Part I: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/13796767
Part II: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/13808265
Part III: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/13868014
Part IV: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/13892779
Part V: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/13928333
Part VI: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/13986169
Part VII: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/14065396
Part VIII: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/14114290
Part IX: http://archive.easymodo.net/tg/thread/14384797

I highly suggest you read the old threads because a shitload of things have happened and although I'll try to summarise shortly I won't be able to get down all the details.

Skills:
Guns - all guns, rifles, semis etc
Bartering - The bluffing, the negotiating, the double dealing, it all comes naturally to you.
Intimidation (Intermediate) - You can scare almost anyone into obeying you in the short term.

I put on my robe and wizard hat

Spells:
Summoning (Level Four) - you can now summon people up to 3 years dead, faster and with less energy than you used to.
Bind (Level Four) - You've used Bind often enough that you've gained a new level of mastery. You can now bind a ghost to your cause for 30 days. You've also gained the ability to bind a ghost to items in a manner of ways. You can bind a ghost to a container, in order to imprison them, or you can bind a ghost to an item like a knife, dagger, amulet or what have you in order for the item to gain magical characteristics. For example, binding the spirit of a war veteran to a rifle will give you a sentient, bloody minded rifle with an offensive bonus that speaks to you and wants to attack all Germans on sight. And so on and so forth.
Life Leech (Level Two) - you now have the ability to heal minor wounds. If you're already healthy and use it you get stronger, quite a bit faster and gain some stamina. Your target feels like they've run a marathon unless you decide to only take a little. You still cannot leech from magicians.
Rip (Level One) - essentially ripping out the souls of living people from their bodies by summoning them. Makes them unconscious for about 30 seconds since their souls return to the bodies relatively quickly.
Ghost Whip (Level One) - you can now cause untold amounts of agony to the newly dead, up to three days. As you get more practice at this you can cause more damage to older ghosts.

Items of Note:
Happy Magic Juice - a high quality concoction that mystics use to power their astral wanderings: some laudanum, a some rare chinese opium, and a dash of Ghost. You've got enough in the bottle to get a mind and soul high and keep it there for a whole weekend.
Medium Physical Protection Amulet - This can take killing blows and spread out the attack evenly on the shield so you don't get broken bones or incapacitated. It can only take 3 killing blows before having to be recharged.
Medium Astral Protection bracelet - This will protect you from attacks on the astral plane, whether you're a sleep or you're awake although it does require a ritual in the mornings to activate it for the rest of the day.
Distraction Charm - This will allow you to walk through white neighbourhoods without having the police called on you or get undue attention. You're part of the background but if you do something out of the ordinary you will get noticed.
Strong Luck Charm - when wearing this things always seem to go your way. Especially when you're in battle where bullets seem to miss you and experienced melee fighters suddenly gain inner ear problems. The luck of the Irish is yours.
2 Charmed M1917 Colt Revolvers - They Never Miss. Ever.

Your underlings are as follows:
- Randy, an innocent sounding name for a dangerously cynical 16 year old kid. Loyal beyond death, really, because you helped him kill the judge that sentenced his father to death. You've taught him a bit of magical theory but he's not your kind, so for now he's a low level elemantal magician until he gets some real training. But boy can he set fire to shit. Special Items: 1 Elemntal Booster stone. 1 Basic Physical Protection Amulet. (BONUS: Pyromaniac. Also he is currently working for the Chinese for 1 year as part of a peace agreement).
- Big Jim, a muscular behemoth with no magic whatsoever. He resents the fact that he is the same age as you and yet you give the orders. Nevertheless he obeys because you've got the juice and he don't. He ain't all that smart but he's good in a scrap. Special Items: 1 Medium Strenght Amplifier necklace.
- Chandler Raymonds. A punk kid you killed that has agreed to work for you for a time as a ghost, to spy on your enemies for you on the understanding that you keep his brothers safe if he finds out they're in danger. Because he's a free ghost who you haven't bound he can show initiative and do things on his own away from you and for extended periods of time without having to constantly rebind and set the parameters of his mission to him. He's agreed to work with you on a long term basis now.
- The Three Amigos, three nameless henchmen who've been with you through thick and thin. (BONUS: Loyalty Level Two). One of them is now the Old Amigo because of a curse he was inflicted with.
- Ro, a young chinese woman who's your hostage for a year in exchange for peace with the Chinese. Special Abilities: Healer.

DISADVANTAGES: DEATH LEECH - if you're mortally wounded and you get knocked out you will drain until death whoever is standing closest to you in order to recover and wake up. This disadvantage will stay with you until you gain better control of leech life (i.e. Level Four).

---

Well then. I'll get us started in about 15 minutes or so. Hopefully enough people will have arrived by then.

Harlem Quest is by far the best quest

>>14461960
Hey. Good to see you.

We need at least 3 people to get going. And so...the waiting game begins.

>>14462104

Make that two, Harlem quest is best quest.

fapfapfapfapfapfapfap

Is the sound of Willy Dean when nobody's looking.

Better find him somebody to keep him company.

>>14462202
Great. We've now got our Arthos, our Porthos and now we wait for our dear Aramis.

>>14462232
Let the games begin.

WARCHEST:
82,000 dollars.

ASSETS:
- Wessler Building
- The Boom Boom Room (managed by Sweet Johnson)
- Henry's (Now being run by the Old Amigo)
- The Well Travelled Inn (managed by Sweet Johnson)
- 12 Holdings
- 2 Apartment Buildings (Repairs Complete in: 1 weeks)

Net Profits Per Week: 15,500 dollars.

STATUS WITH NEIGHBOURS:
JEWS: Excellent.
CHINESE: Peaceful.

As renovations in the two apartment buildings continue more German families move in to the Financial District. In fact word is spreading and more Germans are choosing to live in the Financial District than any other part of Manhattan.

(1 Week until your meeting with the Chinese.)

Give me an agenda for what you want to do this week.

Arghhh Harlem Quest! I've been craving some quest action lately, but I'm like 4 sessions behind. Gonna take me a good long while to catch up...

>>14462274
Das gutt. Our dealings with the mundane seem to be ticking over just fine. How's our more supernatural elements going? Any rumored threats or anything?


I missed last weeks quest (catching up now), but is there room for any expansion of our enterprises?

>>14462274
Hats.

We need, like, stylish hats. Maybe for everybody in our entourage, even.

Hats are important.

I'd say we need to greet the newcomers, make sure they indeed feel welcome to their new home, perhaps even bringing a welcoming gift?

After all, these guys will be employed by us, work for us and be part of our foundation. Getting to know them on a semi-personal level is never a bad thing

>>14462304
You're already expanding at maximum rate thanks to some very clever strategies.

You are mysteriously under attack though from white men who've been killing your employees.

>>14462305
Man, it's the 20s. Everyone already has super stylish hats.

>>14462330
You prepare for an excursion to visit the new apartment buildings and have a personal word with some of the new businesses you've acquired, doing the rounds so to speak like you used to back in Harlem.

Do you want to take some underlings with you?

>>14462348
>>14462332
What with the mysterious white devils running around it would be sensible to take some muscle with you.

HOWEVER

We can't be seen to be flighty. We'll be seen as weak. The Chinese have a saying "Outwards relaxed, inwards tense", meaning that it should appear you're not putting any effort into security, but really, any attempt on your life will fail with the perpetrator locked in a cellar somewhere screaming.


So let's have our ghosts scout ahead and all around, and have some of our fellas scattered here and there maybe.

>>14462374
It's a sunny afternoon so you decide to walk to the north east side of the District. You've stopped wearing your distraction charm at all times because you have a certain level of notoriety here. No longer do white people call the cops at the sight of you, you're one black man that everybody knows. In fact some white faces smile at you as you pass, which might just be the rarest sight of all.

You've called back Chandler and his apprentice from following the infamous Red Ford to scout ahead for you.

Meanwhile you have Big Jim and the two Amigos following you at a couple hundred paces, you've already told them which route you plan to take and which stops you'll make.

It seems the white people who are really happy to see you are the ones who are very blond and have very blue eyes. The Germans.

>>14462423
Let's put learning German on our to do list?

Shoot off a nice wide smile at them, wave and be generally friendly. Let them know the feelings are mutual

>>14462442
Ohhhh good idea. It'll make them like us even more and help with actually communicating with our new friends from across the ocean.

So, Civil War in Germany? Must be plenty of dead over there. So many souls. You could probably make an army out of all of them.

*coughs*

Just sayin'

>From the last thread.
Plan to exploit the war and political tensions in europe through our Import/Export buisness. possibly sell cheap wine for great profit (wine from water to wine crystals.)

Possible tie in.
buy land(small to midsized vinyard) to hide the wine from nowhare thing and act as a backup base and recruitrment center.

>>14462442

Great idea...would it be possible to have the wolf-claws help us with it or is it uncapable of that much sentience/communication?

>>14462476
Oh yeah forgot about him.

Hm. I'd be worried about the kind of German we'd learn from him. He was rather feral. If anything, the accent would tip us off as kind of strange to the Germans.

You smile at the Germans and some of them stop you but the majority of them have an English so poor that you can only understand that they're throwing positive words your way. Unless they've all conspired together to smile at you while calling you a black ugly subhuman.

You arrive at your first stop, an optician that you've gained a majority share in.

There don't seem to be any customers in at the moment so the proprietor, Johan, is more than pleased to talk to.

"Mr. Duke, I am happy to see you to come today," he says with a thick German accent and ever so slightly broken English. "How can I to help you?"

>>14462442
This is a good idea, and gives us the advantage of maybe being able to talk to the wolf claws that have been absent from every recap...

Did we lose the wolf claws?

>>14462501
Ask him how things are, how's the family, you know, general chit chat while softly probing for anything wrong.

>A DM's note: English is a Germanic language. You could substitute German words and still get the gist across without changing sentence structure.

>>14462505
>Did we lose the wolf claws?

No. I've just completely forgotten to add them to the recap thing.

>>14462511
Johan smiles as you chit chat. He's a man in his late middle age, his pale hair more white than blonde and his jowls drooping menacingly under his circular spectacles.

"They are very good, Mr. Duke," he beams "Things are difficult. New country, different customs, in fact we would be in the...poverty? If it was not for your help. With your investment in my trade we have chance. Good chance."

"I have been praising your name to all who will listen."

"Now people see me and they run fast while saying 'Here he comes, that Johan to talk about his Duke again.'"

>>14462541
And thus, was the Church of Duke born.

wat do

>>14462541

"How wonderfull to hear Johan, I am truly happy that you have settled so to speak. Its harsh enough to be forced from ones home without the difficulty of securing a new one you know?
How's the mrs handling the situation if I may be so rude to ask?

>Harlem Quest thread

hell yes

"The wife, she is more pragmatic than I am. She comes from a long line of peasant stock who are used to hardship," he jokes.

"Speaking of her," he hesitates "...she has some...cousins. She's been asking me to ask you to meet them but I am not sure it's a good idea. You've already done so much for us."

Subtly see if he knows anything about the "Germany for Germans" groups, I have a suspicion that they are at least somewhat involved in the killing of our men.

>>14462541
Tell him you're happy to help, and that if he ever needs a favor he can call on you.

Continue rounds.

>>14462601

"What sort of business are they in?"

I have the feeling there is something he isn't telling us about the cousins, say we'd be happy to help but we'd really like to know what he hasn't told us about them.

>>14462633
"They say they are in the business of patriotism but in actuality they are simply in the business of making money, by any means necessary."

"I know are you a businessman involved in all manner of activities and well, it never hurts to ask right?" he explains, hoping you'll understand what he means.

>>14462617
>>14462601
Yup. Just posting to show interest cos tonight seems rather quiet.

*roaring twenties, swinging sixties

>>14462657

"Well, Johan, I am known to have an open mind."

I see no reason why we can't have another little side business going on; even better, the wives will give us yet another in with the German community.

Better yet, they might have some friends back home. Friends who might be in the shipping and war materials business.

>>14462657

*chuckle slightly* "I could never ask them for anything like that, I cant take advantage of good people like that Johan, lets say this: They can come here, no problems at all my friend, no strings attached.

You tell your wife that Duke got everything covered, that her cousins are more then welcome

"Excellent, I will ask them to come see you at your offices when it is ...convenient? For you. To talk to you about what they intend" he says.

After that you make your way out and continue your rounds.

As you're walking by a building, a hole spontaneously forms near by you with bits of brick blowing outward.

You didn't hear the gunshot but you know what a bullet flying into a wall looks like.

You're under attack and you've had no warning.

Tell him we'd be happy to help, no strings attached but we'd like to meet and welcome them to America personally once they get here.

>>14462657
"Well, there's no buisness without risks. What did you have in mind? "

>>14462725
DUCK AND COVER

>>14462698
>Duke got everything covered

Don Corleone got nothing on us.

Draw guns, call ghosts, protect bystanders.

>>14462725
somone is shooting at us from behind, spin draw our lucky pistol and fire at any armed man who is not working for us. if its only one bullet then they may have only one gun drawn.

Get into cover, get ghosts to find soon-dead enemy, shoot soon-dead enemy with lucky pistols

>>14462725
>didn't hear it
You will in a second.

Sniper! Find something solid, and facing the sniper. An alleyway might be a safe bet, as long as it's not facing the sniper. You could also dive into a building.

>>14462725
Get down, call for the ghosts to find the shooter.

Also might be good to take a look around for innocents. We don't want any of our new friends getting caught in the crossfire.

>>14462773
>>14462766
>>14462740
You start moving, with one smooth motion drawing both your charmed revolvers and look for targets on ground level but you don't see anyone.

You run forward and as you do so the wall to your left continues to be punctured by holes. So many holes in fact that you realise your Luck Amulet is working in over drive because if this many bullets are flying around at least several of them should have hit you by now.

You plant yourself on the ground to the left side of a parked car and the shots continue to be fired at you. There seem to be a second or two between each shot. Luckily there are no bystanders walking around at this moment.

Chandler materialises in front of and Abe follows shortly of you and start to look around for whoever is shooting at you.

"How do you want us to do this, boss?" Chandler asks quickly as he tries to find the shooter.

>>14462831
I wonder if Chandler can affect the material plane yet.

In any case, if we're getting hit by so many shots, then that means either multiple shooters, or magical suppression. I'm pretty sure we'd hear conventional suppression.

Was there an angle to the shots? Should be trivial for Chand and Abe to trace the shots back.

If they do find the shooter, you could consider having Chandler guide you in, or you could have Chandler use whatever material plane powers he has to affect something small. Like, the extractor for a semi-automatic, or the sear on the trigger, or block the firing pin from moving.

"To the best of your ability"

By not missing ever does that mean we can make frankly impossible shots like shooting an unknown sniper from a great distance or does it mean that if we are aiming pretty close to a person it just works out?

>>14462831
Quick and dirty. Find em, and if they're on a roof give em a good shove.

Search from above would probably be quickest.

If he's invisible, can we use our powers to detect life? Magic radar?

>>14462864

I believe it is the latter, Aim at a guy and we will hit him

OH FUCK, HARLEM QUEST! HOW DID I NOT CHECK MY EMAIL!?

>>14462851
>>14462831
I definitely like the idea of seeing if Chandler can influence something small. Screw with the action on the gun somehow. Disastrous consequences for the shooter would be amusing.

Otherwise, let's put our awe-inspiring firearms skill to good use.

>>14462831

Ask Chandler to find the sniper!

Even better, see if it's possible to jam the assassin's gun using poltergeistery, while we simultaneously close the distance.

We need the sniper alive for interrogation.

>>14462873
>>14462851
Abe and Chandler begin flying forward in the direction they think the shots are coming from and spread out searching.

Predictably, it's the more skilled Chandler that comes back first with information.

"Boss, the shots are coming from office building a block and a half away, they've got a clear line of sight for this whole road."

"They've got some kind of invisible hocus pocus shit going and I can't affect what I can't see. They're definitely shooting from a room on the 4th floor facing this way."

>No life radar unfortunately.

>>14462864
The latter. It's enough to turn any shots made in close-to-medium range instant kill shots. You reserved the most powerful of the O'Leary's for a luck amulet.

>>14462912
"Go to the office, remain invisible, throw whatever you can grab at him."
We need to get closer to the building.

Well, fuck.

How many shooters? Any indication on the ammunition they're using?

Could we get Chandler to lead Big Jim and The Amigos into the building through a side/back entrance of the building we're getting shot at from and lay the hurt on from in there? Also we don't seem to use it often should we give Big Jim the wolf claws?

>>14462912
First things first, we need cover to get off the street and out of line-of-sight. Chandler can't influence the shooter, but can he influence other things? Slam the windows on the 4th floor to screw with the guy while we make a break for it? There's got to be a way to throw him off/engineer cover.

>>14462912
have one of the ghost check on Big Jim and the two Amigos. they may need help, if they dont we can distract the sniper while they sneak around and up the building to take him/her/it out. we can use the ghost to act as messengers right?

>>14462964
This is a good idea.

I think the wolf claws need juice to not be plain knuckles, and that's why we keep them.

When you ask him about how many shooters there are, Chandler says "I think there are two boss, they've got some magic silence thing going as well so I can't even tell by sound."

Both of the ghosts in your employ can only be seen by normals when you give them a bit of a boost, which you do for Abe when you send him to take a message to Big Jim and the two Amigos.

They begin to make way to the office building as you send Chandler off straight to the room the shooters are in to cause what little havoc he can to the shooters' surroundings.

When the shots stop for a few moments, presumably because of Chandler, you grab your opportunity and run across the road towards the office building, into the building, through the building, out the back, and begin to make your way there while staying in cover.

Chandler pops down to you and says "Jim and the guys are in the room boss. The shooters aren't in that room any more, Boss. I think I spooked them when I started throwing things around. They could be anywhere in the building now and I can't tell. They could be waiting to ambush you inside."

>>14463059
> office building, into the building

that should be into A building. one of the ones in front of the office building.

DISTRACTION CHARM! If we're even carrying it, activate it.

>>14463059
sprint down the street toward the building, we can act as bait to lure them out at the same time as we close the distance so we can try for a few lucky shots

>>14463069
Can we use drain life on a target we can't see? Walk in and try to do an AOE drain?

>>14463094
We don't know how many frail/elderly people are about, that may not be a wise decision. I'd say to have our boys block the exits, but they'd have to literally stand in the door to keep invisi-ssasins from slipping out, and that's just asking for someone to get shot.

>>14463094
Nope, that's not something you can do until about level four of leech life.
---
>>14463092
>>14463074
You put on your distraction charm, activate it and then begin your strafing run.

You cautiously run forward, zigging and zagging, to and froing as necessary, you run the final stretch into the office building itself but no further shots are taken at you.

Caution in tact, you take corner after corner, up staircases slowly but still no shots are taken.

It seems your assailants aren't foolish enough to duke it out in a straight up fight after their ambush didn't work.

What's your next move?

The best course of action in this situation may be to gather the troops and run.

>>14463105
Point.
Distraction charm is a good idea, if we have it on us.

How feral is the wolf claw and can we use it to track foes? Possibly by sound or scent. Feels like a dumb question, but magic, so I don't know.

>>14463126
we need to find these attackers, men this well equiped arnt the sort that will give up after one try and we may not survive the second if they can find a way around the luckcharm

>>14463138
>>14463128
>>14463126

They have the advantage in that we don't know where they are, but Duke doesn't run from a fight. Gather the posse. Have the ghosts watch the entrances very carefully. We can't let these fuckers get away. Can we scatter sand or something else in front of the entrances so we can be warned if they try to run?

Once that's done, form our corporeal boys into a posse and start a very cautious room-by-room sweep.

Fire extinguishers? Cigars? Water sprinklers for fire systems? Water guns?

>>14463172
Fire sprinklers is a damn good idea. Did buildings have them in the 20's?

Also, once this is over, we may want to look into acquiring the services/abilities of a tracker.

>>14463160
>>14463158
This is a potentially lethal situation for Duke so I'm going to need you guys to give me a solid plan and then have consensus on it.

>>14463172
Water guns? why not just blindly fire into a hallway with our lucky pistols?

>>14463205
Actually now that i think about it. Have duke blind fire his lucky pistols into a random hallway of the building and see the reaction.

>>14463196
The sprinkler thing seems like the best immediate action, if they're available.

>>14463205
Our lucky pistols are revolvers. That's around 6 shots, depending on the model. We need something more solid than this.

I'm not entirely clear on the wolf claw, I wasn't around when we picked it up. Could we maybe put it to use to heighten our other senses and pick them up?

I'm honestly glad Ellington is having us take our time on this one. It's a shakey situation.

Guys, seriously, let's get the fuck out of here.

Sprinklers are viable, commercial buildings had to have them at the time.

Heightened senses and magic tracking are not how the werewolf claws work, they're just for offensive close range magical attacks using psychic claws.

>>14463222
The Wolf Claw is a pair of brass knuckles which we bound the werewolf's soul to. They're supposed to be vicious melee weapons, but we've yet to use them.

>>14463212
Might work, but op mentioned that it works best if we're aiming at a target.

>>14463224
I don't think that's a good idea, unless we can come up with, right now, an anti-invisible assassin plan for the next time they attack. This is clearly a major investment for someone, the fact that they tried shooting at us without compensating for our luck suggests that we caught them off-guard. This may be our best chance.

Luck doesn't need eyes. I say we take a couple shots and see what happens.

>>14463247
Sprinklers available? Set them off.

>>14463247
Start a fire, get chandler scouting and abe on rear guard, start clearing rooms.

Guys, let's look at the situation and think about our options.

Situation:
- Multiple story office building. Lots of entrances and exits.
- At least 2 invisible gunmen looking to kill us. Don't know their full capabilities.
- Us, 2 ghosts, and 2(?) other thugs.
- We're currently separate from the rest of our gang. We have a distraction charm and some physical protection charms.

Option 1: Run. We get everyone and gtfo. Let's us live and find out what happened if we can find anything.

Option 2: Hunt these invisible guys in this big building when we don't know the full situation.

If we blind fire we can have ghosts gauge reactions and see just how high class these assassins are.

>>14463224
Duke don't run from no fights

I'm thinking the sprinklers are our best bet here. Looking back over our abilities to see if anything else could help us...

Can we use Rip untargeted? I'm guessing not, since it's so low-level. If Randy could keep it under control, a tongue of flame extended in front of us might reveal anyone stealthed. If nothing else, he can use a small flame to set off the sprinklers.

>>14463296
Randy is with the Chinese.

>>14463276
Option 3: regroup. Set off sprinklers. Chandler is fast enough to check most of the building very quickly. Abe watches our backs so we don't get jumped. Everyone moves together.

Hmm, there seems to be dissent on whether you should even attack to begin with. Let's clear that out of the way first:

1) Retreat
2) Attack

Vote. Only counting votes from this post onwards.

>>14463315
Attack, if they escape and decide to pick off our underlings next time were fucked.

>>14463315
Regroup first. Decide on actions 2nd.

>>14463315
I say attack if they stay alive they could do something damaging to something that belongs to us.

Attack, we can't ignore this, and if we don't get them now they'll be a thorn in our side. We use every invisibility defeat countermeasure we have, sprinklers, ghosts, if we have any ways of borking delicate magic we use that, we move as a group.

>>14463338
>>14463333
You guys keep saying to attack, but how would we do that? Any ideas other than attack?

>>14463315
Attack. Leaving invisible assassins to come back for us better prepared is a bad idea.

>>14463315
As I have said. Duke is not gonna get a reputation for backin down when someone takes a swing at him.

Have ghosts have a hayday throughout the entire place. If they hit something it'll give us an idea of what we're truly up against.

>>14463312
This:
>>14463349
Seems like a solid plan.

>>14463351
The sprinkles seem to be the best we have at the moment. Have Randy scout ahead. We have Jim and the Amigos. Stick together, watch each others' backs.

>>14463312
>>14463349
These are good plans, make it happen.
>>14463382
Randy is with the chinese, we've been over this.

>>14463382
Randy isn't here with us

Since we're going to attack we might as well make plans for if we survive right?

Say, how much juice would it take to make the ghosts visible? How long would this effect last?

I'm thinking we could get them to take a potshot at one of the ghosts, or get them to move around if they spot one of the ghosts creeping around.

You send a thought pulse to Abe and he relays the message to Jim and the Amigos for them to come down to the lobby as quickly as they can while staying safe so you can clear the building together once you activate the sprinklers.

In a few minutes the three men arrive down looking harried because they'd just been looking over the shoulders waiting to be attacked at any second.

You get ready to set off the sprinklers and for a second you wonder if they even work considering the derelict nature of the building. But it does and the water begins to spring forth from the ceiling.

You send Chandler and Abe to either side of your corporeal party, trying to find any clue whatsoever if anyone is around, occasionally causing physical damage to stuff to see if there are any reactions.

You've completed a thorough search of the ground floor.

Next. The first floor.

>>14463447
Be prepped to fill the air with bullets

>>14463429
>>14463415
>>14463382
*Facepalm* I got that wrong earlier, this time I meant Chandler. I was skimming the Underlings list and wrote the first name that I saw.

We don't need to know their exact location, if we have even a hint of where they are we can pop some bullets that way and due to luck we'll probably hit.

We should get Ro on standby. Don't bring her in, because we can't let her get killed, but have her a few blocks away and ready to come in if someone is bleeding to death. Life leech is a terrible way to heal people.

>>14463447
Do we have any sort of magical sensory abilities? Can we sense souls with the summon/rip tree, or sense life force with the life leech tree? Either might help out here.

Seconding question about the wolf claws: Can we use them to heighten our senses of hearing and smell? If so, what do they tell us?

Also, FUCK YEAH HARLEM QUEST!

>>14463506
No we can't, that was already posted a few minutes ago. Just a weapon.

>>14463506
Was answered. Claws are purely for doing animalistic damage. No sensory effects.

The first floor is clear.

When you arrive on the second floor the first thing you notice is the plan of the office.

It's a huge open room with almost fifty large desks spaced out from each other, each one with a single type writer on it.

You look really closely and don't notice area where the drop of the water is manshaped.

It doesn't help though because before you know it, Jim and one of the Amigo's fall down from a headshot each. Instant death on their parts.

Immediately you make some connections and realise that your assailants haven't made themselves invisible, they've somehow fucked with all your minds (even the ghosts) so you can't see or hear them.

Your move.

>>14463486
I really would like to see about possibly using Life Leach/Rip abilities to sense stuff around us, but I don't know how effective it'll be on the spur-of-the-moment.

>>14463522
Lucky pistols go.

>>14463519
So we obviously need to enchant some glasses or something.

But that's for later

>>14463522
...

...

0.0

Fuckit. Rage time.

>>14463522
Tear the souls from everything within a hundred feet of us. If we can do that kind of blanket, area-rip.

If we can't do that, return fire with our lucky pistols in the general opposite direction of the blood spray from Jim and the Amigo. Their deaths can at least tell us where to shoot.

>>14463522
oh shi-

>>14463546
Open fire.

...Hey, could Duke 'Rip', or otherwise summon the souls of Jim and one of the Amigos, and then Bind the souls to their bodies?

Also, Life Leech/Rip/Bind combo; weaken their bodies, steal their soul, and then Bind them to our service.

>>14463522
One command for our ghosts: "Fuck this whole place up"

Rip and Leech until we hit something.

Okay, if the problem is with our perception, then our perception is what must change. Check our magical knowledge. Do we know of any way to bypass visual glamours like this? Maybe if we break a pinky and focus our attention on the pain or something, we can get our minds out of the ensorcelled mindset.

You can't Rip a whole area just like you can't Leech a whole area, you have to have a target. Not until you reach a certain level with both spells.

1) Proceed with opening fire with Charmed Revolvers?
2) Something else?

>>14463596
Do NOT open fire yet. Until we have some idea where they are, giving away our position is a big no-no.

>>14463590
Sorry, if what they're using is powerful enough to fuck up the minds of ghosts they can't even see then "the pain-power of my mind!" is not going to cut it.

>>14463522
Wow, it's almost as if we should have ran. Good job, retards.

>>14463616
...what the fuck? they just killed big jim and one of the amigos

it's safe to say they know our position.

>>14463617
Okay, then what about drugs? Would that Happy Magical Juice we've been carrying around leave us functional to take these fuckers out, or would we just go into a drug-induced stupor?

Wrap the luck amulet around the barrel of one of our guns. Whip it around and fire at no direction in particular.

If we're lucky, we'll get a headshot.

>>14463633
Most definitely the latter. You're no mystic.

>>14463639
Shit. How close would we have to be to bind a soul to a corpse, and how long would it take? I know we've never done it before, but now seems like it might be a good time to try out all that zombi crap momma told us about growing up.

>>14463621
>Come on man. You're right, we probably should have run. But Duke? Fuck that, Duke is a hard motherfucker, and he's not gonna let word get around that he turned tail and ran when someone started taking shots at him. He's gonna step up, kick some ass, and if he goes down then that's the price of being a big man Harlem.

We're pretty outmatched here. Unless there's some obvious thing that we're not seeing, this looks pretty unwinnable. I'm very hesitant to just blindly open fire, but we don't seem to have much other choice. We can't trust our sense, our allies are helpless/useless, and we don't even have a clue where the enemy is. Since they probably already know where we are, I suppose luck is the last thing we have to trust in. I'd vote for two shots with the lucky revolvers, in the name of Jim and the Amigo.

>>14463635
I agree with Double Luck of the Irish. We have the general idea of where they are and we might be able to see the Man shaped Water in time to lay down the pain.

>>14463522
take cover behind a corpse, shoot and bet on the luck of the irish.

>>14463687
>blindly open fire
>fire
Fire would've worked. We turned on the sprinklers though, damn.

Everything is wet now though, right? Maybe we could cut open a cord plugged into an electrical socket, get on something insulated, and and let em' fry.

Don't ask me how we'll do this without getting shot though.

>>14463687
I'm not so sure it IS winnable. That's why I've been asking after so many bizarre possibilities.

hey guys, I can't participate but just wanted to put out there my thanks for this great thread/quest. I'm catching up on all the earlier threads so I'll be able to jump in next time around. brilliant stuff, really enjoying it.

>>14463635
>>14463687
>>14463696
You move as quickly as you can, once again in a smooth singular motion, ripping your Amulet of Luck from your neck and opening fire in the direction it seemed like your two dead underlings were shot from.

A moment passes.

You don't know if you've had any luck killing them but you're not being fired at any more.

Did they assailants take their shots and then regroup elsewhere before you could open your fire? Or are they dead and somehow invisible to you? You're not quite sure.

"What the fuck Boss, what do we do?!" shouts Amigo Secundus, the only live person left in your party except for you.

You feel vulnerable, knowing that you've taken off your luck amulet and the physical protection it provided you.

>>14463724
Unless we were gonna burn the entire building down, I'm not really sure if fire would have helped that much. Shame we didn't have Randy, he really was our only AoE ability.

I would have gone with fire from the start, but the chances of killing dozens of innocents was to great.

Have everyone not dead dead scan for body shapes in the falling water, Chandler ought to be good at this, if we find them drop some more bullets in them, double tap.

>>14463764
...Do we have anything, anything at all, in the way of summoning help? A way to call the boss? Hell, what about that demon we ran into a while back? Was there a way we could get in touch with him on the spur-of-the-moment? (I don't know if that's been developed at all)

>>14463764
We've taken our shots and the moment has passed; put our luck amulet back on.

Amigo II inherits all magical gear from our dead friends.

Reload our charmed revolver, which I assume we emptied.

Any chance we could scare up an old ghost who could beat the shit out of these guys? Old man sheepshagger?

>>14463803
I was under the impression that since they're messing with our heads, even if we do see them we can't hit them. So... nothing at all we can do. Unless...

Either us or Secundus, whoever is closer to Jim's corpse, grab the Strength Amplifier, and smash an emergency exit in the floor.

>>14463816
our problem is finding them not killing them.

>>14463809
Nope. You're on your own.

>>14463803
>>14463812
More moments pass and you put your Amulet of Luck back on and reload both your revolvers, which you emptied in a wild fit of rage.

You scan the room and mentally order Chandler to jump around pushing desks around as best as he can, although he's still a young ghost and finding it difficult to affect this plane as much as he has this day.

Suddenly without warning you can see the two assailants.

They're both lying slumped backwards on separate desks, both dead. It seems that it took a while for their mental mojo to wear off once you'd killed them. As you approach the corpses you see that they're riddled with bullet holes, some right to the head and others straight at their hearts, all of them from your revolvers.

What's next?

How quickly can we summon ghosts? Could we whip up Jim and Amigo shades over a few seconds, to increase the size of our available ghost scout platoon?

do we have anything that gives off a reaction to magical auras/fields? it doesn't have to be intended for the purpose, but something that would work if manipulated in the right way.

I think running would look too poor though, especially if we're trying to establish a reputation amongst a new community that we've promised protection to.

we could always sacrifice the minion as a diversion to draw attention.

>>14463870
Kick their shit in.

Loot them of wallets and magical trinkets. Pluck hairs.

Take the artifacts off of Jim and dead Amigo. Place calls, get someone over here to pick up the bodies.

>>14463839
So don't find them. Make them so uncomfortable they HAVE to leave. Force them into a kill zone, trap it so they have to affect the environment to get through. Then hit it like the first of an angry god.

>>14463870
as hitmen they probably have some last curse or other nefarious device intended for the person who has killed them. proceed with caution; and there might still be more.

>>14463890
More specifically, try to torch the building. The smoke alone will do it. Get into the stairwell, and clog it with furniture they can't simply climb over. Hide, have Chandler watch for any movement in the furniture. If it moves, start shooting and ripping.

Check the bodies for gear and clues. Take hair samples to summon and interrogate them later. (Be ready with the Ghost Whip, these pricks need to suffer. Pitt and O'Leary never saw us angry. These two will.)

Retrieve the bodies of your friends. When we get a quiet moment, summon them and see what we can do for them. Maybe offer to bind their souls to their bodies, but that gets to be their call completely.

>>14463870
Well. We win again.

It was a damned bitter victory, though. Trading our men for our enemies', two for two, is not the kind of thing I approve of- even in a nasty situation like trying to clear out an ambush.

Call in support. Big Jim and the Amigo get their whole bodies carried out with respect before their funerals.

And these fuckers... we make them disappear. We take their bodies, too, everything on them, and we take them back home and whip their shades until they scream.

>>14463870
strip the bodies of loot and collect samples of hair and those fancy rifles.

summon up the souls of bigjim and the other amigo to sort out death related matters such as whether they wish to be sent on or keep working.

Summon their souls, quickly. It shouldn't be too hard: we're a pretty badass ghost summoner, and since they would be very weak ghosts because they were just killed, we could easily Bind them. Find out why they were trying to kill us.

Also, Summon Jim and the Amigo. I would expect them to be willing to stay in our service, either as ghosts, or as ghosts possessing their bodies - which we should be able to do.

>>14463904
Hm.

Get Amigo Secundus to get Ro, and whatever other backup we can manage. Anybody we know with a specialty in magic items other than Mr. Weapons Peddler? We could have them check out the corpses for traps.

Whatever they had, it was high level shit.

>>14463937
Hold off on summoning for now. Wait until you have some time to spare. We need to take our time with these guys.

>>14463937
Oh, you could ask the ghosts if they trapped any of their stuff too!

so hold off on the physical investigation until we know it's safe.

should we do a last sweep of the rest of the building? just to make sure?

>>14463973
Fair point. These two were the ones we know about, but there might be more.

Call them now for info, keep them on hand for torture later.

So, one of the Amigos is dead. My plan for this:
-Full funeral, much respect.
-Give anyone he wants a large sum of money.
-Summon him up for a chat.
-If he's willing to stick around, see if we can use some of his hair or similar to make amulets that let whoever's wearing them see his ghost, and give them to the two surviving Amigos.
-Remaining Amigo gets bought some very nice magical protective shit, because I am sick and tired of our gang dying on us.

Big Jim, I'd like to summon up and if he's willing to stick around, see if we can get him to develop as a more serious poltergeist type. Chandler is a spy, he's very fast and good at scouting; Jim I'd like to be a ghostly bruiser.

>>14463977
We /do/ have a luck amulet though.

You give orders to Chandler to port back the Wessler building and summon some people to help you carry out the corpses of your now dead underlings.

After 20 minutes, they arrive. Meanwhile you've been examining the corpses of the bodies, trying to see if there are any traps. Eventually you think it's safe enough to start rooting through them.

Both enemy corpses are still holding on to the Winchester rifles that have telescopic sights on them, that's the first thing you put aside. After that you go through their pockets and their bodies but all you find is a couple of hundred dollars each and no identification at all. You don't need that though. You take their hair samples.

Once your other underlings arrive, led by Gerald, you order them to carry all the corpses back to your sanctum.

An hour later you find yourself in your sanctum with four corpses in front of you.

You begin by dealing with your own underlings.

You've summond both Amigo Prime and Big Jim and made them offers to continue working for you or moving on.

Amigo Prime wants you to try to bind his ghost to his body. Big Jim seems subdued. After thinking about it he requests that you help him move on. Let him move on?

>>14463983
>force choke

>>14463977
If there were more they'd have come at the sound of our guns, I think. Any additional hitmen have likely left to report their failure, if there are any.

>>14463992
Absolutely. He's been the most loyal assistant we could hope for. He may not have liked us, I don't know, but he never complained, and he always helped out. We should do whatever we can. If he wants to move on, we'll help.

>>14463992
If he wants to go on, who are we to say no? My only worry is if we're going to have enough juice to handle the other people. Let's ask him to put it off for a day or two, while we deal with the others. We can afford to give him a full push when the time comes.

Let Big Jim move on. Have Ro fix up Prime's body before binding his soul back into it. We don't need him bleeding all over the place soon as he hops back up.

>>14463992
Help Jim move on. Is Prime sure about this? Even we don't know what the result will be for sure. If he's still up for it, then have Ro patch his body up and give it a go.

>>14463992
Yes. Maybe ask him to reconsider. Definitely ask him if he wants a last favor. But we're not gonna bind a friend.

>>14463992
let Big jim move on and give him as big of a boost as we can but first check if he wants any messages or money sent to any family or friends

as for the amigo, see if we can get Ro to patch up the bullet hole (not sure how she will react) then do our best to stick him back in his body through somform of binding or reversed soul rip

>>14463992
Ask if he's got anything else that he wants us to take care of with him gone. Last requests and all that. But of course he can move on if he wants to, and we'll take care of anything (reasonable) he asks either way. He was a good guy, everything we could have asked for.

You ask Jim to hang around so that you can give him a full push to the best of your abilities within a couple of days. He understands when you explain that that is what would be best for him and agrees.

You then turn to the matter of Amgio Prime.

You place Amigo Prime's corpse in the most powerful circle in your sanctum and then ask his ghost to step in there with it. You gather all your dark powers to a tight core in the center of your bodies and then apply your will to Prime's ghost.

You see Prime fusing with his body and you can hear him screaming, seeming to be in incredibly pain. Eventually the binding is complete and the corpse sits up, slowly. And then it stands. It looks exactly like Amigo Prime except its eyes are completely black, every part of them, in fact they seem to be glowing black outwards from the orbs. It's bizarre.

Zombigo has risen.

Zombigo stares at you, stretches out his arms and rasps "Brains....Brrrraaaiiins...Braaaaiiiins!"

After a moment or two Zombigo smiles and says "I'm just fucking with you boss, how do I look?"

>>14464073
Show him to a mirror.

I think he should dress black and ominous for full effect. I wonder how his body will deal with... not being alive. We ought to find something like the DnD spell Gentle Repose.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/gentleRepose.htm

GAINED: ZOMBIGO - your first undead ally. He has immense, inhuman strength, is practically invulnerable/indestructible but he is constantly deteriorating. The only thing keeping him alive are your necromantic powers. Every so often you have to push your power into him to make him 100%. Trying to heal him using Ro's Life giving abilities will only destroy him. I repeat - never heal him using the power of Life. It's the opposite of good.

>>14464073
"Classy as hell."

>>14464097
Needs necromantic energy to heal him/patch up wear and tear, and cure spells hurt the undead. Got it. From his initial response, I assume his mind is fully intact?

>>14464073
"A pair of suncheaters will do you good, otherwise you look pretty normal. Might need a push from me every couple of days or you'll start rotting though."

Fun Fact: Sunglasses were called Suncheaters in early 20th century America, cheaters being an American slang term for glasses at the time.

and so now, we turn away from the well being of comrades to, well, our enemies.

there were four amigos to begin with. one died a long time ago. one got turned into an old amigo. one got turned into a zombie. i bet amigo secundus is shitting himself just wondering how he's going to go

>>14464168
One died, one undied, one got closer to dying.

So clearly, the last one's going to live. Live normally.

Oh, the horror.

>>14464168
Now that you mention it, something just occurred to me. How will our allies feel about working with zeds? Secundus had his buddy killed, now he's working with the corpse. Same mind, but still, will that be an issue?

>>14464203
Who knows? Maybe he'll just brofist zombigo... and come away with a whole arm.

Silly antics ensue.

>>14464131
> I assume his mind is fully intact?

Yes. He is himself.

>>14464162
Dealing with your mysterious enemies will have to wait until the next thread because I'm calling it a day now, I have to get going.

I hope you all had fun tonight even though we started off quite slowly.

I'll let you know when the next thread is by email as usual. If you're not on the mailing list you can find my email in the email field so send me a message and I'll add you.

>>14464203
Well they are working for a necromancer. They're probably more surprised we haven't done it before.

>>14464203
Oh, our other allies? Don't even mention it to them. They'll just back the fuck away from us.

I wonder what's zombigo going to do on his spare time now.

Sweet, so now we can raise zombies? What kind of limits are there? I assume it'll get stronger with use, same as everything else.

>>14464225
I'll leave you all with this little tidbit: Zombigo never sleeps.

Damn, I just love writing the word Zombigo.

Good night guys.

Archived.

>>14464238
good night. it was great as usual

>Zombigo has risen.

This line made me laugh the hardest.

Okay, any ideas for next time? You know anything more in-depth than what we've already agreed on (1. Get Answers and 2. Make It Hurt)? Maybe if they resist the Whip, we bring Zombigo in to intimidate them. If they think they might get bound and forced to serve us, they might get a bit more cooperative.

>>14464443
1) get information from ghosts
2) take every gun, knife, magic, ally, favor, whatever, and fucking attack the people responsible.
3) because remember that time israel went crazy and invaded lebanon or somewhere because of ONE SOLDIER? we just lost TWO.

this is war. if we don't strike back hard we might as well bend over and tell everyone to line up.

>>14464579
I see what you're saying, but let's put an emphasis on gathering intel at first. There's a reason Ellington put us on the defensive suddenly like that. We always do our best work when we plot things out, and he changed the game accordingly. We can still play this out our way, though.