Reroll

Oh. That's why I like Charisma builds: Bluff is so useful. I pause, unable to think of a convincing explanation.

Ed's got my back, though, “Ah… sorry. We're doing an impromptu dress rehearsal, and may have gone overboard on the props and costumes. I mean, clearly that's not human, right? That's snakeskin, for crying out loud.  Would it be better if we used green blood, do you think?” How's he so smooth… ah, right… Factotums have all skills as class skills, and while they're not Charisma-based, they can get some pretty good skill bonuses easily….

“Oh… that's… yeah, green blood would be better… I'll just… yeah…” the woman very quickly leaves.

“We should go,” Ed whispers, “The big booster is once per day per skill, so… let's move.  Calmly, as we don't want to attract any more attention than is necessary.”  Ah, right, Cunning Knowledge does have that limitation.

I grab the parchments as we leave, closing the door behind us, and I'm… less calm than is probably ideal, so I start on breathing exercises as we walk to the stairs (it’s nice to have legs), head down, and leave the building without incident.

“So where next?” I genuinely want to know. I mean… we just left a corpse in a dorm room, and there's a witness who can put us standing over it, “I really don't want to be executed for my own murder.”

“You'd live…” Jim points out drolly, then continues more usefully, “maybe a drama practice room? They've got pretty good sound insulation.  Should make a nice place to plan.”

I consider, “And we look like we're in costume… works for me.”

Ed nods, “Makes sense…” and we trudge across campus.

I find there is a partial downside to having very high Perception.

“Did you hear? They found a dead alien in the Franklin dorm…”

“Has to be a publicity stunt….”

“The blood is human! They even called one of the medical teachers to check…”

“No, you can't go look; the police already have it taped off…”

I have no idea how so much happened so fast, or even if any of it is true… but we fortunately get to the theater building without incident. We check out a room at the front desk (they need a student ID number, but they don't actually check our IDs, fortunately… it may help that we're 'obviously in costume').

I'm very grateful for the silence when we finally get to the practice room.  It's a very simple room: There's two doors to get in (one opening each direction: It's not double doors, it's two doors; there’s no getting in without opening both), and inside it's a plain white room with a gray carpet, a low stage, a few chairs, a whiteboard, a few markers… and that's pretty much it… but it has nice sound insulation and no cameras: Exactly what we want right now.

I breathe a sigh of relief, go to the whiteboard, and grab a marker: “Okay, let's start with what we know.”

“Rachael was… probably still is… some kind of noble succubus,” Ed starts, “I have some GOOD knowledge checks.”

Jim nods, “Can confirm. I ID'd that as well when she, well….”

I'm still doing breathing exercises as I answer and write that down, “Killed me, yes,” I pause, and add, “With permission, technically, and it didn't stick, so… I'm not planning on going after her for that, even if given the opportunity.  And… while for you it was seconds, I was out for hours from my perspective.”

Ed is first to the obvious question, “Where were you, then?”

I shrug, “The Abyss, maybe? I landed in a close copy of the dorm room, but the lighting was redder, it smelled of sulfur, it was much warmer, and when I tried the door, there was fire everywhere, so I ‘played ball’ instead.  When I finished the new character sheet - which didn't let me cheat, I tried - I woke up back here.”

I write down a very brief version of that on the board as I go.

“She didn't care about the records…” Ed points out.

“Good thinking grabbing the parchments… what do we have?” Jim is being nice and sensible.

I shrug and go through them, reading them off as I go… we have Pathfinder, Starfinder, three different editions of D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Savage Worlds, Vampire the Masquerade, Traveler, GURPS, Paranoia, Shadowrun and more: There is no shortage of systems.  Each also has a different set of house rules… and each is also lacking in the detail department. They all look like “X base system” at the top, and the house rules are all just a few words each. The only thing maybe useful is the system and the signatures… but most of the signatures aren't really readable.  Jim uses the document scanner built into his camera app to save a copy of each as we go through them… and then sends us each a copy of the whole set when we're done.

After we're done going through them, I pause, “Okay, so what does that tell us?”

Ed starts, “Rachel was about as picky as a magpie.”

Jim shrugs, “She just needed to spend all the power to get home, so she said… she had no reason to be picky on who or what, she was in a hurry, and didn't need to actually do DM duties.”

“Yeah…” I begin, “I'm thinking it tells us there's going to be metric ton of chaos as soon as… how many people?”

“Three hundred twelve” Jim inserts.

Right… Int-based character. Of course he has the number, “That many people start showing inhuman powers.”

“Assuming we grabbed all the contracts,” Ed adds.

Ugh, isn't that a cheery thought… way too many people in the world don't care about anyone but themselves, which will of course cause ME problems.  

“Okay… what about the Inquisition she mentioned?” Jim's looking at things systemically.

“We know bupkis,” Ed seems pessimistic there.

I consider, “Not quite nothing… she did give them as the stated reason for the high lethality of the campaign.”

Jim considers, “And her chosen term has some implications: Organization, a purpose, unfairness….”

Ed pffs, “Not like any of that helps us.”

I shrug and write that down, too, “Not yet, but it's a starting point; an organization will have finances, rules, a chain of command… if we can subborn an agent we could leverage that into digging deeper.”

Ed nods slowly, “...and with all of the 'noise’ - both ours and others’ - the school is liable to be crawling with them soon.”

Jim considers, “So the plan, then, would be to identify, capture, and interrogate an agent?  Risky…”

I shrug, “Got any other options?”

Ed steps in, “Run away and hide, maybe? Use magic quietly to amass a fortune and retire in comfort?”

I laugh as I have my tail put a marker back down, “Hiding is hardly an option… and we are immortal now.”

“Death isn't the only thing that can happen,” Ed points out.

I pause, “Also not the only thing we're warded against. She did mention we couldn't be trapped for long as well when I was waking up… we can't ‘leave play’ at all.”

“What’s long to someone like her?” Jim laughs, “That could be a hundred years or more.”

“Maybe…” I consider, “but she was using words we recognize, and was in a hurry herself… it's probably going to be much like it would at a table: Once it's clear enough rescue isn't happening, it's time to reroll.”

Ed considers, “We don't know that.”

I tilt my head, “No, we don't. And I don't want to test it, either.” I pause, “Anything else we can put up here?”

“Do you think the alphabet names mean anything?” Jim inquires.

Ed rolls his tongue in his mouth a moment before speaking, “Amanda, Betty, Catherine, and now Debbie… what happens when we run out of letters?”

I feel a chill run down my spine, “Let’s… not find out.”

“Well…” Jim seems hesitant, “if we all live until eighty each time, and reset back to twenty, we have about another five hundred years to worry about it.”

I consider, “So… all in favor of picking long-lived base races going?”

Ed and Jim both raise their hands.

I nod, “Motion passed,” not that it's likely to matter much; Rachel did call this a ‘high lethality’ campaign... moving on… “Anything else we can add to ‘known’ right now?”

Ed pauses, “Rachel did mention she was summoned here, and that her summoner's mother was killed by the Inquisition… that may give us a starting point on research.”

I consider, “Right… she'll have been that suicide in Franklin dorm. If we dig up her name, we can dig up her parents’ information…” I add “research Franklin dorm girl” to the whiteboard.

Jim adds, “The fact that she existed implies magic has always been real.”

Ed seems to have a dense moment, “Then why does everyone believe it's fake?”

Jim and I speak simultaneously, “The Inquisition, obviously.”

Ed pauses, “Right… library next?”

I nod, we all take pictures of the whiteboard, wipe it down, and head off….