london ♔ see how fast they fall apart

[nepotism]

♬ biting down - lorde

WHO || Fred Jr., Faye, Astrid, Taradiddle, Miles [Closed]
WHAT || CSI: London
WHERE || London, England
WHEN || Jan 12th, shortly before 4pm [forwarddated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, don't worry about maintaining tagging order.

The murder the Knights are sent to investigate took place in an abandoned warehouse, near the largest highway in London. The aging and dilapidated structure is covered with graffiti and bits of rusting metal.

Squad cars and emergency vehicles have surrounded the building. Outside the main entrance, police officers are questioning a small crowd of people when the Knights arrive.

Fred parks the car, and looks across through the passenger window.

"Must be the place. Let's roll."

Comments

[nepotism]

Wynn's got us clearance. He has contacts in the police, and they're the ones who sent for us. Follow my lead. [ and with that, he'll march right towards the officers, drawing out a badge that they don't get a good look at it. ] We're with the Karthur Research Institute. They told you we'd be comin'?

[ the officer, half distracted trying to interview the witnesses, takes a cursory look at his badge, and nods, waving them through. fred flips it shut and shoves it in his jacket again, heading up towards the building. ]

[pathology]

[astrid made the most of the time before the left the castle and got dressed. she looks much less like she just woke up now, okay. and she's trailing along after fred. to no one in particular:]

This is so cool.

[reallywicked]

[Alright Fred- that was impressive. Faye strolls on in with the others.]

So do we have any idea what this thing is? [She says in a moderately quiet tone. Not like the police know much more, but if they keep up the air of confidence, they'll be better off.]

[nepotism]

What fun would that be? [ the dark and gloomy interior of the warehouse is punctured by a few streams of light from outside, even through the grimy windows. the building is empty, except for a random collection of garbage and debris. the homicide officers and coroner's deputy have just finished bagging up a corpse - there's a chalk outline on the ground showing where two pieces of body had lain. fred pauses a few steps inside, keeping his voice low. ] Why don't we fan out? A couple people question the cops, everyone else take a look around. [ (gather info/diplomacy or search/investigate checks respectively). also listen checks from everyone. ]

[reallywicked]

[Faye crit failed her listen check, probably because she was really interested in that option where she could question the cops and not go digging around in the dirty warehouse. She half raises her hand.]

Dibs on cop talk. [Anyone else can come with her, that's cool. But she's not waiting for them. Breaking off, Faye makes her way to the nearest man in uniform.]

Hi... [She flashes a smile.] So I was hoping you could catch me up to speed? They brought me in on this last minute. I just hate feeling out of the loop. [Gather Information 23]

[godblessyou]

[Taradiddle pulls her cloak back on and starts looking around (search 17). She might be able to get some info out of the cops, but she'd rather do things this way. Also she keeps her ears pretty open (listen 25).]

[pathology]

[astrid is a much better snoop than she is a smooth-talker, so she gets on that. (search 21) but she is also ... a horrible multitasker, so that absorbs her completely and kills the rest of her attention span i guess. (listen 5)]

[nepotism]

[ fred trails along behind faye, hands in his pockets, glancing around and letting her do the talking, but obviously listening in.

the officer scowls and points at the bodybag. ]

"Looks like a young man, obviously some kind of street punk, found here via an anonymous tip. Eviscerated. Half the body here, half over there. Nobody took any trouble to try to hide the corpse either - left right out here in the middle of the floor." [ behind him, another officer finishes taking photographs of the scene, and the one faye is talking to waves to the last couple officers ] "Alright, load 'em up, boys, and get your gear."

[ tdiddle notices several claw marks on the floor in various locations, that look like they belonged to a large, powerful animal. following them, the creature seems to have clawed its way through a window to get to the victim initially.

astrid notes the blood marks on the floor - it seems the victim was taken down from behind and dragged bodily some distance across the warehouse before being torn apart. a short distance from the outlines taped on the floor is a spatter of blood that looks as if it couldn't have come from the victim's body.

as tdiddle is scoping out the window, she hears a strange whimpering sound coming from behind a stack of 55 gallon drums nestled in a dark corner. ]

[godblessyou]

[She's just gonna go investigate that by herself, yep. She peers behind the drums. Cautiously. Sort of...]

[nepotism]

[ behind the barrels is a cranny that looks wide enough for a human to barely squeeze through... the whimpering is definitely coming from in there but it's obscured by some barrels.

two of the police come to hoist up the body bag, as the other picks up the bag of gear. ]

"Good luck. Send us anything you come up with." [ as the police start to walk away, fred notices something glinting on the ground (spot nat 20!!) where the bag had been lying. he waits until the officers' backs are turned, before picking it up and concealing it in his hand casually as they head out. ]

[reallywicked]

[Faye doesn't spot the same glinting but she sure notices Fred's interest in the ground and the way he snatches something up (spot 18). She checks that the police are still distracted before joining him to walk away from the officers.]

What'd you find?

[nepotism]

[ fred flips it over in his hand, revealing a small white metal tag, that seems to be part of a collar. there's an inscription on it, which fred reads aloud. ] 'Hilberger Tech-X 433.'

[ his hand closes over it again. ] Seems as good a place as any to start.

[reallywicked]

I'm wondering who the hell had a tip about this going down. Maybe the two are connected. [She gives a shrug.]

[godblessyou]

[Taradiddle isn't stupid. She knows that going into a tiny cranny alone with something that is quite likely a deadly beast is not a good idea. She knows this is probably the killer monster thing they're all looking for.

So she draws her gnomish hammer before climbing behind the barrels.

Look, the others sounded pretty much like they want to kill it, and T-Diddle's not sure that's the best plan. It sounds injured, after all, and she's a cleric. Healing things is her whole job.]

[nepotism]

Maybe. Or maybe it was just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[ behind the barrels, a human in a denim jacket with punk patches sewn on it lies huddled on the floor in a fetal position, shuddering wildly. he doesn't look up, just continues making a low whimpering noise. ]

[reallywicked]

Your optimism is adorable. [She looks back at the othesr and sighs.] Guess it's time to get our hands dirty, hm?

[cuivre]

[Miles has, meanwhile, been wandering around the area, and notices that a certain someone still hasn't gotten back yet. (Wisdom 19)]

Where's the Munchkin?

[Miles that is...probably rude. /cough]

[godblessyou]

[The munchkin, meanwhile, crouches by the human.]

Hey. Hey, it's okay. You're safe now. [Diplomacy 15.] Are you injured? I'm a cleric. I can help.

[nepotism]

[ fred looks around frowning ] She was right here, wasn't she? [ crit fail.............


suddenly, the punk tdiddle is talking to snaps an arm out that was held close to his chest - and there's a pistol in it, that he aims right at her as he shouts: ] "GET AWAY FROM ME!" [ listen checks of 10+ can hear that, so fred's head snaps up. ] What the-- [ but the punk doesn't wait, firing a shot (atk 7) that goes right through the wall above tdiddle's head. ]

[reallywicked]

[Oh, NOW Faye's listening (listen 22).]

Who the fuck is that? [So helpful.]

[cuivre]

[And he got a listen of 10. Nice one, Miles, barely hearing that gunshot.]

Clearly these cops didn't clear this place out very well.

[godblessyou]

[Andie falls back a step, then scowls at the man.] That was rude! I'm trying to help you, dammit! [And to show how annoyed she is with his unwillingness to be helped, she kicks him (atk 21, dmg 9).] Now, let me heal you!

[nepotism]

[ with a scowl he rolls over and throws all his weight at the barrels (str 21), and they topple over into the warehouse. faye, astrid, and miles have to make reflex saves (DC 15) or take 10 damage as they get smacked with a barrel. fred easily jumps back (ref 22), annnnd now we'll kick in init. everyone can now see the punk behind the barrels with tdiddle. he draws his gun and aims it at the guy, shouting: ] What the hell, Tara?

[reallywicked]

[Faye jumps out of the way of the barrels (reflex 18) and joins Fred in the gun drawing. She's been practicing with Emma, so she might as well use it outside of the shooting range, right? She looks extremely pissed off at those dirty ass barrels being hurled in her direction.]

Get. Over. Here. [She says to this weird guy (???) in a harsh, dangerous tone (intimidate 19)]

[nepotism]

[ the guy scrabbles to his feet, using the wall as support, knees knocking together, his eyes wild. faye, and anyone else who hits a sense motive 15+, would recognize that the guy is in shock, and not acting normally, as he swings his gun wildly from one possible target to the next. ]

"Stay back! Stay back!! I'll shoot, so help me God!" [ as if to prove his point (again), he puts both hands on the barrel and fires the gun up at the ceiling. ]