>A Simple Vacation To Finland
Pfft, yea right!

>plan
Ok, so the soldiers are here to contain something supernatural, and they are failing.
Options are run or diplomacy. Both can go horribly horribly wrong.

Just speak in english, there are lots of them so someone can understand.
Speak confidently as if you have the authority to do so, say you are here to see the commander on classified information regarding the town, and that the contents of the vehicle are not to be disturbed while you speak to him.

When you meet the commander explain yourself as a mercenary who deals with the supernatural. You can tell there is something such as that going on here but not sure exactly what and would like to offer your assistance. And see if you can get yourself hired to help solve this obviously supernatural issue (I am sure they can pay, plus it would be nice to have some contacts and contracts with governments for supernatural mercenary work). Or if the situation is too dangerous, merely offer advice.

Well, if you try and run, you'll almost be certainly shot at. If you try and talk to them, they will inevitably try and use you to as test subjects for the town. Which one is worse? I have no fucking idea. Ask Big Crazy which option he likes best.

going though the down sounds allot like dangerous unpaid work. on the other hand, the best case scenario if the Russians nab us is getting sent into the town in exchange for letting us go.

>>316404
I do like the diplomacy option, and we may very well have to pass through here on our way back...

On the other hand, evil mist is evil, or at least really creepy

I vote we try diplomacy, if that doesn't work, we kill everyone...

EVERYONE

We don't want the Russians to know it was us.

In the event of a fight, use BC as a distraction. Or failing that Flashbang and dissappear, then reap with Keihas' blade.

either we are going to be sent into the mist, or we will have a bloodbath.

niether sounds good, so I'll go for mist which sounds more interesting.

Although if we could disarm all the Russian and then ask to be taken to thier leader... that would be better.

Regardless you should tell BC what you are going to do.

>>316408
so, which are you voting for?

Oh, another thing about talking to them. we have 3 separate social word-fu traits, some even leveled. Diplomacy is our strongest point.

Trying to run they could shoot us somewhere that will prevent us from driving to escape before healing, they could hit big red, they could shoot a tire and cripple our vehicle, they could call to base and have an artillery unit take us out, etc etc.

"Здравствуйте, мы только через погружение, что, кажется, проблема?"

If that doesn't work, roll down your window and say loudly and clearly "Hello, we're just diving through, what seems to be the problem?" We're just hunters, American, and we're doing some hunting up north for a trip, and we heard that this way is the quickest way up.

We might be able to help, and hey, crazy Russian experiments might be good. They could be testing Krokodil or might need some help from some Americans.

I say, first off check to see if you share any languages. I imagine it's more likely for them to know finnish than english, so try that first. Putting your hands up might be a good idea. Then, try backing off towards the car, see if they'll just let you leave. Whatever you do, do NOT start a shootout, as while you both may have some really good gear and be more than baseline, there's a shitton of them, and you'd get utterly hosed down with bullets. So don't do that.

>>316421
I have an idea. You have a laptop, right Armus? Right? No? Well how bout a smart phone? Please? Ask Big Crazy for one if you don't. Seriously, get a Net connection, look up the words "TAKE US TO YOUR LEADER" in Russian. Try calling over one of the Patrols and saying that, so that you can find a commander who speaks English, Finnish, Mohawk, or Te Reo.

And don't worry. Big Crazy is bullet proof, and Armus can regenerate even if they DO shoot on sight! We'll be fiiiiine. And Armus, get a damn laptop as soon as we get out of this hell hole.

>>316439

Armas and BC can take a few shots, but the car really can't. And they've got a bunch of weapons.

The easiest way to deal with this is to walk away. If the Russians stop us and ask, we lie and claim to be going on a hunting trip. That neatly explains the minifridge, guns, cooking gear, and proximity to their operations. It doesn't explain the smoke grenades, but you can claim those are safety gear if you got lost in the woods and needed to signal for help.

The flashbang is a novelty item you picked up.

There, you now have a plausible lie. Be prepared to bribe your way out of this if they don't buy it.

If you want to talk them into explaining a little about what's going on, you're going to need to establish a personal connection of some sort to whoever you talk to. Keihäs may help with this, it's a great conversation piece.

>>316468
...You want to explain a native Texan and a Maori-Finn with a TRUCKLOAD of guns, magical ones at that, AND flashbangs, and just pass it off as a field trip. And a coincidence.

DO YOU WANT TO BE INTERROGATED!? Don't bullshit the Russian Army like that, bullshit your way IN. Also, if they detected the Spirit Animals via their broken equipment, they may be looking for a Native American. So yeah. We're boned Ah well. TIJUANA AHOY!

>>316470

Then there's always the truth. They were on their way to Finland for a hunting trip there. They noticed the mist, and decided to see if it was something they'd need to be concerned about.

Establishing a personal connection with whoever our interpreter ends up being is still top priority.

I'll be honest: I don't want to get any closer to the spooky white mist. Are your guns at least hidden from a casual glance? Hopefully they'll just blockade you and make you leave; they can't just start killing random tourists, can they?

Glance out the window.

"Huh, looks like you might have some ghosts or spirits, there. Maybe a Snow Maiden. Should we just go around? We'll go around. Get out of you guys' way."

Business as usual.


I've also been trying to think of how to flex our chakras, so to speak. Each night, we should devote just a little time to meditation and trying to open them.

Swadhisthana is the chakra of imagination and sexual potency, color: orange. There're exercises in tantric and kundalini yoga to use, but Armas wouldn't know them. The basic thing is that desire is supposed to unlock this one. Meditate upon the feeling of desire and greed you experienced with Mammon's Embrace, maybe. It is said that those who meditate upon this chakra will never need fear water, and he may cast away anger, jealousy, and other psychic imperfections.

Vishuddha is the chakra of intuition, creativity and regret, color: blue. It supplies power to the lungs and vocal chords, as well as "siddhis", or paranormal powers. When meditating upon this chakra, try to assume a state of serenity like still water. One who meditates upon this chakrs will live forever in spirit, and obtain the knowledge of past, present and future.


Sahasrara governs inspiration, mysticism, transcendentalism and perceiving the Illustrious Self, color: white. Possibly also communicating with god. Focusing upon this chakra results in the detachment from illusion, and accepting the truth of the universe, that all is one. Attaining this state results in a supreme consciousness To open this one, I'd say try to focus upon the senses; sense everything, and then try to go beyond it, past the Veil of Maya and to see the truth of all things.

>>316421
>"Здравствуйте, мы только через погружение, что, кажется, проблема?"

Nah, that's wrong.
It should be:
"Добрый день, товаращи, мы всеголиш то проежали мимо. В чем, кажется, проблема?"


Or better yet, just put on your 'coolface' and lower the window:
"Проблема, коммандир?"
(Problem commander?)



Of course the very best bet would be to try to bribe them our of anything because bribing culture so integrated into Russia that even if they refuse they will not be offended. Don't try to give them 1st world rate bribes wither. 20 euros will do wonders (and in fact is a pretty high bribe for common policeman and soldier)

>>316470
You are giving too much credit to russian army ....


Ask Big Crazy if his spiritual armor can encompass the car so that if we make a hasty retreat, he can absorb the bullets. Or have him make a shield directed one way.

>>316490
Wouldn't that end better with "Какова проблема?" be if we don't want to get our face shot off?

>>316404
As we watch the soldiers approach through the windows, I idly muse to Big Crazy.
"You know-we're both supernaturally inclined mercenaries-what do you say to bluffing our way into camp and offering our services?"
>[Big]"Money's always nice-but why would they buy it? Better-why would they not kill us at the end? I don't know about you, but I have heard NOTHING good about contracting for the Russian army."
"Well it's not like trying to drive out of here fast as we can is looking like a great idea either."
>[Big]"True enough. ..Shit. Why did I let you convince me to scout that place again?"
"Admit it-you were just as curious as me."
>[Big]"Maybe-so, what exactly are you planning."
"Just watch."

I flash a cheery smile at the encroaching russian soldiers, rolling down the window. Maybe somewhere amongst their number-
"Hello there! Just doing some basic reconnasance to get a sense of the situation-we're here to meet with your commander!"
The continue to shout in russian at us.
>[Big]"This doesn't seem to be working."
"Just give it a moment-Do any of you lot speak english?"

The continue advancing-not a one of them looking like they understood what I was saying. ...This plan may not be working as well as I'd hoped.

>>316405
...Well, trying to run definitely would not end well.
"Any ideas on what to say to them? Even some Russian phrases?"
>[Big]"Languages are not my strong point-I'm kind of a shooting specialist, not a planner."
"Well that's no help..."

>>316412
I find myself severely tempted to just murder every last one of the Russian soldiers and just drive away-sure I'd be putting bullets with rifling that could be matched to my guns in them-but really, how are they going to find me? I kill them, drive away, and never visit the area again-it could work.

>>316437
>>316472
Okay-fine, let's try Finnish then-we're pretty close to the country, maybe one of them speaks it. I turn to Big Crazy and begin speaking as if he understands me.
" Huh, looks like you might have some ghosts or spirits, there. Maybe a Snow Maiden. Should we just go around? We'll go around. Get out of you guys' way."
>[Big]"The hell are you-"
>[Soldier]"You! Speak Finnish yes?"
Oh hey one of them DOES understand me. Okay...
"Oh, you understand this tongue, not English?"
>[Soldier]" You come to base! Resist be shot!"
..Eh, not exactly fluent in the tongue, but.....
"Yes, take us to commander-that is where we are supposed to be."
For a moment the Russian soldier speaking looks confused-likely expected me to resist in some fashion-
>[DDDD Trait activated]
Which is why I keep speaking in an even, convivial tone.
"Hurry, take us to commander-we are hunters he needs to meet."
Seems reiterating myself did the trick-the soldier says something in Russian to his comrades-

And shortly enough we are getting back on the road, oh so slowly driving down towards the military cordon amidst a cloud of Russian soldiers. We are escorted past hundreds upon hundreds of similarly grim-faced soldiers, our snow-covered vehicle earned more than it's fair share of stares. We are eventually directed to exit the vehicle-given the directive is delivered not just at gunpoint, but at the point of about FIFTY guns... I comply, Big Crazy getting out alongside me. We are escorted into one of hundreds of identical tents-

An oh-so-slightly overweight, balding man with a face as gaunt as a skeleton and eyes so deep-set the bags beneath them nearly look like mottle tumors awaits us, his salt and pepper stubble doing nothing to detract from his professional bearing. The soldier I spoke with shares some words with him, salutes-and leaves. We are left with a full dozen guns trained on us as the aged officer speaks in Finnish.
>[Officer]" I am told you say you are Finnish speaking 'hunters.' Why do you make this claim?"
>[MMM Trait activated]
"Because it is accurate-we were heading to Finland for a combination hunting expedition and... vacation, to be honest. It is the nature of what we hunt that attracted our attention-do you speak English?"
>[Officer]"I am capable of it, yes."
"Excellent-my comrade does not speak Finnish, and I did not wish to leave him out."
>[Officer]"I am losing my patience-why are you here?"
"Because of what it is we hunt. As it happens-situations like this are what we get paid to resolve."
>[Officer]"...Is that a fact?"
"What can I say-we are skilled at killing things that... should not be there. Vampires, Doonongaes-"
>[Big]"Werekin, Goblins, Elves, Imps, Kelpies-really, killing things that aren't supposed to exist is our profession."
"If you have the time for it, you could check with intelligence-I've worked for your country before."
>[Officer]"..Interesting."
The officer paces back and forth for a handful of seconds, letting us stew-before barking out a clipped bit of verbage.
>[Officer]"..I do not have time to check on your claims-I have to have answers by nightfall-and as of yet, I have none."
He turns back to face us.
>[Officer]"You say you are hunters of the Arcane? Then hunt up some answers here in Pobadino-do that, not only will we let you pass on by despite seeing classified military actions-but I'll stick my own approval on your names-You give me answers, you can go anywhere in Russia you want and say that Major General Vladimir Chugainov fully supports you."
>[RAPID RATIONALIZATION Trait activated]
"Which I take to mean there will be no monetary compensation."
>[VC]"You are smart for what sound like Americans."
"So-what DO you know-or do we not get existing intel before going in?"
>[VC]"Simple: Communication lost with Pobadino two weeks ago. Reports from shipping companies that trucks not coming back from town-first report also two weeks ago. Army arrives one week later, after Tyumen response likewise vanishes. Find town dead-no inhabitants-and this fog. We even had strong winds for two days-and the fog did not disperse. Twice, teams sent in with actively broadcasting equipment-twice, teams lost contact shortly after entrance. Our scientists... feh, they know nothing-They say no presence, nothing demonic, angelic, fae-nothing. They cannot explain what is here-which is where you come in. Give me any more data than I have, I will consider your trespassing a moot point, and let you go-give me an answer as to what happened here, you will have a great friend."

So that's the 'job', then.

The real question is-exactly what are we going to ask for/do to make sure we don't also disappear?






I've bluffed my way this far-what's the next step?

Ask Amen?

No money, but a powerful friend and free access to russia. Plus its not like you can actually say no in the current conditions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_ranks_of_Russia#Russian_Federation
This says that in modern russia a general-major (formerly major general) is basically a one star general. There are 4 ranks above him. That being said, he is still a general which makes him pretty high up... And people do get promotions.

the question is really how do we actually do the job. contacting someone on the outside might be frowned upon considering this is classified. I would ask to speak to the scientists and what do they know of the town's history. Ask big red if he thinks his spirits would be safe going deeper in there.

If you do go in, go decked out in full gear.

>>316398
On a random note, shouldn't Armas have sensed the focus of the Russians sneaking up the car? Or is his ability to sense that kind of thing restricted to those watching his person? That's a slightly inconvenient restriction.

>>316481
>Vishuddha is the chakra of intuition... One who meditates upon this chakra will... obtain the knowledge of past, present and future.
This chakra is my new favorite chakra. We must meditate upon it and focus our awareness until our intuition becomes precognitive. Then we will finally be able to kick Savoy's ass, and also be even more ridiculously awesome at stealth than we already are.

>>316612
First order of business is to ask a lot more questions so that you can hopefully get a better idea of what's going on. After you can't think of any more, act like you are reasonably confident that you can solve the problem even if you're actually not.

Things to confirm:
-The teams they sent in reported nothing unusual before losing contact?
-The fog is fairly low to the ground- have they attempted to overfly the town with helicopters or similar? Any results from that?
-What methods of getting a read on what's happening from outside have they tried? Near infrared imaging can see through normal fog without a problem, so I'd expect it to help.
-Have they tried anything to get rid of the fog? Something like an overflight from a helicopter would logically disperse it; ultrasonic scrubbers like they use to get rid of fog at airports might work as well. Not that I expect them to try this on this kind of schedule, but if they have done so already I'd like to know if it worked.

Things perhaps worth asking for:
-Having a helicopter on standby would be my preferred method of insertion/extraction here, if it's available. It would mean that if there's something nasty in the town, you only have to make it onto the roof of a building which sticks up above the fog and then set off a flare rather than fighting your way all the way to the town's outskirts through what might quickly become an extremely hostile environment. We could also use that to send periodic reports, assuming that we're not immediately sucked into some part of the nevernever which is now overlaying the town or similar.
-Get a map of the town and review it carefully before going in. It may or may not help, but it shouldn't hurt.
-Hey, this is a perfect opportunity to get man-portable military gear! I bet they have thermite grenades. Everyone loves thermite grenades. Also bring flares, so that you can shoot them up out of the fog to signal him outside. There are doubtless several colors you can use to indicate different things.

Aside from that, obviously don't go into the town in anything but heavy gear.

If you can, making a phone call to consult with Amen- the general or someone else who understands English can of course stand right by you to make sure that you don't communicate anything overly sensitive- might get you some more information on this. Just ask him for likely explanations for a town filled with fog that does not disperse in the wind for weeks on end, with no one who goes in coming back out. I'd say consult with others, but... we don't really have a ton of people we can call for something like this, and certainly not ones who would keep quiet about it.

Well, I guess we won't know what this is until we're in the midst of it (please don't be Silent Hill *crosses fingers*). Can BC's spirits tell us anything about the town (preferrably without them or us going into the spooky mist)? Specifically, this mist: is it, itself, alive in some way, or merely a side-effect of whatever's in there, like an advantageous hunting mechanism?

While BC is doing the spirit trance, perhaps you could do a little meditating of your own, focusing on the Sahasrara chakra? It is for piercing illusions and seeing beyond, after all. One exercise some people recommend for this is to make yourself indifferent and apathetic as fuck. Let emotion come and go, but do not let it affect you. Focus on your breath, from the diaphram through the other chakras, up to the top of your palate. Imagine the thousand-petaled lotus flower blooming from the crown of your head, stretching out, reaching into the infinite cosmos. Shit like that.

The only precaution I can think of is what was used in the minotaur's labyrinth; steel wire spooled out behind you. And that would be pretty trivial for whatever's in there to follow right to us.

Maybe we could ask to borrow a humvee (the Russian model is called the GAZ 2975 Tiger, I believe)? Lacks stealth, but I'd take firepower and speed over stealth at the moment.

Suggestion 2011/06/23(Thu)00:51 No. 316666 ID: 81f32a
File 130881551602.jpg - (1.27MB , 1100x956 , Armas - Meditation.jpg )

Alright, since you have worked on your chakra, this is the best time as any to try to activate them.
Out of the 3 you have awoken, I think Sahasrara is the best for this situation.

>Spiritual Center, Development of Psychic Abilities, Enlightenment, Unity.
>Crown chakra concerns: spiritual growth, wisdom, union, divine connection, insight, equanimity, awakening, enlightenment

So I suggest you go and meditate to try to get closer to understanding, to the truth, to transcend the human though and connect with the beyond.
Beyond some immediate skill/ability/trait gains, you might be able to find out what is happening there or at least not be tricked by delusions and illusions because you are most definitely going into some mind-fuckery territory. You need to protect your psyche first and foremost and activating Sahasrara powers and reaching some sort of enlightenment can help to pierce the veil of deceit.


Get into the right state of mind, because the Crown chakra is the Consciousness itself, it is a form of primeval power that is the awareness of all the other forces. This element is not of the physical world yet permeates it to the deepest level:
>"I am in the right place at the right time. Happiness is the journey and there is no final destination. Meditate for sanity, to become a beacon of peace, to cultivate compassion, to surrender stress. The effects are more magical and fast-acting than any pill. Meditation is the best medicine. Be. Here. Now. Do one thing at a time with total awareness. Listen fully. Your undivided attention is the most valuable thing you can offer. Your only choice is to live in this present. Accept this gift. Slow down. Enjoy equanimity. Find your balance."

Affirm:"I am. I understand"

1000 Lotus Flower petals unfold
Be here
Be now
Be you
Be all
Gain
Awareness
Beauty of the inner world
Cosmic Consciousness
Spiritual
relax release
you are empowered
realize it
Understanding
God-knowing


If I were certain of the success of this meditation, some visual weird shit happening, I would suggest to mediate in plain view just to freak out the Russian soldiers.... because even in crisis we still troll.
But I am not, so go and find a secluded place before going in there.

>>316612
The general is definitely not telling you everything. This is not a regular town, even before the even.
Question him further, stressing that every bit info he withholds will lead to terrible end.
Also ask him the deal with Tyumen. It is a big city, often called the "Oil Capital" of Russia, if something like this happened there and they can't resolve it .... well, they will not be able to conceal it for too long.

>>316645
At first I was "Huh?"
And then I realized that we can just call him. Perhaps our own phone will not work, but we can convince the general here to use his line to call Amen. Tell him that you need to consult "your specialist on supernatural powers" or something. Then explain everything to Amen, give him all the information and see if he knows anything.


>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV5szIgqnBE

>>316666
Regarding calling Amen:

You don't actually think the General's going to let us 'call out', do you?

>>316666
>Quad sixes

>FUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

Hrm. This is gonna be a tough mission. Okay. So all we know, is that anything that goes into Pobadino doesn't come out, and that there are no Angels, Demons, or Fae in there.

To me this can mean only one thing. THE NOOSPHERE HAS BEEN BREACHED AND A ZONE HAS FORMED! WE'RE ALL DOOMED!

But yeah. Make all the necessary preparations, like leaving messages for your coworkers if you don't make it, and getting some bodyarmor, then go in.

Be careful. This is either some Spirit World crap, some Time crap, or some Interdimensional crap. I know it would SUCK if we got trapped in Camella's dimension. Avoid any holes in the ground you see...

ask if they tried sending in drones, and when they lost contact with the teams they sent in did they just stop reporting or was there screaming or some such. its possible that its just a barrier that block radio communication.

So wait, everybody is a-okay nit getting shit out of this mission?
A permission to go further (which we didn't need anyway) and a good word in russkie land (a place we might never visit anymore) is enough for you?

No one tried to use our myriad social and haggle traits into good use? Ever?

And you wonder why we keep getting screwed over and over.


Anyway, try to get something out of this mission. We are mercenaries not a fucking charity foundation.
Since getting in cash is unlikely (and perhaps unnecessary) ask the general to pay you in guns.
We are in great luck! We have met russian military, poorly trained (unless special forces), low morale, and best of all, equipped in old, out-dated shit.... Which works great for us!
Tell general to give you a score or two of guns, doesn't matter which, they could be cheap, mass-produced AK-47. What does matter, and make it explicitly known, that you want used guns, the older the better. Tell him you want guns which have gone trough action, which have been in use for a long time. If he can get WW2 era weapons, the better.

Why old weapons? Because Sometimes Merchant values old weapons which have had many owners over new ones. Sure, they wont have been used by supernaturals, but that will be off-set by several decades of service.

Now, some people think that we are in no position for haggling, that we should take it like a bitch.
Which is a stupid reasoning because we are never in position of haggling.
Think back at Castelletti job... were we in position to haggle? Surrounded by armed bodyguards, mafia mob-boss and in middle of their territory. We didn't try to get more out of the job then and you saw what that amounted to.

If we keep with this line of thought, we will keep getting shitty deals.


Also, we have a great position to sway.
Now, we are inside the military encampment, dozens of guns are trained on us.
from the 1st glance this looks like a shit position to be demanding something...

But if you think about it:
From the story we told them, they will get this kind of picture:
We were driving to Finland for a vacation, to relax. Suddenly we saw weird shit, entire town blocked by pants-shitting soldiers. Now, even a person ignorant of supernatural would turn around and walk away. But we know about those things, and knowing the huge risk, we decided to roll into the camp, walk up to the 'leader' and present ourself for a job.
We just told them that we hunt vampires, werekin, fey, etc for sport. We aint afraid of nothing.

The general here has no way of knowing our powerlevel. From his standpoint we could destroy his entire division singlehandedly or we could go down with a single bullet.
Would he take a risk? I doubt so.

This is a guy with a deadline who needs answers. He got 2 supernatural hunter experts who came looking for trouble. We haven't shown a slightest bit of fear or discomfort here.

Besides, this is not even a complete bluff, since Big Crazy would be able to shrug off their attacks.
And heck, russian high-brass (and indeed russian anything with power) are notoriously corrupt.
Having few dozen of old, shitty equipment disappear wouldn't even have anyone bat an eye-lid.



In the end, we have nothing to lose. The guy will not try to kill us because we wanted more out of the job. Russians don't just explode into rage and violence just because you said something, no matter what stereotypes will tell you (...well not always, and it depends. But you can be sure that a veteran, high-ranking military person does not reduce into ball of rage at suggestion to get payed better)
The worst outcome is that he refuses and we do the job anyway.

Ask if they have some equipment you can us for the mission.

Ask for body armour, some grenades, and a recoilless rifle.

>>316748
Please no. We're bargaining for our lives here. We're in no position to demand anything.

i like the idea of asking for payment in the form of a a few old ak-47's or some such. though i really don't think we should push our luck to far here, though if we only get payed after we do the work he might be more willing to pay us.

>>316748
This is good. Voting up.

Oh God >_<

Dudes. This is a RUSSIAN BLACK OPS COMMANDER. He's used to KILLING ANYONE WHO DOESN'T COOPERATE. Sure, we can ask for a few old surplus guns, but trying to throw our weight around will make us DEAD. There are several REGIMENTS worth of guys out there. With artillery, and probably air support. Isn't the power we shall gain from killing the EVIL THING (plus a few surplus guns) worth it?

>>316748
how about no

>>316748
>>316808
>>316842
>>316757
Downvoting. It's just not a good idea to try and get stuff from a guy who is treating letting you leave as payment for getting out of what he believes is a death trap alive.

>>316857

I agree with TMI, People like these guys don't take no stick.

Wait, what?

I wake up to see this bullshit!? >>316748

Are you fucking insane? This is a guy responsible for fighting against the supernatural things in Russia. Nothing good will come out of trying to DEMAND such payment from him. The fucker looks like he will explode at slightest provocation and he does not need to deal with your shit right now.
>Russians don't just explode into rage and violence just because you said something, no matter what stereotypes will tell you
Screw you man! I prefer to follow the stereotypes, they are safer than your baseless assumptions.
They are stereotypes for a reason.
>>316852
Case in point.

>>316808
This guy has a better idea. Lets wait till after the job and nicely ask him if he is willing to part with some guns.



As what to do next.
Try to get more information out of the general, I am sure the secret black ops agent is not telling us some crucial info.
Ask to be allowed to talk with scientists too perhaps they can help us with their science talk.
Do they have their own specialist hunters here? Can't imagine that the unit responsible for such messes doesn't have one.
Ask him if we can use their equipment. Perhaps they have some specialized weapons against ghosts or something that they would be willing to share.
Again, be courteous and don't act like the hottest dick around.
Stock up on grenades and flashbangs at least ... I don't think you will be needing smoke 'nades here.
Perhaps they will let you borrow RPGs?
.... Actually let Big Crazy have a say if they agree to help us out with equipment. Maybe he has some better ideas.

Haggling doesn't sound like too good an idea. Asides, if we pull this off, we'd already be getting in with a russian general, a really damn good and powerful connection.

>>316877
Yeah, just think of the potential!
"Hmmm, how am I supposed to kill the Giant Resurrected Clone of Rasputin, currnently rampaging through Istanbul? AHA! That HIND-D I bought from the "Legitimate Salvage Engineer" the General gave me the number of!"

....Okay, it's a bit far fetched, but still, he's a RUSSIAN BLACK OPS GENERAL. He knows EVERYONE. It's a fair(-ish) deal.

have to agree with posters who say not to haggle
now is not the time

>Our scientists... feh, they know nothing-They say no presence, nothing demonic, angelic, fae-nothing. They cannot explain what is here-which is where you come in. Give me any more data than I have, I will consider your trespassing a moot point, and let you go-give me an answer as to what happened here, you will have a great friend.

Ok, this isn't your run of the mill general. He has scientists who supposedly should be able to detect demons, angels, and fae and they can't detect any of those here.

Also, this means they probably ARE equipped for dealing with the supernatural, so our own escape/victory is not 100% guarenteed.

His current offers are:
Job 1: Find out ANYTHING about the situation (he currently knows next to nothing)
Reward: Waive punishment for our tress-pass. (death? imprisonment?)

Job 2: Give exact answer to what is going on.
Reward: Great friend and ally.

Job 3 (not even specified yet): Actually solve the problem
Reward: not even considered a possibility yet.

What we can haggle for is #3. We find the info on what exactly is going on, and then we play it up, how his men can't even detect the problem... we can then offer to actually solve the problem. Or we might accidentally be forced to solve the problem while scouting and then come back and see how far his gratitude extends.

Gotta say, this feels like Castelletti all over again. "Send in the mooks who're not getting paid to risk their stupid asses first, maybe they'll soften up the monster. Get caught in its teeth, choke it on the way down, something like that."

Of course, since we're here now, in the middle of hundreds of black ops russians, its too late to back out.

>>316645
I slowly reach into my pocket for my cell phone, thinking of calling Amen for some clarity on this oddball situation I find myself in the middle of-

To have seven of the guns pointed at me get a whole mess closer as one of the soldiers relieves me of my phone.
>[VC]"There shall be no contacting outside sources."
>[DDDD Trait activated]
"Even when that source is an expert on the supernatural that might shed light on the situation?"
>[VC]"I shall make it very clear for you Americans-my superiors will have ME shot if news leaks when I am told to keep it quiet-do you think I will risk that for you?"
"The one I was going to call is bound to be discreet-"
>[VC]"Which means nothing to me-you will make do with what resources exist within this camp-or we will dispose of you and continue handling the situation ourselves. Your choice, Americans."

>>316648
As the general pockets my phone, Crazy and I both keeping our hands in the air-I press on, refusing to sound worried.
"So we can question your scientists on the job, at least?"
>[VC]"After performing a blood oath with Lieutenant Colonel Zinaida Jidkova to share nothing you learn with someone not already aware-certainly."
"I'm assuming that refusal to swear such an oath-"
>[VC]"Would be grounds for me to discard you both and have you executed, then buried in the woods-you will find I am quite practiced at keeping things quiet-it is my job, after all."
"...Is this Lietenant Colonel with the scientists we now must question?"
>[VC]"She is indeed-I expect you two to have answers for me when next we meet-elsewise you will be dead."
"Rather blunt about it, aren't you?"
>[VC]"I leave the verbose grandstanding to our politicians."
>>316656
As Big Crazy and I are escorted from the general's tent, I consider something I hadn't noted before: I didn't feel the soldiers' attention on me when they found us in the Escalade. I double check-my training has not failed me, I can feel scores of individuals eyeing me as we march to a new tent-but nevertheless, we were caught unawares. What was different?
>[RAPID RATIONALIZATION Trait activated]
...Ah. They spotted the black vehicle we rode in-and focused on that during their approach-by the time they actually were focusing specifically on the occupants, they had already surrounded us. So... if one detects a vehicle I am in, it could bypass my training, as they aren't explicitly focused on me-something I most certainly need to keep in mind.

On the way to whichever tent contained the Colonel and scientists-I was struck by an idea-one of the Chakra's I'd awoken a finat awareness of-the Vishuddha-was related to comprehending the past, present and future. Surely such a chakra would be of paramount use to a soldier-yet no ideas come to me on how to manipulate this force, how to awaken it to my use. And so it is that Big Crazy and I are marched into a new tent-to be greeted by a square jawed, iron-haired matron-the Lieutenant Colonel. She begins speaking the moment we enter.
>[ZJ]"I need you both to cut open your right palms-and prepare yourselves to swear an oath of silence."
Given the amount of guns still trained on us-it's not exactly like we have a choice. Big and I both slash our hands, and in turn share grips with the russian officer-as she asks us to swear to silence-using the same phrasing as her commander. 'Do not speak of what you learn to any save those already aware.' There's a loophole in there somewhere-but I find that loophole evading my mind as magic thumps along my body when I swear the oath. On the plus side, the moment we have sworn, she has a total of ten scientists escorted into the room with a translator, and tells us to ask what questions we will. I take her up on the offer.

-The teams thus far sent all have their reports typed up and available-and not a single one has anything irregular in even their last reports-they simply lapse from reports of 'no one found, nothing encountered-' ... into silence. Whatever is in the mist, it claims the soldiers before they notice something is awry and attempt to report.
-Flybys of the town have revealed little-no residents, or indeed anything, has been spotted within the town-each and every report details it as an empty, mist-filled ghost-town, and nothing more. None of the fliers that have passed over the town have reported anything erroneous-nor have any of them gone missing.
-Infrared sensors are, oddly enough, completely unable to pierce the fog-it's not that they register the fog as being warm, and thus preventing readings within-the thermal imaging simply cannot penetrate the mist itself. Thus far, no reason for this phenomenon has been suggested.
-Attempts to remove the mist-be it by turbine or ultrasonic scrubber-have all met with abject failure-the mist clings to the town, and refuses to dissipate or slacken.

With this information gained-and Big Crazy already asking for rocket launchers while I request thermobaric grenades-I move on to more prep for the mission:

-The Russians agree to have a chopper fueled and on standby, pending either Big or I popping a flare (which they provide us with-blue ones that come in three-packs), and will airlift us out if we reach a rooftop in need of evacuation. I make sure to secure my trio of flairs to my waist-as Big Crazy secrets his own within his jacket.
-Big and I both get maps-not exactly all that elaborate, as the village itself is tiny-but hey, it's something. I pocket mine-and Big packs his away in that giant-ass jacket of his.
-I get a bandoleer with a full dozen Russian Thermobaric grenades-can't really tell the make or model, but I am told they are white-phosphorus based. By this point, Big Crazy now has a total of three separate RPG-7's, and a full set of ten TBG-7V rockets-between the two of us, we could probably burn the whole damn town to the ground if we put in some effort.

>>316665
With what questions I could come up with asked and answered-I move on to requisitioning a tent to myself for a moment-a place to get away from the bustle of the camp-and meditate. Yeah-me, meditating-not exactly my strong suit, but Ito said I had to figure out a way to tap these chakra's myself-so might as well give it a shot. Big Crazy absconds to his own tent, mentioning he's going to check if his spirits can pierce the mist-while I busy myself trying to get in touch with a different chakra: the Sahasrara. I seat myself in a meditative stance, trying to distance myself from emotion-I remember seeing that when I looked up the chakra's after Ito's lesson on wikipedia-but for all the effect it's having I'm just scratching my ass. I focus on my breathing, building an even, rhythmic pulse as I picture a lotus with a thousand petals-

To come up with diddley.

Hm.

>>316666 [6666]
[FANART BONUS-TRAINING REORIENTATION]
...New plan: Forget trying to distance myself from emotion-this chakra's about unity, right? How can I tap something about unity if I'm trying to divorce myself from a facet of my existence-my emotions are part of me, right? Maybe the dispassionate approach can work-but it just doesn't hold water for me, and not believing in it... I assume that path to hold nothing for me. No matter how easy it is to distance myself from my emotions... I don't think that's the right way to approach this. I have to face myself-every part of myself-and pull it all together, if I want a claim at unity. I continue to breathe deeply, evenly-I catalogue my emotions, the sensation of heat on my scalp rising as my blood begins to tingle-
>[Amen]Oh-oh oh? This I did not expect-how is it you reach out to my mind?
The fuck? Why can I hear Amen in my mind?
>[Amen]Because you linked our minds-was this not your intent?
I was trying to get a handle on my chakras, why did-
>[Amen]Ah. Chakra manipulation is the study of internalized energies-which, for you, includes my blood. So by focusing inward, you seem to have reached out-to me.
Not exactly what I was looking for.
>[Amen]So, so, so-what WERE you looking for?
I don't know-enlightenment, some spiritual growth?
>[Amen]You are aware that even the prodigals yogis took decades to command their chakras, correct? What leads you to the audacious thought you could achieve it in days?
A lack of options, I'm in a Russ-
>[Amen]Yes I know-you have found yourself in an interesting situation, oh master of mine.
Well? Any thoughts on what the mist is?
>[Amen]Many-and until I have more data, any I offered would be mere guesswork.
...So you need me to enter the mist, then.
>[Amen]Precisely, precisely-and precisely.

...Well, with nothing else changing in my chakras, I open my eyes, stand, exit the tent-

To find Big Crazy, the Colonel and the General waiting for me-along with some twenty other soldiers-as always, guns trained on me. What is it with these guys?
>[VC]"Are you quite done with your meditation? I can have you shot so you have plenty of time to meditate in death, if you prefer."
>[MMM Trait activated]
"In my... reflection, I came to a question."
>[VC]"That being?"
"What is it you are not telling us? There is something... more to this event, something you already know-of that, I feel quite certain."
The general laughs, belly shaking as he idly wipes at his eyes, speaking through his chuckles.
>[VC]"Of COURSE you are not being told everything-are you a Russian, faithful to our country? Are you a soldier, bound to serve us? No? You Americans-you think you have rights wherever you go. Let me be clear-you are alive only because you may be more useful breathing than buried in a ditch. Continue to ask questions that I do not wish to answer-and you can easily be given your own ditch."

>>316748
"Fine-if there is information you wish to withhold-then let us discuss potential pay-"
>[VC]"Is there something wrong with your head? This is not some sort of job you can negotiate: Your lives belong to me until I say otherwise, and I tell you to do something-there is no pay beyond staying alive. You mercenaries... I grow tired of your whining. Say but one more word in my presence without having gained an answer to what has happened here-and I will have you buried alive in the latrines-do I make myself clear?"
Each and every soldier surrounding us switches their guns fire selector to automatic-all still trained on my chest-barring the dozen keeping guns trained on Big Crazy. The part that's terrifying? Vladimir didn't adopt agressive posture, or a threatening tone-he simply stated what would happen like reading off a grocery list-killing us would mean absolutely NOTING to him. ...I may need to revise my approach.
>[MMM Trait activated]
Oh, he made himself clear-clear enough I just nod my head.

>[VC]"Good. Now-get going."

>>316846
>>316852
>>316857
>>316861
>>316869
>>316924
I make a mental note-whatever part of my brain thought it would be a good idea to try and push for payment in this situation is the DUMBEST FUCKING PART OF MY BRAIN, GODDAMN. I hope I can learn from this... but something tells me I'll make more stupid decisions. Fuck, why am I so greedy? ...Oh right, because I love money.

>[NEW SPECIAL TRAIT: SHUT UP STUPID THOUGHTS]
>-Armas can now recognize situations that would be highly disadvantageous to attempt to haggle in-this ability is far from perfect, and needs considerable work-but at least he's beginning to grasp there are in fact people he should not dick about with.
Yes this means you still need to down vote ideas you think will turn out poorly-it's just that now, with sufficient down votes Armas will not even attempt the plan in question

Big Crazy, laden with rocket-propelled explosives, his Mare's Leg strapped to his leg, waits patiently as I reclaim Keihäs from the Escalade, and insure I have enough ammunition for each of my weapons to drop a small town-my jacket jingles merrily as the two of us begin marching towards the mist covered town. As we put some distance between us and the inner edge of the Russian camp, Big Crazy leans over to me.
>[Big]"If you feel like committing creative suicide, next time let me know so I can... not be there."
"Hey, I didn't know the Russian military would be like that."
>[Big]"...They're the RUSSIAN FUCKING MILITARY, what did you expect? Moreso from their 'cleanup' army, or however you want to define these guys. Jesus, I thought I was going to crap my pants back there."
"What are you, a sissy?"
>[Big]"You do realize I could twist you into a knot, right?"
"You do realize that I could put a bullet in the back of your head even now, right?"
>[Big]"..Can we just agree that from now on-I get to negotiate with the Russian army?"
"No promises."
>[Big]"Well, at least now we're headed to the comparative safety of the city-swallowing mist-incidentally, my spirits couldn't pierce the fog on their own."
"That happen often?"
>[Big]"It's the first time they couldn't go somewhere."
"Ah."
Big Crazy hands me a gas mask as he slips one on himself.
>[Big]"Here-the chick said something about the mist maybe being an aerosol or some such-might as well play it safe. Also... I am apparently the one trusted with the radio."
"Well that's not fair."
>[Big]"Maybe if you didn't antagonize them they would have chosen you."

We both come to a stop some five feet from the mist's edge-and wonder what to do next.
>[Amen]I will not be able to offer my advice lest you venture in.
"Oh come on, you're still there?"
>[Big]"What?"
>[Amen]You have maintained the connection between us-of course I'm still here.
"Nevermind."
So how do I get you out of my head?
>[Amen]Given I have considerably more experience than you with matters supernatural, and am in a unique position to already know about this scenario and thus be exempt from the oath you just swore-should you get me out of your head? That-that, that-why, it is the question of the hour.

I ponder Amen's musings as I eye the mist-still completely opaque-and start to wondering:

-The center of the village is occupied by a clinic-a single story affair that is more or less at the epicenter of the mist.
-There is a rifle shop that has visible scorch marks on the second floor on the northern end of this town-the only place with anything about it looking out of sorts-you know, besides the missing residents and the mist.
-On the East side of the village is the largest house in the settlement-a three-story affair that looks like an ancient haunted house, straight from a fairy tale.

Other than that... there's just the mist, and the buildings it largely obscures.





What should be our destination?
What should we be looking for/listening for/wary of whilst within the mist?
What gun should I have in hand as we explore?

You really should maintain the connection with Amen... at least for now.

Idea. How long has it been before each team disappeared?
If you step into the obviously supernatural mist, but remain close enough to be visible to the people outside and the scientists could point their equipment at you. If it was a sufficiently short period of time, you could wait that long near the edge of the mist before venturing further in. Essentially you act as bait while they observe what might attack you.

>>317052
I agree with the keeping Amen around, but waiting in the perimeter of the mist is liable to get the russians thinking we're not going to actually investigate the town. They're on a strict time limit, so lets not give them the idea we're wasting their time.

>-There is a rifle shop that has visible scorch marks on the second floor on the northern end of this town-the only place with anything about it looking out of sorts-you know, besides the missing residents and the mist.

>Scorch marks
>One known opening of gates to the Nevernever signs is human combustion
>People who enter VANISH
>The only other rip to the Nevernever we encounter did the same to us and Camella
>This is a person-central gate to the Nevernever.

MOTHERFUCKING SILENT GOD DAMN HILL.

If we have twine or something, it might be wise to link ourselves together. I'd say, leave Amen to try and identify the mist. We listen real hard for movement - particularly underground. The mist doesn't really link up with Camella's account of her dimension hopping, but for some reason I'm put in mind of it anyway.

Tell BC not to notice you if he can help it - and then use your 'feel people watching' senses. Head to the rifle shop; clues to the whereabouts of the previous teams, and being able to scavenge like the vulture you are. Good times in Armas-land.

>>317053
Good point. Its a sensible plan but the Russians are not exactly sensible right now.

>>New ability: Downvoting actually cancels an action
Best ability EVER!

>'Do not speak of what you learn to any save those already aware.' There's a loophole in there somewhere

Since you know how strict to the word supernatural bindings are, you can focus on "speak" part and write/mimick/gesture/smoke-signal whatever happened here. As long as you do not verbally tell, you are in the clear.
Or at least I think. Since Amen is here, you can verify that.

>[Amen]Ah. Chakra manipulation is the study of internalized energies-which, for you, includes my blood.
Ah, Okay.
So that means we have integrated Amens blood. Does that mean we cold get other powers out of it? Maybe this counts like a 3rd bloodline for us?

>[Amen]Yes I know-you have found yourself in an interesting situation, oh master of mine.
Eh?
How did he know?
....
Wait a second, did he have connection to us all the time since we have drank his blood?
Meaning he can hear and see what we can?
Damn you, Amen, you voyeuristic pervert!!!

>So how do I get you out of my head?
What?
We don't want him out of our head. Hell, having him here works great for us even outside this situation.
>should you get me out of your head? That-that, that-why, it is the question of the hour.
Alright, we keep him for now. But don't say anything or else he could interpret it as an order and never leave if we need him to in the future.



Anyway, we have entered.
Now ask Amen what he thinks, if he has any ideas. Where we should go and warn us of the dangers (he could willingly lead us into a dangerous situation because we never specified not to. He is a dick like that).
Barring that, lets investigate the rifleshop first. The other two destinations scream NOPE to me and I'd like to explore them later.

Since we are inside ask Big Crazy if his totem spirits can do their surveillance thing again.

>What gun should I have in hand as we explore?
Keihas, I guess. With bayonet ready for action.

>>317045
>Do not speak of what you learn to any save those already aware.
That leaves any nonverbal method of communication completely open, even writing about it afterward. How convenient.

On another topic: We have Amen's blood and magics within our body, and thus can reach out to him. Do we not also have the blood and magics of Lieutenant Colonel Zinaida Jidkova within our body, thanks to the mechanics of that blood oath? If our blood had not mixed, it wouldn't be effective. Amen obviously has a better handle on this than we do; ask him if there's anything to that theory, and if so, what we might be able to do to her by the manipulation of this connection... or, if we don't have the strength yourself, by letting Amen at her using us as a repeater.

If this theory holds together, it should be noted that it would be unwise to do anything that would tip the Russians off to the fact that we have a back door into the skull of one of their magically-powered military officers. I seriously doubt that they'd take it well. We should hang onto it as a potential asset, though.

>What should we be looking for/listening for/wary of whilst within the mist?
Given that the others to come here before us must have relied mostly on their visual senses and it clearly didn't work out for them, it would be prudent to focus ourself upon our more supernatural methods of awareness. The Vishuddha chakra can likely tie back to this- it has great synergy with our abilities already. It is the chakra of serentity, which should be relatively easy; we have a significant number of Traits reflecting our ability to remain calm and unworried even in the most stressful situations. Where others panic, Armas remains peaceful. We also have fairly spectacular awareness of our intuition- for is that not what our ability to sense others' attention upon us is rooted in? Making good use of the Vishuddha chakra should be mostly a matter of assuming a serene mindset and letting the energies of our throat flow through the rest of our body, acting in support of the sensing abilities that we already have. Feeling the vibrations of our throat when we speak and the effect of that on our energies might help us grasp it as well. Hopefully this will sharpen our intuition (and hearing, which the Vishuddha is also responsible for) and help us to sense any dangers before they strike.

And if it doesn't, well. We'll still have our already-sharp intuitive abilities going for us, and it's not like we need to close our eyes and ears to try and make this work. A serene mindset demands that we don't stress over the possibility of failure.

>What should be our destination?
Rifle shop first. Seems like the only place that might let you know what your predecessors did.

>What gun should I have in hand as we explore?
Keihas. We are most familiar with it and it's got the most flexible range of all our weapons. If we encounter something that needs heavy firepower instead of precision shots or deadly melee stabs we can switch up.

Keihas.

Also, the Rifleshop first. We need to find the Epicenter. Dear god, I really hope this mist doesn't cause dimension shifts. We'd probably run into the Illuminati or an army of Fae Space Commandoes on the other side.

Or worse, we end up in Bob's other quests and get insta-killed by one of his other badass protagonists

i think we should get our magic weapons (and the ones we want to become magical)names, because names have power and naming is often considered magic into itself, also depending on the name and what we were thinking at the time we may influence the direction of our weapons development, about the Matebas we should try naming the night vision one after winter and the thermal after summer while concentrating in what each court represents,hot, cold, day, night, planths, snow, etc.

>>317104
I've been trying to figure out how to make that happen since the conduit thing popped up. I want Armas working for Mordre, but don't see it happening.

>>317074
we still don't know if amen is male or female or neither

>>317125
It's neither.

Check out the gun shop.

Also, dismount the thermal sight on your Mateba, since we've established that this fog makes IR useless.

>>317104
>>317116
Come to think if it, Mordre is actually not all that powerful by current day standards. A single airstrike or a few 125mm sabots would probably destroy him... then again I haven't read the quest in a long time so I might be completely wrong.

>>317106
This does sound interesting.

>>317146
Uhhhhh, dude? At this point Mordre is considered a mini-World God. And can fly, regenerate, vaporize mountains, and CONTROLS THE WORLD ECONOMY. Oh, and he has enough magical powers to basically do anything. And he is worshipped as a god in two countries. He's basically the parallel universe version of Armus.

But yeah, RIFLE SHOP. Oh, and if you see something that looks like a pair of legs wearing a strait jacket? About face and leave, because FUCK SILENT HILL.

>>317152
Again, I haven't read in a LONG time

>>317052
...You can, what, see what I see?
>[Amen]Hear what you hear-even read surface thoughts, yes, yes yes. Should Master return from this, one believes they would be quite knowledgeable about the venture, and thus exempt from the oath.
I reflect on the reports.... was there something I mis-huh. There was a team that lasted three hours-and one that lasted ten minutes-no real stability of vanishing point.
>[Amen]Suggestive of a roving entity within the mist.
It... would explain the time discrepancies-any other thoughts?
>[Amen]None, none none yet pertinent to this-you must enter.
There it is then.

I experimentally extend my fingertips into the fog-the moment my digits crest the disturbingly clear-cut border, I lose sight of them-the whole hand follows without anything visible, even under the noon sun. I pull my hand back, the fog refusing to cling to my limb as it exists.... hm. So there's no buffer zone?

>>317058
...I find myself thinking of a game I played quite a few years ago, involving a secluded, mist-covered town... and I recall that human combustion was a symptom of a Gate to the Other side opening-that plus scorch marks make me wonder just what could have happened, should the rifle shop prove the source of the troubles.
>>317060
Yeah... Definitely using that loop of rope to tie Big and I together-eh, five feet of slack, that should be enough.
"Big this is going to sound strange-but try not to pay attention to me in the mist. I mean, if you don't feel periodic weight on the rope for a while, sure look, but otherwise-"
>[Big]"This has something to do with that bullshit trick you pulled at Smets' right?"
"It could help us detect other presences in the mist."
>[Big]"...Fine, whatever."
"To the rifleshop, then."

With that we plunge into the mist, both thankful we are well tall enough that our heads and shoulders crest the mist's peaks. Navigation is easy-but with all the Russian soldiers at the perimeter watching us, I can't get a solid read-too much attention focused on me to differentiate. I guess I'll have to wait until they actually aren't watching us-a thought interrupted by the radio squealing to life.
>[ZJ]"Confirm current target."
"Rifle shop."
There is no response-and we keep walking. The footing is tenuous, as each step has to be placed blind-but we recall the general layout-where road should be, referenced against the rooftops visible to us. It takes about eleven tense, quiet minutes, before the two of us finally reach our destination-to find that, the moment we close the front door-the mist immediately evaporates. The gunroom entry floor is revealed, aged and modern rifles alike in display cabinets and on locked racks, crates of ammunition-quite a few Polish, and a few Czech rifles and shotguns amongst the mass of Russian long arms. I note one of the cabinets to have been broken open, up to ten possible guns now elsewhere, the rack empty-
>[Big]"Look at this."
I turn around-and see the mist... undulating against the glass, swells and lulls like a sea's cross-section taking the place of normal behavior for vapor. The ripples aren't large-no more than a half inch, at best-but still, a further detail and clue about the situation. ..Again, the radio squeals briefly to life."
>[ZJ]"Target reached?"
"Confirmed-investigating."
Again-the extent of the exchange.

>>317074
Any ideas yet?
>[Amen]Your suspicion of a Nevernever Gate still has merit-but thus far there is nothing to point to a specific option. More data, more, more-that is what one needs to be of service, master.
Alright-next....
"Big, could your totems tell you anything in the mist?"
>[Big]"Couldn't even leave my body in that murk. Inside this room-yeah, they function like normal, but that mist is as good as stone to them."
"Okay-the scorch marks appeared to be on the second floor-let's go."

We keep the rope attached between us, knots accessable to each of us for instant freedom should we desire. Up and up the creaking, sagging steps-to find the second floor sporting the ten rifles presumably missing from the case below-with ten shells on the ground.

Scattered about the room are ten separate blood spatters.

>[Big]"Well that ain't good."
Amen?
>[Amen]If-if if your senses were more attuned to the magical I could offer more-as it is, I can only say the stench of Fear and Despair marks the deaths that transpired here-ten in number.

>>317080
Amen...
>[Amen]You wonder at the extent of Blood's value-specifically pertaining to the Mortal that bound you in Bloodoath, yes? It is true-some of her blood exists within you now, in that shared bond-but it has the feel of partitioned energy. One would need to be most masterful at Blood magics to take command of her in any way through such a fragment-but it is possible.
...Huh.

I focus on my more supernatural end of awareness, attention travelling to my chakras... wait did I just see movement at the Clinic?
>[AMBUSH EXPERT Trait activated]
To hear the door swing open downstairs, despite being firmly shut, the mist once more given entry-

As I realize that I STILL feel the pressure of surveillance-despite being where no Russian soldier could see me-and Big Crazy looking down the stairs, away from me.

My hands tighten on Keihäs.




What's the next move from here?

As fast as you can, touch Keihas to the blood on the floor.

Whatever it is has to open doors, so close the door at the top of the stairs. Before, you could tell if you could tell if you were being listened to or watched, see if you can tell which, or if it's another sense.

Then, crouch down, and listen yourself, and feel the vibrations in the floor with your hand, and try to detect any steps up the stairs.

That's peculiar. If the mist is a hunting mechanism for whatever is prowling about out there, why would it go to the second floor to kill these people?

No, Amen said Despair, right? These people committed suicide rather than face whatever's out there.

Maybe watch out for emotional manipulation (you know the feeling of Amen, of Other, in your thoughts; watch out for similar inserted feelings); if these were townspeople I could see them breaking under the strain, but trained army operatives who already knew about the supernatural? Doubt it.

>>317173
Ten people, ten guns, ten stains. It makes perfect sense. However, whatever is coming up the stairs is NOT HUMAN. If it WERE human, it would have tried to escape the Mist by now, by hiding indoors or running. It is hostile. Make it dead. Also, alert Big Crazy. To the thing you are about to make dead.

Don't jump to conclusions, be ready but don't be trigger-happy.

Maybe there is some creature that is not visible to mundane senses in the room? Or could someone or something have sensed you enter the mist and is now scrying you?

Is there any way to tell if the mist is alive/part of a 'living' being?

>>317171
I jab Keihäs' stock into the nearest bloodstain-the wood vibrating as the dried fluids are pulled free, added to the burgundy wood of my rifle-before I kick the door leading back downstairs shut, crouching down with gun in hand as my fingertips rest on the wood beneath me-feeling nothing-and still feeling observed. I raise my hand back up, both hands again on the rifle-and keep it firmly pointed at the door.

>>317173
These guns, the stains, the spent shells, the sense of Despair Amon felt-it points to suicide.
>[Amen]Agreed.
Can you detect external sources attempting to manipulate my mental state?
>[Amen]Most certainly, oh master of mine.
Inform me if any are detected by you.
>[Amen]It shall be done.

Damn-even with the door shut, that sense of being observed doesn't fade.
>[Big]"...They say we're surrounded by life-that we can't percieve."
"Your spirits?"
I note Big Crazy to have his Mare's leg out, against my back watching the second floor window, eyes dancing over the scorch mark marring one side of the frame.
>[Big]"Yeah-they say this room even, if full of life."
I keep focusing, trying to track back any of the attention I feel-but it's too dispersed, multifaceted-as far as I can tell the whole damn room is watching me.

Which is why when one of the floorboards next to me creeks-
>[AMBUSH EXPERT Trait activated]
I don't hesitate before scything my bayonet through the open air above the creeking floorboard-

And spray blood across the wall, hot and steaming, the glassy edge of my blade coated in scarlet.

I feel the attention on me explode a hundredfold, it's weight nearly physically weighing me down-

As I hear the sounds of heavy steps, hurried and frantic, pounding up the stairs to the shut door. Big turns around to face the doorway with me, trying not to stare at the blood stain I left.

The door begins to fly open-






Actions?

The mist shouldn't reach the second floor, so stay there. If have BC be there too.
Remember how you located those invisible things on that demonic stairwell? Do that and see where the surveillance is coming from.

Perhaps the death here was ritualistic? To summon something into the world? There are no bodies here so SOMETHING took them away.
See if there are any patterns or something.


Ask Amen if this seems like Wyld Hunt like event. See what he knows.
Ask him if we took those blood spatters and mixed them with our blood could he analyze them and get more information.

>>317349
[Damn too late]

Tell BC that invisible shit is attacking us.
Tell him to use his Totems to pinpoint the there location when attacking them.

While BC shoots at everything crouch in front of him and cut down everything with your bayonet.
I feel like using the rifle-play we learned, with the blade that can cut through anything with paper, in small room against numerous opponents will be better than trying to shoot them. Armas could cut down several opponents with a single swing. Besides, swinging blindly with a blade has higher chance to hit something than shooting blindly.

When you next spot an invisible attacker, try a curved upwards slash with keihas where you start with a shallow cut with the bayonette followed by jamming the butt of the gun into the wound.

Run towards BR and the door, be prepared to stab as soon as it opens and try to keep it closed as the mist melts away when its closed.

While running to the door swipe your hand in the blood you drew and lick it, hopefully amen can recognize it once inside you, thanks to your connection.

>>317366
definitely agree with this, stab and jam the butt of keihas in, so keihas knows what it will soon feed upon.

Aw fuck.

Big Crazy's gun will blind and deafen us, right?
Shit.
Does he have anything else than Doorbell and RPGs?

Damn, why didn't he requisition a heavy machinegun from Russinas???


at this point RPGs sound better than Doorbell actually

Use a smoke grenade. Toss it a little bit down the hall. If they're invisible yet have physical form, the smoke should outline them nicely as they move; this has the side benefit of giving us something to work with on trying to guess what they are, size-wise at least, perhaps even something of form.

Ask Big Crazy for clarification: "Life all around us - no breaks in the sensation? Sounds less like individual hunters and more a single mass consciousness. And the feeling of life, and them being able to bleed... not spirits or ghosts. Demonic, maybe; I fought an evil stairwell that was kind of like this, once. Anyway, I feel their attention on me. They'll go for me, I think. Be ready."

Half tempted to stay here, above the mist - but the origin obviously isn't here, unless its the suicidees become ghosts. No, I say we battle our way to casa Spooky House.

"We're in a ghost story, right? Well, time to head for the spookiest goddamn place we can find and see what turns up."

Then either head downstairs and out, or just take a dive out the window. It's only the second floor, after all!

>>317380
I don't think we are above the mist. when a the door is closed and the room is completely sealed the mist disappears. when the door is opened and we are against connected to the town the mist reappears. So sealed containers are exempt from the mist

>>317384
The mist only comes five feet off the ground. Hence this bit
>both thankful we are well tall enough that our heads and shoulders crest the mist's peaks

Anyway, Big Crazy does have the throat seeker as a side arm, but I'm not entirely sure that'd be a good idea since we don't know if these things have throats, but we know that we do.

Rather than what we should do, since I don't have a clue about that, I figure I'll plan for if this multi-faceted presence manifests all at once in the room leaving us swarmed. What are the Judges loaded with? Shot or slugs? If shot, than hopefully we were cheap with the ammo and we'll get a nice wide spread when we unload them around the room.

You cut something - despite the pounding steps, whatever it is may still be in the room and bleeding, so look out for blood drops whilst Crazy watches the door. Say "If it's a person, don't shoot."

Ask Amen to buffer you against any harmful side effects, consume some of the blood you've spilt, and then soak the rest up with Keihas, so that the stock has tasted the blood of your enemy.

Also ask Amen to warn you of any incipient ambush without distracting you if that would be more dangerous - he can watch through our senses and may perceive things we miss.

Whenever you speak with Amen, or he looks through you, try to capture the feeling of the Sahasrara chakra being used. That is the chakra of communication with "god", and Amen may well be the closest you have at the moment. When you get too the Arctic, it might well if worth trying to recapture this feeling and concentrate on your memories of communicating with Ogrimmir.

You also need to learn how to detect and control when Amen can reach into you, and you should do this every time you speak to him.

Remember that you saw movement at the clinic moments ago, so something more broad may be happening.

If this battle doesn't stretch out for several updates, next course of action should be the Clinic.
Have Amen keep you updated along. Tell him to give most helpful and useful advises.

If you got time (like going to the clinic could take about 10 minutes) ask Amen how the things are going on the homefront. Ask if anyone has visited, if police did any investigating. If the investigation didn't happen yet, tell him that in addition to implicating Savoy, he is to leave some evidence that connects him with the Nazi Germans, so that police has some kind of lead. Also, tell him to make all the evidence to be as non-fabricated as possible.
Update your orders on what to do when someone comes: Amen is to notify you when someone comes so that you can decide what to do next (for example, we don't want Amen to host Blackbeard amiably if he comes). Actually, have him tell you whenever someone comes to the mansion (our orders imply that Amen should only act if someone comes in invited, we never said what to do is someone sneaks in the house)
Also, tell Amen to gather information on Savoy and his actions, to monitor him to the best of his abilities, using whatever powers he has for that and contacts, but without any cost to Armas (be it monetary or otherwise). That also includes Blackbeard. ... Also Doonongeas.
Also tell him to give you general updates from home that might be interesting for you till we get to the next interesting bit in this ghost town.

Bob!t/UKid4z5s 2011/06/25(Sat)12:55 No. 317535 ID: a76809
File 130903174951.jpg - (1.44MB , 1600x1200 , House.jpg )

>>317349
Even as the door is opening-I find my mind filled with a dark possibility-the deaths, the presumed suicides-were they ritualistic? Could the rifle shop indeed be the source of this entire event?

Maybe when I have a moment we can investigate that.

>>317359
"Invisibl-"
>[Big]"I know."

And that concludes everything we could say, before the door finishes swinging open. While I work my bayonet at the empty air-to be rewarded with sprays of blood-Big elects to not use his eardrum-destroying firearm-and instead, I hear the harsh reports of the Tokarev pistol I loaned back to him. In the course of three seconds after the door opens, we add seven new blood sprays to the walls and floors-none of them ours.

>>317366
>When you next spot an invisible attacker
>spot an invisible attacker.
>see the invisible.
>Do the undoable.
>Touch the untouchable.
>ROW RO-wait this isn't TTGL.

>>317380
The sound of creaking floorboards explodes into a cacophony, the building squealing nonstop as I feel the weight of attention slackening.... is this otherworldly force pulling back? Would be easier to be sure if I could see anything-which gives me an idea. I unclip one of my two smoke grenades, tossing it down the hallway-in time to see the smoke swirling about unseen limbs dashing back down to the first floor. As the last bit of movement vanishes around the corner, that sense of attention on me fades away.....

Leaving us alone once more, surrounded by bloodied walls.
"Do your spirits still detect life?"
>[Big]"What was detected has retreated into the mist-so they can't tell me shit anymore."
"That mist is really starting to piss me off."
>[Big]"Ayup."
"Hmm-no breaks in the sensation, though? Sounds less like individual hunters and more a single mass consciousness."
>[Big]"Not too sure of that-it kinda seemed like just a big cluster of life, rather than one big old thing."
"That so? The feeling of life, and them being able to bleed... that doesn't sound like spirits or ghosts."
>[Big]"I can tell yah right now, I'm a bit familiar with ghosts-and this seems nothing like them."
" Demonic, maybe; I fought an evil stairwell that was kind of like this, once."
>[Big]"You fought.... a stairwell?"
" Anyway, I don't feel their attention on me anymore-so now, to planning our next step."
>[Big]"I'd like a plan that involves us leaving this shop, actually."
"You know that would mean going through the mist, right?"
>[Big]"I don't know-if you look at that rooftop out the window, if you had a running start I think we could make it-and from there, we could make our way down the whole block, between sheds and high fences."
"...Let me see if I understand you properly here: You want to-hold on."

I slam the door shut once more, and continue speaking as I make my way around the room soaking up the bloodstains with my rifle.
"You want to, in an effort to avoid the mist, jump to a building's roof, and from there play Mario jumping around, sometimes on particularly small and rickety surfaces?"
>[Big]"What, you'd rather get back in the mist?"
"....Point."
Amen?
>[Amen]"There is a faint magic to the mist-of that this one is now certain-but it's nature continues to confound-it does not match any known vapor-based entity, nor does it match any of the magical workings this one knows that could erase a mortal settlement. Truly, truly truly-this one finds itself genuinely intrigued by what has been found."
How helpful.

"So... we're in a ghost story, right? Well, time to head for the spookiest goddamn place we can find and see what turns up."
>[Big]"Big-ass abandoned mansion-type house?"
"Nailed it in o-"

My foot catches on empty air, and I nearly pitch forward.
>[Big]"Try not to trip over your own feet, bucko."
"Look, I-"

The radio again squeals to life.
>[ZJ]"report."
"Still at rifle shop-accosted by unkown, non-visible entities-noted they are corporeal, as they had to open doors. Relocating."
The radio clicks back off-just in time for me to see Big untie our harness and take a running leap, shooting through the window to tumble onto the adjacent rooftop. He calls out to me, adjusting his backpack of rocket launchers and ammunition.
>[Big]"You coming or what?"

>>317371
Eh, fuck it. I jab my bayonet down into the mass I kicked, seeing more blood on the transluscent blade-and reverse the rifle, shoving the stock into the space I just cut-the gun quivers, shakes and quakes-and when next I move my foot, it passes only through open air. ...Okay.

After one last check to make sure I got all the blood spilt in the room, I take my own running leap, barely getting my feet on the roofs edge, beginning to pitch backwards-

Big crazy grabs my hand and hauls me the rest of the way onto the roof.
>[Big]"Way I figure, if we cut down this way over here..."
We take a moment to consider our path-during which time I eyeball the clinic twice, getting a faint feeling of being watched-before we set out, leaping from shed to house, from fence to gate, staying above the mist-

As attention begins to gather about me once more-damnit, where is it coming from?

...Like I was thinking-we're reaching the mansion's entrance-

And run out of places to jump to, staying above the mist.

>>317490
>[Amen]This one has had sufficient data gathered to make a deduction, regarding the nature of this mist.
As Amen speaks... I note his words seem to buzz within my scalp.
>[Amen]The mist has a magical effect it causes on all those who enter it-but rather than being immediate, it is slow, insidious. No, no no more comment can be made currently, beyond that the effect is mental in nature. Brief exposures should prove negligable.
Are you certain on that?
>[Amen]No-certainty cannot be reached without an answer we as of yet do not have.

"So-in, then?"
>[Big]"Yeah... uh, just a head's up, but my spirits are saying a sizable amount of murder has been committed in that house-it's steeped in the essence of Death and butchery."
"Good to know."

Taking a moment to check my own state-the sense of attention on me unabated, lacking any sense of direction-I leap down into the mist after Big and I re-secure ourselves to one another, both trotting up to the darkened house.

..Is it just me or did it get a bit... darker when we got close to the house?

The entry level is large-twinned staircases leading to the second floor, obscured in the gloom-as the light streaming through the open door highlights dozens of glass bottles strewn across the floor. All the attention I feel upon myself now comes from my back-from outside this house.

There are two northern, a western and an eastern door on the first floor, and there appear to be more passageways on the second floor, but with the darkness surrounding us I can't be sure.




What's our next move from here?

>When you next spot an invisible attacker
>see the invisible.
Spot as in detect, not see with your eyes.
When I made the statement we detected one via sound (creaking floorboards), we detected others via conjecture (door opened, there must be a person AT the door as it opens).
After that post (but before update) we also came up with the idea of using smoke grenades, which works fine...
Also I am not assuming that every single opponent we face in this town is going to be invisible.

Besides which, even with wild flailing... or just in general when you fight ANYTHING in the future with keihas a move where you inflict a shallow wound to end up with jamming the gun's stock into it afterwards would be useful. With a normal gun it would be less effective then a full thrust or cut, but with the keihas' special property it should be more effective.

Mmm, you know what, lets make a report:
"Invisible attackers can be detected by non visual means. Floorboard creak, doors open, smoke grenades outline their bodies, injuries cause them to bleed, presumably footsteps will appear in snow"
"when killed, corpses remain invisible"
"Mist's magic is mind affecting in origin, very slow acting to avoid detection. No effect for short exposure"
"Ritual suicide signs in gun shop, 10 people in a circle. Mansion steeped in death, it literally gets darker as it is approached"

Speaking of footsteps, would be nice to have some flour or snow right about now.

You know, how often do you end up using all your grenades on your current mission? I mean, six should be enough for any single incident you run into, right? And you have twelve. So, maybe toss one into the mansion first to fuck up anything wanting to ambush you at the doorway. Also, if you go down into the Mansion's basement, this should be how you approach all stairs going down.

Normally, I'd say check everything upstairs first, but the overtime mental effects means the direct route, so I say go straight for the creepy mansion's basement where whatever is here is probably lurking.

>>317535
Ask Crazy if his spirits can feel inside the house.

Amen said he could tell more about what was happening if your magical senses were better. You can't do much to permanently strengthen them, but we can cut out extraneous background noise. Ask Big Crazy to keep watch, and settle down to a dew seconds contemplation, then close your eyes, holding Keihas on you lap and concentrate on the feeling of the magic from the gun for a second, before trying to extend what you feel from that. Recognise blood as being the link from the past to the future through the present, as the heart beats out the roll of years, and son follows father as daughter follows mother, all bound in the lines of their blood. Knowing this, wipe some of the blood from Keihas' blade, and bring it to your lips, to taste, not to swallow, anointing Vishuddha, the chakra that is communication, and ask the blood to tell you its story. You may not yet have the ears to hear what it says, but hopefully your passenger will.

Don't waste too much time with this, but generally, if you can, make every waking moment part of practising awakening your chakras. After a while, it should become second nature.

It's also worth checking with Armas if the house has an internet connection. If so get him to search for any legends or local folklore about the village.

When you're up and about, seeing if there are any head signatures with the thermal scope, and see if the night vision cuts through the un-natural gloom.

Unless BC finds something to indicate otherwise, you should carve your own path through the building with Keihas, rather than relying on the normal doors. Any inhabitants are dead or hostile, and they would know the layout far better than you, so best to cancel that advantage.

Dangit. The mist must be made of DESPAIR. That's why everyone shot themselves I guess. If you RUN REALLY FAST, you should be able to make it to the Haunted Mansion before the Mist or the Lurker-in-the-Mist kill you. Then, once inside the haunted mansion, stick to Crazy. Have him locate the source of THE EVIL. Then shoot it to death. Oh, and STAY OUT OF THE MIST. Once inside the house, don't touch any mist. EAT that thing to survive if need be, but DON'T GO OUT THERE. And don't drink the water. They put something in it. To make you forget.

>>317540
But the mist acts very slowly, current exposure shouldn't have much effect. I would warn big red.

>>317537
Actually, omit telling the russians about the mist. I don't want to be killed for being "infected" and we can always tell them later.

now is not the time to do any time consuming meditation. as for the big creepy house, I vote you have big crazy's spirits check it out and then burn the place to the ground.

Oh boy.
A creepy-ass house that even the invisible stalkers are avoiding?
I'M SURE NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN IF WE GO IN THERE.
>All the attention I feel upon myself now comes from my back-from outside this house.
Seriously, when you went to the rifle shop the attention kept on you, meaning that those things were already inside. Whatever is in here. The invisible things are afraid of it.

Seriously, do we really want to investigate it now? Perhaps the clinic is better idea? At least whatever is in there, you will be able to see it. And hell, maybe it is not even a monster but a survivor? I mean, there is a chance .... a small one .... okay- a tiny chance.

eh, If we are going to investigate the house:

>dozens of glass bottles strewn across the floor
Investigate the bottles. Touch them, perhaps Amen can determine something.

>There is a faint magic to the mist-of that this one is now certain-but it's nature continues to confound-it does not match any known vapor-based entity
Ask Amen if he entertained the idea that there is no actual mist and that it is some kind of illusion. Nothing that we know of mists applies here (does not move with the wind, body becomes immediately invisible even on the outskirts of the mist)

Or maybe the mist is the protection mechanism against whatever is there in the house made to come forth by whatever is in the clinic? And those invisible things aren't really hostile? They could have overrun us when we were outside, in the mist.
.. Or is it too far of a stretch?

>What's our next move from here?
enter the front door like a boss.

If there is no mist inside the house have BC scan it with his totems, no sense in blindly walking around when it can be done directly with the help of his magic spirits.
If there is mist. Close the doors so it

...So... Wait... Is the mist -avoiding- the house? ...Please tell me it isn't, because that's just a horrible sign. Do we really want to be in here? I mean... Maybe we should check out the clinic first. Armas said he thought there was something watching him from there, there might be clues there.

At least if the house is full of Star Spawn or whatever it means that the Invisible Stalker's and the Insanity Mist can't get us.

Explore Cthulhu House. Keep your eyes on Crazy. It would suck if he came all this way only to get eaten by floorboards or whatever.

>>317554
but if we eat the heart of cthulu we get stronger!
ok, thats more of a "long term goal" here in the mist.
I add my vote to those suggesting we check the clinic first.

>>317537
We should tell the Russians nothing we don't have to tell them. They are bastards who are forcing us into a dangerous mission with a gun to our heads, aren't paying us for it, and might shoot us afterward on principle to contain the information. They do not get our full cooperation for that, just the minimum that we can get away with giving them.

So don't give them shit. They don't deserve it.

>>317600
On the one hand, yes that is true.
On the other hand they are supposedly our "ticket out" via airlift and we might need to call on them for extra supplies. They might be more amiable to pay if we actually solve the problem (since they just expect info) and finally, if we DO decide to slit some throats on the way out we would probably have an easier time if they think us to be cooperative.

Also perhaps they can assist with a smoke machine or things like that.

>>317537
I click on the radio, still looking through the open doors of the house, Big Crazy at my side.
>[ZJ]"Da?"
"Invisible entities in the village-retreated into mist when engaged above the mist's coverage. When killed, corpses remain invisible. Found evidence of ritual suicide at rifle shop-second floor, ten individuals."
>[JZ]"Describe evidence."
"Ten guns, each one round fire, ten blood spatters in room that, if caused on a human would have been a fatal amount of blood loss. Blood appeared human."
>[ZJ]"Noted. Current location?"
"Mansion."
>>317538
"...There is something wrong with this house."
>[ZJ]"Explain."
"The mist excludes the mansion and only the mansion-there is a perimeter of mist-less space about the building, which no other building witnessed had. In all other cases, the mist will even enter buildings if doors are open. Any reason I can't torch the mansion?"
>[ZJ]"Still not enough data to determine the cause-request denied."
Ah, gotta love the Russian military.

>>317546
"Sure about that? Two things: The invisible entities are avoiding the mansion-thus far they avoided no other location."
>[ZJ]"How do you know they are avoiding it?"
"Just because they're invisible doesn't' mean their undetectable-and its a personal thing, I doubt you have the equipment to replicate it."
>[ZJ]"Noted. Second reason?"
I tentatively step into the house, picking up the nearest bottle on the ground before retreating back to open ground, Big Crazy still married to me at the hip. I eyeball the bottle...
"A great many empty bottles inside house entrance-somewhere around a hundred. Based on the one I just grabbed-their bottles of alcohol, all empty."
For a moment I wonder if the Colonel was listening, no responce forthcoming.. but then-
>[VC]"Confirm: You found excessive amounts of empty liquor bottles? What kind is the sample?"
"I can't read Russian-but it smells like vodka."
>[VC]" Chyort voz'mi! ...Tebe Pizd'e-"
There is a crackle of static-and the Colonel is on the line again.
>[JZ]"Under no circumstances are you to damage that house prior to investigation-any attempt to do so will result in a shoot on sight order being issued for you to all members of the quarantine-is this clear?"
"Crystal."
*click*
I just wish I knew what that meant.

"I suddenly find myself very disinclined to investigate this building."
>[Big]"You and me both."
>>317539
"Can your spirits detect anything in the house?"
>[Big]"No-not a soul, or presence, or anything-just an empty house, as far as they can tell-you know, beyond the baseline spookiness and the death-association."
I yet again feel my thoughts slipping towards the partly awakened Chakra-this time returning to VIshuddha. I had the wrong idea before-trying to isolate and separate-so, approaching this Chakra without such nonsense filling my head should work, right?

Except that something feels... wrong, when I try to use the chakra of past, present and future-like it shouldn't be touched. Call me superstitious-but FUCK trying to mess with that until I am well clear of this mist-I got way too many unanswered questions to start adding new spins to the mystery here.

>>317547
>>317569
"So.... Clinic, then?"
>[Big]"Clinic it is."

So it is that both of us opt to avoid the house altogether, and start working our way above the mist to the clinic-as we do I feel that sense of observation once more spread out all around me-and as it is still as maddeningly uninformative as before, I continue to ignore it, eyes glued to the clinic-it was that window there I saw movement in-but it's too dark within to see through the noon glare-and nothing disturbs the blinds this time around. Was I imagining it? As we head deeper and deeper into the heart of the strange mist covering this town, I find myself doubting it.
>[Amen]Real, real real-what you recollect was most certainly perceived, so short of illusory magic, the event in question occurred.
I didn't even feel Amen's presence returning to my mind, gotta-
>[Amen]Return? You energized my blood-from then on, this one has not left master's mind-nor, in fact, will this one barring outright order. And forgive this one their rudeness, but it is the height of arrogance to think you could so easily detect such subtle workings of power as to feel something as old as this one using their own blood as a medium. It is doubtful any save the most experienced of workers could do so-and as you barely perceive your own Chakras, this would not include you.
Fine, fine-any ideas yet on what is happening here?
>[Amen]As you surmised-the General's response was critical-the presence of many empty bottles of mortal spirits greatly disturbed him-and seems central to determining the cause. Based on this, all gathered evidence was compared against all known beings related to intoxication-but no Divine, Fae, Demonic, Angelic or Draconic entity or collective operates in a manner comparable to this-all that has happened, is more possible answers being disproven.

I had planned to ask Amen more-but my attention, along with Big's, is immediately drawn to a sound coming from the clinic, the sound of wood tearing, or brick breaking-of the most guttural, profuse snoring I have ever heard, echoing out the open doorway-

A doorway the mist does not venture past
I realize that as we neared the clinic the sense of being observed has intensified-our watchers are more intent on us now than they were at any prior point.

Big looks at me, clearly looking for suggestions on what we should do.





So what is our next move?

rolled 61 = 61

---

Try a test. But a bullet through the door to the clinic, and, trusting in Keihas' hunger to guide your aim in the right direction now it has tasted the blood of the mist, fire a shot directly into it.

You want to see if the mist recoils from the door, as if afraid that what's inside may be awakened by the bullet. That may tell you if it's one creature, or many single ones. Also, get Amen to examine the reaction closely for anything you might miss.

>>317666
This should say: "Aim a shot at the window to the clinic, and, trusting..."

With the plate glass of the window shattered, assuming it isn't bullet proof class, you should be able to see through it as well.

>>317666
Dude. Don't try and see if Russ-thulhu is awake by SHOOTING HIM IN THE FACE. Let's try a different method. Like looking. With our eyes. Dammit. We should have asked the Russians for a fiber optic camera. Oh well. Just... Look inside. Carefully. Russian myths are SERIOUS SHIT.

>>317666
NO. NO NO NO NO FUCK NO.

The mist isn't touching it... I am thinking a survivor, one who is a mage perhaps?
We can sneak or Knock.
I suggest we knock.

>>317666
also downvoting this. DO NOT OPEN FIRE (right now)...

We should have Crazy take out the rockets and wait while we take a look. We're the sneaky guy, so pop our head in the door and see what's there. And if it's something we want dead? Grenades. Lots of Grenades. Toss in... Four? Six? Just toss them in. Wake it up with explosions and fire.

>>317666
Downvoting breaking a window and waking the thing mist creatures are afraid of when there is an open doorway we can sneak to and get a look from.

rolled 71, 23, 72, 82 = 248

---

>>317678
And with how loud it's snoring, it's mouth should be a nice target. Aim the grenades for the things mouth. Take your time with the throw.

>>317683
So, you just want to kill whomever is in there without even looking?

>So, you just want to kill whomever is in there without even looking?

>We should have Crazy take out the rockets and wait while we take a look. We're the sneaky guy, so pop our head in the door and see what's there. And if it's something we want dead? Grenades.
>while we take a look.
>take a look.

>>317693
sorry, my bad there.
Ok, good plan.

If we're going to go nicely, nicely, we might as well be careful about it, don't knock too loudly, and see what is actually there.

Ask of Amen has noticed any effect of the mist on your body or mind, and also ask him what standard classes of being it has missed out of its of exclusions. We know Amen is probably not our friend, so we should be careful with our questions.

DoubleU!MYdoubleV. 2011/06/25(Sat)19:33 No. 317727 ID: 872405
File 130905560156.jpg - (394.41KB , 1514x1965 , DeliciousFeeding.jpg )

Yes, I know, wrong proportions and shitty scanner; deal with it. And no, that thing on the body's head isn't an eye: it's an ear.

I say we peep inside without knocking or shooting, look around. Then we try to find an entrance from behind.

Fanart is... well, Keihas feeding on the humanoid invisible thing.

Kinda hoping the vodka is whoever's in the clinic's, and this guy (for a given value of) is drunk as a skunk.

Do the sneaky thing. Identify it. And then, be ready to leg it like a scared man-child before it wakes up if you have to.

I do believe the 'Friendly General' contact will be achieved by identifying... well, we don't know for sure if its the cause of the mist. Kinda doubt it, really, since the mist seems AFRAID of this thing. But this is still probably going to be some choice info.

I do agree with BC standing ready with the rocket launchers, though. Just in case.

is it possible that this town is home to a famous russian magic user / bloodline individual? Maybe he is the one who drank all the vodka in the mannor and maybe the things in here are not willing to mess with him.
This would explain the general forbidding you from setting the house on fire without investigating first, he doesn't want you to accidentally kill him. That or I am jumping to conclusions.

>>317664
>You energized my blood-from then on, this one has not left master's mind-nor, in fact, will this one barring outright order.
We should probably order Amen to not reveal any information that he gained through his presence in our mind to anyone other than us, except by our explicit order to do so, and perhaps to refrain from using what he learns in any way which does not benefit us. Ordering him out would be rashly discarding an advantage- but knowing that he is aware of everything we think and perceive... it's a tad uncomfortable.

we are about as good at moving unseen as it is humanly possible to be, we should do some covert scouting. whatever is in the clinic might not be allied with whatever is causing the mist, or it might be some form of hell beast.

>[Amen]Suggestive of a roving entity within the mist.

So, since we haven't been eaten by a grue yet, I suspect the entity that snatched the response teams was the thing that is sleeping in the clinic. It has eaten enough and now is sleeping/hibernating/whatever

>I turn around-and see the mist... undulating against the glass, swells and lulls like a sea's cross-section taking the place of normal behavior for vapor. The ripples aren't large-no more than a half inch, at best-but still, a further detail and clue about the situation.

So, maybe this is not a mist actually.... but water. Artificial, magic substitute for water. And whatever is happening here should not be associated with mist and vapors but water.
So the horrific creatures that normally reside in bodies of water could appear here. Maybe it is a cthulu-like monster?
Eh... I have no better theories.



Anyway, have BC stand right at the entrance, outside the mist so that he can call his spirits.
He will have to wait there, while we go and sneak around to investigate whatever horrible creature is there sleeping.


And, damn, Amen should be giving us more advice on what to do!

>So the horrific creatures that normally reside in bodies of water could appear here.

Risalka? Risulka? something like that... I can't remember the specific name...

It was an undead witch that died by drowning and stuff - I think it's actually russian folklore.

>>317814
I think he means doonie. There is no way doonie is here.

>>317834
No, I didn't.
doony is not the only horror of the deep.


Anyway, hundreds of empty vodka bottles?
You think something drank them all? Like one single thing got shit-faced?

Cannot, think of anything though but it ought to be HUGE.

>>317841
huge or magic.

Bob!t/UKid4z5s 2011/06/25(Sat)23:41 No. 317844 ID: a76809
File 130907047172.jpg - (35.15KB , 600x450 , Drunken Fellow in Clinic.jpg )

>>317666 [DEVIL BONUS]
[PLANNED SHOT: 061]
I raise Keihäs to my shoulder, planning to shoot through the adjacent window and hopefully score a hit on whatever lurks within-
>>317671
>>317673
>>317677
>>317678
>[SHUT UP STUPID THOUGHTS Trait activated]
..And I lower Keihäs, thinking my plan through and realizing what a TERRIBLE plan it is. Sure-there are entities this approach could work on-but if this ISN'T one of those entities, I could be signing my death sentence-not everything can be bested with violence-I need to clarify that-not everything can be bested with the degree of violence I am capable of outputting. Besides which... Keihäs isn't even the most potent harm I can leverage on the situation.
>[MMM Trait activated]
I take a moment, propping my rifle against the nearby chimney, to pull out both Matebas-taking off each's scope to cut down their weight by even a slim margin, while popping out their current loads-

And loading each with a six-shot load derived from Mammon's Device. As I do... I hear something, not with my ears, but with my mind, some-
>[Amen]I was ordered to inform you of perceived threats-the entity classified as Demonic, Mammon, is attempting to leverage subconscious greed for greater magical power to gain a foothold within master's thoughts-does master have any orders regarding this?
....Don't let Mammon do that?
>[Amen]Understood, master.
There is a sensation like a part of my brain was lightly slapped-and the whispers die out, comparative normalcy restored. ....I should probably question Amen about that-
>[Amen]Respectfully, that would be a lengthy topic-more pressing matters seem to exist.
True enough.
The Matebas rechambered with the most potent stuff I got, scopes removed to cut down weight, I sling Keihäs over my shoulder, and pass my thermobaric grenade bandoleer to Big.

"I'm going to take a peek-can you quietly get these setup all over the roof so that you could turn the clinic into molten slag with your rockets-preferably in under three seconds?"
>[Big]"I can't-my spirits can."
"Alright-get ready, I'm going to check inside."

I get within ten feet of the clinic, dropping back down into the mist to approach the door-and the sense of being watched... feels like it's pulling back. ..No, that's not the right term-it's as if that which watches me is shifting its attention off of me-and onto my destination. ...Just what is it that snores within, that keeps the mist so irregularly at bay?

>>317625
I don't know much about actual mages-practitioners or Wizards-but it seems possible that a practitioner could survive... whatever it is that beset this town. Perhaps it is not a threat I will find within-but a survivor-one that may have answers I seek.

>>317798
I hesitate briefly at the threshold, casting my largely human senses out, trying to get a sense of what it is I will be sharing a room with-but I get nothing-whatever it is, it's too obscured in shadow to be made out by my eyes-and is clearly not focused on me. I take a tentative step forward.... no response, the snoring continues unabated. Another step-still no reaction. The moment I fully pass through the threshold, the last vestiges of that directionless attention slough off me-and I prowl, alone and unobserved, moving only when I hear snoring, tracking down it's source.
>>317727
[FANART BONUS]
It's by sheer dint of luck I recognize what I am about to step on-what looked at first to be a pile of rags resolves into the lower end of an old set of robes-and I place the snoring's source within the clump of cloth.
>>317738
I would normally say I couldn't be certain if this individual was related to the empty bottles of booze in the mansion-but the stench of alcohol clings to the prone, sleeping form more closely than their garments, and leaves me little room to be uncertain: The one sleeping before me is no stranger to liquor.
>[Amen]The one before you also has a soul.
A mortal?
>[Amen]It seems doubtful a spiritual entity powerful enough to manifest a corporeal form could obscure it's true nature that well, given the exhaustive cost of phyiscal existence-it is either a Mortal, or a being sufficiently powerful to be called a god. Probability dictates it to be a Mortal.
Well isn't that reassuring.

I raise my hand to knock on the nearby wall, and hope I can get some answers out of the boozed individual-

>>317810
My hand stops cold before I make a sound.
...Amen, you said it seemed likely there was a roving entity in the mist responsible for what has been happening, rather than the mist itself causing it, correct?
>[Amen]The amount of magic detected in the mist is only enough to cause the aforementioned, unspecified mental shifts-there is no observed mechanism by which it could be responsible, in and of itself, for the disappearance of the town's inhabitants.
Is there any reason why the sleeping entity could not be that something?
>[Amen]...No, there is no reason it could not be the cause of this event, based on what has thus far been determined-but this one must note the sensory data I have on it is thus far quite sparse.
...Dammit.

I lean a bit closer, holding my breath only partly to stay silent-largely to avoid the overpowering scents rising from the individual-and finally can make out it's face-looks like an old, bald, wrinkly-faced, bearded man, happily passed out, cheeks and nose alike rosy from inebriation. I don't FEEL any threat from him.... but this whole situation is just.... odd.

I carefully withdraw from the building, finding Big Crazy waiting for me with an empty grenade bandoleer. He gives me a thumbs up, eying the roof-so, we're set to burn this place to the ground in spectacular fashion, then.

I am about to quietly ask him his thoughts on what I saw within-

When the radio at my hip squeals to life.

And the snoring abruptly terminates into gravelly muttering.

The sense of being observed I had felt when exiting the clinic vanishes INSTANTLY-and I find myself feeling more alone than I have at any prior time in this village. Big Crazy looks to me in silence, eyes widening as the Colonel asks for a status report at the worst possible time.
>[ZJ]"What i-"
I turn the radio off-but it's too late. Whoever that is within the clinic-they are now awake.

I hear a step being taken within the clinic.






What course of action should I take here?
The cautious/paranoid route, ordering Big Crazy to use his launchers to start the building burning while I wait with Matebas ready in case the being tries to exit, and hope that killing it is both possible with our equipment-and a good idea?
The diplomatic route, and attempt communication?
The 'fuck it all' route, and just start running?
Or do I have some other plan?

I think that he is the cause, and that he is most likely a wizard, possibly a new one.

>The cautious/paranoid route, ordering Big Crazy to use his launchers to start the building burning while I wait with Matebas ready in case the being tries to exit, and hope that killing it is both possible with our equipment-and a good idea?
I think this is a bad idea. Bad, bad idea.

>The diplomatic route, and attempt communication?
You could try this.

Also, you might try to run away, but somehow I doubt it will work.

Ask Amen for help.

>>317851
Ask amen what happens when Wizards discover their powers, and/or get on a drunken bender.

Interesting - so the things in the mist are more interested in Old Clinic Dude than us, if I read that right.

Running only works if he doesn't care enough to chase you. Intel seems more valuable. I say go for Communication, with a backup plan of Blow Everything Up Ever (with a side order of Run Like Fuck). Try Finnish, then switch to English if he doesn't understand that.

Old Dude is probably sleeping off a hangover, so I suppose we should try being relatively quiet. "Greetings, old one! I can't help but notice you're the only being left alive in this town besides the invisible mist monsters. And that, uh, they don't seem to want to come anywhere near you. So, if you wouldn't mind telling us what went down here, we'd be grateful."

If he asks who we are, well, we're just a couple of dudes on vacation - press-ganged into checking out the town on behalf of the hundreds of paranoid armed-to-the-teeth soldiers cordoning off the town. Maybe you've noticed them.

I'm kind of thinking we verbally distance ourselves from the General, just in case this dude doesn't like black ops russian death squads getting up in his business.

lets try diplomacy, if that doesn't work drop a flash bang and run for it while big crazy sends the place up in flames.

When going with run-the-fuck-away plan, remember we can have helicopter extraction.

What ever it is in there, it likes a drink, and you've woken it up. If you're going for diplomacy, ask Big Crazy if he has a hip flask, and if so, gently throw it inside, so that it it lands on the floor near whatever it is. If you have one, throw that in as well.

Be prepared to offer it more alcohol at any point, and get some.

Whatever is in there it SCARED the SHIT out of the invisible stalkers!
Fuck. That old man if fucking scary.

Now that I think about it, it could be anything. An ancient dragon, a shapeshifter, a god, a wizard ...
Damn.

Oh. How about we fucking hide?

Lets hope what-ever it is, it doesn't have or just doesn't use supernatural detection.

It was clearly awake when we were in the rifle shop and if a single peep from radio is enough to wake it, I think the fire-fight must have woken it up too ... it just quickly went to sleep.

Here is to hoping that it will pass out again.

Let's see, its clearly someone or something that's very powerful, and you want to atangonize him? No offense, but we've already got enough of those back in Istanbul. For once, I'd like to have the powerful being become our ally.

Definitely go for the diplomatic route.

>>317951
I agree, diplomacy first, we can torch it later if we need to.

Diplomacy first, exploding if it fails

Eh,

if we go diplomacy route, tell BC to move away and hide somewhere so that if shit hits the fan he can do a sneak attack (heh, sneak attack with RPGs) while we stay and talk face-to-face with scary drunken old man.

Diplomacy first, else we call in Final Protective Fire on the clinic. There is no such thing as Overkill in Magical Russia.

>>317851
...Amen-could a Wizard have done all this?
>[Amen]Yes-yes, yes, a Wizard could most certainly have caused all that has been encountered here-theirs is the skill to make their will reality, there is little a Wizard cannot do, when they put their mind to it.
Is there any reason this individual I just encountered could not be a Wizard?
>[Amen]No such reason has been observed, master.
..Well then.
>>317857
So-what happens when a Wizard discovers their powers, anyway?
>[Amen]There is a transitional period as they come to believe in their powers-this period can last anywhere from a season to several years, depending on the mental state of the mortal that becomes a Wizard.

>>317853
>>317859
>>317865
>>317866
>>317876
>>317951
>>317977
>>318025
"Do you have a hip flask on you?"
>[Big]"What?"
"Booze-do you have any on hand?"
>[Big]"You know I do-plus the other five gallons in the car."
I recognize the truth of his claim, recalling his insistence we pack a full five gallons of Old Turkey whiskey-which, I might note, he had to pay a premium to get in Istanbul-as he passes me a partly empty flask. ...Well, it's got to have at least eight or so ounces in it-hopefully that will be enough to matter.
"Go hide, be ready to shoot if I snap my fingers."
Instead of responding, the titanic native American trots off around a corner-

Leaving me to wait for those slow, pacing steps all alone. I can hear the hacking, the coughing and the muttering-of an old, raspy, scratchy throat being cleared. I hear the scuff of feet, steps unsteady and irregular-and I see the shadow in the doorframe, the outline of the once prone form.

Well, here goes nothing.
>[DDDD Trait activated]
Just as light hits that scrunched up, dirt-stained and wrinkled face, eyes screwed shut against the noon sun, I hold forth the flask-and speak softly.
"Sorry to have disturbed your sleep-care for a pick-me-up?"

The man ignores me for a moment, grumbling to himself in Russian as he waves a hand at the sky-and a cloud springs into existence, dampening the noonday light-to the visible relief of the old one. Grunting as he scratches his head, he turns back to look at me-

Eyes immediately gluing on the flask.

I hold it forth before me, and try again.
"Would you like some Whiskey?"

Again-he mutters in Russian, words clearly slurred-but in his gibberish I distinctly hear him saying Whiskey-and reaching out towards me. I take a single step forward, gently placing the flask in the old man's hands, only letting go when I know his grip to be sure-and withdraw two steps as he downs the flask in one long pull. He lets out a sigh like a man finished with a long day's work, giggles as he sways a bit-and for a third time, looks my way. He says something in Russian-it seems to be a question.

"I am sorry, I do not speak Russian."
I switch to Finnish.
"Do you perhaps speak Finnish?"

The man looks at me for a moment longer, a frown appearing on his face-
>[Amen]I detect the old one attmepting to gain access to your mind, should I allow it?
The frown appears to grow more puzzled as he once more speaks a snippet of slurred Russian.






What should I say or do?
Should I have Amen allow this old one access to my mind?
Should I snap my fingers and signal Big Crazy?
Or do I have some other plan?

FOr the purposes of understanding us ONLY.

Allow him to communicate but have Amen be prepared to eject him from your mind.

>>318039
It seems likely he's trying to teach us the language, or mentally communicate, or copy knowledge of English from our head.

Let him in, ask Amen to remain inconspicuous, and to let us know what he's doing, and prepare himself to reverse any changes that the old man works if they're hostile.

Keep the thought in mind that you have more booze available for him if he would like to share it with us, he just needs to come join us on our little road trip.

Hopefully this man will be our ticket out of her, past the Russian soldiers who might want to suppress news of the incident.

If he expresses interest, and can understand what we say, ask, "Why don't we sneak back there right now? Of course, there are some Russian soldiers in the way, but I at least think it would be a laugh if we could all turn invisible and back at will, so we could walk right past them and back to the booze, and leave them none the wiser. What do say?"

>>318045
upvote.

Also, I don't suppose amen can teach us some languages via our mental link? At her age she is bound to know a good amount.
At the very least she could translate.

Another thought, if he is a wizard looking for a drink, then it's clear, from the mansion, that mortal alcohol is no longer sufficient for his needs, given how much of it he has to drink. If he accepts our earlier suggestion, we could suggest that the drink of the immortals, the Nectar of the Persian gods, the Ambrosia of the Greek, and the Soma of the Vedic may prove more satisfying. In our current states, of course, we can't do an enormous amount to help, but...

Also, when we are done with the town, can we take a break in the next timeskip to talk to amen properly? There are so many questions we could ask, things to discuss, agreements, commands, etc.

How about, instead of opening ourselves up to mindrape, we have Amen accurately and faithfully translate everything he says, and translate what we want to say to us so we can repeat it in Russian outloud.

Also, ask Amen if he can determine what he is by his method of trying to access our mind.

>>318056
That assumes that he won't simply annihilate us for daring to resist him.

What we should do, instead, is have Amen simultaneously translate s we can understand his question and reply to him in Russian, whilst faking a simulated mind state that the wizard can play with for a moment. If the wizard stops pushing when we reply in Russian, then we can let it go, otherwise Amen should collapse the fake mindstate seamlessly into our own in a way the wizard won't notice.

i say we let him in. though ask aman to kick him out if he tries anything damaging. decant odds he's just trying to get around the language barrier.

>>318062
This...

Also Amen while insane and scary has been very useful.

THANK AMEN.

Well... Let's hope the old Wizard merely gives us the power to speak Russian, or reads our thoughts, or turns us into a Russian. If he tries to kill us, this will end poorly.

"You're a wizard, Old Drunken Dude"
"...I am a what!?"


Seriously, the guy might have been insane hobo, hopefully we don't piss him off or something.

Personally, I'm not that confortable with relying too much on Amen.

>>318156
That's because you're smart.

>>318040
Can you restrict the Wizard to just establishing communication when in my mind?
>[Amen]Hm-hm, hm. It would seem not-this one does not outclass the Wizard so far as to have such capacity. Denying a Wizard directly.... is not easily accomplished-not while still allowing them some room to maneuver.
...I guess I should have thought this through-if Wizards are that potent, why would I assume you to so completely surpass them?
>[Amen]......
Now that's a strange sensation-mentally communicated... silence?

>>318043
>>318052
>>318070
>>318097
Can you push the Wizard's presence out of my mind once he's been let in?
>[Amen]....Likely, likely likely-but no guarantee. The future is not an open tome to this one-and there are many things the Wizard could do. Uncertainty rules, in this scenario.
Great-well, not like it changes anything-let him in-
>>318062
>>318078
But into your mind, and simulate a normal human mind that is a native English speaker, fluent in Finnish-translate his words, until we can establish if he means mental harm.
>[Amen]My my my-that I can do.
There... is a singularly odd sensation, as if someone was standing so close behind me that they began to merge with me-I feel power jolting over and around my mind-as the slurred Russian words resolve into what sounds like English.

>[Wizard]"-ad Whiskey-where'd you get it?"
Can you translate my words so that I speak in Russian without understanding it?
>[Amen]Simply speak-it will be done.
Okay.....
"The Whiskey? I got it from a friend-we have several more gallons, actually."
>[Wizard]"You.... you got more?"
"Indeed we do, Mr....."
>[Wizard]"Huh? Oh, name. Grigori Wowk-where's the booze?"
>[Amen]No mental attempts have been made beyond implanting a fluency with Russian into the pseudomind this one fabricated for this Grigori.
Okay-collapse the pseudomind onto my own in whatever manner will safely transplant the fluency in Russian into my mind.
>[Amen]This will sting-
I am thankful Grigori is so drunk he can't keep his eyes in focus for longer than an instant as my legs nearly buckle from a full-body spasm-WOW, that was a brain freeze times a billion, okay-

I think of how to speak in Russian-and the words just come to me through the headache.
"Do you mind if I ask a few questions first, before we got the booze?"
Grigori begins to scowl-
"You don't have to answer-in fact I don't need to ask-but I would appreciate it if you'd indulge me, just briefly, before I share our liquor with you."
The grit-strewn wrinkles on his face twitch and contort-before he overenthusiastically nods his head.
>[GW]"Okay... if it's only a couple questions... but I really need a drink..."



This is my chance-to concretely figure out what's happened here, and find the answers Vladimir wants in exchange for letting us go.....

A prospect that I now begin to wonder at the truthfulness of-will he REALLY let us go?

...Or would our salvation lie with this inebriated Wizard?





What questions do I have for Grigori?
>[REMINDER: Grigori is not as drunk as he'd like to be, and impatient to remedy it-too many questions and he may get irritable. Decide for yourselves what a 'safe' number of questions is-and find out if you're right.]
After I finish asking questions-should I just escort Grigori back into the Russian camp, or call ahead and explain the situation first?

No matter how many questions are posed by members, I'm voting we limit ourselves to three questions and no more than three.

My suggested questions.

What's the mist?
What happened to the Russian soldiers sent to investigate here?
Does he have anything against the Russian soldiers around the area?

After that, we lead him to our booze.

I suggest only two questions.

"What happened to the town?"

I say the limit shall be three, no more.

What is the mist, who is behind it, where did the villagers go.

Actually, maybe just the first two, to be safe.

Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out.

Ok, can even begin to argue against Gun's masterful argument, so lets go with three questions.

I think threes a good number of questions to ask. Though one of them should probably be whats do you know about the mist?

I suggest we talk WHILE we walk. This is bound to piss him off a lot less.
"We can talk on the way. Come friend, the whiskey is this way..." and start walking towards the whiskey.

I am assuming talking while walking towards more booze will improve our chances of not pissing him off and allow us to essentially talk to him until we get there.

People don't like being interrogated, so phrasing is important. Ideally we want him to want to ask us questions. I am thinking that we start providing with information and leave carefully empty bits for him to fill in, or casual questions. Such as "so, there is a small Russian army outside of town, that's where I left my whiskey by the way. They put the whole town on quarantine, the men they sent in just disappeared without a trace they said, I wonder what happened to them?"

... you know, I am starting to bet he either killed everyone, or summoned whatever killed them. The reason is that the mansion felt of massive amounts of death and he probably boozed there... So asking one question first is really important. "Where is everyone?" Might want to do that before the "talk while walk" plan in case we still want big red to blow it up (although I am worried that might get us killed, by him...)

>>318241
On account of him being drunk, I think walking and talking and thinking all at the same time are gonna be a little difficult, so maybe don't do this, yeah?

This is a wizard. There's a saying, "Do not meddle in the ways of wizards."

That means you. He is powerful enough that whatever happened to this town, he did it. That means you don't pry.

Instead ask, "You're a wizard, so probably above such petty concerns, but my colleague and I would probably make better progress towards the whisky if we could see the path and what was on it, don't you think?"

also


"Would you remind terribly if I called ahead to make sure there were no distractions on the way to the booze?"

If he answers the later in the affirmative, turn the volume of the radio down and the gain up, before switching it on, then say. "Coming through with wizard. Strongly suggest that everyone makes themselves very scarce. Will do best to kep him entertain. Do not, repeat, do not interfere or approach."

>>318241
Yeah, gonna have to downvote this for the same reason as Conil.

Why does this guy even need us to give him booze? Isn't he stupidly powerful, presumably capable of conjuring up the finest alcohols from the very fabric of reality on a whim, or at least summoning them from elsewhere? Has this simply not occurred to him?

We could probably settle into some drinking with him right now, hopefully moving towards a more positive relationship without bringing him out to the Russian military at all. My wild guess would be that they're planning to try and draft this guy into state service and possibly bind him somehow, and they have basically no reason to leave us alive once we've done it.

>>318310
I suspect that anything which smacks of giving orders to the Russian military will go over very poorly. The general seems the type to take any suggestion that we have any kind of authority over him at all as a slight. So if we want to give him a heads-up, we'd better phrase it differently- instead of "strongly suggest X" and "do not Y", simply state our plans and if we anticipate some given course of action being dangerous. If the Russians want to discard our predictions or contradict our plans, that is their own problem and responsibility.


Regardless, before we leave contact with Grigori and when no one else is around to hear us, I think we should give him our name and a way to contact us, with a statement that we are willing to try and solve almost any problem in exchange for cash or favors. Our phone number, too. Even a drunken and murderous wizard could be a potentially extremely awesome employer- he just taught us the Russian language with a wave of his hand! That would have taken years to learn and be fluent in otherwise. The prospect of further such payment is too tempting to pass up... and I don't think that we want anyone else to know that we've made the job offer.

Ask him no more than three questions
if you can limit them to two.

Do not ask how he feels towards russian army, it is a waste of a question.

While the idea to ask while walking got downvoted, I still think it holds some merit. After we ask him stuff we need to get to the booze somehow. Unless he teleports us there, we will need to walk. That is an excellent opportunity to establish some things.
First of all try to become friends in his eyes. Should be easy as drunks generally deem people who provide them booze their best friends.
Then you need to establish, as friends, that russian military is holding the booze hostage, so that he becomes biased against them before meeting them. Essentially tell him that his new "friends" are being bullied by the army.
Also you need to make sure that Big Crazy is also a friend. Wouldnt want him attacking BC if he appears suddenly
These are not questions, so they can be small talk while we walk to encampment.

Basically, try to become best friends with this guy.

Perhaps we could weasel out some practioner powers... but that is for later


I assume the russsians will try to kill us if we learn yhe truth behind this town, so we need this guys protection.

Remember that Bob said that Grigori is not that drunk, he's probably fully capable of walking and talking. Indeed, we may get more useful answers out of him if he's concentrating on walking, particularly if we ask >>318310.

I agree that we shouldn't interrogate him about the town, but asking him questions about easing the journey should be ok as we walk. As there's to much risk asking him about the town, that's no problem.

I dont really think this guy is a recent wizard.
My guess is that when he first got wizard powers, he couldn't stand it (since I suspect secrets of the universe and everything come with the package) so he turned to alchoholism to "stop Seeing" or whatever.
The russians, finding him in this state decided to try to use him for their nefarious plans. The general realised that the vodka bottles were intended for Grigori and that is why he prohibitted us from destroying it (since we could have killed a potentiall goldmine).
Perhaps they keep him drunk and made him alchoholic since it is easier to manipulate him and make experiments.
Or something like that.

The mist and the creatures must be his subconsiousness or a variant thereof, that is why disppeared as he woke up.

Okay, here's a question. "Is everyone else in Pobodino dead?"

When the time comes, we need to make it clear the Russians are holding our booze and stuff hostage.

It is partly true

>>318321
Actually, Bob said he's not as drunk as he wants to be. That is not saying he isn't at a level of drunk enough that making him have to put in the effort to walk, talk, and think all at the same time would piss him off. His mannerisms and the way he's acting definitely say sloshed to me, and if he trips over his own feet because we're distracting him from walking with our questions, that would be VERY bad.

If he's sober enough to be awake, I'm assuming he's not as drunk as he wants to be.

"What happened here?"
"Is there any safe path through the mist?"
One we've got those answers we should probably get him a drink or five as fast as possible.

Suggestion 2011/06/27(Mon)10:07 No. 318377 ID: 81f32a
File 130919445120.jpg - (363.61KB , 1280x960 , Shashlik_out_in_nature.jpg )

You know, just drinking is not fun.

I suggest that Armas makes some amazing 'Shashlik' (a rough equivalent of 'barbeque'). Everybody loves them delicious shashlik.

Grigory will be happy ... if not, he should not be offended... but I can't see anyone not being happy when offered some great shashlik.

>>318202
>>318208
>>318213
....I think I'm going to take a page out of Monty Python's book-three questions, no more, no less.

>>318241
..Or, I could just ask questions while we walk-walking and talking shouldn't be an issue-
>>318297
>>318311
>[SUST Trait activated]
...Then I think better of it, noting just how heavily the old man is swaying just standing there, and recollecting his highly irregular footsteps are-having him trip over his own feet answering my questions would probably not end well.

Okay....

>>318198
First question:
"What happened to the town?"
>[GW]"....Huh?"
"The town here-Pobadino. The mist, the missing inhabitants-I must admit I am curious."
>[GW]"...Oh, that. Well.... got low on, on... whatsit... Errer-clear, that's it Needed more drink, right? But.... what did happen? I remember..... they were rude, dint want to share-dint evenin-even want to have me in town. Din't like that, too close to... whassit called, not being drunk?"
"Sober?"
>[GW]"Thassit! Anyway, turned erryone invisdivisbl.... indispen...... invisivsi.... made it so you can't see 'em, and made it so they can't talk. Can't bother me drinking, then... right?"
>>318195
Second question-
"So, what is the mist, then?"
That determined look of a drunk bludgeoning his memories into working order obscures Grigori's visage before he slurs out some new words.
>[GW]"Made it. Felt... felt bad, taking all their booze. I mean, if, if someone took MY booze-I'd be sad. So I, so I made a mist that makes things drunk-an'.... an' since it can't run out, is like they profit from it, right?"

....Oh god.

That means the things Big Crazy and I killed in the rifleshop-were civilians. ..I could stomach killing that cop-because their death served a purpose. But this.... they died for nothing. I killed them... for nothing. Not to keep myself alive, not to serve a purpose....
>[Amen]Moral quandaries may be better suited to a time when an inebriated and impatient Wizard is not before you.
...Come on Armas, head back in the game.

>>318310
>[MMM Trait activated]
"....You're a wizard, so probably above such petty concerns, but my colleague and I would probably make better progress towards the whiskey if we could see the path and what was on it, don't you think?"
Grigori appears to give this the same degree of thought a stoned philosophy major gives his first existentialist quandery-before nodding once, decisively.
>[GW]"Yeah... no more booze here, might as well leave. Whas... whas the booze in?"
"Bottles?"
>[GW]"Heh... heheheh... no. Mean-uh, you din't walk here, right?"
"Oh. My friend over there-"
Grigori turns to follow my finger's direction at Big Crazy and nearly trips over himself-
"And I came in an Escalade."
>[GW]"....A what?"
"A sports utility vehicle from the Cadillac line. I think it was the only one in the military presence around the town."
>[GW]"...Okay. I can work with that. Umm... whas the phrase-hold on to yer.... aw forget it."

We are now sitting in the Escalade, myself in the drivers seat, Big in the passenger seat, and the smells I've come to associate with Grigori drifting from the back as I hear him unscrewing a bottle top as he giggles. I see panicked soldiers rushing past shouting-and I can understand them. They're talking about Pobadino-and are entering the town en-mass, talking about... civilians?

Grigori happily smacks his lips from the back seat.
>[GW]"Pretty... pretty good. But this is... is gonna last like... iunno, half a day?"
"...Just checking, but the mist?"
>[GW]"Huh? ...Oh, I put the town back how it was.... mos'ly. ...Think... think I'm gonna...."
I hear snores from the back seat, just as I note that I can't see any soldiers between me-and the outer edge of the quarantine.

Given I now hear hundreds of automatic weapons being fired behind us.....

I think it's time to go.

I start the car, and rather than gunning it-I try to drive casually, attracting no attention. Only Grigori's snores disturb the tense silence-but a few minutes later we're back on P511. With paved road beneath the tires once more I accelerate-and don't slow back down until I've put a nice, solid hill in between myself and the murderous Russian soldiers.

It is at this point that Big turns to me, and quietly asks a question.
>[Big]"...What the fuck just happened, how can you speak Russian, and who IS this guy?"






How should I respond to this?
Given we are facing southbound on P511, with the Russian military still swarming around Pobadino-what route should I take to get OUT of the Kaliningrad Oblast?
Do I have any plans for what to do while driving up through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia?
Should I risk going through Russia so we can drive to Finland, or should we look into boating options in Estonia?

He is a wizard who loves to drink, he got upset I couldn't understand him so he just put Russian in my mind.
He turned the town invisible and unable to speak because they were rude to him, felt bad for drinking all their booze so he created a mist for them that acted like booze on anyone in it. I offered him our whiskey and he was happy enough to put things back to normal.

Well, this is the biggest fucking clusterfuck that we've ever been viticm too and that's saying a lot. Anyways.

To Big : I tell you later. When we don't have a pissed of army behind us. For now, just keep a eye out for anything that could be persuing us.

While you're driving, stop somewhere safe and buy some liquor for once Grigori get up. Talk to him, ask him questions and try to help him understand his powers.

>Given I now hear hundreds of automatic weapons being fired behind us...
So, they are executing the entire town? To keep the masquerade or something? We could contact the general over radio... but I am not sure if this is wise. Then again, if he wants us silent he will hunt us down anyways... although its possible he doesn't know we survived.

If we do contact him, we can explain what happened and hope he keeps his part of the bargin. If he asks we come in person then "can't, keeping wizard busy"

Yes. Let's... NOT go back. I was worried enough about working with the crazy Russian Black Ops commander BEFORE he executed several thousand civilians for little reason. Why don't we just leave a note pinned to our radios and beacons and flares (which are most likely being tracked), saying something like:

"Dear General.
Found out what the problem was. A drunken Wizard. He teleported us over here. Sorry we never reported back. Decided you were too busy to interrupt with all the gunfire. Went to Tijuana for Tequila and bitches. Feel free to join us.
Love, Generic Western Mercenary.
P.S. Here is your stuff back"

http://quest.lv/kusaba/quest/res/316398.html#i318392

Letting him know that we're alive? No offense, but are you high?!

Throw destroy that fucking radion right now and let them believe that we're dead is much safer.

@Triad: To reference a post don't copy paste the html link. Just type >>318392
Where the number is whatever post number it is. If its on a different forum you can reference it as well like so
>>/quest/#
>>/questdis/#
etc.

I will delete this post after you see it.

>>318393
But he'll notice that EVERYONE ELSE IN TOWN left a corpse SOMEWHERE. So he'll assume we escaped. And this is a CRAAAAAZY general, who I'm sure leaves Inspector Javert in the dust with his crazy.

And if you haven't noticed, Armus is probably the LEAST subtle person on the planet besides BLACK BEARD. He's GOING TO BE NOTICED. If we DON'T tell the General we survived, he'll classify us as a "loose end" and a threat. If we leave a note, there is a chance he'll let us live. As long as he doesn't thing we'll say anything about Pobodino.

TLDR, Wearegoingtodie.gif

I still say we should leave a note. We are a high profile gun customer at Gun World, if nothing else. Our name WILL come up in a cursory records search. He WILL find us. So we should part on amiable terms. In a letter. While we are driving for the border as fast as possible.

>>318392
Give back the stuff? Armas? Downvoting that specific bit. And any bit of any post that says we don't take our new stuff with.

>>318403
It's RUSSIAN BLACK OPS STUFF. We can keep things like the Rocket Launchers and the Magnesium flares, but all the Electronics can easily be bought elsewhere and are likely bugged and tracked. Do you WANT General Killmurder McBackstab to know EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU ARE SAYING?

We should talk to the Russians for a while when fleeing, use the radio, explain we are taking a drunk wizard away from them, and then dump the radio.

we must convince the wizard to give us super powers

If they ARE tracking the electronics then they know we are out of town and where we are. If we destroy them now... So they find our stuff trashed and OUTSIDE town, they will know we are alive either way. plus they will know the vehicle is gone and people saw us leave (they just didn't try to stop us cause we acted casual).

So we cannot actually prevent them from knowing we are alive.

IIRC we got:
1. Radios.
2. Flares
3. Weapons
4. Ammo
5. Grenades

Keep everything but the radio, leave radio with note.

>>318409
No, that'll just piss him off. It's like that guy with a van, whom everyone makes friends with just so he'll help them move. Don't abuse our new friends hospitality. Thanks to him, we now have the language skills to hide in the frigid wasteland of Siberia from the General.

>>318409
Downvoting due to lack of a concrete plan. Sure it would be awesome, but if we just start pestering him for powers he will turn us into a newt bottle of vodka.
Don't piss him off by begging for powers.

Now, if someone comes up with a plausible scenario for making him want to empower us in some way that's different.

We could give him ALL the whiskey. Or at least 4/5ths of it. That would cement us in the "Don't kill Turn into Vodka" roster. Then he'd be drunk, happy, and NOT going to kill us. Intentionally.

Whisper to BS: "that guys is a wizard........ A drunken wizard"

I am not particularity inclined to contact russians.
In fact I am very much against it. We need to escape fast.
Get rid of all the shit they gave you. Ask BC to use his totems to see if they have rigged any bombs in the car. Check self for bugs and tracking devices.

But if you do, don't talk in russian.

After a minute, speed the fuck up.
Go east to Estonia, then go to Finland without crossing russia again.
Buy more booze along the way.
>Do I have any plans for what to do while driving up through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia?
Get booze for our booze friend everywhere we go.
We aren't leaving him till we get some practitioner powers out of him or at least till he deems us his bestest friend forever (meaning he could come crashing at our place uninvited, raid our fridge and don't leave for 6 months)

>Should I risk going through Russia so we can drive to Finland,
no

Oh, and since he's in our head.

"Amen, never make anymore deals with Savoy, and stop all current deals with him"

This my friend is Grigori the drunken wizard.

>>318392
I love the note but I have to agree with>>318410
on only leaving the radio.

>>318409
I must ask if that mist got to your head because that does not sound like the brightest of ideas. Driving trough Russia sounds about as bad.

>How should I respond to this?
Whisper back. "We have made a new friend, Grigor the drunken wizard. We don't want to piss him off. Best to play along."
>Given we are facing southbound on P511, with the Russian military still swarming around Pobadino-what route should I take to get OUT of the Kaliningrad Oblast?
Turn left when you get to the P509, and get straight to the border.
>Do I have any plans for what to do while driving up through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia?
Keep Grigori hammered. It's about a nine hour drive to Tallinn, so he should just be waking up when we arrive on the southern coast of the gulf of Finland. Buy a large amount of the local traditional spirits on the journey up at various stops, so you've bought an example of all of them by the time you arrive.
>Should I risk going through Russia so we can drive to Finland, or should we look into boating options in Estonia?
Talinn to Helsinki is a short journey, but I suspect that Grigori will get seasick, which is a bad idea. When you get there, say to him. "Well, we've sampled all the classic drinks of the southern Baltics, what do you say to a quick hop across the gulf to a road on the other side to see what spirits Finland has to offer."

If he jumps us across, hunt down some traditional Finnish drinks, Kossu, Salmari (licorice spirit), washed down with some sahti (juniper bear). It will be expensive, so get some euros. The police are ferocious about drink driving, so before doing this hire a small lodge somewhere, with no other people around, where we can get properly drunk. Power load up on your supernatural protein to counteract alcohol poisoning.

Next morning, give Grigori, any magic mead you have and a cooked breakfast of supernatral meat from your cookbook, when he awakes up. Then say "Well, we've sampled the best of what the mortals of this part of the world have to offer, what do you say that we look to see what more rarefied spirits the gods and monsters of the local Nevernever drink? I bet that Valhalla's mead and the cider from Iounn's apple's makes great cider."

>>318461
i get the feeling he is more a "get shitfaced on hard liqueur" then the aficionado type.

Since he can teleport, why doesn't he just teleport liqueur from around the world to himself?
My bet is that he just never thought about it.

That being said, the plan is sound and the suggestion of teleporting himself liqueur is something to say as a parting gift rather. We want him to like us as much as possible before we part ways so we don't get turned into vodka, so I see no reason not to liqueur him up at your own expense for a little bit.

>>318426
Oh... you reminded me.

Since this could take up several days, lets give Amen updated orders (I'll just copy-pasta what I wrote before):

"ask Amen how the things are going on the homefront. Ask if anyone has visited, if police did any investigating. If the investigation didn't happen yet, tell him that in addition to implicating Savoy, he is to leave some evidence that connects him with the Nazi Germans, so that police has some kind of lead. Also, tell him to make all the evidence to be as non-fabricated as possible.
Update your orders on what to do when someone comes: Amen is to notify you when someone comes so that you can decide what to do next (for example, we don't want Amen to host Blackbeard amiably if he comes). Actually, have him tell you whenever someone comes to the mansion (our orders imply that Amen should only act if someone comes in invited, we never said what to do is someone sneaks in the house)
Also, tell Amen to gather information on Savoy and his actions, to monitor him to the best of his abilities, using whatever powers he has for that and contacts, but without any cost to Armas (be it monetary or otherwise). That also includes Blackbeard. ... Also Doonongeas.
Also tell him to give you general updates from home that might be interesting for you till we get to the next interesting bit in this ghost town."

Two things:

1. What did you think was going to happen to any survivors we found? They'd be inducted into the russian paranormal black ops division? Come on.

2. Grigori is not our friend. He's a drunk incompetent. The world would frankly be safer if we executed him on the spot, but I don't think anyone wants to do that for some reason, so I'd settle for dropping him off somewhere and striking some kind of deal wherein he tries really hard not to cause the deaths of hundreds, maybe THOUSANDS like he JUST fucking did.

And ditch any and all electronics, immediately. Greed is one thing, but I'd rather not have a russian murderdeathkill squad on our tails. Or maybe I would, just for the honor of putting them down.

>>318472
1. Sprinkle amnesia dust or get their national wizard to do something equivalent.
2. All he did was turn them invisible and get them the gift of boozemist. Its the russian shadow army that decided to kill them all because "they know too much".
3. He is a WMD. I was trying to avoid any THOUGHT (that's us) that suggests we want to harm him until he falls asleep. THEN consult amen about how one can kill a wizard. We don't yet know for sure if we can even kill him.

Then again its not like Armas is a knight in shining armor and look at who else we deal with for power... If plying him with alcohol helps us, great, ply away. If he is an annoying unfriendly bitch then we can look into the slit throat at night plan.

>>318486
He's a dangerous incompetent, and why you think the russian government would care enough to ask a wizard for services (They have to PAY for these kinds of services, remember) I dunno.

And try to excuse it if you want, this guys idiocy led to a massive supernatural phenomenon that drew blackops attention, caused us to inadvertantly murder civilians, and ultimately resulted in the deaths of hundreds. You don't get absolved of that kind of responsibility by "AWWWWW, he MEANT well though!"

>>318489
Whether he meant well or not, he's a sentient WMD, and he's in our hands now. If we piss him off, there's nowhere we can run, nowhere we can hide where he can't kill him.

Humouring him until he gets bored and wanders off in a drunken stupor is the best option.

>>318384
>But this.... they died for nothing. I killed them... for nothing. Not to keep myself alive, not to serve a purpose....
Okay, no. There was substantial evidence that the town was exceedingly dangerous to those who entered it; the Russian teams who went in vanished and presumably apparently died, by all available evidence. The mist was decidedly threatening and indeed had a hostile mental effect. You assumed with substantial supporting evidence that something sneaking up on you in that town was a threat.

So they did not die for nothing- they died for your safety because you were in a potentially deadly situation and could not take unnecessary risks. You had no way of knowing that they were actually harmless, and while you could certainly have come up with the idea you had very little way of confirming it without putting yourself in a very vulnerable state. If they had been some kind of super-stealthy assassin-creature with claws instead of civvies, only very subtle differences in the available evidence would have been present.

The responsibility for those deaths lies with Grigori, who trapped those poor people in a situation where they couldn't help but look threatening so that he could drink himself into unconsciousness in a petty abuse of his near-unlimited power. It lies with that Russian general, who refused to tell the full story before sending us in- when based on context he knew that the most likely origin of this calamity was a drunken wizard. And by the available evidence the Russian soldiers just executed the entire population of the town, so those you killed may well have been slaughtered by their own government anyway had you not touched them.

That's not to say that your hands are clean, but what happened in that town was an honest, if tragic, mistake on your part. You're not perfect and you're in a deadly and violent business; you make mistakes and when you do people die. Live with it and strive always to do better.


Now... Grigori. This man is an incompetent, selfish drunkard whose abuse of power has already resulted in hundreds if not thousands of deaths. He is our friend only as long as we give him alcohol. There are only two reasonable plays here: Either we gamble that we can get personal power out of him and play nice, angling for something that a wizard can easily give us and others would be unable to, or we play it safe and execute him in his sleep before he can cause more damage, then eat his heart since he's dead either way and we might as well try for some personal power out of it.

Of those, I favor option two. Grigori's a bastard and we may never get another chance to eat a wizard's heart. They're not easy to come by.

A slightly less reasonable play would be to ring up the Russians, dump Grigori on the side of the road, tell them where he is and keep driving so that we're more trouble to track down and kill than it's worth. But that would probably be the least moral option of all, and the rewards are iffy at best. We might get out of this without making any new enemies, though.

>>318497
its even possible that they WEREN'T harmless... first of all, not everyone in the town was a civilian... and angry confused people, possibly armed, possibly hostile...

Turning invisible and drunk could encourage some people to do really really bad things to each other.

>>318489
Lead to? He did not kill them for a cover-up. I am not saying he is a good guy, he is certainly not one.
But saying he is at fault for their death is like saying people who design skimpy outfits are at fault for rape. To stretch the analogy, all he did is went and gave everyone in town a thong. He is no way shape or form guilty of the soldiers killing the whole town.

However, he isn't a nice guy or an innocent. He turned an entire town mute and invisible for being "rude". He wasn't responsible for the atrocity the russian army is committing there, but he has most definitely committed his own atrocities and its not like he cares enough or is competent enough to stop it (and he COULD have if he wanted to).

But remember we can't just put a bullet through him because he is a magical WMD. We COULD ask amen HOW people go about such things though.

>>318500
Yes, he IS responsible. What do you think mass supernatural exposure would result in?

Or how about the people who were so mindnumbingly terrified at what was going on they executed themselves? Learn how responsibility works. It doesn't matter if you didn't necessarily pull the trigger if you perpetrated the entire situation that lead to the deaths.

If you lock a bunch of people in a room, leave with the intent on releasing them after a bit "just for fun", and the house fucking burns to the ground in the interrim by accident, YOU are responsible for their deaths.

InsufferableMystic 2011/06/27(Mon)16:43 No. 318508 ID: 856690
File 130921822781.png - (81.79KB , 300x300 , Armasweasel.png )

Grigori may be REALLY dangerous, but if we want to kill him, I'd want to be VERY far from him when we do.

Downvoting all suggestions of killing him in his sleep. The mind of a man doesn't die instantly, and all he needs is a few moments to kill/curse us.

So instead we'll go with Alratan's idea.
>>318461

We humour the guy who can turn us into little animal. We really don't want to meet an Unnatural end.

I just hope he doesn't turn us into a Weasel with an orange tie...
That talks...

That wouldn't be too bad, after all weasels are awesome, pic related

>>318505
Yes you are responsible in such a case...

And if you lock people in a room and then you let them out and when you do the government executes them for having been locked in a room then you are not responsible.

Speaking of, lets take the morality debate to questdis?

>>318508
It does if you full auto into his brain.

>>318509
Again, people committed MASS SUICIDE because of him.

>>318510
IF we kill him in his sleep we do so with explosives. Fill the room with lots of them then shoot an RPG into it. Not by a slit throat... and that is a big if, currently the plan is "entertain him and leave as friends". The russian military can entertain itself hunting him down later.
Heck, if we leave a note explaining things they just might.

>>318511
Exctly, he is responsible for THOSE deaths. And he most likely slaughtered everyone in the mansion. As I said he has committed MANY ATROCITIES. But currently the russian army is killing all the people he LET GO UNHARMED. He is guilty of causing the deaths of everyone who died in the town before he left. He is guilty of turning them mute and invisible for a few days and then releasing them, he is NOT guilty of murdering them for having been turned invisible.

>>318515
I didnt say he was guilty of their deaths. Being GUILTY of something and RESPONSIBILE for it aren't actually the same, Responsibility just means you had a hand in their fate. There are degrees of responsibility, whereas you are simply guilty or not guilty.

As it is, he is ultimately responsible for what is happening right now. That is fact. To what degree you may question, but it all stems from his asshattery.

One thing to take into consideration is that Grigori might be Russia's National Wizard.

>>318537
... that WOULD totally explain the general's reaction when we described the alcohol.
He might have been afraid that if we burn down the house or blow it up it will kill their national wizard... and considered killing the entire town to cover up his mistake a small price to pay to keep their national magic WMD.

Grigory is a ticking time-bomb. if we keep him with us, eventually he is either going to run out of booze and do something dangerous because he's angry, or he's going to get drunker than normal and do something dangerous because he's a drunk with the power of a small god.

>>318554
One, we would not let him run out of booze. Two, small god? I think you're underestimating wizards.

>>318537
Alternatively Wizards are suitably rare that any Russian wizard that isn't completely new is something he knows about.

Anyway, I'm all for buddying up to the wizard for powers. Incompetent and irresponsible as he is, is he more of a danger to others with Armas taking him around, and would him giving Armas powers make him any less powerful? No? Than I don't see why we can't make use of the situation.

...Right, lets keep the guy who is probably going to bring the whole goddamn Russian Army down on our heads.

>>318574
If they attack us while we have wizard they are fucked? I mean, we're giving him booze! If they kill us, they're killing his source of free booze! And we imagine what would happen if we told him the Russia-actually, nevermind. That's a bad idea. Was going to say if they come after us, we could have Amen to create a fake mind again, and we tell him that the Russians started alcohol prohibition. But that would be a very bad idea.

Point is, going after the guy who's hanging out with a drunk wizard is not the smartest idea.

Or they could just offer him more booze then we could ever give him. Plus they might have some kind of anti-Wizard contingency. Like another Wizard. One that is not drunk.

>>318388
"Tell you in a bit-when we don't have a pissed off Russian army behind us, okay?"
>[Big]"...You thinking they'll come after us?"
"Let's just say it would not be a bad idea to have your guns ready."
As Big occupies himself reloading the Tokarev and checking his Mare's Leg he so fondly calls 'Doorbell'....

I get to driving-and thinking-as much as I can over the horrendously loud snoring behind me.

>>318497
The first thing to occupy my mind as I floor it southbound on P511-is the new deaths on my hands. I'm well past giving a shit about killing someone who was a threat to me-and while it may bother me now and again, I don't have issue living with killing innocents if it serves a purpose. But... those new lives on my hands-in Keihäs' stock....
>[RAPID RATIONALIZATION Trait activated]
...Wait. I had reason to believe the town a hostile environment-an excessive amount of reasons, actually-the supremely huge quarantine, the cold-hearted Russian officers, the mind-altering mist, the mass suicide-I would have to be crazy to NOT consider myself in hostile territory, with what I knew at the time. Hell, I only learned otherwise a handful of minutes ago. They died because I had every reason to assume them a threat-the words are true, yet ring hollow within my mind, my heart. No... this isn't enough to make me feel absolved of the sin of their murders..... But I know what is.

Grigori Wowk.

Had he not done what he did, there would have been no need for death-the village of Pobadino would still be populated, and General Vladimir would be elsewhere, and not here murdering everyone left in the village. Yes... if anyone is responsible for their deaths-it's him. The passed out man in my back seat is responsible for more innocent blood on my hands-something I am sorely tempted to thank him for with some .44 caliber aspirin-or .454, or .410 bore-I'm not picky. There are exactly three reasons I don't do so:
1-I still no far too little about the monolithic beings known as Wizards to feel comfortable attempting to kill one.
2-General Vladimir was all too happy to have us killed-and for now, having Grigori seems insurance against such actions.
3-I can manipulate the drunk into being of use to me.

It leaves a poor taste in my mouth-but I can't see a better option in the here and now than leaving him alive.

...And just like that, I no longer feel I will be haunted by those deaths. Perhaps I should be concerned I can become okay with such an atrocious act so swiftly...

But I find myself more occupied with schooling my mind so that I don't betray the realized hate of the man ultimately responsible for further staining my hands.
>[Amen]...Mortals, mortals, mortals-why is it you are so obsessed with ethical 'purity?' Just because only a 't' separates you from this fabricated mechanism of telling right from wrong does not mean it matters.
Amen...
>[Amen]Yes this one knows-it is a topic that should not be broached-this one offers apologies.
>>318467
While you're in my mind-I had some questions.
>[Amen]The police have stopped visiting the property grounds-however, a mortal woman by the name of Adelat was here earlier today-she is under the impression that you are related to what occured across the street. Naturally this one followed your orders and provided her with no meaningful information-but this one suspects that will not deter her. Beyond this one individual, the legal presence as a result of how we met seems to have died down.
Please let me at least think my question first before answering it.
>[Amen]Of course, master.
Do the Turkish police have reason to believe Savoy involved in what happened?
>[Amen]Why, why why-just so.
From here on out, please call me to ask for individual instructions when visitors come to the house-the only ones exempt from this would be ones that forcibly enter-for them, chastise them in whatever manner you deem appropriate, so long as it does not leave implicating evidence in or around the house, and does not render information to the invading party, or those associated with them.
>[Amen]To clarify-this one has permission to do as this one wishes with unlawful intruders so long as they disappear and no informational transaction takes place?
Correct.
>[Amen]For that... this one must give thanks. It should help alleviate boredom.
Next, I want you to gather information on Savoy-
>[Amen]How?
Eh?
>[Amen]This one wishes to know how it is to gather information of any sort, unable to leave the property? Does master have phone numbers I should call for this?
Well...
>[Amen]Master is quite aware of this one's limitations-why make such a request?
So you do not have contacts?
>[Amen]Smets made a point of executing all those this one knew after claiming ownership-this one has no contacts.
Well then. How goes the financial situation?
>[Amen]Some of Smets' enemies are attempting to freeze his accounts-there may be a considerable delay before this one can extricate more funds.
I see.

I realize we have made quite some headway in driving away, and thanks to the impressive amount of speeding I've been doing, we are getting close to the P509 junction-I get ready to make a left and get the FUCK out of this Oblast.

>[Big]"Can you talk now?"
>>318387
>>318417
>>318434
"Okay-where to start..... The guy in the back seat is a Russian Wizard-one who very much so likes his liquor-and he was upset I couldn't speak Russian so... he made me able to. He was in Pobadino to get drunk-and thought the townsfolk rude, so he turned them invisible, along with rendering them mute-then, as an apology for taking all their liquor, he made that mist, which slowly inebriates people in it. That bring you up to speed?"
Big says nothing for several minutes, digesting what I said.
>[Big]"...So we killed-"
"Innocent people in the rifleshop, yeah."
>[Big]"......That is no good."
"No it isn't. Do you have an idea on how to rectify it?"
>[Big]"With the Wizard responsible in our back seat? Hell no I don't. ,,,Just leaves a bad taste in my mouth."
"You and me both."

Ten minutes after we hit the intersection and start heading east towards Lithuania, I note a light blinking on the radio-seems even when off, it registers someone trying to contact it. I turn the volume down first-and tentatively click it on.
>[VC]"I wonder if you know what you have just done, leaving without reporting to me."
>>318391
"Maybe if I wasn't busy keeping this wizard happy, I would care."
I hear a harsh intake of breath-and hear the General begin speaking in Russian.
>[VC]"Get a trace running on that radio-I want to know where they were ten minutes ago!"
I resist the urge to tip my hand and reveal I understood him.
>[VC]"....He is with you?"

"It was the only way to get Grigori to remove the mist from the town-I did what I had to. I also must note that this fulfills our agreement-you now know he was responsible for what happened, and have your answers. Unless you are going to tell me you do not know him."
>[VC]"I can hardly do that, given my... reaction when you discovered those bottles."
"So, do you intend to be that glowing recommendation you said you would be?"
>[VC]"Is Grigori awake?"
"I can't help but note you didn't answer my question."
>[VC]"You stole military equipment, why should I answer-"
"Funny thing that-you can have the radio back, and the grenades, the launchers-all that is still in Pobadino. So-actually haven't stolen anything. If you want to talk to someone about my departure-well, Grigori might be able to answer, but I am not waking him up-I am quite certain he is the cranky type."
>[VC]"It was the munitions we cared about-you can keep the radio."
>>318392
"No-you can have it back-I'll leave it for you to find-shouldn't be hard, I imagine you have tracking devices in it."
For a moment the radio is silent.
>[VC]"So you have no intention of returning to make an official report?"
>>318392
"I have a new drinking buddy-and as he wants some quality time getting drunk in Tijuana-well, who am I to deny him? Well, got to go-"
I switch off the radio and toss it out the window before promptly rolling it back up.
>[Big]"....So, I don't think he is very happy with us now."
"Do you think he was going to keep his word?"
>[Big]"HAHA-no, I've worked with the Russian military before-while I didn't know the name of the general in charge, I have heard stories about their wing that deals with the supernatural.... put it this way-three supernatural threats, twenty civilians as potential hostages... they will take twenty three bodybags."
"That was the impression I got."
>[Big]"One thing in their favor-they aren't fans of live experimentation, so there is that."
"It's something, I guess."

Big and I both fall silent again, out attempt at banal humor to disguise our feat crumbling. ...An entire division of the Russian army now has both of us on their shitlist.

Great.


I have to admit to being surprised when we aren't stopped at the border-but we make it into Lithuania without any issue. Getting paranoid, I pull over and thoroughly check the car with Big after pushing one of the four remaining jugs into Grigori's hands when he wakes up in a stupor-to find no tracking devices, nor any explosives. Well, that just means they weren't expecting us to ever get back in the vehicle. From there, we keep driving, find a small town to spend the night in-I pay for some rooms-along with three old bottles of clear alcohol I am told are from Estonia from the 1930's-which are a whopping 98% alcohol. Hopefully that should be enough to keep a guy who puts down two GALLONS of whiskey in a day happy-for a while.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30th, 2010

We tentatively rouse Grigori with what I feel to be an excellent idea-waving one of the Estonian bottles under his nose until he stirs with a smile, blindly grasping. We get him back in the Escalade, pay our bills and hit a gas station-and continue north toward Latvia, with my collection of assorted currency still going strong.
>>318508
[FANART BONUS-INFO GAIN]
With Grigori actually awake, I start speaking to him while he happily nurses the bottle of Estonian liquor.
"Is that acceptable?"
>[GW]"..The booze? 'sgreat, got an actual... whatsit, KICK to it."
"Happy to help-if you don't mind, I had a question that's been bugging me."
>[GW]"I.. I make a habit of indulging good drinking friends-what is it?"
"Well.... why don't you just... magic up some liquor, instead of hunting it down?"
>[GW]"..'sgood question. Yer right-I could just make booze appear-but I don' want to. Thing, thing is, that if I did-I'd already know what it tastes like, what the kicks like-because I made it, right? Only way to have a bottle and not, not already know, right, what it's like-is to get it the normal way."
"..Makes sense. So why not just teleport bottles into your hands?"
>[GW]"'nother good quession. See, if'n I try to do that, without knowing excat... exactly what I'm summoning-I could end up pulling from... other places. Some don't like that. Rather jus... jus' drink in peace. So-get it the normal way."
I think within his slurred words are some crucial bits of information on what Wizards can and can't do-I'll need to consider them carefully.


It's early-afternoon as we're heading up the A12, getting near the Latvian border-when my phone rings-it's Camella.
>[Camella]"Calling to let you know that Professor... Jagda? He finished translating the book for you-and he is quite insistant he speak with you-in fact, he has called eight seperate times today demanding some way of contacting you-so unless you have a great reason, I'm going to give him your number."






What's my response?
Do I have any more questions for the currently conscious Grigori?
Any orders or queries for Amen?
Is there anything I want to talk with Camella about?
What am I going to do about how this all played out with the Russian military?
Any places in Latvia or Estonia I want to stop in, or should I try to go directly to Tallinn to cross over to Helsinki in Finland?

Don't see any reason not to. It'd be nice to talk to someone who can't kill you outright, for once.

He Is happy with us, now is our chance to make him give us super powers.

>>318630
No.

>Any orders or queries for Amen?
"Amen, never make anymore deals with Savoy, and stop all current deals with him"

>Any places in Latvia or Estonia I want to stop in, or should I try to go directly to Tallinn to cross over to Helsinki in Finland?

Stop only for more booze.

>>318630
That comes only when we've been giving him booze for even longer.

Inform him that if he gives us the power to make booze, he will have an unlimited supply of it and will be unaware of what it's like before drinking it.

>>318655
I APPROVE OF THIS

>>318655
+1 for possible hilarious outcome

>>318655
make and control

>>318655

This seems like a hilariously bad idea. As is letting anyone tamper with Armas' soul more than necessary. Or his mind, come to think of it. The Russian Language integration could have damaged something if Amen hadn't been buffering (actually it could have anyway, as indicated by the headache), and Armas has already done quite a bit of damage to his metaphysical underpinnings in the past three months, what with the gates and the decades of time in the NeverNever and the Winter and Summer courts fighting over him and his near death experience fighting Brandt where he swapped bits of his soul and yeaaah.

Actually it might be a good idea to ask Amen to do an audit of Armas' mind and look for damage, signs of tampering, blanked spots, and other problems.

>>318611
>What's my response?
"Sure, you can give him my number... or give me his, if you've got it."

>Is there anything I want to talk with Camella about?
Of course.

Ask her if anything interesting has happened since we left. How that assistant instructor bit she mentioned is working out. If she's looked up Go Ping again, and how he's doing if she has. How the Right Laine is. If she's doing well.

Warn her that we may have cheesed off the Russian military something fierce. Their supernatural shit division, in particular; anyone else we'd have overcome with our unbeatable competence and endless charm. Also, for her reference in case she ever has to deal with them: They are dicks.

Also warn her that there's a Emniyet İstihbarat Daire agent- Turkish FBI, kinda- looking into us. Name of Adelat. Friendly, but not very exciting on dates and we just couldn't get over the feeling that she was more interested in infiltrating our business than our bed- good call there, eh? Anyway, we doubt it'll be important since Camella's at her own place but figured she might appreciate the heads-up.

Also comment that this Indian guy we're hanging out with is fun and has cool spirit powers, but he just doesn't play the straight man like she does and that is a damned shame.


>Do I have any more questions for the currently conscious Grigori?
I am inclined to ask him what the military wanted with him, if he feels like telling us. Hopefully the question won't be too indelicate, but it would be good to know.


>Any orders or queries for Amen?
Ask him what he thinks would happen to us if we ate a wizard's heart. Out of, ah, academic curiosity.


>Any places in Latvia or Estonia I want to stop in, or should I try to go directly to Tallinn to cross over to Helsinki in Finland?
With the Russian black ops potentially after us we must hasten onwards, in spite of the many charms that Latvia and Estonia have on offer.


>What am I going to do about how this all played out with the Russian military?
I wish there was a way that we could square things with them, but I don't really see how short of making sure that Grigori ends up in their hands, which isn't really an option until we're sure that we could get away safely without him in our presence.

ask amen if the russians can track you via the blood bond you made with the scientist.
This is a problem because while YOU can break yours (proably? thanks to the ability you got on third nevernever strike), big red can't, and you can't break his... werewolf witch might.

give the professor phone number. when doing sneaky things remember to turn it off completely. when not being sneaky set it to vibrate (in case you forget to turn it off). Also disable interface sounds and on/off greeting sounds in the preferences so it doesn't make noise when you turn it on, off, etc.

>>318655
Not just the booze
ALL the booze. Mortal and supernatural alike.

Then, maybe we will be able to make our own kind of booze that he could never have tasted.

>>318706
Sure it's bad idea. I mean, out of everything we could ask, we ask the The Power to Make Booze.
>"Remember, Armas, with great power comes great responsibility"
>"Yeah- screw you, uncle!"

But still, would be awesome. We should ask Amen to protect our mind though.

>What's my response?
Yeah, sure, tell her to give the number.
Tell the professor that you are busy and abroad, that you will speak to him when you come back from the trip.
Tell him to send you the rest of the book too, you might need those recipes.

>Do I have any more questions for the currently conscious Grigori?
Yeah, just small talk. try to get him know better.
Like,
Who he is.
How long has he been a wizard.
Why does he just want to drink and nothing else.
What does he think of other wizards and their shenanigans.
Ask him if he wants some bitching food to go with the alcohol and prepare something awesome (like "shashliks" from before). You might need to become creative here, as I doubt any recipes call for something similar.
And stuff like that.

After he eventually passes out again, tell BC what he just said. No sense in leaving him in the dark.


>Is there anything I want to talk with Camella about?
Ask her how she's doing.

Unlimited Booze Works may sound fun guys, but I think that my stupidly vague idea of a power may be more useful for us right now.

From what I seen Grigori is a drunk idiot. He's not deliberately malicious just incredible stupid, shortsighted and selfish. The entire situation in the town was caused by those 3 flaws. However, when he made the mist, his intentions were sort of good. He just didn't consider nor understand the consenquences and so unfortunately he took the worst kind of action. Stupid+Shortsighted+Reality warping powers= do I need to go on.

So, I'm thinking that maybe we should ask him for the power that allows us to make people understand our point of view or something like that, maybe the ability of imposing our point of view. So that we can make the stupid drunk understand what he did and maybe, just maybe he will become less volatile.

Either that or we talk and explain everything to him, which may take too long. Of course, we could also let him emerge himself in our mind and make him revisit thet events of the town clusterfuck.

>I think within his slurred words are some crucial bits of information on what Wizards can and can't do-I'll need to consider them carefully.
Let me take a crack at this.
1. If a wizard creates something "out of thin air" must know what s/he is creating and cannot use variables, no "between 40 and 180 proof", but exact and detailed knowledge of what they are creating (so in the case of alcohol, exactly what it would taste like).
Alternatively, they can make something with variables but in the act of creation will gain complete knowledge over it.

2. If a wizard summons something, they can either summon something exact which they know as well as in the above example (creation). OR they could summon something more vague but in which case it could end up being something really bad from the beyond (eldritch abominations from the nevernever?)

>Power to summon booze.
Make it the power to CREATE, not summon. We don't want to summon an eldritch abomation that makes HIM scared to do so.
It sounds like an awesome power, if we are ridiculously lucky he will give us to power to create things in general and just assume we use it for booze... See if amen can transfer knowledge of bartending and wide assortment of alcoholic beverages into our minds... regardless though Armas DOES have some familiarity (remember the drinking binge before, the exotic drinks he ordered, etc). Also would be nice skill to show off to mr dragon bartender and impress him with.

However I get the feeling we will need a LOT of fanart for this NOT to end up horribly. He could make us into a bar bot... or he could just force us to follow him around and ignore all our other obligations, or move in with us... actually the last one will be HILARIOUS!...
meh, let's do it.

>The power to create Alcohol

While initially seeming like a niche ability, the ability to create a flammable fluid at will is quite beneficial.

>>318778
the power to create ALCOHOL would make us unable to create DRINKS.
Drinks are not 100% alcohol.
They contain also water and a plethora of organic compounds...
So the power to create water, alcohol, and organic compounds at will.

He already KNOWS how to use the power to create booze out of thin air... but we would get the power and no knowledge at first, so it should be the power to create booze AND the knowledge on how to use that power and maybe his knowledge of booze. And we can quest with him to find new types of alcohol.

If the power is restricted to alcoholic drinks, you can still effectively create water by making a 0.X% alcohol drink (might require inventing one first), and effectively make fire via alcohol by making 98% alcohol drink. Organic compounds... not so much so... unless, you could make fruit for fruity drinks, umbrellas, sugar, salt, etc.

>>318794
High-proof drinks would still be flammable.

Also, when fighting things with an incredible sense of smell, some drinks could easily stun them or knock out their senses.

PRACTICALITY!

>>318811
>High-proof drinks would still be flammable.
That is exactly what I said.

My issues is that the power to create drinks means the power to create a lot more than that... unless he somehow restricts the power to only allow us to USE the power when we are creating drinks, then it requires that we get the power to create water and complex organics.
You know whats a complex organics besides alcohol? Wood, meat, C4, etc.

We will ask him when he is more sober.... eh, I don't know if such state exists for him though

If we're going to ask for something like this, go for something broader, and don't ask yet.

If you're asking, request the power to create any liquid we've tasted, (not just drinks, but don't say that), and to control the temperature of liquids - no one wants warm vodka if they can help it.

As the big risk is that he would never let us go, say "The best part of the deal for you is that you wouldn't be stuck with me, as you would know I was creating something for you to drink everyday, you could simply summon it to you hand whenever you pleased."

>>318851
>If you're asking, request the power to create any liquid we've tasted,
that limits us though. I like the idea to be able to summon any kind of booze/liquid

The temperature control is also great idea.

>As the big risk is that he would never let us go, say "The best part of the deal for you is that you wouldn't be stuck with me, as you would know I was creating something for you to drink everyday, you could simply summon it to you hand whenever you pleased."

How about the ability to teleport said drinks (with or without containers) to anyone we know no matter if we know their location or not.


>cue drowning Savoy in vodka ... no, drown him in warm, cheap beer.


>and don't ask yet.
Yeah.
I agree with this. Better set up a better relationship with him. Maybe wait for few days or a week.
Exchange stories, build up friendship, all that jazz. Armas should be able to use his social skills to improve relationship with this guy.

Might as well work on our charkras when we find time, it's not like we will be driving behind the wheel 24/7.
Might ask Amen for advice, but be careful when wording the questions, don't leave place for alternative interpretation.

Check out the Tallinn central market and get some winter gear and anything else you might need. Pretty cool place IIRC. It's November after all. Stock up on food, booze etc. as everything will be more expensive in Finland. Also try to pick up a 2nd hand phone with credit on so you can call that professor and get him calmed down.

Make sure your car is fitted with winter tyres! If you get caught in the snow without them then you're fucked.

Am I the only one who thinks asking for superpowers will backfire horribly?

Yeah sure go ahead and give him our number. I'm sure we're missing something that could bite us here, but I can't think of it so we might as well.

Thank Camella for telling us that, ask how she is and if anyone else left any messages for us. And we wanted to get her opinion before buying anything, would she like us to bring her a shirt or a snow globe from our trip?

If the professor calls back tell him we're willing to answer his questions, but he has a choice. We can answer them here and now and be done with the issue or he can join us for dinner and experience the dishes he translated first hand, we are a great cook and there will be interesting company.

And you know I'm more interested in questioning Amen than Grigori right now, we have a really big backlog of stuff to ask our terrifying butler.

Like what did the blood in that flute I drank come from? How was it acquired? Did Smets have a store of blood somewhere? For instance a cellar where he kept the good stuff? What about all the blood from the scuffle in the mansion, did you do anything with it? If not try to salvage what remains and if possible separate Big Crazy's blood from Savoy's and divide Savoy's into natural and demon blood. Then hide the blood for us, perhaps in the same place Smets hid his stash.

Now that Savoy has been reclassified he is no longer due the confidentiality he was given before, correct? If that is the case then inform us of what deal Savoy had to make to receive the arm, in fact inform us of any recent deals you know Savoy to have been a part of. Where exactly did the arm he got in the deal come from? What abilities did the arm have that we do not already know about, similarly what abilities did Savoy possess that were not demonstrated in the fight? Will the demon blood that pumped through Savoy's veins effect him, and if so in what ways? Did Savoy divulge any of his future plans to you? Tell us about them in detail if he did.

Also Cornelius Zosimus gave me Smets' number, the number I used to reached you earlier, under the pretense that Smets was an assistant of his well versed in surveillance. Now if that was his job within the Zosimus Dynasty and he was good enough at it to collect information in such a manner that would allow us to call him up at any moment and receive intelligence regarding his current location he probably had an impressive network. In fact he probably had things in place within his own dynasty, from what we know of vampire politics that would almost be a given. Surely someone those kind of resources and skills kept a log of information or has equipment in place we could exploit and use. We would like to be informed of any such things if they exist. Any useful information should be collected and compiled for us, kept hidden until we ask for it.

You know we might want to talk to Big Crazy for a bit too. He's Native American of the Mohawk tribe and while not the same tribe as the one the Doonongaes' mythology originates from they are both a part of the Iroquois League. It stands to reason he may know a thing or two our favorite fish friend or at the very least can educate us on other New World monsters. I figure he owes us a solid for the information about vampires and sunlight, if he doesn't feel the same I guess we could offer to tell him about one of our wild adventures. I don't supposed he would be interested in the story of how exactly we killed Olga's husband would he? If he is feel free to tell the story, leaving out specifics like names, dates, and locations. You could include Savoy's part in that actually, we can't spread it to the Germans because we're on their most wanted list, but it might be possible for him to do that at a later date.