"I mean, did that actually come into play with Wednesday? Or was it just in the pile of leads? Might be they picked up on it from just... bleed?" He gave a semi-helpless shrug at Frank's question. "I mean, it's the least risky of the three options I see, so... yes."

"Could be," agreed Frank. "I've got no idea how most of this stuff works. I'm not sure it matters, just keep it in the back of your mind that this might not be our Terrel. I suggest we get some food and some sleep, but first I need to call home check that Dad met up with Diane and Bree okay. I'll leave the hotel to make the call, let's not make it too easy for them."

The streets are quiet, and a cool sea breeze chills Frank, who silently curses for being stuck in his obvious tourist costume. He wanders a bit, taking enough rapid course-changes to assure himself he's unlikely to have been followed, and seeks out a pay phone. Luckily it is still 2012 and payphones are still around.

He dials the number for the hotel — Tobias went through a half-dozen IP relays and proxies and firewalls to run a Duck Duck Go search for it — and waits for someone to pick up. The line clicks.

"Hello? Diane?" he asks. The other end is silent. Then, quietly, a voice speaks up.

Frank? Is it you?

"Yes it's me," he responds, trying not to let his sudden relief come through the phone. It would only make Diane worry more than she already is. "How are you and Bree? Is my dad there?"

Yes he's here, we're all fine. Francis, what's going on? Are we going to be ok? Are... you going to be ok? She asks in hushed tones. The others must be nearby.

It breaks Frank's heart to hear the worry that she is trying to keep from him.

"Everything's going to be fine. You know me, just being paranoid."

She doesn't believe him, but says that she does. He knows she is lying but that's not a problem he can solve right now. He sends his love to Bree and his dad, hangs up, and then hurries back to the hotel.

[Private to Francis 'Frank' Decourcey: It usually goes against form to write dialogue on behalf of a player, but I assumed in this case you wouldn't mind. I'm happy to edit anything that doesn't fit.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:15, Sun 31 May 2020.

On his way back to the hotel, Frank stops into a shop in the town to buy a pair of binoculars. Rhodes is home to several species of rare sea birds, and a few shops carry specialist gear to cater to visiting bird watchers.

Arriving back at the hotel, Frank heads back to the room to meet up with Toby.

"Thanks for your help, Toby." he says. "Sounds like they're doing okay, well about as good as I can reasonably expect. It was good to hear her voice again."

Toby starts to see cracks in Frank's usually calm demeanor, but he quickly changes the subject.

"Okay, tomorrow. Terrel. I don't want to go in blind, so I suggest recon. I've grabbed some binoculars. I suggest we set off to arrive just before first-light. We can ask at the hotel desk for a map of the local area to plan our route. Ideally we need somewhere overlooking Terrel's dock."

[Private to GM: OOC: No problem at all about writing Frank's dialogue. You've got a great feel for our characters, so no worries!]
This message was last edited by the player at 10:27, Mon 01 June 2020.

Toby nods. Since he's on the computer anyway, might as well make some use of it. "Sounds like a plan. I'll see if there's anything weird about it I can dig up from here. The old 'Trust but Verify' route, yeah?"

He goes digging for whatever he can find on the dock. Blueprints, purchase orders, shipping manifests, surveys of the surroundings, anything that might let them build a picture of what they were going to be walking into.

20:04, Today: Tobias Byrne rolled 32 using 1d20+12.  Investigate the dock. Nat 20, the dice roller missed me! :D

Tobias tries the easy way at first, simply looking up as much information he can about the coordinates Bacco/Terrel gave them. He hits roadblocks at every turn. The location is listed as a military hospital so all records are classified, including satellite imagery.



Not that something like that could stop someone like Toby. He kept digging, moving his search to Bacco/Terrel instead. While there was precious little information to be found about the man himself, his residence wasn't listed as military or government property, so it wasn't afforded the same protections as the dock. Toby peels back layer after layer of shell companies and corporate entities, looking for anything that can tie the two properties together. Suddenly he finds it.

The year before, Bacco held a private charity event in his mansion for an unknown organization. Several semi-famous Europeans were in attendance, which attracted a writeup in the local paper. Looking into the celebrities, he finds that all of them have given sizeable donations to an enigmatic non-profit known as The Displaced. Toby digs through the records of the organization using some less-than-legal methods to find out that the organization has been making regular shipments to the same address as the dock once a month, every month since 2008. Before that, it made several large shipments to a construction company. The company, which is a legitimate construction business but also appears to be a front for something, had several major contracts for work on the docks when they were first being built in 2008. Toby looks into this company, where he is able to find several documents, including an uncensored aerial photo.



He finds that the area is more than simply a private dock, but also doesn't appear to be military, or a hospital. The area contains several buildings that are to be expected — a boat maintenance bay, a helicopter hangar, an office building — but also nearly two dozen large circular buildings. Each is wired for electricity, water, and internet, which are all routed back to one of the main buildings.

[Private to Tobias Byrne: Your successful research allows you to ask 3 questions about the minute details of the site, and the answer you receive will be 100% truthful at the time of asking. (Simple clarifying questions don't count against the total). The question must be able to be answered with "yes", "no", a number, or an arrow on the map. You can ask at any point, whether before or during your visit. If for any reason you ask an invalid question, it won't count against you.]

Meanwhile, Frank manages to find a local birdwatching group that meets on Sunday mornings roughly in the area they want to surveil. He manages to drag Tobias out of bed bright and early, despite the computer geek's late night of research, and the two set out. Tobias finds a bench under a tree and tries to look natural while he does more research, and Frank follows the group for a bit, hoping to catch sight of the target area.

Eventually Frank gets to a spot where just over a copse of trees, in which he spots a rare but beautiful black-headed wagtail, he can observe the site. He confirms everything Tobias found the night before: the maintenance bay, hangar, and office building are all there. The circular buildings appear to be huts made out of painted sheet metal. They look completely sterile except a few have flower boxes on the windows and some have sparse shrubberies by the door. They almost appear to be living spaces. The entire area is surrounded by an 8-foot concrete fence with barbed wire across the top, and the only entrance is guarded by what appear to be military personnel. Military vehicles periodically go in and out, so if the compound is not a military hospital, it's got a good cover. The door to the hangar is closed, and the helipad is empty.

Frank scans the area further out from the compound to get a lay of the land. Curiously, he spots what appears to be a door attached to the side of a hill about 100 yards from the compound. There are no buildings near that would explain its appearance there. As he observes, the door opens and three people emerge: a young woman and two small children, a boy and a girl. All three are dressed strangely, wearing simple, old-fashioned clothes. They follow a gravel path that leads to a dirt road, and follow this road to the street that leads into town.

[Private to Francis 'Frank' Decourcey: Your successful research allows you to ask 3 questions about the minute details of the perimeter of the site and the surrounding areas, and the answer you receive will be 100% truthful at the time of asking. (Simple clarifying questions don't count against the total). The question must be able to be answered with "yes", "no", a number, or an arrow on the map. You can ask at any point, whether before or during your visit. If for any reason you ask an invalid question, it won't count against you.]

Toby hmms and follows along with Frank, who absolutely did not catch him napping with his head propped up against a tree when he got back from the bird watching.

"If the Displaced are here, and those families certainly look civilian... I'm much less worried." Toby finally says as noon rapidly approached. "I can't imagine they'd let hostages move in and out, and if they want us in there with them they can't be expecting a firefight? Right?"

Frank looks at Toby, and offers him some coffee from a flask he'd picked up with the binoculars. It was filled with strong Greek coffee from the hotel breakfast. He looked over towards the complex.

"There's military down there too, Toby," he reminds his friend. "Caution has to be our watchword here. He'll know that having civilians down there limits our options, too. That said, I agree that it's a good place for a peaceful meeting. We'll expect the best, but plan for the worst."

He puts his binoculars back up and scans the area around the dock, looking for boats.

[Private to Facilitator: OOC: First of my three questions - Can Frank see any working boats on the dock? Preferably with keys in the ignition, but I'm not asking that if it counts against my 3!]

PM

[Private to Francis 'Frank' Decourcey: The dock is on an outcrop of rock and runs paralell to the land. On the side facing the land is a huge pleasure yacht, almost as long as the dock itself. The yacht is in pristine condition and has an empty helipad on the back. There doesn't appear to be anybody on it.

On the side the side that faces the sea, there are 3 smaller boats decked out with electronics and rescue equipment. The inscriptions are in Greek, but it's reasonable to assume they are similar to a Coast Guard. The only strange thing is, while the books look fully operational, you can tell they haven't been used in months, maybe years. It's very subtle and wouldn't be noticed by casual passers-by.]

Frank scans the dock, examining the boats he can see there. He keeps the binoculars steady and holds them up for Toby to look through.

"Those small motor-launches haven't been used in a long time, so I think the yacht is our best bet for escape if this goes South," he said. "But I'm hoping this is on the level, as you said."

He takes the coffee from Toby and pours himself a cup.

"I think I'm ready to break with the birdwatchers and start walking down there, if you are. We can find somewhere quite to prepare before we get there."

Toby nods and hmms softly. "Sounds good enough to me." He handed the binoculars back and waits for Frank to finish his coffee. He followed after Frank's lead, checking his guns and wand were properly seated, easy to hand... just in case.

Frank and Tobias make their way down the hill and towards their rendezvous point. They have a little time to kill before noon so they stop at an out of the way cafe a few blocks from the dock. They take the opportunity to check over their equipment, and also to use the facilities.

After determining there's no point in postponing the inevitable any further, they finish their journey, ending up at the front gate of the complex. One of the guard holds up his hand when they get near and says, in broken English, No tourist! Go that way! He gestures you along the road that heads towards the Old Town area.

As Frank and Tobias look at each other to decide what to do, the man's walkie talkie squawks. [Language unknown: Havor not thekic.]

The man responds, the look on his face doubtful. [Language unknown: Esat ossa som? Dayencund tiwi ma ersntiyinone.]

Then the walkie squawks once more [Language unknown: Enc thpeekpr et miai ng illamereahou. Ere pl ng el stiwer'ntiwhinte mieshe.]

The man waves Tobias and Frank in, saying OK, you can come in. He nods to the other guard who slides open the chain link gate. He points vaguely inwards and gives them some short directions.

Frank and Tobias enter, sweating slightly despite the rather cool sea breeze and overcast skies. The directions they were given have them pass the large office building — completely indescript and void of signage — then take a left to go between rows of the huts Frank spied earlier. The buildings almost look like grain silos, but stuck three-quarters of the way into the ground and retrofitted with a door and two windows. Each one is exactly the same, save for different plants in the flower boxes. Some rust spots on the corners indicate that these have been here for a while. The windows have curtains — some drawn, some open — but the path they are on is angled such that they can't get a good look of anything going on inside.

They are close enough to the ocean to hear the constant rush of wave upon rock and endless cry of the seagulls, but otherwise the area is quiet. After the front gate, the two haven't seen any one else. They pass the last silo and before them stands an open field. On the other side stands a the maintenance hangar, its door now opened, and in front of it a large, flat helipad. As if on cue, Frank and Tobias hear the now too-famliar fwapfwapfwap of Bacco/Terrel's helicopter. Sure enough, they turn around to see it flying in from the west.

They watch it land, and out steps Bacco/Terrel. Thankfully, for the first time he's actually full dressed. Quite sharply, in fact, in a black double breasted suit and pink paisley ascot around his neck. He still has his familiar pipe hanging out of his mouth.

'ello chaps. I'm rather glad you decided to come.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:47, Sun 02 Aug 2020.

"Interesting place you have here," says Frank, gesturing back towards the silos. He's playing his cards as close to his chest as possible, unwilling to trust Terrel as far as he can throw his helicopter. "We've trusted you and agreed to this meeting, but now we need you to start trusting back, starting with an explanation. You can begin with what this place is, but we're going to need a lot more." He looks towards Toby. "Anything you particularly want to know?"

[Private to GM: OOC: You write 'Michael Caine accent' pretty well! I can definitely hear it in my head when I read back the last line.

Relevant system stuff:

From my Negotiator class, two relevant abilities.

Conceal Motive: Bonus equal to Negotiator level when opposing a Sense Motive check.

React First: When trying to make a deal or mediate a settlement, Negotiator gets the
ability to react first. Must speak to participants prior to combat. Gains a free readied
action that allows either a move or attack action if either side starts hostilities.
Effectively gets to act before any initiative checks are made.

Assume that Frank's weapons are concealed, and if needed I can calculate the Spot DC — there used to be an excellent d20 Modern SRD which has all the concealment modifiers, but it looks like it's gone. But, I've got the actual d20 modern handbook somewhere I can dig out if needs be.]
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 16:35, Mon 03 Aug 2020.

Toby can't help but smirk a little as they're waved through, and remarks softly to Frank, "At least our disguises are working." He can't help but tense up slightly at the sound of the chopper coming in over the field, especially given that it was so recently part of a running gunfight centered around them all.

He doesn't move, and crosses his arms in what even he admitted was a bit of a petulant manner. "You didn't tell me you could sling magic."

Bacco/Terrel holds his hands out in front of him in a combination "my bad" / "I'm not armed" gesture.

Quite right. One can't be blamed for distrusting me when I have been feeding you nothing but misdirection. I've been a righ' twat, if I'm honest.

He drops his hands back down to his side and sighs. Francis, I'll start with your inquiry. This place is... a sort of halfway house. That is to say, it's got one foot in this world, and one foot in another. Sometimes people from that other world... find themselves here, and we help them make the transition. We've disguised this place as a military 'ospital because there are many evil men in this world who would use wish these Travelers harm. That's why I brought you here, in fact.

He looks a bit sheepishly towards Tobias, and rubs the back of his neck. Well to be honest the first time we met you seemed really proud of your magic, and I thought since there was no real need for you to know I could perform spells too, I might as well let you think you were better at it than I...

[Private to Francis 'Frank' Decourcey: I worked hard for those 9 words so I'm glad it paid off :)

Noted on your abilities. Thanks for reminding me.

For concealment, if it were in one of my in person games I like to say "roll really high or really low then the DC doesn't matter". If it comes to it I can get a more specific answer ;-) It's definitely been harder and harder to find d20M references (which is soooo sad because I love this system SO much), but DandDWiki has served me well over the years.]

Toby was nonplussed. "Oh. So you decided to humor me. Thanks for that. Why did you want the bowl in the first place?"

Well... yes, you could say that. He briefly looks apologetic, but quickly brushes it off. Right, the bowl. It's not that I want it, as much as I didn't want them to get their hands on it. I thought I took enough precautions for you to go in unnoticed, but their spies must be deeper than I thought... You did get it, right? I should have heard about it if they got it from you, but this whole thing is making me rethink my operation.

"Hence the birthday invitation from..." he pauses, meeting Terrel's eyes. He watches for his reaction. "Abmayid, was it?"

Regardless of the reaction, he does his best to show nothing that would suggest he noticed — or even that the reversal of the name was intentional, eliding over it smoothly.

"If this enemy has roots as deep into the Company as you say," he explains, "Then your organisation might still be secure. I reported the contact to John Burns as soon as it was made — you pinned a mysterious note to the door of my family home. The last time that happened and it was connected to my work, the Bureau relocated us to a safehouse."</Blue>

"But my point is that if they were expecting you to make contact, it wouldn't be hard to join the dots and trace our movements."

[Private to GM: OOC:

14:19, Today: Francis 'Frank' Decourcey rolled 22using 1d20+10.  Sense Motive check vs. Terrel/Bacco.

14:21, Today: Francis 'Frank' Decourcey rolled 20 using 1d20+14.  Bluff vs Bacco/Terrel.

When do Action Points refresh? On my character sheet I only have 3 left]

If Bacco/Terrel was thrown by the name reversal, he doesn't show it.

Yes, one of my many aliases. That one in particular is more ancient than the rest, I brought it with me from — wait a tick, you called John? Bugger. He's got to be the mole then. Maybe they aren't so deep after all, they just had to flip the right person. What does he know about your weaknesses, your personal lives? The Order will stop at nothing to get that bowl.

For the first time in the conversation, he starts to seem anxious.

[Private to Francis 'Frank' Decourcey: You are confident Bacco/Terrel didn't notice your test.

Action points don't actually reset, but you get to add more each time you level. 5 for base classes, 6 for advanced classes, and 7 for prestige classes, +1/2 of the new level rounded down.]

Toby cocks an eyebrow at the slightly-scatterbrained nature of the conversation. "He's our boss. I'm not sure about how much you told him Frank, but I never really had much of a... social life... to invite him to. He didn't seem the barbecue type anyway."

"And back up a second. If the goal was 'not let them get the bowl' then why the hell did you have us steal it in the first place?"

Right, well, you see that's a rather complicated question. The quick answer is I've a theory that not just anyone would be able to actually retrieve the bowl, and it would only be a matter of time before The Order found someone to do it. I was hoping that, by getting their first, I could get the bowl to safe hands before they even knew that it was missing. Gary's always chiding me for being too brash, and he's going to have a field day with this one.

But none of that matters now, that's what I'm trying to tell you. Maybe you don't have a personal life, but everyone has something worth bargaining for. Frank, you've got a daughter, don't you?

The mention of 'Gary' didn't go unnoticed by Frank, though he didn't show it. So... Terrell and Hoyte were still in touch.

"You needed to keep it out of their hands," he said. "And couldn't take the chance that they might find someone capable of retrieving it from that place. That follows, and I don't blame you for that, Mr Terrell." He paused for effect.

"But you chose to deceive us rather than telling us the truth. In fact, I believe that you would have kept us in the dark entirely if the Retcon Dons hadn't shown up. You would have let us go back to our lives, aware that at any point the Order might have come knocking at our doors, or worse still come looking for leverage to get the information they needed from us to try and locate the bowl." He locked eyes with the man. "A less charitable man than me would take the mention of my daughter as a threat..."

I already said I was a righ' twat, but I can't go back in time. Well not in this case, but that's not really... he trails off muttering to himself.

Look, you are spot on. I never thought it would get to this, you were supposed to get in and out before anyone knew anything. It probably would have been better if I gave you the choice ahead of time. But don't get this twisted: I'm not the threat. They are. And we've got to move quickly to stop them.

[Private to Francis 'Frank' Decourcey: You don't get any menacing impression from him, nor the impression that anything he's saying is deceptive.]

"And how the heck are we supposed to know that based on your word alone?" Toby scratched the back of his head, sighing, hating not knowing where he stood. He was sorely tempted to go back to the original plan they'd made on the ship and chuck it into the ocean, let some future generation sort it out...

The man cocks an eyebrow at Toby. You mean more evidence than the fact that your own men took shots at you?