Anna returns to her body quietly, avoiding the attention of the spirit.
>> The three people are there, they say that they have the girl and plan to sacrifice her -- likely at midnight (something happens at midnight tonight). Confirming that the dwarf girl is escaped and they have some one (male) named Magog searching for her. They are unaware of us - but afraid of the police due to the kidnaped girl escaping. One of them is proficient in fireballs - and apparently triggered one fireball to prevent her from escaping -- we can use that to find out where it was. How do we proceed do we engage them now by surprise?

"Could this Magog also be a spirit? If you plan a straightforward assault, I can only act as a backup and prevent them from going online. The strain would lie on Nova and Taurus for offensive power and Anna for magical defense."

Anna responds >> They already have a singe spirit - here. So it is possible they can access another spirit. Magog would have to be a bound spirit for what I heard to make sense because they intend to order him to either fetch or kill the girl. At any case, if we subdue these people and Magog is a spirit then he goes free and the girl will be at less risk. I say we do it, Taurus and Nova are a lot of firepowers. I can help with utility spells like invisibility or silence I can also do spell defense, and summon another spirit, perhaps a fire spirit to get them out of the car into an ambush.

<< They do have one of the girls with them, though. We need to keep that in mind. >>

Anna texts >> Likely so - and they plan to murder her tonight. So the only question is how we minimize the risk when engaging them.

<< Ideally, we wait until they get out of the car. They are likely to get the girl out last. But they will probably get to the site first. Any idea, why they are stopping here? >>

>> From their conversation, it was implied that they are waiting for backup. So I would not wait.

The minotaur had arrived on scene, but had chosen to hang back, lack of magical understanding creating an abundance of caution. As the team conferred, he realized that what was needed was a distraction, to get the targets in the open.

Well, I can definitely be distracting

With that decided, he moved to the road and started jogging up the road, trying not to really be aware of what was going on.

Nova took up position away from the car, but still within sight, hiding in the vegetation. She had her rifle ready, and her shotgun nearby loaded with those Zapper rounds, in case they needed to stop the car quickly.

At precisely 2345h the side door of the rover opened and one of the men got out, carrying a very large backpack. After lighting a nic-stick and taking a deep pull, he began marching off toward the camp. On the astral, Anna could see the spirit of man following him. Concentrating, she could see the connection stretching between them, indicating that this was a bound spirit.

<< We need to act at some point. I can follow him and take him out. If he is unprepared, he won't have much of a chance. What do you think? >>

I suspect he is a mystic adept - so you are unlikely to surprise him. I'll petrify him instead. She waits for the man to gain a bit of a distance to not make his demise obvious, and then casts the petrify spell burning a bunch of reagents to fuel the spell without harming her health.

Nova used her auto-injector at that point to hit herself up with a dose of Jazz.

The man turned to stone mid stride - and the spirit over the Rover went wild: "ALARM" it bellowed while streaking towards Anna.

With a blood-curdling roar, Taurus drives his horns into the petrified mage

charge: 17d6t5 8

Taurus' ramming attack hit the statue pretty exactly at it's most vulnerable points. The sudden stresses in the material practically pulverized the whole corpus. As soon as that happened, Anna's spell automatically dropped, as there was no longer a valid target. Almost immediately, the dust and wreakage of calcium carbonate turned back into blood, flesh and bone, spraying around like a particularly disgusting pricked water balloon.

Meanwhile the petrified spirit bounced of the ground, no longer flying.

Seeing the charging spirit, Anna instantly knows that Sophie would protect her - but she needs to do something - and so she casts another petrify spell. The spirit is instantly crippled, and falls to the ground - then her other spell breaks and she is suddenly aware of Taurus taking an hidious bath. The bloodied minataur dismembered the statue. Realising that the entire situation got a whole lot messy than she anticipated, she makes sure that everyone is covered with the counterspell field.

James moves through the foliage to get a line of sight to the car.

Whatever was going on inside the car, so far there was no sign of anyone else coming out.

@team "Taurus, geht the fragging girl out!"

Taurus will look at the vehicle.

"GET OUT OF THE CAR, NOW!"

Two things happened:
The car started up it's headlights and therefore likely had its electric drive active as well.
The second thing was the world around the team suddenly turned upside down.

"That's a nice car you have there! Get out now, and leave the commlink that it is registered to. Thank you very much!"

Nova moved around the vehicle and targeted the engine with her shotgun. A quick burst of three bullets sent sparks of electricity over the car's front.

James draws closer, to a distance of roughly 5 to 7 meters, depending on where cover can be found.

The car died as the zapper rounds did their work.

In the sudden darkness a single, muffled "HELP" could be heard coming from inside the car.

Taurus will try to punch out the driver's window.

15P + hits

"I SAID GET OUT!"

Before another spell could be slung from inside the car, the Minotaur drew close to the driver's side window and smashed the hardened safety glass to pieces.
Inside behind the wheel, the other bruiser type guy sat, clearly in the middle of some sort of magic spell.

Partially visible behind him was the woman, who held a knife with her left hand close to the throat of the bound girl and kept her from crying out with the other.

Nova moved closer, so she could also see what's in the car now that the window was "open".

"Oh, hello there! Geez, lady, we are not the police. You do not need any hostages. And they won't really do you any good, either. So, would you please all come out of the car now?"

Anna orders Sophie to materialize inside the car and petrify the mages, she uses Taurus's broken window to try and gain line of sight into the car - and perhaps cast a spell of her own inside.

>> bnc can you break the rear window?

"I'm the decker, remember? Try the tank who stands right next to the car and just smashed in a window."

The driver shivered as Anna's spell hit him, but didn't take hold. As a reaction, the man moved his hand and suddenly the woods erupted in a blaze as hell fire expanded in a six meter radius, nearly singing the car.

Feeling the flames are about to engulf her, Anna instinctively retreats evading most of the heat.

James leaps back, thus bringing himself out of range.


Not in the mood for games anymore, he decides to attack. A small gun appears from within James' shoulder. Then three rounds pop out to hit the car driver.

Anna's spirit noticed the opposing spirit forming in the astral - likely summoned by the woman it was equally as strong as her spirit and from the same place even though the black magic nature made it appear twisted, cruel and demonic.



James' gun bellowed and the man barely managed to pull back his head at the hail of bullets. still, he couldn't avoid getting hit on the shoulder, though the bullets did not seem to penetrate his armored suit.

Nova switched to her rifle and aimed through the window at the woman in the back. There was the definite risk of hitting the girl she was cowardly hiding behind, but not doing something would also be a risk. She simply had to hit.

Nova's shot rang out and neatly put a round right between the woman's eyes. The knife clattered to the ground from her nerveless fingers and the spirit on the astral dissolved as it returned where it hat come from.

In quick succession, a series of bullets flew over the ground. With every shot, James gets surer, and this time, the bullets hit where it hurts.

The bullets hit the driver on his armored jacket and drove the air from his lungs. With a thud his head fell forward on the steering wheel. For a moment everything was still. Then the girl who just had been a living shield gave a sigh and collapsed.

Within a split-second, bnc changes from fighter - a thing she never felt she was - to a paramedic. Leaving the others to secure the area, James jumps out of the bushes and rushed over to the girl to hold her, to move her into a stable position, to gather her vital parameters and check for wounds.

Nova lowered the rifle and took a look around. They had done it. bnc was already directing James to check on the girl, so there was no need for her to do the same.

"Don't worry, girl. You are safe now. We just spoke with your parents a few hours ago. They will be very relieved to hear, that you are coming home."


<< We made quite some noise here, we need to get what we want and head out soon. Anna, I think you mentioned something about traces of magic? Might want to get rid of yours here. >>

Taurus will pull the driver out of the car and secure him, ripping up his clothes if he finds nothing better to fit the bill easily. He will also blindfold, gag him and cover his ears as best he can. That done he will search the car and the camp for anything of note.

Perception: 14d6t5 3 non A/V would be the same. the last three dice were misses.

Nova helps in the search.

Anna first keeps watching for more hostiles or witnesses. Next, she carefully asssenses the girl but remains invisible. It is a crime scene, after all, and she does not want to be seen there. If there is no danger, she carefully wipes out the traces of her Chaos magic, leaving only the Black magic residue. Finally, she'll inspect the van for hidden compartments and other noteworthy items.>> Best way would be to burn everything. They cast a fireball in a wooded area. It seems like a reasonable outcome. Do we want to interrogate the mage?