[Thvor]

"Hey, cool it, Laughing Boy." Hank gives the 'Rind a stern glance. "As for a 'satisfactory outlet for compenstation'--we have a Johnson who is paying us good nuyen for this. Not as good as he ought to be, given the added difficulties we ran into, but I'm sure you and the young lady here"--he nods to Rybka--"can explain to him what 'just compensation' means. Or we could let the big guy explain it a bit more...directly." Hank smiles thinly at the eager glint in Marak's eyes. "Regardless, we don't get paid if we don't complete the job, and if we don't complete the job--well, that tends to be a career-ending move, from my experience. I said it before, and I'll say it again--we complete the run as hired. Any information this 'fallen star' can give us will be useful, I'm sure--especially if we need to decide whether to keep working for our employer, or move on to other pastures--but we've done the hard work. Now we just need to get paid."

[Netzgeist]

Rybka is leans against her chair, calmly observing. She can't help but believe Smiley needs to act like this and stress the women-hunter façade in order to mantain his posture. Well, so far, no one's hurt, at least.

"Rache, as far as we know, the Johnson has never set his eyes on the actual book. This tome is a rare relic, written during the low-circle of mana; maybe my guess is a too long shot, but the old guy has no way to know it actually mantains any aura. Also, we don't even know if he is Awakened... We got no one who could assense him when we met him."

The girl makes a small pause, as if to make time to change the subject:

"We know what we are offering you is not exactly a good deal. In fact, we are inviting you to partake in our situation, which is, clearly, a problematic one. On one side, we may refrain from complete the mission and try to scam our Johnson - which normally would end up with our reputations sinking so low (if we survive) that we will never run again. Yet, our reasons are so justifiable that maybe we can end up looking good. On the other hand, we could just provide him the book; but the consequences may be quite drastic and then, who knows if we will be able to do anything at all?"

"The deal we are offering you is that: to join us in one epic. One of the greatest stories never told, regarding a powerful relic and mysterious intentions." - The girl laugh, knowing her words are too dramatic, but keeps on - "We are dealing in hero-level fame... which is not the usual cred, but it may make the usual and good one flow easier and faster."

[Crossbow]

"I don't think it is necessary to give this whole doom and gloom trip too much weight.  We were hired to find a commlink, we didn't find a commlink.  If the johnson wants what we did find in the convoy (which, by the way,  we got rediculously bad intel on, FROM HIM) then we can entertain an offer, but I feel no real desire that generous at this point." Smiley says, looking at the rest of the team. "If you guys are scared of taking a hit to your rep, think about this, what will we look like if we just meekly turn over what we got for the original price?  You get plenty of business off this score that is for sure, every Johnson in Seattle is looking to hire a heavily armed and expendable chump."

 

[Netzgeist]

"As much as I agree with Smiley about the terms of the job being unable to be met because J's bad intel and that formally we have lived up to our end in this deal, I have that not very comfortable feeling that we may have a surprise in the debriefing meeting if we go there expecting to find just the same guys we previously saw and trust them to be just willing to have this nice and friendly chat."

A smile marks the girl pretty face.

"Anyway, I trust our resources that, if the proper preparation, that's something we may be able to deal with. But even then we should be ready to face further complications. If people are in for this ride, then I'm game."

[farothel]

Rache gave Smiley a stare normally reserved when finding vermin under the kitchen sink with his remark on tantric rituals.  Why everybody always assumed that female mages knew all about those, she couldn't understand.  Actually she could, it was all because of the trid and their portrayal of female mages, or mages in general.  If she were to try some of the things they did on the trid, her brain would probably leak out of her ears.
"I can do a whole lot of things," she said, "I don't have kill spells or blow things up spells, but I can stun people, I can heal, some combat support and detection stuff.  I can handle spirits, but I prefer not to, unless really necessary.  In my opinion spirits are often more trouble than they are worth.  Oh yeah, I can also clean up crime scenes as well as investigating them."

"As for the course of actions," she continued after getting some of the food, "I can't really comment on that without seeing the item in question, get a feel of it and knowing more about Mr. J.  Bad intel can happen, trust me on that, so I wouldn't necessarily hold that against Mr. J unless we can prove that he mislead you on purpose.  On the other hand, you can always tell your Johnson that you didn't find a commlink and that he should check his intel."


@Serious:
OOC: do those numbers they found tattooed on Mr. J mean anything to me?  Should I roll something for it.
OOC2: any results on my knowledge rolls for Kemmler and his books?

[Marak1972]

As the cassanove strikes out spectacularly . Marak laughs in his head munching on some boomba nosh. While observing the outside by looking out the windows.
Perception + Visual specialisation  8d6.hits(5) → [5,1,3,2,5,5,4,1] = (3)       

[Crossbow]

Smiley grins even wider into Rache's withering glare.  He knows that lines like that almost NEVER work, but the times they do more than make up for every single rejection.   

"Well, if my dumb jokes and Hank's dire consquences of a dead career, no money and a bullet-riddled corpse aren't enough to run you off I guess you can have a look at the item." Smiley moves the box from under Rache's seat and places it on the table in front of her, subtly adjusting his posture as he does to block casual observation of the table while standing.  "Lady Mage, I present The Blood."

 

[SeriousOne338]

Rache gave Smiley a stare normally reserved when finding vermin under the kitchen sink with his remark on tantric rituals.  Why everybody always assumed that female mages knew all about those, she couldn't understand.  Actually she could, it was all because of the trid and their portrayal of female mages, or mages in general.  If she were to try some of the things they did on the trid, her brain would probably leak out of her ears.
"I can do a whole lot of things," she said, "I don't have kill spells or blow things up spells, but I can stun people, I can heal, some combat support and detection stuff.  I can handle spirits, but I prefer not to, unless really necessary.  In my opinion spirits are often more trouble than they are worth.  Oh yeah, I can also clean up crime scenes as well as investigating them."

"As for the course of actions," she continued after getting some of the food, "I can't really comment on that without seeing the item in question, get a feel of it and knowing more about Mr. J.  Bad intel can happen, trust me on that, so I wouldn't necessarily hold that against Mr. J unless we can prove that he mislead you on purpose.  On the other hand, you can always tell your Johnson that you didn't find a commlink and that he should check his intel."


@Serious:
OOC: do those numbers they found tattooed on Mr. J mean anything to me?  Should I roll something for it.
OOC2: any results on my knowledge rolls for Kemmler and his books?

You flip through your pocket library and find only two references of the name Kemmler, one a reference in a German song "The ride of death" and the other is muddle a story of a wizard trying to use one of the books turning out badly. The name Kemmler is obscure making it hard to find information in this digital age.

As the cassanove strikes out spectacularly . Marak laughs in his head munching on some boomba nosh. While observing the outside by looking out the windows.
Perception + Visual specialisation  8d6.hits(5) → [5,1,3,2,5,5,4,1] = (3)       

3 Wage slaves come in off the street and take a table at the back, at first your hesitant until one calls the waitress over by name. She turns and smiles soon there is a loud conversation about their days going on.

[Marak1972]

Still keeping my gaurd up as I eat . Something my momma taught me is vigilance is a good thing mon

[SeriousOne338]

You hear sirens of a police cars, as Marak gazes out the window three Police cars scream buy lights on.

[farothel]

"Well, if my dumb jokes and Hank's dire consquences of a dead career, no money and a bullet-riddled corpse aren't enough to run you off I guess you can have a look at the item." Smiley moves the box from under Rache's seat and places it on the table in front of her, subtly adjusting his posture as he does to block casual observation of the table while standing.  "Lady Mage, I present The Blood."

Rache looked at the case, and then she looked some more in the astral.  Next she opened it a little bit and she did the same thing.


assensing rolls on the casing and the book:
intuition 3 + assensing 4 + perceptive 1 + owl mentor spirit 2 =10 (1=box, 2=book) (10d6.hits(5)=5, 10d6.hits(5)=2)


She had just done that when she heard the police sirens, but they seem to pass.

[Marak1972]

Marak tenses a lil when she opens the box. The bad juju comin off the book making Marak a lil heebie jeebieish

[SeriousOne338]

Rache looked at the case, and then she looked some more in the astral.  Next she opened it a little bit and she did the same thing.


assensing rolls on the casing and the book:
intuition 3 + assensing 4 + perceptive 1 + owl mentor spirit 2 =10 (1=box, 2=book) (10d6.hits(5)=5, 10d6.hits(5)=2)


She had just done that when she heard the police sirens, but they seem to pass.

The case is warm to the touch and you get the faint feeling of power as if it was a work of magic or working magic. The case itself from the outside is nothing special it look like an old battered metal box painted forest green but in patches the paint has been warn away showing the metal beneath. There is two bullet hits you can notice, larger caliber and fresh. The inside is where it gets weird, when the case is opened you get the distinct feeling of dread, as if the box was containing the feeling. At that moment all conversations in the restaurant abruptly stop, the other customers begin looking around, you get the distinct feeling that someone just walked on your grave.  (everyone make a Perception check, visual threshold 1, followed buy a..... humm........ common sense check? Intuition check threshold 3) The boxes inner is lead lined and the arcane symbols are etched into the metal, it takes a moment but it looks to you like a very basic and very old method of warding. As you watch it looks like the ward itself is trying to mend itself from some early damage.
OOC speaking you notice that the ward is powerful, and self mending. The caster who made it had a much higher level of magical talent than you, also you get the feeling that the reason the ward was made very basic was for any idiot could repair it,

In order to assess the book you must remove it from the box, when you hand brushes the surface it cramps almost immediately. The material its made from you are unsure but it makes your skin crawl. 
The book is old, and evil. Best way to describe it. Blood magic,necromancer stuff, just evil.

[Marak1972]

Everything comes dead silent "What the...."
Perception + visual spesialisation   8d6.hits(5) → [6,5,3,6,1,5,2,3] = (4)   
Intuition check 4d6.hits(5) → [5,2,5,3] = (2)   
"Oh mon somethin freaky be goin on ...."

[farothel]

"This is some very bad shit," Rache muttered as she quickly closed the case again.
"Forget making a forgery of this," she said, giving the case back, "Even if Mr. J himself isn't magically active, someone who wants to use it will have to be and they will immediately feel it's not the real deal.  Another options is to give it to him, follow him to his lair and then tip off the cops and let them handle it."


perception:
intuition 3 + perception 4 + perceptive 1 + owl mentor 2 =10 (10d6.hits(5)=5)
common sense:
intuition 3 (3d6.hits(5) =1)