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Old 03-15-2015, 04:56 PM   #18
tshiggins
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: Campaign: Facets

We held the third session of Facets, at chez moi in beautiful downtown Denver, yesterday. We welcomed new player Bennie H., to the table, as well. :)

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Character's Present:

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.

Francis "Jeb" Stuart -- an anti-federal government survivalist and gas station attendant, who believes strongly that local communities should be self-sufficient, and thinks 4CSAR epitomizes that ideal (plus, it provides health insurance) -- Tod has dropped out, so this is now an NPC.

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. She has a pet pig named Master Oink of the Porcine (just a pet and not an ally, trained to fetch, carry things and squeal when alarmed, meant mostly for comedy relief) -- Played by Samantha H.

Dr. Arthur 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 -- Played by Anten S.

Deputy Diego "Danny" Torres -- Grand County Sheriff's deputy who acts as the department's community policing officer and works with 4CSAR as needed -- Played by Chris L. (absent this week)

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) -- played by Bernetta W. (also absent this week)

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 new participant Bennie H.

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Aurelia Lockrin returned from Salt Lake City late in the day June 20, 2014, having caught a short flight from Denver, where she'd spent a couple of days on personal business. Grand County High School's school year had ended two weeks prior, and she'd finished up her grades and year-end reports, already, and taken off for the Mile High City earlier in the week.

Upon checking her voice-mail, she heard the message from Four-Corners Search-and-Rescue (4CSAR) Commander Pete Munroe, asking that available volunteers gather at 5 a.m., now nearly nine hours in the past, for a briefing. Aurelia threw her kit into the back of her car and stopped by the station, and Vice Commander Bertie Meyer filled her in on the request by federal agents to assist in the search for Jose Redshirt, aka many aliases. He also told her Dr. Henrietta "Indiana" Johnson had joined the search several five or six hours earlier, but no one had heard from the search party since Indiana Johnson had dropped out of contact, shortly after noon.

Lockrin drove down to Dark Canyon and found the Incident Command post, where Munroe, Sheriff Allen Brown, the two feds, and the Emery County Sheriff, as well as a fair number of deputies and volunteers who were milling about. She checked in, and Munroe advised her that all contact with the primary search party had been lost. Given that it was so late in the day, he had already planned to organize a larger search effort to scour canyon, the next day. In the meantime, all volunteers were to bed down at the Monticello High School gym, and be ready for assignment to a team charged with covering a search grid, the next morning.

The new arrival asked for more details, and went out to chat with the sheriff's deputy watching the forensics team at the suspect's abandoned rental Chevy Suburban. Since Lockrin knew every Grand County deputy pretty well, she easily struck up a conversation and learned from the deputy that her team had tracked the suspect to a point less than a mile northwest, where he'd entered the rugged canyon.

Lockrin hopped back in her car, drove it out of sight, and crept back to the trailhead mentioned by the deputy. She entered the canyon, unseen, in late afternoon, and pushed herself to catch up with the group.

She reached the rockslide, was just as confused as everyone by the disappearing bicycle tracks, made it down to the canyon floor about an hour before sunset, and entered the slot. It had already started to get dark, in there, but Lockrin followed the trail, anyway, and reached the grotto at the end. Aurelia noted the excavation of the east-side passage, and pulled out her flashlight as it had gotten difficult to see. She slid down the incline, found the petroglyph cave and the odd exit to the west.

Locrkin headed up into the unnaturally straight passage, took a few rubbings of the petroglyphs she found along the way, reached the point where the mist rose, and suffered the same severe headache. She retreated back down the passage, thought for awhile, and decided to spend the night in the slot canyon, rather than try to continue, under the circumstances.

After a bit of a struggle, Aurelia eventually got her portable alcohol stove lit, and found a bunch of discarded candy and gum wrappers, all of them missing the aluminum foil. Lockrin gathered up the dry paper and stuck it in her backpack, since it would make good tinder, if necessary.

After that, Lockrin tried to sleep, but immediately found herself in a vivid nightmare of breaking through canyon walls suddenly grown as thin as dry paint, and being consumed by the burning white light that poured from the fissures within it. She woke, screaming, calmed herself, and tried to go back to sleep. She immediately suffered the same vivid nightmare, again. Aurelia spent the remainder of the evening, dozing off and waking within a few minutes from nightmares of burning white light.

Further along the trail, her companions suffered from nightmares that differed only in slight details. Arthur and Beatrice took the first watch, after Doc Bascher finished cleaning up after her emergency surgery on Randy. However, they soon saw all of their companions jerk awake, bathed in cold sweat, from horrible dreams. When they tried to sleep, they also found themselves waking from dreams of burning light.

Doc Bascher checked Randy, and realized he had an accelerated heart-rate, and was thrashing around enough that she feared he might reopen his wounds. The badly wounded Deputy Torres also failed to sleep, at all, and by morning he was gray-faced and haggard. However, the suspect, who had come through the canyon only about an hour before them, seemed to suffer no such effects and was able to sleep, despite his wounds.

The next morning, Beatrice and Arthur quickly cobbled together a wheeled travois using scrounged wood, a sleeping bag, the wheels from the Yuba Mundo cargo bike, and the metal shaft from Beatrice's dismantled collapsible digging tool. Doc Bascher helped them harness it to one of the horses, mounted Torres on that horse and put Seņor AKA on the other. Before they left, the suspect promised to adhere to any story they decided to tell their superiors, as long as they agreed to let his son, Hector, head back north, toward his home.

After some intense haggling, Seņor AKA, who finally disclosed his real name as Don Andres Santiago Reyes y Vasquez, also disclosed that, without help, those who had passed through the portal would never sleep again, and soon their minds would break. In exchange for allowing his son, Hector, to return home, he would tell them to whom to go for help in their own world, so they could sleep again before they went mad.

At that point, the party agreed and sent Hector on his way, with the wounded mule and all the non-contraband that Don Andres had brought with him, through the portal. The group then began to travel back the way they came, and discussed a plausible story about the events, as they traveled.

Back at the portal, Aurelia packed up her camp after a long, sleepless night. She moved west, up the unnaturally straight canyon, and soon smelled the odor of rotting bodies -- a scent she knew from her past. Soon after that, she heard the sound of growling, from out past the exit.

She elected to sneak forward, and soon saw a pack of eight reddish wolves worrying at the dead bodies of two large people lying out in in the middle of a box canyon. Realizing she couldn't stay hidden for long from the keen senses of the wolves, Aurelia began to scale the north wall of the canyon, and soon reached a narrow ledge about 10 yards up, that followed the rim around to the north, where the floor of the box canyon appeared to rise.

Aurelia crept along the ledge, and then saw that two of the mangy wolves had spotted her, and were trotting back and forth, trying to figure out how to get up at her. Aurelia pulled out her bow, shot one in the back, and then slipped and almost fell. She managed to grab a handhold with her right hand, while successfully clutching the bow in her left.

(Continued)
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MXLP:9 [JD=1, DK=1, DM-M=1, M(FAW)=1, SS=2, Nym=1 (nose coffee), sj=1 (nose cocoa), Maz=1]
"Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon.

Last edited by tshiggins; 03-16-2015 at 06:22 AM.
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