Friday, August 9, 2013

Wordslingin'

What happens when two hostile forces both try to take control of a shipping crate from its rightful owner? And what happens when those hostile forces are trying their very best not to make it seem like anything is wrong? Last night's session, that's what.


[When last we left Our Heroes (tm), Lukas was dealing with Krak Bhakir, the very large ESE smuggler/arm-breaker who wants control of the same shipping crate we want.]
Brock: "He's coming over? I'm prepared to brazen this out even further."

[The sign that things are about to get bad.]
Georges the GM: "Bhakir looks around. The smile fades from his lips."
Julie: (to Brock) "You may need to take one for the team here."

[Bhakir is still trying to be reasonable. For certain definitions of reasonable.]
Krak Bhakir: "There's an easy way and a hard way to do this. Let's do it the easy way. Get me back my container."
Lukas: "What would the hard way be, citizen?"
Krak Bhakir: "We could shake on it."

[The altercation is drawing attention.]
Julie: "I walk toward them looking like I'm not moving to engage."
Brock: "You're walking casually, with purpose."

[Gabriel has been hanging back with Lyta. Recall that Gabriel is both unarmored and deep-wounded already.]
Gabriel: "Got your back, J!"
Lyta: (glaring) "You look unwell, citizen. Why don't you go sit down?"

[Lukas' objective may be to get the container back. Some of us have simpler plans.]
Julie: "Lyta's big goal is to not be the one who throws the first punch."

[Georges the GM reminds Joe of some pertinent information.]
Georges the GM: (to Joe) "You're here to help. Because these guys don't know what they're doing."

[Bhakir grabs the PDA from Lukas as two of his goons try to hold Lukas off, but not very effectively.]
Georges the GM: "The girl tries to kick Lukas, but he accelerates out of the way just in time."
Julie: "Lyta's done this to him a lot."

[Combat ensues, as was inevitable.]
Georges the GM: "Initiative rolls."
Julie: "Eight. I wish I were doing something more impressive."

[One of the goons tackles Lukas. He's still trying to bluff his way out.]
Lukas: "Citizen, do you know what a Department of Health and Morality officer looks like?"
Goon: "..."
Lukas: "I'll answer my own question: like everybody else."

[We probably should have thought of certain important questions before the combat started.]
Brock: "Who's got the shotgun? Oh, wait -- I have all the guns."

[Two other goons come out of the woodwork and make a grab at Lyta, which she dodges.]
Julie: "They clearly acted first. You saw them do it."
Brock: (placating) "Yes, they did."

[The two guys who made a grab for Lyta are both sorta sprawling or scrambling on the ground.]
Julie: "Are they close enough for me to zip-tie their hands together?"
Georges the GM: "More like a hand and an ankle."
Julie: "I'm comfortable with that."

[Sadly, 'Plan Zip-Tie' is proving overly complicated.]
Georges the GM: "It's a cool action, but you're at a -3 penalty."
Julie: "...Fuck it, I'll just trip them."

[Meanwhile, Lukas has made his way up to Bhakir.]
Brock: "Here's what I want to do: I want to take the pistol out of my pocket but, using sleight of hand, feign that I'm taking it out of Bhakir's pocket. And then hit him with it."

[More of the same.]
Brock: "I have a specialization in pickpocket."
Ariel: "Why do you have a specialization in pickpocket?"
Brock: "For exactly this sort of occasion!"

[Lukas takes out his pistol, pretending that he's grabbed it from Bhakir.]
Lukas: "Citizen, this is an illegal weapon!" *pistol-whips Bhakir*

[The fighting continues.]
Ariel: (to Julie) "You need to start with the unconsciousifying, or this is gonna go bad fast."

[Torgath steals the PDA back from Bhakir and runs. Seeing that the fight is closer than he wanted, he calls his goons to back off.]
Georges the GM: "The goon still has a pistol on Lukas. He puts it away."
Brock: "I keep mine out."

[Lukas had been shot in the combat. Thankfully, he's not damaged. Just enough to be dramatic.]
Brock: "I pick the slug out of my armor and wink at him."

[We discover that the crate has been sent to a distribution depot about three blocks away. Instead of going above-ground, we decide to follow the very extensive and labyrinthine underground tunnel networks.]
Georges the GM: "Gabriel has pulled out a map of the underground rail system."
Julie: (surprised) "Look, you are useful!"

[Two options: one, try to navigate using the map and the monochrome surroundings. Two...]
Georges the GM: "We'll cut to the chase because you have a tracker; you don't need navigation."

[We enter the distribution depot.]
Sign on Wall: "Dangerous Area. Authorized personnel only. Beware of automation."
Julie: "Oh, it's RoboRally!

[We survey the gigantic depot, full of conveyers, trucks, elevators, and other whizzing hazards.]
Julie: "Lyta enjoys this challenge -- it's like a mechanical B'Ti."

[More surveying.]
Georges the GM: "You don't see another human being."
Ariel: "What about aliens?"
Georges the GM: "I would have noted them."

[It's always good to have a plan. I wish we did.]
Lyta: "What's our plan?"
Lukas: "Sneak up on the container."
Lyta: "And then what?"
Lukas: "Then we'll have another plan."

[We continue to discuss plans.]
Torgath: "Why don't we just kill them?"
Lukas: "Because we're not allowed to kill them."
Torgath: "This 'not being able to kill people' thing is balls. We should go somewhere else."

[Bhakir and his guys also have a tracker to the container. Lukas wants it to stop working.]
Lukas: (to Gabriel) "I have the problem. You're the problem-solver. Solve my problem."

[Lukas starts giving orders.]
Gabriel: "Are you talking to me?"
Lukas: "No. So far your skill set has proven useless."
Gabriel: "I'm sorry, sir."

[Lukas tries to get Gabriel to redirect the container somewhere else, using only his data-glove, effectively the equivalent of telling him to disassemble and reassemble a 6,000-piece fine watch using nothing but a standard construction screwdriver.]
Brock: "Well, as Gabriel babbles incoherently at how impossible this is, we'll take the direct route."

[We approach the crate. Unsurprisingly, Bhakir's guys are there already. Lyta climbs up on an adjacent pile of crates to survey.]
Lukas: "Do you see any way to kick on of these crates onto the hostiles?"
Lyta: "One of the crates the size of a room? The ones that weigh two tons empty?"
Lukas: "Yeah. You just need to kick one of them."
Lyta: *boggles*

[Lyta tries to figure out what to do.]
Julie: "Maybe I can jump over and disable their crane."
Brock: "You know what would be easier than that? Knocking a crate on them."
Julie: "I'm not sure that would be easier."

[More of the same.]
Georges the GM: "You're very rationally convinced you can't move those crates."
Julie: "I'm not the one that needs convincing."
Georges the GM: "But you gave it serious thought, as you were ordered to do."

[Time for a new plan.]
Lukas: "You know what would be great is if we let them put the crate onto a truck and then stole their truck."

[Torgath takes out one of the hostiles. The take-down he does very sneakily. The moving away of the body, not so much.]
Torgath: "Noticed!"
Lukas: "You had one job! In your specialization!"

[A few of the goons have noticed Torgath.]
Julie: "So I guess I'm jumping down and engaging?"
Brock: (nonchalant) "Not yet."

[Bhakir enters the crate, does something inside, leaves and re-locks it, and then sends it on its way. Lyta jump on top as it's speeding off.]
Lyta: "Okay, I'm on the crate. ...What the hell do I do now?"

[Gabriel finds Lyta and tries to rewire the circuitry on the platform that's leading the crate away. Meanwhile, Lukas and Torgath have engaged with Bhakir's guys.]
Lukas: "Guys, we don't have a lot of time here."
Lyta: "We're working on it. ...You're working on it, right?"
Gabriel: "Right-o."

[The problem with Gabriel's re-wiring is that he needs to be in physical contact with the panel to guide it. Sadly, Bhakir's guys have commandeered another platform and are closing fast.]
Gabriel: "I could run alongside it."
Torgath: "Or you could get a skateboard, a carabiner, and some rope..."

[Instead, Lyta and Gabriel manoeuver themselves so that Lyta's hanging off the top of the crate and holding Gabriel as he manipulates the controls. It's a precarious, not-terribly-stable position. Also not great for figuring out where you're going.]
Lyta: "Just make it go somewhere not into a crate."
Georges the GM: "It's the weirdest slow-moving chase ever."

[Lyta gets a glance at how Bhakir's guys are controlling their platform.]
Lyta: "They've got a PDA they've hot-wired into the platform."
Lukas: "Can you shoot the PDA?"
Lyta: "I don't have a gun."
Lukas: "So that's a no?"
Lyta: "That's a no."

[Lyta has an idea for a plan. Sadly, there are a few crucial elements that are lacking.]
Julie: "I slap one of our own homing beacons on the crate."
Georges the GM: "That'd be great if you had a homing beacon."
Lyta: "Damnit! Gabriel, do you have a homing beacon?"
Gabriel: "...No."
Lyta: "You're useless."

[We're running out of options in keeping a step ahead of the guys who are shooting at us.]
Ariel: "Lyta's not okay with the 'keep turning left' plan?"
Julie: "No."

[The whole 'being shot while dangling off the side of the crate, being held by a small girl' thing is too much for Gabriel. He stops the crate.]
Georges the GM: "If you're gonna stop your vehicle, they're gonna charge you."
Julie: "Fantastic."

[Lyta engages the bulk of the force, while Gabriel is faced with one guy. Due to a botched dodge roll on the goon's part, Gabriel manages to get in a very good punch.]
Gabriel: *punches a guy out*
Lyta: "Fantastic! Didn't think you had it in you!"
Gabriel: "Me either."

[Meanwhile, Lukas and Torgath have gone to see about getting us a truck.]
Brock: "My assumption would be that in general, people in the Humanist Alliance don't lock their cars."
Georges the GM: "That would be a correct assumption."

[Lukas figures out which of the trucks is the one waiting for Bhakir's crate.]
Lukas: (in Anglic) "Citizens, which of you is the driver of this vehicle?"
Goon: (in broken Intralingua) "I am driver."
Brock: "...Okay, I don't speak Intralingua. Yet."

[We bring the comedy of errors to a conclusion. For certain definitions of conclusion.]
Georges the GM: "So, you drive off with the crate. You can't get into the crate, you think it's being tracked, you're pretty sure the truck is being tracked, and you don't know where to bring a crate in this town. Next game is in three weeks."


So that's where things stand. We're not even close to out of the woods yet!




Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game

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