The best solution to many problems is "Bullets". However, I will admit that this is a rare exception: the best solution is "Bullet", singular.
And then fleeing.
You shoot the policeman - community support officer rather - and make your escape. Doing so is getting harder and harder, and it takes almost half an hour of running and hiding before you're completely confident that you've shaken them off. Still, you have the assorted "drugs" - though come to think of it, most of them are probably prophylactics or laxatives of some sort rather than real good stuff.
(Sorry about the wall of text. It's what happens when I have too much time to plan. ;-p)
There is never too much time to plan. Well, I guess that there could be a few corner cases, but saying "almost never" kind of ruins the effect, no?
Call Vince and tell him about the giant slug (and what we've found out about it). Ask him what we should do about it- should we kill it, mesmerize it (with my mesmerization spell), befriend it, follow it, send it back into space, what?
Can I assume that Nanami has told me about the mind-control-y effects of channeling puissance into the space rocks? Did she need to invest a puissant clot into her space rock in order to be able to do that?
Vince replies that all of those things are good if they profit the Coven or at least don't get in the way. If it's going for the thing you need, you're going to have to kill it or get it out the way somehow.
You can't assume that, according to Dev. She didn't need a clot (ooc info there).
"Landed in the canal. I'm pretty sure I killed the thing, or at least fucked up it's body. I put the magic energy into this broom and pawned off some bits of rock. If you want those I could show you who to murder. Or I could just show you where the thing fell."
Do a shitting BARREL ROLL.
"You cannot kill what is not living. And what I seek has not a body, strange one. Perhaps you vanquished and bespoiled Them of Us that moves in the mind and is carried by the body? Glad tidings, though it would have posed little threat. Have you knowledge of the Leviathan, the sluggish great one of the body that moves with greed and without thought? I desire it finished, that the star may be mine alone. You might be rewarded greatly for aid in such a venture."
Agility: 4+2
You do something that might be called a barrel roll, but is really just a forwards loop performed while corkscrewing faster than the eye can follow. Not that it matters, as nobody on the ground can even see you at this speed. The target dots lose track for a second, then snap back onto you as you resume flying in circles. Dodging this thing would be bloody dangerous, but possible, especially if someone were distracting it.
Ask for directions to the necromancer that could make me into a lich then go there. Do I need my phylactery to be able to physically eat or be used for eating or just magicaly draining substenance is possible (Like a wand or any kind of ranged weapon)? I want to know if I could use the knife on the end of my flying mop as a phylactery and just stab my enemies from afar while the knife magically drains their blood or life energy without me having to drink the blood. Like some sort of sentient magical vampiric spear-mop of flying.
You go to the place recommended, a sleazy venue squeezed between the nightclub-filled Soho and festive Chinatown. You bow to several bearded golden serpents coiling above the rooftops and hissing cordial greetings, and turn down an invitation to a gay lycanthrope bar. Neighboured by a massage parlour run by some six-armed imp and a perfectly normal dumpling counter, you walk up to a second flaw apartment completely filled with skeletons.
It's something of a surprise. It's just a lot more skeletons than you were expecting. About three hundred all told, spread through a bedroom and a kitchen. Mostly hung from ceiling and walls, or piled on the floor among the occasional book or power tool. A guy in scruffy but ornate robes stands in the middle, doing some dental work on a disembodied skull. He finishes as you come in, and both people look round, the skull clacking its new diamond-edged dentures appreciatively.
"Thanks Frank. Always a pleasure. No, it's fine, I'll bill the company. Special discount anyway. Love your work. Totally thinking of employing you guys when I get my own crypt. If the diamond chips, come back to me or see a jeweller."
The skeleton levitates from the table, nods to you (a disconcerting experience), and floats out.
"Sooo... what can I do for
you, my... medical friend?"
The phylactery needs to be capable of some kind of consumption: can't really be ranged. The victim has to put something in, be it a body part, attention, interest, whatever. A knife on the end of a broom would do. It would feed on impaled hearts or something, basically death-energies. You probably want to have a strong blade and tie it to the broom with something a bit stronger than duct tape, given that this thing will become an important part of you. And the guy will lich you if you like, on the understanding that the Coven will send some business his way if they can.
Of course it's the same canal. Now I gotta go talk to the river spirit again, apologize and get it to show me what's up. And figure out how to work underwater.
(As per lockpicks, sometimes I might want to break into somewhere and not make it blatantly obvious the place has been broken into.)
Since she isn't into Nanami, better leverage will be to come from another direction. This meeting is going to be about business. The goal is to talk her out of the money, or force it out of her in some way, along with getting enough background for the last step, which involves handing the stolen info to the CEO, along with a note claiming that the money manager was stealing for years, and this is the CEOs cut, should he not reveal her fraud.
Pick one of three currently-ongoing crises in the world to sell her on Nanami needing the money for: Rohngyas arriving in Bangladesh, civilians in Mindanao, (from the religious violence and insurgants) and displaced villagers in China or Southeast Asia, due to economic development. Pick one that isn't being aided by the charity currently. All three of these have immediate reasons for support now.. The Bangladeshis are cash-strapped and overwhelmed by numbers, Mindanao is currently going through an intense phase of combat, and the current Party Congress in China makes this a very important time to make a difference, as some projects are on momentary halts, and new officials are being named.
Nanami needs the money to be available in the next day or so, in a form that is usable, including instructions on how to redeem the money safely; she isn't going to take no for an answer.
The basic idea is to just talk her into it. Between the charisma boost, increased time and exposure, and a couple uses of the rock, she might be forced into complying. If so, great, nothing extreme needs to be done. Set up a lunch tomorrow to get the info from her, then proceed with step 3.
If it requires more persuasion, (faking being an angel, revealing being a magical being, tuning the illusion further, essentially kidnapping her via mind control, conducting a home invasion, etcetera), Nanami will do it anyway, it's an important mission. Hopefully something that extreme won't be required.
After it's done, if successful the plan is to get the info, remove the money manager from the office, (lunch appointment, say), kill her with the crystallization spell, pinch her wallet and phone, dumping the body/crystals somewhere. After that give the info to the CEO, by ducking in when the CEO isn't present (so as to not interact with him), while disguised as the money manager, along with the information on how to redeem it and a text file with the note about the thievery. If this requires doing it after hours after cleaning up the loose ends, so be it. That should complete the mission.
As for Nanami's cut, if all that goes okay, go to the money manager's home, kill her immediate family, (crystallization spells, and disguised as her), dispose of the bodies via bagging the crystals in a trash bag and dumping them, steal everything small and easily sellable, and use the money manager's credit/ATM card near a train station, also while disguised as her. If I couldn't grab her ATM code earlier, it's not that big of a deal.
Without bodies the police will have a very difficult time proving that everyone didn't escape into a life of riches, and so the CEO will have a great explanation for the missing money.
(Sorry about the wall of text. It's what happens when I have too much time to plan. ;-p)
You manage to convince the manager that your cause needs money, choosing the Mindanao crisis as a pretext, and when brute-force doesn't work, guilt-trip her into doing it. You tap into some deep psychological issues revolving around whether she is jusitified in taking a salary from the charity and whether they use the money properly, and by the end of the dinner she's broken down into tears. Even after that it takes a while to make her set up the lunch appointment. Annoyingly strong-willed, this woman... possibly some magical blood.
Prac: 6+2
While she still has concerns at lunch the next day, you get access to the money, her ATM number, and her housekeys. After repeatedly firing the crystal wand spell into her head, you take her out to the park to die, the crystals forming in the skull. You toss the body down a manhole cover, a few treants watching you disapprovingly but saying nothing. In the middle of this, Dave calls, which is decidedly awkward at that moment. Apparently your online popularity is decreasing as no new content has gone up for a while.
Prac: 1+2
You get into the office, disguised as her, and type up the note offering the CEO the money before slipping it onto his desk. But apparently you screwed up somewhere. Maybe the instructions weren't clear enough. Maybe he's just a paranoid guy. Perhaps he didn't understand why he would be offered a cut when he didn't know about the thefts, or couldn't see where she'd been skimming from. As you wait around near his office in yet another disguise, through the glass door you catch a glimpse of him phoning someone frantically. From the pickup speed, it's the police.
You hear Amdukia's voice crackle on the nearest intercom. "Not good. He acts from self-interest, there's still a chance. Fix this. Or suffer."
There are a couple of options here. You could create an illusion, or even hit him with a missile from here. Alternately, you're right next to the phone line going out of his office. The most likely course of action would be to get him away from the police, and change the situation so he believes he could get away with the theft.
Bob Howard
Puissant fettle - 1
Ritual potency - 1
Runic sight - 1
Banal combat - 0
Practicality - 3
Inventory: £50, 1d20
{Certificate from Belial; Valid for one Potent Medium}
Puissance: 5/5
Puissant Clots: 2
Name: Nanami Adachi. (Nanami)
Unnatural beauty granted by demonic contract and the adoration of mortals. Slight charisma/popularity boost.
Power from mortal media.
Can create illusions.
Conscripted into twenty-nineth legion of Amdukias.
Puissance: 2 +1 not from Amdukias
Ritual: 0
Runic Sight: 0
Banal Combat: 0
Aim: 1
Melee: 0
Agility: 1
Praticality: 2
Inventory: £245
Backpack, expensive camera + memory cards
Quality sketching paper, art pens+pencils, charcoal, etc.
Sketches of self as main character, Amdukias, the non-mortal world, etc.
[Glass Rod Crystal Wand] - Enhanced slightly through media
Mediocre Pistol (4/6)
Large, fist-sized mind-controlling spacerock fragments.
Painting supplies, a glass cutter, battery powdered soldering iron, eighty feet of red cloth, white rag and thread
Puissance: 13/13
Puissant Clots: 2
Goethe T. Helle
Puissant fettle - 1
Ritual potency - 2
Runic sight - 1
Banal combat - 0
Aim - 1
Melee - 0
Agility - 2
Practicality - 1
Inventory: £20, clockface minus one hand, highlighter pens, two kitchen knives, half-empty cologne bottle
From the beast: one bone,
Italian Dinner suit, stored at Vince's place.
[Dog Collar Pendant][Molasses Clockhand Wand]
[Icecream Beast Blood Fur Chalice][Beast Remains Wand]
Runes:
Isolation: you never had many friends or allies, so are used to poor odds. +1 to rolls when outnumbered and alone.
Stoicism: a rune that calms those dealing with shock, tragedy or injury.
Perseverance: despite all the odds, you managed to kill a huge beast using nothing but hot syrup. Bonus to attack and extra damage to powerful or resistant enemies after several turns of combat or aggression.
Dwarven Weapon Storage: learned from a dwarf carrying a small armoury on his back. Increases load of weapons and tools that can be borne without being hampered or slowed down, or collapsing outright.
Ruination: when written, it makes a bad situation worse, and an irretrievable one more so. Learned after the second mission.
Puissant clots: 1
Puissance: 5/6
Name: Sir Worthington the Fourth
Has a demonic leg. Old leg is in possession of monarchs of hell.
Enslaved young man under demonic contract, wields katana, wears combat pants + green sweatshirt.
Stats: Ritual Potency: 3
Practicality 3
Inventory: £25, Pint of royal blood (stored at Vince's), blood covered knife, Cursed String
Stored at Vince's place: mortal's tendons, skull and leg bones.
[Glass Eye Pendant] [Paintbrush Wand]
[Toad Demon Battery Acid Tupperware Chalice]
Shards of mind-controlling spacerock.
Beginner's Pyromancy Flame - Heal Burn (1P), Create Flame (1P), Flame Claw (3P), Mesmerising Flame (2P)
One shot, recharging: Chaos Insect Swarm
Wears tinfoil hat.
Puissant Clots: 0
Puissance: 5/5
Jimmy "Car bombs" Castanza
Slightly slowed by a heavy load.
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 3
Banal combat - 1
Aim - 1
Melee - 0
Agility - 0
Practicality - 3
Inventory: £20, very rusty saw, length of pipe stuck to block of concrete, highlighter pen
[Lightbulb Antenna Wand]
[Broom - TIER 3] - Bike handles for steering.
[Omni-tool]
Milk Bottle full of space-warping venom.
Glock 17 (7/10)
Runes:
Detonation: volatile stuff explodes or catches fire more when you're around it. You can't help it, it must be genetic. Written rune used to detonate volatile substances.
Dead Man Running: you escaped the wrath of a mafia boss. Higher chance of surviving things that should really be deadly.
Mafioso: a mafia hitman, you preferred not to let your targets know they were hunted until after they were spread over an area of three hundred metres. Bonus to carefully planned unexpected attacks.
Alchemical (definitely idiot) savant: you saw an alchemist's shop when wandering around London, and deluded yourself that you understood something of how it worked. Because of the nature of magic, this belief is now partially true. Use this rune to make substances a bit more useful or volatile when used in alchemy.
Trader: a rune that when signed signifies to people that you'd be a good guy to buy from and sell things to.
Reticence: a rune whispered to you by birds perched on phone lines, you can get information without giving away much about yourself.
Bethel: a rune that enhances and aids summoning performed where it is written.
Degeneration: you saw men turned into animals. This rune turns advanced things like steel bolts into crappy primitive things, like wooden bolts.
Entrance: a god tried to break into our world. You now have a +2 in breaking into magic places you shouldn't be messing about with.
Hiijacking: Sand crashed a summoning-party and inserted herself into the centre of the ritual. Things with this rune written on will be more central to events and will conduct more power and magical energy than they should by rights.
Hassle: a rune that allows you to deal more effectively with multiple threats, distractions and tasks at once.
Scrap-crafting: after making a wand with bicycle horns, you have improved at making stuff out of junk. And you were already great at making stuff out of junk.
Oligarchy: a rune revealed to you the first time you flew over London, spelled out in the twistings of the financial buildings and the houses of millionares. Increases your power according to how much money you have.
Punctuality: You're good at getting things done on time.
Puissant clots: 1
Puissance:5/5
Ben Breeze
Stats:
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 0
Banal combat - 5
Aim - 1
Melee - 1
Agility - 2
Practicality - 0
Inventory: knife, 2xtaser, handcuffs, police baton, stab vest, torch, incapacitant spray, and a first aid kit. All in sports bag.
Also a bag of athames, 2.5 legs War Bacon (Vince's Fridge), a worn face-concealing hooded coat, bin bags.
Concealed: knife in one boot, knife on a leg, and one on his torso.
Two generous Roast Beef and Horseradish Sandwiches
Two bin bags of assorted pills from pharmacy.
£20
Set of keys and passcard
Gunfarmer P90 (0/50) (in bag)
FN Minimi light machine gun, 2 magazines
Puissant clots: 4
Puissance:5/5
Steve
Banal combat - 3
Agility - 3
Inventory: £50
Rusty, shard curved sword
Puissance: 5/5,
Clots:3
Name: Bella, the Speed Witch
Runic sight: 2
Banal Combat: 2
Melee 1
Agility 2
Inventory: £0,
Delicate Rune-engraved Machete: heavy bonus when facing multiple weaker victims. Likely to break on misshits/heavy armour.
Benflesh Bullet
[Tier Four Racing Broom]
Runes:
Speed lover: +1 to doing anything while moving faster than you need to. Does not prevent (but can negate) maluses from trying to do things while moving faster than is sensible.
Slaughter: enhances speed and efficiency of murder when facing many opponents/victims. Passive boost, but can be written on things.
Broom Dodging: makes you better at dodging things while on a broom.
[Sub Nosed Glock Wand] 9/9
Nascent Pyromancy Flame: Create Flame 1P
Puissance: 5/5
Clots:0
Name: Aisha Kassem
Ritual - 1
Runic sight - 2
Practicality - 3
Runes
Intoxication: a rune that can be muttered over an alchemical procedure, bring out the hallucinogenic and mood-altering qualities of the product.
Improvisation: passive, improves lab work/alchemy in unusual conditions, using odd or dubious ingredients or tools.
Griffon Roar: makes something or someone more intimidating and more visible when written.
Biotechnical: passive rune, boost to integrating organics with technology.
Psychologist: a rune letting you see people's motivations, triggers, interests, personalities, etc. more clearly.
Inventory: £43, Certificate from Belial (valid for one sample of occult substance)
Cheap backpack, four bottles:
River water, crocuses, rose petals, peonies, blades of grass, stagnant pond water, sticks, charcoal, rain water.
Also three cans, six lengths of rubber tubing, two copper pipes, a broken coffee machine, a mostly empty lighter and a teapot.
One rubber tubing, copper pipe, teapot and coffee machine set up as Distillator in Vince's garage.
{Potion of fleshly regeneration - One Dose}
Puissant Clots: 2
Puissance: 5/5
Name: Zamenis Paean
Puissant fettle: 3
Agility: 2
Aim: 2
Inventory: £5, Certificate from Belial (valid for one sample of occult substance)
Duct tape, Large Knife, knife.
Surgical tools: scalpel, a first aid kit, a saw, and tweezers.
[Tier 1 Broom, knife on end]
[Human Leg Wand]
Puissant Clots: 1
Puissance: 14/14
Author
Topic: COVEN: Gulled Goldsmiths and Lost Locomotives (Read 153711 times)