Mitch and Jocasta in the Basement

 

"A girtablullû has a human head and body, vulture wings, raptor legs and talons, and a 5’ scorpion tail."

 
 

Jeff

What ordnance was Mitch able to pick up? His firearms skill is Rifle but it occurs to me that there's something about firing guns indoors without ear protection? What's his effective skill with one of the ikoter long arms?

Michael

I would imagine SANDMAN would have equipped these rifles with suppressors, for both ear safety and for as much stealth as possible. But yes, the Default for ikoter use is Beam Weapons (Projector), or DX-4.

Jeff

Is there a better default from Guns?

Michael

Oh, wait, there is! Guns (Rifle)-4 if you're using a rifle ikoter.

Leonard

I dunno if this is game-relevant since we’ve never had a firefight before, but Jo is using her regular weapon set (the M-14 and the Yugoslav sidearm), and the extra arsenal she brought would be US Army standard issue for the time, so an M-16 and a Colt M1911A. She also snagged a couple each pistol and rifle ikoters, a ton of restraints, and a jumbo container of halothane.

Michael

M-16 would be what former grunt Mitch would be used to, I would imagine.

But yeah, the mundane firearms are all kitted up to the nines with SANDMAN extras. The suppressors seem, like, mandatory for Irruptor-hunting in populated areas.

Jeff

Well, that works out to DX-3 for Mitch instead of DX-4, so, that's something. How good are the noise suppressors? Good enough to prevent tinnitus and also good enough to prevent the gunshots from being heard upstairs?

Leonard

(I don’t necessarily need an answer to this, but to deepen the dungeon-crawl aspect of this, are irruptors vulnerable to terrestrial chemicals or poisons? I know we can just shoot or burn or bomb them, but could we gas them? Jocasta brought the halothane for the human crowd and I think we’re way better off killing these things than knocking them out, but I was just wondering)

Jeff

Do you happen to have the stat lines of the M-16 and the long arm ikoter?

Michael

This feels like it would be a case-by-case, species-by-species Hidden Lore (History B) roll. Some of the Irruptors have special resistances, et al.

Jeff

(Mitch has already used his one-a-day Pyro 6 to neutralize Carl, so...)

Michael

I will paste those in! Also checking High-Tech for Suppressor rules, but figure SANDMAN will have that good TL 7+1 shit.

Jeff, that works out to DX-3 for Mitch instead of DX-4, so, that's something. How good are the noise suppressors? Good enough to prevent tinnitus and also good enough to prevent the gunshots from being heard upstairs?

Leonard

The .45s should be fine. There’s only so much you can silence an M-16 especially if it’s in bronco mode but it works okay in single shot mode. Plus the basement of any large building is usually full on concrete and steel so the basement is probably a little more soundproofed than the rest of the hotel.

Michael

Back in the Day, the Delta Green usenet group (or Yahoo group, can't remember, this was 1999) had a subgroup called the "gunfondlers" who spent inordinate amounts of time statting up real-world firearms. Thank you both for reminding me of those halcyon days.

Leonard

LOL a guy I used to play Twilight 2000 with used to call them “gun love guys.”

Michael

Okay, the rifle ikoter I have on the campaign wiki: '

‘70s Rifle Ikoter

Damage Will-3 Aff, Acc 6, Range 23/70, Weight 10, RoF 1, Shots 16(3), ST 8, Bulk -6, Rcl 1, LC 1.

Jeff

Okay those are some good numbers, Mitch will probably be toting one of those

Leonard

I am unfortunately a bit of a gun nerd but in practical game terms (at least in most games) it doesn’t really matter. The functional difference between 90% of handguns and rifles is so minimal that you have to have a pretty crunchy game for it to be worth figuring.

Michael

I'll get the M-16 stats if it becomes germane. Jo has all her weapon stats on her sheet, yeah?

I will get her a suppressor though, one sec.

Leonard

Yeah hers are on her stat sheet, she may have a pistol suppressor already too.

Michael

The best suppressors provide a -6 to hear the gunshots, so figure SANDMAN has those.

Jeff

M-16 almost certainly has a lower Acc than the ikoter's 6. I'm by no means a stat-out-all-the-guns guy but with Mitch's low skill I wanna stack every positive mod I can scrounge up. That means, ideally, getting down and bracing against the wall and aiming for three seconds before firing, for an effective skill of 18. Actual practice probably a lot less.

Odds the scorpion-man stands there and lets me aim at him: slender?

Michael

I'm having one of those moments where I'm sitting here just looking at two pieces of the Madness Dossier book and wondering … is it said anywhere that ikoters can affect Irruptors? And like, there's no statement one way or the other. Irruptors are immune to Anunnaki programming—fair—but this is most definitely human ingenuity at play here. So I'm going to say, yeah, they have to save vs. Will like anyone else to avoid being Dazed.

But I do know how this encounter is going to start, and we can go from there. So the coin-cleaning office is, like I said, a little internal office with a little window that lets hotel guests peek in at the process, and sitting at his little table is, yes, an older man (who is also, yes, a girtablullû, sorting through the coins and change he's gotten over the past day or so. I'd actually like Jo and Mitch to give me Stealth checks to see if he happens to see/hear you guys approaching.

>>>> SUCCESS

Oh! I think you both should get a +1 to Stealth rolls down here because of Jocasta's tactical analysis the day before the con opened!

So Mitch succeeded by 4.

(I'll probably be assessing tactical bonuses as we go; sometimes these may be canceled out by Irruptor familiarity but I think the important thing for the two of you to realize as you sneak up to the coin-cleaning office and I await Jo's Stealth roll is that the girtablullû is holding its cover as a human at the moment, just polishing away.)

Jeff

Mitch will brace and aim to fire, then.

Michael

Leeeet's just make sure Jo doesn't blow the stealthy approach, this dude does have Danger Sense.

Leonard

>>>> SUCCESS

Made my stealth roll by 3.

BUT

I do want to very quickly lay out Jo's tactical approach here which hopefully will save Michael a little time moving forward:

  1. She's going to start out with her Mini-14, but she's going to have her pistol in reserve and ready to Quick Draw if things get tight.

  2. She's also using Combat Reflexes, which will give her a +1 to all active defense rolls, +1 to Fast Draw, +6 to any IQ rolls made to recover from being stunned or the like, and +2 on Initiative rolls for both her and Mitch, if I'm reading it correctly.

(It also gives +2 to Fright Checks, which I wish I'd remembered the half-dozen or so times I've botched a Fright Check)

That's it!

Michael

We actually do have to roll for Initiative here... which means I have to decipher this Sumerian in the GURPS book, one sec

Jocasta rolls Initiative for both her and Mitch:

1d6+5 (+2 for Combat Reflexes, +1 for Tactics, +1 for higher IQ than the girtablullû, +1 for the Stealth)

The girtablullû rolls 1d6+2 (+2 for Combat Reflexes)

sweet fancy MOSES

Leonard

(got an 11 on the Init roll.)

Michael

All right, so … full Aim maneuvers for both of you will add the Accuracy of the weapon to your gun skills.

If the bullets don't get him maybe the ikoter will, eh?

Leonard

Yeah, Jocasta will also brace and crouch, standard sniper shot

Michael

You both going for a head shot? That would incur a penalty but of course could provide fringe benefits.

Face shot is -5 to the attack.

Also, is Jo going with Rapid Fire? You have a lot of options here.

Leonard

Hold on lemme look up the rules

I don't think I'll go for a headshot, just a standard killshot or cluster to the head/torso/whatever is easier rather than take the penalty. I'm not even sure if their biology works the same way.

Michael

That works. The Mini-14 can let off up to three shots in a round. If you succeed on the attack roll by 2 or 3, you'll land two hits, if you succeed by 4 or 5, you'll land three.

Leonard

Yeah, I think the risk of a cluster shot isn't too bad, so I'll take the full three.

Michael

All right, you may fire when ready.

Leonard

Just rolling a straight Rifle skill check, then, with the +2 for Aim?

If that's the case, I made it by 4.

Michael

Should be a +3, actually. +2 for Aim, +1 for brace.

So you made it by 5 which means you have hit with all three shots of the cluster.

They're 5d piercing each, right?

So 15d6 damage?

Leonard

yeah, 5d piercing

should I roll that too?

Michael

Oh yeah, this is the fun part of GURPS, rolling shitloads of damage dice for a semi-auto weapon

Leonard

nice

55 damage.

Michael

Jesus. Even with DR I think you took the kindly old coin-polisher down with one burst.

Leonard

(Remember in Shadowrun on those rare occasions when you would get to roll like 300 dice for gun damage? Good times)

Michael

I gotta make an HT roll to stay "alive." I get a +5 to this roll because of Hard to Kill but you've got him down to below -1xHP right now which is pretty nasty.

>>>> SUCCESS

The kindly old coin-polisher is still alive but very badly maimed.

Mitch is up next with the ikoter blast.

(The girtablullû is at -23 HP.)

That Hard To Kill 5 is very, very nasty.

Leonard

You're telling me.

Jeff

Well, if Jo shot the hell out of the scorpion-man Mitch will pivot towards readying to shoot at whatever monster comes flying up the hallway in response to the gunfire. Is there a hallway?

Michael

I didn't envision things down to the 5'-square graph paper level but Mitch can absolutely give me a snap Observation roll to see if anyone else is down here in the basement within ear or eyeshot of the sudden firefight.

Basically, you guys came off of the elevator, the barber shop was on your left, and then I envisioned a long hallway leading to a set of swinging service doors (possibly leading to the laundry, boilers, what have you) and then on the right the coin-cleaning shop and other assorted hotel offices and meeting rooms.

>>>> SUCCESS

Jeff

MoS of 6.

Michael

Basically it's very easy for me to narrate that Mitch sees, pushing open the door and entering the basement level from one of the hotel stairwells (the one closest to the barber shop to the left of the elevators), a pair of con-goers, one young man, one young woman, just sort of holding hands, wandering down here, and looking around wide-eyed at the... odd and Sumerian geometries in the corners of the room and the apparent flickering torchlight. Will check for Mitch.

Jeff

>>>> SUCCESS

MoS of 5.

Michael

Not having scanned them with either Aura Sight or Detect, Mitch believes them to be normal humans who have just wandered into the line of sight of a firefight with an ancient demon.

Leonard

Some color for the 'game'!

Michael

Well that depends on how they react as they see smoke rising from the suppressor-covered barrel of a young woman in an expert military brace stance. Mitch? Let me know what you want to do, rifle ikoter in hand.

Jeff

Hm, well, Mitch hesitates, then fires Aura Sight to see if these con kids are con kids or scorpion-men in disguise. It takes him a couple-three seconds, if something would lead him to abort in that time he does and hits the dirt.

>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS

>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS

>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS

After, assuming there's nothing stopping him, he'll use Detect. Once that's done, if the kids seem like normies and they're going to quietly leave without spreading panic, Mitch will let them. If they shriek like folks who failed Fright Checks and want to go blabbing upstairs about their failed Fright Checks, Mitch will panic and try to ikoter them, probably missing. Hopefully Jo can fix things, if that's where we end up. Otherwise, I dunno what Mitch does next.

Michael

They're con kids! Human beings in good health, in their early 20s. And I think given the current snapshot situation and Mitch's peeking at their auras, Mitch with further analysis can see the sort of … cloudy effect that the temblor zone is having on their perceptions and emotions. Just that their reaction to seeing this woman apparently shooting a man in cold blood isn't immediate fright or screaming or their blood running cold, it's just … dull surprise. Mitch is beginning to think (maybe even worry?) that all the baseline non-clued-in humans in this place are starting to take scenes of extreme emotion — violence, love, hate — in a very jaded, Anunnaki sort of way.

So what they're doing right now is remaining, watching what's happening with … a deep, almost prurient curiosity.

Jeff

Well, Mitch isn't immediately shooting them. Assuming that Jo is dealing with the scorpion-man. Our behind him, Mitch will heft his ikoter and stare at the kids in a manner intended to convey, "I am an actor in a nonspeaking role; this is a set piece, part of the game," which if they haven't heard of the game (and they probably haven't) isn't going to make a lot of sense to them except maybe in retrospect, but that's why it's a nonspeaking part.

Michael

It's going to be Intimidation, which defaults to Will-5, but this situation has a heck of a lot of modifiers in your favor: +2 from the violence present (whether or not these kids fully comprehend it considering the girtablullû's presence is uncertain to Mitch but they look more spaced out than a couple of kids who just shared a joint in the stairwell, which they are, thank you, additional piece of information from Aura Sight that Mike forgot he should mention), +2 from the general temblor circumstances; the eerie surroundings, the overall unheimlich atmosphere, and +1 for the oddity of the ikoter: again, Mitch is pretty sure these kids are really high right now and the more odd inexplicable details the better to sort of scare them off. So a straight Will roll against their Will.

>>>> SUCCESS

Success by 2. Mitch's odd stoic stance and waving around of the ikoter sends the two kids back up the back stairwell. So it's time for next round and I need to check out exactly how much the coin cleaner can do given surprise and massive wounds.

The girtablullû's Advantages give it:

  • a +6 to recover from being stunned by surprise (Combat Reflexes)

  • immunity to the effects of shock from damage (High Pain Threshold)

  • a +5 to HT rolls to avoid falling unconscious from damage (Hard to Kill 5)

So I have to roll HT at a +4 (16) to stay conscious and IQ+6 to act this round (16). Rolls coming up, then we can figure out order of actions.

>>>> SUCCESS

The one thing I don't see him having resistance to is the Basic Move hit from having been damaged, so that means that Jocasta and Mitch get to go before he does. And I can tell you, with his cover blown, he's going to emerge from the office, unfold his terrible wings, and swoop towards Jocasta to sting her with his tail (Move and Attack). So Jocasta goes first, then Mitch, then the girt.

Leonard

Jocasta’s going to unload another three rounds. Let’s make this fucking bug earn the Hard to Kill badge.

Michael

Okay, no time to Aim this time so you're going with straight Guns.

I suppose you can still use the scope.

Oh, no, the scope can only be used with the Aim maneuver.

So straight Guns and the girt gets his Dodge defense (halved because he's taken damage; again, I can't see anything in his Advantages that negates the 1/2 Move and Dodge from being at 1/3 of his HP)

Leonard

If I get the brace bonus but not the aim bonus, success by 6.

Michael

>>>> FAILURE

GAH.

So close.

So you hit with another three shots.

Without the Move/Dodge penalty, he would have effortlessly dodged those bullets. Guess Jo shredded his wings.

Leonard

Aw too bad.

52 damage.

Michael

All right, 52 piercing, minus DR 5 x 3 shots - 52-15=37 more damage. That takes him down to negative-60.

So let's see … -17, -34, -51, that means I have to make two HT rolls to avoid death.

From reading Hard to Kill, I fall unconscious if I roll between 12 and 17 on these rolls, very important.

>>>> CRITICAL SUCCESS

Crit success on that one, lol.

I think I'm gonna rule that that triggers the girtablullû's Berserk condition.

So let's see if he survives the last Death check.

>>>> SUCCESS

He does.

So now Mitch has a chance to try and daze him with the ikoter.

Leonard

Oh thank goodness, I don’t think I could deal with being broken in half by a scorpion monster AND being poisoned.

If I do 107 points of damage to this thing in two rounds and it still kills me I’m definitely going to haunt it, BRB going to look up the GURPS rules for “becoming an angry History B ghost.”

“Up next: ‘You don’t know what death is!’”

This bodes well.

Michael

This crash course in real un-spitballed GURPS combat is HIGHLY revealing. We gotta start packing bigger guns.

Leonard

If she survives Jocasta will spend her recovery time in the hospital trying to retrofit a silencer onto a rocket launcher.

(Admittedly these are weird circumstances in a lot of ways: we can’t spare the manpower for a full on assault, the Hard to Kill thing is brutal, and this thing has been rolling crazy good. But RPG combat mechanics, what are you gonna do)

Jeff

>>>> FAILURE

I don't think that hits.

Michael

It does not.

Jocasta can use any of her Active Defenses against a Slam attack: Block, Dodge, or Parry. Now, you've got the rifle in hand so Parrying with it would "ruin" it or possibly even break it since the girt is treated as "a heavy weapon." But you've obviously got Judo too and can Parry with bare hands if you drop your weapon. Or you can just Dodge.

Don't roll yet. Just let me know which option you're choosing and then I'll roll to attack.

Leonard

Jocasta doesn't wanna go toe to toe with this thing at all if she can avoid it, so I think Dodge is the way to go. She'll hold on to the rifle if she can but if it looks like it'll interfere with the efficacy of the dodge, she'll let it drop.

Michael

Nah, you can definitely hold onto the rifle. Okay, let's see what this scorpion can do.

>>>> SUCCESS

That's a hit, go ahead and dodge.

Leonard

>>> FAILURE

Sigh.

Failed by 2.

Michael

Okay, DX roll to avoid falling down.

>>>> SUCCESS

>>> 1d6 … 3

And 3 damage.

Leonard

Does the ballistic vest reduce that any? It's 8/2 DR with the lower number applied to non-piercing/non-cutting attacks.

Also, made the DX roll.

Michael

I think it does, yeah, so 1 damage.

And we're back up to the top of the order but the bad news is that now that Berserk has been triggered in the girtablullû, its Move returns to normal and it acts first despite being near-mortally wounded. But before ANY of that I have to make my two HT rolls to stay conscious and alive. Both have such a bonus now thanks to Berserk that I only fail on a 17/18.

>>>> SUCCESS

>>>> SUCCESS

Okay, now that it's in melee with Jocasta it doesn't need to Slam and will try to use its tail on her.

Dodge again?

Or do you want to try Judo?

Leonard

Hmmmmm.

Well.

Not to get too super nerdy with these goddamn GURPS rules, but:

Michael

Please, do.

Leonard

(1) I'm still very unclear on what Kliel does. Does it confer any advantages that would enhance my ability to parry?

(2) I don't exactly understand how the Retreat rules work either. Basically, my main problem here is that since this thing has soaked up six direct hits from a rifle at close range and is still after us, I don't think dropping the rifle -- basically the heaviest ordnance we have -- and switching to hand-to-hand combat is very wise. Jocasta is a good fighter but she's not strong and I seriously doubt punching or kicking or throwing this thing will do any good, so that's why I'm inclined to hold on to the rifle and retreat/dodge. We can't do a war of attrition with this thing, it's too tough and we're too weak.

(3) But! Reading the Judo rules, it seems like maybe I could do a Judo parry with one hand while holding onto the rifle with the other? That would give me at least a slight advantage over Dodge.

Michael

(1) I'm still very unclear on what Kliel does. Does it confer any advantages that would enhance my ability to parry?

Yeah! I think that's your best option, honestly. Jo's tactical analysis (I just rolled) is that this thing cannot survive another three-round burst like the last two you've put into it. It's spewing foul ichors everywhere from six bullet holes. Its wings are shredded, its eyes are rolled back in its head and it just wants to blindly lash out and kill.

So yeah, hold onto that rifle with one hand and parry with the other like a bad-ass.

Kleil just lets you do cool combos … it does provide you with the ability to do a Telegraphic Attack that protects you from psychic attack but that's not very germane considering this scorpion-man is in full berserk mode.

Leonard

Way to waste all my training hours, Matthias Jabs.

Whew, made the Parry roll by 2.

Jeff

Jo shot it a total of six times for a total of 107 damage, it apparently has DR 5 so that's 77 damage. No amount of Hard to Kill can keep something alive past -5xHP, or -85 if it has 17 HP as I think was indicated before, that's a total of 102 damage post DR that we need to do to drop it, since it's a demonic monster that won't die of shock before that. So, one way to look at it: Jo is 77/102ths of the way there! And she's only taken 1 damage (I'm a little sus of the thing's best melee being a 1d6 slam but who knows, it's a demon with Hard to Kill 5) which means that the demon is only 1/11th of the way to even putting her at risk of unconsciousness... sorry Mike

Michael

The slam was a crappy attack necessitated by the Berserk rules.

An embarrassment to the Anunnaki overlords.

Leonard

This is like when I tried to build a car using GURPS Vehicles.

Michael

Jo successfully parries the tail, carefully avoiding the stinger (thank you, Judo, one of the best skills in the GURPS pantheon).

Okay, so now it's Jocasta's turn again.

Luckily the girt went All-Out Attack (again, because of Berserk) last round, hoping to do extra damage but your Parry saved your bacon.

It cannot use an Active Defense this round.

Step back and fire away.

Leonard

Yeah, sorry to be boring, but same deal.

Michael

At this point, Jo is right, this is the only feasible way to kill this thing: massive damage.

Leonard

Shit, made it, but only by 3.

Someday I'll get a crit in this game and it will be highly comical.

I'll take Charley to a fun fair and crit on that game where you blow up a balloon with a water pistol.

Michael

Success by 3 gets you 2 rifle rounds hitting out of three.

Leonard

A relatively puny 30.

Michael

So that's 20 more damage.

Jeff

Well, see, after DR that's still 20 more which puts the total damage count at 97 so we just need 5 more to kill it

Michael

And I have to make ANOTHER HT roll. Fail on 17-18.

>>>> SUCCESS

Mitch!

Jeff

Under the circumstances I think my best bet is trying to bake it. Mitch tries to light it on fire.

>>>> SUCCESS

He successfully attempts to light it on fire. It might take as many as 2 points of damage, which is 40% of what we need. I know it's not great but it's more likely to be helpful than the wild shots he'd be making with the ikoter under the circumstances, I think his effective skill would be like 7.

Anyway it makes a Will roll and burns a little if it fails.

Leonard

(I'm choosing not to give any mental space yet to the strong likelihood that this is only one of possibly many irruptors down here).

Jeff

There's four more, five total, I said.

Michael

Will roll.

>>>> FAILURE

That's a failure.

Jeff

Bull-demons won't burn, let's find out if scorpion-demons do.

Michael

Oh, it has no especial fire resistance. It's aflame.

Jeff

Great, at the current rate I can melt it in … just enough time for it to mangle us both to death first.

Michael

Time for two more saves, one vs. unconsciousness, one vs. death.

>>>> SUCCESS

>>>> SUCCESS

Jeff

I think Berserk might mean you don't need to make those rolls anyway.

Michael

No you do, you just get an insane bonus.

Hence it coming down to a 17+

It's going to go for another try with its scorpion tail on Jocasta.

>>>> SUCCESS

NOT a crit.

Time for Judo Parry.

Leonard

Ugh. Not this time. Missed it by...4. Not a critical failure, I don't think? But a failure for sure.

Michael

Yeah. Just rolled damage. Your DR brings it down to 2, multiply that by 2 for impaling, that's 4 more damage to Jocasta.

And the poison. Which I will not have you roll for quite yet.

Leonard

So this counts as a piercing attack, the tail?

Michael

It's impaling. Does your ballistic vest give you 8-level protection against imp?

Leonard

(not questioning the roll, just seeing what I'm up against)

Nope, 8 level is just for piercing or cutting. I assume impaling means I'd use the 2 level.

Michael

Yeah, that's what I'd assumed too.

You've got a 20-round clip, right, so you can keep firing?

Leonard

yep, down 9 so far so i'll keep at it

Made the roll by 4 this time.

Michael

Full 3 rounds into this thing. You can roll if you like, but this final burst is going to take it DOWN.

Leonard

61.

Michael

A smoldering, multiply-bullet-riddled scorpion man falls to the hard marble floor of the basement of the St. Francis hotel.

Leonard

fffffuck

Just to be sure, Jocasta is going to put a couple (suppressed) pistol shots in its face.

Michael

Jocasta looks at her arm where the girtablullû hit her and there's a nasty foul-smelling amber paste seeping into the wound.

Leonard

She'll reload first, then see if there's anything she figures she can do with a first aid kit. After that, she'll sigh heavily, see if Mitch is okay, and then say, "Well, what next?"

"Also, should we, uh … display this fucking beast? To make the 'game' more real? Or would that be too real?"

Michael

The body is not fading away into History B, that's for damn sure. Things in the hotel are too friendly to History B at the moment to cause un-creation.

Jeff

"Shit, it got you. Shit." Mitch is aware the girtablullû have a venom in their tails. What can we do for her, he asked his First Aid skill he didn't have?

Michael

Hidden Lore (History B), the two of you.

You know what, Leonard, Jocasta's got Naturalist, roll that shit too

>>>> SUCCESS

>>>> SUCCESS

>>>> SUCCESS

So both of you know from training that girtablullû venom basically acts the same as our regular Earth scorpions' venom in that it acts as a neurotoxin; more evidence that the Anunnaki used Earth DNA to create their servitor monstrosities. But of course the sheer size of this thing means it delivers much more venom in one sting. The good news is, mundane First Aid can help ameliorate the worst of the effects of the venom.

So what I'd like to do is have Mitch try to lavage the wound aided by Jocasta. Jocasta will roll just regular First Aid to aid, and then Mitch will roll his Default First Aid, aided by Jo's roll and then a +3 for a SANDMAN first aid kit (which contains handy anti-toxins which, while not guaranteed to work against every scorpion man, are a decent prophylactic against full on nerve-death).

>>>> FAILURE

No damage yet, but Jo feels the poison inside her.

So Mitch and Jo go to the nearest restroom to try to lavage the wound (as I mentioned) and Jo and Mitch do their best ... but a minute or two after the wound was inflicted, Jo begins to feel some numbness near and around the wound, and an occasional sharp electric keening in her left hand (I'm assuming a left-arm wound makes the most sense given the parrying).

Leonard

"Shit, Mitch. This thing got to me worse than I thought," Jocasta says through gritted teeth. "I know there's more of these things down here to deal with, and that they've got their hands full upstairs, but I think we gotta call someone and see if at least there's a hotel doctor or something." She lights up a Slim.

"Thanks. You did good."

Jeff

Aura sight.

>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS

>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS

>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS

Michael

Mitch can see the venom coursing through Jo's system. He is confident that this will not kill her. 100% confident. But it might make the next 4-8 hours extremely distracting and painful. Exertion might be something to consider avoiding.

Jeff

"Okay, the good news is, it's like a nonlethal toxin, or maybe a nonlethal dose. That's good. We lucked out there. The bad news is, you're already feeling some symptoms, that's going to get worse before it gets better," Mitch says as he lights a cigarette of his own, one he found on the floor.

"In a perfect world you could just sleep it off. You'll metabolize it, be fine by this time tomorrow I'm sure. But, uh, yeah. I dunno if we didn't get the antivenom in fast enough or if it's the wrong kind or, hell, maybe the antivenom is what's going to ensure you're alive and cranky in the morning. I don't know." Mitch shrugs distractedly.

"You think they'd stab me, if I tried to negotiate with them? There's like four more down here. I've seen two different kusarikku and been unscathed. I think they want me alive. Not everybody may have gotten that memo, though."

Leonard

"Shit. Well, if they want you alive, it's not for anything good; I've seen what they do to living people's minds." She gestures towards her bag, hoping there's some Modafinil in it.

"If I can stay awake, I can help," she says with only a little uncertainty in her voice. "We should probably call Roger, though — see what we should do from here, maybe ask if there's a doctor in the house." She pauses again, looking around (Michael, maybe an Observation check to see if anything seems amiss) for signs of an imminent threat. "How about you? You doing okay?"

Michael

Go for it.

>>>> SUCCESS

Jeff

We left Roger like a minute and a half ago, right? So we can just turn around and head back up, if we want.

"I'm fine," Mitch says as he tries to see scorpion-men through the walls with his Detect ability.

>>>> SUCCESS

>>>> SUCCESS

Michael

Whether it's the recent combat, the bruising and wounding and the toxin making its way through her veins, or just the continued slippage of the hotel into History B, Jo's perceptions are starting to feel weird down here. She can't hear any other people down here; usually this level of the hotel would have people going back and forth to the service areas, to the guest services, and especially to and from the parking garage (Padden and Hall must have locked it down, good job boys, Jo thinks while wincing), but it's quiet enough to hear the buzz of the few remaining lit fluorescent lights.

The proportions and architecture of the basement go from Gilded Age-era hotel to Sumerian ziggurat in a flash in some forgotten part of Jo's ape-brain; the whole experience, it's not unlike tripping, now that Jo is thinking about it; two worlds, one perception. She can't hear the click-clack of girtablullû talons on marble, or anything else suspicious in the distance. The basement is eerily, maybe even completely, empty of human (or other) habitation.

No other sources of overt, concentrated History B energy between here and the parking garage (that radius covers the entire basement level).

Leonard

Jocasta thinks she's starting to feel the effects of the venom.

"It's sure quiet down here, Mitch." She pauses for a beat and says, "too quiet." Then a woozy giggle.

Jeff

"I'm not seeing any more of the scorpion-men right now." Mitch crosses towards the coin-polishing office, which requires stepping over the mangled monster-corpse. "Maybe they went out through the garage?"

Moving to be able to see whatever's pinging the Detect in the office, check it out. Can roll Observation if it makes a difference.

"There were five of them," Mitch says for like the fourth time.

Leonard

"I feel like we're the only people down here, Mitch. I wonder if we can just seal the basement and contain it? I don't think they could have gotten out," she recalls.

"My FBI guys have the outside locked down pretty tight. We would have heard something." She fiddles around with her rifle, holding it loosely and making sure the clip is tight.

"Hey, Mitch," she says suddenly, with a tiny edge of fear in her voice. "Don't leave me, okay?"

Jeff

Mitch turns his head towards her at that, nonplussed. It's not clear whether he's surprised that she might want him to stick close, or that she's worried he'd leave unexpectedly.

The coin-polishing office is only a few feet away, right? The scorpion-man was able to close with Jo quickly, I assumed it was maybe ten feet to where the coin-polisher had been polishing coin.

Michael

Yeah, it totally is! I just wasn't sure if Mitch were stopping for dramatic purposes or not. Right! Let's go reality shard digging.

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