symbols, keeps their distance and uses the horses to encircle the group. It’s not a tight circle, more like crowd control instead of some kind of threatening maneuver. What would you like to do?”
“I’m going to put my hands up to show I’m not armed and I’m not going for a weapon,” Dina started the game exchange.
“I would like to get in between the riders and my friends,” Riley continued, “no weapon out but whoever these people are, I don’t want them to hurt anyone.”
“I’m just trying to stay on my feet and not bleed to death in the snow,” Ellie shrugged.
“I’m going to call out to the riders,” Dina continued, “we ain’t lookin’ for trouble. We’re just passin’ through.”
“One of the riders looks over the three of you and orders the three of you to spread out at least five steps apart,” Jesse gave his part of the story, “and asks if you have been any Infected.”
“No Infected out here,” Ellie answered, “and I’m bleeding here so if you’re going to kill us just do it already.”
“What did that to you?” Jesse played the part of the rider with a very overdone Midwestern accent.
“Fucking Hunters that you assholes didn’t help with,” Ellie grumbled.
“Hunters?”
“Yeah, the Hunters. All of them are dead. We handled them. Now would you hurry the fuck up and decide what you’re going to do with us?”
“The rider gives you a once over. ‘I like you. You know what you want’,” Jesse smirked at Ellie. “A sharp, piercing whistle and a dog begins to bark. ‘If you are infected, he will smell it and rip you apart’. The rider warns.”
“We’re not fucking Infected you asshole!” Ellie got into character quickly with dismissal of authority and impatience traits.
Jesse explained about the process and how the dog goes up to each of their characters and checks them for infection. Dina and Riley clear quickly with their roles but Ellie rolled low and the dog growled at her before it licked her face.
“The dog finds no signs of infection in any of you,” Jesse smirked from behind his screen, “you’re all clean. The rider wants to know why you’re out here and who you are.”
“Ashley,” Ellie introduced herself.
“Yaani,” Riley greeted the group.
“Shannon,” Dina said on her turn.
There’s a brief talk about finding the immune girl then the characters are helped onto horses. One short ride later, the party arrived at massive wooden walls that surrounded a bustling community inside.
“The new found Jackson community has rewarded you with some well deserved rest after your group stopped the Hunter assault that would have finally destroyed this place and committed unspeakable horrors of the inhabitants inside,” Jesse announced with a flourish.
“Oh the new expansion!” Dina clapped, “this is going to be fun.”
Ashley wasn’t a smuggler that could have persuaded a merchant for a good deal and, somehow always traded too much for what she wanted/needed no matter what. She was a fighter/tank built to take and dole out heavy damage.
Riley nudged Ellie’s side with a teasing smile. “Come on. Jesse will make it fun.”
“Okay, fine,” Ellie relented with a heavy sigh, “we can shop.”
“To the medic!” Riley acted out the exclamation with a raised arm pointer finger also like she hailed a taxi.
“The medic, seeing the state you’re in, clicks her tongue then points to one of the available beds,” Jesse explains. “A small puffball, the giant red cap dotted with light tan spots, dressed in a blue apron that covers from the shoulders to the knees, a pair of thick soled work boots, with a stethoscope around what on a human would be the neck, comes over and offers a hand.”
Ashley follows the little mushroom helper and flops down on the bed. Ellie went back and forth with Jesse, dice rolls decided certain actions, until she felt the situation was good enough. Finally Ashley was fully healed, a bonus to her strength and movement, and one small medkit. She joined Yaani and Shannon as they looked for a place to stay the night and get some food.
“There’s a dining hall towards the center of town,” Jesse narrates, “where you find yourselves in the food line with patrol teams and other residents. The food, wheat noodles with some kind of white sauce and pieces of thin, long meat, is hot, tasty, and filling. The adventurers will go to bed with full stomachs for the first time in months.”
“Did we just eat beef stroganoff?” Ellie asked.
“The Jackson version of it.”
“Give me a second.” She got up from her seat, rushed over to Joel, hugged him around the middle, then returned. “Okay, I’m good now.”
The others shared a knowing, small grin before the game continued.
“Should we go shopping now? Before we rest?” Riley asked the other two then turned to Jess.
“Maybe we should find somewhere to sleep so we aren’t holed up in a barn,” Dina suggested. “Is there some kind of lodge or inn?”
“Jackson doesn’t really have a hotel. It’s not on any well used trade routes or any kind of trails. It’s very secluded and it doesn’t seem to have any contact with the outside world. It’s very likely you will need to room with one of the townsfolk for the night.”
“Oh, we’re going to have to rely on the kindness of strangers,” Riley’s shoulder dropped in disappointment.
The group makes their way out of the dining hall and slowly surveys the town. They need to find a place that could take all three of them because they didn’t want to split the party. Sleeping apart is not an option now after so long on the road plus it’s three teenage girls. The Infected aren’t the only dangers. It takes a bit of time but they find themselves a place with an older patrolman named Gabe and his wife Rutina. The couple lets the trio stay in one of the rooms on the upper floor.
“Shower’s two doors down on the left,” Rutina tells the trio as she drops three towels on the chair by the door.
“Fully bellies and showers?” Ashley looks over at the other two. “What kind of place is this?”
“Perfection,” Shannon answers before she picks up a towel and goes to get her shower.
Yaani goes second and Ashley last before the girls bed down for the night. They get a solid eight hours of restorative rest which removes all exhaustion, lingering wounds, and in the morning, they set out for the Jackson market.
The first stop of the day turns out to be productive. Ashley finds herself a blue and green pack to replace the one she lost in the Hunter fight while Yaani and Shannon find repair kits and other supplies to fix the ones they have. When Ashley goes to pay, she discovers that this particular building holds the cast off and discarded items no one wants or needs so no payment is necessary. The second shop, Shannon takes the lead, and the trio emerges with enough rations to last a few weeks in the Wilds. The third shop takes the most time. Weapons and armor, the main time sink when the game moves through multiple weather systems, climates, and battle scenarios.
Shannon finds herself a winter coat for the upcoming season, a pair of carpenter pants with plenty of pockets, a long sleeve henley, and an overshirt to layer over the henley. Durable winter armor that would get her through the season. She adds a long hunting knife, a hefty club, and shotgun with shells to her inventory.
Yanni grabs only a winter coat and a revolver from the store. She doesn’t need much since she was the most well equipped after the fight.
Ashley starts the day with only one knife, a torn shirt, ripped jeans, holey socks, and battered shoes but ends up with two guns, a rifle carried on her back and a pistol on her hip, three different short sleeved shirts, a men’s heavy work coat, two pairs of durable pants, dry, wool socks, comfortable underwear, and thick soled work boots.
Jesse ends the session with the team staying another night in Jackson before they head out in the morning. They want to catch up to the immune girl.
“Okay that wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Ellie admitted as the group gathered up their belongings and cleaned the table.
“Did you have fun, baby girl?” Joel asked as he approached their table.
“I did.”
“You ready to go home? Or do you want to hang out for a spell?”
“Let’s go home,” Ellie answered before she waved goodbye to her friends and left with Joel.