Day 2 | Night | The First Dream

[Kannon]

The boy they were following had the number 11368 and this was how the Harkonnen hunters had been calling him. Each of them had a number instead of a real name. The boy was maybe 8, roughly what they were, with curly black hair and a serious face. Two dozen had been released into the dilapidated industrial area meant for demolition, but for now an arena for a bloody sport. Only eight of them remained now, the others killed casually by lasgun shots from vantage points.

"Here!" The boy 11368 called to them pointing down the hatch leading underground.

[For mechanical purposes, you use your 'adult' stats in this thread despite being children in the dream.]

"Shoot them before those rats can flee!"

The voice bellowed throghout the area.

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[Laila Bridger]

She barely knew a Harkonnen to see one, the Harkonnen force on Grumman had been small, and most of the engagements had been at range.

But Laila 15601 followed 11368's lead. He hadn't steered them wrong yet...

[Kiran Alsahar]

Ailar brought visions to their people, opening them up to memories. Perhaps...

No, they had to run. 13223 followed after her two companions, bolting for the hatch. She had learned a lot from her mother before she was taken. Maybe she could help them as much as they had helped her.

[Kannon]

11368 slid into relative darkness on a railed ladder, probably hurting his hands for the benefit of bought time. The others could see or guess what lay below - tunnels of the suspension tube, the main transportation system of Harko City.

Escaping the Harkonnen in this phase of the dream requires gathering 5 Ahead points. Each of you starts with 1 Ahead point. When you are at 0 points, you die in the dream. Before each roll, you must decide what happens if it fails: you lose an Ahead point or a child other than 11368 or you dies. Use applicable contradictory statements to those rolls. Right now there are five children beyond 11368, 13223 and 15601. Of them, one looks like young Dr Vim and the others like the Muadh (Laila: none of them counts as a noble). Sacrificing each other is possible. Young Duncan always escapes.

All your rolls are vs. Hard with a Challenge and a Setback. Applicable statements may modify it, especially that your failure may result in your or someone's death. You have the narrative control of how you navigate the tunnels of the suspension tube of this horrific industrial hell. Harkonnen hunters shall be everywhere - in the tunnels, at the platforms, on the trains - the only refuge you can have from them are your Ahead points. Your narrative advantage is they can't use lasguns to shoot you in the suspension tube even if they see you because of the Holtzmann interaction. You choose what you roll in this narrative context, the only limitation is that you can't repeat the same skill until two other different ones have already been used. You don't have any weapons at the start, but perhaps you can improvise something or take something from a Harkonnen in result of a successful roll. I might be adding fluff posts but you have all the tools to alternate between each other without my further interventions.

Triumph can be used for an additional Ahead point - yours or a kid you want to help. Despair can be used to remove 1 Ahead point - yours or a kid you choose to impede, otherwise I resolve it in my own devious way.

Threats give Strain, Advantages regenerate Strain. This is their only use for the Dream, no pooling.

Using Force powers is optional. Using a Force power than doesn't require a roll counts as a success and a roll. This cannot be done for the first roll in the dream.

Remember about the Drug Rules. Your first roll must come concurrently with Resilience, but it's enough for whole dream. It counts as Polluted Ailar. It was injected into bloodstream so it generates Dark Pips regardless of the type of initial roll. Kiran got 1 dose, netting her 2 Dark Pips, Laila got 2 doses, netting her 4 Dark Pips. This lasts throughout the dream, and those Pips are also applicable to any roll within it using Presence or Cunning. This is in addition to Force Dice at your disposal and can be used for Successes or Advantages. It means Kiran upgrades her difficulty twice on Easy Resilience roll, making it Average w/ Challenge roll, Laila - four times on two doses, making it Hard w/ 3 Challenges, in addition to any other Dark Pip upgrades your initial roll in the event generates. You may choose not to apply Force Dice at your disposal to that initial roll to keep the Resilience difficulty at the levels listed above, without more upgrades.

Go save yourselves at any cost you find acceptable, or die.

[Music for the scene]

[Laila Bridger]

Laila 15601 wasn't a leader, exactly, but she was strong, fast, and fit.

Strong, fast, and fit enough to make a hell of a lot of headway, getting out well ahead of the rest.

Whatever in hell was coursing through her system, Laila's robust physical health meant it was no big thing.


[Athletics to drag others to momentary safety under an overhang.: 1eC+2eD+1eS+3eP+2eB 3 successes, 1 advantage, 1 Triumph




I'M ON DRUUUUUUUUGS! Resilience: 3eC+1eP+2eA+2eB 0 successes, 4 advantage

[Kannon]

She quickly almost caught up with 11368, who took the risk of running along the tube tunnel in between trains. Pink lights along the way pulsed in the cascade indicating a next one coming their way...

[Laila is at Ahead 3]

[Kiran Alsahar]

Something... something was wrong. 13223 could feel it, but couldn't understand what it meant in the context of the vision. It was secondary to escaping anyway.

Her role was lookout. She'd always had keen perceptions, but it may end up being a self-sacrificial choice...

Resilience, 2 upgrades in Easy: 1eP+1eA+1eD+1eC 1 failure, 1 advantage, 1 Despair


Vigilance Hard with Challenge and Setback, -1S due to Keen Eyed, +1B from Uncanny Reactions: 2eA+2eP+1eB+2eD+1eC 3 successes, 1 advantage, 1 Despair


[I'll let Kannon resolve the despairs as she wishes]

[Kannon]

Kiran's body accommodated the special strain all too well...

[Addiction to Ailar]

13223 had managed to drop on the roof of a suspension train when it was on the platform. Before she could decide what's next, the train was already in movement, speeding up to velocities that forced her to do nothing but hold the handle of a hatch leading inside tight. Through the plaz, her face was like a glued picture for anyone who'd look up while walking inside the train segment. She saw everything, and could do nothing.

A child, 10427, that looked like Tu Daq in another time, was fleeing inside the cart, between passengers who were following their solido devices in fearful indifference, doing nothing to either impede or help the child. 10427 was fast, but it only got him so far. Having outpaced the followers, he tried to climb after he'd looked up and seen 13223's face! For a moment, hope glimmered in his eyes! He began to climb the seats to reach the hatch but then one of the passengers abruptly grabbed his rags of a shirt and pulled him back to the floor.

"Here, officer!"

A Harkonnen coming from opposite direction laughed as he grabbed the boy up by the hair, kicking and screaming, and slit his throat with a long knife. He laughed, watching as life kept draining from the little body until it went limp.

"Come on, maggots! Cheer! Your Baron organises live entertainment for you on the train!"

A fury of thunderous clapping and cheering ensued, institutional, terrified, mindless. The murderer revelled in it. He was about to look up...

...

And then he didn't. She saw it all, with every little detail. And could do nothing.

---

[Ahead - 2. Only 7 kids left]

[Kiran's Statement about observation is contradictory on rolls till the end of the event, upgrading difficulty. Next despair is a challenge to that statement. Next triumph annuls this contradiction impediment on difficulty.]

[Laila Bridger]

Laila 15601 didn't want to look back. Looking back would slow her. Would let them get her, she was moving so well, and...

I am 15601, a plaything of the Harkonnens, but maybe, just maybe I can get out of here.

She spotted one of the butchers up ahead, and 15601 tried to grab momentary cover. It was all so terrifying, no time to think, to do anything but run like a frightened rodent.

No.
I am Laila Bridger of the Honor Guard of House Vidal.

I have fought well for bad causes.

She saw one of the killers moving in one of her fellow slaves. The poor child didn't even see him, the boy being far too busy staring in horror as another mocking killer approached with sadistic slowness.

Not a slave. One of us. One of my unit.
No.

My unit died when the lying bastard we owed our allegiance did.
And the only sisters I had left died fighting on Grumman.

But damned if she was going to let that son of bitch just shank somebody without knowing he'd been in a fight.

15601 Laila gave a growl low in her throat and rushed the cocky bastard.

If I can get his knife, I'm going to show all of these fucks how to use one.

He was bigger than she was- whatever Laila might have realized or imagined about herself, her dream-self was still only eight years old or so, a wiry little urchin- but she slammed into the Harkonnen full-tilt, leading with a foot to the back of his knee, trying to jog his knife out of his hand so she could pick it up.

[Risking an Ahead point rather than another child.

Taking 2 Strain to Commit her Force die to Enhancing her Brawn by 1. 12 Strain remain.

Brawl versus Harkonnen goon, Brawn upgraded via force power, "I love violence almost as much as I hate it" Statement upgrade: 1eC+2eD+1eS+3eP+1eA 1 success, 3 advantage


So she gets that Strain back! Back up to 14, and another Ahead point]

[Kannon]

The red-haired, pale-eyed kid looked at her with both surprise and wonder, as if he had already forsaken all hope for himself. Given the quick opening, however, he mumbled thanks and darted without looking back.

The kneecapping proved effective, the stocky Harkonnen flopped like a log and when 15601 stepped on his hand his grip on the knife eased enough to yank it from him. But in the end he was stronger and he would get up, and the other one kept approaching...

[Laila has a knife and can now use Melee. Ahead 4.]

[Kiran Alsahar]

Oh god... oh godohgodohgod. Her face went pale as she stared down at the kid as he died. She was far too deep in the dream to recognize someone looking like Tu Daq. He looked like southern Muadh was all she knew.

Her mother had talked to her about fear, but that was before she was taken and her mother was killed just as brutally by these bastards. Her refusal to fear hadn't helped her survive.

13223 needed to survive. At all costs.

She dove from the train, catching a pole and sliding down, scurrying into a tiny maintenance hole like a rat.

Survival Easy, 3 upgrades: 3eP+2eC 1 success, 1 advantage

[Kannon]

She did so at the last possible moment before the train entered the narrowing of the tunnel that would smash and tear her into blood scraps.

The Harkonnen on the train were disappearing fast. But there were others behind her in the dark. In that dark, another child screamed for the last time.

She kept surviving where her mother hadn't. The cost was being paid by someone else.

[Ahead 3, 6 kids left]

[Laila Bridger]

Laila had been here before. The knife in her hand, her enemy struggling to get to his feet.

She hated war, she hated the stink of blood, she hated seeing her friends die.

But she hated these Harkonnen fuckers even more.

The part of her that had fought on Elacca hated them for what they represented, their cheerful adherence to their monstrous masters ten times worse than her own lying Duke's actions. The part of her that had fought on Grumman hated them for their bullying, wanton cruelty. What sort of soldier murders children for the fun of it?

But the part of her that hated them the absolute most was... new. The part of her that wanted to live had been quiet since Grumman, but not anymore.

It was the Laila Bridger who wanted to be the mother of a few children running through peaceful Caladanian vineyards that plunged her purloined blade into the heart of the Harkonnen soldier before he could get up.

She bared her teeth in a savage grin, and then gave a sort of howl. It was high-pitched and reedy, a mere ghost of the way the Honor Guard had taken up the zaghrouta Auntie had taught them as part of the foundation of their unit's culture, but it had the desired effect.

It got her blood up.

Then she went for the others- the ones chasing the other kids into the darkness. In the narrow confines of the tunnel, their size wasn't the advantage it could have been, and now, now it was time to show them how it felt.



[Risking an Ahead point rather than a child

Melee versus Harkonnen goon, Brawn upgraded via force power, "I love violence almost as much as I hate it" Statement upgrade: 1eC+2eD+1eS+4eP+1eA 3 successes, 2 threat, 2 Triumph


So that's Laila at 5, and I thiiiiiink enough Triumphs to get Kiran to 5...

Taking the Threat as Strain, she IS working up a hell of a sweat after all]

[Kannon]

[Yes, 2 Triumphs get Kiran to 5]

The little red terror carved their way out into the light at the end of the tunnel...

[End of Phase, 5 XP for both!]

...which wasn't a freight train coming their way this time, but a snow-covered rugged sylvan landscape, severe and foreboding, with blood-chilling howls coming from somewhere ahead. The freeze was forcing the teeth to rattle.

Five of them survived.

"I am Duncan." Said the curly-haired boy. "We must act quickly. They will keep hunting us here, with lasguns and flechettes, but we can hunt them too, like you just have." He smiled at Laila with appreciation. "Perhaps we can win our freedom after all, take their guns, steal their thopter and fly away or something. We' ll figure it out. But first we must kill them."

He then drew the knife he'd acquired and stabbed his own arm. Wincing at the pain, he bore a hole from which he then yanked a tiny device.

"These trackers make them know where we are. Remove them, but keep them. We will lead them where we want them to be."

He offered his bloodied knife to those who didn't have one.

[Laila Bridger]

Laila wiped the Harkonnen blood off of her knife, then followed his example- both in removing the tracker, and in offering the blade to her comrades.

"I'm Laila. It's as good a plan as any, and if it fails... try to spit in their eyes if it's the last thing you do."

[Kannon]

"I'm Xard." Said the boy who Laila had saved. He accepted the knife, then looked up. "Could you do it for me? I'm not good with knives. I am good with plants and animals. Those are gaze hounds howling."

[Laila Bridger]

"Sure. I'll try and be delicate, but we need to be quick, so... sorry? And what do we need to know about Gaze Hounds?"

[Kannon]

"...okay. They hunt in packs, see in infrared, have spikes instead of fur, they have served the Tleilaxu as genetic stock to create spinehounds..."

[Laila Bridger]

"Sounds horrible. Anything we can use against them?"

Having finished her crude surgery on Xard, she looked to see if anyone else needed a hand.

[Kiran Alsahar]

Kiran stayed back, ashamed at herself now that the immediate danger was passed. She silently, stoically stabbed into her arm, taking out the track. This girl saved someone, while she had left more than one person behind for the sake of survival. She didn't have the right to contribute. But... they would need everything.

"My mother was one of our people's religious leaders. She taught me a lot... mainly how to see longer distances or smaller details than normal. It... It didn't do me much good in there, though," she said quietly.