For Science! Test Group A. Chapter one, It ain't over till the fat man screams.

[Recaiden]

"Here's...well, a great false trail for Jeff or an explanation. The original car was sold off and then stolen from the new dealers. Which tells us little, and means we can't track it through legit channels." Dorien sighs.

[The Kings Raven]

"So they sold the van, then stole their own van to make a paper trail but put fake plates on it so it looks like a proper stolen getaway vehicle and the last person you'd ever expect is that they'd stolen their own van but left easily identifiable markings pointing at themselves because no one would ever suspect anyone to do something that silly! Lilly paused her increasingly incomprehensible and breathless stream of words. She thought about what she was saying and looked at one of the lab safety posters Harry had put up everywhere. There in black and white below a glowering puppy was a warning: You will see patterns where there are none, stop that.

"I don't, I don't think the pet shop people are involved. Give me a moment, I need to self medicate." Lilly turns on her ipod and starts a playlist of pirated pop songs that imply a woman's life revolves around fashion, popularity and boyfriends. Enough to slow down anyone's brain.

"I think the pet shop is just a coincidence, or just left as a distraction by the actual thief. I could look around the dealers but I think we're three months too late for that. Here's the thing if they're not from the pet shop then there's no link to me, they might be after all the Inspired, I suggest we break until pub-hours then try asking around, maybe whoever knows something just didn't post online and we need to put the warning out."

ooc trivia:I intended her first idea to be silly but not incomprehensible, somehow it came out as pure awful English. Why look a gift horse in the mouth?

[Recaiden]

"Right. Jeff probably is innocently in America."
He nods. "That sounds good. I should be getting some work done anyway."

[The Kings Raven]

Lilly returns to her science homework, after purging her brain with another few minuets of anti-thought music.

[The Kings Raven]

*Timeskip*

It was evening and the Inspired had desended upon DC Franks for drinks as bizzare as their names and the company of one's peers. Lilly Clark entered wearing heir finest formal labcoat and chrome edged welding goggles upon her forehead. Her mission, put the warning out that someone was spying on Geniuses and maybe hear if anyone else had a similar encounter.

Of course everyone knew intoxication lubicated the gears of socalisation, and by everyone we mean young Inspired woman named Lilly who didn't need much excuse to grab a drink. And so, carbonated fermented peach and chilli in hand, Lilly desended upon the crowd. Starting with those her own age, taking gaps in coversation when they occurred, forcing herself in when they didn't, Lilly began to spread the warning.

Presence (3) + Socalise (-1)
(2d10)[6][8](14)

[Evil DM Mark3]

OK, I am making a decision, because of the spotty attendance of some players both groups are below a functional level. Test Group B join thread A, anyone who has not posted in the last 48 hours has until 9pm, GMT, on Monday to move their character sheet over to As OOC thread or be booted.

At a corner table you see Frank talking to, a tank?

Yes.

He seems highly distressed, Frank that is, not the tank. You also recognise that there are a lot more people here than usual, and those people who are here are more influential on the whole. The air seems like that before a storm. You get some way warning younger people, but the older peers seem cagey and evasive.

Something is insulting Newton.

[Exthalion]

Alrai had had a stressful day recovering from his scouring. Now, as he walked to the bar he almost forgot how tired he was. He felt the stars singing on his skin. He heard the intricate dance of electricity and heat a modern city brings. He saw the lingering echos of thought and all the mental processes that had birthed them.

He stopped mid way and steadied himself and chanted something in a throaty whisper. Opening his eyes he looked on with supernal vision, seeing things beyond mortal ken; the true nature of all he surveyed.

A rather tired looking young man of obvious Asian descent half walks half stumbles into the bar. Settling next to the tank he rests his head for a moment on his crossed hands.

Briefly he scans the room, occasionally stopping to scrutinize something that caught his attention.

Spoiler

Show

Supernal Vision
Dice Pool: Wits+Occult+Prime+High Speech=1+0+1+2=4
(4d10)[9][3][9][2](23)

[Evil DM Mark3]

The whole room seems to be filled with a thin white mist, its effects on your already tired mind is in danger of giving you a migraine. The lightening you have come to associate with Mania swims in the air and over everyone, far more rapidly and visibly in a few people sitting at the table furthest from the door. Flashes of that light seem to be moving in the air between Geniuses, almost as though it was jumping between them, although what that would mean is beyond you. Many of the wonders here in the bar have far more directed and focused auras than the works of your collogues, whatever that means.


"OK Ark, give me the data and we will see what is what."

[Malfunctioned]

A tallish man, his exact ethnicity hard to pin down but dark olive skin and tightly curled hair seem to be all that stands out, walks into the bar and stands just behind Alrai. He wears a heavy worn leather jacket, slightly oversized jeans and a pair of fingerless wool gloves.
"You're doing it, aren't you?" He questions Alrai.

[Exthalion]

"If you mean following my career path, then yes. However, something is not quite right. Going by the last time we were here as a baseline."

[X15lm204]

A little ways away, a young man listens to Lilly's warning with interest. He is a tall, well-built man with messy blond hair, a friendly face, and reading glasses perched on the end of his nose. Contrasting strongly with this is the fact that he is wearing bulky armour from the neck down, and giving occasional nervous glances he throws at the more hostile- or twitchy-looking patrons of the bar. He has no drink or meal.

I wonder... he says as Lilly concludes, have you or your friends by chance seen or heard of a squid-like device in the river? It's got a friend of mine- he nods towards Frank and Ark -quite worked up, and I get the feeling this isn't something that can be safely left alone... Most likely the two occurrences are unrelated, but I'd rather take no chances with this.

Oh, I'm Sean Baines, by the way. He offers a hand to shake.

[Exthalion]

To confirm his suspicion, Alrai began to scrutinize the resonance of the white fog.

Spoiler

Show

Scrutinize Resonance Intelligence+Occult=5+2=7 Storyteller is supposed to roll for me. Mage the Awakening Page:277-280

10 rounds of scrutiny

[Recaiden]

Dorien strides into the bar. He's remembered to take off his labcoat and looks almost normal, only the odd monocle over his left eye looking out of place beneath his messy brown hair.
Ordering a drink at random, he drifts over by Lilly and her conversation partner. "Haven't heard a bit about it. Pleased to make your acquaintance though, Mr. Baines. Dorien myself."

[The Kings Raven]

"Er no, I don't do to much with the river. Water, electricity, you know. Think it might be Lemurian? We had a spy at our lab earlier."

To Dorien she says "Look at this place, something is definitely up and I don't think it's 24d, that's too organised to cause this. I'm going to find out what's going on."

Using a simple heuristic Lilly selects a conversation based on the mean influence of it's participants multiplied by talkativeness on a 0 to 1 scale and positions herself nearby. Her body language makes it clear that she's listening in but remains unobtrusive.

[Evil DM Mark3]

Listening in on conversations you hear that several Geniuses have been attacked over the past day.

Alrai, roll Stamina+Composure.

[The Kings Raven]

Hearing the news made Lilly feel more at ease. A few hours ago she was one of two people targeted by an unknown spy now she was one of many well armed madmen with a common enemy.

A part of her wondered what people were waiting for, when you're attacked the last thing you do is hide away. Another part guessed the answer was that the experienced Geniuses were worried about letting well armed madmen off the collar. Most of her was content to ignore the question, she could feel the energy of the room, people were itching to fight back why worry if the bigshots needed to talk stuff out first.


Lilly drops by Dorien. ""It's official, we're not the only ones. There's been attacks too." before mingling into the crowd, trying to get a sense of who's ready to fight. She regrets her choice of clothes. She had dressed formal so people might take her warnings more seriously, in retrospect Prostaisa and Katastrofi would probably have been more appropriate, slipping the Spark Rings onto her fingers can only help so much.

[Doran]

Ark passes over a few printouts of info on the squid like vessel he found to Frank "-There you go, Frank-"

[Evil DM Mark3]

Frank feeds the data into a small device on the table. After a while it produces a hologram that looks like a sort of black metal squid. Frank stands up and nods at a table furthest from the door. One of them stands up and suddenly you realise you can see them. Peter VanKolingsveld a jittery man in his early 40s, Brigadier Walter-Walters a middle aged woman in a peculiar uniform, Barbera Hardgrieves a woman with sort of plasticly skin, Llewellyn Ap Jones a man in a tatty suit and thick glasses, and Jannet Rattery a woman in a bright purple cardigan and pearls (if you know them, you know them, otherwise you don't) are sitting at it.

The Brigadier stands up.
"Ladies, Gentlemen, Both, Neither, Yes Please and Withheld. Settle down. This is important. We have recently had several attacks on Peers in this city. A non-Peer associated with a collaborative has provided data that, take together with witness reports, confirms our suspicions. There is a Seig Class Ulbermenchen Scout vessel operating in the Avon. Ulbermenchen have been sighted in Bristol. We don't know why. It is incredibly important that we do not reveal that we are aware of their presence as a whole. Your coming and going today has been concealed by the wonders of VanKolingsveld. As you leave you will be given the contact details of one other collaborative and my pamphlet "Ulbermenchen and you". Avoid revealing what we are aware of, we need to find out what they are doing here and why. Adding to the complication we have also had unconfirmed sightings of space vessels that may or may not be related. I will now take questions from the floor."

[The Kings Raven]

When Lilly gets a chance, and assuming no one asked first, Lilly goes for the obvious question:

"How bad is a 'Seig'? Is the problem preventing a big fight in front of mere mortals or could the Nazi's take us all in a fight?"

[Exthalion]

Spoiler

Show

(6d10)[8][8][3][1][9][3](32)

Turning from his scrutiny of the mist Alrai begins to scrutinize the loud, and some what obnoxious, speaker.

[Evil DM Mark3]

*pop*
It's a high density mutual discharge field caused by the effect of your spell on the standing Mania field. It is a non-hazardous interference phenomena.
*pop*

That idea arrived, fully formed (along with 24 hours of the narcissism derangement) in your head, you know not from where. You believe it is right, but lack the background knowledge to understand what it means. You also have a splitting headache and numbness behind you left eye.

The speaker has a refined, rigid and focused aura, her every action and thought lead by a brief flux in the aura. Everything this woman does she knows about and plans for. Even as she stands there however, there is a core of excitement in her, an edge desire that appears to be constantly on the verge bursting through.

"A Seig is a scout vessel, not a major hazard in and of itself, but equipped with high level sensory wonders and those tentacles are fully combat operative. A little beyond you at the moment Captain, but give it time." At this point she cracks a smile and a few of the other Geniuses stifle laughs. The jittery man stands up at this point.

"N-no one is t-to t-take on the su-su-submarine in any c-c-c-case. We mu-mu-must hide the level of our inteleg-g-gance."

"Quite so. Everyone is to hide how smart Peter and I am." This gets a few genuine laughs. "But your point is good Captain, they are a big enough issue that we would risk exposing Mundanes to the conflict. This we WILL NOT look kindly upon."

[The Kings Raven]

Lilly knows the Brigadier is right. She's not ready to take on a vehicle and especially not underwater, but it still makes her angry. Actually Lilly is surprised at how angry it makes her but rational sense prevails. Between Nazi's, Santa Claus and what assumed were the local heads of all five foundations there is sufficient motive to keep cool, even then it's close and Lilly dosn't risk opening her mouth for a while.

[Evil DM Mark3]

Someone throws a ball of paper through Peter, revealing him to be a hologram.
"Told you!"
"OK stop that! You know Peter has Agoraphobia, (and Achluophobia Agateophobiam Allodoxaphobia Ballistophobia Bathophobia Caligynephobia Carcinophobia Carnophobia Deipnophobia Dextrophobia Dutchphobia Eisoptrophobia... Look my point is don't taunt a man who knows what you had for dinner on October the 8th 7 year ago). Now, anyone other than a Teenage Navigator have an intelligent question?"

[Doran]

Ark quickly checks arond to see if Clockwork Harry is there. "-Do you have any more detailed specifications/blueprints on their speed, attack types and weak points? Not that I'm planning to engage them, but its best to be prepared.-"

[Evil DM Mark3]

He is not.

"Well now look you." Ap Llewellyn adjusts his glasses. "I have had experience myself with their machines so I have. Pretty tidy they are too. The problem with specific weakness you see is beyond the actual army you have the personal devices of the various Inspired they have and that means unpredictability isntit? The ideal of construction is towards efficiency however, often to the point of overspecialisation. More than a few time I've seen them pull back because their war walker or whathaveyew is designed for mountains and there is a road in the way or similar. Get them out of their designated roles, that's yer ticket."

Jannet Ratterly then interjects. "Now the Ulbermench him or herself is a product of intensive Eugenics program, scrutinised from birth for any defect that may result in them not meeting the narrow confines of the Nazi ideal. For this reason expect them to be strong, aggressive and dedicated. But this also makes them easy to spot, just look for gangs of blond, blue eyed, 6ft men in boots and work shirts. They also defer to their superiors whenever they can, taking orders in natural to them, independent thinking is rarer among the foot troops. Above all though rely on them to attack if in a corner. They have the unshakable belief that they are better than you, and will fall back on that assumption if needed."

[The Kings Raven]

Now, anyone other than a Teenage Navigator have an intelligent question?"

Lilly is going to feel a lot of pride from that comment, after she gets rid of her anger.

[Doran]

Hsving heard everything he wanted to, Ark grabs the pamphlet and the details of the collaborative next door, and clanks over to talk to them in the corner. Injecting a shot into an auxiliary port, he introduces himself. "-Greetings! Been kind of an odd week hasn't it, first with 24D, now this buisness with Nazi manes. Are any of you ladies and gentlemen looking for any katastrofi or apokalypsi wonders in light of this news? I am willing to offer such a service-"

[The Kings Raven]

Ark hasn't caught Lilly in the best of moods. She's surly and speaking only into her drink in a poor attempt to hide that. "I make my own. Ask me again when it's time to use them."

[Malfunctioned]

Madhukar rest a hand on the table next to Lilly.
"No need to be so rude. My associate here was only attempting to properly introduce himself."

He looks up.
"Madhukar Ragno." He offers his hand in introduction.

[Recaiden]

Dorien nods to Ark with a smile, adjusting some settings on his monocle-visor.
He'll probably skip Lilly and shake Madhukar's hand. "Dorien Robertson. Pleased to meet you."

"Now, Katastrofi, you say? Tell me more, if you would." he directs to Ark.