Golden Bee
The cool guy of online
The brief, odious life of Nigel Lao / The impossible can be fun
It takes obsession to catch a rising star…
This session showed off the versatility of the Fate system. We opened in New York, during a late January snowstorm: the group (radio actress Lala Santinella and Detective JP Diamond) had to make sure their base passed a building inspection. It was close, but after some homemade stew and promises, the building passed with a D+. (Too many unsafe technological innovations, mystic artifacts, and people with no paperwork lounging for free indefinitely.)
Lala refused to call out from work, so she and JP put on snowshoes, and took the subway to Rockefeller Center. The Grey Gargoyle radio show went fine; Lala had a suspicious amount of fan mail from an admirer named NL.
A week later, the group got a lucrative security assignment from a Mr. Lao. After a boring night watching nothing happen on the docks, they got a contract to do the same thing… and investigated. Turned out Lao’s first name was Nigel, and he was the creepy scion of Chinatown’s biggest tong, the Hop Sing. Lala, who grew up penniless in Italy, and workaholic JP ended up agreeing to do the contract again… For double the rate, if Lao joined them.
This was an absolute blunder [but some excellent social combat]. Lao was unsettling but within the bounds of the contract. Lala was perturbed, and Diamond was unwilling to feud with another gang.
The next day, our heroes went over their boss’s head and reached out to “Uncle” Poe Lao. Since it was the Lunar New Year parade, he offered them a five-minute meeting. They grabbed their pal Trudy Truman to help with the diplomacy. Trudy laid out the facts impartially. After tense discussion, it was agreed that Nigel would no longer hire the firm’s services.
Of course, Trudy also has a great nose. While walking past the parade, she noticed the scent of Lala’s perfume coming from underneath one of the dancing dragons. The Italian stuntwoman burst out of the crowd, found Nigel and kicked him over, toppling him with the dragon! Trudy, excellent at blather, kept the crowd from intervening until Nigel fled, right into JP… Who grabbed Lala’s blouse back. When he raised it into the air, the crowd turned on the pervert. The three interlopers left ahead of any inconvenient questions. Another [odd] conflict resolved!
***
Vacation time in the tropics! JP and Lala were joined by Professor Callahan, bad boy of academia. After some rough times in the Havana Hill casino, they were looking for more cash. The rumor mill said that Walt Disney had been touring the Antillies, but had gone missing. And after an anniversary party, some tall ships had gone missing too.
Obviously, the next step was to hit the library! Some time in the map room revealed an uninhabited island called Dismal,smack dab in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. The group loaded up the Spectre with adventuring gear and flew out under cover of darkness.
Callahan, academically troublesome, knew more about island infiltration than a typical egghead. He landed the group in a quiet cove and helped JP ambush a patrol. The pirates had a problem: no one could work the radio, so they couldn’t ransom their hostage!
Our heroic heroes went back to the plane and scuffed up their change of clothes, relying on Lala’s acting skills to come off as fellow outlaws. After some misgivings, they repaired the radio, earning them the respect of the pirates and their captain, Black Caesar. Walt (and his personal pilot) were in the captain’s quarters spinning yarns, fascinated by the locals’ Caribbean stories. The radio scheme turned out to be a bust (no ship nearby had the interest or inclination to ransom a movie executive), and while the buccaneers were planning another attack, a strange fog rolled in. Wounds and scabs began to skeletonize as it turned out these pirates weren’t just old-fashioned… They were historic!
Lala grabbed a piece of the radio and sprinted around the cave, leading off a large group of the undead. Callahan made his way to one of the frigates and soaked the gunpowder. JP tossed Uncle Walt over his shoulder and carried him to the plane!
The engine had a hard time turning over due to the mist, but Callahan finally pulled into the sky… when a rotting hand grasped his neck! Turns out Walt’s pilot died in the initial crash, and he didn’t have much patience for the living. JP, veteran of the Great War, battered the man with the fire extinguisher and booted him onto the pirates below.
Back in civilization, Callahan wanted to check that the gas wasn’t affecting them. Unfortunately, he had to call in a favor from his rival, Professor Quincy Nochebuena. Lala asked Walt if he was going to make a movie based on their adventure.
It takes obsession to catch a rising star…
This session showed off the versatility of the Fate system. We opened in New York, during a late January snowstorm: the group (radio actress Lala Santinella and Detective JP Diamond) had to make sure their base passed a building inspection. It was close, but after some homemade stew and promises, the building passed with a D+. (Too many unsafe technological innovations, mystic artifacts, and people with no paperwork lounging for free indefinitely.)
Lala refused to call out from work, so she and JP put on snowshoes, and took the subway to Rockefeller Center. The Grey Gargoyle radio show went fine; Lala had a suspicious amount of fan mail from an admirer named NL.
A week later, the group got a lucrative security assignment from a Mr. Lao. After a boring night watching nothing happen on the docks, they got a contract to do the same thing… and investigated. Turned out Lao’s first name was Nigel, and he was the creepy scion of Chinatown’s biggest tong, the Hop Sing. Lala, who grew up penniless in Italy, and workaholic JP ended up agreeing to do the contract again… For double the rate, if Lao joined them.
This was an absolute blunder [but some excellent social combat]. Lao was unsettling but within the bounds of the contract. Lala was perturbed, and Diamond was unwilling to feud with another gang.
The next day, our heroes went over their boss’s head and reached out to “Uncle” Poe Lao. Since it was the Lunar New Year parade, he offered them a five-minute meeting. They grabbed their pal Trudy Truman to help with the diplomacy. Trudy laid out the facts impartially. After tense discussion, it was agreed that Nigel would no longer hire the firm’s services.
Of course, Trudy also has a great nose. While walking past the parade, she noticed the scent of Lala’s perfume coming from underneath one of the dancing dragons. The Italian stuntwoman burst out of the crowd, found Nigel and kicked him over, toppling him with the dragon! Trudy, excellent at blather, kept the crowd from intervening until Nigel fled, right into JP… Who grabbed Lala’s blouse back. When he raised it into the air, the crowd turned on the pervert. The three interlopers left ahead of any inconvenient questions. Another [odd] conflict resolved!
***
Vacation time in the tropics! JP and Lala were joined by Professor Callahan, bad boy of academia. After some rough times in the Havana Hill casino, they were looking for more cash. The rumor mill said that Walt Disney had been touring the Antillies, but had gone missing. And after an anniversary party, some tall ships had gone missing too.
Obviously, the next step was to hit the library! Some time in the map room revealed an uninhabited island called Dismal,smack dab in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. The group loaded up the Spectre with adventuring gear and flew out under cover of darkness.
Callahan, academically troublesome, knew more about island infiltration than a typical egghead. He landed the group in a quiet cove and helped JP ambush a patrol. The pirates had a problem: no one could work the radio, so they couldn’t ransom their hostage!
Our heroic heroes went back to the plane and scuffed up their change of clothes, relying on Lala’s acting skills to come off as fellow outlaws. After some misgivings, they repaired the radio, earning them the respect of the pirates and their captain, Black Caesar. Walt (and his personal pilot) were in the captain’s quarters spinning yarns, fascinated by the locals’ Caribbean stories. The radio scheme turned out to be a bust (no ship nearby had the interest or inclination to ransom a movie executive), and while the buccaneers were planning another attack, a strange fog rolled in. Wounds and scabs began to skeletonize as it turned out these pirates weren’t just old-fashioned… They were historic!
Lala grabbed a piece of the radio and sprinted around the cave, leading off a large group of the undead. Callahan made his way to one of the frigates and soaked the gunpowder. JP tossed Uncle Walt over his shoulder and carried him to the plane!
The engine had a hard time turning over due to the mist, but Callahan finally pulled into the sky… when a rotting hand grasped his neck! Turns out Walt’s pilot died in the initial crash, and he didn’t have much patience for the living. JP, veteran of the Great War, battered the man with the fire extinguisher and booted him onto the pirates below.
Back in civilization, Callahan wanted to check that the gas wasn’t affecting them. Unfortunately, he had to call in a favor from his rival, Professor Quincy Nochebuena. Lala asked Walt if he was going to make a movie based on their adventure.
