Adventures in the Strange (Inactive)

Game Master Keith S.

"So two might be alive, and one is dead...." Loren says.

"I wonder if we can find out more from the dead, or the living?" he continues.

"We should probably check out both."

"The dead one probably isn't going anywhere. We should probably try finding one of the girls first."

"Works for me Loren. Melissa Romano first? Ok with you if I take the grenade mate? You can take that blue pill."

"I seem to be the one getting beat down the most, so yeah ... that makes sense."

You call Melissa's apartment to see if she is there but no one answers.

You call the salon where she works but no one has seen here in a week. They won't say much more over the phone but do ask if you want to try another stylist.

"Not answering the phone? Let's go check out her apartment. Maybe she's home and if not, maybe we can break in and see if we can find any clues."

"I'll drive." Loren responds.

He fetches a black sedan from the motorpool and pulls around in from to pick the others up.

Tanya nods to Ollie and says, "Sounds like a plan. We'll need to see what Melissa is up to an pump her for information if we can find her."

Tanya grabs shotgun in the van, sitting beside Loren in the front.

You can easily find her apartment. How do you want to approach it?

Anyone stay back with the car? Knock on the door? Pretend you are delivering pizza (the old d20 modern staple!)?

What kind of set-up is the apartment? What floor is she on? A walk up building or more of a suburban apartment complex? Any visible security cameras?

More of a walk up duplex type of city house.

No cameras you can see.

"Let's go see if she's home." Unless someone offers a more cautious plan, Ollie will go to the apartment and ring the bell or knock.

Tanya nods to Ollie and says, "The direct approach seems good in this instance. We'll see if she's home and willing to talk. If not, we'll have to case the place and then secure a way in to search her home for clues."

You walk up and knock. Assuming you keep your weapons out of sight (easily done) there are no issues.

No one answers.

Seeing their mark is not home, Tanya takes a look around and cases the location, checking to see who might be observing them. She also checks the quality of the locks and to see if there is an alarm system. I am trained in Perception. In addition I will spend 1 intellect to use Understanding to lower the difficulty by another rank.

1d20 ⇒ 6

Any sign of a office for the apartment manager or is this a complex that is most likely run out of a centralized office elsewhere in the city?
Intellect: 1d20 ⇒ 12

Loren keeps an eye out for trouble.

lookout: 1d20 ⇒ 7

The lock doesn't look that difficult - say level 3.

Ollie cannot see an office - its more of a duplex / brownstone thing, as opposed to a complex.

Loren doesn't see anyone around paying any particular attention.

If you break in, you can make a level 4 intellect test to "fake" someone inside the apartment welcoming you.

I'm trained in deceiving and also have a twist to spin identity. Let's give it a go.
Ollie tries an old trick he learned on the street to pick the lock.
Intellect? Speed?: 1d20 ⇒ 18
I don't have any gloves, but I think Ollie is not so brash that he wouldn't try to disguise his fingerprints by using a sleeve or something to grasp the doorknob.

Tanya sees Ollie going for the door and stops him from doing the job as breaking and entering is her specialty. She says to him, "Let me handle getting inside. I have the tools on me to get the job done. You can handle the fast-talking in case someone inside confronts us.

Tanya puts on her gloves and takes out her lockpick kit

She has a lockpick kit in her equipment and assume she has gloves on her as she's a professional Cat Burglar. This of course reduces the difficulty by 1 as she has the right tools for the job.

Tanya gets to work on the lock picking it as skillfully the car she broke into a few days ago Lockpicking: 1d20 ⇒ 19.

Minor Effect!

If the door is alarmed, Tanya disarms the alarm as well. If not she skillfully picks the lock and breaks in quickly and with a minimal amount of noise.

Regardless, you are in. Alas, the apartment is not occupied.

The place is tastefully furnished. In the kitchen you find two small (say 1 cm by .5 cm) vials on the counter. They are empty but look a bit out of place.

There are no dishes in the sink.

Ollie will have a look around, especially looking for a phone or computer. He will be careful not to touch things.
1d20 ⇒ 20
If he finds a computer, he finds that Melissa keeps all of her passwords written down beside it. If he doesn't find a computer, he finds something else unexpected.

There is no computer but Ollie does find an address book / appointment book filled with the usual information. There are appointments scheduled for the next several weeks forward, and even a few beyond that. It looks pretty busy, but that is expected for a hair stylist, you suppose.

Looking in the refrigerator, it looks like there has been stuff sitting in there untouched for a week or so.

"Lets grab those vials and put them in baggies"

Loren covers his hand with his sleeve to avoid fingerprints. He opens a couple of drawers until he finds a box of ziplocks. He takes two and puts the vials in them carefully, avoiding touching them as he seals them in.

"Is her purse or cell phone laying about?"

"Look here. Found her appointment book. From the fridge, it looks like she hasn't been around for a week. Let's see if there is anything in her book for that time." Ollie flips open the book to a little over a week ago and starts going through it to see if there is anything that looks like an appointment to pick up spiral dust.
Intellect: 1d20 ⇒ 4

Tanya being a Cat Bugler in her previous profession goes about casing the joint for anything they might have missed. Fortunately she still has the gloves on from earlier in the process. Not finding anything more than the others she returns and says quietly, "So what did you find? Anything of interest?"

You find a purse, with a wallet other sundries. No cell phone.

Nothing in the appointment book that leads you to believe she had a meeting to pick up the drug.

"Just this. Unfortunately, I don't see any appointments that look suspicious." Ollie shows Tanya the book.

"She didn't go out on the town without these" Loren says as he points to the wallet and purse.

"Maybe this drug does allow a normal person to cross over and that's where she went."

so...what's the plan?

Kind of hoping Tanya and Loren can also have a look at that book in case they see something that Ollie didn't. Otherwise, I think we head to the next person.

Tanya looks at the book checking out the appointments and then says to the others, "Well the best thing to do would be to check out the place of her last appointment. Get some clues to where she was last. We may be able to find one of her contacts there we can question as well."

"Where is her last appointment?"

intellect: 1d20 ⇒ 14

You can easily locate her last appointment - it is for a perm and dry at the salon. It is from a few days ago.

"That's suspicious, who gets a perm in 2014?"

"Well, what's it going to be. Last appointment or next person? I'm thinking next person. The last appointment would be pretty coincidental. We can see if we can find more clues and cross check them."

"I also agree the next person would be good to check. Let's find an appointment where she is actually dealing with someone that is noteworthy."

Sounds good to me.

I'll get the car.