9/4
MIKE
I would love to kick off with the Clampers. I put Archie and Mitch in the scene when they originally met with them, way back after session after Mission Two. Both of them were there the second time, Archie had the private invitation to become a provisionary member of the Clampers. Of course we haven't done a lot with them since then.
Archie's been busy. He gets this letter, postmarked the day that the Bohemian Club fire broke out and the bank robbery happened. It's time to shit or get off the pot. The invitation came from Swede's, so Archie figures that's the place to go looking for these folks.
ROB
Yes. Actually before we before we dive into that…this is really just color, I could have done this on the chat…we were talking earlier about a meme to counteract the meme in the poetry, the "Wine of Wizardry" meme, something to give to Roger and maybe to Patty Hearst. I think Sophie was working on it?
You can't really add a meme to something that's already written, but what jumped into my mind was "I never saw a purple cow, I never hoped to see one," a silly little nonsense rhyme that has a color theme, it gets in your head and it punctures the kind of Dunsanyian profundity, the verbosity of the Sterling poem, and brings fantasy crashing down to Earth.
BILL
That's a really good idea.
MIKE
What about a lost verse that never appeared before?
ROB
Something like that.
MIKE
Fake it, mock it up, and slide it in…
BILL
Funny thing is, isn't that what the Devil's Dictionary was doing?
MIKE
Yeah. Everybody involved with that group, the Bohemian crowd, there's so many hints of them knowing memetics. I had to kind of go with it. The Devil's Dictionary is all little bite-sized memorable setup-punchline oneliners. And of course "the Purple Cow" was written by Gelett Burgess, who coined the word blurb (as close to a meme as you're going to get in 1900 or whatever). That's great.
Given that there's this issue of Cosmo that Jocasta is been holding onto, we could very easily mock up a fake page. Artificially age it, slip it in there, and the next time Patty/Tania/Fancy goes to religiously read "Wine of Wizardry" to reinforce her memetics it could jump on her. We'll put that under the Preparedness roll for the trip down to LA. I'm getting to the point now where I'm just eyeballing Preparedness, like they do in GUMSHOE. If there's something you need to pull out of your ass at any point in the campaign from here onwards…I mean Serendipity obviously is something we have and a mechanic we can use but if it's more reasonable than that we can we can definitely say that we've made the effort to make it or make contact with a person or whatever.
I described Swede's before, the first time Archie went. It's a Merchant Marine bar but the reason why the Clampers love it is, because it's so old. It dates back not just to the 49ers but even before then. There was a watering hole on this spot… we're not going to say the word "cliomantic" but it's charged up with history-of-San-Francisco energy. It's very easily missed: it's in the Mission District, it's a little dive bar, and a little building. It was built after the earthquake so it's post-San-Francisco-ontoclysm, is one way to put it.
Richie is the only person Archie has dealt with from the Clampers, and he was the Noble Grand Humbug of the Year, Buena Yerba Chapter Number One, when Archie talked to him but it's been a few months.
When Archie and Mitch—again Jeff, I'm assuming…I want to get you involved in this. You've got some history, they know you as the dotty Professor Hearst who was interested in Emperor Norton… Two of you enter the bar. Mitch's aura sight is always up… there's a bartender, there's a few tables with a couple of people at them…all-male clientele. John Richie is sitting there nearer to the door and there's a couple people at the bar as well. John Richie gets up, shakes both Archie and Mitch's hands, so all the auras in the room…Mitch, they all look pretty normal. Richie's emotional tenor is very different from the first time you met him, back at Cliff House. He's less overly enthusiastic, doing the sell job for ECV, and he's more a little more reserved, but he's still very happy to see Archie.
"It's been ages, please come sit down, I have some news to share with you before we get started…I'm holding you to your promise, Arch." He reaches underneath the table takes out a paper-wrapped package. "In here is the 'Pisco punch' plaque that was put up in the 30s. Now, I'm giving it to you now as a provisional Clamper who will be, Creator willing, a permanent brother of the order. I'm entrusting this with you, if you've got your connections at the Trans America pyramid. This is the plaque we want to see up there."
ROB
Through body language: it's okay for him to open it, though, right? Archie wants—
MIKE
Oh, yeah. Sure. I'm so glad that you did because I actually have it right here.
JEFF
While he's opening it it seems like a good time for me to do an active scan with Detect History B.
MIKE
Yes, go right ahead.
ROB
…'humani generis,' heh.
MIKE
There's nothing they love more than a little bit of Latin to class things up on their plaques.
ROB
Archie laughs. "This is swell!" He did say, ages ago, that he would get it put up.
[JEFF rolls dice, they're successes.]
MIKE
Those are all passes, activation and analysis if necessary…
JEFF
Low margin of success on the analysis, if that's relevant.
MIKE
There is no History B Energy in Swede's, at the moment. Neither is there any on the plaque. This house is clean.
Richie says, "I wanted to give you a little bit of news. I'm going to be stepping down as the Yerba Buena head. I had my two-year term, I'm happy with it, but I wanted to introduce you to my successor." He very dramatically points over to the bar, one of those gentlemen sitting, who had a perfectly normal aura, the man on cue whirls around on his bar stool. He is an older gentleman in his 60s and as both Mitch and Archie get a good look at his face, they see he looks very much like a slightly older version of the Comte St.Germain.
He walks over to the table. History-B is not going off. His aura is normal. Not even sparkles of psychic ability. He comes over, he's got a little stouter frame than the Comte does. And he's solid, he's like a human being. "Archie Ransom, Professor Hearst, I'm George Washington. Now usually I'd say something witty right now, like 'no relation; but I actually am a relation." He's smiling to himself. "Please, let's have a seat. Maybe a round of Pisco punch for everyone? Archie, yours virgin?"
ROB
What are they supposed to say… "uh, yes, if I cannot imbibe I will pass to my brother on the right," which would be Mitch, I guess.
MIKE
This guy looks like the Comte St. Germain, and his name is George Washington, and he's related to George Washington. He gives you a quick backstory: "I'm actually not even American. I was born in Saskatchewan. My family… I've got the last name, so as you can tell history is something I take very seriously."
ROB
"And you cannot tell a lie?"
MIKE
"Not with you two, no. I have a feeling that would be the wrong thing to do, since you are indeed to become a brother of the order. And Professor Hearst, who knows? maybe after today you might be interested in such a membership as well."
[JEFF rolls to control Mitch's involuntary pyrokinesis.]
JEFF
"I'm just here for the punch, man. Thank you, though."
MIKE
"We should probably get down to business and talk a little bit about what happened on Monday."
ROB
He's not leading into it? Okay.
MIKE
What happens at this point is, Ritchie gets up, and he goes to the back of the of the barroom, leaving you two with George. He knows this is Grand Noble Humbug business right now.
ROB
Okay.
MIKE
The other thing that Washington explains is that he is not just going to be taking over Yerba Buena this year, but he is the Supreme Noble Grand Humbug, which is the head of the 'Council of Clamptriarchs.' "It's complicated," he says in a semi-mocking way, but…
ROB
Besides looking like the Comte, and also… Archie is looking to Mitch for any sign of horror, or History B?
MIKE
We're not getting hot, that's a good thing, right?
ROB
Yeah, but Archie only knows that if Mitch signals him somehow. How's this guy dressed? Is he dressed normal?
MIKE
He's in his 60s and he's dressed pretty casually, actually. He's balding and you can really see the similarity with Washington (and the Comte) most clearly around the nose. If the two of you do betray that you're looking closely at him…he'll say "you probably see him on the dollar bill every day, you probably see a little bit of him in me. I totally understand. I definitely have gotten people to note the resemblance before.
"I was really looking forward to speaking with the two of you, because of what happened at the Bohemian Club. We, the Council, thought it would be valuable to reach out to the two of you. The first thing we should say is, we now know that everyone remembers the Emperor. We had only found fragmentary records, and then in August [1973] one of our researchers was in the library and found a reference to Emperor Norton that had not been there before."
ROB
"I remember when we had lunch with John at the Cliff House…it must have been last summer. He had the plaque and the article, and I confess I hadn't heard of the Emperor then or didn't remember knowing about him at the time, but it does seem like he's turning up all over. Or maybe not 'all over,' but not nearly as forgotten as he once was…"
MIKE
"But John told me," he points to Mitch, "that you had remembered him."
JEFF
"Well, did I not mention, I'm a professor?"
ROB
"Professor Hort is an expert."
JEFF
"Love that you just said Professor Hort, Archie."
[Mitch, Archie, George all laugh. It's not clear George quite gets the joke.]
MIKE (continuing as George)
"Well, that's the other thing, is that I'm sitting here talking about not being a relation to Washington, but Professor Hearst I have to imagine that if you are indeed related to the illustrious family, that these recent events have been, um, difficult for you, but…"
JEFF
"Oh, no, no relation. My Dad changed the family name, decades ago. It used to be the Von Brauns."
MIKE
"Probably wise," George Washington says to himself. "I appreciate the jollity, and I appreciate… The reason we wanted to bring you here is to exchange information. We know that anything like what happened at the Bohemian Club on Monday is something that we have to keep a very watchful eye on. We would like to exchange information… Archie, we're not the Masons, you know. We don't have rules about what you have to keep secret, quite the contrary. We want people to believe in all kinds of histories, and all kinds of stories. All kinds.
"So when we saw that the Emperor Norton had come back, 'from the void' shall we say… We knew it was worth reaching out to the two of you again to find out what you can tell us about that. So if you can, tell us what you know about how that happened, and we will be more than happy to share with you about what happened at the Bohemian Club."
ROB
"So you're familiar with this phenomenon of…sometimes people remember things that they didn't used to remember? This doesn't seem to have thrown you."
JEFF
"Is there some kind of action that you can, or that someone should, take in response to such a thing happening?"
MIKE
"Those are both very good questions, and in order to explain how we and the Clampers interweave with both of them, it's probably necessary for me to tell you the story of Carl Wheat, who was our first Sublime Grand Noble Humbug, and the man who brought ECV back from its nonexistence after the Gold Rush and the Wild West.
"Carl was a cartographer, a very good historical cartographer, and he spent a lot of time working on old land claims, as part of a municipal job. He spent a couple of years at the FCC. I think he was there when the Orson Wells War of the Worlds hoax happened. That opened his eyes a little but it wasn't until he joined the Bohemian Club that he really began to get a glimpse of what lay behind the curtain of history, and the Bohemians killed him for it.
"He was at the Grove Hijinx in '66, he got very sick very suddenly and they evacuated him from the Grove, and he died a few days later. He told those of us who were close to him at the time, he believed the Bohemians were behind it, and then he told us the rest.
"He didn't have a lot of time to leave us with a last will and testament, as far as how we were to continue and carry on E Clampus Vitus, but he ended with credo quia absurdum. He said we had to get people to believe all kinds of things, because it was the only way to loosen the stranglehold that the Bohemians have over the world.
"Archie, MJ, I know in my heart the two of you are not involved in the Bohemian Club. But I don't know what you are involved with. I have more to tell you, but I need to know how you brought the Emperor Norton back."
ROB
"George, that's…quite a story. Golly. We are definitely not members of the Bohemian Club, or part of the Bohemians. One of the things I was curious about today was, just what history the Clampers have with the Bohemians.. going back to old California days.
"What can we tell you? What you say, about people believing lots of different histories, believing things because they're absurd…I think that we want people to be free to believe. We want people to be free in their beliefs. I definitely think we have some common purpose. You'll forgive us if we have to be a little cagey, but the work we do…"
MIKE
"I can give you two gentlemen some time to speak with each other, if you'd like. It might be foolish of us to trust, given the history of our organization, but there are certain of us who can sense when…historical events are starting to take on a life of their own. When things are starting to accelerate toward a change. I feel we're in one of those moments right now, with what is happening with Randy Hearst's daughter, with what happened at the Bohemian Club, because we know that room was the room that George Sterling died in. Sterling, his crew…we're experts on the Montgomery block, as you can see here." He points to the Pisco punch. "We know all the members of that crowd backwards and forwards. We know they got up to something. We know that they were also able to believe the impossible. Anyway if the two of you do need a few moments to speak, John and I can give you as much privacy as you need.
"I understand this is an unexpected offer, and an unexpected parlay, but if you need some time we'll go outside and…well, I'll have a smoke. John's not going to do that."
ROB
"Okay."
MIKE
They're leaving you in the bar, with everybody else.
ROB
We're not completely private.
MIKE
You have Danbe…
ROB
Yeah.
JEFF
Just to confirm: these seem to be normal people?
MIKE
Absolutely normal. They've got souls, they've got auras…human auras. No possession.
JEFF
No memetic possession?
MIKE
No memetic possession, no History-B on any of them, no indigo aura glow of psychic power. George Washington's aura… I don't want to say that there's a regal lineage of America or that Mitch would be able to see something like that in someone's aura, but he's got a commanding aura, you know what I mean? Some Charisma, capital-c GURPS charisma…
ROB
And he also looks like the Comte?
MIKE
He also looks like the Comte.
ROB
It never occurred to me that George Washington looked like the Comte. Does George Washington look like the Comte?
MIKE
Not really, but if you put the Saskatchewan George Washington between them, that might be the missing link, let's say, between the two of them. You guys both have Occultism, roll that.
ROB
Gonna ask the guy if he changed his name from Weisshaupt. I made my Occultism roll.
MIKE
Well—let's see who makes it, if both of your know the old story—
BILL
Literally trying to figure out how to spell Weisshaupt in the comments. 'Other people who look like George Washington,' hm.
MIKE
Something weird happened at the creation of the Stars and Stripes, when—you guys probably have a line on that, given that you had to deal with Elizabeth Claire Prophet and her wacky…
[ROB and JEFF both roll successful Occultism checks]
MIKE
You both make it, okay.
ROB
We have a hurried conversation. First, do we trust this guy? Is he the Comte? He seems on the level…?
JEFF
"If he's the Comte he's come up with a dramatic new way to cloak himself from my sensory abilities, which is hardly impossible. What seems suspect to me about this is, they reached out to…they kept saying the two of us. You and me. There's no reason for them to be interested in me. They don't know who I am. I'm just some guy, that you introduced me, with the last name."
ROB
"We came to the Cliff House, asked a bunch of questions about Emperor Norton specifically, you knew about Norton, and then a few months later everybody knew about Norton. It seems like they might know more than that, but that's what they would definitely know."
JEFF
"Yeah, but but they're not making a connection there. They're not saying, 'oh that one guy remembered Norton, that was when…' They're saying, 'this in August.'"
MIKE
You guys met with them before Mission Four. The Cliff House was after Mission Two.
JEFF
Right. Their timeline as to Norton's resurgence happens after Mission Four, not after Mission Two when they met me, 'the guy who remembered Norton.'
ROB
Yes. "I take it that they detected you somehow, beyond…it's not just that we came to the Cliff House. They've noticed us or [pause, meaning URIEL] through other means. So there's something going on."
JEFF
"And it's completely opaque to any of the usual nonsense churning through my brain."
MIKE
I will say that, given that you've got the Ara Sight, Detect Lies, everything else, he seems really sincere. He's nervous, that can come across both from Aura Sight and from Archie's social skills.
ROB
"We play this out, certainly, we got to see. The next question is what do we tell them? What do we tell about us?"
JEFF
"Well, what's the most boiled-down version of it? There was an event. We were investigating it. At the climax of it, we had the opportunity to make a change, and I opted for Norton when I had an opportunity to do. That's super vague."
ROB
"It's super vague, yeah. It highlights that you're 'special,' but they seem to already know that."
JEFF
"It suggests we're people who investigate stuff."
ROB
"Do we tell them what we do, who we are? Do we just say we're the Corporation for Healthy Media?"
JEFF
"I run a school."
ROB
"You run a school. Okay. I think we play it out and we don't go further than that with the story."
JEFF
"What if you do the talking and you don't specify who it was, that made the Norton choice. I don't know if that helps."
ROB
"Yeah."
JEFF
"This seems like more your crowd."
MIKE
George comes back in and sits down. If you want to just say that's what you told him…
ROB
Yeah, a short version of that. We're vague about who we work for. Archie does mention the Corporation for Healthy Media, in the way that one does when he knows and we know that there's more to it than that.
MIKE
As he hears about an investigation event and Norton springing out of that, George says, "That ties in pretty similarly, and parallel, to what we suspect about the Bohemian Club. We're scrabbling around in a dark room, but it seems clear from the investigations that we did after Carl passed away… There was some sort of power struggle. Moreover, that the the glimpses of the worlds that men like Sterling and Bierce and London and Martinez created… that there was something incredibly compelling about it, that let it stick around in a way, much like the odd memory of Norton. Or the odd article in a newspaper that seems connected to other articles, but they can't be found anywhere. They seem like…. the way Carl tried to explain it to us in his delirium, he used maps to explain it. He said that in erasing a map and the borders on it and the railroad tracks and the caves and everything else, and sketching something new in that, you could actually create those new things on the map… It sounded at the time like madness, but he knew more than he told us. He had learned more in his years among the Bohemians.
"I may have erred a little bit in saying that we don't take secrets seriously in E Clampus Vitus, but the idea that there are things left over, and that the crowd lost this conflict… that we live in a world where…
"It's like the scene in Through the Looking Glass. Alice asks why the king is sleeping, and he says why you're only a sort of thing in his dream."
This is incredibly close to a SANDMAN sign and countersign but it's not quite right. It's not precisely it, but he's using that literary reference.
"You know, I wonder to myself whether the Clampers being reborn was part of some… leftover from that 'map.'"
ROB
Archie talks in generalities a little bit. "We see it sometimes… we sometimes talk about 'earthquakes' and, of course, this is a city of earthquakes. Sometimes when one tectonic plate is submerged, another rises up… sometimes things from the 'deep past; can be heaved onto the surface again. Remnants, these odd artifacts that are out of place… not a literal earthquake but an earthquake of memory."
JEFF
Mitch is nodding like this makes perfect sense.
MIKE
"Do you reckon the reason why Carl was so adamant that we spread these plaques in these stories was because… well, maybe I'm asking you: why? We've done it because we love California history, because we believe that this place in the world is important."
JEFF
"Right on."
MIKE
"Things that are done here have have an impact that go far beyond…but again there are certain numbers of us who think that the only reason for that is the Bohemian Club. There are two factions in our group, as among the the Clamptriarchs, anyway."
ROB
"It's circular: the Bohemians are the Bohemians, here, because of what happened. They call themselves the Bohemians as they're descendants, in a way, of the original group. The thing about your different factions…I think you know London and Bierce and Sterling, in their circle, maybe they weren't too careful about who their friends were and who they led into their Club…
"But the other thing, I'm all for. We're all for this idea of lots of histories, of letting people believe what they want to believe. The plaques are part of that, showing people that the world is freer and stranger.
"But George, it can be dangerous to play around with this stuff. I think the way that Sterling—"
MIKE
"You don't have to tell me. My friend died." He gets choked up. "Sorry. We've already paid a price."
ROB
"I's not just that they ran afoul of Herbert Hoover and Henry Kissinger…"
MIKE
He'll chuckle at that.
ROB
They're both Bohemians. "Sometimes you play around with this stuff, you let things in."
MIKE
"Well, that gets us to the other question that we had for you: the reason this is the world that emerged from that change, the one that left the Bohemians in charge? Being captains of industry and government and everything else, what was so dangerous about what Sterling and his folks had dreamed, that made them make this world? That's something we also don't have a good handle on. I think you'd have to agree that given the fact that we know these are the people who are in control and have been since 1906… why?
"Why do they have such a firm grasp on all of these levers? Is it just the thrill of power, or is there something where the the crowd was a danger?"
ROB
I'm trying to think back to the the memetic analysis Archie did, which did suggest that there was something, right? The world of Fancy was tainted, the Kings were in it from the start. It was tainted from the start somehow.
MIKE
Yeah. The equation had a leftover [term] there and that leftover is History-B. He only brought this up because you brought up danger. They're seeing like 70 to 80% of the situation, but they can only cloak it in the ontological and linguistic jargon that they have, which has to do with history.
ROB
Right. "George, I'm really glad that we've met you and that we've made this contact. I thinkwe can help each other but I hope that you will trust me when I say that you're better off not knowing that last piece. Knowing the last peice is the problem."
MIKE
I'm actually gonna have you make a roll here…it might be kind of weird…roll Hidden Lore (History-B), but with your social bonuses… that starts with an 18, and then I would throw in reaction modifiers…Stony is not talking…so it'll be a 21.
BRANT
For context, we still have our understanding of History-A and History-B, Red Kings, SANDMAN, the Ontoclysm, all that. Now there is also this group, we're calling them the Bohemians, who attempted to manufacture their own ontoclysm in, like, the Gilded Age? And they succeeded to a degree, but then fail.
MIKE
Yes.
BRANT
And that is where I'm lost, vis-a-vie this brotherhood and how they know about these things.
MIKE
What happened is, Carl was able to ascend to a level of the Bohemian Club where these things were talked about openly. And the ECV has only a little glimpse of what that entails, because he was poisoned or something along those lines, at the Bohemian Grove. He was dying and really only talking in riddles, but that's what they know.
BRANT
So he knew through oral tradition, basically? Something like the "ontological wreckage" theory of reality, and one of his friends went to the Bohemian Club? The same Bohemian Club that we are involved in? And he was killed, and is he implying that this current "Bohemian Club" is related to the "Bohemians" who manufactured their own ontoclysm? Is that what he's implying?
MIKE
What we've discovered through memetics and through Bierce (and through a couple of other venues) is that they were all, at one point. just all "Bohemians." There was a group of Bohemians who all hung around Copas and created art. In 1906, their version, their original version, there was no earthquake. They kept on pouring on the memetics: they turned the world into a world full of genies and gnomes and whatever else they they were trying to create with their artistic ethos. Then at some point the Serpent snuck into the garden, and that Serpent was History-B. The implication is that some faction of those Bohemians rewound us back to 1906. That's the prevailing theory.
ROB
The Bohemians that are in charge, the Owl Bohemians—
MIKE
They wrote themselves in as the winners of the story.
ROB
Right. They're like a splinter. They broke off from, or betrayed, the Artsy Bohemians.
BRANT
Okay. The other thing I'm a little confused by is, am I getting the implication that the members of the Bohemian Club in 1974 are the actual living Bohemians who manufactured the ontoclysm in 1906? Could one of them conceivably be alive in 1974?
ROB
There might be…someone could still be alive sixty, seventy years…
MIKE
They'd be very old. Whether the sort of power structure… see, that's the thing. We just don't know enough about the Bohemian Club and how it operates. We know rumors: they started off as an artsy club and then the businessmen came in and co-opted all of their nature rituals and everything else, and turned it into something else.
BRANT
So this is the remnant of a splinter faction of the old Bohemians.
MIKE
The idea of the Bohemian Club is, like a pragmaclast, but not one from History-B, but from History-Bohemia.
BILL
The only other question is, why engender the Clampers to go out and do these things to actually fight the remnant of the Bohemians… They might take us back to their History-Bohemia? Or is it just 'oh my God, we made a horrible mistake, someone has to follow after us and clean this mess up'? Or is it just another cargo cult?
ROB
My sense was, the Clampers, through vernacular sources, had figured out half of this stuff… I was about to make a roll?
MIKE
Yeah, it's at 21. Hidden Lore (History B), you actually can't use Corruption on the roll.
[ROB rolls a successful check with reaction modifiers.]
MIKE
Nice. This is basically just you trying to warn them off wanting too much out of this. I think that bounces off of what Bill was asking. I know Roger obviously isn't here. The hive mind of the Club kind of you know acts to inform us. Archie probably would think of it like a cargo cult. Maybe they were part of the Bohemian split, and echoed into this universe this way. They know that like… it's like a TV show where the same actors are playing different roles. The Owl Bohemians that took over ended up controlling business and industry and the military and everything else. The Artsy Bohemians are only remembered, or half-remembered. People aren't reading George Sterling poems. They're still reading Jack London and Ambrose Bierce, I guess, but there's a reason why they lasted and the others faded into obscurity.
ECV, they know the big names, they know the players, they have a hunch something is up, or something was up before they met with you guys.
ROB
Archie, to the extent that he can inoculate them: yes, we're on the same team, but I don't want to talk about that. You don't want to know the other part of it.
BILL
By SANDMAN rules, if you don't roll them up do you have to destroy them?
MIKE
Well, we're thinking differently now. He's still offering you both membership in the ECV.
ROB
Archie is interested in joining.
MIKE
What that would give you access to, more of what they have cobbled together, their libraries scattered across California. I wanted to give this to you as an option. As Bill said, rolling them up in some different way than what SANDMAN would usually have done, which would be to co-opt them and sand them down to make them safe. What can they get up to if they don't have memetics, with these plaques? Not much. It's pissing in a rainstorm, not up to the task.
ROB
One question is, are they in danger? Do the Bohemians know who ECV are?
MIKE
When they killed Carl, they didn't disband the ECV. The year after they killed Carl there was a drunken shooting at one of the ECV events, and one of the ECV members killed one of the others. They probably think of them as drunks,
ROB
They seem harmless, yeah. If there are too many plaques, they might get into trouble…
BILL
They cut the head off the beast when they killed Carl. Now they know too little to be dangerous.
MIKE
Yeah.
JEFF
Do the Clampers have a Redding or Shasta chapter?
MIKE
At this time in history? I will check that out, I'm guessing very likely there is one in Northern California, close to Shasta. If there's not, maybe we can start one.
So that's really all I had for this scene.
Carl Wheat is dead, but we can try to talk to him. We have more tools in our toolbelt now.
ROB
Archie, certainly. Up to Mitch what he wants to do, but Archie will continue with the procedure of joining.
JEFF
Sure, why not?
MIKE
Let's move on to Merrick calling Marshall back. Merrick went down on Wednesday night. He was supposed to meet with Jolly on Thursday, that was yesterday. Marshall has not heard from him. He would have assumed that Merrick would have given him a call on Thursday night…on Friday afternoon Marshall does get the call from Merrick, a priority sent from Venture Toons up to Kearny Street .
BRANT
Okay.
MIKE
"Doctor, I'm sorry I didn't get in touch yesterday. I wanted to keep my powder dry, after my initial interview with Dr West. Let me give you the layout the human terrain, as it were. He was very evasive… I read your readout of your call with him on Monday and he didn't give me much more than that. I tried to press him for more information on DeFreeze, just so we had it for our operation. It seemed to be the best way to get into things.
"He gave me the basics: he said that DeFreeze has a history of petty crime: drug and gun offenses. He is a family man, a frustrated family man, who in the late 60s found himself on the wrong end of a whole bunch of deals. He was an LAPD snitch, DeFreeze was, so this must be where his relationship with law enforcement started: sweet parole deals from the DA down in LA because he was giving information on petty drug and gun crimes. By 1969 he had surpassed his previous activities and actually used his weapon in the course of an attempted bank robbery. DeFreeze got shot, got sent to Vacaville. West said that he was one of many test subjects that were part of the program that the agency was running up in Vacaville at the prison. West said that's where Westbrook came in: the idea was that they would use drugs and conditioning to bring career criminals around to be reintegrated into society. Just standard bleeding-edge CIA Phoenix Program stuff.
"Westbrook has this "Black pride" thing. He tried to instill DeFreeze with that set of memetics, so West told me. His working theory is that the seven-headed serpent and all of the SLA garbage—not the Maoism but the possibly-tainted stuff—he thinks that came from one of the Maoist kids, one of the Peking Garden ones.
"The whole time I could tell he was obfuscating. Lying, being very evasive. He gave me these little drips and drabs of information, so I said I would want to have a follow-up interview today. He said he was going out of town—speaking engagement, he said, for law enforcement. He didn't give me any more details. Today I went back to his office and hypnotized his secretary so I could check out his files. I didn't buy any of his story, so I wanted to get more information. I've got some documents that I Xeroxed… I felt a little bit like Daniel Ellsberg… I'm going to fax them up to you, because my particular expertise doesn't stretch to the stuff I found in the files. I've put it into three quick bullet points, for your perusal.
"One. The 'violence center' that West has been planning, the one that the 'uproar' ended up scuttling? West envisioned it not as a reconditioning center but actually a data processing clearinghouse. He would bring people in, interview them, quantify them, and use the math to basically compile a huge database of Black crime, or American crime. I've got some of the documents here and…and this is where I can't help. He's got computers working on this stuff and there's a lot of technical jargon in here I don't understand. I'll fax this all up to you, like I said. Some elements are as esmological, but most of them have to do with using computers to, uh, 'predict crime.'
"Two. He was obfuscating on who worked on these volunteers up in Vacaville. He said drugs and conditioning were involved. He's brought two…this was in the the underground press, though they didn't get it quite right…he brought on two Boston-based psychesurgeons to work on these volunteers up in Vacaville. Their names are Vernon Mark and Frank Irvin, they've written books. I'll send you all the bibliographical information and you can check it out. Jolly brought Irvin out to UCLA in '72 so he's in town…
"Three. I went through his correspondence. Jolly is very good friends with three men who have promised to save his program if the feds cut funding. Do you want to guess who those three men are?"
BRANT
"No. Tell me."
MIKE
"Ronald Reagan, Reagan's Chief of Staff Ed Meese, and the California Health and Welfare California secretary Earl Brian. All three of these men want to use the 'violence center' in California, avoid all federal entanglements. It's clear from these letters that they are willing to do this secretly. They really believe that he can reprogram Black criminals…"
BRANT
"That West can do that? Jolly?"
MIKE
"Yeah, Jolly West, and his team of psychesurgeons and what have you…"
BRANT
"Could you tell, from what you saw, to what degree this was financed by the Project?"
MIKE
"The computer equipment alone would have to be Project-supplied, right? I don't know enough about computers to talk about this in any real way but…it must be some sort of advanced technology. When he told you he wasn't doing this for CWG or for the Project, I think it may have seemed like the truth to him. But he's skated through the last twenty years of his career getting funding from the federal government in every possible way. The Agency certainly could have been used as a cutout to supply the funding for all this stuff, but…West is, or at least up to now, a Sandman. He knows what it takes to be able to requisition and request material."
BRANT
"So…"
MIKE
"My question is, why was he hiding the psychesurgery? We're obviously both Sandmen—I'm familiar with brain hacking. I know what it involves. Why leave that out? That seems to me to be the salient element of his obfuscation."
BRANT
"But also, why isn't he concerned that what's happening with the Hearst girl will get back to him?"
MIKE
"He's really not, is he? You should get somebody with some technical expertise to look at these documents. I'm going to telefax them up. In there may be some of the answers, because if the computer technology is somehow working with the psychesurgery we could be…looking at something, here. You know what I mean?"
Of course that get Marshall thinking about Operation WISHING WELL, and about the chip in Charley's head, and all of the advanced CWG stuff that was happening before we broke them up.
BRANT
Right, right.
MIKE
This also gives you a lot of information for when Jocasta and Roger are driving DeFreeze and Patty, and the rest of the SLA, down to LA.
BRANT
I'm trying to decide whether to send Merrick to tail Jolly West wherever he's going, but I'm wondering if that's a misuse of resources. Merrick might be better used…
MIKE
He went right to the file, so he didn't check the secretary's calendar. This is one of those situations where, he's not… he's a field agent, but not really for this kind of stuff. He's not a black bagger.
BRANT
He could follow a guy to an airport.
MIKE
Sure, yeah. He could definitely get that information if needed. You can always call him back.
BRANT
No, I'll…
"Nice work, Merrick, nice work. Get back here. Things are getting complicated and we're going to need to be working round the clock for the next 48 hours."
MIKE
"You want me to come back up to the Bay?"
BRANT
"Yeah. You come back. Good work."
MIKE
"What about Crane? Should he just stay down here? He's in the other room. I'm not sure…" [MIKE laughs] Merrick's not chuckling, I am.
BRANT
"Don't worry about Crane. That's Archie's pet. Just make sure that there's food and water left out for him, he'll be fine."
MIKE
He will laugh at that. "Okay."
ROB
Why didn't Jocasta do for Jolly West when she was on her wetwork tour? Did Archie tell her not to?
MIKE
He was in the medium tier of CWG. I looked this up—he wasn't like like Puharich or Geller or any of the others we wanted to get rid of.
BRANT
There's also the sheer…Marshall would have counseled Jocosta to pace things out. We couldn't literally in the span of four months kill a hundred high-ranking Sandmen.
MIKE
We did say that she leaked all this information to the underground press.
BRANT
I would think that Jocasta has taking some of them out, but it's a long list and she's got to prioritize. Only so many hours in a day.
MIKE
That's true.
BILL
I believe other people were also making arguments at the time, when everyone was 'let's just kill all these people,' to say, 'isn't that thinking the old way?'
BRANT
Right, right, right.
BILL
Also, Operation PAPERCLIP kind of options were tantalizing…although apparently this one was a mistake.
MIKE
Yes, that's true, actually. There is a…
LEONARD
Gosh I wonder if there was a scene that people could read where Jocasta paid Jolly West a visit
MIKE
Leonard, I'm in the middle of running the session right now—I can't remember where that is, whether it's in DMs or somewhere else…but we should probably post that at some point. Be fun for everybody to check out.
BRANT
So, real quick…
MIKE
The motel, yeah, and Roger.
BRANT
This is an operation that's happening, so Marshall wants people out there in the offices. He wants Sophie at her desk, everyone ready to go. We have people on the phone, we have cars ready to scramble, the whole nine yards. We're really covering all our bases on this. Consider all of our NPCs and assets on high alert.
MIKE
Okay, good.
Tell me how you want to set up this pickup. It makes sense to rent one room at that motel, take some photos, surveil them as they get into these three vans to head down south. You guys got to tell me who you want at the motel. This is going to happen at 11 p.m. on Friday. Whatever materials you're going to need, just consider them there. But you guys got to tell me, what you want to do and who wants to be there…?
Obviously Roger is coming in with one of the vans, and given the details that Jocasta has gotten, they're going to use three vans to get down there. I had suggested that Jo drive the Patty van, and that Roger drive the DeFreeze van, and that we have for the third… you requested a commando with a counterculture appearance to drive the third van. Still has some important people in it, but not the the Patty-DeFreeze axis.
BILL
We should distinguish who's undercover and who's not undercover. They're just watching and and monitoring…try to keep the undercover people to extremely small numbers. I know that is a little dangerous, but it means less possibility of leaking. When you talk about a commando who 'has a countercultural look,' he has to also be able to pull off some acting. A ruse so he doesn't just immediately blow it over the several hours' drive.
MIKE
I've never actually defined anybody like that in your commando group, but we can certainly requisition someone like that. Shouldn't be a problem at this point…
I'm envisioning Roger showing up first, picking up DeFreeze and…sorry, I have to remind myself who's in the other two seats of the van… Nancy Ling Perry, and Patricia 'Mizmoon' Soltysik.
LEONARD
My concern: if they're as paranoid as they seem, the SLA types will insist on some last minute change. They'll say, 'here's who's going in what van,' and if we try and change that they'll get spooked. I can tell you right now, I don't have any way of communicating that with the rest of the group, though. Other than a phone call, but…
MIKE
You don't need to worry about that, because they are going to show up, on foot, in those three groups of three, staggered.
LEONARD
That's fine.
MIKE
What Jo's been able to get from the back and forth with DeFreeze is that DeFreeze was very, very, antsy to get down to LA. The urgency is tremendous. He's so scared of the city that he is taking on somebody who he doesn't really know that well, Jocasta, to get him down there. It's not like they're not going to come armed to the teeth. They requisition the vans to hold all of their shit, and they have a lot of shit. They have a lot of guns, and a lot of explosives, and little vials of cyanide. They need the vans, not just to bring themselves, but to bring their stuff.
BILL
There's a hotel. There's got to be some people on the roof. There's got to be some mics, I absolutely think, some basic stuff there.
MIKE
Absolutely. I need to know, among the PCS and NPCs, who is going to be there in the hotel room?
BILL
Roger has too many qualifications not to be in this position.
MIKE
I think that, dramatically speaking, it's more fun if Roger is the first van driver. Jocasta catches a glimpse of him as he drives off with DeFreeze, Mizmoon, and Nancy Ling.
BILL
As opposed to us getting even two seconds to be able to communicate, even with all the secret methods we have? Yeah, you're a bastard.
MIKE
Well, the good thing is that Jocasta has today's Telesend available. She gets that once a day, if I remember right, Leonard? If necessary there can be some telepathic communication. She's not gonna need Telesend with Patricia, because she's gonna be sitting right next to her in the van.
BILL
Yeah, but I don't know she knows to prepare it. There are lots of ways we can communicate. The key part is, Roger would show up as one of the drivers of the vans. Someone's gonna have to have driven the van, that then Jo is gonna get into and drive, right?
MIKE
Yes…
BILL
Or we take two trips to drive vans to the hotel, and then it's sitting there waiting?
MIKE
Maybe Jo could arrive driving the third van? "I met up with my comrades, we took our vans and brought them over here," that also works.
LEONARD
Just, once again, she is going to…if they switch anything up, or make any requests that somebody else drive, she's gonna go along with that. She does not want to make them suspicious.
MIKE
So Jocasta will arrive first, parked in the in the motel lot. We're going to depart in three groups 20 minutes apart… She could go first, but she really needs to supervise, so she kind of needs to go last.
BILL
What I'm trying to…this is to establish more chances for brief communications with her. I just want to understand what our windows are.
MIKE
That's fine. Jo's at the motel first, and then Roger drives up, and the two of you can talk. Are Archie, Marshall, or Mitch going to be in the motel room watching the handoff, watching the departure? Just so I know who to include in the scene, basically.
ROB
Well, where else could we be?
MIKE
This motel has got other people staying in it. Like Roger says, tradecraft-wise you probably want to look like the kind of people who are staying in a motel down there on a Friday night.
BRANT
What we are doing right now is seven layers of illegal. And very risky. We want to keep this ultra-low profile. Fewer cooks in the kitchen. Fewer people who might stand out. Fewer people who will be recognized. We try to keep it all down to a minimum. Marshall and Archie can be back at the San Francisco office, maybe Archie can be on a flight back to LA, because they're about to be in LA. It would be good to have him down there. Marshall's at the San Francisco office. Maybe we have one room that's like how we did it in Mission Four. One room in the motel where we have one or two commandos, or whatever, stationed. They have the bugs and everything, and they have the number to call Marshall in San Francisco, with updates.
MIKE
Okay. Okay, that's good. What about Mitch?
JEFF
I'm wondering if it is a, practical, and b, possible, for Mitch to astrally project and spy on one of Roger, Jo, or Patty Hearst during this ride.
BILL
I was gonna say he could use his skill with bugs, but apparently we're way above that.
MIKE
Yeah, that…there's going to be penalties, you're at low elevation, but… Who do you think will be the most interesting viewing? Could you switch in the middle? The time factor…
JEFF
10 minutes for me to make a roll. I don't have a guaranteed success on the roll.
BILL
This is more 'Club' meta, but we have two PCs in three vans. Having eyes on the third could be useful.
MIKE
Oh, that's a good point.
JEFF
I'll go with that okay.
BILL
That the kind of suggestion…
JEFF
The voice in my head that I associate sometimes with Roger has told me what I should do and I'm gonna do it.
MIKE
All right. Jocasta welcomes the first three members of the SLA to arrive on foot to the Bayview Motel. DeFreeze, Perry, and Mizmoon. They're not dressed as garishly as they were the day Jocasta was at the safe house. They're trying to adhere to tradecraft. No battle fatigues, no crazy hippie garb, like that which Angela Atwood is known for… They arrive, give a curt nod to Jocasta, and the field marshall has the bag with the money. They want to pay Jo for what she is doing, so as soon as the first van arrives and DeFreeze has had a chance to pat down the driver and make sure he's not wearing a wire or packing, he'll go over to Jocasta and say, "Sister, for the revolution," hands her the duffel bag full of bank robbery money.
LEONARD
"Well. I'm not the revolution. The revolution is south, where we're going, right?" She'll take a handful of 20s out of it. "For my expenses. Keep the rest for weapons."
MIKE
"Right on."
BILL
"Where's my cut?"
LEONARD
"You'll get yours when we get there."
MIKE
DeFreeze says, "I'm riding shotgun, brother. You and I are going to rap while we drive down to LA, all right?" First van takes off. I will get to that van in just a second.
The second van arrives with our commando driving it. Willie Wolf, Angela Atwood, and Camilla Hall walk down the street about 20 minutes later. They walk in, they get into the van, Willie takes the shotgun seat. They drive off, and Mitch has his eye on that van successfully.
Another 20 minutes go by. Now Patty, and Bill and Emily Harris come down the street. Patty is wearing a wig as a disguise. Bill and Emily also have their cobbled-together disguises that they've used in the past. Jocasta runs up to Patty, Patty runs up to Jocasta and gives her a big hug. Then the 'right on' hand slap and a handshake, and says, "Let's go, it's time."
LEONARD
All right. Gonna pack 'em in.
MIKE
Almost feels like Patty is in charge of this detachment, which is interesting as she's the newbie.
LEONARD
Jo shows Patty her magazine before they get in, to let her know that she has it.
MIKE
"Well, that's wonderful." In this van, Bill does not take the passenger seat, Patty does. So the pattern of the male member of the triad taking shotgun to keep an eye on the driver has been given to Patty. Bill and Emily settle into the back of the van, married couple.
Van one. DeFreeze wants to rap with with Roger, build up a rapport. First thing he asks is, "How did you meet Jocasta?"
BILL
"Through our father."
MIKE
"Ah, right on."
BILL
"You may notice, because we've been driving for a bit, that I know how to drive. I have been on jobs like this before."
[pause]
MIKE
This isn't him pausing, this is just me trying to come up with what he would…
BILL
That's fair. I mean Roger's willing to start talking to establish bona fides, but it's better if DeFreeze teases them out of him. He's happy to be the quiet guy.
MIKE
"How did you feel, when you were working for your father? I never…I never had to worry about that." DeFreeze is probably three years older than Roger, so as far as being drafted goes… He had a wife at the time. Whatever barebones bio Roger has on Donald DeFreeze, he knows that much. He's just a couple, few years older than Roger.
BILL
"We saw how bad it all is."
MIKE
"Right on."
BILL
"I grew up with relatives in Compton, so I've seen other bad. This [Nam] was just bad with foreign faces, right? Not much else to say."
MIKE
"So this house your comrade got, was this a house that you hooked us up with?"
BILL
"I mean, I got connections. Not this one. Honestly I plan to do a little bit of a check-out and if there's anything that bugs me, we're out. Sometimes connections on connections…you know that's just how it rolls. We'll look first before we get into any kind of mess and I'm here to help with that."
MIKE
"All right I think that we've sufficiently role-played enough to get those bonafides, ready for a test?"
BILL
"Well, the good news is that when he talks about…he's flat-out telling truth, you know? Truth as much as possible."
MIKE
So it's going to be Streetwise. I'm going to give you an RP bonus of two, and…I'm actually going to use one of your points of military rank. Effective Streetwise of 18.
[BILL rolls a crit]
MIKE
That is crit. That is a crit. Okay.
BILL
I was completely overqualified with this particular person, I can't tell you how happy that makes me. I'm also feeding in things like, 'oh yeah, you know, man, I do race on the side, you know,' and I give him stories of the backstreet racing and all the rest. He's already in, so…
MIKE
"I did I did some shit when I was on the street that I am not proud of, now, after having spent some time in prison, thinking about the way I acted before I developed a revolutionary consciousness, you dig?"
BILL
"Absolutely."
MIKE
"I'm going to tell you something because you've been so honest with me. You have been absolutely straight with me, and I appreciate that. That shows trust, comrade."
BILL
"All in this together."
MIKE
What's the military word for… fuck, esprit d'corps. He'll sprinkle that in. "To my ever-loving shame, just like you when you were over in Nam…" He's made sure that the girls in the back are asleep. "I was a snitch, man. I sold out my people for pardon. It felt bad."
BILL
Roger will fake having a reaction, like, 'okay, no, wait a minute,' because you never trust a snitch. Once a snitch, always a snitch. He will let himself have a like a reaction of, 'do I need to pull this car over?'
MIKE
"Why do you think I am doing what I am doing now? I've seen what they're saying about us. They think that we're just agents provocateur, that we're out here trying to make—"
BILL
"Yeah, and how is anyone going to not…if they look up your history, you know?"
MIKE
"My history is…they have not publicized it."
BILL
"You know the Man is going to be right on that, though. Discredit you any way, shape, or form. I mean, man, I get it. You're doing revolutionary work, you're here with us. So you keep going. But I see how you can put yourself forward in the face of this thing."
MIKE
"You need to know my sincerity to the cause, that's what I'm saying. You need to know that I am serious about this, and that your help will not go unappreciated."
BILL
"I'm all for redemptions, but…all right. We're cool. We're cool."
MIKE
"There was a man at Vacaville who changed my life. He instilled me with pride in my people for the very first time. I had heard the Panthers rap, I had been out there on the street and I knew what they were up to. I used to laugh at them. I used to think that they were dumb fucks who were going to get themselves, and their wives and their kids, killed by the Man…"
BILL
"Yeah, well, they did. I mean, it didn't help."
MIKE
"You worked for the Army, I worked for the LAPD. When I got to prison Professor Westbrook changed my life. When I got there, I had been shot. I had been left for dead, and that man changed my life. He made me into the revolutionary I am today. It wasn't those white girls in the back seat. It was him."
BILL
"I gotta ask you now, what is your fucking allegiance right now? Are you allegiant still to the LAPD? Because I will throw you out of this car, and take these girls on to the revolutionary future without you—"
MIKE
"No! I am fully committed to the cause, brother!"
BILL
"All right. This cause. Not some LAPD cause. Not some miraculous guy that 'saved' you. I met brothers who, Muhammad saved their life, and it was some preacher in the pens that did it for them, Their allegiance was still to that preacher, much as they talked about Islam. You got to realize, you're going to have to work harder to be cool."
MIKE
"Yeah. I understand that."
BILL
"All right. I will keep your secret. It better be kept and it better never come back up again, other than this. You were honest with me, you were cool with me, but man…that's a hard one to swallow."
MIKE
"It's so funny. When we brought Tania on, I never thought that she would have the same reaction, the same conversion that I did. To just realize that, everything she'd lived before… Realizing that this country, this world, needs to be flipped upside down. I never thought that she would be the one to pull the trigger, ever, and that is what she has done…"
BILL
"When you're down in the depths and you're looking up at those people, you never think that they're going to come down."
MIKE
"If we of the Symbionese Liberation Army can trust her, you can trust me."
BILL
"All right, well, let's fuck the world up and flip it over, then."
MIKE
All right. That leaves Roger with an uncertain feeling. I think DeFreeze would turn the radio on at that point, to break up the uncomfortable…
BILL
"Have something to cover the quiet, yeah. Radio."
MIKE
"What I would like you to do is, give me an Autohypnosis roll."
BILL
Oh? Okay…
[BILL rolls a success]
MIKE
As Roger turns the radio on, the AM band…he starts trying to tune in… There's this horrible squelch coming out of the radio. Roger hears the Phreak in his head, saying 'that is not an authorized signal, brother!' in a very smug, I-know-more-than-you-do way…
I'm going to have to stop there, because I have to get to Jocasta before we end tonight. Mitch is gonna keep to two and a half miles of the second van. First of all, you're going to get to use all of your powers through Clairvoyance, right? You can use Aura Sight automatically, you can use the Detect…
JEFF
Everything that's visual-range, yeah.
MIKE
The auras of Willie Wolf, Angela Atwood, and Camila Hall… Mitch doesn't see anything unusual, but I would like you to give me an analysis roll for the folks in the van.
[JEFF rolls a success]
MIKE
We'll just apply that to all three of them. Angela and Camilla, much like Nancy and Mizmoon in the first van, fall asleep right away, as soon as they get into the van. As Mitch analyzes their auras he sees that both of them have been drugged with some kind of downer. Whether they took that themselves to sleep through the drive or it was given to them by somebody, Mitch doesn't know, but they're under the influence of a drug. Willie Wolf is not. Willie Wolf, Kahjo, is awake. He doesn't end up saying more than a few words of kind of revolutionary… wait a minute, can you hear through the Clairvoyance? You can only see, right?
JEFF
I don't remember. It's one or the other. Let's assume I can only see.
MIKE
Okay. We could do a lip reading roll, if you want to, but the conversation is very perfunctory between the two of them. What Mitch can see in Willie's aura is an immense sense of guilt. It's a color that Mitch can identify: he feels stained, right now. Willie Wolf is the one who, historically… he is haunted by something. Obviously, Mitch can't tell what it is. But it's on his mind the entire time he's talking to the driver, the entire time he's watching the signs on the highway. It's overpowering, he doesn't sleep the entire time driving down to LA. If there's anything else you want to do through the Clairvoyance window during the drive, let me know.
JEFF
No, I'm just keeping eyes on.
MIKE
Okay. Nothing unusual is going to happen.You guys will get down to LA fine.
Jocasta and Van 3. Bill and Emily are sleep in the back seat. Patty laughs to herself. "I am so amazed they couldn't taste the seconol in their drinks."
LEONARD
"You clever, clever girl."
MIKE
"They're a liability, these two. They love each other too much. Very selfishly. I don't like that about them. It's just not good for what we need to do. Do you mind if we take a short detour? Won't take more than a half hour. 45 minutes, maybe."
LEONARD
"Don't you think your man will get suspicious?"
MIKE
"We just tell him we had to stop. Got a flat or something. 'My man,' that's cute."
LEONARD
"You're the boss."
MIKE
"All right. Take the exit for Carmel-By-the-Sea."
LEONARD
She'll do it.
MIKE
Please roll… you've got Area Knowledge, right?
LEONARD
I think it's for Bay Area only, let me check.
MIKE
We'll give you some coverage for Carmel at like a minus one.
LEONARD
Let me just make sure… yeah it's Bay Area only, at 17.
MIKE
Give me a test at 16 .
[LEONARD rolls a success, just barely]
MIKE
Carmel-by-the-Sea is well-known as an artists' colony. After the earthquake a whole bunch of artsy types from San Francisco moved down here to form drama clubs and painting clubs and other artists' cooperatives and communes. As you take the exit it's around quarter to 1 on Saturday, early early morning. The streets are quiet. Carmel is a pretty sleepy town, it's not like there's going to be people out raising hell. Seaside art community. As you get into the town Patty gives Jo detailed instructions on where to drive. The first thing they drive by is a very big outdoor theater with a lovely gazebo like a proscenium with a little stage. Jo could swear that instead of electric lights, this theater is lit by torch light, as she drives past it at about 25 miles an hour. Deeper into the hilly areas on the outskirts of Carmel-By-the-Sea, Patricia points out of her window and says, "Look, it's George Sterling's house."
As you drive by Jocasta gets a glimpse of the backyard and sees more torches and deer skulls hanging from the trees. They might or might not be stained with blood. I would like you to give me a fright check please, rule of 14.
[LEONARD rolls a success]
MIKE
Jocasta is cool as a cucumber. "I probably need to fill you in… we're going to be picking somebody else up tonight."
LEONARD
"All right. You know I trust you. There's a reason that they sent me to you, and not to anyone else."
MIKE
"I know. Fancy is going to fly and take the Blessed Demoiselle to the Southland." Now that reference, Jo doesn't get.
You pull up to a another very comfortable-looking Craftsman-type house from the 1910s. Patricia says to Jocasta, "This might get a little dicey, but I'm confident that we can convince Miss Whitaker Martinez to come with us. She'll trust me, and what's more, she'll trust you. Do you know who I'm talking about?"
LEONARD
Do I?
MIKE
Give me a Spirit Empathy roll, please.
[LEONARD rolls a success]
MIKE
Jack London's voice in Jocasta's head says, "What does she want with Javier's wife?" and fades to the background after that. Probably not going to mean a ton to Jocasta, but she is getting flashes of Jack London's life, of his time in Carmel, and the fact that this… well, she was a girl when Jack and Ambrose and the rest of them first met her… She married the painter Javier Martinez. She was around when all of the 'crowd' stuff was happening. She's a living link to those years.
LEONARD
All right.
MIKE
"On the whole she's a wonderful old bird," Patricia says, "maybe not quite a revolutionary, but I think she can be brought around to our way of thinking."
LEONARD
"Look, Patricia, I'm on board for whatever you want to do, but you know that your face is everywhere. I'm going to suggest you go, collect her quickly as you can, leave me here. I'll be ready to hit the gas as soon as you come out. And if she needs any persuading then I'll do the persuading."
MIKE
"My darling wolf! You're coming in with me! She needs to see your face, too."
LEONARD
"Do the Sleeping Beauties back there have any pieces we can use…?"
MIKE
We can go in armed, for sure, but Patty Hearst has never picked a lock before, so the breaking and entering is probably going to be your job.
LEONARD
You don't have to worry about that…
MIKE
I don't know if you have lockpicking, actually.
LEONARD
I don't think I do, but…oh, maybe… no.
BILL
She has Judo, right?
MIKE
Kick a door open? Why not? Kick it down…Judo is 14.
LEONARD
It's 14, yeah, but Karate is the relevant skill here, right?
MIKE
Yeah, that's true. That's a strike, with a kick… okay. 1d6+1 crushing damage… see if it takes a second kick to get through the door…
Oh, I forgot to mention, during DeFreeze's spontaneous confession, Bill, I didn't remember to mention it, but he told you how the same folks who cut a deal with Charles Manson before he got caught were the same guys in the LAPD he worked with.
BRANT
Patty Hearst says you're coming with us you old broad! Kicks down door.
MIKE
The door flies off on one hinge. It's an old house. Patty knows exactly where the bedroom is, and she runs in. The old lady was not woken up by the slamming of the door. She's still asleep. "Would you like to do the honors, waking her up?" she whispers to Jocasta.
LEONARD
"Of course." She'll shake the edge of the bed, and say, "It's time to go."
MIKE
Elsie Martinez sits up. She looks at the two figures in her darkened bedroom and turns on the bedside lamp. She looks into Patty Hearst and Jocasta's eyes, and says, "George! Jack!" And that's where we're gonna leave off tonight.