Proof! - Watched from the woods...

I thought for this instalment of the adventure I would include more of my workings. More of whats going on in my mind with regard to the questions I ask and how I interpret them. Also more of the dice rolling, and how their results influence the outcomes.

At Wood Manor: The next morning.

The trio wakes and begins searching the exterior of the Manor and the grounds for any further clues.

I review the characters abilities;

Margaret Hill
Retired professor / Middle school history teacher Defining Trait / Narrow Trait [+3], Local history buff: Massachusetts Narrow Trait [+3], Good eye for detail Broad Trait [+1], Keen intuition Broad Trait [+1].

Leonard Wixom
Idle Rich Dilettante Broad Trait [+1], Thrill Seeker Defining Trait / Broad Trait [+1], Family Owns Half of Massachusetts Broad Trait [+1], Worldly Broad Trait [+1]

Deborah Wood
College Student: History Broad Trait [+1], Unknown but Talented Artist Narrow Trait [+3], Socialite Broad Trait [+1], YachtswomenNarrow Trait [+3]

I decide which Skills / Traits are appropriate for the search.

Margaret has a Good Eye for Detail, and Keen Intuition, the usefulness of these are pretty self evident in searching and investigating.

Leonard has Worldly, he has seen and done and seen a thing or two in his time, probably some quite shady stuff. So he may have useful input and insight into situations involving kidnapping.

Deborah is more difficult. I decide to let her use Socialite, much in the same way as Leonard's use for Worldly, but with a slight penalty as I feel it is a more limited form of worldliness.

So working with the Swords of Strange Aeons [SOSA] component I roll for their search.

Margaret:  Good eye for detail - Skill Die 3+1 / Difficulty Die 6, Keen Intuition - Skill Die 4+1 / Difficulty Die 2.

Leonard: Worldly -  Skill Die 5+1 / Difficulty Die 6.

Deborah: Socialite Skill Die 2+1-2 / Difficulty Die 1.

Margaret's intuition kicks in during the search with a result of 5 Vs 2. The difficulty die is beaten by three points. Not bad.

Both Leonard and Deborah have limited success by matching their skill roll to the difficulty die result.

Interpretation: The three friends have a light breakfast of coffee and toast, and discuss the details and possibilities that have emerged after finding that the manor had been cleaned in great detail. They find it hard to believe that a man who spends most of his time in his head like Charles would decide to give the house a good going over before disappearing.

They emerge from the manor, the sun rising slow and hot above the calm sea, its rays slanting across the yard. Dew still clings to the grass and the air is eerily still. The sun continues to climb into the sky as they search, from time to time someone passes by on foot walking towards town. They are all dressed in drab tough work clothes worn to a mottled grey.

They pass by, heads down, without any interest in the trio and what they are doing. Occasionally one does look up with a quick suspicious, or was it nervous, glance.

After a couple of hours searching they are ready to give up, no further evidence has turned up and they are sure that something bad happened to Charles, and had then been covered up.

Margaret takes one last look at the front of the manor, it's veranda, and the decorative slats concealing the supports underneath. It is then she imagines that a hurried or sloppy clean up may have missed anything that had slid through the widely space boards.

Leonard, reluctantly, volunteers to crawl under  and in short time finds the congealed blood under the boards directly in front of the door.

Someone, probably Charles, had been hurt, badly. Their suspicions confirmed, the heartsick group begin to see the realities of the hard task before them.

Charles is in trouble.

Someone has covered it up.

The police are uncooperative.

The people in town, including their officials are hostile.

All of this, combined with the dark history of Rockport shakes their collective resolve.

They stand in the long grass, the dew of the morning now gone. Deborah openly weeps, Leonard consoles her with wet eyes, whilst Margaret eyes their surroundings. As Margaret's gaze drifts to the Town that hugs the shore of the bay below, her eyes rest upon the large complex of the cannery.

She turns to Deb and Leo and says, "I think we need to take a look at that cannery."

NPC's:

With the Mythic GM component of the rules I am using I ask a few questions that will frame the activities of the NPC's.

First up I believe that the detective that followed them form the station the day before would want to keep tabs on them.

I ask, "Is detective Henry Jones watching the group as they search the outside of the Manor?" 

Deciding that is it LIKELY that he is I look at the Fate Chart and see for the current Chaos Rank of 8 the indicators are 19-95-100.

So 19 and below I would get an EXCEPTIONAL YES. For 20 to 95 a YES, and for 96 to 100 an EXCEPTIONAL NO.

I roll 76. YES Henry Jones is watching them.

Now I ask "Do the group notice him watching them?"

Deciding that,although they did notice someone following them yesterday evening and they are rightly suspicious of the towns people, they are so engrossed in their search that they are unlikely to notice the detective watching them form his concealed position.

Looking at the chart I see, 18-75-96. They still have an alarmingly high chance of spotting him. As the situation in Rockport becomes more chaotic loss of control becomes an ever more likely occurrence for the characters and the NPC's!

I roll 100! An EXCEPTIONAL NO. They are oblivious to his presence. Because this was an exceptional no, he also over hears Margaret mention checking out the cannery.

Now I need to know how deep Henry's involvement with the going s on in Rockport are.

I ask, "Is Henry Jones involved with the Rockport conspiracy?"

This seems LIKELY, he is a high ranking police officer and the power players in town seem to have some involvement and influence.

The chart lists 19-95-100. I roll 01!

He is in the thick of it. The idea that he is the son of the mayor and it is his founding, and very influential, family that run things in Rockport jumps into my mind.

So now the lead conspirators know their suspicions regarding Charles. They know that the cover up was unsuccessful, and they know what the groups next step will be.

Henry Jones definitely does not want them to find out what is going on at the cannery.

---

I hope you find this interesting.

I hope that other solo players using Mythic GM Emulator find this helpful and useful.

See you next time when John Morgan meets "The Foreman".