Session started at 6:39 pm on 10/03/06
Attending players: Michael, Ben, Sarah, and Eva
Presiding GM: Aaron
("I have the lowest initiative in the group. I need something to do."
~ Sarah)B has to spend a whole five days in the hospital recovering from the fight in the cemetery. I spend some time in the dojo working on my judo throws and talk Ajax into tracking down contacts which will give me low light vision. He's pretty nice about it and eventually tracks them down. I went to visit B once on the second day, but he didn't seem to appreciate the potted fern I brought him as a get well gift.
("... then I'm apparently acting as the Ajax shopping network."
~ Michael)(It's Friday Sept. 19th, 2070.)
The doctor has been talking about how she wishes she knew what was on the disk. I think it probably was really Jet Black music. If so we'll know soon enough when it's released on to the market. I'm not sure why she's so hung up on this. I mean we got the disk. The money was good. Sometimes you just don't get to hear the real story.
I continued my quest to try to get her to go jogging with me. She declined and she's been looking so worn out lately that I just didn't have the heart to push too hard. Maybe after the next run.
Ajax has been looking into the vampire, Risa, but it's taking him some time since he's being cautious. He's been talking to Vasquez as well, but no work has come up yet, probably for the best while B is in the hospital.
Ajax finds out that the vampire girl is in fact rumored to be a vampire. Duh. She also was part of a gang called the Nightstalkers at one point, but broke off from them about eight years ago.
B gets out of the hospital on Friday morning and Ajax gets a call from Vasquez in the early afternoon. He says he has a prospective job for us.
The Mr. Johnson wants to meet us at the landfill in Snohomish, tomorrow at 23:00. For once I'd like to meet a Ms. Johnson or a Mr. Anderson. Johnson's are so damn unoriginal.
We have some time until the meet, so we go our separate ways. I get some exercise pick up an early dinner and settled down to watch a recent release of the Bruce Lee classic The Chinese Connection. I had heard they might have cut a few short scenes for no good reason, but I am happy to discover that that was only a nasty rumor.
I am up a bit late watching the director's commentary, so I sleep in on Saturday. I get up around noon and go out for a jog.
(It's Saturday Sept. 20th, 2070.)
Around 21:00 I met up with the others and we head out to the landfill to look around before the meeting. It's a pretty big place, at least a few city blocks worth. There's a 2m fence with razor wire around the outside edge. A gate where the road enters the landfill, but it's closed. There's an administrative building, pretty small, near the entrance and a bunch of drones are pushing trash from the dumping point into the rest of the landfill.
The doctor goes astral to take a look inside so we know what's waiting for us. The doctor reports that the place is abandoned when she returns a few minutes later. Ajax goes to take a look at the electronic world.
(After a while he finds the node and gets some info about the system.)
Ajax tells us that someone has instructed the drones to ignore the middle of the yard tonight and he has the electronic key to the maglock on the gate. We head across the street to the dive bar to wait until closer to the meet time. Ajax is being a bit bizarre... we have some soy-beer and fried sausages while we wait. Its not linguica, but what can you do.
(We spend some time laughing at the very stupid people who work at the pizza place we are getting dinner from. Heh.)
About 20 minutes before the meet time we head into the landfill. Ajax parks over by the Administrative building. He leaves the car running and in gear while we hike off to the center of the landfill. I'm keeping an eye open for drones around us.
It's pretty damn disgusting out here. I'm glad I wore boots. As we round the last mound of garbage I spot a human in a dark suit loitering in a clear patch. He's carrying a cane, the dapper gentlemanly sort. We approach and Ajax greets him. He's very slow and deliberate in his speech, annoyingly so. He announces that he needs us to assassinate someone for him. Exciting.
Ajax pushes for more details and the Johnson volunteers that the target is Emerald Numina, an advisor for Julius Struthers, the mayor of Seattle. The Johnson has a very specific plan in mind but isn't giving it up yet. He asks if we are willing to take the job.
Ajax confers with us. The doctor is not interested in taking the job. The B and I don't have strong feelings. The doctor is willing to go along with the team as long as she is not directly involved in the killing part.
Ajax tentatively accepts and asks the Johnson about the pay. He's offering a measly 10,000 ¥. Ajax tries to negotiate a higher price but the Johnson isn't willing to go up. Ajax is beginning to apologize and turn down the job when I get a message from the doctor saying that the Johnson is a spirit of some sort. Weird.
The Johnson interjects that we don't need to kill her. B confirms for me via comlink that "assassinate" does usually mean kill in English.
The Johnson clarifies that Ms. Numina is a free spirit and he wants her banished from this realm permanently. Okay... why didn't he say that then? While Ajax is backpedaling a bit the doctor starts freaking out in text messages. She says that the Johnson is a toxic free spirit. That explains his choice of meeting place I guess.
After some silent conversation, Ajax accepts the job and asks for any further details. The Johnson says there are no other details. He doesn't care how we arrange the banishment, just so long as we manage it.
After some final nice talk, the Johnson and Ajax say goodbye and the Johnson strolls off into the refuse. We head back to the car.
(Sarah reads about banishing free spirits and getting free spirits' true names. She works out a deal to buy the Arcana skill so that we will be able to get the true name without a great deal of outside contracting or wild luck.)
("Is it cold?"
~ Aaron, asking after the Ranch dressing from the pizza place
"Yes, it obviously came directly from a freezer."
~ Ben, sarcastic
"A freezer in Hell!"
~ Sarah)We talk to the doctor about how banishing a free spirit works. Apparently you have to get it's true name first if you want to banish it. There are a couple of ways to get true names including some kind of crazy magical quest to the target's home meta-plane. The doctor seems to favor the quest thing. So she'll need to figure out what meta-plane Numina is from before we can get going.
Ajax dives into the net to learn more about Numina. A few minutes later he informs us that she actually has a SIN. Surprising. She is apparently one of Julius Struthers' (<--the mayor of Seattle) top advisors and always looks fabulous. In fact its been pointed out that her clothes are rather impossibly fabulous without the application of magic. She also has a mortal boyfriend and she lists her birthplace as Seattle Memorial Public School #127.
That school is a magnet school for magically active students. She claims to be nine years old, so I'm guessing that's her actual age in our world, since she looks like she's in her twenties.
The doctor mentions that normally a free spirit's true name is imprinted on someone or something nearby when they are freed. So it's possible that it might still around if we could find it. That sounds much easier than a crazy quest to some meta-plane.
("Excuse me sir, may I fondle your aura?"
~ Ben)Ajax turns up information on the incident nine years ago when Numina was "born". There was a terrible summoning accident in the school, but the kids adopted her and took care of her through the beginning of her life. There were no reported fatalities, but there also isn't any info about the specific students involved.
This woman is sounding like some sickly sweet fairy story at this point. Pretty and smart and powerful, with a mortal love and a class full of young adults she can call parents. No one is that clean and perfect. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.
We want to investigate the school tomorrow, under some pretence, so we all head out and get some rest for tonight. Ajax comes up with a plan. He and Cordae will impersonate a couple considering transferring their child to the school. That should get them a pretty good tour. Ajax calls the school to set up an appointment and they give him one at 14:00. Maybe things will actually go smoothly for once.
(It's Sunday Sept. 21st, 2070. They have school on Sunday, huh, Aaron? ;P )
So "John and Sara Tads" will be visiting PS #127 to judge its appropriateness for their nonexistent son "Bruce". B and I are going to hang out a block away in the car quietly and watch through Ajax's eyes, so they should be alright.
When they arrive they are greeted by Principal Dr. Smith. She's a bit pretentious but seems okay. The school looks okay. The kids are mostly bright eyed and eager. When they are passing the summoning class room Ajax distracts the Principal by asking for a tour of the CS facilities.
Cordae stays behind to "observe" the class. She sends back an audio feed which I have converted to text so I can read while keeping an eye on Ajax. She talks to the teacher and asks some questions about the policies surrounding summoning and the incident nine years ago. The teacher was apparently teaching the class when it happened. (He/She?) lets slip the name Nikki while reassuring Cordae that no harm came to the children. Still too damn picture perfect. I want to hear Nikki's side of the story.
Meanwhile Ajax gets a tour of the school computer lab and programming classes. In between questions he hacks into the school's system. He grabs all the student records from '61 and gets out before anyone can notice.
The "Tads" wrap up their visit and make nice with the Principal. Then they vanish forever into the wilds of Seattle. Ajax and Cordae bring us the information they gathered.
End of Session.