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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Golden Bee" data-source="post: 9366524" data-attributes="member: 7041055">Amish Boy finds Robot Hand.(Many more than 5 words.)                        Death in the Living Room!When the lights go out… The pistols pop up.Long-term characters tend to change, and Fate is a great system for it.JP Diamond, undead detective, had the aspect “Gangly”, but it never really came up. (There are few situations where being thinner and awkward can really help you!)The player changed it to "I work best alone", and it’s already paid dividends.That was the case with our latest adventure: JP wanted one on one time with his hirer, but lost a battle of wills to faithful farmhand Elliot McCaffrey. It became a group discussion.Dr. Hemet Hazoul got a rewrite too. His trouble, "world’s greatest ego", was OK, but he’s much easier to understand as a "tomb looting scumbag". He also picked up an "eye for the ladies", which immediately became a problem when he interrupted a fancy mansion party to dance with someone’s fiancé. He was duly punched in the face, but before matters could escalate, Captain Semya Ivanova danced with the angry groom-to-be. It was a Russian ploy to rile up the romantically dense JP. It worked; the southern charmer was jealous. The party ended in the murder of its host. The captain took the most likely suspect into the kitchen, where she started cutting up raw beef… chop, chop, bleed bleed, CHOP. She started describing the old Soviet penal system… and the suspect fainted, dropping a still warm pistol.The murder tied into an anti-Russian spy network. The group tracked down the apartment, found an organizer…and they won’t talk to JP. The captain began her own interrogation with a warning.<h4>quote:</h4>The agent didn’t know enough for the Captain’s liking… So Semya flipped her into an asset. "The USSR appreciates your capitulation."We had some time, so I ran:Thrilling Tales: the Steel Legion by Walt Ciechanowski“Hurry up Winston… I don’t like fighting anything three times my size.”Autumn in Pennsylvania. The group, Professor Winston Callahan, JP, and reporter Trudy Truman, are on their way to the Bethlehem scientific exhibition. <h4>quote:</h4>A cloud passes over the sun. Everyone feels a little queasy… And falls asleep instantly.When they wake up, there’s a gaping hole in the roof of their compartment. The train blows past the station at Allentown. Trudy springs to the back of the train, wakes up the conductor, and pulls the emergency break.A cursory investigation reveals that Yancey's research was stolen from the luggage compartment. Winston and JP are puzzled: someone had been kidnapped, and it wasn’t Trudy!(Being a self-assured foreign reporter, she also ignores the police’s attempt at a gag order. Between her, Callahan, and PI Diamond, there was tremendous disrespect to the local inspector… which led to them getting pulled over three separate times before they could reach the fair.)The indignities continued: a half block of fair space is dedicated to Callahan’s rival, Professor Lockvogel! The academics launch accusations at each other (“You slept with one of your students/“You started a fire to get out of Dean’s lunch!”), while Lockvogel’s gorgeous daughter Ginny flirts with JP. (Were ladies always doing this? Did he not notice?) Trudy’s contacts clue her into a suspicious addition to the fair, Dr. Elsie Sieger. Trudy is about to interview the rogue element when a cloud floats over the sun…This time, JP summons his iron will and stays awake! What he sees, he can barely believe. Everyone is falling asleep… and the power’s going out across the entire city!He slings Devika over his shoulder, and rushes to wake up his companions. The next part is even more outrageous… 20 foot-tall iron robots! One of them grabs the still-awake Lockvogel, who urges his daughter to run… the robot is headed straight for Callahan! Trudy grabs a nearby reel of wire, trying to defend her companion… And gets kidnapped instead! The robots leap off into the sky. Sirens and confusion.The group and Ginny flee the city, borrowing a horse and buggy from a kindly Amish boy. At the Lockvogel house, they learn the story between him and the robot’s maker, Dr. Krieger.<h4>quote:</h4>They ransack the professor’s notes. He’s left a letter to Ginni:<h4>quote:</h4>JP, Devi and Winston rush to the basement, and find the headsets, when they hear giant clomping footsteps outside...***Trudy awakens in a barn. But instead of animals, it’s filled with mad scientists! Sister Helene the electrical genius nun, Yancey, Lockvogel, Zasimo Wilcox (Querida’s seldom seen brother), as well as one other journalist… Beatrice Piper, who Trudy had last "encountered" in a hotel room in Chile. "Trude the Prude" explains that that was a one-time thing.When you’re imprisoned, soft skills make the difference. Trudy convinces the group to stop their enforced robot repair, and get her a device that would let her sneak away! The egg heads are eager to help.***Meanwhile, in the Lockvogel basement, Winston hears a small group of commandos. They are trying to get into the bulkhead, so he sabotages the stairs. JP attacks the confused group with a metal pipe, trapping the troopers between the floor and the wall. "Do hand over your weapons, won’t you?"***Trudy sneaks off into the privy, using a welding torch to free herself and break through the wall… out into the farmland beyond. Is this secret base in Amish Country?***At the house, Ginni screams: a robot’s trampling the living room! Winston starts working on a signal interrupter… And while Diamond is planning his next move, the robot snatches him through the ceiling! Devika tries to pull him down… he loses his shoe but he is still pulled up. In the living room, Josiah P uses the debris to slow down the robot, grabbing a metal pole from what used to be a lamp. He lodges it into a gap...and frees himself. But the robot tries again. The Steel Legionaire is about to squeeze JP’s throat closed when the signal stops! Callahan was sweating onto his equipment.***Trudy fled the farm, unfortunately unfortunately attracting the attention of the guard dogs…She makes it to a nearby river with only a slash on her leg. She signals a horse and buggy for help and reunites with the group. She bandages her leg and calls in favors, including her friends in the National Guard. They have -a- tank… but the players have the Spectre, Winston’s plane. They guess correctly that Krieger will try and flee when an armored unit shows up… but they didn’t expect his plane to have a rear-mounted machine gun turret!No one on the Spectre is particularly good at shooting, so they need another plan. JP cobbles together the parachutes into a mass, and tells Callahan to pull up right in front of the other plane. The undead flatfoot opens the back bay, air rushing all around… And hurls the chutes into the Krieger’s propeller! His plane is sent into a death spiral, with his daughter Elsie escaping. And presumably swearing revenge.Our closing scene is a few days later, a young boy is working the plow when he finds a kettle sized robot hand. "Pa, look at this!"</blockquote>

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