Previously
Lightning strikes down near the Wormwood. Looking up at the sky, Rick, Jason, Sarah, and all of Charlie Company see the Principal Magnas, Belial, descending from the skies. He lands behind the Wormwood, which is now being closely guarded by the Brawlers, and his many, demonic voices echo ominous, agonizing cries.
Monday, March 24, 2031
Continuing from last time, Episode 02 begins at nighttime. Billy, Rick, Sarah, Jason, and Strudel (Alex), of Charlie Company, are up against a retreating army of Mayzor and a Principal Magnas, named Belial, in north Brooklyn, NY.
The SAInt pilots immediately get into formation. Jason starts them off from High Balistics (HB) Range with a perfectly aimed sniper shot at Belial's many, screaming masks plastered across his entire body. Rick and Sarah move in to get to Firearms (FA) Range and deliver several more shots to the Magnas, weakening it completely.
A group of Brawlers suddenly start moving away from the Wormwood and toward a warehouse. Rick receives a ping from an unknown line on the MetaTron. Rafe Hunter, Rick's estranged father, answers the phone, leaving Rick in near shock for a moment. Rafe tells Rick he needs to listen carefully and hurry. Rafe says the research must be protected at all costs, that he's in the warehouse and coming clean so that the research can be safely protected. Captain Kasherov and Commander Yamasuka overhear everything, and the military is called in to extract Rafe Hunter from the warehouse as well as the research.
Charlie Company has several new objectives: protect Rafe Hunter so that the military can safely extract him, protect the warehouse, and protect the research found within from the Mayzor so that the Preservation Forces and military can safely secure it. Rick tells Billy and Strudel to go help Jason finish the Magnas off, while Rick and Sarah protect the military from the Brawlers. They're successful, and Jason fires off another sniper shot which destroys the Magnas. Billy and Strudel suddenly find themselves too close as it prepares to self detonate, but Sarah's able to rally them back in time with some remarkably enthusiastic shouts.
Belial self detonates, a lightning bolt strikes down upon the Wormwood, and it retreats back into space along with any surviving Locusts.
After Charlie Company returns to Arx Jericho, they're hit with news that most of Alpha and Bravo Company didn't survive the Chicago raid. Rick gasps, hoping Serena is OK. AK-47 lets Rick know that his sister is alive but sustained critical wounds, and she's hospitalized in intensive care. AK-47 also lets Charlie Company know that they're to be evaluated the following morning with an official mission debriefing to follow.
Almost everyone seems to be in low spirits the next day. Rick skips breakfast to go see his sister at the hospital. The nurses are resistant to let him see Serena, given her critical state, but Rick convinces them, since he is her brother after all. He enters her room and sees Serena all bandaged up and wounded. He sits by her side and holds her hand, sadly.
Meanwhile, a bummed-looking Strudel and Jason make their way to the cafeteria, where they meet up with Sarah and a depressed-looking Billy. Sarah asks Billy what's wrong, but he doesn't say much in response. He carries two trays of food out of the cafeteria. When Sarah and Jason wonder where Billy is taking two trays off to, Strudel says it's probably for Serena. Sarah and Jason are stunned by the news. Strudel says he thinks they're going steady. He seems even more depressed, and Jason and Billy have to convince him to tell them what's wrong. Apparently, Ryoko won't talk to Strudel and that she likes another boy instead. Sarah and Jason attempt to cheer Strudel up, but he wants to be left alone and says he'll meet them for the evaluations later. Sarah decides to head to the hospital, while Jason wants to go tinker with some electronics before the evaluations.
At the hospital, Rick hears a knock on the door and opens it for Billy; he asks if he can come in. Rick sees he has a tray of food and flowers and lets him inside. Sarah arrives at the same time to join them, and Rick and her both have quizzical expressions on their faces. Sarah lets Rick in on what Strudel told her and Jason, and Rick's eyes widen, as he looks at Billy and his sister. Billy sits down next to Serena and places the food tray for her, with flowers, on the counter. He gently grips her hand, smiling. She struggles to smile back through the bandages. Rick and Sarah leave and take the long way to the evaluations to kill some time.
Jason, on his way to one of the public computer labs, cuts through an abandoned alleyway and overhears AK-47's voice. He hides behind a dumpster and observes her speaking to a couple of masked, CRC scientists about Rafe Hunter. He overhears them mention that Rafe is in the custody of the CRC and that AK-47 has the military breathing down her neck to release Rafe Hunter into their custody. The CRC scientists explain that they need Rafe Hunter and his classified research regarding the Apostle Project. AK-47 and the CRC scientists leave, and Jason heads straight to where he's meeting the rest of Charlie Company.
Charlie Company assembles together outside the offices of Dr. Elizabeth Harris (31) and Dr. Donald Johnson (62). AK-47 greets them and instructs everyone to report to the assembly hall for their formal, mission debriefing, following their evaluations. She says Dr. Harris will lead their evaluations in order by age. Furthermore, she says only Rick Hunter will be evaluated by Dr. Johnson. The pilots know that Dr. Harris is generally nice and sweet, whereas Dr. Johnson is harsh and cruel. Both are psychologists, but Dr. Harris evaluates and cares for SAInt pilots and their state of mind and well being, and Dr. Johnson is an analytical psychologist who only seeks in uncovering the truth by any means necessary.
Strudel has his evaluation first, followed by Jason, who doesn't get a single read on Dr. Harris. He's dismissed, and Sarah's evaluation comes next. Sarah chats Dr. Harris up, attempting to pry information out of her regarding the Chicago incident, and Dr. Harris ends up revealing a much more accurate account of the details. Alpha and Bravo Companies fought a Mayzor raid triple the size of what Charlie Company fought in Brooklyn. The Magnas was Dominion class, but incredibly strong. It took out the majority of Alpha Company and Bravo Company. Serena risked her life several times to save her teammates as well as those of Bravo Company. She ended up saving both Laurie Bach (14) and Leo 'Raspberry' Hayes (12), of Bravo Company, and is now going to become their new, team leader. They're all hospitalized, and Dr. Harris hopes they all recover soon. The rest of Sarah's evaluation is fine, as is Billy's, who goes next.
Rick's evaluation with Dr. Johnson doesn't go as well as the rest of his company mates. Throughout the session, Dr. Johnson repeatedly asks Rick to divulge any information he has about his father that he's not sharing, including things that his father may have told him at a young age, prior to when Rafe abandoned his family. Rick repeatedly denies knowing anything, but Dr. Johnson doesn't believe him, and that breaks down Rick's spirit. Rick tries to empathize with Dr. Johnson, who was abandoned at a young age too, but Dr. Johnson keeps badgering him, until he breaks. Rick grows mad, sad, and then goes into a deep depression. He accidentally knocks over some papers on Dr. Johnson's desk and spots a folder labeled CRC with Rafe's name on it, as Dr. Johnson yells, "Get out!"
Charlie Company meets up again at the assembly hall, and they're given a redundant debriefing of their mission in Brooklyn and a lackluster, sugarcoated announcement regarding the incident in Chicago, which would later become known as the Chicago Catastrophe. Billy, Rick, Sarah, Jason, and Strudel congregate together, after, and try and cheer Rick up. Even Billy's showing his soft side, though he's still saddened and worried about Serena, and it's clear on his face. Strudel is bummed. Jason shares what he overheard regarding AK-47 and the CRC scientists, and Rick is thrown into even further depression. Strudel mentions hearing rumors about some top secret project the CRC are working on called the Apostle Project, but unfortunately he doesn't know much.
A grim and dreary song plays in the background, as sorrow fills the air and there are a great number of funerals the remainder of the week. Neither the world nor anyone aboard the Arx Jericho will ever forget the Chicago Catastrophe.
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| Illustration by: Pathogens http://pathogens.deviantart.com/art/Post-apocalyptic-chicago-208758228 |
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| Illustration by: artozi http://artozi.deviantart.com/art/Homeless-Robots-271207472 |
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| Illustration by: Ioan Dumitrescu http://digital-art-gallery.com/picture/7223 |
END OF EPISODE 02
Director Commentary
Compared to the previous episode, I was very pleased with how this one turned out. We grasped the rules better, the session flowed really well, and the players were spending Ego points and regaining them through actions revolving around their motivations, which triggered plenty of Spirit checks.
The episode started out with two of the PCs at max Ego, so a majority of those points went into boosting damage dealt to the Magnas, and it went down in no time. The entire first encounter seemed like it was a cake walk for the PCs. We would later learn that we still weren't gasping all the battle rules correctly, but once the Magnas fell, I had it disabled and introduced a new threat/objective for the PCs to deal with, namely Rafe Hunter and the research.
The disabled Magnas wasn't fully destroyed yet, but it wasn't really a threat anymore, so the PCs ordered Billy and Strudel to finish it off, and I more or less described them firing at the Magnas but shifted the attention more to the warehouse. If I remember correctly, there was a missed action which resulted in Billy and Strudel becoming endangered from the Magnas self-detonating too close to them, but Rick and Sarah successfully saved them. Still, like I said, the entire battle felt a little too easy, and none of the PCs took any structural damage in their SAInts, but that's probably because we weren't utilizing the Engage actions correctly. Also, we were all under the impression that if you tie an action roll with a challenge rating, it succeeds. We found out much later that you actually need to succeed the CR, not tie it. Oops! Oh well, at least the battle was entertaining!
It was exciting to see PCs' Ego go up and down, instead of just up! Spending Ego really does help when it comes to boosting damage. We had players reach max Ego and drop to zero, earning them one AP (XP) each. We sort of forgot about Id and the fact that if Ego doesn't change during a battle action, Id goes up. Everyone's Ego kept going up or down, though, so that wasn't that big of an issue.
The scenes flowed really well this episode. We started off strong and finished up our high-intensity, battle with some plot-building thrown in. I did some initial prep for this episode and got the idea to have Rick's father, Rafe, show up and shine the spotlight on Rick's backstory a little. I knew from the get-go that I wanted to get into the top secret Apostle Project with this game, and the mission objective with Rafe was the first step in introducing it to the game. When Jason went off by himself in-game, we all took a five-minute break, and I actually came up with an impromptu scene right then and there involving AK-47 and the CRC scientists. This gave Jason a chance to make some actions and roll some dice to find out some clues into what happened to Rafe after he was captured.
From then on, we continued to play to find out what happens. It seemed natural to have the PCs undergo psychological evaluations after such a stressful and possibly traumatic experience, and that opened up venues for new conflict and for PCs to make actions and possibly gain more information. Sarah's roleplaying was quite entertaining, when she started asking Dr. Harris to give her the true story on the Chicago Catastrophe. The scene with Rick and Dr. Johnson, however, was some of the most intense conflict any of the PCs had experienced yet, even in comparison to the Mayzor battle.
This might have been our second time attempting a social trial with two characters, but with Rick alone at zero Ego and Dr. Johnson's Focus set pretty high, he really didn't stand much of a chance. Dr. Johnson kept demanding that Rick shares what his father told him, but Rick continuously insisted he didn't know anything. Rick kept failing his actions, and I kept saying that Dr. Johnson doesn't believe him. At one point, Rick's player asked me if there was something Rick should know, and I asked him, "Well, do you know anything else you're not telling Dr. Johnson?" He said no, so I said that's completely fine, but Dr. Johnson's a stubborn old mule who simply isn't buying his answer. After being beat, Rick was left with zero resolve, zero Ego, and he fell into depression. There wasn't much I could do to help Rick's situation out, unfortunately. I could have completely fudged all the numbers, but then what's the point of rolling? That's not really playing to find out what happens. I could have lowered the CR, but I rolled all of Dr. Johnson's stats randomly. Perhaps I could have avoided that scene altogether, but it felt natural and was important to what I was planning, story-wise, in my head. It also set Dr. Johnson up as a potential Antagonist and set one of the PCs into a depression for the first time.
Last but not least, it seemed all too fitting to give this episode the title, Tragic Memories. Rafe's estranged father resurfaced with an ocean of painful memories. Rick failed to find out the whole story of the Chicago Catastrophe from his sister, but Sarah convinced Dr. Harris to share the tragic memories of what she heard and witnessed during the mission from HQ. Finally, Dr. Johnson grilled Rick and sent him spiraling into depression by bringing up even more, bad memories. This ultimately summed up the grim, tragic mood for the entire episode.
The episode started out with two of the PCs at max Ego, so a majority of those points went into boosting damage dealt to the Magnas, and it went down in no time. The entire first encounter seemed like it was a cake walk for the PCs. We would later learn that we still weren't gasping all the battle rules correctly, but once the Magnas fell, I had it disabled and introduced a new threat/objective for the PCs to deal with, namely Rafe Hunter and the research.
The disabled Magnas wasn't fully destroyed yet, but it wasn't really a threat anymore, so the PCs ordered Billy and Strudel to finish it off, and I more or less described them firing at the Magnas but shifted the attention more to the warehouse. If I remember correctly, there was a missed action which resulted in Billy and Strudel becoming endangered from the Magnas self-detonating too close to them, but Rick and Sarah successfully saved them. Still, like I said, the entire battle felt a little too easy, and none of the PCs took any structural damage in their SAInts, but that's probably because we weren't utilizing the Engage actions correctly. Also, we were all under the impression that if you tie an action roll with a challenge rating, it succeeds. We found out much later that you actually need to succeed the CR, not tie it. Oops! Oh well, at least the battle was entertaining!
It was exciting to see PCs' Ego go up and down, instead of just up! Spending Ego really does help when it comes to boosting damage. We had players reach max Ego and drop to zero, earning them one AP (XP) each. We sort of forgot about Id and the fact that if Ego doesn't change during a battle action, Id goes up. Everyone's Ego kept going up or down, though, so that wasn't that big of an issue.
The scenes flowed really well this episode. We started off strong and finished up our high-intensity, battle with some plot-building thrown in. I did some initial prep for this episode and got the idea to have Rick's father, Rafe, show up and shine the spotlight on Rick's backstory a little. I knew from the get-go that I wanted to get into the top secret Apostle Project with this game, and the mission objective with Rafe was the first step in introducing it to the game. When Jason went off by himself in-game, we all took a five-minute break, and I actually came up with an impromptu scene right then and there involving AK-47 and the CRC scientists. This gave Jason a chance to make some actions and roll some dice to find out some clues into what happened to Rafe after he was captured.
From then on, we continued to play to find out what happens. It seemed natural to have the PCs undergo psychological evaluations after such a stressful and possibly traumatic experience, and that opened up venues for new conflict and for PCs to make actions and possibly gain more information. Sarah's roleplaying was quite entertaining, when she started asking Dr. Harris to give her the true story on the Chicago Catastrophe. The scene with Rick and Dr. Johnson, however, was some of the most intense conflict any of the PCs had experienced yet, even in comparison to the Mayzor battle.
This might have been our second time attempting a social trial with two characters, but with Rick alone at zero Ego and Dr. Johnson's Focus set pretty high, he really didn't stand much of a chance. Dr. Johnson kept demanding that Rick shares what his father told him, but Rick continuously insisted he didn't know anything. Rick kept failing his actions, and I kept saying that Dr. Johnson doesn't believe him. At one point, Rick's player asked me if there was something Rick should know, and I asked him, "Well, do you know anything else you're not telling Dr. Johnson?" He said no, so I said that's completely fine, but Dr. Johnson's a stubborn old mule who simply isn't buying his answer. After being beat, Rick was left with zero resolve, zero Ego, and he fell into depression. There wasn't much I could do to help Rick's situation out, unfortunately. I could have completely fudged all the numbers, but then what's the point of rolling? That's not really playing to find out what happens. I could have lowered the CR, but I rolled all of Dr. Johnson's stats randomly. Perhaps I could have avoided that scene altogether, but it felt natural and was important to what I was planning, story-wise, in my head. It also set Dr. Johnson up as a potential Antagonist and set one of the PCs into a depression for the first time.
Last but not least, it seemed all too fitting to give this episode the title, Tragic Memories. Rafe's estranged father resurfaced with an ocean of painful memories. Rick failed to find out the whole story of the Chicago Catastrophe from his sister, but Sarah convinced Dr. Harris to share the tragic memories of what she heard and witnessed during the mission from HQ. Finally, Dr. Johnson grilled Rick and sent him spiraling into depression by bringing up even more, bad memories. This ultimately summed up the grim, tragic mood for the entire episode.
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