"Didya just say the name of a fruit?" Vonya asks incredulously, peering around the corner at the now dormant turrets. "Anyways we're burning daylight, better keep moving right? I wonder if Tom has a plan" Vonya wonders aloud.
On a 10+ mark experience and take +1forward if you do as your mask wishes. On a 7–9, take a +1 if you do what it wants and act under fire if you don’t. On a miss, it has its own agenda and act under fire if you don’t follow it.
"Well, it got 'em to shut down, didn't it?" Seth replies. He lumbers over to pick up the little turrets and stow them until they're ready to go.
Tom's reply to your mental wanderings comes in the form of itching sensations running all throughout your skin, Vonya. It's been awhile since you woke up this morning all zonked out on drugs, and you've lost blood since then. You're craving another drug-fueled bender, and it's being reflected in Tom's voice. The mask's voice becomes scratchy and hoarse in your mind, accosting you and squeezing your face like a coke addict squeezes your jacket's lapels when he approaches you at night. "GET...ME...DRUGS!" the mask demands of you. If you don't claim the entire share of the next stash of drugs you find, you'll be acting under fire. Take +1 forward if you intend to swipe the drugs for yourself.
Seth, as you approach the turrets, you see they each have a large power button clearly displayed on the very top. These turrets are the peak of pre-war technology, and can be redeployed simply by dropping them and slapping that button. Since you spoke the command word, they won't shoot at you when reactivated, but they'll treat all other targets as live, so look out.
They are 2 weight each.
Just past where the turrets were set up is evidence of an area that has been blown up. The explosion blew a hole in the side of the Crane building, in a spot not visible from the street. Inside the walls are a mess of circuitry and wires that still carry a live current; some are sparking occasionally.
Making your way past the explosion, you come to a bend in the corridor that curves around to the right. Ahead of you is a bay of elevators; and past that, beyond the bay, are two shops that remain in pre-war condition. Their neon signs are still glowing. The sign on the right reads : PHARMACY in big red letters, and the sign on the left reads GIFT SHOP in tall green neon. The doorways for both shops are open, but you can't see every part of the opened area where the shops are from where you are on the other side of the elevator bay.
"Thinking these little guys may be useful further in. I'll hang on to them for now. Shall we go?" he asks the others.
Francis cautiously makes his way towards the second floor, unsure if the sudden silence of the turrets means they'd been disabled or that they'd merely eliminated all their targets. Seeing everyone alive and advancing, he follows suit.
"What these kids need should be in that Pharmacy," he says to Pallor. He cautiously makes his way past the elevators towards the store in question, hoping there are no more automated defenses...
Runner continues his impersonation of a shadow and tries to stay as inconspicuous as possible.
He follows along behind the main group and keeps his eyes open up ahead for any threats that might emerge from doorways or stairwells.
Periodically, he itches random places on his body and mutters under his breath.
"Yes. See to the saplings. Miracle-GRO. I have luck in gift shops. Think of me if you need assistance." Pallor says, edging toward the gift shop with fond memories of the goodies he found in the last gift shop.
Scarlet skips ahead, poking her nose in every available location?
Seth joins the others.
Itching at his arm, Vonya takes huge strides to immediately beeline towards the pharmacy. He mutters under his breath as he goes, and his head occasionally twitches to the side.
Everyone can roll 2d6+3 for looting the pharmacy and drug store, which were maintained by the owner of this tower and are filled with pre-war quality goodies. This will determine loot quality. The modifier to loot rolls is determined by the location in which you're looting. Because the gift shop and pharmacy are full of great stuff, the modifier for this roll is +3.
Francis in particular heads for the pharmacy, but is elbowed aside by an insistent Vonya as the enormous man pushes ahead toward the drugs' location, twitching his head a little.
Francis, when you and Seth enter the pharmacy, you find Vonya moving from shelf to shelf with manic urgency, shoving any boxes or pill bottles he can find into his enormous rucksack. His mask is heaving slightly on his face from his heavy breathing.
Meanwhile, Pallor pushes open the solid-glass doors to the gift shop to find Scarlet already inside, pulling a foot locker out from underneath the cash register counter with small grunts of effort. The thing is locked, and it's heavy. Pallor, as you're looting, you find your attention continually distracted by a small snow globe on a shelf behind the register. It's high up, so you'd have to climb up on a countertop to grab it, but it keeps catching your eye somehow.
In both shops are security cameras behind heavy-duty shields, panning back and forth over the entire scene.
Ignorant of the scene around him, Vonya hums a merry tune under his breath as his pack swells with goodies.
Francis keeps an eye on the 'roid-boy Vonya and searches for insulin kits...
...and comes up short.
Figures.
Francis approaches the walking meat-wall and clears his throat. "These kids need insulin; do you mind looking through your bag there to see if you've got any? With a build like yours, I'm guessing you're not a diabetic."
"Kids! They got cameras in 'ere! Ya don't just go rummagin' with checkin' that s#it!"
Seth trundles over and waves to the others.
"One o' you wanna give me a boost so I can disable this thing?"
Without taking his eyes off Vonya, Francis responds to Volcano.
"Unless you've got some serious hardware with you, I don't think you'll be getting at those cameras."
Breathing heavily, barely able to contain his urge to start shooting up right now, Vonya recognises that someone was talking to him. Cocking his head to the side like a curious hound, he sizes up the fresh face - it was no one he knew, and thus his respect for this person was at it's lowest.
"Who are you, we wonder? Not seen you around before."
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Pallor tries to reach the snowglobe, attempting to climb the shelf after doing his best to check its stability, as he doesn't want it to fall over on him.
"Lady. I can eat that lock."
Runner is slowly coming out of his post-being-an-a$$hole funk and needs something to cheer him up.
Besides valuables, he looks thru the junk for bandannas or colorful cloth items...
...maybe candy but that would probably be hoping for too much.
There is never any candy. Too much scavenging and time has gone by for much of that to be left lying around.
After that he looks into helping Seth deal with the cameras.
With Runner's help, Seth examines the shield on the camera, looking for the best way to disable it.
"Easy, lad. Easy now."
Francis looks steadily up at Tom and Vonya. Hopefully this guy's got it together more than Runner.
"I'm Francis. I haven't been around before; just met some of your friends today," he jerks his thumb over his shoulder at the Gift Shop across the hall, "and we helped each other out of some scrapes. Now I'm here to help out with any more trouble, and these 'Power Army' kids are in plenty. They need insulin, and it's more than likely that there's some in your bag there. Mind taking a look?"
Vonya could already feel Tom scratching at his brain at this new guy's suggestion. He wants MORE than just insulin, you know he does. This stash is YOURS lad YOURS.
Vonya turns his back to the wethead newbie, and looks into the bag to see if there is anything even remotely labeled 'insulin'.
Loot rolls:
Scarlet: 9
Runner: 8
Pallor: 8
Francis: 6
Vonya: 9
Volcano: Weird roll to understand the cameras
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Wow, none of you beat a 10! Too bad for you guys.
PRE-WAR LOOT FOUND (this is all random, so if I give you something that makes more sense for someone else, well, that's how trading happens):
Scarlet (Gift Shop): A locket on a necklace with pictures inside of a young woman and a young man. Inside the locket is a tiny recording device that can be used as a bug, audio and video.
Runner (Gift Shop): High-quality gun/muscle/sport enthusiast and porno mags worth 3 barter total, and a Wrist Rocket slingshot, close range, no official ammo needed as long as debris is nearby, 1 harm, no weight.
Pallor (Gift Shop): 15 Smoke bombs designed to burst into a 10 by 10 cloud of smoke when it sharply makes impact on a surface
Francis (Pharmacy): A pharmacy/med bag with 5 uses. If you need something that could reasonably be found in a pharmacy bag, like a syringe or a measuring scale, you can reach into the bag and pull it out.
Vonya (Pharmacy): 5 barter worth of drugs, including at least a month's worth of insulin.
Volcano (Pharmacy): An Omni-Tool, broken - but you reckon it could be fixed in an hour or two's time.
Wow, none of you beat a 10! Too bad for you guys.
Vonya, you didn't make it clear that you were keeping the stash all to yourself even when asked. If you are, take that +1 forward, and you find a hidden stash of NZT. This special cognatogen gives +2 to all sharp rolls and perfect memory recall for 24 hours, and a brutal hangover effect.
Seth, you'd have to unscrew the plates hidden in the four corners of the blast shield over the cameras to access them. If you have a simple philip's head, that should do the trick.
Vonya, there appears to be some insulin in your stash.
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Vonya you've been having a tough day, you NEED these drugs, DESERVE THESE DRUGS. Tom whispered, nay SHOUTED in Vonya's ear.
After finding the insulin, Vonya closed his bag up and turned to the smaller man. "I may or may not have some, and if I do, I will think about giving you some. A completely unrelated question - does insulin get you high?" Vonya asked of the man.
As no self-respecting Wasteland mechanic would be without a Philip's head in his belt, it's only a matter of brief time before Volcano has removed the blast shield. He takes another look at the cameras to figure out how to disable them without triggering an alarm or something.
No need for a roll, Seth. The blast shield is pre-War - designed to prevent robbers from easily shooting the camera during a robbery. The only thing that stops you from simply unscrewing the shield and disabling the camera that way is supposed to be the attendant manning the cash register and, there hasn't been anyone at that job in decades. You toss the blast shield covering the camera aside with a bang, and yank the cords loose, cutting off the camera's recording.
Insulin ain't all that common in the Twin Cities Wasteland. Anyone who wants to be able to answer Vonya's question about the properties of Insulin would need to roll Sharp to have the knowledge in their heads. The exception to this is Francis. Being that he comes from before the war, it'd be logical for him to know about the properties of insulin already.
"High?" The soldier shakes his head. You've got to be kidding me. "No."
"Listen, I've been through a lot of sh!t today, and it looks like you have too. I'm guessing that it's just the latest in a long line of sh!t days for the both us. Now I haven't done all the things that I've done to stay alive just so I could be here today to steal medicine from dying children.
"How about you?"
Vonya pictured the little weasely lookin' kid and his emancipated frame. He could feel his heart strings twitch. Who the f*ck is this guy? Tom whispered. He's not treating you with respect, Von, so he doesn't deserve sh*t!
Vonya's head twitched to one side as he felt his demons tearing him to and fro.
He stepped forward, to impose himself over the smaller man. "Are you accusin' me of being a THIEF!?" Vonya hissed, spittle flying from his mouth.
Vonya:
Mooshy:
As Seth WHUMPS down from the camera he walks over to the growing confrontation between Francis and Vonya. Perhaps not thinking better of it, he lays a hard, calloused hand on Vonya's shoulder.
"Easy, take it easy there, lad. Last thing we need is fightin' amongst ourselves in enemy territory. I'm sure the new kid didn't mean it like that. He just cares about the kids, like you do. None of us wanna see those kids die from diabeetus!"
I interpret a failed roll, or "be prepared for the worst" as a sort of situation where Tom has a little more control than Vonya does, and might make your request especially cruel or difficult. You're "less inclined to take it easy on the new guy."
Scarlet, still in full magpie mode, completely ignores the growing confrontation.
[ooc]Read a Sitch frequently mentions that it needs to be a charged situation in order to be used. If it isn't one already, Scarlet plans on making it so![/dice]
What should I be on the lookout for?
if Scarlet goes over to the confrontation, Pallor will as well, though he will remember that lock if they didn't bust it open.
"Big man, I have drug for you. No high. Trip." he says, holding out a hypospray applicator willed with an unknown drug.
Preferring the open road and never very comfortable in close quarters, Runner keeps watch out the front doors and looks back at the group frequently.
-
"Hey, remember guys, we are in some strangers house and he probably doesn't like us being here.
Can we get the loot and move on, please?"
Tom disagreed with the brainer's suggestion immediately. Need a high, not a trip. We're going to battle. F+~% it all, GAAAAH, we keep MOVING 'til we are in the clear to shoot up, eh? Vonya shakes his head at Pallor in a respectful manner, then turns his attention back to to Francis. Tom whispers something.
Vonya mutters under his breath, and shoves past Francis. Pointing at Runner with his new pipe, Vonya says "Road-boy is right, we'll finish this later." Directing his masked glare at the newbie.
When the old techie interposes himself, Francis kneels down before Vonya, slipping the rocket launcher off his shoulder and bowing his head. He then calmly but quickly reloads the weapon as Pallor joins the conversation with his offer of alternate narcotics and stands back up when he's done.
Vonya shoves past Francis, and the soldier hefts the rocket launcher into firing position on his shoulder, then angles it down to point at the floor directly between himself and Vonya while staring at the tweaked-out muscle-man.
"We'll finish this now. I'm telling you you're a thief, a murderer, and an all-around son of a b!tch. I don't know yet if you're a pathetic a$$wipe willing to kill children for the hope of a high, but I do know this: If those kids aren't getting that insulin, nobody is."
Tom was speechless at the newbie's crazy play. Vonya too was stunned by the balls on this c*nt. Tom started guffawing in Von's ear.
After twitching for a couple seconds, Vonya replied slowly, with a low growl before rising to a crescendo of screams and spittle.
"A murderer? Yes. If you aren't nowadays then you're in the dirt anyway. Son of a b*tch? Probably, don't remember her. Thief? THIEF?? [i]YOU CUCKOLD SONUVA C*NT DON'T HAVE NO F*CKIN' RIGHT TO CALL ME A DAMNED THIEF. I WORK FOR EVERYTHING I EVER GOT IN THIS GO'FORSAKEN WORLD." He took a step forward, closing the gap between the two. "Let everyone else out of this and fire it. They didn't ask for this bullsh*t."
Volcano bellows in his greatest angry grandpa voice. Now it was clear to Francis how he'd earned his name.
"Vonya, are you seriously willin' to get yourself KILLED over this s#it?! We need you! Those kids need you! I know we ain't always talked much, but ya need to clear ya godd@M head! Yer better than this, an' you know it!"
Then he turns to Francis.
"An' as for YOU, cowboy, I dunno where you're from. For all I know you're a Pre-War relic or some s#it, but ya DON'T freakin' negotiate with a godd@m rocket launcher! That's Raider crap! You wanna help these kids, then don't go rampagin' around tryin' to get your way! Be a better example! Scarlet, lass! Runner an' Pallor! You know this guy, help talk him down!"
"Holy Sh!t.!?!!"
Runner dives for cover out into the hallway and only looks back in when he hears Volcano's vocal eruptions chastising the two knuckleheads.
-
"Know him? I just met him after we rescued his a$$ from freeway raiders, South Side Kings I think.
He could be as crazy as you for all we know.
But yeah, bein' a new thaw from Vault City would tend to make anyone a little on edge so... maybe give him a break?
Soldierboy, Von is no kid-killer an' he will come around after the Battlehaze leaves him.
Chill and put that thing down. huh? O.K.?"
"Both are same. No care here." Pallor says, walking quickly back to the gift shop.