Operation CANNABIS
MutantsMichael — 10/28/24, 8:09 AM
Operation CANNABIS
MutantsMichael — 10/28/24, 8:11 AM
@Leonard @Inverarity @Dr. Cronk @Madness Dossier
MutantsMichael — 10/28/24, 8:44 AM
Jocasta gets into town early as URIEL's advance team, using a cover identity to book her travel and the good graces of the Project to get the appropriate gear for this operation into town. Mitch's old responsibilities as URIEL's ears and eyes will be well-served with the suite of surveillance equipment Jocasta has brought into Dallas. The first order of business for Jocasta is to suss out the theater of operations: i.e., the Bryan Tower building. [Observation and Shadowing rolls made secretly; @Leonard if you want to expand on any of the preliminary surveillance I've lightly-sketched below, please be my guest.] It's a new breed of glass-and-steel skyscraper for a new breed of Southern money; the long-established oil companies, of course, but the skyscraper also contains office units holding advertising concerns, legal firms, financial services and banks, real estate offices, agribusiness branch offices, defense and technology firms constituting "Silicon Gulch," and a variety of smaller local Dallas business affiliated with Trammell Crow's local international trade marts. Security is typical for this kind of modern mega-skyscraper; a few building security in the lobby, with a front desk manned 24/7 with closed-circuit television surveillance of the various entry points to the building (front lobby, service entrance, etc.), and sensitive individual businesses like banks, dealers in hard commodities like gold and jewelry having their own private security. Jocasta has managed to get inside through appointments at some of the more run-of-the-mill businesses and the normal customer elevators do indeed terminate at floor 37: floors 38-40 are marked "Executive Suites/Penthouses" and do require their own key to access. One of the things that's been revealed during this early 24/7 surveillance is that there must be people working late and/or living on those top floors; given three days of surveillance, two out of three of those nights, once at 8 pm and once at 9:30, Jocasta sees a food delivery guy toting two large paper bags cycling the five minutes up to Bryan Tower from the Neiman Marcus on Main Street, chatting with the front desk security when he gets there, who then proceeds to walk him to the elevator, take a key from his chain, and allow the delivery guy up, presumably to the top three floors. A few minutes later he comes back down empty-handed and trots to his cycle and thence back into downtown proper.
Leonard — 10/28/24, 9:59 AM
Jo will reverse-tail the delivery guy at least once - follow him back from the Tower to wherever he comes from.
1
MutantsMichael — 10/28/24, 10:05 AM
The main, quite upscale restaurant at Neiman-Marcus is called The Zodiac Room and its kitchen will often stay open late for catering and private events and clients across downtown Dallas, even after the department store and restaurant is closed. They contract out small deliveries—meals for 1 to a few people—to a private courier service which uses bikes or scooters for quick downtown deliveries. The Zodiac gets maybe an average of two to three individual/small meal delivery orders a night, and they manage a corporate event off-site at local offices, hotels, and function rooms a few times a week. https://flashbackdallas.com/2019/05/05/the-zodiac-room/ (edited)
Opened in 1953 on Neiman’s 6th floor, the Zodiac Room has long been a Dallas favorite.
MutantsMichael — 10/28/24, 12:25 PM
Jocasta definitely assesses and rates the delivery guy who runs these deliveries and his operational security (such as it is) as "easily compromisable" (edited)
1
October 31, 2024
MutantsMichael — 10/31/24, 10:02 AM
Other than the possibility of suborning/replacing the delivery guy, an approach at the lighter-guarded lobby/front desk area during non-business hours using hypnotism/ikoters/glyphs seems feasible as well.
Leonard — 10/31/24, 10:12 AM
I'll try and post a move in the next day or so, this week turned out unexpectedly busy
MutantsMichael — 10/31/24, 10:14 AM
No rush! Just wanted to make sure y'all know I'm ready.
November 1, 2024
Dr. Cronk — 11/1/24, 6:42 PM
Can we get a site, maybe an empty office across the street, where Mitch can set up a laser mike on the windows of those upper floors and slowly sweep through methodically, listening for signs of activity during plausible hours?
[6:43 PM]
It's a bit of a needle in a haystack, finding the right window at the right time, shame we don't have somebody with magic powers we can put on this one oh wait
MutantsMichael — 11/1/24, 6:44 PM
Let me check the distance and power specs on a TL 7+1 laser mic, and the likeliest angles to get the top floors of the building. But I like this idea.
MutantsMichael — 11/1/24, 6:54 PM
Well lookie here at what's just kitty-corner from the brand-new Bryan Tower and well within the 300 yard maximum range of the SANDMAN-issue laser mic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheraton_Dallas_Hotel And you know it's a good hotel because
Celebrities Johnny Weissmuller and June Lockhart appeared at the dedication ceremony in 1959.
https://flashbackdallas.com/2020/04/12/the-southland-center-mid-century-cool-1959/
The Sheraton Dallas Hotel, formerly the Adam's Mark Hotel and originally the Southland Center, is a complex of International Style skyscrapers located in the City Center District of downtown Dallas, Texas. The hotel is the largest and second tallest hotel in Dallas and Texas with 1,840 guest rooms and 260,000 sq ft (24,000 m2) of meeting space....
The Southland Center: Mid-Century Cool — 1959
A Dallas landmark which spared no expense on its interior design.
MutantsMichael — 11/1/24, 7:02 PM
And honestly if we need to sweep all four sides of the Bryan Tower, there are enough tall buildings around it where we could hit it from any number of directions. (Dealey Plaza included at bottom left of map for spatial context)
[7:07 PM]
Of course some of the taller buildings weren't around in '74.
[7:07 PM]
(Haha, this one wasn't built by Trammell Crow until '82 but the Fireman's Fund was/is one of the anchor tenants: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harwood_Center)
[7:09 PM]
(This one's open in the northwest corner of the circle, if needed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Cotton_Exchange_Building)
MutantsMichael — 11/1/24, 7:09 PM
By 1971, though the city had become the financial capital of the cotton industry, the exchange housed more Baptists than brokers because of offices rented to nearby First Baptist Church.
November 2, 2024
Dr. Cronk — 11/2/24, 12:19 AM
Perhaps I'm feeling lucky, like the window which would be most advantageous for me to listen at is going to be on the most accessible side of the building, for ineffable reason
1
@Dr. Cronk
Perhaps I'm feeling lucky, like the window which would be most advantageous for me to listen at is going to be on the most accessible side of the building, for ineffable reason
MutantsMichael — 11/2/24, 6:39 AM
It makes sense that a plush penthouse residential suite, should it exist, would be on the south side of Bryan Tower, with the best views of downtown Dallas, and it makes even more sense that it would offer a corner view on the southeast corner, so Mitch gets himself situated in a suite in the Sheraton Dallas and spends some serious time on the laser mic scanning the glass on the 30th floor. Having to resort to mundane surveillance after practicing his remote viewing with Pat so much feels like a weird step backwards but there's also something... nostalgic about breaking out the laser mic again, like Mitch is back in his URIEL role from '71 to '73. (I'm not going to charge a use of Serendipity for merely picking out the surveillance vantage point, but, depending on how well the skill roll does, I may charge one Serendipity spend to get our quarry in the right place at the right time to hear something juicy on the laser mic.) So all that said, let's do an Electronic Operation (Surveillance)-18, skill level 14 plus 4 for the TL 7+1 laser mic. Obviously there will be a lot of Extra Time opportunity here, and like I said, depending on the skill roll, it may require a Serendipity use to be listening at the right location at the right time.
[6:41 AM]
(Needless to say, I'm guessing the laser mic will be hooked up to a tape recorder so if Mitch does get voices on the mic, Marshall can confirm or deny if they're Jolly West, as I believe he is the only URIEL member to have really conversed with him.)
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/2/24, 10:00 AM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(2+2+2)= 62
Dr. Cronk — 11/2/24, 10:00 AM
1
MutantsMichael — 11/2/24, 10:33 AM
Mid-afternoon on Mitch's third day of laser mic surveillance (we can say this is the day after Jo trails the delivery guy back to Neiman-Marcus/finds out his routine), Mitch catches a one-sided phone conversation (an incoming call; Mitch hears the phone ring) inside the 30th floor corner penthouse. Later confirmation will establish the voice in the suite as that of Jolly West, although Marshall will note he sounds slightly different, his voice and tone more nasal, as if he has a cold or sinus blockage. WEST: "Trammell! Good to hear from you." [3 second pause] WEST: "I'm doing well. Hanging in. Been waiting to hear what the next steps are." [8 second pause] WEST: "Agreed. I was thinking Dr. Rees, in New York, at Manhattan Ear, Eye, and Throat. He's supposed to be the best." [8 second pause] WEST [Mitch or anyone who's listening to this recording can roll Psychology here]: "I see. Well, do you have another referral I could use? I know you don't want me here forever." [15 second pause] WEST [a scratching on paper is heard]: "Uh huh. I'm assuming that Drs. Eades and Weeks can be trusted, then? I've not seen them in my research, and I wouldn't ordinarily think a City Hospital would be..." [WEST seems suddenly interrupted by phone interlocutor, 5 second pause] WEST: "Okay. And what's the story on my identity afterwards, somewhere I can continue to be of help?" [20 second pause] WEST: "No, no, that makes sense. The South is the coming thing, after all. I'm sure that I could bring my skills to bear there. I want to thank you again for this opportunity. I'll make sure you don't regret the trust you've placed in me." [10 second pause] WEST: "I'll get packed then. You're saying Saturday?" [Today is Thursday] [8 second pause] WEST: "Got it. Thank you again, Trammell. I hope I'll be seeing you soon and," [uncomfortable laugh] "heh, let's hope you don't recognize me, eh?" [5 second pause] WEST: [another strangled awkward chuckle] "All right. Take care. Good-bye." West hangs up the phone gently and Mitch can hear him muttering to himself, a couple of hissed "Fuck"s, the sound of a cabinet door or a metal garbage can being struck, and then not much more for the rest of the afternoon. No words, just the sounds of someone moving around the suite, drawers being slammed, bags being zipped, etc.
November 4, 2024
Dr. Cronk — 11/4/24, 7:47 PM
Well, that gives us a timeline and a sense of where he is. Best pass the info to Jo ASAP.
1
MutantsMichael — 11/4/24, 7:48 PM
Anyone who's listening to the recording can give me a Psychology roll, for sure.
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/4/24, 7:52 PM
@Leonard rolled
3d6:(2+4+5)= 11Leonard — 11/4/24, 7:52 PM
(psychology)
1
MutantsMichael — 11/4/24, 8:08 PM
All right. Once Jo has a couple listens through the brief conversation she has a few conclusions she draws. Jolly's agitated, edgy, impatient. If she had to guess, Jo would guess he's been in this suite for a while. Since the Hearst thing blew up at the end of May? Three months locked in a luxury penthouse? It's plausible. The outside world—his wife and kids included—thinks West has disappeared and a lot of people—journalists, both underground and mainstream, Congressional investigators, and Project SANDMAN (ostensibly)—are very interested in his whereabouts. If we assume West hooked up with Trammell Crow the same way that Hal and Russ at SCANATE did (Crow was interested in bankrolling West's more outré research at UCLA, just as Hal and Russ needed private investment along with CIA dollars for the kooky psychic research), they had to have some kind of prior relationship, at least from the sound of the phone call. But it's not a cordial, collegial one; it's one where one man is definitely in thrall to the other, at his mercy to give him cover. Here is a man who was a member of the CIA and the most secret black-budget Project in the West dedicated to keeping reality safe from the Red Kings... and he is figuratively kneeling down in front of a nouveau riche Dallas real estate magnate for... protection, a new identity... a new face? Jo bets those doctors' names West was throwing around were plastic surgeons. Anyway, West being snidely dismissive of getting some second-tier surgeons, his pauses and stammering, his unctuous obsequiousness with Crow and temper tantrum after the call ends... West is at the end of his tether. This is his last shot at a life. He knew to go to Crow for this lifeline. Crow is an Owl. West must not trust Project SANDMAN as a safe place anymore, maybe since the rise of URIEL and their disruption of the Hearst op. But he knew enough to go above the Project's heads, straight to the money men like Crow. Does West know the Owls are... well, the Owls? That's not certain yet. Now, Mitch, given his conversation with Archie about the vision at the Grove and the weird "Math" Archie saw, can make the assumption that West is not being considered for Owl membership: that mystic "Mantle," a shot at immortality. All he's being given is a new face, a new name, and a new job working for the Owls somewhere in the South in the coming years. And given what we know about West's other assignments since 1953 or so—working on mind control of American POWs, prisoners, hippies in the Haight, Black radicals—whatever the Owls have planned for him is probably in that same social-control vein. It's all West knows how to do. Can he do it without SANDMAN technology helping him? The Owls either seem to think so, or they're stringing West along for some reason. Ultimately, if the Owls are helping West by giving him a new face and a new job, they're being pretty cheap about things.
Leonard — 11/4/24, 8:40 PM
Okay. So. First off, Jocasta is going to requisition a handful of things from SANDMAN Texas or whoever she can get them from (she'll throw money at the problem if needed): a solid field agent with driving and combat training who looks respectable; a brand-new town car or roomy sedan with diplomatic plates (real or fake, doesn't matter), and a half-dozen glyphs if that's possible: two each of GU.SHUB, SANGUSH, and NING.LUL. She'll take whatever Corruption that's needed. Then she's going to outline a plan to Mitch: Tomorrow (Friday), we interfere with Jolly's dinner delivery. We can bribe the delivery guy, or strongarm him, or just stuff him in a closet and replace him with one of us or our special agent, whatever seems easiest. Whoever ends up taking him his dinner wears the SANGUSH and the NING.LUL glyphs. The latter will contain a false memory to implant in Jolly's head: "Trammell will send a car to pick you up at 8AM on Saturday morning." Then we just have our agent drive the car (with Jo in the back, wearing the GU.SHUB glyph) up to the Bryan Tower at the appointed hour and pick him up. Now, the biggest hiccup is that we don't know when Crow was actually going to send a car to get him; the early pickup time will probably take care of that, but in case it doesn't, Mitch can hang around (using the other SANGUSH glyph, or not), and if another car shows up beforehand that looks like it's there to fetch him, work some kind of magic -- dealer's choice, slash the tires or cram a banana in the tailpipe or set the whole thing ablaze or any other card in the deck -- to get it out of the way. "It's not watertight, but I'm not sure how we're going to get dead-certain information about the pickup from Crow in such a limited amount of time," she'll conclude. "Whattya think?"
MutantsMichael — 11/4/24, 8:43 PM
a solid field agent with driving and combat training who looks respectable
This, at least, sounds like a perfect role for Dave.
1
November 5, 2024
@Leonard
Okay. So. First off, Jocasta is going to requisition a handful of things from SANDMAN Texas or whoever she can get them from (she'll throw money at the problem if needed): a solid field agent with driving and combat training who looks respectable; a brand-new town car or roomy sedan with diplomatic plates (real or fake, doesn't matter), and a half-dozen glyphs if that's possible: two each of GU.SHUB, SANGUSH, and NING.LUL. She'll take whatever Corruption that's needed. Then she's going to outline a plan to Mitch: Tomorrow (Friday), we interfere with Jolly's dinner delivery. We can bribe the delivery guy, or strongarm him, or just stuff him in a closet and replace him with one of us or our special agent, whatever seems easiest. Whoever ends up taking him his dinner wears the SANGUSH and the NING.LUL glyphs. The latter will contain a false memory to implant in Jolly's head: "Trammell will send a car to pick you up at 8AM on Saturday morning." Then we just have our agent drive the car (with Jo in the back, wearing the GU.SHUB glyph) up to the Bryan Tower at the appointed hour and pick him up. Now, the biggest hiccup is that we don't know when Crow was actually going to send a car to get him; the early pickup time will probably take care of that, but in case it doesn't, Mitch can hang around (using the other SANGUSH glyph, or not), and if another car shows up beforehand that looks like it's there to fetch him, work some kind of magic -- dealer's choice, slash the tires or cram a banana in the tailpipe or set the whole thing ablaze or any other card in the deck -- to get it out of the way. "It's not watertight, but I'm not sure how we're going to get dead-certain information about the pickup from Crow in such a limited amount of time," she'll conclude. "Whattya think?"
MutantsMichael — 11/5/24, 8:58 AM
Okay, so requisitions-wise: the car, the plates, all the components of the non-Weird setup is trivial and can be done overnight with no rolls. No problem. Getting ahold of the glyphs is gonna be a little tougher, which means just that we'll need to make Patron rolls. I haven't decided how (or how many of) those will shake out yet, but much like TOBACCO over in DC, you have a member of the team with Rank in the organization in the person of Marshall, so that will definitely help the grease the wheels here for those rolls. But I should make the comment before we execute on this plan that Louis Jolyon West is a Sandman. And as such he knows Danbe, he's been trained to resist Anunnaki programming just as you all have, etc. etc., which makes him less susceptible to glyphic attack than normal folks. What's more, if he does manage to resist both the SANGUSH and NING.LUL attempts, he'll know what's happened. Which means if Mitch is delivering his Delmonico steak with scalloped potatoes tomorrow night, and things go tits up, it would be good to have some backup in the elevator/on the 30th floor. SANGUSH, we presume, will handle any questions by the mundane security in the lobby during any emergency extraction, if necessary. So I guess what I'm saying is, our preference is that we take Jolly out nice and neat on Saturday morning at 8, but if that can't happen because the glyphs don't take, Jo, Mitch, Dave (and Marshall?) should be ready to exfil him on Friday night instead. (edited)
Leonard — 11/5/24, 9:10 AM
Yeah, it’s a big risk, both getting the glyphs and using them on Jolly, I realize that. The problem is that we have a very limited amount of time and we don’t want any exposure. The advantage is that Jolly is expecting to be extracted and it shouldn’t be that hard to just hustle him into a car at the right time; the disadvantage is that we don’t know what time it’s gonna happen and he does. We probably cant get to him beforehand, and we can’t just improvise on the spot because we’ll be in a very public situation. We have some “superpowers” to draw on but Jo’s only useful ones will only function gave to face, and he won’t get anywhere near her or Marshall anyway. There might be something more Mitch could do, but I’m not sure what. Here’s a question, if we know the answer: Is Trammel Crow a Sandman, or just an ally/overlord? If it’s the former, we’re still in the same bind. But if it’s the latter, we could pull a glyph scheme on him instead of Jolly, or Jo or Marshall could meet him and use hypnosis or Mind Probe or something. (edited)
MutantsMichael — 11/5/24, 9:16 AM
Trammell Crow is not a Sandman—a quick check with Donna at Granite Peak will confirm that—but he is an Owl, and if Mitch's instincts regarding the Little Black Book's code system are correct, he's a full Owl, with all the benefits and blessings of the Owl Mantle thereto. Now, the Mantle doesn't include any of the Anunnaki-specific training that Sandmen get though, that's for sure. SANDMAN are the Owls' catspaws, their police force expressly dreamed up and designed to handle all this History B stuff for them. Sure, the Owls might be quasi-immortal liches with weird powers granted to them by the fact they designed the world's current ontology, but they're not trained to resist History B specifically. Of course directly going to Trammell Crow ups the stakes considerably.
[9:20 AM]
One of those Mantle blessings, the Apocalypse of History A will clearly tell us, is something called "Obscure" that seems to apply to "Scrying, Mind Reading, Aura Detection, Psionics." (edited)
Leonard — 11/5/24, 9:54 AM
Hmmm. None of those apply to hypnotism or glyphs, although it would make him immune or resistant to Mind Probe. I dunno, one way or another we gotta get West, and we know his plans - I think it's going to complicate things tremendously to let him get to New York and try and grab him there. We know what he's expecting and we know what Crow is planning, but we don't know the when. Somehow we have to make sure we get him on our terms and not Crow's, and that means getting to one of them and making sure we don't let the real pickup happen before our pickup. I just think it's too risky to lay wait in the lobby or elevator or out in the street; that's almost certainly gonna result in very public violence. Jo's already made her pitch, so I'll leave it there and see what Mitch and Marshall have to say.
1
MutantsMichael — 11/5/24, 9:59 AM
I suppose if Marshall did want to give his own opinion on the West/Crow phone call recording, and the information within, we could start with Marshall's own Psychology-20 roll (this includes a bonus due to his familiarity with Jolly).
Inverarity — 11/5/24, 12:08 PM
Marshall pulls up in a cab, running late. "Sorry," he says to Jo and Mitch, "Archie never told me how many meetings were involved in this job. What have we got?" He reviews the transcript, listens to the audio with his eyes closed.
Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/5/24, 12:08 PM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Psych-20:(4+5+5)= 14@Inverarity
Marshall pulls up in a cab, running late. "Sorry," he says to Jo and Mitch, "Archie never told me how many meetings were involved in this job. What have we got?" He reviews the transcript, listens to the audio with his eyes closed.
MutantsMichael — 11/5/24, 12:23 PM
Marshall's perspective on the verbiage and vocal intonations on the tape jibe largely with Jocasta's: Jolly as an obsequious toady, and that's as good as far as these things go. But there's another emotion there, and it lay over both Jolly's studied-casual "banter" with Crow, the uncontrolled frustration and anger he let slip after hanging up, and the possibility that he'd been here in this suite for one month, two, maybe even three. Louis Jolyon West, the terror of the counterculture, the eminence grise of intel who "cured" all those Korea POWs, the man who diagnosed Jack Ruby as a crazy "lone gunman," who slipped Charles Manson his first tab of LSD at the Haight Free Clinic, who worked all the angles on the History B incursions in the Southland in 1970, who sought to turn the proud Black men of Oakland and South Central LA into warring tribes shooting each other over heroin (or other, newer drugs being dreamed up in Sidney Gottlieb's labs), who sat at the center of MK ULTRA's, of Project SANDMAN's, of the Continuity Working Group's web of activity the past quarter-century... he is scared. Secondarily scared of the necessity of having to work directly with Crow, certainly. If he doesn't know about the Owls, West definitely has suspicions about how the money men keep SANDMAN running. There's certainly not a lot of trust or sense of duty there, on either side. But the baseline of West's tone of voice, the specific neurolinguistic tinge to the words he chose with Crow, reveal to Marshall that he's mostly now scared of being caught. The weight of his activities, his crimes, have robbed him of his past insouciance in just... thinking up ops and implementing them. The latitude he had in pioneering a future society under Dr. Gottlieb and the CWG is gone now. He's a small man in a big cell, waiting for a sugar daddy he doesn't trust to bail him out, afraid with all this exposure in the press that the CIA or SANDMAN or indeed URIEL will come and snip those links. He has nothing but his wits, and Marshall can tell those wits are scrambled, if they were ever worth a damn in the first place. Dr. West's will is weak. His desperation is evident. This is his Last Chance.
[12:26 PM]
(Should let you know I combined that Psych roll with a secret Detect Lies roll as well, Brant.)
Inverarity — 11/5/24, 4:41 PM
“OK,” Marshall says. He conveys this analysis to the team. “If he is desperate he may be malleable — or useful, at least. If he thinks we can protect him.”
@Inverarity
“OK,” Marshall says. He conveys this analysis to the team. “If he is desperate he may be malleable — or useful, at least. If he thinks we can protect him.”
Leonard — 11/5/24, 5:23 PM
"How do you reckon we get to him, though? Even if he's amenable to coming along freely hoping we'll protect him, the Owls likely have him under surveillance -- they're probably as suspicious he'll bolt as we are. I could always," Jocasta says, tapping on her temple, "but he, uh, probably won't be happy to hear from me."
November 6, 2024
Inverarity — 11/6/24, 4:44 PM
(I’ll get on this Soon, I promise. Combination mental health management, work business, and sort of a creative slump for me, right now, in life).
MutantsMichael — 11/6/24, 4:46 PM
(It's allll good seriously. Like I said, I'm only antsy because I want you all to put the screws to these two so badly right now)
@Inverarity
(I’ll get on this Soon, I promise. Combination mental health management, work business, and sort of a creative slump for me, right now, in life).
Leonard — 11/6/24, 5:52 PM
1
November 12, 2024
Inverarity — 11/12/24, 6:30 PM
“So, our problem is what? We need to abduct Jolly. More specifically: we need to abduct Jolly in such a way that does not lead back to us. Plus he has training. How do we solve that problem, is that right?” Without waiting for a response, he gets up and goes to the window, then says: “The plan with the delivery person is a good solution. But as you say: not watertight. How do we make it watertight? I think we need to approach this whole problem differently. I think rather than trying to get to him, before he flies off Saturday, and deal with that fucking building,” he gestures dismissively at the Sheraton, “we just hijack the flight he’s on. Easier to just hypnotize the pilot into flying us safely to some off-site somewhere. We have Jo, Dave, Mitch, maybe one more on the flight. Black bag the target in the confusion of everyone de-planing, then put everyone back aboard, fly’em home. Blame it on the Iranians.”
[6:32 PM]
“Or, I dunno, maybe the Hearst girl did it.”
1
MutantsMichael — 11/12/24, 6:40 PM
Hey, with that in mind, gang... if this is a plan we're interested in engaging with, I have a request, given the phone call transcript and the fact we know Jolly is going to visit a couple of plastic surgeons ("Drs. Eades and Weeks") he's not thrilled with. It'll take a Research roll—we can call it in to Sophie at Livermore no problem—but if Jo wanted to roll Research-15 or Marshall wanted to roll Physician-16, I could see if either of you could dig up info on these doctors in the literature at, like, a local med school library or if Marshall has heard about them by reputation. Just to confirm where Jolly is set to fly off to on Saturday.
Leonard — 11/12/24, 6:45 PM
"Is he flying commercial? Or private? If it's private that might work, but first, how do we know that? And second, if it's not, oof, Marshall, that's a lot of exposure if something goes wrong, not to mention a long way to the ground." She chews on her pencil for a moment. "If he's scared, or just worried about what the Owls are gonna do with him...and if he's technically property of SANDMAN, so to speak...why don't we just, you know, call him up and offer him a deal? Tell him we can get him out, the Owls are gonna do him dirty, go along with our plan and we can promise him protection and an escape route. We don't have to keep our promise any more than they have to keep theirs. Then we just send Dave or someone else up with his cart of baked beans and caviar, stick him in the bottom and smuggle him out, and let the Owls figure it out when it's too late and we've got him on ice somewhere. It's a pretty direct approach but if he's really sweating, he might buy it." (edited)
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/12/24, 6:46 PM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#research:(6+1+2)= 9Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/12/24, 6:48 PM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6 Psych-16:(2+4+4) Psych-16= 10Inverarity — 11/12/24, 6:52 PM
“Even if it’s commercial. There’s no reason it couldn’t work. No one would be expecting it. But perhaps we don’t even need to go that far. Maybe we just buy four tickets on his flight and work our will to ensure that he’s seated with us. Maybe he’s the one who should finally find out what it’s like to be taken for a ride.” (edited)
[6:53 PM]
“But you also make a good point about the approach.”
[6:54 PM]
“It may even be that simple. My concern, however, with that, is a potential trap. Jolly is crafty and smart, and desperate. I feel it’s better to catch him completely off guard and unprepared.”
Leonard — 11/12/24, 7:02 PM
"They'll have someone waiting for him at the airport. I suppose that could be us, too. But again, it's a lot more public than I'd be really comfortable with. At the very least, we need to get him before he's loose in the city -- it'll be hard to find him again, and even if we know when and where he's seeing those doctors, those are their people and we'll be playing on their home turf. If that's the way you want to play it, I'll go along, but I just think it's inviting a lot more complications than we need," Jocasta responds. After a couple of minutes of thought, she sparks a joint. "Let me ask you this. We have a lot on Jolly West. Tons and tons of documented evidence of some really heinous shit that he really did, no need to cook anything up. They want him out of the game so they can bury their connection to him and use him for their own purposes, if they still find him useful; we want him in our hands to keep him away from the Owls and to get some info out of them about what he's been doing for them. So, how bad do we need him? If it's gonna leave us dangling to snatch him up alive, how about we just take advantage of Dallas' rich history and..." She mimes pulling the trigger on a rifle. "Then we just flood the press with a controlled release of dirt that makes him look bad, and ties him to the Owls, but leaves us out of it as much as possible. "He's more valuable to them alive than dead. Are we 100% sure he's more valuable to us alive than dead? Shit, if it comes to it, we can talk to ghosts..." (edited)
MutantsMichael — 11/12/24, 7:04 PM
(Private jet is obviously a possibility with the Owls, but we don't have a bead on whether he's going to go private or commercial yet.) Yes, a quick afternoon of checking the plastic surgery literature confirms that Dr. Joseph Eades and Dr. Paul Weeks are part of the plastic surgery staff at the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis. They have a very good reputation nationwide; Eades is apparently tipped for the head of the rapidly growing plastic surgery department at the hospital. Apparently Jolly believed they were at a city hospital (possibly out of prejudice towards Thomas Rees at the Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital in New York). They've both been essential in popularizing plastic surgery outside of the rarefied practices of reconstructive surgery and wealthy Hollywood stars. As such, they serve patients from a lot of the center of the country. Eades is a veteran; he taught reconstructive surgery at Beaumont Army Medical Center in Fort Bliss, Texas in the late '60s. Weeks works at the Jewish Hospital under Eades and also the Washington University Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. These guys definitely seem like they'd be Project- or Owl-friendly.
Inverarity — 11/12/24, 7:28 PM
“I can see risk everywhere. What we’re doing will be risky. But I don’t want to kill him immediately. I don’t want to rely on necromancy — if Houdini taught me anything it is that ghosts lie.” A pause. “There’s something compelling about the flight abduction — it feels clean, and unexpected, and somehow less risky than attempting to go at him directly. But you’re right, it’s high up there, for something to go wrong. Let me think some more.”
November 22, 2024
MutantsMichael — 11/22/24, 8:24 AM
A reverberation goes through Mitch's soul as he idly looks out of the Sheraton window, west towards downtown and Dealey Plaza.
The day that they killed him, someone said to me, "Son, The age of the anti-Christ has just only begun.”
November 25, 2024
Inverarity — 11/25/24, 5:36 PM
Marshall stares out the window for a long time. Then: “Perhaps I’m overthinking it. But the things I am considering are: one, we want to get to him; two, we do not want to alert the Owls because this is very ‘off-book’. three, we don’t want to create a public incident — see point three. four, in the event that he doesn’t survive this encounter, we need legitimate plausible deniability — we will need to fake his death so well that no one — no one — even thinks it’s intentional. five, how do we not kill him? we can perhaps turn him, but we could never trust him. and we can’t let him get back to his secret masters — or get some radical face-lift and disappear into the Amazon.” He turns around and paces. “How do we solve all those problems? Your plan is a good plan, Jocasta. It would almost certainly work — the driver switch is a classic for a reason. But West, he needs to die at the end of this. Or at least never been see or heard from again. And it can’t look like us. It can’t look like anyone. Which is what brings me to the plane idea. Now,” he holds up a finger, “I’m not advocating for the hijack again. But it would work, wouldn’t it? In terms of creating cover, that is. An event that no one would suspect is manufactured because it’s so … broad. “What about a bomb threat? Evacuate the tower. We nab him in the chaos? Stupider people than us have done that successfully.”
@Inverarity
Marshall stares out the window for a long time. Then: “Perhaps I’m overthinking it. But the things I am considering are: one, we want to get to him; two, we do not want to alert the Owls because this is very ‘off-book’. three, we don’t want to create a public incident — see point three. four, in the event that he doesn’t survive this encounter, we need legitimate plausible deniability — we will need to fake his death so well that no one — no one — even thinks it’s intentional. five, how do we not kill him? we can perhaps turn him, but we could never trust him. and we can’t let him get back to his secret masters — or get some radical face-lift and disappear into the Amazon.” He turns around and paces. “How do we solve all those problems? Your plan is a good plan, Jocasta. It would almost certainly work — the driver switch is a classic for a reason. But West, he needs to die at the end of this. Or at least never been see or heard from again. And it can’t look like us. It can’t look like anyone. Which is what brings me to the plane idea. Now,” he holds up a finger, “I’m not advocating for the hijack again. But it would work, wouldn’t it? In terms of creating cover, that is. An event that no one would suspect is manufactured because it’s so … broad. “What about a bomb threat? Evacuate the tower. We nab him in the chaos? Stupider people than us have done that successfully.”
Leonard — 11/25/24, 6:27 PM
“Oh, I have no problem putting him in the ground. It’s ultimately not my call, but if what we have to do is pump him for all we can get and leave him a broken balloon, I won’t complain,” Jo says with a smile. “Bomb threat isn’t bad, and it would probably work. My only cavil would be that, again, the Owls are watching him like, uh, a hawk, and someone calling in a code red at Bryan Tower would probably put them on high alert. Maybe to a degree that they’d send in some muscle, which would be an additional complication. Now,” she says after a pause, “I love the…elegance of a hijacking. Especially if we can tie it in to the legend of our new recruit. Hell, I bet she’d even go for it. It’s just a very high-risk maneuver, and as I said, if something goes wrong, we’re 35,000 feet up.” She considers a bit more. “Maybe I’m overcomplicating things. What if we just hypnotize the driver to do everything he’d normally do at the normal time in the normal way, but when he gets our boy to the airport, he drops him at the wrong terminal, or at a limo garage or loading dock or whatever, where bang, we’re waiting for him? Reduces risk, minimizes exposure, leaves only one loose end, and gives the Owls nothing to worry about until the very last minute even if they’re tailing him.” (edited)
Inverarity — 11/25/24, 6:43 PM
“That’s good, but how do we ID the driver beforehand without raising suspicion? And what if the driver is Trained? I think it is safer to avoid the Owls — bypass them entirely, so that by the time the driver arrives, he is already gone. Once he’s gone, it’s an easy think to create a meme about his abduction by some faction or other — out for vengeance against a disgraced spy, happens all the time. I think we stage the bomb threat. Or something that requires the building to be evacuated. A fire. Or crash a Cessna into it. Or release a chemical in the air vent that requires evacuation but isn’t necessarily dangerous. Then we grab him from the crowd, amid the chaos. Or maybe we take the opportunity of a mass exit to get inside, to him, before he leaves. Do what we need to do there and perhaps even leave him a casualty of a heart attack.” (edited)
Leonard — 11/25/24, 7:06 PM
"You wanna squeeze him while the building is being evacuated? That's gonna be a tight squeeze, boss, maybe 10 or 15 minutes tops," Jo responds. "Still, it's your call. Where do you want us to start?"
Inverarity — 11/25/24, 7:29 PM
"No, you're right, that is a, uh, narrow window -- but do you think it's too narrow for extraction? We can have you, David inside the building; Mitch in a car in the parking garage or just outside. While everyone is evacuating, the inside team gets up to the penthouse, black-bag him, and haul him downstairs. Mitch burns rubber. So that leaves the incendiary event. If we go with the bomb threat, we can have someone -- you, perhaps -- check into the hotel under cover of glyph, just an ordinary traveler, and leave a simple bomb in whatever room they're given. Then I'll call the building manager, hotel manager, chief custodian, etc., etc., and Explain to them that there's a bomb in the building, our demands are XYZ. You get the idea."
November 26, 2024
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 8:07 AM
(Jocasta's already personally cased the Bryan Tower, knows the floor plans, etc. so she can definitely find the best location for us to place any explosives to give us maximum time inside. It feels like we could abstract the prep for the extraction into some skill rolls and then zoom ahead to the meat of the extraction op. An ambulance feels like a good cover vehicle for the extraction; lots of plausibility for a medical emergency amid a mid-day Friday building fire drill/evacuation, office worker having a heart attack, etc. etc. Jo and Dave in EMT garb—with SANGUSH glyphs to cloak Jo's being a woman—would work. If we want Mitch on the inside as well, given how useful his Pyro and Serendipity might be in a pinch with Jolly, that feels like a tactically-sound decision and one that would occur to Jocasta "Strategy-15/Tactics-16" Menos. Dave should probably be the ambulance wheel man when we get downstairs as I believe he is our best driver.)
[8:12 AM]
(Also, just so the spaces here are clear: URIEL has been based within the Sheraton across the way from the Bryan Tower; the Bryan Tower is primarily an office block with some luxury residential/temp-stay units on the top floors.)
@MutantsMichael
(Jocasta's already personally cased the Bryan Tower, knows the floor plans, etc. so she can definitely find the best location for us to place any explosives to give us maximum time inside. It feels like we could abstract the prep for the extraction into some skill rolls and then zoom ahead to the meat of the extraction op. An ambulance feels like a good cover vehicle for the extraction; lots of plausibility for a medical emergency amid a mid-day Friday building fire drill/evacuation, office worker having a heart attack, etc. etc. Jo and Dave in EMT garb—with SANGUSH glyphs to cloak Jo's being a woman—would work. If we want Mitch on the inside as well, given how useful his Pyro and Serendipity might be in a pinch with Jolly, that feels like a tactically-sound decision and one that would occur to Jocasta "Strategy-15/Tactics-16" Menos. Dave should probably be the ambulance wheel man when we get downstairs as I believe he is our best driver.)
Leonard — 11/26/24, 8:56 AM
LOL, came here to post almost exactly this. Jo's plan, since time is tight:
Book a room as close to Jolly's in the penthouse as possible.
Have the clever boys rig up a remote-controlled bomb (powerful, but not too powerful) and figure out the best place to put it that isn't likely to kill anyone innocent but is likely to cause the most damage, if we have to detonate it. Jo's thinking the building power plant but is fine with more likely ideas. It should be super-generic, even a bit clumsy.
Equip the team with glyphs, comms equipment, and light weapons for their medical kits.
Plan out the most likely escape route given that there will be a lot of smoke and noise and possibly no power.
Calculate the escape routes most likely to avoid cops or whatever else the Owls might send after us.
(edited)
[8:58 AM]
(sorry, added a few there on edit)
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 9:04 AM
Getting our hands on the bomb on extremely short notice, that's going to be probably the only tricky bit. A fake bomb or no bomb at all would be easier, but also would lack verisimilitude. Our main Explosives guy is currently getting ready to walk into the Watergate with Archie and Merrick. We could make a Patron roll here but asking for a bomb from the Project gang might raise alarm bells. We could also just jury-rig something from existing materiel; a few Vietnam surplus grenades, some C4/Semtex, and a timer. But we'd still need a wire-man. I have some thoughts on this, but the one that comes to Jo first is that we've been knee-deep in the leftist underground via the SLA the past few months since April, and that means not only do we have contacts, we actually have someone on URIEL who has (minor) experience with explosives from her time with the insurgency. And that's Tania. (edited)
[9:06 AM]
She could be flown into Dallas in a matter of a few hours, wire our bomb, even, if we wanted to, record a statement to help keep the Legend alive. If that was our wont.
[9:07 AM]
(Dave has no explosive ordnance experience from 'Nam, believe it or not.)
Leonard — 11/26/24, 9:08 AM
Ooh hell yeah. Her skill is kinda low but hopefully we won't need the thing to actually go off; and if they find it, and can link it to her time in the SLA, all the better. (I'm agnostic on her recording a statement, I'll leave that call to the brass.)
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 9:12 AM
(sorry) https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxPB6GkIU7unjNNXE_Ft14kkkKUr1s_4rV?si=K9CQjJcznDTBu33S
Spoiler
YouTube
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 9:27 AM
Roles seem to be: • Patricia wires bomb • Jo does Tactical planning • Marshall linguistically crafts the bomb threat • Dave and Mitch (plus Jo) squad up to take Jolly down: getting into the suite and incapacitating him (options include ikoters, pyro-induced heatstroke, Jo hitting Pressure Points, and/or injectables provided by Dr. Red)
1
Inverarity — 11/26/24, 10:12 AM
Yeah, Marshall will handle the actual threat. He will make it from a pay phone somewhere and will use the Voice/NLP. Will send more deets on that later today.
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 10:12 AM
Cool. I will await that, then issue some rolls to pave the way to get us into Jolly's suite.
Inverarity — 11/26/24, 12:06 PM
OK, so, Marshall's side of this I expect will be the "last" thing to happen -- the event that sparks the evacuation. His plan (which he'll share with Jo and Mitch beforehand in case they have feedback) is: (1) toss on an "I BELONG HERE" glyph; (2) get dropped off in an unremarkable sedan at a pay phone somewhere; (3) call the building management and use whatever manipulation/trickery/deceit/NLP he needs to get ahold of whoever is in charge of the facility; (4) explain that I represent a group that is opposed to the recent announcement (Sept 4, 1974) that the US and East Germany were going to establish full diplomatic relations; that there's a bomb in X room on Y floor; and that our demands are to terminate the diplomatic arrangement, which we believe represents a slippery slope toward a detente with the Commies. Marshall will keep the call short and liberally use NLP to "fill in the details," that is, let whoeveer he speaks to come up with the details on their own by prompting them to fill in the blanks ("I represent a right wing group that is opposed to normalization of relations between the USA and East Germany; the name sounded familiar but you can't remember it." "The name sounded familiar but I can't remember it.")
1
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 12:24 PM
"I represent a right wing group that is opposed to normalization of relations between the USA and East Germany"
1
@Inverarity
OK, so, Marshall's side of this I expect will be the "last" thing to happen -- the event that sparks the evacuation. His plan (which he'll share with Jo and Mitch beforehand in case they have feedback) is: (1) toss on an "I BELONG HERE" glyph; (2) get dropped off in an unremarkable sedan at a pay phone somewhere; (3) call the building management and use whatever manipulation/trickery/deceit/NLP he needs to get ahold of whoever is in charge of the facility; (4) explain that I represent a group that is opposed to the recent announcement (Sept 4, 1974) that the US and East Germany were going to establish full diplomatic relations; that there's a bomb in X room on Y floor; and that our demands are to terminate the diplomatic arrangement, which we believe represents a slippery slope toward a detente with the Commies. Marshall will keep the call short and liberally use NLP to "fill in the details," that is, let whoeveer he speaks to come up with the details on their own by prompting them to fill in the blanks ("I represent a right wing group that is opposed to normalization of relations between the USA and East Germany; the name sounded familiar but you can't remember it." "The name sounded familiar but I can't remember it.")
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 12:25 PM
So just NLP on this to get people filling in the blanks, no memetics?
Inverarity — 11/26/24, 12:38 PM
Yeah. This isn't a trail we want anyone to actually be investigating, so just letting the "victim" fill in the blanks using their own memory is the way to go.
1
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 12:38 PM
Okay, rolls for all three of you coming up.
Inverarity — 11/26/24, 12:40 PM
The biggest shift in tactics for Marshall going forward will be setting up right wing groups as patsies for URIEL’s actions as opposed to SANDMAN’s old tactic of blaming leftists and radicals.
1
1
1
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 12:52 PM
First off, for the record, it sounds like we're liberally using SANGUSH glyphs for everyone involved here, so Jo, Marshall, Mitch, and Dave will all get a single point of Corruption (note to self, will add to wiki when I can). Okay so here are the rolls I'll need from you on the setup for the extraction op: The prep • Patricia is being flown in to work on the wiring of the bomb and will be taking maximum Extra Time to do it, even if it takes all night Thursday, we have modafinils. That'll be an Explosives (Demolitions)-16 roll for her. I'll make that. • @Inverarity: Marshall's phone call to the Bryan Tower folks: First he'll roll Politics-20 (assessing a bonus to the roll here to reflect customizing this message to the unique right-wing terroir of Dallas) to craft the message, which will then aid his subsequent Public Speaking-22±2 roll to get the hook into the building manager, then it'll be Enthrallment (Persuade)-18±2 to sound convincing to the building manager/allowing him to fill in the blanks on your message's group of origin. • @Leonard: Jocasta's rolling Tactics-18 (aided by her previous time casing the Bryan Tower) to get both the bomb and the extraction team into position. I also would like a Savoir Faire (High Society)-22 roll (bonus from Jo's and SANDMAN's Resources) to reflect a Chanel-wearing high roller from California renting one of the Bryan Tower's few "secret" penthouse suites. • @Dr. Cronk: Mitch, if he is going inside with the extraction team to grab Jolly, can give me an overall Observation-18 to keep us apprised of people coming down stairwells, etc. so we can quickly make our way to the West suite. Mitch also has two uses of Serendipity he can use during this portion of the infiltration. The extraction When we get to the suite (if Jocasta's rental of one of the other penthouse suites has set us up to get there super quickly and intercept Jolly if he decides to evacuate), if Jolly's not already evacuating with the rest of the Bryan Tower workers, when we hit the door we can have Mitch use Lockpicking to try and make our way in, or Dave can try to bust the door down with Forced Entry/a melee attack; he'll pack a door ram as part of our EMT kit. Dave's untrained on the ikoter as of yet, but he'll be carrying a pistol ikoter regardless and taking the Default penalty (Beam Weapons (Pistol)-13). Mitch is trained on the Beam Weapons (Rifle) and can be carrying one to shoot from the second rank if Dave's first shot has no effect. As discussed, if both Dave and Mitch miss on first shot, Jocasta can try her martial arts moves to take our quarry down. Our final backup option should be a quick-acting chemical compound to either be injected or inhaled by West; a grapple will be necessary to use that. Exfiltration won't require much; a rolling stretcher and the freight elevator should get us down to our ambulance and thence to... whatever black site we've co-opted here in Dallas. Sound good?
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 1:06 PM
Overnight, Patricia works meticulously on the bomb; just the right balance of trigger explosive, reserve explosive, and remote detonator to put the Bryan Tower's state-of-the-art climate control and air circulation systems out of commission and create a hell of a smoky fire along with it. Flown in on private jet from Shasta, her first assignment in the field for URIEL comes off with flying colors; she refuses the artificial stimulants and finishes the "package" at around 3 am Friday, ready for Miss Menos to bring it in with her fancy luggage to the Bryan Tower suite in a few hours' time.
1
Leonard — 11/26/24, 1:06 PM
Sounds good to me. Jo will pack a bottle of chloroform or halothane if needed. If it's possible to set up a small camera or recording device trained on the door of Jolly's suite in case he tries to leave without us knowing, she'd like to do that, but I know we're at short notice, so if it's too little time, that's fine. (edited)
1
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 1:07 PM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#tactics:(4+6+5)= 151
1
@Leonard
Sounds good to me. Jo will pack a bottle of chloroform or halothane if needed. If it's possible to set up a small camera or recording device trained on the door of Jolly's suite in case he tries to leave without us knowing, she'd like to do that, but I know we're at short notice, so if it's too little time, that's fine. (edited)
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 1:07 PM
Camera placement will depend on your margin of success on both those rolls above, but I think that's doable.
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 1:07 PM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#savoirfaire:(1+6+6)= 13Leonard — 11/26/24, 1:10 PM
Jocasta has been smoking too much of this Operation
1
1
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 1:10 PM
Well, Jo gets the red carpet treatment from the Bryan's building manager, that's for sure. Impressed by her credentials and pocketbook, Jo slips into the suite at around 9:30 am and Dave (and Mitch?) follow up with her rather fancy (and copious) bags. And Jocasta's final scoping out of the upper-floor stairwells and giving Mitch and Dave the lay of the land also goes well, as she slips into the depths of the building at around 10:30 am to plant the package. (Made a secret Stealth roll here.)
[1:10 PM]
Jo plants the bomb, and pockets the remote detonator for possible use during the op.
[1:11 PM]
Marshall's up next with his phone call stuff.
Dr. Cronk — 11/26/24, 1:17 PM
Sorry, I haven't been keeping up to date, the planning has seemed outside of Mitch's wheelhouse. But absolutely he can assist Jo. Doesn't seem like it's needful to activate Serendipity (yet), but I can make the Observation roll if it's still relevant
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 1:17 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(4+6+3)= 131
Dr. Cronk — 11/26/24, 1:17 PM
Success by 5
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 1:19 PM
Beautiful. Mitch has his head on a swivel, having checked out as many of the auras of the folks he's seen in the hallways of the upper floors of the tower as possible for use when the evacuation inevitably begins. Should also mention that other than the SANGUSH glyphs packed away in our go-bags, Mitch detects no History B on the upper two floors of the Bryan Tower, including the Jolly West suite. So Jolly is not packing either reality shards or glyphs in his suite.
Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 1:22 PM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Politics-20:(1+6+3)= 101
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 1:22 PM
The timing of Marshall's call to the building manager should be at around 2 pm on Friday afternoon: all the execs and office workers will have stumbled back to their offices for the final few hours of the working week after their variously drunken lunch hours, and the mood of the high-rise office tower should be relaxed.
Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 1:22 PM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Speaking-22:(2+5+5)= 12Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 1:22 PM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Enthrall-18:(3+3+6)= 12MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 1:22 PM
Dang.
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 1:38 PM
Sizeable successes all around, a perfectly-crafted phone call. The building manager takes the threat very seriously, knowing how rife the Dallas suburbs are with Birchers, the Liberty Lobby, the KKK, etc. etc. The building manager orders an immediate "fire drill" and evacuation order of the entire building, which goes off at 2:07 pm; he calls the authorities immediately afterwards. Marshall listens in (with Pat Price? not sure if we decided we wanted him here; his remote viewing is useless on Bryan Tower but could be useful once our team is out of the building) to the police scanner and hears DPD and DFD radios crackle to life about the event going down at Bryan Tower; they're on their way. The building manager's third call will probably be to Trammell Crow's office at the Trade Mart; sadly, that office is also covered by Owl protective wards so Pat can't glimpse how that conversation might go down. Jo, Dave, and Mitch watch the few people on their suite floor filter out of their suites and make their way to the emergency exits. The extraction team make their way in EMT disguises and equipment up to the door of Jolly West's suite. The extraction team didn't see West evacuating, and they don't see the suite's door open upon coming into the suite's outer hallway "foyer." Dave takes a moment to draw the ikoter, as Jocasta and Mitch listen to what might be going on behind the door, distracted by the flashing lights and fire alarms. They can't hear anything substantive behind the door. (Secret Hearing checks made with a penalty.) If Mitch wants to try to unlock the West suite door, he can use Lockpicking-18 (14 plus the SANDMAN equipment bonus).
Dr. Cronk — 11/26/24, 1:58 PM
Is there room in the timeline for Mitch to have set up for a remote viewing attempt of the other side of this door?
@Dr. Cronk
Is there room in the timeline for Mitch to have set up for a remote viewing attempt of the other side of this door?
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 2:06 PM
Ah right. So now that Mitch is inside this presumably Owl-warded skyscraper, does his remote viewing work normally, is the question. I don't believe we ever directly answered this within the Bohemian Club in San Francisco, but what I can say is that as within the Bohemian Club, ever since Mitch waltzed into the lobby of Bryan Tower an hour or two ago carrying Miss Menos's bags along with Dave, he's had that new Ambrose Bierce-bequeathed Illuminated feeling of this building being a linchpin of Owl power, here in Dallas. But the boundary for Mitch's remote viewing that we've encountered elsewhere does seem to be circumscribed around the exterior of the building, because ever since Mitch has been inside, he's been able to get a better sense of the layout of the building in the people inside it. There's no hedge against any of his various "visions" here: aura reading, Detect History B, or, conceivably, remote viewing. So yes, given the proper 10 minutes prep time before the 2 pm Marshall call, Mitch could peep at Jolly in his suite in the moments leading up to the fire drill to confirm his whereabouts, and, if he's concentrating on it as we creep up the stairs to the suite, keep remote eyes on him as we attempt the break-in and abduction. If you want to give me that roll before we get to the Lockpicking.
[2:11 PM]
I would describe the psychic/Illuminated effect of Mitch being in an Owl hot spot to be very similar to the physical effect of trying to pick this lock while the lights and alarms are going off. Not so bad as to be mechanically distracting, but the kind of energy that would have the beginnings of a tension headache setting up in Mitch's neck and occipital brow.
[2:12 PM]
Anyway, activation is Clairvoyance-13.
Dr. Cronk — 11/26/24, 3:53 PM
The time constraints def make this a one-try situation
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 3:53 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(4+5+6)= 15Dr. Cronk — 11/26/24, 3:53 PM
Dang, no luck.
1
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 4:26 PM
Well, with no eyes inside the West suite, and no good idea by hearing of what's going on inside, it is time to break inside. That's a Lockpicking-18 for Mitch.
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 4:35 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(3+5+4)= 12MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 4:38 PM
So, that should take about half a minute (60 minus (6 x 5)). About halfway through Mitch's attempt to pick the lock, there is the clear sound of a telephone ringing inside the West suite. Now Dave, Jocasta, and Mitch can each give me a Hearing check because Jolly's voice will be somewhat audible over the clamor as he picks up the phone. Jocasta is a Hearing-19, Mitch's check will be at a -1 because of concentrating on the lockpicking, so a Hearing-14.
MutantsMichael used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 4:38 PM
@MutantsMichael rolled
3d6Dave Hearing-13:(6+2+3)= 11Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 4:41 PM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#hearing:(5+3+2)= 10MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 4:42 PM
West: "Trammell! What the hell is going on?" (3 secs) (pause of 8 secs) West: "Who called it in?" (2 secs) click Mitch unlocks the door.
[4:43 PM]
Dave's looking to the squad leader (Jocasta) for the nod to go in ikoters blazing.
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 4:47 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(2+2+6)= 10MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 4:48 PM
Yeah, all three of you can hear Jolly's bluster easily.
Dr. Cronk — 11/26/24, 4:48 PM
Mitch gets eyes on West, there is a slim but nonzero chance of spontaneous human combustion
Leonard — 11/26/24, 4:49 PM
Jocasta nods. “Hit it,” she says.
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 4:51 PM
Okay, Jo. You are the leader so you roll initiative. 1d6 plus: +2 for Combat Reflexes +1 for being trained in Tactics +2 for coming in unexpected So @Leonard, roll 1d6+5 and I'll roll Jolly's slim (1d6+1) chance to be able to avoid being stunned in surprise.
[4:52 PM]
Man I forgot how quick Dave is, shit
[4:52 PM]
MutantsMichael used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 4:52 PM
@MutantsMichael rolled
1d6+1Jolly's surprise/Initiative roll:(2)+1= 3MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 4:53 PM
Yeah, I can't beat d6+5, you all get a free round (at least one). (edited)
[4:54 PM]
Dave moves in first, takes a move/fire action and shoots his ikoter at Jolly, who cannot defend.
MutantsMichael used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 4:54 PM
@MutantsMichael rolled
3d6Beam Weapons (Pistol)-13:(2+6+5)= 13MutantsMichael used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 4:56 PM
@MutantsMichael rolled
3d6Jolly effective Will 13:(2+1+6)= 9MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 4:58 PM
Well, Jolly takes the first ikoter blast and the linguistic white noise does not affect him. @Leonard, Jocasta is next. She can move 25 feet and attack (even into melee; the suite is big but the phone is placed fairly close to the front door) and Jo can have prepared any equipment in hand before we busted in the door.
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/26/24, 4:59 PM
@Leonard rolled
1d6+5#initiative:(5)+5= 101
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 5:12 PM
(Opening up GURPS Bio-Tech for halothane et al. rules)
Leonard — 11/26/24, 5:20 PM
[Sorry, I gotta run a quick errand, I’ll pick this up as soon as I get home.]
1
Leonard — 11/26/24, 7:56 PM
Okay. Jo's gonna direct a heart punch right at Dr. West, attempting a Karate attack to the torso with Pressure Points. If she succeeds and he's temporarily choking, she'll try to slap some cuffs and a gag on him, then a quick blast of halothane. If anything goes wrong, well, we'll deal with it.
MutantsMichael — 11/26/24, 7:56 PM
NICE. I am too high to do the math now but I will do so tomorrow morning
November 27, 2024
@Leonard
Okay. Jo's gonna direct a heart punch right at Dr. West, attempting a Karate attack to the torso with Pressure Points. If she succeeds and he's temporarily choking, she'll try to slap some cuffs and a gag on him, then a quick blast of halothane. If anything goes wrong, well, we'll deal with it.
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 6:33 AM
Okay, lots o' math here. Let's start with the Karate attack. Jo's baseline Karate-14 does not need to be penalized for hit location if you're attacking the Torso. This gets a -2 because you're specifically using a Pressure Points attack. BUT the Underwater Panther is drooling for Jolly's blood, so you are being offered your Blessing which will add 1d6 to your DX. Granted, this is just an attack to immobilize, but it will likely lead eventually to Jolly's blood feeding the Panther and it will be excruciatingly painful and uncomfortable—and thematically appropriate—for Jolly to be gasping for breath. (Oh yeah, he's got that heart problem too; remember how he had that mild heart attack at Huntsville thanks to the Redgrave Gambit and Mitch lighting Tony on fire?). So if Jocasta wants to let Mishipeshu work through her, roll the 1d6 to add to your DX and then roll an appropriately modified Karate-12. (edited)
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 7:16 AM
While we're waiting, I should probably describe the state of the suite and of Jolly, even if you can't take it all in in the split-second or two you've been in here so far: So in exile, Jolly's gotten even shaggier, even portlier. He's wearing a tattered bathrobe with a crest on the breast that looks like it was cadged from a luxury hotel years and years ago. The suite stinks of takeout food, cigarettes, marijuana, and body odor; even with all its luxury appointments, it has the vibes of a very, very sad and scared man's hole-up. Ashtrays everywhere are overflowing with cigarette butts and roach clips. In the flash of vision the three of you get upon bursting in, you can also see some amber pill bottles scattered here and there; on side tables near the couch and on the "kitchen" table.
[7:16 AM]
Jolly is holding the phone while standing near its little dedicated side table; there's a notepad and a ballpoint there as well.
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 8:33 AM
@Leonard rolled
1d6#blessing:(6)= 6Leonard — 11/27/24, 8:33 AM
Oh yeah the Panther really wants this guy
1
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 8:34 AM
Oooh, Karate-18.
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 8:36 AM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#karate:(2+4+1)= 7MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 8:37 AM
Oof, one off a crit.
[8:38 AM]
Okay, so, now. You'll roll 1d6 damage as normal to reflect the blow. Then we roll Pressure Points-17 vs. Jolly's HT to see if his lungs seize up. (And then I have to see how Jolly's ticker handles the blow.) Once that's done, Mitch is up.
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 8:39 AM
@Leonard rolled
1d6#damage:(1)= 1Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 8:40 AM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#pressurepoints:(2+2+4)= 8MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 8:41 AM
With just a glancing, lightning-fast blow to his chest, Jolly's breathing becomes labored, shallow, and eventually seizes up. As his non-phone receiver holding hand moves towards his heart, he tries to hang on and not experience a cardiac event.
MutantsMichael used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 8:42 AM
@MutantsMichael rolled
3d6Cardiac Stress-9:(4+4+6)= 14MutantsMichael used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 8:42 AM
@MutantsMichael rolled
1d6Jolly loses this many Fatigue Points:(6)= 6MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 8:43 AM
Okay, as Mitch's turn in the one second-long first (surprise) round comes up, Jolly is: Stunned Dazed Suffocating At HP max minus 1 (Mitch sees he's at 8/9 HP with Aura Sight) At FP max minus 6 (Mitch sees he's at 3/9 FP with Aura Sight) Still holding the phone, listening to Trammell Crow talk (edited)
[8:43 AM]
@Dr. Cronk, whenever you're ready, it's your go.
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 8:48 AM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6Mitch lights him up on a 15+:(2+6+6)= 142
Dr. Cronk — 11/27/24, 8:48 AM
Whew!
[8:49 AM]
Mitch will try to grab the phone out of his hands and hang it up.
@Dr. Cronk
Mitch will try to grab the phone out of his hands and hang it up.
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 8:49 AM
No roll necessary, Jolly is helpless right now.
[8:50 AM]
(Btw, just added the pertinent info for Mitch's Aura Sight in the HP/FP info above)
[8:51 AM]
Okay, end of the round, and I need to see if Jolly's "surprise" Stunning ends.
MutantsMichael used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 8:51 AM
@MutantsMichael rolled
3d6IQ-15:(4+3+5)= 12MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 8:54 AM
Okay, he's no longer Stunned, but all the other conditions above apply. Dave will try again with the ikoter, this time he can do a full-round Determined attack, which will give him a Pistol-17 this round.
MutantsMichael used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 8:54 AM
@MutantsMichael rolled
3d6Pistol-17:(4+4+2)= 10MutantsMichael used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 8:55 AM
@MutantsMichael rolled
3d6Jolly effective Will 13:(4+5+5)= 141
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 8:56 AM
The suffocating and exhausted Jolly West has been successfully dazed (for the next minute) by a second blast from the Project's very own neurolinguistic weaponry.
[8:57 AM]
Which means Jocasta is up again.
[8:58 AM]
With Jolly now Dazed, he cannot do anything until he is attacked. Which means you can give him a big ol' huff of the halothane, gag and cuff him.
Leonard — 11/27/24, 9:00 AM
Jo is gonna proceed with her plan to brace West up. But if it's a free action (I'm not sure), she's gonna make a finger-to-the-lips 'shush' gesture at everyone. (edited)
1
[9:01 AM]
[On the assumption the place is bugged, even if there's not an open phone line]
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 9:02 AM
Jolly can be quickly bagged and tagged, as far as I'm concerned. Between the ikoter dazing, the Fatigue loss, and the dicky heart, he's as weak and passive as a kitten right now.
[9:02 AM]
We can shift out of combat. Textbook, you three.
Leonard — 11/27/24, 9:03 AM
Once he's trussed up, Jo will communicate with tactical signs to get West on the gurney and head down the hall to the service elevator -- Mitch pushing the crash cart with her, Dave taking the scouting lead about ten feet ahead.
1
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 9:07 AM
The top floor has been evacuated at this point, Dave on point sees no one on the way to the freight elevator. After calling it, it takes 15 or so seconds to arrive. Mitch keeps an Aura eye on Jolly on the gurney throughout the walk to the elevator and the wait and his vitals are stable. His heart is definitely taxed by the experience, but the halothane hasn't depressed his heart rate into dangerous territory. He'll be out for at least a couple of hours without something to counteract the anesthetic. Ding! The freight elevator arrives, empty. Jo hits the emergency button which puts the four of you on the express ride to the service entrance, where our chariot awaits.
[9:14 AM]
(Thinking about where our local black site should be located... somewhere far away from Trammell Crow's real estate empire, which means out of the DFW metroplex, maybe a good ride out of town in an abandoned factory or warehouse, close to the newly-opened DFW and Love Field. I will look for good candidates this morning; whatever the case, the ride will take a half-hour or so, the sirens and lights going off as we take the Dealey Plaza route to Stemmons, just like the President's motorcade 11 years ago...) (edited)
Inverarity — 11/27/24, 9:19 AM
Marshall will be waiting at whatever pre-arranged black site we have — which, yes, should be well out of the city and pretty isolated. Should be easy to find in Texas.
2
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 9:42 AM
The exurbs northwest of Dallas/north of Fort Worth aren't anywhere nearly as built-up in 1974 as they will be in 50 years... but the opening of DFW airport means that the interstate infrastructure is starting to collect facilities dedicated to the economic sector now increasingly being called "logistics" thanks to the influence of military strategy in transportation and communication. Combined with the warehousing facilities popping up in formerly sleepy rural Denton County towns like Carrolton, Grapevine, Lewisville, are the older industries: ranching, melon and cotton farming, oil. In the shadow of a now long-tapped-out oil derrick lies a long, dilapidated bunkhouse for the roughnecks who scrambled all over central and west Texas in the 1910s through 1930s looking for black gold. The property also holds an office house and a long, barn-like bunkhouse. On the side of the bunkhouse is old, chipped white paint declaring this property of the "A.M. DONNELLY DRILLING COMPANY." Bought on the cheap this week, this property—abandoned since 1952 and held by an obscure holding company not associated with any of the big nouveau real estate magnates in Dallas proper—now, temporarily anyway, belongs to an umbrella corporation associated with the Mission's Dr. S. M. Redgrave. The power's back on inside the bunkhouse and that's where Marshall and Pat have been sitting, tuning into boosted DFW metroplex law enforcement frequencies. The ambulance pulls fully into the large bunkhouse through its barn-like doors, rendering it and the other vehicles URIEL's been using invisible to anybody snooping from above. The whole property remains dark at night, blackout windows having been put up this week around the bunkhouse. Marshall has put together an approximation of the Barn back home in California; the facilities aren't as fancy as ours there with one-way glass and the like, but there is a set-aside interrogation room inside the bunkhouse with high-quality locks, a solid metal chair, cot, and chemical toilet.
[9:47 AM]
As Jolly gets rolled off the back of the ambulance into the interrogation room, Jo, Marshall, Mitch, Dave, and Pat can hear Jolly mumbling through the halothane haze, a little tuneless whisper, half-giddy, half-doomed, that in its suddenness and forlornness sends a chill up spines in the room.
302.67 KB
-:--/-:--
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 9:49 AM
Current Affairs (Popular Culture), if you've got it as a skill. If not, you can roll IQ minus 4 or another Current Affairs minus 4.
Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 9:52 AM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Pop Culture-12:(1+3+6)= 10Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 9:52 AM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#IQminus4equals12:(5+3+6)= 14MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 9:54 AM
(Will wait for Mitch, the actual LA session musician, before I do the explanation for Marshall.)
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 10:52 AM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6I don't recall his skill but probably it's either 12 or 14:(5+3+1)= 9MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 10:59 AM
Marshall and Mitch both are able to identify (the first two lines, anyway) as coming from the second track on Side B of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, "I Know There's an Answer." But the album version goes, "Now how can I come on/And tell them the way that they live could be better?" instead of "Now how can I say it/And how can I come on when I know I'm guilty." Mitch remembers there being some rumor when he was doing session gigs among some of the members of the Wrecking Crew about Mike Love making Brian Wilson change the lyrics to be less about Brian taking LSD and more about the Beach Boys implying that they're condemning people who take LSD. The session player rumormongers remembered the forbidden Brian version of the song was called "Hang On to Your Ego."
[11:01 AM]
(The idea of Jo being too square for even the Beach Boys thanks to rolling that 14 is making me smile.)
[11:02 AM]
Dave and Pat, too, are largely nonplussed.
@MutantsMichael
(The idea of Jo being too square for even the Beach Boys thanks to rolling that 14 is making me smile.)
Leonard — 11/27/24, 11:04 AM
"No, it can't be them. They sing about surfing."
1
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 11:06 AM
("When they started singing some of the most perfect and weird pop songs ever crafted I really tuned out")
Leonard — 11/27/24, 11:33 AM
At some point, Jo's going to do a quick First Aid pass on West, and assuming he's not at death's door, she'll crack some salts under his nose and bring him around. "Wake up, Jolly," she coos quietly. "Time to pay the piper."
1
1
Inverarity — 11/27/24, 11:50 AM
(busy 'till later today so may be a hold up on Marshall's end)
1
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 11:51 AM
(As I wait for J to get out of work, just a couple of things about the upcoming scene: 1) I'm assuming it's Jo, Marshall and Mitch In The Room with Jolly, and Dave and Pat outside out of earshot and sight; if this isn't the case even at first, please let me know. 2) Since I've been waiting so long for this pair of scenes, I definitely want to do them right so here's the ground rules over the next couple and half weeks until the live session: I won't blast ahead too far until everyone's had their say on a particular round of Q's and A's; if one of our interrogators wants to jump in at any point, we should all give everyone space to use a power, ask a question, have a sidebar etc. etc. I want to take our collective time with this scene, it and Gottlieb are kinda Central to the entire back third of this campaign. That's all. Let's have fun out there, team.) (edited)
MutantsMichael changed the channel name: [M10I3] Operation CANNABIS, Donnelly Drilling Co., Outside Carrollton, Texas, Early Sep 1974 — 11/27/24, 12:13 PM
@Leonard
At some point, Jo's going to do a quick First Aid pass on West, and assuming he's not at death's door, she'll crack some salts under his nose and bring him around. "Wake up, Jolly," she coos quietly. "Time to pay the piper."
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 1:00 PM
Jolly wakes with a start, screaming with real authentic gut-wrenching fear (in his Aura and from Jo's Empathy), "Charlie!" His vision, blurred and painful, finally comes into focus as he sees Jocasta. He blinks, trying to move his arms while his hands are cuffed to the interrogation chair. The shock and fear of whatever he saw as he came to settles down into a deep-seated dread at what he's found himself facing in waking reality.
Leonard — 11/27/24, 3:14 PM
Jo steels herself. She's not going to let herself get rattled. She's in that all-business mode that usually ends with a deep hole in the ground. "What's the matter, Jolly? Is something troubling your mind?", she says, pulling on a pair of surgical gloves. "Normally I would offer to help you sort it out, but the last time we met, I thought I made it clear that you were working for us. And next thing I know, you're an absentee! Not very respectable behavior for someone who wants to keep their job. And yet you clearly have had your mind on your work. Where have you been?" She places a cup of water on a small end table near his gurney and waits.
Inverarity — 11/27/24, 3:35 PM
"Tsk, Jocasta. Give our friend here a moment," Marshall says, emerging into the room, clad in his usual outrageous finery. He looks at Jolly, his eyes vacant, but a smile on his face. "Louis -- Jolly -- you'll have to forgive her. She takes these things very personally. Though," his smile grows a little broader, "I did warn you: this ride was going to go differently than you might have expected." (edited)
2
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 3:40 PM
Grimacing and squeezing his eyes tight, then reopening them to the sight of Dr. Red, Jolly exhales, a catch in his throat from the halothane, the smelling salts, the blow to the chest, or the stress—or all four—struggling to get the words out. "You... how did you find me?"
Inverarity — 11/27/24, 3:41 PM
Marshall rolls his eyes. "Jolly, come on." He signals to Jocasta to hit him.
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 3:41 PM
He's a sitting duck. Jocasta only misses him on a 3 or 4.
[3:42 PM]
And even then the miss is less a "miss" than a bad punch.
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 3:43 PM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#karate:(5+1+4)= 10MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 3:43 PM
d6 damage.
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/27/24, 3:43 PM
@Leonard rolled
1d6#damage:(2)= 2MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 3:44 PM
A solid right hook to the chin bloodies Jolly West's lip. He groans.
Inverarity — 11/27/24, 3:45 PM
"We find people, Jolly. You know that." A pause as he approaches. "You said Charley there, a moment ago -- Charley Helix? Or someone else?"
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 3:50 PM
Mitch sees Jolly's aura jitter, flashing through a series of emotions: the physical pain and the psychic shame of being hurt by a woman, being humiliated by Marshall, a tiny thrill at the sound of Charley's full name (he's interested in why Marshall asked that, Mitch can clearly tell), and then the same pit of the stomach fear he had on waking from his slumber. "Charlie... Charles Manson. I had a vision of him as I was coming to." Marshall sees he's telling the truth; so does Mitch. "He was a demon. It was a nightmare. Terry and Dennis and the Free Clinic, that whole crew for some reason... I was thinking about them. Dreaming about them." Here Marshall senses Jolly holding something back, lying by omission: not about Manson and Terry Melcher and Dennis Wilson necessarily, but about why he was "dreaming" about them. (Off to meditate now—lol—but I want to give Mitch and Jo any opening they might want here as well. Obviously only Mitch has the full bouquet of those aura emotions but between Marshall's and Jo's Empathies and the circumstances of Interrogation, Jolly is going to be pretty much an open book this entire scene. Marshall can tell his once fairly-formidable will has crumbled, from both the months-long exile and the events of today.) (edited)
Inverarity — 11/27/24, 3:52 PM
(Marshall would like Mitch to be out of sight from Jolly, but visible to Marshall, a la how they handled Mr. Green a ways back, so that Mitch can signal things to Marshall that he's picking up with Aura Sight, etc., without Jolly seeing.)
1
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 3:52 PM
(Easily done.)
Leonard — 11/27/24, 4:10 PM
[Jocasta is just gonna follow Marshall's lead here. If she wants her to lean, she'll lean, and if her psychic abilities are needed, she'll use them, but she figures Marshall has better priorities and direction for getting what we want out of Jolly than she does.]
1
Dr. Cronk — 11/27/24, 4:17 PM
Sure! Under these circumstances I'm not confident that Mitch's aura sight will be any more effective than Jo's and Marshall's senses, but he can ASL abbreviated information if and when he detects it. I could roll IQ for aura analysis if that's called for? Or just wait until somebody needs something nonflammable lit on fire.
[4:19 PM]
(I am hopeful that before the end of the campaign Mitch will make use of GURPS pyrokinesis "things that don't normally burn" rider to ignite a glass of water or a brick or something, maybe as part of a climax in which reality is dissolving around us)
1
@Dr. Cronk
Sure! Under these circumstances I'm not confident that Mitch's aura sight will be any more effective than Jo's and Marshall's senses, but he can ASL abbreviated information if and when he detects it. I could roll IQ for aura analysis if that's called for? Or just wait until somebody needs something nonflammable lit on fire.
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 4:22 PM
(I'll definitely say Mitch is conveying the broad strokes of Jolly's aura-emotional state with ASL; I'll call for analysis rolls if and when the general circumstances around Jolly's aura change. As of now Jolly is barely able to process visual information in front of him so Mitch's presence is completely unknown to him.)
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 4:31 PM
(Okay, one more dribble of Jolly and then you guys can really get down to it.) Jolly remains cagey about the Charles Manson/Dennis Wilson/Terry Melcher/Free Clinic stuff, like he'd given away a secret in extremis. Part of Jolly, Marshall can tell now, knows he's fucked; there's a sense inside him that the secrets he's carried the past quarter century are literally all that's left of him. Despite his will being snapped, Marshall can tell Jolly's ego structure is still extremely strong. His identity, his history, his actions, his skills, his journey to this place and time, its implication of finality... the psyche known as Louis Jolyon West is held up by all these elements of his life, like a house of cards leaning on itself, and a stiff wind is blowing. As if he could sense Marshall's keen analytical mind perceiving this, Jolly speaks again. "Perversely, I kind of want to tell you everything." Blood dribbles from Jolly's mouth as he looks directly at Marshall. "But I'm not sure if any of you know which questions to ask. We're way beyond apocalypse survival conspiracies now. Well beyond domestic racial politics, esmological balancing acts."
Leonard — 11/27/24, 4:47 PM
Jocasta looks over at Marshall. "They always tell us how much we don't know."
Inverarity — 11/27/24, 4:53 PM
“Yes,” Marshall says to Jocasta, without looking at her. “Old spy trick. Try to establish value — buy yourself some time.” Marshall takes a seat across from Jolly, crosses one leg over the other, and takes out a cigarette. (I’d love it if Mitch ignited it for him with his Pyro, but if he doesn’t, Marshall waits a beat, like he’s thinking, and then lights it himself). “But here the man has a point. I’m not sure we do know what questions to ask. What was it Socrates said about wisdom, Jolly?” (edited)
@Inverarity
“Yes,” Marshall says to Jocasta, without looking at her. “Old spy trick. Try to establish value — buy yourself some time.” Marshall takes a seat across from Jolly, crosses one leg over the other, and takes out a cigarette. (I’d love it if Mitch ignited it for him with his Pyro, but if he doesn’t, Marshall waits a beat, like he’s thinking, and then lights it himself). “But here the man has a point. I’m not sure we do know what questions to ask. What was it Socrates said about wisdom, Jolly?” (edited)
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 5:02 PM
Jolly smiles. "'I am wiser than this man; for neither of us really knows anything fine and good, but this man thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas I, as I do not know anything, do not think I do either.'"
Dr. Cronk — 11/27/24, 5:07 PM
"Christ, what an asshole."
1
Inverarity — 11/27/24, 5:21 PM
“Exactly,” Marshall says, exhaling smoke. “So what do you say we drop the whole routine. Maybe we don’t need Ms. Menos to do, well, whatever it is she does to men. Men like you. Maybe you can just pretend you’re me.” He inhales on the cigarette. “Pretend you’re me, Jolly. What would you ask me, if you were me? What would you want to know?”
@Inverarity
“Exactly,” Marshall says, exhaling smoke. “So what do you say we drop the whole routine. Maybe we don’t need Ms. Menos to do, well, whatever it is she does to men. Men like you. Maybe you can just pretend you’re me.” He inhales on the cigarette. “Pretend you’re me, Jolly. What would you ask me, if you were me? What would you want to know?”
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 5:24 PM
"Well, what's the first thing you do in a job interview? Hand over your CV. Of course, the one the universities have on file for me is a little bit... abridged. Selectively edited." (edited)
Inverarity — 11/27/24, 5:25 PM
Marshall is -- and will remain -- totally silent and stone faced for as long as it takes for Jolly to keep going.
@Inverarity
Marshall is -- and will remain -- totally silent and stone faced for as long as it takes for Jolly to keep going.
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 7:08 PM
Jolly takes a considerable amount of time to collect his thoughts. "Neither of us would be here without Herr Doktor Albert Hofmann, so I suppose that's as good a place as any to start. '19 April, 1943. Home by bicycle. From 18:00 to circa 20:00, most severe crisis.' At a conference in Switzerland a few years ago Hofmann himself regaled me with the story of riding his bicycle home that day. I found so much interesting about his description of the experience. He told of the sensation of not moving at all even while he and his assistant rode home at considerable speed. Hoffman received a jug of milk from his neighbor, to counteract the lysergic acid tartate's effects. She appeared to him 'a malevolent, insidious witch... with a colored mask.' Ordinary household objects changed their appearances, moving on their own, even speaking to him. He felt as if a demon were trying to enter his body, and eventually 'was taken to another world, another place, another time.'" Jolly pauses. "Two weeks later, in North Africa, the pincers of the Allied forces converged on Tunis, driving the Third Reich from the continent. In the ruins of Carthage, amid the hastily abandoned French dig site, upon the altars of Moloch, appeared the Irruptors in their waves: hundreds of them, attracted to the blood sacrifice, the largest Duncorne-documented Irruption since Rhodesia, 1899. Two weeks after that? Project SANDMAN was born in Cairo." (edited)
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 7:23 PM
"It was right around this time that a poor, wet-behind-the-ears Jewish kid from Madison, Wisconsin with a helpfully goyische last name was applying for a spot in the Army Specialized Training Program. He wanted to help his country, and he wanted to rescue his people in Europe from annihilation. Uncle Sam? He needed doctors. So over the next five years, this kid became one. He got commissioned in the Air Force when it became its own branch, and in five more years he was Chief Psychiatric Officer at Lackland Air Force Base down in San Antonio. It was here where the trajectories of Doctor Hofmann's child, Project SANDMAN, and Louis West finally intersected, all thanks to those brave fighting men from Korea who came back... a little confused about who were the good guys." Jolly here pauses, flashes a quick look at Jocasta. "How is Archie these days, by the way?" (edited)
Dr. Cronk — 11/27/24, 7:23 PM
2
[7:24 PM]
(Mitch is making this gesture)
Leonard — 11/27/24, 7:44 PM
Jocasta remains stone-faced. If he wants to go through the Five Stages of Getting Caught Snitching, she can wait.
@MutantsMichael
"It was right around this time that a poor, wet-behind-the-ears Jewish kid from Madison, Wisconsin with a helpfully goyische last name was applying for a spot in the Army Specialized Training Program. He wanted to help his country, and he wanted to rescue his people in Europe from annihilation. Uncle Sam? He needed doctors. So over the next five years, this kid became one. He got commissioned in the Air Force when it became its own branch, and in five more years he was Chief Psychiatric Officer at Lackland Air Force Base down in San Antonio. It was here where the trajectories of Doctor Hofmann's child, Project SANDMAN, and Louis West finally intersected, all thanks to those brave fighting men from Korea who came back... a little confused about who were the good guys." Jolly here pauses, flashes a quick look at Jocasta. "How is Archie these days, by the way?" (edited)
Inverarity — 11/27/24, 8:01 PM
Marshall says: “He’s well. Working on some teevee treatments. He’s in charge of your old stomping grounds now. Though I’m sure you know that already. Anyway,” Marshall smokes, “why would I want to know this, Jolly? Do you think I think I need this context? If so, why?”
@Inverarity
Marshall says: “He’s well. Working on some teevee treatments. He’s in charge of your old stomping grounds now. Though I’m sure you know that already. Anyway,” Marshall smokes, “why would I want to know this, Jolly? Do you think I think I need this context? If so, why?”
MutantsMichael — 11/27/24, 8:20 PM
"I do think you need this context, Marshall. Fully. Without the context, you can't begin to ask those questions you really want to ask." "Before I get back to Lackland '53 and those poor brainwashed soldiers, let me get Socratic... ask you a question, to help bring that context into view for you. And Miss Menos and... Mitch Hort, is it?" Jolly tries to turn his neck to see the wiseacre who said "Christ, what an asshole" behind him but he can't. "Miss Menos and Mr. Hort can answer to the best of their knowledge too." "Why do you think our military and intelligence communities—with SANDMAN's help, of course—have waged this cold war against the Communists since 1945, and waged it so completely, so ruthlessly, so totally? Drill down to first principles, put to the side all the memetics we use on the masses, all the bunting and all the fireworks. In simplest terms. Why?"
Inverarity — 11/27/24, 9:19 PM
“Jolly, I’m giving you a courtesy here — one old hand to another. You keep casting side-eyes at my colleagues, that won’t go well for you. Do you understand?” He snaps his fingers as if to catch Jolly’s attention. “Look at me — and understand. The only thing keeping you alive right now is the fact that I haven’t asked one of them to kill you. Or worse. So don’t mistake this for a conversation. I’m not here to play student. Tell me.”
November 28, 2024
@Inverarity
“Jolly, I’m giving you a courtesy here — one old hand to another. You keep casting side-eyes at my colleagues, that won’t go well for you. Do you understand?” He snaps his fingers as if to catch Jolly’s attention. “Look at me — and understand. The only thing keeping you alive right now is the fact that I haven’t asked one of them to kill you. Or worse. So don’t mistake this for a conversation. I’m not here to play student. Tell me.”
MutantsMichael — 11/28/24, 6:28 AM
Mitch's Aura Sight, Marshall's reading of Jolly's (necessarily minimal) body language, and Jocasta's Empathy show the slightest flicker of annoyance at Marshall asking him to cut to the chase, mixed with a much larger quotient of the coward's fear of physical pain and suffering. Jolly knows what happens in rooms like this one, and he wants to avoid options that cause him pain. But his preening intellectual pride, too, is sizeable, and his desire to monologue is mixed with a sincere wish for these three Sandmen to understand why they have been doing their jobs for the past years. Not in an attempt to convert them to his point of view, by any means, but because he feels URIEL are worth that courtesy. But, under threat of harm, he tries to cut to the chase as best he can. "The question we asked ourselves in 1953 was how could this have been accomplished. How could these brave fighting men, raised in the finest, richest, most heroic country on Earth, not only confess to crimes like biological warfare—which they may or may not have committed, let's be fair—but to espouse the Communist line after only a month or two behind barbed wire. The Nazis couldn't do it with Allied POWs with any measure of success, and they had the basics of NLP and memetics within their grasp! So what was the method of action here?" "Belief shapes the world. You know that know with what you've seen, even more acutely than most Sandmen. If the Chinese, the Russians had some method to turn our best men, we needed to work on something equally effective here, some combination of memetics, pharmacology, and, when necessary, the stick of violence, to ensure that our redoubt of ontological safety here in America could never be penetrated." "Why did I take those vets and break them back down and reprogram them? Why did I take what I learned from this and send it to Sidney Gottlieb and help form the backbone of what would become MKUltra? Ultimately, because our empire could not be allowed to fall. Because, Marshall, of Control." "What is Control? It is what allows us to live freely. Men cannot be trusted to run their own affairs. Their betters must do it for them. And if certain men, men who act as the hands and eyes and ears of Control in this world, end up wealthy and powerful because they have written themselves into that role, they will surely want to ensure there is no competition for Control. Whether from other Histories, or second, or third, Worlds. Those histories and worlds must be first fought, then subjugated, and then finally enveloped and absorbed." "No one man is in charge; it's like a firing squad where one of the men is given blanks. No one man makes decisions, but instead an interrelated, interwoven set of common material interests, dictated by the vicissitudes of Control, does. The Project, and the vectors of force associated with the United States military and intelligence forces, projects that Control into the world, domestically and on foreign soil." "This is the job you've all been doing. This is whom you've been working for most of your adult lives. And so I look at and hear the three of you, and I see the same look of righteousness, of rebellion that I saw in those brainwashed American POWs twenty years ago, and I wonder how they got to you as well." "Which, of course, is why I asked about Archie."
Inverarity — 11/28/24, 8:20 AM
“You cannot seriously expect me to believe, Jolly, that all this — all of this — is because the Koreans managed to get few of America’s blue-eyed, corn-fed youth to change their minds.”
@Inverarity
“You cannot seriously expect me to believe, Jolly, that all this — all of this — is because the Koreans managed to get few of America’s blue-eyed, corn-fed youth to change their minds.”
MutantsMichael — 11/28/24, 9:05 AM
(I will again pause after this move for Jo and Mitch to have a chance to catch up.) "That's exactly what I'm telling you. SANDMAN was born in World War II, but it truly came of age—got the black budget funding it needed to become the enforcing arm of Control—thanks to what happened on the Korean peninsula." "The SAO had obviously been grappling towards memetics and mass social control in the interwar period—Walter Lippmann, Edward Bernays, George Estabrooks, all those good fellows—but what good was any of it if the Commies could turn around our finest with just a little bit of pressure? That kind of thing could spread so easily. It needed to be dug out utterly, root and branch." "You would have been, what, just heading off to Harvard around the time of McCarthyism? The Rosenbergs, the State Department, and what not? Terrifically effective memetics, a trial balloon for the media inculcation that was to come. Out with the morally-ambiguous noirs, in with the war and cowboy movies." "It wasn't all done purely for propaganda effect, though. Allying with the Soviets to beat the Nazis had given a lot of people at home the wrong idea about Communism. The nuclear program, for God's sake, the weapon we knew we needed in order to hold the Kings ransom, lousy with comsymps!" "Co-existence was never an option; the first formal esmological models made by Nash, Wiener and von Neumann made that crystal clear. One branch of that, of course, became the planning that led to the CWG... just in case we ended up the losers." "It was kill or be killed, whether by the Kings or the Communists. It would need to be a full-spectrum approach, then: cybernetics, memetics and mass media as a prophylactic social measure, nuclear and conventional weapons and a global presence to hedge in both kinds of Reds militarily, and the infiltration, corralling, and containment of subversives at home. A lot of variables, but we had the benefits of Control working for us." "And of course it was important that no one with any modicum of power would ever espouse the idea of peaceful co-existence with the Reds." "Two things happened in 1961 that would affect the balance of power we'd perfected during the Fifties. One: yet again in North Africa, an irruption was stopped; this time, with nuclear weapons, the second time they'd been used against the Kings and the first time a Red King was confirmed killed in the transdimensional blast. That taught them a lesson they're still smarting from." Jolly smiles. "Two: a newly-elected President and his brother, raised by a dedicated anti-Communist, gave the CIA and by extension the Project free rein to invade Cuba and retake the island from the Communists... and then, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, on the 18th anniversary of Albert Hofmann's bicycle ride, ordered the planned air cover for Operations PLUTO and MARS scaled back and eventually withdrawn." At this, Jolly audibly gulps. "That was a very, very stupid thing to do." Jolly's emotional aura throughout all this is stalwart, calm, methodical, proud; he's not lying about any of it, as far as Marshall can tell, and there are no moments where it seems like he's censoring himself or lying by omission. He is telling the Secret History of the Cold War as he knows it as best and as completely as he can. The idea of overwhelming force, of never admitting either defeat or the possibility of Another World being possible, are at the center of Control's postwar world. The excess, the absolutism, the cruelty... they're all the point. If there's anything that Marshall, Jo, and Mitch are able to tell Jolly is consciously eliding from his approving review of the U.S. world-system, it's that he speaks of Control as if it weren't merely the inchoate force at the center of American empire or the supposed council of elders who steer Project SANDMAN. To him, it's something greater... something like a god.
Leonard — 11/28/24, 9:36 AM
Jocasta leans down and picks up an old brown leather satchel from the floor and starts unpacking it; Jolly can tell before he even sees it that it's packed with the tools that get used in places like this. But something in her expression has changed; her hatred of Jolly West has started to become something else, something clinical, like she's looking not at a person but a particularly loathsome sort of insect. "It's funny," she says, seemingly to no one. Jolly senses the same affect in her as when she last paid him a visit, that detached looseness he once saw in Susan Atkins. He's not wrong; sometime since their arrival at the Donnelly Drilling building, she's taken a powerful shot of LSD. "Everybody figures out the score when they're sitting in this room. All the tough-guy façade, the bargaining, the hope against hope, the denial, it never amounts to anything. The only thing to figure out is how long they'll keep struggling. You've seen that, right, Jolly? You've seen in a hundred times," she says, dropping a heavy claw hammer on the table. "Even if you were never the one holding the tools. "But you're still at it! You know exactly where you are and what's about to happen, and you still can't resist. Still making your speeches to the balcony, still talking about how there was no other way, how the rabble can't be trusted, how your vision of the world had to be protected at all costs, how you and your cronies deserve everything for the great service you performed for those ungrateful fools. You're a true believer, Jolly. That's as rare as a blue moon. Even most of the Nazis had more sense than to go out like that. Only Hitler had that pure delusional self-assurance, right up until he ate that PPK slug. It's really something." She puts a pair of rugged pliers on the table. "Really something special."
1
@Leonard
Jocasta leans down and picks up an old brown leather satchel from the floor and starts unpacking it; Jolly can tell before he even sees it that it's packed with the tools that get used in places like this. But something in her expression has changed; her hatred of Jolly West has started to become something else, something clinical, like she's looking not at a person but a particularly loathsome sort of insect. "It's funny," she says, seemingly to no one. Jolly senses the same affect in her as when she last paid him a visit, that detached looseness he once saw in Susan Atkins. He's not wrong; sometime since their arrival at the Donnelly Drilling building, she's taken a powerful shot of LSD. "Everybody figures out the score when they're sitting in this room. All the tough-guy façade, the bargaining, the hope against hope, the denial, it never amounts to anything. The only thing to figure out is how long they'll keep struggling. You've seen that, right, Jolly? You've seen in a hundred times," she says, dropping a heavy claw hammer on the table. "Even if you were never the one holding the tools. "But you're still at it! You know exactly where you are and what's about to happen, and you still can't resist. Still making your speeches to the balcony, still talking about how there was no other way, how the rabble can't be trusted, how your vision of the world had to be protected at all costs, how you and your cronies deserve everything for the great service you performed for those ungrateful fools. You're a true believer, Jolly. That's as rare as a blue moon. Even most of the Nazis had more sense than to go out like that. Only Hitler had that pure delusional self-assurance, right up until he ate that PPK slug. It's really something." She puts a pair of rugged pliers on the table. "Really something special."
MutantsMichael — 11/28/24, 9:40 AM
"It's what I owe Them." Jolly says, the fear of physical violence rising to the top of his aura again. "It's what I owe Them for the trust They placed in me... after Jack."
MutantsMichael — 11/28/24, 9:48 AM
(I actually might have the three of you give me some rolls now.)
[9:54 AM]
Jocasta: Interrogation-18 Marshall: Psychology-23 Mitch: Aura Sight-17 (situational bonuses already assessed thanks to previous secret rolls and/or equipment and circumstances)
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/28/24, 10:03 AM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#interrogation:(1+3+5)= 9Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/28/24, 10:04 AM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Psych-23:(3+1+2)= 62
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/28/24, 11:34 AM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(6+2+3)= 11MutantsMichael — 11/28/24, 11:35 AM
(Will shoot you three a series of observations based on these rolls later today maybe. Marshall's crit obviously looms large, but you all should be able to come to some larger, more holistic conclusions on Jolly and the Owls by the JFK assassination halfway point of Jolly's little history lesson.)
November 29, 2024
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 6:35 AM
(I'm going to slot up to the JFK assassination, then give you all the results of your die rolls. It seems to flow a little better considering the gravity of the coming revelations.)
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 6:54 AM
"The Bay of Pigs made the CIA mad, but it was the Cuban Missile Crisis that made the Project mad. How are we supposed to hold the planet hostage to the Kings with the threat of nuclear suicide if we're going to go and actually follow through on Mutually Assured Destruction over a pissant island in the Caribbean? Kennedy got the credit for being a 'peacemaker,' but he went too far in the aftermath. Didn't realize that the creative tension of the Cold War was the point of the enterprise. And honestly he just moved too far, too fast on a whole lot of things for the taste of Control. Cuba, the civil rights movement, taking away the oilmen's tax breaks, the other vested interests in commerce in the Third World, threatening the CIA after the embarrassment of Pigs. The delicate esmological balance domestically was getting upset. In 1963 Kennedy spoke out against all these aspects of Control that were essential in beating and subsuming the Reds. They'd had enough." Jolly pauses, sighs. "They'd had enough." "And so they did it. It was child's play. The esmology said even with the four years he'd had, he'd win in a landslide in '64. Control couldn't wait to see what he could do in a second term if he had the American people behind him in saying 'enough with the war, enough with the violence, enough with the moneyed interests.' He had to go." "Control figured a left-wing patsy—actually a brainhacked deep-cover ONI false defector—would be the right play, get the memetics poised for an adventure in Indochina that Kennedy was threatening to arrest before it really got started. It was only a matter of time." "Dallas is where Control showed the American people who's boss. Dallas is where Lee Harvey Oswald was killed, by another 'lone nut.' And Dallas is where my real career, working for Control, was born. Everything I'd done since the POWs was trivium, chickenfeed; MKUltra had been busy dosing johns in midnight brothels and shoving whistleblowers out windows; what MKUltra would become, though... we'll get to that." "Showing that I had the reliability, the skill to drive Jack Ruby insane—so insane he'd rant and rave to the press about giant machines killing millions of American Jews and thus never reveal he was blackmailed into shooting Oswald because the Mob promised to wipe his and his sister's debts—before I killed him with cancer... that was the week in 1964 that my eyes were opened to a new world completely. The fact They could make this happen, that They had so many interlocking plots and actors to make all the problems disappear in the American mind and legal system... that was the first day I had a proper, worshipper's... lover's look at the vast scale of Control."
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 7:03 AM
Jocasta: Vibing on the acid and the implements of torture (I will be having you do the typical hallucination checks once we get to another skill check, btw), Jo's Empathy allows her deeper entré into Jolly's psyche through his fear of physical pain. Jolly himself isn't tripping, of course, unless you count the lingering halothane, but his conspicuous mentions of LSD and the importance of its arrival in the world as a harbinger of, as Marshall put it,"all of this," sets off Jo's Paranoia. As mentioned above, Jo senses that Jolly's worshipful self looks upon Control as the center of his ontology, which would naturally make him loyal to the Owls. And this history, it's his scripture, it's the Owls' testament. To some extent, Jolly's job has become a religion, binding him to actions and to a world order that he reinforces with actions like the ones he's detailing. The Owl is his god; what Jo wants to know is, how much does he truly know about his god? Mitch: Another guy who loves to hear himself speak and God have there been a lot of them in this campaign job. Mitch knows Jolly knows he's going to die here, and Jolly does want to have his life's work appreciated. Almost to the point where he's fulfilling a role dictated for him from elsewhere, like Matt is telling him to spill his guts. But that meta thought, oddly sets off Mitch's Illuminated Owl-vision; is it Matt that wants Jolly here in this room with URIEL, or the Owls? In Jolly's aura, Mitch only sees the base emotions: pride at telling his story, and fear of Jocasta's implements. Almost like that's how he was programmed to react. Marshall: Marshall's never looked upon Jolly as a particularly complicated or sophisticated thinker or soul. A true believer, as Jocasta said? Well, maybe. Jolly's fancied himself a mixer, a schmoozer, a mover and a shaker, and this egotistical tirade is part of that, maybe even the peak of that ego formation. "Look where I was during the great American quarter-century, at the center of huge events." Fine as it goes. But we're here to get information about the Owls, about what their weaknesses are, about where to hit them through the misdeeds of the military-intelligence-industrial complex, so Sophie's delicate esmology can work out in how to bring them down. Jolly is grandiosely narcissistic, surely, with a tinge of deep paranoia, but not in the sense of being afraid of what They will do. After all, he worships the Owl(s); if anything for Jolly it's more a sense of pronoia. They'll protect him. So the two big elements of Jolly's psyche that Marshall feels are key to unraveling what he's hiding or what he's good for before we put a bullet in his head are: • Much like Jocasta's spiritual realization about Jolly and the Owls, Marshall realizes first principles here are to get Jolly to tell us more about his "god," what he concretely knows about them. His use of the term "Control" is conspicuous in and of itself; he is deliberately associating his god and the Owls with the shadowy committee that has led SANDMAN since 1943. But Marshall knows all these parahistorical facts he's telling are just the vague outline of what he truly knows about Control. That's at the center of the value of Jolly West. • The repeated mentions of LSD, too, seem conspicuously compulsive to Marshall. It's a lattice undergirding Jolly's entire worldview. That LSD was as big a discovery as the Bomb when it comes to the reality war. It's, again, fine as it goes, a fairly anodyne observation that URIEL's experience with drug and mystical experiences buttress, but to Jolly it's axiomatic. And, given Marshall's own recent 2-CB experiences, it seems very important to pull at. Maybe when Jolly gets to the Charles Manson/Free Clinic stuff of his "secret history," Marshall can get a word in edgewise. (edited)
Inverarity — 11/29/24, 8:41 AM
"This is some banal shit, Jolly, I won't lie to you. You think we went to these lengths so that we can hear your confession about how Kennedy was assassinated? That story you just told us, that's been our operating hypothesis for the past year." Marshall drops his cigarette and stamps it out with his foot, but remains seated. "In my line of work, we pay attention to three things: what the person is saying; how they are saying it; and what patterns are there in what they're saying. I've interviewed a few of you people," Marshall pauses for an almost imperceptible beat, "and a pattern I've noticed is this ... impulse? No, need? Need. This need to unburden themselves. To explain. To justify. It's exhausting." Marshall gestures to Jocasta, a pre-arranged signal for her to put a gun to his (Jolly's) temple. (edited)
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 8:47 AM
(Probably a good time to assess how the acid is running in Jo's system.) @Leonard, roll us a HT-9 please to see if the acid causes hallucinations and if so for how long.
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/29/24, 9:58 AM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#health:(6+1+6)= 13Leonard — 11/29/24, 9:58 AM
(Assuming that accounts for Fit and Body Control)
@Leonard
(Assuming that accounts for Fit and Body Control)
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 10:07 AM
Does account for Fit, doesn't account for Body Control which might let you purge the effects of the acid quicker, give me a Body Control-11 roll to see if we can shorten the four-hour trip headed your way. (edited)
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/29/24, 10:21 AM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#bodycontrol:(5+5+1)= 11MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 10:22 AM
Okay, roll 1d6 to see how many hours will get shaved off the acid trip. If you roll four or better it's an instant purge.
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/29/24, 10:22 AM
@Leonard rolled
1d6#purge:(5)= 51
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 10:22 AM
(Or, at the very least, a purge of the Hallucinations condition of the trip.)
[10:23 AM]
Nice. The hallucinations will remain under control and Jocasta will have no penalties during the trip.
Leonard — 11/29/24, 10:28 AM
Jocasta does as instructed, her mind in some hidden place but her body squashing the effects of the drug. If Jolly is a dark sorcerer of LSD, then perhaps she is the golem he could not contain. She reaches into her paramedic's kit and draws out a big Army .45, bulkier and more brutish than her sleek little Yugoslav semiauto. She draws back the slide and loads one in the chamber with a harsh metallic thud, then levels the barrel just above Jolly's right ear.
@Leonard
Jocasta does as instructed, her mind in some hidden place but her body squashing the effects of the drug. If Jolly is a dark sorcerer of LSD, then perhaps she is the golem he could not contain. She reaches into her paramedic's kit and draws out a big Army .45, bulkier and more brutish than her sleek little Yugoslav semiauto. She draws back the slide and loads one in the chamber with a harsh metallic thud, then levels the barrel just above Jolly's right ear.
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 10:33 AM
All three interrogators can instantly sense and assess the terror that hits Jolly in this moment. It's not so much that he pushes down the fear for his life, but instead channels it into a level question at Marshall. "What... what do you want to know. I want... to be helpful. I'm trying... to be helpful." Flashing again a look at Jocasta out of the corner of his eyes, he's unable to "hook into" her, but for a moment, Jocasta and Mitch both, Jocasta with Empathy (and maybe the latent suite of her Psychometry/Telesend/Mind Probe?) and Mitch with Aura Sight can sense Jolly wanting and trying to reach out to Jocasta, to speak with her, but the terror overwhelms him and—Mitch can tell—the fact that Jocasta's now only slight acid-tinged aura is kept well under control. The psychic and ontological openness the hallucinogen usually affords is kept impermeable by Jo's exquisite control over her own body, her own brain chemicals... and Jolly cannot find what he is actively seeking in her acid-pinned pupils. (edited)
Inverarity — 11/29/24, 10:37 AM
"Story time is over. You're going to answer some direct questions now. First question: who was your contact at Control?"
1
@Inverarity
"Story time is over. You're going to answer some direct questions now. First question: who was your contact at Control?"
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 11:13 AM
"B-before the Ruby op, I received all my orders through Sid Gottlieb. He was my superior in the Project and in all CIA-MKUltra experiments and operations that I'd been a part of since '53. But I was approached for the Ruby op by.... by a cutout who presented me initially with FBI identification. It was... well, it was E. Howard Hunt." Jolly flinches at the cold steel at his temple, not even acknowledging the reasons why Hunt has been in the newspaper the past couple of years, and continues. "I was told, if I performed this task to its successful completion, I'd be given more responsibilities, and thence direct contact with an intimate representative of Control. By no means was I to consider this man one of the three anonymous Controllers, of course, I was told by Hunt; he was merely the instrument of Control's will inside the United States, Control's Chief of Domestic Operations. This man, Hunt told me, was of the same class of men as Control, mixed with them from his early years, I was ready for it to be J. Edgar Hoover... but it turned out for the next decade my contact with Control, the man from whom I received instructions on my assignments against the domestic counterculture, the man who slotted me into the Free Clinic in '66 and into UCLA and MORNINGSTAR in '69 would be former CIA Deputy Director for Plans, eventual Director of Central Intelligence, and current Ambassador to Iran, Richard McGarrah Helms." Mitch, Marshall, and Jo all are able to see: Jolly is telling the complete truth, up and down the line.
[11:16 AM]
"Occasionally," Jolly bothers to add, as if he was afraid omission would get him a bullet in the brain, "I got more... esoteric Control assignments from the Tavistock Institute once I got on the advisory board in '65 as a reward for the Ruby op."
Inverarity — 11/29/24, 11:20 AM
"Who is Beth Cole?"
@Inverarity
"Who is Beth Cole?"
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 11:36 AM
Mitch sees Jolly's aura go nuts at this. A spike of adrenaline, panic, terror... a question he most definitely did not want to be asked. "She's the voice of Control. The current voice of Control. There's always at least one. Obviously with the manifold plans and operations Control must balance there are many agents of Control out there. However, when Control needs to speak in an unequivocal voice, directly, with no fear of contradiction, Control will use such a person. She's the latest." "These voices of Control oftentimes are hollow shells. You could even call them... channelers. Their brains receive the manifold expressions of will of Control and... collate them, organize them, feed them into individual-level linguistics. I know in past years, Control would go these voices them like tissues, burn them out psychically in a matter of months. But Beth seems like she's around to stay; she's been in the position since Tony joined URIEL in early '72." "She was rumored to be part of the Secret School program in the 1950s, the predecessor to Indigo, here in Texas... and elsewhere." [Jo: Empathy-16 | Marshall: Detect Lies-21 | Mitch: Aura Sight-17] "A vast majority of those kids went back to their 'normal' lives afterwards; she didn't. Control got her ready for this role, knowing it would behoove Control to look forward to the future and make Control's voice seem... innocent. Banal."
Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/29/24, 11:37 AM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Detect Lies-21:(3+4+5)= 12Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/29/24, 11:38 AM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(1+4+1)= 62
1
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 11:48 AM
(@Dr. Cronk, can you also give me an Illuminated IQ roll, IQ-17 (bonuses assessed)).
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/29/24, 11:52 AM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#empathy:(6+2+4)= 121
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 11:56 AM
Marshall and Jo: The bit of the most recent Jolly confession that rings utterly false is "She was rumored to be..." Jolly knows for sure that Beth was a part of the Secret School program in Texas. Probably because he himself was stationed at Lackland, as he told you, in the middle Fifties. Both of you have a weird feeling that he might have been involved in this program. Everything else seems like his version of the truth, but he's more squirrely about Beth than he has anything so far. Mitch: Will wait for that second IQ-17 roll but there's stuff that comes from Aura Sight and Illuminated for Mitch to process with that crit. But for the record Mitch also agrees that "rumored to be" was a lie/omission.
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/29/24, 12:35 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(5+3+4)= 12Dr. Cronk — 11/29/24, 12:45 PM
!asynchronous
2
@Dr. Cronk
!asynchronous
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 2:09 PM
Mitch (critical success on Aura Sight) If Mitch can easily pick out the lie of omission on what Jolly knows specifically and personally on Beth Cole and the Secret School in the Olmos Basin outside San Antonio, as noted above, with his Aura Sight, Mitch is also able to see something happening inside Jolly's brain. Or, rather, a lack of something happening in two specific regions having to do with memory formation: the hippocampus and the amygdala. Mitch can see, with his exceptionally successful use of Aura Sight, blank spots, lacunae, in these two regions. Hearing Beth Cole's name and recalling the existence of the Secret School program has caused Jolly to try to access these memories more clearly... but to no avail, his mind scrambling for some other explanation of his knowledge of Beth Cole. Mitch is certain that Jolly has been brain hacked about his time working at or with the Secret School; there is no physical scarring, no implant, but Mitch knows what it looks like when someone's memories have been altered or removed, especially after URIEL had their memories of Tony Reinhardt's time at Livermore scrubbed by the Urim and Thummim, and that's closer to what's happening here. Moreover, Mitch's Illuminated Owl-vision is going off now; the Owls did this to Jolly, removed some essential part of Jolly's memories of 1953-4 in Texas, and as Mitch tunes into the Illuminated frequency, he receives two pieces of data that send the creeps right up his spine. (Spoilering these in case those of you who aren't Jeff don't want to read them.) One: the uncanny sound of a choir of maybe a couple dozen 8- and 9-year-old boys and girls singing a lullaby, most of the voices in a flat South Texas twang: "I see the moon; the moon sees me High up in the old oak tree." Two: the image of Archie's/Stoney's scribbled handwriting on the legal pad, specifically these words from the end of the Apocalypse of History A, the "Owl Mantle" portion (note: Mitch cannot sense the Owl Mantle on Jolly West; it seems that he's not a fully-vested member but does have some of the same "Disadvantages" as the revelation put it): Fright Check for Mitch, Rule of 14.
[2:10 PM]
Spoiler
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/29/24, 2:42 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(5+3+4)= 12Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/29/24, 2:43 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6I feel like it's been long enough in dramatic time that Mitch needs to roll to avoid lighting Jolly up:(2+5+3)= 10Dr. Cronk — 11/29/24, 2:44 PM
Mitch lets out an involuntary groan of disgust, nevertheless
Inverarity — 11/29/24, 2:46 PM
Marshall’s eyes quickly flick to Mitch, then back to Jolly: “Have you ever been to Bohemian Grove?”
@Inverarity
Marshall’s eyes quickly flick to Mitch, then back to Jolly: “Have you ever been to Bohemian Grove?”
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 3:07 PM
"Yes, I was Charlton Heston's guest at the Grove a couple of times after I moved to Los Angeles. I marched for civil rights with Chuck in Oklahoma in 1961 and we became fast friends thereafter." The mention of the Grove doesn't seem to light up Jolly's brain too much; there's his baseline fear of the gun pointed at his head and the residual panic over Beth Cole but he doesn't seem to ascribe any special dread or importance to going to the Grove with old buddy Chuck. Also no lies of omission; it seems he truly was there a couple of times between '69 and '73. Mitch's Aura Sight doesn't seem to indicate Jolly trying to access any Grove-related memory loss, either (Mitch is still riding the high from that crit).
Inverarity — 11/29/24, 3:10 PM
“Why are you so loyal to Control?”
@Inverarity
“Why are you so loyal to Control?”
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 3:18 PM
Jolly furrows his brow briefly, as if it's self-evident, even if his loyalty to Control has led him to this ending. "It's... the chance to be on the winning side. The chance to be at the center of important, world-historic events. The thrill of sorting out the world, making it safe, making our future safe. Tony used to say to us, when it came to SANDMAN duty, 'It's not just a job, it's an adventure.' And I believed that after Jack, after working in San Francisco and in LA, because I'd lived it." "Besides, once you're in, if you cross them, if you go back on what you've promised them... you're fucked in a way you'll never come back from. Publicly. Like President Nixon was." Marshall, Jo, and Mitch can sense there's more he wants to say here; Mitch especially getting the same sense he got earlier when he was doing his chronological tale of his life and career, about "is it Matt that wants Jolly here in this room with URIEL, or the Owls?"
Inverarity — 11/29/24, 3:26 PM
"What do people in SANDMAN say about us, URIEL? What is it that you've heard?"
@Inverarity
"What do people in SANDMAN say about us, URIEL? What is it that you've heard?"
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 3:27 PM
(This actually has a pretty long answer so I may need some time... I'll take any other poses or narrations or actions in the next little bit of Jeff or Leonard have anything additional they want to do but I may work on this tonight into tomorrow morning.)
Inverarity — 11/29/24, 3:28 PM
(There's never a rush! And yeah, Jeff and Leoanrd, please don't let me hog the whole scene, if you have stuff you wanna do)
Dr. Cronk — 11/29/24, 4:02 PM
(I've been mulling over how Mitch could convey his suspicion that 'Matt' and/or the Owls have set Jolly up to unspool this monologue. It seems appropriate to drop that info here but I dunno what brief ASL to use to convey it. Jolly's not a Creature of Darkness, he doesn't take agg damage from Danbe, right?)
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 4:03 PM
(Nope, he is a trained SANDMAN and understands Danbe. But yeah, he cannot see Mitch from where Mitch is standing and you've got nothing but time as he monologues, so long ASL messages are just fine.)
[4:03 PM]
(Even Jo will be able to follow Mitch's fast-moving fingers thanks to her handling her acid trip.)
Dr. Cronk — 11/29/24, 4:08 PM
Fuck it, Mitch just signs I think this is a setup; either by the Owls or by the unseen demons-from-beyond-time-who-decide-our-decisions, the central planning committee who deign to act through us. Maybe the Owls want us scared. Maybe the demons are enjoying our discomfort for their amusement but, like, edited so it fits within the strictures of ASL.
[4:08 PM]
It probably doesn't matter, either way.
[4:10 PM]
Also he raped kids in the 50s and they brain-hacked the memory out of him after securing evidence for blackmail material to keep him loyal, I guess, I don't get how that fits together but it's what I got. Keyed to a song lyric, "I see the moon. The moon sees me, high up in the old oak tree." Don't like it.
[4:11 PM]
Can Mitch burn Serendipity to change the way the universe works for a few seconds so that he can convey all that easily with ASL?
Dr. Cronk — 11/29/24, 4:18 PM
He is a wizard Mike
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 4:18 PM
No need. It's just a matter of Marshall and/or Jocasta keeping eyes on Mitch long enough for him to convey it, which means Marshall and/or Jocasta won't be able to, like, make eye contact with Jolly to judge the truth of his upcoming statements about URIEL. So someone can be assigned to Reading Mitch duty while the other watches Jolly. Or, hell, the three of you could take a mid-interrogation powder outside the interrogation room.
Dr. Cronk — 11/29/24, 4:20 PM
You're describing the (admittedly minor) knock-ons which I am attempting to avoid using magic
1
MutantsMichael — 11/29/24, 4:24 PM
Okay, we can use a single Serendipity charge to make that implausible communication possible. That will still leave you with one between now and the live session.
November 30, 2024
@Inverarity
"What do people in SANDMAN say about us, URIEL? What is it that you've heard?"
MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 8:24 AM
Jolly looks briefly nonplussed, either from Marshall's question or the questionable nature of the memories in his own head of Lackland, '54, but he answers promptly. "There were no lies in the CWG files, Marshall. URIEL was always a laboratory. Partially for the CWG to find occultists and psychics for long-term post-Second Ontoclysm survival, of course. But also to... traipse into subduction zones and bring back the mother lode. Intel, alien technology, tactical reconnaissance of the enemy." Jolly's eyes again move to his peripheral vision, trying to get a glimpse of Mitch. "The Project can't operate and survive without that stuff. Bleeding-edge scientia. But of course URIEL was special among all the other lab rat teams out there. We didn't swap personnel out too often, and when Control did change your roster, it was always a CWG ally or dupe." "And of course there's the very fact of California. The ground there was always so unsettled, and no one in the Project could ever quite tell why. But I bet you all know, now." Jolly closes his eyes and inhales, in a way that makes the three of you with your empathic connections to Jolly right now believe that he doesn't know why the ground in California specifically was so unsettled. "But that's why I came out to Stanford and San Francisco in '66. Esmology could tell something big was going to happen, socially, among the kids, specifically in California. It all started with the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley putting ideas in their heads. It needed to be headed off at the pass, and so I set up before the 'Summer of Love.'" Jolly licks his dry, cracked lips. "If these kids wanted to see a new world unfold before them, the Project could make that happen for them. But in a way where the real world, the unitary world where we live and work, the one Control rules over, couldn't be threatened in the slightest. Given the right medication and the right push here and there, we could turn their hippie cloud cuckoo land into more of the same; a world Controlled by us, forever. Charlie." Jolly chuckles. "Altamont. Bedsits full of children being left unfed and unwashed. After a few years of that kind of degradation, loss, and violence, they'd be begging for Mommy and Daddy to come and rescue them from their, uh, 'brave new world.'" "That's the thing. At the center of the Project's short- and long-term plans is admitting the possibility that the tools and tactics and Techniken of the enemy are useful, and thus can and should be co-opted for Control's use in securing our world and stopping our enemies. It's what was behind the acid wave, what was behind the brainwashing scare, it's what was behind the occult revival, it's what was behind so many of you being placed into situations where you'd come into contact with either the Communists or the Red Kings... it's what was behind ISOCLINE." And at that, Jolly smiles.
[8:26 AM]
(If you think this revelation is worthy of your character having to have a Fright Check—I'm honestly not sure, you all should narrate internal monologues if you want to—take one with a penalty to your Will of -2 to -4.)
Inverarity — 11/30/24, 8:32 AM
"We have reason to believe this is a trap; that your masters want you here, for their purposes. Do you know who your masters are, Jolly?"
MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 8:37 AM
(Just gonna slow-roll here for a sec while we await Jeff and Leonard checking in, Brant, but I will definitely address that question quickly if they don't have anything.)
Leonard — 11/30/24, 9:15 AM
Jocasta keeps holding steady. If Jolly wants to keep bragging, it's his clock to run out. Inside her mind, she whispers to Mishipishu to ready for a feast.
MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 11:05 AM
(@Dr. Cronk, anything from you before I let Jolly opine on his masters?)
1
@Inverarity
"We have reason to believe this is a trap; that your masters want you here, for their purposes. Do you know who your masters are, Jolly?"
MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 11:22 AM
"A trap?" Jolly looks genuinely confused. "You mean a trap for you?" A sudden, gasping, rasping laugh. "My masters? They're your masters too. You're doing Control's bidding by holding me here, by questioning me. It's why I'm trying to be accommodating, to tell you everything you need to do... to finish the job! If Control wanted me here, it was to hand off the job that I started... to you! I'm a cell in the larger body. One who happened to be close enough to see the dust eddies, the vortices of History kicked up by Control's passing. The tool wears out and breaks; Control abides. We are their Harvests." "Who are they? They are a hundred or two hundred men, men like any others who went to fine schools, were born to beauty and richness and power... but what they serve is the precept of Control. And that will exist with or without them. It's Control... or it's chaos." To Jocasta this time. "You're fighting the trip, I can sense it. You couldn't face this... me, straight, but why dose... if you're not willing to go all the way, to really see? What other lives of yours have you glimpsed, Jocasta? What worlds have you seen in Dr. Hofmann's bubble?" Jolly's aura is afire now; not with fear, not with pride, but with love, empathy, understanding, a desire for Jocasta (and Mitch) to understand what he's trying to tell them. Then, to all three. "It's really funny that you people think you're the only ones who've been able to talk to God, to perceive the truth about this world." Another aura flare, Mitch seeing Jolly's mind practically begging for someone—specifically Jo or Mitch, given what Jolly says next—to take him up on this topic. Back to Marshall. "I bet you never have, though, Marshall." Jolly smiles. "What did you see when you shot yourself? I assume it was nothing. No loving Mother welcoming you back into her arms, no figures in white... only mere oblivion."
Inverarity — 11/30/24, 11:32 AM
Marshall gives Jocasta the signal to shoot him.
Leonard — 11/30/24, 11:58 AM
Jocasta pulls the trigger.
@Leonard
Jocasta pulls the trigger.
MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 12:05 PM
Pistol at an effective 18, with all Colt .45 damage bonuses for a head shot TBD. You'll be bypassing the skull's DR with a temple shot as well.
@Leonard
Jocasta pulls the trigger.
MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 12:07 PM
I'll also need a Will-19 roll as well, modified by certain penalties I shall not reveal. Then we can worry about the three of you and your Fright Checks against violence.
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/30/24, 12:14 PM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#pistol:(1+4+5)= 10Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/30/24, 12:14 PM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#will:(2+4+3)= 91
MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 12:18 PM
(Eating lunch, lol, will get on danage soon)
@Leonard
Jocasta pulls the trigger.
MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 12:29 PM
Okay, damage on a Colt Government M1911A .45 caliber is 2d6, that result will be multiplied by FOUR for the headshot. Then we'll worry about injury and death checks and all that good stuff.
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/30/24, 12:40 PM
@Leonard rolled
2d6#damage:(4+5)= 91
MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 12:43 PM
Okay, I will be back with my rolls once I have channeled the GURPSMath.
In the meantime, violence is violence and an exploding head is an exploding head, even if it is that of an obnoxious piece of shit lackey of the Owls, so all three of you need to give me a Fright Check at Rule of 14 please (pass on a 13 or less).
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/30/24, 12:45 PM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#frightcheck:(5+3+3)= 11Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/30/24, 12:45 PM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Fear-14:(4+6+4)= 14MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 12:56 PM
@Inverarity, roll 3d6+1 on the Fright Check table please. And I'll await Mitch's roll. Jo is fine, cold as ice.
Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/30/24, 12:56 PM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6+1:(2+6+2)+1= 11MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 12:56 PM
Stunned for 2d6 seconds.
Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/30/24, 12:56 PM
@Inverarity rolled
2d6:(1+4)= 5MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 12:57 PM
I could make a leap here and say the circumstances remind Marshall a little of the gambit, considering it was one of the last things Jolly said before the bullet hit him...
[12:57 PM]
Causing him to space out.
[12:57 PM]
Anyway, let's get to tabulating Jolly's wounds.
Inverarity — 11/30/24, 12:58 PM
Marshall pauses as he wipes blood spatter from his face.
MutantsMichael
Anyway, let's get to tabulating Jolly's wounds.
MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 12:59 PM
He was at 6/9 HP after the punch at Bryan Tower and the punch in the chair. 6 minus 36 is negative-30 HP, which is more than three times Jolly's negative HP value.
MutantsMichael used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/30/24, 1:00 PM
@MutantsMichael rolled
3d6HT-9:(6+6+5)= 17MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 1:00 PM
Jolly dies instantly.
[1:01 PM]
As Jolly's aura is extinguished, Mitch needs to give me the aforementioned Fright Check as well as a final Aura Sight-17 roll.
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/30/24, 4:22 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6mitch's fright check:(3+4+4)= 11Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/30/24, 4:23 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6aura analysis:(5+3+3)= 11MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 4:40 PM
I am not sure if Mitch has seen someone die since he's attuned his powers of Aura Sight to be Cosmic with No Die Roll Required. I suppose there was old Dod, wasn't there, but that's not the same quantum of violent sudden death Mitch is witnessing here. No matter. Mitch watches Louis West's soul get violently ripped from his body. Aura Sight isn't some kind of ghost sight, of course, so Mitch just expects the energy signature and matrix to sort of dissolve, for the brain activity to cease, for the interrupted state of the electricity energy in Jolly West's brain to fall apart, to disassemble like a castle built from toy blocks smashed by a child's hand. And it does do all that. But as Jolly dies Mitch can sense that rapidly-dissociating energy matrix of Jolly's soul go somewhere. Go somewhere under its own energy and will, directed. And in that brief moment or two, Mitch feels a need, fed to him by his Aura Sight, his Illuminated nature, and by the echoes of Serendipity that he used earlier to verbalize this man's sins in his comrades' eyes, to use his Uncontrollable, Unrealiably-Activated Detect (History B) Advantage during the split second of this... leaving.
Dr. Cronk — 11/30/24, 8:59 PM
Should I roll, then?
1
MutantsMichael — 11/30/24, 9:08 PM
Please do.
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/30/24, 9:11 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6I guess activation is already handled so this is the Detect skill use itself:(3+1+6)= 10Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 11/30/24, 9:11 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6and this is analysis?:(4+6+4)= 14Okay, so the analysis roll was a spot-on success. I'm actually gonna DM this to you, Jeff.
[8:29 AM]
Sent.
[8:29 AM]
I think we can safely turn time back on now as Marshall comes out of his 5-second reverie.
Inverarity — 12/1/24, 8:52 AM
“Brainwashed cultists all the way down, apparently,” Marshall says as David hands him a towel. He stands. “I’ll need to think on what we’ve learned here — I use the term learned loosely. But you heard the man: it’s Control or Kaos. We’ve seen what the former does,” he tosses the towel onto Jolly’s slumped form, “time and again — makes them compulsive talkers, if nothing else. I know what side I’m working for now, at least.”
Leonard — 12/1/24, 9:20 AM
Unless there's something particular Marshall wants done with the remains of Dr. Louis Jolyon West, Jocasta is gonna truss it up and haul it out to Lake Lewisville to feed it to the Panther.
1
Dr. Cronk — 12/1/24, 11:29 AM
Mitch mutters something inaudible to Jo and Marshall
December 7, 2024
MutantsMichael — 12/7/24, 7:13 AM
(If there's any follow-up discussion we want to have, btw, we can do it this week while I wrap up TOBACCO. Feel free to use this space.)
December 17, 2024
MutantsMichael — 12/17/24, 6:16 PM
I'm interested to find out: other than disposing of Jolly's body, is there anything else we want to accomplish or do in this scene, and that includes anything with Dave and Pat. I won't move things along as far as getting in touch with Archie, Roger, and Merrick until TOBACCO is finished up but if there's anything we want to do/talk about/plan right after Jolly got killed, let me know.
[6:20 PM]
(Willing to do any "shoot the shit" scenes in whatever permutations you might want while we wrap up TOBACCO)
Dr. Cronk — 12/17/24, 7:07 PM
What's our agenda at this point? What do we think we can learn?
MutantsMichael — 12/17/24, 7:13 PM
I'd argue anyone with Intelligence Analysis as a trained skill could give me a roll right off the top to kind of go through the Last Testament of Louis J. West and hone in on where our new learnings vs. gaps are. It also defaults to IQ minus 6 or Strategy minus 6 if you don't have training.
Leonard — 12/17/24, 7:14 PM
Hmm I seem to recall that Jocasta is an actual intelligence analyst!
Leonard used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 12/17/24, 7:14 PM
@Leonard rolled
3d6#intelligenceanalysis:(5+3+1)= 91
MutantsMichael — 12/17/24, 7:18 PM
(Will wait for Marshall/Mitch but that's a decent success.)
Dr. Cronk — 12/17/24, 7:28 PM
Mitch does not have Intelligence Analysis
[7:28 PM]
He does have Mimickry (Speech), so he can repeat stuff Jolly said in a dumb parody of voice, if that would heop
1
Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 12/17/24, 8:22 PM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6intel analysis:(3+3+4)= 10December 18, 2024
MutantsMichael — 12/18/24, 9:01 AM
Some of this might be recapitulation/summary of revelations given before, but I wanted to put them all in one place.
[9:01 AM]
(1/2) Jocasta and Marshall's meta-analysis of Jolly's confession [Jocasta's success was at a higher degree than Marshall's, but both of them should be able to get the first bit of this analysis. The second bit, where things get a little Weirder and more trippy, should probably be Jocasta's alone.] First off, the interrogation of Jolly West has given URIEL both a general and specific portrait of how the Owls have worked since World War II in controlling (their part of) the world. There are big events, geopolitical ones, that the Owls harness to their own benefit. In Jolly's recounting, this includes events like the establishment of SANDMAN in 1944; the Trinity test, nuclear proliferation/suicide as a madman's bluff to the Kings, and the later Algeria blast in Operation Gerboise Verte; SANDMAN's normalization in America in the aftermath of the Korean War "brainwashing" and the fear that the American mind could be penetrated; the Kennedys reneging on the air cover at Bahía de los Cochinos, the Missile Crisis, and the subsequent actions in Dallas and Los Angeles and the coverups of both "lone gunmen"; the rise and subsequent suborning of the counterculture and the Black power movement; Watergate. All meant to cement or expand the Owls' influence on the world through actions at the geopolitical or espiocratic level. Most if not all of these aided or abetted by Project SANDMAN. And at the individual level there are men like Jolly—men who have not (yet) received the Owl Mantle and been admitted to the secret underpinning History A—who execute on these plans and clean up after them. Jolly's nominal Rank in the Project might have been at the same level as Marshall's or Archie's is now, but he's also more trusted in that he has a second "Patron"—the Owls/Control—whom he worships like a God. (Richard Helms, I should point out now that the interrogation is over and Mitch has a chance to think, is one of the names marked with a "full owl" in Mitch's photographs of the Bohemian Club's Black Book. Given his social background and lineage, that would make sense.) Given Archie's revelations at the Grove, we know that the Owls possess de facto control over the American military and intelligence communities and that they can operate at the level of the President (Mickey: "friend, you do understand, you have had two coups d'êtat in the past ten years in this country, yes?") and that according to Jolly's ontology/theology, that the concept of Control is what binds it all together. All these plots and plans are meant to solidify, encroach, and expand the Owls' control over this planet, to leave no opposing ontology, whether Red Communist or Red King, to stand against them. Broadly, it's esmology that allows for the Owls/Control to see where to apply pressure, but Mitch also knows that the Owls themselves have abilities similar to his own, oracular ones, remote viewing and so on, but only within the parts of the Earth where the Owls have economic/political control. If the populace doesn't believe in capitalist kyriarchy and reinforce History A as the Owls (re)imagined it in 1926'/1906, Owl magic won't work there. So, conversely, if there are no more men like Jolly West and men like Richard Helms to give them their marching orders—or if at the very least these "adventures" are severely curtailed—History A as it exists right now will be weakened, and other ontologies, ones crushed by Control since World War II, will have the room to bloom. This confirms Sophie's esmology pretty much perfectly. The task is still enormous, but if the American people and Western world can stop believing in the rightness of their masters' shock troops, if that ontology can be loosened even a little bit... it will open up gaps for the kind of world Jocasta has been advocating for since Mission 8. Underwater Panther purrs in Jocasta's head. Now as we get into spookier, more spiritual territory, let me expand upon...
[9:01 AM]
(2/2) The Jocasta-specific analysis So let's talk about acid and the fact of Jolly's worship of Control. What makes Jolly different from any of the other non-Mantle servants of the Owls out there, Jocasta surmises, is the fact that he's done a lot of acid and seen up very close what acid can do to people. No, seriously. All the messages URIEL members have gotten from their drug trips—sure, mostly Jo but also Marshall and Archie, and let's not forget the experiences that approximate drug trips, like our time in the halls of Shasta where space-time is defeated or Mitch's various dreams and encounters with Ma'at—have been there to give us messages; messages about our personal spiritual development, our place within the ecology of souls, and our "purpose" such as it is in this world-game. Jolly had that. Jocasta, despite (or perhaps because of?) her tripping while interrogating Jolly, is sure of it. He knew what the game was all about; maybe that's why he felt so desirous and entitled to be The Guy Who Explained It All in a Villain Monologue. In the end, he feels like URIEL is still doing Control's bidding, even if you've set yourself up as rebels willing to kill off the hands of Control in the world. And he died... well, I mean, Jolly wasn't brave in the end but he went off to his fate with a great deal (Jo could tell with Empathy) of satisfaction, as if he felt his role was fulfilled somehow... or that death didn't matter. That's when Marshall ordered Jo to shoot. But it felt like the right time. If Jolly has further secrets, Jocasta's pretty sure we'll discover them eventually, somehow. Finally, URIEL's role as the "tech" research wing of SANDMAN, cultivating psychic freaks and liminal weirdos and traipsing into subduction zones to give the Project a leg up in conquering the world for the Owls... it fits all the URIEL missions that Jo's been on and knows about, it ties in with ISOCLINE's and the CWG's missions as well. Sure, the Owls fear the Kings as rivals, but it can't be denied the Owls need the Kings' tools—source code, NLP, glyphics, memetics, esmology, reality shards for the really dirty work—to conquer the world. If the Owls could rule with just Owl magic, they'd have done that. But the world is such that they can't. The Owl can only watch, predate, suborn using blackmail, and reinforce their ontology with belief and fear... all very mundane stuff ultimately. If the Owls want to maintain Control, they have to use the Anunnaki methods to do it.
MutantsMichael — 12/18/24, 9:30 AM
(There's more I can expand upon from those IA rolls at that margin of success but I want to see which direction y'all go in)
Leonard — 12/18/24, 9:41 AM
Jocasta lights up a cigarette - she feels like she hasn't needed one so badly since she started smoking at 15. Her fingertips dance together, tingling; she's itching to feel the Panther, and he's eager to be fed. She sighs, the clarity and purpose of killing starting to fade into the usual background paranoia of living in a hall of mirrors. "Okay, so. A lot we already knew, a lot we didn't. But most of the facts on the ground are the same, right? Control as the...governing body of SANDMAN, using us -- using it, I guess; SANDMAN really doesn't feel like something we're part of anymore -- as a catspaw to manage Anunnaki outbreaks, develop extra-historical technology and resources, and cultivate agents and pawns with supernatural abilities. Engaging in the typical Company business, but not for reasons of geopolitical balance or holding the Reds at bay, but to establish themselves as the absolute masters. All the conspiratorial rap we hear from the heads and the Illuminati types is true, but they're off the mark as to why it's happening, and frankly, so were we, assuming that it was all ultimately motivated by wanting to keep a tight lid on History B." Almost unconsciously, to redirect the tingling in her fingers, she reaches for her sketchbook and starts drawing a rough cosmological map, as Jolly West's blood curdles a few feet away. Maybe she's just trying not to think of the cleanup job. "In fact, it seems, they need the Red Kings. They need their power to fight their power -- that same idiot logic that brought us the nuclear arms race, which they're also behind, Christ -- but also, Anunnaki methods and techniques have become integral to the Owls' plans. They keep us nipping at the heels of the Kings, giving them just enough exposure, because they're fishing for new stock." She pauses, as if she realizes the absurdity and self-serving nature of what she's about to say. "I think...I think acid is a big part of it. Not just the mind-control applications, the way it breaks down the way the mind is built -- a pretty powerful tool, if you think about it, if we believe that it was the Kings who build our minds this way in the first place. The Owls love the mind control aspect of it. Jolly was their boy because he got hip to it early. But it's more than that. I know how this sounds coming from me, but I think we've all experienced it to a certain degree: a trip, especially a trip using the goods that they formulated, hooks us into something primordial, something Jungian, something spiritual. It's powerful, and I don't know if they have a true handle on it yet. Maybe this is just what they want me to think, but...it helps show us who we are. That can be a weapon against us, or a weapon against them. Or something else altogether." "So," she continues, after drawing a few interlocking boxes, "Here's where we stand. The Owls control us, or at least the us we're supposed to be. They have their hands on the throttle of the military, the intel community, big money, government at the highest levels. They're trying to buy the game, but they can't quite do it. They're too heavily leveraged to really cut out the Red Kings -- they can't completely destroy them, because they're hooked on their supply. They can't fully suppress the Reds or the Third World, because they can't really...see them. Their Control isn't their control, their systems aren't universal yet. And the spirit world seems to give them hell. I think they're trying to get a hook into it, but they don't really get it."
[9:47 AM]
"Still, they've got a tremendous amount of material power. If they really start to sense that we're a threat (if we even are), they can squash us. We have to figure out how to interact with entities we think of as enemies or enigmas -- spirits, Communists, the unaligned and third world movement, even the Big Enemy -- if we're going to contest their rule (if we even want to). We don't know how much they know about us, though I suspect it's less than they let on -- it always is. We don't know how to stop them or what that even really means -- at the very least, we'd have to permanently take out some of the most important people in the country, at the risk of disrupting our own society in a way that could be enormously destructive. We very well might be creating an opening for those entities that they consider enemies, but that it's by no means clear we should think of as allies. And, of course, none of this really ties together until we're sure about what's happening with Archie and Gottlieb," she concludes, barking out an uncharacteristic cough after a deep drag on her Slim. "So, boys," she asks, both more confident and less certain than she's been in a while, "What's next?"
Message "[M10I3] Operation CANNABIS, Donnelly Drilling Co., Outside Carrollton, Texas, Early Sep 1974"
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[M10I3] Operation CANNABIS, Donnelly Drilling Co., Outside Carrollton, Texas, Early Sep 1974
mission-ten