Supernormal Crime. Or, Uh, Three.

[DeAnno]

Shadow was interrupted in his careful study of Broadsword guy's eating habits by his phone buzzing, so he pulled it out with a spare tentacle and took a look at the sketch and explanation. Given this, he decided it was probably time to give people an update of his activities. Without much to do at the moment, he spent some more time on this text instead of sending it out in a rush.

I followed the fear trail to 320 Bridgeton Street, where it led inside the townhouse. The gate was guarded by two superhumans, one pink-eyed and lavender haired, and the other a thug who is most likely the guy in the sketch. He's probably still guarding outside. I infiltrated the townhouse and found the murder scene, complete with a massive terror stain on the ground, a small piece of rocky super-skin I found, and some blood I left in a potted plant.

I also found a sort of intimidating looking guy inside who carries a big broadsword around and seems to own the house. He had a suspicious text conversation I'll copy below and I'm continuing to watch him now. I haven't been noticed in any way.

Any suggestions on what to do next? I've been thinking he might do more suspicious things but he's sort of just making lunch now I think.

[manwithaplan]

Katie fired off a quick text.

[From mass murder scene; killer is a confirmed flyer, shredded through these people with something metallic, or otherwise carrying a lot of metal and doesn't kill people bare-handed.]

And then she...got back to what she had been doing. Which was delicately using her telekinesis to handle and analyse the less gross severed body parts. She was looking to find any evidence of the specific shape or nature of the killer's weapon. Or, killing tool, to be more inclusive.

"Eww..."

Part of her was kind of into the gore. That made it even worse.

Spoiler

Show

Investigation with Major Bonus Surge (1d20+10)[18] to figure out the nature of the weapon (or maybe the killer's fighting style?). Another 20 Hero Points possibly spent. 23 result. One clue, please!

[manwithaplan]

"Hmm." She sent out a mental broadcast to several EMTs at once.

Hello, this is Detective Tandem. I'm trying to pin the nature of the attacker's...uh, weapon. I've found some broken bones, and some of these people look like they were...ripped open, I think. Is anybody able to name a possible method of killing?

[Llyarden]

While she was waiting for Kingsley to finish up with his investigation of Styles' body, Allison continued tapping away on her phone - this time, sending an update to the rest of the group (and Cpt. Blackbourne, since he would probably appreciate being kept up to date.)

Shortly before he died, Armel Keller was investigating what he believed to be a Superhuman bloodsports ring headed by Ethan Parrish. He told an associate in the Streetguard that he had found definitive proof of this and - against her wishes, and incongruous to his normal demeanour - told her that he was going to confront Parrish single-handed. That was the last she, or anyone else that we know of, heard from him until his decapitated head was found.

The location he'd been investigating appears, on the surface, to be under the control of a violent gang called the Hell Raisers. However, their 'gang signs' are in large part the sigils of demons against peace. The Hell Raisers are preternaturally capable combatants, but never kill their foes, which correlates with what Agent Moore has told me about such demons. It also correlates with Keller's unusual behaviour, which could be explained by the influence of such entities - and with what could easily be mistaken as a Superhuman bloodsport ring. And while I do not believe that the Hell Raisers would be directly responsible for any of the murders we are investigating, as it doesn't fit with their nature, it definitely seems as though they were responsible, whether intentionally or otherwise, for Keller's death. If there is some way to make peaceful contact with demons against peace, counterintuitive as that seems, they might be able to give us some information.

She...kinda tried her best to ignore Shadow's admission that he'd broken into a private residence without a warrant. That was going to make things awkward later on. And she very carefully made sure that Blackbourne wasn't copied in to her reply. That house is registered to Ethan Parrish. She accompanied the sentence with a photo of Parrish, downloaded from the internet (guy was a wealthy CEO and owner of a popular sports league; it was unlikely there'd be any shortage of photos of him.)

The fact that one of the guards matches the description of the man who dumped Keller's head is easily a good enough reason to bring that guard in for questioning regarding Keller's murder, though not to outright arrest him in the absence of concrete evidence tying him to either the crime itself or in helping to conceal it. It also isn't enough on its own to tie Parrish's house or Parrish himself to any of it.

I'm going to investigate Keller's house, on the off-chance that he copied whatever evidence he found before he was compelled into supposedly confronting Parrish, or that there might be a lead as to the location of the rest of Keller's body. Let me know if any of you need my assistance.

And with that done, she slipped away into an alley and proceeded to contact first SCOUT once again, this time to arrange for a locksmith to meet her at Armel's house. Then she phoned Lena.

"We're going to search Armel's house," she explained, when Lena picked up, "in case he kept a copy of whatever he found. Would you be okay with helping us? If he kept notes on his investigation, they might give us a clue into whatever he found, and you know much more than I do about how he worked, and where he'd store his records." That wasn't the only reason she wanted Lena helping, though, or even the main one; Parrish evidently had contacts within the Streetguard, which meant that potentially Lena was in danger if she stayed with her 'friends.' Of course, given that Allison only knew that because of something that absolutely couldn't come up in any trials that this investigation resulted in, she couldn't very well tell Lena that.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"The kind that belongs to demons to peace." Kingsley said, then paused to let it sink in.

"Now, I'm sure you don't need me to tell that demons to peace hardly ever kill...and yet here we are, with those very same demons linked to two murders, one of which of someone who ought to have been completely uninvolved with the Supernal. What other proof do you need to see that this is all one big entangled mess? The demons themselves might only be pawns. Times have changed, Kaiser...there are no longer only mundanes and us."

Well, superhumans too had existed before the Nova, but that was besides the point, as they were hardly more than physically enhanced mundanes. Back then, if something required the Circle's intervention it was a Supernatural threat of some kind, but now...

"So, I'm going to ask you one more time. It is obvious we're going to cross paths anyway; would you rather miss some critical clue, or cooperate with SCOUT?"

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move: Can't read his polka face.
Standard: Progess task with Intimidation, (1d20+10)[20] Don't want to hold things up excessively, so I'm going to HP reroll this if no bonus successes are awarded.

[Ridai]

Howl goes in to beat Oni into the ground, confident after having defended against her first attack, hands reaching out... only to suddenly find himself wildly off-balance, Oni having pushed his grab aside as if swatting a fly away.

The last thing Howl sees is a scowl on Oni's face for taking a fight amidst a crowd lightly. You don't endanger innocent people while she is around, much less her fans.

It is this moment Howl realizes he screwed up.

The next moment, her fist crashes into him from beneath, the motion sounding like a jet engine, the hit like the shot of a cannon. Howl crumples around her fist and it looks like the world stands still for everyone, for just a tiny moment. Before Oni drives her fist upwards, launching Howl straight up into the sky, howling winds bursting upwards and what look like shockwaves emanating from the trajectory.

Oni remains standing with her fist up in the air, only lowering it after a moment. She raises a finger to tell the people around her to wait and be quiet for a moment, staring up into the sky with her white mane flowing in the breeze she kicked up. The moment Howl comes howling back down to Earth, she snatches him out of the sky and slams him onto the ground (deccelerating him before the impact, she is a professional of course). Seeing his face, Oni shows her scowl once more, before dusting her hands off. Oni wasn't an undefeated champion for nothing.

"We're done here."

Spoiler: Actions

Show

See here

[DeAnno]

For a moment after sending the text, Shadow had some cognitive dissonance. Was it possible he was acting rashly? Sure, to him this house couldn't be more clearly a murder scene if blood was literally spilling out under the front door, but maybe other people wouldn't see it that way (or literally couldn't see it that way)? Ultimately, he dismissed it. He was pretty sure he'd seen cops investigating suspicious places like this on TV (and superheroes doing it on TV too...), and some of those places weren't even obvious murder scenes!

This Parrish guy didn't seem like he was going to do anything interesting for a good while though, and he didn't feel up to actively searching the entire house, so he decided he would go get a closer look at the newly suspicious guard outside. He scooted back out of the kitchen, through the foyer, and under the door, then out into the (extremely wild, at this scale) yard. He sidled towards the gate to get a good look at the Rhino guard, and a good taste too. He hadn't really paid him much attention before.

Spoiler

Show

Instant Action Informative Fear Scan on guard (1d20+10)[21]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Shadow (Estate)

The guard isn't currently feeling any fear, but that's only a partial defense against your powers. Almost everyone has fear within them. The remnants of past worries. Latent concerns weighing on their minds. Little phobias waiting like monsters in the darkest closets of their hearts. With enough concentration, you could sense them all.

...Sometimes, anyway. But a strong will and stalwart discipline could cloud those things even from your senses. The guard didn't react to your probe, didn't seem to notice your will rooting around in his subconscious, sniffing for his nightmares. But this time you went home hungry; whatever things he may have feared, he had courage enough to bury them further than you could reach.

Katie (Third Crime Scene)

There was a bit of an echoing cacophony for a moment as several of the medical staff responded. After a moment of confusion, the chief medical examiner, Sybille Jundt, fielded the question. ~I don't...know that it was a weapon at all, Detective. Ripped open is a pretty good assessment. Ripped apart to be more precise. These people were literally torn limb from limb, by something strong enough to snap bones like twigs just by grabbing them. That being said, the bruising patterns are...strange. They don't look like they were made by hands at all. Something...more like a cuff, I'd say.~

Allison (Armel's Home)

Lena agrees to help, and in short time she and a SCOUT team meet you at Armel's apartment. The team conducts a brisk, efficient search of the premises, including the computer, which reveals among other things a phone-tracking app that places Armel's phone about four blocks away from where his head was found. Lena knows the password for it; the Streetguard have it set up to help them coordinate in the field, or find each other if something goes wrong. She was able to get you into the computer as well; she didn't know that password off the top of her head, but it took her only four tries to guess it. Obviously she knew Armel well.

The search also turns up several files (both electronic and hard-copy) regarding Parish and various associates and connections of his, along with some notes Armel took himself. Lena reviews the files with you, but none of them are anything she hasn't seen before. It's enough to make Parish look sketchy for sure, but nothing that would land him in prison. You do find a paper trail that suggests a connection between Parish's company and a defunct super-wrestling organization called the X-League, which might ring a bell.

Lena seems to grow more confused the more you review, and the reason is fairly obvious. One thing you absolutely don't find is anything so much as hinting at an underground blood sport arena in the Hell Raiser territory, or for that matter anything connected Parish to it. There's not even anything saved in his phone's recent photos on the cloud. Of course, sometimes a lack of evidence is a clue in itself.

As far as Shu Kalb goes...it's hard to say. You got to know him fairly decently working his case, and he had always struck you as a genuinely selfless, loyal guy. Not super trusting, certainly, but he clearly cared about people and especially his fellow Streetguard members. He had seemed more offended by the charges that had been brought against him than worried about them. Point being, if he's actually some sort of plant or mole or something, he's clearly either a good enough liar to have kept his true nature from you, or something has changed in the intervening time enough that it'd be tough to gauge his future actions based on your past experiences. Given that, there's not really any telling what he might be willing to do.

Kingsley (Second Crime Scene)

Kaiser drew in a long, tight breath through his nose, let it out, and raised a hand in a gesture like a fencer acknowledging a hit. "Alright, alright. You've made your point. I won't be able to do any active spellwork alongside your team, but I can support your investigation mundanely. And as long as others aren't around, I can perform divinations and feed you what I learn. I trust your team won't be surprised if you cryptically pull information you should not have any way of having out of the ether, no?" he asked wryly, with a little smirk.

Then he gestured for you to follow and walked back over to Styles's body, chanting beneath his breath.

Spoiler

Show

As a result of succeeding the task, Kaiser will now provide limited aid to your investigation. He won't work magic in view of others, though, even other SCOUTs. You don't need to Request Support, but he doesn't get his own resources.

Kaiser has an Investigation skill of +15 and the Contacts advantage. Team members on scene with him can spend their own move, standard, and full actions to have him take an Investigation action one step lower (move for instant or free, standard for move, full for standard, two PCs can use full actions to have him take a full action). He still gets only a normal action allotment per round, so like he can't take two standards in the same round even if multiple PCs want to spend full actions.

He also has access to the Augmented Inspiration and Temporal Inspiration Fortunes, which PCs may pay the Hero Points to power. I'm allowing GM Fiat to fuel an initial use of Inspiration regarding the circumstances of Styles's death. I'll roll his Luck check to determine how many questions he gets; you guys can decide what you want the questions to be.

While Kaiser is able to enter combat as a PL 10 threat, doing so requires he use magic, so he won't do so intentionally. If a minor battle he'll contribute as a PL 1 FBI agent, feigning the results of his evidently-reduced defenses. If caught in a superpowered battle, he will attempt to avoid notice and flee.

Luck (DC 31): (1d20+20)[30]. Not quite enough for bonuses, so you guys get one question relating to Styles's death. This can be a specific question about the past or future within up to two hours. Kaiser's Luck DC lowers by 2.

Oni (In the Crowd)

Howl's glorious attack was foiled with contemptuous ease, and then he went for a wild ride and got a nice view of the city skyline.

He sprang to his feet, growling lowly. He wasn't particularly hurt, and looked about to continue his attack, until he noticed the crowd. Pointing. Laughing. Jeering. The mockery of the crowd almost managed to drown out the cheers for Oni that could be heard from the nearby crime scene.

Howl fairly quivered with indecision. He had been soundly trounced in that exchange. Backing down was...unpalatable. But if he pressed the attack, he was only setting himself up for more humiliation. And he knew it.

"Hmph," he scoffed, crossing his arms and turning his head aside, trying to project aloof disdain. "Fine. If you're so worried about someone getting hurt that you won't even throw a proper punch, I suppose we can settle this another time," he said, trying to maintain at least some semblance of dignity.

Judging by the roaring laughter and sarcastic jibes of the crowd, it wasn't a particularly successful attempt. With a sniff, Howl leaped back up to the rooftop and departed.

Evidently that was more-or-less enough excitement to satisfy the crowd. A few more throws, autographs, and selfies, and they began dispersing, freeing you up to get back to your actual job.

Spoiler

Show

Take 10 Hero Points for the victory.

[DeAnno]

Frustrated by Rhino guy's (unaware) mental recalcitrance, Shadow decided he was more or less done at this scene. It was an obvious murder, suspicious texts and people had been spotted, and Parish was now eating lunch. Checking over history on his phone again, he decided the third scene could use some more looking around, and stalked across the city to the third crime scene after giving Katie a heads-up that he would be heading over to see what he could taste.

The scene was as gory as expected when he arrived, both to mundane and super senses. He was still small enough to fit under a pebble, and the scattered remains were almost an alien landscape of blood lakes and fleshy obstructions. The panic at the scene was ... well it was old already, but Shadow wouldn't feel very good about eating this so maybe that was for the best.

He knew the threat had come from the air... but something so manic to do this, he doubted it had been feeling any fear at all. Instead, he decided he would be better served by finding an actual witness. None had turned up in the initial investigation, but it's possible someone had seen something and been so spooked they had run instead of talking to police, or that the actual target was captured instead of being killed, with the mass murder to conceal it.

Spoiler

Show

Keeping in mind his Perception Edge 24 sets a minimum result, Shadow does a Search for a fear trail (or trails) that seems to be originating from the murder spree itself but that doesn't end in death.

Full, 10 heroic + (1d20+10)[26]

[Ridai]

"I'm a superwrestler. I wrestle supers." Howl getting demolished and jeered at isn't particularly nice, but that is what you get if you are deadset on playing the heel and lose a fight you picked. Still, this wasn't a real match, and there was a fair bit of personal pride in there, Oni could tell. Just when Howl is about to disappear on the rooftop, she shouts

"Hey! Challenge me in a proper arena next time! You're better than brawling in a street like a thug, Howl, and you know it! Call Jen, she'll set something up!" And she's serious. No sarcasm or anything. Oni knows how hard things were for some of the good guys and gals in the X-League when the crap underside was exposed. Sure, Howl still won't win a match against her, but the publicity might do wonders to invigorate his career, give him some dignity back. Gotta look out for one's brothers and sisters in the business. Quick text to Jen to let her know about Howl.

"Alright, alright, folks, gotta get back to work," Oni calls out to the crowd, taking care of the last few stragglers. Once she's sure people are well and sure away from the crime scene, Oni enters just that.

"Aw hell," is heard as she sets eyes on the bloody mess, grimacing. Always takes a moment to adjust to grisly sights like these. Spotting her team, Oni heads over, careful not to disturb anything or anyone. "Crowd outside's happy, untraumatized, and gone. How're things going in here?"

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Heh. I'm pretty sure pulling stuff out of the ether is what they expect a mage to do." Kingsley (half-?)joked, then took a moment to read over the the couple of text he recieved in the meantime.

"So, it seems these demons call themselves the Hell Raisers." he asked, directing the flow of mana to his eyes and starting to search the scene for clues. "Guess one of them is actually a demon to creativity. But anyway, the murdered Streetguard member claimed he had found a bloodsports ring right on their turf, and definitive proof of it being headed by this Ethan Parish chap."

Never be it said that Kingsley Moore did not uphold his end of a bargain.

"Does any of that ring a bell? Did Styles ever relay anything of her investigation?"

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Activate Arcane Sight.
Full: Search, Perception (@+10H, +2 from Investigation) (1d20+12)[14]. What the heck dice, you hate Kingsley so much? 24.

So, how much time has passed since Style's body was found? Because I'm pretty sure "where was she killed" is outside of the two hours range...

[Llyarden]

Allison sent a screenshot of Armel's (phone's) path to the others, accompanying it with a short message. No sign of the evidence Keller claimed to have, or indeed any evidence of the blood sports he was supposedly investigating at all. However, I found Keller's phone, and from that its GPS history. It was at Parrish's house for twenty minutes before being dumped in the location we found it in. While not sufficient to get a warrant, that's definitely enough cause for us to interview Parrish himself. However, there's something else in the location history - a scrapyard, off his normal patrol route. It was immediately after he visited it that he went to Parrish's house, so if anyone wants to investigate that, I suggest doing so cautiously, as it seems likely that that was where he was affected by whatever compulsion or other mental manipulation caused him to act so abnormally.

Then she sent a message off to SCOUT HQ, setting the ball rolling on getting public surveillance footage from two locations - the area around the scrapyard when Armel was there, and the area his phone was dumped at the time it was dumped there - with a request to forward to her any footage that seemed relevant.

And then, finally, she turned back to Lena. "So, our current theory is that Armel was affected by a supernormal mental compulsion. The gang who call that area -" she indicated to the Hell Raisers' territory on Armel's phone "- their territory are apparently capable of inspiring aggression in others. I realise this may be a hard question, but...if Armel was affected by some sort of 'enforced rage' and his mental state was disrupted, do you think it would be possible that he might make connections to Parrish that weren't actually there?" Her tone was sympathetic, but equally clearly it wasn't one of those questions that investigators had to ask even if they knew the answers to them.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Going to see if the footage from around the phone-dumping-place and the scrapyard turn up anything before I decide my actions.

[manwithaplan]

"Yeah, hey, circle up." Katie's first priority when Oni made it back to the scene was to bring her into a huddle with Shadow so that they could communicate amongst each other.

"Have you been on comms, Oni? All the information is on your phone. The short of it is that before Keller died his phone was at a scrapyard that we believe belongs to a group of demons to peace, and then it was at the house of a man named Parish before getting dumped somewhere else. One of the guards outside Parish's house is a sketch match for the man that dropped off Keller's head. So we've got to make an investigation on the scrapyard which could go hot, and we need to bring in a couple people for questioning. And I bet approaching either of those things could alert the other. But we're not done here, either - I need help wrapping up my search, if you can look around."

Katie performed a final conclusive run-over of every point of interest she'd already found, getting Oni to double-check her work this time. When that was done, she picked up off the ground and half-parkour'd, half-flew over to the last tagged location of Keller's phone. She approached the position by rooftop, trying to get a birds' eye view

Spoiler

Show

Standard Action: One final throwaway Investigation check, hopefully getting an Aid from Oni. Investigation (1d20+5)[8].
Move Action: Apparently I took Speed 14! Going to zoom over to where Keller's phone is.

[Ridai]

Oni gives a sheepish smile when asked about the comms. "Been a little busy outside. Got challenged, too." Listening to the shape of things right now, Oni nods. "I'll have a look-see."

With that, Oni places herself a bit out of the way, as to not disturb anyone and... seemingly just stands there. Her eyes are moving, and she does grimace a little every now and then, but she just... stands there. Of course, those who do know about her powers know she doesn't exactly need to move about to look at anything. On Oni's side of things, due to the nature of her eyes, she gets a very, very close look at everything. On the upside, however, she is able to pick up even tiny clues, check things concealed by gore or objects (or walls), and look in very dark or hardly accessible places.

Oni just hopes she can make up for her lack of contribution so far. The others got so much done already.

Spoiler: Actions

Show

Full Search the scene with Oni's Eyes of the Inevitable Ballista
Vision Enhancement (Analytical, Clear (all descriptors), Circuitous 2, Piercing)
Perception (1d20+5)[18]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Sorry guys I either didn't notice or plum forgot that everyone had posted.

Shadow and Oni (Third Crime Scene)

The fear remnants are covering the scene as thoroughly as the blood is. Maybe moreso. For the most part, it just lays over everything, an hours-old coating of shock, panic, and terror from over a dozen people. Atop that are fresher, fainter traces, the extremely rational fear of the MEs, EMTs, and police who have been processing the scene and only imagining what or who could have done such a thing. But...there's also something else. It's hard to sense, mixed in with all the rest of it, but distinct enough that Shadow's able to notice it. A sort of horrified dread drizzled over the entire scene. It doesn't trail off anywhere though; either whoever was feeling it never left, or it was overtaken by some different emotion before they did.

Shadow does pick up another notable trail as well...but it doesn't go far enough to need following, not when the Eyes of the Inevitable Ballista are on the scene. In searching the area with her unique mode of vision, Oni can not only see everything in the parking lot, but also in each of the shops and businesses. There's a few more dead bodies inside the various businesses, but the key finding, at the end of the fear trail Shadow found, is a twelve-year-old boy hiding in a storage closet in one of the restaurants, though at the moment he's passed out.

Kingsley (Second Crime Scene)

Kaiser finished his first divinations with a frown. "She was killed more than two hours ago, further back than I can look. We'll have to get creative I suppose. I never heard anything about an Ethan Parish or any blood sports. The Hell Raisers were the ones she was sent to deal with, yes. We learned about them about a week ago, Styles was assigned to check their operation out, and either dispatch them if she felt it within her power to do so or call for backup if not."

"And before you ask, yes, the Council considered alerting you so your team could handle it. But SCOUT has so far remained dangerously stubborn about using mortal law to deal with Supernals that have a presence in the mortal world. Which in this case would probably have been playing right into their hands. We hypothesize that their cover as a gang makes it possible for their members to regularly move in and out of prison, giving them opportunities to conduct long-term manipulations on the mortal convicts within, so they cause more conflict once they are released."

Searching around the alley, there's not currently any active magic aside from Kaiser's. But...you do find some light blood spatter on the ground and one of the walls, as well as a piece of a tooth lying about eight feet from the body.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Just to note the fact that she was killed more than two hours ago isn't considered your free question. Just establishing that trying to divine about the actual killing would have been his first move but her death occurred outside his window.

Allison

Spoiler

Show

Totally forgot to get you that information earlier. That was on me, so if you want to take your last round's actions as well this round feel free.

Lena frowned and seemed to almost visibly close up at your question. "What are you trying to say? That this was his fault or something? I don't know about any 'enforced aggression' crap or whatever. But I know Armel, and if he went to confront Parish he had a reason for it! I thought you were on our side!" Her tone was accusatory, despite the fact that you had, you know, clearly not in any way suggested that it was Armel's fault. Evidently trust does not come easily to the Streetguard. To be fair, when you've been exposed to the worst in people so often, it gets hard to see the best in them.

It didn't take long for the team to get back to you with the videos - since you knew the general time, they were easy enough to find. A camera spotted Keller entering the scrapyard, moving cautiously and seeming to be looking around with wary curiosity. Not long after he entered, his gaze darted to something off-screen, though his back was to the camera so you couldn't see his expression. After several seconds, there was a sudden blur of static that lasted about ten seconds. Once the screen cleared up, Keller turned around and went strode out of the scrapyard, moving at speed and with a determinedly angry look on his face.

There weren't any great angles on the video of the dumping point, and the team hadn't spotted anything noteworthy in their review.

Katie

Tracking down the phone's location takes you to another apartment complex and...another dumpster. Fortunately, you have telekinesis, so it's neither particularly difficult nor messy to find what you're looking for. Keller's body - with his phone and wallet in his pockets - has been buried in the dumpster under the trash. Not really the best of dumping locations, but hey at least this time the dumper went to the effort to cover it rather than just hoping a garbage truck would collect the trash before someone else opened the dumpster, or whatever the logic was at the first site.

Spoiler

Show

All PCs are on turn.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Yes, I suppose I cannot blame them for that." There were definitely situations not really suited to SCOUT's approach, especially when the Geas of Secrecy came into the picture.

"Anyway," Kingsley continued, crouching down to examine the ground, "there's blood and this piece of tooth, which would suggest she was attacked here in this alley, but..."

Being beaten to death usually involved a little more blood. He stood back up and approached the body, looking around and at the wounds to try to reconstruct the scene. "Hmm. Hmmm. Judging from this, I suppose it went like this..."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Standard: Kaiser does an Assess Clues at (1d20+15)[34]. 39, I think.
Move: Aid with Expertise (Strategy) at (@+5H) (1d20+15)[30]

[Llyarden]

Allison...wasn't exactly surprised by Lena's outburst. "I'm on the same side I was the last time you asked," she replied mildly. "The side of finding out who was responsible for Armel's death and bringing them to justice. And that means getting all the facts - because if Parrish was involved and we charge him with anything, I think you know as well as I do that he'll have a very high-priced lawyer on his side. And to a good lawyer, every piece of information that we don't know is something that could inject enough doubt into a jury for him to walk. So you'll need to think about the answer to that question."

She glanced at her phone briefly, taking in the reports from the others and her team. "Our team found Armel's phone," she continued. "Once we've checked it for forensics, would you mind taking a look at the phone itself, to see if there's anything that Armel didn't upload to the cloud?" And while any data stored only on the phone would undoubtedly be useful, it also kept Lena occupied and less likely to accidentally let anything slip to Parrish's contact in the Streetguard. "I'm afraid I need to go and check out another scene." She pulled a business card from her pocket - one of her SCOUT ones, not one of her lawyer ones (and yes, she had got those muddled once or twice) - and proffered it to Lena. "Feel free to call me if you need anything, though."

As she left, she sent off a few more rapid-fire texts to begin the process of getting a warrant for Parrish's house, then (once out of range of Lena's super-hearing) brought the rest of the team up to date. "Once we have the warrant for Parrish's house, I'd like to try to interview him as well. I suggest anyone who wants to be part of the execution of the warrant doesn't immediately come with me until it's clear what his intentions are. We still don't know entirely what he's capable of. It also appears that he's got contacts in the Streetguard - Kalb is the surname of one of their members I represented, and Lena is another of their members who I've been interviewing - so it's possible that any move we make on either the scrapyard or Parrish might result in the other being alerted."

And while she was waiting for the warrant to be procured, she flitted back to SCOUT HQ and borrowed one of their bigger computer screens to peer at the footage of Armel's brief visit to the scrapyard in more detail.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Searching the video feed from the scrapyard with last round's actions. I'll keep this round's available for either the inevitable social checks with Parrish and his guards or to help Oni & Shadow with their new witness if he wakes up at some point and they want to do other things.
Perception: (1d20)[3] with +10 Heroic. Good thing I had the Heroic bonus. 13 total.

[Ridai]

Oni and her huge white mane are standing next to a few EMTs. "Can you come with me for a sec? Found a passed-out boy hiding in there," she says, pointing a large thumb towards the restaurant with a theme that could best be described as "generically foreign", with about as much cultural precision as standing in front of a globe and indicating a particular location by slapping an open hand somewhere on a landmass and going "eh, close enough".

Without further ado, Oni leads whoever follows over to the restaurant, walking over to the closet and carefully opening it. Don't want to startle the kid, probably has already seen way too much. Can only hope he didn't lose family or friends in the carnage.

If the boy doesn't immediately wake up, Oni gently reaches out, touching his hand. "Hey, are you alright?" Honestly, she doesn't really know how this could turn out. She's kind of hoping she seems either nice or trustworthy enough to establish some form of connection. Over the course of her career, she's heard from fans how she has helped them through some dark spots in their lives, which made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside each time, so... maybe it happens again?

[Quellian-dyrae]

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Just an intermediary post so Oni and Shadow have more to work with.

With a little prodding, the boy came to drowsily. He looked around in growing confusion, not seeming...entirely aware of where he was or what was going on. He...did shrink back a bit when he took in Oni's fearsome appearance, but he didn't like start screaming or anything, so that was good! He didn't say anything, though it was hard to say whether that was from fear, trauma, or disorientation. One of the EMTs produced a blanket to drape over him.

[manwithaplan]

"Okay. This is more my kind of thing."

Not wanting to get fingerprints on anything, Katie conducted her investigation entirely with telekinesis from the safety of a fire escape overseeing the parking alley.

With her powers, she carefully picked up and manipulated everything in the area, diving through dumpsters and checking under cars without impunity. While she was doing that, she had Armel's phone daintily floating near her head as she tried to, with as much respect as possible, skim through his recent messages to find anything of interest.

Spoiler

Show

Free: Cursory look at Armel's communications.
Full: Search the scene! (1d20+12)[17]. 27 after Heroic.

[Ridai]

Oni feels so bad for the kid when he shrinks away. Can be easy to forget that she, well, looks pretty weird, and weird isn't exactly the best thing when waking up from having passed out in terror. Raising her hands and giving him (and the EMT wrapping the boy in a blanket) a little more room, she goes "It's okay, it's okay! There are no bad people here anymore, you're safe."

She should probably ask him a few things to help with the case, but no, she can't bring herself to do so right now. The boy needs to get out of here and calm down a bit first. Which means getting him past the carnage without him having to see it. Right now, though, she has to let the EMTs do their thing, see if the boy's alright and needs anything, so Oni is... acting as moral support?

"I'm Oni. What's your name?" It... may be a little cliché to start this way, but adding a name to a stranger's face could help.

[DeAnno]

Shadow on the other hand ... it's probably good that he's not so easy to notice right now. At the best of times he has to be careful with introductions, and now is definitely not the best of times.

However, not being helpful for comforting the boy doesn't mean he can't do anything useful. It's easy to tell himself that he could learn vital information about the crime by sampling some fear off the kid, mostly because it's true. If he's honest with himself though, at least half the reason is that he's pretty hungry. It's not like the kid will be hurt, or even notice, and he's already afraid anyway.

Spoiler

Show

Messed up rolling machine in this post somehow, see OOC thread for roll

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kingsley

"I see, yes. She was certainly killed here. The blood spatter seems to match up with her injuries well enough...I'm no medical examiner, but I would guess most of her injuries are internal." He listens to your assessment of how the fight went, nodding at a few points. "Agreed, so it was almost certainly multiple attackers. There doesn't seem to be much damage to the surrounding area, so the attack was probably mostly physical in nature. Hm."

"Styles preferred force-based attacks, I recall. I'd expect to see some damage to the walls from people getting launched into them telekinetically, more blood from injuries from force blades...maybe even some dust piles, if she used her disintegrating attacks. Even if her attackers brought their fallen with them, they clearly didn't do much to clean up the scene. Either they had some way to suppress her magic, or this was an ambush or blitz attack. I would guess a blitz. Demons to peace aren't exactly subtle and patient opponents, and a large group would be unlikely to catch a Hunter like Styles off her guard. I suppose they might be able to break a wizard's concentration, but I'd be surprised if they could do it so reliably that they keep her from getting any attacks off. A blitz attack, with a large enough group...they'd have to be more powerful than we were assuming, but it isn't impossible."

Kaiser frowned as he spoke. "It fits the evidence, but it still doesn't really seem like the demon to peace MO. They revel in conflict. This is just too...efficient. Maybe they just deemed her that big of a threat, I suppose. Or maybe someone else was directing them..."

Allison

Your calm, patient response had a result. Lena kinda looked away and muttered something under her breath that very well might have been an apology. When you asked her if she could look through Arnel's phone, she said, "Yeah. I mean, it should be the same password as the cloud account, if they want to look first." She took your card and said, "Okay.
I'm...I'm going to stay here, if that's alright. Maybe I can find something else. Or..." she kinda just trailed off and shrugged.

There wasn't much else on the video that you could see. Good news was, by the time you had finished your review of them, the warrant had come through!

Katie

Armel's phone didn't have too much that wasn't on the cloud. A few more calls and texts and such, but nothing of particular significance to the case.

Armel's clothes have been torn - cut, really - in several places, the iron-hard skin beneath cracked and shattered. More evidence of a blade backed by superhuman power used to kill him, but since it's just a dump site the scene doesn't really have much else to go-

Jackpot. There's blood on Armel's knuckles, and it's not his own - split knuckles isn't really something you have to worry about when your skin is iron hard. And clenched in a vise-like death-grip in his right hand are a couple strands of medium-length dark hair.

The Streetguard managed to get some of his killer's DNA before going out.

Oni and Shadow

"Pete," the boy answered Oni, his demeanor as he spoke to her largely that of a child reaching out to pet a very large dog. "...Do you know where my dad is?"

After a morning of mostly old, stale fear that had been left on the ground, the boy's fear was just the hearty breakfast that Shadow deserved. While he had an instinctive fear reaction to Oni's frightening appearance, that was starting to fade. There was definitely more beneath it, an hours-old panic that had largely cooled, but was seeming to heat back up, likely as memories came back to him. There was also a dawning sense of growing dread.

Spoiler

Show

All PCs are on turn.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Most likely." Kingsley agreed, then once again squatted down in front of the body and started pulling out a few tools (some mundane...others not really). "Let's see if I can get us a specific time of death."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Standard+Move: Expertise (Medical) (1d20+10)[13] to determine time of death in the usual manner (temperature, rigor mortis, you know the drill), Aided with Expertise (Magical Theory) (1d20+15)[28] (@+10H) by measuring the decay of Styles's wards, mana level, etc. 18.

Well, unless the magical approach is enough by itself, in which case I'll use Magical Theory for the main roll too. Which I really, really hope is the case. This would be a 30.

[Ridai]

Ohh, Oni doesn't like where this is going.

"What's your dad's name? SCOUT can try to find him. Meanwhile, can you come with us? Just want someone to give you a quick check-up and you could probably use something to eat."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kingsley

Well Kingsley's not an ME but he certainly knows enough for a basic time of death, and measuring the decay of her wards helps narrow it down further. Best estimate is she was killed somewhere between 10 PM and midnight.

Oni and Shadow

"Uh...Omar. Omar Merritt," the boy answered. He hesitated a moment, and then said, "Yeah I'm pretty hungry," and stood up to follow Oni.

Spoiler

Show

Just an intermediary post, but Kingsley go ahead and take a bonus standard action so you're not just sitting around. If this game has taught me anything it is that the system of rounds doesn't work nearly as well for other challenges as they do for combat. But whatever. Tao of Parson.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Mmm...ten pm and midnight." Kingsley announced. "Not the dead of the night, so it's possible someone has seen something. I'll help you ask around."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Well, I'll still need to wait next round to have Kaiser canvass the neighborhood, but I can use this bonus standard to Aid him. Is Expertise, either (Supernals) or (Magic), valid? I'm guessing something along the lines of helping discern if something of what's (not) reported has to do with demons and/or magic, or possibly knowing what to ask for those details to come up. (1d20+15)[19] (@+5H) 24. +2 bonus.

Also, I still have the divination. Is "what has been removed from this alley in the last two hours?" a valid question?

[manwithaplan]

Katie collected the biological samples from Armel, once again using her telekinesis to forgo having to touch them. As she was doing that, she called for medical services to come and collect his body. And then all that was left to do was wait for them, so she started sending texts.

[Got attacker's DNA from Armel, will process it soon.]

Spoiler

Show

I'm going to stand guard by the body for a while anyway, so I might as well spend this round attempting to beat my last Search result.

Search (1d20+12)[21]. 31.

[Ridai]

Oni cracks a smile, not yet rising back to a standing position. She feels it wouldn't help things if she started to tower over the boy right away. "Alright, let's go fix that. However, things aren't looking very nice outside, so I'll need to cover your eyes while we are heading out of the mall area. Just until then. Now I know that may sound a little scary and stumbly, but I think I can at least help with the latter. Don't worry, nothing bad is going to happen." She reaches out to the boyas gently as she can, grasping his torso under the arms, and very lightly throwing the boy upwards, just a few inches. To his surprise, he finds that instead of falling back down, he is hovering in the air, and instinctively knows how to maneuver in the air.

"Tada, you can now fly, at least while I'm around. So here's what I have in mind: you put on a blindfold, take my hand, I'll lead you outside where we'll get you something to eat, get you a quick check-up, I let my colleagues know about looking for your dad, and you can fly around a bit out there. Sound good?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kingsley

"Sounds good. One moment," Kaiser said, performing one last divination. He wore a faint frown as he finished, and gave a little shake of his head. "Nothing's been removed from the scene in the past two hours, anyway, and the only people to leave it during that time period were your teammates."

He quickly checked outside the alley, making sure nobody was around or observing, and then sent a text message. A few moments later, you could hear the soft pop of displaced air as somebody teleported into the vicinity - but nobody appeared. You saw a faint, momentary blur as Style's body was covered with an illusion of itself, and then there was a soft rushing sound as air filled a sudden vortex left by two suddenly-vanishing pieces of matter. The illusion, you knew from Circle protocol, would be a programmed one - it would only be detectable by those who expected to see the body there, and would expire entirely if the alley went unobserved for at least thirty minutes. It would have been an elaborate piece of spellcraft on its own, but a knowledgeable enough wizard could pull off some interesting tricks with the right procedures to piggyback a bit on the magic of the powerful Geasa that permeated the world. With that crutch available, it required specialized skills, but was more hard to learn how to do than to actually do.

"Alright, let's go," Kaiser said, heading from the alley to begin the process of canvassing the neighborhood.

Katie

The wait isn't too terribly long - although to be fair, it seemed quite a bit longer to your imprint, especially considering how much your team had narrowed down some of the probable suspects. But it was long enough for you to give the area a more thorough once-over. And while there wasn't too much to find...you did manage to spot something kinda out of place. A single long strand of what looked like lavender hair.

Oni and Shadow

Look, I don't care what you've been through, what you're scared of, or how hungry you are. Flying is fun and will always be fun. This goes ten times for kids. Pete whooped and cheered and obligingly didn't peek out from under the blindfold as Oni flew him out of the area. ...Might have kinda degraded Shadow's meal some, to be fair. Was just a little acrophobia too much to ask, I ask you?

Obviously this particular shopping center wasn't exactly a viable option for getting the kid some food, but fortunately there was basically your choice of fast food places within walking distance. The EMTs didn't need much time to check Pete out; from a professional medical standpoint it wasn't strictly obvious at a glance that he was physically fine, but it was the next best thing.

Spoiler

Show

All PCs are on turn.

I was considering timeskipping to somewhere but I wasn't...really sure where to. But in case anyone missed the note on Discord, we can wrap up some of these things in parallel if you guys want to jump forward a bit, since some of the team is waiting on backup.