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Chip McFuck posted:This is a cautionary tale that you really don't know someone until you roleplay with them. Feels like it's been a while since we had a good old fashioned cat piss story.
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Apr 30, 2024 20:08
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I miss them, tbh
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Apr 30, 2024 20:40
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Golden Bee posted:Cairo Many of the modules I read about pulp adventure made it seem like a trifle, a two-dimensional interlude between serious games about vampires or airlocks. But I started reading a lot of stories on archive.org: old western magazines, Black Mask, Adventure, Colliers....Got into the Shadow radio show, “Let George Do it!”, even the weirdo comedy shows like Rocky Fortune (starring Frank Sinatra as a detective who gets a new odd job every episode). And I realized my write-ups, and even the RPG sourcebooks, were missing the best part of pulp stories: the grabber headlines from the table of contents. Editors had only a few words to hook readers, and they used them well. Here's two examples The Kitten by Frederic pelham, jr. Night after night the young lieutenant and his ghost patrol slipped out and terrorized the German lines. Then an advance of their own regiment found them all dead, all stripped of their puttees, the men shot through the brain and the lieutenant, unmarked, with an empty automatic in his lifeless hand. Bowie and His Big Knife (a fact story) by meigs o. frost The eighteen inches of sudden death that carved new frontiers — and old enemies. I know people in this thread are fans of my stories, and that's why I put in so much effort. But my goal isn’t to brag, it’s to get more people interested in the genre. So I went back to the roughly 70 stories I wrote up in this thread. And each one got its own grabber, sometimes a few words (Terror at Fashion Week has simply “Turn. Pose. Kill."), sometimes remembered dialogue from the session. Here are a few of my favorites: Treasure of the Templars Thousands of years of history, and blood by the bucket. To end all Wars! “That’s a Matisse,” sighed Valeira. “People will bomb just about anything.” THE BEST DEFENSE! His hands were shaking… Was it fear of expulsion, or the terrible cold? If you want to read all the adventures (or just the new grabbers), here’s a link! Start near the bottom. And thanks again for reading! Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Apr 30, 2024 |
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Apr 30, 2024 22:14
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Golden Bee posted:Many of the modules I read about pulp adventure made it seem like a trifle, a two-dimensional interlude between serious games about vampires or airlocks. But I started reading a lot of stories on archive.org: old western magazines, Black Mask, Adventure, Colliers....Got into the Shadow radio show, “Let George Do it!”, even the weirdo comedy shows like Rocky Fortune (starring Frank Sinatra as a detective who gets a new odd job every episode). The thing I think most about pulp adventure is not that it's shallow but that it's easy. Nobody has high expectations for intricate politicking or hard-edged scientific realism, so you just go with whatever makes sense at the time, and if it seems a bit goofy that's just how the genre works.
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Apr 30, 2024 22:33
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Chip McFuck posted:This is a cautionary tale that you really don't know someone until you roleplay with them.  I like the idea of tabletop games as a sort of window into the inner soul of a creep. In ludo veritas, if you will.
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May 1, 2024 11:14
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Somehow no one got exploded in our 7th Sea game. Helgi, our gentle giant, tanked a small explosion from a hand bomb teleported right next to him, and then managed to leap out of the ship through the resulting hull breach before the ship's magazine detonated. The detonation caught him and about a dozen others with splash damage as they were all swimming away, but no one died or got KO'd. Helgi's leap into the sea silhouetted by explosion and flame was dope as hell, though.  In the aftermath, on the Montaigne (French) ship, the GM asked, "does anyone speak Montaigne?" No one besides my Vesten/Ussuran (Finnish?) huntress did, and she had just picked up "acquaintance" level of the language in her travels. (Language proficiency ranges from Acquaintance -> Poor -> Fluent -> Native). So I said that Kristjana knows Montaigne, but she has really just only seen that Muzzy commercial a million times, so she can only say, "Je suis la jeune fille" and "une, deux, trois!" When I failed the resulting Wits check to comprehend, the GM took that statement literally. So the Montaigne captain, in the middle of a major crisis, says things in a Very Serious ToneTM to my big, athletic, definitely grown-rear end adult huntress: [Translated from Montaigne]  "Where is the captain of your ship? The Castillians have a firing solution on us and we need to move now!" "I...am a little girl."Reference for anyone who wasn't a kid circa 1990 and doesn't have this grooved onto your brain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prg_SVBfFWw "These children aren't Montaigne. They're Vesten."
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May 1, 2024 12:01
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That whole commercial just played in my head on reflex. Thank you. Some content: I've been playing with my local Pathfinder Society for over a year now and just had a really good session with both some of my regulars and newbies. The Premise: An extra-dimensional hedge maze the in-universe Society uses for fast travel is on the fritz; go fix it. Fast-forward to the last section of the adventure where it's revealed the disruptions are caused by a group of tanuki pulling pranks, and there's now an entire tribe of them living and partying in a hidden section of the maze. What was supposed to happen: The Party tells the tanukis to leave, leading to either combat with the pranksters, or a skill challenge where the Party compete against them in a dance-off. What actually happened: Thanks to a really good Diplomacy check from the Bard and use of a magic flask that could generate the drinker’s ideal beverage, the Party resolved the situation through almost pure roleplay with the tanuki clan’s matriarch. After which, the Gunslinger said he'd go back to the quest giver and just let them know the situation. Me: Okay. I guess that'd be the end of the adventure then since you resolved everything peacefully. I'm not going to penalize y'all for skipping the last combat. Well, I guess y'all could've gone with the dance-off. Party: There's a dance-off?! Cue the now exhibition dance competition where I ask everyone to describe their routines before they roll. The Sorceror does a pyrotechnics display through a mixture of Dancing Lights and breathing fire. The Ranger tangos with her bear companion. The Gunslinger goes full Buffalo Bill with some trick shooting, responding to in-game criticism that he's not actually dancing by ending his routine by making his opponent “dance”. And the Rogue breakdanced seemingly in air by being hoisted up by the Sprite Barbarian. As for the Bard, he managed to roll 3 Nat 1's in a row on his performance checks, resulting in a nasty spill off the stage. Bard (after his third nat 1): Screw it, I'm gonna use a hero point. I want to at least finish strong.  Nat 2.Bard: ARE YOU KIDDING ME We all had a good laugh about it. It seems the secret to running Society content is to know when to go off-rails.
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May 1, 2024 15:03
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CzarChasm posted:Feels like it's been a while since we had a good old fashioned cat piss story. Railing Kill posted:
Yeah, dude just went and revealed his whole rear end to us. Which reminds me: He liked to make up nicknames for the other player's characters, which isn't too bad in and of itself. One of our other players had a character named Astrid who was female presenting but preferred gender-neutral pronouns and identified as gender fluid. Cool, no problems there. We'd occasionally forget and accidentally refer to the character as she or her, but we'd apologize and correct our mistake if we realized after the fact or had it pointed out. Not work friend though, he seemed to take real pleasure in calling them by feminine pronouns only. Made for some really awkward roleplaying. He also took it upon himself to give them the nickname 'Assy', which the player found REALLY uncomfortable and wound up ignoring his character whenever he'd refer to them as such. Just a toxic person. I also found a screenshot of some of the texts he sent me when we announced the pregnancy. The rant went on for so long and this is just the tail end of it:  My favorite part was that around 5:30PM that day, after his wife got home from work and must have berated him for sending such texts, he "apologized" by saying he's sorry for his tone. As if his tone is what I would have taken issue with, lol.
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May 2, 2024 16:48
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Christ. I mean, my wife and I decided that kids aren't the right choice for us, but I'm not some militant "NO ONE SHOULD EVER HAVE KIDS EVER! KILL THE BREEDERS! ONLY MORONS BREED!" kind of rear end in a top hat. I think the worst I did was my friend was dating his then girlfriend and asked if the two of them could stop by for a quick visit. I said sure and invited them up. They came in and basically said "We're pregnant." and I said "On purpose?". I wasn't exactly joking, but I was really more confused than anything. In part because their relationship was (from the outside) not the foundation I would build my life on, and they were living in a cold, lovely, shoebox. But, I did what I could to support them in their choice.
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May 2, 2024 22:43
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CzarChasm posted:Christ. I mean, my wife and I decided that kids aren't the right choice for us, but I'm not some militant "NO ONE SHOULD EVER HAVE KIDS EVER! KILL THE BREEDERS! ONLY MORONS BREED!" kind of rear end in a top hat. that's kind of gauche but also a reasonable question, it's a bit like asking whether a relatives death was expected, it's asking for help in calibrating your response.
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May 3, 2024 04:02
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I would think you'd have your answer by how enthusiastic they are when they say they're pregnant.
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May 3, 2024 04:49
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MelvinBison posted:I would think you'd have your answer by how enthusiastic they are when they say they're pregnant. That's what it's gauche to ask, for sure
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May 3, 2024 04:49
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Golden Bee posted:Graveyard by the Nile. Based on Pulp Egypt & The Charioteer’s Tomb by Peter Schweighofer Secrets secrets hurt someone. A party invitation. Normal, even expected, except when it’s addressed to Ziegler security services and ‘especially Lord Simon Alfric.’ The Louvre doesn’t have that obvious a frame. But Cincinnati’s premiere Secret Society underestimates our heroes (Simon, gambler Penny An’Te, troublesome Professor Winston Callahan, communist explorer Captain Semya Ivanova and especially undead PI Josiah P Diamond). They had us outfoxed at first. Simon thought he caught a tail on a member of the society… Only to grab a dead drop with the words quote:"Nice try, Lord Simon." The first one had cojones. Captain Ivanova cracked a whip a half inch from his face… and he calmly left. "I don’t want none of that." The second fell to one of Diamond’s jab-cross-elbow combinations…The third one was trickier. Six foot five, a wall of muscle, he smashed the desk lamp across JP’s face… no reaction. it was a stalemate, leaning in the thug’s direction… until Semya had an idea. She opened the room’s far window, and Diamond knocked the guy into the rolling office chair. A two-story drop doesn’t care how tough you are. Callahan was a bit of a scofflaw in his youth. His B&E skills made him a natural companion to Lord Simon. Unfortunately, the Society had prepared. The host was freshly dead in the room with the safe. Lord Simon instinctively pulled his vanishing act, leaving Winston to be discovered with the body. Instead of guilt, Queen’s College Malta’s only professor responded with outrage. He performed an immediate cause of death investigation, finding close-range gunshot wounds… explaining the host didn’t like him enough to get that close! The group swung into action, interrogating guests, creating a timetable, checking pockets… a tremendous amount of evidence gathered in mere minutes. Nick Charles could’ve presented a hell of a case. Unfortunately for the murderer, captain Semya Ivanova is not an erudite detective. She is a devout communist, and a class warrior. She delivered the evidence with sarcasm and vitriol. quote:All he could sputter out was a "wait, you know he… He made me do it!" before collapsing into a heart attack. As the crowd gasped in terror, Lord Simon added "He also threw someone out the window." *** Hard times in the big easy, based on Quill Noir by Tim Snider Josiah could solve the case… If he could keep his crew from getting arrested. The second adventure was more of a kitchen sink drama. It started with JP returning to New Orleans for the first time since his death. His landlord had changed the locks. The detective was almost supernaturally frightening in his request for the new keys, right now, thank you. --- The phone rang in Diamond’s office. It was kid millionaire Devika, inviting herself over to "help solve a case and teach the gang a little discipline." Of course, there wasn’t a case yet, so the group got distracted by Josiah’s threadbare office. Devi suggested photos of herself from her time as a model. Javid Kulfi, master photographer, had only a few prints on him; moody shots of Bourbon Street and other areas very close to the office. Lord Simon, seeing the cracked wallpaper, discreetly pickpocketed twenty bucks into the detective’s wallet. The next case wasn’t exactly the Hound of the Baskervilles. 5000 smackers had been stolen from a local bank. The owner suspected the night watchmen. Simon and Winston investigated the vault… and found proof that it was an inside hit. Someone had used every single second they needed. As they figured it out, they were confronted by the new nightwatchman! Neither was particularly adept at honesty, and barely convinced the rookie that they were there on official business. Javid and Penny had a much wider interpretation of criminal procedure. They decided to wait for the bank manager… on a rooftop across from the bank. Instead of the manager, they found their old friend/foe Professor Paradox! He confronted Javid about the assassination back in Hawaii (back in "Slicin' Sand!"). He handed Penny a pamphlet about "the eventual triumph of the Sunkissed races." The players found him completely unaware of any bank robberies, though… and the recourse to a loose supervillain was to fill in Dr. Enigma, Paradox’s nemesis. JP showed why he earned his detective’s license. He found out that the bank manager had a gambling problem and the night watchmen had been hired by him specifically, after six years in the clink for robbery. Harder than the case was surviving dinner with his sister-in-law Alice… who kept hitting up the party for money. At least none of his "team" needed bail.
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May 6, 2024 06:04
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According to my GM, monarchies are by definition "family owned and operated."
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May 7, 2024 14:20
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MelvinBison posted:
"You want to fight? We'll fight, and we don't fight fair, we're tricksters" "You want a dance-off? Well you better bring your A game!" "I am proud to announce a new peaceful future with the tribe of tanuki and the nearby village. Tonight we feast to peace! And first, THE DANCE OFF!" and lol the bard with three nat 1s
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May 10, 2024 03:45
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MelvinBison posted:Cue the now exhibition dance competition These are tanukis, so that'd be ballroom dancing.
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May 10, 2024 04:00
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Tunicate posted:These are tanukis, so that'd be ballroom dancing. It's, it's a ballroom blitz!
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May 10, 2024 07:15
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MelvinBison posted:It seems the secret to
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May 10, 2024 15:12
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In Wednesday's Phandelver session, we reached Wave Echo Cave and got into a few encounters. I made seven attacks, all of them hits, and rolled max damage an extraordinary 5 out of 7 times. Four of the attacks were sharpshooter shots, and one added 6 damage from a battlemaster die, for 104 damage total. ...not a big exciting thing, but very extraordinary to roll max damage that many times in a roll - and it was all with the virtual dice on DDB. The final part of the campaign which ended after 4 sessions. Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Session 2 and Session 3 Session 4 – Part 1 Last session ended with the party about to go after some gnolls outside of the village before they could turn a kidnapped little girl into a snack. The Druid was out of wild shapes (and I as the Warlock was down a spell slot), so the party decided to take a short rest. During which, the Druid tried putting a notice on the Tavern’s quest board to try and get a a no-name CR ¼ / CR ½ NPC hireling fighter to serve as a more reliable front line for the party, since we were about to go into combat. You’d think that’s the best which a small, no-name, two-tavern town could muster. Instead, what walked in were a pair of figures. Some small, funny creature which I don’t remember much about, and a tall human(?) wizard. He had Character Art. The DM then promptly told us several minutes of backstory for this GMNPC wizard. Something about them being a combination of a necromancer wizard and Cleric (but good-aligned) who was cursed to be immortal or something. This was not the character speaking, it was the DM telling us above the table about their awesome NPC (who had made appearances in the other group playing in the same campaign world). I think that I can be forgiven for not giving a poo poo and not really paying attention to the infodump from the GM about their NPC given that…
The DM did say that the NPC “was not max level,” but also mentioned that they knew Delayed Blast Fireball and traveled around (implying teleport), which – with at least one Cleric level - would make them at least level 14. Our characters were level 4. We found the Gnoll camp. There were 7 Gnolls and 2 minotaurs, which was probably too much to fight. So the PC’s decided to try and use an illusion of a tasty boar to draw some or most of the Gnolls off to chase after that food source, but before we could put it into action, the GMPC spoke up and told us he’d handle the distraction, we should go to the other side of the clearing. After we were in position, the GMPC stepped into the clearing, used a 5th level spell to summon some undead which grappled some of the gnolls, then used a 5th level fireball on them, wiping out 4 of the gnolls and injuring the minotaurs after which he said the rest was up to us. (For whatever story reason, maybe part of their curse, they couldn’t do destructive spells without hurting themselves.) I admit that was probably for the best, better than the plan we had, as the remaining 3 gnolls and 2 minotaurs had enough HP to chew though that the action economy would have put us at a serious disadvantage. However, it was clear that all the players were thinking “What the gently caress” about the overwhelming firepower this NPC was flinging around and wondering “why are they following US?” We were able to finish off the remaining enemies on our own. I should note that this was the second time where an NPC contributed a major amount of damage, but couldn’t act again. This is getting too long, and I don't know how to edit it down even more, so I'll break it in half.
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May 10, 2024 16:09
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Tasty goodness. Not too long, let the cat piss flow. Please Sir(and/or Madam) may I have some more!
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May 11, 2024 01:51
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Golden Bee posted:Rainsplatter & Stealing the Stars Art is universal. A glamorous October night at the Cocoanut Grove. It’s a premiere party for Cecil de DeMille’s latest and greatest hit, 'The Crusades'. Lord Simon (with Devika), Captain Semya Ivanova, Trudy Truman, Professor Winston Callahan, all the greats are here. The running gag is how much Trudy looks like Vivian Leigh (because that’s her character portrait.) Carol Lombard was giving her opinion on love and romance when the lights went out! The players rushed outside, and Trudy's journalism revealed the extent of the problem… A 30-mile zone of electrical disruption! This matched the theories of party guest Dr. Horace Abernathy. . But when the power went on, there was no damage. The best thing to do was get a good night's rest and check out the papers the next morning. And what headlines there were! While the city was blacked out, someone stole a 7’ x 5’ painting from the Huntington Museum in Pasadena! It was Lord Simon’s time to shine. He bumbled an attempt to sneak into the museum ("I thought the gardens were open, so I’m in those…") but was able to replicate the crime scene. The skylight was slightly skewed… Someone had stolen the painting from above! But strangely, the rooftop had signs of human footprints. Was it aliens? Humans? Shapeshifters? The thief had left a note. Trudy was able to weasel a look from the police. quote:This is the first time you will hear the name of the Zephyr but not the last! I am the greatest thief in the world, regardless of what some “English Lord” may say. Callahan took charge, demanding the group go to the newly built Griffith Observatory. There, he and Simon climbed one of the 25-foot statues, retrieving a strange metallic device. (They were yelled at; it was two pm.) Inside, Dr. Abernathy begged off from lvanova’s intimidating glare. He had seen a UFO, recently, while he was at smoking… but by the time he got a colleague, the thing was gone! He and the British scientist examined the device… discovering it had the power to short out electricity in a 30-mile radius. This doohickey caused last night’s outage! But the mystery remained… Who had done such a thing? Simon called his art fence boyfriend and hatched a plan… Find a big art gallery, listen for UFO sightings, and catch the baddies at the scene of the crime. This led the group to Chicago, meatpacker to the world. During the flight, Captain Semya continued her bickering with the wealthy Trudy Truman. The journalist called her all kinds of names, but wasn’t curious at all about her life. Why? Trudy replied that she would love to be curious if the captain wasn’t a bitch. *** Over the past few adventures, Lord Simon and Professor Callahan had developed a mutual love of crime. In order to leave his calling card behind Chicago’s largest painting ('Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte', by Seurat), Simon needed a distraction. Any ideas? The professor intentionally stumbled into a series of balustrades, requiring three docents to pick him up out of the mess. Back at the hotel, Trudy worked her reporter magic. She was assembling a map of UFO sightings based on radio shows and fringe newspapers...but Ivanova had carelessly left some old articles in the suite's sitting area… something about a political assassination in 1917. A little more snooping found the captain's suitcase half open… with a small framed photo of a Russian brunette who looked a lot like Trudy. Truman tried to sneak back. The Captain was sitting in Trudy’s chair. "The Revolution went well. The Civil War, less so. Did you learn anything going through the bitch’s things?" *** Simon and Winston stood on a windy rooftop in downtown Chicago. Above them was a 35-foot tall statue with an odd device lodged near the crook of its neck. Simon prepared himself for the climb, when the professor put one arm on his shoulder. quote:"Think smarter, not harder," said the professor, pulling out of magnet. The EMP device flew into his hands. "A few tweaks and we’ve got our trap." *** The women sat in silence. Trudy knew the power of silence, and her lips were sealed. But she wasn’t going to crack the cold-blooded Russian. quote:"You miss Ulyana," said the Aussie, "and you’re pissed my girlfriend is alive when yours isn’t." A few hours later, three of the heroes were standing on a rooftop near the Art Institute of Chicago. (Devika was back at the hotel, having only stop shopping because all the stores closed.) The city's lights went out. A strange UFO floated into view, letting down men with odd helmets. The men quickly removed the skylight of the museum, attaching it to the UFO. They unfolded their ropes, and began to climb down… When one of them was hit in the side of the face by a Russian boot. Simon ziplined in next, undoing the ropes of two mid-air heisters. The UFO responded to an intrusion by swinging the entire skylight at them! Ivanova rolled to safety, Simon scrambled behind a vent. If it kept up like this, both would be knocked off to their deaths. Luckily, Callahan was an excellent pilot. He harried the "UFO"… and with the help of Trudy’s flashbulbs, forced the ship to land on the streets! His modification of the EMP worked out perfectly, because Chicago got its power back in mere minutes. Simon and Semya gained control of the roof. After punching and questioning the "aliens", something was clear. These were skilled crooks, but they were from Basque country, not Mars. Yet none of them knew the deal with their boss… Simon snuck in the back of the UFO. Inside, the ship was quickly identified: A customized dirigible! And aiming her gun at the door with Simon’s newest rival, the Zephyr. The gentleman thief tried a flashy move, emptying his enemy’s gun and tapping her on the shoulder. She replied with a spin kick to the face. Zephyr was wearing the same lowlight 'alien' helmet as her minions … which gave Trudy an idea. She took a close-up flashbulb picture, blinding the woman enough for Semya to deliver a knockout strike. "You almost had her," said the Captain to the thief, helping him to his feet. Callaghan examined the ship's controls… And found out that they were made by a company called Lancaster. quote:"Wait", said Trudy, "like the guy who attacked Simon’s wedding?"
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May 13, 2024 06:25
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That's so good!
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May 13, 2024 14:14
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Golden Bee posted:Stealing the Stars Don’t believe everything you write in the papers. A hot December day down under. Trudy Truman, ace reporter, is finally back in the newsroom of the Melbourne Age. Despite her award-winning stories, she’s alienated her coworkers by being a gallivanting rich girl. She wins them back though, taking point on a difficult mining story on the far side of the country. She may be haughty, but her sheer -enthusiasm- is charming. Uptown, freelance butler Aldous Bingen is charming without a hint of enthusiasm. The staff is moving in tremendous quantities of new furniture. There is nearly a snafu… Until Aldous spies a porter holding a floor plan upside down. The doorbell rings. The prodigal daughter is home for lunch. quote:"Trudy?" Trudy was suspicious when her father forbade her to cover Aussie mining. She put two and two together when she saw all the new crates. But prying would provoke an argument… And a reporter should have more than one source. That meant talking to daddy’s financial manager. He couldn’t tell her anything… Until she threatened to withdraw -her- funds. The money-man wheedled, cajoled, begged… In the waiting room, Aldous Mapped a tasteful, tranquil garden. Callahan stared at the secretary, who stared back even harder. Soon, Trudy emerged, smiling like the cat who caught the canary. But she had something better: the name and financial records of daddy’s new, successful mine, all the way in Western Australia. The Alan Arani was currently with Jonesy in New Zealand, so the group had to rely on professor Callahan’s plane. Under the influence of Captain Ivanova, Callahan named his plane "The Spectre [of communism]". It could do the job, but it wasn’t the DC-3 the gang was used to. They soared above the sweltering city, into the freezing air. They make good time; Aldous is an able pilot, so there’s no need to break for sleep. They arrived in the sleepy town of Woomera a few days later, and learned about the situation at the mine. The Big Bend mine was active again after years of bad luck. Not just active; it was impossibly productive. Jade, Ruby, tanzanite, carnelian, gold and silver… All were there. And unfortunately for the miners, others had taken notice. The gang woke up early, dressed down, and headed for the Bend. Itinerant laborers were blocking the tunnel! They were willing to work hard, any shift, to feed their families. The union miners weren’t going to go along with that. Violence was imminent. Aldous hustled to gather a vox populi report. Trudy namedropped several famous Australian mining disasters… it didn’t matter how much enthusiasm they had, letting newbies in endangered everybody. The Itinerants left, despite Winston’s rumbling towards communism. Trudy was thanked by the Big Bend’s foreman… who immediately recognized her as an outsider, and then as the eldest Truman daughter. There were plenty of reasons not to allow the boss's daughter, and a famous journalist, into the mind, but Tru had a baffle-gab answer for all of them. The rumors were true… The walls of the mine were studded with gems. Rubies, citrine, lemon quartz, jade… But at the bottom level of the mine was a strange pink liquid, ankle deep. Honore de Balzac posted:Behind every great fortune lies a great crime. Professor Winston Callahan knows a little of everything. Or maybe too much of everything, because he recognized what had happened. The gems were the scales of the rainbow serpent of aboriginal myth. The pink liquid was psychotropic blood, a link to the dreamtime. His attempt to subtly inform his companions led to a panic. None of them were adroit liars. They just barely held it together long enough to fool the foreman. Money was good, no problems here, gotta go, don’t tell Trudy’s dad she was here. This was an ethical crisis. Trudy had already spent newspaper money to investigate the case. If she reported it as a hoax, any loose rumor would sink her career. And even if the Workers kept quiet, someone noticed that they all got houses and boats. Then again, the truth was just as bad. She had betrayed her father, attacked the family's pocketbook, and indirectly exportation and torture of a Mythic creature. And doing nothing wasn’t possible… There was no proof that a kilometer-long serpent could be peeled forever. They had to move the serpent… But how? It wasn’t something that aeronautics or butlering could answer. There was one lead Trudy could follow up on…She knew of a shaman who could help them. But he lived in the outback. And they didn’t bring enough aviation fuel for a detour. They would have to drive. Journeying through Western Australia is hard. Hard navigationally; in 1935, it was largely unmapped. After a few hours in the wrong direction, Aldous corrected Trudy’s driving in what he considered a 'polite' way. Tensions were raised. The physical side was worse than the emotional. Aldous had lived his adult life in a tux, so going down to an undershirt and shorts was a vacation. Callahan, Used to the chillier parts of the northern hemisphere, turned into a sweat soaked mess. (Mad dogs and Englishman, and all that.) When they got to Wolfe Creek crater, he was eager to lie in the shade. There, the shaman, very confused to receive visitors, taught them a ritual to awaken the serpent. Unfortunately, they’d still have to free it… Without destroying the mine. (Instead of playing out the return trip, we did a cutaway to Trudy’s younger sister confronting her asset management team, wondering where she went and why no one seen her in nearly a week. Everyone had fun with the staring secretary.) Back in Woomera, Bingen, who lives to serve, made sure to telegraph the family and let everyone know Trudy was OK. It was unclear if he knew that telegrams include their station of origin... The trio had what they needed. The plan is made: sneak into the mine, modify the tunneling equipment, awaken the creature, and pretend it did it all that on its own. *** Subtlety is a specialty of Aldous’s, so the infiltration goes well. Modifying equipment outside of specification isn’t a specialization for the professor; it’s more a hyper-fixation. The project takes all night, but he’s and wise to put in extra effort… because when the creature flees to the sky, it nearly hits the Alan Arani! The group tries to flee, but their only real means of escape is the airfield, A.K.A. the empty patch of ground where the Spectre is parked. When Daddy lands, reporter Trudy finally told him the truth…. The blood of the creature, shed while escaping, made the mine non-operational. A write-off, hopefully. Unless someone wanted to corner the market in psychotropic gems… --- Spies of Egypt Who's who? Everyone's dying to know. We had some time left in the session, so the group continued their project of building the Cairo base! They argued that their mining experience meant they could make the escape tunnel they had been dreaming of, but the rooftop gun range was a more political problem. The administrator of Cairo was mildly happy to help. Someone in the office was a Nazi spy, if our heroes found out who, they’d get carte blanche for building projects. Gertrude Contessa Truman's investigation was perhaps too good. She cornered the Nazi and got a faceful of chloroform. When the Australian woke, she was in a chair, dangling off the side of a rickety building in the Cairo slums. Aldous has always had a soft spot for the common man. So it’s no surprise that after hours, a janitor showed him one of his "pranks"…rummaging through employees’ desks. All fun and games until you find surveillance photos and extraction plans. *** The Nazi, "Nina Brill", had gotten under Trudy’s skin. As a reporter, Truman had heard a lot…but Nina was rough. quote:"Poor little rich girl. At least when you hit the pavement, you’ll have a butler to it wipe off." Nina was guarding the stairway, so former pentathlete Aldous jumped over from a nearby rooftop! As a butler, he always had the perfect item at hand, and today a simple pocket knife was enough to free the reporter. Callahan punched out the local talent. The fight was even (because this was, frankly, a non-combat trio), but that changed when Aldous provided "covering fire" on the narrow rooftop. Nina saw her chance, fleeing, yelling to the police officers that "there’s a maniac with a gun, help me!". It was a great plan (Nazi spies love to lie), but Tru defeated it with her deep well of contacts. quote:"Officer Abdelaal… What are you doing with this screaming German national?" Nina fled again, but was cornered by Aldous and the professor, who had grabbed a pair of bicycles. Case solved. After that live fire experience, they had earned... the right to a rooftop gun range. Suddenly less exciting.
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May 20, 2024 06:30
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