Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

[DragonParadox]

What the Nose Knows ​

21st of July 2006 A.D.

There is a part of you, loud and growing louder that just wants to pick up and head to Harry's right now. What is mom going to do yell in front of the warded steel door all night? You can feel a smile pulling at the corners of your mouth at the mental image and then abruptly you stop. I want her to be pissed off, so would I be doing this because I am worried about Harry's place and about Mouse or just because she would hate it?

Maybe it's pride, but you don't want to have that fight with mom, the big one, just because she pissed you off treating you like you are ten, if you are going to stand on principle than you want it to be rock solid the right thing to do and you have to admit guarding the unknown contents of Harry's laboratory probably doesn't count.

With an eye-roll to the uncaring night sky you get in the car. Without touching the dial the radio turns to your favorite station letting the worst of your anger flow out on leaden wings of bass.

"Dad I'm going to need some money for a cheap burner phone for Mouse, I'll pay you back." You rush out the words because you don't want to see mom right now, just in case she takes into her head to ask you why you are going out again. At that point all the principles in the world aren't going to cut it.

"Those don't work very well around magic from what Harry told me..." he starts

"I can fix that now dad," you cut him off with a sheepish smile. "Just another sort of weird Molly magic."

"OK, be careful out there alright." from the tone it's clear he doesn't mean around the corner to buy a phone. "Do you need me to go sleep at Harry's?" he asks unexpectedly.

And that is the other reason you do not want to have the big fight, you remember abruptly very glad you had chosen to come home. Dad doesn't deserve to be caught in the middle. "No, it's OK dad, I think Mouse can handle himself and he'll be able to call for help if he has to," you reply with a smile, taking the money.

You briefly wonder if the inside of a bottom of the barrel Nokia is cramped for the spirit you will be conjuring, but Clippy is quick to dissuade you of the notion: "The Silent-Enduring Domain of Matter is far preferable to the Cacophony of Eternally-Devouring Memory-Space."

And so Burny the Burner Phone is born, reborn maybe, his mark a pixelated flame logo and his ringtone Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire.

Lost 1 Essence
Biding Achieved for One Month

Mouse is glad to see you, though he is obviously worried about Harry from his body language. After a good sniff he judges that Burny is allowed in as well. You had reasoned that he could just bark at Burny who would know to call you, but Mouse is not happy with just that. Soon enough he is getting messages in by gently booping the keys with his nose, a sight as impressive as it is adorable. You swear Harry could solve all his money problems by just selling Mouse merch online.

"Do you and Mister need anything, food, water?" you ask once he is done sending his first text message.

A shake of his golden head assures you that he does not. You are about to leave when he pulls on your sleeve to wait.

"What?" you ask, then you see him go back to the phone. "Burnny read out what he writes."

"Harry... did ... not... tell... you... everything.... wanted... to... protect... you..."

Of course he did, it seems like everyone you knows wants to protect you, in spite of the fact that you are a lot more bullet-proof than they are.

"He... has... a case... The... Cold... Queen... asked... him... to... find... someone.... in... Chicago... According... to... her... they... will... not... be... here... long. Maybe... an... enemy... wants... him... to... fail."

An entire different layer of danger Harry is in that you did not know about because he did not tell you. Why would he not just tell you he's too busy to go after the Thule Society lead this week.

"Likely because you would then have asked what he is busy with mistress and the wizard is far less skilled at lying than you are at spotting lies, particularly when you impose your rightful authority upon the world. The best way for him to keep a secret would thus be to not mention it at all even obliquely," Usum offers far too reasonably. That sounds like Harry logic alright, take on another task that cuts into limited time just to make sure you do not know about the initial danger and get in the middle of it.

You turn to Mouse hoping he knows more, but he just shakes his shaggy head sadly. Mab had not given Harry the task in Mouse's hearing, all he had to go on was him speaking to someone else about the thing.

"Who was he talking to, maybe I can ask them," you reply. It's not even eight thirty, you can still go around town if you have to.

"Secret... Big ...Secret... DANGEROUS." Burny shouts out the all caps, which is just ow, he could have just said it was capitalized.

Do you try to persuade Mouse to tell you who Harry was talking to?

[] Yes, you need to know all the trouble he's in if you are going to help him (Charisma+Empathy, can use excellency)
-[] Write in stunt

[] No, if this is an important secret for Harry you won't snoop, you can ask Father Forthil ask him, or better yet get him out of jail and ask in in person

[] Write in

OOC:If the Mab Mab Mab vote had actually won somehow the results would have been interesting.

 

[DragonParadox]

Spirits Dark and Spirits Strange ​

21st of July 2006 A.D.

With a sigh you kneel on the worn rug to look Mouse in the eye. "Yeah, I figured. And maybe Harry doesn't want me wrapped up in dangerous stuff. But if that's really true... Harry's used to being alone, but it's a lot easier to get through dangerous stuff together. You know I'm not just a pretty face, and I'm probably one of the best suited to help Harry right now. Can you please tell me who might be able to give me more details about Harry's case? Otherwise I'm going out there half blind and that isn't going to help Harry or me."

Lost 1 Essence

Mouse considers this a long while, all the doggy energy seeming to vanish leaving him still as stone as watchful spirit. Finally he snaps his jaws, licks his snout and nods, before turning for you to follow him. Much to your surprise he leads you to the trap door half hidden by the throw rug in the back of the room, the way to the lab.

Did Harry write down an address and put it down there you wonder? Part of you wants to ask Mouse to just look in there and then text it out, you don't want to snoop. Well no, that is a lie, you do want to snoop, but you know it's wrong to. As Mouse paws quickly at the air above the trap door like he is trying to swat an invisible bug out of the air, shifting the wards around, you vow to only look at what you need to and not what you might be curious about.

That resolve is quickly put to the test as you open the trap door and the light of Clippy's lantern reveals in harsh electric white this room has not seem since Harry moved in a scene fantastical and odd, Every inch of wall space is taken up by shelves that contain everything from Tupperware filled with indistinct liquids to carved wooden boxes filled with myrrh, sage, jasmine and honeysuckle to empty cages made of delicate brass wire that probably could not hold a mouse to reddish brown pelts neatly rolled up to a pair of antlers with way too many points for their small size. And books, of course there would be books in a wizard's laboratory dog-eared battered books with no title on the spine, a Latin dictionary, what looks like books on magic by McCoy himself, books bound in leather and brass alongside notebooks with their contents noted in permanent marker.

There are three long tables along the walls, one of which holds a fantastically detailed model of Chicago made of concrete and stone,wood and shingles, bark and leaf for the trees even. A magical focus for scrying, you realize, impressed by the fine detail work.

As you move a little closer to look at it you feel a cold draft around your ankles and freeze. You don't feel normal cold. Looking down you see a brass circle inscribed on the bare concrete. There is something there in the middle, no under it, bound by stone and circle, old and powerful... and oddly familiar. Lasciel, that is where be put the coin.

Wait a second, why can I feel it? You wonder abruptly, it's not like you could feel Harry's focus or his shield bracelet even when you were sitting next to him in the car.

As you reach out for the unwavering flame of certainty at the heart of your mind, or your soul the cold goes away. It was reaching out to you revealing itself to you. "Cute, better luck never bitch." You like to think the core of Lasciel is seething in her magically enforced time out.

Lost 1 Essence

Mouse gives a woof, though you are not sure if it is a warning or just confusion at the byplay as he leads you to one of the shelves in the back, but these aren't books on magic, they seem to be fiction of a... peculiar sort: bodice-rippers to be precise from the improbably chiseled shirtless men wearing dubiously historical costumes and doe-eyed spunky heroines. You had bought Izzy one of these last Christmas as a joke. It featured a kilt wearing 'Irish Lord' who 'kidnapped' a remarkably amenable English heiress. According to her it was a fun read if you did not overthink it, which was fair enough you guess. The mind was clearly not what the author meant to excite.

As out of place as the books were in the room was the skull along them, covered in finely chiseled glyphs that flowed along where the major veins and arteries of the head would be with a three pointed seal where the third eye would be, a binding yes, but also an empowerment. From the handful of markings you can recognize you guess this is a spirit of intellect, reason and memory made manifest. In other words a perfect assistant for a wizard. At the same time you are pretty sure Harry did not make this, it looks orders of magnitude more complex than even the model of Chicago.

Lost 1 Essence

Spoiler: Bob the Skull

When light glimmers along the runes and then pools in the eye-sockets as points of arcane flame you are not the least surprised.

"Well hello there pretty lady, I'd ask if I died and went to heaven, but I'm pretty sure you'd be distracting all the angels."

The corny come on though, that's a little surprising. "Er... hello, I'm Molly, Harry might have mentioned me, he's in trouble and I'd like to ask you a few questions. Oh but first what are you called?"

"Harry calls me Bob I'm a..."

"Spirit of intellect, got that from the runes," you cut him off. "Power of the high airs, keeper of reason... something something.... unwavering lantern of the mind though the night of ignorance. I can't read the rest it's on the back."

"You can pick me up if you like, hold me close," the spirit says suggestively.

The book collection Bob is placed among makes more and more sense with every word out of his lipless mouth. Looking on the bright side least it's going to be really easy to get him to talk

"I could do that," you tap your finger on your chin just under your lips. "But that would be over in a moment. Are you sure you don't want something more long lasting for your help. I could get you more books you know."

He doesn't answer leaving you briefly worried that you had lost him before a breathy 'wow' comes out.

Don't giggle at the silliness Molly, don't giggle, you tell yourself and with a Herculean act of will you somehow manage it.

"What do you want to know? I know lots of stuff, about the underpinings of magic and the principles of enchantment, the nature of spirits and gods, blessings and curses, demons and dragons and even the fey. Winter got to you didn't they? And you found something in there that invested you with ancient lore and authority over the seen and the unseen? Listen if you promise not to let it get back to her I can even tell you some things about Mab she'd rather people don't know. Pull up a chair, make yourself at home."

You can't help yourself. "Maybe lean over the table a bit?"

"Far be it from me to say how you should sit fair lady," he manages, a hint of an accent slipping into his voice. You are not sure what it is, maybe French.

What do you ask Bob?

[] Just what case Mab gave Harry

[] Any guesses he may have about what you are

[] Ask about Dragons, Lasciel seemed to believe they might know something about you

[] Ask about Leylines and where you might find a place of power, Usum says such a place could be really useful

[] Write in

OOC: Given what you rolled for charming him Bob will literally spend the next several days talking to you just for the chance to do so.

 

[DragonParadox]

A Riddle Twice Told ​

21st of July 2006 A.D.

You are tempted, oh so tempted to ask this being for knowledge. To lean ever so forward, adjust your clothes just so, making best use of your beauty to lure lore old, obscure and perhaps forbidden from it. But no. That would be crossing the line from helping to betrayal. To do this would be to take advantage of his situation for your own profit. You won't do this. And when Harry learns of it, maybe you'll be able to ask your questions in the open.

"I want to know what other case Harry is working on," you explain simply. "What did the Queen of Air and Darkness ask of him?" you pause for a moment. "I do hope he got something good out of the deal."

"Well yeah, being alive and not enthralled is what you'd mostly call a good deal," Bob snorts.

Wait, when would Harry need help not to be enthralled? And then it hits you, Justin, Lasciel had mentioned that Harry only bested him though the aid of 'one of the ladies of the Winter Court'. You mentally file away 'standing debt to Mab' as something Harry has to deal with and might need more help with especially if Winter is mixed up with the Thule Society somehow..

"You know all this politicking should really be a lot more off-putting than it it," you muse. "I never really liked thinking about cliques and whose popular and all that Mean Girl stuff."

"Must be the 'queen' part in the whole God Queen Mantle you have going there," Bob opines.

"What do you mean...?" you cut yourself off. "No, no I am not asking about anything except what I need to help Harry."

"Aww... Are you sure?" Bob sounds so disappointed you almost pat the skull. almost because you do not want to deal with the fifty corny lines that would be sure to ensue if you did.

"Mab asked Harry to find the Ankou, the oberour ar maro..." the bale-lights of his eyes flicker in a faux blink. "And now you have me talking French again. It'll stick in my head for weeks. ankou are a kind of fey, like sidhe, cat sith..."

"The fetch," you cut in, not bothering to keep the anger and disgust out of your voice.

Bob doesn't seem to notice, too engrossed in his lecture. "But there is ankou and there's the Ankou, eldest and mightiest of their kind who was once worshiped as a god by the Welsh and many of their celtic kin. Arawn he was to them, lord of Annwn and master of the dead. But the story is familiar enough I'll wager, the White God came and the old gods faded, they died or they changed. For his part Ankou was a practical sort, for a king and a god at least. Crowns do funny things the the heads that wear them you know."

You nod along. "So what did Ankou do then?"

"He swore an oath to Winter, him and all his kin, they became the keepers of the dead in Winter's service. Most of the fey are bad at fighting ghosts and spirits and the wizards to rile them up because they do not understand mortality and the secret power that can be born of it. " Bob clears his non-existent throat. "Most of the fey are weak against necromancers when matching power against power, but not the Ankou in whom still dwells the memory of Annwn."

"Does the Summer Court often ally with necromancers?" You ask though you are pretty sure the answer is 'no'. You're missing something.

"Winter has more enemies than Summer," Bob says his tone suddenly dark. "Enemies far more willing to unravel the order of reality."

"Outsiders, you are talking about outsiders," the words, though just come to your lips are a lot more certain than you thought they would be.

"Shh... don't just say that aloud for everyone with ears to hear it," the spirit hisses.

"We are in a warded subbasement," you point out. "Hard to get much safer than that."

"Not hard, easy if Harry would pay more attention to his defenses and less to how to poke the biggest hornets' nest he can find," his eyes flicker in the direction of the model city.

Huh, you guess that would be pretty dangerous to use. Still you feel the need to defend Harry. "They say the best defense is a good offense."

"I'm guessing they are people who've never been to war," Bob grumbles. "So anyway the Ankou and their king joined Winter with pledge of blood on iron spilled before the Mothers... which makes it really strange that Queen Mab would be looking for him in Chicago with Harry's help."

"Mouse said something about a time limit as well, is he going to poof into a pumpkin in three days if we don't find him?" you ask.

"Nah... everything was clear mortal side so Harry summoned one of the Loa, you know what those are?"

"Ancestor spirits?" There is a lot more question in your answer this time.

"Eh, close enough, they are prophetic beings, that is they are willing to speak prophecy. Let me tell you there are a lot of spirits whose existence transcends linear time, it's finding the ones who will tie themselves in knots for a price mortals are willing to pay that's the hard part. So anyway Harry called the spirit since he figured a retired god would be visible enough to the Loa's sight to give him something. It wasn't much." He pauses a moment then intones:

The carriage yet flies where the veiled road leads
On the trail of one who rides upon stolen steeds
The hunt grows savage, the hunt grows close
The last note comes ere the wilting of a rose ​

"So Ankou is hunting someone as well and he's close to finding them and the last bit is the timing?" you muse. "How long does it take a rose to wilt?"

"About a week" Bob replies, then anticipating your next question: "The prophecy was made four days ago."

"So three days left and now Harry is stuck in jail for at least the weekend which would leave him one more day to find Ankou before he goes who knows where," you conclude even as the fires of your soul grow a little brighter with the knowing of Ankou and his secret flight. "So did Mab say to talk to the spirit or capture him or..." you do not want to say kill, even though you know Queen Mab would not hesitate to try to use Harry as an assassin.

Gain 2 Essence

"Just find," Bob answers simply. "That's going to be hard enough."

What do you do?

[] Ask more questions
-[] Write in

[] Go home, take that Clorox bath then get as much sleep as you can before heading out to look for evidence to spring Harry from jail

[] Write in

OOC: And here we are, more answers and more questions as well.

 

[DragonParadox]

Of Cars and Cameras ​

21st of July 2006 A.D.

As you climb the steps out of the laboratory, Clippy's small light throwing odd shadows along the assorted bric a brac you wonder if you sound out various ways to convince Harry to let you back in here. There's all sorts of things Bob could teach you and he certainly seems willing to do so, not to mention all the help you could give him. You're pretty sure a demon in that model of Chicago to make the wires actually carry power and a few of the streetlights turn on would make it a far more potent focus.

"Hey there Mister," you say distracted. Harry's enormous cat graciously accepts a pat on the head as his royal due.

"You take care here Mouse, the charge on Burny should be good foor or five days, I'm going to have to figure some way to get a charging station in here or in Harry's car." Having checked you found that the apartment fuse box was utterly trashed, not that Harry would notice since the only electrical thing he uses in the landline and that has its own power.

Mouse barks a doggy 'yes' then adds with Burny's help: "You take care as well. Get Harry out. Two noses follow the trail better than one."

As you get into the car another electronic voice echoes, this time from the radio: "Notice of Concern. A man attempted to place something on the vessel's underside, though he fled when the alarm activated."

"Something?" you ask alarmed. "What did he looks like?"

"The vessel does not possess cameras so my senses are limited to rough build and gender, 99.1% certainty male, Caucasian, age range 20-60 years. Speculation, either a tracker or a bomb."

A bomb. Holy Mother of God... Deep breath. Calm down Molly, you are a lot more bomb proof that you look, you tell yourself, though you mentally add external cameras for the Beige Wagon to the list of stuff you need to get.

Wait a second you are still here and the Crown can look at a place as well as a person or object.

"Who just fled at the sound of a car alarm?" you cast the question among the light of a thousand eyes.

Lost 1 Essence

Agent John Jenkins, FBI, the answer comes back, coldly mechanical.

"Clippy check Wright's records for John Jenkins," you say as you start up the Beige Wagon and as you had expected you get a match. Probably a tracker then not a bomb, though you are pretty sure that's really illegal. "Keep an eye on his email to see if Jenkins reports the failure."

When you get home to a cold dinner and an even colder look from mom you make no mention of the incident, something tells you that telling her: 'The FBI tried to track my car' would not be helpful in the plan to keep investigating. It's ten thirty by the time you finally get the bathroom to yourself and well past midnight by the time you feel the cup of your Essence running full. Good thing you don't need that much sleep

Gained 9 Essence, now at 12/12

***​

22st of July 2006 A.D.

For once you sleep is empty of dreams, though maybe because it is so brief with Clippy waking you at five AM, the light of false dawn a pale glimmer over Wrigley Field when you drive by. Another advantage of the hour of course is that you could just leave a sticky note on the fridge and claim it was because you did not want to wake anyone up.

On the drive over you look over the evidence from the warehouse of Harry presumably killing Greene. The first surprise is that it's not that at all. The first frame is 'Harry' slamming Greene's clearly dead body dressed in plain clothes onto an old metal table which had once served as part of the meat industry.

"And so it serves again," Usum offers with macabre humor as the fake Harry starts to take the body apart.

Ah right, demon, it's easy to forget that part. Though even thinking that the sight of blood and dismemberment doesn't trouble you on its own. Sure you feel sad and angry to see this happening to someone but your stomach offers not a moment of discomfort.

"Yours is a power meant to fight in wars beyond human imagination my princess, a poor weapon it would be if the sight of blood and death should trouble you so lightly," the demon at the back of your mind continues.

You nod to yourself, still observing the video and the email it came with. Apparently the reason why the cameras had only started rolling when the body hit the table was because the noise had tripped the silent alarm and that had automatically made the camera start recording. Which begs the question why the alarm had not gone off when 'Harry' had gotten in the warehouse with the body. In fact the running theory by the CPD was that Greene had been shot nearby and then sneaked in since apparently the autopsy on the remains showed .44 Magnum wounds.

No gunshot reports that morning from anywhere in the neighborhood, Clippy reports which makes the prospect even more strange. How far after all could someone have carried Greene's body in broad daylight before getting it into the warehouse? It is almost as if they did not get in there by roads that most people could see.

Unfortunately that is all that Wright's phone and his past messages reveal. You would like to know what the cops know about Greene's last movements. Who had last seen him alive and when?

Maybe I could just ask, you muse. You have Wright's account and it's not like it would be hard to imitate his writing style. Eventually it will come out that his account was hacked into when it comes out he did not send the query, but it's not like they would be able to trace the leak.

Do you send a message in Wright's name asking for more information on the case?

[] Yes, that would give you valuable information fast
-[] Write in what and to whom

[] No, it's not worth the risk to your cover

OOC: Next update will be arriving at Menominee, I wanted to catch you up on what information Molly had as fast as possible so you could use it if you want in the next part.

 

[DragonParadox]

Morning Visitations ​

22st of July 2006 A.D.

After a moment's thought you decide not to risk showing your hand. You have the address for the scene. Once you are back in the city you can look into that inconspicuously. Security cameras mean there is some kind of security system which could reveal all sorts of interesting things, not to mention the property records should be online for whoever owns an old meat processing hall with working cameras inside. As you roll into Menominee under fluffy white clouds and morning sunlight that seems a thousand miles removed from Greene's gruesome killing you start thinking of where you had been that would have a camera. Maybe the general store... Harry had asked a few questions there while you had stayed in the car.

No luck there, the place looks like it had not been renovated since the sixties, though on the plus side the smiling middle aged cashier does remember Harry from yesterday. "Beanpole of a man in a trenchcoat asked after Old Man Matthews, said he was a detective 'r something."

So it goes, you find plenty of locals willing to attest that they had seen both you and Harry in town yesterday morning, from one of the regulars at the pub who had admired Harry's gun to a bunch of kids from the local Middle School who had mostly remembered you on account of your piercings, but had noted Harry as well, though that last conversation does yield an... interesting question.

"Are you one of them Satanists?" a wide-eyed boy around Leech's age asks. He sounds like he is really hoping for a yes so he can impress his friends for having spoken to one.

"No, I'm Catholic," you disappoint him.

"But... but..."

"Last I checked there wasn't anything in the Bible about piercings."

He just kind of nods and mumbles under his breath: "Wicked cool." You have a feeling he'll try to make that argument to his parents when he gets home, not that it's likely to do him any good but that's sure to be a fun talk.

Finally you manage to find a camera in the local liquor store. Alas it proves to be a lot harder to get the footage for yesterday morning out of the elderly owner than it had been to get people to talk about seeing Harry "Well now little lady I'm sure things will work out just fine, don't you worry none. Iffen what you say is true I'll hand the tapes over to the serif and it'll all be cleared right up."

Tapes? Who still uses tapes? You shake your head bemused scrambling to think of a reason why you need them. It's not like you can tell him the Men in Slack are out to frame Harry, or make sure he stays framed for blackmail purposes.

Lost 1 Essence

Maybe you could try... "I'm sure your sheriff's a fine fellow and will send the tapes off as soon as he's asked for them, I worry about when that's gonna be with all the red tape suits love so much. If I can get this right into Father Forthil's hands he can get things settled a lot faster." At his confused look you fake a blush. "Oh sorry forgot to explain, Harry's lawyer also a priest up at Saint Marry's in Chicago. I can give you his number to check in..."

"A priest eh?" the old man seems to consider it. "Well if you're gonna need a lawyer you could do worse than one who's sworn holy vows."

One phone call later you have a copy of the security tape. You were not thinking if it's even worth going back to old man Mathews when you notice the sleek black Mercedes in the driveway. What on Earth is that, a C219 model? That is a showroom and jet setting luxury car from two years ago.

Spoiler: Mercedes

They wouldn't... Surely no one in their right mind would try to do shady business by driving a big black luxury car through the middle of a sleepu med western town in the middle of the morning.

"Common sense is for common sorts," Usum offers delicately. "Being able to flaunt it is one of the privileges and proofs of power."

Do you go check what's going on

[] Yes, if one of Matthews old 'friends' caught up with him then you would very much want to catch up with them
-[] Write in plan (optional)

[] No, you have what you ca,e here for, just get that tape to father Forthil

[] Write in

OOC: Since you guys took mechanics as the crafting specialization Molly knows cars really well so I did not roll for recognizing that one.

 

[DragonParadox]

The Black and the Red ​

22st of July 2006 A.D.

After parking about thirty feet from the land spaceship masquerading as a car you take out Clippy and start snapping pictures like any dyed in the wool car enthusiast would. But behind the humming phone Clippy is at work in spite of having to make use of she dismissively calls 'howling wilderness' cell reception. The car had shown up on Roaring Rides, a small enthusiast forum with the pic dated to the twentieth in downtown Chicago with a a couple more being linked in Myspace pages also around the city, nothing around Fulton Market where the crime had taken place, but that is hardly...

"License Plate Match," flashes across the screen in bright blue text, cutting off your view of the last image. "Katrina Hoff."

Katrina, you do not need to see the next message on screen to suddenly freeze mid picture, but you appreciate is nonetheless. Priority, Priority, partial match, relevant to present search: Katrina Sigfriddotir.

Alas Katrina Hoff does not have a MySpace page or really anything but the license numbers in Massachusetts and, crosschecking property records, some kind of high value property on the outskirts of Boston so it's probably the same woman, but it is going to take a longer search to find out for sure.

You try to get a feel for the car itself, see if it is warded or enchanted. It could even be something else glamored as one, but no matter how much you squint and struggle all you can see if the sun on fresh black paint and all you can smell is the faint scent of plain old gas.

Lost 1 Willpower

Good enough, if it's a magic horse that eats gas I'm going to be really embarrassed, you think, pushing aside Usum's reflexive proclamations that you would never have anything to be embarrassed about.

This time no verses come to mind, only raw notes and the memory of a car chase in a movie about living programs pretending to be gods, pretending to be men. Like with the Beige Wagon you get a connection, but not an everlasting one, a nameless ghost of electromagnetism and spite poured into some of the best and brightest artifice on four wheels. Black Rider, you dub them for another ethereal pursuer that went garbed in the guise of mundane mater on secret roads.

Lost 1 Essence and 1 Willpower
Spirit Bound for 1 Year

Connection Achieved. Downloading...

A boom echoes from the direction of the Matthews house the door smashing open to reveal a woman with hair red as fresh spilled blood flowing over shoulders draped in a studied leather jacket whose studs gleam as so many miniature runes. Her eyes are grey too gleam grey like the sky before the storm in a face that could be any age between a mature twenty and a very well preserved forty, though to look upon her is to know with a dread certainty that she is much older. You have met one akin to her before... Gard. Whatever she is this woman is as well and you have no doubts.

"Interested in the car are you?" She is smiling, though it does not reach her eyes. "I don't mind if you look, just as long as you don't touch. You didn't touch it did you?"

"What had she sensed?" you wonder, thoughts whirling in your mind. For that matter what do I look like to her. Gard at least had been able to sense that I'm outside of fate, but that does that mean? At the very least you don't think she is about to challenge you to a duel here and now you can hear the sound of kids playing not far away and cars passing by the bridge, in the distance the church bells calling the townsfolk to worship.

What do you reply?

[] Try to bluff that you had just been passing through and are interested in cars and... the interesting people who drive them (Manipulation+Subterfuge)

[] Offer to take this someplace more private, maybe she thinks she can take you in a fight, you would wager she is probably wrong (Manipulation+Empathy)

[] Write in

OOC: Well on the plus side you got one of your demons in a super-car, though the driver appears to have noticed. Whether she's noticed that you messed with the car or just your general Exalted-ness approaching Molly cannot tell.

 

[DragonParadox]

Whisper on the Wind ​

22st of July 2006 A.D.

"Look and touch..." you tap your finger on your chin, the nail clinking on the ice cold metal of one of your piercings. "Those words are closer than one would think to some people at least, aren't they?" She had burst out of the house for some reason so you might as well admit fault, even if it is the fault of snooping. "Interesting people."

Lost 1 Essence

The glare you get in return would be enough to curdle milk on its own. Your heart gets just a little faster, phantom flames in the chill place where your sword is drawn from. There's a part of you and it's not a small one that wants to fight, not in public in broad daylight obviously, but a little taunting goes a long way you've found.

"I have found the difference easy enough to distinguish, one is of the eye which only the craven or the timid would avert and the other is of the hand which only the foolish raise lightly," the woman speaks with the same blooding intensity, like the storm in her eyes. "You do not seem craven, are you a fool?"

"One often knows the limits of their courage, but not even the wisest knows the limits of their wisdom until by deed they reach them," for once you quote Usum word for word. Dealing with corrupt immortals feels very much like his wheelhouse. It is only when you see her storm-grey eyes narrow a little that you realize the banter is half a threat as well. The limits after all could be hers as much as they are yours.

Lost 1 Essence

"I did not mean to interrupt your business," you add in a slightly softer tone. This one is even true, you had not after all intend to get caught and have her come out to confront you.

As you speak a wind passes through the grass, rustling and furtive, the leaves on the trees do not move and you cannot feel it against your skin, yet in its whisper you can hear all too well an urgent message. It is Matthews voice in the wind and yet it is not, as though he is borrowing the voice of some other ethereal presence "Get out while you still can girl, go to a place where you have allies behind you and wards around you. This isn't a fight you can win and she will hunt you..."

A breath echoes, a tremble in a voice far off. "She's asking questions about Gorfel, she will ask about you as well soon and I'll have to tell her. They have Cindy."

Kidnapping a little girl, well you guess that settles the 'is Katrina evil' question definitively, you think, carefully keeping the flash of anger off your face. Though would she just be doing it for information? It seems to you that just the threat would be enough to get the old man to talk when he would have no reason to protect you or Harry. They want him to do something and that something cannot just be 'join up' not if they are the least clever over the long run a compelled servant is an enemy in the ranks, they need him for something soon.

"And I did not mean to interrupt your business of the day," Katrina says, seemingly deaf to the voice of the spirit, confirming that it had been meant for you alone. The implication is obvious, 'best be on with it.'

She does not want to get bogged down in an irrelevant conflict. Only it is more relevant than she knows and Matthews is about to tell her so, not that you can blame the man.

What do you do next?

[] Leave as instructed, if she plans to confront you on some lonely stretch of road you will know precisely where she is and have control of her car

[] Try to persuade Matthews to turn the tables in Katrina, you can find Cindy afterwards with the Crown (Charisma+Empath Excelency still in effect)

[] Write in

OOC: Even without stunts things worked out pretty well so far.

 

[DragonParadox]

Barbs and Browsing ​

22st of July 2006 A.D.

She is never going to be weaker than she is right now, not knowing what you can do, not even knowing that you are an enemy, the thought passes through your mind like fire racing through dry grass. If you could sway Matthews to help that would be two against one and he in the place of his power, a place Katrina was not minded to assault. If I could catch her between hammer and anvil... The thought cuts off with a sudden jolt. Then what? We kill her and have to deal with the body while who knows how many of the locals could place Matthews or you as being the last people to speak to her?

Usum notes that you could try to capture her as you did Gorfel and 'dispose of her' in some more discrete way. Quite apart from the proposal of cold blooded killing which is not exactly something you want to have as plan A that assumes you can safely capture someone like her, someone the bearer of Thorned Namshiel calls an equal.

So slowly, reluctantly you nod not so much for her as for any spirits Matthews may have on you. As you get in your car, hidden by the humming of the engine you say for the benefit of ethereal ears: "Don't worry, I'll help you get her back."

"Keep an eye on Black Rider Clippy," you say as you cross the creek and make the turn onto the freeway.

"Confirmed."

"See if Cindy had a MySpace account or something and pull up a picture..."

A few minutes later the image of a dark haired girl looking maybe four years older than she had in the pictures at the Matthews place, around twelve pops up on screen, just her goofing around with friends. 'Driver's Ed' one picture is captioned and it's her and a friend in bumper cars at a fair.

You feel your desire to stab the people responsible for kidnapping her right into a wall only getting more intense.

By the time you are back in the city Katrina is still on the freeway, she had not tried to overtake you on the road after all. Maybe like you she had chosen to be cautious in the face of an unknown threat. Unsurprisingly Matthews is in the back seat, though they do not talk much about whatever 'agreement' the Thule society had forced on the old man only that the sorceress seems to have made an oath to let the girl go free unharmed in body and mind once Matthews task is done. What that task might be you do not know, only that his safety is not assured.

Then, just as you pull in to the parking lot nearest to Saint Mary's Rider picks up the telltale signs of Katriana fiddling with her phone and while she is distracted Matthews asks. "So then will Capricorpus be joining in the Black Feast you have planned for the Eldest Ankou orto you just plan to use her for bait?"

"A mantle divided is a mantle lessened vitki, not that I expect one of your stature to understand. A pity you were not so curious about these things in your youth else our meeting might have been different," Katrina answers.

"Pity... I find it hard to believe you even know the meaning of the word my lady," the old man replies anger flaring like the last flickers in a cold hearth.

"A waste then," she replies uncaring of the jab.

So they are trying to trap the Ankou Harry had been set to look for by Mab for something called a Black Feast, from context consume his power, but it sounds like they do not have him yet, so why can't Mab find him? Had she deceived Harry in order to get him to help against the Thule Society? On the one hand you do not doubt that Mab could do the 'literally true lies' thing better than almost anyone else but why would she have to? It feels like you have the edges of the puzzle done and are still missing the center. Is this how Harry feels all the time?

What do you do next?

[] Go see Harry along with Father Forthil as he shows the tape to the CPD, if you are going to spring him before Monday it's going to take some fast talking especially since the argument is 'this is weird supernatural stuff you do not want to get mixed into'

[] Call Gard, ask her if she has a sister with a sideline in kidnapping children and trying to eat retired death gods. You could use some backup even if it is gangsters

[] Get your dad, this might not be the business of the Knights but the Sword will shine regardless where there are innocents to be saved

[] Get more information from Bob, maybe he knows who Capricorpus is, that's a new name

[] Search for Cindy with the Crown if you can get her out Katrina loses her leverage on Matthews

[] Write in

OOC: Regardless of what you choose here you will of course give Forthil the tape.

 

[DragonParadox]

Of Wicked Workings ​

22st of July 2006 A.D.

"Did something else happen?" Father Forthil asks as he takes the tape. He sounds worried, though to be fair that might be because the radio is changing on its own as the Wagon looks for a decent station. He probably thinks it's malfunctioning because of magic.

"I met someone who's involved in bad things, maybe not framing Harry, but a little girl god kidnapped to get her grandfather to do something. It would be really good if you could get Harry out soon. "

He sighs and shakes his head, a few drops of the errant summer that had just passed rain flying off his shoulders. "Getting a judge to hear a request for bail before Monday is beyond all but perhaps the FBI agents themselves and even for them it would not be easy to arrange. Judges are... ornery about their free time. With the courts being as backed up as they are I can't say I blame them for all I wish they would make an exception in this case I don't think that's likely."

Bob it is then, not that you had expected something else. From what Clippy had been able to find about Cook County Jail it does not seem like the sort of place you walk out of easily, innocent or not.

After rolling past a McDonald Drivethrough to get a Big Mac and a particularly sad looking salad as well as one small burger each for Mouse and Mister to keep them from getting bored with their food if nothing else, you spend the drive to Harry's with one hand on the wheel that mostly moves itself while you text dad:

Found proof Harry was out of town, tape with Father F. It's spooky out there. Pls. get your stuff and meet me outside Harry's apartment

There that should be relatively innocuous even if the NSB people had bugged your phone and you had only shortened the message a little, much as it pains you to spell everything out like you are writing a letter in cursive. The last thing you need is a back and fourth chain of text explaining stuff. If reading through Wright's phone had taught you anything about snooping it's that context is king.

****​

As Mister picks carefully at the meat inside the hamburger Mouse had already eaten his in one bite before leading you through the wards to the lab again. He's obviously happy that you had found something to help exonerate Harry though he's worried as you would expect at the thought of more dark wizards in town and as angry as you are at the thought of a little girl kidnapped. Hopefully Bob can help you unravel the mystery.

The eyes of the skull flare open as soon as Clippy's lantern hits him this time.. "Why hello there. Miss me already?" He tries for a husky voice, but the limitations of form being what they are, it comes out more like dry and clinking.

"Desperately," you deadpan. "Listen I met someone nasty and I bugged their car with a demon, it's not important..."

"Oh sure, sure I see acts of divine authority enacted upon servitor spirits all the time," he mimics your tone, then when you look at his startled he honest to goodness cackles. "The look on your face."

A reluctant smile creeps onto your face. "I would tell you to go into stand up comedy but you can't," you quip back. You wait for the clattering laugh to pass and continue. "They mentioned a person, I think it was: Capricorpus."

The laughter is gone from Bob in and instant, his eye flames dimming down to embers hiding in the deep sockets of the skull. "Oh no, no, no she is supposed to be dead, like for real dead though."

She you quickly learn had earned well the name Capricorpus, a body jumping necromancer and former apprentice of the departed and unregreted Big Bad himself, Kemmler. According to Bob the Corpsetaker had been around for the big showdown on Halloween where she had been able to change bodies with Warden Captain Lucio while mortally wounded and she would have gotten away with it as well it Harry hadn't noticed the chance and shot her. You are a bit vague on what a Warden Captain is, but from Bob's manner you guess it's a big deal,

"Wait a second, if Harry is supposed to have killed her did he fight off her death curse or is he still under it?" you ask, starting to get an inkling on what might have happened.

"Harry said he surprised her..." Bob starts but you cut him off.

"Maybe, or maybe the body-snatcher didn't have as narrow a view of life and death as the rest of us. I mean the only difference between projecting your Hun soul out of your body and being a Hun soul ghost is that one has a astral chord and the other does not, well that and the ghost needs direct spiritual infusion to sustain themselves instead of being sustained by the Po soul bridging the soul-body divide, but that is the difference between running your oil lamp on whale oil or on kerosene, both make light they just smell different."

"You would have to be really bent to think that way as a mortal..." Bob trails off considering the implication. "So you think she didn't use her death curse because she did not think she was dying?"

"And because she had better uses for that power," you nod. "Revenge is nice, but survival is better because you can still have your revenge as a side-dish and still do other things once it's done." That felt like a very Usum sort of thought, but he had not spoken at all, you guess you have just learned to anticipate how the logic of something like the Corpsetaker would work.

"Ankou is probably hunting her, rider of the stolen steeds," Bob offers

"And Katrina is hunting him with the Corpsetaker as bait," you finish. "Trying to eat his power or something with a ritual, she called it the Black Feast..."

"That's... odd," the spirit says slowly and for the first time since you met him it is like he is struggling to remember something which for a spirit of intellect is odd in and off itself. "The Black Feast is a form of metaphagy, soul eating basically though that is not a good translation because souls aren't meat. You do not break them up for energy but co-opt them for knowledge. There has to be a level of mutual understanding and an equilibrium reached between he who consumes and that which is consumed."

Though the lecture you are nodding along, it all makes sense by your understanding of how souls work.

"Just one problem though," Bob continues. "As far as I know the Black Feast was designed in imitation of the way the Black Court feed, drinking more than their blood and it only works on mortals not elder fey."

"How sure are you of that?" you probe.

"I could show you the math for it, Harry never wants to see the math," Bob says, starting to sound a bit more chipper again.

"Maybe later, I'm on the clock right now," you demure. You are pretty sure you know what he means by 'the math' and it would take days or weeks to run though the heuristics and harmonies of ritual magic. Also I probably should not be learning soul eating rituals, you remind yourself. It is surprisingly easy to forget that around Bob. "Cliff notes, why doesn't it work on immortals like the Ankou?"

"Because the main stem of the magic is a shared understanding and shared fear of death, it is the only truly human thing the Black Court keept and since it was inspired from their feeding..."

"You might as well start from scratch and make a new ritual. That is still more than I knew when I came down here." you finish getting up to leave. "Thanks again Bob, you're a lifesaver maybe literally."

"Take care of yourself out there will you," he says and you are about to tell him not to worry when he adds. "It would be a waste in more ways than one if you died." And then he checks you out again.

"Never change Bob," you chuckle at the now silent skull.

Gain 2 Essence

Your dad hadn't arrived by the time you leave the apartment leaving you enough time to call Gard or use your Crown to figure out where Cindy is before he gets here. Meanwhile Katrina had long since left her own car parked.

What do you do next?

[] Call Gard, ask her if she has a sister with a sideline in kidnapping children and trying to eat retired death gods. You could use some backup even if it is gangsters

[] Search for Cindy with the Crown if you can get her out Katrina loses her leverage on Matthews

[] All this talk of old Welsh spirits turned winter's fixers make you think of Lydia and in particular her globetrotting father. This is probably not how Daniel anticipated introducing his girlfriend to dad, but needs must

[] Write in

OOC: Harry will have quite the... er... interesting reaction when he finds out what kind of magic Bob was talking to Molly about.

 

[DragonParadox]

The Enduring and the Lost ​

22st of July 2006 A.D.

The phone rings once, twice, three times making you wonder if Gard is one of those people who doesn't take calls from unknown numbers easy. Do telemarketers trouble occult specialists for the mob very often? you wonder biting back a laugh at the mental image that conjures. Finally the cool voice on the other end replies: "Yes?"

"Hello, this is Molly Carpenter, we met when dealing with a particular group... aggressive litterers." Gorfel and company had left all sorts of spent shell casings and blood all over the place not to mention the chaos at the restaurant. "One of them is back and she felt..." there is no way you can talk about this in code, short of asking her to come meet with you on faith alone you cannot keep the veil up. On the other hand what you actually have to say would make any judge think you are role-playing or crazy so at least they would not be able to use it against you officially. "One of them felt like you, red hair, grey eyes, rune studded jacket. She kidnapped a girl and is planning to consume the mantle of a retired death god."

From the other side of the line all you can hear is silence, not even the sound of her breathing. "Helo, are you still...?"

"Yes," the word is harsh and edged with a burst of static. "Where did you see her, when?"

"Three hours ago, pretty far out of town, but she's in Chicago now. I have... ways of tracking her."

Just because you want her help doesn't mean you want to reveal some of your most scary tricks to someone who works for Marcone. "Me and dad are going after her. "

"A warning for thee and for thine sire before all else," Gard replies her voice level again. "This would not be the first time Katrina crossed swords with the servants of the White God and while she had not met that Sword she is no less dangerous for it. An even field is no guarantee of victory."

"That is why I'm gonna make it really uneven. I just want to know how best to do that, though if you would like to help..."

"I would, others would as well, but she has chosen her moment well, Katrina took well to the lesson of patience if nothing else."

"Well OK then I'm outside of Harry's and dad's on the way. We can meet up at the..."

***​

Half an hour later Gard walks through the dubiously clean glass door of the Burger King across from Harry's place, heralded by the sound of screeching wheels, though one would not think she is flustered from the way she saunters in like she owns the place. The people one table over from yours certainly seem to think she does from the way they scurry away under her glare, to your dad's unspoken disapproval.

You had time to catch him up on what had happened this morning before Gard arrived and he had mostly agreed that you had made the best of a bad situation, but he had been a lot more worried about Capricorpus than you had and you could tell that as much as he wants to help he would prefer that you not be involved fighting someone like that. Hopefully Gard's help is going to calm his nerves a little even if she is a bitch.

"Miss Carpenter, Sir Knight," the woman introduces herself. "Even if nothing more comes out of this you have my thanks for finding Katrina. Monoc Securities lost track of her in '89 and we have not been able to find her since."

Part of you wants to ask what Monoc securities is, but something tells you it it bad form to be nosy right from the get go. Instead you offer helpfully. "She goes by Katrina Hoff now, no internet presence, but property records match a place in Boston."

Lost 1 Essence

It feels weird to manually find the screenshots Clippy tracked down, but you do not want to reveal her either.

"Þetta fer allt í hring." Though you do not understand the words she murmurs under her breath you hear the sorrow in the tone all too well. "Hoff was an estate in Småland, Sweden, the place she was born, the bastard daughter of an English priest back in the days when there barely was an England, a holy man they called him later and perhaps he was, but I had no reason to love him and Cwenhild as she was then had even less cause."

OK now that you can't not ask about... "What is she?" What are you? the question is implied.

"Now she is a traitor, a bloody handed coward, barely fit for Hella's realm. If you mean to ask what she was, she was the last of the Valkyrja the Choosers of the Slain." Gard shakes her head, as though trying to banish a particularly troublesome fly, but you doubt memories and regrets will be so easily cast off. "Perhaps her fate was always a dark one, made a herald of the Victory Bringer on the eve of his defeat. Now is matters little, my sister is as dead to me as if she had been burned to ash in Surt's flames and the ashes cast into the depths of the sea. All that is left to do is slay the murderer who wears her face."

Realizing you are sitting across from a minor Norse Goddess while sipping a Coke is not as weird as the phrase would imply. Maybe it's that you are the one who had brought up retired gods, maybe it's just that you know for a fact that your dad more powerful beings regularly, maybe you are just weird yourself. Wait a second... Gard is a Valkyrie who works for Monoc Security. You might as well ask "Is Odin still around?"

"We are none of us quite what we were but we remember still honor and valor. Even in this changed world, there will still be warriors true and so there must be those who choose."

Gain 2 Essence

So that is a yes on Odin, in some form at least. Looks like whatever you will be revealing here will get to the ears higher than just Marcone, but can you afford to keep anything back when a little girl's life is on the line?

What powers of yours do you reveal?

[] [Reveal] Write in

When do you ask about Katrina, Gard, Valkyrie s or Monoc Security?

[] [Ask] Write in

OOC: I thought about pushing through this, but as good as your roll was for getting in touch, and it was nonsense good, this is a really touchy subject not just for her but for all her sisters. How open she is with you will depend on what you are with her as much as on your next rolls.