Ivy and Chrome PbP Forums

Before casting, Darl answer's Gerard's question.

"You can move/disturb as much as you like for what I'm doing ... just don't touch the past!" Darl jokes, with a wink.

Gearard is also quite familiar with Shades and some of their nefarious abilities. He's heard that they are commonly used as assassins by various leaders in the horde. This particular one could belong to any of the generals or even to The Unholy himself. Many times the Shades will be accompanied by a small party of other demons doing covert operations.

"Really?" Tobius says in mild surprise. "I wonder what a Shade would be doing hanging around here. I mean besides the obvious answer of killing Father Malaki. Do you think it has anything to do with the theft of the Orb?" Brother Tobius asks to the room in general.

jthorson wrote: Darl then faces forward again, and pauses for a few seconds; casting his senses about to try and identify the sources of any of the magic he senses within the room.

In his brief search, Darl can tell that the magic he is sensing is coming from the general area of the detritus littering the floor by the cabinet.

Ryloc wrote: "Hmm we know about the orb, the Travels of Jane Farstrider along with notebooks, Teslas Staff and a couple bloodstones. Brother Tobius can you give us any other information about any of these things or hazard a guess as to if any of them could be used together for anything?"

Brother Tobius considers for a second before responding. "The Travels of Jane Farstrider is just a children's book of tales. I don't know why Father Malaki even had it or why anybody would want to steal it.

"Tesla's Staff is a young creators attempt at making a Techno Wizard weapon. It was a partial success in that it did create the electrical discharge wanted when striking, but it didn't work very well as a staff and would discharge at random times just bumping against a conductive surface. I ended up confiscating it from him after he caught a basket of laundry on fire and before he could hurt himself with it."

In conclusion Tobius says "There may have been other things stolen as well, those are just the only things I found yesterday that were certainly missing."

Ryloc wrote: Gerard also takes a look through the notebook he found being very careful as not to do anything that might taint this piece of what could be evidence. Gerard catches the token from Darl. "Interesting hopefully between this and the notebook we can find out a few more facts to answer some of our many questions."

The notebook appears to be a journal spanning many years. It appears to be about Salome and her affiliation with The Unholy. {OOC: For a synopsis of the notes, read "Queen of the Demon Goblins" on p. 145 of the WormWood book} Interspersed throughout the notes are references to various symbols that Malaki had discovered in connection with Salome. It seems she had created her own secret symbolic language and Malaki had begun to translate parts of it. In a brief comparison of the symbols on the coin to the ones in the book Gerard quickly finds the one Father Malaki indicated as the symbol for Salome herself. Gerard realizes that it may take a few hours to translate the rest because apparently it's not just the symbol itself that has meaning; apparently, the various lines and how they connect can make each symbol into a complete idea.

OOC:
Okay, a bit of a shift in the last few posts. I reread the description for a Shade and the physical description won't work with the O.C.C. I had picked out; so, as is the GM's prerogative, consider the creature to have the appearance of a Shade in all aspects except that it appears to have tough leathery skin (and hairy legs) as opposed to the black scales in the book's description. It appears to be some sort of mutant or a cross breed between a Shade and a Rumbler. Sorry about that. That's what I get for writing posts from memory instead of looking things up. The visible portions of the body show the scarring as previously described.

Once again Darl concentrates and delves the past...going as far back as his abilities can, he finds himself in what must be the middle of the battle between the Shade and Father Malaki...

Darl flinches back from the vision in front of him as his eyes struggle to focus. At first everything is flickering orange and yellow light before his mind adjusts to what he's seeing and realizes that he is standing in the center of a pillar of fire. No sooner does this realization come to him than the flames are extinguished and Darl's vision readjusts to the dim light of the room. The demon, it's black robes smoldering slightly, is standing just feet away with his back to Darl. Father Malaki is standing behind his desk on the other side of the room holding an energy pistol of some sort trained on the demon. A silent bolt flies out from the weapon and strikes the demon in the chest at the same time as the demon leaps, it's saber like knife in hand, straight at Father Malaki who quickly moves to block the oncoming weapon with the only thing he has.

The blade of the demon collides with the pistol in a shower of plastic, metal and resin. The gun flies from Malaki's hand but he's ready for this and uses the momentum from the blow to strike back at the demon with a skilled punch to it's solar plexus, knocking it back a couple of steps. Father Malaki takes advantage of the opening to reach into the cabinet behind his desk and retrieve the first thing that comes to hand. Whipping back around, he points his arm straight at the beast, loosing a fiery bolt from the stone clenched tightly between his fingers. The monster dodges at the last second and the bolt explodes silently against the wall behind him as Father Malaki retreats, trying to keep the desk between himself and the attacking creature.

The demon, not wasting any more time, grabs the edge of the desk in one hand and heaves, sending the desk rolling into the corner of the room. Another fire bolt flies from the stone as Father Malaki tries to retreat towards the doorway and possible help. Ignoring the bolt that strikes it in the shoulder, the demon leaps and cuts off the old man's retreat. With a round house kick it sends Father Malaki flying back into the cabinet, shattering shelves and sending the contents tumbling to the ground in a silent cascade.

Momentarily stunned, Father Malaki grasps around himself, looking for something to use for protection. The demon, in a seemingly crazy action, slices the long knife across its own exposed, scarred and hairy arm. Drawing Darl's attention from the odd sight, Father Malaki's body suddenly convulses and his mouth opens in a silent scream. Through the obvious pain, he struggles; his hand finally closing on a stone rod that fell to the floor next to him. He attempts to raise it in defense, but the demon easily knocks it aside with a kick and then plunges its long knife expertly into Father Malaki's exposed shoulder. Father Malaki's body instantly goes limp and he slumps forward in defeat, the stone rod tumbling to the floor next to him.

Keeping his weapon ready in one hand, the creature grabs Father Malaki's foot with the other and it drags the now motionless body into the center of the room, blood dripping down its arm from the self-inflicted wound. Darl is sure that beneath the hugely fanged upper jaw a smile of victory is on the creatures scarred face. Father Malaki's chest heaves as he breathes heavily, but whatever paralysis the demon cast on him seems to prevent all other motion.

The vision fades to black and Darl opens his eyes, once again back in the present.

Back in the present, Darl looks down at Father Malaki. "You fought with tenacity, old man," he states. It was intended as a compliment, though that fact would likely go un-noticed by the humans in the room.

Turning back to Brother Tobius, "I'm afraid I can't tell you why Father Malaki was murdered," he states, "but it does appear that the Shade was looking for something ... an object perhaps, or maybe some sort of information. Father Malaki was questioned to the very end, and while I can not re-hear the sounds of the past, the vision suggests that Father Malaki did not provide any information of worth in response to his attacker's last question before the assasin completed the act." Darl pauses, partially lost in thought while he ponders his next move.

"I'm certainly not the world's best lip-reader," he adds, stepping around the body and pool of blood, crossing the room towards the back wall and storage cabinet, "but as soon as the others arrive, I'll attempt one more casting from a different viewing angle, with a viewpoint that gives me a better view of Father Malaki's interrogator ... it's a long shot, but perhaps I can glean more information if I can see what it's saying," he adds.

As he steps across the room, Darl takes a silent inventory of any noteworthy items amongst the floor debris, positioning himself near or over top of any smaller items of interest.

Sitting down, Darl crosses his long legs, taking up a meditative position on the floor admist the debris. Leaning back against the wall near to the cabinet, he lets his hands drop loosely in his lap.

"Even for a Shade, this one seemed special ... somehow, it was able to inflict pain on Father Malaki by cutting itself, which is certainly not within the typical Shade repetoire. And while all Shades have a natural regeneration ability, this one chose not to heal its scars ... it seems to wear them as trophies, or as a badges of honor."

Close his eyes again, and letting his head tip back wearily against the wall behind him, Darl ponders whether he's sensed any Rifts opening nearby this morning. "I'm afraid, Brother Tobius, that we may have to consider the possibility that the Shade could still be in town. If it didn't get the information it was looking for from Father Malaki, it may have chosen to stick around and seek that information via other channels. If it teleported away, I should have sensed it this morning ... and as they are sensitive to bright light, a Shade isn't likely to travel alone in the wastelands by day."

Opening his eyes again, he'll add, "I'll perform one more cast here; and once that's done, I'd suggest I make one more attempt outside, to see which way the Shade left after murdering the guards ... there's been too much traffic this morning directly in front of the building to pick up any tracks; but we may get lucky and pick up a trail a little further out, once we know which direction to look."

OOC: Something I should have mentioned, there was about 10 minutes between the end of that vision and the start of your previous one.

OOC: Good to know. More than enough to drain me dry, if I want to watch the whole thing go down.

"Ok so the book seems out of place from other things on the list versus the other things. Any other place that book might be? I'm off on a tangent here but who knows if Father Malaki might have put or hidden something in it. And the staff, any chance it could of been used to start the fire when the orb was taken? Just trying to see if there might be any links between the two. I can try and see what I can translate from this token as well but it might take me a few hours as it's a bit complicated. I can get going on that after you finish your last viewing. Should we go ahead and get the others for that as well so we can all be together and compair anything we might have discovered?"

Gerard will share any information on Shades and how they might be able to conceal themselves with the others if he knows anything else as speculation that the Shade might still be around has been raised.

"Hmmm ... perhaps if we were to make a copy of the symbols, we could have on of the priests attempt to decode them for us ... which might allow us to focus our efforts on this Shade; which is a more immediate issue if it hasn't left town."

Darl picks up a random piece of debris and fiddles absentmindedly with it, lost in thought while awaiting Brother Tobius's response to his earlier suggestion.

OOC: Sorry for the delay. It was a long weekend and I do better posting from work than I do from home.

Brother Tobius listens with interest to Darl's depiction of the events. "Could you tell what this 'shade' was looking for? Was it related to the fire?" Tobius asks.

Thinking back, Darl can't recall feeling any rifts opening in the area since the ones that allowed the raiding party to retreat the day before. Darl circumspectly makes his way over to the shattered cabinet and glances down at the items there. He sees a number of small statues, a few stones and a little bag amongst the debris. In the waning seconds of his spell he senses that at least some of the items below him emanate magic. Sitting down near the items, Darl absentmindedly picks up the closest item to hand…a small statue of a fat, bald man sitting cross legged. As he picked up the item, Darl could sense a small flare of magic, and then his sense magic spell completely expires, but not before the flare of magic subsides.

"I could have a priest work on looking through Father Malaki’s book." Brother Tobius responds after a few moments thought about Darl's inquiry. "However, having the coin itself may be necessary. Subtle differences in copying could cause...inaccuracies in the translation." Tobius concludes with a pause for effect.

Turning to Gerard, Tobius address the list that Gerard found. "As I said, it could just be that the book burned in the fire or has yet to be found. It is just a children’s book, after all; it’s doubtful that anybody would bother to steal that when there are so many other things they could steal. I suppose if the thief had a young daughter he might grab it to give to her. It is a favorite of the girls, especially."

Brother Tobius mentally shifts gears before continuing with answering Gerard's questions. "As I said, the staff managed to start a basket of laundry on fire; it could have undoubtedly been the cause of the fire. Whether intentional or by accident is hard to say since the staff is rather unpredictable in its nature."

In addition to passing on other natural abilities of Shades Gerard also voices his knowledge that they have the natural ability to completely disappear in shadow. This could explain how the creature was able to gain access to the building unnoticed as well as move around town without being seen.