[Pbp] Psychosis - Ship of Fools

Stories about games that you run and/or have played in.

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Darth Rabbitt
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

"No idea. Some force knocked me out and next thing I knew...I was here," I say. "What happened to you?"
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

SlyJohnny:
"What happened to you?" asks the Sheriff. "I don't–I feel like I've been out cold."

The pistol is a primitive eight-shot revolver, kludged together out of advanced materials – plasteel, ferrocrete, duranium. It's like a primitive took the wing off a fighter jet and used it for a shield. The map is hand-drawn in what looks like charcoal cloth, depicting 'the junkyard,' which contains a 'tower', a large area shaded in as 'rad zone' and deep in that zone, a 'hulk.' The station looks perfectly intact, but dusty and unpowered; it's of the same advanced materials as the gun.

There's a hiss and a wash of harsh heat from the control room door. Maser fire, comes a thought from somewhere.
Thaluikhain:
The world whirls away, and for a moment you see truth: clear, familiar, ugly... and then it too whirls away.
"Youu stiill wiith uus?" asks a slurred voice, gradually growing clearer. "You looked like you were a quarter million miles away."

"So did we know what we were doing here and I forgot, or...?" says another voice.

The smell brings it all back. Water. The pumping station. Slice and Sweet Pea. You're still here.

There is a detonation that shakes the floor and rattles the pipes.

"Shit! What now?"

"Sisters. Gotta be. Dedicated guards who stuck here. Can't be many, but they sound heavy."

You know, as if you have known all along and just now remembered, that there are weapons concealed in this station. To get to them, you would have to head towards the enemy, and that might make hiding or ambushing impossible.
Darth Rabbitt:
"How's your memory? Are we the same?" he says.

One wall rumbles with a sound so low it is only on the edge of hearing – mostly you feel it in your long bones, and in a faint sensation of falling from your disturbed inner ear. The wall begins to crumble under the sonic assault.

"The guards," moans your other companion, rousing from his stupor. "They've followed us."
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Post by Thaluikhain »

"Follow me!" I say, and dash to where the weapons are hidden.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

"Not sure," I admit to my companion. I check my cyber-arms to see if they're operating at maximum capacity, or at all, before turning to the companion who just woke up. "Any advice on how to deal with them?" I ask him.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
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Post by SlyJohnny »

"Incoming." I warn the others, and move to the very back of the room, take cover, and aim my pistol at the door.
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Returning fire is swords, attempting to run is swords, attempting negotiations is cups, let me know if you want to try something else.

SlyJohnny:
The deputy and sheriff seem to ignore your warning, moving towards the door and away from cover. The deputy kicks open an old wall locker, and several maser rifles fall out. The two arm themselves with the powerful weapons, but are left exposed as a great hole is melted open in the door and wall. You see figures in ragged black clothing and riot masks outside, advancing. One of them cocks back an arm as if to throw something.
Hand: Swords 5, Wands 5, Wands 7, Swords 12, Pentacles 20.
Thaluikhain:
Ugh, the weapons are just a little further forward than you would have liked, and getting them out takes just a little longer. In a loose section of pipe, wrapped in Clingfilm™, are several serious guns. You wrangle with the Clingfilm™, finally tearing with your teeth to get the weapons out, and Slice is there in a moment to snatch one up.

"Lashes, bar. Full stock, too," he says.

Sweet Pea seems to have vanished, but there's no time to ask about that. The Sisters or whoever barrel into view and start laying down fire.
Hand: Wands 8, Cups 5, Wands 2
Trace: Wands 20, Cups 16
Darth Rabbitt:
Only soft fleshy limbs depend from your shoulders.

"This way!" The just-roused member of your group(?) rushes towards the crumbling wall. They pry up a tile from the sandy floor, chosen apparently at random from the thousands just like it, and beneath it are a number of golden devices, short rods with phallic-bulbous tips, covered in alien sigils. They snatch up one and toss another to you, then indicates a particular sigil to press.

The wall gives way altogether, and immediately weapons fire emerges from the opening. A squad of green-coveralled full-helmed men - presumably 'the guards' - are blazing away at you with their pistols. Angry red beams scorch the air.
Hand: Cups 2, Pentacles 5, Wands 6, Swords 8, Pentacles 12.
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Post by Thaluikhain »

Return fire...assuming the weapons are of the sort that I can return fire with.
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Thaluikhain wrote:Return fire...assuming the weapons are of the sort that I can return fire with.
As you don't have any Swords, I assume you're using your Wands trace?
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Post by Thaluikhain »

Oh right, yeah, forgot about that, I'll use my wands trace.
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Post by SlyJohnny »

((Putting the king of Pentacles into trace.))

Eying the raider with the grenade, I carefully size up his position, and time my moment to spring from cover and shoot him in the head so that I hit him after he's armed it or pulled the pin, but before he hurls it at us. I control for the recoil and make sure to recock it, if this gun is a double-action, before taking another shot at him. Then I throw myself back down behind cover, hoping to conceal my exact position.

((Swords 5, Wands 5, Wands 7, Swords 12, traced 20 Pentacles, all on this))
Last edited by SlyJohnny on Fri May 26, 2017 9:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

I take the golden device and press the sigil, attempting to aim any projectile or beam that may come out at the guards.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

Darth Rabbitt wrote:I take the golden device and press the sigil, attempting to aim any projectile or beam that may come out at the guards.
So is that just Swords 8, or are you throwing any other cards in there?
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

SlyJohnny:
Your opposition draws five cards: Cups 3, Cups 6, Swords 7, Wands 14, Wands 10. Win with Wound.
Your first shot hits the man's wrist instead of his head, and the second his neck, but the result is otherwise all you could have hoped. He drops the live device and it goes off when it strikes the ground, blasting him into the air like a ragdoll and throwing his companions into confusion. They keep up their fire, but it is ragged and disjointed.
Your hand refills: Cups 10, Ace of Swords, Pentacles 9, Swords 9. The ace is discarded and replaced with Wands 9. The Major Arcana revealed is Strength.
You blink, and are in a different place. Maybe. The room is the same, a disused control facility, but the dust and sand are gone, and the windows that used to show the sky are covered with blast shields.

The sheriff and his deputy are replaced by people in grey survival suits, but their maser rifles are the same. Instead of firing out a door onto an empty wilderness, they are firing down a corridor. Your eight-shooter has been replaced by a bow, but it is still made of the same advanced materials, and is merely even more primitive by comparison. The enemy appears completely unchanged.

Somehow, the last difference to register is a constant sensation of falling, and that everyone you can see is floating in some way. Microgravity.
Hand: Wands 9, Swords 9, Pentacles 9, Cups 10
Trace: Pentacles 20
Thaluikhain:
Your opposition draws five cards: Cups 4, Cups 14, Pentacles 16, Pentacles 10, Wands 12. Win with Pain.
The gun doesn't buck in your grip when you fire; the projectiles are self-propelled. So you go against your training and lock your elbow for extra stability. The shots are large and explosive, bursting with sharp cracks where they strike. You and Slice send round after round at the Sisters (or whoever), until Slice shrieks and slumps behind a pipe – still alive, but obviously hurting.

The extent of the damage you've done isn't clear, but while the enemy seems less aggressive, they are still shooting.
Hand: Wands 8, Cups 5, Wands 2
Trace: Wands 20, Cups 16
Darth Rabbitt:
As this is a deadly battle, I'm going to err on the side of overcommitting, and throw in everything you can (Swords 8, Wands 6, Pentacles 5+12). Your opposition draws 5 cards: Swords 2, Cups 20, Ace of Pentacles, Wands 16, Swords 14. The Ace is discarded and replaced with Swords 10. Ouch. The Major Arcana revealed is The Emperor.
At a touch of the sigil, the strange device does emit a beam of some sort, but it is not a reliable laser; the beam twists and squirms like an unattended fire hose, playing over the walls and statues with a mind of its own. At least the unpredictability seems to unnerve the enemy. You are starting to get the hang of directing the thing when you are clipped in the shoulder by an enemy ray, a momentary blinding agony.

The one who passed you the device is having more luck, his beam sweeping over the enemy, leaving superficial burns; it must need longer focus to do real damage. Still, the enemy's momentum is broken, and a detonation from behind them suggests that they may have other problems. Scattered rays still fly in your direction.
Your hand refills: Pentacles 4, Swords 6, Cups 8, Swords 3. Your loss had no mechanical effect, but I feel that your poor draws coincidentally represent a modicum of pain and shock.
Hand: Cups 2, Swords 3, Pentacles 4, Swords 6, Cups 8.
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Post by Thaluikhain »

"Give it up." I yell, "We've more friends on the way. Is this worth dying for?"

Using Cups 16 to try to bluff. If possible Wands 20 to keep firing as well, but bluffing takes precedence.
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Post by SlyJohnny »

I stare at the environment around me, trying to make sense of it. At least it looks kind of like it was before. Does that mean my brain has settled on something? Either way, I've consistently had people trying to kill me, so I assume they're real. Likewise my colleagues, who appear similarly stricken. I resolve to assume that they're real, too.

"Cease firing!" I bark down the corridor with as much authority as I can muster, staying in cover. I wave at one of my colleagues, motioning for them to throw me a rifle. "The controls in here are vital and sensitive. You'll rupture the corridor, or even the entire superstructure. You'll all die along with us!" I claim, trying to keep my language specific enough to sound knowledgeable and serious, but vague enough that it might reasonably apply to wherever the hell we are, or my opponents think we are.

While I'm speaking, I look around for any other way out of this room. Or failing that, places to hide. Would it be possible to rip away a wall or floor panel and hide behind it?

((Throwing Cups 10, Pentacles 9, Swords 9 along with the King of Pentacles into the Cups check. I'll also use the King of Pentacles and the Wands 9 on a Pentacles check to scan the room for exits, if I can do both at once.))
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

(Oh god, I totally blanked out on this thread. I've had a lot of crap going on. I should've thrown Pentacles 12 into my trace, but too late now. I will put my 8 of Cups into my trace though.)

I attempt to look for and crawl behind any available cover, checking to see if my wound is slowing me down any if I get the chance. Not sure what challenge that would be, but I'm guessing either Swords or Pentacles? I throw as much of my hand as possible into whatever it may be; my hand is meager enough as is.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

One card-backed action at a time, guys.

SlyJohnny:
The opposition reveals: Pentacles 6, Cups 9, Swords 3, Pentacles 8, and Pentacles 3.
Your cry gives the attackers pause, and one of your companions follows up with: "Give it up. We've more friends on the way. Is this worth dying for?" The incoming fire slows further, then stops. You can hear them arguing from behind their cover in the corridor.

As you scan the room looking for exits, the first thing you see is how much damage has been done already. Some panels arc, overflowing with energy, others drip the molten remains of delicate circuitry. The only obvious way in or out is the blast-shattered door that forms the battle's chokepoint, but a second pass reveals what looks like the access to a maintenance duct. No telling where it goes, though, or even that it doesn't just dead-end.

One of the rifles slides weightless through the air into your reach, and you snatch it up.
Hand: Wands 9
Trace: Pentacles 20
Thaluikhain:
The opposition reveals: Swords 20, Swords 7, Swords 12, Pentacles 14, Wands 12.
Your threats sound hollow, perhaps more hollow than they are, but a far more authoritative bellow comes from Sweet Pea behind you. "Way to blow away your own 'chines, feebs! Do our work for us! You're gonna serve up some real thirsty salad!"

The Sisters stop shooting and start squabbling, but they're still out there. Slice is putting a big Band-Aid™ on his injured shoulder.
Hand: Wands 8, Cups 5, Wands 2
Trace: Wands 20, Cups 16
Darth Rabbitt:
Not too late, man, I'll drop the 12 into your trace and shuffle your last draw (Swords 3) back in. Unfortunately, that would place it in your trace when the combat result went through. You lost with a 'pain' result, which turns a card in your trace face-down until the next scene, which in the previous timeline had no real mechanical effect. Since that's kind of a dick result, I'll have your action be to treat the wound and undo the pain. 8 Cups, 4 Cups, 2 Pentacles go into it, and it flips back face-up.
One of your allies screams about the value of the artifacts being destroyed in the fight, and the other yells about approaching allies. You don't get more than the gist as you're crawling behind the raised tile and dealing with your shoulder. It seems to be a second-degree burn, painful, but not immediately dangerous.You press the cold metal of the alien plaque to the area, and that brings a little relief. Then, in the recess where the sigil-rods were hidden, you spot a bulb of goo, and on an intuition you snatch it up and squeeze out a quantity to apply to your blistering flesh. The orange slime soothes admirably.

Speaking of soothing, the shooting seems to have stopped, for the moment at least.
Hand: Swords 6.
Trace: Pentacles 12, Cups 8
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Post by Thaluikhain »

Use Swords 20 to quietly relocate myself and Slice as far as possible without being noticed.
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Post by SlyJohnny »

In the lull in the firing, I crawl over to the duct if I can do so without breaking cover, and test how difficult it would be to open. I wave to my colleagues, drawing their attention to the duct, and put a finger to my lips. Could I or my colleagues reach it without being spotted? I look around for anything that might burn dramatically, or any heating pipes that might generate smoke if destroyed. I examine the rifle clasped in my hands, wondering if it's ammo pack could be coaxed into releasing a cloud of thick smoke if it was ruptured or heated or electrocuted.

I also strain to listen to what my assailants are arguing about, if for no other reason than I'd like to know when they decide to resume trying to murder us.

((Firing off the Wands 9 with my traced King of Pentacles to figure out a way to replicate a smoke grenade with what is available to hand.))
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

I turn to look at my companions. "Allies?" I ask. "Artifacts? The more info you give me the better I can help you."
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

SlyJohnny:
The duct opens easily enough. It is lined with a synthetic insulation, which you rip out and set alight with a maser shot. The smoke is noxious, but in obscures well. Through it float your companions, one pulling the other, who cradles his shoulder.

"Allies?" says the hurt one. "Artifacts? The more info you give me the better I can help you."
Your hand refills: Pentacles 16, Swords 4, Pentacles 10, Cups 4.

Thaluikhain:
You grab Slice and haul him back, deeper into the facility.

"Help me out, are there really more Rippers on the way?" he asks, seeming a trifle vague.

You find Sweet Pea by a big open pipe, which he thumbs you toward. He's piled up a heap of generic synthetic foams scrounged from somewhere and fires a gun into the mass, setting it ablaze. It emits a thick, foul-smelling smoke, screening you from view.
Darth Rabbitt:
Your companion grips you by the scruff of your outfit and drags you away from the breach, through a thick cloud of dust stirred up by the commotion. The other one of you has apparently found a secret passage of some sort, and gestures both for quiet and to go through.
Last edited by angelfromanotherpin on Mon Jun 12, 2017 8:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by SlyJohnny »

"I think we're on the same side. We're experiencing the same event, but seeing it differently." I whisper. "We need to get out of here. But... this room seems important. Isn't it?"

I crawl into the ducts a ways, weighing the options of hiding in here, proceeding and escaping, or ambushing our assailants.

I examine my map, wondering if it shows where this vent goes.
Last edited by SlyJohnny on Mon Jun 12, 2017 9:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

I nod and follow along as quietly and cautiously as possible, keeping an eye out for any more assailants or other potential dangers.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
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Post by Thaluikhain »

Use Swords 20 to run into the pipe.
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

SlyJohnny:
Your companions follow behind you, their movements seeming unreasonably loud in the echoing confines. The duct is not lit, so examining the map seems pointless, but as far as you can tell, it runs parallel to the exterior corridor. The duct dead-ends, except for another hatch, through which you can hear the enemy's argument.

"We've got to set someone at least as rearguard," says one voice. "If we're set on from behind, we'll be slaughtered."

"There's few enough of us left, says another. "We've got to marshal and all go at once. We'll use the grenades-"

"My grenades," says a third. "And I'm not risking it. I can't breathe vacuum, can you?"
Thaluikhain:
The pipe is big, but not so big that running is an option, it's more of a hands-and-knees scramble as you all pile in single-file.

Sweet Pea is in the lead. 'We're bars, right? I know we don't always see eye-to-eye, but we run together. D'you think this station still a big deal?"

The pipe runs out the front wall of the building before you reach a blockage of Rigidifoam™. You can see why, a section of the pipe here is badly rusted, pinholes of light showing through – you could break through easily. Just on the other side, you can hear the Sisters squabbling; their gang cant is Greek to you, but they sound vigorously upset.
Darth Rabbitt:
"I think we're on the same side," whispers the one who opened the passage. "Different points of view on the same thing. We need to escape, but... this chamber seems important. Isn't it?"

One by one, with yourself last, you crawl into the passage, a dusty and claustrophobic space, paved on all sides with hard stone that is murder on the knees. You have several moments like vertigo, where the entire space seems to spin. Bad air? It doesn't seem to bother the others. Some side effect of your wound? Maybe.

The passage curves around and terminates at a thin woven grate, but from the back of the line you can't see anything. You can hear the gruff voices of 'the guards' in dialogue, but echoes distort them into vague mumbles by the time they reach you.
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