How can we possibly get out of this one? (Updated with recent events)
- Thread starter SWAT
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Hypersmurf
Moderatarrrrh...
greywulf said:
This was my first thought, too.
I have a mental image of an exchange scene... Ishimura with the hostage, gagged with a bag over her head. The PCs with a suit of armour.
Ishimura runs a test, and gets angry. "This armour is fake! You were warned!"... and shoots the hostage.
"What did you expect, real armour?" the PCs ask. "In exchange for a fake hostage?"
Realisation dawns on Ishimura, and he rips the bag off the hostage's head to reveal... not the PCs' secretary, but his own assistant/wife/daughter/whatever...
-Hyp.
nonamazing
Explorer
Some questions to consider
This is a neat situation...there's a lot of different ways it could play out.
This Ishimura--you couldn't find out anything about him, right? And that's with a pretty impressive effort (Gather Information 45). So he's either a new threat, or a old threat using a new name. If he's a new threat, he didn't accumulate his power overnight, so he has to have come from somewhere else. Do your characters have any major contacts outside the city? Could he be tied to the Japanese Yakuza (who see an opportunity to move on Montreal now that a 'soft' leader has been given control over the local mafia)?
If he's an old threat with a new name, do his methods ring a bell with any of you? Any villians tried this sort of scheme with you before? Don't forget about any foes you may have thought were dead--tricky DMs have a way of using them against you.
Oh, and have you tried to translate Ishimura's name? Maybe there's a clue there, maybe not.
What about the mole that Lawson said he caught? Any info there, or is it really a dead end? And where did this armor come from, anyway? Is Lawson really developing it, or is it something he found and is trying to replicate? That would explain why it's too valuable to lend to you--it might actually be one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable. Could Ishimura actually just be trying to recover something stolen from him? The armor sounds like magic--could it be?
This is really out on a limb here, but could your new employee (Tim) be involved in this? I mean, if he's an expert Inflitrator, could he be infiltrating you? Of course, maybe your DM doesn't go in for really evil tricks like that, but it's worth considering.
I don't trust Lawson, but I'm don't think he's involved (or secretly a cover for) this Ishimura character. I just can't see where the advantage would be for him. Still it was awfully cold of him to suggest that you just let your secretary get killed...feels like there's something suspicious there, but I just can't put my finger on it.
Anyway, I hope that perhaps some part of my random musings may be of help to you. Let us know how things turn out, okay?
This is a neat situation...there's a lot of different ways it could play out.
This Ishimura--you couldn't find out anything about him, right? And that's with a pretty impressive effort (Gather Information 45). So he's either a new threat, or a old threat using a new name. If he's a new threat, he didn't accumulate his power overnight, so he has to have come from somewhere else. Do your characters have any major contacts outside the city? Could he be tied to the Japanese Yakuza (who see an opportunity to move on Montreal now that a 'soft' leader has been given control over the local mafia)?
If he's an old threat with a new name, do his methods ring a bell with any of you? Any villians tried this sort of scheme with you before? Don't forget about any foes you may have thought were dead--tricky DMs have a way of using them against you.
Oh, and have you tried to translate Ishimura's name? Maybe there's a clue there, maybe not.
What about the mole that Lawson said he caught? Any info there, or is it really a dead end? And where did this armor come from, anyway? Is Lawson really developing it, or is it something he found and is trying to replicate? That would explain why it's too valuable to lend to you--it might actually be one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable. Could Ishimura actually just be trying to recover something stolen from him? The armor sounds like magic--could it be?
This is really out on a limb here, but could your new employee (Tim) be involved in this? I mean, if he's an expert Inflitrator, could he be infiltrating you? Of course, maybe your DM doesn't go in for really evil tricks like that, but it's worth considering.
I don't trust Lawson, but I'm don't think he's involved (or secretly a cover for) this Ishimura character. I just can't see where the advantage would be for him. Still it was awfully cold of him to suggest that you just let your secretary get killed...feels like there's something suspicious there, but I just can't put my finger on it.
Anyway, I hope that perhaps some part of my random musings may be of help to you. Let us know how things turn out, okay?
Andor
First Post
Well Ishimura is obviously a fake name if you couldn't find anything on it with your resources. So far you have 2 contacts with him. 1. the Mole at Lawson and 2. The Lawyer.
And 3. He was in the pool of people who knew about the armour. Since the suit sounds like a black project that's a fairly small pool of people. So You can start searching a fairly small pool of people, and see where they intersect the Lawyer. Can you charm the lawyer and pump him for information?
Now there is the question of motivation. If this is some enemy of yours (Or friend (you thought)) then the armour is just a red herring. If the armour is the actual point of this exercise then he has to be somebody who can actually benefit from having the armour. That means someone with the resources to analyze and replicate the suit, since a single suit is a nifty toy but not worth the risk of incurring the wrath of your group and your impressive list of friends. It's probably not someone with a grudge against Lawson, because stealing the prototype is meaningless in the long term. They still have the plans, scientists, and prototyping hardware so Lawson can just make more, his worst case scenario is that he has to push back a demonstration date, with a rather clear cut excuse of industrial espionage.
All of this of course assumes the GM has thought things through this far. (I once had a GM look surprised and say "Huh. I never thought to give him a motivation.")
And 3. He was in the pool of people who knew about the armour. Since the suit sounds like a black project that's a fairly small pool of people. So You can start searching a fairly small pool of people, and see where they intersect the Lawyer. Can you charm the lawyer and pump him for information?
Now there is the question of motivation. If this is some enemy of yours (Or friend (you thought)) then the armour is just a red herring. If the armour is the actual point of this exercise then he has to be somebody who can actually benefit from having the armour. That means someone with the resources to analyze and replicate the suit, since a single suit is a nifty toy but not worth the risk of incurring the wrath of your group and your impressive list of friends. It's probably not someone with a grudge against Lawson, because stealing the prototype is meaningless in the long term. They still have the plans, scientists, and prototyping hardware so Lawson can just make more, his worst case scenario is that he has to push back a demonstration date, with a rather clear cut excuse of industrial espionage.
All of this of course assumes the GM has thought things through this far. (I once had a GM look surprised and say "Huh. I never thought to give him a motivation.")
Catavarie
First Post
Of course Ishimura could really be Lawson using an alias to set you guys up so that he can collect insurance money on a lost irreplacable prototype that never actually did or even could work...this wouldn't be the first time someone has tried to collect insurance on a "fake" item afterall.
EDIT: Of course he knows that you, being and inherintly good natured person, would never agree to such an underhanded act if you knew of the reasoning behind it....and has any testing been done to confirm the finger was you secretary's? Or is it just an extremely well crafted forgery?
EDIT: Of course he knows that you, being and inherintly good natured person, would never agree to such an underhanded act if you knew of the reasoning behind it....and has any testing been done to confirm the finger was you secretary's? Or is it just an extremely well crafted forgery?
Cthulhudrew
First Post
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