Session started at 7:15 pm on 10/10/06
Attending players: Ben, Sarah, and Eva
Presiding GM: Aaron
So now it sounds like we need to track down this Nikki kid.
Ajax says the records he pulled show two kids from '61 that might be Nikki: a Nicholas Redford Harrington and a Nicole Raven Naeve. Both were accepted into the University of Washington - Seattle. Ajax turns up Nicholas' dorm room number in the public student records, but doesn't find anything on Nicole. The last trace he sees of her is about two years old.
The doctor says if either of them has the trace of Emerald's true name she can read it from their aura. Since we know where Nicolas is we start by heading over to his dorm. Ajax says that Nicholas has a job at the front desk of the dorm.
As we pull into the tiny dorm parking lot Ajax doubles up coughing violently. He had been looking a little bit under the weather, but I assumed it was just the stress. The doctor thinks it might be bronchitis or the flu or an allergic reaction... She says he's not in any immediate danger and gives him a cough drop to suck on. He says he's not feeling up to talking to everyone right this moment... so this should be fun then.
The doctor goes in and waits around in the lobby on the pretense of being a parent who's meeting their kid who lives there. She says that Nicholas doesn't have the traces, but we still need to find out if he knows anything helpful.
The doctor can't very well start interrogating him, so I step inside to talk to him. I don't bother lying, just ask about the incident. He's pretty helpful after I pay him (50 NY). He says that Nicole Naeve is the one who summoned Emerald. Nicole apparently came to school with him but dropped out and disappeared two years go. He thinks she was getting hooked on something and probably joined the Ethlel's, who are part of the Ancients street gang. I thank him and get out before the doctor totally screws any pretense of cover.
("Yay! Kitten huffing for everybody!"
~ Eva)B says that the Ancients are a local, all elf, street gang. Fun. I didn't realize Nicole was an elf.
Between violent bouts of coughing, Ajax is able to tell us that the Seattle Ancients hail from the crummy part of Renton. Ajax suggests a bar called Laethle. He's seeing a lot of references to it when he looks for info on the Seattle branch of the Ancients. B says Laethle means Memories. We head to Renton to check it out.
("Are we borrowing Michael's car?"
~ Sarah [really meaning Ajax's car]
"Is he here to say no?"
~ Eva)It's a biker bar. Full of elves. Weird combination. They seemed kinda pissed that the doctor and I are invading their domain. B decides to pretend he doesn't know us.
B's talking to some Ancients over at the bar and there are some "friendly" folks coming over to bother the doctor and I. Lovely. They're loud and obnoxious. We need to be in here in case B needs backup so I fend them off with some loud words and various dodges. I don't want to start an all out fight since B needs calm for talking. The doctor isn't very comfortable, but I'm not too worried about her.
The audio link I'm getting suggests that B is getting what he needs, after 200 NY worth of bribes grease the wheels. At this rate we are going to make nothing on the damn job. I guess it beats spending weeks in the hospital because we lost out on brute force via numbers...
"Well she was a chiphead, so we sold her."
~ Ancients' ganger, telling B about NicoleApparently they sold her off to a meat-puppet parlor. He gets the address. It's in Everett. B gets confirmation that Emerald probably hired the local Ancients to kidnap Nicole... That's pretty damn disgusting considering she's the closest thing Emerald has to a family. All to hide her damn name.
I managed to extricate the doctor and myself from the friendlies. I only have to knock out one ganger, I'm working on my discretion.
The address of the parlor they sold her two is down on the docks. It's got some chinese name that I didn't catch from B. It sounds like the general high traffic in the area is what makes it good for that sort of place. The sign at the address labels it as "The Barber's Closet". Lovely. I have no idea what horrible insinuations I'm supposed to get out of that.
Ajax claims the cough drop is helping, but he is still coughing badly. The doctor decrees that he will stay in the car to back us up electronically.
There's a blurry eyed orc behind the counter when we enter the lobby. We ask for Nikki but apparently they mark their puppets by numbers. Ajax manages to dig out her class picture from '61. The orc can barely get the concept of aging and old photo's in his current state of brainless, but eventually we get our point across. He claims that Nikki is "currently booked up until tomorrow".
After some relatively ineffectual bargaining, we fork over 470 NY in fees and bribes for "two or three hours" of Nikki's time. The orc honors us with a smirk full of yellowed teeth and gestures to the icons which pop up, directing us down the hall to "our room".
She's sitting up on a dirty bed, naked. She's chained and wired to the wall, just awaken enough to say in a sickly chipper voice, "Welcome, who can I be for you today?" It's pretty damn disgusting that anyone could want to be with a woman like this. Animals intended for slaughter are treated with more dignity where I come from.
The doctor says that she's in really bad shape. She's on some nasty stuff. Between the cyberware and addiction she's barely human anymore. The doctor's got the trace of Emerald's true name now, but wants to break the girl out. She says she's more comfortable with the banishment if we save Nikki.
I know the doctor has been really conflicted with this job, so I for one am willing to take her bargain. I'm kind of sickened by this myself. The waste of a talented young mind just because a spirit is too weak to protect herself in a humane way is unforgivable and stupid. Even killing Nikki would have been better.
The doctor mentions that when we disconnect Nikki from the BTL feed she'll probably be a bit loud and deranged for a while until she can cope with this world again. Since it's the most gentle way to keep her quiet, the doctor stun-bolts her. She slumps over and is silent.
The chain that attaches her to the floor is pretty sturdy. B thinks he can break it with a but of gunfire, but we are going to have to move fast after that. I pick the girl up and move about two meters away, the range of the chain. He shoots. I kick the door open and run. I catch glimpses of two doberman drones, one in either direction down the hall. I start sprinting towards the outside door. I'll deal with the drone when I get to it.
I hear B's gun screaming behind me and the doberman in front of me explodes in a heap of sparks. Hopefully he can get the doctor out okay. I'm focusing on getting Nikki to the car.
The remaining doberman opens up and B goes down with stick and shock electrocution. Shit. The doctor is helping him, but I don't know how well he'll be able to function. She gets him conscious and he manages to pull himself up on an elbow and take out the other doberman with a few bursts. When he tries to get up he falls and it looks like he twisted his ankle. The doctor helps him limp to the door. Where Ajax has the car waiting.
We all bail into the car and get the hell away from the scene of the crime.
The doctor gets Nikki awake again. The screaming passes pretty quickly. Within a half hour we're able to drop her off at a good charity rehab clinic with a 500 NY in donation. The doctor instructs the nurse on call that once Nikki's clean they should contact her parents (Ajax pulled their info from the school files).
B finds us a safe house. It's got thick walls and good strong window bars. It makes me feel a bit better about the fact that we probably just pissed off one of the Chinese syndicates. Well that shouldn't come around again for a least a few weeks.
The doctor will be able to create what she calls a spirit formula now. I'm sort of gathering this is what we needed the true name for, so she could make this formula thing and use it to banish Emerald. In order to know if she's succeeded in the banishment, the doctor needs to know how powerful Emerald is. There's some magical measure of a spirit's power, I'm not entirely following her explanation.
Anyway, so we still have to get the doctor into visual range of Emerald so that she can gauge her power. Then we either have to beat her into submission or the doctor has to banish the crap out of her. Once she's gone, we destroy the formula and there's a chance she's gone for good... but the only way to know is to wait and see if she comes back. Not what I'd call a good situation, but oh well.
End of Session