Nurai shrugged casually to Jim's concern as she moved to leave the room, the shadow following along the wall, "It is...was only a teleportation circle, only trouble is what is connected to it and a well-maintained ward system can block outside connection while dealing unknowns - and V can bring in the best. Hopefully, this town doesn't have too many more unmaintained issues like this or it'll just add to our problems. I'll just try to detect any more while we head out..." she said as she started to cast by the door, looking both and out of the room as she did so...
Kelly Zeilen.
Olbrecht Siniy.
Thankfully, or perhaps not, nothing as powerful as the Teleportation circle pops up.
Remington shrugs in "defeat" and thanks the man, neither gesture seeming terribly genuine given the wide grin on his face. Unless Cerise has anything to add, he suggests that rejoin the others.
"Ragnarok, huh. Doesn't look like it's a coincidence. Perhaps someone in Fever wants to bring forth the end of the world as we know it?"
Pulling out her phone, Aurora starts looking for anything interesting that may be within six blocks, the distance the creature saidit would have to walk.
"Well, lots of investigations involve dead ends. Don't worry about it." Cerise said as they moved back to rejoin the others. She was confident they'd eventually chase down the answers, one way or another... and she was looking forward to beating down whoever or whatever was behind that big ol' blob.
"Oh, I'm not worried. Getting their names -- or pseudonyms, possibly -- is more than I was expecting to get. Plus, we can track down the previous King of Fever's sister -- assuming she doesn't contact us, first -- who might know a bit about what's going, and if nothing else, we can wait a bit and can attend the previous King's funeral and see who shows up. Lot's of possibilities!"
When Cerise and Remington rejoin the others, Remington asks the group if they recognize the names Kelly Zeilen or Olbrecht Siniy.
Sadly, with no idea which direction in those six blocks they needed to look, Aroura was also unable to find anything of interest.
Remington doesn't recognize either name, not surprisingly. They're not a prominent local name nor someone from the history that Remington is familiar with.
"Hmm... well, we can run down other leads later. For now, we should check the rest of this place. It used to belong to the King or something, right? We might find something relevant." Cerise suggested, trying to say what she thought someone more experienced might go for.
Remington:
Your phone vibrates, and once you access the messages, you find, 'The men at the station tell me you need to talk about my brother, urgently. Why? What do you know?'
"Ah ha! I knew it!" Remington applauds himself as he shows the text to Cerise. "See?"
To the others: "I've contacted the sister of the former King. She is asking why I want to talk with her and what do I know about her brother. Should I be coy with innuendo or should I come right out and say 'King of Fever' assuming she knows everything? The fireman I spoke to identified her as someone who shared the former King's interest in Fever's history. This is our only immediate lead, so I don't want to scare her off."
"Well, I suppose that depends on whether she's the loving sister or the Morgan to his Arthur." Cerise answered. "Do we know anything about her?"
"Her last name might be Waymore?"
"Alright, I've got no clue. Let's see if something in this scorched house is worth a look."
With a small sigh, Aurora starts scouring the place.
"If she doesn't know about the uh, other side of things, you are going to sound crazy. You need to tell her you have a lead on her brother's death, and maybe his killer. But of course you can't talk about it over the phone, yada yada..." Jim trailed off. "You get it."
He helped Aurora look around as she seemed to be looking for something. He wasn't sure what, but it would surely stand out if he saw it.
Adjusting her sunglasses as she put them back on, Nurai considered as she replied to Remington, "If she's interested in local history, maybe go with investigating that and it's possible connection to recent concerning events...honest but not showing all your cards to an unknown person. That usually works for me." Nurai shrugged with a smile as she pulled out her own phone as she followed the others and continued pinging around the scorched place for concerning magic...
...the texting certainly slowed her down and her shadow did their best to keep the summoner from running into anything while they walked.
I'll have more by this evening.'
The boarded-up building seems reasonably normal. An old, rambling townhouse that was separated into smaller apartments, most of the former residences are relatively undamaged by the fire, and empty of possessions.
The two exceptions are the apartments where you found the strange circle and the one next to it, which seems to have been the owner or attendants rooms. Both have been heavily gutted by the fire.
With his thorough searching, Jim uncovers a safe within the attendant's apartment. Aroura finds a small photo album, although it's been partially damaged by the fire.
"Why do I have to press this button FOUR times for an 's'?! It's one of the most common letters!"
While the other search, Remington painstakingly replies.
Condolences re: your brother. Station said you share his interest in Fever history so I'm hoping you can help. Concerned that a "historical" sword is missing. Can we meet? Talk? To explain further. Completely on your terms. Urgent.
"V says she should hopes to have more on those videos by this evening." Nurai said as she held her phone. Considering the faint auras from before, she didn't consider it important to do more in-depth magic search yet so she waited with Remington just inside the building to enjoy the shade and keep away from curious eyes. While she leaned against the wall into her shadow with a mostly relaxed posture and smile, she was clearly thinking lost in thought while kinda keeping an ear out.
Nurai tried to consider what options they had now. She particularly wanted to find and check out wards but those would be difficult to find and she'd rather find at least one before texting V or anyone else for advice on it.
Aurora flipped through the photo album, looking for any familiar faces but with little hope to actually finding anything. She had always been a disaster at Cluedo and had never guessed the killer in any Agatha Christie novel, so she was quite alright with letting the more practiced people deal with it.
Cerise bent down to look at the safe once it was pointed out. "Call the locksmith." she muttered in a faintly British accent. She had no knowledge about picking locks, but she could lift about 700 pounds and stagger around with it, which might be enough to pry something open. Or not. Honestly, opening it the normal way was better as long as it didn't turn out to be illegal...
Jim suddenly popped over Cerise's shoulder. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear, amiga." He whispered with a smile before crossing himself quickly with a glance above. "Let me try."
Nurai recalled stories about several spots around Fever that were pretty much unchanged, no matter how much developers drooled to get there hands on them. Smalls parks and clusters of trees. Perhaps they held some kind of clue...
Aroura recognized, dimly, the face of one of the men featured in the album as the fire chief, his dark skin wrinkled and his hair receeding rapidly as the album went on. Two others appeared repeatedly, and older woman with laughter lines and a close resemblance to the chief and a man with shaggy blonde hair. The photos seemed to be in various trips, parties and the ike, including a hunting trip where the three held quite impressive looking rifles.
The safe, warped by heat and corroded by age, still put up limited resitance as Jim worked on the lock for a few seconds before it opened with a sharp, distinct click!. Its hinges, on the other hand, fought back hard and screamed like a pig with chainsaw as they slowly gave up the fight.
Inside was a long rifle, and space for another. Ammunition, now damaged by the heat and probably unwise to use, sits in charred cardboard boxes. At the bottom of the safe sits a small box of somekind of metal, although it will be difficult to move as it currently coated in gold. The safe seemed to have contained bullion at some point, which melted in the fire and solidified at the bottom.
Committing the pictures to memory, Aurora knelt by the safe. "Think I can help with that..."
Geidihr in her hand, she started sliding the tip under the gold, cutting through the soft metal with adamantine, and hoping not to damage the box itself.
Jim was intrigued by the rifle, but even more intrigued by the gold. "Jackpot!" He declared excitedly, rubbing his hands together. "This is Jimbo's lucky day."
Then Aurora started prying with her spear. "Ey-ey! Let's be careful with that." He instructed, apparently worried that the gold might be somehow damaged.
While waiting for those looting their well-earned prize from the safe, Nurai used her phone to look up the places that came to mind. Might as well try to be efficient with the search. She first looked for any places within 6 blocks and then tried to come up with a path that had the least amount of doubling back and finding whichever was closest to Valda's as a good break point in this.
Remington asks how far away the address he's just received on his phone is.
"She's willing to talk," he explains.
As Aurora moved to get the gold aside, Cerise busied herself with collecting the bits and trying to smash them together into something at least mostly easy to carry around. Hey, it was freaking gold - even a little was worth a lot.
Any crimes, at all, in fact.
As the soft metal was carved into more managable pieces, it came out of the safe in large, shiny chunks. It became apparent that there was probably 10 to 12 pounds of gold in here. Certainly a small to moderate fortune.
Opening the box that it had coated was going to be trickier. Whatever metal it was made of was harder than gold, and the precious coating could be scrapped off with a little effort, but it also seemed to be locked. Getting yet more gold out of the lock was going to be awkward, but not impossible.
Who knew gold could cause such problems?
"Do you know how to open it, Mister Seeker?" smiled Aurora, rather smug at the effectiveness of her beloved weapon. "Unless it's adamantine, I can cut through the lock, but I can't guarantee for the integrity of the content."
Nurai nodded, "That's a good sign, let me check" she said as she checked the address on her phone...and whether it was located near any of the other locations she had in mind.
Jim considered the lock with a bit of thought. "I have a few ideas. With something like this, the right tool could pop the lock. And if the gold melted in there--" he said as he rubbed his thumb on the lock's face, "it can melt right back out, I would guess." Then he turned the box around and ran a finger across the back. "Of course, it might be easier just to undo the hinges."
Remington points to the charred circle.
"Can we take it with us? Their old friend said that he's only a few blocks away."
The box seems to be stainless steel, so removing the hinges or piercing the lock are both options.
It would certainly be possible to take the circle from the other apartments, with sufficient hacking.
The closest of Nurai's options was a small wood copse on the edge of town, near the fancier part of things.
Nurai considered Remington's question, "We can try. I don't think my knife will help much and their claws aren't good for keeping things intact but there is likely something that could be used..." she looked through her phone for a moment more in thought.
"I think I'm going to go grab the car, make it easier to carry this stuff. Did you ask her if now is a good time? We can head over or if you think all of us would be a bit much, there is a place near there that is possible a ward to check out if you want a meet-up spot.." Nurai said as she started to move to leave...
Jim grabs the rifle and winks at Remington. He turns around and the rifle seems to vanish. He turns back around and indeed there is no trace of it.
Aurora started shoving pieces of gold in her backpack, to split later. "And here we are, looting gold from a safe. You wouldn't have a tommy gun in a violin case, would you? Just for flavor."
"I prefer to think of it as investigating for the public good." Cerise said as Aurora spoke up. "As long as we don't try to keep anything that isn't ours without a good reason for it, I think we're fine."
Jim shot Cerise an incredulous look. "What do you take me for?"
Whether he was offended over being thought a thief or not being thought as such was unclear.
It doesn't take long to move the safe's contents to the car, although it takes a few moments of hushed discussion to hide the big pile of looted gold. The gold coated box is small enough to fit in a large pocket.
"Well, as long as no one asks what we have in our pocketses..." Cerise whispered under her breath. She didn't have a whole lot of those, herself, but someone in this interesting crew did. Could she call them a crew? They seemed more like a crew than a team, anyway. She didn't hesitate to hop into the car, ready to go when the others were.
Nurai and her shadow sat relaxed in the driver's seat. Nurai set up her phone's GPS for the address Remington had shown her. She quietly listened to the others while they secured the loot and piled in the car.
"So, heading to the possibly last King's sister's house, yeah? Any plans or needed stops along the way?" Nurai asked as she prepared to drive off, checking around the car with mirrors as she did so...
Following the address leads to a pleasant, cotton blue house with a neat and well maintained garden. A garrage attatched to the side of the house is open, an odd looking, three wheeled vehicle in a state of disaembly. The noise of metal clanging is accompanied by the occasional very unladylike word.
"Aurora, if you please," Remington says indicating she should come with him. "Your family has been in Fever for a long time, so maybe you know the same people and that will put her at ease.
"The rest of you, just hang out here for a few minutes while we see how nervous or defensive she is."
Remington gets out of the car and walks up the driveway to the open garage.
"Hello!" he says to whomever he sees there while flashing his very best grin.
A middle aged woman in overalls walked out the garage, wiping grease off her hands. "Hello," she said slowly, looking at Remington. "Wait, do I know you?"