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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 2835978" data-attributes="member: 63">HalloweenHaving determined that Terry does not want to simply pass on in death, Robert and Scarpedin have the firepower and the ride, and now all they need is a bracelet. Terry's girlfriend Lin -- who was assassinated just days earlier -- gave Terry the bracelet as a gift, and if they are going to keep Terry's ghost around, they'll need something of emotional significance. The problem is, they don't know where Terry's body -- and thus the bracelet -- is. They have a possible lead, however.With the help of the ghost of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau and the New Orleans phone book, Scarpedin and Robert are able to find Belladonna's nana. The woman's house is sealed tight against supernatural intrusions this evening, with strange voodoo tracings and the faint smell of burning in the air, but Robert lures the woman out with a story that Belladonna needs her help. As soon as she's outside, Marie starts speaking in thick Creole French, and the nana breaks down and falls to her knees, begging for mercy. Marie then inhabits the woman's body, and tells the group what the nana knows.When the Lee family has some dirty laundry (in the form of dead bodies) that they want taken care of, there's a particular hospital to which they send their linen. They also get phone numbers for various important people, and most importantly they get a large bundle of voodoo supplies from nana's house. They toss the bundle into the motorcycle's side car, next to the mini-gun and the sniper rifle.They ride to the hospital, but notice two cop cars parked in front. Scarpedin stays at the bike and Robert goes in, since he at least was not involved in the car chase earlier this night. Inside, Robert acts casually and chats with the receptionist for a few minutes to get a sense of the place, then heads to the morgue. It's midnight or later by now, so few people are around to ask him questions. When Robert gets near the morgue, he sees a secretary with a suspiciously glazed look, but she doesn't stop him, so he starts to head in. Then he hears voices.Two people are talking inside the morgue, a British man and a woman with what sounds like a Minnesotan accent. They mention that 'the Rastafarians' should be here soon, and they should be able to finish the ritual inside the morgue.Not wanting to risk getting caught, Robert backs away and asks the woman who she just let into the morgue."There's no one in the morgue," she replies. Her voice emotionless, mechanical.Robert curses. He hates magic.He starts to head back out to the front when he sees a short male doctor heading to the morgue. Robert stops him and finds out that the doctor was on his way to do a routine check on a newly arrived stiff. Robert winces, realizing he's talking about his dead friend, but manages to convince the doctor that it would be dangerous to go into the morgue right now, because someone else is in there.The secretary mechanically says, "There's no one in the morgue."The doctor frowns, and looks suspicious, but Robert is convincing as ever. The doctor offers to get them in through the loading area, and they head outside. With Scarpedin and his bike in tow, they head around the back of the hospital. A modest strip of pavement passes by the morgue drop-off, with a high fence separating the hospital from a nearby canal. Lamps provide scattered illumination. Scarpedin parks the motorcycle discreetly in a shadow near the fence, and Robert and Dr. Gomez head for the ramp that leads to the back entrance.Scarpedin quietly sets up the mini-gun, then hides himself and the bike under the tarp so he can see out. He hopes something happens. He's itching to use this thing.The back entrance has a heavy metal door with a shattered overhead lamp and a security camera with a strange bulky device attached to it. Robert guesses it must be some sort of signal-interruptor, and he suspects someone will be arriving at this loading dock soon. To be safe, he offers Gomez a pistol, but the doctor refuses. He's willing to let them in, but he's not going to fight.Dr. Gomez pulls out his key card and is just about to slide it when Robert hears a car approaching. He gestures for Gomez to hide, and the two of them jump off the ramp and hide beside it in a shadow. Robert tucks the pistol into his pants, then pulls out his stun gun and straight razor.From around the corner of the hospital approaches an old, beat-up 70s Cadillac. Its headlights slice across the loading dock, but the driver must not have noticed Scarpedin, parked and hiding under the tarp. The car creeps slowly, its engine coughing as it turns and stops on the opposite side of the loading ramp. Only four feet of low concrete separate Robert and Dr. Gomez from the car.The horns honks once, and a moment later the back door opens."Good," Robert hears the woman say, "we can get this over with.""Wait," says the British man. "I sense something."Robert tenses, feeling a will casting about, looking for him psychically. But then the doors to the Cadillac open, and the British man's concentration is disrupted.The air is suddenly thick with the musk of marijuana smoke, and a deep voice with a Jamaican accent asks, "Is the boy's body inside?"It is this moment that Scarpedin decides to open up with the mini-gun.  Out of Game:Scarpedin's player asks, "Okay, how do I use this thing?""It's an area attack," I say. "You just have to beat AC 10, and then everyone has to make a Reflex save."Robert's player, having heard how effective Scarpedin's last attempt with the mini-gun was, says, "Don't miss."Scarpedin's player rolls, and hits."Okay," he says. "Now how much damage does this thing do?"I begin picking out d12s, placing them next to him, until he has six. "Roll these," I say. In Game:Scarpedin holds down the trigger for three seconds. The gun's motor spins the barrel as fifty bullets fly through the air toward the Cadillac, and the kickback nearly spins the gun out of his hands. The air is thick with debris and smoke, and he cannot see his targets. For a moment he is afraid that the line of bullets might have wandered and torn Robert to bits, but then he realizes just how cool he is. He lines up the gun to fire again, enjoying the sweet feeling of power and mayhem in his hands. Out of Game:"Sh*t," Scarpedin's player says. "Only 34 damage."I laugh. "How many hit points do you have?""23. Huh. So, what happens?"I roll saving throws for four Rastafarians, the British man, and the Canadian woman. Amazingly they all save.  In Game:Sensing something amiss, the British agent ducks back inside the door to the morgue and takes cover. His Canadian assistant leaps off the loading dock ramp in the opposite direction from Robert and Dr. Gomez, out of the path of the mini-gun. The Rastafarian leader hears the first pounding sounds of bullets chewing into his car, and he jumps over the loading ramp -- in the direction of Robert and Dr. Gomez -- while his three men take a few bullets but manage to take cover in the car.Robert sees a huge black man with dreadlocks leap to take cover in the same place he and the doctor are, and in an instant Robert stabs out with the stun gun. The Rastafarian is holding a wooden suitcase, and he blocks the strike, then immediately backhands Robert with the suitcase, smashing him in the face. Out of Game:Robert's player is incredulous. "Wait? They took no damage?"I say, "Three of them didn't. They have evasion. The other guys jumped to take cover in the car, and only took half damage."Scarpedin's player gestures for me to continue. "Okay, but the car blows up, right?"I ponder. I quickly check the rules for car's exploding, then laugh. "In order for a car to blow up, you've got to deal enough damage to it in one hit to reduce its hit points to 0 or below, and deal more than half its hit point total at once. You definitely did more than half it's hit points, but the car had 30 hit points and hardness 5, so it's at . . . 1 hit point."Robert's player says, "I don't know what kind of Rastafarians you've been hanging out with, but their cars aren't in pristine conditions." He laughs.I smile. In Game:And then the Cadillac explodes! Scarpedin cheers, and the explosion distracts the Rastafarian leader long enough for Robert to step in and slit the man's throat with his straight razor.Unfortunately, Scarpedin's woot revealed his position, and the British man steps out from behind the morgue loading door. Tall, dark, and handsome, he looks like Denzel Washington, dressed in a black intrusion suit like Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell. Again the air fills with the indistinct feel of a mind reaching out, and Scarpedin growls. Out of Game:I look at Scarpedin's player and grin malevolently. "Make a Will save, okay?"To be continued. . .</blockquote>

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