Nomadic:Sessions:20180421

Marcus offers each of the five lingering patrons at Mountain Peak $100 cash to vacate the premises. Three of them gladly take the money. A fourth demands $150, but withers beneath Marcus' steely gaze and slinks away. The remaining man hands Marcus his business card and offers to "spread the story" over media outlets and the internet. Marcus assures him we're not looking for publicity, and the man finally leaves.

Valerie has set up her sniper post in a tree outside. She sends Carmella to Vincente, suggesting she make herself useful. Vincente has Carmella form a chain with all the 42 ghosts in and around the bar, then casts Soul Rider and looks through each one's eyes.

A sedan pulls into the parking lot, and a man and woman get out and enter the bar. The man is someone the group had seen among Veritas people earlier; the woman is disguised. Both are armed. Marcus: "Are you two with Veritas?" The man chatters, "No, what is that? Doesn't that mean 'truth'? I have a BS in liberal arts..." Marcus remarks as he fast-draws his pistol and briefly places it on the table with his hand over it, "Liberal arts, huh? Nice weapons. Here's mine." He then lists the locations of their weapons. He gets the two to give their names, Isabella Davis and Lynn York, then asks, "What are you doing with the ghosts?" Isabella gives a vague answer about "learning things" and "connecting to the living."

Pierre Barlow and Elma Allan make an entrance. Rick reports that two other people in the car that had pulled in right behind them have not gotten out. Valerie notes that a car parked on Immigrant Street; two men were sneaking toward the back of the building, and a third, decked out in combat gear, had gone off in another direction.

Vincente murmurs, "They're going to use anti-magic. They don't know I'm just going to shoot." Aloud to Elma and Pierre: "I suggest your guys don't get too close. We can't tell the difference between them and Veritas." Elma: "This city's spiritual energy is off the charts." Vincente: "If I stop Veritas' evil plan and you take up the baton, then what will I have accomplished? No matter how many I kill, they send more." Barlow: "They don't like healthy competition."

Marcus brings over and introduces "Elma from the Collective" to York and Davis. York: "I don't know who you've mistaken us for." Marcus: "Try not to kill each other."

Vincente introduces Barlow to Wade Miller. Vincente warns Miller to back off his people; Miller claims "They haven't arrived from Sacramento yet." Vincente: "I think your input into this will be invaluable... I'm not here to guarantee anyone's safety. There are no non-combatants here. We're all 'alphas'... Do you feel the ghosts in here?" Miller: "I got goosebumps."

In an aside, Vincente has Carmella touch Miller. She says, "He's intense." Vincente: "Do you think you could take him over?" Carmella: "Yes." Vincente (testing whether Miller could hear her): "She said 'no'." Miller shows no reaction.

Rick reports another car has pulled up and four people are getting out: Lori Griffith, Glen Aguirre, and the pretend detectives 'Asimov' and 'Campbell'. Marcus: "Isabella, Lynn, your bosses are here."

When she spots Barlow, Griffith does a double-take, then frowns. She glances over at Davis and York and says, "Drop the act." They pointedly move away from Elma Allan.

Vincente greets Lori. "Have a seat. You know Pierre Barlow?" LG: "I like to be punctual. He was quicker than I was."

Vincente gathers Marcus, WM, LG, and PB all at one table. "Let's all hold hands for a minute." He casts Medium so they can see all the ghosts in the room. LG: "Are you a 'ghost whisperer' or something?" Vincente: "Want to look through their eyes?" LG: "No, but I get that you can." Vincente: "These are only the ones inside this room..."

Vincente: "Tell me what you hope to gain... Somehow you're getting time from the ghosts." LG: "You've been persistent. I will be candid. Working with spirits is hard. Our process only works in certain places, such as Stonehenge. Bodie and the rest of Mono County is very spiritual. The tiki torches let us gather 'stuff'. As for 'why', what does everyone want? Immortality! It would make billions. The dead don't need time." Vincente: It's not the money. You're making a weapon." PB: "There's a lot I could do with time on a person... age, de-age, then retrain... Tonight we could take over the world."

Vincente: "My objection is that you're stealing time." LG: "Once you take the time, they go back to where they were." Vincente: "No, they don't. They're still here." LG: "We haven't really started harvesting yet." Vincente: "If you pulled up Gandhi's ghost, would that mean he never existed?" LG: "No, he doesn't exist." Vincente: "Why are you hiding? Why not just do it?" LG (pointing at PB): "Without him around, we would have a monopoly." Vincente: "If you're doing it covertly, why are you killing people?" LG: "To avoid exposure."

Vincente: "There's a piece you're not telling me... Either Pierre gets it or you don't get it, and he's happy either way." LG: "We don't share with Collective." PB looks thoughtful. Vincente: "Is a sacrifice needed?" LG: "No." PB: "But it always helps."

Vincente: "How are you holding the energy?" LG: "We have devices that will deploy at the right time." Vincente; "Oh, at the full moon, which is tomorrow." LG: "That is the best time. The equipment is being transshipped in."

LG: "You have cost me too much in assets. What do I have to do..." Vincente: "What if my group flew off and left you alone?" LG: "I would bring in my team on the full moon, make the collection, and make Veritas Inception more influential. We'd buy land in the county and be on site regularly at the full moon." Vincente: "Do you know what the torches are doing?" LG: "Concentrating a crowd of ghosts."

Vincente: "Carmella, how are you feeling?" CJ: "She is talking about killing ghosts. I'm not happy." Vincente: "Go ahead and touch Lori." LG: "You might not want her touching me. It might be bad for her health." CJ: "She has something on her like a tiki torch times 100." Vincente casts Aura (crit) and perceives that LG is "encased in a sphere of death." She has strong will, awareness of psi and magery, is organized and methodical, and does not value other people. LG: "Our mages are merging mystic energy with technology. Most of the ore they need has been destroyed. What I'm wearing is experimental and dangerous. But perhaps I'm the guinea pig." Vincente: "How are you feeling?" LG: "I admit I have a persistent headache."

LG: "You are shutting down this operation. We have lost torches, vehicles, people..." Vincente: "Your two mages were a loss." LG: "We don't know how many of you there are." Vincente: "We are legion! No, I was kidding. But you, you are a suicide bomber. You're here to blow me up." LG: "I am willing to walk away. I value my life." Marcus: "Just bite down on your tooth!" Vincente: "I contemplated teleporting you to our vehicle." LG: "If you could teach our mages teleportation, I might voluntarily shut down this operation." Marcus: "How about Elma and Lori arm-wrestle, loser goes away?" WM: "If they could be driven off, we would interdict this area and prevent any future attempts."

Valerie: "What if they're trying to bring the dead back to life?" Vincente to LG: "Who would you bring back?" LG: "Not just one, but I don't know who was decided on. They had a big debate." Vincente: "Can we have the death thing?" LG:" No. It's a very important part of Veritas Inception tech." EA: "I sense she's dancing around the truth."

Vincente decides that the 'death thing' is wrapped around LG's body beneath her clothes. Vincente casts an illusion; his eyes appear to float out of his head toward LG and stop one foot away. All the Veritas people as well as WM and MC tense up. Vincente: "I want to see what's on your body. Both these Collectives are more powerful than me." LG: "You were trained in a different place." Vincente: "A Shaolin temple. When I snatched the pebble, I could leave. ... Since we won, I guess we can part as non-friends. You're coming with us, right?" LG: "So now I'm with Johnson and Johnson." Vincente: "We won't do physical torture on you." LG: "So all I have to do is agree to leave with you. All right, I will leave with you."

Vincente (over radio): "Fourteen, bring the vehicle to the front and have a blanket ready. Eleven, if those jerkoffs in the car get out, let 'em have it." Valerie: "Can I do it anyway?" Vincente: "Sure, go ahead."

Vincente casts Teleport Other which puts Lori in front of the bar. Rick wraps her up and places her inside the Navigator. Vincente: "Go drive to the road; we'll be fine. Johnson, get her tooth and come back." Marcus can tell that LG is feigning disorientation. He injects her in the back of the neck with a sedative, but it doesn't affect her. He pulls her mouth open and extracts the suicide tooth. When he touches her to ziptie her hands, Marcus experiences an intense jab of pain in his gut; he doesn't let the pain show. When he zipties her feet, the pain is like a twisting knife; this time he grunts softly. He wraps a rope around the blanket, then sits her up and belts her in.

Vincente: "Glen, I'm going to take Wade and Maya." PB: "We'll leave with you, also." GA: "She signaled that she wasn't mind-controlled." Vincente: "Carmella, you can leave and go back to the one you love. If the ghosts can find the machine and let me know where it is, that'd be good. ... Glen, nobody here has to die right now. If I become upset, your people will become ghosts."

Vincente lays several hundred dollars cash in front of the bartender. "Forget the past hour. We didn't break anything."

As he heads for the door, Vincente mutters, "It's almost like Lori was stalling." EA agrees. Marcus checks his A/V and hears Glen saying, "We follow the plan. She's a tough bitch and she wants to live." PB and EA get in their car and head into town.

Vincente and Marcus climb into the Navigator. Vincente tells Rick, "Head to the airport. I don't want to be caught in town." To Marcus, indicating LG: "Is she out?" Aloud, Marcus says "Yes" while shaking his head "no." Vincente: "Did you pat her down?" Marcus: "I left her for you."

As the Navigator rolls past the airport toward Garbage Pit Road, Vincente removes LG's shoes, then unties the rope, removes the blanket, and carefully unbuttons her blouse. There is something like a corset around her body, next to her skin, with wires running around to the small of her back. The apparatus is apparently anchored to her breastbone. He casts Levitation but the spell is resisted. "I thought you said she was out." He tries again and this time it works. He raises her up to look at her back. There's a box about the size of a cigarette case at the base of her spine. With his switchblade he cuts her blouse up the back, exposing the box and wires, which are made of refined metal from the strange ore. Vincente takes some wire cutters and starts to clip the wires. Searing pain makes him cry out, "Man, that hurt!"

Vincente: "I apologize in advance, Lori." He casts a lightning bolt into the box. LG's eyes pop open, she convulses, and emits a muffled scream. There are smells of burnt metal and burnt flesh and ozone. Marcus: "What are you doing?!" Vincente: "Foreplay."

Now the box shows as magical, where it didn't before. Vincente: "How are your mages doing that?" LG: "I told you, it's a prototype. I'm not a mage." Vincente: "It hurt me." Marcus: "Yeah, hurts like a B, doesn't it?" LG: "It anchored itself when I pierced my skin with the wire." Marcus: "That's not creepy at all." LG says at this point she has been wearing the device for six hours, and her headache is getting worse. (Valerie: "Twelve, why wouldn't they have put it on a mage?" Vincente: "There are side effects.") LG: "Scott ran for home, Los Angeles. Veritas won't be pleased."

Vincente casts Dispel Magic on the device. The magic is dispelled. LG screams and appears to be having a seizure. Vincente casts Minor Healing on her. Suddenly everyone in the Navigator is stunned and experiences a Death Vision. Rick manages to pull the Navigator over and stop it on the side of the road. Marcus is strapped to a chair being tortured to death. Vincente is being hacked to death by two swordsmen in medieval costume.

LG lies limp, not breathing. Vincente tentatively touches her neck; there's no pulse. He casts Lightning which causes burn damage but jolts her heart into beating again. Marcus: "Seriously, warn me next time!" Vincente cuts away the wires and pulls the connector out of LG's sternum.

Vincente calls "Lori?" but again she has stopped breathing. "They're trying to make her dead, so I want to make sure she lives." He pulls her out of the car and lays her on the ground, then performs CPR and casts Minor Healing. Finally her vital signs stabilize. He bundles her back into the Navigator and tells Rick to start driving.

Vincente: "Why did you want to die?" LG: "The goal was to kill you and as many of your team as possible. It was not as effective as they said. I got a couple of jolts into you." Vincente: "You must know something worth dying for." LG is silent. Vincente: "We're headed to Bodie."

Valerie had hung back at Mountain Peak and shot out tires on each opponent's car before they could pursue the Navigator. She warns, "Agent Twelve, Elma and Pierre are following you." Vincente phones PB who says, "I'm following Lori. It's something I'm good at." Vincente: "Lori is mine. What do you want with her?" PB: "I thought you might dump her." Vincente: "It's not a consensus that she should live." EA: "I recommend to Pierre that we get some rest. We have more people arriving later today."