IC New Beginnings DAWN Options

[pbangarth]

Torley finds a good couch for Silence to crash. Healing tires you out, even if magic helps. Then Torley takes first watch.

[Crossbow]

Silence is appreciative of the offer, but he had slept the previous day, unlike the runners. He will keep them company on their watches.

Once the three of you have gotten about 6 hours of sleep and the sun is up, Silence will take Starlet to the roof and point out the compound. It is visible from your building, but only just so, it would have been indistinguishable in the darkness. Now that you can see it, you will have no trouble astrally projecting to it.

[farothel]

Making sure she's comfortable, Sammy first checks if she can see the compound in the astral without leaving her body. That to see if there's any weird stuff going on, wards or spirits that she has to anticipate.

[Crossbow]

Other than the background of despair and poverty, the astral is clear.

[farothel]

Moving slowly and keeping above the buildings, Sammy leaves her body and slowly moves towards the compound, keeping an eye out for any trouble. As long as she's not stopped or challenged, she would slowly go closer and try to locate the idol.

[Crossbow]

Starlet is not accosted at all during her approach to the compound. Upon her arrives she finds no magical defenses on the building as a whole, so she takes advantage of the fact and does a thorough examination of the space. There is one large building in the compound and and several outbuildings, including pens for some livestock. There are roughly 50+ metahumans in the place of all ages and shapes. roughly half of whom have some of the common enhancements you recognize in security types. There is very little in the way of magically active phenomena is the area, with 3 exceptions.

1. There is a small free spirit of a mischievous bent that seems to have taken up residence in the outbuilding that you believe is the kitchen.

2. In the main building, on the first floor there is a room that has a corner with a powerful ward.

3. In the same building but a different room, there is a person who has is astally active, but in the weak and untrained way that is common in children that have not really discovered their talent.

[farothel]

As soon as she knows all that, Sammy heads back to her body and goes to inform the rest of the team about what she found. 25+ security is quite a lot, especially since they most likely have done combat before in this city. And at least one mage powerful enough to set good wards. That will mean that the idol is most likely in that warded room, Sammy informs the others. At least she hasn't seen a magical aura anywhere else (beside that spirit and the youngling).

[pbangarth]

Torley scratches his chin. "Don't know if this is a useful idea, but maybe that spirit in the kitchen could be a diversion or something. "

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor felt a bit better after getting some sleep. Lacking any immediate means of gathering intel on Englebrecht, he had no way of properly anticipating or countering their new foe. He decieded to focus on the current issue of the idol, "With that many guards, it'll need to be a big distraction. Torley, between your snake tongue, and your magic, Starlet, think the two of you could whip up a frenzied mob like the one set on us at the Needle?"

[pbangarth]

"Hmmm. Maybe stretch a bit of the truth ... say the holders of the idol will use it in a ritual to swear allegiance to the Yoruba King. That should get a few Igbo incensed. Then we swoop in as savior/allies to relieve the traitors of the offending artifact. "

Torley is rubbing his hands together, almost like a good hearty meal is coming.

[farothel]

"I don't have mind control," Sammy said, "I can however call up illusions. Like those full milspec goons that arrived at the tower. Those were mine, but that's about as far as I can go. I think we better do this one on stealth. And yes, I can do invisibility if needed."

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor turned to Silence, "Any local cultural or political buttons Torley could press to rile people up? And, do you know of any important folk lore, or legendary figures that Starlet could conjure up to sell the scam?"

[Crossbow]

Silence looks at Con like he has no idea what he is talking about. "I follow the Silent Way, whatever you have in mind sounds very loud to me." looking at Starlet, "Did you say invisibilty? Between your magic and mine we could go anywhere we wanted to in that compound."

[farothel]

"So do I," Sammy explained, "I can fireball the compound, but with invisibility and I also have the stealth spell, the only people who can see us are those who are astrally active. The invisibility even works against cameras, although there results vary. I've seen one heavy warded location and a small free spirit. The latter we can probably avoid and I'm sure the idol is in the warded section. But I'd rather not go in just with the two of us."

[Crossbow]

"If you can make the four of us invisible, I can mask the spell's aura in the astral."

[pbangarth]

Torley perks up at that comment. "That's handy!"

[Crossbow]

"There is a reason I could walk around in Oni Adegoke's monastery and not get caught."

[pbangarth]

Torley scratches his chin. " Doing four of us sounds pretty tough, Sammy. You think you can do it? "

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor failed to see how his distraction idea was incompatible with an infiltration. It would turn eyes outward while they were inside the compound, and not leave their own well being solely in the hands of a man they'd meet less than a day ago.

Clearly Starlet put more stock in the thief than in him. That was no suprise. As far as he could recall, she'd dismissed or belittled anything he said. That was if she even acknowledged that he spoke in the first place, rather than ignore him fully.

Torley seemed to like his idea, but didn't look likely to defend it. Again, no surprise there. Torley was a social creature and saw that O'Connor was far on the outside.

Rather than start a new argument that would see him ignored, dismissed, or condescended too again, O'Connor opted for sullen silence.

[farothel]

"Four is going to be difficult," Sammy said, "as I have to do each separately and keep up the spell. Also we won't be able to see each other. That's why I prefer the spirit's power of concealment. It's not true invisibility, but it works on a group and we can still see each other that way. No, four people will be too many to keep invisible. We might go in using spirit concealment, but then we probably do need that distraction so all eyes are on one side of the compound while we sneak in on the other side."

[pbangarth]

Torley was catching body language signals like they were shouting. O'Connor was getting into a snit, and Sammy was trying to calm things down and mollify.

Really though, there were elements to both ideas that made sense, just as Sammy said. Torley adds two cents. "Look, there are elements of a lot of good ideas here. Let's apply our respective skills where they best apply. Sure, I can sneak, but my silver tongue is what earns my living. There are a lot of people inside, and it makes sense to draw some of them away.

"I should create some kind of distraction outside that does that. Get a mob fired up and calling for answers or heads. That will get their attention inside. That way Sammy doesn't have to worry about keeping me invisible. Now, I bet I would be useful talking to grampa, but I can't be everywhere. If we are lucky, his fears about the idol will be reinforced, and he will be causing trouble and distraction inside. Sammy is the one to get you three in, with the help of Silence's mojo. You guys get to the warded area and snatch and run. If I can manage it, that might be the time for me to incite a riot that tries to storm the compound.

"If it all works, there won't be any fireworks. If not, O'Connor and Sammy clear a path out.

"OK. Now, tell me where that plan falls flat, and fix it."

[Crossbow]

Silence considers the points raised, "There is some value to a distraction, but the residents in the neighborhood owe their lives and livelihood to Uzochi Oluleye. The idea that you could simply talk your way into getting them to riot or storm the gates is difficult, not to mention suicidal for the rioters. Perhaps something more simple, a fire or explosion would draw attention and create the option to sneak in."

[farothel]

"What if we stage an attack by opponents of the people in the compound," Sammy suggested, "they probably wouldn't mind and therefore would be easier to manipulate. As to fire, yes, you can probably explode a few things."

[Crossbow]

"That would be Adegoke, the man you are trying to get the idol for. I am certain that you could find dozens of his soldiers very easily, but I thought the idea was for you to get the idol not them."

[farothel]

"True," Sammy said, "but a few well planted rumours could have those soldiers move in and attack something that's important to this Oluleye, something he wants to protect. That doesn't have to be the compound, but for instance one of his warehouses so that he needs to send people from the compound. That way they can keep each other busy while we sneak in through the back door."