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Old 08-25-2015, 06:20 PM   #31
tshiggins
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: Campaign: Facets

We held the eighth session of Facets, Saturday. I see that I've utterly failed to meet my goal of keeping the write-ups simple.

Chris has apparently dropped out of the campaign, entirely. I can't say that I blame him. It's a long drive up from Colorado Springs, and he seems to be having more fun with Savage Worlds, as well.

Samantha's husband, Mike, took over running Diego, in session seven and had a fun time. He's joined the campaign, now, and is glad to play a cop with solid detective skills, but wanted to change the background around a little. He also renamed the character to "Frank Moses."

I decided the best thing to do is to integrate Moses into the group via ret-con. Diego only had a player in a couple of the sessions, so we'll just say that Frank is the cop who has been with the group, all along, instead of Diego.

So, he's already gone through the portal, he was the one who got shot, and he's the one who has already been faceted by the experience.

I'm not thrilled by that decision, and if the group's circumstances were such that they planned to jump through the portal again, in the latest session, I'd have had him get pulled into the group, that way, and had Diego shift to NPC status and take a job with the Grand Junction PD.

However, the group is currently in a detective story arc, and were nowhere near the portal, and might not find themselves in the position to go back through next session, either. This seemed the most expedient way to pull him into the group in medias res, as it were.

The character is basically the same, and we didn't mess with the stats, and only tinkered with the skills a bit. Here's the reskinned version:

Image: A former Marine Corps signals operator (MOS 0621). Frank spent two tours in the Baghdad Green Zone, initially charged with aiding logistics. However, early in his second tour, terrorists targeted his station and a subsequent investigation uncovered evidence of a security breach. Frank helped the MPs find the breach (a Shi’ite Iraqi policeman, secretly a member of Jaysh al-Mahdi, who favored creation of an Islamist Iraq led by Muqtada al-Sadr). In so doing, Frank discovered he had a flair for investigation and switched his MOS to 5803 (military police). Thereafter, he acted as a liaison with the Criminal Investigations Division (CID), while working for the Provost Marshall Office.

After he mustered out, Frank attended the Utah State Highway Patrol Training Section, in Murray, Utah, and has worked as a UHP patrolman for several years. He's based out of the Section 13 office, in Moab, under the command of Lt. Lee J. Exeter.

Also, Bennie Rae was able to join us, once again, this session, so this write-up has a lot more funny quotes. 8)


Here we go!

Character's Present:


Trooper Frank Moses -- A former Marine currently working as a trooper with the Utah Highway Patrol (UHP), based out of the Section 13 office in Moab, under Lt. Lee Exeter. Moses works with 4CSAR as needed, and has an interest in Doc Bascher. This character wholly replaces Deputy Diego Torres, by retcon. -- Played by Mike H.

Dr. Henrietta "Indiana" Johnson -- A personable, age 29-and-holding Anthropologist who specializes in the pre-Columbian indigenous people of the American Desert Southwest. A Native of Apache Junction, AZ, "Indiana" is good with people and has been fascinated by American Indian religion and folklore since she was a child. Henrietta speaks Apache fluently, and not-so-secretly wishes archaeology could be more like Raiders of the Lost Ark and less like digging in a trench with a trowel and a toothbrush -- Played by Debbie S.

Randy "Random" Shoop -- a twenty-something, semi-pro mountain-bike competitor who has trouble staying focused, but is basically a good and reliable member of the team -- Played by Gold & Appel, Inc.

Dr. Belody "Doc" Bascher -- a local veterinarian for both large and small animals, who frequently fixates on her job and uses 4CSAR as her primary social outlet. -- Normally played by Samantha H.

Dr. Arthur "A.J." Jamison -- a retired NASA scientist with a home in one of Moab's nicer canyon subdevelopments, who volunteers for 4CSAR because he needs to do something to get out of the house. Considers himself responsible for Sunmi Jones, who is enough of a science-geek that the two of them can actually hold a conversation. -- Played by Anten S.

Sunmi Jones -- A Korean-American prodigy and student of chemistry at Utah Valley University, who spent most of her childhood with her deceased mother's family in Korea, but has come to Utah to attend college and work with her father's petroleum exploration firm. Somewhat moe, awkward-but-cute, glasses-wearing nerd girl, who volunteers with 4CSAR because volunteer work is required for her degree. -- Played by Rebecca W.

Beatrice "B" Lawrence -- U.S. Army veteran who works for a local air charter service as a helicopter mechanic. A cynic about men, and accompanied by "Grunt," the biggest, best-trained pit-bull anybody has ever seen (purchased as an ally, and a totally badass dog, even before it was possessed by what appears to be a benign spirit) -- played by Bernetta W.

Aurelia R. Lockrin -- A young woman with a shady past who teaches History at Grand County High School (Home of the Red Devils!), and volunteers for 4CSAR because she's a bit of an adrenalin junkie, and likes the companionship. -- played by Bennie Rae P.

NPCs Present

Grunt: Beatrice's ally, a large pit-bull possessed by a protective "foo" spirit.

Hops About: A nunnupi (one of the "Little People" from Comanche folklore) who frequently takes the form of a quadruple-sized magpie. The party has determined that she is a faerie, and as such is mischievous, rather random, inhuman and appallingly dangerous. Likes ants, ham sandwiches and Looney Tunes.

Twirls Thrice: Another nunnupi, and the sister of Hops About. More laconic and observant than her rather hyperactive sister, but at least as dangerous in her own way. Likes ants, ham sandwiches, and particularly likes Bugs Bunny.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Most of the group returned to Grand Junction, for the few days needed for Aurelia to establish her false identity as one "Olivia Donna McShane," the daughter of JoBeth Catherine McShane, born out of wedlock with no father listed on her birth certificate. To accomplish this, Aurelia contacted Wren Scarlett, an old friend with mad computer skillz (the Ally purchased two sessions ago), to help create the digital records of the fake identity. While Wren worked on the digital records, Aurelia ensconced herself in her den, and spent several days forging the fake hardcopy documents.

Much to the consternation of Trooper Frank Moses, the documents looked solidly authentic once Aurelia completed them -- including the fake U.S. passport.

Aurelia also asked Wren to take a look at the Academy Club's on-line presence, to see if she could gather any more information. The ally reported that the club's floorplan didn't exist, anywhere, and its security system seemed wholly isolated from the Internet. As such, if they wished to suborn the security system (by looping video feeds, or whatever), they'd have to gain access to the system in the club, itself. Nothing could be done remotely, and the only link the security system had to the outside was a hard-line alarm connection to the Denver Police Department.

Over in Arthur's garage outside of Moab, the engineer, Beatrice and Sunmi worked on the dune-buggies they planned to take through the portal. Meanwhile, Henrietta and Doc Bascher focused on keeping the two nunnupi happy and distracted, in Denver.

To that end, Doc Bascher bought some ant-farms (the nunnupi thought those were great inventions) and took them on an extended day trip through the myriad small parks in Denver's Highlands neighborhood. At one point, the nunnupi learned that Denver has a subspecies of ants that were both red and black, and insisted upon finding those particular types for their new farms.

Bascher and Henrietta also took them to the Denver Zoological Gardens, in City Park, and finally to the Denver Art Museum. While at the DAM, the nunnupi (who can turn insubstantial, when they wish), expressed considerable appreciation for the collection of arts and crafts by the Indians of the Pacific Northwest, found Clyfford Still's color field abstract expressionism incomprehensible, and grew quite excited by the museum's Hayagriva Sand Mandala, which they said exuded powerful magic.

http://creativity.denverartmuseum.org/1996_54/

https://clyffordstillmuseum.org/

(continued...)
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