Play@YSDC

SAN (64%) - 1d100

‘Shit! Shit! Shit!’ thought Kris. Bina was never going to forgive him if anything happened to her sister!

He paused and took a deep breath. ‘Control yourself. Start thinking like a policeman!’ he told himself, then he looked around the room. It didn’t look like there’d been a struggle so did they go outside. Had something happened to draw their attention? He put his hand on one of the mugs. How cool was that? Five, ten minutes? He couldn’t be sure.

He didn’t think they’d be in the house, but he’d have a quick look to be sure, flashing his torch around the kitchen before heading upstairs to check the bedrooms.

Jocelyn shines her phone's light around, looking for any sign of recent presence, human or otherwise.

Listen roll (55% skill) in the house:
d%

Simon tries to keep an eye out, though he's still on edge.

He hears something, though. "Something's coming from the rear of the house, maybe the kitchen or garden." He whispers. "It sounds like laughter."

Kris paused at the bottom of the stairs and re-traced his steps to the kitchen. ”Lights off,” he instructed Simon and Jocelyn as he tried to peer out into the darkness…

Jocelyn flicks off her light and looks out into the darkness.

There's definitely movement in the garden. And the faint sound of voices.

Looking out the windows of the kitchen the moon is visible above the horizon of houses and garden fences. There are few clouds now and a plethora of twinkling white pinpricks dot the black blanket of the night sky.

The substantial and well maintained garden is bathed with a sickly pink hue, there seem to be three or more people gathered around some kind of structure or instrument in the middle of the immaculate lawn. They're huddled down and it's difficult to make out who they are, men, women, children, it isn't clear.

The unusual pink glow comes from the dark orange or even red lunar surface, a blood moon.

"Do we call out to them?" whispers Jocelyn.

”There’s no light. Are they stargazing?” said Kris. He’d heard of people travelling to places referred to as ‘dark skies’ to get away from streetlights and the like so they could see the stars better, but he’d not heard Prisha or Brian mention it before.

"That's possible," Jocelyn whispers back. "That blood moon; it must be a lunar eclipse."

"Why would they be stargazing in your relatives garden?" Simon points out, retaining his sense for a brief moment. "Based on everything we know so far of Balfour's reach, we have to consider they may be in his employ and up to something. Show your badge and interrogate them."

"They may actually be his relatives," whispers Jocelyn. "You know, Passover is always on a full moon. It's the fifteenth day of the month on a lunar calendar. A lunar eclipse can only happen when the moon is full. But it's a little too early in the year for it to be Passover."

Kris moved over to the back door and very gently depressed the handle, trying to open the door without being heard.

Stealth (20%) - not got great hopes for this… 1d100

…but it worked anyway!

Slipping through the back door into the garden, Kris is able to get a better look at the figures. There's actually four, not three. Two are small, children perhaps. And two are taller, adults maybe. They're stood around something mounted on a tripod, it's a large cylinder the diameter of a football and more than twice as long, pointing up into the sky, there's a much smaller cylinder, like a viewfinder, attached to the top. Kris reckons it's some kind of posh telescope and they all seem to be huddled around the eye piece at the rear of the instrument.

Now he's close he can recognise Prisha, Brian, and their two kids. Brian is saying something about the telescope, '...not often we get a chance to use this beauty...without all that light pollution...positively breathtaking...' The children look bored and he can see one of them chucking stones at the fence when no one else is looking.

Kris rolled his eyes. He flicked on his torch and in a firm voice said, ”Thames Valley Police! This is a raid!”

Jocelyn also approaches, though not as quietly as she would have liked. Still, Kris's shout will no doubt cover her approach. When she sees the scene in the garden, she relaxes.

Stealth roll (60% skill) entering the garden:
d%

At Kris's shout, Brian, short and ruddy, with muscled arms and legs but a bit of belly, straightens up suddenly, knocking the telescope which sways back and forth precariously. 'I um, er, I, ah...' he blusters.

Prisha turns and gives Kris a warm smile. 'Krishen, bahut samay ho gaya. kya haal hai?' She's looking well, Kris can't help but notice.

'Krishen, it's been too long. How are you?'

The children swarm over to him, 'Uncle Kris, uncle Kris..,' knocking the telescope even more and leaving Brian scrabbling to save it from tumbling over completely. 'Oh very funny PC Sapru, very funny.'

Simon also steps outside, making no effort to conceal himself. He's glad Kris' family are alright, having expected a terrible fate may have befallen them. But it's not long before he sees a sight that fills him with almost as much dread as Balfour and his schemes; small children, and clingy ones at that.

He does his best to stay in the background in hopes that they won't notice him.

"Pleased to meet you," says Jocelyn. "I'm Jocelyn Leigh. I'm a consultant working with Kris on a case."

Kris swept up the kids in a bear hug, relieved to find everyone ok. ”Yah dekhane ke lie behatar hai ki aap sabhee surakshit aur svasth hain,” he said to Prisha.

He switched to English so Jocelyn and Simon could follow the conversation and put the kids down. “You help your dad sort out his telescope. I need a quick word with your mum,” he said. Taking Prisha’s arm, he steered her back to the kitchen, quickly introduced Simon and went and locked the front door. “Sorry to drop in like this, but there’s something strange going on. We’ve got involved in this case with some religious fundamentalist who’s trying to bring about the end of the world…”

”All the better for seeing you're all safe and well.”

'Nice to meet you,' says Prisha, taking Jocelyn's hand. She glances at Simon but since he's clearly trying to disappear into the background she doesn't say anything to him.

Once he's secured the telescope, Brian shakes Kris and Jocelyn's hands, also looking uncertainly at Simon. 'Not really a massively convenient time Kris, you've seen how the power's out. Thought we'd take advantage of the darkness try out my new telescope.' He points at it smugly until Kris makes his excuses and steers Prisha away. He goes back to showing the kids how to use the telescope but now Kris is here they're clearly even less interested than they were.

-----

At the mention of the Balfour case, Prisha says, 'Yes, we heard about that on the news. Didn't someone die in the struggle? I do hope you weren't hurt.' When he locks the door she looks concerned, 'Are you at risk? Are...are we at risk? What about Bina?'