Borax Bohan's page

Any of the players still around?

What is an "investigation roll?", a Notice roll?

Just checking in, haven't seen any posts in a few days.

Still here. Borax has nothing to add as he is letting Rosa direct this one above ground.

"Thank you madam. I won't mention it."

Bohan returns to the Dr. Stein and when they are all out of ear shot, he explains what the sewer team found and the obvious connection. "Vasquez, how do you want to play this?"

Borax holds up his finger as if to say one second, as he pulls out a notepad before heading over to to the secretary desk's desk. "Excuse me madam, Dr. Phillips mentioned something about his son and wife. I didn't quite catch his son's name, is it Zachary?"

Borax waits for a moment, if one presents itself, to snap a photo of the picture with his phone and the shutter sound turned off.

After Rosa's entreaty, Borax hears his earpiece come to life and he steps out of the office to speak privately.

After Borax confirms what Farrell has just relayed, Borax tries to contain his urgency,

<Is there any way to ID the belongings? Hold off on the original plan. If there are children down there, we can't risk it. Over.>

If Borax can contact Gavin, he'll recommend that he trail the search in the sewers.

When Borax returns, he looks for any pictures of Mr. Phillips family in the room.

I'm drawing a blank,, which is why I was soliciting marching orders. If Rosa needs Borax to do something, just let him know.

Rosa will need to tell Borax what she thinks he should be doing to assist her game plan.

Good to have you back.

Okay thanks for the info.

@Team - Borax has nothing more to say and the respective team leaders should take over.

If Jacob is out, then Makeba and David can do the streetwise thing until Jacob returns, especially if you guys think that will be more enjoyable.

I'll definitely radio for basic medical supplies, water, rations, and extra ammo for the weapons we are carrying plus any additional fire arms that they can spare, extra radios, etc. Don't expect will get anything more than handguns and tazers.

Regarding hotels, If we can find some cheap roach motels, I'd be curious on what a week would cost.

Also, are will want to locate any abandon buildings that might be suitable for a short term hideout.

Finally, what do we need to roll to find out about any recent purchases of large warehouses?

Borax raises an eyebrow at Makeba's last comment, "Good thinking Makeba. After you're done with the sewers, you might hit the local pubs and see if there's anyone talking about seeing odd things or businesses doing things at weird hours. It occurs to me that these aliens might be so bold as set up shop above ground. I just figured they wouldn't be able to blend in, but then I could be completely wrong about that. If you don't get any leads from the drunks, we might start looking into local recordings and city records to see if anyone has purchased any large warehouses or buildings around the time this stuff started. Likewise check with the commercial and residential real estate brokers."

"But first thing's first. Make sure they aren't running around under the city."

@GM - I forget, what type of communication do we have from HQ's and can we get them to drop off extra ammo and guns at locations we identify?

As far as rendezvous points, I'm thinking at least one will be a second hotel that we've paid for two weeks in advance. The other should be some abandoned building a few blocks away.

So Alpha and Beta will each have two rendezvous points known only to them. And then we'll communicate two points for the team if we need to regroup. This way if someone is captured or has their mind-read, at least Beta and Alpha won't be completely compromised.

As far as pass phrases, I'm thinking of something like the first person always asks for food and the answering person always says "no," and responds with some sort of request for a drink, but never using the same combination twice. I'll assume we can forgo that in actual dialogue and you'll just tell us if someone fails the test.

Borax nods at Rosa, "Yes. Both teams should have two separate rendezvous points. If the first is compromised, use the second. We''ll also need two rendezvous spots for the combined teams if things go from bad to worse. We should store food, water, and medical equipment. Once we've picked the spots, I'll see if someone at HQ can drop off some extra ammo and gear."

"Also, when communicating over the radio or when reuniting with anyone you've been out of eyesight with, use pass phrases to ensure we aren't dealing with an imposter. Won't help if they are using mind control, but if they can mimic our appearance, we might catch them unaware."

As the train begins to arrive close to town, Borax has a conversation with the group,

"The one that got away, only knows Makeba, David, and Jacobs, so you three are now an item. Team beta. Make your way to the sewers and and start scouting and bomb placement. Jacob, you run the op and call it.

Any questions?"

Borax reminds everyone that the town might be under CCTV and advises the two teams to get off a different part of the train.

Borax responds to Makeba, "Take a quick look around for anything it might have dropped and then double-time it back to the train."

After a more thorough assessment of the situation, Borax radios a new set of instructions,

"We can't disconnect any cars, so we have to clean this up. Hit the bathrooms and the maintenance closet for soap, towels, and any mops. We nee to clean this up as much as possible. Don't leave behind any casings."

" We'll toss the bodies off the train and radio in for a helicopter to rendezvous with Makeba and David when they return from tracking the alien. I suggest those two get a change of clothes and find another way into town after the bodies are picked up . If we can find something to wrap the bodies or store them, all the better."

"The rest of us will stay on the train. Let's move to another car after we get things cleaned up. Any questions?"

I misunderstood your intention on the alien as well. Following it to see how it escapes makes more sense than assuming it would walk back to its base which is how I interpreted your earlier statement.

In truth, I was just trying to roleplay a reason for Makeba to follow it, as I sensed that was something he wanted to do. Your hints in the previous post seemed to make it clear that this was not the plot path, which is why I did not suggest everyone follow it.

In the future, feel free to ask me these kinds of questions.

Definitely, but I didn't want to get into a long back and forth as there are so many variables. Plus, I figured it'd be easier for you to answer questions that revolve around a specific course of actions so you'd have a better sense of how detailed the answers needed to be.

@Team - anyone can feel free to redirect the group based on the GM's answers. My goal in posting as team leader is primarily to keep things moving.

High Speed is not the word I'd use for them, considering I go with them twice a week.

The East Coast Main Line (London to Edinburgh) and the West Coast Main Line (London to Glasgow) all list service speeds of 125 mph. So we must be talking about a different train system. I know the commuter trains that run from Milan to Rome were certainly not going 125 mph.

We can just find a box to stuff them in and pour in some ice from the dining car. **** The dining car is definitely not the last car on the train and all of the missing cars would be noticed.....

Most commuter trains don't have dining cars. I did a brief search fo the train lines in Great Britain and most of them are HST's. Interesting and disgusting fact:

Legally in the UK, train operators are allowed to discharge up to 25 litres of untreated waste at a time on to the track

I actually have thought it through, but have not bothered to cover every single contingency and I'm still trying to piece together the specifics of where on the train we fought the aliens.

We are in make believe-land. The sufficiency of any course of action is entirely dependent on the base assumptions going in e.g. whether a helicopter is available, how quickly do the bodies deteriorate, how fast do you think a short legged alien can move, and a plethora of others.

Disconnecting train cars is only necessary if certain things are true:

1) We absolutely need to preserve the bodies in cold storage. That wasn't my idea, but I was trying to support someone else who suggested it. And, do we even know that there is any dining car or cold storage?

2) We need to keep the alien thing from being discovered by the public. I'm assuming we are trying to keep things under wraps to prevent a public panic. But maybe it's a non-issue. I have no idea how any real life investigation would go down if alien DNA were discovered, do you? So once again, I'm looking for feed back from the GM on whether we care if a train car filled with purple blood rolls into the next train station. Because if we do, a terrorist attack on empty train cars is most likely going to cause far less public panic than scientist claiming alien DNA was discovered in a gun fight on a public train;

3) We can't sufficiently clean up the cars and it we might be better served to blow them up and destroy the evidence. Yes, someone will come looking for them and they'll find two burned up trained cars and no one will have the foggiest notion of what happened. It will take at least a month before an official report is out and it may take a year before there is any public report that a gunfight and alien DNA was discovered, assuming anyone bothers to look. Most likely, people will assume it's a terrorist act, but with no bodies and no victims, officials will be at a complete loss as to why it occurred. And with no loss of life, it's unlikely to cause too much freaking out.

But then I don't know which car we are in and how many cars we need to disconnect. I've also go not idea how likely something like this is going to be picked up by local media. But if it is, even in the slightest amount, I'm pretty sure we'll have the Spook and his crew crawling all over town in a day. So I'm throwing it out there as a possible course of action and letting the GM provide feedback as to why we may or may not do such a thing.

If you have a better idea, then share it. But it's pretty easy to poke holes in any idea by simply claiming a different set of baseline circumstances.

I'm not sure there's any value to going after the last alien. We already have bodies to autopsy and we likely can't communicate enough to interrogate it. And I seriously doubt that their base is in walking distance of the train.

I have no idea how far their base is, but I'm not going to automatically assume we can't find it. If Makeba and David see it try and get into a craft, I'm pretty sure they'll know they need to shoot it. Even if they don't shoot it, it would help to know which direction the craft headed. And honestly, the real reason is that those two have high Stealth and Notice, so it's a chance to use their skills for a possible benefit. If we're really lucky, maybe one of them can board the craft unnoticed or throw a communicator stuck in the on-position on board.

We also need the doctor with us for our actual mission, so unless we're planning to scrap the entire mission we can't send him back with the bodies, so we're going to have to wait on the autopsies until we're done hunting the missing kids.

We are ostensibly bringing the doctor because we think he can diagnose the mind control effects that we assumed were in-play (and OOC, he's a conduit for the GM). But now we have two bodies of aliens who actually do the mind control. I would argue it makes far more sense for the doctor to study these aliens directly. If he can find a way to home in on the source of the mind-control rays or devise a way to reverse/neutralize the effects from the biology, seems a far better use of his efforts. If we find some specific thing we need him for, we can always have someone drive him into town.

Of course this is all based on my taking things at face value. Obviously if the GM doesn't plan on us being able to learn anything immediately useful from the dead aliens, that isn't knowable by my character.

We'll need Jacob to stay with the train and help us to get it moving and possibly decouple some of the cars. Naomi has essentially the same tracking skills.

I'm not sure we get any benefit if we kill the runner before he finds home. We've already taken out their scouting party, so it's not like killing the last guy stops him from sounding the alarm.

Honestly, there's no way to know how the aliens are going to react to what we did on the train. My thought is that now, we try and short cut the mission and get to their base directly. With Makeba and David following, if we find a base, we can all head straight to it and maybe get lucky.

I also don't see how we clean up the train beyond removing the bodies. We don't have time to do any type of repairs or remove blood stains. As long as there are no aliens and dead humans on the train, no one will be able to figure out what happened. Probably better that we aren't on it when it arrives. I'm assuming the tickets are nameless and there is no passenger list.

My goal was to at least call in a helicopter to take the bodies and possible the doctor if he needs to do quick autopsies and then follow after the tracking party.

my original thought is to get the bodies off the train by either simply dumping them in the field, or putting them into the meat locker and disconnecting the car with the meat locker. Then, have a helicopter come and pick up the bodies and take them back to our base for an autopsy if necessary.

Not sure how we clean up the blood and the bullet holes. Might be better to have the whole car disappear and blow it up/burn it to remove evidence.

If the team was off the train, I figure we walk to the nearest town and get a taxi.

I think our next course of action also depends on where the little guy leads us.

@GM - I'm assuming we can call in for some sort of air transport? If not, then I'll have to change our plans."

Borax gets on the radio, "David, you're with Makeba. Track it. DO NOT engage. We need to find their base. Farrell, we need you here."

Borax turns to the group. "If there's a fridge car, we move the bodies to it and disconnect it from the rest of the train. if not, we move the bodies to the last car and disconnect that."

Borax gets back on the radio, "Farrell, I need you to get to the engine. On my signal, get the chain moving and the jump off. Set it for...." Let's set the speed low enough that the engineer will wake up 20 minutes before the train arrives at the next stop.

Gotta say, I'm gonna go Desert Eagle and a survival knife. I'd like have a Glock 9 as well, but don't know how realistic that is.

In retrospect, a survival knife would be too difficult to conceal, so I'll say that the survival knife is normally stored in one of my bags, but I'll keep a switchblade or butterfly knife on me personally.

Borax, focuses on one of the small grey creatures. Pulling his Desert Eagle, he unloads single shot rounds, hoping to avoid hitting Gavril

First shot: 1d10 ⇒ 41d6 ⇒ 2
Damage: 2d8 ⇒ (6, 7) = 13

Second Shot: 1d10 ⇒ 101d6 ⇒ 1
Damage: 2d8 ⇒ (1, 5) = 6

Second shot Damage Raise: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Forgot I had already decided to fire on the little guys in the last post.

Gotta say, I'm gonna go Desert Eagle and a survival knife. I'd like have a Glock 9 as well, but don't know how realistic that is.

Not sure what weapon I have.

"Now!"

Borax draws his weapon and will attack one of the small gray creatures.

Borax whispers back over the comm. "Can you rig a concussion bomb to take them out as the leave the cabin? Don't kill the leader, but you have to knock it out. Don't go stingy on the bombs."

Borax keeps a vigilant eye and ear.

Notice: 1d6 ⇒ 41d6 ⇒ 5

Just wanted to clarify with GM. When Jacob was in the trance, did he continue to talk or was he totally silent and glassy eyed?

Glad that you're safe.

Thanks.

Borax offers a grimace, "Now we know how they stole those kids. Vasquez is right, with the train stopped, the aliens are most likely going to hit every cabin. They are looking for something, possibly kids, or they know we are on board.

Remember, our goal is to figure out what is going on. Right now, we need info more than dead bodies. If we start a fire fight, they'll know we're coming and chances are they'll flee the area and we'll lose those kids for good."

As always, this is merely Borax's suggestion, if players feel strongly about doing something else, that's fine by me.

We got out without incident. Flew Delta. I have to say I prefer them over all the other major airlines.

Be safe. I'm in Orlando as I type. Hoping I can get out on Friday.

Okay, I'll use the benny, Also makes it simpler since I don't have to retcon Borax's actions.

What is the -1 Fatigue mean in game terms? Still not well versed in SW mehcanics

How do I not notice the others talking about something that's just happened to them?

Smarts: 1d8 ⇒ 21d6 ⇒ 2

Borax immediately reacts to Naomi and Richard, " In my experience, once is strange, twice is no coincidence." Borax looks at his GPS device and quickly determines if their location matches the time and distance on the map.

"Everyone do an equipment check. Also, from this point on, if we separate and meet, we'll need to confirm our identities with a challenge and response. The challenge is "super". The response is "sunny" on days that start with an "s." "Tree" and "tomato" for days that start with a "t." And "princess" and "pea" for the other days."

Borax reexamines all his gear and then the cab they're in, looking for any slight detail that is amiss.

Notice: 1d6 ⇒ 61d6 ⇒ 2
1d6 ⇒ 3 Total = 9

If the gear checks out, Borax will ask everyone to identify some specific event that occurred before they boarded the train and that someone else can verify has having occurred. Borax wants to make sure someone hasn't been switched out for an imposter.

Borax looks over at Richard. "We're not all going to disembark at the same time or from the same door. It's a safe bet that XCOM is being spied on by other international organizations. We'll also need to operate out of separate hotels to try and stay off the local radar as long as possible. Those of us doing the documentary should either get off on the stop before or after the main town. We'll catch a taxi or rent a car and drive in."

Borax is wearing his EXofficos and his vintage 1980's Members Only leather jacket.

I think that's worth at least two extra Bennies, am I right?

Borax nods to Stein as a way of greeting. "These are better circumstances, Dr. Stein."

Once onboard and situated. Borax will reviews the city map and begins marking the residence of each missing child.

Borax is overconfident that any plans will work. So he's ready.

Borax nods as Jaocb lays out a plan, "Right. We don't wan't to leave any active traps, I was thinking that we'd want something already in place that we could activate if we were making an escape. And truthfully, there may be nothing in the sewers. I am just thinking out loud. The alien lab could be in the woods, or 1000 ft off the ground in a some undetectable ship. But the sewers seem like a possibility, so we should be prepared.

And on that note, we may need to do more surveillance than demolition, particularly if the abductions keep happening. Let's come up with a plan for keeping track of things topside once we narrow down the search area. Let's find out if the town has surveillance cameras and if so, tapping into their feed."

Borax almost cracks a smile at Jacob's last comment. "I'll let you do the talking when we get in town. I'm not one for making friends."

"Whatever cover you use, make sure that it justifies your asking questions about the missing kids. These parents should be desperate to find their children, so anything in the ball park of a group that could do that should work."

Borax pauses for a moment.

"Which reminds me. It's possible that if aliens are responsible, they could be disguised as humans. Anyone experiencing memory loss should be willing to provide blood samples on even the off-chance it might help. If any parents refuse, ask for hair samples of the missing kids and the parents. If they refuse that, leave the house without arousing suspicion and we'll keep an eye on them."

"Naomi and Rosa's suggestion should work out fine. We'll pretend where simply doing some clinical research for a privately funded organization. The rest of us could pose as ghost hunters doing a documentary. I'll let you two work out the details. However, it might be better to split up. Perhaps Gavril, Richard, Jacob, and I will search the sewers and any likely targets for the aliens to set up shop. We should stash some weapons down there as well at key junctions so if we get caught in the thick of it, we can retreat and arm ourselves."

Borax turns to Jacob,

"If these creatures are using any underground system, I'll want us to be prepared to collapse tunnels and rig escape routes. Can you prepare some proximity bombs, tripwire bombs, and remote detonation devices? I'm also thinking we'll want some way to monitor movement and give footage if we come across."

"Getting back to the missing children, It's most likely the children were abducted at the homes. This would make it easy for the aliens to alter the parents' memories. If I'm correct, then relatives or neighbors would most likely have the most recent recollection of when the kids were last seen. If the aliens are somehow able to modify the memories of everyone in town, then we've got a much bigger problem on our hands."

Borax turns back to the general, "I'm assuming we have access to night vision gear, body cameras, and GPS trackers? I'd like us to have our body cameras running whenever we're in the field. Along with have reviewable records of people we'll talk to, We'll review the and GPS movement and video footage nightly, to make sure we aren't experiencing gaps in our memory. Also, sir, can we get a map of the homes of the missing children?"

Turning back to the group, "If we can time stamp the disappearances, we might see an abduction pattern. Maybe the abductions are happening radially from a central point, or along a specific path. Either way, our first priority is determining the exact time and location of each event. "

Borax listens to the breakdown of the situation. After Naomi speaks, Borax follows up.

"The memory wipes make it a near certainty we're dealing with a true alien abduction, the background stuff is most likely a waste of time. These people will have nothing in common other than this is where the aliens have set up shop. What we need to find is the base from which the aliens are operating from and it can't be too far. Probably underground. But just in case it's something cloaked and we are dealing with cloakers, we'll need low energy lasers pointers. Cloaking devices can't reproduce or re-emmitt a laser that hits it."

Borax pauses for a moment as Richard makes his requests.

"We'll need to get the layout of the sewer systems and any underground tunnels. For good measure, let's find out if there are any natural cave system nearby as well. We should be able to locate the point of abduction from GPS trackers on the victims cell phones and vehicles. If the parents can't remember losing the kids, then we can look at cell phone records and see when they stopped remembering sending or receiving texts and calls. If we're really lucky, someone took a photo before they got their memory wiped."

Borax pauses again, and it seems like he's distracted.

"Finally, we'll need a neurologist to examine the parents and see if we can figure out how the memories are being erased and if there is a way to guard against it."