MERC XVIII: Affordable Misdeeds and Friendly Canines

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Dena's Office]

"Hmm. Tell me, Miss Xifhara, if you were a paranoid individual and you went to a meeting arranged by someone you'd just tried to kill, would you leave yourself exposed? I suspect anything I tried to arrange would put him on the alert and make MERC's job much harder." Affy sighs and rolls his cane back and forth between his hands, "I suppose I should also clarify. I can provide directions. I can observe. I can track his movements quite well if he ever leaves his facility - and I would not ask MERC to go in there. If he decided to simply sit on his hands at home, the contract would go unfulfilled but I would hold nothing against you. And you would, of course, still be entitled to the retainer fee to avoid taking any work from him. The actual staging of the ambush I would prefer to leave up to whomever you assign to the task. Does that sound agreeable?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Dena's Office]

"I would expect nothing less and we will try to prepare for as many eventualities that we can think of and our resources can cover." Dena promises. "But that sounds agreeable to me, though I would have to check with the others before I can guarantee putting anyone on the ban-list. Shutting out potential clients is the one thing we have a hard time doing as a company as you probably understand."

[Morty]

[Main Room]

A while later, MERC's less than imposing chief executive appears.

"A paper passed my desk about how someone brought a bag of severed heads as a resume...? This sounds like a situation requiring a personal opinion."

[Hattish Thing]

[Main Room]

Arbrim glances up at this point, setting the curious technological device he'd been tinkering with to the side. The enormous man rises at this point, causing the chair he'd been occupying to creak and screech, its shape having been warped due to the sheer size and bulk of the man.

Confidently, he offers his enormous cybernetic hand to the goblin.

"You must be Dipsnig."

"Arbrim. Pleased to meet yer acquaintance."

[Zefir]

[Main Room]

Fade stands up as well, obviously to slow to introduce them by himself, but that doesn't really bug him.

"Yes," he answeres Dipsnig. "It is that man who just introduced himself. "I'm sure those resumes present some kind of skill, but I thought we are not going for this unless nessesary to survive."

[Morty]

[Moonwell Investigation]

Dipsnig shrugs.

"This mountain range is pretty big. There's many places a magic well could be skittered away in. We could use Rilla's equipment to pick up any strong concentrations of magic power. That might point us in the right direction."

[Main Room]

Dipsnig takes the offered hand, but his expression is sceptical. If he's in any way discomfited about the skulls on his floor, he's not showing it.

"Yes and no. We do take a careful approach to jobs that have us kill people, but the skills required to track them down in the first place are still in demand. And I recognize some of those. Bounties posted around the Nexus."

[Hattish Thing]

[Main Room]

The bounty-hunter nods respectfully to Dipsnig as they greet, before pulling away and clasping his hands together once more. After the goblin finishes his sentence, Arbrim begins chuckling enthusiastically as he offers the sack a hearty nudge, exposing several more of the claimed bounties.

He clears his throat before continuing.

"Was just talking to yer man about a job."

"Hear this is the place."

[Zefir]

[Main Room]

fade remains silent for this. There is nothing to add especially since it's Dipsni's decisssion. The fact that he appears emotionless makes it hard to read Fade , too.
For now he wants to hear if the heads are enougth resume to immediatly become a member or not.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Moonwell Investigation]

Electra nods.

"I'll try it and see, but we should probably have Rilla look, just in case." Electra closes her eyes and focuses on the memory of the vision, the point just before she and Astrana teleported away from HQ to the Moonwell. In the memory, she tries to look inside her own head, to her internal HUD, which should show the co-ordinates a moment before they teleport, if Astrana's theory is correct.


[An Epic Quest]

Corvus simply follows along and stays out of the way. Willa's magic is different than his own, and he's curious to see more of it in action.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Dena's Office]

"Is that likely to be an issue?" Affy asks, leaning forward a little, looking for any tell as to whether it would or wouldn't be a problem. "If necessary, I could be persuaded to offer something a little more substantial to secure your refusal of his business. Money is of little concern to you, I imagine, but technology, information, resources...perhaps might be a little more valuable?" He offers, briefly letting one hand go semi-transparent as a little reminder that she's talking to a hologram with a physical presence right now. Still looking for any reaction she might give, he continues, "Bearing in mind that I imposed a strict time limit on him, a swift decision would be preferable if possible. Is it a decision you could perhaps make without consulting with the others, given the right circumstances?" Does she need to ask them, or would it just be good manners to ask them?

[Morty]

[Main Room]

"We do offer jobs for mercenaries, bounty-hunters and problem-solvers of all stripes, yes," Dipsnig says. "Either a license or a full membership. But since you chose to prove your worth this way, I assume you're after more than a license."

[Hattish Thing]

[Main Room]

Arbrim nods and chuckles darkly before glancing over to the sack, coughing and wheezing halfway through, a violent sort of cough which causes specks of blood to appear at his tattered bandanna. The enormous figure appears to take no note of the coughing of blood, and continues as if nothing had happened.

"Right you are."

"Plannin' on going legit, as it were."

[Shadowcaller]

[Dena's Office]

Dena does pay attention, but the only reaction she shows is a polite smile. "It's really just a formality at this point, sir. I know I can make the others see it your way." She was sleeping with one of them and Dipsnig wouldn't be that hard to convince either. "You won't have to worry about it, considering the time limit and all. Especially considering your generous offer... which we can work out afterwards."

[Moonwell Investigation]

Well, being able to do that is especially helpful.

This means Electra can see the exact coordinates to where she was going in the vision. Curiously enough, it isn't actually too far from here. The moon well might in fact be located on the same mountain, or at least the same mountain chain, as MERC.
"Any aid Rilla could provide would be welcome, but remember that we're working against the clock here so whatever you do, hurry. Otherwise we're going to call that bluff wherever we like it or not."

[Morty]

[Moonwell Investigation]

Dipsnig's ears twitch.

"Simply detecting large quantities of magic can be done on short notice. If Electra can see what she saw in the vision, this should be enough to determine which concentration to head for."

[Main Room]

Dipsnig's face remains professionally blank, but his eyes narrow slightly.

"Your skills as a bounty hunter are undeniable," he says. "But if you're going to be our member, your actions will reflect on us. Are you willing to perform less violent assignments?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Moonwell Investigation]

Electra opens her eyes after a moment, and studies the aforementioned area on her HUD. She only catches the last bit of what Dipsnig is saying as her attention refocuses on reality.

"Well, Astrana's little trick worked. I know exactly what the co-ordinates are. It's practically in our back yard. I'm not sure how to feel about that, but I guess I don't really have the luxury of worrying about it, either. Got a map of this general area, boss? I'll mark it for you."

[Hattish Thing]

Main Room:

Arbrim nods, resting his hands upon his hips as he leans back. "'Course."

"No score too big, no job too small."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Dena's Office]

"Excellent. It sounds like we have an agreement then." Affy smiles in turn, though his doesn't have the same politeness to it.

One could almost imagine him rubbing his hands together gleefully.

It might all be unnecessary. Indeed, it'd be nice if it was all unnecessary. But it's good to be prepared.

"If it's something you reckon you can resolve quickly, should I perhaps wait in the lobby? I suppose I can leave contact details if necessary..." He'd rather not though. He'd obviously rather not.

[Shadowcaller]

[Moonwell Investigation]

Astrana nods at Electra, then there wouldn't be any problems finding it at least. "But remember that the moonwells are not in themselves connected to this being, it just needs them for some purpose we've yet been able to grasp. I doubt its anything good though."

[Dena's Office]

Maybe MERC should have a "no obvious villains" rule too. "As I said, I'm confident in this. We could sign the contract right away if you wish. However, there is the issue of payment. If you give us no contact information, I assume we're supposed to solve it in a different way? We must have forms of guarantee after all."

[Morty]

[Main Room]

"If you're going to be our member, rather than a license-holder, you'll have to uphold our reputation," Dipsnig says. "So while I can appreciate a man willing to make his point directly, severed heads send something of a wrong message. You're going to have to keep that in mind."

[Moonwell Investigation]

Dipsnig groans as he reaches for a map and gives it to Electra.

"So whatever magical weirdness results from this nonsense is going to be right under our noses," he says. "Wonderful. We'll just have to deal with that."

[Hattish Thing]

[Main Room]

Arbrim shrugs, raising his hands up in a somewhat jovial gesture.

"Yeah. Yeah, I get it."

--

His eyes narrow before he rubs his hands together.

"While we're on the subject..."

"What sorta reputation would that be?"

[Morty]

[Main Room]

"Once bought, we stay bought," Dipsnig explains, adopting a more formal tone. "We stick by our employers unless they breach contracts first. We don't work with slavers, period. Other clients may have to be vetted, but it's rare that we turn anyone away, if they can pay. We take bounties, with other... targeted jobs being on a case by case basis."

[Hattish Thing]

[Main Room]

Arbrim nods, taking no objection to the terms stated.

"Sounds good to me."

[Morty]

[Main Room]

Dipsnig's ears dip slightly in thought. Oh well. He's dealt with particularly morbid people before and he'll do it again. They're useful, with proper supervision.

"Alright then. There's some more paperwork to file, and then you'll be a proper MERC member. Fade can fill you in on any other questions you might have."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Moonwell Investigation]

Electra takes a brief moment to orient her HUD's map with the one Dipsnig produces, before marking the moonwell site's location with a pen she nabs off of the boss's desk.

"Unfortunately. Maybe we can spin it as a way for VIGIL to study whatever Shanti did to the one near there base, though, in exchange for some extra security, or...something."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Dena's Office]

"Payment, yes. Sorry, I'm getting a little ahead of myself, aren't I? The joys of working to a strict deadline." Affy lets out a quiet chuckle, shaking his head. Strange that, of all things, he'd be so short on patience now.

...but then he is insisting on this strict schedule.

"I'd prefer to automate things wherever possible. Regular payments until such time as the kidnapping becomes an active request instead of just sitting on your books. But of course you still need a way to contact me for your own security, and to present the final bill afterwards." And to pass the kidnapee on, of course. Affy shrugs, and leans over to scribble a phone number down. "Will that suffice?"

[Hattish Thing]

[Main Room]

Arbrim chuckles a little as Dipsnig continues, a sick and unsettling sound.

"Good stuff."

[Shadowcaller]

[Moonwell Investigation]

The warlock nods. "It's possible, I can certainly give credence to such claims. But let's discuss that after we've done this now that we've decided to do the ritual. I will need to find out more about this untainted moonwell first to be able to compare it to the tainted one either way."

[Dena's Office]

Dena accepts the scribbled note and nods. "That should suffice, yeah. I'll send the full contract to this number once I worked it out, which shouldn't take longer than an hour. All you need to do is print it out and sign it, though consider your situation, an electronic signature will do too. Is that alright?"

[Zefir]

[Main Room]

Fade just nods as he was mentioned. He waits for any questions.

[Morty]

[Moonwell Investigation]

"Just do what you have to and we'll worry about explaining ourselves later," Dipsnig says, reluctantly. "As far as excuses go, 'blackmailed by a snake-deity' isn't a bad one."

[Main Room]

Dipsnig departs, leaving Fade to handle any further questions.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Moonwell Investigation]

Electra nods and looks to Astrana.

"Well, then, let's get the things we need and head out there. The sooner this is done, the better."