Abduction

ABDUCTION

GM: Matt Wiseman

Matt explained to us that we would all be playing Yithians. He told each of us what era our PC was going to. I think the six of us were going to four different eras. Remembering the description of the event, I decided that I didn't have to knock myself out writing down who was going where. I was correct.

Instead of possessing humans in four different eras, the six Yithians wound up possessing 6 entities in a car. These were:

Wilma McCormick, a middle aged housewife

Sally McCormick -- her daughter, an 8 year old girl

Bobby -- 10 year old boy from next door

Josh -- 13 year old boy, Sally's sister

Billy -- 10 year old boy, Sally's brother, best friends with Bobby. My PC.

Scamps -- the McCormick family dog (and early warning system).

Characters were selected randomly, so we only knew what we had when we turned the sheets over. The man who got Scamps wasn't thrilled, and eventually left the game. Someone else picked up the character and play continued. The original player later apologized to the gm, saying that there had actually been something else he'd wanted to do. I wish he'd mentioned not wanting to play the dog at the beginning. I enjoyed my character quite a bit, but I would also have been happy to trade with him. Ah well, the second player seemed to enjoy the dog more.

I used Yahoo Instant Messenger to talk to Chris Murray during the game.

Lisa: We all yithians

Chris: Congratulations :) That's almost as good as being serpentpeople.

The father, Mr. McCormick, was not possessed by a Yithian. He was driving the car, asking everyone how they liked the movie. Fortunately, Yithians can access their host's memories. They can also talk in Yithian, sort of under talking in another language. So, the father might hear his youngest son say, "Yes, that was a cool movie, Dad!" while the other Yithians heard that, but also heard, "I think our mission has gone wrong." Or, he might hear the dog bark, while the Yithians heard that, but also heard, "What's that bright light?"

And the bright light came from above. The Yithians knew that it was a stasis field, but it paralyzed everyone so that they couldn't move. The father told his family not to panic.

Then, the classic grey aliens approached, with odd handheld devices scanning everyone. Billy asked the other Yithians, in Yithian, if they should tell the greys what they were. Everyone heard a voice in their head saying, "We already know."

So, the aliens had possessed a normal family and were being kidnapped by UFO greys.

Chris: Those pesky greys!

Fortunately, the Yithians knew that if they all hummed in synch, they could disrupt the stasis field.

Yithians: Hummmmmmmmmmmm!

Father (to the greys): What are you doing to my family?!

The windows of the van shattered and the stasis field was disrupted. The dog bit one of the greys, and the father floored the van to get his family home safely.

Once at home, the father, down much SAN, poured himself a very stiff drink, and told Wilma to handle taking the kids to the soccer game the next day. She agreed and gave him some tranquilizer pills along with his drink.

Then, the dog smelled the moldy smell of greys, and something large and winged landed on top of the van.

Wilma / Yithian: Josh, get Daddy's gun. Billy, you hide --

Billy / Yithian: Mom!

GM: Now remember, you may look and sound like a whiny 10-year-old, but you're actually a Yithian warrior!

Me: Yes, and Mom just told me to -hide-!

Wilma / Yithian: Oh, I'm sorry -- this monkey's maternal instincts were confusing me. Arm yourselves! Take some knives.

That suited the kids / Yithians much better, and Sparks / Yithian bit off the arm of one of the greys. The arm dissolved into a puddle of goo, and the creature didn't seem to register any pain.

Lisa: Dad out asleep, us playing catnmouse with grays

Chris: Make sure you're the cats, not the mice.

Lisa: Working on it.

The flying thing disabled the van, but the Yithains were able to move it into the garage and fix it surreptitiously. They also built a communicator to talk to the Yithians back in their own time, but there was too much temporal interference. Interesting. They decided to find the source of the temporal interference the next day, and also to build a real weapon -- a lightning gun.

Under the circumstances, they couldn't build a portable one, so they settled for a vehicular mounted one. Most of the apparatus was under the hood of the van.

GM: And the Dodge logo makes a great focal point for a vehicular mounted lighning gun!

And, it was no problem that Bobby was there, since he'd already gotten his mother's permission to sleep over. Wilma was supposed to bring him to the soccer game along with her own kids.

Of course, building all of this stuff involved disassembling a lot of the home appliances, but hey, the father slept through it all. No, there was only one issue to resolve.

Lisa: Big question: do we miss the soccer game?

Chris: You can't miss the soccer game!

So Wilma's Yithian said, fearing that it would look suspicious. After all, no one wanted Delta Green and the FBI investigating the Yithians.

Josh / Yithian: What, the FBI is going to come after us because we miss one soccer game?

Someone: How do Yithians usually resolve disputes?

GM: Well, there's usually no need. You are as one.

So, we decided to miss the soccer game.

Chris: Oh dear...

Lisa: And the weird gray things and flying thing are out to get us. That is more important than a silly human sport.

Chris: In today's America?

Lisa: To Yithians? Yes. This is why we are only almost as cool as serpentfolk.

Chris: Giggle! You sweet-talker you.

Lisa: Grin. <preen>

Wilma called the coach to say that the kids were sick and really sad about missing the game. He asked if she'd called Bobby's mother. To his surprise, she hadn't.

Wilma: Oh, I will, but the kids insisted I call you first.

Coach: Wow, such dedicated soccer players!

The Yithians decided not to call Bobby's mother, who might, after all, insist that her son come back next door, or come to see how he was doing.

The Yithians discovered that the temporal disruption, basically breaks in time, was coming from the water tower. The water tower didn't actually supply the water for the area. It was more of a historical building, though it could supply water in emergencies. If anything were to, y'know, happen to it, the locals would probably raise money to build a new one.

Lisa: Okay, water tower is more for just in case, so if it goes boom, no big deal. Just saying.

Chris: Water tower really ought to go boom. What's the use of a water tower that doesn't blow up and dump a tide of water over everything? Just saying.

The Yithians couldn't find a way into the water tower. They did find and take a crystal. They pondered the best way to handle Bobby's mother.

Yithian: We can always explode her skull. She's only human.

As it turned out, both of Bobby's parents were dead, killed by the greys, with some kind of device that froze them. The Yithians took this philosophically.

Someone: What do we do with Bobby's parents?

GM: They're not fully thawed yet.

They hid the bodies in a closet, and figuring they could stay out the house. The greys probably wouldn't think to look for them there.

Lisa: We figure we can plunder their appliances for spare parts.

GM: They have all sorts of technology you guys can take apart.

Chris: No one expects a Yithian in the washing machine.

Lisa: Giggle. Lovely image -- Yithian peeking out of machine.

Sparks / Yithian: Er, I've got to go out now.

Someone: Oh, right -- the neighbors don't have a doggie door.

Eventually, the Yithians went back to the water tower, armed with an acetylene torch. They cut into the standpipe of the water tower.

Chris: Go boss, go!

Lisa: Uh oh

Chris: *bites nails*

The standpipe was full of raw temporal energy. So, where the torch made a hole, this energy leaked out. It turned an acorn into a tree, which then withered with age. Two of the Yithians got stuck in it and had to be helped down. Wilma / Yithian sealed up the hole, but the upper right part of the human vessel's face had aged. It looked 85 years old.

Someone: Mom's gonna need some serious makeup.

We asked about building some complicated Yithian device, I think teleporter pads.

GM: You got 35 years?

Sparks / Yithian: We got plenty of time!

GM: -You- don't.

Someone: Yeah, right here, in the tower!

Someone: But it's not on your side!

As the Yithians retreated from the tower, the father called to see where everyone was. Wilma / Yithian let him think she'd taken the kids to the soccer game, as planned.

The father said that he'd cleaned up the mess left by some vandals who'd broken in. Must have been kids -- they didn't seem to have taken anything, but they wrecked a lot of stuff, like the television. They'd even wrecked Sally's furbie!

Wilmma / Yithian: Oh no!

The vandals were, of course, the Yithians disassembling appliances to build devices.

Father: Oh, and could you bring home Chinese food?

Wilma / Yithian: Sure, dear. (hangs up) Hm, I think maybe Josh is going to shoot his dad when we get home.

Player: Aw, I wanna see him go insane!

Yithians do not have Sanity scores to begin with.

GM: What's the plan?

Wilma / Yithian: Chinese?

And with that, we took a quick break.

Game quote whose context I forgot:

GM: You okay?

Dog Player: Yeah.

Player: Yeah, we lost the last dog.

Josh / Yithian brought the Chinese food to the father while the other Yithians stayed next door, at least in part so that they wouldn't have to explain the mother's aged face. Wilma / Yithian explained this away by telling the father that the kids were really upset about the vandalism. I mean, no tv? So, they were all staying with Bobby's parents next door.

Josh / Yithian hummed to the father, but it takes at least three Yithians to make someone's head explode. The father did get a headache. Josh / Yithian thoughtfully brought him a beer, and slipped him another tranquilizer.

Josh / Yithian: Shooting him seems so cold. Besides, I don't want to waste a shot.

He returned to the other Yithians. By now, the greys had returned. Two were trying to fish a familiar looking device out of the trash. The father, not recognizing the temporal communicator that the Yithians had built, had tossed it in the trash while trying to clean up the place before the family got home. I have to hand it to the man -- recovering from a nasty booze-and-pills hangover, he's really doing his best for his aliens-possessed family.

To the Yithians, of course, this was a problem. They were not about to let their technology fall into the hands of the greys. They destroyed the device and even managed to capture a grey to interrogate. Unfortunately, it did not seem to feel pain or to fear for its life, although it did stare quite intently at the crystal the Yithians had taken from the water tower. The Yithians destroyed the captive grey.

Shortly after, they saw six greys heading into their human vessels' house. This is the first time the line "Let's go save Dad" has struck me as (darkly) hilarious.

The Yithians charged and tried to capture the devices of the greys. Unfortunately, as soon as the greys understood the Yirthians' aims and realized that they were outgunned, they set their devices to blow up. This destroyed the devices and the greys. It also blew up the house, killing the poor drugged into unconsciousness human father.

Josh / Yithian: But at least we didn't kill him -- we've got that going for us.

Chris: *bows head* It was for the best...

We headed back to the water tower and found a pile of human techie devices that could be used to build devices like the Yithian temporal communicator that we'd just destroyed to keep from falling into the hands of the greys.

Yithian: Wait -- that's bait. But they must think we're really stupid! We're Yithians!

Other Yithian: But we're standing right near the bait.

The Yithians wondered if this was the greys' way of asking for help.

Yithian: Why don't we leave a peace messenger?

The Yithians built another temporal communicator, rigging it to explode if a non-Yithian tried to use it. Then, they piled into the van and tried to head outside the area of the temporal disturbance. The radius of the disturbance was 60 miles, so it should have been about an hour of driving, at least if it hadn't been for the smoking glacier blocking the road.

Lisa: Time for the lightning gun!

This melted some of the glacier, but failed to clear a path through which the van could drive. The van was soon surrounded by 12 greys. Then, a flying creature landed. In the better light, the Yithians recognized it as a Mi-Go. The greys, as most of the players, but not the PCs knew, were constructs that the Mi-Go used to communicate with humans.

The Mi-Go demanded the crystal and the temporal communicator. After some tense negotiation, Wilma / Yithian got the Mi-Go to agree that the Yithians were free to leave the area after that.

Mi-Go: Acceptable.

Wilma / Yithian put the devices on the road and returned to the van, covered by fellow Yithians manning the lightning gun. The Mi-Go and greys took the devices and left. The temporal disturbance ended.

Lisa: So either we just made a huge mistake, or we got a weird call for help.

Perhaps this was the best the Mi-Go could do in the way of calling for temporal roadside aid.

Then, there was a big boom and a great deal of temporal disturbance. A pterodactyl flew overhead.

Yithian: Hm. We'd better hit that K-Mart

The Yithians returned to the water tower and found a Yithian telportation device from long ago, as in five hundred million years ago or so. There was a chip out of it, which is what made it malfunction. Well, that and the Yithian communicator device blowing up when the Mi-Go tried to use it.

At this point, several cop cars headed toward the group. There was no way to fix the teleportation device before the cops arrived.

Me: Can we blow it up with the lightning gun?

GM: Yes, but you risk forming another Great Lake.

Me: Is that a problem?

Wilma / Yithian fired the lightning gun at the cop cars. It hit one, but the others successfully swerved. The sheriff got out of his car and headed over.

As the Yithians did their best impression of terrified kids, mother, and dog, what with all the weirdness, and the, er, freak lightning that had just hit, the sheriff ordered them to stand down. He was speaking Yithian.

Relieved, the Yithians did as ordered. The sheriff explained that the Mi-Go had stolen the transporter pad and then, as it wasn't working right, hijacked the group of Yithians in an attempt to get them to build the rest of the technology they needed. Rigging the communicator to blow had successfully thwarted their plans.

The sheriff sent the Yithians home, and for about thirty seconds, we played the human and canine host bodies.

Sheriff (to kids, woman, and dog in the second before they can utterly freak out): It's okay! Everything's going to be fine!

The sheriff then fired a bullet into the skull of every one of them, including the dog. Then, he turned his gun on himself.

Lisa: See, us yithians? We are -thorough-!

Chris: How suitably nihilistic.

Lisa: Hey! We won! And survived. Who cares about the monkeyboys?

This was a very good and very unusual adventure. There was a lot of humor and laughter, none of which derailed the game. And underneath, if one thought at all about what was going on, it was genuinely horrific from the human point of view. The greys had killed Bobby's parents to get rid of a loose end, and all of the Yithians were quite willing to kill Mr. McCormick if he became too inconvenient.