london ♔ tonight darkness will shadow the light

[superswank]

WHO || Sydney, Sark, Francesca, Will, Sam, Lydia, Cora  [Closed]
WHAT || The Knights follow a possible lead into the ritual that cult leader Nicholas St. Andrew is attempting 
WHERE ||London, England
WHEN || Feb 26th, evening  [back dated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

The Children of Chaos may not be what they appeared to be.   According to intelligence provided by Julian Sark, a previous employee of the cult's leader, Nicholas St. Andrew, the cult was founded merely as a way for St. Andrew to dupe his 'followers' into completing several objectives for him.  Including the theft and activation of two ancient idols, which, when coupled with some horrible ritual that seems to involve the removal of human hearts, might just grant St. Andrew some kind of supernatural power.  

Naturally, this is precisely the sort of thing the Knights are interested in stopping.  After pow-wowing with all those who had confronted the cult over the last couple years, Wynn's team heads out to investigate the most recent attack, which took place in an alleyway at night.   Jared O'Keefe is on hand when they arrive at the scene, and greets them with what information they've discovered.

"The victim was a white male in his early twenties, named Philip Juneau.   He worked as a lineman for the phone company and was responding to a report of intermittent service outages at the time of his death, according to his service log with the company."  He points to the nearby entrance.  "Our killer must have been waiting for him.   He didn't get his work done this time, however, thanks to the pizza delivery man's timely arrival."

Comments

[certainproclivity]

[Sark, meanwhile, rather than stand back and let the Knights do the work, sweeps the scene for any tell-tale clue, hoping to use his own personal knowledge of St. Andrew (investigate 20 total)]

[superswank]

[ whatever scent she might catch is overpowered by the smell of fresh blood, although she can catch whiffs of some kind of unusual wet fur as well. she'd also catch the smell of sewer rising from somewhere nearby.

jared shakes his head at her.

"He didn't notice much. What he did catch freaked him out so much that he turned and got out of there without stopping to take a picture, mental or otherwise."

sark would take note that the flesh of the victim's chest has been marked with a series of arcane symbols. syd moves up beside him, as if to not let him hog?? the body???? idek, she just feels a competitive instinct here ok. which probably explains her nat 20. (unsure) ]

The heart's been removed with surgical precision. [ she leans in even closer, holding one hand over her nose for a second as she examines the aorta and blood vessels leading into the ruined cavity. ] These were all cut cleanly. I don't know any animal that cuts organs out with a scalpel.

[certainproclivity]

[Sark would fucking tell you what those symbols are, BUT HE CRIT FAILED HIS ARCANE LORE CHECK, because i guess he got a boner from Sydney breathing down his neck and being all smart.]

That would explain the symbols.

[mydesigns]

[meanwhile will is doing the thing where he ignores everyone and stares blankly at the crime scene like a weirdo. hashtag just will graham things. (investigate 23. ALL THESE BITCHES ARE IN HIS SPACE IT'S MAKING IT HARD FOR HIM TO THINK GRRRRR.)]

[familybusiness]

Let me see.

[Symbols are his bread and butter, I guess (arcane lore 30).]

[immuno]

[ Lydia's peering around Sam as well, but she has no new information to add to whatever he gleans from them because she only rolled a 24. Aren't you glad I held you up for this tag. ]

[impetere]

[Cora glances over, her nose following the scent and she takes a couple of steps away from the body to try and get away from the blood. Wet fur makes sense, but the second part ... ]

Is there a sewer entrance near here?

[That was for Mr. Anastasia Jared.]

[socialgraces]

[ francesca is keeping her distance, standing far to the side of the group crowded around the bloody corpse. she's watching will curiously as he does his thing, but cora's question does grab her attention. ] I could make a couple phone calls to the city and verify the location of any nearby sewer entrances. [ unless jared does somehow know that information off the top of his head.

if no one objects, she will make said calls (gather information 36). ]

[superswank]

[ sam recognizes the arcane symbols, which are meant to magically keep the heart still beating as it is harvested from the chest cavity o__o

francesca's right, jared just shakes his head and scratches the back of his neck. "Not sure off hand, but you could check into it. You think he escaped through a sewer?"

francesca easily talks the people at the city office into relaying that yes, there's a sewer entrance via a manhole not far from where they are now, and she would also find out while she's at it that throughout that sewer system are access halls where the phone company and other utilities have been allowed to place materials that they do now want accessible to the general public.

meanwhile, will is just standing there creepily tuning all y'all out, replaying the scene in his mind:

the victim, in his phone service uniform heading down the alley, stopped by the voice of a man behind him. turning, he sees nicholas st. andrew, in his long, black coat, hands in his pockets. he identifies himself as the cult member's 'high priest', distracts him while a figure stalks up behind him, some kind of dark shadowy beast obscured by will's sketchy mental image of what it is, feline in its movements. st. andrew moves closer, and his hand draws out of his pocket in a flash as the man allows his approach, the needle flashing as he injects the man with the sodium pentathol that renders him unconscious. st. andrew catches him with his other arm, slowly lowers him to the ground.

pulls out a scalpel. sets to work carving the arcane symbols into the flesh of the man's chest, and then cutting it open, muttering the words of an incantation as he reaches in to draw out his still beating heart----

and that's about as far as will gets before he snaps back to reality. syd looks up from sark to sam. ] What do they mean?

[familybusiness]

[Sam manages not to pale or anything at his realization, though his nose crinkles up a bit as he meets Syd's eyes to answer.]

They kept the victim's heart beating while he worked. I guess it needed to be...as fresh as possible.

[impetere]

[Cora nods in response to Jared's question, her eyes scanning the scene to see if there's anything else she can use (spot 26) as well as keeping her ears open for any sign that someone might be watching them (listen 19).]

Definitely went through the sewers.

[certainproclivity]

[Sark just looks deeply pained, and slowly stands up, eyeing the lapel of his suit.]

I suppose that's what I get for wearing five hundred dollar shoes.

[immuno]

You're not the only one regretting that choice.

[ She lifts bends her knee to lift her heel, revealing a red Louboutin sole. Goddamn. Did they just bond? Now maybe she approves of Sydney's suitor. ]

We don't all have to follow, do we?

[superswank]

The other teams have been over the crime scenes time and time again. If we can actually follow St. Andrew... This is the lead we've been waiting for.

[ cora, meanwhile, finds some footprints in the puddled mud, leading further down the alley... ]

[certainproclivity]

I suppose it wouldn't be an endgame without sacrifices of some sort.

[He'd rather it be his shoes than, you know, himself. Also he's gonna follow Sydney-senpai wherever she will go. just like that song.]

[immuno]

Of course it is.

[ BELABORED SIGH. ]

[impetere]

[Cora's going to just glance back at them with a AT LEAST YOU DON'T HAVE TO SMELL IT WITH YOUR SUPER SENSITIVE WEREWOLF NOSE - she totally gets all that down in a look - before she turns and points to the tracks she's found.]

There are tracks going this way.

[She's going to follow them, obviously, but the last time she was on a mission involving the Children of Chaos she got yelled at when she wandered off alone.]

[mydesigns]

[meanwhile, at this point, will finally snaps out of his weird trancelike state. yep, while all y'all were quipping and starting their way down the sewer ... will was still blankly staring into space. #justwillgrahamthings.]

I know what happened.

[immuno]

[ Oh, Will's still here. Lydia thought for sure he was never coming out of that absent seizure. She blinks twice at him. ]

What are you, clairvoyant?

[ Don't mind Lydia drawing hearts around his name in her mental notebook. She's dead-people-psychic too, Will. MFEO. ]

[mydesigns]

An empath. I see things, understand things the way other people can't.

[familybusiness]

Well, why don't you tell us what you saw?

[He's not trying to be an ass, really. Someone had to say it, at least he was nice about it?]

[mydesigns]

[OMFG HE WAS GETTING TO IT OK LYDIA INTERRUPTED HIM.]

The victim was heading down the alley. Nicholas St. Andrew snuck up on him, distracted him. While they were talking, another figure came up behind him. The uh, creature. Whatever it is. [will starts pantomiming how st. andrew would have done these movements to the air, ftr.] Then St. Andrew injected him with sodium penethol, laid him down, and started his ritual. Carving the symbols on his chest, cutting him open, doing the incantation, taking out his heart, and then ...

[he shakes his head.] I don't know after that.

[immuno]

Well, that was thoroughly disturbing.

[ She shakes it off like wow Will you are fucked up minus 15 points nvm. She turns away, looking to Cora. ]

You said you knew where he'd gone?

[impetere]

[She nods and then points in the direction the tracks are leading.]

Tracks head this way. I'm willing to bet the sewer entrance we're looking for is in that direction.

[Will's graphic retelling of the crime also doesn't really seem to bother her, but that's mostly because he's Will the Dog Whisperer and she's already determined him to be good people.]

[certainproclivity]

[Sark fixes Will with a curious look that gradually turns... as amused as he'll allow himself.]

Then we should hurry, while time is still on our side.