Summit Team
Michael
Is Team Uphill going to try to finish the summit climb before nightfall/Team Downhill gets into position so Mitch can have the "god's eye view" of what's happening? If so, I'd say it's doable but will require some fatigue-type rolls.
And one more Team Uphill clarification I want to get: when we get into position, Mitch is going to try to scry on his double, correct? And Archie will keep attuned to his Special Rapport with Charley and let Mitch know if we need to switch remote viewing targets to the squad inside the mountain (keeping in mind it will cost Mitch Fatigue and time to switch angles). Just want to make sure I'm understanding the broad plan here.
Jeff
That all sounds correct. I don't think we're trying to coordinate to the extent that we sync watches and Mitch starts meditating at six o clock exactly or anything but that's the broad plan
Michael
Cool, will get you all your climbing rolls v. soon
Mitch: Climbing-13 (he's been here before and in fact he's leading the group)
Archie: HT-11
Mary-Lynn: HT-11
Genevieve: HT-11
Rob
>>>> SUCCESS by 3
Jeff
>>>> SUCCESS by 7
Michael
All right. So Mitch's experience and knowledge of the mountain allow him to usher the Uphill party up to the summit right around nightfall. They do so with enough time to rest for a half-hour in the midst of the trip. Combine that with a 10-minute breather when they get to the summit, and the Uphill group gets up there with their Fatigue Points at max. It is dark up here at the summit; I assume we brought all our cold-weather gear, tents, and so forth. Genevieve takes a moment and looks into the mostly-clear night sky; there are just a few wisps of those UFO-shaped cloud formations left. Mary-Lynn lights a lantern while Archie sets up camp. Genevieve takes a moment or two in the thin air of the summit and says, "Mitch. Do you have an idea on how you're going to find this... double of yours? Is there something I can do to help?"
(Likewise, I have the first bit of Mitch's scrying all typed up but I did want to have Genevieve offer her help and see what Mitch thought of it.)
Rob
"Yes, what do you need from us, Mitch?" Archie asks. "Do we just... keep an eye on you? Is it like sleepwalking: we shouldn't wake you?"
Jeff
Mitch shakes his head. "I dunno. If I end up sitting here all night, well, worse things have happened. Wrap a blanket around me if it gets cold? I don't know if... like, I can imagine all kinds of crazy psychedelic, my astral self wandering off and needing some kind of beacon to find my way home, or something like that, but I don't... it hasn't been a problem before. I'm just going to have a sit and see where the mountain takes me, I guess. Viv, you have some kind of...something, right, about connections among people? I...I don't know how you could help, but..." He shrugs. "We'll play it by ear, okay?"
>>>> SUCCESS by 7
Clairvoyance-12 plus whatever modifiers we can skive out, extra time and such:
>>>> SUCCESS by ???
Michael
Viv very excitedly says, "That's just what I was thinking, Mitch. You need at least something to try to focus in on, some signature or location or coordinates. With your permission I can read your connections to the world-tapestry and see if I am able to find one that feels like it would lead to a double or a reflection of you. Maybe if I find it and analyze it, its fingerprint can give you a lead on where to project your awareness."
"My innate feeling about my power is that its range in this physical reality is limited somewhat, but at the same time a more sizable emotional or causal connection will render the connection stronger and easier to detect. And it feels like you two are definitely linked up on that front. So I'll give it a try. I do feel like my powers have a little bit of a boost up here as well!"
>>>> SUCCESS by 5
Genevieve spends a few minutes meditating and a half-minute or so of concentration on the many connections spreading out along Mitch's timeline. Mitch can see Genevieve has an uncharacteristically intense, even pained, look on her face as she occasionally glances at Mitch while wandering over to the southern edge of the summit campsite, where the sky is finally going now from indigo to black and the southern constellations beginning to appear.
"Okay..." Viv says just to herself. "Okay. I can very very faintly sense him. He's... he's old, right? He's been here since the 1920s, you've said? I can't see or interact with him in any real sensory way, only feel the vaguest suggestions of the energy around him and how it intersects with yours. He's... he's following in your footsteps." Viv sort of points out to the southern horizon. "He's... called to visit the places you've been. And vice versa, I think. A Möbius strip of causality."
"Los Angeles. He's in Los Angeles." Viv goes down on one knee, her legs trembling. Mary-Lynn rushes over and helps her. "The rest is..." Viv coughs for five or six seconds, gasping a little, a little worrisome in the thin air up here. "The rest is up to you, Magic Man."
With this general information and the power of the mountain beneath him, the Magic Man slips into a theta state and sends out his consciousness south, back to where it all began for Mitch and SANDMAN: Laurel Canyon.
So much to see and sense, but Mitch tries to cue his Clairvoyance in with a little bit of his Aura Sight and Detect (History B), scanning generally for what Viv described: a lifetime entangled with his, a fated meeting, a fellow Illuminated, maybe? And bingo. Paydirt. A hit, as Russ and Hal might say. In a sprawling, multi-level modernist Laurel Canyon mansion.
Lazing upon a giant California king size bed is a man in his early 70s. The bedroom is covered in lurid New Age tapestries, kitsch paintings of well-formed young men and women being swept up into a fleet of flying saucers coming out of the sky. Mitch's double possesses an impressive mane of white hair, a lush, curly, white-yellow beard, and wears a simple white shift supplemented with a golden amulet around his neck which lies on his ample rising and falling belly. This man lies in the center of the bed, his head up against a pillow wedged against a faux-marble headboard, a golden solar disc with silver flying saucer symbol installed at the headboard's center-zenith. His face, even wizened by 45 more summers of tans and cigarettes, is unmistakably Mitch's.
In the bed with this 70-year-old man are five young women of varying ethnicities; all slender, all nude except for golden belly chains with more of those solar disc/silver saucer symbol medallions attached.
As Mitch's Clairvoyant presence hovers over the scene, Mitch's double's eyes suddenly fly open. He seems to look up, straight at Mitch. He nods once, seemingly in recognition of Mitch, then slowly rolls over and whispers something to the young woman sleeping closest to him. She awakes, seems to ask him to repeat himself (remember, all Mitch has is Clairvoyance), and looks at Mitch's double with naked fear in her eyes, as Mitch's double reassures her by putting one hand on the woman's bare shoulder, the other tenderly at her ajna on her brow. Mitch's double and the woman are both now silently weeping. The woman wakes up the other members of Mitch's double's harem and speaks to them solemnly.
(There is more but I don't know if Mitch wants to do anything here.)
Jeff
Mitch's immediate thought is, where is this exactly? He's familiar with the Canyon neighborhood, perhaps enough to know that "sprawling multi-level modernist mansion" could be a few different properties. If he can orient himself well enough to be reasonably certain of successfully ID'ing this building, seeing it from the outside, that'd be super. This might be a non-issue, I dunno. Anyway beyond that he's just watching and holding the connection as long as he can.
Michael
The rest of Mitch's double's women quickly get out of bed. Mitch's double goes to a small closet next to the nightstand and pulls out a motorcycle helmet and a slender leather satchel. The five wives go to a much more secure closet on the opposite wall; this one has a sliding door unlocked by a combination lock. Inside are multiple metal gasoline cans. They each grab one of the cans, which look to be full. They each line up for a final kiss from their master—the favored wife, who Mitch's double woke first, goes last. Mitch has a choice now of following his double down the stairs to the garage or watching what the harem is about to do... but it seems pretty obvious to Mitch that the harem is gonna pull a burn on this house.
Jeff
Well, that makes IDing the property a nonissue.
Anyway, Mitch will attempt to trail his double.
>>>> SUCCESS by 6
Michael
Perfect. Mitch changes his remote viewing point of view to follow his double down to the garage. In it is a 1948 Indian Chief Roadmaster motorcycle. Its front and rear license plates bear custom-inscribed SANGUSH glyphs. Mitch's double kicks the motorcycle to life, hits the remote control doohickey to open the garage door, and then flings the remote back into the garage as he speeds off. From the second floor of the house, flickering light can be seen behind the drawn shades and tendrils of smoke can be seen escaping the windows. Following the motorcycle should be easy now that it's out on city streets; it's now treated as a "moving object" so Mitch can watch from this viewpoint for as long as he can stay awake, basically.
Jeff
Of course he has a vintage 1940s motorcycle. I mean, I saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade at a formative age, what's his excuse?
Michael
Well, think about it: it would have been his midlife crisis purchase
Jeff
Yes, yes. Anyway the obvious thing to do is keep watching him for as long as Mitch can.
Michael
I'm going to hold back a little bit now and move the Downhill group forward a little bit since it's apparent Mitch is going to hold his remote view on his double for as long as possible.
Actually... just a little bit more.
So Mitch's double gets onto Laurel Canyon Boulevard from his mansion and turns north towards the Valley and Studio City. As he puts his helmeted head down and speeds around the sharp corners of the Boulevard towards the downslope, Mitch feels a sudden wave of ontological uncertainty sweep across his remotely-projected consciousness. Can you roll Detect (History B) please?
Jeff
>>>> CRITICAL FAILURE
So my new character will be a cowboy, I have decided
A singing cowboy perhaps
Michael
Mitch feels the propulsive ontological force of a reality quake wash over his remotely-viewing consciousness. He's totally unsure of the nature, intensity, cause, source, or ultimate effect of said reality quake given that critical failure... and in the process of trying to remain conscious in his existing clairvoyant frame of reference within History A, Mitch loses all clairvoyant contact with his double.
Something like a reality quake just happened in LA. But Mitch doesn't know what exactly, or how serious.
Jeff
Mitch slowly opens his eyes and looks around, fearful that something near him will have changed.
Michael
Everyone looks fine, but Mary-Lynn and Genevieve are both looking at Mitch after his forty-something minutes of meditation with concern. Meanwhile, Archie feels something has gone terribly wrong with Charley.
"Did it work?" Mary-Lynn asks. "Did you find who you were looking for?"
Jeff
"It's bad. He's in LA, yeah, or he was, he was in a house out in the hills, he had girls burn it down, he left, he did something, he's doing something. Something bad."
Mitch spends 6 FP per Clairvoyance roll, is my understanding, so he's pretty drained.
Michael
That's correct. It takes 10 minutes of rest to get back 1 FP.
Jeff
Jo gets it back twice as fast b/c she's Fit.
Michael
"It's bad. He's in LA, yeah, or he was, he was in a house out in the hills, he had girls burn it down, he left, he did something, he's doing something. Something bad."
Genevieve looks to Mitch in the lantern's light. "What should we do now? Are you doing okay, Mitch?" I would wager no one has looked to Archie at all since Mitch woke up, but he felt a sickly feeling of dread around Charley just a moment ago.
Rob
"Yes, how are you doing, Mitch? You look a little peaked."
Archie winces, frowns. "Something's happened... or is happening... to Charley and the others. She's scared. But look, Mitch. Did you do what you came here to do? Because if there's more, you should do it. Track your man, figure out what's happening in LA, investigate the secrets of the mountain. We're here, and this is what we climbed all the way up here for."
"I can't do much for Charley from here but I'll... do what I can. And she's got Roger and Jocasta looking out for her. And she's got herself." Convincing himself as much as anyone. "You should finish what you started."
Jeff
Mitch closes his eyes, breathes, tries to figure out what he should be doing. The vision of his doppelgänger was loaded with ominous portents but it didn't feel actionable. And now the mountain's energy feels different, harsher. It's the Comte's house he's visiting. Still, Archie is right: we came all this way, this is what we're here for. And Roger and Jo and Charley are capable and even if Mitch could project his vision to where they are, he wouldn't be able to do anything except possibly set something on fire (the range of his pyrokinesis being line-of-sight). So, given all that, what should he be focusing on?
"I'm going to take a minute, rest, think, okay?" he says to Archie and Mary-Lynn and Viv. He gives Mary-Lynn a little wink, hoping to inspire confidence he doesn't especially feel.
Meditation-16.
>>>> SUCCESS by 6
Michael
Mitch clears the worry and dread from his mind, the cold wind whipping around him here three miles up, the consciousness of the Comte and what's inside the mountain and just is. He can't help, as he slips into meditative mind, thinking about what Jiyu might say to him at this moment, with so much out of his control. Would she also slip into meditative mode with him, ruminating silently on the illusions of suffering and pleasure, or would she become the pugnacious proto-feminist who defied the Zen masters and sips Scotch whisky out of Japanese tea cups? When is it time to bend like the willow and when is it time to take a stand.
Mitch can ever so slightly sense the presence of Archie, Mary-Lynn, and Genevieve near him, even with eyes closed. He can sense, yes, that Charley and Roger and Jo (and Marshall? no, that can't be right) are going through their own trials. Every soul on this mountain has their own lifepath. Even Elizabeth and her cronies, every hiker they saw on the trail today, all making choices that send their lives down a different avenue. Mary-Lynn was confident we'd all make the right decisions.
The Comte is an antagonist, Mitch has never been more sure of that. His agenda, whatever it might be, personal or on behalf of the Kings—or both—is inscrutable only to the extent that he keeps telling Mitch he's "fated" to do x y or z. If fate as dictated by the Kings and the Comte is real and free will is an illusion, then one day Mitch will meet and kill his double, okay, sure. If free will is real and you can fight fate, Mitch may or may not meet his double and kill him. So now he's gotten a sense of the man, he's using his Illuminated nature to draw people to him, just like Nola said happens with the Illuminated. He's dissipated, he's enjoying the pleasures of the flesh just like Zeb did when he came over here. But what if Mitch does have a real choice?
Does Mitch think his twin needs to die? He might have just ordered the deaths of one or more of his followers or at the very least caused mayhem that's likely to injure someone. He's not a good guy, that much is clear. But the best he can do at the moment and in the coming days is keep an eye on him. "Not actionable" is a very good description.
Morally Mitch doesn't feel at all culpable for his double's actions. They're not the same person; calling him a "double" is actually pretty cheeky. This isn't, like, a Mitch who went into some hell dimension and came out with white eyes, jabbering and laughing backwards, and then grew a mullet and started wearing a black leather jacket to show how evil he is. Huh, thinks meditating Mitch. That's a weirdly specific image of an Evil Guy. But does Mitch like the idea that this guy chose to go to Laurel Canyon to start a fire after all Mitch was through down there years back? It feels less like an echo, as Viv said, and more like a provocation. Mitch and his twin now know each other exist. The game is afoot. Mitch-B wants the meeting to happen.
Jeff
Mitch-B could just show up at Livermore, is the thing. Mitch-A isn't hidden in any serious way. Mitch-A is reasonably confident that if he got on a bus to LA and once there, closed his eyes and started walking and waited until he heard his own voice to open them again, he'd find himself in the presence of Mitch-B. Maybe not exactly that methodology, maybe it wouldn't be quite so easy, but if Mitch-B wanted to force a meeting with Mitch-A, he could. Instead he's laying breadcrumbs, because he wants total control over the time and place and circumstance of their meeting.
The enemy (Mitch-B) of my enemy (the Comte) is my friend, maybe. But all Mitch has to go on is seeing his double committing arson and, apparently, treating women badly. And the evidence of his actions all those decades ago: the Oldtimer, Ol' Vera, and what's become of them in the years since they interacted with Mitch-B.
Mitch knows who the Illuminated that he's met are, to him: brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles. What is Mitch-B? An absentee father? A black-sheep elder brother?
Does it matter, at this point?
Michael
(The Meditation skill says explicitly it allows you to ponder a moral dilemma so I tried to couch the Whole Mitch-B Thing in those terms, Jeff.)
Jeff
Anyway here's Wonderwall: Mitch is at 4 FP. In 30 min of resting, which I believe can include time spent meditating, he'll be up to 7 FP. At that point, he'll warn the others that he's going to be a while, and then try scrying again, but instead of Mitch-B (or the Comte) he'll try to see the Illuminated, ideally those who are geographically nearby (closer than Orson Welles who I guess is in LA in '73?). Taking 4x the default time, another forty minutes, gives him a +2 to skill, so, Clairvoyance-14.
I'll delay rolling, in case there's a reason I shouldn't
Also not the folks he already knows, Krane and the Oldtimer and Ol' Vera and Peter Mount Shasta.
Michael
You can roll now, Jeff, but I may not be up to replying until later tonight or tomorrow.
Jeff
Ok
c'mon no whammies no whammies
>>>> SUCCESS by 0
Michael
Anyway here's Wonderwall: Mitch is at 4 FP. In 30 min of resting, which I believe can include time spent meditating, he'll be up to 7 FP. At that point, he'll warn the others that he's going to be a while, and then try scrying again, but instead of Mitch-B (or the Comte) he'll try to see the Illuminated, ideally those who are geographically nearby (closer than Orson Welles who I guess is in LA in '73?). Taking 4x the default time, another forty minutes, gives him a +2 to skill, so, Clairvoyance-14.
So here's the thing. Mitch doesn't sense the auras or presences of any real-deal Illuminated in a wide sweeping arc around Mount Shasta other than himself, Pete, and Nola. But inside the mountain, two miles or so beneath his feet, he detects three aura signatures that are showing indefinable qualities that are shared with the Illuminated. Mitch can't isolate quite what this quality it is—think of it like a simple two-circle Venn diagram: on the left is "Mitch and the Illuminated he's met," on the right is "Those three people who—hey, who are we kidding, it's definitely Charley, Jo, and Roger" and in the middle is "mysterious quality and/or ability they currently have in common." Charley, Jo, and Roger are not suddenly fully Illuminated, but something they're doing right now is making them share a quality or qualities with y'all. It doesn't seem like a permanent change, either; this ineffable quality sort of floats around and off of them like a vaporous mist that's wreathing them.
Rob
I'm not sure if Special Rapport can be used in this way but Archie's just trying to focus on Charley, to reassure her, ground her, send her love and courage. Under his breath and in his head (doesn't want to disrupt Mitch's meditation) he'll sing a few verses of "This Little Light of Mine."
Michael
Uh … Ventriloquism-19? (Giving you the embedded +3 Empathy bonus for Special Rapport there. )
Rob
>>>> SUCCESS by 8
Jeff
That brings Mitch down to 1 FP. I'm not sure of the timeline, exactly, but he's spent 110 minutes plus however long it takes to roll a Meditation check since sundown. His first Clairvoyance attempt brought him to just above the (HT/3) FP threshold, now he's just above the 0 FP threshold. Bone tired, exhausted, able to move around under his own power without risk of passing out but only slowly.
So he opens his eyes and groans, because he feels like he's covered in bruises somehow. "What's happening on the mountain tonight is happening down there. Charley, Roger, and Jo. They're inside a spell, kind of. They're in a position where they can use the mountain to reshape reality. Or where the Comte can use the mountain to reshape them. I don't think we can do anything for them from here. I'm sorry. This whole trip might have been a mistake, going to the Enemy's house. I didn't realize it was so bad here. It's worse than I thought it was going to be. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I can't do more, can't help them."
Michael
Mary-Lynn approaches Mitch gingerly, laying a supportive hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, baby. It's okay." Mary-Lynn looks to Genevieve and Archie sort of helplessly. Genevieve gets down on her knees to look into Mitch's eyes. "Mitch. You've done nothing wrong and this wasn't a mistake. The universe puts us where we need to be for a reason, always. Jocasta and Roger and Charley won't be tempted to misuse their power, I'm sure of it. As for the Comte and the Enemy doing something to them..." at this Genevieve's face becomes determined, grim, almost angry...
>>>> SUCCESS by 8
Rob
"There's nothing to apologize for, Mitchell. We're right where we're supposed to be. Going after the Enemy is our job." Did we make a campfire, cook food? Archie offers Mitch whatever it is we have to eat or drink. "Look, why don't you pack it in? You look beat. We're not climbing down this mountain in the dark." Archie looks up at all the the stars. "The others are going to be ok."
Michael
Mary-Lynn approaches Mitch gingerly, laying a supportive hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, baby. It's okay." Mary-Lynn looks to Genevieve and Archie sort of helplessly. Genevieve gets down on her knees to look into Mitch's eyes. "Mitch. You've done nothing wrong and this wasn't a mistake. The universe puts us where we need to be for a reason, always. Jocasta and Roger and Charley won't be tempted to misuse their power, I'm sure of it. As for the Comte and the Enemy doing something to them..." at this Genevieve's face becomes determined, grim, almost angry...
" … what if you demanded he meet you here, on top of the mountain? He can be anywhere, see anywhere he wants on the mountain, yes? He is more easily made material here, high up, away from the surface of the Earth... if you are concerned the Comte is going to do something to them in the mountain, then why don't we try taking him away from them? Between your remote viewing and my ability to perceive connections, we could find him and maybe send him a message. A summoning. He'd be able to hear it if you're right about his being everywhere here on the mountain all at once."
"And if you do need to pack it in," Genevieve says, referring to Archie's offer of some sleep to sleep off his profound fatigue, "we three can stand in your stead." She looks to Mary-Lynn, who's been around her all weekend so far, and Archie. "Charley, Roger, and Jo would do it for us, after all."
Jeff
"I... no. I don't think conjuring the Comte is a good idea, not right now. Roger and Charley just did something, they're... I don't know. Maybe they're safe, now. Maybe not." Mitch sits up, winces, lies back. "Right now it's just Jocasta who's still... in the uncertain state. That could change, though." Mitch tries to imagine Jocasta wrestling her way out of hell only to be shot in the back of the head by a waiting Comte as soon as she returns to normalcy. It seems dramatically inappropriate.
Michael
At a little after midnight, Mitch and Archie sense that Jocasta and Charley seem to have made their way free from their endangered circumstances. Archie's rapport with Charley went from fear to glee pretty suddenly, in fact, a few minutes ago: a feeling of newfound power and strength. Genevieve also checks in with Mitch. "I think... I think they're back from whatever experience they were having. Our connections with them are strong and certain again."
Mary-Lynn is obviously impressed with everyone's magical instincts but she too sighs a sigh of relief; it does feel like something has shifted for the better by her preternatural senses as well.
Jeff
Mitch is much less certain. "They made it in, yeah. But they haven't made it out. Don't let's start counting chickens. Maybe we should be trying to summon or distract him."
Michael
Genevieve looks at Mitch, off of "summon or distract him."
"How do you think we might go about doing that?"
"Do you think the two of us can manage it, like I was talking about before?"
"Or three, I now realize," Viv says, looking to Archie and remembering their Rapport.
Jeff
Okay what's the current status of Mitch's Serendipity usages? And Mary-Lynn's, while I'm asking.
Michael
As far as I can tell, both Mitch (2 charges) and Mary-Lynn (1 charge) are fully charged. Besides which, the present intersession has been a long "game session" which would in any event entitle you to a recharge. Since we were gonna pick up action with a live session, Mitch and M-L are both due.
(Also, not sure if Jeff invoking Serendipity means that Mitch and Mary-Lynn's eyes meet meaningfully over lantern-light in some kind of shared realization but that would be a neat way to kick into whatever you have planned. )
Jeff
What I'm thinking is, a multistep process.
A) Mary-Lynn picks a direction.
B) Mitch closes his eyes and imagines the Comte arriving on the mountaintop from that direction. Sometimes the Comte is called to the mountaintop, sometimes he shows up unexpectedly. It could happen!
C) Archie blasts the Comte with the ikoter he has on him, because the Boy Scout motto is Always Be Prepared.
D) Viv does not have to do anything but that's okay, Viv is weirding Mitch out a little bit tonight.
Michael
Thinking about three usages of Serendipity all at once, kind of blowing my mind a little bit here.
Jeff
Archie is the team member who completed ikoter certification, remember
Michael
"So what do you reckon," Mary-Lynn says to Mitch, "we're in that quiet moment before the storm clouds roll in? Do you feel that... expectation in the air? He's... supposed to come up here and meet us, isn't he? Like that seems right somehow." Mary-Lynn shakes her head and sidles up closer to Mitch, lowering her voice a little. "I've been talking with Genevieve too much this weekend," she says, smiling and chuckling. "I feel like I'm tripping. It must be the thin air, and all the Weirdness this weekend." Mary-Lynn reaches out to hold Mitch's hand. "But he is coming... isn't he?"
Jeff
Mitch nods wearily. "It's a lot, I know."
"I only wanted to go camping."
Michael
"I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say to an immortal. Or how to act, what to do." Mitch sees Mary-Lynn thinking to herself for a moment or two. "Two of swords," she says quietly with eyes closed. "Make the right choice. We're not gonna take any wooden nickels. The Moon, reversed. We're gonna sit tight and see through the bullshit." A noticeable pause. Mary-Lynn blinks, looks at Mitch. "What could an immortal possibly offer me that's better than being here, now, with you?" She smiles.
Jeff
Mitch gives a little laugh at that (a little laugh is as much as he can handle at the moment).
Michael
Mary-Lynn, well aware of the irony of this kind of declaration of love under these particular weird circumstances, picks up one of the lanterns and edges over towards the southeastern edge of the summit campsite.
Jeff
"You ready for this, Arch?"
Rob
Archie gives Mitch the three-finger boy scout salute.
(not a euphemism)
Michael
A scream from the southeast side of the summit. "Auugh! She shot me! She dared to try to kill me!" It's the Comte. He's emerged, suddenly, from out of nowhere, about a dozen feet from Mary-Lynn and Mitch, from the shadows at the edge of the lantern-light. He wears completely different clothes from the ones he was wearing under the mountain; no wig, no fancy Versailles court costume; he's in grubby, grease-streaked blue jeans and a rough, ragged hooded sweatshirt of some kind. "You!" he says to Mitch. "You sent assassins to kill me? I am trying to help you!" Mary-Lynn backs up a good ten feet as the Comte unloads verbally on Mitch.
Jeff
Mitch spouts some distracting bullshit while Archie lines up his shot. Fast-Talk 14.
>>>> SUCCESS by 5
Michael
That should be enough time to give Archie his full Aim/Acc bonus with the... pistol ikoter?
Jeff
IIRC 3 seconds of Aiming gives Acc+2 as bonus to effective skill
Michael
Yeah. Archie's effective Beam Weapons (Projector) roll will be at 17.
Rob
>>>> SUCCESS by 4
(do we have any real guns with us here at the top of the mountain?)
Michael
We never said one way or the other, the only thing I was sure of is that the Downhill team was loaded for bear.
The Comte flinches as the beam of subsonic linguistic noise hits him square in the head, bringing his hand to his temple. He reaches into the pocket of his sweatshirt and pulls out and flashes a large index card sized laminated white placard with a KI.AG glyph on it. "Stop it! Enough!"
• Mitch will need to roll Will-21
• Mary-Lynn Will-14
• and Viv and Archie their Will plus 2 since they're further away and the glyph will be harder to see; Archie would be a Will-23, Viv a Will-25.
Viv:
>>>> SUCCESS by 14
Mary-Lynn:
>>>> SUCCESS by 6
Rob
>>>> SUCCESS by 15
Jeff
>>>> SUCCESS by 15
Laminated white placards burn, right? Silly question: literally everything made of matter burns in GURPS
Assuming he gets a chance, Mitch attempts to ignite and destroy the card
Michael
The KI.AG glyph entrances no one, makes no one fall in love with the Count. Mitch may pyrokinesis when ready.
Jeff
Activate pyro 1 on a 14-
>>>> SUCCESS by 5
Pyrokinesis-16
>>>> SUCCESS by 6
I feel like maybe I need to roll to avoid using pyro 6 on the comte directly, ineffective as that is likely to be, but maybe not? I'm setting something on fire with my mind
Michael
I feel like maybe I need to roll to avoid using pyro 6 on the comte directly, ineffective as that is likely to be, but maybe not? I'm setting something on fire with my mind
Yeah, I think given that you've just summoned him here, that he shrugged off Archie's ikoter blast with no worries, and he just tried to entrance your lady love, I think that is reasonable.
Jeff
Okay so before I roll to activate pyro 1 as above, I gotta roll to not activate pyro 6, I successfully don't activate it on a 14-
>>>> SUCCESS by 4
Michael
So yeah, I think the laminate melts quickly curdling the paper card underneath almost instantaneously. The Comte lets the hot card fall from his hands into the dirt at his feet. "I've got to get out of here. They could do incredible damage down there. And I don't want to hurt them, or you! One of you come with me, please, try to talk them out of a damned shooting rampage right above the control room! I have no doubt they are trying to kill the kulullû right now!"
Rob
Archie drops the ikoter with an annoyed look and draws the Smith & Wesson which he got Jo to loan him. He levels it at the Comte but doesn't fire. "Damage to what?" he says. "The control room to what? And what have you done, or tried to do, to our colleagues?"
Michael
The Comte looks at Mitch, then at Mary-Lynn who by this point is back at the campsite proper with Genevieve, who herself is watching Archie in his gunman stance, the Comte, and Mitch very, very carefully. "I'll speak freely, then? There is no reason to cloak any of this in mystery or metaphor. You are all illuminated now after what your, uh, 'colleagues' have been through down there." Mitch can practically hear the lower-case "i" in the Comte's mention of illumination.
"In this mountain's current five-dimensional alignment—under current cosmic conditions—our golden halls touch upon an extra-dimensional, extra-historical space we call 'the control room.' It's a place where mortals can make changes to the course of history: a temporally- and probabilistically-mobile reality subduction zone, you could say, unmoored from History A, History B, and any..." the Comte pauses, seemingly uncertain if he should continue speaking these secrets, and then sighs, "tributaries of either history. The Controller within will aid anyone who brings a temporal nexus to the control room to uncreate that nexus, and all its causal ramifications, from history." He takes a quick glance at Genevieve, which she sees, then moves on with his explanation.
"I wanted to give your colleagues the opportunity to erase your friends in OZYMANDIAS. They have decided not to take me up on this kind offer, even after being educated in how much your erstwhile allies have manipulated all of you, over the past decade and well into the future. The mountain's alignment ceases to be... stable at dawn, and will disappear shortly after. The control room shifts away from this planetary chakra to await the next alignment, two years hence. The golden halls will shift back to History B. Your friends need to get out of there before then, or they will be trapped in the golden halls. So... yes. If you want your friends to not shoot a hole in history, and not get lost within the mountain, you will need to tell them to believe me!"
Rob
Archie's still speaking coldly, still aiming the gun. "Why should they believe you? Why should we believe you?" But then he looks to Mitch and reveals his bewilderment. "Should we? Believe him?"
Jeff
"Wooden nickels." Mitch tries to ignite the Comte St. Germain's hoodie.
Michael
Go for it.
Jeff
>>>> FAILURE by 1
consarn it
dang it
Michael
The Comte's eyes flicker at Mitch in response to his attempted pyrokinetic ignition. "You know where he is now. Go find him. Go kill him before he kills you." And the Comte backs up off the summit for the second time after finishing with Mitch; but unlike the mid-day encounter back in June, the Comte backs up and trips off the edge of the summit and disappears into the darkness below. (Mitch does have sufficient time to try to light him on fire again between his failed attempt and the Comte's tripping backwards off the mountain.)
Jeff
Ok Mitch passes out but just before that he tries to ignite the Comte's hoodie again
0 FP!
>>>> SUCCESS by 7
Michael
Oh, I gotta look this up.
Jeff
>>>> SUCCESS by 0
Michael
All right, so the Comte's hoodie is on fire as he trips off the summit campsite, illuminating him as he plummets down the mountainside and out of sight.
Mitch is conscious as long as he doesn't try to do anything else taxing until he gets some FP back.
Jeff
"Again, Mary-Lynn, sorry this turned out to be a whole big thing. Thanks for your help, though. I don't think that would've worked without you."
Michael
"Jesus!" Mary-Lynn fairly shouts, rushing back over to Mitch as she sees him slump a little after expending that effort behind his pyrokinesis. "Are you all right?" She picks up the lantern and brings Mitch back over to the campsite.
Jeff
"I feel like I've just lost a chess tournament I was trying to compete in while running a half-marathon. I just need some sleep, I'll be okay. It'll all be okay. He wouldn't be so freaked out if Roger and the others weren't onto something. They're smart people, they'll get it."
Rob
Archie runs to the cliff edge the Comte fell from, looks down where he fell. "Golly!" (Can he see anything?) Then he comes over to Mitch and Mary-Lynn by the fire. "'Trapped in the golden halls' - I don't much like the sound of that."
Jeff
"Roger is close personal friends with Peter the Apostle and Jocasta is from Chicago and Charlie's been playing these games longer than any of us."
Michael
Archie runs to the cliff edge the Comte fell from, looks down where he fell. "Golly!" (Can he see anything?) Then he comes over to Mitch and Mary-Lynn by the fire. "'Trapped in the golden halls' - I don't much like the sound of that."
No sign of a smoldering hoodie, smoldering Comte, or otherwise. In the dark at the very edge of the lantern light Archie can vaguely see some suggestions of smashed tree branches on the cliffs below but no sign bodily of the Comte.
Jeff
Mitch has his eyes closed.
Michael
Genevieve walks up and stands next to Archie. "If we have any way, now, of sending our thoughts to Charley, Jo, and Roger, we should try. It might be too much to hope we could tell them what the Comte said, but they deserve to know if possible, even if it was all lies. I hope they're planning on getting out of there."
Genevieve thinks. "We should also try the walkie-talkies again. It might be futile considering the mountain's between them and us, but it's better than nothing."
Jeff
"Yeah, no."
"I've blown my wad, but, uh, Archie? Can you, I don't know, is there something you can do to let her know they've got until dawn? Is that anything? Dawn."
Rob
Archie starts to demur: "I don't know how I could — " but then stops, nods, and says, "Yes, I'll try." He'll sit by the fire, humming "This Little Light of Mine" again, and think about the dawn. (Also, as dawn approaches, he'll probably get more and more anxious about Charley and the others, and the Special Rapport may transmit that urgency.)
Michael
Archie feels a little twinge of something through the Rapport, like a decision has been made, and Charley's powerful sense of curiosity has met the cold facts of reality. Archie's pretty sure the Downhill crew has made a decision to leave.
By about 2:25 am, Archie, shivering in the tent, is able to smell pines, fresh pines through a cool summer mountainside breeze. Charley and company are outside, no longer inside the mountain.
Jeff
Mitch sits up and starts talking abruptly. He speaks slowly, slurring slightly at first. "I was riding horses. with Theresa. Theresa, and I rehab the ranch in my... In my brain, the horses. The cowboy on the license plates of their trucks, the guns. On the trucks, the cowboys."
"What? What was that?"
Michael
Mary-Lynn mumbles to herself and rolls over. "Hmm?" she says blearily.
Jeff
(Hmm, maybe Mary-Lynn wakes up and rolls over between the first Theresa and the second one?)
Michael
Yeah yeah, that sounds good to me. "You okay, babe? You were talkin' in your sleep about cowboys and someone named Theresa." Mary-Lynn peeks out at the sky outside and sees it's still dark.
"I stayed up till around 1 and then Viv and Archie said they'd hold vigil so I could get some sleep. You were pretty out of it by the end there."
"So I'm guessing there's been no sign of any more creeps comin' up the path."
(Mary-Lynn doesn't have to have nervously babbled any of this if Mitch interrupts btw )
Jeff
(Not entirely sure how to handle this but one possibility is Mitch jumping up and announcing that they need to get moving asap to meet Roger and Jo and Charley and Marshall back at Panther Meadow.)
Michael
I think most everyone would be cool with that. Viv and Mary-Lynn are certainly in, Mike says as he looks up the GURPS rules for operating on maybe 4 hours sleep
Subtract twice the hours of missed sleep from your day to determine how long you can stay awake. So figure everyone here on Team Uphill will start getting tired around noon.
Jeff
Well, we have drugs. I dunno if they're useful under these particular circumstances but it'll hopefully be fine regardless
Michael
And yes, we do have drugs.
Jeff
Okay, then Mitch rises to his feet and stretches (he feels a lot better on four hours sleep than he did) and declares that they need to start moving asap to meet Marshall et al at Panther Meadow.
But first, while he's here, I feel like I'd regret not taking once last opportunity to try using Mt Shasta to ESP
So while people who aren't Mitch wake up and break camp (I dunno how much gear there is) he'll try to scry Lily's mother
Michael
Easy come easy go with those Fatigue Points
Jeff
Might need to rest for 10 min after, before hiking, but that should be okay
Michael
So while people who aren't Mitch wake up and break camp (I dunno how much gear there is) he'll try to scry Lily's mother
Okay, yeah, I think it'll be a straight Clairvoyance-12 roll for you here after reviewing the GURPS Psionic Powers description and the original Clairsentience section of GURPS Characters. Successive rolls/penalties will only come if you need to change perspective/move your scrying point and it's unseeable from Lily once you hone in on her.
Jeff
no whammies no whammies
>>>> FAILURE by 4
Oh well, a whammy
Michael
Mitch's attempt upon waking to find RAVEN/Andrea ends in failure, as Mary-Lynn, Viv, and Archie begin striking camp for the hike back down to Panther.
Jeff
I don't feel like there's time to try again, as it would be like over an hour with the resting to recover FP and all.
Brant
(I mean, whose schedule are you on? I think you could squeeze in another hour. It’s not like you have brunch reservations somewhere.)
Michael
It honestly depends on how much of a hurry we're in to get back to base camp. Figure it's around 4:30 am right now; the trip down the mountain to Panther Meadow should take about 5 to 6 hours, without any hiccups. You're going to get down there mid-morning at the earliest.
But of course we probably don't want to be actively hiking when the sleepyness HT tests begin around noon.
Jeff
Well I figure we want to reunite the team asap for multiple reasons and I don't love the aesthetic of people waiting around for Mitch et al to show up
Michael
Hiking downhill in the dark! Shouldn't be too tough, right?
So! Archie's got Leadership-18, Genevieve has Leadership-17, that qualifies as a leader twice over. Archie's effective Hiking: 6 Genevieve's effective Hiking: 6 Mary-Lynn's Hiking: 10 Mitch's Hiking: 10 So that averages out to 8. The darkness penalty will offset the trail and downhill bonuses. I will give you guys equipment bonuses of course at best possible at TL 7, so +3. So does Archie or Mitch (@Rob MacD and @Dr. Cronk, you guys decide who) want to roll Hiking-11 to see if we can increase our speed by 20% and get down to Panther Meadow an hour and a half quicker (by 8:30 am instead of like 10)?
Jeff
My read is that Archie gets the honor of typing the command to the die-rolling bot
Rob
>>>> FAILURE by 3
Michael
the Comte upon seeing Team Uphill hiking
Leonard
Michael
About halfway down the trail to Panther Meadow with a little over three hours to go on their hike, an hour or so after sunrise, Team Uphill's walkie squawks to life: "Field team, this is HQ. If you can hear me, please report. Over." It's Marshall.