Thank you, it was fun! Best of luck with your future endeavors!
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Racine pours the gems into a satchel for easier carrying and thanks Lily. "I understand. Take care, Lily, and give us a call should you have trouble with the peasants."
"Born ready."
"Nope. Possessed means possessed. Most have forgotten it, but the ancient legends are true. Spirits are real. Magic is real. It wasn't Lily's husband who attacked you, but a monster wearing his skin. Pływające światła!"
"Not sure. Wykrycie magii." Opening eyes to magic, Racine gazes over Blake's body, looking for any sign of possession. "Should be done, though. As for the boy, we'll just need to be quite persuasive."
Racine tries to keep the nail down, firmly planted into Blake's body.
Stepping back, away from the scuffling men, Racine whirls her rifle out. Rather than shooting, however, she drives it down in a whip-like motion, and the barrel extends like a snake, twisting around Blake's leg and pulling.
Racine motions to Lily to turn around and block the other exit of the tent, coiling for a strike. I don't like melee combat, not one bit.
"Pass me a nail, Lily."
Racine grabs the rifle. "It all fits, in an evil and twisted way. Let's track him down and exorcise him. It won't be pleasant, but it shouldn't be too harmful either."
"Disguising magic isn't my strong suit, but I guess that we can just shoot him until he complies."
"Oooh, this is nasty! Look at the cut ears. One may think it was made by elves trying to send a message, the message being "don't trespass and poach on our land". And on the other hand, it could quite be a setup, I can already see the crowd, waving torches and pitchforks, scheaming against those pointy-eared barbarian dandelion eaters like yours truly! What a treat of a case, one can never be bored around you, Lily! Well, let's get to work. Wykrycie magii!" Racine examines the surroundings with her arcane sight as well as the mundane, trying to pick up traces of magic.
Chuckling at the man's embarrassment, Racine addresses her partners. "How about we look into that ourselves? We can save Lily some trouble, have a trip in the wilds. I'll pack some sandwiches."
Listening to the man, Racine takes a gulp of cocoa before speaking, mildly amused. "Word of advice, kiddo. Speaking of treehuggers when there's an elf sitting at the table won't do you any favour. Now say you're sorry and I'll consider helping you out."
Racine gulps down her coffee, black as a moonless night.
With half a sigh, Racine closes the book to speak to Lily, smiling bitterly. "No, it's not monster lore. Not yet, at least. It's an essay on the new sciences and technology that are swooping through Cedrana. It looks like the scholars and the crafters are replacing dwindling magic with brass and steam and steel. And, well, I'm using a rifle where my ancestors had bows, but it still feels strange." She pauses for a second before speaking again. "I'm sorry if it looks like I'm not enjoying your party. But I wouldn't fit in. It's nice that young people are carousing and having fun, carefree. But I never had that kind of life, I never had a real childhood, I had to grow up at a rate that would have been brutal for a human. And I'm an elf, I'm eighty years old and I've been hunting for sixty. The man who taught me to cast my first spell died five years ago, while I don't seem to have aged at all. I just can't manage to go among the youngsters and... and what? Drink? I'm abstemious. Dance? Two left feet. Flirt? Bah."
Feeling old and introvert, Racine grabs a platter of snacks before finding a quiet spot to flip open a book.
"Nah, they weren't really harassing us, worst they did was call me a little girl. By the by, have you tried looking for the missing guy? In case, you know..."
If Racine's appearance hadn't marked her as a foreigner, her accent does. "Please forgive our partner, he was raised by wild dogs and never learned manners. We didn't want to intrude, but we've got friends here and would like to know if there's any danger."
After a ride spent mostly playing with Pandora, Racine explore the emporium, looking for any weird, eye-catching stuff.
Don't worry :) btw I'm totally alright with going along just us three, healing is so overrated ;P
"Pleased to meet you, Blake. I never was too good at riding, but I'll definitely enjoy the company!"
Aaah, nothing better than a dance party to test my invisibility spells.
"For what my advice is worth, I agree with Doc. I grew up in a place like this, only a bit worse, and I only grew when I got out. There's nothing good coming out of these shades. Nothing good about these business the late Kings were caught up into." And we'll be ready to get Von Steffan in thirty years.
With a sonorous clack, Racine opens her rifle bullet chamber, blowing through it to clean gunpowder residues.
I can continue too, sorry for disappearing a couple of days, schoolwork has been intense.
"Huh." We didn't get paid, the bad guy escaped and now he's got reins on Cassandra. How utterly lovely.
"I know how it sounds, but that stuff will kill you. Killed my mom too. And it's a shame how flammable some places are, a real, real shame." "I've got something more for you, however. The one we were hunting got away somehow, by channeling something through this stone. An idiot smashed it, but I have the fragments, if they're worth anything. And here's a book of formulas that may be of some interest, if you can work it out."
"By the way, Frank," Racine says, heading out to visit Caspian about the book and the stone "even inert, that stone had an enormous value, both financially and scientifically. So, next time you want to break something in frustration, may I suggest your own head? Maybe that will stop you from acting like a child."
Racine jolts as the spell threatens to turn her to ash, then checks the remains and the stone. "Well. Disappointing that he got what he wanted, disappointing that we couldn't get the drop on him," because some idiot burst in like a rhino "but at least the girls are safe and there are three less dealers around. And we may get clues on the ritual from this book and the stone, Casp can help. Next time the bastard show up, we put him down for good. Not our usual mindless monster gig, that's for sure." Somehow it's nice to have a smart opponent. More meaningful. Just sending Frank against the monster of the week gets boring after a while. Oh, you win the first round, Von Steffan, but I have more patience. She grabs any item that might be of value, including the Philosopher's Stone, before lighting a torch. "Everyone out and safe? I'm going to raze the place." Partly to hide our presence, partly for personal pleasure.
Racine kneels next to the man, frisking him for magic items. "Something's definitely wrong here. Why smiling? Something's in motion. Caedus, check on Beth. Wykrycie magii!"
"You got one part right, bud. You'll be dead. Strzelnica! Nova!"
Slowly, her shape and colours blending in the surroundings, Racine moves until she's got a clear shot of Van Steffan. Seeing the dismal state of his complexion, she exchanges her standard bullet for a silver one. Then she takes careful aim, ready to unload at the first sign of trouble.
Seeing as Caedus follws through, Racine casts a spell before hopping down the stairs. "Ukryć w świecie!"
"Oh, I'm freaking done chasing after him, he walks into a trap, I'm officially beyond caring. It's like watching after a cat with a sugar high as he chases our best lead away."
They just look like thugs, likely hired muscle. And we are breaking and entering, after all. Why do I feel like we'll need to hide corpses and lie to the police before this is done? Aiming for the knees of the farthest one from Frank, Racine infuses a bullet with magic before firing.
Racine takes a biscuit out of a pocket and starts nibbling at it as Frank performs his stunt. "Isn't it just pleasant to make a nice, reasoned, sensible plan and carry it out without a hitch? Scouting ahead, taking advantage of the position, flanking, the surprise factor... I just love working with sensible, rational people."
"All right, time's up, let's do this! Fraaaaaaank Steeeeeeeeeel!"
And I guess we'll have to wait for Doc to open a lock.
"We definitely need to find you a way to contact us. As for the place... Whether it's Timmy or not, blood will flow. I wouldn't like you to be in the thick of it, but I wouldn't like to leave you alone either... Do you know of any safe place near? Police?"
"Yep. You should learn the value of not being seen. You are conspicuous, you took an open road, you didn't hide yourself much and you were making terrible use of cover. Mostly, you have shown that you don't trust us. Should we start keeping eyes on you, like a little girl?"
Yeah, I figured we were waiting for him, we didn't split right now.
Sorry, had a busy few days. How about we break and enter, with emphasis on the "breaking" part?
"All right. But I'll wait for you here, in case things go south."
"Half your theory could still be good. If this Von Steffan is using Ultima to establish an alchemical link, he could be siphoning life force through the club. Rythmic music has a sort of an hypnotic effect, there are testimonies of rituals in the unexplored fringes of the world that use drums to induce a mystical trance..."
Drugs: "Every time I think I've seen everything gross, this work finds new way of surprising me. So, people snort this guy's hair, and form an alchemical channel: then, he can start siphoning life force or establishing mental dominance of them through the focusing tablet. The fact that it's alchemical also explains why I couldn't find any magic, but it doesn't help me track him down... Hope the others had better luck." "I'll buy a couple of potions, Casp, if you don't mind, then be on my way. Thanks for the help, and call on me if you need any help. But I have a feeling you won't. Gods know why, you love this place." She smiles at him and kisses him on the cheek before leaving.
Drugs: Finally at ease in the item shop, Racine looks around, checking out the trinkets. "Never understood why you keep running this place, Casp. You have the skills and the smarts to get in the academia, or work with hunters. A bit of PR, you'd be a hell of an information broker. Anyway." She fishes in her pack for the drug box, placing it on the counter together with 25 gold pieces. "Ultima. Apparently the latest fad among the drug addicts, and I suspect it's laced with something exotic. They dealt this at a weird club, with alchemical symbols on the walls and some sort of focusing tablet, and one of the dealers wound up dead. Aged about a century in one night." She looks at a shelf filled with potions. "So I'd like any info you can get from it. Alchemy, vampiric links, any thaumatropic connection you can tell. I want to know who's using it, and for what. And when you're done, please destroy it. You know I don't like drugs on the streets."
"Your call, Cassie. Will likely be just a bit of boring asking around before we finally get to something to shoot, but you'll likely be safer with us." Drugs: Racine's acute senses are struck by the stench of the Bloodhaven Bar, but she learned to shut them off for the time she had to dwell in the sewers. With only half a grimace, she approaches the man. "Why, Caspian, just the man I was looking for. Long time no see, let me buy you a drink, yadda yadda. Long story short, I'll need your expertise on some illegal items that were used for some rather unsavory business. Any chance we could get some privacy?"
Racine burst into laughter. "Rookie? Oh, oh, that's rich! Wait a second." She hunches her shoulders, her voice turning into an old lady's squeak. "Whippershnappers like you should show shome reshpect for your eldersh! I remember what thish plashe wash like a hundred yearsh ago, a shordid shesspool! And it hasn't changed a bit!"
"Why, Frank, I'm flabbergasted and flummoxed! I knew we enjoyed your witty humor and sunny disposition, but since when have you grown to be such a fine estimator of the magical arts? Something mystical or alchemical, wow, this could change thaumatoforensics forever! And your idea of figure out the magic and disrupt it is something utterly unheard of in this field! Now, if only we had a substance that we could analyze to try and figure out the magic... Like some sort of drugs, laced with something mystical or alchemical... A thorough analysis could tell us whether it's some sort of thanatropic residue, ethereal ectoplasm, faeriecraft or the like, but our Magical Savant Frank already determined, at a glance, that the drugs won't reveal much!" Racine drops the sarcasm while packing the Ultima box in her backpack.
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