Mission 2b - Special Delivery

You all either go home to rest or hang out at the noodle shop for your first meal in what feels like days. With the other group still out working their job and no new jobs currently available to you, you have time to relax and spend your hard-earned money. Within a couple of days, you have all suitably recovered from your delivery job.

((all physical and stun damage is gone, plus your edge pools are back to full if you happened to use any. Your karma awards are all listed in the first post of the Karma Awards section. Feel free to discuss here what you plan on doing for the next week or two.))

(OOC: Obviously I spend some time looking at the manipulation focus.  I can also spend some time looking at Sun's staff and Torpor's toolbox, or any other magical gizmos we have laying around.  I'm not good at it as yet, having only one die in the Artificing skill, but you can hardly tell from my hits if I'm throwing 4 dice or 14 dice anyway.  I do intentionally play dumb about such things unless my character is actively aware of stuff, so if you got it and I ain't looked it over, speak up if you want it looked over.)

"Ok, so we do have a bit of outstanding business on the 5ECC.  We are still looking for a building to suit both our needs and income.  We may have made nice with the scary car killing troll and his gang, but I *don't* suggest moving into the Kita Barrens.  But we do need to find somewhere if you want to set up a lodge and hone your skills through initiation."

"Preferably it will be someplace where we can expand into nearby buildings.  I can see Chougou needing some secure space for some extra legal vehicles, and his house may be a little too close to home, if you catch my meaning.  The same is no doubt true of Torpor and his weapons, though his stuff is a bit easier to hide than giant armored vehicles.  We could also use some open space to look into some tactics in using what we have so that we aren't tripping over eachother trying to pile out of the van or what have you."

"On a similar note, we are in need of some gear, especially individual or alternative transportation.  I know that vehicles are Chougou's thing, but its not really right or fair that we make him shoulder that burden alone, and using him as a taxi driver is a waste of his talents.  To that end we should look at doing some legwork to either find some low cost fixer-uppers, or maybe getting a lead on some go-gangers that need to be relieved of their gear for the good of the community.  That hit on the freeway really sits bad in my stomach, and some of those people need to be cleaned up... and we may as well take what we need while we are at it.  I don't really have the contacts for it, but I'll check with a ganger friend who probably doesn't have a lead on what we are after.  If anyone else does, it would be helpful in the future."

"For myself, what I really need is some ritual space.  As you know, Tatsuo is tied to me and I intend to strengthen her further, and that requires the same sort of facility that the initiations are going to need.  It would also help in summoning and binding other spirits, though out of curtesy I don't tend to do that much."

While resting up, Sun talks to Sanji about what happened with the ork in the van Sanji, getting his opinion on who that guy was, and how to improve his fighting, to avoid getting his ass whooped like that in the future, along with how to tackle drugged-up opponents.

After resting up, Sun meets up with WuJen at the noodle shop to let him look at the staff his sensei gave him. He's been messing around with it a for a bit, to see what's so special about it, and getting a magic user's opinion seems pretty useful.

((OOC: How much karma and nuyen do we need to set aside for the lodge? That way, I know what to look into to boost Sun, while keeping my share for initiation ready))

((@wujen - The manipulation focus is a simple matter of assensing or casting analyze device to figure out. Only 1 hit is needed, so he has no problem figuring out what it is, just needs to bond it with karma to gain its benefit. As for the staff and/or toolbox, lets treat it as an extended check as you study them whenever they give you the chance to (assuming they do). Give me an extended assensing check, with each attempt taking you a day. You aren't assensing it constantly during that time, but giving the item occasional examinations then some downtime away considering what you saw means, doing some research on your own, etc. ))

Sanji says to Sun, "I don't really keep up on local gangs. You start dealing with trouble makers and they have a way of involving you in their trouble. If you want an opinion on who he was, you will have to talk to the police or someone else more knowledgeable about such matters.

"But an orc with both cyberware and drugs to enhance his already strong body is a deadly combination. There are limits to the body that you can't naturally overcome with training alone. Martial arts are for defending yourself, not starting fights. The best course of action against a physically superior opponent is to avoid them. If that is not possible, you must outsmart him. A splash of water does not harm a wall. But given time, it can slowly penetrate the foundation and make the wall crumble in on itself."

((There are a lot of moving parts here, so bear with me. Each person needs 5 Karma to join the group. Wujen needs to learn the ritual, which will cost 1000 nuyen plus 5 karma, I think. You all can donate money to him to help offset this cost. The building itself will cost about 5,000 a month, split among you however you like. To turn some part of the building into a lodge (which is needed to do the ritual), it will cost force x 500 nuyen to make a permanent one (this takes days to complete), or reagents (which cost about 20 nuyen each) x force to make a temporary one (this takes hours to complete). Once you have all that done, it's a matter of performing the ritual to form your group. Once the group is formed, you knock off 20% of your initiation cost. So the first level is 13. 20% of that is 2.6, so it'll cost 10 Karma to initiate. 9 if you perform an ordeal. Actually initiating is an extended test requiring a number of hits equal to your grade and a month per check. ))

Extended Assensing:

WuJen carried out 8 launched of one d6 :

, , , , , , ,

Pfffft….

After the first day of testing, Wujen is able to tell they are magical, but not much else.

Second Day Assensing, which should put us even with the other group, right?

WuJen carried out 8 launched of one d6 :

, , , , , , ,

After the second day of assensing, Wujen is able to tell that the staff appears to require some kind of attunement with it's owner. ((aka, Sun needs to spend karma)) It seems that whatever it does will reveal itself once it has been properly attuned and that the more the user attunes themself to it, the more powers will be revealed. Unlike normal foci that take hours to bond with, this one will take days. Wujen has never seen anything like it before and does not think he will be able to get any more information about it except through Sun bonding with it. ((Sun is free to pour as much karma as he likes into the staff, you don't know how much karma it will take to actually get it to do something or how much karma before it is topped out, but it takes 1 day of meditation per point of karma you choose to spend))

As for the toolbox, despite otherwise physically appearing to be a normal toolbox, the astral plane reveals it to be a dual-natured, awakened living creature. Since it is a creature and not an item, it does not appear to be something you can really use. The creature is incredibly shy though. It does not move when observed, but always seems to seek Torpor or food when it is not being watched. It appears to feed on small bits of metal such as bolts, screws, nuts and the like as they do tend to disappear when unobserved (though Wujen can never be absolutely certain as he is never able to see it do so). As far as Wujen can tell, the creature requires someone who is good at training animals (or preferably paracritters) to get it to be comfortable around people.

Hearing from WuJen that he needs to meditate with the staff, he discusses it with Sanji. He finally decides to sit down and meditate on the staff every day for a week ((-7karma))