Play@YSDC

This thread currently for Maksim, Thomas, Andrei & Caroline only, it will contain spoilers for all other player, so please keep out.

If you're meant to be here scroll down....

Timour’s Car – Central Park West, Heading North
1:45pm – Friday 16th January, 1925

The four investigators, armed with their pistols, [OOC: Caroline armed?] pile into Timour's car and head north towards Harlem.

There don't seem to be any tails this time...

The traffic is relatively quiet and the drive will take about twenty or thirty minutes.

[OOC: I'll let you all post at least once before you reach Harlem]

(OOC: Caroline has no weapons skills beyond the basics except with Rifle. I think she'll pass; she's more likely to shoot herself or others.)

Caroline broods as she sits in the car, clutching her bag. How did I let them talk me into this? she wonders, then remembers she volunteered, more or less. She tries not to show her worry, but it's likely written all over her face.

Maksim kept quiet as he focused on the road but his mind did wonder just how long it would take to sort this mess out. He knew he'd made a mistake in bringing up the risk of civilian casualties. It was a crime to think about it, much less talk about it, better to go in with guns blazing and look shocked when it happened. He was a fool to think that the risk to other people's lives would mean much to these sorts of people. After all, what could the paupers do in retaliation? The police would side with the rich victors, they always did.

He wondered how long he'd have to continue working with these people and he wondered what he should do afterwards. If he made enough money, he could perhaps try and start up a book store. He did so love books. Or perhaps he could try and make money on the radio... He did have a voice for radio.

The question was how to make enough money that he wouldn't need to do a job like this again. He had a few ideas on that subject but nothing concrete. Given time, however...

In addition to his gun, Thomas packed a baseball bat in the trunk.

Not willing to needlessly worry before they even get there, Thomas simply sits back and relaxes for now.

Lenox Avenue, 50 yards South of 137th Street – Harlem, New York
2:10pm – Friday 16th January 1925

Maksim finds a good place to park on Lenox Avenue, just south of West 137th Street. Lenox Avenue is always quite busy, and with a fair number of flashy cars, so hopefully the big touring car won’t stand out too much.

The alleyway that he followed the thugs the previous night is about a hundred yards along 137th Street itself, to the north of the street. Presumably that is where they will find Ju-Ju House.

"Unless they have photograps, they might not ALL know what we look like exactly. Thus, for now, we might just be harmless customers." says Thomas "So everybody be cool... and keep your weapons handy."

Thomas steps out of the car, smokes a cigarette, then is ready to go. His gun is in the inside pocket of his coat. He decides to leave the bat in the trunk for now.

Maksim checks himself in the rear-view mirror and methodically smooths his hair back, wipes a few beads of sweat off his upper lip with a handkerchief and straightens his tie. As he does the last thing, he notices a small red stain on his shirt's cuff and tucks it back a little behind his jacket.

Then he leaves the car, his face settling into a jovial smile, his shoulders slouched forward ever so slightly, belly pushed out in an effort to give a mild paunch to his slender frame, hands thrust deep into his pockets, the very epitome of an upper class dilletante gone slumming. His eyes go somewhat dull, the sharpness gone to his features as he slackens the muscles. No tension, no bother, no worry, no thought.

He moves over to Caroline and offers her an elbow to hold and for a moment the mechanical disinterest is visible, enough to show her this was business, not a game, but then he gave her a sleazy smile for the benefit of the passersby.

Caroline takes Maksim's arm and pulls herself from the car. She'd almost rather stay behind in the vehicle, but she realizes that it's probably more dangerous to be alone than to venture forth with a well-armed and -prepared group.

Seeing that Maksim is acting for the sake of onlookers, Caroline tries her best to look diffident, as if where they were headed was of no moment to her, as if she had every right in the world to be wherever she wanted to be. Beth could pull off such an entilted, imperious look better than Caroline herself could, she was sure, but she would have to do her best. Maybe she could do some good after all; how many cult members would think a raiding party would bring a woman like her to a fight?

"Honey bun, I've heard of the most adorable little shops near here," Maksim murmurs in her ear, leaning down to do so. "A good place to spend a little money, get a few ornaments of your own, maybe get a drink afterwards... This Harlem's got some very fun jazz clubs, I'm sure they'd be incredible fun. You'd like to dance, wouldn't you, toots?" He keeps her close, trying to bring her very purposefully into the middle, hoping to keep Thomas to her right and Andrei to her back. "Of course you would. We know all the hot spots to fox trot."

He goes on at length for as long as Caroline will allow it, babbling superficial inanities into her ear as he casually looked around, acting all the world like a rather more talkative version of those that passed them by. However, he kept his voice fairly low, hoping that the constant chatter might provide a cover for any important phrases he decided to speak.

The type of talk isn't particularly unusual but no doubt reminds Caroline of the sort of obnoxiously smug behaviour that convinced her not to date. Every word Maksim speaks is that of someone who sees her as a pretty face with a pair of long legs. He drops no hints that he thinks otherwise about her and dismisses her attempts to converse back with him as though she were quite dull, attempting to turn the conversation over to the other two.

It's not hard to drone him out, however, as his voice is pitched at the sort of level that drifts off into the background with ease, and it neither obscures much of what can be heard around them nor is loud enough to grab any attention.

Caroline tries to keep up the patter but finds herself talked over by Maksim. Apparently, he doesn't think I understand what he's doing, she muses. And "toots"? "Toots" was carrying things just a bit far, even when one was playing a role, she thinks, and if they made it out of here alive, she tells herself, she would have a word with the oaf.

Still, she could see that he seemed to be trying to shield her a bit physically, and she supposed that, in his own way, he meant well. And he didn't seem to be quite the blunt instrument his brother was.

Andrei follows the other three, wearing a hat low over his head, and slouching as much as possible to conceal his massive frame. He's carrying his leather satchelbag, with his pistol concealed in the bottom.

He tries to keep his eyes on the ground to hide his face, but whever he looks up, Andrei is taking note of the surroundings.

[OC: especially the following:
-Location of Alleys. He would especially like to see if there's an alley behind the JuJu House.
-Location of Vacant buildings or other places where the JuJu house could be watched in safety (for future reference).
-Stairwells and fire escapes leading up the JuJu house building.
-Other businesses above and below the JuJu business.

Andrei will very strongly argue against entering the JuJu house. He thinks they should try not to be recognized by anyone in the JuJu house as well.]

[OOC: To speed things up, and to allow Andrei to conduct his recon, I’m posting that you walk around the block.]


Walking around the corner onto West 137th Street the four can now clearly see the alleyway that leads to ‘Ransom Court’ and Ju-Ju House. It is still nearly a hundred yards away, but the others can already see that as Maksim indicated it is very narrow, barely wide enough for a single automobile to enter.

The buildings adjacent to the alleyway are crumbling tenement buildings, as are the buildings directly across 137th Street, the entrance to the alleyway, and the alley itself are overlooked by many tenement windows.

The four investigators stroll casually along the street on the opposite side from the alley, glancing discretely down it as they pass. Unfortunately the litter strewn alley is narrow enough and long enough to make it impossible to spot Ju-Ju house without walking down there. The alley does however undoubtedly open into a small ‘court,’ no doubt Ransom Court, confirming that the address of Ju-Ju House and the alley the thugs used are one and the same.

Walking once around the block reveals that there aren’t any other alleys close enough to contain back entrances to ‘Ju-Ju House;’ however there is an abandoned pawn shop on 138th Street, that may well back onto the same court.

[OOC: I’ve included a very poor map, the car is parked on Lenox Avenue at the location of the green dot. The red building is the abandoned pawn shop]

"I've said it before and I'll say it again, we won't ever get what we want without actually entering the JuJu House." says Thomas, looking at the others in the eyes, most notably Andrei who seemed the most opposed to entering. "But you're probably thinking what I'm thinking, this abandoned pawnshop could allow us to get a peek at the court beforehand."

"I also reckon we could go and ask a few of the neighbours if they ever noticed anything wrong with the place. Surely, all these folks ain't bad people."

Maksim meets Thomas' eye and gives a little shrug, indicating that he's willing to follow their lead. He's sure he could come up with a hundred lies to cover their trail while talking to the folk who live near here but was pretty certain he'd either screw up or get scolded, no matter which tactic he chose, so he turned to face Andrei, who was the one paying his wage, still holding Caroline close to him.

"Sir?" Maksim asks, waiting for instructions and indicating through body language that he expected Andrei to lead the group, all the while trying to let Thomas know through a brief nod and catch of the eye that he appreciated Thomas' intelligence but the boss was the boss. He figured neither of them would understand. Language was such a finicky tool... In Russia, maybe they would have understood.

But then, back in Russia, maybe he was just arrogant enough to assume they knew.

Andrei pauses for a minute. He's been following and watching, and Mak's indication for him to lead puts him off-balance. He was barely even listening to Thomas, being too caught up in his own thoughts.

"Lets keep walking around the block," Andrei mumbles, not wanting to be singled out for loitering on a corner.

Keeping his voice just as low, he continues, "That pawn shop looks like a great place, I agree. Why don't we wait until later tonight, after the party, and get in there? When it's less conspicuous. Now that we know the layout, we can make a better plan."

"Go ahead and as questions if you want, but I think I should wait in the car. People may recognize me from the society photos."

Andrei is aware of his snobbish comment, and wishes he didn't say it. These things just slip out of his mouth sometimes, especially when he's feeling less secure - he blames it on his noble upbringing.

If Maks will give Andrei the car keys, he'll return and wait in the car. He hopes that the others won't take too long, or try anything too dangerous, with one less gun backing them.

Maksim passes the boss the keys and carefully keeps all threat of disrespect out of his eyes. Andrei was one of those who had gotten them into this mess, he was more then keen on dragging them all out here and now he was going to go wait in the car? Perfect officer material, unwilling to accept any risk or responsibility. The only thing Andrei was apparently willing to do was scold other people for speaking out of line. Yet obviously he deserved far more respect and kindness then either of the Rukovs could ever expect.

Society pages... Yes, because it was far more likely that some dilletante wandering around Ju-Ju house would recognise him from those pages then some gangster with a gun who had doubtless memorised all of their faces from surveillance photographs or a pair of binoculars.

He looked at Thomas and Caroline, half expecting admiration for a 'good fellow' in the eyes of one and mild infatuation over the 'right stuff' in the eyes of the other.[/b]

Caroline crinkles her nose. "Fellows, let's make a decision without much more walking. I can't imagine anyone keeping even a, what, 'look-out' would fail to notice us circling the block more than once."

She clears her throat, her arm still in Maksim's. "I agree that more things are likely to happen tonight than in the daylight, but wouldn't it be prudent to have someone surveil the JuJu House in the meantime? Maybe someone could skip the party? Doesn't seem like we all need to go."

"I'm warning you..." says Thomas when Andrei considers getting back to the car already. "I'm going to enter the JuJu House, not later tonight, but now. If it's too much for all of you to handle, then that's okay with me, get back in the car and leave me here. I'll get back with a cab if needed. My associate could still be alive in there, but the more I wait, the less likely it will be."

Thomas's opinion on this will not change, no matter what the others tell him. He is indeed ready to go in alone if needed.

"The folks living around here are poor, that's no secret. Once we find someone in a nearby building who seems willing to help a little, we can probably offer them a few bucks to watch over the court for us and call for help in given circumstances."

Seeing Thomas's resolve, and withdrawing her arm from Maks's, Caroline says gamely, "I'll go in with you. If we can find your friend, perhaps I can help." It seemed like a great risk, but these days breathing seemed like about an equal risk to her. Her duty as a physician to help those in need further prompted her to overcome her general aversion to risk taking. Looking around at her companions, she resolves that someone had to take the next step. Andrei seemed well meaning but prone to vascillation, moodiness, and perhaps even cowardice. Maksim was no coward, but he'd been acting more and more like a whipped puppy, passive aggressively subordinating himself to Andrei, perhaps to absolve himself of responsibility for anything.

In any case, action was required, and just standing around or ridiculously trotting around the block as if they were all out for a stroll seemed--at least at the moment--worse than taking the chance that Thomas seemed bent on.

"No offence, sir, but I doubt any local here has access to a telephone," says Maksim. "They'll have to run for a street telephone and if they do that, there's a good chance that someone loyal to these gangsters may note down who they are. Asking questions won't endanger anyone but making anyone more active..."

Maksim tenses up, expecting to be berated for what is 'obviously' a redundant point. "Sir, if you wanted to search Ju-Ju House, why didn't you wake up Timour? He is far more then equipped with the skills required to perform a forced search." He sighs, realising that this actually was a redundant point, and starts heading for Ju-Ju House.

Oh well, they did say death comes in threes... At least they had the numbers right.

"Thank you, Caroline." says Thomas with a thankful nod of the head.

"And, Maksim, I think you're being overly paranoid about these fellas. They may be crazy and determined, but they can't have infinite numbers, and they can't be omnipresent either. There's been too much speculation already, when all we really need is to cross that damn door and see what's inside."

Thomas heads for the JuJu House's entrance.

warhammer wrote: "I'm warning you..." says Thomas when Andrei considers getting back to the car already. "I'm going to enter the JuJu House, not later tonight, but now. If it's too much for all of you to handle, then that's okay with me, get back in the car and leave me here. I'll get back with a cab if needed. My associate could still be alive in there, but the more I wait, the less likely it will be."

Andrei turns around and hisses, "That's suicide. There could be dozens of these men. If you wanted to walk right in, why didn't we get everyone down here?"

Andrei likes to play it cautious - running in and acting without a plan seems dangerous to him, and goes against his military training. His face turns flush with anger, that he can't control these people. No one would listen to him when he was an officer either.

They think I'm a coward. Just like in the military. I'm not a goddamned coward.

"If you're really going to do this, I'll back up the rear, but I'm not going to get killed because of a poor plan. I'll follow behind you, so if you get in trouble, I can cover your retreat."

Such a waste. If we could get Timour in the pawnshop, we could have a perfect crossfire and total control of that courtyard.

Andrei turns away from them, mumbling 'I can't believe this', and maintains his distance.

[OC: Andrei will stay 1/2 block behind the others, with his gun held in his pocket. Maks' car keys are in the other pocket. He'll wait at the corner of the alley until the three enter the JuJu courtyard. Then he'll wait a few minutes and start sauntering casually up the alley towards the courtyard.]

Thomas, Maksim and Caroline stroll as casually as they can down the narrow alley towards Ju-Ju House. Glancing backwards they can see Andrei arrive at the alley's entrance, both his hands deep in his overcoat pockets.

Stepping cautiously out into the small courtyard they see three winos sprawled in the far corner; two are smoking, there are several empty bottles of liquor scattered around them. They look well out of it, and their stale odour can be smelt from across the court.

There are only two doors that open onto the court. One, presumably the back door of the pawn shop is padlocked from the outside, it could probably be pushed open enough from inside to covertly view the other doorway though.

The second door is part of the store front of Ju-Ju House, the door is glass and there is a display window containing various pieces of African art, and tribal memorabilia; A sign over the storefront reads:

JU-JU HOUSE]
African Art - Est 1919

There are tyre tracks in the dirt from the car Maksim follow the previous evening.

Thomas pretends not to pay any attention to the winos and just walks straight to the entrance, extinguishing his cigarette just before he enters. However, when he is certain to go unnoticed, he secretly checks out the winos and makes sure there is no telltale sign of something more sinister about them.

Andrei leans against the alley wall, watching the others move out of sight into the courtyard. He listens carefully for sounds of an argument, doors slamming, gunfire, or anything else.

While we waits, he tries to imagine what the other three are doing: Still walking through the courtyard, probably...

Caroline keeps a watchful eye on Thomas, willing to follow his lead. She tries not to look at anything in particular. She considers trying to start up a fabricated conversation but decides she'd just botch it, and if Thomas wanted her to talk, he'd tell her.

Maksim Rukov saunters along, careful to try and undo what appeared to be a professional attitude from Thomas. He checked the building over as he did so, hoping that this section of the city had brick walls and not flimsy plasterboard. Judging by how dismissive everyone was of his concerns, he didn't doubt they would be willing to shoot at the slightest chance a bad guy might get hit.

Maksim pitied the neighbours. No one ever gave a thought about who else could get hurt... All that ever mattered to people was themselves. The thought depressed him and he rubbed his wrist to try and take his mind off it.

Ranson Court – Harlem, New York
2:35pm – Friday 16th January 1925

Thomas glances at the three winos as he reaches for the front door of Ju-Ju House. One of them is white skinned, the other two black. Thomas doesn’t spot any telltale signs that any of the men are members of the Voodoo cult, although one of the coloured winos has obviously noticed Thomas looking at him. He doesn’t appear as drunk as the other two and stares into the lawyers eyes.

There isn’t really any way to tell whether the men are cultists or drunks, or for that matter whether any of the windows overlooking the small court conceal the watching eyes of cult lookouts.

Turning the door handle Thomas steps into the shop...

[OOC: Please note that in the dice throw that I’ve linked to I use the word ‘cultists’ rather than ‘winos’ this was honestly a typo on my part, and shouldn’t be taken as a clue. I’ve just got rather used to typing ‘cultist.’ There really isn’t any way to tell whether they ‘real’ or not.]


Ju-Ju House – Harlem, New York
2:35pm –Friday 16th January 1925

The interior of Ju-Ju House is small and cramped, only about twenty by fifteen feet, the place is dirty, dusty and piled with African tribal artefacts and bric-a-brac – devil masks, leather-headed drums, stuffed model giraffes, carved wildebeests, dull hand weapons intended for display, ivory warthogs, and so on. The shop has a heavy, oppressive atmosphere, and is poorly illuminated through the dusty display window. Glancing quickly at the display shelves as they enter the store, none of the investigators spot anything that seems related to the cult murders.

There are two customers inside the shop, a well dressed young African-American couple, the lady is chuckling at some of the tribal fetishes on display.

Behind the dusty counter stands the shopkeeper – a balding man of at least seventy years, he watches the three new prospective customers keenly over his half-rimmed spectacles. He nods to Maksim as he follows the other two into the shop.

"Darling, can we please go now?" Caroline says to Thomas in as coquettish a tone as she can muster under the circumstances. She'd meant to keep quiet, but the tension of no one saying anything was fraying her nerves.

(OOC: I know the 94 result on the dice was bound to be a failure, but I hope the number I had to roll under was not my basic 10% for Hide... throwing a discreet glance at someone can't be that hard)

Thomas has a good look around the shop, and pays particular attention to the owner. (roll Spot Hidden if appropriate)

"One second, darling." says Thomas. "I want to look at this collection first. It looks amazing."

"Are you the owner?" he says towards the shopkeeper.

Maksim nods back and nonchalantly looks about. Hopefully, talking to the store keeper might make these people seem somewhat human enough to Thomas that he might realise that if he starts shooting folk in the head, he might accidentally take out an innocent store clerk or shopper. The one thing Maksim didn't like about his brother was his desire to shoot first and leave the questioning to someone else at a later time.

When he hears Caroline say 'darling' he has to suppress rolling his eyes. Of course Caroline would prefer pretending to be coupled up with Thomas, he could respect that, but would she please tell him so later on rather than 'mysteriously' having two suitors she's interested in at the same time? If anyone had noticed them outside, they might just wonder. One 'darling' could be excused, but Thomas' response nailed it.

Leaving the store keeper to Thomas, though keeping an eye on the store keeper's body language, he tries to strike up a conversation with the well-dressed couple. "Fascinating stuff, huh? I've only been interested in this stuff for a short while, since my cousin got interested, actually, but I'm trying to see more. You've been in this shop before me, what's the best you've seen so far?" He'll try to gauge their response and if they seem a bit too insular, he'll excuse himself.

Andrei is still leaning against a wall, at the head of the alley.

I'm going to look obvious standing here pretty soon.

He picks a piece of paper out of his pocket and pretends it's a map, or directions, and he's lost. He looks up and down the street as though he's trying to find a certain landmark. While he does this, he tries to notice if anyone is watching him, from the alley, or from windows or doorways.

They must be in the shop by now. I'll assume the shopkeeper is in a back room, and they're snooping around before he comes out. Better to assume this will take a while. I don't want to run in and ruin a conversation just as they're about to get information.

Ju-Ju House – Harlem, New York
2:39pm –Friday 16th January 1925

The shopkeeper turns to Thomas, "Yes this is my shop." He smiles and offers his hand, "Silas N'Kwane."

"So you are interested in African Art? Anything in particular, Mr....?"

Meanwhile...

The young couple look a little surprised that Maksim started a conversation, but none-the-less are happy to talk.

The man laughs, "Well I do like to have a few pieces of traditional African Art in my office, my clients kind of expect it, but..." he shakes his head, "my fiance finds them quite amusing, as you can see."

********

[OOC: I handle things like stealth with opposed rolls, your hide roll vs their spot hidden roll. If the guy outside is just a drunk then believe me his spot hidden is seriously reduced below the standard 25%. But if he's a lookout it's 25% at the very least. Your roll failed by 84%, his didn't so he noticed you glancing at him. He was looking at you at the time, so it actually wasn't as easy as you suggest.

Incidently by using opposed rolls you might have been noticed even if your hide roll had succeeded, but probably only if the guy was a genuine lookout. However the opposed roll meant that you had much more than a 10% chance of success, unless the other guy's spot hiddeen was very high.

If you've any complaints/comments to make about how I handle the rules, please could you PM me first next time, as several others have. I'm quite happy to explain my logic or my point of view, but I'd prefer not to interupt the story with it. ]

Touching his hidden revolver compulsively to make sure it's still there, Andrei continues imagining the scene in the store.

One of them must have hit the bell on the counter by now. They're waiting for someone to come from the back room. Perhaps the blackies are spying from a peephole from the back room, and delaying, getting reinforcements...

Andrei swallows hard.

Don't panic. If anything happened, I would have heard a gunshot. Unless they were ambushed, wrestled to the ground...

With these troubling thoughts rolling through his head, Andrei remains on the corner, pretending to examine the piece of paper held before him.

Maksim flashes them a genuine smile. "Clients, eh? I'm in insurance myself. Businesses mostly. I don't know what my clients would think if I had too many of these things floating around... Very stuffy sorts. I'm hoping to branch out. So what do you do for a living? Something less monstrous then my occupation, I hope." His smile broadens and he gives a little guilty shrug.

"Anderson." says Thomas, returning the handshake. "I was wondering if you had anything from Kenya? I've always been interested in Kenyan culture."

While looking at the items in the shop, Thomas also looks around to see how many exits to other rooms there are, if any.

Ju-Ju House – Harlem, New York
2:39pm –Friday 16th January 1925

“Yes of course, I have a great deal of items from Kenya, including masks, shields and spears of the Kikuyu and the Nandi tribes. And a few drums and other items”

There is an door at the back of the shop, it’s slightly ajar and appear to lead to a very small storeroom. Apart from that, the front door appears to be the only way in or out of the room.

Meanwhile...

“An equally monstrous occupation I’m afraid, I’m a lawyer.”

“I mostly deal with civil cases, the fight for equal opportunities for negroes. That is why I like to display a few tradition items in my office, I feel that in such a cosmopolitan city as New York, there is the opportunity for everybody to embrace and celebrate their own traditions, while still being a part of the city’s culture.”

The lawyer’s fiancée laughs, “Actually he just thinks his clients will pay his fees if they see lots of spears and things on the walls.”

"Law? That's not something we insurance agents really worry about," says Maksim with a flap of his hand. "We just throw a few clauses in there for the various laywers to chew over during disputes. I really should get out of the business while I still have some shreds of soul left... But enough about work, you said this is your lovely fiance?" At this he turns to the woman and flashes her a perfectly friendly and above board smile. "And what date is it you've had to worry over?"

He leans in a bit conspirationally. "I have to admit, I'm a bit of a sucker for weddings and, well, if you don't mind my friend over there is in a bit of a sore mood and the more time I can speak to you two, not that this isn't a pretty marvellous conversation, but the more time I get to chat with you, the less time I need to spend dealing with him." He gives them a wink. "Just explaining myself for being so rude as to keep asking about your personal lives, me being a stranger and all."

"But please, if you can bear me a moment longer, share some of your good cheer with me."

Maksim wondered how he could attempt to tie their conversation in with the store keeper, try to bring things onto more familiar grounds and see what he could learn about the habits of the store. Hopefully, Thomas wouldn't draw his gun too soon... At the very least, if Maksim can keep himself between them and Thomas, he might be able to shoo them out the doors before they get caught in the cross fire.

"Fascinating stuff." says Thomas, still looking at all the items around the shop.

Thomas waits for an opportunity to be alone in the room for a bit. If/as soon as the other customers leave the shop, he will mention to the shopkeeper that all the Kenyan items are very interesting, but not quite what he's looking for, and will ask if there are perhaps a few other items not displayed in the main room, in the hope that the shopkeeper will disappear in the storeroom for a short while.

If no such opportunity presents itself after a reasonable amount of time, Thomas will simply say he can't make up his mind and will promise to come back later, after asking about the shop's opening days and hours.

Caroline starts to get a bit fidgety. Thomas seems to know what he's about, and Maksim's hanging about with the couple who were trapped in his web of reputedly irresistable charm, spouting forth the Russian equivalent of blarney in the hopes of God-knows-what--liberating the woman from her companion, as like as anything. Nothing much for Caroline herself to do but nod, smile, giggle once in a while, and generally follow the men's leads, as uncoordinated as they seemed to be.

Andrei is starting to get impatient.

Maybe I should walk to the courtyard. No, I'll give them another minute.

Warhammer: Please make a fast talk roll for Thomas, and an extra d100 roll for me.
Laraqua: Maksim has the joint lowest Luck here (and he thinks that he’s the most unlucky of all) so please make a luck roll for Maks.
Coffee Demon: I’ll deal with Andrei by PM from now, until he meets up with the others again. So please stop reading now.

Please could everybody copy the full dice roll result to here, I’m at work at the moment so I can’t access invisible castle myself.

http://invisiblecastle.com/rolldice.py? ... l+the+dice

22. An exceptional success. But I'll bet this Luck roll is to get the customers outta the shop. Which Maks isn't gonna view as lucky. He's gonna see it as a sad sign that nobody likes him. *cue sad music*

Thomas succeeds with his Fast Talk (3, Fast Talk score=40%).

The other d100 result is 62.

Silas N’Kwane says, “Ah yes I do have a few more items, if you wait here I’ll take a look in the back room.”

He starts walking towards the storeroom.

At the same time the young couple excuse themselves from their conversation with Maksim, “It was nice talking, but I really have to get going now. If you like you can pop around to my offices anytime and see my collection.”

“It’s just around the corner.”

He hands Maksim his business card:

Ellington & Associates
Private and Corporate Legal Aid
401 West 137th Street
Harlem
New York

HAR 2376

[NOTE: While this is happening Andrei was still outside the alleyway, I later added this thread containing transcipts of the PMs that detailed exactly what happened to Andrei]

"That's really nice, pal. Thank you." says Thomas with a smile.

As soon as the other customers are out, and as soon as he is out of the shopkeeper's eyesight, Thomas will quickly search the shop for any hidden exits, focusing his attention on the areas that could possibly conceal them. He will make gestures for Maksim to join him in the task and be as efficient and quick as possible.

All three investigators quickly see that the only place in the shop that could possibly conceal any kind of door is a dusty rug that lies on the floor immediately in front of Silas' counter counter.

They can hear Silas rummaging through the contents of the small storeroom.

Thomas slightly lifts one corner of the rug with his foot... Just enough to reveal whether there is a trapdoor underneath or not.

Caroline shifts around anxiously, looking from Maksim to Thomas, not really sure what to do with herself.

As Thomas suspected there apears to be a heavy wooden trapdoor under the rug.

(OOC: I was actually waiting to give Maksim a chance to post something)

Laraqua is sorting out some real-life stuff, so don't wait around yet.

If the situation becomes life threatening for Maksim I'll wait until she can post.

Regarding the trapdoor, Thomas hasn't pulled the rug back far enough to tell whether the trapdoor is locked or not. It is hinged to swing upwards, and presumably covers an entrance to the shop's basement.

I'll delete my previous post, there is still probably enough time to move the rug fully out of the way and examine the trapdoor more closely.

Thomas moves the rug aside a bit more with his foot, still keeping an eye out for the shopkeeper. If there is a genuine risk of being caught checking out the trapdoor, he will opt not to take it at this point, having already received satisfying information for now.

Does the trapdoor look like it could be broken easily if it's locked and if we don't have the key? Or does it look like it would be a very difficult task, or that it would make way too much noise, etc.?

Thomas pulls aside the rug while Silas is still rooting in the storeroom. The trapdoor is locked and requires a key to open. The door itself is quite solid. It looks like it could easily be broken open though with the aid of a crowbar or large screwdriver, but it would probably by noisy.

Thomas saw what he wanted to see. He puts the rug back in place and waits for Silas to come back.

Silas spends a minute or two rummaging in the storeroom, when he reappears he is smiling and carrying several other African artefacts.

At that exact moment a single gunshot can be heard in the distance, somewhere outside the shop. The sound is quite distinctive, not at all like a common .38. It is the sound of Andrei’s powerful .44 Russian Officer’s Revolver being fired.

Silas N’Kwane freezes on the spot, looking straight at his visitors, his hands are still full of the African trinkets.

"Oh boy. Excuse me but I think someone might be in need of help outside." says Thomas.

He dives to the floor and kicks the shop's door open to find out what is happening, before getting out of the way to leave an opportunity for Maksim (by far a better shooter) to fire if needed.

Caroline has already learned to surpress the urge to immediately rush to the scene of an injury or other trauma. It meant surpressing her old instincts, but her newly developing instincts told her that charging ahead could get her killed or seriously hurt, and then she would need help herself rather than be able to help anyone else.

Instead, she gets down, imitating Thomas's move.

Thomas kicks the door open, but the courtyard contains only the three winos.

The gunshot sounded like it came from some distance away, suggesting that Andrei may still be out on 137th Street.

[OOC: I'll PM Laraqua to let her know that we're waiting for Maksim (I guess this could be that life-threatening moment). In the meantime I've made this post so that you can both post again if you like]

Maksim Rukov unholsters his gun and rushes for the sound of the gun shot. "Stupid buerocraft," he snarls and motions for the other two to follow. "With me!" It was unsafe in the alley but he didn't fancy having everyone going off in different directions. He really wished Timour was here. They'd listen to what his brother had to say. Not that his brother ever had sensible things to say.

Thomas gets up, swearing to himself and losing his cool for a moment. He had tried to be as discreet as possible so that Silas wouldn't notice anything weird about their group, but it had obviously failed, for a yet unknown reason. Hopefully a valid one.

What is that son of a bitch up to?

Thomas excuses himself and runs with Maksim.

Caroline trails close behind the two men as they chase after the source of the shot. Hope Andrei's all right, she thinks hurriedly.

When the three reach the alleyway they can see that Andrei is no longer stood at the far end. The alley is unoccupied.

The winos don't move from where they sit. Silas N'Kwane closes the door of his shop.

A car horn beeps repeatedly somewhere nearby.

Thomas runs in the car horn's direction, while making sure the three of them remain as a group.

Caroline follows Thomas's lead without hesitation.

Maksim tries to cover his gun as he runs so as not to attract too much unwanted attention.

The alleyway – Near Ju-Ju House, Harlem, New York
2:45pm – Friday 16th January, 1925

As the three investigators rush along the alleyway Timour’s Studebaker touring car screeches to a halt at the end of the alley.

The windscreen and driver’s side window are shattered, Andrei sits behind the wheel sounding the horn repeatedly. He is covered in blood, as is the hood of the car.

Lots of people’s faces are starting to appear at the windows of the overlooking tenements, some of them look very hostile; others look frightened or just plain curious.

Andrei slams on the brakes and jerks the car into reverse.

"GET IN THE CAR!" he roars through the gaping windshield. He glances behind the car in the direction he came.

Andrei is almost unrecognizable. His face is a mask of smeared blood and gore, speckled with glittering shards of glass.

"Good Lord, Andrei--? Are you hurt?" Caroline asks as she reaches the car.

"No! But we all will be if you don't HURRY UP! GET IN!"

Andrei's voice breaks into a yell again, and he glances over his shoulder toward Lenox Avenue again. - obviously, he's very pumped up on adrenaline.

Caroline can see that the front passenger seat is also smeared with blood. In the middle of the smear is Andrei's large officer's revolver, looking like it's covered in sticky red jam.

[OC: But its not jam! ]

Maksim gets into the passenger side, wincing as he sits in the warm, wet blood and wishing he could be in the driver's seat. One thing was for sure, he didn't trust Andrei behind the wheel. He leans out the window, looking to see if he should try shooting at someone but not really wanting to let loose a shot in case he took down an innocent out for a walk.

Thomas reluctantly jumps into the car. It doesn't seem like a good idea to him, especially as the driver is covered with blood and shattered glass... but running away on foot sounds like an even worse idea.

"Ok, what exactly happened?" he asks.

Caroline gets into the car as well, nervously looking around.

West 137th Street – Harlem, New York
2:45pm – Friday 16th January, 1925

There are a few people already beginning to emerge from the tenements onto 137th Street. It isn’t possible to tell yet whether they are hostile voodoo cultists or just locals coming to investigate the gunfire and the car horn, but either way Timour’s battered and bloody car obviously attracts their attention. Some of them look angry.

Before the doors are even closed, Andrei presses down on the gas, jamming the car into reverse and turning away from Lenox Avenue.

"Watch out behind us!" he shouts angrily, ignoring Thomas' question.

As quickly as possible, he screeches the car to a halt again, shifts the car into first gear, and accelerates down 137th, away from Lenox Avenue, as quickly as possible. He's not going to slow down for people in the street, but he honks the horn when he gets a chance.

From one nightmare into another, Caroline thinks as she glances behind her at the scene they leave behind them.

"What on earth happened, Andrei?" she asks, both wanting and not wanting to know.

The few pedestrians who have got close to the car dart aside as, horn blaring, Andrei accelerates rapidly along 137th Street, leaving Lenox Avenue behind.

Andrei keeps glancing into the rearview mirror.

"What does it LOOK like happened?" he growls.

"I hope you got what you wanted in that shop, Thomas, because we've got every negro in New York alerted now!"

He pauses for a second. His upper lip inches up into a snarl.

"Thomas, you will NEVER... EVER go off on one of your STUPID PLANS AGAIN! WITHOUT TALKING IT THROUGH WITH THE REST OF US! DO YOU SEE ALL THIS BLOOD? LOOK AT THIS! LOOK AT ME! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU WALK IN LIKE SOME... SOME GOD-DAMNED AMERICAN COWBOY!"

"YOU'RE LUCKY I HAD THE COMMON SENSE TO GUARD THAT ALLEY, OR YOU'D ALL BE DEAD!"

Andrei is struggling to maintain self-control. His knuckles are white, gripping the wheel tightly. He's still watching the rearview mirror, but also starts looking for someplace to ditch the car - a vacant lot, an old warehouse area, or anywhere where there might not be people around.

[OC: Disclaimer: the thoughts and actions of Andrei do not necessarily reflect the thoughts of CoffeeDemon ]

If the old maxim about divide and conquer proved accurate, they were all doomed, Maksim thought to himself, somewhat cheerful that someone else was being scolded now. The best thing to do was keep his head down and watch all suspicious characters. He wasn't going to just take pot shots on a crowded day-light street, even if he could be reasonably certain a person was a cultist. Better to wait and watch and save his ammunition for when he actually had to kill someone.

"Settle down, pal." answers Thomas. His tone is angry but he makes an effort to not raise his voice.

"You're not the one whose friend and business partner is probably trapped or buried somewhere in that shop's cellar, are you? You ever think of that? Last time I checked I did not force you to come along if you didn't wanna. A man is responsible of nobody's actions but his own. If you wanted me to go by myself, I would have. And I put my own safety on the line as much as you did. The trap could very well have been inside the shop."

"Shut up, Thomas."

Andrei's voice is cracking. He doesn't want to hear anyone else's point of view at the moment. Not only that, he's extremely stressed, and solely acting on adrenaline at the moment.

Halfway through his argument, Andrei interrupts and repeats, "Shut UP, and help me find a place to hide this car."

"You know, just because you've had a bad day, that's still no free ticket to lose your good manners." says Thomas, possibly in an effort to annoy Andrei by being overtly calm. "Good manners are free. Everybody can have them. Just a minute ago you were ranting about talking things through, now you tell people to shut up. Pull yourself together and start making sense again."

Andrei falls silent, and keeps driving. Through the rearview mirror, Thomas can see that his eyes are flickering back and forth, like he's running things through his mind. He shakes his head occasionally, as though he's holding an irritated conversation with himself.

"Just.. STOP.. talking and find a place to hide the damned car."

Andrei is still extremely high-energy, and Thomas' calm logic is only making things worse. It looks like he's more likely to pull over the car and start strangling Thomas than anything else.

[OC: I'm trying to play this as though Andrei just came out of a Pulp Fiction "I shot a man and he exploded all over me" moment, with a little less self-control.]

Caroline tries and fails to avoid the eye-rolling that Andrei's and Thomas's bickering is inducing in her. As her mind drifts some, she suddenly realizes that although Andrei hadn't been shot, someone else must've been, and she'd failed to even wonder about that, much less help someone who'd been injured. For all she knew, it could've been an innocent bystander--not that that mattered; ultimately, her oath bound her to help anyone. It'd only been a few days, yet she could already feel the needle of her moral compass being redirected by the magnet of dire necessity. Or maybe it was by her own cowardice. It was easy enough to just drift along with the bullish men here, help only the "good guys," think first of her own safety.

"I want to know what happened," she says finally, as firmly as she chan manage, trying to regain some initiative for herself.

Harlem, New York – Abandoned Factories by the River
2:50pm – Friday 16th January, 1925

Andrei finds an area where there are a couple of disused factories on the East-bank of the Harlem River. It's a few blocks away from Ju-Ju House and nobody seems to have followed them.

Checking the rearview mirror one last time, Andrei swerves down a road between two unused factories. He slows down, looking for a good place to hide the car.

"Three men came out of the building across the road. One went running for reinforcements, the other two attacked me with machetes."

His neck is starting to itch with the drying blood.

Andrei pulls into an old factory and parks the car in the dark. Not saying anything, he strips off his bloody jacket and shirt. Inspecting his undershirt, he sees that only a bit of blood stains the collar.

He vigorously wipes his face with the clean part of his shirt, asking Caroline to point out areas he missed. After a few moments, he asks her, "What happened to you?"

[OC: I'll be away for the rest of the day, but Andrei would like to ditch his jacket and overshirt, clean his pistol, ensure there's no evidence in the car, and take a cab back to Elizabeth's. He's extremely grumpy, not very talkative, and avoids speaking directly with Thomas.]

Thomas lights a cigarette and, likely, avoids speaking to Andrei, preferring to lean against a wall and let Caroline do the talking.

"Not much, Andrei," Caroline replies. "We'd just noticed that there was a trapdoor under a rug in the JuJu House. The owner was in the back looking for something when we heard the shot.

"Now answer my question."

Maksim squeezes Andrei's shoulder and looks Thomas in the eye. "You have to take responsibility for the rest of your team. That is what a leader does. As you led us there, what happened is your responsibility as much as ours."

"I just told you", Andrei mumbles to Caroline. He watches to see Thomas' reaction to Maks.

[OC: If we can take any items we own out of the car, and get a cab out of here, we could just as easily take up the conversation in the apartment, and get the other players back in...]

"I agree with you one hundred percent, Maksim." says Thomas. "I'm not a man to dodge responsibility. I was answering Andrei's quip about the "stupid plan". If it was indeed so obviously stupid, like I told him, he wasn't forced to come. Some of us made that choice and stayed at the apartment. The deal was clear: I came up with a plan, good or bad, that's not the point. I stated the plan clearly and asked who wanted to come along. That is all. Not coming along was a perfectly valid option."

"That's not true," says Maksim. "We didn't have that choice. It's not just about whether the plan is sound or not, it's also about leaving you to die. When you risk your life, you risk the lives of those around you because they're willing to risk themselves for you. You didn't ask us to come along but we can't stand by and watch you die. And as for your plan, you didn't lay it out clearly, not until we were in the car."

"I didn't know you were about to start searching the place, and neither did Timour, not a chance would he miss that. You wanted to go through the place and you wanted to go through it now. I don't blame you on the last point, about not fully explaining what you wanted to do, we all gotta learn and I'm sure you don't have much experience in this sorta thing. But you gotta realise there's more that leads someone to come along then just because they thought your plan was smart."

OOC: Maksim has made his point. He's more then happy to move on back to the apartment and won't bring this up again for now. How about we just wait to hear Thomas' response -if any (or Caroline's, if she has anything to add) then take it over there?

"I had personal reasons for going there as fast as possible. You already know that." says Thomas, now getting slightly irritated. "If you decide you don't want me to go there by myself, that's swell and I appreciate the concern. But don't blame it on me if it ends up not working out. I didn't ask. If, say, you knew your brother was inside the place, possibly dead already, would you just sit there, wait, and think about it until a miracle plan comes up? I don't think so. As for not knowing I was about to search the place, I didn't know that myself. How exactly were we supposed to figure out what to do inside, when none of us even knew what or who was inside? Sometimes life calls for action, not for rationalisation or overthinking things until it's too late. It's pretty damn easy to say "that was a bad idea" afterwards."

"On a more positive note," he adds, throwing his cigarette away, "we know where to look next time. The trapdoor is important enough that not only is it hidden under a rug, but the shopkeeper also wears the key around his neck at all times."

Maksim sighs, annoyed that again Thomas missed the point, but doesn't bother pressing onward. In his experience, people never understood what the other man meant anyway.

I’ll leave this thread unlocked for now, in case Andrei has anything to add, but I’m moving play back to the Dakota now so that the others can join in again.

Andrei would have piped up with an outburst like:

"Your stupid plan was rushing into the JuJu House! Coming here to take a look was what we all intended! That was -everyones- plan, next time don't stray from it and risk all our lives!" He tries to get more out, but is flustered, and Maks talks over him.