Search Posts
Jennifer follows, opting to stay with the group for this residence. She tugs her k95 mask into place and pulls her broad-brimmed hat low as she heads up the stairs.
"I wonder if the dolls were hidden before or after the victims were murdered. Probably before, I guess, if they have anything to do with them rising as undead. "Anyway," Jennifer says, making an effort to cheer up, "to the last house!"
Holding up the binoculars, Jennifer asks Ross, "Should we even tell Median about these?"
"No, there's barely anything here. It could be that they moved in just to watch the family."
There doesn't seem to be much here, but...
Jennifer pulls out her phone and calls Median. "Hey, look out the window. Can you see me in the next house over? Or is this a one-way peepshow?"
If they feel that nobody is in the house, Jennifer and Ross start snooping around outside. If the don't find anything, they'll peer in the windows.
Jennifer nods. "See if you can tell if anybody is inside, first thing."
Jennifer scours the area. Most of it seems well swept, but she notices something the cops missed - the house behind the shop is to rent. It looks buttoned up pretty tight, but a fence panel seems oddly loose. Jennifer inspect the panel. She does a great job.
Just like before, Jennifer looks around outside. If there's any sort of back yard or alley to the Chaytor's property, she'll start there. After, she'll roam around front and the alleys of neighboring properties, including across the streets.
The only thing that would make Median's interaction with this guy better is if she genuinely meant what she's saying. :)
Jennifer about-faces and walks the other way. About a block away, she'll send a group text. "Let me know when the coast is clear. Found obsidian slivers at the site. Like someone had an obsidian weapon and sharpened it there? Also, maybe someone detect for magic at the crime scene."
Jennifer pockets one of the obsidian shards and makes to leave and rejoin the others.
Feeling a little out of her element examining blood splatters instead of creating them, Jennifer focuses on the police tags, trying to determine what they're marking, and if any of those markings are unexpected.
Jennifer doesn't see much, but it wasn't hard to find the police taped section behind the pawnbrokers. It looks like the police have gone through the area with a fairly fine-toothed comb looking for evidence. Jennifer walks up to the police tape. If she doesn't see anybody resembling an authority figure, she'll lift the tape and go in to look around some more.
When Jennifer recognizes Genuine on a Dime Pawn Brokers as they pull up, Jennifer explains to the others that she is fairly certain that the proprietor isn't human. Although he wasn't involved in the missing museum artifacts, he seemed knowledgeable about the situation. "So don't take him at his word if he says he doesn't know something." With that, she starts her look around of the perimeter of the building.
"Let's head to the pawn shop, next. Until we find out more about our new friends," she jiggles her cell phone, "let's not let them know that we're also interested in Mr. Chaytor and Ms. Anders. "I'll stay outside and look for any curious parties."
"I think that gathering what information is easily available makes sense. Who is next on your list?"
Hey, I've fallen behind in all of my PbPs. I kinda-sorta knew that I had taken on too many, but life got busy over the past week and then most of the PbP campaigns got busy, and all that drove the point home. I've dropped out of a few, and now I'm trying to catch back up on the others. Apologies for holding anything up, and feel free to bot me if necessary.
Jennifer is there, too!
Pandemic mask in place, Jennifer follows.
I'm taking my family camping, this weekend. I won't be back until Sunday evening. Feel free to bot me until I start posting again.
"Or, alternatively, I can just...stop talking? I mean, I'm not exactly in choking range here." The disembodied voice sounded more confused than anything. "And we can continue to investigate and chase down zombies and handle things how we think best. That's what you've asked us to stop doing, so give me a reason we should do so." "But, look, goodwill. OK. This dude has killed five people, right? He's doing it for a reason. This isn't, like, 'Oh, mommy hit me and now I kill hookers' kinda killer, they have a reason. No morals, but a reason. I'm trying to help the victims out, but I don't fully understand the what. OK? I can't say much more, because it's not just my story to give out." "Thank you. Are you based in Fever? As for us, we are regularly asked to support the protections in place here in Fever so that the mortal and supernatural worlds aren't at odds with each other. You can see how mortals dying and coming back as zombies raises interest." When the conversation is over, Jennifer tries to exchange phone numbers with the voice.
"It does sound like talking would be a good idea. But, look, I can't make the choice all on my own. Give me a phone number and I'll message you when I get an answer, alright?" "You could be being reasonable, or you could be telling us what we want to hear to get us to go away. "We'll make you a deal: It sounds like you need to check with some others about this, which is fine, but give us some sort of helpful information now. Who are you or your group, and what's your involvement in this? And give us a phone number. "You give us that information, and we'll give you the same."
Jennifer responds to Median's text with a phone call. "I was just about to call you," she begins, and then explains who she and Ross have been chasing, that Hanna is being aided by someone scrying from a distance, and that she has most likely been teleported a short distance away. She finishes up by saying, "We're in communication with whomever is hiding Hanna. We're trying to find a way to resolve this, but we're still waiting to see if they'll collaborate." She deliberately says the last part a bit louder to make sure the voice heard her. If there's no immediate response from the voice, she'll tell Median, "You go ahead and do the thing you suggested, and we'll catch up. But keep an eye out for Hanna. She's still in the area."
Jennifer casts see invisibility and looks around to see if she can identify the speaker. "If she's so dangerous, then her mom will need protection, which means we can't walk away. I don't think any of us need to dissect her, but we do need to know what's going on. And for zombies to stop walking around in broad daylight. "Can we arrange a meet-up for Hanna to say good-bye?"
Jennifer nods at Ross' explanation, but looks around to address the disembodied voice. "That's not how this works. You need to give us some reason other than your say-so that we shouldn't pursue a zombie walking around in broad daylight trying to get at someone she knew when she was living. And you need to talk fast."
"Please, you really don't want to do this. You're scaring her." "I'm listening!" Jennifer says as she clears the next hurdle.
Better prepared, this time, Jennifer is slightly less un-graceful as she clears the barriers. Afterwards, she whips her head around to see if she can spot the new voice.
Jennifer just has enough time to react to whatever materialized in front of her, so she flings herself up and over. She doesn't land gracefully, but she rolls with her momentum and is back on her feet and running again in no time.
The old Jennifer wouldn't stop to consider chasing after someone suspiciously running away for no reason as you could lose valuable time if you decide you do actually want to catch them. The new Jennifer realizes that's something the old Jennifer got right, so she finishes scaling the wall, leaps down, and casts cheetah's sprint. The race is on.
Not sure exactly what she's expecting to find, Jennifer scales the wall and pokes her head over.
Jennifer follows the footprints in both directions to see if they lead anywhere significant.
Jennifer doesn't see much. There are some scuffs near the wall, some disturbed soil, that suggested that someone has been in the garden doing something. Jennifer checks the disturbed soil, fully expecting to just find newly planted bulbs, but you never know.
Jennifer sprung for a new thick, leather overcoat that better fits her new physique. This new coat has a built-in hoodie that she pulls up in public to cover her ears. That, combined with her new over-sized sunglasses and an N95 mask to cover her tusks and most of her face seems to conceal her appearance well enough if she keeps her distance. "I'm going to look around out here," she announces as the others head inside. "I'll meet you back in the car." As the others talk inside, in addition to taking a look around, she also tries to keep a lookout to notice anyone else paying attention to the house or to the group that's entered the house.
"Hanna Chou," Jennifer suggests. "We could get an idea of how much perception control needs to be managed at the same time we try and figure out why Hanna is the only sighting that tried to come back home."
"There's no way we're getting paid anything worthwhile for this." The thought enters Jennifer's mind out of habit, and she stops listening to think about the stray thought. It's a holdover from the old Jennifer, before she got a new body and a new soul. She doesn't feel bad about the thought, but she does 'stare' at it hard enough that it just sort of fades away. She brings her attention back to the room in time to see the conversation wrapping up and the others getting ready to leave. "Um, is there any similarity to the way they died? Similar wounds or anything?" Hopefully nobody's asked this already.
If Jennifer was involved in arresting the Gunslinger, she'd be interested in that, but I think I was playing Remington for that adventure. That was the Sword of Fever adventure, right? If so, I don't think any of the other players from that adventure are still around. My vote is for The Vengeful Dead.
Jennifer is updated. Jon, did we get paid for this museum job, or anything? I know we got lifetime memberships and we can call in a favor, but the ability to buy some consumable healing potions and buffs would be nice (says the player who's character just died).
You also have #5 - decide how to deal with your new and interesting appearance. But Valda will happily help get rid of the negative levels. I think I figured that out last week. And thanks!
Here's my to-do list: 1. As per reincarnate, remove Jennifer's human ability modifiers. I'm going with the assumption that this was strength (because bloodrager), but I don't honestly remember.
I'll do my best to get this done this weekend, but if Jon is forbidding us from rushing, then I'm not going to rush.
HBD, JG! 2nd - Do we wanna grab additional people? Who do we currently have, now? Me, Median, Joseph, and Ross? I'm fine as is, or if we get another person. And 3rd - I'll be posting the next batch of jobs tomorrow. I know Ross has some stuff they'd like incorporated into the next storyline, does anyone else have any requests? We've done a lot with Jennifer this adventure, so I'd like to roll with her as is before we focus on her too much. I'm happy to let the others have fun/terrible things happen to them.
"Please tell me what happened isn't normal in this town?" "It's not... abnormal," Jennifer murmurs as she studies her distorted reflection on a glass case. After they've debriefed the curator, Jennifer slips out of the museum and briskly walks to her SUV. She's never really thought about them before, but she's thankful for the tinted windows. She drives off to figure things out.
"Aren't you going to open it?"
I forgot that I changed Jennifer's alias image, and I alarmed myself.
"It sounds like we may not have a choice. The fey sisters are no longer bound, so this broken god could potentially wake up. Of course, there's no guarantee that he will automatically wake up. "But if he does wake, then we should be on hand to see if he needs to be killed. And some sort of forgiveness sounds like a silver lining. "Do we know where the fey sisters were sleeping all this time?"
Jennifer's been through a lot of changes today. She doesn't really like museums, any more. "Thanks," she says to the others. She turns and leaves the same way that the surviving fey lady did.
Jennifer slowly sits up, brushing off chunks of frost from her legs and torso. "What are you two talking about? I'm fine. The angels that granted me the Soulfire have said that-- "They've said that--" Jennifer stops and brings her fingertips to her lips to discover two inch-long tusks protruding from her lower jaw and jutting up over her upper lip. Her eyes widen as she realizes the implications of what has happened to her, and her voice fades away as she gazes at her hands, her arms, and then down along her body. Everything about her was... broader. Her jaw, her fists, her biceps, her shoulders, her hips, her feet. As she stands up, her flexing muscles split the sleeves of her brown leather overcoat along the seams. She now stands a few inches over six feet. She plucks at her hair to find that her long mousy-brown hair has been replaced by even longer dark gray hair that drapes over pointed ears. As her body continues to warm, her skin tone shifts from a greenish-gray to a darker forest green. And as the light of the Soulfire fades from her eyes, the others realize that her once very human eyes have been replaced by dark orbs with deep red pupils. She takes several deep breaths as she takes all of this in. She's neither upset nor amused at her fate, but she also struggles to understand how she feels. "It would seem that even though the angels that granted me the Soulfire feel that I have not wielded their gift long enough, they also feel that I could better do so with a more powerful form." She flexes slightly, causing the arms of her leather coat to split further. She reaches up, rips the sleeves off, and tosses them aside.
|
