Involvement in Grant's Bookstore
Luke heaved a sigh as he swung off the tram in front of Grant's. The two suitcases full of Obelisk Press' finest from Paris were feeling as heavy as lead, and the customs officer had demanded twice the customary gratuity. Still, they'd be out of his hands soon - Grant's eccentric customers were always partial to a good book about flogging. With luck, Llewellyn would have a commission, or Harwood would have unearthed something that made another trip across the Atlantic worthwhile. Variant illuminated psalters, from ancient monasteries so far from Rome that they generated their own peculiar theologies without being really aware of it, had been trending up; someone in New York was building a collection.
Grant's looked just the same. The same light layer of dust settled over everything, including, Luke could swear, Mr Grant. "He's got to stop reading them and start selling them", Luke thought to himself. Sometimes it occurred to him that he could knock the whole shop over, walk out with all the good stuff and Grant would never notice - but there were limits. If you started knocking over other men from the Service you were heading down a road of no return. Besides, Mrs Grant would certainly spot it.
Contacts
Jack Kahane, owner of Obelisk Press in Paris, publishers of avante-garde literature and fine smut for the gentry. Something of a role model for Luke (real historical character).
Mr Baginelli; seemingly a not-very-prosperous soliciter in a shabby office a fair distance from the Temple, Baginelli is actually a London "agent" of the Commission of Five Families of New York, and a very useful man to know if you want to get something into or out of America without any undue hassles or unexpected accidents occurring to it. Occassionally passes on commissions when someone in NYC suddenly wants to look cultured.
Alfred O'Dwyer-Douglas, 14th Earl of Cirinchester on the Severn; Your classic eccentric (not to say dangerous) English aristocrat, "O'Doggy" (as he is called behind his back is active in J.F.C. Fuller's right-wing political circles, and also building a large collection of Germanic and Old English witchcraft-related literature. Luke secretly despises him, but has played up their shared connection to the West country to become one of his preferred agents for sourcing those hard-to-find pieces.
Everyone contribute to the Description of the store
When Old Man Grant built the store, he bought two adjacent Victorian terraces and knocked out the intervening walls, then panelled the whole thing in oak, now somewhat woodwormed. Some of that panelling now covers otherwise unmarked doors and cupboards, preventing overly-curious-but-underly-paying customers or nosy parkers from accessing certain rooms and storage spaces, or even realising their existence. Despite its small size, the odd half-steps between the two former houses, the gloom of the aging oak, and the unnerving way staff pop through doors you thought were walls, give the place a somewhat mazelike feel.
Do we need a practice physical conflict?
To be frank (sorry Frank), sounds like a horribly boring and time wasting idea; round by round combat on pbp goes at the pace of an arthritic snail, and this wouldn't even be advancing the story. I'd like to take a leaf from Chris Kubasik's excellent critique of combat in RPGs (here:
http://www.rpg.net/oracle/essays/itoolkit1.html and
http://www.rpg.net/oracle/essays/itoolkit4.html) and suggest that we come up with some serious streamlining that makes conflict have much simpler resolution, like picking a lock or winning an argument.
How bout this: The combatants both toss in all the points and modifiers they wish to spend / have available and do a simple opposed test (roll a die each, add all the bits, etc). The difference between the two totals is the difference in their remaining Health scores at the end of the combat. The winner gets to pick the final level of the loser (did I just give him a good thump and then he lost his nerve and ran, leaving myself unscathed? Did we mercilessly grapple until I strangled him to death, leaving myself dazed and bleeding, but still alive? etc) GM adds bonuses and penalties for clever/dramatic descriptions of tactics.
Group is low on the technical side of skills:
I think lots of farcical bumbling, a la a British incompetent criminal heist movies (Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, etc) is called for, making a nice contrast to the grim mystery of occult shenanigans. CF the "Bookhounds Fiasco" playset:
http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=5960. The point is, we're not the ones investigating the crimes - usually, we're the ones committing them...
PS: Remember everyone has to put an investigative point into Bookshop Stock
PPS Seon remember Laura gets "The Knowledge" as an occupational ability.