Griffin O'Callahan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
icastsword) wrote2022-03-04 05:59 pm
icastsword) wrote2022-03-04 05:59 pm
Entry tags:
Session 96: The Decisive Battle
The sound of the god's intervention is like a clock or like a gavel pounding. Interesting. The light of the god's intervention has suspended the debris of the crumbling building in midair.
1.) Griffin
2.) Long Furby
3.) Crimeny
4.) Nellie
5.) Serra
6.) Jericho
7.) Shane
Initiative numbers determines who falls the furthest. Shane rolled a 1. He fell the furthest. He manages to land on a small floating platform about 8 floors down. Because of the godly intervention, time has slowed, so Shane takes no damage from this fall. Jericho saw Shane plummet and dove after him. Jericho is 6 floors down but he doesn't have to worry about the platforms so much because he can fly.
Because Serra was saying her prayer, she also lands on a platform 6 floors down. Did Nellie cast another Feather Fall? Nah, she's been burning a lot of feather falls. She manages to land on a tile outcropping four floors down, on the edge of the large hole that was blown straight through the building. Crimeny does a 3-point Superhero Landing two floors down, and Griffin manages to catch hold of an iron girder and is only one floor down. He is right in Furby's sight. He pulls himself up from this iron girder.
Before we start combat proper, how about we go around the table and share how everyone is feeling? Let's start with Griffin.
Griffy's not having a great day. It started out pretty good, with Toit's beautiful rendition of Baby Shark, but that was the high point. First there was the deeply unpleasant encounter over Radio Chaos. Then we got to fight nightmare incarnate Flesh Voltron, which fucked with ya boi's head pretty badly - we'll need to address that later. Then it was on to Mothman, and witnessing tens or maybe even hundreds of terrified people lost in their own personal hells. Then between Foodzamuth and Weird Al, countless more innocent people were poisoned and injured, and Griffin has no idea if all of them are going to be okay.
And that was apparently just the warm-up! Long Furby's reign of terror has clearly caused multiple deaths, which are horrifying in a totally different way than Flesh Voltron. It's also given Griffin an opportunity to get really up close and personal with some super nasty injuries. He may have tanked the Con Save for un-skewering George, but that poor man's screams will be living rent-free in his head for a while.
And now he has just witnessed with his own two eyes the utter annihilation of poor Agent Paul.
All of this to say: Griffin is feeling angry. It might not be obvious because he doesn't express anger explosively like some people. It sits like a knot in his stomach.
It could be said that Griffin may be feeling pretty in touch with his Infernal heritage. For the duration of this fight, if he reacts with a Hellish Rebuke, he can add a d4 to the damage roll.
How's Jericho feeling? He's going to have to check into his employment health insurance policy to make sure everyone can get therapy if they want it. He's feeling especially responsible for Long Furby, because this was his nightmare. Because of the accountability he's feeling, any Bardic Inspiration he gives, add an extra d4 to the d8.
How's Crimeny feeling? Crimeny is no stranger to difficult days, but this is several orders of magnitude worse than some of those other days. Running from the cops is one thing (that's fun!), but they're starting to get worn down a bit. They don't have the same fear response as most people, so they're probably mentally better off than the others. It's hard to get squicked by the sight of blood if you don't have any blood. They're taking very careful note of how this day has affected everyone else. They really want to end this quickly to end the suffering of their friends.
Crimeny wants to take care of this quickly. For the duration of this fight, add an extra sneak attack dice whenever Crimeny hits with sneak attack.
Throughout the course of the day Serra's mood has been getting worse. She's tired, she's dirty, she's cranky. She's also in awe of recent developments, vis-a-vis the god bothering. She's also feeling hopeful. Having her prayers answered in this very grandiose way has reaffirmed her faith. Whenever Serra casts any healing spells for the duration of this fight, add 1d8 to the healing amount.
How you doin', Shane? Shane has been surprisingly effective this whole time. He's compartmentalizing like an absolute champ right now. He is very focused. He is on the job, he wants to get it done and get rid of the monsters. But LATER he's going to go home and sob and cry to his cat. Normally he fires off two Eldritch Blasts. For the duration of this fight he gets three blasts: His focus is going to grant him a third blast.
Pippinella: How're you doing? Early on she was like, "Fuck it, glamor's off." Pretty much as soon as these things showed up, the cat was out of the bag, the stable was open, the horses bolted, the bonobo monkeys are fucking, this is Interplay's job. She's got the most experience in this group with death and with things going wrong. Normally she's very careful with her magic, because if things go wrong, they can go very bad very quickly. Well, things have gone very wrong. She's feeling all or nothing. Ant gives her her second Portent of the day back, and he gives her a Nat 20. It's all or nothing, her Portents are 1 and 20.
Long Furby starts to dissolve into wispy, staticy smoke. There are ember-like pieces floating by that crackle up and dissolve. The building starts to fill with this as Long Furby starts to dissolve. The light of the god starts to flicker like a light bulb losing power, and we start to feel gravity slowly start to kick in again.
Griffin, roll Acrobatics: 25. Whatever's been teleporting him around is a mystery, but somehow he's been able to direct it when he sees his friends in trouble. In a second Griffin is next to Crimeny, with just enough time to pile them onto his shoulders. In another second he's next to Serra - she hops on and acts like that little bastard from the Neverending Story: YEAAAH! From there he blinks down to where Shane is. Now he has the whole party on his broad shoulders. Time to roll a Strength Save: 18. He's breathing like a champion deadlifter, and he realizes he's run out of friends to teleport to.
At this point, Nellie casts the Guidance cantrip on Griffin. He's gonna need it.
With his friends on his back, Griffin rushes to the center of the building where Furby blasted a giant hole. He's going to use gravity to his advantage. He dives off of his fifty story perch with his friends in his arms. How do his friends feel about this? Well, this is non-ideal, but if it has to happen, they trust Griffin to manage this. He Rocket Mans his way down the hole in this building as debris cracks and blasts around him. It's like a Starfox level. At around the 20th floor, he blows the Eagle Whistle.
Watkins and a retinue of Interplay Agents were approaching the building upon witnessing the disintegration of Long Furby. Griffin blasts right by him, and the shock of Griffin blasting out of the door knocks Watkins flat on his ass. Actually, the shockwave of Griffin's passing knocks all of these agents on their asses.
FUCK yes.
Griffin rolls an Unnatural 20 Dex Save with Guidance. Thank you for Guidance, Nellie! He banks hard around the corner and gains momentum, friends still in tow. Thankfully at this point Shane takes the time to inform Griffin that Agent Paul is still up there, 51 floors up - he's going to reappear any second now and fall to his death. Shit, we need to save this man!
Let's get Jericho, the man who can fly under his own power, all up ins on this situation.
Toss Jericho like one of your French Girls. But Griffin doesn't know any French Girls? Also, he would never toss a girl, French or not! Rude! But we're going to fastball special this goose man back up into the air to save Paul. Jericho rolls a Dex Save so he doesn't wind up flopping end over end. He rolls a 17 to keep control as he's whipped forward. He looks so cool, like a hawk. Agent Paul pops back into existence 51 stories above New Orleans. Jericho's initial Dex Save is good enough he's able to easily catch Agent Paul before he falls.
Jericho advises Paul not to look down, but to look at the horizon. He's got a great view. Paul's got to get out of this line of work. His bros and him were kind of messing with the idea. Jericho recommends he go into music. Paul admits he and his bros kind of jam on the weekends. He's one comment away from asking if Jericho wants to hear his demo. Jericho does NOT want to hear this man's demo.
Meanwhile Griffin slowed down and landed to set his friends safely upon the earth.
The divine intervention caused the building to collapse in a very neatly on itself - all of the debris is contained within what remains of the building's outer shell. All signs of Long Furby have dissipated. The creature has been vanquished.
Griffin touches down outside of the plaza of the Hancock Whitney center, kind of where everyone was. There's a moment of silence and awe. Now that this thing has dissolved, the news choppers are coming in and scanning they rubble. Watkins gets up and starts directing the Interplay Agents into Interplay Scrub procedures. They need to go into containment mode, which is going to be a very hard thing.
After he's done giving orders, he comes over to the crew. His demeanor has changed a bit. He's not as angry as he was before. He approaches Jericho, since Jericho just brought Agent Paul down to earth. Paul apologizes for temporarily disappearing? Watkins tells Paul his bros are over with medical and suggests Paul also go over to medical. Before he leaves he turns to Jericho and says thank you for saving him and his brothers, and thanks for banishing me so I didn't immediately die?
Jericho tells Paul to thank Shane. Shane waves. He looks so tired. He's had it, he's done. Paul shakes Jericho's hand, and runs off to go get checked out. Watkins waits until he's out of earshot.
Watkins wants to know who was responsible for the column of heavenly light?
Serra: Uhhhhhhhh...God?
Jericho: That sounds like a religious phenomenon that I don't know whether I am qualified to comment on. Have you accepted our lord and savior Jesus Christ?
Watkins admits he walked into that one. He tells Jericho that he has Jericho to thank for taking care of the other problems throughout the city today. Watkins tells Jericho he works fast and admits he's a little impressed.
Jericho: that's what you get from Private Sector.
Jericho wants to know if the bonobos have been taken care of. Believe it or not, those were less trouble than the giant furby.
Speaking of reports: Watkins wants to know if he can convince Jericho and the crew to come down to headquarters to make a statement. Jericho tells Watkins that if he wants a statement, Jericho's crew needs to go home and get some goddamn rest.
Watkins INSISTS that the group come down to HQ. Jericho doesn't want to go to Interplay with this man. He's more inclined to let his employees go home, because he's not talking about the physical injuries. We all saw some SHIT today. Maybe Watkins should talk to his boy George to get a little clue in.
Ant pulls Inky into the Time Out corner for a private one-on-one.
WATKINS: I'm not sure you understand, Mr. LaCroix. It is of the utmost necessity that you and your group come with me down to headquarters, NOW. I'm doing you the favor of having you come willingly. Rest assured, I don't have to force you or your group to come down. However, all of your employees have people that are precious to them that I can lean on to get you to cooperate. Now, this would just make things easier for all of us. Do you understand my meaning?
JERICHO: I understand perfectly: You're threatening me.
WATKINS: It's not a threat. I will make sure that you are all taken care of. You're not under arrest, you have nothing to worry about there - I'm not going to throw you in a cell. You're this city's saviors! But I have questions, Mr. LaCroix.
JERICHO: Don't you ALWAYS.
WATKINS: It's part of the job of an Interplay agent.
JERICHO: Mmmm.
WATKINS: Now. I'm going to need you all, once again, to come with us.
JERICHO: Let me talk to them first and EASE them into it.
WATKINS: Take all the time you need. [SMUGLY] I just want to thank you for your cooperation.
Inky cannot wait for the day she is able to kill this man.
Jericho returns to his group and ushers everyone in for a little pow wow.
Watkins wants us to come down to Interplay HQ with him. Griffin says he can't go, because his moms want him to come home. Jericho explains to this good boy that Watkins is threatening us, and that we HAVE to go. But we can take Watkins up on his "offer" of clerics before we go.
Senzu beans only heal physical damage. 8(
We head over to the medical tents. Is John still here? Griffin wants to check in on him. George is on a gurney, his brothers at his side. All the bros seem to be okay, and express gratitude when they see the crew walk in.
We take about a half hour before we're given rides back to Interplay HQ. We get broken up into pairs. We can pair up however we want, but Crimeny and Jericho are not allowed in the same car. Actually, Jericho has to ride with Shane, so everyone else can pair up as they like.
Griffin is inclined to go with Nellie. You know what, Nellie is going to cling to Griffin like he's the actual adult here. So that leaves Crimeny and Serra to ride together.
It's about a 20 minute drive, passing through police and national guard checkpoints. Eventually the different vehicles pull into a parking garage, and when we're allowed to disembark from our vehicles, we realize each car has gone to a different location. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, considering Interplay has multiple entrances to their offices.
While we drive, Griffin sends off a quick text to his good good friend Toby: Hey bro, your bosses are mad at us, can you help? Hashtag Arrested. Griff and Nellie send Toby a selfie from the back seat of their Interplay car.
Jericho texts Verona: Things might be getting a little warm.
Shane texts Chad: Forgot to clean the litter box, also I'll be home late, don't worry, I'll warm up my dinner in the microwave.
Also Shane tells Jericho that once we get to HQ they're going to monitor our text messages. He wishes he'd told Griffin...actually, wait, he CAN! He texts everyone to warn them about the Interplay text message monitoring. Jericho puts his phone on Airplane mode.
Shane just turns his phone off. Takes the battery out. Eats it. No, wait.
We're escorted through the HQ. We're not under arrest, supposedly. We're still in our pairs. Our various drivers will escort us down to debriefing rooms, where we're all totally split up.
We are placed in plain rooms. There's one door in and out. There is a table and two chairs. Standard interrogation room. Jericho sits on the table.
Crimeny is going to send a bunch of encoded texts that don't mean anything.
Nellie is going to spam advertisements for the bullshit psychic services she does.
Griffin is going to take a nap.
Shane will use his Gaslighting skill to its full capacity.
1.) Griffin
2.) Long Furby
3.) Crimeny
4.) Nellie
5.) Serra
6.) Jericho
7.) Shane
Initiative numbers determines who falls the furthest. Shane rolled a 1. He fell the furthest. He manages to land on a small floating platform about 8 floors down. Because of the godly intervention, time has slowed, so Shane takes no damage from this fall. Jericho saw Shane plummet and dove after him. Jericho is 6 floors down but he doesn't have to worry about the platforms so much because he can fly.
Because Serra was saying her prayer, she also lands on a platform 6 floors down. Did Nellie cast another Feather Fall? Nah, she's been burning a lot of feather falls. She manages to land on a tile outcropping four floors down, on the edge of the large hole that was blown straight through the building. Crimeny does a 3-point Superhero Landing two floors down, and Griffin manages to catch hold of an iron girder and is only one floor down. He is right in Furby's sight. He pulls himself up from this iron girder.
Before we start combat proper, how about we go around the table and share how everyone is feeling? Let's start with Griffin.
Griffy's not having a great day. It started out pretty good, with Toit's beautiful rendition of Baby Shark, but that was the high point. First there was the deeply unpleasant encounter over Radio Chaos. Then we got to fight nightmare incarnate Flesh Voltron, which fucked with ya boi's head pretty badly - we'll need to address that later. Then it was on to Mothman, and witnessing tens or maybe even hundreds of terrified people lost in their own personal hells. Then between Foodzamuth and Weird Al, countless more innocent people were poisoned and injured, and Griffin has no idea if all of them are going to be okay.
And that was apparently just the warm-up! Long Furby's reign of terror has clearly caused multiple deaths, which are horrifying in a totally different way than Flesh Voltron. It's also given Griffin an opportunity to get really up close and personal with some super nasty injuries. He may have tanked the Con Save for un-skewering George, but that poor man's screams will be living rent-free in his head for a while.
And now he has just witnessed with his own two eyes the utter annihilation of poor Agent Paul.
All of this to say: Griffin is feeling angry. It might not be obvious because he doesn't express anger explosively like some people. It sits like a knot in his stomach.
It could be said that Griffin may be feeling pretty in touch with his Infernal heritage. For the duration of this fight, if he reacts with a Hellish Rebuke, he can add a d4 to the damage roll.
How's Jericho feeling? He's going to have to check into his employment health insurance policy to make sure everyone can get therapy if they want it. He's feeling especially responsible for Long Furby, because this was his nightmare. Because of the accountability he's feeling, any Bardic Inspiration he gives, add an extra d4 to the d8.
How's Crimeny feeling? Crimeny is no stranger to difficult days, but this is several orders of magnitude worse than some of those other days. Running from the cops is one thing (that's fun!), but they're starting to get worn down a bit. They don't have the same fear response as most people, so they're probably mentally better off than the others. It's hard to get squicked by the sight of blood if you don't have any blood. They're taking very careful note of how this day has affected everyone else. They really want to end this quickly to end the suffering of their friends.
Crimeny wants to take care of this quickly. For the duration of this fight, add an extra sneak attack dice whenever Crimeny hits with sneak attack.
Throughout the course of the day Serra's mood has been getting worse. She's tired, she's dirty, she's cranky. She's also in awe of recent developments, vis-a-vis the god bothering. She's also feeling hopeful. Having her prayers answered in this very grandiose way has reaffirmed her faith. Whenever Serra casts any healing spells for the duration of this fight, add 1d8 to the healing amount.
How you doin', Shane? Shane has been surprisingly effective this whole time. He's compartmentalizing like an absolute champ right now. He is very focused. He is on the job, he wants to get it done and get rid of the monsters. But LATER he's going to go home and sob and cry to his cat. Normally he fires off two Eldritch Blasts. For the duration of this fight he gets three blasts: His focus is going to grant him a third blast.
Pippinella: How're you doing? Early on she was like, "Fuck it, glamor's off." Pretty much as soon as these things showed up, the cat was out of the bag, the stable was open, the horses bolted, the bonobo monkeys are fucking, this is Interplay's job. She's got the most experience in this group with death and with things going wrong. Normally she's very careful with her magic, because if things go wrong, they can go very bad very quickly. Well, things have gone very wrong. She's feeling all or nothing. Ant gives her her second Portent of the day back, and he gives her a Nat 20. It's all or nothing, her Portents are 1 and 20.
ROUND 1
Griffin gives Long Furby the Stinkeye. Long Furby meets Griffin's gaze and it narrows its eyes back. There's a big open hole in the roof. Griffin casts Jump on himself and uses his movement to leap forward.
Long Furby is cranky because its breath attack didn't implode the building. One of the tongue tendrils on its shirt slams through the side of the building and attacks Jericho, who has to make a Con Save. He rolls an 18. The tendril smacks Jericho but doesn't slam him down. It just whips him for 18 Bludgeoning Damage.
A second tendril rips through the wall and attacks Serra with a Nat 1. In this case, Ant will allow an Attack of Opportunity for Serra. She rolls an 18 to hit the tendril with her mace and does 9 damage.
A second tendril rips through the wall and attacks Serra with a Nat 1. In this case, Ant will allow an Attack of Opportunity for Serra. She rolls an 18 to hit the tendril with her mace and does 9 damage.
Crimeny is two floors down. How far away is Long Furby's face? About 65-70 feet. Crimeny can spend an action to dash and get 60 feet - well, they can't suspend themself in the air above the roof (YET), but they can get to the roof. How does this look? Has Ant played Metroid Dread? Of course he has. Crimeny is moving like the Emmis to climb up. Crimeny uses their bonus action to get a bead on it, so it needs to roll a Deception check. It has to beat a 29. Ant doesn't even roll. We're going to assume a Long Furby in an Ahegao shirt is not very charismatic. Crimeny removes the Superscope as they climb.
Nellie's turn: She's going to need to move up a bit to get within 90 feet. She casts Fly on herself, which will give her enough movement to get to the roof. She banks off to the side away from the more direct party members to prepare for her magical assault next turn.
Serra blasts Long Furby with a Level 1 Guiding Bolt. She rolls a 28 to hit and does 18 Damage, and the next person to attack has Advantage to hit.
Jericho is six floors down right now. He doesn't necessarily need to fly all the way up to attack, because the body is still wrapped around the building and is in range. He does use his full 30 feet of movement and is now only four floors down. Jericho casts Bestow Curse on the Long Furby. Long Furby fails its Wisdom Save with an 11. The curse causes Long Furby to have to roll a Wisdom Save at the start of each turn. If it fails the Wisdom Save it does nothing that turn. As a Bonus Action, Jericho gives Crimeny Bardic Inspiration. Crimeny is this campaign's Party Cannon.
Shane! You are 8 floors down. You have 2 spell slots. For now Shane shoots whatever part of Long Furby he can see with his Blast. He can reach Long Furby's face from where he's at. He rolls a 21 to hit. Total Hurt Damage is 29. These blasts crack right into Long Furby's face, briefly framing Griffin as he yeets himself forward.
ROUND 2
Griffin is in mid-leap, flying dramatically towards the face of this Furby. There are several helicopters still circling the building. 19 and 22 to hit. Hit 1: 10 Slashing, 3 Cold, Hit 2: 13 Slashing, 3 Cold (23 Slashing, 5 Cold). Pride and Joy cracks off of Long Furby's weird plastic beak. The cold damage doesn't seem to have much of an effect, but Griffin chips the Furby's Beak. He hits mid-leap and begins to descend.
Furby goes now. It saves on its Wisdom save and rolls to attack Pippinella. It rolls a Nat 20 to hit. Right before Griffin attacked, he saw Long Furby's maw open, so when he brought his sword up to smash the beak, which altered the trajectory of its attack. A gargantuan ropelike tongue fires out of its mouth, and strikes at Pip. She takes 30 Bludgeoning damage. Nellie has to make a Con save to keep her concentration on Fly: 14. She loses concentration. Shane will catch her if she falls. Well, no he won't, because the tongue knocks her out away from what's left of the roof, over open air.
Griffin sees Nellie get knocked beyond the roof, and somehow, he teleports! Instant transmission! He manages to catch the lip of the roof with one hand and snag Nellie out of the air with the other. He's got his bestie tucked under his arm like a football and he is hanging on to the edge of the roof.
Crimeny is not hiding. Long Furby hits them with a 22, and they take 20 Bludgeoning damage. And now Ant requests a Strength Save. Thank goodness Crimeny has Inspiration. They roll a 22 to save. Another tongue-like appendage slams through and broadsides Crimeny, and begins to wrap itself around Crimeny. Seemingly from nowhere, the Popeye theme begins to play - Crimeny's joints and gears creak mightily as they force themself out of the grapple.
Griffin sees Nellie get knocked beyond the roof, and somehow, he teleports! Instant transmission! He manages to catch the lip of the roof with one hand and snag Nellie out of the air with the other. He's got his bestie tucked under his arm like a football and he is hanging on to the edge of the roof.
Crimeny is not hiding. Long Furby hits them with a 22, and they take 20 Bludgeoning damage. And now Ant requests a Strength Save. Thank goodness Crimeny has Inspiration. They roll a 22 to save. Another tongue-like appendage slams through and broadsides Crimeny, and begins to wrap itself around Crimeny. Seemingly from nowhere, the Popeye theme begins to play - Crimeny's joints and gears creak mightily as they force themself out of the grapple.
Now it's Crime Time. Crimeny is become Death, Destroyer of Worlds. Griffin's not near the Long Furby anymore, but Crimeny still has Furby's number. Scott requests Nellie's Nat 20 for their attack roll. Crimeny brings out the Superscope. It's time for 20d6 damage. Ant feels like there needs to be some kind of recoil for this. Scott will accept the consequences.
Crimeny does 88 Damage. Crimeny is ready to be DONE. They are tired of seeing their friends unhappy. They run up the tendril that tried to grapple them until they get a clear shot of the Furby's face. The resulting explosion is unlike anything it's done before - this is like a bomb went off. The shockwave sends Crimeny down two floors and does 6 Fall damage.
Griffin has to roll a STR save to hold on. He rolls a 19, and he manages to hold on. He peers up over the edge. As he looks, he sees Jericho knocked silly with a 16 CON save, flapping all around. Suddenly...Griffin is there! Now he's got Jericho under his other arm. Griffin lands three floors down. We've got the power of God and Anime on our side.
Nellie and Jericho have a nice little chat. It's interrupted by a terrifying screech. It sounds like thousands upon thousands of voices screaming in pain. When the smoke clears from the Superscope bomb, we see Long Furby is missing a portion of its head. Inside its cranium is what looks like writhing static. The whole of the body is coming undone, but it looks like it's being held together by pure spite. The ahegao shirt is slowly fading into this mass of static. There is still a definitive form. At this point everyone hears a terrifying creak, because now Long Furby is really putting the squeeze on the remnants of the building. The walls are going concave. The building is still standing, but not for long.
Out of curiosity, does Danny Devito have any insights about any of this? Tele-talking is a free action. Got any idea about these things from beyond the stars? We made 'em real mad. We hit 'em with the video game gun, your beefy friend can now teleport. Opening a portal for six of these things is unheard of. Sal is at a bit of a loss. Jericho wants to know why Sal thought singing might help. I dunno, you sing at things. Alright, then sing a death dirge at it. This thing has no souls in it. Where the sea of chaos is full of souls, these things don't got none. They're like anti-souls, but not like that Kingdom Hearts shit, which is dumb. THEY STOLE THAT FROM SAL. Sal doesn't have any new information. These things have never crossed the barrier before.
Crimeny does 88 Damage. Crimeny is ready to be DONE. They are tired of seeing their friends unhappy. They run up the tendril that tried to grapple them until they get a clear shot of the Furby's face. The resulting explosion is unlike anything it's done before - this is like a bomb went off. The shockwave sends Crimeny down two floors and does 6 Fall damage.
Griffin has to roll a STR save to hold on. He rolls a 19, and he manages to hold on. He peers up over the edge. As he looks, he sees Jericho knocked silly with a 16 CON save, flapping all around. Suddenly...Griffin is there! Now he's got Jericho under his other arm. Griffin lands three floors down. We've got the power of God and Anime on our side.
Nellie and Jericho have a nice little chat. It's interrupted by a terrifying screech. It sounds like thousands upon thousands of voices screaming in pain. When the smoke clears from the Superscope bomb, we see Long Furby is missing a portion of its head. Inside its cranium is what looks like writhing static. The whole of the body is coming undone, but it looks like it's being held together by pure spite. The ahegao shirt is slowly fading into this mass of static. There is still a definitive form. At this point everyone hears a terrifying creak, because now Long Furby is really putting the squeeze on the remnants of the building. The walls are going concave. The building is still standing, but not for long.
Out of curiosity, does Danny Devito have any insights about any of this? Tele-talking is a free action. Got any idea about these things from beyond the stars? We made 'em real mad. We hit 'em with the video game gun, your beefy friend can now teleport. Opening a portal for six of these things is unheard of. Sal is at a bit of a loss. Jericho wants to know why Sal thought singing might help. I dunno, you sing at things. Alright, then sing a death dirge at it. This thing has no souls in it. Where the sea of chaos is full of souls, these things don't got none. They're like anti-souls, but not like that Kingdom Hearts shit, which is dumb. THEY STOLE THAT FROM SAL. Sal doesn't have any new information. These things have never crossed the barrier before.
...That was all Crimeny's turn. It's Nellie's turn now. She is currently safe in Griffin's loving arms. She's going to...hm. Does she want to Mind Spike it? Hmmm...Yeah, better safe than sorry, she's gonna Mind-Spike it at the 5th level, and she gives it the Nat 1 to Auto Fail its Wis save. Time for 6d8 Psychic damage: 26. With this All-or-Nothing attitude, Nellie says, "fuck it! YOLO!" Mind Spike is a great idea. Right before she Mind Spikes Furby, she remembers Mind Spiking the transforming Mind Flayer back in LA. She remembers how unpleasant that was, right? Yeah! So what!!
For the brief time she is connected to Long Furby's mind, it's absolute bedlam. It's every nightmare she and everyone she's known has ever had. She sees a sea of gnashing teeth and open maws and tendrils. She's filled with an almost nihilistic feeling where nothing matters. Entropy exists, one day the universe will end, etc. It can't really be described as a feeling because it is a lack thereof. But at the same time, it's the most fear she has ever felt.
When the connection breaks, she is sure of several things: Whatever these things are (they don't have names), they cannot be reasoned with. There is no bargaining, there is no pleading, there is no reasoning with it whatsoever. It has a purpose, and that purpose is to reset life. It's literally inevitability. They also vastly outnumber all life. These things aren't just at the root of the world tree, they're all encompassing, in every direction. They are perpetual and endless. Sooner or later they win. This is their multiverse, we're just playing in it. She also learns that this isn't the only place they've breached. She doesn't know where, but there are other planes where these things have managed to appear. Not like an invading force, but as we can see, six of them have caused a major issue. Even a small number of these things is bad news owlbears to anything that doesn't have the ability to fight for itself.
The sea of chaos is weakened in other areas besides here.
And Nellie gets a spell slot back. She needs some time to process this. For the moment she looks like she's been pulled out of the moment. Which is fine, because Griffin's still holding her.
For the brief time she is connected to Long Furby's mind, it's absolute bedlam. It's every nightmare she and everyone she's known has ever had. She sees a sea of gnashing teeth and open maws and tendrils. She's filled with an almost nihilistic feeling where nothing matters. Entropy exists, one day the universe will end, etc. It can't really be described as a feeling because it is a lack thereof. But at the same time, it's the most fear she has ever felt.
When the connection breaks, she is sure of several things: Whatever these things are (they don't have names), they cannot be reasoned with. There is no bargaining, there is no pleading, there is no reasoning with it whatsoever. It has a purpose, and that purpose is to reset life. It's literally inevitability. They also vastly outnumber all life. These things aren't just at the root of the world tree, they're all encompassing, in every direction. They are perpetual and endless. Sooner or later they win. This is their multiverse, we're just playing in it. She also learns that this isn't the only place they've breached. She doesn't know where, but there are other planes where these things have managed to appear. Not like an invading force, but as we can see, six of them have caused a major issue. Even a small number of these things is bad news owlbears to anything that doesn't have the ability to fight for itself.
The sea of chaos is weakened in other areas besides here.
And Nellie gets a spell slot back. She needs some time to process this. For the moment she looks like she's been pulled out of the moment. Which is fine, because Griffin's still holding her.
It's Serra's turn. How many of her teammates can she see? She's still six floors down. She just saw Griffin teleport into existence and catch a falling Jericho, so he, Jericho, and Nellie are about three floors up. Crimeny is also there. Serra casts Mass Healing Word on those pals and herself. Everybody gets 18HP back. Serra flies up to get closer to said pals.
Jericho is footballed under one of Griffin's arms. We're about 70 feet away from Long Furby's head since it recoiled from the catastrophic blast of Crimeny's gun. It does look like it's in its death throes. If this thing comes down, everything comes down. Should he fireball? Maybe. What other spell does Jericho have that he can use? There is one other spell: Polymorph. Does a Furby count as a creature? By nature of the fact that Jericho gave this long furby form, he has thus brought the furby creature into existence. It doesn't know the furby is a toy, it knows the furby as a creature. By virtue of Jericho giving it the long furby body, Jericho has now established that furbys are a creature in this universe. Let's see what happens now! Okay Long Furby, roll a Wis Save. No guts no glory! What problem cannot be solved by either Fireball or Polymorph. The Wisdom save is an 18. It saves. There is no small Furby. Alas. Jericho gives Shane Bardic Inspiration. Do something with it.
Shane casts Banishment at the Furby to do some damage. Furby fails its CHA save, so Shane does 4d8 Banishment damage: 20 total. Pew.
Shane casts Banishment on a portion of this thing Shane can see. He shoots Furby in the butt. He fires towards the midsection, and Banishment rips that staticy part of its body away. Long Furby has been bisected into two pieces. There is another scream of a thousand voices as Long Furby struggles to retain this form. In its death throes, it decides it's taking all of us with it. Whatever's left of its body starts pouring all of its might into crushing this building.
Shane casts Banishment on a portion of this thing Shane can see. He shoots Furby in the butt. He fires towards the midsection, and Banishment rips that staticy part of its body away. Long Furby has been bisected into two pieces. There is another scream of a thousand voices as Long Furby struggles to retain this form. In its death throes, it decides it's taking all of us with it. Whatever's left of its body starts pouring all of its might into crushing this building.
Long Furby starts to dissolve into wispy, staticy smoke. There are ember-like pieces floating by that crackle up and dissolve. The building starts to fill with this as Long Furby starts to dissolve. The light of the god starts to flicker like a light bulb losing power, and we start to feel gravity slowly start to kick in again.
Griffin, roll Acrobatics: 25. Whatever's been teleporting him around is a mystery, but somehow he's been able to direct it when he sees his friends in trouble. In a second Griffin is next to Crimeny, with just enough time to pile them onto his shoulders. In another second he's next to Serra - she hops on and acts like that little bastard from the Neverending Story: YEAAAH! From there he blinks down to where Shane is. Now he has the whole party on his broad shoulders. Time to roll a Strength Save: 18. He's breathing like a champion deadlifter, and he realizes he's run out of friends to teleport to.
At this point, Nellie casts the Guidance cantrip on Griffin. He's gonna need it.
With his friends on his back, Griffin rushes to the center of the building where Furby blasted a giant hole. He's going to use gravity to his advantage. He dives off of his fifty story perch with his friends in his arms. How do his friends feel about this? Well, this is non-ideal, but if it has to happen, they trust Griffin to manage this. He Rocket Mans his way down the hole in this building as debris cracks and blasts around him. It's like a Starfox level. At around the 20th floor, he blows the Eagle Whistle.
EAGLE WHISTLE
While you blow an eagle whistle continuously, you can fly twice as fast as your walking speed. You can blow the whistle continuously for a number of rounds equal to 5 + five times your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1 round) or until you talk, hold your breath, or start suffocating.
A use of the whistle also ends if you land. If you are aloft when you stop blowing the whistle, you fall. The whistle has three uses. It regains expended uses daily at dawn.
He pulls out of his free fall dive at just the right moment to go parallel to the ground. Using all that momentum, he blasts through the front of the building. We explode through the glass doors. While you blow an eagle whistle continuously, you can fly twice as fast as your walking speed. You can blow the whistle continuously for a number of rounds equal to 5 + five times your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1 round) or until you talk, hold your breath, or start suffocating.
A use of the whistle also ends if you land. If you are aloft when you stop blowing the whistle, you fall. The whistle has three uses. It regains expended uses daily at dawn.
Watkins and a retinue of Interplay Agents were approaching the building upon witnessing the disintegration of Long Furby. Griffin blasts right by him, and the shock of Griffin blasting out of the door knocks Watkins flat on his ass. Actually, the shockwave of Griffin's passing knocks all of these agents on their asses.
FUCK yes.
Griffin rolls an Unnatural 20 Dex Save with Guidance. Thank you for Guidance, Nellie! He banks hard around the corner and gains momentum, friends still in tow. Thankfully at this point Shane takes the time to inform Griffin that Agent Paul is still up there, 51 floors up - he's going to reappear any second now and fall to his death. Shit, we need to save this man!
Let's get Jericho, the man who can fly under his own power, all up ins on this situation.
Toss Jericho like one of your French Girls. But Griffin doesn't know any French Girls? Also, he would never toss a girl, French or not! Rude! But we're going to fastball special this goose man back up into the air to save Paul. Jericho rolls a Dex Save so he doesn't wind up flopping end over end. He rolls a 17 to keep control as he's whipped forward. He looks so cool, like a hawk. Agent Paul pops back into existence 51 stories above New Orleans. Jericho's initial Dex Save is good enough he's able to easily catch Agent Paul before he falls.
Jericho advises Paul not to look down, but to look at the horizon. He's got a great view. Paul's got to get out of this line of work. His bros and him were kind of messing with the idea. Jericho recommends he go into music. Paul admits he and his bros kind of jam on the weekends. He's one comment away from asking if Jericho wants to hear his demo. Jericho does NOT want to hear this man's demo.
Meanwhile Griffin slowed down and landed to set his friends safely upon the earth.
The divine intervention caused the building to collapse in a very neatly on itself - all of the debris is contained within what remains of the building's outer shell. All signs of Long Furby have dissipated. The creature has been vanquished.
Griffin touches down outside of the plaza of the Hancock Whitney center, kind of where everyone was. There's a moment of silence and awe. Now that this thing has dissolved, the news choppers are coming in and scanning they rubble. Watkins gets up and starts directing the Interplay Agents into Interplay Scrub procedures. They need to go into containment mode, which is going to be a very hard thing.
After he's done giving orders, he comes over to the crew. His demeanor has changed a bit. He's not as angry as he was before. He approaches Jericho, since Jericho just brought Agent Paul down to earth. Paul apologizes for temporarily disappearing? Watkins tells Paul his bros are over with medical and suggests Paul also go over to medical. Before he leaves he turns to Jericho and says thank you for saving him and his brothers, and thanks for banishing me so I didn't immediately die?
Jericho tells Paul to thank Shane. Shane waves. He looks so tired. He's had it, he's done. Paul shakes Jericho's hand, and runs off to go get checked out. Watkins waits until he's out of earshot.
Watkins wants to know who was responsible for the column of heavenly light?
Serra: Uhhhhhhhh...God?
Jericho: That sounds like a religious phenomenon that I don't know whether I am qualified to comment on. Have you accepted our lord and savior Jesus Christ?
Watkins admits he walked into that one. He tells Jericho that he has Jericho to thank for taking care of the other problems throughout the city today. Watkins tells Jericho he works fast and admits he's a little impressed.
Jericho: that's what you get from Private Sector.
Jericho wants to know if the bonobos have been taken care of. Believe it or not, those were less trouble than the giant furby.
Speaking of reports: Watkins wants to know if he can convince Jericho and the crew to come down to headquarters to make a statement. Jericho tells Watkins that if he wants a statement, Jericho's crew needs to go home and get some goddamn rest.
Watkins INSISTS that the group come down to HQ. Jericho doesn't want to go to Interplay with this man. He's more inclined to let his employees go home, because he's not talking about the physical injuries. We all saw some SHIT today. Maybe Watkins should talk to his boy George to get a little clue in.
Ant pulls Inky into the Time Out corner for a private one-on-one.
WATKINS: I'm not sure you understand, Mr. LaCroix. It is of the utmost necessity that you and your group come with me down to headquarters, NOW. I'm doing you the favor of having you come willingly. Rest assured, I don't have to force you or your group to come down. However, all of your employees have people that are precious to them that I can lean on to get you to cooperate. Now, this would just make things easier for all of us. Do you understand my meaning?
JERICHO: I understand perfectly: You're threatening me.
WATKINS: It's not a threat. I will make sure that you are all taken care of. You're not under arrest, you have nothing to worry about there - I'm not going to throw you in a cell. You're this city's saviors! But I have questions, Mr. LaCroix.
JERICHO: Don't you ALWAYS.
WATKINS: It's part of the job of an Interplay agent.
JERICHO: Mmmm.
WATKINS: Now. I'm going to need you all, once again, to come with us.
JERICHO: Let me talk to them first and EASE them into it.
WATKINS: Take all the time you need. [SMUGLY] I just want to thank you for your cooperation.
Inky cannot wait for the day she is able to kill this man.
Jericho returns to his group and ushers everyone in for a little pow wow.
Watkins wants us to come down to Interplay HQ with him. Griffin says he can't go, because his moms want him to come home. Jericho explains to this good boy that Watkins is threatening us, and that we HAVE to go. But we can take Watkins up on his "offer" of clerics before we go.
Senzu beans only heal physical damage. 8(
We head over to the medical tents. Is John still here? Griffin wants to check in on him. George is on a gurney, his brothers at his side. All the bros seem to be okay, and express gratitude when they see the crew walk in.
We take about a half hour before we're given rides back to Interplay HQ. We get broken up into pairs. We can pair up however we want, but Crimeny and Jericho are not allowed in the same car. Actually, Jericho has to ride with Shane, so everyone else can pair up as they like.
Griffin is inclined to go with Nellie. You know what, Nellie is going to cling to Griffin like he's the actual adult here. So that leaves Crimeny and Serra to ride together.
It's about a 20 minute drive, passing through police and national guard checkpoints. Eventually the different vehicles pull into a parking garage, and when we're allowed to disembark from our vehicles, we realize each car has gone to a different location. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, considering Interplay has multiple entrances to their offices.
While we drive, Griffin sends off a quick text to his good good friend Toby: Hey bro, your bosses are mad at us, can you help? Hashtag Arrested. Griff and Nellie send Toby a selfie from the back seat of their Interplay car.
Jericho texts Verona: Things might be getting a little warm.
Shane texts Chad: Forgot to clean the litter box, also I'll be home late, don't worry, I'll warm up my dinner in the microwave.
Also Shane tells Jericho that once we get to HQ they're going to monitor our text messages. He wishes he'd told Griffin...actually, wait, he CAN! He texts everyone to warn them about the Interplay text message monitoring. Jericho puts his phone on Airplane mode.
Shane just turns his phone off. Takes the battery out. Eats it. No, wait.
We're escorted through the HQ. We're not under arrest, supposedly. We're still in our pairs. Our various drivers will escort us down to debriefing rooms, where we're all totally split up.
We are placed in plain rooms. There's one door in and out. There is a table and two chairs. Standard interrogation room. Jericho sits on the table.
Crimeny is going to send a bunch of encoded texts that don't mean anything.
Nellie is going to spam advertisements for the bullshit psychic services she does.
Griffin is going to take a nap.
Shane will use his Gaslighting skill to its full capacity.
INTERROGATING SERRA
Serra rolls Survival: 24
Whatever was attempted to cast on her wasn't meant to endanger her - it was meant to sway her. So some mind-altering shit without the benefits of being high. But whatever it was it failed.
There's no one in here to cast anything on her and there are only three things in the room.
She rolls a 19 to Investigate. She leaps up from her chair. There's nothing on the table, there's nothing on the walls. She crouches to look under the table, and spots what looks like a magical glyph on the underside of her chair.
Just as she spots that, the door opens, and Watkins walks in. Serra doesn't give a damn, she picks up the chair and asks Watkins, "What is this?"
WATKINS: A precautionary measure. You see...Serra? May I call you Serra? Do you mind if I drop the formalities?
SERRA: It's Miss Finn, thank you.
WATKINS: Miss Finn...Got it. That's fine. I detest liars, Miss Finn, and THAT is a little bit of an insurance policy that helps me get to the bottom of cases.
SERRA: I suppose that's fair, but when have we ever mislead?
WATKINS: Ah, well, that is what I'm here to find out, actually. Now, uh, if you'd like, I can offer you MY seat.
Watkins pickles up his chair and shows Serra there's nothing underneath it. Serra will take his seat. Watkins sets the Liar Chair off to the side - he'll stand for this interview. He has a file tucked under his arm.
WATKINS: Now...A lot of things happened today, wouldn't you say, Miss Finn?
SERRA: Yeah, a lot's happened today, and that's why I'm a little perturbed that we have to do this tonight, instead of allowing us to go home and get a good night's sleep, and clean up, I mean, Jesus, man, we just pretty much saved half of New Orleans and this is how you're thanking us?
WATKINS: I, uh. Well. You're correct. Believe me, my day has been just as long. And I would like nothing more than to go home myself, however *I* cannot rest when I have a number of lingering questions, so. The faster we get through this, the faster you can go home and tend to your owl, and have a good night.
Watkins sets the file down, and he pulls out a photo that looks like a screengrab from a security camera. The picture is of the doppelgangers when they emerged from the portal before they merged.
WATKINS: Can you explain to me what's going on here?"
SERRA: I don't have any idea what's going on. We were at the office, and then all of these things started going off - we were watching the news and we decided to help. I have no idea why they were us? But we took care of them.
WATKINS: Really? You were at the office?
Watkins reaches into his folder.
WATKINS: I have testimonials from several of my agents who were keeping an eye on the Jericho Investigations office, stating that you were away from the office pretty much the whole day.
SERRA: Wait a minute, you're WATCHING us?
WATKINS: I make it my business to watch everyone that I find suspect, and the fact that you just LIED to me has proved my suspicions correct.
SERRA: I think we're done talking.
WATKINS: Mm. Miss Finn, why were you disbarred from practicing medicine?
SERRA: [stares at Watkins]
WATKINS: We can do this all day, I mean...I can keep you here if I really felt the need to. All I want to know is this: What are these things? Tell me that, and I'll let you go.
SERRA: I wish I could help you, Agent, but I honestly don't know.
Serra rolls a 16 Deception vs. Watkins' Insight.
WATKINS: [leans forward on the table] I don't believe you, Miss Finn. In fact, I have some pretty solid ideas of where you were today, and if you'd like me to go retrieve the people you were with, I could go get them, and I could ask them. OR, you can tell me, and I don't have to bring anybody else in.
SERRA: You do what you need to do, Agent.
WATKINS: Mkay. Alright. I'll see you later, Miss Finn.
Watkins walks out.
INTERROGATING CRIMENY
Once in the interrogation room, Crimeny rolls a 30 to Investigate. Because Crimeny doesn't have forever, Ant has Scott pick two things for Crimeny to look for. Crimeny is looking specifically for recording devices, audio/video, and they are looking for hidden viewing areas such as in the walls, ceiling, under the table, etc.
They do not find anything recording, audio or visual, whatsoever. The room is clean as far as Crimeny can tell.
As a note, nothing has been confiscated from Crimeny because I guess Interplay wants to sell the notion that we're not under arrest. So they've still got all their weapons and stuff. Not that they're going to be doing anything with them, but it's good information to have, all the same.
The door opens as Crimeny investigates under the desk. Watkins steps into the room. He has a folder tucked under his arm.
WATKINS: Crimeny! How're we doing today?
CRIMENY: [Says nothing, but gives Watkins a small nod.]
WATKINS: Okay. Well. You're not really one for talking, I understand.
Watkins gestures to a chair.
WATKINS: Why don't you have a seat? I just want to ask you a couple of quick questions, just to get some information on what transpired today. If you can help me out, the sooner you and the rest of your group can go home. I apologize for separating all of you. I have protocols to follow.
Crimeny rolls an 18 Insight on Watkins - They want to know if Watkins is saying this because he has to or if there might be some reason behind it. With this Insight roll Crimeny can tell Watkins is on the level. He's not lying - he doesn't want to keep the crew here.
Crimeny moves to take a seat, but while their body turns, their head does not. Crimeny is watching you, you asshole.
Crimeny sits in the Liar Chair and rolls a 19 Charisma save. When they sit down they have the sensation of something trying to affect them in some way, but Crimeny is able to fight it off. Watkins is watching Crimeny as Crimeny sits.
WATKINS [Conversationally, with a sort of self-satisfied smile]:You uh. You make a lot of eye contact. Has anyone ever told you that is a very admirable trait, but also, very unsettling when your head is facing the wrong direction?
CRIMENY: [Says nothing]
Watkins rounds the table, and Crimeny rotates their head to follow him. They do relent a little when they see that Watkins isn't particularly unnerved by this, but they do maintain that good good eye contact. Watkins sits in the chair opposite Crimeny and opens up his file. He flips through it, and he's taking his sweet-ass time. He's not in any rush. It's almost like he's waiting for Crimeny to say something.
Crimeny has been through this before: You don't talk to the popo unless they ask you a question.
Watkins closes the file briefly.
WATKINS: You know, I don't know a lot about you, Crimeny, and I imagine based off of your silence you'd like to keep it that way. But you see, in my line of work, if there's something I don't know, I have to learn about it. And I've done plenty of looking into Jericho Investigations and everyone that works there, and you're a little bit of an anomaly. I don't know if you know that. There is not a lot about a warforged that goes by the designation of "Crimeny" in Earth Realm. I've done a little bit of digging, and I can't seem to find any record of you before Jericho Investigations really started getting on the map. Now, let me ask you this, Crimeny. You know that warforges that live in Earth Realm have to have a serial number registered with us, right?
CRIMENY: I am aware.
WATKINS: Well, perhaps you can enlighten me as to why I don't have your serial number.
CRIMENY: That is a good question.
WATKINS: Do you HAVE a serial number?
CRIMENY: [Picks up their foot and looks underneath it]
Watkins is scrutinizing Crimeny.
WATKINS: No, your serial number would be on your central core casing.
CRIMENY: Hmmm.
Scott thinks of something extremely stupid. He's going to roll a dice.
As an aside, Ant wants to know how much does Crimeny know about their own internals and body? Very little - since they were pretty much cast out into the street, all they know is the time they spent with the Painter's Men and Jericho Investigations.
10 or lower, Crimeny channels Jericho and goes chaotic. Above that and they'll retain a modicum of sensibility. Scott rolls a 12, so Crimeny thinks REALLY HARD about putting their head into their own chest cavity to check the central core. They look down, contemplate, realize maybe they shouldn't act like a dumbass right now, look back up, and shrug.
WATKINS: Let me ask you this, Crimeny. Who built you?
CRIMENY: Don't know.
WATKINS: I see. So Jericho didn't acquire you illegally, or anything of that nature? You just came into being? You don't know your own birth story? That's...frankly that's a little sad. I feel a little bad for you my friend. I'm sorry. I hope that one day you can sort that out. But uh, that's not why I have you here. I just wanted to learn a little bit more about you. What I do have you here for is to answer a couple of questions for me.
Watkins opens the file and lays out the screengrab of the doppelgangers stepping out of the portal.
WATKINS: So, here's what I understand of the situation. I don't know what those creatures all were, and that's what I'm trying to find out, what they were. What I want to know is why did these creatures come into this plane looking like all of you? Now, according to a statement given by Miss Finn, you all were not at the office today. You were with someone else. And you found the broadcast. You saw the broadcast, and you rushed to the scene. Now, I find it interesting that you all came to this scene first. I wonder why that is. But we'll get to that. First I'd like to know if you can tell me what these creatures are.
CRIMENY: I do not have a name for them.
WATKINS: Mmkay. Well, can you tell me where they came from? Can you tell me what plane, or where they originated from?
CRIMENY: You have more resources than I do to figure out the answer to that question. If I knew the answer to that I'm sure you would before me.
WATKINS: So you have no idea why they look like you - or, came out looking like you when the others all seemed to have different forms.
CRIMENY: I'm sure there is a reason but I do not know what that reason would be.
WATKINS: Mmkay. Alright.
CRIMENY: I was mostly just following Jericho's orders for the day.
WATKINS: Okay. That's fine. Now. Where were you, actually, before all this started to happen? Because you WEREN'T at Jericho Investigations, I know that.
CRIMENY: I was busy with a side-hustle.
WATKINS: [arches his eyebrows] A side-hustle? What would that be?
CRIMENY: Painting.
WATKINS: Painting? Oh. Oh, I've never known a warforged to be artistically inclined. Maybe one day you could show me your work. But if you weren't at the office, where were you?
CRIMENY: My personal life is not relevant to this.
WATKINS: Alright. That's fair. One more question before I get out of here. I have to, you know, fortunately I have to see to the rest of your friends. But, you know, don't worry. You guys aren't by any means under arrest. I'm just trying to get to the bottom of all this. That um. That weapon, that uh, that you have. That fought that ginormous furby. Mind if I take a quick look at it?
Crimeny reaches into their bag of bullshit and takes out a cannister of propane. They set it on the desk.
WATKINS: Uh, oh, no, no no no no no no, the big - it was like a big Force bubble. Whatever you fired off at that thing. What was that?
Crimeny takes a Sharpie, writes "+ Magic" on the propane tank, and turns it around to show Watkins.
Crimeny rolls a 19 Deception vs Watkins' mystery Insight.
Watkins: [Laughs] Mmkay. Alright. [He stands up and pats the propane tank] I'm not gonna confiscate it. Believe me, I absolutely have the authority, but I've got some more important matters. So you hold on to whatever you used to fight that monstrosity for the moment. But don't think for a second I won't have worked out what that is by the end of the day.
Watkins pats the back of Crimeny's chair and walks out.
INTERROGATING JERICHO
WATKINS: Mr. LaCroix, always a pleasure.
JERICHO: Mmmm. I wish I could say it was mutual.
WATKINS: Uh, actually. We've known each other for a while now. Do you mind if I skip the formalities and call you Jericho?
JERICHO: I prefer Mr. LaCroix.
WATKINS: Alright, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with professionalism in the workplace. As a business owner, I'm sure you can, uh, respect that.
JERICHO: Hm.
WATKINS: Speaking of professionalism in the workplace, why don't you have a seat?
Watkins gestures to the chair.
JERICHO: Oh, am I not sittin' professional enough for you?
WATKINS: If we're going to do this let's do this right, shall we?
JERICHO: I have a feeling nuthin' about this is gonna be right, but fine. I'll sit nice and proper.
Jericho sits in the chair, and Watkins sits in the chair opposite. Jericho rolls a Charisma save. Watkins is not doing magic. Jericho rolls a 24. He feels like something was briefly trying to sway him, but it doesn't seem to work.
JERICHO: Now, now. Are you playin' dirty?
WATKINS: I assure you, Mr LaCroix, everything we do here is standard procedure.
JERICHO: Oh, that does not answer that question one bit.
WATKINS: No, it doesn't. Now let's hope you're a little more forthcoming.
Watkins goes to open his file, but pauses and sets it to one side.
WATKINS: Actually, before we get started on that, I have a couple of side questions for my own curiosity's sake.
JERICHO: Mmm.
WATKINS: Your associate, Crimeny. Where did you meet him?
JERICHO: Odd question. You know. Met him around.
WATKINS: Ah. The reason why I ask is, uh, well, you know - I'm sure you know - all warforged that live in Earth Realm need to have a serial number registered with Interplay, and your associate Crimeny doesn't seem to have a serial number.
JERICHO: Mm! I'll be.
WATKINS: Now, that would make him - his very existence, really - illegal.
JERICHO: Now, I think it would be a terrible thing to say that a person is illegal. I think we can have quite the spirited debate over that.
WATKINS: Oh, no, we absolutely can, and believe me - I'm not here to say that you need to forfeit Crimeny to us - I wouldn't do that. He's a valued member of your team. But, let's just say if you're not as, well, COOPERATIVE as I'd like you to be in this...discussion, word might get out that there is an unlicensed, unregulated warforged running around with what I might add, DANGEROUS weapons if the explosion at the top of the Hancock Whitney Center is any indication. Now, I'm sure you as a business owner wouldn't like any unwarranted and unwanted attention.
JERICHO: I think you will find, Mr. WATKINS, that my most important priority is the safety of my people.
WATKINS: Well then, let's hope that our discussion reflects that.
JERICHO: Hmmm.
Watkins pulls out the screengrab of our doppelgangers and shows it to Jericho.
WATKINS: Now, I was hoping you could tell me what exactly we dealt with today. OR, I'll be fair, what exactly it is that YOU dealt with today. Because these creatures are unlike anything this organization has ever seen. And I, personally, would like to know why they chose your stunning visage to emulate when, well, especially this group, why they chose to look like YOU when they made their appearance.
Jericho takes a good look at the photo.
JERICHO: To be honest with you, if you guys don't know a whole lot about what this thing is with all of your information, all of your resources, I don't know why you expect me to know. This is something I've never dealt with before, either.
WATKINS: Well, fair. But, when faced with the unknown, usually there'ss someone who knows something. We like to canvas people who are potentially involved to see what they know. And, well, let's just say, for the last several months, you seem to be at the heart of a lot of matters.
JERICHO: Well, that is sort of my job to get in the middle of things, but, uh, I have to say that this is a strange phenomenon even for me.
WATKINS [nods, rubs his chin thoughtfully, watching Jericho]: Tell me, what was your impression of them when you were fighting them? Obviously the gamut ranged from duplicates of yourself and your entourage to, frankly, the absurd. It begs the question why these forms were chosen. I was just wondering if maybe you had some insight or, since you did defeat them, what um...what would you, what did you gather from them? What can you share with me so that I can get the right people on the job and try to make sure this doesn't happen again?
JERICHO: Mm. Well. Considering I don't know what they are exactly it'd be very hard for me to tell you how to stop them from wreaking havoc again. And to be quite honest, I hope you didn't bring your best people for dealing with the Hancock Whitney Center, because, uh, that didn't go real well. Uh, though, speaking of, how are those brothers doing?
WATKINS: The brothers are fine, but I'm sad to say I did lose a number of very good agents today, so you can understand why I'm trying to get to the bottom of this.
JERICHO: No, I totally understand why you would want to get to the bottom of it. I just don't know how much I can tell you. I mean, really, this whole thing reeks of some weird magic mambo jumbo, and that really ain't my specialty.
WATKINS: Let me ask - where were you before all of this, that you were able to mobilize so quickly? Were you at the office?
JERICHO: Well you know me, I mean, I'm always out and about. Gotta have your ear to the ground, you know? How else are you going to respond to things like this?
WATKINS: So you and your team, every day, are out, hitting the pavement, so to speak?
JERICHO: Not all of us necessarily every day, but I like to do a lot of legwork, you know? I try to be on the ground, you know, I don't like being a hands-off sort of manager.
WATKINS: Your associate Miss Finn, uh, said that you were with somebody, prior to all of this.
JERICHO: Did she?
WATKINS: She did. I was wondering if you could let me know a little bit more about their whereabouts?
JERICHO: Well, I'm neat with a lot of people on any given day.
WATKINS: You can't possibly tell me you don't remember this morning.
JERICHO: I meet with a lot of people! Could you give me maybe closer to a time of day?
WATKINS: Sometime this morning, before all this kicked off. You uh, well you weren't at the office, I know that much. You all met up someplace else.
JERICHO: Now, do we have to talk about delicate matters?
WATKINS: "Delicate matters?" Maybe you can enlighten me?
JERICHO: Oh...Leave a man to his personal matters. Really!
Watkins doesn't understand where Jericho is going with this.
JERICHO: Do you have any lady friends?
WATKINS: Uh.
JERICHO: Or gentlemen friends, however it is, you know I don't judge at all.
Watkins holds up his left hand to show off his wedding band.
JERICHO: Oh, well. Then you will have, at one point in time, had lady or gentlemen friends.
WATKINS: [nods]
JERICHO: Delicate matters.
WATKINS: I see. And, uh, your whole team was involved? Because they all weren't home either.
JERICHO: Well, we aren't all in the exact same place at the exact same time.
WATKINS: Now, according to the statement given by Miss Finn, you all were together earlier with somebody, so. Which is it?
JERICHO: Depends on what time you're talking about.
WATKINS: [lowers his head]
JERICHO: I told you, I meet with a lot of people.
WATKINS: This morning prior to the incident. JUST prior to the incident.
JERICHO: [sighs] Well, JUST prior to the incident I believe we were meeting with somebody. But: Client privilege.
WATKINS: Understandable. Now, let me ask this: This client would be the person who gave your associate Crimeny that incredibly powerful Force weapon?
JERICHO: Oh. To be quite honest with you, Crimeny sometimes just...makes things, finds things...It's a little hard to keep track, actually.
WATKINS: Did YOU get a good look at that thing?
JERICHO: Well, you know, honestly, I can't say that I was ever in a very good position to be looking at what he was usin' on account of the fact that usually there was something horrible going on at the time.
WATKINS: Fair.
JERICHO: I think there was something that tried to eat Shane. A piano! A piano tried to eat Shane.
WATKINS: Yeah, I -
JERICHO: God this has been a day.
WATKINS: Yeah, I -
JERICHO: Goddamn.
WATKINS: I do remember that. And it was around that time that one of my men saw one of your associates, Miss Daphwort, running with a...creature. Now, actually...
Watkins reaches into his file and pulls out a composite sketch.
JERICHO: Now would this be before or after I got run over by the piano?
WATKINS: Uh, this would be after. If my timeline is correct, it was after you got run over by a piano. [It is clear that the imagery of Jericho being run over by a piano brings Watkins some modicum of joy.]
JERICHO: So you are askin' me, what my ASSOCIATE was carryin', God only knows what distance from me, after I had just been run over by a piano.
WATKINS: You know, in my line of work Mr. LaCroix, you would be amazed at what you can remember at random moments. I have to be thorough. You understand.
JERICHO: Ugh.
Watkins slides the composite sketch across the table to Jericho. It's a sketch of a verden.
WATKINS: Do you know what this is?
JERICHO: Not really. I mean, not really very good about my...I assume it's something extra-planar, or at least not this plane.
WATKINS: Because I have reason to believe that Miss Daphwort knows, who and what this is. I could ask her, but as the head of your organization I wanted to know your thoughts on the matter.
JERICHO: My thoughts on the matter is that I'm not sure how good your agent's eyesight is.
WATKINS: Oh, I assure you it's good.
JERICHO: I mean, I ain't an expert on everything that's in the various planes, but it don't look like anything that I've encountered before. Are you sure that your agent didn't just mistake something?
WATKINS: Oh I'm quite sure.
JERICHO: Because I mean, you've got a sketch, man. He was doing it from memory? You don't have a picture?
WATKINS: Sadly, no. But that's okay.
JERICHO: What are you even asking me here? Come on, now. At least let's not beat around this bush. What are you asking me>
WATKINS: Alright. Let's not beat around this bush, Mr. LaCroix. I have reason to believe you know exactly what transpired here today. I have reason to believe that there's something here that's endangering Earth Realm. Our Realm. My realm. And it is my job to keep the peace. Now, if you have information regarding ANYTHING that could at any point, I don't know, unravel existence? Which is something that was demonstrated to me by that titanic creature whose breath attack ERASED several of my best agents from the planes. I want to know what they are, how many of them there are, and what business they have in my realm.
WATKINS: Now, if you're not going to cooperate with me, I can make your life much, MUCH harder. I can make your life harder - I can make the lives, not only of your associates, but of the people they know, harder. Uh, Mr. O'Callahan's mothers - I could look into them. Marvin Rook, a good friend and known associate of Miss Daphwort, I could drag him in here. I've already established that your warforged associate is unlicensed, unregulated, and therefore quite illegal and very dangerous. And your medical assistant, Miss Serra Finn, has been disbarred from practicing medicine. There's no shortage of problems that are in your orbit, Mr. LaCroix, and, simply put, I don't want to HAVE to be one of them. But I can be a lot of them.
WATKINS: Now, I want to know what you know. At least SOMETHING to go on here. Because I find it suspect that a creature that we've never encountered before - TWO creatures, actually - You've been at the center of events for the last couple of days - the last several months, honestly, but more recently the last few days. We have one creature running around with your associate Miss Daphwort, and then we have these abominations running around, unmaking reality, and more people are going to die if you continue to play hero.
WATKINS: And that's not a threat, Mr. LaCroix. That's just something that really seems to be happening now. You can't be everywhere at once. So let me do my job. Let me help safeguard this realm.
JERICHO: Look. What I know about these things, is that they came from somewhere else, and they are too damn powerful to not do something about. So I did something about 'em. I don't know where exactly they come from or what in God's name they want. All I knew was that I needed to take care of them. Because yeah, they were hurting people.
WATKINS: What I want to know is how you found out about them.
JERICHO: You mean aside from the massive destruction that they were causing?
WATKINS: You obviously have made contact with these things. Why would they take your form?
JERICHO: If I made contact with them before, how do you think I'm still here?
WATKINS: That's what I'm trying to figure out.
JERICHO: If something that powerful made contact with me, don't you think I'd be dead?
WATKINS: You've clearly proven that you can beat them.
JERICHO: Yeah, when they're here, and taking very bizarre forms. I DON'T know what the fuck was going on with that.
Jericho rolls a Nat 20 Deception + 7 = 27 vs. Watkins' mystery Insight.
Watkins takes both papers and puts them back in the file. He stands up.
WATKINS: Alright Mr. LaCroix. I can see that we're not going to be getting anywhere today. That's fine. I have other people I can speak with. I'd like to thank you for your time, and, uh, once I'm done with the rest of your associates? Well, we'll see what happens.
Watkins walks out.
INTERROGATING SHANE
Watkins walks into the room, and Shane is just lounging like a normal-ass employee that works here, because he is. Watkins looks exasperated.
WATKINS: Ah. Agent Bishop. Alright, let's just get this over with.
SHANE: Alright, sounds good to me.
WATKINS: Well, obviously there's no reason for me to make you sit, because, well, you know.
SHANE: I do know!
WATKINS: So I am going to assume you are going to be truthful with me.
SHANE: I have no reason not to be, sir.
WATKINS: Mmkay. So. Here's what I need to know. First of all, I need to know - well, before we get to the events of the day, I have a number of questions. First of all, I need to know why Jericho has an unlicensed warforged in his employ.
SHANE, surprised: He's unlicensed!?
WATKINS: Uh, that should be MY tone of incredulity towards YOU. How did YOU not know that that warforged doesn't even know his own serial number?
SHANE: I don't really specialize in warforged, you understand. I'm more of a dark arts sort of situation type of deal. I, I deal with demonology!
WATKINS: You realize this is in the employee handbook, right?
SHANE: Oh, bollocks, you know how long it's been since I've reviewed that? You know what, that's a good point, though, I really should review.
WATKINS, pinching the bridge of his nose: Agent Bishop, have you gone native?
SHANE: No! What? I'm wearing my pants, what are you talking about? That's a joke, no, I'm just trying to lighten the mood a bit, no, of course not, sir. You know that I have nothing but the utmost loyalty for this--
WATKINS, interrupting: So tell me how it's possible that Jericho could've had an unlicensed unregistered warforged in his employ for this long and it never made it into one of your reports? How is it that we have Miss Daphwort running around with -
Watkins pulls out the composite sketch of the verden and shows it to Shane.
SHANE: What, her toad?
WATKINS: No. No, this is an unregistered extraplanar species.
SHANE: It's not a toad?
Shane isn't trying to piss Watkins off, he's just trying to make him so exasperated he doesn't want to deal with Shane anymore. Apparently it's working.
SHANE: Oh, bollocks, sir, honest to God, l thought it was like a toad, like one that's not native to - listen, I'm not from America you understand, I'm not super "in the know" when it comes to wildlife, you know!
Watkins is staring incredulously at Shane. What does not being American have to do with this? He is torn between strangling Shane and shooting himself.
WATKINS: Okay, look. LaCroix know something. He knows what's going on. He knows in some capacity what these things are.
Watkins pulls out the screengrab of the doppelgangers and shows it to Shane.
WATKINS: I need to know what we're dealing with. Why did these things take on your appearances, and seemingly your abilities?
Shane leans in and studies the photo very closely. Watkins shoves the photo into Shane's hand and gets in his face. He rolls Intimidation vs Shane's Insight. They both roll 21. It is a contest of wills - Shane can't tell if Watkins is serious.
WATKINS, all up ins on Shane's face: I need to know what he knows, Bishop. I need to know how you guys made contact, because you DID, I know you did. So I need to know How, why, what these are, and I'm going to remind you -
SHANE: Mmhmm?
WATKINS: That several of your Interplay agent brothers are dead because of these things.
SHANE, solemnly: Yes, I'm aware of that, sir.
WATKINS: Now, I have a statement from Miss Finn saying that you were not at the office today, and I can corroborate that because I had agents watching the office. You were all together with someone. Now, she was reluctant to say who, but I need you to tell me Who. You. Were. With.
SHANE: Hmm.
WATKINS: Whoever it was gave Crimeny weaponry the likes of which I've never seen. Actually, I have seen it, and I need to know if I'm right.
SHANE: Okay, well, what have you seen? Listen, I got hit in the head a LOT today, fighting all of those monsters and the one - the one that was made of food? I don't know if you saw that one, but that one was vile, that one was disgusting and I think I threw up, twice?
WATKINS: Did you or did you not make contact with Professor Holt?
Out of Character Ryo asks Ant how to lie. How can she fucking lie to this man right to his face and get him to believe her. Ryo assumes Shane has more of this man's trust than the rest of the group because he's an agent of Interplay. Ant counters that based on the things Watkins has seen today and a lot of things that have not made it into Shane's reports, Watkins is starting to wonder.
By the way he's talking to Shane, along with the fact that he straight up asked Shane if Shane has gone native, it's clear he understands now that a lot of things were omitted from Shane's reports. So either Shane is working against Watkins now, or he's just stupid. At this point it could be either, and Watkins is trying to figure it out.
Shane rolls Insight on his teammates to know if they would've been able to not fuckin' tell this guy. He rolls a 19.
Crimeny is a professional Crime, so Shane knows Watkins got nothing out of Crimeny. It's possible Watkins got something out of Serra. Jericho is too frustrating to really give much of anything. The two Shane has to worry about the most are Pip and Griffin, especially regarding that Zone of Truth etched into the chair.
:)
The other thing is, Shane knows how Watkins will play things. He will say that people told him things to the others to try to get them to corroborate or to lead them into stating what he needs them to say.
Because Shane knows that, it's entirely possible Watkins is doing that to Shane.
Shane tells Watkins that he doesn't know where Crimeny got the Superscope. It's possible Crimeny ran into Holt, but if they did, Shane didn't witness it with his own two eyes. He rolls to gaslight. 18+9= 27 Gaslight. With this very good roll he also tries to play up that he, Shane, is also very concerned by Crimeny's possession of this good good gun, because that is not a thing a crime bot should just have! Shane is very concerned and on YOUR side, Mr. Watkins, sir!
WATKINS, pinching the bridge of his nose: Alright. He DOES seem to have a rather healthy repository of weapons. Based on your reports, and what I've been able to verify, he seems to be doing a lot of black market business. Holt is still out there, it's entirely possible he is selling some of his inventions through unsavory channels. Regardless, that is something I will look into on my own.
SHANE: Alright.
WATKINS: Now, I need to know about this.
Watkins holds up the composite sketch of the verden.
SHANE: Oh, it looks like - you remember Harry Potter, the little gremlin man that I think was an elf of some sort -
WATKINS: STOP. Stop. Just stop.
SHANE: Sorry.
WATKINS: I have reason to believe Miss Daphwort is working with this, or sheltering this..? I need to know what it is. I need to know what it wants. What is it, Agent Bishop? Basically, I need you to do your JOB. You are with these people every single day and you don't seem to have any answers, and I find that very suspect.
SHANE: Of course you do, well, yeah, it makes sense that you would, that, you know. Listen, now, in my defense, Crimeny works very closely with all of them and it's Crimeny. And you're never going to learn anything when Crimeny's around, eating evidence, or whatever that thing does with its robo-tummy. I'm not trying to make excuses -
WATKINS: So What you're telling me is -
SHANE: That robot's much smarter than I am.
WATKINS: No, what you're telling me is that warforged contains EVIDENCE. So if I want the evidence, I can requisition to have it disassembled.
SHANE: Probably. I mean, I wouldn't recommend it, who knows how dangerous that would be.
WATKINS: W-
SHANE: Honestly it'd probably be safer for everyone in this building to not do that?
WATKINS: Why -
SHANE: You don't know what's in there!
WATKINS: Why would I not requisition an illegal and potentially dangerous warforged to get disassembled, especially if I am now led to believe that it contains evidence?
SHANE: Oh, he'll just escape on his own. Listen. I'm not saying - my - okay. It would be much easier for my investigation if you didn't INTERVENE, so to speak. I understand, you're in charge -
WATKINS: Did you -
SHANE: Listen, no nononono, [gibberish sounds to encourage shutting up.] *Listen.* It's very tricky working with these people. They are INSANE, but effective in their own way, in what they do, and I'm trying to learn why that is. And if you start taking away the things I'm trying to research it makes my research much more difficult. And honestly I'm already having a fuck of a time. But I can do this! Listen, I have already proven my loyalty, I BLEW A MAN UP FOR YOU, for God's sake, I can do this! Just give me time!
Mentioning LaRue seems to settle Watkins back.
WATKINS, adjusting his tie: Yes. Agent LaRue was unfortunate. But, you have made a fair point. You have proven your loyalty. Now, what I need from you are answers, and if I don't start GETTING answers, Agent Bishop, I'm not going to pull you from the case - but I'm going to be a little bit more directly involved. Is that something that you want?
SHANE: Well, it's up to you, honestly, but, eh, you know: time. I just need time.
WATKINS: With the appearance of these creatures, Agent Bishop, time is a luxury that we do not have.
SHANE: Alright, very little time, understood.
WATKINS: Not when they are outright deleting buildings and killing countless civilians.
SHANE: That is a very big problem.
WATKINS: I need to know what we're dealing with so that we can safeguard this realm from all extra-planar threats.
SHANE: Understood.
WATKINS: We are the safeguards of humanity. You understand that, right?
SHANE: Yessir.
WATKINS: We protect humankind from all this crazy magical, extraplanar nonsense. We are the bulwark against which all this extraplanar nonsense breaks. I need to know. I'm giving you a time limit. If I do not have a definitive answer in the next two weeks, I'm going to be forced to play my hand.
SHANE: What does that entail, exactly? Just for curiosity's sake.
WATKINS, staring Shane dead in the eye: That's above your paygrade.
SHANE: Ooooh, pulling that card are we? Alright, that's fair, I won't ask again.
WATKINS: Alright. Well, I have to go see to the rest of these problems, so you stay here, and we'll make contact later.
SHANE: Understood.
Watkins walks out.
SHANE: Alright. Bye-bye. Alright.
How is Shane feeling right now? Hungry. Tired. He has to poop. You know. Not great!
INTERROGATING GRIFFIN
When the door opens, he rolls Perception to wake up: 4. Griffin is out cold. He's snoring softly.
He is gently jostled awake by a hand on his shoulder. Watkins is kneeling beside him.
WATKINS: Mr. O'Callahan, are you alright? Is everything okay?
GRIFFIN: Yeah, I'm fine! I'm just super exhausted. It's been a really long day.
WATKINS: I understand and can relate. I apologize for keeping you here for so long. Unfortunately this is very bureaucratic in nature and I have to adhere to procedure.
GRIFFIN: Okay.
WATKINS: So why don't we go ahead and get this started so that we can all go home and have - hopefully - a decent night's sleep. What do you say?
Griffin: Sure, okay.
Watkins stands up and holds out a hand to offer Griffin an assist to his feet. Griffin doesn't need it, but Watkins is being polite, so he accepts the offer and stands. Once they're both standing, Watkins gestures to one of the chairs.
WATKINS: Why don't you have a seat?
Griffin, roll a CHA save: OK! 7. As Watkins takes a seat opposite him, Griffin's consciousness feels a little hazy. It's hard to tell if it's because of how tired he is. He's been waiting for a long time in an uncomfortable room. He's hungry.
He is being affected by Zone of Truth. Watkins sits opposite Griffin, untucks that goddamn file from under his arm and taps it on the table.
WATKINS: How're you feeling Mr. O'Callahan? Is there anything I can get for you before we get started? I can see if any of my agents are free. Would you like some coffee?
GRIFFIN: Uh…not coffee. Water would be great, though, if you've got some?
WATKINS, talking into his lapel: Can I get a glass of water for Interrogation Room 6, please? [To Griffin:] It'll be here momentarily.
GRIFFIN: Thank you.
An agent shows up after a few minutes with a bottle of water. Griffin thanks them politely and drinks half the bottle in one go. Watkins goes over his notes while Griffin takes his little refreshment.
WATKINS: It's, uh, been quite the day, hasn't it, Mr. O'Callahan?
GRIFFIN: Mm. It sure has.
WATKINS: Well…You'll forgive me, I have to be thorough here. It is, unfortunately, my job, and it's not always the most pleasant one. As I'm sure you understand, a lot of people do not like talking to me. Uh, your boss being one of them. He's not my biggest fan. We seem to butt heads more often than not.
GRIFFIN: Oh, yes. I've noticed.
WATKINS: And I can assure that is not really my intent. My intent is to safeguard this realm, as I'm sure you can understand.
GRIFFIN: Yeah, absolutely!
WATKINS: I have people that I don't want to see hurt. I'm sure you have people you don't want to see hurt.
GRIFFIN: Mmhmm.
WATKINS: And I don't like to throw my weight around to get the things that I need, but unfortunately, desperate times call for desperate measures. And as you saw today, we are dealing with something that I do not know anything about, which is a very rare occurrence. Let me assure you, Mr. O'Callahan, I am very, very good at my job. And when there's something that I don't know, I find out what it is. And if there's something that is endangering humanity, I stop it. Now, in order for me to do my job, I need your help.
GRIFFIN: Okay.
WATKINS: Now. The first thing I would like to ask you, is:
Watkins pulls out that goddamned photo of the doppelgangers emerging from the rift.
WATKINS: I need to know why these creatures came out of this rift. Now this was not a Gate, this was not a portal that I've ever seen. It looks like Reality was torn open. I need to know how that happened, and what these things are. And since they came out looking like you and the rest of your companions, I need you to tell me the truth. I need to know what these things are.
Time to roll some Insight: Griffin rolls a 23 Insight on Watkins. He can tell that Watkins is 100% trying to safeguard humanity. Key word: HUMANITY. That doesn't make him a malicious presence - he's not openly racist toward Griffin. He's treating Griffin very well, and it's all genuine. Griffin does notice that Watkins is leaning heavily on the word "Humanity"
Roll straight INT check to see how much Griffin retained from all the discussions happening around him in Holt's Bunker: 4+0=4. He was more interested in playing flashcards with Toit than he was in all of the discussions happening around him. He did manage to retain a few things, though:
He heard something about a Tree, there was a map, and there are bad things that want to reset life.
GRIFFIN, with perfect, open honesty: I don't know what they are, and I don't know why they look like me. Well, that one does. The others don't. But I don't know why they look like my friends.
WATKINS: Okay. Now, here's what I'm trying to understand: Mr. LaCroix said that you had made contact with them. Now, how did you make contact with them?
GRIFFIN: I don't know.
This is exactly truthful, because he doesn't know the mechanism for connecting us to the sea of Chaos, he doesn't know how Holt set that up, he doesn't know how any of it works.
WATKINS: You don't know? Did you, did you accidentally, like, was there some sort of ritual that went wrong? Your associate Miss Daphwort is a wizard, was she doing something that perhaps something went wrong? Or were you with somebody that was doing something, and you accidentally made contact with these? Because I find it very hard to believe that out of all life in this plane of existence, these creatures decide to take the form of the six of you. You understand my skepticism, right, Mr. O'Callahan?
GRIFFIN: Yeah, yeah, I get it, I understand.
WATKINS: I'm not trying to say that you summoned these into our plane. I just want to know what they are, what they want, and how we can stop them, because good people died today, and I want to stop that.
Griffin is visibly upset at the reminder that good people died today. :(
WATKINS, leaning over the table: I just want to make sure that no one else dies, Mr. O'Callahan. I know what it's like to lose someone important, okay?
Griffin: [nods]
WATKINS: I have lost important people in my life, people that I will never get back. And other people are experiencing that today. Because something came here, something invaded our realm, and I need to know what we're dealing with so that this does not happen again. Mr. O'Callahan, if you have any information, if you know anything, if you can even make a guess at something based off of what you and your associates have been working on, the cases that you've been taking. I'm no stranger to the work you've done. You've all done good work. You've helped a lot of people. I'm asking you to help me do my job so I can help people.
Griffin leans back in his chair, crosses his arms, fidgets a bit - he's trying his best to recall.
GRIFFIN: Well, Nellie didn't do anything. She wasn't doing any rituals. Nobody did any rituals. I mean, I guess you could ask Nellie if she knows how we made contact? Because I don't know.
WATKINS: Okay. Let me ask you, kind of, move on to a tangent.
GRIFFIN: Okay.
Watkins pulls out the sketch of the verden.
WATKINS: Do you know what this is?
Griffin rolls Intelligence again to see if he remembers. This roll is an 18. He remembers the verden, he knows what it is. He's not going to talk about Toit, though, he's going to talk about the verden he's pretty sure Watkins must already know about, because Watkins was funding that little shitlord Alistair's soul-copying bullshit. :)
GRIFFIN: Oh, yeah! We saw one of those in the Feywyld in the old ruins of the Right Hand of Mystra. There was a research facility where my friend Nellie was raised! And there was one of these little dudes there! Um. He, he didn't make it out though.
Watkins takes some notes.
WATKINS: Alright, now, speaking of your associate Miss Daphwort.
GRIFFIN: Mmhmm?
WATKINS: She was seen with a creature that resembles this. At the museum. Do you remember when the piano came alive, and…
GRIFFIN: Almost killed Shane? Yeah, I remember that.
WATKINS, with a hint of disappointment in his voice, re Shane: Yeah. Yes. It um. Mr Bishop. It uh, that was. It was harrowing. But she was seen running with this creature. She was, in fact, she was last seen with this creature. You were all there. Do you know where this creature went, or what Miss Daphwort did with it? Because if I'm going based off of events, I can't say for certain that this creature and the things that we just dealt with are not inextricably linked.
Watkins pulls out more photos.
WATKINS: We've got the statues at the garden at the art museum. Then we have a piano attacking, and then we have doppelgangers coming through a rift where the last people this thing was with was you all. So you can't tell me that there isn't some sort of a connection there. Is this a reasonable assumption, Mr. O'Callahan?
GRIFFIN, uncertain: I mean, I guess that makes sense…
It is plain for all to see (So, Watkins, I guess), that this big dumb boy is in over his head. He's like a particularly dopy golden retriever that wants to do his best for everybody, but two different people want him to do two very different things, and he can only make one of them happy.
WATKINS: Right, so - I don't want to wrongly accuse anybody of anything. You understand that, right, Mr. O'Callahan? We can agree on that?
GRIFFIN: Yeah! Yeah, I get it.
WATKINS: Okay. But, I am now under the assumption that Miss Daphwort is aiding a potentially dangerous creature. Now, Miss Finn testified to me -
GRIFFIN: Doctor. It's doctor.
WATKINS: It's not doctor any longer. Let's be honest with one another. She lost her medical license, I know.
GRIFFIN: She still did the education.
WATKINS: Well. That's fair. DOCTOR Finn, testified earlier, that you all were together prior to the incident, but you were not at Jericho Investigations. Were you with this creature?
[I unintentionally derailed this line of questioning OOCLY at this point, and when Ant summarized it for me again, Watkins' fishing for info changed to Watkins informing Griffin Serra told him that the crew was "with somebody." ]
GRIFFIN: Who did she say we were with?
WATKINS: She declined to give me that information, unfortunately
GRIFFIN: Oh.
WATKINS: Well. If you were all together, I assume…You understand that in getting to the bottom of this, I'm trying to spot contradictions, and it's evident at this point that someone is lying to me. Now, you wouldn't lie to me, would you Mr. O'Callahan?
GRIFFIN: Absolutely not!
WATKINS: So. If I'm going to take what Miss Finn said as the truth - I'm sorry, DOCTOR Finn -
GRIFFIN: Thank you.
WATKINS: Because Doctor Finn wouldn't lie to me, would she?
GRIFFIN: I don't think so…
WATKINS: Then I have to assume that you were all with somebody. So, let me ask you this, Mr. O'Callahan. Where WERE you, prior to the incident? You all were obviously together, because you arrived on the scene together. You all mobilized together. I believe you were driving around in your company's van, I believe it is registered to a Mr. Kug?
[OOC Clarification - that is not the name registered at the DMV, that is the name registered at Interplay.]
WATKINS: If you like, I could ask Mr. Kug himself to come down here, and I could ask him, you know, where were you all? But you don't want me to go through that, do you, Mr. O'Callahan? You don't want me to requisition a request to bring Mr. Kug in, disrupting his day, you know that's not fair to him, is it?
GRIFFIN: No, that's not fair to him.
WATKINS: So if you would please tell me. Where were you, before this all happened?
GRIFFIN: I'm really sorry, Agent Watkins, I don't have permission to talk about that.
WATKINS: You don't?
GRIFFIN: Nope.
WATKINS: And who would you get permission from? Is it Mr. LaCroix?
GRIFFIN: That's correct.
WATKINS: Mmkay. Mr. O'Callahan, I know, or at least, I have a very strong idea, of who you were with. And you should know, that this individual is very dangerous, as evidenced by the tech that your associate Crimeny was brandishing so willfully throughout these battles these last few days.
There is a leading pause in which Griffin continues to watch Watkins politely. He hasn't been asked any questions, so he's just like, "Okay?"
WATKINS: He is, in this organization's opinion, one of the most dangerous men throughout all of the known planes. Now, if what I believe to be true, and I'll just…You know what, let's stop beating around the bush. I know you were with Professor Holt earlier today. I also know that your associate Miss Daphwort has done something with one of these creatures. I'm not sure what, but her connection to them seems to be lengthy considering that you testified yourself that you found one in the catacombs of the Right Hand of Mystra, which I also know is where she spent a number of her years.
GRIFFIN: Yep.
WATKINS: Now.
GRIFFIN: Mmhmm?
WATKINS: If you don't give me anything to go on, I can go ahead and do the legwork, it's fine, it is part of my job. But rest assured, I will bring in Mr. Kug. I will bring in Marvin Rook, a known associate of your friend Pippinella Daphwort. I will bring in her mother, Primrose Daphwort, a former researcher at the Right Hand of Mystra. I will bring in anyone I need if it gets me further to the truth. Now, we could cut all of this out. We could spare everyone this treatment. We could spare a lot of people a lot of discomfort, and we could help a lot of people. Now, if I know you, and I think I have a pretty good idea of your character, Mr. O'Callahan, you don't like to see people inconvenienced. You don't like to see people hurt. Am I right?
GRIFFIN: Yeah. You're right.
WATKINS: Do. The right. Thing. Mr. O'Callahan. Just give me something. Give me something to go on, so that we can end this pointless unnecessary interrogation. Because you know I can get the information I need. And I can do it in very, very unpleasant ways. I don't want to do that. I just want to help people. I just want to save this realm from the dangers of this extraplanar nonsense. I watched good men die today. I watched lives get upended, and I saw a city in chaos. Now, make my job, and the lives of many people, much easier.
WATKINS: Now. Let's do this - I'm going to ask you some yes or no questions. How about that?
GRIFFIN: Okay.
WATKINS: Yes or no: Did you have contact with Professor Holt?
Griffin leans forward in his seat, and puts his arms up along the edge of the table, hands clasped. He looks Watkins in the eye.
GRIFFIN: I understand you care a lot about humanity. I also assume, since you know so much about me, that you know MY connection with humanity. You're talking a lot about humanity, and I have every reason to care as much about humanity as much as you say you do. What I *don't* hear you you saying, and what I would like to know is, what about all the other people in all the other realms? What's your stance on them?
WATKINS: Ah. You think I'm about humanity first, essentially. Am I mistaken?
GRIFFIN: You haven't given me any reason to think that you're not.
INTERROGATING GRIFFIN continued
WATKINS: That's my wife and daughter.
Griffin notices Watkins' wedding band.
WATKINS: If I sound like I'm putting humanity first, I apologize. But there's two very real reasons for why I chose those specific words. The first being, your average human can do nothing in the face of all of this extra-planar activity. Magic, monsters, creatures from the wildest stories and fantasies. Your average human, at best, has a gun. Which, you and I both know, is very stupid.
Griffin is watching Watkins very seriously. Watkins shows Griffin he has a sidearm.
WATKINS: What is this going to do against what just attacked the Hancock Whitney Center? Not a whole lot. You can agree with that, right?
GRIFFIN: I can.
WATKINS: The other reason why I emphasize humanity is because, again, the majority of the human population are stupid. Unfortunately, if there was some type of mass outbreak of the extra-planar variety, it would be bedlam. You know this, this is the reason for Interplay. We - I - emphasize humanity because humanity, in light of all the other races, just…can't really seem to handle itself, can it? I mean, look out there, Mr. O'Callahan. We don't even like each other, half the time. I'm protecting humanity from itself just as much as I want to protect infernals, aasimar - I want to help everybody. But, unfortunately, my race needs to get its act together first. They're the ones who are kind of in need of the most help. Would you disagree with me on that?
GRIFFIN: No, I agree.
WATKINS: If I sound like I'm biased, I'm not. This woman is the love of my life, and my daughter is everything to me.
Griffin is quiet for a long moment because he's not sure if he should ask any questions on this topic, but Watkins DID just open up to him a lot here, so he decides to go for it.
GRIFFIN: Agent Watkins? Are your wife and daughter okay?
WATKINS: I like to think they are.
GRIFFIN: You don't know?
WATKINS: I do know but...when it comes to the dead, it's easier to wax poetic. Hope that they're in a better place, and other such idioms, you know? Yes, when I spoke before, when I said that I've lost people, I was in fact referring to my wife and daughter.
GRIFFIN: I know it doesn't mean a whole lot but, for what it's worth, I'm really sorry.
WATKINS: I appreciate that, Mr. O'Callahan, Genuinely, I do. But, now you understand why, this -
Watkins taps the photos
WATKINS: - Is so important to me. When there's something that this agency that does not know, if it's a threat that we cannot ascertain, everyone is at risk. Do not let other people wind up like me. If you know something, do not let other people bury their spouses and their children. Now I'm going to ask you again, yes or no: Did you make contact with Professor Holt?
Griffin leans back in his chair and crosses his arms again.
GRIFFIN: Agent Watkins…I don't know how much my word and my insight is worth to you, but for what it's worth, I don't believe Holt is as dangerous as you think he is.
WATKINS: Noted.
Watkins makes a little note in his file.
WATKINS: Okay. Yes or no.
GRIFFIN: Mmhmm.
WATKINS, pointing to the composite sketch: Do you know what this is?
GRIFFIN, after a long pause: Sort of…? It's not exactly yes and it's not exactly no.
WATKINS: So you've had contact with it?
Griffin: No. Well, I mean, yes, but, no.
Griffin is thinking of the old verden from the Right Hand of Mystra, because that's what the sketch looks most like.
WATKINS: Okay, let me clarify: The creature that was seen with your associate, Miss Daphwort, at the museum of music.
GRIFFIN: Mmhmm?
WATKINS: Have you had contact with that creature?
GRIFFIN, very quietly, after a very long pause: Yes.
WATKINS: Good. Thank you. I appreciate your honesty, Mr. O'Callahan. Now. Is this creature, the one that you had contact with, is it dangerous?
GRIFFIN: No. Absolutely not.
WATKINS: How can you be so sure? I need to know what you know, Mr. O'Callahan. Why can you ascertain that it is not dangerous?
GRIFFIN: ...You know that is a question.
WATKINS: I think it's a very good one.
GRIFFIN: I can't give you a better answer than just...my intuition.
WATKINS: Okay. That's fair.
He makes some notes.
WATKINS: Okay. Now, we've established that you don't really know what these creatures are, the beings that took on your appearance. We've established this.
GRIFFIN: Mmhmm.
WATKINS: Do you know what they want?
GRIFFIN: Mmmm...Nellie said that the Long Furby just said "Death"
WATKINS: I would assume that's a credible threat, wouldn't you?
GRIFFIN: Yes.
He makes some more notes.
WATKINS: Mr. O'Callahan, I have one more question for you, and then I promise I will stop bothering you, which I'm sure that I have at this point. Everything that you have told me - now, you've been honest with me up until this point so I really implore you to continue. Are we in agreement?
GRIFFIN: Yeah.
WATKINS: Everything you've told me, does Mr. LaCroix know? Let me rephrase: Everything that you know, is it safe to assume that Mr. LaCroix also knows? Now, keep in mind that you told me, not too long ago, that Mr. LaCroix has FORBIDDEN you to speak of certain things. So, I already know he knows some things. I want to know if everything that you've shared with me is knowledge that Mr. LaCroix possesses. Yes or no.
GRIFFIN: I guess? I would assume...
WATKINS: Good enough for me.
Watkins makes some more notes, takes his family photo back, and puts it back in his wallet.
WATKINS: Mr. O'Callahan, I want to thank you. You have made my job much easier. And I promise you I will not misuse this information. I'm only going to use it to ensure the safety of not only my realm, but everyone who resides in it, whether it be human, infernal, gnome, dwarf, it does not matter. Everyone, as long as they're in Earth Realm, is under my care.
Watkins holds out his hand. Griffin rolls another Insight: Unnatural 20. Watkins is still on the level. Griffin will shake his hand. Watkins smiles.
WATKINS: I really appreciate your help. You're a good man, Mr. O'Callahan.
GRIFFIN: Thank you for saying that. Right now I don't feel like a very good man.
WATKINS: Well, you know what they say. [Watkins pats Griffin on the shoulder as he moves past him.] The truth will set you free.
Watkins walks out. Griffin is miserable.
INTERROGATING NELLIE (placeholder)
The door opens and her good friend Agent Caleb Watkins walks in. Nellie is cooperative enough to sit where she's supposed to. Nellie has to roll a Charisma Save. 21. She saves. She feels like something was potentially affecting her consciousness, almost like she was being compelled to do something, but she fights it off. She rolls Arcana: 25. The chair she's sitting in is enchanted with a Zone of Truth spell, but Nellie fought it off.
Miss Daphwort! I don't think we've ever really had the pleasure of speaking one-on-one. He asks about Seikilos. This is her familiar. He's here to observe all the events, take notes.
He does not take notes, he is clearly just a toad.
Watkins just wants to get to the bottom of what's transpired in the last few days, can she blame him? Well, she can't blame him for that. What can she blame him for? Eh, let's just say it's nothing against him specifically, more to do with his organization. The more he tries to assure Nellie the less it works - just some advice.
Well, if we're discarding all pretense, I'll get right to it: I know that you and your associates and companions have made contact with Professor Holt. I also know - and he pulls out the composite sketch of an older verden like the one in the Right Hand of Mystra. He has it on good authority from Nellie's companions that she knows what this is. "That sounds very interesting." Are you implying that they're lying?
Nellie just doesn't see what this has to do with anything.
This is a creature Watkins is unfamiliar with. In his line of work, he does his damndest to learn about it (to invade its privacy, got it.) Watkins has been lead to believe that it is not a threat to this realm, but he does have evidence that Nellie's old organization the Right Hand of Mystra had one. Does Nellie know what it is?
Well, it appears to be goblinoid, why not just call it that?
Watkins informs Nellie that she was seen at the Museum of Music with one of these creatures. A creature of this description was also seen at the Art Museum. Nellie wants to know where he saw these things. One of her companions told Watkins. Okay, where's YOUR evidence?
Watkins is not in the business of sharing his sources, he just needs to know what they want.
Nellie rolls 21 Deception. Watkins rolls Insight.
Watkins switches gears and shows Nellie the photo of our doppelgangers exiting the rift. Is it safe to assume that these are your likenesses, yours and your companions. Nellie says "I guess I can see the resemblance." Shortly after these beings entered our realm they merged into a less-than-flattering creature. Watkins knows that we appeared on the scene quite heroically and dispatched the creature. He takes the time to acknowledge that we've saved a lot of people today and thank Nellie.
Why did these creatures bear our resemblance? Nellie says they're victimizing us, she doesn't know. Watkins tells her he knows we made contact with these creatures. He's not accusing us of bringing them, he just wants to know what they want. According to one of her associates, we spoke to them.
Nellie: I can tell you this. Are you familiar with the spell Mind Spike? During that final battle, she was able to connect into the mind of that thing. And I can tell you what it exists to do is to destroy everything. Absolutely everything. It is the living equivalent of anti-matter. Is that useful for you? Can you work with that?
14 Persuasion.
Watkins is taking notes. Alright, so you got to pierce the veil a little bit. All they want is death? No, no, destruction, decimation - well she guesses death is a part of it, but what they want is to end existence itself. Trying to delve into the motives of this being
Did anyone mention the egg to you? Watkins seems surprised by this. Nellie explains that near the end of the Flesh Voltron fight, something that looked like an egg shot out of it, and doing our due diligence, we tried to track it down. It's somewhere in the sewers.
Watkins pinches the bridge of his nose. That is important, but he still has questions.
The forms that these creatures took: it's safe to say that they were unique. Was Nellie able to ascertain why these particular forms were selected. Nellie counters: Do you WANT to know what those thoughts were like? They were pure chaos. They were horrifying, but kind of muted in how horrifying they were, things were bubbling up and dropping back out. To her understanding, she doesn't us a lot of substances herself - have you ever seen the animations people do when you take acid or something like that?
Watkins has to back up to answer one of Nellie's previous questions. In order to do his job he needs to know how the opposition thinks. He doesn't really care how disturbing or avant gard the images Nellie saw were. He needs to know what this thing wants, how many of them there are, why it's doing the things it's doing, and what is the best way to stop them. Watkins already knows we made contact with it somehow. That is the only way it could have taken on our images when it pierced this veil. Watkins says we are not in trouble.
Uh huh.
He needs to know if there's a relation between this (the verden sketch) and these creatures. He knows the verden is connected to the living statues and piano, and he knows we've made contact with Professor Holt. It's hard to not see the connection, you have to admit.
Nellie wants to back up a bit - she thinks Watkins might have missed the forest for the trees. When she was saying that the images she got from peering into it's mind were horrifying - she wasn't trying to scare him away, she was trying to give him the clearest understanding that she can. If Watkins is trying to track down a motivation, a will beyond trying to unmake everything, you've already misunderstood your enemy. As far as how many there are, I can tell you that too, actually, I was able to gleen that from the chaos that I saw. There are more of these things than there are people in all planes combined. They're somewhere beyond the planes, and they're trying to get in.
NELLIE: Now, here's also what I can tell you -
Watkins stops her there. He believes what she's telling him, but he also can't help but notice that she's deflecting. He knows we've made contact with Holt. He also knows the Right Hand of Mystra had one of these creatures and was running experiments on it. The point is, Nellie and her companions are dealing with a known fugitive. Watkins says he thinks the reason we rushed in to clean up the monsters is because we were cleaning up a mess of our own making.
Nellie points out that she's being drilled after she saved so many people. She had to break Interplay's stupid rules to do it. Watkins kindly informs her that her infractions will be overlooked.
Nellie points out that this wouldn't be as big a problem as it is if humanity was allowed to participate in the magic.
Humanity's ignorance is dangerous.
Nellie: So you're KEEPING information from them? I'm not so sure I follow here.
If Watkins dispels the illusion and gives humanity the facts of the planar existence, can Nellie tell him for certain that a large faction of humanity won't look at a tiefling and an aasimar and say, "That one's a demon, that one's an angel, you're wrong and I'm right."
He asks Nellie to convince him that there isn't a large subset of humanity that won't declare a holy war on
Nellie: Here's where you completely lose me. How is anything going to change if you refuse to teach anyone anything? Do you think this is sustainable? He thinks it's fine for the time being but recognizes it can't last forever.
Interplay is locking down this entire realm's potential for growth. Interplay is making them WORSE, don't you think?
Watkins says we need to agree to disagree, because there is a difference in our core philosophies. He takes the pictures and puts them back in his files. He had everything he needed before he came in.
He feels bad, because for someone with such a gift for divination, Watkins finds Nellie's lack of foresight very disheartening.
Nellie wants to say one last thing: If he wants to talk again, she's perfectly willing. But she'd rather talk about the actual problem here, and not Watkins trying to dig into our lives. We are not trying to destroy this realm. We're trying to save it. You saw those things. You saw what they did. You saw what we did in response. You want our help, work with us.
Watkins could say the same thing to Miss Daphwort, but their philosophies are too different. He thanks Nellie for the spirited debate.