GM WhtKnt's GURPS Infinity Unlimited (Inactive)

Game Master WhtKnt

I went back and edited my post slightly to reflect the change. Also, ROTC cadets don't do basic training (they have their own, much cushier, training camp between graduating college and entering active duty as an officer), so the only memories that sparked for Thom would have been watching others go through it.

Amos twitches a little internally at the title "Mr." If he couldn't use his old rank then he would prefer no title at all.
:Call me Amos or Anders. "Mr. Andrews" is Squad Leader or just Andrews. I will leave a sign for you all. I don't get lost.:

make a mark, survival (woodalnds) vs 9: 3d6 ⇒ (2, 1, 4) = 7

Amos finds a relatively distinct tree and carves a light blaze into it on the far side of the tree so it isn't easily spotted unless one is looking for it.

Sir Humphrey appears to be practically budding with energy as the topic of Whitechapel is breached. "Fascinating!", he says, his mind drifting to his read on history. "Getting lost... Oh!", the man exclaims as Amos leaves his mark. "Of course, we are coming back here, after all...", he harumphs out. "In such case, as soon as you are all quite able.", he quips.

Twirling his moustache, he looks at the others. "I would recommend, shall we be inquired as to our reason of being so far out of town would be that we had decided to take a picnic in the woods in this marvelous day." He glances at the smokey, foggy London of 1888. "Such clean air!", he honestly blurts out.

"Our leader does seem to be suffering from an overabundance of black bile," says Ezekiel, who comes from a time when humoral theory was actually widespread. "Perhaps we could arrange a bloodletting when we arrive in London proper."

cats from other planets...

Thom buries his face in his palm. "I don't seem like my humors are out of balance, because my excellent oriental doctor here is very good at her job," he replies with a bit of barely suppressed frustration, "they don't call them humors in the orient, though- she calls it a yin-yang imbalance, but I've felt great since she started treatments. Ok?"

"Iban, if anyone starts asking too many questions about our identities make them suddenly very curious about the weather, or something. Now, let's get walking..."

"Ah, yes! I can see your naturally choleric disposition reasserting itself," says Ezekiel, allowing a hint of a smile to cross his face.

C shakes her head. "Obvious tension headaches, I think you're under too much stress. Perhaps you need a shot of Vitamin B. Or an hour with Mei uninterrupted." She comments, following along, enjoying the banter. Aliens were soooo much more fun than her people were.

"Perhaps a spirit is tormenting you," adds Ezekiel, still managing to keep his expression blank. "I could attempt to bind it to my service and make it my familiar; I have been in need of one since I arrived in your world. I would be sure to name it in your honor, of course."

oh I think your humor is very out of balance Thom. How else is one to explain my obvious beauty besides being a mistress of the wealthy. I stick out like a piece of turd being thrown in church at a teacher. So our friends story is the best bet, really.

Your group sets out along the road. The day is cloudy, but with periods of sunshine. You don't encounter much in the way of people until you start to enter the city proper, then the streets start to become more crowded. You find that you draw some attention, but most people are too polite to say anything.

Are you walking all the way to Whitechapel, or to the nearest train station (Stratford Underground)?

Before entering town, C turns to the rest. "We will proceed, wait 10 minutes, then the next group continue. We will draw too much attention in this large a group. The more exotic group..." She gestures at herself and Mei and Thom. "Should go first, we'll draw the most attention, and nobody will notice the rest of you, more than likely." C's almost instinctive understanding of the cultures of the creatures whose shapes she took on giving her valuable insight into the locals.

--------------------------------

Once in the edge of town, she points toward the sign with a train. "Mr. Andrews, your lungs are not in good enough shape to walk any further. The fact the tram broke down outside town means you're already pushing yourself too hard. We should take the train." Then, without waiting for a response, she begins heading toward the train station, obviously expecting her patient to do so as well.

:Mr. An... Amos, I am a little uncertain about splitting the team and only relying on technological communication. Our opponents are at least as advanced as we are. Com signals may be secure, but they will stand out like a flair in this era. How ever Squad Leader Andrews is already dealing with enough insubordination.: He moves over to check that Worthington-Smythe's jacket is hanging properly.

Doing his best to behave as properly as he can, Sir Humphrey continues with the plan. Letting out a loud guffaw at Mei's commentary, he shakes his head. "How scathingly graphic!", he chuckles, his massive bulk vigorously shaking. As the crowds gather, he sighs, before leaning towards the others. "Indeed. While it would be ungainly to lend my mind to a practicioner of witchcraft, I must admit the benefits of the portable telegraph are too great to be ignored. As such, so be it.", he nods, indicating he's ready for the mental link.

...oh, for f#ck’s sake, we’re back on this lung thing again...

”Forget about my lungs, Chou, and do what I hired you for,” Thom answers as they head for the train, ”keeping my yang up despite Miss Mei’s efforts to deplete it.”

"Mr. Andrews, I strongly suggest you not discuss your Yang in public spaces, there are children present." She says reprovingly, intuiting that the locals have no idea what that word is, but that to those of this time, it sounds fairly vulgar when used in the sentence the way Andrews had used it.

:Roger That. Maintaining coms silence.:

Are we still seeing period Architecture/dress? Is the train the only advanced feature?

The train is period, that line opened in 1890. We're at 1888, so close enough, an echo can be off a year or two. It's not a modern underground electric train, it's a steam locomotive and wooden passenger cars with lit oil lamps. Basically, it's a rolling death trap, and they had several disasters where people got steamed alive when the steam locomotive went off the tracks underground and cooked all the passengers alive. At least I remember being told about that when I was in London a few years ago looking at a museum thing about it (had to go look up the exact year though for the line).

The train is period, that line opened in 1890. We're at 1888, so close enough, an echo can be off a year or two. It's not a modern underground electric train, it's a steam locomotive and wooden passenger cars with lit oil lamps. Basically, it's a rolling death trap, and they had several disasters where people got steamed alive when the steam locomotive went off the tracks underground and cooked all the passengers alive. At least I remember being told about that when I was in London a few years ago looking at a museum thing about it (had to go look up the exact year though for the line).

Really? Wow. That's terrifying.

LOL! If this campaign ends here with a TPK as we're all boiled alive in a primitive subway tunnel that would be amazing.

I'd be down. :P

Actually, Stratford existed as early as 1839 as a surface station. The underground began in 1863, so it isn't out of the question that there could have been a Metropolitan Railway station at Stratford in 1888 (I couldn't find any confirmation of such). Aldgate East (near Whitechapel Road) came into service in 1884, so it could exist also. I'm no expert on London history, so I may be wrong on a few points, but we'll allow for a little suspension of disbelief.

You are right about the train service, though. It was a rattling deathtrap and it's surprising that it ever grew to what it is today.

I can't find it now, but earlier I had found a site that said the Stratford line (from the 1860's) became an underground in the 1890's, one of the first tubes. But yeah, those things were death traps.

I knew I should have put points in the "survive 19th century train disaster" skill"

I already have the "go with a smile and make your friends smile more skill, so we have that covered

Mei puts a hand tracing Thom's shoulder leaning into him saying in a breathy voice "oh Mr Andrews let's go get a room so I can make you all better."

if we went straight to a hotel in Whitechapel we could spare the time... for our cover, it would be good for our cover... get it together- save this world from a massive quanta shift first and then you can find out whether or not she’s willing to back up all this talk...

”That’s a marvelous suggestion, Mei,” Thom answers as they board the rattling death trap which will transport them to their destination, ”but sadly we have business to attend to first...”

The Underground, still being relatively new, is not very popular and you have no trouble finding enough seats together for everyone. The ride is harrowing, hot, and dark and cannot end soon enough, but you arrive at your destination in Whitechapel alive and in one piece.

That's good, if the GM had killed us in an underground train tunnel by crashing the engine, I'd have been steamed.

C looks around the primitive city, and says curiously. "Well, Mr. Andrews, I suggest we keep an ear out for your desired contacts." She taps her ear, but does so behind the ear, where the comm units would normally be back at the base, hinting the should listen for radio transmissions. Probably somewhere private.

Amos has been in bombed out buildings while under fire and felt safer than when he rode that death trap. He is the first off the train and scouts ahead of the team.

Iban looks to the others, "Any idea where to start? Should we survey the potential victims?"

...we should have done some more planning on the walk through the country...

Ducking into whatever boarding house or brothel is nearest the station, Thom secures a private room and leads the team into the cramped quarters. "If the Centrum team have any idea we might be coming, they'll be maintaining radio silence," he quietly shares, "but I can write a simple program for my palmtop pretty quickly to just continually sweep communication frequencies for any signals, maybe we'll get lucky. We have two potential targets to locate... and two groups worth of cover stories... should we separate and each pursue one, or stick together?"

As he listens to the responses, he pulls his palmtop from its hiding place in the inside pocket of his waistcoat and begins writing the simpe program. If the palmtop lacks the ability to actually scan I'll wire it to a comm link or something- just let me know if you need like a repair check or something.
computer programming (17): 3d6 ⇒ (6, 5, 2) = 13

C ponders. "Splitting up lets us cover more ground, but makes it more likely that one side will run into a larger force." She checks the devices strapped to her thigh. "I have a heavyworlder DNA sample if you'd like me to gain some strength for fighting, however, I'd need a change of outfits. The Heavyworlder physique is rather bulky."

In my own experience with pbp splitting the party has a tendency to really derail the game, especially this early, so I'd personally be wary of it, but I don't have an IC objection to it

So, spitting the party or remaining together? And what's next?

From the discussion thread, it seems like we're sticking together... I was kind of hoping someone might voice that in gameplay though... On an unrelated note, was I able to set up a scanner?

Oh, yes. Sorry. However, you aren't getting signals on any bandwidth.

I would prefer we stay together, after all, the more the merrier. Mei says with a breathy innocent smile.

"Haruko-san makes a good point, there is strength in numbers"

:I am worried about leaving the Squad Leader alone with C and Mei, I would not see him broken on our first outing:

"Let's stick with this form for now," Thom answers C, "I think, in a way, it makes Mei stand out slightly less."

Nodding to Mei and Iban, he continues, "Alright, one team it is. There's no chatter on any frequency I can scan with this equipment, so the Centrum team either suspects we're coming or is operating like we could be... in either case, that means they'll be on their guard- so be careful. Iban, can you extract information from people's minds subtly or will it be obvious that you're doing it?"

"We should still not travel as a gaggle. We'll draw attention. We should travel in small groups travelling together. 3 and 4, or 3, 2 and 2. All within 100 ft of each other, close enough to support, but far enough not to be obviously a group. With the groups changing up who is in front and who is behind from time to time. For example, one group on the left sidewalk, one group on the right sidewalk, and group three following one of the two groups." She draws on the palm of her hand. "Group 1 on the right sidewalk, Group 2 on left sidewalk, Group 3 on right sidewalk behind group 1. After two blocks, Group 1 crosses at intersection to left side, group 3 continues on. Group 1 is now half-block behind group 2 and 3. Group 2 crosses next block to right side, falls in behind group 3, group 1 continues on left side. And continue pattern, so we are never obviously following each other?" C had seen this in a tv show, and remembered it. "If two groups, then no need switch sides, just have group 1 on left and group 2 on right, but who is ahead of who varies every couple of blocks. Group 1 slows, let's 2 take lead, then 2 blocks later, group 2 slows."

”We can vote on that if you guys want but it sounds like a terrible idea to me,” Thom answers. ”Two groups would each attract less attention than one large group, yes, but both groups will still be noticeable... two unusual groups that are constantly going the same way despite not associating will look a lot more suspicious than one large of strange people traveling together.”

"But the only unusual group is us." She motions to Thom and Mei. "Everyone else looks like everyone else around here." She points out.

IBAN can feel a thread of annoyance filtering through his link with Amos. C. The Squad Leader has issued his orders. Let's get a move on before we're too late to stop the shift.

Thom looks at the motley crew and frowns. ”An Indian man might not be as uncommon in the streets as a Chinese or Japanes woman, but Iban is still the only one I’ve seen so far... and Anders looks like he was sown together from pieces recovered from a bombing at a cross-fit convention... individually they might not draw that much attention, but when you group everyone together and stick a big personality like Smythe at the center of it people are going to notice. Especially people who are on the lookout for anything unusual.”

why couldn’t they give me a team of Homeline professionals... all these crazy abilities on the team are great but for my money you can’t do better than a homegrown American veteran...

Like I said, let’s put it to a vote. My vote is to lean into the skid- travel together, accept that we’re going to attract attention, trust our cover story, and bet on the Centrum team assuming that a group making so little effort at keeping a low profile couldn’t possibly be covert ops...”

Iban thinks for a bit. Sir, I can in ideal circumstances pull information without the target knowing, I would need to establish contact, which I can do as long as I can see them. I find skimming their thoughts while engaging them in conversation or questioning to be the best approach, but I can pull specific info from their minds. If I know what I am looking for.

The asian woman raises an eyebrow at Amos, and then shrugs. "As you wish. I'm sure we'll be not at all noticeable as we stroll along like a gabble of forgreth in your living room."

"We are likely to be noticed regardless. It is best for us to stay together; we do not yet know the capabilities our opponents will have. It is best if we do whatever is possible to avoid being separated," adds Ezekiel.

the other alternative is that I could make some of us just not look like we are here at all or else make us look entirely plain or fit in with every other passerby in the poor district of Whitehall which at this time in history is not wealthy at all. Mei says plainly

I am sorry for being a bit inactive for the past couple of days, but I was travelling, and I didn't feel like much could be added.

Sir Humphrey scoffs at the note about the big personality. "Nonsense!", he harrumphs. "If you would bend your ear as to my particular idea for subterfuge?", he says, leaning forwards to the group. "It would be wise to assume that we are a part of a particular company from the Americas, possibly involved in trade with the British port of Hong Kong." He nods at the rest. "As such, you particularly foreign idiosyncracies could easily be excused by being somewhat provincial, as would your penchant for, hm.", he glances at Mei and C. "esoteric Oriental medicines and treatments." Pointing towards the rest. "Myself and Mr. Andrews aid in the, hm, procurement of Chinese paraphernalia, as an expert and personal bodyguard respectively, and the two other gentlemen are our personal valets."

He glances around, lost in thought. "I, personally, hadn't been to London in decades, and I do not hail from this centre of civilisation. And, of course, since I have found out that the Earldom of North Carolina is regretably not under the jurisdiction of the Crown, it would be wise for me to abscond my knighthood, and be simply known as Mr. Worthington-Smythe.", he scoffs. "Would this bespoke tale be suitable to your tastes, sirs and madams?"