Marshall Throws a Party
Thursday. May 24, 1973.
Michael
All right, so at 11 am on Friday morning there's a panel called "Psychographic Segmentation And You: How To Do 'Soul Work' On Your Listeners." Moderated by Emanuel Denby, panelists include Harold Mendelsohn, Tom Donahue and Joyce Saxon. Denby is going to use the field of market segmentation and focus groups to tell local radio station programmers, ad men, and executives how to survey their audiences, tailor a music format to that audience, and most importantly SELL AD TIME to those same listeners.
Brant
So on Thursday night, before the Friday conferences, Marshall will invite a few of the cooler-seeming attendees to his suite to party — he will also insist Mitch join them. We don't need to RP anything out unless you want to, but it's gonna be a swinging '70s hotel party, coke and booze, young people maybe brought in from town, you know. Not like, destroy the hotel suite party, but a Real Good Time.
Michael
So I finally came up with the best way to model this party idea, Brant: give me a roll on your Savoir-Faire (Celebrity) skill, straight-up. That will determine the precise level of hipness in the room.
Brant
>> SUCCESS by 1
Michael
So Marshall circulates down at the bar, at the check-in desk for the Carnival, and out in the garden (where a few hip radio folks are surreptitiously sharing a joint near the topiary animals) and seeds the room party as best he can. Likewise, a quick cab ride into Estes Park to find out where the young hip kids hang out in town brings in a few snow bunnies passing through town before heading to higher elevations to ski.
All in all, a pretty good crowd shows up. Maybe none of the super big names drop in — I would imagine that at the very least you get the hip contingent with Tom Donohue, Dr. Hip, and some of the music industry folks like Richard Perry and Nes himself — but there's booze and drugs and everyone does seem to be having a very good time. Given all the chemicals that both Marshall and Mitch have imbibed, it is probably time for both of you to give me Carousing rolls.
Jeff
>> CRITICAL FAILURE
OH NOOOOOOOOOO
NOOOOOO
AAAAAAAUGH
Brant
>> SUCCESS by 0
Michael
laughs
So the way I'm going to read this confluence of rolls is the following: Marshall circulates throughout the party, keeping conversations lively and making sure he notes everyone's names, proclivities, and respective social presences. As Marshall passes the various drugs to keep the party going, Mitch manages to take twice as much of everything as he should. (I'm going to tell the rest of this scene through Mitch's quite uncertain and drug-addled eyes.)
Mitch sits in one of the room's only chairs as the party passes by around him. At one point, Nesmith walks in and someone hands Mitch a guitar as the three of them: Nesmith, MJ, and Nesmith's house guitarist "Dr." Bob Warford, put together some thrilling guitar harmonies to rounds of rousing applause. Mitch is sort of on automatic at this point, his deeper skills allowing him to keep up on guitar but not much else. The party gets really crowded around midnight, as people from the hotel start to congregate there on their own, spilling out into the hallway. More and unusual folks seem to slip into the event: more folks from town, it looks like, with ski tags on their jackets and fresh doobs and acid to contribute to the party. (Mitch has a little of all of them.)
The crowd gets younger and less convention-y. At one point, a giant dark-haired dude — 6’7” if he's an inch — walks in, also outfitted for the slopes more or less. He speaks with a booming voice with a vague European accent; much of the crowd seems to know who he is by the mutters abroad:, but no one can quite agree on who: a Swiss Olympic skier? A champion weightlifter? A bodybuilder moved to the U.S. to break into films? No one's quite sure.
Will rolls for both Marshall and Mitch.
Jeff
>> SUCCESS by 1
Brant
>> SUCCESS by 5
Michael
Awesome. So in the midst of all this, as the weightlifter-looking dude circulates around the party, drawing equal parts unabashed stares and pointed mutterings, Marshall gets a good close look at him. (Brant, going to private-message you something in a moment that will go here in the narrative.) This big dude does give Mitch a very pointed stare, then walks over to Marshall.
"Dr. Redgrave," he says in clearly French-accented English. "A pleasure to meet you. Perhaps we could speak … outside."
To Mitch's drug addled eyes, Marshall is just standing there with a drink in his hand while the bodybuilding cross-country skier stands and stares down at Marshall. The big dude's mouth doesn't seem to be moving but it's almost like Marshall is paying attention to him ... listening to him?)
Jeff
Aura sight on this big guy, obviously
Michael
One sec.
Jeff
I don't know how Mitch's evident impairment interacts with it
Michael
That's what I'm looking up actually. Give me a Will roll to start off.
Jeff
>> SUCCESS by 1
Michael
As Mitch looks to activate his aura sight, he gets a little woozy. The combination of drugs and alcohol he's imbibed means the first flash of aura from this dude makes it look like he's nine feet tall; like, his aura actually starts a couple feet above his head. But that dies down as Mitch tries to concentrate a little harder. Give me a Aura Reading skill roll at a -11.
Jeff
Heh ok
>> CRITICAL FAILURE
Somehow I crit failed that
Michael
Yes you did.
The man's aura is indescribable. It is literally like nothing you have ever seen … or perhaps more accurately nothing you can remember you've seen. But in the depths of your mind, in the areas that Mitch doesn't sufficiently explore because of amnesia or trauma, there is a memory being jogged there as Mitch's aura sight just … slips off this man. Fright check at a -5.
(this turned into a wild party)
(also, after we finish the Fright Check we need to roll for Pyro-k)
Jeff
Fright.
>> FAILURE by 1
Pyro.
>> SUCCESS by 9
Michael
Missed by 1. So first thing we'll do is roll the Fright Check results, a 3d6+1 roll on the Madness Dossier-modified Fright Check table. And finally, on a 6 or less Mitch hears voices.
Jeff
>> 3d6+1 … 9
>> 3d6 … 9
Michael
Want to roll a d6 for me on the Short-Term Conditions table?
Jeff
>> 1d6 … 2
Michael
Aphasia for 2d6 seconds. Wonderful!
>> 2d6 … 10
Jeff
Super
Michael
And finally, both of you have to take some Corruption from our mysterious visitor. Brant, you resisted successfully, so you're going to roll 1d6-2. Jeff, you didn't, so you get 1d6 Corruption.
Jeff
>> 1d6 … 1
Brant
>> 1d6-2 … 2
Michael
Mitch remains surprisingly incorruptible! It's up to you, Brant: we can pick up tonight with the Mysterious Stranger asking to speak outside and Mitch stammering and aphasiac, or we can move on a little bit now. Your call.
Brant
Let’s pick up tonight.