Monster Hunters: Justice [IC]

[Ransom]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Shawn: "Its possible they followed me, but I crossed a creek and then walked down a busy street, so I think I lost them. Both of them, hopefully, though who knows how the animal found me in the first place. The plate is XPR 846*, if that helps."

Quality kid. Brother Man makes a note of the license plate in the margins of 1 Peter chapter 3.

neither the car nor the lean beast are visible out the window.

'No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.' Brother Man closes his eyes for a few seconds and feels for any hint of malevolence in the area.

[ooc] Using his supernatural sense, taking time for 3-4 attempts in hopes of getting a ping even on a more distant target.

Assuming this confirms the kid's guess that he has shaken off the pursuit, Brother Man makes a plan. "Here's what we'll do. Give me a moment to put the house in order, and then I'll follow you back to school. I'll stay a ways behind you so as not to make it obvious. If you spot anything strange again, just change directions and head towards the park, and we'll meet up there. Otherwise, I'll meet you again after school and we can talk more."

Assuming Shawn is ok with this plan, Brother Man will fetch his staff and coat (under which he conceals his bolas and a couple spear heads) and follow Shawn towards the school.

OCC: yes, its at his home -- which has a pretty nice threshold.

Indeed it does, down to the scripture quotations on the doorframe.

[ericthered]

Marcus:

The only sign of deception is the fae nature of the creature. It is either convinced that its human, or its an talent and experienced actor. Given that its a high end shaper-shifter, he's probably an excellent actor.

As marcus analyzes the fae, he picks up a few more details:

The shapeshifter has multiple forms, but the forms are fixed, not many variations on a theme. They are also extremely different. He won't be able to tell what the forms are until the shifter stops pretending to be human. The creature has some association with religion, though its a complicated setup marcus hasn't seen before and isn't quite sure of.

The fae (who calls himself Jake Mansfield) leads Marcus to the last place he saw his friends. Jake asks marcus to follow him to the location, a run down house in a fairly shady neighborhood.

Hermit:
Divinations on pure omens auto-fail -- it already has had heavy divination magic on it, essentially putting the energy cost above anything you can work with. You CAN work on questions like: who are the big supernatural powers in this area? which vampire clans are the most powerful? which currently brewing supernatural conflicts? Which groups of mages in the area are most attatched to their children? And so forth.

Please specify which questions he's trying to look into.

Randal:

The location is pretty big. Being there, he realizes there are also a LOT of warehouses in the area. Basically the entire area is a potential base, either for a fae or vampire that can tolerate heat, or for a conventional hide out. He'll need to narrow things down.

Brother Man:

The shadowers don't seem to be around, and Shawn is willing enough to work with Brother Man. The kid head back to school, and Brother man follows after him. After a short hike across town, Shawn hasn't seen anything, and neither has Man -- but man has gotten wiff of a fae following them. The thing is fast -- after they go through a high traffic area, Man catches whatever it is tearing through a wilderness area at freeway speeds -- but only with his sense.

[Skullcrusher]

Kane will try to locate the buildings that may have blast furnaces in them. He will use his binoculars to scan the area for suspicious goings on.

OOC: are these active warehouses or supposed to be abandoned?

[the_matrix_walker]

Marcus decides against mentioning anything about his knowledge of this fae's nature... Why burst his bubble while he's already on edge. He is wary of a potential trick or traps, so keeps a keen eye on Jake and their surroundings.

"It will be alright Jake. I'll bring your friends back to you if I can."

Marcus focuses his Chi and extends his supernatural senses to their limits, and looks out for something spider like....

((Activates Long Range + Precise, Cost: 1 FP))

[Ransom]

Having seen Shawn safely to school, Brother Man heads home and does some hunting on the internet and in his own records, trying to make some educated guesses as to the nature of this beast and what its relation to the stalkers' interest in Shawn might be, as well as whether the fae he sensed is involved or merely a coincidental passer-by. Later in the afternoon he'll swing back by the school to meet with Shawn again.

[Talosian]

Ketty High had everything going for her: looks, money, connections, smarts, and magic. Her political career was about to come to a peak: she was one of the front runners for replacing one of Oregon's congressman who recently retired. Not bad for a 30 year old girl.

Naturally, Brown had been bugging Jack to play a prank on her and her husband. The possibilities were endless: playing the part of a young bimbo for the husband to have an affair with and then putting incriminating texts into his phone, faking to be one of the hired help and cause a huge fuss, or simply collecting a couple hundred lizards and turning them loose in the house.

Jack relaxes in a mid-city park, lying on the grass with his feet dipped into a pond, considering his options. A politician demands a scandal, Brown begins, and a scandal demands publicity and sex, Jack finishes. After a moment of thought, Jack adds, So, strippers and media. Male strippers. A good finale, but a finale requires a first act. Jack sits up with a laugh, I guess we'll just have to sneak in and have some fun then! He pulls out his phone and looks up Ketty's street address, and then locates a drug store and a clothing store on the way. He stops by the stores, picking up laxatives, viagra, a pregnancy test kit, and some small tupperware containers at the drugstore, and some lacy black lingerie and passable clothes for a servant at the clothing store. Not being one to buy things he could steal, Jack takes his selections into a bathroom or changing room, makes himself invisible, and walks right out the door, hopping slightly to safely clear the steel threshold.

Jack then goes hunting for a few dozen lizards to fill his tupperware with, spending up to a few hours to catch them. Once he's satisfied with his catch, or bored of waiting, he heads over to Ketty's house invisibly. He'll check the perimeter for obvious signs of magical defenses, iron, or luck symbols, and then spend a few minutes observing the house to determine who's home before he gets bored and decides to get to work. Jack changes into his servant clothes and stashes his normal clothing a mile away. He keeps the rest of his gear on him, and attempts to conceal his prank materials inside his outfit.

Spoiler:  

I assume that her being a mage is public knowledge in the supernatural world?

Also, I made some fairly broad assumptions about what I could have Jack default through. If there's anything you want to make him roll for, go ahead.

Currently waiting for a description of her house, its location, obvious defense/risks, etc. before Jack proceeds. His current plan of action is to sneak in invisibly, find Ketty and her husband's room, plant the viagra in plain sight on the nightstand, and hide the lingerie where it's guaranteed to be found by Ketty or a maid (when picking it out, Jack's goal was to choose a size that would be obviously different from Ketty's). The lizards will be released in drawers and cupboards for the maids to find, the laxatives will replace the contents of any pill bottles Jack finds, and the pregnancy test will be illusioned up to read positive, then placed in a bathroom where a servant will find it. If he finds any sign of magical materials or things of Ketty's, he'll mix them up or otherwise ruin them. If he gets through the first act without a major situation change, he'll call and order some male strippers "half-wrapped" in kinky leather, and then mimic the voice of a female servant, call the most tabloid-y news outlets he can find, and tip them off on when and where they should be (as inconspicuously as possible).

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Hermit:
Divinations on pure omens auto-fail -- it already has had heavy divination magic on it, essentially putting the energy cost above anything you can work with. You CAN work on questions like: who are the big supernatural powers in this area? which vampire clans are the most powerful? which currently brewing supernatural conflicts? Which groups of mages in the area are most attatched to their children? And so forth.

Please specify which questions he's trying to look into.

Hermit will use Hall of Records to find out some of the big names in the area.
Then another et for well known mages .
Then will print the list on tiles and draw lots using Divination to determine who has any attachments to children

[ericthered]

Kane

Randal Kane remains relatively camouflaged. most of the warehouses are still in use -- though that doesn't always deter their use for other purposes. A full warehouse can be much more useful hiding place, if you can get in it. A brief watch of the place is enough to discover it has a lot of people coming in and out: mostly trucks dropping things off, or uniformed workers changing shifts at the factory. No one really draws suspicion during the first hour.

How long will he stay there watching for things? (yes, one hour is just the drop in the bucket compared to a proper stakeout).

Marcus:

There are three supernatural presences in the area: two are in the basement of a neighbouring building (an empty and very run down building), and the last is Jake.

Both of the two new creatures are demons, not near fae -- which usually means someone summoned them here. One of them he recognizes: A death weaver. The head and torso of a woman, the body of a large spider (exact breed varies). Classical spider themed demon: webs and an incapacitating bite. These demons feel off the feeling of helplessness, and usually bind a set of prey and force the victims to watch as it slowly drains their fellows of their bodily juices. Their webs can be thrown at foes, or they can be left for the unsuspecting. The webs can be visible, invisible, or bear an illusion (though that takes some time to arrange. For most people, the extreme stealth of the creature would be a problem, but the food detection sense will take care of that. The spider will burn away when exposed to sunlight as fast as any vampire. In combat the creature will try not to close unless it can get the drop on him. The friends of Jake are almost certainly alive, and almost certainly in extreme distress, both physical and mental.

The second demon is more of a mystery. Its big, and tough, not too fast, but well armoured. It has a canny intellect and a number of denseness against supernatural attacks. It most likely either has weapon other than its natural form or has some hidden trick up its sleeve Marcus can't detect, and probably both. It feeds off the emotions of its victims, and like its partner, thrives in the dark.

Jake nervously fidgets: "What can you tell?"

Brother Man:

The internet ... not the best place, but better than nothing, and a lot more accessible than most.
The fae moved extremely quickly -- either it naturally moves extremely fast, or its capable of driving an ATV, and thus a very intelligent fae.
The fae is either man shaped or looks like a large thin quadruped.
at least two separate creatures are following Shawn -- one of which is a fae, one of which is a quadruped, and one of which can drive a car -- or you have a quadruped that can drive a car through shape-shifting or something.
The fae could be an elf lord, or any one of a number of 'hunting fae' -- if its assumed that they are hound shaped, it narrows it down a bit.
Man is pretty sure this is not the work of a random near fae. Someone wants something very specific to happen to Shawn, or they want to know something about him. And that someone cares about the world beyond merely getting their next emotional fix. There is a mage, high fae, or some other plotting supernatural behind this.

Man notes that its quite likely that two people are following the kid, and their different natures arouses suspicion -- its important. He's not sure what would cause that though.

He picks up Shawn from school. He arrives several minutes early, but as soon as he shows up, Shawn pops out of a nearby building. "Hey Brother Man. I thought you'd never come!" The Fae and the green Venza are nowhere to be seen or sensed.

Hermit:

Big names in the region:
The region considered has six prominent immortals, a 9 competing vampire bloodlines (and an additional 7 that are based elsewhere but have holdings), and numerous mages (the definition of 'well known' makes things a little iffy, but he can work with that). All of the vampire clan heads care about their 'children' a lot (one does not become a vampire clan head without caring about your vampric progeny) and their literal descendent not at all, none of the immortals have an attachment to their children or descendants, but a number of strong mages do -- the list to work with was about 100 names long, and 37 of them are quite attached to their children. If he only considers the most ambitious of the group, he can narrow it down to 4 names.

Things he may have left off of the list: magical societies (a society of weak mages can be powerful) and cursed bloodlines. The cursed bloodlines traditionally unusually attached to their family and Oregon seems to attract them in droves, and every third magical order is a family thing. Of special note amoung the magical orders are the secret summoners, who specialize is summoning or even creating weird spirit* creatures, the flesh weavers, who specialize in magical genetic engineering, and both resident groups of necromancers, as all groups could count their creations as 'children'.

*spirit in the MH classification, not insubstantial.

Jack Brown:

Ketty's magical status is quite well known in the supernatural world. She is one of the stronger members of a minor magical circle. Its fairly common knowledge which major practitioner of supernatural community are in government. Though most of the time people use puppets rather than run themselves. Kitty is a fairly powerful mage, but her power is actually mostly gained through birth: she realies on wealth on political power, not magic.

Jack makes his 'Purchases' without incident (brown almost wishes there was an incident). The pills were harder to get, but invisibility and illusion can work wonders.

The house is mostly out by itself, away from the city, with several acres around it, well wooded for privacy. The house is a giant rambling three story frame house, so as long as he doesn't go too near a car, safe, or refrigerator his magic should hold. He can't detect any luck symbols on the threshold, and the house really doesn't have that good of a threshold in the first place.

It does have some impressive wards -- but they are built like walls. Repress his fae abilities for a second and he can walk right across it.

Only servants appear to be home at the moment, and not many of those. Jack gets most of the practical jokes done quickly. He doesn't find any magical stuff of Ketty's, which is weird, (she must have it well hidden, or even not on sight). He has just finished the laxative replacement when the door opens. Jack hides himself -- forturnately the bath tub is fiberglass! A maid enters the room, followed by a plumber. The maid explains about some link in the sink, and the plumber asks questions. There are no lizards in this room.

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Jake nervously fidgets: "What can you tell?"

((OOC: My assumption is that the description included a "detailed analysis"... but if not but if that was just a good basic analysis, he will try and analyze the mystery creature for more information.))

"I can tell the spider has a friend... and the way they feed suggests your friends are still alive. I might need someone to watch my back. Can you fight?"

While they talk, Marcus walks them around the building to examine it and plan the raid, looking for where windows and potentially useful structural features might be.

[Lamech]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Jenny calls across the office: "Hey, White Night*, we have a request in from the bigwigs. They want you to play police again."

Laura Night has the email up on her computer in no time. Jenny has already attached a list of the deaths: five murders in the last three weeks. Normally, they wouldn't be connected together. Cherion ran DNA tests on them, and found all of them are minor mages, or at least carriers of the mage gene. Only one appears to have been an active mage, but that's just speculation. Further comparison revealed they are all either half siblings or double cousins genetically, though they don't seem to know each other at all. They are scattered from Corvallis to Seattle. Jenny makes the additional comment that most of the victims are above average wealth.

Sheela TugenBerg: age 24, Magery carrier, Psychology major at Oregon state. Poorer but devoted parents. Raped, and then stabbed to death and dumped in the river. The river has damaged the killer's dna. This case is relatively cold.

Hamid Szczepanski: age 25, Magery 1, serving residency to become a doctor (he got through school very quickly). Extremely wealthy parents. Disappeared for a month before being found on the street with drugs in his blood stream and two bullets through his head (execution style), as well as severe bruises from a beating. This investigation is still quite active.

Zeke Whitton, age 29, magery 0, supported by parents. Died in alcohol related car accident. He was drunk at the time. The driver of the car they crashed into is being charged with manslaughter, as the man was also drunk.

Sigismond Girvin, age 29, magery 1, Love Potion Maker, quite wealthy, and fairly open about what his profession has. Was shot 17 times by a handgun. Police suspect crime of passion, but are finding it extremely difficult to conduct the inquiry due to no one wanting to admit they worked with him.

Vincent Keith, age 26,magery 0, Manager at Family restaurant. Killed by a pair of burly robbers who raided the establishment. Police has commented on how willing they were to shoot -- he didn't seem to have provoked the attack. The shots were fired by experts: one hit the skull dead center, the other strait through the heart.

Cherion is pretty sure something is up, and wants to know what.

*nickname, in reference to last name and monster hunting tendencies.

Have the police released the footage of the robbery? Or pictures of the guys who did it? I bet I can manage a tracking spell for them. Lemme see if google can pull one up. Lara opens the firefox icon and waits for the slow work computer to open the program before googling "Vincent Keith murder, robber pictures" and clicking on the image results.