Friday, May 9, 2014

Wordslingin'

More meetings! Yay! (But we're so close to the big job now, it'll definitely happen next time...)


[We pick up where we left off.]
Georges the GM: "When last we left the group, you had reached the Alpha Maglev."
Zac: "Alive."
Georges the GM: "Yes, alive."

[We return south down the Alpha Maglev.]
Georges the GM: "You're admitted once more to the Humanist Alliance."
Ariel: "Do we know the border guards yet?"

[Sometimes question are only semi-rhetorical.]
Brock: (to Zac) "I'm sorry, did you just ask, 'What do we need an Iguana for?'"

[We consider the potential complications based on the failed negotiations with Thamo Matoux, e.g. whether he could mine the railway lines.]
Georges the GM: "Matoux just doesn't have that level of sophisticated op."
Brock: "If he did, he'd be winning."

[We return to Oxford to find that Miranda has gone from knowing nothing about business to being deeply immersed in the technicalities of import-export law. In five days.]
Zac: "Is anyone else starting to be scared of this girl."
Brock: "You should be scared."
Zac: "She hasn't started studying mechanics... yet."

[We meet up with Okran Radsley in yet another cafe.]
Georges the GM: "Finding coffee shops is my only job as a GM. You guys foil everything else."
Brock: "You had an encounter for us in Gardena? Too bad -- we're going to Oxford!"

[We meet with Radsley.]
Okran Radsley: "So, good news! ...I'm waiting to hear good news."
Lukas: "I have bad news."
Okran Radsley: "Perhaps you misheard me."

[We explain the situation to Radsley.]
Okran Radsley: "So, these two parties aren't willing to work together?"
Lukas: "They are in fact mortal enemies."

{We warn that there may be some outside involvement from the party who doesn't want to do business.]
Okran Radsley: "Any chance you could get the buyer to provide a security cordon?"
Lukas: "Not for free."

[Never say this.]
Okran Radsley: "Well, I'm feeling rather optimistic. It seems like we have everything well in hand with a week to spare."

[Plan B is still in the works. We don't yet have a Plan C.]
Okran Radsley: "Plan C would be really great."
Lukas: "I'm working on it."
Okran Radsley: "That's what I like to hear!"

[Lukas gets on the phone with Doc Chambers and lets him know what happened with the Matoux meeting.]
Lukas: "Also, he was in the company of an interesting gentleman."
Doc Chambers: "Other than yourself?"

[A little more on the Matoux conversation.]
Lukas: "He really hates you."
Doc Chambers: "He just hasn't gotten to know me yet."

[It seems Doc Chambers may have recently sent a retrieval team to Matoux for the explosive wine bottles. This may have caused some of the hostilities we noticed at our meeting.]
Lukas: "You said there had been contentions in the past!"
Doc Chambers: "I didn't specify the precise moment in the past."

[Of course, we have our own confessions.]
Lukas: "I may have... well, it's not 'may.' I did counter-threaten him after he threatened us."
Doc Chambers: (dryly) "How uncharacteristic of you."

[Lukas explains that the threat to Matoux was that we would side with Chambers and wipe out his whole operation.]
Doc Chambers: "This is unexpected. I didn't think you'd side with me, or at least make that your threat."
Lukas: "Well, we couldn't do it on our own."

[Lukas gets off the phone.]
Fennec: "So, how'd that go?"
Lukas: "It went well."
Georges the GM: "Only a little bit of condescension at the end."

[That evening, we meet up with a representative from Paxton who might be willing to buy the 250 prefab homes currently unaccounted for. Of course, one always has to look one's best.]
Georges the GM: "So what is it this time? Merc professional?"
Zac: "Yeah, it's like regular professional..."
Julie: "But with more flak."
Zac: "And flashier shoulder insignia."

[We prepare for our meeting.]
Fennec: "What's our goal here?"
Lukas: "To make as much money as possible, while giving as little information as possible."

[More planning.]
Fennec: "You gonna threaten anyone this time?"
Lukas: "No point in threatening Paxton."

[We go to the hotel to meet with the Paxton rep and give our name at the front desk.]
Georges the GM: "This person is a legitimate businessperson."
Lukas: "Just like us!"
Georges the GM: "..."

[We are met by the Paxton rep.]
Georges the GM: "You recognize the woman who answers."
Zac: "Uh-oh."

[It turns out the Paxton rep is none other than Miss Winters, who we last saw when we were acting as private security for Daniella Morris.]
Zac: "Are there any umbrellamen nearby?"
Georges the GM: "No."

[We mention our business in broad brush-strokes.]
Miss Winters: "Are you acting as a representative in Perth in this matter?"
Lukas: "No."
Miss Winters: "...I see."

[We go into a bit more details.]
Miss Winters: "We would expect a reasonable price, of course."
Lukas: "Of course! We have one in mind!"
Miss Winters: "A 'fell off the back of a train' price, as it were."

[Winters would like to see a sample of the merchandise before she buys it. Sadly, we can't accommodate.]
Brock: "Do we know of any places they were deployed?"
Georges the GM: "None that survived."
Julie: "That's heartening."

[There are, as always, complications.]
Miss Winters: "I can't help but recall that the first time I met you, you were working with Daniella Morris."
Zac: "I see where this is going..."

[More of the same.]
Miss Winters: "I think I can make a worthwhile pitch to my bosses..."
Fennec: "There's a 'but.'"
Miss Winters: "But..."
Brock: (to Zac) "This is on your head, whatever happens next."

[In exchange for giving us a good price, Morris wants us to do a corporate espionage for her. We negotiate that we will be able to do it after we make the handoff.]
Zac: "The other job will have the benefit of considerable financial resources. We could subcontract it!"

[Winters wants to pay us entirely on delivery. Lukas wants half up front.]
Miss Winters: "Half is still two million dinar for nothing more than air."
Lukas: "It's very valuable air."

[We suggest putting the money in escrow at a bank outside the Alliance.]
Brock: "I'll name whatever bank we robbed in Prince Gable."
Miss Winters: "Haven't they been robbed?"

[Georges makes us roll some human perception dice at the end of the encounter. We all get around a 5.]
Georges the GM: "All of you think that this was totally above-board, as far as shady business dealings go."
Zac: "That worries me."

[We discuss the money we'll be making from the op.]
Lukas: "You'll be homeless-person rich."
Fennec: "I am homeless!"

[Lukas gets an email from Lucian Jacobi explaining that his transporter is still unavailable to do the job for us. Which is exactly what we expected, as we were the ones who took out the transporter.]
Lukas: (via email) "Extremely disappointed. Entire deal might fall through."

[Because he can't provide transport, Jacobi has lowered his price from 3 million to 1 million. The one hang-up is that he wants it up front, in cash.]
Lukas: "How much money do you have?"
Fennec: "Considerably less than a million."

[We consider where we can get a million dinar.]
Fennec: "You said you had some experience robbing banks?"

[We meet up with Radsley again.]
Lukas: "Am I smiling?"
Georges the GM: "Is that a rhetorical question?"
Ariel: "It's hard to tell -- your face is fucked up."

[We explain the situation to Radsley. He asks how much Lukas can front of the 1 million.]
Lukas: "Just so you know, while I think about this, there's more bad news."
Okran Radsley: "Well, I'm glad you led with the smile."

[We figure out how much we can provide.]
Lukas: "Twenty percent."
Okran Radsley: "That's better than I would have expected."
Lukas: "Ten percent."

[We explain to Radsley about the other job we accepted from Paxton.]
Okran Radsley: "Can't anyone just accept cash anymore?!"

[Because he's part of the team, Radsley will be doing the follow-up job with us.]
Okran Radsley: "I'll don a turtleneck for a million... in a shade of midnight black."

[Of course, if we're fronting part of the payment to Jacobi up-front, Fennec has to do her part. The fact that she has almost no money is immaterial.]
Lukas: "How do you wanna reconcile this?"
Fennec: "...How much do you think a salvaged Iguana is worth?"

[More of the same.]
Fennec: "If I die, it doesn't matter."
Lukas: "We would be saving up to 800,000 dinar. You raise an interesting point. Are you sure you want to raise this interesting point?"

[Both the payment from Chambers as well as from Paxton will be coming through the Guildebank, which Chambers owns.]
Brock: "I'll be sure to meet with someone who's not Chambers in setting up the escrow. I'll take at least that much care in putting our eggs in... different parts of the basket."

[We also do some legwork in setting up our coffee business, using Miranda's newfound acumen.]
Lukas: "Are you allowed to leave the Alliance?"
Miranda Petit: "...No?"

[More of the same.]
Miranda Petit: "I could sneak out!"
Lukas/Brock: "This is a legitimate business we're running here! ...He said, for the first time ever."

[We have a few days of downtime before the big op. We try to think if we're missing anything.]
Brock: "Georges is thankfully flexible regarding retroactive preparation."

[More of the same.]
Fennec: "I wonder if there's anything we can do."
Lukas: "Well, if you don't have a registered last will and testament..."

[We consider what else we could do.]
Lukas: "Does anyone have complaints, concerns, or questions? Because I hate post-op 'I told you sos.' Or rather, post-op 'I should have told you sos.'"

[We decide that, in an attempt to foil Matoux if he wants to mine the tracks, Torgath will spend some time in overwatch with remote-access cameras.]
Julie: "Just get some cameras at Walmart."
Georges the GM: "That'll require going into the petty cash."
Zac: "It doesn't get much more petty than what I've got."

[Contemplating Torgath in his overwatch.]
Zac: "Once you're over the border, you can kill whoever you want."
Brock: "Not until we have our millions of dinar."

[We go down to Thebes to deliver the money to Jacobi. While there, Torgath scouts out the location of our follow-up op, the TDI Institute. He sees a laundry truck leaving the premises...]
Georges the GM: "The driver of the laundry truck is Krak Bhakir."
Zac: "He's everywhere!"
Ariel: "I don't let him see me."
Georges the GM: "About that..."

[The game wraps up.]
Georges the GM: "I'll skip the chapters where you find out what Bhakir was up to... if you cared..."





Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game

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