IC New Beginnings DAWN Options

[pbangarth]

"Got any ideas how we might learn that information?" Torley turns to Silence. "You know if grandfather lives with Oluleye in his compound, or separately?"

[Crossbow]

"Of course the grandfather lives in the compound, it's a family compound." Silence gives O'Conner a look, "The WHOLE family lives there."

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor's face scrunched up at Silence's clarification at the compound being a familial residence and not just property the family owned. He turned to his teammates, "Great. Unless the two of you got really okay about collateral damage, then this just got way more difficult."

[farothel]

"I can start with an astral recon of the compound," Sammy suggested, "it won't give all the details of course, but it's a start. And of course if this idol has some magical properties, it will stand out on the astral. I also still have a spirit on standby to help me with that if needed. Where exactly is this compound?"

The last question was to Silence.

[Crossbow]

"I would be happy to take you there, it isn't far. You might even be able to see it in the daylight."

[pbangarth]

A red flag pops up in the back of Torley's mind. "Wow. You seem very interested in helping us. Do you like us all of a sudden?"

He gauges Silence's response carefully, looking to see if the adept is telling the truth or not.

[ Spoiler ]

Don't know if there are any detractions to a Judge Intention roll in this case, but if you want one, here it is:

INT 5 +CHA6 = 11 dice: 3, 3, 4, 3, 3, 5, 3, 6, 1, 2, 5

[Crossbow]

Silence is not really offended by the directness "Just a young runner hustling for the next payday, you look like a good crew and you kept your word, so we are cool as far as I'm concerned, but if you feel differently I can frag off, no problem."

Nothing in what he says seems to be false.

[pbangarth]

"Works for me, I believe you, " says Torley. "Anybody have an issue with the young runner giving us a little extra?"

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor bobbed his head side to side to indicate he was somewhat on the fence. He shrugged, "He could be useful, but this run is already on the razor's edge. Weighing risk versus reward, I'd rather cut him loose if either of you can ensure he doesn't warn the target. Starlet, looks like you're the swing vote."

[farothel]

"I'm sure we can come to an agreement," Sammy said, "we could use the help, with both Snow and Clem gone. And he has already got the idol out of the king's palace, so we know he has some skill. As long as he understands that we will deliver something to the king, whether it's the idol or him, I'm sure we can work together. I know his aura, my spirit knows his aura, so I'm sure we can find him back if needed. Unless he's willing to stay in that dark spot on the astral I noticed earlier. I think it's called Surulere if I managed to map it correctly in the real world. That's one place I would hesitate to go in."

[pbangarth]

Torley nods. "Alright, then. I guess the next step is to scout out the compound. My understanding of Igbo traditions leads me to believe anybody important will have some magical backup. So, scouting astrally won't necessarily be without risk. I don't have a better idea at the moment, though. Anybody else?"

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor shrugged at the vote's outcome, "Welcome to the team then. That said, I need a moment with them." He looked to Starlet and Torley to propse means of securing Silence while they discussed the matter of Englebrecht in private.

[Crossbow]

Silence gives them the room, and goes into the hall with Peaceful. "I was just helping out a bit, if you need my services beyond that we are going to need to talk about payment at some point."

[pbangarth]

As soon as the room is clear, Torley pipes up. "Hear me out. this sounds crazy, but think about it. At first we thought this guy was tied to the people who wanted the idol. Part of their community. Igbo vs. Youruba. Whatever. But now, it looks like he is a simple contractor. A damn good thief at that, who snuck into a place sealed tighter than a nun's ..., well, tight with mundane and magical security. And then out again, with a special, holy, whatever, item. He almost got away from us, too, and others looking for him at the same time. The guy is good.

"Now we are faced with a closed community with lots of firepower and determination. We are going to have to figure out how to get in and out again without being shot up six ways from Sunday. If he can find a way to survive the King's stronghold, surely he can help us here. We are kinda short on firepower ourselves right now. Jane can damn well come up with some cash for Silence to get her the gewgaw she really wants back at the auction.

"I don't wanna die trying to save Jane some money."

[Necrogigas]

Once Silence left the room, O'Connor turned towards Torley, "Whatever. I didn't want to trust him, but the two of you outvoted me. It's done. What we need to talk about right now is that racist drek stain downstairs and his boss. Who in the fragging hell have you gotten us tangled up with here?"

[pbangarth]

Torley holds hands out to the side. "Hang on, O'Connor. There are a lot of factions in on this auction thing, and a lot of them know more than we do, Including some who were at the viewing and rubbed their knowledge in our face. We got closer to this faction only because the son was involved with someone who would give us info if we found him. None of us had any way of knowing that fool's father was this powerful or in any way interested in the idol.

"Stupid saying, but 'It is what it is.' We just have to work around it."

[Necrogigas]

"This guy might know everythimg about us. Hell, that goon refrenced that little dust up we had with Humanis in Puyallup. It took me a moment to even remember that even happened. He then made you and me, just you and me since we're white humans, one of those offers-they-can't-refuse. We're to screw over Jane and the rest of the team, bring him the Map, or we've made ourselves his enemy."

[pbangarth]

Torley shrugs, but the strain shows in his face despite his talents. Walls drop with intimates .. sometimes. "He's already our enemy. Men like that don't like loose ends. Were we to hand over the idol, we'd be dead in seconds. Fuck him. We stay a step or two ahead of his goons, and we stay alive. Life's been like that a long time for people like us. "

[farothel]

"You were really thinking about switching sides, Connor," Sammy asked, "besides, if we need to get rid of that idiot downstairs, I'm sure we can get rid of him. Lagos is a dangerous place, especially for bigoted idiots."

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor gave Starlet a withering glare, equal parts furious and offended. She was lucky that being a teammate gave her a measure of clemency. He warned her, "Never question my loyalty or insinuate I'm a racist or would work with racists again. If I was considering taking that offer, I would not have told you about it.

You also never get to insult my conflict resolution skills again. Getting rid of the guy downstairs does nothing to solve the problem of his boss. Speaking of whom..."

He then rounded back on Torley, "I'd love to hear how you propose to stay ahead of a man we know very little about. What we do know is that he is a man of extreme wealth and means. In a very short span of time, he's seemingly gathered a great deal of information on us from connections half a world away just because you delivered a message to his son. We know that most of our team's existence offends his superiority complex, and you and I offend him as race traitors. Now having rejected his offer, you and I have personally slighted him."

O'Connor's small measure of patience was running out, *Why couldn't these two have been the ones arrested? If Clem and Snow were here, we could be working the problem. But no, I'm stuck with the idiots that don't even see this as an inconvenience.* He growled in fustration, " You say this changes nothing? Everything has been different since we took this job. You both need to wake up and realize we're in the big leagues now. We're not just small fish in our own small ponds anymore, insulated by our irrelevancy. The enemies we make now might not just go away once we skip town. Neither of you think much of my intelligence, so how am I the only one that sees the knife's edge we're teetering on?"

[pbangarth]

Torley feels a momentary pang of sympathy for O'Connor. Someone who has been at the receiving end of a lot of drek lately, and who feels he has limited options for how to deal with it.

"O'Connor, there is no insult here directed at you. We are all trying to figure out what to do next. You say Englebrecht has figured us out in a short span of time, but what was he doing here in Lagos in the first place, a man like him, a racist, powerful man like him in this Black city? He's not here for the climate. He is here for the same reason Jane and a bunch of others like her are here. For the auction. And like so many others like Jane, he probably has been gathering intel on the other players and their squads for a long time. Yeah, that burns. But he wants the same idol we do. Why? Because without it, his competitor, Jane, can't get into the auction. If we get it, he is facing another bidder for the thing he wants. He needs to react to our actions, or potentially lose out in this step of whatever grand scheme we've been brought into.

"We can only act on the intel we have, and on the directions of the one paying us gives us. What we have that the goons who work for the likes of him don't have is flexibility. Like drawing in just the kind of talent we need when it falls in our lap. Almost literally. Like, instead of being a horde of thugs like the ones who rounded me up when I was alone, we are a well rounded team with talents they don't have. You, Sammy, me, and maybe Silence if we allow him. We're the ones making the decisions to which they have to react.

"Knife edge? Damn right. Why are we in this business if we can't deal with that? We're good. We're better than they are. You're better than they are. We can go where they can't because we aren't limited like they are. Talent-less, bigoted thugs chase after us like they have since we were first in this business. Now's our chance to zig when they expect us to zag. Silence and what he has told us is that zig. Silence is hanging with us now because he is safer with us than out there alone. We know something they don't because of him. Let's act on it while they are in the dark. One step ahead, now.

"You are an excellent planner, O'Connor. Let's use what we know to get two steps ahead."

[ Spoiler ]

OOC - Edited to be closer to the facts of the story.

[farothel]

"My apologies," Sammy said, "Why don't you two check on that while I do my astral recon. They might have astral defenses in that compound, but we should know about those as well before we go there. And as much other stuff we can try to find out."

If there were no objections, she would go back, ask Silence where exactly the compound was and then make herself comfortable before slipping out of her body and go on the astral. There she would move towards the compound, but staying at a distance at first to check out any astral defenses, wards and patrolling spirits they might have. She had to evaluate those before she would move closer.

[Necrogigas]

Neither seemed to see the totality of the situation as he did, and he knew that Torley was greatly misunderstanding and underestimating Englebrecht and his enforcers. Racists were more than willing to make deals with their "inferiors" if it expanded their bottom line or advanced their agendas. In prison, he'd seen skinhead and ork gangs work together to push the NAN gangs out of lucrative markets.

He was also awestruck by Torley's audacity at presumed superiority. Torley was gifted at reading people, but it was now obvious he had severe blind spots and biases. By his own assessment, the enforcer downstairs was anything but talentless or stupid. That said, Torley and Starlet were at least willing to indulge him, so he'd take that tiniest of victories.

He went to reply to Torley when a wave of fatigue over took him. He stumbled forward. He caught himself, but only just. He suddenly realized he'd been ignoring that his limbs were shaking, and that he had a massive headache. He'd been drawing heavily on his powers on little sleep and little food for a full day, give or take a few hours. He was on the verge of an adrenalin crash. He headed for his bed, "Yeah, we need a plan, but maybe after a nap." He passed out before he finished collapsing, quite literally, onto the mattress.

[pbangarth]

"Well, that's that, then." O'Connor's abrasive attitude is almost refreshing to Torley, who rarely gets anything but pleasantness from those with whom he interacts. In the end, it is abrasive, though.

Torley calls in Silence. "Looks like we can use your help. The one who negotiates payment is back at the King's palace. I'm sure she can find the cash for a new, useful set of services, especially since part of our team is enjoying the hosting talents of the city's constabulary." Actually, he's not certain of that, but Torley keeps that tidbit to himself. He does feel he can negotiate on behalf of Silence if necessary. A talented local is a damn useful asset.

"Once we've had a rest, 'cause it's been a long night and day, any chance you can get yourself and Sammy up on the roof to see the location?"

[farothel]

"I can do my astral recon from here," Sammy said, "in fact, it would be better to do it from here. That way my body is at least safe."
Looking at O'Connor and then the darkness outside, she added.
"But tomorrow is time enough."