Adventure Twenty-Six


 * Scorpse holds a festival to celebrate the town’s survival from the flood.
 * Vania sets up next to Mel, who is providing stick-and-poke tattoos, and offer handcrafted arrowheads. She catches a man taking payment to stand in line for a woman and admonishes him.
 * Earl samples the food and drink, discovering the local beer that includes a chunk of scorpion meat in the bottle, and gets an invitation to the “Hopper Feed” taking place that evening.
 * Ruth participates in the drinking contest and, as Jackie, tells boastful stories about her accomplishments. A man in armor interrupts and takes the attention from Ruth by bragging about his exploits protecting the Steely Jack caravans.
 * Alder also participates in the drinking contest. She strikes up conversations to foster connection between Scorpse townspeople and Shiloahans, particularly encouraging the Scorpse people to see the newcomers with excitement instead of defensiveness.
 * P0P1 contacts Seb and gets his help unlocking P0P1’s ability to speak English. He sets up at the festival distributing scorpion meat that is randomly flavored using prestidigitation. Earl and Vania sample his offering.
 * P0P1 is approached by the woman who attempted to make the man get an arrowhead for her. She is eventually joined by two other humans and a robot, addressing the crowd and egging on dissatisfied customers. The woman, Anna, criticizes P0P1’s actions and explains that they make sure their robot, Tiamat, is well-behaved. The others are Cora Lathenmire, a woman in mint-condition Poseidon Energy power armor; Todd, a man in Old World scout armor; and Zach, the programmer of Tiamat. Based on information from the crowd, they are all from families that are prominent in the Cusp of Sunrise (the Lathenmires are the Old World weapon and armor dealers who staged a plasma weapon demonstration). The insignia on the group’s armor and accessories indicates they are from Hydra Company, a local group of troubleshooters that operate out of Cusp of Sunrise.
 * Earl and Alder attend the Hopper Feed takes place in the fields to the west of town. UV lights are used to draw a swarm of fist-sized grasshoppers into a building to be eaten live.
 * At night, Vania, P0P1, and Ruth start a dance party back in town. Some of the Hydra Company show up and lurk around.
 * The next morning is the underwater monster hunt, where the river is filled with debris, one of which represents Magga. P0P1 finds the prize and wins the contest.
 * During the robot race, the two Protectrons attack P0P1, who confuses them by turning invisible. One Assaultron eliminates the Eyebot and the Mister Handy, and the other attacks Tiamat, who uses the environment to defeat it. P0P1 beats Tiamat in a close finish. There is one Securitron in last place.