Darkest Corners volume 2

Game Master Harakani

I can almost feel the morale soar :D

(Minor note: Most if not all of the characters actually merely disappeared between the various incarnations under the previous DM, so no need to worry overly much about spontaneously die :P)

(Also maybe we actually run into Laznist one day... ^^)

Oohh. Is Isama in Guard uniform or off duty in her scene?

As you wish. My thought was off duty, but there's not really much of a 'uniform' per se except for some heraldry.

By the looks of things Isama may soon also start to gnaw on Ophelias cookies. This teaparty is turning out a lot more successful then Ophelia even dared to dream :P

Which is good, because if there was a strict uniform, Diene wouldn't be on the team. :P

Spiders + weird things. Hmm this reminds me of something blue and yellow ...

I'm blue. But what's yellow? Also, just so you know, it's fine with me if you want to fly. There's just a teeny little favor I'd need you to do for me.."

Just so no digging in her profile is needed...Yin is a Nightmare-Creature living in the Dimension of Dreams, in a subplane bordering the Shadow Plane...I'd very much like for her to get a cameo, at least ^_^

I am yellow and blue and full of fun ... :P

Are you now? I only just realised it's you. D'uh. And I did do profile-digging -_- Guess I was not too thorough on some people.

Alas, Yin is super-crazy fun time. She will put in a formal request for Nyxx to serve as her mount!

:3

Hope DM is okay.

Hope so too. I don't want to end as a spider. ^_^

I sure hope so as well.

But I just think we accidentally gave him a case of premature gm-culation :P

Sorry - laptop broke again while we had plague in the house.

Alright, I tracked down the various references for Lucid dreaming rules. For my own reference p242-243 of Occult Adventures, under "Highly Morphic"
Ophelia: DC 13 Charisma save. If you pass it, you can fly.

Sorry for the delays.

Ouch that doesn't sound too fun!
__________________

But that *does* sound like fun! Didn't know there were actually rules for that stuff ...

I am going for a train trip tomorrow so I'm planning to read up on Mia's spoiler then (I did take a look earlier when you asked, but I must confess it was very hastily and I can't recall most of it :P).

So, sounds like people are ready to go to the next step?
There's little enough to go on so far:
* Bridgefront's Guards appear to be on the take
* List of 12 names, of which Magistrate Fell's oldest son is the most recent.

Other than Ophelia's last post I think we're ready to go on.

Hey all,
I'm confuzzled. I can see the plans being discussed, but they seem to be a 'plan B'.
Can someone tell me OOC what 'plan A' is? What do you want to investigate first?
* The names on the list?
* the bridgefront area?
* find an arachnologist?
* start investigating the bridgefront guards?
* try to question the rich kid Isama caught?
* something else?

Remember Ophelia is pretty damn distinctive, but constructs aren't. If she 'dresses up' as one of those she'll camouflage a lot easier.

My plan A was wait until someone told me we were done investigating the samples we got ahold of. Was that finished? Me and Diene might have glazed over a little bit on the details there.

Isama is waiting for result of knowledge nature checks

I *think* the plan is to split into two pieces; Diene and Mia will try and work on the corrupt guards while Ophelia and Isama tries to track down the source using standard guard techniques.

So I guess Isama and Ophelia would try and question the rich kid while we still have him in our clutches.

Or what do people think : )?

The reason Ophelia is looking to head off with Isama instead is mostly that it feels very mean to leave poor Isama alone, even if she is very capable. Splitting the party is dangerous and probably generally a bit unwise - but since we are doing it I'm thinking we should do an even split so that both halves have a decent chance of dealing with trouble.

Thoughts : )?

I agree with Ophelia. If there is a split happening, it should be an even split.
I figured we could all do both, too. *shrug* But we can try and speed things up a bit, as well, and each do one part of our investigative duties.

Aright, even split go?

Do have a question there though. Do we as a special squad have a ward? Aka, a territory that we're in charge of, even if it's a small one just based on "this is your fire put out territory". If we do, then yeah, expanding into our area means the criminals are getting new stomping grounds and paying us wouldn't come out of other guard's salaries. If we don't, then we're saying "let us in or we'll start cracking down inside other people's territories", that other guards would be less likey.

@Diene, I based my assumptions on #1, since we were, in fact, the ones responsible for putting out the fire in the Academiê. No other guards had arrived there before us or while we were gaining entrance.
Since the Guards double as Fire-Response-Team, and Spooky got notified ot the fire happening during our introduction, I assumed that the place was within our own ward...as we were informed, not another ward, and nobody else came to quench the flames.

I think there may be "normal" guards doing day-to-day-duty on the streets, while we're the SWAT Team called in for special duty, but it's still our ward I think, and as special operatives we would have some command over normal guards, or at least insight into their plans.

Just stating what considerations I worked with, so things can be set straight in all areas in which I may have erred.

@IntelligentDeductyStuff I definitely get the feeling Diene's success as a sergeant is going to be based on this maxim: "Leadership through following the right grunt"

For going to the corrupt guards I figured Mia and Diene would go in with the approach of "Hey this Isama in our squad is a straight arrow and going after you guys hard. If we get a little something from you guys then we'll keep throwing her off the trail or keep her busy with something else."

Following up on the spider lead (still waiting on knowledge roll result :o) is something Isama and Ophelia could do meanwhile.

What Isama said :)

Alright - I don't like splitting, but we can give it a go.

Spooky does have a ward, but your group doesn't really - you're mostly inter-jurisdictional specialists. Thus your own mini HQ. The fire happened while you were at Spooky's HQ. That said, you do technically have Spooky's ward, and could be transferred from the squad to standard 'beat cop' duty.

Incidentally fire is always responded to quickly. A fire can cause enormous amounts of property damage in a city as densely populated as Qantium.

Your bribes tend more from people worried they'll run afoul of your specialities rather than straight territory based business. You could certainly volunteer to 'help out' in exchange for 'consideration'. I'd allow profession:guard rolls in place of bluff for the relevant rolls.

Isama's plan could work, though it does add a certain danger to Isama.

If you want to hit up the rich kids while still in custody, you'll need to be pretty quick.

If you just want to know about Shiver use, you can give me knowledge:local or profession:guards rolls to see what you've picked up. I'd also allow Diplomacy (Gather Information) rolls if you talk to some of your colleagues. While this won't tell you what they don't want you to know, it'll let you know some of the most commonly known players etc.
If you chat about it over tea and make your rolls now I'll let you aid each other - a "I heard that Big Bob's was in the business." "Oh, I heard Big Bob got shanked by Skinny Pete"... sort of add-on.

So, would this also be a time that we could use those downtime influence roll thingies? Like if Diene wanted to see if the reduced prices had meant even the less well off like Goblins and other "monster" underclasses were starting to become a market?

Isama doesn't mind being exposed to danger. I'm sure all the really honest guards in the city are in low level danger all the time and that's how I'm playing Isama :). Plus Joran would let people know that Isama didn't hit him up for a bribe anyway so the secret's kinda out.

Anyway didn't get a great roll on Prof:Guard for the shiver trade but should get some little bit. There's a lot of avenues to explore. Hell Joran is the only time sensitive lead so we could follow him and maybe he'll lead us to his dealer.

I guess it's decision time?

@Territory business.... Hrm, that seems to make the "muscle in on the business" idea a bit more awkward, maybe we should just play this one straight. Mia?

Yep. I'll take the highest roll plus 2 per additional roll over 10.

Boing!

I'm a bit exhausted at the moment so I probably won't get any useful posts up until tomorrow. Just a heads-up : )

Sorry I don't know what's happening anymore :).

I *think* they meant "let's skip the trickery and just do it in an ordinary police way" when they said "play it straight."

Thus the situation is as this:

We will not be splitting the party.

We will all go and ask the kids Isama jailed some pointy questions

Ophelia is still amazed people liked her baked goods and will be keeping this recepie.

Please correct me if I'm wrong : )

I think so, yes. Trying to get them to extend their trade into our territory and gaining information by playing crooked would only work if we have a territory to speak of.
Since we're an overarching elite squad with no ward completely our own, that approach would be a LOT harder to sell.

So, we're asking the kids, then possibly some cops. Maybe some good old undercover work. Mia can still try and tail a dealer, see if she can learn where he keeps his stock. If that "disappears", he'll need new supplies and we can see where he gets those. Just one more idea we could do if the questioning won't reveal a reasonable approach.

Yup

Rich Kid it is. We can also follow the spider lead or stake out the corrupt cop. Plenty of leads.

okay, results of a 29...
Shiver
Shiver is capable of giving the user incredibly realistic lucid dreams. In this state the user can live out every fantasy and, unsurprisingly, this is psychologically addictive. Some users create ‘companions’ in these dreams - which often happen at an accelerated pace - and become dependent on Shiver in order to ‘meet up’ with their companions. This high is not a reliable effect of the drug, and users often resort to new ‘mixes’ and stronger doses in an attempt to recapture it.
Shiver is not physically addictive, but can seriously (and sometimes permanently) mess with the sleep cycle, with addicts often awake for days until they take more shiver to sleep.
Shiver is reputed to have been discovered in the Mwangi expanse and used for religious experiences. There are stories about spontaneous spellcasters ‘awakening’ after intense shiver experiences. Some users - especially the wealthy - hope for power from shiver use.

Shiver Dealers
A lot of low level dealers (like the one Isama caught) have sprung up selling Shiver. Current guard theory is they've switched from other drugs.

Shiver Den
Given one of the common effects of Shiver is a sudden and prolonged sleep, often with sleepwalking and sleeptalking events, it is common to find places where Shiver users can sleep ‘in peace’. Such places often have some gimmick that they claim makes the user more likely to get ‘good dreams’.

Bridgefront Deaths
There's been no word of an increase in the number of fatalities in Bridgefront, but there have been rumours that are probably warped versions of the information about the Will-o-wisps.

Rook’s Roost
A Shiver Den that uses Vudrani incences, a good reputation and low prices to encourage users. Almost respectable. Run by Asnaan Sharoosh.

Fever Dream Alley
A makeshift flophouse where Shiver users hang out together. Terrible conditions, but the fact it is free leaves more money for addicts to get high.

The Night Market Fountain
A wild area where anything goes, built around one of the old magical fountains that provides fresh water. Reasonably safe - if you’re not a Guard. Reputed to be a place Shiver can be bought.

Reasonably safe - if you’re not a Guard.

Hmh. That sounds delightfully fun!

Diene: so tempted to mention an inevitable that stops chronomancers here... ;P

"I AM TOTALLY NOT SNEAKING IN WHERE I DON'T BELONG!" <- Ophelias idea of stealth atm :P

Isama: I love the word shivslingers ;)

Generic post to all games: I've been ill the last couple of days. Fever and Headache, and no real interest in any activity that includes, as the name implies, being active, as opposed to passively enduring.
I do feel a bit better today, but not good enough to return to work. As such, I expect that over the next 16 or so hours I will get to post/update in most(maybe not all - dunno how I'll feel later) of my games. This is as much an Aviso as a notification, though, as depending on how I will feel in the next few days(and after returning to work), post rate may be...slow. Where applicable, feel free to bot - (just to be clear: "botting me" is not applicable when I'm GM.)

Sounds like we've got a negotiation with Johns, if you want it. If you're stalling for Ophelia, fair enough.

Random question: What are the odds of *specific people whom are bothering Ophelia* being capable of reading infernal?

In this city? 1% of reading, 10% of reading certain particular phrases.

The phrase "I hereby sell my immortal soul to Ophelia Hale" would be among the more common ones :P?