PRP DYLF: Taking stock and making plans
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This is for adding a Search Category to the thread.
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Blush, Imbibe
Remember, ExitScene
Blush, Be in Awe, Vice: HE STOLE MY THING Blush, Imbibe Blush, imbibe, Last Night Corn and Philip had a harrowing encounter, so close to their goal yet in the ensuing complications and chaos other pieces of the puzzle made themselves known and the answers they sought slipped through their fingers. Philip was wounded and Corn risked a vulgar cast in front of sleepers trying to salvage the situation. But be the will of fate or something darker the mages find them selves now in Philips Sanctum deciding where to go from here.
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Presence
Status (academic)
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Presence
Exceptional Luck fail and re-roll, giving larceny his all, Postcognition (temporal sympathy), Counterspell Time
Self Healing ritual, 
After texting Corn about how he wanted to proceed and inviting him into his sanctum officially for the following day, he immediately went to bed. He was confident enough to end Fortunes Protection as soon as he entered his four walls as well. After all he was exhausted, weak, hurt and unable to think about anything except the soothing comfort that was his blanket and his eyelids inexorably closing. And there was nothing he could do about it. The next morning he woke at 11 AM after a surprisingly long and good night`s sleep, despite his injuries. Only in the morning after he woke up, did his injuries and pain from the shot start to seriously affect him again.
He did not have time to spend all day on a ritual to heal himself with so many things that needed doing, and preparations for Corn`s arrival that needed to be made. And yet, his health came first, having been quite cavalier with it the evening prior. So he got to work immediately after a very late breakfast to restore his health to his wounded body after that last encounter by means of a Self Healing ritual, spending three hours total on getting himself healed. So he uttered, no chanted, High Speech for half-hours at a time in as quiet a voice as he thought he could get away with, to focus his enlightened will into healing his injuries, calling upon ancient supernal truth as he did so. He was always very quiet when uttering High Speech as a force of habit. One that had saved his butt on multiple occasions when outside and not in his Sanctum.
Self Healing ritual, target number and potency 5, 3 hours total elapsed, successful(5 suxx)
And that was despite needing to have some sort of plan of action in place before Corn came. Knowledge of where the car that abducted Darren-slash-Mothisa had gone needed to be procured. And Ideally he wanted Corn to assist him with his research efforts with his spare laptop, if he`d be interested and wasn`t too keen on being entertained. He also wanted Corn`s info, ideally of a supernal nature, and advice on the ashes he`d recovered from the crematorium he`d told him about. And finally, he just wanted to thank him for being there to help him during the evening`s events. But he simply didn`t have time for anything else, between getting back to health, preparing for Corn, and worrying about his hacker friend.
Just in case Corn wanted to be entertained anyway he`d prepared his foldable table with a nice cloth and an assortment of various alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks as well as chocolate chip cookies after he was done with the Self Healing ritual which managed to fully rejuvenate him. For dinner, if Corn needed it, he`d offer to order them some pizza from one of the better pizza delivery restaurants, and call it a day. This was intended to be a business meeting after all and not a long get- together, dinner and discussion. At least for Philip.
His apartment was otherwise mostly the way it always was, except perhaps a little less messy. It was a tiny, essentially one- room apartment on the 2nd floor that was completely unassuming and very hard to notice from the street. And that was despite the window partially facing in that direction, granting him an excellent view of both the street and entrance while mostly making his apartment and the place in general look abandoned from the outside. He would not tolerate outsiders knowing what was going on in his studio unless he wished it so. Nothing indicated that anyone lived in the monotone apartment complex, merely the apartment complex`s house number, [XXXX] was visible in large numbers from the street. The exterior of the building was run down. His name wasn`t even visible at the entrance to the building, only the numbers of all apartments in the complex, of which his was but one. But he`d told Corn both of these numbers ahead of time. Philip knew he had a tiny place. But he was proud of it and himself and it was all his.
Towards the hallway he had a porthole glass in his main entrance door to spot people wishing to enter. Right beside the entrance was a door leading into a tiny 30 square feet combination toilet and shower room, where there was no wasted space and all unused wall space was filled up with cupboards.
Shelves and closets lined the walls and a significant fraction of the floor space of the 300 sqft room up to the ceiling filled with all the things he owned and needed. From clothes, tumble dryer and washing machine, to the one corner where he had his weapon collection and the reloading bench for the weapons he also had in that corner, neatly and tidily arranged so they could be readied as fast as possible. Though it was still hard to ready his crossbow and rifle particularly quickly for practical reasons.
He had a retractable bed by another one of his walls that he could roll up and push to the side to make a tiny bit more space. And then he had his office space, his main working desk with his surprisingly printer that doubled as a faxxer and scanner as well. Several state-of-the-art computer screens complemented his desktop-replacement laptop and pencils and pens were available to make notes on his paper notebook that laid on his desk. He also had a single tiny green plant on the desk to give his mostly drab, and pictureless room some color, although he rarely watered it and instead preferred to get regular replacements about once a quarter. And beside the desk was yet another shelf with binders and folders where he kept some of the offline records and files he got from his clients.
In the middle of the room was a small retractable table and some retractable chairs that served as a dinner table whenever he entertained guests and on the rare occasions he didn`t eat sitting at the kitchen table where he prepared dinner, or at his office table. Or whenever he just wanted to chill and take a break from his work. This time, he`d prepared it with plates, glasses for drinks, his jar of cookies and various drinks to choose from. Normally, clothes would be haphazardly thrown all across the floor or piled up in a random large pile on the floor. But this time he took his time cleaning his room, making it look nice for Corn`s arrival.
A tiny kitchen with a complementary tiny kitchen table, 4-unit stove and oven, faucet, fridge, freezer and dishwasher was at a part of the right wall of his room. That included all the usual cupboards for various foodstuffs, cutlery and other kitchen utensils.
1 WP gained for good night`s sleep as discussed on character thread has been noted, but immediately used in Self Healing spell, so WP remains unchanged. Also expenditure of 2 mana for non-ruling spell requiring additional mana already marked in spoiler.
Hope I covered everything.
spells , effects and gear
Willpower: Health: |
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Presence
Status (academic)
Corn arrives outside the building and text Philip.
he sent to Philip. He didn't expect any traps but it is better to not just assume. Then, he moved to the front door of the rundown building and if there's a buzzer, he buzzed. He has no spells active, as he approaches another mage's sanctum. Corn carries with him a box of macaroons.
Once let inside he would not comment on the corridor or the state of the building.
"Greetings, buddy. I am here for the project, really glad to see you OK." he would said to Philip once he saw the Acanthus.
Inside the sanctum, Corn would take a glance around. The weapon collection and reloading bench did take him by surprise. "Nice home, Philip. Thank you for trusting me to be here. Before we start, what are your rules for magic in here?" he asked the other mage.
Sorry, pressed for time. I can't make a "complete" post
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Presence
Exceptional Luck fail and re-roll, giving larceny his all, Postcognition (temporal sympathy), Counterspell Time Self Healing ritual,
Getting his text and also hearing the door buzz at 4:15 PM sharp, Philip let him in and greeted him with a smile at his apartment`s door.
”Welcome, please come in, have a seat and make yourself at home. We have a lot to discuss and I`d like your help with a few things on this project while you`re here, if you`re interested.”
he said, beckoning him inside his sanctum and more specifically to have a seat on one of his retractable chairs he`d set up. The first thing Corn wanted to know were his house rules. That was something Philip hadn`t really thought about. So after a moment of consideration, he answered him.
”So, it`s safe to talk in here but I still air on the side of caution. So for really sensitive topics about the club and us, I`d prefer writing. And whenever I utter words of power I do so as quietly as possible, even in here. And I`d ask you to do the same, if either becomes needed. That said, feel free to enact whatever enlightened will you wish, as long as you don`t damage anything."
It was a boast not intended as a threat, but perhaps a subtle warning nevertheless, as he stated his rules as plainly and neutrally as possible, hoping Corn wouldn`t have anything against them. He then got passionate about his weaponry collection, calling Corn`s attention to it, in a show-offy-slash-fanboy`y kind of way.
"And as you may have noticed, I`m proud of my weapons and they are not for show. You can tell I`m a bit jumpy from yesterday, sorry about that. Please don`t take it personal."
He hoped Corn wouldn`t take it personally, but he was in his own Sanctum, and he felt pointing out his ability to defend himself in there would not be an undue problem for Corn.
"We can even take some of them with us later, if needed. Would`ve been a great help against that maniac. Lol, hehehehe."
he said more casually, chuckling loudly at the irony after saying Lol, before continuing seriously:
"So if you raise defences in here I would be obligated to do the same, but I wouldn`t hold it against you.”
He then thought for a while again.
”That said, I`m very glad you came and please don`t let this discourage you. Gives me the chance to thank you in person for yesterday. You were a huge help, although your vulgar spell was risky. What did you do by the way, with that?"
he asked, curious what he managed to achieve with the vulgar casting. If his goal was to stop the shopkeeper or the escaping van or anything else, whatever he did, either it failed or it was something very subtle. He then continued on about his own one notable accomplishment from the previous evening.
"By the way, I took a picture of the van that kidnapped Darren Greenfield-slash-Mothisa Sudarata. So we don`t have to start totally from scratch, at least. Any idea what types those guys were?”
He asked, seriously as Philip had been more focused on the taxi at that time. He then re-emphasized.
”Though there`s still a lot to research and your help would be much appreciated with that, with my spare laptop.”
He said, pointing to it, before continuing.
”And like I said, I have the ashes of Mothisa I`d like you to take a look at from the Dead perspective. So that`s what I`d like to get done today with you around. And then we can get pizza later? My treat, of course.”
He asked, hoping his idea was a good one and that Corn liked pizza, while explaining his planned itinerary for that afternoon visit. This caused him to soon get lost in thought again about the ordeals from the previous evening.
”Anyway, I forgot to ask. How did you deal with the hidden asset from yesterday? And I hope you got off unscathed from that fight. Anyway, did shotgun guy get what`s coming to him, did he get a couple years behind bars? Cause he really needs to get off the streets and into the cell, and if he doesn`t get enough perhaps I need to ask Fate to help that guy along?”
he asked, the rage bubbling inside him again. Corn`s assurance as to the consequences for the shopkeeper would have to be good, and he was watching Corn intently for an answer. As he did so, giving Corn another long beat to answer the starting pleasantry questions and comments of his visit Philip so far confronted him with, and beckoning him to have a cookie, he went over to the business at hand.
"So anyway, shall we make a start? I`d like to start by researching everything there is to know about the van I took the plate of, that was used to kidnap Darren-slash-Mothisa, if that would be acceptable? That might help our cause the most right now. But again, as I said, make yourself at home, have a cookie, and take any food or drink my humble home has to offer that pleases you. Bathroom is right by the entrance, on your right."
he said and asked, hoping Corn was not feeling neglected by this sudden getting down to business Philip was doing, especially concerning Philip`s perceived duties as host.
"And feel free to busy yourself on my spare laptop with your own research or an analysis of the ashes, here."
he said, gesturing to the ashes and the turned-on secondary laptop respectively, which had no data on it anyway, as new as it was. After all, the visit was work-related and not a fun get-together for afternoon chatting and tea.
With all that said and done, he briefly cast Library of Time on himself to prepare for his research grind.
And with that said and done, he made himself at home beside his desktop-replacement laptop, glanced at Corn and the time one last time before engrossing himself in his research.
After almost exactly an hour, he turned back over to Corn with the answers of his research, at around 5:20- ish PM, hoping that hour had not unduly inconvenienced him, curious what he`d been doing in the meantime.
spells , effects and gear
Willpower: Health: 
ReubanBrightwood liked this post
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Presence
Status (academic)
Corn doesn't take any of the rules of Philip's sanctum bad nor he is disgruntled by Philip's interest in guns.
"While a gun would have been of help against the thug, I am not sure the police attention that we would receive would be worth it. I took care of the issues with the hot-head shopkeeper that shoots people for... I honestly didn't know why. The police were not impressed that we have cleaned the scene from your blood, saying it was evidence. And avoiding have your blood in a police locker where anyone with a bit of skill could tell it belongs to one of the company, justifies cleaning it up. "
Corn then explains to Philip the report he gave to the police and what he said in his statement about the thug - making it look for domestic violence instead of kidnapping.
Then, he explains the other side of the issue.
"Mothisa tried to ... " he stops and takes out his phone
Then he addresses the elephant in the room "What I did was to try to make the car swerve and lose control. I smoothed the front wheel, so that with different friction the car would suddenly turn and be unyieldy. I assumed with Darren kicking in the back and sudden loss of a wheel, the car would stop or at least slow down. What I did not anticipate was that the car slowing down would not help us as there was a guy trying to slit my throat."
Then, he types on his phone and shows it to Philip.
switching to words, Corn continued.
"Returning to the issue of who kidnapped Darren, the possibilities do not lead great conclusions. You know far better than everyone - and I mean it literally - what are the chances for that man to be randomly targeted for kidnapping. Darren was targeted because of the 'passenger'. What you were afraid of, Mothisha drawing attention, has freaking happened. With Darren changing in the club, perhaps suddenly, someone has noticed. These thugs could be hunters or probably working for hunters. And not necessarily the 'vigilante' kind of Hunter that wants to protect the world even if that turns them radical - there could well be groups that want to exploit ... the side people don't acknowledge nowdays.
Or, it could be Mothisha's previous agent, the one that led her to stress, starvation and eventually death. If he is willing to employ thugs to kidnap those that seem connected to the 'reappearance' of his former client - and considering his former client died from stress and malnutrition and is now as she is - if the agent is behind the kidnapping, then that agent is probably not the best person.
And then, we have Mothisha herself; she couldn't 'hitch a ride' yesterday but she may well do so today. Or do something else unpredictable. You said she was leaving you a message. If normal thugs, unaware of the situation are guarding Darren and letters written in blood start appearing on the window, things may get bad. Mothisha is not reasonable - or so it seemed. "
After Philip gets to work, Corn says "I will check the ashes later since you started already. I will assist you."
2 rolls, my intention was to assist; i.e. since both my rolls have 2 successes, if permitted, Phillip should get the bonus dice on his rolls.
I am also not sure the minute by minute countdown is accurate (or feasible) as the discussion before the research could have taken more time than 5 minutes. If the ST agrees, I would prefer to leave it more vague; as in we talked and then researched for an hour.
spells and effects
ReubanBrightwood liked this post
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Blush, Imbibe Remember, ExitScene Blush, Be in Awe, Vice: HE STOLE MY THING Blush, Imbibe Blush, imbibe, On the issues of keeping exact time vs keeping loose this is just a case of two differing playstyles. So here's my compromise. Track the time each action takes e.g. in this case one hour and I'll keep track of things. Once things start getting late in the day I'll put a time warning in my update posts.
Despite the best of intentions it seems the two mages both seeking to uncover information need to first learn how the other works and communicate their plans a little better. As Corn works to assist he finds himself outpaced by Philips Supernal augmented research time. Even as Corn finishes pulling up relevant data Philip has moved past it and is already working new angles.
Philip is able to pull up the make, brand and documents of sale for the car ... there is just one major problem ... the license plate registers for a car very different to the one they saw last night. And is currently supposedly owned by an old couple living in north California. It does confirm criminal involvement and a degree of preparation. Their advisories are going to be harder to break then even a keen internet search will give.
Philip does remember he vaguely knew the guy in blue jeans from his research into Mothisa and the agency over the past several days, mayhap that's an avenue that could yield more results?
Corn has all the skills of a credited academician and master of the arcana at his disposal there are several routes he could explore to cut the workload down and open new vistas of possibility.
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Presence
Exceptional Luck fail and re-roll, giving larceny his all, Postcognition (temporal sympathy), Counterspell Time Self Healing ritual,
Philip was relieved Corn wasn`t bothered by his rules, or his subtle warning by referring to his weapons.
"Good point, wouldn`t want to open that can of worms. As I said, glad you dealt with everything the way you did. It`ll just have to be good enough for me. Then again, it`s like nothing happened."
he said, reassuring him that everything was fine, and his comments on weapons and the investigation into the shopkeeper were accepted.
Corn`s talk of possession was met with a startled look. Philip had no idea Corn was in his own fights for his life. That the thug tried to slit his throat and that it had gotten as close as it did with the the ghost trying to possess him.
"Well I`m glad you`re fine. Seems you did more ass kicking than I expected. Nicely done."
Corn`s explanation of his vulgar spell and the situation merely got a satisfied nod of understanding. Based on Corn`s explanation it seemed Corn had known what he was doing, although it unfortunately failed to achieve the intended effect. And that was all Philip really tried to achieve- to get Corn to re-think about his spell and make sure everything was ok, no new problems created. He did say one thing on it, after changing his mind and thinking it over.
"Just hope you`re right about the driver. Misunderstandings of that sort would be all sorts of bad."
But the confusion with the research was the only really irritating thing that happened.
"Oh, I guess I have to apologise for my fast research speed. But I have a library of Time`s. And it seems we aren`t communicating very well about the research. Sorry about that, too."
he said with a double entendre, either it was a library of Time magazines, or it was the ability he had to make research go faster. After all, his Library of Time to assist his research grind made Corn`s `contributions` mostly useless as he`d already reviewed most of his angles before Corn even presented them.
"So I think it`s best we each research seperate topics from now on and then compare notes later."
For the most sensitive things, he went over to writing, as he`d asked Corn to do. So he took out an empty document on his computer, typing rapidly and gesturing to Corn to read it:
"So we`ll have to research people rather than cars next, I take it. For me, I`m gonna find out everything I can about the blue- jeans- guy thug. And did you make out any of the other people in the van? Anyone you might be able to research, perhaps, you can remember? After all, while all that was going on I mostly had my hands full, as they say. So as I said, I think seperate research subjects would serve us better here."
he suggested, slight sarcasm in his voice as he re-lived the moments leading up to getting shot. But he was also brainstorming ideas for Corn, who still hadn`t looked at the ashes of Mothisa he`d asked him about, or at least, not told him about it. But there was still time and at least he`d tried to be useful with his own research. He also briefly considered offering to help Corn with his own arcana but thought against it. A master can`t keep up with my research speed? Ohboy. I must be the best. he thought, ironically, smugly and boastfully, about his own research speed.
And with that said and done and a sip of water, he prepared himself for his next research grind in front of his desktop-replacement laptop. This time he quietly uttered words of power, as he willed the imago of his version of Library of Time into being again, hoping he`d manage to achieve his next research goal while continuing to outdo Corn. It was starting to become like a sport for him, making the Moros master of Matter feel incompetent in his own Sanctum at least.
And with that said and done, he glanced at Corn and the time one last time before engrossing himself in his research, again.
Feeling his spell weaken, but in the middle of his research and still gung-ho and dead-set on impressing Corn, he ended it and cast Library of Time again after a little over fourty-five minutes.
Feeling the imago take effect, this time without uttering any words of power, he went back to his research for another half-hour.
After an hour and 15 minutes, he turned back over to Corn with the answers of his research, hoping that additional hour had not unduly inconvenienced him, curious what he`d been doing in the meantime and if he`d heeded his advice.
Hope it`s ok the way I did things and not too much. Technically the split research rolls count for a single project. So I hope it`s ok.
spells , effects and gear
Willpower: Health: |
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Presence
Status (academic)
Corn suddenly receives a message, he reads it and frowns. Then he turns to Philip with an apologetic look "Heeey, buddy. I need to run an errand after all. I have to take a phone call and then go buy a few things. But I will be back in an hour or so, I promise. I hope you understand. I won't let you do this alone. Again, apologies. "
No spells or effects. I would need a bit more time to post because of other obligations but this way, I won't hold up the scene. Corn will be back, I am not leaving the scene.
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Blush, Imbibe Remember, ExitScene Blush, Be in Awe, Vice: HE STOLE MY THING Blush, Imbibe Blush, imbibe, At Fedups request I have deleted the first need more time message. The scene will continue with Philip doing stuff until Corn posts back in
Philip did indeed recognise the guy in blue jeans from his own searches chasing Mothisa and it does not take him long to dig through the amalgam of his own work for leads. The man was a forum user occasionally posting into threads regarding conspiracy theories and urban legends. His user name is Roosevelt67 and he clearly lacks in internet etiquette because chasing some pictures and activity makes it fairly easy to identify him as Timothy Rockwell A Sacramento local who works in construction as a brick layer and from his socials has more then a rough edge and several brushes with law enforcement for acts of violence and vandalism.
He has been posting in forms with a couple of others replying back and forth on the Mothisa case. Debating if its true, sharing a few leads back and forth, suggesting plans of action. Nothing here would indicate a planned kidnapping attempt but from what Philip can gather from the socials it would not be beyond him at all.
Philip also gets his place of work, the registration of a car he is seen driving in a few socials (not the kidnap vehicle) and his mobile phone number.
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