Empty Stage

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Encounter Conditions

Halloween 2010

Initial Text

You come to the stage that they have set up for the Emerald Gift. It's not much to look at now, but there still seems to be a lot of work ongoing.

You can see wires running everywhere and massive speakers to the sides. If they get this done in time, it'll be a damned impressive stage, but that is kind of a big if.

Summary of Choices

1. Check the supports -
   1. Break them -
   2. Steal one -
   3. Try at repair -
   4. Crawl out-
2. Follow the cables -
   1. Steal the strays - Only after adding some cabling
   2. Start disconnecting cables - Only after adding some writhing cabling
   3. Run thick cabling
   4. Run writhing cable
   5. Crawl out
   6. Crawl for your life Only after adding some writhing cabling
3. Examine the speakers -
   1. Dismantle one -
   2. Smash one -
   3. Study them -
   4. Swap out a processor - Only if you have a gold processor and studied them to find one missing
   5. Add some gel - Only if you have reactive gel and studied them to find one missing
   6. Replace a coil - Only if you have magnetic coil and studied them to find one missing
   7. Leave them -
4. Jack in some tunes - After studying the speakers
5. Leave it -

Choice Text and Results

Check the supports

You crawl under the stage. It'd be tall enough to stand in, but with supports criss-crossing everywhere, it's easier to slink along the ground.

Even with those supports, though, the stage overhead seems a little shaky. It's probably still a work in progress.

Break them

while etheric:

You lash out and begin attacking the supports, only to find them attacking you back.

(Fight a trash golem)

otherwise

You bend at the polysteel poles with your hands a bit ineffectively. You eventually find one that looks a little less sturdy and land a swift kick.

It cracks and breaks apart, leaving a section of the stage unsupported. Heh heh heh.

You've earned 4 XP in Strength

Steal one

You pull and tug on one of the supports, eventually finding you can unscrew it. Hey, free support!

You found: polysteel support

Try at repair

You check over the polysteel supports. Some are damaged and they could use a ton more of them.

They're not very complicated. You could probably make them with a bunch of polysteel and a blowtorch.

You've learned a new armory recipe: Polysteel Support - Melt together eight handfuls of Polysteel into a support pole

(Or, with Polysteel Support in inventory)

You go ahead and add another support then check over your work. Lookin' good!

Crawl out

You crawl out from under the stage and wander off. No harm, no foul, right?

Follow the cables

You carefully follow the cables beneath the stage.

It's pretty barren down here right now. Either they haven't made much progress or some jerk's been stealing all the cable.

Or, after running some cables

You carefully follow the cables beneath the stage.

There are quite a few cables down here already. You can see a few points where they don't connect, though, so they definitely could use some more.

Or, after running some writhing cables

You carefully follow the cables beneath the stage.

It's… creepy down here. The cables glisten like serpents crawling between the sparse beams of light from above. They even seem to move, brushing against your feet whenever you're not looking at them.

And that omnipresent hum in the background… more like the bass line in an old chant than the comparatively rather comforting sound of an electrical generator.

Steal the strays

You pull apart the cables, coiling them up for later. I mean, nobody would just leave all these cables around, right?

You found: 3 lengths of frayed cable

Start disconnecting cables

You detach a section of cabling and quickly escape. It's creepy down there.

You found: thick cabling

Or (does not require Etheric)

As you start trying to detach the cables, dozens of them twist and writhe into a vaguely humanoid shape. That… that is not normal.

It stalks towards you, crackling with green energies.

(Fight a Trash Golem, which has a special "Cable Lash" move)

Run thick cabling

You run a length of thick cabling from the central box towards the speakers.

Or, if there is already some thick cabling in place

You get down into the mess of cables and run another length of thick cable. Man, who knew a band would require so much electronics?

Or, after running some writhing cables

You snap some more thick cabling into place, finding it makes the hum louder.

Run writhing cable

You wrestle the writhing cable into place. With great effort, it eventually snaps in and the entire network of cables gives a strange shiver.

Or, after running some writhing cables

You slip the writhing cable easily into place. The hum grows louder and it crackles visibly with energy.

This is going to be the best party ever!

You've earned 6 XP in Will

Crawl for your life

You crawl out as though the hounds of hell are at your feet. Who knows, maybe they are?

Go exploring

You explore the under of the stage some. You don't find anything too interesting, but you feel a bit like a kid that just found a playground hidden in their classroom.

You've earned 3 XP in Perception

You've earned 3 XP in Reflexes

You've earned 3 XP in Strength

Examine the speakers

You go over to look at the speaker stacks. They're huge. Unless they're terrible speakers, which you somehow doubt, just two of them would probably be plenty for this ballroom.

With this many, if they actually powered them all up… you could probably see the ripples in people's water glasses downtown. Or, you know, wineglasses or brandyglasses or whatever they drink up there.

Dismantle one

It's a shame these speakers are too big to just up and steal. They'd look great in your apartment.

Ah well. You content yourself with cutting the side of one open and extracting some components.

You found: 5 of: gold foil, circuit fragments, microcapacitor, frayed cable, others?

Smash one

You go all out and smash a speaker, listening to the earsplitting feedback shriek through the hall as you break delicate electronic components.

You've earned 6 XP in Strength

Or, with security around

You rush up to the speaker and begin hammering at it, only to be interrupted by a security guard. You suppose that's to be expected with as much noise as you were making.

(Fight Dock Security)

Or, with hipsters around

As you stalk towards the speaker, you find yourself interrupted by an unlikely foe: one of the college's innumerable artists. He seems pretty dead set on preventing you from wrecking the place and attacks you to the best of his, obviously limited, skill.

(Fight a Hipster)

Study them

You find where the students put the test console. It has a pretty self-explanatory set of knobs and dials, along with a basic input jack.

Running through the tests, you find one of the speakers has a blown magnetic coil. You make a mental note of that in case you're near that speaker later.

Or

You find where the students put the test console. It has a pretty self-explanatory set of knobs and dials, along with a basic input jack.

Running through the tests, you find one of the speakers is missing its reactive gel. You make a mental note of… wait, what?

You've learned better than to trust your memory on most stuff, but you're pretty sure reactive gel is strictly military grade. Who uses military grade materials in their speakers? And then uses polysteel for the cases?

That's just weird.

Or

You find where the students put the test console. It has a pretty self-explanatory set of knobs and dials, along with a basic input jack.

Running through the tests, you find one of the speakers has a bad processor. Oh, man, it's probably one of the old ones with the gold connectors too. What a pain.

You make a mental note of it for later in case you happen to be near that speaker with a good processor.

Swap out a processor (Good (1))

You find the speaker that reported the processor problems and open it up. Well, normally it'd be an easter egg hunt to find the broken component, but in this case you just follow the smoke stains.

You hope the old processor catching on fire was a freak accident and not some design flaw. And, either way, hopefully folks find out before the party.

Add some gel (Good (1))

You open up the speaker you remember having a gel shortage. Huh, sure enough, there's a little cavity with a bit of reactive gel residue in the bottom.

The idea of figuring out the acoustics of that… with the pressure waves making it solidify… and then… wow.

You stop thinking about that before your brain boils and pour in the replacement reactive gel.

Replace a coil (Good (1))

You open the speaker you remember having the blown coil. Wow, yeah, it's charred black and everything.

It's weird, these are usually pretty sturdy, but the old one crumbles in your hands like sand.

Jack in some tunes

(With no music playing)

You connect your comm to the titanic sound system, but there's not really anything to play. You suppose you could alway pipe your comm's ring tone so loud that people in the Happy Hour could hear it.

Then again maybe that's not the best idea.

(With Halloween Lament playing)

You connect your comm to the titanic sound system and expose your musical tastes to the world.

You decide now would be a great time for some sad music. You know, just to give everyone perspective.

The students stop to listen. You can hear 4 punks leave noisily, as though they're trying to drown out the music.

Well, that should make it easier to keep things under control.

(With 571 or Brain Staples playing)

You connect your comm to the titanic sound system and expose your musical tastes to the world.

You pipe some serious music over the speakers. Yaaaaah!

If there are no punks around:

Sadly, nobody else seems to appreciate real music here.

Otherwise, under some circumstance (with brain staples playing?):

The punks throughout the hall, regardless of their mission, throw up the horns and return to their tasks with renewed gusto.

Or, under some other circumstance?:

The punks on the floor look up as you play 571. Several of them toss down their pamphlets and start trashing things.

Or

The punks look up as you blare 571. One of them screams in rage, tosses down the pamphlets he had been handing out, and starts trashing things.

Or, if Brain Staples and most punks are currently distributing fliers?

The punks on the floor throw up the horns, then go about handing out pamphlets with renewed gusto. Cries of "Free booze! Seriously! Free! Motherfucking! Booze!" ring from every corner of the hall.

(With Emerald Gift playing)

You connect your comm to the titanic sound system and expose your musical tastes to the world.

You pipe some awesome Halloween music over the speakers.

The hipsters pause for a moment, entranced by Emerald Gift, then return to their tasks with renewed vigor.

And, with no monsters in the portal?

As you listen along, you can see a pinprick of green light flicker over the stage. Slowly, tentacles of what look like liquid metal begin to snake out.

(With Unlabeled Music playing)

You connect your comm to the titanic sound system and expose your musical tastes to the world.

You pipe some awesome Halloween music over the speakers.

The hipsters pause for a moment then return to their tasks with renewed vigor.