3/17/2009 -- 3rd Sorcerer session -- 1st actual play Henry sets his alias so he can still auto-log in. Adaya says "so mostly I talk like this" Adam says "Yeah, if you log out, it will require you to connect to your character name." Anik says, "Can you use spaces in a name?" Adam says, "Sure." No Exit says, "Excellent" Adaya says "gah. How do you use the OOC?" Adam says, "You might need quotes to connect to the character." No Exit says, "type ooc " Adam says, "i.e., connect "No Exit" password" No Exit says, "I can use the alias, too, right?" Adam says, "Yep." No Exit says, "super convenient" Adaya says "ooc " Adaya says "no, apparently not" ooc Like this. Adaya says "type ooc " Adaya says "ARGH" Henry says, "Use ooc as the command, instead of " or say." Adaya says, "this?" No Exit says, "whoops." Henry says, "Yep!" Adaya says "yay!" Adam grins. "I don't know if you guys saw the wiki page today. It's updated. It has links to lots of rules, much thanks to Daniel." No Exit says, "what if it were you, hanging up on this wall?" No Exit says, "I forgot my own name" Exit Here says, "There." Adam says "I added this bit to the setting details:" There's an island arcology in Malaysia run by a company called MINER Corporation. The city, called Altima, a sovereign corporate-state with its own military and security force. About 70 of the people on the island city work for MINER. The rest either don't work at all or work for the various services on the island (food, retail, medical, transportation, fashion, etc.). Everywhere in the civilized world, but especially in the arcologies, people are tied into "the System," also called Akasha. It is a worldwide computer network that people access through old-school terminals and newtech guaranteed neural interfaces ("genie"), which uses quantum teleportation effects for instantaneous communication between the brain and Akasha's computers. Just about every manufactured item and container is connected to Akasha, creating a level of monitoring that is difficult to comprehend. The System can give users great power over the world but doing so requires opening one's mind to the network. This makes the user susceptible to attack, too, though "firewall" software and other protections exist. The average person connects to Akasha more or less constantly, and uses it like she'd use the Internet today (primarily for communication, entertainment, shopping, and light research). People stay connected even while asleep, so they can better control their dreams or get more restful sleep. "Sorcerers" are those people who tamper with Akasha and other networked technology in a far scarier way. They need huge amounts of processing power, which they can get from Akasha's computing cloud, but this comes with a price. Akasha is controlled by numerous "mindless" AIs. While mindless, they do sometimes pick up the subconscious desires of the billions of connected users, and can spontaneously create autonomous, sentient, unconsciously-recurring agents ("ASURAs"). These are essentially free-floating AIs with a wide variety of power. They can live entirely in the network, or they can inhabit technological devices, computer software or hardware, and even human minds. Some people call them "demons." Sorcerers know how to create, control, and use these autonomous agents to do things for them. Adam introduced the sentence fragment less than two minutes ago, unfortunately. Will fix. Exit Here says, "How large is the population overall?" Adam says, "Let's say 100,000." Henry says, "Sorry, had to take care of a whining cat." Adam says, "Heh." Name set. GM Adam says "So, are you guys ready?" Henry says, "Apparently the water wasn't good enough for him. So I emptied it, cleaned it, refilled it. At which point he rubbed against the bottle happily and then walked away." Jesse says "PUNCHES JON'S CAT IN THE FACE." Jesse says "Oops. Should have been an emote." Adaya says, "I'll probably be doing a lot of picking it up as I go along. I think I'm as ready as I can be." Henry is ready! Jesse says, "is ready, steady, go." Exit Here says, "I'm ready, though I'm a little distracted by some issues, so don't mind me." Jesse says, "How do I do an OOC emote?" Henry :demonstrates. Henry says, "Er. ooc :demonstrates." Jesse gets it. Jesse PUNCHES THE CAT IN THE FACE! GM Adam says, "I have prepped by creating a wonderful backstory that you'll discover over time, and by statting up your demons and making two rolls for you. The first roll was to figure out how strongly you bound your demon. You'll figure out your binding strength and demon's /actual/ stats as play goes on. The second roll was to determine if you lost Humanity for binding. Only Exit Here failed his Humanity roll, I think. Check your wiki sheets to be sure." Jesse is stunned that he didn't lose Humanity. GM Adam says, "I was, too." JESSE'S DICE: Adam rolls 10 10 9 8 1 LYDIA'S DICE: Adam rolls 10 9 8 4 3 3 3 Jesse rules. Jesse says, "Are we ready to get all sorcerous up in this shiznit, or what?" Exit Here says, "Damn." Jesse has almost made it through an entire Metallica album, and has already punched everyone in the face. Exit Here says, "You never punched me." Henry throws Jesse some Bob Marley. GM Adam says, "Jon, where is Henry when he discovers the SDD virus?" Jesse PUNCHES ANIK IN THE FACE. GM Adam says, "Lab? Home?" Henry says, "At the lab, the day after he got the key clue that made everything else look different." Jesse says " Dude, Bob Marley is *hard core*. Small Axe? That's some cold shit." Jesse says, "Oops, meant that OOC." Jesse says, "?" GM Adam says, "I am writing." Henry is in his office. He's mulling over the weird death of his colleague Saul. It wasn't like Saul to drive recklessly around the island's cliffside roads. He is half-mindedly looking at some routine data scans of some subject's thought patterns on the computer. Something is weird. There's something... artificial about it. Regular patterns. Almost like subroutines. And something is heavily suppressing higher brain functions, but not completely. Suddenly, the computer's red warning light flashes angrily, punctuated by the synthesized staccato sawtooth sounds of the danger signal. A computer virus! But it's not attacking Henry's computer. It's attacking /Henry/. Jesse says, "The yellow, it hurts my eyes." GM Adam actually said: "One more try. It's %x for color here, not %c like on Firan. <=)" but I didn't escape my %'s so it evaluated them. And %c is code for 'the entirety of the command you typed.' Whee. Anyway, if you really need to type a %, type %% instead. If you really need to type a [, type %[ instead. Henry says, "Ok. Uh. What's the order of play?" Exit Here pepper-sprays Jesse. GM Adam says, "I just gave you your Kicker, Jon, but all scene-ified. React to it!" GM Adam says, "Only Henry is in this scene." GM Adam says, "You can pull other PCs in, but there's no reason to. They'll get their scenes. You guys will eventually end up tied to some stuff together." Henry says, "Ok!" Henry jumps back. Immediately, he goes for the off switch, but stops just before he reaches it. That would be too obvious, and he doesn't know how much they've found already. Instead, he closes his eyes and pulls up the personality module, looking for an appropriate defense. Henry says, "And this is when I wish I'd planned ahead here." GM Adam says, "Ha!" Henry has an idea, one sec. GM Adam says, "Your multiple personalities, which I have named 'Them,' can Boost your Interface stat, too." Henry scrolls through the listings, and finds one of the more recent ones he's been developing, though as yet untested: Louis Pasteur. GM Adam says, "What's it do?" Henry says, "Expertise with spread of disease, especially viruses. Even electronic ones, as naturally everything trends toward biology." Henry says, "A basic anti-virus, essentially." Henry says, "And as something to use, this nugget from Wikipedia: Pasteur himself was absolutely fearless. Anxious to secure a sample of saliva straight from the jaws of a rabid dog, I once saw him with the glass tube held between his lips draw a few drops of the deadly saliva from the mouth of a rabid bull-dog, held on the table by two assistants, their hands protected by leather gloves." GM Adam says, "Okay, the virus is going to attack your brain. This is a Will 5 roll for you, and you can Boost that if you want. By up to 6." Henry opens the rules up. GM Adam says, "And I'll give you +1 for the cool Pasteur tie-in." GM Adam says, "Rules don't say anything about Boost. It's a demon-conferred bonus, though." Henry says, "Ok, what's the price on that?" Henry says, "Rather, what would an experienced player be apt to do here?" Jesse says, "Take the Boost. Just don't go above double your Will. And be nice to Them later." GM Adam says, "Right." Jesse says, "And give us something cool for bonus dice." Henry says, "Ok, so I'll take the 6 boost, since it's not going near double." Henry says, "And it's demon-driven?" GM Adam says, "Yep." Lydia says, "Always take all powers your demon offers." Lydia smiles. As Pasteur 1.0 (beta) comes to the front, it notices two things: A) There is a disease trying to make its way through his protections. B) It's a disease he's never seen before. Pasteur licks its hypothetical synaptic lips and pulls a digital antibiotic over Henry. Then, it approaches the virus. You can feel the tendrils of the virus pushing into your mind, like a vine's roots into a crack in a brick wall. The Louis Pasteur personality comes to the forefront of your mind, his French accent unmistakable. "This ees nothing, mon frere. Contain eet, and then study eet." GM Adam says, "Okay, be careful about playing the demons, since they're mine. You can give them orders, but that's it. ;)" Henry says, "Oh, I probably did that wrong. Next time!" Henry grins. GM Adam says, "Roll your dice with the 'roll <#>' command. Will is 5, plus 6 boost, plus 1 bonus. I'll roll 6 dice." DICE: Henry rolls 9 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 3 3 2 2 DICE: GM Adam rolls 7 6 4 4 4 2 Henry says, "So margin of 10?" GM Adam says, "Margin of 1. Only 1 of your dice beat my highest." Henry says, "Oh, highest." Henry says, "That makes more sense." Exit Here says, "The tie removes one of the GM's dice only if they're the highest?" Jesse says, "Only ignore ties when you're looking for highest. Otherwise, margin is the number of your (non-ignored) dice above your opponent's highest. It's on the wiki. Only took me 1.5 hours to write up. :)" With Pasteur's help, Henry understands what this thing is. It's like a weak little AI with a single-minded purpose. To control minds and wait for further orders. Do you want to Contain it? GM Adam says, "Containing it is an Interface roll vs 6 dice. You have 1 bonus die from your success if you do." Henry reaches out, mesmerized. He takes a digital beaker to contain the virus. Henry says, "Like there was a choice." GM Adam says, "Essentially, this virus is like a little demon. You can add it to your coterie, too. You can destroy it. You can bind it." Henry says, "Ooh." GM Adam says, "You cannot Boost again or you will get punished." Henry says, "Ok." Henry says, "Oh, I'm rolling. Sorry." DICE: Henry rolls 10 6 4 1 GM Adam says, "Pose cool and I'll... give you more dice maybe. Never mind." DICE: GM Adam rolls 10 8 7 4 2 1 Henry winces. The little virus sees the trap. It is inside Henry's brain though, and it escapes his little mental vial. Oops. It goes rummaging into his subconscious. Henry is distracted by the passing memories of his mother, and childhood games... while the virus burrows deeper, looking for a place to attach. Henry says, "I can't use the personalities again, right?" GM Adam says, "Sure you can. You just can't Boost without you becoming confused. Give your personalities an order (that's your turn) or name a personality you want to help you, and I'll act for the demon. Right now, They will protect you on their own." Henry says, "Ok." GM Adam says, "I have 6+2 dice and it's going to attack you. Don't forget to pose a cool action for more dice." GM Adam says, "After this action, I'm going to cut to one of you others. Sorry. We're slow and getting used to the medium." Henry struggles as he attempts to push the virus back. He attempts to search through the module, but it's just too fast. Suddenly, the memory it rummages through is of his late wife, Thomas' mother. Henry narrows his eyes and out comes one of the more developed personalities -- Sigmund Freud, to put up a new mental barrier. GM Adam says, "Haha. Cool. +1" GM Adam says, "We roll dice now." DICE: Henry rolls Henry says, "Er. Interface?" GM Adam says, "Probably Will or Passion." GM Adam says, "So 5+1 for you." DICE: Henry rolls 9 7 6 6 5 4 DICE: GM Adam rolls 9 9 7 7 5 4 3 1 Henry says, "WTF." GM Adam says, "Okay, I interpret your action as an attempt to learn something about it to use against it. My action was to damage your psyche. Do you want to abort your learning attempt to defend? If so, you get a new roll." Henry says, "Yes, definitely." GM Adam says, "Okay. Pose first. This is a physicalish attack, so it'll be a Stamina roll." GM Adam says, "Daniel, if I eff this up, just jump in. =)" Jesse is actively seized of the matter. Jesse probably best to interpret goals before rolling, but not a big-ass deal. Jesse is just waiting to see where this goes. Jesse says, "And eating cake." Adaya punches you in the face and steals your cake Henry starts shaking, which if there were any onlookers might look a bit odd. "Detournez! Out!" He grits his teeth and reaches for something to stabilize him. Instinctively, for some reason, he looks for a couch. Henry says, "If anyone actually speaks french, I apologize." Exit Here says, "Forgiven." GM Adam says, "Okay, you're rolling Stamina 2+0 vs. my last roll: 9 9 7 7 5 4 3 1. Good luck." DICE: Henry rolls 9 2 GM Adam says, "That's like 6 successes for the demon. OW. Okay." Henry says, "Not 2?" GM Adam says, "First 9's cancel, right? And it has 6 dice that beat your 2?" Henry says, "Oh, because of the tie? Ugh." Henry loses control of his own brain but some part of him is in there, watching it happen. Perhaps it's his sorcery and the way he's fragmented his own consciousness. Perhaps it's an illusion. But this virus just merges with his memories until it is one and the same with them. It is in there. Hidden. Invisible. And now, as Henry had predicted, it is waiting for something... GM Adam says, "Naomi, are you ready for a scene, or do you want to see one more first?" Adaya says, "I could do it if you want to, but I'd rather see another one if that's ok" GM Adam says, "No problem!" GM Adam says, "Jon, the virus basically goes dormant. It's in there. You can choose: a) it's in there and it has /forced/ you to Bind it (you'll have to make a Humanity roll), b) it toasts your brain. I figure you'll choose a) but you never know in Sorcerer. If you choose a), you can fight it later, but it gets a 6 dice bonus. Better research it carefully and build up the chained successes." GM Adam says, "Also, feel free to pose reactions and stuff." GM Adam says, "We'll do Jesse next. I'll start typing up the scene set." Henry says, "What do I fight it with?" GM Adam says, "Interface, demons, Passion, Will, Stamina. =) Whatever makes sense for how you're approaching it." Henry says, "Ok." Jesse says, "Depends on what it likes for a Binding, if you're Binding it. You can always ask." Henry says, "Yeah, I'm binding." GM Adam says, "Is everyone convinced that demons are effing scary? ;)" Henry grins. Jesse totally needs more convincing. GM Adam totally did not plan that scene to happen that way. I figured Henry would shut it out and that'd be that. No, Jon has to go and invite it in and try to Contain it! Awesome, but dangerous. Henry says, "I was going to, until Pasteur brought some of his more charming traits." Henry says, "That's what I get for picking a name and then reading about it." Jesse is in a locked back room on one of the MINER subfloors. He has a man cuffed to a metal chair: an Indian man who says his name is Avinash. "I told you," says the prisoner, "I don't know what Priya has to do with it. I just know I heard the name. Please, please, can I go now?" Jesse totally makes fun of demons' mothers and stuff while he's waiting. And they smell funny. Jesse pushes his mirrorshades back on the bridge of his nose and nods to one of the heavily augmented fellows standing next to him. The heavy next to Jesse gives 'Avinash' a brutal punch to the gut. The prisoner grunts violently, gushing with tears and coughing up phlegm. "What do you want?" he cries. "What?" Jesse sits down across the cheap metal table. Jesse says "Friend, you have been very cooperative so far, and for that I thank you. But, you see, your testimony isn't very useful to us if you don't tell us more about your cell. You *don't* want to be the only one going down for this." Jesse twirls the IFF transmitter in his hand and lets it clatter to the table. Jesse waits impatiently for a response, then leans back and sighs. Jesse says "How long has it been so far, Avinash? Ten hours? I assure you, I can wait longer than you." Jesse rolls back his sleeve and with a fluid motion, puts an airhypo to his vein. His slouch perks up. "I..." he starts, then stops. "The cell? I only know those names. I told you what I know. We wanted to free Ganesh." It was the first time he mentioned /that/ particular name. Sweat rolls off Avinash's brow. He stares at Jesse hopefully. He talked! Now you won't give him the hypo, right? Jesse says "Yes, yes... but, what was this... uh... Priya Aning's role in things?" Jesse says "And, oh, who is Ganesh?" Avinash shakes his head. "I don't know what the girl did. She was our insider. That's all. She knew about Ganesh and she was going to get us to it so we could free it." Jesse sighs. Jesse says "Alright. Look, I'm tired. If you're not going to help me, I can't help you." Jesse says "Olu, get me a brain extraction unit." Avinash panics. "I am helping you! I am helping you! No! I am telling you everything. I am answering all your questions!" Jesse shrugs. Jesse nods at Olu. Olu gets a helmet-looking thing with sharp probes inside it and brings it over and starts strapping it onto Avinash. Jesse says "After you've destroyed any data that might be in there, bring the body down for recycling. I'll... I'llfile the report." Avinash is screaming. Jesse tosses the IFF transponder to Mihail. GM Adam says, "And cut?" Jesse says "And bring this thing back down to flight control. I don't know what they wanted it for, but it's too expensive to leave lying around." Jesse says, "One sec." GM Adam says, "I don't think your turn is over, but the scene may be." Jesse goes to the control room and rubs the bridge of his nose. He keys in a standard scenewipe code for Mikhail and Olu, then downloads the interview to disc and wipes it from the main system repository. Jesse says, "Now I'm good." GM Adam says, "So they won't remember anything." Jesse says, "Unless you say otherwise, Jesse is the only one right now who knows what Avinash said. And, once the body hits recycling, that he was here." GM Adam says, "Okay. Where does Jesse go after work?" Jesse needs a drink. And maybe something stronger. Jesse calls Priya at home, on the way out. Jesse says "Hey, love. I'm going to be home late. We've got a mess here, someone... someone fucked up paperwork, and it's my job to sort the damn thing out." It rings a few times. No answer. As usual. You leave a message. Jesse Sorry. That's the message, then. GM Adam says, "'s'all good." Jesse hops a tube to Xantara. At the club, someone slides up behind you. Hands around your torso. Lips against your ear. A dark, sultry voice. The kind of voice that almost mocks you, or is it teasing? It's playful, yet dangerous in a way. "Well, hello," purrs Lydia. "Running away from home again?" Jesse smiles. Jesse says "Not running. Just a long day at the office. I need to unwind a bit. What's good tonight?" Lydia slides around you and plants a kiss on your lips. "Me." Jesse says, "Should we either cut, or bring someone else into the scene at Xantara?" Jesse laughs, a bit nervously. GM Adam says, "If you want to share. Anyone want to be here? =)" Jesse says "Of course. I think I need a hit first, though. Or I'm not going to be any good to you, or anyone." GM Adam says, "If so, jump in." Adaya says, "what's the timeline here? How long since Saul died?" GM Adam says, "Let's say 2 days." Jesse says, "Or we can cut. I'm happy to spectate." GM Adam says, "Opinion, Adaya? We can introduce your Kicker too. It'll be hard to do here, I think." Jesse gives Lydia a peck and orders up some crysBoost at the bar. He idly fingers the chip with the interview on it. Adaya says, "I can easily come up with a reason to be at Xantara tonight, but it's probably post-kicker, so if you want to play it elsewhere, we can do that" GM Adam notes that in SimpleMU you can hit ESC and it will toss whatever you had typed up into the history buffer (retrievable with Ctrl-P for 'previous' and Ctrl-N for 'next') without actually sending it to the game. Adaya says, "ooh, handy. And actually, it would be mid-kicker, I think, rather than post-kicker" Adaya says, "whatever you call it, I can easily be at Xantara" Exit Here says, "Oh wow, nice." Adaya has been trying to figure out how Saul could possibly have died in a car accident, given all the security features and failsafes she helped him pick out and install. She's been trying to access the navigation program and its trip history, and has been hitting some unexpected obstacles. Between the stress and the grief, she needed a break, so she's come to Xantara to distract herself and maybe feed off someone else's high. Jesse is out of Metallica and has switched to TKK. He lives for drugs. He is the white rabbit. GM Adam says, "Exit, Jesse, if you want to bounce off Adaya's stuff, go for it. I will search desperately for a Bang. If I don't find one, it'll just be an interstitial scene before we go to Adaya's Kicker." Jesse notices Adaya comes in. A brief look of fear crosses his face as he realizes that IT security might know he wiped the tapes. GM Adam says, "Ooh, great." Adaya's Scanner bleeps in her head. Only she can hear it. It's tuned to detect stress reactions around her. That man is stressed by her entrance. Adaya doesn't even know who Jesse is, except as a collection of behavior patterns and log-in codes, which she has not recently had to access. Her gaze washes over him and she moves on Adaya and then she glances back as the scanner goes off Adaya runs his biometrics. Who is he? GM Adam says, "Is Jesse black ops, or is he a regular employee?" Jesse slots the chip into one of the raw slots in his left arm. He winces slightly as it goes in. Jesse says, "Enh... he's counter-espionage. So, he's like FBI. His job isn't a secret, but some of the details are." Jesse says, "IT security would certainly know most of what he knows." Adaya makes a note to run some basic checks when she gets back to the office. He shouldn't be so triggered by her presence. But she is also in a really terrible mood and doesn't want to delve into work stuff right now, and is willing to bet that it can wait a few hours. Furs, gold, and women. Truly, Exit Here is an attention-grabbing human being. He wanders into Xantara with cash in hand, shadowed closely by his hawk-eyed well-dressed manager, who looks as if she's paying extra close attention to the artist today. Exit's shoulders are encircled by a tall, rather exotically colored woman who looks to be going along for the ride. Exit looks absolutely tired of Xantara, and he's only just gotten here. Someone's tough to please! "No," he says to his manager. "Get me something working class. I want a booth where the regular people sit, I'm sick of your cubist walled VIP rooms." Scanner feeds Adaya information, Terminator-style plus audio and video. Corporate records. He's security. He has ten hours unaccounted for at work. Current biometrics indicate high levels of stress, fear reaction, and now he's unreadable because of the designer drug he just hypoed. Jesse motions Lydia over. Jesse says, "But it can wait." Adaya sighs. This might actually be important. She wants to find the drunkest, most hopped up person in the room - she'll take a few minutes to unwind, then head back to work. There's a tall, wealthy looking man -- and no, not Exit Here -- who is smashed out of his brains. He's not sloppy drunk, but he's way too happy, way too loud. He's putting his hands on people's shoulders and backs. He's trying to pull a woman into his lap. The dangerous and hot-looking chick that you've seen doing security here heads over to the man you bioscanned. Maybe she's picked up on the same vibe you have. She passes his table though and heads over towards your boistrous drunk guy. Adaya tries to get near him before the security woman takes measures. Can she get close enough to pick up on his mental processes? Feel the buzz, the changes in sensory and mental processing? GM Adam says, "What's your goal here?" GM Adam says, "Cuz my temptation is to say, 'Sure!' and give you what you want. Then Lydia is probably going to toss him out of the bar." Adaya says, "distraction. Quick high. I don't have the time to do it the old-fashioned way. And it'll help me to continue calibrating the upgrade." GM Adam says, "Okay, consider it done. I'll pose quickly." Scanner reads the drunk guy and feeds the information into Adaya's brain. He's happy in a bright, shiny, yellow sort of way. Intensely happy. But it's shallow. Underneath that is a navy blue tone swirled with streams of black. But as long as Adaya stays on the surface, the warmth and light from the drunken joy fill her emotions with that same happiness. Adaya tries to strike a balance between immersing herself in the joy as long and as deeply as possible, and staying alert to security, because she wants to pull out before the confrontation. The happy drunk notices Adaya. "I've seen you beforrre," he slurs, grinning widely. "Dancing," he adds. "Do you wannna drink?" He puts his hand on Adaya's shoulder and is leaning on her, maybe to stay standing up. Adaya was not prepared for direct physical contact. It's hard not to get pulled further in. She doesn't say anything in reply, just smiles vaguely and takes a shaky step back. Lydia steps in and pushes him back from Adaya. "Bara, I told you to cool it. It's time for you to leave." He seems resigned to it and nods, looking back at Adaya. "Maybe next... time." Scanner cannot read Lydia at all. /Lydia is not human./ Adaya says, "How common are bots like Lydia? Is this a "hmm, interesting" thing, or a "holy shit what" thing?" GM Adam says, "Daniel? I think 'holy shit wtf'." Adaya says, "also, if I frequently go to Xantara, and Lydia works security, how did I miss seeing this earlier?" GM Adam says, "Weren't close enough, I'd say." GM Adam says, "She leads security, so she's not always on the floor." Adaya says, "fair enough" Jesse says, "Bots like Lydia are a dime a dozen (er... about $5000 each, for a decent model). But ones that act this human and can run a security team are unheard of." GM Adam says, "Er, she doesn't lead security. She's a bouncer. But let's say you just haven't been close enough." Adaya says, "did I see her talking to Jesse?" GM Adam says, "Maybe when you came in, yeah." Jesse says, "Let's say yes." GM Adam says, "Try: I saw her talking to Jesse. =)" Jesse was just about to mention Saul, for you to overhear. :) GM Adam says, "Adaya, it's your move. =)" Jesse says, "I don't get to speak directly for Lydia, though, so I'm waiting to see how this plays out." Adaya heads back to the office. She's going to thoroughly run this guy. She's in a worse mood now than she was when she came in, and she's going to come down on him like a ton of bricks whatever the checks show. If it turns out that he's got time missing because he messed up his timekeeping, well, that's reason enough. And she wants to find out who this security bot is, and what her ties are to Jesse. And who manufactured her, and with what specs, and who sold her. And then she's going to take whatever she needs to take to stay up all night, because she needs to get back to figuring out what happened to Saul. Lydia takes Bara to the door, and sucks his earlobe before pushing him out the door, way more roughly than is needed. He stumbles onto the concrete outside as Lydia laughs. She comes back to Jesse's table. Jesse says, "She's keeping an "eye" on Saul's house and access codes, etc. Right?" GM Adam says, "Adaya, are you leaving Xantara?" Adaya is leaving Xantara. And, yes, tracking everything that touches on Saul and his network portals. With his wife's permission, of course. Jesse kisses Lydia good night and rushes out. He heads to the house of this "Saul Osmene" that Avisham mentioned. He wants to check it out before confronting Priya. GM Adam says, "Let's cut there. I want to give Anik a scene before we finish. If we have time, we can come back to you tonight. =)" Jesse is desperately trying to get in trouble. GM Adam says, "It's only a matter of time." Jesse says, "Well, we have 2 minutes..." GM Adam says, "We have as long as Anik wants to stick around. Anik, you good for a scene now or want to wait?" GM Adam says, "If you guys need to go, that's fine. I'll post the log." Exit Here says, "What's good for you." Exit Here says, "I can wait if you need me to." GM Adam is good for another hour. GM Adam says, "It's your scene, man. Suptoyou." Exit Here says, "I'd be happy if I could get a scene in tonight! So... If that's not too inconvenient for everyone else." Jesse says, "I can hang on a bit, but I need to get up around 5. So I can't hang another whole hour. But I'd like to see Anik get a scene." GM Adam says, "Exit's Kicker is a solo thing anyway." GM Adam poses. Maybe the club /was/ boring. Eventually, Exit Here goes back to his lush beach home overlooking the ocean. The door is open when he gets there... all the lights are on... GM Adam says, "Exit's reaction." Exit Here is wandering towards his door, a petulant sneer crossing his well-kept, handsome features. When he reaches his porch and spies his door, all his mechanically-enhanced perceptions are ablaze with paranoid warning. "I knew the Committee Rebelling Against Profanity would come for me eventually." He wrinkles his nose and takes a few steps forward. "Or maybe..." Exit raises his hand, sending an electronic signal for LOGO to swarm ahead and take stock of the situation first. Exit's tattoos shimmer and then crawl off his body, flying through the air like a hypnotic swarm of insects. LOGO enters the house. There's a terrible grinding noise inside! Exit Here says, "Any sensory feedback, or just the noise of grinding?" GM Adam says, "LOGO is eating your house." Jesse says, "Sorry, Anik, but I'm fading fast. I promise to read the logs and figure out ways to smash into Exit's story." Daniel has disconnected. "Goddamn it." Exit rushes forward and sweeps into the house. "LOGO. SWEEP THE HOUSE NOT EAT THE HOUSE." He clenches a fist and shakes it. "I wasn't even talking! You deliberately misunderstood me!" Wait! House! Danger! Exit looks around wildly. The scene is terrible. Most of the art is gone. Some stolen. All the 'flesh' sculptures are destroyed. The whole house has been tossed, probably not by LOGO. Drawer contents are on the floor and the couch. Cupboards are open. Furniture is broken and ripped up. Electronics are missing. And LOGO is flipping out. It's attached itself to a wall and is -- dissolve is not the most appropriate word -- reconstituting it. Eating the wall. Consuming material. Exit Here is frozen, staring at the destruction wreaked throughout his beautiful, pristine space. He rushes forward, dropping to his knees and picking up a scrap of one of his beautiful, forward-thinking flesh sculptures. "My Work. MY WORK!" Exit is absolutely mad with outrage. "LOGO! Control yourself! We have real work to do, now! I want REVENGE. We Will Have Revenge!" Exit rises to his feet and gracefully extends his arm, pointing his finger at the pattern LOGO has made on the wall, sending the electronic signals that will attempt call it back under control. Exit Here says, "attempt to*" GM Adam says, "Okay, ruleswise, you have a relationship with your demon but you do not control it directly. You can Punish it, which lowers its Power and really pisses it off. You can attack it normally. You can bribe it with its Desire or threaten not to supply its Need. Basically, this is a social encounter, not a dice one. <=)" Exit Here says, "Can I tempt it with REVENGE?" GM Adam says, "Oh, I'm wrong. You can make a Will vs. Will roll to make it obey." GM Adam says, "But you can also work up to that with temptations and stuff. Use cascading dice." Exit Here says, "Alright. Can I interface with it, then, to start? Discuss our mutual wants, what I'm looking for and what its looking for?" GM Adam says, "Yes. Pose. =)" Exit Here points at LOGO, trying to activate the interface that binds them. "The House can wait, LOGO. We can find more material elsewhere. When we find out who did this, we can take all the materials we want, little by little. Isn't that what you want, my pet?" GM Adam says, "Roll Interface." DICE: Exit Here rolls 8 7 7 3 2 DICE: GM Adam rolls 9 6 6 5 5 2 2 1 LOGO spins once, like a giant curved chunk of metal, and slams into the wall. Plaster and chunks of 2x4s fly across the room! CRUNCH! GM Adam says, "If you reason with it, you're fighting its Will. If you get technical against it, you're fighting its Interface, which is lower. =)" GM Adam says, "Stamina is even lower." Exit Here's attention is drawn away from his broken creations, of which LOGO is one of the most important. He steps towards the wall, drawing closely to it and pressing his hand to it as closely as he can get. As he does, he gradually amps up the power of the interface in his hand, and when he pressed to it, he does the only thing available to him now, a hard reset; Exit tries to use a power surge to force LOGO to reset itself and return to its base operation parameters. GM Adam says, "That's cool! +1 and roll Interface." DICE: Exit Here rolls 8 8 6 5 4 4 DICE: GM Adam rolls 7 6 6 3 2 1 1 GM Adam says, "2 successes! Pose something awesome and take your next action. You'll get to roll those 2 successes into +2 dice for the next one." Exit Here says, "Was there any effect I'd notice?" LOGO seems... stunned by that. Exit Here steps away, retreating into the kitchen and grabbing a roll of aluminum foil. He pulls out a sheet and approaches LOGO again, while the creature is still stunned, and begins folding over some sheets to create an envelope of sorts. Next, he wraps his hands in the stuff, and begins to channel his interface's electricity into the pocket through the aluminum paws, trying to net LOGO in the stunning pocket of aluminum by capturing it. GM Adam says, "Uh, your Will vs. its Stamina? And you're probably gonna piss it off. ;)" GM Adam gives you +1 for cool idea. Exit Here says, "I think I'll take the chance, at least to get it out of the house while I continue to try and reboot it." DICE: Exit Here rolls 10 7 7 5 1 1 GM Adam says, "Did you add your +2 successes from last time?" GM Adam says, "If not, roll 2." Exit Here says, "yep. 3 Will, +2 +1" DICE: GM Adam rolls 8 7 7 6 You can scoop up LOGO in the foil pocket. The aluminum vibrates with the angry nanoswarm inside it. But for now, it is captured there. Exit Here closes his eyes and tries to channel his words through the interface, even as he looks around the room for evidence, seeking anything he can find. It's not all that helpful, though, since he prefers his enhanced sensory input. "LOGO. I need your help, LOGO. I -need- you to help me get revenge for all of this, because if you don't help me, I can't do it alone! If I let you out, will stay calm and help me just -look-? I'll use my interface to guide you the entire time, step by step, we'll do it -together-." GM Adam says, "Okay, that sounds like the control roll. Will vs. Will. You have +1 from last roll, but that's it." DICE: Exit Here rolls 10 9 7 5 DICE: GM Adam rolls 10 10 9 9 8 5 4 2 Exit Here shakefists. LOGO blasts out of the foil packet. The swarm grows larger than you've ever seen it! Probably 12-15 feet high -- floor to vaulted ceiling! It starts slamming through walls like they don't exist, eating every bit of material it touches! GM Adam says, "Your only options are Punish or Contain it or Banish it or fight it." GM Adam says, "Or let it eat your house." Exit Here says, "Is it still bound by trying to protect me?" GM Adam says, "I don't follow. It is bound to you. It doesn't have to protect you or do anything you tell it. You have to make it want to." GM Adam says, "If you were to die, it would need a new master -- another sorcerer -- to tend to its needs." Exit Here says, "That's what I meant." Exit Here says, "Whether or not it died with me." Exit Here is pondering what to try next. Exit Here says, "Just a moment." Exit Here walks towards the wall and uses a kitchen knife to wedge off one of the socket faceplates. He presses his hand against the wall, attempting to use his interfacing abilities to tap into the houses's wiring and digital informational grids, to amplify his interface and try to punish LOGO severely enough to make it submit to his power. GM Adam says, "You can punish it 1-3 points. How much?" Exit Here says, "1 point, I think, to start." Exit Here says, "If this doesn't work, I'll probably let it eat the house and just try and interface with it while it does to see anything it finds while it's doing so." Henry has disconnected. Henry has connected. As LOGO crashes through a wall, it hits one of the electrical lines that Exit Here has commandeered. An enormous electrical arc flashes from wire to air, lighting up the nanoswarm all at once! LOGO falls to the floor like tiny, black, squirming ants, immobilized for a few seconds. There's a static energy crack as the swarm resets and lifts up, hovering in the air before Exit Here. GM Adam says, "It worked. It won't push you if you're going to Punish it. Not yet, anyway. And it got to eat." Exit Here waves his hand, like an old school magician, trying to send out LOGO inch by inch to search for evidence of whoever did this filthy deed! What's the next hook, LOGO? Exit Here says, "In whatever's left of the house, that is." Adaya has disconnected. GM Adam says, "You'll have to find out next time! Ha." Exit Here says, "haha." Exit Here says, "Next time on Cyberpunk vs. Sorcerer!" GM Adam kills the log.