That's alright, Necrogigas, there's enough talk time to go around. Besides, it's fun to watch a little predator on predator action.

I believe we did a bit of background research, but I remember nothing. It is disconcerting that he knows so much about the team's history.

Crossbow, is the hotel the tallest building in the area?

O'Connor's already been up to the roof. Is there railing, bulwark, or something up there that could hide/obscure two people from most vantage points?

Yes, in the immediate area certainly. There are ones as tall every other block or two in any direction, but most top out at 2 stories. The roof is bare of anything, but a slightly sloping tin floor and a curb height edge that channels rainwater to the backside of the hotel. The roof access itself is a rusted metal ladder bolted to the wall to a meatal cap.

So no privacy up there. The cabbie's still ours for an hour, so a few circuits around the block might work, but I'm not sure Con knows that the cabbie's still around. Guess he'll have to figure it out.

I don't think any of us know the cabby is still around, but Torley has his contact info. If he were made aware of the need, he could pipe up.

Torley knows that the cabbie is hanging around still.

Oh yeah!

I have a white noise generator (as actress in LA, it's something you never leave home without).

As to snooping devices, without a dedicated hacker we're kinda vulnerable to that stuff. I have a very decent defense on my commlink (analyse 6, firewall 6), but I'm not all that good in the offense. For that we'll need an agent program I guess, at least to find hidden nodes and stuff like that.

White noise is good. Torley can also modulate his voice to fit the noise better.

On top of the Englebrecht problem, we have another big one. Once we have the idol's location how do we secure Silence until we can turn both over to the king?

Oh. Did we promise to give him the thief, too?? Sorry. Too many games going on. I am slipping in my old age.

The King was very clear that the thief was to be captured alive along with the idol.

Hmmm. I guess we lied to him, huh? Or, Torley lied to him.

Anyone have a good idea on securing the thief?

Best I got is convincing Silence to leave the compound with us since his location has been, or very shortly will be, compromised. Once we're isolated, Sammy knocks him out with a few stun bolts. We restrain him as best we're able. Maybe the autodoc can keep him sedated. If not, perhaps a spirit could babysit him? We may just have to be rather quick in retrieving the idol and handing both off.

We have to decide on the order of things. Do we heal him first and then get the info, or demand info before healing. Either way, we need to keep him, not only because he is part of the payment to the King, but also to be sure he didn't lie to us.

Torley can do his best to convince Silence whatever we want to convince him, but we need to be ready to restrain/stun/hold at gunpoint in case he is not willing to go along for the ride.

If I might make a suggestion, the two of you need to decide what you are doing with farothel being so busy right now. When they pop up, they are going to need to roll their heal, regardless of other decisins, so we can apply that when the time comes.

The healing can happen before or after. O'Connor will leave it to Torley and Starlet to decide if the goodwill generated by healing him beforehand is worth it, or if using it as a bargaining chip is the better play. Starlet is ultimately the decider there though. It is her magic.

If Torley can overcome his reticence towards O'Connor's psychopathy, and O'Connor can overcome his distrust of Torley's sociopathy, then the two of them could be a scarily effective duo. Starlet's meta-humanitarian streak is the wild card.

If all three of us can get on the same page, probably best to get Silence to cooperate for as long as possible and use neutralization and restraint as a backup when necessary.

I can do the healing whenever you think best. And if you want, I can also scan around for hidden nodes. I think my commlink is the best, at least until we get an agent program to do all that for us.

Go ahead faro, wouldn't hurt to check for bugs.

You got any clever plans for managing Silence?

By our actions in the last few minutes, it should be clear that our current location is compromised. So, we get in the cab right away, with Torley charismatic insistence helping Silence agree, and head ... somewhere. In the cab, we get Silence to tell us where the idol is. Then Sammy heals him as promised, then she stuns him into oblivion, with O'Connor ready with firepower to quell argument.

To deal with the muscle out front, to keep him from identifying our vehicle, Torley walks out and Commanding Voice-s him away for the time necessary for us to get away.

How's that sound?

Sounds like a plan, except you would be able to do that with Commanding Voice.

I have to commend you, you have made more use of the Voice than Thvor ever did, but that will not work. Voice is for momentary distractions or sharp easy commands. I don't see how that works the way you want it to.

"Go to your boss."

Torley's 12 dice vs. his WIL + Leadership. Torley is likely to win, and the muscle will head towards the Evil Genius's Lair. It's kind of a right thing to do, so maybe he will not fight it so hard at first. Even if it gets us no more than a few combat rounds, it gives us a chance, if we prepare it right, to get to the taxi before he clears his head.

What's he gonna do? Tell the boss he was confused and thought he should go report? Or, he was fooled by the little shit? Either way, it's bad news for an underling who failed his 'simple job' by abandoning his post.

+++++

It's an awesome adept power, for the cost, in my estimation. Not long lasting effect, but who needs more than one combat round to geek the guy who succumbed to "Drop your weapon!"

Jealous lover is watching, so tell the target, "Kiss me, you fool."

"These are not the 'droids you seek." ??? Sorry. Wrong galaxy.

"Take off your ring." (The awesome F6 Power Focus.)

Etc. And it can affect multiple targets!!!

Hey, GM. Could you please fill us all in on how many, if any, Edge points each of us have? I've really lost track.

The goon has been drinking, maybe Torley could make the guy take a piss in the corner. The staff taking umbrage would probably distract the guy long enough for us to leave.

Sure. He will be looking at the wall instead of us. Same problem with the boss.

I just mean that the command, "Go to your boss," is open to interpretation. He could VR call his boss and fall out of Voice command near instantly. A straight forward order, such as "Piss in the corner," has less wiggle room, and it creates further problems for the target.

I see your point.

Is there a reason why I can't just stunbolt him and then leave him (or taser him for the same effect). He won't be following us and anybody left unconscious in Lagos will not be that way for long, but then it's the area boys and not us who did it. And if we really want to be sure, we can still put a pistol against his head and pull the trigger.

We still know nothing about the goon's boss, and your proposition escalates the situation beyond what we're prepared for at the moment. I also doubt the goon will willing leave the hotel with us. Trying to force the issue and/or starting a fight in the hotel is also going to get us into a a much bigger fight with site security.

I don't have Torley's whole history at my finger tips. I don't want to put him on a very different path from the past interactions he has had with the team. As I understand it, he is not averse to lying to Silence about ever letting him go.

Is this a fair assessment?

Insofar as I've read the character, not only does Torley has no compunctions about manipulating or lying to people for his own ends, but he actually quit enjoys it.

Actually, I disagree, Torley is very conscious of appearance and reputation, he has no problem lying to a mark, but making a deal and then double-crossing someone seems suspect to me. That said, I would also point out, you have a resource as to what is needed, Jane may even just tell you what she wants to do if you have a question.

Thanks for the character note, and for the hint.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. If you have someone to celebrate it with, great. If not, I hope you at least have someone you can fantasize about.

Glad to hear Jane's take on the situation, and I appreciate the feedback about Torley from both of you. It gives me clues not only how to play him, but also how he is currently perceived by others.

How's that for an arrogant Torley?

I forgot about that part of things. farothel, give me your rolls for the fiddling you are doing with your commlink.

Scan: 10#4d6t5 1 1 1 1 0 2 1 2 2 3
Those are the first 10 rolls (10 combat turns) to search for hidden nodes. I need 15 successes, this is 14, so a few more rolls
Scan: 10#4d6t5 2 1 0 1 1 2 2 1 0 1

basically 11 turns to find any hidden nodes in mutual signal range.

Now to the healing:
heal spell, force 5: spellcasting: 11d6t5 4

I can heal 4P damage, giving a drain value of 2
drain: drain: 9d6t5 5
so no drain at all.

I'll have an IC post up in a minute.

On top of the first aid, that should go a long way.

No listening devices are detected, not even a hint.

Do we know how much Sammy's Heal spell has done for Silence? I see the roll above, it's the effect I wonder about.

Thanks, Crossbow. I have Feral Cities.

Okay, loving the back and forth, but before we go too far down the wrong rabbit hole, and I am not really sure how to keep it from happening, I feel it is important to keep our McGuffins straight. Engelbrecht wants the Pere Reis Map, not the Yoruba idol.

Completely okay with a rewrite to change all relevant references to the map and going forward, or someone, like Torley, can think it through. Or we can merrily proceed to kill the wrong bunnies since I hate the nasty little critters anyway.

Yeah, OK, Torley's text is the most at fault, then, so I will post/rewrite to correct it. All concerned give me a chance to do so.

Posts edited to reference the map instead of the idol.

We can just kill them on the fact they're Humanis, no?

No! No we can't. This guy is so far above that motley bunch of meth-head rednecks. This is the guy that has a public persona of philanthropist and paragon, while secretly funding Humanis, and bribing politicians to enact voter suppression laws and block police accountability acts. He could pay a Knight Errant team to eliminate us with his pocket change. If we move on him, his security is only going to be second only to a megacorp black site. In the one-in-fourteen-million chance we succeed, he had so many friends legitimate, and not, that we won't survive the reprisal.

I didn't mean the big head honcho, but the guy who's watching us (sorry if that was not clear). We don't have to do it ourselves. Just figure out a way to send some area boys on him as soon as he leaves our hotel.

Torley's Big Pep Talk is closer to the facts of the story now.

For Silence to help you, you will have to leave the hotel or wait until daylight, if you are lucky and he can spot it from the roof. That option is minimum 4 hours away. I would also point out, you have been going hard since you were awakened by the guards at about 0100 local yesterday.

Can't he point out the compound on a map?

If not, we can take a few hours of sleep first, that wouldn't be a bad thing either.