January 12 - Milano - A night at the opera

[robertod]

Andrew's words are incisive and almost convince the man to let the group proceed. While the man is still hesitant, the mysterious woman takes advantage of the brief conversation that engages the guard and walks on. The man immediately runs after her and takes her shoulder.
"Excuse me, miss, you can't go there..."
When he reaches her, she turns to him and the two look at each other for a fraction of a second.
"Cristo! Santo!" the man exclaims aloud.
He immediately runs away towards the audience, leaving the way clear for the investigators. Faccia and his men have stopped a few tens of meters ahead, at the end of the corridor, where another corridor runs perpendicularly. While the investigators proceed towards them, one of the gangsters raises his arm and points at something in the left direction, along the new corridor, away from the stage. Immediately, the whole group runs in that direction. Meanwhile, the woman is about to get to the end of the corridor as well. She´s turning right. This direction should lead to the area located behind the the stage.

[Mr. Handy]

Felicity follows the other woman.

[SaintMeerkat]

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Archie follows Felicity. As soon as he gets moving down the corridor, he readies his pistol.

[Mephistophilis]

Seeing his companions chase after the woman, Andrew continues to follow the thugs at a safe distance to ensure they do not find their goal first.

He doesn't impede them or draw his weapon, just follows them to see where they go and what they find.

[aine]

Clarence feels his cosh in his pocket and hurries, in a casual manner, after Andrew.

[robertod]

Andrew and Clarence see that Faccia and his men have just encountered a group of costumed actors. With a threatening air, they ask where the mannequin has been stored, the one that was on the stage. Having known that the object was delivered to the storeroom they rush there. Andrew and Clarence follow.

The store room is fully illuminated by high lamps providing a diffused white and cold light. Two rows of accumulated stuff divides the room space into three areas. The ends in a door that gives access to the rightmost part of the room. Ahead of them is a line of shelves full of folded costumes and small props, a few feet away from the wall. On the right is a line of stacked itens, including movable coat hangers with colorful costumes on, crates filled with lamps, large props, stacked pieces of scenography, such as chairs, tables and cabinets. Some noises come from somewhere between the shelves and the props, as if someone were throwing objects on the ground.
Those who are throwing things to the ground are Faccia and two of his men. They are opening spaces among the accumulated costumes, clearly looking for something. Other two men are doing the same job at different points. Finally, the third Faccia´s man stays vigilant and armed a short distance away from Faccia.
As Andriew and Clarence get at the entrance of the store room and see the scene inside, they suddenly hear a woman's scream echoing in the distance from the corridor they have just come from. However, theother occupants of the room don't seem to have heard it.

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Meanwhile, the mysterious woman follows on the right and, after a few step,s she immediately finds the door to one of the actors' dressing rooms. She moves quickly with confidence, as if she knows the place well. She moves as she had a very clear target on her mind.
She extracts a knife from under her dress and bursts into the small dressing room, where a woman seats alone, putting on her make-up in front of the mirror. The woman in front of the mirror is Virginia, the lead singer of Aida.
Virginia turns abruptly as she sees the shadow of someone approaching in the mirror. She looks at her attacker, who lowers the scarf that covered her face. Virginia, gives a shout. Her face becomes tinged with pure terror as she crosses the attacker's eyes.
Arriving just behind her, Felicity and Archie see the atacker from behind, with the knife in her hand, as she prepares to attack.

[Mr. Handy]

"Don't kill her, Caterina!" calls Felicity. "I know she's done you wrong, but she's your sister! I never had a sister, but I would have loved to have one."

[SaintMeerkat]

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"Caterina, you will be making a horrible mistake," Archie says as he slips his pistol into his pocket and immediately moves to put his body between the two women, attempting to knock Caterina's arm away and perhaps jar the knife from her grasp.

Archie doesn't hesitate

[Mephistophilis]

OOC:   Can Andrew see if any of Faccia's other men are armed? What's the armed guy carrying, a gun? And any sign of the mannequin from where he's standing? Finally, is it possible Andrew could tip over the shelving to impede Faccia and his men?

[robertod]

Previously said:   OOC: Can Andrew see if any of Faccia's other men are armed?

They don´t have guns or other kind of weapons in their hand. Their hands are busy doing the searching job. Maybe they have something in their pockets but you can´t see that from where you are.

Previously said:   What's the armed guy carrying, a gun?

Yes, he´s carrying a handgun.

Previously said:   And any sign of the mannequin from where he's standing?

No, if you take a look around, you cannot see it. Considere that, from your actual position, the only objects you can clearly see are those that are in the shelves where the gangsters are searching. Most objects of the room are still hidden from your sight.

Previously said:   Finally, is it possible Andrew could tip over the shelving to impede Faccia and his men?

It may work, the shelving look heavy and big enought to stop and possibly harm them. However, if you go there to do
that you will be surely seen by the man who´s watching the entrance of the room. His task seems to be actually
keeping an eye on that. So, unless you think of a way to distract him, he would see you.

[aine]

“I imagine the torso must be a powerful artifact.” Whispers Clarence to Andrew as he peers on the scene next to his friend, “We’ve got to find it first! What can we do about that chap with the gun?”

[Mephistophilis]

Andrew feels an overwhelming desire to show these ruffians what for, but as far as he can see they've not found the mannequin. He whispers to Clarence, 'Not sure old boy. Perhaps an old fashioned ruse will attract the bounder. I could make a bit of noise, draw him out, and you cosh him over the back of the head? Not exactly cricket but we're outnumbered.'

[robertod]

As she hears Archie Felicity addressibg her, the woman turns at them and stares dumb for a second, as if she didn't hear them right. Felicity and Archie can now clearly see Caterina Cavollaro's face, pale and worn, she almost seemed to have aged suddenly. Her eyes are wide open, she has a look of anguish mixed with anger and hesitation. Her body still trembles as she keep holding the dagger tightly in her hand. Virginia takes advantage, quickly takes the first object she finds on the table and throws it on Caterina's head, emitting a scream of anger that echoes throughout the corridor. The two women get into a furious fight.

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While Andrews and Clarence are whispering to each other, they hear again female screams coming from the corridor. This time it seems there are at least two different voices. Just then, Faccia and his men happened to be silent, having just finished rummaging through some shelves and moving on to others. Faccia asks his men to interrupt the search for a few seconds.
"Did you hear that? Sounds like Virginia's voice. It's coming from her dressing room."
He nods to one of his men.
"Go there and check if she ok."
The man nod and heads towards the door to exit the room and go down the hall. The other gangster still stays on guard and follows the exiting man with his gaze. Faccia and the other two resume the search.

[Mr. Handy]

"Oh no you don't!" says Felicity, moving to restrain Virginia.

[aine]

“Quick, Now’s our chance!” Clarence creeps around the edge of the room, using crates as cover, hoping to get as far as possible before he is discovered; at which point, he’ll be the distraction that Andrew needs. In the meantime, he keeps his eyes peeled for the torso.

[SaintMeerkat]

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Archie was already attempting to insert himself between the two women and knock the knife away, so he also now tries to deflect the object as its thrown, putting himself further in front of Caterina as Felicity tries to restrain Virginia.

[Mephistophilis]

Andrew retreats into the corridor, looking for a nook or other space he can take cover in and allow him to knock out Faccia's man without being seen from the room.

[robertod]

Andrew finds an easy cover in the dark corridor.

OOC:   OCC: Roll Scuffling to knock out Faccia´s man. Keep in mind you can spend points...

Felicity and Archie step between the two women to prevent them from confronting each other. They see that Virginia is more on the defensive mode and tends to attack only to not be attacked first. When she sees that two people stand between her and the attacker, she is more concerned about being protected rather than hurting the attacker. Caterina, however, seems to be dominated by an uncontrollable rage.

OOC:   Blocking Caterina requires a success (opposed roll) in Scuffling, difficulty 4. By spending a Reassurence point you convince her to renounce the aggression, but... be creative and come up with a sentence that affects her deeply..." don´t do it because it´s wrong" may not be enough.

[Mr. Handy]

"Caterina, I know she's stolen your voice," says Felicity, "but you won't be able to get it back if you kill her, or maybe even if you hurt her. We need her alive, and unharmed. Our other friends are here as well. We'll make the doctor reverse what he did, but we need her intact. I remember how magnificent your singing was, and it will be again."

Spending a point of Reassurance.

[SaintMeerkat]

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OOC:   Archie doesn't have any points in scuffling, so this is the way.