Previous Threads:
Part I: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/13796767
Part II: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/13808265
Part III: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/13868014
Part IV: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/13892779
Part V: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/13928333
Part VI: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/13986169
Part VII: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/14065396
Part VIII: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/14114290
Part IX: http://archive.easymodo.ne/tg/thread/14384797
Part X: http://archive.easymodo.net/tg/thread/14461884

Skills:
-- Guns: All handguns, rifles, shotguns, 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.
-- Knowledge - Demons (Basic): Etiquette and some understanding of their realms.
-- Knowledge - Higher Circles: How to truly contain demons, angels and fairies once you know how to summon them.

Spells:
-- Summoning (Level 4): You can summon people up to 3 years dead, quickly and with a considerably small amount of energy.
-- Bind (Level 4) - You can bind a ghost to your cause for 30 days. You can also bind a ghost to items in a manner of ways, such as to a container (to imprison), or to an object like a weapon, talisman or article of clothing (in order for the item to gain magical characteristics).
-- Life Leech (Level 2): By gathering a non-magician's life essence to yourself, you may heal minor wounds, or if you're already healthy use it to become stronger, faster and more endurant. Your target feels extremely fatigued unless you moderate the amount.
-- Rip (Level 1): By forcing the soul of a living person from their body, you are able to keep the individual out of commision for 30 seconds.
-- Ghost Whip (Level 1): You can form a whip which causes great agony to ghosts three days old or less.

Personal Equipment:
-- (2) M1917 Colt Revolvers - Enchanted: A pair of handguns that never miss.
-- (1) 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 battle, a large set of transparent purple paws seem to envelop your fist and cause damage to your enemies.
-- (1) Strong Luck Charm: When wearing this strung lionbone pendant, things seem to go your way (i.e., when in battle, bullets seem to miss you and experienced melee fighters suddenly gain inner ear problems). The Luck of the Irish is yours.
-- (1) Medium Physical Protection Amulet - Enchanted: 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.
-- (1) Medium Astral Protection Bracelet - Enchanted: 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.
-- (1) Distraction Charm - Enchanted: This talisman 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 unordinary you will get noticed.
-- (1) Bottle of Happy Magic Juice: A high quality concoction that mystics use to power astral wanderings. It contains laudanum, rare chinese opium, and a dash of Ghost. You've got enough to keep a mind and soul high for a whole weekend.

Crew:
-- Randy (Elementalist: Fire Specialist) [AFK]: A dangerously cynical 17 year old kid who has assisted you loyally after you helped him kill the judge that sentenced his father to death. While you've taught him a bit of magical theory, he's not your kind, so he remains a low level elemental magician until he gets some real training. But boy can he set fire to shit. Currently in the company of the Chinese as a "hostage". Equipment - (1) Elemental Booster Stone and (1) Medium Physical Protection Amulet.
-- Big Jim (Deceased) - RIP
-- Chandler Raymonds (Super Spy): Once a punk kid set against you, the unbound ghost Chandler has become an amazingly proficient set of eyes and ears in exchange for the safety and prosperity of his living brothers. Of note is his rapid progress as an effective ghost, being able to manipulate the material world and travel at blinding speeds despite his limited time on the other side. Currenlty trying to train Abe Brandanowicz to be as effective.
-- Zombigo - your first undead ally. He has immense, inhuman strength, is practically invulnerable/indestructible but he is constantly deteriorating. The only thing keeping him alive are your necromantic powers. Every so often you have to push your power into him to make him 100%. Trying to heal him using Life will only destroy him. His eyes glow black.
-- Old Amigo - an underling cursed with old age, carries a variety of charms to boost his fitness and energy to that of a middle-aged man, as well as (1) MPPA . Runs a bar for you now.
-- Amigo Secundus (Loyalty Level 2). Has (1) MPPA. Has lost a lot of friends in a short period of time.

--continued--

-- Gerald Brokowitz, nephew of Lenny Brokowitz and a midlevel Jewish curse magician on his own right, currently running protection rackets for you and being the middle man between those who would find it too difficult to knuckle under a black man.
-- Ro: A Chinese healer and "hostage", who is currently receiving instruction in combat and medicine as her status as a Chinese woman prevents her from learning such skills in any other capacity. This has made her grateful, and although at first she wondered if your generousity was a strength or weakness, she's come to understand just how fearsome you can be.
-- An estimated 50 or so people directly under you, including Winston, Doc Green, and Sweet Johnson.

People of Note:
-- Papa: Once the power behind Harlem, Papa has since left such duties to Olukwele
-- Olukwele: Right hand man and heir apparent to Papa, Olukwele has secretly been running things since his boss' ascension.
-- The Bastard: Although he defers to Olukwele, the Bastard is technically on the same level, controlling all Papa's protection rackets in Harlem.
-- Louelle: Although she defers to Olukwele, Louelle is technically on the same level, controlling all Papa's prostitution rings in Harlem.
-- Khalazar: A contact in the Tertiary Nether Realm.
-- Alexander: Represents the Law in New York to the various mobs, gangs, outfits and associations. Respected, feared, and hated in various corners.
-- Councilman Troy: The power behind the scenes in the political realm of New York. Hates Alexander and has tried to recruit you into helping him kill the man. Somehow Troy has managed to reach his level of power without being a magician, which makes him even more scary to some.

That new and updated summary sheet was done by a very helpful and awesome anon who sort of put shit together for me while reading through the archives because he was interested in joining the quest.

That was very awesome of you! I probably won't dump all this info at the beginning of threads from now on because it's starting to be way too much but this is thread 11 so I thought one big time now might be useful that people can come back to.

And now I'll wait for people to show up.

Is the zombification its own power, or is it just a subset of Bind? If the former, what are the limitations of the current power level?

Speaking of which, how familiar is the general populace with magic? It seems like a lot of gangs and cops have some mage on retainer, but how widespread is that to the man on the street? Having a zombie ally makes that important suddenly.

Yoyoyo

>>14523363
At the moment it's a subset of Bind, but should you choose to make a study of the voodoo traditions that you've neglected (because ghosts, spirits, energy and summoning have been your passion) than it can become its own skill.

The general public is perfectly aware of magic, just not everyone has it.

where are we right now? what can we do?

HELL YES HARLEMQUEST!

Ok, talk again to Jim. Tell him we're sorry, if he wants anything speical, or stay around as a ghost or a zombie, or he just wants to continue.

Summon the FUCKERS that killed Jim and Zomiego. Talk to them, find out what happened. WHIP THE FUCK OUT OF THEM.

>>14523405
I'm just waiting for more people to show up, but here are where things stand:

You're in your inner sanctum, you've dealt with the spirits of Big Jim and Zombigo. Two days from now you'll give Jim the push that you think he deserves into the next realm and you've bound Zombigo's spirit to his corpse so he can hang around.

Waiting to be dealt with are the two corpses of the white men who attacked you from an office building while you were out doing your rounds.

FUCK YEAH HARLEM QUEST UP IN THIS BITCH

>>14523416
make it a prioraty to learn what magic they did, mindfuck magic that strong has me worried.

rolled 99 = 99

>>14523416
Seconded, so very hard. We can't let this shit stand. Ensure you'll have some time to yourself, then it's time for our specialty: Information-gathering and research. In this case, of the "rubber-hose cryptography" variety. They killed Jim and an Amigo. Go time.

rolled 42 = 42

>>14523351
You could put everything into an image and post that ... or put it into Pastebin or similar site and give a link.

>What do?

Obviously summon the fucking assasins. Ghost whip them for good measure and then bind them to gain information:
Who are they
who they work for
what their base of operation is (where they would retreat after the mission ended)
if they don't know who they work for, get as much of information as possible to determine how they got the contract.
ask them about their stealth powers
ask them if they have magical powers

We're meeting the chinks in a week? Make a note to ask them about that mindfuckery, atleast how to counter it.

>>14523424
Question those fucker's ghosts, and then, once we get the answers, whip the shit out of them. Beat them to fucking undeath.

And seriously, find out about Jim and what we can do for him.

Before we kick off just one more thing: One of you emailed asking about whether he could contribute some drawfagging and let me just make it really clear, the answer is YES! That would be awesome. Any of you who've got some artistic leanings and feel like giving up the goods are more than welcome to do so.

And it looks like we've got enough people to start so my next post will be a story post.

rolled 99 = 99

>>14523416
>Ok, talk again to Jim. Tell him we're sorry, if he wants anything speical, or stay around as a ghost or a zombie, or he just wants to continue.

He already told us that he want to move on....

...

But having another Ghost Homie would be nice. Since we told him to wait for two days before our power is full, I have an idea:
Lets have him hang out with Chandler. Tell Chandler to show all the cool shit about being a Ghost to Jim. Tell Chandler to try making Jim interested in protecting homies "from beyond"
But tell him to do it subtly and not too forcefully, in the end, we want Jim to make his own decision if he still want to go, then it is his call.

>>14523452
>>14523449
>>14523416
Wow, people are actually pissed about this. Consider that a testament to how good this quest is, Ellington.

>>14523485
I -thought- he would think on it, not just wait two days.

do you have to roll high to get your suggestion chosen?

You walk over to the white corpses and give them a couple of kicks, although the fact that they can't feel it does take away from the action. That'll change soon enough.

You go to two lesser circles and place the hairs of each white man into them and then summon the heinous villains who went after you and your men.

Moments later their ghostly forms begin to take shape as wisps of ether flow into each other, shaping limbs and torsos in front of you. This power over death excites you as it's done every time since you were an apprentice.

The two ghosts look at each other and then to you and seem to have the same "Oh fuck" reaction on their faces as they realise what's happening.

That's when you use your Ghost Whip. You don't even bother asking questions, you just put them to the torture. You use the core of energy in your body to wield multiheaded whips to choke and flagellate these scum.

Minutes, possibly tens of minutes pass and you can feel them begging for a chance to speak. But you don't relent.

They will pay.

And then...then what?

Harlem Quest?
>pic related

Then we ask them what they were doing. Who hired them. Why. Who where they? Ask all of this as calmly as possible and as friendly as possible.

Once they answer, continue beating the shit out of them until they die again from it.

>>14523509
As far as I remember he already gave his answer.

>>14523495
True. I am incredibly pissed.
Those were our Bros. I'm gonna miss Jim

And besides, we don't have enough muscle

Oh, Ellington, a question
I was absent during the last thread, but during the assassination I kept wondering why no one suggested to just aim blindly towards the window where the assassins are (first asking Chandler their whereabouts) when we were hiding behind the car. If the distance would exceed the range of our revolvers, I would suggest aiming slightly higher to have an "ark".

With 2 super-lucky guns and a powerful luck amulet I thought we would have had a chance.... or at least we could have /tried/

So would it have worked?

>>14523551
Ask the who sent them, what was cast on them, how to counter it and HOW DO THEY LIKE DAT GHOST WHIP NOW

rolled 50 = 50

>>14523584
Someone did suggest it. The luck enhancement has limits. We did something similar to that at closer range, and that worked, though.

>>14523584
I think it was because the amulet just didn't work like that. He said it'd give luck for close range shots, but an impossible ricochet shot is out of the question.

>>14523551
Answers. Who, how, why.

>>14523551
Bind them and...
see
>>14523450


Also, we need to brainstorm on what to do with them in future.
Bind them to an object?
Bind them and then bind them to their bodies (they will be loyal, right?) and use them as sentries. They were good with their sniper rifles, why let them go to waste?

OH FUCK YES!

Oh! Can we get Jim to whip them too? That'll make me feel better

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please stop hurting me!" sobs one of the white men. He falls to the ground when your ghost whip releases him, the queer effect of not making a sound as he falls into a wretched heap highlighting the unnatural nature of the situation.

"My name is John Van Dreyn."

"The two of us are part of a team the Dutch from Harlem sent down to ruin your attempt at extending your influence."

"The fact that we were losing to you in Harlem was bad enough, but for your Outfit to gain ground in a whole new place and make serious money from it? That's too much of a dishonour for our white pride. The blacks can't be allowed to get above themselves."

"Our job was to destabilise your operation, kill your men, your women and yourself if we could. Basically make it impossible for you to get anything done."

"I'm not a magician and neither is Ed here. We're just guns. Before we left Lower Harlem the Boss did some heavy duty blessings on us that made it impossible for us to be seen by anyone should we choose not to. I genuinely believe he called in a favour from an angel. That's all I know."

While John has been talking you've not been letting Ed off the hook. In fact you've been torturing Ed even more, turning the complete attention of your Ghost Whips on him. You start torturing John again while you think of some more questions. If you have any.

When we're done with them we should bind them to an object. No more souls for them, no siree.
Also what the hell happened with our friendly Welsh dragon dude? Don't we still have him locked in a closet somewhere? We really should let him go.

>>14523584
What >>14523600 said.

>>14523627
Nope, Jim ain't got the powers of the dark on his side. Although he has you on his side so he sort of does. You'll have to be content with being Jim's proxy.

>>14523551
bind them first, we want the truth.

Who are they? Who did they work for? How did they know whare we were? How did they do the mind fuck illusion(did they do it or did someone else cast it on them)? who sent them to attack us? Do they have any connection to the other attacks on our men? Who do they know to be our enemys or assisting them? Do they know anything else that could be useful?(weapons or money staches)

By the way, what's all this doing for our Ghost Whip power?

Their family. Who are their family.

We will do the right thing, we'll look after them, but...they won't know that.

>>14523591
>>14523600

Nah
I understand it could have not worked.
But I meant if we just tried once and then went on with the plan.
I'm just curious.

It is a very good thing that we managed to get these two, even with such heavy losses, we will get all the info we need. Otherwise we would have absolutely no info, AND our enemies would know about our awesome defenses.

Though I don't understand how they one-shotted our guys who had Medium Protection Amulets.
Yes, sniper rifles are powerful, but we had shot that guys in the doctor's at the beginning point-blank in the head. And he survived (though brain-damaged). And he had small protection amulet of bad quality.

I would have though our MPP would have saved us from one-shot deaths.

>>14523674
Their family isn't our concern. We won't be paying them off, and we won't be killing them. If they're uninvolved in this, they're not targets. This is still a business.

Every member of their gang though, is fucking dead.

AFTER the meeting with the Chinese.

Get all of the information we can out of them. Who drives the red truck. Names of everyone in the Dutch Gang they know. Their boss. Their safehouses. Their HQs. Their weapon caches. Their business. Dictate what they say to the third amigo and have him take notes.

Get all we can out of them. Whip them while we question them. Then, once we've asked all we can think of, bind them, and ask them if they lied about anything.

>>14523629
Alright, there were definitely four of these guys.

Lets find out who the two other fuckers are, where they are hiding and everything else possible.

Also, lets bind them. I don't want to have even a slightest doubt about their answers.

>>14523630
We promised the Jew Ghost Army we'd never let Pitt move on to the afterlife, or at least detain him for a while.

Could we bind a ghost to a pair of glasses to give us some manner of aura sight, or would it have to be the ghost of someone with that ability? In fact, we should probably figure out what Pitt's abilities were in life, so we can bind him well should we so choose.

>>14523697
Definitely. Good call on waiting until post-Chinese meeting, too. We can gather some intel first. Hell, find out if the Chinese have any way to block shit like they used.

>>14523715
That is deliciously brutal. Brutal as fuck.

Oh right these guys a part of a team.
We should kill the rest of that team, bind ghosts, take notes, gear up for war, talk with the Chinese and then curbstomp the Dutch. Literally.

>>14523697
We go, hat in hand to them. We bring them over to our side. We raise their kids in loving families that will learn that their fathers were fucking horrible people. We are a nice man. They're the ones the started this.

>>14523719
>bind a ghost to a pair of glasses to give us some manner of aura sight
I fully support this, if were lucky the glasses(we need to go buy some really classy ones for this) might act as a crude magic detection/identafication vision.

You bind both ghosts and they instantly turn into fawning sycophants unable to tell a lie.

You get the story out of them once again and it matches what they said the first time.

On top of that you gain vital information on safehouses, money and weapon stashes, and the defenses of the leadership back in Harlem. This is all solid information and should help Olukwele with the battle he's waging against this gang back in Harlem. In fact it might be the last wedge he needs to absolutely destroy them and gain almost complete control of Harlem. The rest of their sabotage team is back in Harlem holed up in a safe house, waiting for these two to return.

When you quiz them on exactly how they managed to get one shot kills despite the quality of the protection amulets on your underlings, they respond that their bullets weren't just regular bullets but had also been blessed by their Boss. I guess when angelic power is involved no amount of MPPA will make up for it.

What to do with these ghosts now?

1) Keep them around for a while and ghost whip them every day until you tire of them.
2) Destroy their souls by binding them to some piece of food and then feeding it to a rat.
3) Something else?

I love what we're doing with German immigrants. We should buy some more buildings and invest more heavily in the town for newcomers.

Any word on contacts in Germany for us to do some war profiteering?

It seems we are Denzel Washington in American Gangster,

>Imokaywiththis.jpg

>>14523719
>or would it have to be the ghost of someone with that ability

Yes.

>>14523770
>2) Destroy their souls by binding them to some piece of food and then feeding it to a rat.

Well, what are we waiting for?

>>14523770
Bind the ghosts to their sniper rifles. I think it'd be fitting. Contact the boss and tell him everything. Offer help if he needs it.

>>14523770
BIND THEM TO THEIR BODIES

COVER UP THEIR WOUNDS

GIVE THEM WEAPONS

GO KILL THEIR COMPATRIOTS

>>14523770
BIND ONE TO EACH LENS OF A PAIR OF GLASSES FOR AURA/GHOST/ILLUSION-PIERCING/INVISIBILITY-DETECTING SIGHT

>>14523782
lets use pitt for this

also, go strip the rifles of their angel blessed ammo if we run into a hostile demon this would be good to have

>>14523770
>2) Destroy their souls by binding them to some piece of food and then feeding it to a rat.
Nah

>3) Something else?
Lets keep them around.
We might need them for future, at least before Olukwele crushes the Dutch.


Please don't feed them to rats.
We can /AT LEAST/ bind them to their rifles and then give them to our best shots.

But /I/ think the best would be to make them in Zombies and use them as Cannon Fodder in the future.

As Pitt was an Elementalist, if I recall correctly, would Binding him to an Elemental Booster Stone, like the one Randy has, improve the boost the Stone gives to the wielder?

>what to do with the two snipers
I would prefer finagling it so that they continue contribute energy to the upkeep of Zomiga; though, I suppose, that is rather out of our league for now.

>>14523770
I like option 2. See if Olukwele's available to talk, and give him the intel. Express a desire to participate in the final push personally. Then send Chandler to investigate the safehouse these two told you about. Once you have that info, we can decide how best to hit the rest of his group.

1, then 2. And go see the boss, while being angry and wanting to personally kill these fucking dutch.

There just mooks, binding to anything wont be too useful.

>>14523821
Unless it's not.

Is it, boss Ellington?

Binding them to zombies might not be the best idea. Unusual cruelty of that magnitude might have some backlash. I'd make paperweights out of them, but they might at least be of some use if we fuse them with the rifles.
Also, we really need to get some decent muscle. We're kinda running low currently. We sent out word we're looking for more last time, right?
Also, Oppositions magic arsenal back in Harlem. If I recall correctly we got our hands on a thief last time... and we already have ghost spotters.

rolled 55 = 55

>>14523800
This
seconding this

>>14523821
he was also a powerful astral mage, he killed aunt whatshername from across the city when he detected snooping.

rolled 92 = 92

Oh guys, btw

We need to get some wicked shades for Zombrigo.
His eyes are bottomless voids, iirc

Also, could we in future when our power is higher make it so that our Zombies don't have black eyes?
I don't want them to freak put people.

>>14523821
We are not binding Pit. He is going to meditate FOREVER.

>>14523800

I am thirding this

>>14523872
Yeah, I like this. Have him focus in on himself for eternity. Maybe he'll see the error of his ways and become enlightened. Then we can always go and ask him for advice. Seeing as he'll be bound, he can't betray us.

>>14523872
>>14523821
No to both. We should be willing to send him on eventually. We went after him, remember. All he did himself was try to turn wine to water, and struck back at someone trying to spy on him. Evil dude, sure, but we should be willing to send him on eventually.

>>14523800
The summon their compatriots. Ghost whip them for five minutes.
Bind them. See if those two have any information that other two didn't.
Then bind them to their bodies.

Then we will have a squad of Zombie assassins.
How cool is that?

Heck, we might send them to aid Olukwele

>>14523889
>>14523872
Or at least while we don't have him doing anything else.

Yeah, when he's without other orders from us, he's to meditate non stop.

You drag the corpses over to their circles and you can see the ghosts starting to get fretful as they gain an idea of what you're about to do to them.

Once everything is in place you begin the process of rebinding them, this time to their own bodies as well as your will.

It happens even more slowly than when you were trying to do with your Amigo and the effect is disappointing when it's over.

The two zombies rise and you can see from their eyes that there's nothing there. There's none of the black glow that you saw in Zombigo. Only regular eyes, dilated and lackadaisical with stupidity. They stumble forward in their circles trying to get out, bashing against them with their undead strength but without any success.

They don't stop trying for quite a while as you think of what to do with them.

GAINED: RAISE ZOMBIE (LEVEL 1): Although you were amazingly successful in creating a smart zombie with your first attempt, creating Zombigo, it seemed that was luck more than anything else. With this new skill the best you can do is raise a mindless, violent zombie that is just as likely to attack you as anything else. They also depend on your energy and will rot and be destroyed the moment you release your hold on them.

--

You leave them locked up in their little cages for now. You go over to their rifles which you have laid out on a table. As you count the amount of ammunition, you're left with a count of 5. Five bullets with some kind of script written on the side, presumably part of the angelic blessing.

GAINED: Five Angel Infused Bullets.

--continued----

>>14523872
thats silly, we should use him for somthing useful not leave him to sulk and plot how to kill us

You contact Olukwele's social secretary by phone and she gives you a number from which you can call him.

The moment you hang up on her however the phone rings and as you pick it up you smile before you even hear that voice, knowing who it must be.

"You wish to speak to me, Duke?" you hear Olukwele ask.

Exactly what do you want to say to him?

>>14523935
He's dead and bound. He can't plot SHIT.

>>14523904
I don't want to zombify our enemies if we can help it, at least for now. They keep their consciousness, and I'm not quite sure how binding them to their bodies and binding them to our will might interact. We don't want our own trying to kill us. Save it for willing allies, and those who might WANT to help us.

I'd hope that our ghost whip ability would be gaining strength after all our use.

>>14523935
A ghost? Kill a necromancer?

Your dog may as well plot how to kill Cthulhu.

>>14523945

your unsubtle whining for a level up probably isn't helping as much as you think it is

>>14523940
Tell him we got information on the Dutch in Harlem and ask him where we can meet to tell him.

>>14523940
We need to inform him of all the information we've just been given, and let him know that if he needs anything he can ask. Be sure to make mention of all this talk of angels, as that's some potent shit.

>>14523901
the irish cop was a good but rude man looking to retrive a stolen relic for a unfortunate priest.

we killed him and destroyed his soul for a lucky pistol.

Why the fuck are we even thinking about letting Pitt pass on?

>>14523923
Sad_Frog.jpg

Can we at least drop them to Dutch territory so that they wreck havoc.

I guess we will have to practice a lot more before we can rise a good Zombie like Zombrigo.

Can we train on animals? Dogs and cats?

>Although you were amazingly successful in creating a smart zombie with your first attempt, creating Zombigo, it seemed that was luck more than anything else.

I think it has mostly to do with the fact that Amigo was a Willing Ghost, no?

>>14523964
>>14523958
1) Give the information over the phone now.
2) Say you must meet him and then tell him.

Vote.

>>14523958
>>14523964
Yeah. Give him information on the Dutch, their safehouses and caches, their leadership (as far as we know), what we suspect of their leaders' powers. And that they've got angels at their command, or at least did, so to be careful. Their blessed bullets ripped right through our protection amulets.

Don't tell him that we have those blessed bullets. Those are our little secret, and we'll keep them for special emergencies. I hate to say it, since we're absolutely loyal to Olukewele, but who knows what the future holds, and having 5 special bullets could come in handy.

Tell him we can help his soldiers if he requests, but we have a meeting with the Chinese coming up.

>>14523976
I figure also that since he was loyal and wanting to return to his body, it helped.

>>14523976
Shit. I didn't think you'd realise that so soon.

GAINED: RAISE ZOMBIE (LEVEL 2): You've come to discover that a willing ghost makes the difference between a smart useful zombie and a mindless wrecking ball. You can now create smart zombies that require less energy to maintain.

>>14523983
Ask him if he wants the information over the phone.

>>14523983
Tell him it's important information about the Dutch, and see whether he'd rather discuss it in person. I don't think tapped phones were a thing yet, but I'm not sure.

>>14523983
1
There is no reason to keep this man waiting. This is vital news, and the sooner he has it the sooner he can get under way. He doesn't seem like the type to screw us out of our due reward, and meeting in person just takes longer.

I don't suppose that Ripping the souls out of the zombies would allow us to Bind them to some other object, or do something else with their souls?

And give the information over the phone: the info is not that important to require a meeting.

>>14523940
"The Dutch tried to make a move on our operations. A pact with an angel allowed them to take down one of my men, but they've since learned the error of their ways."

>>14523992
Definitely ask if he wants it over the phone or in person first.

But don't tell him that we have some bullets. I like the idea of keeping that our secret.

We need to start training the last fit Amigo in the ways of business. With one of his buddies dead, another aged, and the last a zombie, he's gotta be feeling stressed. Make him realize we respect him. That we're interested in his success.

"If the information is vital, then I must know now," Olukwele replies.

At which point you start spilling the beans. He expresses his sympathy at the loss of your minions and then listens closely at what you found out.

You can almost hear how wide his smile gets over the phone.

"Duke, we are done with the Dutch scum." He must have put the phone down for a second because you can hear him hooting and praising divine beings you've never even heard of.

"You stay in the Financial District, I will deal with this personally. And I already knew about the Dutch and their wouldbe Cherubim allies. I have some ways to negate that advantage."

"Your men will be avenged, Duke. You have done well this night and should things go as I expect, your reward won't be long in arriving in the coming weeks."

Olukwele hangs up, presumably to organise a war party wipe out all the Dutch gangsters in Harlem in one foul swoop.

It's a good to be black.

>>14524014
This

We must make sure that no one can listen in. Afterwards we will determine if we do that in person or over the phone.


Then we must deal with their two buddies somehow before they realize what happened and relocate. Maybe Olukwele can help us with this (we lost 2 of our people and they have blessed bullets, better to be safe than sorry)

>>14524045
I know he hung up, but retroactively, can we ask for permission to take out the assassin's safehouse ourselves?

Relay everything about the Dutch to our boss, just leave out the failed zombie assassin plan.

>>14524045

>>14524045
set up a gambling ring for people to come and watch the two zombies beat the shit out of each other!

>>14524053
"I respect your wish to avenge your people," Olukwele responds, "But this is a request I must deny. I will be personally attacking all the Dutch tonight and I can't have my people in the way."

>>14524074
Zombie cockfights?

>>14524087
exactly.

So, just what do we gain from having Pitt meditate? The astral shades(we would obviously use sun glasses) sound a lot more usefull.

I don't think zombies will attack each other.

>>14524083
see
>>14524062

I, for one, don't envy the Dutch one little bit.

>>14524083
Perfectly fair enough. It wasn't about revenge, really, I just didn't want to give the others time to realize their partners were missing. If he's attacking tonight, then I'm fine.

>>14524087
Oh god damn. That is evil as fuck.

If we did that, it would have to be strictly high class. No low level thugs. High class, rich people. People who won't go off to the cops and ruin their reputation.

Because of course, we'll have photographs of everyone who attends.

High level bets. Lots of cash.

OH MAN I LOVE IT!

>>14524045
>It's a good to be black.

Indeed

Fucking Dutch will learn not to be fucking racists.


Okay, the other 2 assassins... what do we do with them?

I suggest sending in Chandler to their safe-house to investigate.

Then wait.

Wait till they make a move and get outside, since they will be driving their damn car, we can ask Chandler to mess with it while they ride. Make it gain speed while turning off its breaks.
They will eventually crash somewhere, where we will finish them off with all of our boys (and us)

>>14524098
how about it ellington?

>>14524111
The assassins are dead, Olukwele is taking care of everyone personally. Which means we can smoke a cigar, lay back and wait for the results.
Maybe visit some Germans. I like Germans. Can we sense magic potential in people?

>>14524110
Not an entirely bad notion, but only use people who've severely pissed us off. Forcible zombification is about the worst punishment we can inflict.

>>14524111
See >>14524083

I also have a question, can we rip the souls to destroy the failed zombies and still have the souls of the people we made the zombies with?

>>14524111

Damn I missed >>14524083

Lets have our Boss deal with this.

Now we go back to our regular duties.

Don't forget the meeting with Chinese.

Try to get more Holdings (by helping Germans, I guess)
Oh speaking of Germans, that other dude said that some of them wanted to meet us, yes?

Before we get too into the zombie field, we should wonder how Olukewele feels about it. Would we be a blight on the earth to him, if he found out what we're doing?

Ellington, does Duke know how Oluk feels about this?

>>14524140
Yeah, that's a fair point. Seems a bit blasphemous (or whatever), even to use our worst enemies.

>>14524098
Zombies will mindlessly attack anything in their field of instinct. Including other zombies. They will rip each other to pieces until either nothing is left or you're choose to release them.

>>14524126
Nope. Once bound to an object or body, there is no ripping.

WEEK 12
WARCHEST:
-- 92,000 dollars.
ASSETS:
-- Wessler Building
-- The Boom Boom Room (managed by Sweet Johnson)
-- Henry's (managed by the Old Amigo)
-- The Well Travelled Inn (managed by Sweet Johnson)
-- (12) Holdings.
-- (5) Rented Speakeasies (Unsegregated)
-- Net Profits Per Week: 15,750 dollars.
STATE OF PLAY:
-- Jews: Excellent.
-- Chinese: Peaceful.
-- Harlem: Feared and revered.

-----continue-----

>>14524127
Yeah. More Germans. More housing and business for them.

Let's meet with the young German mentioned to us, but after our Chinese meeting.

During our meeting with the Chinese, let's ask if they could help us to acquire some exotic animals. "Pets?" They'll ask. Something like that.

Reports are starting to come in from Harlem. It's an all Outfit territory now. No Opposition, No Dutch, the other small black gangs have been ingested by your people. After a night of unspeakable savagery that people can't quite seem to understand, the Dutch are completely out of there. People you trust have been telling you that Olukwele was seen to personally lead every attack on their bases, at the same time, and as difficult as you find that to believe you'll just have to assume that's true. At this point you're not quite sure what to believe.

Closer to home you've got other things on your plate.

This is the week of the meeting with the Chinese, at the same Italian restaurant that you met their leader in the last time.

As well as that you've got a meeting with some German "cousins" of Johan's wife who seem to want to get into the war profiteering business with you.

What else is on your agenda and what do you want to do first?

>>14524160
>what else

high-class betting ring on zombie cock-fights, organized by yours truly.

photographs taken on entry for blackmail purposes should someone decide to squeal.

>>14524160
Meet with the Chinese. Take with us Ro, the last amigo, and Sweet. Chandler of course comes, but remains on lookout. We aren't expecting an ambush or bushwhacking, so don't plan for one in return.

Meet with Johan's "Cousins" after the Chinese.

Make more purchases if we can. More tenements if there are any in the area we control. We need more room for immigrants, and even if the immigrants stop coming (not likely), we'll have plenty of room for our own boys.

>>14524160
Make some astral shades from Lord Pitt, and if we have time finish off that patrol of our germans area, firly sure we only started it before we were attacked.

>>14524182
We should only try something like that if we're pretty sure Olukewele won't blow his top.

And photographs would have to be taken in secret. If someone comes to something like this and knows their photo will be taken, they won't come.

Eh, meet with Chinese first. Tell Ro few days in advance.

Then meet the "cousins"

In meantime, try to get more Holdings or Tenements for more immigrants.

>>14524140
Yes, Duke knows.

Olukwele would probably think less of you but he wouldn't stop you. Not as long as you don't use black people. Olukwele is all about respect for black people and would probably destroy you if you used a black being in such a way. Which is why you made it very clear to him that Zombigo was willing and that he is in tip top shape and will only ever be treated with respect, even though at this point you could break his mind and order him to do heinous shit if you wanted.

>>14524160
With him, I can absolutely believe it. With the Dutch handled, that's the immediate threat out of the way. There are still long-term threats, though, so let's put our ghostly spies on Councilman Troy duty for a bit, but have them be careful. We don't know what kind of protections he's packing normally. If he detects them, we're in trouble.

For now, lets meet with the Chinese first, see how Randy's doing. Bring Ro along, let them see how well she's been treated, and how much she's learned.

>>14524182
we only have 2 zombies for now .... we will get only 1 fight out of them (unless we can spend energy restructing them)

Also, I don't see how we can make this high-class either.

>>14524199
Well, then let's not. It's hard to do on large-scale without using random corpses, and we want Olukwele to think highly of us.

>>14524199
Then Zombie Fights would be cool. But in order to keep in high standing with our boss, it won't be an every night kind of thing. They'll only be on special occasions.

When we have enough enemies to make the fights. IE, we have these two, so it's a special occasion. They fight.

There won't be another fight until we have some more enemies try and start shit with us. They'll be killed and a few zombified and fight for our entertainment and income.

I say we meet with the Chinese first, then move on to the German cousins. We need to see Randy and make damn sure he is being treated well.

Another thought. If a person has magic and we make them an intelligent zombie, do they still have their magic as a zombie?
There must be a skill that allows us to direct the mindless hoard or else there is little point in making zombies that low of a level. Sure they could be used as a distraction but only if you make them right there on the battle field and let them go at it. Would ghost whip work in gaining some control over where the zombies attack or just heal their bodies?

>>14524199
>Olukwele would probably think less of you but he wouldn't stop you.

Eh.... lets keep this to a minimum then.

>>14524199
just the whites then. perhaps they could serve as a dual warning. "mess with the blacks, and you'll definitely be BACK."

>>14524214
what this guy said

>>14524212
seconding.

>>14524230
>>14524214
Yes, this.

Zombie Fights are a rare occasion. When our enemies fuck with us and death alone isn't high enough a price to pay.

Making them rare increases the prestige. This makes it more likely that the wealthier sections of society will attend.

Taking photos of these people watching zombies fight will be great blackmail material in the future. A state senator is trying to hamper our business? Show him a photo of him standing next to a local pimp watching a zombie biting into another.

A real estate mogul doesn't want to sell a building or some land? Show him screaming at the top of his lungs for a zombie to FINISH HIM!

I so hope the young German is a failed artist with some funny ideas about race, but is amazingly vicious and not too shabby with controlling minds...

>>14524257
Hahaha, oh shit.

You've gained:

CONTACT - Adolph!

>>14524257

>>14524257
oh har har, it is to laugh. An ex-soldier with dreams of grandeur as well?

>>14524255
I REALLY don't think this will play out as you think it will.

I say we drop the Zombie cockfight idea altogether

>>14524278
Second

The day of your meeting with Lee Fu-Ying and his people approaches. You've given Ro several days warning to let her know and she doesn't seem surprised, as if she had the date already fixed in her mind.

You're driven to the restaurant, by Amigo Secundus, and as usual you wait in the car while Chandler and Abe travel around the immediate area to find out if anything is going on.

"It's just the two of them inside, boss," Chandler says "The old chinaman and Randy. The two bodyguards are still playing that chinese game across the road, just like last time. I guess some things don't change, huh?"

You step out of the car with Ro and enter the restaurant. Randy and Lee look up from their conversation with each other and see you.

It's strange, it's only been a few months since you saw Randy but he looks taller, it but more muscular too?

"Good to see you, Duke" Lee says. "As you can see, your young man here is in excellent shape." he jokes.

Let's not do zombie fights. But keep the idea in mind for possible future endeavors. I don't think we want to get low in Olukewele's mind. We've gained a lot of power and prestige in the past few months. Dude may think we're getting too big for our britches if we start doing things he disagrees with.

>>14524278
that's up to ellington, but it was only ever going to be a minor diversion anyway. If it could cause problems, then i guess we should just drop it.

speaking of dropping, if the cockfight is a no-no, we should collapse these useless and dangerous zombies and bury the bodies.

>>14524278
Third'd

>>14524257
All joking aside, how would he handle working for a black man? I doubt it would end well.

>>14524300
"And to you. And as we can all see," pull out her chair for her, "Our young lady Ro is doing excellently."

>>14524300
Looks like our boy been taken care of real good. Nice

>>14524309
He'd hide it at first, then flip his shit and try and start an insurrection.

... Sorry Ellington if this is what's going to happen.

"I trust you have been training his mind as well as his body. It would be a shame if some potential be squandered."

>>14524341
Exactly. Then we'd have to put him down. We should probably steer clear of changing history as much as we can.

Is anyone else's posting a bit patchy?
Also: what >>14524310 said
Then ask the guy how business is going.

You all sit down together, like civilised people, two blacks and two chinese in the center of New York City. What a world.

The food begins to arrive from the kitchen and Lee Fu-Ying talks to you. He's only nodded at his own underling and all his attention is on you. Clearly this is the section of proceedings where the heads talk to each other while the lessers relax.

"How are you finding business in the Financial District? Is it how you expected?"

>>14524367
Yeah, something's screwy with 4chan today. Not sure why.

>>14524300
Oh cool, I guess Randy is having a good time. I was worried before.

Well, lets catch up on things then. Talk to Randy see how he is doing.
Talk with Lee, maybe he has something interesting to tell us.

Hmm, it is a shame that we never learned the Chinese board game they were playing, we could have a friendly match (also, it seems we have dropped our chess practice..... Bad.)


....


OH SHIT!

I just remembered that we had hired the best, top-notch shape-shifting, super-awesome thief man-woman and decided that the best use of his/her power is to make her a waitress.
WHAT THE FUCK.

Remind me (or everyone else) after our meeting to give her/him a better task.

>>14524376
We didn't have a better task; that the fuck.

"Life he is as it is elsewhere, an opportunity. I trust we have proven to be good neighborers to live by?"

>>14524374
Take a sip of tea or whatever we have. "It's tiring, that's a certainty. But it comes with it's own rewards. A few troubles, but nothing we haven't been able to handle. There is one thing that could become a problem for others (councilman Troy), but that will have to wait for another day to discuss.

And how are you and yours?"

>>14524374
"It's been... Interesting. There have been a few speedbumps. Some old friends who weren't too happy with our new situation. They've been handled. Other than that, things have been going as well as can be expected."

Maybe we should also see what they know about Alex and Troy. They've been around longer, so they may have some insights.

>>14524401
*here
fuck my spelling...

>>14524410
I don't understands these parentheses, are you mentioning his name or not?

1) Bring up Alex and Troy like this guy (>>14524415) suggested
2) Or not

>>14524374
"It has proven fruitful, and... interesting. However, things seem to be calming down now, and some investments are really starting to pay off. How are things at your end, had any problems lately?"

>>14524415
>>14524401
>>14524410

All of these. Mention we've had troubles we've dealt with. Ask if we're being hospitable neighbors. HINT, only hint, at problems to come with Troy and Alexander.

>>14524423
The parenthesis was meant to let the other players know what I was talking about. His name wasn't said. Just mentioned that there was someone or thing that could prove to be a problem in the future. We don't know what the Chinese think of Troy or Alexander. We can't be too open about that so early. We need to feel around first.

>>14524423
I say go with 1. As he said, they have been here longer and might have some dealings with them that are ongoing. Be a shame to toe a line we don't know about.

>>14524423
Mention Troy and Alexander. Don't say which side we're leaning toward. Just say that things are becoming complicated between the two of them.

Did we ever mention to Olukewele about the deal with Councilman Troy trying wanting to kill Alexander?

>>14524475
Yes, he said to never go against Alexander and that no matter how much he likes us, he will not help if he comes down on us like avenging angel (we had speculated that Alexander is an angel after that)


Well, ask Lee ho he has been doing.

A few pleasantries and some genuine facts about how business in the District is going and you start to edge your way towards mentioned the matter of Councilman Troy when Lee interrupts you.

"Councilman Troy is what you mean, yes?" Lee's face distorts into a mask of distaste.

"The man is a snake." he mimes the motion of spitting over his left shoulder, "No, that is an insult to snakes for they are honourable descendants of divine dragons, no, he is a scorpion for which I have no time."

"Tell me you have not been so foolish as to enter into bed with this man?"

>>14524497
I think the bigger theory was that he might be Alexander The Great.

>>14524497
We also speculated that Alexander is THE Alexander.
The only things I don't like about such speculations are that they give GM ideas. No hole is as deep as the one you dig for yourself.

>>14524497
That'll be fine. No way in hell I'm trusting Troy enough to side with him. Dude's clearly psychotic. Batman-threw-him-in-a-vat-of-acid psychotic.

>>14524506
"Would not trust him with shining our shoes, let alone work with him."

>>14524506
"I've been trying to avoid that. He seems like he would make a powerful enemy, but as an ally... With allies like that, you don't need enemies."

>>14524506
Smile politely and shake your head, saying as honest and hardworking as he seems (take a moment to share a laugh) you decided he'd be bad news.

Then maybe ask them for more information on him?

>>14524506
"I find myself in a tenuous position, Mr. Lee. I'm young. I'm new here, and though I have powerful friends, I stand on my own for the time being. This Troy, I'd never even heard of him until recently. Alexander though, his name carries weight. And with that weight, fear and respect. No man should be foolish enough to step against him. And this is what worries me about Troy. He's a complete mystery still, and he wants Alexander dead. Maybe he simply plans to get all us dumb thugs to fight his war for him. I don't know. But that's what I need to find out.

I've told him I'd be willing to stand at his side. But I've come to the same conclusion as you. He is a snake. Even worse, one with two heads, all the better to bite his enemies in the front, and his 'friends' in the back at once. No, I do not stand with him. Though he may think I will, he will find himself surprised."

Hopefully our Chinese friend doesn't think Duke to be so treacherous because of this.

>>14524506
"I dance near enough to his line for now, until we know more. I don't trust him in the least, however. Even if his motives could be trusted, he's unstable. Instability is bad for business, and worse for honor. I do wish to know more about him, though, that the day we can free ourselves from his game might come sooner."

>>14524551

>I've told him I'd be willing to stand at his side
I don't think we ever told that.

Speculate that maybe Troy want to get us out of the picture.

>>14524551
>>14524579
Yeah, you're right. That should be something like;

"He may assume I'll be at his side, and then stand blindly as he stabs me in the back, but blah blah blah, he'll be surprised."

"Wise choice," Lee states with relief. Relief, you wonder? What would he have done if he actually thought you worked with Troy.

Whatsmore you wonder exactly how Troy gets away with being such a blatant scorpion if everyone knows what he's like.

"Let me tell you a story about Troy," the old chinese man mutters between bites of food.

"6 years ago he comes to me and promises me that for 200,000 he can have the law changed so that more of my people can freely enter this city. I am used to corruption so I think nothing of it, I pay him half up front and promise to pay the second half when the deal is done.

Months pass and what happens? He makes small moves but nothing changes. I get in touch demanding either he do something or give me my money back on pain of death. I swore that I'd have all my people declare an oath of vengeance on him.

What happens then? Well...somehow a powerful man named Lord Pitt is manipulated into making a base for himself in the Financial District rather than anywhere else. It seems he was SOMEHOW he informed that the place was ripe for the taking. And we all know how things progressed from there."

Lee is almost visibly shaking with anger at the thought of Councilman Troy.

"Make no firm deal with that man and expect treachery at every turn, it's the only advice I have."

>>14524612
Interesting. I don't think Pitt ever mentioned that part. Didn't he say he'd never met with the guy?

>>14524612
So. Our good councilman is very, very, VERY powerful. To piss off the Chinese, plot against Alexander and pull of god knows what kind of other shit and not get bushwhacked by an invisible sniper shooting blessed bullets...
I don't like this one bit.

>>14524629
from the sounds of it Troy has great connections and knows how to use them, he no doubt had a minion or proxy arange it.

>>14524629

yeah but someone can still be manipulated by someone without ever having met them. e.g. receive information from a trusted source, bribed by a middle man, promised support by another middle man, whatever. troy scares me more than all these other magicians. he's more of a threat to our sweet position than anything else

Don't need to talk to someone face to face to spread rumors about someplace. I have a feeling that the Dutch where getting information where to hit us from "our good friend."

>>14524612
Nod and enjoy our food. Summon Chandler to us and make sure that there's no one here who's not supposed to be, then say, "He is a problem that must be dealt with. Swiftly, perhaps better than not. Wanting to wage war with Alexander is a death sentence. But still, that troubles me. And even more so than that, the ability that Troy has, or rather doesn't appear to have, to negate any . . . advantages that we may have. I assume you know of what I speak?" Eat some more food. "He'll shake things up. I don't know for a fact if he has anyone going along with his ploy, but I'm sure there's bound to be people desperate and stupid enough to. That will be extremely bad for business. For all of us. Alexander will lash out against Troy. Against anyone he's done business with. Against anyone he thinks he's done business with. One hundred thousand dollars from you to him, even if it was stolen away with false promises, won't look good. Neither will my appearances to cozy up to him. And so we both find ourselves with the same problem." MORE TEA. "And perhaps the same solution. I wonder, my neighbor, do you know how we can get into contact with our Mr. Alexander?"

>>14524629
They never met, it pretty much happened like (>>14524659) said.

>>14523351

Ellington, try copying all the information into an image file and upload it along with one of the opening posts? That way we anons can just open it up and browse easily.

>>14524680
Blacks, Chinese, possibly the Jews, and Alexander all hitting Troy. That'll take that fucker out.

>>14524659
Possibly. The Chinese might also be playing us, trying to pit us against Troy. One of us is out of the picture afterward if we make a move. Either way, they benefit. That's just a possibility, though.

Either way, it seems we should side with Alex in this. Olukwele respects his power, at the very least, and the Chinese either hate Troy, or they just wouldn't mind seeing him removed. So far, Troy seems to have no allies. Actually, that worries me. We need to find out how he has so much power and influence if nobody likes or trusts him. He must have minions somewhere, find them. The Italians and Irish, maybe?

>>14524728
He's definitely got something somewhere that no one knows about. And THAT is what is so troubling.

Shit. What if Troy is immune to all this because he is, in turn, being maniupulated by *something*? Something to be able to piss off medium to strong powers willy nilly, and manipulate expert magicians when the need calls for it.


This is a man we shouldn't sneeze in his general direction of without the say so of our boss man...

But we can't seem phased in front of our friends, can we? Just smile and nod like you're finding it interesting.

>>14524705
You can't wage a street war on a man like that. He either needs to die from "natural" causes or he must lose his credibility and support first. Even an assassination would be major bad news in my opinion.

>>14524680
>MORE TEA

God help me I laughed.

I vote we end this topic line and get to talking with Randy, seems like he should know about the loss of Big Jim(Don't tell about Zombigo, yet) just anything to clear the air of this foul topic so that it can be handled in a more secure location.

Oh, also, I suspected that Troy's usage of magic negating artifacts might not be what it seems at first glance.

I think he might have powerful magic in him, so powerful that it is impossible or hard to conceal. So he uses magic null areas so that people can't get more information about him.


Also, I will be leaving for now. Need to sleep.
Please consider >>14524376

I wanted to suggest to set up a Spy network. We would have the starting grounds for 2 types of Spy networks: Ghost Spies and Physical Spies. They could work together.
The Ghosts would be lead by Chandler (for now we have only 2 willing ghosts)

The other one would have our Thief girl/man as the leader.
This one should focus on having more spies with more "social" aspects. i.e. people who can get information from other people by talking with them (basically suave James Bonds).
We will give our Thief permission to select several promising people from our people to train. We will give financial support as well, if needed.

Their base of operations could be in the central financial building we use for ourself.

Good night, fellow gentlemen

>>14524752
It wouldn't need to be a street war. This is a lot of people, with a lot of resources.

>>14524770
>I think he might have powerful magic in him, so powerful that it is impossible or hard to conceal. So he uses magic null areas so that people can't get more information about him.

Oh shit. That is terrifying to consider.

>>14524680
"Any time I wish to speak to Alexander, I simply don't pay him." Lee says, with a wry smile. "He turns up the week after, more polite than you can imagine and that's when I talk to him. I always pay twice what I owe to make up for it but it's the only way anyone knows to make him come."

"As for moving openly against Troy? As much as I would love to, it would be difficult to plan. The man and his strings of power are so nebulous that I wouldn't know where to start." There's a glimmer of hatred in Lee's eyes, he's clearly not forgiven Troy for that hundred thousand or more importantly the amount of face he lost in that deal. If you can find some way to attack Troy it's clear that Lee would move with you but not unless you had some guaranteed plan that would take him out and not unless you had some way to even plan it without it getting back to Troy.

Eventually Lee stands up after he's finished eating. "You talk to your boy, and I'll talk to my girl, yes?" he asks, and then nods to Ro indicating a table to the other side of the restaurant.

Randy talks for the first time.

"Hey Boss," damn even the kid's voice is deeper. "How have things been since I left? How are Jim and the guys?"

>>14524770
Enjoy your rest, sir, and good ideas the both of you.

The question is; who do we sick them on? Troy? Whoevers going to be our new rival? Set them up for hire, starting a business in the shadows? Hmm

>>14524770
I like it.

>>14524770
>implying James Bond was not the most suave motherfucker in the history of ever

>>14524795
If this is the last time we speak to Lee during the meeting, ask him if he can help get us some exotic animals. Going with the idea people had of ripping animal's souls into items.

As for Randy. Sit with him, "Jim . . . The Dutch got him. He's still around, waiting for a few days before I can help him on his way. I could get him here if you'd like to say goodbye. He liked you, Randy. I'm sure he'd appreciate it."

>>14524795
Right, first things first. Hand on his shoulder, heavy sigh, give it to him straight. He's a man now, and should be treated as such.

Secondly, we can use Lee's hate and resentment somehow. If we ever get a high profit business going (war profitering?) and we need a partner, who better go to than the man who was ripped off a hundred k? We'd earn his trust and he'd probably look even more favorably on us if we went out of our way (heh) to help him regain losses like that. For instance, the Chinese healing magics would be well useful in a warzone...

Well worth a favour in future.

Brace for sad Randy, break the loss of Big Jim and the fate of his killers softly. I think I have found a way to get rid of the failed zombies and help Randy get rid of some frustration.

For anyone who has to leave, we're archived here: http://archive.easymodo.net/tg/thread/14523263#p14523263

And here: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14523263/

Tell Lee that if we find anything more about Troy, we'll be in touch, and ask that he'd please do the same. Even if they're just rumors.

>>14524795
"Things have been alright. Making money, expanding, getting big. Jim's... Jim's dead. The fucking Dutch sent some assassins after us. He didn't make it. Trust me, though, the bastards paid for it. Killed the assassins, and the information I got from them let us take out the entire Dutch operation in Harlem in one goddamn night."

>>14524795
"I've got some good and some bad news..." Then tell him what transpired while he was away.

Randy looks crestfallen as he hears the news.

"Jim...Jim's dead?" his newly deep voice cracks at that.

You slowly explain what happened, how you dealt with it, how it all led to the Dutch being wiped out, that last fact really cheering him up since it was a Dutch-employed Judge that killed his dad but even that's not enough to keep him up for long.

"Shit. Jim..."

"Boss, tell me the truth."

"Could I have saved him if I were there?"

>>14524866
Tell him about the angel. Regardless of what he could've done, he doesn't need that hanging over his head. Just say that with shit that heavy, there's nothing any of us could've done.

He's still going to be depressed, so he needs to be kept busy. Maybe talk to Lee about that.

Also, in regards the spying idea; Finding more about this nebulous power base of Troys would be a start

>>14524866
"I don't know. Probably not. We couldn't even see them until after they died. Odds are they had some kind of anti-fire protection too.".

>>14524889 here. Like >>14524887 said, mention the angel too. Shit got seriously real over there, and nobody could have seen it coming.

>>14524866
Think about it for a while. And then tell him the truth. "No. No, you couldn't. We shouldn't have been there in the first place. It was our territory. We should have had the whole place on lockdown before any assassins could even get near us. Honestly, if you'd been there with me, it might be you waiting to move on, and Jim I was giving this speech to. It was blind luck that I managed to get of there at all. You're young Randy. You're getting older now, and stronger. But you're still so young. Losing you would have been hard."

>>14524866
"I fear we might would have lost you as well Jim. The Dutch where using magic that punched through our defense with no regard." We can find another Irish luck man right. Can we find some and make our underlings as lucky as us?

>>14524866
"No. You might've bit the bullet yourself. Only an extraordinary amount of luck saved me and the others. There is nothing you could've done, and I doubt there many that could. The Dutch used all the big guns on this one, they really wanted us gone bad."

>>14524816
This is a good one.

Wish we could tell him about Zombigo, but I think it'd be even cooler for him to find out by himself.

Ask if he's learned anything cool yet.

Make sure he can say goodbye to Jim if he wants to.

>>14524903
I'm starting to feel sorry for the Irish guys. I mean, with genuine assholes like Pitt and Troy abound, a cop working for a priest to save an artifact (racism aside) and his brothers trying to avenge his death seem kinda... noble. I vote against killing and binding any more peoples souls who don't deserve it.

>>14524941
Yeah, I know what you mean. We need to stop being such an evil bastard and be more of a suave badass gangster.

>>14524941
I can see that. Dude called us Necromancer in our own place, so he had to go, but the whole "destroy his soul" thing should be reserved for the big bads. Fortunately, most of the people powerful enough to warrant binding to objects either are big bads or they work for them, so there's not much restriction.

Randy takes a breath and steadies himself.

"Alright. I understand. I can't believe Jim was killed by Angel Bullets. Where the fuck was God? Jim was like an older brother to me and he didn't deserve to go out like that." Now he looks more angry and shaken up than sad.

"These Chinese aren't like us, Boss," Randy says eventually after taking a few moments to calm down. "I've learnt some of their language while I've been with them and they just don't think like we do. They're all about face and how other people see you. Like this one guy was trying to explain to me how you could insult him and all his ancestors and all has family in private as much as you want and he wouldn't get upset, but if you even sneezed in his direction during a formal event or where people could see, he would be honourbound to kill you or see you ruined."

"They ain't normal."

"But I have been learning all sorts of cool shit. Check this out."

Randy stands up and steps back from you. He creates a circle of fire low in the air, in fact it reminds you of when you create your brand of summonig circles using chalk.

With a look of concentration Randy seems to summon some kind of fire elemental, a dragon made of constantly moving flame, the size of a dog.

"Can you hear him, Boss? He's talking right now."

You can't hear the dragon elemental talking.

>>14524976
Look at him and it in awe and smile. "No, I can't hear him Randy. But you can't hear the ghosts that I do. I guess we've all got out secret languages."

>>14524976
If it's talking, it's got a spirit.

Fine, but if we go up against any other lucky bastard, his soul is going to be bound to an item to give to Randy. After we get any information from him of course.

>>14524976
Niiice. He's gotten stronger both physically and mentally, he's gotten smarter, and he's gained a lot more control of his magic. Seems like he's matured a lot, too.

On a separate note, is it me, or is Captcha even weirder than normal? Pic related.

>>14524976
Tell him we can't. Commend him on his good work. Tell him things are looking up for us in our new home and that there'll be a nice place waiting for him when he comes back. Tell him to keep his chin up and his ears open. Learn and grow as much as he can. Be courteous and a good student. But don't betray his own beliefs and shit. Tell him we're proud of him.

>>14524990
OH SHIT.

Summon a fire spirit. Rip it's spirit. Bind the spirit to some bullets. Or a knife. Or something.

OH EVEN THE GODS SHALL TREMBLE!

>>14525022
Setting aside that it doesn't even work like that, NO. NO NO NO.

>>14525022
It is in bad taste to do that here, once we get Randy back then we can start making explosive ammunition.

>>14525035
The sky's the limit, friend.

Explosive ammo.
Incendiary ammo.
Armour-piercing ammo.
High velocity ammo.

All involving fire.

>>14525022
nope.jpg
The gods will bitchslap us for doing some baaaad shit mon. The zombies are borderline, ripping souls out of elementals? Shit man, the Chinese would be on us like yellow flood for such heresy.

>>14525035
>explosive ammunition

>>14525027
seconded.

>>14524795
We should offer him a front row seat of what we do to the snake's ghost when he bites it.

>>14524976

Grin widely.

"Can't hear a damn thing. You must be learning all kinds of secrets."

"He's got some kind of name I can't pronounce, but I call him Benji."

"We've got a deal worked out, all the coal he can eat in exchange for his help when I call on him. It ain't cheap but damn does he come in handy when the occasion calls for it."

"I went on a raid with a Chinese team and if it weren't for Benji here I think we would've all probably died. The greasers had no clue what hit them."

Randy seems quite pleased that you're impressed with his progress. He's making strides and he's at an age where approval really matters.

He promises that he'll keep working and getting better.

"You just wait and see, Boss. When I'm back you won't no one else. I'll make for Jim."

"I will."

When it seems things are winding down, Lee comes over to you with Ro in hand and smiles "Ms. Ro here has been telling me all the help you've given her, Duke. It pleases me that you're a man of honour."

"Is there anything else me must discuss or shall we meet three months hence?"

Sorry to ruin your excitement gentlemen, but like I said last time with the Spirits-Within of Chinese Magic, Elemental Spirits are also a wholly different realm that you can't affect.

>>14525061

Unless anyone else can think of something, I think we're good.

Thank him politely for his time, and tell him you're glad the hostage swap has proceeded so well.

Then we ought to meet with Johan's wife.

I have a feeling there's some serious money to made with the war profiteering angle.

>>14525049
it also seems to be some sort of dragon, fucking with dragons regardless of size is a horrible idea.

everyone seems to be forgetting that nothing was said about the dragon being able to respawn or randy being able to summon more than just the one we see.

We might not be able to make fire imbued bullets, but Randy sure can. I think we are done here, time to go meet us some German talent.

>>14525074
Thank God. Let's thank Lee for his time and let's go visit ze Germen. I wanna know who our contact will be.

>>14525061
>I call him Benji

Just read this bit aloud to the girlfriend and she awww'd out loud, as did I. Awwww

>>14525080
Not to mention these aren't your sissy ass white people sheep shagger dragons.

You wave goodbye to Randy once you've made some polite leaving noises at Lee, and then take Ro back to the offices with you. She seems happy having spoken to Fu-Ying.

The next day upon arrival at your offices, two hardlooking German men in their midthirties are waiting in the reception outside your office. They are wearing suits but it's clear that under the suits are nothing but hard, hard muscles.

"Good morning." The chime simultaneously. You don't know if they're brothers but they might as well be by how much they look like each other.

"I am Thomas." says one.

"And I am Alfred." says the other.

"I believe you were expecting us?" says Thomas.

>>14525121
Are they blonde? Please tell me we got some Übermensch twins up in this place.

>>14525121

Of course we are.

Bring them to our office and have them sit down.

"Now what do you gentleman want to discuss?"

>>14525141
Nope, light brown hair and green eyes, the both of them.

Thomas has a large but broken-several-times kind of nose. Alfred has a serious buttchin.

Otherwise they could almost be twins.

>>14525121
Ahhh shit, Twins. They are twins and they are connected to each other. Hivemind connection or something like that.

On an unrelated note, if they should die I say we bind them to a pair of rings so that we might have a second person wear it and be able to talk to them directly(Randy)

>>14525121
Nod and smile, maybe doff our cap.

"Gutentag, meine Herren."

And invite them for a drink. More muscle is always good, eh?

>>14525121
So far, so good. Aryan Tank Twins ho! Find out a bit more about what they wish from you.

Any word from Lee on helping us get animals?

>>14525150
"Thank you." they both say together as you lead them into your office.

When they seat themselves and you ask what they're about it's Alfred who seems to be the one they've chosen to speak for them in this meeting.

"What exactly are you aware of happening in Germany, right now?" he asks.

>>14525199
"Not much, I'm afraid to say. Europe's never been in my purview until recently. Terrible troubles, from what I hear."

>>14525199
They'll probably appreciate us showing us some compassion, so with a solemn look and a sigh, say;

"Nothing good. I know it's war. Too much senseless violence, too much blood, too much destruction. I assume you're more informed than I, and I'm a man who likes being in the know"

Smile

>>14525199
A bit. I know things are unstable, and the resultant balance of power is still unknown. The war is balanced out for now, with neither side clearly the winner, though the advantageous side changes day by day. I assume you know more than I do, though. What, specifically, are you referring to?

We do need to make sure to learn some German. With so many new friends coming here, we'll need to make transition easier.

"Well, things in Germany are indeed in a precarious balance at the moment."

"We hope to affect them in the favour of the German People. The true German People."

"I do not know how you feel about your government but we cannot abide their meddling in our state. They throw their money at our politicians and those weak traitors in Weimar trot around to American Music, watch Hollywood movies, " Alfred face curdles up at the thought "all to embrace the look and feel of their American masters."

"The people fighting to bring down these lapdogs of America are the true Germans that we support."

"My brother Thomas and I are patriots and we hope to carry shipments of guns and magic back to the troops that need them."

"The country is divided and the longer it takes to finish them off the worse the country will be off once this is over.

"We must destroy the traitors quickly."

"You understand?"

>>14525283
Oh yes, we understand. We give them guns, this fight drags on and on, we make more and more money.

>>14525283
Nod, and with a pensive look on your face, say that you can sympathize. Why, right on your doorstep there are outsiders who would do you harm. Why, just recently one of my best men died.

Now, let's talk business.... guns and magic. *Big smile* Well, you came to the right man.

>>14525292
True. We also understand that as much as they resent American intervention, they're dripping at the chance to use our own guns and money against us. Dealing with proto-Nazis is something I'm not sure is a good idea. Seems like it could come back and bite us in the ass.

>>14525283
"Only too well. You must take what is yours. I've become quite familiar with that position. Well, I believe I can help you. Provided of course, you can cover the expenses. I sympathize with you and your people's plight, but I am a business man, and I have my own people who depend on me."

Offer them both a glass of our special holy wine, "If nothing goes amiss, please, stick around for a few days while I acquire your first shipment. See New York."

If they do, have Chandler watch and follow them. See if they meet with anyone else. If they give away any secrets.

>>14525313
We don't know they're Prot-Anything. Nazis aren't around yet. They're just nationalists looking for a fight. Kill each other all they want. Just pay us for the guns to do it with.

>>14525318
>>14525312
>>14525292
Apparently I'm alone in my concerns, though. What the hell, let's tell them what they want to hear, at least for now.

>>14525283

Dohoho, are you telling me we get to midwife Magic Nazi Germany into existence?

Fucking count me in.

Tell them we will help them, but that we'll need to time to organize our supply chain, and that they need to take care of their side of the business.

Make it clear to them that this is just a business venture; we love the Germans in Harlem and the Financial District, and they are our people, but do not expect special treatment from us because their revolution is "just".

>>14525331
You can't metagame so much. It's like, "DONT DEAL WITH NAZIS!"

"Wtf are nazis?"

"Invest heavily in IBM!"

"Wtf is IBM?"

Besides, we'll sell them equipment that, while fully functional, isn't as good as the stuff their fighting against. Oh, we might be able to get that heavier stuff, but it's gonna cost more.

>>14525318
Better to use Abe, I think, as Chandler is better off flitting around spying rather than just following people. And then Abe can get more experience.

"One of the patriots we know is an aristocrat in Magdeburg."

"He is financing much of the weapons buying in Germany to supply the side of the Patriots."

"Thomas and I are entrepreneurs who hope to buy American weaponry here in New York and sell them the patriotic Baron von Schulz."

"We have a fund of 75,000 and we hope to find a co-partner to match our funds. We believe we can sell the weapons at twice their buying price in Germany. We may be patriots, but we're common and I'm sure aristocratic swine can afford it." The two brothers snort together at that.

"Is this kind of deal acceptable to you? We provide the expertise and the contacts in Germany to sell the shipment of weapons while you supply half the start up fund and gun sellers in New York?"

>>14525349
Maybe abe's problem isn't that he's too new, it's that we don't give him enough practice? Chandler's kind of our go-to guy in ghostly goings-on.

>>14525377
We know that Chandler got good insanely quick. I doubt we'll see the same from all our ghosts. Can't hurt to give Abe more practice, though.

>>14524698
Thanks, someone else suggested this earlier on and I'm embracing that for future threads!

People will be watching our moves. How will this play with the other factions when they find out that we're lending out money like this? How will this affect our potential enemies?

>>14525418
Good point. They could well just get more wary of us, look for over seas allies of their own? Or fear the fact we're strong enough that we can throw lots of cash for stuff like this.

No immediate threat, really.

>>14525358

This deal sounds legit. I say let's do it.

Is there anything preventing Abe from ghosting all the way to Germany?

It might be a nice way to figure out exactly who is using our weapons, and prevent us from getting fucked, if Abe tracks shipments all the way to this Baron.

"You don't have a confirmed buyer, already?"

If they don't, tell them we'll cofinance the deal, but we'll want to wait until the buyer agrees.

>>14525465
When you raise this query, they explain that Baron Von Schulz is a confirmed buyer, he'll buy anything they're selling but that they don't have a deal set up with him because until they meet with investors like yourself they couldn't confirm to him how much they were going to be bringing over.

VOTE:
1) Accept deal.
2) Decline.

Only counting votes from this post onwards so say your preference again if you already have.

>>14525497
Do it. This 5 weeks worth of money, and we can gain so much more...

>>14525497
Accept. Shake their hands and start going over particulars or whatever. Shipping and that, which hasn't been mentioned. We don't want customs seizing our stuff.

>>14525497

Agree, but let them know that you expect solidarity and honor from your business partners, and that they will receive the same from you.

If possible, we should spy on the Baron to learn a little more about his motivations and plans in Germany.

It may be that this guy is planned the revolution so he can move back over and take power with his magically supplied arms, or just hoping to win favor in the new government.

Either way, he might be worth making friends with, along with our Wundertwins.

>>14525497
Accept it. But on conditions.

We get our cut in full once the money comes in. We're only agreeing to this one deal so far. Future deals will be on a case by case basis. They have no authority to reinvest our money into more weapons without our say so.

To scare/intimidate them, require that they each pick their fingers, and take a drop of blood from each of them. Tell them it's for security. Don't elaborate. We can't do anything with it, but they don't know that. It will help keep them in line. To further cement this, and make it look fair, prick our own finger as well. It's all a show, but it will be a good one.

>>14525497
Times like this, I wish we had a prophet/seer/oracle on the payroll. I don't like it, but it seems like I'm alone in that, so what the hell. Agree. Have your ghosts check these guys out, though.

What could the Germans possibly want that they couldn't make themselves?

1903 Hammerless
1911
Hi-Power
Thompson
1903 Springfield
Lee Enfield

I can't think of much else.

>>14525497
go for it, also ask about any buyers for wine and mention that we have recently purchased a export buisness that may be useful.

>>14525546
I assume it's about quantity more than anything. They can probably make most things, but they'd like more than they can make on their own.

>>14525564
Don't mention that we own it. Say that there's a shipment company we know that can do the delivery. They pay half the costs, we "pay" half the costs. All the money comes back to us in the end. For shipment, at least.

Magic berserker zombies that have a shelf life.

We can make zombies of the fallen for sale. They wont last to long without magic of the dark kind and can be made if they ship over the cadavers.

>>14525497

Gun running will give us a chance to expand our supplier network as well. We're going to be dealing in volume, after all.

You shake hands, and go over particulars for this one deal only, future deals being on a case by case basis like you wanted, and then the brothers look at each other a second and then shrug and agree to give you a drop of their blood each.

They watch your mumbo jumbo in confusion and then bid you good day when you're done.

You've given them the contacts for the weapons dealers you usually go to and then also the details of who to get in touch with at your import/export business.

This could all end up being very lucrative for you.

You haven't given them any of your money yet. The two brothers will go to the weapons dealer and make an order first, at which point you and them will go together to make an exchange with the dealer, and then the two brothers will take a ship to Germany with the weapons.

Do you want to send someone alone with them or do you you trust them to come back with you with the money?

1) Yes.
2) No, send someone with them.

>>14525616
And of course I forgot to mention my vote in that post. I vote to take the deal, of course.

>>14525619
Christ, I'm losing it. I meant:
Do you want to send someone ALONG with them or do you you trust them to come back WITH YOUR PART OF THE PROFITS?

>>14525595

I'm voting against this; HARD.

The potential for this to backfire is huge. Not only is this against the Duke's character, but it has the potential to turn our allies behind us if we figure it out. Let's not forget that the US Gov't would suddenly become very curious about where exactly these berserking zombies are coming from.

I imagine we're probably the only high level necromancer in NYC at the moment.

Can't wait until we lich ourself, btw. That's going to be boss.

How long do our zombies last without regular infusion. We have two expendables, we can run a test on the zombies. Zombigo and assassin one will get regular infusion of necromantic energy while we leave the last to rot and see how long he lasts. after that we decrease the dose for zombie number two to see how little energy we can expend to keep it up and running. We could also try to put more energy into the zombie to try and see if we can make it do some sort of action.

>>14525546
>>14525558
This. Germany was industrialized to fuck but had no resources, and I imagine a civil war would upset the process of production somewhat too. Seconding the guy who said to find more about the good Baron also

>>14525639

Send Amigo Secundus and have Abe tag along in case the Amigo gets wasted.

Let them both know you'll be watching in case something goes wrong.

>>14525619
Trust them as far as they know, but send Abe to keep an eye out and gather a bit of intel. He should have learned the ropes by now, and this is a pretty easy gig to cut his teeth on. The brothers don't seem to have any magical inclination.

>>14525619

Abe can handle tailing them by now, can't he? It'd be good practice for him, low risk and low stakes.

>>14525619
Send Abe to follow 'em, so long as he can operate that far away.

>>14525639
Ah. Couldn't Chandler just teleport to their location and keep an eye on them whenever?

>>14525619
It'd just be silly to not send someone along! This person doesn't necessarily have to be visible to anyone, or indeed, alive, however.

>>14525643
You don't need to do a test because you can feel it. Dumb zombies disintegrate and fall down the moment you stop pumping energy into them. At the moment you can maintain about 10 of them at the same time. And even while you're doing that they're still falling rotting.

Smart zombies only need a bit of energy from you once every couple of days to keep going at peak capacity.

>>14525584

You know that by using your own business you only save the profit margin, you still have to pay the wages and fuel and other operating costs involved in the business.

Alright, Abe it is then.

You've chosen Abe to follow them around NYC, and then on the ship to Germany.

Anything else you want to do this week or fastforward to next week?

>>14525696
Anything else we SHOULD be doing?

>>14525706
You tell me.

>>14525639

Do we have anyone in our org that can speak German well and is trusty enough?

>>14525696
Now that we know Troy influenced Pitt through intermediaries, maybe we should talk to Pitt again. He might know more than he thinks, maybe something that can tell us more about the identity of Troy's yet-unknown allies.

>>14525696
I'm sure some of our German friends know something about the Baron.

>>14525696
I would like to suggest making astral shades from lord pitt again.

>>14525715
Hm, that's a good point. How much use is a ghostly spy over exchanges in Germany if he doesn't speak a word of German?

>>14525749
Well, yes, maybe. But also to teach us german so we can better endear ourselves to those under our protection.

>>14525729
You converse with Pitt during one of your sessions with him, quizzing him on exactly how he got the idea to make a base for himself in the Financial District of all places.

He looks like he's seriously thinking, trying to remember.

And then like a lightbulb has come on, his face lights up when he realises.

"Before I made my play for the District, I had a smaller base in Chelsea. All sorts of rumours started reaching me on how weak the gangs in the Financial District were. One source would tell me the Jews here were this close to falling on each other in a bid to take over when their old man dies, another source would tell me the Chinese were all weak and had no offensive capability. It just kept happening over and over, from all corners I was hearing that the one place a man could carve some real space out for his organisation was in the Financial District."

Lord Pitt shrugs. "Shows what my sources knew. I got mired in a two way war and got stuck in this building because to step outside would mean being cursed by who knows how many fucking enemies. Christ, what a joke."

>>14525772
Not a bad idea. The lessons should be private, though. The fewer people who know we speak German, the better. If we're dealing with the brothers again, and they want to have a private conversation, they might just switch into German. If they think we don't know the language, we can listen in without them having any idea. It rarely hurts to have others underestimate your talents a bit.

>>14525815
"Go back to meditating until I call on you again."

Get a gorilla or lion or something from the zoo. Kill and and bind it's soul to something, depending on the animal.

>>14525734
Just to let you know that your binding power doesn't work so that you can dictate what the effect would be. You can certainly bind Pitt to a pair of shades but you can't be sure that astral shades are what you'll end up with.

Still want to go ahead and try?

1) Bind Pitt to some glasses.
2) Keep Pitt around for another reason.

>>14525772
You ask around and it turns out Gerald is some kind of linguistic wunderkind. He speaks English, Yiddish, Polish, German, French and Spanish. Do you want to spend an hour with him a day learning German?

>>14525815
Can he remember anything about some common thread these rumor sources had? Anything: Race, financial status, family ties...

Also, the way he couldn't remember too clearly at first, it sounds like he might have been magically influenced a bit.

>>14525852

Absolutely.

We're a pretty bright guy, we could be a functional conversationalist in under two months.

>>14525852
Don't bind Pitt yet.
Learn German.

>>14525852
Keep him for now. He's still proving useful, and even he doesn't know how much more he knows.

Yes, set aside a bit of time to work on languages.

>>14525869
"The sources were many and varied. Some were my own underlings, some were other bosses who would talk to me about their own plans for the Financial District, other sources were newspapers that would have bits talking about things in the Financial District."

"It all just came together to make it look like this clear opportunity for the grabbing."

>>14525900
Weird. I just can't shake the feeling that there's SOMETHING I'm missing about this, something important. I just have no idea what.

Tell him how he was set up.

>>14525947
Troy's too well entrenched. He's got people all over feeding lies to Pitt to get him in. Pays off news paper editors to put stories in.

Dude's powerful. And we need to remove him some time soon.


ALSO, ELLINGTON:
This week, don't pay off Alexander.

You take cruel pleasure in informing Pitt exactly how his ambitions were inflamed by Troy and how he was given a tempting target by the same man, and then set amongst predators in this District. You tell him how he was used only so that Lee Fu-Ying would have some serious distraction so that Troy could get away with this large scale theft.

Pitt looks at you horrified.

"But why!?" he asks stunned.

"Why would this Councilman do this to me? What did I ever do to him?"

Pitt looks distraught to find out just how thoroughly he'd been played.

>>14525900

Ah, but that must be the magic!

It was an extremely subtle piece of magic; not that everyone was mind-controlled or bribed into giving Pitt false information, but more of a twisting of chance so that Pitt constantly heard exaggerations about how the Financial District was easy pickings.

This is Olukwele-level power that tricked Pitt; someone had the time and energy to make a GIGANTIC reality-bending ritual to bring Pitt to the District.

It means Troy either has some damned powerful friends, or even worse, HE'S the magician. After all, isn't he always in a magic-free zone? What better way to hide the fact of being magically talented than pretending to overcompensate for the lack of it?

>>14525947
Wait. Something just occurred to me. The way Pitt couldn't remember at first, that says magical influence a bit. What if he was "persuaded" to have heard these rumors, even if he never actually heard them FROM anyone? Troy wouldn't need agents in every corner of New York if he just had to convince people psychically. He might be some sort of mental mage. Good fit for a politician. Hell, if he can fuck with perception that way, he might not even be human.

>>14525988
"He's a snake. A devil. Charismatic in the front, with a knife behind his back. I'm not going to fall for his tricks. I'm The Duke. I'm no fool. Do you want revenge against him? The man who forced you to become a prisoner here in your district? You set in motion the events which would lead me here, to kill you?"

WEEK 13
WARCHEST:
-- 31,750 dollars.
ASSETS:
-- Wessler Building
-- The Boom Boom Room (managed by Sweet Johnson)
-- Henry's (managed by the Old Amigo)
-- The Well Travelled Inn (managed by Sweet Johnson)
-- (14) Holdings.
-- (5) Rented Speakeasies (Unsegregated)
-- Net Profits Per Week: 16,250 dollars.
STATE OF PLAY:
-- Jews: Excellent.
-- Chinese: Peaceful.
-- Harlem: Feared and revered.


The deal went down. You and the two German brothers bought your shipment of weapons and then you sent them off across the Atlantic on a ship that your import/export business owns. Abe is following their progress on the ship. It seems that because of the strong link between you two that he can send messages to you if he tries hard and you can send messages to him too. You don't know how long this will last or if the distance will change that.

You don't pay off Alexander this week. Now you know that next monday Alexander will come a-knocking.

Two German Bakeries open up in the Financial District. You own shares in both of them and helped the two bakers to open.

>>14526033
*who set in motion

>>14526013
>>14526016
That could make sense, actually. We just found out the hard way that perception-altering magic exists. This would just be a different application. Can Pitt specifically name any people he heard the rumors from?

I would like to see if we can't find out about what kind of boon Troy gained from Pitt leaving his area of power. Can we send our shape shifting spy out with the non-detection charm to where Pitt came from and see if he/she finds any of Tony's prints?

Also, my Captcha seems to be turning German.

>>14526033
"Of course, I want revenge. But I don't see what I can do. And you're one I'd like to get revenge against as well, if I somehow could, but I obviously can't." He admits. He looks surprised that he said that but the fact that he's bound means that he has to be honest with you. Hatred for you begins to burn bright again in his eyes as he realises how tightly you have him bound.

>>14526053
"Of course. Henders was one. I used to have a regular game with some Italian bosses in Chelsea, they were another. In fact the Times and the Tribunal both had editorials talking about the state of warfare going on in the Financial District. I didn't make that shit up."

You guys are looking too deeply into Troy. Making assumptions about him having perception altering abilities. We have nothing to back that up, so let's leave those kind of theories out of the way for now.

Ellington, anything else pressing going on this week?

>>14526111
Not a bad idea.

>>14526112
Wish we hadn't dusted Henders, it'd be nice to know where he heard it. His succubus-or-whatever lover, perhaps? We know she had some serious charm/persuasion powers going on.

>>14526135
Nope. Fast forward to next week?

>>14526112
Great, a physical lead. We should be able to look up those newspapers in any library no problem since they have massive hardons for newspapers even now (probably more so back then.)
If we (read: one of our henchmen) finds them then this probably means that he was simply played.
If we dont, well...

>>14526141
Try and get an exotic animal to test binding on?

>>14526142
You send someone to look at archives and it turns out that both newspapers that Pitt mentioned had articles describing things in exactly the way Pitt remembered, except it's all couched in terms of moral outrage and "the police should do something about these out of control gangs."

>>14526147
You haven't found a zoo willing to sell you an exotic animal so you bought a cheap rabbit instead.

You now have a white rabbit in front of you. What do you want to do the white rabbit?

>>14526135
You're half-right. We're not just making assumptions, we're testing a hypothesis.

>>14526167
Hrmm. Cook it for dinner. We're not one to waste. But summon the spirit of the rabbit if we can, and try to bind it into a little trinket to test for effects.

>>14526142

This.

Send a low-level goon to search through those papers and find the reporters who wrote the stories.

If possible, send a white henchie to the reporters to ask where their information came from. Have them be polite, and say they're detectives from out of state researching how gangs operate.

>>14526167

Wait, before we kill it, can we try the opposite?

Binding someone's soul directly into the rabbit?

It might be a worthwhile experiment.

>>14526195
We're not Frankenstein.

next time when we encounter an enemy, we should rip his soul. Then bind his riped soul to a bullet and shot the now soulless body...

I second this >>14526177
If we find that we can rip and bind animal spirits, see if we can put the spirit of one animal into another body. How fast can we bind a spirit? Could we rip then bind the spirit to make a zombie on the spot? If so, we could rip and then bind the souls of our foes during a fight to give us the upper hand. If we need a circle, I guess we could place circles where bad guys would take cover if they try to attack us in our base for a type of trap.

You try to Rip the bunny and nothing happens. That's your first indication that animals don't have souls, as such.

You then choke the rabbit until it dies and then try to summon it's ghost.

Nothing happens. For something as freshly dead as this it should've worked.

Maybe animals just don't have the same spirit in them that humans do.

>>14526217
Well then, enjoy a nice rabbit dinner and advance through time.

i suspect troy is a mundane man, his only power being large network of connections spreading through all levels of sociaty and a complete lack of morals.

>>14526217

Hmm.Makes sense.

From a metagaming perspective, animal spirits kind of crosses the line into animism, not voodoo and death magic.

Skip to next week?

>>14526217
Huh. Glad we tried it on a rabbit before buying a cobra or whatever.

Could we get someone that is dieing and run this experiment again? A group of someones? A group of Dutch someones to experiment on...

>>14526227
I agree. If he has magic powers, I'll be surprised.

When we get some more money, let's donate a wing to a hospital. We'll go to visit and pump some of our energy into a few of the sick kids, helping them to recover. Not publicly doing that, of course, but publicly visiting. Make us look like a good guy.

>>14526227
Entirely possible. I'm hoping not, though, because that could be much more dangerous. A powerful mage can be handled. Someone who has just that much influence? That can cause serious shit, even long after death.

WEEK 14
WARCHEST:
-- 48,000 dollars.
ASSETS:
-- Wessler Building
-- The Boom Boom Room (managed by Sweet Johnson)
-- Henry's (managed by the Old Amigo)
-- The Well Travelled Inn (managed by Sweet Johnson)
-- (14) Holdings.
-- (5) Rented Speakeasies (Unsegregated)
-- Net Profits Per Week: 16,250 dollars.
STATE OF PLAY:
-- Jews: Excellent.
-- Chinese: Peaceful.
-- Harlem: Feared and revered.

The ship that you sent is two thirds of the way across the Atlantic. It should arrive at the end of this week, at which point you'll get a telegram from the other side.

_____ALERT_______

You walk into your office and find Alexander waiting for you in the visitor's chair.

Facing your chair, waiting for you to arrive. His bald, dome of a head faces you. Despite being behind him you can see beard creeping up the side of his head.

"Did you wish to speak to me or is this ... a statement of intent?" he asks, when you've seated yourself. His dark eyes stare at you, full of concentration and immediacey. You've got his attention.

>>14526265
Assure him that it's the former. You bear him no ill will, this was just the only way you knew of to get in touch with him.

Damn. I was going to suggest that we pull the rabbit out of a hat.

>datgrin.jpg

Also, good job Ellington. 350 posts, 6th page. Longest thread in a long while. TGIF, huh?

>laminar tsixest
So the most sixy fluids are always laminar? Interesting hypothesis.

>>14526265

"You're a hard man to get in contact with, Alexander. I thought you might come to me if I missed last week's pay."

Can we speak to him more candidly about Troy, and Troy's involvement in bringing Pitt to the District?

Alex is no talker, but we might be able to learn something.

>>14526292
You guys called this meeting, you get to set the agenda.

Please choose precisely what you're going to say because things could go a variety of ways here.

Talk amongst yourselves and reach a consensus.

>>14526265
Walk past him, behind our desk to our small safe. The small one, not our vault. Grab an envelope and set it on the desk in front of him. "I have a matter to discuss with you." Sit across from him and offer a drink. He'll probably decline, but we'll be a gracious host.

"Councilman Troy has plans against you. He sees you as an obstacle in his way, and is in preparation to remove you. I don't know much about him, but I know that he's a slippery little shit. Exactly what he's planning, I don't know. But it can't be good."

Take a sip of our wine. "I've given him the impression that I'll go along with it. Even help if I have to. But I'm no fool. Only a mad man would stand against you, especially with a man like Troy behind his back, ready to ambush him." Light up a cigarette. "Knowing the little I do about you, I wouldn't be surprised to find that none of this is news to you, but I'm not the kind to take unnecessary chances."

>>14526292
Agreed. From all we've heard, Alex is a man who can be worked with, and we won't alienate too many allies by backing him. Explain at least some of the situation (such as that we've been approached), and see if he's willing to tell us anything about Troy. If he doesn't want to talk, though, don't pry too hard. We don't want to piss Alex off.

>>14526307
>cigarette
You mean a pre-ban Cuban cigar, surely?

>ahaha Cubans are banned America
>tearssofjoy.jpg

>>14526307
Adding to this. "I enjoy the status quo. I'm hoping that you do as well. We all continue to do what we wish, and no one steps on each other's toes. I don't presume to understand your actions or motivations. Those are yours and yours alone. It's none of my business, because it maintains the status quo. Troy wants to shake things up. He wants . . . I don't even know what he wants. War in the streets? Assassinations at night? Whatever it is, it will disrupt the status quo. It will be bad for business. And I can't afford that, not now, not ever."

>>14526307
I like it. Sounds like a good opener. Explains the situation, and assures him you have no real intention of going against him, whatever else he might hear.

>>14526307
>>14526340
I like these. We explain the situation. Defer all respect to Alexander, and expout our ideal.

>>14526307
>>14526340
"When a man engages in clandestine dealings, he has a preference for things being smooth. He makes things not be smooth."

"None of this is new to me and I tire of your words," Alexander says, talking through clenched teeth. He is clearly an angry man trying to stay calm.

"I knew of your meeting with him on the 4th. As I knew of your meeting with him on the 26th. I am not without eyes or ears, nor are you so invisible that your actions aren't seen."

"I care not what you promise Troy, nor what Troy promises you. Your kind will always turn on each other. He does not concern me nor do you. You are no better than he is, much as you will lie to yourself and your mirror."

"I have no interest in listening to your equivocations. Is this the only reason you have called me?"

>>14526411
Damn. Motherfucker is mad.

>>14526411
Look despondent. "I apologize for wasting your time. It won't happen again."

>>14526411
y u mad tho

In, you know, diplomatic terms. I wonder what page this thread is on.

this seems like a good time to finally test these Knuckleduster-Wolfclaws.

>>14526411

Frown.

"You misunderstand me. I did not bring you here to gossip, nor am I asking for your advice. I called you here so that you have notice of what's to come."

Slap down double your weekly fee on the table.

"And for the record, I don't appreciate the high-minded talk. You're on the take just like anyone else, and I'd appreciate some straight conversation."

>>14526482
That is an unequivocally bad idea.

>>14526411
Ooookay. What crawled up his ass and died? Powerful as he is, I'd very much like to insult him to his face right now. Even I know that'd be suicide, though, so let's try to mollify him a bit. Assure him that you meant no offense, and that you simply assumed it was better to be open and honest with him. You have no way of knowing what Alex does or doesn't know already, nor did you know whether Troy posed any real threat to him. (Stress that this was born of IGNORANCE on your part, not any doubt for Alex's ability.) If nobody else has a topic, simply ask if he's willing to tell us what we might say to get Troy off our backs. Maybe bring up the situation in Germany, and see if he has anything he wants us to do or not do? Other than that, just apologize for wasting his time, and assure him that the money will come on time (maybe with a little extra by way of apology).

>>14526482
FUCK NO. Even Olukwele won't back us if we piss this guy off.

>>14526507
Less FUCK NO, but still pretty fuck no! We still know nothing about this guy other than that he could squash us in a heartbeat.

>>14526411
I wonder what he's pissed about. Is it our presumption that Troy could possibly hurt him, or is he trying to hide the fact that Troy's a legitimate threat, and he doesn't like that we know it? Don't ask him that, though.

>>14526554
Maybe we just means what he said?

>>14526532
so? then we just back off? That isn't The Dukes way

>>14526570
it also is not our way to get our ass kicked. but thats what will happen if we dont smooth things over

There seem to be two camps at the moment:

1) Polite but firm rebuttal.
2) Or conciliatory response.

Only counting votes from this post forward.

>>14526411
Look at him with srs but tired eyes and say
"You don't know what he's capable of"

Then shoot him in the face.

>>14526597
Kindly shut the fuck up.

>>14526591

2.

>>14526591
Polite but firm rebuttal. We are not here to fuck around. We aren't here to waste his time. We are not here to look like bitches. Don't mock him. Don't outright antagonize him, but be firm. Don't be a condescending dick.

>>14526591
I firmly support # 2

>>14526591
Unsure. If he's genuinely pissed, 2 is the only safe bet. It sounds almost like he's testing us, though, and in that case standing firm might be what he wants to see. I'm going to refrain from voting for now.

>>14526591
We can't be seen as weak. But we need to "know our place". Be firm, but apologetic. We didn't mean to waste his time, but shit is quick to come to a head.

>>14526591
Actually, I'd like to give 1 a go. Absolutely be polite, but stand up for yourself. This guy doesn't seem genocidal, and if he is, he's as bad as Troy. I'm not willing to sit like a scared child between two idiots having twin tantrums.

>>14526591
Option 1. We need to be a man. We called him here for a reason that seemed urgent to us. And if it wasn't to him, then so be it. But we were right in calling him there. Be firm, be strong.

>>14526632
here. I'm changing my vote to 1. If he's so powerful, a bit of our dignity isn't worth killing us over. Just be polite, don't piss him off for the sake of it, and don't attack him.

1: >>14526656 and >>14526616 and >>14526660
2: >>14526626 and >>14526611

Undecided guy, speak now or forever hold your peace. Unless you already changed your mind? If anyone has already changed their mind please tell me know.

>>14526683
>>14526676
Alright, with these two the 1s definitely take it.

Next post. Polite but firm.

>>14526684
One

>inb4 Duke is killed and we take control of the third Amigo or Randy or someone

>>14526705
So be it. If we are to die, we will die like men!

>>14526705
This is why I said we should slap him with our dick.

"Tell me what's to come?" Alexander sneers at you. "You're a seer now are you? Blessed with the power of prophecy?"

"The arrogance!" he exclaims.

"I know why Troy thinks it so easy to recruit you to his cause. Your pride, it shines at me like a promise."

"But what have you to be proud of? You're nothing but a filthy necromancer. You toy with powers you don't understand, calling and destroying souls created by the Lord, and you strut like you're some statesman of the world, telling me how we're all on the take? You know nothing."

"My god, you make me sick. Were I not so bound, I would destroy you were you sit."

"I beg you, do me a favour. Join the Councilman. Join Troy with all your power, and all your allies, underlings and what power you can summon so that I may destroy you all in one fell swoop."

Alexander stands abruptly, piercing eyes never looking away from you.. He walks out with the followings words:

"Do what you will. Your day will come too, sooner or later."

>>14526767
there was the N-word. We can't let him live now.

>>14526767
That wasn't the polite but firm response . . .

>>14526767
Why'd you choose that guy's post to go with as the response? It wasn't particularly polite. It was arrogant and bitchy.

>>14526781
> You toy with powers you don't understand, calling and destroying souls created by the Lord, and you strut like you're some statesman of the world, telling me how we're all on the take? You know nothing."

>"My god, you make me sick. Were I not so bound, I would destroy you were you sit."

>there was the N-word. We can't let him live now.

I dont think that will end well for us

>>14526767
Noted. We still can't back Troy, and we still need to pay every week, but at least we know where we stand. Even with the parting threats, he never took any actual action against us, and as long as we don't try to fuck things up, he likely won't. Truth be told, it was completely worth it, the self-righteous prick.

>Were I not so bound

Hrmmm

>>14526767
I think immortality comes at a very steep price, we should not look into making ourselves immortal in the same way he has done. That or he is an Avatar of some god.

>>14526767
Worth it. We call him up the only way we know how, and for the sole purpose of warning him about a potential threat against him, and he throws a tantrum? Fuck him. We still can't support the Councilman, but out of a lack of trust, not because we like his opponent.

___ALERT_____

The German government has sprung a blockade. They've started firing on ships trying to break through the blockade, assuming that anyone who tries to get past is a black marketeer or a supporter of the Patriots.

One of the ships was yours.

The German Brothers are dead and your shipment of weapons now lies at the bottom of the ocean.

You can feel Abe trying to move himself slowly back to New York. At his pace it will take at least a week.

Meanwhile you realise that your import/export business just lost its sole ocean going ship and will have to rent space on other people's ships until you buy a new ship for it, if that's what you choose to do.

Well, if nothing else, let's continue the week.

>>14526886
Sheeit, forgot about that. Back to the history textbooks, I guess. My WWI knowledge isn't what it should be.

>>14526886
Well fuck.

Write that endeavor off as a lost. Keep looking for contacts in Germany. Going in via the sea doesn't seem viable with that blockade. A better route would probably be down through the Mediterranean, then up through Austria into Germany.

Look out for ships to purchase.

>>14526886
>>14526767
Wow, things have gone real well this thread, haven't they?

>>14526913
We need to get in contact with that Baron. But through an intermediary. No direct contact.

You put the following things on your agenda:

--Make contact with Baron Von Schulz.
--Find a new ship.

Anything else for this week? Or fast forward?

>>14526956
Begin producing some wine from water and shipping it to our local speakeasies. A couple crates a month at most. Keep it rare and sought after.

>>14526956
Wait a while, not immediately, and then send some flowers to Johan and his wife as condolences. We heard the tragic news about their cousins.

>>14526956
Just fast-forward, I guess. I assume we're still paying off Alex? I don't much like the guy, but we're not an idiot. (Man, hiveminds make subject/verb agreement weird.)

we could take a closer look in to summoning and containing demons. In our new sanctum we should have enough force to start experimenting with them

We need to keep our ears open for anything about Alexander. That fucker is tricky.

Maybe brush up on our chess. Learn about what the Chinese play. Maybe we could have a game with Lee on our next meeting.

Alright. I've noted all this and I'll address it as the next week/thread starts. I'm calling it a night now.

As usual, I'll let you know when the next thread is due by email, hopefully with a bit more notice. Although a lot of you seemed to manage to turn up today despite that, which was awesome.

Good night!

Troy is a psychotic, ubermachiavellian mastermind of a motherfucking genius. Alexander is a self righteous, holier than thou fuckface who can't stand necromancers.

Anyone else feeling really fucked?

>>14527086
I'm not sure what Alex hates more, our necromancy or our crimeliness. Whiny little bitch, though. Troy's psychotic, but it's hard to say how much or little that affects his planning ability. He's nuts, but he's also way too sane, if that makes any sense. We're fucked in open war, true, but Alex is at least a bit more restrained. Sounds like a third force is needed to balance the equation, but if even Olukwele's scared of Alex, who or what could it be?

>>14527129
>You toy with powers you don't understand, calling and destroying souls created by the Lord

I'm pretty sure it's the necromancer part that made him be so pissy. Lee didn't mention anything about having any trouble when he called for a meeting with Alex and he's as much of a criminal as we are with his opium dens, so I can only conclude that Alex is pretty serious about souls and Holy Lordness.

I'm not so worried about Alexander, I sort of understand him and what line not to cross. Troy is the one that I get the feeling is planning some crazy ass shit that could blow up in our faces at any moment.

If that guy could engineer the situation so that Pitt would fuck things up in a stable Financial District he can probably do even worse considering how precarious the balance is now.

ELLINGTON IS PLANNING SOME EVIL EVIL SHIT. YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!!!!

>>14527183
Fair point. Ether way, now I'm REALLY glad we scrapped our Zed-Word Fight Club idea.

>>14527214
Hahaha! I completely forgot!

I think we've been doing so much necromancy in HarlemQuest that we've forgotten just how looked down upon it is in fantasy universes. Like internet porn, when you go down a rabbit hole of more and more and more obscure porn until you find yourself masturbating to some truly weird shit and you casually mention it to a normal friend and they're all like "You masturbated to WHAT?!" Does that make sense?

>>14527271
Yeah, makes sense. You get so wrapped up in your own world, you think it's "normal", and it baffles you for a minute when others don't agree. In this case, though, I'm not sure if it's the setting, or just this one dude. The self-righteous holy roller routine is certainly making me think the angel hypothesis might actually be true, though. I thought it was BS at first, but now... Hey, wait, didn't the Dutch contract with an angel? What if the reason is that the angels hate necromancy, which is regularly practiced by our gang? Hell, it might even have been Alex himself, trying to wipe us out through indirect means, since he's apparently not permitted to do it directly.

>>14527322
That would be an ugly surprise. Mention that theory in the next thread.

>>14527373
I'm not saying it's true, or even likely, but the guy is really starting to remind me of Trias from Planescape: Torment.