Dramatis Personae
+Linlin Kins as Umquat the Specialist
+Adventures of the Mind as Don Harper of Mars the Specialist
+Ronnie Whelan as Ronnina the Magic user
+Frotz Self as Varouj the Fighter
Albert the Hireling
Curly Locks the Hireling
Sheniqua the Hireling
NPC Interactions
Blind General Didelus. Was rescued by the party. Is not the most generous person, nor particularly powerful. Strongly positive first impression results in a bond +1d4. (Bond 3)
Izhveet the Mutant. The party went out of their way to assist this mutant in resolving his disability. Strongly powerful first impression results in a bond +1d4. (Bond 3)
Mad Bill Danger. Encountered briefly. Encounter went well, mutual invitations to visit each other’s strongholds were offered. (Bond 2)
Abby the Insurrectionist. Party foiled her insurrection and humiliated her in battle. Ronnina offered her a job, which was refused. Currently being held against her will in the party’s stronghold.
Frederick the Photographer. Agreed to work with the party on their “art project.” (Bond 3)
Lloyd the Doubting Priest. Was impressed by the party’s religious arguments, and affected by a successful seduction. Has altered his religion to the player’s new cult. (Temporary Bond: 8)(Solidified Bond 4)
Zurbullis, a liaison officer from the Blind General. Assigned to work with the party. Has not actually appeared in the game yet. (Bond 2)
Rulings
When moving as a group, the person with the lowest Stealth score rolls a stealth check, and if they succeed, the whole group successfully moves stealthily.
Loot
A collection of useless vestigial legs, to be sold as delicacies.
A guaranteed first crack at the next big job to come through Fighting Mongoose territory.
1000 credits worth of building materials for Ronnina’s tower.
(From the refuse pile:)
A hot plate.
A handheld synthrope dispenser. Contains a compressed material which can be sprayed out of a tiny nozzle, and solidify into a rope like substance in the air. Heated sections become powerfully adhesive. Synthrope dissolves within 6 hours. There are 400′ of rope in here.
A 4 wheeled ATV. Not currently functioning.
Worldbuilding
The Fighting Mongoose are a loose coalition of mercenaries. Roughly 35% of the population are active members of mercenary teams. An additional 55% of the population are supported by that mercenary work, by providing goods and services to mercenaries, by being the families of mercenaries, or by helping to organize mercenary activity.
This leaves an underclass of about 10% of the Fighting Mongoose population who struggle to get by. These would like to see the benefits of Fighting Mongoose military strength spread more evenly across society. To have the Fighting Mongoose stand together, rather than be a collection of free agents.
They are a weak minority, not only because they are small but because they are made up largely of the less capable members of society. However, politically, they are more united than any other single group, and are thus a volatile, exploitable force.
Highlights Recap
A middle aged mutant named Izhveet with a nose for a head arrived at the hospital. He had a dreadful problem: The tiny legs growing out of his nose were preventing him from breathing comfortably. He complained bitterly about how quickly they grew back when removed to Don Harper. Don suggested they attempt laser removal, and successfully tinkered to turn the laser gun the party had retrieved while rescuing ASCII from the Technopriests into a surgical tool. The operation was successful, and Izhveet was grateful. Though he did mention that he never realized how badly everything would smell.
During the previous Haven turn, a situation developed within Fighting Mongoose territory which drew the party’s attention. A group of mercenaries–apparently trying to make use of the political underclass to grab some power for themselves–had barricaded themselves within the old highschool that serves as the capitol building for the Fighting Mongoose, and had taken Blind General Didelus hostage.
Among the insurrectionist’s demands were a number of troublesome issues which, if enacted, would but a real damper on the party’s activities. Stuff like organizing mercenary groups into a coherent military, and retroactive prosecution for Mongoose-on-Mongoose violence.
The party slipped into the sewers a few blocks over from the highschool, so as to avoid the murmuring crowds that were gathered outside. They ran into a small group of troglodytes, but managed to retreat without being noticed in turn, and made the long way around towards their destination. They discovered one chamber filled with refuse, which they considered sifting through for treasure, but rejected the idea on fear of disease.
On their way out, they encountered a bald, man in his 30s wearing spectacles. The man seemed to know a great deal about who they were and what they were doing, and offered to keep it to himself for a bit of precious twine. The party made nice, and Don Harper disassembled the robes he’d taken from Zessler Vox so he could hand the twine over to the man, who introduced himself to the party as one Mad Bill Danger, diviner extraordinaire. The party invited him to drop by their citadel anytime, and in turn the wizard invited them to visit Danger Tower anytime. As a courtesy Mad Bill assured the players that there was, indeed, items they’d consider valuable in the garbage heap back in the previous room. Though none of it was anything so precious as twine.
Parting ways, the party moved out of the sewers, into the showers of the highschool. Quietly they made their way through a few rooms, finding no one of interest and nothing of value until they reached the gymnasium, where they stumbled into 7 guards surrounding a small group of hostages.
With a quick attack and a threatening posture, Ronnina managed to frighten the 7 grunts into surrendering. They tossed their weapons aside, and dropped to the ground where the party could bind them.
Among the hostages was, in fact, Blind General Didelus herself, who urged the players to get her back to her office, where she could secure some important…things. She asked what the party’s mercenary group was called, the the PCs had a quick huddle. They decided “The 404” was their Internet name, and that their Mongoose activities would need a different moniker.
After some debate, they settled on calling themselves “The Breakfast Club.”
From here the party moved quickly through the halls of the school. Their group was too large to move stealthily, so they made a beeline for their destination and fortunately didn’t encounter any guards in the halls. They heard a number of people moving around in rooms off to the side, however, their incursion had as yet gone undetected. So long as nobody saw them, nobody came looking for them.
At one point they did pass a door with a glass window in it, through which 4 of the occupiers saw them, and attempted to charge out. Fortunately, Varouj’s quick crowbar work took the door handle right off, and those four were trapped in their room.
In the office, the party made short work of everyone who was stationed there, killing only one, and getting the other four wrestled to the ground and subdued. From here they made a final push into the Blind General’s office, where the insurrectionist leader, Abby, was holed up behind the desk. Some quick crowbar work got the door open, and Abby leaped over the desk–revealing herself to be a 6 year old girl wearing full armor made of old car tires. Ronnina’s animated cloak, summoned minutes before, quickly subdued the girl.
Umquat then used the School’s working PA system to announce (both inside and out of the building) that the insurrectionist’s positions had been compromised. As she put it, “all your base are belong to us. Surrender yourselves to The Breakfast Club or we will find very unpleasant ways to fuck you.”
Blind General Didelus thanked the party, but begged off from offering any monetary compensation for their efforts. Instead she guaranteed that The Breakfast Club would get first crack at the next big job to cross her desk. She further agreed to send the party a liason officer, lend them a group of workers to pull through the pile of refuse in the sewers, and to divert 1000 credits worth of building materials to Ronnina for her tower.
Didelus wanted the party to turn over Abbey, but Ronnina insisted that the PCs would “take care of it.” Back at their stronghold, Ronnina attempted to convince Abbey that she’d be much better off attaching herself to the party. Work for social change more smartly. Abbey found the whole offer ridiculous, and is currently stuck in a cell until the party figures out what they want to do with her.
It was at this point that the party was summoned to visit the Hangman, which they did. Varouj was inducted into The Internet, and the party was given the details of an unsettling situation. The Rulers Beneath the Black were staging to invade Outsider territory, and a key point in their current plans was to establish a forward base in a building which holds an Internet facility. The facility manufactures hull plates for the space ship. It took two years to establish, and cannot now be relocated. The Rulers Beneath the Black must be prevented from using this building, by any means necessary.
(Specifically, their Terrapontif will perform a ritual from this building. Thanks to the PC’s earlier demolition of another building, the Internet Facility now has a direct line of sight to the building which houses the Outsider head of state.)
In preparation for this job, the Hangman happily fixed Don Harper’s Uzi, and gave him several magazines of ammunition. Further, she gave the group a hover cart (for keeps), and promised the party 50,000 credits on completion of the job. She also lent the party 24 low level Internet grunts to help them get the job moving.
The party put together a 3 point plan:
1. Distract the Rulers Beneath the Black by starting / staging a heretical cult within their own boarders. Divide their attention. Use their contacts with Frederick the photographer, and their employment of Nrrk the writer to “expose” the cult. Use the doubting priest Lloyd to get it moving. Use the Internet grunts to provide a congregation.
2. Warn the outsiders of the incoming attack. Attempt to guide their response away from the building. Preempt the RBTB attack in such a way that doing whatever they’re going to do at the Internet Facility is no useful.
3. Prevent the ritual from even being performed, either by assassinating the Terrapontif, or by destroying any materials that are necessary to the ritual’s success.
The party approached Frederick first. They padded his ego, and told him about an exciting experimental photography project they had planned. Coupled with his generally good mood that day, the party didn’t find it terribly difficult to persuade him to help them out with his photographs.
Next the party spent some time looking for the priest they bumped into last week, Lloyd. A lanky, broccoli haired young man with an off-kilter nose and large lips. He’s got a mole on his cheek “shaped like poop.” according to Umquat.
The party found him in a deep funk, and Don Harper sat with him to follow up on the discussions they’d had a month prior. They emphasized how the gods expect worship for the good things we already have, but that devils give us the strength to make new good things happen by our own will. After several successful social rolls, and some good arguments, and an ample amount of spent time, the party converted Lloyd to their new (fake) religion.
Here the session ended In Media Res