"My contact won't be helping, either," mutters Maxwell as he puts away his phone. "And the risks involved with waving a fake badge around are pretty high. Got any ideas?"
"What? That's crazy, dude!" Edgard denies indignantly. "I've never used. Just lost in thoughts, I guess. Some personal stuff, you know."
"Look, I promised a friend I'd check his PC and some other stuff," he makes an excuse. "Can we talk some time later? But definitely today. Probably late, but today."
No one gets lost in thought that long. And what was that thing I saw? The worry on his face is easy to read but he voices none of his concerns. "Sure," he says stepping out of the way. He watches Edgard go then crosses the street, returning to his friends. He deflects any questions about Edgard and gets back on topic of Andrew Campbell with the rest of them. When they get back to the dorms he he looks up Andrew's Facebook page (he was friends with most of the students so it wan't hard to find). Relationship Status: In a Relationship. If he wanted to know what happened then Heather was the one to ask. He'd offer his condolences first and not push to far but, drowning? It was too cold to go swimming. What really happened?
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As for Kyle, unfortunately if you're just looking for information that would be an investigation roll. If you were trying to convince someone else to give you information a Manipulate an NPC roll would be required. So was your character looking for information or questioning someone who knows Andrew, in this case Heather?
On his way to the store, Edgard dials Joe's number , to give him a heads up.
"Hey, Joe? It's Edgard. I'd like to drop by, have some things to discuss. You busy?"
Damn people have no idea what they are dealing with and need to ask so many questions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Eugene rolls his eyes and begins to gripe.
Well I don't know who made the call per se. My pain in the butt advisor Dr. Mathus said someone at the police contacted his office because they needed an expert on local animals. The Dr. being the local expect on the cultural development of the region also has an unparalleled knowledge of its wildlife. And him being the typical professor he sent his grad student instead.
Joe picks up his shop phone and says "Deeper Mysteries. This is Joe speaking. How can I assist your aura today?"
When he hears the voice at the other end, Joe will say "Sure Edgard, I have a bit of time before my next session. Come over and I'll help you as best I can."
Turning back to Maxwell, Joe will say "I've got to handle something. Why don't we plan to head towards the morgue this evening, where it will be less likely that someone will notice our entrance? As I said, it will take me a while to get what I need regardless."
"Do what you have to do," says Maxwell as he rises from his seat. "I'll start scoping out the place. Meet you at five o'clock.
Thanks for the coffee," he adds as he downs the last vestiges of the dark stuff in his cup before grabbing his guitar case.
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Agent Silver doesn't waste any time getting his truck and driving down to the morgue. When he gets there, he sits in the parking lot for a short while, then drives around to a parking lot opposite of it at a nearby McDonald's. He studies the outside of the morgue very carefully, mentally cross-referencing it with his knowledge of the police department.
He's got to find a way to get in without being noticed.
Walking down the street to Joe's store Edgard can't stop thinking about what Finch said. "The more it kills, the stronger it becomes. Whatever this creature is." He sighs and shakes his head. "Let's do a seance, it's gonna be fun!"
Soon, he is in front of the "Deeper Mysteries" sign, that says OPEN. He pushes the door and the mild aroma of burnt incenses wraps him around.
"Do you really this stuff?" Edgard asks Joe. "Or it's just part of the image?"
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The Coroner gives a doubtful look to Eugene and says, "Despite what Dr. Mathas may have told you, it is not protocol to allow consultants into the Morgue. Currently the body is under investigation and until I or my superiors give approval for outside consultation, we cannot allow civilians into this section. You will need to make a proper appointment and approval before you can be allowed access to any of the cadavers in this location. Please inform Dr. Mathas of this and tell him to use the proper protocol the next time he sends a student. Now if you do not mind, I have work to get done."
He looks to Officer Durant, "Please escort this gentleman to the exit. And tell that desk clerk to keep a better eye on who walks in here. No visitors without appointments, approval and escorts."
Officer Durant nods to the Coroner and says, "Right away sir."
The Coroner steps back into the room and closes the door, locking it behind him.
Officer Durant looks to Eugine and says, "Sorry, but rules are the rules. Come with me."
So if Eugine does not resist he is escorted outside the building and Durant goes back inside to have a word with the desk clerk. What does Eugine do now?
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For Agent Silver's Read a Bad Situation, he figures out the following things.
The best way in is through the rear entrance of the Morgue. The garage and back door where the meat wagon drops off their bodies. The security is lax there and you could get inside either by hacking a code-locked door or slipping through the garage door when it's open (either by hacking it or waiting until it opens). Then using the Cargo Elevator you can easily get down to an area pretty close to the morgue proper.
As for the best way out, the way in is probably the best way out. Cargo elevator and then exiting by the back doors. Another option is to solid snake your way out the front door although you might have to contend with the night crew in the station, although at night their numbers will be much less than during the day.
As for dangers you have not noticed, the danger is that there is some surveillance cameras inside the station. They probably don't have a person watching them 24/7 but any break in risks you being caught on tape if they have reason to look back at the video footage.
You also get a +1 to any roll which makes use of the information you learned from this.
Eugene does not resist the officer. And leaves the morgue building.
I tried, no point in getting arrested
Hmm... I need a fresh face to try and get into the morgue and would know what they're looking at. I guess I need a reading.
Eugene heads over to Joe's shop and goes in if it says open or knocks if if there's a reading in progress.
As Edgard enters the shop and makes his comment, Joe responds with "It helps people get in the right frame of mind. It also helps with the odor some people bring in. Conspiracy lovers are not the...most hygenic."
Offering Edgard the same seat that Silver was just in, Joe again flips his sign, takes a seat, and says "so, to what do I owe the honor of your visit?"
"Finch," Edgard says with a grimace as if he ate something sour. "I am to play a game - catch some supernatural creature and amuse Unseelie Court."
He absent-mindedly turns his ring with his thumb before asking. "So, what I wanted to ask - do you anything about that?"
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Kyle White tries to call Heather Jones by phone and eventually gets through on her phone. Giving his condolences and giving Heather some room she answers the question as follows tearfully.
"I don't know how this could have happened. Andrew... he was an excellent driver but the police think he lost control of his car and slid off the road into the ice and drowned when the ice collapsed. Why would he be out in the boonies at that time of night? The odd thing was that he didn't even try to escape the car... he was still buckled up. I.. heard whispers that it might have been a suicide. No way it was that, Andrew loved life and the greatest person...I've ever known. I'm...sorry I need time to myself, it is just too hard for me right now. Goodbye mister White and thank you for your concerns."
Eugene amuses himself with his thoughts and waits his turn.
Damn readings, he just scraping them for info... Maybe I should set up a tarot place on the other side of town but then I'd need to deal with other people problems all day... Off to see the wizard the wonderful wizard of Yorkton, no doesn't have the right ring to it.
"Amusing the Unseelie Court can be difficult. They traditionally tend to be on the harmful and dangerous side of the fey."
"As far as defeating a supernatural creature goes, I have a counter question: How did you sleep last night?"
"As usual lately, I guess," Edgard shrugs. "Nothing special. Why are you asking?"
"No particular reason."
"So I and an acquaintance are going to be attempting to talk to the spirit of a murder victim that he believes was killed by supernatural forces, and then you show up and ask me about a supernatural predator. Would you like to join us this evening?"
"I guess. Finch said to follow the victims... Don't know if I'll be of any help though - you know my powers are... flighty."
"By the way, he told me some stuff about this beast. Well, that is if you can believe his words," the youth sighs. "First - the more it kills, the stronger it becomes. Second - "without the means to unmake the creature it will not die", whatever that means."
"If he wasn't lying to you, it means that the creature requires something specific to kill it. Like the stories about a wooden stake of ash through the heart incapacitating a vampire, or inherited silver harming a werewolf."
"Great. Well, I'll go home. Call me when everything's ready."
Edgard pick his belongings and nods to Joe, before exiting "Deeper Mysteries".
Eugene seeing Edgard come out of the Wizard's office wonders
I wonder what weird things those two were up to.
Eugene shakes it off and goes in to visit Joe. As he walks through the door he says.
Hey Joe, I got a lead on some super deep stuff, wanna help me break in to a morgue?
"Your right, it doesn't," Kyle says more to himself. "I'm sorry for your loss and, you know, anything I said to upset you more. Take care." Kyle let her hang up and stared at the phone for a while longer. She'd knew him better than most and if she said it was out of character he believed it. He'd seen enough movies to know sometimes people did strange things. But this was real life. A number of mundane reasons could have caused such a tragedy. A series of unfortunate events. The thought that this was different noodled around in the back of his mind as Kyle returned to real life. There was a quiz on Monday he should really study for and a number of other things. But he kept his phone close at hand. He wasn't banking on Edgard to call but it might happen.
"Hello sir. how can I assist....don't I know you from somewhere? I'm pretty sure we've met before. Let me see...You were in Ontario, weren't you? at the caves where those werewolves were living? I thought you were dead! How did you outrun a werewolf in hybrid form?"
Joe apparently completely missed Eugene's questions.
Really? answer the question... I guess I can explain.
It helps to be fast, it also helps to run across some hunters who decide to shoot a hybrid werewolf thinking it will make a great trophy. They were mistaken. After a lot of blood and some silver there were some dead hunters, a dead werewolf, and a great story for my blog. It appears you are not a reader. Now, want to break into a morgue?
"Why are you trying to break into a morgue?"
You may have heard about how Dan Harbuz died last night in the woods. I found a picture of his body at location online, his face was in utter terror. For a survivalist out in the woods in this area nothing should have given him terror, fear or panic but not terror. Then there's the oddity that it looked like the photo showed only his arms and leg muscles to have been ripped out. It's my understanding that wild animals like the guts most of all, so why settle for arms? Any case too many questions to little answer all pinging my "that's weird" radar. I need to get into the morgue to see a corpse about a real cause of death.
"Funny you should mention that. Myself and a couple of other people are going to enter the morgue this evening to take a look at a couple of bodies now." Joe pauses for a moment, picks up a note pad, and mumbles to himself "I will definitely need more glass."
Having made some more notes, he says "Well, it will be a bit difficult, but I think I will be able to make all of us invisible. I'll also be doing a ritual on a different body, so I can take a look at yours as well if you like."
"I do have a question though: If the hunter was out in the woods when he died, where did the picture come from?"
Well the internet is full of the unofficial pictures people take. This picture I'm suspecting came from the person who found the body to call it in, a police office or CSI for their personal collection. As to how I got it..
Eugene smiles.
I have my ways.
As for tonight, I suppose there's always a first time to be invisible it will certainly cut down on the "why are you hear" questions. When and where should we meet up? Who else is asking questions about bodies?
"We'll meet up near sundown outside the morgue. I'll need some time to enact the ritual, and it will be good to get a lay of the land before we go charging in."
Joe pulls out a slip of paper, writes something on it, and then hands it to Eugene. "Here is my cell phone number. given me a call when you get to the morgue and I'll let you know where we're meeting up."
Eugene takes the paper from Joe.
Well I was just asked to leave there earlier, I may have some idea of the layout. I'll see you at dusk. Tonight I think will be interesting.
Eugene heads to the door waves at Joe then leaves returning to his apartment until sundown.
As Eugene wanders out, Joe thinks to himself I wonder what Silver will think when I show up with an internet guy and a teenager.
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So that night Agent Silver arrives at the morgue. As it is a small city the coroner is usually not active during the evening although there might be an intern there in case of emergency. As he has done his research he goes to the back finding there is a code-locked door as well as a garage. Fortunately for him there is a evening delivery of some medical supplies thus the garage door has to be opened to drop off the supplies. The officer on duty there is distracted dealing with the staff thus leaving an opening to sneak inside.
So to solid snake into the Morgue Agent Silver needs to make an Act Under Pressure roll. He gets a +1 forward to the roll. On a 10+ he'll make it to the bodies without any problem. 7-9 he'll have some complication to deal with and a 6 or less, well we'll see if that happens.
It's an opportunity that can't be wasted. Agent Silver would rather wait for Joe, but if he waits he might never have so perfect an entry again. So, he sends a quick text message to Joe:
Hey, don't wait for me outside. I needed to warm up. Just meet me inside, alright?
Deciding that's vague enough to keep anyone from knowing the real intent behind the message - anyone besides Joe, that is - Silver makes his way toward the building.
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The place is a small city morgue. There is some surveillance but it probably doesn't have someone watching it 24/7. The only way you'ed be spotted is if someone looked back at the footage. The security is probably handled in the main police station through, not in the actual building. So so long as you don't leave any evidence of your passing, you won't have to worry about the footage.
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Agent Silver is able to sneak into the morgue room. So happens the door to the morgue room is unlocked and currently the room is empty. He sees the typical meat lockers and the door to the Corner's office as well as the examination room. Are you going to look for the body or try and sneak into the office or examination room?
Silver decides to investigate the office and examination room first, just in case the body's already there - or in case someone's around and he hasn't noticed them. He keeps his eyes peeled for anything useful...
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Well for that roll you're able to jimmy the locks to the doors. The office appears to be a typical corner's office. Desk, Computer, File Cabinets and a few medical supplies.
As for the examination room you find that the body of Dan Harbuz, which looks like has been autopsied. The body is emaciated and appears that something tore into his arms and legs and ripped the muscles and ligaments out of them. Only scraps where they attached to the bone remains. That is what probably killed him although he died screaming as his face is frozen in a look of abject horror. The body has already been closed up and has been put into a cold storage room which is attached to the examination room.
Having brought his digital camera with him and not wanting this information to make it to the web, Agent Silver takes pictures of the corpse from a few different angles, just in case. Then he starts checking to see if there's any documents on the computer or on the desk that mention the autopsy, something someone else has already written that might provide some useful clues...
Eugene arrives at the morgue and texts Joe.
Where you at? I'm at the police station.
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The computer is turned off but when you turn it on you find it is password locked. However looking through the desk you find in a drawer the reports for Dan Harbuz and Andrew Campbell. Dan's report says that something sharp and unusually strong tore through the skin and ripped out the muscles in his arms and legs. The cutting object oddly enough appears to be finger-like. Suffice to say the way the muscles were removed suggest being pulled out of the body, which is inconsistent with any known animal. It is also unusual that if this were a predator attack, only the arms and legs had parts removed, the rest of the body is relatively untouched other than some bruising and abrasions consistent with impact and being pinned.
As for Andrew Campbell, the body has been identified as him and thus an Autopsy is not needed. The cause of death is listed as drowning. However the coroner's notes also say that there is no signs of a struggle, which is unusual as most people with struggle for air when drowning, suggesting the victim was unconscious when he was submerged. As another note he found there was without any scars or unusual marks. His skin was "Flawless" as far as the Coroner says which is unusual for an athlete.
Joe was pulling shopping bags out of the trunk of his car when he got the first text, followed almost immediately by the second one.
Setting them down on the hood of his car, he flipped out his phone, read both, and then sent one to Eugene: I'm 2 blocks east and one block south. Come help me carry this stuff.
He was about to put his phone away when he shrugged and sent one to Edgard: How close are you?