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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Echolocation" data-source="post: 8045134" data-attributes="member: 7011911">I've fallen behind on uploading these. I'll try to catch up over the next few weeks.Session 20 - Not Just Busy WorkCourtesy of Lisandra's playerA new morning, a new friend and a new case. With a woman seen in a blue trench coat apparently making back-alley deals to peddle magical items in Flint, Team BAD were finally taken off of busy work and glorified security detail. This new morning also brought with it a mysterious letter Angharad shared, claiming to be an assassination order for Rock Rackus, the Docker celebrity currently held at Central Police on suspicion of murder from the day prior. Under the protection of Lisandra’s new magic trick, the group held a private conversation. Angharad considered the note suspicious, as the delivery method differed to his previous instructions from the Old Stag and he wanted to let his fellow know he was looking into it.Conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door… from Pete, of all people… who looked just as tightly wound as he had been walking out of Saxby’s office that same morning. Awkwardly, he professed the complete normalness of such behaviours before leaning in to whisper to Ella, “You don’t think they bugged the place, do ya?”The tiefling went to belay his concerns, but paused, and wandered out into the hall to inspect for magic. After a few moments, she turned to welcome Pete into the office, over to the small portion of the room Lisandra’s magick protected and proceeded to confirm… yes. Yes they had bugged the place. Assuring their fellow constable that this particular area was safe to speak freely in, Pete continued to relay to the group a tidbit of information from their old case on MacBannin and the Witch Oil. A woman in a blue trench coat has been spotted fleeing the garden shed on the mayor’s property when Killian Creed had begun evacuations.With this new bit of information reinforcing the importance of their current case, the team made haste to investigate their only lead… the alley way rendezvous that Mr. Langfield had pointed them to. Unfortunately… or most fortunately, instead of finding a clue they found a new ally awaiting; Millie, aka Millipede the Magnificent, a… very hyperactive bluejay that seemed to share a telepathic connection with Ella as the pair began chatting away about the case. After a seemingly one-sided conversation, Ella announced that the bird… I mean, Millie, happens to know how this woman in the trenchcoat makes her appointments and would be happy to share her own findings on the case if she were able to tag along and assist.[SPOILER="Millipede the Magnificent"]Ella has wizard levels, and has been seeking a familiar. After talking to the player about various options, she was most happy for Ella's familiar to be introduced through the story organically. Thus, here we are. For whatever reason, I thought familiars could only talk telepathically with their master. We found out later I was entirely wrong about this. This eventually results in Ella slowly teaching Millie to talk verbally.[/SPOILER]A little baffled, but unwilling to return to HQ with an arrested bird for questioning, the team agreed to take Millie on as a Honorary Constable for the day in exchange for the information. They are informed that if they enter the trinket booth at the Expo and say to the attendant at the back, “I am looking for an anniversary gift for my wife Ethel”, you will be sold a box containing the time and location of the next meet.Considering Team BAD’s recent bout with notoriety, they decide it would be best if John took the lead on this, and he set to work on obtaining a gift for his imaginary spouse. As it turned out, Millie’s intel was correct, and he left the trinket stand with an ornate jewelry box with a note containing the details of the meet. 4pm, Lanternwood Sub-rail Station construction site in central, just across the way from the fairgrounds.On the way back to HQ to discuss further planning, Angharad noticed an older gentleman watching them over the top of his copy of the Flint Times. The Cipith watched as the man folded his paper under his arm and began to follow them. As he notified his fellows, their stalker took a hard right down a street and Angharad immediately summoned Gariad to follow. The flaming pterosaur was spotted and watched as the gentleman snapped his fingers and vanished from view. Though the flaming companion recognized it as magic, he has no idea what the exact spell used was.Warily, Team BAD returned to their bugged office to strike up a plan on how best to approach the meeting this afternoon with a degree of subtlety and perhaps gather a little more intel. To best use their time, the group decides to split their efforts.Ella headed to the site of the meeting under the guise of a construction worker, thanks to the use of a Disguise Self. Millie offered her support at a distance as the pair got the lay of the land first-hand. John headed to City Hall to procure the official plans and maps for the site. Angharad decided to procure some funds to assist in John’s bluff by less conventional methods, leaving a meeting with a Vekeshi contact with a chest filled with a large sum of illusionary gold.  Lisandra also made use of her own shady connections, paying Dozi a visit in Stray River and spent some time speaking to Monsieur Cippiano about the mysterious woman selling magic items on the sly… who apparently also has a 7-foot-tall machine-like bodyguard that accompanies her around.With recon concluded and some helpful information under their belts, Team BAD formulate their plan and head to the site to attempt a stealthy approach to their sting operation in the pouring autumn rain. With the help of some invisibility magick, Ella and Angharad made their way to some cover unseen, the tiefling almost running into one of the woman’s hidden lackeys and as John headed in to begin the mock purchase, Lisandra approached from behind, slipping through the fence on the far side and take up some cover as close as she could behind the woman and her looming bodyguard.Unfortunately, the wares were beyond John’s means and his attempts at perhaps receiving a discount drew some suspicion and she surveyed the grounds, asking John if he came alone. Hi bluff did not convince her otherwise and she snapped her fingers. From beneath the tarps of covered wood, one of which Ella and Angharad were hidden behind, small mechanical turrets skittered out from beneath the timber, priming their guns.While Angharad made short, and regrettable work, of one of the turrets, the slippery mud floor of this arena got the better of Lisandra, sending her skidding on the ground and taking cover against the other. Team BAD now find themselves pitted against the woman, her gun support and massive witch-oil construct of a body guard. Will they prevail and arrest the peddler and her crew? Or get turned to goo beneath metallic fists? Will Lisandra ever learn prestidigitation to clean her soiled, fashionable clothes? Find out… in this week’s episode of Zeitgeist: The Adventure of Team Bad.</blockquote>

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