(Heeding both the boredom of the players and his own frustration at the lack of activity, the Gamemaster pushes the "FF" button on the Vorpal Remote...)
A summary of the scenes as they blip past:
- There's a bit of conversation with the two women, Vliana and Kairi (the Besteeng). It turns out that they are the frontwomen of a pop band that has been fairly active, not only in Mul'ein, but throughout the region. Apparently they are based in Ekr'in, however. (That's why Nekshi interviewed them not so long ago.) Both are outgoing, but Vliana is clearly the friendlier of the two. It's clear that she and Bina have a deep rapport that goes back. It also appears that, though they're not personally acquainted with her, the two women know who Mey'Luskar is. Vliana seems to respect her, but Kairi doesn't try very hard to mask her contempt. They're both very well acquainted with Lirassa, too, and there seems to be both tension and mutual respect between them.
- During the talk, a little light can be seen to come on over Uskua's head, and she points out that the two musicians have a small bus they use for their band. Bina then hints to Vliana that the party is hoping to do something very important, but are having some problems squaring transportation. Kairi seems ambivalent, but Vliana offers to help immediately.
- The party remains at Wirg's long enough for everyone to finish. The three suspicious men leave during this time without incident. A couple more customers come in, but no one of any significance. By the time the party gets ready to leave, both Bina and Mey'Luskar are looking a bit red around the edges from wine and cocktails.
- It is early evening when the party gathers together to leave. As it is just a week before summer, it is still daylight outside, though it is cloudy. The fact of the heavy Peace Force presence in the area is mentioned. After some deliberation and maneuvering, Wirg has the party leave through the employee exit out into the back alley. There are a couple of unsavory-looking characters back there (probably drug pushers), but they high-tail it out of there at first glimpse of the party.
- The bus arrives. It's actually not a bus but rather an old military transport van that has been retooled. The rear is designed to hold gear, while there are seats for up to eight passengers in addition to the driver. There is more than enough room for everybody. Even better, the windows are all tinted. The driver, another Ehrlathagi woman, doesn't seem happy about the arrangement, but she does what she's told.
- It is decided to head out of Mul'ein, circle around, and enter the Bousin area from the north, preferably after it has gotten a bit darker. The musicians say they hope the party can come up with a plan during that time.
So...what is the party's plan?
60 comments:
[Cool - Vorpal Remotes! Do we have a map of the area?]
One map...coming up!
The map is basically a close up of the Bousin and Bar'du areas of the Ekr'in District map.
Basically, the blue circles are Hergoth houses, and the red squares are Yangae houses (though not necessarily with Hergoth or Yangae living in them). The brown circles are apartment blocks of Hergoth design, and the brown squares are of Yangae design. The chalk yellow squares are businesses.
White lines (black outside of Ekr'in) are local roads. Yellow ones are provincial roads. Orange ones are national routes. The green line is the expressway, and the dotted black line is the express railway. (There are people-mover routes in Bar'du and Nerr'un, but they aren't shown.)
Nekshi snaps out of her daze as she exits Wirg's.
She smiles to herself as she enters the bus.
(Okay, I'm assuming everyone is on the bus, and it's now on the road heading toward Route 32. From there it'll go west toward Mastr'ean District so it can circle around and approach Bousin from the north.)
Man, I'm sorry I missed interviewing those two chicks in the bar. That would have been EPIC. Look for it in the extended DVD.
(Well, the two chicks are currently with you guys on the bus.)
Mon'Fargret take a seat near the driver with good visibility.
Mon'Fargret's narrator can't write good.
Zeton, using Little Brother, does his best to find information about the building housing the Scarlet club. Zeton is looking for anything that may be of use, from the mundane such as property tax info, to schematics, or architectural plans of the building. Anything that might be of use to allow the party access into the building undetected. If nothing is found, Zeton will expand the search to buildings next to or near the Scarlet club to see there is possibly another access point somewhere nearby.
The club is now known as the "Eye of Tann".
The building it's located in is considered historical, so there is some information about it. It's rather limited, though, and since it is privately owned and occupied, there's not much about its internal layout.
Zeton continues to search for information about the Eye of Tann and the surrounding area, but shifts his focus on points of entry that may have been forgotten, or left unattended, since he is unable to find anything about the layout of the club.
Zeton wonders if there are old sewer or service tunnels, or maybe even passages used for other purposes?
He also checks to see if there are any records about who or what company cleans the club. Maybe there might be something useful from that angle.
Granite adjusts her tail, and grumbles about the lack of consideration for tails when designing land transportation. She looks out the windows, and does her best to see if they are being followed, by keeping track of other vehicles on the road.
The bus continues on its way down Route 32 through the neighborhood of Püla (mostly large, old Hergoth-style houses and a scattering of newer, yuppie homes of various kinds) and into Mastr'ean District. The driver opts not to take the glitzy drag that is Route 14. Instead, she opts to head a little further west to head through farm country.
There doesn't seem to be anyone following the bus, at least not obviously.
Zeton doesn't manage to uncover any info regarding service contracts for the Eye of Tann. However, he does stumble on something potentially interesting.
Anyway, what public information is available on the Eye of Tann resort can be seen here.
(A close-up of the map is available here.)
"I think I've found an alternative way in to the Eye of Tann, but we won't know for sure, until we can look for ourselves. It turns out the Eye of Tann is built on an old Hergoth ganci plantation. From what I can determine, they didn't completely demolish the old plantation, but built upon its existing foundation, including the basement."
Zeton pauses to double check a setting on Little Brother and then continues, "The Hergoth plantations in this area were all connected by underground tunnels, used for various purposes. If the basement wasn't altered too much, there may still be one of these tunnels we could use to get into the Eye of Tann."
"I'll start looking at historical information to see if I can find another plantation nearby, or a way to access one of these tunnels that is fairly close."
(Info Geek...in case you're not just being in character, click on the map with the post and choose "full screen". That's basically what any GPS or L-TUNS map display will show. All the big, blue circles in the Bousin area are Hergoth ganci plantations. The red squares are ones that were converted to Yangae estates long ago.)
Granite, happy to have an excuse to get out of her seat, and ease forward enough to look over Zeton's shoulder, points at the map.
"What about those abandoned plantations. If what you say is true, we should have no trouble getting in there, and working our way into the tunnels." Granite shudders a bit at the thought of being underground.
"Sounds like a plan to me!" pipes in Lirassa, apparently disappointed when there isn't an answering chorus of agreement.
"You know," says Mey'Luskar, "it's long been said...among the Yangae...that the Bousin hills are haunted."
"You've been there before," retorts Bina. "Surely you know the truth!"
Mey'Luskar doesn't reply.
Kairi (the Besteeng singer) makes a worried sound in her throat.
"Haunted or not, I like Granite's suggestion and think we should take it." Zeton begins to give the Ehrlathagi woman driving the van directions, but stops short. "I'm sorry, in our haste to leave Wirg's and come up with a plan, we never asked your name. Who are you?"
The bus driver chuckles nervously and replies, "My name? Volarna. Volarna Gobertanem." She jerks a thumb at Vliana. "Her younger sister."
She gives an affectionate glance up at the mirror, but Vliana appears to be having an edgy conversation with Mey'Luskar. Then she sighs. "So...you just want us to pull up to the gate of one of those old wrecks and dump you off?" She shudders. "Most of the roads up there are unlit." She glances up at the sky, which has not only darkened, but is still a solid mass of clouds. "It's going to be awfully dark up there!"
"I'd welcome the bark.", Granite says, and then clicks her beak at the talk box while tapping the keys angrily. "The dark."
The bus eventually crosses Route 14 just north of the Strip and circles to the north of the ridge that is Bousin. Things quickly get a lot darker and lonelier.
"Okay," says the driver, "You want to tell me which way I should go? The nav tells me there's more than one empty place!"
Granite gestures to the map. "We have three choices. There's one directly to the north, another to the northwest, and a third to the northeast." She looks up at Zeton: "Any way we can get a map of those tunnels to see which would give us the shortest route?"
"In any case, the plantation to the northeast is the least discrete, with neighbors on three sides. The northwestern one is very discrete, but is also the furthest from our intended destination. The one directly to the north seems to be our best option, if I'm analyzing this correctly."
Granite pauses for a moment to move her tail out from under the seat again. "Of course, if the tunnels connect in a straight line, we'd be passing directly UNDER the airfield, and that could be problematic if security is aware of the connection."
"I agree with Granite. That airfield could be a factor in any path we take. Any or all of these could result in a dead end as well."
"However, I am also concerned with fumbling in the dark. I brought my visor, but I am not sure how we are going to get everyone safely over what may be uneven ground," Mon'Fargret says.
"We will have to help each other out."
"That airfield is nothing but a parking lot," says the bus driver. "It's not Yanda Airport. I don't know if anyone even uses it."
"Oh, they do," retorts Mey'Luskar. "During the main harvest season the farmers bring all the nuts there and load them into big transports. It's safer that way."
"You're right!" chimes Bina. "How do you know so much about ganci farming?"
"I don't!" counters Mey'Luskar abruptly. "But it helps to keep up on what goes on in the city."
"When is the main harvest season?" asks Pru.
"Not for a couple of months at least," replies Bina. "It's still the 'idle harvest' period."
"Meaning?" asks Pru.
"There won't be that much coming off the trees," continues Bina. "They'll be flying them right off their farms."
"So the airfield's empty?" asks Pru.
"Not completely," says Dabid sourly.
"He means some of the Yangae living here keep their ships there," add Mey'Luskar with a glare, "since the Hergoth don't even allow unlimited flight to the upper classes."
"We're all the same," retorts Bina.
Pru snorts.
"As for the tunnels," Mey'Luskar goes on, "they have Farbett lighting...you know, like where we were last night."
"How do you know?" asks Pru.
Mey'Luskar doesn't reply.
At hearing Mey describe the lighting in the tunnels, Zeton stiffens and quickly puts his computer in sleep mode.
Staring at Mey long and hard in a very unfriendly manner, Zeton coldly snaps, "Wait, you've been in the tunnels, or at least knew of their existence? When were you going to tell us, before or after we walked into the traps set for us by the folks at the Eye of Tann?"
Zeton works at restraining his growing anger. "Since you seems to always know so much more than we do Mey, I suggest you pick the plantation we should use. At least that way when we are ambushed..." Zeton stops and after giving Mey one last icy glare, lightly tap his computer awake and returns his attention to his work.
Zeton shifts his focus from finding the tunnels to finding information about the tunnels. He looks for any articles in the local popular periodicals and online resources that might have background information on them and who might be currently using them.
"Zeton," says Bina reproachfully, "we're all on edge, but don't forget. You yourself said you saw it. Mey has been to the Eye before...and it's a painful memory to her."
"To answer your question," says Mey'Luskar icily, "yes, I've been in the tunnel! At least where it connects with that sod-smeared house!" She spits out the last few words as if they have a foul taste.
Bina gasps, her large Hergoth eyes widening to their limit.
Mey'Luskar throws her an unreadable look and asks, "How much did you see?"
"Forgive me," says Bina in a half-whisper.
The map of the Bousin service tunnel network is here. The circles marked "S" are storage nodes, essentially underground warehouses that are also equipped to double as emergency shelters.
[Wait, where did the tunnel map come from? Did Bina blit her memory onto Zeton's handheld?]
"Hmmm", says Granite (which is saying quite a lot, considering the word is meaningless coming from a talk box, and she lacks lips to even make the sound... it may have just been her stomach growling.)
"I'm not sure I like all those storage nodes... could be troublesome to move through, especially if others know about them. Still, we're pretty much stuck moving through at least two of these places if we are intent on making our approach from one of the abandoned plantations."
Granite cocks her head suddenly to one window, pauses for a moment, and then continues.
"My gut is still with the middle plantation, though I think we still want to avoid that airfield in any case." Tapping a claw on the screen, she indicates the southbound tunnel on the aforementioned plantation. "Assuming these are still intact, we could move south through here, move southeast after the storage hub, and move southwest at the first intersection."
Turning to Mey and Bina. "Is there a lot of... traffic down there?"
(As I said in my comment above, the tunnel map is part of the public map of Farbett tunnel routes and is therefore freely accessible. Any wrister or other comm device able to access the local networks can view it, as can the bus' navigation display and media terminal.)
Bina's only reply is a very puzzled look.
"I wouldn't know," replies Mey'Luskar with a sour look. "I only saw the part right by the house, and believe me, it did NOT look like it was used much! In fact, it didn't seem like they expected anybody to come that way!" She shudders.
"Maybe we could ask one of the ganci farmers," suggests Bina uncertainly.
"What are those tunnels for, anyway?" wonders Lirassa.
"They were built a long time ago," replies Bina in melodic-sounding Her-galad, "in the days when the Ergotheia were at war with the Sarkons. On every world of the Ergotheia, such tunnels were dug into the rock under the ganci farms by our Farbett friends as a conduit and as a sanctuary in times of..."
"We get...the picture!" interrupts Kaili tensely.
"Did the tunnels save you from the Yangae?" asks Lirassa pointedly.
Bina pauses solemnly. "There was no warning," she replies.
"I don't think anyone uses them now," adds Mey'Luskar, "except maybe during the main harvest season, and that's not for a while."
[Hmmm, I still don't see where you said that the tunnels were publicly available, but I'll take your word for it.]
Granite nods through the explanation, and makes a strange purring sound (stomach again?) "Very good, then we shouldn't have to explain our passage to everyone, and could be pretty discreet in our movements. Unless there are any objections, shall we tell our gracious driver to head to door number 2?"
(Sorry...I guess I mentioned it in a private e-mail rather than posting it here. Anyway, ordinary maps of the area don't say anything about the tunnels [unless one goes into archives], but the info I posted is available in the tunnel maps intended for Farbetts.)
"Granite's suggestion is a good one. We should go to the abandoned plantation in the middle and then work our way down to the Eye of Tann. It appears we can skirt around the airfield if we wish, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see which tunnel is the best once we get down there."
After a brief pause, Zeton asks Widj, "Have you ever been in these tunnels or tunnels like these? I'm just curious if you might have an idea of what we can expect."
"If you don't mind," says the driver as she navigates the bus around a tight corner, "we'll be there in another couple of minutes! Do you want me to just drop you off by one of the gates?"
The bus continues on a narrow, curvy, tree-lined road climbing upward in darkness.
"And to think we almost took a gig here," muses Kairi.
"How about 100 meters [or planetary equivalent] before the gate?" replies Mon'Fargret as he starts digging through his pack and fiddling with various contents inside.
Widjgleebe has not been in these tunnels, no. Other tunnels probably like these, yes.
"I concur with Mon'Fargret.", Granite says.
The bus slows and eases its way around a T-intersection. The driver cuts the main lights and increases the resolution on the navigation display. There is still nothing to see on either side of the narrow road but gloomy-looking trees. There is no illumination whatsoever beyond the bus's own, feeble running lights.
To make matters worse, there is now a light, misty rain falling.
After a few moments, the bus slows and edges over to the shoulder, which is rather overgrown with weeds.
"That's it," says the driver, pursing her lips. "The main gate is [100 meters] on the left up there."
With a hiss, the main passenger doors open.
"Good luck, you guys," says Vliana. "I'll give you my wrister number. Let me know if you need us to come get you!"
[Granite will exit the bus first and see if the "coast is clear", so to speak. She's looking in particular for heat signatures (going to be hard in the rain, I imagine) coming from vehicles that may have followed the bus, or people hiding in the weeds.]
Granite can't help but enjoy the wet misting of the rain, inflating her tentacle fins to absorb as much as possible. She briefly fantasizes that there is a spy hiding in the weeds seeing this display, and he cowers in terror. The absurd thought amuses her, and she says to herself as a series of scents and heat glyphs, "Silly Granite".
Nekshi exits after Granite. She places her hand on Granite's back and whispers, "All clear?".
(I need an ALT roll for Granite Spear.)
Zeton watches Granite exit the vehicle and begins to pack up his computer and situate his gear in preparation for the journey to the tunnel entrance. He keeps his flashlight easily accessible, along with his weapons, but he does not display the weapons in the open while still in the van.
Once he's got everything together he turns to Volarna, Vliana and Kairi, "Thank you all for your help, we greatly appreciate it." Zeton gratefully accepts Vliana's wrister number while politely thanking the three women.
I rolled an 18, so 13 - 18 = -5.
I guess Granite is enjoying the rain a little too much, and not really paying attention. Oh well.
It's okay, just don't start rolling in the mud. That would be unprofessional.
So, is the rest of the group going to leave the bus? (I need some idea of marching order.)
Mon'Fargret stays on the bus and files his nails. Oops, I meant to say that he dons his IR visor (which he had been preparing in the last couple of minutes), nods briefly to his drivers, and steps out behind Zeton. Once out there, he activates the IR sensors and scans the darkness.
As Zeton exits the vehicle in front of Mon'Fargret, he turns slightly to the right and walks out about 2 meters to make sure there is enough room for everyone to exit. As he secures his gear for the journey, he turns to help anyone that needs assistance. [Zeton may not be the best person to bring up the rear, but if no one else wishes that spot, Zeton will take it.]
Dabid hesitates, eying Zeton uncertainly, and then falls in behind Mon'Fargret.
(Unless ElTigrez chimes in soon, I'll assume that he and Lirassa leave next.)
Mey'Luskar has a hard time leaving her seat, let alone the bus. Bina does her best to calm her down and get her moving.
The rear cargo doors of the bus pop open, and Widjgleeby hops out.
As mentioned before, there is a very light, misty rain falling. It's a bit chilly, but not cold. There was a single street light a hundred meters or so back at the intersection, but its glow doesn't penetrate this far at all. Once the bus pulls away, the group is left in almost pitch blackness.
The party watches as the bus moves out of sight, leaving them in the gloom. Then they are at the mercy of the eerily still darkness. It almost takes effort to get moving. Those with superior night vision, night-viewing apparatus, or alternate senses are able to make their way along the weedy side of the road carefully. Those without are forced to tag along as best they can.
(I need ALT check rolls for Mon'Fargret, Widjgleeby, and Granite Spear.)
Another ALT roll? Ok, this time I get to use a real d20 instead of an online one... Frack, rolled a 17, not much better than last time. Man, I hate these d20s.
13 - 17 = -4
[Before I forget, I'm going to be heading to Oregon for two weeks of vacation starting tomorrow at the crack of dawn. We actually have a soccer tournament on Sat/Sun, and then we start the drive north from there. I likely won't have access to a computer until about Wednesday. If something is about to happen that requires immediate attention, I'll give Seymour permission to do decisions and rolls for Granite until then.]
(Granite Spear is relishing the oh-so-welcome moisture coming at her from the air for a change. Ahhhh...)
(Enjoy your trip, Dewkid!)
ooy vul lits yi nug-eer-oh!
oolub revin rah roy nug-eer-oh!
... no wait, it was ...
Ore-ree-gu-hun, your skies are never blue!
Ore-ree-gu-hun, I still love you!
Thanks Moody!
(oops, missed the backwards version of the word skies... oh well)
14 - 16 = (-2) for Maggie.
2D20? I rolled a 2 and a 20. Does that mean I have my head stuck up my bottom?
Sorry double post. my Alt score is 13. 13-2=11?
Widjy is looking forward to getting back underground.
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