IC New Beginnings DAWN Options

[farothel]

Sammy had followed the others on foot, weaving amongst the people and keeping her respirator on her face to avoid an asthma attack.
"I can't do anything to speed you up and I can't blast anything until we're past the checkpoint," she called back, "or wait, maybe I can try something."

She switched sight to the astral and while she kept running (dodging people and things from their aura in the astral) she called up her spirit.
"As soon as this man is past the halfway point of the bridge, use your accident, confusion or noxious breath powers to slow him down," she said, giving Medjay's aura signature. With a nod the spirit moved off.

[Crossbow]

Starlet sends the fire spirit on his task as Torley begins to strategically whisper commands into ears as he slips past different people on the bridge. His efforts quickly bear fruit as different individuals begin yell or start throwing punches. The confusion he is sowing and the crush of metahumanity that is his playground makes his task a piece of cake, no soy or krill involved in the baking.

No one is able to see clearly when the fire spirit makes his move, but the aftermath is certainly visible as the burning smoke attack lights a few fires in the area of the attack. Minutes after, when BS and LH arrive on scene, they observe the white blur had reached the far side and saw another okada zipping up the street before turning a corner. O'Conner observes the fleeing vehicle is not being driven with the same skill on this side of the bridge, proof that Starlet's spirit scored a hit on him, probably a good one.

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor continued onward, "Good work, but no rest for the wicked. Lil' Homie, weave through and push ahead, secure us transport. Starlet, keep eyes on the target. We can't lose sight of him. If he's smart he'll hand of the map while out of sight and act as a decoy. Drek are we sure that isn't happening already?" He commed Frosty, <"Gaining ground on the target. Do you know where the rest of his entourage went? Are we sure he has the Map, and isn't just a decoy?">

[Crossbow]

Jane responds, "I don't think anyone else from his group has left, it's just him. He's an operator though, no question. Since I had some nuyen to burn, I bought myself some intel. Apep has drones in the air, and thanks to certain member of their team with a thing for blonds, I am getting to piggyback on their feed, apparent Medjay moved back to Western Avenue. That's the road that feeds the Bridge you are on."

[Crossbow]

Lil Homie will hand you back the AK, "Faster without it!" and bolts into the crowd. Once the three of you have regrouped, you move forward as a unit. When you reach the end of the bridge you still haven't seen the Azzies, and Lil Homie reports the same. He has 3 okadas with drivers and a van with driver waiting.

[farothel]

With her spirit gone, Sammy summoned a watcher and set that on the target with the order to follow the guy and she would keep tabs on the watcher through their link.
"I have a rough fix," she said, "I can't run and go astral at the same time."
She does a quick check on the astral to see if she can see the azzies. She knows they have a lot of magic at their disposal and going invis ins't all that hard, but you still stand out on the astral. Even more, as the active spell is clearly visible.

She will follow the others, either on foot or on the okadas.

[pbangarth]

Torley jumps in the van by a window he can open and close.

[Crossbow]

Even with the lot of you being in as good shape as you are, that run made you grateful to sit for a minute. As you reach a new district you notice a couple of weird things, there is rubble and garbage piled 4 meters high in a solid wall on the east side of the street, and no is using the sidewalk or half a lane of the roadway on that side, but rather cramming themselves over the median and dodging the oncoming traffic, your drivers included.

[pbangarth]

Torley scans the barricaded side to see if he can figure out what everyone is running from.

[ Spoiler ]

Perception 5 + visual 2 + INT 5 = 12 dice: 4 hits

[Crossbow]

You spot a sign among the rubble "Surulere...", that reminds you of an entry from you datafiles on the area.

SURULERE

North of Apapa is the burned out district of
Surulere. It’s a spooky place, an area surrounded by a
crowded sprawl but dotted with the shells of burnedout
homes, all but empty of metahuman life. There are
other things that exist among the burned ruins, though,
and those things are the reason that Surulere remains
so empty.

In 2011, when VITAS fi rst arrived in Lagos, the
death toll was overwhelming. The virulent disease was
bad enough on its own, but coupled with the overcrowding, the
lack of sanitation and basic health services, and the malnutrition
of the general population, the epidemic was ten times more
devastating in Lagos than in other sprawls. In most areas of
the city, the death toll hovered at 75 percent. But in Surulere,
VITAS claimed close to 100 percent of the population—nearly
one million dead within twenty-three square kilometers of land.
When the Awakening occurred and the tide finally began to turn
against VITAS in late 2012, Surulere didn’t have a single living
soul left in its borders.

> Why was it so bad in that one area?
> Butch

> No one really knows. Many of the hardest hit areas were around
hospitals and medical centers in Lagos. Surulere had its share of
those, but no more or less than other areas.
> Am-mut

> My great-auntie remembers that time well. She was the maid
for a doctor who practiced at Surulere General Hospital. She said
she heard him gloating over how he was going to become rich and
leave Lagos. Surulere General received no medication to combat
the virus, but the doctors there convinced the people who came
to them that they had a cure. They charged a few naira to give
the ill and the frightened a single shot—which contained only saline.
People flocked to the hospital from across the city, and the doctors
responded to the crowds by reusing needles, transferring the virus
to all who came for a cure. The crowded camps around the hospital,
where the ill waited and died, became breeding grounds for death,
spreading the virus with each strangled cough. In fear, the survivors
set the camps aflame, and those fires stretched through Surulere,
burning those the virus hadn’t yet killed.
By that time, the doctors at Surulere General had long since
escaped with their millions of naira. Many of the ghosts who remain
in Surulere are trapped by their desire for vengeance against the
doctors who took their lives and the lives of their families.
> Honesty

Though dry land is at a premium in Lagos, no one is willing to repopulate
Surulere. Walls of garbage and refuse pile up at
the border, as the locals are too superstitious to enter the area to
dump their trash. The packs of wild gomatias (giant Awakened
chameleons) won’t go near the area, and many of the locals around
Surulere use the giant chameleons’ aversion to mark the land that
it is safe (relatively speaking, of course) to travel. The chameleons
are no doubt reacting to the high background count of the area,
but locals see it differently.

> It’s not completely true that no one lives in or enters Surulere.
There are several Shokpona cult groups who are based out of the
area, but locals won’t talk about them. You’ll see the priests in their
masks leaving the district at dusk, walking through the neighboring
districts and taking the offerings left out for them.
> Honesty

> And what are those offerings? Corpses. Many families believe that
the priests carry the virus with them, and they leave out a dead body
(someone from their own household or a purchased corpse) to divert
the priests’ attention from their household when illness strikes.
> Chiemeka

> That certainly isn’t a part of Yoruba religion, or Christianity or Islam
…>
Goatfoot

> Superstition, coupled with a dark-ages understanding of disease
transmission and modern medicine. They leave the corpses out to
appease the priests of A-soro-pelerum.
> Black Mamba

> A-soro-pelerum?
> Elijah

> “He who should not be named.” I believe our pragmatic Mamba is
a bit superstitious herself. Many who live near Surulere believe the
priests of Shokpona can cause VITAS, malaria, leprosy, or any other
disease with a single look or gesture, and saying the god’s name is
enough to draw his attention. I’m not saying it’s true or false, just
that it’s what they believe.
> Am-mut

> I’ve seen the priests of Shokpona. They looked remarkably like
sasabonsam.
> Duante

[pbangarth]

Torley relays info to the team. "Looks like we are going by that region called Surulere we read about earlier. Bad mojo and nobody goes there. I'll keep an eye out for nastiness coming our way from there. I don't see anything that links to the target or any of our competition."

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor mused that if it was avoided by thr locals then there'd be no traffic and there was a chance other foreigners would think to use it as a shortcut. He asked their intrepid guide/his protégé, "So Lil' Homie, about the stories of that place, how much is fact and how much is superstition? If there's no traffic it'd be a great way to gain ground."

[pbangarth]

Torley considers. "I believe there is a background of misery and death that would affect anyone with magical ability. There is, according to local history, a cult that lives in there that wields magic of an unsavoury kind. Yeah, you can take a shortcut through, if you can find a break in the wall of garbage, but expect to have any magical ability on our side to be restricted. And maybe be attacked by the cult. If the potential payoff is good, it might be worth it. Can you figure the path of our target could be intercepted if we go through there? "

[Crossbow]

Unfortunately, you magical efforts at tracking Medjay are a bust, whether it is the awful astral presence of what happened in Surulere or some magical resistance, he is in the wind at the moment. The Azzies are a similar issue, the don't have a magical element in the group you are following so they are blending in too much, the background count is, again, not helping.

[pbangarth]

Torley doesn't know how well his mojo works in this unfriendly atmosphere, but he tries something.

Out the side where people still are, he shouts to what he guesses is the most likely group to see Medjay go by, using his Commanding Voice in the local language, "Point okada white robe where".

[ Spoiler ]

Commanding Voice: Leadership 4 + Improved Leadership Power 2 + CHA 6 = 12 dice: 1 hit
Oooohh, the flow of that feels wrong. He puts a little extra oomph into it.

Edge point to reroll misses: 3 hits

Crossbow you figure out the background count effect on this. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/question.gif)

[Crossbow]

The gentleman you direct the command to points the way you are heading, straight up Western Avenue. A minute or so later you clearly hear automatic weapons fire, a lot of it, coming from the intersection ahead of you. You are about a minute away on foot, the vehicle traffic has halted completely.

[Necrogigas]

Well, at least it became unnecessary to brave the creepy, possibly haunted, part of town. He took off for the gunfire at a run without hesitation. He told Torley, "Get them to clear a path!" They were close, but a lot can happen during a fight in a short amount of time.

[ Spoiler ]

Running: 20#5d6t5 2 3 1 3 0 1 2 1 1 1 2 0 2 2 1 1 1 0 1 2

[pbangarth]

Torley shakes his head in wonderment. Didn't his last attempt to clear a path result in the opposite effect? He follows O'Connor, but to one side a bit to see what's ahead. If a clump of bodies looks to be an impediment he will order them to disperse.

[ Spoiler ]

Typical dice pool before reductions: 12 dice. No use of Edge here.

[farothel]

Sammy had been following the others and lost her watcher. She also felt the background count change. In the days they had been here she had gotten used to the regular stuff, but here it simply felt awful. This was going to hurt, as all of the party were magical in nature. So she gritted her teeth, tried not to think about what was needed to get a background count like this over such an area and followed. She also had her pistol out, guessing it would work better then her magic at the moment. She did take a moment to cast a spell to let her move faster and place it into one of her sustaining foci. She did use the hand gestures she had learned before coming here to make it easier, something she really needed in this location.

[ Spoiler ]

Force 2 increase reflexes (+1 initiative, +1 IP)
spellcasting: 9d6t5 4
cast into the sustaining focus

drain 3
drain: 8d6t5 2
forgot the centering die
drain: 1d6t5 1

so no drain

[Crossbow]

In the time it takes to cover the distance to the intersection, Bullet Storm gets about 10 meters in front other the others, which gives him a heads up of the players. At least 6 Area Boys are blowing the hell out of a van that is stopped on the east side of the road right in front of the Surulere rubble wall. They are firing from cover, up the cross-street of a T-intersection.

OOC: Going into rounds, no surpise possible, but Torley and Starlet need a full movement to be able to interact with the Area Boys.

Image is reference only.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/dtym4totwx1o...xmwzil&dl=0

[pbangarth]

[OOC, Sorry. : So, the black arrow shows the direction of travel of our target, the red dot is O'Connor, the crosshairs mark the unfortunate van, and the rest of us are just approaching the intersection.

Is all of that right?]

[pbangarth]

"This is not good. Not good. This is bad. " Torley is running towards a gunfight. He pulls his weapon of last choice ... the Roomsweeper. "Oh, what the drek are you doing?"

He runs through in his mind all the Igbo he learned over the last few days. Drop your weapon sounds a good bet. Run away. Don't shoot. He the enemy ... shoot him.

"This is not good. Not good. This is bad. "

He's huffing and puffing a bit from all this running.

" Yeah, thrills are fun. Get your blood up. But an army shooting at me? "

"This is not good. Not good. This is bad. "

[Necrogigas]

Combat Round 1 - Initiative Pass 1

O'Connor moved towards the cluster of Area Boys and chucked a tear gas grenade, aiming for the center of the group.

[ Spoiler ]

Complex Action: Throwing Weapon
Agility 5 - Defaulting 1 + Edge 3 = Pool 7
Throwing Weapon: 7d6h5 3

[farothel]

Combat round 1, IP 1

Sammy had gotten a bit behind to cast her spell, so she ran after the rest, staying as close to the buildings as possible.

[pbangarth]

Torley quakes, hems and haws, and dawdles into the intersection, ducking through obstacles and tries not to get shot. [OOC: Full defence]