Dresden Files Calgary - Favors

[Rama]

Favors. Dangerous tools on the best of days, particularly when dealing with the Sidhe. But you know what they say about desperate times…


There’s a distinct feel in the air when trouble’s coming. Nothing tangible, nothing that you can put a specific description to; more of an itch in the back of your mind. And tonight, as you wander down 17th Avenue, you feel it. Strongly.

So it is little surprise to you to see the most common cause of trouble smiling a vulpine grin at you from the entry of a narrow alleyway. And, being the dutifil ‘son’ that you are, you follow the unspoken invitation to join Amora deeper in the shadowed, dirty (but otherwise unoccupied) alley.

“My child,” Amora purrs. “Acclimating yourself nicely to your new surroundings, I see. Good. Your performance has been satisfactory thus far. Now I have a new task for you.

“I trust your connections have been sufficient to inform you of last night’s untimely passing of Warden Arras of the White Council? His commander, Warden Livia, is an old acquaintance of mine. Before your birth, she did a small favor for me; now she is calling in that debt. She requests that the one responsible for this death be identified and dealt with. She also expected Warden Arras to be carrying a sensitive package for her, which she wishes returned. I expect you to complete this on my behalf.”

Amora purses her lips and theatrically taps them with a finger. “A most interesting scenario. It is unusual to see the White Council so desperate as to seek outside aid when one of their own is involved. Even so hampered by the war with the Red Court, they tend to save vengeance for their own people in the end. While you complete your task, use the opportunity to find out what has their interest so strongly. There may be further opportunity for gain in this situation.”

After your conversation with Amora, you reach out to a few of your contacts – Atticus, Erin, and Lan – and arrange a meeting at Accorded Neutral Ground. Both to gather any additional info you can, and because you estimate they would be interested in resolving any situation that killed a Warden…

NOTE: Since I’m handwaving my end of this conversation to large extent as past history, if you have anything specific you wish to ask/say in this situation let me know and I’ll give you any response you’d receive.



NOTE: I’ve taken some liberties and assumed you have a medical job at a local ER to support yourself/tie in with the community. If you wish to change elements of this intro to reflect other circumstances, let me know. The details aren’t super significant.

Most of your shifts at the South Health Campus are relatively easy. A few broken bones, paranoid parents bringing in flu-sickened children, and similarly simple cases. But some nights are like this night. Ambulances bringing a steady stream of critical patients, one after another after another. Unrelated cases for the most part – a drunken driver hitting a power pole, a burn victim from a bad house fire, a patient mauled by what police assumed to be a wild animal…

And then the gunshot victim came in.

You recognized him nearly as soon as you stepped up to the operating table. Michel Arras, the Warden; and judging from the rapidly pooling blood, with very little time to live. The heart monitor squealed once in protest, then sparked and shut down – much to the startled surprise of the nurses. Grabbing a scalpel, you began the desperate fight to save his life.

You failed.

As the Warden’s body was carted away to the morgue, concern for the future began to weigh more heavily on your shoulders. Things were bad enough – that poor boy brought in earlier as a prime example; yet another victim to the growing Black Court menace. Without a Warden, the fiends were liable to grow even more bold. After your shift, you headed home and crashed.

The next day brought an unexpected phone call from a strange acquaintance – Solstice. He requested a meet at Accorded Neutral Ground to discuss the Warden's death and the resulting situation your city was about to find itself in...



NOTE: I’m assuming the two of you are roomies as was discussed in the thread, as well as a few other liberties. If you want anything changed, that’s fine; the details aren’t really significant.

Erin and Lan were spending a relatively rare night in. Between Lan’s near constant musical gigs and Erin’s physical training, one or the other of the two were almost always away after nightfall.

The night was fairly quiet and calm, with the television on in the background but not a central focus – perhaps Lan was strumming on his guitar, working out the chords to a new song. Perhaps Erin was reading a novel. Those details don’t really stick in your mind any further, as Erin’s attention was suddenly drawn to the news report on the TV.

“…police spokesmen indicate that the victim, a Mr. Michel Arras, was gunned down in his apartment building last night. A motive is not yet known, and the police have not ruled out potential gang involvement in the incident.”

The Warden was a man that Erin knew by reputation as a tough fighter, more than capable in an altercation with the supernatural. For him to be taken out…

Almost on cue as the news sank in to Erin, the phone rang. Solstice on the other end, one you’d dealt with before and who seemed at least somewhat reliable. He also knew of the Warden’s death, and requested a meet to discuss the situation – Accorded Neutral Ground, the next day.

While Lan was less directly connected to the now-deceased Warden, and had less than fond feelings for the Sidhe servant, Erin convinced him to attend and hear him out…



Now the four of you have gathered at Accorded Neutral Ground; which in this city is a charming little café/book shop called Fireside on 17th Ave SE. Each of you, for your own reasons, has acknowledged concern with the death of the Warden and the responsible party – whoever he, she, or they may be...



At this point, it is the second day after the Warden’s murder. Call it early afternoon – 1 PM or so. And we’ll say it’s a Tuesday, in case it ends up mattering. Early fall – September 14th.

Info in your personal spoilers is considered private unless you decide to share it publically.

[Halae]

Erin

Erin shows up very shortly after the call is made; the apartment she and Lan share is situated on the corner of 17th Avenue and 43rd Street. Across the streets in one direction is a KFC, that's open until 10 PM, allowing for late night munchies to be fulfilled. Across a different direction is a Chinese place that doubles as a bar, but it generally has a quiet atmosphere, so it's rare that anybody gets truly rowdy there. All in all, despite its location, it's a fairly quiet place. It's also fairly close to basically every shop 17th Avenue has to offer.

Erin herself is largely wearing things that hide her inhuman features; She's wearing a blue ball cap that conceals the horn stubs on her forehead, a light but long-sleeved white shirt that covers all the way down to her wrists, a long black skirt to help conceal her tail, and a pair of steel-toed boots, like she wears every time she goes out, regardless of the weather or season.

She pushes up her round glasses as she chews on a cookie, eying Solstice. It was fairly clear he was working for someone, but he'd proven himself dependable, if young and unorthodox. Atticus... Well, she wasn't sure how much she trusted the good doctor, but after what they'd been through, she was willing to attempt a little trust for this.

Lan though? Lan's a good guy. Not exactly much in a fight, but what he lacked for brawn he made up for with having a good head on his shoulders, thinking outside the box, and downright funny to boot. As long as the problem wasn't something that you needed to fight your way out of, Erin felt she could trust him with just about anything.

"So." She says, a finger tapping the top of the table, "How've you been?" She doesn't ask anybody in particular.

She hopes this is over before it gets too intensive. She doesn't want to deal with a headache right now.

((As a silly note, Erin's Birthday is September 6th, so this is a week and a day after she got another year on :smalltongue:))

[WindStruck]

When she asks him if he heard of the warden's death, Solstice shakes his head and responds, "No, Mother, I did not hear he died until now..."

At the end of her conversation he says, "I will do my best. It seems the White Council has been losing their hold on the area for some time now. Gangs of hooligans run rampant in many of their streets, and with Arran's death, their position has become much worse. It is not safe... was this so urgent that you could not wait for me to return home?" Solstice looks concerned, both because of the negative implications the warden's death brings, and also because the world in which his mother stood was full of cold iron and monsters.

"Before you go, I have some things for you, Mother." Solstice retrieves a crumpled-up piece of paper from his pocket and hands it to Amora. It was a love letter a young man had been painstakingly working on, only to throw it away in the trash, to never be read by its recipient. The next thing he hands her is a tiny bundle of baby's breath, which was swiped from a bouquet a girl left at a table for a few moments. (They're spell/potion components) The last thing Solstice gives her is a long, affectionate hug.

Solstice had managed to "call" two people using these strange devices with numbers on them. Phones, they were called. Surely some powerful magic was used to let two people from anywhere communicate with each other, but apparently it was quite unstable and crude. The things failed all the time. Luckily he found a much larger version with a cord and a large piece where you held one end near your ear to listen and the other near your mouth to speak. Unfortunately he had to insert coins into them, and those were hard to come by.

Thankfully, he managed to talk with Erin and Atticus, and they were interested in the late warden's death. If they could be motivated by their own accord to investigate the situation, it wouldn't be considered as them repaying the favor each owed him. Solstice contemplated the magic of the phones more, speculating that perhaps as each being had a True Name, perhaps each being also had a True Number which was connected to these devices. But in any case, now wasn't the time for contemplation; he didn't want to be late.

Solstice arrived at Fireside right at the time he said: which was "30 minutes from now". Now time was a concept he better understood. Time always flowed at the same pace (unless we were dealing with human lawbreakers) and a minute was always a minute. Or an hour an hour. He entered the cozy little cafe to find not only Erin - but Lan also - already there and waiting. That was good.

Solstice didn't look so normal as Erin or any of the others, though. For one thing, it was obvious he was still fairly young, like in the early teen years. Secondly his long, orange-red hair, cascading freely down to his hips was not something you'd see very often - not even from girls. It certainly made him stand out and recognizable on its own. ((A full description is on the character sheet))

He wore a pair of simple rope sandals, which he had crafted himself, and a short-sleeved tunic made of a fine, white cloth and scarlet trim. It looked quite regal, but on the other hand if one thought about it long enough, it also resembled an extremely fancy bath robe. But despite being underdressed for Calgary weather, he seemed perfectly fine even when temperatures dropped far below zero and the wind howled. Also to complete his ensemble, he carried with him a sword that looked much like a katana. It currently rested in its sheathe, of course.

Somehow, despite his bizarre appearance, he had gotten by so far without any trouble. But in this day and age, weirdos are more commonplace than you think. It was probably assumed he was a cosplayer or just some kid who wanted to be different. And the more people he interacted with without incident, the less he considered changing his look. But in any case, to anyone in the know, it was all too obvious he wasn't normal...

Solstice quietly made his way over to the table Erin and Lan occupied and sat down. He didn't say a word, as he was waiting for the 4th person, Atticus, to show up, but that silence was getting awfully long and awkward.

Responding to Erin's question, Solstice says, "I am fine. Though I am surprised Lan decided to join us." The boy eyes the musician curiously and calculatingly.

[Deathkeeper]

Lan

So I said Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's goin' 'round...

Lan sits in the booth next to Erin, as mentioned. He's leaning back in the seat, slouching in a rather casual manner considering the circumstance. He's wearing a simple green shirt to stave off the cold and some khaki cargo pants. There's a basic black wristwatch on his left arm which he got cheap from a Fossil outlet years ago while on a vacation. Not much metal on it of course, but sturdy nonetheless. He's making no show (in terms of clothing) to hide his curly horns or his horizontal ears, and that's mostly because anyone who could see past his Glamour could probably just tell from the smell or something like that.

He frowns at Solstice's comments. Legitimately frowns, too!
"Aw, come on kid. Just because you have a tendency to show up and cause me emotional distress doesn't mean I have anything against you personally." he says, seemingly quite sincere despite the sarcasm.

He doesn't really know what this kid's deal is. But he does seem to take his job seriously (whatever it is), so he wouldn't have called just to pester them some more. What's with the sword, though? It's a bit conspicuous. And katanas don't really seem like practical weapons to him. He's no sword aficionado but he's reasonably sure that they're not exactly the kind of things that's going to do well against anyone with a gun. And he doubts this kid is the age to have any real serious training with it, although if he's carrying it chances are he's better with it than Lan sure would be.

[WindStruck]

"It is not that I did not want you to come. But I did not request that you come either." Solstice shrugs indifferently. "In any case, if I caused you any distress when we last met, I apologize. It was not my intention." He gazes at Lan in a deadpan fashion before glancing over to Erin to note her expression.

[DukeGod]

Atticus arrives some minutes late. He practically always does, looking his usual punk self. Honestly, who'd think he was a doctor unless he walked with his medical degree wore as a lanyard?

He had black hair streaked with pink of all colors for a man to have in his hair, long-ish but tied in that weird samurai bun. His panths were either slashed in places, or had some kind of weird imagery, in this case, green flames all around. His shirt at least was fine. White satin, with a fur trimmed leather jacket

He sits and looks at the menu, while also giving the usual greetings. It was pointless to read the menu, he WAS gonna order the tea with chocolate...so he puts it down quickly enough

"So he hailed you two aswell huh. Guess we all know of what happened to Arras?"

Atticus unbuttons a bit of his shirt. Okay he actually hated this damn thing. Fine clothes right. He was gonna avoid satin in the future

[WindStruck]

Solstice nods to Atticus. Both in a greeting and to answer his question. Of course they knew about Arras; he told them.

I am still almost expecting another response from Lan, but if I don't get one it's ok. However, it probably would be best if Erin and/or Lan confirmed their knowledge of Arras's demise with Atticus...

[Halae]

Erin

Erin's expression remains neutral. She rests her elbows on the table, and her hands under her chin, looking contemplative.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you have something you want us to do. Something related to death. And last I knew none of us were necromancers, so we're likely to be tracking down someone else, yes?" She says, "Like a detective novel; someone important dies and we have to track down whoever did it before something bad happens. Because there's no way someone would assassinate a warden and not be planning something."

Erin always felt weird about this group; Between the punk-rock shaman, a fey warrior kid, a half-fey musician, and the half-demon brawler, it struck her that they were basically a lot like a group you might end up in a game with. But hey, if they could solve problems, she wasn't going to complain.

[WindStruck]

Solstice smiles at Erin's guessing. "Ah, very good! I think you are on to the right idea..." He pauses to collect his thoughts, having thought of many ways to go about this conversation in his mind before, trying to think of all the right words and key things to mention. And maybe what not to mention.

"You see... the death of Warden Arras is unlike most murders. He was a powerful wizard of the White Council and apparently on an important mission when he died. The Council's influence on this city and its surrounding area has been slipping, and the passing of Arras was a telling blow. And now, believe it or not, The Council is asking for outside help in the matter..."

Solstice pauses for the time being, thinking this might be enough to get the others interested. He eyes the other three sitting with him, waiting for a reaction and trying to gauge their responses.

[Deathkeeper]

There's somethin' happening here. But what it is, ain't exactly clear...

Lan raises an eyebrow. If this kid is setting up what he thinks he's setting up, in an horu he's going to have to feel pretty bad about laughing in his face again.
"And you apparently work for either the Council now, or for someone who finds their decision intriguing, and for some reason think that calling people without any formal investigative training would be better than say, pretty much anyone else?" he says.
Because seriously, he respects Erin, but if he had to solve a mystery she's not exactly first on his list, even if you're only using his Paranet contacts. Seriously, what did he expect teens to be good for in this situation? Giving him directions?

[WindStruck]

"Something like that. Yes," Solstice responds, looking somewhat annoyed when his motives are being questioned. Then he scoffs, "Who would you suggest I call? The police? They have no idea what they are dealing with. The White Council?"

His mocking grin clearly conveyed what a silly idea that was. "As Erin pointed out, if the culprit is not found and dealt with, something bad will happen. But not even I know what."

[Rama]

At Solstice's profession that he has not heard of the Warden's death, Amora will purse her lips and look a little disappointed.

After your profession of concern, Amora will smile fetchingly. "Such a dear child you are. No need to fret, my sweet. For the timing, a favor request cannot wait; particularly when alacrity is a significant part of the favor itself."

Amora will accept your gifts with another smile, and lightly returns your hug - just enough pressure to acknowledge it, but not enough to satisfy and keep you from wanting a little more. After a few moments, she will break the hug and step backwards; blending with the shadows and disappearing, leaving only a faint, rose-like scent hanging in the air.


Fireside is a relatively small, family-run establishment. As each of you enters the owner, a burly middle aged man named Jon, will give you a friendly wave from behind the counter (accompanied by a smile if he knows you personally). Tables are scattered seemingly at random throughout the first floor of the establishment, although those of you with magical training or experience will recognize a pattern set to diffuse excess energy. A pair of spiral stairways lead to the second floor, which hosts the book collections - an open loft that you can see from your current location. Those of you that have shopped here previously also know that a collection of rare and/or magic-related tomes is maintained in a locked cage at the back of the second floor.

The rest of the store is fairly empty at the moment - the lunch rush is all but over, and only two men in smart looking grey business suits occupy another table. You also catch occasional glimpses of a middle-aged woman moving among the shelves on the second floor, browsing the books.

After a few minutes and once your table is filled, Emily will approach with a cheerful smile. A willowy blonde in her late teens, Emily is Jon's daughter and has worked in the family business for longer than any of you have likely been coming here. If you are regular guests, she greets you by name.

"Welcome to Fireside, what can I get for you?"

[WindStruck]

Fireside waitress, a few moments back in time~

The owner and his daughter certainly recognize Solstice, but he'd only been there once or twice before. She refers to him by "Solin", which is what he claimed his name to be (Actually the exact phrasing was "You may call me Solin.") but otherwise, they don't know much about him.

Solstice would have just declined receiving anything, though he was getting thirsty. He asked just for a glass of water. It was peculiar that every place he went would give water for free, considering it was necessary for life. But with an inward shrug, he figured that anything else with flavor or alcohol would be much harder to make or come by. And in any case, those drinks didn't appeal to him much in this world. But at least water was just water.

When his glass comes, he uses a napkin and some of the water to begin wiping the table. His compensation for the drink.

[DukeGod]

"I'll have a cup of chocolate tea, if you please..." ...oh well he was feeling kind today "And bring us a slice of strawberry cake each will you?"

Atticus clearly doesn't give a damn about someone else's wounded pride if it comes up
Once Emily is gone, he goes back to some of the business

"Alright then. I was there to see it happen. Arras was injured by a gunshot, and died of bloodloss as a consequence of that. He was brought in by an ambulance, so I guess we can presume it was somewhere where a person would reasonably stumble upon. I'll check with the coroner later today, he was in a way my patient so questions probably won't be up"

Atticus raises both of his plates to allow Solstice to do his wping of the table.

"Most importantly, before we start investigating, we might wanna take a look at two things, who knows of the death and what measures will be needed to take until a new Warden arrives in town."

[Deathkeeper]

Lan raises an eyebrow at Solstice. "Well, you could have spent five minutes on the Net and looked up more people with backgrounds like the Doctor here, but that's neither here nor there."
he says, before pleasantly smiling and ordering a soft drink from the waitress.
But suddenly plans are being made?
"Woah woah woah. There is no 'we' yet. We have talked for literally two and a half minutes and all I've heard is a vague threat, no 'please,' and still no real reason to risk our necks helping Wizards because you 'have a hunch' that something bad will happen. You want me to play a hand I need to see some cards, kid." he says, more shocked than irritated.

[WindStruck]

When Atticus orders a piece of cake for everyone, Solstice politely protests. "The gesture is kind of you, Atticus, but I really must decline your offering of... dessert." (If you'd even call it that)

Then as Lan brings up the internet and finding other doctors, Solstice asks, "Pardon. The net??"

Afterwards, he responds to Atticus's input. "You see, Lan? We are already off to a good start," he says, smiling smugly. "Though, I do not believe your concerns are warranted, Atticus. News travels very fast. And I think the only measure for people to take during this time is to survive..."

The boy's interest picks up at the mention of the doctor's firsthand experience, however. "But you were there? You saw Arran die? That is most interesting..." After a brief pause he also asks, "Do you think we might be able to see his body?"

It was then that Lan started to argue about there being no 'we' and no reason for him to help. To which Solstice responds: "No matter what, you are taking a risk. Maybe there will be further consequences from the warden's death if left unchecked. Or perhaps not. You are correct that aside from my warnings, there is little reason for you to get involved. But I did not ask for you to come, remember? After all, if you are too afraid to meet your father, I doubt you would have the temperament for this sort of endeavor."

Solstice didn't mean to go for such a low blow. But this sort of talk only seemed to come naturally, given his background.

[Deathkeeper]

Lan's smile twists, but it isn't in anger. He places a hand on the table to steady himself...
...and bursts out laughing. Not hysterically, but not subtly either.
"Oh God kid are you really that clueless? Any issues I have involving him are with myself. The goat did what goats do, that's all there is to it. I couldn't give a rat's ass about seeing him, because there's nothing to say, nothing to do. It's not worth whatever price you or whatever patrons of yours were going to ask to see someone that I have no interest in seeing. "
But for a moment his look does harden.
"Pro tip, Solstice: when you're trying to get help, don't condescend at the Bastard's nature, especially when the person you are asking is in a boat of the same make."

[WindStruck]

Solstice stared blankly at Lan. His behavior certainly was odd... there he was laughing, when Solstice didn't even make a joke. Solstice did begin to frown when Lan referred to the noble Satyrs as mere goats, however.

He had to scratch his brain trying to discern what Lan was talking about. "I do not understand... bastards? Are you referring to when a human breeds with a different kind of being?? I made no such derisive remarks, but I daresay your using the word 'bastard' is such an insult you are referring to."

[Deathkeeper]

((for the record, that last sentence is not even close to grammatically correct and I'm actually not quite sure what he's saying))

Lan looks like he's close to face-palming. "The word, by definition, refers to someone whose parents are not married. Do people normally have to spell themselves out to you every time they use an expression? It means 'if you're trying not to sound like an ass, try not insulting someone by bringing up their parents, especially when they're extremely likely to have issues with their parents.' Because if you haven't realized, insinuating that I'm a coward for not wanting to see my father is a pretty lousy thing to say when someone like Erin would probably not be of sound mind if they did want to meet theirs. And not to mention, people less nice than me might have taken serious offense to that line."
I mean sheesh, this kid won't go anywhere if he can't even figure out when he's insulting someone. Lan is starting to feel like he's going to have to come just to prevent this kid from getting himself killed or arrested the second the doctor turns his back.

[WindStruck]

Solstice crosses his arms. "I was not talking about Erin. Whatever I said about you and your father applies to you, alone. I do not know what goes through your mind, but whatever it is, you have no excuse to avoid your father, where as Erin has every reason to if she values her life and soul."

The conversation was grating on his nerves, and he was almost wishing he specifically requested Lan didn't come... but all the mention of Erin made him turn his attention to her. She had been awfully quiet the whole time, and not only was it rude to get into protracted discussions about her without her involvement, but he was curious to see what she had to say on the whole White Council situation.

[Halae]

Erin

"This isn't the matter at hand, guys," Erin says firmly. She'd been remaining quiet because it wasn't her place to comment on Lan's heritage, even if she was in a similar boat. A fork reaches out to take the cake she'd been given, and she'll begin to eat it; Lan will likely remember she has quite a strong sweet tooth. She doesn't look offended at the comments about her father; she's pretty hard to ruffle about emotional things. That said, Lan should recognize this; she wants the current conversation to end right now, and so she's diverting the topic.

"When it comes down to it, we've got a few options here. We can either go on with our lives and hope for the best, largely ignoring the threat. This may not be a good idea in the long run, as it leaves us out of the loop and likely will result in things spiraling out of control; a problem we likely can't prevent regardless, but we might as well try." Another bite of the cake.

"The second option is contacting the police, but as far as I'm aware there are no police that are in the know, and their own investigation is going to turn up bogus because they don't know about the supernatural politics of the city. So that's pointless. Can't even contact an investigator because even if one of us had the money, what would we tel him? 'The city's law wizard has been shot and we want you to find out what supernatural nasty did it'? We'd do a good job of making ourselves look insane."

"Option three is getting involved; we have leads. We have a body, if we can speak to the coroner. We have a fairly good idea of who could want to make a move for the more power in the city, since someone shot the sheriff. We know it was an assassination, since it was in his own home. I already know what directions we can go to start finding out information, and frankly I probably would have gone out doing a little investigating even if Solstice hadn't contacted us."

She lets out a sigh, having finished the cake shockingly fast in between speaking, "I've got a direction for each of us at the moment, if you guys are in, but I'll understand if you don't want to take part. Whomever killed Arras is going to try something political, and needs to be headed off before they do. I'd rather not be sitting blind when an upheaval like that happens. Are you in, Lan? Atticus?" Solstice is a guarantee, since he's the one that contacted the rest of the group.

[Deathkeeper]

Lan crosses his arms and turns his head in a mock scoff.
"Of course I am. You can't talk to people and you know it, I've only ever seen the Doctor here have an eagerness for hitting things, and I'm not sure if Mr. Solin here would know not to try getting past police lines by calling some plumbers." he says. He's probably rather obviously being teasing, but hopefully Solstice can tell that.

[WindStruck]

Solstice raises an eyebrow at Lan. "I beg your pardon. Plumbers? Police lines?" He obviously didn't have any idea what Lan was talking about or how the two were related. In any case, he then looks to Atticus, patiently awaiting for him to confirm his assent.

((As a side note, I don't even know what Lan is talking about. Looks like this one is way out in left field. :smalltongue:))

[DukeGod]

"I am in. Just as Lan here reminded us, all I'm too eager for is to go hitting things. For all that I'm a doctor and all that..."

Atticus pauses to take a sip of tea and pushes the slice that was going to go to Solstice to Erin instead. He would take it himself but together with his own chocolate tea it was a bit too sweet

"And for all that I like to act with kindness...once you go enough times into the mind of a predator. Once you see the world through their eyes, smell the blood of an enemy and try to gauge wether they're stronger or weaker than you. If you can hunt them...

...Then, no matter how many times I change into something else and get a glimpse of the mindset of the prey...the beast that is born, will not subside so easily"

[WindStruck]

Solstice looks over to Atticus, a bit concerned. "Hmm... I do believe physicians swore to take an oath... the Hippocratic Oath if I recall. But I know you are no mere doctor. You are something... far greater... just do not let your animal side completely overcome you, or you will cause more problems than you hoped to solve."

With that, the boy addresses the whole group in an eager tone. "So. It is settled. The four of us will do what we can to aid the White Council and find Arras's killer. Now, I realize that some of you may not feel capable of the task before you. But, you need not worry, for I am well-versed in The Arts."

[Halae]

[Erin]

"Right then," Erin says, taking the other slice of cake with a nod toward the doctor, "Atticus, I'd like to ask you to go and look into the body, get a sense of what it'd take to kill a man like that. See if there's any defensive wounds; if he put up a fight, he might have additional clues as to what exactly killed him."

"Solstice, your job in this would be to gain information; I want to know what groups and people might try to hold a grudge against Arras enough to kill him. If you can find out without them realizing, so much the better; if they don't know we're coming, we can get the drop on them more easily."

"Lan, I'd like you and I to go to the crime scene proper, to chat up the cops and see if they'll spill anything from their investigation. And if we can't do that, maybe we can get some information from the crime scene itself, and you're the only person i know capable of getting us behind the police lines."

She looks between the group, looking for objections or any of them voicing concern.

[WindStruck]

"That is a feasible course of action," Solstice agrees. "Though I intended to gather information more directly. I think crafting a ritual to link the victim with the murderer and then track him may be possible. To be frank, I do not know much about this city, and I have recently come to realize that my contacts are not as reliable as I thought... I suppose it would not hurt to see if they can compose a list of suspects, however." The boy seemed genuinely disappointed. Then his expression suddenly changed as if something dawned on him.

"Something I forgot to mention: it was said that Arrus had a 'sensitive' package with him at the time of his death, and it is now lost. I have no idea what it may be, but it surely must be linked to the murder."

As for my "contacts" ... my contacts skill is +0. But I still totally want a dewdrop fairy sidekick, even if his/her help is all but useless. :smallwink:

[Rama]

A short time later, Emily brings the bill and your meal concludes. As discussed, you split into pairs and head your separate ways - Atticus and Solstice to the morgue at South Health Campus; Lan and Erin to Liberty Arms.



From Fireside to South Health takes you about twenty minutes in Atticus' splendidly restored Chevrolet Opala. Traffic is fairly heavy, but manageable.

As Atticus leads the pair of you into the building, you're briefly stopped twice. Once by a nurse, who gives the doctor an update on his mauling victim patient; and once by another doctor in a stained lab coat, an older gentleman who attempts to share a remarkably boring and long-winded story of his golf game last Sunday.

Finally you make it to the staff elevator, and Atticus punches the button to descend to the morgue. The elevator drops swiftly, and opens into a fluorescent-bright hallway - empty, as fortune favors you. The body of Michel Arras is still present, stored in a cold locker. A tag on the front of the drawer notes that it is scheduled to be picked up by police transport, although no specific date and time is listed.

With your good examination of the body, combined with your previous efforts in trying to save him, you are able to tell the following:


The cause of death is shotgun blast to the upper chest/throat; buckshot.
There is some bruising about his torso and arms, which you judge to be from violent impact. From the age of the bruising, it was caused a short time before his death - but you do not believe it to be from the moments immediately preceding his death.
You also note a wound on his left leg, which you had not seen previously - it was bandaged with a crude cloth wrap. The wound is a fairly deep, ragged slash down the calf about three inches long. You estimate it precedes the wound that killed him by anywhere between one and four hours.


The entire examination takes about 20 minutes to reveal that much data. The attendant still has not returned to the morgue when you finish up.

If you wish more information, let me know what you're going for and how you're going about it.



Liberty Arms isn't terribly far from Fireside; about three miles, as the crow flies. The four-story building and its lot are relatively empty, as you might expect for the middle of a working day. On your way over, Lan made a few calls looking for information on the case. It took a few calls, but you finally get the name of the detective in charge of the case - a Mr. Franklin Simonds. Unfortunately, you've never heard of him before.

The main door is unguarded and not locked, so entry into the building itself is not a problem. The elevators are available, but the stairwell to your right is marked off with police crime scene tape. Operating under the assumption that unguarded tape is not going to deter you (and it appears someone else has sliced through it already anyway), you are easily able to access the stairwell.

Police tape also marks off the third floor access, and from the plethora of dried blood you can easily guess this is where the attack went down. There are two large, obvious pools of blood - one at the third story access door, and one at the landing halfway between the third and second floors.

If you wish more information, let me know what you're going for and how you're going about it.

[Halae]

Erin

Erin Scratches at her chin as she looks over the crime scene curiously, "If it was an assassination job that went smoothly, there'd only be one pool of blood," She says, and begins looking at the walls. If she's right, there should be either scorch marks, small holes, or impacts from blunt force that smashed into them, "Arras put up a fight. He probably didn't have much warning, but enough to maybe get up a shield..." if there was a shield, a gunshot would have ricocheted into the nearby parts of the building. That won't tell much about who the assailant was, but it can give them a direction; if this assassin was slow enough he couldn't surprise an unaware human, it narrowed down considerably the list of supernatural nasties that could have done this. Predators kill in a single strike if they can, hitting a vital and simply finishing the job with that. Humans... It's very rare to find a human who's a predator like that. Even more, if a gun was used that says it wasn't a large number of technologically inclined folks, such as the vast majority of the fey.

She's careful not to step in any of the blood, climbing over things if necessary; she doesn't want her boot prints linked to this crime scene. By the same token, she's actively avoiding touching anything with her hands, and will have instructed Lan to do the same.

[WindStruck]

Solstice sits down in Atticus's classic automobile with a nervous look. "You are sure this is safe?" he asks. Well, at least it wasn't a Pinto. As the car lurches into motion, he clutches on to the door handles or whatever else he can find, causing the radio to immediately short out and the car to sputter slightly. It was then that he was informed of the seat belts, which took him a few moments to figure out, but they still didn't make him feel much better. He didn't know if keeping his eyes open or closed helped during the ride, but he held it together and they eventually made it to their destination.

Surprisingly, no one really stopped Solstice on the way to the morgue with Atticus. There weren't even any questions. When the body is retrieved, Solstice realizes there must be dozens, scores of bodies locked away behind that wall... somewhat of a disturbing thought. He mills about the general vicinity examining various things until Atticus is finished.

Then he has some requests:
1) if Atticus can retrieve any number of the "bullets" from the body
2) if there was anything they could put some blood in
3) if they could move the body to one of the corners of the room, away from everything else.

The reason Solstice wanted to move the body out of the way was because he didn't want anything distracting him when he used his third eye. He had already anticipated there being images of rot and decay. That was the future, which he didn't care about. What he was looking for was insight into what the warden was doing just before his death (technically, around the time of his gunshot wound), and insight into who or what may have killed him.

Actually, I'm not sure if that's how The Sight works, but I'll give it a go...

Lore: [roll0] + 4
Discipline: [roll1] + 4

You can repeat the rolls if necessary.

[Deathkeeper]

Lan

Lan slips on a pair of thin wool gloves from his pocket, the kind you can buy at any clothing store for five dollars. They're easy to store in a pocket, so he often does.
"Uh, I think you've got more of an idea of how fights work than I do." he says simply, letting Erin take the lead for now. He frowns in distaste at the blood but avoids stepping in it.
Just out of curiosity, he sniffs the air a little bit. Sometimes on rare occasions his nose can pick up the difference between a human and something else, and there's a lot of blood here for there to be a smell.

[Halae]

Erin

"Yeah," She says, still looking about, "In that case, could you scope out his apartment? His attacker might have left a few clues in there."

[Rama]

Solstice

Solstice takes a moment to focus himself, then steps up to the body and opens his Sight.

A variety of images hammer against his mind. Remnants of dark energy pulse about the wounds in Arras's leg, torso, and throat. Strange marks cover the rest of his body, clustering at various points. Even as he looks, the images seem to be growing more indistinct as the last bits continue to fade away.


Given the age, I've set the required result at Great (+4) to understand anything you see. With your current roll at +2, you can't make sense of the images.

Roll to close the Sight vs Discipline at 4: [roll0] + 4


Despite their faded power, the images bear down crushingly on Solstice's mind as he is unable to close the Sight against the visions.


4 points of mental stress. You may make another Lore role to attempt to understand the visions, and another Discipline to attempt to close. For time saving purposes, give me the next 3 rounds worth just in case you fail.

[WindStruck]

Despite the surprising amount of indistinct power throbbing about the body, Solstice grits his teeth and perseveres. He will not be had by a cadaver!

Lore: [roll0] + 4
Discipline: [roll1] + 4

Lore: [roll2] + 4
Discipline: [roll3] + 4

Lore: [roll4] + 4
Discipline: [roll5] + 4

And if I keep failing to close the sight, I'm wondering if it's possible to look away, towards something that should be more benign? Like... the floor? Into ones hands?

All Solstice has taken is stress so far, but if the track starts to fill up or he has to start taking consequences, we really need to stop this somehow.

[Rama]

Solstice

The images pulse against your mind, sending shooting pains radiating throughout your skull. However, amidst the pain, the images clinging to the Warden's dead body become suddenly clear and sharp in your vision.

The dark energy areas are a cluster of pinprick-like marks, collected in a circular pattern with a central design. You can see a total of seven of the marks, and each seems to penetrate into the Warden's body. These marks were not visible at all without the Sight, either in part or in full. The leg wound appears almost necrotic to your sight, similar to other supernatural bite wounds you've seen.


Attempt 1:
[roll0] + 3 versus defense 4

Attempt 2:
[roll1] + 3 versus defense 4

Attempt 3:
[roll2] + 3 versus defense 4


Your second attempt to close your Sight goes much better than the first, and you are able to shut it easily if you wish.

Atticus

As Solstice stares at the body, you hear a sound from the hallway outside the morgue.

*Ding*

The elevator, descending to your level.

Lan

Unfortunately, between the tang of blood and the faint acrid smell of gunpowder, you're not able to detect anything noteworthy.

[WindStruck]

Solstice takes note of the designs of the marks (not like he can really forget them though, because it's The Sight), and not wishing to subject his mind to further torment, closes it.

Does he notice the elevator too?

[Rama]

I'm going to say yes...but you don't recognize it for what it is.

[Deathkeeper]

"Definitely smell gunpowder." he says as he walks into the apartment, looking around for anything else suspicious, including sight and smell. Or maybe even sound, but he doubts that would really apply here.
[roll0]

[DukeGod]

"Someone is coming"

That means they didn't have time to draw the blood he guesses

"Got what you wanted?"

[WindStruck]

Solstice curiously looks down the hallway where the ding came from, but didn't realize what it meant.

"I really wanted some of his blood. Who is coming? Will they let you get any? If not, I will at least need a bit of his hair."

He quickly looks about the room for something sharp he might have seen. Or maybe a pair of scissors (he should at least have recognized some kind of scissors I think, they are quite an old invention). But the sound of footsteps was becoming apparent.

Edit: Seeing the scalpel, he carefully reaches for that and slices through a small lock of the late warden's hair before putting it back where it was and holding on to the hair tightly.

[Rama]

You've had sufficient time to take a sample of blood, if you wish; but any subsequent investigation will reveal the body has been tampered with post mortem.



You can easily grab a scalpel or surgical scissors to snip some hair. Are you wearing your sword? I'll allow it if you want, but reactions may vary.

DukeGod and Windstruck:

As you make your frantic last motions around the body, collecting the remaining samples you desire, the elevator doors open in the hallway outside. A moment later you hear a squeaking sound, rapidly approaching - and a moment later the swinging double doors of the morgue are pushed open by a gurney. The gurney is occupied, although the body is covered in a white sheet; and the gurney itself is being pushed by a young man in hospital scrubs. He stops in apparent confusion, eyes shifting between the two of you before focusing on Atticus.

"Oh! I'm sorry Doctor, I didn't know anyone was scheduled to be here.." his voice trails off as he looks back at Solstice, curiosity plain of his face.

Lan:

I'll assume you have sufficient information to identify the correct apartment

Also one small note, your dice roll for fudge should be 4d3-8, not -7. -7 would give you a range of -3 to 5, rather than -4 to 4

The Warden's apartment is near the middle of the building, three doors down from the stairwell. The entryway is covered by two strips of yellow crime scene tape, although one has fallen loose. The door, if you test it, is locked - but it's not a particularly impressive setup, and could likely be forced or picked if you have any talents in those areas to exercise.

You also note another door with crime scene tape, covering the entry to the apartment on the other side of the hallway and a little further down from the Warden's (For reference, the Warden's apartment is #309, the other tape is on apartment #312).

Erin:

I'll accept your expenditure and provide the following

As you examine the crime scene, you find yourself steadily more frustrated at the lack of useful information; the area seems thoroughly cleared by the crime scene investigators. Finally you stand and stretch your neck, looking upward to work out the kinks forming from crouching down.

As you stretch, your eyes are drawn to a series of pockmarks dotting the wall above the doorway. Looking closer, you can make out small red stains at and around the marks. The impact of a shotgun blast, at your best guess. However, based on your understanding of the killing, this blast could not have been the one that took the Warden's life. That blast would have come from the doorway onto the third floor, and any that missed/penetrated the Warden's body would have sprayed into the wall directly opposite that door. Indeed, as you look, you can see a couple of buckshot scars in about the place you'd expect.

These new markings are almost directly above the doorway onto the third floor; a dramatically different angle. And from the discoloration, you can tell they passed through something living before reaching that wall.

[WindStruck]

Solstice turns around to see the double doors swing open, and the man in hospital scrubs push the body in. He isn't good at recognizing facial expressions, but he gazes back at the man with equal curiosity. Since he wasn't being addressed, he stays silent for now.

[DukeGod]

I'll take the blood. Now watch as everything goes wrong XD

"Play along with the lie" Atticus whispers to Solstice as he sees the gurney enter

"Don't worry, we were not actually scheduled to be here. This is Selene, possibly the daughter or Arras over here. I'm not finding his records, but would you mind adding that I took a sample of his blood for the lab tests?"

[Rama]

Presence roll for Atticus on that bluff (If you want something else I'd consider it): [roll0] +1 presence +2 bonus for being an actual doctor, uniform, etc

[roll1] opposing roll for the orderly.

The orderly bobs his head in acknowledgement, appearing to accept your story without question. "Of course Doctor. I just need to store this body, then I'll be out of your way. I believe the charts are on Doctor Harris' desk," gesturing back down the hall vaguely as he talks.

Assuming you take no action to interfere, the orderly will spend the next five minutes moving the body to a freezer slab; in deference to "Selene's" sensibilities, he leaves the body covered as he does so. Afterwards, he wheels the gurney back out the double doors and you hear the elevator doors slide open and closed again.

[Deathkeeper]

((I'm rolling -7 because Echoes of the Beast gives +1 and there's no mathematic difference between 4d3-8+1 and 4d3-7))

Lan shakes his head. He has neither the strength to force open a door nor the skill to pick it. He tries the handle of the other taped room, using as little contact with it as possible with his gloves so he doesn't ruin any potential prints for the nice police team.

[WindStruck]

Soltice blushes slightly, although due to the pallor of his skin, that "slight blushing" would still be noticeable. He doesn't say a word, however, and lets the doctor put the warden's body back and the orderly finish his business.

Then they go back to the elevator. As they step inside, Solstice ponders a few things. He had noticed that he has been confused for a girl a lot here. It seldom happened back at home. And although he supposed he didn't mind, as there was nothing wrong with females, the frequency of that happening has been awkward. Maybe it was because of his hair. Males here, it seemed, never had hair as long as his. They also weren't as pretty. Well, Solstice liked his hair and he liked the way he looked, and he wasn't going to change it. All the more reason to get this over with quickly so he could go back home.

And another thing: what is this strange little room they are going in again? The first time, Solstice entered it and was quite confused why Atticus lead him to this claustrophobic dead-end. But then soon the doors opened and they were in a completely different location. Had the humans mastered some form of teleportation with their machinery?

well, there's more fluff for you. I'm still open to any other conversations or event happening before we get back to Atticus's car.

Including.... the elevator breaks down!! Ok, maybe not. Unless you want to, Rama.

[Halae]

Erin

Erin reaches up towards the holes, running her hand along them, "So, the old guy did put up a fight..."

Erin will walk over to join Lan, "Shotgun blasts, it seems. One came from below, and one came from the front Not really sure how that managed to happen; maybe a really short assassin?"

"... I can force the doors open if you like. But that might be loud enough to alert the police, and they'll know someone was here," she's the sort of woman that could take a vault door from a bank with enough effort; a simple wooden door means very little. That doesn't mean it's the smartest idea, though.

[Rama]

Lan


((I'm rolling -7 because Echoes of the Beast gives +1 and there's no mathematic difference between 4d3-8+1 and 4d3-7))

Lan shakes his head. He has neither the strength to force open a door nor the skill to pick it. He tries the handle of the other taped room, using as little contact with it as possible with his gloves so he doesn't ruin any potential prints for the nice police team.

Gotcha, that makes sense.

Twisting the handle, it is locked. However, you can tell that it is not dead-bolted; just the handle lock is engaged.

Erin


I didn't make it very clear, the second gunshot is not an unnaturally small amount.

It's a little difficult to explain without a picture or map, but basically the gunshot looks like it angled up and passed through a body. There's a small spray of blood at the impact point on the wall, which is ~9 feet up the wall. The remaining blood from this wound would likely be accounted for by the large bloodstain on the floor immediately inside the stairwell at the third floor doorway.

To summarize, there are five primary 'areas' of blood:

1) Above the third floor stairwell door, about 8-9 feet. Small spray of blood/gunshot marks.

2) Immediately below that spot, a large pool of blood inside the stairwell door.

3) The far wall immediately opposite the third floor stairwell door, small spray of blood/gunshot marks.

4) At the landing between the third and second floors, roughly below the wall marks at (3). A large pool of blood.

5) Small dried blood patches all down the stairs between the third floor door and the landing, more impact spatter from a body moving down the stairs.

[Deathkeeper]

Lan

Lan thinks for a moment, then shakes his head.
"I could get us out of a lot of things, but if someone hears us smashing locks, we're done for. This one only has the handle lock, not a bolt or anything, but I don't think that you could break that without them hearing. This might be all we can do here for now." he says sadly.

[Halae]

Erin

"Uh, Lan, we have super strength and magic. Can't you just form a bubble of silence around my hand or something while I break the lock?" I'm preeeetty sure that's a thing veils can do.

If given the go ahead and a veil of silence is placed, she can just turn the knob until the locking mechanism snaps.

[Deathkeeper]

"I can only really glamour myself and things that are on my person. I guess we could ways try fiddling with a credit card. That always works in movies." he suggests sheepishly.

[Halae]

Erin

Erin nods, and reaches into her pocket for her wallet, out of which she draws a Scene card; she hasn't used it even once in the five years that she's had it, so she isn't particularly concerned with destroying the card. Hell, it's probably out of date already.

She inserts the card into the space between the door and the frame, attempting to work the card into it with some wiggling, being careful not to press too hard and break something. If all goes well, they'll likely be able to get in easy enough.

Rolling Burglary
[roll0]
Iiiii'm a moron.
Gonna roll in the OOC thread.

[Rama]

Erin/Lan

It takes an agonizingly long two minutes of twisting and shoving the card into the door to finally trip the latch. But finally, Erin is able to force the door open without causing permanent damage. Erin and Lan slip into the now open door, underneath the sagging police tape, and close the door behind.


Rolling these for determining what you see passively. If you wish to investigate anything in more detail, call it out and roll.

Erin: [roll0] + 2

Lan: [roll1]


Warden Arras' apartment is a snug two-bedroom affair, although only one bedroom is furnished as such. The other draws your attention first, dominated as it is by an oversized antique desk. Bookshelves line two of the walls, sagging with an assortment of thick tomes. The desk has several copies of the Calgary Herald stacked on one corner, with about a dozen more on the floor beside the desk - at a glance, it looks like almost three weeks' worth of issues. Several books are also scattered across the surface of the desk, all of which appear to be written in either French or Latin. A bulletin board is mounted on the wall directly facing the desk - so that the individual seated behind the desk would be looking directly at it. That board, however, is empty; a number of pushpins litter the surface, but whatever was once there has been removed. A couple of small scraps of torn paper, stuck to wayward pins, are all that remain.

The second bedroom is a more traditional living setup. The bed is made and the sheets tightly fitted - not rumpled from use. A display stand for a sword or other bladed weapon is mounted prominently beside the bed - within arms reach of a sleeper; the stand, however, is empty. A foot locker with a padlock also sits at the foot of the bed - although the padlock lies broken on the ground, and the locker is empty. The closet has several sets of dark clothing - mostly dark greens and browns - hanging neatly from wire hangers.

The third room is a hybrid kitchen/dining area. The table, however, is more utility than a traditional dining table; the wood surface is rough, unfinished, built more for wear and tear than fine dining presentation. Erin notes a few faint chalk marks on the surface, which might have been remnants of a circle drawn for spellcasting then wiped away quickly. The kitchen is awash with pungent odors - some herbs and spices, some more musty, and one or two that seem somewhat rotten. The sources of these odors line the shelves, small glass jars for the most part with neatly hand-written labels. A few of the jars are obviously missing; everything appears organized neatly, and there are some obvious gaps in the shelves. There are very few cooking utensils - mostly just a couple of pots, a few spoons/ladles, and a set of worn-looking kitchen knives in a block.

Lastly, there is one full bathroom - pretty standard, nothing noteworthy. There is one towel hanging from a bar, which smells faintly sour from use, and a hand-towel beside the sink. Erin notices a faint discoloration to the hand towel and the bar of soap by the sink - both appear to be marked by a reddish-black stain.

[Deathkeeper]

Lan exhales. "I'll admit, I don't really know what to look for."
He says, stepping inside. He goes towards the board, looking at the scraps of paper and other things around. Dates, bits of photos, any clues.
Roll investigation [roll0]

[Halae]

Erin

Erin will kneel down to the footlocker, trying to get a sense of what was stored inside, "We're not necessarily just looking for things that are here, but also things that are missing that should be here. Like whatever was in this trunk," she says. She'll tap the side and bottom of it, searching for a false bottom that might bear more clues.

After that, she'll move over to the kitchen, looking between the different herbs and spices. There might be a few missing, since they're organized so well, and that'll help point in the right direction. She doesn't need to necessarily know what each of the herbs does herself, but talking to an actual spellcaster would help with that.

And finally, she'll take a look at the discolored towel in the bathroom, and take a sniff. By now she knows well the tangy scent of blood, and that may well be what this is. Maybe not, but need to check anyways.

[Rama]

Lan

With your admittedly average investigative skills, you are able to discern that several of the scraps clinging to the board are newspaper. One has a bit of text torn at the ragged edge: "..6, 2014"

Erin

Locker

With your good investigation result, you almost miss it. But just as you stand from your crouched position at the chest, a slight uneven tilt to the baseboard draws your eye. You're able to catch underneath with a fingernail and lift the false bottom, revealing a small compartment underneath.

Within is a leather bound book, wrapped snugly in an oilskin. The pages are written in what appears to be the same hand as the labels on the spice jars in the kitchen. The text is written in an unfamiliar language - none of the words are recognizable.

Kitchen

Some of the spices are fairly ordinary cooking spices - thyme, cinnamon, salt, etc - but other labels are far more esoteric. Wormwood, vervain, yarrow, and other strange items written in flowing script. Others appear to not even be herbs; one has a section of elk horn, another a section of bird's nest. With some lore knowledge you might be able to tell what was missing, but otherwise you don't have the knowledge base to identify what might be missing.

Bathroom

You take a whiff of the towel, and a pungent stink assaults your senses. As faint as the stain is, the small is still recognizable. Blood, but not human. Ghoul, you think.

Solstice

By this point, Solstice and Atticus have reached the parking garage. As the two of you stroll through the mostly-empty level towards Atticus' parked car, you hear a faint voice - almost as if whispered directly into your year, although nothing is there.

"Soooolstice. Sooolstice."

Out of the corner of your left eye, you see a flicker of movement - a fluttering of gossamer wings, and a giggling from a familiar fae voice.

This would be specifically known to you, a pixie who has ferreted out things in the past. He is known to you as Jesper. He's bouncing up and down and giving you an 'I've got a seeeeecret' look which you've found rather difficult to deal with in the past.

[Halae]

Erin

She tucks the book into her purse. That can be examined later by someone who can actually read this stuff; if nobody in this group can, someone on 17th should be able to.

"Ghouls," Erin sighs, "Someone hired some bloody ghouls to take Arras down." That means it could be any number of people, "Ghoul blood on the towel suggests it wasn't as successful as they would have liked though, so there's an additional operator, since they didn't actually kill Arras. I doubt Ghouls clean up after themselves, so... Wait, what am I talking about, this isn't a wipe stain. It's a splatter stain."

She moves back into the kitchen, and traces a finger along the chalk lines, "The remains of a ritual, used up and wiped away. Can't be certain who did this one. Could be either Arras or his attacker," She stands and takes a few pictures with her phone of the herbs and the missing spaces between them.

"The contents of the trunk, missing. Warden's sword, missing. Book, not missing. A Journal? Can't read it to find out. Herbs and spices missing, signs of a ritual conducted, could be everything, could be nothing. Who hires ghouls? Winter, every type of vampire there is, everybody else. Dammit. Not enough information to form a solid picture." she sighs again, "What did you find, Lan?"

[WindStruck]

Solstice casually moves towards the tiny fey with a faint smile and an outstretched, upward palm for him to land on, if he wishes. "Ah, Jesper. I was hoping I might run into you..."

Seeing the pixie's familiar expression, Solstice asks, "So, you have something you want to tell me, it seems. Shall we play our usual game?"

...

Thinking he already knows what it is, Solstice starts off with some silly guesses. "You just found out your uncle is a Loup Garou."

...

"No? Did Kringle become the new jester of Summer Court?"

...

Solstice pauses for a bit trying to feign thinking hard, but he really is a bad liar. Like, terribly bad. "Hmm... the White Council warden, Michel Arras, was recently murdered outside his apartment."

By the way, before we get any further can I just declare that out of the few things he actually knows that may be helpful in the mortal world, Solstice also knows Latin? It's really oldschool and most associated with magic, I think. But probably going overboard and not quite as useful as most other languages...

Oh also: wherever I just made a new line with "..." feel free to add in short replies to the conversation as it goes along.

[Deathkeeper]

Lan sighs and shakes his head.
"I know that he was interested enough in a newspaper article to clip it out, but all I've got is that it was this year and the day ends in a six. Could be any month, and three different days of that month. Really nothing to go on unless the torn newspaper is still here." he says with a sigh.

[Halae]

Erin

"Oh, that's an easy fix. Record the names of the other articles and we can look up what article is missing from our list on the day those were printed. The newspapers in the city have a fairly extensive archive for everything they do."

Simple.

[DukeGod]

Atticus continues to his car when Solstice stopped and talked to air or something. Maybe a fairy, he didn't actually pay attention.

Either way, inside the car he tries to use his cellphone to reach either of Lan or Erin.

[Deathkeeper]

"Alright. We've got a pile of papers, but just half a date here. You'll have to help me search the pile of newspapers he's got here. At least we just have to look at the ones with dates ending in sixes." he says.

[Halae]

Erin

"Oh, Just a second, I think this is Atticus," Erin says, reaching for the phone ringing in her purse. She flips it open and says, "Moshi moshi."

[DukeGod]

"Hi, how are things over there? Solstice had me take some of Arras's bloody, I think he's planning on doing some magic to track. Anything we might wanna be worried about?"

[Halae]

Erin

"We've got a journal we can't read because it's in an obscure language, a date we don't know the exacts of because it was cut out of the newspaper, missing ritual components that we don't know the exacts of, and confirmation that someone hired Ghouls to kill Arras but that they weren't able to eat his body after the attack, meaning someone else killed him, or they weren't allowed for some reason. Be careful out there; whomever this is isn't screwing around and while we have leads we're still wandering around in the dark with this. We can meet back at fireside once we've had a bit longer to look around here."

[Rama]

Solstice

At your first two guesses the pixie, a handsome young male in appearance, smiles slyly and replies with a gleeful "Nooooooooooooooooo".

After the third however, he stamps his foot angrily - a somewhat disconcerting look, as he's hovering about two feet off the ground as he does so.

"Phoo. How'd you find out? Did Trilinna tell you? Stupid brownie, said she told me first. And I was only distracted for a little while..." His eyes go wide as he remembers, "But it was the biggest pretzel I've ever seen!"

His expression turns calculating again in an instant. "But she didn't tell you who else was there, did she, did she? No, Solstice doesn't know that." Jesper begins to spin and dance gleefully in a circle around you, chanting "Solstice doesn't know" in an playground sing-song voice.

Completely swamped atm, will catch up on OOC and add more IC stuff late tonight

[WindStruck]

Solstice sighs. "No, Jesper, it was not Trilinna... the warden was killed three days ago. You have slacked so much, even my mother came by to tell me about the murder, and she was quite disappointed that I did not know yet..."

The boy lowers his eyes morosely, but the chanting soon brings him back to reality, and his gaze refocuses. Crouching down to be at eye level with the pixie, Solstice begins trying to calm Jesper down. "Shhh. Shhh. As it happens, the White Council has been looking for the killer, and that task has fallen to me. I am sure those that aid in this endeavor shall be... rewarded..." He smiles enticingly.

If there was one thing Solstice knew, it was that these dewdrop fairies were huge suckers for food in the mortal world. Best of all, it wasn't like it was too difficult to acquire.

[Deathkeeper]

While Erin is on the phone, Lan will quickly try to skim the pile of newspapers for the torn one. Since he has part of the date it shouldn't be hard. He can completely ignore anything which doesn't end in a 6, and if there is only a Month's worth of papers in the piles than he's only looking for the 6th, the 26th, and the 16th.
((This task seems so easy I have no idea if I need to roll, but I will anyway. Maybe it will affect speed?))
[roll0]

[Rama]

Solstice

Jesper flutters his wings in apparent excitement, bouncing another foot into the air. "Rewarded? I like rewards. Especially those with frosting. Oooooooh," and his eyes go huge, "or ranch dresses. Can my reward have ranch dresses Solstice?"

He suddenly comes completely still, wings outstretched flat to slow his descent to the ground. "White Council Wizards aren't very nice though. That Warden was always trapping us to ask questions. And he almost never gave us anything nice."

Jesper's face twists into an ugly grimace for a moment. "I'm glad he's dead. You wouldn't do that, would you Solstice?"

Lan

I'll give you a little more info than I would otherwise for an expedited search with the roll.

With your expedited search, it takes you only a few minutes to sort through the papers. Several of them have obvious missing articles; one of them in particular catches your eye, on the 26th of August. It's on the local news page, a relatively small article - takes up maybe a tenth of the page.

Flipping through the other papers, the omitted articles appear to come either from local news or the obituaries, and are mostly small clippings. You are confident you haven't found everything, but that's the impression you've gained.

[WindStruck]

"Ranch... dresses...?" Solstice ponders to himself a bit. That sounded completely outlandish. "I have no idea what you are referring to. You will have to show me some time, but I suppose so."

When the pixie expresses his dislike for the White Council and being trapped in circles, Solstice coos, "No, of course not, Jesper. I would never do that."

"I never cared for the White Council either. My mother was always warning that they would come after me if I did certain things with magic. In any case, I am not helping them because I like them. You see, my mother owed one of them a favor and so... well, you know how that is..."

[Rama]

Solstice

Jesper flutters his wings again, a bit nervously. "Yeah I know about favors. More important than donuts. Although they never taste as good," he says, making a face.

Suddenly his eyes snap upward, to a overhang outside the garage, as a musical tittering just at the bare edges of your hearing sing out. "No fair Emmerila, no fair starting when I'm not ready!" and his wings beat furiously as he crouches to launch himself outward.

Lan/Erin

At this point, you've covered everything in the Warden's apartment. Unless there's something else you'd like to do, am I correct in assuming you've arranged to meet Solstice and Atticus back at Fireside?

[WindStruck]

Solstice calls to the pixie urgently before he flies off. "Jesper, wait! Please tell me who else was there!"

[Deathkeeper]

Lan knows not to take the newspapers. The police have doubtlessly searched the place, or at least looked inside, and taking the stack would only make it obvious that someone had tampered with the scene. So instead, he takes a photo with his phone of every page with an article torn out, so he can search through them easily later.
But otherwise yes, meetings can happen.