>>4455000
While Parasol is cognizant of the impending Winter, it remains to be seen if he will make the mistake of underestimating it. For this year, the belated appearance of the First Frost has been overshadowed by the simultaneous arrival of the First Snow; an indicator that the mild Autumn is going to end abruptly, and that the proceeding Winter is going to be harsh. And that is, of course, discounting any compounding factors, such as the soot and smoke kicked up by the detonation of nuclear weapons, or things that he could have no way of knowing about, regardless of how many reports he read, such as a particularly nasty pet plan of the Supreme Soviet .

>Blue Sitting Room of Parasol Family Lodge, Debouche, Maine. Sometime after 1:15am

“Mr. Mantle, we have a good working relationship. You are competent, and most importantly, you are useful. I need to know, that if things go wrong, I can count on you being there to help me get this town, and the entire lake through Winter. Can I do that?” Parasol is looking at you intently; and you break his gaze for a second to find the rest of the room looking at you as well, including the one man who has yet to introduce himself to you.

Maybe you are overthinking things, God knows that it would not be the first time; but the way that he is talking about ‘counting on you’ is a little … concerning. You do not know how exactly to elaborate or expand on those concerns; it is just that you aren’t exactly sure what you are being asked to agree too here, and after everything that was just dropped on you, on top of the kind of day that you had, you cant really think things. You grimace, and blow air through your teeth as you try to figure out what the best play is here.

While it might be smart to ask some clarifying questions as to what exactly Parasol would be counting on your for, or things in those veins, you don’t know if he’d be able to give you an honest answer in front of the current company; namely the Sheriff. “Getting the town through Winter” sounds suspiciously like “leading the town through Winter”; and you are not sure, if this … nuclear strike happened, how the Sheriff would respond to someone simply assuming control of an entire town. His presence here does not mean that he is entirely privy to everything that Parasol is thinking or planning. With the understanding that asking for further clarification is out, and that an immediate answer is expected of you, your best bet is to simply hedge your ... bets and go along with what Parasol wants. By all means, he is a good man, from a good family, and people would listen to him; it is just that until you know for sure what you are getting yourself into, you aren’t going to commit yourself to anyone fully, except yourself. You mean, that is the obvious, smart play right there.

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>>4455006
“You can consider me your man, Mr. Parasol.” Well, it is not a lie. He can freely consider you his man, or whatever he wants to consider you. His consideration has no bearing on what you actually are. Ultimately, until you get a better sense of what exactly he is asking of you, you will remain your own man. Considering your relatively solitary existence, you are not particularly tactful, and in your isolation, you have become accustomed to just doing your own thing. When it comes to balancing obligations for others against your own wants and needs, you have fallen out of practice. Having to relearn these social skills (which were never very strong to begin with) on the fly, in the middle of … the apocalypse … is going to be tricky, but necessary.

Ah! You had drifted off into your own thoughts. Parasol has been thanking your for following him and you have not been paying attention! He even managed to take your hands in his own, and earnestly clasp them without you noticing. Jesus Christ: mother was right about you, if it is not trash, you are just oblivious. You start nodding along as Parasol keeps speaking, hoping to look somewhat engaged. Honestly, this is not a good look here; regardless of what decision you ultimately make on sincerely following him or not, obviously, you want him to believe that you are truly his effective immediately.

“Anyway, before you get involved in the serious planning here, I need to know. Do you need to take care of anything, do anything for yourself? Personal affairs, get something to eat … Hell, even take a cat nap; you look kind of spacey.” Damn it, he noticed! Well, as long as you are more attentive in the future, and do not do anything (openly) that would go against his interests, it isn’t like he will immediately think you are anything less than completely loyal to him. Setting that aside for now, as he did bring it up, it has been nearly 24 hours since you last slept or ate; and if you could get in touch with mother, that would be one less thing to worry about if this nuclear strike did actually happen. God, how long has it been since you called her? It has been a while, that's for sure...

>>4455008
> (If you reach 24 hours without food or without sleep, you will start receiving maluses (-3 for every day without sleep, -1 for every day without food; both applied to net rolls. Additionally, when the Health Check is rolled, approximate caloric intake and sleep schedule are considered. If you are not eating enough, and you are not getting enough sleep, it will be easier for you to get sick.) But Parasol is going to resuming his planning session in the Blue Sitting Room immediately, with or without you. If you head off to do other things, you will miss out on opportunities to have any input in his plans. Potentially, you could miss out on giving any input or advice to him at all; and you will just have to roll with whatever they come up with.

>You can choose to remain in the room, or some combination of eating, sleeping, or calling your mother.

>You decide to remain in the room (participate in all of the decisions)
>You decide to get something to eat (miss out on 1 of 5 decisions)
>You decide to take a quick nap (miss out on 3 of 5 decisions)
>You decide to try to get in touch with your mother (miss out on 1 of 5 decisions)

>And for those of us who are just dropping in; here is the archive of the first thread. http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/4413945/

>>4455012
>>You decide to try to get in touch with your mother (miss out on 1 of 5 decisions)
Family comes first.
And first for sleep deprived hallucinations.
Can we stay up for 3-4 days and then think our pants are spiders?

>>4455093
Well, it wont get that bad that quick, but yes, eventually you will go all 'Macbeth'. towards the end of the story, Macbeth decides that he can never sleep again, and stays up for a month straight, with predictable effects on his already strained mental well being

>>4455012
>You decide to try to get in touch with your mother (miss out on 1 of 5 decisions)
I assume we care about her in character, so I'll go with it.

Alright, this has sat long enough. Consider this closed. I'll get writing.

You can go without food and sleep for a little bit longer, but … if there is a chance for there to be a nuclear strike, then you guess you will have to call your mother. If something were to actually happen, then this could be your last chance to speak with her. The mere thought of it is enough to make you feel physically ill. You look up, and see Parasol still looking at you expectantly. “Do you mind if I use the phone? I need to … make a call.” He nods and directs you to where you can find a phone on the first floor. As you walk off, he adds that you need to dial 9 for outside lines. You have half a mind to try to make a joke, and ask him if the place has its own area code too, but you are so tired you are certain you’d just flub it up, or accidentally make it sound mean or something. You head off, and before you can even make it out the door, discussion has already resumed. You can’t make out what they are saying, but you cannot help but pick up on an intensity to the tone.


>Odd Utility Closet of Parasol Family Lodge, Debouche, Maine. Sometime after 1:15am

Parasol’s directions lead you to what appears to be the largest utility closet that you have ever seen; you could fit your entire kitchen in here with room to spare. Most of the space is taken up with floor to ceiling freestanding shelving units. They are standing empty right now, and judging by the uniform layer of dust, they have been empty for some time. You do not know much of anything about architecture, and even less about interior design, but the presence of a seemingly abandoned storage closet, located in what would be ‘prime real estate’ so to speak, right off of the foyer. You do not think that this is a matter of you being paranoid here, it is just a matter of you not understanding, that is all.

Ah ha! Here it is; mounted on the wall, above a utility sink. You dial and silently pray that your mother is still up; she does not own an answering machine, and the only phone in the house is far enough away from her bedroom that she can sleep through it easily. That said, her sleep schedule is worse than yours, so there is a good chance that she is still up, watching television; or more accurately, drowsing in a half-awake half-asleep state in front of the television. On the sixth ring, your prayers are answered, and your mother picks up the phone.

There is some rustling, the sound of someone shifting their weight on a couch and finally “Hello?”.

>>4455404
You make a point to keep as much concern out of your voice as possible. “Hey Mom, its me, Reg.” You can hear her start to speak, and you know that if you let her get going, this call is going to take much longer than it needs to. “Listen Mom, I can’t talk that much. Everything is fine, well, uh, I mean I am fine, at least. This is going to sound crazy mom, but … it turns out that right now we are closer to a nuclear war than we have ever been, like closer than we were during the Cuban Missile Crisis.” She starts to speak again, but you have the initiative here, so you simply speak over her. “I know none of this is in the news, but that Parasol I work for, the Parasol, he called me over in the middle of the night, on my work radio; he somehow managed to find the frequency. I don’t know how many laws he broke just to get me over here, but he has reports and stuff-” which you realize somewhat belatedly that you did not so much as look at once. Well, whatever. At this point, you are just going to have to assume that they are all as dire as Parasol said they are.

“And these reports prove that there is all of this ‘tit-for-tat’ military action going on, and that both sides are seriously considering taking this thing nuclear.” For the third time, your mother tries to inject, but you keep going. “I know it sounds crazy, but Parasol is completely serious. And if there is a chance that this actually happens, then this might be the … it might be hard to get in touch. For a while.” Now there is silence on the other end of the line; for several-several seconds. “Mom, are you still there?”

“Yeah, I’m still here.”

Several seconds later; “Well then, what should I do about it?”. For a single, insane moment you wonder if you have the wrong number. Your mother is excitable and emotional; this calm, down to business tone could not be further from what you expected going into this. Maybe she's still half asleep, or something. Regardless of her mental state right now, the question highlights a serious issue; you are not exactly sure what she should do. If at this point you assume that the nuclear strike is going to happen sometime today, then what does that mean for mother, living in southern Maine, about a 3-hour drive away? What should you tell her do to do?

>>4455408
Starting at 2am in the morning, every in game hour, we will roll a 1d20. At 2am, if we roll a 1, then the strike has begun. At 3 am, if we roll a 1 or a 2, then the strike has begun, and so on. Basically, it all comes down to how long we have until the strike; and for our character's mother, the risk is ultimately determined by where she is and what she is doing at the time the missiles start flying. I am going to leave this one up overnight, so I can catch some sleep.

What do you tell your mother to do?
>” Your best bet is to hunker down where you are. I will walk you through some basic survival tips, so get a pen and a piece of paper. If anything happens, it is more likely that aid will get to you than it will to us.”
>” Your best bet is to drop everything and come up to Debouche right now; only take what you need to get up here. I have all of the essentials, and everything else can be replaced.”
>” Your best bet is to load up all of the essentials that you have on hand and then get up here to me, right away. Leave everything else, there isn’t time.”
>” Your best bet is to load up all of the essentials that you have on hand and get ready. If the strike happens before stores open in the morning, head out on the roads immediately, before they get destroyed or jammed. If the strike has not happened yet, then go to the stores, and then load up on essentials, then come up once you have a full load.
>” Your best bet is to load up all of the essentials that you have on hand and get ready. If the strike happens before stores open in the morning, head out on the roads immediately, before they get destroyed or jammed. If the strike has not happened yet, then go rent a moving truck, then go to the stores and load up on essentials. Make sure that it is one that can tow cars, so you do not need to spend time unloading the car.

>” Your best bet is to drop everything and come up to Debouche right now; only take what you need to get up here. I have all of the essentials, and everything else can be replaced.”
In all reality this is what anyone would do

>>4455419
>” Your best bet is to drop everything and come up to Debouche right now; only take what you need to get up here. I have all of the essentials, and everything else can be replaced.”
I'm not fucking with the nuclear armageddon rolls just so that we can get some extra stuff, she should just get up here ASAP.

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>” Your best bet is to drop everything and come up to Debouche right now; only take what you need to get up here. I have all of the essentials, and everything else can be replaced.”

The math doesn't lie, the risk is very high for possibly few gains, unless we know exactly when stores open, probably around 6 AM, but the odds of getting to that without the strike going off is very unlikely

>>4455419
>>” Your best bet is to drop everything and come up to Debouche right now; only take what you need to get up here. I have all of the essentials, and everything else can be replaced.”

>>4455451
The chance of the bombs not going off until 7 AM or later are 43% (19/20 * 18/20 * ... * 15/20 = .43605), so I wouldn't say it's super unlikely. I still don't want to take the risk (especially since the drive to Debouche is three hours and it's our mom for fucks sake), but blargh statistics.
Of course statistics don't really matter because the dice gods will punish us nonbelievers all the same.

Drop everything

>>4455000

Here is the achieved previous thread for anyone just joining us.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/4413945/

>>4455419
>>” Your best bet is to load up all of the essentials that you have on hand and then get up here to me, right away. Leave everything else, there isn’t time.”

>>4455426 Drop everything
>>4455437 Drop everything
>>4455451 Drop everything
>>4455463 Drop everything
>>4455530 Drop everything
>>4455858 Drop everything

Well; that is pretty damn unanimous. I'm done with classes for the day, so I'll go take a shower, eat something and then get to writing.

welp, looks like we'll spend the apocalypse on lockdown with our mom

“Mom, you need to pull together your things … just what you need to survive. Forget everything else, just grab what you need to survive. Absolute basics; toiletries and clothes. Medicine. Grab some food, preferably non-perishables, but stuff that you could eat without cooking it up in case you get stuck somewhere along the way for some time. Put everything in a backpack or duffel bag, so if something happens to the car you can abandon it if you need to. And get gas. Even if you have a full tank, get more gas while you can; motor oil too. [Objectivity Belief] And please, listen to me here. You need to do this quickly; please for the love of God, you cannot take your time on this. I know we both tend to overthink things, but this is one time that we absolutely cannot waste time. There are no two ways about it; the worst-case scenario is for you to be would be on the roads and then the strike starts. The longer it takes you to get on the road, the more likely you will still be driving when the strike hits; that is a fact.” An idea hits you; a clever aid to ensure that mother does not waste time worrying and over thinking things. “If you cannot decide on taking or leaving something in less than ten seconds, then it is not important enough to take. Promise me, if you can not decide in ten seconds, that you will just leave it; alright?”

“Of course, I – yes. Yes, I can do that. I promise.” You spend a few minutes talking her through what she should focus on. After you have gone over everything you spend a minute trying to reassure her, though it seems that not only does she not need to be reassured, she is the one reassuring you. You do not know if you have not adequately explained the dangers of being on a highway in the middle of a nuclear strike, she is putting on a brave face, or perhaps she does not believe anything is going to happen.

Whatever she actually believes; she is at the very least thinking about things. “Reggie, if cities are going to be dangerous, does it still make sense to be driving through them on the interstate?” That is a valid point; while the only potential target between Debouche and your mother in Gray Maine is the Bangor International Airport; I-95 does pass really close, in fact you might be able to see the airstrip from the interstate, but you are not entirely sure. Bangor International Airport, while being the highest priority target in this part of the state is probably low enough on a Soviet hit list that it might make it out unscathed, especially if we launched first.

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>>4456122
Your concern is not your mother being picked of by an ICBM; rather what you are worried about is that when the strike hits, there is going to be panic, and if there is forewarning, then at this point, the panic will probably be even worse. Part of that panic is going to be a scramble to get out of the cities, which is going to tie things up pretty seriously around Bangor; and in this kind of situation, delays could easily be fatal. So, with that in mind, it seems like it would be a no-brainer to simply avoid the cities and take the long way to Debouche. But if there is a strike (or an alert for a strike) then the routes are probably going to be just as bad as the interstates, if not worse. While there are fewer cars on the routes than on the interstate, the routes are smaller, and while the interstate is graded, the routes typically conform to the contours of the land; and it can get pretty hilly out there. Not to mention, they are generally in worse condition than the interstates (federal money for federal roads; state and local money for the routes). You put a lot of desperate people on those roads, you are asking for serious accidents. And with their smaller size, it is conceivable that an entire road could be blocked off by a particularly nasty crash.

Honestly, you are not sure. If she is on the road while the strike happens, she is in serious danger. Accepting that both roads will become equally unsafe (just in different ways) immediately before, during and after the strike, the logical response would be to tell her to take the quicker way. But that is accepting that both roads are equally unsafe; if Bangor is actually hit with a nuke, then that goes out the window.

>Hope that Bangor makes it out unscathed; tell her to take I-95 to Bangor, then get on 15 and drive all the way to Debouche.
>Hedge your bets; tell her to take I-95 to Waterville, then get on 201 and stay on it to Jackman. Then get on 6 for the final stretch to Debouche. (Adds an hour on to her trip)

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>>4456126
For reference, I highlighted the two choices. For those wondering why we don't take a slightly more direct route when taking the back roads, a lot of the more direct routes only exist to get to Dover-Foxcroft; which if you remember from the first thread doesn't exist. So rather than try to determine which roads would still be there and which would not, I just decided that for the sake of simplicity, none of the roads exist. Is that realistic? No. But it is certainly easier for me!

>>4455798
By the way anon, were you the one who archived it? When I went to put it up I was really pleasantly surprised to find it already there. If it was you, thanks!

>>4456126
>Hedge your bets; tell her to take I-95 to Waterville, then get on 201 and stay on it to Jackman. Then get on 6 for the final stretch to Debouche. (Adds an hour on to her trip)

>>4456126
>Hedge your bets; tell her to take I-95 to Waterville, then get on 201 and stay on it to Jackman. Then get on 6 for the final stretch to Debouche. (Adds an hour on to her trip)

>>4456126
>>Hedge your bets; tell her to take I-95 to Waterville, then get on 201 and stay on it to Jackman. Then get on 6 for the final stretch to Debouche. (Adds an hour on to her trip)

>>4456146
huh doesn't even look like much of a detour on the map

>>4456126
>Hedge your bets; tell her to take I-95 to Waterville, then get on 201 and stay on it to Jackman. Then get on 6 for the final stretch to Debouche. (Adds an hour on to her trip)

>Hedge your bets; tell her to take I-95 to Waterville, then get on 201 and stay on it to Jackman. Then get on 6 for the final stretch to Debouche. (Adds an hour on to her trip)

"How are your prescriptions? Do you have less than two weeks on anything you can't live without, if so, do you have refills you can get filled?"

>>4456157 Hedge your bets
>>4456182 Hedge your bets
>>4456191 Hedge your bets
>>4456301 Hedge your bets
>>4456350 Hedge your bets

Sorry guys; I managed to fall asleep on you. I'll get to writing immediately!

>>4456515
Don't worry about it man

“That is a good point; if something happens in Bangor, then the roads will become a serious morass. What you should do is get off of I-95 in Waterville, well before you get even close to Bangor. Do you have a road map? Bring it, obviously, but consult it before you head out; you want to get on 201 after getting off of I-95. In Jackman, you will want to get on to 6; it will take you the final stretch to Debouche. Changing subjects; do you have any medicine your taking regularly? It might be difficult, but I will try to see if I can’t arrange to get you a supply up here. Give me names and strengths.”

“Medicine? Well, I’m taking a multivitamin, a vitamin D supplement, a dosage of fish oil, Wyrteck 25 mg for allergies, and HydroThyazide 30 mg.” The multivitamin, the supplement and the fish oil dosage, as well as the Wyrteck would probably be relatively easy to find. Wyrteck was prescribed for a long time, but it is sold over the counter now, so again, easy enough to find. The fly in the ointment is HydroThyazide; you have never heard of it, which means that it is not advertised, which in turn means that it is almost certainly prescription only. Getting that would probably be pretty difficult.

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do about that. Remember; ten seconds. If it takes longer than ten seconds, then forget it. Objectively speaking, the time it takes you to get up here will determine how safe you will be. Mom … Mom, I love you. Just … please, promise me you will get here as soon as you can.” There is a kindly sounding sigh on the other end of the line. “Of course, I promise Reggie. I guess I will see you soon, then?”

“No guessing about it; you’ll see me soon.” You are about to tell her you love her again, when you realize that you might not be at the homestead when she gets here, which in turn reminds you that the bridge is out. To address this, you tell her where you hid the a key to the farmhouse, and tell her that she’ll need to take the old logging access road into the ‘front yard’ (she never liked the word ‘dooryard’) ‘because the bridge is out’; for now you’ll leave it like that, no more details that necessary. Explaining will only take more time. Well, that is everything you can think of. With another ‘see you soon’ and one last ‘I love you’, you conclude your call, and retrace your steps to the Blue Sitting Room.

>Blue Sitting Room of Parasol Family Lodge, Debouche, Maine. Sometime after 1:30am

“I understand your concerns, and I am more than willing to meet you halfway on this; no, I have met you halfway on this, more than halfway. But that does not mean that I don’t have a ‘line in the sand’ of my own. I know it complicates things, but there are limits to what I can turn a blind eye to.” Before you even walked in the door, you recognized Sheriff Arthur’s stentorian voice; it seems like there is some manner of argument going on here. You slip through the door and take a good look around. More of the reports have been scattered around the table, and a massive map of Mooseleg Lake has been brought out. Sheriff Arthur and the skinnier of the two Lights, Nate are arguing. The rest of the group, including Parasol, do not seem to be participating in the increasingly heated sounding conversation, but they are intently listening. Except Deputy Sheriff Bean, who is at the drink cart, seemingly more intrigued by the liquors than the argument.

Rather than interrupt whatever is going on between Sheriff Arthur and Nate Light, you sidle up to Bean. “Crazy stuff, isn’t Mantle?” He does not lift his gaze from the bottles as he addresses you. Unsure of how exactly to respond to that, you simply say “yeah, definitely.” Bean pours himself a ‘double’ of a sweet-smelling dessert brandy, while you pour yourself another two glasses of seltzer water from the siphon. He is smiling at that, but unlike George Light does not ‘grief’ you about it. “What did I miss, Deputy Bean?”

>>4456608
“No need for titles here, just call me ‘Bart’.” ‘Bart’ Bean? Short for Bartholomew Bean? Heh … what a name. “After a bit of the back and forth here, we agreed that we’d assume responsibility for anyone who lives around the lake and who’s willing to work with us. Outsiders and people who don’t want to play along are on their own.” You do not know what exactly to make of the phrase ‘people who don’t want to play along’; it sounds like it is something out of an old gangster movie. You suppose it could be just could be a poor choice of words however; ‘Bart’ here does not strike you as someone who is overly deliberate in word choice. “Parasol was going to try to provide for anyone who showed up and was willing to work, but he had to be talked down from that; things are going to be hard enough without feeding and housing every Tom, Dick and Harry who darkens our doorstep. Need to keep things ‘tight’. That said, Chickless wanted things even ‘tighter’; he suggested physically removing the ‘old, ill, unproductive and antisocial’. But when the boss said that suggestion was in itself ‘antisocial’, so by his own criteria he would be removing himself, he shut up pretty quick. I think he’s sulking now.” Chickless? He must be the guy who did not get around to introducing himself to you yet. And sure enough, that man is pretty openly glaring at ‘Bart’s’ boss, Sheriff Chester B. Arthur, who in turn is either ignoring him or is completely focused on his argument with Nate Light.

You can understand all three of the positions here; and you could find yourself sympathizing with all of them. But considering that a decision was already reached here, it seems that you do not need to come to a decision of your own on this. Finishing your second glass, you refill both them with the siphon. “So now what’s the issue?” “The distinction between scavenging and looting, and when it is appropriate to start. Light there wants us to get a jump start it seems; start scavenging critical supplies and food immediately, as in after we are done here. The boss is willing to secure critical supplies and food, you know, send a cruiser over to the supermarket or the hospital or whatever, to ensure that the place stays in one piece, but is not going to allow any scavenging until there is an emergency broadcast, or tangible proof of a nuclear strike. His idea is to use Deputies to ensure that the scavenging process is as orderly, respectful and effective as possible; you know, maintain a semblance of the rule of law.

>>4456609
The argument is that whatever we would miss out on by not getting a jump start right now would not be worth the chaos that would happen if it became known that the Sheriff’s Office is turning a blind eye to indiscriminate ‘scavenging’, especially before a state of emergency was declared. He says that is the kind of panic that gets people killed. On the other hand, Light says that only ‘securing’ supplies, instead of simply taking them, is an ineffective use of manpower and time.” He finishes his double and pours himself another of the sweet-smelling dessert liquor. “Well, what do you think we should do?”

Hmm….
>The early bird gets the worm, an unassailable argument. Side with Nate Light.
>’Worms’ are not as important as maintaining order, and trust in institutions. Side with the Sheriff.
>You do not have a strong opinion one way or another. Don’t attempt to influence the decision here.

Alright, now I'm headed off to bed. Should be running for most of the day tomorrow (which is already today)

>>4456611
>The early bird gets the worm, an unassailable argument. Side with Nate Light.

Insert Sun Tzu quote here.

>>4456611
>>’Worms’ are not as important as maintaining order, and trust in institutions. Side with the Sheriff.
Best to take everything into consideration, our decision has weight here.
If we side with Light, we'd get a chance to get away with A LOT more supplies than we would if we sided with the Sheriff. We also have to get medication for our mother, which may be a lot more difficult if the deputies are maintaining order. They'd surely keep watch on the pharmaceuticals, and especially the stuff requiring prescriptions.
But something else to consider is how tired we are. We're sure to get penalties due to that.
And if anyone starts talking about Mantle, and how he made off like a bandit from Not!Walmart, we'd probably run into issues down the line, with a group trying to strongarm us for supplies.
And blood is sure to be spilled if there is no semblance of order at all.
Way I see it, we can either choose the selfish option, securing more supplies for us, and basically guaranteed to secure more medicine for our mother but let order be cast away and the town descend into chaos faster. I think our best bet is with siding with the sheriff.

>>4456622
It's a valid argument and order should be maintained, but I do think that gaining as much control and resources as possible before it all kicks off is pivotal.

>>4456626
Fair enough. I'm not against playing the opportunist either, but I think this one might bite us in the ass, despite having more immediate personal benefits.
My vote is definitely no where near concrete, pretty good chance that I'll wind up switching.

>>4456629
Oh yeah, same here, I just think that the risk is worth potentially getting far ahead early on and we could use it for long-term benefits if it's enough.

>’Worms’ are not as important as maintaining order, and trust in institutions. Side with the Sheriff.
I think it’s a good idea to maintain some form of civility for as long as we can, plus it’s never a bad idea to be on the Side of the strong arms (police)

>>4456611
>’Worms’ are not as important as maintaining order, and trust in institutions. Side with the Sheriff.

Jesus, nothing has yet happened on American soil and society is already collapsing? Talk of euthanasia and such? Things will get ugly soon enough, no need to go full mad max from the start.

>>4456611
>’Worms’ are not as important as maintaining order, and trust in institutions. Side with the Sheriff.

>>4456611
>You do not have a strong opinion one way or another. Don’t attempt to influence the decision here.
I don't really mind either choice and feel like we should save our opinions for where it matters.
We can't meddle in everything, we're not Parasol.

Alright; lets see here...

>>4456621 Get the worm
>>4456622 Forget the worm
>>4456634 Forget the worm
>>4456664 Forget the worm
>>4456706 Forget the worm
>>4456813 Forget the vote

Well, that is a pretty solid lead. Consider this one closed for agreeing with the Sheriff.

>Blue Sitting Room of Parasol Family Lodge, Debouche, Maine. Sometime after 1:40am
>’Worms’ are not as important as maintaining order, and trust. Side with the Sheriff.

“Personally, I agree with the sheriff here. By waiting until the state of emergency is either declared or implied by incontrovertible evidence of a nuclear strike, we will maintain trust and a semblance of order. And considering that we still have foreknowledge about this strike, with a bit of thought, we can minimize the negative impact of individual looting and ensure that we still get the cream of the crop safely squirreled away. Obviously, waiting means forfeiting some supplies, but I think that Light is overestimating how much we stand to lose, and how much respect we stand to gain.” Bean has been nodding along, nursing his drink. “Sensible Mantle, very sensible. You’ve got my vote.”

Vote?

Oh, they must be putting these things to a vote. You look to the square of sofas and try to figure out who will vote for what, given what you know...

Get the Worm:
Nate Light is the lead advocate of getting a head start on scavenging. As the lead advocate, he cannot be swayed
FNU Chickless is aggrieved with the opposing lead advocate. He can be swayed with a high persuasion roll.

Forget the Worm:
Sheriff Chester A. Arthur is the lead advocate of only securing critical supplies. As the lead advocate, he cannot be swayed.
Reginald Mantle is the player character, whose decisions have been decided by players. As the player character, he cannot be swayed under normal conditions.
Deputy Sheriff ‘Bart’ Bean has already been convinced to follow the Sheriff. He can be swayed with a moderate persuasion roll.

Undecided
Erwin Parasol is undecided. He can be swayed with a low persuasion roll.
George Light is undecided. He can be swayed with a low persuasion roll. As he has an existing relationship with Nate Light, he receives a 1.2/0.8 bonus malus, advantage Light.
Jim Reaves is undecided and unconcerned. He can be swayed with a moderate persuasion roll.

Nate Light has above average skills in Persuasion; he rolls 4d20 for Persuasion tests, and he uses the Intermediate Speech table included below.

Roll of 1 means 0.25x modifier
Roll of 2 means 0.325x modifier
Roll of 3 means 0.825x modifier
Roll of 4 means 1.125x modifier
Roll of 5 means 1.25x modifier
Roll of 6 means 1.325x modifier

Sheriff Chester A. Arthur has outstanding skills in Persuasion; he rolls 5d20 for Persuasion tests, he uses the Intermediate Speech table included previously, as he has Glib Recovery any two rolls of the 5d20 that are 4 or lower (Near Critical Failure) he automatically boosts to 5, and as he has Two-Tongued, die that are granted by the Rhetorical inclination can not be used against him.

Reginald Mantle has below average skills in Persuasion, situationally boosted by the Rhetorical inclination; he rolls (2+1) d20 for Persuasion tests, and he uses the Basic Speech table included below.

Roll of 1 means 0.125x modifier
Roll of 2 means 0.25x modifier
Roll of 3 means 0.75x modifier
Roll of 4 means 1x modifier
Roll of 5 means 1.125x modifier
Roll of 6 means 1.25x modifier

How to approach the debates:
>Let the Sheriff do the talking; as a politician, he knows what he is doing (Arthur and Light’s roll will be evaluated against each other’s normally. As the player, we will roll for the Sheriff)
>Try to get a word in edgewise (you roll as well, and the higher of your and the Sheriff’s roll will be used against Light’s. If you manage a net Near-Critical Failure or worse (if the sum of the two modified rolls is 8 or lower, you will negatively impact the Sheriff’s roll.)

>>4457242
>Let the Sheriff do the talking; as a politician, he knows what he is doing (Arthur and Light’s roll will be evaluated against each other’s normally. As the player, we will roll for the Sheriff)

Alright; this has sat long enough. I need someone to roll 1d6, and someone else to roll 5d20 for our silver tongued sheriff.

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>4457416

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>4457419
And here is Nate's roll on the Speech table

Rolled 16, 15, 16, 18 = 65 (4d20)

Well, it looks like the Sheriff will almost certainly win this round. Considering that this was mostly done to introduce the debate mechanics (and that it is pretty much a forgone conclusion) if you are still around, you can roll again; the 5d20 for the Sheriff. On this post is Nate's roll of 4d20

Rolled 19, 15, 2, 4, 10 = 50 (5d20)

>>4457448

>>4457448
Holy shit, that's one hell of a strong roll. Looks like Nate isn't going to give this one up without a fight. But he does have a negative modifier to overcome, and the Sheriff has one more die than he does.

The first gross roll of 16, modified by 0.825 becomes the first net roll of 13.200
The second gross roll of 15, modified by 0.825 becomes the second net roll of 12.375
The third gross roll of 16, modified by 0.825 becomes the third net roll of 13.200
The fourth gross roll of 18, modified by 0.825 becomes the fourth net roll of 14.850

All of Nate Light's rolls sum to 53.625.

>>4457462
Alright, that should carry the sheriff to victory. I think, let me do the math.

The first gross roll of 19, modified by 1.25, becomes the first net roll of 23.750
The second gross roll of 15, modified by 1.25, becomes the second net roll of 18.75
The third gross roll of 2 is boosted to 5, then modified by 1.25, becoming the third net roll of 6.250
The fourth gross roll of 4 is boosted to 5, then modified by 1.25, becoming the fourth net roll of 6.250
The fifth gross roll of 10, modified by 1.25, becomes the fifth gross roll of 12.500

All of the Sheriff's rolls sum to 67.500

In the matter of the 'Worm' debate:

The Sheriff scores 67.500, against Nate Light's score of 53.635; resulting in the final gross of 13.865, advantage to the Sheriff.

In the Get the Worm faction:

Nate Light is the lead advocate of getting a head start on scavenging. As the lead advocate, he cannot be swayed in debate.
Nate Light is still in the Get the Worm faction.

FNU Chickless, being in a state of aggrievement against the opposing lead advocate is well insulated against persuasion. His CR is 30.
FNU Chickless's CR of 30 is not overcome by the final gross of 13.685 from the Sheriff.
FNU Chickless is still in the Get the Worm faction.

In the Forget the Worm faction:

The Sheriff is the lead advocate of holding off on scavenging. As the lead advocate, he cannot be swayed in debate.
The Sheriff is still in the Forget the Worm faction.

Reginald Mantle is the player character, whose decisions have been decided by players. As the player character, he cannot be swayed in debate under normal conditions.
Reginald Mantle is still in the Forget the Worm faction.

Deputy Sheriff 'Bart' Bean observes the debate, as a supporter of the Forget the Worm faction.
Deputy Sheriff 'Bart' Bean's CR of 20 is not overcome by the final gross of 0 from Nate Light.
Deputy Sheriff 'Bart' Bean is still in the Forget the Worm faction.

In the Undecided voter pool:

Erwin Parasol observes the debate undecided, and with a relatively open mind. His CR is 10.
Erwin Parasol's CR of 10 is overcome by the final gross of 13.685 from the Sheriff.
Erwin Parasol is now in the Forget the Worm faction.

George Light observes the debate undecided, but being a blood relative with one of the debaters is not impartial between the two men.
Nate Lights net roll sum of 53.635 becomes 64.362 and the Sheriff's net roll sum of 67.500 becomes 54.000, as dictated by the 1.2/0.8 bonus/malus; advantage Light
For George Light, the effective final gross becomes 10.362, advantage to the Sheriff.
George Light's CR of 10 is overcome by the final gross of 10.362 from Nate Light.
George Light is now in the Get the Worm faction.

Jim Reaves observes the debate undecided and uninterested, he believes that either course of action will be fine, and will side with the winner if his CR is not met*
Jim Reaves' CR of 18 is not overcome by the final gross of 13.685 from the Sheriff.
Jim Reaves remains in the Undecided voter pool; he will side with the winner, or in the case of a tie, he will abstain.

>>4457530
Shit, I must have forgotten the [/i] after 'voter pool'.

Final Vote Tally

In the Get the Worm faction:
Nate Light
George Light
FNU Chickless

In the Forget the Worm faction:
Sheriff Chester A. Arthur
Reginald Mantle
Deputy Sheriff Bartholomew 'Bart' Bean
Erwin Parasol
Jim Reaves (joins the winner)

Well, after some really intense discussion, Parasol cut things off after glancing at his watch, by mentioning that it was nearly 2:00am, and that they should simply put things to a vote before things started to drag. The look you exchanged with 'Bart' at that made it evident that the two of you, having both finally made your way to the square of sofas from the drink cart, both thought that it had already passed that point a while ago. Still, to his credit, Parasol was being tactful about all of this, and wasn't trying to unilaterally order things. It remains to be seen, however, if the lack of authoritarianism on his part is either genuine restraint or he simply hadn't made up his mind. You are kind of curious to see what would happen if he sides with the losing side in one of these debates. For that matter, you find yourself wondering what would happen if the Sheriff lost this vote ...

But that doesn't come to pass. By a show of hands, the Sheriff's plan wins out 5 to 3, though Reaves cast his vote in what looked like an afterthought. Nate Light accepted the loss gracefully and George Light accepted it with a chuckle and shrug. Chickless, on the other hand, is still glaring at the Sheriff, though you don't know how much of that is the defeat of his 'faction' for the second time by the Sheriff, or the previous remark that got under his skin.

Parasol leans back in his seat, and rolls his shoulders. "Alright, so, now that we have decided the initial response, the next question is 'consolidation'." Across the Blue Sitting Room, all seven of the guests, including yourself, lean in as Parasol explains the next issue.

"The question is as old as time itself; efficiency or freedom?" He gestures around the room. "This place is an absolute nightmare to heat. The resources required to keep this place habitable through Winter would be much better spent outfitting a hotel or inn for residential living, or modifying a single family residence to take several families. Consider it in terms of ROI, return on investment; the amount of resources required to sustain one person in a domicile. The estate here would be terribly inefficient in these terms, especially if it was compared to an apartment building, or a modified hotel, or even a more typical house. Things are going to be tight, and it may be that we will need to ask things of people that they would rather not do.

>>4457597
"We have already decided that we are going to have to limit assistance to those originally from the community who are willing to work with us; but we might need to take it further than that. To stretch resources as far as they can, we should be serious consideration to consolidating our people into shared or communal housing." With the utterance of 'communal' a palpable, angry tension surges into the room. No man here is a Communist; and no man here wants to be party to bringing Communism into their community.

That said, the argument about efficiency is solid. After a moment and a quick sigh, Parasol continues: "We could simply let things stand as they are; our people will either live in their property, make their own accommodations with their neighbors, or move into unoccupied property, all on their own accord. This would be the easiest to sell ... actually, considering that is the presumable status quo, it isn't a matter of 'selling it' to anyone. It's free, and if we don't do anything it's what's going to happen without a doubt. It is also going to be extremely inefficient. And it isn't even in terms of just the housing itself, either. Our communities, for better or worse, are spaced with car ownership in mind; and considering that gas is going to run out... it is a complication.

"Things would be easier if everyone is tightly packed into efficient housing, in terms of providing for everyone, and keeping everyone physically safe, though of course, health issues do become more of a concern in tighter proximities. Not to mention keeping things under control." There is a pointed look at the two lawmen in attendance, and then he continues. "If we prepare consolidated housing; then some people will probably jump at it, if we offered it, but not everyone, which could create its own problems. The way I see it, there are three choices here. We can simply let things fall as they may, and use the resources that we'd use on the consolidated housing for other collective projects, like expanding the capacity of the clinic, or improving the Winterization of houses around the lake, like on a lottery, or something. We can make the housing available, and improve efficiency a little.

"Or we could get drastic, and require anyone who wants to receive our assistance to live in consolidated housing." Several people try to speak at once, and it takes several-several seconds for Parasol to regain control of the room. "There would be some exceptions, but for the most part everyone would be consolidated into the most efficient housing possible. And ... if we made food and fuel assistance contingent upon living in consolidated housing, then we wouldn't need to worry about feeding as many people ... as no doubt many would refuse. As I said drastic, and it has the potential to pit the entire lake against itself, but if we are serious about surviving the Winter, then it might be our best option. Something to consider.

>>4457666
'Something to consider'. That might be the understatement of the year. Well, what exactly do you think is the best course of action here?

>Free Market Housing: Do not build Collective Housing, use the resources elsewhere.
>Housing on Command: Build some Collective Housing, do not make residence a requirement for food and fuel assistance.
>Autarky-Ahoy!: Build Collective Housing, make residence a requirement for food and fuel assistance.

>>4457678
And also, I need one anon to roll 1d20 please.

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>4457681

>>4457684
ayy, lets go
>Housing on Command: Build some Collective Housing, do not make residence a requirement for food and fuel assistance.

>>4457684
Well, we are safe for another hour. Don't forget to vote! >>4457678

>>4457678
>Housing on Command: Build some Collective Housing, do not make residence a requirement for food and fuel assistance.

we did not buy a farm in northern Maine to get snug with the neighbors, but of course it might be a good idea for people who want/need it

>>4457678
>Housing on Command: Build some Collective Housing, do not make residence a requirement for food and fuel assistance.

>>4457687
>>4457702
>>4457704
Alright, that is a strong enough lead that I'm comfortable closing this. Give me a minute, and I will get to writing.

>>4457678
>Housing on Command: Build some Collective Housing, do not make residence a requirement for food and fuel assistance.

>Housing on Command.

Well, you can see the reasoning behind all of these options, but the gain in efficiency, security, and yes, control does not seem to be worth turning neighbors against one another by tying food and fuel assistance to residence in collective or consolidated housing. Likewise, leaving everyone on their own to figure things out is going to be horribly inefficient, and will introduce its own set of problems. At this point, it seems that the best decision is to make the housing available for those that need or want it. Odds are that as the Winter progresses, more people will throw in the towel and voluntarily move in.

Judging by the pockets of conversation, it seems that nearly everyone is on board. George Light is loudly grumbling about ‘fifth columnists’ and ‘Jewish Bolsheviks’, so if you had to guess, he is probably against building the consolidated housing. That said, he is not speaking against it; so, it seems that he is not going to press the issue to a vote, having already realized that he is in the minority. On the other side of the square of sofas, Chickless is still glowering at the Sheriff, who at this point must have noticed and decided against dignifying the attention with a response. From ‘Bart’s’ account of his previous remarks, you would guess that he would be in favor of making the housing mandatory, but like George Light, realizes that the room is largely against it. After several minutes of this, Parasol calls for a show of hands, and to no one’s surprise, the motion to build non-mandatory consolidated housing goes through. That said, while you cannot speak for everyone else, you at the very least were surprised when Chickless voted with the others for the non-mandatory option. George Light simply abstained.

Well, things are moving quickly now. Good thing too, it must be after two in morning. Parasol gets up and looks for a report, and Nate Light excuses himself to go to the restroom. The others lounge around, and some of them make small talk. If you had hidden the map and the reports, then there would be no clue that this was some sort of task-force pulled together to discuss how to survive a Collapse after a nuclear strike.

>>4457856
But while you are still thinking about the housing situation in your town, you begin to think about your personal housing situation. While your house is relatively small, you could definitely fit more people in there if you had too, beyond you and your mother, that is. While more people living under your roof complicates things for you beyond simply multiplying the number of mouths you need to feed, there is a question of security. The fact that you have animals is not public knowledge, but on the other hand, it is not a secret. If you are out, that would leave your mother alone with a number of highly valuable animals. Definitely not an ideal situation; but maybe someone here would be willing to board with you; especially considering that some of them are staying at the ‘Kate’. When you get a minute to speak to them alone, you will seek out …

>No one. You might have someone else in mind, you might want to keep all your food to yourself, but either way, you will not seek to make any invitations at this time.
>Jim Reaves. Perhaps his family would prefer homestead living to squatting at the ‘Kate’.
>George Light. The man clearly appreciates food and would be motivated to defend it.
>Nate Light. You do not know that much about him, but he seems to be personable and gracious.
>Both Lights. You could call the pair of them ‘the headlamps’. Jokes aside, manpower is important.
>FNU Chickless. Seems like a prickly sort of guy, but he also seems dead earnest in surviving this.
>Bachelor Pad: Chickless and the Lights do not seem to mind each other.
>Parasol Company Barracks: Invite Reaves and his family, the Lights and Chickless. Odds are that not all of them will accept, but even if they do, as long as you can scavenge enough to make it until Boadicea calves in a few weeks, you should have enough milk and egg production to feed all of them for the Winter. Maybe.


I'm going to leave this up for about an hour, I have some stuff to do around the house

>No one. You might have someone else in mind, you might want to keep all your food to yourself, but either way, you will not seek to make any invitations at this time.

I'd say wait, and get to know people better before any kind of decision, unless someone has a good idea regarding it.

>>4457857
>No one. You might have someone else in mind, you might want to keep all your food to yourself, but either way, you will not seek to make any invitations at this time.

>>4457857
>Both Lights

I really like your pun, OP. I am supporting this on the prompting of that pun.

Also, they do seem like a good group to mix in if we want more manpower, in a way that the Reaves family is almost certainly not.

>>4457910
Changing to this.

Alright, closing this vote. That is two to one for asking the Light cousins if they want to board with you. Obviously, you aren't going to go do it immediately. I'll get to writing.

The Lights. The two of them seem to be pretty amenable; with out even being properly introduced, George offered to help you process the bull moose, and all he got out of it is was a little bit of backstrap. Which reminds you, when you get home, you will need to get all of that stuff into the freezer, not that the freezer is going to be working much longer, but …

Oh fuck! You knew you forgot something! The meat, the remains of the bull moose are all still on your long-suffering Farm Truck, which you left at Tinn’s homestead. Would he think to check the back of the truck? Probably, he seems like he’d go over every inch of the thing to safety-check the thing. Would he leave the meat out? Yeah, he probably would. Normally, fresh killed meat like that is fine to let sit, even raw and half processed; but that stuff was ‘marinating’ in soiled water for what? Hours? How the hell did you let that slip? You are usually on top of stuff like that. Must be the hours getting to you; it has nearly been a full day since you got up. You swear, if that meat has gone bad because of this, you will never live this down.

…Where were you? Yeah, the Lights. When you get a moment, you will ask one (or both of them at the same time if the opportunity arises) about their living arrangements and if they would want to board with you at your homestead. You could definitely take the two of them and still have food to spare; and judging by their bare ring fingers, they are unwed, so it is not like they would be bringing along any other mouths to feed. Yawn Gosh, this is a comfortable sofa. Even as hungry as you are, you feel like if you relax for a second, you will fall fast asleep.

>>4458008
Sleep is for the weak, and the weak will not survive. RESIST THE SLEEPY.

File: Imagine this, but much sh(...).jpg (58 KB, 550x424)

58 KB JPG

Hrph! Stay up! You need to stay up! Nate is back from the restroom, and Parasol is talking again.

“So, there are two remaining big questions, after that, we will work out the specific assignments that we will have, before, during and immediately after the strike. The penultimate question is one of ‘gas’. It will be extremely difficult, but we could grow and raise food, after the found supply dwindles down to nothing. We can burn wood for heat, and there are even contraptions that can take wood and make a burnable gas. But what we cannot make is …” Hold on now, was that what that thing was? Your mind jumps back to yesterday, when you found what looked like some manner of woodstove that was hooked up to a generator on the Morrison Farm. It is still sitting there, right where you found it. Should you mention it to the group?

>Maybe you want to keep it for yourself. Maybe you want to make sure it works before getting everyone is hopes up. Maybe you want to clean up after the Tank-Things escapade before you draw attention to the Morrison Farm. Whatever the reason, you will keep your mouth shut on this for now.
>Well, you do not know if it is in working order anyway; and up until a minute ago you were convinced it was just some nutty project of the Morrison with the near-professional quality welds (just of a more subtle insanity than that maceration experiment.)

>>4458140
>Maybe you want to keep it for yourself. Maybe you want to make sure it works before getting everyone is hopes up. Maybe you want to clean up after the Tank-Things escapade before you draw attention to the Morrison Farm. Whatever the reason, you will keep your mouth shut on this for now.

>Maybe you want to keep it for yourself. Maybe you want to make sure it works before getting everyone is hopes up. Maybe you want to clean up after the Tank-Things escapade before you draw attention to the Morrison Farm. Whatever the reason, you will keep your mouth shut on this for now.

>>4458154
>>4458145
Consider this closed; I'll get to writing it up shortly.

Hrph! Stay up! You need to stay up! Nate is back from the restroom, and Parasol is talking again.

“So, there are two remaining big questions, after that, we will work out the specific assignments that we will have, before, during and immediately after the strike. The penultimate question is one of ‘gas’. It will be extremely difficult, but we could grow and raise food, after the found supply dwindles down to nothing. We can burn wood for heat, and there are even contraptions that can take wood and make a burnable gas. But what we cannot make is …” Hold on now, was that what that thing was? Your mind jumps back to yesterday, when you found what looked like some manner of woodstove that was hooked up to a generator on the Morrison Farm. It is still sitting there, right where you found it. Should you mention it to the group?

>Maybe you want to keep it for yourself. Maybe you want to make sure it works before getting everyone is hopes up. Maybe you want to clean up after the Tank-Things escapade before you draw attention to the Morrison Farm. Whatever the reason, you will keep your mouth shut on this for now.
>Well, you do not know if it is in working order anyway; and up until a minute ago you were convinced it was just some nutty project of the Morrison with the near-professional quality welds, just of a more subtle insanity than the maceration experiment. God, you better not get nightmares of that thing.

>>4458398
Whoops! Ignore that previous post please!

Hmm. Why don’t you hold onto that ‘secret’ just a little bit longer? You do not know how to articulate it; but you have some sort of hunch, a genuine gut feeling that talking about it right now is not the best play, at least for you. …Probably has something to do with the state that you left the Morrison Farm in on your way out, but that is neither here nor there.

Now, what were they talking about? Gas? You ‘tune’ back into the conversation, and find Nate Light addressing the group.

“…there is also the question of expiration. Gasoline last about 3 months is properly stored without stabilization agents. Diesel can last anywhere from 6 to 12 months without any further treatment. But propane is effectively eternal; baring deliberate contamination it will almost always outlast the tank it is stored in. This is both good and bad; for the obvious reasons, it is good because that means that the possibility of scavenging more propane does not close at any fixed point. The bad news is that people will presumably want to use it for heating.

There is some confusion around the Blue Sitting Room at this point, but you think you know where he is going with this. And it turns out, you were right!

“Welding. While a blended mixture of oxygen and acetylene is the typical go to for small scale welding, in a pinch, propane can be used. Of course, that means that instead of running out of acetylene first we will run out of oxygen. I have a couple of ideas for that, but for now, having as large of a supply as welding gases is important for whatever emergency building and modification we will need to do in the aftermath. People are not going to be willing to simply handover their propane to us, or their gasoline or diesel, which we can sort of work around with gasifiers. And then there is motor oil and hydraulic fluid; both of those do not have the relatively easy work around like gasoline or diesel does. How to we get our hands on the bulk of this stuff, before it gets wasted or is squirreled away into little hoards?

Well, um … that is, a very good question. Uh….

>Write-in a suggestion on how to convince desperate people living in an isolated area during the Collapse to give you their gasoline, diesel, propane, motor oils, and hydraulic fluids.

>>4458402

QM, is there a sheet anywhere for how much equipment our group has, people, or firearms available? I'm thinking the only way we can really convince people here is to come up with an external foe or trade for services for the gasoline, which I have no idea how it'll go over with them.

>>4458419
Hmm. There really should be one, but I don't have one ready. Alright, I'll plan on leaving this up overnight, in case someone has an idea, then I'll start the run tomorrow with a basic inventory sheet.

Either we trade for it by offering the safety that comes with the communal housing idea or we locate the major stockpiles of it and be in place to grab a semi or tanker full right after the nukes drop. If the nukes don't actually drop and we do something like this we'll be up shit creek. That being said, we can't just cross this bridge when we get to it. Failing to plan is planning to fail and I'd rather have a mediocre plan than no plan. Any other ideas, I'm all ears?"

"Actually, hmmm. Well we could start bringing more people in on our little Circle of Trust who control the supplies we need.Medical supply store for oxygen, welding shop, mechanic,gas station manager- heck maybe some people in our group are already on good terms with the folks we need onboard. Another option would be to halt distributon of these supplies until we need to seize them. Sabotage gas pumps or electric transformers/boxes/fuse boxes supplying them power. Then take over the gas station or whatever and extract the supplies after the bombs drop."

"This is heavy stuff, though, I must admit."

>>4458402
actually I feel that as this meeting drags on it is more and more going into pesky details. I think at some point soon we need to excuse ourselves and head back home. We have meat to freeze animals to feed and prepare our abode for the apocalypse and our mom.

So why exactly are we allowed in parasols inner circle?

>>4458619
Apparently we are "useful"

>>4458619
>>4458628
Our character is not exactly sure. He did a few jobs for Parasol, and he started using us regularly. If you were to ask Mantle, he'd probably guess that he's here because Parasol knows that he's an 'idiot savant' at scavenging.

>>4458445
The collective equipment sheet is going to take a bit more time to finish, and I don't want to burn the 'bump window' of thread if I can in anyway help it.

>>4458464
>>4458527
I can incorporate this into a suggestion; but I'll let you know right now that there will be push back on the idea of actively sabotaging things. Regardless, this vote wasn't that important. The final one of the five is arguably the most important, and will determine which story threads are followed for the rest of the quest.

By the time that the 'gas' discussion ends, another hour will have passed. Just to get this out of the way, can someone roll 1d20 again? This is the 3:00am roll, which means that a 1 or a 2 means that the strike has begun. Also, maluses start to come into play soon, as we will have been without food or sleep for 24 hours.

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>4458816
Yeah no prob, also I'm up for just not choosing anything since we don't have any real ideas so far.

>>4458823
Alright, I'll be ready to start the run in an hour and a half, about 2pm Eastern Standard Time.

>>4458892
Actually, something came up; I wont be able to run right away; but it should take that long to take care of. In the meantime, here is a rare 'meta vote' to make up for the delay (and if it is the desire of the majority, to move things along...)

Should the group:
>Have another debate over how they should secure 'gas'? There are a couple of ideas that the other characters have, but they are all pretty basic.

>Acknowledge that they don't have much of plan beyond securing what supplies they can and maybe requiring payment either for assess to consolidated housing or as a one time 'buy-in' to receive protection, and move on to the more important question.

>>4458974
>Acknowledge that they don't have much of plan beyond securing what supplies they can and maybe requiring payment either for assess to consolidated housing or as a one time 'buy-in' to receive protection, and move on to the more important question.
please

>>4458974
Let's move onto the last question for now so we can solve that and get some sleep. Let's return to the issue of gas another time.

move onto the last question for now so we can solve that and get some sleep. Let's return to the issue of gas another time.

>>4458974
>>Acknowledge that they don't have much of plan beyond securing what supplies they can and maybe requiring payment either for assess to consolidated housing or as a one time 'buy-in' to receive protection, and move on to the more important question.
Seems like a decent time for it, lot of other anons around to vote.

>Acknowledge that they don't have much of plan beyond securing what supplies they can and maybe requiring payment either for assess to consolidated housing or as a one time 'buy-in' to receive protection, and move on to the more important question.

>should take that long to take care of
Well, that was a prescient typo. Alright, lets nip this in the bud. With a unanimous consensus, we will move on to the final question. Writing.

>Blue Sitting Room of Parasol Family Lodge, Debouche, Maine. Sometime after 2:30am

Parasol abrupt stops the pockets of conversation around the room and turns his attention to you. “Well Mantle, you are the scavenger of the group. Do you have any suggestions for scrounging up gas?” And all the eyes of the room fall on you. Under the weight of everyone’s gaze, you find yourself hunching over a bit, and without realizing it, your hands go to your temples. Really selling self-confidence…

Your immediate thought is to preemptively seize all fuel and power infrastructure, but that is sort of covered already by the plan to send Deputy Sheriffs all around the lake and try to lock down strategic or valuable locations. But beyond that … “Mr. Parasol, to be honest, I generally do not scavenge fuel, so this is well outside of any practical experience on my part. That said … um, if I had to say something on the broader topic of preventing waste and hoarding, it would be that people are going to burn what they have the equipment to burn until they run out, or they cannot. But the thing that they need is the heat, not the gas or oil or whatever. To that end, make firewood available for them. You could force ‘em to hand it over, in exchange for wood, you could collect gas as a ‘tax’ in lieu of money and give them the wood as part of the assistance, or you could simply make wood available to everyone at a favorable rate; small tank to an entire cord of wood.”

>>4459580
There is the sound of people shifting in their seats as they consider your words. Parasol in particular looks like he is deep in thought; but from what you can tell, everyone seems to be taking your words into serious consideration. After a solid minute of silence, George Light speaks. “Listen, we need answers soon, but not necessarily now. Mantle here is right; the important thing is the heat, not the gas itself. By giving people wood, they can still heat themselves, the mechanic for getting them to give us the gas in exchange for the wood is an afterthought, if you really think about it. But gas is about more than heating; it obviously is necessary for nearly all of the transportation around the lake. You cannot fill up the tank of a car with firewood, can you? I know … well, I don’t think anyone here wants to play the villain, but unless there is some genuine forcible coercion, people are not going to be trading gasoline or diesel to us in any great quantities.”

Nate Light speaks up here. “Or for that matter, heating oil. While there are slight differences between #2 diesel and #2 heating oil, anything that will run diesel can run on heating oil, with no significant issues.” The room takes this in silence, and for the first time tonight, Parasol looks a bit overwhelmed. You think that George Light hit it on the head; ‘I don’t think anyone here wants to play the villain’. And the one who wants to play the villain the least is Parasol himself. ‘Bart’ said that he had to be talked down from making a blanket guarantee of assistance; he clearly wants to help people, and the idea of forcing people’s hands like this sits with him hard.

In the uneasy silence that follows Nate Light’s addendum to his cousins’ statement, Chickless is the first to speak, softly addressing Mr. Parasol. “Erwin, George is right. We just need to make these decisions soon. Not necessarily now. Move on, before we get bogged down.” Parasol quietly nods, and then moves on to what would be the last of the five questions.

>>4459580
There is the sound of people shifting in their seats as they consider your words. Parasol in particular looks like he is deep in thought; but from what you can tell, everyone seems to be taking your words into serious consideration. After a solid minute of silence, George Light speaks. “Listen, we need answers soon, but not necessarily now. Mantle here is right; the important thing is the heat, not the gas itself. By giving people wood, they can still heat themselves, the mechanic for getting them to give us the gas in exchange for the wood is an afterthought, if you really think about it. But gas is about more than heating; it obviously is necessary for nearly all of the transportation around the lake. You cannot fill up the tank of a car with firewood, can you? I know … well, I don’t think anyone here wants to play the villain, but unless there is some genuine forcible coercion, people are not going to be trading gasoline or diesel to us in any great quantities.”

Nate Light speaks up here. “Or for that matter, heating oil. While there are slight differences between #2 diesel and #2 heating oil, anything that will run diesel can run on heating oil, with no significant issues.” The room takes this in silence, and for the first time tonight, Parasol looks a bit overwhelmed. You think that George Light hit it on the head; ‘I don’t think anyone here wants to play the villain’. And the one who wants to play the villain the least is Parasol himself. ‘Bart’ said that he had to be talked down from making a blanket guarantee of assistance; he clearly wants to help people, and the idea of forcing people’s hands like this sits with him hard.

In the uneasy silence that follows Nate Light’s addendum to his cousins’ statement, Chickless is the first to speak, softly addressing Mr. Parasol. “Erwin, George is right. We just need to make these decisions soon. Not necessarily now. Move on, before we get bogged down.” Parasol quietly nods, and then moves on to what would be the last of the five questions.

“The final question is before us here is what to do with the Consolidated Somerset-Piscataquis Jail. It is the largest structure on the lake, and easily the most fortified.” Even as tired as you are, and with everything that is going on, you find yourself having to suppress a chuckle. Clearly, Mr. Parasol has never seen Tinn’s homestead. “Moreover, while the accommodations there currently are not … desirable per say, the fact of the matter is that given the history of the building, they could presumably be improved. Suffice to say, as far as any consolidated housing we could prepare for our people, would be the gold standard.”

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>>4459582
Reaves speaks up. “History? What sort of history?”

“It used to be a hotel. A massive hotel.” There was more to the history than that, however. The Mt. Kineo House was originally built as a relatively modest hotel, all the way back in 1848. That one had burnt down in 1868, and was rebuilt bigger and better, but that one burnt down too in 1882. In the interim where the hotel was being rebuilt for the third time, the original owners of the hotel washed their hands of it and sold it to the Maine Central Railroad, who both insisted on building the hotel even bigger, and most importantly, having it built out of brick, white washed, then painted the light lime green color of its predecessors. When it was complete, it was the largest lakefront hotel in America, and one of the largest lakefront hotels in the world, capable of accommodating 500 guests. The idea was that by having a hotel, passengers could be enticed out to trips on the Kineo line of the railroad; and this worked as planned for quite some time. However, the Depression and increased automobile ownership eventually made operating the Kineo line and the Mt. Kineo House unsustainable. The line was shuttered in 1933, and the hotel closed for operation in 1938. However, the building itself was just too good to let fall apart, and after some political wrangling was sold to the state to be converted into a county jail, over the strenuous objections of the locals, of course.

Even in its current state as a ‘lock-up’, the ‘Mt. Kineo Big House’ as it is unofficially known, is still pleasant to look at (at least from a distance). Visitors to the lake are always surprised to hear that it is a jail, and it is a common sentiment that it is the ‘prettiest jail in America’. You can obviously understand Parasol’s interest with ‘claiming’ the jail as consolidated housing, but…

>>4459637
There are a bunch of prisoners in the jail. ‘Bart’ speaks up and echoes your sentiment. “Well, I can certainly see the appeal, but the obvious issue is what the hell do we do with the current residents?” To this, Chickless starts laughing mirthlessly. “Why, we will welcome them with open arms, of course! We will feed and shelter them! What difference does another, what, two hundred mouths mean? We are all going to starve anyway.” That does not go over well with Parasol, he just kind of … curls up a bit. For that matter, it does not go well with the Sheriff either.

“Honestly, what the hell are you trying to do here, with that kind of….”. The Sheriff trails off as words fail him.

Chickless’ face is a twisted into a mask of pure, unadulterated rage; in your entire life, you have never seen anyone look so angry. The naked emotion pouring off of him is nothing short of mesmerizing. But what is the most unnerving, is that despite his look, he somehow manages to keep his voice almost neutral, with only the barest hint of venom sneaking in. The dissociation between his look and his sound is discomforting, to say the least, and no one interrupts him as he speaks.

“It isn’t obvious? I am trying to survive. When a castle faced a famine, a pandemic or a siege, the first thing that they did was to expel the non-essentials. There are about 1600 people living in Debouche, and around the lake, there is about what, 500 more? Call it a total of 2000 people, for the sake of simplicity. We have decided to offer to support all of them. Most of them are probably going to take us at our word, and accept that. With the food on hand, between the markets, restaurants, and other incidental sources, paired with the food that we can count on harvesting over the Winter, namely fish in the lake, small game, and vermin, there is absolutely no way that we could hope to feed everyone. We could not feed 2000. We could not feed half that. We would still be facing losses from starvation at a quarter. An eighth; that would be realistic, and a 1 to 4 ratio of males to females would be optimal. If we stretched things tight, we could accommodate children as well. Beyond that?

>>4459761
“Not a chance.”

“These people, the unskilled, unprepared and generally unsuited, are a millstone, a millstone that we have willing and causally slipped around our necks, with less thought than a woman would take to pick out a necklace for an evening on the town. They are going to die in great numbers; even if we had enough food to feed everyone, then many of them would still find someway to die on us, after eating our food, burning our fuel and ultimately wasting our time. If all of them were to remain on the lake, the food situation will have gotten desperate enough that neighbors will be seriously contemplating eating one another for Thanksgiving.”

In a blink of an eye, his expression softens back to normal. But the hint of venom in his voice remains. “But it is not entirely hopeless. If these non-essentials stay here, then they, as well as us, will die. If these non-essentials are convinced to head to a city while the road is still clear, then we might be able to make it through. Additionally, the non-essentials would have a better chance in or near the cities than the near-certain death they face here. Expelling them is a kindness, to them, to us, to everyone. No two ways about it.” He looks toward the Sheriff. “You are an idiot, you know. Don’t ever forget that, and you might just survive this.”

You would have no idea how on earth to respond to that, and it sees that the Sheriff does not either.

“You obviously are not planning on feeding, heating and looking after the prisoners through all of this; so how are they somehow different from the rest of the non-essentials? Can anyone explain the difference? I cannot see it. The only difference is that the danger they present to us is physical as well as logistical. Were we to open the doors to set them free, where would they go? To wherever the nearest source of food and shelter is that they could take by force of arms. This lake is surrounded by empty cabins, and as Erwin mentioned earlier, the population of the town and the lake as a whole skew older than average. Facing starvation, these freed prisoners would no doubt target the elderly. Which … well, we can use.”

Use?

>>4459826
“There are several options available to us; some of them will require further considerations, some of them are suicidal, but for the sake of argument, I will list all of them. We can kill ourselves and everyone else around this damned lake ahead of schedule by keeping them fed and heated. We could just let them out the front door; the fear and panic caused by a mass ‘jailbreak’ on top of a nuclear strike would go a long way to driving non-essentials out of the area. Once they are gone, it would be a simple matter of hunting them down … killing them, to be clear, claiming what they had managed to steal, then scavenging the houses abandoned by the non-essentials. Under the pretext of preventing the remaining escaped prisoners from sheltering in abandoned buildings around the lake, we would deliberately destroy the unneeded, redundant housing that the non-essentials abandoned. Ensuring that if they ever made it back to the lake, they would have no where to live, and would be forced to move on.

“As an alternative, we could drop all pretense, head over to the jail, and simply kill all of them. This option would mean that we would need to find another way to convince non-essentials to leave. Or if you insisted on not killing the prisoners, you could just bus them out to the middle of the north woods and kick them out. Of course, that would still be condemning them to death, but if it was so important that your hands remained clean, then I suppose….

You and the rest of the room are speechless. You feel a … need, an obligation to say something. To tell him that he is wrong, that such measures are not going to be necessary, that … it is all going to be okay. That you will not have to make such hard decisions. That everything is going to be fine. That everyone is going to make it through, and years from now, we’ll all be talking about this like we talk about the Ice Storm of ’97.

You cannot do any of that, of course. Because none of that is remotely true. To your surprise, and your embarrassment, you realize that you have started to cry. It has finally become real for you, people are going to die, and some of them are going to die because of choice you make. As you angrily wipe at your tears with the back of your hand, as your stomach churns and as your head pounds, you find yourself in completely uncharted territory. What can you do? What should you do?

>Kill all the prisoners (excluding fertile women and men with specialist skills)
>Release all the prisoners out the front door (excluding fertile women and men with specialist skills) in a bid to drive off non-essentials
>Release all the prisoners somewhere in the Northwoods (excluding fertile women and men with specialist skills) as a way to wipe your hands of their eventual deaths
>Keep the prisoners alive for now

>>4459852
>Kill all the prisoners (excluding fertile women and men with specialist skills)

Letting criminals roam the countryside is a very, very bad idea, ethically and pragmatically, but cleaning house? Not so much, I would think.

>Kill all the prisoners (excluding fertile women and men with specialist skills)
Fuck this is dark man. I don’t know if it would be in character to make this choice but it’s obviously the safest bet to make. I guess we could rationalize it as giving them the swiftest and most humane death over booting them out to freeze. Or harm the other residents.

>>4459852
what if we killed all of the violent/serious offenders, then proceeded to release the guys in there for minor things like embezzlement/petty theft
sure, they're criminals still, but they certainly must be a fair grade lower in the terms of the damage they could cause
plus, we keep a clear(er) conscious, and still can cause some hysteria to get some non-essentials fleeing the area with (probably) less damage
that's what my vote is going to. seems like the best of both worlds. unless we manage to scare off some essentials as well

>>4459852
>>4459863
>>4459902
+1, but I'll expand a bit.

We should filter the prisoners by the following judgements.

First, can they be trusted?
Second, do they have any relevant useful skills? Architects, engineers, mechanics, farmers, etc.
Third, are they fit, relatively young (more important for women) and sound of body?

I say we kill the unreasonable ones and those who are entirely useless, while retaining the skilled ones and as many trusty fit, healthy people as we can. This will give us a workforce/goon squad, but even if we filter them by the trusty ones we have to be careful not to let them get any ideas of rebellion.

>>4459933
+1

>>4459852
>Release all the prisoners somewhere in the Northwoods (excluding fertile women and men with specialist skills) as a way to wipe your hands of their eventual deaths
"You'll all be transfered to another jail"
"congratulations, you are now free"
I just see this going over most smoothly. Also we can let them out somewhere not too far from civilisation so they have a fighting chance. although that would of course mean endangering other innocents...

if you guys insist on shooting them please also cart them to the woods first. this is the kind of shit you don't do too public.

It is probably worth reposting this from the first thread;

"....And as a point of clarification, despite being used interchangeably in causal language, there are significant legal and practical differences between the two types of institutions, in the United States. Jails are locally run, designated for holding those who have not been convicted yet or who have relatively short sentences, as opposed to prisons, which are for convicted criminals sentenced to long internments. As a rule of thumb, jails typically have worse conditions for their inmates than prisons, which are kept to notably higher and nation-wide standards..."

And here is some more information that our character would know about the situation in the jail;

A decent portion of the prisoners in the 'Mt. Kineo Big House' have not actually been convicted of a crime yet, they are simply locked up awaiting trial; Maine (in both the real world and in this one) does do cash bail, but does not have the bail bondsmen industry that other states in the union have, meaning that if you can not afford to cover the cost of bail levied against you (or if you are held without bail) then you are remanded into jail to await trial.

Looking at the population of actual convicts (as opposed to those simply awaiting trial), most of them are there for misdemeanors. Of these misdemeanors, most are either drug and alcohol related, or they are some flavor of petty theft. Relatively few of the misdemeanors are 'violent'. Of the relatively few felons present, about half of those are 'violent', the rest are pretty much just in there for more serious versions of misdemeanors.

These people aren't monsters by any stretch of the imagination, but that does not mean that they are not dangerous, or capable of violence in the right (wrong) situation. Nearly all of them are 'combat age', that is to say, between 18 and 45 years old, and are nearly all males. Almost none of them have relatives living around the lake, but most of them were from somewhere in either Piscataquis or Somerset county. That is to say that while they don't have the kind of personal ties to the community that might stay their hands, they can be expected to have a basic knowledge of the area.

With few exceptions, they are almost all 'chronic fuckups'. Even the ones that were not in jail for drug and alcohol related crimes are more likely than not to have some level of dependency and addiction issues. Most of them have nothing beyond a high school education or GED, though as most men with rural upbringings, they all can be expected to have some technical aptitude. Anger, impulse control and undianosed mental issues are common issues throughout the jail's population.

>>4460005
Chickless really hit it on the head; these are just 'imminently' dangerous non-essentials. His frustration is that serious thought will be given to killing or expelling them (to there presumable deaths) but that same thought would never be given to the rest of the non-essentials; who in their great numbers pose a different sort of danger, delayed just far enough out that it could be willfully overlooked.

In his mind, (and to a certain extent, in reality) the non-essentials living around the lake pose a greater threat. Simply put, you can shoot looters, but you can't shoot hunger. I'm going to leave this one up over night, and I'd like to thank everyone for sticking around despite the interruptions on my end today. It's really frustrating; I expected to be able to run much more over this weekend then I wound up actually doing.

Oh, and before I go, >>4459975... Shoot them? You certainly could, but I might have had this choice when I gave you guys the 'combat rebuilt sledge axe' in the first thread. (I'll get an inventory sheet pulled together soon.) The blade isn't wide enough to cleanly decapitate someone, but it is certainly suitable to brain anything or anyone you will come across in the entire state.

>>4460038
Shiiet man, we can't start this off by going all killing fields bludgeoning people to death with garden tools. Also, might I ask QM, what exactly was the significance of the "what makes a decision right" vote?

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>>4460102
The rationale behind that vote was to one, provide direction for me on 'flavor text', and two, to get a sense of what choices should be made available to the character. And I don't think a sledge axe exactly qualifies as a garden tool, pic related.

>Kill all the prisoners (excluding fertile women and men with specialist skills)

But only after hooking them up into chain gangs and using them to split the wood rounds(slices made with chainsaws) into logs.

>>4460005
>>4460038
Right, so they're mostly petty offenders. That changes things. I don't think killing them is a good idea then.

We release the bulk of them, recruit those with useful skills, and some of the more trusty able-bodied men for work team(s)/goon-squad(s).

Hopefully the mass release will drive off some people.

>>4459852
>>Keep the prisoners alive for now

The nuclear strike hasn't even happened yet!

You can't unkill someone. I'm not even ruling that out as an option, but let's give it sometime. In the meantime, cut off supplies to the prison. If the strike does happen, then we can have the 'kill the prisoners' discussion.

>>4460235
Changing to this. Murderers/rapists/serious violent offenders still should probably get the (sledge) axe, unless they hold some kind of exceptional skill. Releasing them would only damage the community, and releasing most of those with relatively minor misdemeanors should still build up enough of a panic to chase off the non-essentials. I don't like the part regarding undiagnosed mental illness however.

>>4459914
I'll go with this. Creating a mostly nonlethal hysteria with the least dangerous prisoners in order to reduce the mouths we have to feed sounds like the best option

>>4460102
Changing to this
>>4460235

I'm not quite ready to start writing for the day, so I'll just leave this up for a little bit longer. Just wanted to bump the thread, in case the additional information I provided last night changes anyone's vote.

Alright, voting is now closed.

>>4459863 votes to kill all prisoners, excluding the potentially useful. (I for Killing)
>>4459902 votes to kill all prisoners, excluding the potentially useful. (II for Killing)
>>4459914 votes to kill all violent/heinous criminals, keep the potentially useful, and release the rest. Vote retracted by >>4460282
>>4459933 votes to kill all violent/heinous criminals, keep the potentially useful, and release the rest. Proposes vetting scheme. Vote retracted by >>4460235
>>4459937 votes to kill all violent/heinous criminals, keep the potentially useful, and release the rest. Supports proposed vetting scheme. (II for Killing, I for Partial Release)
>>4459954 votes to release all prisoners deep into the Northwoods, excluding the potentially useful.Vote retracted by >>4460451
>>4460195 votes to kill all prisoners, excluding the potentially useful. (III for Killing, I for Partial Release)
>>4460235 votes to release all prisoners, excluding the potentially useful. (III for Killing, I for Partial Release, I for Full Release)
>>4460236 votes to keep all prisoners alive for now. (III for Killing, I for Partial Release, I for Full Release, I for Keeping)
>>4460282 votes to release all prisoners, excluding the potentially useful. (III for Killing, I for Partial Release, II for Full Release, I for Keeping)
>>4460378 votes to votes to kill all violent/heinous criminals, keep the potentially useful, and release the rest. Supports proposed vetting scheme. (III for Killing, II for Partial Release, II for Full Release, I for Keeping)
>>4460451 votes to release all prisoners, excluding the potentially useful.(III for Killing, II for Partial Release, III for Full Release, I for Keeping)

And of course, it is a tie. This is such an important vote, I don't feel comfortable just rolling for it. Not to mention, there is potential for advocates of Partial Release to switch over to Full Release. (Full is releasing everyone who isn't useful, partial is killing the violent/heinous criminals, and then releasing everyone who isn't useful). I will leave this up for just a little bit longer.

>>4460632
I think you shouldn't count the votes made before >>4460038 and >>4460005, as votes were made without full knowledge of the inmates.

>>4460756
Well, if no one changes their vote in the next hour or so, to move things along, I suppose I could drop them. I don't know.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

Alright, I have thought about it. And as much as I hate to roll for something as important as this, I'd feel even worse if I just decided to disqualify votes.

Kill roll of 1
Full Release roll of 2

>>4461069
>Full Release
heh
oh man
looks like shit just got cranked up to 11

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>>4461069
Oh shit nigger, this is going to be interesting.
Silently rooting that these prisoners are actually decent people.

Hey guys, quick update; I'm still working on the post. At the rate I am going, it looks like it will either be an overnight or morning vote. Sorry for the delays, it's just that this is a really critical decision in the quest, and I don't want to rush this. Wanted to let you guys know, so you aren't waiting around needlessly.

>>4461192
appreciate the heads up, OP.
your writing is slow going, but always ends up quality.
really critical portion of the quest anyway, best to make sure it's the best it can be.

>>4461192
yeah no problem

You're doing great so far QM. Thanks for the update :)

>Blue Sitting Room of Parasol Family Lodge, Debouche, Maine. Sometime after 2:40am

You feel on the verge of what might be considered a ‘panic attack’. You do not know, you have never had one before, but odds are this is what they feel like. Always, you have prided yourself on your ‘relatively’ level head. In your line of work, as a scavenger, not an Animal Control Officer, your ability to focus things down, to get ‘just the facts’, has been a saving grace. Many would be scavengers are simply some flavor of ‘functional’ hoarder, they find cubic foot after cubic foot of trash and somehow manage to only see potential. You have succeeded, where they failed because you know how to consider cost and benefit, even, no, especially when those costs and benefits are in non-monetary terms. This is one of your (admittedly few) strengths, you pride yourself on this.

And while every fiber of your being is recoiling at the idea, you know that there is no argument against Chickless here. Assuming that this is going to be … a Collapse, in part or in whole, that after the strike, Debouche and the rest of Northern Maine cannot expect any outside assistance, that we need to feed ourselves through this Winter, and possibly beyond … then he is right. Accepting this feels like your brain is being flagellated; the stress and distress is tangible, in a physiological sense. And by accepting that, you are also tacitly accepting that people, around the lake and around the world are going to die, and in great numbers. As hard as all of that may be to swallow, if that was the extent of it, then maybe you have been able to move on, because you would have to accept it, as it was all out of your hands.

But there is the issue; it is not out of your hands. You are not going to be some bystander in whatever is coming. Having taken a seat in this room, you are taking some level of responsibility for what happens next. Your neighbors, some of your neighbors will suffer … will suffer and die because of decisions that were made here. That you made here. There is a part of you, an irresponsible, childish part, that is so terrified by this that he wants to do nothing more than just run home and wash your hands of all of this. To go to bed, and pretend that this was all some sort of dream. But that is, in its own cowardly way, making a decision here.

At this point, there are no good decisions left. There are bad decisions, and even worse decisions, but none of them are good; none of them are miraculously going to let everyone get out of this alive.

>>4461480
…Wait…

‘None of them are miraculously going to let everyone get out of this alive.’ That is a certainty. If there is no course of action that saves everyone, then … then it is still sort of out of your hands. It is a childish way to look at it, to insulate yourself from the practical and emotional burdens of responsibility, you see, even in this moment. But at the same time, you cannot deny the relief, or at the very least, the calming, stabilizing effect that this realization, this admission has for you.

And if this is the case, then what you need to do is to get a fucking grip here, and recognize that if there is not an obvious good decision, then objectively speaking, the least bad decision becomes the good decision. Without realizing it, you start gently rocking back and forth in your seat, as you go over this again and again in your head. ‘There is no ‘right decision’, and people, lots of people are going to die regardless of whatever you try to do.’ Under more normal circumstances, that statement alone would be distressing, and the idea of finding relief from it would be sickening and comical by turns, but today, in the state that you are, and in the state that the world is going to be in shortly, it is a godsend. You force that idea through your head, ramming it home again and again, like the bolt action of a rifle. Each time you repeat it, you find yourself a little more fortified, the situation more compartmentalized and rationalized. After several-several-several seconds of this, you begin to feel better (or more accurately, you feel ‘less worse’).

Given the choice between two scenarios of a group (that includes yourself), where in one of the cases the entire group dies, or in the second case, most of the group dies and you probably live, but you have some responsibility in some of the deaths, objectively, the right decision is to ensure that some people … and yourself, of course, make it out alive, right? Your understanding of ‘ethics’ is admittedly limited, but you don’t see any compelling argument why everyone should die … If that is the choice, then really, it is what most people would go with. Maybe it is not ‘right’, per say, but it is practical. And certainly understandable. Call this belief a justification, call it an excuse, Hell, call it a lie. Whatever it is, it is getting you through this.

>>4461481
Now, ignoring what needs to be done with the rest of the people around the lake, the prisoners. If you and the rest of the group here were not to do anything, what would happen? Well, presumably, the guards would eventually realize what was going on, and they would take matters into their own hands by absconding with the food, probably. Well, that is no good, obviously. So, what changes by killing them? They die sooner, and if done properly, they will be less suffering on their part. But assuming that the Sheriff moves to have the food secured earlier, then that means that there is no food lost, so the only net gain from killing them outright is reducing their suffering. On the other hand, there is the release. Well, that would potentially drive off some people, but there would be others who would probably try to stick around to defend their property from looters. It is a real mixed bag as far as you could tell. Perhaps Chickless does not understand the psychology at play here, despite having accounted for everything else.

You become aware that conversation has resumed around the square of sofas; and as one might expect, the tone has become markedly somber. ‘Bart’ is back at the cart, pouring himself something-or-other. Chickless is speaking to the Lights, who are all listening to him intently and the Sheriff, who is listening to him begrudgingly. Parasol nodding along with the conversation, but he looks green, as if he were about to throw up. Reaves has left the room, but his coat is still over the back of one of the sofas, so he presumably just went to the bathroom.

A thought comes to you; about the type who would stick around and defend their property from the prisoners. There is a serious overlap of people who would stick around on their property to defend is from looters and people who would, upon realizing that ‘shit had gone sideways’, go out an start looting or at least attempting to trade or purchase for critical supplies. It probably would be closer to concentric circles than a Venn Diagram. So, by releasing the prisoners, you will drive off a number of ‘non-essentials’ and simultaneously tie down whatever competition you would have for critical supplies around the lake. Well, that is definitely the better option then. You would go as far to say that It is nothing short of Machiavellian, if that is what he intended.

>>4461482
But did he? He did not mention it to your knowledge, and you have been listening to him for a few minutes now, and he does not seem to be touching on that point or anything related to it, even though it seems that the plan to release the prisoners has tentative support from the room, (which considering the alternatives, is not surprising). Did he not think of it? You do not know for sure, but you find yourself doubting that; he is deliberate enough to specify a particular ratio of men to women in his plan. If he’d think about things like that to that extent, then he’d probably conclude that some people would stick around to protect their property, which would lead to the realization that this would actually be to your benefit. So what does that mean, he’s concealing it? Why on earth would he do that?

Feh! If this was an oversight, then you feel that you should bring it up, to further cement support for the release plan. Still, you cannot help but feel that this is somehow deliberate. Maybe you are overthinking things, or maybe you are being paranoid; God knows it would not be the first time. How should you deal with this?

>Interrupt Chickless’ conversation and ask if he planned on tying down potential competition for the supplies around the lake by releasing prisoners as well, and why he didn’t mention that.
>Interrupt Chickless’ conversation and ask him what he plans to do about property owners that stay behind to protect property from the army of scavengers that we are going to dump around the lake.
>Wait until Chickless’ is alone later, and then ask if he planned on tying down potential competition for the supplies around the lake by releasing prisoners as well, and why he didn’t mention that.
>Wait until you get a better sense of Chickless’ character to find a time that he is alone later, and then ask if he planned on tying down potential competition for the supplies around the lake by releasing prisoners as well, and why he didn’t mention that.
>This is just you being paranoid, there is no need to bring this up now or ever.

This is kind of an odd vote I admit, but I put it in here to divide up what will be a page or two more of narrative before the next big vote (what to do after the end of the meeting, assuming the the strike hasn't started yet).

>>4461484
I ma kind of lost here. We think that Chickless intended to lead us on releasing the prisioners so people stay defending their homes from potential looters, while we go around securing as much supplies as posible?

>>4461484
>Interrupt Chickless’ conversation and ask if he planned on tying down potential competition for the supplies around the lake by releasing prisoners as well, and why he didn’t mention that.

just asking?

>>4461484
>Interrupt Chickless’ conversation and ask him what he plans to do about property owners that stay behind to protect property from the army of scavengers that we are going to dump around the lake.

>This is just you being paranoid, there is no need to bring this up now or ever.

>>4461508
I don't really get it either. chickless is against release in favour of snuffing everyone, right?

>>4461508
Yeah, that is the basic idea.
>>4461650
We aren't entirely sure, but the implication is that if he is deliberately underselling his release plan, then odds are that is what he is pulling for.

>>4461514
>>4461579
>>4461580
Well, that is a three way tie. I'm not quite ready to run yet, so I will leave this open for a bit longer. This is admittedly a strange vote, based off of suspicion and incomplete information because 'in character' we don't understand what is going on either.

>>4461666
If it comes down to it, I think confronting Chickless is more important than how we do that.

So, if the tie isn't broken soon, then please switch my vote to >Interrupt Chickless’ conversation and ask if he planned on tying down potential competition for the supplies around the lake by releasing prisoners as well, and why he didn’t mention that.

Alright, consider the vote closed for now. I'll get to writing, expect the post in about three hours from now.

This whole thing does not make any sense. Maybe if you were not so damn tired, you would be able to figure this out. His proposed plan for the full release has an obvious secondary outcome, that it will tie down potential competitors for critical supplies around the lake. This outcome is obviously a ‘boon’ to your group, and a strong argument in favor of this plan, but he is not mentioning it. Assuming that he did think of it, which from your impression of him, you would assume that he would have … why is he underselling his own plan? Is … is this because he wants the group here to agree to kill the prisoners, so he is deliberately underselling the alternative where they are not killed?

But that does not make any sense! He was the one who proposed the plan for the release in the first place. If he favors one plan, then why did he propose an opposing alternative that would be more palatable to the group here? You are not getting anywhere on this at this rate, you will just have to ask him. “Mr. Chickless?” Conversation around the sofas stop, as the others present (Reaves still is not back and ‘Bart’ is now wandering around the room, drink in one hand, a report in the other) look to you.

“Is there any more to this plan? I mean, if we dump the prisoners, then sure, some people will run off, between a strike and a breakout … and there are others that will hunker down, especially to protect their homes from the prisoners. And that is the idea, right? If everyone has either left or is staying home to protect their property from the prisoners, then … we will be the only ones going around and securing the critical supplies around the lake. Did you mention any of this, or did I just miss that?

You cannot make heads or tails of Chickless’ expression, but the surprise on the faces of the others around him almost certainly mean that he did not. Several seconds pass, and then he speaks with an exceptionally even and measured tone. “I didn’t mention any of that, for the simple reason that I had not considered things that far out. It is a very good point though.” What? Really? Is he telling the truth? Are you being unusually paranoid or unusually perceptive right now? Conversation resumes, and the others around Chickless start discussing your idea, and it is Chickless’ turn to nod along and listen. Well, regardless of what he actually wants, it seems that with your addendum to his proposal, the Sheriff is on board with it, which means that it is basically settled.

>>4462022
You had wondered how it would work; if the majority of the group voted for something, but the Sheriff didn’t, he wouldn’t just go along with it, would he? Parasol might have formed this group, but in the end, he is brought the Sheriff in as a way to ensure that he had his … blessing? You do not know what would happen if that blessing was not given but Parasol decided to go ahead anyway with some plan, but it seems that you are not going to find out right now. Well, things are winding down here, the only thing you wanted to do is to speak to the Lights about boarding with you; but that was before the group decided to release the prisoners.

So, what the hell does that mean for you now? With prisoners added to the mix, is it still practical to stay at the homestead? Or now that the jail is on the table for housing, does it make sense to try to move your things (including your animals and the feed that is still waiting for you at Prague Farmer’s Union) into the ‘Mount Kineo Big House’?

>Plan on remaining at the Homestead, and stick around at the Parasol Family Lodge until an opportunity arises to ask the Lights (discretely) if they want to board with you.
>Plan on remaining at the Homestead, and head back now before it gets any later. Find an opportunity (soon) to ask the Lights (discretely) if they want to board with you.
>Plan on moving into the jail and forget about asking the Lights to board with you as it is no longer necessary.
>Plan on moving into the jail and ask the Lights if they want to board with you in whatever accommodations you pull together in the jail.

>And one more roll of 1d20, for the 4am roll. 1 2 or 3 means that the strike starts.

>Plan on moving into the jail and forget about asking the Lights to board with you as it is no longer necessary.

Dice+1d20

>>4462035
you'll need to put that in the options field for it to roll.

Comon nah

Maybe now?

Dice+1d20

>>4462024
>Plan on remaining at the Homestead, and head back now before it gets any later. Find an opportunity (soon) to ask the Lights (discretely) if they want to board with you.

fuck community housing. We have our tank against looters.

Rolled 13 (1d20)

Rolled 15 (1d20)

Sorry about the clutter.

>>4462039
"dice" not in caps. it's a mistake I also made when I first rolled here.

>>4462024
>Plan on moving into the jail and forget about asking the Lights to board with you as it is no longer necessary.

QM, quick question about the world: if cold war has been going on for over 40 years shouldn't there be bunker complexes everywhere?

>>4462057
agreeing

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>4462024

>>4462024
>>Plan on remaining at the Homestead, and head back now before it gets any later. Find an opportunity (soon) to ask the Lights (discretely) if they want to board with you.

>>4462024
>Plan on moving into the jail and forget about asking the Lights to board with you as it is no longer necessary.


I really, truly believe that we need to consolidate and centralise if we are going to get through "fine" the jail is a well fortified position apart from the fact that it is going to need a TON of reworking to get "liveable"

Thank God that no one has throught about cannibalising the prisoners yet, I can just imagine someone putting them in a cooler room, and one things go starvation... "oh yeah, here is where the prisoners went" [/quote]

>>4462214
>>4462121
>>4462214
+1

>>4462024
>>Plan on remaining at the Homestead, and head back now before it gets any later. Find an opportunity (soon) to ask the Lights (discretely) if they want to board with you.
Yup.

Alright; the plan for now is to head back to the homestead and look for an opportunity (soon) to get the Lights to board with you. I'll get to writing, but considering how late it is already, this will probably be an overnight vote.

QM needs to say this is part 2 in the tittle. My dumbass was waiting for this and thought it was part 1.

>break computer like dumbass
>get it back after a few days
>"huh, wonder what happened on /qst/"
>suddenly we're deciding whether to engage in wholesale slaughter
goddamn, that escalated quickly
I like it

>>4462778
Whoops! That is one hell of an oversight; I will make sure that I get that straightened out for the next one.
>>4462810
Buckle in!

>Blue Sitting Room of Parasol Family Lodge, Debouche, Maine. Sometime after 3:20am

Conversation continued around the square of sofas, but with the final course of action decided, you really did not have anything significant to add; the only reason to stay at this point would be if the strike was happening right now, which it wasn’t, or if either of the Lights would get away from the rest of the group so you could preposition them to stay with you on your homestead; though now that you think about it, with the jail on the table, convincing them might be harder than it would have been previously. Still, if you cannot get them, odds are you could find someone else. Or could you? You were part of a group that would soon be dumping more than 200 prisoners on the lake, and securing (hopefully) nearly all of the critical supplies for available around the lake themselves. Odds are, you probably are not going to be that popular with the permanent residents.

Still, food is going to be extremely valuable soon, and a source of food like your livestock is probably … going to make you one of the ‘wealthiest’ individuals around the whole lake. Huh, that is kind of funny to think about, isn’t it? But it is also alarming by turns; as one of the closest things to a farmer that the lakeside community has, no doubt you are going to have a target pained on your back. So long as no one attacks your homestead in significant numbers, you would have a serious, fighting chance to protect them from thieves or would be scavengers. Well, you are not going to be on your own, mother should be here soon. Depending on how long it took her to get out of the house, she could realistically be here as soon as 6am. So long as the strike doesn’t happen before then, she should- no, she will make it in on schedule and on time.

As much as shame as your impending infamy with the residents is, you recognize that there are other options. Considering that you are not going to be killing any of the prisoners, it would probably be a relatively to entice a skilled or exceptionally trustworthy prisoner over to stay with you at your homestead. Or perhaps, maybe even a lady prisoner? Though that would be more in addition, as opposed to an alternative of getting a ‘hired man’ from the jail to board with you. Perhaps it is chauvinistic to say to so, but you don’t think that you could trust the security of your homestead while you were away solely to feminine hands. Failing recruiting a prisoner, you could always try to find another member of Parasol’s group; considering they’d be similarly ‘unpopular’ around the lake, they’d probably not carry the kind of potential ill will towards you that someone outside of Parasol’s group would, but that runs into the same issues that getting the Lights to board with your does, you’d have to compete with the ‘Mount Kineo Big House’

>>4463061
You will have to worry about this later; preferably when you can think straight. Your head is in a serious fog, and your stomach still hurts, though the sick feelings of dread from earlier have nearly all abated, leaving the more mundane hunger pains. You are not needed here at this time; you will depart for now. Standing up, and mentally wincing at the off balance sensation from rising too fast, no doubt exacerbated by your subtly gimped legs, you announce to the group that you will need to get going back to your place to get some sleep and to get things ready for you, unintentionally avoiding mentioning your livestock to the group. It is as you said, while your owning farm animals is not a secret, perhaps going forward, some OPSEC … no, INFOSEC. Or would it be COMSEC? Whatever. Whatever it is would probably be warranted to prevent you from becoming a bigger and bigger target around the lake. On the other hand, if they do not know, they will not be able to help you provide for them, now will they? Boy, another balancing act.

Parasol, having recovered somewhat from the clear existential dread he was going through earlier thanks you for coming on such short notice, and establishes a plan for you to get back in touch with the rest of them. Through the Sheriff, he has access to Debouche Public Safety’s radio system, so he can reach you easily enough. Still, he insists that if you haven’t heard from him by 11:00am to head into town immediately and check in at the Public Safety Building; Sheriff Arthur is going to be using the building as an unofficial muster point; so someone working with the group should be around there regardless. With that settled, you wish everyone well, and take your leave.

>>4463063
>Unofficially Restored Logging Road, Your Homestead, Debouche Maine, Sometime after 3:35 am

Driving through the logging road that your restored unofficially (technically illegal, but even you could not be bothered to care about something so ridiculous and unenforceable as that), you notice with a start that the front of your dooryard is lit up by a pair of headlamps! Your first thought is that your mother is here already, but that is impossible, she is driving up, not flying up for goodness sake. Not to mention those headlights are much, much brighter than those on the subcompact you know she drives. So then who on Earth would be on your property in the middle of the night, in the middle of this night?

When you get closer to see the truck behind those powerful headlamps, were your hands not both on the steering wheel, you might have actually slapped your forehead with the realization. Tinn! Obviously, it is Tinn. Who else would be driving around a 6X6 Army truck at this time … or ever, for that matter? As you drive closer however, you understand why he needed to bring this heavy weight out. On top of what must be the strongest gypsy trailer you have ever seen, is your long-suffering Farm Truck! It seems that Tinn took it upon himself to bring it back to you! He’s a bit stuck now, with the bridge being out, but it seems like he is making progress positioning himself to drop the truck off and leave. A wave of genuine gratitude has completely washed over you. With everything that is going to happen, getting that truck back, and the moose meat on it is a huge deal.

'pic related' is a 6X6 army truck with a flatbed

File: 6X6 Army Truck.jpg (114 KB, 968x454)

114 KB JPG

>>4463077
Whoops. Here it is.

Your first instinct is to go over there right now and thank him as soon as you park and offer him some of the meat, or the rest of the .45-70 government that you found in the Morrison’s arts and crafts trailer. It is at this point; however, you realize that Tinn does not know about the impending nuclear strike! You should tell him, right? But should you go a step further, and try to recruit him to Parasol’s group? The man is a survivalist, through and through. He would be an incredibly useful member of … the group. Now wait one minute here, can you honestly see Tinn sitting down in a group, alongside LAW ENFORCEMENT and working with others? He is a loner, a recluse! Who hates and is hated by police departments and sheriff’s offices around the state. Maybe trying to recruit him is not the best bet here, not to mention, Parasol never gave you the authority to bring people in. You do not think that he would take exception to it, but with everything that poor guy has shouldered, you do not know anymore.

Alright, so then, do not mention the group, just mention the strike. But does that even make sense? If he isn’t a part of the group, then that means he would be competing with the group. A bonafide cop killer, squaring off against deputies securing and scavenging critical supplies; that sounds like a recipe for violence. On the other hand, you don’t know when, if ever again, you will meet with an amicable Tinn. If you wanted to do him a courtesy of telling him about the strike, or attempt to break through his shell and recruit the man, this could be the easiest it will ever be, hell this could be the only chance that you will get. If the apocalypse well and truly arrives, he might just start shooting people on sight….

>Approach and thank Tinn for bringing your Farm Truck back. Offer a cut of the meat, or the rest of the .45-70 in exchange (you do not have any firearms chambered for the round). Do not mention the strike, do not attempt to recruit him.
>Approach and thank Tinn for bringing your Farm Truck back. Offer a cut of the meat, or the rest of the .45-70 in exchange (you do not have any firearms chambered for the round). Do mention the strike, do not attempt to recruit him.
>Approach and thank Tinn for bringing your Farm Truck back. Offer a cut of the meat, or the rest of the .45-70 in exchange (you do not have any firearms chambered for the round). Do mention the strike, do attempt to recruit him.

>>4462086
This is a good question; sorry I missed it.

The level of preparedness in this world for a nuclear strike is at the level that it was in our world during the Cold War; which was, as far ensuring the safety of the public frankly pretty abysmal. Public fallout shelters were simply gathering places, where people would wait out the strike. There were a small minority of people who built and maintained fallout shelters on their property for themselves and their families (and kept these stocked with supplies) but this was most common in the 50s and 60s; by the 70s and 80s society had collectively decided to throw its hands up and assume that any war with nuclear weapons would effectively destroy everything, and that preparing for it was pointless. So in answer to your question, for the quest, is that there are some personal fallout shelters, and that some of them are adequately stocked with supplies. That said, most of the houses here are vacation properties or second homes; they are less likely than a primary residence to have a fallout shelter. As far as public fallout shelters, they are basically what they were during the Cold war, designated rooms in solidly constructed public buildings with no accommodations for long stays or supplies.

>>4463079
>Approach and thank Tinn for bringing your Farm Truck back. Offer a cut of the meat, or the rest of the .45-70 in exchange (you do not have any firearms chambered for the round). Do mention the strike, do not attempt to recruit him.

Do it in his own weird and paranoid style. Say you picked it up somewhere, refuse to give any details and tell him to thank you later. A guy like tinn has probably prepared for this for years and is ready to immediately bunker down. I think our best policy towards him is to keep everyone off his back as well as possible. This way we maybe have a fallback if the Parasol administration turns to shit.

>>4463079
>>Approach and thank Tinn for bringing your Farm Truck back. Offer a cut of the meat, or the rest of the .45-70 in exchange (you do not have any firearms chambered for the round). Do mention the strike, do not attempt to recruit him.


Tinn is almost certainly one of those "small minority of people who built and maintained fallout shelters on their property for themselves". He doesn't need our help and he probably isn't a threat in his bunker.

It's basically the same lesson the AFT should have learned after Ruby Ridge: leave some people the heck alone.

>>4463092
got it, thanks. So there are protocols in place but they are essentially worthless.

>>4463079
>Approach and thank Tinn for bringing your Farm Truck back. Offer a cut of the meat, or the rest of the .45-70 in exchange (you do not have any firearms chambered for the round). Do mention the strike, do not attempt to recruit him.
For a crazy dude who stabbed us with an ice pick, he's pretty cool.

>>4463079
>>Approach and thank Tinn for bringing your Farm Truck back. Offer a cut of the meat, or the rest of the .45-70 in exchange (you do not have any firearms chambered for the round). Do mention the strike, do not attempt to recruit him.
Go giving him with the meat. Food is about to become real valuable, so he may appreciate this a bit more. And as for the .45-70, even though we don't have any rifles chambered in it, that's a fucking massive amount of powder per round. Reloading purposes, improvised explosives, etc.

>Approach and thank Tinn for bringing your Farm Truck back. Offer a cut of the meat, or the rest of the .45-70 in exchange (you do not have any firearms chambered for the round). Do mention the strike, do not attempt to recruit him.

We can be on good terms with him without bringing him into the group. I have a bad feeling Parasol himself won't live very long.

Alright, that is unanimous. I'll grab some dinner and get to writing the post up.

>Dooryard, Your Homestead, Debouche Maine, Sometime after 3:40 am

After getting out of your smaller commuter truck, you carefully walk over to the 6X6 on the other side of the remains of your poor little bridge. You know, if everything hadn’t gone so absolutely crazy, you probably be having an aneurysm over replacing that thing. Bridges can get expensive when they are expected to carry the weight of loaded trucks or farm equipment, and if you ever wanted to be able to sell the property, you’d have to actually get building permits for this, which means finding an engineer to sign off on it; all told, the destruction of the bridge here represents thousands of dollars just up in smoke. Forget not worrying about it, you had not even thought about it. Honestly, you are kind of encouraged by that. There have been times when you have wondered about your priorities, when it comes to money, but it seems that when the cards are down, you are able to be objective and prioritize what is and what is not worth worrying over.

As you approach the remains of your bridge, you carefully keep your hand visible, and for the last stretch, getting as close as you dare to the lip of the ravine (as the ground near it may be unstable from the sudden collapse) and at the same time as close as you dare to Tinn (as he is almost certainly unstable) you cover your eyes. There is a squawk, and a sound of laughter over a broadcaster drowns out the dull roar of the 6X6’s engine. “You are a quick study Mr. Mantle, but there is no need to worry about your eyes, I don’t have a spotlight on this truck. The headlights are enough.”

“Jesus Mr. Tinn, thank you for getting that thing over here like this, I appreciate it. I am a bit tight on money at the moment, but if you wanted more of that .45-70 Government, or some of the meat, the stuff on the truck is fresh.” There is a pause, then another squawk. “I appreciate the thought, but in good conscience I couldn’t accept anything for this. You didn’t ask me to do this, so it wouldn’t be right to twist your arm over it.”

What? “Sir, you are not twisting my arm, I’m…”. “Mantle, I wasn’t asked. I cannot expect payment. If I cannot reasonably expect payment, it stands to reason that I do not deserve to be paid. You should only get what you deserve.” You do not really know what to make of this, beyond the fact that you feel that you should drop it. Tinn is hard to figure, but he is a much politer and more decent than you would have expected from someone with his reputation and background. As you nod your head to accept Tinn’s terms of not having terms, you realize that you left your only key to the truck on the key hook in the kitchen. “Mr. Tinn, how on earth did you get the truck on the gypsy trailer?”

>>4463376
“Oh, I shimmed the window to get into the cab then hotwired her. Don’t worry, after I got her into position, I fixed the wiring back up, should work fine.” At this state of deprivation in both food and sleep, and with everything else on your mind, the only though you can from in response to this revelation is ‘Perhaps ‘decent’ is a bit of a stretch…’.

Between the two of you, it takes a bit to get your Farm Truck off the trailer and ready to go. True to his word, there is no physical evidence of tampering around the keyed start, and the truck starts up and runs perfectly fine. Tinn is about to leave, but you can’t simply just let him drive off, under the circumstances. Even if the man would never fit in the Parasol’s group, even if he might be in competition for the same critical supplies, he deserves to know what the hell is coming.

“Mr. Tinn, before you go. Listen, this is going to sound crazy-.”

There is another squawk and more laughter. “Don’t tell me, you found another tank?” You actually laugh at that; and as you take a second to gather your thoughts again, you realize that Tinn probably has microphones mounted on the outside of this this thing, though you can’t immediately find them.

“No sir, Mr. Tinn. I was called out by Mr. Parasol; he is … well, he ‘flips’ property as a hobby, and he contracts me to do the clean outs. We have a pretty good relationship, I guess. He called me over to his place, tonight when I was still on the Morrison Farm, waiting the thirty minutes after you left, right? He thinks that … that there is a nuclear strike imminent.”

"Oh yeah?"

>>4463382
You do not know what exactly you were expecting from him, but it certainly wasn’t ‘Oh yeah?’. Does he think you are joking? “Mr. Tinn, I’m serious. Well, I mean, he’s serious.” You explain about the situation on Venus, the Indian Civil War, then about how none of this is being reported and what that implies; and then how things are coming down to the wire; it may just be a matter of hours before a nuclear strike hits. You even tell him how you begged your mother to come up, to get out of the relative danger of Southern Maine. And his response?

“Thanks for passing it along.”

What the actual fuck. Well, at the very least, you know for sure that you aren’t the craziest person on the lake. For a second, you are think about trying to communicate the seriousness of this one more time, but then there is yet another squawk, and Tinn speaks again. “I don’t want to seem ungrateful, and what this Parasol has figured out does sound … plausible, I guess, though I would not definitively if it was credible or not without seeing these reports that he has; but if that is the case, there really isn’t that much that I can do; it isn’t like I can stop the nuke on my own. Perhaps, more importantly, there really is not that much that I need to do. We are outside of the blast radius of any of the targets in the projected strikes; we are already away from population centers, and as no doubt the rest of the town suspects, I am already well stocked. I suppose their correct suspicions about my ‘hoard’ could potentially cause issues, but honestly, I do not think looters are going to be that much of an issue around here, at least immediately. I do suppose I could do some shopping, assuming that the stores open normally…

His nonplussed non-reaction notwithstanding, you realize with a start that he obviously would not know about the plans to release the prisoners from the Consolidated Somerset-Piscataquis Jail! And if so much of one of them had heard about him; a heavily armed survivalist recluse living alone and managed to convince a large enough group to follow him, then they might … well, no. No, Tinn would almost certainly be able to defend his property … still, is there any reason that you should not give him a heads up? Mmm … maybe he would not like the idea of the Sheriff releasing the prisoners, and if he heard about deputies scavenging supplies for a select group, he’d really not like that. And if he figured out that the prisoners were being released to tie individuals (like him) down, protecting their homes, as the deputies when out scavenging ‘unopposed’… well, he might take that real poorly. You have seen him get serious, and it was scary enough, you do not want to think what him getting mad would be like. You do not know, you really do not know.

>Do Tinn a courtesy, and tell him the plan to release the prisoners.
>Do not tell Tinn about the plan to release the prisoners.

>Do not tell Tinn about the plan to release the prisoners.

Loose lips sink ships. Hope he'll understand.

>Do Tinn a courtesy, and tell him the plan to release the prisoners.

>>4463385
>Tell him. Insist the building is a jail, not a prison

>>4463385
>don't tell

he'll be fine, he seems reasonably prepared.

>>4463385
>Do not tell Tinn about the plan to release the prisoners.

>>4463491
+1. He will be on high enough alert.

>>4463385
>>Do not tell Tinn about the plan to release the prisoners.

Alright, lets see here;
>>4463491 Do Not
>>4463668 Do
>>4463715 Do
>>4463920 Do Not
>>4463959 Do Not
>>4463969 Do Not
>>4464053 Do Not

Alright, that is pretty solid. I'll get that post up. Also, while I am thinking about it, as it is nearly 4am, can I get someone to make the 5am roll? Rolls of 1 2 3 or 4 mean that the strike hits.

>One roll of 1d20, please.

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>4464183

>Dooryard, Your Homestead, Debouche Maine, Sometime after 4:00 am

For someone who insisted on stabbing you with an icepick, Tinn is an alright kind of guy. That being said, you do not know how he will react to the revelation about the plan to release the prisoners; beyond presumably getting frustrated and angry. You really do not have a great read on the man, you expected … well at the very least, you expected some urgency from him when you filled him in on the strike. No, how he thinks, or what he will do in any given situation is enigmatic, at least to you. All you know for sure is that the man is capable and prepared for violence.

You do not think that if he knew that the deputies were going to free the prisoners and start securing supplies for themselves, he will just flip a switch and start rampaging. That being said, if there was someone to do just that, well … yeah. It is a needless risk, without any real positive outcome. Tinn will be ready, regardless if he knows to be ready or not. With your business concluded, you wish him well and watch his 6X6 retreat its way to the access road.

>Please roll 1d6 for Cognition and 2d20 for Intelligence.

Well, at this point, with all of the big decisions having been settled, it is time to focus on the small stuff Just take things hour by hour. Do you use this hour here to …

>Go to bed, and sleep until your alarm would wake you up at 5am? (Will delay gaining sleeplessness penalties 6 hours)
>Get something to eat, then take an inventory of the property?
>Get something to eat, then try to figure out how to get the tank out of the ravine?
>Get something to eat, then try to figure out how defend your house?
>Get something to eat, then try to figure out how to better protect and tend for your animals?
>Get something to eat, then head into town and try to get a jump on scavenging? (Will gain [Roguish Inclination])

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4464222
>Get something to eat, then try to figure out how to get the tank out of the ravine?

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>4464222
guess I'll handle a d20.
>Get something to eat, then head into town and try to get a jump on scavenging? (Will gain [Roguish Inclination])
We need to go about securing some of our mother's medication. Some caffeine pills as well wouldn't hurt.

>Go to bed, and sleep until your alarm would wake you up at 5am? (Will delay gaining sleeplessness penalties 6 hours)

The bed. It calls us.

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>4464222
>Go to bed, and sleep until your alarm would wake you up at 5am? (Will delay gaining sleeplessness penalties 6 hours)

>>4464262
>>4464226
I'm not even going to bother with the calculation, that is definitely a pass. Good work! I'm going to take a quick cat nap myself (for inspiration purposes), and then I will get to writing this up.

>>4464222
>Get something to eat, then try to figure out how to better protect and tend for your animals?

we did not feed them today, right?

>>4464289
No, not yet. You usually feed them when you check on them for the day, and let them out of their shelters.

Your head is just about pounding now, and in your generally stressed, sleep and food deprived state, with the departure of Tinn, and before the arrival of your mother or the start of what would be your normal day, around 5:00am in the morning, all you want to do is to sleep. You have a pretty good alarm too, so you do not need to worry about oversleeping either. But before you get some sleep, you decide that you should do something about the tank-thing, and the bridge. You head over to your Farm Truck, and grab the tarpaulins that you originally had used to cover it up, as well as the longest ladder you have and a bunch of old 2x4’s. You load all of this into the faded orange uprights of a lumber cart from a ubiquitous home improvement retailer, and you trundled it out to the bridge, making sure to keep the caster wheels of the cart in the well packed wheel ruts of the dirt drive.

Arriving at the remains of your poor little bridge, you take a minute to seriously look at the tank-thing. Your eyes still have not finished adjusting completely, but it looks to be alright from this upper angle. Of course, the serious damage would be from below. Miraculously, the bucket arm on the back and the A-frame crane seem to have avoided anything worse than scuffs and dings. However, your luck ends there. It is completely boxed in, by the remains of the bridge and the ‘walls’ of the ravine. It is almost funny, the piece of equipment best suited for the vehicle retrieval and earth-working required to do this job is the one that is stuck. You wonder if Tinn has anything that might be able to help free this thing. He has that modified 6X6, with the up-armored cab, and the massive upright exhaust stack strapped on the back. Funny thing, there were still the original stacks still on the …

>Intelligence Test Passed

Wait a minute; was that one of the ‘gasifiers’ you had heard about earlier during the 'gas' discussion? It matches the description more or less, but it did not seem to be running. Maybe because he did not need it to be running at the moment? Well, it certainly fits, a ‘survivalist’ type like him would no doubt be interested in that kind of tech. You wonder if you could get him to look at that unit you found on the Morrison Farm.

>>4464454
But for now, you have to get some sleep while you still can. You drop the tarpaulins to cover up the tank-thing, and once is has been adequately concealed, you lay the ladder across the chasm, and then run the 2X4s across it. After only a moment of hesitation, you gingerly walk across. It is unnerving how much the thing dips in the middle under your weight, but it holds you the whole way across, and the whole way back. With one less thing to worry about, you return your cart its spot in the small garden shed, and head up to bed. You barely even remember walking through the farmhouse, before you knew it, you were in your bedroom and had already pulled off your heavy belt and threw it into the upholstered chair, which it fell out of with a surprisingly loud thud. Uncaring, you then take off your shoulder holster, and hang it from its peg on the wall. Finally, you sit on the side your bed, and remove your scuffed work boots. With all of these preparations out of the way, you just let yourself collapse on the bed, and quickly fall into a dreamless sleep.

>Please roll 1d20 for 6am. Rolls of 1 to 5 mean the strike starts.

I am going to need to take a break here; besides dinner, I have an assignment that is due at 11:30pm. Anyway, the roll will actually decide what happens next. I will try to get another post up for an overnight vote, after I get the assignment off.

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>4464481

>>4464487
FUCK

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>>4464490
Well, it was going to happen eventually, so no need to feel bad anon.

>>4464507
>Well, it was going to happen eventually, so no need to feel bad anon.
Fair enough. Good luck on your assignment, OP.

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>>4464487
Oh boy, here we go

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>>4464487
buckle up faggots

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>>4464487
Neat and also cool

>Master Bedroom, Your Homestead, Debouche Maine, time unknown.

For the second time in so many days, you awaken to the sound of distressed honking from your geese. You get up, this time forgoing the ‘beater’ rifle, and simply pull your Beretta straight out of the shoulder holster and then rush out to go check on them. However, as you dash through the farmhouse to check on your animals, there is enough morning light in shining in the first floor to see the kitchen clock as you run by.

6:06!

Of all of the days to fucking oversleep! You must have somehow managed to shut off your alarm without waking up completely. Still, there is a slight silver lining here; odds are your geese are not in danger, they are just getting hungry and want to be let out for the day. And thankfully enough, this turns out to be the case. You let the poor things out and give them their breakfast. As you stand in the corner of the paddock, filling up the drinker for the day and blearily blinking sleep from your eyes, you realize something is off. Literally!

You cannot hear your electric fence! At this distance, you should be able to make out the telltale ‘click-click’ that your admittedly shoddy homemade electric fence makes when it is running hot for the night. But there is nothing. Gingerly, you reach out, and touch the live wire, and wait to the count of four. During typical operation, you fence cycles ‘hot’ for a count of one, then no current for a count of two, then ‘hot’ again. Did you not turn it on? You head on over to the switch but find that it is still in the on position. Well, you have 1001 things to do today, what is more chore? As a matter of safety, you switch it to the off position, and then head back into the farmhouse to get appropriately dressed before attending the other animal’s needs.

It is only when you are standing in the kitchen that realization finally dawns on you. The power is out. You stand there, completely dumbfounded. There is absolutely no way that this is a coincidence. Does that mean …

…you slept through the nuclear strike?

That thought stampedes through your brain for several-several seconds before you get a grip. Even if you managed to shut off your alarm; your clip radio still would have been enough to get you up. Still, it is worth checking. You head upstairs, feeling increasingly lightheaded and woozy with worry. The feeling only worsens as you get into your room and gets damn near unbearable as you retrieve your radio from the tangle of your belt. With a deep breath, you press ‘speak’, and completely violating CB etiquette you timidly squeak out a question for anyone that might be listening on the broad band for Debouche Public Safety; “Is everything alright?”

>>4464839
“For God’s sake, who is this? Better yet, just fuck off. This is a controlled frequency you fucking nincompoop. Just because the power is out, doesn’t mean-.

You do not think you have ever been happier to have Edna, the nearly criminally overworked dispatcher and secretary swear at you. ‘Just because the power is out’, that right there might be the best news you ever got, the sweetest thing that anyone has ever said to you. You identify yourself, to hopefully calm her down. Does not quite work that way for you though.

“Mantle? You retard, you actual fucking retard. What the fuck are you doing fouling up the God damned line? If I have work for you, I will call you. Or maybe you want to see if we will pay you to catch the missing electricity, is that it? Jesus-tittyfucking-Christ; there is not enough coffee in the world. I swear, everyone has gone crazy this morning!” Having concluded one of her ‘trademark’ profanity laden rants, she ends her broadcast. It seems that either she is not ‘in the know’ about the plan to use the deputies to secure then scavenge critical supplies, or she does know, but does not realize that you are ‘in the know’ as well. Either way, no need to pester her anymore.

So, it seems that the strike has not happened yet; but the power being out can not just be a coincidence. You get dressed for the day and then let the rest of the animals out after giving them their breakfast. With them taken care of for the day, you stuff the cuts of moose into your ‘deep freeze’; even without power, it is cold enough to at least refrigerate the meat, if not freeze it outright. You keep the brain separate for now, besides health concerns, freezing and then thawing the brain is a messy complicated process; you will just need to keep it from completely rotting away for about two weeks, until you are ready to use it in the tanning process for the hide. With that done, all you really are expected to do is just wait … wait until the missiles hit.

But that does not mean that you can just sit around, you still have stuff that you can do:

>Stay on the homestead and wait for the arrival of your mother, while you plan out how to improve security for your animals, so they do not fall prey to ‘rustlers’.
>Stay on the homestead and wait for the arrival of your mother, while you begin the long process of brain tanning hide, in the old Indian method.
>Leave a note for mother, and then leave the homestead. You still have a lot of animal feed at the Prague Farmer’s Union, even if the place is not open for business, maybe you can get it before things go too crazy.
>Leave a note for mother, and then leave the homestead. Some of the businesses in the town center will have started to open up; and money might not be worth much more than kindling in the immediate future. (Write in 1 business that you could reasonably expect to open at 6am in setting like this)

>Leave a note for mother, and then leave the homestead. You still have a lot of animal feed at the Prague Farmer’s Union, even if the place is not open for business, maybe you can get it before things go too crazy.
Buy a nice pair of steel toe water-resistant boots while we’re there

>>4464845
>>Leave a note for mother, and then leave the homestead. You still have a lot of animal feed at the Prague Farmer’s Union, even if the place is not open for business, maybe you can get it before things go too crazy.

>>4464845
>Leave a note for mother, and then leave the homestead. Some of the businesses in the town center will have started to open up; and money might not be worth much more than kindling in the immediate future. (Write in 1 business that you could reasonably expect to open at 6am in setting like this)
night pharmacy

>>4464889
Or a bakery to stock up on flour and dry yeast

>Leave a note for mother, and then leave the homestead. You still have a lot of animal feed at the Prague Farmer’s Union, even if the place is not open for business, maybe you can get it before things go too crazy.
Pick up boots(if available) and some extra salt licks(to lure in edible prey) while there. Also some oil and a spare chain for the chainsaw which you shoild bring with to clear any downed trees.

>>4464845
>>Leave a note for mother, and then leave the homestead. Some of the businesses in the town center will have started to open up; and money might not be worth much more than kindling in the immediate future.

Nice boots.

Everything else (medicine, animal feed) seems like we could reasonably expect it to be distributed to us as necessary supplies. Time to get the nice shit for ourself

Alright, so that is a tie between getting boots and getting the feed. I thought to take a look on the Paris Farmers Union website, and it turns out they do stock boots. So I will allow you to combine these two choices. I just need to take care of something real quick, then I will get to writing.

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>>4465225
thanks OP

>Dooryard, Your Homestead, Debouche Maine, sometime around 6:25 am.

You know, if you do not hurry up, odds are that something is going to happen to the feed you already bought. And there are other odds and ends that you could pick up at the union, like new boots. You just need to keep telling yourself that money is not going to be worth anything for a while, Hell, that it might not be worth anything ever again. This is the one time to not be frugal, even though it runs against a lifetime of habit. You find an old receipt in the truck, quickly scrawl out a note for mother on the back and stick it under one of the planks on the ladder on the access roadside of the ravine. The slip trails out from its secure spot, so it would presumably catch the attention of anyone who showed up. As you hustle back over the bridge towards your homestead and your trucks, you reflect that in the future, leaving notes like this, confirming your absence is probably not going to be a good idea.

>Town Center, Near Prague Farmer’s Union Store, Debouche, Maine, approximately 6:35 am.

You didn’t want to push your farm truck hard after that ‘time trial’ with Tinn last night, especially as you are hauling the boxed-beaver trailer behind you, but time is definitely going to be a factor here. Still, rushing is not going to change the immutable fact the union is going to be closed regardless of when you get there. But, if Kemper was there late last night, then maybe he will be there early this morning? Maybe?

Now that you are sitting in the truck and have the time to think about it, odds are that Kemper does not come in 3 hours before opening the day after he stayed late to work inventory. Maybe it was a genuine oversight on your part, or maybe it was just wishful thinking, but you cannot rely on anyone being there right now to let you in. Which means that to secure your order, you are going to have to break in and steal what is technically already yours. And maybe while you are at it, a pair of boots (you could leave the money for them, though).

Ignoring the legal and ethical nature of your problem at hand here, there is a more practical concern for you as well. The bales that the union sells, like much of the hay produced locally, are 4X4 rounds, each of which weigh well over 400 pounds when bone dry, quite a bit more than that when wet. With Kemper or someone else on hand, they would use the stores tractor, outfitted with a front loader and a hay spike to spear each of the bales, then deposit them onto the bed of your truck. Assuming that you can’t find someway to get the tractor running, you will either need to leave the bales for now, or start the arduous process of breaking the bales down and loading them pitchfork-full at a time into your trucks.

As you are on the final approach, you crane your neck to see if there are any cars on the parking lot, praying that someone is there, unknowingly waiting for you in your hour of need.

>>4465533
Nope! No one. Absolutely no one is in the parking lot. Frustration and desperation rise, as you angrily throw the parking brake and get out to see if anyone is around. The lot that they key the palletized stuff in is fenced off, as well as the outbuilding where they store the baled hay they keep on hand for sale; some of which is yours. Actually, considering how much you bought, most of it is yours. You are just about to kick the gate with your shabby work boots when a small truck comes around the far corner of the store, from the other side of the parking lot! At first, you think it is Kemper, come to save you … but instead of the management, it was another prospective customer.

Fleckkers, the convicted safecracker! As surprised to see him as you may be, he seems to be even more surprised by the sight of you. Surprised and panicked, in his case. The man is a felon, and you caught him hunting out of season twice, with a rifle no less. Had you a mind to, you could have easily sent the man back to prison; though unless there was a deputy breathing down your neck you would never try to get someone sent up over poaching deer. It is asinine, really. Poaching implies that there is some level of scarcity or exceptional value to the animal; deer aren’t scarce in Maine, in certain areas there are genuine issues with overpopulation and as for ‘value’ they are a nuisance, Hell a danger on the roads, and a vector for Lyme disease. If someone were poaching something important, then yeah, you would step up. But for deer? Fuck no, you might as well be arresting people for killing mosquitoes without a permit. And the whole having-a-gun-as-a-felon thing? Honestly, you really do not think that should be an issue in the first place. You could maybe understand for some crimes, but if they are out of prison, it should be because they are not a risk to anyone. So, denying them that right does not make sense to you.

You have a gut feeling (supported by his reaction to you) that Fleckkers came here to do the exact same thing you were about to; except of course, he would be stealing things that he (presumably) had not paid for, and that he would actually know how to properly break into the place. Even from the distance you are at from him right now, the man looks noticeably shaken. It is almost kind of funny, each time you have ‘caught’ him, he has gotten progressively less collected. The first time, two years ago, he barely even flinched. Now he is shaking. Or maybe that is his truck; he still has not shut off the engine, and his hands are still on the wheel...

>>4465539
You are under the gun (or perhaps under the missile) here, and a thought has come to you. While you could just wave to Fleckkers, and trust that this close call would scare him off from this place … you could attempt to team up with him to secure whatever the two of you are after. Things might get complicated later, as a career criminal would obviously realize that you have livestock on hand, but this might be the one shot you get at securing the feed before shit hits the fan.

>Spook Fleckkers off and then attempt to break in yourself
>Attempt to team up with Fleckkers to rob the Prague Farmer’s Union

>>4465275
Sorry for the delay, I wound up losing this post and having to rewrite it. Not to mention that I realized that the farmer's union wouldn't be open yet, after the previous choice implied that it would be. Sorry about all of that. As a consolation, consider the appearance of Fleckkers here to be a peace offering; a 'mulligan'. A complicating and possibly dangerous 'mulligan', to be sure, but he is here if you choose to use him.

>>4465543
>Spook Fleckkers off and then attempt to break in yourself
I only trust respectable crazies who try to stab us with sterilized ice picks and risk life and limb in one-man car chases, not career criminals.
pass
>>4465557
>I wound up losing this post
this happened to me for many years until I just decided to never write long posts on the forum/imageboard they were for and resorted to wordpad or google docs for everything
I understand the pain

>>4465543
>Attempt to team up with Fleckkers to rob the Prague Farmer’s Union

Another useful friend to have!

>>4465543
>Spook Fleckkers off and then attempt to break in yourself

>>4465533
>Attempt to team up with Flecckers

Look, in another time, we would have called the police or spooked him up. But the apocalypse is coming and this is a two-bit criminal we have been pretty merciful with. Plus, he can hunt and will be able to open up certain containers that we would need to force open. Better recruit him as an ally Assap.

What do we know about him apart from what you ahve talked us about Trash? Family, friends, residence...etc.?

>>4465602
+1, we must pray to dice-jesus

>>4465618
>>4465602
Soon enough, the weirdo faction will take over the town.

>Spook Fleckkers off and then attempt to break in yourself.

Fleckers sounds good in principle to have around but long term I think will bite us in the butt.

>>4465543
>>Attempt to team up with Fleckkers to rob the Prague Farmer’s Union
Hell yeah, man. we need to be on good terms with specialists in what is to come.
It's a bit of a risk to take for him to realize we have livestock, however if we can get him living with us as well that may not be an issue. Our mother certainly wouldn't know about his past, and presumably the Lights don't either since they were staying in the hotel before this happened.
We've done him favors and overlooked things in the past, and he knows that we could absolutely bury him by now. It'd be best to win the man's respect now. Especially with his experience. Very useful ally to have in the near future. We need to scavenge, and secure some medication for our mother, and presumably the lake houses/second homes of the other residents that flee will have some useful supplies we may not be able to get ourselves otherwise.

Back from dinner and pleasantly surprised by all of the discussion!

>>4465607
Well, lets see. In character? Reggie knows that Fleckkers is retired, and lives in a nice brick federal building in Debouche's small 'historic' district. Impressive on his own, but considering that he is only 28 and has never held anything more than basic entry level part time work, it implies that he was successfully able to hide his stolen money from the government, an impressive feat. So he certainly a bit more than a 'two bit criminal', in that regard. He strikes you as decent enough, but the most you ever talked to him was when you had caught him red handed hunting out of season, so you can make of that what you will.

Beyond that, you know that he is 'from away', Pennsylvania specifically. To your knowledge he has no other relatives in the state. While he doesn't seem to have any close friends around Debouche, you have seen him once or twice at the restaurants, diners and bars around the area, chatting with long term residents and visitors alike, so he isn't a recluse like Tinn. He strikes you as generally the cautious sort, which makes that him taking the risk to poach deer with a rifle out of season seem kind of strange.

In case any of this changes anyone's vote, I'll give this until 8pm; then I will close it (rolling to tie break if necessary) and then start writing.

I'll change my vote from scare off to team up.

What is he like physically? Ripped, fat, short, tall, race, face tats, ponytail, dreads?

>>4465922
Stocky, of slightly higher than average height.

Okay; lets run the tally.

>>4465570 Spook
>>4465602 Recruit
>>4465603 Spook
>>4465607 Recruit
>>4465618 Recruit
>>4465636 Spook (vote retracted by >>4465922)
>>4465734 Recruit
>>4465922 Recruit

With 5 for Recruit and 2 for Spook, we have it settled with a solid lead. I'll start writing immediately.

>Parking Lot, Prague Farmer’s Union Store, Debouche, Maine, approximately 6:35 am.

“Fleckkers! Kind of funny running into you here. Why don’t you get out of your truck, so we can have a little talk?” His open shock at seeing you is more or less abated (or hidden), but he still hesitates. “Er, Mr. Mantle, are you asking me, or are you telling me to get out?” For God’s sake, you don’t have the time for this nonsense.

“In a second, I’ll be dragging you out. Get over here.” He casts one lingering look at the road, as if seriously considering driving off, but then cuts the engine, and gets out. Trying to take a more conciliatory tone now that he has started playing along, you force yourself to take things slowly here, figuring that if you just led with ‘break into this building for me’, it probably wouldn’t go over well. “I don’t mean to seem judgmental, but this isn’t the kind of place I’d expect to find you. Did you wake up and decide to start a garden?”

Fleckkers is beginning to look a little desperate again, and after a second of shifting his weight from foot to foot, he sighs and responds with a fairly resigned tone. “I guess I got kind of unnerved by that broadcast.” Wait, there was a broadcast? “I was in the shower, I always like listening to the radio in the shower. Then the it came on, you know this is a broadcast from the Civil Defense Authority, this is not a drill, please stand by for an emergency report … but then just dead air. Then after three minutes the radio came back on, all normal, and the disc jockey did not know what the hell was going on. Then five minutes after that, the power goes out. Without a so much as a breeze or a drop of rain; no way this outage is weather-related. Something has gone seriously wrong; and – and I mean that I’m on my own out here. I wanted to get something to protect myself … and I know, I know you know I have a rifle. But I barely have any ammo, and even if Peckinpaugh’s was open, that is a cop hangout; they would never sell to me. I thought that maybe the union here would be open, and I could buy something heavy. Listen, I know you probably don’t believe me, but I wasn’t looking to do anything more than do some emergency shopping. I mean, who the hell would rob a farmer’s union anyway?”

>>4466028
“Ironically enough, I would. I was trying to figure out how to break in and ‘steal’ the feed I bought yesterday when you showed up. I could seriously use some help. You need ammunition for a rifle? Let me know what caliber, what load, and I’ll buy all I can.” Fleckkers is just looking at you blankly. “I can’t say with any certainty that the power outage is related to the situation here, but that broadcast … that broadcast was an alert. We are directly and openly fighting a ‘shooting war’ with the Soviets right now, and it is only a matter of time before things go nuclear.” Fleckkers’ mouth is opening and closing, like a landed fish, but beyond that, he might as well be catatonic.

“Like I said, I could seriously use some expert help here. And if Peckinpaugh’s wont sell, then I have a 10/22 with about 400 loose rounds; they are yours if I can’t get your ammo.” Fleckkers just looks at you blankly, but finally manages to squeak out a question. “Is it really war? Nuclear … war?” You nod. “It is a lot to wrap your head around, but it is coming, in a matter of hours, probably. Which is why we need to get …”

You are interrupted by a tremor; the first earthquake that you have ever felt in your life. It lasts for several seconds, and it takes only a second more for it to dawn on you what it means. Something big somewhere just exploded; and odds are it was not a volcano. This is it. It has started. God, you hope your mother has made it to your homestead by now. You look to Fleckkers, and realize that he doesn’t understand the significance of the ‘quake. Suddenly, your radio squawks at your belt! Of all of the fucking times ... but you suppose you signed up for this, both as a member of Debouche Public Safety and as a member of Parasol's group, depending on who exactly is trying to call you. The real question here is, are you going to answer the call?

>You have made a commitment to others, if they can't count on you keeping your word, will they still bother with you after today? Hope and pray that your feed is still there, and go answer the call.
>You are one single man, a slightly crippled animal control officer. What the hell is expected of you, anyway? You don't know who this is, or what they want, but you need to look after yourself here. Odds are after you are done here, you will be able to help them out ... or not.

>>4466040
>>You have made a commitment to others, if they can't count on you keeping your word, will they still bother with you after today? Hope and pray that your feed is still there, and go answer the call.

Maybe Fleckkers can 'steal' the feed for us in exchange for the ammo?

>>4466040
>You have made a commitment to others, if they can't count on you keeping your word, will they still bother with you after today? Hope and pray that your feed is still there, and go answer the call.
Alright Fleckkers, you chickenshit, I'm trusting you
for now

>>4466040
>You have made a commitment to others, if they can't count on you keeping your word, will they still bother with you after today? Hope and pray that your feed is still there, and go answer the call.
Fuck it, get Fleckkers to grab our feed.

>>4466057
>>4466074
>>4466111
A solid lead right there; consider this closed, and will get to writing.

>You are one single man, a slightly crippled animal control officer. What the hell is expected of you, anyway? You don't know who this is, or what they want, but you need to look after yourself here. Odds are after you are done here, you will be able to help them out ... or not.

I mean, unless the call is related to your Mom. Even bad men love their Mommas.

>Parking Lot, Prague Farmer’s Union Store, Debouche, Maine, approximately 6:35 am.

There are no two ways about this; you have obligations here. You will need to take this. “Hold on for a second, Fleckkers, I’ll need to take this.” You open up on the frequency and identify yourself. To your surprise, it is Deputy Sheriff ‘Bart’ Bean on the other end. “Mantle, thank God. I didn’t want to drag you into this, I had hoped that we could resolve this internally, but if that ‘quake was a nuke, then we are out of time. Listen, both of the undersheriffs are not going along with the Sheriff’s and Parasol’s plan. Polk is insisting on seeing his duty as the Warden through even to the bitter end; he has refused to release the prisoners, he has refused to so much as tell us how much food and supplies he is sitting on, and now he isn’t even letting us into the jail. He is too stubborn and too dutiful, the captain has resolved to go down with the ship so to speak, and the jailors are listening to him over the Sheriff. If we had more time, we might have been able to change his mind, but we need to be in there right fucking now. And do not even get me started on Carter. He is convinced that if it becomes public knowledge that he was willing to arrest other deputy sheriff’s for ‘looting’, then he will be able to force out Sheriff Arthur.

“He’s going around to where we’ve sent deputies to secure important supplies with a couple of his deputy toadies and a few family friends and actually started ‘arresting’ our deputies and their auxiliaries : he’s hauling them around in a police van. We are stretched so thin that we only have one man minding each of the caches of critical supplies, and he has six or seven with him, in a little convoy. It is no contest. The prick is picking them off, one by one. And that fucking coward stood there this morning and said how all of this was such a great idea! He even waited until he knew that the Sheriff was tied up with Polk at the jail before starting this stunt. He must have got Edna too because no one is picking up! He is still able to communicate though, the only reason we know any of this is because he told Polk that we ‘had gone rouge’, who told us after refusing to work with us. And you are not going to believe this, that fucker Carter ‘tattled’ on us, to the Maine National Guard. Though considering everything they have on their plate right now, I don’t think we need to worry about being arrested and tried for mutiny or sedition or whatever-the-fuck, but I figured I’d let you know just in case they come knocking.” How on earth is it possible for the plan to have fucked up this badly already? How much more fucking damage could that fucking asshole Carter actually do? How the Hell can anyone be expected to deal with this? Wait a minute, if Edna is out of commission, then how exactly are you speaking with ‘Bart’ right now? You put the question to him.

>>4466216
“Parasol gave me this little handheld unit. You should see it, Mantle, the entire thing is about the size of the issued clip radio’s speaker. It is incredible; he has one for you too, by the way. Forgot to gave to you with everything on his mind last night … well, this morning actually. It’s just keyed in for your frequency right now though, I don’t know how the hell to set it.” He sighs. “Mantle, there is a handful of us here, trying to deal with Polk. Hopefully, we can talk it out with him, but as it stands, he has nearly as many jailors under him as we have deputies in the entire department, not to mention he is in a fortified position. We are not in a position to make demands here, and if we wait long enough, Carter will probably have arrested the rest of the office, and then come for us. Some one needs to stop the man, even if it gets messy.”

“You want me to kill him?” There is a pause in the conversation, as a second, light bout of shaking happens. Aftershocks, or perhaps a second explosion somewhere.

“Hell no. I want to kill him. I mean … it should not come to that. The man is a coward; I’ve been working with him for the better part of a decade now, and when he was just a deputy there was a joke in the office; everyone called him a ‘last responder’, always the last one on the scene, last one into danger, if at fucking all. May God damn that absolute fucking piece of work. I do not understand why the hell the sheriff raised him to undersheriff; he could have unironically found a better candidate in the holding cells. Just bring the biggest guns you have, and make a lot of noise, and he will scatter. And if he does not, then it is what it is. We are better off without that fucking coward anyway. Listen, I’ll tell you where everyone is, and you can pull together the deputies that haven’t been ‘arrested’ yet by Carter to confront him; I wouldn’t expect you to do this alone.

There is a slight pause, and in the silence Fleckkers sneezes. “Are you with someone? I thought I heard something.” You look to Fleckkers, who is dabbing at his nose with a handkerchief. He is standing off a way to the side, but he seems to have regained his composure. “Can you trust them in a fight? If so, bring him along.” ‘Bart’ really knows how to put you on the spot; not only has he twisted your arm into potentially starting a shootout with a small convoy of assholes, but he is forcing you to make a call on Fleckkers. In a fight? You do not know if you trust him period…

>>4466218
>”It was only some pheasant, caught in a poacher’s trap.” Leave Fleckkers here to ‘steal’ your feed while you go off and pull together the remaining deputies to confront Carter’s ‘convoy’. Multitasking and concerns about trust.
>“I suppose I will have to.” Take Fleckkers with you to pull together the remaining deputies around town to confront Carter’s ‘convoy’. Safety in numbers, more heads, more ideas.
>”I didn’t sign up for this bullshit.” Flatly refuse this preposterously dangerous assignment, ask for something safer to do instead. (Will not go over well, obviously)

>>4466219
>>”It was only some pheasant, caught in a poacher’s trap.” Leave Fleckkers here to ‘steal’ your feed while you go off and pull together the remaining deputies to confront Carter’s ‘convoy’. Multitasking and concerns about trust.

Polk doesn't actually seem like that much of a problem now. He can sit down in his jail fort for a while and cause no real harm to us. Eventually, something will go wrong for him.

>>4466218
>Alright Fleckkers, do YOU trust yourself on a fight? I know you can shoot a gun fine from those pesky deer you killed and this gonna earn you some major rep with the guys who will own the show here.

Could we just do our own thing? Bring Fleckkers along, go grab Tinn as well? Leaving out the remaining deputies, doubt Tinn would be on board with working with them. But working with us to run off some asshole trying to make a power grab and seize critical supplies?
Though, I suppose showing up at his property after the quake and what we told him about the strike last night would not blow over well. Especially if we brought Fleckkers along. Tinn is a recluse, but a professional paranoid. He may know who Fleckkers is based on his criminal record. And if we show up unannounced with somebody he may recognize as a professional, potentially untrustworthy safecraker/burglar to his fortress of a property, he probably wouldn't take it well. Even if he didn't know who Fleckkers was.
And bringing Fleckkers along to Tinn's property may not be a good idea anyways. Fleckkers may get it in his head to try and clear the place out, but I really doubt it. He seems somewhat like a weasel, and Tinn seriously has a goddamn fortress. Fleckkers may be good at what he does, and is seemingly smart, but I think Tinn would definitely come out on top if Fleckkers tried anything.
Not to mention what Tinn would think of us if he knew we brought Fleckkers along, knowing his past but not knowing if we could trust him or not.
As much as I like the idea of getting some of our contacts together for the fight, and making some noise on our own the more I think about it, the more I think it'll end poorly in one way or another. Curious to see more thoughts on it however.
For now, I'll support this >>4466228 assuming we turn off/mute our radio so Bean can't overhear us mention Fleckkers by name.
Though, I still am still thinking about swapping back to something involving what I detailed in this post, if it's possible and if others seem on board with it.

>>4466228
>>4466228
A vote to ley him choose. If he decides to play It safe, give him our House Keys and a personal memento he can show mum. I really doubt we can get Tinn on our side. Besides, he would probably spook the deputies.

>“I suppose I will have to.” Take Fleckkers with you to pull together the remaining deputies around town to confront Carter’s ‘convoy’. Safety in numbers, more heads, more ideas.

>>4466228
+1

There is some pretty good discussion coming along, but it's getting pretty late, and as there isn't a clear lead at this point, I'll let this vote sit overnight.

See you all in the morning!

>”It was only some pheasant, caught in a poacher’s trap.” Leave Fleckkers here to ‘steal’ your feed while you go off and pull together the remaining deputies to confront Carter’s ‘convoy’. Multitasking and concerns about trust.

But before that, can we persuade the guy? Or at least have a conversation with him? I mean, if he's gonna steal the feed, we'll need a set location.

>>4466225
+1

>Alright Fleckkers, do YOU trust yourself on a fight? I know you can shoot a gun fine from those pesky deer you killed and this gonna earn you some major rep with the guys who will own the show here.

Cant demand this of the guy and rather not leave him withour house keys until he has more to lose by betraying us.

>>4466497
I mean, giving him our house keys is practically just a formality. He could get in pretty easily considering he is a safecracker.

>>4466228
I'll go with this
also, the thought of the deputy getting scared off by our tank sounds glorious, but unfortunately that's not an option now since it's still stuck, and even if it was it's probably best not to let that cat out of the bag yet

>>4466485
+1, let's kick Carter's ass with our gimpy legs

QM, Mom should have already reached the homestead, right?

right?

Also, the sheriff told us to get the biggest gun. Could we load the machine gun from the tank into our truck?

The best position for bargaining in this situation would be from inside the tank with a bullhorn. Carter will fold.

Far as the Warden goes, he is defaulting to his training like most men would in that situation. Give him a little time to really think about the situation and he'll probably come around too.

>>4466797
>>4466894
do we have a good in game reason to receive the lascannon from the forbidden crate?

>>4466896
>do we have a good in game reason to receive the lascannon from the forbidden crate?
Not now, no. We don't even know what is inside it in character, but due to OP revealing what's behind the logo out of character it'd be reasonable to say that Mantle may have recognized the logo by now, so he may have some idea. Keep in mind Reaves is in our group, so as long as we stay in everyone's good graces, I'm sure we could work out picking it up sometime after the situation calms down enough to warrant heading out there. He may be upset about the thrashed gate however. Then again, the man has a family and I am almost certain his wife would force him into staying somewhere a bit less rugged than a dilapidated farm house for the time being, at least until the property can get some work done on it.

Is the tank without the cannon still a worthwhile strategy?

>>4466896
I mean, wasn´t the machine gun on top of the tank? I thought we could unscrew and screw it back into or truck

Alright, I really overslept today. But I am here, and I have nothing else on my plate, so, lets get this started!.

>>4466225 Pheasants (1-0-0-0)

>>4466228 Write In 1 (1-0-0-1)
>Alright Fleckkers, do YOU trust yourself on a fight? I know you can shoot a gun fine from those pesky deer you killed and this gonna earn you some major rep with the guys who will own the show here. Later explained in >>4466246 as a vote to let Fleckkers choose.

>>4466239 Write In 1 (1-0-0-2)
>A tentative suggestion to try to get Fleckkers and Tinn in on the action, but a vote for the Write In.

>>4466273 Forced Hand! (1-1-0-2)

>>4466276 Write In 1! (1-1-0-3)

>>4466485 Pheasants! (2-1-0-3)

>>4466493 Pheasants! (3-1-0-3)

>>4466497 Write In 1! (4-1-0-3)

>>4466592 Pheasants! (4-1-0-4)

>>4466794 Question.
>QM, Mom should have already reached the homestead, right?
We can hope so, but assuming that she took less than an hour to leave, which considering our instructions is reasonable, she is already late.

>>4466797 Question.
>Also, the sheriff told us to get the biggest gun. Could we load the machine gun from the tank into our truck?
You know, I was hoping that someone would ask. Certainly!

>>4466896 Question.
>do we have a good in game reason to receive the lascannon from the forbidden crate?
Well, it is important to remember, it is was intended as a point defense unit on a strategic bomber, so it it isn't like some hand held unit and it needs to be integrated into an appropriately sized power-train to operate.

Of course it is a tie! Okay, I hate rolling for these things, so I will leave this up for about an hour, so I can get an early dinner. When I come back at 5pm Eastern Standard Time, I will close the vote and if necessary, roll for it.