Play@YSDC

Sara gets to work, planning to join up with the others afterward and compare notes.

You're all able to meet up again towards the evening and compare notes. As well as Sara and Colin, Clarence and Lucy are there - this would be the first time Sara's met Lucy - she still has the marks of the beating that started all this.

Elsa has shown up, as well as Carol's brother - his name is Rob, and it turns out he really is a taxi driver - he says if Kittrell is taking Elsa out, he's going to follow them just in case.

Elsa says Kittrell's servants are all char (that is they come in to work during the day, rather than living there). The house will be empty when she and Kittrell leave, so she could try unlocking the back door for you.

"I'm Sara London," says Sara to Lucy. "I'm so sorry about what they did to you. I'm going to help bring all those responsible to justice." She fills everyone in on what she learned at the office. "Thank you, Elsa. With the door unlocked, I should be able to gain entry and poke about, along with whoever wants to come with me. I'll bring my camera so I can take pictures of any evidence we don't want to remove."

"I'll come with you of course," Clarence says.

"I'll-" Lucy starts

"Not," Clarence interrupts.

"About how long will we have until Austin comes home?" asks Sara. "Maybe you can call his house after he's dropped you off, Elsa. We won't answer it, but that'll be the signal that he's on his way home."

"I'll do that," she says.

So... the plan is Elsa leaves the back door open when Kittrell takes her out, and Rob follows to make sure nothing untoward happens during the evening... Sara and Clarence search the place... Elsa calls with a warning when it's time to get out (the date should last a few hours)... is that right? Have I missed anything out, and is Colin going too?

Rob offers the use of his taxi for getting over there, which gives you time to get some food first, and grab any gear you think you'll need.

Elsa takes a few deep breaths putting on a friendly face, then goes to Kittrell's door.

Ten minutes after he lets her in, there's the sound of a car from his drive, and they head off. Rob waits a few moments to let them get some distance before following, leaving the housebreakers alone.

In addition to bringing her camera, Sara is wearing gloves so as not to leave any fingerprints. What she's doing is illegal, and probably still would be even she had been a licensed private investigator. She has disguised herself and dressed all in black. She also has an electric torch, her cigarette lighter, and her pocket knife.

Clarence follows Sara's lead when it comes to clothing.

The garden is mostly high bushes and small trees, neatly arranged, though not especially pretty - as you work your way round it, it becomes apparent that one thing it does do is block any good view into the house from the street. The back door is unlocked.

The kitchen is full of modern gear, but doesn't look like it's used much - there are a pantry and utility room off to the side. A door leads straight into a dining room - a table that could sit six, and several standing drawer/shelf-sets - the shelves have plates and crockery on them. A door from there leads into the hall, which Sara recognises from her first visit.

There are two doors on one side of the hall - one leads into the lounge Sara was taken into - the other side of the hall has one door and a staircase.

"Let's try that one first," whispers Sara, pointing at the door on the same side of the hall as the one leading to the lounge.

The room looks like a library or study of sorts. It would get pretty good light during the day, were it not for the trees planted outside, though the desk is not placed in such a way that it would benefit from that light. Both it and the bookshelves lining the walls are heavy, dark wood.

The desktop is clear, except for a lamp and writing materials, though there are several drawers.

The bookshelves are stuffed, but mostly dusty - though one is clearer. The titles on that one look mostly academic at first glance.

Wherever the house telephone is, it's not in here.

"If we're going to find important papers, this is probably the place," whispers Sara. "Let's check the desk drawers first. We must be careful to leave everything precisely as we found it." She starts to carefully search the drawers.

OOC,Sara's Library Use 60, Colin's Library Use 70; Rolled 36, 32.

Sara finds a diary - though it seems to be used as a day planner instead, with meetings scrawled in on the appropriate days. Checking reveals a couple of meetings in the near future - one in two days time with "Diamond" and one in four days time with "Whitney and Li." Colin and Clarence have mentioned Diamond, and you've encountered Whitney, but not Li.

If Li is a Chinese name, then Colin will be aware that most of Melbourne's Chinese population are descended from immigrant labour brought in during the gold rush of the mid 19th Century - when gold finds slowed down, white mine owners were quick to toss them aside, and many lacked the money to return to China.

Colin's own find is in legal papers - it's a deed to Pete's Cafe, with Kittrell's name on it - he's the owner, not the Reilly brothers.

With the two of you occupied at the drawers, Clarence looked at the more dust-free bookshelf. "They're not all in English," he says, "but a lot of them look like they're about magic."

"I wouldn't be surprised if he's trying to use magic to charm women," says Sara as she photographs their finds and then returns them exactly where they found them. "I knew better, but I still inexplicably felt something when he touched my hand." She goes over to examine the books on that shelf.

As Clarence said, the books are in a variety of languages. Sara can make out at least French, German, and Latin. The most on-the-nose titles are L'Histoire de la Magie by Eliphas Levi, True Magick by Theophilus Wenn, Witch Cult in Western Europe by Margaret Murray, and something in Latin with the word "Magus" in the title by Laurens van Ghendt.

OOC,Colin's Anthropology 60 and History 25; Rolled 1D100 46.

Colin has heard of two of these books (your call whether he's read them). L'Histoire de la Magie is an overview of European Renaissance occultism, very well known in the field of people who study such things. The Witch Cult in Western Europe is relatively new, and proposes a theory of a secret pagan religion that existed in Europe throughout Middle Ages, and even into the present (Murray is a skilled Anthropologist, though this theory is not taken seriously by her peers). He is not familiar with the other two, though he knows enough Latin to translate the last book's title as "An Account of the Life of the Magus Ludwig Prinn," implying that it's a biography.

OOC,Sara's Spot Hidden 60, Colin's 25; Rolling 1D100 01, 24.

Both of you are able to spot a crease in the spine of True Magic, but Sara is able to see a second, thinner one.

The corresponding pages contain what appear to be magical spells, though each one takes several pages to fully describe. One that jumps out at Sara, given what she said about Kittrell charming people is referred to as "Dominate the Lesser Soul." The other, at the thinner crease, is "Theft of Vitality."

Colin,It occurs to Colin that if it's Kittrell who owns Pete's Cafe, then if you can find something to get him arrested, it will deprive the Reilly brothers of their base of operations, which may take the pressure off of people like Clarence.

"That's it," whispers Sara, pointing at the first spell. "That's what he tried to do to me. I guess I'm not as lesser as he thought, or maybe he's just not such a great magician. Before it happened I wouldn't have believed it, but I know what I felt."

"You're saying this is something real?" Clarence asks.

"It sure felt that way," Sara whispers back. "Carol said he was a charmer, in a way you know just isn't right."

Having been through this room, do you want to move on to the lounge where Sara was taken, the third door in the downstairs all, or head upstairs?

"Let's try the unknown door on this floor next," whispers Sara.

The third room proves to be another sitting room, smaller than the lounge Sara was shown into, and looking like it's set up for one person. There's another bookshelf, this one stocked with novels - a single armchair with a side table, one of the novels lying on it (incongruously with what you've seen of Kittrell so far - mixed up with criminals, a cad with women, and books on magic - it seems to be a maritime adventure story) - a larger table holding a wireless - a smaller table holding the house's telephone and a pad - and a free-standing globe, which checking reveals to open up into a drinks stand.

The walls are decorated with carved wood panelling.

OOC,Spot Hidden Rolls: 72, 22.

Colin,It strikes you that the room seems [i]too[/i] small - the kitchen should be on the other side of its innermost wall, but the room doesn't seem to stretch far enough in that direction - and you didn't see an under-the-stairs door which might otherwise account for the missing space.