IC: SRM04-00: Back in Business, IC thread for Back in Business Options

[Dak]

"We do, son. But we need a guide who is not going to sell us to a gang, or ditch us. These men are well armed and will not be easy pickings for thieves. But if you can guide us to where we're headed, we can pay well."

Slacker, let me know if I need to roll some dice, either to convince him that it would be wise not to sell us out, or for me to gauge whether he intends to sell us out.

What's the boy want to get us to Pirates Cove?

[Slacker]

"Easy man. I seen whatcha chummers did at the Highway. You ain't gonna get no troubles from me." He doesn't seem all that intimidated by any of you. Still he seems legit. "Where you wanna go? I been playing in these tunnels since i was a little kid and know them better than anyone."

"Pirates Cove. Sure thing man. I'll take you boys right to it. Just as soon as you pay me 100 each," he says cheerfully.

[Dak]

"Easy man. I seen whatcha chummers did at the Highway. You ain't gonna get no troubles from me." He doesn't seem all that intimidated by any of you. Still he seems legit. "Where you wanna go? I been playing in these tunnels since i was a little kid and know them better than anyone."

"Pirates Cove. Sure thing man. I'll take you boys right to it. Just as soon as you pay me 100 each," he says cheerfully.

"How about if I slot you 300 now, and I'll slot you another 200 when we get there? And I'll put in an extra 100 if you can get us there without any difficulty along the way."

[Slacker]

Having been cheated by Topsiders many times in the past and he's seen how little you guys care about orks from the Underground, Pip says "No deal chum. All of it up front or you're on your own."

[Dak]

Having been cheated by unscrupulous guides who take 100% payment up front and then simply vanish, because they know they area, and having seen how little orks from the Underground care about topsiders, or robbing them, Mr. White responds, "Well its a shame we cannot work something out then. Perhaps we'll offer more money to the next bloke."

[Slacker]

"Hey man, good luck finding anybody else right now. That loud entrance of yours at the Highway scared most people off." Looking at Gardner he adds, "And your buddy there attacking Hez and his boys didn't make you any friends down here."

"I'll guide you, but like I said. Nuyen up front chummer."

[Kiirnodel]

Gardner is visibly disheartened at the mention of his 'attack' on the Skraacha. "I was only trying to help the people caught in the middle..." he mumbles to himself, then seems to think for a few seconds. With a deep sigh of resignation he looks down on the boy, "I'd like to make it up to Hez, but I'm not sure this is the right time. For now, we have more dangerous people that need to be dealt with."

Gardner hands over the 500 nuyen the kid is looking to get, with a promise of a bonus if he proves to be a good guide.

[Slacker]

The kid beams a smile at Gardner. "Maybe you ain't so bad, big guy. Pip's my name and guidin's my game. Pirates Cove is easy."
He very quickly latches onto the giant completely ignoring how obstinate Mr. White had been only moments before.

Grabbing onto the big man's little finger, he says "Right this way. Like I said I know these tunnels like nobody else. You guys sure you don't want to do to the Haunted Amerind Warrens? That place is sooooo coool...." He starts prattling on about stories of the ghosts of ancient Amerinds coming out of the Warrens to suck the life out of people that disturb their rest.

You quickly get him back on target insuring him that you are only interested in Pirate's Cove. "Oh well, Like I said, it's a shame. Always wanted to visit the Warrens." He shrugs its off, but it's only a brief pause in his litany of stories about the Underground. "Guess we'll only get the chance to run into the Ghost Gator or some Demon Rats. Those suckers will gnaw even a big fella like you down to bones in seconds. I should know. Only last week. Idiot Fargo got himself....." He goes on and on with more and more stories as leads all of you through a maze of tunnels.

[taeksosin]

Thursday, 10:16 hours, Ork Underground entrance beneath Lordstrung’s
CMT Clip: Passive | SIN: Domingo Alvarez
Custom Commlink: Hidden | SIN: Ricardo L. Corinthian

Frag me, I have got to get better at busting a chummer up in a fight. I was fraggin' useless except as a distraction for that one that went for the face. Maybe I can have Russky teach me a thing or two some time... Quixote thought to himself as he put his gun away and flipped the gloves back to standby. Wouldn't do to wear the batteries down on his equalizers. While he might not be all that good at throwing a punch, there wasn't quite as much skill involved in just trying to touch someone.

<<Quixote @Legs: Hey, if you need some help with your link or drone or something, lemme know. I'm pretty handy on the hardware and software side of things, and provided my search pans out, might be able to score software on the cheap for you.>>

As the KE woman dropped yet another job into the group's lap, Quixote struggled for a second to hold back a crazy, worried laugh. It wouldn't do for his team mates to think he was off his meds or something, but there was definitely something off when three different people drop three different, but related, jobs into your lap one after the other. Not that I wouldn't mind making the extra nuyen, but something's very, very off with this situation.

The kid reminded Quixote a lot of himself back when he'd been that age. He'd been about to flip the kid the nuyen himself when the big guy spoke up. It'd be interesting to see the Underground, especially one of those gators he'd heard so much about. Quixote gulped, remembering stories about the gators, and took a second to flip his stealth suit on and slip to the back of the group. Ghosting behind them, he checks behind them for followers and the like while keeping pace with the group. Wouldn't do to get lost, but getting rushed from behind wasn't any good either.

<<Quixote @Team: I'll keep an eye on our six, make sure the kid isn't setting us up for any trouble from that direction. Don't worry if you can't see me, I'm there ^_^ >>

[Slacker]

The journey to Pirate's Cove has been filled with dangers, swarms of devil rats, a couple caveins that forced Pip to turn back and take them different ways, an encounter with some gangers that refused to let them pass another way, some nauxious gas that they had to hold there breath to pass by (the sickly stench was even eating its way through air purifiers). But after 5 hours the runners are more bored than anything. How the hell do the people down here deal without modern travel, you wonder. It's hard to keep focus for hours on end, but you're all doing an admirable attempt dispite the ridiculously long trek.

You've almost started wishing for a few more moments of excite just to keep yourselves alert. And that's when Quixote gets his wish....

As he brings up the rear, he glances back yet again to make sure nobody was following the group and could see nothing but darkness beyond the runners' lighting. Facing forward once more he catches movement out of the corner of his eye as something sharp and painful digs into his shoulder. His eyes widen at the sight of the giant jaws digging into him, and the 4 meters of reptilian length behind them that hangs from the ceiling of an open just over his head.

In that split second his mind processes that this pale beast proves the truth of the urban legend of a Ghost Gator within the Underground. Despite knowing that it is trying to latch into his flesh, his eyes still have difficulty focusing on it. It scales seemed similar to his own chameleon suit...only even more effective.

[ChromeZephyr]

Thursday afternoon, in the Ork Underground
Hermes Ikon: Passive | SIN: Ivan Mozhayev

After a few minutes of the boy's chatter, Nikolai tunes him out and turns his attention to their surroundings. He's been underground a few times, enough that the tons of rock and civilization overhead don't bother him, but the fact that he's being led by a boy of uncertain allegiance through very-likely-hostile-territory puts him (further) on edge. Enough that after an hour he turns his wired reflexes off so he stops twitching at every odd sound.

The first herd of devil rats makes him shiver, the thought of being dragged down under that sea of teeth and fur enough to rattle even a seasoned mercenary. A bullet in the head or spell from wizard is one thing, to be eaten alive? Brrr. The several following packs slowly leech away the fear of it, though not enough to make him unconcerned to the danger.

The sudden commotion behind him and the unmistakable sound of crunching bone and tearing flesh reminds him that the price of twitching is worth it if it keeps you and your squad alive. Nikolai flicks the reflexes back on as he wheels around in time to see Quixote hit the ground as a...what the fuck is that? He can barely fix his vision on it as he brings Mishka to his shoulder and mentally releases the safety. The targeting reticle blinks uncertainly as it tries to acquire his target, then solidifies as he overlays his vision with thermal information, showing Quixote's blood glistening hotly on the gator...hanging from the ceiling? Nikolai frowns as he pulls the trigger, the familiar barking roar of the Kalishnakov filling the tunnel as rounds stitch up the torso of the beast, leaving further spikes of visible heat in his vision. It opens it's mouth in obvious pain, yet no sound comes out, and it's attention swivels from his fallen comrade to him. Yes, yes, you want the harder prey.

The gator's fast movement and perfectly adapted camouflage further confuse his smartlink as he continues firing, rounds exploding against the ceiling a step behind the gator. A stream of profanity vulgar enough to make a sailor blush erupts from him in his native Russian. The gator slithers close enough to leap at him, and Nikolai drops Mishka and slides the blades out of his cyberarm before it hits him. It's claws shred the already-damaged windbreaker over his jacket, and with a grunt he forces it's gaping jaws aside with his blades just enough that it can't clamp down on his neck. A second later it shudders under the impact of several seconds of sustained autofire, a few of the last rounds punching through it's now-dead form and flattening themselves painfully against his armored jacket.

Nikolai grunts and pushes it's corpse to the ground, glaring hotly in the direction of where the gunfire came from. The stream of invectives flaring in his brain dies before they can pass his lips as he sees that the person who had finished off the beast was the one injured by it. After a second, he just nods and pulls his boot knife out. "Возможно, следующее время...ahem. Perhaps, next time you wait until I am clear before shooting, da?" He glances over as Mr.White puts a warning shot near the feet of the fleeing guide, then goes back to digging a couple fangs free from it's jaw. "Will make good souvenir."

After getting the teeth he wants, he straightens up and removes the bloodied ruin of his windbreaker before picking up Mishka. Another nick in it's wooden stock, another ding in the worn finish of the curved magazine hanging from it's receiver. The data feed that resumes upon holding the smartlink pickups in the handle tell him that nothing else is wrong, and he still has the majority of the magazine's ammunition store left.

[Slacker]

The journey through the Underground has definitely been eventful, but the pungent smell of fish and stagnant seawater signal that assault your nose is a signal that it has finally come to an end.

As Pip leads you through one last tunnel opening, he swings his arm out to gesture towards your new surroundings. "Welcome to Pirate's Cove"

A sprawling town in its own right, the cove resides inside an enormous cavern, the ceiling easily a hundred meters above your head. Crescent shaped, the cove is almost two kilometers wide, and dozens of boats are docked along the rough piers jutting out from the shoreline. Most are small, private boats, though there are several larger fishing trawlers that would be idea for smuggling small goods past the Seattle Ports. In the distance you can see a small crack in the far end of the cavern, obviously the narrow, hidden entrance in the rocks that leads in and out of the cove.

It doesn’t take you long to pick out Jack Turner’s boat, a large fishing boat painted in bright red and black colors. You can make out the name Fortune Hunter in white along the back of the boat. Time to talk to a smuggler....

[Slacker]

As Mr. White and Tundra Wolf approach Fortune Hunter one of the ork workers at nudges his companion.
"'Ave a look at this. Seems we gots ourselves some topsiders dirtying themselves in the Undergound." He seems to be leering mischievously in your direction. His human companion puts down the load he was about the carry onboard their ship to turn around with a glint in his eye.

They definitely don't seem too friendly despite the smiles on their face. Before they can do anything else, a booming voice calls out from the deck above. "Oy. What are you bums doing down there? Get back to work if you wanna get paid."

The two workers grumble under their breath about not having any fun, but you notice they are very quick to get back to picking up crates and hauling them on board. You spot another ork coming down the gangplank for another load.

Glancing up, you see a troll with one large horn painted a brilliant red, the other one long since broken off. "And you, he says glancing in your direction. "What are you doing in the Cove interrupting my crew?"

[Dak]

Information - even simple information - costs money. Mr. White bounces a credstick in his hand. "Just looking for Jack. We've some business with him." he indicates Jack's boat nearby. "Seen him lately?"

[Slacker]

The troll looks you up and down before replying,"Haven't seen him in the last day or so, but I might know where abouts he could be found.... Why don't you come up here and we can talk about what it's worth to you."

[Dak]

Mr. White smiles winningly at the troll. "That kind of information is certainly worth something to me." he starts up the gangplank, waving TundraWolf along behind him. "My friends are sometimes very paranoid, and for some reason are somewhat fond of me. So I hope you don't mind if we conduct our business here where they can see me from across the way." he waves his hand vaguely. "They would be most upset if something unfortunate were to happen."

Reaching the top of the gangplank he looks around for a moment. "Now then, let's discuss how much this information is worth to me..."


Negotiation, I think? 9D6E5 => 3

[Slacker]

RedHorn smiles toothily as Mr. White heads up the gangplank. He nods knowingly when the little man starts talking about how friends would be watching for good behavior not worried in the least that he and his crew could take anything this topsider and his unseen friends could throw at them. He is one of the most feared pirates of the local waters for good reason.

He starts to say something along those lines as Mr. White launches into his long winded rant on the value of information. He started off amused by the words, but as they continued tumbling from the well mannered smoothy he slowly became confused about the point and even started to get a sense that he was being called worthless.

"Look here little man. I own these waters. And I have paid for what information they bring with the sweat of my labors and not a little bit of blood as I take it from wordy smoothies like you. So don't think you're gonna get something for nothing. You're kind don't come down here unless its for something the need pretty bad. And so you are going to pay me and pay me good for whats I got or you can just jump in the sea. You think anybody else around here is going to tell you where to find one of our own? Jack is a right bastard, but he's still one of the Cove." His voice rises as he stands up a little bit straighter.

He was going to demand 1000 nuyen from your for the intel on Jack Turner. But as you start trying to talk him down from such a high price he suddenly shouts, "Forget it. Just get off my ship and find him on your own.".

"Wilson," he calls to his first mate."See this drek off my ship." With that he turns away from you to start ordering the rest of his men around.

A bookish looking ork, starts ushering you down. As you begin to protest, he leans in "Quiet now. What do you think would happen if the rest of the bastards living down hear knew the boss was selling information on his neighbors? Didn't you see how you'd caught the attention of DP Roberts over there?"

As you head down the gang plank with this Wilson and TundraWolf in tow, you quickly talk him down from the 1000nuyen price to only 500nuyen. As he quietly takes your money while some crates block you from view of the other pirates, Wilson transmits the coordinates of Jack Turner's house that also acts as his warehouse. He further tells you that something must be going on because Jack has been holed up in there for over a day now.

[Dak]

Information is information. Mr. White paid him and was on his way, sharing the information with the rest of the group.

[Kiirnodel]

Finally, a chance to relax, or at least what passes for relaxing down here. After slogging through the seemingly endless tunnels of the Ork Underground, its good to see some open space. That run in with the eerie gator left everyone a bit worried, and Quixote will need to rest for probably a week to fully recover, even with the healing magic. That particular spell actually left Gardner with a bit of a migraine and he welcomed the chance to sit down and rest his mind. After sending out the spirit to search for Fiona, he has little to do while the team searches the boat and the rest of the area of Pirate's Cove. Finding an out of the way place, Gardner sits down to rest and recover from bruises the Skraacha dealt him back at the entrance.

*SNAP*
That couldn't be right. Its been only... thirty...eight? minutes. The Goddess's messenger couldn't possibly be done yet, could it? Fiona must be close, or... no that isn't right. Is just... not there? That can't be good.

His eyes popping open, Gardner spots the team standing only a few meters off. "Drek," he gets there attention as he sits up with a groan. Those bruises haven't really gotten any better "Something disrupted the spirit I had summoned. It could be a number of things, but no doubt it isn't good news."

Gardner sits there for a few seconds contemplating things. "So it looks like we have two options: Wait a bit, try to make a few plans, and hope this guy didn't notice. Or rush in now before he's had a chance to prepare for us." Gardner groans again as he tests his ribs tenderly, "These bruises should be a bit better after another half hour or so, but I can push through it if you want to head out quickly."

[Dak]

Ok. So you bang on the front door to get somebody's attention. You very distinctly catch the sound of multiple guns being ready and a gutteral voice (sounding more orkish than human like you'd expect from Jack Turner) calls out "Go away. We ain't buying nothing today.

"No worries friend, I'm not selling anything. I am interested in talking to Jack about one or two small things that I'm looking for. I'm no threat to you." For added emphasis Mr. White holds his empty hands up, in the event that there is a peephole or similar.

[Slacker]

As soon as Mr. White banged on the door, Gardner saw movement in the astral space. One of the watcher spirits pass back into the building through the ward while the other move to have a completely unobstructed view of the two runners.

Mr. White hears some muffled voices from within before the same voice calls back loudly. "Mr. Turner ain't talking today. So shove off."

[Dak]

"I wish that I could, friend, but my business is rather important. I'm just looking for some information, and I would be willing to pay Mr. Turner for helpful information. I think that our interests converge."


I'm happy to roleplay through conversation. Let me know if a negotiate roll becomes appropriate.

[Slacker]

After a moment of more discussion and some muffled shouting to and from the upstairs of the warehouse, the wooden door is yanked part of the way open and Mr. White finds himself staring at two Ares Predator IV barrels in his face. A quick shows a pair of orks holding the pistols, behind them you can see a fair sized warehouse with some bulky racks of merchandise along with a third ork aiming yet another pistol at you. You also notice a railing system laid into the floor that seems to leads off to both sides of the doorway (like miniature railroad tracks).

"Mr. Turner don't know you. What kind of business do you think he has with you?"

[Dak]

"I'm interested in Ms. Craig and her rock."

[Slacker]

Mr. White notices the flicker of recognition when he mentions Ms. Craig. They look at each other and nod. "You can see the boss, but pointing at TundraWolf with his pistol, the lead ork continues "he's going to have to stay here.