June 13, 2009

Hook

Group needed to recover stolen good. Meet at Crazy Larry's Arcade in Prall.

Plot Synopsis

The adventurers go to Prall and make their way to Crazy Larry's. It is noted that the streets of Prall are unually quiet and un-populated. Noted but no one questioned why or made any effort to discover. The group gets to Crazy LArry's where they have to pay a 2sp admission fee. Once they are inside Crazy Larry comments that that was the best ROI ever, making 10sp on a 2cp investment. The adventurers were not amused and Dena pointed out that if he was wasting their time it might be the most expensive investment ever. Crazy Larry laughed and led showed them around quickly. The arcade is a large, and apparently open, gaming area. Board games of all varieties (checkers, chess, go, etc...), table games (billards, ping pong), shuffle board and darts. A large sign on the back wall says 'No Gambling' but is clearly ignored. Crazy Larry confessed to not even knowing what the sign said.

Larry explains that he got the opportunity to expand the arcade with a new game. Huge potential. It can be a spectator/betting game as well as a competitive game. There is still discussion about if they will stick to amateurs or if there will be professionals who can be promoted sports star style. He explains that his assistant, Dim, brought him the deal and Larry instantly recognized the potential to make some big money. Larry purchased the items, tested them and then got a couple of the local Bosses to invest in additional testing and promotions. It is imperitive that the bosses not find out that there is a problem because they are the type of business men who never make bad investments.

At this point Larry explains that he bought 6 rings from a guy that Dim knows who, in turn, bought them from a guy who got them at an "Estate Sale". These six rings are magical and seem to only do one thing: When you put them on you start rising, faster and faster, into the air and then it stops and you fall to the ground, faster and faster, but you hit safely. The party recognizes this as Arise+Cushion. (Arise fully finessed for acceleration (8F/R) and maxed out duration). Larry says that the plan is to tie two people together put rings on them and let them fight on the way up and down. Ocassionally there'll be larger melees. He is convinced that this will be the next big thing. The party wonders who would bother creating such items. (they wonder but they never follow up on that question).

Larry says he put the rings in his secret safe when he went home for the night and they were gone when he checked the safe the next day. He won't tell the party where his safe is but makes it clear that its magical. The party spends a bit of time looking for the safe (including Difuge who loses 100sp bet that she can find it by going immaterial and going through every bit of the arcade... and fails). The other employees (Dim, a bartender and a serving girl) are all called in for questioning. Under a lie detection spell none are found to have stolen the items or know who did. So no leads from the employees and Larry won't let them see the vault because he believes that anyone who has been in his vault can get in there a 2nd time. Tanis reveals the past on the bar area and learns nothing interesting.

Dim is questioned to find out the source of the rings. He says that his cousin is dating this guy who's a member of the East Street branch of the Avenging Angels. They were on patrol one night and saw these three guys breaking into Harry's Liquor store. They took down the thieves and pursuant to the Code of Prall, took payment out of the guilt party's pockets. The rings were part of what they took. The party asks Dim to get them an intro. He hesitates a bit but agrees.

Dim leads the party to an alley off East Street and knocks at a door. Someone on the other side knocks back, Dim knocks a 2nd time and the door opens. A voice from the other side says 'Sup Dim'. Dim introduces the party and explains that those rings had gotten stolen and that the party was there to find them, the expect they were maybe stolen back by the liquor store thieves. The Angel explains that there were three of them and after apprehension the were taken to the square and staked (tied to stakes to await public trial). Two of them didn't survive trial until morning. The third managed to escape. The party gets a rough description of the missing 3rd. Tallish guy, long blond hair, goatee.

The party splits up. Most go to checkout the square to see if anyone saw anything. Difuge heads to the liquor store to ask questions there. Arriving at the liquor store she meets with Harry, the proprietor. His front door is boarded up and he seems happy that the thieves were caught. His shop is stocked with various varieties of alcohol, tobacco, drugs and some flyters (maps, call girl ads, etc..). Harry says he gets robbed pretty regularly by kids or such (he thinks kids because they don't really take all that much).

At the square the party sees a dozen stakes. 4 have people chained to them. A small band of kids is tossing stones and rotted fruit at them. One of the party members kicks one of the prisoners, killing him. A guard moves in and tells them to go easy, this is a trial not an execution. They ask the guard about the three that were brought in for robbing Harry's. The guard acknowledges that two of them didn't last out the night... "people like Harry". The 3rd escaped and he wasn't sure how. He pointed out the stake that the 3rd was attached to. The party decides this is a dead end and head to Harry's.

At Harry's they talk with Harry a bit and then Tanis does a reveal the past on the outside. It shows the blond guy using a crowbar on the front door of Harry's store. They see the Angel come up, the three guys go over and then are jumped from behind by a dozen more
Angels, subdued, manacled and dragged off. The party wonders why someone with a bunch of magic rings in his pocket is robbing a liquor store. Apparently an idle question since its never followed up on.

The party returns to Crazy Larry's Arcade to give him a status update. Larry accepts the information and agrees that the blond guy is probably the culprit. Everything fits. He asks what he can do to help find the guy: put up postings, ask around, etc...? The party offers nothing constructive. Angela leaves to go look around the city for the blond guy (look, not ask). Erica decides to try the brute force approach of going immaterial and going through every foot of Prall (A quick note on this... do GMs really let this slide? Lets do some best case. Lets assume that you can just whip through at 120 feet per round and don't need to stop and look behind you ever to clear rooms. Lets assume you have great peripheral vision and a great perception. Your average inside room is probably 12x12 but for the sake of math lets give you 15' wide swath. At 120 feet per round it takes 3 minutes to clear 1 mile of 15 foot strip. Even a city that is 1 square mile (and Prall is a Sprall and larger than that by a lot) would take you nearly 17 hours under optimal conditions and assuming you didn't do basements, sub-basements or any other levels ... it is entirely impracticle and you'd still miss smaller areas (closets, bathrooms, etc... without taking smaller swatchs which would double or triple the time). Crazy).

Dena sends out some ghosts to search and then runs to the next town on to check it out (how?!) in case the guy left town. Difuge posts some monkeys on the main roads in/out of Prall in case the target is flushed and makes a run for it. I let them roll a few luck die to see if they miraculously stumble across the blond guy. They don't.

Meanwhile Tanis did further questioning of the serving girl and learned that she not only knew where the vault was but had been in it. The party drops a blue field on Crazy Larry so that they can question her privately. She agrees to show Tanis the vault if the rest of the party walks into the blue field so that they can't see. The party agrees. Deno uses echolocation to watch anyway (through the blue field). The girl moves a floor board behind the bar and explains that you have to lower yourself through the floor and then swing to the right and let go. Tanis and the girl enter the vault. Inside are several chests and a wall of small pigeon hole nooks holding various items. She explains that she is underpaid and occasionally compensates her income. Not a lot just up to what she believes is fair market value. She reiterates that she didn't steal the rings. Tanis does reveal the past. He sees Larry put a small bag into a nook, it gets dark and then Larry comes back (~12 hours later) and the nook is empty. Whatever happened happened in the dark. Another dead end.

They drop the bluefield and have some lunch. A while later Larry announces he has a lead. While the party was randomly wandering around or eating sandwiches he put out some feelers (in the form of a reward and passed the word to the street rats that he was looking for the blond man). 20sp later had him an address. No guarantee that it was the correct address but since the party has some free time while they are waiting for their more sure methods bring back resuls they have nothing to lose by checking it out.

They party goes to this rooming house. The tip says the blond guy is in room 7. Difuge comes in through the back while the rest come in through the front. Inside there are a couple of drugged up bohemian types laying on a couch. The party says "room 7" and one of the couch monkey's points to a door on the 2nd floor. They party goes up and enters the room. The blond man drops on them from the ceiling. He takes a beating and is at their mercy within a few seconds. He says "So this is how it is, eh" and becomes cooperative.

He explains that he was transporting the rings for his contact and stopped off to rob Harry's on the way. They party had doubts and asked if he seriouly stopped in the middle of a job to rob a liquor store. He replied that he robs that store once a month or so. The party accepted this answer and since truthscan was up the whole time, why not? They asked about his contact and he replies that it was a portly man who wears shirts a couple of sizes too small and always has a cigar in his mouth that would make a porn star proud.. and he spends most of his days at Jake's Barber shop. The party tells him not to move or they'll come back and kill him and leave. Deno briefly ponders putting a Rune on the doorway to explode if he leaves but doesn't.

The party heads Jake's. Outside Jake's their target is clearly visible inside waving around a huge cigar and telling amusing stories. Dena changes her form to look like the blonde guy and heads in. Difuge asks what the plan is but no one really seems to know. Inside Jake's Dena nods at the cigar man who nods back slightly and keeps talking. He definately seems to fit in and is, apparently, well liked by the other patrons. Jake nods at Deno who takes a seat in the barber chair and tells Jake to not cut her hair. Shave, no? Jake shurgs and says "your coin, you got the chair for 10 minutes". Dena tells a story about stolen rings and people hunting for them. The other patrons look confused and unimpressed and its obvious the blonde guy won't fit in with them. Dena finally stops talking and gets up. Cigar guy says he'll escort the blond guy out and give him a few pointers. The others laugh.

Once outside the door Cigar guy says "rumple stitlskin shat on a stick boy" and shakes his head. Dena starts to explain but cigar guy gives her a ring and says to meet at the usual place. Dena puts the ring into her pocket and walks away, Cigar guy goes back inside. 8 seconds later Dena's pocket explodes with three simultaneous fireballs. She is knocked unconscious and a few stragglers are killed. A form arises from Dena's body and kills another passerby. Everyone comes out of the barber shot to look, cigar guy shakes his head and starts walking the other way becoming invisible a few steps later. The party follows him for a bout a block, see him pull a dagger and start making glowing lines with it and then they blue fields him. A crowd gathers and some side betting starts.

Dena gets up a few minutes later. Erica notices the explosion and arrives as well. The blue field is dropped and the cigar guy subdued quickly. He also says "so this is the way of it" and becomes cooperative. The party takes all magic off him and puts him in teresium manacles. They find a bag full of rings, the kinfe, a belt buckle, a shoe string. 5 of the rings look the same. He acknowledges that those are the arise rings and says they belong to him. He commissioned them and owns them and doesn't believe that point is negotiable. The party says they don't care, they were hired to recover them and have. They tell him to work it out with Crazy Larry.

The party brings back cigar guy to the arcade and gives him and the 5 rings to crazy Larry. Crazy larry gives Erica a bag of coins and thanks the party for a job well done.

Crazy Larry, Dim and cigar guy go into the bathroom. A while later Dim and cigar guy leave the bathroom and the arcade. The party peaks into the bathroom and see a bloody mess but no body except for a hand poking out of the drain. The party finishes their dinner and leaves town. They drop by the CGoW and get their items identified. They find the knife is some form of dimensinal gatway to the Kurago, the shoestring is cushion and the belt buckle is Limn. The rings are all triple fireballs.

The blond man was found on the beach a few days later. Much damaged by a long time in the ocean and being dead.

Crazy Larry's Arcade (under new management!) announces the first ever Aerial Combat League event will be held on Murh 18th between the Southside Bruisers and the Pier 12 Dockers.

Noteworthy Postgame Events