Statement 1: A Trip to the Countryside

[Philulhu]

Des took her J2O and tried to smother a yawn. When was Butterfield, going to get to the point?!

[Snapper]

Skipper is listening but he figures, based on exactly one previous example, the magic plod are the key players in initial Folly interactions. Accordingly, much like every second person in any pub at any time these days, he pulls out his smart phone. After a brief glare at said magic plods to make sue they aren't about to melt said phone, he starts doing some research on the Nennington Arms and local surrounds.

1d%H60%

OOC:   Fail.

[Mr. Handy]

"That's the best case," says Jordan, pausing to quaff some of his Guinness. "I don't like thinking about what the worst case might be."

[Snapper]

Skipper gets sidetracked placing online bets on the football.

[jp1885]

Butterfield grunts, seemingly amused.

"Typical of Nightingale. Let's not expect the worst eh?" he retorts. "I know PC Grant has a reputation but I hope you haven't picked up any of his bad habits - this pub may be pretentious but I'd like to keep it in one piece!"

He swigs deeply from his pint before continuing.

"I'd better crack on before Des falls asleep and Skipper's odds get any worse - I don't fancy Arsenal's chances."

He leans forward conspiratorially.

“So this might be nothing, but it’s a weird nothing, if you know what I mean. See, I play for the local skittles team: the Nennington Nutters. And we’re crap. Don’t get me wrong, we’re a good kind of crap. We have a laugh, a few beers and happen to bowl a few balls while we’re at it. But still crap."

"Or we were. Ever since we moved from the King’s Head to the Nennington Arms, we’ve become bloody brilliant! Well, at home games anyway; we’re still crap when we play away games at other pubs. That’s the weird thing. Every time we play here, we can’t put a foot wrong. Winning every home game is enough to put us at the top of the league and, if this continues, we’ll win it easily."

"Of course, everyone else thinks we’re a bunch of cheating bastards. If they could prove anything, they’d have us thrown out of the league, but they can’t, ‘cos we’re not cheating! Not intentionally anyway."

"That’s where you come in. I want you to check for… I dunno, weird stuff. Why do we play like experts at home games? Nothing’s being put in our drinks – I’ve checked. I’ve even had the skittle alley watched during our games, but nothing untoward’s been found. So I called in that favour and Nightingale has lent your services to me: strictly off the books of course."

"I’m actioning you to sniff around the place and see if you can find any weird crap. We’ve got a home match tonight, starting at seven, so if nothing else you might discover something weird going on tonight.”

You can't help but notice his bonhomie has lessened somewhat. You get the distinct impression of being briefed by a superior officer, rather than some bloke in a pub. Old habits obviously die hard!

[Trivun]

On hearing the story, Izzy holds back from a sigh of frustration. That's all? She wasn't expecting much, true, if it had been anything more serious then the local bobbies would already be involved and Nightingale would have already briefed them properly. But a few odd skittles matches?

"Okay, that sounds like something to look into, definitely. Hopefully it's an easy job to deal with, and we can be on our way back to London by the morning."

She's already coming up with theories, if only to mask her frustration. She may as well have brought Alice along after all. Probably just a former, late, teammate giving a bit of ethereal help, nothing to worry about.

[Philulhu]

Des glanced at the others with a frown. Was that it? Someone happened to be good when playing at home but shit when they were away? They were the police weren’t they? Or at least some of them were. Why were they wasting time with this?

[Mr. Handy]

"We might try playing a bit ourselves, see if we're any better than usual," says Jordan, "though the visiting teams apparently didn't play too well."

[Snapper]

Skipper contemplates this over a few glugs of beer. "Doesn't seem like the whatever is actually threatening or anything. Does everything spooky get an investigate then?" The latter question is directed at Leo and Izzy.

[SaintMeerkat]

DC Leo Dansby.jpg (16.73 KiB) Viewed 605 times

Leo looks over at Skipper and nods.

"Yes, most things that are actually reported get an IVA...err, Initial Vestigia Assessment to see if it really is something supernatural. We could make a very subtle sweep of the pitch and stands before...and during. An IVA will hardly be noticed, at all. It's not like we're going to be waving incense burners around the wickets, you know..."

[Snapper]

Skipper shrugs in a you're paying the bills way.

"Any way we can have a butcher's at your previous skittle scores then, guv'nor? Get an idea of the change in result."

[Trivun]

"Leo's right. Although we don't usually deal with cases this far outside London. Must have been a pretty big favour that Nightingale owed you, I guess?" Izzy asks Mike, not expecting him to give any details but curious nonetheless. She pointedly doesn't mention DC Grant's own trip to Herefordshire not so long ago.

"IVAs are pretty simple anyway, we did one in the bookshop and I'll bet that none of you even noticed. Only way anyone around us will be able to tell what we're doing is if we get a bad reaction to something, like if we start sensing something that makes us physically react. Bad smells and the like. Honestly, seeing your first corpse is worse. I remember when I started on the murder squad, my first case was a gangland attack, machete job. The victim's head was found in a bin about a hundred metres away from the torso. I had to attend the autopsy."

Izzy shudders at the memory, before remembering that it's lunchtime and there are people in earshot trying to eat. She gives an apologetic look to anyone who may have heard her, before shutting up.

[jp1885]

"Yeah, you could say that," he replies to Izzy whilst supressing a smirk.

If the retired DI is disappointed by your lack of enthusiasm, he is careful not to show it.

To Skipper's request he puffs out his cheeks. "Oof - all of the scores? I'll have to dig around at home and see what I've kept. The Nutters reformed in 2010, but I didn't join until I moved here in 2016. That was a few months before the King's Head closed, but enough for me to notice our change in form when we moved to this pub. Tell you what - I'll show you the skittle alley and then leave you to it while I check my files."

Turning to Jordan, his pudgy face lights up. "Oh yeah, by all means have a few throws!"



Once again he struggles out of his seat, causing the table to rock alarmingly. "C'mon then, drink up!" he says, waiting for you to finish before ambling out of the pub and leading you across the car park to a long and narrow prefabricated building: approximately 50 feet long by 20 feet wide.

Opening the rickety wooden double doors, he shows you inside. Running along the length of the left-hand side of the building is a wooden skittle alley. Nearest the wooden double entrance door is the area where players bowl from, flanked by a black scoreboard and demarcated by a painted white line. From here the alley runs for approximately 30 feet, terminating in an area where nine wooden skittle pins are placed in a diamond formation.

Behind this is a shallow pit, where knocked over pins land or are placed to keep them out of the playing area. At the end of the alley is a padded, upright board used to deaden the impact of the skittles, behind which is a small gap where spare skittle pins are stored. Running parallel on the adjacent wall is a sloping trough, down which rubber skittle balls are rolled back to the players after being bowled. At the bottom end of thr trough are three balls, each roughly the size of a large grapefruit.

On the other side of the building are a number of mismatched tables and chairs for spectators. A small fire door is on the wall opposite the skittles diamond, abutting a small area walled-off as a storage cupboard. Single-pane windows line the longer walls, covered by old curtains. The whole building feels draughty and cold, offset by the old Superser gas heater placed near the entrance door.

"Behold, our field of dreams! You won't find no wickets here Leo." he exclaims. "You can do your... IPA? IVA? Or whatever it is in peace - the place is yours until this evening."

[Philulhu]

Des peered about. Her dad used to play skittles and she’d been with him a few times when she was younger, but not since hanging around with your old man and his mates became strictly uncool!

She looked at Izzy, who seemed to be the one who was best attuned to finding any spooky vibes. ”Well?” she said. ”You got anyting?”

[jp1885]

OOC:   Sense Vestigia and Observation rolls are in order I think. (By the way, feel free to make a skill roll whenever you like, if it makes sense in the game - no need to wait for me to ask you )

[Trivun]

Izzy doesn't need asking twice, and she's already focused as she walks into the skittle alley, keeping all her senses tuned in to scope out anything she can about the place. She starts out with the playing area itself, walking down the skittle lane to where the pins are neatly arranged, and then jumps down to the spectator area, making her way back to the entrance - a full survey. To anybody watching, they would simply see a young woman strolling around the room, with only the razor sharp concentration visible in her eyes giving away her aim.

Sense Vestigia: 60%

1d100

Damn, very nice Hard Success!

[SaintMeerkat]

DC Leo Dansby.jpg (16.73 KiB) Viewed 570 times

Leo tries hard to keep his excitement down. He feels like a little kid again as he looks out at the pitch. So many good memories (and bad). At first, he is about to go to a different area than Izzy, but then he remembers that sometimes different people get different sensations, so he more or less follows Izzy, reaching out with his feelings, grinning as he thinks of Obi-Wan telling Luke to do the same. However, he also gives the grounds a careful look over.

Observation (60/30): 1d100

[Mr. Handy]

Jordan keeps his eyes and ears open, but he can't sense any magic, just like before. He picks up a rubber ball and bowls it at the skittles, but it isn't the most accurate roll.

Sense Vestigia roll (30% skill):
d%
Observation roll (70% skill):
d%
Athletics roll (30% skill):
d%

[Philulhu]

Des looked around the room as she waited for Izzy and Leo to do their thing…

Observation (60%) 1d100

[Snapper]

Skipper pulls out the rugged looking old Nikon F3 camera and snaps off a few photographs, while looking about. Between shots, he diligently winds the film on with his thumb.

"Beer and Skittles! It's like being back in the soup."

"What's outside then?" Skipper tries the fire door.

1d%40%

OOC:   Fail.