[Desolation] Chapter 2: Hard-held

Ryoma


That sounds perfect to me. Roll it, please.


Graves


That's fine, no rush on the roll. It will just tell us where your Holding is at in surplus or want.


So, you sit there in your office, getting your affairs in order.


Can anyone walk in and see you or do they have to go through your assistants?


Red Bean


Before the woman can answer, you hear a familiar voice from the door.


Lumpey stands there flanked by Piccolo and Charra.


The old man lets out a sigh of relief.


"There you are.


We've been looking ALL over for you.


I've searched everywhere I can think of and still can't find Ollie.


Also, Millie brought a bunch of new initiates, but there's something wrong with them.


You might want to have a look."


What do you do? (And yes, you still have 1 hold on the woman.)
 
Koch


The box is welded to the truck and to get into it, you left a panel in the bed.


This may have been why there was a trip wire lined across the bed.


You'd have to pull the door through the wire.


But the wire had been spot-welded in place.


Why would someone weld a trip wire in place?


You can't trip it then ...


Anyway, there is a crude lock on the panel that lifts in the bed, though it's rusted and easy to break.


What do you do?
 
Red Bean turns to her assistant. "Gather everyone together. Meet in our area, and I will join you soon. The maelstrom has come looking for victims, the Howling has sent his agents into camp. This is a very dangerous time and we need to stay together. I have a bad feeling about all this."


She turns back to the woman. "What do you remember? Where did you come from?" If the Howling could make this woman a conduit for its efforts, she needed to get the woman out of here before it did any more damage.
 
Red Bean


Lumpey nods and motions for Piccolo and Charra to do as you ask.


They run off.


The woman looks around, still groggy.


She furrows her brow.


"I ... I don't know. I can't remember."


She puts a palm to her forehead.


"It's all so fuzzy. Something ... something's whispering to me."


She still hasn't noticed her missing leg.


What do you do?


Ryoma


Awesome. Ask 1:

  • where’s my best escape route / way in / way past?
  • which enemy is most vulnerable to me?
  • which enemy is the biggest threat?
  • what should I be on the lookout for?
  • what’s my enemy’s true position?
  • who’s in control here?
 
Ryoma


Well, someone seems to have made a small hole behind the body.


Inside that hole is a grenade with its charging handle pointing out and pin removed.


Should one take down the body or disturb it too much, the charging handle will spring off, setting the fuse on the grenade.


Need I say more?
 
Ryoma taps her chin.


"Well, Hooper, it seems someone is trying to blow you up." She says, pointing out the grenade. "Though I doubt it would slow you down too much, from what I've seen. Really, would just irritate you. Explosives are not my strong suit, sadly. Although I think I have heard tell of someone who knows them better... a Ms. Koch?"
 
Hooper


"Huh....whatever. It wasn't that first guy. Maybe old mans daughter. I'll go kill her"


Hooper motions to Ryoma to follow. Doesn't matter if she does, Hopper was going to kill someone and didn't care."
 
"Now now, Hooper, let us determine who ought to die before we do the dirty deed. 'Tis far better to be a lightning bolt striking with blinding precision than the all-leveling tempest. And besides... it would mean ever so much to me if you would temper your rage -- for just a moment? For me... for one who cares for you."


Rolling to Manipulate hooper: 11!
 
Hooper


The giant is staggered for a minute. Was there something called restraint in this world? Even her face is confused for a moment, especially by the wording Ryoma uses. Hooper wasn't feeling rage. She just didn't care if anyone lived or died, she felt the burning of the old world. An agent of the apocalypse, created by and for this life.


To not simply find the problem and instantly deal with it in the most permanent fashion Hooper knew was very nearly painful. Her face comforts her for a moment, looking to Ryoma with a blank expression in her eyes, before deciding to go along with it.


Hooper didn't care. Hooper was happy she got to see the red fabric and the pretty pictures on Ryomas skin. Not like the words on her foot, the numbers for records, but actual images.


"Do what you want. I'll kill her later. No loose ends" The machete finds its way back into the scabbard at Hooper's hip.
 
Ryoma, Hooper


Looks like there's no need to manipulate here, Ryoma.


She stops anyway.


So, you have two mutilated bodies and a grenade.


What do you do now?
 
Graves


Graves prefers to let people come and see him, unless he makes an order otherwise for some reason.


He's only sticking around the office long enough to get things in order, and then he's making his interrogation.


(roll edited into my previous post)
 
Graves


You're getting Callum to get others together to start a school or just help with the paperwork you have?


Red Bean has a school as well, that's why I ask.


Callum nods and scampers off.


After a few minutes, there's a knock on your door frame.


Corbett, one of the holding's farmers, stands there clutching his torn cap.


His face and hands are dirty.


"Mr. Graves, do you have a minute?
 
Hooper


I stand, head tilted as I wait. Ryoma wanted to do something else. Face thought it was okay to follow her for a while.
 
"Thank you," says Ryoma, smiling sweetly. "This leaves us with the question of getting this grenade free... and determining who, exactly, wants to blow you up." Seems terribly short-sighted, not like it would really slow down the masked killer. "And murdered this girl to do it... did they think they were sending a message?" Ryoma taps her chin. "In any case, we need to get this grenade free before there are any accidents."


Ryoma slips her robe from her shoulders -- she'll need to be able to truly move if the worst should happen. It lays her bare, but for her loincloth and the holster that holds her shotgun. And now to slip the grenade free, edge her fingers past the dead flesh and coagulated blood...
 
Sister Red looks at the woman in alarm. Still Whispering? It was still here.


She looked around the room. She didn't know what any of this stuff did. Some objects were sharp like a razor, others were toothed like saws. Some were blunt, others were like clamps to hold onto things, not to mention some items of tubes and hoses and strings and wires that made no sense to her.


She could watch Fauci with some of these things fixing their autos, but she had no idea why a saw bones would have most of this. Except the saws. There were two things she picked up as she took a more careful watch on the agent of the Howling now living in their midst. She needed to be ready to act in the chance the woman tried to strike out. Tucking a very sharpe knife-thing and tucking it into her belt of her tabbard, she grabbed 2 yards of rubber hose and wrapped it around her hands.


"What is it saying to you? What does it want you to do?"
 
Science be damned, give it the boot!


Given we're dealing with explosives, lets not shake the boat too much just in case. A heavier pair of cutters and a little bit of applied strength should take care of that lock rightly easily without jostling anything.
 
Graves


Graves doesn't know if Red Bean teaches anything useful - he's still wary of her hoodoo bullshit. He wants to try and recover a little of the old world, and that starts with people bein' smarter and more capable.


Graves gestures; "Siddown, Corbett. Everything alright?"
 
Ryoma


All right.


You're trying to get the grenade free without priming it.


That sounds like an act under fire with the fire being can you manage to free the grenade without having the charging handle fling off?


Roll+cool, please.


Red Bean


She looks at you.


You can see her shaking.


"I ... I don't know ..."


Then, she twitches and her eyes roll back into her head.


She looks up a moment, like when you saw her in the maelstrom.


Then, she slowly brings her head down until the whites of her eyes are looking at you again.


Then, she lunges, reaching out her hands for your neck.


What do you do?


Koch


You cut the lock.


No sweat.


You pop the compartment in the truck-bed open.


Inside, you see a smooth white shape.


It looks like a gas tank with fins.


On it, you see a yellow symbol:


Nuclear_Symbol.jpg



You're not sure what that is.


But it's a symbol from the Golden Age for sure.


Theo behind you steps forward.


"What's inside, 'K'?"
 
Graves


Corbett sits down and looks at you.


"No."


He looks down at the ground.


You see a hint of shame in his face.


"My daughter, Prim, is ... pregnant."


He shakes his head.


"She wouldn't tell my by whom.


She kept saying it didn't matter."


He looks up at you.


"I finally got it out of her.


She said she was ... forced ..."


You see the word "forced" pain him as he says it.


"She says ... it was ... Roark.


Said he's done it a few times.


I've a mind to ask Saw Bones to abort the baby, but Prim says she wants to keep it."


He rubs his face.


"My wife won't speak to me.


I don't know what to do.


I'm not even sure why I'm telling you all this."


What do you do?
 
Graves


The Hardholder is very still for a moment, looking Corbett in the eye.


"Roark..." He repeats slowly, expression like stone.


He rises from his seat; pumps his shotgun.


"Corbett, if Prim needs anything for the baby, you tell the vendors Graves'll pay for it. Roark and I are gonna have words."
 
Hooper


Confused by this action, Hooper tries to figure out why they didn't just throw Ball's body at the girls from outside the room, setting it off and cleaning the mess in one swoop. Whatever...it didn't matter. Nothing did.


Hooper stands there, watching Ryoma fiddle with the body. It goes off? Doesn't matter. She'd carry Ryoma to the medical people.
 
I honestly can't answer his question. I mean, it's obviously valuable. Anything from the good ol' days is worth a whole hell of a lot. The biggest problem with stuff from back then is knowing what it is. It certainly doesn't look like anything I've ever gotten to handle before. Some other machines had fins like that, but they were all a lot bigger and had a bit more features. I rap the side with my hand, curious to see if it sounds hollow or otherwise.


"What we have here, is a treasure. You're staring at a piece of the Golden Age, Theo."


Out of curiosity...do we have any...procedures for handling pre-fall stuff? I'm assuming it may involve poking Fauci to cast identify or something.
 
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