1: Aria

[vladtaltos]

Sept 23, 2014 8:42:20 GMT -5 julie said:

"Aren’t you going to buy me a drink, Sergeant? I have some information you may be interested in."

Marcelli waves a hand dismissively. "Everybody has information. None of it true, all of it excrement from a bull’s bowels. And everybody wants something in return. Nothing’s free, my pretty, nothing’s free." 

He notices Dog for the first time. He looks down upon him with disgust.

Sept 23, 2014 8:42:20 GMT -5 julie said:

"I have some information on The Halo Killer. He, she, it claimed a sixth victim last night. I saw it happen. But first I want to know about Reaper, the whole story. And, yes, thank you for buying me a drink, and the treat for my dog." 

He’s not dismissively waving you away now. He becomes rigid in his chair, his eyes pinned to yours. He puts the coffee cup down. In the next few seconds you can see the wheels turning in his head. You can read his thoughts as easily as if they were scrawled on a piece of paper. The Halo Killer is obviously causing him great hardship from somewhere, someone. Reading your face, he’s trying to tell if you’re BSing him or shooting straight.

"Reaper, you want to know about him?" He barks at a passing barista, ordering your drink and a biscuit for Dog. "There isn’t much to tell. Fell off a balcony about thirty feet up last night. From the looks of things, landed on the back of his head. Skull fractured, broken vertebrae. He died then and there, which was good for him. He never would’ve moved again had he survived."

You inquire about him being pushed. "Yeah, the magistrate’s chief bodyguard was on that balcony, enjoying a smoke. Good luck for the magistrate, bad luck for Reaper. The upcoming stories in the rags should make for entertaining reading. Too bad I don’t read." 

The barista brings your drink and the treat for Dog, then departs. "Your turn, my pretty," he says. "And my BS detector is set to high. You better not be feeding me any bull." 

[julie]

"You interviewed the bodyguard and the magistrate? One more thing about Reaper." Since Marcelli was on Azzuri payroll, a regular contact, she didn't hesitate asking him her next question. "Were the magistrate or his henchmen expecting Reaper last night? Were they tipped off that he was coming for him?"

She tells Marcelli what she saw last night regarding The Halo Killer, the shadow emerging from the ground, surrounding and engulfing the prostitute, her scream, and the wounds she found on the body.

[vladtaltos]

"Of course I spoke with them. No, they weren’t expecting anything like that, at least they didn’t tell me that." Question marks suddenly appear on his face. “Wait. You think they knew Reaper was coming? What, you gotta snitch in your outfit now?”

<He won’t let this go without a response from you. Afterward...>

He listens to your story about The Halo Killer. When you tell him about the wounds you found on the victim, he nods his head ever so slightly. He knows now that you’re telling him the truth. "Where?"

You tell him The Maze. He nods again. "Makes sense. I guess I should expect word anytime now about that."

When you tell him about the ‘apperance’ of the killer, he becomes stoic. "A wizard, a monster, or a guy using tricks?" He sighs and says sardonically, "Great." 

He tells you what you’ve suspected shortly after sitting down. "This Halo Killer’s causing me sleepless nights. The whole thing’s become a real pain in my ass. People coming out of the walls to claim the reward, telling me all sorts of lies, false leads, wasting time. But what you’ve told me adds up." 

The expression on his face is different now when he looks at you. You almost detect friendliness. Almost. "Tell your people to stay out of The Maze for the next few days. I’m gonna have more watchmen on those streets than ants at a picnic. If I find this son-of-a-bitch, he...well, let’s just say the taxpayers won’t have to worry about paying for a trial."

You finish your drink. Dog has hungrily wolfed down his biscuit. When you stand to leave, Marcelli says, "Hey, if you find this murderer and deal with it, you’ll get the reward, and a little extra. I promise." 

[julie]

Sept 25, 2014 9:31:47 GMT -5 vladtaltos said:

"Of course I spoke with them. No, they weren’t expecting anything like that, at least they didn’t tell me that." Question marks suddenly appear on his face. “Wait. You think they knew Reaper was coming? What, you gotta snitch in your outfit now?”

"I don’t know Sergeant, that’s what I’m trying to find out. Certain things don’t make sense to me. Reaper was good at his job. Seems to me if he walks into a trap, they had to know he was coming and planned for it." Dahlia believed the sincerity of Marcelli, for the most part anyway. She could scratch him off the suspect list as being her betrayer.

Was she betrayed, or just imagining things? She considered this briefly, but had to stick to her original thought. The likes of Benedetto and his Man-Orc thug shouldn’t have gotten the drop on her like that without help. Was this thought cocky? Perhaps, but she was also grounded in a heavy dose of reality, and the reality was that shouldn’t have happened.

...

Dahlia nodded at putting out the word to stay away from The Maze, and she spared a faint smile at Marcelli’s parting comment. "When did you become a man of promises, Sergeant? I thought that was against the lawman’s code." As she walked away she added, "Or at least your code." 

She left, heading for the residence of Andreas Grumby.

[vladtaltos]

Over your shoulder you hear Marcelli chuckle. "Desperate times call for desperate measures, my dear."

You leave the cafe and head across town to the residence of a friend, Andreas Grumby. He rents one of the rooms in an apartment building that centuries ago was a wizard’s tower, or so goes the rumor.



This time of day, you know he should be at home; it’s one of the days he’s not attending classes at the Wizards’ Guild Academy, where you met him and developed a friendship.

<Whether or not he knows your profession, or the reason why you left school, I’ll leave for you to decide.>

You walk up a flight of stairs and come to the door to his apartment. He answers it after a few knocks, an easy smile coming over his face. "Maria, what a nice surprise. Come in, you’re just in time."

Just in time for what? He leads you through an unkempt living room toward the back of his apartment where in one of the rooms he’s constructed a makeshift lab. There, he turns around and says, "You’ll like this, I think. I’m working on---by all the great gods, is that your dog?"

[julie]

Maria laughed inwardly, but remained stoic outwardly. She said dryly, "Yes, that’s him. Isn’t he handsome? The mange adds a lot to his personality, don’t you think? So cute, his missing clumps of fur, and bare skin exposed for all to see. He’s such an exhibitionist."

Changing subjects, she said, "So, tell me what you’re working on." She looked around at his workshop. "This is an interesting place you’ve constructed here. Tell me about it."

She then showed him some of the things she’s acquired. "Andreas, take a look at a couple of things I have here, and enlighten me as to what they are, what they do if you would." She showed him the rune-covered rock and the flask of green fluid.

<Maria has told Andreas about her past and present, and why she’s no longer enrolled at the Wizards' Academy.>

[vladtaltos]

Hands on his hips, Andreas looks down at Dog, shaking his head. Clearly he’s aghast at his condition, or maybe just horrified that a canine has the gall to be standing inside his apartment. "I can put together a compound that may work on his condition. Would you like me to try it on him?"

Before you answer, you recall past memories of Andreas. First, he’s brilliant academically, but sometimes his zeal for experimentation reaches beyond his total understanding of alchemy. He takes chances. As such, his experiments don’t always have the intended results. In fact, at times they have had the exact opposite of intended results. Whatever compound he puts together for Dog's mange, you reason, could cure it instantly, or it could kill him, or turn him pink, or blow up the apartment with you in it. Such is the results of Andreas’ concoctions.

Also, you do have the general healants for his mange given to you by Scarpetti’s assistant at the safe house. But why let the dog suffer longer than he has to? Decisions, decisions.

As you consider your answer, you ask Andreas to show you around his makeshift workshop. "Ah, gladly." He takes you to his inner sanctum---various charts and graphs are pinned to the walls, magical texts old and new, as well as other works of esoterica litter the floor, or have been tossed haphazardly on a shelf, table, bed, or chair. Black and blue ink stains the books, the floor, the walls, and a smudge or two can be seen on the bed. The pungent aroma of sulphur hangs in the air in certain spots, invading and conquering your olfactory senses.

A tiny stove sits in one corner with a kettle sitting on it, bubbling with some weird brew. A tube runs from the bottom of the kettle to a container sitting on an adjoining countertop. On the countertop you notice an old newsscroll. Midway down the page a headline reads: Medicini and Danielle Vow to Crush Organized Crime. Medicini, of course, is the Mayor of Florence. Danielle is the Captain of the City Watch.  

"I’m working on my final project for graduation," he says. "I’m creating a new spell, never before seen or heard of in the known world, or any unknown world for that matter. If I can make this work, I’m sure I’ll graduate at the top of my class. Exciting, yes?" 

<After you respond...>

You show him the rune-covered rock and the flask of green fluid liberated from Benedetto the wererat. He studies the rock, turning it over in his hand. After about ten-seconds he announces, "I know what this does. I recognize most of these runes. It’s a wizard’s focus, like a staff, only it’s a rock." He looks genuinely impressed by it. "Interesting, a rock. I wish I had thought of it." 

His gaze stays on the runes for longer than what seems necessary. "It does something else, but I don’t know what. These other runes, they’re...odd." He offers what you’d expect Andreas to offer. "I can keep this for a few days and figure it out, if you wish me to." 

He pours the green fluid into a clear beaker. The head foams ropey brown. "Uh-huh. This will start an impressive fire with whatever it contacts. A certain amount of force has to be used, though. This is Hellfire Juice. Nasty stuff." 

[julie]

Maria remembered some of Andreas’s botched experiments from class, the ones that resulted in damage to building and body alike. Smart but perhaps overconfident, Maria thought it wise to reject his offer of assisting Dog. She let him down easy. "That’s okay, Andreas. I have some medicine for it. He’ll be okay in a couple of weeks. No reason to go to any extra trouble."

She glanced around his lab in wonder. Andreas was really quite an amazing fellow. Cluttered, but amazing. She reasoned his cluttered lab in some way reflected his cluttered mind, always busy, working, devising, creating, but leaving the "trash" of his contemplations everywhere.

"A new spell, you say? Well, Andreas, you’ll have to tell me all about it. What will it do?" Magic interested Maria tremendously. But so did the newsscroll article she’d spied on the countertop. As he explained his spell, she’d casually walk to the newsscroll, pick it up, and peruse it.

After Andreas told her about the rock and the Hellfire juice, she decided it would be best to hold on to the rock. She could discover what other properties it held later. Andreas may...mess it up.

[vladtaltos]

Sept 30, 2014 10:06:42 GMT -5 julie said:

"That’s okay, Andreas. I have some medicine for it. He’ll be okay in a couple of weeks. No reason to go to any extra trouble."

His chance at experimentation foiled, disappointment shows clearly in his eyes. "Well, okay."

Sept 30, 2014 10:06:42 GMT -5 julie said:

"A new spell, you say? Well, Andreas, you’ll have to tell me all about it. What will it do?"

"I thought you’d never ask," he says. The disappointment in his eyes vanishes, replaced by wide-eyed excitement. He looks down at Dog, a demented smile crookedly appearing on his lips. "Maria, how well do you know your friend here?" 

Perhaps your thought is ‘I don’t like where this is going.’ That would be a logical and accurate assessment.

"How would you like to communicate with him on a more intimate level? I mean more than saying, ‘Roll over’ and he rolls over. ‘Sit’ and he sits."

You seriously doubt Dog knows these basic commands; he’s, heretofore, shown no sign of understanding any words of the Common tongue. How could he learn anything more complex? You shoot a quick look at him. His doggy senses have detected the conversation has shifted to him. His brown eyes fill with doggy angst. He whimpers and shifts awkwardly on his haunches.

"Let’s face it. Human conversation can only take you so far. There are limits. People hide their feelings, cover-up their inner thoughts, they're two-faced, deceptive. Humanity is really quite wretched, wouldn’t you say? I mean, you know, look at the business you’re in. If people didn’t need to be killed you wouldn’t have a job, right?"

Before you can fashion a response, he continues, "My spell will enable you to know, to understand, and to communicate with an animal through the force of your mind. You would know what Dog is thinking, and through your thoughts communicate with him."

He stands back, holds his head high, and nods, as if acknowledging applause, deafening applause from...somewhere only he can hear.

Eventually, he snaps out of it. "Now the only thing is there have been a few setbacks. You may be wondering why I wouldn’t try this on humans. Well, preliminary tests didn’t go so well, a few of my test subjects---teenagers I paid---became violently ill, so I had to confine this to animals. But like I said, humans have limitations that animals don’t."

How have the tests gone on animals? Andreas answers, "Well, there are still a few kinks to work out there, too. But I know I’m on to something, and I’m--" he holds the index finger and thumb of his right hand a millimeter apart "---this close to figuring it all out. And, you know..."

Andreas goes into a dissertation on magical theory and practice. While he does so, you peruse the newsscroll.

It’s date is two weeks ago, the time when Tomas Danielle was hired as Captain of the City Watch. Danielle is quoted as saying he vows to bring down the organized crime families that are holding the citizens and business owners of Florence in fear, and with the help of the Mayor, Medicini, and his resources, the city will soon be a happy and safe place for all to live and practice their trades. 

Andreas has stopped talking. His smile is triumphant. "Well, what do you think?" 

[julie]

Maria listened, at times amused, at times concerned over Andreas' obsession with his graduation project. He had all the makings of a brilliant wizard, or an eccentric, babbling conjurer mumbling into old spellbooks in his future. She wondered which way he'd turn out. 

She read the article with great interest. Her suspicions were again piqued. She was now more sure than ever before she had, indeed, been betrayed.

Oct 1, 2014 9:55:18 GMT -5 vladtaltos said:

Andreas has stopped talking. His smile is triumphant. "Well, what do you think?" 

"That’s all fascinating stuff, Andreas. Good luck on your final exam, and topping your class." She reached down and patted Dog’s head. "And my answer is yes. I will test your prototype potion, or spell, whatever you have, on my friend, Dog, here." She looked at his stove. "You have something ready?" 

[vladtaltos]

[Source] julie said:

"That’s all fascinating stuff, Andreas. Good luck on your final exam, and topping your class." She reached down and patted Dog’s head. "And my answer is yes. I will test your prototype potion, or spell, whatever you have, on my friend, Dog, here." 

The shock on Andreas’ face is profound. "You will?" His expression of disbelief quickly becomes a mask of confidence. "I mean, of course you will!"

He hustles over to the stove and kettle. Dog swallows hard, his doggy senses screaming to him that things have taken a strange turn here, and his best interests are no longer being considered.

Andreas brings over three vials, simply labelled A, B, and C. "I’m still dabbling with the mixture. Today’s mix is C."

You gather the small vials and tuck them away in various pockets. "I appreciate this, Maria. When I finalize this project into a spell, the caster won’t have to take anything or assume any risk. For now, feed half the vile to your dog, then you take the other half. Make sure it’s from the same vial. Let me know which works the best. The effects should last about an hour."

Did he say risk? He pauses and looks at you kinda funny. You’ve known Andreas long enough to know what that pause and look means. "I guess I should tell you there may be side effects, things that can’t be foreseen or explained. The good news is nothing should happen that’s life threatening...I’ve corrected those issues, I think."

Dog whimpers.

* * * * *

This concludes Chapter 1, wherein Black Dahlia returned to the Azzuri and successfully completed her return-assignment, but also became aware of a serial murderer, The Halo Killer, that stalks the city of Florence. But perhaps more troubling is her suspicion that there’s someone jeopardizing the assassins’ assignments. Is there a mole working within the family?

Chapter 2 will begin in the next 7-10 days.

With the vials of animal communication, Andreas is accurate, the kinks have been worked out, mostly. If you take one, roll a d6. A 3-6, it works as planned. If a 2 is rolled something strange happens. If a 1 is rolled, something really strange happens.

You’ve earned three experience points, two for winning combats and completing your mission, and one for following-up and investigating the scene of The Halo Killer’s crime.

You have also earned a karma point for helping a sick dog obtain treatment. Besides using karma to re-roll, it may also be cashed-in to obtain a CLUE. I’ll include this in the House Rules thread, as well.

You can make a final post in response to Andreas, if you wish. Or none at all. Also, a friendly reminder: Be sure to check Cristiano’s routinely. Some items have come and gone.

[julie]

Maria gave Andreas a sideways stare, then smiled. He was charming in his lack of confidence. She gave him a hug, said goodbye, and called for Dog to follow her out of the apartment.

She would wait till her next assignment before testing the various recipes in the vials. "What have I promised to do?" she sighed. She looked down at Dog as they strode across the plaza, heading home. "Why exactly would I want to communicate with you? Is there a genius hiding in that mangy coat, some displaced spirit of a long dead mage longing to get out and teach his liberator the secrets of magic?"

She doubted it. But she could hope.