Moody clasps Sinathel's hand and shakes it firmly. "Thank you for your help with Paulson. Not part of my plan to get hunted anytime soon." He claps Bolus' shoulder armor. "Good luck out there. When you find your footing, seek out Professor Hardworthy. He was one of the big-shots in charge of the Mimic's recovery operations, but he got kicked out recently and he's under house arrest near the Observatory on the east side of town. Don't get caught, and don't trust all the Guardians. Many of them believe you've gone rogue too. It's...been happening a lot lately...they're...not likely to ask a lot of questions." his voice trails off.
He looks around himself. "Before I joined the Scouts I ran with a pretty rough crowd. This place is a bolt-hole one of my former friends used when he was forced to hide from the Guardians for awhile." he glances somewhat guiltily at Bolus, then continues. "I haven't spoken with him in a few years, so I don't know where he's been. Help yourselves to whatever you can find around here, I don't think he's going to be using this place again anytime soon." He glances over at Olivius. "He's got the right idea. I don't know who you are, stranger, but you'll blend in fine here, I think."
"I've got to get Paulson to the med-center." He turns and makes for the skipper's windshield, popping it open and making to leave.
Olivius nods in agreement with the plan and bows slightly as Moody departs. He motions Yala over closer to him, then turns to Bolus. Let's go.
Bolus nods to Olivius a bit shakily. He's really out of his depth. At one time not so long ago he would have reacted strongly to learning of Moody's unsavory past. But now he gives him a Guardian's salute. You're a good man and a good friend Moody. Keep your head down and take care of Paulson. You've taken enough risks for us already
Once Moody is gone he says Let's search for things we can.. borrow.. from here that'll help us.
Olivius looks at Yala, then back at Bolus. Leave that to us. Then his theiving professional kicks in and he starts in on the questions as they depart. Staying in one spot, especially near a damaged flyer, would probably attract attention. Attention was exactly what they didn't want right now. Can you describe anything we should keep an eye out for? I assume food and money look different here. Where do you people keep your coin? If I manage to acquire something valuable, jewelry and the like, do you know where I could fence it for coin?
A splay of interesting emotions cross Bolus' face. It settles on a contorted grimace I don't know where to fence things. I don't know of any 'black market' or anything like that. Money's stored on plastic cardchits. You tap 'em to deduct funds.
Still very very conflicted with being deceptive in any fashion Bolus turns his attention to searching the Hideout hanger for useful things
Olivius watches Bolus' face as he obviously struggles through thoughts he never thought he would have to think. As Bolus turns away, Olivius calls to him, Hey, Bolus. Concentrate on the now. Nothing else matters right now except today. Leave the shadows of the future for tomorrow.
It was a platitude that was given to many young street urchins when they first turned to the ranks of the Liberators of Wealth, but given in earnest. It got them through until they could steal of their way out of the gutters. It was a falsehood, of course, but a necessary skill when the confusion of a cruel world closed around the mind. The shadows of tomorrow rarely waited until it was convenient, but Bolus didn't need to worry about that now.
After that, he turns to Yala with a smile and a sparkle in his eye. Looks like we are the providors for now until Sinathel can get in contact with what animal life is left in this place. Wanna go have some fun?
At Bolus' mention of card chits, the pearl diver from the past speaks up. "Do card chits look like this?" Yala holds up two plastic cards between her middle and forefinger.
Yeah that's what they... wait where did you
...
Forget it I don't want to know. Let's just get on with it
Unable to find anything of interest in the hideout Bolus gets ready to move on.
Sinathel after giving Moody a nod goodbye, proceeds to scour the area. She used her eyes, her ears and her sense of smell. Her bare feet quietly stepping around as she looked for things that could aid them as they lay in wait for the perfect time to strike. She looked in things, on things under things.
What here is useful or valuable to me?
What here is not what it appears to be?
What should I be on the lookout for?
Bolus seemed to be nervous, unsettled and bother by the whole situation. "All will be well. Do not fret over what is out of your control, but focus on what you can do."
Sinathel, you find:
A small book bound in black leather, looks weatherbeaten
A metal wand about a meter in length with yellow triangles with exclamation marks in them on one end of the wand. You presume that's the "business end". It's abandoned and wedged under some overturned furniture. (1 weight)
Binoculars
An old but surprisingly deep little black backpack (-3 weight, meaning 3 weight is removed from your weight total when the items are stored inside)
You also find tracks in the dust on the floor, old bootprints that have strange treads in them like Temellen's and Bolus' tracks do. The tracks lead to a fireplace set in an innocuous-looking wall, but your instinct tells you that there's more to the wall than meets the eye.
The wall in question, as well as the fireplace, is wide and made from unadorned stone, seemingly the same material as Terminus City's outer walls. There are light sconces filled with dormant, living lightning on either side of the walls, spaced evenly around the entire room. There are two of them on this wall, flickering faintly and giving off a weak light. It seems that the fireplace has not had an actual fire burning in it for some time, and there's hardly any ash inside.
The tracks look fairly fresh, however. Keep alert for whomever may have moved in here since Moody visited it last.
Sinathel placed the food she found in the small backpack. She also placed the book in there to examine more at a later time, along with the Binoculars. She'd have to carry that metal wand, but maybe...
After a moments debate, Sinathel made a cushion of a nest out of cloths and rags in the backpack before placing the egg there as well. It would be easier to carry it that way.
The lightning made her curious, and she moved closer to Bolus while on guard. "Bolus, you... you have tamed Lightning?" She made sure she had his attention, before she motioned to the tracks she had found leading to the wall with a fireplace.
Yala, meanwhile, nods to Olivius at his question, and hands him the credit chits. "'Found' these on the body of that dead Scout...he won't be needing them," she mutters to him. They make to leave but Sinathel discovers the fireplace before they're able to look too hard for the exit.
Olivius walks over and examines the lights, obviously facinated.
Fresh tracks, Moody's old friends are probably close by Bolus mutters. Noticing the others fascination with the light bulbs he says Oh yeah, the lights. Yeah it's electricity... lightning.. running across wires that works pretty much everything here. We got power generators that create the electricity that we use for lights, fans, energy shields. It's all energy. Stun rods and skippers run on rechargeable batteries that store energy to use when we need it. When things get desperate we burn fuel but that ain't exactly a renewable resource. Rationed strictly. This technological stuff is way more reliable and predictable than magic. Bolus' explanation pretty much exhausts his reserves of general knowledge. You'd have to ask a Mimic or a Wizard for more. Speaking of, we need to go to ground in Middle Park and then search for Professor Hardworthy. Can you figure out the fireplace Olivius?
Would Bolus know what the metal wand is?
Dammit I forgot to give Moody his torch back
Olivius is awestruck by the technology. Tamed lightning. Wow. He shakes his head slowly, still trying to process this revelation, as he goes to work on the fireplace.
Bolus, you're absolutely right with one exception - batteries aren't sophisticated enough to power civilian cars off the grid. Only the Guardians and Scouts have access to independently powered vehicles like trucks or skyskippers. Most cars owned by civilians in Terminus City are directly connected to a central power grid via tall poles extending upward from the rears of the vehicles. These poles are constantly connected to an electrified horizontal metal fence suspended overhead, like Bumper Cars.
Bolus: The wand is a special tool normally used by Guardians and the "Special Police" used for apprehension of dangerous criminals of varying sizes. When fired at a perpetrator (Volley), a net made of a semiliquid ferrous alloy is ejected from the business end and completely tangles up whatever target it hits. It has 5 charges.
As Olivius approaches the fireplace, he looks all over with a keen, critical eye. Though his expertise is in traps that use mechanisms that are centuries old in this time, people never really change. An intelligent thief can apply principles learned in a different time to solve puzzles that are far advanced from the technology he's used to.
The nimble human ducks under the main arch of the fireplace, inspecting the flue. Instantly his sharp eyes note a spot where the dust hasn't had as much time to accumulate, and finds a switch. After examining it, you find that the switch is booby-trapped - if the switch is casually flipped without holding down a nearly-invisible button at the base, it would discharge something that you imagine would be quite unpleasant. However, since you know how it activates, you feel that you could flip the switch quite safely. The mechanism is quite ingenious, giving you ideas about how these future techs could work.
The blade in your hidden sheath feels pleasantly warm. Take +2 forward to damage with it.
Olivius smiles as he learns. This was the best part of Theving. It wasn't about the loot. Well, that's a lie, it is about the loot, but half the fun is finding what people have set up to stop you and overcoming it.
He pushes the button and the switch, mostly just to see what happens.
Yala jumps back with an exclamation of surprise as the fireplace folds up and disappears into the wall behind, revealing an opening that the fireplace had obscured. Machinery creaks and squeals as it draws the necessary power to move according to the switch, and the mechanisms for the fireplace to fold seamlessly into itself seem impossibly intricate.
Beyond the hole in the wall, electric lights flicker on inside the roof overhead, revealing a panel of 4 monitors, each one at least 60 inches wide. The monitors, in turn, flicker to life, revealing CCTV footage of some kind. There is a wide, wooden table placed in front of the monitor screens, with three chairs at the table. The chairs are facing you, not the monitors. Between the door and the table there is a camera on a tripod, facing the table. There appear to be nametags in front of each empty chair on the table. When you move closer, you see that the nametags read Ms. White, Mr. Crimson and Ms. Black.
In the far corner of the room there is a small area surrounded by a circular handrail with a control panel.
Olivius jumps as well. This was transformation bordering on magic, without the magic! He carefully makes his way in to the room.
What the hell is going on Bolus mutters. Don't get in front of the camera he says to the others The uh, thing on the tripod. The lens, uh, eye, on the thing records what it sees and hears.
Bolus struggles to understand what this place is
What is about to happen?
Olivius: The closest thing to a trap you can find is a switch that starts the strange "camera" facing the desk. Bolus warns you of being spotted, but despite your primitive past you've immediately determined that the camera's switch is off. You surmise that you might be caught or discovered if that were to be turned on.
As for what else might be hidden here...as you poke around under the desk, you see a button, placed so that it might be activated with the press of a foot. The button has a small open door painted on it.
Meanwhile, Bolus stares at the television screens. On each one is a different scene that appears to be filming various places - a tunnel, the outside of a seedy-looking establishment named Geno's, the interior of a bar, and a rooftop. The cameras oscillate slowly. What is about to happen? The crowd in the bar is starting to get rowdier. You think a fight is likely to break out soon. You hear faint noise coming from somewhere you aren't sure.
Olivius: The closest thing to a trap you can find is a switch that starts the strange "camera" facing the desk. Bolus warns you of being spotted, but despite your primitive past you've immediately determined that the camera's switch is off. You surmise that you might be caught or discovered if that were to be turned on.
As for what else might be hidden here...as you poke around under the desk, you see a button, placed so that it might be activated with the press of a foot. The button has a small open door painted on it.
Meanwhile, Bolus stares at the television screens. On each one is a different scene that appears to be filming various places - a tunnel, the outside of a seedy-looking establishment named Geno's, the interior of a bar, and a rooftop. The cameras oscillate slowly. What is about to happen? The crowd in the bar is starting to get rowdier. You think a fight is likely to break out soon. You hear faint noise coming from somewhere you aren't sure.
Tunnel, some place called geno's, bar, rooftop.. what are these people spying on?
Bolus inspects the corner of the room where the control panel is trying to determine what it does.
You know Geno's to cater to a wide variety of lower-class citizens, but beyond that, nothing specific. Did you explore a lot of seedy bars during your formative years in Terminus City?
The control panel has three buttons on it. The middle button has a simple drawing of a house on it. The button above it has an arrow pointing up. The button below it has an arrow pointing down, and has blood on it.
Nah Bolus is a bit shocked that Moody ran in those circles in his youth.
How old does the blood look?
Olivius is wary of just about everything in the room. He had heard of Mages who could see distant locations, but not continuously. This was magic beyond his wildest imagination, and he behaved as such.
We need to keep moving. he says in a whisper.
The blood is at least several hours old, parts of the splash have dried on the button but parts are still a little wet to the touch.
Blood's only a few hours old. Bolus mutters. Someone needs help
Ya, us. Let's not get distracted here. The current destination is the safe house.
Olivius doesn't care one bit about the blood. It's just more proof that here is a bad place to linger.
Bolus is torn but hes vowed to get the time lost people under his care to safety.
Yeah... let's find someplace safe to hide. Bolus says and reluctantly leaves the hidden area. Close this place up Olivius if you can. Let's get out of here and make our way to the park.
The group exits the hidden room and Olivius flips the switch again to conceal the door behind the fireplace once more. After exploring a bit further you discover a sloping ramp that leads up to a hallway covered in draping fabrics. Bolus yanks one of them down that looks plain and unassuming (choose the fabric's appearance yourself for flavor, Bolus) and drapes it around himself. He also takes off his helmet, for the first time since any of you have met him.
The fabrics muffle sound and block sight for you but you pass through them safely once Olivius determines nothing nasty is hiding in them. At the end of the hallway is a door; opening the door leads you out into the street. You can see the sky overhead; the clouds are parting.
Olivius takes the lead and does what he does best, liberate substantial goods from people as they travel.
Does Bolus recognize this place?
Olivius, you see a small box-like scanner that looks interesting, hanging from the belt of a passing behemoth of a man. You sidle up alongside the huge, bronze-skinned human as he stalks down the street. He looks dangerous, and most give him a wide berth, but Yala whistles at the big guy and winks at him, giving you a second's worth of distraction that is just what you need. You pick the box out of its small holster on the man's waist and walk casually back over to where Bolus is looking around.
The box says "Attractor" on it and resembles this. You have no idea what its function is.
Bolus, you notice the architecture and it's a dead giveaway where you are. Before skyskippers became the dominant means of air travel, the human-dominated civilization of Terminus City experimented with gigantic metal blimps that were filled with magical lift spells. When these giant ships became obsolete, they were repurposed as building materials for the refugees that flooded in from Dead Zones from miles around. As unsafe as Terminus City was, it was often superior to life outside its walls.
Directly overhead, some 30 stories up, is one of the landing platforms that Moody was originally going to drop you off at. Everything below that is Refugees Quarter slums. The blimps that form the building walls around everyone gives a claustrophobic, overhanging feel to the streets. Sunlight only makes it to street level for about 4-5 hours a day.
You know that the park you are making for is closer to the center of the city, and you could walk in either direction to get closer. The streets are fairly busy in this quarter, with many cosmopolitan inhabitants of Terminus City going about their business, and creating a bustling roar of activity all around you. Looking behind you, the gateway to the secret criminals' hideout from whence you came is hidden very well.
Cautiously and not entirely happy to be surrounded by masses of people and civilization, Sinathel keeps a weary eye on her surroundings from beneath her hooded cloak. The backpack and it's precious cargo carefully and strategically placed under her cloak to protect it from wandering fingers and hands. She had been around Olivius far to long to be trusting of just any city-dweller.
Sinathel, when you emerge into the dingy sunlight of the street you hear the voices of the People all around you. This is a city for them as much as for two-leggers - small quadripeds fight over small scraps of food in street corners and birds of many varieties fly overhead. It seems the disastrous environment outside Terminus has driven all life to share a space, not just the civilized life.
Stay close to each other. I'm going to try and stay in the Fuggee areas as long as possible b before we get the park. Less patrols from the police.
Bolus, you walk out into the street and are almost bowled over by a pair of young hooligans. The hooligans are wearing oversized boots, and the strange devices strapped to the heels of the boots are allowing the boys to jump enormous distances like frogs. "Sorry!" one of them calls over his shoulder as he leaps away from his friend after knocking into you. A pack of dogs rushes past your legs right afterward, barking, after the jumping boys.
You recognize this area from studying maps of Terminus City, and quickly get your bearings. This is a market area, filled with merchants selling textiles, food, weapons, esoteric technology and the like. You also know that the 'Fugee areas are hotbeds for the city's thriving black market in slaves, contracts and illegal goods.
Olivius says to Bolus, Check your pockets, you may have just been picked.
Bolus starts and checks his things.
Olivius' instincts are good - your backpack's top opening has been untied slightly - but a quick check of your things doesn't reveal anything missing. You dig around in your backpack, checking thoroughly. Nothing's missing...but something appears to have been added to your backpack. A small, black metal thing, with a tiny depression on one side that you can feel with your thumb but no other distinctive qualities. It's about the size of a shirt button. You don't ever remember seeing it before.
Sinathel, sensing The People still around her, relaxes some, but not totally. She stays silent, observing her surroundings and keeping an eye out. As the children and the dogs rush past, she keeps out of their way but pays attention to what the boys canine followers have to say as they go barking after them.
The dogs are demanding the boys explain themselves and teach them how to jump up to rooftops so they can chase pigeons.
Olivius surreptitiously shows Bolus what he obtained. What's this? Tell me while we move. Standing is conspicuous.
Sinathel can't help but let out a laugh, a smile on her face. "That will be the day. Dogs chasing pigeons by rooftop."
A few of the random stray dogs are walking up to Sinathel to say hello, and some birds have already nested in her hair. Olivius recalls that the druid tends to have this effect on animals wherever they go. There's a surprising number of animals in this tightly-packed urban area. Yala nudges Olivius and mutters quietly under her breath. "Not liking this...never SEEN this many people before...and they're starting to stare..."
Olivius nods. I agree. Sinathel, a little discretion, please. Let's move.