Recruitment #09
Lacuna, Part I. The Birth of Mystery and the Girl from Blue City
Two new players to introduce to the fun of Jared Sorensen's Lacuna. Rocky gave me a worried look when I mentioned to him that I was thinking of running another session of this game for Erich and Aldwin, who good friends of mine, who had showed up for a game night. We had a round of The Last Night On Earth prior to starting, so we were definitely in the mood for something dark.
As usual, I started the game with Reception, with the two players very quickly learning how meta this game is approached. I reminded them not to try to think of character concepts and to just go through the reception interview as they filled out their Agent Record sheets. Whenever I mentioned to them that they confirmed things before or had fulfilled certain prior requirements, I dashed away confused looks by reminding them, "Memory loss is quite common when working for the Company." Rocky, of course, playing Senior Agent Mason, noticed very quickly how we referred more to "the Company" now rather than the Blue City.
Agents Dyey (Erich) and Agent Hammer (Aldwin) were on the case. Agent Dyey was trained by the late Chief Agent Miner (Credit) and had a Talent for Logistics. Agent Hammer was trained by Chief Agent Wagner (Reader) and had a Talent for Investigation.
The three then entered the Blue City.
Agent Hammer found himself at a street, with a parking lot to his left, a fenced area to the right, and a tall ten storey building behind him. At a distance, an area was suddenly illuminated by a lamp post, showing a group of people seated with their heads bowed before a man on a podium. The man seemed to be giving some kind of lecture or reading. Agent Hammer looked up and saw a billboard atop the building. The billboard read: Now the Journey Begins!
Agent Dyey found himself in a room facing a large window. Peering out of the window, he quickly noticed the street below and the sight of a fellow agent who was walking upon it towards the lit area. He could hear the distant sound of a ringing phone. He finds a bunch of jars in a shelf nearby, some containing what seem to be spidery parts and mechanical stuff. A small eyeball on a mechanical spider's body skitters away from him before he could catch it.
Senior Agent Mason awoke in a room with a massive eye painted in white across a black wall. The pupil of the eye was exactly where the door stood. He saw a phone on the ground in front of him and it starts ringing. Instead of answering it, Senior Agent Mason uses his Caller Technique to reach Control instead. To his surprise, Control now uses a new approach upon communicating with a Mystery Agent. Control asks the Agent to identify himself, then asks if the other Agents are in the vicinity. If they are, Control asks for the names of the Agents whose Lacuna devices the caller can see. If these "match" with Control's data, the Agent is confirmed identified. Mason smiles, as this will cut down on the communication confusion whenever Static occurs. He quickly asks for the mission parameters, and they are a bit of a shock.
Control mentions that the following Hostile Personalities are to be Terminated. Mason hears the names, Heard, Granger, Foster, Skinner, and Voss and realizes many of them are the names of fellow Mystery Agents he had worked with in previous missions. Remembering how some encounters in the past turned out to be encounters with compromised Agents, Mason opts to ask no questions and merely accept the parameters. He then requisitions for two weapons: a pistol (which Control sends and tapes to the area behind the door) and a second one which Control places on the floor near the door. Mason then calls out for Dyer and Hammer. He informs them of the mission parameters, and tells them the group will regroup at the street level.
Senior Agent Mason awoke in a room with a massive eye painted in white across a black wall. The pupil of the eye was exactly where the door stood. He saw a phone on the ground in front of him and it starts ringing. Instead of answering it, Senior Agent Mason uses his Caller Technique to reach Control instead. To his surprise, Control now uses a new approach upon communicating with a Mystery Agent. Control asks the Agent to identify himself, then asks if the other Agents are in the vicinity. If they are, Control asks for the names of the Agents whose Lacuna devices the caller can see. If these "match" with Control's data, the Agent is confirmed identified. Mason smiles, as this will cut down on the communication confusion whenever Static occurs. He quickly asks for the mission parameters, and they are a bit of a shock.
Control mentions that the following Hostile Personalities are to be Terminated. Mason hears the names, Heard, Granger, Foster, Skinner, and Voss and realizes many of them are the names of fellow Mystery Agents he had worked with in previous missions. Remembering how some encounters in the past turned out to be encounters with compromised Agents, Mason opts to ask no questions and merely accept the parameters. He then requisitions for two weapons: a pistol (which Control sends and tapes to the area behind the door) and a second one which Control places on the floor near the door. Mason then calls out for Dyer and Hammer. He informs them of the mission parameters, and tells them the group will regroup at the street level.
Hammer approaches the group and sees they are all wearing a yellow, orange, and red outfit. The group of around twenty have their heads held low as they all read a book. They all have the same woman's face, although Hammer isn't quite sure why they look familiar. "Join us," the man leading the group intones, "We were expecting you." Hammer quietly sits at the empty seat at the middle of the last row.
Dyer heads down the staircase to see another figure waiting for him. The figure is dressed as an agent and identifies him as one, but Agent Dyer misidentifies himself as Agent Dryer. When the figure corrects herself and calls him that, Dyer realizes this might be one of the targets and tries to ignore her. She identifies herself as Granger. He remains cautious however. A dog watches the scene too.
Dyer heads down the staircase to see another figure waiting for him. The figure is dressed as an agent and identifies him as one, but Agent Dyer misidentifies himself as Agent Dryer. When the figure corrects herself and calls him that, Dyer realizes this might be one of the targets and tries to ignore her. She identifies herself as Granger. He remains cautious however. A dog watches the scene too.
Mason hurries down the stairs and raises a gun to shoot Granger, but Dyer tries to stop him. As he shoots her, Dyer sees the weird things moving under her skin. Mason shoots her again, before strange wriggly things emerge from her mouth. Realizing they are in a compromised location, Mason hands Dyer a gun and rushes to Hammer to help him. He fails to see Dyer tackled from behind as another "thing" pulls itself out of the dog's mouth to attack him. Dyer unloads a shot into the thing's chest, but it skitters off and escapes.Hammer. Is in reception. The receptionist smiles and tells him that the mission went well. On the screen, the receptionist directs Hammer's attention to the running video. "Our sponsor is very pleased with your work." Hammer can hear a voice faintly in his head, however. "They are faking the reception room," Mason's voice seems to call out but Hammer can't be too sure. A second sponsor video is shown. Hammer struggles to wake up.
███ █████ ████ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██████ ██ █████ ███ Spiders ███████ ██ free ███ ████ ███ ███████ mental ███████████. █████ tries ██ reach ███ ██ ███████ ███ ██ ████████ ████ Senior █████ Miner ██ ██████ ██ terminated █████ contradic██ ████ █████ █████ █████ █████'█ ███████ █████ ██ █████.
████ learns █████ ███ S█████s.
[redacted information is beyond Clearance Level.]
The three regroup, with Mason warning them not to trust their senses. Static build-up can affect how we view the Blue City. Mason reminds them that so long as they can still notice they are wearing their Lacuna devices, they are most likely still in the Blue City. Contacting Control, they are given the directions to head to where their targets are (as Control can detect their locations using Logistics). Dyer is told to dig in some area for another pistol, and also finds a buried bag of black sand and strange clockwork parts. They seem to form some kind of toy lizard.
They make their way to the bar. The name of the bar is ███ and Dyer recognizes the Dwarf Bartender inside. The bar has no rooftop access, and a patio outside is where the smoking patrons are. Hammer still feels ██████████ over what just happened. Mason warns them to relax as he pulls out a Cover and emerges as a Spider. Dyer finds it fascinating. As a "Spider," Mason directly approaches the bartender and asks if certain ███████████ are present. The bartender seems worried as he looks at the ██████ recognizing it to be a ██████ ██ ██████ and directs him to the private room upstairs. Hammer and Mason make their way up.
Dyer is approached by a beautiful woman who seems dressed in clothing reminiscent of the flapper era. She asks him for a light, and when he tells her he has none, she asks one from the bartender. The woman asks him to join her at the patio, and he tells her ██ ████ ████████. She smiles and walks away. As the two other agents stand by the door, and ready their pistols, Dyer sees █ ███ ███ ██ ████████ ██ Agent Miner █████ ███'█ ██ ███████ since he ██ █████████ ██ ██ dead. He follows the man outside the ███ and sees him hitch a ride on a red car that comes to stop for him. The woman in the car is dressed in all red and her ████ ██ Kira.
Dyer is approached by a beautiful woman who seems dressed in clothing reminiscent of the flapper era. She asks him for a light, and when he tells her he has none, she asks one from the bartender. The woman asks him to join her at the patio, and he tells her ██ ████ ████████. She smiles and walks away. As the two other agents stand by the door, and ready their pistols, Dyer sees █ ███ ███ ██ ████████ ██ Agent Miner █████ ███'█ ██ ███████ since he ██ █████████ ██ ██ dead. He follows the man outside the ███ and sees him hitch a ride on a red car that comes to stop for him. The woman in the car is dressed in all red and her ████ ██ Kira.
Mason and Hammer kick the door open, and they pelt the room with bullets as they open fire on the men inside. One falls down, as his tentacled mask topples off his face. The other is flung backwards as his tattooed body erupts with crimson wounds. Another falls dead, as his head pops open like a watermelon. Finally a fourth hits the ground, convulsing as he dies. Mason quickly calls out to Control, and control tallies the hits: Heard (Terminated), Foster (Terminated), Skinner (Terminated), Voss (Terminated), Granger (Terminated).
For the first time, in a long time, Mason hears Control inform him that the mission is a ██████████ succcess. Dyer tries to calm everyone else downstairs down by clapping his hands and talking about the shooting upstairs as a "shooting" with him inviting them all to attend the eventual movie release. The Personalities in the room seem to take the lie quite well, and calmly clap their hands in response.
But then the beautiful woman motions for Dyer to join her in the patio. She talks to him about the Wine room, and suggests many things about ████ ██ ████████ going on in ███ ███████. ███ █████ █████ Miner and ████████ that the Mystery ██████ are actually involved in █████████ much ██████ ████ ███ actually realize.
The Company sends the██ commendations to th█ Myster█ Agents.
The los█ of S█nior A██nt Miner is ██grettable.
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