A decade ago, a band of occult investigators battled against the summoning of an ancient and monstrous evil. They failed. Now you must piece together the puzzle and finish what they could not. The stakes are high, and so is the price to pay. Can you do it?
Christopher surveys the scene in the kitchen with some distaste. The disarray of the apartment plus the mould on the bread seems to indicate that Brooks has been absent for a couple of days at least and maybe longer. Christopher's gut feeling was that Brooks had vacated the apartment in some hurry and probably didn't plan on returning for a while, if at all.
"I think we should ask the others to come and help, I don't think Brooks is going to return soon, more help will let us make sense of the clues we've found. I'll be back i a few minutes ..."Christopher rides the elevator back to the lobby and has a quick word with the concierge, slipping the man a $5 bill before exiting the building and walking over to Ian and Holly. Quickly summarising what they found in the apartment and that he feels Brooks won't be coming back he invites them to come and help investigate.
OOC: Christopher takes this action before going out onto the balcony - there's clues there that Holly in particular can explore - ok?
"Yeah, I'll come take a look," says Holly, getting out of the car. "Do we want to risk lowering the fire escape for me to climb up that way, or should we just let the concierge see and remember me? I know it looks like Brooks isn't coming back any time soon, but there's no telling who else he'll inform, especially if the price is right. We already know he's susceptible to bribery."
After a short trip back up to Brooks' penthouse apartment Christopher ushers Ian and Holly into the lounge. "This place is quite the mess, there seems to be traces of Nectar all over the place. Best if we all wear these." He hands out two more pairs of gloves, making a mental note to acquire some more and to have these burned once they've finished in the apartment. "Professor Cornwall found a vial of liquid in the bathroom, not nectar, something else. We don't know what it is, perhaps it's medicinal, would you care to take a look Dr. Chastain?
Pharmacy on the liquid,The liquid is a strong sleeping aid. A single does should put an adult to sleep within 30 minutes for about 10 hours. An overdose of the medicine could easily kill.
Professor Cornwall "Dr. Chastain, you can keep the vial. It may come in handy."
Turning to the rest of the group Jonathan says, "We need to further investigate the rooftop patio. There's a lot of strange clues out there."
"Thanks," says Holly, taking the vial and examining it. "This is far more mundane than Nectar. It's a sleep drug, pretty strong. One dose should put an adult of normal size and build out within half an hour for about 10 hours. An overdose could make someone sleep forever. Let's see what else we can find." She looks in the kitchen next. "The mold on this bread is two weeks old, or nearly so. Looks like Brooks has been gone for some time. " She then peers at the coops. "The birds that were kept in here were about the size of crows." Looking out on the patio, she notices the feathers and picks up a few. "They weren't crows, though. Grackle. Greattailed grackle, unless I miss my guess. They're native to this area, and they resemble crows. They're seen mostly as noisy pests. There were also smaller birds here, red-footed blackbirds. They're good singers. This is about as far south as they get. Nobody keeps either as pets, though. Both kinds of birds eat seeds and insects as well as fresh carrion. They weren't treated well. There were about fifty of them. Looks like they've been trying to escape from their cages, and someone's been feeding them fresh meat too. I see uneaten fingernails and finger bones with the flesh eaten." She gulps as she searches the cages. "There are at least twelve fingers from three or more different people - two men and one woman. None of them is more than a month old." She sniffs and looks around, finding some canvas sacks. "They've been feeding the birds Nectar too! It's mixed into the seeds and bugs."
OOC,Spending 1 point of Biology and 1 point of Pharmacy.
Christopher looks on as Holly investigates the detritus on the floor of the bird-cages, marvelling at her ability to do so. The bird-cages are disgusting, Brooks obviously didn't clean then out very often. The fact that Holly has found the remains of human fingers makes things worse, he feels a little queasy.
Standing back, Christopher notices something unusual about the cages themselves, the wood making up the doors and sides has faint markings scratched in them and some of them appear to be familiar. Peering closer it does seem as though someone has carved, or rather, scratched symbols into the wood. The dirt and filth caked onto the rough timbers obscures a lot of the detail.
"So you see here?" he asks, pointing to a particular group of markings that are only partially obscured. "These look like some kind of symbols, I think ..." opening his pen-knife he scrapes away some of the bird mess that's covering the symbols. "Well I can't be sure.. but these look 'ritualistic', definitely some similarity to the medieval alchemical symbols but altered a little more 'Enochian' but not quite the same." Poking at a few more spots with his knife blade he uncovers a few more symbols, "Quite odd, doesn't make a lot of sense."
Christopher can't discern a pattern or meaning to the symbols, they're a mish-mash of different systems and he only recognises a handful of them, their placing doesn't offer up any clues either. They obviously have some significance but it's beyond him. Perhaps the feeding of human flesh, in the form of fingers, and the markings were somehow linked or significant? Only Brooks would know.
Christopher steps back from the cages again and looks around the patio, which if it wasn't so disgustingly dirty, would be a lovely place to spend the evening. Something tugs at his consciousness, something about the patio.. then he realises. "Oh! Now that is interesting... the kitchen and corridor they're not as wide as this .. are they?" he waves his arms at the back wall of the apartment. "And there was only one bedroom ... odd for a 'penthouse', wouldn't you say?" He starts to examine the back wall.. oblivious to the looks his friends are giving.
After a few moments he digs out his pen-knife and pokes the blade at a few spots on the wall "Yes... I am right, look here ..." he jabs at the wall "Those are hinges! We have here a real life 'secret door." he exclaims gleefully. "And if these are hinges then.... yes this is the catch." there's a soft 'click' as Christopher's knife finds the right spot. "Give me a hand opening this..."
He feels confused while Fontana starts rambling about architecture. He's not sure why this is so important while they're all surrounded by human fingers and ritualistic symbology until... A secret door! "Good catch, Christopher! Let me help you." He places himself beside Fontana and helps him get the secret hatch open.
"Poor animals and poor people," says Holly with a shudder. "I don't expect the ones those fingers came from are still alive, and if they are, they aren't in such great shape." Her eyebrows go up when Christopher opens the secret door. "Nice find! I never would have known it was there." She positions herself to look inside once it's opened.
Cam grunts as Ian and Christopher open the secret door, drawing his gun as he gets ready for the worst. "I go in first", he whispers with his best "no-nonsense" tone. As soon as the door opens, he moves quickly to enter, but stops abruptly on the threshold, frozen. You hear him mumbling "What the... hell...", all the while trying to peek inside and understand what could surprise him so much. After a second he finally steps on the side, allowing you to enter.
You can feel something in the air. Perhaps it's just that the place has been closed for weeks, perhaps it's just that... but you feel something else. Something more. There's a sensation here, hard to express in words, that same sensation one feels when entering a cathedral or some similar building of faith. Like feeling the presence of the divine, except here... it's distorted, and broken, and revolting. It lasts for a few seconds, as you take in the details of the place. And then you can feel your excitement growing as you understand you've reached a turning point in your investigation.
This place is a shrine to something, that much is certain. On the wall opposite to the door, in front of you, there's the altar. It's a simple one, surprisingly, made of polished marble set on a wooden sideboard. Set on the altar, perhaps as an offering or perhaps for some kind of blessing, there are a few objects: a copy of one recording, a sheet of paper, a single-does vial of Nectar and a few half-melted candles (unlit). Above the altar, on the plaster wall, there is a large orange stain. More writings... or paintings, some times it's hard to tell, are scattered around on the other walls.
Apart from the altar, the rest of the room is furbished with an expensive wooden desk, rolling chair, and bookcase. The bookcase is mostly empty, containing just about a dozen books.
Ian,You must check for Stability or try to grab the Nectar and dose yourself. Remember that you can spend points to improve the roll, and that while this makes Ian more susceptible to madness during this chapter, in the end resisting taking the drug is the only way to completely overcome his addiction.
Art or Art History,You judge that the big smear above the altar is supposed to be a large fanged maw.
Anthropology or Occult,Above the altar, around a large orange smear that you can't quite identify, there's a large number of symbols of heads and mouths from various Mesoamerican cultures - jaguar mouths, bird mouths, serpent mouths.
Anthropology or Archaeology,The symbols on the walls around the room are five words, in Mayan writing, repeated over and over.
Holly stares at the bizarre sight in front of her, taking hold of Ian's arm to keep him from getting anywhere near the Nectar. "That stain above the altar," she says, "it's supposed to be a huge fanged mouth! And those symbols, they're Mayan in origin. There are five of them, repeated over and over. We need to take a picture of them, or I could transcribe them in my notebook. Then we can get them translated later. This may be connected to that dig site."
Jonathan,The five words are: mountain - mouth - change/trasformation/becoming - light - song.
[ooc]I have taken a 1-point Archaelogy and Languages spend.[/ooc]
As the door opens and Ian looks around the obscene chamber, his eyes get fixed in the Nectar vial at the altar. He instantly feels his mouth watering and the shivers down his spine. As Holly grabs his arm the shame is almost unbearable, surpassed only by the need to grab the vial.
leonardolad,Ian resists the need to take the Nectar for the duration of this section of the adventure. When in future you'll need to test again, I'll tell you.
