Play@YSDC

Skipper grins at Des. "The cemetary it is. At least it's daylight anyway. Let me just finish doing a few searches over my lunch."

Skipper continues to happily power through fish and chips one-handed while rapidly phone surfing with his other hand. "Right, weird runes, let's do some image searching..."

1d%H60%

OOC:   Regular success.

Jordan looks into Dominic's eyes, and beyond them his soul.

Read Person roll (60% skill) about Dominic:
d%

Leo's eyes widened when he heard Jamie Oliver's name. When he finally finished the second bite, he nodded reassuringly. "Well, it certainly shows," he said as he wiped his mouth. "And I understand wanting to stretch yourself from time to time creatively."

"My first job was at a chip shop, and the boss had a saying, 'Wherever your arse is, your heart better be there, too, or neither one will be there for very long.' So it makes sense to get involved in community activities, I suppose."

Read Person (60/30): 1d100

Dominic mulls over your words and nods politely, but those studying him can tell he’s not convinced. He looks particularly uncomfortable when skittles is mentioned.

Skipper - After some searching, you find a grainy photograph of a very similar, if not the same, urn. It’s on a Dorset history Facebook page and comes from an old auction catalogue.

Listed among a number of more everyday items from the sale of some manor-house in the 1930s, it is labelled as a ‘stone pot with unusual markings, possibly East Asian or Central Asian. Providence unknown.”

There is no indication of its value.

Anyone looking at Google Maps or somesuch will be able to get a reasonable layout of the village:-

On hearing Skipper mention the cemetery, Izzy gives a sympathetic look to Des. "Sorry about that, I guess your theory about the pot containing this guy's ashes wasn't quite right after all. It was a nice idea though."

As for Dominic, she gives him and Leo a cheeky grin. "Better save that for posterity, the word 'arse' is the closest you'll ever get to hearing him actually swear," she says, gesturing towards Leo.

"Skipper, about the pot, does it say anything about the manor house that it was in before it was sold? As in, who previously owned it, or who lived in the house?" Mentally, she's considering the names of former practitioners that may have previously had connections to the Folly, who she would have learned about during studies with Nightingale. Or, heaven forbid, former contemporaries of the first Faceless Man. At least with a name, she can always ask Dr. Postmartin...

Des frowned at Izzy as the detective tried to hole her theory below the waterline. ”Dat don’t mean dey didn’t use if for his ashes,” she said grumpily.

"Why don't you like skittles?" asks Jordan. "Is it personal?"

"Wargle wargle," Skipper says to Izzy, mouth full of chips but (relatively) politely covered by a hand, and diligently goes back to the result on the phone with his non-chippy hand.

OOC:   Was the manor house in Dorset named or an address provided? Was the previous owner or occupant of the manor house identified?

Jordan - Dominic frowns at your question.

“No, it’s nothing personal. It’s just… well, just this weird vibe I get in the alley. Something feels off in there, you know? Plus it stinks of petrol. I guess they used to store fuel in there or something? I keep meaning to ask one of the old players, but I don’t think many of them are left and they don’t tend to come in here. Too many ‘outsiders’.”

Skipper - It appears that the catalogue pertained to a house sale for Crowberry Manor, owned by the Perryman family. Further research reveals that it was demolished in 1936.

Busy enjoying the fabulous food, Leo followed the conversation closely. He wanted to shove larger bites into his mouth, but he kept them small and mannerly, so that, if he needed to respond, he could do it sooner rather than later. He still had the battery out of his "good" phone, so he leaned over to sneak a peek at a teammate's phone, nodding his thanks.

"Oh, get another couple of Pimm's into me and no telling what I will say."

Leo's eyes turned serious for a moment. "Yeah, a couple of us smelled the petrol, as well. It certainly could be off-putting, having to deal with it on a regular basis."

Not wanting to interrupt, Skipper texts the rest of the team:

"It appears that the catalogue pertained to a house sale for Crowberry Manor, owned by the Perryman family. It was demolished in 1936."

Des looked at Skipper and shrugged, unsure what the relevance was.

Interesting. Dominic can sense vestigia... Of course, it's fairly common for people without any magical training to be able to sense vestigia, that was how Izzy had first came to the Folly's attention after all. She gives Dominic a quick glance before turning to Leo and saying, in a manner that clearly indicated joking, "Don't be flirting too hard now, he's married after all..."

Before Leo can come up with a comeback, though she's expecting one sooner or later, Izzy quickly checks her phone as she once again hears the synth tones of Chvrches as Skipper's message comes through. She scans the info and gives him a nod and a cheery "Thanks!", before forwarding the information to Dr. Postmartin.

"Hey, it's DC Cooper from the Folly. Just wanted to know, do you have any information on a Crowberry Manor in Dorset, demolished 1936, or the Perryman family? It might be relevant to the runes that Nightingale sent you. Might be nothing instead, but figured it was worth asking."

If this was a normal case, Izzy would be busy flagging this as an action on HOLMES2 and passing it on to some uniformed PC, as mere grunt work, while she and Leo continue looking for further leads. Instead, since it's an off the books favour well outside their jurisdiction, she is somewhat resigned to them having to do the grunt work themselves.

"I do get a feeling like that, now that you mention it," says Jordan. "Do you know the names of any of the old players? We'd like to talk to them. Your cooking is excellent, by the way. My wife Sarah is a great cook, and this is as good as anything she's made."

"And do you recall who was the previous owner of this pub? So, they must have died in..." Skipper does some quick counting with chip-greasy fingers. "2004?"

"Twelve years seems a long time to sell the place. But I have no idea what the 21st century country pub financial thing is like. Maybe twelve years was about normal?"

Dominic is pleased to know his cooking is appreciated, while Neil is very pleased when you settle up the bill.

Canvassing the few punters lingering in the pub, it is revealed that the sole surviving former ‘Nutter’ is one Archie Buttress. He lives at ‘Elmhurst’: one of the bungalows just a few metres from the pub - easy enough to find.

Neil states that the pub was owned by a Birmingham-based investment company, who bought it from the nephew (and beneficiary) of a local builder called Arthur Pember.

OOC:   Drink up, it’s closing time until 6pm! Please head over to the next thread.