WR PATRIOT, Inc.

Game Master ZenFox42

Ergo has a moment of disappointment when he hears that Mr. Templar had passed on, then renewed his practiced...friendly, but not welcoming face as he's introduced around, trying to remember everyone's face with their name. (Memory game he learned in the Academy).

Maggie opens the glass door to a room with a large square desk and chairs situated around it. On one of the far walls there is a screen. She removes a tablet from her purse and after a few scant moments she gestures the image on her tablet toward the screen and a Powerpoint presentation with a title that says PATRIOT, Inc. appears on it.

She dismissively skips past the first few pages, until finally she stops on a page with several artistic renderings of monsters on them.

"Okay, so yeah. Monsters. They are real. They are also deadly, ruthless and oftentimes horrible beyond the imagining of most mortals. In short: they suck. And we kill them."

"And most of you here have encountered some form of supernatural weirdness at one point or another and have decided to do something about it. Well, funnily enough you can't do that kind of thing for long without us here at PATRIOT finding out about it."

"At one point, each of you was considered for entrance into our organization."

Maggie skips past small bios of each of you, including confirmed and suspected encounters of the supernatural. She goes by them briefly, not really letting you get a chance to read them. She stops at a slide that has a picture of each of you.

"But, for one reason or another, you were rejected."

An animation shows up that stamps a red circle with a cross over each of your pictures.

Nate snorts derisively. "Lady, if this is your idea of a sales pitch, your technique needs a little polish."

"Why were we rejected fer anyway? And why did'ya go outta yer way ta find us and bring us 'ere?" Sylvia leans back against her chair.

O'Calligan smirks a little, "So I take it you're not recruiting, do you just need some additional... contractors then?"

Gavril watches, then holds up a hand at the last slide. "Eh, if do not mind asking, why was I not selected? Not that I hold grudge, am angry, didn't even know about it, but just curious."

Arlo simply shrugs, and waits for the story to continue. Obviously, they're here for some reason.

Maggie chuckled.

"Probably best not to get into details. But suffice to say that you all have colorful histories and a few - let's call them personality quirks."

She cleared her throat.

"Now normally we handle cases in house. Our teams operate with autonomy. And we coordinate Teams here and at a few other offices we have around the country."

"It's been a pretty good system." Maggie sighed. "Until recently."

"Since 2011 we have averaged about one apocalypse scenario a month. We've gotten a pretty jaded about it all. Hence the baby shower seeming like the bigger deal than the end of the world over in Iowa."

She shrugged. "The world doesn't stop, just because it's about to end."

"But with all of the emergencies. Cases have been slipping through the cracks. And that's where you come in."

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"So what ya'll sayin' is we goin' ta take care of them cracks eh?" Sylvia crosses her arms.

"So we're people you don't want, cleaning up the cases the rest of you don't want to deal with, is that it? Phooey! Nate's right, you need to work on your salesmanship skills!"

Nate has been uncharacteristically quiet since Maggie's reference to "personality quirks." Unseen, he nervously toys with the prescription bottle in his pocket.

"Oh I don't know, it seems alright to me. So we deal with the cases less important than apocalypses, seems like there is still the opportunity to do a great deal of good here."

Gavril scratches his neck and absently fingers the string of his eyepatch. "Colorful, is good word." He looks at John and shakes his head again. "Look, you don't want to be here, you can leave, da? But you are here still, this means you want to be here, you want to make difference, fight good fight, stop the bad guys. Stop being like, eh, rain on parade. Parade is good, no need to rain on." Gavril's tone is admonishing, and it's obvious he doesn't get that the phrase isn't quite appropriate here.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, you're at the very top of the list of people we didn't want," Maggie says almost sheepishly. "But this isn't about you. Not really."

Maggie skips past a few slides and comes to a picture of a young black boy unconscious in a hospital bed. He has a large bandage on his head, and a swollen and battered face.

"This is Marcus Blume. He's 8 years old, plays soccer and wants to be Spider-Man when he grows up."

Maggie took a shaky breath.

"And three days ago he was found wandering the woods, miles away from the cabin where his parents were brutally murdered by what the local police have ruled as a bear attack. The Doctors have been keeping Marcus sedated and strapped down so he can sleep without thrashing wildly from the nightmares."

"Now maybe it was a bear," Maggie said with steel in her voice. "Or maybe some otherworldly horror is out there killing people. Either way, little Marcus here is going to grow up without parents. And that's not something we should let stand without at least looking into it."

She looks at each one of you in turn.

"These are the cracks. These are the little things that slip past us when we focus on the big picture. Only -- they're not little things. Not at all. There are too many stories like Marcus. And there shouldn't be."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, you're at the very top of the list of people we didn't want."

Nate blinks at Maggie's words. "Clear communication," he grumbles to himself before raising his voice. "You do realize there are two ways to take that, don't you miss?" he inserts into her spiel.

But when she gets to the slide showing little Marcus and begins telling his story, his jaw sets and visibly tenses.

Endeavoring to look casual, he pulls the prescription bottle from his pocket and opens it, shakes a pill into his palm, and knocks it back as he caps and replaces the bottle.

"If you thought it was a bear, you wouldn't be talking to us about this," he says calmly and in grim tones when she finishes. "And I doubt you'd be talking to us unless you were pretty darned sure it wasn't a bear. So what has you convinced it's something else?"

"Well, admittedly, it could be a bear. But I don't think so. There have been reports of animal mutilations - pets, livestock -- that sort of thing. Not eaten, mind you, just ripped to pieces. There's some sort of predator out there. That's for sure.

"And whatever it is, it's been getting restless. Three days ago the Blumes were found in chunks. A week before that, a couple of hikers went missing. A month before that some hunters. Three months before that a bunch of high school seniors throwing a kegger also went MIA. The authorities found a leg."

"So, yeah, technically the evidence is all circumstantial. Nothing definitively points to a supernatural threat. But that's still a lot of circumstance, and worth checking out in my opinion."

"Eh, sounds like a bad situation. We will be compensated for work, we just go out there and see what's going on, deal with if necessary?" Gavril rubs his neck again. "I'm okay with this, don't want to keep doing mechanics anyway. Is okay work, but I grow tired of it. This sounds interesting."

John shows no visible reactions to the picture of the boy, or to the telling of his story.

"Lady, I just got two questions for you : how much are we being paid to do this, and what do you want us to do if we DO find the...creature...that's doing this - bag it or kill it?"

"We're not the government. We don't bag and tag. We kill it, burn it, and then salt the earth to make sure it doesn't come back. But you're being hired as Threat Assessment Consultants. We'll pay you each $1,000 dollars to identify or rule out a supernatural threat. If you find something and take care of it, we'll pay you a bonus. But we don't want you to be heroes. If it's beyond your pay grade, you call us for backup."

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"I'm in...but how do we get there"? "I'm not sure my hog has room for all of us.

"Sounds good. We go look, come back, tell you what saw." Gavril cracks his knuckles and looks at Arlo. "How to get there? You have... hog?" He looks at you strangely and shrugs. "I think we all have car or motor-bicycle. I know I bring mine, and I see all you in yours. Why not use?"

"We can take Bertha, but if we're headed into the forest a big vehicle won't be appropriate." Nate looks thoughtful for a moment. "Well, unless it's a tank, but I haven't secured one of those yet."

"It'd be better if we could all go in one vehicle. Lady, you got a company van we could use?"

Mock battle is starting in the Discussion tab, if anyone else is interested

Nate scoffs. "A van over an up-armored High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle explicitly configured for exceptional circumstances? Really? We're not driving to the mall, son."

"And a van has the same issues as Bertha if we're heading into the woods. At least a Humvee would have enough weight and power to muscle through the lighter stuff."

"Lady you had me at Spider-Man, alright since this will probably be our first mission start telling us what we need to do and where we need to go. Whatever this thing is, it won't live to see another day." Sylvia clenches her fists seeing as to what happened with the child.

Pretend Sylvia has a southern accent peeps.

"Since hikers have been one of the primary targets, perhaps it would be wise to emulate them, and use our God-given feet to move around the area?" O'Callaghan smiles at the others.

Scoffing back at Nate : "If you want YOUR vehicle to be damaged instead of theirs by GOD (glancing at FatherO) knows what, be my guest, I'll be glad to ride with you."

Sylvia, I've lived in the South for...many many years - just use "y'all" every time instead of "you" and y'all will sound...er, read...just fine. :)

Nate chuckles. "Don't worry about that, kid. Nothing short of armor-piercing rounds or driving over an IED will upset Bertha."

His gaze roams over the group. "The cabin will only hold four, though. Two of you'd have to be in the cargo area or ride the tranny hump. Three, if you're going," he adds to Maggie.

John's advice is sound, and if you want to speak believable Deep South, pay attention to pluralization. "Y'all" used for an individual is pretty common, as he said. But if you're talking to a big group it's "All y'all". :o)

Maggie smiled at the Hunters watching them beginning the process of becoming a team already. She moved to a corner of the room where some large manila envelopes were sitting and she placed them in front of each of the you.

"If you're going then you'll find these handy."

When you open the envelopes you find some paperwork ready to be signed, an attractive but sturdy smart phone and charger, and a credit card and health insurance card in your names.

"The credit card is linked to a company account. You can use that for food and lodging. We review those expenses weekly, so please if you want to watch the motel porn, do it on your own dime. The health insurance card should be accepted just about anywhere. If they don't, then call me, and I will damn well make sure they accept it -- with a baseball bat to the knees, if needs be."

"The paperwork is for the insurance, and the short-term contract as consultants. Feel free to read it, of course."

"You'll be heading to Maytown, New Hampshire. Just off the Appalachian Trail. You'll like it. No sales tax."

Note: I googled to be sure that this is not a real place. I just do not want to bother with realism in any shape way or form, when it comes to locality.

"The cabins are in a resort area that caters to hikers, fisherman, and game hunters. It's called the Grey Trail Lodge. I made a point of getting you a Hunting license, for those who don't already have one as a sort of cover if you need it."

"Your vehicles should get you that far at least. But I'm afraid that you'll likely need to hoof it at some point for the investigation. The boy is in the local hospital in Maytown, if you want to give that a shot. Just, please, try not to upset him any further. And, of course, you have the local Sheriff's Office and the USDA Forest Rangers."

"Oh, and, to be clear, I'm not going. I'll be much more useful manning the phone lines here. I'm your Go To Gal, if you're stumped or need a favor. Even when I'm not here, I have my phone with me. And do not hesitate to call me 24-7. My beauty sleep is nothing compared to you guys not dying. Rest assured that if you do try and be all macho and bite the big one, I will be very upset."

NPC's should be friendly, helpful and out of the f#$%ing way, so the heroes can do their thing. :-)

"We review those expenses weekly, so please if you want to watch the motel porn, do it on your own dime."

When Maggie makes her baseball bat remark, he smiles. "I may have misjudged you. You might be priority-impaired and only moderately competent at running a briefing but lady, I like your style!"

Gavril glances at the forms, trying to make it look like he's carefully perusing the legalese, but it's clear he has no idea what it says. Only once the others begin signing does he do the same.

"So, New Hampshire?" He pockets the phone and charger, and slips the cards into his wallet. "Is good distance. Up north, no sales tax. State motto 'Die free and live hard,' I think?" He looks at the others with his one good eye and shrugs. "Well, is good to know we can call if need help. Thank you, Maggie. Is good to work for company." The man extends his hand with a small grin.

"State motto 'Die free and live hard,' I think?"

Signing stuff, and asking Maggie : "What's our status with the local and Federal officials? Are we with a recognized government agency that they must co-operate with, or just nosy interfering laymen as far as they're concerned? If we're an agency that officially exists, some kind of card or badge would be very helpful..."

Yeah, I know, "we don't need no stinkin' badges". :) I've got that clip saved on a DVD.

Ray, what time of year is it?

"She said no when I asked earlier," offers Nate. "No way I'm getting involved with any government agency, let alone work for one."

He looks at Maggie questioningly. "Maybe cover identities, though?'

Ray, if you're wanting for monsters, someone has converted over 2700 (!) PF monsters into SW format HERE

Ray, if you're wanting for monsters, someone has converted over 2700 (!) PF monsters into SW format HERE

John Smith42 wrote:

Ray, if you're wanting for monsters, someone has converted over 2700 (!) PF monsters into SW format HERE

Dude, don't tell him things like that! :op

Oh, don't worry about that. I just picked up the SW Horror Companion. Did you know there were Xenomorphs in there? "Game over, man!"

But, seriously though. Cool link.

"Officially speaking, we can't buy you ammunition. We're a private sector company, but we still have government oversight committees reviewing our every spent dime. And more than a few Senators get a little uncomfortable at the thought of arming civilians to fight the armies of darkness. Go figure," she says with a shrug.

No freebies! ;-)

"That being said, unofficially, if you have, what we like to call, a 'justifiable emergency', then that rule can be slightly ignored."

She gives you a playful and exaggerated wink.

In other words, spend a Benny to get something cool when you need it.

"And you don't have an official government standing. However, I can provide you with false identities if you'd like. They won't stand up to the scrutiny of a thorough background check, so you may need to fast talk a bit. Any requests? FBI? NSA? Fish and Wildlife? I do a mean FDA Meat Inspector."

"Well, what 'government agency' cover story has worked best for other teams over the years?"

1d100 ⇒ 71

Nate stiffens and grumbles under his breath at the mention of "government oversight" but manages to keep his mouth shut.

Maggie thinks for a moment.

"I would avoid talking to authorities if you can. But in this case it might be unavoidable. In general, FBI seems to be the go to for most hunters."

-Posted with Wayfinder

"Alright, so we are FBI, agents to rescue, come to look into strange bear and deal with it." Gavril seems satisfied with how things are, and looks ready to go whenever the others are.

"So John, you're riding with me. I can take two more comfortably; who else?"

Maggie makes a few movements on her tablet, and then types something in.

"You should have FBI identities within the hour." Feel free to make up an hilarious alias later.

Nate> "Count me in". "I'll just need to drop off my Harley at home, and grab a few things before we leave". "She's not real good in rough terrain".

"You think we could load her in the back of Bertha? Should be enough room alongside the antitank gun mount. We might wish we had her."

"I will drive car. Is DeLorean, from Back to Future movie. Is nice. I keep in good shape." Gavril grins. "Also, I like to drive myself." He turns to Maggie. "FBI, sound good. Hopefully we don't need, but good to have, da?"

Maggie smiles at you all. "Well, it sounds like you've made up your minds. Welcome aboard!"

I'll do a forward momentum post tonight, to move you guys along.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Sure enough, within the hour all of you are provided with FBI Identities and are ushered out the door with directions to Maytown, New Hampshire and pieces of pink cake.

"Make sure to report in if you need any help," Maggie says to you as she sees you off. "And don't get killed."

Okay, do you guys have any plans for when you arrive in Maytown?

"Trying to get past hospital staff to talk to a sedated young child doesn't sound easy or promising. Let's go to the cabin and see what clues we might find that the local LEO's missed, since they assumed it was a bear and probably stopped looking."

I assume we were given directions/GPS/Lat&Long to the cabin?

Absolutely. Just follow the GPS tracker on your phone.

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