What Happened Last Time

devlin1 · Post by **devlin1** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 5:12 pm

For Albert's benefit, here's a quick rundown of what happened last time.

After finding out about Elaine and Victor Carlisle, Stephen stakes out the Red Fox. Eventually, Carlisle leaves in his limo (with Hans the Peter Lorre analogue, who carries a crate of some kind), and Stephen follows. Midway down Sunset, though, a blue-clad figure smashes down into the pavement right in front of Stephen's car. It's Vanguard, one of the few remaining genuine "superheroes" from the war. Following immediately after him is the Ogre, a monstrous brute of a metahuman. Vanguard staggers to his feet and the two supers commence to fightin'.

Stephen swiftly maneuvers his car around the pair and manages to catch up with Carlisle's limo, which meets up with several other limos in front of a dock (and a yacht) in Marina del Rey. A bunch of tuxedo- and evening gown-clad socialites mill about on the dock, and when Carlisle makes his appearance he leads them all onto the luxury yacht. Stephen sneaks aboard and discovers it's a casino boat bound for international waters. He does a lot of sneaking around, sees Rhino (Jersey Marche's hired muscle) guarding a staircase to a lower deck, and manages to slip through the big lug's legs. There are a bunch of staterooms down there, and one deck below is the engine room (I guess).

He tries picking the lock of one of the rooms and doesn't succeed, but as he tries another, one of the doors opens, and out of it emerges the Fat Man, followed by Hans carrying that crate again. Stephen follows them upstairs, past Rhino, and into the kitchen, where they meet up with an anxious Carlisle. All three of them (plus Rhino) go into the ballroom/casino area, where the crowd awaits anxiously with champagne flutes in hand. Carlisle then gives them what amounts to a sales pitch. The product: Vril, the substance that was released into the atmosphere as a result of the Tungsuksa Incident and is responsible for the creation of metahumanity. Somehow, Carlisle's put it into vials (conceptually, for the PCs, this is somewhat akin to bottling sunlight) and is marketing it as a designer drug. He makes a point of saying it's "pure" and "direct from Europe," which also apparently means it's safe, though its effects are, of course, wildly unpredictable (as far as anyone knows).

While this is going on, Stephen sneaks back downstairs to the Fat Man's (unlocked) stateroom and gives it a once-over. He finds a bunch of paperwork, but doesn't have time to really examine much of it. He does find out a few key bits of information. The money's going to a variety of Europeans -- including, crazily enough, the Nazi Colonel Kohl, your nemesis in the war -- but the Vril itself seems to be coming from a location within the United States. He goes back up to the casino, where people have gone back to gambling their money away. Carlisle circulates among them, selling them on Vril, and Rhino and Hans guard the crate of vials. Super-sneaky Stephen swipes a vial, and when the yacht docks again he gets off. His car has a parking ticket on it.

(I think that's everything that happened to Stephen.)

Meanwhile, Will and Frank, on information received from Carlisle, have gone to Clancy's last known address: the Apex Arms, a motel/boarding house in... er... somewhere. Silver Lake? I dunno. Anyway, they go inside and try to talk their way into Clancy's room, but the elderly concierge, Mrs. Mulligan, tells them her husband handle that, and they have to come back tomorrow. Frank's player, thinking this is merely a plot device to get Frank and Will to split up, buys it without question. Frank drops Will off at the Informer (because he has work to do and doesn't have a typewriter at home, see), then goes to his aunt's place for dinner.

Judge Cyrus Adams decides that this would be a good night to stop by Ruthie's place for some dinner. Imagine his surprise when he discovers that Frank is Ruth's nephew! Eventually, the ditch the old broad and exchange a bunch of information. I don't even know everything they talked about.

Anyway, now they're fast friends. They go back to the Apex Arms the next day with a plan. Between them, they have plenty of authority: one's a judge, and the other's an insurance investigator (they fight crime!). Their talk with Mrs. Mulligan, though, is very familiar to Frank. She tells them that her husband's the one who handles that sort of thing and that they should come back tomorrow. Frank (I think) tells her that he just spoke to her husband and he said it'd be okay. Mulligan loses it, muttering to herself about her husband. A confused employee emerges from elsewhere in the lobby and takes her into a back room. Frank and the Judge immediately take the opportunity to look in the motel's register to see what room Clancy had, but before they can really find anything the guy comes back out to help them. He says his name's Tom (he's the handyman/maintenance guy) and that Mrs. Mulligan hasn't been the same since her husband died....

He takes them up to Clancy's room and lets them in. There's a "keep out" note on the door posted by the LAPD which they promptly ignore. The room's been tossed by the cops. There are some clothes scattered around the closet and some papers scattered around the desk. Frank also spots a tiny scrap of paper sticking out from between two floorboards. After a little examination, he discovers the floorboards are loose; beneath them he finds a few account ledgers. The piece of paper has an address and phone number written on it that he doesn't recognize.

There's a noise at the door. The Judge hobbles out to investigate, but by the time gets there the hallway's empty. At the end, though, the door to the fire escape has just slammed shut. He carries on, and looking down below he sees a ragged figure limping away in haste. In an attempt to either slow his progress or get him killed, the Judge Confuses him, causing him to attack Tom, who's out back taking out some trash. He's no match for Tom, though, and makes his save the next round, so when Frank and the Judge get down there he's curled up, gibbering and shuddering, in the fetal position. Frank turns him over. It's Clancy.

They have the presence of mind to check his hand, which looks like it's recently been cut pretty badly. Not that the rest of him looks much better. He's shivering and sweating, and looks very pale and generally unwell. They take him up to the motel room and listen to his crazy-ass story, which goes something like this:

He did go to Japan after the war, but not to help with the rebuilding effort. Instead, he volunteered to take part in a series of scientific experiments. Seems the military had discovered some Japanese research on Vril, and said they could make him and the other soldiers into metahumans. Clancy wanted to be like his metahuman brothers-in-arms and, of course, serve his country. He doesn't know what happened, really, but one day there were two of him. The other one was kind of a jerk and ran away, and ever since then Clancy's health has been steadily declining. He managed to get back to the U.S. and looked up his war buddies, thinking that the other Clancy would've done the same (in fact, if you'll recall that first session, he asked you guys, "When's the last time we saw each other?"). He thinks maybe if he can find the other Clancy, he'll get better.

Naturally, he's a little upset with Frank tells him the other Clancy's been shot dead.

"When they killed him, they killed me too, Frank," Clancy says.

"Not yet they haven't," Frank says.

And that's it, I think. Did anything else happen, fellas? Sorry, that wasn't quick after all....

jimmy corrigan · Post by **jimmy corrigan** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 7:29 pm

that was a great read. i wisht i was there. man alive! very very cool.

SpaceMonkey · Post by **SpaceMonkey** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 9:17 am

~~[quote="devlin1"]~~...Stephen sneaks aboard and discovers it's a casino boat bound for international waters. He does a lot of sneaking around, sees Rhino (Jersey Marche's hired muscle) guarding a staircase to a lower deck, and manages to slip through the big lug's legs. There are a bunch of staterooms down there, and one deck below is the engine room (I guess).

[/quote]

Ah, what the hell. I figured I'd look up some old-tyme yacht plans for you.

~~[url]~~http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h92000/h92126.jpg[/url]

This one looks pretty good. Was refitted for arctic voyages, but that seems to amount to some extra bracing & such, not too much in the way. Seems pretty darn similar to what you were describing, was built in the late 1800's (& retrofitted a few times), runs on coal/prop but has sails also. Berths (staterooms) in the middle, engines on the bottom, dining & such on the top (well, store rooms, but if it was a luxury yacht they'd be dining & such, with less coal storage I'd warrant).

~~[quote]~~And that's it, I think. Did anything else happen, fellas? Sorry, that wasn't quick after all....[/quote]

Well, there was the info Cyrus got from the morgue on Flancey (that's Fake Clancey) - pumped full of vrill & whatnot.

devlin1 · Post by **devlin1** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 3:01 pm

~~[quote="dnd3eplayer"]~~Ah, what the hell. I figured I'd look up some old-tyme yacht plans for you.[/quote]
Nice! That'll do.

~~[url=http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h92000/h92126.jpg]~~http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h92000/h92126.jpg[/url]~~[quote]~~Well, there was the info Cyrus got from the morgue on Flancey (that's Fake Clancey) - pumped full of vrill & whatnot.[/quote]
Ah, yes. Very important, that, and I forgot all about it. The Judge talked to someone in the county coroner's office (IIRC) who let him have a look at the ME's report on the corpse now known as Flancy, which seemed to indicate that the deceased was a metahuman. The oddness of this was explained, more or less, by Genuine Clancy's (now known as "Glancy") story about his time in Japan.

devlin1 · Post by **devlin1** » Mon May 07, 2007 5:20 pm

One other thing I just remembered: Stephen ended the session in Carlisle's house. Because he's crazy. Apart from an overheard telephone conversation ("Aw, c'mon over, baby"), I don't quite recall what else Stephen did.

Mord -- or Sam, for that matter -- did we end things with Stephen just eavesdropping his little heart out there?

mordraine · Post by **mordraine** » Mon May 07, 2007 6:06 pm

Yeah, I thik Stephen left after that. His Girl wasn't there, so no reason to keep eaves dropping. In fact, I believe Mr. Swift felt a little hope since Elaine was *clearly* turning down Carlisle.

devlin1 · Post by **devlin1** » Mon May 07, 2007 6:43 pm

~~[quote="mordraine"]~~Yeah, I thik Stephen left after that. His Girl wasn't there, so no reason to keep eaves dropping. In fact, I believe Mr. Swift felt a little hope since Elaine was *clearly* turning down Carlisle.[/quote]
Well, assuming he was talking to Elaine. He's got more dames than a... rap sheet... has... um... gunsel.

devlin1 · Post by **devlin1** » Mon May 07, 2007 7:49 pm

I also forgot to mention that Frank and the Judge swung by Stephen's place, where they found Detective Cagney poking around the place. I mean, nothing really came of it, but they were there.

mordraine · Post by **mordraine** » Mon May 07, 2007 7:59 pm

~~[quote="devlin1"]~~Well, assuming he was talking to Elaine. He's got more dames than a... rap sheet... has... um... gunsel.[/quote]

What do you think Stephen's going to assume?

devlin1 · Post by **devlin1** » Mon May 07, 2007 8:04 pm

~~[quote="mordraine"]~~What do you think Stephen's going to assume?[/quote]
Oh, I know. I'm just sayin'. Considering who he is, Elaine's gotta be just one more filly in the pen. Which is even worse, in a way. I mean, here he ~~[i]~~has[/i] her, but he probably doesn't even ~~[i]~~care[/i] about her as anything more than property. And she left you for ~~[i]~~that[/i]?

devlin1 · Post by **devlin1** » Sun May 20, 2007 11:14 am

Hey! Good stuff last night. Let's see if I can dig myself out of this hole I've put myself in before next time. For one thing, I'm going to have to figure out how to never play an important female NPC again. I can't deal with Andy shouting "I love you!" at me.

jimmy corrigan · Post by **jimmy corrigan** » Sun May 20, 2007 11:25 am

that scene alone was worth the price of admission. i say the more elaine and stephen spotlight the better!

i had a lot of fun, devlin1. good complications and stuff. keep 'em coming. second to the whole stephen bursting out with his undying love for elaine, i really enjoyed the 2-way radio thing for willoughby. being beat the hell up by olivia de havilland was also tits. thanks for opening up your office again, mord. and dnd3e, you're great, too.

devlin1 · Post by **devlin1** » Sun May 20, 2007 11:27 am

~~[quote="jimmy corrigan"]~~that scene alone was worth the price of admission. i say the more elaine and stephen spotlight the better!

i had a lot of fun, devlin1. good complications and stuff. keep 'em coming. second to the whole stephen bursting out with his undying love for elaine, i really enjoyed the 2-way radio thing for willoughby. being beat the hell up by olivia de havilland was also tits. thanks for opening up your office again, mord. and dnd3e, you're great, too.[/quote]
I loved it when you told Lou to tell anyone who came looking for you that you'd been fired. I could see immediately how much nonsense could be caused by that.

mordraine · Post by **mordraine** » Sun May 20, 2007 8:29 pm

I had a great time, Mike. Stephen is pretty ecstatic right now. Of course, Elaine will break his heart again, but that won't stop him.

SpaceMonkey · Post by **SpaceMonkey** » Mon May 21, 2007 8:50 am

That dame is trouble Steven, with a capital 'T'. But ya can't stay away, can ya?

devlin1 · Post by **devlin1** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:40 pm

Hey, I meant to mention that those were good times on Saturday.

My favorite part was when Andy threw the d20.

jimmy corrigan · Post by **jimmy corrigan** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:18 am

y'know, i have a good time in that game no matter what. something about noir, m&m, and this particular set of people make it guaranteed awesome.

my favorite part was my new aspect from nat: "beloved by children."

SpaceMonkey · Post by **SpaceMonkey** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:42 am

~~[quote="jimmy corrigan"]~~y'know, i have a good time in that game no matter what. something about noir, m&m, and this particular set of people make it guaranteed awesome.

my favorite part was my new aspect from nat: "beloved by children."[/quote]

Yeah, we gotta try and find a way to invoke that and my 'unusual sensitivity to color' in the same scene sometime.

jimmy corrigan · Post by **jimmy corrigan** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 9:37 am

haha, i just remembered another favorite moment: earl scheib garroting that poor bastard. hahaha!

i love how we're able to blend real life folk (gable, dehavilland, bowron, scheib) into these things, and how it inadvertently works better than we probably could have planned it! happy accidents are cool.

devlin1 · Post by **devlin1** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 11:39 pm

~~[quote="jimmy corrigan"]~~haha, i just remembered another favorite moment: earl scheib garroting that poor bastard. hahaha!

i love how we're able to blend real life folk (gable, dehavilland, bowron, scheib) into these things, and how it inadvertently works better than we probably could have planned it! happy accidents are cool.[/quote]
I could not stop laughing about Earl Scheib.

I love historical fiction games. Mixing the strange with the familiar is something that just really appeals to me.

Actually, that's one of the things that bugged me so much about running WotG: I constantly wanted to place the game in an altered but faithful real-world setting, but there's almost nothing available on the China of that time period and the book just didn't give me the details I wanted. Researching real-world 20th century, though, has been a lot easier -- and, in some ways, a lot funner to play out.

devlin1 · Post by **devlin1** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:21 am

Hey fellas -- I'm all pissy because it looks like I've lost everything that was on my laptop. Game notes, characters, close to 30 PDFs of D&D books, all of my pictures from England last summer... everything. I can't seem to get over it. Really irritates me.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank you guys for putting up with last Sunday's half-assed game/exposition, thank the good people at Kore Tech for hosting, thank Sam for running that graveyard-shift Star Wars game, thank Albert for letting me snore on his floor, and also point out a couple key facts about the game itself:

1. Clancy apparently can't be saved. Veidt gives him a few days, a week, tops.

2. Veidt seemed to draw a connection between the appearance of metas in the U.S. and outbreaks of polio and TB shortly thereafter. You also learned that American metas are the result of synthesized vril ("fril") made by government scientists, and not the real thing.

3. It looks like the vials of vril Carlisle has are part of 40-year-old synthesized batch of vril that Veidt thought/hoped had been locked away, if not destroyed. If distributed to the public at large, even a small segment of it, it could very well result in a pandemic that will kill millions. Again.

SpaceMonkey · Post by **SpaceMonkey** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:57 am

is it a Hard Drive problem? if not (and even if so), the data is likely recoverable even if the laptop isn't...

mordraine · Post by **mordraine** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 1:05 pm

~~[quote="devlin1"]~~Hey fellas -- I'm all pissy because it looks like I've lost everything that was on my laptop. Game notes, characters, close to 30 PDFs of D&D books, all of my pictures from England last summer... e~~[i]~~verything[/i]. I can't seem to get over it. Really irritates me.[/quote]

I can definitely relate.

Skyman · Post by **Skyman** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 1:20 pm

That sucks...sorry to hear about that. Much like Sam said I hope you can recover it all.

devlin1 · Post by **devlin1** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 12:29 am

~~[quote="Skyman"]~~That sucks...sorry to hear about that. Much like Sam said I hope you can recover it all.[/quote]

The good news: I'm typing this on my laptop. The bad news: It's an empty husk of its former self.