I'm still kickin' around!

Cool... and the rest of you?

[drill instructor]

SOUND OFF, DIRTBAGS!

[/drill instructor]

I'M ALIIIIIVE!


A little delayed, but my main computer's PSU went for a burton. I've hacked up a backup system, and am now back online thank god.

Yeah im still here... I just moved house a week last saturday and SHOULD be getting my internet sorted out tomorrow, but thats assuming I can find somewhere to setup my computer and its still in one piece after what its been throught the last few weeks!!

Just so you all know, I'm leaving for a week's holiday in France on Monday morning (yeah, I know - what self respecting Brit goes to France for Holiday?) so I'll not be around unless I can find a tame Net cafe... unlikely in the middle of nowhere.

Have fun.

Not likely... I hate the sun, heat, and the people I'm going with...

But thanks anyway!

Sounds like a good time to play "What Debatable Substance Can I Hide In Your Luggage?" then...

Debatable substance? For me, that would be condoms...

"What the hell are these doing here? We're NOT having that debate again... you've had it once this year already!"

Now there is a phrase that I think that most men can relate to!

oh too true

I'm back, as you can see...

And the most disturbing thing is that, if you look at my last post, that's almost exactly verbatim how it went down...

Hmmph.

Anyone heard from blue?

I have no idea where to take this next... any ideas anyone?

I have plenty... but that would be cheating.

Put yourself in your characters' shoes: I'll do a recap...

Gittery nervous guy reaches you through your various fixers and meets you in tacky seventies decorated pub back room, offering you a job - with a bonus for quick delivery - and serving you with a nice buffet...

Various avenues are used to track down the bag - checking the Body of Borstad, checking his employer's office (who seems to know a shit load about you - more than any runner would be comfortable with, really) and who tries to get you to go away by paying you off - oh, sorry, had everyone else forgotten that Deuce has got that 10k in his pocket? Oops...

You track the girl to Pipewerkz through hook, crook and fiddle and manage to get her and the bag, although you encounter the Lord Protector's men in the process - so he obviously has an interest too, whether "above board" or by default with his... other connections.

So: various parties have an interest - you and your employer, Lord Carmichael (the original owner), the Lord Protector (in some way), possibly the military (you don't know... but Borstad used to be a military man), someone with influence in the Police Department (remember they didn't really hassle you actively in Leicster Square? that was weird) and finally, whoever was controlling/employing Borstad when he initially took the bag - of which you still don't know the contents, by the way.

So... with all that in mind, all you have to do is work out who to give it to, who will pay best (without ruining your reputations) and anything else that comes up...

Then we can get on with Silverspur's next game, then another, then another and all will be rosy and joyous in the world of online roleplaying.

And does anyone have Blue's email address?

:: stumbles out of the portal leading to work hell ::

AURGH! Ok...after months of uncertain employment, drastically changing schedules (yes, I have gone from working 10pm -7am to 7pm-8am to 7am-8pm to 7am-4pm to 9am-6pm and finally 1pm-10pm) I am FINALLY on a normal, steady schedule. The bad news, 85% of my coworkers were let go. The good news, I wasn't one of them

So..this means Im back and more than eager to stretch my writing muscles...


*are there writing muscles?!*

Yes. And Typing muscles! And your brain, of course!

Well im currently in DIY hell.... recently bought a house and now doing it all up....

Part of me is tempted to say that we tell the guy that hired us to get the case that we have it. but try to renegotiate by pointing out the lost team mates and the fact we now have this guy after us.

Silver, if you can do me an open Etiquette roll for that request you PM'd me...

I'll give a little while for any other debate/discussion/arguement before Strong comes out of her stunned, scared-shitless silence...

Okay, the decision was made to move it along, but I can't decide what you should do next.

You can choose one of many options... hell, you can even choose to do nothing and leave the country... but some sort of action would be welcome.

I don't want to hold up everyone's time with this - I'm sure Silverspur is anxious to start his game!

That is assuming, of course, that anyone is still interested? I can always SMITE™ you all or utilise Orbital Bovine Bombardment and that would solve your indecision real quick so you could get back to a GM who's not... well, not me.

Your choice, groovers...

You don't get out of it that easy, old son...

EDIT: Rereading the story so far, I'm getting a little turned around. Do we know how the Lord Protector got involved in this? From what I can see, the early part of the run involved Justin Carmichael, then suddenly the LP's heavies are inbound to mess with the team, I think I may have missed some important information.

I thought Justin Carmichael was a Duke and that the goons were employed at his behest.....could be wrong though...haven't re-read the thread in a while. Will do so today though, just to refresh

No, DB specifically described the goons as Templars - the Lord Protector's personal heavy mob.

Sorry, to things...A) I dont remember what I pm'd you so i dont know what I asked and B) since I moved house a month ago I havent finished decorating my spare room/study so am using my girlfriends laptop so dont have a random number generator and C) I dont own dice. So I will need you to roll for me!!!

Doc: No, you don't know. I know you don't, because I didn't tell you. Carmichael has his own retinue, who you haven't "met" directly, but he has nothing to do with the Lord Protector, who runs the Templars. In fact, the two of them are rather notorious for... not seeing eye-to-eye... ahem...

Silver:

Results of Sandy's enquiries:

Your original Johnson is coming up as a blank, as if he doesn't exist. Whilst as Johnson's go that's not entirely surprising, this guy was a total dweeb, and not really pro-Johnson material, so either that was a front, or he's a dweeb with POWERFUL or efficient backers.

You learn nothing new about Justing Carmichael, Duke of Oxford - nothing that you did not turn up in your earlier searches. Bit of a playboy, eligable batchelor, fingers in more pies than he'll ever get around to eating and a frosty relationship (at best) with the Lorp Protector.

The Lord Protector of the United Kingdom, Lord Marchment, is an old duffer who supposedly wields more power than the King. Basically, the Lord Protector is in charge of... well, of everything but that's common knowledge.

Also common knowledge is that Lord Marchment also happens to be head of the New Druidic Movement, and a fairly powerful Druid himself. Since the agents you fought at Pipewerkz were his boys, you know it was at his behest that they were there - you just don't know whether it was "official state business" or him abusing his command for NDM purposes (which occurs with startling regularity according to the shadow grapevine).

Your sources, given the information available, put odds on the Lord Protector having been Borstad's original employer at 3:1 - a HIGH liklihood. Although this could be the typical British Shadow Community's paranoia when it comes to the LP!

Now, since you all seem too professional to open the case, I'll just go ahead and tell you what's in it - it's not locked. It's just a tatty brown leather attache case.

Here goes...

Personal Secretary. This item contains no sensitive information except the deceased man’s diary and contact book. There are no indications of whom he was supposed to be meeting the day he died.

Photographs. Inside an A4 sized manila envelope are 20 black and white photographs, which appear to have been originally taken with a cyber eye camera. These mainly include publicly recognisable figures (the Duke of Oxford features frequently) meeting with various corporate representatives.

Chip Carrying Case. This standard plastic box, available at any high street store, contains 10 optical memory chips. Three are blank, the rest are as follows:

--A copy of the Duke of Oxford’s personal planner, backdated from August 2061 up to the final entry dated September 3rd 2063. Mostly public appearances and personal notes, the planner also includes a number of meetings with a Mr Michael Carruthers, who to those in the know is the UK division head of the Zeta ImpChem Corporation.

--A copy of the Accounting documentation from the Duke of Oxford’s personal files. From the information on this chip, it is clear that rumours of the Duke’s ownership and funding of the Oxford Astral Workshops are true.

--A treatise on “Traditional” druidic practice, written in 1728 by a little known author named Ingemar Ostlere, a Swiss national who was famed in his field for an obsession with mysticism and the occult. Apparently he was also a keen horticulturalist and kept a number of exquisite ornamental gardens.

--Documentation outlining research into Astral space and Metaplanar locations. A large part of the research is apparently derived from the postulations of I. Ostlere on the nature of “Psychometrically Sympathetic Naturalism,” although it fails to go into detail on any practical experimentation – noting only that his thoughts “have merit and warrant further investigation.”

--Three chips fully laden with video footage of the Duke of Oxford meeting with different people. The time/date stamps identify that he met Michael Carruthers (and a pair of other men who are apparently on his staff) on January 8th 2063, the meeting with Anthony Hildebrandt of HKB Financial Services took place on Febuary 2nd and the dinner with one “Elise Patrick” at the Orchid Hotel’s restaurant in Ennismore Gardens was on February 14th. Accompanying data identifies the woman as Doctor Elise Sophia Patrick, a toxicology specialist currently employed privately by Integrated Weapons Systems PLC in Nottingham.

“Curious Artefact.” Inside a small silk-lined mahogany box in the bottom of the briefcase is a cylindrical vial of a vaguely luminescent blue-green liquid. Sealed with what appears to be a plug of English elm, the vial has mistletoe wrapped around it’s length and what appears to be a solid orichalcum plate affixed to its surface bearing what appear to be runes of protection based on Celtic Ogham.





There you go..........

Assensing on the vial:

Intelligence: 6
Aura Reading: 3

07 05 05 05 04 04 03 02 02 = 6 Successes

Let's throw some knowledge skills while Im at it

Fringe Cults: 4
15 05 05 02

Conspiracy Theories: 6
12 05 05 03 03 02

Magic: 4
29 04 04 03 -- HOLY SHIT! That wasn't a typo!

Although the Ogham isn't your native "thing," you recognise enough of the obscure Celtic runes to recognise the warding properties of the inscription.

Along with your assensing, you discern that the vial is, indeed, quickened with an extremely powerful - and unfamiliar (to you) defensive spell. The very... tapestry and weave of the magics is most alien to you, despite the shamanic tendency toward openness in design.

As for the contents of the vial... well, your guess is as good as any. The fluid is quite obviously magically potent - an alchemical mixture of some kind - but whether the fluid is designed to be a focus, or actuallt "contains" magics of its own is a mystery.

From the "Flavour" of its aura, it would appear to be akin to some forms of Health spells, but in a drastically different way to anything you've ever assensed from any Mage, Shaman or any other practitioner.

Something - just something - says "Wiccan" but at the same time "Druid" - and, for that matter, there's a "science in magic" aspect about the actual stuff iteself that can't be denied.

It's freaky... and you get the creepy crawlies up your spine just looking at it for too long.

I love this professional tension... so GRITTY!

Deuce is fun to play, even if he's a jackass

I realized in re-reading the recent thread that we never stated what we were driving. Im assuming the big troll stuff is too conspicuous as is the Limo, but in addition to Sandy's Land Rover, we also have Tyen's Brumby. I think we definately want to hang on to both of those which means we need to be split between them. Since Duece, Poet and Tyen all interacted with the case, I assume they are in the Brumby, leaving Sandy and Natasha in the Land Rover. However, the conversations that have been had would have been over the comms...

that work for everyone?

Okey dokey then dudes - any ideas on what you're going to do?

Well, out of character, my plan is to get wired to the matrix, have Tyen contact Pep and see if his advanced searches have found anything more on the parameters she already gave. She'll also want to hop on her conspiracy network sites and see if, with a little prodding, someone knows or suspects something. She has no actual computer skill, but she took I think three of the "newsgroups" as level 1 contacts and 2 as level 2 contacts. I'll have to check my notes for that info though before I tell you which is which.

...cut short, gotta run to work

Crap, I can't find that information anywhere. I know I had them, I even used their acronyms earlier in the game but I can't find my notes on them. Did I PM them to you by chance, DB?

Also, I (Blue) don't know that much about London, present or future, so I'm unsure of the significance of Lambeth. I have a feeling I may know IC, but can you explain it OOC (or at least what I should know) so that I can respond appropriately? Spasibo!

Lambeth is known as the "Lambeth Containment Zone."

Think of it as the London version of the Redmod Barrens - it's also where Borstad was when he fled into the building and took a swan off the fire escape!

It's horrible, dirty, full of gangers and void of any authority figures



And no, sadly I don't have your stuff anymore - I think. Lemme see...

Heh, PM me your email address and I'll send you all I have...

[b]UPDATE:[/i]

It seems as if everyone (for whatever reason) has decided to give up on this game. So be it - I guess I couldn't come up with enough to hold people's interest... I'm not the most original Gamemaster.

That's fine by me, though, so Silver - if you want to start your game I'm still interested in playing! If not... well, I guess I'll wait for the next one!

Thanks for playing this far, though.

Tony

whoa whoa whoa I haven't given up. Just waiting for the next course of action, Deuce had already made it clear what he'd like to do, and apprently outvoted, so he;s pouting and going along with the rest *L*

Yes, I have been a bit busy so I haven't posted yet, but I have no lost interest!!!

Stealth: 6
16 11 05 02 01 01

Conjuring: 6
Force 6 City Spirit
11 11 07 05 03 03 - 3 Successes

Drain:
Willpower: 7 + 2 Totem Modifier
16 10 07 05 05 04 04 02 01 - 3 Successes

3 Services
L Stun

YOu think you're getting out of it that easily? Oooooh no, no chance old son I was just waiting for a response to Poet's suggestion on Lambeth.

One thing I should bring up though, I am away from 5th-13th August - my band is playing the Broadstairs Folk Week again this year. You're a Kentish man Tony, you ought to drop by!

I should also mention then that I'll be gone August 17th - 21st for GenCon

Aug 15th-21st I'll be unavailable. Well maybe available by the 19th.

@ Everyone: Okay, okay...

@ Doc Jest: DETAILS PLEASE!

Edit: It's Tam Lin, right? Can we still get copies of "Back On The Road Again?"

Tam Lin, yes, also doing some duo work as Alan Hewson and Sav Malbaski. And I believe Back On the Road Again is still available, as well as the live cd Eilidh. I don't swear to the quality though, I'm frankly not over happy with either of them, but there you go. I'll mail you the timetable

I may have even convinced the other half to come too, which is a result! Get her listening to real music instead of the rubbish she has to use for work (she's a dance teacher)

So, any word from silverspur?

Will try to get along on Tuesday, since that's my day off...