Aeon B-Team Season 6 Session 9

 

Cast

• Amar Gupta aka The Iron Sikh (played by Christian): Brick. Taxi Driver. Ass-Kicker. Sikh. Tagline: “Being a man of faith means to live it.”
• Amie-Belle T. W. Lee aka Whisper (Played by Curtis): Cold War era super-soldier/spy that got put in the Freezer, because she got poisoned. After getting thawed out and cured she tried to back to work, and was given an “adjustment period”. Uncle Sam called 2 years later, with work… because once you’re in, you’re in for life. Tagline: “In and out without a whisper.”
• Beauregard K. “Bo” Ratnam aka Wirerat (Played by Brice): Technopath, inventor, and hacker. He specializes in co-opting enemy systems and tech assets. Tagline: “Nice tech – I’ll borrow that.”
• Rafe Hanlon aka Nyx (played by Chris D.): An umbrakinetic petty thief still on work release several years later, on his way to becoming a true agent and hero. Tagline: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
• Vincenzo L. dePrezzo aka Threshold (Played by Rory): Doctor, Mathematician, and Scientist (yes, capitals) and Spatial Manipulator. Threshold can bend space like a pretzel, teleport, obliterate things, and has extraordinary senses. He’d rather be in a research lab than fight. Better known for his work with Doctors Without Borders, the United Nations, and disaster relief than famous battles. Tagline: “I can be there in a snap!”Derrick K. Ratnam aka Ledgerdemain (NPC Ally): Spin doctor and media liaison for Project VANGUARD. Twin to Bo. Tagline: “Well, actually that’s not how it happened…
• Jodie R. Swann aka Surferboy (NPC): Dude. Aero- and Hydrokinetic. Really laid back, but wants to make a difference. Has a advanced glider/drone he rides on. Tagline: “Like. Let’s just chill, dude.”
• Layla A. de Blackburn aka Nox (NPC): CIA-trained child assassin all grown up to be Daddy’s Little Monster. Maybe a little mad. Argues with her shadow often. Tagline: “No, we shouldn’t do that…should we?”
• Stainless Steel Rat aka “Sir” (NPC Ally): Bo’s best friend and assistant. A sentient drone in the shape of a stylized shiny metal rat mindlinked to Bo. Specialties are rapid repair construction and modifications. Imagine if K-9 and R2D2 made a baby and it looks a bit like a rodent. Tagline: “Repairs and upgrades in progress”
• Tierney M. Ward aka Rush (NPC): Speedster and former member of the Bullet Hell Brigade. Tagline: “Was that fast? I thought that was fast.”
• Zubayr Sajjad Marou aka Five Stars (NPC): Driver. Pilot. Klubbe gig worker.. From N’Djamena, Chad. Used to go by Darryl Bell to sound more American. Tagline: “I can get you there in time.”

The Senate Meeting, Pt 2

We spent the evening kibitzing and part of us engaging in petty shenanigan's messing with the various agencies bugging our rooms. Whisper probably made the best move by going out dancing.

Wirerat/Bo suggested to Threshold they go visit Lynch whom he found out where they had stashed. Threshold  Threshold laid out the likely consequences and advised it would be fun but a terrible idea.

We then went to the Senate Committee meeting and finished the interrogation.

As we entered this time there were no cameras and they were interrogating Lynch on something called Project Pinhole. The name intrigues Threshold who asks if that is related to wormhole testing. The Senators tell him he is not cleared for that so Threshold turns to Wirerat and asks him to look into it for him. Of course he could have asked later or more discretely but he wanted to send a message. It's generally a good idea to tell Threshold what he wants and that the group was not going to passively allow the committee to shove them around. The committee knows full well Wirerat is an excellent hacker and it should occur to them is likely to find out more than what would have satisfied Threshold had they just told him themselves. And asking someone to look into something is not illegal, as Wirerat could be interpreted to being asked to use legal research methods.

The committee then gets to questioning the group, this time focusing on its funding. Do we get funding from illegal methods? Getting suspicious that Black Ops money might be involved Threshold tries to avoid accidentally perjuring himself in saying that all the money comes from open sources and while some of the sources may be considcered illegal by some people he does not believe any laws are broken. For example some people say income tax is against the Constitution and its possible some govt funding is moved around in  shady ways but thats beyond his knowledge and paygrade.

Whisper points out that laws on foreign soil do not apply.

The Senate also asks more about activities related to the Super Soldier serum and Threshold gets a little more blatant and direct (now that the cameras are off) about how that focus is rather narrowminded and the real danger is the kyberic energy sources. They say they will consider it but seem to be dismissive and Threshold is sure that is going to come back to haunt everyone.

The group is finally dismissed and as we leave Lynch leans over and whispers something to Nyx. Pretty much everyone but Threshold overhears it and when its later brought up this is what he was told.

(40.568673, -73.86474, Simplicity. Ghost. Counsel. Genuine. Pace).

Threshold immediately recognizes this as coordinates of latitude and longitude for somewhere in NY and looks it up find it matches 

Neponsit Beach Hospital

67 Rockaway Beach Boulevard

Rockaway Park, NY 11694

The group heads back to town, Threshold and Wirerat having a lively discussion on how the government works, or doesn't.

Threshold believes in the system, while acknowledging that people can abuse the system. Wirerat thinks the system itself is faulty and should be gotten rid of. Threshold is more a bureaucrat and idealist where Wirerat is more an anarchist. The rest of the group mostly stayed out of it, likely thinking they are both crazy.

Aftermath

The player upon seeing the numbers immediately thought they looked like latitude and longitude so entered them into a map app and it coming up with a NY address (the campaign is centered in NY) is likely not a coincidence. We will probably check that out next session.

Threshold has Matrhematics! (20) and Navigation (Air and Sea both) (21) so would easily have arrived at the same intuition the player did, except Threshold probably did not need an app to know it led to someplace in NY. That was a fun moment for me, maybe others would have spotted that connection and if we hadn't certainly the GM could have used skill rolls to let the characters do so to move the plot forward. However, its nice when the players can put clues together themselves and this is one of the harder parts of a mystery campaign.

The session was a short one but at 2 hours good enough. We finished a scenario and got some leads on the next plot.

We did have more crosstalk this session and I felt I had to jump in quickly a few times to get something said or I wouldn't have been able to talk at all, which helped contribute to the crosstalk problem.

The GM brought it up after and it was discussed.