[joe15552]

I guess the only glaring detail that we should probably go over is Teatime's connection to Uncle Good Advice. It seems like we have enough to formulate a plan.

My ideas:
1)Contact The Masked
2)Use The Masked to contact The Black Men
3)Use The Black Men to find the Urn

Maybe The Masked would know something about the urn as well.

[Sentinemodo]

The only problem I have is that the BlackMen subject appeared somehow 'by the way' I can't recall any direct statement about them stealing the artifact.
Did you?

[joe15552]

Naw, but it sounds like they attacked that mediocre team that was known to have the urn last.

[Kot]

Somebody made a mess, slaughtered the Johnson, and his two bodyguards - standard corporate goons, so no trouble here. And the thing vanished. We managed to pull some strings, and hire a good expert on things magical, and he told us that vase is still here, in TriCity. And then the offer came. Somebody wants to pay you over 25 thousand nuyen each to get it, and kill the mastermind behind the heist. If you don't find him, you still get the whole sum. But if you do, there will be a nice material bonus included. You can make a wish - that's what the employer said."
(...)
As for the other questions, I'll try to answer them. For starters, this is something more like a bronze pot. Something really important in some religious stuff, and it had a relief on the side. I have a full history at home, and I'll send it to you. The guys who were going after it aren't really an enigma. They call them 'Black Men'. A bunch of mystical commandos. Not adepts, or magicians, but they're a merry brainwashed bunch with a mystical agenda. Ech... Unfortunately they're also well trained and equipped. And that's all I know about them.

[Teyl_Iliar]

I disagree on contacting the black men. If we are going to talk to those guys we want a serious upper hand. not a level playing field.

I figure contacting the masked is a good next step, if they want to assist us to up the body count of the black men, fine. Regardless of if they help us or not we can see if they can point us in the right direction. We should focus on the black men since most likely, they know of or possess this urn we're hunting for (and who has it). Therefore, taking prisoners, or infiltrating one of their bases of operation to get intel should be considered first. While we do that we can as drop a few more of their bodies and pick up some extra nuyen to line the pockets of our informers and ourselves.

[Sentinemodo]

Agree, do not contact BlackMen, they probably already know about us but no reason to keep them up to date.
Let's go to Masked ones.

One more thing from them above note of Kot. They are equipped very well. Did I hear cha-ching?
I believe we'll have some bloody cyber to sell soon, or at least some good weapons

[Kot]

Someone mentioned also they don't do cyber. Or that they don't seem to use any.

[Sentinemodo]

Damn. ;P

[joe15552]

I agree. Do not contact the Black Men. Use them instead. What I mean by that is we need info that they have. Either kill them and check their pockets, capture them and check their brains, or hack em and check their e-mail and matrix activity. Or we can do all of it. Good times.

Sounds like we agree that The Masked is the next step in our legwork.

[Sentinemodo]

The old road that was bypassing Tricity once. They have their hideouts all over the old ruins claimed by the forest. But you know who might know one of their lieutenants. The problem is, he lives in Silesia...

Could you elaborate?

[Kot]

His name is Szafa, a Silesian ganger, also lieutenant, and he's a piece of really crude work. He's tough, strong, and both of those qualities were heavily enhanced by muscle replacements, and bone lacing done by some amateur. So now the dwarf looks like a crude sculpture, or even caricature of a bodybuilder. His biggest problem is that he has a heart of gold, but it proved to be an asset sometimes. He managed to broker a peace deal between his 'Kingdom'(the 'Left' one), and The Masked, and they did work for the dwarf once or twice - or so the rumor says.

[Sludig]

I might have missed it, were we given any sort of advance?  I know I didn't have a whole lot of money after char gen, so things like paying Teatime and setting up a safe house might be more difficult with no money.

[Kot]

Not yet. You'd have to contact Uncle for that, but if you check back in the posts, he did say there will be a mission fund you'd have access to.
And don't forget about the safehouse. I have three potential sites pre-generated, but none of them would be to the liking of all team members.

[joe15552]

Sup guys. Just checking in. We gonna finish talking with Teatime or just leave the poor old man hangin?

[Teyl_Iliar]

I figured most of what we had posted in the OOC was talking to "him" but that's up to Kot, I'm happy to repost my questions in the IC, otherwise I think our path is fairly clear. Meet with the masked, kill and capture black men, gather intel on them, their backers, and figure out where this urn is. Otherwise I personally don't have anything else to add. Anything else for you talkers to handle?