[Mercy Merchant]

Gene chuckles.  "Thank you.  I like talking to you, too."

"Where I come from?  Different from here in some ways, but similar in others.  We have pools of power....raw magic in its purest form.  Before it gets all fragged up by mages and adepts trying to force it to be what it is not.  There are pools of power laying about, some small and others as big as lakes.  I am one of the Guardians there, although to be honest I have no real idea what I am guarding against.  I have never really seen someone come there to do anything except research, which does not seem particularly dangerous to me.  It is much like you here.....doing research to learn more about the resonance and yourself.  And the land is more colorful, nicer I think.  Like here, you would not be able to survive long there, but some mortals take that risk to learn more about power, much like you are doing."

As you approach the campsite, you see two smallish tents set up around a small fire pit.  There is a goodly stack of firewood off to one side and you can see a bubbling pool of water off beyond the tents.  "I think your tent is on the left.  The pool beyond is a warm spring and you may bather there if you like, while I get the fire going and some dinner started.  Promise I won't look."

[Imladir]

[Cynthia Rawson - Monday June 11^th, 2075 - In a...dream?] #170

"Pools of power, eh... Must be quite a sight. Can't you ask someone from whom or what you're guarding those pools? Doesn't seem to be the best policy, that. Forewarned is forearmed after all. Maybe the one who "tasked" you to come here could answer?" she frowns "By the way, is it the normal procedure? Having one of you guardians guiding people like me in here?"

With a laugh, Cynthia grabs a change of clothes in her pack "Yeah, right. Not that there's much to see anyway.". While being careful not to step where she shouldn't, Cynthia reaches the spring. She gingerly puts a toe in the water and, finding it agreable, she strips, tossing her old clothes on the side, and enjoys the warm water.

[Mercy Merchant]

"It is quite a sight, yes.  And I have learned to not ask too many questions.  And, to be honest, there are not many mortals that venture to that place.....or this, so it is rare to be tasked to escort one.  And pleasant.  And yes, it is a normal procedure to act as a guide.  You might not find the pool in time to save yourself without one such as I to guide you.  I must say that you are the...the hottest...woman to come here in a very long time.  Did I use the word correctly?  Sometimes I am not sure what words are current among mortals as they seem to chance so often.  In any case, you are the most attractive, and nicest, I have seen."

As you relax, you notice soap and some two-in-one shampoo and conditioner are sitting on a small tray near the edge of the pool and a large towel is hanging from the branch of a small tree.  The water is indeed quite relaxing, almost making you forget where you are and what you are doing.  Almost. 

[Imladir]

[Cynthia Rawson - Monday June 11^th, 2075 - In a...dream?] #171

"Man, the others girls must be the stuff of nightmare!" she laughs, grabs the shampoo and starts to wash her hair "Ok, I'm kidding. And yeah, "hottest" is up to date, more or less. But I know I'm far from what men really find attractive, and I'm perfectly fine with it so don't try to say otherwise. I've never been attracted by men, nor women for that matter, so it doesn't matter. Anyway, maybe there you're not. Up to date that is." She shakes her head amused, then swears when some shampoo gets in her eyes.

Once this situation is addressed, she starts to wash herself "As for questions... How can you learn if you don't ask questions?" she snorts "You might as well be dead if you can't learn anything new, must be boring as hell..."

She rinses the soap/shampoo, and looks at the conditioner, a bit lost. With a shrug, she uses some. She doesn't use any at home, but since it's there, she may as well. As she waits patiently for at least...oh...ten seconds...for the conditioner to do its stuff, she asks "Are all of the guardians like you? Or are there some with more... I don't know, seniority or something?"

Once again, she rinses her hair, and continues "Unless you are the senior one of course. That would suck. I don't know who said it but there's a saying that goes something like if you're the most intelligent person in a room, then you're in the wrong room, seems right to me."

Getting out of the spring, she quickly dries herself, and hops into fresh panties and t-shirt "Ok, done. You can go too now, and I'll take care of...er...well, I'll watch the fire..."

[Zen Gypsy]

Monday   11 June 2075  0408   Vory Neighborhood   Seattle Barrens   Seattle


@Echo   Vlad nods at your words as he leads you to one of the buildings he has termed the second line.  He is getting briefings as he walks through the door and the place looks a lot like a military command center, except for the number of armed women and children running around.  Gunfire and small explosions are now constant and two men walk in, carrying a third and take him to a corner where a man and three women get to work on him.  You also see several other wounded in the area as well as four bodies with sheets drawn over their faces.  Vlad looks impassive and calm through the briefing and sends men out.  He barks out some orders and three young men report to him.  Turning to you, Vlad says, "We have had a report of some sort of monster appearing in the road.  It seems to be interfering with the mercs so would seem to have been summoned by someone who is trying to help us.  I need to know what is going on.  These men have come from the area and can take you there if you want to help us identify the thing and perhaps make contact with this friendly mage."

Bryant nodded, his face grim.  He didn't not like the fact that the merc's initial teams had been equipped with rockets, explosive, and anti-armor munitions.  It seemed excessive, considering that he had been operating on the assumption that they wished to extract Rowena.  Could they have obtained the passcode without her, were they now more focused on eliminating any possible option for their competition to gain access to that self same data.  At this point, their reasoning mattered less than their actions, and their actions were exploitable, these teams needed to be engaged, and neutralized with excessive force to shut down the operation.  Quickly.

And it seemed like at least one tangential ally had access to astral resources.  Bryant had never had much access to magical theory, but he knew a advantage when he spotted one.  Almost absently he wished that Raleigh was here, the ork had been a hermetic investigator, had excellent knowledge of astral, and paranormal threats, as well as access to magic himself. 

"On it Vlad, lets shut these fuckers down before they make it another block in, yeah?"

He shouldered his HVAR and moved his prosthetic legs with the speed and grace of an Olympic sprinter, dropping low over a retaining wall, following Vlad's men back to their location.  Raleigh would have been able to trace the summoners astral signature back to their location, even as slid across the hood of an abandoned car to make cover on the opposite side of the street, he tried to recall some of Raleigh's pointers for engaging a combat mage.  They needed line of site to their target, so assuming this summoner didn't perform the ritual to call the beast ahead of time, which would have indicated foreknowledge of the attack, something which even Vlad's bratva didn't have without the anonymous tip off, they had to be on site.

He effortless leapt three meters to an old rusty fire escape, and quickly scaled to the second story of a tenement, overlooking the intersection that Vlad's men indicated the mercs were engaged with the magical threat.  He scanned the roof, while maintaining cover himself, both from the assault team, and from any potential snipers on the roof or any of the adjacent buildings.  The use of rocket launchers and excessive force didn't preclude more subtle threats, he chided himself.

Visual Perception Check, ugh, what a shit roll!  Visual Perception (Bratva Territory Rooftop Scan): 14d6t5 4.  And then a Stealth check to remain hidden from potential shooters; Sneak Check (Bratva Territory Rooftop): 11d6t5 2.  Apparently I have been abandoned by Polyhedrous, the patron saint of dice!

Logic+Willpower to resist the Invisibility Spell.  Logic+Willpower vs Invisibility: 9d6t5 4.

[Imladir]

OOC: The story continues there

[VegasRigged]

With my illusion in play I start picking off as many Mercs as I can with clout and blast spells, trying as I do to divert them away from the main zone of their targets. Once I believe I have succeeded in diverting or stunning this group I'll relocate, keeping an eye out for hostile Mages and any of the target group I might be able to make contact with.

Ooc: Things are finally getting back t stable for me, so I should be back on a daily basis! also, what does echo look like, and how would he feel about a little surprise mind probe?

[Imladir]

OOC: The story continues there

And for Echo: https://stormy-waters-2075.obsidianportal.com/characters/tc-bryant-champagne

But I'll wait for Mercy to answer, it seems way more efficient than when I tell you anything.

[Mercy Merchant]

OOC:  Glad to have you back.  I still have not heard from Echo, but hope that he, too, is just busy in RL.  I would think that mind probes are a bit of a no no between PCs, but he is not here to say anything at the moment.  I am still trying to learn the magic rules. so do you run out of power or can you cast this stuff all day?


@Eva  Your bolts have the desired effect on the mercenaries, sending them scattering back for the vehicles, at least those still able to.  The man you recognize as the one you are looking for is moving from one covered position to another, as if he were trained in this sort of thing.  The two armored cars seem to decide that this is not going well, and turn to leave.  The gunfire from the building and the flaming bottles that rain down on them seem to have little effect.  Suddenly, the street beneath the lead car cracks open and a gout of blue flame erupts from the fissure and penetrates the vehicle, which shakes a bit then settles down before splitting open along the sides.  You see a young girl of about fifteen years old standing calmly at the side of the street and looking on at the devastation there.  She appears to be lost.

[VegasRigged]

I take a moment after my barrage of attacks, wiping a bit of blood from my nose. This sort of magical exertion is going to leave me pretty sore, I bet Sylvia can give me a massage later. Damnit, i'm starting to rely on her. Gotta get rid of that, she's a trained assassin and I'm keeping her well within striking distance. So foolish.

I assense the girl carefully, assuming a connection between her and the giant crack in the ground. After all, little girls in battles usually have some crazy power going on.

I'll also check in on my back-up team, the sooner they get here the sooner we can start extracting these fools for our own use.

[Mercy Merchant]

OOC:  Holy crap.  A very welcome back.


The open side of the armored car reveals several armored men inside, all either dead or unconscious.  The girl moves forward to get a bit closer to the car and its occupants and your assensing nets a surprising result as a voice comes to your mind.  "Uh uh, dear.  Be careful with that power or you may see much more than you wish to.  Now, you want some of these for yourself, yes?.  May I have just a couple for my own purposes?"

[VegasRigged]

Oh shit. Whatever she is she can detect my assensing, penetrate my invisibility and project words right into my head. It's clear I'm in no position to argue

"You may, though those I've knocked out are of more value to me then the ones you killed with that impressive fissure."

Hopefully she- or probably it -didn't kill too many of the mercs is knocked out. For now I will assign my air spirit to retrieve the downed but not dead and relocate to another roof t get a better look at the fighting still taking place, maybe I can get a picture of the target or find out who's in charge of these Mercs.

[Mercy Merchant]

"Thank you.  I do not need them alive, just warm, so I can take two of the barely dead and leave you the rest."

Perhaps a lucky round from the fusillade of fire being poured on the second armored car finally penetrated something.  Perhaps one of the flaming Molotov cocktails managed to drip some burning oil and soap onto just the right place.  Perhaps.............too many things perhaps caused it, but suddenly, the other car explodes in a massive fireball.  The shock wave shatters whatever windows still exist within two blocks of the car's location.  Even you are buffeted by the wave of blast energy that comes from the now ruined vehicle.  When you manage to pick yourself off the rooftop and look over the ledge, you see the girl walking away from the first car, closely followed by two large Orks, each carrying the body of one of the mercenaries.  "Congrats if that explosion was you.  Sadly, no one left in that vehicle that either of us can use.  Thank you for these.  Ta."

On the street below you, you can see at least four shell-shocked mercenaries being rounded up by people coming out of the buildings on either side of the street.  In the confusion, you have lost sight of the man you were looking for.

[VegasRigged]

Damn locals. If they take these mercs down here I'll have little or no use for them and this whole operation will have been pointless. My illusion earth spirit is still on hand, so while a few of the civilians below may resist it, I can scare off enough to buy time. I also order my air spirit to begin retrieving the downed mercenaries and bring them up to the roof where I can restrain them for further transport.

The gears want to follow the girl. They insist such power should be acquired of possible, but I have enough on my plate at the moment and I've made a decent impression on whatever that was.

[Mercy Merchant]

Your air spirit has already brought four mercenaries to the roof and you can see several more that are still available without  bothering the locals, but that is your choice.  As the illusion comes lumbering from the alleyway it had been occupying, you notice the man you are looking for walking up to the four prisoners.  He seems a bit upset and is brandishing a weapon at them.  From your position on the roof, it is hard to make out what he is saying.