TEAM = 7 Successes
Sal wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2020 12:41 pm
The ride to Castle Refuge]Sal looked up at Ruben when he mentioned the hive...
Was it really that many? He was snacking on some cheese found in the way back of the cave. But something about just leaving all the dead Xictic did not sit well with him,
“Hey Rubs... Do you think, by way of solid thought, that folks will pay for the Xicitic? In my sorid past, as it were, in the labs I grew up in I once heard that the CS have an outstanding bounty on the bugs. Could we or you haul them to a nearby outpost. If you did it maybe we compensate you in some small measure...”
Ruben nods thinking.
“Yeah, um I guess I recall something about a bounty. Maybe we can get some men to look into it and clear them out. See what the CS will pay for the ones we can recover.”
Sal Knows he can trust Ruben to see to it, or have men be about the work. After all if you cannot trust Ruben, who can you trust.
Sal wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2020 12:41 pm
The kid brushed his hair from his face, and some of the much off his hands. He shook Sal’s paw,
“Oh yeah I am fine.. The name is Alex, thank you for... Uhh Ramon is a bit off of late. Oh wow did you cut his hand off with a psi blade? What is up with your arm, do you want to see my Power Armor? When did you get here? Are you staying for long?”
Sal smiled at the barrage of questions and held up a paw,
“First lets get your friend, Ramon mended... He seemed a bit grouchy... Then second you tell me a little bit about what is going on here.”
Alex looks up at Sal, there was something strangely familiar about the mutant and Alex felt an instant kinship. Heck even with their excessively violent entrance Alex felt like he knew this guy and he was someone he could trust.
“Around here? Not much, only everyone everywhere down here just gave up caring. It is like something sad happening in their hearts. People come and start off all chips. But then within a month or so they realize Refuge is just like everywhere else. Seated in corruption and the further you get from the Castle the worse it is.”
“I mean sure you can go to the castle and see people smiling and all the legionnaires coming and going. But try and look deeper, you will find all the real heroes get out as soon as they can. The ones who stay start changing, and I think it is time to get out of here. You know I am a Power Armor Pilot and skilled at it too. I ran with a SET for a while, but they sent me home. I think it is time for me to get out of here quick.” Dusting himself off the boy seems to realize something last minute and turns towards Sal.
“You want to know how bad it is getting. My buddy Joey the Twist was just like everyone else, until he got picked up for picking a pocket. Came back the next day and he was dead inside. Like he lost the ability to care. One day, that’s all it takes is a day.”
Maggie wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2020 9:41 am
To Steven, she says,
"Get airborne and see what you can see. Report back anything out of the ordinary; let's see if whatever's here slips up and gives us some kind of clue as to what's going on."
For her part, Maggie does what she typically does at Refuge: she activates her ability to alter her aura (conceal arcana). A handful of people at Refuge know her true nature, including the 99th, now, but there was no need to advertise to everyone else.
She heads into town, paying visits to her Black Market contacts, who have some very interesting things to share.
Steven patrol turns up useful. As he goes, higher he is able to see a clear pattern of rings. Businesses and locations that seem to be surrounded in darker lighting, as if they do not want to be exposed to the sunlight. The shadows of clouds moving overhead always seem to move such that those few places remain under shade. A blessing for sure in the desert, but here is is simply creepy to see from above.
For her own efforts Maggie finds her contacts willing and able to help. The chatter is all the same, things are getting bad and good business says it is time to get away from refuge. The amount of gear they see ‘recirculated’ is starting to get unsettling and two of her underworld contacts have simply disappeared. These disappearances are starting to cause trust issues. People are even suspecting their could be a vampire hiding in the city somehow. But wouldn’t the administration be able to tell?
When Hawke returns and meets up with Maggie he is virtually ready to leave.
“This place is not what I was told. Things here are getting real tense, I seen trouble boil over and this place is about to boil over. Seems a lot of people disappearing and some of them when they come back, they are different.”
Gridia Thorem wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2020 9:57 am
Gridia's shoulders fall with relief.
She knows! He sits with her for a time, listening to what she's found out. It isn't much, but it just might be enough to help the 99.
His conversation with Amelia is a productive one as Gridia learns of all the little signs she had seen and things she had learned in the last few weeks. Working for administration she had noticed that while they seem unaffected on the outside. Those in the castle are being affected as well. But somehow, unlike those in the periphery around the castle they are more fully affected, less conflicted and the results are scarier. Like the difference between watching a crazy man attack someone in an instant out of the castle, versus watching people coldly plot the death of others inside. The veneer of Refuge is there, but the decisions, sending people across country into vampire lands only to have them turn around and come right back. Sending other through rifts into hot spots in the magic zone. Legionnaires are dying in mass in the field and they keep sending them on missions that do not make sense.
One on one the situations seem to make sense, ‘go help these people’ or ‘go help those people’ but when you look at it as a whole it is like 13 minds each sending their own pet Legionnaires out to die in conflicts with little to no lasting impact. Most of the Legionnaires sent out are even turning out psychotic. After action report after report discribing mass murder or brushing over very unRefuge behavior and no one bats an eye.
“This is not what I signed up for, me and some other are leaving Gridia, you should come with us. Before this place claims you as well.”
Sir William Mahan wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2020 2:26 pm
Sir William seeks out others he knows to be warriors for good - Lyn-srial, Glitter Boys, and the like. As casually as he can manage (not very), he probes for information about changes in the Castle over the last several months. A friendly Lyn-srial named Crionofenarr tells him that he's planning to leave for the West soon. "There's something in the air here. Can't put my finger on it, but... there's something."
Glitter Boy Leviticus Overton is more explicit.
"I don't like some of the orders coming down from above lately. Something doesn't smell right. If you know more, tell me - I'm game for a scrap in a good cause."
Slowly, Sir William starts to see a pattern. He wonders if the others see the same thing...
After hours of discussion and hunting Sir William Mahen finally comes to some consistency. Rumors of the Council spending more and more time in the Command Bunker even though the Castle is not under attack. Strangest of all The High Defender and Councilor Stargazer have not been seen in months. El of Owls has been seconded away only coming out for brief moments, then retreating back without interacting as she used to one on one with the men. Something very bad is happening at the top levels and it is now good.
Fritz wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2020 1:48 pm
Fritz is a bit taken back. He has not been in Refuge in several years. The city itself has changed and he is uncertain if he knows where to go next.
Looking back at the cyborg, Sgt. Fillmore, he has an idea and decides to ask around about the best chop shops in Refuge, all the while looking for his TLIO contacts in the city.
Finding a few partial and full conversion borgs on the streets of Refuge, the pair actually stops and chats with them asking about where the best places are to get upgrades, modifications, and fine tuning done for cyberwear.
Filmore’s efforts to find some of Major Deschesne’s men becomes an effort of frustration as if all of them have gone underground. Even worse the normal places and people he would talk to about cybernetic upgrades rub him in a way that makes him realize he would not trust them under the knife. He was reporting back to Fritz about the experience and nearly haven given up when he sees something across the street from the inn he was at that grabs his eye.
Tetto Lopez one of his old contacts walking down the street. He was in disguise but no way would it fool Filmore’s cybernetic eyes. As Fritz and Filmore follow Titto they end up learning of a secret entrance into Refuge from outside of the city. Once the hologram is down as Titto enters they can see on the other side it is manned by only two guards, and from the looks of it is a very long hallway leading somewhere. But why would he be using an escape route to enter Refuge...
All their efforts combined the intelligence assembled the team is able to discern that something very bad is going on and whatever it is is centered in the area of the Prison or the Command Bunker under Refuge. Unfortunately, these are the most highly secured locations within all of refuge as they are in the heart of the facility and over 100’ underground.
L.C. and Brison never return from their intelligence gathering, leaving the others concerned they may have been captured. Where they where taken, or what has happened to them in an unknown. But L.C. was expected back a week ago and now the 99 must act on their own...