[Beta]

"Errrr, time to check out the clinic now?  Or do we try nicely ask Mr. Vampire if he recently ate young man?"

[Csjarrat]

He nodded. Yeah, I saw. You ok bud?
After what seemed like an eternity, he re-stowed the bumblebee and helped Alf to his feet.
Think we're ok. Well, its not gonna hurt to look there and see what they say. Its looking pretty frickin obvious here. I think the gangers are best call next though. I ain't up for fighting my way through a pissed off squad, I'd rather deal with a stroppy clinic receptionist any day. I'll drive, you call them and say we'll be late to the clinic.
He shut the door and set the Fly-spy to record only, not daring to move it now it was in position in the lair. It'd give some interesting data on whatever the fuck that thing was and what it was up to. Well, it would for as long as the battery lasted anyway.
I'm just gonna leave the drone in position passively recording its sensor feed to my 'link. I figure moving it now is only gonna alert whatever it is and i think we're outgunned magically and in the meat, ive only got the bumblebee that's kitted for combat. Gangers next priority for me as think resisting them will trigger a fight and we're currently down a strret sam lol

[biotech66]

Leaving the street behind, you drive to the Becky who is waiting for you at the rubble choked main address of the Desolation Angels a few blocks away. Upon seeing you, Becky’s eyes brighten then instantly drop back to a mournful look. What did you find did you find my sisters, and the children?

[Beta]

Sorry for the slow response -- holidays!  And Happy New Year to you all (or at the moment I suppose that would be: you both)

Alf shuffles his feet, opens his mouth to speak then shuts it as he shudders at the memory of how it looked on the Astral plane, then finally turns to Derren and suggests "Show her the footage."

[Csjarrat]

Derren stepped down from the van and looked around, checking for observers before returning an answer to her question.
Look, We're not sure what the fuck we've found and who exactly is who in this whole shebang. You got somewhere quiet we can go and talk?

[biotech66]

The women looks you both in the eyes, then says I've been expecting you.  Step into my office.  She gestures to a stall in the market place as two hulking women, one troll and one dwarf, take up opposite sides of the market stall and lower a tarp.  Stepping inside, she looks at you and says Ok, let's cut the crap.  I want to know who did this; I want to extract my pound of flesh out of those that would prey on innocent children, most importantly I will have revenge for my sisters.  I'm offering 4k Y per person if you tell me who we kill and where!

Negotiation spoiler[10d6s5] = 3[3d6s5] = 2

[Beta]

OOC I feel like I'm forgetting or missing something?  Did we even know the gangers were missing anyone?

Anyway, Alf has no hesitation to send the gangers after the (presumed) vampire, and if they get paid as well, awesome!

IC Alf throws a panicky look at Derren, before remembering to use his trodes to send a message >>Derren [Alf] If I try to negotiate we'll end up paying them!  You any better?  Or do we just take their offer?<<

[Csjarrat]

Lets not try and bullshit anyone. Unless they take a serious force down there, that thing will probably tear them up long before any of us get a pay-packet.

Look, what we found wasn't pretty. It certainly wasn't your average saturday-night-bar-fight-gone-wrong. If we're talking about the same people here, which I assume we are, they were taken by this...thing.
Derren hit the Trid projector and showed the assorted crowd the footage from the Fly-spy, pausing at the dripping blood from the mangled and melded flesh ornaments the beast had ornately crafted from its victims.
We ain't gonna take that out with pistols and bad attitude and 4k aint gonna be enough to convince me to commit suicide to take it on. We got a better plan? Maybe one that involves more people and more guns?
He looked at Alf for his support as he felt increasingly out of his depth

[Beta]

"Look  mostly I'm a medic.  I can patch people up real well, and buff them a bit to help them avoid needing patching up.  I'm not a great fighter, and there isn't anything I can do with that sort of desecration of the flesh.  And let me tell you, I saw that thing in the astral, and if possible it looked worse there.  Nothing I've seen before, but I've not seen a lot of non-metahuman nasties, but this is nasty for sure."

Alf's words may have poured out smoothly enough, but one look at his pale face makes it clear that he is frightened right down to his boots.  Still functioning, but truly scared.

[biotech66]

She watches the video with interest, then looks at the two of you.  She thinks for a second, nods, then says Ok boys, this goes one of two ways.  One-You give me the address real nice, you take 3k a piece in untraceable cred sticks, and my girls and I level that sewer, its occupant, and pour enough napalm down that hole to be sure.  Two-You bring me it's head, and I up the offer to 6k a piece.  What do you say?

Out of GameHere is where the majority of the game could end or go on a bit longer.  What do you say?

[Csjarrat]

Derren wouldn't realistically go hunting that thing without proper support and is dependent on his one drone that would cost far more than 6k to replace if it got nuked in a fight. He'd take the cash and run in all honesty

[Beta]

“Could you give us just a minute please?”

>>Derren [Alf]I don’t want to fight that thing!  But they’ll never kill it without us.  It won’t be home, or will go smoky and get out of there before it takes much damage.  They need the feed from your drone to know it is there, and they probably need me to provide an elemental to be able to hit it on the astral side even if it is doing the smoke thing, make it hard for it to get away, you know?  And if we don’t want to have to worry about fighting it some time in the future in this city, maybe we should help?  Not take the job of killing it--I don’t need the money that bad!  But help them find it, you get your drone out during the attack, I try to corral it astrally … what do you think?<<

OOC: Yah, Alf was an experiment with making a support character rather than a front liner--which is a bit of an issue when the front-liners mostly drop out of the game!  I thought we had two Sammies. Ah well.

Honestly if Alf goes in astrally to back up a spirit, he stands a strong chance of taking a fair bit of damage--but he's naive enough to take the chance.   If Derren just wants to yank his drone out, Alf will go along with it -- but that does seem like a fairly low karma option ;-)

[biotech66]

Honestly guys, here's the deal.  At this point the story can end, you take your pay, and I send you sheets via email.  I won't hit you for a karma penalty since half the group dropped.  It's up to you.  You can try or you can leave it up to the gangers.  Either is cool.  If you're done, that's cool and you get first dibs on the next game.  I learned a bit here on how to do better in the next game and I might roll a few of your dice for you in the next game to speed things up.  Small learning steps!

[Beta]

"Then again, really not our fight ... " "

Alf turns to the gang leader and gives a detailed description of all he had noted about the beast, finally adding  " If you are doing this right away, I have a small fire elemental I'll ask to go attack once you start your inferno, and if you want I'll put an intuition boost spell on you, help you notice things, that I'll keep up until tonight.  And spirits be with you on this."

Sure, we can wrap this up.

[Csjarrat]

Derren bowed his his head in apologies, showing the GPS co-ords for the ruined shop to the ganger and zapping over a copy of the video file.
I'll wait till you're attacking until I retrieve my drone. I don't want to give it any prior warning it's been rumbled. Good luck.


Derren would put up his optic-X2 to observ e the area until they struck and then make an attempt to retrieve his fly-spy from the lair before the gangers napalm it!
Cool, look forward to the next one!