Unspent: Investigations

Here's a link to a listing of the Unspent posts, if you're a newcomer to this.

Well, everyone, time to get back to some recapping, especially because Unspent has gone a long way whilst we've left it. Last time, Bryce had given the players an offer of help, lending them the assistance of twenty cats, who really don't blink, and who can see in dim light. At long last, it was time to try and unravel what was behind the mystery of the Angels.

Beginning the Search
In the morning, the group set off. (May 12, 2012 was the date that we determined, just as a real-life anchor.) Ivy, George, Bryce, and the cats went off to pick up Sharon, who had kept Jim at her place for safety. They left Jim there, and then went to the Church. Bryce went off to do something about the Big Fae who was causing this whole mess.

They firstly noted a bunch of crime scene tape put up at St. Luke's. Apparently, somebody had started investigating. In a more dire development, however, I dropped in a lovely little subplot that was to send the players panicking. I asked Ivy's player for a Wits + Composure roll, which is like a Perception or Spot check in World of Darkness. She succeeded, and what did she notice? After a weird tingly feeling, she sees a handwritten note: "Don't trust Bryce."

And there's something familiar about the handwriting. They decide to test handwriting samples, and Ivy discovers that it's her own handwriting. Yeah, it freaked them out, and George posited the idea that she was a "hollow" (the common slang term of the paranormalists in his circle for what Changeling players would know as a "fetch"). They also headed over to the graveyard where the child, Hanna, had been buried. The little statue on her grave was missing. Ivy found another note, with an arrow pointing into the church. Cue the creeped-out reaction. (She also found out that there were a couple places in her notebook where pages had been torn out)

Exploring the Church
They got to the narthex of the church, saw no angels, and George started trying to crowbar the closed main doors. An Angel's fist smashed through, trying to grab the crowbar in that split instant. George managed to swing it free, much disturbed. They then opted to go up to the choir loft, saw an Angel at the top, and squeezed past it.

They were now able to see down to the main floor, and there was a flashlight that had been left there. Sharon recognized it as a police-make flashlight. Going back down and around, they opted to bust in through the altar-side window again. By this point, there were cats padding about the church, keeping eyes peeled. The group busted in through the window, saw the Angels clustered around the narthex doors, and so they started making their way around to explore the side chapel. Ivy found two more notes: "Side chapel" and "Find the journal", still in her handwriting.

Some Answers
They made their way up a spiral staircase, and found a door at the top, covered in arcane runes associated with "shielding". Breaking in, they found a chapel up there, behind the door, with a dead figure in one of the pews. George recognized him as an eccentric ghost-hunter who was rather infamous in the community. The group then looked for the indicated journal.

It was on the ghost-hunter, and the first page was filled with (broad wink) tally marks. About 60 of them. The notes themselves were esoteric, cryptic, and somewhat paranoid, although George managed to somewhat figure out the gist of things. Apparently, the "touch of an Angel" transported people somewhere (actually, I did slightly modify and Changeling-ize the mechanics of the Angels for this), and the ghost-hunter had sealed the room. Oh, and there was also mention of the Angels' ability to interfere with electronics, and the dire warning: "Don't blink. Blink, and you're dead." (I couldn't resist.)

Then, Ivy found a tally written in her notebook, noticed that the cats were all suddenly far away from her, and then noticed the word "RUN" written there. They ran.

Next Time: One final confrontation with the Angels...and then the group continues...