In The Owls’ Nest
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 11:47 AM
@Madness Dossier @Bill B @Dr. Cronk
[11:51 AM]
After establishing contact with the ghost of George Sterling using Charley's white-noise binaural headphones, Roger has taken the meditative moment to empty his mind and invite George Sterling in. And Mitch witnesses this with his Aura Sight; it is as if Roger's aura fades away into nothingness (or, perhaps, Roger's aura is now akin to the tiny dot that remains on a cathode ray television after you shut it off, the faintest remnant of Roger's consciousness remaining at the core of this new Sterling-inhabited Roger) and Sterling pours into Roger like a pitcher filling a glass, over the course of the ten minutes Roger's Channeling ability takes. It's a nail-biting ten minutes, but eventually Roger's vacant heart "fills up" and the very different vocal tics and accent of the deceased poet of Bohemia, George Sterling, croaks from Roger's mouth. "My... my God. I'm alive." Roger/Sterling looks at Mitch, at the room he's in, realizes he's at the Bohemian Club. "I'm... I'm still here?"
Dr. Cronk — 9/6/24, 1:29 PM
Mitch hesitates a few seconds, in case (despite what aura sight implies) Roger is going to answer George. "Not exactly, man," he says after a pause just long enough to be awkward.
[1:30 PM]
"You're a ghost, borrowing my friend's body." Mitch hesitates again, in case Roger (as separate from George) can (and wishes to) speak.
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 1:32 PM
(The ability description makes a distinction between inviting a spirit in using Channeling and a ghost with the Possession ability taking "full" control once a Channel has been opened, so I would rule that Roger has the option to speak in his own voice along with George, if Roger considers that polite/considerate in the face of inviting George inside. So yeah, it boils down to "wishes to" instead of "can.") (edited)
1
[1:38 PM]
(But I suppose I'll have George respond now, he's eager.)
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 1:42 PM
A low grunt from inside Roger's chest. "I remember the taste of almonds... the deadly bouquet my dear Nora May took, the scent of Bohemia..." Roger/Sterling looks keenly at Mitch. "I woke somewhat when I felt Bohemia returning. It was... exciting. To perhaps be a part of its rebirth. But there was so little progress, it slipped away and I went to sleep again... but those moments of hope," Sterling's aura betrays to Mitch greed, lust, hunger, ambition.... a single-mindedness that has lent presence to George's ghost, "It was perfectly thrilling."
Dr. Cronk — 9/6/24, 1:44 PM
Mitch uses Detect to suss how the channeling happening has affected the pocket of Annunaki influence
Dr. Cronk used
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Dice GolemAPP — 9/6/24, 1:44 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(4+6+2)= 12Dr. Cronk used
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Dice GolemAPP — 9/6/24, 1:44 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(5+6+2)= 13Dr. Cronk used
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Dice GolemAPP — 9/6/24, 1:44 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(3+3+4)= 10MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 1:45 PM
The History B pocket is now inside/surrounding Roger. It's attached to George.
Dr. Cronk — 9/6/24, 2:24 PM
"Uh, okay, man." If he'd had this chance closer to the fire itself Mitch would be more interested in pumping George for information, but after all the stuff with Patty and Ambrose it feels redundant. "Bohemia returning? Expand on that."
@MutantsMichael
(The ability description makes a distinction between inviting a spirit in using Channeling and a ghost with the Possession ability taking "full" control once a Channel has been opened, so I would rule that Roger has the option to speak in his own voice along with George, if Roger considers that polite/considerate in the face of inviting George inside. So yeah, it boils down to "wishes to" instead of "can.") (edited)
Bill B — 9/6/24, 3:30 PM
Given you’d said in the live session that Roger was in tight control (thanks to that crit), I’d been assuming he is conscious , listening, and can pass back and forth control. I guess we’ll see if George gets inspired to try for full possession— but he’s up for a fight if he does. But Roger’s trying to be polite, since there’s only one mouth to be shared.
1
Dr. Cronk — 9/6/24, 3:48 PM
Sorry, I missed that
Bill B — 9/6/24, 4:30 PM
Roger didn't think to explain to Mitch how it works, his bad. But he'll wait to surface while Sterling's eager to talk, so Mitch may have to wait a beat before he sees Roger can surface.
[4:33 PM]
It's also like only his second time doing this in a scene, and he's still more used to giving way to gods instead of getting a chance to run the show.
@Dr. Cronk
"Uh, okay, man." If he'd had this chance closer to the fire itself Mitch would be more interested in pumping George for information, but after all the stuff with Patty and Ambrose it feels redundant. "Bohemia returning? Expand on that."
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 4:48 PM
George seems quite eager to talk. "I left behind so many paths back to Bohemia. The poems... 'A Wine of Wizardry.' The Grove Plays. The faint remembrances of what Jack and Ambrose and I and the others had wrought. They didn't remember, but the verses that built Bohemia were mine, so I was vouchsafed its memory as well. All it would take was the right person to pick up the mantle anew, at the right time, under the right conditions to make art and poetry and terror the watchwords of reality..." George furrows Roger's brow, blinks slowly as Roger, looks down at his hands, at Mitch's "exterminator" get-up. "But who are you? You two are not with the Club, surely."
Dr. Cronk — 9/6/24, 4:57 PM
"Different Club. The baddies hired us to clean you out. Assholes."
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 5:08 PM
"They built their own world. Pooled their belief at the critical moment, created the world they thought we should have been living in all along. Consigned dreams and phan'sies to the graveyard of the unconscious. But Fancy always creeps back. If not today, then someday soon." "So... so they still fear me and what I can do? They indulged me, kept me around as a kind of trophy, a mascot, let me write my sad plays... but they know. They know I have the power to overthrow them!"
Dr. Cronk — 9/6/24, 5:14 PM
"Well, maybe." Mitch continues to eyeball the Anunnaki signature. "Nothing lasts forever."
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 5:36 PM
"True enough." Roger/Sterling rests his eyes for a moment. "That makes me wonder... the fact I have remained here, despite an impulse I've felt when I've roused to move onward... it says to me that my purpose has not been truly fulfilled. That I am here for a reason. It must be... to effect some kind of great change in the world as it presently is, no?" George raises Roger's eyebrow questioningly at Mitch.
Dr. Cronk — 9/6/24, 5:42 PM
"Could be. Or perhaps you're filial wisdom. An object lesson. Something to outline the stakes of play."
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 5:50 PM
Roger/Sterling's face lights up; he seems to warm up this concept, this role quite quickly. "To assemble another circle of true artists and visionaries, give them sage advice, the wisdom of my score of years in the pleasant and purpled realm of Bohemia... yes. Yes, this could suit my present condition down to the ground." "I haven't formally introduced myself," Roger/Sterling sort of straightens out his worker's uniform in an attempt to make himself as close to his own self as he can. "George Sterling, playwright and poet." He extends Roger's hand for a handshake.
Dr. Cronk — 9/6/24, 6:32 PM
"Call me Mitch." Mitch hesitates again before shaking Roger's hand.
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 6:37 PM
The Aura Sight and Detect (History B) effects allow Mitch to keep a very close eye on Roger/Sterling in the moment their skin touches. No real change, except a slight melting of Sterling's clear tinges and hues of megalomania. To touch another human being's hand after so long in limbo... it has softened Sterling's heart and made him realize how precarious and precious his current situation is. Roger/Sterling collects himself emotionally. "Yes, well then. What is the next step, do you reckon?" Roger can tell George is addressing this to both Mitch and his host. "I expect this current awkward arrangement cannot extend indefinitely."
Bill B — 9/6/24, 8:31 PM
Roger rouses himself (no doubt interestingly to Mitch’s sight) to speak: “There are ways to repeat this experience, yes, but no, not forever. Eventually you must meet your destiny, and move on. But perhaps not just yet.” “You said you left paths… I believe our group did run into people caught up in one of them, the ‘rise’ which you felt. But you mentioned another. What are these Grove Plays?”
September 7, 2024
MutantsMichael — 9/7/24, 12:16 PM
Roger's aura flares fully back in Mitch's sight; with this irruption of Roger back into his own body, Mitch can intuit the fact that Roger has managed to masterfully integrate George Sterling into his own body with complete control (that critical Will success from the live sesh as mentioned). And now the two auras are existing, side by side, in more or less perfect harmony. Mitch can't help but think of Ray Milland and Rosey Grier for a moment, but it passes. Roger's voice switches back to George Sterling's plummy, fey, early 20th-century mid-American accent suddenly, as George appreciates nothing more than the opportunity to talk about his own work. "I wrote three plays for the Owls," George says, using URIEL's code name for the plutocratic Bohemians; whether this is noteworthy or not in and of itself, I leave to Mitch and Roger to puzzle out later. "One was for the Grove the year after the reversion, 1907. It was originally scheduled for 1906 and that's how I... how I first remember it being put on. My memories around the 'quake are still quite fragmentary, but I remember working on The Triumph of Bohemia in... duplicate, let's say. In my original version, it was meant as a valedictory for what what we were to accomplish: banishing the rapine of Mammon and his servants from the Grove and from the world. And after the 'quake... well, it became a maudlin fancy for what we'd lost, and perhaps a warning to the esteemed Bohemian men to examine their own souls. I wonder if the original version exists anywhere out there, perhaps floating in the void, waiting to be re-imagined." "In 1918 I penned The Twilight of the Kings, a mediæval allegory for the madness of the Great War. Another message, pleading with the men of the Club to do right and direct the world to a better, more pacific future." "The year... the year of my death I offered to repay the Club for taking me in with a third Grove Play. For this I staged a version of my longtime work in progress, Truth. Another allegory of lordship and rulership: a magical city, Vae, beseiged by the most innocent-seeming invader possible: the naked nymph Truth. They make to slaughter her, build sects to worship her dead body, while she escapes. She can be rejected and tortured and twisted, but never truly killed. No man, even the most noble and wise of the city of Vae, can abandon their illusions in order to truly bear witness to Truth's glory and awe, as their city falls to rebellion, chaos, decay, war." "None of my verses were ever able to demonstrate to these men their... responsibility to their vassals."
Bill B — 9/7/24, 2:06 PM
“But all three were all filled with your, uh, persuasive turns of phrase, like the poem? The kinds of phrases that trigger deep acceptance?”
@Bill B
“But all three were all filled with your, uh, persuasive turns of phrase, like the poem? The kinds of phrases that trigger deep acceptance?”
MutantsMichael — 9/7/24, 2:12 PM
Whew. Out of the other side of his mouth, Roger/Sterling says, "Oh, naturally. Even if the audience was limited to the Bohemians at the Grove, I found it imperative to try to give my words more weight, more persuasiveness in fostering eventual belief." Mitch, peeping Sterling's aura, can tell that Sterling is stone-cold lying about this. In fact, Mitch can tell that Sterling is sweating this line of questioning, and that Sterling feels as nervous as someone who thinks they're going to be exposed as an utter fraud. Roger, even with Spirit Empathy and having Sterling co-exist in his body and mind, can tell Sterling is sweating it but with none of the rich detail that Mitch's Aura Sight has lent his ability to detect people in their lies. (edited)
Dr. Cronk — 9/7/24, 11:21 PM
"Really?"
1
September 8, 2024
MutantsMichael — 9/8/24, 5:07 AM
Intimidation-20, please.
Dr. Cronk used
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Dice GolemAPP — 9/8/24, 8:52 AM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(6+3+5)= 14MutantsMichael — 9/8/24, 9:07 AM
Roger/Sterling sniffs, the prelude to an apparent emotional breakdown now floating through the Sterling persona's aura like grey-blue bubbles breaking apart in a lava lamp. A grimace and pout breaks out across Roger's face. "I... I never was able to do it as well as Ambrose." Roger/Sterling's voice cracks. The emotions in Sterling's aura now—pain, inferiority, failure, resentment, self-pity—are a bouquet of feel-bad hues. "'A Wine of Wizardry' found its way into the hearts of men thanks to him. As did my original, pre-reversion Triumph. But after the 'quake, after the realization we'd lost everything... Ambrose mostly turned his back on me. At first out of frustration, then disapproval of how I lived my post-reversion life. The blueprint of our Bohemia was mine, yes: the images and poesy of 'Wizardry' as well. But it was Ambrose who placed the bricks and laid the mortar, one on top of the other, laboriously. I learned just enough from him... the 'persuasive turns of phrase,' as you put it. But I was never his equal. And I never would be." Obviously Sterling blames himself for the failure of Bohemia to ever recapture the world after the reality quake.
Dr. Cronk — 9/8/24, 1:50 PM
Mitch reflects on how this affects his view of the creative team behind Bohemia, or rather, how it doesn't. "Oh ah." (edited)
1
Bill B — 9/8/24, 4:58 PM
Roger takes over once more. "So, no, there are no weapons here, are there? Your remaining poems and plays don't in fact have the power to overthrow these Owls, or bring back your world of terror, or something worse. And Ambrose is gone, George Sterling. He returned from being lost, but has passed on, his penance paid. Your Fancy rose at the chance, seeking a bloody path back to Bohemia, as you planned, as you felt. But She was persuaded not to keep going down the road of blood and fear. I think you know: it's the wrong path. So no, you still tarry here, but not to be a weapon against the Owls. Nor to throw more of your dead world's seeds on stony ground. I hate to put more pain on a stricken soul, but hearing this is your penance. George Sterling, I believe you're still here because these warring, bloody histories still think those paths in your mind might be a tool. And as long as you tarry, and push towards paths of blood, you are. Either the Owls or the Annunaki or some other monster will always be ready to take what you make and turn it, if you keep making it in blood. I don't know if your original past is the past I know of, but I had heard you were once on the path to the priesthood, at least in this history. It stood out to me, reading your file. What a contradiction you were, one hand writing poetry and striving for the good of mankind, but the other working with bankers and realtors and the other slavers. Flipping back and forth. Well, here and now is where you may finally declare your soul's true side. Or keep being a tool. You died unshriven, unforgiven, and I see now still filled with desire for power, but still mixed with better intent. I am not the priest of your choosing, but I stand here to give you your choice: confess, finally and fully reject the powers of darkness, and move on. Or stay, cling to power, and keep giving it to monsters." (edited)
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MutantsMichael — 9/8/24, 5:25 PM
(Gotta think on the proper roll here, Bill. It might be a couple, to be honest, but man. What a penance.)
[5:25 PM]
(Definitely first thing tomorrow, I want to do this justice.)
September 9, 2024
MutantsMichael — 9/9/24, 6:58 AM
A couple of things happen all at once. Mitch sees the History B energy that was latent and slumbering inside George suddenly flare into a greater intensity; if Mitch wants to throw me a new analysis roll at IQ-14, that would be great. Along with this surge in History B energy is a great upsurge of anger and frustration—the thrashing of a trapped, wounded animal—inside George's aura. What Roger senses after this firm but merciful instruction of penance and of choosing a side is a great resentment, a great switching of gears, as if the requirement for a programming subroutine has been tripped and met... Roger still has to get used to these tiny elements of The Phreak's vocabulary infecting his mind, but he understands from mission after mission tangling with Irruptors what this means: the conditions for a History B manifestation have been met. The first thing that Roger can do to defend himself from this trapped rage from the memetic infection inside George Sterling's soul is a new Autohypnosis-16 roll to both strengthen Roger's will and to attempt to analyze and compartmentalize George's tainted memory. One cannot attempt an exorcism without facing the entity within the possessed directly. He lived not in a house but among the tombs, Roger thinks to himself as he girds himself psychically.
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Dr. Cronk used
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Dice GolemAPP — 9/9/24, 7:07 AM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(4+2+1)= 7MutantsMichael — 9/9/24, 7:15 AM
Mitch is pretty sure an êkimmu is manifesting here out of what traumatized data remains of George Sterling; the flavor of the Thing's nature in Mitch's watchful eyes is that of everything wrong and twisted in 'A Wine of Wizardry'; Mitch briefly glimpses a dark psychedelic cavalcade of all the crimson elements from the poem: a bed of weird poppy-petals and russet mosses, wattled monsters screaming under the twin reddened eyes of Aldebaran and Betelgeuse, the unearthly glow of garnet-crusted lamps and Cyclopean furnaces, a crimson sunset bleeding like a throat wound on a Navy SEAL, the smashed red crystalline city of the djinn. Gnomes' faces melting into multi-faceted rubies. An overwhelming montage of the baroque muchness of History B. Honestly to Mitch's amateur eyes the imagery in the êkimmu reads much more like Ambrose Bierce than anyone else. Probably could use a Fright Check for Mitch, rule of 14.
Dr. Cronk used
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Dice GolemAPP — 9/9/24, 7:18 AM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(4+3+6)= 13Dr. Cronk used
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Dice GolemAPP — 9/9/24, 7:19 AM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6pyro self control:(2+2+5)= 91
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Bill B used
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Dice GolemAPP — 9/9/24, 8:15 AM
@Bill B rolled
3d6Autohypnosis:(4+5+1)= 10MutantsMichael — 9/9/24, 8:20 AM
All right. Roger's mental fortress has been reinforced as George/the êkimmu is stretched free of Roger's psyche, which means all we need to do now is have Roger roll the standard Will roll against Annunaki influence as the êkimmu tries to batter its way back inside the intimate confines of Roger's self. Somewhere amidst all this, Roger can still sense George-qua-George, but the data on this waveform has been quite shockingly corrupted by the taint of the Red. Now, that Will roll to resist is currently at 22, but if Roger decides to allow a loa in, it could get as high as 27. (edited)
Dr. Cronk — 9/9/24, 8:36 AM
Mitch's first instinct is to torch the êkimmu's vessel before it can escape, but his second instinct is to trust Roger.
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Bill B — 9/9/24, 8:37 AM
Despite managing to hold himself firm, and knowing he has a bit of a home-field advantage, Roger has little confidence in his ability to perform his first exorcism, much less on himself. He’s rattled by the surprise. His first instinct is to reach out to the oldest companion in his mind. He shortens the ritual as much as he thinks he can: to just the three cries: “Legba. Legba! LEGBA! Sauve nos âmes ! Un monstre est à la porte !”
MutantsMichael — 9/9/24, 8:40 AM
Autohypnosis roll has already succeeded plus Autotrance, so steps in the lame man of the doorstep in time to bar the door closed from invasion from Beyond. Will-27, s'il vous plaît. (edited)
Bill B used
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Dice GolemAPP — 9/9/24, 8:43 AM
@Bill B rolled
3d6Annunaki Resistance-27 :(4+5+3)= 12Bill B — 9/9/24, 8:44 AM
(All praise to the Guardian of the Threshold!)
1
MutantsMichael — 9/9/24, 9:19 AM
Indeed, and as he is a more skilled exorcist than Roger by far, he can now make an attempt at ripping the êkimmu subroutine out of the ether and smashing it to bits. What may remain of George Sterling's ghost after this act, no one can say. But at this time Papa Legba can borrow with good intentions the power of righteous cousin Papa Gede to put a soul to rest... and a demon to the flames. Papa Legba's Religious Ritual (Voudon) is 17. Exorcism defaults to minus 3, or 14. I'm giving a +3 to cancel that out for Roger's amazing prayer over the afflicted, and if Mitch wants to aid here with the information he got from the Detect analysis success, that'll be another +1. So that comes out to Exorcism-18. Êkimmu are a little weird in the spiritual sense in that they don't have stats of their own, only as a manifestation within a body ("never encountered outside a host"). But between Mitch's awareness and Roger just having invited the infected Sterling into himself, the offer of shriving, and Papa Legba's nature, I think a snap Exorcism roll is called for.
[9:21 AM]
If anything, the êkimmu's host is the ghost of George Sterling.
Dr. Cronk — 9/9/24, 9:25 AM
Mitch is certainly willing to contribute however he can. This is far outside his wheelhouse
Bill B — 9/9/24, 9:47 AM
Papa Legba clicks Roger's tongue, "tsk tsk," and turns to Mitch. "Mon ami, it is good to have you here. Regarde-toi-- watch yourself-- and mon cheval-- so that this demon does not slip away, oui?" With another pair of eyes to watch the threshhold, Papa turns His full gaze on the soul He is to ferry to the Other Side, and the demon that is standing in the way.
Bill B used
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Dice GolemAPP — 9/9/24, 9:48 AM
@Bill B rolled
3d6Exorcism-18:(3+2+5)= 10MutantsMichael — 9/9/24, 9:57 AM
Mitch watches as the êkimmu's linguistic code shatters into bits; its History B energy thrown clear of the space in the Sterling Suite haunted by Sterling's ghost, dispersed with zero cohesion in its programming. All that is left, now that Sterling's spirit is free of the tainted poetry that was woven through his dead presence, is a withered, faintly-remembered cycle of who and what George Sterling was. Legba/Roger's Spirit Empathy manages to hold together and stay in communication with the ripped-apart spiritual residue of Sterling. The ghost of George Sterling moans, a cracked voice from the place of his dying, to Papa Legba, his confessor. "Jack... my Greek. Tell him I... I loved him more than life. I have finally turned the key, Jack. I am... I am free. No man's slave, no god's servant."
Dr. Cronk — 9/9/24, 10:09 AM
Bill B — 9/9/24, 10:15 AM
Legba nods his head, and whispers: "Oui, yes, evening now is come. Take my hand, little soul, and I will take you to that star above the sunset lees, where your love awaits." Roger hears the rustle of wings, and finds himself alone in his mind.
Bill B — 9/9/24, 10:50 AM
After a beat, Roger lets out a long breath, crosses himself, reaches over to Charley's waveform device, and shuts it off. The room is quiet. Suddenly, he smiles. "Wow, man, looked hairy there for a minute, but that went pretty good. I feel like this makes up for that first time you and I were faced with one of those things. I feel great. Bustin' these things makes me feel good." Roger starts coiling the wires and packing up. "You want to catch a drink? Anything but wine." (edited)
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Dr. Cronk — 9/9/24, 11:36 AM
Mitch slowly relaxes a bunch of muscles he hadn't realized he'd clenched.
[11:36 AM]
"Wow, yeah. Okay."
[11:37 AM]
(The Annunaki taint is fully gone now, right?)
MutantsMichael — 9/9/24, 11:39 AM
The History B energy that was lingering here is fully gone: the manifested êkimmu, the weird pucker Mitch detected last month from outside the Bohemian Club, all the bad vibes seem to have disappeared once George's presence was dispersed from the Sterling Suite. All that's left now is just the more anodyne and ordinary bad vibes of being inside the Bohemian Club.
Bill B — 9/9/24, 12:15 PM
Roger looks at Mitch, reads the release of tension. He comes over and claps him on the back. "Sorry, amigo, I was ridin' a victory high. We did good! Not just shooting up the boss's targets for once, but saving souls, man. Doing it differently." "But, yeah, maybe a beer's a little pre-mature. Hell, buddy, right now we have the run of the place-- da da da da, the mice will play, right? Maybe we need to give the wider building a real going over, just to be sure?" (edited)
Bill B — 9/9/24, 12:23 PM
"We're real thorough, we are, n'est-ce pas ? History B lurking all kinds of places." Roger smirks, but then shudders a little bit. "But, uh, maybe not top-to-bottom. And I'll need a pitcher if I'm gonna get the taste of this bad juju place out of my mouth."
Dr. Cronk — 9/9/24, 2:41 PM
Mitch will attempt to find the most relevant/interesting thing to find, using Serendipity. He doesn't waste time with anything fancy, he just starts walking, out the Sterling suite (I assume), down the hall, through random doorways.
Bill B — 9/9/24, 4:32 PM
Roger trails behind hauling equipment (and closing doors, nodding at staff, giving little Fast-talk explanations, and otherwise allowing Mitch to do his thing.)
MutantsMichael — 9/9/24, 4:43 PM
(demiurge has been thinking on this.... where's the important stuff when the Owls themselves aren't in the nest)
Inverarity — 9/9/24, 4:46 PM
(Induction ceremony room? They gotta have one.)
MutantsMichael — 9/9/24, 4:48 PM
(Also, realizing now that Roger will have residual Papa Legba abilities for one hour, so getting into locked rooms will be much easier)
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Leonard — 9/9/24, 4:50 PM
[Not to be old-fashioned about this, but they probably keep their financial records somewhere. That wouldn't ping Mitch's Spidey Sense necessarily but it's an avenue worth exploring that probably isn't under all kinds of levels of mystical lock and key. Personnel files, too. There's probably at least one emergency back-up soul fueling station around, too] (edited)
MutantsMichael — 9/9/24, 5:38 PM
[demiurge still ruminating]
September 10, 2024
MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 6:47 AM
As mentioned before, the energy in the Bohemian Club, despite the Owls' collective mantle (mantle? Mitch thinks to himself, what the heck is a mantle) being absent, is still pretty oppressive. Mitch finds it uncharacteristically hard to get his serendipitous mojo going, like he had to wait almost an entire day or something. It's clear time moves differently here. Mitch has the strangest feeling of déjà vu, thinking back to the time last March when he wandered off into Chinatown to get a read on things (and for late-night Chinese). He saw those anti-busing posters that gave him the realization that Frank was going to use the bus system for his Red King-raising mass death event. With that flashback, Mitch realizes that the direction his Serendipity wanted to go was there in my mind and heart all along. It points relevantly right to the nerve center of the Club, down in the basement: the records and business offices that Marshall penetrated back in April, where he had a chat with Ted Ellis, the Club concierge. Maybe the forces of Ma'at were resisting because it almost seemed too obvious, or maybe the office is just incredibly well-guarded, but there's no doubt in Mitch's mind now there's where to go. Mitch and Roger both had sussed the security situation when they first checked in. Of course they both got the platinum treatment by Club security when it was clear these two men had Fred Merrill's and thus the entire Club's permission to be here, via Telex from the Grove where unimaginably important things are happening right now. Security let them go up to the top floor Sterling Suite with no escort because the guest rooms for members are just that: guest rooms, essentially hotel suites: ultimately, pretty low-security areas. But access to the basement is restricted with the Club not very active (and its concierge undoubtedly handling the mind-bending logistics of a thousand Owls and guests in Monte Rio). As Roger and Mitch case the stairwell down to the basement on the first floor from a polite distance, the security guard in the front foyer is definitely keeping an eye on everything. You'll have to get by him and any of the other skeleton crew who might be in the basement to get to the business office. (My first offer here on Serendipity is pretty easy: one use of the ability got you the "relevance" information above; this use will also direct you to the most relevant intel once you get down there. You can use ordinary means to get down to the basement—hypnotize or pistol ikoter the guard, blarney him and anyone else you encounter, whatever. But Mitch can also use a second and final use of Serendipity for M10I2 to happen to get to the basement stairwell door without being seen; a phone call comes in and the security guard needs to take it or something of that ilk. Getting back out and/or who or what you might encounter while you're down there in the basement... you're on your own for that.)
[6:48 AM]
(Of course as the Serendipity description goes you're also more than welcome to bargain with Ma'at and suggest a different configuration of coincidences and/or happenings for that second use of the ability for this "game session.")
[6:49 AM]
And if Mitch and Roger want to discuss it either in or out of character, that might be fun.
Bill B — 9/10/24, 8:03 AM
No need for magic; Roger would be embarrassed in front of his Cheval trainees if they heard he couldn’t manage a single guard. Roger limps over to the guard. “Hey, help a brother out? We gotta trace the possibility of an electrical fire, but I think I tore something in my leg while we were upstairs, and I can’t face going up and downstairs too much. Can you help me find it? It’s either the big junction box, maybe in the basement, or some small split off a closet.”
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1
Bill B — 9/10/24, 8:41 AM
(Roger’s rough plan: Fast talk the guard downstairs, see how far that gets us, maybe just persuade him via boredom to leave us alone. Or just distract him while Mitch goes for the goods, since we don’t need a full search with the wizard looking. Backup is to pull out Kalfu and Hypnotize the guard once alone, have him escort us around in case we run into others, and just blank only the part where we are getting the goods.)
MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 8:42 AM
Yeah, let's do Acting-15 (12 plus the 3 you get for Fred having given you two the permission to do some "work" here at the Club).
Bill B used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/10/24, 8:43 AM
@Bill B rolled
3d6Acting-15:(5+5+3)= 13Bill B — 9/10/24, 8:47 AM
Roger’s got plenty of props and actual electrical experience, too. Plus he isn’t afraid to show some of the weird stuff, given who the guard works for; let him report it. We’re just doing our job. You ask for a witch doctor, don’t be upset when he shakes a rattle in front of your staff.
1
MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 8:48 AM
(I'm gonna hold up a bit until I hear from Jeff but the Acting roll will be enough to get you downstairs for sure. Whether or not the guard gets distracted by Serendipity or otherwise is what I need to know/do next)
1
Dr. Cronk — 9/10/24, 8:53 AM
Mitch's goal w/ Serendipity is to zero in on the target, skip all the places there's nothing to see and go to where there's something instead
[8:53 AM]
So he's happy to follow St Peter's lead on this one
Bill B — 9/10/24, 8:57 AM
Roger has a real excuse to stick close to the guard: his residual Lameness from Papa Legba. He’ll do his usual job charming the staff, chatting him up, and keep asking for help, which gives him an excuse to keep close and to let Mitch get a bit ahead. (edited)
1
MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 9:14 AM
Yeah, that works really well. So if Roger-with-Legba is sufficiently distracting/pitifully lame taking the guard to one junction box, Mitch can head to the business office as the "other" "junction box/split off a closet" at the same time. Which would put Mitch face-to-face with the locked door to the business office that Marshall poked his head into back in April. Two rolls necessary here (and we'll assume Mitch has all the SANDMAN-grade B&E equipment he needs in his toolbox). I'll roll the Traps-15 secretly to see if Mitch detects any alarms on the door that need disarming, and then it'll be a Lockpicking-16 with the best-quality SANDMAN tools for Mitch (minus the excellent quality lock) to actually open the lock. It's not a fancy electronic lock, just a very good quality mundane one. Mitch detects no alarm system on this door with his various EM- and alarm-detecting doodads.
Dr. Cronk — 9/10/24, 9:32 AM
Can I cadge out a small bonus for taking extra time? Mitch is inclined to trust that St Peter will let him proceed in a no-rush fashion
MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 9:33 AM
Yeah! I'd say we would only need to worry about failure in the 17-18 failure/critical failure zone anyway.
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/10/24, 9:34 AM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6Lockpicking-17:(5+4+3)= 12MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 9:38 AM
Click, turn the knob, and swing. No alarms, no surprises. A fairly cozy one-to-two-man office room is revealed. There are locked fireproof filing cabinets, there are a couple of desks with tantalizing-looking locked drawers, telephones, Rolodexes, appointment calendars for the Club. There is a Telex machine. No personal effects of Mr. Ellis the concierge or any of his assistants are on the desks; no family photos, no group shots with the Owl inner circle. Anybody could take over this job, the office seems to suggest. Mr. Ellis is not Clued In. A couple of pieces of Bohemian Club-archive art on the walls. Mitch eyes the lazy, hooded-eyed, supercilious gaze of the Owl symbol in one of them with consternation. It definitely gives off to Mitch that inchoate Illuminated feeling of something Owl-related watching him; maybe not actively right now but potentially.
Dr. Cronk — 9/10/24, 9:57 AM
Mitch takes down the painting that rubs him the wrong way and turns it to face the wall. Then he focuses in on those tantalizing drawers.
MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 9:57 AM
Heh, give me another Lockpicking-17 roll then.
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/10/24, 9:59 AM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6Lockpicking-17, Mitch doesn't cadge out the extra +1 for time this time, that painting has spooky eyes:(4+6+3)= 13MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 10:08 AM
Click, pull. A simple yet thick, leather-bound black book is in the first drawer Mitch picks. It's above the size and thickness of a chunky paperback: your Gravity's Rainbows, your The Recognitionses, let's say. Upon opening, the book is revealed to be a large-sized fill-it-in-yourself address book with handwritten entries in a number of hands. Home and business addresses, home and business phone numbers, and a quick flip through the names from A to Z reveal some of the Bay Area's and the nation's most important men. Probably upwards of a couple thousand entries; some of the names Mitch recognizes as famous men from the past half-century who have died; some of the phone numbers are the old, prefix-as-spelled-out-word style. This book has likely been kept since the '20s. The vast majority of the names have no symbols next to them. Some of them have a single eye symbol drawn next to them: a Mr. "Reagan, Ronald" of Sacramento, California has that one. Some of the names have two hooded eyes next to them: "Nixon, Richard" of San Clemente has that one. And a few, like "Merrill, Fred," have an entire Owl-face symbol sitting next to them. There's a lot of data here. Mitch knows innately that it would be surely missed if it went missing. It feels Important, especially the one-eye/two-eye/Owl classification system.
Dr. Cronk — 9/10/24, 10:19 AM
Mitch takes a pencil and paper from the desk and writes down the names of everybody with an Owl next to their name, counting them as he goes.
[10:21 AM]
After that task is done he'll have to evaluate whether he has time to repeat the process for two-eyed and one-eyed guys, probably not is my guess but I'm not a wizard in Capitalism's secret lair in 1974 so let's see what Mitch's judgement is before we make any choices
Bill B — 9/10/24, 10:22 AM
Does Mitch have any equipment on him to help? Even a Kodachrome of a couple of pages would help.
Dr. Cronk — 9/10/24, 10:23 AM
Dang, that's a good point. I didn't think of that. Mitch ought to have a spy camera in his kit. Get pictures of all the pages with at least one Owl on them
1
MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 10:24 AM
Absolutely, yes.
Dr. Cronk — 9/10/24, 10:25 AM
Not only am I not a wizard, I am not conservant with the basics of tradecraft
Bill B — 9/10/24, 10:26 AM
I'm sure a very small, plausable accident at the junction box can be arranged to delay discovery further. Nothing to knock out power, but maybe Roger "finds" something he needs a guy to hold a flashlight for him... (edited)
1
[10:28 AM]
He can manufacture a slight show of sparks to make it seem more important than a patrol schedule.
MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 10:31 AM
Let's go ahead and do a roll for that now, Bill. I'm going to say if this roll doesn't work out well for Roger, we can have Mitch unconsciously expend his other use of Serendipity to make it happen. Electronics Operation (Security)-13 is the closest skill I think. I need to think about how much time it would take to photograph all the Owls in here, dead ones included (because Mitch won't necessarily know which ones are alive and which ones are dead). I would say that the degree of success on this EO roll will determine how convincing/long the repair process ends up; and if Mitch needs more time, his second Serendipity can also supply that.
Bill B — 9/10/24, 10:32 AM
I see you tempting me to call up the Phreak, but that might be like a bull loose in a china shop around here.
1
1
Bill B used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/10/24, 10:33 AM
@Bill B rolled
3d6Just a little problem:(3+2+6)= 11MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 10:35 AM
How about Roger also gives me another Acting-15 roll to delay as long as possible after the "glitch" is "fixed." I think it's a neat thing to make this scene as tense as humanly possible, with the camera whipping back and forth between Mitch photographing page after page and Roger futzing around with the junction box, hobbling with the guard's help, occasionally stumbling, back to the stairs up to the foyer and Mitch standing there, looking calculatedly bored after having photographed the Owls' information.
Bill B used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/10/24, 10:36 AM
@Bill B rolled
3d6:(5+5+6)= 16Bill B — 9/10/24, 10:37 AM
Well, the dice sure do like narrative tension.
Dr. Cronk — 9/10/24, 10:38 AM
I'm certainly willing to expend the second use of Serendipity here
1
MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 10:43 AM
Let us do that, and relieve Roger of the necessity to over-act as Roger needs to hobble back to the junction box after some flickering in the basement's omnipresent fluorescents seems to radiate outwards from the concierge office as Mitch continues to sweat and photograph what seems like an endless series of pages. In finishing up the final roll of film, Mitch realizes he has taken photos of 144 exposures Owl names. Again, some of those names are dead, but how much the ratio is weighted towards alive/dead will take more dedicated research. (edited)
[10:45 AM]
(Rough estimates on the rest of the groupings: about 200 two-eyes, many of whom are fairly famous names in politics, business, and intelligence, about 300 one-eyes, who seem to be drawn from the same echelons of society as the two-eyes. The remainder, about 1,200-1,400 names, have no symbols next to them and are less generally recognizable to Mitch.) (edited)
Bill B — 9/10/24, 10:50 AM
"how much the ratio is weighted towards alive/dead" will also possibly be subject to Jo and her rifle.
1
Dr. Cronk — 9/10/24, 5:29 PM
Once he's done photographing, Mitch will make an effort to restore the office to the state it was in when he found it (including putting the suspicious picture back) and skeddadle. I can't think of a reason not to snap a pic of the suspicious picture.
1
Bill B — 9/10/24, 8:48 PM
Once Mitch comes back over, Roger’s all: “If there’s problems in the secondary junction, at this point I don’t want to know. Old building wiring, right? This guy’s been real patient. Bosses want us back out, then they can tell us. My keg is killing me, and the place ain’t gonna burn down tonight. Never enough time when there’s scheduled down time, am I right?” And other such nattering as they make their way back up. Before they get up, he’ll try to suss out suspicion levels on the guard, just in case he needs to hypnotize, but it feels like just a normal house call right now. Right? (edited)
September 11, 2024
MutantsMichael — 9/11/24, 1:01 PM
(Secret Detect Lies-8 roll made) Roger isn't getting any hinky vibes off the guard as the three men head for the stairs back up to the ground floor, really; a 10-15 minute house call after the 10-15 minutes in the Sterling Suite is undoubtedly not the strangest thing this guy has ever had to do in his years working at the Bohemian Club. Again, the nimbus of authority lent to you two thanks to Fred calling this in seems to be doing a lot of work. Roger doesn't feel like a hypnotism attempt is necessary but of course there's always room for having a little extra wiggle room on an op like this one.
Bill B — 9/11/24, 4:54 PM
Roger has ideas for how he’ll write up the report such that the masters reading it get their answers if needed. Roger has no idea what Mitch has, only that he’s come back, so he’s not nervous about plausible deniability right this second. Call it overconfidence, but seems like we’re just done here.
1
MutantsMichael — 9/11/24, 4:55 PM
All right, I'll close this thread out and I'll give the clock a shove forward.