Hot Jazz Party
Michael
All right. The hot jazz party contains 14 normal human civilians, most of whom appear to be young and in their 20s. The kusarikku sits at the center of the party, on one of the beds near the back of the hotel room, a couple of female guests now sitting on his lap, astride his bull-legs, while drinking champagne. One of them absently nuzzles her cheek against the bull-man's smooth-faced cheek, her hair brushing against his horns. Jo and Mitch both come out of their sudden shock at seeing this scene.
Leonard
Gross.
Okay, well.
Jocasta has a plan.
But before she puts this plan into action, she needs to consider a few things.
Given that our priorities would seem to be (a) neutralize this thing so that (b) it can't get out and wreak more havok/recruit more worshipers, and (c) keep it from spilling any human blood which would only accelerate the chaos, but (d) our combination of good health, backup, fighting ability, and firepower all adds up to not a hell of a lot and (e) this thing is probably a lot tougher than the scorpion man which almost killed us, we don't have a ton of options.
BUT.
What we do have.
Is a big ass canister of halothane.
SO.
Given that Michael earlier indicated that it was at least possible it might work on these things, but it would be a contingent Hidden Lore: History B roll to find out, since some of them do have particular immunities, I would like to request to make such a roll.
IF Jocasta succeeds, and knows these bull-men are at least theoretically vulnerable to halothane, OR if she fails and simply doesn't know, then she's going to mouth "RUN" to Mitch, pop the canister, toss it right in the middle of the room (maybe at the bull-man's head, just for a middle finger), and then bolt outside. Halothane acts quickly so the hippies ought to be kayoed within seconds; there's enough in there to knock out a whole ballroom (say, 100 people), so 14 should be no trouble. That leaves the entire remainder to work, if it works at all, on the bull-man; that might make it groggy enough to pass out, after which we can just walk in and empty a clip from a pistol into its ears and eyeballs, or it might make a rush out in which case she'll swap the carbine for one of the M-16s, go full auto sick house when it runs out the door, and pray for the best.
IF she succeeds and knows for a fact this won't work on the bull-man, well, she's out of ideas. Might have helped to have a reality shard WHO KNOWS, WHO CAN SAY.
Lemme know what you think, no hurry.
Michael
I know that Mitch/Jeff had mentioned trying to use heatstroke to push the humans out of the room so I'll wait to adjudicate anything until we hear from him. But sure, a Hidden Lore (History B) roll sounds good to me to start.
Leonard
I might throw in a Tactics roll just to see if this is physically feasible or if there's some obvious reason she can see that it wouldn't work.
>>>> SUCCESS
>>>> FAILURE
Made the Hidden Lore roll by 4. Missed the Tactics roll by 1. Sigh.
Michael
Kusarikku are one of the only breeds of Irruptor to possess an inborn/in-bred resistance to being knocked out unconscious—by anything! Knockout gases, psionic attacks, concussions: it's a hard-headed beast designed by the Anunnaki to be ruthlessly resistant to such things so it can survive to light people on fire.
(Seriously, the halothane would have worked on the bašmu, the girtablullû, but not this guy)
While we're here, basement squad: did we say we did anything with the scorpion-man's body?
Leonard
(Far as I know, we just left it outside the change room. We noted that it wasn't fading away and I asked if we should do anything with it, but the thread got lost in the chaos of the snakes hijacking that car.)
"Mitch," Jocasta says very quietly, slowly opening her duffel bag to swap out the Mini for the M-16, "We're fucked. You know what I mean? FUBAR. We gotta do something quick, and I don't know what that is beyond just opening up on that thing and hoping God loves us. So if you have any ideas, I am extremely receptive."
Jeff
Okay Mitch is going to spend a good several seconds looking at auras.
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS
MoS 2
Michael
Okay, given you all are standing staring a little longer than your failed Fright Checks necessitated, Mitch takes a couple of seconds to trigger his Aura Reading. The kusarikku's aura is powerful, like any other Irruptor, but Mitch gets from the aura's flavor that this being is having to deal with memories that are not its own, as if it is re-living memories from a past … retrocreation? Incarnation? Human host? The messages from the flavor of the bull-man's aura are all fucked up here this high in the ziggurat. Hotel, Mitch mentally corrects himself. It's a hotel. The rest of the humans in this room are just normal human beings having fun at a cool party with a weird jolly fat dude who wants to take them all back to a more licentious, free time than even the 1970s. Their auras' moods are uniformly happy—bacchanalian, even. Mitch needs to give me a Reaction Roll at 3d6+5 please.
>>>> 3d6+5 … 16
The kusarikku says out loud to Jo and Mitch, "Come on in, friends, join the party! It's our pleasure to have you," smiling, while subsonically the kusarikku transmits speech in Sumerian right into Mitch and Jo's skulls but of course neither of them can understand it. It's not source code, it just feels like Sumerian conversational vocabulary.
(I bet Mitch is having deja vu given the Stanley Hotel in which this exact scenario was almost beat-for-beat replicated; given Mitch's various Weirdness advantages, this deja vu should feel almost expected)
Leonard
Okayyyyyyy
So here's what Jocasta is gonna do. It's a pretty long shot but the time for short bets is way over. I imagine this is gonna involve a ton of rolls but I won't tell you how to do your job.
DEEP BREATH
FOCUS
Aaaaaand … action:
Jocasta will make herself and the automatic rifle she is toting extremely visible, right in the middle of the room. She is going to raise her voice to a battlefield yell, booming out with as much authority as possible (but directed not at the kusarikku, rather at the pleasure-seeking teens). She will wave her fake FBI identification around the room, enough to give all the kids a chance to see it but not holding it in one place long enough to give anyone a solid look at it.
"Nice try, Mr. Marden, but it's not going to work. You and your Atlantean dope peddlers are out of luck; I hope the embassy has good lawyers. The rest of you kids, clear out now — I'm willing to overlook your little party here to bring in the big shots but if I see you here sixty seconds from now you're looking at a long, hard drug sentence, every one of you. If you're smart, you'll head down to the ballroom and give your testimony to Agent Martin. MOVE IT! NOW!" (She's going to yell all this quickly, in a rush, so nobody has time to notice that it's mostly gibberish.)
Simultaneously, she'll be kind of bumping and shoving the congoers, basically trying to hustle them out the door. Whether or not this succeeds, she's going to try to outmaneuver the kusarikku, keep it off balance and not betray where she's going or what she's doing, all with the intention of getting someone in its blind spot. If she can get close enough, she'll do a Fast Draw and try to blast it right in the back of its head with her pistol; if not, she'll try and find the safest possible spot in what are surely closed quarters to blast it with the rifle.
(this is so not going to work)
(She'll also repeat some key phrases: THIS IS A BUST — CLEAR OUT NOW — SERIOUS DRUG CHARGES — FIND AGENT MARTIN — THIS MAN CANNOT BE TRUSTED as she goes. She doesn't know shit about memetics or esmology but she did earn that psych degree.)
Jeff
Mitch’s response to that, I think, is to stand there with a not-too-bright look on his face. Maybe Jocasta can empty the room so they can talk, who knows?
Leonard
your guess is as good as mine, pal
Jeff
The only play Mitch has at the moment is to demand to see the kusarikku’s manager. This is probably better than that.
Michael
Okay, let me assemble this roll, one sec.
Fast-Talk with bonuses for the gun, the badge, the circumstances, let's call it a Fast-Talk at 17, and then I roll Will for the party-goers.
Leonard
(I dunno, Mike would probably actually let us speak to its manager, who is, like, Marduk or something)
>>>> SUCCESS
Made the FT roll by 9.
Michael
No one in this room is getting anywhere near that MoS. Jocasta frightens the good-time jazz party into breaking up as the mortals, their auras tinged in Mitch's sight for the first time with anything approaching an awareness of reality and fear, begin filing out as if they're being "busted." As Jocasta tries to get in the kill position, the kusarikku this time uses its subsonic speech to talk in English.
"Now now," the bull-man says in both your heads, "Let's not get hasty. You're not going to break up my party and sign your own death warrant, are you? You can't end my lifethread with that," gesturing at Jo's weapon. Jocasta feels the room getting a little warm. As if Mitch was glitching out with his Pyrokinesis.
Jeff
Mitch says in Danbe, “this worked before, kinda,” then clears his throat loudly. “This,” he begins, “this … what even is this?” He gestures indicating the room. “Seems like you’ve lost the plot. Gatsby, now?”
“It’s like, why?”
Michael
"Call me Roscoe."
Jeff
“Why?”
Michael
"The way had to be paved for today. With violence, hatred, and brutality. I was inside him, Roscoe. This building still bears the stains of sweet Virginia's blood."
Jeff
“No, no, I don’t mean, ‘why Roscoe,’ I mean why should we talk at all? What do you want, that isn’t obviously better-served by just baking us?”
In Danbe: “maybe you should run before it detonates.”
Michael
"Bake … you? I could never. And I am … truly sorry for knocking you on your rear earlier, my Lord, but I was not fully … realized."
Leonard
Jocasta doesn't need to be told twice. "Follow on my heels," she replies in Danbe, "We can't stop him alone." If there's any clear path out, she's gonna bolt for the door and run.
Michael
Clear as day, nothing but daylight right to the end zone.
Leonard
Her additional plan is to set a clear path from the suite to the elevator, set up for cover fire to at least slow the thing if he comes after us as Mitch is leaving, and to keep shepherding any of the congoers who are lingering in the halls, hypnotically repeating like the Whisperer in The Last Words of Dutch Schultz* but instead of "ARTHUR FLEGENHEIMER GENEROUS FRIENDLY" she's saying "FIND AGENT MARTIN, THEY CANNOT BE TRUSTED."
*A book Jocasta definitely has not read
Michael
If Jo wants to join the party on the first floor, she can give me a 3d6 roll. But if she's staying out in the 10th floor hallway providing cover, no rolls required.
Leonard
Yeah, she'll stay up here until she's sure Mitch is safe.
Jeff
"Apology not accepted, though, ugh, what does it matter? You want to exposit at me some more? Is this picking up from last time? This the proof you jackasses were so all-fired eager to deliver? Or, uh, can I just ask you to leave and you will? No? Didn't fucking think so."
Michael
"Why would we leave? This is our world. The fact is, we need you. We can't repair any of the damage that has been done without you. Your unique gifts... harming you or threatening you or ending your lifespan will only strand us further away from our rightful home."
Jeff
"See, you can't even keep your stories straight." Mitch picks up someone's discarded, untouched gin cocktail, takes a sip as he sits down in a chair located conveniently near the door. "This is your world, but you also have your own private paradise-dimension where the Oldtimer grew up. You need me, but you try to sucker me into I dunno what even." He gestures around the ziggurat. "This. And now there's damage you need me to fix, when before it was, uh, you have an evil twin from the Depression whom you've been carefully calibrated to murder … " Mitch trails off, shaking his head. "Christ, you people."
"You think human nature tends naturally towards fascism, right?"
Michael
"Yes. Our masters put it in your brains. Our masters put everything in your brains."
Jeff
Mitch makes a hand gesture like a quacking duck.
(It's like a blah blah blah kind of thing.)
Ironically, at this moment Mitch is thinking it's a shame Archie isn't here.
Jeff
Lacking anything else to do, Jocasta will try to raise Roger on the walkie.
Michael
"I realize you continue to stand against us," the kusarikku says to Mitch. "You do not wish to aid our masters. This is the fault of this history, that you now can choose to defy Those Who Provide. These bala, these … rebels, these Sandmen you associate with … they know more than you. They hide secrets from you. They throw you into our maws, and for what?"
"To prevent the simply inevitable. This present comet may flare and fade, this no-place we stand within may resolve itself back to your incorrect history, but eventually … we will return. And it will be thanks, ultimately, to the men you serve. Who do not even give you the dignity and respect that our masters would, and do."
Leonard
After her convo with Roger, Jocasta will say to Mitch in Danbe: "They need me downstairs. Have you got things under control here? I'm worried, call if you need help and we will all come."
Jeff
In Danbe: "Either no one will be hurt, or only I will be hurt. I believe I will not be hurt."
(I'm imagining this being more or less shouted, to and from the hallway)
In English: "This is what I'm talking about. If this was all a play to recruit me, shit, would it be a bad one." He sips his drink, slowly. "I've seen the dignity your masters give us cattle. You suck at this. None of you can convince anyone of anything, that's why you have all the mind control, because you can't reason your way out of a wet bag. I ask you directly what you want and you speak evasively, you change the subject, you insult Archie … " He clucks his tongue.
Michael
"'Reason.' 'Evasiveness.' We do not understand these ideas. These are the concepts of slaves who refuse to admit their reality is an illusion. That can only see one path, the one they are on, from birth to death. The truth is that you are more like us than you are like them." The kusarikku levels its gaze at Mitch, and begins to try to express itself more directly. "You can follow the courses and currents of nam to be where you were meant to be. Your ape-brain cannot understand why or how this works. You can find, you can sniff the presence of the true history behind the fragile kikkišu your kind hides behind, and you take it as your birthright. You can see the šedu within each human body, and think it is your sight? All these are gifts from Those Who Provide. They saw that you could be the One to dream a new history, and they made sure you were as unto us, that you would survive, and thrive, and be able to protect yourself from usurpers and traitors. You are just like me."
Jeff
"Yeah, that's what they tell me."
Mitch sips his drink.
"Tell me. You even have any friends? Or were you wished into existence wholly alone, a solitary oyster, the better to throw yourself against the bars of your cage without thought for self-preservation?"
Michael
Interesting. Fast Talk-16 (includes +3 from Illuminated).
Jeff
>>>> SUCCESS
I am 99% sure I do not have any means at my disposal to grant myself a reroll or an extra bonus. Right? There's not some spend-an-FP-for-extra-effort rule I'm unfamiliar with, is there?
Michael
Fast-Talk has to exist in one of these Talents, no?
Innate NLP and Memetics. I'd have to say Fast-Talk is pretty well covered, yeah.
Jeff
I could take, say, 8 points of Corruption on this?
Michael
You are just like me.
uh, yes
Jeff
8 seems like a good number.
Or 11.
I could do 11.
Michael
Well, 10's literally the maximum because a 2 doesn't exist on 3d6
But yeah. Sure. You could incur 10 points of Corruption to fast-talk a kusarikku after he just said you're closer to Irruptor than man.
Jeff
Seems like the thing to do.
Michael
I dig it.
Mitch's connection with the kusarikku grows deeper, more elemental, more primal. He does make some sort of psychic connection with the alien being, reaching almost literally into its mind to befuddle it and tell it to speak. And as Jocasta is listening in the hallway, she hears the following cryptic prophecy said in both their voices. (Fright Check for Jo at a 12, and of course Mitch incurs 10 Corruption.).
"We were always meant to be seven." The kusarikku gets ethereal in his rememberings of histories that didn't exist until about nine hours ago. Almost wistful. "Seven we were. A nest of three at the roots of the tree, they were placed here to commit themselves to the spiral of fate, ultimately to protect the One Who Taught.
One to hide and keep safe the treasure, to protect the precious metals meant to summon the threads, the partnerships, the lost stories.
One to seduce, one always to seduce. The cattle are so easily led by one who gives them encouragement to rut.
And in the sky, closer to our gods, our masters, two: one to spill blood, to present a burnt offering, to bring the pain and fire and glory."
The kusarikku gestures to himself; Mitch mirrors it with his own hand pointing to his heart.
"And then … one more. One whose face I cannot countenance. One whose glory and brightness and light will make them ruler of this place. One whom your own Sandmen will place upon the last throne. They … they you have not met yet. Nor will you, if you succeed in dragging this temple back across the precipice." At the end of this cryptic prophecy, all the lights in the hotel begin to flutter.
Jeff
Okay.
Huh.
What's the vibe in the room, in the moment following that, the Doom of Roscoe?
Michael
Well, the lights are now completely out. And Mitch smells smoke.
Rich, deep smoke, a musky incense.
And a voice, a woman's voice, seemingly right in Mitch's ear. "I'll see you on Mount Shasta in 39 years, Mitchell."
Jeff
Well, my first instinct is to say "let's see if it'll put its money where its mouth is re presenting a burnt offering and 'could never bake Mitch,'" but there's a chance Jo will fly into a berserker fury and try to shoot it up, or something, so, best to wait, yeah.
Leonard
Okay, well:
1. Jocasta was going to go down to the ballroom and see what was up there but she had a pang of duty (never leave a man behind) and regret (she asked Mitch not to leave her alone when she was wounded by Mathias Jabs and he didn't), so she's just positioned herself outside with the M-16 at full present arms.
>>>> SUCCESS
2. If she didn't get the +2 to her Fright check from Combat reflexes, she still made it by a mile. If she did, she got a crit.
Michael
The lights are out in the hallway as well. It's pitch black, no emergency lights, and the skyscape beyond the exterior windows in the hot jazz suite only illuminate so much and so far. And Jo can definitely feel the hotel changing around her. There is a whooshing in the distance, like a giant door being closed airtight.
But as I said, I must do downstairs next. Time doesn't flow that differently between the 10th and 1st floors thanks to relativistic time dilation
Leonard
Catch up with the others, of course! Take it as read that Jocasta, until further notice, is standing stock-still with the M-16 trained at the last spot she saw the kusarikku in before the lights went out. She's still in Combat Reflexes mode both for herself and for any advantage it would confer on Mitch to avoid a surprise attack.
Michael
The hallway looks very different to Jocasta. The St. Francis wallpaper is peeling off the now-stone walls. The air is heavy, scented, musky. The ground beneath Jocasta's boots is covered is also rough, clay-like. As Jocasta peers into the room with Mitch and the kusarikku (who have ceased speaking cryptic prophecies in unison), she can still see San Francisco through the window and half of the room is still a hotel room. But the other half contains a rough-hewn stone altar, and what looks like a huge copper bowl. Archaeology roll please for Jo.
(Weird, I could've sworn Jo had Anthropology too. Oh well.)
Leonard
>>>> CRITICAL FAILURE
(Ugh critical fail on the Archaeology roll. Should have paid more attention sophomore year, Menos. Again, if I die because of a failed Archaeology roll, I'm going to haunt this place so hard.)
Michael
Jo does not give a single shit for the periodization of the Sumerian motifs suddenly appearing here. Her focus on Mitch and the bull-man are TOTAL.
"Do you now understand?" the kusarikku asks Mitch. "I am not alone."
Jeff
"Aren't you, though?" Mitch is sweating now. He quaffs the rest of the gin cocktail, icemelt included.
"You were, okay, let's say you were sent here, that's nonsense but that's not important right now... you were sent here to do a thing. Succeed or fail, your whole existence is wrapped up in doing the thing. There's not a home for you to go back to. There's not a convivial after-hours baby-eating party where you'll meet up with your buddies. You don't have a spouse and a passel of baby demons. You're just the hotel monster. Not even the hotel monster, you're a hotel monster."
"You aren't just expendable, you were made to be expended."
Michael
(Dammit Jeff, you've got me thinking about Irruptor/Anunnaki servitor psychology now. "But while the Anunnakku remain asleep, irruptors’ Slave Mentality doesn’t show up in the meta-trait. If a šedu activates an irruptor’s programming, add Slave Mentality to the specific irruptor." Also argh, I keep forgetting Mitch doesn't have Psychology)
So let's see, Psychology defaults to IQ-6, not only does Mitch not have to worry about not understanding the alien Irruptor mindset, but he gets a +2 from the previous Fast-Talk crit … so that's IQ-4 or 9. Psychology-9, please.
Jeff
Can I gain Corruption on this, too? In for a penny, in for a pound.
Michael
Psychology exists under the Memetics talent, so yes.
>>>> FAILURE
5 Corruption to succeed, 11 to get a 3 on the die.
Jeff
11 seems good
Michael
"Am … am I an individual?" The kusarikku looks almost bashfully up at Mitch now, its barely-contained fury and desire to inflict fire and pain visibly subdued. "I... me. I remember being a man for a brief moment. A human. And the things I was doing for our … my masters, seemed wrong, seemed cruel. Seemed … I knew what it was like to hurt someone, to feel pain. I remember Roscoe crying at what I'd made him do. The tears were … they did not bring me satisfaction. Why was I made to see, to experience these feelings? My role is to kill, to maim, to burn. I did what I was supposed to. Why do I feel … šērtu? There are no words I know to describe this feeling, I must steal them from your kind. I am made to do their will. I am … I know more than I did. More than I should." Mitch needs to give me a Will-12 roll please.
>>>> SUCCESS
Mitch holds the Corruption within and does not express a negative Quirk thanks to this deep delve into Irruptor Psychology.
Congrats. You made a kusarikku feel guilt.
Jeff
"What … "
Mitch's breathing is ragged.
"What … "
He's picking his words carefully.
"What do you want to happen to you, now?"
Michael
Leonard and Bill, I don't want to leave you both behind … is there anything Jo and Roger need/want to do? The kusarikku and Mitch have been speaking out loud to each other since the moment they stopped speaking in unison, the bull-man is not using his Subsonic Speech.
Leonard
I was waiting for Roger to arrive to debrief him. I didn't know he was here yet, we can RP that if you want but Jo's plan is to just keep an eye and a gunsight on the situation. She could probably help Mitch, since she has Psychology and some other useful skills, but … well, she finds this whole situation bewildering, so it hasn't occurred to her yet.
Bill
Jo hears some feet coming up the stairs, fast. It's Roger, in a suit, looking still fresh despite a ten floor stair climb. He looks good. Really good, actually. He pulls out his gun, holds it pointed up, both hands, puts a back to a wall and slides down it until he's in position.
"We have got to stop meeting in places like this," he flirts.
Leonard
Jo stands stock-still, the butt of the M-16 notched into her shoulder just above the scorpion tail wound. She's as motionless as a green plastic toy soldier, quite a feat considering the effort it takes not to gaze raptly at this appealing new manifestation of Roger's. Still: business first.
"Mitch is in there with an irruptor, a kusarikku. There were a bunch of kids too but we cleared them out. I'm not sure what's happening; he's … talking to it. Or through it. Or it through him. I'm at a loss, honestly."
Bill
"Do we have any clear sights on it?" Roger seems to have picked up an accent, like Brit trying to do an American accent and slipping. "What would Agent Hort's move be?"
Michael
"I will … I will be recycled. Ceasing to exist, as you might call it, is not the most painful fate for one like me. To be reconstituted, torn apart, broken down into my components … that is the fate that awaits me." "I … I do not want this to happen."
Leonard
"I've got a bead on it, or at least where it was when the lights went out. I don't think we've got the firepower to take it out, but we might be able to slow it down a little if Mitch … well … " She rolls it over in her mind.
"Mitch?" she says, not quite yelling. "How we doing in there?"
Jeff
"Nearly there," Mitch calls back in Danbe.
Leonard
Jocasta breaks her steel-rod firing posture just enough to glance over at Roger and shrug.
Jeff
I feel like I've done all I can to this point, so:
Mitch tries to set the fire monster on fire.
Michael
You can use Corruption on this too, the GM said brightly.
Jeff
I don't think I can actually.
Because I only roll for activation.
Michael
I mean... you can pump up the level at which you use it.
Jeff
Oh.
Ok.
Michael
Which given you've used your Pyro 6 today … I think? Would be essential.
Jeff
Well, in theory I just need it to fail N/X Will rolls where N is the number of rolls, X is the effective Pyro level, and 2N=its HP.
I think?
Bill
Total HP or current? We might be able to help with Current HP. Might.
Michael
I will probably need to do this math when I return from picking Jenny up later today.
Jeff
Okay, so, each time it fails a roll it takes 2X damage. If it has 20HP (my first guess for a fire demon) then it would need to fail 10 Will rolls without stopping Mitch, to hit 0HP.
But we've already seen the effects of Hard to Kill, gotta assume it's got some of that going.
Utter physical destruction comes after dealing 6HP damage.
So, again assuming 20 HP, we need to deal 120 damage to it.
Let's imagine a scenario where we all unload on it and hit it twice each before it eats me. Jo would be doing, what, maybe 15 points of damage per second? After accounting for DR? I don't know how Double Zero is armed but I presume he'd be hitting less hard than that. Say a total of 20 damage per second from gunfire, times two seconds is 40 points of damage. 120-40=80 points of damage Mitch would need to contribute, over two seconds is 40 points per second, which is 20 levels of Pyrokinesis, which would be … 70 Corruption.
I do not think that is workable.
Wait, no, I forgot to divide by 5. "Only" 14 Corruption!
Having taken 21 Corruption in this scene already, making it 35 Corruption seems almost okay.
But I may be in the sunk cost fallacy.
Michael
(Agent Double Zero's penchant for gambling is proving a bad subconscious influence)
Jeff
14 Corruption for a reasonable shot at defeating it.
Bill
(Never tell me the odds … )
Leonard
Oh assuming I don't fuck the rolls (always a possibility) I think Jocasta can do a lot more than 15 damage per round. I'm looking up the M-16 stats but they're definitely better than the Mini-14, which in three-round bursts was doing 50+. She's got it on full tilt so it could do a ton of damage if she hits. It's just that fucking Hard to Kill that worries me.
Jeff
I was hoping if I talked at it enough I could get it to dissolve in a puff of logic, or failing that kill itself like a Mass Effect villain. I don't think I made it all the way there but maybe it'll spend a couple of seconds paralyzed with grief over its wasted un-life, before it eats us.
Yeah, I'm just guessing its DR to gunfire as being substantial, and that it has enough Hard to Kill that we need to make it paste
Leonard
So there's no DR reduction, and that's bad. It's a little vague about bursts, but assuming they work the same way in 4E as in 3E, I think I can go full auto, shoot a ton of single shots, or do up to four 3-round bursts, so that's at least 12 rounds a second, with varying degrees of penalty.
Jeff
Still sweating in the humid warmth of the ziggurat, Mitch takes a deep breath before responding to the kusarikku. "There is an alternative," he says. "You would prefer death to disassembly? Then perish."
He shouts "shoot" in Danbe as he executes his Corruption-fueled pyrokinesis.
Michael
And here is the other, very important thing I have to report. Unlike scorpion-men and snake-men, bull-men are slow on the uptake, which means they do NOT get Combat Reflexes and therefore are wrong-footed for 1d6 whole seconds when surprised.
So here I go rolling a VERY IMPORTANT 1d6 roll for you all.
>>>> 1d6 … 4
So I think the order is Roger, Jocasta, Mitch based on Basic Speed.
Leonard
I know combat in this game is a huge pain in the nuts but when you're ready, @MutantsMichael , I think I got the rolls and the modifiers all sussed out for Jocasta.
Also, if we once again assume that Jocasta is the 'leader' of our 'side', everyone gets a +2 to Initiative because of her Combat Reflexes. If we say there wasn't enough time for her to 'lead' in any meaningful sense, our side still gets +1.
Michael
Cool. I'll let the suave Agent Double Zero go first
Bill
(Quick question: how are we for light sources here? Jo mentioned dark.)
Michael
Let me see … there is ambient light but I need to check the old GURPS rules
Yeah, no penalties, there is enough city light outside to see this thing's silhouette clearly.
Bill
Agent 00 will try to gauge direction from Jo’s rifle, snap out from the wall, standing, and open up with the .38. Given he doesn’t have a good bean on the beast at all yet, just a single shot.
>>>> SUCCESS
(Made by three, roll damage?)
Michael
Yes, definitely. The kusarikku has a Basic Defense but it is severely penalized by this stunning/surprise and he did not Dodge.
>>>> 1d6-1 … 4
The kusarikku's hide is thick but this round penetrates.
Jocasta is up next.
Wait, which weapon is Roger using?
Bill
Same .38 he used against the kullulu.
Michael
I think the damage is 2d6-1?
Bill
(Roger isn't a walking arsenal. Unless Jo through him something stronger.)
(OH RIGHT a TWO)
>>> 1d6 … 3
Michael
Okay, so 6 damage minus his DR, x1 for piercing. Got it.
Okay, Jo is up. M-16, right?
Leonard
Yep. And Jo didn't give Roger any heavy armaments, but the gear bag is by her feet and has her Mini-14 and a couple of .45s if he needs something.
Okay, so, let's see if I have this right.
Jo is going to do three 'controlled bursts' of three rounds each, for a total of 9 shots fired. Each one counts as a separate single roll. She gets +1 for being braced and +5 for aiming, so a total of +6, on each. However, this degrades because of recoil (-1 on the first burst) and worsens with each burst, so it'll be a total of +5 for the first burst, +4 for the second, and +3 for the third. Does that seem right? There's no low light penalty, and Jo's not fatigued, and her injury isn't severe enough to lower her abilities, and she leached out the scorpion goo. So any other penalties/bonuses, or does that seem like the right math?
Michael
Jocasta firing 9 rounds will be firing at the kusarikku with Guns (Rifle)-24:
Your Guns of 14
+1 for bracing
+5 for Acc/Aim
+2 for shooting nine rounds
+1 for Size Modifier
+1 for All-Out Attack if you want to forgo Defense this round, which should be safe
And then we'll see how many rounds hit.
By comparing your MoS to the Rcl of 2.
Leonard
Okay! Here we go!
Watch me roll a 20!
After all that!
Michael
It would be funny if I managed to Dodge
Leonard
>>>> SUCCESS
faaaaaaaaaart
rolled a 15, Jesus
I been standing motionless for five minutes and my hands cramped up
Michael
That succeeds by 9. Which means you hit with five rounds.
The first bullet hits and then 4 follow-up bullets because you have a Recoil of 2.
So that's 25d6 piercing damage, minus 5 times its DR of 2 (or 10).
Leonard
Total of 61 damage.
Michael
Take away 10, that's 51 more damage. I gotta check my saves.
Leonard
Sorry, it's 61 with the 10 taken away. I rolled 71.
Michael
Oh cool!
First let's see if he falls unconscious, only fail on a crit.
>>>> SUCCESS
And now let's see if he dies at -HTx1
>>>> SUCCESS
He's still kicking.
Mitch is up.
Jeff
Mitch lights him up as discussed.
Michael
Basically you gotta hope he crit fails one of these rolls.
Okay, so that is on me to make a Will roll?
Jeff
I think so.
I would say "yeah" but as I said, I'm doubting everything.
Michael
No, that's right.
>>>> SUCCESS
Just made it. Let me make sure he doesn't have any penalties, one sec
Jeff
Does Shock apply?
Is its Will at -4?
Michael
Shock does apply to him, neither Hard to Kill or Hard to Subdue affect shock.
He does NOT have High Pain Threshold.
So yes. Jocasta's fusillade was enough to put him out of his mind with pain so he can get lit up.
Jeff
(Also, yay: if it's already at -HT then it doesn’t have an absurdly high HP of like 170 which I was a little worried about. The pulp-it-till-its-Hard-to-Kill-doesn't-apply plan requires a reasonable HT.)
Leonard
Is it attacking/doing anything now, or does it not go until next round?
Michael
It doesn't even try to get to go for another THREE rounds
And Mitch still needs to give me damage.
Leonard
holy moly
Michael
It's not devious or quick-witted like scorpions and snakes. It is slow and steady and strong and tough but Mitch absolutely did the right thing by tricking it into being stunned.
Jeff
Damage is a flat number, 2 per level of Pyro, right? Or 1, maybe, it's in Fahrenheit so who knows
Michael
That's right. How high did you run the Pyro with Corruption?
Jeff
Anyway assuming I did the math right Mitch took another 14 Corruption to get an effective Pyro of 20
Michael
Got it.
So that's 20 more damage.
Jeff
Might be setting the ziggurat on fire
Michael
Anyway, it's taken 85 damage so far. Hell of a round 1.
Jeff
I think, looking at p.PP57 Mitch is dealing 40 damage, not 20? If he were trying to give Roscoe heatstroke instead of combusting him, it'd be 20.
Michael
Oh yeah, you're right.
Let me get the Corruption on the tote board as well
Jeff
I feel like it would make more sense for heatstroke to be easier than spontaneous combustion, not the other way around, but what do I know?
Michael
Well, heatstroke is non-lethal and that can be a useful ability in an RPG
As we've seen!
It occurs to me that if this room is made out of clay, we are going to have a delicious slow-roasted side of beef when this is all said and done
Leonard, how will Jocasta shoot this thing this round? Last right you shot off 9 rounds with all the Aim and Brace bonuses. You've got 11 rounds left in the clip. And one originally in the chamber, so 12 rounds total.
Magazine. Whatever.
So let's say you decide to fire another nine rounds into the bull-man this round. That would give you: Your Guns of 14 +1 for bracing +3 for shooting nine rounds +1 for Size Modifier +1 for All-Out Attack For a Guns-20. I think as you said earlier there's not a lot of sense emptying the clip and firing 12 because you get no functional bonuses and your Guns is not high enough to ensure you'd be able to land 12 rounds.
Leonard
This, I believe, is all correct, only to make this continue to be a giant pain in the ass, I will point out that in GURPS 4E, as in life, US Army special forces would, by this time, be using M-16s with large-capacity clips, meaning I had 31 rounds and have 22 left.
Michael
Special ops!! Yes.
Leonard
But now I will shut up and roll.
>>>> SUCCESS
Michael
I crit failed my very low Dodge. So success by 10 means you hit 6 times!
What is that, 30d6? Minus 6 times my DR?
Leonard
I believe, yeah, 30d6-12
Michael
Go ahead and Donjon it, I think Dice Golem has checked out. I will look for a replacement.
Leonard
Aw yiss
94, that oughtta sting a little at least
Michael
But I have to make two death saves
>>>> SUCCESS
>>>> SUCCESS
Close on the second one
Michael
You're at one short of -4xHP at this point, so it's got 41 HP left.
Leonard
(This thing is exhibiting an awfully powerful will to live considering Mitch almost talked it into not existing three minutes ago)
Jeff
Double Zero is up before Mitch in the order, I think
Bill
Zero-zero will continue to just stand and fire. .38 semi-auto should allow for a burst of 3 this time, since the bull bugger seems to just be standing there and taking it. And not much good saving the chambers when we need this thing dead before it gores anyone.
So, 00's braced (holding a pistol with two hands apparently counts pg 364), increasing Acc +1. But gun base Acc is 1, so little point to it other than to look good. 00's not taking a round to aim, making all the aim bonus stuff moot. So I think only the Size Modifier or All-out Attack and flat footed apply?
Michael
Yep. +1 from bracing, +1 from SM, +1 from All-out Attack, and I think firing three rounds does not add to your attack roll, so you're rolling Guns-18?
Bill
Made that by 8, so with Rcl 2, I think all 3 shots hit?
Michael
That is correct!
Bill
OMG we might be getting this now!
Michael
What's the damage on the weapon?
Bill
2d6-1, emphasis on the TWO I nearly missed last time.
Michael
And that's piercing, right?
Bill
Sorry, pi, yes
Michael
Cool, so roll 6d6-3... I'll watch the results to see how it interplays with DR.
>>>> 6d6-3 … 22
Now the final death save before actual death, fail only on a crit fail:
>>>> SUCCESS
22 damage minus 6 for DR is 16 more damage
25 HP left. This kusarikku is shredded, burned, and bleeding. Mitch is up.
Jeff
Mitch tries to burn it all away, sustaining his pyrokinesis, unless that would require another 14 Corruption in which case, no thank you. Assuming I can continue to use it off of the one activation, which I am pretty sure is the intent but who knows I’m wrong a lot, assuming that, Roscoe needs to make a Will roll or turn to ash.
Michael
I suppose this all depends on what the meaning of "one-time access" is.
That doesn't necessarily imply "one-round access."
I suppose the "one time" ends when you finish using the power, and you're obviously not done.
Jeff
My interpretation is that anything that would require another activation roll, like swapping targets or spending time doing something else before getting back to it, would be a separate use, but that second-to-second sustaining of the power is different from that
Michael
That makes sense to me.
So it's at a level that's more than enough to finish off the beef slab if I fail the Will roll.
Jeff
Like, a character with Unreliable levitation wouldn’t need to make activation rolls every second of flight
Michael
You are correct.
Jeff
But they might need to hop in place a few times to take off
>>>> SUCCESS
Michael
So the heat intensifies and so do the flames. Frozen in place in shock the kusarikku can't charge to try and spread the fire around to his enemies. After two seconds of intense rifle and pistol fire, and a History B-fueled pyrokinetic surge from Mitch, the bull-demon collapses in the center of the former hotel room, now... sacrificial altar chamber? With a loud thud against the dirt and clay floors of the chamber.
Jeff
I wish to incinerate it such that there is nothing but soot to dispose of.
Michael
Ashes to the four winds.
Jeff
Jo and Double Zero can see it happen, Mitch doesn’t need to let them know. Once the thing is gone, he sets down his empty glass and picks up the other, full one. That one is half icemelt now though it’s only been a minute or three since the ice was put in the glass and it shouldn’t have melted so quickly. Still, Mitch drinks it. It’s something like his fourth drink in the last hour, I think?
He sits there and he drinks it as (I assume) the meat puppets he calls ‘Jo’ and ‘Roger’ stumble into the altar chamber.
Bill
Hey, now: Jo ain’t anybody’s meat puppet. Roger …
Leonard
Jocasta steps in and takes a look at the roast beef on the floor. “Bully,” she says, with a raffish wink at Roger.
Bill
“Rather too well done … ”
Leonard
Seriously though good work all, and no doubt the sound of automatic weapons fire and gouts of flame is going to have attracted some attention so we better think about how we’re going to integrate this into the “game”
Bill
There’s no sign of any drinks left, are there? Ah well. “Something something fighting demons, I would hazard. Is everyone well?”
Jeff
"No." Mitch peers down, finds a glass of something brown that had been half-drunk before Jocasta ordered its drinker out of the room, picks it up and puts it down again with chagrin. "I'm pretty fucking far from okay."
He's not looking either of them in the eye but that's nothing new. "That was mostly you," he tells Jocasta. "Thanks. I mean, Roger and I helped, but..." He trails off, shrugs.
Leonard
“You put it off its heels, man. If it had just decided to tear us up, we’d be torn up.” She pauses and looks around to see if it’s body and the History-B character of the suite is still persisting. “You did good. But there’s still good to be done.”
Michael
So the three of you are on the 10th floor at the moment. And it has nearly completely shifted into some approximation of History B. The hallways don't match the architecture of the hotel below, although the sacrifice room you're all in is pretty much the same dimensions as the hot jazz room. But what exists above you, below you, and down the now-twisting corridors of 10? Nobody knows. It will take some time to explore.
Leonard
What’s our priority here, fellas? Are there other irruptors we should try to flush out or is going down to the ballroom and enforcing the game our job one?
Jeff
I think Mitch needs to tap out. He wasn't in a great headspace before he ate the... ugh, 35 Corruption.
Michael
I will say that Roger/Agent 00 could probably find his way back to the stairwell he came up.
Bill
“Are there any other innocents in danger on these floors? That we need to lead down and out?”
Jeff
"Probably. I need to go downstairs, though."
Bill
“Let me lead you to the stairwell down, then, and we’ll... we’ll head up.”
Jeff
Mitch nods distractedly. "Thanks, man." He addresses more the general direction of Roger than Roger/Double Zero himself.
(I think Mitch is making his way towards mission-four-in-the-ballroom, where he'll sit and soak up some better vibes for a bit. Maybe find Anna Turner and her clique and listen to them chatter a while. Anything but more irruptors right now.)
Michael
I've been thinking that maybe Anna and Don might have gotten sucked into MARPA and not Atlantis, actually. Anna's got that old-school sf/Krane flair, and they both technically (actually only sorta) work for the government (at public television ). That doesn't mean they won't be found in and around the ballroom, obviously, I just think if they got infected by the meme they might be more comfortable playing "technical consultants" for MARPA.
Which means Anna might meet Archie and get us closer to my goal of having Archie eventually do a creepy mid-'70s educational program for KQED
Leonard
I think Jocasta will follow them down, but she’ll lag behind, checking each descending floor for its level of corruption/History B slippage/occult influence. If she spots any irruptors or solid citizens in need, she’ll radio ahead.
Jeff
Forty minutes of Atlantean vibes will restore Mitch's FP, though they won't restore his lost innocence.
Michael
I think that will put Mitch down there when Archie finally arrives at the ballroom from his own travails.
Was the idea that after Mitch got downstairs safely that Roger and Jocasta were going to sweep the upper floors?
A reminder that the clock on Agent Double Zero is ticking.
Jeff
Argh, maybe I should rethink the retreat to the ballroom. I don't want to leave the rest of the team in the lurch just because Mitch has suffered self-inflicted psychic friendly fire. Roger and Jocasta are both physically injured, while Mitch is unscathed.
Bill
We can trade off, Mitch. You can take a minute to recover now so you can be up when Roger’s out. Agent 00 isn’t gonna say that, but you know Roger would.
The sweep will have to be a balance between fast enough to make the timer, but slow enough to not burn FP too fast. Overconfident really is a nail biter to have to play.
Michael
You all let me know what the plan is for the upper three floors recon and I'll narrate it today.
Jeff
Okay, if everybody's cool with it, I think what we're doing is 00 and Jo escort Mitch to the stairwell 00 climbed. Mitch goes down the stairs with the intention of finding a quiet spot in the lobby, and my thought is he ends up in the Atlantean ballroom for those good vibes. Double Zero and Jocasta meantime move systematically through the hotel from the top down, scanning as best they can for monsters and other problems.
Bill
If there’s anything that looks importantly worshipful, knock it over.
Michael
Gonna assemble some rolls for you two.
Bill
But most import is shooing along innocents. Maybe seeing what happened to our ops base.
Michael
All three of our ops bases, if we count Marshall's suite on 11!
Bill
I’m hoping this ziggurat has an open layout with lots of open hallways for fast scans.
And maybe a breakfast nook.
Michael
Bill do you mind if I put 00's Loa stats in the character-points channel for ease of access?
Bill
Oh sure!
Michael
First thing: I'm gonna keep this channel open and use it for our explorations but change the name to "atop the ziggurat" from mission-four-atop-the-ziggurat.
Second: Agent 00 doesn't have a whole lot of Observation/Tactics skills, but he does have Leadership. So I'm gonna have him roll Leadership-13 to aid Jocasta's more military-tactical assessment of the situation and keep her calm and collected.
Leonard
Jocasta's suggestion for the sweep is pretty much recon combined with lockdown: seeing what changes are being made (she's gonna have her sketchbook handy) and making sure no civilians are in a position of peril. If we run into any irruptors we can do a threat assessment but we shouldn't fully engage if we can help it; the higher up we are, the more they're in control.
Also, a few quick questions: (a) Did the fire in the (literally) hot jazz suite spread or set off any alarms, or was it too History-B'd at that point? (b) I'm not sure if Jocasta is aware that Agent Double Zero is a loa (she might make that leap, or she might just assume Roger is doing a bit for the game), so I don't know if she would be aware that there's a timer on his presence. (She might not actually know that even if she knew it was a loa.) What's her degree of insight into that? and (c) Are our walkie-talkies still working? If so, she will do a quick check-in with the ballroom gang to let them know our plans.
(Also also, can I get a quick in-game time and date check?)
Michael
It's after 7 pm on Friday, June 29, 1973 (at least on floor 9 and below). a) No, the fire remained contained inside the hot jazz room and apart from some peeling St. Francis wallpaper, a few pieces of decayed (now burned) furniture and the wall facing the exterior of the hotel (including its glass windowpanes), nothing of the original St. Francis room remained after that big shift. b) I suppose Jocasta could make an Occultism-18 roll (normal rating at a +2); she's seen enough of Roger's transformations/possessions in the past to be able to make a decent supposition on what's happened here and I think that the game/the history shift make suppositions like this more likely. c) Only way to see if the walkie is still working is to use it.
Bill I just saw your result. Would you mind if for the crit fail result I said that Roger/Agent Double Zero lost two FP that time around rather than one, so Jo could see Roger visibly starting to weaken?
And honestly that jibes really well with Jo making her Occultism roll.
Leonard
Made the Occultism roll by 6. As for the walkie, she'll wait until we know Mitch is down in the ballroom and is relatively safe. (As far as she knows, there isn't anybody else here -- she doesn't know Archie and Charley are here, right?) After that she'll hail him quickly just to see if it works.
Michael
Unless Roger passed along that Control and Quartermaster are in the building, Jo would not know that.
Leonard
Actually, I remember now that he did -- Agent Double Zero mentioned it when she hailed him in the art room. But I dunno if they have walkies, or if they're on the same frequency, so she'll stick to the plan of just hailing Mitch when he's down and safe.
Bill
Yeah, while 00 is good enough to tell his commander he's in trouble, it's too much to admit to his attractive fellow agent that he came to rescue/impress. He won't outright deny he's in trouble, but he will downplay the hell out of it. (I'm sure Jo has dealt with enough macho bullshit to see right through it.)
Michael
(omg are we going to systematically subvert Cold War secret agent machismo as a trope thanks to a botched Leadership roll I will remind everyone that Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy comes out in June '74)
Bill
(It's the Seventies: time to subvert it all, dirty laundry right into film, go! But, maybe given Agent 00 is practically the Spirit of secret agent machismo, subverting him isn't gonna help with keeping him up and around.)
So, yeah, constant flirting and downplaying his weaknesses and otherwise messing up the whole point of aiding Jo and keeping her "calm and collected": a critical failure.
If the world is still there on the 5th, Roger's gonna be cleaning the pews of San Pedro in the Mission wearing sackcloth for a month.
Michael
So sadly, the obfuscatory and odd behavior of our friend Agent Double Zero is going to prove distracting for Miss Menos. I must at least penalize your first roll, which is Tactics. So @Leonard, give me a Tactics-12 roll when you get a chance.
Leonard
(Yergh, missed it by 1. I don't love that but I do kinda love that...well, it's been a hell of a day, and we're all wearing thin.)
Michael
(Yeah, I kind of love it too. Even the suave and debonair Agent Double Zero isn't built for every situation.)
One more roll, now that I have that one, Leonard: Observation also at 12.
Leonard
(Made that one by 3.)
Michael
Okay. The layout of the three upper floors of the ziggurat defy Jocasta's ability to sort and categorize and lay out in her head; even the sketches of floor plans/maps she tries on What Was Once The Tenth Floor seem to twist in on themselves and not work out geometrically. The individual rooms on WWO10 are all seemingly empty of human habitation; one would have expected a handful of con attendees to be in their rooms during the moment of the Shift, but Jo and Agent 00 poke their heads into enough rooms to deduce that there's nobody here. The rooms themselves are very much like the Hot Jazz Room: a combination of Assyrian and Gilded Age/1970s American architectural and decor features, but much more indicative of the latter. While the stairwells down from 10 have remained the same emergency concrete stairwells as one might see in 1970s America, the stairs up are rickety stone things, winding as if a spiral staircase, putting Jo and Roger intact on 11. What Was Once the Eleventh Floor is fully Sumerian. About the only elements of the St. Francis that remain are the exterior walls and the glass windows; it's like the reality temblor is being contained by the walls of the actual hotel out there. Jo and Roger still see San Francisco out there, but on 11 the view of the city is grey, faded, with colors of neon signs and traffic lights much subdued. 11 was the Party Floor but there's no sign of any of that partying right now and, upon first inspection, no sign of human habitation, just like 10. However, near the end of the one of the winding hallways, Jocasta can hear music. A strange music made on alien-sounding, primitive instruments. And occasionally voices, reassuredly speaking in English. If Jocasta's orienteering is correct, this would be the corner of the hotel that once held the Special Ones' suite.
Leonard
Jocasta will very quietly and stealthily flatten against the wall and see if she can see into the room, if there's a window or if the door is open. If not, she'll try to open it.
Michael
Generally speaking, on 11 there are no more St. Francis doors, just rough-hewn stone archways. Stealth roll, please.
I'll be kind and not assess the Agent Double Zero Loud Chauvinism Penalty
Leonard
(Success by 2 on the Stealth roll.)
Michael
All right. Jocasta sidles up to the open archway, considering all the angles of vision out of the room, and takes a single quick peek at the inside of the room. Unlike the other empty chambers she's seen so far, Jocasta can see this one is furnished for human habitation, with a pair of large beds (more like poufs set on the floor), clay and bronze pots and cups, and a few potted trees, their red leaves sprouting with weird and alien fruits, ruddy and heart-shaped, somewhere between a plum and a pomegranate. Inside the chamber are the Special Ones. I don't think Jocasta's gotten to know them other than the general fact that they exist, but inside Jocasta sees nine young men and women, some playing Sumerian musical instruments, others singing, dancing, and drinking from the cups. Their clothes seem mostly unaffected by the sudden Shift, although Jo can see some very suspect bronze and gold jewelry on both the girls and the boys.
Where the television would have been in the hotel room layout is a free-standing statue about four or five feet high. The figure is male, and the style is overwhelmingly ancient Mesopotamian. The figure's "legs" are hidden under what looks like a segmented coat or cloak, the segments making him look a bit like a half-worm or snake. The torso of the statue wears a mantle and girdle that is lined with stone representations of gems and filigrees. From the figure's shoulders sprout two horned serpents that eventually intertwine in a kind of halo/caduceus above the statue's head. And the statue's head and face differ significantly stylistically from the rest of the statue. It is lifelike in a Greco-Roman style and the face is very clearly Marshall's. Fright check for Jo, Rule of 14 (fail on a 14+).
Leonard
(Made by 2 if that number took her Combat Reflexes into account or by 4 if it didn't.)
Michael
Okay, Jo is cool.
Leonard
Jocasta will slowly retreat back to Roger/Agent Zero and whisper: "It's Marshall's kids, the Special Ones. They're … idolizing him. Literally. There's a statue in there that looks like half bašmu, half Doc Red." She pauses, turning over an idea in her mind. "I don't know if we can count on them or if they've taken on too much enemy influence, and I don't think we have time to find out, but either way, we can't let them get hurt. I might have a solution, though," she says, pulling the halothane canister out of the duffel bag. "What do you think, agent?"
Bill
“How do we herd them down the stairs?”
Leonard
"I don't know if we do. We don't have a lot of time to involve them in games or rhetoric. I'm wondering, if there's no more irruptors up here, if we can't just knock them out and leave them until things stabilize. This will put them under for a good six or eight hours; they'll wake up woozy but nothing worse than a night of drinking. If they're out of the picture, they aren't at risk of getting hurt, but they also can't corrupt anyone else."
Bill
“Let them ‘sleep out off’— good thinking. But after they’re out, we need to take their little god away. Wouldn’t want them to wake early to that— who knows if it could give orders.”
Leonard
"Definitely. I can't wait for Marshall to see it … or maybe he shouldn't."
So, DM question here: what are the odds that we can just pop the top on the halothane and put it by the opening? Since there's no actual door, there's a slight chance they might panic and bolt, which would be bad. But do they seem blissed out enough that they might not notice?
I think this has to be our play either way, but I wanna get a sense of what our level of risk is.
Michael
I guess it would be like rolling any grenade and canister into a room. I have to assume there are rules for it.
I'm willing to not get too too wrapped up in the details but your idea of popping it in the hallway right outside the door and then retreating out of the range of the gas is also fine.
But I will tell Agent Double Zero that he is starting to feel more and more fatigued at retaining control of his cheval's body.
Too bad we couldn't just slap a GU.SHUB on it
Leonard
Hmmm, can't we? Jocasta had some ready to use when she pried off the plaque and we ended up not doing it …
Your call, Mike, otherwise lemme look at Hi Tech 4E to see if there's any specific rules.
Michael
Oh, you still have a GU.SHUB available to use, huh?
Bill
Does Jo have another gas mask?
Michael
That would be a perfect solution.
Leonard
If I recall correctly, we had a couple of GU.SHUBs to use when we lifted the plaque but we didn't use them because there weren't a lot of people around. If you wanna say we can use them here, that's jake, but if not, I get it. I think Jocasta only brought one gas mask but this is a one-person job -- she'll take the corruption and Roger can just head to wherever we're going next. I'll don the mask, slap on the glyph, pop the can and set it right in the doorway, and bolt to join him if nothing goes wrong.
Michael
Yeah, definitely! GU.SHUB away and yes, there will be a Corruption cost but compared to the rest of URIEL's recent escapades a fairly low one
Leonard
We can come back for the statue if needed after the gas dissipates, which should be about 15-30 minutes.
Michael
Ah, right when our wind-up secret agent will be needing a nap himself.
Bill
Yeah, Agent 00 isn’t going to leave while she’s delivering the gas, just in case. This is likely the end when she comes back out, assuming she does.
Leonard
(If only I had a mortuary suit! I could finally do a Prisoner bit!)
Bill
He will make a case that he deliver it, up until the glyph is mentioned. Then he recoils.
Michael
(1 point of Corruption to Jo.)
Leonard
(I'm assuming it's 100% in canon for this game that the Island is run by SANDMAN and it's for people who are too important to kill but have knowingly or unknowingly picked up too much History B taint uh did I just invent a side game)
"I'll handle this one, agent. We'll need you later on." She'll don the mask, deploy the glyph, and pop the top.
Bill
Agent 00 will stealth along to keep Agent Menos in sight, gun out.
Michael
Okay. The gas drops the Special Ones fairly quickly, leaving them unconscious in a matter of minutes. As the last of them begin to succumb, they begin looking frantically around for where this incapacitating gas could come from. The last one standing, a young lady, crawls over to the idol of Doc Red and mutters a barely-audible prayer. Observation check, no penalty, Jo.
Leonard
>>>> SUCCESS
Made by 6.
Michael
DMing you.
Do you two now want to scout out 12 while the gas is soaking in (and dissipating) on 11?
Leonard
I think that’s probably the move, if Roger feels up to it.
Michael
Ok, will wait to hear.
Bill
After Jo comes back, and starts to head up, Agent 00 will silently signal for her to hold up. Once he has her attention, he gives her a look, fairly intense, of scrutiny. “You’re a damned good agent, Menos. You’ve surprised me. Maybe you don’t need me. But, right now, I need you.” (He can’t help but have that drip with innuendo.) “Your Agent Martin: he can’t take much more of this. It galls me, but we need to beat a tactical retreat. He needs you to come down with me, in case he can’t hold on to the good thing he’s got.”
Leonard
"Copy that, agent. You've more than proved yourself," Jocasta responds. She'll get close enough that Roger can lean on her if he needs it, but won't encourage him or directly address it. "Let's get you rested and ready and I have no doubt you'll be the man you always were again."
Bill
Agent 00 does try to make it down the stairs without any aid. (Or is that Roger preventing advances? Up for all kinds of misinterpretation.). But at some point on the way down, likely after another FP loss-imposed stagger, Agent 00 will lean on Agent Menos for a beat.
Leonard
(If this is exhaustion, there's not much she can do, but if there's any application of First Aid that would help here, Jocasta will do it.)
Michael
You can give me a roll!
Leonard
>>>> SUCCESS
Success by 6.
Michael
While Jocasta cannot do much to alleviate Roger's profound fatigue (his vitals qua visual acuity, reflexes, etc. are like those of someone who's been up for 36+ hours) she can tell that the fatigue is coming from a profound source of mental exhaustion, not physical. He needs unbroken rest (and likely to stop being ridden by this loa) to actually get himself back in fighting trim.
Bill
Also he’s tripping balls on back parasite juice, but you know that trip.
Michael
Oh yeah, that level of First Aid would reveal the gagkula wound for sure … not sure if we ever spelled out if Jo knew about that.
Leonard
If there’s anything she can do about the gagkula wound, she will. Otherwise she’ll just get him down to the lobby with a gentle suggestion that Agent Double Zero take some well-deserved R&R and pass on to Roger that he should join Mitch in taking a little break.
Bill
(If Roger got propped in a chair next to Mitch and Carl, it’ll be like the three no-evil monkeys.)
Agent 00’s last words to Jo are “Rain check” with a wink. (Because he’s that guy.)
(Crap, where did Carl get left? I mean, we can still do the three monkeys with zombie Richie. But crap!)
Michael
He's wherever you guys left him. On a chair in the lobby, I think. Although one has to wonder if anyone's taken him to go potty yet.
Bill
As long as he’s not atop the ziggurat and making trouble.
Michael
I mean, he's not
Ohh! Wait!
I got Carl and Rich confused.
Rich is on the chair in the lobby. Carl is up on 12.
Leonard
Once Roger seems settled, Jocasta will take a quick look around to see if everything seems (relatively) under control. If she spots Archie or Charlie she’ll give a quick report on what’s been happening, deliberately not mentioning the Marshall tape or statue, and then head back up. If she doesn’t see either of them, she’ll just go back immediately.
Michael
In the bivouac suite
Leonard
Either way, she’ll stop about halfway up and do a quick guided meditation to see if it might help her spot any kind of History B shenanigans that need to be dealt with, as she no longer has Mitch or Roger to do that heavy lifting.
Michael
All right, one sec, because we've got literally six PCs on the first floor now so one of them is bound to run into the others.
Leonard
No hurry.
Michael
Charley and Jo in the St. Francis ballroom? And if Mitch and Roger are there, and so is Viv, and Archie's going to end up there before too long …