Saturday, April 26, 2014

Wordslingin'

This week's session mostly involved a lot of meetings. Because huge ops in which you make millions of dinar don't plan themselves.


[After a brief interlude, it's time to get the plans moving again. Lukas and Fennec have arranged for a buyer for our 665 quick-build homes. Now they just need to find a transporter for half of them...]
Zac: "Because of our ambivalent relationship with Benelice..."
Brock: "All our relationships are ambivalent."
Georges the GM: "No, some of them are downright hostile."

[Fennec and Lukas have been in Khayr ad-Din setting up the deal. That, and other things.]
Zac: "Have I had the chance to do any useful shopping in Khayr ad-Din?"
Brock: "Yeah, where's my drone?"

[Georges the GM lays out the shopping possibilities for the drone.]
Georges the GM: "The question is: do you want to build this in Afghanistan-Kahyr ad-Din or go back to the Humanist Alliance and go to a Walmart?"

[Fennec and Lukas return to the Humanist Alliance.]
Georges the GM: "It takes two days to come back."
Brock: "I roll to bond with Fennec."

[Fennec and Lukas meet up with Benelice along her trade route.]
Benelice Matoux: "Have you come with more business?"
Lukas: "Yes!"
Benelice Matoux: "I was saying that in jest."

[Some questions don't deserve a response.]
Lukas: "How would your father like to make a lot of money?"
Benelice Matoux: (deadpan) "Typically he doesn't go in for such a thing."

[Lukas mentions that he would require approximately thirty longrunners to carry our cargo.]
Benelice Matoux: "Let's say for an instant that I am going to entertain this idea..."

[More of the same.]
Benelice Matoux: (incredulous) "You want my father's entire fleet, in seventeen days, for some nebulous deal based on our excellent previous business relationships?"
Lukas: "...Did I mention the lots of money?"

[Brock double-checks that he's got his facts straight.]
Georges the GM: "The Doc has authorized you to go as high as 500,000 dinar, with the additional incentives of... the other incentives he gave you."

[Lukas explains the situation to Benelice.]
Lukas: "Look, I don't mean to jeopardize my own position, but if we don't get your father's participation in this, there's no money to be made for anyone."
Benelice Matoux: "...I appreciate your candor."

[The conversation wraps us.]
Fennec: "Aren't you leaving out some crucial information?"
Lukas: "If I told her that stuff off the bat, she'd say no."

[Lukas and Fennec return to Oxford on 4 Spring.]
Julie: "You missed Gropius Day and Barnabas Day. You're missing all the parties!"
Brock: "We had a party on the train."

[We have a staff meeting with all the PCs. Torgath lays out what he's learned from the various scientists about the webbled GREL-enhanced humans.]
Torgath: "They make them dumber to make them smarter to make them dumber to make them smarter. I don't really understand it myself."
Lukas: "That sounds like bad sci-fi."
Georges the GM: (affronted) "Hey!"

[We figure out how we can learn more.]
Lukas: (to Torgath) "How long will it take you to get a degree in genetics?"

[More secrets that may or may not be coming to the fore.]
Brock: "Did you tell me about the GREL yet?"
Ariel: "...I implied."
Brock: "What about Fennec?"
Georges the GM: (to Zac) "You decide which of them you're more loyal to."
Ariel: "I didn't make a bonding roll."

[Keep in mind that Lukas has been away while Torgath has been finding out all the stuff about the GREL-webbled-hybrid stuff.]
Georges the GM: "How much does Lukas really want to know about Torgath's information gathering?"
Brock: "Not a lot. I trust we haven't been arrested."

[More of the same.]
Lukas: "Do we have any new bodies?"
Torgath: "You said I wasn't allowed."
Lukas: "How's that correspondence with Dawn going, speaking of things that you aren't allowed to do..."

[Lukas informs Lyta and Torgath about the deal he's made: Doc Chambers will be buying all of the prefab homes in the hopes of selling them to Jan Mayen.]
Fennec: "That's not the only offer we encountered."
Lukas: "It's the only credible offer."

[Lyta makes her opinion known on the idea of Lukas' deal.]
Lyta: (disgusted) "So we're giving houses to GREL?"
Lukas: "Remember the lots of money."
Fennec: "Right -- stay on message."

[Meanwhile, as Lukas has been gone, Miranda has been staying with Lyta and Torgath. Lyta has figured out that Miranda's guardian is Daniella Morris.]
Lukas: "I think you need to figure out why we have a spy in our apartment."
Fennec: "I haven't been emptying out the couch cushions for an hour for no reason."

[The PCs figure out that not only is Daniella Morris is Miranda's guardian but that her uncle was Gérald Petit, who was instrumental in a previous plotline before Zac joined the game. Everyone is talking animatedly about the implications. Except Fennec.]
Georges the GM: "Obviously something's going on."
Zac: "Obviously! They've figured out that someone is her uncle!"

[Recall that Gérald Petit, while posing as an AST ambassador to Port Arthur, was actually an SRID agent. So where does that leave Miranda?]
Lyta: "You really think she could be the planet's youngest SRID member?"
Lukas: "No. Maybe."

[Lyta is willing to accept that Miranda might be working with ulterior motives.]
Lyta: "So what do we want to do about it if she is?"
Lukas: "I think we need to go with the waterboarding option."

[Torgath offers his own options.]
Torgath: "I could kill her if you want."
Lyta: "You're not going to kill her!"
Lukas: "Yet."

[Lukas wants to talk to Miranda.]
Lukas: "Keep her here. Peacefully if possible, forcefully if necessary."
Lyta: "We have pizza delivery menus and trideos."
Torgath: "I have knives."

[After everyone is up to speed, Lukas and Torgath meet with Okran Radsley at the Vicarage Cafe, near the Oxford's MILICIA base.]
Brock: "So it's not odd that the MILICIA is here, it's odd that we're here."
Georges the GM: "That would be apt."

[Radsley has a rather large percolator beside him.]
Okran Radsley: "One problem with it that turns some people off is that when you start it percolating, it MAKES A LOT OF NOISE. Which can be useful."
Lukas: "I can see that that's worth paying extra for."

[Let the meeting commence!]
Okran Radsley: "How's business?"
Lukas: "It's afoot."

[Lukas explains the situation to Radsley, more or less.]
Lukas: "There are two chances."
Okran Radsley: "Better than none."
Lukas: "We put all our money on one of them."
Okran Radsley: "Why would you do that?"
Lukas: "To prevent war breaking out between the two chances."

[Okran Radsley lays out a few of the operational costs, which will leave the profit at about 2.1 million each, which is certainly better than nothing but not as good as the 3 million we were originally expecting.]
Lukas: "I'm not complaining, it's just that the universe is not always as satisfying a place as I'd like."

[A bit more strategizing.]
Lukas: "Doesn't it seem strange to you that everyone in the Comptroller's organization we've met directly is originally from outside the Alliance?"
Okran Radsley: "It explains a lot. It strikes me as a necessity."

[Lukas explains that if we keep doing business, eventually we're going to butt heads with the Comptroller.]
Lukas: "You ready to fight this guy?"
Okran Radsley: (immediately) "No!"

[More of the same.]
Lukas: "From what I've seen, you will need to fight him."
Okran Radsley: "Can we do that later, after we've consolidated our resources and made some people very rich?"
Lukas: "The day you're ready to fight him is the day after he takes you out."

[Sometimes conversational context is lost.]
Lukas: "At some point, he'll decide we're a big enough fish that he wants us out of the pool."
Torgath: "Why don't we just go to the beach?"

[And sometimes we toss in a bit of meta, just to keep things interesting.]
Brock: "The reason we can't just sit there and take his money is because the Comptroller is a long-term SRID plot."

[More on the topic of potentially working with the Comptroller.]
Brock: "Do you watch Boardwalk Empire? This is how organized crime works! Work, work, work, everyone is buddies, and then someone decides, 'Well, that's it, boys. Party's over. Kill 'em all.'"
Georges the GM: *nods vigorously*

[Lukas puts Torgath and Fennec in charge of taking out Teo Baness, the Comptroller's transporter, so we can use our own.]
Ariel: "Why did you ask us to do it?"
Brock: "So you would do something."

[Torgath is having a bit of a hard time coming up with a plan.]
Brock: "This is literally your thing."
Ariel: "Planning?"
Brock: "Sneaking."

[Torgath gets some planning help.]
Georges the GM: "Okran Radsley has a proposition that might work with three people, and he's a person."
Zac: "Oh, Radsley, always willing to be our plus-one."

[The essence of the plan.]
Zac: (to Ariel) "How are you at sabotaging elevators in a way that doesn't end in blood?"

[A bit more meta.]
Georges the GM: (resigned) "So, we've decided to split the party..."
Brock: "We're not the one who came up with the countdown clock and the lots of international travel."

[Meanwhile, Lukas and Lyta have a conversation with Miranda.]
Lukas: "Tell me about your guardian."
Miranda Petit: (to Lyta) "Why'd you have to tell him?"
Lukas: "Because your fate rests in my hands."

[The conversation opens on a hopeful note. Briefly.]
Lukas: "Ryss says you want to join us."
Miranda Petit: (excited) "I would be great."
Lukas: "That's an expression of your complete and total ignorance."

[Miranda's quite good at Lyta's kuritra training. Lukas is still skeptical.]
Lukas: "How much running around and jumping off of things do you think we do? How many people do you think we need for that?"
Miranda: "...Two?"
Lukas: "One."

[Miranda hunts for more ways she could be useful.]
Lukas: "You want to be my secretary?"
Miranda Petit: "Yeah."
Lukas: "I could use a secretary. Do you have any secretary training?"
Miranda Petit: "...No."

[More ideas.]
Lukas: "What do you know about coffee?"
Miranda Petit: "...I could read a book. [beat] How do you like yours?"

[Lukas has agreed that Miranda will read up on coffee and, in the meantime, do our cooking and cleaning and suchlike.]
Miranda Petit: "How about I sell you the food and take my pay out of the profits?"
Lukas: "How about I call your guardian?"
Miranda Petit: "...I'll buy the food."

[Things seem to be settled, at least for now.]
Miranda Petit: "So I can stay?"
Lukas: "At least for a week."
Georges the GM: "Roll your bonding."
Brock: *rolls 4*
Miranda Petit: *hugs Lyta*

[Lyta and Lukas go to visit Gardena, where Riley Markus has set up his scuba diving shop and Benelice is visiting.]
Lukas: "Who's your business partner?"
Riley Markus: "You're lookin' at him."
Lukas: "Is that why you're not making any money?"

[Benelice joins Lukas and Lyta as a follow up to their earlier conversation.]
Benelice Matoux: "So, I looked over the numbers, and they are preposterous."

[Lukas has so far not mentioned that the buyer of the goods is Doc Chambers, the Matouxs' main business rivals.]
Lukas: "I'm prepared to offer you long-term strategic security if you do this deal."
Benelice Matoux: "How could you promise that? [beat] Wait a minute..."
Lukas: "Now, before you get upset..."
Benelice Matoux: "Too late."
Lukas: "Before you get more upset..."

[Now that it's revealed that the Doc is the buyer.]
Benelice Matoux: "I don't think you understand the situation you put me in."
Lukas: "I don't think you understand the situation I put you in."

[Lukas lays it out.]
Lukas: "I'm offering you cash and the potential to secure this relationship. As opposed to what you have now: no cash and no security."

[Benelice agrees to set up a meeting between Lukas and her father, and gives him the warning that her father will probably expect some sort of personal commitment or demonstration in addition to just money, but she's not willing to be much more specific than that.]
Benelice Matoux: "How well do you know the Emirates?"
Lukas: "I don't plan on setting up a vacation home there unless I'm fabulously wealthy."





Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game

0 comments :


 
Hermes 72 - Heavy Gear RPG - Most artwork Copyright 2002 Dream Pod 9, Inc.