Griffin O'Callahan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
icastsword) wrote2022-03-11 06:00 pm
icastsword) wrote2022-03-11 06:00 pm
Entry tags:
Session 97: Bard's Gotta Bard
Last week we defeated a mistake of our own making.
We pick up at the end of the interrogations. We were forced to remain in our interrogation rooms while Watkins went through the crew one at a time and no one was released until he was finished.
Crimeny investigates the Truthiness chair. They roll an 18 Arcana and notice the Zone of Truth rune. Follow-up question - NO, Crimeny can't take the chair. Fine. Do these chairs look alike except for the engravings? Yeah, pretty much. Roll another Arcana (18) to recreate the enchanted symbol on the other chair. Crimeny enchants the other chair with the Zone of Ruth. Actually they don't impart magic onto this chair, they just make it look magical. Now that that's done, Crimeny switches the positions of the chairs.
Does anyone else want to play any practical jokes on Interplay while we're here?
Does Nellie still have her belongings? Yes. No one's belongings were confiscated. Can Nellie use her Engraving Quill to put some runes of Grease on the interrogator's chair? Sure, roll Arcana: 25. Nellie is able to etch markings into the chair that enchant it with Grease. The next time someone sits in this chair they will fly out of it.
Does anyone ELSE want to do anything?
Of course Jericho does. He examines the Liar Chair in his room. He wants to copy down the enchantment on this chair. 18 Arcana. This design is kind of ornate - it runs down the legs of the chair and the underside of the seat. Jericho's just going to take a pencil and some paper and make rubbings of the - Oh wait, Jericho has a phone. He gets like halfway through taking rubbings of this spell and remembers his phone. He takes a picture. He also wants to fuck with Watkins. Is he going to inscribe Fireball or Dispel Magic? This is a tossup. Buuuut, these are interrogation rooms, so someone innocent could get dragged in here, like Kug, or Primrose, so maybe not Fireball. Let's inscribe Dispel Magic. Jericho rolls a 21 Arcana to etch a Dispel Magic rune in the other chair. Once Jericho finishes doing this, he attempts to walk out the door.
There are Interplay Agents stationed outside the door. Jericho gives them an acknowledging nod and walks. They block his path. What's the moon phase like right now? The full moon in August 2020 was on the 4th. We're in Mid-August, so Jericho is at minimum goosiness due to the proximity of the New Moon. Jericho wants to know why he can't leave. These agents haven't been given permission to let him leave. Jericho wants to know if he's under arrest. The agents look at each other. Time to roll Insight: 21. These agents cannot formally declare Jericho under arrest, but something tells him that when Watkins left, he was like, "Don't let Jericho go anywhere because things are probably about to start popping off."
Jericho is informed that he is not technically under arrest. But if Jericho doesn't cooperate the agents might be forced to arrest him. But if he's not under arrest, then they can't keep him here, because that's unlawful. You have to have a reason to arrest people. Time to roll Persuasion: 29. How afraid of their boss are these agents? One of the agents steps forward and says, "You know what? We'll escort you. Where do you need to go?"
Jericho first off requests to retrieve his colleagues. Unfortunately, they're still in the process of being interrogated, so we can't interrupt them. Would he like to get something to eat? Go down to the commissary?
You know what, yeah. Why don't you show Jericho around your HQ? :)
These agents escort Jericho to an elevator. All of the buttons are unmarked. There's also a key card reader. One of them swipes a key card and hits three separate buttons. The doors open, and the commissary is here.
This commissary is like one of those really nice, expensive cafeterias at fancy museums. There are a lot of food options, and a lot of different extra-planar cuisine is available.
Jericho wanders around, has a look at the food options, makes some small talk with the agents. One of the agents points out a kiosk where they prep Infernal cooking. Jericho turns to the other one and asks him what his favorite foods are. This one likes the Feywyld cuisine. But also have you ever had a Celestial Pastry before?
Ryo: That sounds like a sex thing.
Jericho explains crossfit to this guy. He's making nice with these dudes. These two agents are thinking hey, this guy is pretty cool. He's a pretty nice guy. Jericho continues with the small talk and rolls Performance: 18+7=25. He has totally managed to sweep these guys up in the conversation. Jericho is such a cool and relatable guy who goes off on cool adventures. Isn't it so weird that your boss is all weird about this? Jericho's just a good dude!
After sweet-talking these guys for a bit Jericho swings the conversation back to his people: Do these lads know when Jericho's employees are going to be free?
These guys' names are Agent Donothan and Agent Thanodon. Agent Donothan is the guy who needs to lose some weight. They don't have an answer for Jericho's question.
Watkins needs to do his thing. It shouldn't take long but he's kind of obsessive. Jericho wants to know if he's always like this? Yeah, he doesn't relent. There's a reason why he's in charge of almost all of us. Watkins is DRIVEN. If something's bothering him or if something needs to be done, he doesn't rest until the case is closed. He's like a dog with a bone. He's a hardass.
He's a hardass, but he does genuinely care about us. He doesn't work anyone to the bone. He's not a bad boss. He's strict but you know…we lost some good guys tonight, and I know that's going to weigh heavily on him.
Donothan and Thanodon want to know what it was like fighting Long Furby. Thanodon wants to know how Jericho managed to keep the building from falling in? Jericho tells him, to be quite honest, he thinks it was a miracle.
Thanodon's mind is blown. 'Wooooooooooah.'
Jericho really wants these lads to walk him around. You boys don't happen to fancy taking a little bit of a walk around, do you? Roll Persuasion. That's a 25. These dumb boys are in love with Jericho. They rolled a 5 and a 10 Insight. They're happy to take him for walkies! :D
Jericho will let these guys lead him around, but will steer the conversation. He's going to ask them to tell him about some of the crazy shit they've seen working for Interplay.
Jericho is going to get these poor stupid lads fired. :(
Interplay doesn't follow normal laws of physics. It's like the Bureau of Control. Jericho rolls a 14 INT and has trouble keeping track of doors he goes through and escalators he rides on, since he's steering this conversation it's hard to pay attention to direction. Every now and then they'll go through skywalks. Every window shows a different city in a different part of the world in a different time of day. The agents show Jericho the gym, they show him a library/archive for general research, and then they meander by one very large doorway. This whole thing is marked "Restricted Access" "Authorized Personnel Only", etc. It's a big solid metal door. Jericho roll Arcana: 19. This thing is warded to hell and back.
Jericho gives a little whistle as he walks by. "Oooh, you've got that thing locked down!"
Donothan informs Jericho that this is where Interplay's Central Control is - it's where all the Gate Tech is powered. He doesn't think even Watkins is allowed in here. If something happened here all the gates that lead in and out of earth, all of the gates could either shut down permanently, OR open up and anything in any form could walk through.
All we know is that if something happened in there, it would be really bad for everybody.
:)
Master Ambrosia can go in there, obviously, and rumored people, but no one is really sure who those guys are to protect them from folks with ill intent.
It's good to know that you fine boys are keeping everything as safe as possible for everybody. That's what everyone signed on for - they want to make sure Earth is safe from all the bad boogedies out there.
Jericho brings the conversation around to the bonobo monkeys. As this conversation turns, Ant rolls a dice, and Master Ambrosia rolls up to confirm that the monkeys have been very troublesome indeed.
Ambrosia owes Jericho and his group many thanks for intervening today. Ambrosia dismisses the agents. They about face and get the fuck out of there.
Ambrosia puts a friendly hand on Jericho's shoulder and invites him to walk with him. It's not like Jericho has a choice right now. The hand is a permanent fixture on Jericho's shoulder. So forward on the first date! Ambrosia starts walking Jericho away from that big metal door.
Ambrosia asks Jericho how things are going with everything? Everything's kind of truckin' along. Business is good - current events notwithstanding. Ambrosia wants to know how Jericho's going along with that scythe.
Jericho tells him that's been moving along too. Ambrosia requests a more detailed explanation.
AMBROSIA: I no longer wish to mince words with you. I'm sure you know that things are quite dire right now.
JERICHO: Since we're not beating around the bush, where's Valentino Carvallo?
Ambrosia was hoping JERICHO knew.
Ambrosia knows what attacked today. Jericho asks if he cares to share with the class. Ambrosia counters; he's sure Jericho knows what we fought today because we're the ones who gave it form. He's not upset, he's alarmed. His position in the grand scheme of things is to prevent this thing from happening. The fact that these beings have breached the Sea of Chaos does not bode well for - not just our world, but all of the other worlds. He was hoping Jericho knows where the rest of the psychopomps are. He has associates in other realms and he has been unable to contact them.
Jericho doesn't know what happened to the psychopomps.
AMBROSIA: Make no mistake, you are now an integral part of the natural order. You're very special, Mr. LaCroix.
JERICHO: While flattery will normally get you everywhere, what's more important here is how we find where these missing psychopomps went and how we find them. I'm the one here with limited resources. YOU'RE the one with this vast organization and resources. What's the plan here?
Ambrosia tells Jericho that his hands are tied in a certain capacity. He tells Jericho his name is NOT Ambrosia, and when he attempts to tell Jericho his actual name, it's just radio static.
Let's face it, the invasion has already begun.
So what are our options?
For now I surmise that the best way forward is for you to continue as if we never spoke. I imagine at some point in the future our paths will cross, and at that point I will be able to explain to you the nature of things. I fear that when that happens, something will likely happen to me.
Have I ever mentioned to you that all this Destiny shit is HORSESHIT?
This goes far beyond the concept of destiny. Time itself is what binds us.
That does not make this less horseshit.
AMBROSIA: I understand how frustrating this is. There's very little I can give in way of reassurance. However, I wish to stress, I am not your enemy.
Jericho wants to know if Ambrosia can write down his name. Can he do sign language? Do you know sign language? Can we charades?
JERICHO: If you wish to know my true name, look no further than the book your friends delivered me.
At that point Jericho hears footsteps. He turns to see his good friend Agent Watkins. Ambrosia imagines that Agent Watkins has more business with Jericho. Ambrosia bows. Jericho doesn't bow, because he's not a fuckin' weirdo. He nods. Maybe he would've done a handshake if Ambrosia weren't such a fuckin' weirdo.
Watkins is maybe seconds away from an aneurysm.
What can I say, Wilson, I have got many eyes in the fire.
In Ambrosia's place is a single owl feather. Jericho takes the feather.
Watkins tells Jericho he and his group can leave, but we are NOT done. Watkins has what he needs, so Jericho will be hearing from him real soon. Jericho can't seem to get rid of Watkins. The feeling's mutual.
Watkins will escort Jericho back. Jericho will continue to run his mouth. Watkins escorts Jericho back to his interrogation room. There are two new agents standing guard. One of them is a female dwarf and the other is a male half orc. Are these just alternate universe Bowen and Gorudak?
Jericho likes a challenge. :)
Watkins shoves Jericho into the room and locks the door. The room has been enchanted with Silence.
Everybody waited extra long in their interrogation rooms because Jericho was off having an Interplay adventure.
Crimeny gets bored. There's a table in this interrogation room, right? It doesn't have screws anymore, save for one that will hold the entire thing up until it's touched.
After several hours we are finally led back out into the parking garage with our kidnapping buddy (Griffin with Nellie, etc). And they drive us back to Jericho Investigations. It's like 2:30am.
Jericho wants to know who wants a drink. The crew is down. Will Crimeny check for bugs in the office? Yeah, they'd better. Roll Investigation: 29. The place is, remarkably, not bugged. But it does look like it's been…not ransacked, but it's clear there have been people here. It looks like the place was swept.
Nellie's portrait of Gastromodeus is still here, but all of the liquor in the entire office is gone, especially Jericho's desk whiskey.
We need to go on a liquor run.
Crimeny finds traces of a spell component, which is the fur of a bloodhound.
CRIMENY: Nellie.
NELLIE: Yeah? What is it?
CRIMENY: There's a thing.
NELLIE: What, are you saying we need to vacuum more? Give me some context here.
CRIMENY: Dog fur.
NELLIE: Dog fur?
CRIMENY: MAGIC dog fur.
Nellie, roll Arcana: Nat 20+10. She recognizes this as the only necessary spell component for Detect Creature. They were looking for Toit. The spell can only locate a specific creature if it's known to the caster. They probably wouldn't be able to pick out Toit, so it was sweeping for ANY verden.
Nellie has a proposal for Shane: Let's go be pirates on the sea of chaos.
Can Crimeny send out messages to send Interplay on some goose chases? Send them to the McDonalds, and once they get there, ask them for a McFlurry. Say that's the code word!
Jericho tells us he got a tour of Interplay, and tells us about the magic door and his chat with Ambrosia.
Nellie's going to get out her Whisper Jar. What should we look up from Interplay's Archives before her access is revoked? What about stuff about ourselves? Sure. Let's start with our goosey boss. Nellie rolls a 13 History which doesn't beat the 15DC. She does get a recording, though: She gets a recording of Watkins dictating his case file notes on Jericho. It cuts in on the middle of the case file number.
WATKINS: At this juncture I think it would be safer to put Mr. LaCroix and his associates under arrest pending the rest of my research before he gets it in his head to do something potentially crazy and stupid. He's already aiding and abetting a fugitive, and he's in possession of an unlicensed warforged. I suspect Agent Bishop has gone native. That's not to speak of his other associates with their combined abilities could prove to be this organization's undoing. Thanks to Mr. O'Callahan's testimony I believe I have enough to actually arrest Mr. LaCroix. I'm sure he and his group will not go without a fight. There's also the question of where they're hiding the goblinoid creature and Professor Holt. It is my opinion that he needs to be heavily supervised. Hopefully by this time this week I will be able to bring him in and close this case.
Griffin sits down at his desk and begins to write his resignation letter. Jericho informs him he will not be accepting any resignations at this time. Griffin wants to know how is he supposed to gracefully resign for getting Jericho arrested if Jericho won't accept his resignation? He can't. Jericho reassures Griffin that things are going to be okay.
At this time, Griffin's phone goes off - Toby finally responds to his text from hours before.
TOBY: Sorry man, I just got this and looked into the whole thing. Things are really bad. Watkins is handpicking loyal agents and word is around Interplay that there's going to be a big bust. What did you guys DO?
Jericho gets a response back from Verona saying, "I'll look into it." And then another response, "Lots of Interplay movement in Earth Realm, something big is going down."
Well, sounds like it's time to skedaddle. Nellie asks Griffin if his moms can take care of her painting. Yes, absolutely, his Mom especially would love to have a chat with Gastromodous.
What kinds of alerts are we getting from Extra-planar news? Earth-realm is getting locked down. No interplanar travel in or out. At least through the official gates.
Should Shane stay behind while the rest of the party books it out of earth realm?
This might be a good time to bring up Ambrosia's convo. Jericho's not too worried about being arrested himself because he is the only psychopomp currently. If Watkins tries to incarcerate him he's confident Ambrosia won't let him.
If we do wind up splitting the party, it might not be a bad idea for Jericho to stay along with Shane, if Shane decides to stay. Griffin might also be okay to stay too, since he gave up all the good juicy info when Watkins asked.
What do we need to address? Watkins is coming for us. We need to take care of Holt and Toit, and Crimeny and Nellie need to get the fuck out of dodge.
Shane can stay to try to convince Watkins he's still a double agent.
Nellie and Crimeny HAVE to leave. And considering Toit needs to go back to the sea of chaos, that's number 1 on Nellie's priority list. They're going to need to leverage the illegal back doors. Nellie's familiar with them - she doesn't have a map of all of them, but this also isn't her first rodeo.
The Magmatic Realm is off the table of options since Primrose lives there. Once Nellie disappears, Interplay is probably going to check in on Primrose first. Maybe Crimeny and Nellie can take Toit and Holt to Midshade and get shelter from the Gnomish Mafia. This should give Jericho enough time to leverage shit with Interplay to get them off our collective dicks and convince Watson that this crew of dumbasses will be better utilized helping Interplay figure this shit out rather than rotting in lockup. Especially if he doesn't want to lose any more Agents. Maybe Watkins will get lucky and Jericho will beef it.
Is Griffin going or staying? Hard to say. He wants to go with Nellie and Crimeny to make sure they stay safe, but he also wants to stay in Earth Realm to make sure his parents are safe. He's probably insulated from arrest because he sang like a fucking canary. Probably.
Once we've got Toit and Holt to safety, we might also consider going above Watkins' head and explaining what happened to Ambrosia as an alternate way to get Watkins off our collective butts.
First step, we need to get Nellie and Crimeny the fuck out of dodge.
Crimeny & Nellie will bring the painting with them to Holt's bunker. Empathy will meet them there, then Plane Shift Holt, Toit, Nellie, and Crimeny to Midshade. Nellie's going to pack up all her notes in boxes and shove them into Crimeny's chest. She also packs up a lot of non-important things that she brought to the office, just so it's hard to tell what was important and what wasn't. Crimeny advises she pack stuff like she's going on vacation.
What's our explanation for our missing team members? Nellie's taking a vacation. This past case was really hard on her and she needs some time to cool off. When Interplay follows up with Primrose and finds out Nellie didn't go there, we'd still have plausible deniability. Why wouldn't we believe Nellie when she tells us she's going to visit her mom? Looks like she lied to us, womp womp.
And with Crimeny, the answer, "I don't know" works well. Just for anything Crimeny-related.
While Nellie and Crimeny head out, the rest of the crew get to work gathering up anything potentially incriminating and scrubbing it.
Everybody has to roll a Wisdom Save. Griffin rolls a crit fail. Nellie rolls a 12. Crimeny rolls 17, Jericho 18, Shane 19, and Serra 29.
Shane and Serra are fine. The rest of the crew feel strangely like we're being watched. Someone is Scrying on us. We get a -10 to whatever we roll if the person Scrying has a bit of hair or something that belongs to us. Not only were we in the Interplay offices for hours, we visited the Interplay medicine tent.
This scrying takes place when Crimeny and Pip are on their way to Holt's - they're not there yet. They're using a combination of Uber and walking to get to where they're going. Nellie uses Message to tell Crimeny "This only lasts 10 minutes, something is about to go down." She sends another Message. "I can surround us with an Insect Cloud for 10 minutes." Crimeny suggests it would be best to walk towards Nellie's house for 10 minutes and NOT do anything to let the scryers know they're aware of them. Fine. She'll have her staff at the ready just in case. Crimeny's just walking her home because it's 2:30 in the morning and Nellie's very tired.
The 10 minutes pass and we no longer feel like we're being watched. None of us are sure what to do with this information so we end the session. Now we can spend the next week pondering how fucked we are.
We pick up at the end of the interrogations. We were forced to remain in our interrogation rooms while Watkins went through the crew one at a time and no one was released until he was finished.
Crimeny investigates the Truthiness chair. They roll an 18 Arcana and notice the Zone of Truth rune. Follow-up question - NO, Crimeny can't take the chair. Fine. Do these chairs look alike except for the engravings? Yeah, pretty much. Roll another Arcana (18) to recreate the enchanted symbol on the other chair. Crimeny enchants the other chair with the Zone of Ruth. Actually they don't impart magic onto this chair, they just make it look magical. Now that that's done, Crimeny switches the positions of the chairs.
Does anyone else want to play any practical jokes on Interplay while we're here?
Does Nellie still have her belongings? Yes. No one's belongings were confiscated. Can Nellie use her Engraving Quill to put some runes of Grease on the interrogator's chair? Sure, roll Arcana: 25. Nellie is able to etch markings into the chair that enchant it with Grease. The next time someone sits in this chair they will fly out of it.
Does anyone ELSE want to do anything?
Of course Jericho does. He examines the Liar Chair in his room. He wants to copy down the enchantment on this chair. 18 Arcana. This design is kind of ornate - it runs down the legs of the chair and the underside of the seat. Jericho's just going to take a pencil and some paper and make rubbings of the - Oh wait, Jericho has a phone. He gets like halfway through taking rubbings of this spell and remembers his phone. He takes a picture. He also wants to fuck with Watkins. Is he going to inscribe Fireball or Dispel Magic? This is a tossup. Buuuut, these are interrogation rooms, so someone innocent could get dragged in here, like Kug, or Primrose, so maybe not Fireball. Let's inscribe Dispel Magic. Jericho rolls a 21 Arcana to etch a Dispel Magic rune in the other chair. Once Jericho finishes doing this, he attempts to walk out the door.
There are Interplay Agents stationed outside the door. Jericho gives them an acknowledging nod and walks. They block his path. What's the moon phase like right now? The full moon in August 2020 was on the 4th. We're in Mid-August, so Jericho is at minimum goosiness due to the proximity of the New Moon. Jericho wants to know why he can't leave. These agents haven't been given permission to let him leave. Jericho wants to know if he's under arrest. The agents look at each other. Time to roll Insight: 21. These agents cannot formally declare Jericho under arrest, but something tells him that when Watkins left, he was like, "Don't let Jericho go anywhere because things are probably about to start popping off."
Jericho is informed that he is not technically under arrest. But if Jericho doesn't cooperate the agents might be forced to arrest him. But if he's not under arrest, then they can't keep him here, because that's unlawful. You have to have a reason to arrest people. Time to roll Persuasion: 29. How afraid of their boss are these agents? One of the agents steps forward and says, "You know what? We'll escort you. Where do you need to go?"
Jericho first off requests to retrieve his colleagues. Unfortunately, they're still in the process of being interrogated, so we can't interrupt them. Would he like to get something to eat? Go down to the commissary?
You know what, yeah. Why don't you show Jericho around your HQ? :)
These agents escort Jericho to an elevator. All of the buttons are unmarked. There's also a key card reader. One of them swipes a key card and hits three separate buttons. The doors open, and the commissary is here.
This commissary is like one of those really nice, expensive cafeterias at fancy museums. There are a lot of food options, and a lot of different extra-planar cuisine is available.
Jericho wanders around, has a look at the food options, makes some small talk with the agents. One of the agents points out a kiosk where they prep Infernal cooking. Jericho turns to the other one and asks him what his favorite foods are. This one likes the Feywyld cuisine. But also have you ever had a Celestial Pastry before?
Ryo: That sounds like a sex thing.
Jericho explains crossfit to this guy. He's making nice with these dudes. These two agents are thinking hey, this guy is pretty cool. He's a pretty nice guy. Jericho continues with the small talk and rolls Performance: 18+7=25. He has totally managed to sweep these guys up in the conversation. Jericho is such a cool and relatable guy who goes off on cool adventures. Isn't it so weird that your boss is all weird about this? Jericho's just a good dude!
After sweet-talking these guys for a bit Jericho swings the conversation back to his people: Do these lads know when Jericho's employees are going to be free?
These guys' names are Agent Donothan and Agent Thanodon. Agent Donothan is the guy who needs to lose some weight. They don't have an answer for Jericho's question.
Watkins needs to do his thing. It shouldn't take long but he's kind of obsessive. Jericho wants to know if he's always like this? Yeah, he doesn't relent. There's a reason why he's in charge of almost all of us. Watkins is DRIVEN. If something's bothering him or if something needs to be done, he doesn't rest until the case is closed. He's like a dog with a bone. He's a hardass.
He's a hardass, but he does genuinely care about us. He doesn't work anyone to the bone. He's not a bad boss. He's strict but you know…we lost some good guys tonight, and I know that's going to weigh heavily on him.
Donothan and Thanodon want to know what it was like fighting Long Furby. Thanodon wants to know how Jericho managed to keep the building from falling in? Jericho tells him, to be quite honest, he thinks it was a miracle.
Thanodon's mind is blown. 'Wooooooooooah.'
Jericho really wants these lads to walk him around. You boys don't happen to fancy taking a little bit of a walk around, do you? Roll Persuasion. That's a 25. These dumb boys are in love with Jericho. They rolled a 5 and a 10 Insight. They're happy to take him for walkies! :D
Jericho will let these guys lead him around, but will steer the conversation. He's going to ask them to tell him about some of the crazy shit they've seen working for Interplay.
Jericho is going to get these poor stupid lads fired. :(
Interplay doesn't follow normal laws of physics. It's like the Bureau of Control. Jericho rolls a 14 INT and has trouble keeping track of doors he goes through and escalators he rides on, since he's steering this conversation it's hard to pay attention to direction. Every now and then they'll go through skywalks. Every window shows a different city in a different part of the world in a different time of day. The agents show Jericho the gym, they show him a library/archive for general research, and then they meander by one very large doorway. This whole thing is marked "Restricted Access" "Authorized Personnel Only", etc. It's a big solid metal door. Jericho roll Arcana: 19. This thing is warded to hell and back.
Jericho gives a little whistle as he walks by. "Oooh, you've got that thing locked down!"
Donothan informs Jericho that this is where Interplay's Central Control is - it's where all the Gate Tech is powered. He doesn't think even Watkins is allowed in here. If something happened here all the gates that lead in and out of earth, all of the gates could either shut down permanently, OR open up and anything in any form could walk through.
All we know is that if something happened in there, it would be really bad for everybody.
:)
Master Ambrosia can go in there, obviously, and rumored people, but no one is really sure who those guys are to protect them from folks with ill intent.
It's good to know that you fine boys are keeping everything as safe as possible for everybody. That's what everyone signed on for - they want to make sure Earth is safe from all the bad boogedies out there.
Jericho brings the conversation around to the bonobo monkeys. As this conversation turns, Ant rolls a dice, and Master Ambrosia rolls up to confirm that the monkeys have been very troublesome indeed.
Ambrosia owes Jericho and his group many thanks for intervening today. Ambrosia dismisses the agents. They about face and get the fuck out of there.
Ambrosia puts a friendly hand on Jericho's shoulder and invites him to walk with him. It's not like Jericho has a choice right now. The hand is a permanent fixture on Jericho's shoulder. So forward on the first date! Ambrosia starts walking Jericho away from that big metal door.
Ambrosia asks Jericho how things are going with everything? Everything's kind of truckin' along. Business is good - current events notwithstanding. Ambrosia wants to know how Jericho's going along with that scythe.
Jericho tells him that's been moving along too. Ambrosia requests a more detailed explanation.
AMBROSIA: I no longer wish to mince words with you. I'm sure you know that things are quite dire right now.
JERICHO: Since we're not beating around the bush, where's Valentino Carvallo?
Ambrosia was hoping JERICHO knew.
Ambrosia knows what attacked today. Jericho asks if he cares to share with the class. Ambrosia counters; he's sure Jericho knows what we fought today because we're the ones who gave it form. He's not upset, he's alarmed. His position in the grand scheme of things is to prevent this thing from happening. The fact that these beings have breached the Sea of Chaos does not bode well for - not just our world, but all of the other worlds. He was hoping Jericho knows where the rest of the psychopomps are. He has associates in other realms and he has been unable to contact them.
Jericho doesn't know what happened to the psychopomps.
AMBROSIA: Make no mistake, you are now an integral part of the natural order. You're very special, Mr. LaCroix.
JERICHO: While flattery will normally get you everywhere, what's more important here is how we find where these missing psychopomps went and how we find them. I'm the one here with limited resources. YOU'RE the one with this vast organization and resources. What's the plan here?
Ambrosia tells Jericho that his hands are tied in a certain capacity. He tells Jericho his name is NOT Ambrosia, and when he attempts to tell Jericho his actual name, it's just radio static.
Let's face it, the invasion has already begun.
So what are our options?
For now I surmise that the best way forward is for you to continue as if we never spoke. I imagine at some point in the future our paths will cross, and at that point I will be able to explain to you the nature of things. I fear that when that happens, something will likely happen to me.
Have I ever mentioned to you that all this Destiny shit is HORSESHIT?
This goes far beyond the concept of destiny. Time itself is what binds us.
That does not make this less horseshit.
AMBROSIA: I understand how frustrating this is. There's very little I can give in way of reassurance. However, I wish to stress, I am not your enemy.
Jericho wants to know if Ambrosia can write down his name. Can he do sign language? Do you know sign language? Can we charades?
JERICHO: If you wish to know my true name, look no further than the book your friends delivered me.
At that point Jericho hears footsteps. He turns to see his good friend Agent Watkins. Ambrosia imagines that Agent Watkins has more business with Jericho. Ambrosia bows. Jericho doesn't bow, because he's not a fuckin' weirdo. He nods. Maybe he would've done a handshake if Ambrosia weren't such a fuckin' weirdo.
Watkins is maybe seconds away from an aneurysm.
What can I say, Wilson, I have got many eyes in the fire.
In Ambrosia's place is a single owl feather. Jericho takes the feather.
Watkins tells Jericho he and his group can leave, but we are NOT done. Watkins has what he needs, so Jericho will be hearing from him real soon. Jericho can't seem to get rid of Watkins. The feeling's mutual.
Watkins will escort Jericho back. Jericho will continue to run his mouth. Watkins escorts Jericho back to his interrogation room. There are two new agents standing guard. One of them is a female dwarf and the other is a male half orc. Are these just alternate universe Bowen and Gorudak?
Jericho likes a challenge. :)
Watkins shoves Jericho into the room and locks the door. The room has been enchanted with Silence.
Everybody waited extra long in their interrogation rooms because Jericho was off having an Interplay adventure.
Crimeny gets bored. There's a table in this interrogation room, right? It doesn't have screws anymore, save for one that will hold the entire thing up until it's touched.
After several hours we are finally led back out into the parking garage with our kidnapping buddy (Griffin with Nellie, etc). And they drive us back to Jericho Investigations. It's like 2:30am.
Jericho wants to know who wants a drink. The crew is down. Will Crimeny check for bugs in the office? Yeah, they'd better. Roll Investigation: 29. The place is, remarkably, not bugged. But it does look like it's been…not ransacked, but it's clear there have been people here. It looks like the place was swept.
Nellie's portrait of Gastromodeus is still here, but all of the liquor in the entire office is gone, especially Jericho's desk whiskey.
We need to go on a liquor run.
Crimeny finds traces of a spell component, which is the fur of a bloodhound.
CRIMENY: Nellie.
NELLIE: Yeah? What is it?
CRIMENY: There's a thing.
NELLIE: What, are you saying we need to vacuum more? Give me some context here.
CRIMENY: Dog fur.
NELLIE: Dog fur?
CRIMENY: MAGIC dog fur.
Nellie, roll Arcana: Nat 20+10. She recognizes this as the only necessary spell component for Detect Creature. They were looking for Toit. The spell can only locate a specific creature if it's known to the caster. They probably wouldn't be able to pick out Toit, so it was sweeping for ANY verden.
Nellie has a proposal for Shane: Let's go be pirates on the sea of chaos.
Can Crimeny send out messages to send Interplay on some goose chases? Send them to the McDonalds, and once they get there, ask them for a McFlurry. Say that's the code word!
Jericho tells us he got a tour of Interplay, and tells us about the magic door and his chat with Ambrosia.
Nellie's going to get out her Whisper Jar. What should we look up from Interplay's Archives before her access is revoked? What about stuff about ourselves? Sure. Let's start with our goosey boss. Nellie rolls a 13 History which doesn't beat the 15DC. She does get a recording, though: She gets a recording of Watkins dictating his case file notes on Jericho. It cuts in on the middle of the case file number.
WATKINS: At this juncture I think it would be safer to put Mr. LaCroix and his associates under arrest pending the rest of my research before he gets it in his head to do something potentially crazy and stupid. He's already aiding and abetting a fugitive, and he's in possession of an unlicensed warforged. I suspect Agent Bishop has gone native. That's not to speak of his other associates with their combined abilities could prove to be this organization's undoing. Thanks to Mr. O'Callahan's testimony I believe I have enough to actually arrest Mr. LaCroix. I'm sure he and his group will not go without a fight. There's also the question of where they're hiding the goblinoid creature and Professor Holt. It is my opinion that he needs to be heavily supervised. Hopefully by this time this week I will be able to bring him in and close this case.
Griffin sits down at his desk and begins to write his resignation letter. Jericho informs him he will not be accepting any resignations at this time. Griffin wants to know how is he supposed to gracefully resign for getting Jericho arrested if Jericho won't accept his resignation? He can't. Jericho reassures Griffin that things are going to be okay.
At this time, Griffin's phone goes off - Toby finally responds to his text from hours before.
TOBY: Sorry man, I just got this and looked into the whole thing. Things are really bad. Watkins is handpicking loyal agents and word is around Interplay that there's going to be a big bust. What did you guys DO?
Jericho gets a response back from Verona saying, "I'll look into it." And then another response, "Lots of Interplay movement in Earth Realm, something big is going down."
Well, sounds like it's time to skedaddle. Nellie asks Griffin if his moms can take care of her painting. Yes, absolutely, his Mom especially would love to have a chat with Gastromodous.
What kinds of alerts are we getting from Extra-planar news? Earth-realm is getting locked down. No interplanar travel in or out. At least through the official gates.
Should Shane stay behind while the rest of the party books it out of earth realm?
This might be a good time to bring up Ambrosia's convo. Jericho's not too worried about being arrested himself because he is the only psychopomp currently. If Watkins tries to incarcerate him he's confident Ambrosia won't let him.
If we do wind up splitting the party, it might not be a bad idea for Jericho to stay along with Shane, if Shane decides to stay. Griffin might also be okay to stay too, since he gave up all the good juicy info when Watkins asked.
What do we need to address? Watkins is coming for us. We need to take care of Holt and Toit, and Crimeny and Nellie need to get the fuck out of dodge.
Shane can stay to try to convince Watkins he's still a double agent.
Nellie and Crimeny HAVE to leave. And considering Toit needs to go back to the sea of chaos, that's number 1 on Nellie's priority list. They're going to need to leverage the illegal back doors. Nellie's familiar with them - she doesn't have a map of all of them, but this also isn't her first rodeo.
The Magmatic Realm is off the table of options since Primrose lives there. Once Nellie disappears, Interplay is probably going to check in on Primrose first. Maybe Crimeny and Nellie can take Toit and Holt to Midshade and get shelter from the Gnomish Mafia. This should give Jericho enough time to leverage shit with Interplay to get them off our collective dicks and convince Watson that this crew of dumbasses will be better utilized helping Interplay figure this shit out rather than rotting in lockup. Especially if he doesn't want to lose any more Agents. Maybe Watkins will get lucky and Jericho will beef it.
Is Griffin going or staying? Hard to say. He wants to go with Nellie and Crimeny to make sure they stay safe, but he also wants to stay in Earth Realm to make sure his parents are safe. He's probably insulated from arrest because he sang like a fucking canary. Probably.
Once we've got Toit and Holt to safety, we might also consider going above Watkins' head and explaining what happened to Ambrosia as an alternate way to get Watkins off our collective butts.
First step, we need to get Nellie and Crimeny the fuck out of dodge.
Crimeny & Nellie will bring the painting with them to Holt's bunker. Empathy will meet them there, then Plane Shift Holt, Toit, Nellie, and Crimeny to Midshade. Nellie's going to pack up all her notes in boxes and shove them into Crimeny's chest. She also packs up a lot of non-important things that she brought to the office, just so it's hard to tell what was important and what wasn't. Crimeny advises she pack stuff like she's going on vacation.
What's our explanation for our missing team members? Nellie's taking a vacation. This past case was really hard on her and she needs some time to cool off. When Interplay follows up with Primrose and finds out Nellie didn't go there, we'd still have plausible deniability. Why wouldn't we believe Nellie when she tells us she's going to visit her mom? Looks like she lied to us, womp womp.
And with Crimeny, the answer, "I don't know" works well. Just for anything Crimeny-related.
While Nellie and Crimeny head out, the rest of the crew get to work gathering up anything potentially incriminating and scrubbing it.
Everybody has to roll a Wisdom Save. Griffin rolls a crit fail. Nellie rolls a 12. Crimeny rolls 17, Jericho 18, Shane 19, and Serra 29.
Shane and Serra are fine. The rest of the crew feel strangely like we're being watched. Someone is Scrying on us. We get a -10 to whatever we roll if the person Scrying has a bit of hair or something that belongs to us. Not only were we in the Interplay offices for hours, we visited the Interplay medicine tent.
This scrying takes place when Crimeny and Pip are on their way to Holt's - they're not there yet. They're using a combination of Uber and walking to get to where they're going. Nellie uses Message to tell Crimeny "This only lasts 10 minutes, something is about to go down." She sends another Message. "I can surround us with an Insect Cloud for 10 minutes." Crimeny suggests it would be best to walk towards Nellie's house for 10 minutes and NOT do anything to let the scryers know they're aware of them. Fine. She'll have her staff at the ready just in case. Crimeny's just walking her home because it's 2:30 in the morning and Nellie's very tired.
The 10 minutes pass and we no longer feel like we're being watched. None of us are sure what to do with this information so we end the session. Now we can spend the next week pondering how fucked we are.