Richard nodded to Claire as he took in the scene once again.  "++Agent Jackson reporting in,++" he announced quietly, hand on his earpiece.  "++We were in the process of concluding our investigation of the previous amalgam's headquarters when we came under attack by RDs.  Near the top floor, an EDE was drawn in to attack the agents present.  We chose to withdraw and bring the building on top of it with improvised explosives to neutralize the EDE.  Agent Wilson is MIA, abducted on-site through what we believe to be a dimensional rift.  Agent Tanner is down, possibly KIA, attacked while on watch outside by what appears to be a cyborg of unknown origin.  Minor injuries from most other personnel.++"

He glanced over to Sandra, and a quick observation of her body language suggested she wasn't finding anything they needed to be worried about.  "++EDE confirmed denatured, buried in the rubble.  We have not found sign that the enemy cyborg is still on-site.  Unenlightened emergency services are currently on-route to our location; we have a minute before they arrive.  I plan on spinning the destruction of the building as our having discovered an impromptu methamphetamine lab and its subsequent explosion.  Requesting a spot-check on the plan, and backup as needed.++"

Devon sighed, a bit put-upon. His old municipal passwords were outdated. Time to make a phone call to the appropriate individual. He waited patiently through a couple of rings... "Hey, Frank? I bet you've noticed a bit of a kerfuffle..."

Working to re-route civilian channels into the area. As noted, shouldn't be too hard with contacts and the like, lemme know if I need to roll anything.

Sandra breathed a sigh of relief as her HUD informed her that no extra dimensional entities were detected in the area. Again she keyed the touchpad to change the display to the raw data. A smile of triumph that she had managed to "tag" the EDE in a way that can be tracked was suddenly replaced by a new feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach that she could very well face the monstrosity again.

When Claire connected the team to HQ, she quickly shook her head at Richard to indicate that she found nothing without interrupting his report. She gave an additional, awkward, thumbs-up and an embarrassed smile that she was not ready with the information in a more timely manner.

When he had finished his initial report, she switched over to the team's channel and quickly said to Richard, ++Good news is no other EDEs detected. The bad news is the magma monster shifted back to its home dimension and was not killed...++

Sandra paused. Self preservation screamed at her to leave it be. But then again... some of her colleagues who had failed to meet standards from Control had suddenly vanished.

++But I 'tagged' it. I can trace where it's going++ she finished, sparing him the technological details.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 03:24, Sat 04 June 2016.

Aria muses to Claire in her head, appearing in her vision as 'sitting' on a piece of rubble. "Oh now you've done it. Control is going to come down and investigate the team about the deaths of fellow enlightened and when everyone feels the pressure they'll throw you under the bus."

Claire furrowed her brow "No, I do not zink so. Our team was not prepared for zis confrontation. Control will understand."

Aria smirks "Maybe, but you better start covering your tight little ass darlin."

Claire glanced over to Sandra and then broadcasts over the comm, though not to Control. "Zis is atypical for Traditionals; zey tend to be more passive and zere was that `itmark too. I zink zat zis may `ave been a trap all along - possibly from a turncoat within ze former team."

It stayed quiet for a second or two before Erin's voice returned over the open channel:" ..well .. we'll have to go over the details in debriefing .. ". In the background someone was heard cursing something about having:" .. sent along a VE to deal with EDE's without the need to drop a fucking building on it ..".

Erin chose to ignore the background commentary:" .. A methlab in a guarded burned out law firm? Wouldn't a ruptured gasmain be an easier explanation? Seeing how earthquakes aren't all that uncommon in california and all?".

Mister Light cut in:"I'm sending Ai to your location to deal with the wounded. She'll have backup with her. Stick with Erin's story, localized seismic activity followed by a ruptured gas main".

"VIGIL, we have two missing team members. We have one cyborg and one teleporter on the loose. We need to track them down. That is our team's main focus. Richard, convince whoever is in charge of our cover story. Advice them to stay back. Forget about explaining the cyborg. Most likely there are only a few witnesses who saw something we don't want to reveal to the masses, not enough to create any sort of major shitstorm. A few rumors about advanced cybernetics being in use is not going to harm our cause. We'll deal with the fallout after the fact. Keep your story short and simple. After that help in coordinating the team's efforts. Claire, start up a Dragnet procedure. Devon, assist Claire and find out where those bastards are hiding. Sandra, continue increasing the local gauntlet but first see if you can find out where the other side of that dimensional rift led to. James ... lethal force if there are still targets on site".

Erin chimed in:"Wait for Ai before following potential traces, team".

Sandra's eyes widened, she hunched, and her cheeks colored.

"B-but...! I sealed... The EDE was..." she sputtered out quietly. She quit speaking, out of the simultaneous shame from being criticized and distracting the team from instructions from Control. As the exchange continued she tried her best to will herself to be invisible.

++Understood++ she said, then tried to cover for her shaking voice with a cough.

Frank Langetta was a traffic controller for a decade before making it to management. He caught the attention of VIGIL for being an efficient team player. After setting up a chance meeting with a lowly vampire who was about to snack on poor Frank the Technocracy staged a rescue from the bloodthirsty vampire and Frank easily agreed to aid VIGIL in keeping the city safe. Frank never asked questions, smart enough to realize that the Technocrats were the good guys if vampires were the bad guys and simply assumed they were a secret government agency. He'd become quite a valueble asset in VIGIL's growing spy network. Devon had worked with him before as he was familiarized with citizen spy networks during his training days.

"The crumbling building? That was you people? No, forget it, I don't think I want to know. What can I do for you?".

Today: Storyteller, on behalf of Devon Arc (charisma+spies), rolled 9 successes using 10d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 ((3,9,10,8,8,10,6,7,7,6)).

"Yeah, the less said, the better. We're looking to keep civilians away from the area and potential hostiles, and slow down media involvement. If you could clog up the streets, just gum up the works within about three-four miles, you'll help us out and keep people a lot of safe."

Devon kept his voice calm and bland, what he thought of as an "air traffic control" voice. It was reflection theory, the calmer the person you talk to, the calmer your own emotional state. In actuality, he was in a very... odd mental state. Was he really insulted that he wasn't the lead on comms right now? The major threat was outside his specialty, he knew nothing about DS vibratory scanning, so what was bothering him?

Probably just a side-effect of shock. Loss of rationality, emotional distance from the important events. Shove it to the back and don't worry about it for right now, focus on his job, that's the point of being in an amalgam in the first place. Specialization leads to a smoothly working machine.

Anything else I should get Frank to do for us while I've got him on the line, folks?

"Three to four miles is a pretty wide area .. that's a tall order but I'll see what I can do. I can probably give you about two hours before I get a call from the major's office. Good luck with .. whatever", Frank replied.

"++Is a better idea, Control++" Richard agreed with Erin.  He must be still somewhat dazed if the first thing that came to mind were television shows gone horribly wrong.  "++Working the crowds until contact is made with first responders.++"

He murmurs a brief prayer below his breath -- habit, honestly -- and leaves the slowly-dissipating cloud of dust.  There are uninitiated people who need to be brought back into the comforting safety of mundanity, and he's probably the best person to do just that.

Richard will be simultaneously helping people up onto their feet, doing basic safety disaster protocols, and helping people get their story straight.  If any concerns arise about a shooter (or shooters!), he's going to play up the immediacy of the disaster and distract them with relief that nothing else happened and nobody they know is injured or hurt (probably using some combination of Manipulation + Expression, Subterfuge, or Blatancy, plus his Writing the Open Book rote to reinforce this impression).  When first responders are on site -- hopefully delayed by shenanigans -- we'll have things under control.

Continuing to check the immediate area whilst communications were relayed James resisted the urge to snort a laugh at the suggesiton he might have ben going non-lethal. Anything that survived being that close to a collapsing building that option was off the table. On the topic of the EDE he briefly chimed in, "++Can we keep scanning going for anything coming from the other side? I'd rather get as close as I could to a warning before something tears a hole in the world and attempts to imolate my head.++"

Richard walked through the slowly dissipating fog of war until things started clearing up slowly. Buildings because visible, here and there small groups of people. Some of them came toward him.

Heavy set hispanic man: "Sir, sir, are you alright?".
Grey haired business woman: "What happened? Was it an earthquake?".
Pimply caucasian teenage boy:"I saw two people fighting, one of them had a metal arm that spewed fire! I took photos!"
Elderly asian man: "I think I heard gunshots".
Blond shorthaired man in black:"Thank God for He has granted you another day to repent your sins, brother".
MIddleaged caucasian man:"Hey man, there's sirens heading this way. You should get yourself checked out. You look like shit".

(richard you can roll appropriate skills or magic rolls. You can choose to roll Writing an OPen Book for each person separately needing 2 successes per target, or affect all of them with 5 successes. Base difficulty is 5. Note that at level 2 Mind can't erase or alter a person's memories but it can affect their emotional state and block or induce impulses).

(James, roll Perception + investigation to see if you can find out what happened after you lost sight of Jacki and the cyborg. difficulty 6. Alternatively you may use magic. Hint? Jacki had a commlink. You have Forces magic)

(Sandra, make a magic roll to see if you can find out where the portal that spat out the EDE originated from. It will be an extended roll as the other side has likely taken measures against detection. It's up to you how many times you want to roll before giving up. It is a level 2 effect as it involves correspondence 2)

(Claire, the cyborg, if it is still somewhere in the vicinity, won't have gotten very far. Roll Genius against difficulty 6. This is an extended roll. You need to decide how many times you want to roll before giving up if unsuccessful. You can roll Intelligence+Spies (7) to reduce the difficulty of the Genius roll. Each success on the Spies roll reduces the difficulty by -1 (max -3).
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:32, Thu 09 June 2016.

OC: Magic is one of the things I'd been considering, for infravision in this case. Double checking since it'll be off the glasses that's Diff 6 -1 Focus, -1 if I take a round casting?

2 Successes on Per + Inves

James looked around, taking note of heat signatures, but in the smoldering mess that was once a seven story building little was noticeable. There were hot and cold spots but there was no particular pattern that was significant other than confirming that the EDE's physical form had shattered. Continuing scanning his surroundings there was something drawing his attention. The dust and rubble made finding traces very difficult but about 6 meters from the van James noticed a perfectly round shape, colder than the street. James recognized the size and shape as a manhole. There was less dust and rubble on the manhole cover than on the street, not much but enough to indicate someone likely had opened and closed it after the explosion. And now that was apparent to him he noticed a set of tracks, although mostly covered by a subsequent layer of dust and rubble James suspected they were human made.

(Just noticed I read your post wrong, but investigation by itself would have had you notice the tracks as well so I'll let it stand)
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:13, Fri 10 June 2016.

Sandra turned her attention back toward the rubble. She had lost her respirator somewhere inside the building before it was destroyed. But she hoped that the rest of her personal protective equipment would convince the gathering onlookers that she was just doing routine investigative work, albeit with strange electronics...

She opened up her kit and once again retrieved her handheld amplifier, quickly interfaced it to the micro sensors, and scanned the Gauntlet for a trail that could lead them to the portal's origin.

Sandra's tension almost visibly vanished as her focused returned to her work.

11:59, Today: Sandra Reyes rolled 2 successes using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 with rolls of 6,7,3.  Tracking the portal again.

11:59, Today: Sandra Reyes rolled 2 successes using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 with rolls of 10,6,3.  Tracking the portal.

I'm not sure what difficulty to set it at. Does Sandra's gear count as a personalized/unique/specialized instrument? And is this coincidental or vulgar with witnesses magick?

OC: No prob

"++Looks like someone's gone into the sewers, I'm, guessing the cybrog took Jacki since I can;t see either. Following or not?++"

Claire slipped into the back of the van - it being the only place remaining with any stability or seclusion. She furiously worked with her botnet in search for the Cyborg, and quickly began to narrow down the likely heading.


I forgot to modify the difficulty of the dragnet role to 3 from the Spies. With that and the willpower expenditure in mind that should be five successes on the first pass; enough for the area of a small town.

12:23, Today: Claire Blanc rolled 3 successes using 6d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 with rolls of 6,9,9,5,4,2.  Dragnet - Enlightenment 3, Quintessence 3, Willpower 1.
12:03, Today: Claire Blanc rolled 7 successes using 11d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 with rolls of 8,10,1,7,3,9,8,9,10,2,8.  Int+Spies.

Claire found that the back of the van was the only part of the van that hadn't been crushed by a large pillar of concrete but it was far from a comfortable place to do her work.She set about sending off commands to her botnet, inputting search parameters, what little she had.Information started coming in sporadically, images of the building, the explosion, the cyborg caught on camera fighting with Jacki prior to the explosion.Claire building the bomb (claire made a mental note that she and several other team members were caught on camera prior to the explosion and marked the source as a security camera from one of the nearby buildings). (more information will be forthcoming but it is not an instant effect).

Meanwhile her ADEI received information from the search she'd instigated prior to the assault, about the car James had searched through earlier. Traffic cams had picked up the car several times, although Claire noted the cameras had had trouble capturing the image of the driver. Some technocrats, in particular those associated with the NWO and the Syndicate, often developed techniques to avoid capture on camera, and since it was already fairly certain the car had been driven by VIGIL's missing former supervisor this was likely the reason the cameras had acted thusly. The car itself had not so been edited out and Claire could rewind the path that had led its driver to its doomed destination back to a coastal area at night, and one building in particular, Rancho Las Flores Boy Scout Camp. In one filmframe of a traffic cam about half way to VIGIL's former HQ Claire saw the image of a human, apparently clinging to the roof of the car.

The dust was slowly starting to settle. Large shapes could be seen again within the cloud.
Claire heard James over the comm.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:42, Sun 12 June 2016.

Sandra began to trace back the quantum filament that ran from her end to another, as yet unknown location. It ran northward,somewhere around Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley. stil a wide area to find a single mage able to tear through space. Her measurements at this point began to widely fluctuate, unable to focus more clearly on the exact location, as if someone was actively trying to to throw her off the trace. She'd have to push harder to narrow her search ..

(the effect uses Data 2 as the highest rank. It is coincidental as no one would quite understand why you're using some kind of scanning device. So it's 3+2 is difficulty 5). Sandra equipment can be uniquely specialized but remember that if it gets broken you'll need to relearn the spheres it is used for with a new focus. UP to you whether you feel that's worth the -1 difficulty it gains you. Let me know and note on your sheet if you choose that option. The number of successes required must overcome the successes rolled by the other party who made sure to set up a spell to counter yours. To find him you need to break down his defense. You can continue rolling if you wish or stop and fail to further narrow your search
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:56, Mon 13 June 2016.

There was a lot of honking in the far distance, roadraged car owners venting their frustration with the traffic situation. One ambulance had made it through, following a van similar to the one the team had arrived in, but the other emergency personell either had their hands full further up, or had been stuck in traffic as the neighborhood slowly became gridlocked.

"Heya Sandy, I got my hands in my pockets over here. You're letting a genius go to waste. Whaddya need? Whaddya need? Hell, anybody, whaddya need?"

For some reason, the distant, nigh-incessant honking put Richard in a good mood. Maybe it was the fact that he was still tasting air, scorched and sooty as it might be.

And then, the distant honking meant all those people out there, pissed off as they might be, were alive. They were safe. They weren't currently the focus of a WoW reject wannabe throwback and his band of miscreants. They might not have nabbed the bad guys, but the sure as shootin' had a strong lead.

Probably even a decent lead on their primary ongoing investigation. The level of destruction they'd encountered (ahem, previous to the total destruction) seemed consistent with the first attack. The immediacy of manifestation suggested a honeypot ambush, and the speed of response suggested a familiar scenario.

He was worried, of course. They had people out there, maybe in danger, maybe dead. But Devon was feeling downright optimistic.

And he wasn't in charge of anything... which gave him license and leisure to run his mouth.

"We've got a good buffer here, folks, let's not waste it! Let's get those noses to the grindstone, or something."

Claire looked up to Devon from her laptop. "If you are looking for something to do, ze security camera across ze street needs to be sanitized. I am narrowing in on our little friend in ze mean time, so get ready for zat as well."

"Gas line explosion," Richard wheezed through his kerchief, steadying himself on the shoulder of the first person he came across.  "Gas line must have been ruptured... since the building fire a few days back.  Earthquake, maybe.  My team had just gotten out, we contacting emergency services, but there must have been a stray spark..."

He shook his head, taking off his sunglasses, half-useless as they were covered in a fine layer of masonry dust, and pointed at three people in turn -- the Hispanic man, the elderly Asian, and the businessman.  "You three, make sure people stay clear," Richard said to/instructed them; in crisis circumstances, people needed direction, and most people could be counted on to obey.  In the case of the second two, it would also distract them from what they'd just seen and heard.  "That gas line may still be seeping.  Could be a second explosion.  Don't want anyone else hurt..."

We'll aim for Manipulation + Leadership here to organize the crowd into thinking more about damage control, using Writing the Book to reduce the difficulty...
23:30, Today: Richard Jackson rolled 1 success using 2d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 5 ((10,3)), which provides a -1 modifier to the skill check...
23:28, Today: Richard Jackson rolled 4 successes using 5d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 ((3,6,9,6,8)).


Richard changed his armrest to the middle-aged caucasian for a moment.  "Can you keep an eye out for anyone else who might have been near the building?" he asked, just low enough to be heard.  "I saw some people scattering, but we'll have to wait for the dust to clear before it's safe for anyone to get in there..."

And, as he's got everyone paying attention to other things, he sidles up to the excited teenager.  "Who was fighting?" Richard asked.  "Can I see?"  A pause, waiting to see the pictures -- kids loved to show that stuff off -- then a chuckle, that turned into a cough and a wheeze.  "Not bad.  Did you do that yourself?  You've got a future in graphic arts design..."

For the kid, we'll be Writing the Open Book again, this time to quash any impulse he might have to share any photos he might have.  Spending WP on this one...

23:41, Today: Richard Jackson rolled 2 successes using 2d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 5 ((6,5)).  Should be ideally enough.  Apologies if I'm taking liberties with moving too quickly, I've been late enough.

With no answer to his question and distances likely increasing James headed for the manhole cover to move it, carefully keeping back as he shifted the cover to avoid a possible hail of fire from below, managing to ignore the pointed twinge from his side as he did so.

Looking over to Ai he nodded, "Traffic wasn't as bad as I thought it might be."

Vadim looked back in the direction of the rear of the van before looking at her again, "Do I need to stay here and let him out if you need him?"