Back into the thick of things! Well... sorta. Mostly last night's session was about setting up for the next mission and preparing to wrap up the current one, but still. Yay gaming!
[Our Heroes (tm) are on a caravan to Lance Point, with their rescued prisoners. One of them is a crazy woman who once tried to kill us.]
Georges the GM: "Before you left, you arranged to have Katchelli--"
Ariel: "Frozen in carbonite?"
Julie: "I wish."
[The siblings are reunited.]
Lukas: "I have to say, this is a legendary operation."
Georges the GM: "I was waiting for 'legendary disappointment.'"
[Lyta has informed Lukas that Ennik tried to usurp the mission while we were down in the mine.]
Lukas: "I need to talk to Ennik. We may need to kill him."
[Lukas and Torgath arrive at Ennik's hotel room.]
Ennik: "Can I offer you a diminutive drink?"
Lukas: "Are you having one?"
Ennik: "No, just water."
Lukas: "Give me two -- I'll drink for you."
[Lukas brings up the whole 'usurping the mission' thing.]
Lukas: "Well, there's business, and then there's being an asshole."
[There is also the issue of Jimmy Croyden, who wanted to adjust the mission parameters so that we didn't leave without diamonds.]
Ennik: "He tried to sell you out."
Lukas: "With who?"
Ennik: "With me."
Lukas: "...Uh-huh."
[Torgath, of course, has his own grievances.]
Torgath: "You were mean to Lyta!"
Ennik: "And what would have happened if we'd left right after getting Bakov from the Baddies?"
Torgath: "...You were mean to Lyta!"
[The conversation comes around to Ennik's own mission, i.e. getting out Bakov for Doc Chambers.]
Ennik: "I'm willing to bet that I'd trust Chambers over whoever hired you, and I don't even know who that is."
[Ennik and Lukas agree to a parting of ways.]
Ennik: "I already got what I want, to an extent."
Torgath: "So your sisters are out?"
Julie: "Ah, influence -1. I love it."
[Georges the GM sums up the resolution.]
Georges the GM: "Ennik also has -1 influence, so this has to end badly."
[Next up: a discussion with the Croydens about the information that Ennik let slip and about the resolution of payment.]
Lukas: (to Torgath) "If you have to start shooting, shoot Billy first. And don't miss."
[Recall that for the duration of the mine mission, Jimmy Croyden was being played by Brock. But now that we're out, Georges the GM has re-instituted his NPC status.]
Lukas: "Everything I wanted to have happen, happened."
Jimmy Croyden: "Well, isn't that marvelous?"
Julie: "Jimmy's got his accent back! Yay!"
[Jimmy lays out the job he's contracting us for, i.e. fleecing Doc Chambers. Part of this will be Jimmy impersonating a black-market fence.]
Jimmy Croyden: "I think I have a fairly good sense of what he knows and what I can project."
Lukas: "I don't think you have any sense of the scale of his operations."
Jimmy Croyden: "Well, if all this is as you say, then I'll just have to go in as the most reputable person I know: myself."
[Jimmy proposes to pull a con job on Doc Chambers, letting him know that we have a certain black-market item called "quicksilver," which we in fact won't have. Lukas suggests he may be able to acquire actual information on the item.]
Jimmy Croyden: "The going price is... Well, I won't tell you, because it'll affect my negotiations."
[Lukas sends of a message to Nicosa Renault asking if she knows anything about the quicksilver.]
Brock: "Of course she knows. She has to know. She's the person who knows these things!"
[Nicosa Renault replies relatively quickly.]
Nicosa Renault: "What do you know about the item?"
Lukas: "...It's desirable."
[In a somewhat shocking breach of protocol, Nicosa Renault calls Lukas on his standard, unsecured phone line.]
Nicosa Renault: "This is your Auntie N."
Ariel: "Is it real?"
Georges the GM: "You think so."
Ariel: "It's not someone impersonating the accent? Someone vaguely Irish?"
[Torgath sends a message double-checking that it is, in fact, Nicosa Renault. She replies back the same way.]
Nicosa Renault: "I appreciate your..."
Ariel: "Security?"
Julie: "Diligence? Precautions?"
Nicosa Renault: "Paranoia."
[Renault informs us that she knows little about the quicksilver except that the Bear is also looking for it and may come after it. Lukas returns to his conversation with Jimmy.]
Jimmy Croyden: "Is that your good news face? I can only half-tell."
[Lukas suggests Jimmy remove the quicksilver as the bait for the operation.]
Jimmy Croyden: "You realize you're taking out a rather critical part of my plan."
Lukas: "But you do want to live."
Jimmy Croyden: "...I do."
[Lukas continues to press Jimmy to avoid using the quicksilver. Jimmy remains reluctant.]
Jimmy Croyden: "This is a holy grail of sorts..."
Julie: "In other words, the GM planned this out for the next three months."
Georges the GM: "No... I mean, yes, but... Damn my NPCs and their conflicting goals!"
[The first step of any plan is getting to Khayr ad-Din and unloading our prisoner-turned-hostage. The way to get there: the gamma maglev.]
Julie: "No one tries to kill us this time?"
Georges the GM: "Nope."
Julie: "Awesome!"
[We've got a four-hour train ride ahead of us, with no one trying to kill us. This is highly unusual.]
Brock: "Lukas will wander the train, looking for a random encounter."
Georges the GM: "It doesn't find out. But it does find Torgath."
[The random encounter turns out to be Calisteria, the girl who's smitten with Torgath.]
Georges the GM: "She sits on our lap and talks your ear off about everything she's done since she last saw you, in chronological order."
Ariel: "I try to parse it like a boring part of a novel."
[Meanwhile, Lukas has found Calisteria's mother, Esmeralda.]
Esmeralda Fenn: "He should watch out -- she fancies him."
Lukas: "I imagine that'll make him greatly awkward."
Esmeralda Fenn: "No, I mean he should watch out for me. Because she fancies him."
[Calisteria tries to kiss Torgath, and he does not kiss back.]
Georges the GM: "She storms off."
Torgath: "...I'm sorry?"
[Esmeralda is on the train with Ennik, going to Khayr ad-Din to deliver some Gear parts. She claims she's sent them on ahead.]
Lukas: "So you drive a caravan, but you sent the parts ahead on a different caravan?"
Esmeralda Fenn: "Yup."
Lukas: "Is that really the story you're going with?"
[Esmeralda gets a phone call, comes back, and pulls Ennik aside urgently.]
Brock: "So what skill would lipreading come under?"
[Lukas doesn't need to wait long to find out.]
Ennik: "I need to ask you a favor."
Lukas: "...Let me just turn around and gloat for a second."
[Turns out some people have kidnapped Calisteria and are asking for Esmeralda's Gear parts -- some fancy neural nets -- in exchange. Ennik asks the PCs for their help in making sure things go smooth. There's just one small problem.]
Brock: "What firearms do we have with us?"
Georges the GM: "None -- they don't allow them on the train."
Brock: "So we don't have weapons."
Julie: "Presumably, they don't either."
Brock: "Of course they do; they're the bad guys."
[The siblings gather so that Lukas can fill them in on what's going on.]
Lyta: "So what's up?"
Lukas: "You're gonna love this. Torgath's girlfriend has been kidnapped."
Lyta: "Torgath has a girlfriend?"
Torgath: "I have a girlfriend?"
[Lukas also lets us know how he found out, i.e. through Ennik asking for a favor.]
Lukas: "It was some of the most delicious gloating I've ever done."
[Our Heroes (tm) prepare to deal with the situation.]
Torgath: "It'll be fine. What are you worried about?"
Lyta: "Y'know, every time you say that..."
And that's it for this week! Next week, back to our regular schedule of bashing people's heads in and conducting death-defying missions! Or something. See you then!
Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
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