From tbutler@birch.net Sat Sep 29 20:58:39 2001 Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2001 09:19:35 -0500 From: Travis Butler To: RPM - acct 3/5 , Philip J. Moyer , Chris Bremner Subject: [UnS] Bey, Jacqui - Taking Down Vice Beowulf says, "OOC Ah. :) Find Lily first, make sure she wants to stay for the Convocation and go to Alars for tea." You find Lily. She's willing to stay until the Grand Assembly, as she has some shopping she'd like to do in Chaos. She gives you a kiss on the cheek and goes off to shop while you head to Alars. How do you plan to get to Alars? Walk? Borrow or conjure a mount or vehicle? Beowulf says, "OOC How far is it? IIRC Moriya and I basically just walked when we returned artwork." Beowulf says, "OOC I take it she didn't want to have Tea with Alars? :)" John says, "OOC IT's a bit of a walk, but doable." Beowulf says, "OOC Well, he could probably use the exercise... a partial excuse for the new muscles he seems to have gained. :)" Beowulf asks, "OOC Hmmm... did he get a feel for how the streets in the Courts are, the last couple of days? Particularly tense?" John says, "OOC YOu haven't been out in the streets." John says, "OOC So you don't really have a clue." Beowulf says, "OOC Ah. Was wondering if there'd been any talk around the House, but apparently not. So, unless he gets any bad feelings, he'll just walk. :)" You head out into the streets. The streets bustle with people in some parts of the city, and in others, they're virtually empty. Beowulf asks, "OOC Any pattern to the activity?" John says, "OOC Hold on, gotta find something" The areas with lots of people seem to be more excited than tense. Lots and lots of folks are flooding into town to attend the Grand Assembly. Lots of carriages sporting the signs of noble houses. Messenger animals fly all about, creatures of every shape and description can be seen. After a while, however, you start to get the feeling you're being watched. Beowulf asks, "OOC Hm. Anything more than the vague feeling? Physically, or power-based observation?" You think it's physical. There's so many people, animals, etc, though, you're not sure what exactly could be the one watching you. Beowulf OOCly nods. Right, then... go on extra alert internally, do as good a job as he can trying to figure out who's watching while being unobtrusive. You walk along for a while, trying to see what you keep seeing. About the same time as you figure out two birds are following you, you feel your psychic barrier switch on. Beowulf says, "OOC Also keep an extra eye out for ambush spots, good places to make a stand, and the like -- usual WF eye on the surroundings." Beowulf asks, "OOC Anything I can tell about the strength of the attack?" John says, "OOC You'd guess the other mind may be twice as strong as yours." John says, "OOC IT would be pretty easy to eitehr shoot the birds or duck into one of the many stores here out of sight of them if you so desired." Beowulf asks, "OOC How long can I hold up under that assault?" Beowulf asks, "OOC And would Aeris be able to sweep them up unobtrusively, and isolate them for later investigation?" John asks, "OOC She could try, but there would be visible Trump Effects and they might be able to resist. Do you wish to do that?" Beowulf says, "OOC Hm... at the moment, no; duck into one of the shops. As shooting them out of the sky would probably be rather obtrusive. :)" You duck into one of the shops. It's a jewelry store. You can still feel the pressure at your psychic barrier. Beowulf asks, "OOC How long can I hold out?" John says, "OOC You think you have a few minutes." Beowulf steps out from the store and fires stun quarrels at the two birds casting spells at him. One of the birds gets nailed and falls to the ground. The other takes wing and starts to flee. Are you going to give chase? Beowulf asks, "OOC How fast is it going, and how hard would it be to catch up?" John says, "OOC If you can get up onto the rooftops, you can keep up pretty easily." Beowulf asks, "OOC Well, there's the Whip and Pulp Acrobatics. ^_^ How long does it look like the first bird will be stunned?" John says, "OOC You might want to grab it and stuff it in the bag, as you aren't sure if it'll stay long enoguh for you to come back for it. Or do something else to make sure it doesn't get back up." John says, "You think it's out for a few minutes, but it could take a while to get the other bird." Beowulf says, "OOC Right, what I was thinking. Set the bag to ultra-slow-time so it won't have time to recover, stuff the bird into the bag, then go after the second one. Keeping an eye out for it in case it tries to lead me into an ambush." You stuff the bird after taking a bit to slow time down in the bag. Then you whip a light pole and swing up to the roofs and take off after the other bird. It leads you a merry chase. Because you are alert, as you're about to swing across another street to continue the chase, you spot the two women dressed in elegant suits who are standing in the street you're now lookign down on. One of them has logrus tendrils extended up to just below the roof edge you're on, while the other one is casting a spell at you. Whatcha going to do? Beowulf says, "OOC Hm. For the spell, would it be possible to intercept with Morkeleb? The Logrus tendrils could be a bit trickier." rodm has arrived. John says, "OOC If it has a visible effect, you can parry with Morkeleb. " John says, "OOC And probably stop it. " John says, "OOC You can try to parry the tendrils with Mork, but if the peron has enough Psyche, they might be able to yank Morkeleb out of your hands." Beowulf asks, "OOC If. :) Hm, what's the roof like?" John says, "OOC Gently sloping tiled roof. You could retreat back up it if you want to." Beowulf asks, "Much in the way of chimneys, gargoyles at the edge, etc. to swing off/around?" Ceitidh has arrived. John says, "OOC There's lots of stuff to use for doing fancy acrobatics, hai." Beowulf OOCly waves. Beowulf asks, "OOC How high up am I? First storey, second storey? Basically, thinking of swinging off the *side* edge of the roof, going around the corner of the building in an arc, and cannoning into them. Is the setting such to allow that, and how likely would that be to avoid the logrus/spell?" John says, "OOC You are two stories up. That is a viable tactic, and you think it would give you a fair shot to try to get in close to them while dodging the tendrils and the spell, as they are unlikely to anticipate that." Beowulf says, "OOC Right. Do that, swing 'round, go for disabling attacks on them rather than outright kills if possible and I think I can get away with it; I want to know who they are and why they're after me." Beowulf says, "OOC Pause for bathroom break." You flick your whip and swing around to one side, dropping off the side of the building, avoiding both the tendrils and the crackling lightning which heads for where you were. Then you come swinging around, which they obviously didn't expect, and ooops...we pause. Beowulf says, "OOC Back." You come round at them, staff and whip ready, catching them off-guard. Do you go for the spell caster or the logrus user first? Beowulf says, "OOC I'm guesstimating the logrus user is the bigger threat, since Bey can't block Logrus the way both Mork and the whip can block spells. o.o And since the whip is a Trump-based weapon, which IIRC makes nasty shocks for Logrus users, I'd guesstimate using the whip on the Logrus user and Mork on the spellcaster. How far off base am I? ^_^" John says, "OOC Righto! Sounds good." You crack the whip and nail the logrus tendrils, which short out. This flings her back away from you as she gets shocked. But so do you. This doesn't stop you smacking the sorceress around some as you get shocked and go flying back yourself. She falls down, stunned for the moment. All three of you lie there for a few seconds. Then you all get back up at about the same time. You're currently somewhat closer to the sorceress than the logrus user. You can hear people shouting down the street. Beowulf asks, "OOC Could a sweep with the whip nail both the sorceress and the logrus user?" John says, "OOC YOu could try, but it would be somewhat hard. However, youthink you outwarfare both of them quite a bit, so it might work." Beowulf asks, "OOC Right. What's the worst threat I can see if I try and don't make it?" John says, "OOC The logrus user is charging you. If you try for both and miss, she might get close enough to grapple before you could do much. The spell caster looks about to do something magical, so if you miss her, she might get her spell off. They're both in whip range, but not Morkeleb range right now unless you shift Morkeleb into a crossbow, but then if someone gets close it won't be much use." Beowulf lashes out with the whip to take down the Logrus user, holding Morkeleb ready to parry spells. The whip strikes again and again, pounding the charging woman. She gets whacked repeatedly and starts staggering around; you're able to give ground soshe can't close in. However, the spell caster points at you and shouts a Power word several times, citing your name and Aeris'. Your Aeris manifestation shatters, and you feel the enchantments you put on Morkeleb go poof, althought he ones it had when you found it seem to laugh at her power words. Beowulf keeps lashing the Logrus user with his whip, and uses his mother's racked Teleport Without Items to try and dump the spellcaster some distance away from her items -- including, hopefully, her spell rack -- leaving her about the same distance away from him on the other side of him from her items. Several things happen at once. Beowulf OOCly facepalms. You whip at the woman and release the spell. Unfortunately, the split in attention means that the whip misses the logrus woman, who starts to revive. Fortunately, the spell caster gets hit by the spell, which she wasn't expecting, and is teleported down the street butt naked, leaving her clothign and jewelry behind. Unfortunately, before she vanishes, she shouts that power word again and your Psychic barrier switches off. Oh, and fortunately, you still have yet to have either of them hurt you phsycially. :) Beowulf lashes a gargoyle with his whip, then runs and leaps and swings, and comes around from a direction that the logrus weilder doesn't expect. But then he gets coordination disrupted and loses his grip on his whip, and goes flying thanks to Mr. Happy Inertia. As he goes by, he nonetheless manages to whack logrus woman in the head and knock her down, before he crashes through a plate glass window into a window display of fine clothing. Beowulf smiles a bit groggily through the window, says "Another time, then," and trumps out to Aeris. Beowulf pulls out his trump deck. Beowulf tries to trump out. Beowulf gets trump disrupted and fails to do so. Spellcaster woman is moving for her stuff as she does this. Logrus woman is on her hands and knees, obviously stunned for the moment. Beowulf rushes forward and tries to knock Logrus Woman down for the count, stuff her in the bag, then use the racked Teleport With Items to get out. You take off running. The logrus user tries to fend you off, but is too stunned and confused already to do much. You beat her down with repeated swift blows, then heft her and stuff her into your sack. Meanwhile, the spellcaster has shifted to a gargoyle like, yellow scaled demon form, and quickly grabs a necklace out of her pile of stuff, putting it on. Oh, where are you teleporting to? Beowulf tries teleporting back to House Gainax. As you begin to release the spell, you are nailed by hideous head pains. You successfully teleport, but the bag drops out of your grasp, left behind. Blink, you're in Gaianx at the courtyard. Beowulf asks, "OOC Is there anyone there in the entranceway at Gainax?" John says, "OOC there's some servants around." Beowulf quickly asks them to pass along what happened and that he's going to get the bag back to either any of his family that's there or Anno, so they'll know something's wrong if he doesn't get back. Beowulf trumps out to Quicksilver and shadowwalks to pull in the bag. Beowulf says, "OOC Staying alert with Morkeleb in case something else comes in with it. :)" You walk for a while, and successfully pull the bag to yourself. There's a nasty looking spider creature clinging to it, which now leaps at you. Beowulf slashes at it with Morkeleb. Beowulf asks, "OOC How big is the creature?" You bash at the creature. It's about the size of a small dog. You bash and bash and bash and bash, and then it falls over and dies. The bag sinks quietly into the molten liquid, which begins pouring into it. Beowulf grabs the bag and hauls it out of the liquid. Beowulf seals the bag as he pulls it out. John asks, "OKay, what's next?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Bag successfully recovered?" John says, "OOC Yep. Takes alittle effort, but you find it pretty easily." Beowulf makes *sure* the bag is set to ultra-slow-time, then trumps back to Gainax. You land in Gainax. Your psychic barrier switches on, as something seems to be attacking your mind. But your barrier seems to have recovered. Beowulf asks, "OOC Same attacker?" John says, "OOC Feels like it." Beowulf asks, "OOC How long does it feel like the barrier will last this time?" John says, "OOC You think you probably have maybe 5 minutes or so." Beowulf tries trumping Grandmother Anthy. John says, "OOC Looks like Kanna and Jacqui are both alive. Lian isn't really avail. and everyone else is not on" Beowulf OOCly nods. "Probably try both, then -- Jacqui first, since she's got the mental strength." John asks, "OOC Okay, Rod, you wanna shuffle puppets afore you take the call?" RpM says, "si senor" Rod has arrived. rodm has left. Jacqueline says, "OOCly ready." Beowulf trumps Jacqui. Jacqueline answers the trump, yawning. her head is resting in someone's lap. "Mrrr?" Beowulf says, "Jacqui? Can you help me quickly? I'm in the entranceway under mental attack from someone, I can probably hold up for 5 minutes or so." Jacqueline's eyes widen. "Thoric! Mutsumi! Wake up! Uncle Beowulf needs help!" Beowulf gets ready to pull them through as soon as they wake up. Beowulf asks, "OOC Or is it close enough that they'd be better off running?" John says, "OOC Better you pull them through." Mutsumi and Thoric get up quickly, and Beowulf pulls the three of you through. Beowulf OOCly nods, and pulls them through as soon as Thoric and Mutsumi wake up. Jacqueline tries to shield Beowulf's mind from whatever's invading. Jacqui's added strength is enough to repel the assault. Jacqueline asks, "OOCly can I trace where it came from?" Mutsumi begins scanning for trump; Thoric casts a lens and looks around. "Uncle Beowulf, there's a spell on your bag," he says. Beowulf smiles. "Thank you, Jacqui; I'm glad you could help." Jacqueline replies, still looking a bit dazed. "I.... ah... glad to help." Beowulf blinks. "I see. I suppose I should have expected it; she also put a nasty spider creature on it for me to fight when I pulled it back in." Jacqueline asks, "oh, was that what was attacking his mind?" Thoric taps the bag with Frostrazor and the spell dissipates. "Yes," he says. Youc an feel the mental pressure go blort. Beowulf says, "I got attacked by a logrus-using woman and a spellcaster; I was able to knock out the logrus user and stuff her into slowtime in the bag, but the spellcaster hit me with a nasty spell as I teleported out, and I dropped the bag." Beowulf blinks. "My. *That's* how they were doing it... thank you, Thoric." Jacqueline asks, "is the logrus-using woman still in the bag?" Thoric says, "Good thing she didn't put something like an Akira on it set to go off when you came here." Jacqueline blinks very slowly. Beowulf nods. "Hopefully she is in the bag and still unconscious. She may *not* be, though, which is why I wanted some backup when I opened it." Jacqueline says, "ah" Beowulf shudders. "Ouch. I've seen one of those go off at close range, I really don't want to see another." Jacqueline says, "well..." She concentrates for a moment, and several tendrils emerge from her. "Let's pull her out of the bag, then." Beowulf looks at Thoric. "Frostrazor would have disrupted any other spells on the bag, right?" Beowulf nods to Jacqui. "Ready, everyone?" He says, "Well, I don't see any more spells on it." Beowulf asks, "Or do I think I should go to a more shielded area?" Jacqueline says, "hrm." Beowulf OOC's that. x.x Jacqueline says, "OOCly if she's a logrus user, best to travel somewhere where it's weak." Jacqueline . o O (Sis is _still_ eating, I bet....) Beowulf OOCly nods. Beowulf asks, "Or should we trump out to Amber, in case she is awake?" Jacqueline says, "let's do that, but.... I wanna call sis in on this." She trumps Moonshade. Beowulf nods. "Lily was going out shopping... I should warn her, since they knew a lot about me and might try going after her." Moonshade says, "Hey there, what's up?" Beowulf trumps Lily to warn her. Jacqueline says, "we're gonna go interrogate someone that tried to kill uncle beowulf. You stilll got the growing-my-arm-back munchies or can you join us? It's okay if you're still healing." Lily takes the call. "Hi, honey, what's up?" she asks. Moonshade says, "Unless you really think you need me, I'm still in eating and healing stuff." Jacqueline says, "oh, okay. I'll be back in a bit, then. Oh, and can you hand me Justice? I think we'll need it." She passes you Justice. Beowulf says, "Be careful out there; I just got attacked by a pair of folks, a logrus user and a spellcaster, who seemed to know a lot about me. They probably know about you, which makes you a target." Jacqueline says, "seeya in a bit, sis." She closes the connection. She frowns. "I'll be careful, honey. Any idea who or why?" Beowulf gives Lily descriptions of the two, that the logrus user is in the bag, and the spellcaster presumably managed to recover her rack. Lily says, "I'll trump you if I see her." Beowulf nods. "Right. She had about twice my mental strength, in case you run into her and have to fight her." Beowulf says, "Take care, Lily." She kisses your cheek. "I will. Bye!" Beowulf closes the trump connection. Beowulf asks, "Ready to head to Amber?" Jacqueline says, "let's go." Beowulf trumps them to Yig, then to Amber. Blink, blink, you're now in the courtyard. Jacqueline's tendrils hover around the mouth of the bag. They seem a tad twitchy. Beowulf trumps Misato to warn her in case sparks start flying in the castle courtyard, then opens the bag. You open the bag. Nothing happens immediately. Beowulf looks at the others, says "Try to pull me out if she starts trying to zap me, OK?", then reaches in to try and pull her out. John says, "OOC You're going to need to turn time up to normal to do that, or you're going to suffer time dilation for your hand." Beowulf asks, "OOC Ah. OK... Can Mutsumi try to block her from leaving from out here?" John says, "OOC Yes, Mutsumi can block her trumping out once you pull her out. And Aeris can prevent her trumping out from inside the bag." Beowulf OOCly nods. And Logrus will be hard to use here... righto. Beowulf warns Mutsumi to block trump, then resets the bag to just fast enough to let him reach in without undergoing time dilation and pulls her out of the bag. Beowulf reaches in and...soemthing warm and metallic and rapidly stiffening grabs his hand and pulls him into the bag. Jacqueline's tendrils lunge to grab Beowulf Beowulf shouts out, "It's metal controlled by mental force! Try to force it to let go of me and grab her!" Jacqueline asks, "OOCly can I see the metal and grab it? or can I just try to take it over without touching it?" Beowulf soon has metal going into his mouth, making it hard to breathe, and over his eyes, making it hard for him to see anything. All Jacqui and company see is that Beo gets dragged in, the bag falls, and his voice comes out tinny and distorted as he shouts that. Beowulf concentrates his mind on resisting the metal and forcing it away from him. Jacqueline says, "OOCLy ah, the tendrils couldn't grab him." John says, "OOC Not fast enough." John says, "OOC You could certainly send them into the bag after him, though." Two of jacqui's tendrils opens the bag wide as she peers inside, and the others dive in to pull Beowulf out. Jacqueline asks, "OOCly now about psychically controlling them?" Jacqueline asks, "OOCly do I have to see the metal thing? or touch it?" John asks, "OOC You don't know. What do you try doing?" The woman shouts, "Back off or he dies!" You can sort of see some dark haired, elegantly dressed woman in the big room they're in. Jacqueline does a quick scan of the mental power of the woman You guess she has maybe half your mental strength. Beowulf is folding in half backwards as you assess this. Jacqueline says, "OOCly oi vey." Jacqueline says, "OOCLy is bey's bag still trump-blocked? thinking of having mutsumi try to trump him away..." John says, "OOC Aeris can choose who to block and who not, so Mutsumi could do that." Beowulf releases the teleport without items spell and teleports himself back outside the bag. Jacqueline, seeing Beowulf suddenly freed, sends her tendrils at the woman, while trying to force her to make eye contact. Beowulf attempts to teleport. Vice tries to power word him and fails. He lands in the courtyard butt naked. Jacqui directs the tendrils at Vice. Vice nails them with Jacqui's true name and Magic Negation adn they go poof. Your efforts to establish eye contact aren't successful; the metal is in the way. Jacqueline tries to direct her mind to the metal and take it over. Jacqui reaches out with her mind, and quickly wins the battle for control of the liquid metal, as her mind is STRONG, and while Vice ain't bad, she ain't in Jacqui class by a long shot. Beowulf looks at Mutsumi. "Have Aeris try trumping her out here to us!" Beowulf grabs the best thing he can find to brain her with if Aeris can get her out. Jacqueline turns the metal against Vice, intending to wrap her up. Jacqueline says, "OOCLy oops, me dont know it's vice. 'against her' :)" Vice turns and begins to flee deeper into Bagworld as Jacqui unleashes the metal towards her. Aeris reports, "She's holding off my power with Logrus Defense, Daddy." Jacqueline tries the 'look at me' tactic one more time Vice manages to resist that and slips out the door into somewhere deeper in Bag World Beowulf exclaims, "Everyone! Get into the bag after her!" Jacqueline says, "crap." Thoric nods and takes point, diving in. Mutsumi hops in after him. Jacqueline jumps in, blades of electricity forming in both hands. Beowulf jumps in, grabbing one of the paintball guns out of his pile of stuff. Beowulf asks, "OOC Is she in sight?" John says, "OOC She's made it out the door deeper into the place." Jacqueline asks, "Uncle Beowulf, where's that door go?" Beowulf turns off Logrus inside the bag as quickly as he can, running as best as he can. You chase after her. Aeris announces, "She's used some kind of magical item to step into an adjacent shadow. You're going to have to chase her through shadow." Beowulf says, "Out into the world inside the bag; it's a city out there." Jacqueline says, "crap" Beowulf asks, "OOC Still inside the bag?" John says, "OOC THe adjacent shadow is not under your control and not inside the bag. You can easily use Pattern to give chase, though." Beowulf asks, "OOC How good are our chances of catching her?" John says, "OOC You don't know how fast she can shadow travel, but you think the odds are good enough to be wroth trying." Beowulf OOCly nods. Who's the best Pattern user present? Jacqueline taps her ring as she runs. "Uncle Mo, got any spare horses?" John says, "OOC PRobably Jacqui, as she can do Shadows of Desire and has High Psyche." Morgernstern sends the four of you each a nice horse. Jacqueline hops on a horse. "Let's ride!" Beowulf grabs his stuff back and jumps on the horse. "I'd use something faster I made, but she had time enough to booby-trap it." Jacqueline says, "These are uncle Mo's horses, I'm sure he did something weird to them to make'em go faster." Beowulf nods. "Right. Tally-ho!" Jacqueline leads the chase, using her pattern skills to chase after their quarry. You take off at a gallop, through the doors and through the streets of a 1930s style city. You soon find yourself galloping through some place called 'Chicago', right into busy car traffic. You can see Vice up ahead, driving a rather nice roadster. Beowulf asks, "OOC Can I shift shadow enough to give her a flat tire, or would that interfere with what Jacqui's doing?" Jacqueline asks, "OOCLy can the horses possibly hope to match her speed?" John says, "OOC You could try to manipulate probability to make the tire blow out, yes." Jacqueline says, "OOCLy or perhaps I can .... yes. thatn :)" John says, "OOC You're going to need to either disable the car or switch to something faster soon." Jacqueline says, "OOCLy suggest beo try the pattern trick" Beowulf tries shifting probability to give her a flat tire. Jacqueline exclaims, "Uncle Mo, we need something a little faster!" Morgy says, "But most of my fast stuff only works in certain sahdows. Want a Rolls-Royce?" Jacqueline says, "make it a open-top one, we need to jump in, can't afford to stop." Jacqueline asks, "bring it here matching the speed of the horses, yeah?" Vice's tire blows out. She screams angrily and fires a crossbow bolt that hits Jacqui in the chest. Jacqui bleeds profusely and falls off her horse. Then Vice tries desperately to avoid crashing horribly. Jacqueline says, "hnnng." Jacqueline. o O (The chest. Again.) Jacqueline shouts a power word magic disrupt at the arrow. The arrow shatters and Jacqui stops trying to turn to stone. Thoric hops off his horse and goes to Jacqui's aid. Jacqueline staggers to her feet, trying to shift the wound shut. "Where.... where is she." Mutsumi draws a pistol from the horse's saddlebags and tries to shoot out Vice's other tires withotu much luck. Beowulf fires at another tire with acid paintballs. Jacqueline asks, "Uncle... Uncle Mo..... can you seal this shadow off?" The other tire gets blown out and the car skids and smshes into parked cars. Vice clambers out of the wreck, takes a shot, and puts a bolt in Mutsumi's eye. She screams and flies off her horse, then thuds to the ground hard. Jacqueline exclaims, "M... Mutsumi!!!!" Morgenstern says, "I'll give it my best shot, Jacqui." He also bamfs in the car she ordered. Thoric casts a healing spell on Jacqui's chest, then sees Mutsumi. Beowulf winces in horror and fires knockout paintballs at Vice. Jacqueline runs as best as she can to Mutsumi, shouting a power word magic disrupt at the arrow The arrow shatters. Mutsumi lies there and bleeds. Vice and Beowulf begin trading shots. Vice has enoguh cover from wrecked cars to avoid his shots, while her shots don't even come close to hurting Beowulf. Jacqueline falls to her knees by Mutsumi and pulls out the Cup, invoking its magic. She pours water over Mutsumi's wound. Jacqueline says, "please.... please.... please...." Thoric begins casting a spell, looking very angry. Mutsumi's wound begins to heal, washing away the blood. Beowulf advances on her, keeping up the barrage of shots to keep her down while he tries to get close enough to whack her with Morkeleb. Vice takes the chance, however, to shoot Jacqui in the head as she does this. Jacqui's left eardrum gets pierced. Blood flies, the agony is intense, and hey, she's trying to turn to stone again. Meanwhile, Beowulf is advancing on Vice, dodging her shots. She starts to fall back. Jacqueline reels from the pain, falling to her side. She tries shouting power word magic disrupt again. The arrow in Jacqui's ear shatters. Mutsumi's eye wound stops bleeding now. Jacqui's wound keeps bleeding. Jacqueline dumps the remaining water in the cup in her ear Thoric finishes his spell. A fireball streaks into the wrecked cars, igniting the pooling gasoline. FWAKOOM! The whole pile explodes with Vice inside the area of effect. Jacqueline invokes the cup again, now that she's got water-ear, refilling it, and pours more water on Mutsumi's wound. "Please please please please be alright please." Vice gets charred extra-crispy, but being a shifter, can take a burning and keep on lurching. She uses the burning vehicles as cover and now tries to hose down Thoric with bolts as Beowulf advances. Unfortunately, her shooting skills aren't good enough to hit him. Mutsumi mumbles, "My eye hurts." Jacqueline kisses Mutsumi's forehead. "We'll get it fixed, I promise." Jacqueline says, "Uncle Mo.... protect Mutsumi. I've got a mind to throttle." Beowulf conjures a fire extinguisher as he advances and uses it to get close enough to her to whack on her. Thoric starts casting another spell. Jacqueline says, "Thoric, uncle beowulf wants her alive. We can kill her after I empty out her head." John says, "OOC Dang, I suddenly just realized Beowulf is still naked. ^^;;;" Jacqueline says, "OOCLy HAHAHHAHAHH" Jacqueline exclaims, "OOCLY WAHAHAHHAHHHA!" Beowulf says, "OOC Well, he was in kind of a hurry after grabbing the *important* stuff... ^_^" Beowulf makes his way through the flames, clearing himself a path of approach. Thoric nods to Jacqui and aborts the spell, switching to a different one. Jacqueline shouts a Power Word Neural Disrupt at the woman Good thinking Jacqui. Right as Vice reaches to bring down flamign wreckage on Beowulf, instead she gets Neural Disrupted, and twitches instead while Beo begins bashing at her with...oh, what exactly are you using as a weapon? Beowulf says, "OOC Morkeleb, going for disabling hits, then hitting her with knockout paintballs as soon as I think I can do so -- basically, most effective way to knock her out." Jacqueline tries the 'look at my eyes, bitch' trick one more time. Sadly, the flaming wreckage around her hampers her ability to look into Jacqui's eyes even if she wanted to. Fortunately, Beowulf's assault prevents Vice shooting Jacqui up again. Fortunately, Beo had time to grab his psychic barrier, so that her Coordination Disruption fails to make him stumble, as it clicks up and protects him. Unfortunately, it isn't able to prevent her using weaken structure to make one of the piled up vehicles fall over onto both of them. Fortunately, Beowulf batters her hard before she pulls this off, and as flaming metal comes down on him, she falls down too. Jacqueline asks, "OOCly so they're both KOed?" Beowulf wiggles out from under the cars and makes sure she's well and truly knocked out. Jacqueline says, "OOCLy or not" A mangled, flaming Beowulf crawls out of the wreckage. A huge 6' tall hand appears and grabs Vice and drags her out. Beowulf stops, drops, and rolls and puts himself out. Beowulf says, "...crap." Jacqueline asks, "OOCLy whoaaa...... is that hand perchance made out of metal?" John says, "OOC Nope, it' looks like a giant white gloved hand." Jacqueline says, "Thoric.... tell me that's you." Beowulf asks, "OOC Damn. Anything it looks like we can do about it?" Thoric directs the hand to drag Vice over to him. He says to Beowulf, "If you can make it over here, I can heal you." Beowulf nods and lurches over to Thoric. Beowulf says, "Make sure she's going to *stay* out." Thoric tasers her. Twice. Jacqueline asks, "OOCLy I asked Uncle Mo to guard Mutsumi.... is a manifestation of him hovering over her or something?" OOC Yep. You can now hear the sound of cop sirens coming. Jacqueline says, "Uncle Mo, bring us to your place. Seal off the shadow." Beowulf says, "Trump us... right, Jacqui, that works." Jacqueline says, "and see what you can do for Mutsumi." Jacqueline cracks her knuckles, apparently looking forward to mind-throttling this one. Morgenstern yanks you all to Mo-land, into a nice room with comfy beds for mangled people. Beowulf says, "Fast-time us, please... I don't want folks to worry about us back in Amber or Gainax." Morgenstern fast-times you AND puts on 'Electric Avenue' on the speakers. Now that's service with a smile. Thoric begins working on a regeneration spell for Mutsumi. Beowulf looks around as he settles back. "First time I've been here, Jacqui, Morganstern -- a very nice place." Jacqueline says, "thoric.... give me a hand here, I want to make sure there's no traps in her head that will go off if I try to invade. When you're done with Mutsumi." Beowulf wraps a sheet around himself, then goes over to see if he can help Jacqui. Jacqueline says, "Uncle Mo, she makes one false move, flood her head with ABBA." Jacqueline casts the usual Lense spells to look Vice over and see what nasty traps might be waiting. Beowulf asks, "Anything I can do to help?" Jacqueline says, "if you've got any experience in loooking for magic traps, help me look over her." Thoric nods. "Alright." He comes over to help Jacqui. Thoric says, "If you can do anything to help Mutsumi's eye, this would be a good time to do it, since I don't have a regeneration racked." Jacqueline says, "I don't, but Motoko does." Jacqueline says, "if she could grow sis' arm back, I'm sure she could help Mutsumi." Beowulf tries to smile. "Well, looks like I'll get to play Lian... I can make something that will clone her a new eye and put it in." Unfortunately, his attempt to smile doesn't come off, and he just looks badly hurt at Mutsumi's injury. Mutsumi says softly, "Thanks, Beo-chan." Beowulf says, "We'll make it better for you, Mutsumi-chan," he murmurs. Jacqueline says, "Beowulf, call people, see if you can find anyone else that can help Mutsumi. I think Motoko's busy right now." Jacqueline asks, "right. looks all clean. Thoric, she look clear to you?" Thoric nods. "Yes, I think she's clean." Beowulf says, "It's probably better to just make the machine, since we're in fasttime here." Beowulf starts conjuring. Jacqueline puts her hand on Justice's handle, hoping it's enough to repel any mental attacks that might spring up. With her other hand she touches Vice and invades very carefully. Beowulf continues conjuring, keeping an eye out for Jacqui. You enter her mind with Thoric. Vice has fairly good mental defenses, quite respectable, but both of you are much stronger than her. She's a professional assasin, quite good at her job, hired by Yog'Ybootymac to assassinate as many Amberites as she can. She tried at one point to break into Gainax and take out Miki, Davros, and Motoko, but Motoko managed to chase ehr off. She's been waiting since then, and watching Gainax, to try to catch some Amberite alone, along withher partner, Mature. Jacqueline blinks. Yog? She digs for more information on that route. She's done work for Yog before over the last few years; he's a total superfreak, but his money is good. She suspects he's an agent for a major House of Chaos, but doesn't know which one. In fact, he went with her on the Gainax raid, but as far as she knows, he got his butt kicked. Still, he keeps giving her money, which is good eough for her. Jacqueline tries to see when the last time she saw Yog was Jacqueline says, "OOCLy saw or heard from" She last saw him three days ago, when he brought her more money and chewed her out for not getting results yet. Jacqueline says, "he... he's still alive." Beowulf asks, "Who?" Thoric says, "Yog'Ybootymac" Jacqueline says, "Yog Y'Bootymac. He's the one that hurt Uncle Mo the day..... thet day dad died. He's...." Her expression darkens considerably. "He's one of Taylor's men." Beowulf frowns. "I see." Jacqueline digs to see if she knows anything about Taylor D'Arden. She has never heard of Taylor d'Arden. Jacqueline's hand flexes on the hilt of Justice. She looks at Vice darkly. Jacqueline asks, "Thoric, how good are you at mental surgery?" Beowulf frowns. "Anyone else who she's ticked off down there?" Thoric says, "I'm pretty good at it." Jacqueline says, "Good. I have an idea." He continues, "You thinking of using her as bait for us to lure old Yog intoa trap?" Jacqueline says, "Vice is going to work for us." Jacqueline nods He smiles. "Sounds like a good idea." Jacqueline says, "let's do it." Beowulf says, "Her partner was a very skilled mage, though not as good as Mother. We'll have to make sure she stays away from her." Jacqueline frets. "If Yog hired her..... Uncle Mo, do you sense anyone trying to get into the shadow?" Jacqueline asks, "Do you think you'd be able to block Yog out if he tried to get in?" Beowulf looks worried. "I'm going to have to make sure Aeris' security is up to snuff as well." Jacqueline says, "Yog seemed to know how to get around Uncle Mo's defenses, that's why I'm worried." Morgenstern says, "I've got heavy defenses up...but yes, I think he might try. If he knows. But I doubt he watches Vice 24 hours a day or he would have shown up by now." Beowulf nods. Beowulf asks, "OOC Anything I can think of to help strengthen them?" Jacqueline fishes out the Taylor detector. "Here. Plug this into your system and use it. Want to make sure we're clear while we work on Vice." Jacqueline says, "give us a warning if he's coming" Morgenstern nods. "Will do." Jacqueline says to Thoric. "Let's get to work." John says, "OOC Well, you could easily build some robots with conjuration to act as a security force. But Morgy already has pretty strong defenses." Beowulf OOCly nods. Hours pass. You reprogram Vice. Beowulf finishes his machine, and replaces Mutsumi's eye with a shiny new clone eye. Jacqueline wires Vice up to be a double-agent, seemingly still working with Yog and Mature, but really trying to arrange things to bring Yog out in the open for capture. Jacqueline sighs. "Glad that went smooth." Thoric says, "We'll have to think of a good cover story of how she escaped." Jacqueline says, "point." Beowulf says, "Um, having her come into contact with Mature wouldn't be a good idea, I think." Jacqueline says, "damn." Jacqueline asks, "maybe we should try to use her to lure out Mature first, then use them both for Yog?" Thoric nods. "I think that's best." Beowulf hmmms. "Let's talk to Lady Yumi when we get back; she's probably subtler at this sort of thing than any of us." Jacqueline nods. John says, "OOC And we cut here, as I want sleeeeeep." Beowulf says, "But yes, go after Mature first." Jacqueline asks, "All clear on the Taylor-sensors?" Beowulf says, "OOC Ayup. x.x" Jacqueline says, "OOCly okie." Beowulf asks, "OOC So, was Bey originally supposed to just get away, or did you originally think he'd capture her?" John says, "OOC I figured that you might get lucky and catch them both, but that probably you'd have to get help and come gunning for them with backup. And if you screwed up, they might catch you." John says, "OOC They've been waiting a looong time for someone to come out of Gainax by themselves " Beowulf OOCly nods. "Well, one out of two isn't too bad, and not getting caught is better. :)" Jacqueline says, "OOCly and a few more little points in the bucket for my 'resurrect the leather knight' fund :)" John says, "OOC Since Day 52" Beowulf says, "OOC At the beginning, I thought I had a pretty good shot at getting them both. x.x Then they turned on the big guns. o.o" Jacqueline says, "they is some nashty, nashty wimmen" Jacqueline says, "shit, i think i'll want them to walk uncle mo's pattern after this :)" John says, "They are both pretty tough, yes." Jacqueline says, "it'd be good to get them on our side :)" Beowulf says, "Mature will probably be ready for 'teleport without items' next time... but was still great to see it work this time. :)" John says, "It was a GREAT idea." Jacqueline says, "and we got to see NAKED BEOWULF ACTION" Beowulf bee-dah's. :p Jacqueline says, "well, this derails me from hunting down the two taylors in the amber side of things, but if we do this right, we bag Yog, who seems to be the biggest Taylor out there." Beowulf nods. "Fun. Just when Bey *needed* another thing on his plate. o.o" Beowulf says, "Still, that's life in the big city. :)" Beowulf asks, "Head on back to the main room, then? " Jacqueline says, "sure, i guess" Arden Amber Central(#3434RLJ) Beowulf OOCly waves tiredly. Jacqueline says, "wooo" Jacqueline says, "Damn." Jacqueline says, "uncle mo's gonna be happy to get two hot chicks to serve him :)" Gabrielle says, "Way to slap around Vice." John says, "Yep :)" Beowulf says, "Was very nasty. o.O Um, right. ^_^" John says, "Well, Vice had less points than all four of the people after her :)" Beowulf bliinks. o.o John says, "Although, being a top Chaos assassin, she had fairly high # of points" Beowulf says, "She was very effective at using them, then." Finn says, "Well, that's not hard. I mean most of the PCs are edging up into the 275-300 range." Jacqueline says, "i sense Tactics at work." Jacqueline says, "she seemed to be very sharp at Tactics" Gabrielle says, "Well, it wouldn't take much. In Chaos, having Amber in all four stats means you're better than 90% of the population already." Jacqueline says, "knew who to nail and when" Beowulf says, "Yup, that she did. Although she didn't get Thoric... man, is he coming on strong." John says, "She ahd the advantage of a pretty thorough briefing on the Princes and Princesses." John says, "Thoric is a Bleys. He isn't #1 in anything, but he's pretty high and pretty balanced. " Jacqueline says, "certainly has enough warfare." Gabrielle says, "Now that he's not a ravening coward anymore, he should be very effective." Beowulf says, "He's had some good confidence boosters." John nods. Exactly. Gabrielle says, "He's stronger than I thought he'd be. " Jacqueline says, "he has Stud Power" Gabrielle says, "And was fortunate in that Kenshin probably wasn't very strong at all." Jacqueline says, "Keep the beer flowing and the wimmen lusting, and he can take on an army." John says, "Thoric had close to twice Kenshin's physical strength." Jacqueline whistles Beowulf says, "Yow." Gabrielle says, "I'm sorta amazed Saitoh didn't show up in the battle." Gabrielle says, "Though that's fortunate, as Saitoh woud've fuckered you all." John says, "Saitoh is off elsewhere doing other things and will be showing up to make people's lives miserable elsehwere" John says, "He's appeared on screen under another name. :)" Beowulf says, "Huh." Gabrielle says, "Hunh." Jacqueline says, "erm." Jacqueline asks, "Dworkin?" Gabrielle says, "Saitoh is pretty badass." Gabrielle says, "Though I guess Soujiro was arguably nastier." Finn says, "Canonically, Soujiro would crush Saitoh like a bug." John nods Finn says, "Presuming that goody-goody Kenshin doesn't fuck Soujiro's head up." Beowulf says, "Huh. Soujiro was only slightly better than me in that fight -- faster, but he was only barely able to parry my whip strokes." Jacqueline asks, "he was distracted with lowen, maybe?" Finn says, "Canon Soujirou != TAMD Soujirou, I'm sure." Gabrielle says, "I think it would be a close fight, Dan. Saitoh is about as good as Kenshin, and Soujiro isn't all that horrendously better than Kenshin." John says, "Yep." Gabrielle says, "If Soujiro jumped Saitoh unexpectedly, he'd likely win, but if Saitoh had time to prp, or even choose where they fought, I think he could tear Soujiro a new one." John notes for the record that Kenshin was built on less points than any of the PCs he faced in that fight. Jacqueline says, "..." Beowulf says, "Again? o.O" Finn says, "Saitoh and Kenshin are fairly evenly matched *before* Kenshin learns two new movies, including his succession technique, and learns to to be stone cold while not losing control. Soujiro fights Kenshin to a standstil and is winning *after* Kenshin learns those techniques, and it's not until Kenshin messes with his head that he has even a chance of winning." Jacqueline says, "psychic sinkhole, peanut stats but some bulk in strength and overload in war" John says, "Yep" Jacqueline says, "ah. he went Shafty." Finn says, "Plus, Soujiro is *toying* with Kenshin. He says "I'll try 5 steps slower than my max speed" and works up." John says, "Combined with him having a P-blade and swiftly getting another one" Jacqueline says, "woof" Gabrielle says, "That's why I said Saitoh would need time to prep and/or choose the battleground in order to win. As Saitoh has a nasty mind, and fights muh, much dirtier than either Kenshin or Soujiro." Beowulf says, "It probably would have been better for Moonshade to have had Justice, I'm guessing." John says, "Yes." Jacqueline says, "sadly, she's still on her Primal Buffet." Jacqueline says, "and.... by the time we get back, she just might be already smashing up furniture." Jacqueline says, "as Miki hasn't told her yet, but will soon" Beowulf says, "No, I mean back in the Kenshin fight. As a) it might have been good enough to keep her from getting skewered so badly, and b) he would have had a lot harder time taking it from her than he did from Jacqui." Jacqueline says, "point, that." Jacqueline says, "kenshinw oulda been set afire by it" Beowulf says, "Well, hey, the Mature/Yog trap might be enough to keep her mind off things... heck, it might have been Yog who set that up." Jacqueline says, "and moriya woulna' been as mangled" Jacqueline says, "they are so walking mo's pattern after we get'em both :)" John says, "Heh" Jacqueline says, "...." Jacqueline says, "hey." Jacqueline says, "tell me jaqui got l3wt with that mind-metal" Beowulf says, "Nothing she couldn't pick up down in Quicksilver, really." Jacqueline says, "if it's still in beo's bag, i am so calling dibs." John says, "You can always go back and get it if you want :)" Jacqueline says, "I call dibs :)" Beowulf says, "Bey needs to check out his stuff and make sure Vice didn't have time to booby-trap it... heck, if you wanted some, all you had to do is *ask*, and Bey would happily have taken you there to get it. :)" Jacqueline says, "figure keeping it sheathed in cold iron would be a good safety measure. pop the top and dump it, and it's action time." Finn says, "hrm. Intersting idea. A character who used Quicksilver as their primary weapon/defense/tools/etc." Gabrielle asks, "Quicksilver?" Jacqueline says, "yep" Jacqueline says, "of course, you'd need psyche to wield its potential well" Finn says, "Yeah. You'd need a pretty all-around character, but it would be more interesting than 'ye old omni weapon' in some ways." Gabrielle says, "Hey, ye olde omninweapon is so prevalent for a very good reason." Beowulf nods. "The whip is made out of metal from Quicksilver. I thought about making it able to grow, etc. under the mental command of the weilder, but discarded that idea when I realized how many people with better psyche could take control away from me." Finn says, "Yes, Merc, but that doesn't make it *interesting*." Jacqueline mulls Jacqueline says, "oh. now would be a good time to try to send john templates that aren't blank." Gabrielle says, "No, it makes you alive and adequatley prepared for a wide range of combat scenarios." John says, "Heh. " Finn says, "Yes, and my point is that if you have a decent psyche and some Quicksilver, you can probably do the same thing, with a much more interesting "flavor"." John says, "It would be cool." Jacqueline asks, "john, what's yer email again?" Gabrielle says, "I tend not to mess around with my weapons. I'm very utilitarian in that regard." John says, "ranma@KU.edu" Beowulf says, "You'd also need a way to keep it from falling apart after you took it out of the shadow." Jacqueline says, "that short? O.o" John says, "Yep." Finn says, "Bah. Weapons say a *lot* about a character. The ones you use regularly, the ones you're most comfortable with, the way you use them. Someone carrying a rapier is probably quite a bit different in temperment than someone weilding a huge double-bladed axe." Jacqueline says, "sent and sent." Gabrielle says, "Oh, my weapons are generally tailored to my character. Horatio carried an insane talking laser cannon and OmniWeapon Supreme. Lysander totes around what is essentially Saitoh's sword with some Pattern qualities. Demetrius had his Freaky Abyss Blade. But in terms of powers, points, and weaknesses, I'm usually VERY conservative." Finn shrugs at Merc. "Some of my characters have lovingly crafted weapons with not a trace of "powers". Eorann's fighting staves are utterly mundane, except for being made of the finest materials like the heartwood of elder Arden trees and iron that has never touched the earth. Ivan had his gloves and gauntlets. Finn had his omni-weapon/bouncers, which were worth about 50-75 points by the end of the campaign."