<@Brett> [Day: Tuesday, March 2nd. Time: 12:15 p.m. Location: The Count's Castle.] <@Brett> [Following the whole zombie thing with Faust, you returned to the Count's castle, where he offered to let you stay the night yay. Most of you probably slept late save Nigel, who may or may not have slept at all. The Count has failed to show himself all morning, but his butler's been handy for cooking breakfast. And by cooking, I mean making salads, as that seems to be all he makes. Cathanza's <@Brett> still unconscious, and Alysha has been with her more or less the entire day.] <@Brett> [But now it's lunch time, and you're invited to gather at the main hall for salad. Hooray. Also water.] <@Brett> [Start] <@Brett> [The butler, who may or may not have a name (I totally don't remember), is setting out salad bowls and cups of water with a rather grumpy look on his face. The salads are lettuce, tomato, eggplant, onion, and that's pretty much it.] (Was there any drinkable alcohole in the house?) <@Brett> [No sign of the Count.] <@Brett> ( Nope! ) (Is there at least salad dressing?) * Shiho digs into the salad! She's moving carefully, like she's still sore, which she is. <@Brett> ( Yes, but it tastes like water. ) * Dreol is busy gathering ingredients. He has a vial of blood, some freshly torched caramalized sugar, and some ginseng on a table and he is looking around frantically through the counts cabinets. He has not eaten. He turns to the butler. "Do you have any mandrake root, and also are there bats somewhere? I need a bat wing." <@Sonia> (GO DREOL) * Gordo eats his salad mechanically and it's pretty clear that his mind is elsewhere. <@Brett> [The butler glances at Dre.... Nigel. "There are bats in the belfry, sir. As for mandrake root, I imagine you'll have a hard time finding that. It's quite rare. Unless...."] * Dreol is now known as Nigel (I'm dumb.) <@Brett> ( Is Mecha here? ) (I'm poking him. ^^; He might've ninja'd?) <@Sonia> (I'm here. >_>) (Oh, whew.) * Nigel sighs and looks at the butler. "Unless...?" * Montana comes walking in, along with Sonia. He looks around and sighs a little upon seeing even more salad. <@Brett> ["Unless we're willing to get our hands dirty," says Alysha, walking into the hall, laptop tucked under her arm. Today she's dressed casual in a blue pleated skirt and a white T-shirt. It says "Hexa" over the chest, with a blue hexagon beneath it. Get it? Because it's a HEXAgon.] <@Brett> [Ahem. :x] (If there was no picture would it be a hexa-gone?) <@Brett> [Alysha takes a seat at the foot of the table, laying her holocomputer (not a laptop, my bad) on the table beside her. "Mandrake's a rare ingredient for magical potions. The good news is thanks to Romania's large market for illegal magics, it's not hard to find here. The bad news is it's not cheap."] <@Brett> ( You have no idea how many times I typed hexagone in that description :x] ) They not take company credit cards? (I was trying to come up with an Argon pun :( ) * Montana eyebrow raises. You're payin' us quite a bit, what with the risking of our lives and all. (+"") * @Sonia still has that dull graze on her shoulder as she walks in, along with red eyes. She thunks down in a chair, lazily, and looks over at Nigel. "How's it going? I need to work on a rotting flesh look?" <@Brett> [Alysha grins. "That's true. But the thing is, mandrake being the commodoty it is, I'm not sure we can afford it. Even if we find someone willing to sell. Which means..." She grins wider, giving Montana a pointed glance. * Montana sits next to Sonia, pulling a salad over to himself. "Just tell me where to hit." * Nigel sighs, shrugs, and grabs his crossbow. "I have all but two of the ingredients and I am about to go get one more, but we need some mandrake root sometime in the next 24 hours." <@Brett> ["Bucharest is only a couple of hours from here, fortunately," says Alysha. "If any of Romania's organized crime groups have mandrake, that's probably where we'll find it."] * Montana nods. * Nigel nods. "I'll return momentarily." He walks off, presumably to the belfry. Sounds like it'd be a good idea to see if there's a seller anyway. * @Sonia shrugs slightly. "Sounds easy enough. You need me to tap someone to find it?" <@Brett> [Alysha grins sheepishly, "Yeah. I'm afraid my knowledge of Romanian organized crime groups is a little outdated."] * Shiho looks at her empty salad bowl, then the butler. "Can I have another serving, please?" <@Brett> [The butler, for all his grumpiness, doesn't hesitate to serve Shiho again.] Aright, is there anything for those a us who're no good at finger waggling at computers or otherwise to do, or we just on standby until things go pear shaped for Monty? <@Brett> ["Anyhow Nigel, I..." Alysha blinks a few times. "Oh, he's gone."] <@Brett> ["Well, that's up to Montana. He's the expert in this sort of thing."] * Sonia nods and says, "I can probably get a line on it." A small pause. "You... sure it can't be bought? You know how much money guns go for, right?" And we're talkin' about organized crime, maybe... * Montana looks to Alysha. "If you were gonna put a price tag on it, how much can you front?" * Nigel returns with a bat impaled by a crossbow bolt, places it on the table, takes out his sword and slices off the bat's wings and discarding the body. "That's everything but the mandrake." (and discards the body*) * Montana grabs a napkin to clean up bat blood, really. <@Brett> [Alysha looks over to Sonia. "Trading guns with the mafia is not a good idea. First of all, if they find out I'm an arms dealer, I guarentee the price will double or triple. Then if it gets out that we trade with organized crime, VA's reputation will plummet."] * Shiho eyes the dead bat and keeps eating. ... Allright, was that because there's some magical thing that happens when you cut things with yer sword, or did you no have a knife handy? <@Brett> ( Now I gotta come up with an actual number D: ) (Inflation can be whatever you want!) (It's the distant future.) <@Brett> ( Good point! ) * Nigel shrugs. "I suppose I just had the sword on hand, didn't I?" (It's just kinda crazy that a single mandrake root is above, say, 5 Million low end, 1 Billion high end.) Overkill and pragmatic, definatly related to Monty. <@Brett> ["Just for one? My guess is around 500,000, USD. We could probably get it cheaper from a legitimate seller in England, but by the time we'd finished everything and gotten there..." She glances at Sonia.] Yeeeah, okay. So. How'sabout we pool whatever we can. Sonia can probably tap someone ta find out who's likely sellin'. * Montana points at his brother. "Nigel can be buying." Bring a coupla people for bodyguards. You stay out of it, boss lady - you're too high profile. * Nigel sighs and sits down next to Shiho and turns to her speaking in Japanese. A language he couldn't speak before to anyone's knowledge. "" * Gordo muses mostly to himself. "leave now, three hours for permits, five-six flight time, how many you need for a seller?" <@Brett> [Alysha blinks at Montana. "Wha? But I'm good at this sort of thing!"] Maybe, but high profile. You just said dealin' with organized crime's a no go for VA, and people know you work for 'em. <@Brett> ["Don't forget three hours to get to Bucharest, time to secure a plane, time to find a seller, negotiate a contract..."] * Shiho blinks and swallows her bite of salad. "" <@Brett> [Alysha sighs. "Alright."] * Nigel shrugs. "" * Gordo nods. Meantime, gonna need to case the place in event of emergency theft. Can probably rig up some cameras or somethin'. Hopefully when inspecting the goods, Nigel can find out where it's kept, get an eye on security, basic stuff like that. * Sonia stands back up and looks to Montana. "I'll see what I can find on sellers." * Montana tips his hat slightly to Sonia. * Nigel smiles. "" He stops for a moment trying to remember the Japanese word for Zombie. "" * Sonia chuckles lowly and adds, "This is probably worth it to him, at least..." she trails off as she heads back the way she came. * Nigel turns to Montana then. "No problem." * Montana looks like he's about to say something to Nigel when he's speaking all Japanese-y, but then he actually turns and addresses him, so Montana shuts it. * Montana tries again with: "Who'd y'all think is best to take in?" * Shiho says dryly, "I'm going to take the liberty of volunteering myself as a pretend bodyguard. I can provide references if you want." * Montana snerks. "Yes'm." * Gordo snickers. "Aye, I bet ya can at that." <@Brett> ["If I'm not going to be the seller, Nigel should do it," says Alysha.] * Nigel nods. "Gordo looks pretty tough. He could probably pass as a bodyguard, as could Montana. Sonia should stay out of this, because if they notice she has the signs of early zombieism the price is going to go up." * Montana mutters, "That's what I said." * Gordo nods. "Arright." Sonia can do what she does best then. Might fuckin' well need it if things go sour. <@Brett> ["I guess I'll just stay here and twiddle my thumbs," says Alysha.] * Montana grins at Alysha, clapping her on the shoulder. "Aw, don't feel bad. You can catch up with your old friend." You can catch up with, exactly! <@Brett> [Alysha frowns a bit. "About that... Sorry I dragged you guys above and beyond for this."] * Nigel nods. "You pay us so that you can have the luxury of twiddling your thumbs, miss. I could give you a copy of my book to read. It would be very informative... until you fell asleep... which would also pass the time!" * Montana follows Nigel's statement with, "Give us a bonus and we can probably call it square. After Sonia gets cured, anyway." <@Brett> [Alysha grins. "We'll have some time off after this, too."] Boss, please believe me when I say this - I don't really mind what you send me to do, as long as I know you're safe while I'm doing it. Yeeeeah, just got to thinkin'. * Shiho makes a face. "Or as long as you don't send me to flirt with people. That's on my no-list." Are we *sure* what's-her-face isn't gonna go all haywire crazy and attackin' people when she wakes up? And if she does, the Count can protect ya, right? <@Brett> [Alysha laughs. "Don't worry, Shiho. If I'm going to send someone to flirt with people, it'll be Montana." Then she looks at Montana. "I don't think so."] * Nigel shrugs. "Even if she did, she would be much easier to restrain at only one fifth of her normal power... I'm sorry we didn't get to her fast enough. But no... she should be fine, I imagine. She's probably exhuasted." * Gordo opens his mouth to say something and then thinks better of it. * Montana rolls his eyes. Why does he have to be the flirt! <@Brett> ( You're the thief. It's your job to steal hearts. ) (Because Shiho said not-me first!) (Because you're the good looking one!) (God, all these REASONS.) (Because they all suck at it.) (Probably mostly because you're the best liar. On account of being a thief.) * Sonia comes back in the room some time later, and brushes her hair back. "Looks like Luminiscenta has some on the market." <@Brett> ["Something else you need to consider," says Alysha. "Showing up out of the blue like this and trying to get mandrake in such a short time period... It's going to drive the asking price way up."] I'll throw my guns in the pot if we need. * Montana stands. "'s fine, it's just plan A anyway. Clear the funds for us, Boss Lady. Sonia can fill us in on the way." He moves to get his things. <@Brett> [She nods. "I'll see what I can do." Then she looks to Nigel. "Nigel, when you have time, there's something I need you to do."] * Nigel nods and gets up. "Sure, miss. What is it?" <@Brett> ["There's a file I need you to unencrypt on my computer." She grins, leaning forward and folding her hands. "It seems our mystery mole in Zukunft sent us something interesting."] * Nigel shrugs. "Shouldn't be a problem." <@Brett> [Alysha nods. "Take care of this first, but don't let me forget."] (I believe the antonym of encrypt is actually decrypt) <@Brett> ( Alysha says it's unencrypt, so there. ) (She's so saavy.) (She is!) (The words mean what she pays them to mean!) <@Brett> ( Anywho, we can FF when you're ready ) (Ready!) (Yup!) (Sure) (y) <@Brett> [A couple minutes later, you're packed in the van and driving away from the Count's castle. It's about 3 hours to Bucharest, the country's capitol. Why not just FF you there? Because you still have to set up something with the group.] * Sonia is on the drive. Yessss. * Montana settles in at shotgun. "So, what's this about Luminiscenta?" Trafficers. Apparently big on occult stuff. <@Brett> ( Umm... By the way. Who here speaks Romanian? :D ) (Not me. I left my linguist in another game.) * Sonia rolls her eyes and adds, "They're not great people, but when you're smuggling random shit that people want for magic, I guess it gets ugly." (Not me) (Nigel doesn't; what good is speaking ten languages if half the time he doesn't have the right one!) (I don't!) (But if they're all RAWR ORGANIZED CRIME...) (Chances are they have someone who speaks English or another widely used language.) (Yes. Here is hoping.) 'Course it does. Nigel, any chance ya can contact 'em on the way, set up a meeting? * Nigel nods. "I can try, certainly. Is there um... a number I can ring?" * Sonia pulls out a phone and passes it off to Nigel. "Here's all I got." * Gordo watches the road. * Nigel takes the phone and turns it on. "Thanks? Does it have their number in it?" <@Brett> [The Romanian countryside is pretty awesome.] (That's a Brett question!) <@Brett> ( It does! ) * Nigel nods. Apparently it does! He dials that number! <@Brett> [After two rings, Nigel gets a response! It sounds like, "@#$%!@$%^&*." (Q!Bert! What are you doing here!) * Nigel waits a moment before saying, in his best confident seedy businessman voice. "Good Day to you as well." <@Brett> [There's a pause, followed by, "How get you number this, Canadian?"] * Shiho is watching the countryside and its awesomeness. * Nigel laughs. "I'm British. And how I got the number does not matter, does it? What matters is what you can do for me and what I can do for you? And that is not something that seems safe to discuss over the phone. We need to meet somewhere ... soon." <@Brett> ["Wait. You wait," he says. Then Nigel is put on hold, with the most bizzaire music he's ever heard playing.] * Nigel drums his fingers on his knee. 2d6+11 * Dicesuke rolls 2d6+11 for Nigel and gets a natural 9 for a result of 20. <@Brett> [Shortly someone picks up. "Canadian," says a curt Romanian voice. "What do you want?"] * Nigel sighs. "I'm British! British. Don't you know where Britain is? You have 120 year old hold music, but you've never seen an episode of Doctor Who?... Anyway... that is not important. What is important is that I want something that you possess and I am willing to make you a deal for it. I will meet you in three hours. You pick the place." <@Brett> [A pause, then, "Four hours. Luca's on Redway. Ask for Andrei." Another pause, then, "This had better be worth my time," and adds spitefully, "Canadian." Then he hangs up.] * Nigel sighs. "We meet them in four hours. And if he calls me Canadian one more time, I may shoot him in the head." Might be better if you brought a gun. Crossbows don't look like they hold up as well close range. * Nigel nods. "You have a point. Stab him in the head, then." Ye can borrow mine. You don't... sound Canadian? * Nigel shakes his head. "Anyway... we are meeting them at Luca's on Redway. Nice blokes they are." * Montana pulls out his phone and starts looking up this place, whatever it is. What is it? * Nigel shakes his head to Shiho. "No. Of course not. And what a weird assumption. Do they get a lot of Canadian tourists in the Romanian Mob?" (decapitalize mob) <@Brett> [It's a restaurant! One that serves traditional Romanian fare, predominately to middle-class citizens. They have a specialty banana-mango mojito.] Maybe they had a bad experience with Canadians? * Montana checks reviews and pictures of said restaurant. Could be worse, he could think yer a Kiwi. <@Brett> ( They probably just can't tell the difference between native English speakers :P ) * Nigel shrugs. "Perhaps. Anyway... They do not seem pleased. We better be able to make them a good offer. Why couldn't this recipe have called for anything else?" <@Brett> ( There is an alternative! Cheese from the dark side of the moon! ) <@Brett> ( Sooooo... ) <@Brett> ( We can end here or keep going. Up to you guys ) I'm going ta put my ignorance on parade, what is a mandrake anyway? It's got roots so it's a plant, yeah? * Nigel shrugs. "They are plants. Yes. They're particularly difficult to grow, and when you pull it out of the ground, it screams... and its scream can kill you. So uh... they are pretty rare, as a result of ... you know... people not wanting to die." ... It don't scream none AFTER you pull it out, right? * Sonia says, derisively, "That's a stupid plant. How's it fix zombie, screamin' it to death?" That sounds... terrible. That poor plant. (I'm on the side of ending here, but only because my family-houseguests are going to bed.) The more I find out about this the less sense anything makes. (Alright) Don't worry. They die shortly after being pulled up. (Sounds fair.) <@Brett> ( K, we'll end once y'all are ready. ) * Nigel turns to Sonia. "It's just part of the potion." (Can end whenever) (Yup!) (We're done here) <@Brett> ( K ) <@Brett> [End!]