The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

As we play, occasionally we'll close a thread and open a new one to keep the size of threads (and relative complexity) down to a dull roar. Here's where we store the closed posts from the history of Errant Road.
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Graybeard
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Re: The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

Post by Graybeard »

Sister Rose allowed Argus to make polite noises to Tim as she stepped a short distance away with Brother Marvin and bent her ear to his whispered narrative. "Yes ... yes ... I think so ... I understand ... oh, my." Whatever the last thing was that Marvin said, it caused a very distinct change in Rose's demeanor. "You're sure?" Another whispered exchange followed, and Rose, looking decidedly uncomfortable, returned to the group.

"I, uh, think we had better -- make some plans to recover Desiree and Anfisa," she said, although she suspected that the two women were well on their way to Tsuirakushiti by now. "Let's sit and talk this over, figure out what resources we have, form a plan. That little restaurant is only a short walk from here." She managed a wan smile at Argus. "Maybe they'll even have what we left of our steaks, although that's probably asking too much."

But as they walked toward Geno's, the mind-conversation she had with Argus had nothing wan to it at all. <"Marvin has some details that Tim didn't give us ... and I'm worried that these travels may be getting to be too much for him. He may be cracking under the strain ... if not downright mad.">

-------------

Meanwhile, at Geno's, a deal was being wrapped up.

"I do not see your cover story as difficult, ladies," Kitaura said smoothly. "You need only tell your esteemed leader that she was right, that the world beyond her influence is a dangerous and frightening place, that you have reconsidered and realize you would be safer in her capable hands until she is able to lead you safely home. There is much truth to this, in fact. I have had the pleasure of observing her and her lover, and can assure you that they are powerful mages indeed." This too was true, although it had been only partially so until just a day or two ago. The name Argus Cleiviein, of course, was well known to Tsuirakuan Homeland Security, as was the fact that he'd been suddenly "rehabilitated" only a few days previously. (This kind of knowledge always intrigued Kitaura.) But his paramour ... Kitaura hadn't noticed Rose in Kiyoka; he'd only been there a short time himself when the Egbert affair came up and she left to help Argus and Brother Miguel track him down. However, she'd certainly come to his attention since then, and he'd had several intimidated underlings working day and night ever since the debriefing in Saus, building a dossier on her. He had read that dossier as he prepared for this encounter. It was ... fascinating.

He took one last sip of tea. "I regret that I must go and perform certain other of my duties," he said apologetically. "My Damping spell will persist for another five minutes or so, so that you can firm up your cover story in safety and security. Simply keep that card, and I will see you in a few days in Tsuirakushiti. (Losing it would be -- unfortunate.) I will then be able to show you the charms of our lovely city as we have our conversations regarding the capabilities of this airship. I look forward to this. Farewell, and safe travels." He stood, snapped his fingers, and disappeared, apart from a slight ripple in the Damping curtain as his invisible form strode through and left the restaurant by its back door.
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Re: The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

Post by Alberich »

Anfisa cocked an eyebrow as Captain Kitaura left. "I meant a story about where we've been and who he was and what we've been doing," she said, now that they were alone. She left the rest unspoken. Oh, we were just talking with a Tsuirakuan spymaster and agreeing to spy on you in exchange for travel passes. Even those girly-man priest-ninnies might take some action if they said that, or had no story, or tried to make it up on the spot.

* * *

Tim couldn't get this "go sit down at a restaurant and talk" business - he was waiting for an answer from Argus as to whether there was a way to find this wizard, or find someone who could. Of course, he had no notion of the way his efforts on the girls' behalf were being maligned on the third-hand word of a corrupt Farrelian. (That's how he would have seen it, anyway, if he'd known it was going on at all.)
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Re: The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

Post by Graybeard »

[OOC: I think we're at a point in Lorrel where some other players really need to be heard from to advance things. Accordingly I have no words for Rose or the NPCs. However, to nudge it along up north:]

Therese and Mordan didn't get very far before magic flashed in the corridor.

"Paralysis!" a voice screeched in an unusual, almost-Tsuirakuan accent, and it was so.
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Re: The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

Post by Jack Rothwell »

"Maybe they'll even have what we left of our steaks, although that's probably asking too much."

"Already finished mine... but I could get another." Tamina said offhandedly, looking around without success for a sign of the missing women. The kobold was idly wishing that they were looking for the half-elf and her lover in the jungle of her homeland instead; there'd be a dozen signs for her to follow and no need for additional running around fetching help to track them. In the city there were too many bodies milling around, too many conflicting scents and sights for a hunter to track a quarry effectively, or at least one with the skill set that she had. That annoyance in turn drew her attention back to the help Tim had sent her to find.

"But... what 'bout the tracking magics for Des-i-ree and An-fi-sa? Know any?" She asked. "Can we find 'em that way? Unless... they already teleported 'way by now..."
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Re: The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

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We have a problem, Sister Rose thought as she sat down at a table with the others, oblivious to the filmy magic at the opposite end of the room. (Was that an effect of the spell? Was everyone getting so used to magical weirdness that they didn't notice? Or was it just a trick of the lighting? Hard to say.)

"Let me go over this again," she said wearily, mainly to Tim. She repeated the summary she'd given on the way over. "So now, the girls are missing, having gone off with a Tsuirakuan that you suspect but that the battlemages at the warp gate, and that Farrelian policeman, think is on the level." Although they have their doubts about you. And then to Tamina: "And we can't really track them, unless somebody among us has magical capabilities that we don't know about. I hate to disappoint you, but I certainly don't have any such capabilities."

"Ma'am?" Brother Marvin interjected. "Should I go back to the temple and put everyone on the lookout for the two young women?"

I'd rather you got a lifemage or two ready to look into Tim's mental health, thought Rose, but she couldn't exactly say that in present company. "I don't think that's likely to be productive," she replied. "If they did go off with a wealthy Tsuirakuan, they're highly unlikely to be anywhere now where our church will find them. We've lost some of our influence in this city, Marvin. We're better at doing Luminosita's Work among the downtrodden than with the wealthy. In some ways that's as it should be; they're the ones who need us more -- at least in a temporal sense. But among the Tsuirakuan newcomers..." She let her voice tail off.

"So does anyone else have any ideas?" she asked as the server brought soup; there wasn't going to be time for a full meal before they went off and did whatever they were going to do ... but at least this break would allow her to observe Tim very, very carefully.

[OOC: Really just temporizing until the conversation between Desiree and Anfisa happens, at which time a reunion can follow, although Rose's concern about Tim's mental health is going to persist.]
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Re: The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

Post by Alberich »

"So now, the girls are missing, having gone off with a Tsuirakuan that you suspect but that the battlemages at the warp gate, and that Farrelian policeman, think is on the level."

"I find it hard to believe they think he's on the level," said Tim. "He was throwing some pretty powerful magic around, and using it against me and Tamina, though we hadn't attacked anyone. When I pointed it out, and said 'stop him,' they seized me, and used magic on Tamina, too. They seemed to be pretending he didn't exist. Furthermore, before the guards seized me for the first time, I saw his magic around their heads, just as I did that poor ticket clerk's. It was betwitchment or something like."

[OOC: Rereading your posts I'm not 100% clear if there were only the two battlemages, or if there was another more senior man who showed up afterewards. If the latter then Tim will point out that there was no magic around his head.]

"Besides, if they wanted to admit they knew him, or say he had honest business, they could have done that. Or brought him over to explain it. Instead, they ignored him completely. And if he had been 'on the level,' he would have acted that way, identified himself, and not insisted that any pretty, defenseless girls he saw had to see him alone, and using his magic to attack anyone who wanted to protect them. That doesn't make the slightest sense. Anyway, what kind of honest business requires a man to hang around ticket counters, then trying to run off with whatever pretty innocents are desperate to travel? And use powerful magic like that to make sure he gets them alone?

"If a Farrelian was in favor, more likely he was in league with him, than that he thinks this is honest business."

Tim, perhaps a little more charitably than Rose, didn't think she was insane. He thought she was dithering while trying to come up with a plan. He hoped that Argus would have an answer for his question and Tamina's, that might get them somewhere. If the Farrelians were in on this, asking their "police" to look for the girls would be useless.

The thought that the stranger had known Desiree and Anfisa were coming, and what their business was, and had been waiting for them in particular, had not come anywhere near Tim's mind. (He hadn't been reading the author's backstory notes.) It had occurred to Anfisa (well, Kitaura had made it obvious), and was part of the reason she was sure that she and Desiree needed a very, very good cover story, and must not try betraying their new benefactor. Depending on what Desiree said, she would soon say it plainly.
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Re: The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

Post by Drannin »

Argus sighed. "Well... the man may have actually BEEN on the level, at least to a degree. What you describe, Tim, sounds like a very powerful, and influential Tsuirakuan mage. Basically, the kind of person that people leap to obey because he's jest that influential." He frowned a little bit. "Can you describe him? I'm curious as to who this man may have been, and what his motivation were."
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Re: The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

Post by Alberich »

Tim closed his eyes, concentrated a moment, and then gave the best description he could of the sharply-dressed, shady stranger. Of course, Kitaura had used an incredibly powerful illusion (which Tim could not penetrate nor even realize was there) to cover himself, so Tim's description did not match Kitaura himself, nor probably any other real person. That would be true even if, say, Argus made an illusory face and Tim told him how to modify it 'til he had a perfect wizard's "police sketch." If Argus couldn't do that, maybe Rose could, modifying her own face until she fit the description exactly...and Tim would suggest it if no one else did...but it would not matter in this case.

"But why would a powerful Tsuirakuan mage act like a shady abductor?" he asked. "Why would he hang out by a ticket counter, looking for girls in bad circumstances, and use his magic to get them off alone? And to attack anyone who tries to protect them, like me and Tamina? Surely powerful mages have better things to do with their time - unless they're expecting some great profit by doing so. There's no good, on-the-level purpose behind that!"

He didn't get Argus' sigh, nor Rose's weary tone either. He himself was worried sick about the girls, especially Desiree, and had thought his companions would be too. Only Tamina was showing a frame of mind he could understand. And she wasn't even human.
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Re: The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

Post by Graybeard »

"Tim," Sister Rose explained patiently (as much as she could), "there isn't much evidence that this guy was acting like a 'shady abductor.' Rather the contrary, in fact: it sounds like Desiree and Anfisa went along with him very much of their own free will. The question is: why would they do that? And the only possible answer is 'because they thought he could help them get away from here.' So how could he help them, and where would they have gone? The Tsuirakuan consulate, maybe, so he could bribe somebody for papers? Possibly we should look there." And maybe, if we ask the right questions delicately enough, find someone who can get a good diagnosis on just what's wrong inside your head, if anything; they'll know if there's anyone in town who can do that. As, indeed, there was.

[OOC: Continuing to temporize until Anfisa and Desiree have their conversation, although this does at least look like an actionable idea, if one unlikely to lead to much that's interesting. Incidentally, Rose's shape-shifting skills only amount to variations on the "attractive woman in her mid-to-late thirties" theme. She can't go transgendered, she can't look non-human beyond modifying her ears to look half-elven -- she did that in the Albigenish Incident -- and she can't look a great deal younger or older than she is. So using her own face as a template for the "businessman's" face is a non-starter, as she would explain if the idea was mentioned.]
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Re: The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

Post by Alberich »

"After he'd been throwing me around...just walk off with him without saying a word? She wouldn't. Too foolish after her last time here. And she just wouldn't. Too thoughtless, and way too foolish. He's a perfect stranger, already shown he's dangerous, she didn't even say a word to him, let alone me, just off and out the door alone with...no. It doesn't look right for that. And it doesn't make sense. No."

Tim didn't know that Desiree knew the mind speech -- the last time she'd mentioned it to him, she hadn't. And he wouldn't have guessed it anyway under the circumstances. Worse for him, he didn't know how to read ahead in the script before he said things like that.

To Tim's mind, Rose hadn't even begun to explain what such an awesomely powerful wizard was doing hanging around ticket counters looking for pretty girls to walk off with alone - and being willing to throw that much magic around to make it happen. There was only one explanation that made sense to Tim and it was horrible. But he'd already said that so he didn't say it again.

[OOC: And I think I'll stop digging it any deeper for Tim 'til Desiree and Anfisa have had their talk.]
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