They wander the town for a few minutes until Frank spots the perfect location: a small mom-and-pop café built on a corner. Its odd triangular layout makes it seem as if it were tucked away to fit the last open space on the block -- it also makes it easy to tell that the cooks are taking their pre-rush smoke break in the back alley. Frank can see through the windows that, though the restaurant is empty, several tables still have not been cleared. A lone young woman is lugging a bucket around clearing tables one at a time.

Frank enters and the woman shows a friendly yet apologetic smile. When Frank asks for a phone, she initially declines in broken English, saying the phone is not for customers. Frank manages (with a little translation help from Tobias) to charm her into agreeing. She opens a swing door to the kitchen, showing the phone on the wall just behind it. She leaves Frank to make his call and returns to her duties.

Diana is cheerful and wants to know when Frank will be coming back home. He senses something uneasy in her voice and teases out what's bothering her. Usually when your job sends someone to keep watch over us while you're gone, she explains, it makes me feel comforted, knowing that Bri and I are safe even though you aren't here. But for some reason this time I just get the feeling of being watched. I'm sure it's just nothing, so don't worry about me. But come home soon.

"I'll see you both as soon as I can, I promise," replies Frank, trying to hold back the panic which is edging into his voice. "I need you to do something for me. This is going to sound crazy, but I need you to trust me. Get in the car, take Bree and then get on the road. Don't pack overnight bags, just head out and drive. Drive as if you're heading to the store, then get on the interstate. You need to head for that motel we stopped at last Summer, when we headed up to see my folks. Don't stop unless you need fuel, check in under your maiden name and once you check in, stay in the room. I'm sorry. I love you."

He holds the receiver hook to end the call and immediately dials his father's number.

"Dad," he says. "Listen -- don't talk. I'm up against it with some bad guys, and I need to know that Diane and Bree are safe. I need you to get to the Great Lakes Motel in Canfield and find them - they'll be checked in under her maiden name. Get them somewhere safe. I'll be in touch."

He hangs up, and turns to Toby.

"Anyone you need to call?"

[Private to GM: OOC: He's pointing Diane at a motel they stayed at in Canfield en-route to Chicago. If they've tapped his phone, he's hoping that's vague enough to slow them down.

He's hoping that they haven't tapped his Dad's phone...]

Toby watches the front though the window of the kitchen door, trying his best to look like he wasn't actually doing just that. It was harder than it looked. He blinked at Frank's question, and had to have him repeat it. "...No," he said, giving a half shrug and a quirk of his mouth. "No one that they'd... no."

Diana sounds worried, but not panicked; Frank is confident that she will follow his instructions. Frank's dad, a cop from a long line of cops, is much more stoic about the situation.

When Frank and Tobias exit the kitchen the waitress quickly resumes her cleaning duties, trying to hide the fact that she was watching the American strangers with interest. She is far enough away (and poor enough at English) that the men aren't worried she fully grasped the content of the phone call.

"Need to get off Patmos," says Frank, passing some local bills to the waitress as they leave, talking as they walk. "We need to charter a boat and slip off before they catch up with us." He falls silent, scanning the dock for boats available for charter. "After that, well I don't know-- I'm making this up as we go along."

This is the least calm Toby has ever seen Frank. It's clear that knowing his family might be in danger and being unable to do anything much to affect the outcome of that situation is having an impact - and that strain is showing in his body language, his speech patterns.

Toby looked at Frank steadily, then put a hand on his shoulder. "Slow up. Breathe. Are they more likely to hunt random boats haring off into the Agean, or are they going to comb the whole island?" He pulled Frank gently but firmly into a nearby door alcove. "We need a plan."

There are a number of smaller private vessels in the area, but none obviously advertising charter services. There are larger docks reserved for regular ferry service to the island, but they are all empty currently. None of the passers by give Tobias and Frank so much as a glance.

Frank stops, and takes a breath. "Okay, so what's the plan?" he says. "I was figuring we slip onto a fishing vessel and then persuade the owner to take us back to the mainland. We hide until this place is a speck, then we can slip off the dock and disappear into the rest of the tourists in Greece. Only problem is that I glimpsed a map on that cafe wall, and we're a long way from Greece here - closer to Turkey."

Toby hrms. "Well, if we're... borrowing... a boat, we don't need to follow the tourists at all. Why not go fishing, then take a boat to Turkey?" He pauses. "Although, really, this is sort of academic. The Company's going to flag us as soon as we get near an airport. So whatever we do with the b- the... thing... we have to do before we cross a border officially."

"If we set foot in Turkey, we'll already have broken the law," says Frank. "But, if we're clever, we could get to Turkey, hide it, then get back to Greece as quickly as possible to fly back as planned." He pauses, thinking.

"A Greek fisherman isn't going to just smuggle us across an international border. So, we catch a lift to another little island – there's hundreds in this area – and then find our own boat for the criminal bit."
This message was last edited by the player at 10:35, Sun 07 July 2019.

Toby nodded. "That would work... Mainly I just don't want to get off this island the traditional way. If it's island hopping away in Greece that would work too. If we're trusting the Agency once the bowl is gone, then they can get us out of Turkey..."

"I don't know," replied Frank. "If I was still with the Bureau, this would be betraying everything I'd sworn to uphold, but Terrel-Hoyte is a private enterprise, no matter how much they try to dress it up as otherwise. You and I saw the same vision – you know what's at stake."

He looked towards the boats tied up to piles along the harbour wall, then across the tiny expanse of harbour towards the road that led back the monastery. He didn't know how much time they had – not long, if he had to guess.

"I'm going to try and secure us a boat," he said. "Stay here, and keep your head down until I signal."

He moved swiftly through the crowd, watching out for anyone who looked out of place. He then picked a likely looking boat for a tourist charter and approached to negotiate with the owner.

[Private to Facilitator:
OOC:

Diplomacy check:

12:08, Today: Francis 'Frank' Decourcey rolled 17 using d20+13+2 ((2)).

If the owner Frank talks to is a woman, please add +2 for Charismatic hero 'Charm (Women)' feature.

Frank is looking to charter a boat to another neighbouring island (preferably a fairly touristy one) - just to get ahead of their pursuers - once they get there the plan will be to hire a boat that they can pilot themselves.]

"Gotcha." Toby nodded to Frank and did his best inconspicuous act by the edge of the pier, and not look too hard like he was diligently observing everyone strolling by.

Frank wanders the docks looking for a boat owner he can charm into a no-questions-asked one-way trip off the island. He finds his mark at the end of the dock: an old man with a deep tan and weathered skin plopped down in a lawn chair smoking a cigarette, watching his 20-something daughter indifferently as she tries to pass out home-printed fliers to drum up business for their private charter. It's not the fanciest looking boat in the marina, but that will guarantee they are the only passengers on it.

After striking up a chat with the daughter, he comes back to Toby with a few options.

Option 1 is to go west to the island of Kos. The journey would take about 2 hours, and is very close to mainland Turkey -- only about 8 miles. The city of Kos is only a little bit bigger than where they are now, so options for hiding and getting off the island will be more limited.

Option 2 is to go past Kos to Rhodes. It would be a 6-hour journey, and once they get there it's another 30 miles north to the nearest Turkish docks, but the Rhodes city is a lot bigger and it would be easy to blend in as a tourist or resident, as well as find transportation off the island.

"Rhodes, I think?" Toby says hesitantly. "Get lost in the shuffle?"

"Good call," said Frank. "Kos is just asking to get caught, and it wouldn't take them long to work out where we'd headed from there, even if we got that far."

The daughter looks a little disappointed when she sees Frank return alongside another man, but their money is good and she needs the business. The journey is uneventful; the old man silently takes the helm of the ship, not moving except to light another cigarette. His daughter tries to make conversation at one point, but quickly understands that Frank and Tobias aren't in a chatty mood.

They arrive at Rhodes deep in the evening, and the city is winding down. They grab some food from a street vendor who is about to close up shop for the night and find an out of the way, ask-no-questions type hotel. When they get to their room, they take inventory. Frank's pistol only has a few rounds in it, and Toby's ancient revolver is completely spent.

Frank pulls out the steel bowl and places it reverently on the night stand. Tobias mutters a few ancient words and purple light extends from his fingers in several thin beams, arcing sporadically to different points of the room, much like Tobias is the center of one of those lightning globes they sell in novelty stores. Much to the men's surprise, none of the strands land on the bowl, seemingly indicating it possesses no magical power. One of the strands does, however, land on Tobias.

"Uh, Toby," says Frank. "How long have you been carrying that?!" Toby looks down to see he still somehow has the Crusader sword attached to his hip, where just seconds before he could have sworn there was nothing. After a mild freakout then some thorough examinations, the boys realize that the sword only becomes visible if you are both actively looking at it and thinking about it. Once it loses your attention, it completely disappears.

Next, one of his purple strands of light lands on the alien computer Tobias concealed. It still operates outside of the ship, and seemingly is fully functional. Tobias figures if he spends some time studying it he might learn something from it.

Several of the arcs land on different points on Frank's body. He inspects a few of his bumps and bruises and notices that a few of them are in distinct patterns. When he wipes his hand over them they form into intricate black tattoos! One on his right hand forms an ornate, six-point snowflake; on his neck is an entwining plume of fire; his right eye houses concentric circles, and over his heart is a symbol that looks like the cross between an X and an elongated P -- it has six evenly spaced legs, and on the top is a rounded head. Frank feels a power emanating from each of the tattoos, and finds that if he concentrates on any one, he can understand its nature. Furthermore, he can will them to conceal or reveal themselves.

Just when they think they've run out of magical items to investigate, the magic strands start to go haywire. They spiral around the room, hitting everything in sight, until every last one of them converges on the hotel phone. The spell ends (though Tobias thinks it should have lasted longer than it did), and the phone rings.

It rings again.

It rings a third time.

Before it can ring again a stunned Frank picks up the phone. "Hello?"

The voice on the other end of the phone is a nasally British upperclass accent. Frank. Don't hang up. It's me -- the one you know as Bacco?

Frank slams down the phone and starts grabbing the items they've laid out on the bed. "We've got to go out of here, Toby, he's found us. I don't know how, but he's found us."

Before Tobias can react, the TV turns on, and Bacco's face takes up the screen. He still has the familiar bushy eyebrows but he's combed his wild hair and switched out his thick framed glasses for more conservative ones, pushed down to the end of his nose. He's wearing a pressed, collared shirt, making this the first time either of the men have seen him in anything other than a robe.

Gentlemen, he says, humble and serious. Fear not. This magic is powerful, but it's more of a one-way communication.

I'm afraid we got off on the wrong foot. My name isn't actually 'Bacco Milanesi', it's Reginald P. Terrel. Yes, the same Reginald P. Terrel that co-founded Terrel-Hoyte industries, your very employer. I didn't mean for everything to come out this way, but things went a little sideways back there. I was hoping your little mission would go unnoticed, but The Order has a stronger foothold than I realized. I can't believe they infiltrated THE Company right under my nose... well two can play at that game, but I'll need your help. I just sent coordinates to your mobiles. If you trust me -- and I know you have no reason to at this point, so take me on faith -- meet me tomorrow at noon.

Terrel/Bacco gives a quick nod and the screen goes black.

[Private to Tobias Byrne: The crusader sword is a +1 holy longsword. It is imperceptible by anyone who doesn't know to look for it -- man, and machine. Furthermore, if wielded along side Possenti's revolver (and only alongside that gun), you can make two attacks as if you had the Two-Weapon fighting feat (despite that feat not normally allowing a mix of melee and ranged weapons). Since both weapons are medium, each attack is at -4 to hit.

If the alien computer is connected to your glasses, it provides +4 to any trained Knowledge or Computer Use check involving something you can actively see or hear, or Research checks on alien subject matter. It provides passive +2 bonus to any Spot, Listen, or Search check to detect a specified source (in other words, anything you can tell the computer about in advance), and a +1 passive bonus to all Intelligence-based skills not mentioned above (including untrained skill checks). Your Smart level is doubled when making any Linguist check to decipher an ancient or alien language (from this universe). Lastly, you can enter "combat mode", which allows you to add your smart level as a bonus a Dodge bonus to AC, Reflex saves, and attacks, though your passive skill bonuses disappear for the duration. You can switch between skill mode and combat mode as a move action.

Despite your detect magic spell not pickup up the bowl, you feel its energy deep within your soul. You think that with enough research and the proper equipment, it can be used as the basis of a powerful incantation. One more powerful than anything that has been seen in thousands of years.

Lastly, your experiences on the ship give you a +1 bonus on Will saves against any effect that would make you act against your will.]
[Private to Francis 'Frank' Decourcey: Each tattoo represents a spell-like ability you can now perform (unless otherwise noted, using a tattoo is a standard action) Activating any tattoo causes it to become visible and slightly glow with a theme-appropriate color. You can hide or reveal the tattoos at will (except while using it, when it is always visible -- however mundanes may not see it for what it is), and the skin on which the tattoo is etched does not need to be visible to use its ability.

Neck (fire): Mode A -- you breath fire in a 15-ft cone. All affected creatures must make a DC (12+CON) saving throw or be dealt 1d6 fire damage for every 2 character levels, rounded up. Creatures who make their save take half damage. Generally speaking, the fire breath does not ignite unattended flammable materials.
Mode B -- in a social situation where Frank is especially heated or emotional, you may make a fiery statement as free action along side a social check, to give the check a +10 bonus. Furthermore, you can choose to have the statement affect everyone within hearing distance, even if the social skill would normally only be applicable to one person. In this case, the bonus is reduced to +2.

In mode A, the tattoo becomes inactive for 1d4 rounds after use. In mode B, the tattoo becomes usable immediately after use, but is ineffective against the same target(s) for another hour.

Hand (snowflake): Activating this tattoo is a free action as part of an attack. You can choose to have any attack imbued with cold energy, which causes the attack to be treated as magical and deals an additional +1d6 cold damage. This tattoo can only be applied to one attack per round, even if you have the ability to make more than one attack.

Eye (Bullseye): Activating this tattoo is a Standard action. The next attack roll you make gets a +20 bonus and ignores any miss chance due to concealment. If the attack misses, the ability to use the tattoo immediately refreshes; otherwise it becomes unavailable for one hour.

Heart (chi-rho): Mode A -- you can heal 3d6 hit points OR apply a +7 bonus to your next Fortitude save against poison or disease OR heal 2 points of temporary ability damage. Any of these effects can be used against yourself or another target, and no target can receive an effect from Mode A more than once per minute.
Mode B -- immediately ends any and all of the following adverse conditions affecting the target: temporary ability damage (but not permanent ability drain), blindness (including dazzled effects), confusion or insanity, daze, deafness, fatigue, exhaustion, feeblemindedness, nausea, and poison. It also cures up to 150 points of damage and removes negative levels, but it does not restore permanently drained levels. Every time it is used in Mode B after the first in a 24-hour period, there is a 5% cumulative chance that the tattoo becomes permanently inactive.

The Bowl: ???????

Other: Your experiences on the ship give you a +2 bonus on Will saves against any effect that would make you act against your will.]

Frank glowered at the blank screen, willing the man to show his face again. Nothing happened and he turned to Toby.

"That son of a bitch," he spat. "I take it as a given that you didn't know who he really was."

He paused, gesturing towards the sword at Toby's hip and then running his hands over the spaces where the tattoos had shown before he'd concealed them.

"I think we can be sure that we're working for a higher power than Terrel or The Company, and I'm not talking about the President." He sighed, but there was something peaceful in the sound. "But the question is, can we hide this thing from him at all. Did he trace us, or the bowl? And if he did it, can They?"

He looked at the coordinates they had been sent. Where did Terrel want to meet?

[Private to GM: OOC: Has my +2 to nearly everything 'Jesus bonus' now worn off?]

Toby shakes his head. "Of course not. I'm just trying to figure out if Bacco ever existed or if this was a LONG game indeed..."

The sword unnerves him in a way that was hard to quantify. One part unworthiness, one part awe, and about four parts 'make sure never to leave it where I might sit on it.' The computer, however, he was much more comfortable with...

"I don't think it matters," he murmurs to Frank's first question, "I assume we're not going to be just leaving the bowl, right? And... it's a big, big thing." Toby runs his hand through his hair. "Like, 'magical Fat Man' kinda big. Or maybe the Tsar Bomba."

The coordinates Bacco/Terrel sent you lead to a private dock on the northern part of the island, near the Old Town of Rhodes.

[Private to Francis 'Frank' Decourcey: Yep, safe to say that's all gone by now.]

Frank looked at Toby carefully. "So you're saying the reason whatever it was you did with the purple light didn't touch the bowl was because it was too magical?" he asked. "Because, whatever we're supposed to do, I think He's got our back but we've got to get it right. God helps those who help themselves."

Toby gives a half shrug. "I'm not... I've never seen something this big. No one alive has seen something as big as what this thing could do." He holds up a finger, pauses in thought, then nods. "And yes I'm including the critters which live for hundreds of years. For G- uh... For cripes sake can't you feel it?"

"I'm feeling a lot right now," replies Frank. "All of it mixed up with the rest. You're the expert on the magic stuff, so if you think it's not safe to leave it, then we keep it with us."

"So now, the million dollar question, Toby. Can we trust Terrel? Or at least, can we trust him more than The Company...or more than Hoyte?" He rubs the spot between his eyes. "And another question that might help us answer the first... What does Diyamba mean, or Abmayid—its reverse? It came up in Washington during the Mr Monday case as an ESP lead, and then again on the invitation from Bacc—from Terrel."

"You know the phrase 'put the fear of God into him?' That, right now. I'd say we should destroy it except I'm not entirely sure that wouldn't be worse."

Frank's mention of the word makes him blink, then focus a little; probably for the best, as he was getting more and more skittsh talking about that bowl. "It's... I didn't even notice the reversing. Abmayid is... Well it's a bastardized version of a really old Arabic. Means 'protect.'

"Could be a coincidence. Could be the espers were picking up on this back then. Could be Ominous Portents. Honestly... I don't really trust either of them. Which is annoying, because I also don't trust us to be able to make a go of not picking a side."

"I'm not sure I believe in coincidences anymore," replied Frank. "Could be the reversing of Abmayid is implying the opposite of protection—harm. Or, it could be that it's reversed for another reason... Is this guy from the shadow world?"

He shook his head. "We're just speculating at this point. Either way, I think we need to meet with him. I've got pretty good at reading people during my career. I get a chance to talk to him face-to-face I can see if he's on the level. If he isn't, and he tries to take the bowl by force, well...I guess at that point we'll have to hope we've got enough to defend it."

He paused, realising he'd been 'stream of consciousnessing' at Toby.

"What do you think? You happy with us taking that risk?"

[Private to GM: OOC: Please don't move the scene on yet, even if Toby does agree to the plan as Frank will want to call the motel in Canfield and check in with Diane.]
This message was last edited by the player at 11:57, Thu 16 Apr 2020.