Friday, September 4, 2015

Wordslingin'

Progress! As we follow the webbled dog to Prince Gable, we learn some intel, visit some old friends, and put a bullet in the head of one of our more persistent antagonists. How fortuitous!


[In investigating the now-deserted merc camp, we discover Benelice. She is sadly dead, having lost quite a lot of blood in what might have been an early-term miscarriage.]
Georges the GM: “You’re not certain whether her stomach was already slightly enlarged or whether it’s distended from post-mortem gases.”
Julie: “So we all agree that she may or may not be pregnant.”

[We try to figure out our next steps.]
Ariel: “Should we get in touch with Lenny?”
Brock: “Right now he’s probably in the middle of a furious firefight. We’ll wait for him to call us.”

[We wake up the leader of the mercs, Friedrich Mahler, for questioning. Lukas lays out the situation for him.]
Lukas: “Don’t hope for rescue from your men – they’ve all been eliminated.”
Friedrich Mahler: “Isn’t that a little harsh? You could have detained them.”
Lukas: “That’s true. That could have been done.”

[Mahler has been mostly cooperative. But ‘mostly’ is not ‘entirely.’]
Lukas: “I’m trying to decide if you’re stalling for time or just being uncooperative.”

[True to Lukas’ prediction, we get a call from Lenny Green.]
Lenny Green: “Been a while since I had to wrangle that many frogmen. Actually, that’s never happened. But it was pretty easy.”
Brock: “They just strung up a big fishing net.”

[Lukas fills Lenny in on what’s been happening.]
Lenny Green: “It’ll take me an hour to get there. Though if you need me to high-tail it with a show of force, I could make it in 25 minutes.”
Lukas: “I don’t need any forces. Just you. And maybe a doctor.”

[Lenny agrees to come out to the merc camp.]
Zac: “What else can we do with this hour?”
Brock: “Contemplate our sins in life?”

[Lenny arrives.]
Lukas: “They found Benelice.”
Lenny Green: “Is she in a bad way?”
Lukas: “She’s dead.”

[It’s sad that this needs to be explicitly stated.]
Lukas: “She was dead when we got here. I just want to specify that.”

[Lenny interrogates Mahler. Among other things, we find out that the mercs were really after Lenny and Riley.]
Ariel: “Riley and Green were the targets?”
Brock: “So much for everything being about us!”

[We prepare to take our leave of Lenny Green.]
Lenny Green: “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but after everything that’s gone down, I hope I don’t see you in New Baja for a while.”
Lukas: “If you do, you’ll know it’s bad.”

[We take stock of our equipment after Lenny goes back to New Baja.]
Brock: “We have three antelopes, a truck, and a Gear. This is getting ridiculous.”

[We prepare to divest ourselves of some of our vehicles.]
Brock: “Good deal! Very cheap! Two antelopes, slightly used! Lightly bloodstained!”

[We consider selling off some of the equipment we took off the mercs but think better of it.]
Brock: “In terms of our profile, it’s one thing to sell two trucks and another to have an arms deal going on at the same time.”

[We get a ping from the webbled dog in the Western Desert on the other side of the Pacifica Range.]
Georges the GM: “What’s your plan?”
Zac: “We’re gonna follow ‘em!”

[After another ping further east in the desert, we decide to swing by Khayr ad-Din to hop the Gamma Maglev and catch up. Also to do a little arms dealing.]
Brock: “Oh, you should bring some of those surface-to-air missiles along. Because we really could have used some of those the last time we did a job like this.”
Zac: “You mean, the job you weren’t there for?”

[In Khayr ad-Din, Torgath prepares to do some research.]
Ariel: “So I’m gonna research Zoltan. Is that a type of GREL?”
Zac: “…Maybe I should do the research.”

[Fennec visits her Aunt Fatty.]
Aunt Fatty: “You should drop by!”
Fennec: “You might remember there’s a price on our heads.”
Aunt Fatty: “Maybe someone who, from a distance, doesn’t look anything like you should drop by?”
Fennec: *looks at her disguise in the mirror* “How convenient!”

[Of course, since Fennec is disguised, it wouldn’t do to make big displays of affection with her aunt.]
Aunt Fatty: “So, no hugs?”
Fennec: “Let’s keep this professional.”
Aunt Fatty: “Maybe I hug all my clients.”
Fennec: “Only the ones you’ve taken for a ride.”
Aunt Fatty: “There was a time in my younger days when a few hugs would have helped with that.”

[Family reunion time!]
Fennec: “Maybe if all goes well, we can go into business together.”
Ariel: “She can be the beauty, you can be the brains.”

[Meanwhile, Torgath has set up a meeting with Billy Croyden. Georges the GM sets the scene.]
Georges the GM: “This is the most neglected part of a city that’s made of refuse.”

[Torgath sidles over to Billy using social camouflage.]
Billy Croyden: “That’s not badly done, the way you ambled over here.”
Julie: “Wow, Billy gave you a compliment. That never happens. Well, maybe it does for you, but not for the rest of us.”

[Torgath and Billy make a little small talk.]
Billy Croyden: “I’m so busy I don’t have time to be depressed.”
Torgath: “I have some bad news, so maybe that’ll cheer you up. …Well, it’s bad news for me.”
Billy Croyden: “Christ, that doesn’t count!”

[Torgath asks about Zoltan.]
Billy Croyden: “Last time I heard of him, it was a genuine classic: he had someone tied up to a train-track and run over.”
Torgath: “Wow, that is classic!”
Zac: “If you kill him now, it’d be like destroying a work of art.”

[Also meanwhile, Lukas meets up with Bill Pearce to share intel and get instructions from Nicosa Renault.]
Bill Pearce: “It’s valuable to N to know that HIRA relies on you.”
Lukas: “That might be stating it too strongly.”
Bill Pearce: “I was trying to be nice. That they’re willing to use you.”

[We all meet up again to discuss our options as we follow the dog north. One problem we realize we will encounter is that in the north, the Hermes connections are controlled by the government and censored.]
Lukas: “If we knew someone in Northern intelligence, they might be able to pick up the signal and pass it along.”
Torgath: (immediately) “I don’t know anyone.”

[Torgath spills the beans about why he and Dawn broke up.]
Torgath: “Turns out my brother killed her dad.”
Lukas: “First I’m hearing of this.”
Fennec: “You just can’t help yourself, can you? Running around killing people’s dads.”

[Torgath reveals that Dawn’s father was Gavin Summers, whose neck Lukas snapped.]
Lukas: “I do – okay, Ti’s not here – I do remember that.”

[More of the same.]
Fennec: “How’d she find out?”
Torgath: “I told her.”

[Torgath doesn’t like getting his siblings in trouble.]
Lukas: “So you told an NGIS agent I murdered her father?”
Torgath: “Of course not.”
Lukas: “You told her you did it.”
Torgath: “Yeah.”

[More about Torgath’s breakup.]
Lukas: “You told her this before or after she dropped a bomb for you?”
Zac: “I’m guessing after.”
Georges the GM: “Good guess.”

[Lukas takes in Torgath’s revelation.]
Lukas: “You remember when I said no good could come out of dating a Northern agent? This was exactly the circumstance I was thinking of.”

[We review why, exactly, Lukas killed Gavin Summers. Turns out Nicosa Reneault hadn’t wanted the information he had to get to Ti, who was in the process of apprehending him.]
Brock: “It wasn’t just a random killing!”
Julie: “True. All your killings have very specific reasons.”

[Now that that’s out of the way, we return to the matter at hand: following the webbled dog to the North.]
Lukas: “If we go north, I don’t know if we can bring a bunch of stolen Jaguars.”
Fennec: “Wait, they’re stolen?”
Lukas: “From the North. They were foolishly transporting them on a train.”

[While we may not be able to take the Jaguars…]
Torgath: “So we’re taking the Chatterbox?”
Lukas: “Yes.”
Torgath: “That was here the whole time?”
Lukas: “Yes.”
Fennec: “I knew it!”

[More of the same.]
Zac: “So, what’s the policy on bringing military-grade comms-warfare Gears on a train?”
Georges the GM: “They’re not very open to it.”

[Fennec is still getting used to all our aliases.]
Fennec: “I never used that many names for such a long time.”
Lyta: “That’s why Zoltan was after you first.”

[We arrive in Prince Gable to discover the webble signature from the dog. It’s in a large estate in a nice area of town. Lyta visits Ellen Cranby to get more information.]
Ellen Cranby: “The house belongs to Mark Kim.”
Lyta: “Oh, that’s not good.”
Ellen Cranby: “I’m glad you recognize that.”

[Ellen and Lyta trade information on Mark Kim.]
Ellen Cranby: “There are two sides to Mark Kim. One Mark Kim, the one who lives over the Grimstock Grill, is the sort of guy I might get along well with.”
Lyta: “The other Mark Kim has a price on our heads.”
Ellen Cranby: “Exactly.”

[Lyta warns Ellen about Zoltan.]
Lyta: “Someone may try to get to us through you.”
Ellen Cranby: “Weren’t you just telling me HIRA was gonna try to get to you through me?”
Lyta: “That’s over now. This is someone different.”

[Lyta tells Ellen what little she knows about Zoltan.]
Lyta: “But this isn’t all of HIRA. It’s just one SRID guy.”
Ellen Cranby: “You sure it’s just one SRID guy?”
Lyta: “…No.”

[Conversation moves to other topics.]
Ellen Cranby: “What did you do to the Doc?”
Lyta: “Oh, that.”

[Lyta explains what she did to the Doc.]
Lyta: “We got into a fight. About GRELs. I may have gotten angrier than I should.”
Ariel: “Because you’re racist.”
Brock: “It’s not racism if they’re not people.”

[We reconvene and plan our next move.]
Lukas: “We’re just waiting for the dog to move on.”
Fennec: “What if it doesn’t?”
Lukas and Lyta, in perfect unison: “It will.”

[We pick up a second webble signature in town. We assume it’s Mark Kim. Fennec and Torgath prepare to investigate.]
Lukas: “Just in case, you guys should take the baby-bel missile. And then another one.”

[It turns out Mark Kim – indeed the source of the second webble signature – was having dinner with Zoltan. Kim leaves first.]
Brock: “No chance you could put a bullet in Zoltan’s head? ‘Cause that would be awesome.”

[Torgath prepares to put a bullet in Zoltan’s head. Georges the GM preps an impromptu map of the scene.]
Brock: “It’s funny ‘cause the map he’s drawing is almost exactly the same as the Daniella Morris map.”

[Meanwhile, Fennec tries to make herself useful.]
Zac: “Do I see a car I can steal?”
Brock: “Their car is running.”

[Torgath manages to blow off Zoltan’s head.]
Julie: “Well done, Ariel.”
Brock: “You have reaffirmed my faith in your murderous abilities.”

[More of the same.]
Brock: “Y’know what my favorite part of this is? We didn’t need to go looking for him.”

[Fennec attempts to drive the getaway vehicle.]
Georges the GM: “What’s your drive?”
Zac: “1/+2.”
Brock: “You’ve done this in a videogame.”

[Zoltan may be dead, but his bodyguards are still very much alive.]
Georges the GM: “A man with an under-barrel grenade launcher gets out of the back seat.”
Brock: (as bodyguard) “I’ve been waiting my whole career for this moment!”

[Torgath shoots Zoltan’s driver as Fennec is making her getaway.]
Georges the GM: “Since their driver is dead, they don’t pursue.”

[Georges the GM takes in what has just happened to his antagonist.]
Georges the GM: “You have completely curtailed…”
Ariel: “You were the one who put him in front of us and said ‘he’ll tear out the fingernails from our loved ones.’”

[Lyta is still meeting with Ellen Cranby when she gets the news from Torgath and Fennec.]
Lyta: “Oh, so that thing I told you about Zoltan? Never mind.”




Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game

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