"What Lies Beneath" - Fatespinner's nWoD PbP

Game Master Fatespinner

After getting everyone's numbers, Garabina would go tell the officer in charge that she's heading back to the district headquarters (unless otherwise stopped by the rest of the crew), get back in her car with the not totally forgotten domestic assailant, drive off a short distance then scream in a mixture of languages, deploying some rather interesting and choice curses, battering her driving wheel as she does so, taking out her anger at her ineffectiveness during the night.

Then, after recovering and glaring evilly at the assailant in the back, she'd drive off to H.Q, and book the guy for Assault of a Police Officer with a Deadly Weapon.

Jon:

Garabina's booking of the suspect proceeds as normal. Nothing particular to report. Assume the evening passes and morning comes. Because I'm a kind soul, we'll say Garabina is off-duty today. :) At some point during the day, Anu is called in to provide a statement and give a description to a police sketch artist to identify Dahlia. We can assume that (if you want), you're all meeting up at a Starbucks across the street from the police station.

Garabina:

'It's only a day off. Nothing important! Besides, this case is bugging me.' She then spends a moment thinking over the information while sipping her fancy coffee from the shop across the road.

'Hmm. Could you pull up Mrs Ferrano's file, along with the file on that crash.. if you're free that is. I just find it odd that her shoes would show up there, you know? Maybe she had a friend or someone who'd have got them... there's a thought. Was her will public?'

'Hmm. Could you pull up Mrs Ferrano's file, along with the file on that crash.. if you're free that is. I just find it odd that her shoes would show up there, you know? Maybe she had a friend or someone who'd have got them... there's a thought. Was her will public?'

"I don't think there's a public record of the will on file. I can certainly get you the accident file, though, if you don't mind waiting? I can have it on your desk by this evening. I'll make sure I do it before I leave at six."

Garabina Vasquez wrote:

'Hmm. Could you pull up Mrs Ferrano's file, along with the file on that crash.. if you're free that is. I just find it odd that her shoes would show up there, you know? Maybe she had a friend or someone who'd have got them... there's a thought. Was her will public?'

"I don't think there's a public record of the will on file. I can certainly get you the accident file, though, if you don't mind waiting? I can have it on your desk by this evening. I'll make sure I do it before I leave at six."

'I'm sure I can wait. Don't exactly have anything planned..' She says a little sheepishly. 'Have any cops gone round to Ferrano's house yet?'

'I'm sure I can wait. Don't exactly have anything planned..' She says a little sheepishly. 'Have any cops gone round to Ferrano's house yet?'

"Yeah, we had a squad car drop by this morning to get access to the security tapes from the museum. Evidently Ferrano has the video feeds piped directly to a security station in his own house instead of having a security room on the premises. A little paranoid, I think, but I guess that makes it difficult to commit a crime and then make off with the tapes." The junior detective shrugs. "I'm sure someone will be reviewing those tapes tonight. Maybe we can find out what caused the explosion."

To Jon "Not really...I'm kinda at a loss as to what to do from here...this kind of thing really isn't my specialty..."

Anu shrugs.

Garabina Vasquez wrote:

'I'm sure I can wait. Don't exactly have anything planned..' She says a little sheepishly. 'Have any cops gone round to Ferrano's house yet?'

"Yeah, we had a squad car drop by this morning to get access to the security tapes from the museum. Evidently Ferrano has the video feeds piped directly to a security station in his own house instead of having a security room on the premises. A little paranoid, I think, but I guess that makes it difficult to commit a crime and then make off with the tapes." The junior detective shrugs. "I'm sure someone will be reviewing those tapes tonight. Maybe we can find out what caused the explosion."

"Looks like I've got some home video to watch tonight. I'll bring some popcorn and we can all watch how I got knocked out." Grinning slightly as she speaks. "Was Mr Ferrano at his house? He'll need to make a statement."

"Looks like I've got some home video to watch tonight. I'll bring some popcorn and we can all watch how I got knocked out." Grinning slightly as she speaks. "Was Mr Ferrano at his house? He'll need to make a statement."

"Yeah, he was home... I don't have the report right now. I'll get it to you later. Get outta here already, enjoy your day off!" The junior detective waves her off with a laugh and heads back into his office.

"Yeah yeah.." She mutters heading out of the Police HQ, walking over to the Starbucks opposite to meet the others.

The next morning Adrain wakes up still groggy and laying in bed takes a few half awake moments to decide if he dreamed some of the events of last night or whether they were real. By the time he sits up and lights a cigarette he awake enough to decide that really did happen. When he finds the sketch of the rune that he saw burned into the palm of some gunman's hand he shakes his head and cracks open a battered laptop.

"Google, what can you do for me today... how about 'Miami occult library'... Ah, here we go. Jackie Gleason collection? What the hell? Who knew?"

Within the hour he heads out for the University of Miami thermos of coffee in hand. It's a needle in a haystack looking for something so specific, but Adrain didn't have anything else to worry about this morning and even in his thirties still loved getting lost in library.

Adrian:

Anu heads out from his little hole of an apartment not long after dawn, heading back over to the vicinity of the museum, chiefly going over by where he was attacked. He wants to get a better look at the alleyway in the light of day. He stops briefly to get a cup of coffee on the way. Once he arrives, he takes a good look at the alley from across the street and makes sure his phone is on and charged.

"So...who are you really Dahlia?" he says to no one in particular, his hand sneaking up to tightly grasp the medicine pouch he wears around his neck.

After taking a bit a look around, Anu heads to the Starbucks mentioned to meet the others.

Garabina sits and relaxes in the Starbucks, ordering a damn Black Coffee, no thrills or cream or chocolate or any other stuff, before relaxing in a rather visible part of the shop, looking around for anyone from last night.

Adrian wanders in a little after two in loose cargo shorts and a wrinkled button up shirt. "Hey, lemme grab a coffee and I'll be over."

A few minutes later he slouches into a chair next to Garabina, "So how's your bosses taking the sourceless explosion and excessively rich vampiress on the loose? I bet that went over well."

Okay, I can't think of a good reason for Hank to show up at the Starbucks unless contacted by someone else.

Hank cleans his guns one at a time while keeping the others loaded and ready.

Okay, I can't think of a good reason for Hank to show up at the Starbucks unless contacted by someone else.

Hank cleans his guns one at a time while keeping the others loaded and ready.

It was assumed that you all contacted one another to meet up and discuss everyone's findings so, you can assume you were contacted.

Adrian wanders in a little after two in loose cargo shorts and a wrinkled button up shirt. "Hey, lemme grab a coffee and I'll be over."

A few minutes later he slouches into a chair next to Garabina, "So how's your bosses taking the sourceless explosion and excessively rich vampiress on the loose? I bet that went over well."

"Well, the CSI guys are going mad over that explosion.. and Dahlia is still be looked for. We figured out that whoever she was, she wore a pair of Mrs Ferrano's custom made Prada shoes. Which is odd, given that she's been dead for a year."

Hank Monroe wrote:

Okay, I can't think of a good reason for Hank to show up at the Starbucks unless contacted by someone else.

Hank cleans his guns one at a time while keeping the others loaded and ready.

It was assumed that you all contacted one another to meet up and discuss everyone's findings so, you can assume you were contacted.

Okay, I must have missed that when I was catching up.

Hank scans the lobby for his group and moves over towards them once spotting them.

"Sorry I'm late, what've I missed?"

Looking at Garabina with surprise, while sipping coffee.

"What do you mean exactly...dead for a year? Mrs. Ferrano? Well...that definitely proves some connection between Ferrano and Dahlia. Uh...that makes me wonder though. What was Mrs. Ferrano's name?"

"Her name was Mrs. Allison Ferrano, and she's been dead a year, as I said. Died in a car crash. I'm getting the files on it as we speak. Either way, it was her shoes this 'Dahlia' woman was wearing. One of a kind, custom made and very expensive Prada shoes.. and a two sizes too small." She looks a little upset at that.

Anu frowns is some confusion.

"Two sizes too small? Is that an important clue? If Ferrano is giving Dahlia things that used to belong to his wife...and they greeted each other warmly at the beginning of the showing....sounds like those two know each other even better than we might think already."

Anu raises his eyebrows and smirks slightly suddenly.

"So...err...Officer. What would the chances be about us finding out where Ferrano lives. Maybe a stakeout?"

Hank looks under the table at Garabina's feet and smirks.

Her ex army boots don't exactly give much away as to her shoe size.

"I see no reason why we can't all stakeout his house. Just as long as we don't get caught.. and I wouldn't really be able to pull rank to save us if we do. As for Dahlia, it's possible he's just surrogating for his ex-wife. Find someone who looks a bit like her, dress her up like her. You know, stuff like that."

Adrain shrugs, "Or she faked her death. Insurance claims, dodging criminal charges. It happens."

"We'll know more about that when I get her file. I'm having it pulled up as we speak."

Anu sits around and leisurely finishes his coffee.

"Garabina, are you going to have to head back to your station in order to pick up the file? Or are they emailing it to you or something? By the way, isn't your boss going to start getting suspicious of what you're doing, or is this the case you are assigned to look into at this point?"

"Picking the file up at the station. My boss shouldn't get suspicious, just as long as this doesn't interfere with the day job.. which it won't."

*checks vital signs* You guys have some discussing to do, methinks.

I was wondering that myself, things got quiet all of a sudden.

"Listen- I gotta say I'm not all that interested in playing stakeout with an off duty cop and a gang of inexplicably armed dudes who are ready to rumble when the assassin van rolls through." Adrian shrugs and lets that hang in the air for a moment.

"I'll tell you what I am interested in. That rune on Papi Charcoal's hand last night, that knife looking sparkling new when it was supposed to be over a thousand years old, mysterious sourceless face-melting explosions, and petite little," he does air quotes, "dead ladies who stop running away just long enough to bite a full grown man and knock him on his ass."

"I did a little looking around this morning. So that rune I basically had right last night. It is supposed to block spirits from entering or leaving a place. Here's something I didn't know- people used to think you could use it to bind a spirit into a mortal body. So you might use it to lock an enemy out of the afterlife as a final f$#@ you. There were also some references on using it to raise up living dead." He grins and winks, "So if that gunman turns out to have been a zombie, I'm all on top of that."

"The dagger- here's the weird thing with the dagger... So it's a sacrificial knife, right? Nothing unusual there. Standard silver for purity kind of thing. But check this out," he pulls a couple of crumpled photocopies out of his back pocket. "These corroded hunks here are the same basic design 'cept nobody ever found one all sparkling new. But look at these reproductions of the patterns on the hilt and blade." He gestures to an image. "This one is Minoan like I was talking about, this one here is Phoenician," he flips the page, "look here, same pattern to the T, but this is Incan and the one below it is Mayan. Coincidence most likely, but strange anyways."

"Look- I'm not interested in sitting around in a car eating beans waiting on this guy to show or not. But if you decide you want to get up in that place, I'm dying to know what other kind of mysterious antiquities this guy might have lying around. Maybe they turn out to be stolen, I can get a little Indiana Jones credit for helping return them to museum rotation. Couldn't hurt getting a little publicity for the business especially if they'd at least grant me a little research access in appreciation."

At the mention of illicit activities, Anu looks thoughtful...then slowly peers over at the policewoman.

"Well, the question is just how far are we willing to take this whole thing? Maybe the idea of plausible deniability would be a good idea for Officer Garabina? But hey, don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against doing what it takes...just saying maybe not all of us want to be as far into this thing as we are getting."

Anu shrugs a moment later.

"And honestly, I really don't give a damn if you all think I'm completely nuts or bat-%h1^ crazy. I know what I felt and I know what I saw. I'm in this however far it goes. I lived most of my life denying that side of my heritage and pretending not to notice strange things going on everywhere...thats done now. If my grandpa was right...I can't walk away."

While it looks like she's paying attention to Adrian, the historical aspects do rather go over her head. "Of course, where Ferrano lives is a matter of public record. We sent some guys round to his house earlier to pick up the security tapes. Either way, I'm more interested in this Dahlia character. Anu, you'd have to come round later and give us a proper sketch, maybe look at some photos, so we can stick an APB on her."

Anu nods to Garabina.

"Sure. I don't really have anything better to do. If you want I'll head over there with you when you are headed back to the station. As far as I'm concerned the quicker we can get her likeness out there, hopefully the more quickly we might get a lead on where she is."

Okay, in the interest of keeping things moving:

After some brief discussion of how to proceed, the group eventually settles on a nighttime stake-out of the Ferrano estate. Garabina returns with Anu to the station shortly after the coffee shop meeting and Anu provides an accurate description of Dahlia for the sketch artist who is, naturally, quite talented and manages a nearly-perfect likeness. Only a few minutes later, Garabina is again visited by the junior detective who brings her the file she requested on Allison Ferrano.

Garabina:

Having received the sketch of Dahlia, she makes sure that an APB is put out on her, mentioning that she's rather dangerous and should mainly be observed and only arrested if possible. She then makes sure she gets a copy of the file, before heading out to join the rest of the group for their stakeout.

"Not as if I had a date tonight or anything.."

Okay, is everyone going on the stakeout? How many vehicles are you taking? Ferrano's estate is located within a gated community (really, it's a gated community almost in and of itself) but Garabina can get inside the gates with a wave of her badge if she wants to potentially blow her cover like that. Otherwise, you can remain outside the gates and watch the gate entrance, but you won't really be able to see the front door of the house itself.

I think the holiday monster has gotten a hold of everyone Fatespinner. I know it certainly kept me busy over the preceding week.

I think we need a role-call Fatespinner.

Or we might just have to wait and do so after the holiday season is over, I'm not sure.

Your call, oh almighty storytellspinner.

*Shakes his head to clear the cobwebs* "Stakeout sounds good, I am interested in how much these two have in common, and what's up with their wierdness."

Hmm...are Jon, Fatey and I the only ones watching this thread right now?

Heard from anyone Fatespinner?

Hmm...are Jon, Fatey and I the only ones watching this thread right now?

Heard from anyone Fatespinner?

I mentioned in the discussion thread that this game is looking like it's dead. Justin and Ithuriel are still around, but I haven't gotten any input from them on what their characters are doing or what's happening.

*flexes fingers* "Time to crack some heads", stomps off to find the rest of them.

I lost the link to the discussion thread so I have been waiting and watching on this one. I am beginning to think that Jon Simon might be a good character for a TEAM Valkyrie game we have here locally.