tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48245129466943664932024-02-20T13:25:33.415-05:00Hermes 72 - Heavy Gear RPG>>...satellite uplink engaged...processing...stand by...<<Game Thughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00326537111648972389noreply@blogger.comBlogger904125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-41200620380722052282017-12-03T14:14:00.001-05:002017-12-03T14:14:23.470-05:00Wordslingin'The penultimate session! As the Lassander siblings team up to capture an important VIP to the Comptroller’s operation, things are going well. A little too well. There’s gotta be a catch somewhere…
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<br /><i>[Lukas and Kain are on the hunt for a VIP to the Comptroller’s operation. They have brought Gideon, Brock’s erstwhile breaking-and-entering NPC, with them, this time played by Zac. Hopefully he won’t botch as much as Brock did.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Lukas may also know that Gideon’s infiltration ability…”
<br />Brock: “In theory!”
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<br /><i>[Lukas et al reach the entrance to the VIP’s residence through an underground tunnel and manage to blast the door slightly off its hinges. They throw a grenade through the opening at the security team on the other side.]</i>
<br />Zac: “What’s to stop them from doing to us what we did to them?”
<br />Brock: “The grenade at their feet, I hope.”
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<br /><i>[Lukas and Gideon are cut off from the rest of the team as the ceiling collapses, but at least they’ve succeeded on their initial kill-them-all-with-a-grenade plan.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “There are six bodies in various states of dismemberment and life.”
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<br /><i>[Lukas hears people moving upstairs.]</i>
<br />Julie: “You’ll be fine – and not even in the Todd sense of ‘fine’.”
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<br /><i>[Entering the compound shortly after Lukas, through a different tunnel, is Lyta and a team of mercs. One of them has a sawed-off Barnaby rifle.]</i>
<br />Brock: “What it loses in range it makes up for in fireball.”
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<br /><i>[Gideon explores the bottom floor of the compound.]</i>
<br />Gideon: “Would it seem weird to you if there were a secret room full of blood samples back there?”
<br />Lukas: “Yeah, that’s weird.”
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<br /><i>[We continue on into the compound, having been made aware that there is <b>a lot</b> more security.]</i>
<br />Julie: “You sure you wanna send Gideon into the grenade-throwing guys?”
<br />Brock: “Yeah. He’s agile, sneaky, and entirely expendable.”
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<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Gideon: “Why don’t you send one of the guys with the shields up?!”
<br />Mercenary: “As a guy with a shield, I vote for you.”
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<br /><i>[Blast doors come down on the stairwell. Gideon is able to raise them again, and he thinks he can close them just as a security guy is charging at him.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Roll you…”
<br />Zac: “My humanity?”
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<br /><i>[We continue on, taking out security as we go. Lyta is forced to use her gun, which she almost never uses.]</i>
<br />Lyta: *massively overkills her target*
<br />Zac: “Wow, so much more effective than hitting him with a stick.”
<br />Julie: “Lyta is very disappointed.”
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<br /><i>[Gideon finds a button in one of the rooms he’s searching and pushes it. It reveals itself to be the activator for a panic button at the entrance to the room.]</i>
<br />Zac: “I open the door again.”
<br />Georges the GM: “You can’t.”
<br />Zac: “D’oh!”
<br />Brock: “Now you know what it does.”
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<br /><i>[Meanwhile, in the other room…]</i>
<br />Brock: “I fire a rocket at the guy.”
<br />Julie: “Where do you get a rocket?!”
<br />Brock: “From my backpack!”
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<br /><i>[More exploration.]</i>
<br />Brock: “I’ll put some speculative rounds into the closets.”
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<br /><i>[An important question that probably should have been asked sooner.]</i>
<br />Brock: “What <b>is</b> my objective here?”
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<br /><i>[We are massively, hugely effective at taking out dozens of security guards with maximum lethality.]</i>
<br />Brock: “We’re the aliens in the horror movie.”
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<br /><i>[We finally reach the top floor of the building, and find the VIP.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “It’s Donovar Lassander.”
<br />Gideon: “Hey, who’s the old guy?”
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<br /><i>[Things start going bad in a hurry.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Gideon, get up here now!”
<br />Gideon/Zac: “I’d come up but I only have four dice left!”
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<br /><i>[The merc with the Barnaby rifle shoots Lyta in the back, nearly killing her.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “What’d he offer you?”
<br />Barnaby: “Why don’t you ask him?”
<br />Lukas: “He’s unconscious.”
<br />Donovar Lassander: (getting up from several sfika rounds) “Actually, I’m not.”
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<br /><i>[Lukas converses with the man who, to every appearance, is his dead father.]</i>
<br />Donovar Lassander: “I admit, I’m a little disappointed.”
<br />Lukas: “You’re dead – you can’t be disappointed.”
<br />Donovar Lassander: “Oh, disappointment goes long beyond the grave.”
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<br /><i>[Lukas pulls off the mask from the merc with the Barnaby rifle.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “You recognize that face.”
<br />Brock: “Is this some kind of nightmare?”
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<br /><i>[Indeed, the whole session was in fact an hallucination as Lukas was knocked unconscious very early in the op. There were, admittedly, one or two hints along the way.]</i>
<br />Zac: “The map of the compound looks just like the map of someone’s brain.”
<br />Georges the GM: “I’ve always wanted to do a dream sequence.”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-13416334402870015002017-11-29T13:45:00.000-05:002017-11-29T13:45:11.958-05:00Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter XI: UnsettledThey came at her fast and fierce. Two on her arms – she kicked up, her foot smashing into a face. Let the kick carry into a spin to land behind the other one, twisting the arm that held her. Too slow. Another had come in, rushing for a take-down. She slid underneath, a snap-punch to the ribs as she passed. Three more, this time with knives. She used a table as a makeshift shield, then twisted around it, taking out three sets of legs. One more, this one big and fast. She grabbed her staff off the chair, extended it, pole-vaulted over. A jab out with one foot, hooking the ankle, and big-and-ugly was on the floor, and she snapped her staff down at the exposed throat. Her attacker looked at her with murder in his eyes—
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<br />“And cut!”
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<br />Lyta lifted the staff and helped her attacker to his feet. He clapped her on the shoulder as they both moved towards the water station.
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<br />“That’s a wrap for the day, people! We’re going over the new choreography tomorrow at 0800 sharp. Everyone’s on deck except Kes. Do <i>not</i> be late, or so help me!” A few annoyed groans at the B-unit director as the various stuntspeople grabbed water, stretched out their muscles, and started getting out of their costumes. Somehow, the director never seemed to anticipate that a room full of professionals could actually <i>act</i> like professionals, and so insisted on treating them all like kindergarteners. Lyta rolled her eyes at her erstwhile attacker, who returned the gesture with a nod of his head towards the director. He grabbed a glass of water and went off towards the dressing rooms.
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<br />Jared cornered her at her at the water cooler. “Kes, <i>darling</i>, you were magnificent as always.”
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<br />Lyta straightened up. “Aren’t you supposed to be looking for new talent or something?”
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<br />Jared raised his eyebrow the tiniest amount. “Of <i>course</i> I’m looking for talent, darling, but that doesn’t mean I can’t come over and watch you perform sometime.”
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<br />Lyta gave him an even stare. “What do you want, Jared?”
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<br />“Want? Why, to wish you well on your trip, <i>darling</i>. I can’t <i>believe</i> your agent managed to arrange for you to have time off during filming, but…” A vague wave of his hand, as if to say <i>he outmaneuvered me but I’m too proud to say so.</i>
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<br />Lyta downed the rest of her water. “You want to make sure I’m coming back, is what you’re saying.”
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<br />“Of <i>course</i> you’re coming back, <i>darling!”</i> But Lyta could catch the hint of hesitation in his voice. She had, after all, jumped out the window to avoid him the day he tried to make her sign his contract.
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<br />“I’m coming back, Jared,” Lyta said with a roll of her eyes. But she grinned when she said it. “I promise you won’t have to give up your finder’s fee.”
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<br />“Finder’s fee! The very farthest thing from my mind, <i>darling!”</i>
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<br />Lyta held his gaze.
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<br />Jared opened both his hands. “You’ll be the death of me yet, Kes. You’ll make me tear out all my hair and get implants. But you’re worth it, <i>darling</i>. Have an <i>excellent</i> trip.” He leaned in and kissed the air beside her cheek.
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<br />Lyta sighed and made her way to her locker. There were a few good-natured pats on the back, a few well-wishes for her trip, a few requests for souvenirs. Lyta smiled and waved, promised she’d be back soon, and assured them she’d kick all their asses when she got back, which earned her a few rueful chuckles.
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<br />The moment she stepped out of the studio, though, her smile dropped. It had taken all her mental tricks to keep focused during the afternoon’s shoot. And it was all because of Fennec. Fennec and Ti.
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<br />The scavenger-turned-Kin had come back to Prince Gable that morning, and the two had taken lunch together between takes. Lyta had been vaguely aware that Fennec was continuing to covertly gather intelligence for Ti, tracking down leads to the Comptroller in a way that Lyta, with her increasingly-public face, was no longer able to do.
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<br />She hadn’t realized that Fennec had actually found something. Or, more to the point, someone.
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<br />Fennec hadn’t thought much of it when she mentioned off-handedly that she’d run into Lukas on a mission nearly a season before. Why would she? Didn’t Lyta live with Ti? Hadn’t she been part of all these missions herself until just recently? Fennec had assumed that Lyta had already known, and Lyta had played along, pressing Fennec for information as though she were only looking for “all the juicy details” about what had happened.
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<br />In a whole season, Ti hadn’t said a thing.
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<br />Lyta pushed it to the back of her mind through the rest of the meal and through her afternoon shoot, but as she walked home, she couldn’t help but return to it. A whole season, and Ti hadn’t told her. Not that they’d found more information about the Comptroller. Not that they’d taken a prisoner and handed him over to the Doc. And not that Fennec had encountered Lukas.
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<br />The thought came back again and again: <i>Why?</i> Why hadn’t he told her? Why had he kept her in the dark about his operations? Didn’t he still trust her?
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<br />Didn’t he?
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<br />She was in a black mood by the time she pushed open the apartment door and was greeted with the smell of food. Ti stood by the counter, and his face lit up as he saw her. He came to the door and greeted her with a lingering kiss, his arms wrapped around her shoulders. When he disengaged, he made his way back to the kitchen. “I picked up Mekongese. I hope that’s okay?”
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<br />Lyta’s stomach rumbled in response. “Great,” she said with more enthusiasm than she felt. She let her bag drop to the floor beside the door and locked it behind her.
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<br />“How was your day?” Ti’s voice came to her from the kitchen as he spooned the food from its take-out containers and onto plates.
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<br /><i>I saw Fennec. She told me she’d run into Lukas. And you didn’t tell me.</i>
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<br />“Fine,” Lyta answered. “I think if Jared were any more obvious about how much he doesn’t want me to bail on him, he’d have to get dinars tattooed on his forehead.”
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<br />Ti walked over with her plate and kissed her brow. “You’ll be back.”
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<br />“I told him that.”
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<br />“Then he’s got nothing to worry about.”
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<br />They settled down on the sofa in front of the trideo, and Ti flicked it on to some Badlander movie, full of hardened carvanners and plenty of guns and Gears. It was based on a book; Todd would probably have read it, but Lyta had never even heard of it before. Still, it was entertaining enough for brainless entertainment. “One day, that’ll be you,” Ti pointed out as they watched one of the evil mayor’s nameless lackeys take a bullet and practically <i>spin</i> himself through the air from the impact.
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<br />“Mmm,” Lyta agreed, not looking at him, focusing more on the trideo and her food. It tasted slightly bitter, as though to match her mood.
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<br />The trideo moved on, the hero and the heroine having a touching moment on top of the caravan, looking out at the vastness of the desert. It reminded Lyta of every caravan trip she had ever taken. Every guard shift. Every boring armadillo ride ensuring that there were no incoming rovers.
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<br />Her mind drifted back to an early caravan trip with Ti, before they’d even started dating. She remembered how she’d bared her soul for him, only to have him rebuff it. The first of many times he’d told her that he cared about her, but didn’t trust her. Not yet. How she’d gone to him that evening and told him she understood, but she hadn’t. Not really.
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<br />She’d earned his trust eventually, after he’d died and come back to life. She did everything he’d asked. Told him everything he wanted. Revealed all her secrets.
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<br />Almost all her secrets.
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<br />She shook herself out of her thoughts and stood up, a little too abruptly.
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<br />“You sure you’re all right?” A hand on her wrist, a concerned look on Ti’s face.
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<br />She looked down and tried to smile. “Yeah, fine. I’ve just gotta finish packing. I think the Humanists don’t let you in unless you’ve got your packing list written up in triplicate.” She glanced at the empty space beside the front door. “You probably should too. Or are you gonna wait to find out if they hog-tie the mayor and bring him to justice?”
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<br />A look crossed Ti’s face, halfway between embarrassed and chagrined. The look he used when he was about to deliver bad news. “I… can’t go,” he said softly. “Something’s come up at the last minute. Business.”
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<br />Lyta looked down at him, incredulous. “Were you planning on telling me before you dropped me off at the Maglev?” She couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice.
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<br />“Lyta, I’m sorry. It just came up today and it can’t wait. I know this trip means a lot to you, and to Todd. You know I’d go if I could.”
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<br />Lyta took a long breath. “Yeah,” she said, falling into old monosyllabic habits.
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<br />Ti stood up and held her shoulders. “Please don’t be like that,” he said. “I’ll try to get down there as soon as I can.”
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<br />Lyta shook herself away. “Fine.”
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<br />“Lyta…”
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<br />“It’s fine. You have business. I get it.” She hopped over the back of the sofa and stomped towards their bedroom.
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<br />Behind her, she could hear Ti’s sigh, feel him weighing whether it was worth it to follow her and try to make up, or to leave her alone to let her vent her frustration without him. She assumed he’d chosen the latter when he didn’t appear within a few minutes, and she flung her suitcase onto the bed with quite a bit more force than was necessary.
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<br /><i>He didn’t tell me. He meant to tell me. He was going to tell me. He still trusts me.
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<br />...Doesn’t he?</i>
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-18439638817950290502017-11-28T16:05:00.001-05:002017-11-28T16:05:55.815-05:00Wordslingin'Back into the Humanist Alliance! A little birthday celebration, a little breaking-and-entering, a little espionage… it’s all in a day’s work for Our Heroes (tm).
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<br /><i>[We learn that Torgath and Gabrielle Summers are living together in the Humanist Alliance, very far from the NGIS.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Are there any governmental agencies that Dawn <b>isn’t</b> wanted by? Or any of us?”
<br />Georges the GM: “Probably not.”
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<br /><i>[The community where Torgath and Gabrielle – now going by “Summer” – are living is full of retired spies, many of whom come out for Torgath’s birthday party.]</i>
<br />Zac: “So we’re at another open party of spies. Déjà vu!”
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<br /><i>[Summer presents Torgath with a birthday present: a human-sized box.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “I know you’ve had some unfinished business with Gorash. Let me dispel any notion that he is in the box.”
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<br /><i>[Indeed, the person in the box is Brock’s NPC, Gideon, a breaking-and-entering specialist, whom Summer claims has information on Gorash’s secret compound. The question is, how to get that information out of him.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “If I know anything about being sealed away in boxes, he’s probably getting pretty anxious by now.”
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<br /><i>[Gideon is a very small man, even smaller than Lyta.]</i>
<br />Zac: “I feel vaguely reassured that for once, this isn’t Lukas in disguise.”
<br />Brock: “Joke’s on you! Extensive plastic surgery again!”
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<br /><i>[We open the box, which Gideon immediately leaps out of and tries to escape.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “I don’t want to shoot him.”
<br />Julie: “Don’t shoot him! He’s your birthday present!”
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<br /><i>[Regarding Gideon’s immediate escape attempt.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “That was… unexpected.”
<br />Fennec: “Was it, though?”
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<br /><i>[Once things settle down, we offer Gideon 20k dinar just to listen to our pitch.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “We’ve already shown it’s worth 20k.”
<br />Gideon: “20k buys you freedom from my resentment at being kidnapped.”
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<br /><i>[We ask Gideon to tell us about Gorash’s secret compound. He sets his initial price ridiculously high, i.e. 5 million dinar. But he <b>is</b> willing to come down… kinda.]</i>
<br />Gideon: “All right – good guy discount. Three million.”
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<br /><i>[More back-and-forth haggling.]</i>
<br />Gideon: “You such at negotiating.”
<br />Gabrielle Summer: “We’ll offer another 40k and you won’t be lobotomized.”
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<br /><i>[We ultimately settle on 100k and that Gideon comes with us to verify the intel.]</i>
<br />Zac: “I want to stress that I want our hopper to be as theft-proof as possible.”
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<br /><i>[It turns out the secret hide-out is actually a full-on compound, currently being occupied by about 60 soldiers. We agree to give Gideon an additional 10k to come with us.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Somewhere Lukas is pleased at your cheapness.”
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<br /><i>[There are many buildings on the island. We approach the nearest one.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Georges has drawn a map, so I think we’re on the right track.”
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<br /><i>[Gideon and Lyta head up to the roof and find a window that opens onto a barracks.]</i>
<br />George the GM: “You open the window.”
<br />Brock: “Do I hear any alarms?”
<br />Georges the GM: “You don’t <b>hear</b> any alarms.”
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<br /><i>[Sadly, there as indeed an alarm. We take preventative measures.]</i>
<br />Zac: “So, was the guy who sfika-ed the Comptroller?”
<br />Georges the GM: “No.”
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<br /><i>[Lyta notices that the guards have been alerted that something’s going on, even though they’re not entirely certain what.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Right now I assume they’re gonna sweep the building because they assume someone has breached the perimeter.”
<br />Julie: “Which they have.”
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<br /><i>[On the upside, we have found both a trove of useful information as well as a person we assume is one of Gorash’s pet killing machines. On the downside, we seem to have stirred up a hornet’s nest among the island’s troops.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Maybe I should call in an airstrike on the whole island.”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-9246223315284397572017-10-08T12:31:00.001-04:002017-10-08T12:31:54.051-04:00Wordslingin'The end of the mine job! When the guys at the top are in cahoots with a band of no-good, murderous mercs, what do you do? Murder them first with overwhelming firepower, obviously.
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<br /><i>[Georges the GM reminds us of what we know as we start the session.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Fennec is coming at this from a different source than Lukas.”
<br />Zac: “A less informed source.”
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<br /><i>[Fennec has been asked to meet Cletus and Josiah McGrew at a rendezvous point in the woods. She asks Karima to set up an overwatch position.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “I only have a pistol.”
<br />Zac: “Do we not have a better gun?”
<br />Julie: “I have a better gun – I’m just not there.”
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<br /><i>[Fennec is taken to four Gears, which are ostensibly provided for mining purposes but in actuality could be made combat-ready with little effort. She decides to get some answers out of Josiah McGrew by means of picking him up with her Gear.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Drop a die if you want to make sure you don’t crush his ribcage in the process.”
<br />Ariel: “Why <b>wouldn’t</b> you want to shatter their ribcage?”
<br />Zac: “A dead person makes a much less compelling hostage.”
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<br /><i>[Fennec picks up McGrew, which leads to an immediate shoot-out between the mercs and mine security.]</i>
<br />Cletus Benchfield: “You’re all conspiring against me!”
<br />Zac: “That’s probably true.”
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<br /><i>[Fennec tries to de-escalate the situation.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Ain’t no reason people need to get themselves full of holes because of this. [beat] More people.”
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<br /><i>[One of McGrew’s people shoots McGrew in the head as Fennec holds him.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Wow, you guys have <b>no</b> sense of loyalty – I’m gonna have to stomp some into you.”
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<br /><i>[Now that McGrew is dead…]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Let me see what I can recover of the exposition bits, which have all gone to hell.”
<br />Zac: “Mwahaha! I ruined everything!”
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<br /><i>[Meanwhile, Lukas has rendezvoused with the rest of the mercs and their four battle-ready Gears.]</i>
<br />Merc Lieutenant: “You’re a big guy – let’s have you drive the Assault Grizzly.”
<br />Lukas: “Come to mamma!”
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<br /><i>[Lukas rolls in with the rest of the mercs.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “Are you going to attack us?”
<br />Brock: “I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
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<br /><i>[Brock has secret plans.]</i>
<br />Brock: “It’s gonna be awesome.”
<br />Zac: “Awesome for who?”
<br />Brock: “For me, the only person who matters.”
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<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Zac: “What team are you on right now?”
<br />Brock: “Team money.”
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<br /><i>[Back with Fennec, head of security Megan Farr decides to high-tail it. Sadly, Karima is making that difficult for her.]</i>
<br />Karima: *jumps into the car*
<br />Megan Farr: *attempts to shoot Karima*
<br />Megan Farr’s gun: *click*
<br />Karima: “There’s four Gears after us – shouldn’t we work together?”
<br />Zac: “Not, ‘You tried to kill me!’?”
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<br /><i>[Lukas isn’t about to let the mercs have all the fun, of course.]</i>
<br />Lukas: *blows up 3 of the merc Gears by means of remote-activating the grenades on their belts, then rolls 8 on his bluff check* “Oh, my God! What happened?!”
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<br /><i>[After destroying three Gears, Lukas uses his incendiary rocks to destroy two trucks.]</i>
<br />Zac: “This is why Lukas does what he does: even when you’re rich, there are some things money can’t buy.”
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<br /><i>[Fennec et al can hear massive amounts of gunfire and see the forest starting to catch fire.]</i>
<br />Brock: “I love how there’s no concern for Lukas.”
<br />Zac: “I’ve worked with him long enough that I know all that destruction is his handiwork.”
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<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “I got wind that something bad was comin’, and judging by the flames back there…”
<br />Julie: “It came.”
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<br /><i>[Having blowing up three gears and two trucks, it’s time for Lukas to start the mop-up.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “You’ve got a dozen infantry who were supposed to be your support.”
<br />Brock: “Incendiary rocket!”
<br />Georges the GM: “They’ve hunkered down. They have a lot of cover.”
<br />Brock: “They’re gonna need it.”
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<br /><i>[Now that Lukas has effectively lit up the forest…]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “I guess they’re gonna have to rename Shady Pines.”
<br />Zac: “’Smoking Pines’?”
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<br /><i>[Meanwhile, Fennec is interrogating Archibald Benchfield and trying to figure out what the ‘treasure’ is that all the mercs seem to want.]</i>
<br />Archibald Benchfield: “You ever heard of a learning neural net?”
<br />Ariel: “We had a whole story arc about them.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The Benchfields were, indeed, working with the Comptroller.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “I wonder if I had a first name for Gorash.”
<br />Ariel: “’Lieutenant.’”
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<br /><i>[Having taken out all the mercs, Lukas finally arrives at Fennec’s location.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “So, what do we have here, Fennec?”
<br />Zac: “Wait. Why would I tell you?”
<br />
<br /><i>[Fennec ‘asks’ Archibald to come with her.]</i>
<br />Archibald Benchfield: “Who are you working for?”
<br />Fennec: “I represent interested parties and that’s all you need to know.”
<br />Brock (as Fennec): “Because I’m in a Gear and you’re not.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Fennec takes Archibald into custody. Little does she know that while she was busy doing her interrogation, Lukas has taken McGrew’s datapad.]</i>
<br />Zac: “My goal is, for a change, to walk out with more intel than Lukas.”
<br />Georges the GM: “As far as you know, that’s what’s happening.”
<br />
<br /><i>[In the aftermath…]</i>
<br />Zac: “The Humanist arson squad have a few questions for you.”
<br />Brock: “I have answers for them.”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-41976205306524575522017-09-17T21:02:00.001-04:002017-09-17T21:02:32.224-04:00Wordslingin'Another mine job! When it turns out that Our Heroes (tm) are working at cross purposes, only one can emerge victorious…
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<br /><i>[Fennec is undercover as a mechanic for the Benchfield Mines, trying to suss out whether the Benchfields have any connection with the Comptroller. Officially, she’s been tasked with ensuring that some new Gears are in order to put down an imminent miners’ strike. Unofficially…]</i>
<br />Zac: “Okay, so since this is my fake job and not my real job, I think snooping is in order.”
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<br /><i>[Olly is a runner who’s been helping Fennec, to the point where Fennec doesn’t want anything untoward to happen to him. Of course, there are various definitions of ‘untoward happening’.]</i>
<br />Olly: “Where am I supposed to go?”
<br />Fennec: “I dunno, find a rock to hide under.”
<br />Ariel: “You should hide in the pit of corpses – it’s the only safe place.”
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<br /><i>[Fennec has been aside by Megan Farr, head of security. Also in the workshop is Karima, Ariel’s alternate PC.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Where’s Karima?”
<br />Ariel: “I’m waiting for your signal.”
<br />Zac: “My signal to what?”
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<br /><i>[Farr has been instructed to take Fennec back to the big house, where the two bosses live.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “I’ve got a rapport with one of the Mr. Benchfields. I might wanna freshen up.”
<br />Georges the GM: “Farr looks disgusted.”
<br />Zac: “The less she thinks of me, the better.”
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<br /><i>[Meanwhile, in the nearby town of Shady Pines, Lukas has arranged a distraction by lighting the Gropius Cultural Centre on fire.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “People are forming a bucket brigade.”
<br />Brock: “So much for the 52nd century.”
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<br /><i>[Why have one distraction when you could have <b>more</b> than one distraction?]</i>
<br />Brock: “Any other distraction opportunities? [beat] What’s the town’s power plant?”
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<br /><i>[Also in town is Roxanne Marçon, Julie’s alternate PC. While normally a highly perceptive sniper, Julie botches her notice roll right when Roxanne is coming to Lukas’ notice.]</i>
<br />Brock: “I hate to zip-tie you and put you out of commission for the rest of the evening.”
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<br /><i>[Lukas takes Roxanne’s comms, just in time to hear Fennec’s conversation with Megan Farr.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Y’know, by now I’d have shot whoever you’re talking to in the face.”
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<br /><i>[In the car, Farr and Fennec have a tense conversation.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “What are you expectin’, huh?”
<br />Megan Farr: “I’m expecting violence. It’s safer than the alternatives.”
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<br /><i>[Lukas is still listening in.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “She’s getting good details. I want you to know if you die, I’m using this intel.”
<br />
<br /><i>[After a bit of a stalemate, Fennec tries to give a little. It doesn’t go that well.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Would you believe if I said that Earth loyalists…”
<br />Lukas: “Now you sound like a crazy person.”
<br />Megan Farr: “You talking about the bones?”
<br />Lukas: “Hmm, maybe you’re not a crazy person. Maybe you found a fellow crazy person.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Sometimes information is less forthcoming.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Whose bones are in the mine?”
<br />Megan Farr: “Nobody who’s gonna be missed.”
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<br /><i>[Farr reveals that the bones are of captured GRELs. A Humanist Preceptor named Layson apparently updated their hypnoprogramming to turn them into miners instead of killers.]</i>
<br />Zac: “What happened to Layson after we captured him?”
<br />Ariel: “Gorash shot him in the back of the head.”
<br />Zac: “Oh, right.”
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<br /><i>[Diplomacy at its best.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “The way I see it, we have the same goal here.”
<br />Julie: “To screw the other guy”
<br />
<br /><i>[Note that Lukas has been listening in on the whole conversation. Moreover, Karima has also been listening in while providing overwatch.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Megan, I just gotta confer for a second with my… conscience.”
<br />
<br /><i>[In the end, Farr and Fennec decide to work together, head up to the big house, and find out what’s going on. They’re taking Karima with them.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Are you a mechanic?”
<br />Karima: “A bit.”
<br />Fennec: “Can you fake it?”
<br />Karima: “Yeah.”
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<br /><i>[The way things always seem to go…]</i>
<br />Zac: “I’m confident that whichever Benfield we decide to back will be the one that turns on us. Because drama.”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-68857656185346806782017-08-24T11:59:00.001-04:002017-08-24T11:59:41.898-04:00Wordslingin'The spy-party of the decade continues! And also a time lapse to a season later, where everyone is hot on the trail of… something. Maybe the Comptroller, maybe not. Only time will tell.
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<br /><i>[Things are starting slowly.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “You guys have made contact.”
<br />Zac: “How many paragraphs is that into your notes?”
<br />Georges the GM: “We haven’t reached my notes yet.”
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<br /><i>[Fennec, Torgath, and the NPCs have discovered that a suit of armor in the ballroom is actually a secret door to a concealed passageway.]</i>
<br />Zac: “We could have just come in this way at the beginning!”
<br />Georges the GM: “If you’d known it was there.”
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<br /><i>[On one side of the suit-of-armor are Fennec, Torgath, Ti, and Gabrielle. On the other are Lukas and Minnie.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “I don’t want to belabour this – either you’re gonna stay in the hallway, which is a bad plan, or you’re gonna exit.”
<br />Brock: “I dunno – there’s a lot of assumptions being made about Lukas’ goodwill.”
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<br /><i>[Meanwhile, Lyta is on the arm of Jacyntha Fein, the party’s host, and completely missing her overtures.]</i>
<br />Jacyntha Fein: “Who wants to sulk about in shadows and take orders their whole life?”
<br />Lyta: “…Right. Who would?”
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<br /><i>[Lukas agrees to act as a distraction.]</i>
<br />Brock: “I will go to the nearest bar, looking for a bottle of whatever I think is the most flammable.”
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<br /><i>[Speaking of distractions…]</i>
<br />Julie: “As the guards close in, I take a dramatic action to step out of my dress, which I specifically designed to be step-out-of-able.”
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<br /><i>[Combat is joined.]</i>
<br />Julie: “Are the guards armed?”
<br />Brock: “You know who’s never sorry? The person who <b>assumed</b> the other guy had a gun.”
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<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Lyta has run amuck.”
<br />Julie: “I got permission.”
<br />
<br /><i>[And yet more.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “There are nine on Lyta and one on each of the rest of you.”
<br />Julie: “I trust that the rest of you can handle one each.”
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<br /><i>[Meanwhile, Lukas puts his distraction into effect.]</i>
<br />Brock: “I light the curtains on fire. Discreetly.”
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<br /><i>[Also meanwhile, with the rest of Our Heroes…]</i>
<br />Ariel: “This is either the most awesome plan or the worst plan. What can I do with this snake…?”
<br />
<br /><i>[So now we’ve got a panicking crowd and everything is on fire.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Did you guys plan for a disaster escape?”
<br />Zac: “C’mon, it’s us.”
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<br /><i>[More of the same. This is funny because the ‘pompous buffoon’ was Lukas.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Oh! I know! Some pompous buffoon arrived in a blimp! Let’s steal it!”
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<br /><i>[It turns out that all night, Fein was trying to recruit Lyta into her organization, but failed mostly due to Lyta’s cluelessness. She then had her people pull out guns and try to shoot Lyta, and again failed.]</i>
<br />Zac: “She just upped the ante. I think we should drop a large bomb on her house.”
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<br /><i>[Time shift to a season in the future! Fennec and Karima, one of our B-team characters, have been in deep cover, investigating a mining operation owned by the Benchfield Family. Lukas, meanwhile, has independently infiltrated a caravan that is delivering an arms shipment to the same mine.]</i>
<br />Zac: “If only I knew about a shipment of guns coming in tonight!”
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<br /><i>[As it looks like the miners are about to strike, Fennec is brought before Archibald Benchfield, the younger of the two owners.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Your father was more businesslike.”
<br />Archibald Benfield: (pointedly) “My father’s sight is going.”
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<br /><i>[Fennec finds out why she was brought in front of the boss.]</i>
<br />Archibald Benfield: “I’m afraid it’s bad news – you’re being promoted.”
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<br /><i>[When no answer is actually an answer.]</i>
<br />Archibald Benfield: “Esme, can I presume you’ve heard rumours of an impending strike?”
<br />Fennec: *long pause*
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<br /><i>[We review the situation, such as it is.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “I want to make sure we’re not giving the ore to the sneaky submersible base of doom.”
<br />Brock: “You are.”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-69013357925173470402017-07-30T18:11:00.002-04:002017-07-30T18:11:52.865-04:00Wordslingin'The Bear may be dead, but that doesn’t mean Our Heroes (tm) are out of the woods yet. We still need to track down his accomplice, the Comptroller, and try to prevent the release of the Jezebels onto Terra Nova. And to do that… we need to go to a party. Of course we do.
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<br /><i>[Minnie has offered to take Lukas back to Port Arthur to finish up his recuperation from his injuries.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “I’m ‘safe to move’, and by ‘move’, I assume they mean ‘walk slowly’.”
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<br /><i>[They rest of the team have a debriefing at BCG’s Prince Gable offices.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “This is how Fennec and I figured out how things will go moving forward.”
<br />Zac: (pointedly) “Yeah, this is how <b>we</b> figured things out.”
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<br /><i>[Torgath has received some sensitive intel from the debrief, which Lukas is absolutely not supposed to know. So of course he attempts to tell Lukas.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “You’re sending mixed messages, Torgath.”
<br />Julie: “Does he ever not?”
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<br /><i>[The conversation turns to Dawn.]</i>
<br />Torgath: “I think I might have won some of her back.”
<br />Zac: “’Some of her’.”
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<br /><i>[Nicosa Renault has informed Lukas of an upcoming masquerade ball hosted by Miss Jacyntha Fein, where he might find out some information on how to track down Lieutenant Gorash, the Comptroller. Lukas asks Minnie to be his plus-one.]</i>
<br />Minnie Bartok: “Do I get to wear a slinky dress?”
<br />Lukas: “The most expensive one you want.”
<br />Minnie Bartok: “So long as it’s 17th century period-appropriate.”
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<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Brock: “We spend an <b>obnoxious</b> amount of money.”
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<br /><i>[It’s always important to make an entrance.]</i>
<br />Brock: “What’s the closest thing to a carriage I can get? I’m prepared to outbid someone who’s already reserved one.”
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<br /><i>[Lukas and Minnie arrive at the party, which doubles as a dead-drop hot-spot for local intelligence operatives.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Minnie’s the person I can mock all the other spies with. I’ve never had that before!”
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<br /><i>[More about Minnie’s outfit.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Minnie’s outfit does mask her identity, but does nothing to render her… inconspicuous.”
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<br /><i>[The other PCs have likewise heard about the party, for roughly similar reasons. Ti and Fennec try to get into some of the restricted areas of the party, past the guards.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “How do you wanna handle this?”
<br />Fennec: “It’s a little early for fisticuffs, is it not?”
<br />Ti Corovan: “Yeah, but what about drunken stupor?”
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<br /><i>[Sadly, Ti and Fennec don’t coordinate as well as they might have.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “Next time I distract a person, maybe don’t draw attention to yourself.”
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<br /><i>[Fennec decides to take a… less populated route. She doesn’t roll as well as she might.]</i>
<br />Zac: “I pull myself into a window and thank goodness Lyta didn’t see that.”
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<br /><i>[Fennec finds herself in an off-limits upper library room. On the other side of an ornate door is an antechamber with a guard dog.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Well, that seems… suspicious.”
<br />Georges the GM: “Or intriguing.”
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<br /><i>[Fennec hears the sound of approaching footsteps.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Any places for concealment in this room?”
<br />Brock: “Just turn invisible.”
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<br /><i>[The intruders turn out to be Torgath and Dawn.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “I really hope you came in through the roof access; otherwise, I’m gonna feel silly.”
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<br /><i>[Fennec tells Dawn and Torgath about the dog.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “All right, I don’t deal with anything that doesn’t have mandibles. I’m out.”
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<br /><i>[Fennec and Torgath try to open the ornate door. Its locking mechanism is very elaborate.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Aw, man, I wish I had explosives!”
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<br /><i>[There are three locking mechanisms on the door, each apparently booby-trapped. Fennec barely manages to avoid the first booby-trap activating. It turns out to be a series of dart-launchers.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “It’s a dart coated with… something.”
<br />Zac: “Well, now I know what I’m stabbing the dog with.”
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<br /><i>[The second locking mechanism turns out to be a concealed panel, behind which is a terrarium of poisonous snakes. One gets out, but Torgath manages to capture it in his sock.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Well, a sock with a snake isn’t a bag of cats, but I can see why it would appeal.
<br />
<br /><i>[More about the snakes.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “I’m starting to feel like I was safer on the ceiling.”
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<br /><i>[Meanwhile, Lukas and Doc Chambers have identified each other.]</i>
<br />Doc Chambers: “I want your Chatterbox.”
<br />Zac: “Damnit!”
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<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Brock: “What’s the orientation where everyone is standing right now?”
<br />Zac: “I see a face-shooting coming…”
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<br /><i>[After Lukas takes his leave of the Doc, Lyta approaches. Note that the Doc is supposed to be acting as Lyta’s agent for her stunt-double career.]</i>
<br />Doc Chambers: “I got you everything you wanted, whether you knew you wanted it or not.”
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<br /><i>[Ti approaches Lukas. Minnie decides to leave the boys to it.]</i>
<br />Minnie Bartok: “Incoming. I’m gonna watch this from afar.”
<br />Brock: “I look pleadingly at her.”
<br />Minnie: “That’s the look I was waiting for – consider this an object lesson.”
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<br /><i>[Ti tries to mend bridges. It goes predictably badly.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “This is going about the way I thought it would, but not the way I wanted it to go.”
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<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “I don’t want to be the cause of a falling-out between you and Lyta.”
<br />Lukas: “Oh, we’re long past that.”
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<br /><i>[Yet more.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “I am more than capable of faking a peaceful coexistence with you around Lyta, and I know you can too…”
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<br /><i>[The rest of the players watch on as Ti and Lukas parley.]</i>
<br />Julie: “Is there going to be a duel?
<br />Zac: “They’re dressed for it.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Meanwhile, Minnie has approached Lyta.]</i>
<br />Minnie: “Port Arthur doesn’t seem like your sort of town.”
<br />Lyta: “It really isn’t. Too much purple, and that’s just not my color.”
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<br /><i>[Ti returns to Lyta after his conversation with Lukas.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “Have I told you how much I love you and how glad I am you are the stable one in your family?”
<br />Lyta: “I think you’re the first person on the planet to call me stable.”
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<br /><i>[In the course of their investigations, Minnie has been made by security. She is taken into custody while Lukas tries to find a reason to hang around nearby.]</i>
<br />Dramatic Drunken Southerner: “I am going to drink my drink, and you are going to melt my brain until I forget the world…”
<br />Ariel: “You could just sfika her.”
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<br /><i>[The dramatic, drunken Southerner is being particularly melodramatic.]</i>
<br />Dramatic Drunken Southerner: “So, tell me your sad, boring story for being here.”
<br />Ariel: “Oh! Tell her the truth!
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<br /><i>[Torgath and Fennec have finally made it through the ornate door and taken down the guard dog on the other side. They find themselves faced with… another door. A puzzle door. That neither of them can figure out.]</i>
<br />Torgath: *long pause*
<br />Fennec: “Yeah, me neither. Let’s kick it in!”
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<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Who designed this safe, Dan Brown?!”
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<br /><i>[Fennec and Torgath try to figure out the puzzle door.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “There are no prints.”
<br />Zac: “Damn you and your white-glove lifestyle!”
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<br /><i>[After quite a long time without any results, there’s a knock at the door where Torgath and Fennec are.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “It’s Gabrielle and Ti.”
<br />Zac: “Ah! Smart people!”
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<br /><i>[Sadly, Ti and Gabrielle aren’t only there to help with the door.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “So, what are you doing up here?”
<br />Ti Corovan: “Trying to escape the guards who are coming after us.”
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<br /><i>[It takes a <b>long</b> time to figure out the door.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: (exasperated) “So, you guys figure it out. Huzzah.”
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<br /><i>[The door is opened, but the PCs are being chased by guards.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Ti suggests that the better part of valor is discretion.”
<br />Zac: “Or a room full of snakes!”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-34367994785944537482017-06-12T15:08:00.001-04:002017-06-12T15:08:52.161-04:00Wordslingin'At long last! All the remaining betabels destroyed, the Bear captured, and massive property damage done to the NGIS! And there’s only one major loose end staring us directly in the face…
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<br /><i>[Torgath continues to be interrogated by Ed.]</i>
<br />Torgath: “Hypothetically, let’s say your organization had been infiltrated by Earth people and I could prove it…”
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<br /><i>[Ed is replaced by a new interrogator. While he does not name himself, we know out of character that this is Major Zadine Bartok, one of the two remaining betabels.]</i>
<br />Torgath: “Are you Big Red?”
<br />Zadine Bartok: “I am not. Though I am curious as to why you would ask this.”
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<br /><i>[Bartok lays out his plan of interrogation.]</i>
<br />Zadine Bartok: “The two most powerful warriors, my friend, are patience and time.”
<br />Torgath: “That sounds less painful than the shocky stick.”
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<br /><i>[Torgath continues to be his usual baffling self during the interrogation.]</i>
<br />Zadine Bartok: “Dostoyevsky says the most clever man is the one who calls himself a fool at least once a month. I think you are a very clever man.”
<br />Zac: *laughs uproariously*
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<br /><i>[A follow-up to the previous quote.]</i>
<br />Torgath: “I think you just insulted me! You said I’m a fool!”
<br />Zadine Bartok: “…I’m going to start cutting off your fingers now.”
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<br /><i>[Torgath is not very happy with the whole ‘cutting fingers off’ plan.]</i>
<br />Torgath: “So you’re going to use time and patience to remove my hope?”
<br />Zadine Bartok: “I <b>was</b> going to use time and patience. Now I will use…”
<br />Torgath: “My fingers?”
<br />Zadine Bartok: “Yes.”
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<br /><i>[Meanwhile, Fennec has discovered that the Bear, aka Col. Vitushkin, is on base today and meeting with an “independent security specialist”, who might or might not be Mark Kim, the other remaining betabel.]</i>
<br />Julie: “If Kim, Bartok, and the Bear are all here, we nuke the building from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”
<br />Brock: “I <b>had</b> considered it.”
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<br /><i>[The rest of the team has made it as far as the armory when our planned simulation – a gas leak – goes off. The guard in front of the armory puts on a gas mask and directs the rest of us on where to get more. Lukas sends Lyta and Fennec to make a show of getting them.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Corporal Mattis, if I should die of gas poisoning before the gas masks get here, I am putting in the record that you obstructed me getting one.”
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<br /><i>[While Lyta and Fennec raid the storage lockers where the gas masks are…]</i>
<br />Zac: “We’re looking for other useful items.”
<br />Georges the GM: “Such as?”
<br />Brock: “Portable hole?”
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<br /><i>[Lukas and Dawn take out the guard and enter the armory. Lyta and Fennec come back to discover none other than Zadine Bartok.]</i>
<br />Brock: “For the record, I’m not altogether dissatisfied that there’s an armored door between me and Bartok. Good luck.”
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<br /><i>[Lyta and Fennec have a good first round against Bartok, but he’s not down yet.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Damn! Shoulda loaded this thing full of silver bullets!”
<br />
<br /><i>[Bartok has run away from the fight after taking quite a bit of damage. Dawn rescues Torgath and everyone reconvenes outside the infirmary, where Bartok is hiding.]</i>
<br />Zac: “I give Torgath a silent thumbs-up.”
<br />Brock: “Because you still have thumbs. And so does he.”
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<br /><i>[We blow off the hinges and lock to the door.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Who wants to do the door-kicking?”
<br />Lyta: “Oh, that’s my job, isn’t it?”
<br />
<br /><i>[After some effort, we manage to get into the room and bring down Bartok.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “We needed Bartok alive to lead us to the Bear. But now we know the Bear is here, so…”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas kills Bartok and cuts off his head. Sadly, more hostiles have descended to our floor. We make a hasty tactical plan.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Someone has to hold the armory. We don’t want them having the kind of fun we’re having.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We know there is another betabel in the building, Mark Kim. We don’t have a tremendous amount of betabel rounds left, but we have managed to acquire… other things from the armory.]</i>
<br />Zac: “If we’re hitting Kim with a chain gun…”
<br />Brock: “It’s not a bad start.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We clear out the floor but there are more hostiles above us on the stairway. Lukas is holding position, doing a bit of harrowing and intimidation with a flamethrower. He moves back a bit to avoid the falling flames.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “How far do you move back?”
<br />Brock: “Far enough that any grenades…”
<br />Georges the GM: “That’s what happens next, yes.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Meanwhile, the rest of the PCs are raising the Q-lab, aka the advanced technologies R&D lab.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Anything that’s ‘this’ size or smaller should be shoved into the duffel bags.”
<br />Zac: “The duffel bags are full of flamethrowers.”
<br />
<br /><i>[There is only one stairway out of the basement, and it is full of people who want to shoot us.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “We could certainly use a distraction right now.”
<br />Lukas: “Are we at that point yet?”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “Our way out is… problematic.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We consider alternate means of egress.]</i>
<br />Brock: “How much would it take to cut through the ceiling?”
<br />Georges the GM: “More explosives than in the armory, but you do have a lab with…”
<br />Zac: (excited) “A laser beam?!”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas and Fennec manage to put together some explosives from the chemicals in the lab. The plan is to blow the ceiling right below the cafeteria, where Markus’ team has left us our explosive bottles.]</i>
<br />Brock: “This corner.”
<br />Zac: “Why that corner?”
<br />Brock: “Because that’s the furthest away from where I’d put four highly explosive bottles.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The bad news is our explosive bottles have been taken by the enemy. They send one down on a drone and it explodes prematurely, sparing the PCs but setting off the explosive Lukas had already set on a load-bearing wall beneath the cafeteria. Massive explosions ensue and the ceiling collapses.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Well, there goes our element of surprise.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Zac reflects on the situation.]</i>
<br />Zac: “I’m just pissed off they did what we were gonna do before we did it.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We climb up through the enclosed trunk line ducts to the second floor communications room, which we blast our way into.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “We’ll take a break before we tackle this fight.”
<br />Brock: “It’s a whole new floor!”
<br />Julie: “One that hasn’t been damaged by us yet!”
<br />Brock: “It has now!”
<br />
<br /><i>[We emerge into the comms room to discover it is full of armed adversaries.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Are we still with grenades? Is that our strategy?”
<br />Brock: “When there are 13 guys in a room with you, grenades.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Yet more fighting and some comms warfare has us follow Mark Kim and the Bear to the roof. Lukas, Lyta, and Torgath emerge from the stairwell but while we can see a few hostiles, none of them are the ones we’re looking for.]</i>
<br />Julie: “I’m gonna grab the doorframe and hop up onto the roof of this stairwell, then flatten myself down so no one can shoot at me.”
<br />Georges the GM: “You land on Mark Kim.”
<br />Zac: “Now you get to live out your dream of engaging in hand-to-hand with a betabel.”
<br />Julie: “This is a horrible idea!”
<br />
<br /><i>[The Bear, aka Col. Vitushkin, is on the far side of the roof from us as we are pinned down near the stairwell.]</i>
<br />Col. Vitushkin: “Lukas, my friend, is that you wearing Bartok’s dataglove?”
<br />Zac: (as Lukas) “I have something else of his too!”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Col. Vitushkin: “I’m always interested in bargains with Lassanders. The last one served me very well.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We know that Ti is inbound on our stealth hopper. We just need to stall long enough for him to get here.]</i>
<br />Col. Vitushkin: “Your father had me save you. He had me prioritize your lives over the other child.”
<br />Julie: “The one who’s about to shoot a missile at him. Surprise!”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “He’s monologuing because that’s what evil people do.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The situation has deteriorated.]</i>
<br />Julie: “What’s going on?”
<br />Brock: “A Mexican standoff. [beat] A Siberian standoff.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Mark Kim has a gun to Torgath’s head. Gabrielle comes up behind him.]</i>
<br />Mark Kimn: “Tell the NGIS traitor not to get too close, or I will give your romance a tragic ending.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Torgath is very wounded. Kim has him advance towards where Lyta and Lukas have taken the Bear into custody.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “Maybe I’ll crawl instead of walk.”
<br />Brock: “You should crawl. And as you’re crawling, you should investigate what’s on your tac vest that could be useful.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: (to Ariel) “Crawling sucks. You’re getting gravel in your wounds.”
<br />
<br /><i>[A sign that the standoff is about to come to a head.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “Todd, you’re going to be fine.”
<br />Torgath: “Of course!”
<br />Zac: “Oh, I hate it when they talk that way.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Through the whole combat, Fennec had been doing comm warfare checks to allow Ti to triangulate Kim’s position and shoot him with a missile. Sadly, Dawn shoots him first.]</i>
<br />Zac: “My efforts have all been wasted. I blame Gabrielle.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The standoff resolves itself thusly: Kim has been taken out by the combination of betalbel rounds from Gabrielle and a chain gun from Lukas, Lyta has taken custody of the Bear and rendered him unconscious, but Gabrielle, Lukas, and Torgath are all heavily injured,.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Torgath and Dawn look at each other as their blood pools together.”
<br />Brock: “In a heart shape.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Torgath, do you do anything other than bleed this round?”
<br />
<br /><i>[At long last, we manage to flee on our stealth hopper as the building collapses behind us in yet more massive explosions.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Congratulations on a slaughter well done.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas needs long-term hospitalization. But even that has not made him forget his priorities.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Don’t let them take my head.”
<br />
<br /><i>[In the aftermath of the combat, Nicosa Renault’s agent Tatsugoro contacts Torgath to find out the status of the Bear.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Who do you tell about this conversation?”
<br />Zac: “It’s Torgath, so probably everyone.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Also in the aftermath of the combat, as Lukas is recuperating…]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Minnie shows up.”
<br />Brock: “Okay. I’m ready for this. There’s a bar fridge in my room.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas and Minnie did not leave off on the best of terms.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Are you feeling celebratory? I got you a present.”
<br />Minnie Bartok: “All your limbs attached? It’s nothing gross?”
<br />Lukas: “…Drink first.”
<br />
<br /><i>[In the bar fridge is Zadine Bartok’s head.]</i>
<br />Minnie Bartok: *stares at the head a long time, then closes it with her foot and kisses Lukas on the cheek* “I guess this makes me a widow. You know where to reach me.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas has yet more awkward conversations. This time with Dawn.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “So…”
<br />Lukas and Gabrielle Summers: *long silence*
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas extends an olive branch towards Gabrielle, suggesting they might work together in the future.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Well, we’re gonna be a family, right?”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “And since I have no more parents for you to murder, I have nothing to lose.”
<br />Brock: “I have a head in a fridge – I can’t judge her callous sense of humor.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Georges the GM wraps up the session.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “First of all, congratulations on wiping out… everyone.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We are not totally finished with the campaign. We still need to find and destroy the Jezebel program before they are released into the world.]</i>
<br />Brock: “The underwater base is mobile?”
<br />Zac: “You want it, don’t you?”
<br />Brock: “Well, if no one else is gonna have it…”
<br />
<br /><i>[Attacking the Jezebel base will be… difficult.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “Wait, it’s guaranteed suicide, or we get to roll for it?”
<br />
<br /><i>[Zac sums up the choice before us.]</i>
<br />Zac: “So we can retire these characters or we can bring them back just to kill them in a suicide mission.”
<br />Georges the GM: “To save the world.”
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<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-36465138940246391032017-06-11T10:15:00.000-04:002017-06-11T10:15:12.292-04:00Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter X: SNS Report - 20-SP-29Good evening, welcome to the SNS daily report.<br />
<br />
In world events, reports are beginning to filter in that a major battle, the likes of which have not been seen since the end of the War of the Alliance, has occurred in the Western Desert. SNS sources reveal that the engagement was between the Desert Wolves, a regional rover gang that has mostly lain dormant these last cycles, and a new force comprised of disbanded Zelanis Global Services members.<br />
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ZGS was until recently a highly respected private security firm with a small but military-like capability. Last season they were held responsible for an open bloodbath in Prince Gable at the site of the new metro terminal in the eastern part of the city. After that incident, ZGS was denied standing in Prince Gable, Port Arthur, and Lance Point as well as other Western Basin cities and labeled rogue elements while charges were being levelled.<br />
<br />
Questioned on the incident, P.G.P.D. Detective Priti Kahn had this to say:<br />
<br />
“These are thugs parading as trained security personnel. They represent the worst remnants of the post-War dregs and if any of them have survived their ill-advised conflict with the heroes of the Prince Gable liberation, the Desert Wolves, then they will prosecuted for their crimes.”<br />
<br />
SNS has confirmed with the Badlands Caravan Guild that the ZGS forces attacked one of their western-bound caravans. A representative, Ms. Ellen Cranby, stated that she was grateful to the Desert Wolves for their assistance in putting down the raid and that without their timely rescue, valuable goods and innocent lives would have been lost.<br />
<br />
The Mayor of Temple Heights has called again for increased local cooperation on security to prevent such wanton attacks. There are still no confirmed reports regarding the President of ZGS, Mark Kim. He is missing and presumed dead. <br />
<br />
In financial news, WestRim, a UMF arms R&D company with close ties to NorthCo is under investigation by the Northern Compliance Office. The Lyonnesse rumour mill is abuzz with allegations ranging from insider trading and corporate espionage to sharing state secrets with the South, but so far the NCO has refused to comment on the nature of the investigation.<br />
<br />
This crisis comes on the heels of the departure of their recent CEO, Mrs. Schroeder, who was reported missing in connection with the mysterious civilian flight Tango Bravo niner Echo, which touched down in Swanscombe earlier this week amid a nest of Northern Guard. There is still no official statement from the UMF or the CNCS regarding the nature of the flight, but eyewitnesses say dozens of military-issue body bags were taken from the craft.<br />
<br />
WestRim stock has plunged in trades, losing 35% in three days. Particularly hard hit by this devaluation is DN Bank, which may have heavily underwritten WestRim. This happens just as Peace River has issued a fine against the bank for failure to comply with a sizeable seizure claim. Peace River has said they are willing to demand sanctions by the NCO if DN Bank does not settle the outstanding request in a timely manner.<br />
<br />
Turning to entertainment news. The Max Preebus production company is on an unusual talent hunt. Earlier this week they released raw footage of this young woman performing combat stunts in a screen test. This lucky stuntwoman is being offered a 100,000 dinar signing bonus if she presents herself to the Preebus studios.<br />
<br />
Sources have indicated that hundreds of aspiring fighters have queued up claiming to be the trideo-star-to-be but the ongoing call for her to come forward would seem to indicate the real McCoy has yet to make her mark. The trideo-going public is anxious to see what spectacle the Max Preebus production company makes of their starlet. Assuming they find her.<br />
<br />
In weather...I apologize, we are interrupting our regular report with late breaking news. It would appear that there has been an incident at the Northern guard HQ in Lyonnesse. Witnesses have reported a large explosion, no, a series of explosions and gunfire. There has been no official comment yet from UMF or CNCS officials.<br />
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<!--End-->Certain Betrayalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08518538829112660083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-4226602718375289742017-06-04T19:09:00.000-04:002017-06-11T00:12:43.394-04:00Wordslingin'Surprisingly, our really horrible plan (“Operation: Let Gabrielle and Torgath be captured so we can find out more about the Bear”) is so far unrolling pretty smoothly. This can’t possibly last…
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<br />
<br /><i>[Zac says what we’re all thinking.]</i>
<br />Zac: “I just want to go on the record for saying this is a terrible plan.”
<br />Julie: “We all think that.”
<br />Zac: “But I don’t have a better one.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We lay out some contingencies.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “If things go a little less well, Ti would like to use the stealth hopper.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Zac: “I feel like the worst-case scenario is always made better with the addition of a stealth hopper. So long as it’s ours.”
<br />Georges the GM: “Good distinction.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Ti asks Fennec for the bypass codes on the stealth hopper’s booby traps. Fennec agrees.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Yes, okay, I’m not gonna have Ti inhale a cloud of chlorine gas when he enters the hopper.”
<br />Brock: “Damnit!”
<br />
<br /><i>[Fennec tries to modify our pistols to fire our betabel-killing rifle rounds.]</i>
<br />Zac: “How do I feel about this 8 on my tinker roll?”
<br />Brock: “Screw what Fennec feels – how do <b>I</b> feel?”
<br />
<br /><i>[We prep Torgath for his capture by the NGIS.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”
<br />Zac: “I’m not worried about you. I’m worried about what happens to me when I rescue you.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Torgath is kidnapped and a bag put over his head.]</i>
<br />Torgath: “This bag smells pretty bad. Can I get another one?”
<br />Brock: “<b>Someone</b> wants the beatings to start early.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Torgath is taken to an interrogation chamber and given a preliminary set of questions by a man identifying himself as Ned.]</i>
<br />Ned: “Answering with yes or no only, are you Todd Shelby?”
<br />Torgath: “I don’t know how to answer that with a yes or no. It’s complicated.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More questions.]</i>
<br />Ned: “Answering with yes or no only, do you have a heart condition I should be aware of?”
<br />Torgath: “Oh! I know the answer to this one!”
<br />
<br /><i>[The first round of questioning is relatively innocuous.]</i>
<br />Ned: “Thank you for your time.”
<br />Torgath: “Thank you for <b>your</b> time. What’s your name?”
<br />Ned: “I’m Ned.”
<br />Torgath: “I’m sometimes Todd.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Ariel reflects on the interrogation.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “I like Ned. Can he be my new friend? I bet he likes books. He seems like someone who likes books.
<br />
<br /><i>[Ariel checks in on his progress so far.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “Assume I’m following what they trained me to do.”
<br />Georges the GM: “You’re not following it at all – you’re being Torgath. Being Torgath is not the textbook way to approach an interrogation.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Ned returns and stuns Torgath with a stun baton. Multiple times.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Sometime around the fifth or sixth shock, you’re finding it very hard to be stoic.”
<br />Ariel: “I’m thinking about pillow forts and how much I’d like to be in one.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Zac says what all of us are thinking.]</i>
<br />Zac: “I’m thinking maybe it would have been a good idea not to let Torgath know our plan at all.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Ned returns.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “It’s Ned again. He’s donned a lab coat.”
<br />Brock: “Lab coat is still okay. It’s when he has a butcher’s apron that you should worry.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Even though the interrogator is still clearly Ned, he now introduces himself as Fred.]</i>
<br />Fred: “I have a questionnaire for you to fill out.”
<br />Torgath: “Sadly, the answers are still mostly ‘it’s complicated’.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The questionnaire begins.]</i>
<br />Fred: “Answering with yes or no only, are you Todd Shelby?”
<br />Torgath: “…Not right now.”
<br />Georges the GM: “Okay, let’s skip straight to the health check.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Fred leaves, only to come back again later.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Does anything change on the <b>third</b> time?”
<br />Ariel: “…”
<br />
<br /><i>[Torgath is shown what seems to be surveillance footage of Fred shooting Gabrielle.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Something seems off about it.”
<br />Zac: (as Torgath) “Ned, I know what sound a woman makes when she’s shot in the chest.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Ned / Fred returns, this time as Ed. The questionnaire is somewhat different.]</i>
<br />Ed: “Answering yes or no only, is there any reason we should keep you alive?”
<br />Torgath: “Um… yes?”
<br />Georges the GM: “Good. You need a will to live for them to torture you.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Meanwhile, the rest of the PCs are infiltrating the base, with Lukas posing as Major Pitt doing a routine inspection and Lyta and Fennec as his adjuncts. Lukas tests the waters with our guide, Lieutenant Beckett, on the drive over.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “You are not expressing any surprise at the possibility of graft on base, Lieutenant.”
<br />Ariel: “I think we’ve found another thing you’re better at than your real job.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas begins his ‘inspection’. Lyta and Fennec attempt to play their parts.]</i>
<br />Julie: “I take notes on my clipboard when it seems appropriate.”
<br />Zac: “I look stern and humourless at all times.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas’ cover identity is called to the secure communications area. He ‘inspects’ the weapon of one of the guards outside.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Looks good, Corporal. You’re a credit to the uniform.”
<br />Zac: “Blam!”
<br />Brock: “I like this scenario, where I can just <b>ask</b> them for a gun.”
<br />
<br /><i>[It turns out the reason Lukas was called to the communications area was because Gabrielle has freed herself and taken out the three communications officers.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Good work, Lieutenant. Is it that time?”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “It is.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas arranges for Lyta and Fennec to also gain access to the secure communications area.]</i>
<br />Lyta and Fennec: *enter the room*
<br />Gabrielle Summers: *points gun at them*
<br />Lyta: “Thanks. I missed you too.”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: (pointedly, to Lukas) “Well, <b>someone</b> on your team isn’t good with direct instructions.”
<br />Lyta: “Tell me about it.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lyta gets a sit rep.]</i>
<br />Lyta: “You okay?”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “It could have been worse.”
<br />Lyta: “Is Torgath okay?”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “So far they’re sticking to…”
<br />Ariel: “Electroshocking me.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “So far they’re using a protocol where they are keeping for now to… mild physical discomfort.”
<br />Ariel: “Hey!”
<br />
<br /><i>[We reflect on what is inevitably about to happen as we attempt to breach into NGIS headquarters.]</i>
<br />Brock: “We don’t want to kill any of these people if we don’t have to… but we’ll have to.”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-35735463487644362672017-06-01T15:47:00.000-04:002017-06-02T15:10:54.563-04:00Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter X: Clean SlateIt was nearly dawn. Ennik had been up all night with the Doc, Oscar, Mads, and the Humanist tech. He gazed exhaustedly at a little capsule and then the smooth black slab on the counter. He knew that some magical combination of the two would produce cawfee. The problem was, as his stare alternated between blank, quizzical, and frustrated, he couldn’t conjure a notion of how this was accomplished.
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The old B&B Ti had lined up to interrogate Katerina had been pretty fancy before the war and even after more than a decade of neglect remained comfortable and well equipped. Perhaps too well equipped. The smooth product of sophisticated industrial design, totally devoid of knobs or buttons, was highly aesthetic but, as far as Ennik was concerned, useless.<br />
<br />
Defeated, he patted his chest and found the packet of cigarettes. Staring at the device while reflectively lighting a cigarette, he recognized bitterly the irony that he probably needed a cup of cawfee to figure out how the damned thing worked.<br />
<br />
Lukas walked into the kitchen, drawing a nod from Ennik. Striding up to the monolith, he waved his hand in a downward motion on the right side. He picked up a capsule and placed it on the top, then he reversed the motion with an upward wave. The capsule slipped inside the monolith as though it were sinking into quicksand. Lukas efficiently located a cup nearby -- the one thing Ennik had managed to do was find a cup and had in at the ready. Lukas placed it at the base of the monolith and waived his hand in a upward motion on the left side of the black block.<br />
<br />
A spout extended from the object, angled towards the cup, and once safely above it started to produce a hot stream of the desired drink.<br />
<br />
Lukas brought the drink up to his nose and took a deep whiff. When he looked up Ennik was staring intently. His cigarette was mostly ash and his face expressed strained concentration.<br />
<br />
Lukas paused, watching Ennik, who in turn was looking at the cawfee machine.<br />
<br />
“Do you want one?” Lukas finally asked, breaking Ennik’s trance.<br />
<br />
“Heh, call me paranoid but I think that contraption may’ve been specifically engineered to prevent me from ever having cawfee again.”<br />
<br />
Lukas cracked a smile and handed him the cup. “We had one when I was a kid. My dad liked gizmos and my mom liked cawfee. He used to let me make her the first cup before I went to class.”<br />
<br />
Lukas repeated the gestures with practiced ease. The only break in his efficiency was when he had to hunt to find another mug. “I haven’t seen one of these in 15 cycles,” he said distantly.<br />
<br />
“Hey, I don’t know how you did it, but thanks.”<br />
<br />
Lukas opened the right cabinet and, cup in hand, gave a final wave to produce his cawfee. “You can buy me the next one,” Lukas answered.<br />
<br />
“I mean the TDI tech. I was resigned to say goodbye to Katerina, or at least I thought I was. But the Doc’s neural suppressor brought back my little sister and suddenly I wasn’t looking at one of the Bear’s betabels, I was looking at my Katy who used to steal my screwdriver set to dig out bad weeds on the farm.”<br />
<br />
Lukas nodded. “Lyta used to play with my models like they were toys.”<br />
<br />
“Models are toys.”<br />
<br />
“No, they aren’t,” Lukas answered as he took Ennik’s empty cup and refilled it.<br />
<br />
“They're just toys for the anally retentive,” Ennik said with an appreciative nod when Lukas had given it back to him full of piping hot goodness.<br />
<br />
“So what now?” Lukas asked as he made himself another.<br />
<br />
“A clean slate.”<br />
<br />
“What?” Lukas asked.<br />
<br />
“Just something she was mumbling before she finally fell asleep. Now I’ll take her back to the Prince Gable. Priti -- Detective Kahn -- will get her checked out. We may have to stay there a while to start her rehab. Candy’s at the Meredine Clinic too, but she’s doing a lot better. It’ll be a full house.”<br />
<br />
“You and Detective Kahn, hunh?”<br />
<br />
Ennik gave one of his characteristic grins.<br />
<br />
“Good for you.”<br />
<br />
“Seriously though, about the TDI guy. I’m sure that cost you or it’s going to in some way,” Ennik said gravely while Lukas just gave a shrug. “Anyway, I really appreciate it. I know you and I haven’t always seen eye to eye...”<br />
<br />
“That’s because we had different goals.”<br />
<br />
“...So I just wanted to know why you did it. Why put yourself out there for me, for Katerina who’s spent the last few cycles trying to kill or capture you?”<br />
<br />
Lukas finished his cup and set it down by the cawfee machine. Staring at it again he paused. “I’ve got a sister too.”<br />
<br />
Lukas gave Ennik another nod and left him alone in the kitchen.<br />
<br />
He took a deep sigh. The gang would be heading to Lyonnesse later that day. Ti was going to negotiate with Nicosa Renault and Lukas would find out that Ti had known about her for some time. Lukas might even find out that it had been Ennik who had tipped him off.<br />
<br />
The mechanic looked at the featureless appliance and wondered how it worked for a while before deciding that he didn’t need to know.<br />
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Certain Betrayalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08518538829112660083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-30207256000716152472017-05-26T20:37:00.000-04:002017-05-27T17:26:00.367-04:00Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter X: Before the StormThey didn’t have much time. It never seemed like they had much time, but now it was particularly short. Ti’s train would leave within the hour, the first stage of the op was imminent, and there was still plenty to prep before they hit stage two.
<br />
<br />Still. If they only had a few minutes, they had both wordlessly decided that they would spend it together. Ti leaned against a wall on the far side of the room from most of the activity, and Lyta leaned against him, her head against his chest. She let his arms envelop her, strong and secure. “I don’t like this plan,” she murmured.
<br />
<br />He stroked her arm. “It’s not a great plan,” he agreed. “But it’s the best one we’ve got.”
<br />
<br />“I know.” She hated to admit it. If they had only a few more days, she was sure that Lukas could come up with something better. Something less risky, less dangerous, more assured. But they didn’t have a few more days. In a few more days, the infection might already have started to spread to Junira Loresh. She closed her eyes, trying not to think about it.
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<br />“We’re doing everything we can to mitigate the downsides,” Ti said, as though it was any consolation.
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<br />“I know.”
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<br />She settled into the feel of his hand against her arm, the rise and fall of his chest beneath her cheek. “Lyta…”
<br />
<br />She shook her head against his chest. “Don’t,” she said softly. “Whatever it is you were about to say. I know the score on this one, and so do you. This is maybe the most dangerous op we’ve ever done. Things could go bad. Really bad. And if they do…” <i>My brothers could die. I could die.</i> She couldn’t bring herself to say it.
<br />
<br />“If they do, we’ll deal with it,” Ti said, because he had to say something.
<br />
<br />Lyta scrunched her eyes closed, her breath coming shallowly as she worked up the courage to turn in his arms and meet his gaze. “Look, Ti, we didn’t… You didn’t get a chance to talk to me before Nazarene. But I have you now. I can tell you this to your face, and not just on a recording or something.”
<br />
<br />“Lyta--”
<br />
<br />“No, let me say it. We both know that…” She took a shuddering breath. “...that I might not come back from this. We might be facing down a betabel with nothing but pistols, and that’s probably suicide even if we win. And if I don’t come back…” She closed her eyes just for a moment, focused on his breathing, centered herself, opened them again. “...Find someone else. Find someone who makes you happy. I want you to be happy. I love you.”
<br />
<br />She could feel the tears welling up at the corners of her eyes, and she tried to blink them back. She was not entirely surprised to find that Ti also looked on the verge of crying. “Don’t talk like that,” he whispered. “It’ll be okay.”
<br />
<br />Lyta shook her head, dislodging a tear. “You don’t know that. Nobody knows that. We’re doing what we have to do, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be okay.”
<br />
<br />Ti reached up and gently wiped the tear off her cheek. He leaned down and kissed where it had landed. “I have to believe you’ll come back to me. There’s so much left we have to do.” He smiled through his own tears.
<br />
<br />Lyta looked down, resting her head against his hand. “You have to find a really comfy desk,” she reminded him, not quite obtaining the levity she’d hoped for. “And then I’ll pick you up from work and we’ll have dinner and make small talk like boring people.”
<br />
<br />“You’ll never be boring,” Ti assured her, and kissed her forehead.
<br />
<br />She could feel his heartbeat beneath her hands, his breath against her forehead. She wanted it to last forever.
<br />
<br />His datapad chimed. For a strained moment, neither of them was willing to let go. “That’s my train,” Ti whispered.
<br />
<br />“I know.”
<br />
<br />“I have to…”
<br />
<br />Lyta tugged on the back of his neck until he was level with her, and she kissed him, a desperate, passionate kiss that mingled with the salt of her tears. She clung to him as long as she could. <i>Don’t go,</i> she almost said. <i>I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want </i>you<i> to be alone. Not again.</i>
<br />
<br />She pulled away. “I love you,” she whispered.
<br />
<br />His arms gripped her. “I love you too. I’ll see you soon, okay?”
<br />
<br />“Okay.”
<br />
<br />He planted one more kiss on her lips before he disentangled himself. “Okay.” He straightened and pulled on his jacket, set his shoulders. He squeezed her hand one last time and, with a single look back, made his way to the door and his train.
<br />
<br />---
<br />
<br />Ti made as far as the boarding entrance of the train. Other passengers filed in, around and past him, seeking out their seats, while he just stood there like a rock in the river.
<br />
<br />The train pulled away and still he stood there, the whole world moving under his feet.
<br />
<br />He was trying to process his feelings, but they had overwhelmed him and now he was like a taxed v-engine: overheated and seized up.
<br />
<br />He was worried about the op and he was certainly worried for Lyta and the others too. But his overriding feeling was rage. Crippling rage.
<br />
<br />He hated the Bear for this craven plot; he feared that they might not be able to stop it. He hated that after all that he had gone through to discover Renault’s hand behind all his doubts of the last few cycles, finally setting things right with Lukas so that they could have a clean break, he still needed him to fight this fight.
<br />
<br />He hated feeling on the back foot when they had been, for the first time since he started unravelling this plot starting with Tantalus, finally on the offensive.
<br />
<br />He hated that Lyta was so frightened, talking about their future as though it was no more than a dream that was already all but lost. He also hated Lyta.
<br />
<br />Ti was livid that she has gone along with Lukas for so long with Renault. That she had lied to him again, had betrayed his trust and let Lukas use him. Ti had made every effort to spend the least amount of time with her as possible since she had admitted it to him in Prince Gable. He couldn’t help the feeling of betrayal and didn’t know how to process it in her presence.
<br />
<br />Above all, he despised himself for hating her. He loved her, he wanted to spend the rest of his life -- a long life -- with her. He had almost vented his recriminations at the station, but mercifully she had stopped him.
<br />
<br />The train jostled as it switched tracks on the outskirts of Lyonnesse and started picking up speed, breaking Ti free. He took a step and put his hand out to the wall to stabilize himself. It was white from being clenched so tightly for so long. He watched as blood rushed back into the pink extremity.
<br />
<br />A small sense of relief penetrated his dark mood. He was glad he hadn’t said anything; it would have been the worst way to leave things off. He knew why she did what she did. She was in an impossible situation between him and Lukas.
<br />
<br />He would get past it. They would hash it out someday. They would have a thousand arguments about little things and big things and Ti was willing to bet a lot of them would be, in some way, related to Lukas. Lyta stood between Ti and Lukas and always would, but in this moment, ironically, Ti and Lukas were closer than they had ever been in their resentment towards her.
<br />
<br />With one more guilty thought for his mixed feelings, Ti took a deep breath and dislodged himself. He entered the cabin of the train and sought out his seat. Lyonnesse receded on the horizon.
<br />
<br />This train would return soon enough. Bringing him back to help his family, back to end the Bear and back to finally start the rest of his life with Lyta.
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-90105561511217683062017-05-26T20:35:00.000-04:002017-05-27T17:18:30.008-04:00Wordslingin'Calamity! And just when everything was going so well, too. Our Heroes (tm) better get a move on, or all of Terra Nova might pay the price…
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<br /><i>[Before we leave for Lyonnesse, Lukas gets a call from Nightingale, who wants to offer him a job again. Of course, the terms would have to be different…]</i>
<br />Nightingale: “Perhaps the financial incentives I offered you in the past may soon become… irrelevant.”
<br />Brock: “Someone has good intel.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas isn’t ready to immediately accept Nightingale’s offer.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “We’re not thinking long-term right now because…”
<br />Zac: “Tomorrow we might die.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More maneuvering.]</i>
<br />Nightingale: “I <b>do</b> hope we can work together, Mr. Lassander.”
<br />Lukas: “I’m not hostile to it, but you <b>did</b> try to have us killed.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas reflects on the whole ‘tried to have us killed’ thing.]</i>
<br />Brock: “We <b>did</b> cause her some difficulties. I respect that.”
<br />Zac: “She’s a woman after his own heart.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas has his own ideas about the future.]</i>
<br />Brock: “I get Mads to look into Gustafson’s datapad. If I’m going into business, that might be a good business to get into.”
<br />Zac: “Terrorism?”
<br />Brock: “Arms dealing.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Meanwhile, the Doc is having his own conversation with Lyta.]</i>
<br />Doc Chambers: “So…”
<br />Lyta: “I know that tone of ‘so’.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The Doc leaves the conversation in his typical style.]</i>
<br />Doc Chambers: “Next time you’re in Khayr-ad Din, come see me. I want to discuss your future with you. You may need an agent.”
<br />Lyta: “What do you mean, ‘an agent’?”
<br />Doc Chambers: “You… don’t know. Oh, no! You need to find out about this on your own! See you later, Lyta.” *leaves*
<br />Lyta: *sputters*
<br />
<br /><i>[Also meanwhile, Ti has asked Fennec to join him for a meeting with Nadia once we arrive in Lyonnesse.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “You nervous about the meeting with Nadia? Because if it’s just bring your kid to work day, that’s fine. But if it’s something else…”
<br />
<br /><i>[Fennec digs for why Ti wants her to come along.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Does Nadia know about Lyta?”
<br />Ti Corovan: “Yes, she knows. She doesn’t much care for the Lyta situation.”
<br />Fennec: “I’m like a schoolmarm at the square dance. Gotcha.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Finally meanwhile, Gabrielle Summers and Torgath are having a somewhat domestic scene.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Gabrielle is reading a very depressing book.”
<br />Julie: “Billy would approve.”
<br />Georges the GM: “It was Billy’s recommendation.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “Do you think we’ll ever be happy?”
<br />Torgath: “Does it count if I’m happy now?”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “…I think it does.” *goes back to reading*
<br />
<br /><i>[Fennec and Ti meet up with Nadia. She passes over some information to Ti, who immediately leaves to call Doc Chambers, leaving the girls alone.]</i>
<br />Nadia: “So… Fennec.”
<br />Fennec: “Nadia.”
<br />Nadia: “Are you in love with Ti?”
<br />Fennec: “That’s a forward question, ain’t it?”
<br />
<br /><i>[Nadia lays out the Kin’s relationship with Ti.]</i>
<br />Nadia: “Deep down, Ti knows we’d all die for him. We’d all kill for him.”
<br />Julie: “Please don’t let her kill me.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Of course, not all of Ti’s associates are Kin anymore.]</i>
<br />Nadia: “Ti’s goals may have… shifted in light of recent allegiances.”
<br />Julie: “Oh! I felt that burn all the way from wherever Lyta is!”
<br />
<br /><i>[The conversation has gotten… deep. And heavy.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Ti comes back in.”
<br />Zac: “Oh, thank God!”
<br />
<br /><i>[Ti and Fennec leave.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Nadia gives you a hug. It’s chilling.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Ti gets Fennec’s perspectives on the conversation she just had.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “You okay?”
<br />Fennec: “…Nice lady.”
<br />Ti: “She’s a bit intense.”
<br />Fennec: “You could say that.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Ti lays out the way he brought the Kin into the fold, which involves months in the desert and then more months with silent monks on a mountaintop.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “So it’s either a team building exercise or a cult.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The second order of business in Lyonnesse is to meet with Nicosa Renault, whom Ti has known about for several weeks, behind the scenes.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “I was mostly interested in plugging leaks.”
<br />Lukas: “So why not come to me directly?”
<br />Ti Corovan: *deep sigh*
<br />
<br /><i>[Ti tries to explain his reasoning to Lukas.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “With Renault, at least I could trust she would abide by our arrangement.”
<br />Zac: “Ouch! The gloves are off!”
<br />
<br /><i>[Ti has asked Lukas to work with him for the next 72 hours.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “I hope that whatever happens, we’ll be able to stay out of each other’s way.”
<br />Lukas: *long silence*
<br />Zac: “Oh, c’mon. You know you’re dancing inside.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More on why Ti needs Lukas. Kinda.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “So, you said you had a pitch?”
<br />Ti Corovan: “It’s pretty minimal.”
<br />Zac: “That’s not a great pitch.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “I’m appealing to… something. I don’t know what it is.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Ti and Lukas know where they stand with each other, part 1.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “I want… I <b>need</b> you to participate in this. If I didn’t, I’d give you the boot right now.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Meanwhile, Lyta has been standing aside with Nicosa Renault.]</i>
<br />Nicosa Renault: “You’ve turned into an accomplished young woman.”
<br />Lyta: “Thank you.”
<br />Both: *long silence*
<br />
<br /><i>[In the aftermath of Lukas’ and Ti’s conversation.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Everything go as planned?”
<br />Ti Corovan: “That has yet to be determined.”
<br />
<br /><i>[After speaking with Ti, Lukas is approached by Nicosa Renault.]</i>
<br />Nicosa Renault: “Well, that was awkward.”
<br />Lukas: “It would have been less awkward if you’d told me I’d been made.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas briefs Renault.]</i>
<br />Nicosa Renault: “I assume Ti has asked you to assist with his offensive against the NGIS?”
<br />Lukas: “He has.”
<br />Nicosa Renault: “Have you accepted?”
<br />Lukas: “Yet to be determined. His offer wasn’t very good.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Ti and Lukas know where they stand with each other, part 2.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “If I wasn’t for the stark necessity, I believe Ti would ‘give me the boot.’ On the other hand, there <b>is</b> the stark necessity.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas and Renault discuss Lukas’ future.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Ti’s big concern is that you’re going to offer me a job, which given that until this meeting I assumed I already had, I’m not sure what he’s worried about.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Nicosa Renault thinks it’s time to renegotiate their arrangement.]</i>
<br />Nicosa Renault: “I work in espionage. I cannot offer you grand, lofty ideals. There’s nothing but duty to the mission.”
<br />Zac: “And pain, regret, loneliness, alcoholism…”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas decides what he’s going to answer Ti.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “I can hardly let them go on without me in the short term.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The reason our timetable has been upped so dramatically is that Katerina Kazzov and the Bear’s organization has access to a virus that will selectively target and genocide the Koreshi. It might be deployed any minute. Ti and Gabrielle have come up with a plan… but it’s not a very good plan. It first involves Gabrielle turning herself in, and then ratting out Torgath.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “The NGIS would subject Torgath to interrogation…”
<br />Torgath: “And I drive them all crazy?”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “Yes.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Gabrielle would likely be ‘requested’ to witness Torgath’s interrogation.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “It seems that your observation of Torgath would be the weak point in this plan – your honest reactions.”
<br />Torgath: “It’s okay – part of her still hates me.”
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<br /><i>[Torgath is less worried about his interrogation than he might be.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “My counter-interrogation goal is to quote an entire novel.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Always important to know how you’re going to get out.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “Ti has suggested an egress under cover of a distraction.”
<br />Fennec: “The kind that explodes?”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “Yes.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Fennec says what we’re all thinking.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “It seems like there’s a lot that can go wrong with this. More than usual.”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “There’s a lot of things that can go wrong, but there are a number of fail-safes.”
<br />Lukas: “They won’t see it coming, for one.”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-91908303087180122532017-05-03T15:43:00.000-04:002017-05-03T15:43:28.860-04:00Wordslingin'One more betabel down! This week, Our Heroes (tm) kidnap Katerina Kazzov from her private plane and race to gather as much information as they can before her webble fries her brain. But things can never go smooth…
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<br /><i>[We begin the session inside the packing crate aboard Kazzov’s plane.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “What’s making things even worse in this confined space are your oxygen tanks.”
<br />Ariel: “All I’m hearing is punishment for us not going the Bane route.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Zac asks the obvious question.]</i>
<br />Zac: “So, how do you think things are <b>not</b> gonna go to plan this time?”
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<br /><i>[We reach cruising altitude and the gas is released, presumably knocking out everyone who is not us. The group leaves the crate and splits up.]</i>
<br />Brock: “I’m with Dawn, the rationale being that I want a chance to—”
<br />Zac: “Shoot her in the head?”
<br />
<br /><i>[It’s been a while since last session.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Everyone ready? Everyone knows what they have to do?”
<br />Julie: “…Sure.”
<br />Zac: “Remind me if it comes up.”
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<br /><i>[Sadly, it seems not <b>everyone</b> has been knocked out by the gas, as we quickly discover.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “The seemingly-unconscious bodies roll back, drawing wakizashis and stun batons.”
<br />Julie: “So… plan B, then?”
<br />
<br /><i>[Plan B involves blowing up the plane. There’s only one small problem.]</i>
<br />Brock: “We talked about the bomb, right?”
<br />Georges the GM: “No.”
<br />Brock: “Shit.”
<br />
<br /><i>[As we start taking down some of the henchmen, Kazzov comes over the comms.]</i>
<br />Katerina Kazzov: “So, how <b>did</b> you get aboard?”
<br />Ariel: “Too busy shooting to answer.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Katerina Kazzov: “Clearly we want you alive. We’ve wanted you alive for some time.”
<br />Zac: “That’s just what someone who wanted us dead would say!”
<br />
<br /><i>[Brock gives us a sit-rep.]</i>
<br />Brock: “It’s not that we’re necessarily winning this, but we can certainly fuck it up.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Kazzov comes out to join the fight herself.]</i>
<br />Zac: *shoots Kazzov with anti-betalbel round*
<br />Georges the GM: “Now we see how potent this round is.”
<br />Brock: “Potent!”
<br />
<br /><i>[Torgath finally takes down Kazzov with an anti-betabel round, which would be enough to kill any normal human.]</i>
<br />Torgath: (to henchman) “I have more bullets like that if you want to get hit with one.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The plane is already descending, off course to some unidentified new target that seems to hold the Comptroller. We agree that Torgath and Dawn will infiltrate the landing zone while the rest of us parachute away from the plane with our hostage.]</i>
<br />Zac: “They know we’re soft and don’t like killing people.”
<br />Ariel: “…”
<br />Zac: “Some of us.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Step one of infiltrating the landing zone is successfully waking up the knocked-out pilots.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “Did we successfully wake up the pilots in time?”
<br />Julie: “You’re about to find out!”
<br />
<br /><i>[The pilots wake up in time… barely.]</i>
<br />Pilot: “Strap in, prepare for emergency landing.”
<br />Brock: “Meanwhile there are a dozen people unconscious on the floor.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Meanwhile, the rest of the team is picked up by Tatsugoro in his hopper.]</i>
<br />Tatsugoro: “So… on problem with extraction? *registers that there are only three of us* So… problem with extraction.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We can’t just leave Torgath and Dawn back at the landing zone by themselves, of course.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “How soon could you get more guns? More men with guns?”
<br />
<br /><i>[The plane has landed at a Northern Guard black site. From the safety of their crate, Torgath and Dawn have watched the crew be rounded up and put under guard.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “Let’s build in a distraction, just in case we need to use it.”
<br />Torgath: “What kind of distraction?”
<br />Zac: “When people say ‘distraction’ like that, they usually mean explosives.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The two halves of the team manage to get briefly in radio contact.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Wait for exfiltration at night… unless you hear an explosion.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The officers on the base refuel the plan. We are not yet in position for an heroic rescue.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “The refuelling stops after 25 minutes.”
<br />Brock: “I message Tatsugoro on the off-chance he’s five minutes early.”
<br />
<br /><i>[With time getting short, the plan is a little more direct than most.]</i>
<br />Zac: “We’re just gonna drive the car onto the site?”
<br />Brock: “Under cover of our aerial assault!”
<br />
<br /><i>[Two flying officers board the plane.]</i>
<br />Torgath: “You think they’re gonna fly us away?”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “Well, no one puts on a flight suit as a fashion statement.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Torgath and Dawn do what they do best.]</i>
<br />Torgath: (on comms) “Pilots are down.”
<br />Julie: “You know what’s better than having <b>one</b> stealth hopper?”
<br />Brock: *smiles*
<br />
<br /><i>[Indeed, instead of storming the base, we decide to commandeer the plane and take it back to Swanscombe, where we suspect the Comptroller, aka Detective Gorash, is hiding.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “So… we skip over Act 2.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We land the plane in Swanscombe, still containing the previously-knocked-out crew and two dead pilots.]</i>
<br />Julie: “Was our plan not to have Kazzov be mysteriously disappeared?”
<br />Brock: “This is mysterious! We’re in conspiracy-theory territory!”
<br />
<br /><i>[In Swanscombe, we meet up with the rest of our team, aka Mads, Doc Chambers, Jimmy and Billy Croyden, and Ennik.]</i>
<br />Mads: “Did you know Patient 0 in there is Ennik’s sister?”
<br />Lukas: “Yes. That’s why she’s still alive.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We discuss the possibility of removing the webble from Kazzov.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “It’d be a miracle, but not to sound smug, miracles are kind of our business.”
<br />Ennik: “You failed at not sounding smug.”
<br />
<br /><i>[In the fight, Fennec’s data-pad was apparently hacked. We hand it over to Mads to look at, while Torgath and Fennec assist.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Roll to see if you can keep up with Mads.”
<br />Ariel: “Did he roll poorly?”
<br />Georges the GM: “He rolled ten.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Also joining us is Ti Corovan, who reports that everything has been settled with Peace River and the Lassander name has been cleared, making us the official owners of the stock key worth 26 million dinar.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “So, that being said… can I borrow a bit of cash?”
<br />
<br /><i>[We still have the issue of Katerina Kazzov’s webble, which despite the best efforts of Doc Chambers and our hackers, is slowly killing off her brain. Lukas tries to get in touch with his NGIS handler Nightingale, in the hopes that she might be able to help us.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Have you been speaking with your old boss? Has she asked for her hopper back?”
<br />Brock: (mock-innocently) “Hopper? What hopper?”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Brock: “I feel like someone else should do these negotiations.”
<br />Georges the GM: “You’re the one with the relationship with them.”
<br />Brock: “’Relationship’. They hate me, I hate them.”
<br />
<br /><i>[And yet more.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Nightingale can set any terms she wants. It’s not like she’s gonna honor them.”
<br />Georges the GM: “Or that you are.”
<br />
<br /><i>[While Torgath and Dawn were on the plane, they confirmed that Zadine Bartock is alive and working with Kazzov and the Bear. Lukas delivers the bad news to Minnie Bartok.]</i>
<br />Minnie Bartok: “You can call me and ask me for anything you need, but you can’t call me to hurt my feelings. Can you handle that?”
<br />Julie: “No, he can’t.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas tries to be reassuring.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “We’re gonna get him.”
<br />Minnie Bartok: “Baakov made a similar promise.”
<br />Lukas: “I don’t know about Baakov’s track record, but mine’s pretty good.”
<br />Minnie Bartok: “Baakov put a bullet in his brain.”
<br />Lukas: “…Fair point.”
<br />
<br /><i>[After quite a bit of creative maneuvering, we manage to keep Kazzov alive and extract some information from her.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Congrats! I fully expected Kazzov to die by the end of the session.”
<br />Zac: “So… miracle?”
<br />
<br /><i>[The next step of our plan involves going after Bartok, who has set himself up as a high-placed NGIS agent. Our plan is to get the NISA to sanction an attack.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “The only person Ti knows with contacts to the NISA is Nicosa Renault.”
<br />Lukas: (mock-innocently) “Nicosa Renault?! Who’s that?!”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-80758869093656822102017-04-14T22:05:00.002-04:002017-04-14T22:05:27.858-04:00Wordslingin'How do you make a betabel disappear without a trace and with no sign of foul play? With planning. Lots and lots of extensive planning.
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<a name='more'></a>
<br />
<br /><i>[First step in starting our plan to take down Katerina Kazzov is getting into the North.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Do you take the train or fly in by hopper?”
<br />Brock: “What does Dawn suggest?”
<br />Zac: “She <b>is</b> the one with the most knowledge of the people who would be hunting us.”
<br />Brock: “And she has a link to the GM’s brain.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We plan to take the train in, but the question becomes what to do with our stealth hopper in the meantime.]</i>
<br />Julie: “We could lend the hopper to TI to take out Kim.”
<br />Zac: “Would Lukas really just give up his hopper to a friend? Or… not a friend?”
<br />Julie: “The person he hates most in the world?”
<br />
<br /><i>[Once in the North, we start thinking about our actual plan to take out Kazzov.]</i>
<br />Zac: “We’re trying to prevent her from boarding the jet?”
<br />Brock: “I dunno. Throwing her out of it in midair has a certain appeal.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The best venue to attack Kazzov is during a wine-and-dine fundraiser for her charity that she will be hosting on a leased jet. Sadly, the easy solution of causing the jet to crash would also cause the death of the crew and staff.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “I don’t wanna pull the trigger casually on that many civilians.”
<br />Lukas: “I’m not saying we do it casually. I’m saying we do it with great soul-searching and then come to the same conclusion.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Of course, if we crash the plane, we need to account for the fact that we boarded but would not be among the crash victims.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Unless we can smuggle on the same number of bodies as we’re taking out when we jump before the crash, this is a no-go.”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “That is not out of the question.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas has another idea.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “I have it! We steal the money, we kidnap her midair from the plane, problem solved!”
<br />
<br /><i>[Different people reveal their priorities with regards to Lukas’ plan.]</i>
<br />Lyta: “How do we steal the money in four days?”
<br />Lukas: “And what do we spend it on?”
<br />Fennec: “What is this charity for, exactly?”
<br />Lukas: “Who cares?!”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Nadia: “A few little details I feel we should iron out…”
<br />Lukas: “For the record, this is not our most ridiculous plan.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Georges the GM has some problems with this plan.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “The GM wonders: if you could steal 85-90 million marks from a bank at any time, why didn’t you do it years ago?”
<br />
<br /><i>[Brock has an answer for Georges the GM.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Stealing the money would come down to…”
<br />Lukas: “Mads and Oscar.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Zac has another answer.]</i>
<br />Zac: “We are a super-specialized data theft team.”
<br />Brock: “We’ve just never turned our sights to bank robbery.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We turn our sights away from bank robbery to the other part of the op.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “So, now the easy part is taking a betabel alive from an airplane in flight, while killing no one else, and leaving no trace we were there.”
<br />Lukas: “Yes.”
<br />
<br /><i>[ Plan A to get Kazzov off the plane is to gas everyone once the autopilot is engaged. Sadly, the plan to hack into the onboard flight systems is proving difficult.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Couldn’t we just put a bug in the cockpit?”
<br />Lukas: “I guess. It lacks elegance and sophistication, but it makes up for it in simplicity.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We’re pretty sure Kazzov won’t be affected by the gas.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “How are we gonna acquire her?”
<br />Lukas: “We’re gonna dart her repeatedly and jump out the plane with her.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Fennec’s questions just seem to result in more work for Fennec.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “What are we gonna do to incapacitate her?”
<br />Lukas: “Restrain her.”
<br />Fennec: “With what?”
<br />Lukas: “Specialized restraints you’re gonna build.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Other options to incapacitate Kazzov.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Or possibly a body-bag full of cement.”
<br />Lukas: “That’s not a bad idea…”
<br />
<br /><i>[Returning to the idea of gassing all the crew and staff…]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Which brings us to my next question: who’s your gas expert? Who’s your anesthesiologist?”
<br />Brock: “Dawn probably has one.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Brock thinks of the perfect gassing expert.]</i>
<br />Brock: “You know who we really need? Gustafson.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The planning continues. With certain contingencies.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “As I understand it, once you have to shoot someone, you go to plan B: the whole plane comes down.”
<br />
<br /><i>[A final thought before we break for the night.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “Would the haywire round we’re using on Kazzov not disrupt the plane?”
<br />Brock: “Good point. Don’t miss.”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-30956563183632801202017-04-02T09:42:00.000-04:002017-04-02T09:42:09.933-04:00Wordslingin'Data dump and planning plans! As we move into endgame of our six-year campaign, it’s always useful to know which of your many, many enemies you’re going to obliterate first.
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<br /><i>[Fennec spends the downtime healing and building equipment. Brock reviews her long wish-list.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Anything with a checkmark has already been built.”
<br />Brock: “There aren’t many checkmarks here.”
<br />
<br /><i>[High on the wish-list is, as always, a murder drone.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “What are the capabilities of the murder drone?”
<br />Zac: “So far, murdering is at the top of the list.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Meanwhile, the rest of the PCs are in Junira Loresh, seeing Thral Jonas one last time. They have… different priorities for how they want to spent their time.]</i>
<br />Torgath: “You’re close to death, right? So is there any reason you <b>can’t</b> share the secret stories?”
<br />
<br /><i>[Everyone reconnects. It’s time to start scheming!]</i>
<br />Lukas: “I like this plan.”
<br />Torgath: “I like everything except the lying part.”
<br />Lukas: “I especially like the lying part.”
<br />
<br /><i>[As the final stage of a plan put into place nearly a cycle ago, Lukas closing his account at the DN bank.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Also, where’s our money?”
<br />Zac: (as Ti Corovan) “Funny you should mention it – I was just gonna bring that up.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “If you want your money back, you need to close your account.”
<br />Lukas: (contemplatively) “I <b>do</b> want my money back…”
<br />
<br /><i>[And yet more.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Tell me more about what’s happening to my money.”
<br />Ti Corovan: “You needn’t concern yourself with that right now.”
<br />Lukas: “I think <b>you</b> need to concern me with this right now.”
<br />
<br /><i>[There’s been quite a lot of talk about how we’re gonna steal the Bear’s fortunes by handling Lukas’ account at DN bank. At some point in the middle of the conversation, Lukas susses out that Ti has recovered the original Peace River stock key that the Bear stole from the Lassander family so many cycles ago.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “I like how the complexity of this has obscured the fact that Ti has nonchalantly rescued your family fortune.”
<br />Zac: “And does he get a thank-you? No!”
<br />Brock: “He was trying to get me to steal it! Again! From myself!”
<br />
<br /><i>[So, long story short, we have recovered the Lassander family fortune of approximately 26 million dinar.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Well, we can shut down the campaign now because you guys are filthy rich and don’t need to do this anymore.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Zac: (to Brock) “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t get any of this fortune.”
<br />Georges the GM: “It <b>does</b> make him feel better!”
<br />
<br /><i>[Back to the planning of plans, Our Heroes’ (tm) next move is to head up to Lyonnesse to deal with Ennik’s sister, one of the betabels.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “There’s the question about what should be done with Gabrielle.”
<br />Brock: “Is Ti suggesting we liquidate her?”
<br />Zac: “…He asked hopefully.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More on the topic of what to do with Gabrielle.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Dawn is a very useful asset.”
<br />Georges the GM: “Greater than her liability?”
<br />Brock: (pointedly) “No more than anyone else on this team.”
<br />Zac: “Ow!”
<br />
<br /><i>[And yet more.]</i>
<br />Zac: “The mysterious voice of God in the room seems to be vouching for Dawn.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We wrap up the session.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “You get 3 xp… and 26 million dinar!”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-87945783882568375892017-03-30T08:23:00.000-04:002017-03-30T08:23:18.969-04:00Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter X: Tandem<i>"You ready?" Lyta stood with her hand poised on the pull for the starter.
<br />
<br />"We shouldn't be here."
<br />
<br />"But we are here. Too late to turn back now."
<br />
<br />"Janus Kerasi..."
<br />
<br />Lyta smiled, an eager, anticipatory grin. "Annnndddd... go!"
<br />
<br />With a sharp tug on the starter, she was gone.</i>
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<br />*****
<br />
<br /><i>Four hours ago...</i>
<br />
<br />“Thalan!” Lyta practically ran into the building. Jonas was seated at the far end, a blanket about his shoulders and a low table at his side. She could not wait to see him. She rushed forward…
<br />
<br />And stopped.
<br />
<br />She realized he was not sitting in a chair but a wheelchair. A cloth held lightly in his hand was stained with red flecks. He was thin, so thin. She could see the outlines of his bones through the skin. She could practically trace the paths of his veins.
<br />
<br />“Thralan,” she repeated, her voice barely a whisper.
<br />
<br />Despite it all, he was smiling at her, a beatific smile that might have been more in place on an old-Earth saint. His hand trembled as he reached up towards her, not quite succeeding in the attempt.
<br />
<br />Lyta took his hand and knelt down beside him. She leaned in until their foreheads were touching, silent in the quiet room. She felt his breath against her cheeks, the thin skin of his forehead against her own. She closed her eyes, letting the moment stretch, letting his presence ground her.
<br />
<br />At length, she pulled back and settled herself on the floor. For once, she could not bring herself to speak first.
<br />
<br />“The winds of the desert have called you to me,” Jonas said. His voice was as weak as the rest of him, but there was conviction in it.
<br />
<br />Lyta tried to smile, to bring back some of her initial enthusiasm. “A particular wind by the name of Tom Chambers, maybe.”
<br />
<br />Jonas waved his hand as it lay against the armrest of his wheelchair. “The desert speaks through the minds of men.”
<br />
<br />Lyta closed her eyes for a moment. “I’m so sorry, Thralan.”
<br />
<br />“Whatever for, my dear?”
<br />
<br />She could not bring herself to meet his gaze. “I knew you were sick after we got out away, but I thought that if you came back here, if we got you to the healers…” Her voice trailed off. She shook her head. “I didn’t know. I would have… I don’t know. Looked harder. Tried to find something to help you.”
<br />
<br />“The seed falls from the tree, and from it the new trees grow. So it is with plants, and so it is with us, Hippartha. We all fill our role in the Great Cycle.”
<br />
<br />“Maybe you could fill your role a little later, though,” Lyta suggested. She could feel the tears forming at the corners of her eyes.
<br />
<br />Jonas laughed, a joyful sound marred only when he had to stop and cough into his handkerchief. “You must tell me about yourself, Hippartha. And of Titan, and your brothers. It has been too long since I last saw you.”
<br />
<br />*****
<br />
<br /><i>They were scant seconds into the course when already they’d encountered an obstacle that would have been all-but-impossible alone: hanging vines draped across the canopy, high overhead. There was no way to continue forward at ground level, but seemingly no way to climb the vines; Lyta had tried grabbing onto one, only to find the entire length spooling down into her hand. But as it did, she caught sight of a vine on the far side of the course rocketing upwards.
<br />
<br />She took hold of another and tugged lightly, her eyes fixed on the tangled mass on the far side. “There! That one!”
<br />
<br />She felt the vine in her hand go taut as the weight counterbalanced her own, and they began climbing up together.</i>
<br />
<br />*****
<br />
<br /><i>Two hours ago...</i>
<br />
<br />“Torgath has given us an account of what is transpiring beyond the veil of the Great White, but you understand that the Janus Kerasi do more than bring information to the thrals regarding the turning of the Great Cycle?”
<br />
<br />The candles were burning lower on the table. Lyta wondered how much longer Jonas could stay awake, but he seemed unwilling to stop the conversation.
<br />
<br />“What else, Thralan?”
<br />
<br />“The world beyond the desert is vast, and grows with different flowers than the ones in Junira Loresh. So too with ideas. The Janus Kerasi are like birds: they swallow the seeds of foreign trees and bring them home. Sometimes the soil is not suitable, and they never emerge from the ground. Sometimes the young shoots are trampled, and they die as seedlings. But sometimes, they find the conditions are right, and they bloom, a new growth in the jungle. In this way, diversity is maintained and Junira Loresh blossoms.”
<br />
<br />Lyta considered this for a long moment. “And you think I’m bringing these ideas with me? New ideas from the outside?”
<br />
<br />Jonas merely regarded her, smiling encouragingly, waiting for her to continue the thought on her own.
<br />
<br />“<i>Which</i> ideas, Thralan? What am I supposed to show people?”
<br />
<br />Jonas’ expression did not change. “You do not need to worry, Hippartha. Simply living in two worlds, you bring the soil of thoughts from one to the other, and both are changed because of it.” He blinked slowly. “Now, perhaps you will be so kind as to help me to my bed? I should rest before we speak again.”
<br />
<br />Lyta rose from the floor to help him, thoughts swirling. She had so many questions, and so little time in which to ask them. She shook her head. She could deal with that later, after she’d helped her Thral settle in on his sickbed.
<br />
<br />*****
<br />
<br /><i>The vines continued the length of the canopy, unanchored and tenuous. One wrong grasp and they would plummet. Lyta tried not to think about that as she grabbed one and then another, until finally she reached one that seemed to be tethered at the far end, though there was barely enough length to tie it at this one. “Okay, grab this,” she instructed. “I’ll go across, and then I’ll find one on the other side so you can come after.”
<br />
<br />It swayed slightly as she put her weight on it, the whole length quivering. “If you drop me, I will never let you hear the end of it, so help me!” The vine went taut. The tension held.</i>
<br />
<br />*****
<br />
<br /><i>One hour ago...</i>
<br />
<br />Junira Loresh was not a large place, at least outside of the summer competitions. Without the thronging masses of ratir, the entire city could be walked in its entirety in barely an hour. It was inevitable that she would meet people she knew.
<br />
<br />There were three of them, sitting beside the waterfall: one man and two women about her own age. A wisp of smoke curled upwards from a pipe held in the man’s hand. His face broke into a smile when he saw her. “Hippartha! We’d heard that we had received a visit from the Janus Kerasi, but we didn’t know it was you!”
<br />
<br />Her own smile was more wistful, still caught up in the conversation with Jonas. “Mereel,” she greeted him. “Tanitha, Besni.” She touched cheeks with all of them. “It’s good to see you again.”
<br />
<br />“And you,” Mereel replied. He held out the pipe to her. “Will you join us?”
<br />
<br />She paused, but only for a second. She realized she <i>did</i> want to join them, to get away from the massed, conflicted emotions that threatened to drown her. She nodded.
<br />
<br />As she had done two cycles ago, she took the pipe from Mereel’s hand and breathed in the smoke. The amis root was as she remembered it: a euphoric bliss in which all her senses were sharpened until it seemed like she was seeing the world for the first time.
<br />
<br />She let the initial high pass until she was left relaxed but alert, her mind drifting through conversations and memories, connecting them anew, building them up to new meanings. She thought about the last time she had been in Junira Loresh, how she had sworn that she would beat the thirteenth course of the b’ti the next time she arrived in the jungle city. She thought of her runs in the cities, of dancing across rooftops and balconies. She thought about kuritra, and how she had rejoiced with the Humanist trainers when they solved a puzzle together that none of them could accomplish alone.
<br />
<br />“Mereel?”
<br />
<br />Her ferah counterpart was staring at the waterfall, contemplating its course as it fell. He turned to face her. It seemed like he would be content to face her all day, observing the tiny movements of her expression.
<br />
<br />Lyta admired the dimple on his cheek before pulling herself back to her thoughts. “Can I… try something with you?”
<br />
<br />Mereel’s eyes went wide, and Lyta suddenly realized what he must have thought she was proposing. Her laugh echoed off the rock-face. “Not like that! I have a boyfriend!”
<br />
<br />Mereel looked at once relieved and disappointed. “Then what?”
<br />
<br />She rose to her feet in a fluid motion and held out her hand. “Let me show you.”
<br />
<br />*****
<br />
<br /><i>The canopy was thinning. Soon there would be nothing left. They had to make their way back down to ground level, but already the branches were few and far between. Lyta evaluated them: sturdy, but almost impossible to reach alone. “If you throw me at the first, I can catch you, and then we can leapfrog. Can you do that?”
<br />
<br />Mereel nodded. “If you drop me, I will remind you about it forever,” he said, his eyes focused on the first of the branches.
<br />
<br />Lyta grinned. “Deal.”</i>
<br />
<br />*****
<br />
<br /><i>Thirty minutes ago...</i>
<br />
<br />"It's cheating."
<br />
<br />"Think of it like a rules variant."
<br />
<br />Mereel still hesitated, looking out at the entrance of the course.
<br />
<br />Lyta could feel the amis root coursing through her. "Look, we've both passed the twelfth, right?"
<br />
<br />Mereel nodded, not looking at her.
<br />
<br />"So we don't have anything to prove. We've already done it. It's just for fun."
<br />
<br />Mereel drew a long breath. "The b'ti is run one person at a time. That's how it's always been done."
<br />
<br />The wind rippled across Lyta's cheeks. She could almost feel the sand of the desert, and beyond it the dust of the cities where she had run atop buildings and through parks. She could smell the chalk of the Oxford Institute of Physical Advancement, where the trainers had first exposed her to the idea of tandem running. How her mind had been opened to the possibilities! And how much, now, she wanted that experience for Mereel.
<br />
<br />She smiled. "Just once. If it doesn't work, we'll go back and smoke some more. Okay?"
<br />
<br />Mereel fought some inner struggle for several seconds, then finally shrugged. "As you wish, Janus Kerasi."
<br />
<br />*****
<br />
<br /><i>A wall blocked their path, three meters high with barely any handholds. They hardly slowed as Lyta crouched, turning her hands into a sling as Mereel stepped into it and allowed himself to be boosted upwards. Once he’d reached the top, he extended down an arm and Lyta grasped it. A moment later, they were both over and sliding down the far side.</i>
<br />
<br />*****
<br />
<br /><i>Twenty-four minutes ago...</i>
<br />
<br />They slammed their hands down on the course-end button at the same time. Lyta could see Tanitha and Besni waiting by the finish line. Their eyes were turned upwards, towards the course timer.
<br />
<br />Lyta was breathing deep, the warm air of the evening filling her lungs. She closed her eyes, focusing on her body, on the ground beneath her feet, the swirling currents around her face. <i>It's okay if it didn't work,</i> she reminded herself. <i>Just for fun.</i>
<br />
<br />She faced the counter and her lips twitched upwards. "That's less than six minutes," she pointed out, as though Mereel could not see the obvious marker lines.
<br />
<br />"Yes," he agreed. His eyes were as fixated as hers.
<br />
<br />"Have you ever heard of anyone running the twelfth in less than six minutes?"
<br />
<br />"...Maybe Jireni?" His voice was uncertain.
<br />
<br />Thoughts spun in Lyta's head, connecting themselves in ways they never had before. She turned away from the clock and took Mereel's hand in hers, staring deep into his eyes. "What if we tried the twenty-first?"
<br />
<br />*****
<br />
<br /><i>The river blocked their path, swift and wide. There were vines that they might have used to swing across, but they were all on the far bank. Lyta cast her eyes around the course, frustrated that they had come so far only to be stopped now. Were they supposed to swim across?!
<br />
<br />Her gaze landed on a fallen branch and a tall stone. She rushed towards it, hauling the one towards the other until she had a makeshift see-saw. She stood on the lower end.
<br />
<br />For a moment, Mereel just watched her.
<br />
<br />“C’mon, jump!” Lyta insisted. “We’re never gonna get to seven minutes like this!”
<br />
<br />With the prompting, Mereel realized what she had planned. He pursed his lips but otherwise said nothing, angling himself to get the correct trajectory… and then Lyta found herself airborne, whooping as the river passed by underneath her.</i>
<br />
<br />*****
<br />
<br /><i>Twenty minutes ago...</i>
<br />
<br />"No. Absolutely not."
<br />
<br />Lyta did not release his gaze.
<br />
<br />"It's forbidden," Mereel insisted. "Neither of us are entitled to it. <i>No one</i> is entitled to it."
<br />
<br />The smile had not left Lyta's lips. "Who would know?"
<br />
<br />"Hippartha, we can't--"
<br />
<br />"You can blame me," Lyta insisted. "I take full responsibility. You can say I filled your head with forbidden outside thoughts. What's the worst they can do, exile me?"
<br />
<br />The Ferah b'timasti blanched, and Lyta felt her heart tear for him. How difficult he must be finding this, she thought.
<br />
<br />For herself, nothing had ever been clearer. No idea had ever been stronger. The amis root gave her the boldness to push forward. "<i>Please,</i> Mereel! No one has run the twenty-first in more than a century. Maybe no one ever will. Haven't you ever wanted to try it? Just once? To see what it was like?"
<br />
<br />Mereel hesitated.
<br />
<br />Lyta reached forward and grabbed his hand. "Come," she insisted. "Please."
<br />
<br />She pulled him away, towards the later course, and he could do nothing but follow her, with his tribe-mates trailing along behind.
<br />
<br />*****
<br />
<br /><i>They must be close now, Lyta thought as they broke through a gap in the foliage and stopped short. The river they had been tracing rushed below them, narrowed but still fast enough to be menacing. Rising up from either side were nearly sheer walls of stone. There were no banks on the bottom and no way to reach the upper canopy. The ravine was not quite wide enough for her to reach both sides with her arms extended. Not alone, anyway.
<br />
<br />The took a deep breath. “Okay, you’re on that side, I’m on this side, and we’ll brace against each other. It’s not so far. We can make it.”
<br />
<br />Mereel looked like he might say something, then set his jaw and nodded. “If we fall to our deaths, they will say it was my fault, Janus Kerasi.”
<br />
<br />Lyta gripped his hands in hers, twisting so that her feet would find purchase on the stone. “Then we better not fall to our deaths.”</i>
<br />
<br />*****
<br />
<br /><i>Now...</i>
<br />
<br />It was several seconds before she took her hand off the end-course button. She felt better than she ever had. Every muscle was loose, every limb was warm and tingling. She could not stop grinning. "That was amazing," she whispered.
<br />
<br />She had still not looked at the clock. She almost didn't want to. She didn't want to know the impossible challenge was still impossible; she just wanted to run it again and again and again.
<br />
<br />Just beyond, she could see Tanitha and Besni, their eyes upwards as they had been after the twelfth. Lyta could not read their expressions. Slowly, she twined her fingers through Mereel's and took them off the button. She realized he was already looking up at their time, and with trepidation, she looked as well.
<br />
<br />Seven minutes and twenty-nine seconds.
<br />
<br />Her grin burst into a full-fledged smile. It was not a success, but they could shave thirty seconds off their time if they practiced -- she was sure of it. They had been clunky in parts, the transitions not as smooth as they should have been, and while the amis root had heightened her senses, she had to admit it probably slowed her down at least once or twice as a new thought struck her mid-step.
<br />
<br />She turned her eyes back to Mereel and realized he was no longer looking at the clock. The three ferah b’timasti were looking at each other, none of them willing to speak first. “That was amazing,” Lyta said again, breaking the silence. “<i>You’re</i> amazing.”
<br />
<br />Mereel pulled his hand away from hers, slowly. “We could do it,” he whispered. “We could really do it.”
<br />
<br />Lyta bounced lightly on the balls of her feet. She wished she could run it again. She wished she could run it <i>right now</i>. “We could really do it,” she agreed. “<i>You</i> could really do it. I have to leave soon.”
<br />
<br />Mereel looked down at the ground, then at her face, and then exchanged glances with his friends. Lyta had no idea what to make of any of it. Finally, he put a hand on her shoulder. “We should take you back to your thral,” he said at last. “You should be with him.”
<br />
<br />*****
<br />
<br /><i>Three hours later...</i>
<br />
<br />Lyta sat cross-legged on Jonas’ bed, as she had when she was a child hiding in his tent. He bore the same expression now that he had then, the gentle teacher with a truant pupil. “You had an eventful afternoon, I hear.” A smile played at the corners of his eyes.
<br />
<br />Lyta traced the stitches on the bedspread with her fingertips. Most of the effects of the amis root had worn off by now, and with them the certainty and boldness it had given her. “I hope Mereel isn’t in trouble,” she said softly.
<br />
<br />“After speaking with the thrals, he has volunteered to take extra scouting shifts for the next two weeks,” Jonas reported. “He seemed most contrite.”
<br />
<br />Lyta relaxed. It was a particularly light penalty, given the taboo they had broken. She had not entirely been joking about exile. “I told him he could blame me,” she said. “That I’d take responsibility.”
<br />
<br />“I said more or less the same thing.”
<br />
<br />Lyta’s brow furrowed. “More or less?”
<br />
<br />“More, in the sense that you should not simply <i>take</i> the blame, but that you <i>are</i> to blame.” His voice remained soft, but there was a fatherly edge. “But also less, because your thral gave you metaphorical licence to do something like that mere hours before,” he added more playfully as a broad smile shoved wrinkles to the corners of his lips.
<br />
<br />“Hippartha, the Koreshi must reverse the decline that centuries of rigid isolation has brought. If we are to preserve our heritage, we must explore new paths.”
<br />
<br />Lyta fidgeted on the floor. She could tell a lecture when it was coming. She would listen, of course, because it was Jonas, and she might not have another opportunity to hear his wisdom. But in her mind all she could think of was the course she had just run.
<br />
<br />Thankfully Jonas spared her the mental anguish of choosing between her mind and her heart. He leaned forward in his seat, eyes sparkling. “And? What was your experience, with the untrod soil beneath your feet and the untouched vines in your hand?”
<br />
<br />Lyta couldn’t help the smile that came to her lips. “Thralan… it was <i>amazing</i>.”
<br>
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-33978260799213435782017-03-30T08:07:00.001-04:002017-03-30T08:07:30.530-04:00Koreshi Chronicles - Capter X: Fated‘Controlling people is easy, controlling events is an entirely different proposition’.<br />
<br />
The thought kept repeating itself in Minnie’s head. The more it did, the more she wondered why she had volunteered to be the instrument of Lukas’ vengeance on the Forzi’s queen, Bev.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
For all her doubts, her plan had the elegance of simplicity. She knew all the snitches in town, so she started by having one inform the Forzi that a group of Brotherhood mercs were planning on muscling in on them. Then she told another to reveal to the Brotherhood that the Forzi were planning on taking their stash of recently acquired guns. So far, so easy.<br />
<br />
The main issue for Minnie was timing. How to ensure they went after each other before either of them figured out they had no real reason to. The final hitch was making sure Perry wasn’t around when everything finally and dramatically came to an end.<br />
<br />
It turned out the last part was pretty easy. Lukas’s former employee was working a cushy job out of one of the retail Corner Coffees and had a regular schedule. <br />
<br />
Perry sipped on his macchiato. If he had been more self aware then he probably would have chuckled at the cliche of a goon sitting on his ass all day sipping coffee. Perry has no such thought and so he enjoyed his coffee in peace.<br />
<br />
His immediate boss, whom Perry had been repeatedly told not to call ‘boss’ because he was actually his manager and calling him ‘boss’ could lead to confusion regarding who the real boss was, called him over.<br />
<br />
“Yeah boss,” Perry said with his customary insouciance.<br />
<br />
His manager sighed and handed him a heavy pouch. “Take this to the boss.”<br />
<br />
“Yeah boss,” Perry responded laconically as he hefted the parcel and left the coffee shop. For some reason and in spite of any outward appearance, Perry has a strange feeling that the couldn’t quite place about this rather common task.<br />
<br />
Perry was a runner which, when he reflected on it, was not what he actually did. In actuality he walked from the Corner Coffee on Sultana Drive to the corporate office to deliver the daily cash from the various operations the Forzi ran and laundered through the legitimate storefront along with a ledger of operations.<br />
<br />
Perry, uncharacteristically, had realized that his title sounded far harder than his actual job and suspected that that arrangement was far better than its reverse.<br />
<br />
It turned out that if you controlled enough people, events tended to follow. Minnie let the rumour mill stir a few days before forcing an escalation. She had some very professional people make what appeared to be very amateurish attempts to take out the Forzi and the Brotherhood squad at the same time. Both sides of the imaginary conflict came out incensed but otherwise unscathed and chomping at the bit for a bloody resolution.<br />
<br />
‘Easy,’ Minnie thought dubiously to herself. One last shred of information that provided the appearance of advantage with a limited window of opportunity was her crude but effective detonator.<br />
<br />
She settled into a position across from the corporate headquarters to see if her machinations would result in anything. Once there was nothing left to do but wait, she considered once more why she had done all this. What pull did Lukas Lassander still have on her that she would coldly orchestrate a bloodbath? She hated the question because the answer made her feel pathetic.<br />
<br />
Lukas had shown his true self, had lowered his defenses, if only for a moment, and she had a glimpse at a tantalizing but ultimately torturous snippet of something that wasn’t fated to be: happiness.<br />
<br />
Perry was pretty happy, considering. It was supposed to be his day off but a buddy had called in sick, so his boss had asked him to come in. It wasn’t as though he had anything else to do. Kerry wasn’t answering his calls anymore and Perry’s mom had told him long ago that it was better if he didn’t think too much about why things happened and just learned to accept them.<br />
<br />
This advice had served him well. When his employment with the Forzi ended in favour of a job for Quinn looking over coffee beans, he took it in stride. When things didn’t turn out so well for him at school, he went with it. When Kerry made up her mind to help him make Quinn’s business more successful, he acquiesced. When that success led to Bev moving in on the business, pressuring Kerry to help the Forzi steal the company left, for some reason, in Perry’s trust, he didn't bat an eyelash.<br />
<br />
He took whatever came his way with equanimity. It was easier that way. So it was that even if he had a nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right, he shrugged it off.<br />
<br />
It had been almost too easy. Minnie watched as the Brotherhood moved into position. They had spread out around the Forzi building and were now moving in to strike from multiple directions at once. The Forzi had numbers on their side, but the Brotherhood foursome had the advantage of initiative and better training. She welcomed the distraction from her thoughts as they entered the building. In a few minutes it would be all over.<br />
<br />
Perry arrived at the corporate headquarters he visited most days of the week just as Helios set. He strolled in and noticed but didn’t reflect on the broken lock on the security door. He pushed for the elevator and waited.<br />
<br />
Minnie’s optics revealed the fight had begun. There were some muffled reports of gunfire, most likely from the Forzi as the Brotherhood were using suppressed submachine guns. The power had been cut, revealing the strobing of muzzle flashes, like a distant storm.<br />
<br />
The elevator wasn’t responding. Perry sighed, deciding this was his lot in life. He took the stairs instead.<br />
<br />
The punctuations of a violent gunfight abated and became more sporadic. Minnie imagined the Brotherhood sweeping room by room. She switched to a multispectrum array hoping it would give her a better idea of what was going on inside the offices.<br />
<br />
Perry heard some shouting in the staircase and that triggered a sensation, once more, that something was wrong. Suddenly, it struck him quite violently, something was off.<br />
<br />
He drew the heavy cloth parcel from the safety of his jacket and undid the latch on the zipper. Opening it, he realised that although there were several wads of cash, there was no ledger. It was the weight that had bothered him since his boss had handed it to him at Corner Coffee. He sighed and turned around; he would have to go back and get it.<br />
<br />
Minnie could see bodies in the infrared. Several were already cooling down near the entrance. Two of the Brotherhood were still sweeping from room to room. At last they arrived at the conference room looking out over the street -- the last room. Inside the was one person, smaller in frame. Minnie guessed it was a woman and deduced it was Bev. They made a motion by the door and, through her optics, she saw the bloom of a grenade before she heard it. Then there was a larger flash as a corner of the room sparked and blossomed into incandescent red. Then came the explosion.<br />
<br />
The grenade set off a chain reaction and somewhere in that boardroom a satchel charge, or something of equal yield, detonated. The entire floor was engulfed in the blast, throwing a body clear of the building, but before she saw where it landed the window Minnie has been observing through shattered in the shockwave.<br />
<br />
Perry heard a distant bang and then a rumble, like a heavy truck going down the street, and finally a deafening boom. He crouched down at first -- knowing when to keep your head down was an essential skill for a Forzi.<br />
<br />
Time slowed as adrenaline flooded his brain. His synapses flashed furiously through past experiences where he had had a similar fear response, searching for an appropriate reaction. Perry remembered the panic the first time he met Christina Katchelli. He saw the alley where his fellow Forzi were mowed down by Quinn and his team. He saw the look in the eye of the man at the WestEx warehouse where he was sure he was going to die.<br />
<br />
He saw all his close calls and all his wasted opportunities, and for the first time felt sad that he had always just let these things happen to him. He experienced this in the span of three or four seconds, and in that time he also realised through the ringing in his ears that the sound had come from above.<br />
<br />
Turning his gaze skywards he saw the flames bursting from the building he had just left and debris and glass raining down. He also perceived but couldn't react to the sight of one rather large object hurtling towards him.<br />
<br />
Minnie blinked her eyes open when she realized that she was unhurt. She was fighting growing panic as she began to realize the scope of the incident. The upper floor of the corporate office was gone, replaced by a ball of fire in a cage of steel and cracked duracrete. Papers set alight billowed forth, like slow-motion sparks from a welding torch. She had played the Brotherhood against the Forzi perfectly, driving greed against paranoia and pride. They had reacted just as she had expected, but she couldn’t have foreseen these events.<br />
<br />
One again her mind flashed on Lukas and she wondered if this was some kind of message, a great metaphor from the Prophet, warning her. Her eye caught sight of a falling body, plummeting seven stories towards the street, towards the innocent pedestrians.<br />
<br />
She held her breath.<br />
<br />
Perry exhaled, unaware until then he had stopped breathing. The body had landed a mere 30 cm from him. Amazingly he wasn’t even splashed with any of the blood from the partially cremated remains. But the greatest shock was the face of the victim was largely intact. Perry recognized Bev.<br />
<br />
Minnie sighed. There were no casualties below. Somehow in the chaos of screeching cars and scattering passersby, no one had been hit, although one person had come close. Her heart was beating harder than if she had been sprinting; there were beads of sweat on her brow and she swore herself a solemn vow she would never do anything like this ever again. She grabbed up her equipment and darted for the stairs.<br />
<br />
Perry looked up again at the inferno and back down at his dead boss and stood up on his shaky legs. He took a hesitant step backwards. Perry thought again about his parcel of cash with the missing ledger and realised he could have been up there. He would have died but for a quirk of fate. And then a very rare thing occurred: he had a thought. What if he were dead? He was supposed to be up there, along with his parcel of cash. The only person who knew any different was a charcoaled mess on the sidewalk in front of him.<br />
<br />
He took another step back from Bev’s body. He could do this, he could just walk away from the Forzi, from Corner Coffee and Quinn and all this violence. He must have forty or fifty thousand in his pocket. For once in his life, Perry decided fate had smiled on him. He took another step.<br />
<br />
As Minnie spiraled her way downstairs she repeated to herself over and over again that she was done. Never again would she do anything like this. No favours for Lukas, no missions for Ti and no more projects for Stone. She would sit in her bar and listen and pass on information until she sold that perfect tidbit which would allow her to retire and leave this life behind.<br />
<br />
She reached the ground floor out of breath but suffused with a newfound peace. She could do this; she could get out.<br />
<br />
When she reached street level she blended into the crowd of panic-stricken people running this way and that. The smoke and falling detritus was perfect cover for her escape. Almost too perfect. An anxious driver came careening towards her, trying to flee the zone of destruction. He saw her at the last moment and swerved hard, tires shrieking. Minnie watched in slow motion as the car hurled past her. Across the street, an unaware man took a step back. Right into the path of the frantic car. Minnie knew the victim was dead as soon as his body hit the ground. The car crashed into a pole and the driver stepped out in a daze. Minnie didn’t hang around to answer any questions. She was done with all of this.<br />
<br />
Perry never saw it coming.<br />
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Certain Betrayalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08518538829112660083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-12658685580725499342017-03-17T21:44:00.002-04:002017-03-17T21:44:36.581-04:00Wordslingin'Betrayal most foul! While Our Heroes (tm) were having meaningful conversations with their allies in Khayr-ad Din, elsewhere in the Badlands another ally was slipping a knife into our backs… and bullets into our assets’ heads.
<br />
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<br />
<br /><i>[We pick up after the White Rock job]</i>
<br />Brock: “So, we have custody over all of Ti’s prisoners, and TI has custody over none of them. This is a situation I like to be in!”
<br />
<br /><i>[This will become important later.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Where is our other debrief happening?”
<br />Brock: “Eh, somewhere in the Badlands.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We consider doing some preliminary work before we deliver our prisoner to the Doc.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “You expect an interrogation of Bhakir to go more smoothly than—”
<br />Lukas: “No.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More on the potential interrogation of Bhakir.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Who are you thinking of bringing in on this?”
<br />Lukas: “I don’t know.”
<br />Georges the GM: “He lies!”
<br />
<br /><i>[We do have an interrogations expert with us. We’re just not sure she’s our friend.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “I thought you were getting along with Dawn these days.”
<br />Lukas: “Well, we’ve agreed not to kill each other.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas has sent Fennec to go test the waters with Dawn.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “I feel if anything untoward were to happen to me, Torgath might…”
<br />Fennec: “Snap? Kill us all?”
<br />
<br /><i>[More on the conversation with Gabrielle.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “She showed emotion when you mentioned family.”
<br />Brock: “And that’s why my counter is running.”
<br />
<br /><i>[And yet more.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “If anyone consults Torgath, he’ll say things are fine.”
<br />Brock: “Which is why we don’t consult him.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Fennec reports back to Lukas.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “She already knows you killed her father. How much worse could it get?”
<br />Brock: “I reflect on that for a minute, and all the things you don’t know.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Fennec lays out the situation.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “You’re okay that she’s planning to kill you?”
<br />Lukas: “Sure. I’m planning to kill her.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas gets a second opinion from Torgath.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “How do you think things are going with Dawn?”
<br />Torgath: “She’s alive and we’re alive… so, good.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We approach Khayr-ad Din.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “I wonder what the air defenses of Hotel Bravo are. I imagine limited.”
<br />Fennec: “Wait, what are you thinking?”
<br />
<br /><i>[Dawn takes her leave from the PCs.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Watch out for mind-controlled alien agents.”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “I always do.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We land on the helipad of Hotel Bravo.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Why would the Doc be there in person?”
<br />Brock: “He wants to marvel at our awesome hopper!”
<br />
<br /><i>[Indeed, the Doc is very impressed.]</i>
<br />Lukas: *descends from hopper*
<br />Doc Chambers: “How much?”
<br />Ariel: “He knows you so well.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Having arrived in Hotel Bravo, Fennec is greeted by her Aunt Fatty.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “You know what they say: you can take the girl out of Khayr-ad Din, but you can’t take out the smell.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Aunty Fatty has taken up with an engineer by the name of Trishaw Carmichael.]</i>
<br />Trishaw Carmichael: “Now, I strongly suspect that double-crossing, good-for-nothing Doc…”
<br />Fennec: “Ah! I see you’ve made his acquaintance!”
<br />
<br /><i>[Meanwhile, Lyta has meanwhile been pulled aside for a private conversation with the Doc.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “We’ll say it’s afternoon, so he pours himself a whiskey.”
<br />Julie: “Would it have changed anything if it were morning?”
<br />Ariel: “Sure. It would be a different kind of whiskey.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Also meanwhile, Torgath is conversing with Billy Croyden.]</i>
<br />Torgath: “How are things?”
<br />Billy Croyden: “Things are good.”
<br />Torgath: “Really?”
<br />Billy Croyden: “No, they’re shite.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Also-also meanwhile, Bill Pearce, Nicosa Renault’s agent within the Doc’s organization, has taken Lukas for a walk among the dunes.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “You better have shown me something interesting out here.”
<br />Bill Pearce: “You could show me where you keep your Gears locked up.”
<br />Lukas: “Ha!”
<br />
<br /><i>[Torgath has coffee with Dawn before her train out of town. They discuss her current attitudes towards the party.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “I may never stop hating Lukas.”
<br />Torgath: A lot of people feel that way.”
<br />
<br /><i>[They also discuss their own relationship.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “So, we’re not good, but we’re working towards it?”
<br />Torgath: “That’s up to you.”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “I need a little more commitment.”
<br />Torgath: “I wrote you a book, goddamnit!”
<br />
<br /><i>[Torgath helps Gabrielle get out of a scrape in which it’s revealed that the NGIS have declared her a rogue agent. She needs to the code confirmed by everyone’s favorite information broker.]</i>
<br />Torgath: “Apparently you’ve been getting in trouble again?”
<br />Jimmy Croyden: “Who’s been spreading lies!?”
<br />Torgath: “It was just a wild guess.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Jimmy and Torgath exchange pleasantries.]</i>
<br />Jimmy Croyden: “Are you offering murder? My brother never offers to murder anyone for me anymore.”
<br />
<br /><i>[While all of the above has been happening, it turns out that our allies in the desert never made their rendezvous. We go to the scene to find Okran Radsley and Presceptor Layson in shallow graves, each with a bullet in the back of their heads. Detective Gorash is nowhere to be seen.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “This is… looking like Gorash, isn’t it?”
<br />Lukas: *laughs uproariously* “’It’s looking like’.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Well, at least I was right about Radsley.”
<br />Zac: “Very quick to run to the high ground, aren’t you?!”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-16685604198189403082017-03-10T12:18:00.000-05:002017-03-10T12:18:38.787-05:00Wordslingin'Side-quest! While Our Heroes (tm) are busy saving the world, Ti has decided to subcontract one of their jobs to a second-rate Northern detail squad. The massive reign of carnage comes free with every data heist. I’m pretty sure that’s in the contract.
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<br />Cast of characters for today’s session:
<br /><ul><li> Janice (played by Brock): a massive woman, former combat medic, who took a shard of shrapnel in the head and isn't quite as sharp as she once was</li>
<br /><li> Joan (played by Julie): a pyromaniac explosives expert with an erratic trigger finger</li>
<br /><li> Jane (played by Ariel): A compulsive liar, much better at breaking into secure facilities than she is at telling a convincing lies... we hope</li>
<br /><li> Jean (NPC played by Georges the GM): the drug-addicted team lead who claims her specialized skills will not be useful on this job</li></ul>
<br />
<br />
<br /><i>[We semi-randomly generated the characters for the session, which led to certain… unlikely justifications.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “There had to be a reason for all of you to be on the island of misfit agents.”
<br />Julie: “I think I set my old team on fire.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Each of us has been separately invited to a massive warehouse, loaded for bear.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “You notice each other in this space.”
<br />Brock: “Does it immediately devolve into a shootout?”
<br />
<br /><i>[More results of semi-randomly generating the characters.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “You’re all women, which doesn’t mean anything except that it happens to be the case.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Jean, our team lead, informs us that the job is some data retrieval from a bank about two hours out of town. We’re expecting resistance but hoping to nip it in the bud.]</i>
<br />Jean: “We’re trying to use overwhelming violence here.”
<br />Joan: “Sounds good to me.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More from the department of ‘justifications we had to come up with because of the semi-randomly generated characters.’ In this case, why Janice is a medic with a -1 on her knowledge score. Brock justifies this by explaining that she took some shrapnel to the brain.]</i>
<br />Janice: “Before the injury, I was a medic.”
<br />Jean: “You do remember which ones are the veins and which ones are the arteries, right?”
<br />Janice: “Last I checked.”
<br />Joan: “Was that before or after the injury?”
<br />Janice: “I can’t remember. [beat] Nah, I’m fucking with you. Before.”
<br />
<br /><i>[In addition to being a brain-damaged medic, Janice is a massive woman with a squad automatic weapon.]</i>
<br />Janice: “Sure, I’ll play chess. I used to be pretty good.”
<br />Ariel: “Is this a ‘let the wookie win’ situation?”
<br />
<br /><i>[More delving into our characters and their equipment loadout. Just as Brock had to make some decisions regarding his character to make some of the stats understandable, Julie has decided that Joan, a demolitions expert, is a pyromaniac.]</i>
<br />Julie: “Brock has convinced me to bring a cutting torch.”
<br />Georges the GM: “I’m amazed he hasn’t convinced you to bring a chainsaw.”
<br />Julie: “Chainsaws are heavy… and don’t light things on fire.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We reach our destination, open the doors of the armored van in which we have arrived, and see two comparatively bored security guards ready to unload the cargo from the back of the van… where the team is lying in wait.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Two shots, full ROF, because why not.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Janice is very effective with her SAW.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “There are guys in the security station. One is playing solitaire. They see the two guys go past, then… red mist and limbs falling from the sky.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We take out the two guys in the security station with equal efficiency. Jean goes onto the PA system.]</i>
<br />Jean: “There’s no need for violence… or any <b>more</b> violence.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We have informed the employees that we will consider anyone we encounter on the way to our destination to be hostile. So when we encounter two more security personnel…]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “They’re behind a desk.”
<br />Julie: “You know what that screams to me? Grenade.”
<br />
<br /><i>[While Jane and Joan throw their grenades, Janice lays down suppressing fire.]</i>
<br />Brock: *rolls 11 on suppressing fire*
<br />Julie: “Has he suppressed them to death?”
<br />
<br /><i>[The combination of a flash-bang grenade, a frag grenade, and extremely thorough suppressing fire works about as excellently as you might expect.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Oh, my God, the sequence of carnage here…”
<br />
<br /><i>[Reflecting on the op so far.]</i>
<br />Brock: “These raids? A whole different perspective when you can go live-fire.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Moving forward, Joan has taken cover in the doorway of an occupied office while we take out some hostiles further down the hallway.]</i>
<br />Office Clerk: *shoots at Joan but misses*
<br />Joan: “Wrong move. I was <b>gonna</b> let you live.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Julie: “I was gonna roll to see whether I killed him, but then he shot me.”
<br />Brock: “He shot the doorframe.”
<br />Julie: “He shot <b>at</b> me.”
<br />Brock: “<b>Near</b> you.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We continue to lay down massive amounts of carnage.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “Can this be our next campaign?”
<br />
<br /><i>[It doesn’t hurt that our enemies are rolling poorly. Well, it doesn’t hurt <b>us</b>.]</i>
<br />Brock: “These are the unluckiest adversaries we’ve ever fought.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More hostiles approaching!]</i>
<br />Julie: “Do I use an incendiary grenade?”
<br />Ariel: “If you <b>don’t</b> set them on fire, I’ll consider it a misfire of Chekov’s gun.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We have fifteen minutes to do the job. Achieving our primary objective – and killing almost everyone in the building – has taken about five minutes.]</i>
<br />Jean: “How would you consider a secondary objective?”
<br />Joan: “Being?”
<br />Brock: (as Jean) “Well, the room you just set on fire contains <b>this</b> vital intel.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The secondary objective turns out to be a particular stock key.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “Did we just steal Ti’s money?”
<br />Georges the GM: “You just stole… someone’s money.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We have killed almost everyone, but not entirely everyone. The final two security guards have holed up in the garage where we must pass.]</i>
<br />Players: *roll very well on initiative*
<br />Georges the GM: “You get the drop on them, despite the fact that they were waiting for us.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We deal with the final two guards with our usual level of efficiency.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Shell casings everywhere…”
<br />Georges the GM: “Rivers of blood…”
<br />
<br /><i>[Our exfil plan is a hopper that has been sent to meet us.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “I won’t keep you in suspense – you’re not murdered by the hopper.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Sadly, things start going pear-shaped around this time as our hopper is taken out by a surface-to-air missile.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Big bang, kaboom, ball of fire…”
<br />Joan: “On the one hand, I’m sad we lost our exfil. On the other, that was a really impressive explosion.”
<br />
<br /><i>[It looks like whoever shot down the hopper is in a nearby patch of light forest.]</i>
<br />Joan: “You know what I’ve always wanted to do? Light a forest on fire.”
<br />
<br /><i>[After some harrowing moments, we take out the hostiles. Sadly, our van is very recognizable and we must walk most of the way back to town. We spend the time exchanging back-story information.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Jean spent a fair amount of time in a hellish place in the ESE.”
<br />Brock: “Like all places in the ESE.”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-31888453623169435172017-03-02T19:42:00.000-05:002017-03-02T19:42:04.041-05:00Wordslingin'A shoot-out at a White Rock airport? It’s like déjà vu all over again, except this time we got out without getting arrested. Baby steps, people. Baby steps…
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<br /><i>[We prepare for the mission of the session: dealing with Preceptor Maz Valine of White Rock, our final candidate for the Comptroller.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Given that we have hours in the aircraft, we can ask Radsley and Gorash their opinion for how to get into White Rock.”
<br />Zac: “We could spend the whole session in those conversations.”
<br />Julie: “But probably shouldn’t.”
<br />Brock: “Or we could just get Georges to give us the answer.”
<br />
<br /><i>[It’s good to have your scapegoats ready ahead of time.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Anything Dawn does wrong will inevitably be blamed on Torgath.”
<br />
<br /><i>[There is only one right answer to this question.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Okay, do we wanna take the hopper into—”
<br />Brock: “Yes.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The problem with bringing the hopper is that we don’t want to leave it unattended, and there are only a few people who can fly it.]</i>
<br />Julie: “Do we trust Dawn to stay alone with the hopper?”
<br />Brock: “No, we don’t.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We leave Fennec with the hopper and bring Dawn with us into White Rock.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Lukas disguises Dawn as Fennec. She’s immediately arrested by the Alliance.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We arrive in White Rock.]</i>
<br />Brock: “We meet up with Ti. It’s still awkward.”
<br />
<br /><i>[With Ti are Roxanne and Karima, two members of our B-team that took out Lucian Jacobi.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “Roxanne, Karima, this is Jax, Kes, and… a friend.”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: (brightly) “I’m Dawn!”
<br />
<br /><i>[A little backstory exposition.]</i>
<br />Julie: “Dawn is happy-go-lucky and murderous. We’ve nearly killed each other before.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Torgath is off being inconspicuous as always.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “And the other members of the team?”
<br />Lukas: “He’s around.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We discuss what we’re going to do next.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “Valine is a city preceptor. ‘Just grabbing him’ wasn’t viable until you showed up.”
<br />Luaks: “So that’s the new plan.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More planning.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Has Roxanne heard about the plan to kidnap a city preceptor?”
<br />Georges the GM: “No, because it wasn’t a plan until it was.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Zac is playing Roxanne, the sniper from our B-team.]</i>
<br />Zac: “I don’t do a particularly good job of hiding my… creeping discomfort.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Roxanne and Karima have other priorities than the salvation of the world.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Have my cheques from Ti cleared yet?”
<br />Georges the GM: “He pays you in cash.”
<br />Julie: “It clears the moment it touches your hand.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Ti informs us of Roxanne and Karima’s recent accomplishment.]</i>
<br />Luks: “How did they kill Jacobi? I thought he was a betabel.”
<br />Zac: “Gumption. Stick-to-itivness.”
<br />Ariel: “Attacking him while naked and lighting him on fire.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We discover that Valine will be touring an under-construction airport terminal tomorrow.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “This is the plan: we fly in, load him up, and fly out.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We also discover that Krak Bhakir is in town and also going after Valine.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “We take Bhakir with us when we leave.”
<br />Lyta: “Weren’t you just saying we should kill Bhakir?”
<br />Lukas: “Yes.”
<br />Lyta: “…And?”
<br />Lukas: “Ti’s messing with my by agreeing with me.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We fill Ti in on what happened in Thebes.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Our extraction of Layson went like clockwork.”
<br />Ariel: “Because we tired out the GM.”
<br />Brock: “We ran down the clock.”
<br />
<br /><i>[And the corollary…]</i>
<br />Julie: “Think we can finish the op tonight?”
<br />Brock: “The longer we wait, the smoother it goes!”
<br />
<br /><i>[There is some argument about the last time we met the B-team, aka when Lukas was working with them as part of a slaver ring in the ESE.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “You weren’t supposed to be operating in the south.”
<br />Torgath: “You can’t call dibs on a hemisphere!”
<br />Lukas: “Yes, I can.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Meanwhile, the B-team is considering whether they should join on for the op.]</i>
<br />Karima: “I’m a bike courier – I got into cities and bike and deliver documents.”
<br />Roxanne: “Is that what you do?”
<br />Karima: “…I deliver documents.”
<br />
<br /><i>[If Roxanne and Karima join us on the op, they’ll probably need to leave the south and join us in the Badlands.]</i>
<br />Ti Corovan: “Any chance you’ve talked it over?”
<br />Roxanne: “Well, we don’t make decisions as a unit.”
<br />Brock: “She’d fit right in in the Badlands.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Roxanne and Karima review Ti’s offer.]</i>
<br />Roxanne: “So you’re offering 50k for us to sit back and do nothing unless things go bad? That tells me things’ll go bad.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Meanwhile, Fennec will be flying in with our stealth hopper to pick us up with Valine.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Try to look Humanist when you fly.”
<br />Fennec: “It’s a stealth hopper. How do I fly that nondescriptly?!”
<br />Lukas: “Not <b>my</b> problem.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Fennec flies in with the hopper.]</i>
<br />Zac: “How do I do this?”
<br />Georges the GM: “It’ll take some good flying.”
<br />Brock: “You wanted to get pilot to 2, right?”
<br />Zac: (resigned) “Goodbye, assiduously accumulated xp stock.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We prepare for go-time.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “You guys are working a 4-man team with Dawn. She’s being… professional about it.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas gives some final instructions to Dawn.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “We’re gonna have to bring down the POP. Ti will insist we do this non-lethally.” *long, meaningful pause*
<br />
<br /><i>[The unstated end of Lukas’ sentence is not lost on Dawn.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “Ti may want one thing, and you may want another. As far as I’m concerned, so long as I’m working with your team, I’m working with your team.”
<br />Lukas: (to Lyta) “Are you taking notes?!”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “I take orders from you, not Lyta or Torgath.”
<br />Lukas: “They won’t give orders.”
<br />Zac: “They also may not follow them.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We prepare our loadout.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Have you used a sfika carbine?”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “Yes. It’s an inefficient weapon.”
<br />Lukas: “Yes, it is. Luckily you’re a great shot.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We arrive at the under-construction terminal and get into position. We realize there are some radar sensors that could be deactivated to give Fennec a better chance to fly in.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “The radar sensors are about 100-150 feet out.”
<br />Brock: “Can we move them?”
<br />Julie: (resigned) “That sounds like my job.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Also in the terminal are a work crew of disguised Emirati, presumably working with Bhakir. We discuss how to deal with them.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Ti would want darts; Radsley would want darts…”
<br />Zac: “Radsley’s not here.”
<br />Brock: “He’s here in spirit. We’re using his codes.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Valine arrives with a support crew of four POP and two aides. Roxanne is responsible for getting him unconscious.]</i>
<br />Zac: “This might be a good time to ask… What kinda bullet did you want me to hit him with?”
<br />
<br /><i>[We finally encounter Bhakir and, due to a combination of very nice rolls, manage to shoot him out of the rafters where he was hiding.]</i>
<br />Zac: “He’d be much easier to handle with a broken collar bone. Then again, there’s nothing that says that upon retrieval we can’t break his collar bone.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “You’ve got Bhakir.”
<br />Ariel: “Well, we don’t need his tendons, anyway.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Having achieved our objectives, the main PCs take off in the hopper along with the unconscious bodies of Valine and Bhakir. B-team exfiltrates with Ti through White Rock.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Roxanne feels confident travelling with the guy with plot immunity.”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-85411542118866917432017-02-25T16:20:00.001-05:002017-02-25T16:20:36.241-05:00Wordslingin'Plan, plan, plan, that’s all we do. But we got our man in the end. The very, very end.
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<br /><i>[We recap where things stand at the start of the session.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Where did we leave off?”
<br />Julie: “We have a stealth hopper. And…”
<br />Georges the GM: “Everything else is secondary.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We recap what we know about the various candidates for Comptroller in Thebes.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “We know this guy goes to TDI every day, and we know the dead one is dead…”
<br />Georges the GM: “Yes. We know both those things.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More review.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Ti thinks it’s the guy in White Rock. Gorash is the best investigator we know by far and he thinks it’s the dead girl. And Dawn is the most potent NGIS agent we’ve met, and she thinks it’s this guy.”
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<br /><i>[We consider what to do with Preceptor Layson. Lukas floats the idea of simply killing him from a sniper position.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “I know this contradicts my position that we’re not assassins, but I was saying we’re not assassins for no good reason.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The other PCs are at least willing to consider the idea.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Here’s the problem with eliminating Layson.”
<br />Lyta: “One of the problems.”
<br />Lukas: “The main problem.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More consideration of our position.]</i>
<br />Brock: “I think we need to get Layson out of the Alliance.”
<br />Zac: “I thought you wanted to kill him.”
<br />Brock: “I changed my mind.”
<br />Zac: “Well that’s an event right there.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Further exploring Lukas’ new idea.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Why do you want him in the Badlands?”
<br />Brock: “Because that’s where we can debrief him.”
<br />Zac: “’We’?”
<br />Brock: “Doc Chambers.”
<br />
<br /><i>[So the plan is a go, right?]</i>
<br />Ariel: “Don’t we already have an abduction plan?”
<br />Brock: “I may have oversimplified that.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The good news is, Radsley is on board with our plan to kidnap Layson.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “How do you think this will fly with our other two companions?”
<br />Lukas: “I’m not planning to negotiate with them.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Dawn has to be okay with taking him alive.”
<br />Brock: “She doesn’t care. And if she cares, I don’t care.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We consider who should approach Dawn regarding our new plan.]</i>
<br />Zac: “What would get more purchase with Dawn: respect, or not having killed her father?”
<br />
<br /><i>[Dawn has tentatively agreed to the plan.]</i>
<br />Dawn: “Would you accept my help?”
<br />Lukas: “Yes. In fact, it’s a requirement for the plan.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Our history with Dawn has not always been amicable.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Am I gonna have to worry about you?”
<br />Fennec: “Would she even tell the truth?”
<br />Julie: “We have human perception.”
<br />Georges the GM: “First I have to decide if she’d lie about this.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Lukas and Dawn agree to a two-week truce.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “She seems like she is perfectly sincere in not wanting to murder you… for the next two weeks.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Meanwhile, Torgath has gone to speak with Detective Gorash.]</i>
<br />Detective Gorash: “What’s your interest in all this?”
<br />Torgath: “Not being destroyed by Earth people?”
<br />
<br /><i>[With regards to the Earthers…]</i>
<br />Torgath: “Are you okay with being controlled by these people?”
<br />Detective Gorash: “Everybody’s controlled by somebody.”
<br />Julie: “More in the Humanist Alliance than most places.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Torgath has offered Gorash to come with us and work as an investigator in the Badlands.]</i>
<br />Detective Gorash: “But… about my boat?”
<br />Torgath: “What would happen to your boat?”
<br />Detective Gorash: “Not much. That’s the problem.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Gorash tentatively accepts Torgath’s offer.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “I tell you this because I respect your autonomy: in twenty minutes we’re gonna kidnap Layson and fly back to the Badlands, and you’re coming with us.”
<br />Detective Gorash: “…”
<br />
<br /><i>[Detective Gorash isn’t totally on board with kidnapping Layson without evidence.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “I believe in due process intellectually, but practically it’s a hindrance.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Gorash agrees to the plan on the condition that he witnesses Layson’s interrogation.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “I have no interest in conducting the interrogation myself – it’s not my area.”
<br />Zac: “Something we learned the hard way.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Back to planning! We consider the challenges we’ll face in kidnapping Layson.]</i>
<br />Brock: “HIRA’s fast-response force has probably been moved up to a higher level of alert. But they <b>are</b> down one hopper.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Whether Layson calls the police is irrelevant because they’ll be watching his house.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We review where we are so far.]</i>
<br />Zac: “We need a plan.”
<br />Brock: “We have one.”
<br />Zac: “We’re… getting there.”
<br />
<br /><i>[We’ve hammered out most of the details of the plan, but not all.]</i>
<br />Lukas: (to Gorash) “You have the option of being on the extraction team. Here’s the limitations: you need to jump out of a hopper and you need to do it in 40 seconds.”
<br />Detective Gorash: “…I think I’ll just wait in the hopper.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Okran Radsley has come up with a series of refueling points to get us out of the Humanist Alliance. Sadly, Fennec doesn’t trust him not to hand us over to HIRA.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Okay, change of plans.”
<br />Okran Radsley: “It’s only been five minutes, mate.”
<br />
<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Damnit, Radsley, why can’t you be more trustworthy?!”
<br />Ariel: “I trust him.”
<br />
<br /><i>[And even more.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “What would you do in my position? Would you trust you?”
<br />Okran Radsley: “Of course I’d trust me! I’m the poster-boy for trustworthiness!”
<br />
<br /><i>[More on why we might not be able to trust Radsley.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “It seems like our good graces and HIRA’s good graces may be mutually exclusive in some circumstances.”
<br />Fennec: “Like when we stole their hopper.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Dawn comes up with an alternate exfil plan, through the Eastern Sun Emirates.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Good part about being in the ESE: it’s out of the Humanist Alliance. Bad part: everything else.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The problem with the new plan is that we don’t trust Dawn not to hand us over to the NGIS.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “So, now we have the exact same problem, just with a different person.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Torgath tries to get things back on track.]</i>
<br />Torgath: “I think we need to trust the people we work with. They trust us.”
<br />Lukas: “There is no evidence for that.”
<br />
<br /><i>[The entire session has been planning to extract Layson, we we’re just about out of time when the game wraps up.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “So obviously we get him out with no problem, right?”
<br />
<br /><i>[For the sake of expedience, Georges the GM agrees that we extract Layson, with a few small modifications on the plan.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “Gabrielle suggests a distraction.”
<br />Lukas: “Well, you have that in common with Fennec.”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-91829717848411803982017-02-23T12:52:00.000-05:002017-02-23T12:53:17.316-05:00Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter X: Across the Chasm, part 2<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">23 Winter 1929</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-9b6c9def-6c19-0b94-8e8a-99feab191906"><br /><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The cabin lights glowed a soft red inside the belly of the hopper while the terminal threw a blue light on Gabrielle. She strained to hear a sound beyond the keys she struck. When she hit the final return key, the silence revealed Lyta’s breath, calm and steady. Though not literally breathing down her neck, the compact fighter was close enough to banish any thought of escape. </span></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-9b6c9def-6c19-632b-69de-0dcded093e4d"></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-9b6c9def-6c19-632b-69de-0dcded093e4d"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“This round of decryption algorithms will take approximately twenty minutes. There is little we can do until then.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gabrielle’s own voice sounded strange to her. It was calm, or maybe it was resigned. If she was to be captured, she could think of worse circumstances. Upon second thought, no she couldn’t. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Are you to be my keeper, then?” she asked. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lyta shrugged. Gabrielle hadn’t turned from her terminal, but she knew the woman well enough to recognize the slight ruffling sound of fabric her characteristic response would produce.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gabrielle’s heart beat heavily in her chest. She did her best to seem calm but she felt trapped. She had nowhere to run and no one to turn to. Gabrielle spun around slowly to look at Lyta, a strange and desperate feeling that she might be the only person in the world who knew enough about her life to help her escape the inescapability of her own claustrophobic doubt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Your brother doesn’t trust me, does he?” that same disembodied voice asked. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She shrugged again. “You tried to kill him. And you put Todd on the most-wanted list.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gabrielle’s watched as a part of her screamed in wretched pain while another part of her calmly answered. “And he killed my father and kidnapped me on more than one occasion.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lyta, once again, shrugged. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘If she does that again, I’m going to kill her’</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Gabrielle laughed inwardly at the empty threat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“And you? Do </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">you</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> trust me?” Gabrielle asked, and for the first time she thought the voice was her own.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lyta frowned, unsure how to answer. “Does it matter?” she finally offered.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Not in the least’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Of course it matters.” Gabrielle protested, “Without trust...” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Without trust, there can be no betrayal.’</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Gabrielle had no answer to that. Lyta’s frown deepened. Could she hear the voices as well? She had no answer for that, no way to silence the demons in her own head, what Torgath’s novel had called her broken reflections.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“So,” Gabrielle spoke up, trying to break free of her twisted inner monologue, “where do we stand with one another?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I don’t know,” Lyta said eventually. “I think we’ll be okay while we’re all working to go after Layson. After that… Like you said, we’ve got parallel goals, not the same same goals.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Had she said that? She would take Lyta’s word for it. She had to trust Lyta knew what she was saying. She had to escape her prison, the captivity of her own mind.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Then I must trust you. I need your advice, about your brother.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lyta’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. "What sort of advice?" She asked. Then, after a brief pause, "and which one?"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dawn’s voice cackled. A mocking, spiteful laugh. It made Gabrielle shudder, which she covered with a hesitant and fear-tinged laugh of her own. "Both, I guess. But Lukas first."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Okay... What about Lukas?"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gabrielle stood slowly from her terminal, looking for a parcel of the hopper bay where she could sink to the deck plates. "How do you get someone to forgive you for betraying them?"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘What are you asking her for? What does she know of your pain and your responsibilities?’ </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Are you sure you're asking the right person?” Lyta answered, her face presenting an embarrassed smile. “Isn't that the sort of thing you would bring up with your priest, or something?"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"My 'priest' would have a simple answer: 'honour your father'. Which is what I've been doing, or at least trying to do. And it isn't working."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Ruhig mein liebling’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"That's not really advice about my brother. That's advice about you."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I'm sorry, I'm being vague and cryptic. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Pathetic.’ </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I said I had to trust you, so please forgive me for being blunt."</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ‘Get on with it.’</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> "Lukas wasn't at Creighton. Torgath told me some of what happened in White Rock. How do you…</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’stand yourself?’</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> How did you reconcile his sense of betrayal with your relationship to Ti?"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Good, now you’re relating. Now we can share feelings and have a good old cry together.’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gabrielle flinched, but Lyta who had become involved in her own thoughts hadn't noticed as she formulated an earnest answer. “I decided I can't let him put me in the middle forever. If he wants to feel like I turned on him, there's not much I can do about that. I'm not sure he's forgiven me yet. But I can't let that be my problem."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘As though Ti and Lukas don’t have a say. She doesn’t know if Lukas has forgiven her? News alert, he hasn’t, and here’s another one fresh off the presses, neither has Ti. You’re looking for wisdom from this self-centered child?’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Heh, which one?" Gabrielle struggled to shut Dawn up, she wasn’t even sure if she had just spoken or not when Lyta gave her a confused look. Gabrielle swallowed hard, a growing sense of panic subsided as Lyta’s expression morphed into some kind of understanding. Luckily, the wrong understanding. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Lukas. Stuff with Ti was... easier. Eventually."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I'm happy for you.” </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Liar. Jealous, petty, covetous liar. The Prophet sees your lies and condemns you.’ </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“And you're right.” Gabrielle was getting flustered; there were too many conversations going on at once. “This is advice about me.” She bit her lip, eyes dashing in the red cocoon of the hopper, looking for a safe place to escape to but the only thing beyond the oppressive crimson was darkness, an all-encompassing maw that swallowed every sense. Gabrielle suddenly, horribly, realised her only release might be the void of madness. “I just don't know which me.” Someone from a distant point of observation within her said matter of factly, “You must think me mad."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"...How many 'you's are there?"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She beat the voices away like bats swirling around her head. "Torgath says there are four of me. There may be more, I don't know.” </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘You don’t know your own mind. Todd does and maybe Lyta sees you’re crazy but you don’t have a Prophet-be-damned clue.’ “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I guess I’m just trying to understand how can I love Torgath and my father with what Lukas did in between."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘There aren’t four of you, there aren’t six or eight of even twenty. There are as many voices as there are words in the languages of men that signify irrelevance…’ </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I guess you just have to decide what's important to you. No one can choose that for you."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘In fact, there is no you. You don’t even warrant significance in the Prophet’s eyes.’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Easy for you to say, you have it all!” Gabrielle whimpered from her corner. “You get to keep your brothers and lover and your mission to avenge your father all neatly wrapped into one."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Distantly Lyta replied. Gabrielle could only make out a few words. "Now...when this is all over...that decision...looked like...never."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘You’re so close now, just a little further and it can all be over. Get up, walk towards her.’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"It'll never be over for me." Gabrielle lamented, hot tears rolling down her cheeks.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Lyta is looking away in disgust now. This is your chance, before she knows what’s coming. She’ll end this for you. Do it now while you still have some of your own mind. Do it!’</span></div>
<br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"What do you want me to tell you? There's a magic way to have everything you want? There isn't. I'm sorry. I wish there was; it would make my life so much easier.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Do it, rush her, pull her knife like you did Todd’s.’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But you have to choose which is more important to you, revenge or love. And then you have to live with it. That's the best I've got."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘She’s practically begging you to do it. Put her out of your misery!’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gabrielle clutched at her stomach. The wound had healed put the pain was still there. The blade had stuck deep and she was twisting it. Bile rose in her throat; she couldn’t take this any more. Every tragic chapter of her life had been an escalation of pain. Losing her mother, then the invasion, losing herself to her work and her faith, losing Petit and her father. Maybe Lukas was right to kill him, maybe he had betrayed the North, maybe the Bear had corrupted him like he had co-opted the NGIS. She had lost the only people she had ever loved and the only causes that had ever mattered. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She stabbed herself with Torgath’s own knife so he would know her pain. He had revenged himself a thousand times with every page of his book that proved he knew her better than she knew herself. Death by a thousand cuts. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘He truly loves you’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I know</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘So did your father’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I know</span></div>
<br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘So honour them both. End this. Honour your father and find him in death and in your final act torment Todd’s love for all eternity’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gabrielle’s gaze peered at Lyta from under her blonde locks. Gabrielle was good, maybe even good enough to force Lyta to kill her in spite of herself. She pushed herself imperceptibly from the wall, weighing her legs, ready to spring. Lyta wouldn’t see it coming. She was respecting her pain by looking away, but she hadn’t left. Which meant she was still on the defensive. This could work, this could all finally end.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Nein’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘No!’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Nein my liebling, mein herz’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘DO IT!’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gabrielle collapsed, letting the weight out of her legs. She struggled to regain control, whipping her head back against the bulkhead hard enough to see stars. Death was easy, revenge was easy and self-pity was easy. Torgath’s novel had made that all so painfully and beautifully clear. Dawn’s voice, just like her father’s and all the others. were part of her. She would use them as needed, she would not be used by them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘No’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Thanks. I just came for your advice, not you pity.”</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ‘Don’t you dare use my voice against me.’ </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then to Lyta, “May I wait for the encryption to finish over there?" Gabrielle asked, pointing to a spot three meters beyond the gantry of the hopper in the open field.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Sure."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gabrielle wiped her face with her sleeve and brushed her hair back. She rose carefully and stepped out of the abyssal confines of the claret craft into the cool night. Once her eyes had adjusted, there were stars, real stars. She sat on the soft earth, felt the dirt under her hands and stared at the sky. ‘Flickers of hope’ her father had once called them. From across the chasm she let that thought soothe the many voices. </span></div>
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Certain Betrayalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08518538829112660083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-38252609856562367212017-02-23T12:32:00.001-05:002017-02-23T12:32:21.245-05:00Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter X: Across the Chasm, part 123 Winter 1929
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<br />The computer beeped softly as Gabrielle Summers leaned back and stretched. “This round of decryption algorithms will take approximately twenty minutes,” she reported in her precise, clipped Anglic. “There is little we can do until then.”
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<br />Lyta nodded. She stood comfortably against the bulkhead of the hopper, one hand tracing the seams in the metal. She’d positioned herself so that she could see the screen of Gabrielle’s terminal, but all it was showing at the moment were streams of numbers and loading progress bars.
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<br />Gabrielle glanced up at her for the first time in nearly an hour. It was not lost on the NGIS agent that Lyta had kept her in eyesight since they’d landed, except for the brief team conference several hours earlier. “Are you to be my keeper, then?” she asked. The words were more resigned than hostile.
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<br />Lyta shrugged.
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<br />Gabrielle leaned back in the pilot’s seat and swivelled so she could more clearly face her silent interlocutor. “Your brother doesn’t trust me, does he?”
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<br />Lyta shrugged again. “You tried to kill him. And you put Todd on the most-wanted list.”
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<br />Gabrielle’s expression quirked. “And he killed my father and kidnapped me on more than one occasion.” She said it as calmly as though she were discussing the weather.
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<br />Lyta, once again, shrugged.
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<br />“And you?” Gabrielle asked, shifting the topic slightly. “Do <i>you</i> trust me?”
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<br />Lyta frowned and hesitated. “Does it matter?” she said after a moment’s silence.
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<br />A narrowing of the eyes. “Of course it matters. Without trust...” Gabrielle’s voice trailed off.
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<br />Lyta’s frown deepened.
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<br />“So,” Gabrielle returned to the more conversational tone, “where do we stand with one another?”
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<br />Lyta thought about this for a moment, considering. Lukas and Todd had diametrically opposed views of the NGIS agent, with Lukas viewing her as a threat even after she’d helped him, and Todd seeing her as an ally even after she’d attempted to get him killed. She wasn’t sure either of them were seeing clearly on the matter. Then again, she wasn’t sure she was herself. “I don’t know,” she said eventually. “I think we’ll be okay while we’re all working to go after Layson. After that… Like you said, we’ve got parallel goals, not the same goals.”
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<br />Gabrielle nodded. “Then I must trust you. I need your advice, about your brother.”
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<br />It was not the direction Lyta had expected the conversation to go. People didn’t ask Lyta for advice, certainly not seasoned intelligence agents. She might have been willing to act the older sister for Miranda, but she had no idea how to play things with Gabrielle. “What sort of advice?” A pause. “And which one?”
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<br />Gabrielle let out a short, conflicted laugh. There was no joy in it. “Both, I guess. But Lukas first.”
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<br />“Okay… what about Lukas?”
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<br />“How do you get someone to forgive you for betraying them?”
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<br />Lyta wanted to laugh, but she held it back before it reached her lips. Of anyone, <i>she</i> was hardly the best authority on how to get Lukas to forgive anyone. She wasn’t entirely certain he had even forgiven <i>her</i>. “Are you sure you’re asking the right person? Isn’t that the sort of thing you would bring up with your priest, or something?” A flickering thought that she didn’t actually know if Revisionists had priests, or if Gabrielle was religious. Lyta supposed she must be. Most Northerners were. A half-shrug. She supposed it wasn’t important.
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<br />"My 'priest' would have a simple answer: 'honour your father'. Which is what I've been doing, or at least trying to do. And it isn't working."
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<br />Lyta let her hand trace along the seams of the bulkhead. Back to that. She supposed it wasn’t surprising. No doubt it was just as hard for Gabrielle to work with Lukas as it had been for her to head into the ESE with several dozen GRELs. Yet somehow, she had done it. “That’s not really advice about my brother,” Lyta said after a pause. “That’s advice about you.”
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<br />Gabrielle’s voice took on a resigned tone. “I’m sorry, I’m being vague and cryptic. I said I had to trust you, so please forgive me for being blunt.” She hesitated. “Lukas wasn’t at Creighton. Torgath told me some of what happened in White Rock. How do you… how do you reconcile his sense of betrayal with your relationship with Ti?”
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<br />It was the core question of her last cycle and a half. Lyta stared at Gabrielle, trying to figure out how much to say, how to put into words what had mostly been a swirling mass of undefined emotion, how to distill the core nuggets from a dozen conversations into something comprehensible. “I decided I can’t let him put me in the middle forever,” she said. “If he wants to feel like I turned on him, there’s not much I can do about that. I’m not sure he’s forgiven me yet. But I can’t let that be my problem.”
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<br />A quirk to Gabrielle’s lips. “Heh, which one?”
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<br />Lyta blinked, confused, before realizing the ambiguity in her own words. <i>Which one</i>, indeed. “Lukas. Stuff with Ti was… easier. Eventually.” <i>After I decided I couldn’t lose him a second time. After I bared my soul to him in the desert. After I told him my deepest fear and he accepted it.</i>
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<br />“I’m happy for you.” The NGIS agent seemed sincere, as far as Lyta could tell. “And you’re right, this is advice about me. I just don’t know which me. You must think me mad.”
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<br />Lyta’s brow furrowed at the strange phasing. “How many ‘you’s are there?”
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<br />Gabrielle waved her hand in a vague gesture. “Torgath says there are four of me. There may be more. I don’t know. I guess I’m just trying to understand how I can love Torgath and my father with what Lukas did in between.”
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<br />How could she, indeed. Lyta heard echoes of conversations with Ti, so many conversations. How for so long she’d let love for her brother come in the way of love for another. She remembered the moment she had stopped.
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<br />She realized she had been silent for longer than she’d intended. “I guess you just have to decide what’s important to you. No one can choose that for you.”
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<br />Gabrielle’s eyes narrowed as her expression turned upset. “Easy for you to say, you have it all. You get to keep your brothers and your lover and your mission to avenge your father all neatly wrapped up into one.”
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<br />It was not the reaction Lyta had expected, though she supposed she might have. She held herself back from a sharp rejoinder. They still had to work together, she reminded herself. And Gabrielle didn’t know everything, no matter how much Todd had told her. “Now. Maybe. I still don’t know what’s gonna happen when this is all over. And I made that decision when it looked like I would never have Lukas again. I still might not.”
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<br />It hit her abruptly that she had <i>still</i> not had the long-awaited conversation with Lukas. Nearly a cycle later, and she still didn’t know whether he’d forgiven her. They were working towards common cause in pursuing the Bear, but what would happen after that? Would he leave again? <i>If you’re leaving, don’t come back</i>, he had said. Only the mission had pulled them back together again. And their operational window was getting shorter by the day.
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<br />Lyta realized she had stopped paying attention to Gabrielle, and only barely caught the edge of the Northerner’s finger swiping away at an errant tear. “It’ll never be over for me.”
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<br />Lyta glanced away, giving the NGIS agent a moment to get her emotions under control while she tried to do the same with hers. She sighed. “What do you want me to tell you? That there’s a magic way to have everything you want? There isn’t. I’m sorry. I wish there was; it would make my life so much easier. But you have to choose which is more important to you, revenge or love. And then you have to live with it.”
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<br />She paused. She had not intended to say so much, or speak so bluntly. But there it was, the truth of the matter. When she spoke again, her voice was quieter. “That’s the best I’ve got.”
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<br />As Lyta spoke, Gabrielle had turned inward, her head down and shaking, her hands clasped around the scar of her stomach wound. By the end, she was practically curled into a ball around her core. Then, suddenly, her head whipped back, hard enough to smack against the bulkhead. She wiped the tears from her eyes in a quick motion and brushed back her hair.
<br />
<br />She stood up, the smile on her face reminding Lyta not so much of Gabrielle but of Dawn, back when they’d first met in Port Arthur. It was disconcerting. “Thanks. I just came for your advice, not your pity. May I wait for the encryption to finish over there?” She pointed to a spot just beyond the hopper’s gantry, in the open field.
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<br />Lyta stared. She had no idea what to make of Gabrielle’s emotional outburst, nor of the rapid cover-up. Ti would know what to say, or Jonas. Hell, even Doc Chambers would be able to give some insight that might have helped. But Lyta was none of them. She did not have their skills, and no doubt never would. She frowned. “Sure.”
<br />
<br />Gabrielle nodded and strode out of the hopper, Dawn’s expression firmly on her face.
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<br />Lyta sighed as she left, positioning herself on the other side of the bulkhead so she could keep an eye on the NGIS agent. Her fingertips absently traced the seams of the metal. No doubt Gabrielle had not liked what Lyta had to say, no more than Lyta had liked it when she’d been told the same by any number of her friends and allies. Ti, Alain, Ellen, Jonas, and even the Doc… it had all come to the same thing, in the end: you have to choose. And in the act of choosing, you have to give something up, or at least accept that you might give something up if things didn’t turn out the way you wanted. She still loved Lukas; he was her brother. But she’d had to give up the idea of constantly being in his shadow, being at his side, being beholden to his goals, in order to be her own woman. Gabrielle would have to make a similar choice, sooner or later.
<br />
<br />Lyta wasn’t certain what Gabrielle would choose. If she chose to avenge her father, to kill the man who had caused her pain… Lyta frowned as she watched the entryway to the hopper, her weight subconsciously shifting to the balls of her feet. Well, she wouldn’t be the first person who had tried to kill her brothers, and she would probably fare as well as any of the rest of them.
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<br />She sighed and leaned back against the bulkhead. Later. They had at least until tomorrow, until they’d dealt with Layson and the Comptroller, before that became an issue. Parallel goals, Lyta reminded herself, not identical ones. It would have to be good enough for now.
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4824512946694366493.post-5900038520917962582017-02-18T23:16:00.000-05:002017-02-25T15:50:50.672-05:00Wordslingin'Thrilling fights! Hair-raising escapes! Renewed alliances! And a stealth hopper! Oh, yes, mustn’t forget the stealth hopper. The one that we didn’t steal, because it never officially existed in the first place…
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<br /><i>[We pick up with Lukas, Fennec, Radsley, and Gorash in the longrunner that the Emiratis are using as a makeshift holding cell.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “The hatch opens. Well, wait, it’s several hours later.”
<br />Zac: “So we’ve got our booby traps set up?”
<br />Georges the GM: “Sure. What have you trapped?”
<br />Zac: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this hatch.”
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<br /><i>[Keep in mind that things pick up with Lukas et al several hours later.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “We’ll get back to the conversation with Gorash later.”
<br />Zac: “I’ll assume it went badly, so let’s shoot him now.”
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<br /><i>[As the hatch begins to open…]</i>
<br />Brock: “I’ve gone over the escape plan with you guys.”
<br />Zac: “I totally listened.”
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<br /><i>[Combat ensues with the Emiratis, which was inevitable. One of them shoots Fennec, who comes very close to dying. Lukas downs a hostile and takes his gun, returning fire.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “You’ve deep-wounded one of their guys.”
<br />Brock: “I wound but don’t kill?”
<br />Georges the GM: “They’re using low-powered rifles. Otherwise Fennec would be dead.”
<br />Brock: “Fair point.”
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<br /><i>[Fennec attempts to return fire, despite being wounded.]</i>
<br />Zac: “I only botch on a 1, right?”
<br />Brock: “Yes.”
<br />Zac: *rolls 1*
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<br /><i>[Flashback! We return to the conversation between Lukas, Fennec, and Detective Gorash.]</i>
<br />Detective Gorash: “Mr. Shelby turned me onto a Mr. Bhakir.”
<br />Fennec: “Mr. Shelby?”
<br />Detective Gorash: “Todd Shelby.”
<br />Fennec: “Ah. Todd… Shelby.”
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<br /><i>[Gorash discusses what he’s found out about the Emiratis in the camp so far.]</i>
<br />Detective Gorash: “They were involved in a conspiracy to kill a preceptor.”
<br />Ariel: “Which one?”
<br />Julie: “The one that’s dead.”
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<br /><i>[There’s a fair amount of time on the longrunner while waiting for the inevitable combat.]</i>
<br />Lukas: *explains the Bear’s webbling network and the Jezebel project*
<br />Detective Gorash: *incredulous look*
<br />Fennec: “I wanted it to come from him because he’s more believable than me.”
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<br /><i>[More about the Bear’s network.]</i>
<br />Detective Gorash: “That sounds like a very complicated process.”
<br />Ariel: (pointedly) “Yeah, Georges, it does.”
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<br /><i>[A brief but apt description of the Jezebels.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Think of them as super-soldier ninja assassin spy diplomats.”
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<br /><i>[Regarding the conversation that has just happened.]</i>
<br />Julie: “I have never heard Lukas be so clear and forthcoming to anyone, including Fennec.”
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<br /><i>[In discussing who among our leads might be the Comptroller.]</i>
<br />Detective Gorash: “I believe the Comptroller is Preceptor Kalin.”
<br />Lukas: “We believe Kalin was a red herring.”
<br />Julie: “We do?”
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<br /><i>[Lukas and Detective Gorash plan for their escape.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “If we’re gonna take you with us, we’ll require some assurances.”
<br />Detective Gorash: “That seems reasonable.”
<br />Lukas: “That you won’t turn us in.”
<br />Detective Gorash: “Your records have been expunged. So unless you commit any further crimes…”
<br />Lukas: “That will absolutely happen. It’s assured.”
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<br /><i>[More of the same.]</i>
<br />Georges the GM: “He’s trying to figure out whether you guys are gonna kill him.”
<br />Brock: “I’m saying no.”
<br />Julie: “Are you sincere?”
<br />Brock: “As far as he knows.”
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<br /><i>[Meanwhile, Fennec and Gabrielle have been taken on board a stealth hopper. Lyta has arrived just in time to jump inside as it’s lifting off. She sees four soldiers in nondescript uniforms strapping themselves in.]</i>
<br />Ariel: “Now they’re piñatas.”
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<br /><i>[The fight is off to a good start, with Lyta managing to maneuver herself so that two of the soldiers shoot their compatriots with sfika shotguns, taking them out.]</i>
<br />Julie: “I haven’t quite thought past this point.”
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<br /><i>[One of the two remaining soldiers unstraps to go deal with Lyta. Of course, there are also a few other important people on the hopper.]</i>
<br />George the GM: “The pilot has come to his senses and starts pitching and rolling.”
<br />Julie: “It’s okay. I trust my balance more than this guy’s balance.”
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<br /><i>[Lyta has managed to knock out all the soldiers and the co-pilot. Sadly, the pilot is coming down on a nondescript fishing boat off the coast of Thebes and refuses to divert.]</i>
<br />Zac: “If he crashes, he’s responsible for the deaths of all his comrades.”
<br />Julie: “And me.”
<br />Zac: “What would you rather do?”
<br />Julie: “Not die.”
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<br /><i>[Lukas, Fennec, Gorash, and Radsley have escaped the camp, though most of them have been wounded in the process. Also, there are other complications.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “You can’t go back home.”
<br />Detective Gorash: “I haven’t been back to my apartment in a week anyway.”
<br />Lukas: “Yeah, I know.”
<br />Detective Gorash: “…You do?”
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<br /><i>[While making their getaway from the camp…]</i>
<br />Zac: “We should take advantage of this opportunity to hose him down with disinfectant.”
<br />Brock: “The thought had occurred to me.”
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<br /><i>[Lyta manages to get a message out to Lukas about what’s happening and where she is.]</i>
<br />Fennec: “Hey, Gorash, you got a boat? I hear lots of etectives have boats.”
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<br /><i>[Back on the hopper, Lyta has managed to revive Torgath, who in turn revives Gabrielle.]</i>
<br />Torgath: (to Gabrielle, immediately upon waking her up) “Sorry. I didn’t mean it that time either.”
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<br /><i>[Gabrielle takes the pilot seat and assesses the situation.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “Do we have hostages?”
<br />Lyta: “Oh, yeah.”
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<br /><i>[Everyone in the hopper is a little on edge, owing to the half-dozen HIRA troops with assault weapons who have emerged on the deck of the fishing boat.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “I assume you’ve come up with a plan while I was out.”
<br />Lyta: “You weren’t out that long, and I spent most of that time making sure the six hostages were hostages and not hostiles.”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “You could have just said no.”
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<br /><i>[Gabrielle pilots the stealth hopper away from the HIRA fishing boat.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “Perhaps we do not really want to rid ourselves of this materiel.”
<br />Ariel: (to Brock) “See, she <b>is</b> trying to get herself into your heart.”
<br />Brock: “If she gives me a stealth hopper, I forgive her.”
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<br /><i>[Gabrielle is still not certain of her status with the PCs.]</i>
<br />Lyta; “If you don’t wanna work with us, you can land the hopper and leave.”
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “Or Lukas can shoot me.”
<br />Lyta: “…”
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<br /><i>[The PCs reconvene with their new friends and their new toys.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “So, stealth hopper. How are we gonna get this out of the Alliance?”
<br />Fennec: “Stealth. Hopper.”
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<br /><i>[Lukas has a particular set of priorities.]</i>
<br />Detective Gorash: “What… What are we doing here?”
<br />Brock: “I start unloading guns.”
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<br /><i>[The two sets of PCs meet up with their respective allies.]</i>
<br />Lyta: (to Detective Gorash) “I take it that since you’re alive and in my brother’s company that you’re on our side?”
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<br /><i>[Torgath obviously has a new alias.]</i>
<br />Detective Gorash: “So, Tony Sandoval? T.S.?”
<br />Ariel: “The last three names I’ve used have been T.S.”
<br />Georges the GM: “Gorash picks up on that sort of thing.”
<br />Zac: “Son of a…”
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<br /><i>[Gorash checks out our stealth hopper.]</i>
<br />Detective Gorash: “I assume this is stolen property?”
<br />Lyta: “I’m gonna guess that if you look in the official record, it doesn’t exist.”
<br />Detective Gorash: “That’s an excellent point. On that technicality, I guess it’s not stolen property.”
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<br /><i>[Gabrielle and Lukas meet again.]</i>
<br />Gabrielle Summers: “I believe I made the situation more complicated than it needed to be.”
<br />Lukas: “I’ll just add that to the book of grudges.”
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<br /><i>[Lukas on the topic of Gabrielle.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “I trust her because she hates me.”
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<br /><i>[Torgath on the topic of Gabrielle.]</i>
<br />Torgath: “I probably shouldn’t let her get near me with a knife again. She might stab herself. Again.”
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<br /><i>[Lukas isn’t letting any of our NPC allies on their own.]</i>
<br />Brock: “Chaperones for everyone now. These are the most least-trustworthy people we’ve had on the team.”
<br />
<br /><i>[Back to business. We start making plans to kidnap Preceptor Layson the next morning.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “There are two ways to do this. One is subtle, one is awesome.”
<br />Torgath: “Does it involve a stealth hopper?”
<br />Lukas: “Yes.”
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<br /><i>[We have to decide what to do with Layson.]</i>
<br />Okran Radsley: “Once we have him, how do we turn or intimidate him?”
<br />Lukas: “Well, that’s more your job. Wood chipper?”
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<br /><i>[More planning.]</i>
<br />Lukas: “Remember that HIRA is… discreet.”
<br />Fennec: “And your plan is to be so indiscreet as to force their hand?”
<br />
<br /><i>[As the session winds down…]</i>
<br />Ariel: “Do you regret giving us a stealth hopper?”
<br />Georges the GM: “No, I think it’s awesome.”
<br />Zac: “How often will we really use this?”
<br />Brock: “Every day.”
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<br /><i>[One final thought on the matter at hand.]</i>
<br />Zac: “Ooh, what are we gonna name the hopper?”
<br />Lukas: “<i>The Bounty</i>, of course.”
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Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game
<!--End-->Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02605546292851678763noreply@blogger.com0