Harry's Game · Page 34

Matt nods, and starts shouting orders to get the ladder in position and organize a crew of his shift to move water to the roof.

The people on your shift are a bit unclear as to whose orders they're supposed to be following, but Matt hasn't mentioned them, so he's got Joelle, Nellie, Ben, and Marco, and you've got Brandy, Lars, and Albert. There are also a couple of regular watchmen doing crowd control, and a crowd of observers, and the restaurant owner himself, who is sitting worriedly near the cart, apparently placed there by Matt to keep him out of the way for the moment.

--M. J. Young

I'll thank the regular Watchmen for their pitching in later. For now I've got a job to do, and that means taking this hose and running.

I'll have Brandy go on just ahead of me, to open doors and move furniture out of the way.

I'll carry the hose myself. After all this isn't a modern firehose that needs three men to hold it down.

I'll station Lars - if he's as big as a man named Lars ought to be - working the pump on the pump truck.

and I'll station Albert on the other side, telling him to get some of the more able-bodied and sound-minded men from the crowd to help him haul buckets to keep the pump truck full.

I'm trying to remember whether you had a tanker of some sort. My thought was that you were pumping water from the well (which has its own pump) out back. I remember that we were talking about getting a pump system that would move water from the harbor to the warehouses, but that had to do with pipes of some sort, not a tanker.

I'm assuming that you can get the hose to run from the pump behind the station, through the back door, out the large front door, and across the street to the driveway in front of the restaurant, but not actually inside the restaurant. You're inland so the pump system (if it was finished yet) that drops pipes into the ocean isn't going to help unless you've got some sort of trough, and you've only got the one hose anyway.

Correct me if I've forgotten something (it won't be the first time), but otherwise assume that your hose runs up to the front door and stops there.

--M. J. Young

A few months ago in-game Tara suggested we build a pump truck, similar to the water-barrel-on-wheels fire trucks of (real world) past generations. I had put in a request for it then, and I'm assuming a few months is time enough to have it built. (For some reason these long-term wait-for-results things repeatedly keep getting lost - you would never have remembered that business with Jack Sparrow if I hadn't mentioned it again, for instance - which is why I do things like this, assuming that it worked if I haven't directly been told it failed, because the alternative is that all of my plans fail by default as they simply never resolve at all.)

That's reasonable. It would run smoother in game if you approached it more on the order of, "Assuming that we've built that tanker pump truck Tara suggested some months ago, I'm going to hook the hose to that and...." That way I don't wind up questioning what has not been mentioned for a long time.

And yes, long-term parts of play get lost. It's an artifact of the two conditions here, one that of necessity play-by-post games move very slowly, and two that I have more than the usual number of players for that reason. Keeping track of this many game worlds in my head is not simple, and the notes I make on them are limited and still difficult to review. It happens less in games (like Eli's recent training program) in which everything is moving quickly and nothing is changing on a daily or weekly basis).

I should address the problem, but at the moment I don't have any really good ideas other than devising a new software program specifically for tracking Multiverser calendars for individual players--and my programming skills are limited to Basic, and Basic doesn't run on XP, apparently.

They roll out the tanker, and connect the hose. The one tun cask strapped to the frame is about half full, which gives you about one hundred twenty five gallons in it. It was built such that it barely clears the top frame of the main doors to the station, so that you get some gravity feed, with a shutoff valve between the pump and the barrel to keep it from running out; the pump pressures it out, and there's an air valve at the top that has to be opened to relieve the internal vacuum. There's a ladder up the back and across the top to reach it. Lars climbs to the top to open the relief valve.

--M. J. Young

I'll try to keep after things like this more regularly.

Once Lars is in position, I'll take the hose and get going.

I am noticing about myself that when I was running Eli through his extended training program I kept a text bit that I would recopy and update each time a training period passed. It was easier and less clutter because we were mostly moving ahead at the rate of one training period at a time, with interruptions based on GE rolls. It's a bit tougher with you, because most of the focus in your game is on the crises, which move forward incrementally almost minute-by-minute at times; but if you copied a text box from a previous thread periodically in your posts that listed those things which were still pending, stuck at the end of your posts maybe

quote

list indented

I would say I'll do it, but at the moment I'm not even entirely certain what belongs in it.

The front door of the restaurant is locked still, and when you hit it with your shoulder it does not open.

The owner apologizes; it unbolts from the inside. There are sliding bolts at top and bottom of the door, into the floor below and a bracket on the frame above. He's never had to open it from outside before; he enters through the kitchen and comes to the front from inside when he's ready for customers.

--M. J. Young

I apologize profusely to the owner, and take a fire axe to his front door. And mentally add a portable ram to the list of Things We Really Ought to Buy.

You hit the door, and it is solid--the ax blade sinks maybe an inch into the wood and sticks so you have to pull it out.

"Commander," one of your people calls. "Maybe try the shutters on the window?"

You hit them, and they splinter away, giving you a roughly three foot square opening two and a half feet above the ground.

"Want me to go through and open the door?" The other fireman asks.

--M. J. Young

"Go right ahead." And I'll give him a boost. It's not hard to be more nimble than me.

You give your guy a boost, and he tumbles through the window onto the floor inside.

"Ouch!" he exclaims. Then, "I'm all right, I'm all right. Give me a minute, here." The tone of the voice is changing, suggesting that he's moving. Smoke is starting to come out of the window, though, and it's getting hotter.

It takes an interminable number of seconds before the door starts bumping a bit, and you hear the sound of someone trying to work the bolts. Finally the door swings in, and smoke pours out, and the man stumbles out, coughing.

--M. J. Young

"Masks on!" I pull up my own mask - a bit of wet burlap wrapped in sailcloth - over my mouth and nose.
"Get this hose working! Drive it back! I need to see the ceiling!"

You feel the water filling the hose, and it pours out the end. You don't have nozzles, but the hose isn't the sort that you could pressurize anyway, so it's like having a continuous bucket, or more like having a movable pump spigot.

The water pours onto the floor. With the door now open, the smoke is coming out. You don't see fire above, but there's quite a bit of it ahead, two-thirds of the way across the mid-sized dining area. The wooden tables are set with cloth covers and napkins along with metal tableware. The swinging doors to the kitchen are burning, and the blaze is worst on the other side of those doors. It's spreading on a curved front, working outward from that door, so it's closest to you in the middle but has worked its way to reach the side walls along the partition from the kitchen.

--M. J. Young

We need more hands. There's got to be some way to get those tables away from the fire...

I'll ask one of my men to get two strong-bodied volunteers from the watching crowd to put masks on and come move those tables, to create a fire- break where it will be harder to spread. Then I need my bucket brigade driving the flames back with the water from the non-pressurized hose.

At least the ceiling isn't on fire...

Current outstanding projects:
Meeting with my prospective tenant.
Working with Jacob on fireproof suits that don't weigh us down.
Talking with the General about expanding to new offices.
Training a new Commander to replace me when I get moved to said new office.

In a seemingly unending three minutes two men enter wearing masks, and you point them to the tables you want moved. Before they've moved one, your man returns with two more volunteers, who get to work on the table moving project.

It of course involves moving tables to move tables, but a path is cleared and your bucket brigade gets to work. They start dowsing the flames, pushing the fire back slowly toward the kitchen wall.

--M. J. Young

Once my bucket brigade gets almost all the way to the kitchen wall, I'll call for a team to start sandbagging. Once we get to the kitchen wall, I'm going to have to breach in order to get to the source of the flames. This has been burning for a while - there's a severe risk of backdraft if the kitchen is pressure-cooking itself. That's a good way to get us all killed if we don't do it carefully.

That said, I'll plan to breach where the wall is coolest - farthest from the most intense heat - and start sandbagging immediately. I don't want to use water for this because the water would be superheated almost instantly, and steam burns are another good way to lose some of my best people, so we'll go with sand, because at least hot sand can still be traversed with good boots and lots of layers.

You have about a hundred pounds of sand in two fifty pound burlap sacks. Beyond that, you would have to use dirt, which of course you can dig up pretty much anywhere.

You hear the water splashing erratically against the wall from the outside, as Matt and his crew try to keep the fire from spreading.

The kitchen door does not latch; it swings. The fire has come through from there, and part of the door has burned away. It is off-center to the opposite side from where Matt is working.

--M. J. Young

Let's start with the sand, and see if we can get some volunteers to dig us up some usable dirt.

Meanwhile, let's kick in the door and get to work.

Your team starts laying down sand as you drag the hose to the swinging door. The heat becomes more intense as you approach, and you can see that the draft from the hot air is pushing the door open slightly in your direction.

You push back, and get a blast of hot air and bright light in the face from the flaming interior of the kitchen. Water pours in spurts from the hose onto the floor in front of you, which is a mix of wood and flagstone, but wood right here and not yet afire.

--M. J. Young

I'll let the water pour, and take a step back once the hose is laid. No sense letting myself get steamed while the sand is coming. I'll wait until the kitchen is a bit less of a deathtrap before I force my way in further. Let the hose do its work and then join the sandbaggers.

Steam starts to pour from the room. You have the dining room dowsed, but the kitchen is blazing still, the fire having made its way up the walls.

--M. J. Young

I'll let the steam wet the ceiling and upper walls a bit, then start fighting my way in with buckets.

You realize that you're blocking the door, and step further inside the burning room so that your companions can get through with the buckets. As they begin using the hose to fill the buckets and throw against the flames, you survey the inferno.

Suddenly everyone starts shouting. You look toward them, but they're looking toward you.

You get hit from beyond by a collapsing wall, go down, and know no more.

Tell me what you are taking with you from this world before I introduce you to the next.

--M. J. Young

First and foremost, hopefully my wife - she should be a scriff-infused associate by now.
(By the way, which one would you say she most looks like? One, two, three, four)

2 cases of emeralds
my current clothes: Durnmist fashion shirt, pants, jackets, boots, socks, belts, coinpurse, and wedding bracelet
100 diktar
Extra changes of native clothes, such as I own

Looking back at my sheet, I'm still slightly anemic, but have probably kicked my caffeine addiction unless this world has a reasonable coffee substitute, and still phobic.

I still have my red-bladed smallsword and the saber I bought in town, as well as my flintlock, two skins of powder, and 40 rounds of ammunition.

20 Dice, various sizes
Jedi-style black cloak, cotton twill, heavily waterproofed
Wide-brimmed black hat
Red and black metal-framed hiking backpack
Hatchet, Rope, and 10 locking carabiners
Three five-subject notebooks, 2 boxes of pens, book on Native American crafts, Army Survival Handbook
Irish bamboo flute, in D

I'd have gone with #2, although that's not quite the image in my mind--a bit rounder in the face, and a bit more playful.

And yes, she goes with you. I was going to spring that on you, but I don't consider it a question.

It also occurs to me that Adam was going to take over your game when you versed out, right? I'm good with that if you are, and I'll stop trying to figure out where I'm sending you.

--M. J. Young

Adam, I'll try to remember to post Harry's paper tomorrow. He entered this world at stage 2 and failed a flexibility check, so he's entering the next at stage 2 also.

--M. J. Young

As soon as I get a thumbs up from Harry I will start a new game thread and link it.

Two's good. I'll add that picture to my copy of her sheet.

If you would be so kind as to post up your version of my sheet and hers, as I haven't been upkeeping mine, I'd appreciate it.

And yes, Adam, Thumbs Up.

Wow, what's funny is that yesterday was the third year anniversary of this thread. :o

Edit: By the way this forum does it, it was 2 days ago.

There's a description of Arabella with her character sheet, which is posted Behind the Screens.

I'm posting to link this thread to the next, where the game continues in Harry's Habits, with Adam running him.

--M. J. Young

In an unusual divergence from my usual practice, I am letting Harry reset to this point and continue play with the character as he is here described, in a new world in a new thread in a game I am running, as Ring for Harry.

--M. J. Young