Dramatis Personae

• Jamie J. Billings (NPC): Nonverbal. Mathematics savant. Communicates via a PDA. Shy. Tagline: “I Can Show You The Math.”
• Lynne C. Duane (NPC): Holder of Bachler’s degree in neurobiology Daughter of a famed neurosurgeon. Athletically gifted. Arrogant and overconfident. Tagline: “Of course I’m right. I’m smarter than you.”
• Tabitha E. “Tabbs” de Orellana (NPC): Latina from the Bronx. Aptitudes for mechanical engineering, chemistry, and materials science. Speaks her mind. Bossy and cocky, but not arrogant. Tagline: “No me respondas.”
• Warren P. Clark (NPC): Computer and electronics nerd. Very tall for his age (almost 6′) and big. Tagline: “Oh. What does this button do?”

Previously . . .

Back in the cabin after the nightly announcements, Benjamin has already passed out from the excitement and exhaustion of the day. Warren is currently investigating Harvey’s Geiger Counter device and is fiddling with it while singing a classic television jingle. Fiona is enjoying a book on the construction of Hoover Dam. Tabitha is sorting through the cabin’s snacks and organizing them, there’s so many healthy things there before moving to rebuilding a carburetor that she got from goodness knows where. Harlowe is going over the chess match from the previous night now that he isn’t as badly affected by the head trauma. Harvey is able to determine that Warren is attempting to make the Geiger Counter more precise with some spare parts that he’s soldering all by hand. Accepting that, Harvey turns to read a book only to get handed a copy of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Lynn is polishing her rapier, a full bladed-non practice rapier that can be blunted at the tip that her father convinced the camp to allow her to take with her as she was still in training for Olympics.

From Warren, they hear a sharp yelp of pain and electric shock as Warren tips backwards from the device. Neither Harvey nor Fiona are too concerned about him, but Harvey is concerned about the device when he tries to power it on only for it to power right back off, he starts complaining that it’s a one of a kind device, staring at it for a moment when he gets an idea on how to make it even better to detect incremental field strengths to track down different sources of energy. Since it’s nearing lights out, Warren silently hands Harvey a headlamp and sets himself up as an assistant to Harvey taking almost 2/3rds of an hour to modify it, working perfectly when he turns it on. He’s also fairly confident that if he could get the materials for it, he could build a miniaturized version of it.

Time To Make The Chimichangas

Fiona, Harlowe, and Harvey
Camp Mareki Mess Hall
Monday June 19th, 2000, 0300 hours
1898 Montauk Hwy, Montauk, NY 11954

At around 3am, everyone wakes up extremely hungry, finding Warren already eating from a jar of olives from their minifridge. Ben apparently got food earlier and went back to bed while Tabitha suggests going to the mess hall since it’s left unlocked and she could make food, perhaps some chimichangas which everyone else is rather rip roaring for the journey, unnoticed by the few counselors awake and locates the materials for food, making them like she knows exactly what she’s doing. It comes out quite nice, real tex-mex American cuisine with some churros. Every time their plate empties, she places another serving on it. She’s made sure to eat while cooking, since she’s got a rather large family at home that she helps take care of. They get to go back to the cabin where they wait for the wake-up call from their substitute counselor, Margaret Ayala.

The Sciencing Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Fiona, Harlowe, and Harvey
Camp Mareki Science Lab
Monday June 19th, 2000, 1630 hours
1898 Montauk Hwy, Montauk, NY 11954

She comes in, asking for Benjamin to come to the presentation room where he’s going to be making a presentation later. They’ve got a free period until ten AM at which point they’re to report to class. Today’s breakfast is same as previous day’s, a waffle bar, an omelet bar, lots of bacon, and plenty of shouting from the kitchen in a language that none of them speak. Harvey grabs plenty of waffles and bacon and chicken while Fiona constructs a syrup dam from her waffles while Harlowe attempts to have a nice bowl of cream of wheat, only for Tabitha to adulterate it with bacon and cheese which puts him off his meal, especially when she does it again. He resorts to going to get some fresh fruit and not taking it back to the table where it could be adulterated by bacon and cheese.

They get to go to their classes, which is basically the same as what they normally take. Fiona gets to skip over it as she graduated school early along with about twenty others. Harvey is noticing that something is definite up as things are making more and more sense to him, what ever it is, something is medically wrong as everything the teacher is saying is soaked right in, it’s somewhat terrifying. The day goes pretty quick with Tabitha and Lynn doing rather well.

Right now they’re in with Cabin D. They don’t really have any curriculum but it’s obvious that Cabin C, their group, is outpacing everyone else. They elect to eat their lunch outside at a small park area when Tabitha pulled out a composition notebook that she’s been doodling in. Saying that she’s noted they’re eating far, far more than they normally do and it may be a result of the energy they’re exposed to, saying that it’d be good if they could get some blood tests done but she doesn’t know how. Lynn and Harvey know how to draw blood, and they’d just have to get it done at the lab, they just have to figure out how and where to get the blood drawn. Harlowe just suggests they go to the nurse and say they were tasked with determining blood types as part of the curriculum.

The Nurse, Christine Weldon, accepts Warren’s smooth talking, she accepts their story and draws the blood herself.

Everyone gets a proper draw and vials of labeled blood while Tabitha does something behind her back. They head off to the lab where Lynn and Harvey work “together” to analyze the blood with Harvey doing the best job much to Lynn’s annoyance. Harlowe notices that the poster is still on the wall covering the poster with a hole in it that is covering a hole in the wall, hoping that no one else notices. Both Lynn and Harvey come to the same conclusion that their DNA has been radically altered, which isn’t cancer as none of the typical proteins are showing up and she says that a lumbar puncture for some spinal fluid would be great.

Harlowe is very confused and asks why they need one, she tells her that it’d be a great way to get proper information on the changes outside of a genetic marker analysis and Harlowe just wonders why she can’t just run a comparison before they got hit by the energy. Lynn immediately claims it was her idea and that he didn’t need to bring it up. Harlowe also suggests that they could use hair from old brushes to determine change in DNA which Lynn also claims was her idea, Harlowe just tells her to speak up next time then rather than suggest putting needles in someone’s spine. Fiona runs out and grabs the brushes and combs and labels them correctly which Lynn and Harvey gets to running the tests. They’ve got an unknown protein in their blood that has been yet to be identified, charged cells, and their metabolisms are off the charts with the lowest being Harlowe’s and the highest being Warren’s.

Tabitha also hands off a vial of blood to them to test, Steve’s blood, there’s an abnormal amount of charged cells and unusual proteins, almost 5 times the amount of charged cells and proteins that Harlowe has in his, followed by Harvey, Fiona, Benjamin and the rest. Lynn would still really like a spinal tap to check something, so they draw straws with Harlowe getting the short straw. She manages to successfully draw the fluid from Harlowe’s spine without trouble and analyzing it has her very concerned as her haughty demeanor has disappeared. There’s something in there that she’s got no idea what it is, it looks vaguely like a neurotransmitter that she’s never seen before in their brains and bodies.

Aftermath

She thinks they’ve been mutated somehow and asks if someone has been experiencing weird side effects other than the hunger. Harvey mentions that he seems to be smarter recently, absorbing information easily and modifying things like the Geiger Counter. Tabitha investigates one of the smaller pebbles she picked up from the cavern and compares it to the proteins in the blood, determining that whatever protein is in the energy aura is in their blood now. Most of the group discuss trying to experiment on other campers or animals while Harlowe protests it along with most of the others leaving only Lynn and Fiona to debate it.

After Action Report (GM)

We were missing a player today but I wanted to keep up the momentum of the game so I opted to run for just three players. I didn’t run long, but we got some exposition out of the way and it was finally revealed to everyone I think that these “kids” were more mature than their years given the things they know and could do. This is entirely on point. Camp Nightwatch aka Camp Mareki is literally 160 of the brightest young minds in the country (and maybe the world) coming together for one excellent summer. Yes, the kids are still going to school full time in whatever capacity they need to. Yes, they are working hard at it. The Mareki Foundation doesn’t except layabouts. You want to change the future? Do something about it. Then the Foundation puts its money where its mouth is by literally removing every financial obstacle a child might have so that it can study on being a better person and learning as much as possible. Is that a little farfetched? Yes. It’s a highly optimistic take on what bright students being effectively funded by a billionaire might do. But I like it. I like the brightness of it. I like the idea of the kids being the ones who want to try to save the day. It makes me happy. And right now, my players and I are vibing on the same frequency and that always makes good gameplay.

Other Notes

None.

Soundtrack

“Judith” by a Perfect Circle
“The Difference Between Medicine and Poison is in the Dose” by Circa Survive
“The Children Will Rise Up!” by Nandi Bushell