Timor et Fastidium [IC]

[ylvathrall]

It's a blistering hot July day outside, but in the Hanging Gardens it's cool and comfortable. You can hear the burbling of a water feature under the quiet sitar-techno fusion music. A fern is draped over your table, a large booth in the back corner of the building. Arlene sits across from you, her Middle Eastern features set in a hard, grim expression. She is wearing a simple black dress decorated with Sanskrit writing in silver thread, and wearing it very well. Next to you are several people and maybe-people, some you know, some you only know of. You were all asked to come here today in a handwritten note from Arlene which you found in your home, with no sign of how it got there.

"All right, everyone's here," she says, the words clipped and flavored with the faintest trace of an Iranian accent. "We all know about the seal, there is no need to talk around the topic. Which is good, because that is why you are here. As you know, I am working to change the way this seal works, in such a way that this city can be made less foul without risking apocalypse. This work is extremely important, but it must be kept extremely secret as well, because this is a topic which is very volatile. If the wrong person finds out about it, things might explode, or worse yet, the monster keeping the seal in place now may form a bond with someone and reinforce this system."

She pauses a moment, to let that sink in or to collect her thoughts. "Well. As you may imagine, the person I most want to keep in the dark about my work, and the seal itself, is Corin Skavis. He is the most likely to be able and willing to bond with the demon. This must be prevented, and up to this point I have been successful. However. I have, as you may imagine, informers in many places. One of them has heard something which strongly suggests that one of his family, his people, they have found a thread which leads to the seal. If they pull it, they may find out what must be kept hidden. But I cannot act directly on this, cannot end the vampire myself, without it drawing Skavis attention and making them look into it. They would find the same threads, they would pull, and we will all be in very great damage. So. I must ask you to solve the problem. I can give you the name of the informer, the alias of the vampire, and the basics of the thread they found. You may do whatever you see fit to solve the problem; I would myself prefer that it involve ending the vampire, but I understand that you may not be able to do so in a way which avoids suspicion."

[Halae]

In the middle of the seats is the self-styled 'superhero', Protean. Her head, at the moment, is that of a young woman, perhaps in her twenties, with black hair and tan skin. She has the look of a model for the most part, with high cheekbones, full lips, and gorgeous violet eyes. Some may even realize that she looks exactly like a model, though, as she's copied the face out of a magazine.

From the neck down is a different story, however. While she's chosen to leave her head open for the sake of business - it's difficult to have a friendly relationship with people if your face is covered - she's chosen to wear a body that's characterized by a set of interlocking chitinous plates, all in white with blue trim. Anybody who saw her arrive would have noted that she came in wearing the body of an adult woman to throw off suspicion, so aside from her head, this is probably what she looks like going out on those nightly escapades of hers.

Clawed fingers tap against chitin, "Well, not like the white court likes me much anyways. I'm absolutely in. My standard rate applies of course," Those watching can tell she finds that amusing, and Arlene knows what's so funny; she never actually asks for money, just for help when times are tight and getting some good food. The shapeshifter turns to the others though, looking them over, "Everybody else willing to go for this? Could be drawing heat on you."

[Celticbear]

Harold was near an exit for plainly obvious reasons, at least to him. A paper letter could have been faked, *ell, a face could be faked now that he knew about this "Protean". Even though the meeting hadn't turned out to be a trap yet, he'd been on the recieving end of a few, and knew that at any moment someone could come from the shadows, or better yet that exit path he was planning to take. Harold was ready to either run if someone came out from their table or elsewhere, and fight if someone got in his way.

He was listening intently, even though he didn't have ears. Nearly seventy years being in this unclean state, and Harold still didn't know how some bodily functions persisted, and how some ceased working. He could no longer taste, but he could smell. While he could hold and detect the presence of matter, the texture of it was lost to him, but he could still see.

He had his arms folded across his chest, the fabric of his black hooded robes clinging to his skeleton frame all too well. The only hint at the moment of his appearance was the face looming under the hood. Most people on Vegas assumed it was a rather well maintained costume, and Harold never corrected them. The eyeholes were deep, like a twin pair of black, gaping abyssal pits. The entirety of his skull was bleach white and clean however, and eminated a faint purple glow, a serine radiance in contrast to the ghastly figure.

They already think so low of me, Harold spoke. When he did speak, his jawline didn't go up and down with each word, it didn't move at all. It had a hollowness to it, and a bit of an echo like he was speaking from a cave. He continued, I'll go too.

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos Oramas, the lone mortal at the table, nodded firmly to Alice and Harold's declarations. "You can always count on me to help kill a White, Arlene, but Alice has a point. I don't need to give Skavis new reasons for coming after me and mine and I'm not the most subtle kind of guy." The Vampire's name was almost a curse in the old Mexican's mouth.

"I'm in but I'd want to find a way to frame someone for it. Another White, or some other kind of devil. That way Skavis won't be coming after us and he won't have any reason to suspect Arlene was the one who gave the order by linking us to you." His dark eyes turned carefully to Delphine and more casually to the shrouded skeleton next to him before returning to Arlene. "If you've some idea who'd make a good scapecoat we might have the tricks to make up evidence."

"If you'd all be on board with that change of plans, of course." He allowed, sweeping a hand and small smile across towards the assembled. "With luck we might even get a few more Whites as collatoral."

[Wuff]

"If I can evade my brother, I'm sure the White Court would be hard pressed." Delphine raises a hand to her head, smoothing down a stray hair as she thinks. After a moment, she nods. "I'm obviously in, just need to hear the plan." She flicks her fingers together at her side until a silver hairpin appears there, then uses it to fasten her hair together. Today, her makeup isn't as done as she would like it to be. She had arranged a meeting tonight, and hadn't wanted to irritate her face too much by wearing anything heavy for too long. Of course, upon finding the note she had cancelled right away and spent only a few cursory moments picking out the right scarf for the occasion.

"Of course, I'd be more than happy to - auh - work my magic, if we needed that. I have a few favours to call on," she idly shifts her gaze to meet Carlos' "Or some other trickery, of course..." She liked working in a team, and the more familiar faces around here a pretty big confidence boost. Others, not so much. She just needed a name and she could get started. Her fingers tap impatiently along at the tempo of the music, nails clicking gently.

This is definitely exciting. Delphine hadn't really had much planned for the next upcoming week other than some more networking and a performance or two, no clients. She wouldn't call such things boring, but they were certainly not as exciting as this. "Who do we need to deal with then?"

[ylvathrall]

"A frame job is a good plan. Efficient. Safe. And it may result in two of our enemies fighting each other instead of us. I like it." Arlene's expression is about as much a "smile" as the one you see just before the blackness when a leopard jumps on you out of the night. "So. The informer's name is Martin Torres. He works as a craps dealer in the Venetian. Tell him that you are friends of the friends; he will ask if you are the right kind of people, and you will say that you are as wrong as they come. This is how he will know that you come from me. The vampire, he tells me, called herself Annie Turner, and had an ID which said so as well. This is not her name. I do not know who she is, but she is a Skavis, and I think she is one of Corin's own close family, based on the money and clout she threw around so casually. The trail she found is...well, the details are not important now. But the essence is that I have been making quiet inquiries into the nature of beings such as the sin demon of the seal, and she found out that someone is looking into such things." She nods once, firmly. "Do you require any more information?"

[Halae]

"We'll need to plan this out," Alice says, "This sort of thing falls apart if the person you're framing doesn't have a motive," She considers that a moment, "The Ice Queen has a motive, though; eliminating someone close to Big Cory would be a good way for a winter changeling to give her an in. I'm not sure I could pull off the whole 'winter magic' thing, though, what with not having any spellcasting of my own. Arlene, do you know of any Winter fey that have been causing trouble recently?"

[Mr Stereo1]

"Damn right we'd need to find the right mark, Alice, but wouldn't the Fey be able to prove it wasn't them? They can't lie and Skavis would know that. If the Queen just tells him she didn't do it he'd have to believe her wouldn't he?" Carlos leaves a small opening knowing there was more to Fey 'truth' than he really understood. "Mortifax might work. Some wind magic, a shadowy figure and empty the place of info on the demon and it looks a little like she's just taking an interest. Maybe find someone who's worked for her sometime to implicate."

"Really though I was hoping you'd know someone at odds with Skavis, Arlene. Someone out of town he can't just confront for answers with some MO we can imitate. Then we find a believable patsy we can frame and kill like they were a loose end getting tied up. You know anyone like that Arlene?"

[Celticbear]

The first thing that springs to mind on who would have the best motive to kill a White is another White. Their political idiocy was on the forefront of all of my meetings with them, Harold thought aloud. He held a ringed skeletal hand to his jawbone, stroking it in thought. He shrugged, Then again, I'm not entirely sure how to make it look that way.

[Wuff]

"Mortifax, I don't know. Whites... Maybe we tear off a limb. That way it wont come back to us. Because uh... I don't think we're the type of people to rip off arms normally? Cutting it up into little chunks might come across as a challenge." Delphine inclines her head to Alrlene. Of course the vampires would think that it was her if they left behind a box of cut-up vamp meat.

She pauses then, as if suddenly struck by a thought, and frowns, twirling her hair into a curl around one finger, resting her hand behind her head. "I'm not saying that we should keep any of the uh... The whites... alive, for any reason... But, maybe our first answer shouldn't be violent murder?" She scratches idly at her head. "There must be other options that are beneficial to us. We could turn this 'Annie Turner' against her own people, or send her off into the deep end of some other nasty business. Perhaps that would be better than having her suddenly disappear? She might be loved in the parasite communities, someone who would never be turned on by others. You never know with these sorts of things."

There's something particularly dark about discussing how to end someone's life in a group of not-quite strangers. Delphine just tries to not think of them as "someone." It's easier to sleep at night that way. Not that she's adept at putting them down. The few tussles she has had since arriving have normally just ended in either her or someone else running away, rarely with a fresh bullet hole or two.

"Alternatively, we could just throw the body into the Nevernever?"

[ylvathrall]

"I would advise against that last," Arlene murmurs softly. "It might seem that removing the corpse removes the suspicion, but if anything, the opposite is true. A dead family member is a known factor - and one which, frankly, the Skavis are not terribly likely to either find surprising or care overly much about, barring personal ties or personal enmity. But a missing family member, with no sign of what happened to her? Far more reason to investigate. What if she's betrayed you and left to gather her power?"

[Halae]

"Delphine, I promise that if we can find a way to remove the threat without killing, I'll go for it. The problem is we just don't always have that kind of option at the moment - jailing her would be almost worse, since that'd be putting a bunch of officers in the line of fire, and she could still talk about our involvement. Entrusting her to the nevernever is a good way to put her in the hands of the fey, which is something we don't want for a variety of reasons. We don't have the means to hold her ourselves. Threatening her into leaving isn't something we can do with the resources we've got, especially since it'd mean we'd need to have some way to ensure her silence on the way out, which'd require us to operate in the open."

Alice breathes out and runs a hand down her face, "I know killing people sucks, but this is a vampire - they kill people, and we don't have a lot of other options because of both the powers and the kind of clout she's got."

[Mr Stereo1]

"Don't forget why we're doing this Delphine." Carlos says, avoiding eye contact with the troublesome witch but looking at her forehead challengingly. "We can't let her talk about the demon. As long as she's alive she might, especially if she needs something to trade for protection. We need her dead to be safe." He didn't need the french woman's so called 'morality' putting them all in danger again. "And Alice is right anyway. Vampires aren't people." He mutters in a dark tone.

"But if we're agreed on that," he continues, taking in the mood of the table. "How can we split this up? Someone has to go meet the informer, Martin, and someone could go case out any offices, apartments, or the like we can tie to 'Annie Turner'. For the hit itself, but also so we can try to grab any hard evidence she's got together. Two jobs, I'd like at least pairs going into unknown turf but we could maybe afford two people working on something else if someone's willing to go into the Venetian alone."

"I figure I'd be most use casing out her properties, but maybe I could get some gossip out of someone. The Fieracellis might have tabs on her, or maybe I could pay someone off for access to city records on this 'Turner' alias. DeWitt's unlikely to want to get involved in this but if someone was willing to get dirty in payment maybe he'd risk it for the cause. Anyone got other names or ideas they could get some help out of?"

[Celticbear]

Harold sighs, a sound like grating teeth blasted through a megaphone in the depths of h*ll, and speaks softly, I suppose I can go to the Venetian, I'm confident in my abilities. I'll ask that if you're squeamish, you join the casing job, freezing in the midst of battle, especially one with a vampire, is deadly. The White Court are not human, they are animals and parasites. They pretend to have feelings to draw you in, and f*ck, torture, or cry you to death. Have no mercy for them, and have no feelings for their dead.

[Wuff]

Delphine looks curiously at Carlos while he speaks, noting how he avoids direct eye contact. Does he think she can look into his soul? "Interesting..." She nods along with his and Alice's words though. "I haven't forgotten how important this is. I want to make a difference." She wouldn't have come to the meeting if she wasn't willing to do whatever task Arlene had set for her.

"It may be better if we have Alice and I in separate groups. It would be good for each team to have someone who can be someone else." This seems smart. Smarter than suggesting they just dump the body of a murdered Skavis in fairy territory for sure. Also: "Maybe we shouldn't prostitute ourselves out to the gutter wizard. No offence to him, but I'm not sure I'm quite willing to make those sorts of payments and get 'dirty', if that is what you are suggesting."

"I'm sure I could just ask," Delphine taps her head where her circlet rests, "my ancestor, if we are that desperate." Then again... Walking around on the streets at night hoping to bump into Annie isn't really much safer if she thinks about it like that. Far less reliable too.

[ylvathrall]

Arlene nods shortly. "Getting more information is a priority. We must not only keep her from speaking; we must make sure that there are no written or electronic records for them to find the secrets in. This is absolutely essential. And while I have no great fondness for the broken wizard, I would say: his rituals are not always sexual. Tantra, despite its usual Western interpretation, is a complex and nuanced philosophy and practice."

[Mr Stereo1]

"And frankly you can always hire someone else to do the work you can't or won't do. Lord knows there's enough people in this town who've gotten stuck doing far worse than helping DeWitt." Carlos says mildly "I'll put up the cash to hire some if we need to, unless we could get people from Kenneth, Arlene?"

[ylvathrall]

"I'm afraid not," Arlene says to Carlos. "The broken wizard has made it clear that he will not take any of Ishtar's followers for use in his Tantric rites. Something about clashing belief schema interfering with the ritual energies. Now, I think you know all you need, and this situation is rather urgent, so I will take my leave. Good luck, and let me know how it goes." She stands and leaves.


On the way out the door, you are given a folder with some preliminary research into this "Annie Turner." There is a list of known associates, which is quite short, as well as a handful of buildings she's been linked to: a house, an apartment building, an office building, and a...swimming pool?

You make your way to the Venetian, passing by the canals. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on perspective) you see no sign of Charon on the way in. Inside, you make your way to the cashier cage you were given the number of, where a lean Hispanic man is working the cage. There's no one in line, and no one really very close.

[Mr Stereo1]

"Thanks Arlene, I'll keep in touch." Carlos nods respectfully to her.


"How do you want to do this kiddo?" Carlos asks "I might have a customer in the apartment or office building who could get some 'urgent servicing' to get us inside. Those friends of hers need looking into, and we'll just have to sneak our way around the house and pool. And by me I mean you. I have a doctor's note that says I can't jump fences at my age."

[Wuff]

Delphine nods to Arlene as she leaves, too busy in her own thoughts to muster a proper goodbye. She murmurs a soft farewell as the footsteps fade away. "What kind of lead do you think Annie was following?" She thinks out loud to herself, brow creased slightly. Arlene seemed as if she was going to explain, then moved onto something else. It doesn't matter too much but she's always worrying about the seal and the impact it had. Any new information would obviously be of interest to her. It could also help the investigation, of course.

"I'll stick with you, then we can visit someone else. Probably that Richard DeWitt, if we need to. I might come in handy if we need to be someone. Or... For just general speaking, probably." She hovers by Harold's side. Going with Carlos wouldn't be the best idea.

She stands, tucking her chair in.

"On y va!"

~~~

On the way, Delphine touches up her make-up a little, taking the time to gloss her lips slightly and darkening the lashes hastily. Eyeliner isn't so good to apply on the move, the thought of tripping over sends shudders through her. As she steps in, she takes a quick look about, flicking her eyes from left to right with a tiny head tilt, spy movie style.

"Hello, Martin? We're here to ask some questions, it shouldn't take up too much time. We're uh... 'Friends of the friends.'" She studies the guy, weighing his reaction. It's totally possible she's got the wrong person. That's happened before to her, the last time she messed up, she got a look like she was nuts.

[ylvathrall]

"Yeah, that's what they all say," the cashier drawls casually. "But I'll be honest. I'm just not sure you're the right sort of people for this place. Maybe try another casino?"

It takes some time, but you do your digging into the various properties that this "Annie Turner" has been linked with. The house was bought by someone using that alias two months ago, and your contact at the county tells you that she paid cash, up front, asking price. Since then, a friendly competitor in the security business says her company was hired to install some seriously heavy duty security systems - motion detectors, redundant locks, electronic alarms, even (she hints without quite saying) a biometric security system in the basement. The apartment building is owned by a company that traces back to Big Corey, but "Annie Turner" hasn't actually been linked to it specifically very closely at all - she isn't tied to the company, and hasn't been personally noted as either visiting or doing really anything else there. The office building has an office rented by "Annie Turner," but you can't dig up anything really meaningful about it, and your best guess is that it's a sham, something she just rents to keep up appearances. The pool is something of an oddity: it's a small community pool, nothing fancy, and she has a membership there which she bought two weeks ago. One of your workers takes his kids there, and through his contact you find out that "Annie Turner" has only visited once - she rented one of the lockers, put something in it, and left.

[Celticbear]

Harold simply stood by with his hood drawn low, and his hands folded. He didn't want to attract any more unneeded attention. Besides, Delphine was the talky one.

[Wuff]

"We’re as wrong as they come.'" The French-British woman enunciates the whole sentences, then looks him in the eye, grinning. "No, seriously, look at me, do I look like a gambler to you," she points her thumb at Harold, "He’s definitely not. Unless he’s keeping things from me.'"

Her stance relaxes, the place no longer seems quite as creepy and clandestine. All these silly code words were a bit of a child’s game really.

"We’re just here to establish some facts. We both know that whoever Annie Turner really is, she is capable of causing a lot of damage. A lead would be really helpful in stopping her."

[ylvathrall]

Martin relaxes as you give the countersign. "Yeah, well, tell our...friend that I think she needs to move fast on this. Like, real fast. See, this girl, she was talking about sin demons. Talking like she knew what she was talking about. She was at my table, nobody really pays any mind to craps dealers when they're playing, and she was talking to another guy. The other guy wasn't saying much at all, and funny thing, I dunno what he looked like. Like I know he was wearing a suit but everything else...it was just a blur. Can't remember it at all. And that ain't right. And then she said the thing that really spooked me, which was that she'd heard that someone was asking about it, but like with emphasis, like It. She knows something."

[Halae]

"Thanks Arlene, I'll keep in touch." Carlos nods respectfully to her.


"How do you want to do this kiddo?" Carlos asks "I might have a customer in the apartment or office building who could get some 'urgent servicing' to get us inside. Those friends of hers need looking into, and we'll just have to sneak our way around the house and pool. And by me I mean you. I have a doctor's note that says I can't jump fences at my age."


"Sounds reasonable to me. Is there a particular face It'd be important to put on for this sort of thing, or should I freestyle it?" She also considers for a longer moment, "The apartment is more likely to have something we can use."

[Mr Stereo1]

"For our first flyby? We want to be strangers. Freestyle it." Honestly the things kids said these days. ""We'll need to get some word out first, get whatever our friends already know. Figure out where to head after that."

He pulls out a very nice smartphone in a protective case and an old brick nokia. "Meet back here?"

--------------

Later when he returned Carlos greets Alice and brings her up to speed on his findngs.

"Monster's barely been anywhere but the house, and the security there's almost good enough for me. That'll need prep wth the team but worst part's the biometic lock. If you had her body do you think you could fool that?" Carlos asks this thumbing out some models on his smartphone for same day delivery in case they need to check or practice. He orders some of the other kit like the motion detector and cameras too to be safe. "Problem is she's got a little stash in a lockers at the pool. If she's got on there..." He lets the thought hang.

"I figure we'll need to ht everywhere at once to be sure. Problem is I've no clue where she'd have her stash in the apartments and if Corey's the owner he'll have access once Annie is out of the picture. We need to go there and figure it out. Your hero's intuition at work"


Can I make a Resources automatic passed roll for buying the same systems as Annie had installed or similar to enable Advantage rolls to practice fooling them with our magic and disabling those models generally?

[Halae]

Alice grimaces at the question, "I... think it'd be possible to copy her directly, sure, but I've got no experience with that sort of thing. I'd almost certainly get something wrong," and she knows, almost instinctively, that'd it'd require eating her, or at least drinking her blood. They're trying to stop vampires, here, not let the nominal superhero become one.

"But for the apartment, we've got options there. If you can find something for me that smells like her, I'll be able to find her scent in the building, and that'll take us to where she spends her time in the apartments. That should tell me the where, and the what will come from that."

[Wuff]

Is this guy a mortal? Did he know she was a vampire? Delphine tilts her head slightly. More importantly, does he even know exactly what Annie was actually talking about? She’ll ask Arlene at a later date, though this information was important. "Do you still have the ID she left behind or has that been passed on already?'" It could be potentially useful for divining or scrying, possibly. It’s probably a fake though, and she wonders if the artificial nature of it would throw the whole thing into whack. She never really “got” straight-up magic, it was all symbols and meanings, but beyond that she had little idea how the stuff worked.

She mutters to Harold, "Sounds like she has a friend versed in glamours or something, Veils...? We should be prepared for that.” Then, she claps suddenly, perhaps surprisingly, "Did she give any indication of where she was going to be going after that? ”

"What are you thinking?” She nods again to Harold, wondering at his opinions.

[Celticbear]

I am not entirely versed in Thaumaturgy, I cannot block her magic from afar. If we get the drop on her, I could probably counter any veil or illusion she may throw up, but again if she's already hidden I can do nothing, Harold whispered back to Delphine in French. Talking in his native tongue felt good, given that he didn't have a tongue anymore. It reminded Harold he used to be human, and he needed all the reminders he could get.

I'm thinking that if he has anything of hers, I can convince our friend in the sewers to throw some divination our way. I live down there, he and I have an... understanding, Harold retorted, again in French.

[ylvathrall]

You can automatically grab all the motion detectors, alarms, locking systems, and such. The one exception is the biometric lock, because your contact really just hinted that such a thing might be involved - she wouldn't give you details on what her company installed there. It could be anything from a fingerprint lock to a retinal scanner, or even something more specialized and harder to get - the kind of hardware that's supposed to be limited to top secret government installations and the like. In fact, that might be why your friend wouldn't tell you quite what it was. If it was something that she's not even supposed to know exists, there would be a lot more risk in talking about it than just telling you about normal security systems.

And yes, practicing on the normal systems would give you a free tag whenever you're dealing with one while you're in the building.

"I don't have her ID. I got a copy, but I dunno if that'll be enough to do whatever voodoo you do." Martin suddenly grins, a nasty conspiratorial sort of grin. "But I snagged something else - a charm or something. She was toying with it, seemed to think it was good luck or something - she touched it every time she rolled or bet. But I picked her pocket while she was walking by, and I don't think she noticed."

[Wuff]

Delphine claps again in applause. "It's good luck for sure, just not for her! You're an absolute fiend, Martin." She laughs, making a mental note to never come here, as if she would anyway. "I don't see any reason for it not working, though perhaps it does have some actual... auh... Spooky Voodoo properties to it. Did she have particularly good luck, would you say?" Delphine isn't particularly sure if that's even a thing. It's not outside the realm of possibility, but would anyone even go to such a length? The only luck magic she knew about was of the entropic variety, which she seemed to recall was not the type of thing you want to be using on yourself.

"Thank you, this will really help us!" Delphine proffers a plastic doggy bag stuffed with coloured tissues to deposit the charm in. She'd prefer an evidence bag, but thinks that any sort of boundary between her and the trinket would work well enough, if one is even needed in the first place. She was trying to not taint the thing with her magical DNA.

She appreciates the french, turning to grin towards Harold as soon as he speaks it. "That sounds good enough. I wonder who her friend is?" She is now directing her words towards the lich in her own strangely accented French, an alien British tinge pervading the smooth flowing from vowel to vowel. It's more natural than learned French, but her way of speaking is still slightly at-odds with the words she is using, as she doesn't really modify her accent too much.

"To the sewers then!" She declares, "We have some witchery to do." the latter is directed to Martin with a final little chortle.

"I'll see you around, yeah?" She plans on leaving if nothing else comes up.

[Celticbear]

Probably some kind of sorcerer, I doubt a fully fledged wizard would back a white court. It makes sense, they probably had some sort of informant on the big nasty beast under the floorboards, so to speak, Harold thought aloud in french, already gliding closer to the exit, looking back for his comrade to join him.

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos nods. "Good thinking, we could get her scent from the other spots or see if the others can get something off the informant. " He brings up the pool, apartments and offices on his phone's maps. "Getting into that house is going to be tricky, but I don't want to get caught snooping and give her warning. I say we case out the public places first, we'll want to hit everything as fast as we can so knowing our way around and where her lockups are can only help."

"Get into the pool as customers, renters or buyers for the apartment block and I'll buy something from someone in the offices. I check for security setup, you take a new face and snoop around for her spot. That way when we have to do this we know what we're up against and where to go to get her stashes. We do the apartments last and hope you get her scent off the locker or office."

He checks the office for a company he might credibly buy from and phones for a 'urgent' order needing an immediate face to face. He checks for a vacant apartment and expresses interest. He checks for somewhere selling swimming trunks on the way.


I think that's Scholarship for web research. If we're breezing past make it a declaration if we're playing out each casing as a scene I'd like an advantage. Resources could complement the offices roll due to Carlos' potential as a big customer getting the red carpet rolled out for him.

Scholarship Offices [roll0]

Scholarship Apartments [roll1]

Edit: Still bad but I forgot to add skill rank to that so +3 to both for Good rank and maybe +1 to offices for Superb Resources.

[ylvathrall]

"Her luck was...above average," Martin says, passing over the charm. It looks like a piece of jade, small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand comfortably, carved with a series of squiggles that look vaguely like letters. It is slightly cold to the touch, but otherwise seems unremarkable. "But you know the really funny thing? The guy she was with, his luck as insane. He lost every single bet. The odds against that are just astronomical." He also hands over a printed photo of a Nevada driver's license in the name of Annie Turner. It says that she is twenty-three, female, with black hair and grey eyes. In the picture she is wearing silver hoop earings, silver rings in her eyebrows, and a silver and emerald stud in her nose. Her appearance would be classically beautiful, if not for a very heavy scar on her temple, which looks recent.

"Good luck," Martin says. "Take the bitch down, and do it quick."

Not long after you walk out, before you can make it to the sewers, a voice whispers from the shadows - looking at it, you see a patch of darkness that is a little too thick to be real. "Harvey Logan sends his apologies for being...detained by other interests, and wishes to let you know that your associates have requested your presence back at the club." Then the shadow fades.

You make some calls, and get results. At the offices, there's a law office specializing in liability, and you make an urgent appointment. In the apartment building, there are two vacancies; the leasing office is responsive and says that you can come in any time during business hours to tour the building. And there are some plain black swimming trunks very cheap at Walmart.

[Halae]

Alice shifts. It's not terribly pleasant to watch, as flesh flows over flesh, breaking down and rebuilding in different places, as well as building clothes out of the flesh. At the end of the transformation, she'll look like a typical 18 year old high school student, wearing a nice blue tee shirt and jeans. She has pale skin, freckles, an overbite, her curly brown hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and an athletic but slim physique, "Hi, I'm Samantha, your new intern!"

Shifting powers over to:
Human Guise [-0]
Supernatural Speed [-4]
Supernatural Recovery [-4]

This also activates Alice's Catch, reducing the cost of Supernatural Recovery by 1

When they arrive at their first destination, Alice is going to follow Carlos's lead. He's the one with legit reason to be here, after all, and he's better at talking. She chose an unassuming, semi-wimpy form specifically to avoid people paying much attention to her.

[Celticbear]

When the voice first started, Harold had conjured a skull into his hand and interposed himself between it and Delphine. When he realized it wasn't an attack, he put the skull down, the bleach white ghostly thing vanished without a trace. He snorted out a bit of nervous laughter.

Well that was... foreboding. I suppose we go back to the club then? Unless it's a trap. It's not like the Ishtarans to send a shadow messenger. Keep your witts about you regardless, Delphine. We French are too beautiful to die to such terms, Harold cautioned, looking down at his compatriot. He couldn't make any emotional expressions with his face anymore, but she could probably hear the sarcasm in his spoken french.

[Wuff]

Delphine emerges sheepishly from the veil she had thrown over herself before the messenger had even gotten the name "Harvey" out. She laughs up at Harold, her face a little warm from embarrassment. She had been so sure that in that moment that her bloodline was about to end.

"The club should be safe. Would you like a veil too, just in case? We'd have to make a small pact or share though, if you did. My magic is very auh... Traditional in nature, sometimes." Delphine has one prepared, something along the lines of shared safety was normally enough to satisfy the law.


"I'm sure if we called in enough make-up artists we could get you on the Paris catwalks again in no time!" Delphine says this with something like enthusiasm, and perhaps too much optimism for the lich to feel as if he isn't going to wake up unpainted.

"Sewers aren't going to close down anytime soon." She remarks quickly, already walking again, preparing a stronger veil to weave around herself in case of danger.

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos chuckles at Alice's new look, then shakes his head sadly. He'd never liked the idea of interns. "Call yourself a college part timer. And, for the record, I pay them." He checks his watch and set a mental tally running.

--

Arriving at the offices Carlos gets a box of business cards and pamphlets out of the trunk of his car. He opens the box up revealing a stack of different colors. "I have some questions I can ask them about livestock and wild animal liabilities for a big country job. Tell them I'm concerned what the wildlife folks would say about a bear getting caught in an electric fence. I'll listen for a bit then pay for it all in writing."

He shows a number of different pamphlets to Alice. "Then we can go drum up some business and take a look at Annie's office." With God's grade he could even get the day into the red with some new business customers. "Different kinds of customers get different pamphlets. You need to be sure to give them the right pitch. Red for outdoors, Yellow for digital, Orange for indoor valuables..." The old man trails on. "Got all that?

"While I'm talking you take a look on your phone. Find who'd might need something here, especially on Annie's floor. Then I can have someone I trust leave us a way in."


I'm unsure how to pace things to match with Delphine and Harold. I want to Case the office, and I could see Rapport to convince some people they need new locks or a security door to their confidential files. Maybe Alice could roll Scholarship for an Advantage in knowing which businesses to prioritise with her research. Then I'd be okay moving to the Pool if nothing crops up here.

Craftsmanship Casing [roll0] Aspects could include 'Ground Floor Office', 'Rusty Latch', 'Exposed Power Supply'. Whatever works with your image of the place.

Rapport roll for Advantage 'Someone left the door unlocked!' [roll1]

[Celticbear]

I would like a veil, thank you. I'll protect you to the best of my ability in exchange, is that alright? Harold asked, walking alongside where he thought Delphine was. Sometimes the whole "going invisible" thing made conversations hard.

[Wuff]

Delphine's gently takes Harold's hand in hers if she can find it, then quickly declares in a sombre tone: "For as long as you deem fit to protect me, I will offer you my power in exchange. This is sworn on the powers I use in your service, with the Witch Queen as witness." It's a make-do, mock type thing, but it should be a strong enough pact to satisfy whatever fey laws her magic is ruled by. After that, she shifts her veil, morphing the shape of it so that it slinks over Harold as well as herself, if he needs a personal veil later, she'll grant him one.

A cold, heavy weight drifts over her as the oath settles in, but the feeling fades just moments after.


For as long as Harold protects her, Delphine is oathbound to use her Glamours (or any other fey-ruled magic she ever gains) on his request. If she breaks this oath then she will lose her Glamours (etc.) for a session/longer or until she pays off Debt to Harold.

At first opportunity/minor milestone, she will swap her "Beauty & The Beast" aspect for her oath.

Edit: Let's say that Harold loses all of Delphine's current magical effects on him if he breaks his part of the bargain. He can also break the bargain by discounting Delphine's "Debt" at any point.

[Halae]

Alice looks over the pamphlets with a grimace, "Red for outdoors, yellow for digital, orange for indoor stuff. Don't be surprised if I forget some of this though; literally my first day on the job. Still, this is simple enough. I'll start checking my phone right now."

Despite saying so, she doesn't actually seem to pull out her phone, instead focusing on organizing the pamphlets and carrying the box of them. Unbeknownst to observers, her cell phone is actually in a small fleshy cavity in her torso, in which she has produced an eyeball and a set of fingers to let her interact with the phone discreetly. She doesn't make a habit of informing people she can do this - even leaving aside that it's an ace in the hole, most people get kinda heebed out by the idea that she has extra eyes and fingers where they don't belong.

Regardless, she'll follow Carlos's lead. He's her boss, after all.

[ylvathrall]

With a bit of quick talking, you are able to get a good look at the office building. Carlos finds that the electronic alarm on the building has a serious flaw - a simple trick he learned from a penetration tester at DEFCON two years ago will get them through the whole thing. Alice, meanwhile, spots a window which is starting to come loose - a quick wrench with only minorly augmented strength will pull it open enough to get inside.

The pair have a discussion with the lawyers, who accept the story easily and actually do provide some useful information for Carlos's business. After this, they run into a very nice dental assistant outside the bathroom. She chats with the pair for a little while, and is eager to accept the offer of a discount on installing some new locks - apparently a burglar broke into her cousin's house two weeks ago, and she's rather nervous now. She hesitates at the thought of leaving the doors unlocked, but eventually does agree to it.

At the pool, everything suggests that it is a normal public pool in a low-income area. The air stinks of chlorine, making Alice sneeze several times. Memberships are very cheap, and it's only a few minutes before the two are walking through the locker area. In addition to the rent-by-the-hour lockers, there are a number of monthly lockers, all of which have personal padlocks on them. Carlos, however, spots one that stands out: rather than a cheap, basic lock, it has an expensive eight-digit combination lock. It's hard to believe that a normal person would use that, not when the lock probably costs more than what they would keep inside.

[Celticbear]

Harold wasn't expecting the touch. He didn't have nerves, so his sense of touch felt muted, but no had held his hand with a sense of protectiveness for near on eight decades. When the words were done, Harold slowly retracted his hand, feeling it with his other one. He stared at Delphine for a few moments with empty eye sockets, and then looked forward, stepping silently leading the way back to the club.

Oath Aspect sounds good to me. I'll probably change my "Helper of the Helpless" aspect at the next milestone too so Delphine and Harold have a shared aspect.

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos is bemused when he doesn't see her using her phone, but he's happy to hear what she's found out for him. They were a while at the offices so while stopping at Walmart he hands her a few twenties. Some jobs might come from the advertising. "Fair pay for fair work" He shrugs. "No idea if you even need a swimsuit, but if you do make sure it's something respectable. No one will ever respect you if you don't respect yourself."

---

Carlos examines the locker with a sniff of professional disdain. No matter how good a combination padlock was a pair of cutters and a good arm could get through. With how good Alice's arm could be they wouldn't even need a good pair.

"Can you even smell anything through all this chlorine?" He asks.

While he probably could Carlos refrains from simply breaking in now. There could always be magic he'd miss involved. Instead he does a few laps (always good exercise for his aging bones) and showers the chlorine off quickly.

Leaving for the Apartment viewing Carlos shakes his head sadly at the open layout of the building. Apart from a fragile set of automatic sliding doors out front there wasn't anything between the outside and the lockers. The security cameras were a decent budget brand, but the 'alarm' was no good. No good at all. As long as you picked the physical lock on the doors it wouldn't recognise a disturbance. No way to arm it for anything else.

He'd have to find out who ran this place. They were providing a good enough service for the locals, he had to admit. A modest donation might be warranted to keep the kids out of trouble.


Casing Roll for Useless Alarm, Creaky Automatic Door and/or No Interior Doors. [roll0]

[ylvathrall]

The apartment complex is actually a little better protected than Carlos would expect, though still not as good as it should be. The alarm is weak, but...well, there are some things that make him wonder. The cameras, for one, are decent. But more than that, there's a guard standing by the leasing office just inside the door. That wouldn't be too concerning in itself, but this one doesn't look like the standard overweight rent-a-cop. He looks more like military - and not the kind who just did one enlistment in National Guard, either. He stands at parade rest, his cold blue eyes scanning everything and showing nothing, and the pistol in his shoulder holster is not the kind that you wear if you're just for show.

The leasing agent herself is almost irritatingly bubbly as she shows you the apartment layouts and walks you through the building. It might be an act, but you don't think so. She seems a little too innocent and cheery for it to be a cover, unless she's an extremely good actress. The apartments themselves are on the small side, but reasonably priced. There's not really anything too strange about them - except that one of the apartments that you don't get to go in, on the fourth floor at the end of the hall, has a strange odor coming from it. It smells like ammonia, but that doesn't quite cover something fouler - decay, perhaps? But it doesn't quite fit that either....

In any case, you complete the tour and head back to the club to meet the others, having gathered decent information on the locations in question.

You arrive back at the club at more or less the same time. There's still no sign of Harvey, though given that the two casters returned, he clearly got the text message through to them somehow.

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos praises the security guard's professionalism to the tour guide once they were safely out of earshot, asking her which company they were using. Arlene should know if the Whites had a new front. He also makes sure to get the guide's name and contact details, mentally reciting a description to pass on to the Ishtarans.

He takes special note of which apartments are alongside or above the 'target'. Among a long stream of questions he's asked a thousand times he slips in some questions about the dividing walls, ceilings and floors between apartments. Sound proofing and privacy concerns are a big issue with apartment living so he finds out the materials and methods used.

Ending the tour Carlos is toying with how to get into the real estate business at the White's expense. Something to talk to Arlene about, and maybe that Delphine's friend Suiko.


To avoid any suspicions from the tour agent here's a Rapport for drowning her in relevant questions to disguise the wall/ceiling thing.

[roll0]

I'd like to roll Guns to threat assess that guard for body armor and weapon type ratings and an advantage 'Has His Measure' if we get into a physical conflict.

[roll1]

For Casing I'd like to say there's a sales/tour office by the front door with all the apartment keys (bar the target's) inside.

Person-sized holes can be cut into the walls and floors at points quite quietly with Carlos' equipment thanks to the patterns of support materials and removable layers of padding and insulation.

If it's not out of my PC's range of knowledge the public nature of the complex also prevent any threshold issues Harold or Delphine might have faced.

[roll2]


---

Greeting the two magicians as he returns to the club Carlos brings them up to date and if practical passes the name of the suspicious security company from the Apartment complex onto Arlene. He's slightly concerned about Harvey's absence, but trusts the man to know how to take care of himself.

"I'd say our priority is Annie, the house and the apartment. The office and locker are going to be pretty easy to get into compared to them." He observes. "I think it's best to try and catch her at the house. Two for one. Then we can clean up the rest."

It's a very 'practical' way to talk about murder, but Vampires warrant no empathy from the weathered hispansic man.

"I didn't want to risk hanging around her house without an excuse, but it's a bad idea to go in blind. We still need info on that side. If I got some battery cameras could you sneak them onto the neighbour's roofs, Alice? Would your Glamors hold up long enough to let us do a proper tour Delphine? Do you think you could fool the biometric system with your biomancy Harold? Assuming you have Annie's body." He runs off his questions to each in turn and waits for a response before nodding.

"Then the final issue is the patsy. We still don't know who she had issues with or what their MOs are. If we fall back on the Ice Queen or Mortifax how are we going to fake evidence? If magic doesn't short the cameras out Alice in disguise of Delphine's glamors could leave 'proof' in the house or apartment block. If that guard really is a White stooge we could throw them off the trail by fooling him somehow." Carlos throws out ideas. "If it comes down to it could we bring in Suiko and Zack for help by getting them access to the Offices and whatever else Annie's got stashed away." He asks, grudgingly. The fox would as likely steal the information as not but she was far less a threat to the ordinary people than a White would be with that information.

[Wuff]

Delphine allows her veil to drop as the others arrive. The world seems to become slightly brighter as the cover she had cast over herself and Harold fades. She listens intently to Carlos' questions, nodding her head as he goes from one idea to the next. She has no real reason to disagree with him.

"My glamours will last for as long as I need them to last, probably. I can't cast glamours on people unless they've already made some sort of deal with me, so... You'll have to share a veil with me if you want to be hidden."

"We've found out that she has a friend capable of using glamours, and possibly some luck-magic stuff. I have a charm that we can use to try and divine her, but it might be useful to try and work out what it does. If she's capable of using this, then she's probably capable of other stuff. We should be wary of other magic she might have. Wards too, maybe?"

[Halae]

"There's a few faces I can work with to go unnoticed," Alice says. For the meeting, she's back in her apparent business setup - bony armor and violet eyes. she'd stayed quiet in her 'Samantha' shape during the entire time Carlos was dealing with things, following along as she could and handing out pamphlets where possible to keep her cover and help Carlos. She grimaces over the next part though, "Might even be best to work with an animal shape, like a raccoon. Would be small enough to go unnoticed and maybe raccoons are a bit unusual in Nevada, but it wouldn't be a huge thing if I'm spotted."

It sounds like she doesn't relish turning into an animal. One has to wonder why, given she's so free with her human shapes.

"But for the patsy, what about another White? They're an argumentative bunch. They're going to try and mess with each other. We'd need to have someone with motive to go after Annie; how much do we know about her enemies within their clan?"

[Celticbear]

Harold just kept quiet. He basically just the muscle for this job, probably going to be one of the ones on the front lines against the vampire. He'd have to make sure his robes were fully charged before heading out, making carefully sure the protective runes were still whole.

[Mr Stereo1]

"I see. Any problems with using them inside someone's house?" Carlos asks, listening to Delphine's explanation. "So we now have two people and four places we need to hit. We're going to need to bring in help on this. You're friendly with Suiko aren't you Delphine? What do you expect she'd want out of this to join in?" He mislikes the trouble the two cause but the extra insurance would be invaluable if they ran into an unknown magician. Suiko's illusions and Zack's help with the security systems could make the whole project a side easier besides.

He turns to Alice. "A Racoon's a good choice. The paws on those things would give you a little extra edge. But a bigger bird like a Pidgeon would do for this. You only need to carry the cameras up to the roofs and place them..." he trails off thoughtfully. "But you can just give yourself hands can't you?" Wasn't that a thought? A bird with human hands for feet.

"There's that White bouncer we could finger. Kill Annie and disappear him the same night so it looks like he's fled. How could we fake a White's execution though?" Carlos sighs. "My feeling is we need to get this done quickly as much as well. We could do a decent job posing as Fae I reckon. You ever see an Ogre alice? If you turn into one of them and let the house cameras get a good goggle at you that'd put the Skavis on the wrong track. Delphine, could you help us pose as Changelings?"

"Best course I can see is we stake out her place and hit her before she gets into the Wards, then we sweep the house for the evidence and blitz the other locations. We need to get that charm to a diviner so we can add that friend to the list. Have you shown it to Arlene yet?"

[Wuff]

"Thresholds are something we're not going to need to worry about. Just the wards. I can turn the threshold of her own home against her if she has no other protections." Delphine only understood thresholds to a certain extent, but the bloodline and her legacy helped. When it came to wards, she knew that it was unwise to walk into them and that was about it. "Harold, if any wards show up, can you deal with them at all? As for the diviner, we were on our way before the message got to us."

Delphine just nods when Carlos asks about whether her glamours could conceal them as changelings. It's probably suited better to do that better than anything else she's used it for up until now. She worried momentarily that her faerie guise would be too European or outdated, but quickly dismisses that silly idea. "I can do Harold and myself. I'll just cast a veil over you if that's okay."

"Suiko would want information from us if we were going to ask for her help, or knowledge that the vampire has. I'm not sure if Arlene would be happy with that. I could just shoot her while her powers are down, if we can get her into that situation. Maybe even just a bullet would do well enough." Delphine blanches a little at the thought of killing someone in cold blood, but she can't afford to be reluctant when it comes to this matter. The risk is too high. In fact, the more she thinks about murder, the more she considers herself to be under-prepared for this whole thing. Her hand goes to her circlet for a second. There's a lot more power she could be calling on right now...

Delphine's goddess and supposed distant ancestor was known for her ability to manipulate things, her mastery of mysteries. Something about the heiress shifts as she considers the idea, her mark becoming more obvious to those who had the ability to perceive it.

"Does anyone mind if I go engage in a bit of Paganism before we start?" Delphine already has her gaze set on Carlos, challenging and defiant.


Delphine wishes to invoke her high aspect and trigger Righteousness. She'll play this out in her next post if Steinulfr accepts it and the group don't stop her, for some reason.

Her purpose is: Make "Annie Turner" Disappear Mysteriously.

That'll cost a fate point, so she's left with just one.

[ylvathrall]

You feel a strange warmth settle into your bones as you dedicate yourself to the task at hand, symbolically affirming your intention to yourself. It feels like truth. It feels like you are doing the right thing. It feels like...acceptance.

You make your way down into the storm drains. It's a dark, cramped, nasty sort of place, not anywhere that anyone sane would really want to go. You need a light of some kind to navigate, and the shadows it leaves in the corners, the darkness at the edge of the glow, seems all the deeper for the light, as though you are not so much banishing the darkness as emphasizing just how deep it runs.

You pass people on your way down, deeper and deeper. They watch you as you pass, clutching baseball bats and broken bottles, two-by-fours and improvised knives. They all have a certain look: gaunt, dirty, hollowed out. Their eyes are haunted, hunted, hungry as they stare at you. You get the distinct impression that they are gauging whether you are safe prey or not, whether they can fall on you and take all you have to feed the needs of their own ravaged minds and bodies.

But as you descend, as you twist through passages so small that you have to crawl, you stop seeing people. These are the depths, the place where even the tunnel dwellers know not to go. This is where only those who are truly lost venture, the place that the broken people of the tunnels speak of only in hushed, frightened whispers.

This is where the monsters live.

You finally make your way out of another tiny tunnel into a drainage basin, much larger than the usual tunnel. It's been hollowed out further with the careful application of magic. The resulting space is cavernous, the ceiling a spacious ten feet high, the walls extending out perhaps thirty feet to each side and eighty feet deep. This is the domain of Richard DeWitt, the broken wizard.

You stop at the wards, clearly scribed on the ground in black ink, and call for him. He appears perhaps a minute later. He is a short man, and remarkably ugly; his features are squashed-looking and flattened, a little assymetrical. He wears a loose black robe that clearly hasn't been washed recently. Over that, more concerningly, he has a large garland of human skulls draped over his shoulders. He carries a wooden staff topped with another human skull, his fingers clenched on the staff until the knuckles turn white.

No wizard looks lightly into the eyes of another human or nearly human being. But DeWitt takes the risk even more seriously than most, his eyes fixed on the ground at your feet most of the time. "You," he says. "You, you, you, yes. What do you, ah, what do you want?"

You make your way to the bar at Caesar's Palace, where you have heard that Zack can usually be found. Once there, it isn't hard to find him. He's a young man of average height, with brown hair and an insufferably smug smirk. It seems to be his default expression. He's sitting at a table in the corner of the room, his table covered in empty glasses - he's clearly been pounding hard alcohol all day, though he doesn't seem drunk in the slightest. He has a laptop out, a very expensive one, and currently appears to be playing some computer game.

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos stares stright back at any scubag who looks at the group funny, hand on his pistol. He's fought monsters and seen the elephant, punks don't scare him. They disgust him. The Bible preached salvation but a man had to be looking for it. These ones would only ever look for their next hit, and damn whoever they hurt along the way. Pathetic.

He crawls through the tunnels with the grace of long experience, entering DeWitt's lair.

"Yes Mr DeWitt, it's 'us.'" He greets, briefly looking the Wizard over to make sure it was him before averting his eyes politely. "We're doing an important job for Arlene and have a charm belonging to one of our targets. We were hoping you could help us locate them. We don't have any other leads on this one."

"I won't tie you into the details, but the entire city, even your sanctuary, could be in danger if we leave any loose ends, sir. I can offer you generous cash payment, enough to buy you a lot of certain... working people's time."


If this is leading into a Social Conflict Carlos is trying to keep out of getting personally involved in any of Carlos' rituals and secure his help by implying the nature and scale of the threat without mentioning it to avoid setting DeWitt off.

This round I roll Rapport to Creat the Advantage 'Polite Conduct' by respecting DeWitt's boundaries (like avoiding eye contact).

[roll0]

[Wuff]

Delphine makes a quick detour before following the group, informing them slightly distantly that she'll only be a minute or so behind him. She turns off the lights in her room and performs a quick ritual to the ancient Witch Queen in thanks. She burns three raven feathers swiftly, then buries the remaining rachis' in a small pot of dirt. She'll move these outside at a later date. After that is done, she faces the mirror she'd had brought into her room, and begins to work on her appearance.

She starts with her face. Her cheekbones are brought into more prominence with her glamours, her eyes gain some depth and glisten. By the time she has finished there, her face has a refined and faerie elegance. Then, the witch moves onto her hair, running her fingers through it, creating a pretty highlighting effect where her fingers brush it, also giving it a degree of luxurious softness and a glimmer where it catches the light. It falls about her shoulders and lengthens, crawling down her back and down past them as she flicks the hairpin out of it, then shifts the true seeming into a fine kimono, which she drapes loosely about her, baring most of her upper back. She secures it delicately, leaving it slightly open at the front too. After that, her hand hovers over her breast, considering, very carefully. Her fingers move slightly, as if to start the work, but she shakes her head, and instead brushes them over her collarbone, shaping herself a little more.

With all the physical work done, she begins to work on her scent and extras, making her breath smell fresh and fruity and mimicked the scent of a particular perfume she liked, reminiscent of fresh baked cookies or beautifully scented woods, L'Artisan's Bois Farine. Then, she brought her hair up to her nose until it smelled like she'd dipped it in honey.

Then, she follows after the group.


Delphine is going to Create An Impression, Preternatural Allure and make it a sticky aspect, complementing that with her Presence. If possible, she'd like to hold onto the tag until the meeting with Zack specifically.

She'll use any overflow shifts to Chit-Chat with Richard Dewitt.

[roll0]
[roll1]
She gets a +1 to this due to Marked By Power.

[Celticbear]

Harold had went down to the sewers, almost near the tiny crevice he had called home. He stayed silent when Carlos began talking to Dewitt, but he made a couple of nods at key points, putting emphasis on parts that needed it.

[ylvathrall]

"Ah, yes, yes, I see," DeWitt says. "Let me just, ah, disarm the wards and you can come in to tell me more." He spends moment staring intently at the warding symbols, then nods. "Yes, come in. Not that there's, heh, any threshold here anyway...." He turns and heads into the drainage basin, going to one corner of it. There, there's a surprisingly nice little "home" set up. There's a bed which, though not elaborate, is perfectly functional, and covered in blankets and stuffed animals. There's a handful of bookshelves with loads of books, mostly science fiction and trashy romances. There's also a small living room set up, with two couches and two armchairs around a glass-topped coffee table.

He sits in one of the armchairs with a sigh, as though his hip is paining him. "A charm, you say?" he says, staring at the coffee table. "Fascinating, please, tell me more, or show me, though I, I would prefer not to know what you're hunting. Too much knowledge can, can break a man...." He lets out an odd giggle. It sounds...disturbing, high-pitched and a little unhinged.

[Celticbear]

Harold sighs. Seeing a man that had showed him so much compassion in such a frayed mental state hurts. He coughed, an alien expression for the man with no lungs, so it's apparent that it's forced. He grunts, They have pills and ointments for head issues. I can curry favor with some of the rich people I know to provide some for you.

[ylvathrall]

The broken wizard looks at Harold, and it's like a transformation comes over him. His gaze sharpens, his posture is erect, and for a moment, despite his unassuming appearance, he looks every inch the learned and fearsome wizard. The garland of skulls around his neck is not just a gauche fashion accessory, but a symbol, a statement of power and intent. The air around him fairly hums with potential.

"They won't help," he says, and while his voice isn't changed in any way you could put your finger on, it sounds far more commanding than before, the sort of voice that would make a monster flinch and back down. "There's no cure for a soulgaze. That's been definitely proven repeatedly. If you soulgaze someone, the memory is there for life. Modern pills are not any more able to deal with it than magical methods - particularly with what I - what I -"

He trails off, and closes his eyes, and collapses into himself. The transformation is just as sudden as it was the other direction, and in seconds, all that's left is the broken wizard once again. He opens his eyes, and looks at the floor. "Anyway. The charm? I should be able to tell you what it does, and possibly use it as a tracking focus."

[Wuff]

Delphine steps out from behind the group when Dewitt starts to speak properly, adjusting her Kimono. She slides the charm into her hand, moving forward to deposit it into his, getting close enough for him to see her clearly, exhaling gently, and allowing the sweet scent of fresh summer fruits to brush against his senses. Her smile comes soft and easy, although this whole place creeps her out immensely. The lack of a threshold makes her feel particularly vulnerable to attack. How did this wizard live here? How far had he fallen?

"Whether you can be cured or not, this environment can't be healthy for you. Look around! There are things crawling through here that I probably couldn't name. How do you feel safe in a place like this?" Delphine shuddered, looking back over her shoulder. "This is probably a hotbed for the white court. I imagine they crawl like bedbugs around here, feasting on anxieties and hopelessness."

She almost expected one to be over her shoulder when speaking, and asking as if she'd been idly wondering: "What kind of wizard or sorcerer would deal with those creatures?"



Delphine will put 3 shifts into her Preternatural Allure, leaving 7 shifts for Chit-Chat.

[ylvathrall]

"The things that live in the dark don't bother me. They know better." DeWitt takes the charm, holding it delicately, and looks it over, muttering to himself. This goes on for a couple minutes before he sets it on the table.

"Interesting little thing," he says conversationally. "Definitely a luck charm, but it's not White Court make. Possibly a wizard, possibly a Nevernever critter. The signature is...anyway. Yeah. Luck charm. Designed in a very clever way. It doesn't make the holder's luck better, per se - that would be rather more difficult. It more...arranges for other people to have subtle accidents and the like. Nothing big, it's not an entropy curse as such, but it would leave them having the occasional subtle accident, something going slightly wrong. Hard to prove. I think it might also sort of, like, transfer the luck to the holder, make them have the occasional lucky break, but that's harder to be sure about."

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos listens intently to the two magicians talk, keeping quiet as he tries to take the gist away from their conversation. His face tightens in annoyance as Delphine observes the likely White presence here. It makes sense for the damned Skavis. How'd he miss that? He was slipping. With Harold and Alice here he was safe enough but he wouldn't make this trip again without them. When DeWitt finishes his explanation he speaks up.

"So do you think you could disable it or divine the magician who made it without alerting them?" He asks. "If I can ask, would that cost you to do and what would you charge?"

He feels some sympathy for the 'Broken Wizard' and doesn't want to see him come to any further harm on his behalf.


It seems we're just roleplaying this out rather than engaging in Social Conflict so no rolls this round.

I'd guess the charm does something to our Fate Points mechanically and might misfire or steal Invocations from our Advantages. This sounds minor but could be a devil to deal with.

[ylvathrall]

"I can't disable it, precisely, no, no," DeWitt says. "Too complex, not my specialty, no point. Break it, yes, but not disable it. To track it, hm, yes, perhaps, hm. It is unusual work, a very specialized crafting, there should be a signature...yes, I believe I can do that. It will take delicacy, however, in order to not disrupt the pattern and to keep it subtle, sly, yes, do not want him to see me back. Yes. Power requirements...more than is convenient for me to do myself. Will need a ritual...yes, I think I know how it can be done. Give me two days to contact ritual participants, and I will need the charm here to study. Cost, yes, it costs, cannot do this for nothing, no. Seven thousand dollars to cover ritual materials and participants, and something for myself, yes. You are going to attack the maker, I think, yes? If so, I would call first pick of his possessions a fair trade. Yes?"

You can roll as you feel appropriate to talk him down on price.

[Mr Stereo1]

Seven thousand? Carlos could remember the days when that would have been a fortune to him but they'd passed. He'd be happy to pay that part of the bargain, but the possessions were a problem.

"I expect they aren't long for this world, yes." Carlos agrees without feeling any need to consult the others. Anyone who'd sell valuable enchantments to Vampires made his list, human or no. "I can agree to the cash no problem, but we've been contracted explicitly to secure certain... dangerous information. I trust you to know how to protect yourself Mr DeWitt, but Arlene is expecting us to grab all the evidence for her. Could we agree to first pick 'of any possessions unrelated to our existing contract'?"

He shrugs the shrug of a man used to getting the job done between a lot of conflicting obligations. "If that doesn't work we could contact Arlene and ask her to work out another compensation with you. In that case I'd ask you to start preparing the ritual in the meantime. That would give you two days to negotiate and I can guarantee the cash you'd need to hire the participants personally, so you wouldn't lose anything on that end."

The contract was for one White, not for a Magician. If the employer needed more work done it was only right they pay for it.


Rapport for Negotiations [roll0]

I use the Invoke from 'Polite Conduct' for +2 if that was created.

I think $7,000 falls under Superb Resources automatic pass. (I have the lifestyle stunt to raise it from Resources-2 to Resources.)

[ylvathrall]

"Oh, yeah, no," DeWitt says, laughing. "No no no. I do not want the information. You can take that and do whatever, I don't care. I'm really only interested in three things: texts on magical theory, reagents for enchanting, and magical items. Honestly, I'm mostly looking for stuff like that charm. It's a very interesting piece of work, very creative, I do admit I'm curious how he pulled it off, you know, yes. The information on Dark and Secret things, whatever it is that has Ghorbani upset enough to order a hit, that I want no part of, no indeed."

[Halae]

For the moment, Alice is hanging back, out of the way. There's no doubt DeWitt has noticed her - she's not exactly hiding, and he'd be able to sense her even if she was - but she always looks uncomfortable in his company, and for good reason. Letting Carlos lead the negotiations is fine by her.

[Mr Stereo1]

Seeing no objection from his peers Carlos consents. "That much I can agree to. If that's all I think we have a contract." He makes to offer his hand but thinks better of it, given DeWitt's usual fearfulness. "Before we go are there any... precautions you'd advise we take if we're carrying anything like that charm back here for you? For your safety and ours."

He had a few hardboxes he could shut them all in, but solid steel alone couldn't keep curses in.

Once he gets any advice DeWitt is willing to offer freely Carlos is ready to leave.

[ylvathrall]

"Agreed, yes, bargain struck," DeWitt says. "And there are precautions, yes. Steel box, keeps the fae in, you see, and line it with lead. Lead is a barrier to more than radiation, you know. For particularly concerning things fill the box with water or a layer of water, change it regularly, disperses the magic. Anyway, bargain struck. Two days, remember, yes, at sundown, do not be late. And bring the money, cash only." This last statement seems to amuse him, and he giggles for a moment before abruptly going dead serious again. "Now. Please leave. I require solitude to study the charm in, and I have another ritual beginning in...seventy-two minutes. You do not wish to be here for it."

[Mr Stereo1]

"I understand, and thank you Mr DeWitt. We'll return with payment as agreed." Carlos replied, keeping his eyes on the ground away from the wizard.

As the group makes their way back through the tunnels Carlos watches the shadows and the down and outs even more warily than he did on the way in, his hand on his gun as often as it can be spared from crawling or climbing. Damn vampires.

Once they reach the surface he turns to the others. "Way I see it we've got two new choices to make now." He observes. "Do we risk the mage fleeing before the ritual finishes by whacking Annie first, or do we risk leaving Annie free until the ritual's finished and we can whack them the same night?"

"Risks either way. Then, do we do this ourselves or do we risk bringing in someone? If Harvey doesn't show I'm not so happy with our chances against a White on home turf."

[Wuff]

"I made a promise. At this point I will quite literally rip the head off of that bitch using my bare hands. As soon as possible, I want to whack her, when we're all set up of course. The damned sorcerer isn't getting away either." Delphine frowns, a scornful look on her face. "Let's make a start on that actually. Carlos, text this number for me." The witch examines a scrap of paper, considering carefully who is best placed to start some nasty gossip up, particularly in the supernatural community. She comes to her conclusion within seconds, nodding to herself. She passes it over.

"Message is this. "Qwitch says, colon, Speech marks, 'Annie Turner,' comma, White Court, comma, Consorting With Fae. Full stop, close speech marks." Then... Block that number or delete it. My friends only respond to burner phones, if you text again she'll assume it's compromised or stolen."

"Now. I'm going to visit Zack and Suiko. You all coming with, or got other stuff and prep to do?"

~~~

Whether the group follows or not, Delphine would head to the place Zack is known to hang out at. She would top up her glamours and stroll right in, finding her way the man-thing and very delicately placing her hands on his shoulders, leaning over him to peer at his game, completely uninvited. Her glamours and scents flare up for a moment.

"What are you playing? Looks like lots of fun." Far from before when she had been threatening to tear off vampire heads, the witch pours as much femininity and sweetness into her voice as she possibly can.


Delphine will roll Contacts, complemented by her Conviction since this relates to her current purpose by obscuring "Annie Turner's" true murderers.

Preferably this would be an attack that results in a consequence like "Deals with fae", particularly because she's revealing a white court vampire's cats-paw.

[roll0] Contacts
[roll1] Conviction (Righteousness: Make 'Annie Turner' Disappear Mysteriously)
+1 From Marked By Power could potentially be applied. The contact has most likely seen Delphine in person before.

[ylvathrall]

Zack cranes his head back to look at Delphine upside-down from between her arms. The fact that this puts his head in close proximity to her breasts is probably not a coincidence, particularly considering that the text-based game he's playing appears to be a mix of science fiction and hardcore pornography.

"Not nearly as much fun as you, love," he says, his smirk shifting into a smile, the sleaziness of which somehow doesn't distract from its genuine charm. "To what do I owe the most delightful pleasure of your company? And you simply must tell me what perfume that is; Suiko would have my head if I didn't pass the name along to her."

For speed's sake, I rolled your Rapport check for you, and got a net -1 on the dice. With your skill, that's a Fair result; I figure that your glamours are probably worth at least a +2 on this for a Great. Would you like to make a point for something else, or invoke an aspect to reroll or get a bonus?

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos does as he's asked, saving the number as contact '12345' for now. He'll get a few burner phones later.

"I'll come. If we're making a deal with the devil, I'd like to know what it is."

-

Catching onto Delphines efforts to set up their cover story Carlos tries to help by contacting friends in the mob and service staff at some of the restaurants or offices to make her rumors seem more credible.

-

Looking disdainfully at the state of Zack's table Carlos grabs a waiter's arm, handing him a small stack of twenties. "Have someone clear that table and bring a tray's worth of whatever he's drinking." He instructs gruffly, putting the tip in the man's breast pocket. "However much that buys, a couple cokes and a glass of good french wine." It would probably be crueler to buy Harold a drink he couldn't have than forget to get him one and Carlos wouldn't encourage any drinking on Alice's part, even if she could probably give herself a super liver with a thought.

He lets Delphine take the lead with the creep, keeping the polite smile on his face he used for dealing with the spoiled brats of wealthy customers.


I'd like to Assist Delphine's Rapport and Contacts if I can't roll free Invoke Advantages for her.

For Contacts I'm rolling for "Friends in Low Places" and offering the Invocations to Delphine's roll. [roll0]

For Rapport I'm rolling for "Lubricated Conversation" and offering the Invocation to Delphine's roll. (Enabled and maybe complemented by my Resources for another +1.) [roll1]

[Wuff]

Delphine plays up to it, shifting her arms about his neck, then twisting her body around the seat so that she slightly leans on him. "Heh! I think I remember that one. I preferred the more... romantic games." She leans in closer, "Or the ones with a bit more... foreplay, at least." She whispers this, before the drinks arrive, startling her slightly. The witch isn't desperate, but she does have to admit that having someone's attention, even if they are a sleazeball, is at pretty gratifying.

Delphine thanks the waiter with a courteous inclination of the head, not wanting to break out of her persona.

"This perfume? Bois Farine," she makes her french accent more obvious, thickening it slightly, "The perfumer says that he was inspired by a magically enchanted tree. A milky wood exclusive to one island in the world. The smell reminds me of cookies, mostly." Delphine's eyes light up as an old memory drifts across her mind. She'd chosen this scent with her mother, out of many hundreds she'd been brought. She'd chosen this one, though her nose and senses had already been overwhelmed by those that had come before. She turns the bittersweet emotions to her advantage, a sad glimmer in her eye as she speaks again.

"I need your help. There's a vampire in town. White court. She's getting involved with things she doesn't understand." She purses her lips, then slides into a thoughtful pout. "I've made a promise to a few people, now, and well... She needs to vanish. If y'catch my drift?" Delphine presses her fingers into Zack, closes one of her eyes in a wink, then makes a soft "bang" sound with her mouth.


Delphine will tag her Preternaturally Pretty (Her Glamours, so up to Great)
Her Marked By Power applies to all social skills explicitly, which is another +1 up to Superb.

[ylvathrall]

"Foreplay is very nice, but occasionally one does find oneself longing for the simpler pleasures in life," Zack says to Delphine. The waiter arrives with drinks, and Zack nods appreciatively to Carlos as he takes a rum and Coke and drains it. "Ah, much appreciated," he says. "Well, I'll have to remember the scent - and I must say, if it reminds you of cookies, I'll have to try your baking." He grins at his own joke. "Well, it's simply a tragedy when someone stumbles into something they really ought not have. But frankly, if she's much like your average White, I doubt I'd shed a tear when I read that she's disappeared. I do believe that I take your drift, however, and so I simply must know: what is it that you would like me to do to help this unfortunate vampire meet with an even more unfortunate accident? It's not exactly my specialty, you know, I'm much more...direct than that."

[Halae]

Alice will take her coke when it arrives, though she does give Carlos a sidelong glance; him making the conscientious choices for her sake is appreciated, and very annoying. Still, it comes from a place of heart, so she's not about to complain to him about it, and besides, she likely would have gone for this anyways. She's back into the body of an inconspicuous brunette, Slim of figure and plain of face.

Thus far, she's stayed quiet; despite being able to adopt any number of faces, she's not really the best at simply talking to people, which is what the group is doing, so for now, she'll simply stay on the lookout for other people watching them - if she can't meaningfully contribute to the conversation, then paying attention to their surrounds and those that might be listening to them is important.

Awareness roll for keeping an eye out for anything untoward
[roll0]

[Wuff]

Delphine smirks a little, taking a sip of her own drink after delicately swishing it in her glass, not pretentiously, but with some degree of familiarity. She swishes it around her mouth slowly, then licks her lips when it goes down, eyes on Zack the whole time. The glass clinks softly as she rests it on the table.

"The mark has a friend who we're less concerned about. I'd have no qualms about serving the body up to the nearest werewolf." Delphine meets Zack's eyes. "Got any experience with beating down sorcerers? I think they use some sort of luck magic or other bad mojo, and they're capable with veils as well. We've got the latter part sorted but some muscle wouldn't hurt." At this, Delphine playfully rests a hand on his bicep.

"There are a bunch of ways you could help me. So many." The witch allows that to hang in the air. "One of our plans has us smashing up the target's windows while we play dress-up as wyldfae or changelings." Delphine shrugs.

[ylvathrall]

Zack grins, and then says, "Look, as much as we're both enjoying dancing around the subject, I've got two left feet, so. We both know that if you want disguises and subtlety and the like, you aren't here for me. You're here for my girlfriend. So let me give her a call." He pulls out a cell phone, pushing his chair back to make sure it's out of the aura of the practitioners, and punches in a quick text. Then he puts it away again and moves back in to be closer to Delphine.

"Well, she should be here in a few minutes. Meanwhile, shall we go back to flirting, or would you like me to start laying the groundwork for our friend's vanishing? I do know some people who can...well, they might be able to tell us something. Or tell someone else something, if you take my meaning."

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos listens in to the conversation, trying to get a grasp on this Zack. He seemed friendly enough in a slimy kind of way, but Carlos knew there was always some catch with these creatures.

"The plot's a home invasion thriller. Annie's got something the White Queen wants, and she's send some goons out to take it. I'm sure we could find a part for you if you wanted it." Carlos offers jovially. "An Ogre's easy enough to play, fun too. Just roar and smash things."

"We want to set things up so it looks like Annie's been meeting the Queen's people when Skavis goes looking for what's happened to her." He confides. "If you're able to help make that happen it'd make things easier, but I was hoping to work out payment from the loot. A high rank Skavis must have a lot lying around about how those ****s run things."


We could glamour him for that right?

I'll roll Rapport for "A Role Written Just for Me" Advantage for convincing him to join, if needed.

[roll0]

[ylvathrall]

"Ogre, sure, I can do that," Zack says easily. "I'm great at the dumb muscle routine. I can send some emails, too, get the word out to some...friends that there's a framing job waiting to happen. Shouldn't be hard, Whites are paranoid bastards at the best of times."

He starts typing, sending emails that are seemingly innocuous but which contain certain code words to several addresses. Then, about five minutes later, you notice a sort of ripple pass through the room. It's hard to say what it is that seems strange for a moment, until you realize that the quiet buzz of conversation has stopped, and almost everyone in the bar is looking at the door.

An almost inhumanly beautiful woman walks in. She has dark hair, tan skin that seems Latin American or perhaps Middle Eastern, and dark eyes that sparkle with mischief. Her lips are full and seem to draw the eye. She is walking with the swagger of someone who knows damn well what effect she's having on the crowd, and who's loving every minute of it. She walks straight to Zack's table, people in the crowd getting out of her way without quite seeming to realize they're doing it, and sits down across from him, crossing her legs slowly and provocatively. The rest of the bar lets out a collective sigh as they realize that she's here with someone, and go back to their drinking and socializing.

Suiko (because that has to be who this is) looks Delphine over with a critical eye, and then nods before looking at the rest of the party. "Well, isn't this a treat," she murmurs, her rich alto voice lilting with a trace of some exotic accent. "A girl with fae glamour who is most definitely not fae, and she has a job that needs doing? Color me...intrigued."

Suiko makes a maneuver roll on Delphine; this requires a DC 6 roll, most likely Discipline, or she gains the temporary aspect "Can't Take My Eyes Off Her."

[Wuff]

Delphine finds herself staring along with everyone else at the new arrival. After a few minutes of playing up on all the glamour and glitz, she's definitely not prepared to have someone do it to her. Not someone quite as magnetic, at least. Her mind blanks out for a short moment, making her skip a beat and nearly choke on the wine she'd been sipping. She catches herself though, and manages to recover somewhat, sliding down into a seat and nodding her head. The lights dim a little, and Zack's laptop makes an unhappy buzzing sound, bringing her back to reality.

"Hey. Hi. The fae glamour thing is... Explainable. Yeah. It is." Delphine does the equivalent of slapping herself about the face before she continues. "One of Big Corey's kiddies is running about, getting in things she shouldn't be. I need her to vanish, and I need to deal with her little friend as well." Delphine feels like something like a young schoolboy all of a sudden, and does her best to make sure she isn't actively leering and/or panting at Suiko. She was definitely going to be taking some notes, if she could draw her eyes away from the woman long enough to do so.

[ylvathrall]

"Interesting," Suiko drawls, picking up a glass seemingly at random and sipping at it. "And you want a hand in making her disappear, I take it? Well now. As you are, I think, well aware, I am possessed of no great fondness for the Skavis and their ilk. However, I must admit, my curiosity is well and truly roused. Would you consider a favor for a favor? Perhaps telling me just what the story is behind those glamours?" Suiko smiles, very charmingly, and sips her drink.

[Wuff]

"It's probably not the type of secret you'd be interested in, but I'm willing to share my story." Delphine reaches up and taps her circlet. "This circlet is where I draw my power from. It has many secrets that even I'm not aware of yet, I'm sure it has more to offer me in the future as well." Delphine takes another sip of her drink, surprised to find it empty when she returns it to the table again.

"It's a sign of my legacy. Are you familiar with Morgan Le Fay's legend?" Delphine speaks on, not allowing time for a response, "I was raised to take up my mother's mantle, and the mantle bore by every woman of her line since, a line that I've been told begins at the witch queen herself, though she said many people would contest the semantics on that." She shrugs. "There's a much longer story, if you want to hear it."

[ylvathrall]

"Oh, I'd love to hear your story," Suiko says, with every appearance of genuine interest. Her dark eyes sparkle, and she smiles invitingly. "But I don't want to bore your friends, and Zack implied that there's some haste to be made. What say I help you out with your little job, and then after it's finished, you and I sit down for a little...private chat?"

[Halae]

"You sure about this, Delphine?" Alice asks the other woman. Sharing a lot of personal stuff is a good way to get killed sometimes - it's no small thing to say that information is power, and handing all that over to someone like Suiko, who just sort of rubs Alice wrong, seems like something of a bad idea. Especially given this deals with such potent historical figures, "I can pay the debt too."

[ylvathrall]

"And what do you have to share with little old Suiko, hmm?" The kitsune's voice is soft and alluring, and now that her focus is on Alice, it's hard to look away, or even put words together. "Do you have a little secret burning a hole in your pocket?"

[Halae]

Alice swallows tightly, "Nothing so, uh, remarkable," she says, struggling to get out all the words, "I'm just very strong when I want to be. I could probably accomplish a more conventional favor."

Dammit Alice, you chose a plain look specifically to avoid this!

Suiko can probably feel out what kind of creature Alice is if she tries. And those looking on will likely be able to tell that Alice doesn't give much regard to Suiko's body, as it were, despite still being wrapped up in her aura.

[Wuff]

Delphine interjects. "It's fine. I've got no qualms about that kind of stuff." Delphine needs to spill to someone anyway. If she paints her brother in a particularly negative light, it could be useful to her in the long run. To take Suiko's attention away from Alice again, she slides off her kimono, folding it in her arms, then covering it with her body, turning her back to the group.

Delphine turns back to the group after a few moments, cradling a small marble fox in her arms, possibly even a baby one. The garment is missing, but she holds the little critter out to Suiko for holding.

"I'll take that private meeting when we're done."

[ylvathrall]

Suiko smirks at Alice, clearly enjoying her fumbling attempts to explain. Then she turns her attention back to Delphine as the witch-inheritor takes off her kimono, eyeing her with blatant interest. "Not bad," she says, taking the fox and turning it over in her hands. "You should get some more exercise, though. Maybe take up jogging?" She grins, the expression a little cruel, and then nods. "Sounds fair, sounds fair. So who we whacking and how we doing it?"

[Wuff]

Ouch. Delphine deflates a little, but shrugs it off with an amiably. A quick bit of glamour goes towards tightening the muscles about her stomach, only a little.

"It’s the pastries. I tell myself all the time: No more carbs. They’re so good though!" She does make a very clear mental note in her mind to start jogging though.

"We need to whack a white court going by the psuedonym of Annie Turner and a sorcerer of some kind who we’ll be finding in a few days... Veils and luck magic. We’re going to pretend she got whacked by some wyldfae or changelings. Pretend she reneged on a deal."

[ylvathrall]

"Interesting. I presume you want me to help sell the lie? I can do that, yes indeed. Shouldn't be hard. I'll need a decent chunk of her body to really mimic her well enough to fool things like biometrics or fingerprints." Suiko grins. "I'm sure you won't object."

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos is very glad to see Delphine taking the damn kitsune's attention. Her aura and attitude has him on edge and he can feel his hackles raising for a fight when she turns to Alice, but the girl keeps her wits about and doesn't give the fox anything. He lets it go and keeps watching the fox warily, avoiding looking straight at her. He can tell he's not going to like this one. People said her boyfriend was the worse of the pair but Zack slimy as he was seemed so much easier to work with. Maybe coming here wasn't a good idea. He's had his differences with the french woman but he didn't want her caught up in open ended pacts with damn monsters. A simple split of the loot was all he'd wanted.

"That's about it, yes." He agrees, looking side eyes at Delphine who was looking too flustered for it to be natural. "Whack 'Annie' and make it looks like the fae did it. We're contracted for anything we find on a certain ritual, and first dibs on anything magical. We want to contract you for all the other dirt a white in good standing would have locked up in a million dollar private vault." That figure was a guess but it served the point, Annie had invested a hell of a lot in security. If she had other secrets that would be a good place to keep them safe.

"Their business, their contacts, pacts that sort of thing. I'm sure a man and woman of your and Zack's means can find a way to make good use of a free night in a Skavis' lair."


In case I'm getting hit with a social attack I'm rolling Rapport to create the Advantage "My First and Final Offer" to represent Carlos having already decided not to allow give her more insidious and that showing through in his attitude.

[roll0]

[Celticbear]

Harold was standing next to Delphine like a hawk, watching the kitsune to make sure this business confrontation was just business. He did swear an oath to protect Delphine a while back, and he was almost quite literally dam*ed if he didn't uphold it. He put on the big scary skeleton tactic, not seeming overtly hostile in his posture, but still achieving a striking image. He then whispers in french to Delphine, Delphine, if you spend private time with that creature, it will have a hold over you that you cannot shake off. Do not trust it, remember that it isn't human.

He then looks up at Suiko, and says, The hell with Delphine and you spending private time. I know you've wanted me to perform acts for select clientele of yours. I will perform them on retainer free of charge for a year if you let Delphine's oath go unspoken.

Intimidate on Suiko to back off the come hither I suppose.

Intimdate +5 (+1 for Marked, +1 for living dead): [roll0]

[ylvathrall]

"Oh, you're no fun at all," Suiko says, pouting. "What if I swear an oath not to exercise any compulsion over her, nor to enchant her nor snare her thoughts? All I seek is a trade of information."

[Celticbear]

How about an oath to provide her hospitality as a host under the unseelie accords. I understand they are a laughing matter here, but they're what I will hold you by. Deal? Harold asks, anteing up Suiko's deal to something more all encompassing.

[ylvathrall]

"Certainly," Suiko says. "The Accords aside, I'll be damned if I'll violate guest-right. I swear, upon my tail and my gems and Inari's grace, that I will regard Delphine as a true guest during this meeting, that I will not lay a compulsion on her or ensnare her mind while we talk during this meeting, and that I will grant her free passage to and from the place of our meeting, provided she tells me truthfully the information agreed upon."

[Wuff]

Delphine inclines her head to Harold in appreciation. "Well, now that all the deals are done... Shall we scoot?" Delphine allows the fox to fade, drawing the glamour back to her in a stream of sparkling light, then wrapping it about her waist like a sash.

"I think we should ambush her, catch her off guard. We can take her out and then you can have as many chunks of her body as you need." Delphine shifts her newly created sash, taking a step or two closer to the door.

[ylvathrall]

The next day, the group assembles outside Annie's house. Alice is perched on the roof of a neighboring building, waiting in case the vampire turns out to need more firepower than expected to bring down. Delphine is holding a veil over herself, Harold, and Carlos in the alley. Between the glamour, the darkness, and the suppressors, they should be able to get off at least a shot or two without being seen by the target.

Around midnight, a figure walks up towards the door. She has the classic White vampire look - pale, lean, and memorable. She is less beautiful than striking, with a hollowed-out look that makes her look like a concentration camp survivor. Her hair is ragged and matted. She is wearing a black dress that looks like she's been wearing it for days. But under all that, her features are definitely those from the ID of "Annie Turner".

[Wuff]

Delphine has her weapon drawn already, and when the vampire has her back turned, stalks forward, pushing the limits of her veil. The pistol was strangely comfortable in her hand. Even while practising and honing her marksmanship, she'd not gotten this comfortable with the weapon to this extent before.

The witch strides forward again, passing through the threshold of her veil and as she does, fires once, aiming for the back of the vampire's head. She can feel the next bullet move into place as she does. There is a soft popping sound, and Delphine's arm jerks upwards a little, but she continues to close the gap between her and Annie. A sense of pride and power settles into her mind as she pulls off her little ambush. The witch feels invulnerable as she brings her aim to bear again, her gun back in position already.

"How does it feel to be the prey for once?" She roars, challenging, as she starts squeezing the trigger to finish the job.


Delphine's ambush got pulled off well enough. Now we cross our fingers for her guns.

She'll invoke her I Don't Play Fair Anymore to represent her sneakiness.

Guns Attack [roll0]

Pistols are Weapon:2

Applying her Purpose/Righteousness to this opening shot would be useful.
[roll1]

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos takes his cue from Delphine, firing center mass at the creature to try and wear it down with tremendous satisfaction. It feels good just to point a gun at a White, even if he knows mere gunfire alone has poor odds of ending one. That's what Zack, Alice, Harold and Suiko were here for after all.


A simple attack to try and take out some stress bars for now.

Guns Attack [roll0] with Weapon 3

[Celticbear]

Harold looked at the target, and quickly decided that the best course of action he could take would be attempting to take the beast out at once. He had seen a white in action before, and knew that even though they were called the weakest vampire, this mission could go south quickly. He gathered his will, a purple energy gathering around him. It coalesced into his skeletal body, his hood falling back from his face. His normal bleach white skull had become alight with power, and as he uttered the phrase, TUEUR DE DEMON, CRÂNES RIEURS! the energy released from his face in the form of a massive laughing skull, plummeting straight at the vampire's face.

Alrighty, time for a long explanation of what I want to do.

With my evocation specialization and foci, I am at an effective +6 for both conviction and discipline for this spell. I want to summon up 8 shifts of power for a straight up Weapon: 8, no other extra effects. I'm going to invoke my aspect "Horrors of War" in order to get a +2 to the roll, bringing that +6 to a +8.

Discipline roll, Weapon: 8, Target 8: [roll0]

[Halae]

Alice waits antsily on the nearby rooftop. This isn't her usual MO; normally she's in the thick of things, fighting herself. Instead, she's here as backup now - if the vampire survives the ambush, she's to swoop in and finish the job.

But that doesn't make it any easier to sit still and wait when she can hear gunshots. Still, for now, she follows the plan, waiting. If the fighting goes on for too long, she'll intervene, but for now, all she can do is sit and wait.

[ylvathrall]

Delphine's shot hits home in the vampire's back, just off the spine. Annie staggers, but she doesn't seem too terribly surprised as she spins, and the movement is fast enough to throw off Carlos's aim; his shot goes wide. That doesn't do a thing to help her when Harold's laughing skull hits home, slamming into her shoulder and neck. Bones shatter under the force of the spell, her shoulder and clavicle ruined.

But she doesn't so much as slow down, just raises her good hand and points at Harold. She laughs, the high shaky giggle of the broken and insane, and a wave of crushing, obliterating desperation hits the lich like a tank. It's like he has a momentary window into her mind - and it is not a fun place to be. It is full of twisted dying trees and barbed wire, bones rotting away under acid and toxic smog. She shares her madness with him, and it is brutal

She takes the severe consequence Shattered Shoulder and a heckton of stress. But she's still up, going for an incite emotion (despair) attack on Harold. This inflicts mental stress with a weapon: 4 rating. She's invoking an aspect, so he gets a fate point.
Attack: [roll0]

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos doesn't curse when his shots go wide, but it shakes him. Any reminder of the disadvantage he's always fighting from did. Snapping off another shot he rushes to Harold's side to check on the old skeleton, as usual their best shot at getting through this in one piece.

"Push through it friend!" He says to him to at least provide a friendly voice through whatever that demon had done to him. "We all need you!"


Not much to do here without seeing the narration for Harold's response, but it's been a while since the last round of posts so here goes.

Rapport +4 to maneuver to create the aspect "My Friends Need Me" and pass the invokes to Harold.

[roll0]

[ylvathrall]

Zack, under a cloak and with black oil filling out a cloak large enough to make him look like a troll, shambles forward into the line of the camera, waving a club and grunting incoherently. Suiko is nowhere to be seen.

[Celticbear]

Harold was overwhelmed by the white court's mental charms. The words of her mind rang in his ear, and he wasn't sure what it all meant. What he did know is that most of everyone he knew from his life as a mortal was dead, and he remained functioning if not living. He was a hitman for goddess, a force beyond his reckoning in a world he no longer belonged in. Those facts hit him like a truck, and he wasn't sure how he'd coped with them before. He wanted to fall on his knees and cry, but he no longer had tear ducts.

Dont know if I should act now that initiative rolls are being done. If I should, I'll throw up my shield rote since Harold is in cry in bal mode, and the vamp may come to punch him while he's down. That's his logic in the least.

[Halae]

Well, that's Alice's cue to move, isn't it? She's not about to glide down and watch the fight from afar. Oh no, that would be too passive, when there's already a fight underway and gunshots to be heard.

When Alice takes to the ground, group is only going to see a large gray blur for a moment as it collides with Annie. The maneuver doesn't end there; Alice has put a lot of weight into this move, and momentum of that sort doesn't just stop on a collision. Rather than try to stop herself, however, she transfers that momentum to Annie, as she ducks into a roll, and the proceeds to throw the vampire bodily hard enough to shatter a nearby brick wall.

"Glad I'm in time for the party!"

So this is going to be a Fists attack, or at least that's the intention. Normally a grapple rquires you to tag an aspect first, but mechanically speaking this is more or less an attack, not a grapple. It should be with surprise given where the strike comes from, so no matter what, this is going to hurt Annie like hell. I'm going to invoke the aspect [Predatory Instinct] for one Fate point to make it even more brutal.

Fists: [roll0]
Due to having Inhuman Strength currently, this particular impact will also have Weapon:2.

[ylvathrall]

Alice hits the vampire like a speeding truck, catching Annie completely off guard. The impact itself is enough to likely kill - the Skavis's neck flops with rubbery fluidity, the whiplash likely having shattered her spine. But the shapeshifter then picks her up and throws her into a brick wall hard enough to send cracks spiderwebbing through the brick. What falls to the ground...well, if you hadn't seen what just happened, you would only give even odds it was ever human or anything like it. It makes a wet squishing sound as it lands on the pavement.

"Excellent work," Suiko says, suddenly appearing from an alley where she was presumably out of sight around the corner. She is wearing the body of a teenage boy, but her eyes betray her. They are old, and cold, and cruel. She walks up and looks down at the body. "Now for my part in this little escapade, no?"

[Halae]

"Yeah. Go ahead," Alice steps back and away from the corpse. She know how important it was to take out the vampire, but it still feels wrong to leave a body like this, and at the mercy of the pair of disguised individuals.

Still, she doesn't complain, keeping her roiling emotions to herself.

[Mr Stereo1]

"Good work." Carlos praises shortly, nodding appreciatively to Alice before returning to standing protectively over Harold. He doesn't say anything, preferring to let the skeleton work through whatever was in his head in his own way, but he keeps watch while he does.

[ylvathrall]

Suiko leans down and scoops a handful of blood and...things from the vampire's throat to her mouth. She swallows it down, her eyes half-closed, and then nods. Halfway through nodding, her body melts and shifts between blinks. Instead of a teenage boy, an exact copy of Annie is standing there, looking smug. "Well," she says in Suiko's voice. "This is an interesting body. Rather malnourished, which is unusual for a Skavis. Shall we go in and do our dastardly work?"

[Mr Stereo1]

"No time like the present." Carlos grabs his bag of tools left by his previous vantage point and sets towards the doorway of the house.

"Any hocus pocus or can I get to work?" He asks, looking to Delphine and Harold, then in the general direction of Suiko.

[Wuff]

Delphine studies the body for a moment, trying for a moment to memorise the look of the corpse. The broken form of the vampire girl turns her stomach, but she still forces herself to do it. The frenchwoman fully turns her back to the others, crouching down in the darkness. Her hand reaches out, trembling slightly. With a noise, she draws it back to her chest and whirls to her feet, shaking her head at Carlos.

There is a slightly solemn look on her face. "Will you allow me to use my glamours on you? I need a clear affirmative if you're wanting a disguise for this next part." Delphine drops her current glamour, reworking herself into something a little more fey, putting as much of the wild into her face as she can manage, gangling her limbs at her sides and making herself beautiful in an entirely unnatural and unnerving way.

When her transformation finishes, she looks monstrous, delicate, and feral, all at once. She reaches out a hand to Carlos.

[Celticbear]

Harold looked around, at his party, at his compatriots. He was still shaking, his bones audibly rattling. He clutched a hand to his skull, which was still exposed. His purple glowing eyes flashed around, widely, and he spoke in clear tones, I... I cannot help, I'm... sweet gods...

[Mr Stereo1]

"Very well." Carlos says, begrudgingly holding out his hand. Unpleasant as it was it had to be done. "Can you check for any curses or the like on the door too? I don't want to get hexed by something picking the lock."

[Wuff]

Delphine reaches out to grasp the hand, forming whatever covenant was needed to perform her glamours. When the deal is done, she uses her glamours to beautify Carlos. Her magic sharpens his features, shifts his eyes, makes his body strangely incongruous with itself, making him far more fey than he had been previously, with a trace of the Mortal still clear within him.

After this, she really notices Harold's state. Her eyes roam up to Carlos' for just a moment, pausing, before she drops his hand and moves to do her best to console the Lich. Delphine moves close, and settles a soft weight onto his shoulder. She doesn't say anything, but she looks worried for him. She whispers a soft consolation, curious as to what the damned vampire had hit him with.

She can't check the doors, she'll ask Harold when he comes around.

[Halae]

Alice moves up to Harold. This close, her faceplate might be a bit unnerving - she doesn't have a human face right now, instead a smooth gray plate that ends in a wide, flat mouth where her mouth probably should be. It's not clear how she's seeing, though from this close, one can hear the subsonic clicks she uses for echolocation. It had seemed a safer bet than relying on eyesight when dealing with a supernaturally attractive foe.

Alice doesn't like Harold. A lot of what he is freaks her the hell out. But she's also enough of a good person to try to help when he's clearly in distress. For now, she pulls his hood back up, "It's alright, Rattlebones. She can't throw any more at you," It's a bit weird hearing a normal young woman's voice coming from the creature she's turned herself into, "But we've gotta move before some unlucky schmuck decides to investigate, alright? And that means we need to finish up before someone looks into this."

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos owes a lot to the old sack of bones, but all of their lives are on the line if they take too long and get caught out on this job so he leaves others to comfort him and gets to work.


I'll Roll Crafts Overcome to get the front door open so we can get started. [roll0]

[ylvathrall]

There are substantial security measures in place in the house, but Carlos did homework and he's able to get through with minimal effort. Until the basement, at least, where his contact's information proves correct: there's an advanced biometric secruity system linked to a heavy vault door. On his own, there's no way he could get through it, realistically - the best he'd have would be to simply blast the door open with explosives, and there's no telling what damage that might do to the contents or indeed the building.

Suiko, however, simply walks up and lets the scanner examine her fingerprints, retinas, and who knows what else. Apparently it finds her adopted form to its liking, because the locks disengage with a satisfied series of clicks. Inside is a small room - more of a closet, really - with a small set of shelves. On the shelves are a laptop, a leather-bound book that looks like a journal, a briefcase, what looks like a fully automatic shotgun with two drums of ammunition, a jewelry box, and a small framed photograph.

"Well, that should do it," Suiko says. "I'll go take our dearly departed friend's body for a joy ride, shall I? Get some good evidence planted. Oh, and watch out for the claymore in the wall."

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos eyes dart around the room desperately looking for the Claymore before he calms himself down.

"Thank you Seiko, that would be much appreciated." He says politely, wanting to encourage this helpful behaviour as much as he can.

Then he returns to looking for the Claymore, which to a squishy mortal like him actually would be fatal. He's really prefer not to leave his kids orphans or let his grandkids grow up without him if he was able to help it.


As an Explosives Expert with my Demolitions Stunt I assume I can roll to find and disarm the thing?

Crafts +5 [roll0]

[ylvathrall]

"Not a problem," Suiko says, taking Zack's arm and sauntering out.

After a few moments' study, Carlos spots the mine: tucked into the corner next to the door, fresh plaster in the wall marks the explosive's hiding place. It looks to be rigged to the shelf. With a bit of expertise and a lot of courage, he manages to disable the trigger.

[Celticbear]

Harold doesn't hyperventilate, he doesn't have lungs. He just freezes, his body showing intense fear its tenseness alone. Eventually, when people start to gather around him, his purple eyelights move to look at everyone in the group, his skull lagging behind a few seconds. He then pulls his hood over his face and begins to send out his magic senses, trying to fight past the White Court's insipid mental attack to look for magical booby traps.

Using... Lore(?) if that's applicable for finding magical traps.

Lore (+4): [roll0]

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos starts looking for any safes or filing cabinets full of anything worth taking to Arlene. Information on the White Court's business or similar would be valuable, as would any magical looking trinkets DeWitt might value to trade for.


I'll roll Crafts for that under the circumstances

4d3-3

[ylvathrall]

Carlos doesn't find a safe or anything of the sort. After a few minutes, however, he spots a very slight unlevel spot in the floor. A little bit of work with a crowbar pries up a chunk of flooring, revealing a small cavity containing two vials each containing about a quarter-swallow of liquid. One is clear, while the other is very slightly tinted green. There are no notes or anything else to suggest what they might be.

[Mr Stereo1]

Grunting in annoyance at more hocus pocus Carlos picks the two vials up with tongs and puts them in security boxes.

"Well that's the job done, time to hit the other points. What do you say we start with the pool? Anyone want to split up?"

[Wuff]

"People die when they split up in the vampire's home." Delphine looks around for something to smash or tear up. She doesn't imagine there's anything to expensive here, but trashing the place wouldn't hurt their case too much...

"But sure, I think we should be fine otherwise. Harold, could you work out what those vials are?"

[Mr Stereo1]

"I mean if we're done here we've got to secure the other lock ups, and that'll go faster if we've more than one group." Carlos shrugs to the French woman. "We'll probably manage doing them one by one, but the closer we get to morning the more risk of some early cleaner getting caught up in all this. Wouldn't want that."

He carefully opens the box up for Harold to take a look at if he's interested.

[ylvathrall]

Harold recognizes the two vials as containing potions. One is a pretty straightforward potion designed to veil the drinker, largely by manipulating random events. The other is harder to identify and he can't get a good read on what it might do.

[Celticbear]

Harold keeps himself small, and bundled, folding his arms in a defensive posture. He twitches in inhuman manners, too quick to be natural. He glides across the room with an alien grace, and begins to examine the potions. He sees that one is a sort of veiling concoction, but the other seems more obscure. He tries to pour through this memory to see if he can remember details that might help.

Can I make a Lore on what the mystery potion is?

[ylvathrall]

Harold says that one of the vials contains a potion that will veil the drinker, while the other is a potion but he isn't sure what it does exactly.

Delphine finds a bit of stuff to smash, most of it in the house above rather than the basement itself. She does enough damage to sell the idea that someone broke in and threw a fit.

At the pool, things appear exactly as before. There is no one there at this hour, and the locker is easily accessible.

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos sighs, muttering a brief prayer for forgiveness. He was pretty sure taking dangerous mumbo-jumbo away from monsters and demons would square with the Holy Father's commandments against theft the same way killing that Vampire wasn't murder but it went against a lifetime of honest labor to do this.

He's just as skilled as always as he gets the door open.

"You mind getting the locker open for us Alice?" he asks, passing her the cutters to get the lock open.


Oh, nice new avatar steinulfer. A very stylish wolfy!

Craftsmanship, using whatever tags are necessary... [roll0]

[Halae]

Alice takes the cutters in hand and says "Call me Protean when I'm in costume like this," she says to Carlos. There's no heat in it, as it's meant to be a reminder rather than an admonishment. It's a matter of protecting her identity and her father's, after all, "Alright, everybody stand back in case it's trapped somehow. I can heal from shrapnel and explosives. You can't."

Once the group is a reasonable distance away, she'll cut the lock and pull the locker open.

[ylvathrall]

The door of the locker opens...and releases a wash of odd-looking colored light. The shades shift and flow strangely, passing rapidly through vivid colors that have no names, that may not even exist in the natural world. It hurts to look at, like the brain is aware that more is striking the retina than it can comprehend, or wants to.

For Protean, however, it is a much harsher blow. She feels something tearing at her thoughts, the chaotic shifting of the lights making it hard to focus, interfering with her memory and control. She falls to her knees under the assault.

The ward triggers a mental attack in the form of confusion and mental disorder. As discussed privately, this is acting as a compel on Alice/Protean.

[Halae]

Protean climbs to her feet after a moment, looking unsteady, before she suddenly tears off at a running speed that'd do a car proud, just trying to get out of the building, and unless the others can stop her from getting past them to the exit, she'll be taking off into the night, confused and under the spell that had warded the locker.

[Mr Stereo1]

"Alright, Protean." Carlos agrees lightly, noticing the young heroine tense up as she reaches for the locker. "You alright Protean?"

Seeing the girl rush towards him Carlos runs after her.

"What are you doing girl?!" he shouts after her, the old man quickly losing ground to the superheroine. When he gets no reply he assumes the worst. "Harold, Delphine, stop her!"


Is this a good time to introduce Glyphstone's character? I wouldn't want to leave them waiting in the wings too long.

[Wuff]

Delphine looks hopelessly at the speeding shapeshifter. Her hand instinctively reaches towards her gun before she brings it to her chest. A soft aura alights about her hands as she works some glamour, but she allows it to softly glimmer out. It's at times like this that she wishes her mother had been a bit more expeditious in teaching her the power her circlet held. She turns to the others and begins to fade out of view.

"Stay safe, I'll go after her." By the time she has finished speaking, Delphine is gone, leaving only a strange shimmer where she had once been. Carlos might feel the air shift as she strides past at a brisk pace, all the while keeping her thoughts on her patron. All she can hope is that she manages to find Alice in time before someone does something stupid.

She blinks the colours out of her eyes.

[Celticbear]

Everyone crying for help seems to drive Harold out of stupor for a moment, just enough for him to conjure some magical energies. He draws on the power of spirit, creating an illusionary massive wall of ghostly skulls that bark and howl at the protean, hopefully scaring her from running directly away from the group.

Gonna cast a maneuver to try and create an illusion of a wall of skulls in the Protean's path, and create an aspect Nowhere to run on her so someone can tackle her or something. I'll summon up 6 shifts of power, taking 1 mental stress (5 conviction + 1 power bonus for ring).

Discipline roll +6 (+1 control bonus for evocation specilization) [roll0]

EDIT: PHEW just barely managed to control the shifts. Spell cast successfully, up to stein on what Protean defends with.

[ylvathrall]

Alice crumples, the spell overwhelming her senses. However, she's moving so quickly that by the time it really sets in, she's already out on the street.

You spot a strange, gaunt figure outside the public pool, collapsed on the ground and shaking.

[Halae]

Protean is on the ground at this point, clawed hands scratching at the asphalt as she tries to pull her mind together. Why is it so hard to think right now?

Her form is still mostly that of her combat form - no visible eyes, overly large mouth filled with sharp teeth, and bone plating all along her body. That's not right, she should be human, shouldn't she? But she can't seem to get her mind together well enough to change back; this all feels wrong, and with that wall there, she can't get away from it. She was supposed to... supposed to do something. Help someone? Her mind is such a mess right now.

[The Glyphstone]

Daniel was out late, having just come back from a trip through one of the city's seedier neighborhoods. To his disappointment, the pickings were getting slim - the thugs he hadn't already beaten the crap out of were starting to talk to each other, and his 'lost tourist' shtick didn't work so well when they recognized him ahead of time. Another week or two and he'd have to change locations entirely, pick on another group of low-lifes for a while.

The unusually slim figure twitching on the ground caught his eye, and he frowned. Another junkie on a bad trip, probably - but karma was karma, so he starting approaching only to stop in surprise as the light caught on chitin plating and razor-edged fangs.

"Hey buddy, you need a h...holy crapnuggets. Protean?"

The self-styled 'superheroine' was a prior acquaintance, they had met in a team-up incident straight out of the movies and ended up taking down an evil sorcerer together. But this wasn't her normal beat, she worked a different neighborhood, and something was very wrong. She'd been attacked, and whoever had done it was probably still close.

Picking up the pace, he sprinted to stand above her and took a readied guard stance, looking around with his back to the pool gates.

"Show yourself, whoever you are! Appetizer round's over, so now you get an entree of knuckle sandwich!"

[Celticbear]

A robed Skeletal figure looking like the Discworld's Death strode boldly forth, extending a bleach white skeletal hand towards protean, keeping the illusion only she could see in place. He spoke in a booming tone, motivated by fear and anger, GO AWAY, MORTAL, THIS IS NO BUSINESS OF YOURS!

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos looked over the newcomer sourly, noting that he did seem like he was trying to protect 'Protean'. Of course he wouldn't count on that if he didn't have to, he owed the girl more than that kind of carelessness. He steps up to the kung fu man, next to Harold, keeping his hand near but not on his pistol.

"What my friend's trying to say here is we're her friends, she's hurt, and you're getting in the way of checking on her. I'm sure as a reasonable young man you can see the problem we're going to have here?" His tone is firm with an edge, but on the right side of respectful. The way he talks to contractors he thinks are pressing him on price or quality but knows he might have to work with again one day.

[The Glyphstone]

Daniel is unmoved, only adjusting his stance slightly to keep both Harold and Carlos in his field of view while between them and Protean.

"Yeah, well she's my friend too, buddy, and I don't know you from Adam. When someone who calls herself a superheroine comes running screaming out of the night and collapses, chased by Discount Skeletor and his smooth-talking henchman, I get a might suspicious. I'm sure as a reasonable man you can see the problem too?

[Mr Stereo1]

Despite a sometimes surly appearance Carlos was a reasonable man. He knew how the young were these days, it was only natural Alice had a lot of friends he wouldn't know and if this boy was being honest he didn't look like the worst sort she could be 'hanging out' with. The old Mexican snorts like an old bull and lets his hand fall away from his gun.

"If you know 'Protean' do you really think she'd run screaming from the likes of us?" Or anyone, really. "No, that was some kind of curse and my 'discount skeleton' over here is the only one who might know how to help her." He glances sideways apologetically to Harold at that comment.


What would I have to roll for a workaholic 50+ year old Mexican to know who He-Man is? :smalltongue:

[Halae]

"D-don't fight," Comes Protean's shaky voice to everyone, "All f-friends here."

Her brain is still muddled enough that she can't quite tell what's going on, but she knows everybody's being hostile, yet there are no enemies here. Not right now, anyways.

[Mr Stereo1]

"Does that settle that then, friend?" Carlos asks the young Asian man, pointing to the young heroine behind him.

[Celticbear]

Harold lowers his hand to his side, silently and blankly staring at the newcomer, though internally he was glaring. How dare this boy insult him, this new generation never respected their superior elders. He attempted to huff out a breath, but remembered he had no lungs. He chattered his teeth in annoyance instead as he spoke, I am... sorry that I have offended you. This business is not for those who are adequately prepared for it. Even if you are aware of the supernatural world at large, I suggest you leave this grunt work to the professionals.

[Wuff]

Delphine simply hovers, holding her veil about herself and watching the others talk until it becomes clear that this newcomer isn't a real threat. She becomes visible again, shrugging out of the glamour she'd created in the same way that someone might shrug out of loose clothes. She doesn't speak, just stands with one eyebrow arched and her arms crossed across her chest.

She takes a few steps closer to Protean, before leaning down. With a flick of her wrist, she conjures up a blanket to cover the girl with. Delphine is isn't quite sure what Harold actually did to her, or the thing that she had triggered, so once she's done that, she takes a few quick steps away.

Daniel gets a nod, and nothing more.

[The Glyphstone]

At Protean's words, Daniel hesitates and looks down. "You sure, buddy? They didn't mess with your mind or anything when they cursed you?"

Somewhat reluctantly, he does step aside, though he continues to frown at Harold. "Alright, Bone Jovi. If you do anything to hurt her, though, I'll be renaming my fists here 'Sticks' and 'Stones'."

His demeanor changes completely at Delphine's appearance, though - the brash warrior becomes a young man with a beaming smile. "On the other hand, if this is your healer I'm sure Protean is in the best of hands. So no worries, friends all around!"

[Celticbear]

Your puns aren't helping my compatriot, nor are they aiding in my opinion of your wit, Harold spoke without much thought. His glowing eyes were focused on Protean. If the damage to her was physical, he could at least help, but tampering with her mind seemed dangerous, not to mention against the council's laws. Though the council had little sway in Las Vegas, black magic did, and Harold already had enough of its taint on him.

I hate to say it, but there's nothing I can do for her. The damage seems to be purely in her head. She may have to go back to Seiko to get her head fixed. Me too, my mind is not entirely my own, and I am no use to you as a nervous wreck. I can take her back, if there are no objections.

[Mr Stereo1]

"And you'd trust Seiko to help her just like that?" Carlos asks in shock, then lowers his voice so the interloper can't overhear. "We have to bring DeWitt his payment promptly, so why not take 'Protean' to him? Or to Arlene? Anything but handing her secrets over on a silver platter to that creature."

[Celticbear]

J'en ai ral le cul! Don't listen to me then, I just want to get the *ell out of here! Harold cursed, his eyelights flaming purple out of the bowls of his hood as he looked down at Carlos. He crossed his arms, and found a nice wall to put his back to.

[Wuff]

Delphine allows the corners of her lips to climb a little when she is referred to as a healer. "Not many healers around, you find that out fast after a scrape or two." With a quick gesture, she calls upon her power, her hand shaking ever so slightly.

Harold begins to change, taking the form of a dashing young man, heading into his mid-twenties. Some of the more exact details are indistinct. "Such is the depth of my power." The witch's tone holds excessive snark and a sharp register. Although she's relatively certain that Harold and Alice/Protean aren't in immediate danger, it's not exactly a good idea to be in the open, especially not arguing.

"Listen, let's not fight." She tilts her head towards Harold. "Donner un coup de main ?"

[Mr Stereo1]

"You have anything to add, kid?" Carlos asks the injured Protean. "It's your call. We can split up to still hit all the spots we need to and get you to someone."

[Halae]

Protean is still scrambled. Slowing her down to try and get her help has, well, helped, but while she understands Carlos is talking to her, her confusion is evident even with her face as it is now. She doesn't quite get what he's asking.

[Celticbear]

Harold begins to dispute Delphine's point, pointing a finger at her. Though when he realizes the finger isn't a decayed skeleton's, he stops and takes a moment to look at his hand. His eyes begin to shine with a bit of wonder as he looks back up to Delphine. He collects himself, and speaks, Yes, calm. I will abide by your judgement, Carlos.

In a whisper to Delphine, Harold murmurs, Vous bénisse, fille.

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos clenches his jaw. His knowledge of the hocus pocus was very specific. He couldn't even tell what had happened or why, but he knew it was in part up to him to make sure the young hero made it to old age with her soul and sanity intact. "I say we take her to Arlene. She's the most trustworthy. She won't demand anything of Protean she won't want to give. She's also the safest to reach. Taking her through the sewer to reach DeWitt while she's injured could be dangerous."

He looks seriously at the young man. "Will you trust Arlene, Priestess of Ishtar's word on our good intentions? If you're a 'colleague' of Protean we might need your help."

[The Glyphstone]

Daniel grins back at Carlos cheerfully "Sure, why not. You guys seem like you're on the up-and-up, even if someone needs to coach you on your entrance technique. Coming in all "Tremble and flee before me, puny mortal!" is how B-reel Hammer Horror villains introduce themselves, not good guys. I'm Daniel, by the way. Daniel Lee - kung fu genius, slayer of ninjas, and part-time street vigilante."

[Wuff]

There's a slow nod towards Harold in acknowledgement of his words. The circlet-bearer gives him a soft smile over her shoulder before turning her full attention to the newest member of the impromptu little posse. "It's worked so far for me." Delphine fixes a mock baffled expression before closing in on the newcomer and offering a hand. A furred glove forms on it, stretching halfway up her arm as her magic weaves it together rapidly.

"Delphine Lenfestay, follower and heiress of The Witch Queen. You might have heard of me?" Her free hand lifts to her head, upon which a strange circlet rests comfortably. "We've got a lot to catch up on, kid. You're probably also an accomplice to murder, but I doubt the police will ever hear of it." She shrugs. The events still have her a little shaken, though she found the whole thing kind of exhilarating in a way she can't really explain. She turns to Carlos before speaking again.

"I don't think Arlene will know what to do, though she may be able to direct us to somebody. Perhaps someone in her temple will but... Whatever happened here isn't really in that sort of ballpark Carlos. As far as I understand it, Faith is all about moving the pieces into place. The fancy miracles are all extraneous to that." As she withdraws her hand, the glove she had created becomes a docile type of snake which curls about her wrist, clinging on tight as it secures itself about her arm further up.

"Getting a move on wouldn't hurt, no matter where we're going."

[Celticbear]

To Arlene then, we shouldn't stick around at the scene of the crime, as our mademoiselle has pointed out, Harold nodded, gathering himself to get ready to leave, still hazarding glances at his new flesh. It had been over seventy years since he saw himself with such, it made him almost cry.

[ylvathrall]

Moving back to the Hanging Gardens, the group attracts little attention, and the woman watching the door asks no questions, only ushers you in and goes to get Arlene. The Emissary shows up a few minutes after you're seated, and sits down across from you. She's very self-contained, but you can tell that if she were less so, she would be trembling with nervous energy. "Well?" she says. "Is it done?"

[Mr Stereo1]

"Still some work to do I'm afraid. The vampire's dead and we've cleared her house. Had to get Zack and Suiko to help with that. We've found four safe locations she might have some back ups in, but Protean got mind-whammied clearing out the first. Turns out Annie hired some kind of magician to help her. Might be their work, but DeWitt's helping us track her so we should be able to whack her too." Anyone who willingly works for a Vamp was as bad as a Vamp in his mind. "I'm ready to head out and finish the rest up, but we can't drag Protean into a shoot out if she's not in her right mind and seeing us restraining her gave her friend here the wrong idea about us." Carlos explains, waving to Daniel. "Is there anything you can do for her Arlene? If not you we'll have to go to DeWitt or Suiko and they both have prices she can't decide to pay while she's out of her mind like this."

[ylvathrall]

"I think perhaps," Arlene says after a moment. "Ishtar willing." She reaches out, quite delicately, to touch Protean on the arm. Her hand glows with a gentle white radiance, something as much felt as seen, and Alice feels a soothing coolness embrace her mind, washing away the confusion that is clouding her thoughts until she feels normal - even a bit refreshed and invigorated compared to normal.

[Halae]

Alice had been sitting quietly, unsure of much of what's going on around her, but trusting her allies enough to take care of her in the meantime. As her mind clears, her body, which had been sitting in her combat form, slowly starts shifting towards a more human form, with brown hair, pale skin, and brown eyes. Awareness of what she's doing seems to come to her in a moment however, and before long she's wearing the face she'd been using previously, with violet eyes and brown skin, a sheepish look on her face.

"Thank you, Arlene. It was difficult to think through that," Just playing off the fact that everybody saw part of what she really believes she looks like, yeah. Of course, given she can't really transform into what she should look like without an image, they got the colors and something close to what it should be, but not quite there.

[Mr Stereo1]

"Yes, thank you Arlene." Carlos says, then puts a hand on Alice's shoulder and points the other at Daniel accusingly. "Now young lady, tell me all about this young man you brought home." The boy really did seem like an honest sort but Carlos wanted to be sure Alice could vouch for him.

[Halae]

Protean turns to follow Carlos's pointing, doing her best not to respond to the tones he's using as a stern father, and says, "Well, this is Danny Liu. He and I once fought a dark wizard together. Saved me from getting buried by a collapsing building, even," Alice shrugs, "As far as I'm concerned, he proved himself after he punched out a summoned demon, and he hasn't done anything to steer me wrong after that."

[The Glyphstone]

Daniel just grins nonchalantly. "Not like you couldn't have dug yourself out anyways. Just would have taken longer, and that dorkweed sorcerer might have gotten away. Besides, his demon was easier to punch than his lightning bolts - no one expects blessed brass knuckles."

"Now what's this about a vampire? I feel like I'm walking in on part two of a trilogy here, and I missed the opening crawl."

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos grunts solemnly in acknowledgement of Alice's testimony, maybe a little happy to find out there way another tough youngster guarding the city's streets. He didn't know what an opening crawl was but he explains the situation to Daniel.

"The short version is one of big Corey's cousins is trying to unleash some kind of horror on the city. We had to get rid of her and all the information she has on the thing without starting a war with the Whites. She's dead now but there's a magician she was working with still at large and she has some safehouses we haven't cleared yet. If you're up to helping we should probably head back out to get this done before morning."

[Celticbear]

Yes. We've had plenty time enough to lick our wounds. We should head out as soon as we are able, Harold declared, standing up from a seat he had taken. He folded his arms, still a bit reproachful from the vampire's attack, but better than he was before.

[Wuff]

"Are you sure you're all A-OK, Harold? I don't know what she did to you, but... If you ever need somebody to talk to, I'll be here for you, you know?" Delphine frowns in an almost sombre, uncharacteristic way. She dips her head at Carlos once he finishes speaking. "That's pretty much all that's happened. We're going to track down her accomplice soon, hopefully in a timely fashion. Then we'll hit him, or convince him to stay out of things, for good." Delphine wills the snake to curl around her arm as a golden bracelet, tightening and shrinking into an elegant chain which wraps about her wrist up to her elbow.

She maintains Harold's glamour, shifting some of the details subtly to make it more familiar.

[Celticbear]

Harold considered Delphine for a moment, and answered, Merci beacoup, but later. Business will keep my mind clear enough, but... we'll talk later.

[Mr Stereo1]

"Given what just happened to Protean I wouldn't say it's smart to split up like I wanted to earlier. If we have to hit them all together before morning...." Carlos thought, bringing up a mental map of the city's roads and shortcuts.


I'd like to roll scholarship to make sure the itinerary Carlos suggests to break into the other safes should let the gang finish the job before sunrise.

Scholarship [roll0]

[ylvathrall]

Carlos is fairly sure that the group can get to the apartment building and the offices and case them out before sunrise. Traveling to the apartments is easy, and once they arrive, the group starts looking around. They don't find any sign of a cache or really any evidence that the vampire has been there at all, though, consistent with what Carlos found out about her movements. It seems as though she was only there on rare occasions and did not leave anything hidden, at least not that you can find.

Once that's done, you make your way to the offices, where it is quite easy with the advantages you already made sure to have in place to sneak in and get into her office. Inside, it's very spare, undecorated, unused. Most of you don't see anything out of the norm, but Carlos's experienced eye spots a safe hidden in the floor under the table in the corner.

[Mr Stereo1]

Caros glares suspiciously at the safe remembering what had happened to Alice earlier that day. Which was, at least in part, his own fault for asking her to pry it open for him. The old Mexican didn't like leaving debts like that unsettled, but it would do no good to offer apologies while work was to be done.

"Harold, Delphine! Think I've found the lock up, you mind taking a look? With what happened to Protean I don't want to risk just taking a lockpick to it."

[Halae]

This time, Alice is on lookout duty, keeping an eye out for anybody that might disrupt the search and retrieve. Given what happened last time, she doesn't mind being given the non-direct job, so, for now, she's simply sitting at the front of the offices in case a security guard or something comes by, with an eye out the windows. She's covered herself in dark fur so that she blends into the darkness of the building; no sense in making it easy for someone to spot her if they come in towards the building.

[Celticbear]

Harold quickly moves by Carlos's side, and peers at the lock, seeing if he can find any rune tracings or similar mystical trap. This mission had already proved detrimental to half of his friend's mental states, he didn't want to risk anything either.

Rolling investigate at +0, but I think my Lore would also come into effect since I am looking for wards or runes, giving me +1 since its higher. If not, just subtract 1 from my roll.

[roll0]

EDIT: Oof, I don't think it matters

[ylvathrall]

There's no sign of a mystical or mundane trap on the safe this time.

[Wuff]

Delphine tilts her head to the side, peering at the safe. "I should reiterate that my talents lie in an entirely discipline to Harold's own mystical proclivities. If it's electronic, I could probably blow it up. Or... At least short it out. Harold, if he's as old as I suspect, could probably break the whole mechanism in two with a bit of effort. I have no idea how helpful that'd really be to us in the end though." She touches her shoulder to her chin in an elaborated shrugging motion, before backing away.

"Regardless, I've been led to believe that this sort of stuff is perhaps within your area of expertise. At least, if we want the contents intact." Her head bobs curtly in deference. "I imagine I'll fare better than you if it explodes or unleashes a curse, but I'm not sure if that'll be much of an issue," Her eyes flick to one of her hands, mournfully taking in a horrific hangnail, "And I don't think that what remains of my manicure would stand up so well to that, not to be vain." Leaving him to consider, she brings her hand to her mouth and clips the offending nail with a flash of shining pearly whites.

[Mr Stereo1]

"Nothing to do but pray then?" Carlos asks, glaring at the safe in irritation where he imagines the curses might be hiding and dropping his toolbag beside it. "If I do anything funny you just deck me, kids." He tells Daniel and Alice.


Craftsmanship Overcome to open the Safe [roll0]

[ylvathrall]

Carlos gets the safe open after a couple tries, with no particular difficulty. No curses are evident this time, but the safe's contents are rather disappointing: a stack of cash, some fake IDs with the vampire's picture, and the lease paperwork of the house you already visited.

[Halae]

"Glad this one wasn't magically defended," Alice says, "I'd hate to have to go through that mess again. Anything useful in there?"

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos pats himself over and glares suspiciously at the safes contents. "Seems that way." He replies to Protean. Grudgingly he concludes it's probably safe and uses tongs to drop the contents into another lock box.

"I think we're down to finding her accomplice now, aren't we?" Carlos turns to the others, holding the box away from his body. "May as well hand this off to Delphine and get some rest while DeWitt finishes the ritual."

[Celticbear]

Let's leave before anything hits the fan, Harold declared, already moving towards the exit. Hopefully this place wouldn't be too time consuming, though he could only imagine there was a horror lurking behind the next corner.

[ylvathrall]

You get out of the office building easily, and deliver the findings to Arlene. Then you go and get some rest.

The next day, you meet up and go back into the tunnels, to DeWitt's hideaway. The broken wizard meets you at the edge of his domain, head tilted to the side, a slightly hysterical grin on his face. "You're here, good, good, yes. Ready? The ritual is prepared, should be enough power, yes."

Refresh point for y'all, enjoy your fate points back.

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos offers DeWitt a waterproof carry bag full of the requested cash. "The, eh, conventional portion of your payment, Mr DeWitt."

[ylvathrall]

The broken wizard takes the cash with a crooked smile. "Pleasure doing business," he says, stepping back from the wards and gesturing for you to follow without quite inviting you in. Inside, a pair of women, naked save for ashes smeared on their bodies and wooden masks, are waiting in the middle of the room. They're surrounded by a complex ritual circle drawn in ash and blood and wine and grain, with Sanskrit writing and arcane runes mixed in with the circles.

DeWitt goes to the edge of the circle. He holds the talisman you brought him in one hand, and in the other holds a skull, into which he pours the contents of a bottle. It smells like strong alcohol. He takes a sip as the two women begin to explore each other's bodies, silent save for the occasional gasp or moan. It's...rather distracting, really.

You can feel energy starting to build in the room, constrained by the ritual circle, but still humming with power. It feels like pleasure and pain and blood and ashes and everything everyone ever told you not to do. It feels like transgression, but without a feeling of corruption, only recognition of power and transcendence.

[Mr Stereo1]

Carlos keeps a wooden expression and thinks of God. When that fails he watches the skull in DeWitt's hand and tried to convince himself this is just a really weird Day of the Dead. He knows enough reliable magicians, including a literal talking skeleton, that he can't intellectually reject what's happening (he even paid for it) but he still feels like a mouse watching cats at play and fights the urge to flee.

[Halae]

Alice came with Carlos down to the tunnels, having insisted she come along. She's not in "costume" this time, being in her what she's declared her 'normal' body. When she's like this, she's a tan-skinned girl with dark hair and dark eyes, sporting a mixture of native american and caucasian features, and is currently wearing a purple blouse and jeans. She'll nudge Carlos, giving him an awkward smile in an attempt to help him deal with his awkwardness by sharing her own. As important as this ritual is - and Alice has even taken part in a few of these as a way to pay DeWitt for his services - it's still deeply weird to just exist on the periphery while it's going on.

[The Glyphstone]

At first Daniel simply watches the ritual in progress, trying to school his face into properly inscrutable passivity instead of fascination. That doesn't last long, so instead he sits down cross-legged on the floor and does his best to quietly meditate while ignoring the increasingly vocal sounds. Eventually, he just gives up and faces the wall with his fingers plugged into his ears, thinking about cold showers and baseball while cursing his father's blood-borne propensity for being drawn to this sort of thing.