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pbangarth
If PCs want to talk to each other publicly, they can do it here.

Peter
pbangarth
Jimmi here. There is surveillance, data gathering work available. Johnson says a week or two of low risk observation. My sense is gangs, possibly organized crime are involved, so take that with a grain of salt. I'm calling you because I know you are not 'squeamish'.

Let me know through our secure channel if you are available for a meet with Ms. Johnson. I will inform the team members of the team makeup when I have it.
Fyndhal
Mau contacts Jimmi via secure channels:

"Jimmi, good to hear from you. Any word on if this is a foreign or domestic deal? A couple weeks out of town means I need to make arrangements, but if it's local, then no worries -- count me in."
pbangarth
Jimmi replies to Mau:

Here in Seattle. You're in.
Octopiii
Fishbreath gets back to Jimmi:

Hoi, chummer, sounds good! We gonna get some ship ta ship action on dis one? My sea legs are gettin' rusty, omae.
pbangarth
Jimmi to Fishbreath:

Particulars are sketchy, just that the job is in Seattle. You're in.
ChiPsiUp
Skullcraka to Jimmi, via secured matrix im:

"I'm free, n' can use teh scratch."
pbangarth
Jimmi to Skullcracka:

I figured as much, Skullcracka. Heard you'd been looking seriously the last week. You're in.
Knight Saber
Lamia replies to Jimmi through her anonymous Matrix link.

"'Low-risk observation' that needs a runner of my caliber and a whole team promises to be anything but boring. I'm available for a meet."
pbangarth
Jimmi replies to Lamia:

You know it. You're in.
pbangarth
Jimmi to all:

Here's your team for this run: Mau, Fishbreath, Skullcracka and Lamia. I believe there is no need for introductions.

Ms. Johnson wishes to meet you tomorrow night at 21:00 hrs. at Tickler's Strip Club, downtown. She will expect you four.
Knight Saber
After revealing the findings of her brain probe, Lamia looked up sharply. "My watcher spirit was disrupted" she informed the rest of the team. "That alone isn't hard, but these people are making an Awakened drug that attracts possession spirits that I've never heard of before. We should expect magical security and opposition from here on out. I'll bet that they have some people testing the product themselves as well, so watch out for people who can hurl someone through the air with one hand."

She snorts and a bit of her haughty tone comes back. "That's good advice all the time though."
pbangarth
News Flash -- News Now, News Every Day -- When it Matters to Know First

A horrific incident took place in the Casbah Night Club, Downtown on 4th near Pike last night around midnight. Eye witness reports suggest a slight, young woman, Mary Hawkins of New York City, was clubbing with friends when she went berserk, wrecking furniture and attacking anyone within reach. Witnesses claim she exhibited superhuman strength, throwing Bobby Courtland, a 350 kg. troll bouncer working that night, fully 10 meters through the air. He remains in critical condition in hospital. Club patrons fled for their lives, but some were trapped in the club by the violence.

Police arrived on the scene and in short order were forced to resort to gunfire to deal with the woman and protect club goers unable to flee. An unnamed but reliable source in the police department reports that 317 bullets were fired at Miss Hawkins. Most shots are alleged to have missed, or even bounced off of her, causing collateral damage among patrons still in the establishment. Unconfirmed reports suggest that some wounds healed almost instantly, right before the eyes of the police and clubgoers. All told, 3 deaths and 17 injuries are reported from the incident. Two other patrons who died remain unidentified until next of kin are notified.

Miss Hawkins was finally stopped when the last 39 bullets found their mark, with an effect that caused at least one veteran police officer to be nauseated. No motive or reason for her violence has been given. The police department is investigating the incident, and gave no comment when asked if this incident is related to others alleged to have been caused by the new drug, tempo, recently introduced into Seattle. Several reports in the last couple of weeks link tempo, an as-yet-unclassified drug, to unexplained and radical behaviour on the part of users.

The club will be closed for repairs until further notice.

More news as it comes available -- straight from us to you.
ChiPsiUp
Skullcracka IM to Fishbreath:

Hey hey! Were 0n the n3ws. [Link] Und3r "club patrons fled for their lives". Anyhoo, n0w I dun regr3t not t4kin s0me flipside. S0unds liek it's m3ssed up. U alright aft3r u l3ft, Fish? Didn't go thr0wing carz 0ff teh freew4y, did u? LOL.

------

Turning the the others still the van, Skull forwards the news flash in case they haven't seen it on their comms yet. "Says here they've got several other reports of strange behavior linked to tempo. I'm gonna run a search, see if I can pull up some of these."
Octopiii
Fishbreath to Skullcracka:

Duuuude!!! U Missed out!! Drek wz sweet! I gotta get dat chick's # Lams knws n prty wt hr!
pbangarth
From the OOC thread, Knight Saber's post:

QUOTE
Right now, whenever works.

Chiphead: For my 2 cents, we really need some matrix support, and a face.

BTW: Should we plan out how we're going to track the two drug dealers here on the boards? I think it'd save us some valuable time in chat (and let pbangarth plot up dastardly things for us!)

Right now, there's the three of you in the van and me on my motorcycle; we can do it over the commlink. I think we can codger together a plan in the next month. smile.gif


From Lamia's mind probe, we know "Alec Littletree has meetings with someone from another gang, and Tommy is a lookout. The meeting place is a Tacoma bar -- you have the location."

We go there, stake the place out, bug the inside with a drone if possible, put a person inside. Mau or the face character we'd recruit for the inside work. Skullcracka's rotodrones can stand by on the outside to tail them once the meeting is over. Lamia handles the astral overwatch and peeks at their magical security.
Knight Saber
Lamia has come around from her mysterious faint and is sharing what she's learned, about how a spirit sampled her astral form before diving into that girl and possessing her... the one who had to be shot with so many bullets. There's a brief, scholarly diversion about possession spirits and how they can make their hosts immune to normal weapons, touching on the fact that the drug must be attracting them and allowing possession, which is normally not so easy. Her sultry mannerisms fall away as she gets into the subject.

After that, she squares her shoulders, chest moving in a provocative fashion. "Now, my spell uncovered many interesting secrets from that bit of scum on the club floor. One of our targets, Alec Littletree, has meetings with someone from another gang, and the other, Tommy is a lookout. The meeting place is a Tacoma bar -- I have the location." She enters the grid coordinates on the group IM chat.

"That's an excellent place to begin. We can go there, stake the place out, bug the inside with a drone if possible, put a person inside. Mau or someone more social can handle the inside work. Skullcracka's rotodrones can stand by on the outside to tail them once the meeting is over. I'll handles the astral overwatch and peek at their magical security. They're involved with a potent Awakened drug, so they are likely involved with magical talent. No one I can't handle, but they don't need handling now..."
ChiPsiUp
[OOC: GM, can Skullcracka find any of those other reports on tempo related disorders? ]
pbangarth
[OOC] ChiPsiUP, make a Data Search Skill Test for Skullcraka.
Octopiii
Fishbreath, via IM:

Chummrs, we need 2 follww da othr dude fr a wk 2! How we gunna find him? I'm gunna head 2 da bar, and have a look, while u college boyz figger things out

ChiPsiUp
QUOTE (pbangarth @ Feb 11 2009, 05:55 PM) *
[OOC] ChiPsiUP, make a Data Search Skill Test for Skullcraka.


[OOC: Um. How? Is there a dice roller on the forums?]
pbangarth
QUOTE (ChiPsiUp @ Feb 11 2009, 03:17 PM) *
[OOC: Um. How? Is there a dice roller on the forums?]


No, do it yourself and let me know the results. I trust you. In MapTool there is an online tool that allows everyone to see your rolls, but here as there I am more interested in the story. You can have as much fun as I with a catastrophic roll! Ask Knight Saber.
ChiPsiUp
[OOC: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1936458/ There. Looks like 2 successes. smile.gif ]
pbangarth
[OOC] That's a handy little webpage. OK, let me figure out what you learn.
Fyndhal
QUOTE (Knight Saber @ Feb 10 2009, 10:34 PM) *
Lamia has come around from her mysterious faint and is sharing what she's learned, about how a spirit sampled her astral form before diving into that girl and possessing her... the one who had to be shot with so many bullets. There's a brief, scholarly diversion about possession spirits and how they can make their hosts immune to normal weapons, touching on the fact that the drug must be attracting them and allowing possession, which is normally not so easy. Her sultry mannerisms fall away as she gets into the subject.

After that, she squares her shoulders, chest moving in a provocative fashion. "Now, my spell uncovered many interesting secrets from that bit of scum on the club floor. One of our targets, Alec Littletree, has meetings with someone from another gang, and the other, Tommy is a lookout. The meeting place is a Tacoma bar -- I have the location." She enters the grid coordinates on the group IM chat.

"That's an excellent place to begin. We can go there, stake the place out, bug the inside with a drone if possible, put a person inside. Mau or someone more social can handle the inside work. Skullcracka's rotodrones can stand by on the outside to tail them once the meeting is over. I'll handles the astral overwatch and peek at their magical security. They're involved with a potent Awakened drug, so they are likely involved with magical talent. No one I can't handle, but they don't need handling now..."


"I can certainly poke my nose into the bar and keep an ear open while I'm there. Sounds like fun."

[GM: What is this bar like? Go-Gang hang out? Yak club? What can I find out on the chatrooms?]
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1937192/
pbangarth
[OOC] I would prefer that the bar be explored during game-time. Before-hand legwork, team discussion and planning, equipment gathering... all sorts of time consuming activities that carry little risk of killing a PC or ending/starting a plot-encounter are wonderful uses of this thread.

[IC: GM to Skullcraka] There are several reports that describe similar encounters. From those subjects that survive, a consistent message is that they experience blackouts lasting several hours, of which time they have absolutely no recollection. They wake up in strange places, with effects such as damage, pregnancy, lost items, shocked friends etc. which they cannot explain. Male, female, old, young, all metas... there seems to be no pattern as to subjects.
Knight Saber
QUOTE (Octopiii @ Feb 11 2009, 02:38 PM) *
Fishbreath, via IM:

Chummrs, we need 2 follww da othr dude fr a wk 2! How we gunna find him? I'm gunna head 2 da bar, and have a look, while u college boyz figger things out


IMing back, Lamia says "I have a feeling that they'll both be at this meeting. They're in the same business, after all. I wouldn't poke around in gang territory without backup if I were you."

[GM, what does the dossier say about Xa Firebird in relation to Alec Littletree? Same gang, friends, anything?]
pbangarth
[GM] Same gang, not much info on their interaction. They know each other, but work different 'accounts'.
Knight Saber
QUOTE (pbangarth @ Feb 16 2009, 03:53 PM) *
[GM] Same gang, not much info on their interaction. They know each other, but work different 'accounts'.



[OOC] Based on the mind probe, is the meeting we have a line on big enough that Xa will be there too? Was there anything about him in Barry's mind?
pbangarth
[GM] Nope. Strictly Alec Littletree. The mindprobe finds nothing about Xa Firebird in connection with the meeting in the bar.
Knight Saber
QUOTE (Knight Saber @ Feb 15 2009, 09:55 PM) *
IMing back, Lamia says "I have a feeling that they'll both be at this meeting. They're in the same business, after all. I wouldn't poke around in gang territory without backup if I were you."


After a moment's thought, Lamia admits and IMs "We can't be sure of that though. I have another plan..."

She pushes up her glasses to see the real world and summons up a watcher spirit. "Find Xa Firebird with your Search power" she instructs it, showing the picture from the dossier. Then she summons a second watcher up and says "Follow that watcher and report back to me if he's destroyed, stops at a mana barrier or is dissolved. Tell me where it happened."

"That way, if the first one runs afoul of security, we'll at least know Firebird's general location" she explains to the others, stretching her legs out in her seat.

[GM, do you want summoning and drain rolls, or won't it matter since we have downtime and they're trivial. And what about the Search result rolls? They're based on secret GM modifiers, so do you want to just give the results?]
pbangarth
[GM] Do make the rolls so that the off-chance of glitching ... has a chance. Tell me if you glitch or critical glitch. (It was so much fun the last time, wasn't it?) Do tell me how many hours of service you have from the two, as that is important information for determining your success.

I will then get back to you with the information you glean.
Fyndhal
"I was pretty sure the info we got on the disk indicated those two ran in different circles, despite being affiliated with the same gang. My impression was they are both "wholesalers" who are supplying different markets."

After Lamia sends off her Watchers, I ask, "Didn't you try the watcher trick last time with no results? I've never found the small spirits to be that reliable in searching for someone, unless I had a pretty good idea of where they were already. I ask mainly because I don't want them to tip the guys off, and we've already seen some strange spirit activity surrounding this thing."
ChiPsiUp
"Different markets? But they're both local. Think they deal with different products then? Doesn't make much sense that the same gang would have two guys running the show doing the same thing in the same city." Skullcracka comments.
Octopiii
QUOTE (ChiPsiUp @ Feb 19 2009, 01:28 PM) *
"Different markets? But they're both local. Think they deal with different products then? Doesn't make much sense that the same gang would have two guys running the show doing the same thing in the same city." Skullcracka comments.


Fishbreath replies:"Naw omae, I think he means one duz de upscale club types lk lamy's hottt friend and de other does the sleaze bags, ya know? I know which clients I wanna stake out, if ya know whatta mean lolz!z?"
Fyndhal
QUOTE (Octopiii @ Feb 19 2009, 02:40 PM) *
Fishbreath replies:"Naw omae, I think he means one duz de upscale club types lk lamy's hottt friend and de other does the sleaze bags, ya know? I know which clients I wanna stake out, if ya know whatta mean lolz!z?"


"More or less, yeah, that's what I meant."
Knight Saber
QUOTE (pbangarth @ Feb 19 2009, 10:58 AM) *
[GM] Do make the rolls so that the off-chance of glitching ... has a chance. Tell me if you glitch or critical glitch. (It was so much fun the last time, wasn't it?) Do tell me how many hours of service you have from the two, as that is important information for determining your success.

I will then get back to you with the information you glean.


OOC: THANK you for pointing that out... you jinxed it.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1946717/

12d6 → [2,6,5,1,3,1,1,6,1,1,6,1] = (34)
12d6 → [1,6,1,2,4,1,2,3,2,3,4,2] = (31)

Using the power focus for the summoning. So, 4 hours on the "search" Watcher, and a glitch. 1 hour on the "Report back" one. Let me know if I should roll the drain and what else happens with the glitch, then I'll respond. The plan looked good in theory...
Octopiii
OOC: GAH HA HA HA!!! Sorry, I always find it funny when a large dice pool glitches. smile.gif
pbangarth
[OOC Peter] Players such as you are such a gift, Knight Saber!

[OOC GM] The first spirit comes to you, with an appearance similar to this. It is eager to serve you, though a bit .... squeaky. It rushes off in search of Xa Firebird. The second spirit zooms away to follow. Whatever drain you may suffer will wear off before anything serious happens, so don't worry about it.
Knight Saber
QUOTE (Fyndhal @ Feb 19 2009, 11:38 AM) *
"I was pretty sure the info we got on the disk indicated those two ran in different circles, despite being affiliated with the same gang. My impression was they are both "wholesalers" who are supplying different markets."

After Lamia sends off her Watchers, I ask, "Didn't you try the watcher trick last time with no results? I've never found the small spirits to be that reliable in searching for someone, unless I had a pretty good idea of where they were already. I ask mainly because I don't want them to tip the guys off, and we've already seen some strange spirit activity surrounding this thing."


Lamia makes a sour face at the odd shape the first watcher takes, the thing calling her "Nice Lay-dee" before floating off. Her glasses are still off and she massages her forehead instead of going back online. "Exactly" she says to Mau. "I tried it and didn't get any results. So the watcher was taken out or found a barrier it couldn't get past. With a second spirit, we'll know where it happens this time." Lacing her fingers and stretching her arms out in front of her, she goes on "Even if they're spotted, watcher spirits are a nothing more than a trivial nuisance. A powerful elemental would be a tip that someone with major mojo was poking around the gang and throw up more alarm flags."
pbangarth
[OOC GM] Shortly after Lamia's second watcher runs out of its hour of life and dissolves back into the ether, the first watcher returns with news that it has found Xa. He is in a warehouse listed and mapped in your original dossier as a base for his gang. There was no indication of any magical attempt to destroy or banish the spirits.

The watcher waits for further instructions. You have a little over two hours service left in it.
Knight Saber
QUOTE (pbangarth @ Feb 23 2009, 08:42 AM) *
[OOC GM] Shortly after Lamia's second watcher runs out of its hour of life and dissolves back into the ether, the first watcher returns with news that it has found Xa. He is in a warehouse listed and mapped in your original dossier as a base for his gang. There was no indication of any magical attempt to destroy or banish the spirits.

The watcher waits for further instructions. You have a little over two hours service left in it.


Lamia looks a little perturbed after the first hour when the backup spirit dissipates, but perks up an hour later when the awkward-looking spirit returns and announces its findings. "Go back and watch the warehouse. If Firebird leaves, follow him and tell me where he goes" she instructs, glad to see it gone again.

Stretching her arms over her head and yawning to get attention, she says "My spirit came up with paydata. Firebird is right where the dossier says..." as she brings up an AR map and presses her finger to the location of the warehouse. She tries not to shoot Mau a gloating look... just not very well.

"Now, I don't want to commute to and from the Barrens every day, so we'd do well to find a squat in the area to run this operation" she says, lacing her fingers and putting her arms out in front of her. She pokes at the location of the bar where Littletree's meeting is taking place. "Somewhere between these two spots would be best."
pbangarth
[OOC GM] The bar where Littletree is having a meeting is in Tacoma, and the warehouse where Firebird is holed up is in the Barrens. They are basically on opposite sides of the Metroplex. Halfway between would be somewhere... downtown?

The squat in the Barrens is a regular base for the gang, whereas the bar, as far as you know, is a one-off meeting.
Knight Saber
Lamia looks at where she's ended up pointing. "A downtown condo is an ideal office for this venture" she says confidently, without missing a beat. "Somewhere in their known turf would be less pleasant but more practical. A squat in the Barrens to keep an eye on Firebird, to start with."
Fyndhal
"Yeah, a place to hole up down in the Barrens is likely the best bet. Anyone have any contacts down there to set something up?"
pbangarth
[OOC GM - *bump* to put this on the first page]
pbangarth
[OOC - I'm having trouble posting chat logs to the forum, specifically adding them to the first post of this thread. It keeps telling me there are too many emoticons, though I have removed them all. It could simply be that the files are too big ( about 200 k each), although the powers-that-be-think they should not be.

I may just have to continue to pmail them to you. Topknot, If you could pmail me an address, I will send the chat log of the first and second sessions to you.]
Fyndhal
Mau looks around at the rest of the group and then looks back at the building Xa just snuck into, wryly. "So, uh, anyone else got a bad feeling about this? Do we go in after him, or back off and wait to see if he comes out?"
pbangarth
Basically, you are only a minute or two past the time you see him enter the building.
Fyndhal
Mau IM's everyone
<Ok, how do we want to go about doing this? With just the 4 of us, we're going to be very exposed via the matrix, so we need to get some sort of overwatch setup, unless we come up with something extremely clever.
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