It's time for everyone's favorite game show game: follow the inadvertent red herring! Our Heroes (tm) spend an entire session scouting out the entirely wrong location! Just because!
[We pick up where last session left off, just after the fundraiser dinner at Theresa's Vendar's.]
Georges the GM: "There's a trail of black-tie clothing leading up to Torgath's pillow fort."
Ariel: "What?! I don't leave that stuff lying around. I hoard it!"
[The next morning, we meet for a strategy session. Of course, some of us have more information pertaining to strategy than others.]
Lukas: "Some of that stuff from before is still missing. And if that stuff is connected to this stuff, it might all be connected."
Lyta: "Yeah, okay."
Fennec: "Wanna elaborate on any of that?"
Lukas: "No."
[We discuss the explosives that Bhakir has taken from Vendar's party, which are likely the same explosives as Gustafson gave to the Death Watch people back in Khayr ad-Din.]
Lukas: "Its mass to energy ratio is... high."
[We explain that we've had some experience with the explosive, as some of it was unintentionally confiscated at Dr. Chambers' gala.]
Fennec: "So you guys have some of this stuff?"
Lyta: "Well, we don't."
[More about the explosives.]
Fennec: "You could pack this into two cars."
Georges the GM: (pointedly) "Or, say, a catering van?"
[We discuss what we know up to this point.]
Fennec: "So, Vendar was holding the shipment, Bhakir took the shipment, and we were one step behind the whole time."
Lyta: "Yup."
[We discuss our options.]
Lukas: "Let's say this took a turn for the worse..."
Fennec: (dryly) "Let's say."
[Plan A.]
Lukas: (to Torgath) "I think we should go see your boyfriend's girlfriend."
[Lukas plans to talk to Benelice about the new developments. He decides to go alone.]
Zac: "Lukas and Benelice get along so well."
Julie: "Lukas gets along well with everyone, until he doesn't."
[Lukas goes to speak with Benelice.]
Benelice: "I sell religious items from as far as Masada. I think you could use some lucky charms."
Lukas: "Why, don't I look lucky? Or are you saying I ran out?"
[More on Lukas' need for lucky charms, or lack thereof.]
Lukas: "Our continued existence is a sign of how lucky we are, given how not-smoothly things seem to go."
[Lukas reveals the reason he's come to see Benelice.]
Lukas: "I seem to have lost something again."
Benelice: "Hmm. Lucky, unskilled, and forgetful."
[More of the same.]
Lukas: "I believe a certain shipment of wine will create a regional uptick in volatility."
[Benelice is not one to act altruistically for no reason.]
Benelice: "What would be my incentive in helping you? I do not like wine."
Lukas: "The greatest satisfaction there is: crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women."
[Benelice is willing to be forthcoming. Sorta.]
Benelice: "Have you given any thought to where you might store this wine when you acquire it?"
Ariel: "As far away from me as possible?"
[Lukas and Benelice prepare to trade sensitive information.]
Benelice: "I am all ears, but other people may be ears too, so let's go into my longrunner."
[Lukas reveals the purview of the 'wine.']
Lukas: (whispering) "Gustafson."
Benelice: "I do not know what this means."
Lukas: "You know people who will."
[While Lukas is talking with Benelice, Fennec and Lyta scout out Bhakir's speakeasy and the message drop point in Pele.]
Lyta: "They know what we look like."
Fennec: "That's why we have disguise skills." *rolls 4 on disguise*
Lyta: "Why some of us have disguise skills."
[More of the same.]
Georges the GM: "So, the stakeouts. You see nothing of interest."
Zac: "I had a feeling we were gonna get written off."
[Meanwhile, Torgath is doing some research into where Bhakir might have gotten his catering van.]
Ariel: "I could check out the van rental places. Or send these guys."
Julie: "We got nothin'."
Zac: "Somehow we know we won't find anything."
[We discuss what Bhakir might ultimately be using the explosives for.]
Lyta: "The target could be anything. It could be the governor's palace in Perth."
Lukas/Brock: "Speed of plot tells me it'll be the volunteer party."
[Benelice has revealed to Lukas that Bhakir is probably using a riverside self-storage depot. We plan to investigate.]
Brock: "I take the scuba equipment from our crate..."
Georges the GM: "There is no scuba equipment in your crate."
Brock: "Ti! Where's our scuba equipment?!"
[We realize the limitations of our tactical crate.]
Ariel: "So, there's no mortar, no scuba gear... What the fuck, Ti?!"
[More of the same.]
Brock: "I can't believe Ti didn't anticipate our needs!"
Georges the GM: "Really?! In the giant desert that is the Badlands, you can't believe he didn't anticipate you'd need scuba gear?"
[We prepare to investigate the self-storage place.]
Georges the GM: "I want you to lay some serious plans on me."
Brock: "We want to rent a locker."
Georges the GM: "...Okay, good first step."
[We discuss who should be responsible for the initial scouting.]
Brock: (to Zac) "I'm not sure you realize the colossal mistake you made in telling us your expertise is sneaking into places and stealing things, because now you're our go-to person for that sort of thing."
[Fennec prepares to enter.]
Zac: "I wonder if there's anything else we should think of now."
Brock: "There is nothing I have not anticipated."
[Fennec goes up to the front desk.]
Fennec: "I'd like to inquire about your storage facilities here."
Clerk: "You may do so."
Fennec: "..."
[The clerk begins explaining the various options.]
Clerk: "Assuming you had the C model, or as we call it, the comfort locker..."
Fennec: "Well, I'm not gonna live in it!"
Clerk: "...No."
[While the access to the facility is through electronic palm-print scanner, the lockers themselves are somewhat lower-tech.]
Georges the GM: "It's a physical key."
Julie: "That's unexpected in the Humanist Alliance."
Georges the GM: "It has its practical purposes."
Julie: "It certainly makes my life easier."
[We discuss how we might hack the palm-print scanners.]
Zac: "The computers in this world confuse me, because they are simultaneously as advanced and as primitive as they need to be."
Georges the GM: *nods vigorously*
[Fennec finishes her preliminary investigations.]
Zac: "Now I'll report back and you'll inform me of everything I forgot to do."
[Like a self-fulfilling prophecy!]
Lukas: "Did you inquire about other possible uses of these units?"
Fennec: "You wanna be more specific?"
Lukas: "Maybe I should be less specific."
[We discuss the next phase of our plan.]
Zac: "We want to find his stash."
Brock: "No, we want to bug his stash."
Georges the GM: "Ooh, ambitious!"
Brock: "It makes it easier than trying to find him every time he disappears."
[To facilitate this 'bug the stash' plan, we have some equipment.]
Lukas: (to Fennec) "Take this extremely sophisticated and expensive tracking device..."
Fennec: (excited) "Is that from the box?!"
[Fennec prepares to return to the storage facility.]
Georges the GM: "You already asked a lot of crazy questions. You could just play the whole paranoia card."
Zac: "The customer is always right. It is the Humanist Alliance."
[Meanwhile, Torgath is staking out the facility.]
Georges the GM: "Roll your notice."
Ariel: "Four."
Georges the GM: "Okay. You're staking out... and reading a novel."
[What Torgath finally realizes with his roll of four.]
Georges the GM: (as Torgath) "Van! There was discussion of a van! Van was discussed!"
[We realize that Torgath seeing the catering van start to move is about five hours ahead of the timeline than the rest of us.]
Brock: "I suppose we can skip all the other logistics and just go to the point where we're following the van."
[In fact, we do quite a lot of other logistical planning to break into the facility and steal their database.]
Zac: "When we pull the data, can we do something about my handprint so I'm not leaving my biometrics everywhere?"
Brock: "It's low on my priority list, but I'll slot it in there."
[More planning.]
Fennec: "Who's doing the ninja-ing?"
Lyta: "Probably me."
Brock: "Yay for a plan we will probably never implement!"
[Back in the storage locker, Fennec has rented a large locker in which she is fixing up a motorcycle. She sees a couple of suspicious people with boxes that might or might not contain the explosive wine.]
Zac: "I shadow them, in the sense that I'm not concealing my presence."
[We finally get back into the same timeline, and Lyta and Lukas follow Bhakir's van to a fenced in industrial complex in the northern part of the city.]
Lyta: "So what's the plan?"
Brock: "Pack it in before a night of mayhem? All that locker rental for nothing!"
Georges the GM: "I swear I thought there was gonna be an action sequence tonight."
[Yes, we spent the whole session getting our locker, which seems to have been a footnote in the grand scheme of things.]
Zac: "On the plus side, we have some storage here in Gropius."
[We find out just how little we've achieved.]
Georges the GM: "So, we made it one sentence into my notes."
Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Wordslingin'
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