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"Vell, if dare are no objections, ve sould go now. No time like present, so dey say. Drug dealers may be more likely to sleep during day anyvay." With that, the good Father gets up, pays his tab, and heads with the others down to the tenement pointed out by the detective. He takes up a position across the street, his collar in place on his shirt, standing with his ever present stack of pamphlets inviting passers by to the parish for mass, and advertising the various social and counselling services offered there. All the while, he focuses his attention on the building before him; guards at the entrance, anyone coming and going. He extends his senses out into the building as well, counting the number of individuals on each floor. He makes a note of their conditions and mental states as well; those that are injured or in a state of fear were likely not to be there willingly; it was common practice in such places to detain women, and sometimes men, that could not pay their debts, so that they could "work-off" the money they owed with customers that come to the building for drugs. The customers would use their drugs, use the indentured 'guests', all in one location. Convenient. Once he had an idea of how the occupants of the building were dispersed, he pulled out his cell and group-texted the info to his companions, in a circumspect pattern that wouldn't mean anything to anyone else that read the texts.
"Alright. Now, or wait for dark? The madam constable made it sound... urgent. Night vould be easier, though. Either way, I am ready now. I need only my faith and hands God gave me."
Father Pavel calls Escher and Nightstryker, and invites them down to the Pizzaria to talk it over, given that they seem unable to reach the others at the moment. When they arrive, he is grabbing a bit of lunch already, and waves them over to his table. "Hello, come, have seat. So, what do you sink about drug-house?" If Nightstyker is there, he fills him on on the tip from the detective. "I took valk by building. Is big. Hard to block all exits. Has many fire escapes, front door, back door, roof... If police vere to raid, I am sinking there would be no ewidence by time they entered apartments. Is possible that ve go in, find top man, stop them from flushing the ewidence, but vould hiv to be quiet. Maybe, go in from roof, find lookout... ask him questions... If ve knew which apartment to start vith, maybe we catch red-handed. If ve make supply disappear, maybe it disrupts local flow, da? Once ve hiv big man, maybe he tells us where he gets supply. Big man won't want to talk, but maybe we ask real nice..."
Hmm, so potentially just three of the original crew? I'd say recruiting is probably a good idea in that case. Particularly, since Dustman is becoming a DMPC, his insights are likely to become less targeted (given the insider information issue, DMPC's typically play more of a backseat role in te party - by necessity). As opposed to a general recruiting thread, a custom invite to some of the more M&M2e savvy players from your Men and Monsters games might be a good way to go about it? A general call is likely to get more folk unfamiliar with the system, and while they might make good players in the long run, a targeted approach might get things started a fair bit faster. Though speaking of familiarity with the system, I feel like I've learned a fair bit more about it since we started, particularly through the Monsters and Men character creation, and I might be interested in doing a bit of an update/redesign of Father Pavel, given what I've learned, and if you are alright with that.
Well, we have: Father Pavel: Martial Arts/Psi/Sensitive/Decent Face type
If Nightstryker stays in, I'd say 'no.' If he's out, we might be able to afford another player. Looking at our team, I'd actually say what it appears most that we need is a detective/investigator type. Could be a cop (our FCPD liaison), a PI, a detective super (Batman/Raven type), or whatever. Seems like the most obvious gap at present. Course, it's been so long that it's possible someone does have that angle covered and I've overlooked it, or forgotten. If so, sound off.
Transforming that villain idea from way back into a character idea? Obscure: Vision and hearing (3pp/rank) might work better than Darkness Control. As for linked powers, they don't have to match, but it's customary. However it's not that odd if they don't match. Either the fear only kicks in near the centre of the darkness, or the darkness is so stark and frightening that it induces fear even beyond its edges.
Nice. Finally just got around to starting the Daredevil series last week. I've seen about 8/12 so far. It has a cool ambiance, and Daredevil was one of the more distant inspirations for Father Pavel (Hyper-Religious martial artist with heightened sense, morally ambiguous outlook, and a disproportionate sense of responsibility for others.) I'm enjoying the show a lot, but there are some aspects I'm actually not a fan of. Most of the reviews talk a lot about how brilliantly Fisk's character is depicted, but I actually have to say I don't like it at all. He is so socially awkward, so erratic, so... emotionally feeble. I can't understand how such a person could be a criminal kingpin; it makes no sense to me - he reeks of weakness (dispite how physically powerful he is), and in the criminal underworld, I can't see anyone respecting or following him. Anyway, just a random aside.
Sounds good; in regards to his other question, will we be carrying forward with the "Street Level Super Hero" theme, or will you be moving it in a more supernatural direction?
Well, I'm still around and still gunnin' to play. If you were interesting in taking I've this game, I'd be more than happy to play in it. I'm one of those in the Monster and Men games, and while it hasn't been running particularly long, but it's been great so far. Besides, my flock will always need tending.
Bold words, but I'm under the impression Echos is throwing in the towel... Planning to step in and take over? I'm really looking forward to your Dresden-ish game!
That is too bad. I like the premise for this game, and I think it would have been a lot of fun. Tis a shame.
Echos, how's it going? Any news or thoughts in regards to this game?
Sounds good.
Hey Echos, just checking in to see how things are going. I presume life or work is keeping you preoccupied, but thought I would ask for a status update in regards to this game. Let us know if we will need to be on hiatus a bit longer, or if things will be picking up again soon.
Sounds good to me.
Without an emergency, Father Pavel has no real excuse regarding how to get upstairs; he also has no real way of gaining more information about the person upstairs via his limited powers. "Mr. Bet, if you do not mind question, how are dese offices set up? Do different offices or floors handle different duties? Did floor werses one above, for instance?"
Father Pavel follows along with the tour, and receiving the quote, appearing outwardly calm, but beginning to seethe more and more as his companion's fabrications grow more and more in both scope and depth, while remaining completely unnecessary. He begins to put the conversation out his mind a bit, allowing himself to extend his senses in other directions, and perhaps enabling him to become privy to more than just his eyes and ears could make him aware of.
He extends his mental senses outward. As his mental awareness expands outwards, he becomes aware of the layout of the facility, it's general disposition and floor plan. A moment aside has him checking all the available spaces, to see if any of them, even those he is aware of even through his senses, are meant to be concealed from observation. Next he scans the number of minds within the facility and its grounds. As his mind focuses on each, he becomes aware of each one's physical state, the presents of injuries, their emotional state, as well as an assessment of their combative abilities, and any major weaknesses they might possess. He is expecting their might be a few dozen souls around, and that due to the security forces presence, many of them might be mentally familiar with combat and the like. Truly what he looks for the most is the presence of anyone nearby that is fearful, injured, or in pain. Such things might require immediate intervention, and take this recon outing into something with more teeth. Such a place, if what they had been led to suspect turned out true, might be involved in human trafficking, and have a cargo crate full of trafficked immigrants, transported in poor conditions but hopeful; unaware of how much worse things might be about to get.
Not going anywhere.
I'm travelling over the weekend, so I may not get a chance to post again until Monday. Have a good weekend everybody.
"You listened in part, but missed point, I think; gospel says, "Let your message be 'Yes' for 'Yes' and 'No' for 'No.' Anything more than that comes from the evil one."" For some reason his accent is noticeably less apparent when he is quoting scripture. "Vhat matters here I sink vas sat the lie vas not necessary; you could easily hiv told sem ve do not yet hiv source for pews, but are looking for price, to see if import is practical. Effect vould be same, vis no lie needed. Point of sermon is intent, not result." "Besides, I hate sat story; sermon was Bishop's and asked me to repeat. Is too easy to misinterpret. Moral might be, Goof off all you like, and be leach off hardworking neighbour. Is from Aesop, not from God. I sink is, how you say, broken Aesop. But Bishop is Bishop."
He smiles back warmly at the receptionist, and offers his hand in turn after Kwon. "Good afternoon; I am Father Pavel." During the brief contact, he makes a quick scan of her memories, seeking out the answer to a simple question, Is your company a cover for criminal endeavors? The receptionist may well not know, even if the company were deeply involved, but then she might.
"Yes, coffee vould be goodt. Also blick, please."
"I kin go along vis your plan, but only so far. You know how I feel about deception. My story vill be sat information came from you, so if exposed as false, I kin play innocent. I vould raser more honest approach, but sis vill do." He turns for a moment, looking off as though considering. "If excuse comes to touch him, I kin find out vat he knows about Rodarte; a hindshake at meeting, anoser ven leaving vould be good start. Of course, if he tripped or fell, I vould also hiv to help him up..."
I just got a "Site could not answer your request" error, so I couldn't even get to the log in screen. It all seems fine now. Sorry I haven't posted on the game forum; it was showing up as hidden from my list for some reason. I was thinking, why has no one posted? This is sure moving slowly for a new game... I'll get something posted as soon as I can manage. It's Canada Day here though, so I'll be with my family for most if the day.
Thanks Quark. If you have any questions about how I entered things, feel free to message me. I entered it a few different times, so everything should balance out perfectly in terms of numbers.
I only have the free version, so I can't export the por file. I ran him through Hero Labs to make sure the points added up, but that was it.
I figured.
As I mentioned in passing a while back, my comic collecting days were the early nineties, so I actually have some fond memories of the Iron Age. However, yes, I think the impression was that this game was to be a bit more street and urban, but not straight up The Punisher. My impression was that Dusty was being dramatic though, and not indicating his character was a murderous psychopath.
"Vhile is true 'The wages of sin is death', there is no other punishment on books, and so it is payment ve all hiv earned. Our's is not to judge; ve are here to protect, yes?" He looks hard at the Dustman's face, as if trying to memorize it, probably for the thousandth time. "Memory is foggy on such things, but am sinking our friend knows this. Let us let Godt vorry about punishment, and see vhat ve kin do to protect our flock." Listening to Rose's pronouncement of his fate, he nods and concedes, "So he vill meet Godt for his judgement after all. Vhere vas home? Not in Fens." The Dustman was an odd case; it was disconcerting not to be able to remember someone. Still, when he concentrated, he seemed to be able to bring up some memories of the man, something his comrades never seemed to be able to do - perhaps it was something to do with his own particular gifts. Thinking back now, he could not recall the death's of any of the villains or criminals that had been involved in the exploits of these so-called Knights. He was grateful that in all his time in Freedom City, he had never yet been called on to take another life. At the thought dozens of faces started flickering through his mind's eye. Hard faces to think about; impossible faces to forget. Mr. Kwon was another interesting case, but then all the Knights were. The young man had demons of his own. Pavel made another quick prayer for the man in his mind, asking that he might find peace and relief from his struggles. He and Kwon had made an interesting team; men driven by guilt, amongst other things, and they seemed to share a bit of an understanding that needed no words; a shared life experience.
The priest next to Dustman leans over to get a better look at the file before his colleague. His eyes scan through it it barely an instant before turning back to the petite policewoman. "You have... bad feeling about court case? Or somesing is happening already?" Not really expecting an answer,or at least knowing the answer won't concern them, or she'd have mentioned it already, he gestures to the file absently with one hand, the hint of indecipherable cyrillic letter just visible under the cuffs of the black suit jacket he was wearing today. "'Vhite collar' criminal? Not kind of sing you usually bring to us; and not usually top of list for troubles in Fens." He left the question dangling, instead reaching for a slice of the steaming pizza, almost like the issue wasn't important enough to await the answer. To those who knew him though, they knew it was just the Father's method; he had patience in spades, and he knew she'd tell them why she'd brought it to them when she was ready.
Some sort of base familiarity is probably better than having everyone just plain unaffected. Say they can remember the Dustman exists, they know he's a good guy and that he works with the team, but they can't remember much specific about him at any point when he is not around. If you asked the team if they knew the Dustman, they'd say sure. Ask them to describe him, or draw a picture, and all of a sudden you'd get a lot of blank stares, and uh, um's...
"I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Straining upon the start. The game's afoot: Follow your spirit, and upon this charge Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!"
“Come Watson, come! The game is afoot! Not a word! Into your clothes and come!” The game has begun!
For the Reverend Pavel Nikolai Ivanovich, or "Father Pavel" to most, this had been a pretty typical morning. The youngish priest wasn't new to Freedom City; the Fens had been his parish for going on about 5 years now, but the truth was that he had pretty much stepped off the boat the day before that, as far as his experiences with America were concerned. He'd lived in Vatican city for most of the six years prior, coming from Romania previous to that, but hailing in a long term sense, from a rather colourful region of Siberia, in Russia. At the Vatican he'd spent his time attending seminary schools, though most of those were actually outside the city and within the territory of Rome, and studying to achieve the qualifications needed for his present vocation. His life before that, was a bit hard to explain. It came up from time to time of course, but it was always a challenge to be able to talk about those days without the details starting to overwhelm the work he was trying to do in the here and now. Nevertheless, it was sure to come up again, and again, and showed no real sign of slowing down. His introduction to the USA, to Freedom City, and in particular the Fens, had been very dramatic. He'd not been one of the dreamy Eurasian folks, enamored with the idea of America, the American Dream, and wishing beyond hope to be able to bask within the glow of its fabled unrestricted prosperity, and limitless opportunities for all. Quite to the contrary, he had wanted to go to the places he felt were thirsty to hear, who needed genuine spiritual help and guidance, and from what he could tell, that place was not America. He had expressed interest in returning Eastern Europe, to the countries now separated from the USSR, or to the former Eastern Bloc. He'd volunteered for Africa, Brazil, Papua New Guinea. However, the mentors he'd found within the church had other ideas for him. They had oft told him that they did not think him typical of his brethren, and had said often that they felt God had a singular and special mission in store for the then Brother Pavel. They delayed his assignment, saying the right opportunity had not yet arisen. When the assignment came, he'd responded with shock; America? He had never expressed any interest to see it whatsoever, and had generally avoided aspects of his education that focused on the mission there, as he found little about the place of interest to him. While this separated him from his peers in some respects, who in general, regardless of their country of origin, had been reared to a degree on American cultural exports. Pavel had never even seen a movie until his twenties, living in Romania, and his first American movie years later after moving to Rome. There was something about him that felt that a place that represented such a polar political opposite to his own country could possibly be any less stagnant and repressive. Some people tended to the belief that opposites will reflect virtues where their rivals show vice, but philosophy (and life) had taught him that the virtues usually lay somewhere in the middle, and what the opposite extreme would present was an inverse ideology that would result in similar or reciprocal vices and failings too their enemy. He'd wanted to be as far away from that quagmire as possible. And now, the calling he had been waiting for had arrived, and the docket was labeled: Freedom City, United States of America. His arrival had been nothing short of a baptism of fire. He'd had less than a year to try and master the English language before he arrived, and his knowledge of American culture, idioms and traditions could not have been more scarce. The senior priest he had been coming to assist was initially planning a retirement for approximately 2 years after Pavel's arrival, once his replacement was ready to take over as sole spiritual counsellor for the parish. Naturally, a rapid change in his health had forced him to take an early retirement, merely 6 week's after Pavel's arrival. Events after that had gotten... rocky. He was actually arrested around the two month mark for attempted murder. He'd come across a man, white, tall and built like a fighter, severely beating two young Latina women in the alley by the Cathedral's loading dock. His English still a little sticky, he'd tried to intervene and offer assistance to the girls, only to find himself being attacked by the big bear, now wielding a knife. A few quick blows and the man had folded like a jackknife. Seemed like the man had been banking on his size alone for a long time, and had never had to face someone who fought back. One of the girls had called the cops, and by the time they showed up, Pavel found himself being arrested. The girls told a story about how a wacked out John had sucker punched her boyfriend, and then tried to beat him to death on the ground. To his utter shock, the other girl backed the story. To the police, the strange looking Russian guy, covered in monochromatic tattoos of the prison variety, acting confused and barely speaking English, seemed like a safe bet as the cause of all the trouble. The Bishop had come down personally to set his bail, which was at the time only their second meeting. He matter of factly informed the new young cleric that he had the honour of being the first active duty ordained priest on the Eastern Seaboard arrested for a violent felony in the last 200 years. Things didn't go as far as a grand jury, as it turned out when the girls found out their benefactor was actually a genuine Priest, their stories flipped around in record time. Turns out they'd both grown up in the parish, though it appeared the practice of their faith had likely lapsed since then. However, sending up a priest when he was just trying to help, was a little too much for even their jaded lives. And that was just his introduction to the Fens. Of course, looking back on it now, he could laugh about things like that. He even still kept in contact with Maria and Alejandra. Alejandra had quit the business and moved to a small town upstate. She'd married, and now helped run her husband's family hardware store. Maria had quit as well, finished school, and had just recently graduated as a Social Worker. He'd attended the graduation ceremony and was considered a close friend of the family. He'd been putting out feelers through his contacts to see if he could help her land a good job. Of course she wanted to help girls like her, and so chances were, the Fens were going to be seeing more of her soon. Father Pavel turned to Georgie, an eyebrow arched above pale blue eyes. "Pliz, Georrgie, I'v isked you to call me Pavel. Und ass for the tevee, if you like I kin bliss it for you later. I'v got some incense, holy vwater, und I kin probably git you som kindles to go vith, but if you rreally sink Godt has damned it, sere is probably wery little I'll be able to do about it." He finished of with the sign of the cross with one hand before bringing to two back together in mock solemnity. Georgie cracked first, letting out a wry honk of a laugh before taking a swing at the Russian with a rolled newpaper. The Russian's shaved head was absent from the path of the paper as it swished over him, as he'd conveniently dropped his napkin just as the restaurateur passed by with the swing. He resettled back into his chair as Georgie went back to the television once again. Father Pavel was eating breadsticks, made with pizza dough of course, but with a little cinnamon and powdered sugar, they made for a pretty good imitation of pastry, and a damn fine breakfast. His mouth was full of the warm bread as the detective walked in and ordered coffee. "Georrgie! Anoter coffee for me is well. Blick." "I know how you like your g#&#@$n coffee, padre. Oops; sorry Father." "Oh no, not da coffee too! Sat settles it, I'll be bringing my rosary and incense dis afternoon!" He looked around the dinning room absently. "Do you sink you hiv room for a choir in here?" Georgie seemed to think better of throwing the towel he was carrying, tossing it over his shoulder instead, and marching back towards the coffee pot. "Goodt morning Rose, Godt bliss." He smiled at the diminutive woman, talking with his usual cheer and upbeat tone. When the pizza arrived on the table however, his gaze followed it instinctively, even with the unfinished bread sticks on his plate. Halfway to the the pieplate his hand stopped and he gestured to it instead. "Pliz, Detictive, ladies first." |
