Nate "Thrasher" McCulligan's page

I fell behind because of O/T slammage and only just read this today. ZF, I'm really sorry to hear your health issues are interfering so much with things I know you enjoy.

Let me know if there's anything I can do, and here's hoping things improve for you in 2016.

Yay, O/T has ended and I'm digging myself out from beneath the backlog! It's great to be back!

Good heavens GM, Nate didn't spread his feet and sight the gun in both hands at arms length as if he were about to yell, "Freeze, punk!" He already had his sidearm out and in his hand, all he did was step behind her and point it at her "casually" so he could get a snap shot off if she made a sudden bad move. Hardly anything to notice in that.

"Lady, if that's how they fire people, I'm glad I don't work here. Find anything?" he asks the others.

Let's say he's watching the screen over her shoulder as well. He's not a computer guy but if she does something obviously suspicious he should spot it.

Notice & Wild: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 81d6 ⇒ 1
Boom!: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4+8=12, 2 Raises

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Sorry. I presumed you regularly used the index page to get to your active games.

Here is a link straight to the Recruitment board. If it's blank, check and see if you have focus on. (Look kinda near the upper right of the page, there will be a link that says either "FOCUS" or "DEFOCUS". If it says "DEFOCUS", click it.)

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Nate frowns. "Wait a minute. Why would IT 'erase you?' Didn't you say you were just doing your job and some goons grabbed you?"

Nate subtly moves to a position behind her chair where she can't see him.

Maybe just an unexpected turn of phrase, but it sounded suspicious. Nate has his weapon trained on her behind her back, just in case.

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Answered this in detail, then Wayfinder crashed when I hit "Post." Grr.

Go to the main forum index. There's a section for "recruitment" where people post up new games that are starting, as well as existing games that need replacement players. Troll them until you see something you like, then throw your hat into the ring.

Be prepared to not be chosen. A LOT. It's not you/nothing personal, it happens to everybody. Just carry on.

Note that PFS (Pathfinder Society Organized Play) has special requirements, so you may want to steer clear of that, at least at first. Also keep an eye open for game systems. If a post doesn't say then it's likely Pathfinder, but there are other systems played here (as you well know!)

Good luck, have fun!

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Nate mutters something unintelligible as the girl moves past him, then falls in behind the others.

"We should take the stairs," Nate says to John quietly. "An elevator's a death trap dangling in a shaft of doom. Plus they usually have surveillance cameras. Enemy territory like this, it's way too easy for them to shut the lift down between floors and bam, they've got us. We should take the stairs. Definitely the stairs."

Uh oh, gonna miss Wapner...

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I-the-player have no problem with Karen tagging along. Nate sees her as a civilian troublemaker girl and sees minimal benefit with a big potential downside.

He's probably also smarting a little bit from Jim-Bob and wants no truck at all with the locals. :op

That said, he's been sarcastic but he's never insisted we get rid of her, nor will he. If Astaria can get her to be useful he won't fight it.

Part of the problem may be that we-the-players don't know what we're looking for. I mean, we have a goal, but we can't say, "Okay, we're looking for the CTO's office" or "Where's the server room?" We just have this vague "search until we find something incriminating" task.

Nate shakes his head at Astaria, then turns and jabs his finger into John's chest. "First of all, Shorty, keep your voice down. Second of all, I'm already calm. Third of all, don't accuse me of things I never did, alright?"

His piece said, Nate turns and strides ten feet further down the hallway.

Nate never, ever said anything about Karen showing (or telling) us where to go. In fact he's repeatedly suggested she either leave, or they tie her up again. He sees having Karen along as a liability, not an asset. But if you want to stop her, by all means go ahead.

Nate isn't holding her and has already pointed the way out. Good riddance, as far as he's concerned.

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Nate looks at John and rolls his eyes. "Women,"" he says simply.

"Though I give you credit," he grinningly says to the girl, "at least you admit that as an 'executive secretary' you don't do anything. Most insist they actually perform useful work."

To Astaria he says, "I think taking her back and tying her up and especially gagging her is an excellent idea." He finishes with a meaningful look at the girl.

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I'm confused by the "too many doors to look behind them all" comment. If we were trying to get to a specific location I could see it. But we don't know where we're going, do we? Aren't we looking for evidence? Shouldn't we be checking every room we come to?

"No you don't and the exit's that way," Nate says distractedly, pointing back the direction they came as he keeps his attention forward.

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Nate gives Astaria a withering look while answering Karen. "Need to know, lady. And all you need to know is, we're the good guys. Now would you girlies please keep it down!"

Thanks, I needed a smile just then. :o)

"Works for me," Nate mutters as he stows his survival knife and switches back to his Desert Eagle, then falls in with the others.

"Oh, there's a reason, missy," Nate growls as he stares into the darkness. "You just don't know what it is. Alright Astaria, stay with knives and fists for the sake of stealth, or switch back to firearms?"

Nate nods, does one last sound check at the door then cracks it open to check the hallway, with the intention of pulling it open if the coast is clear.

Consider a nod given.

Nate gives the woman a stern glance over his shoulder. "Look here missy, we can tie you right back up and gag you again if we're too 'crazy' for your tastes. And if you'd seen the stuff we've seen," he adds, jerking his head at John, "you'd doubt your own sanity before ours."

"Now keep it down," he hisses before returning his attention to listening at the door.

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Nate chuckles in response. "Stick with us, kid. We'll show you strange. Ask me about graboids sometime. She clean?"

"What? No!" Nate responds as emphatically as he can while keeping his voice down. "I'm serious! This whole finding her where we're hiding thing is suspicious. She might be in 'un'-disguise!" He gives Astaria a concerned look. "I've had... bad luck with clowns. You weren't around for that but trust me: You don't turn your back on them, and if anything seems out of the ordinary, suspect clowns!"

If it wasn't clear before, it is now: Nate is dead serious.

I'd like to get that out and stop Astaria before she can cut the girl loose, if possible.

"Check her pockets for red rubber noses first. She could be an undercover killer clown."

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"Kinky," Nate dryly opines. "You two want to indulge in girl talk while I keep a listen at the door? But keep it down."

As indicated, Nate goes back to listening at the door.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Astoria put the charm in her pocket; check Friday posts.

Nate pulls out his flashlight, covers most of the front with one hand, and turns it on.

We should get a diffuse glow from that.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Nate shrugs and whispers a reply. "People blocking our exit later, tied-up guys to escape and sound the alarm, dead bodies to be discovered. Not sure I see a clear winner or loser."

Nate nods at Astaria and slips in with her, holstering his Desert Eagle and drawing his EDC knife.

Waiting to see if Astaria actually gets in.

Nate slips in behind her and pulls the door most of the way closed to minimize any light spillage.

If there's a stick or something he can put in the doorway so it can't close and latch, he'll do that.

Sorry, very rough day after a rough day. More things went bad than I could keep up with. No chance to post from work. Then I got home and work followed me. I think I finally got off the business network about 6:30...

Nate nods and tries to quietly turn the knob and open the door.

"You want fries a roll with that?" I gots no Stealth, how about Streetwise?

Streetwise & Wild: 1d4 ⇒ 31d6 ⇒ 1 => 3, Fail

Oh! I didn't realize (or had forgotten) the bonus applied to the Wild Die as well. Cool!

"Shh!" Nate hisses, waving frantically at Astaria, then pulling away from the door and speaking quietly. "At least two other people in here with us. Other side of the door, probably far side of a room, possibly headed away."

He puts his hear back to the door.

Nate snickers, then moves to the door and places his ear against it, listening.

Notice & Wild: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 61d6 ⇒ 2 =>6, Success

"Cheery place," Nate says quietly, eyeing the body parts and pulling his pistol.

You got it. And the "Thrasher" gimmick never kicked in, so "Nate" is fine.

Nate grins. "I'm never one to pass up a chance for high explosives, but... here. " He reaches behind him to pull out the crowbar retrieved from the van and hands it over.

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Okay, we're in think-sync now. :o)

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Okay, I couched my comment poorly, and for that I apologize. I'm well aware of "The TN is always 4, except when it's not," thanks. But you said "Strength checks -4 to push it open relatively quietly." Which implied that the penalty was for stealth and it might open with a lower number, just noisily. I rolled a 7, which gave a 3 (failure) for opening it "relatively quietly." However, a 7 would be a success, so I thought that might mean Nate got it open but made a racket doing so. (Which is why I didn't want to try in the first place.) My "never gave a TN for opening it period" was relative to the penalty.

So I guess what you're saying is that it's going to take an 8 to open it, period. And that no matter how it's opened, it will happen "relatively quietly?"

Nate shrugs, then grabs the grate and tugs.

Strength & Wild: 1d8 - 4 ⇒ (7) - 4 = 31d6 - 4 ⇒ (4) - 4 = 0 => 3. You never gave a TN for opening it period, so I dunno if that's a success or not.

-4?! With a d8 that'd demand a perfect roll from Nate. Knowing DiceBot's animosity... no thanks. :op

Nate examines the grate carefully, giving it a gentle shake. "Gonna be tough getting that open without making a racket," he whispers to the others.

"Found an effective lockpick," Nate says with a grin as he holds up the bolt cutters. Mimicking an old fast food commercial he intones to John, "Please sir, step aside," then positions himself in front of the grate. A minimal bit of elbow grease and a dull "clonk" later, and he pulls away and discards the now-useless padlock.

Nate pauses to pull a small plastic squeeze-bottle from a pocket of his cargo fatigues, liberally applying oil around the top of both hinges. Cautiously pulling the gate open, he bows and makes a sweeping gesture inward. "After you!"

Ye gods, I can hear it now. "IT WASN'T LIKE THIS IN THE SIMULATIONS!"

Nate holds up a hand. "Shhh! We're not alone. Listen!" A hollow voice says "Plugh."

Nate hitches up his pants. "My expertise extends to all manner of armament and ordnance. Covert ops. Graboid hunter. You can count on me not to back down from any threat."

"Well, except for clowns," he adds quietly. "And hospitals. And elevators. And small confined spaces. Which elevators are, so they're worse than just small spaces. So the order is clowns, elevators, confined spaces, hospitals. No, wait. Clowns, elevators, hospitals, confined spaces. Oh, and mushrooms. Yeah. Clowns, elevators, confined spaces, mushrooms, hospitals, that's the order."

Visibly disturbed by recounting his phobias, Nate pulls out a prescription bottle and dry-swallows a pill.

"Now let's go kick some nefarious occult butt!"
___

"Well, I could shoot the lock off, but that'd attract attention. We probably have a crowbar in the van but that'll be noisy too. I wonder if Maggs included a bolt cutter." Nate returns to the van to check.

Or, will "Streetwise" work for jimmying a lock?

Streetwise: 1d4 ⇒ 11d6 ⇒ 5 =5, Success (if applicable).

"Nate," the nondescript late 30s/early 40s man in fatigues says as he eyes the woman up and down. "Nate McCulligan." He looks at John and jerks a thumb at the woman. "Maggie must think a lot of this one if she's sending her in cold. Not to mention us being down to three operatives."

Any chance Nate got his firearms back, or does he need to repurchase them?

Oh, that's easy. The summary is that we got ridden roughshod over by a power-hungry moron. :op

Erm... referring to Jim-Bob, not the GM. :o)

I wrote Nate's dialog to Maggie before reading your post but I think it nicely summarizes his views on the matter.

As long as you keep in mind that he was being polite. :oD

Nate gives Faith a sad, casual salute as she leaves, but says nothing until the door's closed behind her.

"You were too hard on her," he says to Maggie after Faith leaves. "You wanna talk loose cannons? You weren't there. That idiot Jim-Bob tried to blow Sierra's head off. He's drunk on what little power he has and doesn't give a rat's ass about the law. He's a shining example of everything that's wrong with 'government authority.' If he'd behaved like a proper officer of the law, we wouldn't've been forced into the position we were."

He pauses to pop a pill. "Hell Maggs, when I heard the LEOs were coming, I took up a sniper position! If things'd gone differently I'd've been the one you were chewing out. Look, I know this is your show and we're just hired guns, sorta. But you need to understand that we all did what we thought best, did the best we could under the circumstances. We always have, and we always will."

He looks at the closed door. "That goes for Faith, too. Letting her go is a mistake."

No questions about the mission.

Wow that was one huge ball of wet yarn to unravel. But as best I can figure, here's the final sequence of events from just before we learn the LEOs are coming until we're hauled off. I have no idea if this is what you wanted, but this is what you get. :op

Gavril heads to the vehicle.
Nate, Faith, etc. are in the cave.
REWIND John rushes in to alert of at least two people crashing through brush in their direction.
Garvril's side of conversation with two LEOs comes over the earbuds.
Nate takes up a observer/sniper position in the bush with shotgun and pistol.
Faith queues up a text message to the police advising of the discovery (no reception in the cave, it will go out when they exit (one bar)).
Gavril sends a covert message indicating he is approaching with two LEOs.
LEOs arrive and demand everyone "freeze," wanting to know why we're here, stating report of a dead body.
Faith advises we got a note asking to us to meet someone here.
Clem covers the group, gun drawn, while Jim-Bob identifies the body.
Upon his return the team's armament sinks in and Jim-Bob freaks, demanding we drop everything and empty pockets into the sack he directs Clem to go get from their vehicle.
Clem spots Nate and demands he come out.
Nate covertly leaves his firearms in the bush and comes out, hands uppish.
Faith refuses to drop her weapons. Her player notes no one should have weapons out other than Nate.
Gavril had started to unsling his shotgun and stops, strap in hand.
John had missed Faith's earlier order to holster and is placing glock on the ground, he also hesitates.
Jim-Bob challenges.
Faith counters she's an ex-cop, this is federal park land, and we will surrender guns to proper authorities.
Jim-Bob has Clem show park ranger badge and indicates they ARE the proper authorities.
Arlo feigns a panic attack followed by simulated fainting.
REWIND Faith tells John to roll film on the incident.
Faith begins unloading her weapons to the ground.
Jim-Bob interrupts Faith and tells everyone to shut up and freeze, tosses cuffs to John and instructs him to cuff Faith behind her back.
Jim-Bob instructs Clem to cuff Arlo and apparently authorizes deadly force ("whatever force you need to").
REWIND John cuffs Faith.
Faith rushes Jim-Bob to grapple him.
REWIND A whole buncha crap I'm not gonna bother typing because it didn't happen.
As Arlo is helped to his feet after being cuffed, he disappears, reappearing in the woods about 1/3rd of the way to the vehicles, which he sets out for.
Gavril drops his shotgun, steps forward and grapples Jim-Bob.
Jim-Bob fires twice at Faith's head. One shot grazes her and she is "stunned."
Clem fires two shots at Gavril; both hit in his leg.
Jim-Bob shouts orders in impotent rage again.
Arlo hears the shots and continues heading for the vehicles.
Clem chickens out and "runs to get backup."
REWIND Faith is shot as she lunges at Jim-Bob and continues forward to tackle him.
Faith attempts to continue her tackle but begins to feel "fuzzy-headed."
Gavril also begins to feel "fuzzy-headed."
See Arlo. See Arlo run. Run Arlo, run!
John starts shouting that we surrender.
Faith manages to shake the fuzz (the head fuzz not the gun-toting fuzz) and grapples Jim-Bob.
Gavril also shakes the fuzz and decides something extremely fishy is going on, so he takes a swing at Jim-Bob (but misses... apparently he's still a bit fuzzy).
Faith tightens her grip and attempts a sleeper hold on Jim-Bob.
Nate sides with John on the surrender, in the fear people will get hurt otherwise.
The fuzziness begins to descend on Faith and Gavril again.
Arlo continues pounding through the woods.
Gavril hauls back to punch again... and wobbles.
Jim-Bob manages to squirm around enough to avoid going down. (GM references a karate chop and a punch, I only saw efforts to put Jim-Bob to "sleep" by doing damage.)
John starts getting frantic about us assaulting police officers.
Faith is starting to be affected by the fuzzies.
Jim-Bob manages to break free of Faith's grapple.
Faith cries out that they're being attacked mentally.
Jim-Bob poo-poos that and aims directly between Faith's eyes with a final warning for everyone to stand down.
All attacks stop. Jim-Bob directs John to zip-tie everyone, hands behind.
While being zip-tied, Gavril asks John if he felt anything; John said he did once, briefly.
Jim-Bob walkie-talkies Clem to come back in, situation under control. (I'm guessing Clem's not getting a Christmas bonus this year.)
Jim-Bob forces the three cuffed prisoners onto their knees.
Clem returns and zip-ties John.
The LEOs search and disarm everyone, and reads everyone their rights.
We are escorted back to the vehicles... well, vehicle... to find the van gone and the cruiser's tires slashed and radio disabled.
Jim-Bob manages to find one radio that still functions and calls for transportation and CSI.
Clem is directed to zip-tie each of us to a car door handle.
Jim-Bob indulges in a captive audience b|+ch-fest.
Reinforcements arrive and we are hauled off.

Oh... I didn't realize you wanted one from me since I was basically AWOL during a big chunk of that.

I still haven't read over everything in depth (work's been silly post-Labor Day (haha, my phone auto-corrected that to "post-apocalyptic Day")) but I'll try to get through it tonight and see if I can work out what you want.

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Man, it's not gonna be the same without Arlo and Faith. :o/

Although you guys haven't had Nate either for several weeks, and for that I apologize. I think most of you know already, so the super-short version is I lost usable connectivity for a week, and reliable connectivity for another week after that. Things are still dragging but I'm slowly and painfully resyncing my games. Just getting to PATRIOT today. (Sorry ZF, wanted to do this earlier but it's been one heck of a day.)

I honestly don't know if I have an opinion on the survey question. PATRIOT and Maggie are known quantities (well, as "known" as Maggie can be... or PATRIOT for that matter...)

I don't know what you have in mind for the P.I. angle, so it's kinda hard to judge. If we break away to the independent route, can we slink back to Maggie with our tails between our legs if it doesn't work out?

Let's say I'll go with the majority. If there isn't one, then I'll tiebreak with...

Coin Flip: 1d2 ⇒ 2

... "let's go rogue!"

I'll try to finish reading through everything tomorrow, sorry today didn't let me. Since we're losing two players, are you looking for another warm body? I can think on whether I know anyone who might be interested (I don't know who groks SW though.)

And hello to Ms. K'Don when she gets here! :o)

Again, sorry about my absence guys, and thanks for your patience and understanding!

Hey now, I simply said these idiots have a lawsuit in their future. You're the one who started the debate. :op

You're asking us to make the requested changes to our alias profiles (as opposed to how we post)? If so, do you want that done across both of your SW games?

-Well, I was referring to shooting an attacking suspect in general, when I run the scenario by my co-worker that's all I'm going to say.

Well I wasn't referring to "shooting an attacking suspect in general." The lawsuit comment was specific to this incident. "Withholding evidence" might get you an answer, but it won't necessarily be pertinent to this question and it certainly won't convince me. Man up and tell her Jim-Bob tried to shoot through the forehead a woman who hadn't raised a weapon to fire on him (did she even have one in hand?), and I'll give her answer some weight. :o)

-And hey, if the head-shot works, no lawsuit! :)

Don't count on it. The way these boneheads behave (or Jim-Bob specifically, I suspect Clem is just a sheep), they'll be before the judge eventually, regardless. And not in a good way. :op

I hear ya. Nate dove for the bushes because he thought a "wild card"/unknown element/hidden resource might be beneficial. Same general line of thinking, I guess.

Yeah, sideways and a half. Or "pear-shaped," if you're from the UK...

A nightstick, mace, stun gun... sure. Shoot the attacker in the arm or leg, probably justifiable. A bullet to the kneecap or similar that will be permanently debilitating, and you're getting into dark territory. But a shot intentionally aimed at the head when there's no weapon out/being aimed (though with all the confusion I might have missed that)? If your resource doesn't say, "Yeah, we were encouraged to avoid that" :o) I'll be astounded.

Besides, if you're gonna plead "real, modern world," do you really think a lawsuit wouldn't happen? :op

Nate's still on Hold, so: Maintaining his current status -- arms half up, standing still, not talking. And watching everything like a hawk.