Door in the Dark (Inactive)

Game Master Anon A Mouse

"I'll help with this one," Alfie assures the others.

Before Taryn approaches the guard, Alfie snaps his fingers and a little shred of light, representing the guard's luck, appears in his hand. But then he drops it, along with a shred of his own luck. A frantic search of the van floor turns up with neither of them.

"Oops."

Jinx: 2d6 + 2 ⇒ (1, 1) + 2 = 4 marking XP

I guess to make this work, we're pulling up to the entrance. I'll go along with the group consensus, though.

"Ooops?" Rani asked, looking over. "Why oops? Is this the kind of ooops where no one should move, it might explode when touched? Or is this the kind of ooops where it just makes a funny smell for a while?"

So we can actually say you did some stuff before driving up to the guard. I would just want to resolve that before any of the stuff with the guard. Though also, since Alfie did his thing in the van, that doesn't actually force you to go up to the guard/he wasn't trying to talk to the guard himself or anything.

Also, I now have 2 hold that I can use to give Hunters -1 forward (among other things). Since that needs to be declared before you roll, if you're attempting a move from here forward until I run out of hold, please make it clear what move you're attempting/what you're trying to accomplish and then put the actual roll behind a spoiler. That way I can decide if I want to use the hold without knowing what you rolled, which I believe is the most fair to you. Simiarly, if Alfie had succeeded, he would also need to declare if he was using a hold before/without seeing the roll.

I was thinking more along the lines of driving by and then parking a bit further away or at least on a quieter, emptier side of the warehouse so it's not too conspicuous. Other than that, no rolls at the moment (unless I need one to check Bryce's phone for connections with Turner).

Well, you're driving the van, so it's reasonable for you to say, "No, that other stuff didn't happen because the van is over here." I'm just looking for the most straightforward way to move on from here.

I'm fine with whatever everyone prefers, to be honest. Or if you feel strongly about parking the van very close, even if it might draw attention from the guard. Just felt like Ahmad would want to be on the safe side, after having been seen and almost identified by the cops before.

The road only really passes along one side of the warehouse, and that's the side with the entrance, though you could go off-roading without too much difficulty. You could also continue down the road and park on the side far enough away that the guard wouldn't notice. Or turn around you wanted to park in front of a building (the warehouse is the outermost edge of town but it's probably a block or less from the nearest town building). Up to you, but I think I at least have enough details to continue forward.

Between the van driving past at 20 or so miles per hour and the several dozen feet between the main road and the toll-like booth, Taryn's impression of the guard was brief. The wolf at least didn't stir in the slightest at his presence, neither in excitement over a fearful prey nor in a desire to show dominance over a challenging foe. On the wind she could vaguely hear the sounds of a radio carrying a play-by-play of some sports game across the wind.

The quick glance Oscar got did not immediately show any conveniently overhanging trees. Or even any nearby trees. Of course, the main illumination from the warehouse seemed to be focused on entryways, both where the guard's booth was and further back where the entrance into the warehouse was. This made it difficult to get a clear look at the fence along the perimeter where it was much darker. On the other hand, he also didn't see any barbed wire or anything at the top of the fence; it probably wouldn't be that difficult to simply climb over.

After pulling over some distance aways, Ahmad safely parked his van. A brief perusal through Bryce's phone does not show him any recent contact with the construction company. At least, a search for Turner Construction doesn't bring anything up nor does a glance through the dozen or so most recent emails. It would take significantly more time to go through each email individually to check or to do something like google all the contacts for obvious connections to be more certain.

"I'm just expecting a bit of bad luck to be going around near me. Watch your step, check your pockets. Sorry about that," Alfie responds to Rani. "Usually it's over quickly," he adds, trying to allay his guilt.

He looks at the gate apprehensively. "So, you're thinking of scaling this? It won't be easy for me, but then again, it would be nice to get rid of my bad luck before we reach the guard..."

"Oh, I hate that," Rani said sympathetically. "Whenever I get really lucky, everyone else gets really unlucky at the same time. I have no idea why."

Looking at the fence, she added, "I think we're going to need to distract the guard, and take out the cameras, or wear diguseses. Does anyone have masks in the theme of former Presidents? Dibs of Nixon!"

“Uh…not really. Though I do have some of the stuff the students forgot last time we went on a field trip, if you want to try it.” Ahmad pointed at a plastic box next to Taryn. “Anyway, a couple of us could pretend we need help? Like, one of us could pretend they’re feeling ill and ask the guard to come and give us a hand or something?”

"We lose the element of surprise if we just walk up. Some parts of the fence are in shadow. If we can find a section of that fence that isn't covered by the cameras, we could climb the fence."

“Yeah, I can see the point in that. I guess we just have to cross our fingers that the guard will stay put. Unless anyone has a better idea?”

Ahmad squeezed Alfie’s shoulder. “I can help you climbing, buddy. Can we do anything to get rid of that bad luck?”

"Hmm... maybe I could trade it away, if there's a taker. But I'm wary of the price." Alfie changes his field of vision to the ethereal world and looks around for any stray spirits that he might be able to strike up a deal with.

Using The SIght

Alfie spent some time looking around. There was the group around him and far off in the distance the guardhouse where he knew someone else was. It didn't appear that there was anyone else nearby.

After a few more moments though, he did notice some movement over by warehouse. Or perhaps more accurately by the fence surrounding the warehouse. It was too far away to pick out details but it moved from near the warehouse, through to the other side of the fence, and was continuing away in a course that ran parallel to where the car was currently parked. It was impossible to tell if this were indeed a spirit who moved through the fence or simply a regular person who had ducked through a hole. Not that Alfie could typically tell apart spiritual beings from the mundane anyway. And unfortunately, since he had been lucky to catch a glimpse of movement in the first place, it was likely no one else would have spotted it to let him know if they could see it as well or not.

It was then that he heard a familiar voice in his head. Oh Alfie. Alfie, Alfie, Alfie. A simple spirit can't help you. You're not asking them to clean your shop or chase away rats. You're asking for help cleaning up a mess you made with *my* powers. Only *I* can help you. Are you interested in hearing my price?

Ahmad stood next to Alfie, ready and willing to help — even if he knew from past experience there wasn’t that much he could actually do. It’s the thought that matters. “You got this, buddy!”

Oscar tries to keep a watch in the direction of the warehouse from the van window. Occasionally, he'll check the window facing the other direction.

Alfie wasn't sure how true the voice's claims were, but he thought that it would be better not to affirm or contest them. He responds with a simple "Yes."

Excellent. Now, I'm not going to completely clean up your mess -- after all, that wouldn't be very much fun, now would it? But I would be willing to find a new owner for part of this mess you've made if you would get Ahmad to read a little note I have for him. He must be the first to read it, but after that, you may do with it as you wish. Is that agreeable to you?

Mechanically speaking, this would be removing one of the two Jinx hold I have.

Alfie sighs. He suspected that the spirit was trying to pull something off, so maybe he should ask permission first. But on the other hand, he was tired of the I-didn't-make-a-deal-with-HIM gimmick, and he couldn't imagine that Ahmad would refuse to read a letter anyway. "Fine. I'll take it," he answers.

Excellet. Alfie felt a piece of paper slip into his hand. It wasn't large, easily fitting in his palm and appeared to have been neatly folded in half.

Ahmad doesn't have to read the paper if he doesn't want (though the hold won't disappear until he does), but since that seems like a plausible action he might take, I'll go ahead and spoiler what he/anybody else would see when looking at it. If he's not the first the look at the paper, simply disregard the spoilers, and I'll adjust.

Alfie hands Ahmad the letter. "That guy from before, who spoke with me in the library, has a message for you, Ahmad. He'll take away some of the bad luck if you read it. Don't let anyone else read it before you, though."

Ahmad frowned immediately. “Ugh, pushy little fellow, eh?” He looked around, fruitlessly searching for glimpses of the spirit, then shrugged. “If this makes our lives easier…why not. I can take it.”

He unfolded the paper, stared at it with wide-open eyes and went pale before shaking his head, running to the nearest bush and throwing up. After wiping his mouth with a paper tissue, he slowly walked to Alfie and hugged his old friend. Flashes of the vision still raced through his mind: Alfie’s younger self, his father’s smile, the little scrap of paper with a naughty Arabic poem in Fatima’s handwriting that stuck out of the dying man’s pocket, his screams of pain as his soul was dragged away to who knows where.

“If…if…only I had been there, I’m sorry. Twenty years ago…the mortgage…the mausoleum…you released something terrible. It killed— it fed on dad. That was the price, that spirit tricked you. This thing wants me to be angry at you, but I got you, buddy. It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know.”

Shaking, suddenly angry, Ahmad freed Alfie from his embrace.

“You keep trying these tricks on us and you’ll really be sorry, pal,” he said in whatever direction he thought the spirit was.

His outburst mostly finished, he leaned against the van.

“Does the name Mistress mean anything to anyone? Misty humanoid thing, cuts ropes, pushes people, takes their…” he choked… “souls away? Eats a part of it, maybe?”

Did Ahmad notice any similarities between the so-called Mistress and the thing that attacked Bryce? If so, he will make that clear in his description.

Sensing something important was happening between Ahmad and Alfie, and knowing he doesn't have the emotional... patience to contribute, Oscar says nothing, but shakes his head at Ahmad's question. He still keeps looking around trying to keep an eye out for anything approaching.

Laying her hand on Ahmad's shoulder to comfort him, Rani replied, "No, I'm sorry, I don't think I recognize those."

Thinking on it, Ahmad did not notice any similarities between the spirit and whatever attacked Bryce, which had rather clearly been corporeal and hadn't needed any kind of psychic nudge to be visible. A few moments of more thought and he also realized that 'Mistress' probably wasn't her name so much as a respectful way one might address a superior.

Seeing Ahmad's shock, Alfie takes the note in his hand to make sense of what had happened. The note itself tells him nothing, but his memories of the incident came back by themselves.

"I'm sorry. I really had no idea," Alfie mutters, conscious of the fact that in this case, however much he apologized it couldn't be enough.

Somehow Alfie is reminded of the many times people and spirits called him naive or foolish, which he had dismissed without a thought. Now that he had come across a harsh consequence of his action that might even be irreversible, his stomach turned with the thought of what might have come of some of his other hasty deals.

“Ok, well, it doesn’t matter. I don’t think this Mistress has anything to do with whatever attacked Bryce anyway. We can’t do anything about what’s in the past, so let’s focus on the future, right? A little girl and her father need us.” Ahmad took a few deep breaths. “So, what next? Jumping the fence and entering the warehouse?”

As they prepared to move, Ahmad tried — and failed — to think about what all the what ifs that bombarded him now. What if he had reached Alfie earlier, what if he had been there with his father on that day, what if he had known about all of this monster stuff before it happened? He squeezed Alfie’s shoulder affectionately.

Assuming we go ahead with breaking in, how does this work? Should each of us roll act under pressure?

"Fence," Oscar agrees. "Where it's dark."

After approaching the warehouse from the side, it quickly became apparent that the cameras Rani had spotted were focused on the obvious entrances -- the tollbooth-like structure where the guard sat as well as the doors and garage-like loading entrances to the warehouse. None of the cameras seemed directed at the fence surrounding the area.

You're not in any particular hurry and if you climb over towards the back, there's no risk of the guard hearing you, so no rolls required to climb over the fence. If this were a higher security place where just getting past the fence was a challenge, then yes, most likely everyone would roll Act Under Pressure.

"No sign of sensors or anything, is there? No, it would be silly to have that on a random warehouse." Rani murmured cautiously as she approached the fence with clear concern. She'd hate to miss something that would get them into trouble. She waited for the others to start climbing before joining them, and hoping she could keep up.

The one benefit of Oscar's lanky body is that he's tall, so he's always surprised at himself when he climbs something without too much trouble. Noticing that the cameras and lights seem to be focused on the entrances, he looks for a window or some other portal that can be re-purposed as a way inside that doesn't have a light shining on it.

If he spies one, he'll point to it. "There."

Indeed, none of the windows seem to have cameras pointed at them and the ones not near the entrances are fairly dark. However, all the windows are at about the second story level, which might explain why it was deemed unnecessary to have cameras pointed at them.

Scaffolding? Fire exits? Ladders to the roof?

The only doors appeared to be ones near the front and back next to the currently-down loading bay doors, all of which had cameras on them. The roof appeared to be of the gently slanted variety not typically meant for people to stand upon unless they're repairing a hole or fixing the gutters. As such, there were no ladders up to it though one could try scaling one of the vertical drainage pipes and hope that it could bear the load. There were similarly no scaffolds lying conviently about, though if one could hijack a forklift from near the front of the building without the guard noticing, that could be used to give someone a boost.

Ahmad’s ever–so–slightly pudgy shape meant he could not climb as gracefully as Oscar, but he was still able to do so without breaking much of a sweat. After the painful reminder of what happens when he’s not there to help people that the vision had offered him, he kept looking back at the others, wanting to make sure Rani was right behind him, Alfie was not lost in thought and Taryn wasn’t running off on her own.

Once everyone’s safely on the other side, he points to the forklift. “Perhaps someone sneakier than me or Oscar can get that without the guard noticing? Taryn…?”

Having not thought of the forklift, he stares intently at it for a few seconds before nodding his head in appreciation of the idea.

Rani raised her hands. "I screwed up the last door I tried to open. If you want it take off the hinges, I'm your girl. But I assume it would be better if we left without a trace."

"Forklift won't stay quiet. Even if we steal it quiet. I can climb that pipe though, if we really need to get on the roof. Simpler to just steal the guard."

Have we seen any sign of anyone working at this time of night, other than the guards?

If the roof is as DM describes, there's probably not a reason to get up there. And whatever solution we come up with to get in should be a solution where we all get in. My question above is that the forklift doesn't have to be quiet if the guards won't find someone using it suspicious.

There was no sign of anyone else outside the warehouse, and inside, the warehouse lights appeared to be off. It appeared that the only person currently working on the site was the singular guard at the entrance. It was, after all, well past typical working hours. On the one hand, that meant that there probably wouldn't be people inside who needed to be lied to or snuck past. On the other hand, it meant Taryn was right; getting up to the forklift wouldn't be that hard, but then getting it somewhere else without it making enough noise to draw attention was where the challenge would lie.

Frustrated annoyance poured off of Taryn in a single blink of her eyes. "I'm going to have him take the cameras offline."

For a moment the strange tattoos that crept back up her sleeves seemed to crawl, but she instead reached into the deep pocket of her trench coat to pull out a preposterously large six-shooter.

"So I won't have to hurt him."

Pausing here to allow for disagreement

Ahmad was clearly uncomfortable with the idea. “If only he would just…fall asleep on the job it would make things so much easier. Please, don’t hurt him,” he whispered.

Ahmad is not keen on the idea, but his player is fine with it.

"The only thing I can think of is using a spell to make some of us stronger, so we can lift the stupid thing quietly," Rani said.

I asked the GM, and it is possible - three of us would need to use or have Use Magic done on us to boost us to Peak Physical Fitness for a minute, and another would need to use Act Under Pressure to be the foreman. So the potential for it going wrong is...high.

To be clear, the options I presented Rani were either a Use Magic roll to drag the forklift back. Or if you really wanted to lift the thing to avoid the drag trail, a Use Magic roll and then an Act Under Pressure to see how well the 3 people lifting it could coordinate while being quiet.

"If the girl is here, this can be justified. Do it."

Taryn rolled her eyes. "The gun is so he won't get hurt."

Setting off at an easy lope she circled far from the rest of the hunters, approaching the guard from the blindspots in the camera coverage that they'd already discovered. She didn't care too much about when he saw her, just watched for that moment of realization in his eyes when he realized the shadows weren't empty. Or unarmed.

"Play this smart and you'll walk away without anyone ever being the wiser. Drop your phone, radio, and any weapons on the ground, then walk over here. Neither of us want what'll happen if you don't."

The man in the guard's uniform gave a small yelp, immediately dropping the paper he had been looking at and holding his hands up. He carefully placed his radio, phone, a baton, and what looked to be stun gun or taser of some sort on the ground inside the booth. He then swung open the door and slowly walked over to where Taryn was standing in the shadows, outside of sight of the camera. The man, one "R. Davidson", was clearly shaking and his voice came out high and tense. "Please don't hurt me! This was supposed ta be an easy gig! I jus' needed some extra cash!"

A moment later, the radio back in the booth hissed as a voice came through it. "Hey Rog, what's the answer for number 16? For the life of me, I can't find something that fits."

What are the rest of you doing while Taryn is confronting the guard? Are you staying where you were, towards the back of the warehouse? Are you lurking out of sight but within earshot near the front?

If he can see the guardhouse from where we were near the back of the warehouse, Oscar wouldd stay back there. Otherwise, Oscar would try to find a spot out of sight of the cameras to watch.

Staying there and hiding. Alfie doesn't want himself associated with what Taryn's doing.