Veil of Smog, Chapter 1

[Batcathat]

"That's the question, isn't it?" Rufus said quietly to Leif, before standing up, grabbing his cane and walking over to the woman.

"Professor Foghath, always a pleasure", he said, lying twice in five words. The former professor was often a profitable customer, but almost as frequently a problematic one. "What can I help you with today?"

[Charybdis1618]

"Ah, Mr. Walcraft. Mostly browsing today. This place has always been a breath of fresh air to me, away from the hidebound strictures of academic establishment. I see you have company, I'll leave you to them. When you have a minute, though, I'd like to show you something I acquired."

She pushes some dust off the top of a bell jar, even though it visibly contains nothing.

[Batcathat]

"Of course, professor. Feel free to look around, I am sure there might be a thing or two of interest. We acquired some wonderful urns from the Miskovsky collection." He turned towards the homunculus, currently crouched beneath the table, looking demonstratively bored.

"Jiminy! Please show professor Foghath around." Translation: Keep an eye on her.

[Charybdis1618]

(Please make Jiminy roll Insight.) She makes polite conversation with Jiminy as he walks along the tops of displays, inquiring after details a few times. She pauses by the bookshelf, as she often does. She is definitely paying no attention to your guests. (You can continue to talk freely if you need to discuss anything more.)

[Charybdis1618]

The Professor is certainly in no hurry. She walks casually from item to item. Jiminy notices that she asks the kind of open-ended questions that will readily lead to a long explanation, or at least conversation. She also inquires after some items he remembers describing to her before.

Sarah can get the beginnings of the ritual done in the few hours before sundown. She'll be able to lay out some framework at a minimum. What's everyone else doing before then?

[Xihirli]

"Can you still go, Rufus, or do you need to close up shop first?" Leif asks.

[Batcathat]

"I suppose I should check in with my... esteemed customer first." Rufus sighed. "There's a quite decent pub across the street. You can go there and get something to eat or drink – tell Alfred to put it on my tab – and I will pick you up once I have dealt with Foghath and closed up."

[Charybdis1618]

When you approach her, she is standing by the window, leafing through a replica ancient text. You're not sure if she actually understands enough Persian to exteact meaning, but she seems to appreciate it nonetheless. You notice her glance out the window a few times.

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Walcraft. I've been abroad lately, and stumbled into lovely little curio shop in the back streets of Dublin. Such a long, storied history in that place! Anyhow, I saw these, and I thought of you before any other. Two things, really. The first you may consider a gift. The second, a proposition."

She pulls from under her coat a long, slender package, like if an umbrella were wrapped in brown paper. Unwrapping it reveals an elegantly carved walking cane, slender but sturdy, some sort of wood stain bringing out the writhing textures of the grain of the ancient oak. The brass knob affixed to the top is significantly newer, showing fewer signs of wear or tarnish.

"The shop owner let it go for a song, after I pointed out that it was supposed to have been a sword cane originally. He lost the blade. Accidentally sold it separately. It's not magic to anyone but a Druid, and they'd say the same of the mistletoe in the top of my backyard tree."

[Batcathat]

"Thank you, professor. It is quite lovely." It was, Rufus might even have been touched if not for the advertised proposition. He studied the cane carefully, as if deep in thought. "If I may be so blunt, what is it that you wish to propose? I must warn you, I am too old to get married again."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

In regards to Rufus studying the cane, keep his vision powers in mind (though I suspect something that can detect magic would've been more useful, I should really try to add that at some point).

[Charybdis1618]

The cane is, indeed, entirely mundane as far as you can tell. There is a hollow down the center, which could reasonably hold a short blade.

"Yes, well, I found a second item there as well. There was a birdhouse tucked away on a back shelf. It's terribly built, but take a look nonetheless."

She pulls an airtight bag from her purse. It contains a tiny birdhouse, maybe half a foot to a side. It couldn't hold anything larger than a hummingbird, in your estimation. The bottom of the interior seems to be growing some sort of bright green moss. It almost seems to wriggle through your monocle.

"Yes, it's alive. Had no sunlight, no nutrients of any sort, and it lived. I can tell it's magic, but not much more. You've got more raw power than I could ever hope to achieve. Help me study this, and let me publish, and you'll have a chance at fame. If my suspicions are correct, this might solve world hunger or something similarly significant."

[Batcathat]

"You certainly don't aim low, professor", Rufus said habitually as he studied the mossy birdhouse. Whatever it was, it was certainly fascinating, if in a less urgent way than, say, nightmare spirits. His fingers was practically twitching at the thought of taking it to the lab and having a closer look.

Of course, any collaboration with the former professor Foghath was fraught with potential problems. Still... while Lillian Foghath may be proud and ambitious enough that Lucifer might suggest she tone it down a bit, she was a – currently disgraced and somewhat corrupt – intellectual, not a villain. Her end goal was more likely getting the first ever Nobel prize in magic – Rufus' credit presumably mysteriously vanishing along the way – than world domination.

Ah, no use to try and justify a decision already made. Foghath could have the credit if the came to it, as long as Rufus could have the knowledge.

"Very well. You have a deal." He paused, resisting the urge to just run straight for the lab. "But I am afraid I have some very urgent business to attend to. Could we perhaps schedule something for..." How long was dealing with the current mess likely to take? "...next week, maybe? Believe me, I would like nothing more than to start right away, but I'm afraid this is of vital importance."

[Charybdis1618]

"Of course. On your own time. A million thanks. Could you store it in your laboratory? I'm afraid I'll kill it accidentally. Also, I'll reach out to those people in the Biology department who will still talk to me. I'll obtain some mundane equipment for the analysis. My number changed, here's my new card. Have a nice day, Mr. Walcraft."

She closes up her bag and walks out the door. A ride-share service picks her up barely a minute later.

[Batcathat]

"You as well, professor Foghath", Rufus replied as he took both the birdhouse and the card, suddenly feeling a lot friendlier towards his questionable customer. Ah, the miracle of mutual interest and magical moss. "I will take good care of it."

Meanwhile, Jiminy had gotten his hands on the new cane and was about to attempt to pole vault over one of the displays when Rufus waved him over and handed him the airtight bag. "Take this to my lab and place it in one of the secure containers. I want you by it at all times until I say otherwise and alert me about anything unusual, I do not want to risk neither thievery nor some sort of green goo scenario."

"Aw, c'mon", the homunculus complained. "I wanna come with to the haunted house. Can't the golems look after it?"

Rufus gave the golem clumsily attempting to clear the table a skeptical look. "I barely trust them with my fine china. I'm not going to trust them with this."

With that, Rufus grabbed his cane and headed across the street to find Leif.

[Xihirli]

Leif heads into the bar and finds a quiet corner to drink in, figuring he’d try some of the expensive **** rich people drink.
After one sip of something called a "rosé" he switched back to the cheap beer brand he was used to.

[Charybdis1618]

Night falls over Seattle. Islands of light push up through a sea of endless darkness, the quavering penumbra for all the world seeming like a shoreline. People love to claim they no longer fear the dark. They think they have evolved so far past their primal fears, but keep the lights lit nonetheless. Still, the wheels of civilization turn continually nowadays. To keep up, the people must swim through that endless black ocean, scurrying from light to light.

Leif and Rufus find the apartment building Jeremy referred you to. It's one of a dozen similar high-rises in the area. People sit on a few of the fire escape landings like makeshift balconies. A bucket and cardboard sign sit near the mouth of the alley, presumably the seat of a homeless person. Its occupant is nowhere to be seen. The office on the ground floor, near the front door, has a "Closed" sign hanging from a suction cup behind its glass. You can hear the sounds of a television through the closed door.

Yume, Shroud, and Sarah find the hospital only slightly less busy at night. There are fewer visitors, but patients still arrive and leave regularly.

[Esprit15]

As night falls, a chill fills Sarah’s bones. Thousands of years had yet to really catch up to the last two hundred. She remembered when mankind was just starting to experiment with truly vanquishing Father Night. Sara had heard about the advances being made back on the continent while she was on a Dutch trading ship in Asia and scoffed at the time. Lightning being confined to glass jars? She had not even heard of magic so powerful and yet some men in England and France were claiming to have done so. It repulsed her at first. Night was a constant. You could not turn it back anymore than you could the tides. To try beyond just lighting a fire was something akin to blasphemy.

And now, despite the discomfort at the contrasting light and shadow, it was as normal as her electric kettle. She breathes in the cool, wet air. “Yume, how many people can your talismans hide at once? I feel we should stick together, lest we get ambushed alone.”

[Izzarra]

Yume Tsukiyomi Kitsune Shrine Maiden Conditions: None

Being closely related to the things that go bump in the night, and having better night vision then a cat, Yume is unfazed by the darkness.
"Ofuda is not making me hide. It is something many yokai know to do ..." (she struggles with her limited English vocabulary trying to say "innately") "... within themselves. I could make one to hide you, but it will take time."

[Esprit15]

“Hm, if you want to do that for Shroud while I cast a spell, that might be helpful. Meanwhile she can scout the perimeter.”

[Xihirli]

Leif decided to ignore the CLOSED sign. He went up to the office door and rapped. Loudly.
A lack of answer was not about to deter him from continuing.

[Charybdis1618]

There is no immediate answer. The second flurry of knocks brings a shout of "Can't you jackoffs read? We're closed. Come back in the morning!"

[Batcathat]

"Our deepest apologies for disturbing you, but it's an urgent matter", Rufus said, pausing dramatically before continuing. "We have reason to suspect the tenants may have been exposed to a serious disease. It is quite frankly a matter of life and death."

[Charybdis1618]

The door creaks open. You see a man whose clothes look inside-out at a glance. A whiff of something burned carries out the door.

"What the hell are you talking about? I've gotten no reports on the matter. Plus, it's the tenant's responsibility to maintain their own hygiene."

[Batcathat]

"Of course, I certainly wasn't implying you are in any way responsible for the situation. You clearly run a very tight ship, as they say." Rufus created a fancy – though not golden, this time – business card for Dr. Rufus Wallington, M.D, Ph.D in the palm of his hand before reaching into his pocket to "retrieve" it and handing it to the man. "Though it would be of great help to us..." He theatrically lowered his voice. "...and to be frank, the people of this city, if you would let us have a look around."

[Charybdis1618]

(Excellent BSing. Please roll the appropriate check.)

[Charybdis1618]

"Is it Jameson? It's Jameson in 2124, isn't it? You can smell his **** from the hallway. Degenerate drunk. Come on, let's go."

He shrugs on a stained jean jacket and stands, tapping the carabiner on his belt where the ring of keys hangs. His dented metallic coffee cup empies in one pull and clatters against the desk.

[Xihirli]

Leif isn’t excited about the precedent this sets for his OWN apartment, but follows with a glance around just in case there’s a body or something nearby.

[Charybdis1618]

He leads you to the elevator, scowling at a tenant until they choose a different one. The floor 21 button takes a few presses to activate, but eventually the elevator starts rumbling its way upwards. The caretaker walks down the hall a ways to 2124, and knocks sharply. "Jameson! Mark Jameson!"

After precisely 30 seconds, he slides a key into the lock and twists it open. The door swings open a crack, then stops as a thin chain pulls taut. He leans against the opposite wall and does nothing further.

[Batcathat]

While the caretaker was clearly biased in the matter, this Jameson was as good a starting point as anyone else. Having the deeply unpleasant caretaker quite literally looking over their shoulders wasn't ideal, but Rufus felt vary of pushing the issue. Not that they couldn't get in another way if he threw them out, but it could draw some undue attention from mundane authorities and hostile spirits alike.

A chain was no problem, of course, but the question was how their uninvited companion would react. Humming to himself, he used the grip of his cane to pull at the chain, seemingly just examining it but actually transforming the metal into a much, much less sturdy one.

Seemingly pleased with what he had found, Rufus pulled at the door handle as hard as he could.

[Esprit15]

(Assuming that abilities have been clarified)
Sarah still opts to take a little time to cast her arcane vision spell. Without sleep immunity, she wanted as much information as possible about her surroundings.

Spoiler

Show

DC 18: (1d20+15)[32]

Within half an hour, her eyes shimmer with a faintly blue hue to those who are more perceptive. “Shroud, suggest you circle back and sneak in some other way. Yume, invisible with one of us.” With that, Sarah walks in to the front doors of the hospital.

“Hello, my name is Sarah Stillwater, I was here earlier. It seems there was a mixup in the security footage I was given. May I speak to someone in security?”

[Charybdis1618]

"Uh ... sure. Security office is through that door to your right. Go down the hall three doors, it's on the left. Big sign. Can't miss it."

The guard behind the desk looks up from the bank of monitors as you enter. "What brings you here?"