Q3 2019 GM Post 7
DECEMBER 22nd, 2098 - Monday
San Diego, California
Freshly Juiced Dragon - Juice Bar Xmas Party
The Coming of the Rifts!
DAY ONE
The two OOC tags are just background details and not necessary to read.
- Maria "Rio"
- Wesley "Stones"
- Juno
- Ven
- Samuel
- Benny
- NPC: Savine Volkov
- NPC: Thomas Prosek & Shadow
- NPC: Lukas Bender
- NPC: Edred "Ed" Rezik
XMAS PARTY IN SAN DIEGO
The background noise inside the Freshly Juiced Dragon is a mixture of pleasant talk among friends and the news broadcast a few are listening to on the 40k viewer on the wall. A brunette female newscaster is interviewing a man standing in front of a space shuttle. Dressed in a dark blue uniform the man is answering questions about flying the new X55 KLS Space Hopper Shuttle.
The same man is sitting in a chair inside the FJD next to US Navy K9 handler, Thomas Prosek.
"Ed you lucky bastard, not only did you get to be the first pilot of the X55, you rocketed out to Mars and back in less than 24 hours, your new fame got you interviewed by Stacy Mann on 11 News! I'm telling you Benny, Ed has now set the fastest speed record for mankind! To think he was basically a nerdy stoner when we were in High School, playing roll playing games, reading about hobbits, but now a Spaceman!"
Thomas laughs and toasts his drink to his friend Ed as Shadow, the K9, rests by the cops feet, happily working on a bone dyed to look like a candy cane that Savine gave the dog when Thomas and Shadow arrived 30 minutes ago with Thomas' old friend Captain Edred Rezik of the KLS corporation space program.
For his part, Ed is dressed in jeans and a simple black shirt with the letters KLS over the small front pocket that has two pens poking out of it and looks shyly around as Thomas loudly cheers when the news shows the X55 Spaceship rocketing away from Earth, footage from the other day.
Shadows lets out a woowoo rooroo noise as Thomas claps and points at the news.
Ed laughs at the dog making funny noises. "I know boy, you'd think he was in love with me, but we know he only really loves you Shadow."
Savine moves from where Lukas is sitting nursing a warm drink and quietly chatting about how the strange kid just came out of nowhere and was nekkid and stole his cloths. Lukas had arrived back at the FJD a few hours prior and explained the strange events.
A kid had suddenly shown up in the alley the homeless man lived in, stolen his cloths by force and run away. Lukas now had managed to dirty up a new set of clothing that Thomas had bought the man after finding Lukas hidden in a dumpster. Apparently Lukas had been hiding in the dumpster for days until Thomas found him early this morning.
Savine moved around the FJD and offered refills, cookies off a tray she was holding, and conversation with everyone. She looked happy, alive, and thoroughly enjoying the party, making a point to interact with everyone.
Soft music, the newscast of the X55 KLS mission to Mars and back, merriment and snacks and drinks, those in attendance had a lot to be thankful for. Good friends, news earlier in the day of the President visiting NORAD with a promise of turning the once military site into a center for learning and space exploration, which would open up hundreds of jobs. For once the news was not talking about South America or European Juicer hit squads in the Middle East, no mention of the new mind over matter program and the resulting third world nations employing said lunatics in their armies. Even with a new cold war era ushering in, the golden age was a better place than anything known in previous centuries, a new medical breakthrough had been announced yesterday that would end cancer, and it would be available to the public in a year.
The warm San Diego bay juice bar was definitely inviting and cheery.
THE GREAT CATACLYSM
Suddenly the ground shook.
Four words that are a massive understatement.
The ground blasted, rocked, rolled and cracked. Out of nowhere rain plummeted down in droves of pelting drops. As Californians an earthquake is nothing new, they happen often. This was undoubtedly the big one, a 7 to 9 on the Richter scale! The walls of the juice bar warped and wavered. Every window in the joint shattered casting quake proof glass across the juice bar. Savine screamed in pain as fragments of glass cut her face and she was thrown to the ground by the quake. Shadow started barking loudly and stood up after falling due to the ground lifting then dropping as a wave moved through the juice bar. Thomas went from cheering at the X55 footage to falling out of his chair as he saw new footage of South America on the video screen with bizarre blue lines of energy crisscrossing the area being shown, then the video screen shattered and fell to the floor as the Naval Police hover car that Thomas had left parked, hovering, above the juice bar was hit by a massive rock or part of another building, the weight pushing the hover car down onto of the juice bar then rolling sideways and crashing into the street in flames. Lukas was actually thrown out the front door as the ground lifted and dropped, landing outside the homeless man looked with horror at the crashed patrol vehicle just feet away from him.
Standing up on wobbly legs Lukas was silhouetted in the night outside the juice bar by street lights, then he "disappeared" into darkness as all lights on the west coast turned off. A few moments of adjusting ones eyes to the new darkness and lack of electricity and he could be seen again standing outside looking at the patrol hover car that burned brighter and then sputtered out from the drenching rain.
Pouring rain.
No power.
Continued after quakes of a 5 or 6.
Crumbling building around the FJD which had held up pretty well other than the glass.
Fires of accidents outside.
A screaming crash as a hover bus slammed into the building adjacent to the FJD and dropped to the street.
The sudden realization that the floor of the juice bar, the street outside, everywhere was covered by about four inches of water, as if the bay had rushed inland to soak everyone's shoes.
A WORLD GONE MAD
- Screams for help from the bus. Shadow barked and rushed out the doors of the FJD towards the bus outside, racing across the water and passing Lukas who dropped to his knees and looked at his cut up hands. [Lukas: Shaken + 1 Wound]
- Savine clawed across shattered glass reaching for a chair to try pulling herself upright and looked in pain, one hand holding her left side. [Savine: Shaken]
- Thomas groaned and lay on his backside as his friend Ed applied pressure to a wound on the cops leg. Something had lacerated his upper thigh. [Thomas: Shaken + 1 Wound].
The six of you are larger than life PCs, you don't take any Shaken or Wounds like most of the NPCs did. Lucky you. Initiate Cards for Player Characters will follow. If you got a Club, remember that is a Complication and comes with a -2 to your participation in the task.
The Dramatic Task will be the six of you Player Characters, over three rounds, needing to gather 16 Tokens, to completely succeed.
HOVER BUS AFLAME
Screams for help from the bus.
"Shadow!"
"Stay still Thomas, I am trying to mend your leg, Shadow is outside by a crashed bus."
"Damn, those people need help."
"Thomas, do you think a nuke hit us?"
"No, just before the video screen shattered I saw something else...this isn't a nuke its something far worse. Those people need rescuing!"
Looking up from the cop at everyone else, Ed says: "Can you help them?"
Across the wet street, burning even under heavy rain, is the crash site of a large hover city bus. Laying on its side those inside (16 still alive, 4 dead) are calling out in fear and pain for help. Shadow is barking at the bus and running around the bus looking for a way inside. The dog may be having a hard time of it, but a person could manage to get into the bus. You are tasked with rescuing 16 surviving people in the bus. If you get 16 Tokens collectively as the six of you, all the crash victims will be saved, less Tokens will result in loss of life.
DRAMATIC TASK RULES SWADE
Narrate your reaction, experience as the world crashes down around you and then move into getting those Tokens.
Dramatic Task: Hover Bus Rescue
In this scene you care attempting to rescue trapped citizens in the crashed hover bus that is on fire. If the fire is not extinguished the bus will explode and do more damage to the area.
Dramatic Task
Rounds: 3
Putting out the flames: 4 tokens
Skills: Any applicable rolled at -2 (negative due to weather, and situation)
Getting into the overturned bus: 4 tokens
Skills: Any applicable rolled at -2 (negative due to weather, and situation)
Getting survivors out and into the safety of the FJD: 8 tokens
Skills: Any applicable rolled at -2 (negative due to weather, and situation)
Total: 16 tokens
Support
Remember you can use any skill to support someone taking on one of the main tasks.
Failure
If the group fails to collect all the 16 tokens then some of the 16 alive passengers will die.
Club Cards "suffer" a Complication and are at an additional -2 to the scene.