We are blessed with a surfeit of attendance: Paul (Kumar Singh), Tim (Serpentine), Bruce (Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs) and Chuck all show up and eat burritos, while Chris (Michael Sangaree) disdains such mundane foodstuffs and appears only in time for the festivities to start. Tim makes a point of mentioning that the this time the burritos from the Chipotle Grill are only a little bit worse than similar fare from the mythical Freebird's. Both Paul and Chuck adopt beatific expressions upon the mere mention of that heaven-touched eatery. Bruce simply scowls and wishes that the New York Deli hadn't closed down.
The characters have quite a lot of time off after their triumphant return from Texas and their victory over the invidious forces of Horatio Mycroft Pulfrey-Downs. Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs takes advantage of this break to repair to his laboratories and crunch up a series super-science weapons for the group. He works on three projects: the Briefcase SMG (for himself), the Fractal-Serrated Kukri (for Kumar Singh and Serpentine) and a supply of explosive ammunition for the bored-out Mauser C98 taken from Horatio Mycroft Pulfrey-Downs (for Michael Sangaree).
| Weapon | Acc | Damage | Str Min | Range | Mnv | RoF | Clip | Conc | Mass | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Submachinegun | 0 | 5L | 2 | 50 | Af, Ms, Sa, St, Tw | 20 | 20 | T | 2.5 | ooo |
| Briefcase SMG | +1 | 5L | 2 | 50 | Af, Ms, Sa, St, Tw | 20 | 40 | P* | 2.5 | ooo |
| Fractal-Serrated Kukri | +1 | STR+6 | 1 | J | 0.5 | o | ||||
| Explosive Ammo | +1L* |
*Explosive ammo adds +1 die of lethal damage if the attack damage is greater than the target's lethal soak, or allows 2 dice of bashing damage to be rolled if the attack was completely blocked by soak.
The Briefcase SMG starts out as a standard submachinegun. It is miniaturized (concealability improves from T to J), with flechette ammunition (+100% to ammo capacity and +1 to accuracy), and is concealed by a breakaway briefcase or doctor's bag (think of the weapons carried by the bodyguards at the beginning of Ghost in the Shell). Total R&D difficulty for this item is 26, at a difficulty of +1. Pulfrey-Downs finishes developing it in only 22 hours, and soon after manufactures one for himself, along with a supply of the ammo.
The Fractal-Serrated Kukri is an oversized knife with an infinitely-sharp blade. It is a large knife (base damage STR+3) with +3 damage and +1 accuracy. Total R&D difficulty for the knife is 24, at +2 difficulty. It takes Pulfrey-Downs two attempts to get this right. He makes two of them, one for Kumar Singh and one for Serpentine (who needs it to fight crime!).
In his spare time, Pulfrey-Downs also fixes the Origami Spad and Michael Sangaree's cargo plane.
Michael Sangaree throws money at the dirigible problem. Specifically, the shattered dirigible the characters appropriated from Horatio Mycroft Pulfrey-Downs. He hires a repair crew and pilots, and in only a few short months has a working dirigible. He sets it to running a regular passenger run along the East Coast, so it isn't normally available to the characters.
On March 20, 1934, Serpentine decides to read the newspaper. He comes upon an interesting story about a local farmer named Jethro Periwinkle in Castle Point, ME who was torn apart by a threshing machine. The other characters look at this story and express sympathy for the fate of the unfortunate farmer. Serpentine rather angrily explains to them that the interesting part of the article are the comments from the fellow's wife. She claims that she saw some sort of animal run out from the barn just after her husband was killed. The newspaper reporter thought that it might be a bear, but the characters are instantly unconvinced. Everyone agrees that this is something worth investigating. Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs comments, "When you eat the flesh of another man, you steal his strength. Wendigo!" Kumar Singh mutters, "Wendeegee... Yes, I know I'm mispronouncing it. I'm trying to make a point." Michael Sangaree suggests that the characters had best head out to Maine before things really get out of hand.
Michael Sangaree takes a look at some aviation charts of the Northeast and determines that crude (at best) landing facilities are available in the Castle Point area. After some debate, the characters elect to fly up in the cargo plane, fully loaded with superfuel to ensure that they don't have to refuel. They load up the Origami Spad and two motorcycles with sidecars to allow some local mobility once they get there.
It develops that several other characters have reasonable resources in the Castle Point area. Serpentine has a small hunting shack only a few miles away from the town. Even better, the cousin of a brother of a guy Kumar Singh knows owns a sort of chalet a couple of hours' drive from Castle Point. Pulfrey-Downs interrupts Kumar Singh while he's on the phone with the fellow, offering up helpful suggestions like, "Why don't you call this fellow you know up, and arrange to hire out his chalet. Here are some uncut rubies to cover the cost." Kumar Singh ignores him and continues talking to the guy, discussing rates for chalet rental. He pockets the rubies for his "retirement fund." It is quickly obvious to him that what the locals refer to as "luxury" accommodations are practically free on Pulfrey-Downs' typical budget.
The characters fly into Castle Point, disembark the motorcycles, and drive to the farm. Kumar Singh drives one cycle (with complaint) with his boss in the sidecar. Michael Sangaree drives the other with Serpentine as his passenger. Kumar Singh spends the entire trip over complaining about how unsafe motorcycles are and urging the other characters to trade in the cycles on some kind of automobile. Serpentine does the navigation, seeing no reason to ask directions of the locals. Why should he, when he was able to memorize the entire local road grid and read the Periwinkles' address off their mailbox as the characters' plane flew over the town?
The characters pull up in front of the farm. Michael Sangaree turns to Pulfrey-Downs and says, "Doctor, why don't you and Serpentine go in to talk to these people?" Pulfrey-Downs puffs himself up and clucks, "Oh yes. I'm ever so good with people. Isn't that right, Gobey?" Kumar Singh groans, "Oh goodness, not again," and crawls off the motorcycle. He shouts out at his boss, "I'm on the way, sir! Don't say anything until I get there!" Noticing this little display and sensing that Kumar Singh is once again doing his best to seize disaster out of the mouth of calamity, Serpentine reassures the others, pointing out that he has extravagant social attributes.
Serpentine knocks on the door and introduces himself to the woman who answers as "Detective Serpentine." The woman assumes that the characters are from the insurance company, and Serpentine doesn't bother to contradict her. He learns that she is Mrs. Periwinkle's aunt, and has no problem with letting the characters see the barn.
The Periwinkles' barn is clearly the worse for the wear. The great front doors have been torn asunder and there is dried blood all over the interior, particularly around the threshing machine.
Keen to take advantage of his own aptitudes, Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs gravitates towards the threshing machine. He is quickly able to determine that it certainly hasn't been running recently, and in all probability has not been able to run for years.
Meanwhile, Serpentine directs his formidable investigative skills to the scene of the crime. He first uncovers the fact that the door was originally barred from the inside, and then shattered from the outside. He then determines that the assailant killed Jethro Periwinkle before the fellow got stuffed into the thresher. And whoever the assailant was, he left six-inch claw marks all over the interior of the barn. As a final touch, Serpentine finds the remains of a small crate sitting in one corner of the barn. It looks as if it were deliberately destroyed, but it is impossible to tell what was once inside it.
Kumar Singh muses upon this information, then suggests, "So the bear pushed him into the thresher and then turned it on. This bear was smarter than the average bear. I wonder if Mr. Periwinkle was carrying a picnic basket."
Michael Sangaree looks at the situation and speculates that anyone could have figured out that the wasn't a thresher accident. He suggests that the local sheriff might be somehow involved in a cover-up.
Serpentine goes back into the house to talk to the widow about the shattered crate. She doesn't know what it might have contained, but she does know that Jethro found something odd on the North Forty the morning of his death.
The characters head up to the North Forty and look around. Almost everyone is abnormally perceptive (even at +2 difficulty) with the exception of Serpentine, who is still too obsessed with fighting crime. As it happens, Michael Sangaree is the one who stumbles over something. Something about one foot wide and two foot square, with strange writing on it. Something like a large stone slab about two inches thick, lying flat on the ground.
Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs is able to find a couple of isolated tracks nearby, but cannot find any further sign of the trail. Even with his long experience with the creatures of the darkest reaches of the Pacific Rim, he has no idea what sort of creature made the tracks. The closest he can imagine is that they might have been made by some sort of large bird of prey. His wild speculations on the thing's probably wingspan do nothing to encourage Kumar Singh to track it down.
While Pulfrey-Downs is staring at tracks, Kumar Singh takes a look at the tablet. He quickly recognizes the writing as ancient Babylonian. He even translates it as saying, "Five to call, one to summon." Upset at being upstaged, Pulfrey-Downs points out that the stone is made of a type of basalt that is not found locally.
The characters confer for a bit, eventually deciding to take the slab to Serpentine's sanctum, which just happens to be a disused warehouse. Pulfrey-Downs suggests that he should go look for a suitable academic library so he can find more information on ancient Babylonian culture. Michael Sangaree suggests that the characters should simply destroy the tablet. Pulfrey-Downs is appalled to hear this suggestion, arguing, "Destroy it? We can't possibly destroy it!" Sangaree draws out his pistol and calmly replies, "We're Westerners. We can destroy anything. Just watch... BANG! See, I just shot a chip off the corner." Pulfrey-Downs is practically white with shock.
The characters' initial idea is to leave the tablet safe in the warehouse and to take a tracing of it to the university. Michael Sangaree asks, "Why don't we just take the tablet along?" Pulfrey-Downs replies, "Take a tablet that may be tracked by horrible birdlike monstrosities to a university library? Normally, I'd say that's a terrible idea. But then that might lead to a gunfight against horrible birdlike monstrosities inside a university library. Bring the tablet! Bring it, I say!"
Pulfrey-Downs is pleased to find that he gets an extra experience point for this suggestion.
The nearest university with a significant Classics Department is Clemford University, a place most charitably described as a "second-tier" institution. And even Clemford is some distance away from Castle Rock. The characters fly to the town of Clemford, then drive the motorcycles to the university grounds. It is nightfall by the time they arrive.
They immediately head to the home of the Dean of the Classics Department. As the only real academic in the group, Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs takes the lead in talking to the fellow. Unfortunately, the Dean has heard of him before. It doesn't take too long before the fellow yells out, "I will not have my reputation tarnished by someone who's been kicked out of the Royal Geographical Society!" and slams his door in Pulfrey-Downs' face. Even Serpentine's efforts are for naught, though they do lack for something in tact ("Open the damn door, you geek!").
At this point, Kumar Singh walks up and asks, "What the heck is going on? What room? What lock? What are we doing here, anyway?" Michael Sangaree has a better idea of what's going on, and has clearly spent some time on university campuses himself. He suggests that there must be any number of impoverished grad students and drunk undergraduates about, and that at least one of them probably has a key to the Restricted Area of the library. He suggests that this sort of person is easy to bribe.
Kumar Singh listens to this plan and starts imaging tomorrow's headlines: "Entire Fraternity Killed in Drunken Riot; Professor Pulfrey-Downs Seen In Town." Fortunately, it develops that his third cousin twice removed on his mother's side is a manservant to one of the other professors. He is able to get the characters the access they need.
Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs studies the tablet and musty tomes of Babylonian mysticism. Michael Sangaree stands nearby, loading spare clips of ammo. He makes mumbled comments about "always wanting to be prepared." Serpentine sneaks about familiarizing himself with the layout of the place, up to and including ways to scale the stacks and clamber about the ceiling. Kumar Singh ends up acting as a book-gopher for his boss, glumly enduring comments like, "I believe this one will be in thirty-eight volumes, so you may need to make several trips."
Pulfrey-Downs' academic efforts are thorough, if nothing else: he manages to get a total of seven successes. Unfortunately, the depth of the Clemford University library is not what it could be, so there isn't much available for him to learn. He does discover that the tablet is probably an original ancient Babylonian demon-summoning tool. He also finds a series of cross-references to books held at Miskatonic University. He suspects that the Paragon Club might also have copies of many of them (and might be easier to get access to). He spends some time trying to figure out if March 20th corresponds to a particularly special day in the Babylonian calendar. Sadly, it just proves to be a Thursday.
Soon enough, the characters fall to arguing amongst themselves as to their next course of action. Midway through the argument, Pulfrey-Downs looks sternly at Michael Sangaree and orders, "Gobey, beat him up. But don't let him bleed on any of the books. Especially that one, it summons things!" Kumar Singh decides to not listen to this command, instead wandering over to a particularly ancient-looking volume and asking, "Why do you think this one is chained down and locked up?" Serpentine's querulous voice echoes from above, "This book is staring at me."
From his vantage point high above the stacks, Serpentine is able to spot something moving through the shadows, preparing to launch itself at Michael Sangaree. Serpentine yells out, "Sangaree! Duck!" His warning comes only barely in time. Michael Sangaree throws himself to the ground. A fistful of razor-share six-inch talons tears past him with disemboweling speed.
The creature shambles into view. It is horribly deformed with long talons and bowed, misshapen legs and feet. Michael Sangaree takes one look at it and botches a Willpower roll. He screams like a girl and runs.
The creature comes into view of the other characters. Pulfrey-Downs stands his ground and announces with confidence, "And now! I shall identify this horrible creature!" Sadly, he botches his roll. Badly. Very, very badly. He becomes convinced that he is looking at an example of the desperately rare Northeastern Mountain Mole-Man. He calls out to the others, "We must capture it! It is a Mole-Man!"
Serpentine is unimpressed by Pulfrey-Downs' scientific desires. He makes his Willpower roll, then hatches a plan to grab the creature with the Claw of Apepi and then hoist it up the stacks by jumping down the opposite side. He manages ten successes to hit. The creature is grabbed, but reacts to this development by hooking the claw into a nearby bookshelf.
Kumar Singh rushes in to the fray, stabbing away at the creature with his new fractal kukri. The monster strikes back at him, prompting Kumar Singh to cry out, "It has two actions? I didn't know that was possible!" Fortunately, it's blow slides off his silk-steel armor. For it's part, the monster looks massively hurt. Pulfrey-Downs attempts to enhance this situation with a fusillade of bullets. Sadly, the creature simply shrugs off the bullets that strike it, while Serpentine calls out in dismay as several of the near-misses go right through the stack to emerge uncomfortably close to him.
The monster, still moving despite it's wounds, makes an off-balance attack at Kumar Singh, who very deftly dodges away from certain death. Hearing Kumar Singh's yells, Serpentine mistakes them for a cry for help. He pulls upon the Claw of Apepi, intent upon hoisting the creature into the air (and unaware that the other end of the Claw is now securely fixed to a library shelf). With a mighty heave, he manages to tip the entire stack over towards him. He flings himself to the side, then watches in fascination as the obligatory domino effect takes over, spreading devastation through the Clemford University library.
Even the monster is distracted by the sudden crash of falling books, allowing Kumar Singh to strike one final blow that drops the thing. Just in time for Michael Sangaree to return to the scene, having spent the last few moments regaining his wits in the utility closet.
The characters are on the verge of celebrating their victory when they realize that the body on the floor is not that of a misshapen beast. Rather, it is that of a naked young woman, disfigured only by the injuries the characters just inflicted. The characters are horrified, but for different reasons. Michael Sangaree comments, "This does not look good. I'm glad I'm rich."
Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs swiftly demonstrates that he is no stranger to this sort of problem. He takes charge of the cleanup effort with a stream of orders, several of which the other characters actually obey. Kumar Singh is sent to fetch a nearby rug and wrap the body in it, while Serpentine is instructed to use the Claw of Apepi to open up a convenient skylight ("escape route"). Serpentine only grudgingly obeys, as he finds that his talents are much better used in disordering the crime scene, the better to confound the local constabulary when they show up. He also makes an effort to make it look like the characters didn't leave through the skylight.
In the course of his anti-investigatory activities, Serpentine does take a detailed look at some of the claw-marks the creature made in the furniture. He determines that the creature's claws match the claws of the thing that killed Jethro Periwinkle. Sensing that this might be a good time to use one of his newfound Knacks, he also spends an Inspiration point to use Marked Man upon the tablet. He will know where it is for the next four weeks, or until it is destroyed.
In between clipped commands to move bodies and conceal evidence, Pulfrey-Downs notices that while the girl's body does bear the marks of super-fractal knives and gunfire, those weren't the fatal wounds. From what he can tell, the recent wounds look like wounds inflicted upon a cadaver. He attempts to gauge her actual time of death based upon body temperature, but her cadaver has already cooled to room temperature, telling him only that she has been dead for over 72 hours.
The characters decide that shouldn't simply dump the girl's body. As an intermediate step, they buy a lot of ice and stash her in Serpentine's hideout.
Serpentine heads to the local police station to investigate missing persons reports, passing himself off as some kind of investigator. He doesn't get a name, but one officer does mention something about a girl who went missing in Holstein, in the northern part o the state (far north of Castle Point). The characters swiftly fly to Holstein, with the body concealed in the cargo compartment. And the tablet. Serpentine regularly checks to make certain that the tablet is still where it belongs.
Serpentine tries again at the Holstein Police Station, and has much better luck. He learns that the characters' monstrous assailant was originally a lovely young lady named Mary Esthersmith. She went missing between March 10th and the 11th. It is now March 21st, at least ten days later.
Everything Serpentine is able to learn about her personal background indicates that she was practically a saint upon the earth. She lived with (and cared for) her aged mother. She worked at the local orphanage, taking care the orphans. Michael Sangaree listens to Serpentine's description, then tells the other characters, "You guys really are monsters. You killed an attractive girl who took care of both orphans and her infirm mother." Serpentine realizes that he's going to be developing neuroses about this adventure, though he will pick up a lot of useful tips on how to dispose of bodies. Michael Sangaree offers him a swig of Superfuel from his hip flask. Pulfrey-Downs grimaces as Serpentine drinks deeply.
Kumar Singh lightens the mood by telling the others, "You realize this isn't the first time Pulfrey-Downs has been involved with naked dead chicks, cut up by knives." Michael Sangaree pauses from his Superfuel-induced tremors to ask, "Presumably, they were warm and alive to start?" Pulfrey-Downs muses, "Well, that's the funny thing, I don't really remember..."
Noticing that the pace of the investigation was in danger of becoming derailed by moralistic meandering, Pulfrey-Downs suggests, "Let's go talk to the orphans. I love children." Sangaree and Kumar Singh (in unison) groan, "God."
Serpentine leads off the effort as Kumar Singh restrains Pulfrey-Downs to prevent him from scaring the other orphanage workers. The descriptions he hears make the dead girl sound like a saint: "..Took care of her father since he died in the Great Warrr.... (strange hand gesture)" (and so on). The characters learn nothing of interest except that she could have been canonized. The orphans all repeat this story, except for the little gothic chick that all the other kids ostracize because she sees ghosts. Last week, she took this child to the circus. The girl has a flyer she shows Michael Sangaree, advertising Professor Arkham's Carnival of Wonder. Sangaree gives the child a dollar, and a check for $100 to the orphanage. He is amazed by the fact that Pulfrey-Downs never bothers to carry around any American money.
Professor Arkham's Carnival of Wonder proves to be quite an elusive prey. The characters know that it played from March 8th to March 11th in Holstein based upon the orphan's flyer. They are also able to learn that it played in Castle Point on March 15th and 16th. But after that, it vanishes into the strange half-world of small traveling circuses on trains. Serpentine spreads around some money to try and find out where the show might be going next. By calling every railroad dispatcher in two states he is able to determine that it is no longer in Maine, and isn't in New Hampshire either.
The break comes on the morning of the 22nd. The other characters wake in their hotel rooms, grateful only that no monsters came for the tablet at night, when Serpentine rushes up the stairs crowing something about telegraph operators. The other characters eventually manage to determine that he has learned that Professor Arkham's is heading for Irwindale, VT by talking to telegraph operators.
The characters spread out into the town to try and learn more useful information. Michael Sangaree agrees to stay behind at the hotel, to watch the tablet. A couple of hours later, Serpentine suddenly realizes that the tablet is moving. He heads to the hotel to see how Michael Sangaree is doing. He comes busting in through the door to find the Texan lying on the bed, drinking and cleaning his guns. Michael Sangaree is honestly surprised to notice that the tablet is no longer sitting on the side table.
Everyone gets assembled and heads southwest, following the tablet. "To the motorcycles!" is their clarion call. Notwithstanding a bit of debate on whether to take the plane, which ends when Serpentine mentions that the tablet is moving at a sprinting speed. The characters drive. They find the tablet out in a field, but fail to see whatever was carrying it. Kumar Singh picks it up and hands it over to Pulfrey-Downs. Kumar then sees a second tablet, a few yards away. Michael Sangaree drives over to pick that one up as well. The characters then head back to the plane and fly to Irwindale at all speed.
Along the way, they have a chance to take a look at the second tablet. It is the same size, and made of the same material, as the first, but the markings are different. Kumar Singh translates them as, "As Above, So Below."
The flight to Irwindale starts out as so many other of the characters' little aerial jaunts. Michael Sangaree is in the cockpit, asleep at the controls. Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs is in the passenger compartment, reading the Letters of the Royal Geographical Society. Kumar Singh is sitting across from his boss, whittling a piece of iron rod with his new super-fractal knife. Serpentine is lurking in the cargo area, having found that he becomes very nervous any time he cannot directly see the two tablets.
Things start to turn wrong when something strikes Michael Sangaree on the shoulder, tears through his leather jacket, sliding off his silksteel armor, and waking him from the most beautiful dream. He wakes with the assumption that something horrible is behind him and puts the plane into a power dive in response. He is appalled to see a creature that looks like a paramecium with a massive pituitary problem slosh past him. He pulls out his Mauser C98 and fires an explosive bullet into the windscreen, hoping to send the creature falling out the front. This doesn't work out exactly as he plans, but it does put paid to his chart collection. He continues to blaze away at the thing as it does it's best to crush him in it's pseudopods.
Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs, noticing that the plane has gone into a dive and that the distinctive sounds of gunfire are emerging from the pilot deck, lets himself free from his seat, Briefcase SMG at the ready. Unfortunately, he loses his grip and tumbles down to the partition dividing the cockpit from the passenger seats. He lies on the partition, stunned for a moment. Both Kumar Singh and Serpentine follow Pulfrey-Downs, but in a much more graceful, controlled manner. Kumar Singh enters the control cabin and sees Michael Sangaree firing wildly into the remains of the windscreen, apparently at nothing at all. He becomes convinced that Michael Sangaree has not become deranged when the Texan yells and a wound opens up on his thigh.
Michael Sangaree brings the plane up to the level and continues shooting at the creature. Kumar Singh clambers in and does his best to attack the thing, but he is hampered by his inability to actually see his target. Pulfrey-Downs pokes his head through the door and yells, "Sangaree! Stop shooting! There's nothing there!" Michael Sangaree responds, "Okay! Blam! Blam!" About this time, Serpentine decides to throw the tablets out the cargo hatch.
Kumar Singh once again strikes out at what he cannot see, this time connecting. The paramecium-beast turns it's attention to Kumar Singh and it vanishes from Sangaree's sight. The characters start to understand the nature of their attacker more clearly. Pulfrey-Downs decides to kick the confrontation up a notch. He levels the Briefcase SMG, spends a point of Inspiration, and empties the clip at the space occupied by the monster. He manages to get a very respectable seventeen successes, enough to ensure that he doesn't inflict any collateral damage upon either other characters or irreplaceable aircraft controls, but only does three measly levels of damage. This is, however, enough to persuade the Invisible Paramecium to lurch over and attack him. Pulfrey-Downs does his best to back away from the thing as he loads another clip into his gun.
By this time, Serpentine has reached the cargo compartment and unclipped the tablets from the cargo netting. He rather obviously intends to throw them out of the aircraft. Pulfrey-Downs yells out, "Don't throw the tablets!" Kumar Singh provides a reason for Serpentine to follow this suggestion by mortally stabbing the Invisible Paramecium. Grumbling, "That English maniac just unloaded a full clip at me!", Kumar Singh follows up his success by deftly pulling out his Instamatic camera to catch a photo of a naked dead girl on top of Pulfrey-Downs.
His composure only slightly ruffled, Pulfrey-Downs tells Michael Sangaree, "It appears to be dead. Are we heading towards the ground?" Sangaree responds, "No, but we are heading for the mountains." A very exciting series of only barely-necessary aerobatic maneuvers follows.
The characters land in Irwindale on the morning of the 23rd. Each character gains three experience, except for Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs, who gets four. Serpentine spends experience to increase his Subterfuge and Rapport skills.