Duck chokes on his tea a bit at Koby’s comment, setting it down.

“Woah dude; nobody said or implied that serf bullshit. You don’t wanna tell us your skillset, that’s fine, but being useful is a hell of a lot different than being somebody’s butler. Honestly, I personally hope I can be useful to you if you need, but it don’t exactly put me in the shoes of a peasant, yanno.”
This message was last edited by the player at 01:47, Fri 05 Oct 2018.

Caduceus stood back and let the others trade information while he observed.  He kept an eye on the astral to keep tabs on Hairy's aura, searching for telltale signs of lies or deceit.  He seemed to be more or less truthful about stuff, so that was a good sign.

When Julia mentioned Tantarus and showed a sketch of a tattoo, however, Caduceus leaned in to take a peek.  "Tantarus..." He searched his brain for any information he knew about the name.  Or the tattoo, for that matter.

---

Unless Tantarus has strong connections with Seattle's backways, Caduceus probably doesn't know anything about him.  Here is a roll anyway, just in case.  Plus a roll to see if he knows anything about that tattoo's image or meaning.

13:16, Today: Caduceus rolled 3 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of (6+6+3)15,3,5,5,3,2.  Seattle Back-ways - Tantarus.

13:16, Today: Caduceus rolled 2 successes using 5d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 3,5,(6+5)11,3,2.  Symbolism - Bat and moon tattoo.

Criminal organizations count.  TN would be 5 for that.

Caduceus has seen the symbol before.  Not often, but occasionally as graffiti in some of the darker corners of the ork underground.  Not anywhere else that he can really think of.

Bat is a shamanic totem.  They tend to prefer or at least be associated with the dark or night.

Duck shrugs, moves over to a rack of batman comics, and thumbs through one, thinking.

18:47, Today: White Duck rolled 2 successes using 4d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 with rolls of 1,5,2,5.  Ork Underground.

Tantilus is a gang whose primary turf is the underground.  It's generally not a good idea to talk about them much.  Those who annoy them tend to disappear.  As in totally.  No news, no bodies.

"Bad stuff, those dudes. Underground gang. They disappear people." he looks to Julia.

"What'd you do to piss those guys off?"
This message was last edited by the player at 02:06, Fri 05 Oct 2018.

"I might have an idea.  But I need to explore a few things.  I think they were sending a message.  If they'd wanted to actually get rid of us, they'd have chosen a different approach"

She glanced at Hairy.  "No offense..."

"Hoi! Offense taken. I am very capable. I was just havin' a down day. Everyone gets them. Anyway, if they didn't want me to off you, what was their goal? To set me up so I get pulled into your secret magic club and drag everyone down?"

He thinks about that a moment, before dismissing the thought.

"Alright, so what we gonna do about it? These guys burned me. If I had a team, some of them might be dead right now. That pisses me right off."

Julia looked at White Duck and Hairy appraisingly.  "When stung by a hornet, the best plan is not to go knock down it's nest.  Tantilus may not be as well known or as flashy as the Ancients or the Halloweeners, but we'd probably fare just as poorly in a confrontation with them.

We will do nothing until I have more information.

I have much more I wish to do with this life - and my plans do not involve becoming ghoul food..."

"I don't particularly relish the thought of getting into a scuffle with a bunch of bat enthusiasts, but I suppose it has already happened.  I'm not sure any of my standard contacts could help us out in this situation, so I'll leave the information gathering to you." He had been making a mental checklist of people who might know something useful, and the list was uncharacteristically empty at the moment.

---

What does Caduceus know about bat shamans?  Knowing their specialties and weaknesses could help give him a clue about what sorts of things to keep an eye out for/be prepared for.

17:47, Today: Caduceus rolled 3 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 4,3,3,5,1,4.  Magical Background - Bat Shamans.

Unsurprisingly, bat shamans generally like both the dark and the sky.  They also don't tend to stick in one place too long.  Caduceus encountered one once, but she took off for Europe a couple of years ago and he lost contact with her.

22:21, Today: Koby failed (no successes) using 3d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 5 with rolls of 3,4,4.  Criminal organizations check for (Tantarrus/Tantilus/however it is spelled).

Koby thought about the name Julia mentioned and tried to wrack his brain for the answers but to no avail. It could be the effects of the tea, or the fact that he was now initiated, but he couldn’t seem to remember anything about the name, so he kept quiet as the others shar d what they knew.

Duck shrugs when directed not to do anything about the issue.
“I planned on upping our security down here anyway. Hell, if Hairy here is any indication, we could certainly use it. Buddy of ours seems fond of turrets and drones. Gonna give her a call, get things squared away with that. There an issue with that, Jules? I’d rather not just sit on my hands here.”

"Just the one, right? Nothin' a few land mines couldn't fix up. But I can wait, at least 'til I'm done sweeping up, 'cha. You got any work lined up while we wait? Them turrets are nice, but they cost a good few yen."

"Spaeking of security," Caduceus pipped up.  He turned toward Julia, "I could help beef up the astral security around here if you would like.  If a bunch of us work on the warding together, we could make this place nigh impregnable.  Probably a good idea if our little club meetings are going to take place here. Especially if we have to worry about bat shamans snooping in." The shaman looked around the room, already picking out good spots to place wards.

Julia nodded.  "Wards aren't a bad idea.  We're all now bound to this knife, so it'd be best if it wasn't easy to find.  Might even make sense to bind an elemental or two.  We can see if we can talk Kate into helping with that.  I have a few other customers who might be able to assist there.

I don't know that drones would work well in this sort of space.  The neighbors might get a bit antsy and a few would use them for target practice.  Though perhaps something inside?...

Give her a call I guess.  She may have suggestions that could work.

I'm heading home for now.  I've got a *mother* of a headache."

She dug into a drawer and pulled out a business card, handing it to Hairy.  "That's my info.  You got a comm number we can reach you at?  I presume you'd prefer that option to us using ritual magic?"

Koby placed the tray on table before he approached Julia.

Hey, could I get one of those as well? he indicated the card Julia had passed to Hairy.

"Yeah, yeah, commcodes... hey, business cards. That's a good idea. I'd give you a flyer, but I left them all in my car. Here, give me your phone and I'll plug it in."

Hairy will share his number with anyone who cares for it.

"Okay so... I turn up here tomorrow at opening? What is that, like... 3?"

"Yeah, sure, three works." Duck scribbles his comm codes onto an old collectible card from a box of cheaper ones. He nods to everyone, then steps into his back office for a moment to get in touch with an old acquaintance.

Calling CH

"I'll hop onto the commcode express too," Caduceus said as he moved closer.  He passed out his commcode to everyone who requested it and recorded their codes in turn. "I guess I'll head back here tomorrow too then to get started on the warding.  For now I am going to go home and do a bit of unwinding.  Unravel everything that happened today.  Ya know?"

If nobody needed anything else, Caduceus would take this opportunity to head out. And he would take extra precautions to ensure no bat shamans were following him home. (Or anyone else for that matter.)

Koby recorded down the commcodes of everyone there that was willing to give it to him.  He also gave out his commcodes to anyone who might need it.  After that, he had another cup of tea before heading back to the surface and going home.

So, did we set a time on when or how often we were supposed to meet?

The group exchanged contact information and finished cleaning up the back room.  Hairy had a job.  Maybe.  He was expected to show up, though he wasn't totally clear on the "being paid" thing.  However he was still alive, mostly, so that was something.

Everyone else had gotten what they'd hoped for, though the process had certainly been more bizzare than expected.  (And those expectations had already been pretty high.)

Julia promised that she'd let everyone know once she'd done more digging around exactly what "message" was being sent by Tantarus.

"A few of us would probably like to try this initiation thing soon, but it's probably best to wait until we figure out the cause of tonight's episode.  I'd rather not get interrupted again"

She headed out with Martha leaving White Duck to lock up the shop.  Koby and Caduceus went their separate ways.  Hairy was left on his own to slowly limp up the stairs, nursing his cracked ribs, nasty headache and general distaste for whatever karmic source that had decided his life wasn't quite complicated enough that he needed to be bent over and screwed in a new and more entertaining fashion.

He paused on the landing part-way up to catch his breath and to steel his nerves for the final flight before he could get to his car.  A crumpled figure in one corner stirred a bit and a bruised face peered up.

"eelvvshss?"


And so was formed one of the first magical groups in the Seattle metroplex - and certainly the non-corp-affiliated such group...

That took a whole lot longer than I'd expected, but hope everyone had a good time.

Karma: 3 for everyone, both for the duration of the process and for some entertaining posts and ideas.  Which means that you formed your magical group almost for free :)

I'll post an update in a bit with what Julia learns about Tantalus.  Who's planning to initiate?  Karma cost for grade 1 initiation is 9 and you've already passed your first ordeal, which was Vow.  If you'd really like to play it out, we can do that in a separate thread, but I'd like to move things onto an actual run that doesn't JUST involve beating Hairy senseless.  You'll have a few weeks between group formation and initial contact for the run, so post if there's anything your character wants to do that's of interest or just fun from a color perspective.

EDIT: corrected karma cost for initiation (5 + level) * 1.5 for group initiation with ordeal
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:00, Tue 23 Oct 2018.

A couple of days later, the team members got a message from Julia.  (Duck actually heard it face-to-face, but the gist was pretty much the same.)

Did some digging.  Apparently a lieutenant got miffed because of a sale I made.  They overstepped their bounds.  They now understand better and it shouldn't happen again.

Copperhead also responded to the message White Duck had left.

"Dunno dat drones is whatcha want.  Ya don got a lotta space ta keep 'em.  An they needs a way ta get in an out.  I kin set ya up wit some cameras so ya kin keep an eye what's goin on in da front an da back.  An mebbe some gun ports.  Though you gots ta take care o' payin for da hardware.  Don like workin wit plumbin, but mebbe can rig a sprinkler system too."

If you want, you can pay to bump the security of your lifestyle up a notch or two

Duck pays for the security of his lifestyle to be upped by two notches, getting CH to rig a sprinkler system, cameras, and just a couple of gun ports to cover entrances, just in case the place needs to go on lockdown. He also trains Hairy to do some basic work around the shop, offering to spar the orc any time the shop closes up early and having him along for Thursday night Fight Club. While he's courteous to Hairy, he isn't exactly letting him in on any deep dark secrets. For all intents and purposes, Hairy will be left in the dark about Duck's other profession.

Hairy is eager for some sparring training (or mostly, dodging training), and will happily swap for information about chemistry, medical studies, and the sort of magic that comes in plastic baggies.