Mothership - The Mark of CAIN, Part Three
SOME DAYS YOU JUST CAN'T GET RID OF A BOMB...
The room is tensely quiet as Mark-IVan positions himself over the explosive device he had pulled from under the table.
Meanwhile, Doctor Reinhardt and J'Kara watches nervously by the door while preventing anyone from entering the room.
"Do you have training for this? Please tell me your robotic mind has some sort of cyberlink mumbo jumbo that lets you speak with computers and electronic devices," J'Kara says partly serious.
"I wish that were the case, J'Kara. I fear that I was not gifted in that regard."
"I thought you said you don't have fear!"
"Fear of failure, I do not have. Otherwise, I am a sophisticated artificial lifeform, complete with fear processes that help me empathize with humans."
"And this is a benefit..?" J'Kara suddenly feels worried.
"Ah!" IVan announces with some spark of glee. "That wasn't so bad."
J'Kara's eyes widened. "What? You're doing it? You're actually doing it??"
"It doesn't seem too difficult," IVan replied. "I just have to disconnect the right wires in the right order. I just snipped one and we're still here. That's a good sign."
Doctor Reinhardt pushes a button on the wall. "Security! Give me an update on Verge and Diegos."
A muffled voice came back, "They've been spotted heading towards the docking bay, sir. All units standing by."
"Give Diegos space to apprehend Verge. But if it looks like he needs your help, do not hesitate to assist."
"Copy that, sir" The voice crackled as the connection abruptly stopped.
Mark-IVan contorts his face in a way that J'Kara finds somewhat amusing, yet at the same time a bit alarming. She looks over to Reinhardt and quickly makes a scan of the room. Her eyes snap back to IVan when he clears his throat. This, too was both amusing, and alarming, as IVan really doesn't ever need to clear his throat like a human. He clearly does it for effect.
"I have good news and bad news," IVan states. "And I really don't think we have the time for you to ask which is which."
IVan straightens himself up from the device and continues, "The good news is we're still alive. The bad news is that we won't be if we don't get away from here. I cannot disarm this bomb."
J'Kara could plainly see the look of fear on Mark-IVan's face. "Doc," she says, "tell me you have an evacuation procedure!"
Reinhardt hits the button on the wall again. "Attention, please! This is an emergency. Evacuate the station immediately. This is not a drill."
"How long do we have?" J'Kara questions IVan calmly.
"Near as I can tell, we have thirty minutes left. Maybe." IVan glances back at the device. "The chances that it was thirty seconds are pretty slim now."
"Let's go!!" J'Kara exclaims as she ushers Reinhardt out the door ahead of IVan. "Can you seal this room so no one goes in there?"
Reinhardt pulls out a card and swipes it along the edge of the door. "Done," he says.
J'Kara touches the communicator on her wrist. "Boss, we got some bad news for you!"
Next: DIEGOS AND VERGE DO A DANCE BY THE DOCKS
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Behind the scenes-
This is the return of the story and a switch to the Mothership system.
Converted stats are here.
As I re-created the characters for Mothership, I re-read the previous two chapters to make sure that their stats didn't contradict what had already occurred, while also ensuring that everything stated so far was still correct.
This meant making sure that J'Kara had the Piloting skill, as she had mentioned in the first chapter that she suspected Diegos bringing her along to have another pilot. This also meant that IVan couldn't have the Piloting skill.
I also applied some damage to J'Kara for the fight with the robot from chapter two. I rolled a d10 and got a 1, so she currently has 67 Health.
She also didn't acquire any Stress in the last chapter.
For the bomb in this chapter, I borrowed the 'complex skill check' mechanic from Alternity. This is where instead of making one skill check and using its result to determine success or failure, you make multiple rolls and must get x number of successes before getting three failures.
In this situation, I determined that x equaled 4. Mark-IVan would have to get four successes before rolling three failures. This also heightens the tension and allows for more opportunities to gain stress, as I rule that each failure applies one Stress to the character, as well.
IVan's Intellect is 33, and to make it a bit easier for him, I judge that he can get a benefit from Mechanical Repair, giving him a total of 43. He would need to roll 43 or less four times before getting three failures. Critical rolls counted double.
His first roll was a 38, a Success. This gave him some hope.
However, his second roll was a 70, a Failure. I applied one Stress to IVan.
The third roll was also a Failure at 91. One more Stress added to IVan.
Once the reality sets in that he would need to get three more successes before rolling one more failure, I give him a Panic Roll, which is a 7, higher than his Stress of 4. He loses one Stress and doesn't panic.
He decides not to push his luck and informs the others that the bomb cannot be disarmed.
As the evacuation order is given, J'Kara and IVan gain one Stress.
At the close of the scene, IVan has 4 Stress and J'Kara has 3.
Note: After playing this session, I was re-reading the Player's Survival Guide and was reminded of Crisis Checks, which are essentially the same thing as the same thing as the Complex Skill Checks from Alternity, with a few differences.
The first difference is that the variable x number of successes is limited to 1-3.
The second difference is that you only get one failed roll. However, you can take 1d10 Stress to reroll a failed roll. But you can only reroll twice.
In addition, if a roll fails, and you choose not to reroll (or cannot), you take Stress equal to x (the number of successes that were needed).
To adjust my game to get things in order, I looked over IVan's attempt with the bomb. While I have a 'no-change' rule on the actual events, meaning the story itself will not change no matter how I alter the rules, I can see that it would be a simple thing to go ahead and retroactively apply the Crisis Checks to it to determine how much Stress IVan should have.
The number of successes required was 4, and he did three rolls: One success and two failures. Then chose not to attempt it again.
To convert this over, I would simply say the number of successes was 3 (the highest possible).
He succeeded on the first roll. No change.
On the second roll, he failed. Instead of acquiring 1 Stress, he should've gained 3 (the number of successes required). So I give him 3 Stress for a total of 5.
This doesn't change the story.
To make the third roll, he would have to have rolled a D10 and taken that result in Stress. So rolling a D10, I get 8. So he would now have 13 Stress.
The third roll was also a failure, giving him 3 more Stress, for a total of 16.
After this he called it quits. Originally because he would've needed three more successes and just one more failure could've possibly set the bomb off.
With it being a Crisis Check of 3, he would've still needed two more successes. And he would've had to take another hit to his Stress.
So he still would've stopped to avoid pushing his luck too far.
Now, with these results, IVan has a Stress of 16, so he would've failed the Panic Check roll of 7.
What I'm doing, since that chapter is already written, is rolling for the Panic Effect and applying it to him between sessions.
Rolling 2D10 and adding his current stress of 16 gets me 29 (13+16) - Psychological Collapse.
He becomes permanently, irreparably insane. And is now an NPC.
Did not see that coming! Things will be getting interesting.
I'll be rolling when he appears again to see if he becomes a problem for the team before the adventure is over.
Updated Stress-
Mark IVan - 16, Insane
J'Kara - 3
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