The Casting Call of Duty
| The Casting Call of Duty | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Sir Boris Aldrich Karl Von Altdorf of the Order of the Silver Torch | Movie Corporate Negotiators | ||||||||
| Angra Mainyu |
Corp Magician Corp Negotiator | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| None | One Spirit of Man was banished. | ||||||||
| Initiation Ordeal for Ahriman | |||||||||
Summary
Ahriman gets to be an arcane bodyguard. She ends up being quite good at it.
The Meet
Sir Boris is up to his usually weird antics and Dollmaster sends Ahriman a job offer originating from Puyallup. She's mid-dinner when the text comes and after finishing her meal drives down to enter the peculiar ramshackle castle of the crazed knight. His words, archaic as they are, take a moment to decipher, but Ahriman's college fencing classes help her return a medieval bow and get an understanding with the man. An acquaintance of his needs help due to some strong-arming opposition in business circles. Apparently the man, called Konstantin, has been threatened to agree to sign over some talents or they'd have to resort to astral means as an escalation. Ahriman is hired to the upcoming negotiations as astral security.
The Plan
When Ahriman meets Konstantin, she establishes DNI connection and instructs him to speak up via the connection if anything peculiar comes up or if he feels strange. She checks out the meeting room for any traps as well, but finds nothing.
The Run
The meeting itself is relatively mundane at first. Ahriman's present in the background as an intern, taking notes and writing down the lingo as it happens. She occasionally peers at the astral and finds a Spirit of Man present. She tries to warn it not to try anything, but the spirit doesn't quite feel intimidated by the message and attempts to Influence Ahriman. She resists it and with a flash of her eyes Banishes the spirit back to its home plane. The magician present and standing beside the opposing negotiator looks apprehensive due to losing his magical support and Yvonne interjects during the negotiations, demanding that the mage keeps his pets on a tighter leash.
While the mage tries to play it off, he's thrown off his game and makes a fool of himself in an utterly unconvincing way, trying to pretend like he knows nothing. As he prepares to leave and 'tell the spirit's owner to be careful' as a blatantly obvious lie, he tries to get revenge on his opposition by throwing a Control Thoughts spell at Ahriman. She's prepared for this by now, however, and Reflects it in full back at him, forcing the magician to suddenly break into a sprint and run out of the building entirely. Ahriman happily leans back in her seat and gestures for the opposing negotiator to continue and not let the bizarre interruption be a bother. This throws a wrench in their plans and, while there's no success in buying Konstantin's current plans, at least he gets to keep his current business endeavors in their projected timelines.
Aftermath
Ahriman suggests that in the short-term Konstantin uses holo projectors and hosts remote casting interviews for future talents by using drones and to stay inside a ward himself. The opposing contractors looked like they may carry a grudge, so she may have to deal with them more firmly in the future.
Rewards
- 8k Nuyen
- May purchase an Ares Arctic Forces suit (Konstantin's film studios have one as a costume reference) at gear rates
- 6 Karma
- 2 CDP
- Initiation Ordeal Discount
- Optional Contact: Sir Boris Aldrich Karl Von Altdorf of the Order of the Silver Torch (C3/L1) (3 RVP)
Ahriman's After Action Reports (AARs)
I will admit, business world is rife with abuse of magical power. I was not surprised by this, but for once I am glad that I was able to participate and more importantly intercept this kind of reckless use of it. While I shouldn't hate the art itself but the artist, sometimes I do admit to taking a degree of pleasure in beating the typical cocky wagemage at his own game. A little humility does wonders for them in the long run, I suspect. That knight, however... what happened to him?