Thor Olavsrud
06-06-2005, 12:28 AM
Wow, totally hot session tonight! Sadly, lil' Rich couldn't make it as work was especially demanding tonight. :(
Since Rich's character is pretty integral to the plot that we'd been working on at the end of session I (indoctrinating some dancers and infiltrating them into the palace), we decided that this session would focus on other areas while the Hujjat was busy with his brainwashing.
We started things off with the characters holding a meeting on where the Pandavas might be hiding their family Atomics. We did a test in which they studied their maps and information to determine where they were. They managed a lot of successes (5 or 6, I think), so I told them they were pretty sure they'd located at least a few of the silos on the surface of the planet, but wouldn't know if they had found all of them unless they could turn someone deep in the organization of Lord Bhurutu, the Warmaster.
Anyway, I noticed during this that we have no recon or surveillance skills. I ended up handling it with a combination of wises and Observation, but we could handle that aspect better, I think.
Andy started things off determined to have Bindari determine the source of the hole in his network (since his network in the palace got outed and rolled up). He chose a lieutenant at random (in his business network, not the Jihad), and sent Big Rich's character, Khalid, to assassinate him!
Bindari handed Khalid the keys to the lieutenant's warehouse, and Khalid stealthed in and waited in his office. As soon as the lieutenant came into his office in the morning, Khalid came out and stabbed him in the throat. He cut off the head and made sure it would be found by the next person into the office.
We did a quick roll or two in which Andy sought to figure out who the actual mole was. He managed a few successes and I pinpointed someone that had been in contact with one of the leaders of the smugglers on Kuru
Bindari used the assassination as an excuse to call in all his lieutenants and scare the shit out of them. But he told them the mole had been found and taken care of, aiming to make the real mole think he had some breathing room.
In the meantime, suspecting the Syndicate had been part of the leak, Tom had his character, Shining Mind Muwat, make a Circles test to set up a meeting with his Syndicate Representative contact, Caius. He met his obstacle, but hadn't specified a time, so I told him we'd hold the meeting later in the session.
Meanwhile, Shining Mind and Khalid were going to try to do some recon on the silos they thought they'd found. They went to the safehouse (a cave/hangar owned by lil' Rich) where Shining Mind's ornithopter was stored. He played his Instinct, "Get back in the air ONLY in a vehicle I have inspected...thoroughly."
Since Tom had the instinct, and he wanted to roll for it (and he had now used his interplanetary reputation TWICE in Circles tests), I decided to spice things up with a little conflict. I told Tom that his Obstacle was 4. He pulled in all his skills, from Ornithopter-wise (the primary) to Fabrication, Alien Technology, and a ton of other FoRKs. Tom managed 6 or 7 successes, and found a bomb on his ornithopter! It was a very sophisticated device, designed to trigger with a change in air pressure.
Big Rich busted out Khalid's Munitions skill, some Help from Shining Mind, and Persona to disarm the thing (Ob 4). He succeeded. I decided to escalate a little further, and just as Rich succeeded, men with rifles burst into the hangar. We did a quick positioning test in which Tom and Rich were heavily outgunned (the enemy had more men, longer weapons, plus range dice, etc.) But Tom and Rich managed to barely pull it out with Artha.
Since we had a good A New Hope/fleeing the stormtroopers vibe going on, I decided to push it a little more. I told Tom he needed to make a piloting test against their Speed test in order to get out of the hangar, adding that Rich (who Assessed the men as he was getting into the thopter, had spotted a man kneeling and hastily calibrating a lasgun! I made it clear: win the test and you're out. Lose the test and they're going to get a shot at you with that lasgun.
I gave Tom a few Advantage dice since the thopter was pretty fast. He pulled it out, and they zoomed out of the hangar before the soldiers could get off a shot.
Tom wanted to proceed to surveill the silos, but without telling him no, I noted: if that was the Pandavas that just tried to blow you up and then take you out, there's a good chance that this will be even more hazardous than flying through highly restricted military airspace normally would be. Absorbing that, Tom decided not to risk it and to land at the smuggler's base he had appropriated from the former owner in the last session. So I reminded him that he had rather publicly sent the "former owner's feet" to the former owner's rival (the leader of the smugglers and a man the characters are pretty sure is in tight with the Pandavas). "There's a good chance that they'll be looking for you here."
Tom absorbed that and I could see the wheels REALLY turning in his head. Then I saw a sparkle in his eyes. I think it's time I meet with Caius now. We're cutting off the Salt to this planet. It's done. "I radio the Syndicate bank and tell them they have 30 seconds to clear me for landing!"
Tom sent a coded message to Anthony's character, Mujaahid, informing him that it was time to cut off the flow of Salt to the planet. Anthony promptly got the message to Bindari through coded channels.
Now, we hadn't discussed all their codes and fallback plans before this, but we all agreed that this was a basic strategy that would have been part of discussions in the planning phases of this mission. At this point, Tom said "Do I know where the Syndicate's Salt stockpiles are?" I had them roll for it (and allowed everyone that wanted to to Help -- like I said, we agreed that they would have planned for this contingency). Tom succeeded. "It's in the Syndicate bank, the building where you're trying land right now!"
With Andy's approval, Anthony got his men together and began planning a raid on the Syndicate's Salt. With all Salt to the planet cut off, and the Syndicate's stockpiles seized, the Syndicate would be completely at the Jihad's mercy.
Shining Mind and Caius held a Duel of Wits as Tom tried to force him to come clean on the Syndicate's complicity in leaking information to the Pandavas, using the threat to the Salt as leverage. Tom annihilated Caius in the DoW (Tom didn't lose a single point from his 15 point Body of Argument!). Just as Tom crushed him, we 'wiped' to Anthony's unit breaking into the bank.
They got inside without a hitch, but set off an alarm when heading down into the building's sub-basement. As they were coming down the stairs, two guards with rifles ran out to the landing below them. We did a quick Positioning test (Anthony got helping dice from all his men, and closed with them easily!). I had the other players each script for one of Anthony's Fedayin. The Fedayin cut them down in moments. One of them was still alive and Anthony pumped him for information. He revealed that more soldiers had an ambush set down the hall. Andy, playing one of the Fedayin, volunteered to brave the hall with the captured soldier as a shield. He turned the corner and found himself faced by 9 men with rifles. He failed the positioning test and they riddled the meat shield!
Anthony thought for a moment, looked at his Beliefs, and decided that he and his men would charge into the ambush with their knives. We held a positioning test, and Anthony spent a Deeds point on it. With the power of Fanaticism on their side, they actually closed with the soldiers and cut them down to a man, taking no more than superficial wounds!
We wiped back to Tom, and Caius spilled his guts, revealing that he'd sold the information about the Jihadis' landing to the Pandavas, and implicated the network in the palace. He also revealed that Count Pandava had been in contact with the Technologists of 9, to whom Count Pandava owed a great deal of money. 9 was eager to protect its investment (if the Pandavas were destroyed, they would never see their loan repaid). He revealed that 9 planned to supply Count Pandava with "fighting machines."
We then cut to Andy, as one of his Fidahi, ensconsed in the organization of Lord Bhurutu the Warmaster, reported in. "We intercepted a coded transmission, sir. We haven't been able to break the code, but one thing is clear: Lord Bhurutu sent a message to...the Mahdi."
And that's where we cut it.
Since Rich's character is pretty integral to the plot that we'd been working on at the end of session I (indoctrinating some dancers and infiltrating them into the palace), we decided that this session would focus on other areas while the Hujjat was busy with his brainwashing.
We started things off with the characters holding a meeting on where the Pandavas might be hiding their family Atomics. We did a test in which they studied their maps and information to determine where they were. They managed a lot of successes (5 or 6, I think), so I told them they were pretty sure they'd located at least a few of the silos on the surface of the planet, but wouldn't know if they had found all of them unless they could turn someone deep in the organization of Lord Bhurutu, the Warmaster.
Anyway, I noticed during this that we have no recon or surveillance skills. I ended up handling it with a combination of wises and Observation, but we could handle that aspect better, I think.
Andy started things off determined to have Bindari determine the source of the hole in his network (since his network in the palace got outed and rolled up). He chose a lieutenant at random (in his business network, not the Jihad), and sent Big Rich's character, Khalid, to assassinate him!
Bindari handed Khalid the keys to the lieutenant's warehouse, and Khalid stealthed in and waited in his office. As soon as the lieutenant came into his office in the morning, Khalid came out and stabbed him in the throat. He cut off the head and made sure it would be found by the next person into the office.
We did a quick roll or two in which Andy sought to figure out who the actual mole was. He managed a few successes and I pinpointed someone that had been in contact with one of the leaders of the smugglers on Kuru
Bindari used the assassination as an excuse to call in all his lieutenants and scare the shit out of them. But he told them the mole had been found and taken care of, aiming to make the real mole think he had some breathing room.
In the meantime, suspecting the Syndicate had been part of the leak, Tom had his character, Shining Mind Muwat, make a Circles test to set up a meeting with his Syndicate Representative contact, Caius. He met his obstacle, but hadn't specified a time, so I told him we'd hold the meeting later in the session.
Meanwhile, Shining Mind and Khalid were going to try to do some recon on the silos they thought they'd found. They went to the safehouse (a cave/hangar owned by lil' Rich) where Shining Mind's ornithopter was stored. He played his Instinct, "Get back in the air ONLY in a vehicle I have inspected...thoroughly."
Since Tom had the instinct, and he wanted to roll for it (and he had now used his interplanetary reputation TWICE in Circles tests), I decided to spice things up with a little conflict. I told Tom that his Obstacle was 4. He pulled in all his skills, from Ornithopter-wise (the primary) to Fabrication, Alien Technology, and a ton of other FoRKs. Tom managed 6 or 7 successes, and found a bomb on his ornithopter! It was a very sophisticated device, designed to trigger with a change in air pressure.
Big Rich busted out Khalid's Munitions skill, some Help from Shining Mind, and Persona to disarm the thing (Ob 4). He succeeded. I decided to escalate a little further, and just as Rich succeeded, men with rifles burst into the hangar. We did a quick positioning test in which Tom and Rich were heavily outgunned (the enemy had more men, longer weapons, plus range dice, etc.) But Tom and Rich managed to barely pull it out with Artha.
Since we had a good A New Hope/fleeing the stormtroopers vibe going on, I decided to push it a little more. I told Tom he needed to make a piloting test against their Speed test in order to get out of the hangar, adding that Rich (who Assessed the men as he was getting into the thopter, had spotted a man kneeling and hastily calibrating a lasgun! I made it clear: win the test and you're out. Lose the test and they're going to get a shot at you with that lasgun.
I gave Tom a few Advantage dice since the thopter was pretty fast. He pulled it out, and they zoomed out of the hangar before the soldiers could get off a shot.
Tom wanted to proceed to surveill the silos, but without telling him no, I noted: if that was the Pandavas that just tried to blow you up and then take you out, there's a good chance that this will be even more hazardous than flying through highly restricted military airspace normally would be. Absorbing that, Tom decided not to risk it and to land at the smuggler's base he had appropriated from the former owner in the last session. So I reminded him that he had rather publicly sent the "former owner's feet" to the former owner's rival (the leader of the smugglers and a man the characters are pretty sure is in tight with the Pandavas). "There's a good chance that they'll be looking for you here."
Tom absorbed that and I could see the wheels REALLY turning in his head. Then I saw a sparkle in his eyes. I think it's time I meet with Caius now. We're cutting off the Salt to this planet. It's done. "I radio the Syndicate bank and tell them they have 30 seconds to clear me for landing!"
Tom sent a coded message to Anthony's character, Mujaahid, informing him that it was time to cut off the flow of Salt to the planet. Anthony promptly got the message to Bindari through coded channels.
Now, we hadn't discussed all their codes and fallback plans before this, but we all agreed that this was a basic strategy that would have been part of discussions in the planning phases of this mission. At this point, Tom said "Do I know where the Syndicate's Salt stockpiles are?" I had them roll for it (and allowed everyone that wanted to to Help -- like I said, we agreed that they would have planned for this contingency). Tom succeeded. "It's in the Syndicate bank, the building where you're trying land right now!"
With Andy's approval, Anthony got his men together and began planning a raid on the Syndicate's Salt. With all Salt to the planet cut off, and the Syndicate's stockpiles seized, the Syndicate would be completely at the Jihad's mercy.
Shining Mind and Caius held a Duel of Wits as Tom tried to force him to come clean on the Syndicate's complicity in leaking information to the Pandavas, using the threat to the Salt as leverage. Tom annihilated Caius in the DoW (Tom didn't lose a single point from his 15 point Body of Argument!). Just as Tom crushed him, we 'wiped' to Anthony's unit breaking into the bank.
They got inside without a hitch, but set off an alarm when heading down into the building's sub-basement. As they were coming down the stairs, two guards with rifles ran out to the landing below them. We did a quick Positioning test (Anthony got helping dice from all his men, and closed with them easily!). I had the other players each script for one of Anthony's Fedayin. The Fedayin cut them down in moments. One of them was still alive and Anthony pumped him for information. He revealed that more soldiers had an ambush set down the hall. Andy, playing one of the Fedayin, volunteered to brave the hall with the captured soldier as a shield. He turned the corner and found himself faced by 9 men with rifles. He failed the positioning test and they riddled the meat shield!
Anthony thought for a moment, looked at his Beliefs, and decided that he and his men would charge into the ambush with their knives. We held a positioning test, and Anthony spent a Deeds point on it. With the power of Fanaticism on their side, they actually closed with the soldiers and cut them down to a man, taking no more than superficial wounds!
We wiped back to Tom, and Caius spilled his guts, revealing that he'd sold the information about the Jihadis' landing to the Pandavas, and implicated the network in the palace. He also revealed that Count Pandava had been in contact with the Technologists of 9, to whom Count Pandava owed a great deal of money. 9 was eager to protect its investment (if the Pandavas were destroyed, they would never see their loan repaid). He revealed that 9 planned to supply Count Pandava with "fighting machines."
We then cut to Andy, as one of his Fidahi, ensconsed in the organization of Lord Bhurutu the Warmaster, reported in. "We intercepted a coded transmission, sir. We haven't been able to break the code, but one thing is clear: Lord Bhurutu sent a message to...the Mahdi."
And that's where we cut it.