M&M Learning Game [IC]

[JNAProductions]

OOC Thread (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?633785-M-amp-M-Learning-Game-OOC&p=25115788#post25115788)


Dento is waiting where he said he'd be, sitting in front of the bagel shop. Armed and armored as always, staring off into the distance. His phone is on the table in front of him, ignored for the moment next to a half-eaten bagel.

He doesn't seem to have noticed you yet-he's absorbed in his thoughts.

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel walks up in some casual clothes. Some jeans, a dark hoodie, and a pair of baby blue uggs. Someone really needs to talk to this girl about fashion.

"Hey," she says, sitting down at the table. "Any news since we last talked?"

[JNAProductions]

It takes a moment for Dento to respond. Sorsiel has to repeat herself, before he says "No. No ransom note. No word from the Guardians. No signs of Elaine. And you're the first one to show."

He takes a cigarette out, and lights it. But before he puts it in his mouth, he shakes his head and snuffs it. "Elaine always told me to stop. For all the crazy crap she pulled, she was always on me about my health."

[WindStruck]

"Yeah, that's not good for you. I guess with all the worry and distraction, that's something to keep your mind off the craving, right?"

She drums her fingers on the table and says, "Hm. I hope the others get here soon. Otherwise I might have to buy a bagel myself!"

[Ameraaaaaa]

Sonia was worried about dento. He and his wife were good people. They didn't deserve this. When dento beat her dad all those years ago she was both impressed by his skill and glad that she wouldn't have to deal with dad anymore.

So of course she was gonna help him find his wife. Not just to repay the favour but because she was a good person.

With a fake deep voice sonia spoke as she wore blue ripped style jeans black heavy metal shirt and her signature leather jacket.

"Dento. I came. I will do everything in my power to save your wife. I can promise that."

"Oh and who's she? Is she here to help?"

She smiled at seeing another lover of dark jackets before quickly realising she was smiling then she forced her face into unconvincing grimness.

[JNAProductions]

"Not married," Dento says without looking. "This is Sorsiel, mage of the elements. Sorsiel, this is Sonia, necromancer."

He then turns his gaze to Sonia, and gives a wan smile. "Been a while since I seen you, kid. You've grown."

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel turned around to see the source of the deep, raspy voice behind her. She was a little surprised to see another girl about her age.

Actually, Sorsiel's hoodie was just that. Just an average hoodie. Dark colors seemed to be the trend with them these days, but there was a big red star with a gold outline on the front of Sorsiel's. Way to ruin the dark motif!

"Oh, hey!" she says in greeting, with a wave.

Looking back over at Dento she says, "Well, not all the elements. Just ice and lightning."

She addresses Sonia again. "So a necromancer, huh? That sounds pretty spooky. You, uh.. make zombies or something??" She wondered how that was going to help find a missing person.

[Ameraaaaaa]

Responding to dento sonia momentarily stops the deep voice and says in her normal voice without realising it "thank you" then she has a oh i messed up look on her face when she realises she's not doing the voice.

"Anyways welcome on board sorsiel. I don't sommun zombies or anything. Just shadows. They are as dark as the dangers I've faced. When you are facing down a demon or in a fight to the death with zombies of great warriors you are bound to grow dark to face them. That is the life i lead. He who stares into the... ok i forgot the rest but you get it right?"

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel looks at Sonia after her spiel and blinks.

"Uh.. sure," she says, not convincingly at all.

"So I guess facing down dark, scary things has made you.. dark and scary?"

She had to shrug to herself on that one. If that wasn't the gist of it, she still probably didn't understand.

[Ameraaaaaa]

Sonia smiled. "See! You got it!" Sonia was looking around to see when the other's would come.

[gac3]

Into the bagel shop walks a frail older gentleman with a massive walking stick. His salt and pepper beard was kept short like his hair.

He joins the gathered group. "Hello all. I heard there was an issue with an old friend."

[Ameraaaaaa]

Sonia points at dento who is behind her as she faces the newcomer with her thumb "that's him. Didn't expect a person as old as you to help. But I'm sure that if dento asked for you help you must have some use. Soooo... what can you do? I'm betting your a super genius or something."

[JNAProductions]

Dento says "I wouldn't contact anyone who couldn't help. Old doesn't mean weak-might just mean experienced."

[Ameraaaaaa]

Sonia just shrugs in response to dento's point and orders a bagel and sits opposite to dento. "True i guess."

[WindStruck]

"Hi! I'm Sorsiel," she says. "Oh, now you're all just making me jealous." She gets a blueberry bagel from the shop and returns.

"Mmm, sho who wore you?" she asks the older man with a mouth partly full.

She swallows and says, "I know you're a bounty hunter, and you're already pretty good at finding people that don't want to be found.. so what do we know, and how can we help, Dento?"

[JNAProductions]

Dento nods. "I suppose some of you know me better than others-but I'll give the rundown on myself. Dento, bounty hunter. I've worked with the European Hero Agency, and a few of their teams. The American League, a few of their offshoots. And a whole host of others. I'll admit that what I do isn't strictly legal, a lot of the time-but I'm not a bad person. Or, least, I try not to be. I'd wager some people behind bars would disagree. I've worked with Elaine for about thirty years now-met her when she was a hair over twenty, and we've been dealing with people together ever since."

"Last time we got a job was about a month and a half ago. The target was supposed to be right there-Grop Dastan. Small fry, really-arms smuggler, couple of murder charges; but no known powers, no links to any major crime syndicates, nothing. Elaine jumped out the window to get to him faster-and no, that's not out of the ordinary," he continues. "She can take a fall. I'm not quite so limber, so I took the stairs. Power went out about halfway down, so I picked up the pace, but when I got all the way down... No Elaine. No Grop. I spent the next week tracking Grop down-he had gone deep underground, metaphorically speaking, but I found him. Elaine wasn't there-and he hadn't even seen her that day. I took him in, sent him to Peru for his crimes, since that's where most of them took place, and started reaching out to the hero teams for assistance."

"None of them responded well. Most of them ignored me-automated responses or nothing at all. Some of them took the time to respond, and to summarize... 'If you didn't do bad, bad wouldn't happen to you.' Which..." he snorts, "is pretty rich of them. But you responded... And I do want to thank you for that. It can be a cold world out there, if you're alone."

[WindStruck]

"Hm.. Uh.. how far was that jump?? Couldn't have been more than a story or two, right? That's not a long time frame for someone to just disappear, though..."

Sorsiel thinks a bit more, "But still, I think that power outage has something to do with it. When you found Grop and questioned him, did he tell you how he disappeared?"

[gac3]

The older man nods to the group. "You know I'll help however I can Denton. The full resources of Grey Industries is available. If you'd like I can pay a visit to Mr. Group and see what I can get out of him."

Turning to Sorsiel he holds out a card. "Jackson Grey, founder of Grey Industries at your service."


Mind Reading Check:
[roll0]

Subtle 2 so it shouldn't be detectable but is opposed by will.

If successful I will communicate: "I also have other skills" in her mind.

[JNAProductions]

"Hm.. Uh.. how far was that jump?? Couldn't have been more than a story or two, right? That's not a long time frame for someone to just disappear, though..."

Sorsiel thinks a bit more, "But still, I think that power outage has something to do with it. When you found Grop and questioned him, did he tell you how he disappeared?"

"Think we were on the 15th floor," Dento says. "And Grop had friends-well, allies, at least. He didn't know much about them, but they were willing to help. Unfortunately, without being able to dig deeper there... Not enough of a lead to follow."

[Ameraaaaaa]

Sonia does not receive the message at all and just look dento straight in the eye and darkly proclaims "can we check the scene of the crime. It might have the clues that'll lead to our dark and gritty justice and save elaine!" She then uncontrollably smirks at her cool sounding proclamation though hides it eating her bagel she ordered.

[WindStruck]

Turning to Sorsiel he holds out a card. "Jackson Grey, founder of Grey Industries at your service."
"Oh, thanks!" she says. She looks at it and tucks it away in her pocket.

---

"But- but that was a month and a half ago!" Sorsiel exclaims. "Like, unless there's some secret passage there..?"

"Why don't we just see if we can visit this Grop guy in Peru? How far away is that? Like a ten-minute flight?"

[JNAProductions]

You're currently in California. So it'd be about a 10 hour flight, by plane, at least.

"If we take a commercial flight, it'll be about half a day," Dento lets you know. "I have a few strings I can pull to get us there a little faster, though. I did my best to interrogate Grop, but he didn't seem to know much. Still-you've got talents I don't. We'll see what we can find."

If no one has any better ideas or anything more to discuss, Dento sets a stack of twenties on the table, with "I'll cover your bagels. Leave a nice tip for them too," before he starts making a phone call.

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel shrugs and looks around at the others. "I dunno. Seems like there's nothing else to go on."

[JNAProductions]

The flight is arranged with great alacrity. It's a small plane-enough to seat maybe a dozen folk, so more than spacious enough for the few of you. The pilot is a scarred and tattooed woman, who nods and smiles at Dento as he leads you to the small, out-of-the-way airstrip. Once you're on, the plane takes off, and you rest, read, or talk as you see fit on the ride to Peru.

Near the end, Dento gets everyone's attention. "We'll be dropping into Lima soon. From there, I've got a car that'll take us to the penitentiary. I'll drive it, but we're gonna need to make a stop. One of the folks who responded to me couldn't make the meeting in California, but can make it here. We'll nab 'em before we hit the prison."

[WindStruck]

With word that the flight was going to be happening soon, Sorsiel has to rush and get packed.

Did he really say the flight would be half a day??

She decides to bring along some extra clothes and necessities, maybe even a swimsuit too if they had some free time, but she also changes into her 'super hero costume', as some people have referred to it, just in case some bad stuff happens on the way.

yes, this picture again
https://i.imgur.com/RhQc1QS.jpg

The flight is extremely long to her and has her bored out of her mind, if not for some conversation with others. She probably asked how long until they get there enough times to be annoying.

--

When Dento announces the update, she sighs with relief. "Ugh, finally! We totally should have got some teleport rocks or something!"

[Ameraaaaaa]

finally! sonia thought. It got boring practicing her action poses.

"Let's do this thing!" She said in genuine excitement before quickly adding in her fake deep voice "not like I'm excited or anything. My emotions are dead inside!" She says like a 12 year old edge lord.

[JNAProductions]

You get into the car with Dento-it's an SUV, apparently ordinary, though a close look reveals it's been reinforced. Not crazily-you wouldn't want to get into a scrap with it, not really-but enough to take a few dings and keep on moving. He drives off from the airport, towards the north end of the city. "The guy we're adding is named Cici-he's not from around here. As-in, dimensional traveler. Doesn't know how to get back, but if I'm right, he should-"

Dento stops himself as you see a fast-moving blur making its way towards the car. Dento doesn't bother stopping, but does unlock the doors, and Cici pops himself into the vehicle. "Everyone, meet Cici-Cici, meet everyone else."

[Ameraaaaaa]

Sonia is just standing their with her jaw dropped.

"Are you from a dimension of bug people!? How are you so fast! How'd you get here!"

Sonia then realises she's not coming across very badass right now compared to the others and just quietly says "to hell with the deep voice. Anyways do you have any other power then speed cici?"

[WindStruck]

As Dento stops himself mid-sentence, Sorsiel takes this opportunity to interject, oblivious to why her old contact stopped. "Hey, that's a lot like me! Maybe he's from the same place? Hey, why'd you unlock the-"

Then Cici plops in. "..door?"

Sorsiel blinks and looks at the bug-eyed man. The guy wasn't human, and yet he certainly didn't look like any of the other aliens she had fought before either. "Uh. Hi," she waves shyly. "Well, I guess we aren't from the same dimension after all. I'm Sorsiel." She gingerly extends a hand to shake. Probably 500 times too slow for him.

[gac3]

"Nice to meet you," Jackson says with a nods. What a wild group this was turning out to be. Fascinating.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

The hairless, maybe 5 foot tall humanoid slips into an empty seat as the wind naturally re-closes the door behind him. For a minute, he was getting worried that Dento may have taken an alternate route, or that the flight arrived late or something, but as usual it was really just a matter of patience.

"Hello, Everyone," he says, raising his quivering hand for the briefest of waves. His voice has a humming quality to it, like a violin string. His words are spaced out a little oddly, too, like he's trying to be absolutely sure they won't run together. "Sonia, Jackson, And, Sorisel, Yes,"

For an instant, an astute observer might notice him look at Sorisel's hand with a pensive expression before resigning himself to taking it for the earth human hand-shaking ritual. His hand feels like it's humming the same note as his voice. He seems uncomfortable within half a second, but waits politely for Sorisel's cue to let go nonetheless.

"Powers, Are, An, ExaggeratedWay, ToPut, It," he goes on. He glances out the window between syllables, but focuses enough on Sonia that it's clear he's talking to her. "But, I, AmNot, Really, An, Expert, In, Kinesiology, Sorry,"

[WindStruck]

It was a bit awkward talking to the new guy, Cici. And especially shaking his hand. It's not like Sorsiel was much of a hand shaker anyway.. why did she do that??

After pulling away she looks around a bit. "So, uh.. I hope it's not a long ride to wherever it is we're going. Are we all going to talk to this guy? At the same time?"

[JNAProductions]

"We can get a standard interrogation room-you know, with a one-way mirror and all that. I'll be listening in, but you guys don't have history like I do-maybe you can figure out something I can't, or get new info," Dento says. "Probably gonna have to do one at a time-maybe two. More than that and the room gets crowded."

The SUV pulls into the front of a penitentiary, and Dento puts it in park. "I'll go and talk to the officers-let them know we're all here before you come in."

I'd imagine the telepath is probably gonna want to do some interrogating, but y'all can figure out a better plan if you like. :)

[Ameraaaaaa]

"I'm sure guop will be Intimidatied by my shadows. You'll know why if you see them. Then i just have to ask the questions. Which is why you probably should look away if you want to sleep well." Sonia said confidently.

[WindStruck]

"Erm.. your shadows? I thought .. Oh, right, right..." Sorsiel says.

She shrugs and says, "Well, it's not like I have any special techniques. Maybe it's just a matter of asking the right questions, though."

[gac3]

Jackson nods at Denton."I don't need to be there to do my part, but it would help if one or both of whoever does go in would et me inside their mind. Just relax really quick and I'll hope in to the surface level."

Not sure if this will require rolls but I'll roll for everyone anyways. I'm specifically not trying to see any further than surface thoughts for this.

Sonia:
[roll0]
Sorsiel
[roll1]
CiCi
[roll2]

If I get in, I will mentally say,
[I]"Okay, now we don't all have to be in the room to follow everything happening."[/b]

[WindStruck]

will: [roll0]

Sorsiel looks a little concerned. Maybe confused or getting kind of freaked out is more accurate. "Wait, what?? Hold on a sec, what do you mean get inside our mind??"

[Ameraaaaaa]

Sonia just screams then replies "how did you get into my mind! Why didn't you just say you were a psychic in the 1st place! That was real scary you know!"

[gac3]

Jackson shrugs. [B]"I don't like cracks about me being old. I'm not that old. Anyways, this was more fun. You should have seen your face. But anyways, I can keep us all linked up when needed. I promise not to go deeper than your surface thoughts without permission. Our target won't be so lucky.]/b]

To Sonia he says mentally:
Also, psychic is a strong word. I can't see the future.

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel flinches a bit at Sonia screaming and edges away slightly, though comprehension does seem to wash across her face. "Oh, a psychic.. Hm. I didn't see that on your business card..." She smirks at Jackson.

"So you, uhm.. want to peek at our surface thoughts? I guess we can talk to each other just by thinking?"

Sorry if you have to explain it all over again.

[Ameraaaaaa]

"Whatever" sonia says pissed off that grey thinks reading her mind without permission. She coldly replies "let's just get the job done."

[gac3]

Jackson smiles at Sorsiel. "It's more a Neuron thing than a Jackson Grey thing. Not great for business. Apparently it can upset people to know I can dig around in their head without them noticing." He winks and glances toward Sonia. "However you will just have to take me at my word that I'll stay as close to the edge as possible and only during missions where it will matter Beyond that your thoughts are your own. Just try not to watch what you think when we are in the field of there is anything you don't want slipping. I promise it'll be more helpful than anything though, if you let me in."

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel looks a little skeptical or uneasy, but relents. "Uh.. okay. Just.. how about we do this right before we step into the interrogation room?"

She still wasn't entirely sure if she liked the idea, but Jackson did seem to be making a reasonable request. Well, it was reasonable, as long as it was strictly necessary. Which to her, wasn't right at this moment.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

I don't mind at all! Uh, pardon the pun. It looks like the speed of thought keeps up with Cici pretty well. If anything I wish I'd found a telepath sooner. How are you at relaying messages?

To Sorisel: I take it that you have seen no Mugunes in your home dimension either, then? Drat.
To Sonia: Yes, I come from a world with many others like me. But we're not bugs. We would technically be another subspecies of homo sapiens, from what I can tell, though, again, I'm not a scientist.

Perhaps it isn't perfect at keeping up after all. Cici seems to notice his rambling just quickly enough to hopefully keep the joke from outstaying its welcome.

[gac3]

Jackson nods and gets to the edge of Cici's mind. I am fairly good at passing along messages. I can pass them along as fast as you can take it, I suppose.

[JNAProductions]

Dento opens the door, and waves you all in.

The penitentiary is not a fun-looking place. The guards are grim, and the surroundings austere. Dento leads you to one level down from the ground floor, ignoring some of the odd looks you get, and into a reasonably spacious, but only dimly-lit room. You can see, through a window, a brightly-lit room with a table, a chair on each side of it. Grop Dastan is in the chair, staring at the room you're in.

Grop is a portly man, easily three hundred pounds, but you can see substantial muscle underneath. He's in a simple orange jumpsuit.

"Right. Jackson, see if you can get a read on Grop-then, which one of you wants to go in and do the questioning?" Dento asks.

[WindStruck]

The place didn't look very friendly. Then again, it was supposed to be a prison. Sorsiel hoped nobody would think they were trying to bust someone out of here, but then again, it was probably a silly thought.

After stepping into the monitoring room, Sorsiel shrugs and says with a friendly smile, "I wouldn't mind. I've negotiated with stubborn people before."

"Jackson, are you, uh.. ready to do your thing? With me?" She still looked a bit nervous.

[gac3]

Jackson nods. "Anyone who wants in on my mind link, open your minds. I won't press any of you. I'm going to see where I can get."

Jackson is going to connect to any of his four companions that let him get to surface level.

Then a roll against Grop.

[roll0]

[JNAProductions]

[roll0]

Grop's Will.

Sorsiel steps into the room, closing the door behind her, and takes a seat across from Grop. Jackson concentrates, and finds himself able to get into the criminal's mind with aplomb. Grop snorts at Sorsiel. "What're you doing here? You ain't from here."

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel is letting Jackson read her surface thoughts.

As Sorsiel steps in, it is pretty clear she's different. She's rather oddly dressed, at least.

"Hey!" she says, offering a warm smile. Though on second thought, she didn't want to seem too friendly. Cordial and amiable would be the atmosphere we're going for. Not BFFs.

"You're, right, I'm not. I just needed to ask you some questions. It's kind of important."

Sorsiel takes a seat across from the large man, staff leaning against herself, and exercising some caution, consciously using her Magic Guard ability.

[gac3]

Jackson smiles and tells the group. I'm in. Not sure how long it will last but I'm all the way in. right now. Here's what I'm going to start looking for. I'll let you know what I find.

Quick versions of these will also be passed along as fast as people can process them to the group. Answers won't until I see them though. I'll start with three because that seems like a reasonable number. In order of importance.

1. Do you know where Elaine is?

2. What happened Elaine and Denton found you?

3. Who do you work for?

[JNAProductions]

Jackson digs, and finds some answers.

1) No. He knows Elaine well, and dislikes her intensely (due to, you know, having been foiled by her and Dento on multiple occasions) but does not know where she is.

2) If you're referring to the most recent time, it was Dento alone. It was... Not pleasant. Dento was PISSED, and did some things he's likely ashamed about. In the past, when Grop has encountered them both, he usually tried bombing the area to get away, with mixed success.

3 Conscious) He's his own man.
3 Subconscious) B̵̦̗͍̙͙̂l̴̨̫̺̳̤͖̝̩̲͇͕̈́͌ö̵̥̥̼̠̟̱̠̜́̃̀͊̅̉͊͐̀̑̔̉͋̃c̵̈ ̧̘͈̬̓̊̎̌̓̓̇͊̊͝k̶̡̫͖̙̝̹̖͂̎̿̆ȩ̷̈́̔̿̒d̵͋̑̾̋̎̓́̒̋̓̃͌̌̓ ̧̱̳͇

"What's it about? They've already got me booked for three damn lifetimes-and no, I'm not doing community service for the families I've hurt, I'm not rebuilding the damaged part of Chichen Itza, and I'm damn well not being polite to the guards," he says.

[gac3]

Jackson is a little taken aback by the last one but quickly communicates to the party.

He doesn't know where Elaine is so don't bother with that line of questioning. Someone is blocking some answers from me though and I don't think it's him. Maybe ask who has been messing around in his mind?


I can throw more questions but I'm unsure of if I have time IC and maybe I should let others post before I keep going?

[WindStruck]

"It's about when you got away that one time.. you know, there was a bounty hunter after you, a little over a month ago. You were.. what, originally on the twelfth floor?" Then again, Sorsiel was pretty sure Dento said they were on the 15th, but she purposely kept the information slightly inaccurate.

"Then some strange stuff happened, and poof." She gestures with her hands, pantomiming a little puff of smoke. "You just disappeared."

"How'd you do it?" she asks.

--

Sorsiel thinks to Jackson: Yeah, I wasn't planning on asking about Elaine, specifically. I was going to ask more along the lines of how or who got him to disappear. I figure this is what also caused Elaine to go missing.

[JNAProductions]

Focusing on the blockage, Jackson can definitely tell there was some tampering. It's either some kind of actual powered block, put in place to make Grop be unaware of what happened, or something so horribly traumatic he's repressing it very hard.

And considering Grop's murderous nature, it's not likely the latter.

[roll0]

Against DC 17 to break free.

"That's a good question. One that I'll answer with a gesture," Grop replies, flipping Sorsiel off.

In his mind, though, Jackson can hear Grop worrying a bit. How did I do that? I didn't get blackout drunk, but I don't remember. What happened? Think, dammit, think.

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel is pretty offended by the gesture. She leans forward. "Hey! That's uncalled for!"

"If you don't want to say it, then you don't have to!"

Calming down a bit, she says, "Then again, I don't know if keeping it a secret will be much help to you now.. What, are you not allowed to say? Is someone going to come after you? If not, maybe we could make a deal? I bet there's something you want that you can't get in jail."

persuasion: [roll0]

--

Sorsiel will think to Jackson: Someone messing with his mind? I don't know if he'll be able to tell us himself. Can you figure out who?

[JNAProductions]

"Lighten up, buttercup," he says. "Oh, and shut up too-there's something bothering me, and I need to think."

He starts humming as he closes his eyes, loudly and obnoxiously. If Sorsiel tries to talk to him, he hums louder.

Something's wrong, he thinks. What? What happened? How did I get out? How did Dento find me in France?

Grop's roll for the blockage.

[roll0]

Jackson can feel Grop's mind worming its way towards the subconscious block on his mind. He doesn't get far-but he gets a singular thought before anything else happens.

https://e7.pngegg.com/pngimages/955/431/png-clipart-umbrella-corps-alice-umbrella-corporation-logo-umbrella-text-umbrella.png

As the thought goes through, though, Grop's humming stops, replaced by a gurgling choke. His eyes bug out, and he starts to spasm. The guard who's been keeping an eye with you shouts "Get a doctor! And none of you move!" he directs to you all, as he leaves the room.

Soon as he's gone, Dento pulls a gun out. "Get Sorsiel out-this isn't natural, and this isn't good." Grop has, by this point, stopped moving, other than a few tremors in his chest and thighs.

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel is shocked to see the man just start dying before her eyes. "Wha - What's going on?!" she says, at first fearful and backing away.

When the guard yells to get a doctor, she tries to get close to Grop to check on him or help him in any way she can. Though.. she's not really strong and the guy weighs like three hundred pounds.

unfortunately treatment is untrained

perception: [roll0]

She doesn't know how to help him, in any case. She runs over to the door of the interrogation room and opens it, leaving it propped open with a chair. "We need a doctor here!" she yells, but that probably doesn't help either, since the guard shouted that not long before.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

On it, Cici relays through the telepathic link. He takes a few steps out the door, realizes he has no expedient way of bringing help back with him even if he does find someone, and walks back in to try something himself first. Wait, Jackson, you said there was some thing blocking his memory, right? Maybe it's something we can find, like an implant?

The blurry image of Cici is already on the ground, patting down the twitching grop and examining him for unusual scars or bumps.

If it is: [roll0]

[Ameraaaaaa]

"What the hell is going! I expected an interrogation not a medical emergency!" Sonia shouted out of shock. freaky stuff is happening and i don't like it! Is this a long range death power!? I have seen many things in my life as a hero but i have no idea what this is!

[JNAProductions]

Cici gets a good look at Grop. And what he notices is not pleasant. He's got ample relative time to observe, and while his knowledge of human biology isn't the best, he can definitely tell that the small tremors going through Grop's body aren't natural. It doesn't match where muscles should be, and is moving far too much.

That is around the time when a fleshy tentacle explodes from Grop's heart. It waves back and forth menacingly, as more tendrils start to push their way out of his body, lifting the half-destroyed corpse up.

[roll0] Grop?
[roll1] Sorsiel
[roll2] Sonia
[roll3] Cici
[roll4] Jackson

First up is, unsurprisingly, Cici. Followed by Grop's body.

[Ameraaaaaa]

"What. The. Hell!" Sonia quickly summons her 8 shadows.

Which takes the form of ghosts with dark blue skin wearing purple robes and a wizard hat both with sand coloured stars on them. Their eyes have no pupils and the whole eyes are the same color as the shadow's skin with black vains in the eyes.

She also shouts "don't panic! These are my shadows!" She says with a hint of shame.

[gac3]

Jackson sees the tentacle through the glass and immediately starts looking for it's mind.

only a free action for now.

Trying to detect a mind in there. Not sure if it's 10 feet away but I think I take minus 1 if it is? So subtract that if needed.

Perception check:
[roll0]

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Or It Could Be A Parasite That Works Too," Cici says aloud, sensing that the situation has already escalated beyond concentrating on telepathy. "Let's! Cut! Them Out!"

While he thinks of what to say next, he starts battering the emerging monster with the chairs, a table leg, and the lamp. The heat from the lightbulb as it shatters against the big tentacle probably does the most damage. He could search the surrounding office for scissors or something, but it occurs to him that the police have probably elected not to keep potential weapons in the hallway where dangerous killers are taken for interviews.

"Do We Have Anything? Sharp? We Could Use?"

[JNAProductions]

Cici thinks he does some damage, but the monster seems completely unfazed. Grop's face drops to the floor as another massive tentacle pushes its way out of the body's head. It does focus on Cici, seeing him as... Perhaps not a threat, but certainly an annoyance.

Tendrils of fleshy disgustingness lash out, and begin to wrap around Cici.

[roll0] to-hit

DC 22 27 Fort save.
That's a crit.

1 Degree of Failure: Hindered
2 Degrees: Immobilized
3 Degrees: Paralyzed

[WindStruck]

This was crazy. It seemed one second the fat drug smuggler was on the floor convulsing, and Sorsiel had tried propping open the door and calling for help. In the next second, Cici was there, and he was being attacked by tentacles! The alien was fast, she'd give him credit at least, using various objects in the room to barrage the emerging monster with, but it countered hard and.. this wasn't good!

"Cici! Get -" she began, her thoughts and words lagging behind the current reality of the situation. No, it didn't look like he was getting out now!

Ideally, she'd have wanted to just close the door on this monstrosity and keep it locked in. Now with it grappling her ally, she had no choice but to fight it.

"Let him go!" she shouts, pointing her staff and shooting a beam of icy cold at it.

attack roll: [roll0] Damage 12 Ice & Magic

Tentacle monster must make a DC 27 toughness save.

Also on hit, DC 21 fortitude save or

1 degree of failure: Dazed and Hindered
2 degrees of failure: stunned and defenseless

[gac3]

Jackson shifts nearly all his focus to the monster in front of him, trying to take control of it's body.


Okay. So I think this plan should work.

If I drop Mind Reading and Communication down to one rank each, I should be able to stay in contact with the party.

This should let me get mind control to rank 8 out of 10. It won't be subtle though, but that shouldn't be a problem.

So the creatures rolls a Will Save. DC: 18

Failures:
1 Degree: Dazed
2 Degree: Stunned
3 Degree: Controlled

This is cumulative so I can attack on the next round to make it worse if it fails.

[JNAProductions]

[roll0] Toughness against DC 27

[roll1] Fort against DC 21

[roll2] Will against DC 18

Dento ***** a handgun and fires it to his right, through the open door. The bullet bounces once, twice, and lands firmly in the monster. The monster seems entirely unfazed.

The monster seems impervious to the side-effects of the ice, and while Jackson can tell that its mind is weak, its voracious hunger stops it from giving in to any kind of control.

However, the blast of cold itself hurts the creature. A tentacle that tried to block freezes solid, and you hear some hissing in pain from whatever sorts of mouths this thing has.

Two degrees of failure. The monster has -1 to future damage checks, and is Dazed till end of next turn.

Dazed means it gets only one standard action next turn, not a standard and move.

[Ameraaaaaa]

Sonia mentally commands all 8 shadows to attack the monster with a charge.

"Take this you ugly tentacled creepizoid straight outta a bad horror flick!"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"UGHgrossgrossgrossgrsgsrgsrgrlnnnnnnnnnnh..."

Cici twitches and struggles against the slick tendril that's wrapped around him. He's half-numb thanks to whatever viscous paralytic this thing secretes.

"Welp," he goes limp and sighs slowly enough that it actually sounds like a sigh. "Don't Get Too Reckless, I'm Okay For Now, But It Has Some, Kind Of, Contact Poison."

With that, Cici resolves to calm down and settle in for another long round of being stuck. He takes deep breaths and focuses on letting his metabolism gradually clear the poison from his system.

Switching to Regeneration 10 as his active power for the round.

[JNAProductions]

The monster stays in place, a little woozy from the icy blast.

It does, however, find the strength needed to chuck some tentacles towards Sorsiel, angered at her damage.

[roll0]

DC 27 Damage Save, +2 or +5 depending on degree of success.

I actually goofed up how Multiattack worked earlier-it's still one attack ROLL.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

While the beast is distracted, it relaxes its grip on Cici. After waiting for just the right subjective moment, he slips out of its clutches, but the poison is still affecting his balance, so he stumbles into the wall. Over the next few seconds, he finds himself repeatedly leaning against the doorframe to regain his footing. It makes a weird rattling noise.

Just the same, a little dizziness not enough to deter a hero. His blurry form joins Sonia's specters in their efforts to beat the tentacles into submission. He rolls an office chair into what was once Grop's body. He jams pens and pencils into the little joints where tentacles jut out from the flesh. He's really running out of things to hit this monster with.

Regeneration says he's merely hampered now, which for a speedster in an enclosed space isn't so much a hindrance as an opportunity for jokes.

Are we resolving the shadows' attacks as a team attack of sorts? Because Cici can totally help with that.

Combat: [roll0] (+5 if a team check with the shadows)

Damage: Effect rank 8 (+2 or +5 if multiattack kicks in), all bludgeoning this time because there's only one lamp.

"I Really Need To Go Get Something Sharp."

[WindStruck]

The last thing Sorsiel was expecting was a blast of miasmic tentacle flesh to her face. And, well, the rest of her body too. The mass and the force this tentacled horror was capable of exerting (as well as the accuracy) was tremendous. The young mage cries out in pain as the tentacles slam into her, practically bowling her over as she is plowed into the walls with a sickening crack.

Sorsiel falls to the ground, staff grasped in one hand on the tiled floor, and raises another hand shakily to etch out a symbol of a glowing snail in the air. A soft light fills the room briefly, but ultimately only settles upon the tentacle monster, in which the sigil of a snail fades into it.

Sorsiel casts Slow. The monster makes a DC 20 dodge check.

If it fails the dodge check, it needs to make a DC 20 will check.

If it passes the dodge check, it needs to make a DC 15 will check.

Failure of this will check will result in Sorsiel's Slow Spell affliction, which has the conditions:
dazed, hindered, and speed impaired.
(can only take a standard action per round, and effectively has -3 ranks to speed)

Then with gritted teeth, Sorsiel begins to stand, only to disappear in a brief, but intense shimmer of light, and in the same instant (and within another shimmer of light) appears safely in the observation room near Sonia, Dento, and Jackson. She leans against the table with a pained and weary look on her face.. she's bruised and does not seem well.

Sorsiel used some Extra Effort to be able to take 2 actions at once this turn. She is now fatigued, Staggered, and has -1 toughness penalty.

This is the end of her turn, and she has regeneration 5: (1/2)

At the end of her next turn, 1 toughness penalty will go away. She can't recover conditions with her power, though. Tentacles overpowered her magic guard, and she is physically hurt. She only can recover her mana faster.

[Ameraaaaaa]

Sonia points her finger at the monster and wills her shadows to attack while shouting "get him!."



The shadows preform a charge attack allowing them to move and attack at the same time in exchange of a -2 to attack.

[gac3]

Jackson sent a quick message before cutting off his ability to talk. Going to try to hit it hard, you all holding up okay?

He diverts nearly all of his focus into an isolated mental blast.

If I am correct then the creature just makes a DC 25 Will save for damage.

[JNAProductions]

The creature takes the slow spell on the center of its mass, and you can see its tentacles start to move with less and less speed. It's still a brute of a monster, though.

Jackson's mental blast seems to knock it off balance, luckily, though Dento's next shot goes wide as he avoids hitting Sorsiel and Cici.

[Ameraaaaaa]

Here we go with attacks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and 8.

Charge attack so 6-2=4

[roll0]

[JNAProductions]

The tentacle monster tanks Cici's blow without any damage. It seems to be getting angry, though-and directs that anger at everyone nearby, a mass of tendrils shooting out to grab Cici and Sorsiel.

[roll0] Cici
[roll1] Sorsiel

Multiattack, with a DC 27 save on each person hit.

[WindStruck]

"That thing hits hard.." Sorsiel remarks, seemingly with the wind taken out of her. She leans on the table trying to catch her breath. Only as an afterthought she notices all the creepy ghosts floating past her, surrounding the mass of tentacles and swiping at it with their claws.

"So those are your shadows, huh?" she asks Sonia, content to watching this conflict unfold from behind the safety of the glass. But unfortunately Cici was still in there. She'd have to figure something out to get him out of there. Fortunately, all those shadows seemed like they'd have the mass of tentacles taken care of in short order.

For now she tries to take some deep breaths and manages to straighten herself out over this short period.

'Jackson, tell Cici to get out of there,' she thinks, very assertively.

Sorsiel has recovered her toughness penalties.

She has also used the Recovery Standard Action to remove Staggered from herself.

She's still fatigued, though.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

What Is It? Are You Gassing The Room?

As Jackson relays Sorsiel's warning, Cici retreats to the observation room. The rattling continues as he stumbles around and rifles through the drawers, looking for something that might be more effective should he need to go back in there. Like, scissors, maybe? Alas, this room has no need for a supply closet, so he plops down into an office chair and waits to see if the shadow plan works out on its own.

Just turning on Regeneration for this turn.

[gac3]

Jackson is worried that he isn't as helpful as he could be. This thing was insane. Time to try controlling it again.


Mind Control (Not subtle): Will Save: DC20 they get a save at the end of their turn if it does work.

Entranced, compelled, Controlled

[JNAProductions]

Jackson manages to break through. His control isn't perfect, but it's there-he can't make the thing kill itself, but he can certainly make it stand still so everyone else can wail on it.

Dento takes advantage of this, and finally lands a good shot, blowing a tentacle off.

The shadows pounce, at Sonia's direction. They inflict some more damage, but Sonia seems pretty nervous now-less "Kill him!" and more "Save me!"

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel sighs and says, "Well, might as well get this over with and try to put this thing out of its misery.. and its disgusting existence quickly."

She teleports back into the room and conjures up a field of electricity, in which a small lightning bolt has to carefully maneuver around the shadows assailing the tentacle monster in order to strike it.

DC 20 dodge check.

If failed, it's 10 lightning damage.

if passed, it's 5 lightning damage.

[JNAProductions]

[roll0] Dodge check

[roll1] Toughness check

The brute just will not die. Hammered by lightning and shades, shot and controlled, it still wriggles onward.

The shadows continue their assault, scraping off parts of its vitality.

And, finally, a few of the guards arrive-they seem to have taken time to grab some heavier gear, and three unload submachine guns into the monster. Scared as hell, their shots don't hit very well, but one manages to do some decent damage.

[gac3]

Jackson shakes his head. What is this monster? Oh well, he's only got a handful of tricks so he might as well stick to them.


Switching to a mental Blast because why not.

Auto hit.

DC 25 Will against the damage.

[JNAProductions]

The tentacled mass slows, and stops. It slumps to the ground, remnants of Grop's body still barely visible in it.

Turning to the dimly-lit room, the guards keep their guns leveled, with one keeping their weapon on Sorsiel. "Explain-now!" one of them shouts.

Dento shrugs. "Not sure-gonna have to figure this out. Now, we're leaving."

"You're not going-" one of them starts, but Dento cuts him off.

"We are leaving. I would recommend you not try to stop us," he says. He walks out, calmly, leading you all. When you're outside, he quickly gets back in the car you took. He starts it up, and pulls out. "Right-you might want to mark Peru off your vacation list until this whole thing is resolved. Or at least, be very careful. Now-Jackson, you said you got something?" His voice is calm, but you can hear a faint note of worry behind it-this was his last lead for Elaine.

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel has her hands slightly raised, sort of a defensive stance but also trying to placate the guards. She wasn't sure if they could even hurt her with those guns. Her Magic Guard was pretty strong. As Dento asserts they're leaving, she begins to follow, but slowly walks backwards at first, keeping her eyes on them.

"I don't know what happened. Whatever it is, it wasn't us. One minute we were talking to him, and the next he was having a seizure on the floor. Then that thing came out. I can't tell you anything else. Sorry."

She quickly turns and blips away in an instant, quickly catching up to Dento with her teleportation power.

--

"Aww.. I don't want to be kicked out of Peru..." Sorsiel whines.

She perks up fairly quickly though. "Wait, you found something?? What?"

[gac3]

Jackson nods. "Let's keep walking and take a moment to think on what just happened." He winks and as long as nobody shut him out, he should still have access to their minds to chat. If they did, he will not be subtle about trying to get back in. This should be safer. I can't be sure though. Something or someone had messed around in Grops brain and I don't think it was that monster. Grop doesn't remember anything about the day with Elaine or the week after. Like at all, I searched his whole mind. There was some kind of block that he started picking at when we were in there. When he broke through I got a glimpse of the Umbrella Corporation before he exploded."

[WindStruck]

"Umbrella corporation? What do umbrella makers have to do with what just happened??" Sorsiel asks, quite confused.

[JNAProductions]

As you move, Sonia is quiet. Shortly into the drive, Dento looks to her for a moment. "You okay? You seem... Not."

Sonia shakes her head. "I'm fine. I'm..." She then rolls the window down and vomits out it. "Eurgh... That was..."

"Not something you're used to. Not something you were ready for," Dento says. "I'm sorry-I should've known you were too young for this-"

"I'm not!" Sonia says.

Dento asks "You sure?"

Sonia looks queasy. "Can I go home?" she asks after a few minutes.

He nods in response. "We'll get you home. I'm sorry, Sonia. We'll meet again, under better circumstances. Promise you that."

"Now-you say you got something about Umbrella? What did you get, exactly?"

Jackson tells Dento the little info he got, reiterating that it was basically the name, the logo, and that's all.

He lets out a long "Hm... Not as helpful as I would've hoped, but it's a start. Umbrella-what do you all know? Because whatever you think you know, you can guess it's wrong. Umbrella started in the late 1900s-brainchild of a rather mad genius named Buddy Pine. Buddy wanted to make EVERYONE super-and he started with gadgets. But as people misused his gadgets, and he found himself growing richer and richer, he was disillusioned. The rich got more powerful, the poor stayed weak. So he teamed up with Doctor Jīnasu Hakase-he funded Hakase and worked with him to develop a virus. Something that would make EVERYONE super, whether they wanted it or not. Perhaps unfortunately, it didn't work-I never knew these two. Maybe if they had properly succeeded, the world would be a better place. But Buddy and Jīnasu grew at odds with one another-they began sabotaging the other's projects, and the whole thing fell through. By this point, they were rich beyond their wildest dreams-but this didn't make them happy."

"I don't have any information after that on them-but Umbrella continued. It was bought by a businessman named Albert Wesker, around 1982. He was in the biomedical field, and he started research on ever more powerful viruses and warpings of bodies. He's financed various insurgent and terrorist groups, helping to destabilize small nations, and makes a lot of his money and whatnot there. Because he focuses his efforts on those smaller, wartorn nations, the big league heroes focus on other threats. And some of them, sure, why not. The Destined has better things to do than handle a company. But some of the other heroes... I wish I had enough proof of all this to bring it to them. Or, more accurately, the media. Make the average person aware-they'd have to do something then."

"Anyway, I'm rambling. Any questions?"

[WindStruck]

Well, whatever Sorsiel had originally thought was completely wrong, that was for sure. She has trouble processing what Dento is saying.

"So.. they make gadgets and viruses? How did they get rich from that??" Sorsiel asks.

"Whatever that thing was that came out of Grop, I don't think that was a virus. But you mentioned warping bodies? Do you think the Umbrella Corporation did that?"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

If they did, I doubt that they would admit to it, Cici says over telepathy after slipping back into the car. Proof or no, to use someone like this is unforgivable. And Elaine was likely given a similar treatment.

He stares fidgeting for a few seconds.

My first thought is that they were taken opportunistically. They would not be the only victims, we only noticed because Elaine was wrapped up in it. I think we need to go back to where you were doing that job. Look up any other missing peoples cases. Especially ones where the victim randomly turned back up.

...

Unless she or Grop specifically had their attention for some other reason? Maybe they were close to something Umbrella needed to keep hidden. It sounds like Wesker is an arms dealer who thinks he's a doctor, so we might try the local... drug lords, I think they're called?

[JNAProductions]

Dento visibly flinches when Cici mentions Elaine being treated like Grop just was. But he soldiers on. "Maybe. Maybe. We've got a lead, at least. We just need to figure out how best to follow it. But I don't think this was happenstance, Cici-Elaine and I are well known enough to people like Wesker that grabbing her wouldn't've been a simple coincidence. Not unless he's stupid-and given his continued existence, he's not stupid."

"Jackson, you've got money-I don't want to dig too deeply into your coffers, but maybe look at some of your investments? See if you've got anything related to Umbrella, or any way to exert influence on them?"

[WindStruck]

"Do you know what Grop was doing before you had tried to capture him that one time?" Sorsiel asks.

"Maybe he got involved with the Umbrella Corporation somehow!"

[JNAProductions]

"That's something to look into-he worked in similar circles. Arms dealer, though his munitions were less extraordinary," Dento responds to Sorsiel. "It would explain why they used him."

As you talk, Dento pulls into the airport's parking lot. He gets out, and heads for the small side area you landed in the first time. "I'll call my last employer on the plane ride back. See what more he knows about who Grop was working with."

So, I'm debating about asking for a check from Gac using Jackson's wealth, to see how much pull he has with Umbrella.

That being said, Wealth 5 is a flip-flapping BILLIONAIRE, so I don't think just rolling at +5 makes sense. I'll talk to y'all on the Discord about how we want to handle this.

[gac3]

Jackson nods. "I made money to help people and this one hits kind of close to home. Let me make some calls."


Wealth check?

[roll0]

[JNAProductions]

Jackson makes some calls and sends some emails on the flight back. He doesn't get nearly as much as he had hoped, but he does get something.

Apparently, in addition to having a few stocks in Umbrella (nothing substantial-not even a hundred thousand dollars of shares) his various companies have also sometimes found themselves competing for the same contracts as Umbrella.

It's enough information for the fact-finders to get more, but not in any reasonable timeframe. Especially given that Jackson, wisely, didn't place urgency on this-not to his people, anyway. Didn't want to alert Umbrella or get anyone killed.

So, I'll let you retake the check by spending some extra time and money. It won't dent your finances, but it does come with a risk. You'll be rolling 2d20 for this, and the bigger the difference between the high roll (which is what will be used to see how much info you gain) and the low roll, the more bad things will happen.

[WindStruck]

Welp. Another boring plane ride back.

"So what did your employers say?" she asked Dento.

"Maybe we could look around the old place he used to live at, too, but.. it's been so long, there's probably someone else living there, right?"

[JNAProductions]

Dento looks frustrated. "Not nearly as much as I hoped. But... Maybe enough? Apparently, Grop got tanked at some bar, and let loose that he was going to start selling super powers. He was smart enough to avoid saying how he was gonna do that, but given the connections we've already established, I think we know how. Which seems really bad-Grop was no stranger to taking his own stash, so anyone who bought from him might be a time bomb just waiting to turn tentacular. I've asked them to find who he was selling to, or at least what areas, but no word back yet."

[WindStruck]

"That totally makes sense!" Sorsiel says.

"But.. turning into a tentacle monster isn't really a super power. You remember that block he had on his mind, right? I think.. I think the tentacle thing killed him and came out when he started to remember something? Maybe that was the Umbrella Corporation, implanting something in him to make sure he stayed quiet..."

"And speaking of making people supers, that would also explain how he just disappeared. If Umbrella Corporation has super powered people at their disposal, then..."

[JNAProductions]

Jackson listens in to Dento and Sorsiel's conversation, and decides to make the matter a little more urgent. He's still careful to make sure no one gets hurt for this, but he makes clear he needs this info, and he needs it soon.

He keeps a close eye on his emails, and soon, the knowledge begins being sent. It looks like Umbrella has been on and off various government watchlists, though nothing was ever confirmed, far as your people can tell. They also find a few shell companies belonging to Umbrella and Wesker working with some known criminal organizations or individual criminals.

The three that have been found so far are:

Big Jim
8' of pure muscle, Big Jim has minor powers. Mostly brick stuff-durable and strong, but not much finesse. He is, despite his size, an expert smuggler, using his brute strength to access avenues unavailable to others without bulky machinery or similar.
Jackson's people say he hasn't been seen in about three weeks-no jobs taken, no goods delivered.

The Xeres Family
A European crime family noted for their drugs, the Xeres family is not known to have any powers-but they also hide a lot of themselves from prying eyes. They were in contact with Umbrella starting about three months back, and in their area of control, there has been a rash of disappearances and deaths. Sometimes, people go missing entirely. Other times, parts are found-a foot or an arm, alongside a lot of blood and ichor.

Ruel's Crew
Ruel is a pirate lord, who lives on a small fleet of fast boats that he uses to smuggle anything and everything to coastal hoarders. He's a hydrokinetic, and powerful enough that most people simply don't think he's worth the trouble to take down. Umbrella has been working with him for over a year, judging by some of the files found, and possibly longer.

[WindStruck]

After hearing about the leads Jackson found, Sorsiel says, "I think the Xeres Family is our best bet. Because Grop was found around there, too, right? And with all the disappearances.. that sounds a lot like what happened to Elaine..."

"The other two guys, Jim and Ruel, don't seem like we'd learn much from them."

[gac3]

Jackson shrugs. "It depends. Big Jim would be easy to take down but might be hard to find. Ruel has definitely been working for Umberella and is a known entity. Just a powerful one. The Xeres family is the one I have the least intel on but might be the easiest to strike against. I'll follow whatever you all decide."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"What Do You Mean By Ichor?" asks Cici. "Is It Just Another Word For Blood Like When People Say Blood And Gore?"

"Cultural Context Aside I Agree With Sorsiel. I Feel Like We Will Need To Do All Three At Some Point But If There Is A Chance Of Finding The Secret Lab On The First Try Xeres Is Most Likely To Have It I Think."

[WindStruck]

"Yeah, I guess you could call ichor a different kind of blood... usually not pleasant. Then again, blood isn't really pleasant either..."

"Like, I get the other guys might know something, but are they going to know what we already don't know or can guess? Are they going to know where Umbrella's secret lab is, or where Elaine is? Probably not. They're just smugglers after all. And what if a tentacle monster pops out of them before we get any answers too?"

"I think just the fact that Grop reappeared in France.. that really makes me think that whatever is going on with the disappearances, the Xeres family must know something."

[JNAProductions]

"Xeres it is. We'll drop off Sonia, and then head for Europe-they're based in the west side of Germany," Dento says by way of agreement. He makes another call, to get you flight to Germany.

The plane lands and Sonia hurries off. It starts refueling, while Dento heads for another plane. "Another long flight ahead of us-gives us time to prepare, at least. How do we want to approach them?"

[WindStruck]

"Oh my gosh, is this flight going to be longer than the last one?" Sorsiel complains. Someone probably needs to buy her a phone or something to occupy herself with.

"Uh, well I guess that's one problem. We don't really know anything about them.." Sorsiel says.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"That Is A Long Way For You Isn't It," Cici says, dreading the prospect of a day-long trans-continental flight. "I Should Probably Go Ahead And Scout While You Switch Planes. Is There Anything In Particular You Would Like Me To Do While You Are On Your Way?"

[JNAProductions]

Cici runs ahead, though before he does, Dento has enough wherewithal to let him know where the plane will be landing, and he scoots over the ocean at a breakneck speed. He arrives in Germany in about two hours, and spends another hour locating the general area where the Xeres operate. He dashes from person to person, asking seemingly random questions with no purpose, and studying the lay of the land. He causes enough of a ruckus that the authorities are called, and he has to spend a few minutes explaining that he's just an extraterrestrial tourist a few times. He's told to stop running about so much, or at least to do so in the countryside where there's less people.

He takes a jog to the countryside, and spends some time out and about, killing time before the others arrive. When they land, he's quite relieved-boredom had set in long ago. But he's got a decent amount of stuff to say.

The Xeres family have nothing even approaching a stranglehold on the area. There are several families, all competing for control of contested turf. The Xeres family has, in fact, been a bit quiet as of late-they're still selling drugs, still raking in money, but they're not doing much other than treading water and defending their main territory. The matriarch-Minnet Xeres-hasn't been seen in almost a month.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

When the plane lands and the crew allows Dento to turn on his phone, he receives a series of rapid text messages that Cici had sent in the meantime. Several of them are morbid instructions in the template of, 'if something happens to me, the last thing I was doing was asking about X at coordinates Y,' followed quickly by retractions saying it turned out to just be another dead end and everything was fine.

As soon as someone sets foot outside the airport, Cici is on top of them, clearly eager to get to work but self-aware enough to ask if the team wants to check into their hotel first. He conveys the results of his scouting, spelling out the broad strokes in his usual manner and going into more detail over Jackson's telepathy.

"The Most High-Profile Disappearance Within What Remains Of Xeres' Territory Is Their Own Matriarch. I Have Not Gotten To Look Any Deeper Than That Unfortunately. I'm Not Sure If She Just Went Into Seclusion, Or If The Crime Family Is In The Same Position As We Are."

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel feel pretty tired after all these flights. Somewhat groggily in half a daze she says, "That's weird. I wonder if we'll end up teaming up to take down Umbrella."

[JNAProductions]

Dento frowns. "Unlikely-but possible, I suppose. Perhaps Umbrella is trying to tie up loose ends. For now, I think we've got a couple of options. We can see what's going on with their customer base. We can stake out their mansion and the surrounding area. Or perhaps we can try to find someone we can convince to go turncoat, or at least provide an in."

This is not an exhaustive list of options-if y'all have any other ideas, go for it!

[WindStruck]

"Ugh, I feel like I need to do something. But I also need some real sleep..."

"If you really want to try doing something today, why don't we like, go to a restaurant they own and relax there.. It's not like we have to kick their butts then and there."

[gac3]

Jackson nods at Sorsiel. "Not a bad idea. If nothing else, we can see if we can overhear anything while we get a meal, if you know what I mean." Jackson taps his temple as he says this.

[JNAProductions]

Dento looks at Cici, then says to you all "I'll monitor, but from a distance. I don't think I've interacted with the Xeres much, but I'm more well-known than any of you. They might turtle up if they catch wind of me being on their tail, whereas you two... Not so conspicuous. Which does lead me to you, my extradimensional friend-you stick out. Germany doesn't have too many aliens, from other planets or anywhere else, so it might be best if you aren't actively part of their group."

"You two also need to figure out your cover story-Jackson can credibly claim to be on a vacation, but you need a relation to him, Sorsiel," Dento instructs. "Preferably something that doesn't require you to have intimate knowledge of one another. As an idea, Jackson, you're not married, right? It's certainly not impossible you had some trysts when you were younger-and you've recently discovered Sorsiel is a formerly unknown to you daughter you have. You're taking her on vacation to get to know her better, and make up for lost time."

[WindStruck]

"Hey, that's a great idea! You seem really good at this," Sorsiel compliments.

"Hmm. Are you sure you couldn't come along? Maybe if we got you a hat or a wig and a mustache.. You could be my foster parent! Or um no, too personal? An uncle? Jackson's friend? Parole Officer? Uh.. okay, maybe not that one..."

[JNAProductions]

Dento shrugs. "I don't want to take risks. Besides which, I should probably see what I can dig up on the Xeres from my contacts still."

You make your way to a hotel, where Dento pays a little extra to get you checked in immediately. Once you get your stuff packed away, Jackson and Sorsiel head for Gutes Essen, a small restaurant about three miles from the hotel. It's bustling as the sun wanes in the sky, and you have to wait for ten minutes before you get seated. There's a pleasant outdoor table, next to some potted plants. A waiter approaches, and asks in German "Good evening, folks! What can I get for you to drink?" After a brief moment of silence, since neither of you understand German at the moment, he chuckles, muttering "Tourists," under his breath, and switches to English. "Good night, people! What can I get for you to drink?"

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel is dressed in a yellow halter top, a cute pastel-green short skirt, and some flip flops. Also sporting some sunglasses, she probably already looked the part of a tourist.

Wielding a little pocket translator in her hands, she says, "Good day! I will, uh... to buying... um. How are you?" in very broken German.

She sighs with relief as the waiter actually speaks English. It was weird how she could come from another dimension and know some of these people's language, but not a lot of the others.

She knew better than to even ask if they had Mapleade, since that was something not particular to Earth, so she had to think of some other drink commonly available. "Um, how about, some iced tea?"

[JNAProductions]

"Of course, ma'am," he says, writing down on his notepad. "And you, sir?" he asks of Jackson.

[gac3]

Jackson smiles and slides over an amount of money far more than their orders. "Club soda for me." He will then begin to scan the area for any members of the family we seek.

[JNAProductions]

"Right away, sir," the waiter says, and heads off to get your drinks.

Jackson scans the area, looking for any signs of the Xeres family. He doesn't spot anyone immediately, or even by the time the drinks arrive, but shortly after, while perusing the menu, he gets a text from Dento. Manager of Gutes Essen is a Xeres. See if you can get anything from them-but be careful.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

While the rest of the team is eating, Cici roams around seeking sustenance more suitable for his hyperactive metabolism - something more sweet and syrupy than most human palates tend to care for. Vending machines aren't as popular in Deutschland as the are in los Estados Unidos, but he finds one dispensing Phanta a few blocks away, making for an easier time avoiding attention than interacting with a convenience store.

Sodas in hand, he looks for an accessible rooftop from which to stake out the restaurant and the surrounding businesses. You never know when one of the suspects from Dento's picture album might turn up, nor when a random squad of goons might file into the alley.

Investigation (find a good vantage point): [roll0]
Athletics? (to climb up if the best spot requires): [roll1]
Stealth (avoid visibly breaking local Roof Laws): [roll2]
Perception (the actual stakeout part!): [roll3]

[gac3]

Jackson will begin searching the bar with his mind as he drinks his drink, trying to find a clue as to where the manager is.

He gives Sorsiel a signal they worked out on the plane for when they need a private chat. Any ideas about approaching the manager? I could always offer to buy the place but that might draw a little too much attention.

[JNAProductions]

While Jackson can locate many minds in the eatery, he can't really pinpoint which one is the manager's. He'd need to dig a bit deeper into the various minds, to see who's thinking about what, to have a chance.

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel keeps an eye out for one of those people in the pictures that Cici dug up, but it doesn't seem like any of them are here... Oh well. She was actually pretty hungry.

Next issue was trying to read this menu. "Oh, Bratwurst! That's the sausage thing right? What does that come with?"

She was asking the waiter this question, but she had an idea. No, she needed a messier food! "Ah, I'm sorry. Is there any pasta on this menu?"

They might have needed some time to look at the menu and order.

[JNAProductions]

The waiter helps you translate, and there is indeed pasta on the menu. It's not a specialty of this place, but they serve a wide variety of foods.

[WindStruck]

Sorsiel just orders whatever looks good. She might not make a scene after all. And seeing as the waiter was helpful in translating, that would be some good praise to speak of later.