OOC: Chapter 1 - NEW YORK, Starts 12th Jan 1925

[thewhatchamacallit]

After all that's happened he's still going to question the logic behind a lethal weapon using his machine gun?

[Raiko]

I've put the Penhew Foundation Business card back up on Imageshack (the original got corrupted). The links in both the handouts, and the "thirdfloor" threads work again now.

[Grafster]

Between getting the BAR and so on how much time do we have before we can go to the lecture?

[coffee demon]

After all that's happened he's still going to question the logic behind a lethal weapon using his machine gun?

Fer sure - ripping into people downtown NY with a machinegun is still nuts. I'm sure we'd be in a very different situation if you were firing that BAR at the car we were chasing. The pistols did a great job.

Remember, most of these characters have lived normal lives up until now. Even seeing pistols fired is probably pretty crazy. Automatic rifles are gangster/warlike. It's kinda "taking the law into your own hands", and Andrei isn't at that point yet.

Again, different story if we're in the desert or something, but we're talking downtown NY. If Andrei was a fanatic ex-soldier, or a gangster, he might think differently.

It wouldn't be so bad if it was left in the trunk of the car, so we could forget about it, but lugging it up into the apartment makes it hard to forget about. Like, why do we need it in the apartment?

It's cool for your character to do it, it makes for good roleplay, but I'm explaining my characters point of view, OC, in anticipation of a future discussion..

[Raiko]

Timour and Johnny retrieve the BAR without any problem, no cult assassins waiting in the shadows at the moment.

I'm going to add Jackson's Niarobi and London notes to the handouts thread as well, I forgot to do it earlier.

Note: As Elizabeth mentioned, Jackson Elias has written several books Sons of Death is just the most famous. Each book deals with rumoured Death Cults.

Sorry I was offline last night, I was feeling a bit ill. 11 hours offline

[Raiko]

As usual I'll let you all chat amongst yourselves until you decide to either leave the building, settle down for the night, or make a phone call.

As Maksim takes his coat he notices with some agitation that the inside liner now carries the sweet, heavy scent of gun oil. An odour that completely overwhelms even the pungency of his aftershave/cologne and threatens to transfer onto his clothes should he place the jacket back on.

[thewhatchamacallit]

Every person connected to this thing and not yet deceased is a possible ally and Timour knows if you don't work to protect your allies you're not long for the war.

[Maksim Rukov]

Psst: Maksim needs a refill.

Nah, he's not drunk. It hasn't been full in a few days. He's had two mouthfuls and it's empty. But then, it'd be funny if someone accused him of alcoholism one of these days so ... just the head's up.

Maksim doesn't buy in to all this cult stuff. He figures Jackson made some enemies who decided to kill him. Probably some p***ed off rival or someone he'd stolen money from or who's woman he seduced. Everything else is just a red herring to cover a more mundane crime.

However, he's not willing to bet anyone's life on it and needs the money he can get from investigating. In that order of priority.

So anyone who's real good at seeing beneath a person's facade, especially one at his level of 'lying ability' will see his true feelings as fairly dismissive of the whole cult thing or any hint of conspiracy but still very concerned about the welfare of those around him. Perhaps the merest glint of greed in his eye, too. He'll also seem quite protective of Elizabeth (who may be the cause of all this - perhaps Jackson was murdered to hurt her).

[Grafster]

I prefer it if you don't have "location tags" for your characters, as that was the whole point of the separate thread (and why I left the "third floor" thread as "third floor" rather than switching it to "Ancient Rome" when they stepped through that portal )

Wanted to come back to this. Obviously for the 'secret' threads you just put Location: XYZ thread.
I guess I was just thinking that it would be a bit easier to keep track of what people are doing (or what people think they're doing).

I've been doing it so far but have to admit its a bit of a pain to take care of.

PS: I love RSS. I love (in an appropriately masculine and platonic fashion) my Keeper for getting us RSS.

[imme]

It seems like there is some confusion, Cowles is the same person as the professor that Elizabeth is about to call. Or was about to call, before she went to her bedroom. I feel so sorry for her, what a tough day. I think she's the only character who hasn't had to deal with rough things in life before. I promise I won't keep her weepy forever, but I don't see how she wouldn't be pretty shaken up today.

[Grafster]

It seems like there is some confusion, Cowles is the same person as the professor that Elizabeth is about to call. Or was about to call, before she went to her bedroom. I feel so sorry for her, what a tough day. I think she's the only character who hasn't had to deal with rough things in life before. I promise I won't keep her weepy forever, but I don't see how she wouldn't be pretty shaken up today.

Roleplay? Appalling!
You want to be low level forever? No? Then it's all about the E-X-P points.
Get a move on lady, those Orcs won't be killing themselves!

I admit to having no idea who Cowles is. I was just following Thomas' lead since he put up a big organized thread of points we need to follow up on and that conversation got a bit sidetracked.

There's at least one or two other promising leads that I feel like we're forgetting about. I had one in mind but can't recall now.

[coffee demon]

Just to try to get these leads organized, and who's going to follow them:

Thomas: Harvard – what book was Jackson after?
Johnny: on phone in a moment? Anthony Cowles - Professor – death cults – symbol on forehead?
Thomas: Emerson Imports – (& “Silas” something on back of card)
Johnny: Yacht on photo.
Johnny: Stumbling Tiger Bar – 10 Lantern St.
Caroline: Dr. Hustons File.
Elizabeth (and Andrei?) Erica’s party?

and a couple others we haven't mentioned:

Police – what were other cult-murders about?
Penhew Foundation – London – what is it?
Cairo - Fariz Najir - not traceable from NY. Maybe Import Guy knows him?

If I shouldn't be mentioning those now, I'll erase them, since no one has brought them up and Andrei is consoling Elizabeth, and can't bring them up.

As anyone volunteers to help on things, I'll put them on the list. Or if anyone thinks of other leads.

Lets assume one of the characters is writing this list down - it would be a good thing to keep track of.

[Raiko]

Sorry, I'm having a pretty bad week, I've got major car problems now

I'll try to post something later, but I'm not very happy at the moment.

Is Johnny going to try to talk to Professor Cowles himself, or will he wait for Elizabeth to feel up to it?

Coffee Demon: Although getting Elizabeth to himself would obviously make Andrei happy, if you spread yourselves that thinly at any time in the adventure don't be too surprised if some of you get killed.

BTW: Most of New England is suffering heavy snowfall, Erica's house may be difficult to reach now; Arkham will be almost impossible to reach by road.

Remember as well that it's too late today to follow up a lot of the clues.

[thewhatchamacallit]

Police – what were other cult-murders about?
Penhew Foundation – London – what is it?
Cairo - Fariz Najir - not traceable from NY. Maybe Import Guy knows him?

Oh Coffee, tsk, tsk... You haven't been reading all of Timour's posts have you.

[thewhatchamacallit]

Webster will have to update their dictionary to include the party's actions *subject to change*


Timour- A violent, generally unprovoked reaction to a situation

Example-

Keeper- You hear a unidentified noise behind you.

Player- I turn and Timour the hell outta it.


Johnny- The action of ignoring any pressing situation while still seeming completely helpful throughout the ordeal

Example-

Keeper- You hear gunshots downstairs, above you, directly behind you and assassins are standing right beside you shooting your friends

Player- I Johnny through the nearby corpse’s pockets looking for useful clues


Andrei- The action of being completely civilized no matter what the situation calls for

Example-

Keeper- The cultists open up with their machineguns

Player- This is New York City, people should be far more Andrei and much less Timour.


Elizabeth- The action of getting a great deal of attention by doing very little

Example-

Keeper- You drop your hanky and cars crash together as men leap from their moving automobiles to retrieve it for you

Player- *tee-hee* Well isn’t that so Elizabeth of me.


Thomas- The act of smoking and showing no emotion while you do anything

Example-

Keeper- you plummet from the plane with no parachute, you’ve reached terminal velocity. The bomb in the briefcase you’re carrying is about to explode and the salivating men who jumped out of the airplane after you are firing wildly in an attempt to kill you

Player- *while lighting a cigarette* I stay Thomas, no since getting worked up over things I can’t control…


Caroline- Being constantly undecided

Example-

Keeper- The sun is up do you want to get out of bed?

Player- Oh, oh my, I am just so… so Caroline at the moment.


Maksim- Denying that you are being manipulative *when you clearly always are*

Example-

Keeper- Monsieur, are you trying to seduce me?

Player- I assure you darling, I’m Maksim.


Raiko- Providing false assurance to those asking pressing questions

Player- Can I fire into the crowd and avoid hitting any of the innocent people or the gas truck sitting nearby them?

Keeper- Don’t worry, everything will be Raiko.

[imme]

[Maksim Rukov]

I absolutely adore mine! That is so absolutely brilliant. So wonderfully and terribly Maksim through and through. I can't congratulate you enough on nailing it. Maksim just can't help but manipulate, for good, or bad, he's always providing a show.

Way to make me laugh.

Like seriously, I stopped laughing for a bit. I really did. Then I cast my mind over past actions, and laughed again. Oh dear... Why do we have to be playing Masks? Can't we go play a less-than-lethal campaign where we can all be entertaining together?

Pretty pretty please!

Don't suppose we can drop the difficulty level or enable God Mode or something?

[Decrepit]

OK, I'm a bit lost here now. Are we *not* breaking up then for the night? I thought Thomas was leaving and so were others, with the thought that Elizabeth's place was unsafe. But Maksim seems to not agree ...

Maybe the weather changes things anyway?

[Maksim Rukov]

There isn't much else to do tonight, that's true, and this place isn't safe. However, Maksim doesn't believe that everyone going their own ways is a clever idea. He'd prefer it if everyone went to one of the lesser known people's apartments, even if he had to move them himself. However, he is willing to let people break up into smaller clusters, he won't suggest that anyone be alone.

[imme]

I see the point in leaving a highly-identifiable location, but it may be that the cultists are not aware of Elizabeth's (& crew's) involvement yet. Also, her apartment building should have a guard all night, since it'd be an obvious choice for burglars. Splitting up may not be the best idea; if we want our characters to survive for any length of time, I think we'll find strength in numbers. So, if people want to leave Elizabeth's, I think we should all go to Andrei's place, or wherever else. Unfortunately, anywhere but Elizabeth's and we're likely to be sleeping on floors.

At this point Elizabeth will agree to whatever, so I'm merely stating my point of view.