Dresden Files, But By Night in Hollow's Cairn

[giles92]

It's roughly four o'clock in the morning and the LaWoulf building is exceptionally quiet. The bottom floor cafe, once teeming with third shifters running solely on tea and jaffa cakes, is now empty except for a strange group sitting at a large corner booth. Several wouldn't look out of place in Quentin Tarantino. However, they almost appeared normal next to the huge Indian man now approaching them.

"I hope you did not wait for too long. Some other matters required my immediate attention. By now you should know why your here. Some time ago a dark ritual cracked open the large leyline node beneath this building, creating a well of pure energy. The initial blast tore apart nearly all those who participated in the ritual. Fortunately, I managed to close off the opening and set a powerful entity in place that would protect the well. Last month a vibration caused the seal to crack and release a huge burst of energy, killing the guardian spirit. The huge amount of pure magic leaking from the cracked seal will draw dozens of supernatural creatures here to Hollow's Cairn. Most will not even know why they came, but that won't stop them from preying on the innocent townsfolk. That's your job. That and making sure the well stays hidden until a permanent solution is found.

I have taken the liberty of obtaining jobs for everybody. Ami will run the cafe here on the first floor, Roivas and Grady will assist Mr. Norm with antique acquisitions on the second floor, Chance and Hunter will take over the language training center on the 3rd and 4rth floors, and finally McEnoulty and Azariah will write for the magazine Classic England on the top floor. It is imperative that you appear normal while working. The monsters are searching for what brought them here and any strange behavior may lead them to the well. Now I believe introductions are in order. I will deliver further instructions tonight."

[Scrapjack]

Bollocks Neal muttered I didn't even pass my O-levels in writing. How the bloody hell am I supposed to write for a newspaper?

[Essie]

'Classic ... England. I have heard tell of such journals and periodicals; according to myth and legend, they lie scattered in the reception areas of private dental practices, solicitors' establishments, and other such dens of privilege and class. I suspect we shall be writing of the great benefits of owning a second yacht, or a third country estate, or something awful like that. Neal, I think we will be working together. Azariah Knight.

She proffers a hand, and, before even waiting to see if he'll shake it, rotates her head owl-like to the cowled Iraqi.

Gatekeeper. Our mutual enemies know that something is here, by all your accounts. I think I tripped over about ten distinct malific trails on the way to work this morning. Given that, wouldn't it be best to try to misdirect them? To profligately and blatantly magic seven shades of brick dust out of the surrounding pastoral landscape, draw the horrible lurking things out into the open, and pounce - or at least see what we are up against?

[CosmicSol]

As John had been the last person to arrive at the coffee shop that evening, he had been resigned to seating himself in a borrowed chair on the outside edge of the booth. A styrofoam cup of coffee looking like it had come from somewhere other than the cafe rested on the slice of table in front of him.

John could have been a handsome man. He had features describable as chiseled, if a bit lean. Tan skin, paired with ash-brown hair that was approaching golden in places, thanks to enough sun. His eyes were the darkest part of him, pools of near-black brown that betrayed his heritage. He was not tall or short, and looked to be in his thirties--early thirties, even--but knowing wizards he was probably a bit older than that. What kept him from classical good looks seemed to be a combination of general unkemptness--wrinkled clothes, the need for a haircut at least a month ago-- and a past of strife and struggle which had drawn their way across his face in deep lines, especially those underneath his eyes.

He listened to Azariah until she was finished, and took a few seconds change. Then he sat forward in his seat.
"I'm John Grady." he said, to no one person in particular. He looked like he might say something else, but decided against it, and sat back in his seat, satisfied.

[droobles]

"Quite direct to the point, this Gatekeeper..." Chance thought. "Appear normal while working, must be a joke."

Being pale, kida grayish really, and having to wear contacts wasn't going to help at all. "should have asked if there were going to be bounties for each kill". Chance scratched his chin and stood up. The short white hair wasn't really out of place, Chance wasn't very young anyway, but it also wouldn't help. Others were talking, but time was short.

People, here are my phone number and e-mail. If you don't have one, you should probably make one up. Not much attention there. He combed his hair wiht his hand once, social gatherings have never been his Forte. Memorize it and destroy the info. Leave me a message with your info plz, I am going to make sure my place won't bring me problems. See ya tonight. Chance left the piece of paper on the table and walked out, waving his hand a little.

"Language training? Did he mean teaching? F*ck, I hope not. Maybe monsters won't be my biggest problem this time." Chance went down the stairs, thoughts flooding his mind. Preparations had to be done ASAP. Fate only favors the mortal man, not a bunch of weird magic flinging people, or so he thought they were.

[CosmicSol]

John craned his head to watch the white-haired man leave after delivering his performance. He looked back at the contact information sheet Chance had left on the desk.

"Guy's a real big shot." he said, taking a sip of his coffee before grimly remembering how much he hated the coffee in England. "So. Names?"

[ninja_penguin]

Ami Nakamura

Ami raised her hand but said nothing else as Rashid made introductions and assigned the various duties. "I'm Ami." she said when John prompted people. "I recognize a couple of you, but I'm afraid I don't know about the rest of you. I'm new in the area."

She paused a moment, tilting her head to the side in thought, one of her fingers playing with a long lock of hair. "Skills, I guess? I've got a decent collection going now that we can research at at my place now. I can stand up in a fight, and I can do what I can to fix what ails you afterward."

[Scrapjack]

Neal nods at John "Oi, Yankee boy. How's life treating you?"

Neal frowns slightly at Ami's request. 'Skills? I guess if you need to open a can of whoopass on someone i'm your man. Or if you need tomething to go boom."

[Essie]

Azariah leans back in her chair, smirking. Dark skin, thick spectacles, tightly wound headscarf, pre-owned trenchcoat (which may, or may not, have been purchased second-hand from a gentleman in Los Angeles by the name of Philip Marlowe), scars - the woman's a strange splice of stereotypes, that seem to shift and boil under one's scrutiny. Her accent is similarly inflected by an indeterminate range of places, sources, and cultures, and doesn't seem entirely content staying in one place.

Oh, excellent. I too am not unproficient at lighting things up with supernal energies. Should we encounter the deceiver's agents, I have no doubt that we shall be able to bring them down without too much difficulty. Publishing a magazine, teaching a language, running an antique market and coffee-house ... that, perhaps, is something else.

[Acheron]

So far, Eric had been silent, first listening to the Gatekeeper and the other people gathered in the quiet cafe and then to the white-haired man as he delivered his quick speech, leaving quickly afterwards. Eric directed his attention to the contact information left behind. Destroying it? Kinda paranoid, I guess. If he's so concerned about it wouldn't it have been easier to just tell us? He mused silently, returning to listen to the other people gathered at the booth.

Taking a sip from a water bottle he had brought along, Eric sat relaxed in his chair while continuing being silent for a while. Teaching, eh? As of yet, it had been something Eric had not done before and he had had some strange jobs while living his semi-nomadic life. Teaching could be a challenge, though he doubted he would have a hard time blending in seeing as, so far, he had done it without problems. He had a very average Joe-like look, short cut gold blond hair, and blue eyes. Dressed casually as he was now, he dressed usually too. He did have a healthy tan which, other than betraying that he spent a lot of time outdoors, was not that remarkable though.

Finally, he deciding to join into the conversation. "While I can't make thing go boom, supernatural or otherwise, I still should be able to handle myself in a fight," he chimed in, then continued, "Also, I'm pretty good finding my way around outdoors. I don't know if it will come in handy though." He shrugged, not feeling comfortable talking about his skills. It sounded too much like bragging to him. When it appeared he would say nothing more, he suddenly slapped his hand on his forehead, as if remembering something. "My name is Eric Hunter, by the way. Nice to meet you all."

[droobles]

After leaving the building Chance looked back only once, it was neither new nor old. He didn't feel any kind of urge to go to that place, perhaps the attraction was more for beings out of touch with mankind?

He walked around, bought a map of the town and strolled here and there, the most improvised tour. There were few pedestrians, or at least the ones he saw were in lesser number than he expected.

After walking around, for an hour or so, Chance had finished marking important places all over the map, the town borders, police stations, gas stations, schools and whatnot, but his senses didn't catch anything that shouldn't be in a small place like this.

He walked back to his car, an old dodge hemi. The car was extremly well kept, but had scratches all over the painting, maybe some dust also, everything to avoid attention. He hopped in and drove for 5~8 minutes to the place he had prepared. He got out and brought boxes inside, ALL his things were in cardboard boxes. One day he would have to buy real bags.

The plan was to set some circles inside, and around, the place. Chance still wasn't able to set proper protections, so he only did the basics and all they would probably do was to wake him before something happened and it was to late.

[Overlord Rion]

Eddie took a quick look around the table, taking in what everyone was saying, and chuckled a little at Neal. On the bright side, he was assigned to the antiques shop. He loved old things, especially if they were old comics. He coughed to get everyone's attention.

"The name's Edward Roivas, but everybody here can just call me Eddie. I would like to warn everybody here that I am in no way, a fighter. I can hold my own against things roughly at my own capabilities, but once the spells start flying, I'm out. I'm what you would call a sneaky bugga. As Neal will tell you, I'm very good at what I do."

[Essie]

Azariah adjusts her glasses with a finger.

So, it seems we are, well, only going to be moderately underprepared for whatever we will have to be dealing with? Does anyone know exactly what that is? I must confess, Hollows isn't my home town, and so I don't really know what the ley of the land is, so to speak. Any advice, input, amusing anecdotes from people who haven't just moved in would be greatly appreciated.

[CosmicSol]

John tipped his coffee cup at Neal in a sort of greeting, but didn't say anything else. It was disturbing how many of these people he had met outside of the sinkhole that was Hollow's Cairn. Knowing the Gatekeeper, he supposed it wasn't surprising, but all the same he wasn't happy about his position in this week's "Arcane Disaster Missed Connections".

He waited to speak again until Azariah had said her piece.
"And now that we're all here, what's our next move?" he added.

[droobles]

"Don't call attention" Chance thought. Maybe going around your place in broad daylight spreading salt or some kind of wire wasn't the best idea, even worse doing such thing the first day there.

Problem was the small house was anything but safe. The best solution he found was to go around putting little bells at each window and door. He didn't know what to do with the mirrors yet so he just covered them with pieces of cloth.

"Well, what to do next?" Chance said to himself while stretching his arms. No smile came to his face after looking at 5 big boxes with all his belongings waiting to be unpacked.

[Essie]

Glaring back at John - why him, just why, why, why - Azariah slaps a little cheaply-printed tourists' map (pilfered from the stand at the front desk) of Hollow's Cairn down on the table.

It might be good to get an idea of the lay of the land, first. Those with magical senses should be able to get at least some sort of idea if there are active pretenders to godhood just hanging around on street corners, not to mention the general sense of the place that anyone can pick up. Thoughts? I see we have several bicycle cavalry, and some people in cars, too - should be possible to divide the place up and look about.

[CosmicSol]

John shrugged in his seat, both at Azariah's suggestion and her firey glare.

"Makes sense to me. Not like I was planning on sleeping tonight anyway. 'Let's split up, gang'." he said, his voice never leaving the wry tone he had kept for the whole of the conversation. Only afterwords did he pause to consider whether or not England even knew about Scooby Doo. Man, he hated this country.

[Scrapjack]

"You do realize that when they do that in horror movies, the people get picked off one by one. I'm just saying, when you live in a world full of horror monsters, it's best to avoid horror movie conventions." Neal gets up from his seat to stretch, his joints cracking ominously and loudly "Well if we are going to split up, I pick John. Go with the quantity you know, as they say."

[Overlord Rion]

Was that a Scooby Doo reference? Lord, how he hoped not. Eddie always suspected Scooby was far more than just a talking dog. But that wasn't important. What WAS important was that Eddie have a spell slinger in his group. He had seen a few times what one could do if you made them angry. It was usually a pretty good idea to disappear right before the spell hit, then pop out and hit them with a hammer. 90% chance of success there.

"All right, which of our remaining bunch of coconuts feels up to some scouting with me?"

Eddie made a mental note to stop being an idiot once he went out the door.

[Essie]

This is the school sports team and end-of-school prom all over again. Yes, then, Mr Edward, I'll go with you. Have you got a car? A bicycle? Or would you prefer to amble easily into mortal peril?

Azariah gets up, hands thrust into coat pockets against the February chill. Even indoors, the cold wind burns. Well, one hand is against the cold. The other - gripping her focus between two fingers.

[ninja_penguin]

Ami Nakamura

Ami piped up again after following the conversation. "Everybody should come back after a while and report in. I could stay here and be home base or something if people think that would work."

[CosmicSol]

"Works for me." said John, pushing himself out of his seat.

"Just so you know, tiny, I'm hiding behind you if anything goes down." He lifted his coat off the seat--the blue, puffy jacket looked like the newest thing in John's wardrobe.

[Scrapjack]

"*COUGH*wuss*COUGH*"

[Acheron]

"In that case," Eric started, "I think I'll stay here too protecting the fort and keep Ami company." The reasoning for his decision was sound, at least to him. As Neal had said before, if this was a horror movie, splitting up would make them good targets. Staying alone, However, would make Ami an even better target though.

"Only if it's alright with you, of course." Eric stated as he looked over to the Japanese woman.

[CosmicSol]

"Seems to settle it, then." said John. "And with tall, pale and paranoid out making 'preparations', that leaves everybody accounted for."

He finished pulling on his large coat. The rest of his clothes--jeans, boots and a black button up shirt--matched his general aesthetic, where unfortunately the blue, shiny fabric and marshmellow-puff volume made him look goofy and out of place, a one-two knockout for someone trying to blend in. At least he only looked like a yankee, not a wizard. He didn't bother to zip it up.

[Scrapjack]

"I guess i'll let you lead the way, Johnny-boy." Neal bows, with a flourish of his hand waving him to the door. Donning his Donegal Tweed Cap from the table and his brown leather jacket from the chair, Neal is dressed and ready to do battle with some monsters.

[giles92]

I'm really sorry about the huge delay. I live in freaking northern Indiana and a storm just wrecked cables everywhere. Should be up and running at full capacity by tomorrow though, so expect a blast of pent up gming.