PrP: J&V - Next Steps

[Ram]

Ram took a deep breath and let out a big sigh as he thought.

“We know its current residence and current employment. We can start at those locations and move out from there on places it frequents. We also got a lead with his… its daughter. She 21, so if we could get where she’s going to college or working we could learn more about her.” Learn what he needed to be her father. He swallowed his anxiety over that particular topic for now. “And then we’ve got Facebook and government records we could go through.”

It wasn’t a whole lot but it was more than enough to get started. At least for everyone else.

“I, um,” he rubbed his neck “I’ll probably have to sit out of the recon missions and stake out stuff. I’m not the best at stealth. Don’t want to tip it off further.” Or loss his temper and attack it before they were ready. “I’ll probably work on harvesting. Make sure I’m topped off for a fight. Maybe try to find out more on the computer.”

Another deep breath. The shock of finding out about the kid was starting to wear off. At least for now.

“We’ll want a good idea of its schedule. Haley’s too if she’s still living at home. Probably want at least two weeks observation to establish a pattern.” At least for a weekly pattern at least. He knew they could go as far out as trying to establish a yearly pattern but… “We should make our move by the end of the month. The longer we wait the more chance it rabbits. Or thinks to take Haley hostage.”

“So, two weeks for a pattern, one week for final stake outs and prep work, make our move where and when seems best according to what’s found? Sound good?” He'd let them decide where their talents would be best used for information gathering. That wasn't his lane. However, he did want to set out a timeline. After all, recon could continue indefinitely. There was always more to find out. However, eventually the real mission had to start

Fetch info 1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-06-29 09:09:30	Ram rolls 5 to Int+Occult (10 Again)	1, 6, 5, 1, 8	1 success

[Xadun]

Anyone who gained at least one success on the occult roll knows that Fetches are connected magically to the person they replaced, and this connection makes them a lot like changelings in terms of nature. This means they can see through Masks, like regular changelings.
Circe , with her 2 successes (or anyone with an Occult skill of 3 or higher) also recalls that some fetches have no idea they are anything other than human, and that even those that think so have innate magical powers to protect themselves. Some scholars think that this is connected to the magical power (Wyrd) of the Changeling they are borne from.

The Summer Queen breezes through the almost laughable security of the state department, pulling up the records on Michael Washburne. She can confirm the address and details of his station, as well as a number of other facts and pretty much any details she wants to check up. Firefighter for over twenty-eight years, married to Ashley for twenty-four, two children - Hayley (21) and John (18). A little more digging shows the children are adopted.

Poking around the facebook posts of Hayley, the elf finds several linked accounts - twitter, tumblr, imgur - from the bits of information Hayley is studying at one of Sacramento's colleges but lives at home. It looks like an almost traditional family unit in a totally new bit of suburbia, a thousand miles away from the one Michael left behind.

CUT TO....

Circe , Titania & Gerrit doing their investigation. One post for your investigation strategy and implementation, including all your rolls - once I have them all I'll reply to them collectively.

Using Ram's post for a 3-week timeline I'm going to adjust the sets of rolls from 1 a day to 1 a week. One week of observation = 1 Investigation and 1 stealth roll. Remember, if hardening the mask for the duration, this will cost you 1 glamour at the end for any continuous period (so doing 1 week costs one, as does doing 3 full weeks).

Since this is a long time, you can break off and do something else, but for simplicity I'm going to do this in 1 week blocks. So if you, say, do 2 weeks of Observation then take a week off for Harvesting Glamour, you have a shot at recouping the cost but loose that last week of sight.
Origins , if you want to do more poking via computing, Sac's local government is basically your bitch - just ask what you want to know. If you go searching elsewhere, make a roll with -2 for a local government, -3 if she goes to state, -5 for federal/international.
Vincent , to observe will be an investigation and a stealth (penalized by SL) as described. If Titania does choose to engage Michael or others around the office directly:
Around the office: include your approach, then Persuade/Subterfuge/Socialize as appropriate.
Michael: This will be Manipulation + (Subterfuge or Persuasion) - Wyrd to get information directly from him. SL/DV do not apply against Michael. You can also make either a perception or Wits + Occult/Medicine to observe him at close range.

Any questions, just drop them in the OOC chat

[Circe]

Circe will share with Ram that the Fetch may be ignorant of its nature but also have powers proportional to his own strength with the Wyrd, see through Ram's Mask and maybe others' too. Mundane murder may be the best option.


Excellent hacking results, Circe leaves a backdoor in the Sacramento government server for future needs, just in case. And she copies everything she finds as well as any personnel files on Michael Washburne. Especially communications from him, so Ram can familiarize himself with it.


Circe will then cyber assault the Maple Drive of Louisiana's systems for information on Andrew Morgan and kin. She won't be over ambitious for this unless she needs to find more. Circe is primarily interested in giving Ram enough information to retake his life if he wants it from the Fetch.


[says=1 success]88241[/says]

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-06-30 15:25:15	[02] Circe rolls 6 to Hacking small town Louisiana (10 Again)	4, 7, 4, 4, 9, 8	2 successes

Seems they had either better cybersecurity or just a very clunky website. Outdated tech could be the harder to hack if it was really outdated.


She also has a plan of attack for destroying it. If there isn't a absorption of memory trick, have to ask Rhodes, then hero death. Fetches don't often leave corpses so, kill it during a fire and nobody is the wiser that it died a hero. The mortal family it has gets life insurance and never learns they lived with a monster.

[Titania]

Titania will try to blend in with the firefighters by applying for a volunteer position as an administrative assistant.
The first week she'll stay away from Micheal, trying to observe him from afar (wits + Medicine) while flirting her way with the staff (Presence + persuasion + SL + DV) (in place of her stealth and investigation roll).
She'll break off the second week to harvest glamour and return for the third week, where she'll engage with him directly (Manip + persuasion - wyrd) and try to observe him with her occult knowledge (wits + Occult)

Glam for Mask 1st week
2nd Week - Harvest - 4 Suxx
3rd Week - Glam for Mask

3 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 06:33:10	Titania rolls 12 to Charming the Staff (10 Again)	9, 3, 2, 8, 1, 1, 7, 2, 9, 5, 4, 7	3 successes

6 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 06:33:34	Titania rolls 8 to Observe the Fetch (10 Again)	9, 8, 10, 3, 4, 6, 10, 5, 8, 9	6 successes

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 06:34:06	Titania rolls 3 to Befriend Micheal (10 Again)	5, 5, 5	failure

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 06:34:33	Titania rolls 7 to Observe Occult (10 Again)	7, 6, 2, 3, 5, 1, 1	failure

4 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 06:35:55	Titania rolls 8 to Harvest Wits + Emp + Merit (10 Again)	10, 7, 4, 9, 6, 3, 10, 10, 2, 5, 6	4 successes

[Gerrit]

Gerrit will approach this situation systematically. Since Ram allowed for a longer period of shadowing the Fetch, Gerrit could use a whole week near the Station to get information on the work schedule of the Fetch. He will make a point of always spending at least an hour away from natural light to appease Smoke - that way he could minimize the risk of attracting unwanted attention. With the shared information of the possibility that the Fetch could see past the Mask, Gerrit will keep his own hardened.

Shadowpatch 1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 08:31:09	Gerrit rolls 5 to invoke Shadowpatch w1 (Wyrd 2 + Wits 3) (10 Again)	1, 7, 1, 8, 7	1 success

Stealth 4 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 08:31:56	Gerrit rolls 7 to be stealthy w1 (Dex 2 + Stea 2 + Contract 3) (10 Again)	3, 10, 7, 8, 4, 8, 7, 8	4 successes

Intel gathering 4 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 08:34:02	Gerrit rolls 5 to get some intel w1 (Int 3 + Invest 2) (10 Again)	10, 2, 6, 10, 9, 7, 10, 6	4 successes

The following two weeks he'll use the gathered information to shadow the Fetch specifically, trying to learn as much as possible while staying hidden. There is no time to harvest and while it feels like spreading himself really thin he can't get himself to go easy - he owes Ram.

Shadowpatch 2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 08:36:17	Gerrit rolls 5 to invoke Shadowpatch w2 (Wyrd 2 + Wits 3) (10 Again)	10, 3, 3, 7, 1, 10, 2	2 successes

Stealth 1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 08:36:49	Gerrit rolls 7 to be stealthy w2 (Dex 2 + Stea 2 + Contract 3) (10 Again)	5, 5, 4, 7, 3, 1, 8	1 success

Intel gathering 2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 08:37:46	Gerrit rolls 5 to get some intel w2 (Int 3 + Invest 2) (10 Again)	10, 10, 3, 6, 1, 1, 1	2 successes

Moving away from the known surroundings of the station made for a less than subtle Winter - hopefully it's enough not to get noticed. With the time running low he'll put in some extra hours, even if that might come at the cost of his sleep.

Shadowpatch 2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 08:39:05	Gerrit rolls 5 to invoke Shadowpatch w3 (Wyrd 2 + Wits 3) (10 Again)	5, 6, 4, 7, 10, 9	2 successes

Stealth 3 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 08:39:37	Someone rolls 7 to be stealthy w3 (Dex 2 + Stea 2 + Contract 3) (10 Again)	5, 3, 3, 9, 1, 5, 10, 8	3 successes

Intel gathering 2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 08:40:17	Gerrit rolls 8 to get some intel w3 (Int 3 + Invest 2 + WP 3) (10 Again, WillPower)	3, 7, 8, 3, 5, 8, 1, 7	2 successes

Glamour spent: 3
Willpower spent: 1
Contract catch met as discussed in the OOC thread.

[Ram]

Ram spent what might be his last few weeks working at Funderland. He didn’t put in his notice just yet. There was still a chance that things would go horribly wrong. They might get caught killing the fetch, it could escape, maybe it would kill its family. He stopped himself before he went too far down the rabbit whole of his own fears.

Instead he allowed himself to soak up all the small annoyances and flashes of wrath around him. Long lines at the rides, failing to win the prize, toppled snow cones. Little sparks of anger that he took in over the three weeks leading up to the final confrontation, till cracks in his skin glowed red with fiery glamour.

This was it. This was why he’d joined the Summer court. Come to Sacramento. To destroy the tools of the Gentry, protect the world from their mad walking things that weren’t human, and raise a middle finger to them from across the Hedge for what they'd done to him. To fight back. He couldn’t get back the piece of his shadow they’d stolen to make it, anymore than he could get back the pieces of his soul the Battlefield had ripped away in Fairie. But he could keep Fairie from using it for their twisted purposes any longer.

Next week, the fetch would die.

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 12:32:06	Ram rolls 5 to Wits+Empathy (10 Again)	8, 3, 9, 5, 1	2 successes

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 12:32:27	Ram rolls 5 to Wits+Empathy (10 Again)	2, 6, 9, 2, 9	2 successes

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-02 12:32:57	Ram rolls 5 to Wits+Empathy (10 Again)	1, 10, 2, 2, 7, 1	1 success

[Circe]

During the rest of the time, Circe will head for the California systems to see what she can dig up. Brownie's Boone makes it much easier for her to pull this off like a raid night. Chips, Mountain Dew, and pajamas are all the kit she needs in her dark room.

11 suxx

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-05 22:40:31	[04] Circe rolls 5 to Int + Comp + Sp + Eqp -3 (10 Again)	9, 2, 2, 10, 8, 10, 6	4 successes
2021-07-05 22:40:31	[03] Circe rolls 5 to Int + Comp + Sp + Eqp -3 (10 Again)	4, 8, 7, 10, 2, 10, 3	3 successes
2021-07-05 22:40:31	[02] Circe rolls 5 to Int + Comp + Sp + Eqp -3 (10 Again)	2, 8, 8, 10, 4, 5	3 successes
2021-07-05 22:40:31	[01] Circe rolls 5 to Int + Comp + Sp + Eqp -3 (10 Again)	3, 10, 3, 4, 1, 6	1 success

[Xadun]

First and foremost, please don't forget to use the Power Icons for those of you that have been using Glamour! Anyone who has done so, please remember to add them in your next post.

These are basically your montages. There's a lot to cover, so I have a section for each of you.

In some cases, the Fetch rolls against you - Everything in the block is a result of your rolls including the opposition, so these are your final results.

Any questions, please drop them in the OOC thread.

After the three weeks, you reconvene back at Circe's. I will assume you're all in some manner of contact, so I'm happy to handwave all of your explanations to one another - at this point, what I need is a final decision. What you're going to do, so I can prepare the final scene.

Titania

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-08 04:24:39	PrP ST rolls 5 to Fetch's Notice (10 Again)	5, 2, 10, 1, 4, 2	1 success

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-08 04:25:15	PrP ST rolls 6 to do something insignificant (10 Again)	5, 3, 8, 10, 1, 7, 7	2 successes

With her natural persona and alluring good looks in a male-dominated environment, Titania has no trouble hanging around the fire station Michael works. They're all more than happy to chat, and she picks up a lot of irrelevant details about people's lives, including at two dropping heavy hints of their bachelorhood and one outright date request. Through introductions, she picks up a few bits about Michael as well. He holds the role of station supervisor - family man, often in early, always busy/ Makes time for people, but ultimately a very private man. It takes effort to get him to join the others for social events.

Her own observations back up everything she hears. The Fetch is always already there by the time she arrives, always seems busy, and doesn't talk much outside of business. However, his desk also tells a story. There are no medals or awards - of which, he has apparently amassed several according to his colleagues. There are some childlike mementos, old crafts and drawings clearly doen by children, although curiously no photographs. The one photo she does manage to snatch a glimpse of is one in Michael's wallet, a glimpse seen while he pays for a lunch order. A family of four, himself, a moderately attractive wife (though obviously nothing on the Changeling herself) and two children, the girl lining up with the facebook photos previously seen. Definately joining those dots.

However when she tries to get closer Michael clearly goes out of his way to actively avoid her. In situations where he cannot avoid being in her presence he is cordial enough, but seems naturally uncomfortable being around the Fairest. He doesn;t look at her in any weird way, or notice anything out of the ordinary about Titania at all. However, he certainly doesn't make any kind of conversation or discuss his home life. Even with her knowledge of changelings and medical understanding, the Fetch appears utterly indistinguishable form any other person - a perfect facsimile.

In the last week, Titania is able to easily gather glamour from the admirers she has drawn to herself.... it's pretty clear where their Desire comes from. It flows off like the sea of testosterone around her and is all too easy to collect.

As Titania is using a social camouflaged, the notice was against her initial social roll.

Titania can recover 3 points of glamour after the cost for hardening her mask

Gerrit

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-08 04:32:33	PrP ST rolls 6 to Observation (10 Again)	1, 10, 10, 2, 2, 3, 7, 4	2 successes

Gerrit naturally slips into the roll of investigator, observing and overseeing. He sets out before dawn (and with a lot of coffee) to keep his catch fulfilled and, as it turns out, to actually catch the Fetch arriving - routinely around 6 every morning Michael is on shift. A very nice high-end saloon, supporting the family lifestyle is his current motor. Being there so early, he also catches sight of the wife on one morning. License plates are easy to capture and throw at Circe for more information and together, Gerrit is able to track down the address to a nice suburb in Rosemont on the eastern side of town, getting all those ducks in a row.

He also sees Titania hanging around regularly, sliding her way into the conversations with the elegance a Fairest so easily achieves.

3 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-08 04:46:50	PrP ST rolls 6 to Observation (10 Again)	8, 8, 8, 2, 5, 1	3 successes

The second week proceeds much as the first. Michael is clearly a creature of routine for work, although interestingly he seems to mix up his travel routes regularly.

However, after ten days of regularly hanging around the station it starts to become clear one or two people are beginning to notice his presence, forcing Gerrit to go for a change of tactics.

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-07-08 04:49:35	PrP ST rolls 5 to Observation (10 Again)	6, 8, 6, 9, 2	2 successes

Desperate for a win, Gerrit begins to push himself further, with more risk, switching to observing the home directly. There are a couple of close calls, but the Ogre manages to slip away every time.

Away from the office, this looks like the ideal American pie family life. Happy children, loving parents, friendly neighbors. Hell, there is even on two separate evenings, the Fetch playing catch with his "son", both in Sacramento River Cats shirts. A barbecue with friends. It looks.... "normal". One thing that does seem to be unusual is the Fetch has gotten slowly testier as the weeks go by, though nothing Gerrit has noticed seem to be the cause.

Ram

Knowing he is not able to trail or sneak like his friends, Ram settles in to wait, tapping into the ever-present sources of anger all around him. All too easy for a Summer.

However, doing such a thing is not without consequence. Feasting on anger while being forced into patience is a volatile combination for any period. By the end of the first week, minor annoyances are already setting off reactions. By the time they gather back together, Ram is a veritable powder keg. Such feelings are not only a part of Summer, but also somewhere within the Ogre's nature, harnessing the story-book logic of Ogres as the violent brutes of fairytale. People naturally avoid him in street, and the scowl on his face is a near-permanent grimace.

In the final scene, Ram can have a +1 to any actions where he unleashes his anger (such as Brawl or Intimidate rolls). However, any Composure rolls will at a -2 as he struggles to maintain control of the fury within.

Circe

The Summer Queen settles into a few nights of hard code-cracking, taking a small detour to run Gerrit's plates.

Sacramento's data stores yield nothing on Tobias Morgan. Doesn't exist - never has. At least not the one they are interested in.

Michael Washburne, however, turns up in some fascinating places. There is a High School graduation, thought the face is not that of either Ram or the young Fetch she saw in the dream. Even more interestingly, there is an old missing persons from that Michael's life, shortly after. They aren't the same age, and there are some differences, but something jars against Circe's rather unique senses, causing her to take a detour into her more daily business.

It doesn't take long before she finds the marks of someone who clearly knew what they were doing covering their tracks in the system, just as she is doing... only better. A lesser hacker might have missed it, but Circe has time on her hands. Michael Washburne was a kid in Sacramento, born 4 years after the one known as Tobias Morgan. However, it looks like there was a missing persons early in the 90s that was consigned to the cold cases bin and then carefully selected by another hacker to bury even further in the records. It seems the parents fell apart after Michael disappeared. The father lost himself in drink, a death record nearly 5 years after. The mother moved to live with a relative on the Atlantic seaboard.

And as any good identify thief knows, the best covers are ones that definitely existed but no-one remembers. Tobias fled his home, and found enough of a cover life from a fake ID merchant somewhere to step into the hole left by Michael Washburne. Both white males, brown hair, tall - it was a not-quite-match made in heaven for the on-the-run Tobias.

From there, the new Michael seems to have rebuilt his entire life. A record of a community college, sports, before passing his Firefighter's entrance exam (barely, but a pass). From there, the blueberry elf can largely trace Michael's internet life. Although he has tried to keep as disconnected as possible (no social media for himself, only emails and joint amazon accounts with his wife to try and hide his name) keeping off the internet is all but impossible when a public servant and you have a 20-something daughter and teenage son. Several partial snapshots can be found through facebook for the daughter and instagram for both daughter and son. Big baseball fan, apparently.

[Titania]

"Dull and boring", she says resting her back against the leather sofa.
Ram's fetch had conducted a life that was neutral, for the lack of a better word. Or at least she found it. It's not the appearance of a family man that bothered her, but it was how insipid.
The wife, the kids, the job. All lived as if to check the boxes, but without any pathos. Indeed, the fetch didn't seem to connect with anybody.
The girl... however.
"We should approach the daughter"

[Gerrit]

"What, why?" Gerrit blurted out his opposition before he could think better of it. Seeing the Fetch live out the life he himself once had - working as a fireman, a wife, two children - really hurt and infuriated Gerrit. This wasn't supposed to be about him, this was supposed to be about Ram. Was it just a weird twist of chance that their lives were that similar? Probably. You newer knew with the Wyrd.

Still, the Stonebones found himself with a bitter and petty motivation to help his roommate, whatever that meant. The Fae couldn't just do whatever they wanted, couldn't just steal peoples' lives and put an imitation in place to further mock the Lost. This certainly would have an effect on the Fetch's family, but dragging in the children further was unnecessary. "I mean.. Uh, I still think it's Ram's call on how he wants to proceed, but I don't think that we should harm or influence the innocents for that. We have enough information as is to get to the Fetch." Directly speaking against someone as captivating as Titania took Gerrit quite a bit of will, and he still didn't dare looking at her while contradicting her. Instead, he looked at the Render. "Unless you want to.. make it suffer through its loved ones?" The Winter's voice left no room for interpretation: he didn't approve of that course of action at all.