GM Leinathan's "A Galaxy in Flux" (Inactive)

Game Master leinathan

Korvan is only half-way paying attention until Emily mentions Maldor by name. At that mention, Korvan starts walking toward the doorway.

"No f%@&in' way." he says excitedly. "Maldor, is that really you? Maldor Brock...from Chicago?"

"Get out here man...it's Korvan. Where the hell have you been?"

"I won't, but something mighta survived from the camera link we were watching. Tay, you see any racing footage?"

Smyrna Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24
Tay Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

Tay rotates its weird little octopus head back and forth. "Nope. We are in the middle of the street, so... there are no cameras or vidscreens to look at."

Description of the Crash Site:

The explosive crash took place on a road passing underneath a highway. To both sides of the road, bodegas and ramshackle shacks pile up nearly to the level of the highway above, filling the road. The street is covered with trash.

The highway goes east-west, and the road goes north-south. From what you remember, the kid came from the northeast, wandering across the road from the north side of the highway. After the crash, you don't know where he could have gone because the explosion took out the drone cams.

If you can't follow him, you should probably make like trees and get out of there, because you can hear sirens getting closer in the background.

I thought there'd be some kind of video component or black box in the taken out cam drones. Something I could grab and run with. Should I assume that as an impossibility?

Amaryst leans back against the counter.

"Korvan, you know this guy?"

Just bumping the thread more than anything else. Seems like everyone's stories are more interesting than A's at this point, so she'll just keep mostly quiet.

Maldor hears his name from an unexpected source and wants to ignore it, but at the mention of Korvan's name, he bolts upright and rushes back to the room.

"Korv? Is it really you? Holy bovine! I thought I'd never see you again! Hey, do you know where my sister or dad are? Jeez, we have a lot of catching up to do!!" Maldor exclaims while slapping his old friend on the back, a real smile beaming on Maldor's face for the first time.

In response to Amaryst's question, Maldor says, "We grew up together back in Chi-town. He was my best friend. Hadn't seen or heard from anyone after I got taken by the institute goons. Never in a gajillion years did I think I would see him again. And now he's here!"

@Smyrna - Oooh, I see.

Smyrna looks around and finds the destroyed cam-bots. It's useful to remove them from the scene of the crime anyway, but a minute's quick work with a screwdriver removes the thing's intact black box from its frame.

Korvan, with a genuine smile rather than the near omnipresent smirk, says, "Yeah, like he said we grew up together. Mal and his family helped me out a lot as a kid."

Turning back to his long-lost friend, Korvan says, "I wish I could tell you where they are, buddy. After you lef...err were taken, I didn't hear from any of them. I figured you guys finally caught a lucky break and got away from the old neighborhood...should have known it wasn't something like that...good things don't tend to happen to people from our neighborhood."

Never one to beat around the bush, Korvan asks, "So...Mal, what's with the funky blue glowing bit you just did?" With the familiar smirk returning to his face he adds with a wink, "And who's your friend? A little skittish, but kind of cute in a waifish, on the run sort of way. We used to lots of those types back in the old neighborhood, didn't we?"

Smyrna grabs the black box and quickly starts walking back towards Cross. "There we go, this should tell us what we need. Tay can play it back as soon as we get to somewhere less conspicuous. I can't imagine the kid could've gotten far, maybe we can still catch them.

@Smyrna + Cross: Since neither of you have a personal computer, you will need to go somewhere that does have one in order to access the footage in the destroyed bot's memory. Where do you want to go?

While Maldor and Korvan have their re-union, Rollo just kind of waves. "Hey, uh. Yeah, I'm wondering if I can borrow a few creds so I can afford a hotel room for the night? I feel like it's time to stop imposing on you guys."

That's right, the Mechanic's Custom Rig does not start counting as a computer until 7th level. I forgot about that.

"By the time we find a useable computer, the kid will have died, been picked up by the cops, or wandered off depending on his situation," Cross said and he looked from one side of the street to the other. "East or west?"

@Cross & @Leinathan Friendly reminder that all commlinks function as tier 0 computers and that all armor comes with a commlink, so you should have at least BASIC access to some extent.

"Oh you two... know each other? I just assumed, well, that he was like Emily." Jin sorta thought aloud "Well, that's good at least, so you'll help us then Korvan?"

Hearing Rollo's request he turned to the Lashunta soldier "Alright, how about this. You tell me all you know about this safehouse of yours we are gonna be investigating, and in exchange i'll waive the doctor's fee and even give you some credits to buy a hotel room? Sound fair?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

Emily smiled softly at the warmer emotions that came when Mal and Korvan reunited. It was the happiest she had ever seen Maldor. It felt a lot stranger when Korvan started talking about her, however, and she wasn't sure what to make of it. Her attention was drawn back to Rollo, and Jin.

"No...come with us!" she said to Rollo. "Please? We're going to the safehouse place! Isn't that where your friends will be? Won't they be really happy when you show up with Mal, me, and Jin Larson, potential asset?"

Cross, Smyrna - you suddenly remember that you can use your armor to link up with the black box, if necessary. You'd have to watch videos on a tiny wrist-screen, but you can do that. Sirens approach even closer... You have maybe thirty seconds to vacate before police arrive...

- - - - -

Rollo, surprised, looks between Emily and Jin. "Uh. Is that... alright? I mean, you could probably be killed for helping me."

"I'll admit, Jin, I was just about to bail until I found out Mal was part of this." Korvan says, giving Amaryst the briefest of apologetic looks. "But now I know he's part of this mess, so I guess I'm in too."

"Once we finished with checking this safehouse out I was thinking we might be able to free up Amaryst's ship, last you were over you mentioned all they had were some thugs right?" Jin said, explaining his plan to Korvan and Amaryst "I know you want your ship back, and frankly getting off planet might be the safest thing to do I can think of. What do you think Amaryst?" he said, looking to his longtime friend for support.

"I'll admit, Jin, I was just about to bail until I found out Mal was part of this." Korvan says, giving Amaryst the briefest of apologetic looks. "But now I know he's part of this mess, so I guess I'm in too."

Amaryst tips her head and shrugs a shoulder as a silent, "No worries."

"Once we finished with checking this safehouse out I was thinking we might be able to free up Amaryst's ship, last you were over you mentioned all they had were some thugs right?" Jin said, explaining his plan to Korvan and Amaryst "I know you want your ship back, and frankly getting off planet might be the safest thing to do I can think of. What do you think Amaryst?" he said, looking to his longtime friend for support.

"Off Earth would clearly be safest for Rollo and me. The police will consider every Lashunta suspect." She looks toward Em and Maldor. "It is less clear what you two should do. Why were you being held? Why did Rollo's paramilitary want to break you out?"

Rollo, surprised, looks between Emily and Jin. "Uh. Is that... alright? I mean, you could probably be killed for helping me."

Emily forced a chuckle. "Well, considering all of you could be killed for helping Mal and I..." She shrugged rather than finishing that line of thought.

"Off Earth would clearly be safest for Rollo and me. The police will consider every Lashunta suspect." She looks toward Em and Maldor. "It is less clear what you two should do. Why were you being held? Why did Rollo's paramilitary want to break you out?"

Emily glanced towards Maldor for a long moment, not sure how to answer, or where to begin. "We should get as far away from Earth as we can," she finally said. "Those people probably wouldn't kill us. They spent too much time making us. We're, um, T.P.K.A-users... Tele -pathic -kinetic abilities. We weren't exactly prisoners, we were experiments." She feigned a smile. "I'm...well, Emily works."

Finally catching up to the rush of conversations going on around him, Maldor nods as Emily talks and joins in. "Yeah - experiments is a good description for us. We are the survivors of years of experimental testing, drug therapies, tactical training exercises, and exposure to radiation and other types of energies. All of this was to awaken mystic-like abilities in us, and to train us how to use them as soldiers."

Maldor then turns back to Korvan and answers his question. "Korv, my gift is healing. While in the Institute, I connected with our heavenly Father. Whether the experiments had a part to play in this or not, I can not say. But I feel Him in my heart and know that the church ladies we made fun of as kids actually had something right. Now the One grants me the ability to help others, and protect myself when required. I'm still learning about His path, but I never would have survived the stuff they did to me in the Institute if it wasn't for Him and my new gifts."

"So you two are lab experiments? And telepathic and telekinetic?" Amaryst replies, incredulously. "That seems unlikely. Humans are smart, but brainde--, but not mindfully sensitive."

Amaryst considers.

"And your healing power is a result. Emily, can you show me what you can do?"

Bluff: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (14) + 0 = 14

Korvan tries his best to hide his feelings about religion as a whole, in hopes of not offending his recently rediscovered friend.

"I don't know about all of that." Korvan says, "But then again, I'm not the guy that's lived it."

Korvan's head snaps back to Amaryst, "Braindead? Really?"

"In a sensory sense, yes. Lashunta and Shirren are lucky to have natural telepathic abilities, some of my research was aimed at producing these abilities in other species" Jin interjected into the conversation "It's how i ended up working for the Institute for a while, and in part the basis of how Emily was... born. That's why after this attack i'm just as much a target as Amaryst and our friend here."

Oops, good catch! I thought I had a computer too.

Smyrna starts heading West, "There's a diner I like nearby, buy me a coffee while I fiddle around. Who knows, the video itself might be worth something. Media loves a scrappy tragedy.

"So you two are lab experiments? And telepathic and telekinetic?" Amaryst replies, incredulously. "That seems unlikely. Humans are smart, but brainde--, but not mindfully sensitive."

Emily tried to stifle a genuine laugh.

"Emily, can you show me what you can do?"

Emily quickly recovered her composure as that question finally came up. They had already seen Maldor's abilities...but they didn't know hers yet. "Show you..? She said, hesitantly. "Um... I could levitate some stuff, throw some things around, yeah...but that's just kind of little tricks, you know? But you can't really see most of what I do." She half shrugged. "I'm a natural empath, and I know some telepathic stuff. But... When the military took over, after Jin and all the other researchers left, well...they didn't want an empath, they wanted a weapon."

"In a sensory sense, yes. Lashunta and Shirren are lucky to have natural telepathic abilities, some of my research was aimed at producing these abilities in other species" Jin interjected into the conversation "It's how I ended up working for the Institute for a while, and in part the basis of how Emily was... born. That's why after this attack I'm just as much a target as Amaryst and our friend here."

"Jin!, an indignant outburst, quickly stifled in consideration of Emily's reply.

Emily quickly recovered her composure as that question finally came up. They had already seen Maldor's abilities...but they didn't know hers yet. "Show you..? She said, hesitantly. "Um... I could levitate some stuff, throw some things around, yeah...but that's just kind of little tricks, you know? But you can't really see most of what I do." She half shrugged. "I'm a natural empath, and I know some telepathic stuff. But... When the military took over, after Jin and all the other researchers left, well...they didn't want an empath, they wanted a weapon."

Amaryst's frond-ended antennae swivel to point at Emily.

1d2 ⇒ 2

Cross and Smyrna head west just before cops show up on-scene. They'll be caught up examining wrecked bikes for awhile, so the pair can walk freely for awhile. It's only a block or two that they see what they've gone to see... a small boy, no more than 10 years old, huddling and shaking in an abandoned storefront's doorway. He looks remarkably like the boy from the video.

Emily took a few steady breaths, and made eye contact with Amaryst. She held her gaze for several seconds, but said nothing. After nearly half a minute, she stepped forward and reached her hand out to Amaryst...

Smyrna stops when she sees the boy, glancing quickly at Cross, and then back to the child. She's used to seeing homeless kids by now, but not usually this young, and never alone. She approaches, but keeps about 15 feet away, then she squats down to be eye level with his position. "Hey... kid? You ok?" She asks.

Cross nodded to her as Smyrna took charge of dealing with the kid. He as not much good with adults, never mind potentially traumatized children. Instead of crowding them, Cross kept a few paces back and turned to watch their surroundings.

Korvan tries his best to hide his feelings about religion as a whole, in hopes of not offending his recently rediscovered friend.

"I don't know about all of that." Korvan says, "But then again, I'm not the guy that's lived it."

"Don't worry, Korv. I can't make you believe. All I can do is walk my own path, and live my life the way He asks. I have accepted His freely-given gift. So I just roll up my sleeves, put my mind in gear, and be totally ready to receive the gift from the One. I fight each day not to lazily slip back into those old grooves, doing just what I feel like doing. I didn’t know any better when we were kids together; I do now. So now I am obedient, pulled into a way of life shaped by my God’s teachings, a life energetic and blazing with holiness." Maldor smiles at his friend.

"Show you..? She said, hesitantly. "Um... I could levitate some stuff, throw some things around, yeah...but that's just kind of little tricks, you know? But you can't really see most of what I do." She half shrugged. "I'm a natural empath, and I know some telepathic stuff. But... When the military took over, after Jin and all the other researchers left, well...they didn't want an empath, they wanted a weapon."

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

Maldor chimes in behind Emily. "Yeah - they taught us all to be weapons. I naturally excelled at healing, but I can also throw things at you that will hit you like a gun bullet. They even tried to teach me how to fry your mind, but I never quite caught on to that skill..."

"As great as it is to see you again, Korv, I need to get some rest. That healing energy comes from somewhere, but it still wipes me out. Stick around, buddy. I don't want to lose you again!" With that, Maldor will return to the couch in Jin's apartment and try to get some rest. (Here's where he gets his 8 hour rest to reset all of his spells!)

Amaryst winces, then looks coolly at Emily for a moment before extending her hand to meet the human girl's.

"I'm not going anywhere until we all do." Korvan says to Maldor.

"Get some rest...I think we're all gonna need it before this is all said and done." he says slumping down in a corner and using his backpack as a make-shift pillow.

Cross + Smyrna,

The little boy looks up as Smyrna and Cross approaches. He looks fearful, and is crying softly. "Stay away from me!" he shouts, "I'm dangerous!"

He has close-cropped light blonde hair (wet from rain), regular jeans with the tag still on (from Ivanka Designs) and what looks like a hospital gown over a plain white T-shirt. The edges of his clothing are a bit singed, and he has a bit of blood on the collar of the hospital gown. His face is heavily freckled.

The rest of the crew: Signal that you're ready to move on to tomorrow. When four of you have done so, I will advance your scene to tomorrow.

Jin leads the group into his living room, clears some space to make room, and then pulls a few spare blankets and pillows from a closet and makes each of his guests a shoddy bed on the floor or couch, including Rollo.

I'm good to go.

As I assume you can figure out from my last post, I'm good to go too.

I want to continue the interaction with mLE, but we can do that in spoilers. I don't think it will affect the main story thread. However there is one more thing...

After lingering with Emily for a little extra comversation, Amaryst follows the others into the living room. Seeing the preparations she says, "Are you sure you want to do this here, now? The strike group compartmentalized information, but who's to say the police haven't found another comm unit or captured a soldier that knows the safe house? The sooner we get there the less chance we have of getting caught there."

Emily touched Amaryst's hand, making contact but not grasping. "Vy menya ponimayete?" She asked, with an unusual accent.

She did not wait for an answer. Emily concentrated and locked her eyes with Amaryst's; a softer, blue-green energy flowed from her hand. It soon dissipated, and Emily stepped back. "Teper' vy ponimayete?"

Once Amaryst is satisfied with Em's abilities, and we decide if we're going now or resting first, I'm ready to move on.

Intimidate to coerce cooperation: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21

"That so kid?" Cross said, folding his arms. The helmet he habitually wore hid his face but the tone of his voice sounded unimpressed, "Well so am I. She's not though and she wants to help you. So let the nice lady do her best and I'll make sure you don't hurt her."

Maldor is ready to move to the next day =)

In the surgery

Emily touched Amaryst's hand, making contact but not grasping. "Vy menya ponimayete?" She asked, with an unusual accent.

She did not wait for an answer. Emily concentrated and locked her eyes with Amaryst's; a softer, blue-green energy flowed from her hand. It soon dissipated, and Emily stepped back. "Teper' vy ponimayete?"

Momentarily Amaryst looks lost. Then she smiles broadly, and speaks in the same unusual accent. "Da! Я говорю по-русски? Я не знаю русского языка. --Это, это ваш дар? Невероятно. "

"Jin, Korvan. I can speak Russian!"

Sleepy time

"Well, if we're resting, you don't get off this inexpensively, Jin. I haven't eaten since dawn. We're going to eat now." Amaryst detours toward the kitchen. "We can talk about what you're paying me over dinner."

If ya'll want to jump ahead, that's fine.

The little boy curls up. He shouts, "No, you're scaring me!"

As he squeezes his eyes shut, what looks like a flicker of electricity forms in front of him. After just a moment, the flicker spreads and flashes into a burst of fire. The blast shoots a shockwave towards Smyrna and Cross...

Damage: 4d4 ⇒ (2, 2, 2, 3) = 9

DC 14 Reflex for half damage.

- - - - -

I will move the other group forward later, when I have more time to write.

Reflex: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15
Going to wait for Smryna before I post in character

Reflex: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Smyrna, already leaning down, tries to duck. She manages to cover her face, but the shockwave of heat still strikes her arms and a section of her torso, knocking her down. Smyrna gets to a sitting position off of the sudden adrenaline, then winces as the pain hits. Smyrna does a diagnostic check, flexing her fingers to make sure they still have range of motion. She then tenderly feels her abdomen. Smyrna's second skin is fireproof, her body underneath, not so much. Smyrna glances at the kid, not angry even for an instant. Smyrna always had soft-spot for kids and arsonists, and this seemed to check off both boxes.

"Well, now we know what caused the crash." Myrna huffed out. Her voice was like a yawn with a lot of quiver, obviously trying to hide the pain from her burns. Instead of backing away, Smyrna instead takes her moment to scoot closer to the child. She takes one of her hands and she wipes some grime from his forehead. Y'know, this hurts a lot, but I forgive ya. You're a kid, and I'm thinking ya don't know better. You're lucky, ya found the nicest, poorest, stupidest a!+*~*+ in this city, and she'll help ya even after you hurt her. So, let's try this again kid. My name is Smyrna, and I don't want to rush, but there are police looking for you right now. Will ya let me help you?"

Perception: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (15) + 0 = 15
I was worried that I'd write all that and roll a 2.

"Smyrna?" Cross asks, half warning, half worried. This was rapidly turning into something that was out of their league. There were always weird enhancile projects going on, integrated weapons, faulty equipment, that sort of thing. The only problem was that this kid was either top of the line tech or something more worrying was going on.

Smyrna was getting excited. More than anything, the pursuit of knowledge was Smyrna's greatest weapon and motiviation. She didn't always use it justly, but in this case, she could save a kid, and perhaps get in on yet another deadly corporate program.

Cross, this is big. Like, nuclear big. We should get this kid somewhere safe, then we can talk about what to do from there. I have a good feeling about this! We should at least see it through a bit more. That is, if the kid will even let us help him.

The kid looks shocked when Smyrna and Cross don't immediately run away, and remorse falls across his face when he spots the burn marks on Smyrna. "Um," he sputters out, "Cops?" he asks.

Standing shakily, he nods vigorously at Smyrna's offer of help. "Yes, please help me. I don't have anywhere to go."

"I'm... well, I'm K-371n."

- - - - -

Rollo, Amaryst, Korvan, Maldor and Emily shack up in Jin's small townhouse. There isn't really enough room for everyone so several people have to sleep on the floor.

The morning brings fresh news from the Infosphere - Cassius relays some of it, thinking that it would be of interest. There was a large gunfight near the spaceport late last night between a half-dozen "terrorists" and police, resulting in two police deaths and three arrests. There is a 10,000 credit reward for the location of anybody involved in the attack on the UFIA building. In addition, the sale of weapons in the city is temporarily suspended. All lashunta in the city have to report to one of the licensing offices in downtown by the end of the week for an "alibi interview". Off-planet flights are also temporarily suspended from New York Spaceport.

There is a heavy knock at Jin's front door. "Two vesk stand outside, Dr. Larson." says Cassius.

Maldor is on his feet at the announcement of the vesk "visitors." The training of the past few years kicks in and he looks around at the room, evaluating their tactical advantages and disadvantages. It didn't seem there was anywhere to hide, but perhaps they could slip around unseen from the medical room? Were there any windows, or large air vents/ducts they could use?

He also whispers a quick prayer under his breath, then stands next to Emily...

Just before Cassius announced the Vesk, Amaryst was eating more of Jin's food for breakfast, and watching the news. "I wonder if that's 10,000 each."

At the announcement, she grabs her automatic, and mutters, "You were supposed to tell us when someone approached the house Cassius, not when they were at the door."

"Jin, honey. There's someone at the door," she calls.

{Rollo, Emily, Maldor, grab your stuff and all the extra blankets lying around. Get to the surgery.}

Amaryst grabs her pack, and Rollo's big bag of grenades and assault gun and heads for the garage.

Korvan picks himself up off the floor. "Lovely, complications...I hate complications." he mutters gathering his few possessions and checking on Maldor.