IC: The Sun Never Sets, IC thread for The Sun Never Sets Options

[Tecumseh]

Stogie and Ellesar raise an eyebrow when Smohalla staggers by clutching his chest. While there are limited statistics available for heart attacks among shifters, the distant possibility doesn't seem likely enough to trigger much concern. After all, anyone who can not only survive a blood eagle delivered by an Infected troll , but be on his feet just moments later is not likely to succumb to cardiac arrest or a high-cholesterol diet. Stogie sees Smohalla's aura and gives him an opportunity to compose himself. Stogie understands - he can feel the frightened, depressing nature of the mana too. The mana will clear itself in time. It may take weeks or longer, and maybe a blanket of snow, but eventually the surrounding mountains, trees, and rivers will reclaim the place as their own, both in this world and the astral.

[pbangarth]

Stogie and Jake go and sit close to Smohalla. He calls Ellesar over, too. "I can see how this place has affected you, Smohalla. Gets me down, too. I hope the aura of this place will clean itself. Maybe if nature takes back the town it will happen sooner. Or maybe the people who lived here, if they rebuild, will instil a sense of hope that counters the despair from the destruction.

"I guess we should take stock of our understanding of what went on here. The place is totally devastated, but from what I understand, everybody got a dream warning to get out. That's why, I guess, nobody died. I can't even find any evidence of dead animals. So, while the Sisters did a real number on the town, they spared lives. That's how I would like to get at some of the corps. Nuke their profits but kill no one.

"I'm kind of wondering about our employer. Why did he hire more than one group? Is he interested in stopping the destruction, or eliminating the Sisters? And if it's the Sisters, then why? Does somebody or some group want to move into the neighbourhood? Is there something about the mountain that somebody wants? And how do we find out about that?"

[phlapjack77]

This is interesting, that everyone was warned of the destruction.

Was it the Sisters who sent this dream, or another?

The student in the firetower seems a relevant instance of death occurring in these incidents.

Was he not the son of some important person? Why didn't the Sisters warn him as well?

Perhaps the Sisters are being used as a scapegoat in a political act.

But then again, they knew about the boy dieing, even seemed to take pleasure in it.

Smohalla pauses and looks at his assembled friends.

Our throats are parched and raw from the asking of so many questions.

Let us contact Gunny to see if he may have a stream of answers to slake our thirst.

[AtroposReborn]

"You've got a unique way of putting it, Smohalla. Maybe after this is all said and done you can write a book of obscure poetry. Anyway, I'll handle Gunny."

Ellesar inputs the number to reach their employer. He thumbs his tomahawk as he waits for the call to connect.

[Tecumseh]

Gunny answers quickly.

"Status report!" he barks brusquely. Ellesar flashes back to getting yelled at by his commanding officer in the Ghosts.

[phlapjack77]

The shaman is startled to see the sudden shift in Ellesar's aura.

Where once it was a nice peaceful shade of green, now it is not.

Whatever the elf is hearing from Gunny, Smohalla imagines it isn't pleasant.

[AtroposReborn]

Ellesar starts at the gruff voice. It had been some time since anyone had given him orders and the return of forgotten memories left an unwelcome feeling in his stomach.

"Good day to you too," the elf says crossly. "We're still digging up information on the Sisters. The locals don't have much to say as far as the destruction goes; they're too busy mourning their lost property. We were hoping you might be able to clear some things up for us."

[Tecumseh]

There's a long pause at the other end of the line. Gunny seems to be waiting for a question.

"Well what do you want to know?" he spits back. "I'm not a mindreader!"

[AtroposReborn]

Ellesar restrains himself from commenting on Gunny's ability to read his own mind and answers calmly. "First and foremost we'd like to know if you hired anyone else to work this case? We've noticed at least one other group's trails in the woods and would much rather not get caught up in a bloody misunderstanding. I don't consider my life cheap and I'm sure my partners don't either."

[Tecumseh]

"I posted a bounty," Gunny says. "I'll pay whomever completes the job, I don't care if it's Judas. There's too much territory for one team to scour. There's 10,000 square kilometers of forested mountains where the Sisters could be hiding. The only way to track down these nutcases is with numbers, both men and nuyen. I've got city slickers, I've got feral woodsmen, I've got fragging dwarves in tinfoil hats!"

His voice accelerates, his tone rising in a fevered pitch:

"Yes, I find my role distasteful - I am a Johnson to the madmen, murderers, and maniacs of society, but I don't care. You're my sons of bitches. The Sisters must be stopped before they strike again! I am going to all of my options, and failure is not one of them! Now status report!"

[AtroposReborn]

Ellesar replies calmly. "There isn't much to report. The locals all seem to have had a strange dream that lead them away from their homes while the Sisters destroyed the town. We've trekked miles across this forest, staved off plenty of dangerous beasts, and even rescued someone's lost pet but we have yet to pinpoint the Sisters." He pauses to think over his words. "Have any of the other groups happened to find anything yet? Any information could greatly increase our chances of success."

[Tecumseh]

"Bounty hunters aren't exactly a collaborating breed," Gunny answers with a sneer so pronounced that it's audible. "They show up, they get the mission parameters, and then I don't see or hear from them again until they're looking to get paid!"

Luckily Ellesar is more charming than your average feral woodsman, and - with a bit of coaxing - eventually manages to pry some information out of Gunny. The bounty hunters who have gone south (closer to Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, and the Tir border) have all come back empty-handed. The same is true for any venturing north of I-90. In fact, nobody has anything interesting to report. At least half the teams have gone MIA (including your team until now), but Gunny figures they're either out of communication range or they just went back to their previous, dissolute, SINless lifestyles. But he doesn't say it politely like that.

[AtroposReborn]

"Roger that Gunny," the elf replies. "We'll be get back to work."

Ellesar ends the call, obviously glad to be done with the overbearing man. He turns back to his comrades with a stoic expression.

"Well that was mostly a waste of time. The man is still out to get the sisters, perhaps unhealthily so. The only helpful hint I managed out of him is the large number of people he has employed. He has groups to the north, south, and all throughout the forest. Fortunately they haven't found any yet, at least as far as he can tell."

[phlapjack77]

I did not imagine that Gunny would have employed so many.

Who controls the puppet that in turn tries to pull our strings?

Smohalla pauses to think.

Perhaps we should return as quickly as possible.

There could be much danger ahead, with so many crowding the forests.

[AtroposReborn]

"I agree. We have nothing else to do here"

[pbangarth]

"Did anyone actually ask the Sisters if they know Gunny? Maybe this -is- something personal."

[phlapjack77]

I know I did not.

It seems we should ask this of the Sisters.

Let's waste no time.

[Tecumseh]

Smohalla, Stogie, and Ellesar exchange a look amongst themselves and mentally prepare to retrace their steps back to the Sisters' camp. Sure, it's 29 or 30 kilometers, and, yeah, it's at least six hours of walking through misty forests laced with Infected trolls and unpredictable wolfmen, and, okay, they just finished making that same trip only last night, but still. Duty calls.

Jake seems up for it. Smohalla readies himself to shift into an eagle for easier travel when Stogie puts a hand on his shoulder. Smohalla's hearing isn't up to the task but Stogie can tell something unusual is approaching. Jake hears it too; his attention indicates the road to the west, the one that leads to Enumclaw and Seattle.

A Tata Hotspur comes barreling down the road and turns onto one of the Greenwater streets. Its windows are down despite the chilly morning, and it's blaring loud, aggressive music, the kind that parents hate. Inside, there are two street toughs with flamboyant mohawks that look kind of cold for this weather. Standing on the back, holding onto the roll cage, is another prime example of misspent youth. The young man slaps on the roof of the Tata's cabin to signal something to the men inside. The off-road vehicle does a couple donuts, the man on top resisting getting thrown off as he curses colorfully, until the whole procession finally screeches to a stop. The men jump out, joined by another guy who wasn't visible before because he was sandwiched between the two men inside. He looks equally out of place, but for different reasons. The long coat of the fourth guy is covered in strange fetishes and curious geometric shapes painted on haphazardly. (Smohalla, even from a distance, can see that the paint wasn't given proper time to dry, and has run down the coat slightly in places.) None of them look particularly Native.

The music stops. The guy in the funny coat walks around with a staff, opening his arms up to the town as he closes his eyes and inhales. The others watch him from a distance, giving him space to do his thing. They all look to be in their early- to mid-20s, but at least two of them are elves (the two inside the truck) so they could just look young. The man in the odd coat seems to be human, and the dude who was standing in the back could be either - it's hard to say based on his looks, plus his hair covers his ears.

None of them see you just yet. They will in a minute or two.

[phlapjack77]

Smohalla exchanges a glance with his companions.

More of Gunny's hires.

Ellesar, what would you consider a wise course?

Having said this, the eagle shifter opens his mind to the astral.

He surveys the new arrivals, focusing on the coated one.

[AtroposReborn]

Ellesar gauges the newcomers warily. "I think it would be best if we act as we did with the sisters. We do not know if they are hostile or not and avoiding a fight would be preferred. They do have us outmanned after all."

[phlapjack77]

Smohalla smiles slightly and looks at Jake.

Outmanned, yes.

But not outnumbered.

[Tecumseh]

Threeof the men wander around listlessly while their partner holds his arms up and chants quietly to himself. The others scrunch up their faces, kick over the occasional piece burned wood, and casually examine the area. Stogie and Smohalla examine them astrally. The astral visibility is complicated by the background count but they still get a decent view. They see...

[ Spoiler ]

The three men all have cyberware, but not any bioware that you can tell. Their modifications are relatively minor, to the degree that one might expect of young men with idle hands and poor career opportunities. One has a cyberspur, another has a jack in his brain and some wires on his nervous system, the third has fake muscles. Emotionally they're overconfident to the point of arrogance, full of bluster and condescension. There are impurities in their bodies, maybe drugs or the leftover physical effects from 'chips.

Stogie and Smohalla turn their attention to the guy waving his arms around. What they see is...

[ Spoiler ]

Nothing. The man exists, sure, but he's not Awakened. Or, it's possible that he has learned the art of Masking and has concealed himself from prying astral eyes. But the strange pouches and paint on his coat? Completely mundane. Or has he just mastered the metamagics so completely that his masking techniques extend to items on his person? That's a possibility. The others do seem a bit deferential toward him, at least to the degree that they turned off their music and are giving him time to do his thing. He doesn't have any cyber, his health is okay - he should probably cut back on the drinking and the cigarettes, but otherwise he's fine. Emotionally, he's more complex. He's appears nervous, but set in his course.

Stogie raises and eyebrow at Smohalla, who mirrors it. Stogie wonders...

[ Spoiler ]

Could this guy be a technomancer? What Smohalla knows about technomancers could be written on a grain of rice with room to spare. Stogie is a little more worldly though, and knows that technomancers are extremely difficult to identify astrally. Could this guy be scanning the town for signals? If so, he'll probably sense Stogie's commlink soon, or Ellesar's.

Ellesar turns and looks back at the campsite. The fire is extinguished; things are packed and ready to go. There's still time to slip away before they spot you, or to move into a more advantageous position (i.e. not cornered in a triangle of steep cliffs on two sides and only one way out - across the river) before confronting them.

[phlapjack77]

Smohalla looks at his teammates with some slight confusion.

Is the painted one attempting to deceive the others into thinking he is a shaman?

My natural instincts tell me to aggressively approach this situation.

Smohalla pauses.

But maybe my instincts would not serve us well here.

[pbangarth]

"Boys, I'm turning off my commlink, and advise you do the same. The guy in the paint doesn't look magical to me, but he might be a tecnomancer. If so, he could detect our signals. Why not wait here, out of sight, and see what they do." He shuts down his commlink, and moves to some bushes with Jake. He signals 'down' and Jake flattens to the ground, watching the show in the clearing intently.

Astral perception gets in the way of seeing clearly, but Stogie decides to keep it up, just in case.

[phlapjack77]

Smohalla has heard this word before, technomancer.

He knows it has to do with the other world, the world he is not a part of nor will ever be.

Nodding his acceptance of Stogie's assessment, he also conceals himself as best he can.

A small tree or bush will do the trick easily as his natural clothing blends with the landscape.

Eagle eyes settle on the intruders and watch.