It will rain again tomorrow (OOC)

A magnificent 11, aaaand this is my 4th Circle to mark. :-)

Let me know if you want to chip in now, vagueGM, or how much narrative freedom I have about the Night Sisters.

Now you clear all of them and take an Advance. Take your time picking the Advance, but you can start Marking the Circles again immediately.
You are welcome to tell us what Jacob has heard and how he has dealt with them in the past. If anything does not work we will have him learn where he was mistaken, in an appropriate way (OOC if we have to).

About Advances:
Does this mean that I can take any Advanve from the standard list, or a Corruption advance or payout instead?

When you Advance you can take any of your Playbook's Advancement options, when gain Corruption Advance you can take any of your Playbook's Corruption Advances, when you complete a Scheme you can take any of your Scheme's Payouts.

They are each a separate thing, unless you have an option that says you can pick from another list, you can only pick the list in question.

In this case you Advanced through regular Circle Advancement, so you get to pick from the Advancement list:
Given how slow PbP can be, I am open to discussing taking the 'After five advances ...' options right away, on a case by case basis. Most of them are not the best choice this early in the game, though, so sticking to the regular options 'Available at the beginning of play' is usually a good idea, but if another one fits your character better, make your case.

Got it. So, the Dark bargain Move from the Tainted playbook looks like a lot of fun, and definitely in line with Jacob's character concept. Would that work?

Sure. It is completely up to you if you think a Move fits with your character concept. We have not seen Jacob making deals, but maybe this Move will bring that aspect of the character to the fore?

You will have to convince people to enter into a Dark Bargain with you, it does not look like a thing that benefits them in many circumstances.

You only ever get two Moves from Other Playbooks, so be sure to read these Moves carefully, and read the Notes on the Move as well.

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You don't have a Patron, so —each time— you will need to tell us about which (presumably demonic) entity you call upon to enforce these deals.

Great. This is how I see it: as Jacob works for himself, he usually closes deals using 'standard' methods, basically relying on the Debts mechanism. He saves his ability to enforce a dark pact just for special occasions, as every time he does, he risks getting unwanted attention from Hell.

Let's take it then. I think it will be a good source for additional drama.

PD: May I ask you to help with adding the Move to my sheet? I'm afraid to break it if I try... ^_^'

Nice. Just so long as you are happy taking a Move you won't use often.

You can also claim this fiction, but save taking the Move till you actually want to use it. I would let you use it once on the promise that you are taking the Move at the next possible opportunity.
Absolutely. :)
Done. Tick it in both places if you are taking it now.

Don't forget to clear your Marked Circles.

Thanks! Ticked and Circles cleared.

Don't worry, I'll take it now and make sure to use it as soon as an opportunity arises, as I said, just for the sake of adding drama to the story. :-)

Remind me what this is about? When was Josephine 'taken'? Is this to do with the thing with Benji tempting her?

Yeah, I meant that background story.

OK. You will need to fill in some of the details about what happened if it becomes relevant.

She was out when you got back last night (or early this morning). You phoned her and she indicated she was at Eclecis Enchante [ref]. The owner-guy confirms that she was here last night [ref].

You did check, her bed had not been slept in and she did not eat the dinner you left for her nor take the food you prepared for school [ref].

Remember that you have a lot of creative freedom. You can choose to make a scene more or less important by how you narrate it.

When you say 'He checked the second floor pub and then called a cab' that presumably puts an end to the scene, making it unimportant, but also yielding no information —we have to assume you found nothing. If you wanted to spend more time 'checking', this gathering place sounds like it could be A Place of Power for Mortalis? If we make it such, you could take the time to Study a Place of Power if you describe your character doing so.

It is fine if you want to first head to your Sanctuary and scry for Josephine's location. You might get a better read on a Place of Power when it is in use, empty, you will only get the vaguest suggestions but any consequences will be mild.

I am just saying this because you went to the effort of creating a place, came here to investigate, and then skipped out on using any of the mechanics. (I did think about asking you to Hit the Streets to get answers from the bartender/owner, but had already typed his answer and found that he was loquacious and unlikely to not answer you, and that Move can complicate things).

Also, remember that I don't have 'plans'. I don't actually know where Josephine is, or what sort of trouble she is in, if any. You get to steer this as much as you want, if you want it to be a big deal we make it a big deal, of you want to find her back home (and the only trouble is that of discipline) we can do that. You can decide if you want to steer the tone of the problem, or the magnitude of the problem, both or neither, and how much. Let me know.

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If you are skipping back to your Sanctuary, then what is Jena doing? If you want her around for the next bit she can wait at your home and join you after your Sanctuary work, or you can try again to persuade her to come in and help you —there is a damsel in distress!— or whatever you want.

Apartment, huh? I forgot you had one. :)

What is your apartment like? Is it part of your Harbour? Are you taking her to your Haven (and adding her to you Web)?

Are you doing anything else? As a meta discussion and suggestion (because we are 'new'), you need to Mark the Night Circle, do you go to any of you fellow vampires (or maybe Elliot Parry?) to ask around about what the grapevine has to say? It is intended for you to steer the story such that you get to Mark the Circles you need.

I don't know if we saw the question over in General...
If you saw it but chose not to answer, ignore it again. Feel free to answer in private via PM if that is needed.

No clue... yet. Like you, I am supposed to 'Play to Find Out'. :)
It happens. It is not a problem, you get to decide how much you want to put in, but the amount you put in influence the amount you get out. The more flavour your provide the more flavour we get to react to and and it multiplies.
Urban Shadows is not a game about 'solving problems' ('quest' based) it is more a game about 'living with problems' ('slice of life' based) and the consequences of how we tried to solve them. It is about your character, not about a mission. Josephine is a part of your character (part of your sheet), but mainly a part that causes trouble not one that helps you (Jena is there to be an asset), so you have an especially large amount of narrative freedom when it comes to her.
No worries. It should be fairly easy for you to do with the resources in your Santuary. Having Jena to help will fulfill one of the requirements, but there will be other options.
Do that. :)

It is not part of his Haven, but I imagine it’s near the station. I don’t think he spends much time there (he sleeps in his Haven). It’s mostly a space he uses to entertain dinner friends and store his stuff. He has an upright piano, a couch, some chairs and a table, but no bed or TV. He has hung paintings over the windows to keep out the sunlight.
The building is old and has a mouse problem (Benji keeps leaving biscuits out for them and removing the bait and traps that building management leave in the hallways and stairwells).
Yes, I was contemplating coming up with a Night NPC to hit the streets with instead of Boadicea when pursuing Amira, but I thought the statue thing was more fun. Benji doesn’t like Elliot so I don’t think he would be very inclined to go to Elliot for help unless he had some hint that he was somehow already involved. At the moment, Benji’s plans are to bring Lizabeth back to his apartment, go back to her place to pick up some clothes and her tortoise and whatever else she wants, and then try to get some answers out of Lizabeth about what happened. At some point he probably wants to sleep and stuff too.

Agreed. :)

It also brought us the Horse which you are looking into... (Jacob might also be interested in this, but mainly because there appears to be statue of Byron by the Horse:)
We can provide just such a hint if you want. That was along the lines of what I was thinking of inserting into your scene before you came to Jacob's, but, as you can see, that would probably derail the situation. Say the word and we can have a lackey of Elliot's waiting for you near your apartment.