Skyscraper Graveyard IC: Renaissance City

[the_druid_droid]

Turing entered the skyscraper, gesturing for the demon to accompany him. As he rode in the elevator toward the rest of his cabal, he wondered if all the sudden talk of royalty could be related? Queens, Princes... it just seemed odd that so many royal titles would be attached to shadowy figures of dubious existential status.

When the doors finally opened with a ding, he stepped quickly out and called to the others, "I'm back, and I've brought someone who might be able to help us figure out what we need to do. Have you discovered anything else about the plate yet?"

[If the demon doesn't follow him in, he'll just bring everyone outside]

[Thanqol]

The demon seemed to have no qualms about following Turing inside. He didn't say anything, just tapped his finger impatiently.

[Anarion]

"Yes, we did, and we have a pretty good idea of what to do and where to go. Though, the brain bugs apparently bite when we get too specific, so I'll fill you in when we get there. Besides, I think having them bite means we're on the right track."

*Notices giant goetic demon for the first time*

"Oh, uh, h-hi. Edelachtbare, right? How are you doing?"

[Thanqol]

The demon, as a rather thin, nicely suited clean-shaven lawyer, was barely recognisable as Edelachtbare. Probably the only thing that would have prompted Tessen to make that connection would have been the shared magical signature all around his Pattern, visible to Tessen's Prime Sight. To Prime or Mind sight it was also clearly visible that he was a construction of Mind magic. That meant that he existed entirely within a state of Twilight, meaning he had no physical substance.

"Oh, you know. Can't complain, other than the whole few hours to live thing," he said. "If you know where to go, let's go. No dilly dallying."

[Anarion]

"Oh, um yes, I'm sorry about that. I hope you enjoy the time you have here. Now we need to head to 48th street. Jack, did you want to drive, or are you worried you'll get your car stolen in that neighborhood?" Tessen tries to give a friendly smile to the Edalachtbare goetic demon, and then, if nobody objects, will begin walking to either the car or wherever Jack suggests.

[Thanqol]

The demon seemed happy not to waste time and shared no objection about the nature of their transportation.

The 48th was a really bad neighbourhood to park a car in, but some magic might be able to ease the pain.

[Tiki Snakes]

"I'll trust my luck." Jack smiled, absently.

[Which is to say, Fate Magic as necessary to find a safe place to park it]

"Short version is that some Junkies in a squat down on 48th cooked and ate their dead friend. When they tried to say grace, something came through. Tessen has some dangerous sounding ideas on how to fix it."

[Thanqol]

"I'll trust my luck." Jack smiled, absently.

[Which is to say, Fate Magic as necessary to find a safe place to park it]

"Short version is that some Junkies in a squat down on 48th cooked and ate their dead friend. When they tried to say grace, something came through. Tessen has some dangerous sounding ideas on how to fix it."

[There is a Fate+Gnosis (unless you've got a rote that sounds more relevant) roll called for here. Only one roll, you won't know if it's succeeded or failed until you see the results. Remember you can use High Speech.]

"Hm. I was right," sniffed the demon. "I certainly hope none of you are on anything because I suspect the spirits of the place are going to be nasty."

[Deadly]

"Goodie," Amun mumbled. "I had a single drink earlier at the speakeasy, if that's something to worry about." You never knew when dealing with brain slugs and Mirror Man providing the drinks.

[Thanqol]

"Goodie," Amun mumbled. "I had a single drink earlier at the speakeasy, if that's something to worry about." You never knew when dealing with brain slugs and Mirror Man providing the drinks.

"So long as you're not an addict, and preferably if you don't have any past addictions, you should be fine," said the demon.

[Tiki Snakes]

[No, I don't have an applicable rote. I will use High Speech though. That would give me a dice pool of 6, if I understand correctly. (I take it you'll be rolling in the name of secrecy?) If all else fails, it's not like failing the roll will guarantee something bad will happen, (Unless penalties put it into a chance dice, I guess). I will however be casting a rote as backup; Finder.
So that if some blighter DOES steal it, I'll know where it's gone.
3 - 10 - 3 - 5 - 3 - 1 - 7 - 2 - 7 (Avg: 4.55555555556)
Ten's get re-rolled? 3 (Avg: 3.0) So, one success. (I don't think any sympathetic penalties would count, but if so I can always re-roll, or even cast again, even with a -1 penalty there's still plenty of dice there.)]

"I can't say I've ever been addicted to anything, no. I have my vices, sure, but nothing like that."

[Anarion]

"Well, I did smoke a cigarette recently for the first time ever. That doesn't count, does it?"

[Thanqol]

[No, I don't have an applicable rote. I will use High Speech though. That would give me a dice pool of 6, if I understand correctly. (I take it you'll be rolling in the name of secrecy?) If all else fails, it's not like failing the roll will guarantee something bad will happen, (Unless penalties put it into a chance dice, I guess). I will however be casting a rote as backup; Finder.
So that if some blighter DOES steal it, I'll know where it's gone.
3 - 10 - 3 - 5 - 3 - 1 - 7 - 2 - 7 (Avg: 4.55555555556)
Ten's get re-rolled? 3 (Avg: 3.0) So, one success. (I don't think any sympathetic penalties would count, but if so I can always re-roll, or even cast again, even with a -1 penalty there's still plenty of dice there.)]

"I can't say I've ever been addicted to anything, no. I have my vices, sure, but nothing like that."

[No secrecy required; you know OOC, Jack won't know in character. You can certainly roll the Fate pool, what I'm saying is that you only roll once. There are consequences for failure that aren't immediately obvious so you can't spam the roll until it works.

Finder is a good backup. Traditional technique is just to report it stolen but in Detroit you'll probably find a bricked wreck instead. Jack's got enough Resources to have car insurance here but damn is it pricey.]

"Well, I did smoke a cigarette recently for the first time ever. That doesn't count, does it?"

"No, I don't imagine it does," said the demon.

There was not much in the mundane world that could stop two Fate and one Forces Mage from reaching 48th street quickly and efficiently. Soon enough, they were outside the crackhouse.

It was a dingy, horrid, two-story building, on a dingy, horrid street. A lamp pole had fallen over in the middle of the road and nobody had bothered to move or repair it; when cars did come down the street they just kind of drove onto the pavement to dodge it. There were dealers wandering, solitary silhouettes, calling out the names of their wares. The houses were decaying and crumbling.

The one Jack recognised seemed especially awful. It was in freefall decay, with part of the roof fallen in, piles of garbage forming a kind of moat, boarded up windows and graffiti that consisted mostly of swear words. The smell was horrible.

[Tiki Snakes]

[I will trust to the fact that it is an old, not recently washed car with nothing of obvious value inside and the best my terrible luck with my online dice-roller of choice.
fate/gnosis/high speech - 10 - 10 - 9 - 1 - 9 - 10 (Avg: 8.16666666667)
Oh. (6 - 2 - 6, so no more on rerolls). So that's where all my success were hiding.]

"Well, looks like the place." Jack said, filling the silence with empty words. "...I think it's time to put our game faces on, guys."
Jack's expression hardened slightly as he sized up the canker of a building.

[the_druid_droid]

Turing grimaced at Jack's summary of his vision. What the hell happened to this city? And what's going to happen to us...?

His frown deepened when the demon brought up addictions. He wasn't an addict per se, but he certainly hadn't been keeping himself from enjoying life after his return from Miami. In what was probably a futile gesture, he fished out the cigarette pack from his pocket, glared at it for a long moment, then threw it in the trash can before stepping onto the elevator with the others.

***

When they arrived at the house, Turing let out a low whistle. "I guess this does seem like the brain spider corner of town, now that we're here. So what's the plan, anyway?"

[Thanqol]

"Hm. As I thought, this place is infested. It might be extremely disorienting once you are inside," said the demon, glaring at the exterior of the crackhouse.

[Tiki Snakes]

"...I think we should discuss the plan, here and now before we go any further. Tessen you should probably tell the man what you're thinking."

[Anarion]

"o..kay. Hopefully the brain bug won't be too much of a problem. Um, so I thought that since the plate was made by saying grace over a really heinous act, that fixing it might be related to cleaning this place up, helping the people here, serving them a proper meal, and maybe saying a proper grace over that meal. I mean, obviously we should look around inside first and figure out what's going on and see if there are more clues or something, but that was just an idea that I had."

[Thanqol]

The demon nodded. "But for one aspect that sounds right. If it is a perversion of the ritual the only need we need to tend to is the ritual itself. The people here, if any, are superfluous and probably insane."

[All: Take one point of bashing damage.]

[Thanqol]

Scenario: Thanksgiving Dinner

How this works:

Tessen is on to something; between her idea, the demon's advice, and your combined enlightened will you can sense that this plan is dealing harm to the thing in your heads. This is, essentially, a combined group ritual. No Arcana is involved so you will instead be rolling the sum of the party's Gnosis.

Penalties will be applied for everything that is dissonant with the ideal of the perfect thanksgiving dinner. The walls being filthy, the turkey being takeout, forgetting to say grace, all these kinds of things will impose penalties. Taking the idea awesomely in the other direction, living up the stereotypes, will give bonuses.

You will make the Gnosis roll whenever you finish the dinner. More time preparing the house gives you an easier time of it, but this will be resisted by malicious entities. There's also the fact that you're on a time limit - you have a meeting with a Seer tomorrow at midday.

There is a low-Wisdom instant win solution.

[the_druid_droid]

Turing shrugged. "The idea makes as much sense as anything I've thought of, and if the rest of you think it's viable, I'll be there by your side. If looks are any indication, this isn't going to be pleasant, even if we win."

[Tiki Snakes]

"Sounds like we have a plan, then. Well, what do you think..." Jack looks at the Goetic Demon for a moment before interrupting himself. "Oh, what should we call you by the way?"

He paused, then started over. "What do you think, we go in and see about clearing out anything too weird first, as a group, or split up into teams, one to lock the place down and one to get the supplies we'll need for this plan of ours?"

[Anarion]

"I think we should take a quick look around to make sure it's safe first. Then we can split up and do some cooking and cleaning."'

Tessen seems like she's really looking forward to this.

[Thanqol]

"Sounds like we have a plan, then. Well, what do you think..." Jack looks at the Goetic Demon for a moment before interrupting himself. "Oh, what should we call you by the way?"

"Whatever," said the demon, offering no other opinion.

[the_druid_droid]

"Personally, I like Dominic as a name for you." Turing's suggestion was based on a particularly chatty professor he used to work with, and he give the demon a hint of a grin as he said it.

"However, in the spirit of not walking into a bad horror movie, I recommend we don't split up once we're inside, unless there's a very compelling reason to. No sense giving the Abyss a chance to screw with us one-on-one." With that, Turing stepped forward and rapped sharply on the door. Might as well see if anyone was home.

[Thanqol]

[I need everyone to tell me all spells you have active, as well as give me an initiative roll. You're not in combat right now but should combat arise that initiative roll will determine who's actions resolve first.

I'm inherently leery about initiative systems in PBPs (can lead to car crashes and scheduling issues). So don't worry about posting in the initiative order. The initiative numbers will be used to determine who acted first if and when that becomes an issue. These are fraction-of-second differences so there isn't really an IC-advantage of hanging back and seeing what everyone else does before you act.]

There was no answer to the knock.

[Deadly]

[Initiative: (1d10+4)[12]

Amun has his Prime Sight on.

He also has Fortune's Protection for +2 armor. Am I right in thinking this protects against any attack that he could reasonably escape by some sort of luck, not just mundane attacks? I'm going to spend 1 mana to make it last all day. I'll make this a daily thing from now on, something he does every morning unless I decide otherwise.

Amun is getting slightly paranoid. I think I like the idea of paranoid Amun.]

Amun spent some time preparing himself, surreptitiously going through his many pockets, before following. He didn't stand in front of the door, however, as Turing knocked. Instead he stood slightly to the side. It might be intentional, or just a random thing of no importance.

[Thanqol]

[Initiative: [roll0]

Amun has his Prime Sight on.

He also has Fortune's Protection for +2 armor. Am I right in thinking this protects against any attack that he could reasonably escape by some sort of luck, not just mundane attacks? I'm going to spend 1 mana to make it last all day. I'll make this a daily thing from now on, something he does every morning unless I decide otherwise.

[Yes, anything where chance is a factor.

So it'd protect you from being shot at, or having a building fall on you but not from, say, poison gas or standing directly in the path of a rolling bolder.]

Amun is getting slightly paranoid. I think I like the idea of paranoid Amun.]

[A very healthy trait for a Mage to have.]

Prime Sight gives Amun no sense of Awakened magic around this place, but the Resonance was nasty. It was a euphoria, a pure, unrestrained, terrible happiness, so deep that it was utterly paralysed. Around the edges of this addicted euphoria, the resonance of decay boomed loudly. Like eating a sweet apple with a rotten core.

[Anarion]

[Going in unknown, Tessen will put up the full gamut. Prime sight, forces sight, forces armor giving her +4 armor, which I will add a duration factor to increase it to a day as well.

Initiative roll. 6+(1d10)[2]]

[Tiki Snakes]

[Initiative 6+(2 (Avg: 2.0)), so 8? I'll also put up Omnivision and Temporal Eddies, again not expecting to see anything but lacking an armour rote why the hell not? Perhaps I could improvise some protection instead? Lets say a twist on the fate protection, but working differently.
Let's say, it would guide me to be in locations, positions etc that make targeting me coincidentally more awkward, trickier and less convenient? Either it'd just give the standard (Fate Dots) armour, or simply mean I was more likely to already be in cover or something?
I'd be using Fate + Gnosis + High Speech, so, five dice to roll isn't it?]

"In we go then, I guess."