[GURPS 4e, IC] The Dying of the Light — Infection

[xen0phile]

"Don't worry, I have a radio," motioning to his walkie-talkie. Overhearing Tal's comment to Morten, Ese offers, "Ehh, I think you need to work on the electronics. Osea the intercom is for the entire ship. I think I can get some tools when I go down to engineering. Lurch and I can do that: have the intercom just talk to one area."

[Inglenook]

"Come on, Morten," Anna says, not unkindly. "We need to get inside."

Morten nods and stands shakily to his feet. As Steve, Tal, Anna and Sarah enter the bridge, Morten follows and shuts the door behind him.

Spoiler

Just going to do the rest of this on a post-by-post basis.

---

STEVE

Terry runs off to the captain's office to call Rebecca in the engine room.

Before helping Anna you speak to Morten, who has resumed his position of sitting off to the side in the lobby, away from everybody else.

"The satellite radio is dead," he says, waving his hand tiredly, "We don't have the right components on the ship to fix the antenna. And anyway, someone would have to climb up to the very top of the ship to do so. I should try the VHF, though. Hopefully there's someone within range …" He stands and walks off toward the main control area.

---

TAL

You're the first person Dr. Holm looks over. Assessing the damage with her piercing grey-green eyes, she carefully cleans your shredded hand. "No pain at all?" she asks, wrapping it in gauze and bandages. "There might be some nerve damage; it's hard to tell at the moment. I make no promises, but you might have full use of your hand again, eventually … if it's properly treated. For the time being, keep it elevated and don't even try to use it."

As you mention the possibility of "infection", the matter-of-fact tone never leaves her voice. "From what I've seen, you wouldn't begin exhibiting symptoms until a few days have passed. So you won't need 'supervision' for a while. And as for recovery, I'm sorry to say that none of the patients I treated in the clinic showed any real improvement. It was the same for each of them: fever, irritability, tachycardia, gingival bleeding … and then it was like they went mad. Or they died." Her eyes flicker to yours briefly. "We had to strap them down, you know. I … I still don't know how they broke loose. It happened so fast."

As Anna leaves you to inspect the others, Sarah comes and sits beside you. She laughs at the suggestion that she could monitor you. "I may have good hearing, but it's not as if I can monitor your heartbeat from across the room.

"And I'm a journalist. I was supposed to be writing an article on norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships—" She shakes her head. "—but I think norovirus is the last thing on the world's mind right now."

She tilts her head slightly. "And what about you? And you never told me your name, Mr … ?"

---

ESE

Lurch gives you a thumbs-up and picks up the phone.

Returning to the lobby, you take the fire axe from Steve.

---

STEVE

"That's fine," Anna nods, gently probing Yolanda's bruised side with her fingers. "I'm almost done looking over everyone anyway."

You open the locker, located right outside the captain's office. Ese has his own hard hat, but you grab one for yourself, then grab the flash suits and gloves; they'll afford you a modicum of protection, maybe. They also come with large hoods that cover your face/head/neck, but wearing the hood will significantly restrict your vision, hearing and speech. It's up to you whether or not you take them.

There's a small wooden mallet, but it's so dinky that it's probably not useable as a serious weapon. You'll have to settle for the fire axe.

---

TAL

After talking with Sarah and checking in with Ese and Steve, you make your way over to the captain at the controls.

Ese overhears you asking Morten about the intercom, and Morten nods.

"I misspoke earlier," he says. "You can selectively call to anywhere on the ship via the phones. And you can broadcast through the ship's intercom. But the intercom broadcasts are universal; the only way to broadcast to only certain intercoms in certain areas of the ship is to fiddle with the wiring up here—" He points down at the controls. "—and disable all the others."

---

Spoiler

No one appears to be exhibiting any over symptoms of illness as far as Steve and Anna can tell. Lurch is the only one left to be checked, but he's busy calling the engine room.

Steve, do you want to leave the first aid kit here or take it with you?

[dekova]

Spoiler

Leaving the first-aid kit in the bridge.
The hood of the flash suit is too bulky, but Steve will wear the coat, pants and gloves of the suit with the hardhat provided it's less than 20 pounds altogether (trying to stay unencumbered). If it's too heavy, he'll just wear the gloves, coat and hardhat, skipping the pants.

[Inglenook]

Spoiler

You should be good; the gloves are .5 lbs. and the rest of the suit is 4 lbs.

Character sheets should all be updated with current equipment now, I think.

[dekova]

Steve quickly makes what small preparations he can. Then, with the new fire axe in hand, he steps back to the bridge door and listens intently for any sounds coming from the hallway.

Stepping back from the door a bit, Steve readies his axe and motions for Ese to open the door.

Spoiler

Hearing 12
Gesture 10 (if needed)
Stealth 11

Steve's assuming that Rager's are behind each and every door/corner/plant/etc.
Default defense is dodge with a retreat (9+3).

[xen0phile]

Ese quickly opens the bridge door, then jumps back a bit and readies his axe.

Spoiler

Assuming there aren't any infected right behind the door, Ese will poke his head out the hatch, peer left and right, then take point as they begin to go to the elevator (unless Steve tries to take point, in which case he will defer).

He will go down the starboard hallway toward the elevator, first taking another quick glance toward the Royal Suite to make sure nothing else is happening there.

He will also turn down the volume slightly on his radio (assuming it has volume controls).

He will move at a brisk walk, trying to combine stealthiness and situation awareness with quickness.

versus Stealth of 12 to move quietly: (3d6)[11]

versus Perception of 11 to hear if anything is going on in passing rooms/whether the infected have gotten out of the fire door: (3d6)[15]

[Stegyre]

"You can call me Tal," he tells the nice young woman.

Originally Posted by historiasdeosos

"I misspoke earlier," he says. "You can selectively call to anywhere on the ship via the phones. And you can broadcast through the ship's intercom. But the intercom broadcasts are universal; the only way to broadcast to only certain intercoms in certain areas of the ship is to fiddle with the wiring up here—" He points down at the controls. "—and disable all the others."

Holding his injured hand up as he talks with the captain, I feel like Dr. Strangelove. All I need is the black leather glove.

"Well, I'm not going to give up that easily, captain. So the default is to broadcast ship-wide, but we can disconnect wires up here so that we broadcast to just where we choose? Assuming someone knows which wires to pull, how much fine-tuning can we do? Get a single deck? Get just a portion of a deck? What? It will be a lot safer if we can lure the infected that way rather than having to run around with a bullhorn.

"Do we have a bullhorn around here? Or even an airhorn? Something to make a lot of noise and bring -- 'people' -- running?

"I want to talk with you about what we have to move people around. Then we can talk about where we want to move them to. We have some people headed down to the engine room, and if we need anything done down there, it would be best to have a plan when they get there, so they don't have to make the trip twice."

[Corrino]

Spoiler

Annddd I'm behind again. I promise I'll get better once I get free of this pesky math class, as if wife, kids, and full time job and school aren't enough... I don't even need this for my job... blegh.

Maxwell checks on the type of pistol / the magazine and chamber so that he's aware of what he's holding, and how many rounds he has. He nods his thanks to the maid, and depending on what the others were doing he will either leave with Ese, since they've been together, or stay with the bankers and the others here and keep an eye out for now.

Spoiler

I haven't caught up yet, work started. I'll read back through today, just letting you know the things I might have done to get me caught up

[Inglenook]

MAXWELL

Spoiler

It's cool!

IQ-based Guns (Pistol) check: (3d6)[10]

You easily identify the pistol as a S&W Model 4006, which uses a .40 pistol cartridge. There are 11 bullets remaining in the clip.

---

TAL

Morten rubs his cheek thoughtfully. "I'm not very familiar with how the wiring works, but if I had to venture a guess: Up here you could probably only fine-tune it to the deck level, but if you went down to that deck itself, you could find where it branches and fine-tune it to specific intercoms. We can ask Lurch once he gets done in my office.

"And there are bullhorns on Deck 07 that are used for lifeboat drills, but none up here."

---

ESE & STEVE

Steve listens at the bulkhead door but hears nothing out of the ordinary (relatively speaking). Nodding, Ese pulls it open and the two step outside, closing it behind them.

The hallway is filled with the sounds of infected passengers trapped in their cabins, seemingly thrown into a frenzy by the sound of the other infected people locked out in the stairwell. The door to 1032 rattles violently as you pass.

Ese peers around the corner: the royal suite hasn't changed. He lowers the volume on his radio slightly, and you both continue down the starboard hallway heading toward the stern.

Lurch's voice issues suddenly from the walkie-talkie. "Uh, you guys probably want to get back here. There might be a snag in the whole 'engine room' plan. I just got—"

All of a sudden, his voice is drowned out by a series of sounds from down the corridor, sounds that cause your heart to drop to the pit of your stomach:

There is a metallic scraping that you both recognize as the sound of the stairwell fire door opening or closing, followed by what sounds almost like a roar of triumph, and a sudden stampede of approaching feet.

Spoiler

You are both standing outside the door to cabin 1036 on Deck 10. 70 yards ahead of you is the right turn that leads to the main stairwell/elevators, which is where the sounds you just heard are coming from.

Ese's Fright Check: (3d6)[8]
Steve's Fright Check: (3d6)[16]

[Inglenook]

Spoiler

Ese is free to move however he wishes, but Steve is frozen in place with fear.

Attempt to Break Fear 1: (3d6)[12]
Attempt to Break Fear 2 (if needed): (3d6)[9]
Attempt to Break Fear 3 (if needed): (3d6)[9]
Attempt to Break Fear 4 (if needed): (3d6)[11]
Attempt to Break Fear 5 (if needed): (3d6)[8]

Steve is frozen for 1 second only.

[Stegyre]

Spoiler

I am thinking that events in the hallway with Steve and Ese are likely to unfold much faster than anyone anywhere else can react -- meaningfully, so I am expecting to wait until the posts result in some notification to those of us on the bridge of this change.

Meanwhile, Tal is in the midst of his conversation with the Captain. I hope someone was watching the door to the bridge -- both to keep it open for Ese and Steve and to close it against anything else . . . .

[xen0phile]

His sympathetic nervous system telling him it's time for flight, Ese just turns and begins sprinting back toward the bridge.

[dekova]

Steve stands stunned for a moment then pivots and follows Ese, sprinting down the corridor.

[Corrino]

Maxwell looks back at Tal and the others. "If we can only broadcast deck wide, this isn't going to work, is it, unless we send a preliminary team ahead to do something about the wires, locally."

[Stegyre]

Originally Posted by Corrino

Maxwell looks back at Tal and the others. "If we can only broadcast deck wide, this isn't going to work, is it, unless we send a preliminary team ahead to do something about the wires, locally."

"Sure it can. At least, we can try to lure them down, deck by deck. If the intercom is going over an entire deck, people are going to hear it coming up the stairwells. From what I've seen, these infected will go where they see or hear people.

"Anyway, do we have an alternative plan?"

[Corrino]

Maxwell shrugs "Honestly we don't have many options. Well, can I do anything to help speed the process along, then?"

[Inglenook]

ESE & STEVE

Upon hearing the noise from down the corridor, Ese immediately turns and flees back toward the bridge. For a moment Steve is overcome with surprise and fright, but a second later he follows suit. As you two prepare to turn the corner, you hear a sudden surge of roaring behind you: the infected have caught sight of you.

Steve is a bit longer legged and reaches the bulkhead door slightly before Ese—It is closed and locked.

Spoiler

For brevity's sake, I'm going to assume you guys want in.

Steve bangs on the metal, yelling, "Open it! Hurry!" There is an excruciating pause as you listen to those things running down the hall, just around the corner now, almost upon you … but then the bulkhead door opens. Yolanda stands there looking surprised, and you both rush in. Ese slams the door behind him.

A moment later the banging and roaring on the other side of the door begins, only slightly muffled by the metal.

Yolanda, Anna, Brenda, Jamie, John, Harmon, Speck, Owen, Sarah, the Carvers and the bloody, unconscious woman are all in the lobby.

"How did they get in?!" Jamie yells, sounding both angry and frightened. "I thought you closed the fire door?!"

---

MAXWELL & TAL

As you both discuss plans with the captain on how to lure the infected people with the intercom, you hear a sudden shouting, banging, and the slam of a door. Looking behind you through the plate glass window into the lobby, you see that Ese and Steve are back, both looking decidedly perturbed.

Morten jumps to his feet and runs through the hallway into the lobby to see why they're back, and you both follow.

Spoiler

Again, for the sake of brevity I'm assuming you go to the lobby with everyone else. If not, just tell me.

---

EVERYONE

Everyone is gathered in a rough semicircle around Steve and Ese. The banging and screaming at the metal bulkhead door is quite loud and makes it difficult to hear.

"So what happened?" Brenda asks, pointing her finger at the two. "How did they make it through the fire gate? They can't even open doors, for God's sake."

"Can they hear us in here?" Pete whispers to no one in particular. "Maybe they'll go away if we're quiet?"

Anna slips to Morten's side and says something to him quietly in Norwegian, her tone anxious.

Before Ese and Steve can answer, Lurch steps out of the hallway that connects to the control area. "I just got off the phone with, uh, Rebecca," he says. He suddenly notices the din coming from the bulkhead door, and his eyes widen slightly. "They got out? Or in, I mean. Did they like … eat through the fire door, because that's—"

"You just got off the phone with Rebecca … " Yolanda says as patiently as she can.

Lurch nods and continues. "Yeah. I told her to lock herself in the office down in engineering, right? So I called down there to Lukas's phone. Only took one ring for someone to pick up.

"It sounded like she dropped the phone or knocked it off the desk or something; I couldn't hear much of what happened very well. I heard a guy's voice—I'm not sure who, because there was no one else but her down there when we left. He said, 'Dammit, be quiet!', sort of angry and scared-sounding. And then a girl—Rebecca, I guess—whispered, 'Sorry!', and it sounded like she was crying. And then something started banging really loud, and there was screaming. It sounded like someone was hitting glass. Then the guy and Rebecca started screaming."

He licks his lips nervously. "And then the line went dead."

[dekova]

As the door closes and locks, Steve instinctively braces himself against it.

"Ma'am, I don't know how they did it but it sounded more like they lifted the door than broke through it."

Steve looks uneasy as he continues.

"And I don't know how long this door is going to hold against this many of them, I think we may need to go over that deck and get to the lifeboats after all. We may be able to use the firehose as a rope... Captain, what's below it and how far of a drop is it?"

Spoiler

Quick question about the deck (#4) What's on the far end on each side? A wall that seperates the public deck from the private bridge deck or does it just end?

And... how dark is it outside, what time of day/night is it?

[Stegyre]

"In the mean time," says Tal, "can we turn the intercom on just Deck 11? Maybe if we can broadcast some loud sounds up there, we can draw them up, while we are trying to go down. If we even lure just a few of them away, we might hold the door that much longer."

[xen0phile]

Ese takes a moment to catch his breath and orient himself. He sits down, his back against the wall. His eyes widen with horror and guilt upon hearing about Rebecca's death--he could, after all, have gotten her when he went down to get the fire axe and crow bar. He realizes he has his prayer beads in a white-knuckle grip, and consciously releases them.

He stands back up, using the handle of the fire axe to steady himself. "Pues, we are in the ocean. We... we can't just jump over. Need a boat to travel to the land. Ehh, I think it is a good idea; to use intercom. Me, Lurch, we can do that. Easier if we have good tools. Anyone have, ehh... a knife? A Leatherman? Screwdriver?"

[dekova]

Spoiler

There's a toolbox in the damage control locker. I imagine that Ese would know this.

[Inglenook]

STEVE

Morten runs his fingers through his hair, thinking. "If we dropped off the front of the deck, we'd drop down one level to the very front of Deck 09. There's a small outside deck that runs around the ship and connects all the lifeboat davits.

"If we dropped off the sides, we'd probably land, hm, three levels down, near the bow on Deck 07."

Spoiler

It's a bit after 1 AM, but the ship's external lights are all on, so seeing shouldn't be a real issue (unless you're trying to spot something out to sea).

To answer your other question: sternward of the "wings" on #4 is a metal partition, and on the other side are balconies running all the way down the deck, each separated by their own partition.

You can see it pretty well in these pictures: port and starboard.

The "wings" of the bridge are on the far left of the "port" picture, and the far right of the "starboard" picture.

The blue numbers are the cabins that the balconies belong to. 1510 is Harmon's cabin, 1010 is the Royal Suite, and 1020 is Morten's cabin.

Right below cabins 1534 and 1032 you can see one of the lifeboat-lowering davit stations sticking out; a narrow deck runs all the way down Deck 09 here. Near the very bottom right of the "port" picture, you can see a ladder, which is how you can get from the davit area on Deck 09 to the lifeboat launching area of Deck 07.

---

ESE & TAL

"Yes, let's try leading them up to 11," Morten says. His voice grows stricken. "Although if there's anyone up there, they might be swarmed."

Lurch is already moving over the damage control locker. "Tools are in here," he says, rummaging around and pulling out a metal toolbox. "But I don't think we need them. The intercoms use Cat 5 cable, so I think maybe all we have to do is unplug them."

Spoiler

Cutting the wiring shouldn't be necessary since they're Cat 5s and easily unplug. Correctly unplugging Deck 10 requires a roll of:
- Electrician (ESL15), or:
- Electronic Operation (Communications) (ESL12)

Finding the right cable for any of the other decks is a bit harder, since you can't hear/test whether they're unplugged from where you are. To correctly unplug any of the other deck intercoms requires a roll of:
- Electrician (ESL11), or:
- Electronic Operation (Communications) (ESL8)

You can increase your ESL further by taking extra time.

[Corrino]

"How far will the alarm pull them, do you think? Would it be more prudent to pull them down to say, level one, if the lifeboats are on seven? It seems to make more sense than trying to pull all the ones below us up farther... but you fellows undoubtedly know more about your ship than I do."

Maxwell turns and studies the wires dubiously "Anyone know which ones to pull, for either situation?"

"And either way, I like the idea of getting to the boats, and using the horns as a distraction if possible. Whatever those things are doing out there, we should assume they're going to be coming in soon if we do nothing."

[dekova]

With his back against the door, Steve thinks for a moment then speaks.

"We can't plan on making the drop down to 7," Steve looks at Tal's bandaged hand, "but we can probably make it to 9. Let's get everyone on the bridge proper and lock these two hallway doors. You guys work on the intercom, I'm going to see about getting an escape route ready. Is there an extra radio I can take with me?"

Steve starts off towards the damage control locker while directing one last question to the captain: "What happens if we drop a lifeboat from the 9th deck?"

Spoiler

Steve's Plan:
Grab Stig's radio or a spare radio if available, if not, see if he can get Terry's.

Grab the canvas bag from the damage control locker, clip a battle lantern to the outside and put the following in it: flashlight, bolt cutters, first aid kit, crowbar, handsaw.

Check out 9th floor deck as best he can from 10th. If it's clear, see if he can find a way to attach/use the hose as a rope to get down to 9th.

Let's see how successful all of that is before deciding what he does next.

[xen0phile]

Ese goes over to the main control panel and, with Lurch's help, removes the panel to get at the CAT-5 cables. Digging through the bundle, he pulls at what he assumes is the one for deck 10:

Spoiler

Electrician, ESL of 15: (3d6)[18]

Spoiler

Before I isolate the intercom specifically to deck 11, is the Electrician (ESL11) roll for *all* decks I need to disconnect (like, do I need to roll 12 times); or, do I just roll that one time?

Also, I just assumed Lurch was helping me, so I wrote him into my narrative; if he's actually doing something else, I'll edit

[Inglenook]

Spoiler

Just one roll, although you appear to have flubbed it a bit, haha.

[Inglenook]

STEVE

You and Morten go down the short hallway to the control room. Lying in one of the pilot seats is a walkie-talkie and a set of key cards. A white captain's hat—Morten's—lies on the ground next to the seat.

"Take mine," he says, grabbing the walkie-talkie and handing it to you. He then bends over and grabs the hat from the floor, absentmindedly brushing off a piece of lint that's stuck to it before putting it on, sitting in the other pilot seat and beginning to press buttons.

You go back into the lobby and collect several things, placing them in a canvas sack from the damage control locker. Then you head outside.

The night air is a cool relief, and you suddenly realize how much it stank in there—the smell of adrenaline.

Spoiler

Vision Check: (3d6)[10]
Hearing Check: (3d6)[12]

Peering over the front of the boat, you can clearly see down to the open area on Deck 09. It looks completely free of people (although everything past the first five yards or so is out of sight beneath you), and you can't hear anyone.

On the starboard side, looking toward the stern, you can see the area on Deck 07 that Tal mentioned, where the crewmen were slaughtered. The deck is stained red and covered with bodies. Nothing looks to be on the davit gangway on this side. You notice that several of the lifeboats are slanted dangerously halfway down their davits, as if the crewmen had partially released them before being attacked. One lifeboat is missing.

On the port side there are several other dead bodies on Deck 07. But that's not what catches your eye.

On the davit gangway, perhaps halfway down the length of the ship, you can see three people crouched in one of the davit stations. You can't make out their features very well from this distance—one looks like a blonde woman, the other two dark-haired men—but the way they're behaving suggests that they're not the crazed infected.

---

EVERYONE ELSE:

Everyone files into the main control area, shutting and locking both doors behind them: two more barriers in case those things break through. Pete and John drag the unconscious bloody woman along.

---

MAXWELL

Anna kneels next to the unconscious bloody woman and motions you over. "Maxwell, right?" She opens up her first aid kit, pulling out a small, cylindrical white packet.

"We need to wake this woman up if we're going to get her over the railing to one of the lower decks," she explains, bending the cylinder between her hands with a tiny crack! "I have no idea what's wrong with her—she could even be violent when she wakes up—so I need you to hold her down, okay?"

---

ESE

With Lurch's help you remove the metal panel underneath the communication area, which is slightly to the right of the main controls. The inside is a mess of wires, completely unorganized and not especially well-maintained. You may have your work cut out for you.

Lying down on your back, you reach into the nest of wires, trying to find anything that resembles a Cat 5 or a connector array. You push a bundle of wires aside—

Bzzt!

Sparks fly, and a blinding, electric pain courses up your left arm. Howling, you scurry away from the communication panel on all fours.

Lurch helps you to your feet. "Whoa, you okay?" Your arm tingles, but you don't seem to be majorly injured.

"What did you do?" Morten says loudly, leaving his chair and quickly stepping over to the communications panel. He toggles a switch marked "INTERCOM" several times, but the tiny light next to it remains dim.

"The entire thing is blown," he sighs, raising his hands in defeat. "At least the VHF still works." He returns to his chair, picking up a speaker mic and depressing the button on the side.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is Calypso Queen, Calypso Queen, Calypso Queen. Mayday, Calypso Queen. Charlie-Six-Foxtrot-Zulu-Zero. 3117360000. My position is … 23.650814, -82.893448 true. I am—faen—we're under attack, on fire, sick, suffering casualties, everything!" He takes a deep breath. "I require immediate assistance. Two hundred people still aboard, many of them ill. Bring weapons, as many as you can. Over."

He releases the button and turns to everyone else. "Now to see if anyone transmits back."

Spoiler

Ese takes one point of damage.

[dekova]

Peering over the deck rail, Steve studies the three people for a moment.

Signal them with the flashlight? Too risky.

He then turns his attention to gauging distances and weighing his options with the hose. Quickly deciding on a course of action, he heads back to the damage control locker.

"Looks like we have three uninfected hiding on the davit gangway, port side... Captain, can we drop a lifeboat from the gangway or do we need to be on deck 7?"

Spoiler

When he steps back inside, he really REALLY wants to get the skinny on what's involved in dropping the lifeboats from deck 9.

Then...

• If the hose is connected to the locker and will reach , he'll drag the free end out to the deck and stop just short of unraveling it over the edge.
• If the hose won't reach from the locker, he'll disconnect it and try to tie it off to a main railing or similar.
• If the brass coupling on the hose is causing issues, he'll hack through the hose near the coupling with the hacksaw.

Worth noting: Steve's still keeping his fire axe close at hand.

[xen0phile]

"Just a little shock," he responds to Lurch. He sheepishly cradles his left arm, his pride hurt probably more than his arm. He tentatively tests the various joints in the injured arm, making a fist, then unclenching it; rotating his forearm; bending his elbow; and so on.

[Corrino]

Maxwell nods his agreement. "Good idea, we can't afford to carry casualties when there are other options, and risk her waking and harming someone en route."

Spoiler

He will kneel by her and keep hands on her arms, ensuring that he (doesn't think) he's in bite range. If she begins to fight, he will try to verbally calm her and will restrain her, but until then, he's just ready to do so.