Part I: http://archive.easymodo.net/cgi-board.pl/tg/thread/13796767
Part II: http://archive.easymodo.net/cgi-board.pl/tg/thread/13808265
Part III: http://archive.easymodo.net/cgi-board.pl/tg/thread/13868014
Part IV: http://archive.easymodo.net/cgi-board.pl/tg/thread/13892779
Part V: http://archive.easymodo.net/cgi-board.pl/tg/thread/13928333
Part VI: http://archive.easymodo.net/cgi-board.pl/tg/thread/13986169

I highly suggest you read both because a shitload of things have happened and although I'll try to summarise shortly I won't be able to get down all the details.

Skills:
Guns - all guns, rifles, semis etc
Bartering - The bluffing, the negotiating, the double dealing, it all comes naturally to you.
Intimidation (basic) - You can scare civilians if you give them the evil eyes.

Spells:
Summoning (Level Four) - you can now summon people up to 3 years dead, faster and with less energy than you used to.
Bind (Level Four) - You've used Bind often enough that you've gained a new level of mastery. You can now bind a ghost to your cause for 30 days. You've also gained the ability to bind a ghost to items in a manner of ways. You can bind a ghost to a container, in order to imprison them, or you can bind a ghost to an item like a knife, dagger, amulet or what have you in order for the item to gain magical characteristics. For example, binding the spirit of a war veteran to a rifle will give you a sentient, bloody minded rifle with an offensive bonus that speaks to you and wants to attack all Germans on sight. And so on and so forth.
Life Leech (Level Two) - you now have the ability to heal minor wounds. If you're already healthy and use it you get stronger, quite a bit faster and gain some stamina. Your target feels like they've run a marathon unless you decide to only take a little. You still cannot leech from magicians.
Rip (Level One) - essentially ripping out the souls of living people from their bodies by summoning them. Makes them unconscious for about 30 seconds since their souls return to the bodies relatively quickly.
Ghost Whip (Level One) - you can now cause untold amounts of agony to the newly dead, up to three days. As you get more practice at this you can cause more damage to older ghosts.

Items of Note:
Happy Magic Juice - a high quality concoction that mystics use to power their astral wanderings: some laudanum, a some rare chinese opium, and a dash of Ghost. You've got enough in the bottle to get a mind and soul high and keep it there for a whole weekend.
Medium Physical Protection Amulet - This can take killing blows and spread out the attack evenly on the shield so you don't get broken bones or incapacitated. It can only take 3 killing blows before having to be recharged.
Medium Astral Protection bracelet - This will protect you from attacks on the astral plane, whether you're a sleep or you're awake although it does require a ritual in the mornings to activate it for the rest of the day.
Distraction Charm - This will allow you to walk through white neighbourhoods without having the police called on you or get undue attention. You're part of the background but if you do something out of the ordinary you will get noticed.

General:
- 1 Browning Automatic Rifle.
- 2 Tommy Guns with straight mags.
- 2 M1917 Colt Revolver's
- 29500 dollars.
- 1 apartment.
- 1 office + sanctum.
- 1 car

Money generation: 350 dollars per night.

Your underlings are as follows:
- Randy, an innocent sounding name for a dangerously cynical 16 year old kid. Loyal beyond death, really, because you helped him kill the judge that sentenced his father to death. You've taught him a bit of magical theory but he's not your kind, so for now he's a low level elemantal magician until he gets some real training. But boy can he set fire to shit. Special Items: 1 Elemntal Booster stone. 1 Basic Physical Protection Amulet. (BONUS: Pyromaniac.)
- Big Jim, a muscular behemoth with no magic whatsoever. He resents the fact that he is the same age as you and yet you give the orders. Nevertheless he obeys because you've got the juice and he don't. He ain't all that smart but he's good in a scrap. Special Items: 1 Medium Strenght Amplifier necklace. (CURRENTLY INCAPACITATED DUE TO NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE WITH A WEREWOLF)
- Chandler Raymonds. A punk kid you killed that has agreed to work for you for a time as a ghost, to spy on your enemies for you on the understanding that you keep his brothers safe if he finds out they're in danger. Because he's a free ghost who you haven't bound he can show initiative and do things on his own away from you and for extended periods of time without having to constantly rebind and set the parameters of his mission to him. He's agreed to work with you on a long term basis now.
- O'Leary, a cop you killed. You've got him Bound for 1.5 more days at which point he turns into a free ghost.
- Patrick, the brother of O'Leary who you killed when he was trying to avenge his brother's death.
- The Three Amigos, three nameless henchmen who've been with you through thick and thin. (BONUS: Loyalty Level Two). One of them is now an old man.

Knuckle Dusters - Henderschmidt seems like a fairly good choice for this when you think about it. I am assuming that a Spirit bound into an attack object will not give any defensive bonus's and while we may lose his fearsome regeneration capabilities, we would gain a fraction of his superhuman speed and strength, as well as having his bad Ass accent to keep us company, making these "Wolf Claws" come in very handy.

Drawback: None that I see

Amulet - Henderschmidt (Again) On the flip side, it seemed that this Werewolf bastard was practically indestructible to bullets, and whilst binding him into an amulet would probably not give us anywhere near this amount of Regen, it would certainly come in handy,. plus it negates some of the ill aspects of the Death leach perk. One could also assume that binding him into an amulet or ring could give the Duke a flat speed bonus while running or just plain walking.

Drawback: Possible added aggression from our new formerly furred jewelry accessory.

Summary:
You've just defeated Lord Pitt completely by wiping out his magical defenses, recruiting an angry army of ghost jews and then attacking his skyscraper stronghold. You now control the Wessler building, until daylight at least when people will begin streaming into it to come to work only to raise a hell of a cry to police and the feds when they notice hundreds of dead bodies littering the stairwells and the lobby. You decided it was time to report to your boss, Olukwele, and you found yourself walking through a door only to see him having dinner with some sort of minor god. They asked you to make a story of what you just went through and you did, and they were enchanted.

>>14065447


cont'd

Colt 1911 - Patrick O'Leary. Think about it, Dukes already formidable gun slinging skills combined with the supernatural and Enhanced luck of the Irish. Perfect for giving us an extra edge over those magic barriers and general hard to accomplish feats of gunmanship.

Amulet/Ring ect... - Patrick O'Leary (Again) Once more however, I find that the soul of old paddy boy here may actually be of more use to us In a defensive rather than offensive role. Having bullets miraculously only graze us instead of hitting a lung, Knowing to suddenly step aside to dodge the car that just screeched out of no-where. Watching the fear in your enemies eyes as the knife aimed for your heart becomes hopelessly entangled in the fabric of your suit. Once again, a particularly tasty perk.


I tried to post these before, But apparently work has blocked /tg/ because they are Assholes. Anyway, what do the rest of you Elegan/tg/entlemen Think of these Ideas? yea or Nay?

Last story post from me in previous thread:
You tell the whole story from beginning to end, weaving a story that was both darkly funny and just plain grim at times for the both of them. Olukwele listens appreciatively and so does Ghativa, who seems to enjoy the lurid details rather than the grandiose larger brush strokes that Olukwele finds fascinating. You find a nice balance of both and the tale pleases them.

"Your army of Yids," Olukwele says admiringly, "that was very masterful of you. It reminds me of this druid I knew once, a very long time ago he killed every single member of the Ninth Roman Legion, and then carried them with him everywhere he went as his personal legion. Your vision reminds me of his."

Ghativa smiles silently.

Finally she says, "The Ormunggar you killed in the basement. I'm afraid it's not actually dead, despite that explosion. They're much harder to kill than you'd imagine though they're not much use. That Pitt would have trapped her there with his ward but when you destroyed it she was free to move on to whichever Heim she descended from. Ugly creature," she says disdainfully.

Her face loses its humanity and she once again returns to being an utterly serious manifestation of death.

"I must leave. There are worlds calling for me, whose every death I must see to." She stands up, and Olukwele stands with her (and you do too out of politeness). She walks up to Olukwele who embraces her and plants a soft kiss on her lips, which she returns willingly if not gladly. She looks at you and says "We will meet in the future again, I am sure. And not just on your final day." She promises.

"Isn't she wonderful?" Olukwele asks, once she steps away from him and disappears with the second step away.

ALRIGHT THEN! We'll start in about 20 minutes, hopefully that should be enough time for people to notice that I've put this up.

I'm going to get my usual snacks ready.

>>14065464
>>14065447
Once again, thanks for showing! :)

Harlem quest, fuck yeah!

Posting in a Harlem Quest thread!

Speaking to Olukewele with the utmost respect.

"The streets in the financial district that PItt used to control are open for our taking. If we want them. And if we do, we need to move fast, because in the morning, once people walk into that building and find the massacre that's in there, shit is going to be making news fast. The building is a lost cause to us. We can clear it out of anything of value. There's some gold and silver and bonds stashed that we found. Hope to find some ledgers and the like soon enough.

But we'll need men on the street to get the locals under our thumb. There's a white boy, Brokowitz' nephew or something. He could be a good face for us to work behind. But we'd still need more than one man on the ground."

Where is everyone?

I'm back! Sorry. I unexpectedly got dragged into watching my neighbours kids while she went to the store.

>>14066030
Let's do some serious shit

We need to truck away all that gold and shit we found. And make sure it goes to our place. We don't want anyone else getting sticky fingers. We'll pay some of it out to Smokey and the like who helped us clean shit up, but the lion's share of that is ours.

>>14065660
"I see. I see. There is no need for concern about the Wessler building. We are in a pocket outside of time and I have some....cleaners that I can summon to eat the bodies, blood and all."

"As a matter of fact we do want to expand. Having our sphere of influence extend beyond Harlem would be in our interest."

"However, you" and as he says that the air of an absent minded professor is lost as his intense focus turns to you "have a choice to make."

"As you can imagine carrying our torch in the District will require all your concentration and keeping the territory will be most difficult. In order for you to do that you would have to put aside your position as my lieutenant, and your responsibilities to places you've accrued for the Outfit like Portertown. Because of our relationship you will still be answerable to me but you will effectively be on a par with the Bastard and Louelle," he says.

"Do you believe yourself to be capable of that? There will be no returning from this."

>>14066141
What do we know of them? I'm assuming their on about mid tier between Olukewele and his kin, and the rest of the Lts.
____

Sit quietly for a moment, contemplative. "A man can never be sure of what he can and can't handle until he's forced to find out." Sip some coffee (being at a magical table in some demi plane or some such, I'm pretty sure there's some coffee here), and smoke a cigarette. "I guess I'll find out."

>>14066141
We need to get some fibers from the bodies before they get cleaned away.

And the crystals are there, too.

>>14066186
This is what you know: Olukwele is the heir apparent to the Outfit. Even though theoretically he is on the same level of management as the Bastard (controller of all the protection rackets) and Louella (grand madam of all whoredom) they defer to him because he's just so scarily powerful and he's clearly the one being groomed to take over from Papa when it's time.

He's inviting you to the big boys table, albeit as a very junior partner.

>>14066218
Well then shit yeah.

>>14066218
Hellz yeah mofo. But don't say that.

"You will find out," Olukwele agrees "as all men do when their mettle is tested."

"Then I must tell you the first thing you need to know."

"Papa hasn't been in charge for almost two decades."

"I don't know how he did it," for the first time you see a jealous gleam in his eyes "but somehow he collected enough power to transform himself into a minor godling, a primordial force of self, however you want to see it."

Olukwele waits for you to react.

>>14066303
Again, be quiet and contemplative. "Has he been in contact with anyone since?" No awe or surprise. Curiosity. Questions about the operation.

>>14066303
"I am impressed. So you've been running things in his absence?"

>>14066303
What exactly does he mean by "minor godling, a primordial force of self"?

>>14066380
I'm assuming he means that Papa has become a bad motherfucker.

>>14066324
>>14066356
"Yes. he routinely visits me every two years. It was almost exactly twenty years ago that he informed me he was going to attempt a dangerous ritual."

"He summoned three of us, back then the Bastard wasn't with us it was me, Louella and a man named Blue, now dead. He didn't describe the ritual, give it a name or even tell me what the dangers were."

"He told me he was leaving me in charge permanently should he die, and even in the best case scenario he would be busy for at least half a century trying to gain dominion over his new state and estate."

"His name is so feared that we still use it to make our enemies take us seriously. If the Dutch or the Italians even suspected for a second that Papa wasn't around we'd be facing mortal attacks on a constant basis."

"That is, until they learnt to fear me as much as they fear him," Olukwele laughs unexpectedly, braying forth deep from his chest.

"Have you any more questions about this?"

>>14066399
"Demigods, out realms. That's beyond my reach. I'll save that for my dreams. But the crystals. They're in the Wessler still. How we use them can be easy enough, we can save that for later. But what's our next move now? We need to gain a foot hold around the Wessler. Make ourselves known. Need to find out who actually owns the building and get the title transferred over to me." Smoke a cigarette. "Care for a game of Chess while I'm here?"

I don't know what happened, I have no time to read.

But I had one suggestion I wanted to give before spiriting off.

Last you left, we were in some different plane talking with our boss.
I presume after we are done, we will be back at Pitts place.

Well
The suggestion goes: collect the hair of ALL the goons we killed here.
The reason? -We can summon them, ghost whip and bind them for training purposes (not because we are so evil you know)
But besides leveling, we can bind them to object to make magical artifacts. Like guns for example.


The other thing:
Work diligently to restore the "old" Amigo.
Sacrifice the chinese knuckles if need be.
Go to chinese and find their specialists and ask for help (go through you connection of course)
Summon an old chinese spirit for help.
etc..
Spend a grand or more to these purposes if need be.

If we do this. I believe we will gain even higher loyalty from our Amigos.


Another thing.
Train you life leech by going to bars, restaurants and subtely leeching just a little bit of life from surrounding people.

To train Soul Rip, we can search out crackheads, hobos, drunks and rip out their souls and let it drift back (just for practice)

>>14066438
As an answer to your question, some chess pieces rise out of the table and a checkered pattern appears. Olukwele has chosen to be black.

"Let's get to the matter of the Financial District."

"We cannot use the crystals at the moment. Lord Pitt's plan was a foolish one, he had the arrogance of a young upstart to think he could get away with it. Once he had gone through with the plan to transform all the alcohol into water, every powerful mobster in town would have tracked down the source of the attack within days and united to destroy him."

"We can face off two, maybe even three attacks of that scale but it would be a the end would be a foregone conclusion. We will save the crystals for now, until one day we are in a position to make use of them."

"As for the Financial District, for one year it is yours and yours alone. Like a small business starting up, you'll get your chance without me breathing over your neck or demanding the Outfit get its cut. If you are wise you'll reinvest your profits back into the District to get a hold on things. A year hence we'll meet and discuss what cut the Outfit will take."

"Undoubtedly you'll find the deed to the building in the same place that you find his ledgers and special documents. Make a search of the whole building if need be, once I've had it cleaned."

"I'm going to set up a meeting for you, to introduce you to a man named Alexander. He represents the interests of -serious- law enforcement and the City. As much as I hate these Americans, he is one who is truly powerful, and he does not suffer fools gladly. You will need to build a relationship with him and come to some arrangement with his clan."

The first game of chess is over. He's drubbed you completely within 9 moves. The pieces rearrange themselves and a second game begins.

Am I the only player here right now?

>>14066696
Seems that way. I emailed 12 of you yesterday but maybe that was too short notice.

>>14066380
Pretty much what (>>14066396) said. It's not impossible for mortals to gain the status of deity if they reach a certain level of power.

>>14066696
No.

I think there's maybe 3 of us.

>>14066738
Hrmm. Well I wouldn't want to do anything too serious without other players input, so until some others come in, I'll just keep it light.

Play a few more games with Olukewele, and then, if he has nothing else to add, return to the Wessler, gather hairs etc, search for ledgers and the deeds, and await the clean up crew.

Also try to find the kid Brokowitz talked about.

>>14066759
Whew. Glad to see I'm not the only one here.

>>14066738
I just got around to reading the rest of the thread, but I won't be around for long.

>>14066769
You have two more games with Olukwele and in both of them he beats you, although in the third one it looks like you could drag things out into a draw until he surprises you with a checkmate that you didn't see coming.

"Your game has improved," he notes "clearly you've discovered your masters notes. Smart man, keep at it."

Eventually he finishes informing you about your relationship with the rest of the Outfit and dispensing advice to you about what you should try to do.

"You're in for interesting times," he says as he stands with you. He leads you to the door and wishes you luck.

You step outside back into the room in the Wessler building that you came from, only to find Randy waiting there.

"Boss! You won't believe this but all the bodies are gone."

"I don't know where you went but I went walking up and down the building searching for anything interesting but the only thing I saw was that all the bodies and all that blood is gone. I don't know how it happened."

"Did you do something?"

>>14066898
Pat him on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it Randy."

>>14066928
Randy is now further in awe of you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The following NPCs have transferred to you from the Harlem division to be the skeleton crew of your operations in the District:

- Sweet Johnson
- Winston

--------------------------------------------------------------------

It's 2 hours until sunrise and 4 hours until people begin arriving for work in the Wessler building.

What do you want to do?

>>14066976
What is the state of our shakedown on the Wessler Building's resources? We have to decide whether or not we can shut the building down, or shut down the parts of it the normal people work in, or what not.

>>14066976
>>14066976
We need to find the important documents. We need Randy and the Amigos to go find Brokowitz' nephew or whoever he talked about, and get him here. We need some faces. Send Sweet and Winston down to the night club. It should be closed right now, but there's probably someone there. Get info from Henders on what was run out of the club that he knows about.

I hope we got hairs from the snake woman and from Pitt before they were cleared away.

>>14067003
You've found all the money you're going to, which you sent off earlier back into Harlem along with the heavy weaponry that you found in caches inside the building. Olukwele has generously decided to send it all back, like seed money, to help you get started. You now have a serious war chest to build on.

As for the state of the building itself, no alarms seem to have gone off and the explosion in the basement hasn't been noticed by anyone. Since the cleaning crew have removed all the corpses the building seems to be in fine condition.

The only thing you're missing are the ledgers and the deeds to the building itself.

>>14067029
You have Pitt's hair and you are capable of summoning him but not the snake woman since it seems she survived being blown up by dynamite, somehow.

Ghost-Of-Henders informs you that the nightclub is just what it seems like. A club where women dance, whore themselves out, and drink gets sold by the bucketload. He used it as an office because he liked being surrounded by naked women.

>>14067057
Well, if everything's in working order, we let people get to work. Lord Pitt's people will be missing, of course, but I imagine most things will be going as planned?

We will continue to search for the deed to the place, which I imagine we'll need to take total control, and I imagine some of Pitt's friends who happened to miss out on the big fight will be showing up too and finding out what the fuck went down. We got Randy and Jim, but I think the amigos are out of this one.

>>14067093
Actually it's you and Randy, Jim has a severe case of almost-killed-by-a-werewolf so he's recovering at Doc Green's and is unavailable to you for the next few weeks.

The one thing you guys seem to agree on is finding the deed and those documents. But how?

>>14067138
Summon Pitt. But first, FIRST, construct a very strong summoning/binding ward/circle in our new digs. VERY STRONG.

>>14067138
Well the simplest way would be summoning Pitt and binding him. If we do this we should make sure we use our strongest circle and make it carefully.

>>14067161
>>14067182
Maybe he already has a circle here that we can modify and work with?

You get some hair out of an inside pocket in your jacket, not the blond hair, not the brown hair, but the black hair peppered with silver.

You lay it on the ground and then with some chalk begin creating a circle. You think about the work you put into your sanctum back in Harlem and wince at the thought of having to do all that, and more, once again to make this space truly yours.

Despite how fatigued you are by the amount of action you've seen, it's no difficulty for you to summon a ghost this new.

In front of you stands Lord Pitt, and now that he's still and not attacking everything in sight, you notice that his left eye is completely red, even the pupil.

"What?" he barks in a harsh foreign tone.

>>14067194
He's a astral/elemental mage who could easily kick our ass if he gets the chance, lets not give it to him.

>>14067255
Looks like he may have some sort of demonic connection. Do we know if that may affect our binging? if not bind him, question him about the location of the important buisness papers and any securaty measures on them. Also ask about his connections and anyone he may have been blackmailing or paying off and how best to go about taking those over and maintaining them. on top of all that ask about all his buisnesses both legal and illigal and how to best take those over and maintain control.

>>14067255
>>14067255
"I'm sure you realize you're dead. You're a spirit here. A ghost. A specter. This ain't no astral projection where you are king. You're in my realm now. And you're going to do a few things for me. First of which is answering some questions."
>>14067364
These questions.

If he hassles us, BIND HIM, and do it strongly. "You ain't slipping through my fingers here."

>>14067395
bind him anyway, if he's bound he cant lie.

We need to ask him what needs to be ready so that people arriving this morning can go about their business. If we can pull the wool over the eyes of the majority, we can probably sweet talk/bullshit/bribe anyone that's actually here to investigate.
>Endscrea Republica
That.... actually sounds pretty good captcha, I'll hold on to that.

You bind him and even as you do that, you can feel him trying to resist, pitching his will against yours.

It's no use, a ghost doesn't stand a chance against a necromancer unless it's very old or very suicidal, and so his soul belongs to you now. For the next 30 days anyway.

"Well?"

"The deed, my ledgers and various bits and bobs you want are in a hidden compartment of my shelves. No security measures, just pull on Moby Dick." He describes which shelf it's on.

"My god. I can't believe some half trained barbarian killed me. And now you want to know about my empire? Well of course," his voice takes on a different tone as he begins to brag, "I run a different kind of protection. Your lot badger shopkeepers and barbers for protection money don't you? Well I protect everyone in this building. Anyone who has an office in this building, be they an accountant, a lawyer, an architect, a magazine, whatever the fuck they are, I get a cut of their profits and if I tell them to jump they go straight to the top of the building and take a dive, unless they want their families and their children to be burnt alive in front of them. They pretty much got the message after the first couple of groups got turned into ash."

"That's my protection. I've got two clubs that I run whores and drink out of, one whose existence you're already aware and the Boom Boom Room on the corner of Deschamps."

"And that was my little empire in this nest of kikes and chinks."

>>14067500
Is the Boom Boom Room owned by Ray?

>>14067554
Hahaha. Yes!

>>14067554
lol lol lol

>>14067500
Well that simplifys things a bit. If he didnt go over how he kept track of the workers and their payments ask him about it, if possible get names of the guys incharge of organising the payments as well as adresses/office locations.

While we have him bound, tell us the secrets of the crystals and the summing/binding circle he had the angel in.

>>14067625
"I had a kid called Bellamy who went round at the beginning of each month to make collections. Ain't all that difficult, just step of the elevator one floor at at time and take what's mine. Unfortunately you killed him with your unholy alliance with the Jews. Sickening."

>>14067661
You already know how to contain the angel from the books you've taken from his sanctum but Pitt also informs you that "I didn't summon the angel. I paid a man a very large sum of money to summon him for me into that circle I built."

You now know how to use the crystals, it involves an 8 minute long ritual and a source of power if it's to be done on a large scale, presumably what the angel was for.

>>14067773
And we can turn water into wine as well, huh?

Rather than destroying enemy stocks, we can produce our own holy wine.

>>14067773
Well then, for collections we need a white face. We need to track down Brokowitz' nephew and have him go around the building. New management and all that. They'll each have a temporary 10% discount for three months, after which prices will return to normal. We have Pitt's ledgers, so we know how much we're owed.

If they don't want to pay, they'll suffer. Ripping + ghost whipping. No physical damage, but they'll pay afterwards.

>>14067861
Yes. This is a viable plan, if you manage to secure some magical power source.

>>14067773
Ok, lets get one of the guys who has a bit of artistic talent to make few copys of a sign and put them up in the elevators, lobby, parking lot the places where the worker heve to pass through.

not sure of the phrasing but have them saying something like"The Wessler building is no longer under Mr.Pitt's management please send a representative to the office of (whoever we get to play friendly white guy) to discuss the details of payment. Include directions to the office"

Pitt informs you that the collections for this month have been made.

The next time the businesses expect to get shaken down is the first Monday of the next month (which is a week away).

Options:

1) Use the Brokowitz-Nephew as a white face for all future shakedowns.
2) Get the CEOs of all the businesses in the building to come up and see you, at which point you scare the shit out of them.

Vote.

>>14067972
How about we get the Brokowitz nephew to be "The Boss" and we're his "muscle". He calls them to a meeting to discuss the new management and has us scare them.

My first instinct is 1. I'd rather we made this transition as smooth as possible, but if this is going to be our main haunt, we can't be undercover all the time. It might do to teach them that the Duke is their new liege.

>>14067972
lets get the jew, he may know where we can find some white mooks.

>>14068017
That could work better.

On the other hand, if you can scare them into respecting a black man, all the better.

>>14068054
Yeah, I support scaring the piss out of this white bastards. We own this building, and these white folk are gonna have to deal with it.

Also, what was the name of the place that Smily wanted?

Considering the others' posts, I'm now thinking we can have the Jew make introductions, but leave the hierarchy ambiguous. Those who are so inclined will just assume the Jew is in charge, but everyone knows they must respect us. Including the Jew. I don't really want anyone in our operation thinking the Jew is above us, it leaves it open for him to give contradictory orders or try and usurp us. (which would be quite foolish since I don't expect he is magical, but still)

>Knuckle Dusters - Henderschmidt seems like a fairly good choice for this when you think about it. I am assuming that a Spirit bound into an attack object will not give any defensive bonus's and while we may lose his fearsome regeneration capabilities, we would gain a fraction of his superhuman speed and strength, as well as having his bad Ass accent to keep us company, making these "Wolf Claws" come in very handy.

I support this so much

>>14068104
Squeaky. And it Henry's that he wanted a nice big place called Henry's. I think we should honor that.

Alright, the majority are in favour of tracking down the Brokowitz-Nephew.

-----

Lenny had left you with the last known address of his nephew, Gerald, and the angle to come at him to get him to work with you.

You take the elevator down and walk out through the lobby, noticing the people just arriving to work as you're leaving the place. None of them seem to be aware of the change in management or the murders that occurred the night before.

Randy drives and you sit in the back, and soon enough you arrive at an apartment block on the border of the District.

Some flights of stairs and jumped over piss stains later you find yourself knocking on a rickety wooden door.

"Whatchu wan'?!" you hear shouted from inside, a sleepy voice.

>>14068188
"To offer you the best job you've ever had."

>>14068219
You hear some steps on the other side and then see the door opening just a creek.

Looking through you see a shorter man, looking at you through a squinted suspicious eye.

"What'sis bout a job? Who are ya?"

>>14068243
"I'm an associate of your uncle Leonard." Take off our hat and smile. "I have a proposition for you, if you'd listen."

>>14068243
You remember Lenny? Yeah, that Lenny. Your Uncle and I just made good on quite the arrangement. The Wessler building belongs to me now, and he suggested you for a management position.

>>14068243
"Friend of your father. He did right by me, so I do the same. Easy work."

Also, I suggest we try to give Chandler's brothers' a offer so we can keep an eye on them. And what do we need to set up office in this place?

>>14068318
Uncle, not Father. Sorry.

>>14068253
>>14068304
"You knew uncle Lenny? Well, shit in a box, why didn't you just say so? C'mon in."

He steps back and opens the door to let you in.

You see him fully for the first time and...well, it's not an impressive sight. He's a short scrawny guy, the build of a timid librarian. Gerald is in his late twenties/early thirties and already seems to have lost the majority of his hair. He looks at you expectantly.

"Uncle Lenny was always real good to me. It's a shame how things went down for him."

"How's a guy like you know him? No offense but it ain't like spent much time in your parts."

"And what's this about management? I don't know squat about managing."

>>14068334
well he's obviously not about to betray us

get the fuck outta there

>>14068334
"Well, what do you know?"

>I don't know squat about managing.
We will teach you. All you have to do is be willing to learn.

>>14068334
Take a seat and motion for him to sit across from us. "I'm in a delicate situation, Gerald. Your uncle's spirit assisted me with a problem, and in turn, I helped him find his final peace. He's on his way towards heaven, or enlightenment, nirvana, whatever may be down that path for him.

In the process of our mutual efforts to help each other, I've come into the possession of a large building in the financial district, as well as the money that's to come from it's occupants. Most of which are . . . closer to your complexion than my own. Now, I'd like for these people to continue to pay their dues. Of course, when they get a look at me, I don't think they'll fully support the idea. That is where you come in. You'd be the face of this operation, working for me to collect debts and acting as an intermediary between them and me. If they have a question, a complaint, they tell you, and you tell me. Then I deal with it. You make collections, and deliver them to me. Anything happens, and you come to me. For this, you'll be paid a very handsome salary, as well as being entered into my protection for anything else you'd be interested in doing, with my approval of course. You'll also be furnished with an apartment in the building, something a bit more . . . welcoming than this.

Keep in mind, I'm doing this as a favor on word from your dear departed uncle, and this offer will no longer be available once I leave here." Take out a fold of bills. If he accepts, hand him a few and tell him to get a haircut and a nice suit.

>>14068368
What don't you like about the situation? He just got up. He looks like a dupe to me, but maybe that's all the better.
>>14068441
This sounds good to me,
>>14068404
But I would also like to get to know him a little better.

>>14068404
"Well I can lay down a mean ass curse when the occasion calls for it."

"You need someone to have things go so badly for them that they lose their minds, well, I'm your man."

"Back when Uncle Lenny ran things I used to do that for him as well as run some books. His eyesight was getting a bit weak so he used to get me to look over them for him."

>>14068441
Gerald sort of smiles as you explain your predicament to him.

"Yeah, yeah. I can sees how that might be a problem for you. A certain kind of asshole might not mind getting shook down by a white man but would rather spend thousands of dollars moving his business to another part of town just to avoid being shook down by errr you."

"Well, I ain't got nothing else going at the moment" he says looking pointedly around at his ramshackle apartment "I reckon this is just the kind of opportunity I been waiting for."

He shakes your hand and takes your money.

"When do you need me to start?"

>>14068533
Now.

Also, fix your BALD.

(consider grabbing his bald)

>>14068533
"Tonight. Get dressed and come over to the Wessler building. Someone will be waiting for you in the lobby. Bring with you what you want, a couple suitcases if that's your deal. Now, understand, discretion is a necessity for this job. Knowhumsayin?"

Ask him if he knows anyone out of work who would be worth paying attention to.

>>14068533
"Payments are due next Monday, but I think it would do to make introductions as soon as possible. Let the people meet the new administration." Smile.

I like this. It's a variation of Olukwele by ruling through someone else name. Cuts back on micromanaging.

Pull out a cigarette. "So, what kinda cursing you do?"

>>14068581
"I know all sorts of guys who are always out of work," he says the phrase with a certain intonation so you know exactly what he means. "What kind of guys you lookin' for? I could probably rustle up all sorts that care more for the colour of money than that of skin."

>>14068676
"Different times call for different men. Some will be good for when we need 'em. But right now I'm looking for people who are real dependable."

>>14068673
"Mainly Hebrew curses although I picked up a few Chinese ones that looked interestin'. I don't do death curses, that shit can backfire dangerously if someone's got certain kinds of defenses but it ain't all that difficult to drive someone insane. One truly horrible day is all it takes," he says with the smile of an artist pleased with his work.

>>14068695
"Leave it with me. I'll get the word out and we should have a few turn up in the next couple of days. You can decide for yourself if you want'em."

With that Gerald stands up and shows you to the door, assuring you that he'll be by your offices this afternoon looking presentable and ready to put in work.

What's your next move?

>>14068773
Remind him in a calm and friendly matter, that if he fucks with us, he'll be meeting his uncle sooner rather than later. But he doesn't need to worry about that so long as he's loyal and does his job.

Head on over to our hide out in the chess parlor. Anything from our sanctum that we can move, take it to the Wessler and start setting up wards and circles and rebuilding the secret rooms to suit our needs.

>>14068773
Everything going as planned? Take a nap.

Sorry guys, I'm going to have to stop there because I have to go now. We didn't get nearly as much done as usual but hopefully I can hang around for longer tomorrow, starting roughly around the same time as we started today.

See you then.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHH WITH THE POWER OF A THOUSAND EXPLODING SUNS

>>14068773
I think we need to build our next sanctum here. Something solid.

And we should look for someplace we can have Henry's Place.

>>14068935
See you then!

remember that we're meant to have a meeting with some police comissioner type called Alexander that's what i'm worried about

Bumping so this'll be here tomorrow and I can read it.

well lookie what we have here. i just refreshed and no 404

You guys ready to be a badass?

>>14076847
SHIT YEAH!

>>14076938
Excellent. I'll keep bumping for half an hour until enough of you are here to get started.

Why oh why must this always be run mere minutes before I must leave for work?

Damn Thee, Timezones!

Anyway, I think our first order of business should be to give us some Extra Magical, or rather, Spectral Weapons and Defenses. Namely shoving the werewolf into the Knuckledusters and Paddy into out Colt.

I also think it may be an Idea (And this is just me) to bind Pitt into the Wessler Builder itself, or if that is too much of a Feat, just the Main Door-frame. Whats not to like about have your former biggest Rival Reduced to a Ghostly Doorman?

Anyone Agree with me?

>>14077013
I don't know about putting Pitt into the building.

"Oh look, another person died in the elevator. Damn, a window washer just fell to his death. An electrician was burned to death in the basement."

>>14077013
Oh man. Such a shame you have to leave, you always come up with such awesome ideas.

Quit your job damnit!

/tg/ and 4chan in general seems a bit low on posters right now. Might have to do with it crashing last night and regulars haven't returned to see it back up yet.

So you might be a little low on players to start off today, Ellington.

We have him bound? and since this bounding is the base of our operations I'm sure we could keep it going once every 30 days or So.

And think about it, Intruders in the Building? The building itself has eyes and will report their whereabouts to you, plus it already has intrinsic knowledge of the area you are in, and I'm sure would eventually develop some bitchin Defensive powers.

Think of it more as a 1927 Defensive AI.

We should definitely put Henderschmidt into the knuckle dusters, or some sort of melee weapon.

But we need to put someone or something into a piece of clothing or an amulet or pocket watch or something.

>>14077081

I'm watching a documentary while I wait.

I had planned to run tonights game a bit differently anyway.

All the previous stuff that's happened went down over the space of a couple of days but tonights was going to last a couple of weeks, i.e. you give me orders and then a turn passes wherein I update you on what's happened this past week and what the results of your actions were in managing the District.

Hopefully more of you will show up in a while. At the moment I guess I've got 2 of you maybe, excluding our friend who's leaving for work.

woo it's the first time I can contribute instead of reading on suptg!
Fuck yeah Duke

>>14077177
ALRIGHT. With the arrival of this fella I'm counting 3 of you and that's a motherfucking quorum right there.

Let's get things started.

It's near the end of your working day (it's almost 9 am and you're tired after a long very long day of planning, attacking, and dealing with the aftermath of the assault on the Wessler building.)

You go back to Harlem and have a full sleep, waking up at 18:00.

What are your actions for Week 1?

At the moment we've got:
1) Bind Henders to a knuckleduster.
2) Move the items that you can from your Sanctum in Harlem to your new place in the Financial District.
3) Arrange the transfer of the protection racket to be controlled by Gerald, under you.

Speak up now.

>>14077228
Oh, we're just continuing in this thread?

>>14077239
Yes, might as well since yesterdays session wasn't the usual length.

>>14077228
Rebind any spirits we have that will go free soon.
Begin repairs on the Wessler. We don't want the Anti Ghost one, but we don't want a ruined foundation either. Maybe get in contact with that planner from the office and get his input on renovations.

Begin turning Pitt's old Sanctum into one of our own. Read through any occult or mystical books Pitt had, and practice our chess.

>>14077228
ah the power!
I'd say 2-3-1

I vote for putting Patrick(the irish luck guy) and the were wolf into rings or amulets for the irishman's luck and the were wolfs vitality or regeneration. we can put the less lucky brother (the cop) into one of our guns for lucky shots.

also use pitt's spirit to charge a weapon or give our new fortress a state of the art securaty system(no need to worry about pitt seeking vengance due to ensouling a object destroying the personality)

>>14077228

Don't bind Henders to the knuckleduster until after we have our Chinese connections examine the duster and figure out what it did to the Oldest Amigo, so that we can undo the damage.

Don't forget to meet with any promising recruits that Gerald sends our way.

Have Gerald meet with the business owners in the building and inform them of the change of management. Intimidate the fuck out of them while we do it.

In fact, go along with Gerald. He does the speaking, and we use our intimidation prowess to look like a bad motherfucker and scare the shit out of them. Gerald doesn't actually say that he's the owner, he just says that there's new management and that he'll be making collections from now on. He'll also mention the several month 10% discount to ease the transition for these people.

>>14077261
Oh shit, I completely forgot that binding someone to an object destroys their personality.

Well I say we don't bind O'Leary to an object. He doesn't deserve that, I don't think.

Did we get anything from the Siren? We should summon her. She just worked for Henders, but it would be useful to ask her about Sirens. Ask her if there's any way to resist a Siren's call, etc. Then we can bind her to a nice looking ring. Something we can use to make us more attractive and amiable to everyone.

>>14077272
I think we shouldn't go with Gerald, we picked him to avoid showing our very black face to every businessman in the building. If they refuse/want to move out, we'll pay them a visit. Except if there is anyone important in the building. Someone we should talk directly to.

>>14077309
I've got to agree with this.

>>14077294
not dead

>>14077313
The siren that Henders was banging. She's dead. The Snake woman is still alive.

Also casually trickle-leech from people on the street, in bars, etc, to gain better control of it.

>>14077320
Ups, my bad.
Was she a siren? I've got to re-read the archive, because I forgot about it

>>14077309

Sensible move to not accompany Gerald. If we're worried about him we can ask Chandler to follow and spy on him on the first couple of sets of rounds.

Also, we should look into fixing the defensive runes in the basement. Ghosts are a serious threat if you're not ready for them.

>>14077341
We're a master of ghosts. If we have an anti ghost ward, then we can't utilize one of our greatest assets within this building.

STATUS FOR WEEK 1:

WARCHEST:
120,000 dollars.

ASSETS:
- Wessler Building
- The Boom Boom Room
- The Stiegel Bar

Net Profits Per Week: 5000 dollars.

STATUS WITH NEIGHBOURS:
JEWS: Peaceful.
CHINESE: Fraught.
---------------------------------

You've moved your few personal belongings in the suite at the top of the Wessler Building. More importantly for you, you've moved your library and your desk from your sanctum in Harlem to the workspace you now have in the Wessler. The space still contains a lot of Pitt's character in it and won't be fully yours for quite some time yet but you've made a start on carving circles and inserting something of yourself into it. (SANCTUM: 15% complete).

On the Tuesay night you spent your time focus yourself so you that you could bind Henderschmidt to a new, unused knuckleduster. The ghost paced about you as you sat crosslegged in front of a circle, preparing yourself. Henders knew what you were going to do to it and it was begging you not to. Henderschmidt stopped appearing as a wolf briefly and took on the form of a man, trying to plead with you to not do this but you are deaf to his pleas.

>continued

Eventually when you find yourself ready you bind him to the knuckledusters sitting on the floor in front of you:

GAINED: Knuckleduster-Wolfclaws. This item seems like a regular knuckleduster until you activate it. It speaks to you in German, which you don't understand, but when activated in a battle it a large set of transparent purple paws seem to envelop your fist and cause damage to your enemies.

You and Gerald are coming to an understanding. You had your meetings with the people in the building and it seems like at least the protection racket was the easiest thing to maintain.

Your having more trouble with the two clubs though. The bosses of the two clubs quit because they didn't want to work for a black man.

Choose someone to manage them or sell them because at the moment they're not running.

You have yet to have your meeting with Alexander. You're wondering why he hasn't shown up yet.

--- Week 1 Status Update Complete ----

Begin planning your moves for week 2. If I see conflicting views, they wipe each other out and I'll ignore those posts. Otherwise I'll try to incorporate as much as I can into the action.

>>14077261
>also use pitt's spirit to charge a weapon or give our new fortress a state of the art security system
I think this is not a good idea. We just need a weak ghost capable of closing heavy door/locks, but whose main function is to alert us, so we can send in the heavy artillery.
We should keep Pitt for something more useful. Like the BAR. Or making a Dragon's Breath shotgun.

>>14077348

If we can figure out how to create exceptions to the anti-ghost effect of the rune then we could have our cake and eat it too. Even if the anti-ghost part of the rune can't have exceptions built into it, the paranoia and confusion runes are worth looking at as passive defenses.

Do recon on this Alexander guy. Find out what we can about him before we set up a meeting.

Go through Gerald's "Friends" for people who can run the two night clubs.

Try and arrange meetings with local Jew and Chinese bosses. Separate meetings, so as not to end up with a Mexican stand off situation. The point would be to introduce ourself and assuage any fears they have that we're planning to encroach on their action. We will probably want to in the future anyway, but they don't need to know that.

Practice life leeching to gain power over it's use.

>>14077367

We need managers. The Oldest Amigo needs something to do while we find a cure for his condition. You guys think we could use him as one of the club bosses?

>>14077408
Do some research about who and how much Pitt was paying in the police to keep running his business

Search for a way to restore the "old amigo"

Also, we should have given everyone on the operation a bonus for job well done. About 50-100$ each.
Will do wonders for morale and loyalty imo.

I forgot who Gerald was.

Don't forget to have a brief chess session with someone each day.

Also, I think we should have a policy of training our skills. Since we are inside a huge building with a lot of people, we can life leech every day if nothing else.

Iirc, Pitt had some awesome summoning circle, right? Ask him for info when you make yours. Make sure to word your requests carefully so that there aren't any loop-holes and double-meanings to exploit.

Who can we put in charge of Clubs? Do we have any ideas?

>>14077425

We have Pitt's ledgers, and Pitt himself. There's no real research to it, just look it up in the ledger and ask Pitt for clarification on anything that's odd.

>>14077416
That sounds like a great idea actually. Let's do that.

WAIT A SECOND OP, I THOUGHT THE BOOM BOOM ROOM WAS OWNED BY RAY, A BLACK MAN, WHY WOULD HE QUIT?

we know one guy who already runs a girl business, he may know more about it than us, or at least suggest a few names

>>14077374
also, shameless self-bump and pic related

>>14077436
Gerald is the nephew of Lenny Brokowitz, the jewish ghost we recruited to take down Pitt. Gerald is our face in the Wessler, seeing as the tenants wouldn't likely pay to a black man and would rather leave. Gerald made the transition much easier.

>>14077453
Putting Pitt into a shotgun sounds pretty cool, but before binding him into something, we should wait until we can't get anything else useful from him.

>>14077441
In this universe Ray is as honkey as crackers get and he quit in a huff and moved to Nebraska.

______ALERT______
Sweet Johnson has been scouting around and says he's come across a great location to open a magnificent whorehouse. The building is perfect for it.

He says it'll cost you 20,000 grand to buy it and for start up costs. It'll take 2 weeks for him to round up high quality girls, at which point he can have a grand opening for business.

Yes/No?

>>14077474
Inspect it ourselves first. Who are the neighbors, etc? Does it feel haunted or anything? If it looks good, make the investment.

>>14077474
See if we can get into contact with Louelle or whatever her name was, the WHORE MASTER. Even just as a common courtesy to our peers.

>>14077474
What kind of profits is he projecting?

Are prostitutes actually legal in Harlem? (I don't know the laws)


We might ask our Jew front and his Jew friends for other business ventures we could set-up.

>>14077474
I'd say yes, and have him to manage one or both of the clubs, but without whoring (ok my english is failing me)

Do we have the crystals in our possession still, or did they go off to someone else?

If we have them, perform the ritual to turn some fine looking bottles of water into wine and see how good it turns out.

>>14077497
Seconded.
Also is Sweet asking for a loan+protection and permission? Or he want us as partners in the business?

>>14077518
I figure we could buy it and own it, having him manage. Or we could loan him the money. Loaning it to him would probably make him more loyal.

>>14077495
For the first month or so it won't be much, maybe 1000 a week, but he expects in time when word gets out it will add 3000 dollars a week to your profits.

Sweet Johnson can manage the whorehouse and the Stiegel Bar.

Choose one person to manage the Boom Boom Room (No the Old Amigo is incapable of that at his ancient old age).

I say we investigate. If it looks good, LOAN Sweets the money at a reasonable rate. Very reasonable. This will make him very loyal to us.

We'll also get the standard cut of the profits in addition to the repaying of the loan.

>>14077518
Partners in business, with you as the silent but majority shareholder. That's how it works since you're putting up all the capital.

>>14077474
Well, hell yes brother. As long as you keep them ladies fine and the cash rolling, you know I'll protect your ass.

And yeah, lets study Chinese curses with Gerald to see what could have aged the Old Amegio and either de-age him, or find a way to keep him vime and vital despite being 80-something. Because an 80-something badass with a large gun is still awesome.

Also, I suggest sending Chandler out to study our neighbor's. I don't wanna show out hand yet. Let them come to us first.

And find out why Alexander is late! Important!

Geralds friends have begun trickling into your employ.

One by one you vet them with interviews and they seem like solid guys. You're concerned by how they'll interact with your existing underlings but that becomes an unnecessary when you hear Randy having a serious conversation about the Yankees with Gerald. Baseball has united your guys.

Your skills at chess and life leech are increasing slowly but steadily. Your ability to move life energy between human beings is not as slow as it was before.

You have a meeting with the local Jew Boss, a man named Vulk. Vulk is extraordinarily pleased to meet you. Somehow he is very distantly related to old Brokowitz so word has reached him how you helped him get his revenge as well as taking down a hated enemy of theirs. You come to a peaceful and mutually profitable agreement over where your territory ends and his begins.

The Chinese refuse to meet you.

You have yet to meet Alexander. You've sent out feelers and very few people know who you're talking about. Those who know don't want to talk about it much but it's clear that in a town where criminal outfits are pretty much a law unto themselves Alexander is a lawman they all respect and pay attention to. You're starting to get the feeling that maybe Alexander is simply keeping an eye on you for now, to see how you operate before coming to speak to you.

Chandler has been wandering around Chinese neighbourhoods for you, he's noted nothing especially suspicious or aimed at you.

GAINED: SUPER SPY BONUS - Since you've been using Chandler almost exclusively as your eyes and ears since the very beginning, he's become amazingly proficient at it. Because of the practice he's had he can now affect the material world, i.e. open drawers, get into safes, read ledgers of enemies and so on. Not only that but Chandler seems to be able to move so fast through the ghost world that he's practically teleporting from location to location. You're genuinely surprised by this.

>>14077617
Chandler is a pimp. Ask him when his brother's birthdays are and if he wants to give them gifts. He's getting stronger, so we need to keep him loyal.

OVER-ALL STATUS FOR WEEK 2:

WARCHEST:
105,000 dollars.

ASSETS:
- Wessler Building
- The Boom Boom Room
- The Stiegel Bar
- New WhoreHouse (PLEASE SUGGEST A NAME NOW)

Net Profits Per Week: 5000 dollars.

STATUS WITH NEIGHBOURS:
JEWS: Excellent.
CHINESE: Fraught.
---------------------------------Update Complete--------

Definitely find out about Chinese curses from Gerald. If the Chinese aim to be enemies, we need to know what they can bring.

Have Gerald practice. He needs to be up to snuff and ready to throw down if shit gets hot. In our outfit, you need to be able to bust a few skulls as well as you run a business.

>>14077629
The Whorehouse = The Well Traveled Inn. Since being a whore house is illegal, it needs a cover. Even a thin as fuck one. Well Traveled is also a pun, seeing as they're prostitutes, and by definition, their uh . . . pink roads would be very well traveled.

Damn Chinese
I wanted to ask them how to restore Old Amigo.

I bet they are scheming something.

Hey, as a reward for Chandler, maybe we can acquire an apartment in financial district and put his brothers there?
And have them work at our clubs.
I doubt we can do anything else for Chandler.
Of course speak with him about that before doing it/

>>14077495

Anything illegal is ignored if you pay the cops enough. Need to budget what sort of cut they would want.

Alexander is the police representative we're supposed to meet with right?

I say we bind the Siren to a nice tie, or a hat or something. Maybe something easier to keep a hold of like a watch or pinky ring, so that we can't lose it. Since she was a siren, it could help us be, or at least appear to be, more charismatic.

>>14077670
I think having him pick out presents for them for their birthdays will keep Chandler pretty loyal.

>>14077629
- Have some research about what kind of magic the chinese use and how to protect our stronghold and our people from it
- Restoring the wall we destroyed would block our ghost too? If not, have it fixed
- Pay regular visit to Big Jim and give him some of our energy, restoring it walking down the streets. We want him up as soon as possible

Do we know anyone that should run the other club? We could have Randy or Big Jim or ask for someone from Harlem HQs or make it the place Squeacky wanted his name on.

>>14077626

How old are his brothers anyway? We may want to invest in them directly. Scholarships, or other help, or a place in the organization if they're inclined toward the kind of work we need men for.

The real question is... are there WIZARDS around?

OH SHIT THAT REMINDS ME

Whatever Squeaky asked for us to name a place, let's name the Whore house that!

Harolds' or something, wasn't it?

>>14077626
Oh hell yes. And now that' he's learned so much, next chance he has, some Chinese Connections are gonna be checked out.

Any info on helping the Old Amigo?

And have we been moving our Scantum?

Oh, and when we get a chance, check our collection of ghosts and samples for a chinaman, and we should head back to the Duke's Land, and give a tearful farewell.

>>14077667
I love you like a fat kid loves cake, because of that hilarious pun. The Well Travelled Inn it is!

____ALERT________
You're in one of your office suites trying to find some contractors to fix the faults in the foundation that you put there, when a man walks in somehow past all your mortal guards and all the ghostly eyes you have keeping watch around you.

He's a man who's looking at middle age from the wrong side, lean and ascetic. He's completely bald but seems to make up for it by having an extravagantly long beard. Despite that he still looks very sharp and official in his black uniform, which seems to have some sort of badge attached to the chest although the symbol is one you've never seen before (a star surrounded by square rather than a circle).

"My name is Alexander," he says "I believe you've been expecting me?"

>>14077754
Henry's. A nice place, that people love coming to. Not a whore house, a nice bar. 1845; etherate

>"Nah, I was never a squirrel type never saved nothing. I do have a request though. If you ever open a big place, a real happening place, the kind of place that's packed night in night out and the good times never end? Call it Henry's. Not Squeaky's. Call it Henry's."

We're calling our whore house Henry's. It has to be more than a simple Whore house though. Invest another 5k and turn it into a nice club/speak easy/whore house.

Since we have the money I suggest we invest in acquiring more magical protection for us and our gang.

Give medium protection charm to everyone at least.

We could search for someone who sells higher quality stuff now.


Hmm ... there should be places where hobo, crackheads and other undesirables hang out. Put on your distraction charm and go to these places at least once a week to practice your Rip spell (and life leech maybe)

>>14077629

We need to court the Chinese to establish good relations. It may be a good idea to do them a good turn. Maybe buy a politician to float the idea of amending the 1924 Immigration Act to allow for extra immigrants on an as-needed basis by businesses that can show a need for the extra laborers. Then we start a Chinese Restaurant chain that needs some authentic cooks, and we have our in with the local Chinese.

>>14077770
"Ah, yes, I have! Chess? I'll see if we can rustle up a drink or food while we talk?" Lets get him to the chess board and talk to him properly. Bring up his lateness, saying we were worried abotu his health.

>>14077707

Foreshadowing:

>>14077770

>>14077770
holy shit, how come that when we think we are some serious badasses, people just outfuck us sitting?


...Ellington I love you...

>>14077789

We can re-name one of the clubs we took over Henry's. The Well Traveled Inn should remain a focused business.

Let's rename the one that Henders ran from it's German as fuck name to Henry's.

>>14077813

Be a good host, but don't bring up his lateness. He's Alexander, he can set his own schedules and we know it. Any comment about his health would come off as being a smartass remark.

>>14077837
I'm gonna agree with this.

>>14077813
>Bring up his lateness, saying we were worried about his health.
Don't. He looks like he's so powerful that if anything happened to him we would have known (and if we wouldn't we just show how below him we are).
Also it sounds like a threat, considering we never met him

>>14077863
Hey, he could have been whacked by the Italians and this is just a rube they sent up to kill us. We don't know.

>>14077877
if he is, we are dead seeing how he simply walked to every single defense we have

Alexander politely declines your offer of a chess game while you talk. You wonder why and then it occurs to you that maybe Alexander is the kind of man who thinks so far ahead that he declined just in case he has to play against you for the highest stakes of all some day and doesn't want you to know how he plays or how he thinks.

"The man who owned this building previously had a working relationship with one of my men," he says.

"However a mutual friend of ours who you know as Olukwele told me that you're an ambitious man, but not in a brash short sighted way. He said that you were the type who were going to be around for a long time." He runs his hand through his black-but-mostly-grey beard.

"So it suits me to get to know you, beyond whatever arrangement we make between ourselves." he says.

"What kind of man would you say you are, Duke?"

>>14077821

Because he takes his cliches from Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter.

>>14077897
Sit quietly in our chair and eye the man carefully, not staring. "I'm not sure I could truthfully say. It's not common that a man can speak of himself without bias."

>>14077897

A man of my word, and a man who understands that visible wars are bad for business; an unavoidable fight must be won long before the first blow is thrown.

>>14077948

This. Tell him politely that if that's all he wanted to know, he could've found other people who would give a more objective description. Ask him what he REALLY wants to know from us.

If this was a game like Vampire:Masqueredes it'd be like whoa.

>>14078000

Geist, the Sin-eaters.

>>14077988

My idea behind saying this is that he knows how we got hold of this property, and he knows what Olukwele said, but he's really got no idea of how we intend to present ourselves to our new vassals and neighbors. By telling him that the Duke keeps his word, and that the Duke doesn't intend to fight unless it's unavoidable (and only then after making sure he's done the work to ensure a quick win) we can lay some of his bigger fears about Duke's new place in the social order to rest.

>>14077948

Alexander does not strike me as the sort of man who will cotton to the Duke playing coy.

>>14077948
>>14077997
Yes!

"I'm not sure I could truthfully say. It's not common that a man can speak of himself without bias. I'm sure you've already seen and heard things about me in my short time here, enough to make a decision before we even met. So tell me, please, what would you really like to know?"

>>14078028
seconded

>>14078034
I like this.

>Other Side

I don't kno' who he is, but I kno' what he is.

He is from de odder side!

>>14077997
>>14077948
"Fair enough," he says "but I must know what to expect from you."

"Let me make myself clear. I do not care whether you and your associates find yourselves in battle with your counterparts, you can kill each other from dusk till dawn for all I'm concerned."

"However, I exist" he stresses that second that verb "to protect and serve the citizens and constituents of this city."

"Several weeks ago, during your attack on a" at this point he takes out a notebook and reads from it "Erik Henderschmidt, you inadvertently killed one of his neighbours."

"Are you willing to pay blood money to the family of the victim?"

>>14078070
Did we really?

>>14078070

"I could bring back his ghost as a tie-slave?"

>>14078084
We really did.

Doff our hat and bow our head. "Forgiveness, in the fire and the explosion we forgot to pay restitution." Finger snap, and get one of our boys to get the money needed. Of course, I half doubt it'll be money, but it'll be good to have on hand.

And does anyone remember if we -did- pay him, or try and give him a funeral or such?

>Tropea DOWQUEST
I would seem Captcha has some other ideas about this quest. Maybe we should start investing money.

>>14078112
This sounds stupid and wrong.

>>14078084

The neighbor fell and cracked his neck, it was an accident. It wouldn't have happened if we had not been there, so yeah, we are responsible for it.

And yeah, we need to find the dead innocent's survivors and make the appropriate reimbursements.

>>14078084
yes we did, it was unintentional (I think we soul ripped a group of staring neibors and one fell and cracked his head open on somehting).

I am all for avoiding any other civilian deaths and paying compensation to any who were injured in the crossfire.

>>14078084
Yeah
when life-leeching the neighbors, one of the passed out, hit his head on the table and broke his neck.
I knew this would come back to us.

How much is blood money anyway?
I guess we have no other choice but to pay it.

Also
>You wonder why and then it occurs to you that maybe Alexander is the kind of man who thinks so far ahead that he declined just in case he has to play against you for the highest stakes of all some day and doesn't want you to know how he plays or how he thinks.
Alright Duke!
You are thinking like a real master chess player.
Need to keep up with them chess practice, my man.
Don't forget to visit the old men at our old sanctum once in a while to play chess with them.

>>14078112

That's dumb, don't say that.

This game not only condones gang violence, but makes it look "cool."
It makes gangsters seem noble.
Enslaving other people 'souls' seem good.

I disapprove.

>>14078144
This.

>>14078148
We leech-life'd them to save Big Jim. And one accidentally fell. Not that bad of what could have happened.

>>14078178
0/10
hell even Fox News did a better job with GTA. Can't you get a little creative?

>>14078154
>>14078148
>>14078144
>>14078121

Alexander nods, as if you're affirming something he already suspected.

"I much prefer you already to your predecessor in this district," he says "Pitt was the kind of mean spirited man who would haggle over such a thing."

You hand him 250 dollars for the family of the victim.

He tells you the amount that Pitt was paying weekly into the Policeman's PiggyBank (500$) and gives you details on which bank to wire the money to every Monday. He doesn't wait to see if you decline to pay. Alexander will look at his statement come Monday and that will be the only answer he needs.

"It's been a pleasure to meet you," he says "I'll see you around."

He walks out the door and leaves you to your business.
-------
Any final actions before we're done with week 2? I've already noted most of the things you requested before the AlexanderAlert.

Most cultures with blood prices in their laws have a flat fee for a killing (accidental or intentional) to be paid to the deceased's survivors, with modifiers for if the deceased was a man or a woman, an adult or not, and if he was the breadwinner for his household.

Traditionally the price hovers around 20 head of cattle. That's about $94 a head in 1920s prices, so a blood money fee of $2,000 would not be unreasonable from a historic point of view.

Whatever Alexander thinks is the right price is the right price though.

>>14078230

Well hell, we got off cheap.

>>14078225
>Any final actions before we're done with week 2? I've already noted most of the things you requested before the AlexanderAlert.

We need yo look into further investments.
Ask around with our people and Jewish 'friends'

>>14078219
He does have a point about the "noble gangster" thing, aside from it being a horrible cliche.

>>14078225
Deposit extra money into the police account to make up for our first few weeks here without paying.

We don't need to, but it will put us on even better terms with him for a relatively small amount of money.

Call over to Hell Kitchen and have him deliver some powerful charms for defense. Miscellaneous types amounting up to, let's say, 5k. We can disperse them to our underlings as we wish, keep any for ourselves that are useful.

Yes! We have pretty well defined borders with the Jews, so now we need to expand towards that border. Stay clear of the Chinese for now. Invest in the district.

Well, as Captcha suggested, I say we find a good living investment banker and, hell, we're in NYC in the Financial district. I say we start playing Wallstreet too.

>>14078225
Whoops, obviously I meant Week 3.

>>14065396
No one corrected him saying it's actually the "Roaring" Twenties?

>>14078281

Not if you're male.

>>14078225
Is there anywhere we can try and increase our power, or learn more spells?

Bing Patrick to a nice 1911 pistol. Ask him if he has any final wishes before hand.

You have a long conversation with Chandler about the future of his brothers and you can tell that he's pleased with the attention you're giving him. His loyalty to you is assured. You come up with the idea to send a certain amount of money to help them get through school and to give them extracurricular support in whatever strengths they have. At the moment they're 12 and 13 years old so they won't be of much use to any time soon but the fact that you intend to be a part of their lives means that Chandler is on your side for good.

You give a bonus to Randy, Jim and all the Amigos for the help they gave you during your recent troubles, as well as your new troops that have joined you. At the moment you're the best boss in the world. Strict but generous to loyal and effective people.

You keep visiting and Big Jim and he's back on his feet well before Doc Green expected and he's now rejoined you.

You deposit an extra 500 dollars to make up for the week that you weren't aware of the deal that you're meant to have with Alexander and although you don't know it his respect for you grows. He is now highly unlikely to bushwack you unless you decide to do something over the top crazy like try to kill the mayor.

You spend 5k on defensive magic for your underlings, and now your main ones (Big Jim, Randy, Gerald, Sweet Johnson, the Two Amigos) have Medium Physical Protection Amulet and the several of the rest have basic.

The Old Amigo is feeling better and now has begun getting used to being an old man. You are no closer to finding a solution for him.

Gerald has practised his cursing so he can now do it over the length and breadth of the city but still needs 30 minute rituals.

>continued

We need to continue to investigate this Alexander.

Having him walk right past our defenses without so much as an alert being raised makes him very dangerous.

Talk to our contacts, see if we can find out how he bypassed our defenses, and erect some kind of improved alarm barrier at least so that we might know should he enter our building.

OVER-ALL STATUS FOR WEEK 3:

WARCHEST:
104,000 dollars.

ASSETS:
- Wessler Building (Sanctum: 45% finished)
- The Boom Boom Room (Now up and running again, managed by Sweet Johnson)
- The Stiegel Bar
- The Well Travelled Inn (Will be ready in 1 week)
Net Profits Per Week: 7500 dollars.

STATUS WITH NEIGHBOURS:
JEWS: Excellent.
CHINESE: Fraught.
---------------------------------Update Complete--------
The Stiegel Bar still needs a manager.

>>14078360
we should not waste patrick on a pistol, if we should use some sort of amulet so we can take his luck as our own. if we want a lucky pistol we can use the irish cop.

>>14078385
Change the Steigel to Henry's. See if Jim is interested in running it. He's not that smart, but he's wanted to appear as a bigger deal. Renovate the new Henry's a bit if it isn't so great, but if it's fitting for what Squeaky wanted, then leave it as is.

Keep putting out feelers to different members of the Chinese gangs. There has to be someone there, a Lt. or underboss or someone who's willing to speak to us.

_____ALERT______

You've found just the kind of contractor that you need, one who knows how to deal with both concrete and magic.

You've had several negotiation sessions with the foreman of the company but even with your prodigious negotiation skills you've only managed to bring them down to 35k from 50k to begin with.

He says that the job will take 4 weeks, they will fix the cracks in the foundation as well as imbue the building with not just alarm wards that will tell you when unexpected people are in the building but also offensive wards that will (YOU FILL IN THIS BLANK WITH 1 OFFENSIVE ATTACK THAT WILL HAPPEN TO ENEMIES WHO ASSAULT YOU). Also they suggest you block up the entrance to the foundations from Frelling Street with more heavy duty gates and warding, which they will include as part of the job.

Yay or nay?

We need to look out for Chinese.

>The Old Amigo is feeling better and now has begun getting used to being an old man. You are no closer to finding a solution for him.

Do we have hair of someone who could help us with this problem? Some kind of mystic, enchanter perhaps? Preferably Chinese.

>The Stiegel Bar still needs a manager.
Do we have anyone on who we could rely to manage it?


Also, we need to step up our magic.... Do we have contacts from whom we could get books/information on the branch of magic that we specialize in?
Maybe Duke should look through his masters stuff more thoroughly? He could have missed something (like the chess book he had ignored)

>>14078461
Yay, as long as he can change the ghost wards from blocking them entirely, to binding them to our will if they aren't already.

As an offensive defense, LEECH LIFE THEM LIKE A FUCKING GEYSER. Not so much as to kill them outright. But enough to fucking weaken them so much they become ineffectual. Near coma even.

>>14078461
Yay.

Are the spells limited to what we know, or what he knows?

Check our collection of ghosts and samples for a chinaman.

Start investing in Corporations.

Continue moving out Sanctum

Have...we been rebinding O'Leary and Patrick? Because if not oh fuck. Rebind now.

>>14078420
Old Amigo, for now, should Bartend Henry's

>>14078461
If we set Rip as the offensive spell, would we gain experience with it? Or, if we level it up, does the spell level up too?

>>14078493
>>14078481
The offensive spell can be anything you want, not just what you know since the foreman is the one who'll be imbuing it into the building, so it won't be connected to you. Thus if you leech life it will just make the building stronger, if you choose Rip it won't level up your Rip skills.

>>14078532
Would leeching people who damage the building repair it in the process?

>>14078532
Make our Building Stronger? How?

Also, did we rebind he brothers? Did we?

>>14078532
Ohhhhhh. Leech is probably the better option then. Once the building has power, have we any way to use that? Maybe tap into it in times of emergency? Or something

A blast of lightning for intruders.

>>14078556
It would depend on how much they damaged it but basically yes.

>>14078532
>The offensive spell can be anything you want

How about a subtle soul-draining effect that affects anyone we choose, living or dead, who enters the premises and transfers it to us, aiding our chess playing ability over time?

Well then leech those who mean harm! It incapacitates them, and at the same time helps to repair any damage they caused.

>>14078563
Yes. At the moment I'm going under the assumption that you rebind your current untrustworthy ghosts (the two O'Learys and Pitt) every morning until you decide what to do with them or have no further need of them.

_________________ALERT__________________
Your Wolfclaw knuckleduster begins speaking to you from your inside pocket where you keep it. Nobody can hear it except for you. It seems to be asking to be used, almost plaintively.

Eventually you begin hearing clearing words in your head. "Warum gehst du nicht immer verwenden mich? Ich bin so gut in Menschen verletzen. Gib mir eine Chance und ich werde es Ihnen beweisen. Ich werde es regen Blut!"

>>14078365

You know, we could take a trip to the Green Wood cemetery. It's one of the primo cemeteries in the area. Lots of famous deceased there, and lots of people with money. We might meet a ghost that was a higher-up in Chinese society that we could help out, like we did with the Jews.

Got to play to our strengths here.

>>14078600
If we have the capacity to recharge knuckledusters now, perhaps we should setup an underground gambling operation where citizens of the city can place bets on our mystically-enhanced fighters.

>>14078651

The werewolf knuckle dusters are different from the Chinese dusters.

>>14078600
Do we have anyone that needs to get taught a lesson?
Because I think Hendy just volunteered his services.

>>14078616
Or some underlings so we know their strength so we can crush them when we need to. But yeah, go ghost hunting for chinks.

Anyway, shut that german up. We are not raining blood anywhere, pally.

>>14078616
Seconding this. Let's look for some venerable chinese ghosts if the live ones won't play ball.

>>14078600
As far as I understand the knuckles are asking why we haven't used him yet and asks us to give it a chance. It says that it is good at killing people or something.

Anyway, tell it to shut up and that we will use it when the time comes.

_____ALERT______

Your search for someone in the Chinese organisation who'll meet and talk with you has finally paid off.

Lee Fu-Ying is a lieutenant for the Chinese in these neighbourhoods and unlike a lot of the higher ups for their organisation, he was born in the US and doesn't seem to be as averse to working with people outside of his culture as the rest of his people.

He's suggested that you meet at a restaurant in neutral territory, with just you two - no underlings.

Accept?

>>14078600
Oh, yes, Ghost Whipping. Nice. A dog should learn it's master's whip.

>>14078668
SHIZEN

>>14078725
Agree. Have Randy nearby, and have Chandler scope it out beforehand and keep and eye out for ambushes during the meeting.

>>14078725
Sure, but we bring in Chandler anyway. Scout the location. Also, Chinese/werewolf knuckleduster, and Gun. Then we meet him.

>>14078746

Yeah, Randy'll be your driver and will stay with the car unless you need him. Chandler will do his thing and make sure the restaurant is secure before you enter.

>>14078725
Accept, but have Chandler scout the location beforehand to ensure it's not a trap.

>>14078764

Keep the wereduster handy as a personal defense weapon, and have the Chinese duster with you to show to Fu-Ying and ask his opinion on.

Yeah, bring both sets of knuckle dusters with us.

We're relying on Chandler a lot.

>>14078797

Which is why we took steps to assure him that his brothers are not going to want for anything.

Wednesday evening arrives and Randy drives you up to the restaurant. It's almost a joke, a black man and a chinese man meeting in an Italian restaurant but it'll do.

Randy drives slowly while Chandler goes ahead and to scout the lay of the land for you. When you arrive Randy pulls right up to the doors and Chandler *pops* up right in front of you. This is the first time you've ever seen a ghost do that.

"It seems to be clear. There aren't any other customers in there, it seems that guy rented out the whole place for just you two tonight. He's sitting there alone at a table in the center with a cup of coffee and a newspaper. There's one waiter and one chef as well in the building."

"He's got two guys in the building across the road as back up but that seems to be it. They're playing some sort of chinese boardgame with each other and don't seem like they're planning an attack. I can let you know the moment they begin to move."

Go in?

>>14078863
Yep. Lets go meet this bold chink. Seems like we can use him - or the other way around.

>>14078884

Mutually beneficial interactions are what we're shooting for right now. A normalization of relations and establishment of common ground are the minimum we should leave with. Getting information on the knuckle duster is important too, but if it can't be swung at this meeting then it will just have to wait.

You get inside and the waiter seems to cover the ground between you in a brisk walk.

"Welcome, welcome sir!" he says, waving the hand behind him presenting the large room behind him.

He walks you over to a table in the center occupied by Lee Fu-Ying. Lee folds the newspaper he's reading and sets it down on a table away from the one you're sitting at.

"Good to meet you Mr. Duke," he says as he stands up and extends his right hand to you.

He makes polite chitchat with you as you both order your food, and it becomes clear that he's waiting for you to set the tone of the meeting and what you'll talk about.

>>14078910
Oh yeah, we need to fix the Old Amigo, but I'm just saying we could use a forward thinking guy in our group, even if he is a chink, and I'm sure he's looking to use our new-comer status to his own ends. We need to see if we can use each other properly so we come out ahead together, and friendlier for it.

>>14078950
"You wouldn't believe the trouble I had finding someone to talk to." Smile and laugh.


See how he reacts.

>>14078950
Toss the knuckle duster on the table. "Know who made this?"

>>14078950
"Well I must thank you for meeting me. It seems I've done something to dissatisfy your brothers. I know about the two men you have across the street. Don't worry, they're in no danger from me. I have a man on the street as well. Now that we know each other a little bit better, let's discuss business."

Offer him a cigarette. "I've recently come into some real estate. I'm assuming you knew, or at least knew of, the former occupant. I don't know any relationships that he had with your people or anyone else. His days are in the past. And from what I hear, his days weren't the most pleasant. I'm a different man, from dear departed Mr. Pitt. I'm not a monster, or a tyrant. I am a business man. And violence, war, is no good for our businesses." Motion between the both of us. "I'm not looking to step on anybody's toes, or take what's not due. And I'd like for people to offer me the same respect."

>>14078950
Find out if he plays chess.

Over the course of the meal, inform him that our goal with this meeting is to ensure a peaceful business relationship with our Chinese counterparts in the city, *whoever* that may be.

Find out if there are any favors he would desire from us.

>>14078993
That's secondary to our purpose here.

>>14078993
too soon, we need to establish peaceful relations with the china men first, then that opens up the possibility of getting good info on the knuckle duster

>>14078950

Duke's been pretty straightforward in other dealings.

"Lee, let me lay it on the line. I wanted to talk to you because I want to be able to be a good neighbor. I don't want to blunder into Chinese business accidentally, and the easiest way for us to be good neighbors is if we can talk and establish where the fence lines are.

"I'd also like some advice on an exotic item one of my men ran afoul of; if you know anyone that might be able to help I'd be willing to return the favor."

>>14079016
Agreed. If the meeting goes well, ask about it near the end.

Well talk about how you want to have better relations with the Chinese but couldn't find anyone willing to talk.
You hope that you will breach the trust between our groups with this man.

In the process of talking you might want to bring up Old Amigo ... but only depending on the mood of the meeting. Might not be the best time to bring this up if things don't go exactly as planned.

Ask him about the big Chinese players, only the ones that can be mentioned to the outsiders of course (if he is willing to talk).
And if he might facilitate meetings between them so that you can come to mutual accord.

>>14079084
Asking him to set up a meeting between us and someone higher up before relations improve would probably result with him ending up in the river minus a head.

Ask him if he is willing to play a game of chess...

... or if he might teach the other Chinese board game that they are playing.

(of course, suggest this only if you feel that the atmosphere is right)

Lee smiles broadly when you mention what trouble you've been having trying to get someone to talk to him.

"I'm not surprised, even if you did find someone interested in talking with you you'd probably find it difficult since you don't speak Mandarin and they don't speak English. My bosses are the kind of guys that can go for months without seeing someone who isn't Chinese," he explains.

He looks a bit surprised when you mention that you know he has two guys across the road but the fact that you tell him up front that you know that, as well as that you have your own man in a car nearby assures him that you're only here to talk. You earn a little trust from him, personally.

"I understand your situation. So let me lay out for you how my people see things."

"A decade ago it was just us and the Jews and it was all good. Then prohibition came into action and suddenly huge amounts of money began changing hands and everyone has a wonderful time until suddenly that Pitt guy comes out of nowhere and begins waging war on both us and the Jews to gain territory. Then it's a dangerous peace for almost five years until you turn up and pretty much wipe out his whole organisation in a night."

"Now my bosses are wondering, who is this man? Where does his power come from? How did he kill Pitt? Is the whole Outfit from Harlem trying to move in to our territory and expand?"

"You have to understand that whether it's Pitt, or whether you or the Jews, we're not going to do any more backing down. We're ready for anything that you bring us."

Lee shrugs. "That's how my bosses see it and they're pretty much convinced that it's only a matter of time before you attack us."

>>14079170
Reassure him.

>>14079042

Also, let him know you're the kind of guy who can help out with, ahem, 'problems'. But said in a way that doesn't imply Duke thinks they're weak. Try and make some connections.

>>14079170
Think we could find a Chinese ghost to translate for us (discreetly, of course) for future meetings?

>>14079170
Smile at him, chew on a cigarette. "They may be right. Maybe in the future, their territory will look appealing. Maybe we'll think we're strong enough to muscle you all out.

But that'd be foolish. Like I said, war's no good for business. I took Pitt out fast because I had to. If it wasn't quick, it would have been costly. Men, money, loyalty of the people. They don't buy your booze and fuck your girls when their brothers are getting killed by stray gunfire.

Nah, we're not looking to expand into your territories. Pitt was on his own. He was small time. He was a tough mother fucker, but he wasn't the kind of man with lots of friends. You and your kind, you've got friends. The Jews, they've got friends. The Italians, too. Even we have our friends. The math is all there.

Pitt's territory is mine. For now at least. In a year or two, maybe it will belong to someone else in my organization, and I'll be off somewhere else. And if this territory is held by someone else in the future, I don't know how kindly and loyal they'd be. I don't know what kind of deal could be made with him.

Because let me tell you the truth Lee. I am an honorable man. I make a deal, I keep a deal. You can't afford to burn bridges. You can't afford to be like Pitt. And I'm also a strong man. I can be killed, yes. I'm not claiming to be Hercules, but I am not one to be messed with. Because even if I died, I would be sure not to go quietly."

cont.

>>14079170
"While I do have an obligation to the Outfit to maintain our presence in this territory, my methods are entirely at my discretion. I'm here to play the long game, and I see no immediate reason to bring war to your people."

"A proposition: Perhaps we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement."

>>14079170

Yeah, I can see how it would be alarming from an outside point of view. Well, we can start by pointing out that we didn't accomplish the take-down alone: some of the Jews that Pitt killed helped us, and satisfied their desire for revenge in the process. Our powers are similar to Pitt's but we're more willing to look at all options. Modern hardware doesn't phase us, but Pitt was old enough that he didn't really plan all that well for it. In his day they used matchlocks.

We moved on Pitt specifically because he was being an ass, and in addition to his overt moves against us was going to make a heap of trouble for everyone. We had to take him out before he moved, so it had to be done quickly. You can't speak for your boss, but you have no plans to wage the sorts of wars Pitt did. It all comes down to being a good neighbor.

>>14079254
"Now, I've already spoken to the Jews, and things are going well. I have nothing official with them as of now, but it's only a matter of time. I'm telling you this as a risk. I'm sure you and yours could do something to muck that up. But what good would that do? Trying to cause a war between all of us? The lines here are slowly forming. And they won't be moving any time soon. I'm here, Mr. Lee. And I won't be pushed back neither.

I'd like to come to some sort of agreement with your people. I'm not asking for much. I have no desire for your land, your businesses. I have my own. My friends have their own, and they're doing well for us. As I'm sure yours are doing for you.

No, I'd like for all of us to come to an understanding. The same thing I said earlier. War is bad for business. We can thrive here in this city together, side by side. Or we can fight each other until the streets are red with blood, and there's not enough money left to wipe what's left of our asses."

Drink a sip of water. "Now, I mean no disrespect to you, and I appreciate greatly you coming to meet with me, but I'd like to speak to someone higher up in your organization. I understand how difficult a request this is, what with me being a mysterious figure, and untrustworthy to your uncles, or fathers, or whatever your superiors call themselves. And I understand that you bringing this suggestion to them can be dangerous for you as well. And I leave it entirely up to you. You can leave now, and we can go our separate ways, and hope for a peaceful meeting in the future, and pray that we don't end up with blades to each other's throats. Or, we can shake hands, and hope for a better future between us."

Put out our cigarette. "What do you say, Lee?"

>>14078017
I know I'm a little late here but thanks!

>Jesus Christ, you guys really went to town. Give me a sec to write response.

>>14079333

Lee's about the best we can hope for until we learn how to speak Mandarin, that much is clear. If there's something to be said between us and the higher-ups in his organization, he'll be the relay and filter. And that suits me fine, he seems very reasonable.

>>14079254
>>14079333

>>14079382
I wrote that in two parts, if the links were confusing.

>>14079397
That's exactly what I was thinking. If he can convince someone to meet, then he could stay as an interpreter. For their side, it would provide them easy access to kill him as well if things went sour.

>>14079397
We should bind a chinese ghost as soon as possible and use it as a translator.

Preferably one that had connections to their organization in life.

Any future negotiations we have will be enhanced by our ability to learn Mandarin surprisingly quickly.

Not related to the topic at hand, but we're having way too little progress in our skills. Grab a few hobos and crackheads off the street, put them in a room in the wessler building basement and use them to practice our powers (ripping and leeching mostly). We could swap them out regularly if we tend to overwork them, or we could get enough and simply rotate between them.
We need to improve our magic abilities to match (or even exceed) the expectations our enemies have on us after we took down Pitt.

>>14079421
Perhaps make an amulet from the spirit of someone low-level in their organization that might aid our ability to speak with them.

>>14079477
2nd

we need also ways to level up our summoning and biding.

You take some time to think about Lee and his people's position as the food arrives. You politely put aside business and get to know Lee as you eat the food, and only once the food is finished do you return to talking about business.

You offer him a cigarette and he takes it, and you light it up for him as well as yourself as you smoke.

And then you begin laying some truths down for him. He listens closely and more accurately than any with any truth spell, he can tell the conviction you have in every word you say.

"You impress me, Mr. Duke," he says. And quite suddenly he begins to transform.

The sharp and modern looking black suit that he's wearing begins to change into a formal Chinese outfit with a symbol of two dragons facing each other around the collars and the shoulders. His young face begins to lose some of its taut nature as he gains sagging cheeks and wrinkled lines across his forehead.

"I respect a man who doesn't try to play games, so I will be honest with you and tell you I'm not as junior in my organisation as I had you believe, " he smiles "it's true that some of my subordinates that I brought over from the homeland don't speak English but I learnt it the hard way when the Gwailo brought my people over to lay down railroads in this country," he continues with a certain southern twang to his voice.

He pauses as he tries to find the words to make things clear but not offend you at the same time.

"Pitt was the kind of man who we would make an agreement with but then go back on his word and attack us six months later. I'm not saying you are like him, truly I do not believe that, but I will need more surety than simply a bond of word or contract."

"If you truly want peace then we must exchange hostages. You give me one subordinate of yours who you value and trust absolutely, and I will give you one of mine. He will work for you like you were me and yours will do the same."

"Does that sit right with you?"

>>14079550
For how long?

>>14079577
For one year.

>>14079550
Ask if he knows a trick to make Old Amigo young, then offer Amigo as trade.

>>14079598

No, we shouldn't split up the amigos, and we shouldn't offer a crippled old man (or a man who was recently crippled but made whole using their knowledge) as our hostage.

Ask if they have an elementalist that Randy could train under. Randy's a steady guy, but his magic is just not our kind. He could benefit from tutelage under an elementalist, and if they have someone who could learn from our sort of magic then it might be a good fit on both sides. There's no reason the hostages can't benefit from this arrangement either.

>>14079598
Do this, then inform him that there is one condition to this exchange.

"I find myself interested in the board game your men are playing out back. If it is agreeable to you, we shall meet no less than once every three months, and discuss business as we play. I would be interested in playing Chess as well; there may be some things we can learn from one another."

>ooc: I'm assuming they're playing Go.

>>14079632
>
Ask if they have an elementalist that Randy could train under. Randy's a steady guy, but his magic is just not our kind. He could benefit from tutelage under an elementalist, and if they have someone who could learn from our sort of magic then it might be a good fit on both sides. There's no reason the hostages can't benefit from this arrangement either.

Seconding.

>>14079632
>Give up the pryo
Hellno. I say give him the Old Amigo. It was a Chinese curse that changed him, and we will come and visit because the old boy is a badass and a good friend of ours. Hope that doesn't rattle too many cages.

>>14079632
Oh shit yeah. If Randy could learn some secrets from the Far East, he would become a mighty magician.

>>14079550

I dunno ...

who is he going to give us?
Hopefully someone skilled who we can put to work.... but it might be a spy.

Anyway, ask him if Lee is his real name and what position he actually holds.

Breach the topic on Old Amigo and the knuckles.

As to who we can trade? ... I honestly have no idea. We need Randy and Jim... besides they would not make a good trade.
Besides them I don't even know who we could trade.

We should ask if our underlings, maybe there's someone who is a bit weaboo towards Chinese? (although I doubt it)
I hope this is not some kind of test. Where this guy is trying to see how much we value our men, and if we are willing to use them as trading material (ask him that)

>>14079669
If we do bring up the subject, >>14078993

>I hope this is not some kind of test. Where this guy is trying to see how much we value our men, and if we are willing to use them as trading material (ask him that)

Lee nods as he understands your hesitation.

"This is no trick. In my homeland where ancient houses feud for centuries and longer, it is not uncommon for these kinds of exchanges to occur. We have discovered that peace is more likely to last longer if both sides have a vested interest in maintaining it. I'm sure you understand why."

---
1) Offer the Old Amigo and try to have him healed.
2) Offer Randy and have him trained up to return even more badass in one year.

It's on or the other and I'm only counting votes from this post onwards.

Vote.

yes to the hostage but ask our would be hostage about it first(randy). Ask about the old amigos, show him the cursed knuckle duster(be careful when we take it out of our pocket we dont want to look like were pulling a gun)

>>14079669

Whoever we offer will help determine the value of who we get in return. I don't think Lee will screw us with an unequal exchange. I would keep in mind that the hostage we get will ultimately be loyal to them but the opposite is true for them and our hostage as well. It's a chance to learn, and we should pick someone who is bright and pretty valuable to us. Randy fits that bill. I don't like giving him up, but this is a good chance for him to expand his horizons.

>>14079700
I wish we hadn't modified the knuckles yet.
We might have locked out the possibility to restore Old Amigo.

Tell him we'll have to think on the swap and we'll give word to him in a week. If we do, I think Randy would be cool, if "Lee" has an elementalist who can teach him. We'd lose Randy and his skills for a year, but we'd have someone to replace him (probably not with the same skills, but hopefully something cool), and when he got back he'd be more experienced, and it would foster good things between our parties.

Ask him about the knuckle dusters.

>>14079707
Old Amigo. And bring up the subject of whoever made the Chinese Knuckleduster.

>>14079726
You modified a different set of knuckles.

JUST TO MAKE CLEAR: THERE ARE TWO KNUCKLEDUSTERS, THE DEPLETED CHINESE ONE AND THE WOLFCLAW ONE.

>>14079707

I vote for 2, and think that after we've made our pick we should broach the subject of fixing Old Amigo.

>>14079726
We have two sets of knuckles.

>>14079707
Give up the Old Amigo.

He's useless to us in a fight right now, and if we can have him healed he will be even more loyal to us.

We can have Randy trained later, after we have improved our relations with the Chinese.

>>14079707
Randy.

But bring up the Old Amigo too.
If necessary have him go with Randy, do not ask another hostage from Lee for Amigo.
Tell them you want him healed, give the knuckles if necessary.

>>14079730

A week is way too long, there's not too much to this anyway. It's an agreement to trade two subordinates for a year, not some negotiation of merging interests entirely.

Agree for sending Randy. Make sure he's sending someone in return. Tell Randy to keep his eyes and ears open and learn whatever he can.

Then ask about the dusters and the old amigo.

>inb4 Randy returns as a kung fu expert with super fire powers

Whoever we send, we should grant them an amulet with a bound spirit as in >>14079487 so they can understand any conversations happening around them, and instruct them that we will be requesting updates on their status from time to time through Chandler. It would be in our interest to have a functional spy within their organization.

4 votes for Randy, 2 votes for Old Amigo.

> Next Post: conclusion to these talks.

>>14079739
>>14079751
Oh, sorry
I did not know that.

>>14079758
(Continuing on this)
Randy is a good option not only because he would learn new shit but also it will show how serious we are.
We are giving on of the best quality underling we have, Lee is bound to appreciate that. If we give an old man (who doesn't even have skills fitting his visual age) we might make a bad impression.

But be sure to ask specifics of this deal. Can the hostages visit their territory to see their friends/relatives? How often?
What will happen to Randy, will he need to follow someones orders?

Make sure to tell him that you will not like if they treat Randy badly.

>>14079809
>Make sure to tell him that you will not like if they treat Randy badly.

That's the whole point of having a hostage. If Duke does something beyond the pale, they have collateral at hand.

"You agree?" Lee asks "Excellent."

He moves his hands through the air and wherever his palm goes trails of yellow sparkles are left behind.

You're not quite sure what he's doing but soon enough you see that he's used his magic to draw a map in the air.

You continue talking and soon enough you come up with a solid boundary between your territory and his, and agree to being peaceful towards each other.

"To ratify this agreement, send me your subordinate to my offices on Monday morning, and I shall send you mine."

Once you're done with the main talks you bring up the matter of the Chinese knuckleduster, cagily asking him what could be done to reverse such a condition without revealing that it happened to one of your men. Lee nods sagely, "I see. In fact I recognise that knuckleduster. It's the kind of vicious trap that Cantonese bastards send each other as gifts. I'm sorry but there is no recourse from this kind of curse. Once it has happened that stolen youth is gone permanently. The best you can do is help whoever this happened to gain strength in their current form. I'm sorry I could not be more help."

He shakes your hand and concludes the meeting.

You let him leave first and exit a few minutes later, heading to a different direction.

>>14079887

Hey Randy, you like Chinese food?

Overall, I'd say that meeting went very well.

>>14079835
Well...
I meant that they treat him fairly when the relations are good. Like their own.

Also, I am against bugging him with "wire-amulets" and shit. They would notice.

>>14079809
Specifics:
- 1 hostage for 1 hostage
- The hostages will act like underlings follow your orders.
- The hostages will be restricted to the territory they've been sent to for the duration, except for meetings with their bosses once every 3 months in neutral territory where both sets of hostages and bosses will be present to make sure everything is fine.

That's about it unless you have some other question about the hostage deal.

>>14079917
Nope. LET'S CONTINUE ON!

And this is as decent stopping place as any.

That's it for the night guys.

How did we do? Did you have fun? Did the new format of weekly updates along with alerts/opportunites/minefields you have to navigate work for you?

Give me your thoughts.

>>14079887
Well, damn. Do we have any circus strongmen in our grimorie? (for old amigo's amulet of strength/vitality)

Oh and we're now archived: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14065396/

and here: http://archive.easymodo.net/cgi-board.pl/tg/thread/14065396

>>14079933
It was awesome.

Now I need to go to sleep.

>>14079933
Wish we had given the Old Amigo, but other then that, awesome. Less worrysome if you had said that we would auto-rebind, which I wonder if that'll raise our binding any, but other then that, damn good.

When are you thinking of running again?

>>14079933

I'm enjoying the new format, it seems to work pretty well.

>>14079937

It's not like being old is the end of Old Amigo's usefulness. It just means he'll need to improve in his new form, like Lee said. We should continue pursuing spells that will extend life, and should perhaps look into glamors that will let Old Amigo look younger (and let us look different because that's useful). In the meantime he'll get to run a club and spend time learning fighting techniques that don't rely on having a young and fit body. Like shooting, or judo.

>>14079993
Sweet dreams, sugartits.

>>14080004
Probably Wednesday evening or Thursday evening. I'll send out emails tomorrow once I know for sure. Send me an email if I don't already have yours so I can add you to the mailing list.

>>14080010
I'm not sure I ever clarified exactly how old Old Amigo is now. He's 60 years old. It's not like he's a decrepit about to die kind of old.

gah

cannot belieeeeeeeve i missed this again so much unrestrained badassity went down ;_;

>>14079933
I like the new setup, but I do like doing some day-to-day stuff. I understand it as we're now boss and need to solidify our holdings before we can walk around given out turkey's on thanksgiving to all the hood, but I hope we can do a few more walk-and-greets. And I was wondering about the age thing. Has he gained any experience, or just all the disadvantages of being old?

>>14081519
The pace will change from time to time depending on what's going on, but I know what you mean, I'll always include some day to day stuff.

He's still the same guy, he just aged a whole lot in a second or two. He'll be the brashest old man you ever saw.

And i'm back from Work.

Bloody hell, do you guys all have to be so goddamn Awesome?