Lou takes up position in the hallway near the ex-telephones and waits to see how Kris does.
Ill make my role later, but before midnight.
hey guys, my Internet has upgraded from sporadic to intermittent, so I should be able to post a bit. Can’t roll, though.
Gerald will ogle the video camera a bit and let things take their course with the ghost. If it loos necessary, he’ll jump in with his Fast Talk to try and smooth things over.
Kris, hearing the noise from the back, attempts to talk to Marie, the mysterious ghost that has haunted their new digs.
“Boys, let me talk to her. I have a way with these things.”
Kris looks into the ether, hoping to see Marie again.
“Marie, listen to me. Baby, it’s not easy to be the one to tell you this, but Ralph is gone. But wait! So are you! You aren’t living with us anymore, sweetie. You died years(decades, actually) ago and Ralph has died as well. Know this, though. Ralph took over this building and he did not continue this building’s medical practices and it has sat here empty for decades! Isn’t that a testament to his love? Maybe you should go and join him in the afterlife. And be together forever.”
Kris is silent, waiting for a response.
Kris rolled a 17 for smooth talking. He also rolled a ghost, though.
Brian moves quickly over to the break room to get a good shot of the ‘festivities’
Long post tonight, but don’t worry it’s coming!
- The Confrontation
Our Intrepid Heroes once again prepare themselves for contact with the great beyond.
Kris makes sure everyone’s equipment is working(and are turned on, etc.) and heads back to the rear of the building.
Kris rolls 18 + 2(no ghost) for equipment check, equally 20.
Kris is surprised when he tests his PKE meter: the PKE readings in this building are off the scale! Certain there must be some mistake, he checks the settings. Nope, the device is definitely reading energies beyond its ability to measure, coming from all around him!
“This can’t be right” muses Kris as he begins to examine his device more carefully, then removes the back cover and makes some careful measurements.
“Ah-ha!” exclaims Kris, triumphantly. “Good thing I checked this first” he says, adjusting a bit of wiring that had short-circuited. “It should be working just fine, now.”
The device was slightly damaged, internally, causing the device to reverse its display. Low readings were displaying as high, and a high amount of PKEnergy would have read as very low. No PKE at all, therefore, was registering as ‘off the scale’. Fortunately, you discovered this before taking any PKE readings whatsoever. Good job, I suppose!
All the other equipment is in perfect operating condition, including Brian’s videocamera. The Professor decides to splurge a little; he opens up a brand-new blank videocassette, expensive and high-quality, inserts it into his machine, adjusts his Paranormality Filter, and begins recording. “This is it” he thinks. “Finally, I’ll have proof to show back at the University!”
Much moving of icons ensued. I’ve adjusted my plans slightly to accommodate the players as much as possible.
Brian follows Louis down the right side of the hallway; Kris, J.T., and Gerald make their way down the left. Kristopher cautiously walks out into the middle of the warehouse area; Gerald takes up a guarded stance near the benches and readies his Proton Pack, while J.T. ducks into his office for safety. Lou and the Professor take up their positions at the end of the hallway, and the Professor sets up his camcorder near the break room. He peers through the viewfinder, adjusts the focus, and…
There! There it is… Professor Brian Jenkins can just make out the spectral form of a beautiful young woman, floating in the semi-darkness of the garage. She hovers gracefully near the disassembled Chevrolet Suburban, all her concentration focused on the vehicle. Or, rather, on a single socket wrench, floating in midair before her, surrounded by a faint red glow. As he watches, the wrench approaches the vehicle, and adjusts itself over an already-loosened bolt within its assembly. The glow fades in and out with Marie’s effort, and the wrench slowly turns back and forth, loosening the bolt… click… click click…
Be honest… how many of you noticed the woman’s icon near the vehicle? I agonized for entire MINUTES trying to place her somewhere visible, but not obvious, to simulate your characters uncertainty and her partial invisibility!
Meanwhile, Kristopher approaches the vehicle. He calls out to the phantasm:
“Marie, listen to me. Baby, it’s not easy to be the one to tell you this, but Ralph is gone.” With this, he’s definitely gotten her attention. The glow around the wrench intensifies, and it rises into the air as the Phantasm turns to watch Kris. “But wait!” he continues. “So are you! You aren’t living with us anymore, sweetie. You died years(decades, actually) ago and Ralph has died as well.” This statement guarantees her attention; she begins to wail, passing immaterially through the Suburban’s frame towards him.
Kris rolled a 17 for smooth talking. He also rolled a ghost, though.
At first, Kristopher thinks he’s getting through to her. And he is… she’s listening to every word he says! But he can tell she’s getting agitated again… steeling his nerves, he continues his speech.
“Know this, though. Ralph took over this building and he did not continue this building’s medical practices and it has sat here empty for decades! Isn’t that a testament to his love? Maybe you should go and join him in the afterlife. And be together forever.”
At this, the Phantasm wails in agony, decades of emotional torture coming out in the fury of a woman scorned (and we all know how painful that can be, am I right guys?)
The wrench suddenly flashes with a blinding red pulse of ectomorphic light; it hurls through the air, instantly accelerated to incredible speed, and is coming right at Kristopher’s head!
Marie rolled a 3, no ghost, for her attack. Kristopher (the GM) rolled a 10, no ghost, for a MOVES roll to dodge the attack. The attack misses.
The socket wrench hurls towards Kris, who ducks just in time, and it crashes into the workbenches behind him, harming nobody.
NOOOO! wails the Phantasm, roaring towards Kristopher. “He’s NOT! Ralph would never leave me! Ralph loves me! He’s coming to get me, he just told me so, and we’re leaving this awful place!
And its awful CARS!
And its awful
horrible
DOCTORS!”
With this, the phantasm reveals her other power (most ghosts will have two special abilities; some may have more, some fewer.): TERRORIZE!
Marie rolls 12, no ghost, to TERRORIZE.
Suddenly, from within the faintly glowing mist that is her normal form, a figure takes shape and begins to grow… a hideously misshapen, ghoulish monster, fully visible, roars a challenge as its eyes bug out and huge, sharp teeth jut from an enormous, slavering mouth, frightening the Ghostbusters.
As part of your next turn, I will need each player to make a COOL roll to keep your cool. If you roll MORE than 12, you remain calm and can take whatever action you like. If you roll EQUAL TO OR LESS THAN 12, you are TERRORIZED, and can take no effective action this turn. In either case, please describe your character’s reactions to this ‘attack’.
One good way to determine how frightened your character is (or isn’t) is by the degree of success or failure. For example, if you roll a 30+ for your COOL, you aren’t phased at all, and might simply shrug it off or even ignore her altogether. 
A roll of 5 or less might indicate that your character has panicked and is running away for dear life, pushing children, old ladies, and clowns out of the way in your haste to exit the building as quickly as possible. :eek: A roll of 13, just baaarely passing, might indicate that you wet yourself, just a little bit, but managed to stand your ground.
Use your imagination, and remember what would your character do?
Brian screams in terror and runs into the batheroom screaming in terror, slams and locks the door!
Kris bolts out the room, not saying anything. He’s too scared to scream. He is running at full speed away from the ghost, down the hall, and his pants are kind of sagging as he runs as well. It’s odd to watch. Did he just crap his pants?
Kris rolled a 5 for cool and also rolled a Ghost.
In the distance, the other characters can hear a door slam. Sounds like it came from down the hall, by the bathrooms.
The shreiking, gibbering, horrifying form of the Phantasm has struck fear into our fearless heroes!
Brian rolled 5+ghost, and is terrorized.
Kristopher rolled 5+ghost, and is terrorized.
Gerald rolled 28, no ghost, and is unfazed.
Louis made no roll, so the GM is about to roll for him: 10, no ghost. Louis is terrorized.
J.T. Roth rolled 8+ghost, and is terrorized.
Brian screams in terror and runs into the batheroom screaming in terror, slams and locks the door!
Brian will remain in the bathroom 1d4-1 TURNS. (dieroll 2 -1 = 1 turn) before being able to act again.
A GHOST was rolled, so there is an as-yet unknown ‘something bad’ which has happened to him.
Kris bolts out the room, not saying anything. He’s too scared to scream. He is running at full speed away from the ghost, down the hall, and his pants are kind of sagging as he runs as well. It’s odd to watch. Did he just crap his pants?
Kristopher has disappeared from view. He will remain where he is for 1d4-1 TURNS. (dieroll 4 -1 = 3 turns) before being able to act again.
A GHOST was rolled; Mahaloth has chosen to have Kristopher ‘crap his pants’ as the bad thing that happens.
Mahaloth, you have the option to spend Brownie Points to mitigate your terror. One brownie point will reduce that by 1 turn, with a minimum of 1. In other words, spending two brownie points will allow you to act, not this coming turn, but next.
Louis stands as still as a statue, frightened beyond the capacity for rational thought. His eyes grow wide and a stream of gibberish spews from his slack-jawed mouth; on second thought, he is speaking Cajun, so it’s possible that they’re real words but nobody can understand them. Louis takes no further action this turn.
Louis will remain frozen in place for 1d4-1 turns. (dieroll 2 -1 = 1 turn) before being able to act again.
No ghost was rolled so there is no further penalty.
J.T. Roth stares silently, his features frozen in a rictus of terror. Slowly, his eyes roll back in his head and his mouth opens; he begins to tip backwards… slowly… slowly… like a tree falling in a forest, he drops heavily to the ground, smashing a small table on his way down. J.T. is unconscious and won’t be waking up any time soon.
J.T. will remain unconscious until the GM stops thinking it’s funny.
Gerald’s years of practice at keeping his cool have paid off; he seems unconcerned by the enormous screaming figure and lets loose a blast of protonic energy at the phantasm.
(GM’s choice of action for absent player.)
Gerald (the GM) makes a MOVES roll: 13, no ghost. Success!
Gerald’s proton beam lashes out at the phantasm, blasting it with energy and reducing its ECTOPRESENCE to zero; the ghost can now be CONTAINED.
Reminder: Once a ghost’s ECTOPRESENCE is zero, it can be CONTAINED by a Proton Pack on the CONTAINMENT setting. ONE such beam will hold the ghost in place. TWO containment beams are required to maneuver it into a GHOST TRAP. It is ‘impossible’ for Gerald to trap this ghost on his own.
Gerald switches his Proton Pack over to the containment setting, and holds it in place for a moment. However, he cannot do so indefinitely. The proton pack begins to overheat, and he reluctantly switches off the beam, releasing the Phantasm.
The Phantasm knows it is in trouble, but is angry enough to continue fighting. Her form slowly shifts back to ‘normal’ as she redirects her energy to her TELEKINESIS power.
One of the wheels from the Chevrolet Suburban rises into the air, surrounded by a faint red glowing mist. It begins to shake and shudder as the Phantasm charges it with energy…
Ok, that worked well… for me! Hahahahahaha!
I wasn’t expecting to take out almost the entire party, but it’s certainly put a twist in the story hasn’t it?
Ironically, the one player who is least likely to post an action is the only one left standing. Therefore, the next turn will be Gerald vs. The Phantasm, and hence, will be held unless and until Gerald is able to make his move.
All other characters will be unable to usefully act during this time; they may, of course, talk, scream, gibber incoherently, or otherwise be frightened.:eek:
Gerald watches his companions flee, then takes a comb from his back pocket and runs it thoughtfully through his hair. He turns to the ghost t and watches it for a moment.
"one last try can’t help, I suppose, " he mutters to himself.
To the ghost: Marie, sweewith you gotta listen to me. Ralph has a message for you. I spoke with him, just like I’m speaking with you. Do you want to hear it? I can’t talk to you like this and you know Ralph would hate to see you this this way.
Gerald speaks with his hands out and moves sideways, so that the ghosts attention will move away from the door the other busters, and they can hopefully come back unmolested.
(let’s go all out. Four brownie points on the fast talk roll. Please to apologize for errors II’m sitting in an airport right now.)
Curses! Sorry about missing the deadline, I’mtthree hours behind EST right now and keep forgetting.
Hi Johnny. Headed home I presume? I’m guessing you’ll be back before midnight tonight, so I’ll let you roll your own dice for this later on. Have a good flight, and may you get a cute TSA agent to pat you down!
No biggie, but the last turn has already been posted, so… see ya tonight!
I’ll be home Sunday evening, but definitely beforemmidnight. Long day of travel ahead.
Kris rolls 4 for his role, minus 1. He is terrorized for 3 turns. However, he will use up 3 brownie points to be immediately free.
After scrubbing his shorts clean, Kris stares at his hands. He stares at his slightly less crappy shorts. He stares at the mirror. “What am I freaking out about?” he think, “It’s just some crazy dead lady who can’t get over her still-alive boyfriend. Heck, if she was *alive and mourning her dead boyfriend, it’d make sense. Even make a good movie, probably.”
And with this, Kris feels a lot better and runs back down the hall to face off with Marie once more.
Ghost came out in 1990. Maybe Kris wrote it? 
Sorry buddy… gotta be out at least one turn.
Terrorize is a pretty powerful ability; there’s gotta be SOME penalty! 1d4-1 turns means 50% odds of being out one, and 25% odds of either 2 or 3 turns. Not too bad but still, it’s something!
Besides, it’s gonna take more than a few seconds to clean up that mess! [grossout smiley]
Professor Jenkins sits balled up by the toilet, shaking uncontrollably, trying to get it together.
I roll 2 Brownie dice, a 2 and a 5
Fine, same set of plans, but he’ll use two brownie points to reduce it to one turn out. He’ll then go and join the battle again.
I started posting something here but decided it would be better served over in the OOC thread:
Long Drawn-Out Post You Should Read, All About Brownie Points.
Alrighty, I’ll just say that my last bit that I wrote up is my current turn. Gerald uses 4 brownie points on his fast talk roll and ends up with a total of 36, no GHOST.