Let’s Play Grok?! 2e Part 4: The Dangers of Absurdist Fiction
Let’s go for more library misadventures! I’m thinking one more scene, then we Formulate a Plot and hopefully head into the climax with a Capstone Scene.
Scene 4
I had the half idea of a scene with someone returning a book. Let’s see where this goes.
Modified Proposal: Increase the intensity and tension
Core Challenge: Lore, know, decipher, translate or deal with a puzzle
Challenge Condition: Annoying presence—someone very inconvenient
Sparks: Deafening or Compelling + Murderer or Protector
I’m going with Compelling Protector and interpreting that as the Head Librarian wanting to handle the situation alongside Catarina, citing workplace safety norms and employee protection.
Head Librarian NPC
Name: Solaria
Aspects: Boisterous, Oozing, Aid a Friend, Infamous
Now why does Solaria, the good-hearted but infamous slime, want to tag along?
Still using those Sparks, the patron returning the book is a notorious warlord of the Wastelands. The book he’s returning, 1001 Weapons to Kill With Before Dying To (and Where to Find Them), is completely mangled, and the late fees are astronomical.
The last time someone charged him a fine, the warlord tossed two plasma grenades inside, blasting an entire vault.
The situation is tense enough. Solaria steps forward and starts boasting about how she deals with violent patrons, how bullets can’t pierce a slime, and how grenades are a mere inconvenience until her blobs glide back together.
The warlord slammed the ruined book on the counter and crossed his eight arms.
He had a demand. "This book is a travesty. I’ve found a thousand weapons, but the last one doesn’t exist. I’m not paying for this slop."
Catarina examine the charred cover and carefully opened browsed the pages. Some of them crumbled into dust.
"That is a crispy book, mister," Solaria said, oozing closer. "Is it a cookbook? I’m a great cook, you know. I’ve cooked for kings. My great uncle used to be a king, King Slime. Is it a cookbook, Cat? We should eat out today. I know a great place. I used to recommend restaurants to kings."
Catarina had learned to ignored her, so she concentrated on the task at hand. She rubbed her fingers together and stared at the warlord. "Fidelity between author’s claims and content is not the library’s concern. Our service is to provide the book. Your obligation is to return it within the appropriate time period. Failing that, our policy is clear: you are a transgressor and shall be dealt with accordingly."
The warlord’s face grew redder with every syllable of her speech, until it turned purple. He drew a colossal weapon from his back. Small bits of plasma dripped from the muzzle.
"Do you know what this is?" he asked.
Solaria wobbled excitedly. "It’s an AL-9 Plasmassacre Type-2," she replied instantly. "Do you really not know? I know all kinds of weapons. I used to have a much bigger one."
Catarina types furiously as the duo argues. She searches for the date the book has been withdrawn, but the ISBN rune and catalog code are unreadable.
She must examine the burned fragments and marginalia, then cross-reference them with her own knowledge of the library’s catalog to identify the volume and calculate the exact fine.
Solaria, of course, won’t shut up and let her concentrate. I’ll roll Mental with Disadvantage.
Mental (d8, Disadvantage) check: 7, 3 > 3 = No, but...
Benefit: Improve an Asset
Catarina will need more time to determine the warlord’s offense. However, as he watches her work, completely unfazed by his anger, his arms, or the presence of a gun almost as tall as she is, the warlord reconsiders his threat.
When that lanky librarian, slightly glowing from radiation, ribbits and removes an index note from her robes and sticks it on the mangled book, he steps back and swallows hard.
He’s the one intimidated by her fierce doggedness and unflappability.
Asset Librarian robes becomes > Intimidating librarian robes
That should give Catarina an Advantage when questioning the warlord and demanding all information from him. However, Solaria is constantly complimenting her on the splendid moistness in her gills, something seriously off-putting.
Advantage and Disadvantage cancel each other out.
Social (d6) check: 6! Die explodes! Woohoo, first time!
d6: 4! + 6: 10 = Yes, and...
Benefit: Remove a Threat
The warlord confesses everything. He knows there is more to her than meets the eye. No one with that much aura of menace and ruthlessness over something so banal as books could be normal. Best to live another day.
Catarina easily calculates the fee. After the 40 seconds it takes her to say the entire number, the warlord flips a flawless diamond onto the counter. She picks it up and hands it to Solaria.
"I was told to deal with the clumsy one," the warlord said. "I see now I was set up."
"Told by whom?" Catarina asked, looking down on the heavily armed warlord. He shivered.
"A torn page. I should have known better than to trust some absurdist fiction. They have no structural integrity, no logical progression, just slippery, post-modern surrealism and narrative anarchy." The warlord shook his head, his expression full of surprising insight. "Never again. Give me a dry how-to or nonfiction any day instead. At least a technical manual has the decency to respect its reader’s intelligence."
But Catarina had already put him off her mind, and was squinting at the vast library. More specifically in the direction of Vault 4.
She was surprised when the warlord spoke again, and she noticed he still hadn’t left.
"What’s your name, lady?" he asked.
"Catarina Bluetear."
He bolted out of the Living Library, the cursed name haunting his steps.
End of Scene
Scene Summary
A Wasteland warlord tried to return a mangled book without paying late fees, threatening the desk with a plasma cannon. Despite the Head Librarian’s non-stop chatter, Catarina’s unflappable demeanor completely intimidated the warlord. He confessed everything, paid the fine, and fled.
Formulate a Plot
Alright, let’s head into the climax. It’s time to Formulate a Plot out of our 4 scenes. A brief recap:
Scene 1: A rebellious encyclopedia animated books to raise hell in Vault 4. Catarina dealt with the books and demoted the encyclopedia to absurdist fiction.
Scene 2: Catarina discovered a page of bad poetry jammed into the gears of a depressed iron door. She removed it, but the door resents her for it.
Scene 3: Catarina acquired a coveted codex, but she was poisoned by radiation and permanently mutated with indestructible gills.
Scene 4: A warlord tried to threaten the librarians into waving his fine for mangling a book and returning it late, but Catarina intimidated him into submission. He claims he was instructed by a page of absurdist fiction to deal directly with Catarina.
My theory:
Demoted to Absurdist Fiction, the recently awakened encyclopedia in Vault 4 seeks revenge! Realizing it couldn’t defeat Catarina directly, it began orchestrating a rebellion inside the library and seeking allies from the outside.
I’d say that Scenes 1, 2, and 4 support my theory. Scene 3 doesn’t. It was basically a filler episode in the sitcom of Catarina’s life.
One Disadvantage cancels out one Advantage.
I’ll roll on the Outcomes with 2 Advantages, then.
Formulate a Plot check (d10, Adv x2): 10, 3, 4 > 10! = Yes, and...
Benefit: Create an Advantage
Awesome! Not only the plot is true, but Catarina gains an Advantage when confronting that nasty encyclopedia.
Will Solaria accompany me?
Oracle: Yes.
Ok, I’ll still have to think about the Advantage.
The setup then is: the awakened encyclopedia is attempting to reclassify the entire library by narrative chaos. It’s surrounded by a howling hurricane of rogue volumes and heavy tomes, some of which were under lock and key, its binding chains whipping through the air.
An alarm sounds throughout the Living Library, and the entire building goes into lockdown!
Catarina adjusts her gloves, fixes her head lamp, and marches toward Vault 4, her robes billowing behind her.
Solaria the Head Librarian oozes after Catarina, mentioning what an incredible departmental team-building exercise this will be. She mentions all the highly successful teams she’s helped build.
And that’s it! The stakes have never been higher! I hope you join me for the conclusion of Catarina’s adventure.
See you in the finale.
Grok?! 2e is available on DrivethruRPG (digital only for now). Feel free to check out the free Quickstart!
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