The department has a couple of evidence gathering and analyzing tools, mostly anything you'd need. Not all of them are portable, but you can freely borrow the portable ones for a day, provided they are returned by the end of the day. If doing an overnight job, there's a bit more paperwork to fill out first.
(In other words, grab what you think you need on a temporary basis. I will leave it up to you to determine exactly what the dept has or does not have onhand; part of my goal with this PbP is to have a shared game world, in that the players will have an active part in worldbuilding as well should you want to help flesh out details. Due to this, I don't have everything specified in my campaign notes, just large overall plot things. If you make up some detail and it absolutely won't work, I'll correct it, but mostly I'll just go along with whatever you make up. For example, you can make up that fingerprints were already taken from the car, or you can say they weren't so you want to go and do it yourself. After getting the results back -- a process which will take a couple of days -- you can also make up what sorts of results you find. Maybe there aren't any discernible prints, maybe you find some prints of people related or who know the person, or maybe you find something that's completely out of place that makes you want to investigate further. In the latter case, I'll determine whether or not that avenue will be fruitful; if so then the NPC you seek out will have some part to play in the plot, and if not then it will just be a dead end.)
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
After gathering some evidence kits the squad move to the impoundment lot to find the car. The process takes long, cause of a chubby lazy keeper who have more time to spent on his battered tv than on arrange his papers but eventually, they manage to find it.
"Doc, would you please take some fingerprints? we can further check if some of theme are in our database, the others" adds Scott "Well eyes open if something catch your attention, ah, and lets check all the compartments, maybe we can find paper notes or business cards or whatever to lead us somewhere interesting"
__________________________________
@Skizzerz: its not so easy for me to completely and satisfactory share the world cause I am european and not eng mother tongue. I appreciate the idea, but sometimes, I think it could be better for us if you introduce more the scene for the next move. I am saying it cause it seems that I am the more active here since now, and I am feeling not so comfortable because I have to do something that really I can't, not for now. I don't want to burdened your shoulders and I understand the value and time saving of this strategy but, I don't know, we will advance slowly by this mean I think.
On another point, for the game world, could be ok, but for the plot? How can we decide If there are fingerprints or not? and if the lead somewhere or not? How we can decide if we found some fingerprints out of place? From this point of view I saw it even more complicated than describe more the world.
At the end, if Scott need an Investigation check here, here's the roll: 11
"Interestin' thought, Doc. Sometimes people do need t' just up 'n disappear for many reasons. Not to rain on your parade Scott, but I don't wanna give this cult too much credit...though if nothin' else turns up, it's definitely a lead. After we go see the car I'll start checkin' around, see if anyone might know any reasons why he'd wanna pull a Houdini- after all, people are more my specialty." Besides, gotta show these guys I'm useful for SOMETHING around here.
At the impound, the car is in much the same shape it was left in- messy. Various papers litter the seats, and empty fast food bags emit an unpleasant greasy stench. Hope all this mess doesn't make it too tough to get fingerprints, but I guess we'll see if this Doc is really up to the task. After clearing out most of the junk, Mark takes a few minutes to sift through the masses of random papers- mostly old newspapers, bits of mail, and more than a few lotto tickets, before eventually finding the insurance sheet. James Spander, huh. Guess this is definitely his car, at least.
"Hey, fellas, check this out- looks like his insurance expired almost a year ago. Might mean he had some money problems...could be a good reason for someone to stage their disappearance. There's also a telephone number scrawled on the back of this envelope. It ain't much, but could merit diggin' a little deeper." Mark turns to Theo and nods. "Whenever we're done here, wanna take us by that church and see if we find anything else?"
(I like the idea that we get to set the scenes ourself, and decide what plays out and what to follow- though it does feel more like a forum RP than a focused game, which is something I do like. With that being the case, I'd like to investigate this telephone number and see if it leads to any NPC that might have some bearing on anything!)
Looking up the telephone number scrawled on the back of the envelope, you discover that it is the leasing office for a company which owns a fair bit of property downtown in a business district. As it is during the day of a weekday, they are currently open.
(@Ivanchina: It's ok if worldbuilding isn't entirely your thing. What I was getting at is that I have some general plot points planned out. What I do not have planned out is specifics; as for this campaign I'm trying a more open world / sandbox type of setup. I can make things up as we go along to keep you steered in the correct direction plot-wise, and part of that can be reacting to details that you the players invent as well. It's a bit outside of my usual playstyle, but given the slower pace of PbP I thought this would be a great time to give it a try and see what works and what doesn't work. As we get further into the game I'm sure we'll settle on a good balance between what you as players are comfortable with providing and what details I need to provide myself, as that sort of thing can't really be determined until I can get a feel for your playstyles and what you like or don't like in a campaign. As for what I'm looking for, @Izdrix gave a good example. He mentioned a phone number on the back of an envelope, but left it up to me to determine if that number is important or how that number plays into things. It'd be a same sort of deal for fingerprints, you determine WHAT the prints are, but not HOW they tie into the plot -- the HOW is my job. If it's not something you feel comfortable doing, feel free to not do it and let either myself or the other players do the describing instead; I do not want to force you to do something you aren't comfortable with. Maybe give it a try every once in a while though to see if you can expand your comfort zone a bit :) )
@Skizzerz: regardless of my comfort zone there is a limit in 5ed rules that stares against your willingness of letting us adding some plot details. PC don't really have narrative power. Let's bring last post from Izdrix to explain what I mean since you did. Ok he mentioned a phone number, fine, cool. We could follow that lead and, let's suppose that, since you have not planned anything on the plot related to this, this phone number will be a dead end...wow, maybe we will miss a couple of pages here, 4-5 days in real life if we are lucky, for nothing. No advancement in the case or in the adventure, just some typing on a keyboard. Let's think on the other way. You follow up our plot details, completely. If we state that, there are some fingerprints for example, these fingerprints will lead us somewhere, find someone involved or whatever. From PCs and Players point of view, this is, imho, the only way we could benefit/enjoy from our narrative freedom. Nevertheless, in this case, you will have a bunch of work to do, to always fit your plot to our narrative details and to make up the things. At the end, imho, we could have narrative power, only if this power have interference with the plot, otherwise, its only pure writing exercise. And this could happen only if you decide to do that, basically, changing modern 5ed to...an home-brew game d20 based. And its completely fine, I mean, we could try but, there are better rules to do that. If you want to have some examples just look at rules in other RPG games like the ones from Ron Edwards
I guess taking fingerprints takes longer than I thought...maybe I'll take a minute and check out this phone number while I wait. Mark pulls out slightly battered iPhone and begins doing a quick check to see if he can recognize the number. Marduk Capital...a leasing office? Interesting, I wonder what kind of connection our guy might have had. An employee, or a client?
After pulling out a notepad, Mark dials the number. "Hello, my name is Officer Johnson. I'm callin' with regards to an investigation being made by the Chicago Tactical Investigations Team- do you have a moment to answer a few questions regardin' a Mister James Spander?" Several minutes of conversation pass, and Mark's notepad quickly fills with his cramped but neat handwriting. "Please call me back if anything else comes up. Thanks again for yer time" he closes courteously before turning to the team.
"Well, looks like we do got a bit o' funny business here. This here Mr. Spander seems to have recently paid off a pretty large lease downtown- and wouldn'cha know it, it jus' happens to be for the plot of land Theo's church is on." Mark rubs his chin pensively. "Y'know, judgin' by the pretty cheap apartment he was stayin' in, I'd say our boy must've found himself some money to pay off a lease like that. Y'all find anything what might show how he found that kinda cash?"
(I think that maybe with the three threads, we might be actually kind of playing with/against the other groups, and Skizzerz is moderating and guiding those plots when they intersect. As it stands I think we have some freedom to get this started, and maybe make up some details about what kind of thread we want to investigate here- I've kicked it off with it maybe being some sort of funny money business, and others are free to extrapolate on the specifics of what they'd like to determine and follow up on, based again on made up details- but still tied it back to a previous plot point, the church. If that's not really anyone here's style that's ok, but if you want to tell a story with me and let Skizzerz guide it, I'm very much down for that. Also Skizzers, feel free to clarify any assumptions or implications I might have made c: )
(That is an accurate assessment. I have large overarching plot points, with very few actual details written down. What is written down is subject to change, as I can't really predict what everyone will be doing. As such, I am very flexible regarding plot details, so long as those details fit within the overall narrative that has been presented thus far between every thread. If they don't, I'll correct you. By having you provide some of these details, it's actually LESS work on my part. You're giving me hooks to expand and return to you, rather than me needing to make things up whole-cloth. It's also faster, you can make posts and assume certain details, which reduces back-and-forth and speeds things up. Speaking of correcting things because they don't fit the overall narrative...)
The leasing office has no records on file for a Mr. James Spander. They do indeed own the building that the church has leased out, however. The person who leased out the building is named John Young according to their records. They respectfully state that they cannot provide any additional information over the phone per company policy, but you are welcome to stop by the leasing office in person to obtain additional records.
If you choose to do so, you discover the following:
The address on file for John Young does not match the apartment address for James Spander; it isn't even anywhere close by. Looking up the address, however, leads to a vacant and derelict building that was foreclosed by the bank years ago.
The leasing office made a photocopy of John Young's drivers license for insurance purposes. The photo does not look like James Spander. The drivers license ID does not have any matches in the database, indicating that the ID is fake.
You may attempt an Insight (Wis) or Investigation (Int) check, your choice, DC 10. Attempt only 1. If you succeed, roll 1d3, then open the box that corresponds to the result of that roll. Please make all of the rolls and your response in a single post (roll, then edit the post to add new rolls or other text). This will keep the thread less cluttered, thanks!
Box 1
You think there might be something worth investigating with that phone number still. The leasing office has recordings of their phone calls, and you may be able to tie James's phone in with the call setting up the meeting between John Young and the office by asking the phone company for their call records and customer information.
Box 2
Your suspicions on the foreclosed building increase, and you believe it may be worth seeing if there is any other activity relating to that building. Shipping records may be a good start, and investigating the premises itself may prove fruitful (although perhaps dangerous if going inside, as the building has been condemned).
Box 3
Wondering how this ties into the church, you inquire more about that particular lease. You discover it was paid for via international wire transfer, but further investigation into this is quickly stonewalled by foreign entities refusing to cooperate with you.
DM Screen (plot spoilers)
James is the founder of the Disciples of the Faith, having done so after being contacted in his dreams by an otherworldly entity. Over the course of a few weeks, he obtained a fake ID and established himself as John Young, to cut ties with his previous self. He established an old abandoned property to receive shipments of illicit goods from the black market, and came into a large amount of money via an inheritance. Since taking over the building, he has developed the basement portion into an expansive area via magic granted to him by said otherworldly entity. The entity has also contacted numerous other people in their dreams, convincing them to seek out and eventually join the religion. The religion does not accept new members unless they mention that they had such a dream (but does not make knowledge of the dreams public). While maintaining a legal facade, the actions they take behind the scenes break numerous laws; they seem to be planning to kidnap 12 very specific individuals and bring them beneath the church for unrevealed reasons. Some have already been taken, others are still roaming free, largely unaware of what is in store for them.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Doc begins dusting the car looking for fingerprints:
Perception :10
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Roll the dice and play the game, I’m not here to listen to your politics.
“But this isn’t right. You’re meant to charge in, sword drawn, banner flying-that’s what all the other knights did!” “Yeah, right before they burst into flame.”
After looking for a hour, Doc does not appear to find anything usable and gives up.
Doc heads to the leasing office with Mark
"Good Afternoon, I believe Officer Johnson phoned about some records you have on hand that we can look at?"
Insight check: 6
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Roll the dice and play the game, I’m not here to listen to your politics.
“But this isn’t right. You’re meant to charge in, sword drawn, banner flying-that’s what all the other knights did!” “Yeah, right before they burst into flame.”
"I'm not sure any of this stuff in the boxes will be much help in this investigation!"
"Mark did you find anything?"
OOC: sorry for the slow posts, we had a death in the family
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Roll the dice and play the game, I’m not here to listen to your politics.
“But this isn’t right. You’re meant to charge in, sword drawn, banner flying-that’s what all the other knights did!” “Yeah, right before they burst into flame.”
Please make all of the rolls and your response in a single post (roll, then edit the post to add new rolls or other text). This will keep the thread less cluttered, thanks!
@JohnnyBGoode: I'm sorry to hear about that :( -- life is more important than the game, so just do what you need to do.
"Attempt only 1" means that each character gets a roll. You can choose to attempt either check, but you cannot attempt both. Once you decide to roll one, you cannot then roll the other and hope it is better.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
"Ok guys, I phoned the scientific, they will gave us some results fro the fingerprints in a couple of days so, who is this guy John Young? The name smells fake like its ID, maybe we could move to this building near his apartment, if he is hiding James, maybe this could be a good place...mmmm"
Investigation check: 23
6: 1-2=1; 3-4=2: 5-6=3
Scott takes some time to better check with his laptop any link between this Jonn and the church, but even follow the money seems difficult
"Mmm.... fellows, more the more the time pass, the more clears for me that this Jonn has something to hide, he payed the church with an International wire transfer, and no-one is collaborating, if we want to know more, we have to find him... i will start from the abandoned building near his apartment. what do you think?"
"Alright Doc, Scott, this does seem very suspicious....let's see if we can find anythin' else here."
Mark Investigates: 6!
Box to open (if successful): 1!
"Doesn't seem like much of anything else around here, unless Theo feels he can dig up somethin' we missed. The international wire transfer in particular seems like a real great way to stop someone from pushing in too deep, and with a fake ID it's certain he's got a lotta stuff to hide. Seems like we got two leads, the church lease he's connected to, or this vacant building on file. I don't think we should split up, but I'd rather investigate the church first since we got the clearance for it. Doc or Theo, if y'all wanna weigh in on where to go first?
(@ Skizzerz: No problem on correcting things, but since you only provided a detail with no rolls to make I assumed it was free to work with. Thanks for clearing up quickly! @Johnny: Sorry to hear that. Happy to have you on board whenever you have time though c: )
"Ok Mark, lets go to the church but, whats our plan? Just setting and gazing around? We could ask if they heard the names James Spander or John Young, what do you think?"
"You can go ahead, I will try to spot if they are lying"
"Alright Scott, sounds like a plan." Mark takes the lead as they arrive at the small church building nestled amid the many skyscrapers of downtown Chicago. Nice little building they got here...a bit more modern, not as traditional as my tastes would like, but that's not anything inherently wrong. The main building is unoccupied, so the group heads into the small reception office attached to the side- but finds it also apparently empty at the moment.
"Hello? Anyone here?" Maybe the receptionist is on a lunch break? It is that time...I'm even getting a bit hungry myself. Mark pokes around in the office a bit, sifting through the pamphlets and bulletins in search of any potentially useful information while waiting to see if anyone happens to around that might answer their questions.
(Sorry for the wait, been a bit busy this weekend. I'll be a bit occupied this week as well, but I'll try to check in and post at least even if it's not as involved.)
Sorry for the radio silence, I need to make a map of the church and have been dragging my feet on that. I will have an update in the next couple of hours.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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The department has a couple of evidence gathering and analyzing tools, mostly anything you'd need. Not all of them are portable, but you can freely borrow the portable ones for a day, provided they are returned by the end of the day. If doing an overnight job, there's a bit more paperwork to fill out first.
(In other words, grab what you think you need on a temporary basis. I will leave it up to you to determine exactly what the dept has or does not have onhand; part of my goal with this PbP is to have a shared game world, in that the players will have an active part in worldbuilding as well should you want to help flesh out details. Due to this, I don't have everything specified in my campaign notes, just large overall plot things. If you make up some detail and it absolutely won't work, I'll correct it, but mostly I'll just go along with whatever you make up. For example, you can make up that fingerprints were already taken from the car, or you can say they weren't so you want to go and do it yourself. After getting the results back -- a process which will take a couple of days -- you can also make up what sorts of results you find. Maybe there aren't any discernible prints, maybe you find some prints of people related or who know the person, or maybe you find something that's completely out of place that makes you want to investigate further. In the latter case, I'll determine whether or not that avenue will be fruitful; if so then the NPC you seek out will have some part to play in the plot, and if not then it will just be a dead end.)
After gathering some evidence kits the squad move to the impoundment lot to find the car. The process takes long, cause of a chubby lazy keeper who have more time to spent on his battered tv than on arrange his papers but eventually, they manage to find it.
"Doc, would you please take some fingerprints? we can further check if some of theme are in our database, the others" adds Scott "Well eyes open if something catch your attention, ah, and lets check all the compartments, maybe we can find paper notes or business cards or whatever to lead us somewhere interesting"
__________________________________
@Skizzerz: its not so easy for me to completely and satisfactory share the world cause I am european and not eng mother tongue. I appreciate the idea, but sometimes, I think it could be better for us if you introduce more the scene for the next move. I am saying it cause it seems that I am the more active here since now, and I am feeling not so comfortable because I have to do something that really I can't, not for now. I don't want to burdened your shoulders and I understand the value and time saving of this strategy but, I don't know, we will advance slowly by this mean I think.
On another point, for the game world, could be ok, but for the plot? How can we decide If there are fingerprints or not? and if the lead somewhere or not? How we can decide if we found some fingerprints out of place? From this point of view I saw it even more complicated than describe more the world.
At the end, if Scott need an Investigation check here, here's the roll: 11
"Interestin' thought, Doc. Sometimes people do need t' just up 'n disappear for many reasons. Not to rain on your parade Scott, but I don't wanna give this cult too much credit...though if nothin' else turns up, it's definitely a lead. After we go see the car I'll start checkin' around, see if anyone might know any reasons why he'd wanna pull a Houdini- after all, people are more my specialty." Besides, gotta show these guys I'm useful for SOMETHING around here.
At the impound, the car is in much the same shape it was left in- messy. Various papers litter the seats, and empty fast food bags emit an unpleasant greasy stench. Hope all this mess doesn't make it too tough to get fingerprints, but I guess we'll see if this Doc is really up to the task. After clearing out most of the junk, Mark takes a few minutes to sift through the masses of random papers- mostly old newspapers, bits of mail, and more than a few lotto tickets, before eventually finding the insurance sheet. James Spander, huh. Guess this is definitely his car, at least.
"Hey, fellas, check this out- looks like his insurance expired almost a year ago. Might mean he had some money problems...could be a good reason for someone to stage their disappearance. There's also a telephone number scrawled on the back of this envelope. It ain't much, but could merit diggin' a little deeper." Mark turns to Theo and nods. "Whenever we're done here, wanna take us by that church and see if we find anything else?"
(I like the idea that we get to set the scenes ourself, and decide what plays out and what to follow- though it does feel more like a forum RP than a focused game, which is something I do like. With that being the case, I'd like to investigate this telephone number and see if it leads to any NPC that might have some bearing on anything!)
10:00 Friday, July 7, 2017
Looking up the telephone number scrawled on the back of the envelope, you discover that it is the leasing office for a company which owns a fair bit of property downtown in a business district. As it is during the day of a weekday, they are currently open.
(@Ivanchina: It's ok if worldbuilding isn't entirely your thing. What I was getting at is that I have some general plot points planned out. What I do not have planned out is specifics; as for this campaign I'm trying a more open world / sandbox type of setup. I can make things up as we go along to keep you steered in the correct direction plot-wise, and part of that can be reacting to details that you the players invent as well. It's a bit outside of my usual playstyle, but given the slower pace of PbP I thought this would be a great time to give it a try and see what works and what doesn't work. As we get further into the game I'm sure we'll settle on a good balance between what you as players are comfortable with providing and what details I need to provide myself, as that sort of thing can't really be determined until I can get a feel for your playstyles and what you like or don't like in a campaign. As for what I'm looking for, @Izdrix gave a good example. He mentioned a phone number on the back of an envelope, but left it up to me to determine if that number is important or how that number plays into things. It'd be a same sort of deal for fingerprints, you determine WHAT the prints are, but not HOW they tie into the plot -- the HOW is my job. If it's not something you feel comfortable doing, feel free to not do it and let either myself or the other players do the describing instead; I do not want to force you to do something you aren't comfortable with. Maybe give it a try every once in a while though to see if you can expand your comfort zone a bit :) )
@Skizzerz: regardless of my comfort zone there is a limit in 5ed rules that stares against your willingness of letting us adding some plot details. PC don't really have narrative power. Let's bring last post from Izdrix to explain what I mean since you did. Ok he mentioned a phone number, fine, cool. We could follow that lead and, let's suppose that, since you have not planned anything on the plot related to this, this phone number will be a dead end...wow, maybe we will miss a couple of pages here, 4-5 days in real life if we are lucky, for nothing. No advancement in the case or in the adventure, just some typing on a keyboard. Let's think on the other way. You follow up our plot details, completely. If we state that, there are some fingerprints for example, these fingerprints will lead us somewhere, find someone involved or whatever. From PCs and Players point of view, this is, imho, the only way we could benefit/enjoy from our narrative freedom. Nevertheless, in this case, you will have a bunch of work to do, to always fit your plot to our narrative details and to make up the things. At the end, imho, we could have narrative power, only if this power have interference with the plot, otherwise, its only pure writing exercise. And this could happen only if you decide to do that, basically, changing modern 5ed to...an home-brew game d20 based. And its completely fine, I mean, we could try but, there are better rules to do that. If you want to have some examples just look at rules in other RPG games like the ones from Ron Edwards
I guess taking fingerprints takes longer than I thought...maybe I'll take a minute and check out this phone number while I wait. Mark pulls out slightly battered iPhone and begins doing a quick check to see if he can recognize the number. Marduk Capital...a leasing office? Interesting, I wonder what kind of connection our guy might have had. An employee, or a client?
After pulling out a notepad, Mark dials the number. "Hello, my name is Officer Johnson. I'm callin' with regards to an investigation being made by the Chicago Tactical Investigations Team- do you have a moment to answer a few questions regardin' a Mister James Spander?" Several minutes of conversation pass, and Mark's notepad quickly fills with his cramped but neat handwriting. "Please call me back if anything else comes up. Thanks again for yer time" he closes courteously before turning to the team.
"Well, looks like we do got a bit o' funny business here. This here Mr. Spander seems to have recently paid off a pretty large lease downtown- and wouldn'cha know it, it jus' happens to be for the plot of land Theo's church is on." Mark rubs his chin pensively. "Y'know, judgin' by the pretty cheap apartment he was stayin' in, I'd say our boy must've found himself some money to pay off a lease like that. Y'all find anything what might show how he found that kinda cash?"
(I think that maybe with the three threads, we might be actually kind of playing with/against the other groups, and Skizzerz is moderating and guiding those plots when they intersect. As it stands I think we have some freedom to get this started, and maybe make up some details about what kind of thread we want to investigate here- I've kicked it off with it maybe being some sort of funny money business, and others are free to extrapolate on the specifics of what they'd like to determine and follow up on, based again on made up details- but still tied it back to a previous plot point, the church. If that's not really anyone here's style that's ok, but if you want to tell a story with me and let Skizzerz guide it, I'm very much down for that. Also Skizzers, feel free to clarify any assumptions or implications I might have made c: )
(That is an accurate assessment. I have large overarching plot points, with very few actual details written down. What is written down is subject to change, as I can't really predict what everyone will be doing. As such, I am very flexible regarding plot details, so long as those details fit within the overall narrative that has been presented thus far between every thread. If they don't, I'll correct you. By having you provide some of these details, it's actually LESS work on my part. You're giving me hooks to expand and return to you, rather than me needing to make things up whole-cloth. It's also faster, you can make posts and assume certain details, which reduces back-and-forth and speeds things up. Speaking of correcting things because they don't fit the overall narrative...)
The leasing office has no records on file for a Mr. James Spander. They do indeed own the building that the church has leased out, however. The person who leased out the building is named John Young according to their records. They respectfully state that they cannot provide any additional information over the phone per company policy, but you are welcome to stop by the leasing office in person to obtain additional records.
If you choose to do so, you discover the following:
You may attempt an Insight (Wis) or Investigation (Int) check, your choice, DC 10. Attempt only 1. If you succeed, roll 1d3, then open the box that corresponds to the result of that roll. Please make all of the rolls and your response in a single post (roll, then edit the post to add new rolls or other text). This will keep the thread less cluttered, thanks!
Box 1
You think there might be something worth investigating with that phone number still. The leasing office has recordings of their phone calls, and you may be able to tie James's phone in with the call setting up the meeting between John Young and the office by asking the phone company for their call records and customer information.
Box 2
Your suspicions on the foreclosed building increase, and you believe it may be worth seeing if there is any other activity relating to that building. Shipping records may be a good start, and investigating the premises itself may prove fruitful (although perhaps dangerous if going inside, as the building has been condemned).
Box 3
Wondering how this ties into the church, you inquire more about that particular lease. You discover it was paid for via international wire transfer, but further investigation into this is quickly stonewalled by foreign entities refusing to cooperate with you.
DM Screen (plot spoilers)
James is the founder of the Disciples of the Faith, having done so after being contacted in his dreams by an otherworldly entity. Over the course of a few weeks, he obtained a fake ID and established himself as John Young, to cut ties with his previous self. He established an old abandoned property to receive shipments of illicit goods from the black market, and came into a large amount of money via an inheritance. Since taking over the building, he has developed the basement portion into an expansive area via magic granted to him by said otherworldly entity. The entity has also contacted numerous other people in their dreams, convincing them to seek out and eventually join the religion. The religion does not accept new members unless they mention that they had such a dream (but does not make knowledge of the dreams public). While maintaining a legal facade, the actions they take behind the scenes break numerous laws; they seem to be planning to kidnap 12 very specific individuals and bring them beneath the church for unrevealed reasons. Some have already been taken, others are still roaming free, largely unaware of what is in store for them.
Doc begins dusting the car looking for fingerprints:
Perception :10
Roll the dice and play the game, I’m not here to listen to your politics.
“But this isn’t right. You’re meant to charge in, sword drawn, banner flying-that’s what all the other knights did!”
“Yeah, right before they burst into flame.”
After looking for a hour, Doc does not appear to find anything usable and gives up.
Doc heads to the leasing office with Mark
"Good Afternoon, I believe Officer Johnson phoned about some records you have on hand that we can look at?"
Roll the dice and play the game, I’m not here to listen to your politics.
“But this isn’t right. You’re meant to charge in, sword drawn, banner flying-that’s what all the other knights did!”
“Yeah, right before they burst into flame.”
"I'm not sure any of this stuff in the boxes will be much help in this investigation!"
"Mark did you find anything?"
OOC: sorry for the slow posts, we had a death in the family
Roll the dice and play the game, I’m not here to listen to your politics.
“But this isn’t right. You’re meant to charge in, sword drawn, banner flying-that’s what all the other knights did!”
“Yeah, right before they burst into flame.”
Please make all of the rolls and your response in a single post (roll, then edit the post to add new rolls or other text). This will keep the thread less cluttered, thanks!
@JohnnyBGoode: I'm sorry to hear about that :( -- life is more important than the game, so just do what you need to do.
@Johnny: condolences for your loss, don't worry for us, take your time.
@Skizzerz: one attempt means we already try with Doc so we have to go ahead? (since he rolled 6)
"Attempt only 1" means that each character gets a roll. You can choose to attempt either check, but you cannot attempt both. Once you decide to roll one, you cannot then roll the other and hope it is better.
"Ok guys, I phoned the scientific, they will gave us some results fro the fingerprints in a couple of days so, who is this guy John Young? The name smells fake like its ID, maybe we could move to this building near his apartment, if he is hiding James, maybe this could be a good place...mmmm"
Investigation check: 23
6: 1-2=1; 3-4=2: 5-6=3
Scott takes some time to better check with his laptop any link between this Jonn and the church, but even follow the money seems difficult
"Mmm.... fellows, more the more the time pass, the more clears for me that this Jonn has something to hide, he payed the church with an International wire transfer, and no-one is collaborating, if we want to know more, we have to find him... i will start from the abandoned building near his apartment. what do you think?"
"Alright Doc, Scott, this does seem very suspicious....let's see if we can find anythin' else here."
Mark Investigates: 6!
Box to open (if successful): 1!
"Doesn't seem like much of anything else around here, unless Theo feels he can dig up somethin' we missed. The international wire transfer in particular seems like a real great way to stop someone from pushing in too deep, and with a fake ID it's certain he's got a lotta stuff to hide. Seems like we got two leads, the church lease he's connected to, or this vacant building on file. I don't think we should split up, but I'd rather investigate the church first since we got the clearance for it. Doc or Theo, if y'all wanna weigh in on where to go first?
(@ Skizzerz: No problem on correcting things, but since you only provided a detail with no rolls to make I assumed it was free to work with. Thanks for clearing up quickly! @Johnny: Sorry to hear that. Happy to have you on board whenever you have time though c: )
(ooc) Waiting for Theo
Theo hasn't been responding for a while. At this point, just continue on without him. If he returns, I'll try to figure things out at that point.
"Ok Mark, lets go to the church but, whats our plan? Just setting and gazing around? We could ask if they heard the names James Spander or John Young, what do you think?"
"You can go ahead, I will try to spot if they are lying"
"Alright Scott, sounds like a plan." Mark takes the lead as they arrive at the small church building nestled amid the many skyscrapers of downtown Chicago. Nice little building they got here...a bit more modern, not as traditional as my tastes would like, but that's not anything inherently wrong. The main building is unoccupied, so the group heads into the small reception office attached to the side- but finds it also apparently empty at the moment.
"Hello? Anyone here?" Maybe the receptionist is on a lunch break? It is that time...I'm even getting a bit hungry myself. Mark pokes around in the office a bit, sifting through the pamphlets and bulletins in search of any potentially useful information while waiting to see if anyone happens to around that might answer their questions.
(Sorry for the wait, been a bit busy this weekend. I'll be a bit occupied this week as well, but I'll try to check in and post at least even if it's not as involved.)
Sorry for the radio silence, I need to make a map of the church and have been dragging my feet on that. I will have an update in the next couple of hours.