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Old 10-10-2016, 07:31 PM   #121
tshiggins
 
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

(...continued)

It soon became apparent that Espinosa had been apprised of their cover story, and he spent much of the luncheon politely trying to poke holes in it. He also noted that Henrietta lacked the standard British accent, and made inquiries as to her exact origins.

The archaeologist managed to deflect most of the inquiries well enough, but no so well as to allay Espinosa’s evident suspicions about their origins. At the end of the meal, he started to walk away, but then turned around as if he had suddenly remembered something. He asked if one of his men, who was something of a hobby dabbler in machinery, might stop by and take a look at the “excellente” steam-wagon they’d driven into town.

Henrietta said she’d check with “her man Arthur,” to see if that were prudent. At this, el capitán expressed some confusion. After all, he noted, if Arthur worked for “la doña,” as Espinosa understood, then why wouldn’t she simply inform the servant of the visit?

The archaeologist replied that, while A.J. did, in fact, work for her, she deferred to his judgement when it came to how best to deal with the vehicles, since he knew more about them. As such, Henrietta said she would check with him to see how best (and whether) to proceed. With that, el capitán took his leave, and the ladies returned to the hotel – where they found a pile of calling cards waiting on a silver salver, with a number of invitations to luncheons and parties by people they’d met at dinner.

Somewhat flabbergasted by the invitations, Henrietta and Aurelia tried to decide what to do. Frank, A.J. and Jimmy arrived in the middle of the discussion, and between them, they realized they couldn’t just skip town without creating more problems for themselves – especially since the story they’d told had them wandering through the badlands for weeks, and delighted at the return to civilization.

As such, the ladies decided they needed to accept at least three of the invitations before they took their leave of Santa Fe, so as to allay suspicions. As for inspections of the steam buggy, Arthur said they needed to avoid that, at all costs. While the buggy would pass a cursory inspection, anyone knowledgeable about this world’s technology would soon spot the vehicle’s anachronisms – including the propane tanks, the all-terrain steel-belted radial tires, and (most especially) the sophisticated steering and suspension.

##

Over on the 2014 side, Doc Bascher got in touch with JoCat, and informed the increasingly-stressed woman that she now had two new apprentices, in the persons of Stephen and Claudia, and that Beatrice, Randy and Grunt had been seriously wounded in a fight with a spirit. The older woman said she would make up some healing potions, but expressed some weariness at the notion that she would have to add meditation classes to a life that had become far more hectic than she’d ever imagined.

As it was, JoCat noted, she traveled nearly two hours each way, every day, between Moab and Grand Junction, had two businesses to run, important social contacts to maintain in the communities she served, and now needed to add on two new apprentices.

With that in mind, Stephen and Claudia agreed to spend the day with JoCat, and drive her around as needed, in exchange for meditation training. Moreover, they agreed to take responsibility for the evening security at Café Nepenthe, since they needed to sleep in the sacred workspace, there, anyway, so as to retain their sanity.

Over course of the next few nights, Sunmi Jones found herself trapped in dreams, in which she found herself delighting in the brutal torture of innocent people. Disturbed by the experiences, and finding herself fantasizing about blood and pain, Sunmi went to JoCat and asked for help.

The two women spent the next several days going through Oliver McShane’s library, researching the effects spirits had on those they attacked. During the research, the women found that spirits tended to alter the minds of those they possessed, gradually (or not so gradually, in the case of hostile possession), so as to make the body more comfortable for them.

Over time, the mind of the host began to reflect the predilections of the spirit, until eventually the two were almost indistinguishable. At that point, the women read, the host became little more than a hollow glove or puppet, through which the spirit worked its will on the material world. When that happened, they learned, the original personality of the host had effectively been wiped clean, and the person essentially destroyed.

Thoroughly alarmed, Sunmi and JoCat began to search for remedies, and found evidence of two approaches that seemed to work. The first required that the affected person find a shaman, or someone else knowledgeable about spiritual possession. The shaman guided the affected person through a long period of meditation and ascetic discipline, that slowly healed the damaged mind and (mostly) returned the afflicted individual to his or her former self.

However, the two women also found reference (really good “Research” roll!), to an ancient city in the Himalayas, where the monks had achieved deep mastery of the spirit world, and provided their services to anyone who managed to reach them and request assistance. This city, known as either “Shamballah” or “Shangri-La”, apparently existed in its own little pocket universe, which McShane’s library categorized as most similar to a Fae realm.

When Sunmi investigated the reason for that appellation, she found out that Shangri-La apparently had portals to numerous worlds, but that they only opened during the full moons in the summer months. Moreover, the portals apparently opened in the sky between high peaks in the Himalayas of western China, north of Pakistan, which meant that those who sought passage had to fly through them.

Jones and JoCat also found fleeting references to a Chinese term associated with Shamballah, that the books in the library roughly translated to “paladin.” However, they couldn’t find any details, and had to give up that part of the search.

Sunmi began to consider ways to charter a plane so as to make the journey, but then realized that passage through the portals would likely result in the destruction of the engine (or even the entire aircraft), as the electrical power spiked in the presence of the decanic energies. So, she sat that idea aside (especially since summer lay seven months in the future, anyway…), and decided she to seek a more readily available practitioner of spiritual arts.

With that in mind, Sunmi looked up the address for the office of Clarence Dulake, the music promoter Aurelia had visited in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, a few months before.

In addition to the research project, JoCat made up a couple of Jamba Juice healing potions, and delivered them to Randy and Beatrice at the clinic in Monticello. While not enough to heal them, completely (or even mostly), the potions did serve to stabilize the pair, and Randy promptly began to demand he be checked out, so he could go home and recover, there.

Aghast at the notion, the doctors at the cleaning put up a huge fight, but in the end Randy stood on his rights and checked himself out, and Beatrice followed a couple of days later. That means neither was at their best when their doorbells rang.

Randy got the first visit, and when he opened his door he saw the two federal agents, Paul Richardson of the DEA, and Alex Granville of the ATFE, on his doorstep. Randy couldn’t conceal his surprise, as he hadn’t seen the two agents since they first asked the 4CSAR team to find “Señor AKA” back in June, and Shoop figured they’d returned to Salt Lake City to deal with bigger problems.

The two agents said they’d recently learned that Moses had left his job as a Utah State Trooper, under questionable circumstances, and asked Randy if he’d seen Frank around. Randy said he’d had a bad accident while out on a remote training operation, and hadn’t seen much of anyone, recently. The two agents asked if he’d seen his colleague, Francis "Jeb" Stuart, in the past few months, and whether he knew if Frank had any contact with the known anti-government survivalist.

Surprised by the question, Randy said he hadn’t heard from Jeb in months, and noted that while Jeb and Frank had gotten along mostly okay, the two men had never exactly been friends, since Jeb had issues with authority figures of any sort. The two men then asked if he’d heard anything about how Frank planned to make a living, now that he’d resigned as a trooper.

Randy wanted to know why they would think he might know anything about and the agents spun a theory. They said they knew Frank had investigated a motorcycle gang known to have been involved in methamphetamine distribution, while pretending to be a part of an interstate task force that never existed. He’d also been in close proximity to a number of questionable incidents, the agents noted, all of which had taken place since “Señor AKA” had escaped, with Jeb’s assistance.

Under the circumstances, the two men said, it seemed plausible that Frank and Jeb might have decided to involve themselves in the drug trafficking – or, at least, in the money-laundering side of things. If so, they noted, then Frank and Jeb might have gotten in over their heads, and might have drawn the attention of the sort of bad people who shoot up the homes of friends of theirs – friends who had no involvement in any illicit activities, but found themselves caught in the crossfire, anyway.

(continued...)
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Old 10-10-2016, 07:33 PM   #122
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

(...continued)

Randy said he thought the scenario highly unlikely, but agreed to contact the agents if he heard of any such thing. With that, he told them is injuries had left him pretty exhausted, and the two agents took their leave.

Within the next couple of days, Richardson and Granville paid similar visits to Beatrice (“Mind if we come in?” “Yes.”), and Doc Bascher, who heard similar theories. At Doc Bascher’s clinic, the two agents asked the veterinarian if she dealt with a lot of cash, and inquired about any large purchases of medical lab equipment or pharmaceuticals she might have made, lately. The increasingly annoyed veterinarian became less helpful as the interview progressed.

Over at Beatrice’s place, they asked the former soldier how the group had gotten to know JoBeth Catherine “JoCat” McShane, and asked if either Jeb or Frank had spent much time with the owner of the occult shop and marijuana café. Beatrice said the group had met her after the traumatic events of earlier in the year, and that Frank might have considered a move to Grand Junction, but nothing had ever come of it, but that JoCat had mostly spent time with A.J.

The two agents asked if the elderly woman and the middle-aged man might be romantically involved? The question caught Beatrice a bit flatfooted, and she said she didn’t think so, but if so that wasn’t any of her business (or theirs), anyway. The two agents noted that, given the questionable legality of marijuana sales (even in Colorado), JoCat had to do a lot of her business in cash – and that made her café a perfect way to launder funds from any other illicit activity.

At that point, Beatrice began to lose patience with the agents. They asked that she notify them if she heard from Jeb, or became aware of any activities that might pose a threat to the safety of her colleagues in the search-and-rescue group. Beatrice took their cards, and told them to have a good day.

The agents made their last stop at Sunmi’s place but, forewarned, the Korean-American teenager simply pretended she wasn’t home. Eventually, the agents left, only to show up at her dad’s office, the next day.

Alarmed, Sunmi decided to scamper out the back way, which prompted her dad to ask if she’d gotten into any trouble. Sunmi said she hadn’t, but that she wanted to go to Denver to check on the church, and didn’t want to talk to the federal agents, as they scared her. Lawrence Jones said that, if she liked, he could have a lawyer friend sit in on any interview with the agents, but that avoiding them was a bad idea and wouldn’t work for very long, anyway.

Sunmi reassured her dad that she wasn’t in any trouble with the law and that, as far as she knew, none of her friends were, either. She also agreed to meet with the agents in a few days, if her dad called the attorney. With that, she left by the back way, as Lawrence went to talk to the agents and make the arrangements.

Jones got in her car, picked up a few supplies, and made the six-hour drive through the mountains to Denver. She arrived late in the day, and made her way to the church the group had purchased through several shell companies. The building had no heat, but was sound enough, and Sunmi spent the night, there.

The next morning, she made an appointment to see Clarence Dulake, and he agreed to have lunch with her. She showed up at the office, for the meeting, only to get the hairy eyeball from Dulake’s secretary, Margaret, who noted that she didn’t look like a musician. That got the attention of Dulake, who came out of his office, and asked the teenage Korean-American girl why she wanted to see him.

Sunmi asked for a word in private and, after some reluctance, Dulake agreed. Once they were outside, walking toward a local soul food restaurant, Sunmi said she was an associate of the two women who’d come to visit him, during the summer, and she needed his help. Dulake paused for a long moment, but then continued with her to the restaurant, where they sat down.

Sunmi explained her problem in general terms, and asked Dulake if he knew of someone who could help. The voodoo man said he could ask around, but that she probably needed to check in at the Academy Club, if she planned to engage in any esoteric activities, in town. Sunmi said that might be difficult, since her group didn’t yet have formal ties to the Academy Club, and that this was a personal matter, anyway.

Jones also mentioned that she’d come to Dulake because the only other way to get the help, a trip to Shangri-La, was closed to her. At the mention of the name of the mystical realm, Dulake blinked in surprise, and said he’d never heard of the place. At that point, Sunmi realized she’d probably committed a terrible gaffe, in that she’d revealed information she’d discovered in McShane’s secret library.

With that, Sunmi desperately tried to steer the conversation back to her need for a houngan or mambo who could help her, and Dulake reluctantly left the topic of Shangri-La. He said he could check around to see if anybody might be willing to help, but that the assistance would likely cost her something. In the meantime, Dulake said she should seriously consider speaking to the Academy Club, as that would likely avoid all sorts of potential problems, down the line.

The luncheon ended, the two went their separate ways. Sunmi puttered around Denver, a bit, but then decided to drive back to Moab, and returned after dark.

Not long after Sunmi got back from Denver, Doc Bascher got a call from the Utah State Patrol. The sergeant said JoCat’s car had been found, abandoned, on the shoulder of State Highway 191, just south of Crescent Junction where the state highway met I-70.

Doc Bascher knew that JoCat had been traveling back to Moab every evening, because that was safer than staying alone at her home in Paonia. The veterinarian also know McShane had likely been alone, since Stephen and Claudia remained at Café Nepenthe, each night, so as to retain their sanity. That meant the ultors from the Order of the Scarlet Sage almost certainly had her.

Sure enough, a Grand County sheriff’s deputy showed up at her place, within the hour, and confirmed that the car had been found abandoned, and asked Doc Bascher for any information she might have. The veterinarian said JoCat had been staying at Arthur’s house, but the engineer wasn’t home, currently, and she didn’t know when he planned to return. Doc Bascher gave the deputy as much information as she felt she could, and he told her Sheriff Allen Brown would likely ask for help from the SAR team, the next morning.

As soon as the deputy left, Bascher called Beatrice with the news, but didn’t notify Randy as he remained so badly wounded but would insist on coming along, anyway.

Deeply upset, Beatrice made her way to her sacred space, and successfully cast a couple of healing spells on herself, with only a couple of minor side-effects (her hearing became preternaturally sharp for a few minutes, but it quickly faded back to normal). Then, she and Sunmi and Doc Bascher decided to shuffle the books again, and hid them in one of the sub-basements on A.J.’s property.

The next morning, the Four-Corners Search and Rescue (4CSAR) team made their way out to the site where the troopers had found JoCat’s car, and proceeded to help with a search. Beatrice soon found tracks that seemed to indicate that a car had cut JoCat off and forced her to the shoulder. Additionally, nobody found any footprints to indicate that anyone had made their way into the desert.

To the sheriff’s investigators, that confirmed foul play, and with that, they sent everybody home.

Late that afternoon, Doc Bascher’s phone rang, and she saw it came from JoCat’s number. She answered the phone, only to hear a man’s voice tell her they needed to arrange a meeting to discuss terms, and that she needed to make a decision about the location, promptly. Doc Bascher said she needed more time and refused to do so, the man hung up the phone, and Doc Bascher telephoned the sheriff’s department with the information about the call.

A few minutes later, the investigators with the sheriff’s department showed up, took her information, declared she’d made the correct decision, and said they would pick the location of the meet. They also said that the call confirmed the case as a kidnapping, and that meant they needed to notify the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Kidnapping is a federal crime, and that meant the FBI had jurisdiction.

With that, the session ended.

##

Funny Quotes

Mike (OOC, as the Feds interview Doc Bascher): Somebody has a veterinary shop, that cycles through a lot of cash…
Samantha (gives him the finger): I’m not in trouble now, and I don’t want to be!

Frank: You’re a scientist, can’t you make some bullets?
Arthur: I have a crossbow. What do I need those for?
Aurelia: Right there with you, buddy! I have a bow. All I need is a stick!

Aurelia: Ooh! How can I steal a dirigible?
Arthur(sarcastically): That’s an even better idea….

Henrietta: I feel like we should let the boys do some trading, and get the money, and then we could go shopping!

Rebecca(OOC, has looked up paintings of Shangri-La): Wow! We should go here! This place is lit!
Bernetta (OOC): What does that even mean? Do you remember the last time we went to fairy-land with you?
Anten(OOC): “Oo! Shiny lights!”
Rebecca(OOC): Oh. I forgot about that…

Anten(OOC): Wait, you told the guy about Shangri-La?
Bernetta (OOC): That was dumb.
Rebecca (OOC): Well, I didn’t know! I thought he would know about it, already!

Frank: I like it, over here. There’s no computers, no cell phones, no Sunmi…

Mike (OOC, after JoCat’s kidnapping): Great. The police are on it.
G&AInc(OOC): They’re on it, because we called them.

##
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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]
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Old 10-24-2016, 09:22 PM   #123
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

Just catching up finally. Looks like you had a lot of things going on in this last session. That's more posts on one session that you've usually needed. Most of that is probably due to the party being split. I think that probably most of us have had or been in parties that split during a campaign, but this is a bit more than usual with them being in different dimensions, LOL. It really looks like a lot of things done in the past are slowly coming back to haunt them. I am personally wondering if (or when) any will decide to try and make a life on the other side on a more permanent basis. Did spot some typos for once. ;-) Can't wait for the next update.

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Old 10-25-2016, 09:45 AM   #124
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

Quote:
Originally Posted by SionEwig View Post
Just catching up finally. Looks like you had a lot of things going on in this last session. That's more posts on one session that you've usually needed. Most of that is probably due to the party being split. I think that probably most of us have had or been in parties that split during a campaign, but this is a bit more than usual with them being in different dimensions, LOL. It really looks like a lot of things done in the past are slowly coming back to haunt them. I am personally wondering if (or when) any will decide to try and make a life on the other side on a more permanent basis. Did spot some typos for once. ;-) Can't wait for the next update.
We had the latest session this past Sunday. One of the members of the Sakagawa Clan had a baby (Tisa, who played Claudia a few sessions back), and Bennie and Mike were busy, so nobody on the 1918 side could attend. That meant the entire session was devoted to the 2014 crew.

Things did not go well. :)

I hope have the write-up done, by the end of the week and, as usual, will post it on the Denver GURPS Group forum, first, so the players can double-check my recollection of things.
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Old 10-27-2016, 03:57 PM   #125
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

Okay, before I begin the session report, a little background is in order.

Currently, the party finds itself divided between two different universes, with no means they know of to communicate with one another. On the 2014 side, Doc Bascher, Beatrice, Randy, Sunmi, Stephen and Claudia returned from the most recent jaunt through the portal, mostly in various states of disarray.

Beatrice, Randy and Grunt the Badass Foo-Dog had been critically wounded in the fight with the rape-spirit accidentally summoned by Sunmi. Sunmi, herself, had gained a severe mental disorder when the spirit tried to possess her. Claudia and Stephen’s passage through the portal had faceted their minds, and they required robust magical support and meditation training so as to maintain their health and sanity. That meant they needed the help of party’s elderly NPC mentor, JoBeth Catherine “JoCat” McShane.

Over on the 1918 side, A.J., Henrietta, Aurelia, Frank and (now NPC) Jimmy elected to remain an entire month, so as to scout out the territory more thoroughly. They’re currently in Santa Fe, the northern capitol of the Colony of New Spain, where the group has begun to draw unwanted attention from the powers that be.

We originally meant to get together, Sunday, as normal. However, just before 8 a.m., A.J.’s player, Anten, notified everyone that his daughter-in-law, Tisa (Claudia’s player) couldn’t make it to her second session, as originally planned. Apparently, Tisa’s water had broken and that meant she had a baby in-bound, Real Soon Now ™.

That made the entire family unavailable. Anten and Debbie (Henrietta’s player) needed to go to the hospital, as did Jeff (Stephen’s player) since he’s the father. Additionally, Bennie (Aurelia’s player) had to do some final work around the autumn play at the high school where she works as the theater arts teacher.

To my mind, this was mostly okay. It meant the only players who could make it were all on the 2014 side, except for Jeff and Tisa, who had only played one session, anyway. Gold&Appel, Inc. (“Randy”), Bernetta (“Beatrice”) and Samantha (“Doc Bascher”) would all be there, from the beginning, and Rebecca (“Sunmi”) would join as soon as she finished getting her senior picture.

So, I figured we’d do the 2014 side, this session, and get caught up with the 1918 crew, at the start of the next. That decision meant that the 2014 players were on their own, and had to deal with events with no help from the larger group, because they couldn’t attend the session at all. To me, that seemed to create a situation in which Real Life conspired to emulate the situation in the game.

One little wrinkle occurred because Rebecca couldn’t attend the session, from the beginning, and arrived after a lot of Bad Things had already happened. So, while this report weaves Sunmi’s activities into the narrative as they would have occurred, a lot of those decisions got made a bit after the fact.

Without further ado, here we go.

Characters Present:

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, with an unexpectedly strong moral character -- 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. -- played by Samantha H.

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. Recently suffered mental damage after an attack by a spirit of pain and violation. -- Played by Rebecca W. (arrived late, after the worst of it was already over)

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 “foo” spirit) -- played by Bernetta W.

NPCs Present

Claudia Abigail Tavulari, member of the NASA Quantum Physics Research Team, and an old friend of Arthur Jamison’s. The team has been helping Arthur research the portal physics, on the sly. -- Played by Tisa T (Absent due to higher priorities.)

Stephen Mack, another member of the NASA Quantum Physics Research Team, and outdoors enthusiast. -- Played by Jeff T. (Absent due to higher priorities.)

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

##

Deeply concerned about kidnapping of JoCat and feeling somewhat helpless, Beatrice drove to Doc Bascher’s home where the Moab PD and the Grand County Sheriff’s deputies had set up a more-or-less permanent camp. Upon arrival, she was met at the door by a deputy she knew reasonably well, from her service on the Four Corners Search-and-Rescue (4CSAR) team.

Beatrice asked for admission, but the deputy demurred, saying they needed to concentrate on how best to deal with the kidnapping, but asked if she knew the victim, also. When Beatrice acknowledged that she did, he asked for details, and if she might know why JoBeth McShane would get targeted.

Not willing to disclose very much, and not sure of what Doc Bascher had already told the police, Beatrice said she knew McShane mostly as the friend of friends. She also said the victim had been staying at A.J.’s house, for a while, but claimed she didn’t know why.

The deputy asked if Beatrice knew anything about McShane’s businesses in Grand Junction, and if she’d been having problems with drug dealers or others trying to cut in on her – possibly to use her occult shop and marijuana café to launder money?

Beatrice said that, while she had visited McShane in Grand Junction “a few times,” she didn’t know anything about the details of Café Nèpenthé or Nova Nèpenthé, nor had she heard that JoCat had any enemies. The deputy said that the FBI agents on their way down from Salt Lake might want to speak with her, later, but for now Beatrice needed to wait for them.

Frustrated by the whole thing, Beatrice went back home, pulled out her cell phone, and dialed JoBeth’s number. Doc Bascher had mentioned that the kidnappers had called her using McShane’s phone, so Beatrice thought that might provide a way to speak with them, directly. She hoped to negotiate a better deal without the interference of the FBI, since the Feds could never know the real reasons behind the incident, anyway.

Beatrice heard the message that indicated the telephone was out of service, and from that deduced that the kidnappers had likely removed the batteries to prevent any effort to track its location. She left a message and asked them to call her back.

Meanwhile, Sunmi got in touch with her father and met with his attorney. Based on the information she provided (and the bits she rather artfully concealed – good Acting roll), the lawyer said he didn’t think Sunmi had much to worry about. So, the pair set up a meeting with Paul Richardson of the DEA, and Alex Granville of the ATFE and met them later in the day.

The two agents mostly asked Sunmi the same questions they had of the rest of the group. They primarily focused on role of Francis “Jeb” Stuart in the jailbreak of “Señor AKA” (Don Reyes), and asked why Frank Moses had quit the force. Sunmi claimed ignorance of all that, and noted that she wasn’t really all the close to the other SAR team members. After all, Sunmi said, she'd only joined to fulfill the public service requirements for her college degree.

Given that Sunmi had rather adroitly pulled off the “clueless, spoiled little rich-girl” act, and had an attorney present, anyway, the agents cut the interview short and left her with their cards. The attorney said it was the easiest hundred bucks he’d ever made, given that he’d barely spent an hour between the initial consult and the interview, combined.

After the attorney departed, Sunmi called Clarence Dulake, again, to see if he’d found someone to help with the soul-damage problem. Dulake replied that he had, and intended to call her shortly with the name. Dulake told Sunmi to contact one Vanessa Duschamp, a mambo (voudou priestess) who worked at the Salon Cole, at 32nd Avenue and Washington Street, just north of the Five Points neighborhood.

As soon as he rang off, Sunmi called the number and set up an appointment to have her hair done, two days hence. Then, seeing no way to immediately help with the kidnapping situation, she drove over to Grand Junction to speak with Stephen and Claudia.

There, she asked the two NASA engineers if there might be a way to figure out exactly what had happened on the night of the kidnapping. Maybe there were some satellite photos, or something?

Stephen and Claudia said they could check to see if any ground-viewing satellites had footprints in the area, at the time, but it might take a couple of days. The two engineers also reminded her that they had not completed their meditation training, and that JoCat had to renew the spells on the ritual room that kept them sane, every week.

If JoCat were not safely returned by the end of the week, Stephen and Claudia said, the nightmares would return and they’d have no way to maintain sanity. Sunmi said she’d try to think of something, and left for Denver.

(continued...)
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Old 10-27-2016, 03:59 PM   #126
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

(...continued)

Right about then, Doc Bascher got a call from the kidnappers, who asked her for the meeting location. Forced to improvise because the FBI agents hadn’t shown up yet, Grand County Sheriff Allen Brown had her set the meeting for Canyonlands RV Resort & Campground, located north of town and well outside the city limits.

http://www.highwaywestvacations.com/...es/canyonlands

While very busy in the spring, summer and early autumn, it emptied out by early November. The fact that the kidnappers wanted to meet in the middle of the week made it easy to insure the only “campers” were with law enforcement. However, the sheriff said to try to delay the meeting for at least a day or two, so as to give the FBI time to arrive, since they were the experts in these sorts of situations (and had jurisdiction, anyway).

Doc Bascher gave the location and voice on the other end of the phone agreed to meet the next day, at about mid-morning. As soon as they hung up, the sheriff was on his phone with the FBI, and learned that the agents would arrive within the hour.

Sure enough, within 30 minutes the two agents arrived, and introduced themselves as Agent Abner Hanks, and Agent Drew Tremaine. The local law officials quickly brought the agents up to speed, and they immediately called in an FBI Special Tactical Unit for backup. The agents changed out of their suits and into jeans and flannel shirts, and went with the deputies to take a look at the campground.

After they left, Doc Bascher took a walk in her back yard, and called the Academy Club, in Denver. She asked to speak with the chairman of the board of directors, Marcus Vaile. Vaile called her back within the hour, and Bascher said two new initiates might need a place to sleep and learn meditation, as the person who normally did that in Moab “isn’t available.” After a bit of hesitation, Vaile agreed to help.

As Bascher made her call, Beatrice received one of her own. She saw McShane’s number as the caller, and heard the voice of a kidnapper ask why he should talk to her, instead of Doc Bascher?

Beatrice replied that Doc Bascher had contacted the FBI and any meeting arranged with her would be a setup. As such, Beatrice said, the kidnappers would likely find an arrangement made with her much more agreeable. After a moment, the voice on the other end of the line said he would meet her the next morning, at the Dewey Bridge Campground on State Highway 128, about 28 miles northeast of Moab.

http://www.recreation.gov/recreation...ilityId=202146

He said Beatrice needed to come alone, or McShane would die, immediately. He then hung up the phone.

The next day, Beatrice pinged her boss with her destination. Then, without notifying any other member of the party and making no additional preparations, Beatrice hopped on her motorcycle and sped up Hwy 128. She arrived at Dewey Bridge Campground a few minutes before the appointed time, and turned off her bike.

While she waited, Beatrice pulled out her celllular and, as suspected, found that the steep canyon walls blocked the signal. Fortunately, she’d brought along a satellite phone.

Within a few minutes, an SUV pulled into the otherwise empty campground, and a man she recognized as Alvin Carr, an ultor with the Order of the Scarlet Sage, emerged. He thanked her for coming, and asked her to have a seat at the nearby uncovered picnic table. The two settled in on opposite sides, and Beatrice asked what needed to happen to secure JoCat’s release.

Carr replied that Beatrice needed to answer two questions. The first she would have no choice about what to say. The second would give her a choice she had to make, immediately.

Firstly, Carr said, he and his group had deduced that Beatrice and her people had likely found the North American interdimensional portal. Therefore, she could not leave the meeting, at all, until she had disclosed the location.

Secondly, he said, the death of Darla St. Cloud must be avenged. As such, Beatrice must choose who would live and who would die. If she wanted Ms. McShane to stay alive, then Beatrice must disclose the location of the portal, and then take a bullet to the head.

On the other hand, if Beatrice wished to live, then she could disclose the location of the portal, get on her motorcycle and ride away, and McShane would die, instead.

Aghast, Beatrice said neither she nor JoBeth were responsible for the death of Darla St. Cloud and, to buy time, offered to reveal to Carr who had actually killed his late colleague. Carr replied that, as far as the Order of the Scarlet Sage was concerned, Beatrice's entire organization had responsibility for that death, and that someone in the organization had to pay the blood-price.

They didn’t care who.

Deeply dismayed, Beatrice said she didn’t think Carr’s was even trying to negotiate. Carr replied that Beatrice misunderstood the nature of the meeting. He hadn’t come to negotiate, at all. He had come to dictate terms, and she either complied, immediately, or she and JoBeth would both die.

At that, Beatrice lunged across the picnic table and landed a punch in center of Carr’s face. Shocked, the man tried to scramble backward, got his feet tangled up in the picnic table’s bench, and fell over into the sand.

Beatrice clambered up on the table and felt a rifle bullet slam into one of the ballistic plates she’d inserted into her tactical vest – Carr had backup. The former soldier threw herself off the table on top of Carr, and began punching him in the face. The bank loan officer tried unsuccessfully to hit her back, and then screamed in agony as she gouged out his left eye with her right thumb (critical hit!).

The scream died quickly as a Beatrice saw the wound immediately stop bleeding and heal into scar tissue. Carr fumbled out his .22LR Ruger semi-automatic, took a weak hit to the face, shot the pistol at her leg, and missed. The bullet buried itself deep in the sand of the campground and, a second later, Beatrice’s sneer of contempt at the popgun dissolved into fear as the enchanted bullet exploded with the strength of a grenade. Sand and gravel flew everywhere.

Beatrice desperately grabbed at the wrist of Carr’s gun-hand, got a good grip, and hit him in the face, again, to try to put him out, all the while wondering how many more triggered healing rituals he might have.

Beatrice managed to avoid several more shots, but then her luck ran out and she took one to her lower left leg. Knowing what was about to happen, she jammed the calf of that leg up next to Carr’s groin.

The bullet detonated, Carr’s genitalia and lower intestines splashed like a tomato hit with a sledgehammer, blood from his femoral artery sprayed across the pale brown sand of the Dewey Bridge Campground, and he passed out.

Beatrice managed to remain conscious as she watched the shredded remains of her lower left leg emit a spiral spray of crimson droplets as it cartwheel through the air, only to thump wetly to the ground six feet away.

Trying desperately to stay conscious, the experienced SAR volunteer pulled off her belt, wrapped it around the stump of her leg, pulled it tight (critical success on First Aid!) and experienced pain was so intense she barely noticed the next rifle round slam into her body armor.

She managed to keep it together long enough to scramble backwards and crawl beneath the heavy picnic table (concrete pylons supporting a top and benches made of 3"x8" heavy wood planks). A few minutes later, she watched Carre’s head shatter from a rifle shot, dug out her satellite phone, and dialed *911.

The operator sent an ambulance, but said it would take about 20 minutes to reach the remote location. Beatrice managed to stay conscious most of that time, but never saw the sniper. Then, everything went black.

Back in Moab, Doc Bascher listened in growing horror to her police scanner as officers and paramedics arrived at the scene, and reported that they’d found Beatrice and the body of an unknown man. A paramedic’s voice reported that Beatrice had lost her leg, and the dispatcher asked if she should notify the hospital so they could try to reattach it.

The paramedic responded that wouldn’t be necessary, as the leg had suffered extreme trauma, and couldn’t be reattached.

Within the hour, the FBI called off the stakeout at the Canyonlands RV Campground and sent everybody home. The kidnappers never showed.

Up in Denver, Sunmi arrived at the Salon Cole for her 3 p.m. appointment. Even though the events in Moab were fresh, she couldn’t let them dissuade her from meeting with someone who might help her heal the damage caused by the rape spirit.

Bells jingled merrily as Sunmi pulled open the beauty shop’s glass door, and the room full of black ladies blinked in surprise at the sight of the petite, Korean-American 19-year-old. However, the receptionist greeted her pleasantly, and asked if she were “Miss Jones,” there for a 3 p.m. appointment?

Sunmi acknowledge she was, and the woman led her through a busy room full of chairs, sinks, hair dryers, and chattering ladies, to a curtained alcove in the back. There, a tall, slender, striking black woman in her late 40s or early 50s introduced herself as Vanessa Duschamp. She draped Sunmi with a plastic cape, had the confused girl sit in the styling chair, leaned it back, and began to wet Sunmi’s hair in the sink. A loud hairdryer started up, just on the other side of the curtain.

(continued....)
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Old 10-27-2016, 04:01 PM   #127
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

(...continued)

As Vanessa began to shampoo Sunmi’s hair, she asked the girl the nature of the problem. Sunmi, who had begun to relax, told Duschamp about the accidental summoning of the rape spirit, the subsequent fight a few days later, and the attempted possession she had narrowly avoided.

Duschamp didn’t stop shampooing as she thought for a moment, but then asked if Sunmi was, in fact, a member of a “lodge.” The girl answered in the affirmative, but said the problem she faced was not something her colleagues could solve. At Duschamp’s inquiry, Sunmi said she had contacted the Academy Club, recently, and the group was aware of her presence in Denver.

The mambo set Sunmi upright, and began to trim her hair. Duschamp explained that, when the loa spirits “rewired” the minds of the “chwal” (the “horse,” or the host body), they linked the behavior they liked to feelings of pleasure. Essentially, the loa made the chwal desire to service them, by making the host feel sometimes intense pleasure by doing so.

To undo that alteration, Duschamp said the safest choice was to abstain from pleasure, for a time. The person chosen as the chwal had to live an ascetic life, because the Spartan existence, combined with the skilled help of a spiritual healer or counselor, would allow the chwal to unravel what the spirit had done.

The experience always left some scars, the priestess noted, but she explained that the process of healing would return to the person to who they were, before – for the most part.

Alternatively, the mambo explained, the person taken as a chwal could instead summon in a different loa – one whose nature and predilections the person found far more amenable. The new loa would enter the chwal and “rearrange the furniture” according to its nature, and in so doing erase the influence of the previous spirit.

However, since the loa never did anything for free, Duschamp said, it would demand the use of the host as a chwal, periodically, until such time as the spirit decided the debt had been satisfied. The spirit would continue to impress itself on the mind of the chwal every time it entered, as that was an inherent part of its nature, and not something any loa could really choose to not do.

Sumi asked about the sort of spirit Vanessa might summon, and the mambo promptly answered that, based on what she discerned about Sunmi’s soul as manifested through her astrological sign, the best loa would be Mamman Erzuli, in her aspect as “Fréda.”

The patron of young women and the embodiment of beauty, romance, dancing, jewelry, luxury, flowers and erotic love, Erzulie Fréda epitomized sexuality as a wholesome, natural and joyous part of a healthy life. As such, the mambo explained, Fréda diametrically opposed the rape spirit’s essence of cruelty, violation and pain.

A bit weirded out by the possibility (as well as the fact that Vanessa had diagnosed her problem, somehow learned her astrological sign and proposed multiple solutions while giving a shampoo and a cut…), Sunmi asked if she could think about it, for awhile. Vanessa expressed surprise that Sunmi might do anything else.

After all, Duschamp said, the importance of the decision, and its profound consequences, demanded careful thought. The mambo offered to make herself available to answer any questions Sunmi might have, as she worked to reach a decision.

The Korean-American girl said she had thought of one, right away, and asked how much Vanessa’s services would cost, if she chose to try the route of ascetism.

Duschamp replied that mambos only rarely found themselves with lodge sorcerers in debt to them. Under the circumstances, a debt owed by such a mage was worth far more than any mere currency. The mambo declared herself willing to act as the healer and spiritual counselor, in exchange for a big favor to be named, later.

Sunmi let that sink in as Vanessa spun the chair around to face the mirror. Sunmi saw that the mambo had given her a cute pixie cut that framed her face, beautifully.

Pleased with the results, Sunmi packed up her things and paid Vanessa for the shampoo and trim. As she prepared to leave, a thought occurred and Sunmi asked if it were possible for a loa to repair a crippling injury, or even regrow a lost limb.

Surprised by the question, Vanessa replied that while the loa certainly could heal such terrible injuries, they almost never actually did so unless the injury had been suffered by a chwal they used frequently. To receive the healing of such a wound, Duschamp said, the recipient would have to agree to act as a chwal, forever, and submit himself or herself to the will of the loa, completely.

The next day, Sunmi drove to the Academy Club to keep her appointment with Marcus Vaile. Vaile asked if she were there about Doc Bascher’s request to provide assistance to two new initiates. Caught off-guard because she didn’t know that Bascher had made such a call, Sunmi rallied quickly and said that she was, in fact, there to see him about that very thing.

Vaile agreed to help Stephen and Claudia, saying that all of the sorcerous orders considered it an act of fundamental decency (and enlightened self-interest) to help new initiates survive faceting. He gave Sunmi the address of an office in a medical building near 20th Avenue and Franklin Street, the location of several large hospitals. Vaile said Stephen and Claudia would receive the help they needed, there.

However, Vaile added, while the Academy Club would give Stephen and Claudia a safe place to rest, and provide the meditation training needed, the Columbine Order would do nothing else. Sunmi and her colleagues still had to resolve the issue with the Order of the Scarlet Sage before the Columbine Order would consider any additional assistance.

With that, Sunmi took her leave and returned to Grand Junction. Once there, she drove to Nova Nèpenthé, to find Claudia and Stephen.

Just as she got inside, Sunmi saw Randy walk by, through the window. He’d heard the news about Beatrice, and had come to Grand Junction to see if he might find any clues about where the kidnappers might have taken JoCat, or even if anybody had seen anyone suspicious in the place, the week before the elderly woman disappeared.

Sunmi thought that was a good idea, and the two proceeded to ask around a bit, and quietly search Nova Nèpenthé. Nobody had seen anyone suspicious, but Sunmi did find a Jamba Juice healing potion that JoCat had apparently set aside for emergencies.

Randy took the potion and went next door to the marijuana café to continue to ask around. Sunmi went to the ritual room at the back of the occult shop, and found Stephen and Claudia. She helped the troubled pair pack up their belongings, and then the three drove to Denver.

Inside Café Nèpenthé, Randy struck up conversations with as many members of the staff as he could. All of them were pleasant enough (it was a marijuana café, after all) and worried about JoCat. However, none could recall any suspicious characters and, as they’d already told the police, they didn’t think she had any enemies or had gotten involved in anything more problematic than a business legal under Colorado statute, but illegal under federal law.

At that point, feeling tired and sore from his injuries, Randy bought some herb and sat down at a table. He was still there when two Grand Junction police officers walked in and asked to see the manager. Once the worried-looking man appeared, Randy heard the cops quietly ask the manager if he knew how to locate JoBeth Catherine McShane’s next of kin.

Randy put his face in his hands as the manager replied that McShane never married and had no children of her own, but that some cousins lived in Paonia, Colorado.

News of JoCat’s death had spread by the next day, and rumors began to surface that her body had been mutilated in some way.

Once she heard the news, Sunmi called Vanessa Duschamp, and asked the mambo to schedule a ritual to summon Erzuli Fréda. A week later, the ritual took place and Sunmi’s began to see in her dreams something other than red-tinged visions of herself as a green-tressed schoolgirl, laughing in delight at cruelty and pain.

She also sat down with the library piled in A.J.s sub-basement, and despite her difficulty with Greek, managed to find references to a ritual called “Restoration,” that might allow Beatrice to re-grow her leg, magically.

A couple of days later, Beatrice woke to find herself in the hospital in Moab, on an IV drip with what remained of her left leg swaddled in bandages and elevated in traction. A nurse came in shortly, saw that Beatrice had awoken, and summoned a doctor.

The doctor came in a few minutes later, asked all the usual questions, and then said the FBI wanted to speak with her. Beatrice nodded her understanding and, when the doctor opened the door to leave, she glimpsed several uniformed officers in the hall outside, most of whom she knew from 4CSAR rescues.

(continued...)
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Old 10-27-2016, 04:01 PM   #128
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

(...continued)

About an hour later, the door opened, again, and the doctor came in with the two FBI agents, Abner Hanks and Drew Tremaine. He admonished the agents to remain no more than five minutes, and the two men curtly agreed.

The agents began what was, to them, a fairly gentle interrogation about Beatrice’s activities. When the helicopter mechanic declined to answer their questions satisfactorily, Hanks said she could face arrest. Beatrice responded that the agents should do what they needed to do, and then leave her alone.

With that, Tremaine read Beatrice her rights, and advised they’d placed her under arrest for felony interference in a federal investigation, which had resulted in the death of another. Beatrice said she would need a public defender, and refused to say anything more until she consulted her new attorney. The frustrated agents said they’d notify the federal prosecutor, and took their leave.

The next day, attorney Stan Leibnitz entered Beatrice’s hospital room and introduced himself as her public defender. He closed the door and, after considerable initial resistance, Beatrice began to speak with him (mostly) candidly.

She said she had learned from Doc Bascher that the kidnappers had used JoCat’s phone to make contact and, fearing the FBI would screw up in such a way that the elderly woman would wind up dead, took matters into her own hands.

Flabbergasted, Leibnitz asked her why she’d done such a thing? Beatrice replied that, based on the stupidity she’d seen in the U.S. Army, she had little regard for, and less trust in, anything done by the federal government.

Beatrice continued to relate her version of events (carefully leaving out anything to do with magic or portals or Frank Moses), up to the point that she’d passed out under the picnic table.

Liebnitz rubbed his eyes and said that Beatrice would, without a doubt, face charges of felony interference in a federal investigation. However, the attorney said he might be able to swing some leniency if he argued that the situation placed Beatrice under tremendous emotional distress.

In addition, the catastrophic injury she’d suffered, as well as a long record of public service, meant he had good chance to minimize any punishment. It might even allow him to finagle a reduction in the charges, Liebnitz said.

The attorney also said Beatrice might face accusations of manslaughter in the death of Alvin Carr, but he almost certainly could get that dropped by claiming Beatrice had acted in self-defense.

Beatrice expressed dismay at the situation, and said she’d only tried to help. The attorney replied that he understood her motivations and sympathized to a limited extent, and even acknowledged that JoCat might still have died if Beatrice had left matters in the hands of the FBI.

However, Liebnitz pointed out that, while McShane might still have died despite the best efforts of the FBI, Beatrice would still have her leg, and would not face federal felony charges, had she left them to it.

As it was, Liebnitz advised that if the federal prosecutor could bring himself to offer a plea, then Beatrice would be wise to seriously consider it.

With that, the session ended.


##

Funny Quotes

(Not too many of these, this time.)

Bernetta (OOC): I think I screwed the pooch.
G&A,Inc. (OOC): The pooch had its face on the floor and its ass in the air, and you screwed it hard!

Samantha(Two days after the session): I just cringed. I sat there, and the only thing going through my head was, “Stop, stop, stop, stop, STOP! But she just kept going!”

Sunmi (looks a YouTube clip of a voodoo ritual scene from the film, Angel Heart): There’s so much blood!
GM: The blood gets the attention of the spirit, so the mambo can ask it to possess the host. You remember the ritual as the best night of your life!

##

Everybody earned one experience point, this time, except for Rebecca, who earned two.

Additionally, Bernetta must add the following to Beatrice's character sheet, under "Disadvantages":

-Crippling Injury (One leg) [-20].

-Also, reduce the derived stat, "Move," to "2."


On Sunmi's sheet, Rebecca should do the following:

-Remove the Disadvantage, "Sadism (15 or less control roll) [-7]" and replace it with, "Lecherousness (15 or less control roll) [-7]."
-Add the Disadvantage, "Duty (Erzulie Fréda, Involuntary, 6 or less) [-7]."
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Old 10-28-2016, 08:14 PM   #129
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

Wait... Beatrice went to that meeting with no back-up or weapons? Was she planning to die? I guess she hadn't realized the Scarlet crewe plays for keeps?
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Old 10-28-2016, 10:27 PM   #130
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

Quote:
Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
Wait... Beatrice went to that meeting with no back-up or weapons? Was she planning to die? I guess she hadn't realized the Scarlet crewe plays for keeps?
She had her pistol, and a rifle on her bike, but she was hoping to negotiate. I'm not sure why she thought that might work. Mostly, she was frustrated that Doc Bascher had called the Feds, and wanted to Do Something (TM), so she wasn't thinking.

She could have healed Randy, but did not.
She could have healed Grunt, but she did not.
She could have waited for Sunmi, but she did not.
She could have hung some triggered healing rituals, but she didn't think of it.
She could have realized that, given the locations of the meets, that the kidnappers had to be holed up in the area, but that was kind of a stretch.

The point is, there's any number of things she could have done differently, but she did none of them. I definitely was in the GM place of, "I can't believe you did that."

The best choice was to realize they had to be in the area, and try to get more info. Sunmi was on the right track, when she asked Stephen to look for satellite photos that might help. That would have allowed them to trace the kidnappers to Crescent Junction, Utah, and a little investigation and some Area Knowledge rolls would have given them a solid lead.

Unfortunately, Beatrice decided to go all cowboy, and there's no way that was gonna end well. As GM, you have to create multiple ways to succeed, but if the PCs insist upon doing something dumb, you have to follow through on the consequences.

That said, going hand-to-hand wasn't a bad choice, in and of itself. They already knew the members of the Order of the Scarlet Sage frequently had Missile Shield rituals on a trigger, for when somebody shot at them, and Alvin Carr probably did, too, since he clearly had planned for things to go pear-shaped. It's just that Beatrice got that critical to put his eye out, and then when she got shot, she went kamikaze on him.

Fortunately, I have a mature group of players, who realize the terrible mistake made for a strong dramatic story, so they're rolling with it. :)
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Last edited by tshiggins; 10-29-2016 at 09:02 AM.
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