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Stubber After being disappointed by all those regular visors, Stubber moves to regroup with Bones and Agatha. Hopefully, he can find his way to them without much trouble. "Emperor damnit all, those were just regular shades! Maybe everyone else had better luck."
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Sep 27, 2014 17:40
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Computatrix 1st Class Agatha Cortess "Oi, careful now," Agatha said warningly, using an arm to nudge Bones back from the counter. "Last person spoke to my friend here like that, they wound up missin' a few vital organs. Arright, fine enough, I'll just have to get my stimms elsewhere then. C'mon lads, I think we're done here." Once they were safely out of earshot she quickly and quietly relayed what she'd learned to the other two, her voice once again her own. "Three days ago a fleshcutter gang giving protection to a chymist named Mellows disappeared. That's his storefront over there...according to the gunsmith he closed up shop after it happened, afraid he might be next. It's not much of a lead but if we can track this Mellows down he might be able to give us more information on the gang that disappeared, which could set us on the track of finding out why it happened."
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Sep 27, 2014 19:12
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Marius After successfully buying the silencer and completely failing at finding any useful information, Marius meets up with the others just in time to hear what Agatha had learned. "Mellows does seem like our only lead right now, but it might be hard to find him in such a large hive. Perhaps there are a few clues in his closed shop? I might need a distraction, but I can easily get past whatever lock he put on his door. Unless you all feel we shouldn't brazenly break the law so soon, of course." I have Int 36 and Security, as well as a multi-key which gives me a +30 bonus to opening locks, so I'd test at 66. Not sure how open the door is to passers-by, or if there's a back door I could try instead.
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Sep 27, 2014 20:51
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Jini "if ya need inta the store I can do a lil housebreaking" Jini adds "wouldn't be ta first time only difference is the reasons" she adds sombrely. "bigshot like mr meds or whatever his name is probably doesn't have much in the way of defences anyway that was what the muscle was for." she licks her lips "besides even iffen we don't find anything about him we can score some drugs with a five fingered bargain"
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Sep 27, 2014 20:52
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Marius With no one trying to stop him, Marius casually makes his way around the back of the closed shop and discretely pulls out his multi-key. It's not a very complex lock, just enough to deter common thieves. After a few moments, Marius is in without drawing any attention. He makes sure to let someone else enter first all the same, however. Very unlikely to be any other security, but old habits die hard. Frajaq said on IRC that there's a back door, so going to do some breaking and entering. Like I said before, testing at 66. Roll was a 42, so 3 DoS I believe.
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Sep 27, 2014 22:03
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Stubber Once Stubber regroups with the rest of the team, he volunteers to enter first. He voices a single concern before pulling out his shock baton. "Do you guys think there's electronic security here?"
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Sep 27, 2014 23:45
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Marius "There's nothing that was connected to the door opening, if that's what you mean. Just don't break any display cases and we should be fine. This isn't an armory of a voidship or one of the Mechanicus's vaults, only dangers we should worry about are other people."
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Sep 28, 2014 00:34
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Shock baton raised, Stubber slowly creeps inside, watchful for any danger. He doesn't find anything dangerous and give the all-clear signal to the rest of the Acolytes. The group enters the medium sized medical supplies shop, and with a switch of the lights, they see that it's completely empty, showing that Mellows was at least methodical in his retreat from the place. On a table nearby are a few boring ledgers with stock measures, weekly sales and measured taxes to be paid to both Hive Desoleum Primus and affiliated House. Although which House specifically the ledgers don't show. The only object truly worth noticing is a common data-slate right in the center of the table, the contents inside it are a random garble of letters and words, both usual Low Gothic and High Gothic, and a few of the words of the local Desoleum dialect. There's undoubtedly an important message in the middle of this, if you could make sense of this code. If you have it you can roll a +0 Linguistics (Low Gothic OR High Gothic) test to decipher this simple code. Agatha gets a +10 bonus since she comes from this planet.
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Sep 28, 2014 01:41
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Boomer ed: apparently I can't do anything here so just tagging along. Awareness TN is 35 in case it becomes relevant. Ronwayne fucked around with this message at 06:17 on Sep 28, 2014 |
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Sep 28, 2014 06:11
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Computatrix 1st Class Agatha Cortess "Well it looks like Mellows wasn't too scared to gather his inventory before hiding," Agatha said as she followed behind Stubber and Marius as they very neatly bypassed the lock on the back door (a useful device, that multikey...she'd need to look into getting one of those for herself). "Sorry Jini, maybe next time." She idly leafed through a few of the ledgers that were one of the only things that had been left behind after Mellows closed it out...apparently he wasn't too worried about someone finding them, and a brief scan of the contents showed why. She looked over as Boomer picked up a dataslate from a nearby table, and the brief glance she caught of the contents on the screen seemed much more promising. "May I?," she asked, taking the slate and quickly scrolling through its contents, eyes rapidly flying from one line to the next as she sought out connections within the fragmentary script. Rolling Linguistics (Low Gothic) with a +10 bonus, TN 60 = 54, just made it in with 2 DoS. Kai Tave fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Sep 28, 2014 |
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Sep 28, 2014 06:24
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While Agatha is busy trying to find the connections between words at the data-slate, Boomer takes a deeper look around the shop. He looks around shelves, space between them, corners and boxes. It really looks completely empty, until something catches the corner of your eye. In a tiny crack on the wall itself, near a big shelve that was obscuring it, you encounter a small vial of a drug, that must have fallen off while Mellows was taking his good off the shop. From your experience in the Imperial Guard you immediately recognize it as a single dose of the official Tranquiliser, or just Tranq. Used a lot when you had to put Ogryns inside Chimeras and they were too afraid and stubborn to go in. Finally the Computatrix finishes the decoding, and although it's still very incomplete, a few important phrases reveal themselves to the Acolytes. pre:If you're reading this you must be... .... .... House Agrulia I can't take this, I've.... .... ..... 9th Alley Scalpers.... .... probably wiped out ......if its me next????? .....wanna talk...... Block 397F, 8th floor, apartment 812 ........please don't .......... ....... door unlocked... ... ..... .... hard knocks and 2 light knocks......... blazing. attention ....... ..........................
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Sep 28, 2014 06:49
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Computatrix 1st Class Agatha Cortess After several minutes spent still as a statue, scrutinizing the dataslate's contents with unnerving intensity, Agatha quickly set about decoding the message contained within. It was a bewildering patchwork mixture of cyphers and codes utilizing both Low and High Gothic as well as linguistic informalities and turns of phrase unique to Desoleum itself, but unraveling garbled data was both a sacred duty as well as a personal specialty of hers. Unfortunately, cryptographic skills were only able to take her so far. "Tsk, part of this is encoded using a derivation of High Gothic that I'm not familiar with," she said, giving the dataslate a frustrated look. "I've managed to decipher some of it but I can't read the rest. Let's see...House Agrulia is probably the House that Mellows was affiliated with, and the 9th Alley Scalpers sound like the fleshcutter gang that was providing him with protection, so that's something at least. I'm not familiar with that address though...Marius, you're fluent in High Gothic aren't you?," she asked, offering the dataslate towards him. "See if you can make any more sense out of it." Kai Tave fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Sep 28, 2014 |
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Sep 28, 2014 07:16
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Marius 2/3 Fate The ex-smuggler scratches the back of his head as he is handed the dataslate. He wasn't a stranger to High Gothic, thanks to his years looking at paperwork, but the coded message was still too esoteric for him to make sense of. "Sorry, I can only get as far as you did. I could try to get a local member of the Administratum to help us, but without knowing what exactly this message is, it'd probably be a bad idea to let someone we don't trust completely see it." Marius takes another look at the parts Agatha had already solved. "It seems like our man is very paranoid. If I had to guess, he's set up an intricate system of knocking to recognize friends. If they don't follow the pattern and walk in, he opens fire, no questions asked. We don't know the number of hard knocks needed, or if there are any other steps, so just heading to the address would probably end with a firefight." Roll was a 32, TN was 36, so only 1 DoS. I could spend a fate point, but I only have less than a 20% chance to roll more than 2 DoS (need a 19 or under). Then again, Agatha and Marius seem to be the only two people in our group who could solve this. As expected, failure. Down to 2/3 Fate.
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Sep 28, 2014 07:45
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Stubber "Well, I suppose I could guess at the knock. In any case, lets not stand in front of the door when I do, I might be wearing some nice armor but if that guy's packing plasma its gonna hurt." Stubber puts his baton back into the vest and prepares to leave when the rest are ready. "I guess you guys know where we're headed so lead on."
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Sep 28, 2014 08:01
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Astus Were you aware of another use of Fate Points for this situation? You can spend one to get an additional DoS on a successful roll. If you didn't know this I'll let you re-use your FP like that, since with 2 DoS on your part you could uncover the rest of the message.
frajaq fucked around with this message at 08:06 on Sep 28, 2014 |
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Sep 28, 2014 08:03
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frajaq posted:Astus Were you aware of another use of Fate Points for this situation? You can spend one to get an additional DoS on a successful roll. If you didn't know this I'll let you re-use your FP like that, since with 2 DoS on your part you could uncover the rest of the message. It's more that I assumed you meant I needed to get at least 3 DoS, one more than Agatha's roll, to uncover more of the message. But if we're combining DoS, then yeah, I'll spend the fate point so that my first roll got 2 DoS.
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Sep 28, 2014 08:16
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That's ok, I should have been more clear on the necessary DoS needed, since for this test I'm going to add your DoS and Agatha's DoS. You can edit your post if you like and I'll update real quick with the more complete message.
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Sep 28, 2014 08:20
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Marius manage to fill in the blanks of the meaning and correct placement of the random High Gothic words left by Mellows. Together with what Agatha achieved earlier, the two crack the code and figure out the rest of the message.pre:If you're reading this you must be a servant sent by House Agrulia to check on me. I can't take this anymore, I've secured the items on the store to a safer location. The 9th Alley Scalpers protection the House generously provided to me disappeared. It was probably wiped out just like the others recently! What if it's me next these killers will target????? If you wanna talk face to face with me I'm currently hiding in Block 397F, 8th floor, apartment 812. I have the utmost respect for what House Agrulia helped me so please don't think ill of me for these actions. I do so out of fear and preservation. I will leave the door unlocked to the apartment, but you must give 4 hard knocks and 2 light knocks on the door so I know you're friendly. Otherwise I'll come out with guns blazing and worse. Pay attention! If you do something stupid like just opening or kicking it with force, I left a few frag grenades bobby-trapped for the unfortunate soul that does that. frajaq fucked around with this message at 08:43 on Sep 28, 2014 |
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Sep 28, 2014 08:37
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Jini Jini smiles "I like the way this guy uses is noggin" "when yer alone in a hive ya do what yah have to to survive." she goes on. "now where is Block 397F?"
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Sep 28, 2014 11:48
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For most locations in the Upper and Main Hive, specially Hab-Blocks, you can assume you can find an information servitor/hab worker with a lovely job that can tell you how to reach these places/which Mag-Rail/Lift-Plat to pick
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Sep 28, 2014 19:22
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frajaq posted:For most locations in the Upper and Main Hive, specially Hab-Blocks, you can assume you can find an information servitor/hab worker with a lovely job that can tell you how to reach these places/which Mag-Rail/Lift-Plat to pick Ah wasn't sure if was a navigation (surface) test or not.
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Sep 28, 2014 19:42
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Yeah that's for the Under Hive/even lower parts of the City, when things start to get lovely and confusing, but we'll get there when we get there.
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Sep 28, 2014 19:47
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Stubber "As long as that guy is living in the hive proper, we should just be able to ask anyone. We should get going before someone decides to poke their head in and force our hands."
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Sep 28, 2014 20:14
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Bones "Knowledge of the House Agrulia tribe would help us. We should seek out this knowledge."
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Sep 28, 2014 23:29
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Computatrix 1st Class Agatha Cortess "You're both right," Agatha said, looking at Stubber and Bones in turn. "We do need to hurry if for no other reason then the chance that Mellows might be right about someone coming for him next. At the very least if he's rigging explosives to his door then he's as much of a threat to himself as anything. But even if we know the right way to get inside he's expecting representatives of House Agrulia, and if he suspects we aren't who we say we are he might try to kill us anyway." Kai Tave fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Sep 29, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2014 01:29
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Boomer "Yeah, lets go talk to this guy before he's dead. We're kinda supposed to actively re finding stuff, not years long deep cover."
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Sep 29, 2014 02:02
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Stubber "Yeah, Boomer and Agatha are right, we probably wont have time to go looking for information on the house he's with. He can tell us that stuff when we get there."
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Sep 29, 2014 07:05
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Computatrix 1st Class Agatha Cortess "Don't say I didn't warn you if he gets it in his head that we're actually assassins sent to 'disappear' him too," Agatha said with a shrug. "We could show him the Interrogator's parting gift I suppose, that might make him more cooperative , but I'd really rather not draw that particular weapon until we absolutely have to. Flashing an Inquisitorial rosette around is just as liable to paint a target on our backs." There are hundreds of Houses on Desoleum so there's every chance that Agatha hasn't heard of House Agrulia, but are they prominent enough that she might know anything about them in passing?
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Sep 29, 2014 07:43
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Boomer "That risk is inevitable. Lets act, the mroe we get bogged down in detail the slower and less successful we'll be. Oh, Bones!" He hands the vial to the psyker medic, "Found a dose of tranq painkillers there. Figured you'd put it to better use than me. Boomer takes off for the apartment.
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Sep 29, 2014 07:56
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With the next location mostly decided between the Acolytes, the group transcribes the decoded information to one of the empty data-slates you find around and leave the initial data-slate on the original position where you found it. As you leave the door you try your best to lock it back to avoid suspicion in the future. As you exit the intense movement of the bazaar, going through dense crowds of people, you go back to the Mag-Rail station you came from. There you find two very bored looking scribes inside a cabin near the entryway to the mag train itself. They groan as you ask how to reach Hab-Block 397F, but nonetheless they start with the task as they search through piles and piles of paper seeking the information. It takes around half an hour until they finally point the way out to your desired location. After this you take around three Mag-Rails and two Lift-Plats in very tiring and uncomfortable trips of the public transport system. Already the smell of recycled air, worker sweat, all-around dirtiness and other mysterious things out of a gigantic hive city impregnate your clothing. But at least you arrived at your location. (House Agrulia doesn't immediately come to the mind of Agatha Hive-Block 397F The Acolytes step out of the Lift-Plat, alongside hundreds of workers that are coming back from their tasks toward their depressing homes. This sector of the city feels very different from the 'stranger's quarters' your own hideout is, hab-block after hab-block are stacked and piled near and into eachother, with much more hab-dwellers going around their business, some having chat with each other on the hab-ways, some fixing their Veloxic bikes, smoking lho-sticks, grabbing some grub or playing cards. As you walk to the specific Hab-Block that has Mellows's hideout, you notice that you receive a lot of glances from the hive citizens, most likely wondering what are some outsiders doing in this part of Desoleum Prime. You climb the stairs towards the 8th floor and find yourselves in a corridor with lots of doors in it, one of them 812, right in the middle of it. The floor looks empty for now and you take the chance. Stubber makes sure his carapace chestplace is all tight and right, and walks to the rusty netal door, followed by the rest of the acolytes closely. The arbites takes a deep breath, and then starts the knocking just like the data-slate said. Four really hard knocks, followed by two soft ones. Immediately you hear something fall inside the apartment and footsteps in the direction of the door. "Oh thank the God-Emperor of Mankind!! I was afraid I was gonna go nuts here!!" You hear a loud *CLICK* and the door opens. A bald, with a few cybernetics poking out of his scalp, slightly overweight man in simple orange/black merchant clothes appears. In his back a holstered shotgun. He smiles as he looks at the group. "I knew House Agrulia valued me! So many people for my protec-" his smile fades and he starts sweating. "W-where are your oath-cogs??" His meaty hands slowly move to the shotgun on his back... frajaq fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Sep 29, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2014 08:09
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Boomer "We're third party help. They probably don't want to be associated with this. Do you want to talk or not? That shotgun blast will kill one of us, and then rest of us are going to be pissed off. Be reasonable man.
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Sep 29, 2014 08:13
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Stubber "Well, if you reach for that shotgun, that blast might not even kill me." Stubber pulls out his baton and points it at the seat next to Mellows. "You best sit down and relax, before I do something you'll regret." Stubber will roll intimidation against 41 strength. Do we get a bonus for outnumbering him? I'll leave the roll to you, frajaq, it seems important enough that you should roll for it. HukHukHuk fucked around with this message at 09:20 on Sep 29, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2014 09:12
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Mellow's Hideout (Total modifiers for the situation end up in +10. Stubber rolls 19 and get 5 DoS) The harsh voice of the two, specially Stubber with his shock baton out are enough to make Mellows re-think his options really fast. His hands goes to the holster instead as he throws the shotgun to the ground before raising his hands and walking more deep inside the hideout. "Oh gently caress ok don't hurt me! I d-did nothing wrong! How did you people know the right number of knocks?" As the acolytes slowly enter the apartment, you pass through a painfully simple but effective booby trap, tied to a single standard Imperial Guard frag grenade. (The Frag Grenade can be sneakily stolen by a +20 Sleight of Hand test) The group is lead to a tight living room/bed room, where the chubby merchant raises a fallen chair and sits on it. On a table nearby is a large travelling bag, a lot of Stimms vials and Recaf packages in a pile of mess nearby. "So what do you people want with me? Who sent you?" he glances at his table. "Before anything could you grab a vial of stimm for me, such useful little drugs..." frajaq fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Sep 29, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2014 15:01
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Boomer "We found your note, telling us you needed help, so we came. I don't have any particular interest in hurting you, provided you're cooperative. Answer our questions and we'll pass you your stimm and leave." Boomer shuts up and looks at Stubber to continue the questioning. Ronwayne fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Sep 29, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2014 16:37
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Marius As the group enters, Marius takes a closer look at the simple trap. Mellows must have expected quite a bit of trouble to rig up a grenade like this, but surely he must have known that if anyone made an actual effort on his life, a single grenade and a shotgun wouldn't be enough? Maybe it was just to help him feel better. While Mellows is talking to the others, Marius quickly removes the explosive from the trap and hides it away on his person. This would leave Mellows less able to defend himself, but right now it didn't seem like protecting the man was their job, as long as they got the info they need. Ag is 41, +20 means test is at 61. Got a 12, so 6 DoS.
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Sep 29, 2014 21:44
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Stubber "We're with Blackfist Security, a mercenary detachment, and we're looking for work. I figure that you can help us find work with your house." While speaking, Stubber motions for Jini to get behind Mellows in case he tries anything funny after we give him the Stimm. "Honestly, Boomer is right, none of us want to hurt you and we would rather help. We're trained professionals, but we need some info on your House first. Tell us about your House and how we can seek them out to provide our services."
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Sep 30, 2014 04:10
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Computatrix 1st Class Agatha Cortess Agatha held her peace as Boomer and Stubber quickly pushed their way inside, cowing the merchant before violence could ensue. She couldn't deny how effective they were at intimidation, and between the two of them Mellows seemed about ready to lose control of several biological functions, but she nonetheless had to suppress her annoyance. Mellows had been intimidated, yes, but they needed him to answer their questions, not babble and beg for his life. Judging by the state of his domicile the man had been abusing stimulants ever since he'd gone into hiding...whether his paranoia was the result of an overinflated sense of self-importance or if he actually had a plausible reason to fear for his life, he had probably spent the better part of the last three days without sleep, waiting for someone to kick in his door and try to kill him. Jittery, sleep-deprived, stressed, and now on the verge of panic, it would be a minor miracle if the man's heart didn't stop let alone if he told them what they needed to know. So she would simply have to improvise in order to help defuse the situation before it spiraled out of control. She didn't exactly like improvising, she much preferred to plan and study things in advance, but when it came to interpersonal interactions one didn't always have that luxury, she knew. "Mr. Mellows," she said, stepping up beside Stubber. Gone was the coarse, rough speech pattern used in the gunsmith's shop...this time her voice was interlaced with cultured, refined tones, the velvet glove that presumably went over the ceramite fist. "Please forgive my colleagues their brusque manners, the sight of someone about to draw a weapon on them puts them ill at ease. You reaction is understandable of course, given the circumstances, but we truly aren't interested in harming you. As my associate here says, we represent a private security consortium interested in expanding out operations throughout the Askellon sector. We sought you out because we heard that you were experiencing some regrettable troubles and because House Agrulia holds you in high esteem." Stroking someone's ego was a crude tactic, but in Mellows' chemically fraught state a bit of flattery might go a long way.
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Sep 30, 2014 04:43
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Bones Bones moves to the table, inspecting the vials of Stimm. "No good, cloud the mind," he says, holding one of the vials up. "You get after we talk, not before." He pockets the vial.
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Sep 30, 2014 05:47
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Mellow's Hideout Mellows is too busy taking deep breaths as he listens to what the Acolytes ask him to notice Marius dexterously pocket the frag grenade away. He gets a bit anxious when Bones picks one of his precious Stimm vials but the presence of Stubber keeps him scared. "W-well, let me tell you, your mercenary group came to Desoleum at the right time. Emperor, what a mess." he clears his throat. "You want to know about House Agrulia? They're a stable and respectable house of the Consortium, not an extremely influential Grand House like Rhomana or Elden, but not a Minor House like Sccaryx or Tristan either. Their main interest is in chymistry products trading, either refining into official medical supplies and combat drugs, like my shop. Or selling to the Adeptus Mechanicus foundries of this city, to be turned into tear gas or flash grenades. They also sell chemicals to the ration biscuit industry, used to accelerate the growth of the Irokian boat-fly's larvae." He sighs heavily. "I suppose Agrulia's control of these activities will probably wane now that the 9th Alley Scalpers got wiped out. The main entry of these chemical shipments came from one of the smaller voidports of this city, which as the hive grew, slowly turned into part of the Under Hive. Having a gang to protect the transportation was essential... And now House Agrulia looks unreliable in the eyes of outworld merchant interests, so another House will step in to take control if they show themselves stronger. I have no idea on the situation of the voidport right now. A mercenary group like yours could make some good for House Agrulia in these times..."
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Oct 1, 2014 01:57
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 19:30 |
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Boomer "How do these houses pick what gangs work for them, and do you know what caused the scalpers to get wiped out? He pauses, "Also, I don't know what other stock you have left? I've got both thrones and ideas."
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Oct 1, 2014 02:10
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