The Redgrave Gambit
Michael
The camera is quickly disabled, but as soon as Charley expends the Corruption, Maman Brigitte is now screaming in Charley's head. "Death comes!" As Mitch stands outside the door signaling to the rest of the team, everyone's ears have gotten acclimated to the hum. As Charley, Jocasta, and Roger, now unsurveilled by the closed-circuit camera, come close to the door, weapons out, braced for anything in the aura of Mitch's Serendipity, you all can hear a man's voice (yes, Jocasta succeeded by 10 so she can tell it's Anthony Barnes Reinhardt) saying the following:
" … in charge of URIEL once Ransom has been retired. We think that—"
Marshall's voice responds, even and calm, "Well, I have some bad news for you, boys."
A loud scatter of chairs, a shaken yell of "GODDAMN IT!" (from Reinhardt) …
Mitch opens the door.
Reinhardt is rushing towards Marshall as Marshall, Colt to his head, pulls the trigger; Gottlieb and Jolly West have dived to the floor.
The gun goes off.
Brant, roll Guns-18.
Brant
>> SUCCESS by 8
Michael
Skull (-7): The part of the head that houses the brain. The skull gets an extra DR 2, the wounding modifier for all attacks increases to x4, knockdown rolls are at -10, and critical hits use the Critical Head Blow Table (p. 556).
Damage for Marshall's weapon is 2d pi. So in this case, if my rusty GURPS skills are telling me right, Brant will roll 2d6-2 for base damage. That number will then be multiplied by 4. We will then assess the affects of the damage on Marshall's 10 HP.
After the damage is resolved, Marshall will also need to roll HT minus 10 (effective skill 0) to check for Knockdown. Knockdown means he's stunned and falls prone, and if he fails by more than 5 (extremely likely), he also falls unconscious from the head wound.
Reinhardt gets up from a crouch as he failed to stop Marshall from shooting himself. He has his hands out in front of himself as he sees Jocasta braced and aiming at him. His body is tensed, coiled, but he very calmly says, "Now hold on," to Jocasta and the rest of URIEL.
(Change Posture maneuver which leaves Reinhardt with Active Defense.)
Brant
Skull (-7): The part of the head that houses the brain.
Thanks GURPS.
Michael
Please, roll damage now. We will need to see what other rolls follow from that before the Knockdown roll.
Brant
>> 2d6-2 … 7
Michael
28 damage total. That puts Marshall at -18 HP.
-1xHP – In addition to the above effects (not important yet), make an immediate HT roll or die. (If you fail by only 1 or 2, you’re dying, but not dead – see Mortal Wounds, p. 423).
Marshall's HT is 10. On a 12 or less, he lives. On a 13 or more, he dies.
Jeff
the wounding modifier for all attacks increases to x4
Oof.
Brant
>> 3d6 … 14
(All that firearms training paid off!)
Michael
Okay, one second. There is one person in the group with the ability to grant a reroll on this. That's Charley, with her Second Chance.
BUT. We need to see how sane everyone is after witnessing this.
So next I need to calculate Fright Checks for all the witnesses.
There will likely be substantial penalties. This is especially traumatic to witness.
Total of a -6 to Fright Checks for witnessing the death of a loved one: -2 for witnessing the death, -4 for a loved one.
Roger: 9 (failed by 6, will roll 3d6+6 on the Fright Check table)
Charley: 9 (failed by 1, will roll 3d6+1 on the Fright Check table)
Jocasta: Rule of 14 (fails on a 14+) (succeeded by 0)
Mitch: 10 (failed by 4, will roll 3d6+4 on the Fright Check table)
Brant
(Official system confirmation that the other PCs loved Marshall, how sweet.)
Michael
About to propose something in the #meta-discussions channel, one moment.
Michael
I'm putting out there that I am thinking about instituting a house rule on non-Annunaki Fright Checks, if you guys want to hear me out.
Now, the odds are overwhelmingly that Charley is going to roll a Fright Check result that will make her freeze for a second or more. This would ruin any chance she has to react to the failed death check. But there are other, more serious results on the Fright Check table: namely, a 10-point Mental Disadvantage at 22 or 23, that don't create any immediate freezing in headlights. Basically, in Charley's case, it would be her pushing down the trauma of this gruesome, violent sight into a new long-lasting traumatic Disadvantage to allow her to steel herself for the moment necessary to use Second Chance. I'd offer this to Mitch too: his maximum possible roll is a 22 on the table. Roger will need to roll, unfortunately, but I'd be willing to give it to him if he rolls 21 or under.
Thoughts? Or is this too much of an ass-pull? I think it makes sense story-wise, honestly.
Brant
Makes sense to me — all that INDIGO training’s gotta mean something, right?
Michael
I'd argue SANDMAN training in general gets people into situations where they need to act fast and get traumatized later.
Jeff
Sure
Brant
Yeah that kind of feels like our whole vibe. Kind of useless being super powerful secret agents with knowledge of all the horrors of the world if we (possibly) freeze every time we see something violent happen.
Michael
These are reaches of the Fright Table we've never encountered before, so yeah, it's a ramping up of consequences.
Mel
I also feel she has been prepared by Maman Brigitte. She knew something terrible was about to happen.
Michael
I think it makes reference to something Rob said above about all of us being permanently shook by Marshall's choice.
And of course Mel and I will get to conspire on the right Disadvantage.
I want to wait to see what the rest of the group thinks before giving it the thumbs-up.
Bill
I'd argue SANDMAN training in general gets people into situations where they need to act fast and get traumatized later.
I’d agree, except where prior unresolved trauma still gets in the way. Flashbacks, for instance. There’s probably a good chance Roger is gonna be right back on that boat in ‘Nam with Marshall.
Michael
Funny you should say that … but I'm not going to say much more for fear of spoilers.
Just realized Marshall is literally Schrödinger's Cat right now
Leonard
I'm happy to go along with the group consensus.
Rob
The question is whether we're all ok with Charley (& co) being permanently traumatized in exchange for a chance Marshall isn't dead? Yeah, this gambit is going swell, Marshall, thanks a bunch
jk jk I'm fine with however you want to adjudicate it. What you say makes sense.
Michael
Okay, back to real time then.
Michael
I guess Roger can roll first now, while we wait for a decision on the meta thing. Bill B, 3d6+6.
Bill
>> 3d6 … 11
Michael
11 – Stunned for 2d seconds. Every second after that, roll vs. modified Will, as above, to snap out of it.
Mitch? Want to roll 3d6+4? And Charley will elect to take either a 22 or a 23 on the Fright Check table, depending on whether we go with a Delusion, Phobia, or something else.
Jeff
>> 3d6 … 16
Michael
16 – Stunned for 1d seconds, as per 10, and acquire a new quirk, as per 13.
Okay, we're going out of strict round order here because the demands of Second Chance with Transference demand it. So Charley must first act to activate Transference at her new level of 14 (bye bye 11 experience points). Adding 2 Corruption will get that up to 16. So Mel, if you want to roll Transference-16, go for it. If this roll fails, Marshall is for real dead.
Mel
>> SUCCESS by 5
Michael
Okay. Marshall has been granted TWO rerolls on his Death roll ("Success lets you reroll the success or damage roll twice, taking the best result of the three.") The original history was the one where he rolled a 14 and croaked. But now he has a chance to choose one of three available timelines: the 14, and two others about to be rolled by Brant. So Brant, if you will, roll 3d6 twice. As before, a 10 or less is alive, 11 or 12 is dying, and 13+ is dead.
Brant
>> 3d6 … 12
(Roll again? Or stop there?)
Michael
Roll again. It could get better.
Bill
Three timelines!
Brant
>> 3d6 … 16
(Oh shit that time line sucked.)
Michael
Dying.
Rob
troy with pizza dot gif
Brant
I mean, I'll take "dying" over dead!
Michael
Things still aren't great.
And Roger is stunned.
Jeff
I know this situation calls for the calm blue ocean of psychic surgery but there is fire up in my bones
Michael
The lights in the conference room flicker imperceptibly as Charley and Marshall choose a different timeline, a different trajectory for the bullet now lodged in Marshall's brain. With Roger (and, for the merest of split-seconds, Mitch) standing mute to the sudden unexpected sight of marginally less of their comrade's brains painting the neutral conference room walls …
Bill: Roger stands stunned before this bloody scene, his vision doubling. A soft blue-white glow suffuses Roger's peripheral vision, arriving from right-angles to reality in this grim little room full of conspirators and blood: the same light that Roger saw hovering over Pascagoula last night, the same light that tried to blind him and Jocasta with light codes of madness in the halls of Shasta when the two of them intentionally kept their eyes open to face (and eventually cheat) the tests of the Anunnaki to save Charley. Roger falls away from Huntsville, Alabama, a feeling of dizziness and disorientation—down far deeper in his being than merely the physical—making his head spin. For a moment, Roger isn't sure who he is; not in the familiar sense of his loa taking him over, but on a much more fundamental level to his own identity. And then he finds himself …
Antlers City Cemetery, Antlers, OK — Tuesday, October 14, 2003.
Michael
… sitting in the driver's seat of his rented Ford Taurus, which he's spent two-and-a-half hours driving out from DFW Airport. The day is unexpectedly hot for October, the sun shining bright on the vast largely treeless green fields of Antlers City Cemetery. Roger looks in the rearview mirror, checks out his reflection in his sunglasses, the lines in his face deeper, the weight of all these years, all these deaths, having carved and darkened his features. The scowl creases are dug in deep.
He is here for remembrance. It is all he can do, thirty years later.
On a bench in front of the cemetery gates is a rangy, clean-shaven and tanned, lean white man in jeans and a button-down. He walks slowly, like the weight of the world is on his shoulders. When he sees Roger, he waves with a sad resignation. Underneath the bench, an old redbone coonhound, leashless, slumbering in the shade, wakes up when Mitch leaves the bench and trots after him, gamely but slowly.
(Roger has been through this before, going back to Vietnam in '67/Granite Peak in '71 in Shasta. Mitch was on the summit when all that happened.)
(The Cambodia mission, coincidentally enough, also happened in October. I guess canonically the Granite Peak bit should too now.)
Jeff
"Roger. Wasn't sure you'd make it."
Bill
He mutters under his breath: "I'm not so sure I did." As he gets out of the car, he gets up a little too fast, wobbles on an unexpected weak leg. But it's kinda like Papa Legba's limp, so he adjusts quickly. He walks out to his old buddy, throws his arms out, goes for the hug. "Good to see you, Mitchell." He looks up at the cemetery, falls silent.
Michael
The dog moseys up to Roger, but he's tired. He weaves a bit, trying to figure out if there's a walk in the park in store for him or if he can lie down for another nap.
Jeff
"Mitch, Matthew, Martin, Menos, Marshall, Melanie," Mitch murmurs. He releases the hug a little early, then gestures down to the dog. "I forget, have you met Morgan? C'mon, Morgan, don't lie down, no, we're walking … "
He tosses the dog a soft treat from his jeans pocket.
Michael
He bites it out of the air with startling agility like he always has.
Bill
"Good dog. I always thought you needed a dog. Doesn't one of those figures on the cards you use have a dog? The magician or somebody?" Roger has a smile on his face that says he's clearly messing. Because it's good to be able to still mess with old friends. The ones around.
Jeff
"I dunno man, I never memorized the names."
Bill
"The names were right there, right on the cards, man. Yeah, yeah, you never did like labels." Roger shakes his head lightly. "You know, I went back to Martinez a while back. Once people finally started respecting a Hispanic name, I woke up one day and just felt my father and his people deserved a little respect themselves. But don't worry, it's still Roger. The gringos ain't gonna learn to pronounce Rogelio any time soon."
Jeff
"We're doing great," Mitch says, in Danbe. "We're killing this."
Bill
He replies back in the same: "You think so? Not nose touching much over?"
Jeff
Shrug. In English: "we should do the thing." He cocks his head towards the cemetery.
Bill
"Gimme a second to pay my respects to the Master, first. It's not His day, but I owe Him big … thanks to you. Not gonna walk in one of His gardens without the observances." Roger crosses himself, limps over to the graveyard gate, doffs his old man's flat cap. In the Creole he was just practicing … yesterday … he pours out a prayer to the Baron and his coterie.
Jeff
Mitch reflexively echoes Roger's sign of the cross.
Michael
The two men and the dog walk through the gates and towards their destination: a modest grave located near one of the few remaining old trees in the cemetery. It's a simple stone, not as old as many in this part of the cemetery, but still showing some of the signs of age. Around it are relatives going back generations in this part of Oklahoma. Roger feels himself now completely on the Baron's turf this deep in the graveyard; the Petro loa can't see or find him here. Ever since that month 30 years ago when the dead were getting trapped and changed in Their machines, Roger's not had much truck with the Baron or his kin. Roger's debts were paid. So were Jo's to Underwater Panther. Most of URIEL got out alive. Barely. But so many others didn't.
MARY-LYNN TURNER
March 24, 1946 - October 14, 1973
We'll be on enchanted sky machines
The gentle are goin' home
Bill
"Oh amigo. This shit ain't ever easy." Then, in Danbe: "In the golden mountain halls, they had things we had to see. We learned, but what things we wanted."
Jeff
"I told her... what did I tell her? I must have told her I was going away for work, not sure how long. That would have been on the sixth day. It is, was, the twelfth." Mitch has lapsed back into Danbe, he switches to English and looks Roger in the eyes. "What does Simon Peter advise? He's wiser than me."
Bill
He kicks a rock, turns an ear. "He's not here." But then he pats Mitch on the shoulder. "I think if he were here, he'd tell us to wake up. Judgment Day, he'll be there, with the book, and the dead will wake up, throw off the shackles of the grave."
"Wish I had Gabriel's trumpet now."
Jeff
"Death ain't nothing but a number?"
"Well, maybe."
Bill
"A trumpet plays reveille— I sure know that tune to my bones— marshaling your GI grunts to wake up— get to war. If I had that trumpet of Gabriel's, it'd be war alright."
Jeff
Mitch nods.
Bill
To Mitch, maybe everyone, maybe to the Gede watching their yard, Roger asks, a little angry now: "Who else didn't get out, this, that week? Where we are now, remembering this, what's the litany of the dead, the names to recite? That's what comes next, in the ritual, right? Reading from Peter's book. Well, who've we got?"
Michael
Maître Carrefour, in his guise as young teenage Roger from Roger's recent near-death experience, stands over at the fence, waving to the two men. The faintest whiff on gunpowder on the breeze.
Bill
(The devil, you say!)
Michael
This is, after all, a doom being said.
It's fortunate we have our party's two Oracles here too.
Two questions before I continue with Kalfu and the results of a couple of rolls I made secretly for Roger. 1) Is it still Mitch's plan to accept the 10-point Disadvantage so he can avoid being stunned in real time? and 2) Does Roger accept being stunned for 2d6 seconds?
Bill
Given the chance, by whomever, to have a second to think, Roger has clearly realized he should wake up. Blow, Gabriel, blow!
Just his luck it was the Devil, with the Devil’s due to pay.
Jeff
Sure
Bill
Roger gives a nod to the teenage boy, and limps over right up to the cemetery fence, cursing a bit. The boy, the Maître, says something short and curt, too short to really understand, and Roger stops muttering. His eyes go unfocused, he pauses. After a beat, he looks up and then around. He turns back to the cemetery, and says, again to everyone, to the Gede, in English. "We're here this day to remember. OK, I have. All the years since now to this now, 2003. The litany of the dead. I remember them. Enemies, yes! And family, friends, innocents. Respectfully, masters, you got your blood from me, and more. Too much more. You'll still get your blood price, but at the right price, no more. Let's let the Master of Bargains handle the deal."
Old Roger reaches into the inside of his thick old man's overcoat, and pulls out a worn leather billfold. It takes a bit of searching through it, but he pulls from it a faded black card with a drawing in white on it. He looks on it, holds it up, and says, "You got your gunpowder already, Maître." He closes his eyes, concentrates, and reaches his hand through the fence. The boy takes it, and in a blink, Roger, not the boy or the old man, but Roger of 1973, is standing there in the boy's place on the other side of the fence. But his eyes are dark, and he casts no shadow.
Michael
Morgan looks plaintively at 1973 Roger at the fence. Old Mitch has vanished from in front of Mary-Lynn's grave.
Michael
(I think somehow subconsciously I thought it was the ultimate portrayal of this purgatory to put Roger inside a rented Ford Taurus. Also bull-kusarikku reference because why not.)
Here's the initiative order with adversaries included:
The average SANDMAN Commando (including them for no reason whatsoever)
Roger
Charley
Reinhardt (on fire)
Jocasta
Archie (he may be in "bullet time" sooner than he thinks)
Kendrick
Mitch
West
Stanton (on the phone from New York)
Marshall (for purposes of any health-related checks)
Gottlieb
Reinhardt gets up from a crouch as he failed to stop Marshall from shooting himself. He has his hands out in front of himself as he sees Jocasta braced and aiming at him. His body is tensed, coiled, but he very calmly says, "Now hold on," to Jocasta and the rest of URIEL. (Change Posture maneuver which leaves Reinhardt with Active Defense.)
Hearing for those in the ALLOCHTHON office:
>> 3d6 … 12
Hearing for those Sandmen closest to the door out in the hangar:
>> 3d6 … 14
Next in the initiative order is Roger, Bill.
(Recall, combat rounds are one second, very sadly, the ability to talk/communicate is going to be very limited here. Quick phrases like Reinhardt's are fine.)
Bill
Without action, without ritual or offering or even a prayer, an eerie presence settles over Roger, and his shadow vanishes from the wall behind him. He stands more confident, assured. The smell of modern accelerants and nitrates in the room wafts over now as an older, more sulfurous gunpowder stench.
Roger opens his dark eyes wider, looks at the assembled conspirators, and in a calm, unequivocal Voice says: "Gentlemen, stand down, and let only the one fated to die here die."
He stares at Reinhardt. "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in hell."
Michael
(Mel, Charley's action is up next)
Mel
Charley is deeply unnerved by Roger’s presence but nevertheless she moves towards Marshall. As she does she inwardly calls to Maman Brigitte for guidance.
Michael
Meditation-15.
Leonard, Jocasta is up next. Thanks to Mitch's expenditure of 1 Serendipity, she has had ample time to both Aim and Brace herself before the door was flung open and Marshall shot himself.
Mel
>> SUCCESS by 0
Michael
That’s a success!
(And Charley does Move to Marshall's side and when she gets there, tries to get in touch with her loa guide.)
Leonard, before your move, I do now realize we need to roll for On The Edge. You make your self-control roll on a 15 or less.
Leonard
>> SUCCESS by 4
Michael
Well, that allows Jo to act normally this round.
Leonard
Jocasta moves with brittleness, as if the stress has led her body to betray her. Fumbling for the sidearm in her jacket, she extricates it, but far too slowly; her hands are practically shaking, and a small wince of pain shows through on her face, as if she still feels the stigmata as well as seeing them. But there is no softness or failure in her voice. It's pure, smooth, steel. "Charley," she hisses, "get Archie. Tell him we are taking charge. Roger, tend to, to Marshall. Mitch," she says with a hard swallow and gesturing clumsily at Reinhardt with her gun hand, "incinerate this fucker."
Michael
(Rob, Archie is next up, I'm going to drop a roll in the other room)
(Then next, Jeff Mitch is up.)
Jeff
Mitch incinerates the fucker, or tries to, let's see.
Activation at 14-
>> SUCCESS by 5
Quick contest of Mitch's Pyro skill vs Reinhardt's Will, but Mitch's Pyro skill is 16+(HOWEVER MUCH CORRUPTION IT TAKES):
3d6 … 7
Seven levels of pyrokinesis brought to bear in re spontaneous human combustion
Michael
Spontaneous Combustion does two points of burning (HP) damage per level; also, treat the flammability class (Making Things Burn, p. B433) of the subject as one step higher than it actually is! DR does not protect against either type of harm. At the GM’s option, this damage can be converted to dice, as for TK Crush (p. 54). So that's 14 HP damage plus the effects of flaming clothes?
Jeff
14 in the first second, yes.
Michael
A single hit that inflicts 10 or more points of basic burning damage ignites all of the victim’s clothes. This does 1d-1 burning damage per second and is very distracting (-3 to DX, except when rolling to put out the fire). Go ahead and roll for the clothes in the first second so I can make proper HT checks for him. Anthony Barnes Reinhardt is on fire. West's and Gottlieb's actions will be to get as far away from him as URIEL will let them.
Jeff
>> 1d6-1 … 5
Leonard
Not sure if this counts as an action but as soon as Reinhardt is lit up Jocasta will train her pistol on Gottlieb and bark "Freeze."
Michael
Reinhardt’s HT-14.
>> SUCCESS by 4
Not sure if this counts as an action but as soon as Reinhardt is lit up Jocasta will train her pistol on Gottlieb and bark "Freeze".
Gottlieb and West freeze under Jocasta's orders. Stanton yells on the phone, "What the hell is going on out there?" Reinhardt, on fire, is trying to make his way out of the room. But since his DX has reduced because of the fire, Roger actually moves up in the turn order and is up at the top of Round 2. Bill, you're up when you get a chance to see this.
Jocasta, give me an Occultism-18 roll please.
Leanord
>> SUCCESS by 6
Bill
Kalfu approaches the table where Stanton's speakerphone is set up, and, in Gottlieb's voice, shouts "Reinhardt, stop! Frank, he's gone off the reservation. He's trying to take us out … " and he presses the Off/Hang-Up button on the side.
Michael
FUCK. Mimicry-19 for sheer ballsy-ness of it.
Bill
Need I say Corruption is coming into this? (Devilish grin.)
The true and sure voice of the CIA:
>> CRITICAL SUCCESS
Michael
Yeah, given it's granted through Kalfu, I can add Mimicry to the Corruption skill list for these purposes. Also, Mimicry does seem like in the same general zone as a lot of these. If Panhandling can be increased NLP-wise with Corruption, Mimicry should be too.
Bill
Turns out I didn't need it.
But sure, one point spent.
Michael
Pitch perfect.
Gottlieb, architect of some of the worst excesses of the Cold War up to 1973, is in awed shock.
Charley is kneeling down before Marshall's unconscious, raggedly-breathing, massively head-wounded body. Maman Brigitte's voice, a shadow of its former self in her head, is soothing, yet still somehow subtly mocking. "He will live, ma petite écolière, he will live. The Gede will be fed a burnt offering. None of you will be the same, though. The decisions you make today set you off on a path it will be hard to turn from." Charley still has an action this round.
Mel
Looking down at Marshall, it seems impossible that he could survive and it pains her to leave him like this. But, Jo’s directions are clear. So, before she runs to retrieve Archie, she shouts, “Hurry Roger!”
Michael
Reinhardt definitely looks like he's going to try to run out of the room as well.
Mel
As she moves towards the door she finds herself gaining on the burning Reinhardt. And without thinking she quickens her pace to leap up to deliver a roundhouse kick.
Michael
Okay, that is a Move and Attack maneuver, which means you'll have a -4 to your Karate roll, so Karate-9. But hey, his Active Defense is multiply-penalized now due to HP loss and burning, so a hit will likely deliver some damage.
(And of course we'll need to check for fire damage on Charley's foot if she hits, but she's got shoes on which will provide some DR.)
Mel
>> FAILURE by 1
(Aww)
Second Chance?
Michael
So. Using Second Chance again after using it recently is WEIRD. It's one of the only abilities I've ever read where the time you get to use it again is based on real-life time around the table. Which doesn't really work because we're playing, hah, asynchronously. BUT. If Charley wanted to use it again now, I would say pumping it up to level 5 ("recharges in five minutes") with Corruption would let her try to manipulate the timeline again. That would cost 48 character points, divided by 5, which would round up to 10 Corruption.
I mean, I suppose it's functionally a lot like Serendipity, but what the fuck yo
Maybe five minutes is too quickly given all that happened, especially the future scene. Let's call it ten minutes, 36 character points divided by 5 which is 8 Corruption.
Mel
No, that’s okay. She misses.
Michael
Fair enough. She's out the door and at the locked door out to the hangar. Reinhardt acts next. Mitch and Jo are in his way in front of the door to the conference room. He is going to try to run through them. I need to look up these rules but Leonard and Jeff should be ready for a roll.
Let's see if I hit first. Move and Attack, Brawling minus 4 from shock, minus another 3 from the fire distracting him. That's a 9.
>> FAILURE by 3
It's moot. He can't push through the two of you, but I'd like you both to roll your chosen Active Defense to avoid getting burned. Leonard, Jeff.
Parry-11 is Jo's best; Dodge or Parry-8 is Mitch's. Fire damage will be 1d6-3 if you fail; it's just the aura of heat and fire around him, he didn't hit you.
(You can parry with a conference room chair so you don't get burned)
(finally, all that modernist office furniture this game's been full of finally pays off)
Michael
Before the end of Reinhardt's round, I need to roll against HT-14 for Knockdown/Stun.
>> SUCCESS by 6
(So after we get your Defense rolls against the heat/fire, it's Jo's round on the turn order.)
Jeff
>> 3d6 … 14 : (2+6+6) = 14
Michael
Mitch blowback:
>> 3d6-3 … 2
Jeff
Ugh. Does this affect my ability to continue to burn him? It would, I guess. -2 to my effective pyrokinesis skill.
More Corruption for pile, perhaps
Leonard
Parry-11.
>> SUCCESS by 1
Michael
Nice, Jo keeps the heat away with a well-positioned office chair.
So Jo is up.
Leonard
[I think she would actually been at Parry-12 because of Combat Reflexes, but it's a moot point.]
Michael
(I think the character sheet auto-calculates the Combat Reflexes! I remember an asterisk. )
Leonard
As the hulking, blazing form of her onetime mentor and superior lumbers past, Jocasta's instincts kick back in and she sheds the nervous energy that slowed her down a precious second before. Snaking her foot and leg around an aluminum and steel office chair, she flips it up into the space between him, causing him to bat it feebly away with a swipe of his right forearm, now steadily roiling with flame like a log in a fireplace. With the same determined, fluid motion, and a malicious glint in her eyes, she slides over to Sidney Gottlieb, stepping behind him and raising her right hand, its forefinger floating a lethal centimeter over the trigger of the Zasteva. She seems to be aiming directly at Jolly West. She freezes and does nothing further but hiss into Gottlieb's ear.
"Listen to me, you lying, appeasing, traitorous son of a bitch," she says clearly so he can hear her over the chaotic din. "You're cooked. You're going to confess, and it's up to you how much you suffer between now and then. You know we'll get it out of you. You taught most of us how to do it. Call off the dogs right this fucking second and walk your ass out or I pull the trigger on your treacherous creep buddy. There's enough blood and fear in this room already, you know what will happen if I add a little more. And then you can explain to them how you want to make a fucking deal."
Michael
This is an Intimidation roll. It defaults to Will minus 5. I would absolutely give you a +2 for that RP, and another +3 for the circumstances to cancel out the minus 5 entirely, so roll straight Will. Intimidation-18.
Leonard
Intimidation.
>> SUCCESS by 9
Jeff
Meanwhile Reinhardt continues to cook, his clothes aflame, sweat sizzling off of him like a sausage as he cooks from the inside.
>> 3d6 … 9
Michael
I will act for West and Gottlieb on their turns. Kendrick and Archie go next, but after them is Mitch.
HT death check:
>> 3d6 … 11
Jeff
Mitch has his hands on his temples and is making a weird expression while he stares at Reinhardt.
Michael
HP 14
>> 3d6 … 14
Jeff
>> 1d6-1 … 0 1
Michael
3d6 HT to avoid knockdown and stun: (5+3+2) = 10
>> 3d6 … 10
Fright Check West:
>> 3d6 … 12
Fright Check Gottlieb:
>> 3d6 … 13
Jeff
Minimum damage is 1 for burning damage
Michael
Jolly West, his eyes darting from Reinhardt to Jocasta, collapses to the floor clutching his chest. Mitch's Aura Sight confirms he is having a cardiac event. Sidney Gottlieb stammers to Jocasta. "P-please, for God's sake. Have mercy on Tony. Put him out. You've won. Stanton will have called security, let me countermand the orders."
Jo isn't sure if Sidney is more scared of him and West being next to die by fire, or the Anunnaki reference Jo made. But it's clear both threats shook him deeply.
Back up to the top of the order with Roger, Bill.
Jeff
Is the sixth man still moving or have the consciousness checks caught to him?
Michael
He's still moving. If Mitch were to gauge his intent with Aura Sight and the general configuration of the battle space, Reinhardt is closest to him and it looks like, in the absence of being able to get out of the conference room, he's going to try to go down bear hugging Mitch while on fire.
Bill
Kalfu looks at Reinhardt, at Mitch, at Marshall and West. He moves to Mitch's side, plucking a chair up to defend Mitch from fire. He shouts at Mitch: "Go. He is finished: Jocasta will finish him. You have to save lives — all the lives. Hers too. Jocasta will end him. Save the ones here. Save her out there."
(Kalfu/Roger will go into defense of Mitch.)
Michael
I guess it's time for Reinhardt to go in for the bear hug. And I guess it's gonna be Roger he tries to grab.
>> FAILURE by 5
That's a complete miss. He's just not capable of fighting to his usual standards.
Jocasta up, Leonard.
Leonard
“You’re not in a position to bargain. Do as I told you. The quicker you act the quicker these two get medical attention.” She does nothing else, but she’s bracing and aiming at Reinhardt. If he doesn’t drop or give up, she’ll pull the trigger as soon as she can.
Michael
Reinhardt's not dropping or giving up, but Mitch is about to act. "I need to use the phone to call the command center to make sure no one is scrambling commandos right now," Gottlieb says. "And then get a team in here under cover to evac the wounded, come up with a cover story with Mead."
Gottlieb is shaken but trying to manage the crisis.
Bill
Well, if we're gonna be briefly talking out of turn, Kalfu would immediately shoot back with "Well, if it takes just a phone call, I'll take care of that. We'll have the code signs out of you in a second. Now shut up, mortal fool."
Jeff
Shit, I really want to spend another turn/second/round burning Reinhardt but the devil is making good points. Mitch listens to the devil on a 12- let's say:
>> 3d6 … 10
Mitch shifts his attention to Marshall. Aura analysis first, to be followed by psychic surgery.
>> SUCCESS by 0
Bill
The devil is another matter, apparently.
Michael
Mitch shifts his attention to Marshall. Aura analysis first, to be followed by psychic surgery.
Life signs are weak. The bullet is not very deep in his brain (Mitch bets that before that weird quantum Charley shit happened, Marshall had put it right through his brain stem) and he's going to need to be long-term stabilized of course. Marshall is currently at -18 HP.
Jeff
Mitch has spent 2 FP already burning Reinhardt, putting him at 8 FP.
He can theoretically get as low as -9 while remaining conscious, but going below 3 FP gives him penalties and going below 1 FP puts him at risk of passing out, which, right now seems like a bad time to be passing out.
He'll begin the process of using Cure on Marshall, which takes him ten minutes to attempt, IIRC
Trusting Jocasta and Roger and the devil to handle Reinhardt and the rest
Michael
So with the Pyrokinesis ravaging his body shut off, Reinhardt does actually finally drop to the ground, horribly burned, conscious but unwilling to fight anymore. All Mitch can see on a quick glimpse at his aura is pain. He is currently at -20 HP.
Jeff
It will never fail to make me to huh, that GURPS has a scale of disease severity that goes from +1 (cold virus) to -15 (terminal cancer)
But then, it also has a scale of how flammable something is that goes from 0 (metal, water, stone) to 3 (flash paper) with pretty much everything for which it would be relevant being a 1 or a 2
Michael
(We can shift out of combat but Jocasta was holding her action and Reinhardt has essentially dropped and will inevitably eventually fail a consciousness roll, especially if we're talking 10 minutes for the Cure. Which, by the way, should stabilize Marshall before his next critical care check at T+30 minutes since the Redgrave Gambit.)
Jeff
Yeah. It's kind of odd that GURPS has an injury/healing subsystem that runs totally independent of magical/psionic healing, which just short-circuits it completely, but I suppose that's the magic of it
Bill
The scene slow down question for me is: does Archie come in? (Cue darkest timeline gif)
Michael
Charley and Archie need to have an actual conversation. But I would assume at some point he would need to be brought back to the ALLOCHTHON control sector.
Bill
If you’d like more Kalfu playing mind games with Gottlieb and pulling a 9-to-5 on him, I’ll be ready tomorrow. Turns to phone, uses his voice: “Yes, this is Gottlieb. Where are those medics? I want total deniability lockdown.” Turns to Gottlieb: “Kiss all the lepers you can, we still have an appointment.”
Leonard
Jocasta will prioritize making sure Gottlieb doesn’t call any troops in and convincing him he’s going to have to own up to what his little cabal was up to. She doesn’t care if West dies, but if Reinhardt looks to do anything but lie there smoldering, she’ll unload half a clip into him.
Michael
(It occurs to me—and Jocasta for that matter—getting Archie in here with his NLP and SANDMAN Rank etc. might not be a bad idea before Gottlieb goes making any calls himself. Juuuuust to make sure Gottlieb doesn't try anything fast.)
Bill
If we are dropping out of second turns, FP loss on Kalfu will start to stack up.
Michael
Invocation of a loa costs 1 FP, and the effect lasts 3 minutes; after that period, extended possession costs 1 FP every 6 minutes. Your loa departs if you’re rendered unconscious. Kalfu can definitely hang about until Marshall is stabilized and Archie makes it back here.
Leonard
Yeah, the gist is she's going to keep everyone under control until Archie gets here and Marshall gets medical care. Until then she'll just keep putting pressure on Gottlieb so he doesn't start getting any ideas.
Michael
Okay, I'd like Charley and Archie to have a moment of RP out in the hangar and then they can come back here. I guess for us the priorities are (and they don't have to go this way/this order, this is just my conception of it): • getting Stanton's orders countermanded/making sure the people in the frosted office aren't calling internal security after the gunshot/smoke/fire: these are both Gottlieb's responsibility and we should wait until Archie comes back here to make sure he isn't selling us out but this should happen in the next 1-2 minutes • Mitch finishes Cure (10 minutes) • secret medical evac for Marshall, Reinhardt, and West: Reinhardt and West can be stabilized until then with First Aid checks And then we figure out what the fuck we're going to do next.
Jeff
Whatever happens in the next ten minutes, Mitch is occupied, yeah
Michael
All right, so Archie, Charley, and Kendrick come through to the ALLOCHTHON control section. Upon entering conference room 1, Kendrick and Archie both need to make Fright Checks, with Archie's penalized by -6 and Kendrick's penalized less. Rob, Fright Check-10.
Kendrick sees the burnt Reinhardt, and the blood-spattered brain pan of Dr. Marshall Redgrave, and loses his breakfast out in the hallway.
(literally rolled a 12, I think I willed it into being)
Rob
>> SUCCESS by 0
Michael
Steady like Freddy.
Mitch is in the midst of attending to Marshall, concentrating his powers upon Marshall's grievous head wound, when Archie, Charley and Kendrick walk in. Reinhardt, barely conscious, is on the floor, smoldering. Jolly West is gasping for breath in the corner of the conference room. Jocasta and a shadowless Roger stand behind Sidney Gottlieb as he sits alone at the conference table, setting up the telephone to make a series of urgent calls. The room smells like burnt flesh, mephitic gunpowder, and blood.
Jeff
Did Reinhardt's clothes go out?
Michael
I would assume with falling to the floor and not specifically rolling around there are probably still various small flames licking away on his clothes.
Leonard
“Archie. Moles in the ministry. Gottlieb and Reinhardt and West sold us out to the enemy and arranged for this,” Jocasta says, gesturing to but not looking at Marshall on the floor. “We have to move fast.”
Michael
"Now hang on a minute here," Gottlieb says, aware of what this accusation would mean in front of even an incapacitated Mead and a suddenly ascendant Archie, "no one here has sold anyone out to the Enemy."
Leonard
"Shut the fuck up, traitor."
Michael
Gottlieb is opportunistic but not stupid. He shuts up again, eyes Archie, reaches for the phone, and then looks at Jo, Roger, Archie in turn. "I need to make sure Frank Stanton hasn't called in the cavalry, Mr. Ransom. I need to make sure this … event does not escalate. Please let me call the back office and very clearly tell them to stand down. We can get medical attention and evac for the wounded, put together some memetic cover, and discuss what we … what you want to do next. There's been enough bloodshed today. Let's end this logically, and peacefully."
Rob
Also, I know Team Uriel is being cagey about what actually happened but is it obvious to Archie that Marshall shot himself? Like is the gun still in his hand? Or is the natural thing to assume (until somebody says otherwise) that Reinhardt shot him (hence the burning by Mitch)?
Michael
I would assume the gun is still in Marshall's right hand; Reinhardt never wrested it free before getting cooked.
Rob
But if Mitch is attending to him, that implies he's been moved somewhat?
Michael
I don't think he'd really need to move him to use Cure; given Marshall stabilized with his "revised" HT roll, and now Mitch is attending to him, actively Curing him, he doesn't need to be in, like, a medically-advised body posture.
Jeff
Charley bent down to examine Marshall but I don't think she touched him. Mitch is kneeling next to him and touching him all weirdo-like but hasn't done anything with the gun at all. It's either still in Marshall's hands or fell to the floor nearby, probably still in his hands.
Leonard
[In real life, gun suicides see the gun fall out of the hand 75% of the time, but take that for what it's worth]
Bill
The entity in Roger flashes a smile at Archie, his dark eyes failing to reflect the lights. “Welcome to the action, Archibald. We haven’t really met in person — unless you count some of your particularly dark hours. I assure you I’m here to aid you.” He switches to Gottlieb’s voice: “The original doesn’t need to be the one to make the calls, for instance.”
(He’s made a Fright check, I’m sure he’ll be fine with the Devil this time.)
Jeff
(I replay the last two minutes from Gottlieb's POV and I just laugh)
Rob
"Oh my Lord." Archie takes it all in. I don't know if this would be Intelligence Analysis, or Psychology maybe, but can Archie make a guess why Gottlieb is so intent on calling Stanton back before doing anything else, even getting medical help? Is it just that he fears commandoes are going to come in guns blazing? Would Stanton sacrifice his top guys that way? And if not, can't he/we not just tell security to stand down when they arrive? Because I'm suspicious of letting Gottlieb talk directly to Stanton just yet.
Michael
Yeah, this is Intelligence Analysis (although I think in this case, I'd roll secretly whether it was Intelligence Analysis or Psychology, and I may still apply Psychology depending on where this scene goes). So yes, I will make a secret roll with your Security Rank taken into consideration.
It's all counterintelligence now, my dear boy. The role you were born to play: the grim inquisitor who comes bearing a genial smile, Stoney monologues in Archie's head. Stoney says "you" now; it's clear Archie is back "in control," if that concept even means anything anymore. Archie puts himself in Gottlieb's position: how does he personally survive this, physically? One of his co-conspirators is on death's door; another is trying to survive a heart attack; as Archie correctly surmised, he doesn't seem too concerned about their survival. So he makes sure no one comes in here guns blazing, a firefight in which even if URIEL were killed, likely so would he. If he were concerned with making sure URIEL paid for what they did to Reinhardt and to his conspiracy, he'd just let Stanton call the SANDMAN commandoes in, let them get slaughtered. But he wants to live. Does he also want URIEL to live? Is URIEL—like Uri Geller, like the Indigo Children, like any number of other OZYMANDIAS plots and plans and catspaws—too valuable for Gottlieb to just give up and cut bait on? Clearly this event with Marshall shooting himself was not just another OZYMANDIAS ploy. But for someone who's just undergone a violent coup, Gottlieb could technically could throttle this threat to OZYMANDIAS in the womb by letting Frank Stanton call in the cavalry (at the cost of his own life, of course), have their loyal Praetorians within the Project kill every family member of the URIEL team members all across the country and globe in revenge, go back to cozily planning for the apocalypse and never think about this little rebellion again. So Gottlieb is either such a colossal coward and so fearful of the death he's seen in this room that he is suddenly switching sides himself from OZYMANDIAS to whatever future URIEL represents; or he thinks he can somehow continue to work OZYMANDIAS's mission, but with URIEL inside the tent pissing out, so to speak.
(That feels a bit more like a Stoney phrase, Archie realizes.)
Rob
Archie does offer a genial smile — incongruously, given the circumstances. "Don't worry, Doctor. We'll talk to Frank. Get all this sorted out." It's not clear if 'we' means Archie and Gottlieb, or Archie and Roger, but he does nothing yet to tell Jo or Roger to stand down. He comes over and puts his hand on the phone, but doesn't pick it up yet. He takes his time, using the ticking clock to put some additional pressure on Gottlieb. "Sidney. May I call you Sidney? What was the plan here? What is supposed to be happening?" Archie looks down at the three dying-ish men. "Well. Not here. I mean Operation ALLOCHTHON. What is it? The largest enemy incursion any of us have ever seen, and I just don't get the feeling we're all playing on the same team." Watching Gottlieb intently, trying to read his reactions. "If we're going to work together" — and now the 'we' is clearly Archie & Gottlieb, URIEL & Gottlieb, holding that out as a possibility — "we need to know the real mission parameters."
Michael
Gottlieb nods, sighs. "It's an experiment, done under the cover of the war in the Middle East. Trip a series of subduction zones and see what balance of psychic energy, esmological forces, and physical architecture and landscape it would take to keep them stable … before shrinking them harmlessly at the end of the experiment, of course. For the eventuality when the Kings win and we are the irruptors who need to survive and thrive in our own self-sufficient bubbles within History B." As absolutely mad as this confession sounds, Archie is pretty sure Gottlieb is telling the unvarnished truth here.
Jeff
Mitch scoffs. Not because he doesn't believe Gottlieb, but because he thinks "become the irruptors" is a deeply flawed plan
Leonard
Jocasta is still tensed in combat mode, trying to keep an eye on Reinhardt while keeping her gun trained on Gottlieb. She talks to Archie in Danbe, knowing full well that Gottlieb can understand every word: "When you take the king from the throne, cut off his head, or he will wear the crown again."
Bill
Kalfu is highly amused. "You know, once such a plan were revealed to the rest of your troops, it'd be easy to make a case that the little cabal here fell prey to one of the Enemy's mind games. What's that delicious term for the weapon — a meme? Poor Stanton, poor Gottlieb, it's not their fault, they were infected. And such a dangerous infection! It must be studied! How it got into their heads, it must be known! Of course, we all need to survive their mistake, first."
"But you'd live. You'd have to be quarantined while someone else took over the clean-up." He says in Danbe: "When the king is sick, you can become his regent."
Rob
Archie continues to address himself to Gottlieb. He still hasn't picked up the phone. (Can he estimate, either from his sense of how this would work, or just from how anxious Gottlieb looks, how long we have before SEAL Team ∞ kicks in the door?) "An experiment," he says. "Okay. And what is URIEL's role in this experiment? We're well aware we're under the microscope, Sidney. We have been for some time."
Michael
There's sweat breaking out on Gottlieb's brow now. Between the chorus of Jocasta, Kalfu, and now Archie peppering him with anxieties back and forth, the possibility of the commandos being on their way, and the overall ambience of this conference room, Gottlieb looks quite ill. "Uh … well of course everyone in the Project is, uh, under the microscope. But we need to find new ways to live, new ways to be, to prepare us for the eventual … apocalypse. No options are off the board. And all that's happening in California. Tony was … your watcher for a long time, and then of course, Agent Helix. Bringing you here, we figured you'd lead us to what we need to watch out for in our ALLOCHTHON plans. Hort especially." Gottlieb nods over to the magic man concentrating on healing Marshall. "Stress-test them." Archie suddenly realizes the definition of an "allochthon," a rock formation pushed or thrust into a geological strata not its native own, also acts as a definition for what OZYMANDIAS has planned for a post-Second Ontoclysm world.
Jeff
Mitch's uncontrolled temperature-shift power fires and he has to restart healing Marshall on a 15+
>> SUCCESS by 2
Leonard
[Might be a good time for another On the Edge check?]
Michael
(Hmm, Over the Edge is called upon "whenever you face a life-threatening situation," which doesn't seem to quite match this situation, but your Obsession with OZYMANDIAS/Reinhardt is definitely still applying here. So I wonder if Jocasta doesn't make a Self-Control roll at 12 or less, would she try more forcibly to … get answers out of Gottlieb? Take out her frustrations physically? Drag him to the frosted-door office and do something drastic? I'm willing to play it by ear. )
Leonard
[Oh, hell, what's the phrase? Ask for forgiveness, not for permission.]
>> SUCCESS by 5
Michael
Well, she's under control more or less.
Leonard
[Okay, still frosty for now. Damn her drama-killing intense willpower. She stays locked on Gottlieb, with a mad glint in her eyes, but otherwise does nothing.]