DYLF: Breaking Rocks

[ReubanBrightwood]

This scene is in an open location and the plot has 1 open spot if another mage wants to show up and join the plot. You will need to be in the area for unrelated reasons but can spot the others you recognise easy enough

The next morning Philip picks up Corn and Witch from locations of their choosing be it their sanctums, a random street corner or the circle itself (their choice). You are parked up down the road from the construction company one Mr. Rockwell works for in the grey pre dawn. The plan is to get everyone up to speed and try and get the drop on this murderous wannabe hunter, take him out of the equation, and use him to find the rest of his cell and Darren/Mothisa.

Xisdor Philip Crosen
Fedup Corn
Delatdream Witch

[Corn]

While in his Sanctum, Corn evoked the little power he had on fate to gain its favor in mitigating problems and obstacles.

Quantum Flux , pre-cast. This was done to take advantage of the Hallow. It is not a ritual and it is covert so Paradox is not an issue. I took a -6 penalty for 24 hours, Used High Speech

Quantum Flux, 3S

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2024-05-22 10:30:52	Corn rolls 3 to QFlux: Gnosis + Fate -6 +2 (HS) (10 Again)	10, 8, 8, 6	3 successes

Before dawn grace the world, Corn enters Philip's car, a cup of coffee in hand and his trusty backpack on his back. And a lot of things he shouldn't be carrying.
Corn is dressed in a forgettable tracksuit, like those people that wake up very very early to go running before they go to work. His gray tracksuit has a hood that he currently doesn't pull up.

"Goodmorning, Reggie." Corn says stifling a yawn. He is not too tired, he seems to have slept a lot. He didn't speak much during the ride, while waiting to pick up Witch . Once they are in place he looks around.
"So, can we talk kinda-freely in here?" Some people were a bit too touchy with that.

spells and effects

[3] Quantum Flux
[3] Jury rig: pen
[1] Transmute Gold: Cocaine


Armor 0
Spells active: 3/8
Spell Tolerance: 2/3
Vulgar spells: 0
Mana: 9





Equipment:


Small backpack and pockets:
The aforementioned Small backpack
Cellphone
Lead Medallion (dedicated Tool)
Wallet, includes his ID, credit cards, some cash
His cross and his wedding ring
A bottle of water and a candy-bar
pack of hankerchiefs
pack of gum
Flashlight
ziplock bags
strong Duct-tape
Swiss knife
disposable plastic gloves
A big pen that can actually fire bullets.
A small, well wrapped plastic bag with 4 grams of cocaine without his fingerprints, inside a paper towel.

[Philip Crosen]

Fortunes Protection

Fate

Shielding

  Prolonged

Temporal Eddies

Time

Mage Sight

  Prolonged

Sybils Sight

Fate

Mage Sight

  Prolonged

As he got up that morning, he knew to expect the unexpected, especially with such an unpredictable assignment and mission. This time, he`d come prepared, despite his epitome. Uttering words of power as quietly as he could before leaving, and still in the relative safety and sanctity of his apartment, he decided he`d need to have some serious Fortunes Protection for the foreseeable, and even partially unforeseeable future. And he did not want to be caught out without his sights Temporal Eddies and Sybils Sight either. He did not want to be caught unawares during this expedition, and he was gonna make sure of it.

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2024-05-22 16:55:16	Philip Crosen rolls 5 to Fortunes Protection (Gnosis 3+ Fate 4 + HS 2 -4(2-day advanced prolong. duration)) (10 Again)	1, 3, 10, 5, 6, 6	1 success

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2024-05-22 17:00:08	Philip Crosen rolls 4 to Temporal Eddies (Gnosis 3+ Time 3 + HS 2 -4(2-day advanced prolong. duration)) (10 Again)	4, 7, 8, 4	1 success

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2024-05-22 17:04:25	Philip Crosen rolls 4 to Sybils Sight (Gnosis 3+ Fate 4 + HS 2 -4(2-day advanced prolong. duration), -1 (3rd spell on him)) (10 Again)	10, 2, 2, 8, 2	2 successes

He also packed survival gear to last him several days, along with his usual weapons.
Then he picked up Witch and Corn at the designated places in short order after picking up some necessary supplies. He was going with his worse backpack. Aka, he was also dressed in casual- a far cry from his clothes at the Lounge, when he first met Mr. Rockwell. He wore blue jeans, a gray-red sweater with a hoodie, and gray-green running shoes, with the only thing out of place being that his hoodie could be used to cover his face together with his hunting balaclava that he could get out of his backpack on short notice. His backpack was also fully stocked for this mission. Parking his car some distance away from the place in question, he adressed his fellow mages.
"Yeah,`mornin` guys. I hope you got a good rest. And, I brought some supplies. Some duct tape and zip ties. And a hunting balaclava just in case."
echoing Corn`s smalltalk, before getting more serious again, and down to business.
"Anyway, so. Yes, it should be fine to speak here, mostly freely. We don`t have much time, so we`ll have to chance it. After we didn`t meet at the crematorium I almost got hacked, and also tracked Miss Sudarata to the Lounge again, where it seems she tried to take over one Darren Greenfield. She also later tried that on you, right? We need to be prepared for that."
gesturing to Corn to hopefully have him continue the spirit part, which was mostly out of Philip`s purview anyway. After a longer beat giving Corn time to get Witch up to speed in that regard, Philip continued.
"Anyway, the reason we`re here specifically, is because this is Mr. Rockwell`s place of work. He, because of his criminal record is a loose end in this gang, which kidnapped said Darren Greenfield right in front of our noses two days ago, when I met Jacob at the Lounge. Unfortunately, this gang is the only lead we have to Darren Greenfield and Mothisa`s current whereabouts."

Mothisa`s ghost I will call our `asset` in semi- public here, just to get people off the scent. This place should be mostly safe, but I still air on the side of caution, even here. For the same reason, I`ll call the hunter cell `the gang` or `the group`.

he explained in a quick text to Witch, where he also CC-d Corn for good measure to keep him up to date with his briefing of Witch.

"Furthermore, because Mr. Rockwell saw us at the bar, we cannot allow him to inform his co-conspirators wheneven he sees us snooping around, given this gang`s level of research. So he has to be isolated and somehow dealt with before we can proceed against the rest without too much trouble. Again, hence why we`re here. We need to proceed quickly, so Miss Sudarata, or what`s left of her or her asset, doesn`t cause further problems for the group, or us. We need to find some way to implicate him, which is why we decided to trap him with evidence, in order to use his police history, and the group`s likely distrust of the police against them. We need to get the group fighting against each other, or the police, so we can retrieve Darren and everything with him. So, any ideas?"

he said, again gesturing to Corn to continue, but leaving the question open for Witch to chime in as well, although the contraband or drugs thing was again Corn`s Matter-purview again.

Mana back up to 7 from 4 from earlier Hallow purchase, WP back up to 5 from night`s sleep and successful discovery of hunter cell, as discussed

All 3 spells here are pre-cast, as is also clear from narration.

spells, effects and gear

Armor 0, Speed 10, Init +6, Defense: 4+ 3 (also vs. firearms from FP), Spells active: 3/6([1]Fortunes Protection, [1]Temporal Eddies, [2]Sybils Sight, all 3 cast with 2-day duration), Spell tolerance: 3/2 (1 over limit), Vulgar spells: 0 Health: , Mana: Willpower: (max WP/scene 2)
Gear: wallet: with car and apartment keys, 20$ Cash, various mundane ID`s and membership cards, lighter and order-tool-slash-phone in his jeans pocket, bag with ashes of Mothisa, can of hairspray, pack of cigarettes, hair comb, laptop (portable computer), 4 TB SSD, hunting balaclava, roll of duct tape, pack of zip ties, survival kit(urban), first aid kit

In car parked some distance from location: duct tape (four extra rolls), zip ties (two extra packs), additional first aid kit, pepper spray(one can), survival kit, climbing tools, night-vision goggles, fire extinguisher, unloaded shotgun with ammo in seperate compartment, katana.

[Witch]

Her bag slung over one shoulder and a travel mug that gave the faint smell of tea in hand, Witch slid into an empty seat in the vehicle. Pinching the mug between her legs for a moment she buckled up and offered early morning greetings to the two men. She was dressed simply in a black shirt, jeans and sneakers. For a change her hair was pulled up into a messy bun.

Hearing the chime of her phone, she pulled out and quickly read the memo from Phillip, listening as he spoke and started to fill in some of what had happened while she was out. Closing down the phone she made sure to flip it to silent mode and turned her attention to Corn .

She had info to tell as well, maybe. Both the phone and the journal were in her bag, but she didn't want to bore them with stuff they already knew so she was going to wait and let Corn talk first.

Equipment

Backpack, phone, notepad, writing bag. Multitool & sample collecting kit.

Plot items: Keys, journal, phone

[ReubanBrightwood]

I will post after you guys have gone back and forth a bit to give you a chance to share any information you want to uninterrupted. So ignore my Marble until I post again to progress things.

[Corn]

Philip 's delivery was a bit lacking in detail in Corn's opinion. So he took a couple of minutes - well more than a couple - to give quite a lot more information.

He starts by typing a couple of things to his phone and shows Witch . He doesn't text her, but he uses his own phone's display.

Given a ride = possession. The 'asset' is Mothisha's ghost.

"When we were at the club, the Asset was riding Darren. He was visibly changed. "

The possession made him seem like Mothisha. In fact, Life senses showed him to be an Indian female of the age Mothisha died. He didn't look like Mothisha, he was Mothisha with Darren as a passenger. His/her dancing was drawing some attention. When we say 'Rockwell's gang' we mean that he is part of what we suspect is a wannabe hunters cell. I will tell you more.

"Once the possession ended, Darren, now in his own skin and wearing Mothisha's clothes, tried to leave the club. Mr Rockwell was waiting outside and tried to convince Darren to follow him. While they were talking I tried to talk to the Asset, which I could see. Well, the Asset noticed me and tried to give me a ride too. I managed to push the asset away. Meanwhile, Rockwell's gang showed up with a car. Rockwell stopped trying to reason with Darren and forcefully pushed him in. I tried to intervene but I got my butt kicked. Nearly had my throat slit. Philip had...different complications so we didn't manage to stop the gang from leaving with poor Darren. The Asset disappeared with them. She didn't try to give them a ride and from 'her side' she couldn't seem to be able to do anything other than futilely attempt to defend Darren. It was sad to watch her helpnesses."

The anchor, or one of the anchors, is Darren's wedding band. Also one of the ghost's eyes remained with Darren when she de-possessed him. From the interaction with the hunters, I believe, not sure but seems so, that Mothisha's ghost cares about Darren not just about her anchor. He is probably the key to her moving on.

"The next day, that is yesterday, we convened with Reggie. His research led us to a group of conspiracy theorists that include mr. Rockwell, and they are all very interested in Mothisha. Reggie did phenomenal work, he should work as a journalist really. Anyway, we are concerned about Darren's fate and about what the Asset would do when she is again able to ride. But Rockwell had issues with law enforcement in the past. The way to easily neutralize him that we thought of is... to plant evidence under his car and then tip the police to arrest him. When he's out of the equation, as he is the one that saw us well, we think on quickly moving on the possible place that the gang keeps Darren. Reggie found that out too. I have brought... the evidence we could plant. "

spells and effects

[3] Jury rig pen
[1] Transmute gold: Cocaine


Armor 0
Spells active: 2/8
Spell Tolerance: 1/3
Vulgar spells: 0
Mana: 9





Equipment:


Small backpack and pockets:
The aforementioned Small backpack
Cellphone
Lead Medallion (dedicated Tool)
Wallet, includes his ID, credit cards, some cash
His cross and his wedding ring
A bottle of water and a candy-bar
pack of hankerchiefs
pack of gum
Flashlight
ziplock bags
strong Duct-tape
Swiss knife
disposable plastic gloves
A big pen that can actually fire bullets.
A small, well wrapped plastic bag with 4 grams of cocaine without his fingerprints, inside a paper towel.

[Philip Crosen]

Fortunes Protection

Fate

Shielding

  Prolonged

Temporal Eddies

Time

Mage Sight

  Prolonged

Sybils Sight

Fate

Mage Sight

  Prolonged

Corn filled in many of the gaps Philip had intentionally left in his run-down, to Philip`s delight, nodding pleasantly to Corn in agreement as he filled them in. Well, whatever was still in his purview. But Corn did leave Philip`s own `complications` out, giving Philip something to talk about and approach delicately.

"Thanks, man. I appreciate it."
he said, appreciating Corn`s complement on his research efforts. Granted, they were mundane, but the results were certainly compelling.

"Yeah, so, anyway. Darren was dead-set on escaping in a taxi, so I prayed for a miracle to delay the departure. My prayers were answered, though not in the way I hoped. The taxi crashed immediately afterwards into a random shop on the other side of the street, and shortly afterwards Darren was kidnapped in a different vehicle. Anyway, I ran up to the taxi driver, only to find him uninjured, fortunately."

He continued with the next, somewhat uncanny part on his phone after noticing that Corn did not send, and merely showed them his text on his phone as well. Philip did the same thing this time, typing rapidly, but also did not send it, like Corn. He still used the app and document he`d reserved for this case to show Witch some of his collected evidence and proof.

Anyway, I was just about to help the taxi driver out, when the other car came and took Darren away and the shopkeeper came out with his shotgun. To a sleeper, I was innocent in the crash, and the whole situation overwhelmed me. So I took some pictures instead of taking him seriously enough, until he shot me. Point-blank. Had to spend the majority of the following morning getting myself up to speed again.

"But, going back to the crematorium I visited without you. After getting back home, I researched my `guide`. A Mr. Ronald Hemmingway."
he said, showing her his evidence of Mr. Hemmingway`s [address] [place of work]... before continuing in writing.

At the crematorium, I uncovered a conspiratorial meeting with Postcognition between him and a Mr. Josh Vize. Where Mr. Vize was convincing Mr. Hemmingway with some cash to look the other way and likely disguise Miss. Sudarata`s maltreated condition at the time of her death. But so far I`ve not found any direct connections between Mr. Vize or the hunter cell. I also discovered a horribly burnt, likely supernal creature in the incinceration chamber of the crematorium that wrote `ITBUR`, that likely meant `it burns`.

"You might recall Mr. Vize as the manager of the agency Miss Sudarata worked at."
he said, showing her his [address] [place of work]....
He then briefly added:
"And, furthermore, I was able to procure some of her stuff as well."
he wrote, briefly taking out and showing her the bag of the ashes he had in his backpack, before continuing.
"Yeah, it`s what it looks like."
he said, showing off the bag of ashes proudly. And while he did so, he was typing rapidly on his order-tool-slash- phone. He was also using the app where he`d written down much of his evidence in this case, to speed up the process of filling Witch in.

"Anyway, relevant members of the gang I was able to find so far are...."
he said, showing her his opened app again, with the evidence he found. He figured she was able to fill in whatever gaps he didn`t explicitly state from this.

The guy Corn fought against, Mr. Timothy Rockwell, middle-aged construction worker, spotty criminal record. [place of work] No known address. From researching him and his internet alias `Rooselvelt67` I got to: Jacob Grentheme, IT repair worker for both hard- and software. [place of work] [home address] Goes by `XNightHawk623X`. Millie Simmons, aka `MillieZapper`. She`s a still-at-parents college dropout and failing podcaster of mythology and folklore, possibly some of it uncanny. [address] And Mr. Hercules, formerly Connor, Brown. Aka, `ZeustheOmega`. Semi-professional rally racer and gym dude. [his team] [where he trains] [car he uses] Like Mr. Rockwell, no known adress.

Continuing, he asked Witch in spoken words again.

"Anyway, so. What did you find out? And, could you show us the objects you found last time?"
Philip asked Witch curiously, after continuing with another burning question, one she didn`t answer yet, so he doubled down on it because it was important. And that was, what Witch actually thought about the whole thing.
"And, so. Well. What do you think about our idea, and the situation in general? Do you have any suggestions? Anyway, regardless what we do, I think we need to act fast. And, I`ll have to admit, I don`t know where exactly Darren is at the moment. Mr. Rockwell and Mr. Brown could be anywhere. And it`s only a matter of time before our asset strikes again."
He knew they`d have to located Mr. Rockwell and his car asap to have any chance of success, but he still wanted to make sure everone was on board, so he waited for a beat.

New spoiler with armor effective as of scene following this one.

spells, effects and gear

Armor 0, Speed 10, Init +6, Defense: 4+ 3 (also vs. firearms from FP), Spells active: 3/6([1]Fortunes Protection, [1]Temporal Eddies, [2]Sybils Sight, all 3 cast with 2-day duration), Spell tolerance: 3/2 (1 over limit), Vulgar spells: 0 Health: , Mana: Willpower: (max WP/scene 2)
Gear: wallet: with car and apartment keys, 20$ Cash, various mundane ID`s and membership cards, lighter and order-tool-slash-phone in his jeans pocket, bag with ashes of Mothisa, can of hairspray, pack of cigarettes, hair comb, laptop (portable computer), 4 TB SSD, hunting balaclava, roll of duct tape, pack of zip ties, survival kit(urban), first aid kit

In car parked some distance from location: duct tape (four extra rolls), zip ties (two extra packs), additional first aid kit, pepper spray(one can), survival kit, climbing tools, night-vision goggles, fire extinguisher, unloaded shotgun with ammo in seperate compartment, katana.

[Witch]

Witch listened and read alternatively as Philip either spoke or showed.

When he finished, she inhaled and leaned back in the seat, clearly taking a moment to process the information.

"Ok. So sometime back she got into a bad space and things went south. But despite reaching rock bottom, she didn't quite ... make that last jump. Instead, she clung on." Reaching into her bag she pulled out the phone and keys. "But in a hidden way. So, the moving company was called. And they sent Darren to her apartment. Where the two of them hooked up and she started hitching rides with him."

Punching the access code into the phone, she skimmed through it, though it was clear it wasn't to research but more just touching base with elements she already knew as she continued to speak.

"Unfortunately, it wasn't a good ride for both parties. He seems an unwilling or at least unaware participant in the whole thing. Agreed on the ring but my guess is that it's hers and not his. Maybe he found it in the apartment and took a fancy to it or maybe this," she pulled out the journal offering it should either wish to take it, "has a better explanation. Both on how that rough patch happened, how Mr. Vize fits in, or maybe even how the going for a ride happens. I was unable to translate it." A shrug, failures happened.

"Fast forward to us and Rockwell and friends. I'm not surprised we weren't the only ones whose alarms went off. But they," and now her voice took on a questioning tone. Prior it was confirmation, a double check on understanding. A story both groups had come to through their own research. But from here on out it was what Corn and Philip had done.

"Got to him and thus her as well first. So, we are here so that we can get him out of our way? Because he can identify both of you? And then the next stop was going to be wherever they took the couple?"

She looked between the two of them, making sure she had all the relevant points straight.

"How much does Rockwell know of you?" The inflection on 'you' was clear.
She said you.

But she meant us.

And the bigger collective us than the three gathered in the car at the moment.

Where there more questions she had? Heck yeah. But some things took priority or at least made priorities clear.

[Corn]

"Rockwell knows I am an upstanding citizen that went out of a club, saw him trying to kidnap a person, tried and failed to stop him. And that he is much better in close combat fighting than I am. Not my name, not anything else about me. He has no reason to even suspect I am involved in whatever deep-end conspiracy they think is going on. To his credit, he seemed uncomfortable when he tried to slit my throat open. But he has seen my face, even though it was dark.
He has seen Reggie coming out of the club with me and then Reggie rushing to help the taxi driver. Again, nothing to implicate we were even aware of the Asset or of anything different than a random kidnapping going on.

We want to get him out of the equation so we can deal with Mothisha. If this group finds proof that the Asset is able to do what she can do, it could be a threat to the secrecy of all of us. So, we're better off making sure they don't have Mothisha's favorite ride nor the ring.
Speaking of Mothisha not exactly asking before hitching a ride, she is not too big on consent, I can tell you that. I did not have her ring and still... wait, I have this ring" he points to his own wedding band. "Rockwell, as far as I am aware doesn't wear any rings and certainly not wedding bands. As for her diary... we could give it to company's Linguist. You all know her. But that will take time. And we don't have time."

[ReubanBrightwood]

Just going to say you have one more round of posts then I will start moving things along.