As it would happen, I missed this summary. Sure, I know what you're thinking: "Bruce missing a game? How could it be? What disaster could have possibly drawn him away?" Well, it's true, so I need to rely upon my various compatriots to provide a session summary. Fortunately, I am doubly blessed: both Chris (Caleb Kagan) and Ernest (Liz Blessing) have risen to the challenge. Doubtless everyone else just looked on in amusement. Chuck must have been particularly amused, given that this appears to have been the most dramatic session in a good while.
The game went well. The PC's leap into action after a mere 2.5 hours of planning, interrogating prisoners, searching the Mako Class Yacht, and introducing Billy's character.
We sent the Salt Witch minus PC's and most any equipment to Aetna with Jake Reflux at the helm. Precautions and threats were taken to ensure our ship will reach its destination. The party took the yacht to Gaulden.
We went to Gaulden with two missions in mind: Rescue Goat's cousin Morty and steal from Lungsucker. We obtained prisoner transfer paperwork from an ally at the ICPA Marshal's building. With that, a disguise for Caleb, and some good info on whose who in the marshal's service we were able to get cousin Morty out and back to the ship.
That same night before springing cousin Morty we also attempted to scam one of Lungsuckers' casinos. The plan was for Liz (in disguise) and Billy's character, Yong, to cheat at craps using Yong's TK and the ship's slush fund for a stake. Bob was in the casino as back-up if things went wrong. Caleb was outside with the weapons. For 2 hours Liz and Yong worked the craps table, until an unfortunate lapse in judgement occurred and made management deeply suspicious. A winning streak lead to $300,000 becoming $3 million (in one roll), which became $30 million on the next roll. After that management accused them of cheating and tried to throw them out. Then a fight started. Yong was able to TK a casino safe out of the building during the shooting. Luckily, no one was seriously injured and we got away with almost $1 million.
We got info off the black-ops prisoners indicating a meeting between IBCM and the raptor-like aliens in two months time in the Bedlam system. So, we have a rough plan (for next game) to crash the meeting and tell the raptor-like aliens that IBCM is playing them for suckas.
Oh, and Caleb got a really cool motorcycle helmet that has a gas mask, night vision, binoculars, range finders, and communications built right in!!! He wasn't wearing it when he teargassed himself on a botch, but it still looks really cool.
Oh, and our friend in the marshal's office is the XO from the mercenary company (from the Aetna game sessions). She spilled a lot of info on us, which boils down to "elements within the ICPA are working on seizing power". From her position she noted that the marshal's service was being expanded (lots of recently retired government types, reservists, etc) and key positions within it were being manned from one government service (cannot remember which). She was very helpful and informative. She believes the "psyker registration", martian law (ala Sealab), and the Mars/Earth and New Israel/ICPA wars are all part of a larger scheme. During this explosion of information and theories I believe Liz listened the most and took notes while Bob drew pictures of the the raptor-aliens look like (huuuumanssssssss, give ussss your young onessss) and Caleb chirped, "I have a really cool helmet!!!". Yong meanwhile was regretting ever hooking up with the rest of us.
We ended the session with:
As we blast into the night sky of Gaulden, headed for a rendezvous with the aliens...
I bet the absent folks think I'm kidding but I'm not... Here's a Bruce-style writeup for his records
We entered the Mako-class luxury yacht belonging to the black ops team. On it, we found two unconscious forms, one of who couldn't be awakened. The one that was awakened, an Asian man, claimed to have amnesia but did know they were a telekinetic. Caleb quizzed him extensively on that point. Upon reviewing the ship, called the "Blue Lady", we discovered it had a Jump-4 drive (the Salt Witch has Jump-2) and had lots of concealed cool XPG weapons. Bob poked around in the computer, and found two things - one, the subject, Yong, was indeed a kidnapped research subject with no recorded psychoses or criminal record, and two, the Bree-Kanar, the aliens working with ICBM, were due back at Bedlam in 2 months' time.
We quickly hatched a plan. We sent the Salt Witch with Jake Reflux, the two Black Ops prisoners (in the meat locker) and Kraid's body (and scrambler) back to Aetna, while we went to Gaulden to see what we could do about Cousin Morty aboard the Blue Lady. (Bob set up the computer to lock all the airlocks open if the ship deviated from its charted course).
On the way to Gaulden, Liz led the group in developing a good scam plan for one of Lungsucker's casinos. When they landed, Liz disguised herself and Caleb (the latter in Elvis-style muttonchops to hide his burn). Pretending Yong was a "rich Asian businessman", they also rented a VIP security SUV from a specialized company.
Caleb made a fake cop ID and went into the precinct where they were holding Cousin Morty. He found out the marshals had taken over the top floor, and wandered up there with a clever story about needing the personal effects of a displaced lieutenant (who he had heard in the hall complaining about being kicked out). The marshal in the elevator lobby denied him entrance, but who else should be there as a marshal but Major Lucretia Billingsworth of the mercenary company Striker's Raiders! She and Caleb exchanged brief "yeah, I know who you are" glances and then Caleb left. "Hmmm, I feel the need for coffee at the coffee shop down the street at exactly 7 PM," he thought to himself.
Excited at this news, Liz went out on the street to see if she could ask around and find out where the merc company was billeted. Not for the first time, her looking for lovin' would have some undesired effects...
Caleb went and bought surveillance equipment and a Buck Rogers helmet, Liz and Yong went and bought expensive clothes. At 7 everyone except Goat went to the coffee shop, where Billingsworth met them. She said she had been recalled to active ICPA military duty and was assigned to be a marshal. She was disaffected by the current ICPA policies (Liz realized at this point that she must be a psi herself). She said Morty was indeed just a standard dupe and that though he's not badly treated the gov't might eventually decide to "disappear" him so the role of psychic stuff in the attacks wouldn't get out. She'd help us get Morty out and get us some forms we could forge OH MY GOD THEY'RE SHOOTING THROUGH THE CAFE WINDOW!
At this point, about six of Lungsucker's goons light up the front of the cafe real good. Yong flips over a car on the street using TK in an attempt to make himself a marked man. We all escape out the back door and get into the SUV, leaving Billingsworth and the nearby police precinct to earn their taxpayer money. We quickly realize we're being followed by even more goons in a Caddy. Yong tosses the spare tire through their windshield and Liz runs them off the road. Caleb leaps out of the SUV, drops a tear gas grenade at his feet, and spends the rest of the combat mewling and crawling back into the SUV. Bob and Yong run over to the caddy where three are dead and three are stunned. Bob begins smacking people with his stun baton. Yong fires a couple shots into the car before a good in the back seat punches a Compensator round through his chest; he then spends the rest of the combat mewling and crawling towards the SUV. Bob finishes pounding all the occupants into insensibility and takes a prisoner, Liz speeds the SUV off.
They interrogate the gangster, to surprisingly little effect (perhaps not so surprising when Bob's response to a threat to have him cut off pieces of gangster is "I don't want to."). So Caleb and Liz force-fed him some Ecstasy and he became more pliable; apparently Liz's checking about on the street alerted them and they had seen her and Caleb at the cafe. They tossed the captive in a sewer and went back to the ship so Goat could heal Yong.
The group decided they needed to move up the casino heist. So the next evening, after Caleb picked up the papers to forge, they went to one of Lungsucker's casinos. Liz and Yong went in as rich businessman and interpreter. Bob went in separately to play the slots. Caleb waited outside in the SUV.
Liz and Yong played craps for a while, making only slight use of his powers. They doubled their initial $50k but it was taking a while. They then bet it all on Hard 8 at 30 to 1, and Yong did his thing - and they won $3M. "Let it ride," Liz says (on a 10 to 1 bet) - and again, Yong did his thing, and won $30M! Many cheers throughout the crowd, they tip liberally. Well, when they tried to cash out, the owners weren't too happy, and sent some toughs with an envelope and an order to "take your $50k and get out!". Liz tossed her hair in the prearranged signal, and Bob over at the slots turned on his camera equipment - as security approached him, he began to lash out with a stool in all directions!
Everyone fought and fled as Caleb drove the SUV in through the front of the casino. "Get the cash!" yelled Liz as she ran for the car, bullets flying after her. Caleb walked a gauss rifle burst up one of the thugs following her. Yong TKed a cash box from behind the cashier cage over into the SUV and the group fled. Next stop - the police!
Meanwhile, Yong complains "that plan really went wrong! We blew up a whole casino and now I'm in as much trouble with Lungsucker as the rest of you! And we only got away with one million dollars! And I didn't know he used to be your boyfriend!!!" Liz just blinks innocently and says "Yes, what a shame... Oh well, even the best laid plans go wrong." <tee hee>
A quick scam later and Cousin Morty, cuffed and stuffed, was ushered into the SUV by Caleb, and after a quick drive to the spaceport the Blue Lady's engines spat yellow light as the crew, Cousin Morty, and some $1M in liberated Lungsucker funds flew into the heavens. Next stop - disabusing the aliens of the notion that ICBM speaks for all humans and that the psychic test subjects are volunteers...