Lieutenant Spooky's page

"I certainly don't know. There's no record for that sort of thing. You'll probably have to ask around."
all good to meet the goblin?

"I realise the squad's more... collegiate than most. Castor's got the most experience" he doesn't look at Ophelia "so for now he's in charge. Hopefully we'll have time to sort things out before something else blows up."
"Is the construct squad a risk? Maybe. They're also highly advanced, don't get paid, and work around the clock. I admit I'm not keen on just having them wander round by themselves, though. It's up to headquarters - he didn't donate them to us."
"As for who it is, it's this new goblin wizard undercutting the existing artificers. Apparently there's been threats before this. Words out to treat him gently, but if he asks to speak to my investigators its not our fault if we happen to learn something."

As everyone else enters Spooky greets each in turn.
"Junior Guard Sorcerors Castor, Isama and Mia. Ophelia"
"I had the report from Abel. I take it he told you he's retiring?" he summarises the Sergeant's post #804 "Anything else you want to add? This is off the record, and I'm interested in your impressions as well."

Inside
Spooky looks up as Diene enters. Once again he is against his window, but this time he gestures to a seat.
"Junior Guard Diene. Take a seat. Abel spoke highly of you."

Spooky looked on as the team 'bonded'. It was a sad fact that the sort of high-performing highly motivated individuals who volunteered for the Guard tended to be difficult to form into a team.

Suddenly he spun around and looked out the window. A second later he turned back
"The East Homunculus just reported a fire at" he paused for a second "the Sorcière Académie. Looks like you got your first job."

Spooky holds up a hand

"First, this is not training. Business as usual. If we suddenly have a week without at least one major case then I'll damn well keep you all because that has literally never happened."
"Second, Worms is only because I have vacancies there I can never seem to keep filled. You're welcome to transfer to some other squad - assuming you haven't burned all your bridges."
"Third, I just damn well said this is not a suicide squad. Look, two of the fatalities happened because squad members were doing private investigation on the side. Another three were caused when a new recruit ignored containment protocols and got turned into a Shadow, and two team members sacrificed themselves to keep the resulting threat contained. Since then I've managed to get the equipment allotment almost doubled. If there's a genuine threat, you call in the cavalry. I'll back your call in that case. I'm doing this interview because I want the best on the squad so we don't lose anyone else."

"Right. Thank you all for coming. Save your questions for the end. I am Senior Guard Lieutenant Spooky. The handsome man by the door is Guard Sergeant Abel Valdemar. We teach Guards to be observant, so I'm sure you've all noted we have too many people for a single squad."
"If you're looking around surprised right now, that's not a good sign."
"I'm sure you all think you know what you've signed up for, but there's a lot of rumors, so let me tell you straight."
"Most wards have a policy of spreading out their best personnel. It works, but it means there's a lot of inexperienced Guards suddenly called on when stuff goes wrong. I formed the 'special squad' a few months ago, because I believed that it would be better to have a top-notch, well-outfitted team that could be called in by the other squads in an emergency. A squad that could be called in on the truly difficult cases, rather than the fairly routine - but important - tasks most squads deal with."
"So far it's worked. The special squad has dealt with a Fae serial killer, an attempt by the church of Zyphus to replace guards with daemons, and stopping a Gebbish vampire converting the city. There's other things as well. The council of 3 and 9 approve of the 'experiment', so we've got support for now."
"What we don't have is people. We've lost a lot of good guards in just a few months. Anything you've heard about this being a suicide squad is guano - but there is a higher risk. Based on the current odds, if you stay, there's a good chance you'll be a hero, and about a 50/50 chance you'll be a dead one. That's not good enough."
"I petitioned the Council, and have been given permission to try something new. We're going to try you all out for a few days. Once we know who's likely to actually make it through then we transfer the others to the Worms - sorry, sewer security squad."

"Alright. Questions?"
You're all totally in - the 'interview' is an IC concept only

Spooky nods to De Morgan
"We've already started, De Morgan. I find You can tell a lot by how people act when you're quiet and they're nervous. This wouldn't be the first time someone's tried to chat up one of the panel in an interview..." he pauses, then agrees thoughtfully "Though it isn't normally the Dwarf."

"I don't want to explain myself twice, so we wait for" he looks at the
sergeant momentarily "Zenj".

"Screw that, Abel! You made the right decision. If that thing'd gotten loose we would've lost more than three people. Sefu and Laurestine knew what they were doing. They kept the door locked when the kid turned - they could've run. The other Sergeants agreed with your decision. You made the right decision, but you should never have had to make it!"

"This time we're not just taking what we get sent. This time there's an interview. Send them in - and send in Castor and Ophelia as well. Might as well get their opinions now."

"Five? I know after what happened I demanded they give us a choice, wasn't sure they'd actually follow through."

"Better bring them in Abel. How many did Headquarters send this time to fill three positions?"

"Enter" he calls out