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 Episode 1: The Snake In the Stone  Well. There's a headline to set the stomach acid churning. Though come to think of it, that could just be the diner coffee. But seriously. When, in your combined 30-odd years of experience, is it ever "acute anemia?" Well, I mean, apart from that one time in Duluth, but anemic or not that kid was possessed. Anyways, Cherokee's only a couple hours' drive from here, and thanks to the modern miracle of 4G LTE, you can do your basic homework on the road. (Here's the basic info to get started; if you want to dig into anything in particular in greater detail, roll Investigate a Mystery.) The Town  Google Earth View  Map View w/Useful Locations (You can't really see it on the map, but the Oconaluftee River follows roughly the course of Tsali Blvd through the town) Cherokee is a census designated place on the bank of the Oconaluftee River in North Carolina. It sits within the Qualla Boundary, a land trust supervised by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the home of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee (they being the Cherokee who were never rounded up and shipped off to Oklahoma). Most of the land was purchased in the early 1800s by one William Thomas, a white man who had been adopted by, and assimilated into, the Cherokee. The vast majority of its economy comes from tourism. Campers, hikers, and fishermen use it as a launching point into Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and of course there's Harrah's Cherokee Casino that brings in some $155,000,000 annually. A good part of that goes to tribe members directly. Some useful places for hunters:
The Victims Not a whole lot of web presence on the Redbirds. Adam was a real estate agent, Sarah was an actuary. The name "Redbird" or "Red Bird" shows up in a few angry blog screeds about disenrollment scandals, but it's not clear whether they're talking about the victims or not. The daughter that found them is probably Rebecca Redbird, a senior at William & Mary who's not very good at setting her Facebook privacy settings. She's got a couple of status updates about heading back to Cherokee early yesterday, then nothing.  Adam Redbird  Sarah Redbird  Rebecca Redbird (Yes, I'm using stock photos for NPCs. Hopefully the iStockPhoto logo isn't too immersion-breaking, but I'm a) too cheap to buy them and b) not such a creeper as to troll random peoplre's Facebooks for pics of people to play characters that have been or will likely be eaten by monsters.) The Lore Oh boy, you've got a lot to go through here. Cherokee folklore is dense with witches and goblins and monsters, and on top of that you've got all manner of good old-fashioned Southern bogeymen, the Devil and various men said to be smarter and/or meaner than said Devil, werewolves, mountain beasts, conjure-men... lots of places to get started. Better get to it. (If anybody wants to do anything else before you all roll into town, that's cool, just let me know. Otherwise, what do you do as you roll into town? Assume that the mundane poo poo like booking a motel room, setting up any traveling library/research stations/whatever, happens off screen.) (Tobias, I forgot to ask this earlier, but I'm assuming since this is a road-trip game that your haven is a portable kind of thing rather than, say, a basement in South Dakota. What's it made up of, and where and how do you set it up?) GimpInBlack fucked around with this message at Jan 8, 2013 around 03:43 |
| # ? Jan 8, 2013 03:17 |
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| # ? May 19, 2013 20:06 |
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Cassie Calvert, On Route to Cherokee Cassie clacked up storm from the passenger seat. She'd gone over the story twice, then with a highlighter; it seemed the reporter wasn't in on the case. Although they could stop by the newspaper office and ask if anything got left out. Certain editors could be very persuasive, and she didn't-- "We need a shaman." She says, her voice clear that this is the start of The Conversation. "Out here, we get a freaky thing, and it's probably been around generations. Flashing lights is odd. Sam, you're a smart boy. We go after the daughter first, or find this anonymous source? The reporter's gotta know who the source is. We give her the basics - if you keep secrets from us, more people will die. Toss some shock. Could be fun." "Motel's already paid for under fake names. This time we are..." She pulls out a piece of paper and tosses out some fake names. "We're in town for the casino. S'all you need to know. Thank god for fillable credit cards." Sharp +2 to Investigate the Mystery! Specifically: who saw the lights/Where's an actual shaman going to hang out? quote:
Golden Bee fucked around with this message at Feb 20, 2013 around 01:25 |
| # ? Jan 8, 2013 09:47 |
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GimpInBlack posted:(Tobias, I forgot to ask this earlier, but I'm assuming since this is a road-trip game that your haven is a portable kind of thing rather than, say, a basement in South Dakota. What's it made up of, and where and how do you set it up?) OOC: I imagine he'd set it up in the back of the van a best he could. A couple of protective circles on the doors and walls to turn the thing into a mini fortress, an locked travelling chest to keep all his special stuff in and a tool kit for weapon and equipment repair. He's travelled before so he probably knows how to get by on the minimums. Tobias Castleford, also on route to Cherokee Tobias dozes in the back of the van, using his chest as a backrest. Sure it wasn't comfortable, but it made sure no one tried to have a peak inside. He could hear Cassie in the cab battering away on the keys of her laptop, he imagined he'd need to do a little repair work on the keys at this rate. But she was good at what she did, a hotel pre-booked? Classy. He sat up and stretched, about time to make himself useful he supposed. He tried to remember if he had any contacts in Cherokee, it would certainly help them in the long run if they needed some special materials for the job. He pulled out a little pad he kept with him and had a flick through, names and contact details of buyers and sellers of occult good. As he flicked through he called out to their driver, Clayton "How far out are we? Might be worth grabbing a bite to eat and some fresh air before we check in at the hotel, get an idea of the people around town and who it's worth knowing about." Sharp +2 on a roll of Preparedness to see if I know anyone in town that I could get goods or information from. (Not really sure if I'm meant to use the move this way, but it seemed more appropriate then Investigate the Mystery!)
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| # ? Jan 8, 2013 12:36 |
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Samuel Bright - On road to Cherokee Samuel looked up from his smart phone and accepted his fake ID with a nod. Anemia, eh? The loss of oxygen to the organs resulting in a long slow drawn out death. If that was indeed the case then the neighbors would probably have seen something. They could look into that once they started looking for this witness. After all he was a neighbor apparently. The Shaman was a good suggestion, but they couldn't rule out the possibility that whatever did this was a nomad, or a hibernator. Although if it was indeed a local beastie then it couldn't hurt to look into local myths and legends of the place. They would have to look into what groups lived here over time as well. "We'll look into the Witness first. While we're looking we can try and get a read on how sudden the Anemia was, while we're at it we can see if anyone knows where the daughter is staying. Which for all we know might be in the same house as her fokes died in. Other than that I think we could all do with stretching our legs. Plus it'll give me some time to glance over the trinket's shop, check to see if they've actually got anything magical." Arashiofordo3 posted:
Arashiofordo3 fucked around with this message at Jan 30, 2013 around 02:11 |
| # ? Jan 8, 2013 15:06 |
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Tobias rolls his eyes. Because they're really going to have magical goods out where anyone could take them. "Look kid, I know you're not much of a collector, but take it from me. No one knowingly puts magic stuff out in a trinket shop. If they're something useful it'll be maybe protective charms based on 'real charms used by real tribal indians' or some other tourist trap gimmick, and then only because some of them will have incredibly minor protective properties due to them poorly copying actual protective charms. Don't hold out much hope unless a genuine to god Sharman we're looking for owns the concessions stand. Even then, he'll keep the good stuff for people he actually likes and cares about while he tries to protect his community." "Also, don't start blatantly asking where the poor girl lives like some stalker. In fact, let someone who doesn't look like he's trying to stare through people's souls do the talking, it'll unnerve them less. Lee, you're good with..." He searched for the right word and settled for "...people. Why don't you give it a shot when you find a convenient moment and a local gossiper?"
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| # ? Jan 8, 2013 16:18 |
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Samuel Bright "Why is it old man you automatically assume that I have no idea what I'm doing?" Sam asked in a light hearted slightly amused manner. "And I've got at least a few more social skills then a psychotic serial killer to boot. Besides, my point is that if we can eliminate what it not responsible then we can focus on the few answers which remain. I want to be sure that they're not selling something actually magical, like that one wiccen shop in Baltimore that was selling genuine working witchcraft. Shouldn't take too long, five minutes at most. Plus, depending on who runs it they might be able to point us to the local elder or shaman."
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| # ? Jan 8, 2013 17:04 |
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Lee - In the Van Lee sat, legs stretched and crossed in front of him extending the width of the van, his back pressed against the side wall. Trying, and usually failing, to find a comfortable reading position so he can enjoy his lovely airport fiction. Turns out, books for reading on an airplane work just as well for reading on long-rear end road trips through all the flat, boring states (aka most of them). This one in particular was a translated German book, which makes it fuckin' hilarious, about werewolves or "Loup Garou" or some poo poo like that. Lee mostly picked it up because the back cover was so poorly translated, the rest of the book needed to be seen. It sure as hell didn't disappoint. The others were planning the investigation, and Lee had been volunteered to be the one to gather the local gossip. Again. I mean, it's not like the rest of them are exactly people persons, but Lee didn't feel confident in his usual plan of action. "Man, I don't know. I usually talk up the local barflys, but drinking on an Indian Reservation is just... depressing, y'know? I mean, I could try finding the daughter or the neighbor, but what they tell me is all up to them."
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| # ? Jan 8, 2013 17:12 |
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Cassie, so how are you planning to find this out? I mean, if you're still just internet searching in the car, I'm not seeing how you're going to find an anonymous source's name. You'd have to go grill the reporter if you want specifics. On the other hand, from the map it doesn't look like the Redbirds had more than a couple of neighbors with line of sight to the house. You could just start knocking on doors. As far as shamans, pretty much everything you can find on-line has the stink of bogus tourist trap on it. I mean, if you want to go pay $50 an hour to have somebody burn ceremonial tobacco around you, knock yourself out, but you're probably going to need to do some asking around town if you want to find a serious practitioner. Tobias, I don't think that's really how Preparedness works. It's more for having the right ancient blade blessed by mute Laotian nuns on hand or the right spellbook with the incantation to banish the demon or whatever. Out of the box uses for moves are cool, but the key parts of Preparedness's trigger is that you need something and it's unusual or rare. If you want to be super connected with buddies in every town, we can do you up a custom move based on the Flake's Net Friends that you can take when you advance. So what do you do? Bear in mind you don't have to fit everything you do into the framework of a move--moves only happen when what you're doing meets one of the trigger conditions, so it's totally cool to just say "I go knock on some doors" or "I go talk to the cops" or whatever, and when the scene calls for a move, I'll let you know. Lee and Samuel, sounds like you're on interview duty? So who's taking who, and how are you going about it? Just going to go see if the Rebecca Redbird is at her parents house?
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| # ? Jan 8, 2013 19:37 |
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Cassie Calvert - Closer to Town "Whatever you say Sam. We're not here to stockpile hokum; we find this bastard, and we wipe its tongue with its rear end." Cassie pauses a minute, lets the green mountains whiz by. I'm gonna go after the daughter. The witness might well be in on it, crazy, or a dead frickin' end. Her, she got a reason to stop this thing, no matter what. Unless there were some mysterious poo poo going down at William and Mary?" More tapping. "I'll go with Toby I guess. Lee, you're a social butterfly. Think you can keep Sam's foot out of his mouth?" I can certainly go through a campus newspaper from the car...you're right, investigating sources is an 'in person' thing. Once we get to town, I'm gonna be CONTRARY and go to the daughter first. She'll have house keys and access to the morgue, unless she's already went. I'll mark one XP when I ignore perfectly good advice to listen to perfectly better advice. I think Step Daughter/Rebel is a funny combination to confront a Bereaved Daughter. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at Jan 8, 2013 around 22:26 |
| # ? Jan 8, 2013 22:24 |
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pre:
"Probably be a restaurant at the hotel, but we won't get much info there. We can ask at the desk if there's a local joint nearby, might be able to see if there are any rumors. There's always a slice of truth in rumors. Food will be better too. After that we can split up. I'd like to check out the crime scene." Clayton drives the van to the EconoLodge when they get into town. wzzard fucked around with this message at Feb 18, 2013 around 23:35 |
| # ? Jan 9, 2013 00:24 |
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THE WRONGED
NAME: Clayton Jones
LOOK: an older man with sad eyes who wears army surplus gear
RATINGS:
Charm +1
Cool =0*
Sharp +1
Tough +2*
Weird -1
LOSS
Seeking revenge against demons for the death of his best friend.
He couldn't save him because he denied the existence of demons.
Moves
I Know My Prey: +1 ongoing when you are (knowingly)
investigating, pursuing, or fighting the type of monster that
caused your loss.
NEVER AGAIN: In combat, you may choose to Protect
Someone without rolling, as if you had rolled a 10+, but you
may not choose to “suffer little harm.”
Tools Matter: With your signature weapon, you get +1 to
kick some rear end.
What Does Not Kill Me...: If you have suffered harm in a
fight, you gain +1 ongoing until the fight is over.
Gear
Signature weapon: Hand cannon (3-harm close loud)
Brass Knuckles (1-harm hand stealthy)
Hunting Rifle (2-harm far loud)
Flac Jacket (1-armour)
Plain van
XP
[][][][][]
Harm
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Golden Bee posted:I can certainly go through a campus newspaper from the car...you're right, investigating sources is an 'in person' thing. OOC - I'm not sure if that's how Contrary works, since you need peoples honest and true advice, which I feel is a little more heartfelt then general making plan advice. I'd see it as "If you continue down this path you'll be killed!" Rather then "Don't get soya milk, you hate soya milk" but it's up to Gimp. Also, fair enough. I'll just go with me not knowing any dealers in this town and grab an advanced move later. Tobias closed his notepad. Not a single guy, likely the pickings weren't too good around here then. So it goes. "Alright, I still think we should get some food first. You get cranky on an empty stomach Cass." He climbs from the van, checking everything was secure before stashing his knife in his jacket. Always paid to be prepared. "Everyone make sure to bring their 'Essentials' with them." He made sure they knew what he meant, a concealable weapon that wouldn't draw too much suspicion. "Also, we need to set a rally point. Best for it not to be the hotel... Then they'd know where we sleep. Probably the visitors centre or a dinner somewhere would be my suggestions. Anyone got any better ideas? I'm open to suggestions."
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| # ? Jan 9, 2013 01:22 |
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Cassie Cassie gives Tobias the same f-off look that accompanied his last five "baby Cassie" remarks. "Staging place is the behind the theater, off Tsalagi. Paul's diner is too far away for a pinch. Big guns stay in the van." Standard procedure. But standard procedure was a good baseline for when things get hosed up. "If everyone wants to lie down a bit and stretch their legs, that's fine. Take twenty to do whatcha have to, take a leak, and then we'll hit the town." Cass folded her laptop into a carry-bag and tossed on her coat. The coat was like the afternoon; gray, patchy, not tremendously comforting. Filled with knives. "Welcome to the Rez, boys." I assume that medical care will be painful, but not bureaucratic, unless we're going to be going more "Sicko" than "Fargo". And if everything's made of lies, it's more fun for it to come tumbling down, eh?
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| # ? Jan 9, 2013 01:58 |
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Lee Lee climbs out the back of the van, stretching in an exaggerated motion, arms above the head. "I'm with Bright, huh? Well, I guess if anyone can keep his dead-eye glare from scaring the locals away, it should be me." At the mention of Essentials, he pats his chest, feeling the telltale bump of a semi-well-concealed revolver held safely in a holster, along with the weight of the butterfly knife in his pocket. Not exactly heavy artillery, but useful for the desperate self-defense Lee usually has to throw up whenever bad poo poo starts going down. It's also at this point Lee realizes that his clothes are clinging to him in the wrong kind of ways. "Uhh, mind if I take a quick shower? Long car rides always make me feel a bit, uh, greasy. 'specially if it's in the back of a van."
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| # ? Jan 9, 2013 05:56 |
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Tobias smiled back at Cassie's gently caress off look before nodding to Lee. "Go get that shower, I'm sure Sam can entertain himself for twenty minutes or so. Also see if you can pick up some local maps from the hotel if you get the chance. Might be something on there that's not on google. Now, since I'm heading to the dinner, is there anything anyone wants to eat? I'll do a refreshment run. Leave the food in the Van for when you're ready to get going and need a snack along the way."
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| # ? Jan 9, 2013 10:55 |
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Clayton "Walkies would be real useful if we're splitting up, quicker than calling on a phone that's for sure. You got any Tobo? I know you carry around a bunch of stuff." wzzard fucked around with this message at Jan 9, 2013 around 16:35 |
| # ? Jan 9, 2013 16:29 |
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Cass - Econo Lodge Cassie signs the group in, not lingering too long in the cold. "Walkies are obvious. We got phones, they're harder to crack the frequency of. Ya'll got me on speed dial, right?" She gives a real sweet smile to the woman behind the desk. "Hey, doll! Can you tell me which slots are the loosest? I'm only off work for a lil' bit, so I want to rake in as much as I can." She makes doe eyes. "And is there anywhere with...you know...real magic? I've always been kinda a fan."
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| # ? Jan 9, 2013 17:54 |
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Samuel - Econo Lodge car park Stretching his arms above his head, Sam tried to work the knots out of his shoulders. Honestly he could do with a shower as well... after all, if they were going to play meet 'n' greet he might as well try and look like a normal person. "Sounds like a plan Lee, could do with a wash myself. Twenty minutes should be more than enough. I'll meet you back out by the van." Sam goes to grab a shower. (Presumably from his room at the hotel.)
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| # ? Jan 9, 2013 20:31 |
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Okay, so sounds like Clayton and Cassie are heading to the victims' house to talk to the daughter/examine the crime scene while Lee and Samuel run down the guy that claimed to see the lights? Do I have that right? Tobias, what are you doing? The Redbirds' house sits in a little valley just off Yellow Hill road, a ways east of town. It's a big, rambling kind of place, a little New England in style for the area, but nice. Clearly Adam Red Bird was doing all right for himself.  Like this. Marring the picturesque grounds, you can still make out the signs of the recent police investigation. Police Line tape wrapped around a tree, tire tracks from the ambulance, that kind of thing. There are lights on inside, so you assume somebody's home. (Cass and Clay, I'm assuming you're gonna knock--if not, feel free to ignore this bit and tell me what you do instead.) It takes a few rings on the doorbell and a minute or two of vigorous knocking, but finally you hear the deadbolt click back. Rebecca, you recognize her from the pictures on-line, opens the door. She does that thing people do when they don't want to totally ignore the door, but don't want to seem inviting either--you know, door open just enough to lean her head and a shoulder out, hand clearly still on the knob. Her eyes are red and puffy, like she's been crying. A lot. She doesn't seem terribly interested in you. "Look, if this is about the lawsuit, I told the last reporter I don't know what's gonna happen now. Kinda low on my list of priorities, you know?" *-* Sam and Lee, this little cul-de-sac's pretty lightly populated. The first couple of doors you knock on are polite but obviously don't want to talk to you, but eventually you get a teenager who figures out what you're on to and points you to "the crazy guy who lives in the cabin." Apparently he's the usual one to report strange lights and weird phenomena. It's about a twenty minute hike up the hill to where the kid pointed out, but sure enough there's a little cabin up there, and it's got a pretty decent sightline down to the back of the victims' house. You barely have time to tap the door before it's thrown open by this guy:  The octopus is optional. "Are you from the government?"
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| # ? Jan 10, 2013 05:53 |
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Clayton Clayton speaks in that dry direct way of his, "Actually Rebecca, we wanted to ask you some questions about your parents, if it's not too much trouble. My name is Clayton. Sorry for your lose." If she is willing to talk: Investigate a Mystery! +Sharp (2d6 +1=9)
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| # ? Jan 10, 2013 14:01 |
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Lee Well this should be fun. "Man, if we were from the government, do you really think we'd be investigating anything on an Indian reservation? Me and my friend here are just looking into some strange goings-on around here, we were told you may have seen something related to what happened to the Red Birds. You got anything to tell us about that?" (Investigate a Mystery 2d6+1=12)
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| # ? Jan 10, 2013 18:52 |
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Cassie C Cassie softens on seeing the crying girl. "Sssh, shush up Clay. We're from a few towns over, and we heard about all the poo poo you'd been goin' through...lawsuits, really? So we just thought we'd come by, sit a spell, make sure you was okay." She extends an arm, pats Rebecca on the shoulder. "Nobody oughta go through what you did. You been gettin' a lot of visitors? This town takin' care of you, or is it just a lotta bullshit?" With my natural charisma, Cassie gets 2d6+2=13 but it should be a 12, I added my sharp by accident instead of charm. Still, a twelve.
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| # ? Jan 10, 2013 19:05 |
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Tobias walks over to the visitors centre, throwing a half eaten chicken burger into the bin as he goes. He'd had some ropey sandwiches before, but that one took the cake. He reckoned the others had gotten to where they were going by now. So he decided not to send them a text advising them to avoid that dinner like the plague. At least, not till later. For now he'd busy himself with local history and legends. Make a head start on those since they always took the longest. He'd look through newspapers first to see if there was any history of this sort of death happening around here. Investigate the Mystery: What happened here? 2d6+2=9
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| # ? Jan 10, 2013 19:38 |
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Sorry guys! I'm not dead, just crunching for a major January 31st deadline. My posting might be somewhat slow during the week, but I'm not abandoning the game. Cassie and Clayton, I'm assuming Cass is Manipulating Rebecca by offering sympathy? I'll buy that. And Clay is investigating, right? At least, that's what I got from your statements of intent. For future reference, if multiple hunters are Investigating the same way, I'd prefer to handle that as one primary actor with the others assisting--otherwise the number of questions getting answered gets a little nuts. In this case, though, all's well. Cass, you got what you wanted (inside the house and Rebecca will talk to you), and Clayton, you've got one question from the list to ask any time during this scene. Rebecca kind of rolls her eyes,but she opens the door to let you both in. "Oh yeah, it's goddamn casserole city in here. You want one? Swear to God, some people don't know how to express grief except through baked goods." Sure enough, there's about 20 or so earthenware dishes stacked on just about every available surfaces. Becca waves you vaguely toward the living room and retrieves a half-empty bottle of beer from behind a potted plant near the door. "So... what? You friends of my dad's or something?" *-* Lee, you already rolled a 12, so there's no point in waiting for Samuel to aid you. You've got 2 hold to spend on questions from the investigate a mystery move. The old man laughs. "Hell, you're definitely not from the government, asking me poo poo like that. Government fuckers usually just shoot me full of Brain-O, try and make me forget what I seen." He leans in conspiratorially. "Jokes on them. I write it all down. On the internet." He lets you inside, and sadly for conspiracy enthusiasts everywhere, this guy is living the cliche. Newspaper clippings tacked up everywhere, one of those X-Files "I Want To Believe" posters that's probably been up since that was a current cultural reference, and dominating the south wall one of those conspiracy theory org charts. As near as you can make out, the US Federal government has at least thirteen shadow governments, and three of them are Air Canada. "Yeah, I saw what happened. Police tried to tell me it was somebody with a flashlight, but you tell me: what kinda guy with a flashlight can go from the downstairs parlor to the upstairs bedroom in a second flat? Maybe the Flash broke in, am I right?" *-* Tobias, you spend a few hours at the visitor center, poring over regional history and gossiping with the old dude behind the counter. In between ramblings about stupid tourists expecting a town full of Tonto's (there follows a five-minute diatribe about how if he opened a bar called "How, White Man" he'd make more money than the drat casino) and the kinds of petty feuds that always comprise 85% of small-town gossip, he let's slip how bad he feels for that nice Redbird girl. "First her grandpa and now her parents? That's just poo poo luck." (In light of my rather sluggish posting rate, I'm gonna assume you follow up on that nugget.) "Oh yeah," he says. "Old Joe Red Bird. Been on the tribal council for, oh, 25 years now. Anyway, last week he's hiking in the Smokies--can you believe that, eighty-three years old and he's healthier than I am!--and he just up and suffers a massive stroke. Some campers found him the next morning, or he probably would have died up there. Last I heard he still hasn't woken up." GimpInBlack fucked around with this message at Jan 12, 2013 around 18:45 |
| # ? Jan 12, 2013 07:00 |
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Lee "poo poo, if it were the Flash I'd be way more psyched to be here." Lee scans the room for a decent place to take a seat, fails to find one, and settles to just look like he's taking an interest in the Conspirachart. "Unfortunately, I think you and I both know that it's probably a more garden-variety supernatural phenomena. Though, you would know more about it, seeing as you're the one who witnessed it. What did you see in the house, exactly? It had to have been more than some lights." In case it's not clear, I'm asking "What Happened Here?"
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 07:45 |
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Cassandra The Calvert Girl slips a bit of base-paper into a casserole, and seeing it's potable, digs in. It looked better than the stuff at the motor lodge, and there's no way the creature poisoned it; the food was brought in by Rebecca, who was still alive. She takes half a beer too; why the hell not? Only polite. "Anyone dislikes Uncle Sam is a friend of mine. Your dad knew a lot of people." Not a lie; she covers it with a mouthful of Bud and green beans. "One sec, got a text." She nudges Clayton, whips out her phone, and begins filling Lee and Tobias in on the story. "Nasty habit of mine, I'm so sorry. I should run this thing under a faucet, but..." She remembers what she told Clay on the way up: they'd need a good look at this place, or at least a way to sneak in later. "You got a bathroom? This runs right through me." Gonna skulk off and look around. Gonna run water in the sink so I don't get heard. +Sharp would be +2, but I feel this is an unopposed thing; if the creature wasn't hiding anything, and the cops weren't either, I should find something.
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 09:39 |
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Tobias barely flinched when his phone went off with a text. Instead smiling apologetically "That'll be my god daughter, always worrying about me like I'm some wrinkled old invalid." He chuckles and shakes his head "I'll get it in a second. You were telling me about Joe Red Bird? What was he like? Must have been quite the man to be on the council for 25 years and still be hiking at 83"
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 13:16 |
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Sam - Conspiracy theorist's Hut He made sure his eyes passed over everything, looking for the most important spots of information. If this guy is a conspiracy theorist then he should have some focus. Aliens, vampires, the JFK assassination, whatever. Depending on what it was he might have actually picked up some useful information amongst what would probably amount to his crazy delusions. investigate the mystery: -2d6=12
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 13:56 |
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(Hold Tracker: Just for ease of keeping things straight: Samuel has 2-hold, Clayton has 1-hold, Lee has 1-hold remaining, Cassie and Tobias have 0-hold. Sound correct?) Lee, the old guy--whose name, if I didn't mention it before, is Mitchell Parker--gets this big, poo poo-eating grin on his face. You can tell this guy just loves having an audience. "I could tell you that... or I could show you the video." He drags out this ancient TV and one of those old double-decker tape recorders, like TV stations used to use for editing videotape before everything went digital. He futzes around with it a little bit, then the screen flares to phosphorescent light. "This is from about 10:30 last night," he says--which is kind of redundant since the tape is timestamped, but, well, you know. The image is pretty grainy, but it clearly shows the Redbirds' house in its little clearing. About 15 seconds into the video this little light--it's hard to tell from the low-fi video, but it's probably about the size of a basketball--comes zipping through the trees from off to the northeast. It's glowing pretty bright blue, and you figure it's doing at least eighty. It zaps around the outside of the house, window to window, and then suddenly it's inside the house (even though you can't see any way for it to have gotten in; none of the windows are broken). It stays in one of the upstairs rooms for about 30 seconds, and you guess this must be when it killed the victims because the light slowly turns from blue to red. Then the thing bops around inside the house for a bit like it's looking for something, and finally zips off back the way it came. "So," Mitchell says as he switches the TV off with a satisfied smirk. "You tell me. Was that a burglar with a flashlight?" (Sam, you've got two questions. What would you ask of the bigass conspiracy chart, bearing in mind that Lee already asked "what happened here?") *-* Cass, yeah, this doesn't warrant an opposed roll if you're just taking a look see for obvious stuff. So, you slip out of the bathroom, using this poor orphaned girl's water bill as your cover, and start poking around. (The bathroom is, conveniently, upstairs, so you've got access to the actual crime scene.) The first thing you notice is how, well, orderly everything is. There's no sign of forced entry anywhere you can see, and the only disturbances in the bedroom are pretty obviously just from coroners coming in to take the bodies out. There aren't even any telltale signs of cleaned-up bloodstains. (If you want more than that surface level of detail, you can roll some dice. *-* Tobias, the clerk gets a sort of sour look on his face. "Well, between you and me, he wasn't all that popular with some folks. Couple months back there was a vote in the Council to tighten up tribal membership requirements. Joe basically got it railroaded through, and suddenly a lot of folks who used to be Cherokee weren't Cherokee anymore according to the law." He shrugs bitterly. "But hey, fewer tribe members means bigger shares of the casino's profit, right? Anyway, it was a big scandal, there was a lawsuit pending over it. And from what I hear," he adds in a stage whisper calculated to be overheard by everybody in the store, "his daughter-in-law was the one that organized it." GimpInBlack fucked around with this message at Jan 12, 2013 around 18:50 |
| # ? Jan 12, 2013 18:45 |
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Cassandra She was eight the first time they ever called Cassie 'Crazy'. She wasn't, but they said it anyway, and they meant it. She was searching through her dad's room, desperate to find some proof that he was alive, that he loved her. So she put on one of his ties, pretended to be him...and when they stumbled upon her, they called her 'crazy'. Well she wasn't crazy, but very few eight year olds can articulate that. Especially when they can't explain why dough and rough sound different, or how a motor works - interlocking theories of sanity are more of a high school thing. She found a letter, addressed Cassie, and hid it until she could read cursive. Poor girl downstairs. That's what she thinks about as she absentmindly searches the room, car keys clutched in her pocket. 2d6+2=12 Killin' it withe die rolls!
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 20:11 |
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Clayton "We have reason to believe that there is more going on with your parent's deaths then acute anemia." Clayon asks Rebecca if there are any strange circumstances linked with her parent's deaths and asks if there was anything odd going on before it happened. Spending 1 Hold to ask: What happened here?
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 20:31 |
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God drat, you guys really don't want to give me opportunities for hard moves do you? Okay, Cassie, ask your questions. In the interests of honesty, I'll tell you right now you guys collectively have a good handle on "what happened here?" based on the crime-scene evidence. Clayton, Rebecca tells you much the same thing that the gossipy store clerk is telling Tobias back in town. Her grandfather had a stroke a few days ago, and she thinks it was caused by the stress. See, her dad and her grandpa had a huge fight over this lawsuit her mom was helping to organize. Something about casino profits, but she doesn't really follow local politics all that much. Anyways, some pretty nasty poo poo was said, and it got so bad the neighbors called the cops, or at least that's what Rebecca's mom said on the phone last time they talked.
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 20:45 |
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I'm going to spend both to ask, 1) What is the focus of his conspiracy? 'What does he seem to be leaning towards as a culprit and what is being covered up?' That sort of thing. 2) What events are used as evidence to prove the conspiracy? Are there more unexplained deaths? Samuel - Conspiracy theorist's Hut Sam groaned inwardly, this guy was one of those smug, 'I know something you don't know' nutballs. Wonderful. He covered this though by dropping his head down to his palm and muttering. "Poor guys, never stood a chance."
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 21:03 |
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Arashiofordo3 posted:I'm going to spend both to ask, 1) What is the focus of his conspiracy? 'What does he seem to be leaning towards as a culprit and what is being covered up?' That sort of thing. Those are fine questions, but they aren't really from the Investigate a Mystery list. I'll give you the first one, because "what is being concealed here?" is pretty close, but number two doesn't really fit. As a reminder, the investigate a mystery questions are:
(Not all of those will make sense with every mystery, but if you can justify how you're pulling an answer out of whatever you're investigating, I'll allow it. If not, it doesn't use up any of your hold.) It takes you a minute of scanning, but eventually you spot the article about the Redbirds' deaths; the same one that drew you guys here, in fact. Trying to trace it up to a culprit is basically impossible, this is crazy-person logic. It pings from Freemasons to double agents from the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma to the guy who invented the Roomba. Of interest, though, is the little sideline coming off of the Redbirds article. There's about a dozen old, yellowing newspaper clippings that date back a quarter-century or so, and they're all some variant on "Local Businessman Makes Lucky Break." Property purchases that just skyrocket in value, historical nick-knacks that turn out to be worth thousands of dollars, that sort of thing. And they're all people named Red Bird, Redbird, Byrd, and so forth. The whole section is circled in thick black magic marker with question marks surrounding it.
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 21:20 |
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Ah, okay, totally forgot about the pre-defined list of questions. I'll hang onto my other one right now, as this guy might not have any more for us. Samuel Huh, seems like twenty five years ago any redbirds found themselves the holders of one hell of a lucky streak. Could be that a deal went down with something supernatural, times up and now it's looking to collect. Or someone broke the bargain. "So, tell me Mitchell, what exactly do you think that little light show is?"
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 21:31 |
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"Aliens, obviously. Miniaturized ones. So they can sneak past our radar defenses." Mitchell says this as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 21:33 |
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Do I get two or three? In order of priority: What can hurt it, where did it go, and last, what kind of creature is it?
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 23:06 |
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Golden Bee posted:Do I get two or three? In order of priority: What can hurt it, where did it go, and last, what kind of creature is it? You get two. Gonna have to ask you how you plan to figure out what can hurt it from a more-or-less undisturbed crime scene when you don't know what it is, but I'll answer the second one for you for now. So, Cass, you've been at this long enough to know that "died of acute anemia" is pretty much universal mundane code for "some jacked-up nightmare drank all his blood." And the funny thing about bloodsuckers is this: every single critter you've ever seen or heard of that drinks blood has a dormant phase. The classic of course is a vampire sleeping during the day, but there's always some kind of cycle, and that means the thing's always got a lair. Best guess is this thing hosed off to its hidey-hole to sleep off its meal. (Once you guys reconvene and compare notes, based on the video Lee and Sam saw, you'll be able to narrow that down to "it's probably holed up in a cave up in the mountains.")
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 23:26 |
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"So there's some bad blood between Red Bird and the Redbirds and then all that happens? Gosh when it rains it pours. Poor kid, losing her grand pa and then her parents. That ain't right. So what did Red Bird do on the council? Aside from make a lot of people unhappy"
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 23:40 |
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Thank you John, for pointing out this question Samuel loving Aliens? REALLY? Samuel fought the urge to blow the roof of the shack at this brain dead dolts idiocy! Aliens weren't real, there was enough horrible poo poo down here on earth without wishing for horrible things from outer space! Sam found his moment of clarity and nodded at the answer as if it was exactly the one he expected and agreed entirely. "Yo, what did you say your web address was? I might have come across your work before. Also, on a completely unrelated note, why were you filming the Redbird household?"
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 23:46 |
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| # ? May 19, 2013 20:06 |
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Taking this OOC for a minute, folks. In the interests of pacing, I'm going to suggest a slight tweak to the investigate a mystery move: namely, when you've spent all your hold, asked and had all your questions answered, that means you've run that avenue of investigation down and it's probably time to move on to a new scene. You guys are all being awesome and diligent and asking the kinds of follow-up questions that, in a real mystery, would be the kinds of things you'd want to know, but I've seen way too many investigation games dragged down to a standstill because players get paranoid that if they don't ask that one right question they're going to miss the vital clue that makes the whole thing make sense. And in certain games and with certain GMs, that's definitely something to worry about. So, in the interests of the Keeper's principles (in particular, "Always say what honesty demands" and "Always say what your prepared mysteries and arcs demand"), I'm just going to lay it out there. This isn't a "gotcha" game and I'm not a "gotcha" GM. When you ask an investigate a mystery question, it's my job to give you all the pertinent info that you can get from that line of investigation. Sometimes that's going to be fragmentary, but if it is, it's because you can't get the full picture from this autopsy/interviewing that witness/studying those tracks or whatever and you need to pursue other avenues, not because you didn't think to type "ask about blue-footed snood" to the NPC who happens to know about the blue-footed snood. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the character development and the roleplaying, I just know my posting time over the next few weeks is going to be limited, and I want to keep the pace of things moving. Tobias, the Tribal Council is the legislative branch of the Band's government, so basically Joe Red Bird was a senator. The council's way too small for any particular representative to specialize or anything like that, so he wasn't on any particular committees or anything. Samuel, have you seen this dude? He's a crazy conspiracy hack. Guy's probably got cameras all over his property, rigged to motion sensors in case the Government comes to get him. You don't get any vibe off this guy that he's stalking the Redbirds or anything.
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| # ? Jan 13, 2013 00:25 |
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