Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Wordslingin'

A session in which Our Heroes (tm) decided not to kill anyone! On purpose! Yes, as we inch our way slowly towards Port Arthur with our six crates of weapons, sometimes it’s good to remember that letting people go is only the right decision until they turn around and stab you in the back…


[Georges the GM glosses over the six days we spend going from New Baja to the small town of Crest’s Nest.]
Zac: “I’m not used to so much happening.”
Brock: “Oh, lots happens in downtime.”

[Before we jump ahead to Crest’s Nest, there are a few small details to wrap up.]
Brock: “I forgot – we had a prisoner.”
Georges the GM: “Let’s address that.”

[Lukas and Torgath go off to interrogate our prisoner, Pascal ‘The Pain’ Pigeon. Which means that the rest of us are not interrogating him.]
Riley Markus: “Staying here with the ladies – that’s a job I can get behind!”

[We take precautions before we wake up Pigeon.]
Brock: “I secure him. More secure than the last guy I thought we’d secured. Three times as secure as that.”

[Recall that back at the warehouse, Lukas had disguised himself for a particular purpose.]
Ariel: “Do you still look like him?”
Brock: “As much as the makeup survived.”
Georges the GM: “He looks like Pigeon if Pigeon had been melted in a microwave for three minutes.”

[Pigeon knows how this game is played.]
Pascal Pigeon: “What do I get out of this?”
Lukas: “You get to live.”
Pascal Pigeon: “Ah, yes, but in what state? As you say, I know how this works: ‘I said you get to live, but I never said you get to keep your legs!’”

[More of the same.]
Pascal Pigeon: “I’d prefer more discussion on this ‘letting me live’ thing.”
Lukas: “…”
Pascal Pigeon: “You have not thought this through. That is not encouraging.”

[Pascal reminds us that he’s part of a vast Brotherhood that will avenge him if anything happens.]
Lukas: “We’re members of the Brotherhood.”
Pascal Pigeon: “Ah, good! Then you understand there is a professional consideration!”

[Turns out we and Pigeon have some mutual friends.]
Pascal Pigeon: “I wish I knew what happened to the Pinkywagon.”
Lukas: “…”

[Pigeon lets us know there is a bounty on us. Lukas asks who’s sponsoring it.]
Pascal Pigeon: “This is embarrassing. It is supposed to be sponsored by the Bear.”
Lukas: “What’s his involvement?”
Pascal Pigeon: “First you need to believe he exists.”

[Lukas presses on the matter of the Bear. He’s received some information that the rest of the PCs have not.]
Lukas: “My contacts tell me you’re much closer associated with the Bear than you let on.”
Pascal Pigeon: “That’s ridicule!”
Torgath: “Wait, what?!”
Pascal Pigeon: “Ridicule. It’s the same word as in Anglic.”

[Torgath comes to entirely the wrong conclusion.]
Ariel: “I totally believe he’s the Bear.”
Brock: “We know what the Bear looks like.”
Ariel: “I know what you look like too.”

[Georges the GM tries to explain the Bear for Zac, who wasn’t around for the earlier part of the campaign.]
Georges the GM: “He’s part of a pantheon for a very limited sect.”

[Lukas returns to an earlier part of the conversation.]
Lukas: “How much is the bounty?”
Pascal Pigeon: “25 per head.”
Lukas: “That’s not a lot of money.”
Pascal Pigeon: “I’m sorry you’re offended.”

[Pigeon is not impressed with Lukas’ interrogation skills.]
Pascal Pigeon: “Look, Quinn, I don’t know what you’re doing, and I don’t think you know what you’re doing.”

[More of the same.]
Pascal Pigeon: “The more you ask, the more I realize you have no idea what is going on.”

[Interrogation: stage 2!]
Lukas: “You’re making this hard on me. I don’t like it to be hard on me.”
Pascal Pigeon: “Well, I suppose this concludes the amicable portion of the conversation.”

[Fennec has gone over to investigate what’s going on with the interrogation. Lyta has not.]
Pascal Pigeon: “Where’s the fourth member? The fighter?”
Julie (as Lyta): “This is some mighty mediocre beer you’ve got here, Riley…”

[Lukas is not done interrogating.]
Lukas: “When we started, you said you had valuable information. So far everything you’ve given us has been interesting, not valuable.”
Pascal Pigeon: “Perhaps I misspoke.”

[Pigeon informs Lukas that there is actually a secret bounty on us of 75k per head. He found out by asking ‘the right people.’]
Lukas: “So, who are the right people?”
Pascal Pigeon: “The right people will not be the right people if I just gave you their name.”

[Pigeon ‘doesn’t like being cryptic.’ Sure he doesn’t.]
Lukas: “The people who told me about you said, if I believed it, that you’re a known operative of the Bear.”
Pascal Pigeon: “I will tell you two things about the people who told you this: one, they are well informed. Two, they are gullible.”

[Lukas goes off to make a few calls, leaving Torgath alone with the prisoner.]
Torgath: “You can tell me who your secret boss is. I’m very good at keeping secrets.”
Pascal Pigeon: “…You almost had me there.”

[Torgath continues his ‘interrogations.’]
Torgath: “What’s the name of your car?”
Pascal Pigeon: “I don’t have a car.”
Torgath: “If you had a car, what would you call it?”
Pascal Pigeon: “Francoise.”
Torgath: “Not the Pigeonator?”
Pascal Pigeon: “…That never would have occurred to me.”

[Lukas consults with the rest of the team.]
Lukas: “We’re about to decide whether to bury him in the desert.”
Riley Markus: “I’d rather you kept me out of your deliberations.”

[As we take a moment to consider where we’ve come in the first hour of the session…]
Brock: “In case you missed the running theme, Lukas is terrible at interrogations.”

[Lukas makes a call.]
Lukas: “Tatsugoro?”
Tatsugoro: “Ohhhh….”

[Tatsugoro is not happy we’re back in the Badlands.]
Lukas: “We’ll be careful.”
Tatsugoro: “You have failed to be careful!”

[Lukas explains to Tatsugoro why we’re back in the Badlands.]
Lukas: “We couldn’t stay in the WFP forever.”
Tatsugoro: “Your feeble attempt at lying makes me laugh.”

[Lukas lays out the situation with Pigeon.]
Tatsugoro: “This is a most difficult question.”
Lukas: “That’s why I called – to share the pain.”

[Lukas informs Pigeon that he’s decided to let him free.]
Torgath: “No hard feelings about the threats. I wasn’t lying about them, but I didn’t mean anything bad by them.”
Lukas: “Nothing personal.”
Torgath: “Right. Nothing personal.”

[Pigeon will be sedated for a few days so he isn’t able to make trouble until we’re far away.]
Lukas: “Any message you want sent to your friends?”
Pascal Pigeon: “Tell them where to pick me up?”

[Lukas has informed Pigeon that he’ll be knocked out.]
Pascal Pigeon: “Are you going to knock me on the back of the head, or more of…”
Lukas: *darts him*

[While we’re travelling from New Baja to Crest’s Nest, Lukas reveals something to Lyta. Kinda.]
Lukas: “There’s something that I know that I can’t tell you.”

[More of the same.]
Lyta: “Why can’t you tell me this thing you can’t tell me?”
Lukas: “Because I can’t. You’ve had to content yourself with that answer in the past, and this time is just like those times, except to the extent that you’ll be mad when you find out.”

[Also while we’re travelling, Fennec asks about the Bear.]
Lukas: “The Bear is a man. He can be killed.”
Lyta: “Probably.”

[More of the same.]
Fennec: “So now he’s coming after us?”
Lukas: “You can quit.”

[Lukas lays out the terms for Fennec quitting if she wants to.]
Lukas: “If you want, we’ll come to whatever financial arrangement you think… I think is best.”

[Fennec wants to know what we’ve done to upset the Bear.]
Lukas: “If I told you the truth – that we keep accidentally bumping into him – you’d think I was lying.”
Fennec: “I always think you’re lying.”
Lukas: “That’s a safe assumption.”

[Lukas makes his pitch.]
Lukas: “If you stay with us, you are signing on for a world full of shit. On the other hand, it could be potentially lucrative.”

[In Crest’s Nest, who should walk in but Ennik.]
Brock: “In the meta, what are we mad at him for?”

[Ennik is driving a modified troop carrier instead of his Gear.]
Lyta: “Y’know, for a mechanic, your truck sounds a lot like Pigpen.”
Ennik: “Well, I was homesick, so I detuned it.”

[We prepare to leave on the next leg of our journey with Ennik.]
Ariel: “Can I get a cheap hunting rifle?”
Brock: “Totally unnecessary.”
Ariel: “I was gonna sit on the crates and act as lookout.”
Brock: “What’s in the crates?”

[We check out what is actually in all the crates.]
Georges the GM: “Do you open all the crates?”
Brock: “Well, we start with one and hope the weapons and the ammo are in the same crate.”

[Ennik reveals that we’ll be going over the mountain range using somewhat unconventional means.]
Ennik: “They had a bona fide ski hill for 2-3 cycles before it went under.”

[A little bit of side-talk about Ennik.]
Fennec: “How much do you trust this guy?”
Lukas: “That depends on what you’re asking.”
Fennec: “You think he’s reliable?”
Lukas: “No. He’s unreliable.”

[At the top of the hill we realize there is a group of people using the pass we’re planning on using. Ennik notices them first.]
Ariel: “How ironic is it that Josh’s character protected us from an ambush?”

[Torgath scouts the group at the pass.]
Brock: “How many had you spotted?”
Ariel: “Twelve.”
Brock: “Those odds aren’t horrible, especially since we have six crates of weapons.”

[We make our preparations.]
Ariel: “My plan is to send Ennik over to talk with them.”
Georges the GM: “And if he dies, no big deal?”

[Another plan involves setting explosives to cause an avalanche over the six potential hostiles who are aiming guns down the side of a cliff overlooking a road. The bad news is our expertise is somewhat lacking in this area.]
Georges the GM: (to Ariel) “You’ve read a book about avalanches!”

[As we plan, a convoy of trucks starts heading up the road the hostiles are overlooking. We decide that now is an opportune moment to make our move.]
Luaks: “Nothing says ‘having a bad day’ like having your ambush foiled by an attack on your rear ranks.”

[We sneak into position behind the hostiles, who we’ve now determined are rovers. We roll well.]
Georges the GM: “Wow, you guys are really excellent ninjas!”

[Lukas gets on a wide-spectrum radio broadcast.]
Lukas: “Well, hello, boys.”
Man 1: “Bob, is that you?”
Man 2: “Shut up, team 2.”

[Lukas informs the rovers that we have them surrounded.]
Lukas: “Stand up very slowly or we will open fire.”
Man 1: “I don’t like this.”
Man 2: “Shut up, team 2!”

[The rovers negotiate that they’ll leave one at a time with their guns strapped to their backs.]
Ennik: “If you were in their position, would you put down your weapon?”
Lukas: “If I were in their position, I’d already have opened fire.”

[The rovers all leave, except for one.]
Rover: “You might kill us anyway.”
Lukas: “That would have been easier before.”

[The rover makes an impassioned speech asking if we can spare any food, as they were all burned out of their homesteads last cycle by roving CEF units.]
Ariel: “Oh, he’s playing the heartstrings like a violin!”

[The rovers leave. We settle down for the night.]
Georges the GM: “None of you guys actually have the cooking skill, do you?”




Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game

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