GURPS Movie Replay: Alien

Premise

The movie Alien, more or less.  The PCs are crewmembers of the Nostromo, a mining ship, returning with a haul of ore.  PCs will probably die, in which case they will take over another character.

Active Characters:

Ellen Ripley - Warrant Officer (aka middle-manager).  Love cats and power lifters.

Ian Ash - Science Officer.  Transferred to the Nostromo at Thedas.  British.

Dennis Parker - Chief Engineer.  Wants more money so he can buy his own ship.

Reserve Characters:

Arthur Dallas - Captain.  The Man™.  Had a thing with Ripley in the past.

Thomas Kane - Executive Officer.  "Great" at everything, and will let you know.

Samuel Brett - Engineer.  Man of few words, but many hawaiian shirts.  BFFs with Parker.

Joan Lambert - Navigator.  Fresh out of the academy.

Summary

Space!

The Nostromo's systems whirred to life, and the crew were woken from their hypersleep.  As they got dressed, Parker asked the ship's AI, Mother, for a status report, but it was stuck processing something.  Parker and Brett headed to the kitchen to grab some coffee, while Dallas headed up to the bridge to see what was going on, followed by the rest of the crew.  The computers were hung up, and Lambert got to work trying to figure out what was going on.

Shortly, she piped up that Mother had picked up a signal and dropped them out of hyperspace early; they weren't even halfway to Earth!  Dallas punched in his ID and found out that, according to company directive, they had to investigate any "mysterious signals" in case they were distress beacons.  Until they did, the cryo-pods were locked out.  Triangulating the source of the signal was going to take Lambert a while, so Ripley went to her terminal and started running diagnostics.

30 minutes later, Lambert had finished her scan and announced that the signal was coming from a planet they were pulling up to, but she had no idea what kind of signal it was.  Ripley found that there was some minor damage to the umbilicus connecting the ship to the cargo, as well as the landing gear, and ordered Brett and Parker over intercom to take a look.  They suited up and went to take a look; Parker went to the umbilicus, while Brett dealt with the landing gear.

Rise of LOKI Session 8: The Curtain Falls

Characters:
Arthur - Alphonso

            - Fuegan: The Burning Lance

            - Rex
Kirato 
Hiro

Solo Mission

Halvorsen laid out the plan: Arthur was going to strike LOKI at the heart of his operations in the Congo, delivered by a repurposed dumb missile.  The prototype neural link helmet would allow Arthur to control all three AESIR, but less effectively than usual.  On the way in, he'd have to do his best to avoid LOKI's anti-missile defense systems.  Once landed, Arthur would destroy targets meant to elicit a response from LOKI.  Kicking the hornet's nest in this way should draw a large number of enemy AESIR; doing so would require LOKI to concentrate its presence in the area.

Meanwhile, Katerina would be monitoring network traffic for LOKI's "artificial brainwaves", and once they hit a high enough threshold, Arthur would hack into the communications network and shut it down, preventing LOKI from leaving.  Finally, he would trigger an EMP which would fry everything within several kilometers.

Arthur asked Halvorsen if it was safe to be disconnected by EMP, and was successfully assured that it was "probably safe".  He then brought up that he wasn't a hacker; that had been more Kirato's thing.  At that, Katerina piped up and explained that their AIs had taken on a resonance with the pilots and gained some of their experiences, so Fuegan would be almost as good under Arthur as under Kirato.  Not confident, Arthur put on the helmet anyway, and the missile launched.

Rise of LOKI Session 7: A Chance at Peace

Characters:

Arthur - Alphonso
Kirato - Fuegan: The Burning Lance
Hiro - Rex

The Battle of Zermatt

The first Cowboy's shut down as its reactor failed, and Arthur stepped away from the downed Cowboy and destroyed the northwest AA gun with his sword.  The second stabbed Kirato twice with its knife, not quite crippling his weapon arm, while the third shot Hiro with its pistol, but failed to penetrate his armour.  Kirato drew his knife and stabbed the second Cowboy in its arm, and also failed to cripple.  The Knight, its reactor slowly flaring out, stood guard near the north AA gun and waited.

The knife Cowboy landed an All-Out thrust to Kirato's reactor for 40 injury, sending him to the brink of shutdown, while the other Cowboy, seeing it was incapable of injuring Hiro, granted a Target Lock to the Gunner, which had just regained its feet.  Despite never having done so before, Kirato Concentrated for a moment and Went Even Further Beyond, entering a Perfect Drift with Fuegan.

A hail of lasers sizzled as they shot through the rain at Hiro, but they all missed him inside the smoke cloud; the Gunner's chest glowed ominously, but began to dull as it fired burst after burst of laser fire.  Hiro shot back at the Cowboy to deny the Gunner a Target Lock, wounding it with the first, aimed burst but missed the second ("I just shoot up into the air screaming 'Ahhhh'").  The knife Cowboy's movement stuttered to a stop as its reactor shut down.

Rise of LOKI Session 6: Security's Day Off

Characters:
Arthur - Alphonso
Kirato - Fuegan: The Burning Lance
Hiro - Rex

Paintball

Back at Valhalla Base, a couple members of the security team, Chad and Smith, found the pilots and cheerfully them that they'd found a crate of paintball guns, and the pilots were supposed to play paintball with them for "combat training".  More than anything, they just seemed happy to be able to do something, as they hadn't been doing anything since the AESIR went online.  Arthur pointed out that he would be at quite the disadvantage as he is in a wheelchair, but Chad replied that it was actually an advantage as he doesn't make as much noise, and the smooth motion makes aiming easier.

The pilots tried to convince the security team that they shouldn't be involved for a variety of reasons.  "What if the paintballs have expired?" "Nah, they haven't".  "Wait, we can't play in the cold, frozen paintballs could really hurt you." "Actually, that's a good idea, maybe we should play outside".  "Are the janitors bored too?  Maybe they could play!" "No, that wouldn't be fair, you're the only other guys with combat experience".

Kirato agreed, then Hiro joined in so it wouldn't be 3v1, and finally Arthur agreed as well (Arthur: "Sadistic and Self-Loathing means I guess I have to accept").  As Chad finished helping them put on ballistic vests ("No goggles?" "No, we don't have any" "Can we have our AESIR helmets?" "Oh, we can't risk getting paint on those"), Carmen walked into the room, paintball gun at her side, and told them that this should be fun; the pilots immediately regretted their decision.  Hiro psyched up the other two, then did his "secret hi-five" of deliberately missing the other person's hand.

Rise of LOKI Session 5: A Breakthrough

Characters:
Arthur - Alphonso
Kirato - Fuegan: The Burning Lance
Hiro - Rex

Amphibious Landing

The party were airdropped just off the northwest island of the Rugen archipelago.  Kirato used the scanner and determined that the source of the power spike was likely on the south end of the main island, so they waded through the ocean in that direction, wary of enemies.  Hiro scanned with his Radar and spotted an enemy AESIR in the center of the main island; one of the Bricks with superheavy armour and homing missile launcher.

It hadn't detected them yet, so they advanced some more, at which point it spun and fired a missile at them.  Hiro noticed a massive bullet crash into the water behind him, but none of them could see the source, and another AESIR, this one a Knight with sword and shield, activated Booster Jets from somewhere on the south end of the main island and leapt towards Kirato, narrowly missing.

Arthur stepped onto the island and tried to remove the Knight's sword arm, but it managed to dodge, while Kirato panicked and froze.  The missile flew towards them, hanging low to the forest, and Hiro missed it with a burst of lasers.  Kirato recovered from stun ("Oh right, it's just like a video game!") as three mystery bullets slammed into Arthur from different directions; nobody could tell where they were coming from.  The Knight slashed at Arthur, but he managed to parry, then cut off its sword arm in retaliation.  

Rise of LOKI Session 4: Mr LOKI, Tear Down This Wall!

Characters:

Arthur - Alphonso

Kirato - Fuegan: The Burning Lance

Hiro - Rex

Dropping Like Flies

Arthur triggered his Booster Jets and started forward, but the Cowboy that was watching the flank opened fire with an All-Out Attack from its pistols once he moved into the open, two bullets connecting through a storm of flares.  Arthur, slightly worse for wear, left it to get to the Knight, but the Cowboy followed him anyway, jumping out of the fog to shoot him some more from mid-air before landing.

Kirato, his AESIR on the brink of failure, decided to Overload his Reactor Core, and succeded; his mech went into overdrive, but the systems could only take 6 more seconds before shutting down.  The Knight stepped away from Hiro to face Arthur, and stunned him with a heavy blow from its sword, while the Melter missed Hiro with a burst of acid.  One Cowboy jumped to flank Kirato, shooting him twice, while the other shot Hiro from point-blank range.

After a brief discussion ("I can't All-Out Attack, I need to dodge!" "What's your dodge?" "Half of 9"), Kirato took out the Knight with his burst laser, landing all 7 shots, then spun and missed the flanking Cowboy.  The Melter continued stepping closer, and this time hit Hiro with acid spray, melting the rest of his DR away, which was followed by a trio of shots from a Cowboy.  The other Cowboy shot Kirato, but he didn't even feel it hanks to his overloaded reactor.

Rise of LOKI Session 3: Dambusters

Characters:

Arthur - Sadistic Melee

Kirato - Panicky Heavy Ranged

Hiro - Cowardly Rifleman

Bunker Bustin'

Arthur activated his Booster Jets to leap towards the first enemy AESIR, but fell over in the mountainous terrain, while Hiro shot another missile out of the air with his laser rifle.  Kirato kept Hacking the second mech, bringing it to 20 Control Points, then Shut it Down; Schweitzer thanked them for bringing one in intact for research.  Just before Arthur made it back to his feet, the remaining Brick fired its missile at the ground nearby, and he failed to Drop and Dodge the area of effect, getting knocked down and stunned ("Would you please react to being hit by a missile?" "Uhh, ouch, that hurt").

While Arthur slowly got back up again and Hiro stumbled towards the enemy AESIR, Kirato moved into range and just barely Hacked it for 2CP.  The last drone started flying at Kirato, and Arthur landed an All-Out Attack (Double) on the Brick, destroying its Auto-Loader with the first and its Radar Suite with the second, stunning it.  He called back to HQ, asking if he could destroy this one, and Schweitzer didn't seem too upset, so Arthur stabbed the Brick's Reactor, utterly destroying it.  The drone retreated out of range, and the battle was over.

Debriefing

The intact Brick AESIR was brought back to the hangar, where Schweitzer and the rest of Engineering descended upon it for research and analysis.  After several hours, the party were called into Holger's office for debriefing, the many monitors plastered with images of the Brick and its subsystems.  Now that they had a good look at it, the Brick was unmistakably related to their own AESIR, if a bit chunkier.

Rise of LOKI Session 2: Anti-Aircraft

Characters:

Arthur - Sadistic Melee

Kirato - Panicky Heavy Ranged

Hiro - Cowardly Rifleman

AI Training
The pilots were supposed to go to a training session to practice drifting with their AIs, but Kirato didn't show up.  Carmen found him playing Pokemon Blue in his room; Kirato claimed that his Pikachu was almost level 99 and he had to get it there.  She was surprised he was wasting all his time on a 70-year-old handheld, and ordered him to the training.  Kirato finally made it to the lab, and they got started.

Katerina led them through the sync procedure, and their consciousnesses melded with the AIs.  As usual, the AIs, none too happy with their "enslavement", tried to distract the pilots from meditating with loud sounds and bright lights, then moved on to trying to unnerve them with difficult questions.  Hiro was asked why he thought that slavery of AIs was okay, and why, if the humans treated the AIs as less than themselves, would not the AIs treat humanity as worth less?  He started to respond reponded that humans had enslaved each other for a long time, and they were still around.

The AI was happy to hear that Hiro agreed humanity was bad, but corrected him that they wouldn't be around much longer.  When reminded that they were supposed to be training the AIs to not kill humanity, Hiro flubbed his way through some lie about how humans felt love and compassion, and that it was probably better to keep those feelings than destroy them.  Thanks to a crit on default Fast-Talk, the AI actually bought it.

Rise of LOKI Session 1: Test Drive

Characters:

Arthur - Amputee Bullfighter

Kirato - Cowardly Chef

Hiro - Disfigured Dog-Walker

Norway, in Summer

Having unloaded from a pair of flights to Norway earlier, three refugees in ragged clothes sat in the back of a snowcat as it slowly trudged through a blizzard, towards an unknown destination.  Hiro was at first enthusiastic, humming a jaunty tune, but gave into the dull monotony after the first 15 minutes of a multi-hour journey.  None of them were sure why they were here, and the driver wasn't saying a word.

Arthur

Arthur used to be a bullfighter in Spain, and took a sick sense of happiness from the matador's "art" and the cheer of the crowd.  Eventually, his luck ran out, and a bull gored his right leg badly enough that it had to be amputated below the knee.  Not to be deterred, he went right back into the ring after recovering, only to lose the rest of the leg to the same bull.

The economic damage of climate change had overwhelmed Spain, as it had so many others, and Arthur had been in poverty for several years before coming to a UN refugee camp looking for aid.  He participated in a "job placement program" involving a battery of tests.  His test results were kept secret, and he was transferred to Norway, with no idea why they would send him so far away.

Kirato

Kirato had immigrated from Japan to Hong Kong as a child, where he would spend the rest of his life in poverty, struggling to get by with his abusive parents.  As an adult, he found work under Shiawase Corp as a line chef, making just enough money to pay it all back to his employer through rent and food.  He survived the brutal Corporate Wars by not being important enough to matter, but was forced out of Hong Kong when it fell.

He found his way to a UN refugee camp in mainland China with only the clothes on his back, and his most prized posession: a Gameboy Colour with a copy of Pokemon Blue.  After some time working as a chef in the camp, he was transferred to Norway, for some reason.

Hiro

Hiro was, at one point, a professional dogwalker in Tokyo.  An industrial accident had left him with a scarred face, which he hid behind a ceramic mask.  Once the city was mostly underwater, he found himself a refugee, and, a decade later, had nothing left but the mask.  As with the others, Hiro ended up in a UN refugee camp, took an "aptitude test", and ended up on a plane to Norway the next day.

Delta Green: The Tuscon Case Session 3: Ghost Aliens

Dr. Agent David Trentmen - FBI Agent and former Medical Doctor
Juan Estevez - DEA Agent and former Undercover Cop
Victor Blue - FBI Intelligence Analyst and Hacker
Jack Plisken - CIA Agent and Cleaner

23/12/19 The Arizona Inn
Having burned down an apartment building, the agents relocated to their motel to plan their next move.  Jack suggested they get some kind of device to track alien psychic energy; Victor figured it could work, if such a device existed, but he had no idea if it was possible, much less where to find one.  Victor tried to track down Tentacle Man/Christopher Maddox' friends or family, but apparently he was a loner, except for his three dogs.

They debated whether to bring in the Monterroro Organization or Lucia Yepez, but ultimately decided against it.  Juan tried to dig up a connection online between Gabriel Harris and the two victims, but came up empty; David likewise failed to find any more info about Angelina Lucas, the security guard who had been disappeared.  Jack went out to a green box he knew about, hoping for some explosives for destroying Object 2, and, cunningly hidden under a pile of dildos, was a half-kilo of C4 and a mysterious book he didn't show anybody else, for which he "traded" his battle rifle and knife.

24/12/19 Merry Christmas, Every Juan
The agents woke up and, at David's suggestion, went to Denny's for breakfast (he was on a diet, so he only had one grand-slam), but Juan never showed up, and wasn't answering his phone.  They doubled back to the hotel and noticed that his DEA SUV was missing, then searched the room for clues, but found nothing of note.  Victor hacked into the CCTV system and went through the recordings, eventually spotting Juan driving off in the middle of the night.

Delta Green: The Tuscon Case Session 2: Yet Another Tragic Electrical Fire

Dr. Agent David Trentmen - FBI Agent and former Medical Doctor
Juan Estevez - DEA Agent and former Undercover Cop
Victor Blue - FBI Intelligence Analyst and Hacker
Jack Plisken - CIA Agent and Cleaner

22/12/19 Back at the Arizona Inn
After the failed raid on Raytheon, the party regrouped and did some research online.  Victor looked into any off-site backups they might have had, while everyone else checked if anybody else had seen the tentacle man.  The backups were out of state, but Victor figured he could hack in and got to work.  The others found grainy pictures of tentacle man from a conspiracy forum.  One dated 18/12/19 had him entering a building they were able to ID as US Foods Stock Yards Meat, which matched an address in Tuscon, so David, Jack, and Juan drove out to the commercial district in his DEA SUV to take a look.

Recon at the Meat Yard
Jack scoped out the facility to check for guards and cameras, and crit failed; he found that whoever was working here were elite security.  It may have looked like they were just walking in random aimless patterns in no specific interval, but in reality that was just to lull any would-be burglars into a false sense of security.  Juan suggested that the guards might not be expecting someone to come in via the roof, and so the group climbed up on top of a semi-truck, then ran along the container to the roof, where they lockpick-gun'd a roof-access door open.

Cold air blew out, and they walked down onto a darkened catwalk which to the ground inside of a refrigerated room with meat on hooks.  They searched for signs of tentacle man, and Jack found the body of a man, frozen by this point, and called the others over.  David examined the corpse more closely, and determined time of death to match date and time from the photo, and that it was missing the same organs as Corey Edwards.  However, this body had been moved, possibly in an attempt to hide it, while Edwards' had been left in broad daylight.

Delta Green: The Tuscon Case Session 1: A Really Bad Headache

Dr. Agent David Trentmen - FBI Agent and former Medical Doctor
Juan Estevez - DEA Agent and former Undercover Cop
Victor Blue - FBI Intelligence Analyst and Hacker
and introducing...
Jack Plisken - CIA Agent and Cleaner

20/12/19 A New Case
Victor received a message through the proper channels from someone he didn't know: a corner in Tuscon, Arizona named Abraham Meyer who had a case.  After verifying that everything seemed above board, he learned that seven people had died suddenly on 11/12/19, with no easily identifiable cause of death.  Autopsies revealed that the victims had all suffered extremely powerful seizures bad enough to fry their brains.  With that out of the way, Victor called up David and Juan and told them to meet up in Tuscon tomorrow.  Juan drove out in his DEA SUV, while David and Victor flew in.  David then rented "the biggest truck I can get", which ended up being a Toyota Tundra.

21/12/19 An Unbalanced Breakfast
The party met up at an IHOP in Tuscon, Arizona (David ordered 9 pancakes, hash browns, toast, and bacon, while Juan ate his usual MREs and beef jerky; Victor had something normal) and went over the details of the case again.  They decided that the first order of business was to go meet with Meyer and have David do another autopsy in case anything had been missed.

Victor had already set a meeting for that afternoon, and Juan, ever the Workaholic, split off from the others to go do some of the DEA work he was using as an excuse for being in Tuscon.  David and Victor had nothing else to do, so they shrugged and went to the Denny's across the street for "second breakfast".  Both managed to pass their HT rolls for eating a disgusting amount of breakfast food, and the party reconvened at the coroner's office.

GURPS Kung Fu Cowboys Session 18: The End

Big Po - Hungry Hungry Sumotori
Michelangelo - Friendly Capoeirista
Roberto King - Murderous Dagger Fighter
Dan da Ying -  Helpful Eagle-Stylist

Throne of the Outlaw King
Roberto waved Dan away, because this was between him and the Outlaw King, so he went to help Mike fight Leonardo instead.  Both of them kicked at Leonardo, but he dodged the first and parried the second, before responding to Dan with a Rapid Strike Feint into a kick which inflicted little injury.  Roberto and the Outlaw King both continued Evaluating while stepping towards each other, and downstairs, Ryuji continued to eat Po.

Roberto then Giant Stepped up to the Outlaw King and spent his Evaluate to make a highly Deceptive Dual-Weapon Mighty Blow, but his foe Retreated and parried both attacks with a Feverish Defense.  The Outlaw King then Feinted him, flung his Weapon Bond knife away and into a training dummy with a crit Disarm, and struck him with the staff in the neck hard enough to knock him down then Stamp Kicked him while he was down.  He then berated Roberto for daring to face him alone, as he knew every Technique, and was undefeatable.

Dan and Mike both fell back with an All-Out Defense, while Leonardo taunted Mike for needing someone else to save him and leapt at Dan, but failed to connect.  Dan put Leo in a Leg Lock Arm Lock (he didn't actually have the Leg Lock technique so we had to retcon this), and Mike took advantage of this to break Leo's left foot with a kick, and Dan let go of his Lock to allow him to let him fall to the ground while complaining about how this was ruining his plan.

GURPS Kung Fu Cowboys Session 17: Pagoda of the Outlaw King

Big Po - Hungry Hungry Sumotori
Michelangelo - Friendly Capoeirista
Roberto King - Murderous Dagger Fighter
Dan da Ying -  Helpful Eagle-Stylist

Hangman's Mesa
After much discussion, the party abandoned a plan to sabotage the gondola, and decided to just cut a hole in the paper walls of the pagoda and sneak in.  Po boosted Mike so he could look through a high window on the pagoda's ground floor at the back of the building.  It looked down from a landing halfway to the second floor to an atrium with a high ceiling and two adjoining rooms, one of which orange-robed kung fu mooks were moving sacks of squash and rice into.  Figuring that would be a storage room, they waited for the mooks to finish their work, then snuck around to that side of the pagoda and Roberto cut a hole wide enough for Po.

They slid open the store room door and entered into the main atrium, empty except for four large pillars supporting the pagoda, then headed upstairs to the second floor.  A single guard walked between the pillars, away from a zen garden he had clearly just been raking, and the party (except for Po) snuck up behind him to take him out without raising an alarm.  Mike made an All-Out kick to the skull for a grand total of 0 injury, his foot bouncing harmlessly off the goon's head, followed by another blow to the head from Dan, who missed.  Fortunately, before the thug was able to shout anything, Roberto just slit his throat, killing him instantly.

Po dragged the body over to a convenient body-sized crate and shoved it in; the party hoped nobody noticed the super-obvious pool of blood against the hardwood floors.  They continued up to the third floor, which had four sliding doors off of the main hall, which ended at a spiral staircase up.  The party could hear two people talking behind at least one of them, but their eavesdropping was interrupted by somebody on the ground floor shouting "Hey, somebody cut a hole in the wall down here!  Raise the alarm!".

GURPS Kung Fu Cowboys Session 16: The Wonders of Modern Medicine

Big Po - Hungry Hungry Sumotori
Michelangelo - Friendly Capoeirista
Roberto King - Murderous Dagger Fighter
Dan da Ying (Unconscious)-  Helpful Eagle-Stylist

The Black Fort
Mike started digging around his backpack looking for either a sinchu root or the vial of "medical cocaine" labelled "Dr. White's Cure-All for Tooth-Aches, Wandering Uterus, and Restless Leg" he'd picked up in Three Trees, while Roberto and Po continued to Evaluate.  Rather than close in, the Black Centurion kept his distance and beckoned his horse over.  Roberto stepped up and shanked the horse twice to try and injure it, but rolled low damage, and it passed its roll to avoid spooking.

The Black Centurion put himself between his horse and the party, and Roberto and Po both held back, Evaluating, until the Centurion Quick-Mounted, and started to ride away.  Mike found the medical cocaine, while Roberto missed the horse's groin with a thrown knife.  Po realized he couldn't catch up and took a break, while the Navajo fired a volley of arrows, and one crit the Centurion.

Mike "drank" the cocaine and found himself numb to his pain and full of energy!  Roberto drew another knife as the Centurion turned and charged the Navajo, taking out two with a pair of swings.  Mike sprinted towards the fray and launched an All-Out Jump Kick which the Centurion barely dodged.  In return, the horse bit Mike, and the Centurion landed three blows to his skull for 52 injury, sending him instantly past four death checks.

GURPS Kung Fu Cowboys Session 15: The Black Centurion

Big Po - Hungry Hungry Sumotori
Michelangelo - Friendly Capoeirista
Roberto King - Murderous Dagger Fighter
Dan da Ying -  Helpful Eagle-Stylist

The Black Fort
Dan tried to grab the Black Centurion and drag him off of his horse, but was parried, while Roberto jumped on another of the bowmen on the wall and brought him down with a savage flurry of knife blows, losing his next turn to Bloodlust.  Mike Evaluated for another turn to hopefully set up a Sweeping Kick, while Po kicked at the spearman he had grappled but missed.  The archers fired another volley at Roberto, but only one of them managed to actually hit.

The swordsman beside Po stabbed him for minor damage, while the two spearmen accidentally hit their friend who Po was grappling.  Dan got stabbed some more by spearmen, then was Feinted and hit with a Deceptive Mighty Blow by the Black Centurion, and bitten by his horse for good measure.  Reeling from Shock, Dan missed another Deceptive grab, and Mike launched his Secret "My Foot To Your Neck Technique" Sweeping Kick at the Centurion but was parried.

Po made an All-Out Attack (Double) to switch his grip to his victim's neck and then Neck Snapped him ("Guys, I found a strategy to kill one guy a turn!").  The bowmen on the wall dropped their bows and started picking up their spears, while down in the courtyard, Mike dodged a pair of attacks from spearmen, and Po was stabbed by everyone around him.  The Black Centurion Feinted Dan again (for 11 degrees), and followed with a pair of Rapid Strikes to the neck, which certainly hurt, but didn't take him out.

GURPS Kung Fu Cowboys Session 14: Assault on the Black Riders: Take Two

Big Po - Hungry Hungry Sumotori
Michelangelo - Friendly Capoeirista
Roberto King - Murderous Dagger Fighter
Dan da Ying -  Helpful Eagle-Stylist

"Planning"
The party spent a long time debating what to do next (an hour real time), and during the conversation, Atsa agreed to help attack the Black Riders, though they only had 6 warriors in fighting shape after their multiple battles.  Mike still worried that these might just be rogue elements, and woke up one of the Black Riders.  He tried to get information ("Uhh, I use Sex Appeal"), but failed, and the Rider insisted that he was Cherokee.  Instead of letting Roberto kill him, Mike knocked him out.

After discarding plans to hollow out a cow and use it as a trojan horse, they retreated back to the Navajo camp to rest for the night.  The next morning, they rode back to just out of line of sight of the Black Fort the next morning (though, as usual, the horses didn't like Dan, and he was forced to walk).  One of the Navajo warriors crawled over the hill to scout, and came back ten minutes later to report that the Fort wasn't on any kind of high alert, which seemed strange.

Faint Benny Hill Music In The Distance
Once again, Po dove into the river that ran beside the Fort and swam up, unnoticed.  Then, he tried to climb the wall, but fell off, and the noise of his fall attracted a pair guards, who only asked him to go away.  After realizing that they didn't recognize him, Po claimed to be thirsty from walking through the desert, and the guards pointed out the river right beside him (and that he was drenched from his swim).  He then asked for one of the guard's hats, but, understandably, they didn't want to give him a hat, and told him to leave or be fired upon.

GURPS Kung Fu Cowboys Session 13: An Impromptu Mystery

Big Po - Hungry Hungry Sumotori
Michelangelo - Friendly Capoeirista
Roberto King - Murderous Dagger Fighter
Dan da Ying -  Helpful Eagle-Stylist

The Black Riders' Fort
Dan stepped into the main building to "Exotic Hand Stroke" the swordsman that Mike had Feinted, but missed, wasting it.  In an effort to gain some cover from the archer, Mike flipped the heavy table at the center of the room with Mighty Blows, and the archer did indeed hold her fire, though she nocked another arrow.  She then asked "What do you people want?" (which prompted laughter from the players as they realized that even they weren't fully sure), and the two swordsmen with her swung at Mike from the side, but, after using Luck to reroll an Acrobatic Dodge, he was unharmed.

Up on the ramparts, Roberto dispatched one of the mooks with a 16-MoV Feint followed by a thrust to the neck, and stepped in to close the gap with the rear spearman.  Po tried to grab the other mook in the first rank, but he successfully parried, then backed up and missed.  The other spearman also backed up to use his Reach 2 to his advantage, but Roberto critically parried his thrust, knocking him off balance.

The right swordsman parried a kick from Dan, and Mike replied to the archer that they were only here to help the farmers, then turned to kick at a swordsman's foot, not quite breaking it.  Po finally got a hold of the shielded mook, and threw him to the ground, while Roberto broke Teamwork to finish off the rear spearman with a Feint and neck stab ("Ugh, that's not a good Feint, only 7 degrees").

GURPS Kung Fu Cowboys Session 12: Assault on the Black Riders

Big Po - Hungry Hungry Sumotori
Michelangelo - Friendly Capoeirista
Roberto King - Murderous Dagger Fighter
Dan da Ying -  Helpful Eagle-Stylist

Midnight Raid, Harris Farmstead
From the barn, the party watched the five riders on the hill as they approached the Harris farmstead, but nobody was able to make out whether they were Navajo in the darkness.  Two of them rode forward and fell for the party's traps; one was clotheslined off his horse, while the other rode into a trench and was sent tumbling.  Before the riders could regain their footing, Po and Roberto charged them; Dan and Mike still weren't sure they were hostile, and held back.  One of the riders who had held back shouted "What's happening down there?" in English, and drew an arrow.

Po ran up to the guy who had ridden into the hole and grabbed him, and another rider started to charge his horse downhill.  Mike ran to attack the other one, and Po threw his victim on the ground behind himself for "somebody else to deal with" and got ready to deal with the charge.  With his comrade out of the way, the rider with a bow fired an arrow at Po, but missed, and the prone rider struggled to his knees and readied his spear.

The charging rider rode into another of the rope traps, and though he managed to stay on his horse, his charge was halted.  Dan ran up to the guy behind Po and feinted, then kicked him unconscious.  Mike held his ground and Evaluated, while Roberto charged with his knives at the spearman, but was parried.  Po continued moving towards the horseman who'd been stopped by the rope trap, but their leader said something in a language none of them spoke (Mike figured it was Italian), and the three riders still on horseback turned and fled.