DiscoDude: ---BEGIN SESSION---
DiscoDude: Session logging commenced
Ryusui|GM: so, last we left off
Ryusui|GM: the gang had resolved to go find Xia, right?
Zeta: If I recall correctly, Yeah?
Casper: ("Let's go break Xia out of jail." "Casper, no.")
Casper: Correct.
Ryusui|GM: So, what, exactly, is your first step towards this objective? You know you left him at the auction house, with the police, and he hasn't been picking up his phone, so...
Casper: (Zeta, you want to take the lead here? I investigative skills are shite.)
Zeta: (Well, I suppose the first step is determining in which Jail he is)
Casper: (I meant in-character.)
Zeta: (OH, Sorry.)
Zeta: "Hmmmm, Where could he have gone..." Zeta was looking at an empty cork board, She had been tasked with finding the whereabouts of Xia not so long ago, since his phone didn't respond he probably was hauled off somewhere...
Casper: (GM, would this be a challenge, or a single roll, or what?)
Ryusui|GM: (what the hey, let's make this a challenge)
Ryusui|GM: (both of you can try to contribute)
Casper: (So, what tasks do we need to tackle?)
Ryusui|GM: (figuring out where he is, and figuring out how to get in touch with him once you do)
Zeta: (Makes sense to me!)
Casper: (If we want to do this legit when we meet him, the best I can do is use Average (+1) CONTACTS to talk our way into a visit. Maybe I can use STEALTH to infiltrate a police station for the info on where he is?)
Ryusui|GM: (Zeta, what are you gonna do?)
Zeta: Zeta looks around, and sees the Scary Seal Lady... "Miss, I need your help" She secretly Gulps. "Where do they send bad people, again?"
Ryusui|GM: Patricia gives you an odd look. "Are you talking about prison?" She looks out the door. "Someone like that Xia person wouldn't go to prison. He'd have his lawyers get him out." She says this with evident disgust. "That said, they'd likely bring him to a nearby police station for questioning. He may not give them answers, but there are still protocols and procedures they have to follow." She crosses her arms, as if she's been personally on the wrong end of such "procedures."
Zeta: "...Prison... Police! If I remember correctly..." Zeta begins weaseling through a pile of maps, she settles on a map for the area, its pretty big. "Now..." Her finger starts trailing around the streets near the Auction house...
Zeta: !f 2 (Investigate)
DiscoDude: <@Zeta> rolled 4dF+2 for 0 [4dF = [-][ ][ ][-]]
Ryusui|GM: (oof. You wanna put a FATE Point into boosting/rerolling that? Everyone refreshed between sessions)
Zeta: (Hmm, You know I'll go for a refresh, ticking the fate point down...)
Ryusui|GM: (what do you invoke?)
Zeta: (Can I rely in my HC for this?)
Casper: (I think you just explained why that's a hinderance in this case, not a help.)
Zeta: (...[Memories of my other Self] Ought to work then, if I'm not mistaken.)
Casper: (Ooh, nice.)
Casper: (... What does 'past self' remember?)
Ryusui|GM: (sure. reroll, or boost? because a +2 will be a tie, meaning a success at a minor cost)
Zeta: (I specified i was gonna reroll, I'll Roll before describing though)
Zeta: !f 2 (investigate Reroll)
DiscoDude: <@Zeta> rolled 4dF+2 for 3 [4dF = [+][+][ ][-]]
Zeta: (Does that work?)
Casper: (Straight success!)
Ryusui|GM: (straight-up success)
Zeta: Her finger trails around for a few minutes until... it settles on a particular building, why did she remember it? It gave her a sad memory... "Miss...Do you remember this building?" She was pointing at the local police station, which the Seal Lady was probably an acquaintance with.
Ryusui|GM: Patricia gives you a look, Zeta, as if slightly offended you'd suggest she has a personal acquaintance with this police precinct, but her expression softens. "You have a good eye. If he was taken anywhere, that'd be the nearest and most likely place."
Zeta: She cowers a bit after seeing that she offended Patricia "Oh, Then....It must have been me..." However, she looks at her again after the compliment and begins tapping away in her disposable phone.
Cspr, Check the jail 5 blocks dwon the actin house.
Casper: thx
Casper enters the police station, hoping to STEALTH his way past the officers manning it and moving to Xia's position unnoticed. He just needs to wait outside the cameras' field of view, and wait for the right time to slip through.
Casper: !f 3 (STEALTH)
DiscoDude: <@Casper> rolled 4dF+3 for 5 [4dF = [+][+][ ][ ]]
Casper: (SWS?)
Zeta: Hey, Zeta looks oddly pumped up now. "Thanks, Scary Lady..." She trails off, as she goes back to trying to figure out how she figured out that jail was the one...
Ryusui|GM: (deffo)
Ryusui|GM: (sorry, was AFK for a bit)
Ryusui|GM: (name your boost, and I'll describe your outcome)
Casper: It's child's play to sneak in to try and get a word in with Xia (assuming he's here), but it's not every day he pulls off an infiltration *With No-One Even Suspecting a Thing*. Usually, some security camera or stray patrol would at least catch enough of a glimpse to become a little more alert, but not this time.
Ryusui|GM: It doesn't take much effort to find Xia's holding cell; the station is on the small side. He takes one look at you, though, and it's pretty clear he's about to completely lose his shit.
Casper: "I come in peace. We were wondering whether you knew where to find a ritual that could help us banish the statue we were after to outside our dimension."
Ryusui|GM: Your overtures are not doing much to calm him. You'll need to put some effort into making him not flip out and alert the officers to your presence.
Casper: (Is he in collar-grabbing range?)
Ryusui|GM: (you can totally reach through the bars and grab him XD)
Casper: Casper grabs him through the bars and gives him a slap.
"Calm down."
(I want to say this is FIGHT, because mine is Good (+3), but this might be closer to PROVOKE.)
Ryusui|GM: (this will be Provoke)
Casper: !f 1 (PROVOKE)
DiscoDude: <@Casper> rolled 4dF+1 for 1 [4dF = [-][ ][ ][+]]
Casper: (Do I need to boost?)
Ryusui|GM: (yes)
Casper: (Then I boost with... *With No-One Even Suspecting a Thing*: It fails at first, but he doesn't quite make enough noise for them to not assume he's just being a nuisance. Some more slaps should finally calm him down.)
Casper: (Does that work? XD)
Ryusui|GM: (yes XD)
Ryusui|GM: You've caught him enough by surprise that it doesn't take much effort to pacify him. His suit collar, and his full attention, are in your grip.
Ryusui|GM: "Y-you're the worst thing that's ever happened to me, you know that?" Xia whimpers. "If you hadn't shown up, I wouldn't have ended up held hostage by my own men under the thrall of some...some tentacle-headed monstrosity!"
Ryusui|GM: In the meantime, <@!Zeta>, what are you up to?
Zeta: Well, Zeta spent the last few minutes trying to figure out that memory...And then grew bored of it, instead deciding that dropping in the couch and messing with the phone would be a better use of her time.
Casper: "Technically, you were set up before we even entered the picture, specifically to entrap us. I'm not interested in playing the blame game, however. The reason I'm here is because for some reason, you're the only person in our acquaintance who might know where to find a ritual we need to help us prevent that tentacled incident from happening on a global scale."
Ryusui|GM: Xia rolls his eyes. "I'm not some kind of...of eldritch librarian. Sure, I collect this junk, but I'm not a scholar." He looks at you, as if trying to find a way out of his current predicament, then says: "If you're that desperate to find something, I did bring a few documents from my collection. Just to show off to the other bidders." He riffles through his jacket and pulls out a few carefully-rolled scraps of parchment. "I don't know if any of these will help. Be careful with them, whatever you do! Even one of those cost me millions!"
Ryusui|GM: <@!Zeta>, Patricia gives you an odd look. "So what's your story? You look like a grown woman, but you act at times like...like a child."
Casper: Casper thumbs through the notes, looking for English titles to go off of. If that fails, he'll move to Plan B.
Ryusui|GM: It's all Greek to you, Casper. Or perhaps Aramaic. Sumerian. Linear B. There are occasional marginalia penciled in by a careful hand, but even though the words are written in the Roman alphabet, the words are unfamiliar.
Zeta: She looks towards Patricia as she lays on the couch "...Well...I....Never really had any friends...." Or many people that she could talk to, really "...Do I really look that old?"
Casper: Casper has no idea what those words just used to describe that even mean. He takes photos of all of them and texts them to Zeta.
Ryusui|GM: <@!Zeta>, the phone you're playing with pings several times. Casper has sent you a set of what look like eldritch diagrams, complete with annotations.
Ryusui|GM: "Sounds like your friend found something," Patricia says.
Zeta: She begins checking the phone. "Uh huh...Diagrams, of the bad kind..." Zeta begins trying to figure out what they mean, mostly skipping the annotations.
Ryusui|GM: (gimme a Lore roll!)
Zeta: !f 4 (Lore!)
DiscoDude: <@Zeta> rolled 4dF+4 for 6 [4dF = [+][+][+][-]]
Zeta: (WOOOOT!)
Ryusui|GM: It's a good thing you ignored the annotations - most of the writing was pretty clearly guesswork, and dangerously wrong in places. It doesn't take much effort on your part to figure out you're looking at three spells.
Casper: (Double and a bonus one, just like that?)
Ryusui|GM: (this is gonna work a little extra-mechanically, since the point was to identify the spells)
Ryusui|GM: 1. Summon a shoggoth. It's supposed to also bind the shoggoth to the summoner's will, but there are warnings scribed in multiple languages that this is not guaranteed.
- A warding spell. It can resist, although not completely prevent, the passage of mortals and eldritch creatures. The barrier it generates is big enough to encompass a chamber about the size of your safehouse.
- Dimensional encapsulation. An object can be safely ensconced within a dimensional pocket, functioning like a safe perceptible only to eldritch beings and those with eldritch knowledge (such as yourself). There are warnings that this spell must be executed with great caution, because it is possible for the dimensional pocket to become permanently severed from this plane, rendering any object placed within permanently irretrievable.
Ryusui|GM: It'd be a shame if that happened, huh?
Zeta: Indeed a shame, Good thing she knows not to do that to the safe house, or any of Casper's belongings...the totem however...
thx for this, can you bring the original?
Casper:found something
Casper:?
Zeta:yes, perhps it cn help
Casper:should I bring Xia
Zeta:yes!!
Casper: "Mr. Xia, what was it that drew you to the occult?"
Ryusui|GM: "...it's like the art world," he says, shrugging helplessly. "People like me collect this kind of stuff because it's rare and expensive and it makes other people who also collect it jealous. I didn't believe any of it was real until my bodyguards started talking in demon voices and threatening me at gunpoint."
Ryusui|GM: "Listen. I am...way in over my head with all this shit."
Ryusui|GM: "My plan was to stay in here until all this blows over, and if you don't mind, I think I'd like to stick with it."
Casper: "I doubt a police station is secure enough to protect you from being cut as a loose end; you're the loose end of an Eldritch god's schemes, after all. And if we fail, then in (supposedly) ten years' time, nowhere on earth will be anything even approaching survivable."
Ryusui|GM: "...you're shitting me."
Casper: "Unfortunately not, as far as I know. I was incredulous of the supposed time-traveler I've been working with, but at this point, even if Zeta did hallucinate being from the post-apocalypse or something, she's... mostly not been wrong so far, so her claims clearly had to come from somewhere substantial."
Ryusui|GM: Xia squints and rubs his forehead. "You gotta gimme a second here. A week ago I was in New York City drinking with supermodels, and now I'm...I'm trying to process the idea that I am somehow at ground zero of the fucking apocalypse." He shakes his head. "So what do you want me to do about it? The best I can figure I can do is...hide in a bunker or something." He waves vaguely around himself. "Because apparently this won't cut it."
Casper: "Maybe help humanity prepare? Help us? You seem to have money, and the charisma and influence to gain it, as well as, I imagine, a cursory knowledge of the occult. More knowledge than I have, at least."
(If he became a full PC, I'd put RAPPORT, RESOURCES, and EMPATHY all in the top 3 somewhere, with LORE, CONTACTS, FIGHT, and SHOOT somewhere in the "lower, but not Mediocre (+0)" range.)
Ryusui|GM: "...you're asking a hell of a lot. I didn't sign up to lead the fucking resistance."
Casper: "I'm not forcing you to do anything. Zeta answered in the affirmative when I asked if I should bring you, and I trust her as far as I could throw her, which is to say, a lot." Casper scribbles an address on a note and tucks it in Xia's pocket before beginning to walk away. "If we fail, there won't be enough miles in the universe for anyone to run or hide." He holds up the papers. "Oh, and we need the physical copies; you're unlikely to ever see them again if you don't follow us."
Ryusui|GM: "Ugh. Fine," Xia grumbles. "You're lucky I'm a big fan of superhero movies. Get the hell out of here without the police spotting you, and I'll...I'll join you when I can."
Ryusui|GM: (he's got lawyers who can get him out, if it wasn't clear)
Casper: "Very well. Don't show that address to the police, or it's me you'll need to worry about." Casper leaves. (Do I need a roll to leave as stealthily as I entered?)
Ryusui|GM: (...i'm just gonna say you make it out as easily as you made it in. XD)
Ryusui|GM: (back to the safehouse?)
Casper: (Yeah.)
Casper: (To be clear, is it just the third one that's a Ritual? The others are just Spells?)
Ryusui|GM: (The first and third are Rituals. The second is a Spell.)
Casper: (Got it. We doing this tonight? <@!Zeta> seems to have gone kaput again.)
Ryusui|GM: (i'll give <@!Zeta> 15 more minutes and then I think we can call it)
Zeta: (I'm still here)
Zeta: (a bit sleepy, but here)
Casper: (Are you awake enough to handle a crash-course on Spell and Ritual rules, followed by a practical exam?)
Zeta: (... Perhaps not.)
Ryusui|GM: (right, let's just handle the reunion rq)
Ryusui|GM: <@!Zeta>, Casper's back. He has three rolls of parchment in hand, but there's no sign of Xia.
Zeta: "Where's the Panda man?" she asks, although seemingly more interested in the scrolls and all their sweet, juicy eldritch knowledge...
Ryusui|GM: Patricia raises an eyebrow at the sight of the scrolls. "That's some serious firepower."
Casper: "He said he'd be with us. Breaking him out would have been detrimental in the long-run, and I'm sure he can hire enough lawyers to dodge any actual charges that could be trumped up against him for whatever reason."
Zeta: "I see, for now... Gimmie!" she extends her hands to receive the scrolls, she looks excited at the prospect of handling them in person.
Casper: "Only the one you thought would be useful." Casper will hold on to the others.
Ryusui|GM: You haven't seen scrolls like these since you first breached the boundaries of time. Which, technically, was well over a decade into the future, but subjectively it's in your past, so...
Ryusui|GM: At any rate, the ritual - like all rituals - is plain not designed for mortals to perform easily. That's not to say it's impossible; it's just - as Patricia already said - executing it will be both difficult and risky.
Zeta: Time really is subjective some times, isn't it?
Ryusui|GM: There's also the fact that in order to get the effect you want, you need to deliberately foul it up in a very specific fashion. Doing it right is already dangerous, but this is a little bit like performing surgery on a live thermonuclear device.
Zeta: Either way, Zeta pouts at being only able to handle the important one, imagine how useful having a shoggoth would have been... She is well aware of the risk, studying the ritual will be paramount to know where to cut what corners... It will be fun, though? How many times do you get to fuck up a ritual as the goal?!
Ryusui|GM: "You look excited," Patricia says like a stern mother. "Have you told your friends what exactly it is you're proposing here?"
Zeta: "Do I have to? Casper trusts me to do the right thing, and explanations would get in the way and get too complex~!" Oh dear, she may be a bit loonie after all.
Ryusui|GM: Patricia turns to you, Casper. "The only 'safe' way to execute a ritual such as this would be with a sacrifice. Someone chosen to take the eldritch corruption unto themselves...and then die."
Ryusui|GM: Jocelyn audibly gasps.
Casper: "If you're willing to do that, be my guest," Casper says without skipping a beat. "My unique set of skills make me vital to the mission. Otherwise, it would be me in a heartbeat."
Ryusui|GM: Patricia sighs. "Here's hoping those 'hero' instincts of yours serve us all well in the long run."
Zeta: "That's... Debatable! And things can be fudged up! Lines are blurry!" Zeta promptly retorts. "Anyways... I'll be in my chamb-... Table? I'll read this with more detail than what a phone can provide..." she giggles.... she giggles.
Ryusui|GM: Both Patricia and Jocelyn look a bit concerned.
Ryusui|GM: (righty-o, last lines, or do we wanna keep going?)
Zeta: (I think I'll leave Zeta there, sounding like she seriously is crazy xD)
Casper: "Honestly, I'm not impressed with all the 'cosmic horror' I've supposedly been subjected to. I'm sure the risk of the 'unsafe' version is being overstated at least a little bit."
Ryusui|GM: Patricia cocks her head at you. "I suppose you'll see for yourself."
Ryusui|GM: (you good?)
Casper: "Perhaps. If Xiong Xia is in, I know asking him to sacrifice himself won't go over well." Judging it to be enough time for processing (he thinks), Casper tries calling Xiong on the phone again. "Speaking of..."
Ryusui|GM: You hear a ringtone right outside the door.
Casper: Casper looks through the peep-hole.
Ryusui|GM: Followed by a voice, both outside and on your phone: "I'm here, I think."
Ryusui|GM: It's definitely Xia.
Casper: Casper opens the door, snapping the chain taut, phone propped on his shoulder.
"Were you followed?"
Ryusui|GM: He pauses. "How would I know?" he says, as if half-expecting there to be a literal eldritch nightmare right behind his shoulder. (There isn't.)
Casper: "I'll be ready if you were. Come in." Casper closes the door in his face, hangs up, unhooks the chain, and opens the door again.
Ryusui|GM: (now are we good to wrap up?)
Ryusui|GM: (oh, wait)
Ryusui|GM: Xia steps inside, still looking unsure of himself, but ready to take his place in whatever's about to unfold.
Casper: "Patricia, I can assume, but Jocelyn, where do you stand on this? Are you in?"
Ryusui|GM: "I'm..." She shudders. "I'll...I'll do whatever I can to help."
Casper: "If you're sure, then. Let's go make Xia's friends extra jealous. Maybe come a step closer to saving humanity in the process."
(I'm good for last lines. XD)
Ryusui|GM: (then let us...)
Ryusui|GM: !end
