Friday, February 7, 2014

Wordslingin'

On the road again! This week, we team up with our employer-turned-partner Okran Radsley to delivery perishable food to hungry Badlanders, all in the name of enlightened self-interest. What could possibly go wrong?


[We deal with a few small inconsistencies from Georges the GM's stories on the game blog.]
Brock: "Lukas wouldn't have slept in."
Georges the GM: "Would he set an alarm?"
Brock: "Yes, he would set an alarm. Because it's the future."

[More unanswered questions from the stories.]
Brock: "The suspense is fine, but the suspense is killing me."

[We discuss whether Benelice might have been able to take out Bhakir and his men to claim the explosives.]
Zac: "Benelice did have a longrunner with fully-armored personnel."
Georges the GM: "That's just a reasonable thing to do when going to a meeting with you guys."

[We discuss our next move, particularly given that Ariel couldn't make the session.]
Georges the GM: "So, our options are--"
Brock: "Fennec murders Todd..."
Zac: "Already done."

[Lukas doesn't want to let Okran Radsley leave town without getting some answers. He suggests going somewhere more secure to talk.]
Okran Radsley: "Where would you consider more secure?"
Lukas: "Somewhere out of town? Low tech?"
Okran Radsley: "So long as you're not planning on taking me there to bury me."
Lukas: "I don't have a shovel."

[We go to a vineyard out of town.]
Fennec: "You sure the grapes aren't under surveillance?"
Okran Radsley: "There are tremor sensors on the vines."

[Lukas confronts Radsley.]
Lukas: "You seem too pleased with yourself."
Okran Radsley: "I'm not pleased with myself -- I'm pleased with the op."
Lukas: "There was no op."

[Radsley comes clean that he contacted Benelice after our failed negotiations last night.]
Okran Radsley: "I guess the term for her would be 'smuggler.' Funny, that's also something I'm interested in."

[Radsley reveals that Benelice got the explosives from the water reclamation plant after Bhakir left.]
Fennec: "I knew it!"
Lukas: "The tunnel we didn't go down?"
Fennec: "Yeah!"

[Radsley wants to continue working in good faith.]
Okran Radsley: "I appreciate that Bhakir... frustrated you."

[Radsley has no intention of going to the garden party now that we know neither Bhakir nor the high-tech explosives will be there.]
Okran Radsley: "I don't wanna sound callous, but stopping terrorists is not my primary goal in life."

[One of the reasons we're upset Bhakir got away.]
Brock: "We settle accounts rapidly... prejudicially..."

[We drop Radsley off at the train station with a few hours before we will follow on a later express.]
Brock: "Lukas will delegate tasks so everyone has something to do, then drive his truck to a different part of the woods and smash something."

[More on Lukas venting his frustration.]
Brock: "It has not been a great ten days for Lukas."
Georges the GM: "I have to say, it is immensely satisfying to see your frustration."

[We plan to return to Oxford.]
Fennec: "I've got gear back in Oxford."
Georges the GM: "And a day job."

[Lukas pitches Fennec a position on our team.]
Lukas: "What's your life plan?"
Fennec: "Good question."
Georges the GM: "I have an idea of what your life plan is. I just don't know if you know it."

[The problem with offering Fennec a place on the team is that we need to figure out compensation.]
Lukas: "The problem I've had in this... corporation... is that I've never had to evaluate share prices before."

[We discuss compensation.]
Fennec: "I understand you have a lucrative coffee business."
Lukas: "Pre-lucrative."

[Lukas and Fennec discuss the nitty-gritty of compensation.]
Zac: "I have haggle! Ha-ha! My character knows something I don't!"

[Zac rolls lower on haggle than Brock.]
Brock: "Look, I'm not trying to screw you, but..."
Georges the GM: "Daddy's gotta pay the bills!"

[While on the train...]
Lukas: "So let me tell you about my plan..."
Georges the GM: "Ooh! Plan!"

[Lukas proposes that we forge papers to allow to us study as transfer students at the Oxford universities for a semester.]
Fennec: "What does going to school involve?"
Lukas: "You didn't have school where you came from? You must have seen it on trideos..."

[More on the plan to enrol in school in Oxford.]
Fennec: "What about the cost of tuition?"
Lukas: "That counts as expenses."
Georges the GM: "I hope you enjoyed the smell of that 30,000, because it just went to your first semester."

[We consider how to pay for the undoubtedly exorbitant tuition.]
Lukas: "We may have to do jobs to finance the cost of tuition."
Fennec: "Oh, that's the student lifestyle. You don't see that in the trideos."

[That night, at the Oxford memorial to Baja, Radsley proposes to bring us into his business of stealing perishable food about to be destroyed by the government and shipping it out to the Badlands for a profit.]
Okran Radsley: "This isn't a purely charitable--"
Lukas: "Enlightened self-interest is what makes the world go round."
Okran Radsley: "I'm glad you see it that way."

[After Radsley lays out his pitch for us...]
Lukas: "Ordinarily, this is the part where I'd say, 'There's something you're not telling us,' but you're not the sort of guy who usually doesn't tell us stuff."

[To test out Radsley's plan, we will accompany the first shipment smuggled out of the Humanist Alliance. Which leaves only one small loose end.]
Lukas: "How do we get back?"
Fennec: "Ziplines?"
Lukas: "Teleporters?"

[We consider what might happen if we run into DEFTA patrols.]
Lukas: "Okay, so we dart them and keep driving?"
Okran Radsley: "That's pretty much the plan."

[More consideration of the plan.]
Fennec: "So what's our cover for being in the mountains? We got lost?"
Lukas: "'Got lost'? Such lack of imagination!"

[Georges the GM reviews his notes.]
Georges the GM: "Wow -- I've actually made it through an entire paragraph!"

[We have a few days before we need to leave to follow the smuggled shipment of perishables. So, in the meantime...]
Lukas: "Give me a list of the electronics you need."
Fennec: "Well, I need to wait for Radsley to give me..."
Lukas: "No, to fix the stuff you broke."
Fennec: "Oh, that stuff."

[Lyta has other plans for the downtime.]
Lyta: "The OIPA offered me a job."
Lukas: "What do you mean they 'offered you a job'? What were you doing?"
Lyta: "...I was just doing some stuff in the gym that they hadn't seen before and they offered if I wanted to teach it."
Julie: "She's clearly lying."
Lukas/Brock: "Well, I don't care."

[Lukas offers some suggestions for our semester as students, instead of Lyta simply continuing to get better at what she's already good at.]
Lukas: "You might want to consider some diversification. Knitting. Chess."

[Lyta seems fairly fixated on the idea of training at OIPA.]
Lukas: "You are a Badlander, so I guess you could be a coffee ninja."

[Lukas has different ideas for how to spend the downtime.]
Brock: "Lukas will spend some time with his new face sneaking out at night, going to bars, and working on his seduction skills."

[Fennec spends the downtime getting Lyta to teach her how to trip people more effectively.]
Zac: "Since I've given up on the faint hope to doing damage in hand-to-hand combat, at least I can knock people over."

[More plans for downtime.]
Georges the GM: (to Zac) "Maybe you wanna get some armor that fits you and isn't--"
Julie: "Ti's."

[Georges the GM reads Zac the stats on some super-slick stealth suits.]
Zac: "Two questions: A) can I afford it?"
Georges the GM: "No."
Zac: "Well, that makes the second question moot."

[We gather up equipment for the op.]
Brock: "Since Todd isn't here, we're leaving his sniper rifle at home."
Zac: "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
Georges the GM: "Hmm... good question. The value of an offensive Todd vs. the liability of an offensive Todd..."

[Fennec uses some of the downtime to create armor-piercing sfika dart rounds.]
Georges the GM: "You have a working round on day three. [beat] You're pretty sure it's a working round."

[More thoughts on equipment.]
Lyta: "You know what we totally need on this op? Jaguars!"
Lukas: "I thought of that, but I don't think we could get them shipped in time."
Lyta: "Drat!"

[A few days later, we arrive at the shipping depot, only to find that the caravan that we will be escorting is none other than Benelice's.]
Benelice: "Are these the crates?"
Lukas: "Yes."
Benelice: "And you are the escorts?"
Lukas: "Yes."
Benelice: "...It will be a pleasure working with you."

[Things start falling into place as we see who we're escorting.]
Zac: "And here I was thinking, 'Why would Radsley have us on this whole smuggling op when he just met new friends?'"
Brock: "This is why."

[We also meet our guide, Elroy Krog, and his apprentice.]
Elroy Krog: "This is my apprentice Miranda. Pay her no mind. Miranda, these are the people we're taking. Pay them no mind."

[Miranda is only about 17 cycles old, or about 12 in Earth years.]
Zac: "So we're not just riding shotgun, we're babysitting."
Brock: "Well, he is."

[As we board the longrunners...]
Brock: "So, what does a crateful of wine bottles look like?"

[Benelice and Lukas have a heart-to-heart as we set off.]
Benelice: "Riley insisted we do something, but after I talked to you, I thought better of it."
Lyta: (to Lukas) "You do have that effect on people."

[Lukas knows Benelice and Riley somehow got the explosives, but doesn't want to let on that he knows.]
Lukas: "So what did Riley do, other than spend a few hours on a train and get darted -- which I consider to be your fault."

[Lukas lays out what we did.]
Lukas: "And while you were driving around talking to people, we stormed Theresa Vendar's house, took out all her guys, and interrogated her."
Benelice: "I did not read about that."
Lukas: "Funny that."

[More one-upmanship with Benelice.]
Lukas: "This is after we infiltrated Vendar's house the first time..."
Benelice: "Yes, I also infiltrated the party. It's called being handed an invitation."

[Lukas finally decides to lay a few cards on the table. Sorta.]
Lukas: "You might have the explosives here on your caravan."
Benelice: "..."
Zac: "It would be awesome if I could call you right now with the location of the crate."

[More of the same.]
Lukas: "So, where are the bottles?"
Benelice: "Finders keepers."
Lukas: "I suppose we could adopt that policy."

[And yet more.]
Lukas: "Had we known you had the explosives in your truck, I suppose we would have had to--"
Benelice: "Be more civil?"
Lukas: "Accede to your demands."

[Benelice discusses the fact that we did all the legwork but Radsley came in to close the deal.]
Benelice: "If I were Radsley, I would have felt compelled to, I don't know, offer you a bonus or something, but that's just the way I operate."

[Lukas confronts Benelice on the fact that she went in and got the crates using our intel.]
Lukas: "You used my info to sneak behind my back and steal something--"
Benelice: "To disarm a terrorist."

[After quite a long conversation...]
Benelice: "But back to my point, is there anything you want to ask me?"
Lukas: "...No."

[Georges the GM reflects on the conversation between Lukas and Benelice.]
Georges the GM: "You've finally met someone as obstinate as you in negotiations."
Brock: "But a slightly worse person."
Georges the GM: "As though that's possible!"






Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game

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