[Desolation] Chapter 2: Hard-held

Graves


Graves pumps his shotgun, glowering with menace as he rises to his feet.


"Clayton, I know you're in here. Sound the bell, seal the gates."


He shrugs his old jacket back on and runs for roof access, boots thudding on the concrete.
 
Everyone


Okay, I messed up. We need the session start moves to be rolled.


Red Bean, roll your fortunes move please.


Graves, roll your wealth move please.


Red Bean


Saw Bones is out, for some reason.


She hasn't come back yet.


To answer your questions:


Your best route out is the service door next to the closed Garage door.


It's unlocked and it's how they brought you in.


You should be on the lookout for all the shit in this room.


There are possible weapons everywhere.


Scalpels, bone saws, medicine bottles, medical drugs, tubing.


It all could be used against you.


You're biggest threat, strangely isn't Saw Bones.


She generally does try to help ... mostly.


But, something about the bitch laying on the slab across the room from you doesn't sit right.


You can't put your finger on it, but, even as she sleeps, there's something about her ...


Koch


Skags nods.


He takes the wire cutters and stands on the truck bed.


"You'll let me know when you want me to cut it, I assume?"


This is going to be an act under fire roll. Tell me what you're doing and roll it.


Graves, Ryoma, Hooper


Wait, Hooper just brought the very fucked-up Balls into the bar and dropped him in front of you in a heap of blood and sinew.


Or, at least, that was my understanding. Is that right?
 
I nod my assent and get under the truck bed. My plan is to get a good hold on the grenades, specifically the striker handle. This way if the cord gets cut and the pins accidentally, or purposefully, get yanked out they'll still be safe until I let go of the handle. Otherwise pray to the technological superiority of the golden age that the chemicals inside don't just cook off anyways.


Once I have a comfortable grip I shout up to Skags. "Do it!"


I'll uh, wait to roll. Make sure that's sufficient.


...*gets ready to get blown to Dead*


Roll edit: Sorry RPdom, I didn't trust you with this roll.


Roll of 7+1 Cool for a total of 7


http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3895810/
 
Ryoma prods that-which-was-once-Balls and looks up at Hooper. "You have certainly killed this man. Tell me," she calls, "is your heart at ease?"
 
Hooper


"He isn't dead." She puts a hand over the broken frame, feeling the faint beat of his heart. It flutters briefly before halting. Hooper has a moment of concern as she quickly drops an elbow into his shattered ribcage, the rapid release of pain bringing balls back to the tortured world of the living.


The expressionless mask looks at Ryoma after Hooper is sure Balls is stable. "What did you hear?" She cocks her head, curious as to what the pretty woman thinks she knows.
 
"So it seems..." says Ryoma. "Vendettas are made apparent by their character... the gore of it gives you away. And so I smell vengeance about this killing."
 
Koch


Looks good to me.


He's going to cut it and you'll hang on to the charging handles just in case.


Roll it.
 
Koch


Skags cuts the cable.


He did it right on time just like you asked.


You manage to hold the grenades steady as he does so.


Skags calls down to you.


"Okay, it's cut."


You try to pull the wire through the bed and realize, too late, that the wire had been spot welded to the bed so it couldn't be pulled through.


Too late because when you pull, the wire doesn't come with and the pin on the grenade in your right hand yanks free with a light TING.


Now, as you may know, the thing isn't charge until you release the handle.


So, the fuse isn't lit until the charging handle is released.


But, you hold a live grenade in you right hand.


What do you do?


Ryoma


Okay, you hold 1.


You can ask a question during the conversation.


The key is that you have to be talking to her and drop it in mid-conversation.


So, what do you say?
 
Ryoma walks with her, easily. "And now you will end up after long suffering, I take it. Yes, this is an act of vengeance..." She leans in, whispers. "I would avoid Grey. He's had his breakfast interrupted one too many times this good morning."
 
Hooper


This was nice. She didn't get to see Ryoma unless there was fighting. Now it was just Hooper and her. Balls did not count, he couldn't hear things right now...or maybe he could. She didn't care.


As a matter of fact....


"I don't care."
 
"Ah, you are so very enlightened and yet not. Graves is not too eager to get rid of you, yes? So surely you can get away with some things. But this..." She looks down at Balls. "Vengeance is an dangerous brew, Hooper. Be wary."
 
Hooper


She was talking a lot. Lots of words that had no meaning. People always cried on her, or tried to bargain, or something else when she was about to kill them. Lots of words then too. They didn't mean anything because words didn't stop her machete from splitting their skull open or stopping the blood after she cut their throat. Words were just there.


"Okay"


Balls stirs so Hooper gives him a prod in the broken rib cage, she feels the bone scraping against bone. Good.
 
What do I do? Isn't it obvious? I nurture and raise the real live grenade and teach it to become a polite explosive so when its big day comes, it'll explode without disturbing anyone unintended bystander's day!


I let out a loud sigh and start to laugh. Not quite used to it I wind up coughing, the muscles in my arms tensing to stop from moving them any further. Things didn't go quite as planned, but things didn't go to a total cluster fuck either.


"Well done Skags, remind me to commend our new arrival for that little trick. Now seeing as I haven't grown a third arm yet, I'd like it very much if you happened to come under here with me for a moment with those wire cutters. Just need you to hold up the grenade, especially keeping the handle tight, on the left so the pin doesn't come out on us, all right?"


I made a large mental note to definitely let Graves know that Skags had performed admirably so far. Always a good thing to know who you could depend on in a tense situation.
 
Ryoma, Hooper


I just want to keep it clear that you have not arrived at Hooper's room yet.


This conversation is happening while you're walking.


That's it. Keep going. :)
 
Koch


Skags climbs down and puts down the wire cutters.


"You want me to take one of those?"


He gets a real concerned look on his face.


"Okay … "


He takes the grenade.


You're giving him the one with the pin still in it, right? (I read it, I just want to be clear.)
 
Followers +1 = 8 = 7 +1


Red Bean pulls herself off the slab. The headache is still there, but her missing follower is still missing, and she missed her morning Tai Chi. The Howling was working against her, trying to break the quiet of her soul. But she was stronger today, even with the blood drying in her ears. In the old days there were others - Destiny, Fate, God, The Devil. They were all dead, and the Howling took their place. It was born in the Maelstrom, it drove it, creating eddies that would try to rip your soul.


Today she could hear it, but she was not going to listen. She had seen people follow its call, giving away parts of their soul to the hungry Howling, their minds rotted by listening too long. They became savages, but not her. She looked at the woman on the table nearby. She was missing part of a leg, but she wasn't familiar, not in the camp, no one she knew.


"So, who do we have here? Do I know you?" the woman is unconscious and Sister Red doesn't expect an answer from her. But not everyone needs to answer her for her to learn something. She inspects the woman, taking inventory. Missing one leg. Hair, eyes, marks on the skin. She looks her over. "What brings you here? Why is the Howling so close to you? Have you given yourself to it?" She opens, listening for answers, not from the unconscious woman, but to those who are ever-near. It is the third time today, third time this morning. The Howling has turned its attention on this place, but she won't let it come in. This is her home now, it will have to prowl the far hills. It will have to find a home elsewhere, for she is Hocus in this place.


Open my mind = 14 = 11 + 3 (Weird+3)


Mark XP
 
"So when I see what you have wrought, and consider your character..." She runs her fingers down Hooper's arm. "...I must wonder. Does Hooper remain, or do I converse with a mask?" (Spending my Hold 1 with Read a Person for this question)
 
Hooper


Her head turns as the little fingers travel up and down Hoopers arm. Ryoma really was pretty...she looks away, concentrating on walking down the halls while her face screams at her to be careful with this one. The monks index finger lingers on a stab wound as Hooper wheezes out a response.


"I'm not wearing a mask. It's my face"
 
Red Bean


Choose one want on page 257 for your followers. You also get your surplus.


You open your brain and the maelstrom seeps in like blood, then takes the form of chaos swirling around you.


Fragments and shards made of moments and memories surge through the chaos hard as steel.


Then, everything recedes into darkness before you and a memory fades into view.


You stand in a simple cement room.


The woman who was just laying in front of you sits, tied to a metal chair.


She's naked and battered.


Bruises line her ribs and cheeks.


Dried blood marks the corner of her mouth.


It's cold, very cold.


He skin has a shade of blue to it.


You get the feeling she's been here for hours, alone.


But then, you hear a door outside your view open and four hulking men step in.


One smirks and speaks in a grizzly voice.


"Make sure to relax. This is going to be a long one."


You see panic in her eyes as they descend on her like wolves.


Then, the strangest thing happens.


They turn on each other and begin stabbing and maiming each other until each lays dead in front of the naked woman.


Now you can see her face.


It's upturned to the ceiling and her eyes are rolled back into her head.


Her breathing is sporadic and shallow.


You know the Howling when you see it.


The scene changes, you see the woman wearing boots and clothes too big, carrying a make-shift sack.


She flags a passing caravan and asks for a ride.


Then, it all fades away back to the swirling chaos.


It churns and gathers, then blasts toward you in a torrent of anger.


You hear a dark voice growl as the chaos barrels toward you.


"MINE!"


It slams into you and you snap back to reality, sitting on the floor like you had been knocked back.


The woman on the table is looking at you, her face is a mess.


"Are you okay?" she asks.


Now, for my question: What are your character’s secret pains?


Ryoma


The questions you can ask are:

  • is your character telling the truth?
  • what’s your character really feeling?
  • what does your character intend to do?
  • what does your character wish I’d do?
  • how could I get your character to __?


You just have to be having a conversation with someone to study them, but you are asking them to the player. So, you don't HAVE to try to work them into the dialogue, you just need enough time to study the other person.
 
WlfSamurai said:
Koch
Skags climbs down and puts down the wire cutters.


"You want me to take one of those?"


He gets a real concerned look on his face.


"Okay … "


He takes the grenade.


You're giving him the one with the pin still in it, right? (I read it, I just want to be clear.)
Click to expand...
Yup-yup! Now before I start making assumptions, could I cut the cable just around the pin? Otherwise, could I just cut the pin short? It wouldn't have the nice little hand-loop anymore, but it'd at least be present?


"You're doing fine, these things are as harmless as a mean look so long as you don't let go."
 
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