The Found Arcana - Chapter 10, X marks the spot Options

[Thanee]

Rachel is still outside of the apartment from where she was astrally exploring the rest of the building before, when suddenly everything gets hectic.

Once she realizes what is happening, she quickly runs down the stairs, knowing full well, that she is not the fastest when it comes to that.

She pulls out a small inhaler and uses it. Quick reactions could be crucial now.

[ Spoiler ]

Turn 1 Pass 1 Initiative 9: Run downstairs (12m)
Use Jazz (Duration 60 minutes)
Initiative goes up by 1+6 for a total of 16

[Jack_Spade]

The huge spirit moved with unnatural speed. Now that the ward was down for the moment, it rushed through the open door as well, catching up with AM and Rachel. It ignored Tamarind and Mato, but spread it's tendrils through the whole staircase.

Suddenly, plants seemed to grow out of the ground and walls, turning the whole section of the building into a teaming jungle.
A very unfamiliar feeling gripped the two mundanes, as if they suddenly weighed nothing.

Arcana check Theshold 1 for mages, 3 for mundane

[ Spoiler ]

Spirit uses the Astral gateway power at ini 16
Everyone become dualnatured and is forced to project.
The gateway is opened to the metaplane of plants

[Thanee]

This is about life and death now. The spirit is so powerful, that they will not be able to defeat it with normal means. And it is so fast, that they cannot get away from it.

There is only one way to oppose it. They need an even bigger spirit. So, that is exactly what Rachel summons now.

[ Spoiler ]

Turn 1 Pass 2 Initiative 6: Summoning F11 Spirit of Air 4 hits + Edge 2 hits -- forgot -2 from running, so 1 less hit
Spirit's Resistance 2 hits
Drain Resistance 7 hits (was expecting to need the Edge here)

Spirit of Air F12 (Elemental Attack, Energy Aura, Fear, Noxious Breath; 4 services)
Spirit's Initiative 32-10=22

[Beta]

Tamarind has a brief surge of joy -- finally the magical stress that has awakened the magical talents she's always longed for! Her astral form is awakened!

[ Spoiler ]

arcana (improvised): 4d6t5 3
ha, I never thought she was making that roll!

Then her logical mind takes over. She's studied magic enough to know that powerful spirits can create astral gateways, where even mundanes can find themeselves projecting. This is clearly the case here, and what she's read about the situation comes to her. Still, the temptation to sore into that green haven, the ultimate garden, is strong. But her fearing of leaving her body empty is even stronger, and she tries to follow the half-remembered instructions on how to stay anchored in oneself.

A bit to her surprise (and maybe a bit to her disappointment), it works. She seems to have body and spirit still working together. She resists the temptation to try and perceive astrally, and instead focuses her thoughts to thoroughly mundane matters.

She tells her van to release the back doors, and calls Toothless on an emergency deployment to her location. She'll need to spend time later making sure that the drone didn't take damage from the drop when it powers its way out of the van then fall to the pavement floor. She doesn't know if its "jaws of life" hydraulic jacks will be able to pry open the doors from the parking lot to the stairwell or not, but if they can manage then its gecko-tipped tracks should let it start speeding up the stairs. They might need its medical services, but they might simply need it to carry an unconscious or dying body out of the building quickly.

And then she heads down the stairs. Time to get her body as far away as she can, and send in drones for scouting and retrieval. They can't fight this thing, just try to understand its instructions and use those to their advantage.

[Gilga]

My options are dry, unarmed, and against such a potent spirit that I am unlikely even successfully to to to connect a spell. I have nothing to fight with - but must I fight Does this spirit wishes to harm us - or is it compelled to do so - and if so, they must have left some room for personal judgment and interpretation, and this is where bargaining is possible. There is always some form of free will, even with slaves. So I take a breath and speak from my guts - what I truly feel about this situation.
Surely a hyper-intelligent, ancient entity such as a great plant spirit would not be happy with such a service and such conditions. Anything this powerful must have a sense of self-worth, en ego and would want tasks worthy of its greatness.

I turn my face to the spirit with the respect I think they deserve “I have no quarrel with you, and I suspect you have no problem with us, great honorable spirit. You are chained and abused in the most humiliating manner - Kept in a little can, in such an unpleasant place, to be used as a trap. It is not appropriate and cannot be pleasant. You deserve a lot better; you deserve respect and appreciation. I understand the limitations of your chains, and I take no offense in anything you are compelled to do - but if you agree to fulfill your service less efficiently - then we will find a way to set you free. ” I add "I, Amy Maka Green - a shaman of the Sioux people, give you my word." With true intentions, as any true shaman must treat a great nature spirit, and I also give the spirit my true name to inspire confidence in my words.

[Jack_Spade]

The Plant Spirit... halted.
"You are intruders. But you are not the intruder I was made to expect and hunt.
But I must banish the intruder. So I must banish you."

It moved again, but not apparently with the same zeal as before - instead it seized upon the newly arrived air spirit, slamming it's vines into it.

[ Spoiler ]

Ranged attack: 19d6t5 2

Easy Dodge for the air spirit
In the unlikely case it hits: 11P+net successes

[Thanee]

The spirit of air easily evades the attempt.

[ Spoiler ]

Full Defense (-10 Initiative) 13 hits (or 12, if it is astral combat)

[Tecumseh]

Mato follows AM into the workroom. When the massive spirit erupts, he scoops an arm around her waist, pulls her out of the room, and pushes her toward the front door to encourage her rapid egress.

"Time to go!" he suggests.

They race out the front door with the spirit in hot pursuit. The spirit does ... something? Something that's well outside of Mato's realm of experience. AM stops to talk, Tamarind's releasing drones, and Raven is doing... something. It's all so very confusing.

Mato has no real clue what's going on, but the plant spirit is having a freaky effect and he doesn't want to be anywhere near it. He hooks his arm around AM again, pulling her away as his hydraulic jacks pound the ground to buy precious extra meters.

[Gilga]

I have no time to gauge the reaction to my little speech because Mato feels like it is time to go and takes us up in the air, down to the floor, up again, and so forth through the thick jungle. Jumping down through the thick vegetation floor after floor, I get a bunch of branches in my air, and a few painful hits as the vines scratch us, but it is totally worth it. I have a silly smile on my face due to the excitement and speed of motion which I only experience in simsense. I could get used to that kind of attention and to that kind of action.

In the back of my mind, I can notice the impending combat between the plant spirit and some other spirit which I assume Raven summoned and Tam's drones making their way to the scene, but these are all in the background. "Wow" I comment speechless as I calm my breath, and realize just how fast did we go.

[Jack_Spade]

Moving through the staircase was akin to stumbling through a post apocalyptic ruin, reclaimed by a jungle. Vines, ferns and even tree branches were ready to trip, snare and brain anyone moving too fast. The only quick way down was the open center of the staircase - and there, like an expanding pillar, the rift stood, getting larger by the second. On the other side, the teeming jungle swayed in a gentle breeze. It could have been a peaceful picture, if it wasn't for the plant spirit reminding everyone just what entities were likely hiding in there.

AM and Rachel had enough experience to realize, that all these plants on their side were just astral constructs, given solidity only through everyone's dual natured state.

Screams came from the flats on the lower levels. Apparently the effect of the rift spread through the walls.

[ Spoiler ]

Time for a look at your movement: Each level is approx 3.5 m high and you need to traverse about 10 m to walk the stairs down one level.
Jumping down, you need three separate jumps to move down without touching the rift in the center.

I'd like some gymnastic rolls - one for each level minimum at -3 due to the impairment through the astral plants
For each point below threshold 3 you receive 1 point of stun

[Beta]

Tamarind makes her way down through the staircase as well as she can, happy to stay away from whatever is going on int he middle of things. She'd really like to take time to try and make sense of the astral, but her readings suggest that even when mundanes see the astral, they never can manage to interpret it properly.

It is hard to see the stairs, see the jungle, and follow her AR windows, but she does her best. When she sees that Toothless is at the door and see Trouble, she projects speech through the medical drone "Trouble, can you help with doors at all? If you can it would be a big help."

[Tecumseh]

AM is a big girl - literally and metaphorically - and Mato isn't intending to physically carry here the whole way. But he also knows that her body is 'new' and she might not be accustomed to using it to its full potential yet. Mato went through much the same learning curve when he first received his cyberlimbs. Suddenly he was strong and graceful where he had only been weak and clumsy before.

He activates his hydraulic jacks, both to make his jumps stronger but also to make the landings easier. They do a marvelous job of absorbing impact when landing and really make falling much more pleasant.

Mato handles the obstacles nimbly as he skips over the astral constructs. He doesn't really have the vocabulary to process what he's seeing all around him. Is this is what the mages deal with all the time...? he thinks to himself as he bounces around like Super Mario. No wonder half of them are bent in the head.

[Gilga]

Trouble answers Tamarind's question levelheaded and perhaps more stoic than the mortals. Perhaps it is the knowledge that he is unlikely to die - even if he gets disrupted. "I can open all doors with my mind; what do you need?" She can see and hear a talking cat since they are dual-natured and he does talk in the astral. Though, to be fair, it is the least strange thing in the situation. This is an odd experience since the black cat never physically talk.

[Thanee]

While the huge plant spirit continues to attack her own spirit, the spirit of air keeps defending instinctively.

[ Spoiler ]

Turn 2 Pass 1 Initiative 36: Spirit of Air Full Defense

Rachel takes a good look at the gigantic plant, even though she is fairly certain that this one has been the work of Victoria, it is always good to be sure.

The witch uses her own movement to stay away from the astral rift as much as possible while continuing her way down towards the ground floor, and ultimately the exit of the building.

"We are no intruders, and we are leaving! But maybe you can help us understand what is going on here."

She also asks her spirit to keep protecting them while taking her a safe distance away from the rift, without hurting the other spirit, and afterwards relay her questions to the other spirit, once she is clear of the astral phenomenon, in the hopes that it can and will answer some of them. Maybe it is easier to talk to another spirit.

Please ask, what the spirit can tell us about the summoner and the others. It was the female that did the summoning and binding, right? Were there any auras that would imply that there is mental control exerted on some of them?

[ Spoiler ]

Turn 2 Pass 1 Initiative 20: Assensing the Plant Spirit with 3 hits (bought) to see the Astral Signature; and Command Spirit

[Jack_Spade]

The cursory examination showed that the plant spirit had the same signature as the hermetic lodge. But there were also signs of the other signature on it.

Arcana knowledge check Threshold 3

[ Spoiler ]

It seems as if one mage summoned and bound the spirit and a ritualist turned it into a greater form by calling additional power into it

The plant spirit continued its futile attacks on the air spirit, but answered in that rough, grating voice: "My master is cruel - always calling and binding, binding, binding. Again and again and again. The pain, the pain, the pain. But the other one is worse. Don't let them catch you. They are..."

At that moment something curious happened. The spirit seemed to continue speaking, but no words could be heard. The plant spirit stopped. Rage, pain and despair crossed over the alien plant face. And from one moment to the other, it was sucked back through the ward.

From one second to the other, the rift vanished and with it the astral plants. Only the screaming from inside the two appartments remained.

[Thanee]

<< That was... interesting. Guys, what do we do now? These two, they are cruel and ruthless. And also very powerful. Honestly, I am not sure we can handle them, if it comes to a confrontation. And I don't see why they would be up for a friendly chat. I tried to get some more information about them from the spirit, who must know quite a deal, and I was told that much. But then some kind of safeguard triggered and the spirit was forced back inside the apartment. Maybe it is worth a try to get in again, and see, if I can learn more? But it could also be that that was what triggered it. Oh, yeah, and with the word having been broken down, they surely know that someone with magical abilities is here. Also, we might want to calm down the neighbors. >>

[Gilga]

Luckily I don't show much-exposed skin, but I got a few bruises, and it all vanished. In retrospect, we should have waited, but who knows? These were some very slick dodges; I admire the control of your body. You are like a dancer. I say quietly as I relax my breath and adrenaline and signal the rest to get to the car and not play superheroes. I begin to despise the way this party behaves and fear the implications of meddling in their affairs.

>> I wondered how long it would take Mr. Harry Potter to discover his wand is showing. In any case, the apartment is a bust. Let's GTFO before half their spirit army is hunting us.

[Tecumseh]

Mato is extremely confused. The things happening here are beyond his realm of experience. Perhaps AM and Raven can explain it to him later. If not? Well then it was not to be understood. He trusted in their knowledge to the point where he didn't feel it would be productive to duplicate it. Better for him to focus on other matters.

<<We should go>> Mato comms. <<We do not have the mental-health expertise that these people require.>>

It sounds cold, and perhaps it is cold, but to him it is logical.

<<Having to talk to Knight-Errant will cost a significant amount of time, and we are already well behind our quarry.>>

He tries to move quickly for the car but doesn't sprint outright. He wants to make sure Raven and Tamarind don't fall too far behind.

<<Tamarind can drive unless she needs to be riding her drones, in which case I'll take the wheel. AM, why don't you start looking for cameras that might indicate what these people are driving and which direction they might have turned.>>

[Beta]

Tamarind was just trying to frame how to describe the door she wanted open in terms that a spirit might understand, when the astral jungle vanishes. She tells Trouble "Never mind now, the situation changed."

Then she orders Toothless back into the van, and the van to pull up by the door. She recalls Auntie 1 to meet her by the exit. Time to pack up and get out.

To the rest of the team she messages <<Everyone OK? Anyone not OK with getting out of here immediately? And finally, where are we headed? Home for everyone to gear up, or somewhere more random to not possibly lead them our way? And speaking of leading them our way, if anyone left blood let's take time to clean it up, and the same goes with any astral fingerprints. These folks seem talented enough to possibly follow us from the smallest breadcrumb, if it it magic related.>>

[Thanee]

<< Okay, I will come to the car. But I still have something to do here, so I will head back astrally from there, so we are ready to leave at any moment. Shouldn't take long. Also, what about security cameras? If they record the interior of the staircase and we just leave, that won't look too good, right? >>

Rachel will take a moment to erase her astral signatures from the summoning before heading outside to the car. She will ask her spirit in the meantime to infiltrate through the ward, without breaking it down, and look for the other spirit, always keeping on the defensive, to see if it is possible to learn more from that one. Stay in touch through their connection and immediately relays everything that happens. She apologizes in advance for the terrible astral situation inside the ward. The people who are doing this are terrible. But it is crucial that they learn as much about them as possible, if they are to confront them at some point.

She will also ask for the spirit's opinion about whether it is better for the plant spirit to get disrupted by them, as hurtful as that is, or just leave it be. As there is little else they can do at the moment to ease the obvious suffering endured here.

[Gilga]

I nod in agreement to Mato and look for traffic cameras nearby. >>I also want to look at the ritual, if they left they did not skip town they went to do some follow-up ritual. They went to a place where that would be easier I suspect, but I am looking for traffic cameras nearby. As for the doorbell camera - I can hack it, but it may go sideways so it is your choice really.

I look at Mato and text>> Alright, who is left in the list of contacts? Want to just call Victoria or the Forth and see what happens? I mean, we really don't want anything bad happening to them, and we know someone is tracking them.

[Thanee]

<< Just wondering, what the right course of action is here. We are here on official business for the owner, have a key, so nothing to worry about, I guess. >>

[Jack_Spade]

The air spirit followed it's orders - and had no problems to overwhelm his opponent thanks to the force disparity it didn't take long for the air spirit to disrupt the plant spirit.

The question if it did or did not want to be disrupted didn't come up, as the plant spirit didn't talk or hesitate to attack and fought to the bitter end.

Rachel's spirit showed satisfaction when the other spirit went down.

At the same time, the cockroach drone became active again. It buzzed and sent an ARO, visible to the whole team:
<<We need to talk - call me
Gladius>>

[Gilga]

>> Aham... Alright, let's call the guy... I mean, we were about to anyhow." I ensure everyone is ready to chip in and calls Gladius using the number in our file.


"Gladius, Hi. You found an odd moment to ask for a call - but we were about to call you soon. How are you doing? and why are you spying after your friends?" I am usually not that direct, but almost getting banished to the meta plane of plants adds to my directness, and the fact that I was reckless in activating the trap - is another thorn in my ego.

[Jack_Spade]

<<You triggered a trap meant for me. I informed myself about you through your matrix site.
I'm down the street in a black GMC Bulldog.
I'd prefer a face to face meeting. Victoria Arione is a very dangerous individual and she wants me dead. The group is on its way across the border to go south to Texas.>>