Creeping Towards Danger

Michael

After the morning briefing held by Dr. Gottlieb and Kendrick Mead, and after URIEL's hour-or-so-long conference in the Apollo 13 MQF, at a little after 10 am, the central "big board" ALLOCHTHON hangar is still abuzz with Sandmen — some in impromptu clusters around their original teams, others consulting with the esmologists, strategists, and tech personnel on where they might be reassigned. It's at around this time, in the midst of the general socializing, that Marshall is approached by Sidney Gottlieb and taken through a door at the back of the hangar to the HQ offices and administrative sections.

So, with that in mind: obviously there is still a large crowd of Sandmen here and lots of distractions but also I would not expect most of URIEL to not notice that Marshall was called away to have a private confab with ALLOCHTHON's operational head/a possible high-up within what we conceive of as OZYMANDIAS as we started milling about and unobtrusively mixing with the other Sandmen. Also Gottlieb isn't trying to hide this escorting of Marshall at all. The back door isn't guarded but it is locked with an electronic pass-lock that Gottlieb unlocks. So I'd like Observation rolls from everyone with a blanket +2 (URIEL looks out for one another) to the roll.

Archie: default to Perception-13

Charley: default to Shadowing-12

Jocasta: Observation-20

Mitch: Observation-18

Roger: Observation-16

Once I get all these rolls, I will move along to Charley (and Mitch?) being alerted to the incoming Telex from Pascagoula.

Leonard

>> CRITICAL SUCCESS

Jeff

>> SUCCESS by 2

Mel

>> SUCCESS by 3

Bill

>> SUCCESS by 6

Rob

>> SUCCESS by 2

Michael

Everyone in URIEL has at least noticed Marshall go to the back of the ALLOCHTHON HQ with Sidney Gottlieb and exit through that back door to the administrative section. As mentioned, there's no one else with them and no other Sandmen escort them to the door. Jocasta sees nobody waiting for Gottlieb and Marshall behind the door, just a hallway with a few non-descript doors along its length.

It's at this moment that the communications section in the main ALLOCHTHON hangar chatters to life with the combined report from Keesler AFB and the Point 1 observer surveilling the Pascagoula PD.

(The next URIEL-actionable event in the backroom will be the arrival of Reinhardt in the conference room; I'll explain how and why when that comes. That happened … approximately five minutes after Marshall and Gottlieb left. So if there's any conversation that wants/needs to happen now among Archie, Charley, Jocasta, Mitch, and Roger, you have approximately five minutes to do so. I will trust everyone not to use knowledge only their players would have, yet.)

(Also at least part of that five minutes was spent with Charley absorbing the news from Point 1 over the Telex, but that could have taken, 20-30 seconds let's say, tops.)

Brant

(Out of curiosity, how far is the door that Gottleib and Marshall entered from the rest of the PCs? Don’t need exact meters, just like, a football field? The whole length of the hangar?)

Michael

(I actually measured all this out in anticipation of this very question. HQ Hangar itself is 100 feet long from front entrance to the big board (and more importantly for our purposes, the door) at the back and 80 feet wide. The Gottlieb door is on the left wall of HQ Hangar, near the back; this electronically-secured door leads to another modular structure containing the aforementioned temporary ALLOCHTHON administrative offices and conference rooms; figure a hallway 30 feet long with doors on both sides. The PCs at this moment would be milling about close to, but not at, the HQ Hangar entrance door at the front. The comms desks are off to the right.)

Jeff

Well, absent some external signal to be concerned about, I think Mitch simply makes eye contact with some or all of Roger, Jocasta, and Archie, and gives a little nod in the direction Marshall went. Just a, so that's happening now, huh? kind of nonverbal check-in, which he wouldn't want to do with Charley, for no good reasons.

Leonard

A question: while it's true that we're probably alert at the possibility of Marshall being pulled off by the big shots, we're probably all thinking it's a good thing, right? If we all are more or less clued into the kind of subterfuge that Archie and Marshall are trying to pull, this would be us thinking, oh, shit, they're taking the bait, right? Or not right?

Michael

I feel like that would be a reasonable supposition to make since we've all been clued in to the coattail-dragging masquerade, absolutely.

Mel

A question: while it's true that we're probably alert at the possibility of Marshall being pulled off by the big shots, we're probably all thinking it's a good thing, right? If we all are more or less clued into the kind of subterfuge that Archie and Marshall are trying to pull, this would be us thinking, oh, shit, they're taking the bait, right? Or not right?

(That’s what Charley would think. That it’s a good thing.)

(Is Charley getting the entire interview from the Telex in that amount of time?)

Rob

Hard to know what's fair here and what's acting on OOC knowledge. Are Archie's concerns about Marshall's mental state strong enough to for him to worry about Marshall? Seems like a stretch. But I don't think it's unreasonable for the rest of us to be curious about this meeting, about who shows up for it, etc. So, if that doesn't seem cheaty, Archie says to I think Jo specifically, but also with Charley in earshot, possibly the others depending on where we all are. "Well, well. Keep your eyes peeled. Try to watch who goes into or out of those back rooms." And Archie looks around to try and gauge which Sandman personnel he knows are not here in the main hangar area any more.

Michael

(Is Charley getting the entire interview from the telex in that amount of time?)

(No, the Telex is only going to sketch out the case of the two Pascagoula abductees: high-level elements of the case. Two men, Charles Hickson, 42, and Calvin Parker, 19, were fishing illegally by the waterfront docks in Pascagoula, Miss. They say they saw an oblong blue glowing craft hovering over them. The men said three "bulky-looking" cylindrical entities with long arms and claws for hands came out of the ship. Approaching them, the entities put their arms around the two of them and injected them with what they believe was "a knock-out shot." When they each came to, each of the two men was onboard the vessel, secured to a table in some kind of examination room. At this point the record becomes more fragmentary as their memories can only vaguely recall a terrifying experience which faded quickly after the crab-clawed entities released them from the ship, which then flew off to the northeast. The whole thing took an hour. When they got back to Parker's car, the passenger window was shattered and the car's motor ran loud, sounding damaged. The two men originally agreed not to say anything but then Hickson, the older of the two, changed his mind and called Keesler, then the Jackson County Sheriff's department.)

(A copy of the recording will be coming to Huntsville in due time.)

(Should add that sightings of the blue oblong craft were all over the place in Point 1 last night.)

Hard to know what's fair here and what's acting on OOC knowledge. Are Archie's concerns about Marshall's mental state strong enough to for him to worry about Marshall? Seems like a stretch. But I don't think it's unreasonable for the rest of us to be curious about this meeting, about who shows up for it, etc. So, if that doesn't seem cheaty, Archie says to I think Jo specifically, but also with Charley in earshot, possibly the others depending on where we all are. "Well, well. Keep your eyes peeled. Try to watch who goes into or out of those back rooms." And Archie looks around to try and gauge which Sandman personnel he knows are not here in the main hangar area any more.

So what I can tell you is that Kendrick Mead is still out here; as XO for ALLOCHTHON, he's busy fielding a lot of team leader questions about this weekend's assignments at the moment, plus that urgent Telex just came in from Point 1. Hmm, as a way of Archie surveying the crowd for who might be missing from amongst the high-level ALLOCHTHON personnel, I think an Administration-18 roll suits this down to the ground.

Rob

>> CRITICAL SUCCESS

Michael

Jolly West from SANDMAN LA is also absent from the hangar, and he's been hanging around with ALLOCHTHON's command staff a lot this week. Mitch will also note, independently, that Wernher von Braun is not here, but then again he hasn't really shown his face in these big gatherings too much yet.

Bill

Roger heard Archie and does look about, but he quickly would become distracted by the report of the blue saucer, as it suddenly might mean he was a witness too. He’s calculating when the fly-over of the plane might have been, and wondering if he should finally report the sighting.

Then he thinks to maybe ask Archie about reporting it.

Michael

Yeah, this checks out with when Roger was flying out last night: the witnesses didn't give precise times, but Roger figures his own sighting was likely when the two were being "beamed aboard" or when the saucer was making its departure after dropping Hickson and Parker off. And yeah, after Roger checks the Telex, he's welcome to chat with Archie.

Bill

>> 1d2 in/out … 2

Roger makes a mental note to check in with Archie privately later, instead of pulling him aside now, because of the dream: needs better OpSec privacy between the two of them. So he jaunts around the hanger area, subtly moving in closer and with good sight lines of the secured doorway, to observe it and any comings or goings.

Rob

Inspired by Bill and in the spirit of keeping the story feral / letting the dice decide (I assume that's what that d2 roll above was?) I'm going to roll Stoney's Over-Confidence (kicks in on 9 or less) as meta-discussed in meta-discussions. The idea being that if I roll 9 or less, Stoney will worry not that Marshall is in danger but that Marshall (who he knows has been acting despondent) might do something that will fuck up "Stoney's" exquisite plans against OZYMANDIAS.

Michael

(9 or less means you keep him under control; 10 or more means the Bird is Loose, btw)

Rob

Right, 9 or less means Archie resists — thanks for clarifying.

>> FAILURE by 3

Michael

(Unless anyone has anything left to do in the T-minus 10 to 5 minutes range, I feel confident in moving things along a little bit more when I am able. There is still ample opportunity for any of you to speak to anyone else but it does seem that generally this period of five minutes is ending up just a period of slight hackle-raising and/or checking out the UFO report.)

Leonard

If what we all see is Gottlieb and Marshall off to a meeting that's even more reason to think that OZY is finally making a play for him, though, Reinhardt or no Reinhardt. So Jo's only move will be to keep a side eye on that door out of general curiosity, and this might be the right time (or maybe not, GM's choice) for an Obsession role to keep from doing more.

Michael

Yeah, we really did specifically say "OZYMANDIAS/Reinhardt" in Jo's Obsession so given that and the suppositions that went through the URIEL hivemind when Marshall went off with Sidney, a Self-Control (12) roll would look likely here.

And of course, to remind everyone, Jo has seen a much much younger Sidney Gottlieb recruiting Puharich to OZYMANDIAS in her Psychometric vision when she allowed Puharich to help her into the Rolls back in Mission 5, so to her this would be open and shut OZY-related. The Reveal.

Brant

oh snap I did actually forget about that

Michael

(What I'm finding marvelous is that two Disadvantages added to Archie and Jo in the aftermath of Mission 7 are actually now actively drawing them further and further into OZYMANDIAS's web here, so again, I guess I have to concede that GURPS/the Madness Dossier setting/Corruption-related "sanity" loss somehow, when it's all said and done, all weirdly work to drive story. Fascinating.)

Leonard

>> FAILURE by 3

Uh ohhhhh

Michael

(I guess one mediating factor here is that Jo has been around Gottlieb up to this point during ALLOCHTHON and hasn't had to make an Obsession roll but I chalk that up to Gottlieb not yet having done anything, er, "OZYMANDIAS-y" which of course taking Marshall to the Backrooms counterdicts.)

Leonard

Jocasta will slowly walk across the floor to where Gottlieb took Marshall, pulsating with the energy of someone who is trying to be sneaky but is not being sneaky at all. It’s like all he stealth training abandoned her and she’s acting with all the subtlety of someone wearing a Groucho mask. If anyone from the group catches her eye, she’ll mouth “THEY’RE IN THERE” with an equal degree of no subtlety. Once she gets there, she tries to very nonchalantly stand next to the door, and manages to look a little more at ease, although it’s pretty clear she wishes she had a glass to press against the door.

Rob

As I understood the set-up, there's a door at the back of the hangar with an electronic lock (like a numeric keypad?) behind which is a hallway and some number of additional rooms. Is that right? If so, Marshall and Gottlieb et al are not right behind this particular door. But that's good, because it means there may be a place to eavesdrop beyond this door that's not in full view of like forty Sandmen.

Archie follows Jocasta to the door, with Charley in tow. He doesn't speak in Stoney's voice, just with his imperious manner. "You. 'Charlie.' You can best an electric lock, can't you?"

"And you." Takes a beat. "Menos. Get in there and get eyes or ears on them. But discreetly, damn it. Do not let Redgrave cock this up!"

Bill

Roger watches Jo and Archie approach the door, shrugs, and decides his role must fall to monitor/interference. He moves in closer, and keeps a watch out for anyone looking at them or approaching them, ready to intercept/deflect.

Jeff

Mitch, nonplussed, falls in with Roger.

Michael

Mel, can Charley please give me a Danger Sense (Maman Brigitte) roll at a 15.

Mel

>> SUCCESS by 7

Michael

As Charley begins contemplating Dad's very gruff, Stoney-like instructions and sees a growing look of intensity spread across Jocasta's face, Maman Brigitte crows in her head.

"Ma petite! There is a monster behind that door, soudainement! He is now coming close to your friend! I can see only fire, ruin, death from their meeting! Usually I would not cry about anyone in this house passing to the estates of mon seigneur le Baron, but all will be lost if someone dies behind the door! La mort, in this time and place … it will bring THEM!"

(I would also argue that Archie, through his Special Rapport, would also get an urgent non-verbal tug of Charley's Danger Sense.)

Mel

And with that dire warning Charley’s training kicks in. Releasing a deep breath she turns to the group and says, “Get ready. Marshall is in danger. No blood can be spilt.” And with another breath to steady herself she goes about ‘besting’ the locked door.

(She would use ALS if needed for anyone out of ear shot.)

Michael

There are two ways Charley could attempt to open the door:

• Using her technopath Remote Control-13 ability (penalized by the Complexity of the lock, which I think it's fair Charley could estimate is at LEAST 6, which would result in a 7 or less for your roll). The advantage to this method is that it's instantaneous, and that you can use Corruption to boost your roll. The downside is that any failure will lock you out for 24 hours from using Remote Control to open this lock.

• Using Electronics Operation (Security) which defaults to any other Electronics Operation minus 4, or 11, to physically spoof the lock's magnetic strip (with her electronics toolkit, of course). There will also likely be penalties based on the quality of the lock; Charley would estimate those at somewhere between -3 to -5. The advantage here is that you can try as many times as you want. Each roll takes one minute (as per Lockpicking), and you can take Extra Time of course. Spending two minutes would give you a +1 to a roll, spending four minutes would give you a +2.

You could, of course, try to mundanely open the lock and save a Corruption-powered Remote Control attempt as a "last resort."

BUT! While Charley is considering her options and Archie imperiously fuming, I need Jo, Mitch, and Roger to all give me Observation rolls.

• Jocasta: 18

• Mitch: 16

• Roger: 14

Jeff

>> SUCCESS by 3

Mel

(She would use Remote Control, max Corruption.)

Michael

(Okay, cool, let me see how the Observation rolls all pan out and we will roll that as soon as that's done.)

Leonard

>> CRITICAL SUCCESS

Michael

(Paranoia has made her into the finely-honed machine she is today, kids)

Bill

>> SUCCESS by 6

Michael

So all your Observation rolls mean that Jo, Mitch, and Roger can very clearly see Kendrick Mead, in the midst of discussing the recent Telex with various team leaders and members, has excused himself from the scrum, broken off, and is making his way over to the electronic door to see what Archie, Charley, and Jo are up to.

Brant

(Perfect time for Archie to engage Kendrick on his thoughts about Johnny Carson)

Michael

(So I think I will pick up Charley's Remote Control attempt this afternoon but Jo, Roger and Mitch will have some time to react to Kendrick coming over. It's about 100 feet Mead needs to cross across the width and some of the length of the hangar.) (edited)

(Basic Move is 5 yards per second and his insistent gait will be counteracted by the people, chairs, desks, and command centers he needs to wend through to get to the door. Six or seven seconds.)

Jeff

How's his aura?

>> SUCCESS by 4

Michael

Uh, nervous and frustrated primarily. He seems to be burning a lot of mental and psychological energy on general crisis management right now; the nervousness is ambient and doesn't necessarily seem directed at the Door Crew. Before Mitch snapped to his coming over here, a glance at Kendrick would have revealed a magenta-red aura of worry and frustration, and his aura has not grown either angry, scared, or upset at seeing Archie, Jo, and Charley poking around the Secret ALLOCHTHON-Only Section. It's more of an intensification: an "oh great, another thing I have to deal with" vibe.

Jeff

Hmm, while I'm standing here in view of so much of SANDMAN, any auras catch my eye?

Michael

I would say there is a smattering of Real Concern—some folks with ice-blue fear in their auras among the team leads discussing the Telex on the Pascagoula Abduction, maybe even some cherry-red anger in a few others—but nobody in the hangar looks like they're engaged in using psychic powers, possessed by an alien subroutine from outside time, etc. etc. The overall mood of the hangar as the news spreads from the Telex is... edgy.

Rob

If Archie is aware of Mead coming over, he'll turn and stride over to him, mirroring his indignant impatience. He's prepared to make a bit of a scene to give Jo & Charley a little time/cover (though Roger and Mitch are also free to intervene).

Michael

Archie can be made aware very quickly by Jo.

(And I will give Jo/Mitch/Roger any more of the 4-5 seconds it will take for Kendrick to meet Archie to act. (I suppose Mitch has spent 2 seconds looking at Mead and at the crowd.) If Charley is still planning to Remote Control the lock with max Corruption even with Mead coming over, let me know.)

Leonard

Jo can't do much more than tell Archie whatever Charley communicated to her. She doesn't have any idea what's specifically happening, just that the thing she's laser-focused on (OZY and how they must be stopped) is happening right behind that door, and she doesn't even really know how to articulate that to Archie without seeming c-r-a-z-y. So she'll probably just gesture distractedly at Kendrick in a 'shoo fly' kind of way.

Michael

(All right, will wait on Bill and Mel: Rob, I will RP Kendrick when Archie intercepts but I want to make sure we get everyone else's actions accounted for beforehand.)

Mel

(In case it wasn’t clear, Charley spoke to the entire team not just Jo.)

Michael

That's true, she flashed ASL

Mel

(Charley’s back is turned away from everyone and would focus on the door unless told to stop.)

Michael

(Will get you the roll parameters as soon as I check in with Roger)

Mel

(Thinking about it I don’t think she would stop if told to given the seriousness of Maman Brigitte’s warning. Just saying.)

Bill

Roger is fully ready to intervene with Mead. It’s the action he had prepped.

If he beats Archie to it, he starts off giving Mead a report on his own sighting of the incursion over Point 1 from the airplane. Obviously critical to relay it given the Telex.

Michael

(Thinking about it I don’t think she would stop if told to given the seriousness of Maman Brigitte’s warning. Just saying.)

Okay, let's start with Charley. Remote Control-13, minus 8 Complexity for the electronic lock, equals an effective skill of 5. To get Remote Control to a 16, Charley will need to spend 11 Corruption. There is still a chance of failure on a 17 or 18, but of course you have Second Chance if you happen to roll a failure.

With Archie and Roger each walking to intercept, and each with their own conversational approach, I do think Mead, familiar already with Archie, would go to him first. Roger's Point 1 report can stand as a second-guard action if Archie doesn't manage to slow him down with his Overconfident indignance. So I think if Rob wants to RP a bit of it and then roll Public Speaking-16 we can start there.

Bill

(That’s kinda a relief, as Roger’s not sure he should tell anyone about the sighting except Archie, but it was what he has.)

Mel

>> CRITICAL SUCCESS

(Gee should have trusted the kid)

Michael

That's a crit.

Mel

(The door only responds to Charley )

Bill

People raised without Corruption do seem to take to it fast enough.

Michael

I think a crit is justification to be able to relock the door behind you, yeah.

Mel

(Can she change the code so those that have access don’t anymore)

Jeff

Scenario one: everybody ducks through the door and it closes in Kendrick Mead's face. Scenario two: everybody except Archie ducks through the door; Archie spends the remainder of the scene convincing Kendrick Mead that whatever is happening in the back rooms is exactly what needs to happen.

(pretend I pasted in Marge standing in the doorway telling Skinner 'oh am I in the way? I didn't realize I was in the way' while Bart beats feet behind her)

Michael

I think that is also reasonable given the description of Remote Control: the system will "obey your mental commands for as long as you concentrate, and then for minutes equal to your margin of success after you stop concentrating." Also the Reprogramming Maneuver in Psionic Powers lets you build in Disadvantages into any computer system you penetrate; you don't have the maneuver but you did crit. Yeah, Charley has control over the lock.

([extremely movie trailer voice] "They programmed her for a future they were busy creating... but they underestimated... just how far she would go... to show them the folly of their plans for a computerized world...")

Rob

(Shucks, for a minute I thought Roger might save Archie from making a fool of himself. Ah well. Doing this for Marshall, even though he refused to ask for it.)

"Kendrick! I need to speak to you." Archie gets in Mead's face; he sounds angry, agitated. He's definitely trying to block Mead's line of sight to Charley and Jo but he's also speaking a bit too loud, willing to make a scene and draw others' attention as well. "Don't think I don't know what's going on!" (I'm assuming they're on a first name basis. If not, he calls him Mead.)

Archie is in high dudgeon. "I saw Marshall Redgrave go off with Gottlieb. I saw him! I know exactly what is happening. And I'm not going to take this lying down."

Michael

Okay, cool, Public Speaking-16!

Rob

>> SUCCESS by 7

Michael

Archie is in high dudgeon. "I saw Marshall Redgrave go off with Gottlieb. I saw him! I know exactly what is happening. And I'm not going to take this lying down."

"Now hold on a minute, Arch. Hey! You can't go in there!" Mead says to Charley et al. as he then returns his attention to Archie. "What on Earth are you playing at, Archie?" (I want to hear more of Archie's gambit, to see what Mead's reaction (and capital-R Reaction) might be to it, but for now he's engaged with Archie. Mead isn't looking for security to stop Charley and URIEL or anything like that … yet.)

Jeff

This counts as a stressful situation, I think. Best to get it out of the way.

>> SUCCESS by 5

Mitch does not cause the temperature to suddenly wildly fluctuate

Rob

Archie continues to work up into a lather. "Look, I know how the game is played. He's reporting on me, I'm reporting on him, fine, fine. This isn't that, Kendrick. This is treachery!" Archie's holding Mead's shoulder, still firmly interposed between him and the door. "They're going to cut me out of the loop? They're going to take my team away from me? On the say so of Marshall Redgrave? He's the weak link, not me! He's the one who's off the reservation! You don't think I could tell stories of my own? Of what goes on at his … his hacienda?"

(is Jo getting through the locked door too?)

Jeff

Shit, I know I suggested Archie cover for the rest of us but I kinda wanna just have Mitch stand there and watch Archie's performance.

Brant

(it’s a palacio, technically)

Michael

Kendrick looks struck dumb for a few moments after hearing all this. Archie-Stoney watches several emotions flash across his face. This man is definitely no poker player, Stoney thinks to himself inside Archie, cackling with delight, peering at Mead like a bird of prey. Mead blinks and swallows, like what Archie is saying makes sense on some deep level he hasn't really investigated consciously before this moment. Psychology-20 for Archie.

Jeff

Ooh! Ooh! What's his aura doing?

>> SUCCESS by 0

Rob

>> CRITICAL SUCCESS

Michael

First off: Archie (pointedly not Archie plus Stoney) senses that Mead has been the victim of memetic infection, and it has to do with Gottlieb, maybe the combination of Gottlieb and Marshall and Archie as Archie pressed him with. Archie won't know more until he's able to tease more out of Kendrick and apply Expert Skill (Memetics) to see how the meme is affecting him, but he's well on the way to doing just that. Mead's aura: the maximum total worry that he was exhibiting a little while ago is changing to something not necessarily calmer... a streak or two of sickly gray enters the swirling mass of his aura, showing Mitch suspicion, fear, the slow realization surrounding a sickening sense of betrayal and uncertainty. That gut feeling of "oh shit, I've been had." As for the Charley-Jo-Mitch-Roger quad, if you are making your way through the locked door while all this is going on, please let me know. You're all in plain sight but Archie does seems to have taken a little of the focus off you, and Mead, the ranking member of ALLOCHTHON operations out here, would need to summon security to pursue the four of you going into a restricted area, and he's definitely busy at the moment.

(Whatever happens with the quad, I'll just give a little more of Kendrick's spiel now.) "I don't know what you're suggesting, Archie, but... you know the initial team assignments were... were uh, made by... computer. No one's... no one's gonna take your team... Christ." A tear appears at the corner of Kendrick's left eye, trickles down behind his glasses. Expert Skill (Memetics)-21.

Rob

>> SUCCESS by 6

Jeff

Fun as it would be to back Archie up, Mitch is singularly ill-suited for it and ought to be following Charley (and Jo and Roger?) through the door to destiny.

Michael

I got Archie's Memetics results on ice, I want to make sure the four of you are through the door at this point.

Bill

If Archie’s taken the distraction role, Roger’s naturally gonna default back to field agent and head in with the rest of the Club.

Leonard

Jo is definitely going through the door, although once again, she has no real sense of why. She's just (a) following Charley's lead and (b) following her own compulsions. She will, at the very least, try moving with actual stealth instead of the cartoon stealth she was displaying earlier. Also, it's up to you, Mike, but at the very least this might be a time when some of her disads -- particularly Delusions, Duty, and On the Edge — might need a roll.

Michael

We're heading into strange new territory. Shit's going to get at least small-w weird.

Leonard and Bill: First because of the ambiently stressful situation, I need both Jocasta and Roger to roll against Flashbacks. Each of you roll 3d6, and on a 6 or less, you will experience a flashback.

Next, a general description of where the four of you find yourselves. The back hallway of the ALLOCHTHON restricted-access offices is apparently a pre-fab office module attached to the northwest corner of the hangar in which ALLOCHTHON's operational HQ is based. You see three identical doors on the left side of a fifty-foot-long hallway. These doors have no electronic locks, just ordinary doorknobs. At the end of the hallway is another electronically-locked door, this one with a frosted glass window and a very evident closed-circuit video camera aimed straight down the hallway at you all. There is quite literally nowhere to hide in this hallway from this camera. I need two sets of rolls, still, though, from each of you.

Jocasta: Stealth-13 [3], Hearing-18 [3]

Roger: Stealth-15 [9], Hearing-13 [FAILURE]

Mitch: Stealth-13 [1], Hearing-15 [5]

Charley: Stealth-15 [6], Hearing-15 [2]

Rob: Archie realizes in a flash that the initial team assignments were definitely not made by computer. The memetic programming Kendrick has experienced seems to be breaking down rapidly in the face of Archie's radically uncharacteristic haranguing. The meme is powerful, Archie can tell, and extremely narrowly-targeted, maybe just for the non-clued-in members of ALLOCHTHON's operations team. The people who wouldn't, who couldn't be allowed into the tent of OZYMANDIAS but were needed to put ALLOCHTHON, with all its infrastructure and all its massive material and memetic demands, into play. And into play with such... weird, specific, unusual operational parameters. Would Kendrick necessarily have blown a whistle at these ALLOCHTHON parameters otherwise? Maybe, maybe not. But this meme made him much less suspicious about them. Until now. Of course part of this is that due to Archie-Stoney's blathering about treachery and "haciendas," Kendrick also now assumes that Marshall is "one of them."

Bill

Flashbacks.

>> SUCCESS by 5

Leonard

Flashbacks.

>> SUCCESS by 9

Michael

I am going to go into round-by-round Turn Order at this point, and give those of you who made successful Hearing checks the following info: For Roger: Roger's ears aren't as attuned to what might be happening behind any of those four doors, but he can hear an omnipresent, machine hum back here: a generator or some form of high-powered electrical throughput For Charley and Jo: they can both hear the aforementioned hum (Charley's expertise and powers let her know that there are likely large computer banks behind the frosted door), and they can also hear low human voices down the hallway further, either behind the last door, behind the frosted door, or both. For Mitch: Mitch gets all of the above (bar the computer revelation Charley got) and can distinctly hear Marshall's voice as one of the many murmuring voices down the hallway; Marshall is more audible than some of the others, so he's close to one of the doors and Mitch would bet it's the last door on the left, not the frosted door, he's behind. So Roger can declare his action for this round first, then Charley, then Jo, then Mitch.

Bill

Roger's action is straight-forward: continue to move stealthily into the hall, move to the closest (non-frosted) door, put his ear to the door, and listen there, try to get a sense if more folks are behind it.

Michael

(That sounds like 2-3 seconds of action, moving and listening, and I'll roll the Hearing roll secretly this time. Charley's up next.)

Mel

(Does she need to be touching or near the electrical lock she’s controlling?)

Michael

(No! Your crit allowed you to reprogram the lock, and you don't need to concentrate on it.)

Mel

She will move to the frosted doors (stealthily) continuing to listen for Marshall and will use ASL to signal if it becomes apparent which room he is in.

She is also looking closely at that camera. Trying to determine if she can disable it.

(As close as she can from floor to ceiling )

Michael

I will roll Stealth for you secretly, basically trying to avoid the closed-circuit camera, and traversing the hallway carefully at your speed will take a similar 2-3 seconds to Roger's actions. Disabling the camera with Remote Control would require you to touch it, but you could power up Remote Control with Corruption, this time buying an extra level of Remote Control (temporarily) for 1 Corruption to give you a range of one yard (close enough to reach out with your hand from three feet away and shut it off. )

Mel

Oh yes, that is cool.

Michael

Charley might have to jump.

Okay, will have you roll once I have Jo's and Mitch's actions.

Jocasta's action is next.

Mel

(She has Judo will that help with the jump?)

Michael

(Hah, it won't require a roll per se, the ceiling is low enough that even just reaching up with her hand will likely make the 3 feet of range.)

Just have to hope no one from inside the control center happened to be looking at the CC camera for this 2-3 seconds.

Leonard

Jocasta is not specifically doing anything at this second. She's still scattered and confused about what's happening, and while she's actively listening and preparing to jump into action in any number of ways, she's too uncertain to undertake any particular action. She's basically just steeled against the wall, ready to call on any skills or abilities that are needed.

Michael

Got it. Jeff can declare his action and then I will move things along 2-3 seconds.

Jeff

Mitch will move quietly but unhesitatingly to the door which he believes leads to Marshall et al, ie the non-frosted-glass, further-away door, position himself to throw it open, then turn and signal here with ASL to the others.

Michael

Okay. I am rolling Stealth for everyone secretly and what the hell, another round of Hearing checks, and Mel, if you want to roll Remote Control-13 to shut off the camera (1 point of Corruption for range), that will move things along. Also, I understand that we are generally in the Serendipity Zone at the moment and that Mitch has two uses from live Session Four that he is due. I will need to cross back into the room's chronology if we are close to throwing the door open, which I will do with Brant because Marshall drawing his weapon and pulling the trigger will take two combat rounds themselves. But first, we resolve all this outside and I wait for Charley to try to disable the camera.

Oh wait, sorry, I goofed, Mitch nailed the door using his Listen check, sorry. 2 full Serendipity uses are available.

Jeff

I was gonna say. Mitch does intend to use Serendipity to get the best timing on the door-opening. He's thinking something like don't screw this up for us Matt, I don't care whether it's funny or dramatically appropriate or ironic.

(I could maybe try to argue that Mitch should have some bonus Serendipity uses, since our practice has been for his pool to refresh at the beginning and end of each live session, but I don't think that argument holds water and hopefully it doesn't matter anyhow.)

Michael

(I suppose by the numbers, you've got 4: two from Session Four and two now from Intersession Four, given Marshall's action perfectly straddles the divide between sessions.)

(I will dump everything for your Stealth and Hearing once Mel rolls to disable the camera.)

(In fact Mel, if you want to roll both Remote Control-13 and Danger Sense-15 again, that would be great.)

Rob

Archie's not really in bullet time with everyone else, so feel free to hold off on this, but when Mead starts to realize he's been cut out of the loop (and Archie realizes that he realizes), Archie pivots from "they can't do this to me" to "they can't do this to us," aiming to incept the idea in Mead's head that he and Archie have both been played for chumps by the Men in the Back Room. I'll use Enthrallment (Persuade) if I can.

Mel

Remote Control.

>> SUCCESS by 2

Danger Sense.

>> SUCCESS by 5