[tshiggins]

We held the Ninth session of Facets a week ago, Sunday. This one was fairly action-packed, which was nice, but Mike has determined he needs to tinker with his character a bit more to allow Frank to respond to situations with a bit more "moral flexibility." We'll work on that, and I've started to kick around a few ideas.

Also, because it had so much action, we don't have nearly as many funny quotes, this time.

We also had some fun, before and after. We got together at the Interstate Restaurant, at 10th Avenue and Santa Fe, for Sunday Brunch, and then some of us ended the day at the Taste of Colorado festival and listened to Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. It was a pretty good day, even though I caught a cold either in the crowd, or from Anten.


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 sub-developments, 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 only 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 guardian 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 adrenaline 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 Bugs Bunny.

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The group kicked ideas back and forth, as they stood in front of the old Georgian-style home in the middle of the night, and eventually decided to not try to draw anybody out or break in, given that it was likely full of armed skinhead motorcycle gang members, and the group was short a couple of members (one of whom, Beatrice, was the group's best shot).

Aurelia decided to take a quick peeping-tom trip around the outside of the house, to see what she could spot through the windows. Through the kitchen window, she saw the four guys from the fender-bender, and crept closer to listen.

Through the window, she heard three of them bitching about the accident and making loud claims about how badly they'd have stomped Frank and Randy, if they'd just had the chance. The fourth man, however, pointed out that the gang needed to keep a low profile until the "job was done," and that meant they couldn't do anything to draw the attention of the cops, under any circumstances.

The job paid too much, he noted, and was the "key to the big-time," so they'd just have to suck it up. The other three grumbled, but acquiesced.

With that, Aurelia returned and the group quietly exfiltrated, returned to their cars and went back to the hotel.

The next day, the group contacted Arthur and Beatrice, and discussed the situation. Arthur said he could use some off-the-shelf hardware to create some simple GPS tracking devices, and he and Beatrice decided to drive back to Denver after a quick shopping trip to an electronics store. Arthur cobbled together the trackers as Beatrice drove. Part of the way, they got another call from the group.

Aurelia and Sunmi had taken back the day-shift of the surveillance of the skinheads who had Dave Shelton under surveillance. However, shortly after Shelton arrived back at the Academy Club, Aurelia noted that one of the other SUVs parked in front of the skinhead house seemed to be following a second vehicle. She watched as that vehicle parked at the club, and Missy Brown emerged. After that, the second skinhead tail left, since only one was required to keep an eye on the comings and goings at the club.

Once she saw that, Aurelia phoned Frank and reported the situation. After a fair amount of discussion, the group determined that the thing Brown and Shelton had in common was that they'd both been present for the entirety of "Olivia McShane." The skinheads were following the director and the docent, because those two provided their only links to Olivia.

(This proved to be an example of how the players can miss something that seems dead-bang obvious to the GM. The theories that got kicked around the group originally ranged from "off-base" to "WTF?" Eventually they started to get frustrated enough that I had Mike make a roll against Frank's Intelligence Analysis. It was successful, so I gave them a hint, "What experience did both Missy and Dave have in common?" Bernetta got back on the right track, first, and the group was able to work it out, after that. I was cool with doing it, that way. As a general rule, I forbid advantages that allow the players to ask the GM what they should do next -- Common Sense, and the like -- but G:Mysteries gave some excellent advice about how to run investigation scenarios. Lisa Steele pointed out that what's blindingly-obvious to the GM "from the inside," as it were, is sometimes absolutely opaque to the players. When that happens, it's appropriate for the GM to give them a nudge back in the right direction, and this particular nudge was really minor. Bennie said she felt like an idiot because they didn't figure it out without help, because it was so obvious in retrospect, so that told me it was the right thing to do to move things along.)

The next day, the group cobbled together a plan that might let them take just a few skinheads at a time. Aurelia volunteered to don her "Olivia McShane" personality, show herself, and then see if the skinheads tried to grab her. Once they did so, the group could swoop in and grab them, instead, and that would reduce exposure to law enforcement, because the skinheads would have to admit to attempted kidnapping if they ever said anything.

However, the group definitely wanted Aurelia covered, so the first step was to plant Arthur's bugs on the skinhead vehicles.

The first phase began the next morning, at the house outside of Morrison. By the time Randy and Arthur arrived, the two SUVs were gone, and two men each were lounging on the two porches, front and back. The engineer crept down and put a bug on the battered old pickup truck. He then took the opportunity to check the overhead doors of the two-car garage, and found them neither locked nor hooked to an automatic opener. As such, they could be easily raised.

Arthur slipped back into the woods, just as one of the guards from the front porch started to walk around the house.

The second phase began outside the Academy Club, when the skinhead tails arrived. The group waited for the second SUV to leave, and then Sunmi provided a distraction. She walked along the sidewalk past the remaining SUV -- a tiny, cute little Asian girl singing a K-pop tune and doing little dance-steps as she walked the largest pit bull anybody had ever seen.

Once the eyes of the two occupants were riveted on Sunmi, Doc Bascher slipped up behind the vehicle and planted the bug. However, as she tried to walk away afterwards, the driver saw her in the side-mirror and grew suspicious. Not really sure what he'd seen (if anything) he got out and looked after her, and then walked around the SUV to see if anything was wrong. Fortunately, Doc Bascher managed to hide the bug well enough that he didn't spot it.

(continued...)