[Pbp] Psychosis - Ship of Fools

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

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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

This droid knows the place better than me. It's probably worth following for now; if it was programmed by whatever those things were it'd have called for them.

I follow the droid and crawl into the duct.
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:
He has an obvious holster and also a belt knife. The radio operator is completely unarmed.
The silence that follows your first questions is so flinty that you decide not to wait for a response and hurry on to your follow-up.

"I do not use drugs," says Grubel. His tone is cold and offended, and might be frightening from anyone else, but honestly it's the most relatable he's ever sounded. Cold is at least a temperature. "Perhaps the traitors on board dosed you, trying to keep you from helping us. Yes, this would explain much."

"After you assist Grubel in completing this operation," says the voice from the radio, "you may have any treatment or amenity you wish; you will be a hero of the Reich, after all."

"Since that was your last issue," says Grubel, "we will leave at once." He gestures towards the door. "Lead the way, Mister Fromm. I will be right behind you."
Hand: Wands 9, Swords 8, Wands 6, Pentacles 4.
Trace: Swords 20
Thaluikhain:
I'm going to assume you throw in your last hand card, so you'll get a refill. The suits draw three cards and play the 10 of Pentacles, discarding the unplayable King and 8 of Cups. You draw the 5 of Cups, 2 of Wands, and Ace of Wands (discarded, incoming event), replaced by the 8 of Wands.
He followed the suits back through the chill of the storage and out into the rain again. He'd have been surprised if he didn't get the sniffles soon.

He bludgeoned the first suit with the handiest object nearby - his hands. The second suit started to say something, probably would have sounded impressive and scary, something about the Leviathan of society and little cogs in large machines. But it's hard to talk with a mouth full of knuckle sandwich.

He folded the suits and packed them in the trunk, then drove. He drove without a destination or a goal, unless it was just the city. The city...
The event is Judgement.
The city of VanArk has no sky. Outside, the pollution would kill a person in minutes. Inside, the gangs will kill you twice as quick, if you give them a reason. On the levels Blue 45-51, the big gang is the Sisters. Belonging to another gang is a middle finger right up their ass, and they aren't into anal.

Your jacket proclaims your membership in the Rippers.

You're eating a bowl of Snot™, that a kind young vendor has just 'given' you. It's not the best of the yeasty crap that passes for food among the Blues, but it comes with a toy, a little piece of plasti-crap, the collection of which has become a kind of status symbol among the Rippers this year. You pause in the middle of eating, as a wave of vertigo passes over you.

"You look a little lost, Rip," says the vendor. "If you need some help searching your folders, I know a guy."
Hand: Wands 8, Cups 5, Wands 2
Trace: Wands 20, Cups 16
Darth Rabbitt:
As you follow the droi–er, large servo, your left arm continues to slowly power back up. Crawling at the speed required to keep up with the servo is banging up your knees, even through your suit.

"I apologize for any unpleasantness you might have experienced," says the large servo. "The path mapped for you showed as clear, but internal sensors are not fully reliable at this time."

You emerge from the duct into a passage that is completely dark and unusually cold. Your right beacon flicks on, but the left does not - auto-repair has priority when power is limited.

"I apologize for any discomfort," says the large servo. "We turned down life support in this area. Not enough to be really dangerous, but the intruders don't seem to like the cold. Most of the ship's semiautonomous subunits gather here. Ah, another approaches now."

A servo like a walking dinner plate is trotting out of a side corridor towards you. Resting on the plate, as if being served to you for dinner, is your Goliathon Mk VII. You reach out and take it, feeling the comforting vibration of its plasma batteries up your arm.

"At this time, an exchange of information is in order," says the large servo. "As the guest, we will address your questions first."
Hand: Pentacles 2.
Trace: Pentacles 14.
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SlyJohnny
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Post by SlyJohnny »

I nod agreeably, the very picture of compliance. I exit the radio room, and start towards the chart room I saw earlier.
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Post by Thaluikhain »

"Does he have a name?"
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

"Assuming you know of their presence," I start, "What's with the aliens?"
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:
The chart room presents a scene of jarring contrast. The room itself is a place of extraordinary, almost spiritual, comfort. The furnishings are wood, brass, and warm-colored upholstery. The space is not large, but arranged with cozy efficiency. The books and charts are obviously well-used and well-loved.

And then there is the one steel chair in the middle of the floor, the cables, the strings of spattered blood, and some small objects on the floor that you suppose must be teeth.

You cannot pay attention to the grisliness; your eyes are drawn by some compulsion to one wall, and to the framed structural diagram of the ship that hangs from it. An errant sunbeam makes the thing almost seem to glow.

"Collect what you need and let us be moving," says Grubel from behind you.
Thaluikhain:
"Maybe, but I dunno if he gets much use out of it. He tags as Knower, does colors over by Blue 49-38-11. You can't miss it."
Darth Rabbitt:
There is a pause, and you guess that their translator is taking a moment to properly parse your slang.

"About fifty years ago, the Divine Purgatory took aboard a small unidentified vessel, that was broadcasting what was assumed to be a distress beacon. The intruders were aboard. They spread through our ship, rapidly eliminating the crew." The servo's voice expresses no sorrow, just the same calm amiability it always has. "We have been adrift ever since, the aliens having the run of the ship."

More and more servos are joining your little entourage, in all shapes and sub-two-foot sizes.
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Post by Thaluikhain »

I casually gp past Blue 49-38-11, taking a discreet look as I do so, then drift back there later.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

"Is there anything on the ship that the aliens might be looking for?"
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 »

Thaluikhain:
As you make your way to the interlevel 'vators, it's weird that you don't see any Sisters around today. Your habitual routes avoid their major presences, but you usually have to duck at least a couple of them. Something's going on with them, you just hope it's a schism and not a war council.

You reach the spot, and it is indeed difficult to miss. One of the habs is completely covered in colorful retro-graffiti, mostly with animal motifs. (You've never seen the point of animals. What do they do except sit in a zoo?) Above the door, in letters so stylized that you can barely make them out, are the words 'Knower's Art.'
Darth Rabbitt:
"If there is, they have had ample time with which to find it. They seem to have no desires other than to kill and multiply, and they currently exist at the limit of the ship's nutri-systems to sustain them."
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Post by SlyJohnny »

"What did you mean, about squashing a bug?" I ask as I push open the door to the chart room. I am surprised that Grubel let me just walk in here. I was ready to launch into a pre-prepared story about why I had to come here. Maybe Grubel doesn't know how to access emergency steering. Maybe he doesn't even know where it is. I silently take note of this.

I drag my eyes away from the technical diagram, resolving to look at it later, and wander over to the metal chair. I pick up whichever of the loose cables looks like it'll come free from the chair the easiest, lifting it and turning it in my hand, and turning to Grubel. "Who was this?" I ask.

I turn away from the chair and head to a shelf, and start picking up books and charts, leafing through them seemingly at random, but with an eye out for anything interesting. I'd like to find the ship's log, and/or whichever chart I was most recently using, anything that would tell me our current position and heading. I put the uninteresting charts and books on a convenient flat surface, giving off the appearance of cursorily but methodically checking the inside of each one for something.
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

SlyJohnny:
Grubel ignores your first question, and to your second he says only: 'No one.'

Nothing here has been used very recently. Probably the current log and active chart are in the steering room. You do find a log from the previous year, detailing two dozen round trips between Germany and South America, and you know you're on the return leg from Argentina. Too many variables remain unknown for a proper reckoning, but you know the route you're on.

There is an odd sound from the radio room. Although from your position you can see nothing out of the ordinary, Grubel unsnaps his holster and moves to stand behind the adjoining door.
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Post by SlyJohnny »

While Grubel's back is turned, I take the opportunity to roll up and pocket the cable I picked up. I duck behind the largest piece of furniture that's still close to the diagram, seeking cover from the door in case examining the diagram triggers a memory and makes me space out again while something dangerous happens. Then I turn my gaze upon it and examine it in detail.
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Post by Thaluikhain »

In to talk to Knower...I guess about terrible puns?
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

SlyJohnny:
His back is never really turned, but your Swords Trace is enough to take advantage of his distraction.
Dramatic illumination aside, the diagram seems quite ordinary. It has a comprehensive layout of the dependent structures, horizontal and vertical. With this, you could find your way anywhere on board. Emergency steering is clearly marked, at the rear.

Two crewmen rush in through the door, carrying wrenches and looking aggressive. From his concealed position, Grubel draws his pistol and shoots each of them in the back of one knee, and they collapse with cries of pain to lie on the floor, cradling their injuries. A third crewman charges through the room's other door, wielding another tool. Grubel wheels to face him, but cannot get a shot off, and has to resort to grappling with his attacker.

"Get going, sir!" cries one of the wounded men. "Get to the cinema!"

The diagram does have a cinema marked on it. A luxury vessel indeed.
Thaluikhain:
Inside, the hab is dominated by three huge murals depicting the biblical ark. The left wall shows the animals loading onto it, the far wall shows the great boat tossed on stormy seas, and the right wall is an incomplete depiction of the animals leaving the ark. Some sleight of the artist has given the murals a strangely unreal quality.

Standing on some scaffolding, dressed in overalls and a headkerchief, is a man with a long white beard, adding some birds to the sky of the right-hand mural with a paintbrush. He hums a tune while he works. It is strangely familiar, like something you knew as a child but had forgotten until now. Additional artwork in many forms – pottery, sculpture, ink and charcoal drawings, even some sheets of musical notation – is laid in disorganization atop a few tables in the middle of the room.

Knower - you presume it is he - looks around as you come in. He sits down on his scaffold, then pushes off to drop to the floor.

"Greetings, friend," he says, approaching. "You have a troubled look. Come in, and tell me about yourself."
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Post by SlyJohnny »

Fools. Is this a rescue attempt? I had him distracted!

"Herr Grubel!" I cry, leaping in as if to assist the man against the newcomer. While I reach over him with one arm as if to shove the crewman away, my right hand snakes down and nimbly steals Grubel's knife from it's sheath. I immediately hold it to Grubel's throat, pulling him back against me to throw him off balance, and lock his gun arm back against my body.

"ENOUGH! Both of you! Drop the gun, now, or I slit your throat. Crewman, release him at once!"

If there's any hesitation on this point, I allow the knife to press against Grubel's throat and draw a thin line of blood. "I said now!! You'll never see the Reich to victory, otherwise!"

((Using Swords 20, Swords 8, and Wands 6))
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

"What is (or was) this ship's mission?"
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 »

"I am told you having the knowing of many things. I find myself in need of your wisdom."
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

SlyJohnny:
Grubel draws five cards: no Wands! Plays the Knight of Swords, discards the Page, 9 and 8 of Pentacles, and the 4 of Cups.
Grubel drops his pistol with a smile. "This is stupid, Mister Fromm. You have family in the fatherland." He looks around at the crewmen. "All of you do, and the other crew and passengers as well. This interference will subject them all to unpleasant attention. Cooperation is the only currency that will buy mercy."

The crewman releases Grubel. "Don't listen to his threats. I'll hold him. You have to get to the cinema, now, sir. There's not a second to lose."
Thaluikhain:
Knower gives an amused smile. "Those are both statements about yourself, but they don't tell me much. I know a fair amount, yes, but I must have a place to start from." He pulls a couple of stools out from under a table, and pours sachets of self-heating drink mix into cups of water, then offers you one of each. "What are your troubles, and what is your need?'
Darth Rabbitt:
"The ship was a leisure and transport vessel, transporting people long distances in comfort. Alas, most of that comfort was edible to the intruders, and they have stripped the interior quite bare. This," the large servo says, gesturing as you pass into another of the vast vaulted areas, empty as all the rest of the ship, "used to be a pleasure garden."

Another servo pipes up, still in the same voice. "Do you have much experience with piloting starships?"
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Post by SlyJohnny »

"Shut up, Grubel. You, get the gun. Cover him." I nod to the crewman.

Once he's covered, I drag Grubel over to the chair, push him into a seated position, and start tying his arms down to it.

"Why do you want me in the cinema? What is going on?"
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Post by Thaluikhain »

"I've heard of something called 'The Traveller', but do not know what that is, nor how it could affect us."
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

SlyJohnny:
You have only begun to drag Grubel when the crewman shoots him in the chest. Grubel gives a wet cry and goes limp, dead weight in your arms. The crewman aims the pistol at you, his face red with anger.

"Cinema now, shithead, questions later. Fucking move!"
edit: In retrospect, this is a Cups challenge.
Hand: Wands 9, Pentacles 4.
Trace: Swords 20
Thaluikhain:
"Hm, the ancients knew of travelers which they did not understand, and ascribed to them a great power to affect us, and everything beneath them." Knower gestures to his ceiling, which covered in a starscape. "The wandering stars, the planets."

The starscape has the same unreal quality as the ark murals, a dreamlike shimmer that makes it seem almost like a portal in space to the depicted scene in a painted reality.

"You, however, do not seem like a superstitious person. If you know so little about this Traveler, then it could only trouble you through context. How, then, did you learn about it?"
Hand: Wands 8, Cups 5, Wands 2
Trace: Wands 20, Cups 16
Last edited by angelfromanotherpin on Tue Jan 24, 2017 4:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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SlyJohnny
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Post by SlyJohnny »

((Quick question, I have to pass this Cups check in order to have options other than doing as he asks, right? I can't just throw the knife at him, even if doing so is my justification for using Swords on a cups challenge?))
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Post by Thaluikhain »

"I do not know how I know, only that I am aware of an awareness."
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

SlyJohnny wrote:((Quick question, I have to pass this Cups check in order to have options other than doing as he asks, right? I can't just throw the knife at him, even if doing so is my justification for using Swords on a cups challenge?))
That's acceptable narration, although this being a social conflict he won't take more than cosmetic injury. If you win, you could take as your persuasion victory 'stay down' or something similar to represent the knife 'persuading' him to stay out of your way.
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Post by SlyJohnny »

I grimace and flinch away as my apparent rescuer fires a gun at the man I'm carrying. Well. So much for preventing further loss of life. I really hope he deserved that just as much as he seemed to.

I make a show of dropping the knife in fright down behind Grubel's body as I recoil in alarm, while actually trying to conceal it up my sleeve. I step away from the body.

"Mein gott! There was absolutely no need for-"

I blanch as the gun is pointed at me, raising my hands in surrender.

"Okay! Okay! You're the boss. To the cinema it is!"

I move speedily towards the door, as if hurriedly complying. Once I'm out there, I'll take off running, using my memory of the floorplan to seek an escape route with twists and turns and as many branching doors as possible, to confuse any pursuers.

((Sword 20))
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