18th Session

Finding a Needle in a Haystack

The session started at 12 August 1937, just after the destruction of Dallol. Lillian, who had written a letter to Cecil beforehand, now looked it over, thinking about adding something, but finally just signed it. Vito wrote to his priest (although his player had to miss the session itself).

Lillian wrote to Cecil before this, but after, she looked over the letter, thinking about adding something, but finally just signed it.

Joyce took the plane she had, er, borrowed from Captain Renato, and tried to find Ayers with it. My original assumption was that this wasn't possible, but on thinking it over, I decided that was not correct.

I don't know enough about planes to know how easy it is or isn't to use them to spot one person living in a desert, which means I don't know that it's impossible. So, looking at this from the dramatic point of view:

• Joyce knew roughly where in the desert to look for Ayers.
• Joyce knew some details about how Ayers had lived, which meant she probably had some idea of how he might have changed in appearance over the years.
• Ayers wasn't exactly hiding. People on foot / camel with a proper guide and the knowledge Joyce had would find him.
• My base assumption was that this particular desert wasn't exactly easy to hide in. That is, one could see a lone rider coming from a long way away.
• At this point, there was no doubt in my mind that the PCs could and would find Ayers. Given that, there's no good reason to say that a plane can't play a part in that search.
• There was one particularly interesting detail about Ayers that was relevant to the search, and it seemed not unreasonable that Joyce might realize it.

This detail had to do with George Ayers's lifestyle. Going by the text, the PCs are expected to travel with a guide who'll be checking around oases, something Joyce could probably spot from the air. But, as written, the guide will assume that Ayers's tracks from a month ago either can't be from Ayers, or, if they are, Ayers will have moved on or died, given he'd have to come back to the oases sooner than a month later.

This, however, is an incorrect assumption. George Ayers has spent over a decade living a very ascetic life. I asked if Joyce might have known others who had lived ascetically well enough to figure out something that would also apply to Ayers.

It turns out that Joyce once flew Lillian to Tibet, where Lillian met with some monks in a monastery, to discuss Tibetan Buddhism with them. All right. Clearly, at least some of those monks were ascetic.

Therefore, Joyce realized that someone used to severe asceticism needed less water than one would expect. So, she knew that Ayers might live further from an oasis than even the average local person. She either spotted Ayers's hut or spotted a couple of possibilities which she was able to narrow down to one on further consideration.

Joyce went to Massaua to return the plane. Martin decided to forgo traveling back into the desert, as even being in protective custody, as per Joyce's instructions, was preferable.

Joyce: They're Italian, not Greek, Marty. <beat> Well, someone had to say it.

Actually, Joyce agreed that Martin could be released from custody, and Martin went to Asmara, where Joyce's plane, the Wayfaring Stranger, was, and got a hotel room there. I handed Jerome's index card character sheet to Martin's player. Joyce considered bringing her Egyptian friend along -- well, technically, Josh's Egyptian friend -- but decided that exposing him to George Ayers and the mythos was undesirable.

I did a quick check to see where the various items that constitued the "artifacts of the Liar" were.

• Martin had the Locksley Overcoat, and was keeping it in his room.
• Vito, of course, had his arm with its mouth on it.
• Lillian had the teeth from the calcified mouth that used to be at the Dallol dig site, as well as Savitree Sirikhan's pickled arm with its mouth.
• Joyce had the Nectar.

Joyce and Jerome led the others to George Ayers's hut. Jerome went on ahead, as he was the only one George knew.

Joyce: Lillian, how do we talk to a guy who took a vow of silence?

Well, technically, he hadn't taken such a vow, but he also didn't speak much. I told folks in advance to assume that, while I'd be answering questions to George Ayers completely and uncryptically, they should assume he was using as few words as possible, with long pauses between sentences.

George Ayers was naked, and the calcified mouth in his stomach was clearly visible. The first time he tried to speak, sound didn't come at all. He didn't panic, but he did need to spend some time working his mouth to get enough moisture to speak.

As Jerome had believed, his converstion away from the worship of the Liar, whether or not it had been sincere in the beginning, was sincere now, and had been for years. He described his practices, wanting to help Vito and anyone else fighting the effects of having an extra mouth, courtesy of the Liar.

Short version: His practices are as rigourous as the roll-your-own rituals folks were able to cobble together, although even learning them had certain beneficial effects, which I'll detail at the end of the write up, along with their cost. Lillian and Joyce (and Jerome) have Rituals of Self Denial at level 1, whether or not they practice them.

I'm guessing Vito learned them as well, and Martin certainly had time to do so.

Vito's got three options at this point:

• Practice the Rituals of Self Denial. This pretty much takes him out of the game for the foreseeable future.
• Get an amputation. NB: While I am sure Lillian or Joyce could do this in the field, it's really much safer doing it in a hospital.
• Deal with having to spend Sense Trouble every time he's making a General skill spend or get bitten, and risk having the mouth attract unwanted attention. Of course, it may sometimes bite an enemy. Yes, it can be gagged, but as Vito has seen, if it can't chew through the gag, it moves out from under it.

In theory, one could sacrifice people who know the rituals of self denial to one of the larger mouths to calcify it. In practice, this isn't a good deal.

• First, the sacrifices must be willing.
• Second, you need as many rating points as the most damage a mouth can do. So, let's say a mouth does +2 damage. The maximum it can do, then, is 8 points. This means that you need 8 people with a score of 1 in rituals of self denial (which takes a week to get), 4 people with a scroe of 2 (which takes a month and about 5 points of various abilities to get), and so on. As you'll see below, a score of more than 2 isn't that practical for a PC, and may not be that practical for an NPC.
• Third, this is to close ONE MOUTH of the Liar. It doesn't prevent other mouths from opening. It doesn't touch the Liar's body. It's sacrificing probably 6-12 good people for a temporary advantage that can be gained in other ways.
• Fourth, the sacrifices have to have been practicing the rituals for some time. Merely knowing the rituals isn't sufficient.

After a week, George Ayers's mouth was slowly beginning to stir, just a little. And, a small group was approaching the hut, those who had managed to escape from Dallol before it had been surrounded and destroyed. They wanted George Ayers.

I suggested not playing out this combat, given that it was basically a mini-version of Dallol, and there was ample time for the group to set up to best tactical and strategic advantage. I'd already done a 5 point non-mythos Stability test for destroying Dallol, and I saw no reason to do that again.

Lillian's player said that, while Lillian would stand her ground in the appropriate place, and shoot or stab as needed, she would be crying silently the whole time.

Joyce (to Lillian): Wait, -you're- crying? Marty cries! You don't cry!

Martin's (Mis)Adventures

Martin, in the meanwhile, had recieved a few letters. One was from his brother, Henry, written before Martin's player decided to replace him as a source of stability with Jeremiah -- and decided that Martin couldn't get Stability back from anyone who wasn't mythos aware. (His current sources are Darla, Samson, and Jeremiah, all of whom are.)

The letter still made sense and was amusing, as Henry did care about Martin and did want to know how Martin was doing -- but also didn't want Martin talking openly about things Henry knew and vaguely accepted, but really, really didn't want to think about, let alone to hear Martin say or write them outright.

Henry Locksley's Letter to Martin

Dr. Keaton also wrote to Martin, but he wrote to Martin as "Mr. Rhodes", since that's how Martin introduced himself to the man. He didn't even have a first name for Mr. Rhodes.

Dr. Jonathan Keaton's Letter to "Mr. Rhodes"

This letter, describing Dr. Keaton's perception and misinterpretation of Dr. Cecil Walker's arrangements to keep Jeremiah, brain and cylinder, safe at Johns Hopkins, made Martin laugh.

And here, I had another "Oh, I suppose that is a logical way to see it" moment. I've had these before. In the Los Angeles section of the campaign, it never occurred to me that folks would fixate on the conservatory of Trammel's mansion as a probable danger spot. This despite, as Martin's player reminded me, the drug being called "Nectar" -- it really is a logical, if incorrect, conclusion to draw.

After reading Dr. Keaton's letter, Martin (and his player) thought that Dr. Keaton thought that Cecil might be having sex with Edgar Job. This is a reasonable conclusion to draw. However, it had not occurred to me when I was writing the letter, and it didn't occur to Dr. Keaton, who was thinking more along the lines of "Poor Dr. Walker was clearly kidnapped and hasn't recovered from his ordeal, and really needs a bit of a vacation, for the good of his patients, and also for himself. And, if that means I wind up with more authority, well, that is for everyone's good."

But it'd be interesting to see Martin deal with Keaton's letter with that assumption in mind. I don't know if that would be amusing, chilling, or both.

Martin's third letter was from Jeremiah.

Jeremiah Rhodes's 2nd Letter to Martin

Martin was crying after he finished reading that letter (which I did not write, leaving that to the person who wrote the previous Jeremiah letter).

He also decided that he would learn how to use firearms. This immediately got all of our attention in a "who are you and what have you done with Martin" kind of way. But, as the player noted, Martin had been told by Jeremiah to please stay alive and whole, and he was throwing himself into learning how to do that.

Either Lillian's Player or Joyce's Player: Ah, the difference between Season 2 and Season 3 Wesley on Angel.

[Anyone remember who actually said it? I just know it wasn't me.]

Eventually, Martin went down to the bar to get a drink or three. As he got a refill and drank it, he realized that:

• The drink was laced with a full dose of Nectar.
• The man sitting next to him at the bar was very good looking.

Martin's player decided to put a saved point in Assess Honesty, a skill Martin previously had not possessed. Martin scanned the bar, paying particular attention to the bartender, who looked away guiltily. Martin guessed, correctly, that someone had convinced the bartender to drug his drink.

He then turned to the man sitting next to him and explained his predicament.

Martin: I need you to kiss me, and then I need you to get me to my room.

Martin's player decided to add a point to Sense Trouble, another skill that Martin had not previously possessed. This meant that when the man kissed him, as requested, but then started steering him in the wrong direction to get to his room, Martin noticed.

This was a tactical error -- the man would have been much better off getting Martin to his room. But, hey, he had no reason to know Martin had just been motivated to pay more careful attention to his surroundings and his own safety than he'd been doing for over a year. Without Jeremiah as a factor, Martin might well have just let himself be kidnapped.

As it was, he yelled for the man to get away from him, informing the entire population of the crowded hotel bar that the guy had just made a pass at him. The man was surprised, but tried to make a counteraccusation stick. After all, Martin had kissed him, right?

This was, however, reckoning without Martin's new found determination, as he drew on his not inconsiderable interpersonal skills to convince the soldiers in the bar that he was the injured party here.

Somewhere around here was a semi-imaginary conversation. That is, the players all said what I've got here, as if speaking in character, but as Joyce and Lillian were in the desert fighting off cultists at the time, I'm guessing the conversation took place inside Martin's head.

Lillian: Stab him with an umbrella.

Martin: We're in Ethiopia -- I don't have an umbrella.

Lilian: Stab him with your hat pin.

Martin: I don't have one of those. I'm not a woman, just a fairy.

Lillian: Got you to say that.

Joyce: You have something that is mightier than the sword.

While she was referring to a pen, Martin was getting results from speaking, not writing. The soldiers in the bar beat up his would-be kidnapper while he explained earnestly that he'd seen the man taking an unhealthy interest in his younger brother. Apparently, Martin had forgotten his own advice about making lies too complicated, but his audience believed every word.

Of course, Martin was still high on Nectar, the Malta variety (which was like the Los Angeles variety), not the Bangkok variety, which meant that he was extremely aroused in a bar full of Italian soldiers all fighting to protect his honor and virtue. Martin managed to keep it together enough to ask to be allowed to speak to the man later, get to his room, lock the door, and masturbate.

Another semi-imaginary conversation followed.

Martin: And that, boys and girls, is how you take out an imminent threat without firing a shot.

Joyce: Yeah, but I'm able to look at myself in the mirror.

Martin's Player: Martin can do that, no problem.

Some time later, there was a knock on the door. It was one of the Italian soldiers, apologetically explaining that Captain Renato had been informed of the situation and instructed by Josh Winters (aka Joyce) to have Martin arrested and put into protective custody. There was no need for him to return to Massaua, but the man insisted on handcuffing Martin and bringing him to wherever the soldiers were staying in Asmara.

[WAS THAT A BARRACKS? A BASE? WHAT WERE WE CALLING IT?]

Martin asked if he could see the man who'd accosted him in the bar, and he was taken to the room where the rather battered man now waited and left alone with him. As Martin started to question him, the door opened and the man with the beetle tattoo on his wrist, aka Alex Kramer, who worked for Luc Fauche, came in, gun in hand, to try again to kidnap Martin and, while he was at it, rescue the other man.

Martin: Why do you people keep trying to grab me?

Alex: Either you go out that door with me or I shoot you.

Joyce (presumably Joyce-inside-Martin's-head): I like this guy.

That made an odd amount of sense; after all, he was being strictly business, like she generally was.

Jerome and Lillian

At this point, I cut back to the desert, and gave Martin's player a bit of metaphorical whiplash as she adjusted to being Jerome again.

The cultists now dead, George Ayers indicated that he suspected they had found him via the artifacts of the Liar -- Vito's arm, Savitree's arm, and the teeth from the old mouth of the Liar (and possibly the Nectar as well). He and Joyce agreed that it was time to destroy the teeth and Savitree's arm. Lillian and Jerome agreed, and the items were ground down or burned or both -- they were, in any case, thoroughly, thoroughly destroyed.

I think the Nectar remains, as it's potentially useful when dealing with addicts and cultists. Vito's arm is still attached to the rest of Vito.

Joyce agreed to borrow the plane back and fly George Ayers somewhere else.

[I THINK THAT WAS TO A DIFFERENT PART OF THE ETHIOPIAN DESERT, CORRECT? LET ME KNOW EITHER WAY?]

Lillian spoke privately to Jerome, trying to ascertain whether Jerome thought that the guardians' numbers needed to be increased, and if so, if he might want to do that by conceiving a child with her.

Jerome: You have raised a child before?

Lillian: No, but I know how I was raised.

(I don't know about Jerome, but I don't find that entirely reassuring, and not just because Lillian is more than a little odd.)

I explained to the players, and Jerome explained to Lillian, that the number of guardians had always been small, and that the problem wasn't that their numbers had been shrinking steadily over the centuries. No, the problem was that two of the three tribes of Afar in which there were guardians were far off to the north, fighting in the Italians' war.

Lillian (with the smallest bit of a flounce): Well, I suppose I can't use saving the world as an excuse to get you to court me properly.

Jerome: Lillian, if you want to have my child, I would be happy to -- (blushing) make arrangements until that happens. But you should not feel obligated to.

He also noted, if a bit awkwardly, that it might be "poor to have symptoms while in Malta", i.e., morning sickness.

Lillian: Your brutal practicality is surprisingly romantic.

Jerome: So is yours.

He gave her a very light comradely punch on the shoulder, not yet aware of just how capable Lillian was as a combatant.

Jerome (on being asked if Afar men have multiple wives): Only if we are very rich or very lucky.

Lillian: Well, if I come back, you will be both very rich and very lucky.

Jerome: I'm very glad I've met you, Lillian Avery.

At this point, someone did a quick web search and confirmed that the Afar are apparently polygamous, which presents a problem today, given AIDS.

I think is probably the most healthy and promising relationship Lillian's been in, and that's counting Cecil.