CLOSED ♔ hell won't tolerate hymns

[flyingsolo]

WHO || Jaina, Lydia, Astrid, Adam, Mars
WHAT || The Knights investigate several ritualistic murders
WHERE || Los Angeles, California
WHEN || April 8th, 2015
HOW || Actionspam

A string of ritualistic killings has the LAPD calling the Knights in, as there are suspected ties to magic or Shadowkind. Two new bodies have been found recently, and the murder scene is a back alley in a nightclub called the Alchemy Room. It's located in a rough part of town, known for its clubs, bars, and extravagant nightlife. The lights of a patrol car illuminate a gruesome tableau. Among the garbage that litters the alley lies the body of a young man in a trenchcoat, covered in body. Hanging from a fire escape some 10 feet above him is the body another young man, dressed in the latest fashion and dripping blood from the ears and mouth. His legs are caught in the bars of the fire escape, and his face is twisted with shock. How he could have ended up in that position is a mystery. An empty autoloader pistol lies beneath his outstretched hands. A single officer is waiting for them when they arrive, and she tips her hat to them, pushing herself off the car where she's leaning.

"Seen a lot of things in my day, but this..." She shakes her head and clucks her tongue. Jaina's eyes narrow in the darkness as she looks past her at the scene.

"What made the police think this was connected to the other murders?" she asks.

"Its a tentative link, I won't lie to you about that," the officer admits. "All the other bodies were missing at least their hands, and these are both in one piece. But there's some kind of knife on one of the bodies." She nods towards the one on the ground. "We haven't touched it yet, just in case. To be honest, we've heard plenty of stories about what touching magical artifacts can do to a person. But it's covered in markings, definitely some kind of ritual thing."

Comments

[charismapotion]

[ Mars has a major issue with senseless murder and this made his skin drop a shade or so as he looked horrified up at the stairwell, he kept Venus in his arms since his usual cat sitter is here he figured she might come in handy.

He stepped a little closer if he was allowed just to look up at the body. It made his stomach turn but he felt he had to do something. (spot; 16) ]

[pathology]

Maybe they didn't get to finish the ritual. Like, before they got to the chopping off body parts part, someone tried to come back here to do a drug deal and scared them off.

[so helpful. gory crime scenes don't bother her, so after sharing her "theory" with the class, she skims around with her eyes. (spot 29)]

[immuno]

[ Meanwhile, Lydia moves over to the body on the ground, stepping carefully around to avoid the blood, and pulls out her phone's flashlight app to get a better look at the knife, trying to get an idea of whether or not it's dangerous, something she's read about, or just a tacky gift shop trinket (knowledge arcana 23).

Her concentration on the body activates her detect dead ability (SO THAT SHE CAN DO DEATH VISIONS I MEAN OBVIOUSLY THEY ARE DEAD) as she draws nearer, hyper-focused but still very much present—as evidenced by her quick quips (concentration 10), ] Has your coroner confirmed precisely what killed them? [ The MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF BLOOD are a good indicator of general violence, but she's looking for specifics—and from where she's standing, it's hard to see through all the blood to particulars. Or at least hard to do without choking on bile. ]

[flyingsolo]

[ she nods brisky. "Just what we could get without disturbing the bodies so far. Your boss was specific about that. The man on the ground seems to have been killed by a single gunshot wound to the chest. The man on the fire escape died instantly when his neck was broken by someone or something very strong." she hands over a bagged pistol. "There was a struggle. Whoever fired the gun emptied the clip, but only one bullet struck the victim."

astrid and mars would take note of strange stains on the ground, that don't appear to be blood. amid the mud and filth are several footprints as well, that astrid alone notices, far too big to have been produced by either of the two victims. they lead out of the alley but are soon lost on the hard concrete sidewalks.

the dagger in question is tucked into the man on the ground's belt. what she can see of it indicates that it's gold plated, and covered in strange markings. she recognizes the writing as authentic magic, but it's nothing she can translate at a glance. either way, the markings appear more ceremonial than anything.

jaina moves to stand over lydia's shoulder, nodding towards something around the man's neck. ] What's that? [ what she indicates is a gold chain, from which hangs a strange pendant. it resembles a dog whistle, but is crafted from gold and covered with hieroglyphics. ]

[charismapotion]

[ Noting the strange spot he sat Venus down on the ground moving close to look at the spot, trying to see if he could identity it, hoping its just oil or something. ]

[pathology]

That's not blood. [she hovers over where mars is currently looking.] And these footprints [she motions down at them] are way too big to be either victim. [she follows them to where they disappear, which is highly disappointing and makes her curse under her breath.]

[immuno]

[ With perhaps a hint of Allison Argent's recklessness, Lydia pulls a wet wipe from her purse and uses it to pick up the dagger from inside the man's belt. She pulls it free, and when Jaina moves in to point out the pendant, she looks up from the weapon. ]

I don't know.

[ The way she says it makes it clear: 'not knowing' doesn't happen to Lydia a lot. She holds the dagger aloft for Jaina to take, then reaches with her free, bare hand to grab the necklace. ] I'll send pictures to Helen and Val'drin. They should be able to do something with these images. [ unless decipher script 21 flies? ]

[flyingsolo]

[ mars can make a knowledge (physical sciences) check to try and ascertain what that stuff is. all he knows is that it smells really strongly when he gets closer.

jaina takes the dagger with the wipe from lydia, but as lydia reaches down to grab the necklace, something slithers out from beneath the body, striking out at lydia with its fangs - a small snake - for atk 21. it only does 1 dmg, but she does have to make a fort save. ]

[immuno]

[ Lydia recoils, pulling her hand back towards her chest and covering the wound. ]

Dammit! [ fort save 20 total ]

[pathology]

[astrid stops her fruitless footprint investigation to jerk her head back to look at lydia.] Are you okay?!

[immuno]

It bit me.

[ She looks down at the wound, a brief, surface assessment, then she looks back down for the snake. ]

Have there been snakes used in any of these rituals?

[ Because they are sure as fuck not common to downtown L.A. ]

[charismapotion]

[ With a Crit fail there, he wrinkled his nose. Nope, he didn;t know what it was but it didn't smell good. Lydia's curse pulled his attention away.]

What did it look like? [ he's more worried about poison. ] Snakes are used in some spells and rituals.

[flyingsolo]

[ the snake lashes out at lydia's foot as she straightens up but jaina raises a palm, force striking it (strike 27) so hard that it flies across the alley, smacks a wall, and goes limp. the police woman stares wide eyed, looking nervously at jaina, before back to lydia.

"Not that I've heard of. I wonder how long it's been there." ]

[pathology]

I want to look at it! Maybe I can tell what it is.

[ NOT BECAUSE SHE'S A SNAKEBLOOD YOU RACISTS. because she watched snakes on a plane. so she zooms over to where the snake is laying to try and ID it. (knowledge: earth/life sci 34) ]

[immuno]

Great. Dissect it, for all I care.

[ Snappish. She reaches down, grabbing the necklace that she got bitten by a snake for. ]

We'll be taking this.

[flyingsolo]

[ it appears to be a little pseudocerastes which you can read about here astrid knows everything about snakes jfc

as lydia takes the whistle, jaina leans down to carefully extract the guy's wallet. she opens it to reveal some cash and a driver's license. ] Antoine LeMere. There's an address here in LA.

[pathology]

It's a desert horned viper! They think that's what could've killed Cleopatra now. You should let me see your bite, Lydia. Their venom isn't usually fatal, but it can pack a crazy nasty punch.

[immuno]

Snake bites require anti-venom. What is it you think looking at it is going to accomplish?

[ Despite the snark, she's straightening up and holding her wrist out for Astrid to scrutinize. ]

[pathology]

Um, I'm a doctor, okay? [and also she can use her detect poison spell on lydia's arm. so she does that. ~magic~.] You're fine.

[immuno]

[ silently squinting a little like DO I DETECT DISAPPOINTMENT ......... ]

[flyingsolo]

[ meanwhile, now that we know lydia's fine, jaina goes to check the ID on the body wrapped around the fire escape as well. she has to all but jump up to snatch it out of his pocket, while the police officer goes on.

"The young lady who found the bodies was leaving the club when the attack occurred. She claims to have heard a quiet, high pitched whistling noise, followed by gunshots and a scream. She hid for several minutes before peeking into the alleyway. Spotting the bodies, she ran back to the club and had the bouncer call the police. No one in the club heard or saw anything, and no one there could identify either victim."

jaina opens the other wallet, and announces its contents to the group: ] A little cash, a permit to carry a concealed weapon - that gun must have been his - a driver's license for Andrew Federson and an ID card for a professional security guard for Microsoft.

[ meanwhile, lydia can get a better look at the pendant in her hand - it's twisted and dented on one side slightly. ]

[pathology]

Like, literally whistling? Like a dog whistle? Except, you know, maybe not dogs. Like someone was sicced on them? Oh, snake whistle!!!

[immuno]

Some supernatural creatures make strange sounds, maybe even something like that.

[ knowledge arcana 28? ?? is there a thing that makes that sound ?? ? ]

[charismapotion]

[ Mars had stayed quiet trying to think of a spell a snake might be needed for, a whistling noise would certainly narrow that down. (Arcane Knowledge 20) ]

[flyingsolo]

[ there are definitely monsters that make whistling noises so lydia would think of a slew of them. /vaguely waves hands. there's no specific ritual requiring a spell though, especially one that makes some kind of noise. jaina points to the whistle-looking pendant that lydia is holding. ] LeMere's 'necklace'. Could something like that control his snake? [ she looks to astrid like idfk anything about snakes halp ]