Darl, Gerard, Anastasia

[Ryloc]

Seeing Darl leave through the wall, Gerard takes a breath. "I'm coming I'm coming shesh dont need all that racket to wake me. And I was sleeping so good as well." Gerard opens the door. "How can I help you?"

[giggles]

"Well, I hope someones got some answers for us this morning. I'm not quite sure at the moment why all the noise is about and why so early, but I would still like to go talk to the people in the infirmiry and see if I can get anymore answers as well as check on the little boy."
At that, she goes to get cleaned up and get dressed, pondering over whats going on and what to ask the people.

[jawildey]

Anastasia's morning ritual is interrupted before it even gets started with another pounding on her door. "You have sixty seconds to come out willingly or we will be forced to come in and get you. Brother Tobius is quite insistent that he speak to you immediately." The man on the other side of the door says in an anxious voice.

"We'll be right out, just getting dressed." Jordan calls out to stall for time to think. Turning to Anastasia he says in a hushed voice, "Well, how do you want to proceed."

{OOC: In case you haven't noticed, NPC's are dumb and generally aren't good at making decisions that impact player's characters.}

[giggles]

"Well seeing as this seems to be a rush us outta here bit, lets put our stuff under the bed and go see what this is all about. It doesn't seem like we have much of a choice by the sound of this guys pounding on the door."
Anastasia helps put things under the bed, grabs a hold of Jordans arm and proceed to the door.
Upon opening the door, Anastasia in her calm and gentle voice, "Sorry for the delay as we were getting ready for the day, but lets go and talk to Brother Tobius. Do you happen to know what this is all about, by the way?"
Seemingly theres no answer and just a rush to see Brother Tobius.
Approaching him, Anastasia greets him, "Good morning Brother Tobius. What seems to be going on here?"

[jawildey]

Jordan acquiesces and allows himself to be lead out of the room and into the hallway. The Redeemer follows close behind. Gerard steps out of his room on the other side of the hallway at about the same time.

As the four of them briefly glance at each other, their attention is drawn to the sheer number of people standing around the hallway. Priests and soldiers intermix in small knots. The largest group is down in front of Father Malaki's office with Brother Tobius. The pungent smell of bodies in the hallway is intermixed with the smell of death.

One of the soldiers standing outside the rooms where they slept motions them to wait while two other soldiers briefly poke their heads into the rooms to look around briefly. Coming out, they both shake there heads in a negative gesture.

"Morning miss. Brother Tobius needs to speak with all of you about...well, It's not for me to say what it's about. He asked for me to wake you and bring you to him unarmed." The soldier does a quick mental head count before asking. "Where's the big guy? It was my impression he was staying in one of these rooms with you?"

[jawildey]

"Hmmm ... did they at least wait until morning?" Darl wonders to himself. To answer his own question he cautiously steps out of the chapel into the light of a bright sunny morning. Glancing first one way and then the other, he sees Daniel down the street in the opposite direction that he wants to go talking to a group of soldiers. All of the soldiers are facing the other direction so Darl confidently steps completely out of the building and walks away from them up the street as if just out for a stroll. Rounding the corner he almost walks smack into a group of soldiers rounding the corner from the other direction.

Startled, the group quickly parts to let Darl through before continuing on their way. Darl can see over their heads that there are more soldiers and priests milling around the doorway to the hall leading back inside. As the last of the group of soldiers passes him, he can finally make out what is causing the commotion around the door. Two soldier's bodies lay sprawled on the ground next to the entrance.

Darl quickly appraises the situation and sees that the men have both had their throats cleanly severed. A large pool of blood seeps out from one man and a smaller pool, barely a trickle in comparison, comes from the other.

[giggles]

Anastasia looks at the Redeemer and Jordan gasping at the sight and smell in the hallway. As she quickly puts her arm over her nose and mouth, she grabs onto Jordan with her other hand in sheer fright and dismay. "Oh my God! What is going on?!! What has happened here and as for that other person your looking for, I haven't seen him since last night when we were separating to investigate the mass destruction of the city and injured people. He was on his way to search outside while a few of us stayed inside. Now let us speak with Brother Tobius and Father Malaki...where is he?"
Wanting to get away quickly from the gross smell that seemingly is getting worse and disgusting, Anastasia is feeling that somethings just not right..."Where did Daniel go and why isn't he here? Is Father Malaki alright since all I am seeing is Brother Tobius??"
Anastasia looks again to Jordan and the Redeemer, her eyes starting to fill up with tears..her face turning pale white and her body starting to shake.

[jthorson]

"Damn ..." Darl comments to himself, "So much for a quiet morning!"

"When did this happen?" He asks of the nearest priest. "How long ago were they found like this?"

Cautiously, he begins drawing bits of PPE energy from the assembled crowd, expecting he'll need at least a few attempts to go hunting back through time, trying to catch a glimpse of the killer. (Retro-viewing)

[jawildey]

OOC: Unless you know something about Darl's RCC that's not on his character sheet I have posted, he can only draw PPE from sentient beings with their knowledge. After that, they get to choose whether to offer it willingly or fight you. The exact wording in the game book is "The unwilling participant must first be made aware of the mage's intentions". Your only other option would be to kill off someone and siphon their death PPE which would mean your alignment would shift to evil. I dont' recommend that route.

[jthorson]

OOC: I've always played it that any mages could draw up to 100% if willing and 50% off of non-willing non-mages (who are not enough in tune with their mystic side to even notice) unless otherwise specified ... but drawing off of mages was not possible without their permission. In any case, the non-magic types typically don't have enough PPE to even make it worth it, unless you've got a crowd assembled whose presence helps raise the ambient PPE available ... like, for example, a large group of soldiers milling around.

On the other hand, Wormwood tends to throw every other rule out the door when it comes to 'normal', so things could certainly be different here.

EDIT: I see now ... Rifts: Ultimate Edition stripped out the paragraph on 'Drawing PPE without one's knowledge', but left in 'Drawing PPE from an unwilling subject'. In the original book (p. 162), the 'without ones knowledge' section stated that "the mage can usually draw on anybody's PPE without their consent or knowledge," with the amount restricted to half that person's total PPE base. As per Rifts: Ultimate, drawing from another practitioner of magic was still impossible.

Not sure whether this was an omission or conscious rule change ... but it explains why I was so confused by your comment.