The door opened and three people in their late teens filed in, lead by Sandy Rey, KROK’s intern.  “Say hello to our contest winners, and your guests for the night.”

In the lead was a goth girl, with too much eye makeup and too little skin tone.  Behind her was a shaggy musician, cheap red Fender guitar strapped to his back.  The last was a hauty-looking girl, with long black hair and an air of authority.

“Hey, everybody, welcome,” Frankie said.  “Drop your stuff, and grab a chair and headphones, we’re going live in a couple of minutes.  When we go to the first song set, I’ll show you where you’ll be spending the rest of your evening…”

The guests did as they were requested as Sandy ducked out.

“Live in two,” Mike said.

“Okay, deal is we’re going to do introductions, then we’ll play some music.  We’ll chat some more, play some more music, like that.  Then we have a syndicates show that we play from 11:30 to 12:30, then we’re back with the usual stuff…’k?”

There were general nods of agreement. Mike counted in the show.

Frankie kicked off.  “Welcome back, I am Miss Frankie Shock, and tonight we’re gonna have a lot of fun, and maybe some frights!  We’re staying the night at Braedon Industrial Secondary, also known as the haunted schoolhouse.  And to have even more fun, we’ve invited three listeners to come join us for the night!  Let’s get the intros out of the way.”

She pointed to the goth girl.  “And we have with us…”

“Noir.  My name is Noir.  I’m sensitive, and can touch the other side.  I know when the spirits are here, with us.”

“Okay,” Frankie said, “welcome Noir…and next we have…”

The brunette was next.  “I’m Hillary, Hillary Henderson.  My dad’s the owner of Henderson Automotive?”

“And how did you win with KROK?”

“I didn’t actually.  Well, I did but it was a mistake.  I was actually trying to dial my mom’s boyfriend, but I got the wrong number, and got the station.  I don’t usually even listen to KROK.”

“Okay,” said Frankie.

“Oh but I have to ask,” Hillary continued, looking over at Noir.  “Aren’t you Jessie Kent?  Went to Bell High?  I think my friend dated your brother.”

Several emotions crossed Noir’s face, none of them happy.

“He always said his sister was bizarre.”

If anything Noir’s face paled further.  If looks could kill, hers would’ve been a several kiloton blast.

“Moving quickly to our final guest,” Frankie piped in, looking at the man on the end.

“I’m Cam.”

“Hi Cam, what brings you here tonight?”

“Um, I won.  I’m hoping to play a gig maybe?  I brought my guitar.  I thought it’d be fun to play for everyone.”

“Great, we’ll do that later,” Frankie said.  “Anything else to add?”

“Um,” he thought.  “You’re hot.  You’ve got like big boobs and stuff.  You’re way hotter than I thought you’d be.”

Frankie smiled.  “I’m gonna keep you after class young man.  I think you just became the teacher’s pet.”  She paused, and then, “We’ll be back after this, and after we play some Metric and more.  Keep it here on K-ROCK for all your faves…”

“And we’re out,” Mike said.  “Fifteen minutes, smoke if you got ‘em.”

Cam looked surprised.  “What?  Smoke?”

Frankie chimed in, “He was in the army.  But it doesn’t sound like a bad idea…”  She stood up.  “Okay, you three come with me.”  She lead the way into another classroom off the small room they were using as the studio.  Inside the desks had been moved away, a TV set up in the corner, a small table with some bags of chips and bottles of soda set up.

“Here’s where you’re gonna stay the night, when we’re not on air that is.  Munchies, TV, sleeping bags in the corner if you want to sleep…  Anyway, have fun, I’ll call you back on air when we start up again.”

“I gotta pee,” Cam said.

“Oh, down the hall, on the left.”

He left, guitar still on his back.

Hillary chimed in.  “He doesn’t seem terribly bright.”

Noir snorted. “Neither are you.”

“Listen Jessie…”

“No, you listen!  It’s NOIR.  Got it?  I don’t care if you’re a snooty bitch who’s daddy sells overpriced cars to morons.  Try that again and I’ll rip your eyes out.”

Hillary was cold as ice.  “Try it.”

Frankie moved between them.  “Both of you cool it.  Play nice tonight, or else I’ll make your lives hell.  Got it?”

Mike shouted from the booth.  “Yeah, at least get some mud and put on bikinis!”

“Screw you, ya pervert!” Hillary shouted back.

Frankie pointed at both of them.  “Chill.”  She returned to the booth, closed the door and lit up a cigarette.  “Mikey, burbon.”

It was going to be a long night.

A blonde figure appears at the far end of the brightly lit, otherwise deserted hallway.  She’s in jeans, and patterned halter, and carrying something in her left hand.  As she gets closer it becomes clear that her shirt isn’t patterned, but rather blood splattered, along with her jeans and tattooed arms.  She takes a puff on a cigarette burned low in the fingers of her right hand, in her left she holds a bloody machete.

It’s the DJ, Frankie Shock.

Her hair is more wild than usual, her eyes haunted and hollow.  Blowing smoke she drops the butt on the tiled floor in the hallway and enters the makeshift booth she and Mike had put together earlier…

“…That’s right Kiddies, keep it here and join me, Miss Frankie Shock for a haunted night in the horrible haunted schoolhouse.  Now I’m normally horrified at schools but this one is really, honest to goodness haunted!  And three lucky K-ROCK listeners are going to join me here, for the whole night!  Let’s see who gets freaked out first…”

The central KROK station took the signal back, moving on Bloody Sunday by U2.  Frankie turned to Mike, the engineer.

“Mikey, this has to be the lamest promo this station has done.”

Mike produced a bottle of burbon from a gym bag.  He took a swig and offered it to Frankie.  “Look on the bright side Frankie, at least you’ll be able to smoke inside tonight.”

She took the bottle and put a hefty gulp down her throat.  “Yeah, once Mr Prissy goes home.”  She handed the burbon back.

As if on cue the door to the booth opened and the facility administrator, entered. Mike ensured the bottle quickly disappeared.

“So you all set?” the administrator asked.  He was neatly pressed, in suit and tie despite it being nearly 10pm on a friday.

“All set,” Frankie confirmed.  “Our contest winners should be up shortly and I’m on air in fifteen minutes.”

“Did the station go over the rules with you?”

“Rules?” Frankie asked.

“Yes, the rules for you being here.”  The admin was obviously not pleased that this was coming as news.  “No eating or drinking anywhere outside the cafeteria, and no smoking anywhere in the building.  You and your guests are not to enter any of the other rooms, and we’d really prefer it if you’d all stay on this floor while you’re here.”

“Oh, I see,” Frankie said, wide eyed.  In the back of her mind she was thinking about how many of those rules she was going to break as soon as this guy left.

“I’ll be back to check on you in the morning.”

“Can we shoot some hoops in the gym or something?” Mike asked.  His form looked more like he’d eaten a basketball than played with one, but he did love to shoot hoops.

The admin considered it for a while.  “I suppose so, but you’ll have to use your own ball, since all the school’s are locked away.”  There was a pause, and he continued.  “Well if that’s all I’ll leave you to your haunted broadcast.”

Frankie caught him with a question as he turned to leave.  “So why do they say this place is haunted anyway?”

The admin turned back.  “You don’t know?”

“I’m not from here.”

“Ah, I see.  Well, we’re called the Bermuda Triangle of schools.  Over the decades, there have been a number of people who come in here and just disappear.  Some folks say they hear them sometimes.  Some say that when a new batch goes it’s the old batch that came and got them.  We even had a ’37 Chevy disappear from the shop class.  Had no engine so we know they didn’t drive it out.”

For the first time he gave them a smile.  “Hope you survive the night…like I say, I’ll be back to check on you in the morning…”  And then he was gone.

Again too, some intro notes.  I used the standard character creation rules for the system to put Frankie together here.  The first thing I noticed is that it’s a very “stats lite” system.  The first thing you do is come up with a concept and a “role”, but neither directly effects the creation process other than to help focus the character being created.

Characters have no traits per se either.  They’re a collection of skills and abilities, which are actually point pools (more on these pools later).  These are basically the only numerical traits that are associated with your Fear Itself character.

I also find the skill system somewhat anemic.  Characters get 60 points to spend in the dice pools for creation, and I honestly had a tough time finding enough skills to put dice into.  There are no “fluff” skills, it’s all “infiltration” and “filch” and “mechanics”, no “entertainment” or “sexual technique” here!

Now about those point pools.  Characters need to roll high to succeed in this game, and the tough rolls are impossible without  a little mojo to help ‘em out.  Also they say that GMs shouldn’t tell players the difficulty factor they’re looking to beat, so you’ll never know when you need the mojo and when you won’t.  Mojo comes in the form of the point pools, with a 1 for 1 add to the dice.  Need to be sure you make the roll?  Add 4 points from your pool to the dice roll (points picked before you roll too by the way).  But those points only refresh when you get some time to “rest and relax”, and only at like 3 points an hour.  A tough session and a GM who pulls the “the killer has found your resting place” and you’re running around with depleted pools.  Frankie has a “fleeing” of 10…but that’s not going to get her far in a multi-round chase against mask-face the killer.  Then she’ll be all fleed out.

I can’ t say for sure that this is how it’ll play out, but I have my concerns already…

Now onto Frankie, version three!

Frankie Shock
Concept: aging DJ
Role: sexy girl
Weakness: dismissive
Worst thing she did: abandoned her family when they needed her most
Goal: wants to care for her mom

General Abilities
Health 11
Stability 11 (survivor, smoking, for mom)
Athletics 6
Fleeing 10
Scuffling 4
Sense Trouble 10
Shrink 5
Driving 5

Investigative Abilities
Reassurance 4
Flirting 6

I’ve recreated Frankie in two different rule sets: Blood from PostMortem Studios, and Fear Itself, from Pelgrane Press.  I want to try an experiment with these two characters.  Both rule sets are for modern horror stories, but the approaches are very different.  Blood is just that, bloody!  It’s for John Carpenter, hack and slash, run from the killer type horror.  Fear Itself on the other hand, is more aimed toward investigative horror, Blair Witch and that sort of story (it is a GUMSHOE system game after all).

So my experiment is this, create the same character in both systems and then play out a game and see how the systems handle various elements.

Here’s the first Frankie Shock, for Blood.  Note that I used the rules for character creation within the game, and didn’t tweak things at all.  Just the vanilla character rules…

Before the character let me give some general observations of the character creation system.  The skill listings and the profession listings are quite rich.  There’s lots of options there for creating very interesting characters.  But, the system as it stands, especially for skill purchase, ensures that characters are either one note wonders or very underpowered when they start out.  And given the length of time and detail required to create the character, you don’t want them to die off too quickly!  Also, because of the random rolling within limits, it’s difficult to create a character that the player has a vision for, without messing about with the numbers.  Final thing noticed…there’s no psychic abilities or even occult knowledge skill.  So if you want to try and run Fox Mulder or have a “sensitive” character, you’re going to need to work out house rules for it, because Basic Blood doesn’t have it.

Now on to the Character:

Frankie Shock – KROK DJ

Physical Attributes
Strength    67
Stamina        47
Agility        22
Perception    49
Appearance    99

Mental Attributes
Intelligence    32
Willpower    12
Pain Threshold    88
Luck        30

Walk 2, Jog 4, Run 7, Sprint 12
Actions 3
Damage Bonus +1d4
Energy point bonus +5
HTH Bonus +5

Education Modifier -40
Exert Strength 25%
Initiative -1
Range+ -5
Parry+ -5

HP Bonus +5
Shock 70
Toxin Resist 75

Hear  40
Sight 40
Smell 20
Taste 15
Touch 20

HP (67 + 47) / 5 + 10 + 6 + 5 = 44
BP (67 + 47) / 5 + 20 = 43
EP (67 + 47 + 22) / 3 + 10 + 5 = 60
MP (32 + 12) / 2 = 22

Quirks
- smoker
- coffee addict
- both arms tattooed
- bleach blonde

Physical Skill points (67 + 47 + 22 + 49) /2 + 0 = 92.5
Mental Skill points 32 + 12 = 44

Skills
Consume alcohol      23
Entertainment(DJ)      27
Leadership   7
Leap            33
Memorize  11
Move silently        23
Music         23
Parry  11
Fast talk     10
Sexual Technique    23
Street Fighting  15
Writing   23

Hand to Hand  52
Melee        28
Thrown  11
Pistol      10

Welcome home…to the Gold Tower

The Gold Tower is a luxury condo in midtown where the kids and their families all live.  It’s built out of an old Victorian mansion, now with a multi-story building attached to the back of it and grown on top.  The Victorian was one of the original homes in the city and rather than tear it down, the Gold Group of companies decided to incorporate it in their new design for a 40 story luxury condominium.  The old house is now the lobby entryway primarily, but there is also a library, and a kids’ play room.  The building boasts a dining room/banquet hall which is rentable by residents for any special parties they may be throwing.  In addition a new wing has been built to house the pool/gym area, which is accessible off the lobby, past the library.

The condos in the building are all $1.5mil and up price range, with of course higher floors being worth more expensive, up to the penthouse levels which are minimum $5 mil.  There are no suites with less than 3 bedrooms, and the higher floors also boast servants’ quarters.   Most of the owners live in the building and work in the city, with the majority of them being lawyers, doctors, stock brokers (who got out of the market before the crash) and perhaps the occasional mobster or rich criminal type.   The kids all live in the building and know each other from the communal areas, like the game room and library (where tutoring is offered every thursday night from 5-7 and piano lessons on the building’s grand piano are monday and tuesday, same times, half an hour per lesson).

Secrets of the Gold Tower

The tower holds some secrets, however, that most adults don’t know about… Such as upstairs, where the bedrooms used to be is not accessable anymore.  When they built the tower, they had to put in several support structures through the upper portion of the building, closing off all the rooms on the second floor.  But there are still secret rooms there!  They’re no longer accessable in the old way, just off the main staircase, but there are some small maintenance doors that lead into the old upstairs, or just go straight through a wall.  What’s left up there?  No one really knows, since no one has been back there in years.  The rooms may be empty, or furnished, clear or filled with antique toys and games.  Clean or dirty.  Perhaps there is still that old frayed persian carpet on the upstairs hallway.  Maybe the windows still look out through time to a period when the house was just a home.

The basement is just a basement, with storage, and some old mechanical stuff like the old furnace, which is scary enough to look at.  But there is a secret sub-basement accessed down a dark cement staircase blocked off by an old rusty chain, hidden in a far corner.  Like the upstairs rooms, no one knows what’s down there, even though it’s so much easier to access.  Grown ups have no need, so they never do.  Maybe it links up to the subway.  Maybe it goes to Hell.

Also in the basement is the old cistern, left from the days of wells and summer dry spells.  It used to collect rain water for those times when the well ran dry, but it hasn’t been used for a hundred years now.  What looks like just a cement wall, if you look closely, can be seen to stop a few inches from the ceiling.  Just enough space for a kid to crawl in and get into the cistern, or just enough for something from in the cistern to crawl out…

With Mythic

For using the tower with Mythic the following are a couple of “place” tables to roll random locations:

Normal Locations Table
1 Lobby
2 Dining room
3 Kitchen
4 Game room
5 Library
6 Tower
7 Swimming pool
8 Garden
9 Basement
10 Special

SPECIAL
1 Sub Basement
2 Secret upstairs spaces
3 Dumbwaiter
4 Cistern
5 —add entry—
6 —add entry—

My Name Is . . .Francesca Shockley (Frankie Shock)

And I Am . . .a radio DJ for KROQ

What’s been keeping you awake?
My mother.  She’s nuts…No I mean really nuts.  Locked up nuts.  How am I going to take care of her?  How can I afford all this?  I mean someone’s got to get her care, get her looked after.  My kid sister’s useless.  Sure she’s a hot shot lawyer down in Pensicola (Annabella Kingsman, look her up) but like she’d ever haul her butt back here to help out and take care of our mom.  So there’s me.  Just me.

What’s on the surface?
Hippie dippy DJ girl.  I look like a stoned out rock groupie or something.  Yeah, I guess these tattoo sleeves don’t help but hey, they’re cool right?  And even though I’m a girl it makes me look like I could stomp your nuts into oblivion if you look at me sideways.  I like that.

What lies beneath?
I am the biggest softie ever.  I mean ever!  I’d give you the shirt off my back even if I didn’t have a shirt.  Nobody gets that.

What’s your path?
I want my mom back.  I want a family.  I want to feel like I did when I was seven, and safe, and protected…

What just happened to you?
Finished another 10 to 2am slot at the station, stopped by Tom’s on the way to my crapbox apartment and shot down too much whiskey while smoking too many smokes.  While walking back to my place (can’t afford a car), I saw this little girl…I swear she was wearing what was my uniform when I was seven, this short and t-shirt set with sneakers…anyway, she was talking to this tall dude.  Scary looking guy, musta been seven feet tall!  And he had like a beak or something!  She handed him a glass thing, like a snow globe, and asked “is this what you wanted?”

He made this evil snicker sound and took it.  I shouted to leave her alone, give it back, but he just snickered more and walked away.  I followed him, not really wanting to catch up but wanting to see where he went.  We went into the park as the fog started rolling in, and I lost him.  All I could hear was his umbrella tapping.  And now I’m in this graveyard, that I’m certain I never even knew was in my neighbourhood.

So now what?

Discipline 3
Madness 0
Exhaustion 0
Fight 2 Flight 1

Exhaustion Talent: Communication – I can speak with and understand any language (even though I only know english, and my high school teacher said I didn’t even know that very well)

Madness Talent: The power of words – Whatever I say happens.  Not like the Paper Boys, but like that old D&D spell “power word – kill”.  I say a word or two of command, and it happens, no matter what it is I say.

Building a character for DRYH is that easy.  Rules lite?  Yeah, kinda.  For characters anyway.  Dicing for stuff?  That’s another matter entirely…

Blood, from Postmortem Studios, is a modern day horror game for stories along the lines of Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Scream.  Now, I love horror movies like these ones.  I remember the original Friday the 13th, and those wonderful John Carpenter films like The Fog and Prince of Darkness…even They Live.  So the opportunity to play those stories out was a big draw for me when I learned of Blood.  So I picked up the PDF.

I can honestly say that the game is, for me, great value for the money.  The PDF is nicely laid out, with art that works well with the text, but won’t bust your budget for printing.  The only quibble I have with the PDF is that there are blood spatters on every page, which adds atmosphere but makes printing just a bit more of an ink hog than if the pages were plain.  But as I say, that’s a quibble.  Postmortem even ensures to send updates if they make changes.  The version I purchased had heavy outlines on the tables, the publisher changed it to lighter lines and sent out an update with an email to let you know it was available.

For the purchase price of the PDF you get a full system including character creation, skills, combat damage and healing plus bunches of game concepts, hooks, and some sample baddies.  Most of those are reminiscent of horror movies, and they’re well done.  The best part is they all have adventure hooks for how to create games around them.  In fact the whole book is chalk full of scenario concepts, understandably so since Postmortem also produces the “adventure seeds” line of products.

But that’s not to say that the game is tough to come up with a scenario for. Really it’s fairly simple, pick something and wonder about how John Carpenter or Wes Craven would see it, then poof you’ve got a game!  I was so inspired by the rules that I posted a scenario (the Malling) back after having originally read them.  The game is also well supported with a number of PDFs available for new and innovative creatures and evils for hapless characters to get killed by.  Needless to say long campaigns are unlikely in this game.

On the whole, I think Blood is a lot of fun, and for the price, makes an excellent addition to any gamer’s PDF library.  Run it occasionally at Halloween, or out camping in place of a ghost story.  It’s good, scary fun.

Then I remembered reading about “Prime Time Adventures”, the set of rules specifically for doing TV shows!

The sit-coms:

Dad’s a Great Old One

Family sitcom featuring two teenaged children (son and daughter), busy wife and husband.  The husband has had his mind supplanted by the great race of Yith, but so far no one has noticed.  He becomes more secretive through the series, building strange devices and such in the basement and planning family vacations to uncharted islands in the south Pacific.  The kids meanwhile work through their issues in high school and the wife deals with balancing her career and parenthood.  Their kooky neighbour features as a regular guest star, as well as the beautiful 20-something Pacific islander “assistant” dad has picked up to help with his “work”.

The Two Charlie Wards

Sitcom of magic and mistaken identity after Charlie Ward resurrects his long dead ancestor, who is also his twin!  Characters include Charlie’s mom and dad, and his long suffering girlfriend, who can never be sure which Charlie she’s going out with.  Wacky hijinx ensue, of course.

The Fish Family

Nora Fish lives in a little New England town with her three children, dealing with the issues of life, love and growing up, oh as well as mutating into Deep Ones!  Nora moved her family back to Innsmouth to help care for her aged mother, after a few years in Boston.  Her kids are growing up and she understands the need to get back to family, especially when half of that family lives underwater in ancient basalt-block cities.  The oldest boy is beginning to transition into a Deep One, but not enough to have to be locked away…yet.  And the time is coming for her daughter to be chosen as a bride for the Deep Ones, but she’d rather be with her secret (perfectly human) boyfriend.  The youngest boy, Wilbur, is special too, for though only 6, he’s already an accomplished wizard, and destined for Deep One greatness, if he can avoid getting caught!  Of course there’s also granny, who stays in the attic and just thumps the floor when she wants more raw meat…

Innsmouth Seafood

The story of a single mom and her coming of age daughter who run the only seafood store and restaurant in Innsmouth, Mass.  They left the dangers of big-city Providence for the quiet life of the little costal town of Innsmouth, oblivious to the cults and strangeness lurking there.  They set up the a nice little seafood store, selling fresh catch, and whatever washes up on the beach.  Mom is being romanced by the leader of the local Esoteric Order of Dagon, and her daughter is learning some strange new chants, uh cheers, on the Innsmouth High cheerleading squad.

And I thought of a couple of hour dramas…

Dr West

Medical drama featuring Dr Herb West, rising star at Arkham Mercy Hospital.  Each week features a “disease of the week” which Dr West tries to treat.  Things get interesting when he fails, and then experiments with ways of bringing the patient back to life.

Cthulhu Inc

Laurel Jones, MBA felt lucky when she found a job so quickly in the current job market.  She’d never heard of Cyclopean Industries Inc but a middle management job with good pay was a godsend to keep her and her two children afloat, and an ambitious woman like her might even have a chance to get ahead.  But something sinister is going on at Cyclopean, something involving labs, late nights, top secret projects, and a COO that is never seen.  It’s the X-files meets the Prisoner, and Kingdom Hospital meets Secret of my Success; it’s Cthulhu Inc.

Now I need to work these out for “Prime Time Adventures” and then try and play some out!  Anyone have a preference?

Before leaving Rome she’d put in a request for information on the banker, Donna Giaccone.  The money aspect of the case seemed to be growing in importance all the time.  If it was important enough to cost Roberto his life, it was very important indeed. Which made the banker all the more interesting to Elisha.  She received her response just before boarding the flight from Rome.

There was nothing.  Donna Giaccone was an enigma, a total unknown to MI6.

==========
I rolled on the question “Do we have a history for Donna?” and got a 96, extreme no answer.  Guess no one knows who she is!
==========

Another message awaited her on arriving in Hong Kong.  Local agents had picked up the banker’s trail.  She was staying at a luxury hotel in the Tsuen Wan district in the New Territories.  The hotel Nina. And that, Elisha decided, would be her first destination.

She arrived at the hotel to discover that there was a commotion of some sort underway outside.  As Elisha approached she could see an ambulance and some medical figures in white moving around.  That was when she spotted Donna Giaconne, dressed in doctor’s scrubs, approaching her.

“Time for you to go to sleep,” the banker/doctor said, and jabbed a hypodermic into 001′s arm.  Elisha went down in a haze of drugs and confusion.

==========
This was an altered scene (from inside the hotel to outside) and a random event combined.  I thought it had a nice James Bond-ish surprise element to it.  I’m sure James himself has been taken down in similar fashion, like the after cable car sequence in Moonraker.
==========

Elisha's View

When Elisha opened her eyes she discovered she was tied down on a bench, lying in a torture chamber with a view.  While there were no burning coals or steel thumbscrews, the electrical cables and other instruments of torture were clearly laid out on the tables around her.  And beyond them was a beautiful view of Hong Kong, as seen from the upper stories of whatever building they were in.  Elisha estimated they were on the 17th floor at least.  A torture chamber in the sky.  Somehow being able to see freedom and life so close at hand but still so unobtainable, was worse than if she were trapped in a dank dungeon.

The banker wasn’t there,  but herright hand man, Song, was.  And with him were three other Korean toughs, who didn’t look like they were there to discuss football scores.  Song started questioning, and the toughs started in.

“Who do you work for?”

*smack*

“What do you know?”

*smack*

True to her training, Elisha willed herself unconscious.

==========
This all came out of some random events while working out who was there. and where we were.  I got “Imprison Technology” for where we woke up, which translated into the skyscraper torture chamber.  And then “Fight Military” which got us into the questioning.

It just got weirder from here.
==========

When Elisha awoke the goons were gone, but Song was still there, looking as angry and aggressive as always.  His master was with him too.  Donna Giaconne, now dressed in a blue power suit stood over Elisha.

=========
I asked “is she calm?” with very likely odds.  96, exceptional no.

So what does she talk about? “Travel war”
=========

“You are persistent, aren’t you?” Giaconne asked.  “You really get around,.  Seems the warning in Roma wasn’t enough for you.”

“What can I say,” Elisha said, “I’m just a curious girl.  Curious about what you’re planning on doing with the late reverend Won’s millions.”

“Oh I’m sure you would, you pathetic creature.  But seeing you trussed up like that I don’t think you’re going to learn anything.  You British.  So smug, your Empire is almost a century dead and buried, buy yet you refuse to lie down.  You still think you police the world.”

“Well someone’s got to catch the scum, don’t they?”

Giaconne laughed derisively.  “It won’t be you my dear.  Such a shame you won’t be around to see the total collapse of the pathetic world you serve.”

She turned to Song.  “Make it look like an accident.”

He stuck Elisha with another hypodermic and darkness enveloped her again.

Inside, M looked up from the folder he was reading as Elisha entered.

“Ah, 001, good.” He closed the file and pushed it aside. “Have a seat.”

Elisha sat and waited for him to being the briefing.

“How’s your Italian?”

She smiled coyly. “Fettucini Alfredo. Spaghetti Bolognese. Um, Pollo con Parmesana?”

“Very funny,” he said dryly. (I’ve always loved the Bernard Lee “M”, the definitive performance of a spymaster if you ask me) “I ask because you’re on your way to Italy next. Now that poor Mr. Won is no longer with us, we thought it a good idea to find out where his money was headed. Turns out it is all passing through a bank in the suburbs of Rome.

“We need to get some gadget attached into the computer they’re using for the transfers so we can trace where things are going after they leave Rome. It’s on the net, but our chaps here can’t access it. Q’s come up with some dongle for you to hook into the computer that will give us everything we need. Once you get an idea where it’s headed, keep on it. We need to know where the money’s going and what they’re going to do with it.” M put his glasses back on and pulled the file in front of him again. “Well, that’s it. Stop by Q branch on the way out.”

Elisha stood and left as M returned to his reading.

In the basement where the Q branch labs where hidden, Elisha found Q huddled over an experiment.

“With you in a sec, 001.” He made some adjustment to the minute dust particle he was working on and then stood back. “Right, fire it up,” he said to a white coated lab tech. A high pitched hum accompanied the dust particle lifting into the air. They watched as it flew over to a dummy dressed in a suit. It landed, and a second later exploded in a big fireball. The dummy was gone.

“Explosive mosquito,” Q explained. He called again to the lab tech. “Right, have that ready for the Generalisimo’s camping expedition.” Q turned back to Elisha. “Follow me.” He lead the way into a small office, stuffed with papers, designs, prototypes, and somewhere under it all, a desk.

“Off to Rome, eh?” he said, rummaging around in the piles. “Ah, here’s the bit you’ll need.” Q held up a small plastic box, no longer than an inch, with a cable jack on one side and a plug on the other. “Network dongle. Hooks onto the back of the computer, into the network slot. You do know where the network plug goes, don’t you 001?”

“I know where a lot of plugs go.”

Q sighed heavily. “Right,” he began while pointing to the computer on his desk. “This is a computer, called a PC, for personal computer…” Instruction lasted some while longer, but by the time he was done, she knew her ROM from her RAM.

==================
In doing the briefing I started with the James Bond mission generator from the “For your Information” supplement.
Location roll: 49 – Rome
Mission: 42 – Program or deprogram a computer
City sector: 5 – Northwest suburbs
Building: 8 – Bank (again!)

I took all that and mulled it over, coming up with the “follow the money” mission and needing to get data off the bank’s computers.

I also decided that this would be it for the “Q” section of things just now.

Normally in a Bond film Q gives several gadgets that come in surprisingly handy for James, almost like Q already knew what he’d need. For that reason I decided that I’d allow Elisha 3 opportunities in the game that when the time was right and she needed the help she could ask Mythic “did Q give me anything that would help me out here?” It would be a 50/50 odds question and if yes, then she’d get a magical Q gadget. If no, then nope, sorry, no luck for you. And I also said it didn’t need to be three successes. More like “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” she only gets three lifelines but the devices she gets do get to be reused from then on if appropriate.
==================

When the jet landed in Rome, Roberto was waiting for Elisha in the arrivals lounge. Roberto was her contact in the city, he worked out of the local station house, and posed as her photographer when needed.

“Bella!” he called happily as she came from the jetway.

“Roberto!” She approached, and despite how foreign it was to her Chinese upbringing, gave him a kiss on each cheek.

“So nice to see you back in Roma,” he commented, as they started walking out of the boarding lounge. In a quiet voice he added to her “See in the lounge? Gate seven?”

Elisha looked over and saw a young woman tapping on a notebook computer, she wore jeans and looked like a student.

“She is the banker,” Roberto said. “Donna Giaconne. Won’s banker. Handled all the transactions personally. Right now she’s on her way to the funeral.”

==================
I wanted to see if the action started at the airport and made the assumption that there might be someone waiting. There was, and I developed a “civilians” random list to see who. My result came out as “college student working on a computer”. Further exploration lead me to the fact that she was the banker.

Roberto knew her, but she didn’t recognize him or Elisha.
==================

Roberto drove directly to the bank, Elisha sitting in the passenger seat of his Fiat. He parked across the street from the branch, beneath the shade of a leafy green tree.

“Tell me about the system,” Elisha said.

“Secure. Very secure. It’s the box that handles all of the money transactions, so it’s as secure as cash. They keep it in the vault.”

“No one playing solitaire on it at lunch I’m guessing?”

Roberto shook his head. “Like I said, in the vault, along with the wads of cash and safe deposit boxes.”

Elisha thought a moment. “What’s the easiest way to get into a vault?” When Roberto shrugged, Elisha smiled. “Rob it.”

Roberto nodded like he didn’t even think she was crazy. “What’s your plan?”

“How close are we to the Italians? Can they help us arrange something?”

“Very close. We should be…the station chief here is my brother!”

==================
Here I used the James Bond NPC reaction charts to test how good a relationship there was between the Italians and the British. I rolled a “quality rating 1″ which is “enamored”. I took a leap with this and went with the brothers thing…Don’t ask me how you could have brothers working for different national intelligence services, but stranger things have happened!
==================

Things where arranged quickly. Roberto’s brother was able to dig up a willing bank-robber and set up with the local police special arrangements. The robber, Enrico Palumbo, was to bring an accomplice with him and hold up the bank. He’d take Elisha into the vault with him, presumably as a hostage, and she’d do her work. They’d then emerge and the police would storm the building capturing them. They’d be paid for their work and sent on their way.

The next day Elisha and Roberto were at the bank under the cover of an advertising photo shoot. As she posed over desks and deactivated computers as Roberto shot pictures, they waited for their “robber” to arrive. At five past one, he arrived as scheduled. But it was obvious from the first that the plan had been changed.

Instead of a pistol, Enrico was carrying a shotgun and a duffle bag, and he had five other men in tow, all equally armed.

“This is a robbery!” Enrico announced, blasting a shot into the ceiling.  “Everyone down on the floor.”

Staff and customers, 001 included, all dropped to the ground. Roberto shot Elisha a look. She shrugged, and hoped that he’d carry on with her part of the plan at least.

Enrico motioned to his men. “Keep this lot here. I’ll go ‘fix’ the vault…” He moved toward the entrance to the vault with clearly no intention of taking anyone with him.

==================
I picked this as one of my “Did Q give me anything” tests. I got a 99…exceptional no in almost any circumstance! Oh well blew that test…
==================

Elisha looked with disgust at the robbers. Nothing to it but to take matters into her own hands. She hiked her already short skirt just a little higher, and stood up playing the ‘dumb model’ routine.

“Um…excuse me, sir?”

Enrico looked at her, and smiled.

Elisha bit her lip and smiled at him. “Can we talk…maybe for a minute?”

His grin widening, Enrico waved her over. She walked up close, and motioned with her eyes. “Can I go in there with you?”

“But of course,” he said happily, leading her into the dark depths of the vault.

==================
This was a bit of an unexpected turn for me, I mean I can’t say that I thought the whole break-in plan was going to go off without a hitch, but when the robbers showed up with no intention of taking her along, I was stuck. The only plan I could come up with was a dumb model/seduction attempt to try and get him to take her in with him. But that I never expected to work…when it did I was again caught off guard. I didn’t think it’d be that easy!
==================

Once inside the vault, separated and out of sight of the rest of the burglars Elisha slid in close to Enrico. Once she was inside his perimeter she gave him her knee, hard. He crumpled to the floor.

“You dumb bugger. You’re intentionally screwing up my job.”

She quickly found the computer and snapped on the dongle Q had provided. Turning back she continued berating him.

“Screw me up again, and I’ll make sure you never see the light of day.”

Enrico growled, leapt up and charged at her. With a snort she landed a right cross hard on his jaw. Enrico dropped again, and didn’t get up.

==================
Enrico was surprised by the first attack, a +4 to the ease factor for the attack, which meant she had to roll 216 or less to hit. She rolled 96, a quality rating 3, but still good enough for a wound. He rolled 97 to resist the pain, and failed, going down hard.

I tested “does she put the dongle on?” and got 22, yes, which was also a random event.
76 neutral event
64 spy
89 portals

I decided this meant that there was a hidden camera watching the computer, and so she’d been recorded putting the device on the computer.
When he attacked, she got a QR4 result since she could actually strike first.
It was a “stun” result. He needed 45 or less to resist getting knocked cold and rolled 46. Sorry buddy, you’re down, and I suspect headed for prison.
==================

Now Elisha was unsure what to do. The ringleader was out cold, but there were still 10 hostages in the bank and five armed men to deal with. She fell back on her maxim, when in doubt surprise is your friend. She took up Enrico’s shotgun and charged out of the vault, screaming at the top of her lungs. She slammed square into the gunman guarding the hostages and laid him flat with the butt of the shotgun. Tossing the gun to Roberto, Elisha continued straight on to the one guarding the door. He swung at her and missed, and she slammed into him full force, knocking him cold. Behind her Roberto trained the shotgun on the others.

The bank job had come quickly to an end.

==================
I figured the next scene would be the two of them monitoring the transmissions, but on checking I got a modified scene, so I figured it would be Roberto reporting on the results of the monitoring. I wanted a place, and checked with my old Daredevils RPG rules which has a fantastic random list of locations. I got a 4 “Amusement Park”. And what’s the ultimate “amusement park” in Rome?

The Colosseum!

I also checked to see what the results of the monitoring was (metagaming) to see what Elisha would be needing to find out. But I also checked to see how much Roberto could get out before something happened…
==================

Rome was dark and as quiet as it ever got in the humming city. Elisha stood in the shadow of the Colosseum, ancient Rome’s monument to public amusement through blood sport. This was where Roberto had said to meet, to get the results of the monitoring they were doing on the bank’s computer.

He rounded a corner and approached her with a grin on his face.

“Got it,” he said happily. “And you’re going to love where.”

She matched his smile. “Tell me.”

“Hong Kong.”

Elisha laughed. She’d be going home. That was good. “What else?”

Roberto opened his mouth but before he could say anything further they were interrupted by a motorcycle crashing through the news boxes near them, intent on running them both down! Elisha pushed Roberto to one side, barely dodging the speeding bike, but taking note of the MP5 submachine gun slung on the driver.

Suddenly there were two more bikes coming straight at her. There was no time to dodge. The bikes tore by narrowly missing her. She readied herself as they came back determined to fight. Again they missed, though she was able to shove the toppled news box into the path of one of the riders. He dodged, tumbling from his bike.

Behind Elisha the lights of a van appeared. More bad guys. She snatched up the now abandoned motorbike and shouted to Roberto. “Get on!” He did and they pealed away. The chase was on again!

==================
Close range on bikes. E bids 5, do they go lower? 50/50 odds…56 no.
E flees, +1 modifier for the bike, gets a quality 3 roll for two bands increase
==================

Elisha opened up the throttle on the bike and gunned the engine. They shot forward down the wide street.

Behind them the two remaining bikes kept right on their tail, the drivers keeping pace. They shifted, bringing the MP5s out for use. They sprayed shots at Elisha. The first biker missed wildly. But Elisha could feel the thuds as the shots from the second hit home. Roberto’s hands eased holding her waist, and he slid lifeless off the back of the bike.

Anger welled up in her chest, and she wanted nothing more than to stop the bike, spin around and let loose with her pistol into the riders. She didn’t have her P7, though. All she was armed with was her backup gun, a Semmerling LM4 tucked under her skirt. The little gun could easily stop a man, but she’d only be able to get one shot out before the other biker would be upon her.

~Instead she opted to run, to avenge Roberto from more promising circumstances.

The bikes following her seemed desperate. They pushed harder to catch her, and did quickly surrounding her, the van charging up behind.

==================
I got a no result to the question “does it go as normal?” and when I tested a random event I got “thread related – usurp – rides”. That coupled with a strong yes for “do they bid lower” meant they were going below the safety line for their bikes to try and catch her.
==================

Elisha pulled a quick turn to try and ditch at least the van, but to no avail.
Suddenly she pulled up short, stuck in a dead end!

The bikes rolled close, the van pulling up and stopping with her pinned in it’s headlights. The bikers covered her with their guns as the van’s door opened and Song stepped out. He approached her, stopping just in front of her, close enough that she could feel his breath on her face.

“This was a payment, and your only warning,” he said. “Stay away.”

He returned to the van and it, along with the bikers sped off into the night leaving Elisha alone in a blind alley, the memory of Roberto falling away from her burned into her mind.

==================
For this “go as planned” question I again got a “no” result. The event rolled was “open or close a thread – vengeance – messages”.  I think this one sort of opens and closes a thread…

Next stop: Hong Kong
==================