Veil of Smog, Chapter 1

[Xihirli]

Leif stumbles out the fire escape and gets to the ground by falling off of it, landing hard on the concrete and screaming as sallow yellow smoke burst from his body, running over him and repairing the damage.
"That idea… seemed better in my head."

[Esprit15]

“By Father! What happened to you?” Sarah asks Lief as they rejoin.

[Xihirli]

"Evil Sandman got me," Leif answered, peeling himself off of the cement.
"Was afraid I'd fall asleep right then and there, wake up cut in half."

[Izzarra]

Yume Tsukiyomi Kitsune Shrine Maiden Conditions: Fatigued

Yume jumps out of the building and glides softly to the ground. After finding a safe spot to become visible she reports to the others.
"Found something hiding, dangerous, need sleep."

[Charybdis1618]

Yume jumps out of the building and glides softly to the ground. After finding a safe spot to become visible she reports to the others.
"Found something hiding, dangerous, need sleep."

After everyone's taken their respective nap, where would you all like to meet and debrief?

[Esprit15]

“It looked like a baku when it crawled into him. Let’s all take an hour or two to sleep off this and then meet at Rufus’s shop.”

[Batcathat]

"Very well", Rufus said with a rare smile. "You youngsters get some sleep and then you're welcome to Walcraft House." He turned to his bag. "Jiminy, have one of the golems put on a kettle."

[Xihirli]

After everyone's taken their respective nap, where would you all like to meet and debrief?

"Uh... the mansion sounds good," Leif said, smiling to Rufus.
Been a long time since I've seen a mansion.

[Charybdis1618]

You all go your separate ways to rest and recuperate. Your dreams are odd, distorted, but nowhere near as horrific as Jeremy described. You see evidence of restless sleep about you, but you slept all the same.

(Rufus, when people arrive, what do they experience? Thereafter, we can have our meeting.)

[Batcathat]

As far as buildings go, Walcraft House was imposing and impressive but distinctly not cozy or welcoming. A rather unusual approach for a place of business but then neither the goods nor the customers were very usual themselves. No sign advertised the establishment but welcome visitors found the entrance unlocked, while unwelcome visitors usually did not find the entrance at all.

To the casual observer – not that it had many of those – the public area on the first floor would look mostly like an odd combination of upscale flee-market, antique bookstore and chemistry lab, with tables and shelves packed with a wide range of items, arranged according to some incomprehensible system. Some were outright magical, many simply mysterious or just peculiar.

In the corner of one of the first rooms was Rufus' desk, similarly covered by various items that happened to catch his interest or were assumed to impress one customer or another. Next to it was a coffee table surrounded by chairs, where a golem was in the middle of setting the table with tea and cookies.

[Esprit15]

After she wakes from her nap, Sarah takes some time to recreate her arcane vision. She would be visiting the shop of an alchemist, after all. It only made sense to do at least a little perusal of the wares with an eye for what she was looking at. Plus it would give her a chance to observe if any of them had lingering effects from the encounter with the baku. It wasn’t as though the time spent would leave her later than the others, after all. She could be there in moments.

Spoiler

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Arcana: (1d20+15)[33] DC 18

A faint, blue glow appears to match her irises as the cant completes. Satisfied, the monster hunter briskly walks toward the shop.

***

The door opens, and the familiar figure of Sarah enters, bow bag slung over her shoulder. “Nice business you have here, Rufus,” she says as she begins to browse the shelves. “How long you been selling magic items to folks? Nothing too dangerous, I hope.”

[Batcathat]

"Nothing too bad, I assure you", Rufus said with a slight smile that could mean just about anything. "Well, not to anyone who couldn't handle it, at least." He paused, slightly adjusting the position of a statue in shape of a rather goofy-looking demon. "I started collecting years ago, the business sort of grew out of that."

He waved towards the table where the golem was attempting to slice a cake using a knife clearly meant for hands half its size. "Please, have a seat and something to eat."

[Esprit15]

Sarah takes the cake but not a seat. “That is what they all say,” she says with a smile as she examines a statue whose eyes seem to glow the color of a mother’s concern. World’s most unusual crib monitor?

The cake was good, if a bit sweet for her tastes. “Any symptoms since we got away? I slept like the Night itself swept over me.”

[Izzarra]

Yume Tsukiyomi Kitsune Shrine Maiden Conditions: None

Yume meditates to recover.

When she arrives at the Walcraft House she bows and politely slips of her sandals.

[Charybdis1618]

(We don't need to do everyone's arrivals this time. Let's call the meeting to order.)

[Esprit15]

“So I did get my hands on security footage from the incident,” Sarah says, taking out the CD, “if anyone wants to take a look over that. The two things to watch for are whether the creature appears on camera, and also what, if anything, the doctor gets up to leading up to our arrival. He seems suspicious, definitely someone to follow up on. We also might want to check on the apartments that the victim lives in. There may be more victims there that just haven’t made the news.”

[Xihirli]

As far as buildings go, Walcraft House was imposing and impressive but distinctly not cozy or welcoming. A rather unusual approach for a place of business but then neither the goods nor the customers were very usual themselves. No sign advertised the establishment but welcome visitors found the entrance unlocked, while unwelcome visitors usually did not find the entrance at all.

To the casual observer – not that it had many of those – the public area on the first floor would look mostly like an odd combination of upscale flee-market, antique bookstore and chemistry lab, with tables and shelves packed with a wide range of items, arranged according to some incomprehensible system. Some were outright magical, many simply mysterious or just peculiar.

In the corner of one of the first rooms was Rufus' desk, similarly covered by various items that happened to catch his interest or were assumed to impress one customer or another. Next to it was a coffee table surrounded by chairs, where a golem was in the middle of setting the table with tea and cookies.

"Oh, okay. Glad it wasn't just us, mansions are just like this," Leif said as he entered, noting the daunting, offputting nature of the place.
He certainly wants to watch the security video, and does so carefully.
"I don't know if your oracle powers got the right person, this thing seems custom-made to just straight-up ignore my ability to not die," Leif tells their Cassandra.

[Charybdis1618]

(Loukas isn't here)

The video starts off showing the room with only Jeremy in it. He twitches and arches exactly as you described. The baku us not visible on the screen, but knowing what you know, you can trace his sight line to where it presumably is exiting his head. A nurse enters, seemingly rushing in to come to his aid. She pauses by the bedside, then seemingly goes limp. She falls across the bed sideways. You can see her chest rising and falling evenly, as of somebody in deep sleep. When the video is finished, you notice the timestamp is for the previous day.

[Esprit15]

Sarah frowns as she looks at the video's time stamp, analyzing every frame of it as it moves across the screen. It was curious - clearly they wanted to hide something that happened today. But if the baku didn't show up on camera, what were they hiding? And yet they also were willing to show the nurse being knocked out. A threat? It was hard to say. "Hm. Bastard tried to lie to us, as expected..." Then, she smirks and gives a small laugh. "Of course, he wound up giving us even more evidence of strange goings on at the hospital. Hey Spec Ops," she says to Shroud, "I've got a spell I was planning to start researching tonight, but I feel like a stakeout and possible break in is higher priority. You interested?"

[Batcathat]

Rufus rubbed his chin as he watched the video. Clearly there was any number of unknown variables at play here, which annoyed and excited him in equal measure. "Perhaps those of us... less suited for espionage should go and acquaint ourselves with Mister Villareal's home and his neighbors, it seems quite likely that there are more victims among them."

Spoiler: OOC

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Not sure whether splitting the party yet again is a good idea, but this does seem like the best choice in-character, at least.

[Izzarra]

Yume Tsukiyomi Kitsune Shrine Maiden Conditions: None

Yume silently absorbs the information presented by the others.

[MechaAce]

The Shroud

Sarah frowns as she looks at the video's time stamp, analyzing every frame of it as it moves across the screen. It was curious - clearly they wanted to hide something that happened today. But if the baku didn't show up on camera, what were they hiding? And yet they also were willing to show the nurse being knocked out. A threat? It was hard to say. "Hm. Bastard tried to lie to us, as expected..." Then, she smirks and gives a small laugh. "Of course, he wound up giving us even more evidence of strange goings on at the hospital. Hey Spec Ops," she says to Shroud, "I've got a spell I was planning to start researching tonight, but I feel like a stakeout and possible break in is higher priority. You interested?"

"I'm interested" the Shroud says flatly... or tries to, having not contributed much at the hospital, she is a little eager to do so now. She was standing with arms crossed in a corner, sparing only a glance or two at the many arcane artifacts around. "Maybe the video's not a warning, but an advertisement. This thing's hard to trace, hard to stop and if someone died from it, it'd look like natural causes. They might think they can sell its services.""

Rufus rubbed his chin as he watched the video. Clearly there was any number of unknown variables at play here, which annoyed and excited him in equal measure. "Perhaps those of us... less suited for espionage should go and acquaint ourselves with Mister Villareal's home and his neighbors, it seems quite likely that there are more victims among them."

Spoiler: OOC

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Not sure whether splitting the party yet again is a good idea, but this does seem like the best choice in-character, at least.

"Call for backup if you need it."

[Esprit15]

“Hm, that’s a good point. Or a cry for help? ‘Please have a reason to come back to get the right information, this thing is dangerous and it’s impossible to broadcast proof.’ Which also inclines me to want to finish that spell. Need a way to shrug off sleep… Doc, do you have anything like that around here? It would take me a dedicated day to put together a ritual for here. Not sure if you can do it any faster.”

[Batcathat]

Rufus looked around the shelves as he pondered the question. "No, nothing on hand, I think. I could brew something, of course, but that would also take a little while."

[Xihirli]

Leif walked up next to Rufus. "I'll go with you," he said. "I'm not the most social, but I don't draw attention and I don't need to bring any weapons to back you up if things go sideways."

[MechaAce]

Rufus looked around the shelves as he pondered the question. "No, nothing on hand, I think. I could brew something, of course, but that would also take a little while."

"Something... magic?" One can almost see the Shroud's lips turn down at that word, even through her mask. "I could get some go pills, but those can mess you up... not as much as what this thing does though."

[Batcathat]

"Quite magic, yes. Few things in this world are completely safe, but something of mine has less unpleasant side effects than methamphetamines, at least." He smirked. "Or so I've been told."

He turned to Leif. "You are welcome to come along. I'm happy to do the talking and leave the people punching and assorted violence to you."

[Charybdis1618]

As the discussion continues, you hear the door open. You see a tight bun of gray hair over the table and other furniture between yourself and the door. The middle-aged woman attached to it sports, as Rufus can guess, a medium-length mauve woolen coat over a professional pantsuit. She does not immediately request your attention, content to simply peruse the shelves for the moment.

[Esprit15]

“I’ll see about getting some preliminary preparations done then. I’ll meet you here at sundown. If there’s nothing else though, I have work to do.” Unless someone does stop her, Sarah heads out of the building, beginning to plan the ritual.

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Will take 20 hours to research in total, not sure how much time I can get before sunset.

[Xihirli]

Leif leans next to Rufus and whispers, not even a little quieter than his usual voice,
"Is she supposed to be here?"