IC 3b: Charles and Michael at the Library

[BenTheRat]

Location: Boston Library, Copley Sq.
Date: Monday, March 21, 1921 8:00 AM

After heading home and getting a decent night sleep you both show up at the library at 8 am when it opens.
It is a very impressive looking building.
outside

.
and inside

.

OOC,I need to know what you are looking for. So the best thing to do is tell me what you are searching for and make a Library Use roll at the same time, that should save time.

[Occigon]

"Alright," says Charles. "Why don't we each take a look on our own for a while, then come back and see what we've got?"

Research,Charles heads to the stacks to begin his search. He begins by looking for information on: a) The area around Norman Street and the house itself b) Hauntings or supernatural occurrences in Boston; and c) information on M.A.P.S. and Dr. Chambers LIBRARY USE ROLLS (Skill = 75%) http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4186436/ a) 20 = success b) 47 = success c) 30 = success

[BenTheRat]

Charles is searching around looking for anything about Norman street.

You find a reference to a newspaper article from 1835. You then look up the article in the back copies of the Boston Globe .

'Byline: Francis Mendez May 12, 1835
Tragedy struck the new housing district of Norman Street, the jewel of the city. Dr. Joey Anderson who built the beautiful home at 121 Norman street and moved in 2 months ago, fell mysteriously ill last week and doctors fear his recovery chances are not good. His brother, Sheldon, has sold the home to Mr. Walter Corbitt, esquire, claiming the house was the cause of his brother's strange illness.'

OOC Charles,This took you about 1 hour to find. Do you wish to continue to look for things about the house, move onto the occult stuff in Boston, or a new topic? In the future, best to just do 1 roll at a time. I'll count these for your next 2. Its now 9 am.

[Occigon]

OOC - BenTheRat,Oops, okay, sorry. Charles continues to look for things about the house.

[BenTheRat]

You find another reference to 121 Norman street. A much more recent article in the Boston Globe only 7 years old.
.
'Byline: Tommie Mendez May 12, 1914
Another tragedy in a long string of occurrences has befallen the residence of the old Corbitt house at 121 Norman street. Mr. Abraham Torres took his own life with a kitchen carving knife. Police are refusing to release the full details of the investigation, but sources have informed me it appears Mr. Torres sliced his own throat, after stabbing himself seven times, at least once in the face. The police originally labeled this a homicide but have since changed the cause of death to suicide. The rest of the family living in the house has moved out of the city, but before that, Jonathan Brady, the victims brother-in-law was arrested on attempted arson. The charges were dropped and he was released. In a formal statement by Jonathan he said, "My wife's brother Abraham, was a good man, a sane man. There was a murder here. He did not take his own life." When a follow up question was asked about who Jonathan thought the murderer was, he only said "The house."

OOC Charles,No problem. We are all learning here. I just figured you would want to continue to follow up on a good trail instead of jumping to a new topic. Each research item is taking about 1 hour. Just FYI. It is now 10 Am, where do you want to go next, you have one more good roll. ;)

[Occigon]

OOC - BenTheRat,I'll take "Boston Supernatural", for $100

[BenTheRat]

You find a rather lengthy article about a very strange series of events. But the article is vague on details of what actually happened.
The byline is by Edward Fowler dated in 1850. The best you can get out of it is that strange creatures were coming up out of the water and attacking people in the streets. The official report said the people went swimming and were attacked by sharks. But the article mentions the remains of the victim appeared to still be fully clothed.
.
There is a picture of the mayor of the city giving the key to the city to a man who looks very much like a young Dr. Chambers. He has a satchel over his shoulder, and it has the M.A.P.S. logo still on it. The caption under the picture is smudged so you cannot read any names.

[Mouchinator]

Michael is put off by some of the information Charles is pulling up. His mind goes over what they've learned and realizes that as far back as the records go, there has been an issue with this house. Even the man who built it ended up falling ill. Hmmm, so what was going on in the area when the house was built? Is there something in the ground, the water or the air making people sick? Is there some kind of long standing criminal issue at play? Michael's mind spins as he heads into the stacks.

Michael's Library Use,Searching for anything on that area of Boston around the time of the house's construction (e.g. what else was on the street, were there any criminal organizations operating, any environmental issues). Library Use Skill = 45% - http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4188616/

[BenTheRat]

You search through the archives and for 1835 all you can find for Norman street is that street was zoned for residence housing and several very fine homes were built in that area. Nothing that would seem to cause this problem.
.
You do stumble on a legal notice dated in Nov 1852 where Walter Corbitt is sued by "The other residence of Norman Street". In the petition they are wanting the courts to force Corbitt to sell his house and move. The cause for the preceding is 'Mr. Corbitt's surious habits and unauspicious demeaner.'

OOC Michael,I'll assume you worked with Charles on the first search, then you did this one. It is now 10 am for you. You can do one more search to catch up to Charles.

[Mouchinator]

Michael sits there pondering. Unauspicious demeanor? Who was this Corbitt anyway? Hmmm that gives me an idea...

Micheal heads back into the stacks trying to find out anything he can about old man Corbitt. Library Use Skill = 45% (failure) http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4189162/

Frustrated, he drums his hands on the book cart while he looks around and considers his options. He makes a quick mental note to stop by the Boston Police Station to see if he can look through some old police records on the house and the neighbourhood. But what about Corbitt? There must be something else to find here. Hmmm Charles is busy. Maybe I could...

A smile forms on Michael's handsome face and he remembers one of his key skills: charm. He starts to look around to see if there is a female librarian or staff member who he could potentially charm into finding some information for him.

[BenTheRat]

Michael looks around the room and sees a young man and a young woman, both seem to work for the library and are helping other people.
.

OOC Michael,its not that big a deal, you spent an hour looking and failed to find something. you can look again if you want to. Or you can try and use your charm to persuade them to help you. This is their job, its not difficult, so double your persuade chance (from 35 to 70%).If this works you get +30% to your library use roll for your next search. Good luck.

[BenTheRat]

Charles and Michael both look up at each other as the clock chimes 11 times.

[Occigon]

"We're meeting the others at 1:00, right?" says Charles. " Maybe you could head over to City Hall? They might have a plant of the house on file, or something like that."

For his part, Charles heads over to the stacks, looking for any available information on M.A.P.S.

OOC - BenThe Rat,Roll = 100 (oops). http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4191878/

[BenTheRat]

OOC,in a situation like this you could spend a week figuring out if you are going to stay here or go somewhere else. If its not a dangerous combat situation, or a situation where you have to stick together, my suggestion is to just do what you want to do, and let his character do his thing. If you guys want to spend a week role-playing this, be my guest, just don't think its worth it IMO, unless both are really active and you could do it in a few hours.

[Occigon]

BenTheRat,OK, edited my post.

[BenTheRat]

You spend an hour looking through anything you can find on M.A.P.S. and come up with nothing at all.

Its now noon.

[Occigon]

Frustrated, Charles decides to head out to City Hall during the last hour before the meeting, in order to see if there are any plans of the house or other information available on in there.

Check,Roll = 35 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4193379/ - Library Use = 75%

[BenTheRat]

The hall of records at city hall is nearby.

Charles,What are you trying to look for in paritcular, something on the house, corbitt, M.A.P.S or something else?

[Mouchinator]

Michael chats up the young librarian, flashing a smile or two and asks for some help in locating information in the stacks. The young woman agrees and Michael follows her through the library as she searches for information to help him in his research.

Persuade at 70% (success) - http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4193407/

Michael passes Charles at one point, following the young woman from card catalogue to card catalogue. "Sorry friend, but I have a gut hunch over here and I need to see it through. If you're heading to City Hall, I'll meet up with you and the others at 1."

The young woman smiles and hand's Michael a list of sources on a piece of paper and Michael goes back to work looking for anything on Corbitt.

Library Use at 75% (success) - http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4193413/

[BenTheRat]

The librarian is happy to help you out and does a bit of research for you. When she hands you the papers, she tells you, "This is everything we have on Mr. Walter Corbitt. Hope that helps." She smiles as she hands them to you, then almost immediately someone else is asking for her help and she moves on.
.
You go through the papers she gave you on Corbitt, the first 2 are the ones you already found on your own.
.
the final one is new. It's an obit entry for Corbitt passing away in 1866. It states his address as still on Norman street.
What is disturbing is that it also mentions a lawsuit being waged by the neighbors, this time to prevent him from being buried in his basement, as was stated as his desire in his will.

Michael,it is 12 noon, you have time for 1 more search, or you can go over to the Hall of records with Charles, or you can call it for now and head back to the museum.