Shadowrun: The Disappearance of Samantha Drake IC

[RdMarquis]

Mordred slips on a pair of goggles. He taps his commlink screen and his vision is instantly magnified. The adept scans the area, looking for anyone who might be watching them.

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Perception: (9d6)[1][4][2][5][2][1][4][1][3](23)
Assensing: (6d6)[2][3][1][4][3][4](17) 6d6 only applies to Aura Reading.

[a_humble_lich]

Lucas and Jack

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While the exterior of the church seems unremarkable, you can faintly hear the sound of chanting coming from inside the church.

Alex

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Yup, it's a church. Nothing special here.

Leonora

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While you don't see anything unusual, you do notice the astral space here has been polluted. Something bad happened here which has corrupted the local astral space. You are effectively at -1 to your magic here.

Mordred

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When you go to zoom in with your goggles, the zoom button get stuck at maximum zoom. While this means you can now identify the species of ants on the church walls, you are lacking in the big picture.

[Lady Moreta]

Leonora frowns and makes a face, moving her mouth like something tastes bad. Grimacing, she blinks a few times, ending with a glance at Mordred, she'd seen enough to suspect he had abilities like her own. "Are you feeling that?" She asks, mouth twisting in distaste.

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While you don't see anything unusual, you do notice the astral space here has been polluted. Something bad happened here which has corrupted the local astral space. You are effectively at -1 to your magic here.

Meaning if I do anything that involves magic, I take one from the dice pool?

[a_humble_lich]

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Correct. Technically this is called a background count and is described in full in Street Magic, but there isn't much more than what I said. It is a little more complicated for Mordred since he actually loses one point of adept powers, but he is free to choose which one he loses. I might suggest losing Astal Perception to explain your utter failure with Assensing just now, but you are free to choose. Also, while this effects Mordred, he doesn't actually know that there is a background count here until he tries something he can't do or somebody tells him.

[big teej]

gee, I wonder what would make that chanting stop. probably 1 or 2 well placed hand grenades. Lukas observes to nobody in particular

[Lady Moreta]

Leonora shoots her brother a startled - and confused look. "What chanting are you talking about?"

[Mari01]

You can't hear it? Something's going down in this place.

[big teej]

Lukas gestures in the direction of the decrepit church I can hear people chantin in there, judging by the appearence of the place, you'll have to forgive me for assuming it ain't no church service... and given that it ain't, I imagine The Man Upstairs ain't none to pleased bout whats goin on in there.

[Mari01]

You mentioned grenades... We should hold off on that until we at least know if the girl is in there or not. Wouldn't want to have to tell Ms J., "Good news bad news. We found your sister. She's right over there. And there. And there. And if you look reeeeeeal hard over there."

[Lady Moreta]

"No, I can't hear anything," Leonora says, looking unhappy, but also like she's trying not to laugh at Jack's comment. "There is - something wrong with the astral space here. It's - polluted, corrupted somehow. Something bad happened here." She says flatly, making another one of those there-is-a-bad-taste-in-my-mouth faces.

[Mari01]

Jack gets a very confused look on his face. Wait. You mean to tell me that these gangers are using a place where magic is weaker as a hideout?

[big teej]

they're non-lethal... Lukas protests in a petulant tone.

after pondering his sisters words for a moment, lukas says rather hesitantly "is it not possible... that it makes their magic stronger, and interferes with anyone not in the group?

[Lady Moreta]

"It's not - weaker, per se," Leonora mutters, still frowning and now clearly thinking out loud. "It's... wrong, like- like going through mud" she says suddenly, having finally hit an analogy that works. "You have to work that much harder to get anywhere. That's what it feels like here. If I tried any spellwork here, I'd have to try harder, use more force to get it to work." She frowns, then looks around at the others, giving herself a slight shake, she moves towards her brother and rests a hand lightly on his back. "Either way, we can't just stay here. Ideas?"

[Mari01]

Yea. We got two magic users. They're a gang of magic users. We go in pretending to want to join up after hearing about them being one of the toughest on the streets. I haven't gotten farther than that but eventually we just blow em up. Jack scratches his head. I haven't quite gotten much further than that.

[big teej]

I say don't even bother with the pretense of joining, just make sure we're not about to bomb the wrong people, lob in a few flash-bangs, race in, grab the girl, shoot and/or stab anybody who gets in our way, and skiddadle in a hurry. but I've always preferred the direct approach."

in a quieter aside to Leonora don't overdo it okay?

[Mari01]

The more flashy we can get the better. Alright men. No offense to the lady. Jack glances at Lenora with a smile. Are we ready to go see if the new neighbors wanna have some fun?

[RdMarquis]

Mordred slips on a pair of gloves, then tugs at a small, pointed metal object protruding from the one on his left hand. "We still have to confirm Samantha's location. Suppose a couple of us do a little spying. If we get caught...well, the alternative was a shootout, anyway." The adept grimaces at Gaia's comments. "By the way, I think the word you're looking for is tainted." Not that he could see for himself. Which was, in itself, proof the condition of the mana had weakened his powers, too. He could no longer astrally perceive.

[Lady Moreta]

Leonora looks between Jack and Lukas, her expression a little bemused. "It's like a match made in- well, somewhere." She sounds baffled and amused all at once, before her expression and tone turn serious again. "Mordred has the right of it though. We should at least make sure Samantha is in there - or not. While I doubt it will make any difference to the ultimate end-" she pauses and gives her brother an amused glance, shaking her head slightly, "knowing whether she's there might change our tactics at least."

She steps away from Lukas then, and shoves her hands into her pockets, staring intently at the doors of the church like she's measuring distances in her head. "I have something that may help."

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Okay, this is probably going to break my brain, but as far as I can tell, there's no reason it shouldn't work. Leonora is going to cast Clairvoyance on herself, with the 'visual point' being the ajar doors of the church. I can't find anything that says this wouldn't work. Now... please excuse me while I ramble to myself and figure this out...

Magic rating is reduced by one, so she's at 3... She'll cast at Force 3 (that being as high as she can go right now), which makes the range 12m. Obviously, if they're currently more than 12m from the doors to the church, she will move closer.

Leonora gets +2 dice to Detection spells from her mentor spirit, so with the minus 1 from the tainted astral-ness, that's essentially a +1 (and I checked this with my husband, and he's a maths teacher. Any problems, go complain to him ).
So... Magic + Spellcasting (+ Detection bonus) is 8 dice...
(8d6)[4][1][4][2][5][3][1][2](22)

And drain is... (3/2)-1 - which makes it either 1 (rounding up) or 0 (rounding down) and I can't find anywhere in the book that tells me whether to round up or down I'll roll it anyway...
(8d8)[5][1][4][3][5][4][6][4](32)

... and I think that's it. Someone tell me if I screwed up?

[kind_of_a_ROBOT]

Alex steps up between Mordred and the rest, pulling his Predator IV from its holster and checking the clip. He slips back beneath his jacket and nods at Mordred, "can't let you go alone…" He turns back to the others with a shrug, "if anything goes wrong…well…it should be obvious. Come in guns blazing."

[a_humble_lich]

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Moreta, you are all good. And to answer the question from the other thread hear, the background count shouldn't have any effect on your focus. You can't the spell outside the bad area and it stays cast, even if you wouldn't be strong enough to cast it here.

Your senses peer into the church and at first you see nothing. As your eyes begin to grow accustomed to the dark light You can see light coming from a back room, which is also where the chanting is coming from. Although the angle is not very good to look into the back room, from where you perception is it looks like the light is actually coming from a staircase leading down into a basement area.

You can see that the interior of the church is in a state of disarray. many of the pews are missing or overturned. The walls are covered in graffiti. There are many crude drawing of what look like horrible monstrous creatures and writing written in a variety of languages. There is nothing you can read, and many of the languages you don't even recognize, but you do see some of the writing in in Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and Arabic.

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Oh and just to be clear, Michel is still with you. He lead you here and unless you tell him otherwise he wants to go into the church with you.

[Lady Moreta]

Leonora stands quietly, one hand resting lightly on Lukas' forearm, her eyes are blank and expressionless, though flitting around in the sockets. She is clearly seeing something and it is equally clear that that 'something' is somewhere else.

"There's no one in the main church," she says quietly. "There's light coming from a room at the back, and I'm pretty sure that's where the chanting is coming from. Maybe a staircase going down? I can't really tell from this angle." Her violet eyes flick from side to side briefly, "Church is a mess... graffiti everywhere." Her hand curls briefly around Lukas's arm. "If we can get closer, I can move the focal point of the spell to see into this back room better."

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Moreta, you are all good.

Thank goodness... if you'd said I'd done something wrong, I think I might have cried...

[big teej]

"well, if there's nobody in the main room, I don't see any reason why we can't set up shop just outside the front door."

[Lady Moreta]

Leonora turns her head in the direction of Lukas's voice. "Works for me. Lead the way."

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Teej - not sure if you're aware, but while the Clairvoyance spell is in effect, Leonora can't see normally, which is why she's got her hand on Lukas's arm... she needs him to be her guide dog

Also, once we're close enough/in position, Leonora will move the visual/focal point of her spell to a place she can see into the back room from.

[big teej]

ooc: thanks for the heads up

Lukas draws his Ruger Super warhawk and with his free hand gently guides Leonora to the left side of the main door, then stands between her and the door.

is here okay? he whispsers.

[RdMarquis]

"Admittedly, I have no reason to back this up." The adept glared at the church. Something just occurred to him. "But could time be an important factor, here? Doubtless that chanting serves some kind of purpose. I'd rather not let them finish and find out what, especially if it involves our girl." He looks at Michel questioningly.

[Mari01]

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Cast Increased Reflexes at force 3 and sustain it using focus.
(10d6)[5][1][5][5][1][2][1][2][1][2](25)
Drain Resist 3: (10d6)[4][1][2][2][1][3][1][3][6][1](24)

[a_humble_lich]

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JUst to be clear, you guys are moving next to the frond door so that Leonora can move her Clairvoyance and look down the stairs? If not, please disregard the following post.

Michel agrees, "Mon ami, you are right. Times like dis, chanting is rarely a good sign. Even is Sam isn't here, de chanting could be some kin of ritual magic, and I don't want to see de result.

Quietly moving closer to the door, you can all now hear the faint chanting. Inside, Leonora "walks" her vision into the back room and down the stairs.

As you go towards the back room you notice that the alter of the church has been replaced with a large black flat slab of basalt, with ominous looking gutters carved into it.

In the back room, huddled in a corner of the room outside of your sight from earlier are three young women. All three of them are tied, dirty, and bruised. Although it takes you a while to look past the dirt, one of the women is indeed Samantha drake.

At the bottom of the stairs is a largish room which appears to have originally been a kind of basement or crypt, although you don't see anybody buried in here. In the center of the room is a round hole in the ground, about the size of a well. Around the hole you see four figures in robes involved in some kind of ritual, although between the poor lighting, the robes, and the difficulty of remote viewing you cannot get a clear image of their faces. You do feel you can safely say that none or them are either Trolls nor Dwarves.

[Lady Moreta]

"It's fine," Leonora murmers in reply, her blank eyes start flicking around again and she blinks and shudders. "Urgh.. that's creepy."

She is silent for a moment longer, then her expression brightens a little. "She's there." She says, softly but triumphantly. "In the back room, with two other girls - they're tied up. And downstairs..." her voice trails off again. "Big room. There's a hole in the centre. Four figures, in robes, I can't see their faces. Some kind of ritual going on... I'm surprised you managed to hear anything at all." She blinks a few more times, shudders slightly and flicks her fingers like she's shaking water from them. She blinks a few more times, and when her eyes reopen, she's definitely looking at the group - well, at Lukas really, but she turns slightly to encompass everyone.

"It looked like it might have been a basement, or maybe a crypt." Leonora begins, adding more detail now that she can see again. "The hole is in the centre, about the same size as a well. That spell's not always the easiest to work, so all I can really say is that there are four people down there wearing robes. Don't think they're trolls or dwarves though," she adds thoughtfully.

[big teej]

Lukas doesn't quite manage to hide a grin as he reaches into his coat and pulls out two fist sized spheres. "knock knock" Lukas says with a chuckle.

I'm not exactly savy in the magic department, but I would imagine having these go off in the middle of a ritual would be rather distracting.

looking at the group "shall we?"

[Lady Moreta]

Leonora is trying to look calm and serious - and is failing miserably.

"Yes, I imagine it would," she says, with a grin to match her brothers.