Dramatis Personae

• Jamie J. Billings (NPC): Nonverbal. Mathematics savant. Communicates via a PDA. Shy. Power: Time Control 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. Power: Telepathy. 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. Powers: Hyper-Intelligence and Kyberic Energy Control. Tagline: “No me respondas.”
• Warren P. Clark (NPC): Computer and electronics nerd. Very tall for his age (almost 6′) and big. Powers: Hyper-Strength and Technopathy. Tagline: “Oh. What does this button do?”

Previously . . .

The group has made up a quick plan of social attack, with Fiona starting off by speaking with Flit as they’ve got the same classes, using it as a pretext for pumping her for information, asking how they put together their group and is told that Jennifer is mostly responsible for that, calling her a good leader. That she always breaks things down logically for how they’re supposed to be doing things. That she will leave things up to other people to plan stuff, like Cody. She also learns that Flit is a nickname that her mother had given her when she was young. It’s easy to tell that she’s resents Fiona a bit for being rich as even Maraki’s stipend isn’t enough. She’s also somewhat annoyed that there’s people with powers other than her group as it seemed like she was special for a while. Overall, Flit doesn’t seem like a terribly person despite her feelings about the others.

For the Gifted?

Benjamin, Fiona, Harlowe, and Harvey
Meraki Institute for the Gifted
Monday, September 23rd, 2002 1630 hours
605 E 9th St, New York, NY 10009

Benjamin is sent to speak with Carol, using their knowledge of Carol’s school schedule to determine when best to approach her, trying to figure out more about Jennifer’s leadership style. Carol telling him the same as Flit told Fiona, that Cody is the one planning things as he’s got an uncle, Renzo, in the mob. Carol does have a rather nervous look around her, there’s some obvious anxiety and panic issues, very jittery. Benjamin apologizes again for what happened to her the previous day and that he’s available to speak with. She’s a bit sad that the rest have more controllable and less destructive abilities and whenever she gets upset or panicked, it tends to cause problems.

Benjamin brings it back around to what Jennifer is having the group do, asking if Jennifer understands Carol’s situation to keep her out of harm’s way. Carol says that she mostly serves as a distraction as they don’t want to hurt anyone, they’re just there to get money as when she got involved with the Foundation, her and her mother were almost evicted until the foundation’s endowment came for them. . . and then her mother got diagnosed with cancer. Carol is just struggling to pay the bills. She’d read about Benjamin before in magazines, that they call him the young earth man causing her to laugh at the nickname and for them to joke together.

Harvey drags Warren along to buddy up with Raymond. Ray is absolutely enthused to talk gadgetry with others and is absolutely confused as to how Harvey’s gadget works as it’s detecting something that he didn’t even think of. Suitably impressed enough to look over it, taking it apart and putting it together and asking over what a certain part is, a portion of rocks they found in the cave. They’re using it to compare energy signatures, talking about some spare rocks to experiment on further. Warren, on the other hand, is just a bit more confused than the other two.

Harvey talks about the rocks, the stairs, the cave as Harvey and Warren both don’t have a filter before talking about what Raymond has built, talking about his Raybeam. Digging under his bed, he pulls out what looks like giant erector seat pieces which eventually gets turned into an unfinished exosuit with only one hand that seems finished that looks like a miniature jet engine telling the others that’s where the beam comes out. It’s even a rather destructive beam that he’s basing off of the climax from the Aliens film to make him stronger, showing that he can easily pick up thirty-pound barbells with ease and then offers Harvey a chance to wear it, it’s a lot lighter than what he thought it would have been with the titanium-tungsten alloy. However he’s run out of the money to keep building it. Harvey segues this into asking about money and building things. Apparently Raymond’s father lost the use of his legs in combat in Afghanistan and after his father got out, he came up with the idea for the exoskeleton to help his father walk and get more money to make the exoskeleton to work with. The cool part is a small hexagonal piece that is remote neurotransponders which react to the wearer’s intentions which he got the idea for from comic books.

Asking about patenting the designs and selling them which wasn’t the first thing to think about, he didn’t want companies to get a hold of that and start monopolizing the tech and charging people millions. After all, it’s not like they can do a free patent after all. He’d want to do it his own business but that isn’t something he’s got the head for, at least according to him. They keep going for the rest of the evening with some video games with Raymond coming out on top every time in Mario Kart.

Harvey is able to determine, over their time together, that Raymond isn’t happy about the bank robbery, that he doesn’t feel good about it, that his father wouldn’t feel good about it, and that he’s conflicted about it even though all the money is insured. He also learns that Raymond feels that Jennifer is really intense, even moreso than Carol and that she may be smarter than all of them, a good friend, a good person despite robbing banks. When she lays things down in a logical way, that she’s not doing it for the adrenaline like Cody and they just need the money immediately for their own things as they can’t wait for the third year stipend. Over all, the three have a good time as Raymond is laid back and chill, occasionally stopping to write down the ideas that he’s got. He even gives Harvey a moleskin notebook, saying that every engineer should have one and suggests they work on a project together, perhaps with the ore which Harvey is going to talk with the group with.

Warren, having had retrieved the deleted posts from Lisa’s Livejournal, Harlowe looks through them. About a year back, she had the most vivid dream of 9/11 and that there were crazy things happening there along with things that other people don’t seem to remember. She deleted the post, however, as she was terrified of her being thought a part of what happened that day, it’s disturbing to read and it’s somewhat obvious that she’s got a precognitive gift. She’s also aware of her gift in a way that the others don’t seem to be, she knows just how far from human she is now. The tone doesn’t quite change, but after a few months there’s more talk about Jennifer and that she’s the right one to lead their group. She doesn’t seem happy with the banks, that there were three robberies, not just one. The first was a mess, there were injuries that happened to others involved but not to them. In one of her other deleted journal entries, she describes Harlowe almost perfectly, in all caps below and underlined is “He will help us.”.

While reading, Harlowe falls asleep, floating in some clouds. It’s a very nice dream with them resting on some fluffy clouds only for Harlowe to say that it would have been better for bean bags. He’s suddenly resting on some bean bags at the pool house at Camp Nightwatch as Lisa apologizes, saying that she’s still new to this. Harlowe isn’t quite convinced, but she says it’s mostly the truth. She offers him a drink, a lemonade just like the chef would make on hot days, he takes the glass to give her a sense of security. She doesn’t speak much about things, just that she dreamed of him, and dreamed of Harlowe before. That he would save them. She just cannot tell him what he will be saving them from, a zipper forming over her mouth. It’s a short dream, but Harlowe does get one question in, if what she’s been dreaming of will have a good end or just a good enough one. She quotes The Rolling Stones at him before they wake and says to say yes to what Jennifer asks of him.

They share their tales when Carol comes in, saying that Jennifer wants to speak with them, all of them, much to their dismay. Jennifer speaks with them, saying that with that many people they could do a large bank, that some of them don’t need the money but that’s fine, they could donate it to someone else. Saying that they’re doing it for the right reasons, such as Ray’s dad, Carol’s mother, that the money is insured by the FDIC. Harvey starts commenting about things and asking what the big motivation is. Jennifer says that the world isn’t fair and they need to make it fair, perhaps donating money to charity funds for underprivileged and homeless. When asked about doing crime to do good things, she brings up Robin Hood. Benjamin asks other alternative for money only for Jennifer to hit back that they have no other choices, they can’t get jobs, they can’t patent things as they’re kids only to hear that Jennifer doesn’t trust her parents.

Benjamin and Harvey keep demurring though, suggesting speaking with an adult, perhaps someone with powers to work with the patents but Jennifer says there’s no guarantee he wouldn’t keep the money for himself. Fiona says they’ve got a teleporter and a density controller, what more do they really need then? She explains about security deposit boxes that are marked and kept there and Cody’s uncle got all the information and all the boxes have money that was confiscated by drug dealers and other criminals and the rest of the money from the bank they’d be able to set up their own business and funnel their ideas into it. They’d need to work together, the vault is on a timer that they’d need to get into. Fiona says she could get through there easily.

They’re suddenly in a large number of schematics and discussing a bank robbery. Cody could get someone there with him but they’d need more people in there to help with things. Harlowe easily spots several things wrong with the plan, including police response times, number of people on the floor. Jennifer keeps going back over the Robin Hood analogy whenever someone questions her and Fiona keeps wondering how much Cody can move through a wall, apparently, he needs some good focus or otherwise he gets pushed out. The more she talks, the more persuasive she starts sounding. Harvey still wants the DNA sample though. Fiona asks about moving the goods as it would take time, maybe Benjamin could tunnel their way upwards but there’d be difficult to actually reconstruct it easily.

Fiona is leaning into it easily, suggesting distractions around. Jennifer and Carol were whipping up fires around town in dumpsters and getting in and out would leave them unnoticed. Cody would phase in, disable the alarm systems, Benjamin may tunnel in from below and load out the stuff en masse and then get out, possibly restoring the alarms on the way out. Cody has to reluctantly accept that Fiona has a decent plan. Flit has the papers on underground sewers and tunnels in the area and determines that there’s some there from back in the 40s. They want to get it done by the weekend, otherwise the FBI would move it before then. Start the tunnel on Thursday and finally hit them on Friday which’d give them time to plan. Fiona is in on it, Benjamin is a bit more reluctant for a moment until Jennifer reiterates the Robin Hood analogy. They also determine the entrance and exit

Harlowe wants to know what they’re going to do about schoolwork, getting assigned to taking care of that along with a few others like Lionel/Crash, Lisa/Dreamweaver, and a few others as Harlowe also draws in Lynn.

Plotting things out, their entry/egress would be a former speakeasy, now Chinese restaurant, that has a sewer entrance that leads down into other tunnels. Cody has to make some calls about getting things out of the alleyway when they arrive. Harvey starts making some knockout drugs, as long as it contacts a person’s skin it will get into their system and puts it into an aerosol grenade. Harlowe and the rest starts working on the homework they need to complete, making a special assignment for Jennifer.

Casing the Joint

Benjamin, Fiona, Harlowe, and Harvey
Roosevelt Savings Bank
Thursday, September 26th, 2002 1530 hours
4419 13th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11219

Thursday night, Warren and Cody get together and plants a white noise generator to jam the signals on the cameras and Cody attempts to pose as a repairman to check the alarms but ends up arguing with a woman while Warren disables them with a touch. The night of the heist, Crash and Burn set several dumpster fires around the borough. Benjamin starts working his way through the earth, stunting his powers to make a tunnel as he passes through.

Aftermath

What they didn’t expect is that there are people there after hours and the vault door is open. They’re moving money by cart nearby. Fiona readies one of the aerosol grenades and steps to the door of the vault. Hearing them talking that they’re moving the money early to make things easier on them, just get the job over and done with. With the one grenade, Fiona manages to knock out one person and ducks back, hearing one of them calling in the robbery before following his partner into unconsciousness. It’s going to start getting sketchier as people work in the darkness

After Action Report (GM)

Today’s session was a bit of a slow burn with a lot of roleplaying and a huge set up that was partially engineered by the PCs themselves. Are the PCs mind-controlled or did they buy into Jennifer’s bullshit? If they are controlled what can they possibly do? Yes, I left it at a cliffhanger as I rather enjoy those at times. My players are already talking about what they want to do next and Chris D. has been scheming behind closed threads. Overall, should be very interesting next session.

Other Notes

We had technical difficulties with Discord’s vidchat system – which is fine for everything it seems but recording. We tried LiveKit on Foundry and … nope. That didn’t work so I slapped down the $15 to get a month of Zoom. SIGH. I will admit though that it DID work well, no drops, no robot voice, nothing. Gonna see how it goes and evaluate it to see if it’s going to be my main thing or not.

Soundtrack

“Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind
“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones
“I Love Robbing Banks” by David Allan Coe