Session started at 6:46 pm on 10/17/06
Attending players: Michael, Ben, Sarah, and Eva
Presiding GM: Aaron
Ajax is feeling a bit better. We're still in the safe house and trying to come up with a plan for how we are going to see Emerald so the doctor can figure out her force rating. The doctor says that she can finish almost all of the spirit formula, but once she does the last bit, Emerald will know immediately that the doctor made it, who she is, and where she and the formula are. That's rather exciting. On the up side, the doctor can also summon her with the spirit formula and then we can beat the shit out of her.
Anyway, Ajax and the doctor are hatching a plot for how to figure out when Emerald will be present in a public situation where we can watch her.
(We apparently stole the meat puppet from a triad group known as the 88's. Ajax learns this via data search.)
"I think that's a ground rule for life, man. If someone's pointing a rifle at you, duck."
~ AjaxAjax turns up a event where the candidate is addressing a large union in a public park on Tuesday. Ajax calls the guy's campaign office and pretends to be a reporter doing a piece on the candidate and his staff trying to set up an appointment for an interview with Emerald. They say they'll have her secretary call him back.
("How's the soy pizza?"
~ Michael
"It's soy-lishious."
~ Aaron
"Can you spell soy pizza?"
~ Sarah)It's Monday, Sept. 22, 2070.
We wait for Tuesday or a callback. In the mean time Ajax figures out where Emerald's boyfriend lives. He's a research mage who does thaumaturgical research for the city, so basically a glorified mage librarian. Ajax says that he's taken out some very long term investments, that wouldn't be reasonable if he was living a normal life-span. He's also got the rest of the week after Tuesday off... and is going up to some park near Mt. Rainier. I think Ajax turned up campsite registrations or something. I'm not always clear on how he reaches his state of semi-magical information getting.
The doctor and Ajax seem to think that Emerald and the boyfriend have some sort of karma pact. I don't quite understand. Ajax says there is a pact that lets you live forever... that would explain the investments. The doctor says that if that's true, Emerald will have placed a copy of her spirit formula in the boyfriend.... and no other copy of the spirit formula will affect her as long as he's alive. Lovely.
So now our plan has taken a violent 90 degree turn. We have to kidnap and kill the boyfriend. Ajax also noticed that there is a contract out on the boyfriend. Argh! Could this get any more complicated?!
So, we have a lot of exciting options about how to handle this... kidnap the boyfriend, kill the boyfriend outright and let the doctor make a new formula, tell the mob where to find the boyfriend and wait. Yuck. We spend some time talking about what's preferable and how to not piss off any more powerful people. It seems like the mob, who took out the contract, has written this guy off, so they shouldn't be too pissed as long as bad things happen to him.
Ajax says the contract is only 8000 NY, but we're getting paid a lousy 12000 NY for this fiasco I think. I don't suppose we'll manage to get a double payday, that would be far to nice.
"Don't farm out shooting your dog if you can do it yourself. My grandmother used to say that all the time, 'cause she had a lot of dogs."
~ Ajax"So did they sign up for a mountain cruse or did they sign up for a remote cabin?"
~ BAjax says that it sounds like security personnel are going with the boyfriend up into the mountains. He wouldn't rate that alone, so she is definitely going. So it will be easiest for us to get to him in the next two days, when we don't have guards to go through.
The boyfriend lives in Renton. Ajax gets the floor plans to his building.
("You're loading your gun up with things that make them explode better!"
~ Michael)The apartment is on the second floor. Apparently the place has a fancy set of electronic locks. Ajax looks into owning the security system. It might take a few hours.
("So the climbing is for climbing up and the gymnastics is for resisting the falling damage?"
~ Aaron, when I'm talking about getting on to the second floor balcony
"She learned from Kathleen."
~ Ben, joking)By the afternoon Ajax owns the system. He says that he has installed a backdoor and can open the locks when the time comes. He says that the target usually comes home in the late afternoon. It also looks like Emerald probably doesn't visit him here.
"By the time the neighbors start complaining about the loud rock music we're playing to hide the gunshots, we'll be gone."
~ Ajax"We go, we do a thing. We throw a party for some people who we aren't expecting one..."
~ B, trying to illustrate a point with mixed metaphores("Free laundry cleaning service and body removal."
~ Eva)"I love this plan. This couldn't possibly go horribly wrong."
~ BAjax wants some disguises, so he looks up some local cleaners we can pretend to be. He says the company the apartment owners normally contract are in Renton and we can rent some of their equipment and a van.
("Excuse me Mr. Car, you're in a rather bad relationship and should come away with me now."
~ Michael, joking about hacking/stealing a van
"They don't really understand you like I do."
~ Sara, joking
"Because I know what all your default passwords are."
~ Ben, in a creepy voice)We cough up 120 NY for the equipment. Not too bad considering it got us carts with trash things uniforms and a van for a few hours.
("So Skip, how much blood would it take before it voids the rental warrantee?"
~ Michael, jokingly talking to the rental clerk)We go and pick up B's gear and put it in one of the laundry carts.
So the plan is: we go there, enter the building, go to his door, the doctor will check to make sure she's not in the apartment, open door, enter place, subdue guy. Ajax suggests the doctor stun bolt him. Then we: wait a minute or two and set up B's equipment, summon her, we beat her up, once she's beaten into non-existance kill him, clean up, and take his body off to the mob.
We pull up outside the apartment complex. Ajax is rather annoyed when he notices that there is another carpet cleaning van outside. I guess he wasn't as creative as he thought.
"Mental note: kill self. Additional mental note: hire better team leader."
~ AjaxAjax is going to try talking to them. I head around into the back of the building, sneaky like. I'm going to try to get the target just in case the conversation goes badly. He convinces them and pays them 500 NY as a bribe as well as offering the guy's body once he's dead. So much for that lovely double pay-out.
I step in side and head up stairs. I'm carrying a vacuum. I plug it in down the hall from his door and vacuum the carpet for a few minutes until the others join me. The doctor sits down and projects in to make sure he's there. When she comes back she says that he's in his kitchen making food. She says that he's got a level one ward on his bedroom, but Emerald isn't there either, so we should be alright.
B opens the door. I sprint in and right into the kitchen. He's using a spoon to try to flip a knife into the mayonnaise jar! How completely unprepared can you be for an attack... I strike for the upper spinal nerve and and he collapses into a heap. The others enter and the doctor stun bolts him just to be sure.
We set him up on the couch and handcuff him to the coffee table, just to keep him put. We set ourselves up around the living room and prepare to summon her.
("You guys are going to fence his furniture?"
~ Aaron, disbelieving
"No, just his personal electronics."
~ Eva, joking
"And we're going to sublet his apartment for the rest of his lease."
~ Ben, joking)("I eat his sandwich."
~ Michael)The doctor summons her. She appears between the doctor and the boyfriend. B aims his gun and I launch myself at her. She seems startled but manages to duck out of the way of my spin kick. Fortunately she's so busy getting away from me she doesn't notice the massive stun bolt the doctor launches at her. She manages a startled yelp and vanishes. That went better than I expected.
We drag the boyfriend into the bath tub. The doctor does her banishing thing and Ajax shoots him in the head several times. We triple bag him in garbage bags. Load him into the cleaning cart and clean up the apartment.
We head out of the building. Ajax hands the body over to the other team and takes down the apartment system hard to get rid of the digital evidence.
("I would like to do every heinous thing I know to this system and make it go away."
~ Michael
"Right. You install windows ME on the system."
~ Aaron
"And connect it to the internet."
~ Ben)We drive around for a little bit to make sure no one is following us. Ajax calls the Johnson to let him know we did what he wanted. The Johnson asks us to meet him in the junkyard again at our soonest convenience.
We pull up to the gates and the doctor takes a look. She doesn't see anything but seems very nervous. We pull into the parking lot and hike into the trash.
The air in front of us begins shimmering as if it was heated by a fire.
It's a double cross! Five ghouls leap out of the garbage and attack us! Two of them are on me before I can react. One of them rakes my fore arm with claws when I block but the other glances off my coat. B is firing wildly at the ghoul on him and it steps back bleeding.
I manage to fend off the two attacking me, but can't connect with a blow.
Ajax shoots the one attacking him and it goes down.
The doctor fires off a stun bolt but the ghoul ducks out of the way.
B takes out the one attacking him, the one on the doctor, and knocks over the ones attacking me.
One of the ones B shot is struggling to get up so kick his throat into pulp.
There's a huge blazing pillar of fire that springs up where the haze was. B shoots the other ghoul on the ground.
One of the ghouls was hanging back. I didn't immediately notice him. Ajax yells, "Get that ghoul!" Duh.
The burning column is a fire elemental. Since the others can't do much to it I try to keep it's attention on me. I focus on kicks, hoping to keep from getting to badly burnt. Fortunately I sprung for good boots last month. I land a strong blow on what passes for it's chest and it reals backwards.
Out of the corner of my eye I see B get hit in the chest with a power bolt.
("You're not the evil."
~ Ben
"I'm only evil on Sundays."
~ Michael
"What?"
~ Eva)Ajax opens up on the ghoul mage. The mage looks not so good, but is still standing.
The elemental tries to bear hug me, but I duck and roll just in time.
B fires on the elemental, but the bullets ping of its hide. He turns his gun back on the mage and it goes down. I back off and the elemental vanishes without the mage's force to keep it here.
While the doctor is patching up B, I yell, "Hey Mr. Johnson. If you have something to say to us why don't you come say it your God-damned self!" The Johnson walks over to meet us. He claims that the ghouls were not with him. I clam up since I know Ajax will not want my help to salvage what's left of our rep. He is far more diplomatic than I would be.
Anyway, the Johnson coughs up the rest of the money and we get out of there. On the way to turn the van back in the doctor patches herself and me up.
I get my share from the job: 3000 NY.
We find a safe house to lay low in for a day, just to be sure.
End of Session