GURPS Spooky Halloween "One-Shot" 2022 (Part 1)

Characters:

Dingus Nerdingham - Serendipity, Curious, Grocery Delivery, Could Be A Chemist, Has A Dog

Joe Schmoe - Enhanced Dodge, Violence Phobia, Bicycle Courier, Former Nurse, Caving

Zoe Lastgirl - Enhanced Dodge, Very Unfit, Food Delivery, Could Be A Carpenter, Accordion

Beef Hardbody - Very Fit, Darkness Phobia, Rideshare Driver, Could Be A Linguist, Basketball

I Really Need The Money...

The climate is imploding causing food shortages and mass displacement, the world is gripped by a global pandemic that has been declared not a big deal by those in charge, and "inflation" (which is definitely not just corporate price-gouging) has led to a formal policy to reduce employment to make labour's bargaining position more precarious...  But hey, those are Big Problems, and you just need to worry about making enough money to get by, which is why these four individuals found themselves working gig jobs that they were vastly overqualified for.

Joe had burned out of nursing during the "not pandemic", and took on the much less stressful job of being a bicycle courier in a major city with no cycling infrastructure.  Beef had found it impossible to get hired as a professor of linguistics due to issues with the established dogma in the field, and found himself taxiing other people around for barely enough money to get by.  Zoe had wanted to learn a trade, but then encountered systemic sexism and quit to deliver food instead.  Dingus had his chemistry degree, but had bombed the few interviews he'd had because the interviewers didn't like that he had brought his dog (don't they care that he has abandonment issues and can't be left alone?!).

Each of them had been lucky enough to, at one point or another, end up working for a wealthy client.  The man, a businessman in a suit with short undercut black hair, had given them a $100 tip and asked if they would be interest in working as waitstaff at a corporate gig later that week.  He understood it was short notice, so naturally the pay would be more than generous: $3000 cash for one night.  Each was given a business card by "Tad Crawley", who apparently worked for "Chester-Dreier-Kovacs" in marketing management, the logo simple boring red block letters over a grey oval.

Path to Godhood Session 31: The Godwar

Characters:

Kostis   -    God of Death and Plagues
Neilos   -    God of The Sun and Plants
Steidis   -   God of Fire and Smiths

Portents

The other gods reacted to Vunos' appearance in a variety of ways (Kostis suggested a grand feast, while Neilos retreated to a corner and brooded harder), but fell silent when he spoke again.  First, he said that it was good to be reunited after so long, then he asked how long it had been since they had all ascended to godhood.  Nephele spoke up first, stating that it had been just over 300 years, which prompted Vunos to remark that his belief seemed to have been correct.  He then asked what they knew of the cyclical rise and fall of the gods, but Kostis, who knew by far the most, played dumb and said that he would love to know what Vunos knew about it.

Vunos started from the basics (as best he knew): gods reincarnate as mortals, they complete some trials, and then ascend to godhood.  The world goes through a Golden Age, until, inevitably, the gods turn to infighting and kill each other, which plunges the world back into "Calamity", as he called it.  This all tracked with what Kostis and Steidis knew, and Kostis had a lingering suspicion that Vunos had been the unknown entity that had killed several gods in the prior cycle.  Vunos had never been the last god, and so did not know what happened to them, but was confident that they died too.

However, he had been through 3 prior cycles, and going by his experience, the longer the Golden Age, the longer the Calamity, and the Calamity was always longer than the Golden Age that preceeded it.  Therefore, to minimize the suffering of mortals and the world in general, it would be best if the gods voluntarily ended their reign prematurely by committing suicide.  While the other gods pondered this question, Neilos finally spoke up: if he had died, then why hadn't Vunos reincarnated with the rest of them?