Y'know, for the worst prison in the world, the diamond mines aren't actually that bad. Well, I'm not saying I'd like to build a summer home here, but the rocks are actually quite lovely.
[We've spent a day or so in the diamond mine prison and have come to an important conclusion about the five guys who arrived with us.]
Ariel: "They were all pretending they knew more about this prison."
Julie: "Clearly not."
Brock: "They're just not scared yet."
[We speak to Genevieve, the leader of our 50-person cadre by virtue of the fact that she's been here the longest, just over a season.]
Jimmy Croyden: "We recognize our crime against humanity and are here to work hard."
Genevieve: "Well, Prophet bless you."
[Recall that Jimmy is currently being played by Brock, both so that he'll have something to do and so that Georges the GM doesn't have to keep having conversations with himself. That said, he hasn't given Brock a lot of Jimmy's backstory.]
Genevieve: "You a Badlander?"
Jimmy Croyden: "..."
[We reflect on the members of our cadre.]
Lyta: "Nice enough people for hardened criminals."
[On one of our work shifts, one of the four main prison gangs start "the cull" early, rounding up all us new folk and herding us away. Lyta tries to protect her friends... and winds up rolling abysmally poorly on her attacks, four times in a row.]
Lyta: "When I get this, it'll be very impressive."
[Instead of being herded up, we follow the legless water-bearer Jacobi, and are locked into a large room by one of the leaders of his gang.]
Jimmy Croyden: "Who would have thought there'd be a prison in a prison?"
[Josh wasn't in attendance for a second session in a row, so his character Ennik wasn't really doing much. Like helping us plan.]
Ennik: "Right now, I'm so nicotine-deprived I can barely think."
Lyta: "I could hit you and give you some adrenaline."
Ennik: "Thanks, no."
[What do you do when you're locked in a poorly-lit, otherwise-empty room with no real sense of when you're getting out?]
Jimmy Croyden: "I'm gonna take a nap."
Torgath: "If you want, I can quote Takanishi Mura's poetry."
Jimmy Croyden: "Yeah, that'll put me right to sleep."
[The gang that we seem to have thrown our lot in with are the Baddies, led by Mira Dor.]
Torgath: "I'm glad we're with you. The other groups seem like psychopaths."
Mira Dor: "I don't know how you think things work down here, but we're all psychopaths."
[There's only one rule of being with the Baddies: no fighting.]
Jacobi: "Fighting bad for self-control. No fighting."
Lyta: "...Right."
[Among the Baddies is a woman named The Librarian. She oversees the small library of physical books and the much larger library of books she's memorized.]
Torgath: "Do you... know things?"
[Also among the Baddies is one of the two people we're here to rescue, Major Baakov.]
Major Baakov: "What brings you here?"
Lyta: "Well, part of the reason is you."
Brock: "Make sure you communicate to him that we're not here to assassinate him."
[Lyta tries to tell Baakov what's been happening with his confederate, Jan Sebastopol. Sadly, she gets him mixed up with Jan Mayen. GRELs are all the same, right?]
Julie: "Oh, Lyta, purveyor of GREL misinformation everywhere."
[Lyta presents the other reason we're here.]
Lyta: "Do you know a woman named Christina Katchelli?"
Major Baakov: "...Hmm."
Lyta: "That's a yes."
[It turns out that Katchelli has been named queen of the Subs gang, the crazy faction of the prison. She's been a somewhat destabilizing element.]
Lyta: "So what you're saying is that no one would mind if she was gone, except maybe her."
Major Baakov: "...That would be accurate."
[Katchelli is now known as Persephone, having been named by Geddy, the leader of the Subs. Torgath understands the mythical reference, but may be reading too much into things.]
Torgath: "Can we convince him that she needs to stay down here for six months and go up to the surface every six months?"
Lyta: "How crazy is this guy?"
[Baakov gives a succinct summary of life in the diamond mines.]
Major Baakov: "Everyone down here needs to be some form of crazy. Otherwise, they go insane."
[Jimmy reflects on Torgath's plan.]
Jimmy Croyden: "You realize this is an instrument of control, not a religion that he's bought into."
Torgath: "Give him some heroin, and he'll totally buy into it."
Jimmy Croyden: "...Right."
[Lyta presents the rest of her team.]
Major Baakov: "I assume anyone who came with you, you trust implicitly."
Ariel: "Except for Jimmy."
Brock: "The man with the exit plan."
Julie: "I trust him to get us out of here."
Brock: "Well, at least himself."
[Baakov explains the law of the land among the Pribas and the Subs gangs.]
Major Baakov: "Everyone does what they want to do, so long as they're strong enough to do it."
[Jimmy has a plan.]
Lyta: "What do you think?"
Jimmy Croyden: "I think we need to Fistful of Dollars this."
Lyta: "What does that mean?"
Georges the GM: "It means he's understood."
Julie: "Lyta hasn't."
[Yes, Jimmy's plan is to play the Pribas and the Subs off each other, getting them to go to war, and stealing away Katchelli in the process.]
Lyta: "You know we have two days, right?"
Jimmy Croyden: "Then you'd better work fast."
[So, just to summarize, Baakov is with the Baddies, Katchelli is with the Subs, and our way out is through the Pribas.]
Georges the GM: "Now you see why I placed strategic things... strategically."
[Baakov agrees to help us and come with us.]
Major Baakov: "To be perfectly honest, I believe most people down here deserve to be here."
Jimmy Croyden: "Good."
[As an addendum to the plan, we're also going to communicate to the Libs, the gang composed of ex-CEF military, that we have Baakov and are willing to hand him over in exchange for membership. Just to make things even more chaotic.]
Jimmy Croyden: "I like this plan."
Lyta: "You like it because you don't have to do anything in it."
Jimmy Croyden: "Well, other than the talking, the negotiating, and the convincing."
Lyta: "That's fair. I don't want to do any of those things."
[We don't technically need the Libs, but once you've got two gangs involved, why not a third?]
Torgath: "So the Libs control nothing of importance to us?"
Lyta: "No. They're just gonna be the wildcard thorn in our side. I know how this works."
[First step: talk to Mira Dor and make sure she's okay with us taking out Katchelli.]
Torgath: "You may know her as... Persephone."
Brock: "Jimmy gives you a glare."
Julie: "Now you know how I feel all the time."
[Mira Dor is not on board with the plan.]
Mira Dor: "The Baddies can't condone the killing of another."
Jimmy Croyden: "What can you condone?"
[Mira Dor explains that if we go through with the "vendetta," we won't be able to re-join the Baddies.]
Ariel: "Do we need to come back here?"
Brock: "No. But we don't want to give the impression that we don't want to come back here."
[We try to decide on the precise timing of the plan.]
Jimmy Croyden: "Too early would be workable."
Major Baakov: "Too late would mean..."
Lyta: "We'd need to wait a week."
Major Baakov: "Unrealistic."
Lyta: "Especially in the middle of a war we just started."
Major Baakov: "Quite."
[We continue to ponder the question of timing.]
Jimmy Croyden: "I have no idea how long this would take."
Lyta: "Can't say I've ever started an underworld war before."
[We come to the conclusion that it won't actually take that long.]
Georges the GM: "You don't need to plan the logistics of the battle. It's like, 'Let's go beat their asses!' 'Yeah!'"
[Lyta insists that we inform Baakov of our plan to use him as bait for the Libs.]
Lyta: "One thing I've learned lately is that if we're using someone as bait, we should tell them first."
[It all comes down to dice rolling, in the end.]
Ariel: "Can I get a specialization in survival: prison?"
Georges the GM: "If you stay long enough, sure."
[Baakov mentions that the Baddies, with whom we are currently staying, have amassed a stockpile of diamonds, allowing them to do other things with the rest of their time.]
Torgath: "So are we stealing diamonds?"
Lyta: "That would be a really stupid idea."
Ariel: "Does Jimmy want to steal diamonds?"
Georges the GM: "He really, really does."
[Of course, to steal the diamonds, you need to know where the diamonds are.]
Jimmy Croyden: "So where is this stockpile of diamonds?"
Julie: "...He asks, a little too eagerly."
[Lyta is not thrilled with Jimmy's line of questioning.]
Lyta: "Please don't go and do anything stupider than we're already planning on doing. Please?"
Jimmy Croyden: (turning on the charm) "Now, why would you go and suggest I'm planning on doing something like that?"
And that's it for this week. Next week: underworld war! Fighting and mayhem! And, hopefully, our escape! Yay! ...I hope!
Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
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