Arion 1-08: Big Jim

Big Jim were a worm, were a great big worm,
Were a great big, bright red, bloody red worm
- The Fivepenny Piece, Big Jim

Hollis Badlands, 1105 Week 45

Arion, Ganzfeld and Mr Osheen turn in horror towards the giant worm erupting out of the sand before them.

"Fall back to the ship," Arion orders, and raises his trusty Karakush 12.5mm caseless at the beast rearing up over them; the others do likewise, and everyone opens fire on it - or at least the others do, the dust has got into Arion's pistol and it jams. The worm shrugs off multiple assault rifle rounds and laser bolts as it easily keeps pace with them, and raises the front third of its body off the ground before slamming it down on them; fortunately the same size which makes it so dangerous if it does hit means they just have time to dodge.

They pick up the pace, running across the scree, and Arion is thankful this is not dune sand where they would sink up to the ankles at each step. Arion manages to holster the Karakush and draw his backup piece as they go, and even hits the worm; it takes no more notice of his pitiful 10mm round than it does of Mr Osheen's follow-up laser bolts. Ganzfeld, unable to aim while running, misses the beast entirely; it takes exception to that and with a sudden burst of speed lunges forward and bites her. It lifts her bodily into the air, screaming, but her weight is unbalanced by her coolant pack and its attempt to swallow her whole fails. She falls to the ground and lies still, her left arm at an unnatural angle.

Time seems to slow down for Arion. He estimates how far they still have to go, and decides they don't need their packs any more; before they can overheat, they will be inside either the ship or the sandworm. He pulls the emergency quick release on the pack and runs to Ganzfeld to pick her up. Mr Osheen sees what he is up to, and follows suit; he was bringing up the rear, and by the time he gets to Ganzfeld and drops his own pack, Arion has managed to fumble her pack off her. Picking her up between them, they make the best time they can back to the ship.

The worm doesn't think as a human does, but it has evolved to minimise water loss. Faced with the choice between continuing to chase the three fleeing figures or consuming the water-filled coolant packs, it goes for the packs, as the return on investment is better; and by the time it has dealt with those, the juicy bipeds are back inside their whatever-it-is. The worm approaches cautiously; it can smell water inside, but this is another one of those unfamiliar metallic objects it comes across from time to time. While it is still puzzling over what to do next, the object rises into the sky at a frantic pace. They do that sometimes. There is nothing left worth staying in direct sunlight for, so the worm starts to bury itself under the scree again.

Arion lifts for orbit at two gravities, declaring a medical emergency and calling for a crash team to be on hand when he docks.

To be continued...

GM Notes

A very tense session for me this time; we nearly lost Cori, and it's a bit early in the campaign for that. When everyone on the crew is a Wild Card, not only is it a lot more work to run, but there's much less tension during a session - Wild Cards are really quite difficult to damage seriously. Extras, not so much, and they're much less effort, especially if you don't let them advance.

So, here we had the Usual Suspects vs a Giant Worm, whom we shall call Big Jim. Big Jim is lying in ambush, so our heroes must make Notice rolls to be dealt cards in the first round; Big Jim is automatically On Hold but I draw a card anyway as he could get a joker. Rolls of 4, 4 and 6 means everyone notices Big Jim - he is, after all, fifty feet long. Big Jim explodes out of the ground at melee range, so everyone is rolling to hit at Parry of 5 rather than straight 4s.

Round 1. Arion is the only PC (Mr Osheen and Cori are Extras) so all the heroes go on Arion's action card. Arion Spade 9, Big Jim Club 7. Arion has his usual Karakush 12.5mm, Cori as usual is packing an assault rifle, and Mr Osheen has a laser SMG.

Arion rolls a critical failure; the dust has jammed his gun. Cori fires three shots and hits once, but with a raise; she scores 20 damage. Mr Osheen flips his laser SMG to overcharge and fires it at full ROF at the worm, managing a creditable three hits. He rolls 3d6 damage for each; 15, 12, and 15, thanks to a couple of Aces. The worm has Toughness 21 and shrugs it all off. The team falls back 6" towards the ship, which we will say is 24" away for no good reason. Big Jim follows up 6" and uses his Slam attack; as I'm playing this Theatre of the Mind, I use the Templates Without Miniatures sidebar (p. 97) and decide each hero gets one of the small templates; opposed Athletics vs worm's Agility to dodge the slam. Arion rolls 11 vs 5 and dodges, Cori rolls 9 vs the worm's 2, Mr Osheen and the worm tie on a 3; the worm is the acting character and fails as he did not get at least a basic success.

Round 2. I'll speed up a bit now. The heroes win initiative, run for the ship (-2 to all actions), now 18" away; Arion moves 11", Cori 12", and Mr Osheen 9". They also blast away at the worm. Arion holsters the Karakush and pulls his backup piece as free actions, then fires at the worm; he hits it by sheer luck, but 4 damage won't do anything. Cori misses with every shot. Mr Osheen hits twice, but 4 and 12 damage are inadequate. There's nothing to say the worm can't "run", so it does, moving 12"; looks like it's going for Cori, and as the Slam did no good, it will Bite. A roll of 9 would be a hit with a raise, but as it "ran", the attack is at -2; a straight hit. It does 16 damage, 11 over her Toughness; Shaken and two Wounds. Hmm. Can I spend a GM Benny to Soak that? I decide not, since she is not Arion's opponent - if I allow that, there's no point in Arion taking Common Bond later. Cori is down.

Round 3. The heroes win initiative again, just as well, drop their packs, pick up Cori and run for the ship. Hmm. The average human female weighs about 170 lbs, so let's say with all her gear on she is what, 200? That's 100 lbs each, which is fortunately less than three times the 40 lbs they can carry unencumbered, as then things would get really awkward; but they are still both Encumbered. This gets complicated. At the start of the turn, Cori is 6" from the ship, Arion 7", and Mr Osheen 9". In SWADE, one can split-move and act. So, Arion drops his coolant pack (free action), runs to Cori, drops her pack (I'll say that's an action but doesn't need a roll) and waits for Mr Osheen. Osheen drops his pack, helps pick up Cori, and the two of them run for the ship with her.

Arion rolls 5 for running (11") and moves 1" to Cori. Mr Osheen rolls 6 for running (12") and moves 3" to Cori. The two are now encumbered as they pick her up, and have a maximum of 9" movement left as they're moving together. Their pace is now reduced to 4, and their running die score by 2", so they now have 5" left, and they're 6" from the ship.

Arion's player (me) spends a Benny to influence the story (SWADE p. 90), and argues that the giant worm is obviously after their water, and the three coolant packs they've dropped where Cori fell are full of water and leaking it from the pipes, so the worm will go for the packs and the team can get away. The GM (also me) decides to allow this, because I'd allow it in group play, and I see no reason to be any harder on myself than I would be on one of my players.

After the battle, Cori rolls Vigour (d6) to survive; luckily her die roll aces, she scores a 10, success with a raise; so she'll be fine. I roll for an Injury (left arm useless), but note it goes away when her injury heals. Wow. That could very easily have killed her; as it is, she gets a Vigour roll every 5 days to heal, and Major Sheng can Support her. Rolling the dice off-camera, that takes 15 days, call it two weeks.

End of episode 8; Bennies refresh, Wealth dice reset, and Arion gets an Advance - I'm not going to bother with Advances for the others. I think Notice d6 and Shooting d6. Since we failed this second scene, we still have 1 VP and the bad guys now have 2 VP (there are 2 at stake when you fight an enemy Wild Card).

What next? Mechanically, we haven't done a Quick Encounter yet, so let's do that. Narratively, while Cori is healing up, Mr Osheen and Arion will have another crack at that abandoned hut.