Door in the Dark (Inactive)

Game Master Anon A Mouse

Ahmad will try to keep people away from it as much as possible, especially Alfie and Rani. He really doesn’t want to be seen breaking in a Turner warehouse.

"Go on, answer him. You're not stupid. This is just an easy gig, and you know what not to do if you want everything to stay easy."

She waited patiently for Roger Davidson to deal with the voice on his radio, gun leveled on him the whole time.

"Now you show me how to turn off these cameras, Roger Davidson of Sioux Falls. This'll all be over soon."

The warehouse itself probably blocks direct sight from the back area to the guardhouse. You could probably get a clear line moving to about half-way between the back and the front.

Roger hurried back to the guardhouse and picked up the radio. "Errr, not now Mikey. I'm...errr...busy?" His voice was still unusually high and full of fear.

"Awwww, c'mon. I know you're a wiz with these things. Just help a fella out and tell me what's number 16?"

Roger gave Taryn a scared look before quickly flipping through some papers, muttering curses under his breath. "The answer's 'bombastic'!" He squeaked.

There was a long pause from the other side before Mickey responded. "You ok there, Rog? You don't sound so hot."

Roger gave a completely unconvincing, "Fine!" Before wincing and trying to deepen his voice. "I'm, uh, fine. Just fine. Totally fine. Nothing at all wrong."

"Uh huh..." Mickey didn't sound particularly convinced. "Which job were you working again? It was a storage warehouse, right?"

Roger gave Taryn a panicked look. "Mickey runs the cameras. Not just here, for all of the places covered by Lighthouse Patrol." He pointed at the logo on his uniform. "He'll be pulling up the cameras for this place soon. What should I do?"

A frustrated growl rumbled quietly in the back of Taryn's throat.

"You've been smart so far. Don't change that."

She quickly shoved the pistol beneath her long jacket again, and pounced. A stretch of one leg let her quickly straddle "Rog," with one hand gripping his shoulder with unmistakable strength.

"You're embarrassed. Maybe a bit distracted. Don't worry. Soon I'll be gone and I'll forget all about Roger Davidson of Sioux Falls."

Roger half-yelped, half-screamed as Taryn charged him, but apparently his survival instincts skewed towards 'deer in headlights' paralyzation rather than either fight or flight, making for an easy tackle target. It was unclear if the resulting fall or the sudden, very unexpected position change was responsible for the extraordinarily long time it seemed to take him to figure out what Taryn was talking about. When he did, his face seemed to freeze in a look of 'I don't know how on earth to respond to this.'

A moment later Mickey came back on the radio. "So Rog, who's your friend?" The suspicion was now gone, replaced with a subcurrent of 'you sly dog, you.'

"This is...uhhh...Madison? So uh, really if we could do the whole crossword thing later, th-that'd be great."

"Ok. But just remember, here at Lighthouse Patrol, we're always safe."

The radio went silent as Roger gave Taryn a mortified 'Please don't kill me for his comment' look. There were several long more moments of silence before he ventured a tentative, "I, uhhh, think Mickey got, errrr, gone?"

I'm assuming Taryn then repeats her comment about the cameras. If not, you can ignore this response.
Roger waved his hands slightly while still making sure to keep them up and non-threatening. "I told you, Mickey runs the cameras. I'm just here ta make sure no one drives up with a big truck ta steal the construction supplies. I'm just supposed ta sit here and turn folks that drive up away. More of a deterrent than anything else. I mean, for chrissake, who'd want ta steal a buncha wood?" His eyes went wide as he realized he may have just insulted the scary woman on top of him. "Not that there's anything wrong with wantin' some good, hardy wood. I'm sure you've got...reasons. Good reasons!"

"Fine. Stay here then."

In a single smooth motion Taryn rose, striding immediately from the room.

"Good night, Roger Davidson."

Hunch: 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (6, 6) + 3 = 15 Hopefully get a sense of if he's about to do something stupid as soon as Taryn leaves

Returning to the shadows she filled the others in on her little interlude. "...and I believe he will not seek us out. The other cameras are not being immediately monitored, but any recordings of them will be offsite.

"Destroying one to gain our entry might be simplest."

Ahmad let out a small sigh of relief when he saw Taryn returning without any shots being fired.

“Well, I think Rani is really good at subtly destroying things, right?” He turned to her. “Do you think you can fry one of the cameras from afar? Or do you need to get closer?”

There's nothing in the rules that states a distance, that I can see, so I assume it'll have to be hand unless I add something to it, such as time, do it as Big Magic or make it a Hex rote spell. Otherwise I could simply do 3-Harm No Armour attacks from anywhere.

Rani glanced over at the target. "I can, but I'll have to get close and it'll be quite flashy. It might draw attention." She shrugged apologetically. "Breaking stuff is easy, but doing it subtly is harder."

The wolf sneered at the small man who reeked of fear below the mighty hunter. It was unlikely he would do anything immediately dangerous to his better, but he certainly held no loyalty for her dominance. While he did not have the guts to act under his own impetus, when faced with the false dominance of a uniform and badge in the cold, safe light of morning, he would likely buckle again just as easily as he had this night.

I would say adding time to the spell casting to offset distance works for me. Especially if you're maintaining line of sight. Also a quick reminder that I still have jinx hold, so keep rolls behind spoilers.

"It doesn't matter if they know if somebody broke in here or not. Just as long as they don't know who. We can go in and search the place quickly and then get out. But the longer we wait the more likely that guard is going to call in reinforcements.

"Kill the camera however you can. Faster is better."

Rani nodded, and did started to focus so she could it without having to climb up and touch it.

Weird: 2d6 + 2 ⇒ (5, 5) + 2 = 12

Not sure how long it'll take to get the range to blow it up, if it's ten seconds per range, a minute per range, etc.

Two points of clarification:
1) The Jinx hold can be used against any Hunter, not just Alfie. If you really don't want to spoiler rolls, that's fine, but I really think it's more fair to y'all if you do.
2) Which cameras are Rani trying to take out? There are 5 clusters of cameras: the drive-in gate where the guard was, the two door entrances on the front and back, and the two loading bay entrances close to the regular door-entrances. Are you destroying all the cameras? Just the ones covering one/some of the entrances?

Fair enough, I'll re-do that roll for the spoiler tags. Apologies for not doing so the first time. I assume I'm just taking out the ones on the nearest entrance, given it'll take a minute or two to break them all and we already have a suspicious camera guy, but if folks want to spend the time taking them all down I'm happy to keep going.

Nah, we'll just use the first roll. As I said, the main reason why I want spoilers is just so I can have an unbiased decision about if I want to use Jinx hold without actually seeing if it will affect the roll.

From her position at the back of the warehouse, Rani was able to aim and focus a few balls of arcane energy to blast the cameras pointing at the door. It was a good thing the guard had already been dealt with or it might have attracted some attention from him, but it clears the entrance enough for the group to approach without fear of being recorded. The door appeared to be a fairly typical exterior entranceway and, as might be expected, was locked. How do y'all want to get past the door?

"I can break the lock, but they'll look into it tomorrow. If someone else can deal with it quietly that would be better."

"I mean, I guess we could try picking the lock? If not breaking it is simply enough. Maybe." Rani shrugged.

"I don't understand what isn't clear about this. There may be a little girl trapped inside there, and we only have a small amount of time to find her before the guard in the guardhouse calls someone. If he hasn't already.

"They will already know that somebody has been here. They can't see our faces through that camera. We need to get in."

Oscar continues to talk in his near-monotone, but those who are used to it can detect some urgency in his voice.

“Oscar…actually has a point. Between threatening a security guard and frying a camera, I think we’re not really in ‘leave no trace of your presence’ territory by now. Also, even if Alice is not here I’d rather we get out of here before anyone realises a camera’s not working.”

So, are we breaking the lock/door? Or does someone think they'd have lockpicks and the skill to use them? The former would probably be faster but louder than the latter, but neither would involve rolling.

I was assuming that a roll would be needed, and I was also assuming that Taryn had the best Tough score for that roll, but it turns out that Ahmad is the only one with a positive Tough modifier.

Tired of waiting, Oscar rears back and does his best to kick the door in.

“I guess that works too…?” Ahmad said as he peeked inside the building from behind Oscar’s back. “Everyone be prepared, who knows what we’re actually going to find in here.”

Ahmad will check for cameras (and anything obviously wrong)

The only Tough-based basic moves are triggered if you fight someone or if you attempt to protect another Hunter from taking Harm; there is no move that triggers from trying to break down a door unless there's some other thing going on (main thing that comes to mind is something that would introduce time pressure) which would make it an Act Under Pressure roll.

With a crash, Oscar kicked the door open. It was loud in the relative silence of the night. Not a lot could be seen by what little light spilled in through the doorway save the open walkway leading into the darkness of the warehouse and a pair of hand trolleys standing to one side. The shadows and some moonlight coming in from the easter windows give the vague impression that there are tall shelves and aisles throughout the structure.

A yell of fear suddenly rent the air followed by the unmistakable sound of a gun going off twice somewhere towards the center of the warehouse. A moment later the clattering of many somethings hitting the ground could be heard as someone tried to move quickly towards the western side of the building.

What are the non-Taryn members of the group using for light?

@Ahmad: Once you have a light source, if you want to take a moment to look around, you can roll Read a Bad Situation.

I'm assuming that we're on the west side of the building.

At the sound of gunfire, Oscar reaches under his coat for something, thinks better of it, and leaves it where it is and pulls out his watchman's flashlight instead. He turns to Taryn.

"You can see in the dark? Go. Text when you find something."

He turns to Alfie and Ahmed. "Looks like we're her distraction."

Sorry, I should have specified. You're on the north side of the building. The other side that has doors is the south side.

Rani got one of those small emergency torch out of her purse. She wished she could use magic for something this basic, but so far she hadn't gotten the knack for more utilitarian spells and abilities. She really wanted to learn that at some point, if it was at all possible

"I hear a dog, or maybe a wolf, howling. Or was it a werewolf?" Alfie looks at Taryn, the local expert, expectantly. "You did hear it, didn't you? And now someone else, walking over there," he adds, pointing to the east side, which he proceeds to watch intently.

In the glow of Oscar and Rani's light, the group could see a vast assortment of various building supplies in piles and on shelves. The majority of it seemed to be wooden boards of various sizes, but there was also things like rebar, bags of unmixed concrete, and floor tiles. The shelves towered well above head-height and though they were individually well-ordered, their placement throughout the building did not seem to have any overarching design, turning the place into a series of turns and dead ends and making it impossible to see much beyond the current aisle and the occasional glimpse into the neighboring one.

As a result, Alfie found himself staring blankly at a shelf piled high with two-by-fours, one of many that lay between himself and whatever noise only he could hear. It was clear that unless the noisemakers changed direction, they would not be intersecting with the group as they stood by the northern warehouse entrance.

In addition to staying where you currently are, the other obvious places you might head are
1) the place where you initially heard the commontion
2) to intersect whomever ran west
3) to check out whatever Alfie heard to the east
4) if you wanted to go to the southern doors for whatever reason

Assuming Taryn heads into the warehouse (and presumably towards where we heard the commotion, I'll vote for intersecting whomever ran west or staying put so as to provide a distraction for her. We could also send someone around to the east (outside of the warehouse) to make sure they're not escaping with the girl.
.
I don't want to force the party's actions by posting first, but if nobody posts anything for a few days again, I'll have Oscar tell people what to do and run in.

Before he acted, Ahmad looked around using the combined lights of Oscar and Rani and tired to read the situation.

Read a bad situation: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (2, 4) + 1 = 7
“What’s the best way to protect the victim?” Can protection here be understood as preventing anyone from leaving since they might have Alice? If this question is not applicable because we can't see the victim, “What is the biggest threat?”

Barring any super relevant insight from my roll, I agree with Oscar and say we should intercept the who/what is running west.

@Oscar: Oscar is free to do whatever he wants. Him deciding to go somewhere doesn't mean the entire party is deciding to go somewhere. The other characters will decide on where they go when they update. Even if he posted instructions, that's just him telling the other characters what to do; they won't actually do it unless their players then say that they're following Oscar's directions.

@Ahmad: You can ask "What's the best way to protect the victim" but it'll only tell you how to keep them from leaving the warehouse if that is indeed the best way to protect them. You'll also need to couch the "victim" in terms of entities you know are here, so you can't say "Alice" is the victim if you don't know she's here, but you could specify "whomever or whatever group is heading west".

Hmmm…that makes sense. I'll go with "what is the biggest threat," then, if that's alright with you. Seems more straightforward.

The beam of Oscar's flashlight caught on one of the exposed beams of the warehouse, drawing Ahmad's attention upwards. This allowed him to see a flurry of motion of someone moving nimbly across the tops of the shelves near where the initial commotion was before leaping down out of sight. Given the fact that many of the shelves nearby at least seemed to have items even on the topmost level and they didn't seem to be disturbing them, whomever it was must be fairly athletic. Their position also gave them improved mobility and vision over anybody moving through the aisles at ground level. Combining all that with the fact that the figure didn't seem to be using a light source to easily give away their position meant that they were most likely currently the biggest threat.

“Watch out! There’s something up there, moving on the top of the shelves!” Ahmad whispered as he tapped Taryn on the shoulder and pointed towards whatever it was that he saw.

Without waiting any more, he grabbed Alfie by the arm and ran west.

“Alice! Alice! Are you there? We’re here to help!”

Feel free to come with, but I was thinking that someone could go east and that Taryn would be interested in the agile and athletic thing above the selves.

@Ahmad: What are you using as a light source? I'm assuming you have one, I just want to know what it is.

When Ahmad ram into the warehouse (and seeing that Alfie was looking to the east) Oscar was right behind him, holding his flashlight high so that they both could see.

When the deputy points his light and weapon in their direction, Oscar points his flashlight down off to the side and raises his other hand to show it's empty.

"Elmohtar. You talk."

Taryn gave a curt nod but a broad smile as she hauled herself up the shelves, looking to get a clean look or sniff or... anything of the hunter above. It's not acting like prey though.

Not sure what rolls are necessary to achieve any of that, but Taryn is planning on piling right in to Kick Some Ass if whatever's up there is close enough and threatening enough.

I'm confused. Oscar is supposed to be with me to the east, but you're reacting to the deputy to the west. Was that a mistake or am I missing something?

I don't recall saying I was going east. Was it the line "When Ahmad ram into the warehouse (and seeing that Alfie was looking to the east) Oscar was right behind him"? The 'him' in this case was Ahmad.

As far as I can tell, Alfie turned to look east but never actually left the entrance. Ahmad then ran west, attempted to pull Alfie with him (though it's up to Alfie if he went along with that or not), and then Oscar ran after Ahmad. So I currently have Oscar and Ahmad to the West and Taryn seems like she will soon be headed South. It's not yet clear to me what either Alfie or Rani are doing.

@Taryn: Some clarification, the figure to the South has since jumped down from the shelves and is a distance away. Is Taryn trying to charge forward and engage the figure in melee? Or sneak forward to get more information about the figure via seeing/sniffing them?

What Oscar and the GM described is pretty much what I had understood as well. Though Ahmad did intend to drag Alfie with him (ostensibly to protect Alfie but also because after the latest revelation Ahmad might be thinking his friend needs…closer oversight), it’s of course totally fine by me if you want to do something else.

Ahmad immediately put his hands up — one empty, the other holding his cellphone with the torch turned on. As he spoke, the counsellor tried to “accidentally” aim the light directly at Richardson’s eyes, hoping this would make it easier for the officer not to recognise him.

“Oh, the police, thank god! Don’t shoot! There’s–there’s something here! I think it’s over there! Like a wolf, I think! Help!” He said, only half-feigning his panic, whilst indicating the direction where Alfie had first heard the wolf or wolf-like creature.

Not sure if a manipulate roll is necessary — I am not lying but I am trying to deflect his attention from us and what we’re doing here. Behind spoiler in case the GM wants to use the jinx.

Hearing the commotion, Rani tried to get a bit closer to Ahmad's voice without being seen by whatever was happening here.

I had misunderstood "him" as Alfie. I understand now.

Alfie doesn't move, staying alert until he can make out some of the words being spoken. "More screaming. There's something very wrong going on there. I'm going to run outside to check."

We broke in through the south, so as far as Alfie knows, the northern doors are still locked.

Alfie's trip south is quickly stunted when he notices what seems to be a werewolf jumping down in front of Taryn. He stands a few feet behind Taryn to watch what she does before putting himself into the fray.

He touches his shotgun, though wondering if it would be of any use at all, and looks to the southern doors to gauge whether an escape could be feasible.

Just a point of clarification, you broke in through the north, as I clarified when Oscar stated he was assuming they were to the west. If you're running outside, then it doesn't really make sense for there to be shelves for Taryn to stand upon. Either way, I'll resolve Alfie's roll after I resolve Taryn's.

“Where…? Oh, ok, yes! Going right away,” Ahmad said and quickly started moving south. He instinctively reached for Alfie, only to realise the man wasn’t next to him.

“Where’s Rani? Alfie was right next to me a minute ago!” He whispered to Oscar as they went through the maze of shelves and storage units.

Is the cop following us or is he staying behind?

Taryn's lip curled back as she bared her teeth, surging forward along the shelves to meet the lupine beast claw to claw. She went low, trying to get underneath its greater reach, but willing to pay a toll in blood to get there. Instinctively she hunched a shoulder up to meet his fangs, though the thick ruff that would have been her shield was replaced only by a trenchcoat and a thick sleeve of tattoos.

Let it spill, bleed me dry, just let me get my claws wet too.

He was bigger; he was stronger, but that wasn't enough to stop her. He's taller, he's heavier, that's good for brawling...

Blood flowed, but the stink of conquest was even thicker in the air, thicker even than the offal of his gutted prey.

...but not good for balance. Bring him down, put him down beneath you and see if he has the stomach to rise again.

Taryn heaved, all the bunched up muscles in her legs uncoiling to send him into the air, and then down to the floor far beneath her where he belonged.

Bleed his strength away. Run him down til his heart bursts. See if wounds can lay him low...

Her wounds burned, but her snarl just spread wider as she watched to see if the lupine would. ... 'cause my wounds won't. I never stop once I've tasted my prey.

@Alfie: What is your light source? I'm assuming you have one (as otherwise you wouldn't be able to see anything), I just want to know what it is.

Oscar stays in place, both hands visible and non-threatening. In fact, he stays almost stock-still as he continues to talk in his standard monotone.

"The missing girl might be here. (I forget her name, sorry. Oscar would identify her by name at this point.) If she's here, and we wait for back-up, whoever brought her here has the chance to move her.

"Call for back-up, if you want. I can take care of myself."

Ahmad furrowed his brow at Oscar’s silence, looked back and saw the man’s silhouette against the officer’s flashlight as he stood his ground. `Man, this is like herding kittens.’ Still, Oscar could handle himself and if Alice had been in the eastern section of the warehouse Richardson would surely have gotten her already, so Ahmad welcomed the distraction to scurry away in the direction Alfie had thought he heard something (south, I think?).

“Alfie? Rani? Taryn…?” He whispered as he moved in the dark. Not sure Ahmad would automatically see Rani if she’s well hidden.

@GM: yeah, I saw that option and would probably have used itif we were playing in person, but I was afraid that on pbp it could lead to too much back-and-forth.

Luckily for Alfie (as far as "lucky" could be applied to someone being choked by something worse than a wolf), he always made sure to carry two guns with him. On the other hand, it would be hard enough to take the gun out, and doubtful whether the gun would even do enough harm to be worth taking out if he could do so. For now, all Alfie wanted to do was get away from the beast, for some slight chance at tuning in to something that might have some power against it.

Alfie struggles to release himself from the werewolf's grip. "Help! The monster's here!" he yells, on the hope that the rest of the group is close enough to hear.

Just a point of clarification, you broke in through the north, as I clarified when Oscar stated he was assuming they were to the west. If you're running outside, then it doesn't really make sense for there to be shelves for Taryn to stand upon. Either way, I'll resolve Alfie's roll after I resolve Taryn's.

I was basing what I wrote on the same, so I don't know how I came up with the opposite conclusion. My mistake, but I'll roleplay it as Alfie being confused.

@Alfie: What is your light source? I'm assuming you have one (as otherwise you wouldn't be able to see anything), I just want to know what it is.

A flashlight, or in a pinch, a phone application.