The Game IC

[Tengu_temp]

The Game will start at: May 3rd 2010, 12:00
Your starting point is: Paris, underneath the Louvre Pyramid.
Sit at the table with the black napkins.
Don't miss it! Your teammates will be waiting!

This is the message all of you received from Mr. Organizer. That was several days ago, and now the time to start has come. Travelling to Paris wasn't a problem - just a single call to Mr. Organizer resulted in a plane ticket to the place, or any amount of money you needed arriving within hours. Less, if you said it's urgent.

The weather is good and warm, and despite it not being summer the whole place is still crawling with tourists - Louvre is one of the major attractions in Paris, after all. In order to enter the museum, one needs to enter the underground complex located under the large glass pyramid in front of it first. Apart from the entrance, the complex also houses an underground (but well-lit with natural light, thanks to clever architecture) mall, filled with souvenir shops and restaurants. One of these restaurants (a casual one, though with tasty food, including delicious steaks) has several tables located at a balcony, giving a good look at the whole undeground mall. One of these tables, for some weird reason, has black napkins set out instead of white ones. Nobody seems to find that unusual.

Noon is approaching quickly. Just a few minutes more, and The Game will start...

(Alright, people, time to introduce your characters! This is probably the first time they've met, so make sure to give others a good impression. Or whatever impression you want to make.)

[Gensh]

The red-headed Englishman walked briskly through the streets of Paris, taking long, loping strides that caused the right side of his hair to bob through the air as if it was a notebook caught in a strong wind. The man, barring his follicular problems, had no problem making his way toward his destination, following what felt like an instinctual knowledge of the city. He had probably been here before as a child, though he tended to not remember his family's various "cultural exploration" trips. Either way, he eventually found himself in the underground mall - and hopelessly lost; he obviously had not been in this particular area before or they had remodeled it or something. He lazily raised an eyebrow and stroked his beard as he looked around, trying to figure out exactly where he was supposed to be.

"Hm. I guess I could ask someone where I need to go. I might remember enough of my high school French to - what, ask where to find the table with the black napkins? That's stupid; why would I bother doing that? Hmmnnnnmmmm. I wanted to get there early, but that damn bus..."

He reached absentmindedly for the pocket on the inside of his vest. He needed a drink but had neglected to check the public intoxication laws and wasn't quite ready to be arrested again.

He chuckled under his breath, "The best laid plans of mice and men, eh? So much for - hey, there it is!"

He licked his hand, attempting to slick his hair back, and when this failed, he removed a tie from his vest pocket to hold the unruly locks in place. Aside from the bags under his eyes from his constant insomnia (he wasn't able to bring his vodka on the plane), he cut a rather professional-looking figure, though he seemed a little out of place as he sat down at the table with the black napkins.

[Eternal Kanus]

Hammond

A college-aged individual nervously walked through the streets of Paris. His initial enthusiasm regarding his second chance had subsided over the long plane ride and had been replaced with panic. He had never even left his home country, and now he was in Paris. And dead. He had just been overcome by the reality of the situation. As he reached the destination specified, he saw the table empty and wondered if he was in the right place- just before a redheaded man sat down rather formally.

Hammond wondered whether or not the man was involved. He pulled out his phone and hit a few keys, turning on one of its new functions. He could point it at an individual and listen in on their thoughts, as long as they weren't involved in the Game themselves. At least according the directions. When he pointed it at the man, his phone didn't notice.

Deciding the man must be in the right place, Hammond quickly rushed over and sat down in one of the other seats. After a brief pause, Hammond realized he still had his phone out. Turning to the man, he showed his phone and spoke, half mumbling. "Um, are you..."

[Gensh]

Galen had been looking around aimlessly when he heard the new arrival. The former doctor's eyes immediately took in this person's entirety, analyzing his mode of dress, his speech, his hairstyle, the look in his eyes, and calculating what sort of attitude would be appropriate for the situation. While anyone would be a bit unhinged about the situation that he had now found himself in, Galen felt a weak spirit, one of many, what with the way modern society romanticized it. He would have to do something about that weakness if his team was to win this 'Game'.

"Ah, yes," he said, rising from his seat and then placing the chair back into its proper position. "My name is Galen Handel, and I would assume that I'm your first teammate. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr..."

As he gave this customary greeting, he held out his hand. This would be the clincher, of course. A handshake told quite a bit about a person, and this would be the final test to evaluate his teammate's resolve. Afterward, he would begin to formulate a plan to give the poor boy some spine. Of course, if his other teammates were like this...

[Eternal Kanus]

Hammond

Hammond was somewhat intimidated. He knew that if he was working with random people he couldn't expect them to be like him, but this man had the presence that he actually knew what he was doing. It was unfamiliar. When Galen offered his hand, Hammond reached over and shook it somewhat weakly. "Hammond. Er, Smith. Um, Hammond Smith. Sorry. Weird name, I know..." Hammond realized he was still shaking the man's hand. He pulled away quickly then looked down, his hair falling in front of his eyes.

[kamikasei]

Paris, Margaret has discovered after a couple of days, is a pretty nice town. The weather's been pleasant, the food is cheap and good, and being able to fool the locals by speaking like a native keeps things humming along nicely. All in all, not a bad place to kill time waiting for the kickoff. She hadn't wasted time once the message arrived on her phone, but had flown out as quickly as possible.

Now she looks around the Louvre entrance while trying not to get swept away or knocked over by the crowds of tourists. Her teammates... the whole thing is still so unreal, but meeting others in the same situation should bring it home to her a bit better. Perhaps too much! Will she end up making a complete fool of herself?

Table, table... well, this is the right place to find them... and yes, here's a table with black napkins and two people already present. Margaret swallows, plucks up her courage. "Hi there! I think you're the people I'm here to meet?"

The woman greeting the two stands out from the crowd - of a height with the two men, wearing a short-sleeved blouse and tartan skirt, a necktie and thighhigh stockings, she looks like an overgrown schoolgirl. At the same time, her posture and expression beam confidence and enthusiasm. With a sports bag slung over her shoulder, she gives the impression of being ready for anything.

Game face, Margaret, she assures herself, suppressing the urge to adjust her glasses. Game face.

[Gensh]

So his initial observation had been correct: this boy was certainly weak in spirit. A weak grip meant no confidence, holding it for too long indicated uncertainty in what to do next, and drawing away quickly showed a nervousness around strangers. At the very least he would have a weak foundation, which of course could be torn down and replaced with relative ease; naturally, rebuilding someone's personality was something of an undertaking, but this would be a little easier. His mind began to quickly formulate a strategy. A fragile psyche needs something to lean on; be familiar.

"Nice to meet you, Hammond. And don't worry; that's not such a bad name. After all, how common is Galen?"

Upon hearing this second greeting, he immediately turned his gaze to the new newcomer, analyzing her appearance and mannerisms just as he had before. Fortunately, this one did not seem nearly so dire as the previous had. She seemed, of course, slightly strained in her mannerisms, but everyone's insecurities didn't manifest in insomnia, as Galen's had a tendency to. He extended his hand again, though this time was only a formality: there was only so much that could be taken in through superficial observations.

"If you're talking about teammates for the Game, then we certainly are!" he said, putting in a bit more energy than he normally would, so as to match her pace, though it made his accent stronger. "My name is Galen Handel. It's a pleasure to meet you."

[Terraoblivion]

After a few quiet days, it was about to begin. She couldn't complain about the location, it meant that she didn't have to worry about traveling or finding a hotel. Instead she could focus on figuring out what she wanted to do with the second chance she had been given. Most of the players probably hadn't been that lucky. Just like her teammates probably hadn't either.

Making her way through the crowds of tourists, the young woman headed towards the restaurant where they were supposed to meet. The crowd wasn't too bad today, she was happy that they hadn't been meeting in the summer when all the tourists were there. She'd never have gotten anywhere in time, she was late already.

Finally reaching the place she glanced over the tables as she moved between them in the restaurant. Hopefully the table wasn't tucked into some deeply hidden corner of the restaurant, that would just be pointlessly messing with the players, though she wouldn't put it above Mr. Organizer.

Finally spotting the black napkins and seeing the three people standing around the table she headed towards them, raising her hand in greeting. "Hi. I believe you are the ones i'm supposed to meet." Looked like an odd bunch, with the girl in the fetish outfit and the guy dressed like he was fifty. Not that she was much better herself, looking like Hollywood's idea of what a young, female lawyer looked like.

[kamikasei]

"Margaret Anderson," Margaret replies to Galen before offering a handshake to Hammond in turn. "Have you guys come far?"

She unslings her bag and takes her seat at the table, assessing the others. Hard to get a read on the older guy, while the younger one seems too much overwhelmed by the situation to get much else out of him. Margaret wonders what they make of her, so far. But not for long - such worries would be out of character! Fortunately, the table gets a new focus a moment later when their fourth arrives, and Margaret stands back up to greet her.

"I believe you're right. I'm Margaret."

[Terraoblivion]

"Lea Desrocher. Do any of you know if we can expect anyone else to arrive or if it is just us?" Even with the translation of the phone the ease with which she say the French name revealed her as a native. She took a seat at the table, seeming to relax a little. The whole situation was just weird. Not the dying part, the coming back to life part and this entire game. She glanced over herself, trying to make sure she looked alright. She didn't look too dull, did she? Too much like she was in a porno? Not that there was anything to do about it at the moment and that kind of worry was more of a bad habit than anything else, anyway.

[Tengu_temp]

At this very moment the conversation gets interrupted by all of your phones starting to ring simultaneously. Just a brief look at the time reveals why - it's noon already! The call is, of course, from Mr. Organizer.
"Hello, hello! Have you assembled all four members of your team? I hope you did, because I'm proud to announce that The Game starts now! Are you ready for the weeks, maybe even months of action and adventure that will follow? I know I am, but I can barely hold my excitement! Your first task is to find at least one Puzzle Piece - you better hurry, if you don't manage to do so in 24 hours, it's game over for you! Remember, I'm here to answer all of your questions and requests, so don't hesitate to ask about anything! And, last but not least... have fun!"
A red timer appears among the Game information on your phones. It starts at 23:59:59, and starts to count down.

And yes, if several of you answered their phones at once, Mr. Organizer was talking to you simultaneously - even not in synchronization, if you didn't do so at the same exact moment. Maybe he used a prerecorded message?

[Terraoblivion]

Because struggling for your life was fun. Empathy was really what Mr. Organizer had the most of. "One that you had hopefully expected. What exactly are we looking for? Hard to find it otherwise." Lea's voice were level and her expression with her eyes slightly narrowed looked both annoyed and bemused by the fake enthusiasm of the guy running this thing.

[Tengu_temp]

"Like the name suggests, it's a small piece of a white and red puzzle. You'll know when you see one, it's impossible to miss! Since Puzzle Pieces are a part of The Game, you can pick them up even in extradimensional space." Mr. Organizer doesn't seem to be discouraged by Lea's lack of enthusiasm. "Does that answer your question?"

[kamikasei]

"Can you tell us how far the nearest piece is? Give us any clues on its location?" Margaret asks.

[Gensh]

"Galen Handel," he said quietly, nodding to the new player, his hand covering the mouthpiece of his phone. He thought about waiting for the first girl to receive an answer, but since the caller seemed to be able to communicate with all the players independently, he turned around so that his voice wouldn't carry, "Mr. Organizer, if you don't mind me asking, how far away is the nearest team? No, better yet, how many other teams are in this mall?"

From the outside, it appeared that the former doctor had maintained his cool, but within, he was on the verge of panic. Before, the pressure had been off, but now that the Game had started he had plenty of reasons to worry. So he would cut to the chase: would he have to rush ahead mindlessly or could he take his time? People would be dying in this game, and he needed to know if there would be an initial, panicked rush to find a piece before so much as an hour had passed. That there was what seemed to be another level head on his team was reassuring, but he couldn't be sure that the other teams weren't full of hot-headed idiots.

[Tengu_temp]

"Of course I can! The Puzzle Piece is hidden in the Louvre museum. It rests on the back of a great, ancient beast. There are no other teams in the mall, so it's yours and yours alone for the taking!"

[kamikasei]

An ancient beast? That sounds like a big obvious clue, but reality catches up to Margaret very quickly. Yeah - unless Mr Organizer is deliberately jerking them around, which is far from impossible, the piece is probably on the back of a statue of a unicorn or gryphon or something - but who knows how many of those there might be in the museum?

She tries to think of questions to narrow it down. "Is it in the public areas of the museum? Can people outside the Game see it?"

[Tengu_temp]

"I'm not sure. Maybe? I'd have to think about that." Mr. Organizer grows silent. Or he does so until you start to put away the phone or ask him anything else, because at this very moment he speak up again. "Okay, just joking! The answer is yes."

[Eternal Kanus]

Hammond briefly shook Margaret's hand when offered, but barely greeted Lea at all. He struggled to speak with one person, three seemed impossible. When the call came, despite Hammond still holding his phone, he was the last one to answer. Since he answered late while the others were asking their questions he was still hearing the initial spiel. After hearing it he certainly had questions, but struggled to voice anything. "Is anything... is it guarded?" He quickly mumbled before turning mute again.

[Tengu_temp]

"Guarded? Hmhmhm, nope. There are no guards." You can't help but feel that Mr. Organizer is making fun of you... even though he doesn't seem to be lying.

[Terraoblivion]

"It does and if you answered the questions of my teammates i have nothing more to ask." Closing the phone before the man had time to ask, Lea put it away and turned her attention to the rest of the team. "Seems like we are looking for a jigsaw puzzle piece. Guess the man just really loves being annoying, but at least it should be easy to recognize."

[kamikasei]

Margaret follows suit and hangs up her own phone, which it seems she's keeping on a lanyard under her shirt - well, the sports bag is probably too easy to lose, after all. "We need a map, I guess," she offers once the other two are finished with any follow-up questions. "And somewhere private we can get ready, if we want to use the bubbles."

[Tengu_temp]

Maps are easy to get - they are exhibited all over the place, as well as available for free if you buy a ticket to the museum. Here's the layout:
http://www.planetware.com/i/map/F/musee-du-louvre-map.jpg

[kamikasei]

"Hey," it occurs to Margaret to ask right after she's hung up her own phone, so she addresses Galen and Hammond. "See if he'll tell you how the bubbles work. If one of us uses it, do the others get included? Or is it personal?"

[Eternal Kanus]

Hammond quickly hangs up as Margaret asks, pretending he didn't hear to avoid having to ask. He slips his phone into his pocket, mumbling "Ancient beast... statue, mythic, or mundane?"

[Gensh]

Galen almost hung up before hearing Margaret speak but stopped just as his thumb began sliding it shut, "What's the bubble exactly? How does it work? Were you able to hear what Ms. Anderson said just then or shall I repeat it?" He covers the mouthpiece for a moment and turns toward Hammond, looking comically grim, "My money's on a living statue."

[Terraoblivion]

Seemed like Mr. Organizer wasn't the only one who said things that were far out there. "A living statue," her tone was calm "in the middle of a crowded museum of people who cannot be allowed to know anything about this? Most likely what we are looking for is just hidden on a statue somewhere. I think we should probably use the bubble for this, i cannot imagine crawling on the exhibits going over well."

[Tengu_temp]

"The bubble is a way of letting Players participate in Game-related activities without drawing unnecessary attention to themselves. Convenient, huh? Of course, that means all the Players can enter each other's bubbles! Just imagine how the Game would look if you could just hide in a bubble from everyone else forever. Booooring!"
So much for a straightforward answer. At least you know the thing Margaret wanted to ask about.

[kamikasei]

Okay - that made their course of action reasonably clear, with one detail still outstanding. "How long do the bubbles last?" Margaret asks.

[Tengu_temp]

"Long enough to fulfill their purpose."

[kamikasei]

Margaret rolls her eyes. Will he give a more useful answer if one of the others presses him? Or is that as helpful as he gets?

Whatever, they need to find somewhere private but that doesn't have a door on it that will become an immobile barrier once the bubble goes up. Where might such a place be found? Margaret runs over possibilities in her head.

[kamikasei]

"We need somewhere out of sight, with no cameras," Margaret thinks out loud to the others, looking around for a likely spot.

[Terraoblivion]

"Obviously, but where would that be?" Lea looked around the underground mall, "This place is quite well-guarded as you'd imagine with the things on display in the museum."

[Gensh]

"That will be all for now, Mr. Organizer" Galen said as he slid his phone shut. "Isn't this as easy as ducking into the restroom momentarily, while one of us activates his or her bubble? They can't put cameras in there, and to get away from people, there are stalls. It would just be a bit awkward to coordinate it. As for the bubbles, the way I see it, even if the they're stationary, we can just daisy-chain them together to create a path. Probably. What we really need to do is figure out exactly where we need to go." He ambled over to a map thoughtfully, "Probably one of the antiquities sections. Looks like we've got two main areas: 19/20 and 55, possibly 56. Anyone got any other ideas or do you want to try going to one of those?

[Eternal Kanus]

Hammond looks over at Galen. "55 or 56 seems best... and, um, why would we need to chain the bubbles? Isn't one big enough? Not that I would know, I didn't really try them or anything..." Hammond looks away, mumbling.

[kamikasei]

"One bubble should be big enough - the problem is that we can't open doors inside. So if we go in to a restroom, we'll be trapped in there."

[Terraoblivion]

"I believe the museum also has a Persian collection somewhere. I remember going there in high school, but i don't see it on the plan. Never mind, we have places to start and can always try to find it if those fail." Lea shrugged at the discussion of amount of bubbles and such. "But let's start with the bubble, there should be somewhere around here with nobody looking and no cameras. We can always worry about where to look once this is handled at least." Rather than allow more discussion she headed out to actually search the mall for somewhere no one was looking.

[kamikasei]

Margaret follows.

[Tengu_temp]

Lea finds a janitor's closet, hidden in a corner away from curious eyes or cameras. The door is even half-open.

[kamikasei]

"I just hope no one sees us going in. Don't want to imagine what that would look like," Margaret comments. She adjusts her glasses with a smile that says she can imagine it perfectly well.

That doesn't stop her from joining the others, mind. And if no one else has theirs ready to hand first, she takes out her phone and activates the bubble once they're all out of sight and chime in their assent.

[Terraoblivion]

Mirroring Margaret's motion and pushing her glasses back in place, Lea sends the younger woman a small, crooked smile. "Like we are petty criminals, of course. But go ahead, i prefer it to a serious case of being dead."

[Tengu_temp]

Activating the bubble results in a quickly growing area of interdimensional space, which in just a second covers everything you can see. The light in the bubble is slightly dimmer, and you can't see any humans or the objects they're carrying. It's as if the whole mall was suddenly abandoned.

[kamikasei]

Margaret picks her way out of the closet carefully, any obstructions now having become immovable objects and posing a particular problem for her sports bag. Once out, she puts the bag on the ground and unzips it, after a quick rummage producing a curved wooden stick that the others may recognize as a training sword. The bag gets slung across her back instead of hung off her shoulder this time, the sword staying ready in her hand.

"Freaky," she comments on the change to the mall.

"Okay. We've got a day, right? So we might as well check the likely spots together first, then split up and mount a full search if we have to. Who knows, maybe the tutorial mission will be a real gimme."

Just realized that Galen said he looked at what sounded like a posted map earlier, so mind if we say at least one of us picked up a handheld version before using the bubble?

[Tengu_temp]

Yeah, you can retroactively take one if you want.

[Terraoblivion]

Seeing the world change in front of her made Lea tense up slightly. "That was...interesting. Now let's..." Then she noticed Margaret's wooden sword, raising one eyebrow in a rather bemused expression. "How'd you ever manage to get that in here? Maybe the crisis have made them save money on the guards. Wouldn't put it above the guys running this city...So who had the map and can lead the way to the antiquities? Haven't been in here in years and they might have moved things around."

[kamikasei]

Margaret shrugs. "No one stopped me. Maybe the bag searches are further in. It's just 'sports equipment', anyhow." She consults her map. "So we were going to try 19 first... thisaway." She heads towards the stairs and in to the museum proper.

Guess Margaret will have taken the map, so. And I'd completely forgotten that guards might be searching bags, but eh. Hope the above handwave is acceptable.

[Eternal Kanus]

Hammond looks around at the warped world briefly. He doesn't seem bothered, rather, he seems to like the emptiness. Focusing again, he follows Margaret upstairs to their first destination.

[Tengu_temp]

If any of you have been to Louvre before, it feels weird to walk through its halls without seeing any other tourists around. Almost not seeing, at least - the doors to toilets and other secondary facilities still open and close, seemingly on their own. You can see the security cameras, but they don't seem to be watching you - they're blind to whatever happens inside the dimensional bubble.

The halls of the ancient history are nearby. The closest ones contain cabinets filled with tiny figurines, tablets and other not very interesting exhibits, but soon afterwards they make way for larger statues, including many mythical creatures. When inside the bubble you can't influence objects that remain in the normal world, so you're free to touch everything without risks of vandalism - but no matter how hard you look, none of these sphinxes, guardian dogs and holy lions seem to have any unusual items resting on their backs. Certainly not anything that'd fit the description of the Puzzle Piece given by Mr. Organizer.

You're slowly running out of ancient statues to check. Maybe the Puzzle Piece is in another wing of the museum after all? Another place you could check out is a series of small, open courtyards between the wings, the entrance to which is close by - they might contain some statues as well.

[Terraoblivion]

"Of course, it would be too easy to just put it where he said it was. Wouldn't be "fun" to do it like that." Lea leaned against an sphinx as she was talking. "But castles are full of sphinxes and such, he might have referred to the decoration of the castle itself. Could be anywhere in here, though."

[Eternal Kanus]

Getting frustrated with the lack of results, Hammond turns towards the nearest exit. "I'll check out the courtyards." He then walks outside, not waiting to see if anyone follows.

[Tengu_temp]

It turns out that what's located in the courtyards are the really large exhibits that wouldn't fit inside the traditional halls. The first one of them has a huge stone tablet at one of the walls, covered in some kind of ancient script. The second courtyard Hammond checks contains... a stone statue of an Assyrian man-headed winged bull, Lamassu. It's so huge one would have to jump up and pull him/herself up to get up on its back.

[Eternal Kanus]

Hammond looks up at the massive statue before looking back. He debated whether or not to get the others before shrugging and trying to climb up himself and get a look at its back.

[Tengu_temp]

Due to the size of the statue getting up on its back is no easy task.

(Climb DC 15.)

[Eternal Kanus]

Not used to climbing, Hammond struggles to try and scale the beast, but barely manages to succeed.

Climb- [roll0]

[Tengu_temp]

Hammond notices something shiny lying on the back of the stone Lamassu. It's a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, of an incredibly bright, white color - it even glows a little, in fact - with a red symbols drawn on it. It appears to be a letter of some weird, written language (nothing you recognize, though it looks a bit Greek or Arabic). Other symbols seem to start and end at the edges of the puzzle piece.

(Before I continue I'd like to see what everyone else does.)

[Gensh]

Galen had been standing toward the back of the group the entire time, lost in contemplation as he sifted through the useless debris of facts that floated on the sea of his mind. A private school education helped you learn a lot but also tended to fill your mind with a lot of "facts," which were on average more trouble than they were worth. He shifted back onto one foot - though there was no visible change in his stance - and stroked his beard thoughtfully as he tried to reason out any other meaning from the hints. Of course, this was also a prime chance to see his new teammates in action, so he would hold back any input for now.

[Terraoblivion]

Seeing the Lamassu, was encouraging. Looked just like it might be what the jackass had been talking about and it was large enough to be a bother to find anything on the back of. "This looks promising. Any of you any good at...oh, never mind." Whatever else could be said about the nervous guy, no one could accuse him of being unwilling to act it seemed. Once he was atop the statue, Lea looked up towards him "Did you find it? Or is that too much luck to ask for?"

(Greek or Arabic, Tengu? Those two scripts look nothing alike...)

[kamikasei]

Margaret gives the quiet guy some space, not following until after the others elect to do so, so she arrives after Lea, looking on curiously from the side.

[Tengu_temp]

(Greek or Arabic, Tengu? Those two scripts look nothing alike...)

It very slightly resembles either of these. Probably more Arabic, since what you can see from the letters is rounded and clumped together.

Suddenly, before Hammond has the time to pick up the Puzzle Piece, you hear the sound of footsteps! Didn't Mr. Organizer say all the other Players are far away from this place? The sound comes from the north, where there is a passage to another courtyard. It seems that not one, but several people are approaching...

You have a short time to react before the strangers arrive here. What are you going to do?

[kamikasei]

What the hell?

Margaret backs up against the north wall of the courtyard to be as little visible to the newcomers as possible. Meanwhile she looks about to see if there's anything she can climb or brace herself against - a windowsill, a trashcan, a tree - to get a view of the top of the statue - or failing that, anything she can conceal herself behind...

[Eternal Kanus]

When he heard footsteps, Hammond panicked. They had been lied to in some capacity. Not knowing if taking the piece would make things worse, Hammond just sits down on the piece and pulls out his phone.

[Tengu_temp]

The large statue is the only object in the courtyard. The wall has a protruding border at the height of roughly one meter, though, and while it's too narrow to stand on it easily, it could give Margaret the height advantage she's looking for.

Hammond notices something on his phone's screen - the player count went down to 105. Is it an illusion caused by the contrast between the Puzzle Piece and the duller-colored surroundings, or did it really start to shine a bit brighter when Hammond pulled out his phone?

[Gensh]

Galen was looking dazedly at wall when he heard the approaching footsteps. "Hunters, huh?" he said exhaustedly. "I'd hoped not to deal with any for a while."

He assumed that he could trust Mr. Organizer. If not, then there was no purpose in participating in this silly game other than to hopelessly extend his own lifespan a few days and to entertain some sort of supernatural madman. Therefore, he could also assume that any information given to him by Mr. Organizer would be true in letter, though likely not in intent. Judging from his words on the subject, there was not another team already in the Louvre (though it wasn't impossible), but rather that this other team consisted of hunters - other players proactively seeking out a certain target using some sort of tracking ability. Whether they were only going after pieces or the lives of fellow competitors was yet to be seen, but they were hunters nonetheless and would have to be...eliminated.

He took out his phone without saying a word and rapidly faded away like a TV image in a storm. Being careful not to leave any trace of his passage, he approached the north passage.

[Tengu_temp]

Hidden from sight, hearing and all other sense, Galen can safely move out to observe the approaching people. And what he sees is... unusual, to say the least. Four figures are approaching. Each one of them is wearing a long, flowing cloak, completely covering most of its body, and each one is also carrying a weapon!

The first figure from the left is wearing a left cloak, and looks very thin - emaciated, even. Its head is covered in dirty bandages, leaving only two thin gaps for the eyes. The stranger is also wearing an elaborate, golden crown, and carrying a long bow.
The second figure has the largest frame, and is wearing a red cloak. Once again, the figure's face is completely covered, this time by a thick, Gothic plate helmet with a red plume. The stranger is carrying a large, two-handed sword.
The third figure is in contrast of the first one, very obese, and wearing a black cloak and a full head black leather mask, its mouth zipped up. The figure's eyes are covered by a pair of biker's goggles, and the weapon he (it's most likely a he) is carrying is a morgenstern with not one, but two spiked heads on chains.
The fourth stranger is wearing a black cloak as well, and this time a hooded one - the hood is pulled on too low to see the face, but a pale green light emanates from underneath. The figure is carrying a scythe.

Suddenly, the strangers stop, and the third, fat one starts to sniff in the air loudly, like a hunting dog. Did the stranger notice Galen's smell? But shouldn't his phone mask his presence completely?
A second later the sniffing stops, and all of them continue forward as if nothing happened. They're going to pass Galen and reach the courtyard very soon - and, judging from what they obviously represent, their intentions can't be good...

[Terraoblivion]

****. Someone else was in here and no matter how you looked at it, other teams were your enemies and anything else in this bubble was likely to be as well.

In order to prepare herself, Lea slid her hand down to grab the phone as she drew against the wall near Margaret. Should it come to that, she could more easily protect them if they were gathered than if they were not. She waved at Galen to get him to join them as she noticed the man fade away from sight, leaving just her and the other woman together and that other guy hiding somewhere. Not that she could blame him...

[kamikasei]

Margaret hoists herself up on the border wall just enough to get a view of the top of the statue - then, seeing that Hammond is on the puzzle piece, gives up on trying to retrieve it and drops back down after giving him a "shush" gesture. Following Lea's lead, she waits quietly for the new arrivals to make their move.

[Gensh]

Galen decided to play it safe, taking individual, measured steps as he trailed behind the four. This was definitely more than he bargained for. He might have been completely wrong. Mr. Organizer had insisted that there were no other players nearby and no guardians, but that didn't mean that there weren't other creatures going after the pieces or the players themselves. It seemed that unless this was a group of players with exceedingly poor taste, his group had encountered a fate worse than hunters.

He held his thumb carefully onto his phone's antenna, ready to flick out the blade at a moment's notice. If they were hostile, he would try to take out Pestilence before the bugger caused any long-term problems. In the meantime, he would just watch.

[Tengu_temp]

What happens when the Horsemen of the Apocalypse enter the courtyard? Without letting out even a single sound, all of them ready their weapons. Their intentions are clear.

Enemy initiative: 16
If you roll higher than this, you can move before them.

[Tengu_temp]

The Horsemen make their move! War charges at Margaret, swinging at her with his sword in a wide arc. Luckily, she manages to get out of the way, and the blade hits only the wall with a loud clang. It leaves no gash - people in the bubble can't influence the objects in normal space, after all.

An arrow appears from nowhere in Pestilence's hand! As the Horseman draws his bow, the arrow's tip starts to glow in a sickly, yellowish color. Pestilence fires at Hammond! The arrow doesn't pierce his skin, but it still hits hard, and splatters upon impact into foul-smelling ooze.
(Attack roll 17 [after -2 from cover], Toughness save DC 20. Also Fortitude save DC 13 against Nauseate.)

Death takes a step forward and suddenly dissapears into a cloud of mist - a cloud that reforms into the Horseman right next to Lea! He slashes at her with his scythe - its blade is ethereal and passes through her body, chilling her to the bone!
(Attack roll 18, Toughness save DC 20. Also Will save DC 13 against Paralysis.)

Famine doesn't advance. He stands right next to Pestilence, on guard, and blocks the passage through which the Horsemen entered the square.

(It's your turn now.)

[kamikasei]

"Whoa!" Margaret pivots out from under the red warrior's sword. Quickly bringing up her own and adopting a stance, she shuffles forward and brings the Force-enhanced wooden blade down at an angle at War's neck.

(([roll0] - +6 damage, autofire))

[Tengu_temp]

The blade cuts deeply into War's body, slashing through the red cloak and armor underneath it and leaving behind a long gash over all of the Horseman's torso, making him stumble backwards. There's no blood, and you can't see what's under the armor - too dark, and a different part of the cloak starts to cover it once again soon afterwards.
(Stunned + Staggered + Disabled)

[kamikasei]

Margaret looks pleased with herself, but keeps her sword at guard for a moment and looks around at the others - with her eyes, not turning her head - before choosing her next action.

[Eternal Kanus]

Hammond takes the strike poorly, the sudden impact and smell rendering him unable to act.

Toughness- [roll1]
Fortitude- [roll2]

[Gensh]

Famine's holding back made Galen stop to think for a moment. When he entered, he looked as if he had almost noticed him there for a second and there was no telling what powers he had. It was a difficult choice to make. In a single motion, he flicked up his phone's antenna and pressed the silent mode button with his pinky finger, a humming blade rising up out of what otherwise looked like an ordinary phone, as he swung out toward Famine's neck.

Attack [roll0]
Toughness DC 21 for damage, crits 15-20
Fortitude DC 16 for Drain Toughness

[Tengu_temp]

The force of impact knocks Hammond off the statue. The Puzzle Piece falls down on the ground nearby.

Galen's suspicion of Famine proves to be correct! Right before his phone is about to strike, the fat enemy knocks his hand aside with a leather-clad fist, and then counterattacks with a tough blow of his double-headed flail!
(Attack roll 20, Toughness save DC 22.)

[Gensh]

"Oh dear," Galen managed to get out before the blow connected.
Toughness [roll0]

[Terraoblivion]

Toughness: [roll0]
Will: [roll1]

A shiver ran through Lea as the monster cut her. The shock of seeing the thing had stopped her from acting. She could not stop here and let it kill though though, she had to fight back somehow. That girl, Margaret, had already defeated one of them. They weren't so tough it seemed.

Punching a few numbers in on her phone, she didn't know how she got them but she knew they were the right ones, several tendrils of put energy swept out from the screen of the phone to bind the being that had attacked her. Using the confusion she backpedalled trying to put some distance between her and the monster, hoping that the guys would prove to be of some help too.

(DC 16 Reflex or be entangled. On the next turn another one or being completely bound and facing a DC 18 toughness check every turn until it gets out. Also if the snare survives it regenerates to full health on my turn.)

[Tengu_temp]

Famine follows up with another powerful swing from above the shoulder, aiming to finish Galen off. By sheer luck he manages to stumble out of the way and the spiked balls passing right next to him only scratch his cheek.

Since Hammond is behind the statue right now, Pestilence chooses another target - the one who almost cut down War with one blow, Margaret. He sends a disease-ridden arrow into her direction!
(Attack roll 17, Toughness save DC 20. Also Fortitude save DC 13 against Nauseate.)

Death blinks out of reality for a second, avoiding Lea's binds. When he appears again, he's already in front of his previous position, floating in the air after her, his cloak trailing behind. When he gets close enough, he slashes with the ethereal scythe once again!
(Attack roll 20, Toughness save DC 20. Also Will save DC 13 against Paralysis.)

(Everyone apart from Galen can move now.)

[kamikasei]

Margaret just about meets the arrow with her weapon, and though the impact shudders up through her arms and the ooze spatters over her upper body, neither effect give her pause. "...That's disgusting," she comments, and counterattacks.

Lowering her sword in her left hand and turning to stand side-on towards Pestilence, she points at the enemy with her index and middle fingers, ring and little fingers curled in to her palm. She mouths a soundless "bang!" and mimes the recoil as her imaginary gun fires very real bullets of invisible force.

(([roll0] - Blast 6 + Improved Critical))

[Eternal Kanus]

Recovering from the blow, Hammond peers around the statue and assumes that the one with the bow is the one that hit him. Shouting into his phone, a blast of sonic energy is shot at the stranger.

Attack- [roll0]

[Tengu_temp]

Margaret's mind bullet leaves a clean, round see-through hole in Pestilence's torso. Strangely enough, it doesn't take down the Horseman, only makes him stumble backwards. And, as before, there's no blood.
(1 wound + stun)

Thanks to the damage caused by Margaret Hammond has very little trouble aiming at his target. The sonic blast hits Pestilence with full force, shredding the cloak to pieces and starting to do the same with the bandage-covered, emaciated body underneath. Suddenly, glowing motes of golden light start to emanate from the Horseman's body and float to the sky upwards. Within seconds, all of his body is reduced to them, and after all the motes disappear, nothing remains from him.

[Terraoblivion]

Toughness: [roll0]
Will: [roll1]

"Gah..." Having your inside chilled by the spectral scythe of death, freezing you to the very bone does nothing to build eloquence it appeared. At least that was exactly what happened to Lea as she froze in place, unable to withstand the assault of Death.

[kamikasei]

Margaret turns toward Death just in time to see his attack take effect. "Hoy, Tall Dark and Cowly! Pick on someone your own size!" No, it doesn't make much sense. She's under pressure here.

((Using my move action to [roll0].))

[Tengu_temp]

Famine reaches out with his free hand, trying to grab Galen's shoulder. He manages to get ouf of the way, fortunately.

War manages to return back to a combat stance, and, despite the serious damage he received, he still doesn't back off! The Horseman slashes at Margaret with an overhead chop. The two-handed sword's blade glows red for a moment when it strikes!
(Attack roll 20, Toughness save DC 22. Vampiric.)

Death extends his free hand, showing that it's, perhaps unsurprisingly, skeletal. He tries to touch Lea, his finger glowing the same pale green light that emerges from under his hood, but she manages to concentrate enough to break the paralysis and dodge.
It doesn't seem that Margaret's taunt had any effect on Death.

(Everyone can move now. Lea is slowed until she passes a saving throw.)

[kamikasei]

Margaret blocks the blow, but the force of it carries through and drives her to her knees, disoriented and unable to move.

((1 bruise + stun))

[Terraoblivion]

Will: [roll0]

Lea shivered from that cold that had passed through her. This was just plain wrong all of it. What kind of crazy sadist was Mr. Organizer anyway?

Not wanting to risk getting another cut like that, Lea pressed a different combination of buttons on the phone, making a cage of the same luminous energy spring into being around Death, trapping it within.

(DC 16 reflex to avoid being trapped in the cage. The cage has a toughness bonus of +6 should it be attacked.)

[Tengu_temp]

War's attack causes the gap in his chest to glow red as well... But the glow quickly becomes dull and disappears. He drops his sword to the ground and hunches over, barely managing to stand. Just like Pestilence before, he slowly starts to evaporate into motes of golden light.

Lea manages to trap Death in a cage! He looks around, clearly confused.

[Eternal Kanus]

Hammond takes a shot at the last remaining enemy posing a threat, locked in combat with Galen.

Attack- [roll0]

[Gensh]

"Nice hit, but I can do better," Galen commented dryly as he swung again with his vibrating blade.
Attack [roll0] + Drain Toughness

[Tengu_temp]

Hammond's sonic blast hits Famine with great force, smashing him into the courtyard's wall! This gives Galen a great opportunity to strike him right into the heart. Famine explodes into a burst of golden lights, all of which float up and disappear into the sky.

War has completely evaporated, and so did his sword, leaving only one of the Horsemen left, Death. He reaches out with his hand, touching the cage just as he wanted to do with Lea - and when he does so, the materialized matter darkens and then shatters, leaving a hole large enough for the Horseman to pass through! And so he does, flying towards Lea and slashing at her with his scythe again!
(Attack roll 20, Toughness save DC 20 and Will save DC 13 against Paralysis.)

[Terraoblivion]

Toughness: [roll0]
Will: [roll1]

It went right through it. The abilities of the bloody phone were useless in stopping this damn thing. As Lea's frustration mounted she once again failed to get away from the scythe in time as she felt it cut through her, chilling her to the bone as she stood shivering from the spectral attack.

[kamikasei]

Margaret catches her breath as War dissolves in front of her. So not only do these weird things not hurt or die like anything real, but they'll attack even if the effort kills them? The whole situation is literally unreal.

Unreal or not, though, the consequences if they do too badly are probably not pleasant, and it looks like the French woman isn't doing very well at all. Still on her knees, Margaret twists around to face the scythe-wielding skeleton attacking her ally, then springs up and forward swinging her weapon in a diagonal slash that should cut the creature from hip to shoulder. If she judges the distance right, she should even be able to catch Lea if she falls.

(([roll0] + autofire + improved critical))

[Tengu_temp]

Death turns around, trying to parry Margeret's attack with the haft of his scythe. But the slash is too powerful! It cuts the scythe in two, and severs the Horseman's left hand! The skeletal limb falls down to the ground, but doesn't start evaporating yet.
(Stunned + Staggered + Disabled)

[kamikasei]

Margaret knows both proper martial arts form and proper samurai movie convention, so she holds her pose for a few seconds after her strike with her weapon still extended. She doesn't have to turn around to know she landed a good hit, but not quite good enough. "Come on! Finish it now!" she calls to the others.

[Gensh]

"Looks like just holding the pose doesn't make it explode, my dear," Galen joked as he rushed toward Death, swinging his phone toward its skull.

Attack [roll0] + Drain

[Tengu_temp]

Galen hits whatever is glowing underneath Death's hood - he doesn't get an opportunity to see what exactly it is, because the green light turns into floating golden motes and the cloak falls down to the ground lifelessly, soon following the fate of its wearer. All of the Horsemen have evaporated now, and the bruises and scratches they caused you are the only proof that the encounter happened.

The Puzzle Piece is still lying on the ground, next to the Lamassu statue. Its glow makes it hard to miss.

[Eternal Kanus]

Once the last horseman dissolved, Hammond breathed a sigh of relief before turning his gaze to the ground. He picks up the puzzle piece and walks over to where the others are gathered, before holding it out in an outstretched hand. "Here."

[kamikasei]

Margaret offers Lea a hand to help her back up. "You okay? I can try to do something about the hits you took." She looks over at Hammond once Lea answers. "So... what do we actually do with it? Any ideas?"

((Assuming Lea assents, Margaret will be aiming to heal her, then heal herself of the bruises received via Empathic, then heal Lea again, etc. That'd be a bunch of recovery checks probably best made in the OOC. That said, Hammond is probably better suited to the job...))

[Terraoblivion]

Lea shivered slightly, still marked by the relentless assault of the fourth horseman. "Yeah, it would be rather nice with some help, whatever that thing was it hurt..." Straightening herself she prepared to accept whatever help that it was Margaret was offering, it wasn't like she didn't need it. "And what we do now is tell Mr. Organizer that we handled his totally-not-guardians and have the piece. But maybe we should check to see if our amount of time has gone up." Raising the cell phone so she could look at it, she did just that.

[Tengu_temp]

Indeed, the timer has changed from red to green, and it shows seven days now. Well, a few minutes less than seven days, because you obtained the Puzzle Piece a moment ago. From other Game stats, your obtained Puzzle Piece number is 1, and the number of players in The Game is 105.

[kamikasei]

Magaret pulls out her own phone and hunts around for the necessary option - she hasn't had as much chance to familiarize herself with this aspect of its workings and can't switch to it so readily as she can use the other powers. Once it's chosen she places one hand on Lea's back, one over her own sternum, and closes her eyes in concentration.

Ideally I'd like to take ten for autosuccess here but I'm not sure if that's permissable out of combat... so, rolling recovery checks alternating between Lea and Margaret. I think it's something like three bruises but I'll roll five times just to be safe.

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6]
[roll7]
[roll8]
[roll9]

Argh - okay - if the rolls were necessary then just consider all of Lea's bruises transferred to Margaret - who'll put up with them for now. She's going for the Big Damn Hero look, sucking up a little discomfort is okay iwth her.

[Terraoblivion]

Lea relaxed in Margaret's arms as she fell the energy flow into her, dispelling the lethargy and numbness brought on by Death's attack fade from her Of course she knew what it looked like, but she didn't really care. "That was...interesting. Now let's ask about these totally-not-guardians and then start preparing for whatever comes next. Not about to waste this second chance."

Pulling her phone out she brought her phone up and called Mr. Organizer. "Hello. I just wanted to tell you that we have not met any of the guardians you said we wouldn't meet. So i feel no need to ask you why you said there would be no guardians here." Her tone was cheery, just dripping with her mockery of the jackass on the other end, even as she knew he would just take it at face value and pretend they hadn't met anything.

[Tengu_temp]

"Ah, I see you realized on your own that the opponents you fought didn't guard the Puzzle Piece you obtained! Very good, I like when smart Players participate in The Game!" Mr. Organizer's response sounds perhaps a bit more smug than usual.

[Terraoblivion]

"And i see you realized that players would be forced to accept such reasoning." Quitting the call she continued. "***hole." Looking over the others as she relaxed a bit she raised an eyebrow. "Any ideas of what to do now? Somehow i doubt we'll get anything useful out of that guy."

[kamikasei]

By way of answer, Margaret takes out her own phone and calls Mr. Organizer back. "What can you tell us about the next puzzle piece? The nearest other teams?" She pauses. "What happened to those three players?"

[Tengu_temp]

"Oh, you're so eager to get the next Puzzle Piece? I like that! It is at the highest spot in Paris. If you want to get it, however, there is no guarantee you won't run into other players. The chances are, let me think... Around 70%?
I know what you might be thinking: creatures similar to these you had to fight killed those three Players. Am I right? That's not true, though. The three players that lost were eliminated by other Players. A single Player, in fact."

[kamikasei]

"Their teammate?" Margaret isn't entirely suprised by this. It makes sense in the context of the Game. The creatures hadn't actually been out to kill them, or Lea would have been very dead by now. If you could lose because of them, it'd probably be because your whole team got knocked out, so if only three players were eliminated...

"Were those creatures sent by you? Under your control? Or are they something totally independent?"

[Tengu_temp]

"Indeed. What a scary guy! Let's hope you won't run into him!" Mr. Organizer is very bad at pretending he's afraid.
"As for these creatures, you can call them Player Hunters. They are a part of The Game, but I don't control them, they act independently. Watch out, I'm sure you will have to fight more of them in the future!"

[kamikasei]

"How far is the nearest other team? How many other teams are in Paris now?" That's as much as Margaret can think of for now - at least, without letting Mr. Organizer mislead them by asking him too many open-ended questions. Once she has answers to them, she hangs up.

"We might as well go back to that closet and remove the bubble. Then go somewhere we can talk and plan. Do we want to go after the next piece now, or wait?"

[Gensh]

"We'll want to go as soon as possible," Galen murmured thoughtfully. "The more pieces we have, the better off we are, and the more rivals we eliminate. Most importantly, however, having an extra piece will give us an extra week. In an emergency, we'll need all the time we can get. Of course, there's no guarantee that there will be any sort of emergency, but an ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure. At the least, the extra week will give us extra time to plan our next move."

[Tengu_temp]

"How close? Hmm, hard to tell. They're on the move right now, you see, so taking measure of the distance isn't easy. Maybe I should tell them to stand still for a second? In any case, there are at least three other teams in Paris."

[kamikasei]

Margaret nods at Galen. "I agree. It'll be risky if we run in to other Players, but we'll have to deal with it sooner or later. So where to go? I don't trust those directions. 'The highest spot in Paris'... obviously you'd think of the Eiffel Tower, but when it's that obvious it feels like a trick."

[Terraoblivion]

Creasing her brow in thought, Lea waited a moment to respond. "I believe that the dome at Sacre Coeur is slightly higher. I am not certain though, so we should probably check first." She then glanced at Galen, slightly bemused hostility in her eyes. "And you just had to reveal the brutality in what we are doing to the other players, right?"

[Gensh]

Galen grins smugly, "I was a doctor before all this, so I must say that I was slightly distressed to find my four best business partners attacking us a moment ago. Nonetheless, we must be resolved here. Even if we don't kill them with our bare hands in the same ways that we ourselves died, we are giving them slow, agonizing deaths as they fruitlessly search for puzzle pieces that we already possess. It's kill or be killed, and I believe I've saved enough lives to make up for any that I might take in the process of saving my own skin for once."

[Eternal Kanus]

Hammond speaks up, having been listening in silence since the battle ended. "I... would rather not think about what we're doing. I mean if we're lucky we'll never have to deal with other players directly. There's three other teams in all of Paris, even going for the same pieces the odds of bumping into them are low." Hammond looks over at Lea. "You'd probably know best, and the Eiffel Tower seems like it would be a trick anyway."

[kamikasei]

Well, the "doctor" was certainly... frank. Margaret looks at Hammond mostly to not have to look at the other two. "So long as you don't hesitate when push comes to shove. We all signed up to this and so did the other players." She smiles. "But hey, who knows what actually happens if you get eliminated? I'm not going to lose too much sleep about it."

Okay, it might be safe now. She turns to Lea. "I was thinking maybe he meant the highest point of ground rather than the highest building. But if there's a higher building, that might be it, too. Let's go somewhere we can look it up."

[Terraoblivion]

"I know. I just prefer not to put it so starkly. No need to waste time thinking about being murderers, you know." Lea's gaze drifted to Galen as she spoke. "The whole morals thing, maybe you've heard about it? Anyway if it is the highest point of ground, then it is definitely somewhere on Montmartre, which happens to be where Sacre Coeur is. So unless he is talking about where people smoke the most pot, that seems to be where we should go."

[kamikasei]

"Sounds like a plan, then." Margaret unslings her bag and puts her weapon away, before leading the way back to the closet where they'd entered the bubble.

[Tengu_temp]

You return without any problems on the way. You don't notice any Players or Player Hunters, and the closet's door is still half-open. Dismissing the bubble brings back reality, with its normal colors, sounds (the extradimensional space is so quiet in comparison!) and people. People, including a janitor just heading towards the closet!

[kamikasei]

((Sounds like the janitor doesn't see us magically reappear out of nowhere - is that right? As obviously that demands a rather different kind of response... Also, not sure whether you'd consider this bluff or diplomacy so here's a simple [roll0]))

On seeing the janitor, Margaret raises a finger to her lips and winks, beckoning him over. Yes, there's a good explanation for this, and I'll tell it to you! But shush and don't make a fuss...

[Tengu_temp]

Margaret succeeds in making the janitor come closer. The not making a fuss part, on the other hand? Not so much.
"Who are you? What are you doing in the closet?" He demands an explanation, not amused.

[kamikasei]

"Please, act normal! There's a guy stalking our friend here, and we spotted him outside. We just want to get past him without being seen. I know we shouldn't be in here, but we just went through the first open door. Please, can you just let us stay here for a minute and he'll have gone?"

Margaret looks terribly earnest as she indicates Lea as the victim of the stalking.

(([roll0] and [roll1], plus situational bonuses))

[Tengu_temp]

"Stalker? Yeah, right. Get out and go away before I call the cops. And if I see something is missing, I'll call them too!"
It seems that the janitor didn't fall for Margaret's lie. And why exactly he treasures the cleaning utensils in the closet so much is anyone's guess.

[kamikasei]

Crap. Still, they're getting away without security being called on them. That's like a win. Margaret does as the janitor says.

[Tengu_temp]

The best way to travel around Paris, unless you happen to possess your own car, is the Paris Metro. The underground trains are fast, modern and crowded. The stations are filled not only with passengers - street artists and musicians, up to whole orchestras in some rare occassions, are a common sight in the tunnels.

The Montmarte hill, where Sacre Coeur is located, is in the northern part of Paris. The district is famous for its artists, and its picteresque appearance is close to how Paris is often portrayed in movies, escept that the Eiffel Tower is nowhere to be seen - it's quite afar to the southwest from here, after all. The building that towers over the whole district and is easily visible even from afar, is the Basilica of Sacre Coeur - your destination. Reaching it from the metro station takes only a short while.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Sacre_Coeur_2009-02-28.JPG/450px-Sacre_Coeur_2009-02-28.JPG

[kamikasei]

Margaret whistles, impressed. "Très bien," she comments. It's funny how, in a group of people with supernatural fluency in all languages, you can still tell when one of them is using a stock phrase from one not their first.

"Do we want to try calling to check if we're getting warmer? Or use the bubble to see if any other Players are nearby?"

[Terraoblivion]

"Because talking to that guy is so comparable to risking running into those things again." A shrug and a small grin followed. "I'd say we try calling him. In the worst case he'll be as annoying as always. And a pretty impressive building, right? One of the most popular tourist spots in the city too and to think that a century ago this was the center of the red light district."

[Gensh]

Galen, who had been previously sulking about someone other than him, the (ex-)doctor, having healing powers, was now examining the Basilica.

"History is history; architecture is architecture. Sometimes it's better if you can't see the forest for the trees. But I do think we should call Mr. Organizer. It looks like he'll be reliable as long as we ask the right questions."

[Eternal Kanus]

Hammond had been keeping quiet once the crowds showed up again. "Can we avoid dealing with him? If we put up a bubble I can see if there are any others people nearby, and then they'd either be players or hunters."

[kamikasei]

"That's what I'm thinking," Margaret answers Hammond, "but it can't hurt to see if he'll give us more info, at least tell us if we're barking up the right tree." So she takes out her phone and calls Mr. Organizer.

"Marco."

[Tengu_temp]

"Hmm? That's not my name." Mr. Organizer pretends to be surprised. "Ah, you expect me to give you a hint about how close to the Puzzle Piece are you getting? I'm afraid I can't do that! You've already received one clue, it should be enough. If I told you the exact coordinates of the Puzzle Piece, it would be unfair to the other Players! Not to mention boring."

[Terraoblivion]

Lea looks at Margaret as the girl talks to Mr. Organizer on the phone. "Soooo...did he say anything useful or do we just have to look around?"

[kamikasei]

Margaret covers the mouthpiece to respond to Lea. "He won't give us any more clues about where the piece is." She considers for a moment, trying to think of another useful question he's likely to actually answer, then shrugs. "Does this piece have any Hunters? Will all pieces have them?"

[Tengu_temp]

"The Player Hunters are not connected to Puzzle Pieces - they would be guardians then, not hunters, don't you think? They wander around on their own." Mr. Organizer sounds a bit less full of crap than usual.

[kamikasei]

"Thanks for the information." Margaret hangs up. No point actively aggravating the guy.

She sighs. "Nothing helpful. He wouldn't say any more about the piece's location than he already had, and he just said the Hunters wander around independently of the pieces. I say we use the bubble and take a look." Of course, they're still in the normal world at the moment. If there are other Players around, wouldn't they have used the bubbles already? And if there are Hunters, they might be following the group instead of marking the location of a piece at all...

[Terraoblivion]

"That sounds like all there is to it. Now we just need to find a place to cross over. Let's go look for an alley." As she began heading off to look for a place where they could crossover to the bubble a frown came on her face. "I wonder what's up with a world where that guy wields the kind of power he does. Who is he and who would ever let him have that much authority?"

[Tengu_temp]

Finding a place with no people around is much easier here than in Louvre, and soon you find yourselves in an ally with no company other than some not very pleasant smells from a nearby trash container. Summoning an extradimensional bubble results in the familiar effect of everything around getting slightly dimmer and the sounds of people on the streets making way for silence. You don't notice anyone else around - no Players, no Player Hunters. Bizarrely, though, the cars are still present, just without the people inside, which makes them look like as if they were driving on their own.

[Eternal Kanus]

Hammond quietly pulls out his phone and fiddles with it for a bit, having it scan the area for people.

Using Telelocation to find anyone within 1 mile.
Search- [roll0]

[Tengu_temp]

Hammond does not detect any presence within the dimensional bubble other than the four of you. Of course, there's a chance that there are Players or Player Hunters nearby, and they just managed to hide their presence...

[kamikasei]

"That's really bizarre," Margaret comments on the cars. She turns back to the cathedral once she has her sword out.

"So, I guess we need to find a way up?"

[Terraoblivion]

"Yes, we do. Should be easy enough, these things are not known for their abundance of doors." Glancing at Hammond fiddling with his phone she continued. "What are you doing? Got some ability to trace the piece or something? Anyway let's go, i don't feel like dragging this out for longer than necessary." And with that she began walking towards the cathedral to begin the ascend.

[Eternal Kanus]

Hammond looks up from his phone. "Oh, um, I can look for nearby people with my phone. There doesn't seem to be anyone around, but if they know about it they can avoid it. I don't think there's any players nearby, but there may still be hunters."

[Tengu_temp]

You enter the basilica through the large, arching gate, complete with two statues on each side (those with good sight and knowledge or history or familiar with the place might recognize Joan of Arc in one of them). The inside, due to its emptiness and complete lack of people or sound, is filled with a solemn, contemplative atmosphere. The Puzzle Piece doesn't seem to be anywhere in the immediate sight, though.

[Terraoblivion]

Once inside the basilica, Lea looked around, though not for the puzzle piece as some would imagine. Instead she looked for any indication of where the stairs to the dome would be. "Let's head out and look for the stairs, we need to get to the top and the room isn't larger than we can easily reach each other should player hunters arrive. I'll try looking over here."

[kamikasei]

"Sure. I'll take this way then." Margaret picks the direction opposite the entrance and crosses to the wall, looking for a way up or any (possibly concealed) passage that might lead to one.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[kamikasei]

Margaret has plenty of time to think as she crosses the room - somehow it seems like the walk takes weeks. She spends it wondering if they're barking up the wrong tree entirely. If other Players had come here, shouldn't they have run in to a bubble once they got in range rather than having to use their own? Could it be they were the only, or at least the first, team to figure out that the Eiffel Tower wasn't the answer to the puzzle? Or had they been so clever about it they'd fooled themselves out of the obvious solution?

But hey, maybe they'd just been lucky. There are only ("at least") three other teams about; they might actually be able to find the piece and get away without running in to any of them. That would be... good. Fighting those things in the Louvre had been a rush, but Margaret's far less eager to get in to PvP. Other Players are much more likely to be creative or at least unpredictable, and probably won't disperse in to nothingness so obligingly; at least two of her teammates seem fully reconciled to the idea that they'll be killing other humans in the course of the Game, but she's not so comfortable with it and the kid seems like he might flake out entirely; they need to complete this mission to buy themselves some time and then get away somewhere to plan their next move under a little less pressure.

And she needs to change. Keeping up her game face is harder than she'd expected.

[Tengu_temp]

(Okay, retcon time. Hammond was never there, there were only three of you. If you asked Mr Organizer about it, he said that the fourth team member is late, and that he'll join you as quick as he can.)

Searching through the basilica brings no results so far, although you haven't reached the highest tower yet - maybe the Puzzle Piece is there? That'd be the highest point of the highest point in Paris, after all...

Suddenly, Margaret notices something! A shadow behind one of the stained glass windows, roughly the size of a child. Before she can take a better look at it, though, the shadow disappears in a hurry. This window should lead to the roof...

In the meantime, Beau finally arrives at the Sacre Coeur - this is where Mr Organizer told him the rest of his group went to. The basilica is already surrounded with a dimensional bubble, so there are no visible tourists around... But that doesn't mean there aren't any people! For a split second, he sees a human figure climbing the basilica's church, high above - it's tiny from this distance and it's hard to see any details, and it disappears from his sight soon afterwards.

[Lothmar]

Beau pauses for a moment brushing his chin with his hand as he tilts his head watching this before him. 'Hmm, wonder if that's someone on my team?' He thinks to himself before righting his head and adjusting his gimmicky black Beret. 'Hmm, guess they're done searching inside then... The highest, point. Oh on top of the cross, of course.' He rolls his eyes as he wiggles his fingers for a moment preparing himself.

As Beau's gaze steadies on the great building ahead of him, invisible energies begin to form in the air as Beau begins to play with his visual perspective. He starts slowly moving his hands against the outside walls and smiled with satisfaction as his hands stopped moving from resistance. He then moves his left hand into a cupped palm next to the cross as he begins visually gesturing gentle pinching and brushing motions.

The energy hands created match my movements precisely. Since they're linked with ESP Tactile, im attempting a physical search attempting to feel for something out of place - or, for something landing in the cupped hand as I brush across the flat surfaces towards it ; if I accidentally brush something off, at which point i'll close my hand and slowly drag it across my visual perspective, slowly look down - kneel and then open my hand on the ground as I look for what interacted with my giant ghost hands.

I could take ten, but im nervous of someone reaching the objective before me. After all, what better present to welcome yourself into the group but an objective.
Search[roll0]+10
Perform - Mime - 26. (skill mastery)

[Tengu_temp]

Beau doesn't detect anything. No small objects, no people or creatures. How weird.

[Lothmar]

'Hmm, perhaps I assumed wrong... Well, it'd take too much time to find the stairs inside,' He thinks to himself - slightly uneasy having never tried something this stupid out with his powers yet, but felt now was as good a time as any to test one's limits as he walks closer to the building.

He hit a few buttons in his pocket with one hand, as with the other he begins to feel against an invisible surface and smiles as his finger finally presses in. He steps through the make believe barrier and then poke's his finger into the air as his phone 'bings' and then begins to play cheesy hum drum elevator music as he rises into the air.

Figured I'd mention it, all my major powers have affect insubstantial (in case there is a ghost shadow there that I would have noticed because of that.) But regardless.

Switching arrays and using 'Mime tools' Ranged Variant (Telekinesis) with it's distracting flaw of 'perform mime' to basically lift myself up to the top of the dome. Once there i'll switch array's to the other 'mimes tools' to basically create myself a floor/platform to walk on/over and then up to the top along a curving walkway. Thank god I took the stationary and continuous extras.

So Move equivalent to throwing distance each round... Okay, 10 ft a round regularly. 25 if I concentrate. And Concentration plus extra effort is 2500ft. Hmm, is that too fast? That seems fast... Hmm well shoot, it'd be a static 30ft per round if I just used my regular mimes tools to effectively create myself a walkway up. Well regardless i'd like to get to the top relatively expediently (realistic elevator or stair speeds etc whichever is faster), so tell me how long it'll take. That is, if nothing goes horribly awry in the meantime. *chuckle*

[kamikasei]

Margaret calls across to the others once she's sure the stairs she's found go all the way up. "Over here! But I think there's someone else outside!" Should she wait for them to catch up to her or charge ahead to try to beat the shadow to the top? After a moment's hesitation she decides on the latter and continues up.

[Terraoblivion]

Rushing over to Margaret's side upon hearing about the stairs. "So that's the way up? How surprisingly convenient. Or not really, going to the dome is a major tourist attraction. Anyway, let's get up there and see if the piece is really here, or if our dear "savior" meant something else, like we were supposed to go search the local stoners and where they hang out."

"What was that? A player hunter?" Lea's attention snapped to focus on the mysterious shadow outside the window as the group began climbing the stairs.

[kamikasei]

"Could be. It looked small..." Margaret has enough tact, since Lea had the worst of it in their last fight and Margaret had been relatively unscathed, not to comment that Hunters would probably be a better thing to encounter than other Players - Hunters, at least, wouldn't beat them to the Puzzle Piece.

[Gensh]

"Hmm?" Galen mumbles when he hears Margaret's call. As the last one to the stairs, he wasn't able to see the shadow behind the window, but he certainly heard his teammates talking about it. "So it's not one of the Riders then? If they're only the tip of the iceberg, then I'm worried about what would come after..."

[Tengu_temp]

The view from the top of the basilica is breathtaking - not only you can see far away and observe the panorama of a large part of Paris, but it's also one of the very nice parts on top of that. No Puzzle Pieces in sight, though, although you don't see any Player Hunters. Unless the mime, floating up to your location in what appears to be an invisible, outside lift, counts. Not only have you noticed him, he has noticed you as well.

(There we go, the party is whole again! Everyone, you can roll my favorite skill check - Notice.)

[Lothmar]

As Beau notices other people make their way to the roof from the invisible lifts see through screen, he takes a moment looking slightly excited as he casually pulls out a folded black cloth napkin from his chest pocket and waves it up and down as he continues to ride up, hoping they understand the reference and dont mistake him for someone else.


Using skill mastery on both to take 10.
Notice - 20
Perform Mime - 26

[Tengu_temp]

Galen
You notice two roughly humanoid shapes standing on the roof, not too far away from the group. They're cloaked in a Predator-like way, but much harder to notice than in the movie, and it's hard to see any details apart from the fact that they're taller than humans, though roughly as wide. They don't seem to be aggressive, they're just watching.

Beau and Galen
You notice something in the air, very far away to the southwest from here. A hot air balloon? It shouldn't be anything unusual, but judging from the map of Paris, it's roughly above where the Eiffel Tower is.

[Gensh]

Galen takes note of the cloaked figures, though he gives no indication that he has spotted them. While he wishes that there was some way to alert his teammates to the possible danger, he also doesn't want to run headlong into an encounter he could have avoided. The balloon was less strange, but...

"So, ladies, do you think this is our missing fourth member or perhaps a spy? The latter isn't particularly likely given the circumstances, so I suppose that distraction might be a more accurate description."

[kamikasei]

Margaret eyes the approaching... mime. A mime. What the hell? "Could be another Player, or a Hunter with that getup, but why alone in either case?" She keeps looking around, trying not to let the view distract her from anything important that's there to be seen, but can't help succumbing to the gawp factor a little all the same. "I don't see anyone else about, so we might as well see what he does." She makes sure her footing's secure and that she can defend Lea if necessary - Galen can probably handle herself but the Parisienne does not appear to be a close quarters combatant.

[Lothmar]

While he waits to reach the roof and the others, Beau casually tucks the napkin into his shirt pocket as he takes out his phone as he begins to type something.

*In french / texting - translating for time*
'Hello, Mr Organizer. Quick question. :smallsigh: Is there another team of players in a hot air baloon? I didnt think it was legal for them to fly so close to the eifell tower. Or did you mean anything goes when refering to highest spot? :smallamused:'

He adds putting his hand over his eyes and trying to gauge how high the baloon was to make sure it wasnt the highest spot in the sky as he now also does a quick paranoid scan.

Move action to text - Standard action to keep moving up until im to the party. (tell me when im level)

26 perform mime. (to make it look like a bored passenger)
[roll0]+ 10.

[Tengu_temp]

"Is there? Let me see.", Mr Organizer responds. "Nope! No Players in balloons. That'd be a silly idea, wouldn't it?"
It's hard to estimate how high the balloon is exactly, but you don't see anything higher than it.

(You can assume you've reached each other now, unless someone decides to intervene.)

[Lothmar]

Beau smirks slightly thinking to himself 'Right, because this game doesn't just ooze with the possibility of ridiculous antics?'

He types a small message on his phone as he jostles in place for a moment and then steps out walking across the air towards the others. He licks the thumb of his right hand and then creases it across his eyebrow before bobbing them playfully hitting a button on his cellphone.

"Bonjour! Je suis Beau, vous étiez assis à la table avec les serviettes de table en noir, non?"

"Hello! I am Beau, you were seated at the table with the black napkins, no?" He adds with a warm smile the phone repeating what he typed in a robotic computer voice as he texts some more into the phone.

"Désolé je suis en retard, j'ai été pris au piège dans un congélateur morgue."

"Sorry I am late, I was trapped in a morgue freezer." he adds rolling his eyes as if to say 'long story'.

"Néanmoins, il semble que nous pourrions être au mauvais endroit. Vous voyez le ballon? Il semble que nous n'étions pas assez précis pour tous les goûts M. Organisateur encore une fois."

"Regardless, it looks like we may be in the wrong spot. You see the balloon? It appears we were not specific enough for Mr. Organizer's tastes yet again." He adds with a slight smirk as if implying he knew at least a little about the first puzzle piece. After all why would he turn down free time?

"Dois-je essayer de l'obtenir à partir d'ici - bien que cela pourrait causer une perturbation, non?"

"Shall I try and get it from here - though that might cause a disturbance, no?" he inquires as if to imply 'bring it here' but left it generally unspecific curious to his associates tastes in how they would play the game and how they would respond, while acting as if he sought to make up for lost time by getting the next puzzle piece.

[kamikasei]

Margaret watches the new arrival warily, uncertain how to react - then decides to keep in character. She rests her blade on her shoulder and grins cockily. "Heh! You're our fourth? Well, we'll have time to catch up after we get the Piece." She follows Beau's gaze up to the balloon. "You think his idea of 'the highest point in Paris' was in the air? And you can reach it from here?"

[Lothmar]

Beau starts typing into his phone again before hitting enter as the robot voice from the speaker replies. "Perhaps, though it may take a little time. I casually examined the roof here with my powers, but I cant be a hundred percent certain on if it is here or there. Perhaps you should do a more thorough search here while I draw in the balloon?" He adds with a smile putting his phone away.

He turns towards the distant balloon and braces his feet on the roof, as it looks like he bends his knee's and leans back almost to the point where he's sitting in a chair but a careful eye will show that he's actually standing and maintaining his balance despite the awkward positioning. He pushes his beret forward before he makes cranking and turning gestures in the air with his hands as if preparing some massive mechanization.

Using my Telekinesis with Perception range to draw the hot air balloon to us. My perform mime is gesturing that im preparing either a net cannon or a harpoon gun of some sort, either way it's a mental grab and grapple if necessary to pull the balloon in etc.

[Tengu_temp]

Beau pulls the balloon in a bit, but that's the limit of what he can do - after several yards the balloon refuses to move, as if some other force was holding it.

[Lothmar]

Beau grits his teeth and cranks harder, occassionally pulling back like a determined fisherman strapped to a seat to prevent him from getting pulled overboard at this point. His feet begin to slide slightly as the pull affect begins taught and he has a wide eyed look of panic as he hooks his arm in the air as if hold a wheel with all his might one handed as he fumbled with his phone in his pocket to try... And...Activate...

And suddenly it looked as if Beau was pulled from the very roof, and quickly managed to turn on his own 'bubble' for fear of being pulled outside the current bubbles influence and towards the eiffel tower. He imagined the onlookers pointing up at the sky at a mime that looked as if he'd been shot out of a cannon towards a balloon and kind of snickered at the idea himself.

If I cant reel in the objective because it's rooted, I'll bring myself to the objective!

Standard action to perform a Full speed Telekenetic throw(s - once a round until im there etc) towards the balloon to better simulate the scenario I played out. *chuckle*

[Terraoblivion]

The antics of the new member left Lea completed unamused. Of course having a the last member around would be a great help, but really, a mime? With mime powers no less? What would be next, a clown who made weaponized balloon animals? Shrugging it off she decided that she was going to work together with him anyway. "Good to have you here, Beau. A full group should give us a better chance of surviving whatever crazy things Mr. Organizer has in store for us. Or at least give us the moral support needed to deal with his personality. If you believe you can investigate the balloon from here, then i think we should follow your suggestion and go search the top of the building. The sooner we find the piece the more calm i'll be. I don't think any of us have a burning desire to die again."

[kamikasei]

"I'm Margaret," Margaret introduces herself, a little late. And then, following what Lea said, she promptly turns to begin searching the roof.

[roll0]

[Tengu_temp]

When Beau starts to pull off his latest trick, you suddenly hear laughter! It's coming from the direction of the cloaked figures Galen noticed - except that they're not cloaked anymore, as their camouflage has faded out! Turns out it's not two tall and weird-looking creatures, but two pairs of an adult giving a kid a piggyback ride. The first one is a man around 30 years old, with five o'clock shadow covering his face, and a girl around 7-8 years old with twin braids. Both of them have brown hair and tan skin. The second pair is a late teenage boy, blond-haired, pale and wearing glasses, and a much younger (around 9-10 years old), black-haired one. The teenager is the only one who's not laughing loudly and cheerfully, instead trying to stay stoic and indifferent.

And they're all wearing pirate costumes. Rich and elaborate ones, in fact. The adult man is the captain.

[kamikasei]

So much for searching the roof... Margaret cuts her movement short and smoothly diverts it in to taking up position between the group and the newcomers. Players? A family of Players? There are kids in the Game? She frowns at them, but decides to let one of the others do the talking.

[Gensh]

"Well, that was unexpected," Galen mutters to himself, surprised to see not some sort of gargoyle but pirates instead. Pirates with cloaking fields, no less. Granted, his own stealth ability has little to do with his former profession (beyond that time when he had experimented with the brown note at least), but...

He strokes his beard thoughtfully before drumming up his English accent into cheesy territory, "Ahoy cap'n! 'ow goes your 'aul? Yew found a piece yet?" He'll play along with their little game. If the captain is doing it to keep the kids' minds off of the true nature of the Game, then he'll be a good ally to have, at least until he outlives his usefulness. On the other hand, he could be doing the same thing in order to fulfill his own purposes. Even worse, the two could overlap...Galen slides his hand into his pocket casually, ready to disappear at a moment's notice.

[Tengu_temp]

"Yarrr, ye scurvy landlubbers! Whomever hid that booty was a canny dog, cause we haven't found it yet!"
"Do we have to talk in pirate-speak now...?", asks the teenager, bemused.
"Hey! Call the captain 'captain', remember?", the boy on his shoulders objects.
"Right... Do we have to talk in pirate-speak, captain?"
"No, not really. But it's more fun that way.", the man smiles widely. "We've only found one piece in another place, but there seems to be a trick to the one here. What about you? I see that you've found a clue!"
"Clue!" The small girl points at Beau.

[Terraoblivion]

Putting on a completely deadpan expression, Lea replied to the little girl. "No, that's not a clue, it's a mime. Anything he provides will be invisible and silent." She quickly removed her attention from the girl, talking to other players wasn't exactly pleasant. Everybody knew what would eventually happen if they worked together. "In any case, i think we are as lost as you are. At least we haven't really found any hint of where the piece is. I have to ask though...why pirates? It isn't even Autumn yet."

[Tengu_temp]

"Why is he doing that?" The small girl demands an explanation. "He's funny."
"No luck, huh? Well, doesn't matter, we still have a week to find another piece! Same with you, right? You've already found one?", asks the pirate captain. "And why pirates? Well, it's more fun that way, isn't it? It makes the whole thing feel like a grand adventure!"

[Lothmar]

Beau continues to fly through the air, spinning akwardly on occassion as if the fishing chair he was sitting in was skipping off an invible surface, being pulled at high speeds - even though the balloon was stationary oddly enough; At times like this, he wished he could scream or make his panic more visible, but all he could do was hang on to dear life as his power continued to play out the scenario he had designed. Spinning around a few times from the skips he saw another group of people on the rooftop with his team and thought to himself 'Man I wish I had gotten their numbers before I did something this stupid'
Unless I see something bad happening, im not turning around - Balloon ho!

[Tengu_temp]

When Beau has covered roughly one third of the distance (which happens after some time, so the conversation might progress and go on a different topic in the meantime), he notices something approaching from the opposite direction! It's too small to make out any real details, but it appears to be a flock of roughly a dozen of winged figures.

[Lothmar]

'Seagulls, my imagination really is running wild... Wait, no - that's something else...' He thinks to himself wrestling with something in the air as he releases himself from the seat-belt and tumbles out of the seat and into a nice splash down as he floats there momentarily arms extended at chest level. 'A dozen or so, not likely players unless several teams joined together... Either way, fighting all of that is just a recipe for disaster - I better get somewhere defensible.' He thinks to himself as he looks around for a moment - trying to locate the nearest metro tunnels. 'Okay, this current scenario isnt working... Think, think... Wait! Free falling skydiver!' He thinks to himself spinning around for a moment and tucking his arms to his side to reduce air resistance as he suddenly begins plummiting towards the ground at great speeds. 'Ah crap wait, which cord am I supposed to pull!? They usually color them for this reason!?' He thinks to himself as his eyes tear up from the wind resistance, yes the wind resistance...

Telekinetic throwing myself again, this time at a downward angel. since I wont go any faster if I keep throwing myself in this fashion, I'll simply reach top speed while falling and use telekinesis as an E-Brake when I get within 50/100 feet - that way im at least not falling at terminal velocity and only have a minimal distance to move downwards. If im closer to the roof's then I think I am and this will simply cause me to crash into one of them, i'll just move to the nearest roof.

[Terraoblivion]

Lea nodded, still trying to stay more reserved than the pirates seemed to be. She'd hoped not to have to deal with other teams of players, but that seemed to have been in vain. "We found one in Louvre. On the back of some ancient statue. I got the impression that it was meant to be a freebie to get us started."

[kamikasei]

Margaret watches the pirate family carefully, trying to look like she's holding her weapon only casually. Are they for real? Okay, the man might want to keep the mood light for the kids' sake... but if those are his kids, then presumably the stakes in the Game are sky high for him, and who knows what he might be willing to do?

What he's willing to do? What are we willing to do? Margaret would be happy enough for this group to walk away, so long as her team don't lose the current piece to them. After all, though it would be unpalatable to say aloud, if in the end only one team can win... well, she'd rather it was some other team who took the pirates' Piece, someone who she'd feel happier defeating in turn. She resists the urge to grit her teeth. Is this the first test of how much she values her own stake in this contest?

(([roll0] to anticipate any hostile action on the pirates' part.))

[Tengu_temp]

"I think..." The man puts on an over the top "thinker" pose. "I think that every team receives an easy to get Puzzle Piece at the beginning, to get things started! and the further ones are much trickier! What do you think, crew?"
"Umm... yes!"
"Yeah, that must be it!"
"I thought that was obvious from the beginning?", asks the teenage boy.
None of them seem to have any hostile intentions towards you, even deeply hidden.

As for Beau, he lands on the ground next to a metro entrance (fortunately this is still a dimensional bubble, so there aren't any people around to give him weird looks) and hides inside. The winged figures... do not approach. When they noticed that he got down on the ground, they stopped in mid-air, did several circles around, then started to return where they came from. Which seems to be either the Eiffel tower, or the balloon...

[Lothmar]

Beau makes a pulling motion and pops his shoot, hovering down at an angel before making jerky motions trying to unclasp himself before running inside the nearby metro station.

'Best not to show them we're hostile... For now anyway.' Beau thinks to himself pondering using his secret technique of visual squish for the first time as they circle, he remains hidden and ready to throw up quick invisible and layered blockades in case of pursuit but was surprised that none of them came down to investigate.

'I wonder if im over-thinking this...' He continues pondering to himself as he reviews the metro lines to figure out how to get back to the others relatively promptly, or at least getting a bit of distance seems these flying creatures seem to have a defensive perimeter set up against aerial intruders. 'Is there a reason they didn't come down? Couldn't come down?' He continues to think highly doubting that simply approaching on foot would keep them from advancing on them or worse.

Regardless, what he had to worry about now was getting back to the others... Perhaps they would actually have to co-operate with another team, or perhaps such a challenge was simply intended for a group that may have expanded their Repertoire with other players phones, but that idea somehow seemed off. Sure, there's a certain micro managing issue and efficiency problems, but if each person has a unique ability that they can activate and each power takes a certain period of time - then the sheer volume of abilities that can be used at once more then makes up for the possibility of a single person or small group having a wide variety of abilities for any situation right? Hmm, that remains to be seen. Regardless, it seems one player didn't agree with that logic.

While he waits for his train he begins to text Mr. Organizer.

'Apologies for asking Mr. Organizer, but I don't believe I was ever informed as to my phones new number - since i've only had it for a short time and the only person i've texted was you. True I could call/text someone I knew with caller ID and ask, but I had another request. Could I have that information and my team-mates numbers sent to me so that we can circulate them for better communication? I'd hate to get back to where I left them and find out they left me behind again (hopefully on accident). ;_;

Thank you for your time - Beau'

[Tengu_temp]

The response is, strangely enough, a voice message.

"Aah, what an oversight! My bad. There you go, a text message with the phone numbers of all of your teammates, including yourself, should be arriving now. Chat with them to your heart's delight!"

Indeed, Beau receives what Mr Organizer told him.

[Lothmar]

'...Why do I get the feeling he was making a pun?' Beau thinks to himself shaking his head as he begins programing in phone numbers. After everyone was programmed in, he started work on a multiple numbered text.

'Hey guys it's me Beau,

Couldn't quite make it to the balloon, I went to ground when I saw 12+ flying creatures coming my way. They seem to have returned to nest at the Eiffel tower, im safe for now; How are talks going? It looks like we may need assistance on this next piece (convenient no? - -), if the other team seem's trustworthy perhaps we could interest them in an alliance of sort? After-all, people dont have to worry about losing if the winning team earnestly wishes to use the wish to restore life to all the game participants.

Either way, im coming back on the metro, if you guys are somewhere else let me know so I can change trains.

Also, an extra service. Figured since I didnt have anyone's numbers or knew my own for this phone, it might be the same for all of you. So, here's a list of everyones phone numbers.'

And with that there as a descending list of name and then number.

[kamikasei]

Margaret feels like an idiot as she reads Beau's message, but she's well used to concealing that sensation while in costume. "I guess we were too clever for our own good. Sounds like there might be hunters at the Tower." She looks back over her shoulder at Galen and Lea. There's an unspoken question on her face that's not hard to guess at - do we team up with these guys like Beau suggests?

[Lothmar]

Beau boards the metro line and sits down staring at his phone casually in his hands while waiting for a response. He feel's slightly guilty for getting on without paying, but the bubble made it an inconvenience not to do it that way for many reasons...

[Terraoblivion]

The first thing Lea did upon getting the message was store the numbers. She always forgot to do that if she waited. It also gave her time to think about the message, before replying to anyone, which she did by way of text message. "I guess we need to return to the tower then. I still think it might be a good idea to at least check the dome first. Knowing that guy, he might have placed the hunters there to lure us away."

Still left the question of the pirates. Looking up from the phone she sent them an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. I got a message from a friend i needed to reply to. So what do you people plan to do now?"

[Lothmar]

'You know, after awhile... You start to notice how creepy an empty world is.' Beau thinks to himself looking around the metro train interior.

[Tengu_temp]

"The Puzzle Piece must be in another place. Let's go down and ponder our next move - over ice cream! What do you say, crew?"
The man's suggestion is met with enthusiastic cheers from his teammates. Well, the prepubescent ones, at least.
"How about you?", he asks, turning towards you again. "Wanna join us?"

[kamikasei]

"Ice cream sounds good." Margaret smiles at the pirates. Now, to ask Beau to join them or suggest he keep an eye from a distance? But these Players seem guileless. Well, they can contact him once they're there.

"How did you get up, anyway?" Assuming they intend to descend via the stairs, she follows them down.

[Tengu_temp]

In response to Margaret's question, the teenage boy simply raises his phone. Seems that the rest of his team took all the enthusiasm and there wasn't any left for him.

An unpleasant surprise awaits Beau - suddenly, the train enters an area outside of a bubble, and it's filled with a small crowd of people! Most of them are busy with their own matters, but a few of them noticed his sudden appearance.
"Woah! What happened?"
"Huh, a mime?"
"Is this a magic trick?"

[Lothmar]

'Whoa hell,' Beau thinks to himself slightly stumbling into position as the world fills with activity once again. 'Bah they noticed, okay play it calm...' He thinks to himself when someone mentions 'magic' tricks.

He tips his hat in acknowledgment and bobs his eyebrows to those who notice as he displays an empty hat - he then turns the hat towards him and reaches into the hat and the dimension pocket within and pulls out some cheap flowers and hands them off casually to a woman nearby as he closes the pocket before showing the empty hat off again.

He then holds the hat in his teeth opening the dimensional pocket within the hat again, as he reaches in with his finger with a subtle pinching motion and then begins pulling out handkerchief after handkerchief, hand over hand - as one hand pulls them out the other stacks them neatly atop his hair before putting the hat back on his head. As he bends over to take a bow the handkerchiefs fall back into the pocket before he closes it and he removes the hat again to show the people, the handkerchiefs are gone.

If anyone wishes to inspect the hat, he will gladly allow them to before continuing on to more conventional comedy and mime art. He will continue entertaining if people are interested, but will not continue for a prolonged period of time that would alert the authorities - who would likely kick him off the train, fine him or possibly worse.


Acrobatics 22
Bluff 24
Perform Mime 26
Sleight of Hand 23

And using my 'dimension pocket' power and my 'pocket of props' benefit feat to continue to perform these impressive feats of illussion.

[Terraoblivion]

"I support the movement for ice cream. We can discuss the details of working together then." She decided to leave the big questions unvoiced for the time being. How would they decide who got the piece and would either group be able to trust the others to help them get one for them as well? No need to rock the boat yet. "Anybody know a good place. It's been far too long since last i had ice cream."

[Tengu_temp]

"I don't know any, but there should be some around, right? Let's look for them, crew!" Is there anything that can discourage that guy?
"Hey! Ask Mr O!" The little boy gives an order to his mount.
"Sure, sure." The teenager makes a call on his cellphone. "Mr Organizer, are there any good ice cream places around?" A pause. "Okay, good that there is one, but where is it? Yes, a map would be fine, thanks."
"Huge success!" The young boy raises his cellphone, a map app on with a marked location clearly visible.
"Great job, crew! Let's get going, onwards, delicious desserts await us!" The man points in a heroic pose towards where he thinks the ice cream place is located. "You comin', landlubbers?"

At the same time Beau manages to convince the audience that what they see is a magic trick. Some of them stay to watch, some others leave, not wanting to have anything to do with mimes and their strangeness. The show cuts abruptly though as the train enters another dimensional bubble and everyone else disappears again. Well, at least that means the rest of his team is close - soon afterwards the train arrives at a station close to the basilica.

[Lothmar]

'Glad that's over,' Beau thinks to himself looking at his hat for a moment. 'But this is why I dont perform near Metro stations.' He thinks taking a few coins from the hat and pocketing the profit. 'Though I probably would have earned more after a finale like that.' He thinks with a chuckle centering his hat and exiting the station as he casually walks while checking his phone and player data.

'Lets just keep an eye on local teams to make sure this is even worth our time...' He thinks casually refreshing every few minutes if it doesnt automatically update - primarily to make sure that other teams havent managed to obtain the piece they were after so they wouldnt have to brave such a challenge for nothing.

[Terraoblivion]

Lea raised an eyebrow at the man's theatrics. She couldn't very well call him out on it openly, but at least she wonder about what was wrong. "Of course, lead the way. But just for your consideration, perhaps we should find a place to leave the bubble. Just to, you know, not break the rules of the game or get people wondering about how we appeared from thin air."

[kamikasei]

Margaret lets Lea lead the way after the pirate group, giving her the chance to work more information out of them, or just steer them as the older woman sees fit. She puts her weapon away before following them down - good faith and so on. Galen she leaves to take up the rear, in case he wants to look around further before leaving the roof behind.

[Tengu_temp]

"Ha, don't worry about that! My underling has the ability to detect people not involved in the Game - perfect for these circumstances!" The man pats the teenage boy's shoulder, to the latter's restrained annoyance. "Alright crew, let's get going! First mate, if you could help us get to the ground..."
"Aye captain! Fairy dust!" The small girl raises her cellphone, and indeed, a cloud of barely-visible dust emerges from it, covering the surrounding area - including you, unless you dodge. It doesn't let you fly, but it makes you feel light on your feet. The other team jumps off the roof and floats down to the street slowly, landing safely.
"Come, come! The treasure map says the booty's nearby! Yarr!" The team waits for you to follow them, then heads towards a nearby back alley. Upon making sure there are no normal people around (how the boy does it, you have no idea), they take off the bubble, and head towards the destination. Indeed, it's not far behind - a small, quiet cafe, with lots of delicious desserts on the menu.

Beau can see that there are still 105 players in the game. The best team still has collected only one piece - indeed, the further ones are tricky to get.

[Gensh]

Galen holds his breath as he let the cloud of dust pass him by; he didn't want to offend but there was no telling what the dust was. When he sees its effects, however, he chuckles to himself a little at the thought of pirates having fairy dust. He leaves immediately after all the others: "women and children first," of course.

[Terraoblivion]

Once they were moving and the "pirates" were looking the other way, Lea relaxed enough to sigh and shake her head. Seemed like only crazy people accepted Mr. Organizer's offer. Maybe that meant she was crazier than she thought too. Also seemed like they weren't too hung up on the details of the stories they drew inspiration from.

Still the group brought them safely to the café. Rather than face the group and the big questions they needed to discuss, she focused her attention on the menu. It was quite big and a lot of these desserts looked quite tasty. After a long while of studying it and deliberating and hoping someone else would break the ice, she finally settled on ordering a large ice cream, old-fashioned Northern European ice cream at that. Apparently she didn't care as much about her weight as her appearance might have suggested.

[kamikasei]

Margaret orders the waiter's recommendation. She intends this to get her an Authentic Parisian Experience. Most likely, it gets her whatever's Good Enough For Tourists.

Still tasty though.

This means ordering doesn't take her so long as it does Lea. But what to talk about? It might be risky to discuss the Game too openly, though the risk is probably small. Asking about the other Players as people is probably dangerous, socially if not otherwise - the questions of "so how did you die?" is too inevitably likely to come up.

Game it is. She's talked about stranger-sounding things in public spaces. And hey, worst come to worst they can just switch the conversation to Finnish or something. Actually, that might be a good idea in general...

"Let's keep this private. I'm not sure how strict the rule about outsiders is," she suggests to the table, in Finnish. It's a pretty weird experience.

"So the plan is to head to the Tower and fight any Hunters in the way? What about other Players? Want to try to team up with them too? Or maybe you have a way to sneak around the whole lot." Margaret's game face is back on. In this case, that means she sounds like she knows more than she's letting on and is letting the others tell her things strictly for her amusement.

[Gensh]

Galen fumbles with his phone for a moment, changing to Finnish before speaking. "Ms. Anderson," he interjects pointedly between bites of plain vanilla, "we're in an ice cream parlor. That discussion can come later."

He glances at the other team offhandedly, trying to keep tabs on their reactions. Ordinarily, he could afford to show a greater level of suspicion, but the children are throwing him off. They're likely to be innocent, but given the circumstances, there are no guarantees. Even if they are, what about the other two? He'll play the nice guy for the time being.

"I believe introductions are in order. My name is Dr. Galen Handel. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Well, that wasn't a complete lie: he might have lost his certification but not his diploma. Nevertheless, the positive stereotype associated with doctors would certainly provide him with the appropriate image.

[Lothmar]

'Allright, just got out of the metro. Bubbles down so it's harder to pick you guys out. Where are you at?'

Beau enters as he takes a break at a street corner.

[Tengu_temp]

The personnel at the cafe is only a bit surprised to see pirates come in. As expected, the kids act like, well, kids in a candy store, and pick huge loads of icecream. Actually, the "captain" doesn't stay far behind them in this regard, either. Only the teenager shows some restraint, choosing a simple chocolate dessert.
"A doctor, huh? I can respect that a lot." The adult man gives Galen a hand to shake. "Alright, let me introduce the crew to ya! My name's Stanley, and the little girl is my precious daughter Esmeralda. Say hi!"
"...Hello."
"The younger of the boys is Jean..."
"Hi!"
"And the older one-"
"Mark." The teenager speaks for himself. "Do you really want to work together with all the teams you meet? What if they disagree?"
The question was directed towards everyone at the table.

[kamikasei]

"I'm Margaret. Nice to meet you." Margaret leaves it at that - let the others get their niceties out of the way before dealing with hard questions.

[Lothmar]

As Beau walks down the sidewalk casually he eventually spots the group in the ice cream parlor. '...I suppose we've still got to eat.' He eventually thinks to himself as he shakes his head and hunches his shoulders.

He checks for traffic and crosses at the cross walk before entering the store. He gives a casual wave of his hand in passing as he enters a short line. After a slight delay in ordering when Beau realizes the woman at the register could not understand sign language his face perked up for a moment as he began typing rapidly into his phone.

Once finished he hit enter and the phone replied. "A root-beer float with an extra scoop of vanilla please." the cashier looked slightly embarrassed and went to prepare his order. Beau easily paid with his proceeds from the metro and left a small tip for the cashier in the general bowl.

Glass in hand, he finds himself a seat at the table and give's everyone a single nod of acknowledgment as he sets down his glass and joins them at the table. Wiping his fingers on a napkin he proceeds to enter more words into his phone. "So what did I miss?" With a slight pause as he looks at everyone for a moment noticing an odd pause and silence seemed to have hit the table.

[Terraoblivion]

"And i'm Lea Desrocher. That just leaves the mime to introduce himself when he gets back." And as if summoned by her words, Beau came back and ordered...something. At least she didn't know what it was, though she could guess from his description, though she hadn't expected them to serve it.

[kamikasei]

"Like Dr. Handel said, let's leave that for later, Mark." Margaret picks back up the ball the physician dropped. "If we're taking the time to relax here we should enjoy it. So where is everyone from? I'm from Portland, myself." That... should be safe; safer than "what does everyone do", at least...

[roll0] (+4 maybe?) to steer the conversation back to pleasantries instead of dangerous subjects.

[Tengu_temp]

"Portland? In the USA? Now that's a long distance you had to cover!" Stanley sounds amazed. "I mean, we're from Britain, Esme and me, and we thought we had to travel far to get here, but that's nothing in comparison to you! Have you ever travelled that much before?"
"I like travelling, it's fun! Paris is fun too.", the little girl comments.

"I, I am from France. But not Paris, another city." The small boy - Jean, was it? - sounds more somber than before, as if he was thinking about something sad.

"Bremen. That's in Germany, if anyone didn't know." Mark does not follow up on his previous question, but it's obvious from his face that the fact he didn't receive an anwer didn't escape his attention. "Are there any locals here anyway?"

[Lothmar]

When asked if there are any locals Beau will wave his hand slightly before making a gesture of 'Here.' in slow sign language. After all, he was interested to see if such method's of communication were also incorporated into the game's translations.

If it looks like people don't understand he will switch to using his cell phone again as a robotic speaker again as he pulls out a card from his sleeve with sleight of hand and takes a pen from his pocket - adjusting the number to his current phone as he politely passes it along.


Beau Franklyn - Entertainer Extraordinaire
Local Public Performance permits - City: Paris, Districts: Unlimited

The card included the number of the local office that handled permits of this type, in case police or someone had to check your credentials for various reasons. The card simply meant that he was authorized to perform in any public forum in paris, so long as he was not a safety hazard or violated any various rules or regulations of the area. An unlimited license for any city in France simply meant that you were also considered to have a 'basic' license in any French city that allowed street performers, one would usually find out such things at city hall, a police station or with public records.

[Terraoblivion]

Lea seemed entirely too interested in her ice cream as kept digging in. She did, however, take a break to answer Margaret's question. "Yeah, lived in the city my whole life. Would have thought that the guy in charge would generally let people play the game near where they were. But i guess that would make too much sense." After all nothing else about this game made any sense, including the players.

[Gensh]

Galen shrugs, saying, "Well, I for one am glad to be out of Salisbury. I'd long been in need of a vacation." He pauses slightly trying to think of something cosmopolitan enough that they can all talk about it. "Still," he adds, "All hail Britannia, all hail Lelouch, am I right?"

[Tengu_temp]

"Lelouch?"
"Huh?"
"Who's that?"
Galen's comment confuses most of the other team. With one exception.
"An anime character.", explains Mark. "Anyway, we have two people from Paris here. You know what that means, right?"
"Right! It means our theory that none of the Players start the Game in their home city isn't true!", exclaims Stanley. "But how does Mr Organizer assign teams and starting locations, then?"
"Maybe he has a board and throws darts.", says Jean, which results in laughs from his whole team. Except for Mark, as usual.
"Might be, might be!" Stanley gets up from his chair. "Be right back. Behave while I'm not here, crew!"
He disappears in a nearby alley.

[Lothmar]

Beau has a definite puzzled look at Galens response but it fades casually when explained.

'Come now, the odds of so many contestants all not having died in their home towns, seems highly unlikely. Sure there's probably some that didnt, hell it's probably their excuse for thinking it because it happened to them.' Beau thinks to himself.

Beau casually stirs his drink with his spoon before noticing he forgot a straw. He removes his hat and spins it once in his hand as he then tips the hat to them, showing the empty side before tipping it back to face him as he reaches his hand in and withdraws plastic bendy straw and then puts his hat back on his head.

He drops the straw into his drink and begins to sip casually, typing into his phone as he sends his team a text message.

"More then likely, Mr. Operator had several key starting locations - if this is something that is global. More then likely it will expand from a few key locations though as the number thin down, whether it will turn into all teams at once being informed to the location of only one objective, every individual team being sent on independent missions or something else remains to be seen."

Just a simple slight of hand magic trick, drawing the straw from my sleeve with sleight of hand after I cover up to my wrist by reaching into the hat.

----
@ Tengu - Also, was everyone able to understand my sign language and is that a viable option for everyone else to be able to communicate under per the being able to communicate/understand every language benefit?

[kamikasei]

Margaret blinks at Galen; that was... unexpected. And she has to restrain herself from reflexively responding in her best Norio Wakamoto impression (which is, in fact, alarmingly good).

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was random. It'd be no weirder than the rest of this setup." She pays her ice cream some more attention.

"Question is, are we just supposed to entertain him, or does he want to use the Game to get something else done? Maybe he's not the one who places the Puzzle Pieces, and we're collecting them because he wants them." While she answers Beau, she watches Stanley carefully. Where's he going?

[Lothmar]

Beau Responds quickly in text.

"Well everyone knows the host of the show, but rarely does anyone get to see or know the Producer." Beau adds with a joking bob of his eyebrows. "I swear, if this turns out to be some intergalactic reality tv show where superior species get a kick from watching 'primitives' run around and go insane with abilities they consider 'trivial' i'll be highly annoyed."

[Terraoblivion]

"Don't be so cynical Beau! It's obviously a secret test to pick the next heroes to defend the world!" The tone of voice rather clashed with the optimistic opinion given. "But frankly i don't care. As long as he isn't going to use the pieces to take over the world i'm here for a goal. And knowing that guy, he's just doing it to watch us squirm."

[Tengu_temp]

"What if he already took over the world?", asks Mark, seemingly into the air. "That would explain all this crazy stuff he's capable of. Have you tried asking him for something really weird and off the wall? Sometimes he agrees, and you really get it."

The kids don't participate in the conversation. Between the ice-cream in front of them and Beau's tricks there's a lot of distractions for their short attention spans here.

Sign language is indeed among the languages the Phone lets everyone understand. So is Morse code. Not Esperanto, though.

[Lothmar]

Beau will eye the time casually finishing his glass. Afterwards he wipes his mouth and fingers and places the napkin in the cup.

If the father take's more then 15 minutes after Beau finishes his drink, Beau will begin writing a text to his team.

"I may be Cynical, but Dad left his kids in the hands of strangers for too long... Keep this Quiet, but this feels too much like a set up. I wonder if this team could already be working with someone as a 'lookout' and letting another group play the 'hitter' after luring other teams into a false sense of security. Lets keep our eye's open, if he's gone for much longer - lets try and get his number from the kids to find out what's the hold up."

After finishing the text Beau will begin to entertain the table by drawing baloons from his hat and performing requests.

[kamikasei]

"What if he already took over the world?", asks Mark, seemingly into the air. "That would explain all this crazy stuff he's capable of. Have you tried asking him for something really weird and off the wall? Sometimes he agrees, and you really get it."
Margaret looks thoughtful. "I didn't want to push it too far in case it made it hard to explain things to my family. What did you ask for? If it's not too personal."

[Tengu_temp]

"Let's say that I have the best computer in... perhaps the whole Germany now. I don't think if some of these parts were even released yet." Mark sounds reluctant, as if he was hiding something.

Stanley returns the moment Beau finishes writing his message. He waves his arm energetically.
"Hey there, I'm back! Sorry it took so long, crew! What'd I miss?"

[Lothmar]

Beau hits the button and promptly deletes the message instead of sending. When asked what he missed Beau casually waves his hand as if to say 'not much' as he begins drawing a few baloons from his hat, deciding to continue with what he had planned. Though, if the workers have problems with him performing - he'll apologize slightly and take his act outside, unless of course everyone is still interested in casually talking inside the ice cream shop, in which case he'll simply put away his props through magic tricks and then sit down at the table.

[Terraoblivion]

"Just idle speculation. You know whether the world is ruled by a guy with the emotional maturity of a five-year old or whether he's using us to summon the hordes of hell." Lea shrugged at the captain's question. "You know, ordinary everyday conversation about this boring world. Say, what'd you have to do anyway?"

[Tengu_temp]

"Nothing important." Stanley shrugs. His response does not sound suspicious at all! "Alright, it seems to me that everyone's getting done with their sweets! What do you want to do when you're done? Hunt for more treasure?"

[Lothmar]

Beau casually moves the display from the center of the table and starts by making a crude balloon Eiffel tower and adds a single extension to the top with a round balloon attached to it. He puts the balloon in the center of the table before making a few gestures with his hand.

"What better treasure then for a group of tourists?" Beau signs with his hands.

From there, he continues to make a balloon man with wings - after all he trained in a few other street venues simply as a gimmick and to help improve his ability to mimic his competition.

"The treasure might be in the basket of the hot air balloon, but we will need to proceed carefully for it is guarded by flying monkey's. Lots of them." He adds swooping the figure around the balloon before over the Eiffel tower before passing it off to the girl. He decides to use the term 'monkeys' since he hadn't gotten a clear view of what was there and hey what better way to get kids interested than flying monkeys?

He then crafts a box or treasure chest and passed it to the boy before finally signing. "I suppose the real question is, what will you and your crew spend your booty on?"

Beau already knew what his wish would be, however his policy for working with other teams was still forming so if he found people who shared his view and he was certain of their sincerity he would gather them together to ensure victory. And he decided he could respect 'certain' wishes that didnt match his agenda... It didn't mean he'd work with them, but he had no intention of directly inhibiting teams that had interesting wishes so long as it didn't interfere with their own success.

Sure he'd probably stop someone if he felt they meant it if their wish was for something destructive, or if it violated someone else's rights and liberties, but he had no intention of fighting or stealing something that would cause someone's death in a restricted period of time if their wish was for something he could respect.

[kamikasei]

Margaret watches the others curiously - not just the pirate crew, but her own teammates as well. Had they chosen wishes already? For her part, the whole setup stinks so strongly of twisted fulfillment and malicious genies that she has no intention of setting anything in stone until she has a better idea of Mr. Organizer's nature. It's not as though a second shot at life isn't worth playing along for by itself, for the time being...

[Tengu_temp]

"A good question! Let's see... I didn't really think about it, to be honest! How does peace on Earth sound? Good enough, ain't it crew?" Stanley grins. "Now, anyone got their wish already?"
"Umm... Nope!", Esmeralda exclaims cheerfully, her attention temporarily taken off the balloons. "But I will think of something!"
"I don't have anything either. I want to win the Game first and think about this later.", says Mark.
"And I have a wish. But... It's my wish. I don't want to tell it." Jean, once again, becomes more serious for a moment.

[Gensh]

Galen grins slightly when he heard the mime ask the big question without answering it himself. And then it suddenly hits him that other than a vague direction, he doesn't actually know what he wants. Mind control, maybe?

"I'm not really sure what I want to wish for right now. These things always end up more complicated than they seem to be at first." He shrugs, "I might just see how things go and act as a backup for someone else's wish in the long run. In the meantime, I suppose I'm just enjoying the extended vacation."

[Terraoblivion]

Lea just shrugged at the question and then excused herself for a moment to order some more ice cream. Either she really loved the stuff or there was some deeper meaning to eating it for her.

"Didn't really think about it." She spoke in-between bites of the ice cream. "The whole part about not being dead was enough for me. Still too much i want to do, you know. And several things i didn't think i wanted and didn't try to do before. Not going to miss this chance." She paused for a bit to eat some more of the ice cream. "And in the future we should probably pick a more obscure language for this. Anybody got any good ideas?"

[kamikasei]

"Yeah, what Lea said," Margaret answers. "For now, the second chance is plenty of incentive."

On the language question, she takes out her regular phone and pokes around in the browser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers#Few er_than_1.2C000_native_speakers) for a minute. "How about... Yaghan?" she attempts. Will the question come out in Yaghan, Finnish, or English? If it doesn't work, she works her way up the list from the bottom, avoiding variants or close relatives of more widely-spoken languages, until she finds the most obscure candidate that sticks.

[Tengu_temp]

Indeed, Margaret speaks in the language that only has one native speaker, and everyone else can understand it. She could swear her phone lets a low and almoost unheard electronic buzz when she does that, though.

[kamikasei]

"I guess that's as obscure as we're likely to get," Margaret observes. Out of curiosity, she pokes through Wikipedia to its conlang article and looks up some passages in Klingon and Quenya, too, just to see if the translation works for fictional languages.

She looks around the table. "We'll probably have an easier time getting the next piece if the eight of us work together. The question then is: how do we decide who gets the piece?"

[Lothmar]

"Well, why dont we ask MR organizer?" He signs before typing into his phone.

"Hey Mr Organizer. If teams work together to obtain a puzzel piece, can we split the time earned evenly? Or heck, can we volunteer to give some of our time to other players/teams if we choose to?" Beau adds hoping it was a possibility in case someone was mortally wounded and wished to help out their team one last time. After texting Mr. Organizer Beau continues to type into his phone and then taps Margeret on the shoulder as he cradles it with his hand and show's her the screen.

'You do realize with the high level's of monitoring by big brother in major cities such as these; one its strange enough that we can blip on and off their radar from various area's of the city to various other areas, but if they do monitor us because of one strange occurence - the fact that we're switching between multiple foreign and rare languages to try and remain secretive will probably draw even more attention to us and we really dont need to be flagged so early if this becomes international later.' He will delete the message once it has been read.

[Tengu_temp]

"I'm afraid that's impossible." The response from Mr Organizer is voiced and instanteous. "You can take Puzzle Pieces from one phone and put them into another, transferring 7 days of time limit with each Piece, but you can't split the time in any way. Why'd you want to do that anyway? There can be only one winning team, you know!"

[Lothmar]

"Well yes of course, in the end there can be only one. But that didnt stop the immortals in highlander from cooperating with each other." He adds with a smile as he wheezed a slight chuckle typing a reply back into his phone.

"I guess im just old school, believing in helping my fellow man and giving charity to those in their times of need - blah blah further romanticized christian notions. ^^"

"Besides, if multiple groups can believe in one particular (group's) set of ideals, dreams and prize objective - why not work together to improve your chances of at least survival for the bulk of the game and ensuring that your particular wish gets followed by passing everything on to the representative team at the very end? True enough, that implies developing a high level of trust - but hopefully that can be developed over the course of these events..."

[Terraoblivion]

Lea raised her eyebrow in a bemused expression at Beau's comment.

"And when i look into the tv the red light is secretly hypnotizing me? As a lawyer i can assure you that maintaining that degree of surveillance is completely illegal. I'd also like to think that the government isn't spending most of its money hiring linguists to listen to what tourists says, just in case someone speaks a sufficiently odd language. If they are, i'd certainly vote for someone less inclined to monstrously wasting my money." Her message in reply kept the same tone. "Fact of the matter is, we risk meeting someone Finnish to a much greater degree than any of the three linguists who can recognize Yaghan. Everyone else will just conclude that we are tourists speaking some weird language. I mean this is Paris, people who speaks dozens or hundreds of languages live here and tourists speaking even more come through. We'd have to be really unlucky to meet anybody who can tell that anything is off with this language...Which of course means that a certain someone would send them our way because he finds it "fun""

[kamikasei]

At Lea's response Margaret looks first grateful for the support, then when she finishes suddenly queasy at the all-too-plausible concern voiced.

"Don't give him ideas!"

Turning her gaze back to her ice cream she adds, "I guess there's always rock-paper-scissors."

[Tengu_temp]

Beau receives a response much shorter than his message to Mr Organizer.
"You put a lot of thought into this, haven't you? That's interesting! I'm looking forward to seeing how will your strategy work out, it should be a lot of fun. Good luck!"

"Rock-paper-scissors? Sounds good to me! A battle of wits and cunning between representatives of both teams!" Stanley gets way too excited over this idea. "And to keep everything fair, the team that lost gets the next Puzzle Piece! What do you think, everyone?"

[Terraoblivion]

The surprise of the suggestion and the fact that Stanley agreed, even if he did dress like a pirate in public. "It seems a bit...random to me. But if we agree to work together on getting the next piece, letting the other team have that one it's alright with me. We will need to choose someone to represent each team."

[Lothmar]

Beau signs in the air, slightly disappointed that he doesnt get to play the speak in a foreign tongue game like everyone else.

"Well it looks like Mr Organizer doesn't expressly forbid working together even though there can only be one winning team, but he clarified a few things. We cant share time, but pieces can be taken from other phones possibly giving time - I figured it had to be something of this effect to collect the entire puzzle but it's good to verify. As to the next piece, I don't mind deciding who gets the next piece in that manner, so long as both teams also collect a second or even number of pieces so that both teams are always at a fair trade for their cooperation." Essentially switching off between missions who got the reward.

And with that Beau gestures in the air with his hands flat as if nominating himself to play rock paper scissors - and oh how he intended to play.

If Beau plays, during rock paper scissors he's going to sleight of hand to pull out either a pair of safety scissors, a pebble or a napkin, from his dimensional pocket that shall appear in his sleeve and vanish soon after so it looks like he's performing a feat of prestidigitation.

1= Rock, 2= Paper, 3= Scissors. That way neither party can cheat and say 'oh I just happend to get this, it had nothing to do with you posting your choice first or anything'.
[roll0]

[Tengu_temp]

"Maybe we should do all this when we actually have the next Puzzle Piece...?", comments Mark, without enthusiasm.

[Gensh]

"Hmm..." Galen murmurs, "We do need to get going, but I think settling this beforehand is a good idea. It'll prevent any hard feelings; there'll be no 'we worked harder' arguments." He pauses for a moment before adding, "Just saying."

[Tengu_temp]

"I agree, let's do this here and now! Do we have any volunteers, crew?", Stanley asks his team.
"Me, me!" Esmeralda seems excited about this.

How awkward does it feel for Beau to duel with a little girl? Whatever the case, in the first round both parties pick rock - a literal rock in Beau's case, which is met with gasps of amazement from the kids.
"Ha, nice trick!" Stanley whistles. "But a draw won't do, let's do that again. Ready? Go!"

[Lothmar]

Beau tips his hat to his opponent like a proper gentlemen before they move on to the game at hand. With a tie he nods his head slightly in appreciation of his audience as he palms the rock and readies for a couple of repeated rounds.

I'll roll a few extra's just in case of more ties this time.
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]


'She'll never expect me to pull rock again... Hmm, but is that a bit too boring?' Beau thinks to himself not really caring whether they win or lose, so long as they manage to establish a healthy relationship and sense of sportsmanship with the opposing team.

[Tengu_temp]

Indeed, Esmeralda didn't see that coming and chose scissors this time.
"Aww..." The kids sound disappointed.
"Now now crew, a deal is a deal! This just means we'll get our second Puzzle Piece a bit later!" Stanley doesn't look discouraged at all. "But we should hurry before someone else snatches the treasure away from us! Is everyone ready?"

[Terraoblivion]

Lea finished the last bits of her ice cream and looked around. "If the rest of you are. Lead the way, Beau."

[kamikasei]

"Can you get all of us up there together, if we guard you against the, uh, flying monkeys?" Margaret asks Beau. "Or do we need to figure out another way to get up to the balloon, or bring the balloon down to us?"

[Lothmar]

Beau stands up and pushes in his chair, holding the door as they exit. Once outside he will walk to the side of the group, signing his concerns - that way he can keep his eyes relatively focused on where he's going compared to walking backwards and explaining on the way to the train. "Shall we find a spot to duck into game space and I can explain in sign, or shall we just continue walking and I can text you all the details? Also, it may take me a little bit to explain so someone please find out from Mr. Organizer if that piece is still there."
If they go to game space, he will sign the following, if they just walk normally he will type the following into his phone and then text it to his team.

Beau will stop his explanations immediately if he finds out the piece has already been claimed etc.

"Well something is holding the balloon in a relative position, so more then likely we'll have to go to it - unless I can lower it to the observation tower or something... But to answer your question, I can probably lay about Forty feet of path with some walls and handrails in a couple seconds and I haven't seen a limit on its time or weight it can hold thus far so - so we could take our own stairs if necessary, but they wont be visible so i'll make it a gradual slant instead so no one trips as easily, but we'd have an open roof this way..."

"Though if we wanted safety, I could probably set it up so it's a floor, wall's and ceiling - like walking through a tunnel that way the creatures can only come at us from the front, unless they can break through the walls - but i'll be double reinforcing those because of layering since I doubt anyone wants to walk slouched over for and extended period of time. Well I suppose they could try to break through the ceiling or floor as well I suppose. But they'll still see us coming in this manner, just like we'll see them and if I do this the walls will prevent us from attacking out or being directly attacked at range - except for straight ahead or behind. But to do this, we'd only proceed at the pace of a casual walk."

20 foot, since I'd 5 foot square to make slanted floors - walls/rails, and then i'd project a second 5 foot square about two feet above this one that would layer with the other one, thus creating a double layered wall and not forcing people to walk hunched over. The floor and ceiling would still only be 1 layer thick though, but my objects are transparent so no one can really tell. The only question is, would destroying the created object destroy all of it - thus if someone attacked one wall would they destroy the other surfaces that were attached to it as well - thus making this more risky then I had first imagined?

"The flying guards seemed more reluctant to do anything when I left the air, so I suggest we approach on foot - but that's no guarantee they wont try anything if we're on foot ; And though, we may be able to use the structure of the observation deck and the Eiffel tower itself to our advantage instead of fighting in the open against so many opponents, I think it would probably be an unnecessary risk - especially if some attacks caused collateral damage to objects that in turn effect people outside the zone."

[Tengu_temp]

"Haha, don't worry! We've got a specialist on finding those places right here!" Stanley nods towards Mark, folding his arms.
"Right, right..." The boy stands up and checks his cellphone. "Let me find a good spot."

Indeed, thanks to Mark you can easily find a back alley where you can activate the dimensional bubble without any witnesses around.

[kamikasei]

"You were able to turn invisible, weren't you?" Margaret asks Stanley, and by extension his crew. "Maybe you could do that for the whole group, and we could sneak up on the balloon. I think no roof is better, so that we can shoot out ourselves, unless you think there are just too many enemies," she switches to addressing Beau. "Or maybe someone else can make a second barrier to use as a roof, and we can defend ourselves separately from keeping in the air? And in the worst case, Esmerelda can give us a fairy dust parachute." She smiles at the young girl.

"...I think it would probably be an unnecessary risk - especially if some attacks caused collateral damage to objects that in turn effect people outside the zone."
"Well, that's supposed to be impossible, isn't it? Anything from the normal world that stays in a bubble should be indestructible cover. According to Mr. Organizer, at least." Margaret's tone makes clear how much stock she puts in that assurance - but it's not like they have anything else to work from.

[Terraoblivion]

"And should we need it, i can get us cover as we climb. I could also make a slope or stairs for us to walk on, but it seems like Beau's got that covered. In any case, it seems like we have gotten the protection set up." She looked at Stanley's crew for a moment. "We might need something on offense though. I'm not really good at attacking at least. I can create and repair things, with my phone seeming to interpret people as things. Though i can only "repair" them. My ability to attack is quite limited."