Richard's Index

Cool Regime Change -- Session Log 8/31/03

"Meet the Aliens"

Game Master: Richard McCluney

Terry is called in to the Company's Virginia headquarters by her supervisor. She is, of course, aware of the big, artificial ring around the Earth, and has been expecting to be called in along with all the Company's other assets to help deal with the SecCon Six situation. Terry's supervisor briefs her on what little is known about the aliens so far. Of note to the Combat Op is the fact that the aliens have demonstrated a willingness to use deadly force to defend themselves, and their military technology is overwhelming compared to anything the humans have. The Combat situation at this point is reactive -- don't shoot unless shot at.

Terry is told she'll be working with Jerry's team. She's worked with Jerry and Benny on an Intel Operation before. Terry asks permission to shoot them. Her supervisor says to make it looks like an accident. They might be joking. Terry is given food and supplies for the others, a sealed message for the Sec Op, and is flown off in a Black Helicopter to the alien's Shenandoah Valley base. The aliens don't speak English but seem to sense where she wants to go. They escort her to Tisa's office, where Jerry, Benny, Ginger, Charles, and Harmony are interviewing the alien female.

Jerry says to Terry, "So you'll be working with us. Terry: "Unfortunately." Jerry: "Our last mission didn't go that badly." Terry: "Oh yeah it did -- you were leading it."

Terry asks Tisa how tall she is. Tisa says just under six pudnik. Terry asks how many hands is that. Tisa says she's not familiar with Earth measurement systems. Terry: "What brings you to this planet?" Tisa: "Machines." Terry asks why did you come here. Tisa says they needed a base for transportation. Terry: "And you picked Earth?" Tisa says it was in a good location for their purposes. Terry says so are 7-Elevens, but we don't go there.

Jerry asks why didn't they send a message that they'd be coming. Tisa says they didn't think there'd be anyone to send a message to. Jerry asks if they thought Earth was uninhabited. Tisa says they knew the humans were there.

Terry pulls the Sec Op, Ginger, aside. She gives Ginger the sealed message, which Ginger opens and reads. Terry asks Ginger what they're trying to get. Ginger says for now just information. Ginger says from now on there's to be no electronic communication between the Company and it's operatives. All forms of electronic communication on the Earth seem to have been compromised, presumably by the aliens. The company will be using its messenger drones, flying robots disguised as birds, to carry paper messages only. Ginger goes over to each of the others and quietly passes this on.

They ask "Don't you usually have problems establishing bases on a planet without telling them first?" Tisa says not with Third Levels. They discuss Benny's interest in Tisa's "measurements." Terry tries using Empathy on Tisa. Terry can sense that Tisa is aware of this and mildly surprised, like someone seeing a dog put an envelope in a mailbox. Terry can also sense concentration, as if Tisa is sending Telepathic messages. Terry asks Tisa who she's "talking" to. Tisa says various colleagues on the base, and a recording device.

They ask if there's other planets with Fourth Level societies. Tisa says there's many. Most belong to an "alliance for exchange" that the Grimmans are also part of. The attacks by some human "tribes" on the Grimmans is mentioned. Tisa doesn't understand why the humans are hostile. She says the Grimmans have gone out of their way to avoid disturbing the humans. She says it's the humans who have been bothering the Grimmans. Jerry tries to explain, but Tisa doesn't seem to understand. Terry says that Jerry means that every time someone came up on us the way the Grimmans did, it's always been an invasion.

Tisa makes a gesture analogous to a shrug, [as if trying to pick up something and dropping it] as if she doesn't really know what to make of this. Terry asks Tisa if she has any questions. Tisa says she's mainly a language expert. She doesn't work with Level Three societies much. Terry pokes fun at Benny. They try to explain why suddenly dropping in is a mistake.

Benny notes the similarity between the Grimmans' biology and the humans', and expresses concerns about disease. Tisa says Grimmans don't get sick from microorganisms. Benny points out that humans do. Tisa says their transportation is protected from transmitting possible disease-causing organisms, but it's not 100% effective.

Benny asks about Grimman mating rituals. Tisa says that after a sufficient amount of sex, telepathic bonding will occur between a pair of Grimmans, almost always a male and a female. There is a ceremony attended by the couple's family and friends to mark their new status, and the new husband and wife each add a name to their names to indicate their married status. Married couples usually have one set of children, and go their separate ways after their children have mustered in. Grimmans mostly lose interest in sex after having successfully reproduced.

Grimman childhood lasts about 24 years, at the end of which they are near their full adult size but still sexually immature. Then they enter a pre-adolescent stage, Brudo, in which they become rather irrational and aggressive. They have to be separated from mainstream Grimman society at this time, usually getting basic military training in the Mercenary Guild. Upon reaching sexual maturity around the age of 36, they muster out and join one of the trade Guilds, where the get the equivalent of a Bachelor's Degree in their field of interest, with lots of cross-training between Guilds. Grimmans experiment sexually until bonding occurs, average age around 48, and spend the next couple dozen years raising kids. Once the breeding stage is complete, around the age of 72, Grimmans are considered full adults. Benny says some of our people never grow up, with the implication that the statement applies to some of those present, and may even be self-referential. They describe the human life cycle for Tisa.

Jerry asks what the Grimmans do for recreation. They have a number of games involving physical or intellectual contests, several forms of drama that make use of empathy and telepathy, music, group meditation, and social bathing. For drama they prefer live performances to recordings. It comes out that the humans' television broadcasts have been monitored. Benny says it would be embarrassing if the aliens' view of human civilization based off sitcoms and soap operas. Tisa says it's understood that most of the broadcasts are for entertainment.

Jerry asks about the Grimmans' physical contests. Tisa shows them recordings of a few. The video is hard to make out. To those with a background in physics, it looks something like x-ray images superimposed on MRI images, superimposed in turn on infrared images, with probable electric and magnetic fields and radio sources all glowing brightly.

One contest seems to be a kind of wrestling, the goal of which seems to be to pick up one's opponent and see how far you can throw him. Another involves piloting small vehicles into a vortex, where they are picked up and thrown out. Another resembles windsurfing, only the "boards," resembling small catamarans, seem to be airborne. One is something like NASCAR racing in small aircraft through an obstacle course, where the aircraft bump each other while maneuvering, but don't seem to be damaged by this. Another involves balancing on small rafts on a fast-moving fluid that seems to glow brightly in infrared. [GM note: I forgot to mention these, but they should have come up at this point. You can assume the PCs saw these, too.] One is a ball game something like a combination of basketball and volleyball. Another is a ball-and-stick game like a combination of baseball and rugby. One involves hitting a ball with a stick into a natural landscape and then going to look for it. One looks like a kind of surfing on very large waves using a pair of oversize water skis to "run" on the water, using a motion similar to cross-country skiing. A last one is like lacrosse in weightless conditions, or perhaps using antigravity technology.

Benny brings up mud wrestling. Tisa seems interested in observing this. This leads to a discussion of human sexuality. Tisa notes that humans are known for their obsession with sexuality. This leads to speculation about which human TV channels the aliens have been watching. Benny says the Japanese have communal bathing, like the Grimmans.

Jerry asks if the Grimmans have religions. Harmony has trouble explaining the concept to Tisa. Eventually, Tisa says Grimmans occasionally get together for group meditations about the nature of God.

Jerry asks why the Grimmans use two different alphabets. Tisa explains the glyphic writing started out as representations of supernatural beings, and came to stand for individual words and syllables. Later, they discovered a phonetic alphabet, but kept the glyphic writing for decorative purposes. Benny mentions the Japanese use several kinds of writing, and English has block and cursive writing.

Jerry asks what a typical Grimman's typical day is like. Tisa says that breakfast is the big family meal, followed by the family bath. The children go to school in a Meditation Garden. The adults commute to work, mostly in aircraft loaned to them by their Guilds. A growing number commute to work on a different planet from the one they live on.

At work, the morning is spent working together on group projects. Then coworkers usually go out together for lunch and social bathing. The afternoon is devoted to quiet work usually pursued separately, with a midafternoon meditation break. After work, neighbors get together for dinner, physical recreation, and "splash play" social bathing. This is followed by family quiet time at home. Then the kids are put to bed. Married couples have sex in the "conjugal room," then retire to sleep in separate bedrooms.

Grimmans usually live with related families -- clans. Married couples live together. Most Grimmans live in apartments, but married couples with kids live in single-family homes with large yards shared with the neighbors (no fences between them, shared recreational facilities). Most Grimmans have personal vehicles provided by their Guilds that can be used for private reasons as well as work. Many have recreational vehicles as well. Individual Grimmans do not own anything bigger than a backpack, and seem to find the very idea of personally owning anything larger to be rather silly. Most vehicles and tools are owned by the Guilds; most buildings, utilities, and other fixed infrastructure are owned by the Clans.

From what Tisa says, the Guilds are kind of like a labor union, kind of like a services contractor, and kind of like a school of higher education. Employment is mostly with the Clans, sometimes with other Guilds. Each Guild basically corresponds to a different job type. Tisa is in the Communicators' Guild; others include the Engineers' Guild and the Mercenaries' Guild.

Benny asks if there's any ritual before mating. Tisa says bonding is basically unconscious, though it tends to happen between couples that make a good genetic match. [GM note: I'm not sure I explained this clearly. There's usually sex before bonding, but after bonding, Grimmans are strictly, instinctively monogamous. There's usually a social ceremony attended by the couple's family and friends to formalize the bond. Females can get pregnant only after bonding. This solves the human male's problem of not knowing if his wife's children are really his. This is what Tisa should have told the PCs.]

The PCs ask if there's any relationship between their government and the Diplomats' Guild. Tisa says the says the diplomats are empowered to make binding contracts with other races on behalf of the Intraclan Infrastructure Management Group. The alien's bases on Earth are run by a business clan in cooperation with the Transport Guild as part of the Grimmans' transportation network. Terry says the Grimmans are setting up a bus terminal...Handi-ride.

Tisa says a Level Three xenologist is on the way. He will probably have more questions for the humans. Tisa says they do need to know about the humans' "conflict avoidance rituals." Terry explains that it's better to announce one is coming beforehand and to ask permission before setting up bases. They try to explain national boundaries at this point. Tisa seems to think mainly in terms of infrastructure rather than territory. She says humans don't produce enough energy to control the ground. The PCs discuss Antarctica -- there are no recognized claims to Antarctica. Tisa says the territory where they built their base was undeveloped. Terry says some might consider the Grimmans' base a strategic position. Tisa asks who. Terry says the area is claimed by the United States. Tisa asks what they would need to do to avoid conflict with the US. The PCs decide to send a message to Congress, via the Company's steering committee, that the aliens want to speak to representatives [probably someone from the State Department].

Ginger asks the others how long they want to stay there. Jerry says they've learned a lot more than they knew before, so he feels they can leave any time. Jerry asks Tisa if there's any specific human books she'd like to have. Tisa says she'd like a dictionary. Benny suggests a thesaurus. Tisa agrees, and requests books on human society for the xenologists. The PCs get ready to leave.

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