Supernormal Crime. Or, Uh, Three.

[Quellian-dyrae]

The texts came in shortly after sunrise, from Captain Blackbourne.

Eckhard Blackbourne was the civilian captain of your SCOUT team. A clean-shaven man with dusky skin, light brown hair and eyes, an average build, and unremarkable features, he wasn't what one would expect of a man who spent ten years in the Tandaran special forces and another fifteen on the police force. He had been retired after being injured in a shootout, until he had been called upon to oversee Midvale's new SCOUT team two years ago. He was patient, calm, and appeared to be completely unflappable. The text simply said, We have a case, team.

--

The Midvale SCOUT Headquarters was not designed to go unnoticed. A three-story structure of clean white stone walls and large outer windows of tempered glass set on a bustling street not far from city hall, from the outside it appeared to have a bright, open design. And that was true enough of the public areas on the first and second floors; the more secure holdings on the top floor and the three basement levels were another story. The front doors were always manned by two helpful, friendly, and quietly well-armed SCOUTs, and a few inconspicuous but not unnoticeable security cameras gave a sense of security. The building had a sturdy frame of solid stone that suggested toughness, an association perhaps nudged along by the anachronistic crenulation design of its roof. The SCOUT logo was carved and painted large and visible over its big glass doors. In short, the place gave off an impression of welcome, but also of safety.

Those who knew about the supernatural would know there was a reason for that.

The briefing room was on the third floor. A central room with no windows, sunlight still came in through skylights carefully positioned and slanted to ensure they only looked upon bare wall or empty floor. The room was dominated by a semi-circular table with six chairs placed around the rounded side. Before each chair the table had a rectangular impression, which could be slid open to reveal a touch-screen interface built into the table top. Two boxes of pastries and a bowl of fruit were waiting in the center of the table, and Captain Blackbourne stood behind it, in front of a larger screen that dominated the wall the table was facing.

He greeted everyone as they arrived, and once the group had assembled, he got right to business.

"Midvale PD contacted us this morning requesting assistance with an investigation of multiple homicides that they believe to be supernormal in nature, and which might or might not be related," he said, tapping some commands into his tablet and pulling up a map of Midvale (with three location pins in it) and a series of crime scene photos. "These crimes appear to have occurred all within a mile of each other, and over the course of a few hours, which while not impossible, is a little tight to attribute to coincidence. The victims all appeared to be killed in...somewhat different ways, but not sufficiently so to be sure of if it was a single or multiple perpetrators - in all cases, the attacker seemed to demonstrate supernormal levels of physical strength."

He enlarged one of the photos, the worst of them. It showed what had been a quaint little shopping center, and was now a horror scene. There had to have been over a dozen bodies scattered about...in the most literal sense of the term. Whatever did this tore these people limb from limb. "This is the scene of the earliest crime, committed in the late evening," which if anything was lucky; if it had been a couple hours earlier, during the dinner rush, there probably would have been five times as many dead. "Witnesses report screams and cracking and crunching sounds, but so far the police have found no survivors who had been close enough to see what was going on. Whoever it was managed to avoid being caught on any security cameras."

That picture shrank back down, replaced by a photo of a single dead woman lying in an alley between two apartment buildings. She wasn't torn to pieces like the prior victims had been, but her body was covered with bruises and contusions. "This happened a few hours later. It looks like she received a beating, maybe just a mugging gone wrong, but the victim's name is Renita Styles. According to our contacts, she's a Circle wizard.
It's a safe bet that it would have taken more than mortal strength to deliver that severe a beating through a Circle wizard's wards."

The final photo contained only the severed head of a young man, which was resting in a dumpster, half-covered by garbage. "Reports from the ME are that this man's head was severed by an edged weapon, not torn off. The rest of his body hasn't been found, but the police are pretty sure that this is Armel Keller, a member of the Streetguard." The Streetguard was officially a sort of superhuman neighborhood watch group that focused primarily on watching and protecting superhuman communities. But they also had a reputation for vigilante work. They were...less suspicious of the SCOUTs than they were of most law enforcement, but still hadn't exactly been helpful in prior contacts. "They're trying to get that confirmed, but if they're right, again, we're looking at someone who would have taken more-than-mortal strength to kill. Word is his skin was strong as steel."

That photo shrank back down, and Blackbourne said, "So. Best case scenario, we have a supernormal spree killer roaming the streets. Worst case, we have three separate supernormal murderers to bring in. Thoughts?"

[DeAnno]

Jonathan always felt a little exposed in the briefing room. Nobody could see inside with the exposure limited to the roof, and even if they could, they couldn’t see anything important, anyone inside. But at the same time, the sun shone in, and it put him off-balance. So it was Shadow who slithered into the room and did a reasonable approximation of sitting down, not Jonathan Grant in his polite fiction of a mask and costume (something worn more as insurance for his identity than as anything else.) He took the chair on the side opposite the wall the sunlight was on.

Like this, he definitely wasn’t distracted by the fruit or the donuts, despite being a little hungry. After seeing the macabre first picture, he imagined his team probably wouldn't be eating much in this meeting either. It didn't have quite the same impact on him; without the settled patina of panic and terror to accompany the grisly scene, it almost seemed fake to his senses, like seeing an old photograph in black and white. Maybe that lack of visceral impact let him recover first, though he supposed it might just be that he was impatient instead, not spending the time to think an idea through all the way.

“We know the last two were super-on-super,” Shadow said, in his dissonant echo of a voice. “Are we sure that the first one wasn’t? It could be that the real target was just a single one of the casualties. We might not even have them on record as a super." He paused for a second, flickering a tentacle back and forth from its resting place on the table’s edge.

“None of these being caught on any sort of video, even this first one that had cameras plausibly around, tells me that whoever did the first attack probably killed everyone else nearby after their actual target just to get rid of the witnesses. It could be that the only reason we didn’t get similar scenes at the other two is that the targets weren’t somewhere more public.”

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Mornin'." a man with sharp features announced, entering the room. Clad in his usual set of dark suit, long coat, and fedora, he completely looked the part of an agent from a special governmental bureau...if time had stopped a few decades ago, at least, especially considering he hardly looked older than forty.

He murmured a few words, causing his coat and hat to fly by themselves onto the nearby hanger while he took a seat, then reached for a pastry.


Kingsley maintained a remarkably neutral expression throughout the gruesome slideshow, though he frowned slightly when Blackbourne pulled up Styles' photo; he didn't know her, but they'd still spoken once or twice. He nodded at Shadow's analysis, then took the floor. "It's an impressive range of killing methods, if it was indeed just one killer...my first guess would be someone with enormous amounts of strength. That said, Captain, I think that the real question is: what happened to Keller's body? Doesn't seem like the killer did anything to try to hide the other victims, so leaving only the head behind as a message doesn't add up from that standpoint. Same if they were three separate killers, since it's higly unlikely they were unrelated. Was the beheading the cause of death, or was it severed postmortem?"

[Ridai]

Oni had to get going quick when the message arrived. She was in the middle of breakfast, which then quickly turned into emergency styling, letting her team know she was heading out to SCOUT. Thankfully, her schedule wasn't as ridiculously busy as it had been prior to joining SCOUT, so that along with Filia's invaluable talents and her many fans' understanding allowed her to actually be able to do this without disappointing a lot of people and make dozens of schedules cry out in agony. Jen and Filia graciously managed to wiggle in some flexible time slots where Oni could make up for having to cancel appearances, with messages or surprise visits.

So the tall red-skinned woman dove into her wardrobe, put on one of her more robust outfits in her trademark base shade of deep blue (one she does wrestling in, so while it's tight and somewhat revealing, she won't be having wardrobe malfunctions if things get heated), gets her face in order, puts on her mask, and wrangles her huge wild white mane of hair into roughly the right position, horns showing prominently. On the one hand, it is nearly impossible to restrain her hair and style it for various occasions. On the other, it's her trademark look, doesn't much care about water or the weather, and people think it is on purpose, unable to tell that she just got up or just flew through a hurricane.

Not long after, Oni Ballista sets down on the plaza near the city hall. She has long learned that unless it is an emergency, just suddenly plummeting out of the sky right in front of the SCOUT building makes the security-minded people nervous. So she begins the venture down the short distance to the SCOUT building, immediately getting crowded by the nearby people, hearing the sounds of phone cameras and seeing a lot of flashes (both of which she thankfully long got used to).

"Hey everyone! Sorry I don't have much time, Justice's a-callin'!" Which by now is understood as "SCOUT needs me, otherwise I'd stick around a little longer" by her massive fanbase and the media.

"Gonna show some gangsters who's boss?!" someone from the crowd calls over to her, Oni immediately seeing the many expectant eyes and cameras. She shows her trademark grin (complete with her larger top incisors), confident and ready for action, balling a fist and letting the muscles of one of her arms bulge.

"You're goddamn right!" And, as usual, a cheer erupts. And they are even starting the Ballista chant. Wow, this crowd is on fire today! Plenty of suits in the crowd, too. Oni never ceases to be amazed by how everyone seems to come together around her. "Alright, alright, twisting my arm here. Got a minute or two, folks!" She jokingly says. Five minutes of photos, selfies, autographs, and launching people later, she begins the process of osmosis through the crowd, getting followed by a loose bubble of fans as she goes, greeting back whenever someone calls out to her.

Most of the fans are shed at the door of SCOUT, some actually have business inside. Oni opts for the stairs as usual, since she and her hair take up so much space (people got work to do in here, you know?). After wishing the remainder of her followers a good day, she goes up to the third floor. After the guard on-duty is done with her checks, and Oni has recorded a selfie message for the woman's little girl Ava (the mother and Oni wishing her a happy birthday and Oni telling her that she is going to crush it at the school stage play), the superpowered horned woman finally reaches the meeting room.

"Good morning everyone, hope I'm not late, crowds are wild today!" Oni greet-pologizes as she takes a seat. She knows the chairs here are sturdy (and thankfully a little larger), but she still keeps most of her weight on her feet until she is sure the chair can carry her. Needless to say, she has long mastered the art of appearing to sit when she is actually stealth-squatting to not break any furniture. Helps that she doesn't get tired. She glances at the skylight.

"Wow, they are still outside the building," she notes quietly to herself, before quickly looking back to Captain Blackbourne (which she thinks would still be an amazing stage name for a pirate-themed super-wrestler, with signature moves like "RELEASE THE KRAKEN!"). Having the eyes (and arms) she has, Oni is quite aware that she is all sorts of a potential security nightmare, and still feels a bit conscious about it, especially as far as this room is concerned.

Oni is in the process of biting into an apple when the first crime scene is shown in detail, stopping just before those big incisors make contact as an alarmed frown forms beneath the mask.
By crime scene 2, her mouth is closed, glancing at the apple in her hand.
By crime scene 3, the pristine apple rests on the table, Oni's hands folded beside it.

When asked for thoughts, Oni looks to the others for a moment, before saying "I mean, this has to be deliberate, right? Not sure what that massacre was supposed to accomplish, though. If the killers were after specific people, I think Shadow's right on the money. Either a super was in there, or someone otherwise important, maybe involved in the super-business in some fashion. Or maybe the massacre was to distract from the other murders in the public eye? Or someone wants to cause panic, like saying no one's safe, be they normal or super." The wrestler scratches somewhere within the depths of her white mane.

"Sorry, only got speculation right now."

[Llyarden]

Allison was already awake when the texts came in, catching up on some legal work. In this case it was that she'd simply woken up early rather than worked through the night; when her workload was piling up, she'd found she could go without sleep for...well, three weeks was the longest she'd ever had to stay awake, but she hadn't felt even slightly tired even then, so she wasn't entirely sure she ever needed to sleep at all. Nonetheless, she tended to get some rest overnight more out of habit than anything else.

She took the time to get changed into a smart, professional suit - sure, she could have just magicked her pyjamas into a suit, but that could get super awkward if her powers were suppressed - and arrived at the SCOUT HQ in much the same manner as Oni, butterfly wings slipping into her back as she landed. She was in what she normally considered her 'default' appearance, which was close to her original, true human form - a relatively tall, slender woman with long, dark hair tied up in a bun and held in place with a somewhat incongruous hairpin made of a pale, bleached wood that could almost be mistaken for bone. In amidst Oni's fan club, she went all but unnoticed.

Inside the briefing room, she frowned slightly as the slideshow began, but didn't otherwise react; she'd long since learned to disassociate herself from seeing gruesome sights on paper or a computer screen. "Unless Keller's body looked more steely than his head does, he wasn't overtly well-defended," she observed, once the others had made their points. "And Styles wasn't either. That similarity might be relevant. As Oni said, it's as if the killer, or killers, are making a point of demonstrating that no matter how well-defended their targets are, they can't be stopped...but more than that, it's almost as though they're deliberately seeking out dangerous - or perhaps challenging - opponents. And somehow, they can determine the strength of their target without needing obvious cues."

"And since we have at least two different classes of supernormal here, one of whom was a supernatural, that implies a level of power detection on par with - or even superior to - our own," she realised. That was...worrying, to say the least. She trusted SCOUT with the knowledge of her true nature, but that didn't mean that trust extended to the wider world.

[Capt. Infinity]

Leonel, a rugged, tall, and well-built man in his mid-twenties, with lightly suntanned skin, and a massive mane of auburn red hair which fell down a good ways below his shoulders (impressive for a normal person, less so when you stand beside someone like Oni Ballista) had actually come in alongside the earlier batch of people. As he had already been in the building to get a head start on some paperwork, trying to manage the bureaucracy of having two very taxing jobs, whilst also enjoying the brief reprieve from the adoring gaze of fans and the media.

In doing so, he'd even managed to snag a handful of the pastries before Oni or Katie could devour the rest. Much as his superhuman metabolism made eating as easy as breathing to him, he couldn't help but slow his chewing to a crawl as the chilling sight of the three murders played out before him. Forcing him to dryly swallow the last of his doughnut as though it were a pile of gravel in his jaws before speaking.

"I think that whoever they are, they're not nearly good enough to get past the lot of us, that's for sure." He states confidently, trying to engender an air of good tidings, even as his stomach churns at the sight of a member of the Streetguard decapitated and thrown out like trash. "That... A crowd, a wizard, and a Streetguard member. That's... An odd group of people. Any connection between the two discretely killed individuals? Or between them and any of the crowd, for that matter? It could be that they all share some common link in their personal lives." He puts a hand to his mouth and hums to himself quietly (an act which, due to his superpowered vocal chords, unfortunately comes off as an oddly predatory growl). "Barring that, is it possible that these people have a conceptual connection to one another? Perhaps holding similar positions within their organizations?" He inclines, fishing for leads. His mind may have been the most lightly affected of his characteristics in regards to his superhuman gifts, but that doesn't stop him from benefiting off of a lifetime of the best tutors money could buy. "Do we know what Renita and Armel's official or unofficial jobs were in their organizations? If they were both in charge of, say, security of some kind of monetary or information store, that could show signs of this being a more specific, tactical attack. With the benefits of being an easy misdirect in regards to its true purpose."

[manwithaplan]

"Sorry I am late."

Katie slid into the room after some of the details had already been released, heavy bags under her bloodshot eyes.

"Long night."

Taking a seat, she quickly looked over the basic details.

"...was it a full moon last night? That first one at least makes me think of werewolves. Savage attacker, late at night..."

[Quellian-dyrae]

There's not actually much hard information about Keller in the news - given their vigilante reputation, the Streetguard tend to keep a low profile. There are a lot of stories linking the Streetguard in general to various crimes both committed and prevented, but the specifics of who was involved aren't much out there.

However, as a private citizen, Keller has made comments, social media posts, and so on about a fair few superhuman-related events in the news. In particular, he's rather outspoken against organizations that have caused systemic harm or shown systemic prejudice to superhumans, particularly those with shadier reputations. He does not seem to have had much qualm about publicly accusing them of criminal acts, even when there isn't really sufficient evidence to prove it.

--

Blackbourne's assumptions that it would have taken some oomph to take out Styles are more spot-on than he knows. She's a Hunter, a Circle wizard whose primary duties involve hunting down and destroying dangerous Supernals. Hunters do not skimp on their wards and protective devices, since they're regularly tangling with enemies capable of exerting tremendous physical force quickly; a Hunter who waits until battle has been joined to cast their defenses isn't going to last long. She wasn't like top-tier or anything, but she had a solid reputation and some impressive kills to her name. You've never really had occasion to see her in action, but going by reputation, it's probably a safe bet that either of you could have beaten the other in a straight fight on a good day. And as a Hunter, it's safe to say she'd have been darn hard to ambush.

While the Circle is of...let's be generous and call it "mixed opinion" on SCOUT, you're still a member in good standing and they are at least professional enough to keep you in the loop when they have people working in your area. You are aware that they recently sent someone to Midvale to investigate reports of demonic activity.
They hadn't mentioned who, and for an investigation mission, a Watcher would have been more likely than a Hunter. It's not impossible that they might have intentionally "need to know"d you, but demons don't tend to have much in the way of legal protections in themselves. So if they thought they needed to obscure the fact that they were sending a Hunter into your territory, it probably means that the demons she was "investigating" have been masquerading as mortals, and openly enough that if they mysteriously vanished the matter might be investigated.

"Local police are still working on identifying all of the victims from the first scene. It's certainly not impossible that one or more of them were supernormal, though. The rest of Keller's body hasn't been found, and until it is we can't be certain on the cause of death."

Blackbourne looked directly at Allison and briefly pursed his lips as she suggested the killer might have SCOUT-level detection capabilities. For him, that was roughly the equivalent of a wide-eyed "Oh, crap!"

"The police are still looking into any possible connections between the victims. If we can get some information along those lines, it would certainly be good. And not for another week," he finished by answering Katie. "Although my understanding is that not all werewolves actually need the full moon to transform?" That last he asked as much as stated, with a questioning glance at Kingsley and Allison.

He's correct, some lycanthropes can change without needing the full moon.

There's actually a lot of variance. Really the only ones that always and only change during the full moon are those who don't know what they are or how to control it (mainly only accidentally-turned lycanthropes), or those that have been intentionally cursed with such lycanthropes. Most lycanthropes can change more-or-less at will, although there are factors that can make it harder for them to resist changing, the full moon being a big one - it takes a lot of training for turned lycanthropes to manage sufficient control to resist changing during the full moon, but most natural lycanthropes can do it as long as they know the basics and are sufficiently disciplined. Natural lycanthropes, however, are often stronger during the full moon.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Correct." Kingsley confirmed, then took a moment to collect his thoughts; having an eidetic memory was like possessing a huge library, you had a lot of book but finding the right one wasn't immediate.

"It's hard to say anything on the first crime, since we don't know who the intended victim was, if there was any at all, but on the other two..."

"This Keller chap, I've seen him on talk shows and some of his coments cited in the news, often accusing some corporation or another of exploiting or discriminating superhumans. I think his last target was...Ethan Parish, yes, who is certainly in a position to lose a lot if Keller ended up making too much noise and something started moving. Or perhaps he had found something. Either way, the very fact that one of the things he was accused of was lending out his athletes as hired muscle, well, puts him in a position to have commissioned the murder."

"As for Styles, I met her once, and as far as I recall she introduced herself as a Hunter. Add to that the rumours of demonic activity I've been hearing, and I think she was on a case. More specifically, I think there is one or more demons masquerading as mortals here in Midvale, and they could very well be the killers."

He would then start a rather technical, likely boring and relatively long lecture on the nature of demons, for the benefit of those less knowledgeable about Supernals...unless someone stopped him, of course, in which case he'd give the abridged version, but not without expressing his disapproval at how "people these days don't want to learn anything".

"That said," he concluded, "I don't think there's much more we can do from here. I'd like to get to the scenes, see if there's any residual traces of magic around."

[DeAnno]

I'd like to take a look at them in reverse order, if you don't mind, Shadow commented. It's likely not to many people have been by the dumpster, so it's possible I might pick up a fear trail from whoever left the head there if the people who discovered it haven't washed it out. The scene in the alley makes that less likely, but I might be able to get a read on what Styles was feeling before she died. The crowd is going to be noisiest, probably, there'll be a lot there but it's probably attracted too much attention afterwards.

[Capt. Infinity]

"And, barring Shadow's capacity to root out any specific fears, I can hopefully pick up some form of scent trail from each scene. Again, barring any efforts to smother physical evidence." Leonel explained matter-of-factly, considering the situation at hand. "If the killer is the same individual, they'd likely leave the same scent at each scene. And, if I can establish that throughline, we may be able to chart out their paths through each area, establishing a timeline." The Lion Aspect's brow furrows, the man turning to look at Kingsley directly as a sudden thought pierces his mind. "These rumours you've heard. The talk of disguised demons... Are demons ever known to cooperate with non-demons in their efforts to destroy their anathema? If that's the case, and Parish was dirty enough to get Keller's attention, is it at all possible that he might have been able to weaponize a demon, or be weaponized by a demon to some end?"

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Of course, they're not mindless creatures." Kingsley replied. "On the contrary, they can be quite cunning, and certainly their anathema can be used to strike a deal. And although their drive is to destroy, they're not inherently evil either."

[Capt. Infinity]

Leo nods. "Then a connection may yet exist. Though, again, we do actually need to visit the crime scenes if we want to be sure." the lionish man intones, before allowing the floor for others to speak.

[Ridai]

"Yup, we should move out. If that Parish guy is actually as dirty as people claim, forcing supernormals into shady business and such, there will be words." Oni feels she can't contribute much to the discussion right now, but maybe that'll change in the field.

[manwithaplan]

"Split up, then? Some of us could go to a crime scene, the rest could go to find Parish."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Okay so, the most concrete declaration of intent I saw was Shadow wanting to go to the scene with Keller's head first, so I'm setting the stage there. If you guys do want to split up, just let me know where you're going.

We're entering a significant scene to give you guys a chance to do some investigating, so everyone gets a move action and a standard action each round (treat one round of posting as one game round). This isn't an active scene though, so active actions don't count - you can move around freely and such.

At its most basic, investigating the scene is a task. Assuming reasonable approaches, contributing to the task is an extended (Time rank 7) standard action that requires a DC 21 Investigation check. You need a total of five degrees of success to get the key clues that are available at the scene. The task uses Assisted Progress and Opportunity Failure - you need to accumulate at least two degrees of progress towards the task each round, or you've found all you can and the round doesn't "end", meaning your actions don't refresh and you'll have to either resort to other resources or move on.

That being said, the task itself is only one thing you can do. There may be other clues that can be discovered with other skill-based actions, or certain actions may give you some of the information you would otherwise have to succeed the task to acquire; the task doesn't replace the normal Investigation actions, for example. Each PC who successfully acquires a piece of useful information about the scene counts towards one of the degrees of progress required for purposes of calculating Opportunity Failure.

Finally, remember: individual failures don't hamper progress. You fail the task by not making enough progress, not by failing X checks or by Y degrees. Actions are use 'em or lose 'em, so even if you don't have the skills for it, it's worth trying something. Aid someone else, see if any of your other skills or powers or advantages give you options, even just rolling a check and hoping for a 20 is a better contribution than letting your actions pass by unused.

The dumpster that Keller's head had been left in was in the parking lot behind an apartment complex. The whole lot had been cordoned off with crime scene tape, much to the annoyance of the residents who now couldn't get to their vehicles to go to work. A modest crowd had gathered at entrances to the lot, some of the ones in front speaking angrily to officers guarding the entries, but most just looking curiously. There were also several eyes peering down on the scene from windows in the apartments, and a few reporters taking some B-roll while waiting for a development.

Now, of course, the arrival of an elite SCOUT team to a crime scene would cause a bit of a stir in any case. But with you guys it was another matter entirely. Pretty much the moment you approached, the crowd and the reporters straight-up swarmed you. They kinda shied away from Shadow a bit, enough to give the rest of the team a more-or-less clear path, but even Shadow's terrifying visage only went so far - after all, even the most horrifying monster seemed less threatening in the presence of three mighty heroes! Cameras were pointed, questions were shouted, cell phones came out...it was rather chaotic. It'd take a bit of effort just to get through the crowd, and uh, the police actually looked a bit nervous. If the star-struck crowd forgot to care about the cordon, there was kinda little that a couple of police officers could do to stop them from following you into the scene.

Whichever of you are present, take 10 :smallcool: Hero Points for your Ludicrously Famous, Man of the People, and Katie the Superstar complications, respectively. As a basic move action with a DC 11 Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion check, you can extricate yourself without upsetting anyone or prompting them to follow you into the scene. With three degrees of success, the action cost gets downgraded to free. Or you can try to handle the matter in some other manner. Each of you have to deal with the complication separately.

That said, Katie, since your imprint loves the attention, it's making it harder for you. After all, it's not like there's anything actually fun to do here, just boring investigative stuff. Call me when there's a bad guy to punch, right? You get 20 :smallcool: Hero Points instead, but extricating yourself smoothly is a standard action and the DC is 16.

[Llyarden]

By the time the team arrived at the crime scene, Allison had made a few minor alterations to her appearance. It was nothing drastic - in all likelihood, no-one would have even noticed unless they were deliberately looking for it - but she was definitely just a tiny bit taller and more muscular, her hair just a little brighter, her clothes slightly less dull...in short, she'd made herself just a little more striking than she had been in the room. Of course, the beautiful, pink-and-purple butterfly wings protruding from her back also made her rather noticeable.

While the others focused on the crime scene itself, she turned her attention to the crowd. She'd long since discovered that her sense of hearing was an interesting thing - it was no keener than that of a normal human, but somehow, sounds didn't fade and disperse through bouncing off the surroundings as much as they normally would. And if she listened for it, every living creature - but humans most of all - broadcast an interesting...harmony, for want of a better word. Even if they weren't speaking, the rustle of their clothes, the rhythm of their breathing and heartbeat...it all flowed into a single, cohesive music that could be more beautiful than the best composition.

It was also, at times, quite useful. As it was here - most of the figures at the front of the crowd were just giving off a dull, bass drone that she ignored as a matter of course, but there was one with a sharper, more defined melody, with deep, subtle twangs of pain and mistrust.Interesting...

She avoided the crowd by the simple expedient of flying over them, but then stopped and hovered about a head above the police officers, so she could be seen by most of them, her fluttering, fluorescent wings instinctively drawing attention. "I appreciate that some of you are angry," she called over the general chaos, "but the sooner we're done with this then the sooner we'll be able to get out of your way - and to answer your questions, where possible," she added, with a slight nod to the reporters.

Another interesting facet of what she'd come to think of as the 'human melody' was that by speaking aloud herself, she could focus more deeply on a single person's internal melody - as if her voice became a tuning fork. It was best when she was speaking directly to the person she wanted to focus on, but just speaking at all made an improvement.

Seemingly by chance, as she spoke, Allison's eyes met those of the brown-haired woman whose emotions were much sharper and deeper than the people around her.

For reference, though I forgot to mention it, Allison generally doesn't go round with Attractive 2 active; she uses Shifting Body to suppress it. It's back up now, though.

Instant: Informative Analytical Detect Emotions to scan the brown-haired woman, using Cunning Application to substitute Persuasion for Insight: [roll0], potentially +5 for Skill Mastery. 30.
Free: Use Attractive 2 to Outclass...uh, anyone who cares...in Persuasion and Insight: [roll1], +5 or +10 for Persuasion. 20 Insight, 30 Persuasion.

[DeAnno]

When the crowd closed in and hampered his companions, Shadow was ... tempted ... to assist them, by taking a more active stance towards the crowd. He refrained however, despite being a bit munchy; he was never going to be recognized as a real hero if he went around terrifying mostly innocent crowds all the time.

Instead, he moved to the immediate crime scene, and stalked around. He let his darkness flare out a bit, flowing over the dirty pavement as his tentacles moved him in a circle around the dumpster. Space around it in the alley was a little cramped, and he even had to shrink and regrow (fluff) at one point to really get a good picture of everything, but by the end of it he had a pretty good idea of who had been relevantly by this particular dumpster lately. The sharpest impression was that left by the fear of whoever discovered the scene, and he kind of wished he had been there for that. That pool of fear was too old to be appetizing now, but it would have been delicious at the time.

The other, fainter trail was much more useful though. The impression was weak, barely a twinge in the shadows that were effectively his sensory surfaces in this form, but it was definitely there. Criminals, in his limited experience, were usually at least a little afraid of getting caught, and this one definitely had a bit of that specific hue to it. He was confident he could start following it, but the trail was already hours cold, so it was probably wise to wrap up a preliminary look at the scene first. Besides, now that he had the proper trail identified, it was likely that Leoroar could assist in following it when the time came (if he ever got away from his fans...)

[Llyarden]

Allison tilted her head on one side, just for a few moments, and then, still hovering just behind the police officers, pulled her phone from her inside pocket. The more sharp-eyed among the crowd would note the small attachment on the end of it, though, somewhat like the kind of thing one would use to allow one's phone to stand upright on a desk. In this case, however, the purpose of the gadget was rather different. She glanced briefly at the results that flashed up on her phone's screen and then sent a message off to the SCOUT head office. [Any known contacts of Keller? Esp Streetguard. Photos would help.] It was somewhat necessarily terse, as she barely paid attention to her phone for more than a few moments before returning her attention to the crowd.

"Now, please, if you'd give us a little room, we'd greatly appreciate it." Crowds weren't something she was entirely unused to - sure, she didn't have quite the same ludicrous levels of fame as some of the others, but she'd had famous clients before, and this wasn't the first time she'd had to perform the delicate balancing act of getting a crowd to back off without offending them.

Free (as discussed in Discord): Send off a request for names/photos of Keller's Streetguard contacts.
Move Free: Extricate Leoroar from the crowd, assuming he doesn't want to take advantage of the attention for something (and, y'know, is actually here). Minimum Persuasion result is 21 after Skill Mastery, so three degrees of success against DC11.
Move Free: Ditto Oni.
Standard Free?: Ditto Katie. I'll go ahead and actually roll this one in the hopes of getting it reduced to a free action as well: [roll0], potentially +5 for Skill Mastery. 29 for Skill Mastery.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Kingsley couldn't help but frown when they were swarmed: secrecy was part of a wizard's very being, and all that attention - and the fact that some even welcomed it - just felt...wrong. Still, it's not like it was directed at him (or, at the very least, he was light a lightbult next to a sun) so he slipped through the crowd with relative ease and reached the dumpster.

On the other hand, some attention was a little price to pay for being able to use some magic in public without much worry (though he still positioned himself in such a way that only someone who was really looking could see). He murmured a few words, drowned by the crowd's noise, and Keller's head floated up from the pile of waste it was resting in, rotating so that he could examine the wound.

"Hmm..."

"Hm-mh..."

"Hm. Mmh..."

Move. Aid, see OOC (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23525480&postcount=24).
Standard: Apply Knowledge to examine the head, see OOC (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23525480&postcount=24).

Several "hm" and "mh" later, he nodded satisfied. "He was beheaded in combat...in a single stroke." he announced. "I doubt it was an ordinary blade. Ah, the killer is presumably right handed."

[Ridai]

Oni barely reaches the place before she and the others get crowded, as usual. What she is not used to, however, is not having to deal with getting to where she needs to go without any effort on her part. She still smiles to the crowd, the kind letting them know that now they're here, everything's going to be fine. Not much more to do, as Allison seems to have the crowd under control.

Once in the crime scene proper, the red wrestler has a look-see around. Can't claim to be the most sharp-eyed SCOUT member there is, but her eyes do have their advantages, unhindered by poor light conditions and getting all into those nitty-gritty details.

Move Scan the surroundings for clues with her Eyes of the Inevitable Ballista (analytical, clear (all descriptors), Circuitous 2)
Perception [roll0]

[manwithaplan]

Slipping out of the crowd with Allison's help, Katie moved to Oni and telepathically linked minds with her.

Let's coordinate our search. One of us might miss something.

Let's see if I can get her to the next degree, just in case.

Aiding Oni Perception [roll0].

[Ridai]

Woah, hi there. Oni still isn't quite used to psychic connections, but she'll get the hang of it soon enough. Not like it's a bad thing, oh no, just new.

"Looks like it definitely didn't happen here. Seeing no traces of anything, not even someone trying to hide their crimes." Doesn't help them too much, admittedly. Crime scene investigation for the most part isn't her strong suit, Oni has to admit, outside of some specialties.

[Capt. Infinity]

Leonel was not exactly a squeamish individual. He really couldn't afford to be, honestly. His powers, whilst not necessarily inherently lethal, were nothing short of brutal in combat, and lent themselves to a rather brutal fighting style as a result. But Keller was a different story. His head was not merely a gruesome scene, it was a tragic one. The desecrated remains of a hero of the streets. A Superhuman murdered like an animal. A thing which, in Leonel's mind, happened far too often. The sight of Keller's head was an exceptionally unpleasant experience as a result. And the resulting upset expression it left on Leo's face was one he was glad none of the public had to see, with Allison masterfully holding the crowd at bay.

But, in the end, as much as Leonel didn't want to approach the scene of the crime, it was a necessary step in the process. As despite the Lion Aspect having been able to smell the head long before seeing it, he needed to get in close to receive the scent. To begin the process of hopefully tracking this man's killer. And, for whatever reason, perhaps as a product of natural skill, or as a direct result of his abject motivation, his attempts at tracking bore near-instant, exceptionally promising fruit.

"I've got the trail, guys." The professional hero stated matter-of-factly to his companions. His head turning away from the crime scene to look down the nearby street. "The head was brought here in some kind of container, which had in turn been brought here in some kind of vehicle. Likely a civilian car." He looks back at the group, a heroic, if predatory smile breaking across his face. "But it'd take a lot firmer a seal than a car door to kick me off the scent. I've got a direct trail on whoever or whatever dumped the head. I can trace it back to the origin of the drop whenever we're done searching." The lion man states proudly. Satisfied that, even with his limited investigative prowess, he had managed to do his part in helping the case move forward.

[Llyarden]

Allison smiled, looking away from the crowd and back towards the other investigators gathered around Keller's head. "You guys go on ahead if you want," she said. "There's something I want to check out first."

She looked away from the crowd as her phone pinged. She glanced down at it, turning away from the crowd, and scrolled through the message she'd received briefly. Then she raised the phone to her ear, as if about to make a call, taking a couple of steps away from the crowd, speaking quietly enough that she couldn't be heard over the crowd...unless, of course, certain members of the crowd were angry and frustrated enough at Keller's death that they were willing to use their super-senses to eavesdrop on what appeared to be a private phone conversation made by one of the investigators.

"Lena Hailey? Can you hear me?" Allison kept her own supernatural hearing focused on Lena. "I'm afraid I won't be able to hear your response, but I wanted to make an offer. I'll wait a couple of blocks away if you want to talk to one of us - away from all this cacophony. And if not, then there's no harm done, but I'll be there either way." But Allison suspected - or perhaps hoped - that Lena, at least to some degree, did want to talk to someone about what had happened to Keller.

And then, just as she'd promised - it would be a bit of a waste if Lena couldn't actually hear her at all, but such was the unfortunate side effect of her fae heritage - she slipped into an alleyway. Once she was out of sight of the crowd, she shifted again, becoming a rather drabber, less vibrant version of herself, hair hanging down around her face somewhat, who would hopefully go unnoticed on the streets.

Allison would probably actually give an road intersection or something rather than just 'a couple of blocks away' but I don't know what the geography/road names of this city is supposed to be like.

Standard: I'm...not really sure if this would be a Convince or Request action, since I'm leaving the decision in Lena's hands but trying to nudge her into doing it. (I would try to Negotiate first, but, like...she can't really reply to me, and I don't even know if she can hear me in the first place.) I'll roll Deception, and if it turns out to be Persuasion instead then the result will be higher: [roll0] Let's hope it's Persuasion, because that'd be 27.
'Free': Slip away down the alleyway - or fly away again if needed - to get out of view.
Instant: Change with Shifting Attire/Body/Features to be less recognisable, dropping Attractive and Prowess and taking Stealth 15 instead.
(Free: Hope that Lena actually has heightened hearing as part of her super-senses! :smalltongue: )

[Quellian-dyrae]

With some mostly-good-natured complaining, the crowd backed off a bit at Allison's request, letting the more recognizable agents through.

Shadow could follow the faint trail of fear back to the same spot by the curb that Leoroar's blood trail went - presumably, where the suspect had parked his or her car. Shadow could discern both paths, and he could tell that the trail was fainter on the way back to the car than from it - once the head was dropped off, the suspect's fear began to recede. Entering the car further diminished the strength of the trail, but a car wasn't perfect obscurement, and Shadow had this particular trail pegged. It did, however, look like the car had departed going in the same direction as it had arrived from.

When Allison spoke quietly, Lena stiffened, and Allison could hear the horror-movie-jump-scare-sting-like sound of startled surprised when she heard her name used, along with a flash of seemingly instinctive mistrust and aggression; hearing her name like that seemed to have provoked a bit of a fight-or-flight response, and evidently fight was her default in such cases. She calmed quickly though, looking straight at Allison, her ears evidently keen enough to peg the speaker's location. She gave a minute nod, but waited for Allison to leave, giving the police guarding the perimeter one more tirade, before stalking off.

Lena arrived in the alley shortly, approaching Allison with determined stride. "It's him isn't it?" she demanded without preamble, her voice fierce but with pain in her eyes. "It's Armel. The ******* killed him, didn't he?" The anger Allison had been hearing from her spiked sharply when she asked that last question, going beyond mere rage to downright murderous intensity.

[Llyarden]

"It's Armel, yes," Allison replied quietly, genuine sympathy in her tone - but very carefully only answering the first part of Lena's question. "I'm sorry for your loss, Ms Hailey."

She paused for another couple of moments, 'tuning in' to Lena's emotions more thoroughly now there wasn't a crowd surrounding them, before she continued. "My name's Allison. Do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

Now I can actually talk to Lena, Sherlock Scan: [roll0] +5 for Skill Mastery, and if I can spend a Request bonus after the fact I will, for a total of 27.

Also, unless it would be interpreted as mistrustful or something (or would interfere with social skills, but that seems unlikely given the entire premise of the stance), Allison would've used her leftover move action from last round to switch into the Let's Talk stance.

[DeAnno]

Thinking things over, Shadow pulled out his SCOUT phone and sent a quick text to the group. “Following trail 2 find perp. Going quiet 2 leave circus behind. Will text if succeed.”

After that, he slid around the dumpster again, behind some of the shadows dominating the alleyway and out of the direct sunlight. Shrinking down to the size of a (very disturbing looking) squirrel, his dark aura seemed to flatten into the rest of the shadows and he effectively disappeared. Furtively dodging between islands out of the sun, Shadow headed for the mouth of the alley, unbeknownst to the media frenzy, and got ready to follow the fear trail left as the killer escaped by car. Hopefully he would not only find the killer, but find the killer without the killer knowing he was found.


As an Instant Action, Shadow uses shifting body to go “Rogue” (15 Stealth, 5 Prowess, 10 Shrinking.) Then, as another Instant Action, Shadow switches his Control Darkness Array to Stalking Predator, offering him Full Concealment whenever he’s out of the sunlight. As a move action, he takes the “Stalking” stance, letting him retain concealment throughout his turns even if he loses it at some point during the turn (such as from darting through sunlight and having his Concealment power temporarily turn off.)

As a standard action, Shadow rolls Stealth to Outclass with a +5 Heroic bonus; [roll0]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Just doing a little response post so Allison can take the rest of her turn. Realizing that trying to wait an entire round to do an IC post in a noncombat scene is less than ideal. I'll note when I'm making a post that ends a round.

Shadow, at Speed 4 it'll take a bit to follow the trail, so I'll set the stage where you end up at when I set up the next round.

And nah Let's Talk is basically all about facilitating communication. On Guard is like "I am ready for combat at a moment's notice". Let's Talk is more "I am not a threat to you, I just want to talk."

Lena drew in a long breath through her nose, closing her eyes briefly, when you responded. Your answer clearly hurt, but just as clearly, did not come as a surprise.

She got a bit of a wary look on her face when you asked if you could ask her questions. That deep-seated mistrust flared up just a bit. "What do you want to know?" she asked in response, but it wasn't in an affirmative sense. The question was wary, testing.

Although she's hiding it externally pretty well, you can tell from the depth of her pain that Keller wasn't just an associate or comrade in arms. They were close. But...you don't get the sense that they were involved romantically, and underscoring everything else there's a sort of sense of being lost under her emotions, like the world has shifted in some fundamental way for her. You'd bet they were friends, maybe even best friends, since early childhood.

You notice that she's studying you, making note of the subtle changes you've made to your appearance, and of your wings.
Since you're more famous in more legally-oriented circles, she doesn't seem to have recognized you off the top of her head. Superhumans often have mutations; your wings have made her think that it's possible you're one of them, but she's not sure.
Shapeshifting isn't impossible for superhumans, but it's super-uncommon (though somewhat less so than most think, due to shapeshifting Supernals having passed themselves off as superhumans for decades). The minor appearance alteration you did isn't contradictory evidence of the conclusion, but somewhat increases the threshold of evidence required to support it.

If you could convince her that you're superhuman, she'd probably be more open with you, but if she found out you were lying about it she'd almost certainly close off entirely. Flip side, if you came out with the fact that you aren't, she'd probably be more initially resistant to helping you, but if you could break through that resistance, she wouldn't forget that you were honest.

Lena:
Move: Enter the Suspicious stance.
Standard: Outclass using Deception at [roll0].

[Llyarden]

"Anything you could tell me would be helpful," Allison responded, meeting Lena's suspicious look with a calm, gentle smile. Her voice was still sympathetic - though not sympathetic enough to sound demeaning. "Even if it doesn't seem important. But a good place to start would be what you know of Armel's last movements - or anyone who might have meant him harm. You sounded like you had a pretty good idea who was responsible just now."

That wasn't something she particularly wanted Lena to focus on too much - the other woman was plenty angry enough without bringing her 'suspect' to the forefront of her mind - but it was bound to happen sooner or later, and better it happened here, where Allison could temper that anger somewhat. And besides, the information would probably be useful.

Non-action: Edit Scene to specify that Allison has represented the Streetguard - or at least some of their members - at some point in the past. I'm figuring it would've been something like them trying to stop a crime but going a bit overboard (or maybe interfering with a police sting or the like), but if there's some convenient case in the past that Allison could've been involved in then that's fine too.
Move: Sherlock Scan in above post. Just putting it here to remind myself to not try to use it again.
Standard: Outclass Lena right back, but with Persuasion in my case: [roll0]

[Ridai]

Feeling a bit superfluous at the crime scene (and detrimental when she reads the text Shadow sent), Oni looks to the others left at the scene. "So... should we move on to the other crime scenes?"

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Mmm...not yet." Kingsley replied, after a brief pause. "Do me a favour and start questioning the residents, I'll join you in a moment." he said to both Oni and Leonel, then went back to examining the head and the spot where it was laying, trying to infer how long it had been sitting there from its decay and the development stages of the most-short lived insect larvae.

Move: Consider.
Move: If it worked in Bones, it can work here :smalltongue:. Expertise (Medical) to determine when the head was dumped, if not when it was severed [roll0].

[Ridai]

"'kay," Oni responds. There are a lot of people there. In the buildings, too, probably. This could take a long time, especially with the fan density. Crossing her arms, the tall woman thinks about how to handle this for a moment, tapping a large finger on her biceps of Justice. She can almost see the lightbulb appearing as she remembers Katie saying to coordinate. And she is going to take that bulb's light and chuck it at the dark covering what they need to know.

"Katie, can you do the thing where you tune in with, like, everyone? Could make interviews a lot quicker." Once Katie has formed the telepathic conference call (Oni likes to think of it as a conference call), she takes the lead. Katie doesn't like the spotlight all that much, after all.

"Hey everyone, Oni Ballista here, working with my awesome colleagues to solve a crime, and maybe you can help as well! If you've heard or seen anything suspicious happening around the alley where the crime happened last night, just think your answer back to me, every bit helps. If you haven't, it's all good, just tune out and have a nice day." Oni is fully prepared to have some people just wanting to talk in general or quickly getting off-topic, but you never know what may come up during these interviews.

Oni stunts a new Array slot for 40 Hero Points, called "Cast Some Light On It"

Investigation 0 -> 16 (30.4pp)
Skill Mastery (Investigation) (4pp)
Well Informed (4pp)

Investigation check to Gather Information (+5 heroic bonus)
[roll0]

Oni talks with everyone nearby and in the buildings via Katie's telepathy.

[Quellian-dyrae]

At the end of the trail

The trail of fear from after dropping off the head tapered out a few blocks from the scene, but it was following the original trail precisely enough (albeit, on the other side of the street) that it was a safe bet that it was heading for the same place. After several minutes, Shadow arrived at a private, gated residence. Not quite a full-on manor, but a big two-story home that was obviously owned by somebody well-off. There were also a pair of guards standing outside the gate. They weren't armed - Tandaran law prohibited civilians, including private security, from carrying any weaponry more lethal than a taser - but it was clear at a glance that that hardly mattered. One of them was built like a truck and had short black hair and slate grey skin that looked like it was somewhere between "rhinoceros hide" and "solid rock", and the other one had big, extremely vivid pink eyes and lavender hair. Superhumans.

While it wasn't too strange for a wealthy individual to have private security, having them standing guard outside was kinda weird for a normal residence. It suggested their boss was either paranoid, an extremely public figure who needed constant advanced security measures, or had a credible expectation of an imminent threat.

In the alley

"It was Parish. No question," Lena said. "And I can back that claim up," she added with a certain amount of steel in her voice, as if expecting to be doubted. She hesitated a moment though. "You're the lawyer who got those stupid charges against Gwen and Shu dropped, right?" she asked. Gwen Whittaker and Shu Kalb were two members of the Streetguard. When a couple anti-Superhuman nutjobs had set an apartment building on fire in their territory, they had intervened and rescued the people trapped inside. A couple of them were normal humans, and they had gone ahead and sued the two of them for injuries received during the rescue (to be fair, normal humans do get kinda banged up when you're dramatically diving them through second-story windows, but it sure beats the alternative and the Streetguards made sure to take the brunt of it).

"...Plenty of people hear a Superpowered killed a Superhuman, they won't think much of it. Plenty of 'em would even blame the victim for it. Are you on our side here?"

At the scene

Oni was bombarded with replies. About three-fifths of them had precisely zero to do with the crime or anything she had actually asked out. Another third were...well, they were absolutely trying to be helpful. Yes, they definitely tried. But amidst all of it, some information did come out from a group of kids who had been playing outside around sunset last evening. They described a big, dark-haired guy that they didn't recognize drop something in the dumpster from a duffel bag. Between the three of them, they were able to give enough details that they could probably sit down with a sketch artist.

New round begins. All PCs are on turn.

[Llyarden]

"That was me, yes," Allison answered. "And yes, those charges were pretty stupid. And that's the reason I defended them. Because it wouldn't have been right for them to be punished for saving lives - especially since they tried their best to minimise the damage they did."

"I'm on the same side now as I was then: the side of justice. In this case, the side of finding out who killed your friend, no matter who - or what - they are." There was a hint of reproach in Allison's tone. "Now, what do you have to prove that Ethan Parrish is responsible for Armel's death?" She pulled her phone back out of her pocket, stylus ready to take notes (sometimes she really envied Kingsley's perfect recall) of whatever Lena might say - as much to suggest that she was going to take Lena's comments seriously as anything else.

Of course, once she got Lena talking, with any luck she'd be able to widen the scope of information to include more than just Ethan Parrish.

Standard: Completely untrained Interview: [roll0] Well, uh, two successes!
Move: Apply Knowledge (Law) on whatever Lena says to see if it would pass muster for getting warrants or whatever other legal relevancies there might be here, at +5 DC from stance distraction: [roll1]

[DeAnno]

Shadow gave the two guards a glance over as he checked out the gate, but as far as he could tell they were fairly oblivious (even the one with the suspiciously big eyes) and not even all that shook up. This duty was probably something fairly regular, and not their boss specifically doing diligence in light of a recent homicide cover-up.

The gate was no real obstacle for Shadow; in a flash, his small form scurried right up and over the wall beside it, a narrow path of fading dimness the only visible evidence of his passage.

Suspicious movement to bypass the guarded gate; Stealth Edge reduced by 2 to 24.

Over the wall and past the guards, Shadow stalked through the grounds, looking for a convenient way to gain entry to the townhouse itself. Maybe a window left cracked open on the second story, or failing that some kind of access on the roof.

[Ridai]

As expected, Oni got flooded by a lot of people just wanting to help her and some well-meaning types. But those kids really made that worthwhile. She thanks all the others who chimed in for their time and as she hears the kids have something more concrete, she walks over to them, talking to them in person. Once they are done describing the perp, she grins to them.

"Thank you so very much, all of you were a great help!" Oni asks each of them for their names and if they seem to be fans of her (one shouldn't presume) or seem up for it in general, she distributes big hugs to the kids (and if they are fans, autograms, selfies, and/or launches). She wants them to know and feel that they are being appreciated for helping.

Once done, Oni heads back to the others left at the scene. "Got a description of whoever dumped the head, should be enough to get a pretty clear picture back at the HQ."

[manwithaplan]

Katie nods along with Oni.

"Yep, got a profile. I'll send the info home right away."

She closed her eyes to concentrate, finding a name in the see of thought-feel miasma that clouded the city.

Karyn, can you hear me? Katie here. Can you produce a sketch?

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Already? Good, then."

Kingsley let the head float down inside whatever container the ME (or who for them) provided, and turned to face the others.

"Now we can move to the next scene. Let's go."

Styles is next! Well, unless the majority disagrees, of course.

[Ridai]

Oni nods to Kingsley. "Sure." Time to get on with it then. Oni heads away from the crime scene and on to the next, telling the authorities watching the crime scene they are done there along the way.

[Quellian-dyrae]

In the alley

Lena eyed Allison a moment, as if trying to find some hole in that claim, but evidently it was sufficient to get her to explain her belief, at least. "Armel had learned something. Said he had found some evidence that would link Parish to a Superhuman bloodsport ring. Conclusively. An underground arena that could be tied to him, or something. He said he was going to confront Parish with it. Try to get him to come clean. I told him to wait for me, that I'd back him up, but he didn't listen," there was a clear spike of frustrated anger as she said so.

Lena paused for a moment, but then said firmly, "Obviously, whatever he had found was enough that Parish killed him rather than let him bring it to the cops."

After a few clarifying questions, Lena admits that Armel had seemed to be acting a bit odd on the phone call. It wasn't like him to approach someone as dangerous as Parish without backup, and he had seemed really agitated. She had just chalked it up to excitement at having uncovered the evidence.

While she's not sure exactly where the alleged arena was, after a few questions about Armel's recent activities, she does recall that he had been patrolling pretty heavily in the area around Primrose Avenue and Andover Street recently. Of some note, that intersection is within half a mile of both of the other crime scenes.

Legally speaking, this isn't much to hang a warrant on. Just not enough hard evidence, and way too much hearsay. It's a solid enough theory of the crime, but without corroboration, it's probably not going to convince a judge.

At the house

Accessing the grounds was easy enough. There wasn't any obviously easy route in - the doors and windows were all closed and locked. Kinda to be expected if security was a big enough concern to have guards posted outside. However, while solid walls could block Shadow's fear sense, mere windows only muffled it - and it would take more than that to keep him from sensing the massive stain of fear that seemed to have been splashed liberally over the front room. It was old, but not too old, and would have had to be extremely intense to leave such a strong trace. Someone had been feeling mortal terror in that house not too long ago.

At the next crime scene

~Got it. I'll let you know when it's done,~ Karyn replied.

It didn't take super-long to reach the next crime scene. The alley was blocked by crime scene tape, but there wasn't really a police presence there at the moment, and neither was there a crowd. The body was still there, though, which was somewhat odd given the lack of police. Certainly, it was no surprise that the ME might not have reached this scene yet what with all the bodies at the first one, but if the body hadn't been retrieved, you'd think there would be some officers to guard the scene.

Not that it was unattended, mind. There was a man there standing over the body, presumably an investigator. When the group approached the alley, he looked up, and walked over, standing on the far side of the crime scene tape, his body language clearly showing intent to block your path. "Sorry folks, we're claiming jurisdiction on this one," he said, showing you his badge - he was a Federal investigator.

While he was a Federal investigator, that was more his cover than anything. You recognized him as Arlo Kaiser, another Circle wizard. He hides his magic the old-fashioned way - by not letting people know he has magic.

While SCOUT is authorized to know about magic in the general sense, and nominally SCOUT and the Circle are allied organizations, the Circle's overall view of SCOUT is more-or-less "tell them and help them just enough to ensure they don't get in the way." It's hardly surprising that the Circle would want to investigate the death of one of their own themselves, and the fact that they sent Kaiser to do it rather than just getting you on it directly is a clear message: they want SCOUT to stay out of their way and let them handle this.

You're clearly expected to ensure that happens. If you dedicate your efforts here to helping Kaiser get your team to back off on this one, you'll earn 20 :smallcool: Hero Points for your Circle of Duty Complication. This will increase to 40 if you succeed to do so. You don't have to do this if you'd rather support SCOUT than the Circle here; they won't be happy about it, but your position in SCOUT is useful enough that they'll accept it...as long as you end up catching Styles' killer, anyway.

In either case, though, it is of paramount importance that you do nothing to blow Kaiser's cover. Your standing in the Circle would be severely jeopardized if you revealed a member to outsiders, Scouts or not. Take 10 :smallcool: Hero Points for the inconvenience of that complication.

[DeAnno]

Due dilligence in keeping the house shut tight was only to be expected, but against Shadow's infiltration and stealth skills more than mere dilligence was required. Shadow couldn't get in, but that was just because he wasn't small enough yet.

Instant action to Shifting Form: Bug: Stealth 13 (from 15), Prowess 0, Shrinking 36. Stealth Edge drops by 2 to 22.

Shadow wrapped himself up even tighter than usual, darkness fading under tentacles and tentacles tangling into darkness, until he was very, very small. The well cut lawn grass had seemed like an untamed savannah before; now it was a bizarre jungle. Ants that had been the size of mice ballooned up into giant monsters bigger than clydesdales. If any of them had been able to see Shadow through his rippling invisibility, they might have (very wrongly) thought him a tasty snack for the colony.

As he approached the closed door, the small steps and the sturdy welcome mat were like the entrance to some ancient temple, and without his climbing abilities Shadow might've been challenged even ascending them. However, the front door which had once been shut tight now was held hanging high above the ground, letting Shadow easily slither under it to access the house inside.

Having breached another layer of the defenses, Shadow glanced around with both his visual and fear senses, trying to get a better idea of the situation in the front room that had been muffled by windows and obscured by doors.

[Llyarden]

Allison took careful notes as Lena spoke, a sympathetic look in her eyes - though she was rapidly considering the potential implications. Armel's head had been found a good distance away from that intersection, but the other two crime scenes hadn't been - and there was no guarantee at all that Armel's actual death hadn't been within that area.

Of course, before she started investigating, first she had to make sure Lena didn't try any investigating of her own. Or, at least, no investigating that Allison didn't want her doing. "Thank you for talking to me, Ms Hailey, though I have one more question - would it be possible for you to ask around other members of the Streetguard? Particularly anyone else who might have been patrolling in the same area as you mentioned Armel had been focusing on. If we can find the evidence Armel had, it would help us a lot."

Lena wasn't dumb, of course, and Allison would have been surprised if she didn't realise that Allison was trying to keep her out of the active investigation. But as much as anything else, the request was a test - to see just how determined Lena was to find Armel's killer personally.

Move: Negotiate, focused on Lena not going off trying to investigate the case / confront Parrish herself: [roll0] 30 after Skill Mastery.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Kingsley's lips drooped in annoyance (well, more than usual, anyway) when he noticed the absence of police...and indeed, his expectations weren't betrayed when he recognised Kaiser.

Not that I should have expected any different.

And to be honest, it's not like he had anything against letting the Circle handle that particular case - they had much less red tape to worry about, and presumably a headstart as far as leads were concerned. However, he also considered pretty unlikely that the three murders just happened to happen on the same night, and had otherwise absolutely no link with each other; being completely cut off from a piece of the puzzle was something he'd rather avoid.

What to do? ...well, at the very least he'd need to be alone to negotiate, and as much as four heads are better than one, one is better than none at all.

"...I see." he said, dryly, then turned towards the team, urging them to step back and lowering his voice somewhat. "Isn't this just wounderful?" he commented, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Seems like the time has come to call in a few old favours. And speaking of that, it's no use loitering around here until I'm done, so do me one and head to the third scene, will you? Before they claim that, too." he continued, matter-of-factly, though he couldn't avoid a bit of snark at the end.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Not a round change, just an intermediary post.

Shadow

The front room of the house was empty at the moment. It was a fairly large foyer, decorated with a couple paintings and some potted plants (which offered pretty much the only cover in the room), with glossy hardwood floors. There was a strong smell of industrial-strength cleaners - keeping all the doors and windows closed didn't exactly do wonders for ventilation.

You could feel the lingering traces of fear much more clearly here. There was definitely a sense of mortal terror dominating the scene. It wasn't the only remnant of fear on the room, but it was by far the strongest, making the others harder to discern.

You can also detect the kinda "chilled but spicy" sense of straight-up adrenaline - there aren't too many people who can enter a dangerous situation entirely devoid of fear. However, this particular fear-remnant has a rancid edge to it, the natural fear response tainted by utter confidence.

You also sense some tense concern. You can't quite tell who was feeling this - it'd be like trying to tell if the same person who left a particular footprint also broke a particular branch - but you're pretty certain that there were multiple people feeling it, and one was feeling significantly less than the others.

There's also a distinct note of paranoia flavoring the scene.

Finally, beneath all of it, you manage to pick up a very subtle trace of confused fear, almost edging into dread. A fear not dissimilar to what you've felt before from victims who you "played with", subtly messing with them without revealing yourself, so that they knew something was wrong but didn't know what.

Allison

Lena...actually looked briefly surprised. "I can do that," she agreed with a nod. "Just...just make sure you get the guy," she said, her voice somewhat soft with resignation, but with a fierce core of steel beneath it.

Strictly speaking you succeeded enough to all three options, but her desires aren't really that granular here. And honestly she A) doesn't really think she can take Parish and B) wasn't expecting you to let her help in any event, so giving her something that she could do to contribute while your team handled Parish was pretty much the ideal in any case. At least making the attempt to get him would probably have counted as minimally sufficient - basically, she wasn't looking at all forward to trying to take Parish on herself, so as long as she could count on your team to do it she's kinda happy to not have to.

At the second scene

((Holding for more responses here.))

[Ridai]

"Wait, where's-" Oni starts to say as she sees the lack of, well, authorities around, only to have a badge put in her face (well, not really, she's a bit too tall for that. Details).

"Hey now-" she begins, only to have Kingsley take over. Oni can't help but furrow her brow and cross her dual justice dispensers.

"...If you say so." Kingsley is a colleague and a much better investigator, so keeping him from investigating effectively is not on the menu. It would be like him trying to defend the title for her in her last series of professional matches. Doesn't change she is rather peeved about one organization trying to go "nuh-uh" about investigating a murder instead of working together. That's why nothing gets done. Typical bureaucratic BS. While not having much of a head for the nitty-gritty of the business surrounding her person, she's been consistently cracking down on crap like that cropping up in it.

Another glance at the scene and the fed (and thinking that there really should be more people on scene, and more care shown for the body of the poor woman), Oni turns and walks away, towards the last crime scene, her huge white mane moving rather dramatically and not entirely on purpose.

[DeAnno]

Shadow crept over the wooden floors of the crime scene, oddly rough and uneven at this scale despite the gloss. He could tell there were two fear signatures here, likely the murderer and the murderee, and even though a thorough cleaning had wiped out all the physical remains (and left the room looking strangely sterile at this scale...) the mental traces remained. Even if methods like this wouldn't hold up in court, Shadow wanted to know as much about this murderer as he could, for the team's edification and to help narrow the search for actionable evidence. He carefully searched over the room, checking not only for fear trace in the obvious places, but also looking for anything suspicious that might be leftover in the tiny crevices and corners a human might miss. Even the smallest drop of stray blood that escaped cleaning in a crack might be pivotal evidence should they ever get a real warrant.

Searching the room (full action), both for missed fear traces (ala the mysterious DC 21) and also for any specks of leftover physical evidence. Perception 10 heroic + [roll0] , effectively a 26.

[Quellian-dyrae]

New round. Everyone has a full complement of actions.

Kingsley (Second Crime Scene)

Kaiser gave you a nod once the rest of the group had left. "Nicely handled. So, what do you know about what happened to Styles?" he asked. While Kaiser was no slouch in divinations, he was a trained investigator, and didn't rely exclusively on magic to do his job. That being said, his question was definitely a straight "tell me what you know", not a "let's share information".

Since you successfully got the rest of the team away from this scene gonna be honest I didn't expect that to be so easy you can have those other 20 :smallcool: Hero Points.

Oni, Katie, Leo (Third Crime Scene)

Okay, there's a slight problem.

Issue 1: The final crime scene, based on the photos, is a horrifying mess of blood and bodies. Given the size of the scene, that probably hasn't improved much, since there's undoubtedly a lot of processing still to do before even the bodies can be removed, let alone any sort of cleanup happening.

Issue 2: Every single one of you has a freakin' Fame complication. You literally managed to ditch the only two team members who don't.

Issue 3: The crowd of adoring fans and excited civilians that kinda just materialized includes kids.

Now, I'm not saying these people would trample past crime scene tape to follow you guys. We've played that game already. I'm just saying that if they follow you up to the crime scene tape, then a bunch of kids are gonna see some rather traumatizing things. As heroes, ya'll may want to prevent that.

If you guys can manage to deal with the crowd so no kids are traumatized without offending, upsetting, scaring, or otherwise dampening their moods, you'll each earn 10 :smallcool: Hero Points for your various Fame complications. Or you can ignore the complication and head on to the scene, whatever you prefer.

Shadow (Estate)

Whoever cleaned the place up did an impressively thorough job, but not a microscopically thorough job. In one of the potted plants, you find just a bit of nearly invisible discoloration in the soil from a minute spray of blood. There's barely any, it'd be tough to get a good DNA profile off of it, but it's there. And with a bit more searching...you notice something else camouflaged in the soil. It's barely larger than a grain of soil itself - at normal size it might well have been entirely undetectable - but at your size it's obvious that it's not the same color or consistency of the soil. It's lighter and much harder.

As you're searching around, a man walks through the foyer from the doorway on the right (which leads to a living room) heading to the one on the left (which leads to the kitchen). He's tall and athletically build, with fair skin and dark hair, dressed in a casual but expensive-looking dark gray suit and...weirdly, carrying a formidable-looking broadsword sheathed on his back. Your instincts crawl as he walks through; he doesn't notice you immediately, but that's only due to your good luck being obscured by the rim of the plant pot at the moment. If you did anything to draw attention to yourself, he'd detect you for sure.

The newcomer's Perception DC is 26, so you don't have an edge against him. Since he's just passing through and you're hard to see, though, I also rolled his Perception against your current Stealth Edge to see if he immediately noticed you and he failed, so you've got a bit of breathing room.

Allison (The Area Around Primrose Avenue and Andover Street)

You arrived at the area that Lena had indicated. It wasn't a...particularly nice part of town, a formerly-industrial area that had over the years gradually been repurposed to be more low-income residential. It wasn't slums, but it wasn't the sort of place that would necessarily be smart to walk around at night, either. Squat, bland apartment buildings were occasionally intermingled with the empty shells of old warehouses and factories. There was a pretty big scrapyard a few blocks away. The buildings were generally in decent repair and had all their windows and such, but there was also regular graffiti, including some gang signs. There were a few people and cars on the sidewalks and streets, but not many; this time of day, most people would have been at work or school, and this wasn't really a place people went through unless they were actively going somewhere.

You notice that some of the graffiti "gang signs" aren't that at all. They look like it at a glance, but they're arcane sigils of some kind.

...Actually, you recognize them as demonic symbols.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Hardly more than you do, since I just got here." Kingsley replied, flatly, with a hint of "what do you want me to know when you don't even want me to take a look". "But I'm sure you know there were two other murders tonight, and I'm not going to insult your intelligence by asking if you'd chalk up to concidence three murdered Supernormals in the same night."

"Now, I understand they want SCOUT to keep its nose out of their business, but given the circumstances I'm afraid there are only two options."

"One, -" he raised a finger "- we both keep each other out of their respective loop, missing important puzzle pieces...and I'm sure no one wants two investigations interfering with one another, but I neither can nor want to prevent my team from investigating at all."

"Two, -" he raised a second finger "- we work together, and share what we know. I can say I have a contact within the feds that's passing me informations, they'll believe me, and we'll run constructive interference rather than destructive. Everyone wins."

"So, what say you? Will you let me take a look, or are you going to make this whole thing more difficult for everyone except the killer?"

Not sure if Request or Incite is more appropriate here. I'll roll Intimidation, subtract 5 if it should be Persuasion instead: [roll0].

[Ridai]

There is this short moment of realization before fan impact. Namely "I won't be doing any investigation as part of this case, will I?" As eyes start to turn their way, widening in slow motion as the fangirling wave begins to build, Oni looks to her team with an expression like she has come to peace with her place in the world.

"I'll handle this, you go on ahead," the brave Oni Ballista says, stepping forward, giving one last sign to her dear companions. They must not be sad or tarry, they have a mission to accomplish, as Oni throws herself into the maw of the fan horde in their stead, watching her white mane flowing in the dramatic breeze.

----------

Many, many eyes follow the many, many twists, turns, and screws involving in the gigantic leap Oni makes, lit in just the right way as a very familiar riff starts playing out of nowhere. Just like that, Oni lands right in the middle of the crowd, with that devil-may-care grin people still remember from before her matches if someone challenged her title. Now, the undefeated champion is right there, looking upon her adoring fans (literally, given she is standing at least a foot taller than all of them, not to mention her hair and horns). She gives them a moment to adjust to her towering presence, the sheer pressure and intensity... before she gives a laugh.

"How're you doin', people?!" she calls out to them. "Things are kinda busy busy busy right now with all that happened, SCOUT's on it, don't you worry. But, y'know, tight schedules." Just when she is seeing the bit of disappointment creep up on the kids' faces, she grins and speaks in a lower, mock-conspiratory tone.

"But I think I can make a bit of time." And with that, Oni turns herself into a people magnet, drawing anyone nearby away from the crime scene, spending time with fans. Selfies, autographs, "Now, no pushing, and let the little ones through!", some launches (in directions so people don't see the grisly scene), and generally making people feel a bit better about the whole situation (and to go about their day afterwards, instead of gawking at crime scenes).

Move Stance action with Oni's Complex Stance advantage to be in both On Guard and Stand Out. All NPCs of a rank at least 2 below Oni's automatically get the impression that Oni is being so damn gracious right now, despite being on duty.

Free Feat of Prowess with her entrance
Prowess (Heroic 10) [roll0] (final result: 38)

If Attractive can be used:
Free Outclass action
Persuasion (minimum result 21 due to Fame) [roll1]

Standard Manipulate action to draw attention
Persuasion (minimum result 21 due to Fame) [roll2]

[DeAnno]

Shadow didn't have any bones at the moment, but if he did, he'd know in his bones that this guy was trouble. Narrowly avoiding detection in the first place due to the whims of internal landscaping decisions, Shadow tried to get control of the situation again by finding Mr. Scary Broadsword's blindspot ...

Stealth Edge 26, and then 32 from OOC thread

... at first, he couldn't quite manage it, but after another careful peek he was able to get a good feel for the man's gait and sync the rhythm of his concealing shadowself to it, letting him stay undiscovered. For now. With that accomplished, he considered the evidence he'd been able to find.

It was likely that the next watering would destroy the blood, but he didn't have a good way to move it. On the off chance that his compatriots could get a real warrant, it would be useful to still have it here. On the other hand, the speck of foreign material was both readily movable and interesting; if he could get it out of here safely whatever it was might cast some new insight on what exactly was going on besides common murder. He picked it up in an idle tentacle, and then thought about what his next move should be.

Move Free action, pick up the hard fleck of light material.

[manwithaplan]

Without the full team on-hand, Katie didn't have much choice but to take the lead at the crime scene. She had done her classes - she was an agent! But normally she relied on other people to find the things and make the connections for her. She awkwardly bumbled about the bodies and officers, trying not to contaminate anything as she looked for clues.

Alright I got this. Using a Reveal Surge to spend 1 measly Hero Point learning 5 ranks of Investigation and Skill Mastery (Investigation).

Then I'm going to roll Investigation to look for clues at the crime scene, and I'm also going to Surge again for a +2 bonus - assuming that this use of Bonus doesn't count as an active use of Hero Points. Might cost an extra 10 HP if that +2 influences the result.

Investigation [roll0].

[Llyarden]

Allison - who was back in her less conspicuous form - paused briefly when she noticed the 'gang signs.' Then, as if trying to search for something on her phone, she continued on her way...and somehow her phone kept getting nice shots of the 'gang signs.' Weird how that worked. Then - after checking that she wasn't immediately going to be overheard - she called Kingsley.

"Sorry to interrupt your investigation, but you know how you were theorising about Styles being on a case? I think I found where. I'm sending you a picture and an address." The address was, of course, Allison's current location. The picture was probably more interesting to Kingsley, and was the clearest of the photos she'd snapped as she'd been wandering.

Instant: Use Shifting Body to convert Prowess 15 and Attractive 2 into Stealth 16 and Swiftness 4 (I think that adds up right?)
Move: Apply Knowledge (Law Enforcement) to look up any spikes in crime rates around here, whether a gang considers this their 'territory', etc. Expertise: [roll0]
Standard -> Move: Try to be subtle about the whole 'taking a photo' thing. Stealth: [roll1]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kingsley (Second Crime Scene)

Kaiser turned back to you with a patient smile on his face. "I heard of the other two murders, yes.
I concur that a coincidence is unlikely, though I would not call it impossible. In any event, it would seem to me that the best way to maximize our information would be for you to focus on these other murders. If our investigations do indeed cross, we can then share information with both of us much better informed and coming at the case from a different angle. An on the unlikely chance that they aren't related, you haven't wasted your time. Besides, I'm sure your team has greater need of your powers than I do."

Meanwhile, your cell phone buzzes with a text.

You recognize the runes as a demonic territorial marking. Runes of that nature can be used as anchors for traps and wards and such, but these ones look too crudely drawn to be used for such a thing (and the locations are public enough that it'd be a waste of energy and probably draw attention, since they'd probably trigger from just random passersby all the time). You recognize these specific symbols as common to demons to peace. Demons to peace are, first and foremost, very conflict-driven. They're often violent and rowdy, but conflict is more important to them than violence - they're just as happy seeing a good screaming match or Internet flame war as they are with a big brawl. They are more than happy to produce conflict themselves with aggression and trolling tactics, but prefer to incite mortals to conflict. That said, save for people who are strong forces for peace in the world, they usually avoid killing - there's nothing more peaceful than death, after all. They won't mind it where there's enough conflict to make up for it - powerful demons to peace have been known to incite wars in the past, for instance - but generally speaking, they want people alive and at each other's throats rather than dead.

Kaiser:
Standard: Argue Kingsley's point as a Task. Persuasion: [roll0]. No progress
Move: Take the Poker Face stance.

Oni (In The Crowd)

You easily draw the attention of the crowd, freeing up Katie and Leo to split off and get to the scene. The crowd is cheering, the kids are smiling, and best of all, nobody's being traumatized for life! All in all, pretty good day.

...Of course, you're Oni Ballista, so it can't just be that easy.

A large crowd with people occasionally like, flying up out of it and stuff, tends to attract attention, after all. After a few minutes, the jovial event is interrupted by a voice booming (from a nearby rooftop, no less), "Oni Ballista!"

There's a tall, bulky figure standing on the roof, and as the crowd looks suddenly its way, it leaps off the building, dropping four stories to land (several people in the crowd moving back so they do get landed on, clearing a bit of a circle out around you) maybe eight feet from you with a loud thump in a steady, slightly crouched stance. Up close, the figure reveals itself as a heavily-muscled, incredibly hairy man with a protruding nose, sharp canines, and kinda lupine-looking eyes.

You recognize him as Ralf Hopson, better known as Howl, a former X-League wrestler. A powerful superhuman gifted with heightened strength and speed (...maybe. That's what he was known as, but in your time with SCOUT, you've seen enough to suggest he might actually be a werewolf) he actually wasn't involved with the shadier side of the X-League, but back when you were there he was something of a rival. Or he wanted to be, anyway. He never actually managed to beat you, but not for lack of trying.

"Is this how you spend your time now? As a glorified trampoline? Don't you think these people deserve a real show?" he asks in obvious challenge, with a flash of his sharp teeth.

Oni, take 20 :smallcool: Hero Points for your Challengers and The X-League complications.

Howl:
Move: Take the Stand Out stance, creating the impression of being cool and dangerous.
Standard: Dominate to basically try to steal the favor of the crowd. However, even if this action succeeds, Oni can ignore its effects if she accepts Howl's challenge. Intimidation (DC 21): [roll1]. Success

Shadow (Estate)

The man doesn't slow down or even look around; he clearly has no idea you're present. As he heads through the doorway, you hear a faint buzzing, and see him taking out his cell phone as he passes into the next room. Evidently he just received a text message.

Katie and Leoroar (Third Crime Scene)

The scene is more-or-less as it was in the pictures. There's over three dozen cops, EMTs, analysts, and so on covering the lot, although they defer to you guys when you arrive. They don't have much in the way of useful information themselves at the moment - they've been working all night and are still busy just gathering and documenting all the evidence, they haven't even gotten around to actually examining it yet. Bodies, body parts, and blood remain scattered all over the lot.

Katie's fresh eyes give her something of an advantage; she notices that near a few of the bodies, there are some faint, kinda silvery abrasions on the asphalt. Leo recognizes a metallic scent. Evidently, at least a few times during the carnage, something metallic struck the ground hard enough to crack the asphalt and scrape some trace amounts of the metal off.

Obviously, there's a lot of scents to parse through at the scene, but Leo does report that one thing he clearly doesn't detect are any trace biological elements on any of the victims, from defensive wounds or the like. These people were torn apart...but it wasn't with anybody's bare hands.

Allison (Primrose and Andover)

You get your text sent out, and if anybody noticed you taking pictures, there isn't any sign of it. The few passersby on the street don't even give you a second glance, and the buildings stand silent and impassive. Well, mostly. There's an apartment building down the block that has music playing loudly enough that you can feel the thump of the bass from here, but otherwise, yeah, silent and impassive.

All PCs are on turn.

[manwithaplan]

"Okay...Okay," you got this, Katie.

"So we've got a cleanly severed head on Armel. And we've got these victims who were torn apart by something metallic. There's a correlation, but I'm not sure it lines up with the murdered wizards. Cracking and crunching sounds...I don't know, sounds to me like something more than just a sword. So maybe this same person can deliver blunt trauma as well. But then why would they use it so selectively? Let's keep looking."

Gonna go again, this time Surging for a Major Bonus (so if my math comes out, 100 + 20 Fame + 10 Fame - 1 Reveal - 0 Bonus - 0/20 Bonus comes out to either 129 or 109).

Investigation [roll0].

[DeAnno]

Shadow watched the athletic man move into the kitchen, and was intrigued by both the buzz of the text and the opportunity to keep an eye on this suspicious character. He was confident that he had his measure too, and scurried right up the rim of the pot and straight back down to the floor, with the suspicious pebble safely tucked into a tentacle. What might have seemed like an insane gradient to climb at was no more difficult than flat ground when moving on a multitude of sticky gripping tentacles instead of a couple bare feet. The doorstop leading to the kitchen was like a tall hill separating adjacent biomes at this scale, and the glossy wood gave way to pristine tile, notched with trench-like grooves in some pattern that probably made more sense when seen from above.

The man stood tall in the kitchen like a Colossus, but this wasn't really much of an obstacle to Shadow's intrusive curiosity. Shadow hit the wall and went vertical again, going straight up on yet another different and weirdly magnified surface until he climbed to what seemed like a mile high, when he was finally a bit above the man's enormous head. From here, looking over his shoulder at the text was simplicity itself; after all, he had no reason to try to obstruct the view safe in the confines of his own guarded home.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Oh, yes, that would indeed be optimal, if - *sigh* give me a moment." Kingsley had intended to ignore the text until after the conversation was over, since if it had been urgent whoever it was would have called...but then a call did came immediately after. "Moore. Ah, yes? " A sligthyl satisfied smile crept up on his face. "I'll look at it."

After closing the call and fiddling with the phone a bit, amid mutterings of "infernal contraption" and "bloody smartphones", he finally managed to pull on the photo. And then he fiddled and muttered some more to send a reply text.
Too crude and badly positioned to hold actual power. My guess is they're marking a location. These are from demons to peace, so you're looking for a lot of violence and little to no actual killing. I'll be there as soon as I can, but it could take a while. Don't take unnecessary risks.

Why bothering to send a text instead of calling, since it would have been much quicker? One does not play with his hand revealed, doesn't he?

"Sorry for that. Now, where was I...ah, right. I was saying that indeed, what you suggest would be optimal...if we shared everything, and not just what we thought the other would need to know. Now, I have absolutely no problem with that, but would you be willing to let me decide what - and how - is worth telling my team, instead of deciding it yourself? I suppose with your cover you've dealt with mundane police several times...doesn't it just irk you when they withhold something because they thought it wasn't relevant, but really it's because they want to be the ones closing the case instead of you federals?"

He smirked. Now in for the finishing blow.

"Or, for instance, suppose I hadn't heard the rumour of demons and made the link with Styles...if you were not intending on telling me, and we only shared what we thought necessary, how could I have know that the demonic symbols we found while investigating one of the other murders would be of any relevance to you?"

Move: Intuit, rolled OOC.
Standard: Progress Task, Intimidation [roll0]

[Ridai]

"Aw hell," Oni sighs as she hears the beginning of yet another challenge. She's up for that, normally, but damn it, she is trying to keep people away from a murder scene. And safe. Brawling in a street ain't safe!

When Howl makes his entrance and gives his little taunt, Oni spreads her arms. "What, you didn't have the guts to challenge me while I was in the business and now you think it's the right time? Here?" Oni's justice dispensers go to her hips, white mane moving in a sudden breeze. She sighs dramatically. "This ain't no super wrestling arena, so watch what you're doin'." And so it begins, Oni already in Howl's face. Her first attempts at grappling the guy are just barely, barely avoided. But from the looks of it, Oni doesn't seem to take this guy seriously. Worse yet, there is disdain for him, for picking a fight right here, with people in the splash zone.

Standard went to Maneuver, which failed

Move Manipulate Howl via Intimidation with a -5 penalty to make him Impaired
[roll0]

edit: Should have been +9, so 16.

[Llyarden]

Allison looked down at her phone when it chimed with Kingsley's response. One section immediately stood out to her. These are from demons to peace, so you're looking for a lot of violence and little to no actual killing. For a moment, she sighed. That was the missing link between a suspected Superhuman bloodsport ring and a gang known for picking fights but never killing - and supernormal levels of combat capability - who used demonic sigils as their gang signs.

Armel Keller was just one more unfortunate soul who'd stumbled into something he didn't understand. But his death raised the question...since it was unlikely to be the demons of peace responsible for his murder and that of the others, and yet they seemed connected to both him and Styles...what was the connection they were missing?

The loud 'music' seemed like a good place to start. Allison ambled her way down the street inconspicuously until she could slip into a side alley and glance over at the apartment building in question, trying to judge if the building itself was secured - and get a better idea which part of the building the sound was coming from. And since having a police department's resources a mere text away made multitasking very easy (and she wanted to wait for Kingsley in any case), while she was at it she sent off a request asking for files on whatever notable members of the Hell Raisers weren't currently in prison.

...granted, given what she knew and suspected of the Hell Raisers, it seemed quite likely that the only reason any of them would be in prison was because they were enjoying themselves inciting riots or something. But either way.

Standard: Outclass with Stealth: [roll0]
Move: Scan (I think?) the building to try to get a better idea of where the music might be coming from, how secure the place is, etc. You know, just in case. Might be Assess Clues instead, but Perception and Investigation are the same (complete lack of) bonus for me: [roll1]
Free: Look up prominent members of the Hell Raisers.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Katie and Leoroar (Third Crime Scene)

Katie's thorough search yielded a bit more information. Based on the lack of shadows in the blood spatter, the position of the bodies (seeming to be fleeing in every direction rather than moving away from a threat's direction), and those previously-discovered metallic scrapings on the ground, it looks like the attacker had been flying.

Shadow (Estate)

It was perhaps notable, there wasn't any fear or even concern in the swordsman when the message indicated that SCOUT was going to "handle it". He texted back, Fine. Inform me if you learn that any more of the idiots are planning to try something. Then he slipped the phone in his pocket and went to the fridge, pulling out a carton of eggs, a package of ham, a stick of butter, and some cheese.

You have 13 points of Perception Edge on this guy.

Kingsley (Second Crime Scene)

While Kaiser didn't verbally agree with your point about local police, he gave a kinda bemused snort, and you could tell your point had hit home. But when you mentioned the demonic symbols, naked interest showed in his eyes. "What sort of demonic symbols, now?" he prompted, keeping his voice relatively casual, clearly trying to get the information out of you without committing to anything.

Kaiser:
Move: Intuit (DC 16): [roll0]. One degree. How would Kingsley react to a request that they work together but for the Circle's purposes, i.e. focus entirely on the demons and the Styles murder and deal with the perpetrator in typical Circle fashion, which is to say with much less due process and much more arcane vanquishing of dangerous supernatural threats?
Standard: Progress his Task (DC 21): [roll1]. Two degrees

Oni (In the Crowd)

Even with his superhuman speed, Howl is unable to keep entirely ahead of your hands, and only escapes your grasp with a sudden blurring burst of strength coupled by a hasted maneuver to get leverage. Even so, he smirks off your taunt, responding to your concern about taking care with a casual, "Sure it is. These guys just have better seats than usual!"

He flashes a confident grin full of sharpened canine teeth and lunges at you, loosing a fearsome and piercingly loud howl right in your face as he tries to grab you and slam you brutally into the ground!

Howl:
Move: Attempt to Manipulate Oni using Rescaled Intimidation at -5 (DC 25): [roll2]. If this succeeds, due to his Daze advantage, you are also Dazed for the duration. Haha no.
Standard: Attack Oni with Howling Slam at [roll3]. On a hit, Resistance DC 19 vs. Dazing Tree (Contact/Physical ), Vulnerability Tree (Flash/Sensory [Sonic]), and Weakening Tree (Impose/Mental [Fear]) conditions. Tier 0 conditions will be Bruises, but if he scores at least two, he'll use his Disruptive Attack advantage and forego two Bruises to render you Prone instead. [b]Haha NO

Allison (Primrose and Andover)

The music was easy enough to follow, although you didn't spot any possible security measures there may have been on the building. It was a sturdy but run-down apartment building about a block away from where you had arrived. You could see more of the demonic symbols graffitied onto it, actually in a rather dense concentration. Most of the nearby buildings showed signs of minor property damage (broken windows, holes in doors, etc) and vandalism, although while they all seemed liberally strewn with graffiti, only a few bore the demonic symbols.

Getting closer to the building, the music was blaring loudly, definitely enough so to annoy any unfortunate neighbors.

The police got back to you with a series of names and files, but really they were functionally interchangeable for the most part; they'd let you recognize people if you encountered them, but most of the didn't really stand out among what you already knew. There was one file, a woman named Isolde Shannon, that the police seemed to think had a certain level of leadership among the gang. It might be going too far to say she had been seen giving orders, but the others had seemed to regularly take some cues from her.

Everyone

Around now your phones chimed/buzzed/whatever with an image of the sketch of the person who had disposed of Armel's head, so you can recognize him if you see him. Well, other than Shadow I guess since I assume his phone is off while he's on a stealth mission.

Actions refresh. All PCs are on turn.

[DeAnno]

Shadow was interrupted in his careful study of Broadsword guy's eating habits by his phone buzzing, so he pulled it out with a spare tentacle and took a look at the sketch and explanation. Given this, he decided it was probably time to give people an update of his activities. Without much to do at the moment, he spent some more time on this text instead of sending it out in a rush.

I followed the fear trail to 320 Bridgeton Street, where it led inside the townhouse. The gate was guarded by two superhumans, one pink-eyed and lavender haired, and the other a thug who is most likely the guy in the sketch. He's probably still guarding outside. I infiltrated the townhouse and found the murder scene, complete with a massive terror stain on the ground, a small piece of rocky super-skin I found, and some blood I left in a potted plant.

I also found a sort of intimidating looking guy inside who carries a big broadsword around and seems to own the house. He had a suspicious text conversation I'll copy below (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23647815&postcount=59) and I'm continuing to watch him now. I haven't been noticed in any way.

Any suggestions on what to do next? I've been thinking he might do more suspicious things but he's sort of just making lunch now I think.

[manwithaplan]

Katie fired off a quick text.

[From mass murder scene; killer is a confirmed flyer, shredded through these people with something metallic, or otherwise carrying a lot of metal and doesn't kill people bare-handed.]

And then she...got back to what she had been doing. Which was delicately using her telekinesis to handle and analyse the less gross severed body parts. She was looking to find any evidence of the specific shape or nature of the killer's weapon. Or, killing tool, to be more inclusive.

"Eww..."

Part of her was kind of into the gore. That made it even worse.

Investigation with Major Bonus Surge [roll0] to figure out the nature of the weapon (or maybe the killer's fighting style?). Another 20 Hero Points possibly spent. 23 result. One clue, please!

[manwithaplan]

"Hmm." She sent out a mental broadcast to several EMTs at once.

Hello, this is Detective Tandem. I'm trying to pin the nature of the attacker's...uh, weapon. I've found some broken bones, and some of these people look like they were...ripped open, I think. Is anybody able to name a possible method of killing?

[Llyarden]

While she was waiting for Kingsley to finish up with his investigation of Styles' body, Allison continued tapping away on her phone - this time, sending an update to the rest of the group (and Cpt. Blackbourne, since he would probably appreciate being kept up to date.)

Shortly before he died, Armel Keller was investigating what he believed to be a Superhuman bloodsports ring headed by Ethan Parrish. He told an associate in the Streetguard that he had found definitive proof of this and - against her wishes, and incongruous to his normal demeanour - told her that he was going to confront Parrish single-handed. That was the last she, or anyone else that we know of, heard from him until his decapitated head was found.

The location he'd been investigating appears, on the surface, to be under the control of a violent gang called the Hell Raisers. However, their 'gang signs' are in large part the sigils of demons against peace. The Hell Raisers are preternaturally capable combatants, but never kill their foes, which correlates with what Agent Moore has told me about such demons. It also correlates with Keller's unusual behaviour, which could be explained by the influence of such entities - and with what could easily be mistaken as a Superhuman bloodsport ring. And while I do not believe that the Hell Raisers would be directly responsible for any of the murders we are investigating, as it doesn't fit with their nature, it definitely seems as though they were responsible, whether intentionally or otherwise, for Keller's death. If there is some way to make peaceful contact with demons against peace, counterintuitive as that seems, they might be able to give us some information.

She...kinda tried her best to ignore Shadow's admission that he'd broken into a private residence without a warrant. That was going to make things awkward later on. And she very carefully made sure that Blackbourne wasn't copied in to her reply. That house is registered to Ethan Parrish. She accompanied the sentence with a photo of Parrish, downloaded from the internet (guy was a wealthy CEO and owner of a popular sports league; it was unlikely there'd be any shortage of photos of him.)

The fact that one of the guards matches the description of the man who dumped Keller's head is easily a good enough reason to bring that guard in for questioning regarding Keller's murder, though not to outright arrest him in the absence of concrete evidence tying him to either the crime itself or in helping to conceal it. It also isn't enough on its own to tie Parrish's house or Parrish himself to any of it.

I'm going to investigate Keller's house, on the off-chance that he copied whatever evidence he found before he was compelled into supposedly confronting Parrish, or that there might be a lead as to the location of the rest of Keller's body. Let me know if any of you need my assistance.

And with that done, she slipped away into an alley and proceeded to contact first SCOUT once again, this time to arrange for a locksmith to meet her at Armel's house. Then she phoned Lena.

"We're going to search Armel's house," she explained, when Lena picked up, "in case he kept a copy of whatever he found. Would you be okay with helping us? If he kept notes on his investigation, they might give us a clue into whatever he found, and you know much more than I do about how he worked, and where he'd store his records." That wasn't the only reason she wanted Lena helping, though, or even the main one; Parrish evidently had contacts within the Streetguard, which meant that potentially Lena was in danger if she stayed with her 'friends.' Of course, given that Allison only knew that because of something that absolutely couldn't come up in any trials that this investigation resulted in, she couldn't very well tell Lena that.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"The kind that belongs to demons to peace." Kingsley said, then paused to let it sink in.

"Now, I'm sure you don't need me to tell that demons to peace hardly ever kill...and yet here we are, with those very same demons linked to two murders, one of which of someone who ought to have been completely uninvolved with the Supernal. What other proof do you need to see that this is all one big entangled mess? The demons themselves might only be pawns. Times have changed, Kaiser...there are no longer only mundanes and us."

Well, superhumans too had existed before the Nova, but that was besides the point, as they were hardly more than physically enhanced mundanes. Back then, if something required the Circle's intervention it was a Supernatural threat of some kind, but now...

"So, I'm going to ask you one more time. It is obvious we're going to cross paths anyway; would you rather miss some critical clue, or cooperate with SCOUT?"

Move: Can't read his polka face.
Standard: Progess task with Intimidation, [roll0] :smallannoyed: Don't want to hold things up excessively, so I'm going to :smallcool: HP reroll this if no bonus successes are awarded.

[Ridai]

Howl goes in to beat Oni into the ground, confident after having defended against her first attack, hands reaching out... only to suddenly find himself wildly off-balance, Oni having pushed his grab aside as if swatting a fly away.

The last thing Howl sees is a scowl on Oni's face for taking a fight amidst a crowd lightly. You don't endanger innocent people while she is around, much less her fans.

It is this moment Howl realizes he screwed up.

The next moment, her fist crashes into him from beneath, the motion sounding like a jet engine, the hit like the shot of a cannon. Howl crumples around her fist and it looks like the world stands still for everyone, for just a tiny moment. Before Oni drives her fist upwards, launching Howl straight up into the sky, howling winds bursting upwards and what look like shockwaves emanating from the trajectory.

Oni remains standing with her fist up in the air, only lowering it after a moment. She raises a finger to tell the people around her to wait and be quiet for a moment, staring up into the sky with her white mane flowing in the breeze she kicked up. The moment Howl comes howling back down to Earth, she snatches him out of the sky and slams him onto the ground (deccelerating him before the impact, she is a professional of course). Seeing his face, Oni shows her scowl once more, before dusting her hands off. Oni wasn't an undefeated champion for nothing.

"We're done here."

See here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23663522&postcount=68)

[DeAnno]

For a moment after sending the text, Shadow had some cognitive dissonance. Was it possible he was acting rashly? Sure, to him this house couldn't be more clearly a murder scene if blood was literally spilling out under the front door, but maybe other people wouldn't see it that way (or literally couldn't see it that way)? Ultimately, he dismissed it. He was pretty sure he'd seen cops investigating suspicious places like this on TV (and superheroes doing it on TV too...), and some of those places weren't even obvious murder scenes!

This Parrish guy didn't seem like he was going to do anything interesting for a good while though, and he didn't feel up to actively searching the entire house, so he decided he would go get a closer look at the newly suspicious guard outside. He scooted back out of the kitchen, through the foyer, and under the door, then out into the (extremely wild, at this scale) yard. He sidled towards the gate to get a good look at the Rhino guard, and a good taste too. He hadn't really paid him much attention before.

Instant Action Informative Fear Scan on guard [roll0]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Shadow (Estate)

The guard isn't currently feeling any fear, but that's only a partial defense against your powers. Almost everyone has fear within them. The remnants of past worries. Latent concerns weighing on their minds. Little phobias waiting like monsters in the darkest closets of their hearts. With enough concentration, you could sense them all.

...Sometimes, anyway. But a strong will and stalwart discipline could cloud those things even from your senses. The guard didn't react to your probe, didn't seem to notice your will rooting around in his subconscious, sniffing for his nightmares. But this time you went home hungry; whatever things he may have feared, he had courage enough to bury them further than you could reach.

Katie (Third Crime Scene)

There was a bit of an echoing cacophony for a moment as several of the medical staff responded. After a moment of confusion, the chief medical examiner, Sybille Jundt, fielded the question. ~I don't...know that it was a weapon at all, Detective. Ripped open is a pretty good assessment. Ripped apart to be more precise. These people were literally torn limb from limb, by something strong enough to snap bones like twigs just by grabbing them. That being said, the bruising patterns are...strange. They don't look like they were made by hands at all. Something...more like a cuff, I'd say.~

Allison (Armel's Home)

Lena agrees to help, and in short time she and a SCOUT team meet you at Armel's apartment. The team conducts a brisk, efficient search of the premises, including the computer, which reveals among other things a phone-tracking app that places Armel's phone about four blocks away from where his head was found. Lena knows the password for it; the Streetguard have it set up to help them coordinate in the field, or find each other if something goes wrong. She was able to get you into the computer as well; she didn't know that password off the top of her head, but it took her only four tries to guess it. Obviously she knew Armel well.

The search also turns up several files (both electronic and hard-copy) regarding Parish and various associates and connections of his, along with some notes Armel took himself. Lena reviews the files with you, but none of them are anything she hasn't seen before. It's enough to make Parish look sketchy for sure, but nothing that would land him in prison. You do find a paper trail that suggests a connection between Parish's company and a defunct super-wrestling organization called the X-League, which might ring a bell.

Lena seems to grow more confused the more you review, and the reason is fairly obvious. One thing you absolutely don't find is anything so much as hinting at an underground blood sport arena in the Hell Raiser territory, or for that matter anything connected Parish to it. There's not even anything saved in his phone's recent photos on the cloud. Of course, sometimes a lack of evidence is a clue in itself.

As far as Shu Kalb goes...it's hard to say. You got to know him fairly decently working his case, and he had always struck you as a genuinely selfless, loyal guy. Not super trusting, certainly, but he clearly cared about people and especially his fellow Streetguard members. He had seemed more offended by the charges that had been brought against him than worried about them. Point being, if he's actually some sort of plant or mole or something, he's clearly either a good enough liar to have kept his true nature from you, or something has changed in the intervening time enough that it'd be tough to gauge his future actions based on your past experiences. Given that, there's not really any telling what he might be willing to do.

Kingsley (Second Crime Scene)

Kaiser drew in a long, tight breath through his nose, let it out, and raised a hand in a gesture like a fencer acknowledging a hit. "Alright, alright. You've made your point. I won't be able to do any active spellwork alongside your team, but I can support your investigation mundanely. And as long as others aren't around, I can perform divinations and feed you what I learn. I trust your team won't be surprised if you cryptically pull information you should not have any way of having out of the ether, no?" he asked wryly, with a little smirk.

Then he gestured for you to follow and walked back over to Styles's body, chanting beneath his breath.

As a result of succeeding the task, Kaiser will now provide limited aid to your investigation. He won't work magic in view of others, though, even other SCOUTs. You don't need to Request Support, but he doesn't get his own resources.

Kaiser has an Investigation skill of +15 and the Contacts advantage. Team members on scene with him can spend their own move, standard, and full actions to have him take an Investigation action one step lower (move for instant or free, standard for move, full for standard, two PCs can use full actions to have him take a full action). He still gets only a normal action allotment per round, so like he can't take two standards in the same round even if multiple PCs want to spend full actions.

He also has access to the Augmented Inspiration and Temporal Inspiration Fortunes, which PCs may pay the Hero Points to power. I'm allowing GM Fiat to fuel an initial use of Inspiration regarding the circumstances of Styles's death. I'll roll his Luck check to determine how many questions he gets; you guys can decide what you want the questions to be.

While Kaiser is able to enter combat as a PL 10 threat, doing so requires he use magic, so he won't do so intentionally. If a minor battle he'll contribute as a PL 1 FBI agent, feigning the results of his evidently-reduced defenses. If caught in a superpowered battle, he will attempt to avoid notice and flee.

Luck (DC 31): [roll0]. Not quite enough for bonuses, so you guys get one question relating to Styles's death. This can be a specific question about the past or future within up to two hours. Kaiser's Luck DC lowers by 2.

Oni (In the Crowd)

Howl's glorious attack was foiled with contemptuous ease, and then he went for a wild ride and got a nice view of the city skyline.

He sprang to his feet, growling lowly. He wasn't particularly hurt, and looked about to continue his attack, until he noticed the crowd. Pointing. Laughing. Jeering. The mockery of the crowd almost managed to drown out the cheers for Oni that could be heard from the nearby crime scene.

Howl fairly quivered with indecision. He had been soundly trounced in that exchange. Backing down was...unpalatable. But if he pressed the attack, he was only setting himself up for more humiliation. And he knew it.

"Hmph," he scoffed, crossing his arms and turning his head aside, trying to project aloof disdain. "Fine. If you're so worried about someone getting hurt that you won't even throw a proper punch, I suppose we can settle this another time," he said, trying to maintain at least some semblance of dignity.

Judging by the roaring laughter and sarcastic jibes of the crowd, it wasn't a particularly successful attempt. With a sniff, Howl leaped back up to the rooftop and departed.

Evidently that was more-or-less enough excitement to satisfy the crowd. A few more throws, autographs, and selfies, and they began dispersing, freeing you up to get back to your actual job.

Take 10 :smallcool: Hero Points for the victory.

[DeAnno]

Frustrated by Rhino guy's (unaware) mental recalcitrance, Shadow decided he was more or less done at this scene. It was an obvious murder, suspicious texts and people had been spotted, and Parish was now eating lunch. Checking over history on his phone again, he decided the third scene could use some more looking around, and stalked across the city to the third crime scene after giving Katie a heads-up that he would be heading over to see what he could taste.

The scene was as gory as expected when he arrived, both to mundane and super senses. He was still small enough to fit under a pebble, and the scattered remains were almost an alien landscape of blood lakes and fleshy obstructions. The panic at the scene was ... well it was old already, but Shadow wouldn't feel very good about eating this so maybe that was for the best.

He knew the threat had come from the air... but something so manic to do this, he doubted it had been feeling any fear at all. Instead, he decided he would be better served by finding an actual witness. None had turned up in the initial investigation, but it's possible someone had seen something and been so spooked they had run instead of talking to police, or that the actual target was captured instead of being killed, with the mass murder to conceal it.

Keeping in mind his Perception Edge 24 sets a minimum result, Shadow does a Search for a fear trail (or trails) that seems to be originating from the murder spree itself but that doesn't end in death.

Full, 10 heroic + [roll0]

[Ridai]

"I'm a superwrestler. I wrestle supers." Howl getting demolished and jeered at isn't particularly nice, but that is what you get if you are deadset on playing the heel and lose a fight you picked. Still, this wasn't a real match, and there was a fair bit of personal pride in there, Oni could tell. Just when Howl is about to disappear on the rooftop, she shouts

"Hey! Challenge me in a proper arena next time! You're better than brawling in a street like a thug, Howl, and you know it! Call Jen, she'll set something up!" And she's serious. No sarcasm or anything. Oni knows how hard things were for some of the good guys and gals in the X-League when the crap underside was exposed. Sure, Howl still won't win a match against her, but the publicity might do wonders to invigorate his career, give him some dignity back. Gotta look out for one's brothers and sisters in the business. Quick text to Jen to let her know about Howl.

"Alright, alright, folks, gotta get back to work," Oni calls out to the crowd, taking care of the last few stragglers. Once she's sure people are well and sure away from the crime scene, Oni enters just that.

"Aw hell," is heard as she sets eyes on the bloody mess, grimacing. Always takes a moment to adjust to grisly sights like these. Spotting her team, Oni heads over, careful not to disturb anything or anyone. "Crowd outside's happy, untraumatized, and gone. How're things going in here?"

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Heh. I'm pretty sure pulling stuff out of the ether is what they expect a mage to do." Kingsley (half-?)joked, then took a moment to read over the the couple of text he recieved in the meantime.

"So, it seems these demons call themselves the Hell Raisers." he asked, directing the flow of mana to his eyes and starting to search the scene for clues. "Guess one of them is actually a demon to creativity. But anyway, the murdered Streetguard member claimed he had found a bloodsports ring right on their turf, and definitive proof of it being headed by this Ethan Parish chap."

Never be it said that Kingsley Moore did not uphold his end of a bargain.

"Does any of that ring a bell? Did Styles ever relay anything of her investigation?"

Activate Arcane Sight.
Full: Search, Perception (@+10H, +2 from Investigation) [roll0]. What the heck dice, you hate Kingsley so much? 24.

So, how much time has passed since Style's body was found? Because I'm pretty sure "where was she killed" is outside of the two hours range...:smallbiggrin:

[Llyarden]

Allison sent a screenshot of Armel's (phone's) path to the others, accompanying it with a short message. No sign of the evidence Keller claimed to have, or indeed any evidence of the blood sports he was supposedly investigating at all. However, I found Keller's phone, and from that its GPS history. It was at Parrish's house for twenty minutes before being dumped in the location we found it in. While not sufficient to get a warrant, that's definitely enough cause for us to interview Parrish himself. However, there's something else in the location history - a scrapyard, off his normal patrol route. It was immediately after he visited it that he went to Parrish's house, so if anyone wants to investigate that, I suggest doing so cautiously, as it seems likely that that was where he was affected by whatever compulsion or other mental manipulation caused him to act so abnormally.

Then she sent a message off to SCOUT HQ, setting the ball rolling on getting public surveillance footage from two locations - the area around the scrapyard when Armel was there, and the area his phone was dumped at the time it was dumped there - with a request to forward to her any footage that seemed relevant.

And then, finally, she turned back to Lena. "So, our current theory is that Armel was affected by a supernormal mental compulsion. The gang who call that area -" she indicated to the Hell Raisers' territory on Armel's phone "- their territory are apparently capable of inspiring aggression in others. I realise this may be a hard question, but...if Armel was affected by some sort of 'enforced rage' and his mental state was disrupted, do you think it would be possible that he might make connections to Parrish that weren't actually there?" Her tone was sympathetic, but equally clearly it wasn't one of those questions that investigators had to ask even if they knew the answers to them.

Going to see if the footage from around the phone-dumping-place and the scrapyard turn up anything before I decide my actions.

[manwithaplan]

"Yeah, hey, circle up." Katie's first priority when Oni made it back to the scene was to bring her into a huddle with Shadow so that they could communicate amongst each other.

"Have you been on comms, Oni? All the information is on your phone. The short of it is that before Keller died his phone was at a scrapyard that we believe belongs to a group of demons to peace, and then it was at the house of a man named Parish before getting dumped somewhere else. One of the guards outside Parish's house is a sketch match for the man that dropped off Keller's head. So we've got to make an investigation on the scrapyard which could go hot, and we need to bring in a couple people for questioning. And I bet approaching either of those things could alert the other. But we're not done here, either - I need help wrapping up my search, if you can look around."

Katie performed a final conclusive run-over of every point of interest she'd already found, getting Oni to double-check her work this time. When that was done, she picked up off the ground and half-parkour'd, half-flew over to the last tagged location of Keller's phone. She approached the position by rooftop, trying to get a birds' eye view

Standard Action: One final throwaway Investigation check, hopefully getting an Aid from Oni. Investigation [roll0].
Move Action: Apparently I took Speed 14! Going to zoom over to where Keller's phone is.

[Ridai]

Oni gives a sheepish smile when asked about the comms. "Been a little busy outside. Got challenged, too." Listening to the shape of things right now, Oni nods. "I'll have a look-see."

With that, Oni places herself a bit out of the way, as to not disturb anyone and... seemingly just stands there. Her eyes are moving, and she does grimace a little every now and then, but she just... stands there. Of course, those who do know about her powers know she doesn't exactly need to move about to look at anything. On Oni's side of things, due to the nature of her eyes, she gets a very, very close look at everything. On the upside, however, she is able to pick up even tiny clues, check things concealed by gore or objects (or walls), and look in very dark or hardly accessible places.

Oni just hopes she can make up for her lack of contribution so far. The others got so much done already.

Full Search the scene with Oni's Eyes of the Inevitable Ballista
Vision Enhancement (Analytical, Clear (all descriptors), Circuitous 2, Piercing)
Perception [roll0]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Sorry guys I either didn't notice or plum forgot that everyone had posted. :smallredface:

Shadow and Oni (Third Crime Scene)

The fear remnants are covering the scene as thoroughly as the blood is. Maybe moreso. For the most part, it just lays over everything, an hours-old coating of shock, panic, and terror from over a dozen people. Atop that are fresher, fainter traces, the extremely rational fear of the MEs, EMTs, and police who have been processing the scene and only imagining what or who could have done such a thing. But...there's also something else. It's hard to sense, mixed in with all the rest of it, but distinct enough that Shadow's able to notice it. A sort of horrified dread drizzled over the entire scene. It doesn't trail off anywhere though; either whoever was feeling it never left, or it was overtaken by some different emotion before they did.

Shadow does pick up another notable trail as well...but it doesn't go far enough to need following, not when the Eyes of the Inevitable Ballista are on the scene. In searching the area with her unique mode of vision, Oni can not only see everything in the parking lot, but also in each of the shops and businesses. There's a few more dead bodies inside the various businesses, but the key finding, at the end of the fear trail Shadow found, is a twelve-year-old boy hiding in a storage closet in one of the restaurants, though at the moment he's passed out.

Kingsley (Second Crime Scene)

Kaiser finished his first divinations with a frown. "She was killed more than two hours ago, further back than I can look. We'll have to get creative I suppose. I never heard anything about an Ethan Parish or any blood sports. The Hell Raisers were the ones she was sent to deal with, yes. We learned about them about a week ago, Styles was assigned to check their operation out, and either dispatch them if she felt it within her power to do so or call for backup if not."

"And before you ask, yes, the Council considered alerting you so your team could handle it. But SCOUT has so far remained dangerously stubborn about using mortal law to deal with Supernals that have a presence in the mortal world. Which in this case would probably have been playing right into their hands. We hypothesize that their cover as a gang makes it possible for their members to regularly move in and out of prison, giving them opportunities to conduct long-term manipulations on the mortal convicts within, so they cause more conflict once they are released."

Searching around the alley, there's not currently any active magic aside from Kaiser's. But...you do find some light blood spatter on the ground and one of the walls, as well as a piece of a tooth lying about eight feet from the body.

Just to note the fact that she was killed more than two hours ago isn't considered your free question. Just establishing that trying to divine about the actual killing would have been his first move but her death occurred outside his window.

Allison

Totally forgot to get you that information earlier. That was on me, so if you want to take your last round's actions as well this round feel free.

Lena frowned and seemed to almost visibly close up at your question. "What are you trying to say? That this was his fault or something? I don't know about any 'enforced aggression' crap or whatever. But I know Armel, and if he went to confront Parish he had a reason for it! I thought you were on our side!" Her tone was accusatory, despite the fact that you had, you know, clearly not in any way suggested that it was Armel's fault. Evidently trust does not come easily to the Streetguard. To be fair, when you've been exposed to the worst in people so often, it gets hard to see the best in them.

It didn't take long for the team to get back to you with the videos - since you knew the general time, they were easy enough to find. A camera spotted Keller entering the scrapyard, moving cautiously and seeming to be looking around with wary curiosity. Not long after he entered, his gaze darted to something off-screen, though his back was to the camera so you couldn't see his expression. After several seconds, there was a sudden blur of static that lasted about ten seconds. Once the screen cleared up, Keller turned around and went strode out of the scrapyard, moving at speed and with a determinedly angry look on his face.

There weren't any great angles on the video of the dumping point, and the team hadn't spotted anything noteworthy in their review.

Katie

Tracking down the phone's location takes you to another apartment complex and...another dumpster. Fortunately, you have telekinesis, so it's neither particularly difficult nor messy to find what you're looking for. Keller's body - with his phone and wallet in his pockets - has been buried in the dumpster under the trash. Not really the best of dumping locations, but hey at least this time the dumper went to the effort to cover it rather than just hoping a garbage truck would collect the trash before someone else opened the dumpster, or whatever the logic was at the first site.



All PCs are on turn.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Yes, I suppose I cannot blame them for that." There were definitely situations not really suited to SCOUT's approach, especially when the Geas of Secrecy came into the picture.

"Anyway," Kingsley continued, crouching down to examine the ground, "there's blood and this piece of tooth, which would suggest she was attacked here in this alley, but..."

Being beaten to death usually involved a little more blood. He stood back up and approached the body, looking around and at the wounds to try to reconstruct the scene. "Hmm. Hmmm. Judging from this, I suppose it went like this..."

Standard: Kaiser does an Assess Clues at [roll0]. 39, I think.
Move: Aid with Expertise (Strategy) at (@+5H) [roll1]

[Llyarden]

Allison...wasn't exactly surprised by Lena's outburst. "I'm on the same side I was the last time you asked," she replied mildly. "The side of finding out who was responsible for Armel's death and bringing them to justice. And that means getting all the facts - because if Parrish was involved and we charge him with anything, I think you know as well as I do that he'll have a very high-priced lawyer on his side. And to a good lawyer, every piece of information that we don't know is something that could inject enough doubt into a jury for him to walk. So you'll need to think about the answer to that question."

She glanced at her phone briefly, taking in the reports from the others and her team. "Our team found Armel's phone," she continued. "Once we've checked it for forensics, would you mind taking a look at the phone itself, to see if there's anything that Armel didn't upload to the cloud?" And while any data stored only on the phone would undoubtedly be useful, it also kept Lena occupied and less likely to accidentally let anything slip to Parrish's contact in the Streetguard. "I'm afraid I need to go and check out another scene." She pulled a business card from her pocket - one of her SCOUT ones, not one of her lawyer ones (and yes, she had got those muddled once or twice) - and proffered it to Lena. "Feel free to call me if you need anything, though."

As she left, she sent off a few more rapid-fire texts to begin the process of getting a warrant for Parrish's house, then (once out of range of Lena's super-hearing) brought the rest of the team up to date. "Once we have the warrant for Parrish's house, I'd like to try to interview him as well. I suggest anyone who wants to be part of the execution of the warrant doesn't immediately come with me until it's clear what his intentions are. We still don't know entirely what he's capable of. It also appears that he's got contacts in the Streetguard - Kalb is the surname of one of their members I represented, and Lena is another of their members who I've been interviewing - so it's possible that any move we make on either the scrapyard or Parrish might result in the other being alerted."

And while she was waiting for the warrant to be procured, she flitted back to SCOUT HQ and borrowed one of their bigger computer screens to peer at the footage of Armel's brief visit to the scrapyard in more detail.

Searching the video feed from the scrapyard with last round's actions. I'll keep this round's available for either the inevitable social checks with Parrish and his guards or to help Oni & Shadow with their new witness if he wakes up at some point and they want to do other things.
Perception: [roll0] with +10 Heroic. Good thing I had the Heroic bonus. 13 total.

[Ridai]

Oni and her huge white mane are standing next to a few EMTs. "Can you come with me for a sec? Found a passed-out boy hiding in there," she says, pointing a large thumb towards the restaurant with a theme that could best be described as "generically foreign", with about as much cultural precision as standing in front of a globe and indicating a particular location by slapping an open hand somewhere on a landmass and going "eh, close enough".

Without further ado, Oni leads whoever follows over to the restaurant, walking over to the closet and carefully opening it. Don't want to startle the kid, probably has already seen way too much. Can only hope he didn't lose family or friends in the carnage.

If the boy doesn't immediately wake up, Oni gently reaches out, touching his hand. "Hey, are you alright?" Honestly, she doesn't really know how this could turn out. She's kind of hoping she seems either nice or trustworthy enough to establish some form of connection. Over the course of her career, she's heard from fans how she has helped them through some dark spots in their lives, which made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside each time, so... maybe it happens again?

[Quellian-dyrae]

Just an intermediary post so Oni and Shadow have more to work with.

With a little prodding, the boy came to drowsily. He looked around in growing confusion, not seeming...entirely aware of where he was or what was going on. He...did shrink back a bit when he took in Oni's fearsome appearance, but he didn't like start screaming or anything, so that was good! He didn't say anything, though it was hard to say whether that was from fear, trauma, or disorientation. One of the EMTs produced a blanket to drape over him.

[manwithaplan]

"Okay. This is more my kind of thing."

Not wanting to get fingerprints on anything, Katie conducted her investigation entirely with telekinesis from the safety of a fire escape overseeing the parking alley.

With her powers, she carefully picked up and manipulated everything in the area, diving through dumpsters and checking under cars without impunity. While she was doing that, she had Armel's phone daintily floating near her head as she tried to, with as much respect as possible, skim through his recent messages to find anything of interest.

Free: Cursory look at Armel's communications.
Full: Search the scene! [roll0]. 27 after Heroic.

[Ridai]

Oni feels so bad for the kid when he shrinks away. Can be easy to forget that she, well, looks pretty weird, and weird isn't exactly the best thing when waking up from having passed out in terror. Raising her hands and giving him (and the EMT wrapping the boy in a blanket) a little more room, she goes "It's okay, it's okay! There are no bad people here anymore, you're safe."

She should probably ask him a few things to help with the case, but no, she can't bring herself to do so right now. The boy needs to get out of here and calm down a bit first. Which means getting him past the carnage without him having to see it. Right now, though, she has to let the EMTs do their thing, see if the boy's alright and needs anything, so Oni is... acting as moral support?

"I'm Oni. What's your name?" It... may be a little cliché to start this way, but adding a name to a stranger's face could help.

[DeAnno]

Shadow on the other hand ... it's probably good that he's not so easy to notice right now. At the best of times he has to be careful with introductions, and now is definitely not the best of times.

However, not being helpful for comforting the boy doesn't mean he can't do anything useful. It's easy to tell himself that he could learn vital information about the crime by sampling some fear off the kid, mostly because it's true. If he's honest with himself though, at least half the reason is that he's pretty hungry. It's not like the kid will be hurt, or even notice, and he's already afraid anyway.

Messed up rolling machine in this post somehow, see OOC thread for roll

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kingsley

"I see, yes. She was certainly killed here. The blood spatter seems to match up with her injuries well enough...I'm no medical examiner, but I would guess most of her injuries are internal." He listens to your assessment of how the fight went, nodding at a few points. "Agreed, so it was almost certainly multiple attackers. There doesn't seem to be much damage to the surrounding area, so the attack was probably mostly physical in nature. Hm."

"Styles preferred force-based attacks, I recall. I'd expect to see some damage to the walls from people getting launched into them telekinetically, more blood from injuries from force blades...maybe even some dust piles, if she used her disintegrating attacks. Even if her attackers brought their fallen with them, they clearly didn't do much to clean up the scene. Either they had some way to suppress her magic, or this was an ambush or blitz attack. I would guess a blitz. Demons to peace aren't exactly subtle and patient opponents, and a large group would be unlikely to catch a Hunter like Styles off her guard. I suppose they might be able to break a wizard's concentration, but I'd be surprised if they could do it so reliably that they keep her from getting any attacks off. A blitz attack, with a large enough group...they'd have to be more powerful than we were assuming, but it isn't impossible."

Kaiser frowned as he spoke. "It fits the evidence, but it still doesn't really seem like the demon to peace MO. They revel in conflict. This is just too...efficient. Maybe they just deemed her that big of a threat, I suppose. Or maybe someone else was directing them..."

Allison

Your calm, patient response had a result. Lena kinda looked away and muttered something under her breath that very well might have been an apology. When you asked her if she could look through Arnel's phone, she said, "Yeah. I mean, it should be the same password as the cloud account, if they want to look first." She took your card and said, "Okay.
I'm...I'm going to stay here, if that's alright. Maybe I can find something else. Or..." she kinda just trailed off and shrugged.

There wasn't much else on the video that you could see. Good news was, by the time you had finished your review of them, the warrant had come through!

Katie

Armel's phone didn't have too much that wasn't on the cloud. A few more calls and texts and such, but nothing of particular significance to the case.

Armel's clothes have been torn - cut, really - in several places, the iron-hard skin beneath cracked and shattered. More evidence of a blade backed by superhuman power used to kill him, but since it's just a dump site the scene doesn't really have much else to go-

Jackpot. There's blood on Armel's knuckles, and it's not his own - split knuckles isn't really something you have to worry about when your skin is iron hard. And clenched in a vise-like death-grip in his right hand are a couple strands of medium-length dark hair.

The Streetguard managed to get some of his killer's DNA before going out.

Oni and Shadow

"Pete," the boy answered Oni, his demeanor as he spoke to her largely that of a child reaching out to pet a very large dog. "...Do you know where my dad is?"

After a morning of mostly old, stale fear that had been left on the ground, the boy's fear was just the hearty breakfast that Shadow deserved. While he had an instinctive fear reaction to Oni's frightening appearance, that was starting to fade. There was definitely more beneath it, an hours-old panic that had largely cooled, but was seeming to heat back up, likely as memories came back to him. There was also a dawning sense of growing dread.



All PCs are on turn.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Most likely." Kingsley agreed, then once again squatted down in front of the body and started pulling out a few tools (some mundane...others not really). "Let's see if I can get us a specific time of death."

Standard+Move: Expertise (Medical) [roll0] to determine time of death in the usual manner (temperature, rigor mortis, you know the drill), Aided with Expertise (Magical Theory) [roll1] (@+10H) by measuring the decay of Styles's wards, mana level, etc. 18.

Well, unless the magical approach is enough by itself, in which case I'll use Magical Theory for the main roll too. Which I really, really hope is the case. This would be a 30.

[Ridai]

Ohh, Oni doesn't like where this is going.

"What's your dad's name? SCOUT can try to find him. Meanwhile, can you come with us? Just want someone to give you a quick check-up and you could probably use something to eat."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kingsley

Well Kingsley's not an ME but he certainly knows enough for a basic time of death, and measuring the decay of her wards helps narrow it down further. Best estimate is she was killed somewhere between 10 PM and midnight.

Oni and Shadow

"Uh...Omar. Omar Merritt," the boy answered. He hesitated a moment, and then said, "Yeah I'm pretty hungry," and stood up to follow Oni.

Just an intermediary post, but Kingsley go ahead and take a bonus standard action so you're not just sitting around. If this game has taught me anything it is that the system of rounds doesn't work nearly as well for other challenges as they do for combat. But whatever. Tao of Parson.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Mmm...ten pm and midnight." Kingsley announced. "Not the dead of the night, so it's possible someone has seen something. I'll help you ask around."

Well, I'll still need to wait next round to have Kaiser canvass the neighborhood, but I can use this bonus standard to Aid him. Is Expertise, either (Supernals) or (Magic), valid? I'm guessing something along the lines of helping discern if something of what's (not) reported has to do with demons and/or magic, or possibly knowing what to ask for those details to come up. [roll0] (@+5H) 24. +2 bonus.

Also, I still have the divination. Is "what has been removed from this alley in the last two hours?" a valid question?

[manwithaplan]

Katie collected the biological samples from Armel, once again using her telekinesis to forgo having to touch them. As she was doing that, she called for medical services to come and collect his body. And then all that was left to do was wait for them, so she started sending texts.

[Got attacker's DNA from Armel, will process it soon.]

I'm going to stand guard by the body for a while anyway, so I might as well spend this round attempting to beat my last Search result.

Search [roll0]. 31.

[Ridai]

Oni cracks a smile, not yet rising back to a standing position. She feels it wouldn't help things if she started to tower over the boy right away. "Alright, let's go fix that. However, things aren't looking very nice outside, so I'll need to cover your eyes while we are heading out of the mall area. Just until then. Now I know that may sound a little scary and stumbly, but I think I can at least help with the latter. Don't worry, nothing bad is going to happen." She reaches out to the boyas gently as she can, grasping his torso under the arms, and very lightly throwing the boy upwards, just a few inches. To his surprise, he finds that instead of falling back down, he is hovering in the air, and instinctively knows how to maneuver in the air.

"Tada, you can now fly, at least while I'm around. So here's what I have in mind: you put on a blindfold, take my hand, I'll lead you outside where we'll get you something to eat, get you a quick check-up, I let my colleagues know about looking for your dad, and you can fly around a bit out there. Sound good?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kingsley

"Sounds good. One moment," Kaiser said, performing one last divination. He wore a faint frown as he finished, and gave a little shake of his head. "Nothing's been removed from the scene in the past two hours, anyway, and the only people to leave it during that time period were your teammates."

He quickly checked outside the alley, making sure nobody was around or observing, and then sent a text message. A few moments later, you could hear the soft pop of displaced air as somebody teleported into the vicinity - but nobody appeared. You saw a faint, momentary blur as Style's body was covered with an illusion of itself, and then there was a soft rushing sound as air filled a sudden vortex left by two suddenly-vanishing pieces of matter. The illusion, you knew from Circle protocol, would be a programmed one - it would only be detectable by those who expected to see the body there, and would expire entirely if the alley went unobserved for at least thirty minutes. It would have been an elaborate piece of spellcraft on its own, but a knowledgeable enough wizard could pull off some interesting tricks with the right procedures to piggyback a bit on the magic of the powerful Geasa that permeated the world. With that crutch available, it required specialized skills, but was more hard to learn how to do than to actually do.

"Alright, let's go," Kaiser said, heading from the alley to begin the process of canvassing the neighborhood.

Katie

The wait isn't too terribly long - although to be fair, it seemed quite a bit longer to your imprint, especially considering how much your team had narrowed down some of the probable suspects. But it was long enough for you to give the area a more thorough once-over. And while there wasn't too much to find...you did manage to spot something kinda out of place. A single long strand of what looked like lavender hair.

Oni and Shadow

Look, I don't care what you've been through, what you're scared of, or how hungry you are. Flying is fun and will always be fun. This goes ten times for kids. Pete whooped and cheered and obligingly didn't peek out from under the blindfold as Oni flew him out of the area. ...Might have kinda degraded Shadow's meal some, to be fair. Was just a little acrophobia too much to ask, I ask you?

Obviously this particular shopping center wasn't exactly a viable option for getting the kid some food, but fortunately there was basically your choice of fast food places within walking distance. The EMTs didn't need much time to check Pete out; from a professional medical standpoint it wasn't strictly obvious at a glance that he was physically fine, but it was the next best thing.



All PCs are on turn.

I was considering timeskipping to somewhere but I wasn't...really sure where to. But in case anyone missed the note on Discord, we can wrap up some of these things in parallel if you guys want to jump forward a bit, since some of the team is waiting on backup.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Everyone, A Bit Later

Anyone still wanting to wrap up some earlier stuff may feel free to post for it in parallel. Consider this officially a new scene though.

It didn't take too terribly long, with the evidence you all had gathered, to get a warrant to search the home and vehicles of Ethan Parish. Just long enough, in fact, for the DNA evidence Katie had found to go through initial tests. While it would take more thorough examination to confirm for certain with reliability that would stand up in court, initial testing indicated it was a match to Ethan Parish. (The violet hair wasn't; it came back to a Superhuman named Brendan Weaver, though his power wasn't on file).

The gated household was still being guarded by the gray-skinned and lavender-haired superhumans that Shadow had seen earlier. Down at the street corner, a group of people seemed to have gathered...or actually, it looked like it was two groups, one of four and the other of eight. They were facing each other in what looked like confrontational, though not necessarily aggressive stances. There were enough abnormal features among them to indicate that at least a few people in both groups were Superhumans. The two guards seemed to be aware of them, but not especially concerned about them.

All PCs are on turn.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Hands crossed behind his back, standng as usual a bit removed from the flashier members of the squad - and close to Shadow, for reasons tha certainly had nothing to do with his effectiveness as a shield - Kingsley observed the group(s) gathered at the street corner, his hat hiding the gleam of concentrated mana in his eyes. He didn't really believe in coincidences, especially if related to this case.

Ranged Acute Analytical Accurate Informative Tactical Visual Detect (Magic) is active.
Standard: Expertise (Lore, or Supernals if they ping on the magic radar) Outclass at [roll0] (possibly @+5H). Misread how it works.
Move: Evaluate [roll1] + potential bonus from the above.

[Llyarden]

In other circumstances, Allison would've been more likely to focus on the task at hand and press on with serving the warrant on Parrish. Given what they knew about the demonic connection to the case...yeah, the two groups of presumable-Superhumans glaring at each other was a bit of a concern. (Also given that they knew Parrish had contacts in the Streetguard and it was entirely possible that some or all of these people were Streetguard members, knowing what they were walking into would probably be a good thing.)

So as the team arrived, Allison headed off to one side - after all, the only person who was actually needed in the search of Parrish's house was Shadow - and stepped...not outright between the two groups, but at least equidistant from both of them, badge in hand in case any of them cared to examine it.

"What seems to be the problem here?"

No actions immediately because well I don't really know what I need to do with these guys yet. My Attractive-edges (presumably?) expire since it's a new scene and I'll cease sustaining my Stealth edge. Persuasion Edge 27 continues doing its thing though.

EDIT: No it doesn't because scene shenanigans!
Move: Enter the Let's Talk stance.
Free: Use Attractive to Outclass with Persuasion and Insight.
Standard: Persuasion Outclass.

[DeAnno]

Admittedly, Shadow was a little surprised things had moved so fast, and perhaps if he'd predicted it he would've done his search with an actual warrant the first time. Still though, he hoped he could find the blood patch from earlier on a second search of the house.

The situation outside was a more immediate concern though, and Shadow thought this should be resolved first, especially as splitting up when some of his compatriots were already confronting so large a group was probably unwise. Shadow wanted to start by getting a lay of the land, as it were, and took a quick taste of the fears dominant amongst the groups in the area. If anyone's were particularly revealing, he might follow up on them specifically.


Scan, Move Action, Perception (it might count as insight for this? It'd be the same value though) [roll0]

[manwithaplan]

Katie did her best to conceal a grin before walking to stand opposite from Allison, coming at the groups from the other side.

But she said nothing.

[Ridai]

With half of the group already going over to the two groups instead of what they are here for, Oni starts to gravitate over there as well. She really doesn't want the team to half-ass the whole Parish thing, so this issues needs to go first.

[Quellian-dyrae]

While everyone's attention is more-or-less on the two groups, Violet Hair slips through the gate and heads for the house.

Both groups kinda blink as the SCOUT team approaches them, although Kingsley gets the sense that the smaller group feels a bit emboldened from your presence. One of the members of the larger group, a big burly guy with dusky skin mottled with a pattern of dark blotches and bright orange eyes, answers Allison with a bit of a scoff and a dismissive wave at the smaller group. "This lot was loitering, is all. We were just telling them to move along."

The claim was met with a return scoff from one of the members of the smaller group, a tall, lanky man with dark hair and skin, but whose veins were visible through his skin from a bioluminescent yellow glow. "Loitering on...a public sidewalk? Please."

"You're the SCOUTs that are looking into Armel's death, right?" asked another of the smaller group, an athletically-built woman with turquoise hair, blue eyes, pale skin, and a complex pattern of what may or may not have been tattoos showing on her arms, shoulders, and face. "We were just keeping an eye on the place, making sure he didn't try to run or anything before you guys completed your investigation."

"I stand corrected. This lot was stalking someone, is all," the man with orange eyes retorted.

Your superhumanly-keen ears pick up a faint whisper coming from the direction of Parish's house. "Start something. Now."

"But you find SCOUT agents don't have to worry about it. You just leave these troublemakers to us!" he continued with a fierce smile. The larger group started forward on his cue, and the smaller group shifted immediately to ready stances.

Initiative:
Oni: [roll0].
Shadow: [roll1].
Katie: [roll2].
Kingsley: [roll3].
Allison (+15 from Let's Talk): [roll4].

Small Group Streetguard Team: [roll5].

Large Group Superhuman Gang: [roll6].

Note: The Streetguard Team and the Superhuman Gang each count as a single character in combat, just with multiple bodies.
For simplicity, the NPC turn order will use the average of the two rolls compared to you guys, with the individual rolls comparing to determine their order relative to each other.

Oni, Shadow, and Allison are on turn. Allison may take a bonus action using an interaction skill, and the Streetguards will act first on the NPC turn.

[Llyarden]

Without skipping a beat, Allison stepped in between the two groups. "Your respective concerns are appreciated, but I suggest you don't threaten or try to commit assault in front of a group of law enforcement officials. Please, let us do our jobs."

Bonus Let's Talk Action: Outclass with Persuasion again: [roll0]. If I get 25 or below, I'll spend 20 Hero Points to reroll, so I have a minimum of two degrees of success against both groups. Allison now considers both groups 'under her protection' as per the Persuasion Edge rules, so they can't easily attack each other any more. And if they seem inclined to do so anyway I'll use the rest of my turn to do something about that. Skill Mastery improves the result to 27, so no hero points spent.

[Ridai]

Oni blinks. And blinks again. Then her brow furrows. "If you think you can just crap like this under my watch," she says, heavy footsteps taking her between both groups, fists balling, with knuckle cracks with a volume and depth that the sound could be a distant relative of a cannon shot. "you're dead wrong, kiddos." She naturally towers over most people, but she seems even bigger now, muscles bulging, white mane rustling in an unfelt breeze as her mercy is quickly starting to run out.

Move Manipulate the larger gang with Intimidation to inflict Impairment
Intimidation [roll0]

Standard Dominate the larger gang to make them back down, as they are clearly the aggressors right now.
Spending 20 HP to gain a +5 bonus
Intimidation [roll1] Rerolled to 27 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23765176&postcount=86)

Free Generally look impressive with Prowess
Prowess (Heroic 5) [roll2]

[DeAnno]

Shadow may not the best at official rules and procedure, but he was pretty sure letting supers just fight it out in the streets wasn't good. Luckily, this was something he was well equipped to stop.

The sunlight was irritating, but this was just a street gang, it'd still be easy enough to get in their way. Shadow got in their way and let his tentacles whip outward, carrying darkness with them and vastly increasing his effective size. The gang was suprisingly adept at dodging his attempt to pin them down, but as his eerie voice echoed out of the darkness, some of their enthusiasm faded a bit. "Cease and desist this unlawful attack!" Shadow thought he was maybe laying it on a little thick, but the tone of the words meant more than the content for what he was doing.


Instant: Shifting Form (OOC)
Standard: Manipulate and Maneuvers (OOC)
Move: Stand Out Stance (Shadow seems Authoritative to NPCs at least one Rank lower than he is)

[Quellian-dyrae]

Earlier

Kaiser and Kingsley went about canvassing the neighborhood. While few people had seen anything, they did get a few reports of hearing "noises" last night, which people had evidently taken as everything from moving furniture to working out. But they eventually caught a break from a family who had been returning home from a movie at around 10:20. They had noticed three red SUVs outside the alley. They hadn't actually checked it out or anything, but it had stood out to them, anyway.

Now

Shadow's tendrils sent two of the thugs stumbling back, although their fellows caught them and kept them from falling. The gang kinda gaped at his newly-massive form. When Oni stepped in as well, they visibly blanched, clearly cowed by the idea of tangling with the two Superpowered SCOUT agents. So, you know, when Allison politely requested they back down, that seemed...eminently reasonable to them. "We were just trying to help..." Orange Eyes said, a bit petulantly.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Earlier

"Red SUVs...better than a grey sedan, I suppose." Kingsley commented, wearily pulling out his phone to contact HQ and ask for the area's camera footage.

Perception [roll0]

Now

"Mmh."

Kingsley nodded once as the fight was brought to a halt before it could degenerate...and caught in the corner of his eyes Violet Hair make a stealthy exit. Not particularly unexpected, really.

He tapped a hand to his ear. "Looks like one of the guards has gone to warn Parish...Agent Aeron you have the warrant, don't you? Mind asking to let us in?"

[Llyarden]

"And as I said, your concern was appreciated. Now, I trust there's going to be no more trouble." It wasn't a question.

Allison turned on her heel and strode towards...well, she had been planning on talking to Violet Hair, since they wanted to talk to Grey Skin anyway and making him think his actions had gone unnoticed would have been helpful, but, as Kingsley had pointed out, that particular guard was no longer anywhere to be seen.

So instead she approached the grey-skinned Superhuman, her wings furling away through carefully-tailored holes in her suit, looking up at the hulking guard with an amiable, unconcerned expression on her face. "Agent Allison Aeron," she introduced herself, proffering her badge with one hand and the warrant with the other. "We have a warrant to search the residence of Ethan Parrish. I'd appreciate it if you would allow me and my colleagues in."

Move: Begin Evaluating (with Persuasion via Cunning Application): [roll0] Becomes 29.
Instant: Scan someone with Fae Empathy. I'll decide who once I know who seems more interesting from the Evaluate attempt. EDIT: Or if no-one is particularly interesting I'll power scan someone.
Standard: Request to get us invited in to the house: [roll1] Becomes 25.

[Ridai]

Oni's face is cast in shadow for a brief moment as she looks down at the cowed gang, and they are pretty sure that beneath the great horns and the white mane, they are seeing red glowing eyes for just a moment. "Cocky lynch mobs aren't helping." She lets the words hang in the air for a moment.

As Oni steps away, they are experiencing the distinct sensation one gets when having come close to learning first-hand what a ballistic arc is.

While she is no expert, Oni doesn't exactly like the timing of this little event. Tensing for a moment, she flips, the motion launching her far into the air as she engages in the mental gymnastics of throwing herself. During the brief moment up there, she checks for any suspicious movement, like people heading away from the building, a car making a getaway... and, well, given her eyesight, she can probably also just check what is going on inside, while she is at it, and continue to do so once she lands with a thud. Her vision is weird, but hey, it might help as she walks up behind the others.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Well done." Kingsley whispered once the guard unwittingly opened the Sanctuary's door, bringing a hand to his hat to lower it some more and better hide his eyes from the onlookers. Then, he mutter arcane words of power, and...nothing really happened. Perhaps he had been a little too hasty, and the door hadn't been completely unsealed yet.

He frowned, then repeated the process and, this time, the scene in front of him wavered as a second - overlapping, yet distinct - appeared before his eyes and ears. That second scene being wherever Parrish (and presumably Violet Hair) was, to be precise.

Now, whatever might you be planning?

Standard: Perception Outclass [roll0].
Move: Evaluate [roll1].

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kingsley, Earlier

It doesn't take too long to get the footage. Granted your phone isn't the ideal viewing size, but hey it's not like you can't zoom. In any case, it does the job. You see Styles walking down the street, evidently at ease, and the three SUVs just pull up alongside her, something close to a dozen people rushing out and forcing her into the alley by main force. It was fast, and by all appearances completely out of the blue, a straight up close-quarters blitz attack by a large group - pretty much the worst possible situation for a wizard to find themselves in, even one of Styles's level.

You do see a car pass by, presumably the family that gave you the information, and it becomes obvious why so few people had noticed anything. It's over fast. They had literally just passed by at the exact right moment. In comfortably under half a minute, the group comes out of the alley, piles back into the SUVs, and drive off. You catch several of their faces on the cameras.

I don't quite recall if Allison shared the photos and such she had requested of the Hell Raisers, but if she has, there are several matches, including Isolde Shannon.

Now

The gang seems kinda defiant and...they're actually a little more confused or hesitant than anything now.
You get the sense that they didn't actually so much personally want to fight as...felt like they were supposed to, for some reason? The Streetguards at this point are mostly just smug, and seem to kinda be looking down on the gang, although it's not all disdain, there's...kinda a shade of pity there too. Gray Skin seems a bit surprised by how things went.

The gang members mumbled some things to Oni that may have at least met an apology once. The Streetguard member with the glowing veins evidently took the opportunity to come off as the rational ones and said, "Come on guys, I think the SCOUTs have got this." They headed off, leaving the larger gang kinda milling about awkwardly...although even with the confrontation over, they didn't likewise leave.

Oni's scan of the area didn't reveal anything amiss. Arcing her vision into the building's windows, she could see Violet Hair and Parrish in the entry hall, talking.

Gray Skin nodded to Allison and took out his radio. "Boss there are some SCOUTs here. Say they have a warrant."

"Well if they have a warrant let them in," a male voice answered.

Gray Skin put his radio away and opened the gate. "Go on in," he said. Even with the house itself a bit distant, Allison and Kingsley could feel the subtle difference. Honestly the best analogy was like in a video game, the difference between a section of the map that leads to the next part of the level, or one that just dead-ends at an invisible wall. The house now felt open to them.

...Which Kingsley wasted no time in taking advantage of by scrying inside. The scene of Parish and Violet Hair speaking manifested to his senses.

"-inconvenient, but I suppose it doesn't matter. The truth is on my side. Return to your post. I'll deal with the SCOUTs," Parish was saying.

Violet Hair nodded and headed back outside. Parish waited quietly in the entry hall.

There's maybe a touch of nervousness, but mostly he seems kinda annoyed and frustrated, like this whole thing is just an irksome inconvenience.

All PCs are on turn.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Earlier

"Well, they didn't even try to hide. This is pretty damning evidence, I'd say."

Now

Huh.

"Well, this is interesting. Parish seems to believe he's innocent." Kingsley announced over comms, before approaching the rest of the group and folowing them inside. His scrying sensor would linger for a moment still, then, if Parish didn't start to do anything significant while waiting for them, it would catch up with and follow Violet Hair.

[Llyarden]

"Mr Parrish," Allison nodded to him in greeting. For all that they'd been investigating him, it was, after all, her first time meeting the guy in person. "We'd like to ask you some questions, if you don't mind." Not that he really had much of a choice in the matter, but there was no reason to be impolite.

She pulled up a photo of Keller on her phone - not one of the crime scene ones, for obvious reasons, but one grabbed from Keller's computer earlier - and tilted it so Parrish could see it. "I'm sure you know Armand Keller, since he made a few public accusations against you - something about a Superhuman bloodsports ring, I think. When was the last time you saw him - if you ever met him in person?"

Free (x4): Sustain Evaluate, Stance and both Outclasses. Not sure if I need to roll again for Evaluate, but if so: [roll0]
Instant: Emotion Scan Parrish: [roll1] Becomes 27.
Move: Sherlock Scan Parrish: [roll2]
Standard: If I need to take an action to try to convince him to answer, I'll do that here. Otherwise, re-Outclass with Insight: [roll3]

[DeAnno]

With the confrontation passed, Shadow shrunk himself back down to normal size so enter Parrish's home with the rest of the party. He felt awkward about his earlier illegal search; he tried to act however a person acts when they enter a home they haven't seen before, but not having paid attention to himself previously doing that he found it was rather difficult. His form may have taken some rather... unnecessarily stealthy aspects for the situation, reflecting his hesitant attitude.

As Allison took the lead in talking to Parrish, Shadow decided that focusing on him was probably better than trying to figure out how to approach the house quite yet. He tried to get a taste of Parrish's fears while the conversation was going on.


Instant: Shifting Form; Stealth 16 (8.6 SP), Prowess 2 (0.4 SP)
Instant: Fear Scan on Parrish [roll0]

[Ridai]

Oni heads inside, careful not to hit her head or horns on any doors. The interview interrogation seems to already be underway, but she most certainly wants to hear about any involvement with a bloodsport ring as she crosses her massive arms.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Parish seems kinda defensive and confrontational, but also a bit smug. You don't get the sense that he feels like he has much to hide, but he's kinda expecting trouble and ready to defend himself from any accusations you might throw at him.

Emotion Scan: Emotionally speaking, Parish is somewhat nervous, but only so much, and it's covered by a cool confidence. It's notable that even with the full group of you here, he doesn't feel especially threatened. He's more annoyed than anything, with an edge of frustration.

Sherlock Scan 1: He carries a certain air of dismissal towards Violet Hair, and really there was something of that in his radioed response to Gray Skin as well. You get the sense that a fair chunk of his annoyance and frustration are directed towards them. They failed him somehow recently.

Sherlock Scan 2: While he doesn't feel guilty or remorseful, there's a certain vibe in his defensiveness...and a bit of a tick where he occasionally rubs at his palm with his thumb, that suggests a certain amount of subconscious regret. He has blood on his hands.

Sherlock Scan 3: He's still wearing that flipping broadsword on his back, despite being Superpowered. While he doesn't seem to feel threatened by your presence, he clearly does not feel secure in his own home.

You sense a bit of nervousness on Parish, but it's pretty muted.

"Agents," Parish greeted you with a polite nod, not bothering to conceal the hint of annoyance on his face as he spoke. He raised a brow as he looked over the lot of you. "Well. I suppose it's nice to know I rate," he said, a bit sarcastically.

He answered Allison's question with a sigh, and then said, "Alright. Let's just get this out of the way."

"Yes, I am aware of Armel Keller. Last night, roughly a quarter after seven, he forced his way into my home. He was ranting, yelling, and physically aggressive. I rather assumed he was on drugs, so I can't say I paid overmuch attention to the contents of his deranged ramblings. I attempted to deescalate the situation as best I could, but he only grew more agitated. When I attempted to reach my phone to call for law enforcement, he attacked me."

"I physically defended myself. My powers are stronger than his, so I did my best to restrain him without permanent harm. However, he proved sufficiently resilient that I was unable to neutralize him easily, and his powers were strong enough to present a meaningful threat even to me. I believed he would kill me if I did not stop him. In a final attempt to convince him to back down, I retrieved this weapon and warned him that I would not continue to hold back if he pressed his attack against me."

"I am afraid, however, that he was entirely deranged, and only attacked more aggressively. I was given no choice but to strike at him with lethal force. As I'm sure you can understand, I was rather shaken at the time, and called in my personal security team to deal with the matter, and attempted to go to bed. Naturally, I assumed that they would contact the proper authorities and schedule a time for me to make my statement. Given that you are all here and treating me like a suspect in a murder investigation, I take it they misinterpreted my request."

Parish:
Move: Enter the Poker Face stance.
Standard: Deception Outclass at [roll0].

All PCs are on turn.

[Llyarden]

"I see," Allison nodded. "Obviously we'll need to talk to your security team as well, but yes, I think you can safely say they misinterpreted your request."

As if the mysterious disappearance of the crime scene when you woke up wasn't evidence enough.

She paused for a moment to finish typing Parrish's statement thus far onto her phone (and also to angle the scanner installed at the end of it at him) and then continued. "With your permission, Mr Parrish, I'd like to use my powers to read your emotions. Obviously it wouldn't be the most tangible evidence, but it would be included in my internal report, and I'm sure you can understand that having the investigating officers believe your story would be quite helpful to you."

"And, after all, since you've done nothing wrong, it's not as though you have any reason to hide anything from us," she added.

Move: Apply Knowledge [Law Enforcement], assuming it's applicable, to determine how expensive an underworld 'cleaner' of the type that evidently went through Parrish's house would be: [roll0] Maybe it was the wrong proficiency...
Standard: Request to get Parrish's permission to emotion probe him: [roll1] Becomes 27.
Instant: And since I don't need his permission for this, Power Scan Parrish with Expertise [Lore]: [roll2]

[Hyperbolic sine]

Kingsley raised an eyebrow at Parish's take on the fate of Keller's corpse. He briefly considered calling out its absurdity, but it looked like the man wouldn't be easily cowed, so...he still called out its absurdity, but without being overly aggressive.

"I see. What a life must you live, Mr. Parish, if in such a situation 'dispose of the body' is something your guards might misunderstand you for asking."

Free: Assess Parish.
Move: Intuit.
Standard: Enter the Suspicious Stance.

[DeAnno]

Now protected of the harsh glare of the sunlight, Shadow's darkness seemed to intensify, and what had before been a simple absence of light was now more like a vacuum drawing it in.


Instant: Shift to Primal Terror: +20 total Intimidate, and a Precise Commune.


Shadow decided that it might be productive to appeal to the pride of a man like Parish, which might be easy to rile in the face of him claiming such an outrageous error on the part of his employees. At the worst, Parish might be embarrassed, and at best, it might cause Parish to form a bit of a rift between himself and his team to save face. If he could just act rashly in any which way, it might break his reserve.

"I'm surprised a man of your standing has such an incompetent security team. You want them to go to the police, and instead they implicate you in a botched cover-up. I suppose you'll fire them all for such a blatant error? Or maybe you're the sort of person that loves to hand out second chances to substandard subordinates?


Move: Stance: Stand Out: NPCs of my own character rank or lower see me as irritating.
Standard: Precise Incite: Embarrass Parish over the incompetence of his subordinates, and encourage him to act rashly or say something unwise in annoyance. (Skill Mastery) [roll0]

+5 heroic would activate on the natural 10, making that a 35

[Quellian-dyrae]

Parish crossed his arms at Allison's request. "Absolutely not. I do have nothing to hide, and you are welcome to ask me any questions you like. But I will not consent to having my mental privacy invaded, and if it is your contention that doing so would be necessary for you to believe what I say, then that would itself be sufficient reason on its face not to." His tone projected clear offense.

He positively sneered at Kingsley and Shadow when they gave their assessment. "Yes, I will have to come up with a suitable reprimand for such gross negligence," he answered, although he did let something of a mocking edge slip into his tone. He probably should have stopped there, but after a moment added, "I suppose it is what I get for trying to give people with records an opportunity to turn their lives around. Once a criminal always a criminal, it would seem."

Allison's approach was insufficient; you're going to have to give him a better reason than just "you have nothing to hide" to get him to consent to something as invasive as psychic probing.

Shadow's attempt succeeded by two degrees. I'm assuming you'd be going for the third add-on effect to just make him generally irritated/embarrassed, since the other two aren't really useful/applicable here.

Parish:
Move: Manipulate using Rescaled Intimidation. He has Group Manipulation 2, so he'll target Allison, Kingsley, and Shadow. -5 for doing it as a move action. [roll0], +5 Heroic from Skill Mastery. Anyone whose DC he beats is Impaired against him for one round per degree, and Dazed for an equal duration from his Daze advantage. 23 total, that fails against all of you.
Standard: Outclass using Intimidation. [roll1], +5 Heroic from Skill Mastery.

All PCs are on turn.

[Llyarden]

Allison met Parrish's gaze briefly, looking up from her phone just long enough to catch his eyes. "Hmm," she mused, non-committally, scribbling something pointedly with the stylus. "Here's the thing, Mr Parrish. Right now we could bring charges against you and your two subordinates outside for obstructing the course of justice."

"Obviously, you've got a perfectly reasonable defence lined up already in saying that it was all their doing. But...well, I've represented a fair few small fry thugs like Mr Weaver before, and the most sensible defence for him - and whatever PD ends up representing him - is to put the blame back on your shoulders."

"You see, a large number of Superhuman crimes are of the 'blunt force' variety - a fact that has filtered enough into public perception over the centuries that, despite there being no statistically significant bias towards such crimes, there is a natural, subconscious tendency to assume that Superhuman criminals are hired muscle, not the brains of an operation. Unfortunately for you, the same cannot be said for Superpowered individuals."

"Leaving aside subconscious jury bias, there is also, of course, the fact that your house has been quite professionally cleaned to erase most traces of the crime - a service that costs a fair amount of money that Mr Weaver and his associate neither have nor, I think, would be willing to spend on your behalf. Unless they have unchecked access to a discretionary fund of some sort, that is?"

Standard: Outclass with Expertise [Law]: [roll0] with +5 Heroic for Supernormal specialty.
Move: Manipulate Parrish with Rescaled Persuasion to distract, at -5 for doing it as a move action plus whatever bonus I get from the above Outclass and Skill Mastery: [roll1] Becomes 20 plus whatever critical bonus from the Outclass

[DeAnno]

"So let me get this straight," Shadow's voice was like a susurrus of insectile whispers, most of them forming the words but some of them now seeming to snicker underneath the rest. "You make it a point to hire a bunch of criminals, give them vague instructions to 'deal with the matter', and you pretend to be surprised when they do it illegally? That's hardly an origami shield against an obstruction charge. Do you really think a jury would take the word of someone like you when we're marching a parade of your convict minions past them?"


Move: Manipulate to render Parish Impaired and Dazed against me, using my mocking and unnatural (yet deniably required) mode of communication. Rescaled Intimidation with a -5 penalty and a +5 heroic [roll0]

Standard Precise Incite to make Parish nervous that even if his defense mostly holds up in a technical sense, public opinion and guilt by association could get him convicted anyway. +5 heroic [roll1] equals a 30

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Hmpf."

Kingsley kept trying to get a read on the man, but it was proving surprisingly difficult. Still...perhaps mentioning the demons would be of some worth- ah, there it was. It was faint, but an experienced mage like him could recognise the early signs of the Geasa taking effect. Thus, that meant...

...that he doesn't know about the demons. Could this have all been coincidence...hmm, no, they might simply have posed as Superpowered. Should I mention Shannon, reveal our hand? Hmm, perhaps not...

And regardless, whatever he said or asked would be of little use if he couldn't read Parish's reactions, so he kept trying.

Standard: Kick the RNG.
Move: Aid my next Intuit at [roll0]. +2.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Do you think I clean this place personally? I have a cleaning staff on retainer, and yes they are very good at their jobs. My employees obviously called them. I naturally assumed that the police had released the scene last night. Evidently that assumption was incorrect."

He frowned at Shadow's words, and said with a sigh, "I concede that the optics are...less than ideal. That is why I am happy to answer any questions you have. I am not trying to interfere with your investigation; I merely object to having my mental privacy invaded, which I do not think is unreasonable. Especially when I am, in fact, the victim here."

"If you insist that the only way that you will be able to trust my testimony is to probe me psychically, and the only alternative is prosecution for trumped up charges, then I suppose I have no choice but to allow it. But do not think that your bosses will not hear about such harassment!"

You can sense that he's definitely more nervous after your point, and you can feel a flicker of dread towards you as well, though he's hiding it outwardly.

Shadow's words seem to have made him more nervous, and you can sense a flicker of dread towards Shadow that he's covering up outwardly. However, that nervousness comes along with additional frustration and anger.
When he speaks, you can feel a growing sense of spite. Legally, his words mean you are allowed to probe his emotions, but you get the sense that he's already plotting a way to get back at you for it if you do.

Parish:
Move: Dazed.
Standard: Manipulate on Allison at [roll0]. On a success, she's Impaired against him and Dazed, for one round per degree. 3 Degrees

All PCs are on turn.

[DeAnno]

Even with Parish's hesitant permission to go rummaging through his mind, Shadow figured Allison might have a tough time. Luckily, he had a fairly good view himself, and with Katie's help he could relay advice quietly, using the shape of Parish's fears to lead Allison to the rest of his emotions more easily. He didn't want to reveal what he was doing, but he thought that he could keep it on the downlow.


NonAction: Last Round's Manipulate will last at least one more round, due to the Improved Manipulation Advantage
Move: Obscure, keeping the next action secret. Stealth with +5 heroic bonus [roll0] Effectively a 26
Standard: If the Obscure seems to pass, Assist Allison's probe with my own Force. [roll1]

[Llyarden]

Allison...kinda frowned slightly at Parrish. The idea that she would be party to misconduct...that rankled. Still, when everything was being recorded, the more he said, the more any lies he told would be unpicked - and the more charges of perjury he would face if he was foolish enough to lie to them. For someone who seemed to have a good knowledge of the law, she did find it strange he would apparently assume that the police would go away and politely wait for him to give a statement at his leisure, but maybe that was the life of the rich and successful.

"I don't believe I ever said it was the only way we could trust your testimony," she responded aloud. "I apologise if we've caused some confusion, Mr Parrish. To clarify - at present, should we uncover no tangible evidence with regards to the events that led to Mr Keller's body being disposed of, we would be obliged to bring charges against you and your subordinates alike - and even if charges are brought against your subordinates alone, a likely defence for them would be to accuse you of directing them."

"In either case, it would be likely that your testimony would be brought into question. That being the case, I hope you can appreciate that one of the lead investigators being able to testify that she genuinely believed your testimony would be quite helpful to you in either situation."

"At present, however, I cannot testify as such - I do not disbelieve your testimony, but in the absence of any evidence to support it, as an investigator I cannot in good faith be completely convinced of it."

Move: Dazed.
Free: Spend my 1 point of Persuasion Edge to make Parrish not as annoyed with Shadow's Incite.
Standard: Outclass with Persuasion again, +2 for Expertise Outclass and -2 for Impaired: [roll0] *sigh* Rerolled for 29

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Especially because, Mr. Parish, we now live in an age where strange powers abound...perhaps you are indeed telling the truth, but Mr. Keller might have been, let's say, provoked. Common sense is not what it once was anymore..." Kingsley added, trailing off as if his thoughts were drifting in reminiscence...then abruptly locked his eyes with Parish's. "By the way, does the name Isolde Shannon ring any bell?"

Using my Intuit to Read Beliefs on the question "Did you ever have dealings with Isolde Shannon and/or the Hell Raisers?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Parish seemed at least a bit mollified by Allison's explanation, although he was still eyeing Shadow askance, even to the point of distraction. He still didn't exactly seem thrilled with the idea but, "While I am quite confident that my lawyers would prove quite capable at quelling any such spurious and obviously false allegations against me, I suppose I can see how consenting to such a scan could allow me to avoid some inconvenience in the future. I still don't like it, so I will not pretend that I will be able to relax enough to allow it to happen unimpeded, but I suppose you may make the attempt, if you feel it is the best way to assure yourself of my innocence. I do hope that even if your power proves ineffective, you at least take it into account that I am allowing you to try at all."

He paused a moment, and then said, "Although...well, I should hate to come across as telling you how to do your jobs. After all, you are the professional SCOUTs and I a mere civilian. But if I may make one tiny suggestion, that before you result to psychic powers, perhaps you would care to peruse my security video of the whole encounter? I imagine that video evidence would prove equally useful in helping you determine how you would wish to testify, yes?"

To Kingsley's question, he just shrugged. "I cannot say it does, no. Why do you ask?" There was a hint of demand in his voice, an authority that wasn't easy to deny. You couldn't put your finger on it, but you got the sense that it would not be a wise idea to ignore that question.

While I deem it entirely reasonable that Parish has security cameras, it's also entirely reasonable that Shadow would have noticed them in his original search. I just hadn't really been thinking about it at the time. So I feel like just kinda springing them suddenly qualifies as something of Fiat, essentially an Edit Scene. Since he's using this kinda "against" Allison, I'm giving her 10 :smallcool: Hero Points - not the full value of an Edit Scene, but since video evidence is also useful to you guys, I figure that's fair enough.

Parish:
Move: Still Dazed thanks to Improved Manipulate.
Standard: Attempt to Dominate Allison. He's basically making the point that since she didn't even ask about video evidence or anything before jumping right to mental probing, it kinda shatters her credibility here. (To be fair though without that Persuasion Edge expenditure he was totally planning to just not mention it unless asked and bring it up later to your bosses instead, so that could have been bad) [roll0]. Fails
Free: Spend a point of Intimidation Edge. Kingsley, you have to make a direct and relevant answer to his question - it doesn't have to be a true answer by any means, but you can't just dodge the question.

All PCs are on turn.

[Llyarden]

"Certainly, when we begin collecting the physical evidence, any surveillance footage you possess will be included in that," Allison answered calmly. Then she gave an...almost conspiratorial smile. "I'll tell you a little trade secret, Mr Parrish, one known by lawyers and investigators alike: statements given to the lead investigators are as much about emotion as fact. It's about you trying to convince us, in the near-absence of any evidence, that you're telling the truth. That's why it's us taking your statement, and not other SCOUT agents under our command."

"Though, for what it's worth...well, obviously, I don't know exactly what your security system is. But unless you have full video and audio coverage in every nook and cranny of the house and grounds, from every angle, so there's nowhere someone -" she glanced slightly back towards the door "- could have an unobserved conversation - or even just send a quiet text message...for our purposes at the moment, emotions are more compelling."

Her choice of words and actions was deliberate, intended to create a subconscious, emotional connection between her and Parrish - a 'them against us' feel. Given that he evidently didn't feel entirely safe in his own home, it seemed a good bet.

"On that topic, is there anything I can do to make it easier for you to relax and allow me to read your emotions fully?"

Move: Still Dazed.
Standard: Negotiate to learn what it would take to get him to forgo his resistance check against the probe (-2 for Impaired): [roll0]

[manwithaplan]

"..."

Katie blew a loose strand of hair from her face as the conversation went on.

"Uh, if you don't mind Mr. Parrish, sooner or later we should prosecute our search warrant."

With that she began the unceremonious process of professionally ransacking the rooms, seemingly unconcerned at the thought of offending Parrish's sensibilities.

Search [roll0].

[DeAnno]

"Compelling indeed," Shadow idly commented, alien undertones still rattling within his voice. "They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but but the richness of actual experience, I'd have to say that's worth more still."


Standard: Rescaled Manipulate to Daze/Impair [roll0] +5 heroic (27, I think that's still too low though)

Not sure what to do with my move, if anything. Open to aiding an intuit or something if someone wants to do that. Maybe Ill try to manipulate again if this fails. 27 was probably too low, so I'll do the move action at a weaker bonus in OOC thread

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Well, Mr. Parish, I ask because, as I said, Keller might not have been in his right mind when coming here. Which would have been awfully convenient for you, since you could have killed him while claiming self defence...which is, in turn, why it might seem we're not willing to take your word at face value, of course." Kinglsely replied, still trying to get a read on the man.

Standard: Insight Outclass, spending 10 :smallcool: HP to increase the Aid bonus. [roll0]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Parish cast Katie a deadpan look and made a kinda "get on with it" circling gesture with his hand.

He looked back to Allison with a resigned sigh. "Listen, I do understand the value of such powers from an investigative standpoint. And yes, I can see how looking through my thoughts or...feelings, or whatever could help corroborate my story. But that assumes you read and report on them truly. Merely allowing you to try is a risk, because once I allow you to look, it doesn't matter if you learn anything, or if what you learn corroborates my story. If you choose to say my emotions provide evidence of my guilt, I have very little recourse. It may not stand in court, but it can create a lot of trouble for me. Now, I'm not saying I believe you intend to do that - if I did, I would not allow it at all - but I hope you can see that even that much is extending you a rather significant amount of trust."

"But even assuming you won't make things up outright, I have no real understanding of how your power works or how skilled you are at interpreting it. If you find evidence of, say, the fact that I was angry at his attack - which of course I was, because he attacked me unprovoked in my own home - how do I know that your analysis will be precise enough to distinguish that from evidence of general anger towards him? I can't."

"And the thing of it is...you all have, from the very start, approached this as though I am the criminal here. I understand you have some reason to suspect me of foul play, and that is what it is. But I must thereby assume that whatever you do find, you are likely to take in the worst possible light - because you see me as a suspect. If you didn't, then that one," he upnodded at Shadow, with a contemptuous sneer that seemed utterly dismissive of his efforts, "Would not have been trying to unnerve and unbalance me for this entire conversation."

He glanced to Kingsley, "And his answer is only further proof of it. Indeed, it is more than possible that Keller was not in his right mind. I can't imagine he was! I believe the word I used in my initial explanation was deranged. Him not being in his right mind is irrelevant to the fact that he was an exigent physical threat to my person and I had every right to defend myself against him. But you appear to be conflating him not being in full control with me having somehow intentionally provoked him." His voice got more heated as he spoke, and he faced Kingsley directly and said, about as sharply as he had said anything, "So no. Being attacked in my own home and forced to kill a man in my own defense was not in any way convenient." He spat that final word back venomously.

You can sense that the anger and offense aren't just a false face; he feels them for real, and he's actually kinda holding them back.

Parish took a breath, and looked back to Allison. "Meanwhile, you yourself have defended members of the same organization that Keller was a part of. Perhaps it means nothing, but it is just one more potential conflict of interests I have to worry about."

Meanwhile, Katie searched around. She found the same minute traces of blood and speck of hardened skin that Shadow had already alerted them to. And well yes there were surveillance cameras covering the foyer that she could spot. But yeah Shadow seemed to have located every clue of note in the foyer. There didn't appear to be any signs of struggle or further evidence to a casual search of the rest of the house.

So, there's a bit to parse there in terms of Allison's Negotiate, so to make it clear:
-His optimal approach would be confirmation that by allowing you to look at his emotions, he would cease to be a suspect and not further inconvenienced. (A signed contract to that effect would work, but as normal for Negotiate a verbal promise would qualify as Reasonable).
-His acceptable approach would be evidence that you're "on his side" in this.
-His minimally acceptable approach would...normally be evidence that he can trust your reading not to falsely implicate him either by intent or error. However, because he does have some knowledge of the law and of the Streetguard, he's heard of Allison's prior defense case for them, and knowing about that, he can't really be convinced that she would be fully impartial, so that option is being negated. This also means he'll be a bit harder to convince than he otherwise might (+2 to DCs to convince by your word, but remember the approach is still automatically Sufficient if you can provide hard proof) that you are "on his side". Allison take 20 :smallcool: Hero Points for your Allison Aeron, Attorney-At-Law Complication.

Not gonna waste time dragging out Katie's search even though realistically it would take longer to conduct a really good search of the whole place, but if you want to search "more thoroughly" (i.e. try for a higher result) you're welcome to on successive rounds.

Parish:
Move: Manipulate Kingsley and Shadow at -5 for move action, using Group Manipulation to negate the penalty for two of them. On a success, you're Impaired against him and Dazed for one round per degree. [roll0]. Nope
Standard: Dominate on Kingsley: [roll1]. Two degree success. Parish is now immune to social actions from Kingsley. Kingsley if you show submission to him - back down and apologize or the like - there's 10 HP in it for you, or more if it's in a way that carries some credible cost or disadvantage.

All PCs are on turn.

[manwithaplan]

"No, not good enough."

Katie had "found" the blood trace that Shadow had clued her off to, but she continued to search the house for evidence. They had a search warrant, after all! It was all well within her rights.

Alright, here we go. Spending another 20 Hero Points to Search with a Major Bonus.

Perception [roll0].

[Llyarden]

Allison's friendly smile faded a little bit. "Mr Parrish. It is my duty as a lawyer to present the best case I can within the bounds of the law. It is similarly my duty as a law enforcement official - all of our duties -" she gestured to the others "- to uncover all the pertinent evidence in a case we can. If that evidence would support any defence case that might arise, that's the purpose of discovery. And as I said, we have not yet found any evidence to prove either your innocence or your guilt."

"As for my powers...it's somewhat difficult to explain, but think of it like this. If, for instance, you were feeling sad, that might register as 'blue.' My powers are precise enough that I can objectively - as objectively as possible given the nature of the power, at least - determine the specific shade of blue, to the extent that if I sat down in front of a computer I could program in the exact RGB values and recreate the colour of your aura. Now, perhaps, given contextual clues, I could tell that you were feeling sad about losing something. If I focused even more closely on the minute variance in the shades and your response to minute changes in the environment around you, I might be able to determine that it was an old childhood toy that you had lost. My report in this situation would include both the objective 'picture' I created of your emotions and my own personal interpretations of them. Given a 'key' to translate the colours back to emotions, a psychiatrist could make their own interpretations - and indeed there are some expert witnesses who do precisely this. And, if I was asked what evidence I had to support my claim of you losing a childhood toy, I would answer that it was based purely on my interpretations of your emotions."

"Does that help?"

Move: Last round of being dazed.
Standard: Attempt to Outclass Parrish with Deception (-2 for Impaired): [roll0]. If it succeeds I'll spend 1 point to make him know that Allison is telling the truth about being impartial.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Yes, well, I certainly wouldn't expect an admission of guilt, anyway. But I suppose that if Keller was indeed a raving lunatic that did nothing but spout false accusations at you, and then forced to you to kill him, you shouldn't really be afraid of a little pyschic scan." Kingsley replied, seemingly unfazed by Parish's venom.

Then, he left the room to go help Katie with the search...but not really, since his scrying sensor took his place. He would still keep watch for any sign of lies or misdirection...

Full: Help Katie Search at [roll0]. The most useless crit ever...unless somehow we can switch the main roll and the Aid. +5. 37.

[DeAnno]

"Why Mr. Parish," Shadow said in a mockingly offended tone. "I hope that you don't mistake my ... unusual condition for any sort of malice. I should hope we have all moved past discriminating against the less aesthetically inclined among the Supernormals, for only with the spirit of cooperation can we march forward into the future. Or something like that, you know how people like to dress these things up."

The whispers continue to conceal weird undertones at the edge of hearing, and Shadow's mere presence keeps a damper on the room, making everything seem dimmer and colder, a little like being underwater, but with air. Shadow's teammates would probably be a little creeped out too at this point, if they weren't so used to his antics.


Manipulation/Intimidation, Standard Rescaled, to Daze and Impair, +5 heroic [roll0]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Parish eyed Shadow a moment, retorting, "You should learn to better control your powers," he retorted. His face gave little away, but there was no concealing his growing unease from Shadow's power to sense fear.

He turned his attention back to Allison, considering her words. It was hard to refute her candor. With a slight, resigned sigh he said, "Very well, I suppose I can allow it. I expect you will make note in your reports that I was willing to undergo such a procedure."

Meanwhile, Kingsley and Katie continued searching the house. There was little more physical evidence to be found, and if Parish had committed any other crimes, he did not seem to keep the evidence of them at his home. However, his security system had indeed captured the encounter on video. Reviewing it closely, it went pretty much exactly as he had said it did. Parish did appear to be fighting rather defensively for the majority of the battle, and he did make several attempts to talk Keller down, to no avail.

But with their close examination of the video, they did spot something of note. It was only visible at certain angles, but there appeared to be a faint blue-green glow in Keller's eyes. Checking the outside cameras, the glow appeared to have been there even on his approach to the property.

In retrospect I feel like requiring Allison to make another request, while mechanically apropos, would be awkward descriptively. So whatever. You may your your probe on Parish and ask one question per degree of success on your original Scan attempt.

Everybody take 20 :smallcool: Hero Points for the encounter.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Once everything was squared away at Parish's (and the guards were in custody for obstruction charges), the team made their way to where the Hell Raisers had been located. The sun was just starting to make its descent as they arrived, and the place seemed to a large degree as Allison had left it (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23662034&postcount=60). If anything the music had gotten louder. And more foul-mouthed.

There were also a couple red SUVs parked out front now, as well as several motorcycles. There was quite a bit of movement visible inside, and it looked like there might have been some people out back too. The air smelled of grilled meat and a little of spilled alcohol.

While the building obstructs you from getting any particularly clear sense of individual emotions, there's enough rowdy energy in the place now that you can sense it from the street. The closest human emotion it bears resemblance to is joy, but it's...off. Like a clown with a chainsaw, or something. Not necessarily a creepy clown, mind you, or like a gore-splattered chainsaw or something like that. Just, you know, a clown. With a chainsaw.

Traces of fear seem to cover much of the block. It's old but pervasive, like the smell of cigarettes in a heavy smoker's house. A constant, low-grade expectation of peril that clings to everything in a faint miasma. You can sense occasional spots of equally old but more intense fear scattered about like individual ashtrays, ranging from startled shock to intense panic, but never seeming to quite reach the point of mortal terror.

The house with the music seems largely clear of fear traces, although through the windows you can pick up a single source of stronger, active fear, hovering somewhere between dread and panic.

You can see around and through the house. There's about two-dozen people there, looking generally pretty rough-and-tumble, sporting numerous tattoos and many of them wearing biker's leathers. Most of them are armed with makeshift weapons - chains, brass knuckles, baseball bats, knives, one of them even carries a set of nunchucks. Just about all of them have cans or bottles of beer either in hand or in easy reach. About half of them are out back, the rest inside, several of the latter sitting around a television watching a hockey game. You recognize several of them from the pictures Allison had sent, including Isolde Shannon, who is currently in the back yard grilling hamburgers.

In the kitchen, a middle-aged man with skin pale enough to deduce he doesn't get much time outdoors, brown hair just starting to go gray, and sharp green eyes has been strapped down to the counter. Two of the Hell Raisers are standing over him, wielding knives - the man's clothes have several cuts in them, but there's only a few light traces of blood. You can't hear them of course, but it looks like they might be interrogating him or something? A third member of the gang is holding up...what looks like some sort of high-tech suit or armor from which sprouts several mechanical tendrils. You can see remnants of dried blood on the tendrils, and your analytical vision tells you it comes from several people.

You detect twelve minds out back and at least ten more inside.

Although the building blocks you from looking at the auras of any specific individuals, there's enough magical energy within the place currently that it's detectable to your senses, like light shining out of the windows. You can tell it's demonic in nature, but you'd need to look at them directly to tell more. You can, however, tell that the demonic "graffiti" doesn't actually have any active magic in it. It is indeed just territorial markings, not defensive glyphs.

[manwithaplan]

Katie leaned against someone's car, stretching her legs. In her hand was a lead pipe that she was tossing into the air and spinning around.

"Two dozen heads, minimum. Half inside, half outside."

She tossed up the pipe again, cracking her knuckles while it was in mid-air.

"Kick the door in...?"

[Ridai]

Any thoughts about going in calmly go out of the window when Oni sees what is going on in the kitchen. Degenerate bastards.

"Man getting interrogated at knife point in the kitchen," she says, before she picks up an empty can and launches herself into the air.

From inside the kitchen, it looks and sounds like the spot just outside the window is hit by a cannonball, sending a shock through the ground and dust into the air. A hulking shadow rises within the dust cloud, turning towards the kitchen, red eyes glowing, white mane wilder than usual. The SCOUT badge is slammed against the window.

"I'm giving you ten seconds to get your asses and him out of the building, or I'll be coming in. Try to stab him or run away and I'll show you how useless walls are at stopping me." Oni's growling voice should be quite audible inside the house.

Intimidation [roll0] edit: 22 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23911049&postcount=111)
Prowess for dramatic effect (Heroic 5) [roll1]

If Attractive applies: Persuasion outclass [roll2]

If Fame applies, the minimum result is 21.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Kingsley assessed the situation calmly; as far as he could see, nothing out of the expected. He glanced at Kate's thug-like moves.

"Remember these are demons to peace. They thrive on violence, while forcing a peaceful approach will weak-"

And then Oni launched herself.

"-en...them. *sigh*"

Well, at least drawing them out of the building meant neither he nor Allison would have to worry about the Geas of Sanctuary.

Perception Outclass [roll0].

[manwithaplan]

Katie nodded, her head spinning to look at Kingsley.

"I think it's the door today."

[DeAnno]

Shadow had gotten a whiff of something from the kitchen, but Oni's clearer report helped define the situation better. Expecting a fight might break out, he prepared himself with a ripple across his form, and then raced over to the window to loom behind his teammate and get a clearer view of the situation. This brought him out of the irritating sunlight, and let him really flex his darkness to full effect again.

Oni had gone with loud, but he decided he would start quiet, and build the dread. The twilight behind Oni slowly dimmed, and there was the flash of a tentacle along the side of the window to give a little hint of what he was. His voice was like the wind rustling through a hundred different trees. "You'd best listen to her. You don't want to make us have to come in there."


Instant: Shifting Body: Prowess 10, Improved Initiative 6
Instant: Control Darkness: Activate Primal Terror
Instant: Prowess for a free Maneuver, to move to the window behind Oni (5 heroic, should basically auto) [roll0] Which is effectively 18
Move: Stance: Stand Out (Dangerous; All characters my rank or lower)
Standard: Intimidation Outclass (characters other than me; 5 heroic) [roll1]

[Quellian-dyrae]

So, of course, the dangerous gang known as the Hell Raisers, which also happens to be made up entirely of demons to Peace, immediately recognized both the authority of the SCOUT agents and the rather compromising position they found themselves in, and quickly began a respectful dialogue to clear up what they hoped to prove was all some whacky misunderstanding.

...I'm just kidding.

"COPS!" one of the demons shouted, and there was an immediate flurry of activity as they began pulling out weapons and scrambling for position. The three demons in the kitchen faced Shadow and Oni directly, while the man strapped to the counter yelled for help.

I'm assuming Oni's Intimidation attempt was to Incite. The Demons to Peace have the Fearless advantage, so a direct threat is an Insufficient approach against them without a power behind it. I'm refunding your Hero Points for the reroll (although...I don't appear to have actually deducted them in the first place?)

Initiative:
Oni: [roll0].
Shadow: [roll1].
Katie: [roll2].
Kingsley: [roll3].
Allison (+15 for Let's Talk): [roll4].

Demons: [roll5].

Here's a map (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OAKiPOzjm5-hD4J4ALFH6VhHPBpjST-1xkApfVu5-cQ/edit#gid=0).

For the record, the basic demons are Elite rank (which means at the moment they see Shadow as the most dangerous member of the team, due to his stance). Isolde while statistically identical to the other demons is Boss rank and counts as two characters in combat (i.e. she has the equivalent of a Shared Body Companion).

Also if anyone cares to the captive's bonds are basically duct tape. A single maneuver can reduce him from Bound to Restrained, two maneuvers can free him, and if you have any attacks that can target the duct tape without harming him it'll fold pretty much automatically.

All PCs but Kingsley are on turn.

[Llyarden]

If any of the Hell Raisers, busy collecting their weaponry, happened to glance out of one of the windows of the apartment building, they might have noticed a brief flicker of movement that went from Allison around and behind one of the numerous cars, vanishing from sight. But Allison herself was calmly standing there, so clearly it was nothing to worry about.

And then, as the demons amassed with their weapons at the ready, Allison raised her voice slightly and spoke as calmly and casually as though they were having a pleasant discussion. "We'd like to talk to you about an event that occurred last night, in the scrap yard nearby. May we come in?"

The real Allison crouched behind a car, butterfly wings carefully tucked away, and pulled what appeared to be a hairpin from her hair and flicked it, causing it to expand in the blink of an eye into a bleached-white bone sabre. She didn't herself know for sure that peaceful approaches would weaken the demons to peace, but Kingsley knew more of supernatural means than her and she trusted his judgement. And besides, even if her overly-calm approach didn't weaken the, it would almost certainly annoy them.

Let's Talk Action: Create an Illusion of Allison standing calmly right in front of the front door, nice and visible to as many demons as possible. With the illusion I'll mass challenge the demons by being all peaceful right on their doorstep (or, at least, appearing to be): [roll0]

Instant: Attempt a Free Maneuver (DC21): [roll1]
Instant: Use Shifting Body to rearrange Prowess 15 and Attractive 2 down to Prowess 5 (just enough to still out-initiative the demons), Stealth 15, and Attractive 1.

If the Free Maneuver failed:
Move: Actually Maneuver, to move behind the cars.
Standard: Outclass with Stealth: [roll2].

If the Free Maneuver succeeded:
Move: Manipulate any demons - excluding Isolde - that can hear/see Allison with Persuasion (Group Manipulation makes them count as Mundane so the penalty is only -2, but also -5 for doing it as a move action): [roll3]. If it succeeds, I'll use Set-up 5 to make them Weakened against the whole party.
Free Maneuver: Move behind the cars.
Standard: Outclass with Stealth as above.

[manwithaplan]

"Nah, not cops."

With a squat and stand-up, Katie telekinetically launched herself high into the air. Her leap was sufficient to let her tuck and tumble over the roof of the house, and come to a soft landing in the back alley behind it.

"Hey," she said to the one at the grill. "Party's over."

Lunging forward with both hands, the investigator manhandled her target. Disabling the guard, pushing her off-balance, manoeuvring to expose vulnerable areas - then she came in with the feet, jumping onto her target and using grappling skills to pin her down.

Then Katie's brain joined the operation, telekinetically abusing the leader's face - holding her eyelids tight shut, pulling at her hair, tugging a couple small fissures in her lips, and so on. It was also much deeper in their mind, doing something...but Katie had no way to actually see what the results of that were.

This is all targeted against one track.

Katie Move: Prowess [roll0] for Manoeuvres. One is spent, with Telekinetic Flight, to get into Z4. If I have more, I'll spend them for Disrupts on Isolde, with each Disrupt being a Tag+Bruise.

Katie Standard: Distracting Floorwork on Isolde. Contact Attack [roll1] for DC 21 Positional Resistance or take Restraining and Distracting Tree, plus Injury Tree (only against Katie's evil insides). This attack is also Incurable 2, and points of failure on the Resistance check become an Aid check bonus for Inner Katie's Accuracy.

Mind Move: Prowess [roll2] for Manoeuvres. Spending them all for Disrupts on Isolde, with each Disrupt being a Tag+Bruise.

Mind Standard: Subtle Domination on Isolde. Impose Attack [roll3] for DC 21 Mental Resistance or take Domination Tree. This attack is Insidious and Progressive. It may have an Accuracy Aid depending on the last attack's outcome.

Status: Normal.

[DeAnno]

Shadow's form stretched into motion as combat began, warping so quickly that he left a trail of fading darkness behind him.

His first priority was to rescue the hostage, so he simply ignored the flatfooted demons and tore into the bonds. They didn't ignore him however, as his mere presence was enough to rattle even supernatural foes.


Prowess and Intimidation both have +5 heroic bonuses.
Instant: Shifting Body: Prowess 16 (8.6), Stamina 4
Linked Move: Manuever (Exert Other) and Group Manipulate (Commune)
Maneuvers: [roll0] (depending on how many; spend the first opening the window and moving adjacent to the chair (AL12), the next two against the bonds, others after that to be handled in bold text) 27 with heroic, so three extra maneuvers. The last one is going to be used to carefully drag the hostage to a more defensible position in the corner, AM16, with me ending up on AL15. If the hostage resists being moved I won't bother doing it.
Manipulate: Group Manipulation 2, Improved Manipulation 1, Intimidation to Impair against all elite demons that can interact with Shadow on AL12, Fast Rescaled Intimidation [roll1]

Shadow still has a standard action unused.


Shadow was aware that he should try to be reassuring as he moved the hostage out of reach of the demons and back to moderately more safety in the corner. "Cavalry's here." That probably wasn't much, but it was something.

[DeAnno]

The safety of the hostage handled, Shadow turned back to shocked demons quickly. They hadn't had time to respond yet, and he didn't plan on giving them any time to think. If he could occupy everyone in the house, that should be enough to facilitate a cleanup outside.

Shadow raced at the nearest one and decided to make him an example to the others, swiping him up into his tentacles in a terrifying show of force. Other tentacles whipped around everywhere, preventing the demons from moving effectively in the small room, and hopefully keeping the hostage a bit safer.

As he did all this, Shadow roared out an inhuman scream, challenging all the Demons to a battle against something that seemed truly alien in the heat of the moment.


Standard: Linked Manuevers and Manipulate again
Maneuvers: [roll0] Move to AK13, grab demon #23, and perform interfere action targeting the immediate area looking to prevent demons from moving (Speed 4 should be enough to cover the room, I think) Four extra maneuvers. Spend 3 on the grab to make demon #23 bound if possible, and the other two to the other two things I said (moving and interfering)
Manipulate: Challenge all visible elite demons. Rescaled Intimidation [roll1]
Buildup: Shadow maybe has reached his buildup, more on this after the rolls. Yeah, that worked. Shadow has now spent a move (2) and a standard (3) on successfully manipulating. Resistance is now 14, Tenacity is now 14, Prowess is now 21.


The fear of the demons was thick in the room now, and Shadow felt himself strengthening as he consumed the meal. He was tougher now, stronger. The demons didn't think he was really beatable, and now, he was the monster they imagined him to be.

[Ridai]

Yup. These punks are scum.

One would think that someone as big and bulky as Oni would have trouble getting through the open window, only for her to dive through and land on her feet. Perhaps strangely enough, she storms right past the demons in the kitchen, placing herself right in the living room. With her last step, Oni plants her foot with a resounding boom, her hand holding the can held backward and renewing its grasp. For an instant, it looks like she is grabbing onto something invisible and heavy... until she roars and yanks her hand forward, launching the can towards the far room... and pretty much everything around her that isn't her colleagues or a hostage with it, unleashing a storm of chaos and material as everything is smashed into a large pile.

Not bothering to check the aftermath, Oni turns back around, goes to grab the hostage, and pulls him out of the building and behind one of the cars. "Stay put and keep your head down."

Instant Auto-success on Instant Maneuver check -> move to AA14

Standard Everything And The Kitchen Sink, targeting all demons in range, seeking to launch them into one large lump of people in the left room
Prowess (heroic 5) and attack checks (Feat of Prowess [roll0])
13: [roll1], [roll2]
14: [roll3] 28, [roll4]
15: [roll5], [roll6]
16: [roll7], [roll8]
17: [roll9], [roll10]
18: [roll11] 26, [roll12]
19: [roll13], [roll14]
20: [roll15], [roll16]
21: [roll17], [roll18]
22: [roll19], [roll20]
23: [roll21], [roll22]
24: [roll23], [roll24]

Move Maneuver [roll25] (heroic 5)
Move to the hostage, start dragging hostage, then move to AF29

[Quellian-dyrae]

Round 1

The demons in the main room turned to the front as Allison cast her illusion, and...

Did she just politely ask if they could come in?

Really?

Really!?

...Lessons would have to be taught!

Katie came down on Isolde like a wild badger. A telekinetically powerful wild badger. That could invade minds. I might have buried the lede. Now, Isolde Shannon was no mere thug. She was a demon to Peace, and could throw down with superhuman ferocity. Even so, Katie's assault had her quickly knocked wildly off-balance both physically and mentally. Normally, Isolde would have been wearing a fierce grin at the opportunity for a good scrap. As it was she was kinda more like buh-whuh?

Demons of any kind weren't exactly cowards (well, okay, demons to Courage kinda were but whatever) but demons to Peace didn't really do fear. Fear tended to involve things like "backing down" which led to things like "not fighting" which was related to Peace and therefore Wrong.

But in all fairness, they had never faced a foe like Shadow before. Dread wafted off of them as they faced the tentacled horror, and while they did not break and flee, their resolve was withered. Though the demon Shadow tried to grab actually flinched so hard that it managed to break free before he could secure a hold. Fear may not be pleasant, but there was no denying that it could sometimes be healthy.

As Shadow's tendrils filled the room, it was clear there could be no escape. The demons raised their crude weapons in preparation to sell their lives as dearly-

AND THE CROWD GOES WILD FLYING!

Oni Ballista entered the fray, smashing her way into the house and hurling basically everyone inside in abject defiance of the laws of Euclidean geometry or physics or common sense. A grand total of two of the Hell Raisers managed, by some fortune, to avoid her attack. The rest were all slammed together in a pile in various states of disarray, with one down for the count and one struck unconscious outright!

And then she was back outside, hostage in tow. "Oh, th-thank you, I, ah! Wait!
My suit! I-...!"

The two demons who had withstood Oni's attack charged out the door, hefting bat and chain to engage Allison with a flurry of attacks. That would show her for politely and peacefully approaching their hangout! Or maybe it would have if they weren't attacking an illusion! Or maybe not because she's actually quite a bit more powerful than they are but unfortunately the world would never know because they were attacking an illusion! So...there?

Of the pile of demons Oni had made...well, maybe if she had stuck around some of them would have gone for her, but as it was Shadow was in plain view and the horrifying force of darkness was clearly the most dangerous enemy on the field. That made him a Grade A threat for as long as he was acting against them...or a powerful tool if they could bend him to their side.

Gathering themselves as best they could, the demons faced Shadow squarely and howled out taunts and threats and war cries. Normal people might have considered it an intimidating spectacle, but that was the least of its purposes. Shadow would feel waves of anger falling over him as the demons combined their powers of conflict and carnage - anger directly squarely at his allies.

Katie may have had Isolde on the ropes, but the demonic gangleader wasn't out, and she wasn't lacking for backup either. They converged from all sides, swinging and grabbing and throwing things, while Isolde directed their efforts and took advantage of the press to lash out with her own kicks and punches. If she hit, her touch would send pulses of anger deep into Katie, making her act even more aggressively, more wildly...and giving the demon a fine feast of aggression to consume!

Demons 19 and 21:
Move: Into Close range of Allillusion (well and Kingsley but they'll deal with him later).
Standard: Attack Allillusion with Beat Down at [roll0] and [roll1]. If either hit, they detect the illusion as false and Allison must make a Stealth or Deception check, DC 26, or the others will as well as soon as the fact is communicated to them. Second one hits.

Demons 17 and 18:
Standard: Staggered.
Move: ...I guess be crazy and try to close with Shadow so they don't take a defense penalty against him? 20-fishing Prowess to try to beat his Interfere: [roll2], [roll3]. lol
End of Turn: Tenacity (DC 21): [roll4], [roll5]. More lol

The other demons in the house:
Move: ...Some of them are Dazed, so whatever.
Standard: Attack Shadow with Induce Rage. Two will actually attack. The other four will Aid Accuracy and Force for each of the attackers. DC 17+Aid Impose/Mental Attack that inflicts the Emotion tree (Anger towards Shadow's allies). This attack is Cumulative and Contagious.
Attack 1: Accuracy Aid: [roll6]. Force Aid: [roll7]. Accuracy Check: [roll8]+Aid. Never had
Attack 2: Accuracy Aid: [roll9]. Force Aid: [roll10]. Accuracy Check: [roll11]+Aid. A chance
End of Turn: Tenacity (DC 21): [roll12], [roll13], [roll14], [roll15], [roll16], [roll17]. Demons 23 and 24 get 10 and (crit) 15 Recovery Points

The demons outside the house:
Move: Dog-pile Katie!
Standard: Two Accuracy Aids and two Force Aids to each of Isolde's attacks, two Prowess Aids to each of her Maneuvers!
Accuracy 1: [roll18], [roll19]. +5
Accuracy 2: [roll20], [roll21]. +5
Force 1: [roll22], [roll23]. +5
Force 2: [roll24], [roll25]. +5
Prowess 1: [roll26], [roll27]. +5
Prowess 2: [roll28], [roll29]. +5

Isolde Track 1:
Move: Maneuver, to Escape as much as she can. If she frees herself of all Disruptions, she'll start trying to plant Disrupt (Tagged 2) on Katie: [roll30]+Aid. Two Disrupts removed
Standard: Attack Katie with Infuriating Strike at [roll31]+Aid. On a Contact hit, Physical/Mental resistance DC 17+Aid vs. Dazing/Vulnerability Trees. This attack is Incurable, and on a failed resistance check grants Isolde bonus Recovery Points. What
End of Turn: Tenacity (DC 16): [roll32]. 10 Recovery Points

Isolde Track 2:
Move: More Maneuvers, as above: [roll33]+Aid. Pathetic
Standard: Attack Katie with Beat Down at [roll34]+Aid. On a Contact hit, Physical resistance DC 17+Aid+Multiattack vs. the Dazing Tree. This attack is Tracing. Rolls

All PCs are on turn.

[manwithaplan]

"WOOOOO!"

Getting jumped by 12 goons seemed to be an absolutely delightful element for Katie Tandem. She got up from hounding Isolde for a second, bounding around with a wolfish grin to madly punch her way through the pack of villains that were surrounding her. Like a lady possessed she lowered her defenses - if only one of them would punch her, she'd be even more invigorated, they she thought.

It was out of the ordinary for her to give up on the scrap with the big boss, but the fact was, she was already in. More in than Isolde realised, most likely, and now it was just a waiting game. On the floor, Isolde would continue to be rocked and rattled as Katie's rogue brain continued to hammer her defences.

Katie

Free Action: Attempt Instant Manoeuvre Prowess [roll0]. Any manoeuvres from this are used to get in a couple extra Tag/Bruise Disrupts on Isolde.
Move Action: Take Reckless Defense.
Standard Action: Pugilist on Demon 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9. This is using Multi-Targeting for Multiattack, and Single-Targeting for Sweeping. Whoever takes the worst effect that isn't a Tier 3 will take an extra Bruise from Battering. Taking 1 Bruise to get a +2 to Force.

Demon 1 Contact [roll1] for DC 23 Physical or take Dazing Tree. On a miss, may land a Glancing Blow.
Demon 2 Contact [roll2] for DC 23 Physical or take Dazing Tree. On a miss, may land a Glancing Blow.
Demon 4 Contact [roll3] for DC 23 Physical or take Dazing Tree. On a miss, may land a Glancing Blow.
Demon 5 Contact [roll4] for DC 23 Physical or take Dazing Tree. On a miss, may land a Glancing Blow.
Demon 7 Contact [roll5] for DC 23 Physical or take Dazing Tree. On a miss, may land a Glancing Blow.
Demon 9 Contact [roll6] for DC 23 Physical or take Dazing Tree. On a miss, may land a Glancing Blow.

Katie's Mind

Free Action: Manoeuvre Isolde at [roll7]. Still focusing on Disrupts, but this time each one that lands will be for 2 Bruises.
Full Action: Brute-Force Dominate on Isolde, Track 2, not 1. Taking 1 Bruise for +2 Force. Impose Attack [roll8] for DC 23 Mental Resistance or take Domination Tree. This attack is Insidious and Brutal 3.

Status: 2 Bruises.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Kingsley wasn't an impulsive person, so he observed. He observed as the demons immediately went on the attack, how his teammates mopped the floor with them, and how the illusion's peaceful approach would have made great bait, but it seemed pointless now that the battle had started in earnest.

"Hmm."

He walked (what counted as such in the heat of combat, anyway) to the corner of the house, from where he could see inside, and scryed the other side of the building; then, after tracing with his fingers runes of power...

!̨͕̻͚̖̪̙̺̌̎̇̇̀n̶̢͎̻̩̖̠̽̽̽̊̊͋̕͝͞ǒ̷͕̞̫̗̼̤͖̂̉̀̐̈i͐̕͘ ͕͔̭̲̦̯̓̂̌͋̊̋͜t͎̥̠͓̲̙̠͍͗̑̔̂͑̒̕͘i̶̡̥̖͇͍̫̗͛̍̍̓͑͝ñ̽̽͝ ̗̫̤̥̜̭̬̭̅̉g̶͓̬̪̺̙̖̐́͐͛̆Î̡̞͉̝̪̜͐̆̈́̆͛̏̽̕͟ a̴̛̤̣̭̜̫͉͍͒̃̋̒͗͒͘͟͠ņ̸̣͚̪̲͈̫̒́̅͐̄́̈͂̀̚ͅa̗̓́̀̍̈́̂̚͡ ̷͕̝̣̟͚̠M̗̞͖̤͇̀́͆̏͂

And suddenly, white fire would erupt from inside the demons, as their burning mana threatened to leave them powerless and unconscious.

Move: Z24>T24.
Free: Switch to Scrying, look at the other side of the house.
Free: Shift stuff around to create Mana Ignition: Attack (Afflict/Mystical; Dazing+Suppression Tree; Additional, Multiattack, Storm Area 2 [10 6' bursts], Focused [Full Movement], Indirect).
Standard: Attack with Mana Ignition, Resistance DC 23+Multiattack.
-5 bursts to get all demons around Katie

IS#1 [roll0]
IS#2 [roll1] Crit, 37.
#1 [roll2]
#2 [roll3]
#3 [roll4]
#4 [roll5]
#5 [roll6]
#6 [roll7]
#7 [roll8]
#8 [roll9]
#9 [roll10]
#10 [roll11]
#11 [roll12]
#12 [roll13]
-3 bursts to get the active ones inside the room

#13 [roll14]
#14 [roll15]
#15 [roll16]
#17 [roll17]
#18 [roll18]
#20 [roll19]
#23 [roll20]
#24 [roll21]
-1 burst to get the two in front of the house.


#19 [roll22]
#21 [roll23]

[Ridai]

Without further ado, Oni launches herself into the air, kicking up dust and hitting the ground right behind the house with a boom. Her right hand yanks the window beside her open and reaches inside, the left aims itself towards the pile of demons around Katie. Red muscles bulge as Oni grips the air again, and with a roar, she slams her left hand against the house facade and flexes her right hand up. Winds kick up like two miniature localized hurricanes, slamming the outer demons against the facade, while inside the house the pile gets rammed into the ceiling.

The wrestler notices Allison doing... whatever it is Allison is doing, so Oni rushes back into the house to keep an eye on the demon pile as well as the outside.

Move Maneuvers (Prowess [roll0] H5)
- Move to S9

Standard Everything and the Kitchen Sink (with Move-by Action), seeking to splat the indoors demons against the ceiling and the outdoors demons against the wall at Z9/AA9
Demon number, Prowess check (Heroic 5), Attack check
IS [roll1], [roll2]
1 [roll3], [roll4]
2 [roll5], [roll6]
3 [roll7], [roll8]
4 [roll9], [roll10]
5 [roll11], [roll12]
6 [roll13], [roll14]
7 [roll15], [roll16]
8 [roll17], [roll18]
9 [roll19], [roll20]
10 [roll21], [roll22]
11 [roll23], [roll24]
12 [roll25], [roll26]
13 [roll27], [roll28]
14 [roll29], [roll30]
15 [roll31], [roll32]
17 [roll33], [roll34]
18 [roll35], [roll36]
19 [roll37], [roll38]
20 [roll39], [roll40]
21 [roll41], [roll42]
23 [roll43], [roll44]
24 [roll45], [roll46]

Move to AF15

Attack checks for homing demons
[roll47]
[roll48]

[Llyarden]

Allison easily stepped aside from the demon with the bat, but the chain seemed sure to strike her cleanly in the head...but then the chain went through her head, as though she was nothing more than smoke. She gave a little smirk to the two demons - and vanished.

A brief blur of motion resolved itself into the real Allison touching down by one of the gang's motorbikes in their back yard, using her sword to poke the window open rather than feel the unpleasantness of transgressing in a Sanctuary herself. Then she fluttered her wings a little bit, and faint red particulates flowed off them, drifting both towards the clump of demons in the house and towards the mass of demons surrounding Katie. And while the demons were no doubt feeling plentifully angry already, the magic of Allison's faerie dust would start to redirect their anger towards their own comrades.

Instant: Switch back to my full Prowess and Attractive ranks.
Instant: Attempt (and fail, even at full Prowess) to Instant Maneuver.
Move: Maneuver: [roll0]. The first one will be to move to W8, open the Window in W9 as a free action, and then into S8 and open the window in S9 as another free action. Stealth Edge breaks for moving.
Instant: Switch to Haunting Mists. The Illusion vanishes (and everyone disbelieved it anyway so meh.)
Standard: Haunting Mists, in the area denoted by the thick border on the map (the thin border is my 60ft-by-60ft cube.) DC18 vs Infuse Mental Emotion (Anger towards their own allies) and Infuse Mystical Vulnerability against Mental and Mystical effects. This is Lingering (which is why I drew it on the map) and Allison's immune to it as it's her own close area effect.
#13: [roll1]
#14: [roll2]
#15: [roll3]
#20: [roll4]
#24: [roll5]
#23: [roll6]
#17: [roll7]
#8: [roll8]
#9: [roll9]
#2: [roll10]
If Kingsley took out enough folks inside that I can move to the right without leaving anyone I was previously including out of my area, then I'll do so, using Shapeable to cut Katie out of the area.

If I have another Maneuver leftover, I'll fly off and over to AL8.

EDIT: Oh, my Weaken Maneuver sticks around because that wasn't Illusion-based, and Improved Manipulation means it lasts another round.

[DeAnno]

The battle had evolved a little more quickly than Shadow anticipated and the demons seemed to be in disarray. He was loathe to get to entangled in the sunny backyard, but he saw Kingsley being hassled by a couple of demons that were still ... well they were up against a ceiling, but they were still sort of vaguely in his neighborhood.

Shadow glided over to the front door and gave Kingsley something that could be interpreted as a nod before grabbing the two demons up in a pair of overgrown tentacles. He decided to get a little bit artistic, and then brought them over against one of the windows to the backyard Allison had been using and mashed them up against it, not only exposing them to her attack but extinguishing any hope those outside might still have of rescue.


Instant: Switch to Quicksilver Darkness. Measures are now quite high.
Linked Standard: Prowess for Maneuvers [roll0] (+5 heroic). Maneuvers: 1) Move over to front door, adjacent to 19/21 at Z22. 2) Drag 19. 3) Drag 21. 4) Move to X10 by window, deposit 19/21 in W10 and W11 respectively. Since my minimum physical result is 27 I'm guaranteed at least four maneuvers do this with, though one or both might resist my rescaled Prowess DC of 18 (though remember they are impaired against me, possibly lowering their rescaled Prowesses).
Free: Feat of Prowess: I'm showboating in a terrifying horror monster way for those outside. [roll1]
Linked Standard: Rescaled Intimidation to Manipulate. Challenge all elite demons who can see what's going on by the window. Looks like 8/5/3/9/1/2/4 if we're being conservative, 12/7/6/10 are a bit more obscured. [roll2]
Move: Maintain attention on that interfere, extending over a reasonable chunk of area inside still based on my now higher speed.

Shadow at this point is more or less styling to set up a nice Terrorize when all this is over.