in the likely event I do not get a summer job which would require me to cancel it, I will be going to Europe to study literature and get rid of some GE classes
We left off just after a major fight with the two mysterious intruders who broke into the Poe & Grimsley Detective Agency, leaving one of them - a sinister knife-wielding tabaxi - incapacitated on the carpet. Sherri has reappeared from being invisible and Teri and Fin are mentally recovering.
"No, that was our only one." Robert looks over at Sherri in relief. "There you are. Are you injured? We can bring anyone to the hospital who needs it."
Robert nods at the confirmation that nobody is injured, stuffs his pistol back into his coat and moves over to check on Coulter, who has curled up in the corner, put some earbuds in, and seems to be doing deep breathing exercises to slow an imminent panic attack. Meanwhile, Lupo pads over to sniff the unconscious tabaxi.
@bobble Along with your parasol, there are some broken wood fragments from the shattered door that could serve as poking devices.
Lupo whines and nudges the tabaxi with his nose. "Lupo," Shae calls from the playroom. "Good boy. Alakazam!" The wolf turns its head, its fur glowing slightly, and all at once collapses in on itself and shrinks back into Shae's small stuffed wolf plush toy. The eyes blink once, and then it is still again.
Careful not to bump into things, Teri takes a piece of wood. She wants to get some more information on the tabaxi and has decided that the first step is poking it. After some deliberation, she chooses to poke its tail first.
When her usual puppy look fails, Fin leans back on the sofa her feet high off the ground, and looks to Robert and says "Svo... why did the cat-thing say Claw and High relic?"
Robert looks up from watching Coulter. "The phrase isn't familiar to me. We've dealt with a few claw-like magical objects, but nothing that was called a High Relic. Maybe it was some kind of code."
Sherri is generally still in a bit of a state of shock. It's easier to address Shakespeare quotes than it is to address cat-person attacks or High Relics or burgers appearing out of thin air.
Robert nods at Fin's question and says quietly, "He gets overwhelmed. He'll be okay if we give him a minute." He looks over at Teri. "I think it'd be best if we cuffed him and had him answer some questions when he wakes up, wouldn't you agree? Or we can bring him down to the police and let them handle it. Up to you."
"This side's police does." Robert smiles. "I still know a few guys down at the station. I was a cop before I went into the private business. They still give me free donuts sometimes."
Sherri points a manicured finger at the figure of the dead dragonborn. "Um... wouldn't the police also be interested in... that, dears? That might not be the best path to free donuts."
Robert sobers a bit. "Don't feel too torn up. He hasn't been down long - they might be able to resurrect him if we hurry, if they still have the budget for interrogative revivification. We can bring them both down there, if that sounds like a good plan to you folks. Coulter can stay here with Shae."
"Don't worry, I can explain the situation to Umbra and Kix if they're on duty, and you folks won't get in trouble. This isn't the first time we've gotten the police involved with our agency's cases. I'll bring the van closer to the door and we can, ah..." He gestures vaguely. "...*transport* them. The station isn't too far from this neighborhood."
@Sciborg Sherri shudders slightly at the thought of - literally - getting her hands dirty (dirtier?) and then squares her shoulders. "Alright. If it's okay with these two, I'm in."
"I'd say to wrap them in a tarp, but I don't want us to look like we're bagging them up to bury them in a shallow grave..." Robert jumps at Fin's exclamation. "What is it?"
No one is saying what to do and Teri's unsure of the protocol in this situation, so she's just standing and holding onto her bag and the Big Mac as if a statue
“Brynne...” Robert narrows his eyes. “Brynne. I do think that rings a bell. Small-time jockey, wears fedoras, fixes horse races? Avoided getting nabbed for tax fraud?”
“Real slippery, that one.” Robert looks at Sherri and Teri. “Good tip for both of you. Don’t trust anyone who wears fedoras and has a last name of Foxglove.”
In the background, Shae has tentatively emerged from her playroom to scoop up the re-stuffed Lupo, and is now sitting next to Coulter watching everyone talk.
He shakes his head. “How could a small-time criminal like Brynne... someone else must have given him that job to give to you. Is there anyone else who associates with him that you know of? Anyone who sticks around when he gives you these... assignments?”
"...Teri." Robert looks over. "I don't know much about you, I'm afraid, but I hope you don't associate with those types of people. They mean nothing but trouble."
Fin finally notices Teri offering the bag, completely misinterprets the ping pong eyes, and says to her unconvincing ly "Oh no, I couldn't"(lying, Fin totally could)
Fin shrinks a little at the implication she is associated to Brynne
"That's not to blame you, Fin, of course." Robert looks over at Sherri. "I don't mean to be vague, either. I hope it's clear that whoever sent these two assassins to kill us, they may have had ties to an underworld which Brynne is very much a part of."
Robert chews his lip. "Well... perhaps it's better you don't, if that's the case I'm thinking of. I'm very sorry, Teri. That must have been very hard for you."
Noting that Teri appears uncomfortable, Sherri closes her eyes for a second, and then opens them and waggles a hand at the tabaxi. "On second thought, dears, maybe we should figure out what we're doing with... these... before anything else. You said there was a time limit on something, Robert, dear?"
"Yes, if he's dead longer than eight hours the spell usually fails. It depends on whether his soul has already made it to the Astral Plane." Robert lifts up the dragon without much further debate and begins bodily dragging it towards the front door, wheezing as he speaks. "Let's... move you... first, big guy."
"I've got... the dragon. Why don't you two lift our cat friend?" Panting, Robert drags the dragon out the door and towards the minivan. "We'll discuss Brynne and that book on the way, Fin, I have a lot of questions."
Robert deposits the dragon into the back of the minivan and holds the door open for you. "Take it easy, we don't want any sprained human or dwarf bones."
"Look, no-one was going to rent to a 15-year-old, he never told me his family or my mom, and I sure as 'ell wasn't going into the system, m'kay? And Oakwinkle gave me the job."
Robert studies Teri. "I understand how you feel. But it's all right to lean on other people. I've done that plenty. There's no shame in having friends who want to support you."
"Yes. Right." Robert climbs into the driver's seat. "Let's drive down to the station and see what they have to say about all this, before that tabaxi wakes up."
"That reminds me, Sherri." Robert takes out his phone again and begins texting someone while the group waits for Fin. "How are you doing with all of this? I imagine it's a bit... overwhelming."
"Oh, I'm doing just fine, darling, thanks for asking. Still unsure how I managed to turn invisible but I'm just avoiding thinking about that for now." She waves a hand. "I've had more immediate concerns."
She pauses a moment to think back over the battle and everything that happened.
"Oh, and that blast of ice. I'm not entirely sure how that happened. That's not something I've experienced before."
"Yes, that was some impressive magic you did back there." Robert is still texting. "All unconscious, I'm assuming? Or were you in control for some of it?"
Hesitates. "I feel like... the ice may have been partially intentional? I wanted to slow him down, and that happened. The rest of it I have no idea about."
"Interesting." Robert tucks his phone away and fires up the van. "On some level, then, it does do what you want in the moment. Just not exactly in a manner you decide."
She shrugs. "I can control some stuff, just not everything." She does the little fire-illusion again, and then has it turn purple, green, and then vanish. "I haven't exactly had much time to practice, darling."
"I've never seen any kind of magic that spontaneously conjures food." Robert puts his foot on the gas and pulls out of the parking lot. "But if you could do it on command, I imagine you'll have a marvelous cooking career ahead of you."
She smiles at that. "Thanks, dear, but I think I have my career path mostly decided already..." The smile fades a bit. "At least, until I got mixed up in all this."
...this argument reminds Sherri of the time that someone brought a burger into the library. And, semi-consciously, she's going to use Minor Illusion to make Oakwinkle's voice say "No food allowed in the library!".
Robert's phone buzzes again, very aggressively. Robert winces. "Ah, Sherri, do you mind reading me those texts? I asked a friend of mine if they know anything about the term High Relics."
The texts are from somebody listed in Robert's contacts as "Presley." The texts read: "Where did you hear that word???" "Rob what the f** is going on, where did you hear that?" "ROB CALL ME" "ROB PICK UP THE PHONE"* There are also five missed calls.
"Umm... you have someone who seems very insistent on knowing where you heard the term. Someone named "Presley"? You appear to have a few missed calls also, darling, they seem quite agitated."
The ringer goes on for a long minute, then switches to voicemail. A pleasant, Irish-accented voice comes on. "Heya, you've reached the one and only Prez. If I'm not at the phone I'm at the pub with my mates, so kindly leave a message won'tcha? Thanks a bundle. If you're a cute lass call again." BEEEEP.
Robert stares. "That's concerning. They always pick up the phone..."
Robert shakes his head slowly. "Something's wrong. Last time Presley freaked out like that it was a burglar breaking into their flat. I should tell the police to stop over when we get there..."
@Mithical The phone rings. Riiiing. Riiing. Riiing Then, abruptly, it also goes to voicemail, this time sounding very poorly recorded by a clearly-not-tech-savvy Oakwinkle: "Hello, you have reached the Oakwinkle residence. Please kindly leave your phone number and I shall call you back at my very earliest convenience. Thank you very much." BEEEEP.
The phone rings a few times, and then goes to voicemail, this time a default message instead of custom-recorded - Mark was a bit druidic at heart and never cared much for fiddling with technology. "Your call has been forwarded to the voicemail for. Mark. No one is available to take your call. At the tone, please record your message. When you've finished recording, you may hang up or press the pound key for more options." BEEEEP.
Robert stares uncomprehendingly as he listens to the increasingly ominous series of voicemails; he seems genuinely concerned and worried. You see he's a bit suspicious - he doesn't know you that well and despite being fatherly he's slow to trust - and a slowly hatching thought in his mind that maybe getting mixed up in this whole thing was not a good idea. But otherwise, he seems just as surprised as you are in every fiber of him, and you don't read any malice or mischief.
You also get a slight impression, though, that he's nervous about someone else handling his phone, implying he might have things to hide on it that are unrelated to this situation.
i love the moment where you insight checked Robert because if he had been a twist villain, that could totally have been the "OH NO" moment where he had gotten you all in his minivan
By the way @Sciborg, totally fine with you coming up with something that happened to Anthony - from Teri's perspective, all that she knows is a) he bounced between jobs & relationships until he didn't come back and b) he tried his darndest to give her a stable upbringing despite failing sometimes
@Sciborg I think if Fin hadn't been so slow it would have been inhaled by now, amongst muffled words of "sorry...did you want some... I didn't leave any..."
Also, looking at my stats, I'm slightly regretting putting a point in Strength to bring it to 10 instead of making Strength 8 and putting those other two points into Int, but too late to adjust it now
