GM: [OOC - a map should be coming out to folks soon.]

[OOC- I've only heard from two players as to whether the 18th is OK.]

GM: [OOC - map has gone out to all players, as well as chat log of last game]

GM: Planning ahead of the game here or in the OOC thread might get more of the action done during the game.

Fishbreath looks across the van after the botched attempt. The mages looked years older, and Skullcracka looked like a guy who had been hit with the WTF Stick.

"Blowing up the front wall doesn't seem like such a bad idea now, does it? Maybe next time you listen to the guy who's fired a gun. College kids, ya read a book and think ya know the world. Besides, it totally worked on Karl Kombat Mage."

"I think the views of facility security are just as accurate as their ideas of mages as scantily-clad sex goddesses" Lamia replies in a deadpan voice.

"We know what triggers the magical security there and exactly the response they have to an armed incursion" she points out, not moving much as she reclines on her seat. Her head and those phantom claw marks start throbbing in time with each other if she does.

"I can poke them again and draw that response while someone else goes in the front entrance unnoticed by the spirits" she suggests.

"The rail-mounted guns in the parking lot tell us that shooting our way out won't be easy either, so a more, mmmm, subtle approach would be better." She crosses her ankles and winces.

"Grab an employee or two on the outside going in and take their uniform. It will have the right RFID tags for walking around. A service worker or a custodian, one of the little people no one pays attention to." She looks over at Fishbreath. "Bring along Mau in his cat form in your lunchbox to back you up... He could crawl through the ductwork and get access to the morgue, perhaps even let you in. They don't lock the doors from the inside, I'm sure" she chuckles.

OOC for the GM: Are there dumpsters in the parking lot? Or outside the fence? The "Dump the body in the trash" phase I'm going to suggest depends on that fact.

Fishbreath rolls his eyes as Lamia calmly plans out the best way to get him shot.

"Couple problems, Lams. First, we gotta find one of my people to gank. I know you pinkys think that if we're not in a gang we're the janitor, but we ain't as common as all that in corp world. If we can't get one of my people, we gotta hope that I can pass as human somehow. And that's without worrying about having to navigate the MAD detectors, which, RFID tag or no, are gonna be iffy about me bringing a gun, and I don't like the idea going in there naked."

He leans back, idly checking the safety on his Alpha. "Ya know, there is that van that chased us... it probably has all the vehicle tags we need to get in to that garage. We magic up this rig," he taps the floor with the butt of his gun, "and walk right in. Sure, we gonna have problems once we're inside, but we're going to have problems no matter what. I don't like any plan that depends on everything going right, which is what your idea requires; we just saw how that worked. If we're going in, we need to be able to defend ourselves."

"Sides Lams," he leers, "Karl Kombat Mage got the part about sex goddesses right, if what I'm looking at is any indication."

But... but... Lamia.... but....



Yes, dumpsters inside the fence. By the SW corner of the building (say the top of the map is N), outside of where the clinic offices and triage are. Two of you walked right by them on the way to the ambulance entrance to the garage.

"I don't mind going in naked..." Lamia replies with a wicked smirk. "I don't think it would help with this plan, but maybe next time."



Lamia ahhhs in understanding. "It doesn't matter if you can pass for human as long as you can pass for a janitor" she explains, voice light. "You won't get a second look as long as you aren't stuffing drugs down your pants. Every business is made up of parts. DocWagon's Doc Wagons and paramedics are big, expensive parts. If they get lost or broken, the corp loses money and lots of it. They'll care a lot more about that than losing a body who isn't a paying customer any more. You don't rob a gun store so you can rob a stuffer shack." She sounds remarkably businesslike as she makes the analogy.

"Now, janitors, cafeteria workers, orderlies, they're all small parts, easy to replace. They don't get invited to the company picnic and they don't get a get-well card if they break a leg. They won't be monitored and no one pays attention to them. That's why it'd be easier to go in as a service worker or two." She pauses a moment, thoughtfully.

"Ah!" She sits up from her reclining position, bouncing around nicely. "Or we just go up and ask for a tag. They'll pay even less attention to someone else's service workers. We have a Sandal delivery drone here, it'll go make a delivery of flowers, with a person going along with the drone, since this is a "pussymail." She snaps her fingers and looks smug at her inspiration. "Flowers and getting to pet the cute, therapeutic kitten." She points to Mau, instead of herself as might be expected. "So, Fish, you'll handle the kitty... or Mau turns YOU into the cat, since he's so much more non-threatening." 'But Lamia, what if I need my big gun to shoot out lots of bullets at someone?' you ask. Simple!" she says, putting a suggestive purr in her voice.

"Mau keeps the vehicle mask over the drone, making it look like that exact drone without an assault rifle and other dangerous toys inside the cargo bay. It will slide right past a MAD."

She laces her fingers together and stretches her arms out in front of her. "Now, they have astral security to detect such tricks, so it won't work at all... unless some lovely mage shows up in the astral on the other side of the building, looking intent on mischief at that exact moment. I make the diversion until you're past the entrance, then the mask spell can be dropped. They don't have MADs inside the building."

Now her arms go up over her head as her chest goes out. "That gets two people and some drones inside, with enough firepower to leave the building hot. The only outside factor is getting a couple of patient names to do deliveries for, simpler than cutting RFID tags out of a DocWagon or waylaying people on the street."

She drops her hands into her lap. "So, it's a start. Getting the body out might be trickier. What can you do once you're in?"




Lamia smirks. "Oh, no, not at all... I am the only sex goddess mage you'll ever see in the real world" she explains. "One of a kind, not a yen a dozen as you see there."

Lamia receives a message from Cleo:

<<Lamia. Oh, baby gimme a call real quick. Something is really wrong with me. I need your help! Call me right away!>>

Lamia's virutal pet, a redheaded girl with dragon wings, ears and tail seems to climb out from behind her. "Hey, phonecall you oversexed cow, important!" she squeaks. Lamia holds up a finger to everyone else and says "Pardon me," flicks her and sends her flying away, then returns the call.

<<"It's Lamia. What is it, Cleo?">> she asks with concern, quick and to the point.

<< I...I don't know, exactly. I think I'm sick, or something. I keep blacking out and waking up in places I don't know how I got there. Sometimes... sometimes I think I've done things ... wrong. Oh, Lamia I'm scared. Can you come and help me? Maybe look at me with your magic and figure out what I'm sick with, and cure me or something?>>

Lamia's brow furrows as she has her quiet conversation with her friend. Her eyes flick back towards Fishbreath and she wonders what he did with all those extra doses of Tempo... she's recalling the possessed girl back in the club, and thoughts of an old instructor talking about "good merges" and "bad merges" in regard insect spirit possession.

<< "You know I'm not the most gifted healer, Cleo, but I'll be right there and I'll do whatever I can. >>

Once she's hung up, Lamia looks up at everyone else. "My friend Cleo... you remember her, from when we scored that Tempo?... She's having some issues. I'm going to go over and see what it is. I should only be a few minutes, so don't touch my body... it's no fun if I'm not here to enjoy it too." Her heart isn't fully in her suggestive comments though. She summons up a watcher and tells it to keep watch on her body (The car might drive off, after all), then pops out of her body with her power and weapon foci and zips off to Cleo's shop.

"Huh; that might actually work, Lams, except I ain't that good about the whole talking my way through things; I guess I could be turned into a cat, but... uh... I can get changed back, right? I dunno how I feel about magicking me up. You sure we can't just take the 'tags off that crashed van and sneak us into the garage? It's a straight shot to the morgue from there." He nervously checks the safety on his Ares Alpha as he looks around the van. "Plus, with your thing, we gotta know if Mau going to be able to get to the Morgue? No offense, Mau, I'm sure you're real good at the book stuff, but I dunno how you'll handle the stress once we're inside. I'm sure things will get a little hot once we get inside, but it's nothing I can't handle while ya'll get the stiff. I mean, it's a dead body, so it's not like it's going to fight back or 'nuthin."

Lamia, you find Cleo in her apartment. Her distress is written all over her aura, even without an Assensing Test to see it. Make an Assensing Test now, please.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2065179/

Here we go, 2 successes.

Reroll this attempt. Perception modifiers can apply to Assensing as well (some may argue with this, but I am using it). When searching your friend for what ails her, you may use the "perceiver is actively looking" bonus of +3, so you have 9 dice, not 6.

Well, I won't complain!

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2065402/

Four successes this time. Hooray for slightly above average!

Lamia:

OOC How awakened is Cleo? At all? I'd imagine you'd need to at least have astral perception to make it as a talismonger... otherwise you'd have to trust your clients to tell you what's magic and what isn't.

There are toolkits that allow mundanes to make assessments about magical items. Also, many of the materials that talismongers deal with are not yet refined and enchanted. Cleo is your creation, but I have worked under the assumption that she is not Awakened.

I didn't have an opinion if Cleo should be Awakened or not, it was an academic question... it'd be hard to get one's aura this messed up as a mundane. But clearly not impossible!

@Lamia:

(From before Lamia took her call)

"Oh, it's easy to get changed back... I've hardly ever seen it fail..." Lamia answers with a wicked grin on her face. "We'll have to put some pants in the drone though, they don't change with you."

"That crashed van is full of angry, armed DocWagon people who were chasing some criminals. We'd have to deal with them, the security on the van and then take it back to the place it just left. Even if the crash wasn't reported to the DocWagon system, the people there would still want to know what happened. 'Nuthin'' probably would not convince them."

"Now, I have an even better idea about their magical security. I'll summon up a watcher to shout about 'free health care' in the nurse's station here... and at the next closest two franchises as well. That will divert the overwatch mages."

@Lamia:

@Lamia:


@all players:

Lamia returns to her body, and our little side escapade is on hold for the moment. As I recall, the four of you are in the SUV, tooling away from the DocWagon facility and planning what to do next. You evaded the pursuit on land, and there does not appear to be any air surveillance either.

"All done with that" Lamia says... her eyes unfocus as she checks out Fishbreath with an oddly intent look. "Say, did you take the rest of the Tempo we picked up last week?" she asks casually.

(Assensing Fish for the same sort of thing. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2071192/ One success, which might detect the fact that Fishbreath is an orc!)

Fishbreath looks clean.

EDIT: Well.... as clean as Fishbreath ever looks!

"So, if we're done with the magical house calls, we've got crime to plan. If their astral security is as good as you say, then how do we know masking my drone will pass? I don't know how your magic mojo works, but couldn't they notice the drone with guns pretending to not be drone with guns, and man pretending to be cat?"

Lamia looks a bit frazzled after her out of body experience. "All we have to do is mask your drone while it goes through the MAD detectors at the front door, a few moments at most... It will be dropped once the drone gets inside. To a spirit or a sexy mage on the astral plane, you can't tell a drone from a gun from a chair very well. They won't notice thanks to my distraction" she explains confidently. "The cat spell can be dropped the same way... Mau can ask for a visitor's tag for his cat as well, so walking around won't be a problem."

"We gots more?" Fishbreath asks, looking attentive. "When? We gonna sell it? If not, I'll take it!"

After listening to Skullcracka and Lamia speak, he pipes up: "So... uh I gotta be a cat? I dunno if I like that... can I change myself back? Am I stuck as a cat if Mau dies? Will I have a craving for cat food for the rest of my life?

...we sure we can't just shoot our way in?"

OOC: I'm not sure I can be changed into a cat. Shapechange only allows characters to be transmogrified into an animal that has a body score within 2 points of the character. FB has a 7 body, so unless we're changing him into a lion, I'm not sure it will work. I can always intimidate my way in, that worked well at the diner

Lamia shakes her head fiercely. "No, I think you should flush any you find, unless you like sharing your body with whatever spirits are passing by" she says, uncharacteristically grim for a moment.



Lamia presses her fingertips together. "If you reveal these secrets of magic, the seven blood gods might curse you... but since you asked... holding a spell this way is like flexing a muscle. When he stops, the spell ends" she explains with a mischievous smirk. "No one has ever complained to me about being stuck in an animal form" she continues.

"Did you hear about that go-gang that shot up a DocWagon facility and made off with millions of yen in drugs?" she asks, changing tacks. "No? Because it never happens. Their whole business plan involves heavily-armed paramedics dragging you to safety and keeping you safe afterwards. Shooting your way in would be like going into Ancients turf and telling them that a dozen of them can't take one orc."




OOC I'm not sure either... a 6 foot long bull shark has a body of 3, a wolf 2 and a great cat, 6 (described as "human sized" on the Wikipedia), so there's no solid metric to go by here. We could do it in reverse, Mau as the cat, Fishbreath as the employee, but he's a bit more threatening-looking than Mau. On the other hand, everyone loves a cute kitty!

"No need to worry, Fishbreath. I can't turn others into cats yet, only myself. So, if anyone has to go in that way, it's me."

Still looking over her fingers, Lamia says "Regardless of who, that is a way to get two armed people inside. Now what comes next? The 'cat person' can be dropped off and head for the morgue while the other brings good cheer to the patients and diverts attention. Ideally, you'll be able to withdraw the information our client is after from the computer as well. Once you have the body, the simplest way to leave would be by an emergency exit. Setting off a fire alarm beforehand would make sure that does not draw much extra attention... a Smokecloud drone could be sent near a smoke detector..."

GM - Several helicopters fly overhead. None appears to be directly looking for you.

@Lamia:
In the chat thread you learned that the spirit sent to follow the astral trail from Cleo was disrupted some time after you sent it. You haven't heard from Cleo in a couple of days now.

A number of magical groups' names come up after a search. More may show up with further searching, but if you wish to follow any up now, tell me which of the following interest you:

"Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants" - magic paths to pleasure, exclusively female
"Worlds of Wonder" - exploration in the metaplanes (may require wrangling an invitation)
"Survivors of the Sixth World" - 'commando'-type training for magicians, nuts 'n' bolts practicalities of magic in the shadows
"Magic Lantern" - magicians interested in directing their skills to the entertainment industry
"Agrarian Magic" - magic directed towards agriculture and animal husbandry - a lot of adepts

@the others:
There is a stretch of at least a month in which to develop skills, attributes, etc. Let me know if you have anything in mind.

After the job, Lamia has picked up enough money to do nothing but enjoy herself... but her friend has vanished completely, and after such disturbing and cryptic events. Instead of losing herself at her favorite clubs, she throws herself into research. She sets up a steady of watcher spirits, one always at Clio's home, the other searching the city for her for a start. She also spends time checking out Dumpshock for any references to Tempo, posting all the things she's seen in relation to it, getting the word out on the magic-related boards.

Much as she's loathe to admit it, her power alone might not be able to find out what has attached itself to her friend. If a spirit couldn't follow the trail of that stalk through astral space, it would be more dangerous for her. There were higher planes to seek knowledge on... She put out feelers towards the Survivors of the Sixth World, as tracking and killing spirits would be one thing they specialize in, surely... and also to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, because they sound very compatible with her lifestyle.

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants may be TOO compatible with Lamia's lifestyle... she has not heard back from them and pictures them in an extended bacchanal. Nor has she heard from the Survivors of the Sixth World, though a healthy bit of paranoid is hardly unexpected from such a group.

"There is one more thing... obvious but dangerous..." she thinks as she sits in her summoning circle, bringing up a Spirit of Man to watch over her body and heal her if she is injured. She releases her astral form from her body and starts making a circuit of all the most wiz clubs, the ones where Tempo is the hot new drug, watching for other people with those strange astral tethers.

An astral survey of a few clubs shows that Lamia's friend Clio is not the only person to show evidence of some kind of astral connection leading off into astral space. Even a cursory assensing of a few people with such threads indicates addiction, though you can't identify the specifics. Sometimes a thread seems to disappear spontaneously, or appear likewise.

Some exclusive clubs have strong wards, and the threads disappear upon passing through the astral barrier of the ward. (Assuming some time spent on this info trail...) Lamia finds that if she enters one such club and watches patrons entering, on occasion an addicted person enters, but no thread comes with him. Waiting outside and following a person with a thread attached, the thread is not apparent once Lamia re-looks astrally again after passing through the barrier.

Lamia, make a LOG + Magic Background Test (10 dice) and tell me the result.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2229392/

5 successes!

Well, then....

The threads appear likely to be staying in the Astral Plane, as opposed to going off into some Metaplane. In fact, you have a general sense of 'southwards' and 'far'.

The threads have a feeling to them, sort of bonding/possession. You yourself have never experienced this, but your studies lead you to think: Spirit Pact. From all you've read, Spirit Pact is a Free Spirit power.

@Mau:

<<@Mau: Hoi, chummer! John here. Got a little something you might find useful. Check your cred and gimme a call.>>

<@Fishbreath: Hoi, Fishbreath. Got some info about people askin' for a guy fits your description, but from up north. If you care, gimme a call.>>

@ChiPsiUp:

I don't seem to have info on your contacts. Did we miss this somehow, or did I just lose the info? let me know and fill me in on the details.

Skullcracka wakes up one morning in a funk. He wanders around all day long, wondering where all his friends have gone. This team he has been working with is fine, and someday maybe they will be friends... but seriously, who loves Skully? Nobody.

"Spirit Pact is not a possession alone from what I've read..." Lamia thinks as she prepares to shift into "fast" speed, following the threads southward to see if they draw together and where they end up. "How could a drug summon a spirit and let it in someone's aura? And how does one find a free spirit..." The answer to that one is clear. "The metaplanes..."

Astral Space, somewhere south of Seattle

Lamia hurtles at great speed along one thread among many that leads soutwards to....? An astral entity zips along another thread, heading in the other direction. The fly-by is fleeting, but the entity appears to be pulling around and coming towards Lamia.

Lamia, make an Assensing roll to determine how much you know of this entity before you must make a decision as to what to do in the next few seconds.

Should you survive this encounter, Lamia, (Much GM wringing of hands and chortles!) there is information regarding one of the magical groups you have sought, the Survivors of the Sixth World. It appears it is interested in you.

<<@Mau: C'mon, chummer, I can't wait with this thing forever! Check out what it looks like.
[[link: kitty ]] You gotta be interested in this thing!>>

Fishbreath, was that really a tail you had to dump earlier today? That message from Enzo may be worth a look-see.

Skullcracka, you have spent the whole day wondering what went wrong in Vancouver, and no matter how you duck and dodge the logic, it keeps coming back to that one party, where Cynthia outed you. People just don't understand. And she should have known better. But being cut loose like that made you overreact.

Maybe it's time to answer her mail.