*The Broken Heartland* - Travelogue

Game Organizing The Last Caravan
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2025-07-20T18:00:00Z

Travelers

  • Scruffy (WesQues), The Innocent
  • James “Jimbob” (@jason), The Wrench
  • Marilia (@slrbennett), The Stargazer

Summary

The travelers resolved to leave Camp 'Hooch to escape the perils of winter - or worse - in favor of points west.

A passing stranger, Absalom Allen, helped them jump-start a VW Golf that had crashed through the picture window of a nearby house. In the process, Jimbob identified and fixed a problem with the car’s ignition system. Absalom suggested the travelers could find a hot meal and a place to rest with the Relievers in Carterville, parting with the words “Humankind is our Family”.

The Golf was christened “Frumpaccino” thanks to its cracked windshield and bald tires. But it runs and the fuel in the tank is still good.

They managed to scavenge some additional fuel from a roadside junkyard, even if Scruffy scraped himself up the process. In the meantime, Jimbob made quick work of improvising tire chains out of loose sections of chain link fence.

Further on down the road, a months-old wreck of a military helicopter drew the travelers’ attention enough to warrant a detour. Inside the crash they found a robin-sized winged lizard perched on a strange alien box. The creature’s aggressive posturing and vocalizing did little to dissuade anyone from approaching and, as they did, being flooded with a sense of intense bodily cold. Marilia befriended the piteous creature, dubbing it “Purr” and letting it warm itself inside her parka despite the accidental scratches it gave her in return. Purr, they learned, is rather fond of Scruffy’s gummy worms.

The helicopter’s radio had some difficulty tuning in a fixed signal, but Marilia’s soothing humming and cooing along with Purr seemed to have a strange interaction with the alien box, stabilizing the transceiver frequency. A stern, drawling voice identified itself as “Rostrum-Yankee-Tango-Actual” and was apparently not satisfied with Scruffy and Jimbob’s etiquette or identifiers. Rostrum-YT signaled that an intercept team was en route to recover.

The travelers hit the road once again after loading the strange alien box into Frumpaccino. As the gray day wore on into a dreary evening, they spied a lonely church not too far from the road. A red, green, and black sign read, in large, friendly letters “Humankind is our Family” and a sturdy, clean-looking pickup truck was visible beside it.

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If you would like to throw some support to the designer and author of The Last Caravan (and I hope that you do, as you are able):

Digital (PDF) available from the author’s page on itch.io

-or-

Grab the (gorgeous, stunning) Physical Print Edition direct from Mythworks

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One of these days I’ll make a post that doesn’t end up getting edited a bajillion times, I promise.

Had to come back in and add some content about an interaction over the radio, on account of somehow I totally forgot to include that in the first place.

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So dang much fun, and enjoyed everyone’s input! I feel like everyone decision was a team effort for sure, including naming (if not choosing to cuddle :joy:) Purr.

1 Like
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2025-08-03T20:00:00Z

Travelers

  • Scruffy (WesQues), The Innocent
  • Marilia (@slrbennett), The Stargazer
  • Jean-Loop Boopard (@Drew), The Good Boi

Summary

Marilia and Scruffy have continued on in the Frumpaccino while Jimbob tries to draw the Rostrum militia forces away from them.

Pulling up on St. Luke’s, the Travelers are quickly charmed very a friendly-looking yellow Labrador. On closer inspection, the pup introduces himself on a belly-rub basis, proudly showing off the nametag on his collar.

Boop’s eagerness to join the car ride is interrupted, though. Three large alien crabs emerged from the treeline and threatened the church, trying to gain entry. As Boop and Purr used their words to try dissuading the crabs, the strange alien box in the back of the car began glowing and, suddenly, the car horn served as a powerful disabling force against the crabs.

Flexing their wits, and getting some assistance from the Relievers inside the church, the Travelers dispatched the “Uiliani” crabs and accepted Beulah “Bea” Wright’s invitation to come in out of the cold.

Bea generously shared some fuel with them and provided some information on the goings-on in other regions. By way of thanks, Marilia restructured the Reliever’s packing assembly line to drastically improve its speed. Meanwhile, Scruffy and Boop hit a scavenger’s jackpot - stumbling upon an out-of-the-way retail fulfillment center replete with non-perishable foods and other supplies.

The Travelers left messages behind for Jimbob, instructing him to “Catch the last train to Clarksville” as they struck out to for the Great Smoking Crest to the northwest.

Character advancement in The Last Caravan occurs when the Travelers achieve the “Way Out” of their current region. Rather than “leveling up”, the Traveler may choose to add one point to one of their Gambits, add an additional Special Ability, or clear their Harm Track. Additionally, they must select a new Region to enter.

Leaving the Broken Heartland behind them, the Travelers get a sense that the road ahead is sure to push them further than anything has.