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Old 02-21-2017, 03:59 AM   #11
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Default Re: Project Jade Serenity [Supers/Technothriller]

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Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
And there was much rejoicing!
The time to rejoice is when my lazy ass gets caught up to events in our last session, which looks like it will take either an eternity or two or three more 10,000 character posts, whichever comes first.
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Old 02-21-2017, 09:10 AM   #12
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Default Re: Project Jade Serenity [Supers/Technothriller]

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
The time to rejoice is when my lazy ass gets caught up to events in our last session, which looks like it will take either an eternity or two or three more 10,000 character posts, whichever comes first.
Just know that we are here trumpeting your Sisyphean ordeal!
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Old 02-22-2017, 06:51 PM   #13
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Default Re: Project Jade Serenity [Supers/Technothriller]

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Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
Just know that we are here trumpeting your Sisyphean ordeal!
What makes it much more Sisyphean is that we keep having new sessions.

Teasers:
  • My OOC theory of a Rat King descended from early animal experiments who lives in the tunnels under Manhanock Asylum continues to be disbelieved by other players. We saw two of his scouts. The others will see once we come face to face with His Furry Majesty.
  • Lizard people live under the earth on Jewell Island. Well, one woman whose face was sort of scaly. She might just have had a skin condition.
  • There are human bones and dismembered bodies in the abandoned tunnels. Also, there may be insane cannibals, who just urinate and defectate wherever. I'm beginning to think that the guards are really bad at their jobs. Also, I'm concerned about sanitation standards here.
  • Apparently, when O'Toole made such a point of arguing the moral issues involved in killing armed guards who pose a threat, he was parroting socially respectable lines, rather than revealing any personal moral standards. As it turns out, OToole is a bit of a tool.
  • OOC, there seems to be an unofficial competition between the player of Dr. Dreamweaver (Dr. Michael Anderson) and the Tele-Molestor (Danny O'Toole) for the role of team super-creep and all around worst person in the world. Amazingly, despite Dr. Dreamweaver creeping around like a candy-coloured clown they call the Sandman, probably sporting a John Waters moustache* and having powers that boil down to Super-Rohypnol, Danny O'Toole established a commanding early lead with the act of telekinetic sexual assault that led to him being dubbed the Tele-Molestor and has not let up since.
  • For a mild-mannered psychiatrist, Dr. Anderson is oddly fond of plans involving incendiaries, explosions and extreme property damage. He doesn't seem very worried about potential collateral damage, either.
  • Some people think it's badass to kill lots of people with your superpowers. I think badass is walking into a room with five people holding guns on you, hands on your head, and use mundane social skills to try convince them to lay down their weapons so no one has to get hurt.**
  • When the convicted murderer in the adventuring party is the only one with actual respect for human life, everyone involved should probably take a long hard look in a mirror. On the bright side, I guess it's solidly in theme for a Suicide Squad to be composed of bad guys.
  • Whoever first came up with the trope of
    Spoiler:  
    under the sprinkler systems as the fire alarm blares ought to be shot.
  • No matter how earnestly your PC may have decided to avoid any behaviour that could hint of taking advantage of the mental patient who may or may not have been the victim of sexual abuse while imprisoned,
    Spoiler:  

  • It turns out it is a lot easier to make a Will check against initialising any attempts at inappropriately romantic activities than
    Spoiler:  

  • Fortunately, concealable stab-protective vests
    Spoiler:  
    .
  • Awkwardness is only compounded by the presence of a creepy psychiatrist. It's even worse when everyone knows he was listening to the embarrasing
    Spoiler:  
    of the preceding few minutes from a distance of maybe ten feet.

*The player still hasn't turned in a casting photo of his PC and his descrption is vague, but we've all just been assuming either a 70s porn 'stache, an elaborately waxed one or, at worst, a full-on John Waters pencil creep-'stache.
**
Spoiler:  
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Old 02-23-2017, 04:27 AM   #14
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Default The Abyss Also Looks into You

As the metal door slammed behind us, we were plunged into almost complete darkness. The air was unpleasant, dank and close, with a taint to it, rank from decay and neglect. Taylor could smell ammonia and excrement everywhere, a stronger smell than mere vermin should leave. There was also an undercurrent of other, darker things, the acrid fumes of fear; aluminum, ash, sweat and the coppery tang of blood. Old blood and new. Panic sweat stained into filthy fabric, day after day, night after night. The tunnels reeked of horror.

Taylor's eyes flickered strangely and he moved into the lead, without waiting for a light to be turned on. Dr. Anderson carried the flashlight from Reyes' belt, with Agent O'Toole and Sherilyn Bell walking close to him. Townsend and Col. Burr brought up the rear, carrying the unconscious Vicente Berrocal.

Sherilyn Bell seemed blithely unconcerned with her surroundings, though she had disclaimed any specific knowledge of the tunnels, stating she never went there as they were "dank and nasty and full of rats". Evidently, Ms. Bell was unhappy with Taylor for presuming to give her safety instructions and trying to impress upon her the seriousness of armed guards chasing them. She hung back while Taylor took the lead and instead hovered close to O'Toole and Dr. Anderson. She apparently took a shine to Dr. Anderson, calling him 'Mr. M'* and holding his hand in the darkness. After a while, he shook his hand free, turned to her and said calmly: "Ms. Bell, I'd appreciate it if you could stay out of my mind." Bell just giggled and acted all innocent, but she didn't try to touch him again.

At first, we simply moved along the first tunnel we found, moving away from the chasing guards, but once the other characters came to accept that they weren't following into the tunnels, we stopped to get our bearings and decide where to head next. We talked about how we could escape our situation. Dr. Anderson confirmed what the others suspected, that there was no boat on the island, as that would be a major escape risk, and the only way off it was for someone on the mainland to come pick us up. Cliff Island was less than a mile away to the west, but the sewers of Manhanock Asylum reached the sea on the east side of Jewell Island and a swim from there to Cliff Island would be around two and a half miles. The Atlantic in February would kill an ordinary person a lot faster than they could swim one mile, let alone more.

Taylor interrogated Dr. Anderson carefully about the equipment of the guard force when Dr. Anderson was there before the turn of the century, grimacing when he learned of the thermal imaging sensors and the heavy weapons that mounted them. As Taylor had spotted the barrel of an M2HB in one of the towers when driving up to Manhanock Asylum, he informed the others that it was a pretty safe bet that if the heavy machine gun had not been removed, neither had the thermal imagining sensors, which were actually useful to the guard force. This meant that we had to presume that showing ourselves in the open was more or less suicide. That left the tunnels, which seemed to connect all the wings of the main facility, as well as reaching several outlying buildings.

We took quick stock of our assets, which were limited. Cell phones had no signal and radios didn't seem to be working, which we decided might be because of our subterranean location. Col. Burr and Taylor both made the point that a baton and Mace were pretty limited weapons if we encountered guards with firearms. Dr. Anderson recalled that there were weapon lockers for the guards on the cellar levels when the facility was home to DARPA research in the 90s. As these tunnels had been abandoned for 17 years, however, and didn't look even a little bit maintained, we decided that even the worst guard force in the world wouldn't have left any useful weapons in those lockers and it would be a waste of time to look for them.

We did find a room which seemed to have been used for some medical purposes and there was still a hospital bed there and some basic hospital furniture. We scavenged an old wheelchair to haul Berrocal around in and Taylor removed a metal bar from the hospital bed to use as a baton. Unfortunately, there was nothing there that Dr. Anderson could use to treat Berrocal, as anything immediately useful seemed to have been removed when this part of the facility was abandoned. The sink didn't work, so we couldn't clean him up, and there were no bandages, sheets or gauze.

When we assembled again, Taylor laid out the options we had. Escape was most preferable, but appeared to be too risky at the moment. Calling for help and hiding until it arrived was our second most promising option, but so far, we had not been able to reach anyone. Col. Burr angrily interrupted Taylor at this point.

Col. Burr: "What about Agent Banks? Last we heard, he was with the Warden. Are you just going to leave him here?"
Taylor: "Lord willing, Agent Banks has been captured. If not, odds are that he's dead. I'm trying to prevent us joining him."
Col. Burr: "Typical felon, thinking of yourself. All we need is weapons and we can take these clowns!"
Taylor: "Do you have training in hostage rescue, Colonel? Even if you did, we lack the manpower and equipment to assault twenty guards head-on and rescue a hostage from them. Calling in a Special Response Team to rescue Agent Banks ain't leaving him behind; it's what I reckon' gives him the best chance of survival."
[Taylor looks around at his fellow survivors]
Taylor: "Unfortunately, there's no help coming unless we find a way to reach them. And while the radios might not be sending out of here, they ought to have done it upstairs. Two different radios ain't broke at the same time. It's jamming."
[Col. Burr and Agent O'Toole look thoughtful and nod]
Taylor: "Which leaves our third option. Like the Colonel said, we get weapons. But we're not fixin' to use them to fight a war, just to get to where that jammer is hid and take it out."
Col. Burr: "Yes!"
Taylor: "If'n they hunting us, keeping a watch in them towers and on places we likely to come out from, there ain't too many guards left idlin'. They can't guard a lot of fixed posts at the same time. Dr. Anderson, would there be an armoury of some sort in a wing that's still in use near us?"
Dr. Anderson: "As far as I know, there's one in the cellar of G Wing. We walked through G Wing on the way to J and it's still in use. It would make sense for the guards to be still using the armoury there to store their firearms in case a dangerous riot breaks out."
Taylor: "Good. If we're lucky, there's only one guard there. If they're any good, there'll be two. If they're dimwits, there might be no one, because everyone rushed off when the Warden squawked about us."
Col. Burr: "Even if there's two guards, we can take them, easy."
Taylor: "I dunno about easy. If we gonna do this, we need to be clear on something. I might could disable a guard holding a baton or Mace without killing him. I ain't a magician, though. We meet guards with guns, people are going to die and they are going to die because of our decision, now, to resort to violence. I don't want anyone claiming he didn't know the consequences or testifying to a US Attorney that I took it into my own hands to start killing guards. Is everyone here okay with deciding on a course of action that will probably kill people?"
Agent O'Toole: "We are not going to be killing guys just doing their jobs on your say so, Taylor. We don't know if every one of these guys is equally guilty. They deserve a fair trial, not extrajudicial killing."
Taylor: "Sure, we don't know what they deserve. But it ain't about that.** You can't wait for a man with a gun to take aim at you before deciding to attack him. That's a way to get into a race with a bullet, which you gonna lose. Any hostiles have weapons in their hands, ain't no choice that doesn't involve killing. Not in the real world. Not if we wanna live."
O'Toole: "If someone's a direct threat to you, I can't stop you from killing him. But only as a last resort, Taylor, do you hear me?"
Taylor: "Last resort, sure, O'Toole."
[Taylor is either a very poor liar or he simply didn't bother to mask the fact that he'll do exactly as he outlined, i.e. regard the presence of a weapon in the hand of a hostile as justifying killing that hostile]

Dr. Anderson describes the route that will lead us to the basement of G Wing and we start walking again, heading in that direction.

*Which is just an insult on so many levels. Dr. Michael Anderson is both an MD and a PhD, as well as being a stage magician who has used such monikers as 'The Magnificent Michael', 'Magic Mike' (until the movie) and 'Marvellous Mike'. He didn't graduate from Yale School of Medicine and then attend Evil Residency at the Manhanock Asylum for the Criminally Insane to be called Mister by some moonstruck flibbertigibbet.
**Both Taylor and I, as his player, will eternally regret not quoting Clint Eastwood here: "Deserve's got nothing to do with it."
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Old 02-23-2017, 06:11 AM   #15
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Default Fear of the Dark

Dr. Anderson can't recall the location of any electrical tables, so we accept that we'll be walking in near total darkness. Townsend drives the wheelchair with Berrocal, Col. Burr helps him while acting as rear security and Agent O'Toole gets to be the security element behind Taylor on point, with his readied can of Mace acting as our poor man's machine gun. Ms. Bell and Dr. Anderson march in the middle of our single file, as before, with Anderson holding the flashlight and trying to hold it so everyone benefits.

As we pass another room off the corridor, this one with a broken door, Taylor can hear quiet breathing from inside it. A lone person, tired and afraid, trying desperately to keep hidden. Taylor is well ahead of Dr. Anderson's light, so he simply moves quietly inside the room before the rest catch up with him.

With a small flashlight almost 100' away along an inclining tunnel, no direct line of sight, the room is almost perfectly dark. Taylor, however, can apparently walk confidently among various detritus without ever making a false step or even disturbing anything that can make a noise. He can also see a man in early middle age in the room, dressed as an orderly, waiting in the darkness and holding a piece of pipe as a weapon. The man has got some severe bruising in several places and what appears to be a bite mark on his face.

Taylor addresses him gently: "We're not here to harm you. Federal agents. We're here to stop whatever is going on." The man reacts by panic-swinging his pipe, screaming in terror. Taylor backs away from the wild swing, slides behind the orderly and catches him in a neat choke hold with his metal rod. Taylor moves the orderly out of the room to the corridor while applying pressure, gently lowering him to the ground as the others come up.

Col. Burr: "What the hell?"
Taylor: "Casualty, physical and psychological. He's coming with us, maybe the Doc should take a look at him."
Col. Burr: "Wait a minute! We can't haul around more people, it'll just make us slower and more vulnerable. Besides, he's one of them, anyway!"
Taylor: "That ain't a guard, he's an orderly. Noncombatant, US citizen, probably a tax payer and entitled to our protection whether as soldiers or law enforcement officials. Or is it SOP where you come from not to care about wounded civilians?"
Col. Burr: "****! So he is. I.. didn't notice."
Taylor [contemptuously]: "Hooah, Colonel. Leave no man behind. Be all you can be."

Taylor asks O'Toole whether he wants the piece of pipe the orderly had, but O'Toole is satisfied with a can of Mace. Taylor then hands the pipe to Dr. Anderson, who takes it gingerly, looks at it as he might regard the leavings of a sick dog and hands it to Ms. Bell. She accepts the pipe with a curtsy and flashes Dr. Anderson a grateful (and gorgeous) grin before trying a few practice swings with the pipe.

Dr. Anderson starts to inspect the unconscious orderly.* He determines that he'll live, but that the nasty wound on his face is probably indeed a bite wound. This sparks some animated talk about what could have done it. Taylor absent-mindedly says: "Probably whatever's been bellowing."

Listening closely, the others can now hear what he's been hearing, echoing roars that sound like a steam turbine. An angry steam turbine. The others can't tell if that's some kind of machine or not, but Taylor can hear clearly that this is a noise made by a living being, someone roaring incoherently in fury. There is also a rhythmic slamming of metal against metal, which Taylor can pin-point as so close to the bellows as to make it almost certain they originate with the same phenomenon.

Cherry Bell [sing-song]: "Here comes the Monster!"

The noise is coming from the tunnel ahead of us, the one we identified as our best route to where we are going. It is not necessarily the only route, on the other hand. If Dr. Anderson was planning to propose an alternate route, however, his efforts are frustrated when Taylor doesn't join the others for a consultation. Instead, he makes some motions with his right arm and hand, which no one except Col. Burr understands, and moves forward, out of the lighted area. Rolling his eyes at the GI Joe hand-signals, Agent O'Toole opts to follow Taylor, but moves much more slowly than he did, as he doesn't want to walk into something and needs to make use of Dr. Anderson's light.

The rhythmic banging is moving closer and Taylor estimates that whatever is making it is hitting a metal pipe in a corridor up ahead with something metal while walking along. Whatever is making those hoarse bellows doesn't sound human, more like an animal of some sort, but Taylor doesn't have the knowledge of physiology to determine whether damage to the vocal chords from sustained screaming and roaring over a long time might reduce a human throat to such incomprehensible sounds.

After moving past another tunnel leading northwest, Taylor determines that he is certainly in the same tunnel as the creature making those noises and that they are moving closer to him at a rate matching a fast walk or slow trot. They are very close now, close enough so that he can hear other sounds than the deliberate banging of metal, such as crashes when the creature hits walls and hoarse, heavy breathing that reminds Taylor of a horse worked to exhaustion. There is a foul smell coming from there, excrement, urine, filth, blood and sweat, as well as a heavy musk of a powerful male beast, a stallion, bull or some similar creature.

Taylor decides to find a hiding place where he can allow the creature to pass him and then take it out from ambush. A small janitor's supply closet, empty now, off the corridor seems promising. As Taylor takes up position, he can hear a loud bellow and then a scream in front of him, around an incline in the tunnel. The scream is raw, primal, filled with pain and fear, but it's nevertheless identifiable as human. That scream had the despair of a person being hurt beyond endurance who has stopped hoping for any help. The bellow sounds like a fighting bull roaring in fury, complete with an sharp intake of breath at the end, from lungs much more powerful than a man's. These sounds are close, no more than 100' up ahead.

The supply closet is a good hide. If Taylor simply waits, he'll be able to attack from behind while O'Toole sprays the creature from the front and even if Col. Burr and O'Toole should prove useless in a fight, they'll at least distract the beast. It's a good plan. Altering it to rush into an area he hasn't reconned, without any support behind him, would be profoundly stupid, Taylor thinks, as he runs forward into the unknown.

*Using his freaky sleep powers to put him in a deep, restful sleep as he does so.
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Old 02-23-2017, 01:03 PM   #16
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Default Re: Fear of the Dark

Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
With a small flashlight almost 100' away along an inclining tunnel, no direct line of sight, the room is almost perfectly dark. Taylor, however, can apparently walk confidently among various detritus without ever making a false step or even disturbing anything that can make a noise.
Lots of Night Vision, or full-scale Dark Vision?
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Old 02-23-2017, 07:13 PM   #17
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Lots of Night Vision, or full-scale Dark Vision?
Night Vision 9 that he needs to turn on and makes his eyes physically change while it's in effect, becoming extremely noticable, inhuman and reflecting light with a silver glint.

Also Stealth -20 and Observation -21.
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Old 02-24-2017, 05:08 AM   #18
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Default In the Lair of the Minotard

Barrelling down the corridor, Taylor pin-pointed the noises coming from a side room off the main tunnel. Before he reaches the room, he can hear another desperate scream tearing a man's throat raw and in counterpoint, a heavy grunt of exertion as air is expelled from huge lungs and a faint, but ugly sound of ripping cartilege.

As Taylor runs into the room, he can see a hulking figure looming over a kneeling man in the remnants of a guard uniform, in the process of ripping his arm out of the socket with one misshapen hand.

In outward form, the standing figure somewhat resembles a man, but it seems to be over seven feet and must weigh well over four hundred pounds. It's naked, with skin that's a mass of scar tissue with clumps of hair standing out, and a massive, pendulous sex organ leaves no doubt of its sex. The right arm is considerably more massive than the left and the left shoulder is lumpen and ugly, probably the result of a poorly healed break. Embedded in its chest is a yellow fingernail, surrounded by an angry red welt and suppurating pus. In its left hand it's holding a section of pipe that must weigh over twenty pounds.

Displaying both the ferocious aggression that made him the leading pass rusher for the Luverne Tigers in high school and the total lack of introspection in the face of adverse physical reality that led an instructor at Fort Benning to declare that he was one boot who'd end up jumping without a parachute because the ground ----ed him off, Taylor lowered his shoulder and charged in. It looked something like a terrier charging a fighting bull. Taylor tried to lead with the metal bar he'd scrounged, aiming for the wrist to break the beast's grip on his victim, but when the hulking thing turned to face him, Taylor ended up hitting it square in the left leg.

The impact hurt the 165 pound Taylor far more than his almost three times bigger foe. Ignoring the pain in his shoulder and side, Taylor swung his improvised metal club for the wrist holding the sobbing man's arm and raked the left shin of the beast with his shoe before sideslipping. Neither attack seemed to faze the huge thing, no more than the initial slam had. The beast evidently decided that its limp victim was an obstacle to properly dealing with the annoying interruption and threw the injured man one-handed at its quick-stepping adversary before winding up for a brutal blow with the pipe.

Taylor caught the wounded man in his arms and stepped back with him, dodging a savage swipe from the beast before gently lowering the wounded man down to the ground. While still crouched over the wounded man, Taylor managed to use his metal bar to deflect an overhead blow that would have driven his head into his stomach and move a step to the right. To make sure that the beast remained focused on him and not its wounded victim, Taylor kicked again at the point on its shin where he'd raked it earlier and hit it hard in the forehead with the bent metal pipe. The swift kick told somewhat, but the metal bar just bounced off the thick skull.

Falling back for the door now that the beast was focused on him, Taylor parried another massive swing and counterattacked with another kick for the same spot on the left shin. This time, the huge leg buckled and the beast crumbled down mid-step, falling toward Taylor and the door while grasping for hold with its right hand. Taylor brought his metal bar down on the right wrist of the man-beast, snapping the wrist with an audible crack. Before the hulking thing has finished falling, Taylor hooks the left, weapon-bearing, arm using his bent metal bar as leverage. Using that leverage, Taylor aims a fight-ending stamp kick at the weak point in the side of the man-beast's skull.

A flash of light distracts him and Taylor ends up stamping the ground right in front of the hulking thing's face, awkwardly falling against the door frame as he does so. Looking up, he sees Dr. Anderson holding up his hand to him: "Stop!" When Taylor recovers his balance, he steps out of the room and looks closely as his fallen foe. It's still massive, ugly and terrifying, breathing like a bellows, but the roars have turned to a strange whimpering keening.

Taylor: "What in the Lord's name is that, Doc?"
Dr. Anderson: "That's Terry Amiti. Terry used to be a patient here. Orphan, from rather sad circumstances. Severe developmental retardation. He had the mind of a child, but when vexed, could become dangerous. He never knew his own strength or understood that he could hurt people with it. I thought he had been transfered, but obviously, something bad has happened to him since I knew him."
Col. Burr: "Something bad? He was eating people!"
Dr. Anderson [musingly]: "Dr. Vanderbert was his primary physician. He was quite pleased with Terry's response to experimental treatment, but then one day, Terry apparently had a bad reaction to his meds and Dr. Vanderbert said he'd been transfered. Understand, I was never involved in his treatment and know only what I heard in the caffeteria. I am quite sure, however, that Terry was not here at Manhanock Asylum for the last few months I spent here. He must have come back here at some later date."
Taylor: "This is a person?"
Dr. Anderson: "Oh, yes. Terry could be sweet and affectionate, even, if treated right. He is quite blameless for anything he might have done. He has never understood consequences on any meaningful level and is incapable of making a moral choice, all the more so now, it seems."

Dr. Anderson touches Terry gently and whispers soothing encouragement to him, trying to ascertain the extent of his injuries without provoking destructive rage. Meanwhile, Taylor leaps over the prone Terry to check on the man that Terry was attacking. He discovers that the shoulder is badly dislocated, but is unable to tell whether there is a fracture. There is some minor bleeding where Terry's fingernails broke through the skin on the lower neck and shoulder, but while that might lead to infection later, that injury is of minor concern in the short term. There is widespread bruising on the face and side, but Taylor hopes that no ribs are broken.

Once Taylor has made sure that the injured guard is as comfortable as he can make him on the floor, he moves to help Dr. Anderson treat Terry. Taylor immobilises the unharmed left arm with a knee and holds the right arm gently while Dr. Anderson splints it. Sherilyn Bell moves over to assist without being asked, but pointedly hands Dr. Anderson improvised bandages and splints with overdone flirtatious 'Hello Nurse' mannerisms while ignoring Taylor.

Dr. Anderson: "I understand we cannot take him with us."
Taylor: "Unfortunately, there's no way we could carry him. We'll have to drag him back inside and make him as comfortable as we can in here. We'll come back for him once we've called for help."
O'Toole: "What's wrong with you, man? You were trying your best to kill it a moment ago, now you act like you're sorry you broke the monstrous cannibal's wrist."
Taylor: "He were a threat a moment ago, O'Toole. Now he ain't nothing but a hurt innocent who don't even understand why he's hurting."

Dr. Anderson and Taylor drag the massive form of Terry back inside the room and try to make a bed for him as best they can from what they find in the room. They also try as they can to discourage him from moving, as the leg might be broken. They then carry the man in the guard uniform out to the corridor. The man seems to be mercifully unconscious* and Taylor seizes the moment to set his arm before applying an improvised splint. Then O'Toole, Burr and Taylor do what they can to block the door to Terry's room, to reduce the odds he'll move and hurt himself or someone else.

Taylor [to O'Toole]: "Still think there's innocents among the guards hunting us? They the ones who locked a poor idiot in the tunnels, calling him a monster and making him kill anyone who resists for them. Y'all think there's any guards upstairs don't know what's going on?"

There are no objections when it becomes clear that the unconscious guard is to be added to the crowd of survivors we carry along, though both Col. Burr, who is carrying an unconscious orderly and Agent O'Toole, who has to carry the new survivor, glare at Taylor's back when he moves back into a point position, unencumbered by any of our wounded captives/rescues.

*Dr. Dreamweaver, again. He really should have skipped psychiatry and gone into anaesthesiology. He'd have made bank.
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Old 02-24-2017, 08:05 AM   #19
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After the encounter with Terry Amiti, everyone was rather subdued. We moved slowly, encumbered with our wounded people, and jumped at every minor noise. Taylor heard a few worrying noises far off, but couldn't identify any as people in distress, and in any event, didn't even know where the echoes originated.

We didn't see anything else of note going through the last tunnel heading to the cellars of G Wing. We did see a rat, a sleek, well-fed rodent who spent a few breaths staring Taylor down. Once Dr. Anderson shined his light at it, it sped away. They're afraid of light, but not of humans. Probably have a taste for Terry's leftovers.

The door leading to the G Wing cellars is a massive metal blast door, like the one we left through when leaving J Wing for the tunnels. This one is locked from the other side and Reyes' keychain doesn't contain any key for it. O'Toole reluctantly takes out a lockpick kit and starts fiddling with the locks. In surprisingly short order, there's a click and then he slides the bolt open. Taylor gives O'Toole an impressed glance and moves to open the door, motioning O'Toole and Burr to wait in support. Our wounded are placed off to the side while everyone is busy.

Taylor has already calculated that any guard left in front of the armoury in G Wing will have his eyes on the cellar door if he's watching anything. He opens the door rapidly and enters fast to the left, giving O'Toole and Burr space to follow. Taylor tries to move as stealthily as he can, but the blast door inevitably makes some noise when opened.

The cellar is dimly lit, but not completely dark. There's light coming from a stairwell leading up to the ground floor. There is also obviously no one guarding the door where Dr. Anderson said the armoury would be. Because there's no door that looks like it might house an armoury. Just a supply closet.

Dr. Anderson is the subject of quite a few accusing glances, but no one says anything, because they can hear someone on the ground floor talking. Taylor is close enough to hear it's two speakers and that one of them is a guard he has seen before, the one named 'Ball'. The one who was on watch over Sherilyn's wing and who smelled of recent ejaculate.

Ball: "What was that?"
Other guard: "You think it was someone trying to get in downstairs?"
Ball: "Can't be him, he's too dumb for doorknobs, let alone latches and bolts. If it was the door, it's got to be them. You go check it out, I'll go fetch the Warden and the team."
Other guard: "I go? Why can't you go?"
Ball: "Just check it out, will you? You've got your Mace and baton and I'll be right back with the team."

Taylor decides that allowing Ball to go for help would be a suboptimal play. He jumps up, grabs the bottom of a step on the stairs with his fingers and swings himself up to the first floor. As he lands, both guards gasp in surprise, but Ball immediately starts backing up and reaching for his tool belt.

Taylor rushes in with his much-battered metal bar held in both hands ahead of him. Ball crouches down to meet his charge and Taylor ends up shoulder-checking him in the chest, sending him backward gasping for breath. An elbow strike to the solar plexus of the other guard sends him into a fits of wheezes and Taylor lunges with the tip of his battered metal bar to the floating rib of Guard Ball. Ball immediately goes down, completely unable to draw breath and trying simultaneously to vomit and gasp.

Taylor follows through with a vicious stamp kick to Ball's head. It shatters his cheekbone, bouncing his head off the floor, and may break some other facial bones as well. It's with a visible effort of will that Taylor stops himself from breaking Ball's skull as well as his face. Instead he moves behind the other guard, on his knees trying to draw breath, and takes him in a choke hold with his much abused metal bar.

Taylor then carries the unconscious guard downstairs and whispers at O'Toole and Burr to tie him up. He goes up and fetches Ball as well, noting without visible reaction that Ball has lost consciousness and is bleeding steadily from his shattered face. When Taylor brings Ball downstairs, Dr. Anderson whistles under his breath.

Dr. Anderson: "Was that really necessary? He obviously has a concussion. He may have intercranial bleeding."
Taylor [looks at Sherilyn Bell]: "Lynnie, did... did this guard ever hurt you?"
Sherilyn Bell [smiling eerily]: "Oh, no. Ball just likes to watch."
Taylor [flinches, then to Dr. Anderon]: "Sorry, Doc. Try an' keep him alive."

As we check that the supply closet is, indeed, just a supply closet, the radio on Ball squawks. Dr. Anderson grabs the radio and Taylor throws O'Toole the other guard's radio. Taylor: "No jamming, call for help."

O'Toole immediately switches to the Coast Guard emergency channel and begins to recite a DHS SHARE code-word, his badge ID number and our current situation, with federal agents needing emergency medical assistance and another presumed kidnapped.

The other radio, on the guard frequency, is broadcasting the voice of Deputy Warden Brad Tyrrell. He's demanding that every unit check in and report any sign of the 'traitors'. Taylor fishes out ID from the unconscious guard's pocket and whispers to Dr. Anderson: "Curtis Bender. Looks like a Kurt. Pretend to be Ball and tell him Kurt is in the crapper." Dr. Anderson imitates Ball with, what sounds to us, at least, startling faithfulness. Considering that he's only heard him once, at least.

The radio check-in ends with white noise static breaking in on all channels. O'Toole managed to get in a distress call, but received no acknowledgement before being cut off. As soon as he gets done with the radio, Dr. Anderson opens the supply closet and starts going through the chemicals there. He asks if there would be any value in having an incendiary, explosive or an irritant that can blind people. Taylor grimaces and asks if can make make something that will flash brightly and give off foul-smelling smoke, something that looks dangerous, but isn't really going to kill or even blind anyone. Dr. Anderson shrugs and starts mixing cleaning supplies.

Taylor has armed himself with a baton taken from the less damaged guard and hands Sherilyn Bell the tool belt from Ball, along with baton and Mace.

Taylor: "Remember, stick beats knife, Mace and running beat both."
Sherilyn [curtsy]: "Thanks, Chasie dear. You're so good to me."
Col. Burr: "Damn it, man, now you're arming the criminally insane?"
Taylor: "She's ain't a criminal, she never even got no trial. Until yer done been found guilty, yer innocent, 'least in my America. Didn't stop the Army from burying her here for seventeen years."
Taylor [angrily]: "Who says she's insane, either, the crooked doctors who lied to keep her here, like as not to cover up for generals and colonels? Sherilyn's got as much right to defend herself as any of us."

Col. Burr just scoffs, but Sherilyn looks at Taylor in genuine surprise. Taylor moves away in a fairly transparent attempt to hide his emotions from the others. Sherilyn shrugs and goes over to Dr. Anderson, brightly asking him what he's doing. Dr. Anderson, apparently an incurable lecturer, starts to explain to her how to make explosives and incendiaries from common household chemicals.*

Securing the rest of the cellar corridors is a pretty effective excuse, as it clearly has to be done. After a quick circuit, Taylor determines that he can hear soft breathing from the tunnels we came through. He waits until he determines that there are two people in there, they are afraid and they are not waiting in ambush, they are simply trying to avoid being found.

Taylor [softly]: "Y'all are safe from us. We're not guards, not here to hurt you. Homeland Security. Here to help, despite that. Federal agents."
Man inside: "Oh, thank god! Do you know what the hell is going on?"
Taylor: "The guards are hunting for us, by express command of Warden Tyrrell. We found a federal agent they've kidnapped. Now they're trying to kill us to cover it up."
Man: "That's completely crazy!"
Taylor: "None of y'all here on this island strike me as mighty well-adjusted."

A wiry, tough-looking black orderly comes out of the darkness with a wild-eyed woman dressed as an inmate in tow. He introduces himself as Robert and her as Cindy. Taylor gets the sense that Robert has been running and hiding for a while, but that he's mentally tough and isn't going to give in. He likes the fact that Robert is still taking care of a patient, even though he'd clearly be safer alone. Taylor tosses him the Mace from the guard's tool kit and the radio that was attached to the uniform.

Taylor: "Expect you know what to do with the Mace. Put the radio on channel 16 and keep trying to reach the Coast Guard. Repeat a simple distress message with our situation until you get an acknowledgement and then just answer their questions. The guards are jamming, so you won't get through at first, but if they stop to use their own radios, make sure you're ready for it. We're going to see what we can do about the jamming, maybe try to find another way to call for help. Y'all might want to hide until help gets here. If you could take care of some other survivors we found, I'd take it right kindly."
Bob the Orderly: "Sure, man. Whatever you need."
Taylor: "If the reason everyone is staying out of the tunnels was a big lunk named Terry Amiti, you don't have to worry about him. He's hurt and staying put until help comes. Might could be smart to hide in the tunnels instead of here, if'n the guards never go there."
Bob the Orderly: "The Monster is gone?"
Taylor: "Terry won't hurt you as long as you don't go looking for the room he's in."

*Wonderful. Daddy's Little Domestic Terrorist in the making.
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Last edited by Icelander; 03-03-2017 at 09:46 AM.
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Old 02-24-2017, 08:10 AM   #20
evileeyore
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Default Re: Project Jade Serenity [Supers/Technothriller]

Huh. Were I Taylor I'd have gone for the exposed groin kick to stun the behemoth, but then a broken shin ain't nothing to sneeze at neither.
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