Line Go Down: Chapter 3a
Begin a Session. Last time, Frappé arrived in the Moose, which is bathed in an unknown signal that no one else seems to be able to hear; met some faces in the settlement including Waning Strander (a new connection), got a lead on veggies for the Prom, and made contact with Dr. Halley. Let’s have a vignette to open the session: flashback reveals an aspect of another character, place, or faction. Some detail on Blackstar sounds good.
[Mechanical location feature: Mechanical environment in motion or transforming]
A hermetically sealed environment, looking like a retro superspy villain lair, henchmen and all. Technicians in hard hats and jumpsuits with the stylized black sun logo are reconfiguring this modular engineering bay. Space is at a premium in the bunker. Tapping musical-note keyboards, they return a superconducting core to beneath the tiled floor and withdraw a wall slice full of recovery pods like a book from a shelf. The reconfigured room is now open to the click, clack sound of boots on textured steel. The Orbital inspection is arriving.
They pass under an etched-obsidian mural depicting some faces recognizable from the Presidential Tower gala just before the world ended: tech-fascinated billionaires looking confident and determined in the face of great trial, admired by their courtiers and Chenoweth apprentices, lit from behind by an iconic orb. Striding past, not giving the idealized image a second glance, is a ruthlessly fashionable elderly woman in a sweeping labcoat-inspired mantle and short blue-dyed perm. She is joined by a report-carrying bearded man, tall and bald and less smartly dressed, speaking through a high-quality vocabulator.
“Once we receive confirmation from all stakeholder orbits,” the man synthesizes quickly and formally, “we will begin to schedule sunset plans as discussed.”
“Ganymede and I are in lockstep on this,” she replies with dismissive ease. “There is no further discussion.”
His lips curl. “I understand that,” he begins, not moving them,
“Then don’t waste any more of my time. Get it done.”
With purpose but insufficient planning, he continues: “Decommissioning all Mark Two frames at this stage would reduce operational readiness and cohort morale. This is a poison pill.”
“Comete Halley,” she says, impersonally smooth. He halts, chastened, wrinkled. “When your Planete orders you to swallow poison to bring about the Blackstar, what will you do?”
The technicians, despite orders, are briefly glancing over. They can hear everything. Their boss is being directly humiliated by his boss. Halley stands still, mentally counts to three, and looks directly ahead. It’s a breaking point.
Shot of the recovery pod bank: each one contains a Mark Two Glitch Buster, each like Frappé but with varying skin and hair, each looking blankly ahead with wide open eyes and smiling. Halley’s monotone reply: “I will swallow poison, Planete Titane.”
===
+1 momentum. On to the present.
Frappé caught up with Waning Strander at the neon-signed hobbit hole of a motel, and they exchanged their info. WS managed to book a one-on-one with the newly lottery-selected Mayor Keelan for the next day to plead her mentor Ended Strander’s case for a no-criminals waiver on a residency card. Now she has to figure out how to prove ES is a good and honorable person and a boon to the community, in language that Keelan will understand. Frappé says that it found who to talk to about fresh vegetables, but it doesn’t know how to sell Bruna Bond on artsy scavenger Prom as a reliable trading partner. As they talk it over, an idea emerges, mostly from Rowena: Prom might not have much to offer in exchange, but its boat docks and regular coastal trade do. The Moose could freely use Prom’s piers to engage in coastal trade, and bring additional vegetables in the caravans (cukes included) as a local sweetener. Ended Strander would be the perfect trail boss for the trade route: he knows land and water trade, he’s experienced with the risks, and he can more than handle any trouble or intimidation the Prom crooks try to give him. This is the service that only he can provide to the Moose! As Waning Strander begins drawing up a proposal, Frappé marvels: “I’m a genius!”
Develop Your Relationship with Rowena for giving her something of worth, mark two boxes.
And what’s up with Halley? Did Frappé Make a Connection in its weird and dangerous way?
[Strong Hit: 6 + 1 + 0 = 7 vs 4 | 4]
A strong hit with a match! Adding Doctor Halley, the rogue roboticist, as a Formidable connection. And with a match, he’s surprisingly open to cooperation, or at least vulnerable to Frappé’s menacing. Secure + Health. (Did they talk about the mysterious signal? [Likely] Yes. Is it coming from Halley? [Likely] Yes.) Halley offered a plea bargain of his own over codec: his Blackstar cybernetics have a kind of fail-deadly copy protection, emitting a signal that can be homed in on by Mark 3+ Glitch Busters, while Mark 2s like Frappé only detect it enough to be annoyed and distracted. GB kill teams are going to keep coming for him unless the signal is disabled. Halley’s plea: come assist Dr. Clank Griffin in disabling the advanced signal, and he will come with Frappé to unlock her inhibitors. Frappé mulls it over.
Waning Strander invites her new strander pal to stay the night in her room at the motel, and Frappé takes her up on it. It’s nice to downcycle to sleep mode somewhere safe that isn’t Vengaboy’s basement closet cardboard pile, even if it can’t plug in to recharge.
Overnight, add 1 to Bot Gossip clock as time advances and word gets around. Sacrifice Resources -1 supply (to 4) from expending battery power. Frappé focuses deeply to cultivate EX Power, +spirit: strong hit, +3 EX (to 3.) Even without a generator to plug into, it feels like it hasn’t had a good night’s restorative rest in the whole month it’s been with Vengaboy.
The next morning, Waning Strander and Frappé take a woodland jaunt up to the shabby old cold dark waystation Ended Strander has been sheltering in, a ways outside the Moose. He’s at least as serious about this strander name stuff as WS is. He isn’t very friendly to new people out here, especially weird android ones who look sorta like GCs. Still, WS and Frappé pitch him on the trade route to Prom and give him all the details he needs to make the case to Mayor Keelan with their support. Secure an Advantage +heart, +1 for WS’ help.
[Strong Hit: 5 + 1 + 1 = 7 vs 5 | 1]
Ended Strander couldn’t be better prepared; he’s perfect for the job. Exactly as tough as he looks, even without combat armor on, and a confident presenter once he’s clear on all the details. +1 on my next move, +2 momentum, +1 more momentum for a connection’s help on a roll. The three of them trek back to the settlement, WS and ES talking as they go about a shared history of stranding and trekking and connection, ever since he took her under his wing back in the Parry. (talking to her brightens him up; even when he’s keeping it terse, he keeps the back and forth going.)
The newly honored Mayor Keelan keeps her office hours in what was once a high school and is now mostly admin and commercial space for the enterprises that functionally run the Moose. (Teaching students happens mostly in the old church on the far side of the mound.) Her hallway is lined with official photographs of all previous lottery mayors, stretching back to a cardboard standup of the first wise and humble honoree recorded to have stood up after the Glitch Stranding: His Honor Mayor Ray Romano.
Ended Strander, on the agenda as Mr. Kei Hendrix and dressed to kill (NOT LIKE THAT!!), makes his pitch for a regular produce trade route between the Moose and the Prom’s ports, with supporting evidence from Rowena and Frappé (equipped with official vengaboys. bag as diplomatic credentials.) In their pitch, it’s a new, exciting, transformative idea: the first mark on this town that Keelan wants to make. Compel to make it happen, +heart, +1 from the last roll, +1 for WS’ help.
[Strong Hit: 3 + 1 + 2 = 6 vs 1 | 3]
She comes around!! Unlike the previous lottery mayor Rowena tried, Keelan is hearing a story she wants to hear. She gives her approval for a trade route to Prom, making sure to mention both Kei Hendrix and cucumbers by name in all the paperwork so there’s no confusion. Out in the waiting room while Keelan and Hendrix discuss logistical details to bring to Bruna, WS looks tired, relieved, hopeful.
Develop Your Relationship. Add two boxes for standing with her against hardship.
Reach a Milestone. Add two boxes for securing produce delivery from the Moose to the Prom.
===
From there, Frappé goes on its own to the subterranean clinic of CLANK GRIFFIN, M.D. where the doctor and clinicians have been told to expect it. Dr. Griffin is looking unimpressed.
“Iota Rho One Seven Seven Two Nine, was it?”
“One Seven Seven dash Two Nine.”
“How could I forget?” He’s monitoring a readout display plugged into one of his cybernetic hands.
“Doctor Halley contends that his cybernetic vocabulator contains a tracking signal which his last attacker followed. He assumes that you did, too, and that whatever sensor gizmo helped you detect it will be essential for surgically deactivating the tracker. As a peer, I respect Dr. Halley’s professional judgment.”
Frappé nods, trying to look all businesslike and comprehending. Clank continues: “And as a citizen of the Moose with a low tolerance for bullshit, this whole thing stinks. Whatever the cahoots between you two really looks like, and I know I’m not getting the full story, I don’t want it hurting any other citizens or using up any more of my precious time and anesthetic.”
“So I’m going to plug you into my diagnostic module. And your instruments will feed into mine, with all motions and all decisions made by me. And once we finish, assuming Dr. Halley heals as well as I anticipate…”
“Both of you will leave town. Finish whatever business you have here and leave. I suggest you relocate somewhere in Kennebec or parts further where no other androids know to come looking for you. We certainly won’t be telling any more visitors where either of you went.”
“Deal,” sez Frappé. “I was done here, anyway.”
“Oh, good,” Clank concludes. “Trace, prepare the patient in B5, will you please?”
“I’m on it, Clank.”
===
They’re playing a game of Operation where only one of them can hear the buzzer. It’s tense and focused work. Halley looks mostly as Frappé saw him at the lab until he deserted and fled a few months ago, but the stress of fleeing through wilderness and wreckage is weathering him fast. He looks so vulnerable in that surgical gown. Before he went under, Frappé pinged him over codec:
He wasn’t wrong. As funny as it would be to feed faulty data and screw this up in a way that looks like Griffin’s fault, it’d only be sabotaging itself. So it tunes in deeply to the strange signal, at its highest intensity here, and guides the scan millimeter by millimeter to identify and isolate the tracker in his vocabulator. Red wire or blue wire?
Face Danger, +wits, to assist Clank in deactivating Halley’s tracker without deactivating his fragile human body.
[Weak Hit: 4 + 1 + 0 = 5 vs 1 | 10]
hmm. I was going to burn my 10 momentum on that, but 10 on a challenge die is too high for more than a weak hit anyway. I guess I’ll take it! I succeed at deactivating the tracker, but not without a cost; make a suffer move at -1. I’ll Lose Momentum (-1), as Frappé is delayed by this extended, frustrating ordeal that goes against its strengths and instincts. That’s a good signal to advance the Bot Gossip clock as time goes by and eyebrow-raising situations mount.
It takes hours, but they’re ultimately able to complete the operation. The mysterious signal abruptly fades out. As soon as it’s a confirmed success, Griffin has his clinician unplug Frappé from the diagnostic module and escort it to the waiting room so he can close Halley up “without distractions.” That’s probably for the best.
Some time later, he emerges. “Doctor Halley will be fine, but not very talkative for a while. His mobility has much improved since he was brought in. We’ll keep monitoring him today, but I don’t expect he’ll stay here another night.”
Frappé takes the hint. Time to finish up here. Develop Your Relationship with Dr. Halley for helping him out in difficult circumstances, marking one box. Reach a Milestone on getting Halley to unlimit its frame (by meaningfully helping him), marking two boxes.
===
Fast forward to later that day. A whole party is heading to Prom: Ended Strander and some of Bruna’s people leading an electric wagon with a recovering Dr. Halley in the back, plus Waning Strander and Frappé alongside. They’re getting the lay of the land and the coastal shipping economy, figuring out who to talk to, and staying the night. (Perfect timing - it’s Prom Night festival!) After some conversation on the road, Frappé gets antsy and boosts ahead, zipping through the trees on a hoverskating shortcut. The caravan’s moving too slow for it, plus it wants to link up with Vengaboy first before the Moose crew arrives. Set a Course from Moose to Prom, +supply 4:
[Miss: 2 + 4 + 0 = 6 vs 7 | 7]
oh shit. a miss with a match, and on high 7s, is an extremely bad outcome. Frappé is waylaid by a significant threat and must Pay the Price. Looking at a table of ideas, I like you encounter signs of a looming threat.
It’s been riding out well ahead for an hour, and the first sign of trouble is the Trouble Horns blowing low and loud from Prom. What the heck? The lights are out, no party music, the streets look empty, and there are these ghostly lights shimmering…oh, hell. It’s a GC attack.
Frappé boosts up and around a water tower to get a better view. A pack of iridescent-black shark-things prowl the statue-lined streets like the seaside air is water, ghostlights hanging from their heads like anglerfish, trailing banners with nonsense text (the corrupted legacy of some long-ago Object Grid.) It’s a spooky-cute monster design on a screen, and nightmarish to regular ass humans when the monster becomes real with no way to Reduce its HP, just spears and fire and bullets that do nothing, unacknowledged by the enigmatic game logic of the Glitch Moon. This is why the Glitch Busters were manufactured: to play the game back. Against GCs, weapons like Frappé work.
What would Prom do without it? No way is it letting GCs wreck this place after all that work! Its stuff is here!!! Frappé: Swear an Iron Vow +heart- “I’ll clear the GCs out of Prom myself!” (Dangerous)
[Strong Hit: 5 + 1 + 0 = 6 vs 5 | 4]
The vow to itself is recorded, along with +2 momentum.
It then Enters the Fray! Starting objectives: secure Vengaboy (plus its stuff) at his hideout (Troublesome), slay the Glitch Construct sharks (Dangerous)
Banner Shark Pack (Dangerous)
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Glitch Constructs untouchable by mundane weapons
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Luminescent lures for attraction and misdirection
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Cursed enigmatic junk text banners
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Swim through air like the ocean
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Rows of sharp teeth and cutting fins
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Lurk in darkness, sense motion, strike with fierce speed and strength
Following the sneaking mission protocol to lurk and lure and pick the enemy off, it rolls +shadow.
[Weak Hit: 4 + 3 + 0 = 7 vs 2 | 9]
No extra momentum, but I begin the fighting In Control. Frappé goes dark and silent running and finds out just how well it knows these Prom streets by now.
Gain Ground with +wits to probe this pack’s tactics and patrols and alert distances.
[Weak Hit: 4 + 1 + 0 = 5 vs 3 | 8]
Stay in control, and mark progress: two boxes toward defeating the pack. It knows how they move now, prowling in the shadow of the Time & Temp Building sign reading GC ATTACK - SEEK SHELTER. Reach a Milestone for encountering the enemy.
Gain Ground with +shadow to circuitously evade them and approach V’s strip mall office.
[Miss: 1 + 3 + 0 = 4 vs 10 | 10]
oh hell. match 10s!! that’s even worse than match 7s!!! it’s the worst result in the game! even burning 10 momentum wouldn’t make that a hit! Not only am I now in A Bad Spot in combat, but the enemy gains the upper hand and a new peril is revealed! I know just what it is, too. From the Story Complications oracle: someone important betrays your trust.
It makes it to the strip mall near the shoreline. No sign of lights, or people huddling inside, not even Vengaboy’s goons. Weird. Where would they be if not here…?
rumble
uh oh
rumble rumble
that ain’t good
KRONCH. whirrr… WHIIIIIINE-
A titanic fist bursts through the roof, sending glass and plaster scattering! Colored lights and fog blast up through the widening fissures as the form of a truly gigantic enemy emerges from the strip mall cocoon! The colossus rises up from its knees, five stories tall at least, stretching out four arms and wreathed in the otherworldly aura of the powerful GCs that lurk in the oceans and the wastelands - but there are people on it…?