Session started at 7:00 pm on 10/31/06
Attending players: Michael, Ben, Sarah, and Eva
Presiding GM: Aaron
After two days off we meet back up at the Orc with the Gold Tooth bar. Ajax is asking about what the team wants to do. He brings up something to do with marmosets. I really don't like it when Ajax gets no sleep. He's fucking incoherent.
He's got a message from Vasquez. Apparently there's some sort of job he wants to talk to us about. Hopefully Ajax can pull himself together to talk to the man. We joke about our "price list" a little while Ajax calls Vasquez back.
Ajax tells us the job is in the UCAS. The meeting with the Johnson is somewhere in the Matrix, so the rest of us will spectate while Ajax goes in.
"Hm, well if your nose starts bleeding I'll take the trodes off."
~ B, when Ajax asks if he wants to come to the meetIt is Thursday Oct. 2nd.
The node is pretty boring, just a green cube-space. The Johnson is a woman with a relatively realistic icon. She's got a semi-modern kimono-suit on. She greets Ajax and they begin discussing the job. She mentions that we are uniquely qualified for the job, never a good sign. On the up side, she's willing to give out some info before we decide.
Three of her associates were investigating a news story about a dance club called a loud music club with real audio music, not a big deal you'd think, but her three friends disappeared. Apparently the club is out on the east coast and she thinks there was some foul play involved. She wants us to find out what happened to them and if possible bring them or their comlinks back.
Not too bad. Ajax inquires after the price and eventually settles on 15000 NY worth of stuff instead of money. He gives Ajax a list of a whole bunch of stuff she can get. Nothing too crazy but some decent stuff we could sell off if we didn't want it.
Ajax manages to talk her up to 20000 NY if we encounter difficulties in finding her friends. That's something anyway. They shake on the deal.
Nelsen Rilley's note sheet.She gives Ajax some more details on the missing people: Nelsen Rilley (reporter), Roxie Nieese (tech), and Tirone Claybore (facts checker). She also mentions that she suspects the Liberty News Group might be behind the disappearances. The club they were looking into was in Salem. She also has some backup notes from one of the reporters, which she hands over.
The note sheet reveals the name of the club is the coveN. Its disturbing how the sheet degrades on the way from top to bottom. I'm not feeling good about the crazy poetry or the weird tattoo.
Anyway the first step is get to Salem. The Johnson provided tickets so that's a step in the right direction. B will have to leave his tripod mount at home, poor baby.
Ajax pulls up some info on the disapearees. Nelsen was a big reporter at the Freedom Matrix Service. Five years ago he was in rehab for NovaCoke. Well that answers that question. He seemed pretty serious about being clean, but not serious enough I guess. Roxie graduated from MIT&T (in the same year as Ajax). She handles the equipment and technical stuff. Tirone is their fact checker. He graduated from the University of Nebraska. All three of them are human. They'd been working together for about eight months.
The coveN is the club we have to start with. They promote themselves as a loud music club. Ajax mentions that tomorrow they've got someone called DJ Stomper performing. Never heard of them.
Ajax isn't able to come up with anything on the weird tattoo symbol. It's possible the reporter just isn't very good at drawing. I could maybe see it as some sort of face or a twisted mountain skyline if I squint.
Liberty News Group, a Neo-Net subsidiary, is the head of the market, but they've been steadily losing their audience to the Freedom Matrix Service.
Our plane leaves early tomorrow. I didn't really want to have to deal with shipping my gun, but I know I should, so I borrow a case from B and pack it up.
There are no layovers, so we land around 10am.
"I want to stay in a room where I can take a bath and not have to ward the room first. Can we do that?"
~ the doctor("I'm just amused by having to make a run on our own living arrangements."
~ Aaron)Ajax gets us a room in a pretty nice hotel and we head out to do some legwork.
("I go check the police response times data layer for google maps."
~ Ben)The club looks like a converted boat house. It stands right on the water and has closed boat door in the back so there might be standing water on part of the inside. I'm glad I brought my boots. Since it's Friday it'll probably be packed tonight.
We have lunch at a cafe nearby and the doctor pops in astrally to check out the club.
("Next time we poison the ham."
~Sarah, after Aaron tells her she has to roll her dice again to notice things inside the club; Aaron had ham for dinner)When she returns she reports that there isn't anything much around the club, but she couldn't get inside because there's a ward set up. She says she'll recognize the person who put up the ward if she manages to see his aura.
"And if you see it's maker you should let us know."
~ B
"No, I was going to sit on the information until it's warm."
~ the doctorWe head back to the hotel room, get cleaned up, and dress in proper club gear. Ajax pulls up some rumors about the club while I'm lacing up my boots. Various kids seem to think it's a cool fun place and that you might be able to score "some stuff" there. A lot of them apparently go on and on about what it's like to "experience" the whole loud music thing. Heh. Kids who've never had to do with out a comlink are cute in an infuriating sort of way.
The club is bustling. The music isn't bad; loud but not bad. They've definitely got the old school raver thing going on. I didn't know anyone in North America had real smoke machines and strobe lights anymore. There's a cutesy but confused neo-pagan decor thing going on as well. It doesn't look too sinister. I notice the tattoo symbol in a few places and the others point out even more.
The doctor says that the local mana is pretty strong and energetic. She says there's a weird undertone to it, beyond the normal party vibe. Ajax grabs us a booth. I stick pretty close to the doctor so she doesn't get into trouble. I drop her off at the booth with Ajax I head out on the dance floor for a bit.
The others are pointing out various people with the tattoo, but no one that I can easily get close to. For some reason Ajax takes it in to his head to try and follow a blond dwarf with the tat, but loses her in the crowd. He thinks she might have gone into the rest room, so he hangs out nearby waiting.
I'd guess there are close to a hundred people that I can see, maybe more down stairs. I'm trying to keep my eyes open, but I'm really not seeing anything out of the ordinary for a rave club.
Ajax heads downstairs. He says there's a big dance floor built around what used to be the boat launch area, which is still full of water. There are apparently a lot of people downstairs. He says there's someone I should be dancing with downstairs, so I head down there.
Ajax is really not a good dancer. The dance floor down here is even more packed than upstairs. I couldn't say way, by it makes me very uneasy. There's something under the wild celebration that is unquieting. I didn't even realize I was doing it, but I pushed too hard and mess up my right knee. I can still walk but it's a bit painful. There's something comforting about the pain in a destructive, wrong sort of way. I'm not sure I want to be down here anymore.
The doctor seems unnerved as well. She says there's something going on with the background magic. She's saying something about teething. I don't quite follow. It sounds like there might be some sort of presence here causing it to me. I'm going to guess it has something to do with the damn water.
The doctor seems to think that whatever this is it's hitting the magically active more than the rest of the crowd. The orc that Ajax was tailing has vanished and the girl he was dancing with seems even more lethargic.
Ajax dances with the girl and steers her towards the stairs. The doctor mentions that the girl seems to be a bit more physically drained than dancing would explain.
I go back upstairs. The doctor is also very uncomfortable with what's going on. We decide to leave and try to take the girl with us. She's zoned as all hell. We take her down the street to a coffee shop and she doesn't even protest.
End of Session
