[Red Tower] Boaz - December Downtime #2

December Update #2

Retainer Orders: Bob Smith's orders this month are really simply.  Hang out at Elysium and listen to rumors.  See who comes and goes.  See what the current of the community is.  Make sure he wears the magic ring that helps him be a duplicate.

Other: The curse has finally begun to lift, and his mind is restored to the level that it was before he was embraced.  He becomes more intelligent and a lot of what he has been reading in the library starts to make sense.  With this new found intelligence he also understand how to stop wasting so much money and effectively increases his resources to three simply by understanding how his  cash flow works.  He also increases in Lore (Bete/Non Garou shifter), Security, Computers and (given what happened last time) Drive.

Actions

1) He helps out the medical couriers/emt (influence) by 'taking care' of some of the worst domestic abusers the can't do anything about on Christmas Eve by using presence on them and having them chill for a while. 

2) He will spend some time at the Howling at the Moon bar....curious if some werewolves show up.  He spends some night there to see if anything unusual comes up.

3) He will occasionally, just because he can, spend some time at a cafe near the Bank of America building seeing if anyone...interesting comes in or out after hours.  He makes sure he is FIRMLY in cam territory when he does this.

[Red Tower] November update #2

1) Boaz will use his emt influence to arrange for someone wont look too closely at an "accident" that his new ghoul has that "burns his face and hands."  And will use his ally the medical examiner to make sure that it can be staged in a way to make it stand up to scrutiny.

2) He will then arrange for reconstrctive surgery for the ghoul to look like his own face.  So when all iDs are reissued, they will have Boaz's face.

3) He will ask his ally the enchanter if he can provide an enchanted object to help make the ghoul act and sound like him.  He will work and train with the ghoul using spy glasses amd an ear piece to say what boaz tells him to say and act like him when he says it

[Red Tower] November Update #1

1) Boaz has learned the technique Will To Live, and tries an experimental overdose of intelligence enhancing drugs in some of his herd whilst drinking their blood.  On any person it was a high dose but not overwhelming (keeping EMT's on hand in case one of them was harmed) but then drinking twice as much vitae as he normally needed with the drug pouring through his veins, a lethal dose in a human and possibly even harmful to a vampire normally, but with the regeneration in his brain, natural pathways clogged by the Brujah prediliction for violence were opened...and
felt the possibilities open up in his mind.   He felt the flood gates open and intelligence he had long thought lost slowly return to him. 

2) He began to appreciate his new intelligence, going to symphonies, ballets, the mint, all kinds of places in the new city.  Libraries.  Books.  Not much to this downtime except that he is simply enjoying his new intelligence a great deal.

3) Boaz has got a name.  Bob Smith.  He finds Bob Smith and uses entrancement to get him to 'drink some cool aid' with him while out and about.  He repeats this three times.  Bob Smith looks an awful lot like him.  Boaz intends to take it even further than that and has learned of a black market plastic surgeon that is going to help Bob look just like Boaz.  Bob doesn't really have a lot in the way of skills, but he is now blood bound to Boaz, loyal to a fault and soon he will be able to act as Boaz during the day when Boaz needs to be present in the sunlight.

Boaz spends several days helping Bob familiarize himself with Boaz's life, the alternate ID he has set up for himself, learning to mimic his voice and understanding critical details he'll need to serve Boaz during the day.

[Red Tower] Boaz Mocktock

[Red Tower] Epistle to the Tzar

"Your highness,

You asked us to explain our qualifications for the position of Primogen.  I must say that my bold deeds are few, my powers eclipsed by those of my elders as a humble neonate, and my list of boons and connections are few and far between.  But what I do offer is a desire to serve.  Simon Bolivar said it best when he stated, 'To be great is to be grand and useful.'  I would be useful.  I have the recommendation of the rest of Clan Brujah, since frankly my fellows would serve the realm in other ways.  I also have the assault against the blood hunted tremere to add to my recent credit.  I have also reason to believe that I may have discovered a method of removing the curse on my intelligence, which might also be of use.

Your servant,

Boaz Mocktock
Clan Brujah."

[Red Tower] Boaz Mocktock - October Update #2

Boaz believes that the technique "Will to Live" will help his regenerative powers, and allow him to restore his mind that was lost upon embrace.  He begins to study drugs and methods of removing the block from his mind.

1) Boaz is going to act as backup and troubleshooting for the efforts of the EMTs, Medical Couriers and first responders avoiding the use of tainted anti psychotics.  Mainly, he's going to entrance any supervisors or morons giving them a hard problem for not doing it or paying a bit more tu use external sources.  This is obviously a tiny dent  in the overall use of anti psychotics, but he is going to back his people up.

2) He will follow up with up with the medical examiner and make sure that the bodies of the possessed humans killed in the combat in the fight with the demons isn't going to come back to haunt the Camarilla.  He's not asking him to lie since possessed folks probably don't leave lots of stuff to break the masquerade, but he'll follow up to make sure.  He will make sure the shotgun he used is utterly destroyed and hidden and then replaces it.

3) He will pay a PI with access to facial recognition software, to find the people who look the most like him build wise and frame wise and age wise in North Carolina.  Of these, he will find the top two or three who have no lives or family ties to speak of and look for appealing candidates for a ghoul body double.

[Heromux] EXILES: The Silent Planet

Summary: The Exiles head to Mars to destroy a Death Ray

Location: Another dimension... another dimension... another dimension...

Date: 1935ish, probably

Emitter: Scott Summers

Players: Kilroy Capital Conneticut, Angela del Toro, Jane Roe

NPCs: John Carter of Mars, Synthetic Men of Mars, The Timebroker

Groups: The Exiles

Tone: Weird

Rating: Public

When: Impossible to Determine
Where: Ditto
Why: Soon to be Revealed
f"I really ought to stop having these meetings in the middle of nowhere."
If it were any other man, at any other time, in any other place, this statement would most likely be taken figuratively. A relatively unassuming middle-aged man, moderately overweight and severely balding, with a red bowtie and a bright purple vest, stands next to a table upon which rests a large caraffe of hot chocolate.
Beneath his feet, translucent ice is all that supports his not insignificant weight. The ice extends only a few hundred meters in all direction, with the table resting almost squarely in the center.
There is nothing beneath the ice. Nor is there anything in the environment surrounding the small ice island. In all directions, there is nothing but inky blackness, interrupted only by the light of a few very weak-looking stars.
He, and the tiny island of thin ice, are literally in the Middle of Nowhere.
The man looks at his ornate golden pocketwatch. "Three... two... one..."
Four portals open up around him. Three appear above the ice, one much larger one appears just off the ice.
"New team. Not a lot of old faces. How exciting."

Kilroy is a desolate lost boy wearing a shirt maid of the skulls of slain pirates, his feather plumed in a roman centurion helmet and penny in his sash taken from the beard of a dead time god. Purely decorative of course. He has just stabbed the duke of pirate idle in the dimension of pirates when the portal opens up. Vacation over. "I will be brave." It is all he says. Almost all he ever says. He steps through the portal.

"Tiger, take left flank," calls Brew.
Angela does not much respect her senior officer's personal traits, he is often drunk and a bit violent, but he is all business in the field, so she moves to the left and calls for a power boot. The web of dgreen energy surrounds her and her implants tingle as the energy flows through them into the armor. A burst of energy from what they are facing, something she has yet to clearly see, sends her stumbling backwards into the portal...


A Skrull invasion is happening in New York, and Spider-man has been caught in the middle of it. Separated from his team-mates in the chaos, the dark-suited hero dodges weapons-fire and shoots a web out, swinging down towards the enemy... and suddenly he's here in the room, landing on ice and almost skidding right into the table before he stops himself. Looking around, he says, "Whoa... ok, that's new."
One Portal opens... and doesn't seem to stop growing for minutes. The others have well appeared as it still increases in size, having passed the size of the Hulk by far, reaching the one of a small corvette and then a full sized battleship.
Commander Sakamoto of His Imperial Space forces, Captain of His Imperial Space Super Battle Ship Yamato had just ordered a full check pof the ship as it was leaving docks, the particle guns on the upper deck starting their operation slowly as they were charged in a test run, just as the missile launchers in the bow where loaded. "I want the whoe ship operational ten minutes ago! Faster!" the Commander's yells filled the bridge, her harsh looks upon the crew. "Navigation, what are those readings you have there? Don't tell me we get enemy signatures just when we leave our Docks! I want that fixed right now!"
While the whole ship went to battle stations, the rift in the hall started to show a sign of red, and then something pierced it, looking almost like a steel potatoe, but it revealed to be the tertiary bridge of the spaceship which slowly descended through the rift, the pure mass of it breaking the ice and sinking the hull into it so just the dark grey painted upper part with most of the armament and the main bridge and auxilry brige stayed over it.
"NAV! What was that? All hands Battlestations! Get the enemy onto the screens!" The Bridge was filled with energic commands, the captain pointing onto the ice masses outside "Get me the arse that is responsible for this here right now!"



"Hmmm... let's make this simpler..."
Suddenly, the crew of the battleship is standing on the (now much smaller) ice floe.
"Let's see... don't need you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you..." This goes on for a while, as the Timebroker points at each member of the crew that he finds inessential. They all vanish instantly, presumably back to wherever they came from. However, the Timebroker is quick to disabuse anyone of the notion that the crew have been sent anywhere nice.
"This part is very boring for me, so I'm going to keep it very short. All of you are dead, plucked from your realities right before they ended. Time is broken, and you are now unhinged from reality. If you want to save your realities, you'll have to work together as a team to fix the entire Multiverse, one Universe at a time. But, realistically speaking, all of you will probably die in the process."
"Penny Whistle's done this before. Nice to see you again, by the way. Ask him questions if you want, I don't really care. Due to the Disastrous End that my last team suffered, I've elected Angela here to be your new leader. She'll be wearing the Tallus, through which I'll communicate all of my instructions while you're on missions."
A large armband thing with a big clear jewel in the center appears as if by magic on Angela's arm.
"Take a second to shake off the cobwebs, because you're going on your first mission, aside from Penny Whistle, in exactly sixty seconds. You'll be travelling to Ma'aleca'andra, also known as the planet Mars. A madman has set up a death ray, and it's your job to take it, and the scientist, out of commission permanently. How you do this is entirely up to you. But if you don't succeed...."
He points to the ship, and fires a beam of energy at it. The entire ship glows brightly for a few seconds, and then the energy fades away.
"... I've just ramped up the explosive capabilities of the ship's self-destruct system. So the mission will be accomplished, whether you all live to see it or not.
Suddenly, all of the assembled people are on the bridge of the Yamato, with nothing but a skeleton crew, a few Exiles, and a table with a carafe of hot chocolate.
Also, the ship is now plummetting quickly toward a massive city. On Mars.

A woman with gold amor and long dark hair stumbles backwards throug the portal. She is only getting to her feet when the Tertiary Bridge breaks through the ice and the show begins.
Angela would object to being in charge, she is pretty green for a WEB agent, but she gets the feeling that it is not optional.
"OK, so we have until the ship hits to finish the mission, well I was a detective first, I suppose that means finding the death ray is my job," Angela states. She looks at the Commander, "I assume you have some degree of technical skills?"

Penny Whistle makes marks on his face with the "face paint" of scarlet and makes an odd 'smiley face' out of it. He nods to the pthers sagely, helpimg to explain the nature of reality, the importance of doing this, how pirates were awful and how he looked forward to working woth them as a team by saying,"I'll be brave."

With a fast movement the service pistol of the Uniform clad woman is in her hand, aiming at the Timebreaker "You told me you just murdered my crew by sending it back to where they had been without the ship. So why exactly I should not kill you?" But then... they are back to the bridge, no crew there to control most of the machines. Seconds pass in which the woman draws in information, the gun lowering and being placed on the commander's chair side rest. "Status report! Full power to reverse, give me a lock upon whatever looks like a death ray to you!" Her commands to the few rests of the crew are clear, then she turns to the other that appeared upon her bridge "I don't care who that was, but it was neither the Emperor, nor the High command. I am a captain, not an engineer. Tell me what part of the enemy should be vaporised and I get you a nice new nebula, but I need someone to operate the guns, damit!."

Spider-man doesn't even get a chance to comment during the quick briefing, stunned as he takes in the information. "First Galactus, now this... what is it with ending the universe?" Shaking off the shock, he looks to the commander as she says she needs someone to man the guns. "Um... I'm pretty good at video games, if that comes anywhere near close."

Penny Whistle begins to play the pipes tjat summon the dead, a haunting dirge of long forgotten memory. Few are those it summons here, a few workers who died in its construction, rats, roaches and even a mascot monkey crushed in an elevator shaft. One skeleton (literally) crew. As they shamble on to the deck, Penny Whistle waves at them and nods to the captain.
Angela decides what she needs to do, "Get someone on the sensors Captain, we need to find an energy source on the planet below capable of powering a planetary scale energy weapon."


On the ground below, it appears that a massive battle is taking place. Naked warriors on the backs of primitive Martian beasts assault the city in droves, firing upon the citizens therein with weaponry that perhaps wouldn't look out of place in the Amazon rain forest on Earth. At the head of the charge is a man who appears to be, at least anatomically, completely human. Like all of his compatriots, he is also clothed only with a few pieces of jewelry and a swordbelt.
Within the city, the civilians seem to be dying off very quickly. But they are defended by a sizable defense force comprised entirely of Synthetic Men. With advanced energy weaponry, the Synthetic Men are making a valiant stand, doing their best to drive the attackers away from the city's borders.


Commander Sakamoto frowns, eying at the skeletons and undead... "I have no idea what you are, but if any of you is an engineer, hurry to the damned engines and get me full reverse power ASAP!" Stress creates gleaming buds of sweat upon her firehead. Turning to the boy, she points upon one of the main artillery consoles, which look a bit like an elaborate PC, but very much more monitors and an actual 'gun' to aim with "I have no idea what you mean by video games, but I need someone to pinpoint the targets. Think you can manage?" Her eyes wander over to Angela then she points to the chart table "I can offer Radar and Camera in various wavelengths, nothing else. Not sure how to pinpoint something called energy readings..." Then the eyes go back to Penny "Whatever you do there... nevermind, just don't stand in the way."

Angela looks for the computers in charge of sensory readings, but pauses to say, "I doubt anything can be done from here to stop the ship from collision. The odds are only by completing the mission can we save the ship."
Angela looks over the bridge, figuring out the purpose of various stations. Once she finds the sensory or observation or whatever they call them controls, she heads over to try to figure them out.

Penny Whistle jyst stands there. The crew hops to.

Nodding fast, Spider-man leaps over the console and drops into the seat. "Ok, this doesn't look /that/ complicated. Taking a quick second to figure out the controls, he starts looking through the crowds of naked warriors and Synthetic Men for anything that looks death-ray-ish.

There's a sudden surge of energy from a large structure near the city's center. A transparent dome begins to form over the tower, which unfortunately does not extend any protection to much of the city's civilian population. They're still pretty much getting ripped apart by the savages.
As the dome solidifies from nothing, the top of the tower opens up, revealling a massive set of coils arranged in a row. The coils begin glowing with a greenish light as the top of the tower slowly turns toward the ship, aiming The Death Ray directly at the Yamato.
This could hurt.

Penny Whistle randomly presses a buttpn

Angela notes, "That looks like our target, what kind of defenses does the ship havem Captain?"
Suddely a defense shield shimmers into place around the ship (thanks to Penny Whistle pressing the right button).
She adds, "If you can spar with the fortress, I can lead a strike team in to try to disable the machine."

"Even a moment more can be crucial, Girl." The Commander tells, taking a seat in her black leather seat, so she can operate the main controls of the captains station. "Whatever that thing is, Boy, you have the towers. Try to obliberate it." A look to Angela, then she shakes the head "The Hull and its mass." As the screens flicker to life she is confused herself "and what the research placed there..."


The weapon fires directly at the ship, punching a massive hole through the armor. In a flash, multiple decks are almost completely destroyed, and many of the ship's systems are rendered inoperable.

Penny Whistle heads to the lift anf heads down to the hanger.
The Spider quickly starts to aim the guns as he sees the death-ray, but machines don't move with his superhuman reflexes and it takes a split-second too long to aim. "Oh no," he says, a moment before the death-ray fires and tears into them. As soon as his target lines up he punches the fire button but whether there's still guns to fire...
Angela shakes her head as damage warning lights go on all over the bridge, "I better hurry." She joins Penny Whistle before the Elevator closes and hopes the power is not out between here and the nearest hanger.
Penny Whistle enters the authorization and activation of the hanger doors once inside the fighter by pressing random buttons.
Angela and Penny Whistle reach the hanger. She states, "We are taking an escape pod, thecontrols in those have to be simple...unless you an handle anything more complicated." (Glances at Penny Whistle uncertainly)

As the ship shakes under the Impact, the commander opens a panel of the desk, pressing in a sequence to activate the last resort, the missile batteries "Captains Log. This is Commander Sakamoto, captain of the Yamato. We were assaulted by an unknown enemy and down to barely functional. We will go down fighting. And that means we take down the whole enemy city with us. As I speak, the tactical warheads are armed." A glance over the rests of the crew and the young gunner "It has been a honor to pilot this ship."



With a sigh, the woman stands up, saluting towards the flag in the back of the bridge, then she flips a series of switches. 1...2...3...4...5...6. Each of them is accompanied with a rumble from one of the missile tubes receiving the command despite the heavy damage, stating the anti-ship missile in them.

Angela says to Penny Whistle, "We have to assume that the city has defenses and be prepared for an assault. Get ready to launch if this fails."

Penny Whistle floats in a pod w angel,"I will be brave

Spider-man gives a cheer as the dome is destroyed, but the seriousness of their situation becomes quickly apparent again as the Commander gives her speech and fires the missiles. He looks from her to the displays again.

On the ground below, John Carter of Mars loses all color in his face as the missiles begin raining down on the city. Heading up the Army of Savages, he's made a valiant reckoning of himself today. At his feet, the ground is littered with Synthetic Men who have been hacked apart most violently with a sword. However, despite his brave attempt to rescue his Queen from the tower of the Mastermind of Mars, it was all for nothing.
He falls to his knees and yells at the top of his lungs "DEJAH!" as the explosions rock the city around him, killing virtually everything within.
He, and the city around him, disappear in a series of fiery explosions, which turns the area for miles around to glass.
Almost immediately afterward, violent sandstorms begin pouring into the vacuum left by the explosion, turning the entire region into a swirling mass of red sand.

Angela frowns, knowing that allies were destroyed as well as enemies this day. It would have been better to try her plan first, but possibly the ship would not have survived long enough. This was war, and hard decisions had to be made, but she really does not like it much.

Penny Whistle begins to play the pipes for the dead martians led by john carter. He can help!

As the city goes up in flames, Commander Sakamoto falls back into the chair, sighing deeply, screens over her dark or red, marking the heavy damage the ship sustained "I hope the girl makes it home..."

Angela, pale from witnessing the destruction, turns to Penny Whistle, "I do not think we will need to go down, the destruction seems pretty total."

Penny Whistle says, ".....They were brave."

Frowning under his mask at the destruction below, Spider-man doesn't say anything, just sitting back and staring at the devestation

[Heromux] Captain Professor Voodoo Strikes Again

Summary: Hunters and Wizards gack the warlock and don't get along.

Location: Central Park, NYC

Date: 10.23.2014

Emitter: Kilroy Capital Conneticut

Players: Harry Dresden, Vikki Cunning, James Cunning

NPCs: Captain Professor Voodoo Master, Crystal Light

Groups: Magic and Mysticism

Tone: Heroic (to start), Gritty (To finish)

Rating: Public

The thunder flickered in the background while the lightning peeled, no...that wasn't right, but it was....the strange natural strobe effect...was anything but natural as the man with the voodoo mask and the demonic robes and callused hands was beating a drum in central park.....as the dead began to rise all around and about the area...slowly shambling toward the trapped innocent victims in the tavern on the green who had been cuaght unawares in a supernatural thunderstorm.
Downtime. It's all but a joke in this business. The Cunnings had been busy taking down some skinwalkers in New Mexico. So rather then stick around in town, Victoria started driving towards New York City. A little shopping therapy is always a nice way to forget your troubles (Especially when you aren't spending your own money.). It was just outside of the city that the weather started turning strange. The cool autumn air felt completely off. "Baconbits, I think we are arriving just in time..." Victoria punches the gas and the 68 Pontiac Boneville roars loudly and accelerates towards Central Park.
James Cunning says, "Roger and agreed Sis." He checks the shells as he loads them with silver. "I read somewhere that some kinds only go down with a special voodoo mix, you don't suppose its them do you? God I hate the weird kinds...especially when they get all apocalyptic....like unto the apocalypse." He takes a bite out of a hastily made sammich."
Bag of Burger King in his lap a burger half in his mouth, Harry Dresden: Professional Wizard, professional consultant to SHIELD looks out his window at the darkening clouds that are swirling in a counter clockwise spin and then the lightshow starts "Ahhh.. hells bells" he exclaims as he punches the gas on his beat up Volkswagen beetle. "Get me there quickly Ambush Bug and I'll buy you a whole new oil change, and the high octane stuff you like" he says to the bug as it coughs and sputters propelling the wizard towards the light show.
Remarkably, the bug does manage to eventually get the wizard there. The 68 Pontiac does so with considerably more style however. Half of the law enforcement in the city is tied up dealing with rogue spirits and the other half dealing with rogue criminals, so a jerk like this guy working in the shadows to create his own zombie apocalypse and maul the folks in the restaurant is just fine with him. Shambling from a nearby cemetery the dead rise and moan as the people encircled in a ring around the tavern shriek in terror and try cellphones that do not work very well right now.
The violet vintage car pulls up to Central Park. "Well then, Zombies. Gotta love freakin Zombies." She hops out of the car, pops the trunk, and then opens the secret compartment. "Head shots and blunt weapons I guess. Don't suppose you brought a wood chipper along did you?" She asks her brother as she draws a pistol and shoots a zombie in the head.
James Cunning says, "I keep meaning to get one," he loads the second shot gun as he slings it over his back and puts on the cool looking duster he got at Old Navy. Yes. You can get dusters at Old Navy. He locks and loads, "Let's go kill some undead." No, really its a sweater, its just a duster in his mind...like the real duster a real wizard nearby wears. "I'll keep looking for one small enough for the trunk...."
Harry Dresden is wearing a duster too, but this one is worn with much more style on his almost 7 foot tall frame blasting rod in one hand, rune inscribed staff in the other he starts making his way towards the trouble when he hears gunshots ring out. "Great just what I need, somebody shooting wildly." he exclaims not knowing the professional manner of the gunshots. Running around a corner he sees someone who tripped running, three zombies close to pouncing when he lets out a roar "You ruined my dinner! FORZARE!" He slashes with his quarter staff a crescent of pure force flashes out of the end of his staff to hit the zombies sending them back away from the guy. "Hey buddy, get inside, it's not safe out." ... oh yea.. Harry Dresden, king of the obvious..
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. This is not the Trolley. This is not the bell. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. The zombies advance on the people and greatly resent being set on fire. Several turn on the wizard and several more turn on the advancing hunters.
"CAPTAIN PROFESSOR VOODOO MASTER WILL TOLERATE NONE OF THIS!" He shrieks and plays his drum harder.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM The undead are redead. Definitely more shooting as a few more zombies rediscover their earthen rest, hopefully at least. Vikki shakes her head, "I think someones seen night of the living dead a little too much. Bacon got any flashy ideas? You're the letter boy right?" She forgot the proper name but at least she remembered what it was.
Harry Dresden walks forward "You kinda picked the wrong city to be messing with, I mean on top of Superman, Ironman, Spider-Man, Wonder Man, Iceman, Elongated man, you've got me. and I'm a Wizard man..." he says in a loud angry voice "should have picked someplace else to do the voodoo that you do." he calls out bringing his blasting rod out "Fuego!" a brilliant blast of fire shoots from the two inch thick oak tip of his blasting rod cutting into a couple of more corpses that start to burn.
"HA! I have heard of you wizard but the Loa told me tonight was the night for blood. They will not be coming tonight...tonight is the start of the surge, the thousand year surge that the spirits love and loath and fear....you will just DIE Wizard man..." he smiles and points his finger a glowing ring sending a glittering magic missile into the darkness at the wizard leaving behind a scarlet trail.
Zombies are killed by shotgun blasts and burned alive, but there are just so MANY of the damn things that the people have backed into the very open restaurants piling up chairs and tables and anything they can to keep the things out. Not very well.
Vikki changes her attack methods. She switches to an old faithful Louisville Slugger. THUNK THUNK THUNK! Heads are getting smashed. "We need to find the source." Vikki is starting to look quite messy from beating some of the more recently undeparted. "This is ridiculous. Someone's a walking dead fan around here!"
James Cunning is carrying more ammo than God...if ...God...needed to use a shotgun...much less two. He starts moving toward captain profe...the guy with the drum. "Hey, don't knock my show. It could happen. It's almost a documentary..." he tries not to think of the smell. That's what forged credit cards are for. Plus that's why he got the cheap not cool duster.
Harry Dresden' is dealing with a couple of zombies to his left when one to the right sneaks up on him and grabs his back claws digging into the protective leather duster he's wearing and not digging in, teeth biting into his shoulder that's thankfully protected as well. "Gah!" Harry exclaims trying to get the zombie off his back. "hey Shotgunman." he calls out having seen James and the other dispatching the zombies as well. "Put two in this things ass please." he says hunching his head down as he stumbles almost about to fall down to the ground..
The zombies have breaches the humans paltry defenses and begun to grab food. Captain Professor Voodoo Man laughs,"You see Wizard? It is fate itself on my side!" And thunder peals in the distance and the drum falls silent a moment. Perhaps he wasn't supposed to say that....
Vikki hears and then sees the voodoo guy, Carefully she slips her pistol into the back of her pants. Using the bat she begins cutting a path through the zombies in an effort to circle around and catch the private voodoo off guard. He does seem preoccupied with the wizard after all.
Jacob is like the other wolf in a wolf pack of two picking up on his sister cleverly doing what he suggested and then thinking it her own idea. OK. The ninja bit is her own style. He totally helps the wizard and shoots two blasts into the one that has clawed him.
Harry Dresden catches his balance as the zombie is cut in half, the black leather of his duster taking the shotgun blast and then rebounding the shot. He starts heading towards Voodoo man "Forzare!" he exclaims aiming the blast at the drums trying to take them out. "Ok, so now it's time you go down." he says
Captain Professor Voodoo Man can remember HIS name and sparkles as he shoots another magic missile at Harry's fire blast. "Ahahajaj crystal light your blast on fire Wizard, you cannot defeat me." The zombies begin gnawing on people but no one is dead...yet.
Finally Vikki is in place she draws her pistol and draws a bead. Walking closer and closer until she is at point blank range. "HEY! A wizard is the least of your worries. Right now you've got several ounces of lead aimed and ready to turn your head into a canoe. I strongly suggest you don't move." She watches the zombies. "Enough with night of the living dead. End it ting tang walla walla bing bang."
Ja...Bacon smirks at the wizard,"You are likely human fruitloops, So you get a small chance to live...take it." He shot guns a zombie eating people
"DEFENDARIUS!!" Harry exclaims bringing his arm up just in time to throw up a half sphere of magical energy as the missiles slam into it rebounding off to slam into the ground near his feet. "You ain't nothing like the babe man, gotta throw more juice then that Captain Zombie to get over on me." he says striking out at a few more zombies this time with the very physical presence of his staff before he once more tries to blast the drums out of his hand. "Focus on the drums, without them, the zombies won't stay animated, they need the beat." he calls out to the others..
CPVM raises his hands in surrender but the drums keep playing. "Ahahahahah Crystal, she keep playing man, but I will watch" quite cool he plats it but sweat beads down his forehead. This is no refreshing beverage. He does not want to join his crewe.
Vikki walks right up and puts the gun against the mans head. "End it or I end you. That is your choice." She takes a quick glance as if she is telling him to do something. The cold steal wouldn't be much more refreshing to anyone. "So what is this? Some kind of Witch doctor voodoo crap, My guess is, if I off you, the drums stop playing. Is that a safe bet?"
James Cunning shouts,"Whoa man, she must really like you....she is giving you TWO chances to live...aw screw this..." He shotguns the drum which punctures but does not destroy the drum,"The loa is riding him Vicks...nothing to ride...short trip."
As the drums are taken out Harry brings his staff around dropping the shield "Forzare!" he says again making a pulling motion causing a bar of force to appear behind Captain Zombie to trip him and send him tumbling to the ground.
CZVM shrieks as the drum is damaged but not destroyed and then turns to punch Vikki, which likely saves his life as he falls backwards The zombie s are moving at half speed and sort of crawl after people but the people run around them and begin to scatter.
The move does save his life but only for a half second. The moment he moves Vikki's pistol discharges sending a bullet right through CZVM's head. She is promptly coated with a bit more blood from the shot but no more mister Zombie guy. She shakes her head. "Idiot." Her attention goes to the drums. "James finish it!"
And for just a moment, CPZM becomes a zombie himself...and then becomes wormfood as he collapses, along with all the other zombies.
Vikki looks at Dresden and raises an eyebrow. "On the contrary. I took out the only real monster here tonight. That is what I do. I hunt Monsters. I warned him. He didn't listen. No more Zombie apocalypse. Sounds pretty straight forward to me!"
James Cunning says, "he got THREE chances dude, by the way," he extends a hand,"great to meet you, Jam...Jacob Cunning. Are you a man of letters?"
Harry Dresden shakes his head "There are laws that are set up to take care of that sort of thing, when you kill a mortal there's a psychic backlash, you might not feel it, but it's there. He was down, his source of power destroyed. Now he's dead and anyone here who had loved ones hurt or killed can't look at him going to jail for the rest of his life, or going to the electric chair after due process as a means of closure." he explains himself before he turns to look at James "He was /down/" he says in anger not taking the proffered hand. "Zombies, Vampires, Boogeymen of all sorts take em out, send them back to the nether from whence they came. But Mortals, leave them for the authorities, capture em, turn em in. Hells bells, he might have had a /boss/ either controlling him, or giving him directions, but because your girlfriend here is trigger happy, that won't be found out now will it?" he continues his tirade.. James Cunning has partially disconnected.
Vikki gives daggers to Dresden. "Really. I suppose you are going to start telling me how to do what I've done since I was a little girl. What about these people... all of them... The ones who had their rest disturbed to be controlled by the real monster. Turning them into creatures with the intention to kill people. Also, Last I checked if you stick a gun against someone's head they suddenly show their true colors. He attempted to attack me. That means he wasn't going to see reason no matter what happened tonight. The cops could lock him up but he'd be out again. Then... another night of the living dead. I did the right thing regardless of what you seem to think. The cops? Yeah. They are going to really believe this. Tomorrow morning, the headlines will read 'Maniac exhumes graves, kills innocent bystanders.'" Guess who will be blamed for it. Us. Not you Mr. Goodytooshoes. Us. The ones who came out here, got our hands dirty and took care of the problem. You see this as me murdering a man, I see this as saving hundreds if not thousands of lives." She is pissed.
James Cunning says, "you know...speaking of robbing graves, this guy Is totally ghost material, maybe we should salt and burn his bones?" Cool wizard guy and his sister. He knows which side he chooses. "Just walk away Mr Wizard. You wouldn't like her when shes angry. She liked the other guy and gave him chances."
Harry Dresden rolls his eyes "You had a gun, shoot him in the knee!" he just throws his hands up in the air "Just go." he says to the two "I'll explain what happened to NYPD, I'm giving them your descriptions as well. This is the /only/ freebie you're getting from me that I'm not trying to bind you here till the cops get here." he says angrily
James Cunning says, "so...that means exchanging numbers and being the Scooby gang isn't happening? You are gonna salt and burn voodoo guts body right?" He starts to head toward the car. He doesn't wanna kill more people. "We meet one guy who isn't a loony and he hates us. I am never gonna find a..." He keeps an eye out for his sister but backs off."
"So this... This is a freebie? You're an idiot. As I recall, you called for my brother to save your ass. You are doing us a favor? Your life was saved tonight by one of two people who don't have flashy powers wizard. Two people who stepped in and did your job for you. He was going to attack me while I had a gun to his head! Sure... let me take a few minutes to really think about pulling the trigger so I can take out his knee and get into a fist fight with him. Sounds like fun times in Central park. Take your freebie and shove it." Vikki turns and walks towards her car.
"You know she's right, right?" The fallen angel inside Harry's head decides to speak up. "And you're kinda wrong about those two.. their siblings if they're anything. She might even be single, and we know how you love redheads.."
Harry just leans on his staff, the ectoplasm of the zombies starting to fade away as tiredness sets in. "Shut up Lash." he says mentally trying to cut off her line of thought. He does though start to go about making sure there aren't any other psychic surprises left by the dead warlock...

[Heromux] The Trillion Dollar Coin

Summary: Kilroy returns homes to millions of people.

Location: New York Federal Reserve

Date: 10.23.2014

Emitter: Kilroy Capital Conneticut

Players: Fantomex, James Barnes

NPCs: Carmen Sandiego, Alice Hearts

Groups: Hydra, Magic and Mysticism

Tone: Gritty

Rating: Public

Kilroy has been preparing for months and it all comes down to tonight. He looks down at the small toy dog that was sold to him. It is far and away the most powerful magical object he has bought but he just can't believe it is what it is supposed to be. Nevertheless, he trusts the creator implicitly. Focusing intently in his mind, he closes his eyes, and whispers into the dog's ear...Fetch!
And off it goes! The dog vanishes from sight, becoming a small animated spirit, sprinting through timelines like shadows on a summer's day, the sun green one moment, red the next, then yellow again until he arrives in a sturdy fortress dire indeed, where happy pleasure lobotomized man quietly works his way through making magical currency in the 9 Prime Worlds, draining world after world as it is exposed in a window and using the magic from the Trillion Dollar coin to do so. Blithely smiling like an idiot, the former villain fails to notice the small dog steal the coin in his mouth and leap away to shouts of alarm from other guards. Back it goes!
The dog returns and drops the coin in Kilroy's hand. Then it barks happily, wags its tail and vanishes. To think the things he could have summoned with that....Thor's Hammer? The Infinity Gauntlet? But in Kilroy's hands this innocent little coin is quite dangerous indeed. To anyone else, its a theoretically redeemable in practicality ticket-to-laugh at coin minted by the US worth a Trillion Dollars a year ago in response to a budget crisis. But the magical symbology is potent indeed. In Kilroy's hand it pulses and hums. He feels...powerful. And with great power comes great responsibility. Responsibility to fix things....to make the world a better place. And tonight, after much planning and preparation, he will do just that.
The potion of invisibility works just as promised. He is able to walk right past the guards, and past the unseen magical wards that guard the reserve that few people know about. Kilroy is able to bypass those easily, and walks past another set of guards into the heart of the vault itself. He checks his watch, counting down slowly. When it is ten minutes before the closing of the bell of the stock exchange he will begin his work.
Well placed agents, those with friends or family whose homes were stolen, have been quietly moved into place by Limrick McFabisham, slowly setting up the dance that is to begin. All around the country but especially the city, Law Enforcement and several prominent heroes are raiding criminals with well placed clues, tied up and too distracted to easily respond to the the 'theft' that is about to occur. One that dwarfs all others in history...except the one that inspired this one.
And so the clock ticks down until finally...
The Federal Reserve begins to rumble and the skies over Manhattan begin to darken. This is not an evil cloud of dark omen but rather one of power, as gigantic ley lines are misdirected. Most every prominent magical being on the planet can feel the sheer magical energies being gathered here.
In every bank in the city, Kilroy's little gnome squad begins to change official corporate policy whilst their VIP's are on an official retreat in upper state New York. Legal procedures are changed to return mortgages taken by sheer attrition and neglect despite mandates from numerous federal agencies. Many of the regulators are also on that same retreat, in the interest of 'building bridges' so they can retire and work for the firms.
They think the plunge in bank stocks as the wiser hedge funds divest themselves of these entities is merely a passing fad. It is a lot more than that, because stolen assets are about to be returned to their rightful owners.
At the same time, all around the city, every corporate logo on walls, on products, in stock tickers and on advertisements begins to shimmer a little and begin to glow with a faint golden hue.
Fantomex knows little about magic. He knows a little about finances, but that is because he likes money a little too much. It is not as if he can legally invest his ill-gotten cash, he has no legal identity. But he keeps in touch with the news, with the world. E.V.A. is connected to the nets, she listens to the newscast, she notices when corporate logos everywhere begin glowing.
And E.V.A. floats lazily between over New York's landscape, an invisible, technorganic flying saucer. At Fantomex request, she is gathering information. They are looking for a reason or a cause to this unexplained development. Corporations are changing procedures (without being arm-twisted by the powers that be) and the weather going crazy at the same time. Both things are about as natural as flying pigs.
As the city begins to panic and money begins to move around, seemingly on it's own, a number of parties begin to fear for their finances. These actions have set into motion the deployment of a dangerous asset in order to remedy this situation. A cryogenic chamber manned by scientists and surrounded by armed men slowly unthaws and reveals it's occupant, a dark haired man, scarred but fit, with a cybernetic left adorned with a red star, the Winter Soldier.
Its not long before the Winter Soldier is ready to move. His mission is to identify and neutralize the individual who revealed the location of the safe house and hes prepared to do so. He stands in the open door of a helicopter, wearing mask and goggles to protect his face and identity. In his hands he carries an M4A1 carbine, equipped with a sound suppressor, reflex sight and an underbarrel grenade launcher, ready to move, watching the city below. He knows his mission, not the why of it. It doesn't matter to a living weapon.
Kilroy begins to move money. Lots of it. He moves more with a single wave of his hand than all other manipulations combined. It is like directing the ocean itself but precise and unearthly in its sheer awesome power. The curse of the Greek Goddess, designed to wipe The Economy from memory, makes all the paper work and each trail seem perfectly legal, perfectly concealed, backed up with paper work and title being sent out all at once.
Pagers in the retreat all begin to go off at once and VIP banksters begin to excuse themselves in the Ariodacks.
Three quarters of every rentable helicopter in the tristate area has been commissioned to move the Gnomes safely to the air port and out of the country to a tropical location without an extradition treaty with the US. Not that there will be much evidence. Not that this stops certain agencies from acting in the interest of the rich.
The corporation logos begin to vanish, one by one, everywhere, from everything. Well, that's...harmless enough.
The guards at the reserve figure out by now something is up, but titans made of invisible Rai stones knock them out and gently deposit them outside of the building and in waiting cabs that take them home. This is all planned and accounted for.
Up in the sky the almost sentient E.V.A. notices all that weirdness but can't make sense out of it. Fantomex, however, could... if he was focused enough. But he is an assassin and a thief, he is biased. Weather, check. People that shouldn't be moving is moving, check. Increase of crime, check. To him, the master of misdirection, it looks like an elaborate setup. But for what? It must be grand, it is so complex.
And then there are those cabs taking unconscious men from the Federal Reserve to private residences so early in the afternoon. The Federal Reserve is maybe one of the few targets in the city worth such an elaborate operation, and that is where E.V.A. is coming down.
The sky seems full of helicopters, not just the news and police helicopters hed suspected, but a number of chartered birds. The Winter Soldier scans them for threats but he doesnt seem to find any, not that his guard seems to drop at all. Thats when he reaches his cybernetic hand up to touch his ear, then drops it back to his weapon as he loudly instructs the pilot, "Liberty Street." The bird makes good time and is soon hovering near the Federal Reserve Bank.
The Winter Soldier stares down at the people being placed, unconscious, into cabs. Expressionlessly, he orders, "Bring us over the roof."
This is going to take time. There's just no way around it. The fact is that transferring a trillion dollars to a hundred million accounts, no matter how powerful the magical oomph from the coin and the site is going to make this EASY, but it is FAST and powerful nevertheless. He has a backup plan regardless.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, strange figures begin to appear, a clown, a dapper man that looks a like a men's suit store, a giant donuts shaped man over 12 feet tall, corporations, artificial people, temporarily made REAL people begin to experience life for the first time...and most of them have no consciences whatsoever.
Spirits of the Gold, the Green, the Red and many others begin to manifest as the thousand year curse begins to manifest itself, animals running wild, plants coming to life and going berserk and clouds of floating coins wandering by folks and causing minor riots.
Winter soldier is able to get on the roof with no interference whatsoever. E.V.A. also lands unchallenged.
E.V.A. is quite hard to see thanks to Fantomex misdirection abilities, but she didn't quite land as just drops the thief in white near the most convenient entrance. Probably a window. It would take him just a few seconds to get through the alarm and other security.
Now that hes at his location the Winter Soldier disembarks from his vehicle, stepping off of it while its still several feet off of the ground. He lands smoothly and starts moving forward, his determined stride eating up distance. The connection to the security system on the rooftop entrance to the building doesnt stand up to a brief EMP before its physically shoved open. Once inside the Winter Soldier quickly ascertains that it wont be coming back online before moving into the building, weapon at the ready.
Kilroy is about half way done as he senses Fantomex's presence. He doesn't recognize the name but he does not the airborne landing. He knew that this was likely to happen and sends an invisible man made of coins to try and stop him but its not particularly skillful since Kilroy is supremely distracted.
Meanwhile, a slightly mischevious trench coated Carmen half way across the city peruses books herself on the occult, having had one of her favorite accounts taken over by law enforcement. There are plans being made.
As chaos wreaks across the city, multiple heroes spring into action, curtailing the worst of the actions by the spirits of animals and plants, but the spirits of the Gold go crazy, with mobs going after the free money as they scamper playfully in the streets.
Fantomex is used to go around undetected, getting stalked by an invisible critter made of coins is a new experience. He has very sharp senses, so he can hear the spirit coming, and tries to hide, reaching with his powers to misdirect. Termite inspector here, nothing to worry!
Smoothly, the Winter Soldier clears rooms. Hes fast but nothing seems to escape his notice. Whatever is happening here, hes going to find the cause. No room in bypassed and hes in and out quickly from each one, wasting neither time nor energy.
The workers have all gone home for the day so the offices are empty. If he had time there might be valuable papers to steal here but there is a roar coming from below which both of them could recognize as the vault, though because of the organization of the place, they're both likely to run into each other before arriving at the location of the ritual. The spirit possessing the coins is easily fooled and lets Fantomex go.
Adieu, you creepy invisible metal thing. Fantomex sneaks down, heading for the vault. The vault must be the most interesting place in the building, so chances are the crazy people doing this crazy thing are there. If they aren't, he is sure he will find something interesting anyway.
Only he is being stalked again, this time probably by a living person. Maybe a ninja, he moves quietly. Would ninja kill a termite inspector? Odds are they would. He hurries up. If he gets caught, the Vault would make a more stylish battlefield. That, you see, is also important.
Is that movement up ahead? The Winter Soldiers slows down for a heartbeat to listen better, but doesn't stop for long. Whether or not someone is up ahead doesn't make much difference to the cold hearted killer and killing him wouldn't slow him down. The muzzle of the weapon sweeps each hallway and room he enters as he makes his way towards the vault, the likely location of his objective.
The ritual is nearing completion. He has gotten much farther than he expected. His secrets, his coordination and his diversionary plan seem to be working though he notes the single individual approaching the vault. The magic is enough to make the hair on the back of one's neck stand up, and the entire area thrums with power....the stone titans are walking in front of Kilroy, protecting him whilst he finishes....
Meanwhile, across the city, a circle of chalk is being made in a basement. What worked once, can work again...
Fantomex is sneaky. As much as he can afford with someone probably dangerous behind him. When he steps into the ritual area he draws one of his handguns, and keeps close to the wall. "Bonjour," he greets, "you have caused quite the disturbance, monsieur. Now, stop. Don't make me kill you."
Magic doesnt interest the Winter Soldier much, but he notes the feeling hes getting as he continues forward, only to find himself staring through the optic on his rifle at another interloper in a mask and large, stone monsters. As hes just turned a corner he stays where he is, using as much of it as cover as possible, keeping his weapon aimed and staying quiet until he knows more about the situation at hand. He seems unphased by anything ahead of him.
“I'd be ashamed to die sir, but the chaos outside had to happen for the magical balance anyway, I've managed to keep it contained, but more importa...” he shudders. Something was wrong. Something was pulling away force of magic around him. Indeed, only the power of the coin and the location were ceasing it entirely.
The titans looked a little less lethargic.
important to finish! Assuming that whatever it was was trying to stop him, he moved to finish the ritual....almost....there!
Fantomex keeps a gun aimed to Kilroy, then draws the second one and aims for the Winter Soldier when he appears. Aiming to the stone giants seems pointless, but they don't seem very spry. "Ashamed to die? Well, that is an interesting way to put it. Seriously, stop."
As soon as he realises he's spotted the Winter Soldier goes into action, apparently a man of few words. The dot on his reflex sight finds itself on Fantomex before the Winter Soldier presses the trigger on his weapon, unleashing a trio of black tipped shaped tungsten core penetrators at the other man. The slow moving giants can wait, for now.
Kilroy stops whether he likes it or not. By now he can feel the magic leaving him and pours every ounce of will he has left to finish the ritual...and he does! But just barely....the mayhem begins to lessen in the city, and the weather to clear. The stone giants begin to fall down. And its about now that someone at DHS has noticed THERE ARE NO GUARDS AT THE FEDERAL RESERVE.
An alert begins to sound in the vault.
Meanwhile, in a chalk circle in the floor across state lines in Jersey, a rather pleased Carmen Sandiego is looking at one reincorporated and highly confused God/Almost Endless formerly known as the Economy. And Kilroy finds himself without any magic in the middle of one of the most secure facilities in the world.
And Fantimex finds himself with three holes in the chest caused by armor piercing bullets. "Sacre bleu," he falls to his knees. "Not nice." He should be dead, but of course he is not. He only lost some important but redundant organs, and the nanites in his blood are already doing some basic repairs. He shares the pain with E.V.A. and avoids going into shock.
Even as he falls the handgun aimed to the Winter Soldier remains steady, and the man in white fires thrice, sending high calibre ceramic bullets towards the assassin's head and chest.
As his target manages somehow to let off some rounds of his own, the Winter Soldier dodges back around the corner, letting Fantimex's heavy ceramic rounds smash into the wall, aside from the one that catches him alongside of his ribs, drawing a line of blood. Then the rifle appears around the corner again, this time with a metal hand gripping the trigger of the underbarrel grenade launcher. Apparently, he doesn't intend to play nice.
Kilroy is without magic and is fortunate that the two warriors are utterly ignoring him. He pulls out his last ace in the hole. The last spell not used....he takes out a can of reflective spray paint and begins to tag a wall. A short while later he sounds a chime and a rather gorgeous looking woman appears on the other side. She reaches her hand through...and pulls Kilroy inside, leaving only the tagged wall behind.
Fantomex was trying to pay attention to Kilroy, but someone put three bullets in his chest. That is distracting! By the time the Winter Soldier brings out his grenade launcher, he is moving very quickly, trying to catch the mage... too late! He shots a few rounds to the cyborg, but chances are he is only hitting his metal arm. Maybe the grenade launcher too.
But apparently he is not quick enough, pieces of French thief everywhere. Oh, the humanity! Oh, the misdirection. Hopefully that epic death illusion is enough he can sneak out past the Winter Soldier before half the police of New York arrive.
Just before the sound of an explosion the Winter Soldier's rifle is shot out of his hand and his prosthetic is banged around a little. There's no hesitation as he draws a pistol from his hip and moves to clear the vault, ignoring the various pieces of Frenchmen he perceives once he's ascertained there's not enough left to put up a fight. He makes his way to the spray painted wall and reaches out to touch it with his cybernetics, looking at his hand afterwards. And then, after one more look around, he skulks back from when he came.
The police and DHS and BSA swarm on the place, now identified as the center of...whatever it was. But...all hint is gone. And they begin to dust for prints or any other clue that will give them an idea of what has taken place here...the greatest theft in history by a single person...but one up there is accomplished when a certain shiny coin is grabbed by Fantomex...

[Heromux] Are You a God - Kilroy's pending application

This is hardly the final application, but I wanted to post the working doc so I don't lose it later.

Kilroy can say yes. I'd like to spend 50 karma to upgrade Kilroy to a Demigod. Before I submit the character mods though I'd like to get the background approved first (since there's no point submitting stats for a story that isn't approved.)

So, how does Kilroy become a demi god? Well, basically, he doesn't and yet does. The idea is that the Economy isn't a 'quasi endless' as most have thought and has been hinted at, but something else (which has also been hinted at) and its actually the essence of a murdered God that has been transformed into a very powerful spell and scattered throughout the multiverse that eventually gained awareness at the time of Kilroy's grandfather. Kilroy's line are Home Magi, but what they really are is master channelers, like the Loa of the Voodoo etc, and Yankee (Kilroy's Grandfather) picked up the essence of this spell. Through an event (yet to be determined but I'm talking with Carmen) there is a disruption, and all of this essence is reaggregated into Kilroy, making Kilroy both a mortal and a God (hence the demigod part).

The first try I'd like to make is that the god in question is the son of Hades and Persephone and was given a powerful gift by the actual endless, Destiny, to determine the price of anything. Might sound like not that big a deal, but 'anything' in this case also included the ability to break one's fate, to quest for the impossible (a total plot power only scenario obviously). Well, needless to say, the fates didn't like this one bit. They already had an arrangement with Destiny, and felt this was a breach of contract. So they arranged for the god to be murdered and have the goddess of memory to wipe all memory of him from existance, thus making his essence an abstract force. Either one, powerful as they were, couldn't do such a thing but together they could. But nothing stays dead forever when its immortal.

If the Greek Pantheon is too crowded, my second pitch is with the Finnish pantheon with a distant relation to the Norse Fates, but we'll see if I can get my first pitch first. :D

Staff: Response: Tentative Green Light.  Post character details.  We have questions. (Paraphrased.)

Traits: Determine Price: Kilroy is able to determine what anything is worth to anyone within his area of perception. This might seem harmless, but it is more profound than that. It also means that, if someone asks him for something big or insane like, "How do I change my fate?" or "How can I blow up the moon?" Kilroy can tell them what they need to do to accomplish this. By and large, this is either a consent only ability for small things, or a Staff approval only for large changes.

Bless and Curse - 7

As the God of Commerce, Kilroy can bless and or curse economic activity within his sphere of influence. After he leaves, this effect can linger for as long as he likes. This effects the probability of commerce in the .01 percentile, but is still within the realm of realistic possibility. He can bless people, places or institutions such as a corporation.

Create, Control, Transform and Destroy - 7

Kilroy can create any kind of currency or transform it from one to another. He can also destroy currency as well up to toughness 7. He is able to telekinetically control currency. He is able to independently create, control, transform and destroy separately but must have a clear mind to do so. He is able to affect at most 50 tons of matter at a time or $2 million at a time.

He may only destroy a single "account" or bundle at a time at a rate of one per minute, which means that financially prudent or truly wealthy individuals are harder to make "broke" with this power since they likely have their money in multiple locations and multiple accounts, though it can still HURT quite a lot.

Master Channeler 9: As a master channeler, Kilroy is able to speak to anything, even abstract concepts. They might not like him or choose to answer, but he can still do it. He is also in theory able to tap into fields of entities able to grant power far more efficently than others, even other magi, though while he holds the spirit of Veolus, this ability is essentially dormant.Limit: For Plot or Flavor purposes only at the moment.

Detect: He knows location, use and ownership of any currency in any form he desires within his active limit range. If the currency has eyes or ears, he can also see or hear through them. Indeed, if it has a mouth, he can also speak through it.

Rituals: Kilroy can affect far more powerful economic effects by taking rituals and time to do something involving his sphere. The more complicated it is, the more time it takes. Some common examples of rituals he has performed are: Transportation from one form of currency to another, large scale blessing, large scale cursing, great divinations, concealing a large amount of currency, summoning or banishing a spirit.

God: As a result of his infusion with Veolus, Kilroy has vastly increased physical and mental capabilities. He has Strength 5, Endurance: 5, Toughness: 5, and Intelligence 5. He also has a godly mien whenever he uses his powers which is a low level telepathy 3 effect that can awe those of willpower 2 or less in some form or another.Kilroy recieved an education at the best private schools the world had to offer on five continents and numerous private tutors. Kilroy has a knowledge of geography, luxury (fine wines, sailing, art, jewelry etc), cultures, etiquette and diplomacy. He also has a natural talent for languages depending on how large the economy is.

Money (All) - This ability started as a family knack, combined with excellent training of around 5 by the time he was 14. When his powers manifested, it changed his view of the world forever, and he aquired an intuitive understanding of economics, accounting, laundering, business management and finance that left those untouched by it far behind. Even without powers, without magic, his ability to see the flow and history of human commerce has given him a total understanding of the trading, storage, abstration and commoditization of human goods and economies. Even in a totally alien situation, this skill would be at an 7, rapidly to rise again to a 9 with a few weeks accustomization. The practical upshot is that he understands money well, and this knack allows him to perform forensic accounting at an almost astonishing rate.

Stunts: Some of Kilroy's more impressive stunts with his powers include: Creating a Suit of Stone armor which he boosts with his powers giving him Toughness: 7, Strength: 7, and Endurace: 7; Flight: 4, Creating Rai Stone walls to protect the innocent, Creating a bunch of chocolate coins to feed the hungry, summoning a lot of bullets and then making the metal part of the bullets go away to create gun powder.

Wealth: Kilroy has several billion in assets between what he has inherited from his father, as well as deals and aquisitions he has made on his own. Large amounts of this are in essentially untracable accounts created when he still had his conceal power.

Gear: Kilroy has enough contacts in the heroic, criminal, financial and international communities that he is able to get his hands on some very impressive gear. In a given scene, he will either have one or two minor gizmos appropriate to the situation if he is able to prepare or a fallback item such as a single use flash bang, gas mask, toughness 7 staff given to him by Brynn or a Plasma Pistol (Arsenal 5) he picked up while he was with X-Force. Generally speaking, he has at most two of these in any scene he is in.

Veolus: The God Veolus is permantly fused to Kilroy's spirit at this point. Veolus can also think and in some cases act while Kilroy is otherwise occupied. His status as a God gives Kilroy access and respect to areas that others might not normally possess, especially with the Greek Pantheon, but that is a very uncomfortable link since many simply cannot fathom or believe he is real.

Flaws: Hostilities: All heroes have a range of enemies, but Kilroy has managed to upset a particularly impressive bunch. Most gods, goddesses and powerful entities of cosmic scope now know who he is thanks to the lifting of the curse ...but don't like him because they were affected in the first place. He's annoying new factor. He has yet to prove himself, especially in his current odd incarnation as not alive/yet kind of alive. Also, an arch(ish) angel, a demon lord, many wealth entities, a pirate dragon, a lich, a multi dimensional empire, and three parliaments of spirits (Gold, Red and Green) have huge amounts of folks that don't like him either.

Area of Influence: Now that Veolus is no longer a disbursed spirit, Kilroy's ability extends to a maximum of 10 miles. Anything beyond this requires a ritual to complete.

Magic: His power source, though 'divine' in origin, manifests just like regular magic, so anti magic zones, magic stealing villains, etc work against him just as well. The exception being that while his powers are easily suppressible, his link to Veolus is particularly strong and his godly 'attributes' require a Magic 8 (vs 5) to level to suppress.

Kept the Same: Contacts, Crowded Field, What You See Is What You Get

Removed: (Many are simply consolidated) but outright removed are Cold Hard Cash and Conceal.

Using answers to their numbered questions but since I didn't ask their permission to quote them here I'm just posting my answers :D

2) I attempted to keep it as concise as I could. I am considering also asking for a slight protection from certain thoughts being read due to his dual mind at this point but wanted to gauge your reaction to what I'm already submitting. I removed some listed limits, but tried to keep most of them as I consolidated and simplified the description on some powers.

3)Kilroy is going to have the abilities of a God but none of the status. That will have to be earned. Plots being run would include greater influence of myth and story and greater powers, probably making more requests for higher level magic npc's from marvel and dc. The greater wealth powers will now REALLY view him as a threat, and Kilroy will have to carve out a new niche instead of simply do what he did before. I'd also REALLY like to involve the Endless a lot in his arc but obviously that will require well done plots.

4) Well, how would you feel if your son you never knew you had but forgot about was alive but infused to a distant descendant in very alien form? So, the answer is...distant. That is to say, in their eyes I'm thinking they see him as kind of a ghost and are also shocked they were so 'easily' affected for so long. Eventually I see some kind of reconciliation and potentially minor advantages from both parents to his powers/pantheon access. By and large, the status quo of the game world will appear to mortals as the same but in the halls of power he will be viewed as a major power/threat and dealt with accordingly in chess games, plots etc. His ability to name the 'price' needed to change fate/accomplish something in particular will make him a threat to the status quo (in their minds, in game terms he can only change the plots you accept).

5) Veolus is inflused into Kilroy as a member of Homi Magi as the spirit of a once dispersed and slain Greek God.

Response: Tentative Greenlight for plot.  Still things to be worked out on stats. [Paraphrased]

Plot App: So basically Kilroy has gone a bit nuts due to memory alteration, and has decided to reverse the Bank Crash of 2008. Specifically, this involves a massively coordinated con job in cellular units on a small scale and a massive use of his magic powers with the trillion dollar coin at the Federal Reserve to transfer a lot of wealth from banks back to individuals who lost their home or stock wealth due to the market manipulation on land speculation.

The main ask I'm requesting for this is...how much can I ACTUALLY have him transfer. You can let me do any amount of course (including zero) but to make it easier a bit I'd like to distil it to 3 'key packages' depending on when he gets foiled.

Small: The only people who have their property restored are those who lost it a year ago when the forest took over central park, roughly 4 NYC blogs(can provide log for reference on request)

2) A moderate amount, enough to make it seem heroic but not change a lot...say a million people and $50-100 billion....
3) Full on near success...$1-2 trillion dollars, 200 million people get their money back and the financial institutions are disolved or nationalized...note, the wealth is still there, but its in the hands of the middle class, not the banks.

A provision is made for stock holders and pension funds to reinvest before the bank stocks collapse within the plot so it should not cause total collapse of the economy.

At some point, and what that point is is up to you, the Economy is Stolen in much the same way that Dream was isolated in Sandman. Ideally, this would be Carmen Sandiego but if she can't there are other NPC entities available. The key question is, how much can I shake things up?

Thanks

[Red Tower] Boaz Mocktock - Downtime October #1

This cycle will be all about doing favors for his allies.

1) Fideilous Argento was the one who initially found Boaz in the ruins of the battle he had gone into torpor in New York.  He very carefully gave Boaz his blood, allowing Boaz to slowly recover and learn how long it had been.  Fideilous Argento had done a great deal of work for many of the vampires in the area, but there were many who felt he knew too much at this point so they were threatening to blood bond him.  Fideilous Argento offered to go with Boaz back home, implying that he was blood bound.  Boaz agreed if he stopped regularly interacting with vampires.  "If you have to be blood bound, I'd rather it be to me.' Fideilous Argento agreed on that point, and has kept a fairly low key profile in Chalotte ever since, setting up an occult book shop with regular magic as a front in the 4th ward.  He kept the real potent books in the back, but was also slowly printing them and selling them anonymously on ebay.

There was one particularly vicious mother who felt it was in appropriate to have her store near where her daughter went to school (note that 'near' in this case was within a mile of the school).  She was even threatening to go to the city council.  Boaz used presence on her to entrance her while she was at the grocery store.  It turned out most of her religion was paper thin and she only did it to please her family but figured if she was miserable then so must everyone else.

[Note: I'm not sure how much of the result we can post but if we just send it to you and you're OK with it, I'll post here.]

So he got her drunk, had relations with her, and then blood bound her at the first level.  Not enough to make her obsessed, but enough to make her loosen up.  He could always blood bind her more if he had to, but he wanted to keep things light. For now.  She could always become part of his herd if he needed that.

He told Fideilous Argento what he had done, and said, "Call me if she gives you more problems."

2) Vanitol Xavier was a lot of ex things.  He was an ex ghoul and an ex arcanum member.  He had ways of finding out information, which made him a valuable broker.  He had never left Charlotte, but had worked for Boaz's sire.  Vanitol had also been learning things he should not, and Boaz had blood bound him to keep him quiet too.  Vanitol had been happy with that, but eventually he proved so useful that Jebere decided to ghoul him.  Over time, Jebere gave him more autonomy and freedom, and Vanitol was able to gain more links to aspects of the supernatural community, learning more and more things, and becoming quite useful.  Eventually, Vanitol realized Jebere was going to go away and started keeping a lower key profile.  He stuck to the most useful clients, and worked as a broker between very reliable parties.  He did not actually lie to anyone, but since he was blood bound to Jebere, he let it seem that he still was.  For twenty years that status worked just fine.

When Boaz came back, he leapt at the chance for a low level of blood binding, knowing that he could always be forced to take worse.  Boaz was someone he could trust and they had always been friends before Boaz had been torpored.  Plus at one point he had been blood bound to Boaz, and those feelings of loyalty had never entirely gone away.

Vanitol had an individual who owed him quite a bit of money.  A purely mortal individual obsessed with making his own love potions.  He asked Boaz if he could act as muscle on this, just in case.  When they arrived at the guys house,he pulled a gun and tried to shoot Vanitol. Boaz disarmed him rather quickly.  The guy said he would only pay Vanitol if he could make a love potion that worked.

Boaz entranced the guy and 'convinced' him that he didn't need a love potion.  Even entranced, he was so obsessed with the girl that he wouldn't pay Vanitol, so Boaz got the girl, entranced her and convinced her to spend some time with the guy to get Vanitol paid.  The girl agreed, and the guy was agreeable to paying.  Vanitol thanks Boaz and headed off.  At this point, Boaz warned the guy that if ever insulted the girl in any way, the potion would stop working and no potion would ever work again.

The girl, it turned out, was insulted by pictures of dogs playing poker and stormed out.  Boaz idly suggested that he try just asking her out.  That actually worked and for the moment at least, they're an item and thank Boaz for helping them get together.

3) Edgar Xal is well and thoroughly blood bound since there was no long history between Boaz and he, but Edgar is the head ME in the city, and when Boaz found, much to his shock, that no one seemed to claim him, Boaz found the opportunity too good to pass up.  Edgar doesn't know about vampires but he does know some of Boaz's friends are into some weird shit, and Boaz helps keep it out of the papers. Just in case.

The request for some blood from corpses was a bit weird, but Boaz has helped him round up volunteers to help with the charity event to raise money for Cancer prevention.  Every department in the city participated, but Edgar's team was outraising everyone else due to the volunteers involved.  Boaz could be quite persuasive if he needed to be.  He also spent at least two or three nights listening to Edgar vent about the people he worked with who thought CSI was real, and expected magical results with magical displays and CGI printouts.  Boaz mainly listened but said that if he ever had the chance to help them get more equipment that worked like the tv show, he'd help.  Edgar, impressed with the volunteer 'help' accepted Boaz's offer and then vented about his employees instead.  Boaz patiently listened.

[Heromux] Cash Game

Summary: Kilroy hires two of New York's best detectives to obtain lost files that belonged to his father as a contingency in case future plans go awry.

Location: New York City

Date: 09/16/2014

Emitter: N/A

Players: Harry Dresden Jack Hawksmoor

NPCs: Kilroy Capital Conneticut, Limric McFabisham, Greed Demons, Cultists

Groups: Magic and Mysticism

Tone: Heroic

Rating: Public

Fifteen grand.. the number kept going through Harry's head as he drove The Ambush Bug through the streets of New York City, almost enough to distract him from the tracking spell. This one done with a Hawaiian dancer bobble doll that leans in the direction of the target. He pulls up outside of an old abandoned boarding house and sighs "Simple job Harry, catch the thief, get the documents and you're ten kay richer. Simple plan right?" he says to himself as he starts to climb his tall lanky frame out of the small multi-colored Volkswagen..
Money, not Jack's primary motivation. Truth is, he has rent on his closet-sized apartment that he basically uses to store clothes...and that's it. He's been known to give most of the pay on cases like this away. The challenge, that's what he's after. Harry has a tracking spell. Jack has jumped from clue to clue, reading one location then another. HE doesn't use a vehicle, but moves quickly across the rooftops to the same destination. This could be awkward.
Harry Dresden puts his stetson back on top of his head reaching into the bug to get the large oak staff arcane sigils scrolled down it fully he pockets the keys of the car and takes a breath. "Alright scope the place out first, then we'll see about going inside... Maybe I should have brought mouse." he comments to himself unaware of the other detective on the case, he starts to walk up to the door a couple of thugs emerging from the shadows of the doorway.
"You've got a wrong address." one of them states as both brandish small uzi's. "Nah, I think I have the right place, I'm here ta talk to the boss." Harry says in an incredibly bad movie mobster voice..
Who's that? Jack gives Harry a new middle name. Harry Distraction Dresden. He would have knocked on the door himself, but as Harry's doing that right now? Jack leaps onto the roof of the house, then silently drops into the yard behind. Not without making sure there aren't attack dogs in there first, of course.
"Yea sure" the thugs say both bringing their Uzi's up they start to spit lead towards the wizard. "Defendarius!" Harry evokes bringing his arm up and exposing a bracelet of small shields made of different metals comes into view a shield projecting in front of harry that rob the bullets of all their energy letting them drop to the ground "Wrong answer boys." he says leaning his staff forward "Forzare!" he cries out jerking his staff sideways as a thick bar of force slams into the stomachs of the two goons and thumps against the building with the sound of a baseball bat hitting stone..
And...gunshots. Is the guy out front? Yes, the guy out front can deal with being shot at, and Jack turns to the house...and runs straight through the wall. He'll disturb another thug in the kitchen, taking him down before he can raise his gun. Yeah, this just got serious.
Harry Dresden slips into the main hallway of the boarding house, dark and unlit he quietly starts stepping down checking in each room as he makes his way towards the stairs that head to the second floor the sounds of chanting can be heard coming from a side door on the first floor the sound of a roar then fills the night the closed door flying off it's hinges as something dark and dripping ichor fills the door way. "ohh hell.." Harry exclaims switching hands on the staff and bringing up his shield bracelet again for defense as he scrambles for his blasting rod.
And then...there's something that doesn't belong in the city. Jack charges towards that feeling of wrongness, being that kind of brave or foolish guy. He's almost silent, but he'll come up on the other side of the demon. He doesn't use ranged weapons. He's just bent on HITTING it. Hopefully he won't get friendly fired by the wizard. Harry Dresden brings his blasting rod up not noticing the man hitting it from behind just yet he lets out a wrist wide blast of pure fire "Fuego!" that lights up the room and slams into the large demon who's set off balance by the barreling strike from behind. Thankfully Harry was aiming high taking the demons head with his blast it catches of fire the demon letting out a scream thrashing about swiping at Jack with dripping claws blinded by the fire more chanting seems to be starting in the room the demon came bounding out of. Looks like they're wanting to bring in tweedle dee to fight with dum..
Jack? Changes tactics. He slides sideways, although he does get slightly slashed by the claws, tearing his jacket and slightly his skin. A few drops of silver blood well...and then he sidesteps through the wall into the room the chanting is coming from.
"The hell?" Harry sees in the light someone swimming through the walls like they were made of air, the demon's head finally quits burning and starts to heal eyes reforming and narrowing focusing on Harry "Hey there, did you know burning demon smells like roast duck? It's the oddest thing." Harry mouths off "Fuego!" he calls out again letting another beam of fire lance into the chest of the demon, who now ready for it just grounds out the magic "ohhh, boy." he says gritting his teeth his sheild sparking as the demon lumbers through the fire and slams into Harry sending him flying backwards.
Inside the room in question a pair of men are casting magics, a painted in summoning circle glowing faintly as they try and summon another demon. "We got one Jake, how are we going to get another!" a third man says none of the men being prepared for Jacks dynamic entrance.
Jack doesn't know much about magic. He knows that when one demon shows up and people are chanting? You stop the chanting. He springs out of the wall, leaping across the circle with the full intent of grabbing the two chanting guys and simply, uncreatively, knocking their heads together. and with a flash and pyrotechnic spark of released magic, the spell is broken as the circle is crossed, the two men go down, while the third draws a gun and fires at Jack the semi-auto gun flaring to light and barking out in the night. The demon being held at bay by the shield Harry lets his rings release all their charge which slams into the demon not ready for force magic sending him flying back off him.
"Fuego!" he cries out, the smell of brimstone filling the air as sullen red flames empowered with hellfire slams into the summoned creature again burning a hole in his chest.
Bullets? Jack doesn't care about small arms fire...unless it's armor piercers. Those hurt. That might mean that guy number three is going to be very unhappy as the guy *just keeps coming*. True, he's still bleeding from where the demon slashed him. And it's silver. If anything, that probably adds to the intimidation value.
The Demon lands with a thud, enough damage done that it turns into a giant lump of evaporating ectoplasm. Harry makes his way into the room where the chanters were and sees the unconscious, possibly dead he brings his blasting rod up, the tip glowing a sullen red "I don't know what personal issues you may have between your crew, but lets not get too hasty in doing anything." he calls out completely mis-reading the entire situation as the guy backs away from Jack gun still in hand pure terror on his face.
"...you think I'm with *these* losers?" Jack sounds insulted. "I don't know magic and I can't stand demons." He keeps one eye on the terrified guy, of course.
Harry Dresden smirks "Don't know magic, but you can recognize a demon when you see one?" he says his voice a little bit sarcastic though the glow of the blasting rod fades away. "I'm Harry." he introduces himself staff in one hand, rod lowered the remaining thug loses it and takes a shot at Harry suprising him and hitting his shoulder causing a grunt of pain to come out of the detective
"I know a bit ABOUT magic. Enough to know that if there's a demon and you hear chanting, you stop the chan..." He tails off as Harry gets shot, and moves to first disarm, then KO, the thug before he can do any more damage.
Harry Dresden ows as the last guy goes down "heh, true." he says reaching up and grabbing the still warm slug his duster having stopped the slug "ohhh, that's gonna leave a bruise." he says with a grimace "What's got you here in this house then, Tall dark and and mysterious?" he asks stowing his blasting rod in his duster.
"Guy hired me to retrieve some stolen property. You?" So, they're in the same line of work, at least to some degree.
Harry Dresden sighs when he hears that "/I/ got hired to retrieve some stolen property, some files and paperwork." he explains simply reaching into his pocket he pulls out the hula bobble doll and moves over to the sealed envelopes sitting on a near by table. Setting the doll down it starts to dance on it's own accord without being thwapped. "And these would be what I'm here for, you here for the same?" he asks
Jack Hawksmoor grumbles. "Bastard. Not you." He hates when somebody covers their bases by hiring more than one person. It often ends with somebody getting shot. As he doesn't carry a gun, it's usually him. Then he winces, his hand going to his upper arm. "Crap. Another jacket gone."Harry Dresden sighs "He give you the same offer? 5k up front, another 10 on delivery?" he asks curiously as the little bobble head click click clicks back and forth. "You have a car parked near by?" he asks waiting for the answer to both his questions he then speaks up "How bout this, We take my car back to my office, I'm a Private Eye here in town, I contact the guy he comes, pays the other 10k we split it we both walk away paying the rent and don't have to fight about it. No muss, no fuss." he proposes..
"Works for me." Not even a moment of hesitation. "I don't have a car here, no. I have my own means of transportation." He examines his arm again. "Ugh. Might have to call the doc."
Harry Dresden nods "Well, I've got bandages in the trunk of my car, lets get out of here before New Yorks Finest comes hearing reports of gun fire." he comments motioning back to the door "We can take my car that way nobody has to worry about the other trying to get over on them. then we both walk away." he offers
"Works for me." Although he has a feeling they'll bump into each other again. "Jack Hawksmoor," he offers, by way of introduction, as he heads to the door.
Harry Dresden picks up the doll and files, handing them over to jack as he leads Jack out of the house "Harry Dresden." he says reaching into a pocket and pulling out his card. (which can be viewed in my finger) He leads the man down the block to an old beat up VW bug, one door white, the other green, the hood red while the rest of the body is a bright baby blue. "Welcome to The Ambush Bug!" he says moving over to the hood and undoing a piece of wire that's holding the hood down, a first aid kit inside he'll help patch up the arm before they get going, Harry driving to a small high rise brownstone. "I'm up on the fifth floor, we'll have to take the stairs by the way, the elevator... protests my useage of it." he explains..
"I hear some magic users mess with technology." As long as Harry doesn't mess with him...but Jack's of a different order of magnitude from an elevator.
Harry Dresden leads jack up to his office opening the door and shrugging "some do yeah." he explains, the office is a bit grungy and when Harry goes to turn the light on, the light bulb burns out. He doesn't even pause as he goes over to a box of old style light bulbs and without needing a ladder he changes it the light flaring on and brightening the office a box of old novels sitting by the desk, a coffee table between two chairs sports pamphlets such as "Thaumaturgy, and other sympathetic magics, Magic and You, and Why Witches Dont Sink Any Faster Than Anyone Else: "a Wizards Perspective". "If you're thirsty, I've got some warm cokes if you want one." he offers tearing one off a 6 pack ring for himself as he moves to the old fashioned wired telephone and dials up the client. "Found the papers, still unopened, and I ran into the other guy you got coming for the stuff too, so make sure the money is either cash, or split into two separate checks." he says before hanging up. "How's the arm?"
"You aren't messing with me," Jack notes, cheerfully. "And much better. I heal quickly...just didn't want to lose any more blood." He also warned Harry to wear gloves before doing first aid. That blood's actually rather nasty stuff.
Harry Dresden blinks "Why would I wanna mess with you man? We both got hired to do the same job, you got hurt, I thankfully didn't." he says as his face twinges his shoulder hurting where a good softball sized bruise is starting to form. "At least you're reasonable and are willing to split the bonus pay." he says setting an unopened coke on the edge of the desk that Jack's on as he sits in his chair. "You do work like this on a regular basis?" he asks curiously.
"Depends. On how much I need the money, how much else I have going on." He doesn't explain the messing with me comment further, although it might be noticed he doesn't sit *that* close to Harry. So far it's fine, but just in case.
Harry Dresden nods and makes chit chat with the 'competition' till the mark arrives, surprised by the full amount being paid to /both/ of them, along with a jacket for Jack and a box of sundry and hard to come by items for Harry, he is smart enough to keep himself quiet as to how they were obtained, being a polite host till the two leave.