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Old 06-10-2019, 02:48 PM   #101
johndallman
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Default Re: What Did the PCs Do?

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
It's interesting that you should ask about the state of Galveston Island, however, as (possibly related to whatever killed six armed men without anyone seeing it), Alice's player starts next session with a Very Important Dice Roll, one that might determine whether Galveston joins Innsmouth, Commoriom, Sarnath, Simorgya, Atlantis or R'yleh in the pantheon of places spoken of only in hushed whispers.
It's an island made of sand. Intuition tells me that the kind of magic and violence your players throw around is a threat to its stability. Doesn't everyone look up the geology of places where adventures are set?
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Old 06-10-2019, 03:14 PM   #102
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Default Re: US Law Enforcement Response, Time, Scale and Coordination (Galveston, TX)

Oh man, I hope Galveston sinks. C'mon alice, flubb the roll!
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Old 06-10-2019, 03:52 PM   #103
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Default Re: US Law Enforcement Response, Time, Scale and Coordination (Galveston, TX)

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Oh man, I hope Galveston sinks. C'mon alice, flubb the roll!
Well, for long lasting sandbars there's usually a reason they haven't already collapsed, most likely there not being much they can collapse into.

If you want something that can be mistaken for an ordinary natural disaster, no-one would be really shocked if a major hurricane hit; after all, it wouldn't be the first time. Modern Galveston is likely a bit more durable, but based on Harvey, well, plenty of coastal areas in Texas aren't really built for hurricanes.
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Old 06-10-2019, 04:29 PM   #104
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Default Alice? Who the ---- is Alice?

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
It's an island made of sand. Intuition tells me that the kind of magic and violence your players throw around is a threat to its stability. Doesn't everyone look up the geology of places where adventures are set?
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Originally Posted by Verjigorm View Post
Oh man, I hope Galveston sinks. C'mon alice, flubb the roll!
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Well, for long lasting sandbars there's usually a reason they haven't already collapsed, most likely there not being much they can collapse into.

If you want something that can be mistaken for an ordinary natural disaster, no-one would be really shocked if a major hurricane hit; after all, it wouldn't be the first time. Modern Galveston is likely a bit more durable, but based on Harvey, well, plenty of coastal areas in Texas aren't really built for hurricanes.
The roll really isn't the kind that you want to fail. Alice's player was aware when certain decisions were made that there was an outside chance of catastrophic results. And not anything that could be mistaken for a natural disaster. Oh, no. The kind they make big-budget horror movies about, be it the Alien franchise, Hellraiser, Cloverfield, Signs, Event Horizon or End of Days.

The sandbar is probably going to be fine. It's the people on it that have a small, but non-zero, chance of being gleefully slaughtered in a blood-soaked orgy of destruction that may or may not portend the literal end of human civilization.

The other PCs were extremely reserved in their actions, aside from the unfortunate decapitation incident. Of course, as they are now in the real world, not the Dreamlands of Gwen Delvano's imagination, they are probably more or less incapable of tactical scale ritual magic, anyway. 'Nonc' Morel used two charms, slung walnuts that can cause stunning, and both Lucien Lacoste and Teddy Smith fired some charmed bullets, but nothing that really had any effects beyond being a piece of metal at high velocity.*

*Lacoste's bullets were charmed against spirits and Smith had a charm that causes Hemophilia and an extra 3d pi++ Damage in living targets, but the engine block of a Ford Focus isn't living and neither was Tomás Alvarez after taking a 750 grain copper-zinc Monolithic Solid Projectile between the eyes at something around 2,400 fps.
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Old 06-10-2019, 04:34 PM   #105
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Default Re: Alice? Who the ---- is Alice?

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The roll really isn't the kind that you want to fail. Alice's player was aware when certain decisions were made that there was an outside chance of catastrophic results. And not anything that could be mistaken for a natural disaster. Oh, no. The kind they make big-budget horror movies about, be it the Alien franchise, Hellraiser, Cloverfield, Signs, Event Horizon or End of Days.

The sandbar is probably going to be fine. It's the people on it that have a small, but non-zero, chance of being gleefully slaughtered in a blood-soaked orgy of destruction that may or may not portend the literal end of human civilization.
Even better, it tends to be the people of Galveston that I'm not too fond of.
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Old 06-10-2019, 07:04 PM   #106
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Default Galveston and the People Who Live There

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Even better, it tends to be the people of Galveston that I'm not too fond of.
You would have to truly hate the people of Galveston with the fury of a thousand suns to want them at the mercy of what might be unleashed by the forces Alice was playing around with.

Sergeant Buddy Duke, a veteran police officer of more than four decades, witnessed something slip into the suspects' truck and over the next five seconds, heard raw, agonized screaming from the cab competing with the noise of the car horn. When Buddy got to the ajar truck doors, there was no one there but the driver, screaming from a ruined throat spraying blood, with both hands nailed to the steering wheel by a long knife in an obscene parody of stigmata. Several screwdrivers were stuck in the driver's abdomen and legs, one of them jammed through the knee, and the face had been slashed and disfigured, removing both eyes, ears and lips. Blood was spraying from arteries in both thighs and both arms.

The sight caused Buddy's gorge to rise even though he would have executed every one of these cop-killing illegitimates himself if he could. What's really going to bother him later is that whatever did this somehow accomplished what looked like hours of gruesome mutilation and torture in five seconds, less however long took it to disappear before Buddy caught a good look.

---

If you have personal experience with people from Galveston, by all means drop into the Caribbean by Night thread and share impressions, anecdotes and useful local colour. In the event that there are still PCs and still a Galveston after next session, no doubt the yacht Penemue and the PCs shall moor there again. I can use NPCs based on real people (or actual fictionalized people), descriptions of real places, anecdotes of what makes people from Galveston annoying, etc.

The current thread would be an appropriate place for noting how local law enforcement might make lives difficult for PC Reserve Deputies who are merely IBC ('Islanders By Choice') and not BOI ('Born On the Island').

Granted, Sergeant Buddy Duke will loudly extoll the PCs as heroes and the fact that the dead suspects have killed three Galveston cops and wounded two more (not to mention the two Galveston EMTs who are dead or in critical condition) means that any arriving peace officers will be inclined to overlook any possible irregularities in stopping them from killing more. But still, this is a disaster and while at least three suspects were arrested alive, there will be senior Galveston law enforcement figures looking for someone else to shoulder some of the blame and dead officers are not the best scapegoats. So, the PCs should be in for a ticklish investigation.

Any hints on how to portray Galveston natives, aside from the ones the PCs have already met?
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Old 06-11-2019, 03:19 AM   #107
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Default Incident Scene in the Minutes After

As it happened, none of the officers or EMTs directly escorting 'Gwen Delvano' to hospital had time to say much of anything over the radio. In four seconds, the drivers of all three vehicles were dead and the LEO sitting in the passenger seat of the Galveston County Sheriff's Office patrol vehicle had sustained several gunshot wounds.

The EMT and LEO in the back of the ambulance were not injured in the initial fire, but only had a handheld radio (Motorola APX 4000, according to the receipt I found in city council minutes). Officer Dugger immediately called for help on that, but given her position, she had no idea what had happened other than multiple shots ringing out, the ambulance being stopped and none of her fellow officers responding.

Sergeant Wendell 'Buddy' Duke and Officer Keontay Washington of the Galveston PD, accompanied by Reserve Deputy Lucien Lacoste (PC) of the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, were only a short distance away from the intersection where the incident occurred when the shots were fired. In fact, their vehicle was already slowing behind the GCSO vehicle at the rear of the impromptu convoy, which was stopped at the intersection when the firing started.

Officer Washington heroically swerved the vehicle to the left to avoid the box truck that was cutting off both lanes of traffic on Broadway Street. The Galveston PD vehicle hit two traffic signs, but managed to get past the box truck. Unfortunately, before Officer Washington had managed to get his vehicle under control again, he was hit twice with .50 BMG rounds in the neck and head area. Officer Washington's quick thinking and courageous efforts had sufficed to get his patrol vehicle out of the line of fire, however, and it slid to a stop beyond the intersection.

From the passenger seat, Sergeant Buddy Duke drew his service weapon and exited the vehicle to shelter as best he could behind the engine block of the cruiser. Sergeant Duke also used the car radio to request assistance, relaying the information he had, i.e. that the police vehicles on the corner of Broadway Street and 71st Street were taking sniper and small arms fire, that numerous officers were down and that the suspects appeared to be armed with military weapons.

Reserve Deputy Lacoste, meanwhile, had exited the patrol vehicle before it came to a stop beyond the intersection, rolling to a stop on some grass. He exchanged fire with the snipers under the freeway overpass while advancing rapidly on their position, distracting them from engaging the surviving officers.

A civilian vehicle arriving along Broadway Street, driven by Reserve Deputy Beauregard 'Bo' Johnson, accompanied by Reserve Deputy Teddy Smith (PC), maneuvered through the intersection, under fire, and came to a stop under the overpass. Reserve Deputies Johnson and Smith engaged the suspects with effective fire, neutralizing several threats and causing two suspects to flee the scene in a Ford Focus vehicle backing against traffic on Broadway Street.

Using high-powered rifles left by suspects engaged by the officers, Reserve Deputies Lacoste and Smith stopped the progress of the escape vehicle. At that point, Reserve Deputy Smith was able to call dispatch on his cellular phone and report his position. Time elapsed since the first shot was about sixty seconds and the first responders, Detectives Joe Cartwright and Frank Kelly, were just turning onto Broadway Street from the parking lot at the piers where the yacht Penemue was moored.

I'm assuming that Sergeant Buddy Duke of the Galveston PD will be acting as Incident Commander, as he is already on the scene and was the initial report on the radio. Deputy De La Cruz is unconscious and while Officer Midge Dugger of the Galveston PD does not seem to have suffered major injuries (she has cuts from broken glass and her vest stopped a 5.56x45mm fragment after penetrating the ambulance body), she is both junior to Sergeant Duke and still inside the ambulance.

Sergeant Duke and the three Reserve Deputies present at the scene will handcuff any surviving suspects to secure the scene and provide first aid to Deputy De La Cruz, EMT-Paramedic Hank Arnold and suspect 'Gwen Delvano', who seems to have stopped a bullet in all the confusion. Detectives Cartwright and Kelly will arrest the passenger in the disabled Ford Focus, identified by Reserve Deputy Smith as 'one Raul, no last name known'.

After this, what happens?

More LEOs will arrive, at first racing in to help, but then later, to better secure the scene and start the investigation. Another ambulance will also arrive, probably more than one, but most likely not until several police cars are already on the scene.

As tshiggins correctly noted, the media often monitors police scanners and the offices of the Galveston County Daily News are just over a mile away from the scene. It's therefore very probable that reporters from that paper will be the first representatives of the media on the scene, maybe only moments behind Detectives Cartwright and Kelly, if the first reporter to hear of the incident is very courageous.

I expect that television cameras will follow, but don't know where the nearest camera crew would come from. Maybe just from Houston, maybe someone lives in Galveston, however. If anyone knows more about the media and where they might be coming from, by all means comment.

Police Chief Vernon Hale and Sheriff Henry Trochesset will both be woken as soon as possible, it being slightly over midnight. Sheriff Trochesset actually lives in Santa Fe, TX, which is in Galveston County, but on the mainland. Interestingly, there is about a 50% chance that his route into work will take him past the extraction point where the OpFor was going to change automobiles for their escape (and three suspects are still waiting for their fellow sicarios). It will be interesting if he notices something off about loitering cars in a parking lot or if they see his vehicle and panic.

Chief Hale lives in the East End Historical District of Galveston itself, which is about ten minutes away from the scene under normal circumstances. Chief Hale won't be driving at normal speeds after getting the call, but, on the other hand, he'll require some moments to wake up, answer the phone, listen to the situation and digest what he hears.

Who else will turn up at the scene and who will the PCs spend their time talking to, after someone more senior than Sergeant Buddy Duke turns up?
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Old 06-11-2019, 05:01 PM   #108
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Default Federal Response

As noted earlier, the US Marshals work with the Galveston PD and Galveston County Sheriff's Office in the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders and Fugitive Task Force. The US Marshals have an office in the federal courthouse in Galveston.

There is an ATF field office in Houston and the numerous weapons involved in the incident might suggest that assistance from that agency was useful. Similarly, the DHS ICE has offices in Houston and there are several suspects in the shooting who are either immigrants or visitors, with Bolivian, Ecuadoran or Peruvian citizenship.

The FBI has a Houston office and a resident agency in Texas City, not far from Galveston. And if the attack is determined to be a terrorist, the FBI becomes the lead agency.

If the attack is not designated an act of terrorism, Galveston PD probably remains the lead agency, supported by GCSO and the resources of the Texas DPS, forensics labs, technicians and sworn LEOs, including Texas Rangers.

Am I forgetting any law enforcement agency that will get involved?

And how much of the response will be on the scene shortly after the attack, i.e, after midnight on Saturday the 29th of December, 2018, and how much will only arrive after dawn the morning of the Saturday?
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Old 06-11-2019, 05:28 PM   #109
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The FBI has a Houston office and a resident agency in Texas City, not far from Galveston. And if the attack is determined to be a terrorist, the FBI becomes the lead agency.
Pretty sure they'd get lead based on the international origins of a lot of the involved parties (ICE
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Am I forgetting any law enforcement agency that will get involved?
Secret service maybe.
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Old 06-11-2019, 07:21 PM   #110
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Default Re: US Law Enforcement Response, Time, Scale and Coordination (Galveston, TX)

Given the kind of criminal history of some the DEA might argue for jurisdiction.
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