Content Warning: Strong Language
Thursday, October 17th, 1996. 4:47am
Scene Chaos Factor: 4
Expected Scene: Recovering Shani's hidden research
Testing the Expected Scene: 5 - Expected Scene
Is Nym able to move by himself? Unlikely - 80 - No
Where is Shani's research hidden? Meaning Elements Locations - 27/05 -Empty Beautiful
Why the hell did I agree to this? This has become a royal pain in my ass.
I had hoped that Shani would start to recover enough of his strength that he could walk with us to collect his research and then we could go back to my pickup and get out of here.
Unfortunately, he was too emaciated and dehydrated for that. Even the first couple of mouthfuls of just water that his father gave him caused him to vomit it all back up again. It took half an hour before he was able to keep even the tiniest amount down for any length of time. So getting him started on some food was going to have to wait.
Shani suggested that I let him collect the research using one of his drones. He wouldn't have to move physically then, and he could just get it.
I wasn't keen on that idea, as there was too great a chance of him getting lost in the 'scape again, and who knows what ejecting him again would also do to his already battered psyche. I pointed out that he was having trouble even figuring out where he was, so the he might have even more trouble than usual and end up worse off. He eventually conceded the point, but it took some convincing. I didn't say that I didn't want to give him uncontrolled access to armed drones, just to be on the safe side.
Vinit wasn't in a whole lot better shape than his son, to be honest. His food has mostly run out a week ago, and he was rationing what little he had left, but the lack of food was making him sick. At least that's what he told me. I think there's more to it than that, especially after he threw up again not long after Nym got ejected. It looks like it might be something a lot more serious, because he was wiping flecks of blood off his lips when he came back to the living room.
Eventually though, we were able to get Nym upright and supported between us. I had loaded my backpack up with some extra stuff that Vinit wasn't able to carry in his bag, including his little statue of Ganesha. I tried convincing him to leave it behind, but there was no way he was going without it.
Once we finally got moving, it was painfully slow going. Shani's muscles had lost of a lot of strength due to not eating and drinking for the past week, although I think he'd been not eating for longer than that. Vinit was fairly weak himself, so he was stumbling and tripping on the sand a lot, which made us nearly drop Nym a couple of times.
Then it turned out that the hiding place was in the opposite direction to where I'd hidden my truck. Apparently, we were headed for a place a few blocks away, but Nym lost his bearings a few times due to his brain addled state, so we ended up walking further than we needed to.
Do the three encounter anything along the way? 50/50 - 87 - No.
After an impromptu tour of the neighbourhood, we eventually managed to find the house that Nym was looking for. I guess, in his defence, in the dark, a lot of the houses did look very similar, and his physical and mental state didn't make it any easier.
We headed down the driveway beside the house, and came to a stand alone garage in the back yard. The roller door at the front was down, but we moved around the side until we came to a normal door. Nym fumbled in his pockets for a moment, and pulled out a keychain with a single key on it. He fumbled with the key in the lock, but eventually got it open.
We all went inside and he had me close the door behind us. There was only one window next to door, but it was covered with a curtain, and didn't let in much of the meagre light from outside. I fumbled around in my backpack in the dark, until I found my flashlight, and then flicked it on.
The garage itself was empty, apart from a workbench on the far side, and few cardboard boxes stacked in the far corner. There were carpet tiles covering the whole floor, so I guess they never used this to keep their car inside.
But what really caught my attention was the art. Whoever had owned this place had painted the inside in rainforest murals. Trees covered in creeper vines were abundant, as were the birds and other small animals. It made the space somehow seem a whole lot bigger than it really was.
Nym coughed abruptly, and snapped me out of my reverie. "I need your help," he whispered. He pointed over to the workbench.
"Are we looking for something in the bench?"
He shook his head. "No, no, too obvious. No, down beside the bench. Do you see it?"
I helped Vinit lower Nym to a sitting position on the ground, then walked over to where Nym had pointed. Down on the ground, right next to the bench, there was a hole cut in the carpet, and there was a small drain, covered by a grille.
"This drain?"
Nym tried to speak, but just ended up coughing again. He nodded though, as his father made him take a small sip of water from a bottle.
"I'm looking for something in here?" I said.
He nodded again.
I played with the grille for a moment, until I figured out that if I twisted it, it popped out. The pipe looked like it was made of plastic, and was about four inches in diameter, just big enough to get my hand into.
I shone the torch down the hole, and saw that the pipe was filled with cobwebs.
I looked back across at Nym. "What am I looking for in here, and how far down is it likely to be?"
He swallowed before he tried to speak again. "About six inches down, the drain should bend ninety degrees towards the wall. Just beyond the bend, you should feel something stuck to the top of the pipe."
I looked down at the webs again, and really didn't feel like putting my hand down that hole with all them in there. I grabbed the knife from my bag, and used that to clear away as many webs as I could.
Does he disturb any spiders? Very likely - 85 - No
I shone the flashlight down the hole again, and once I was convinced it was clear, I carefully slid my hand into the drain. It was a tight fit, but it was as Shani had described it. Six inches down, the pipe bend ninety degrees, and just beyond the bend - and well out of sight - I could just get my fingers around what felt some kind of small box.
I got a hold of it and was surprised when it came away from the pipe wall fairly easily. I pulled my hand out of the drain, and looked at the prize. It was a small plastic key safe, which had a magnet stuck to the side that had been attached to the pipe. I guess they had a metal plate or something for the magnet to attach down there.
After dropped the grille back into place on the drain, I got up and walked across to Nym, showing him the box. "Is this what we came for?"
He looked at the box, then held his hand out for it. I considered not giving it to him, but decided that it was quicker if he verified that it still contained whatever he was expecting, so I handed it over.
"What's in it?"
Shani slid the lid off, and what looked like some sort of memory card dropped into his palm. His fingers closed around it, and he clutched it to his chest, and closed his eyes briefly.
When he opened them again, he looked up at me. "It's a copy of my research. I have encrypted copies stored in the neuroscape, but I can't get them right now."
"That's a backup copy?" I asked.
He nodded weakly. "Not complete, but it's better than nothing."
I started putting everything in my backpack again. "Well, we got what we came for, let's get out of here."
Vinit looked at me. "Nym is exhausted. We should rest a while here first."
Empathy Check: Can Eamon convince the other two of the need to get moving quickly? Five dice - 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 - One Success.
I glanced down at my watch, then stared Vinit in the eye. "No, we don't have time. It's almost 5am, and the sun will start rising in maybe ninety minutes. When it does, the heat is going to rise fast, and that is going to make our journey a lot harder. It will also make us more visible to anyone prowling through the city. You two are in no fit state to fight or run, so I'd prefer to get back to my truck unseen."
"Can you not go get your truck and come back and pick us up?" Vinit asked, the look on his face showing he still disagreed with me.
"I could, but that would probably attract too much attention. Once we get in the truck, I want to start getting out of town. I saw a couple of vagrants wandering around when I arrived yesterday, and I don't know if any of them are armed."
Nym touched his father's arm. "He's right, Pataji. It would be easier, but it's there's a much bigger risk involved. Let's just get going and get out of this place as fast as we can."
Vinit sighed. "Is there nothing I can say that would convince you otherwise?"
"No," I said, extending my hand to help him up off the floor. "I know it's a pain, but it's not that far, and we should be able to get their fairly quickly while the air is still cool."
Vinit took my hand, and stood up, his limbs making popping sounds as he did so. "Oh, very well." he said. "I still believe this is a foolish idea, but I will not sway your mind, and you are the one who will get my son to safety."
The two of us got Nym back on his feet with a bit of a struggle, and his breathing was a bit ragged after the effort. I waited until his breathing stabilised a little before moving towards the door.
I took one last look around at the beautiful painting. Under better circumstances, I would have liked to have stayed longer for a proper look in the daylight.
"Who painted this?" I asked Nym.
He glanced over his shoulder at the mural. "An old college friend. She came out here after we graduated to work at Goldstone. She loved painting."
"She was very good," I said, as we stepped through the door. I paused briefly to make sure that the door was locked behind us.
It was too beautiful to leave the place open to anyone who might wreck it.
End of Scene Bookkeeping
The scene was calm, so the Chaos Factor decreases to three.
End of Scene Notes
This scene was something that I hadn’t anticipated, but was instead the result of the Mythic GM Emulator and how it works. The more the Chaos Factor heads away from the centre point of 5, the more one-sided the answers become. With the Chaos Factor starting to fall, there’s more “no” answers coming up in this, and less chance of random events, so things somewhat just play out.
The slightly disappointing thing about a low chaos factor is that it tends to shut you down a lot, which makes things - in my opinion - less interesting. I could deliberately ask the questions the other way, so that I’m effectively using a double negative, but I prefer to be consistent in the way I ask Fate Questions overall.
I’m still learning to drive Mythic GME, but I do think of all the solo engines I’ve tried, it’s the one that’s working best for me so far. I am looking forward to doing more with it in the future, and not just on this project.