Gary Miller, Ghoul P. I.

Not technically a scene. A bunch of e-mails, re: investigation into István's disappearance, including rolls and roll-result posts. Uh, some stuff was talked about over IMs.

Why am I explaining this? This is all for my own reference + scene-bridge.

1.

István & René are impossible to get ahold of: [start game]

Note: At any point Gary has the Influence (Police) to try and initiate a homicide, murder, kidnapping or missing persons investigation, but he'll have to decide if it's going to be into the disappearance of Istvan, Rene, or both.

Sounds like a job for Gary Miller, Ghoul P.I.! [Theme Song.] http://youtu.be/zKJV8VjyKeQ He's on the case. He'll meet up with Lux to do an initial What's Up Doc investigation of the warehouse. If for some reason they can't access it one or the other will try to use influence (if Gary's larceny fails) to open all doors. Do I remember reading aright that the warehouse is technically University property?

Lux notices that Istvan isn't returning her calls on the 27th and that he is most definitely missing by the 28th when Rene doesn't answer either. When Gary heads over he notices that the warehouse is pretty thoroughly cracked open and covered in police tape. Influence (Police) roll if he's trying to get legal access through the police department. Dexterity + Stealth if he's going in on his lonesome without permission.

While he's going to be able to get in easier this is reflective of the fact the recent events may have drawn more attention to the area than before. Local businesses and residents may be on the lookout for suspicious activity. In the case of a botch on either roll Gary may find himself implicated in the investigation (just as a warning because he will realize that is a serious possibility).

If he does get in let's go with three Perception + Investigation rolls (one for each floor of the warehouse) to see what he notices.

To find out exactly why the place is covered in police tape options are another Influence (Police) or Contacts roll (difficulty 7) from Gary.

Things they'll be looking for in particular include [a] ash or its leavings or anything to indicate that here was a dessicated crumbled-away 150-year-old warlock (or other vampire) corpse -- though I don't think she'll believe István is dead-dead until she gets a vision about it. Auspex is new and exciting. [b] Vex (if this is after finding out abot police crawling over the place questions which occur to one is: Did the police find something unusual? Are they just incompetent? Aurora Warehouses are officially not good places to hide staked bodies) [c] thaumaturgical texts or goods on the other Tremere that might've been left behind. I know there's nothing and never was but Lux doesn't. It's not like she poked around when István took her there 'coz she was being a Good Guest. [d] whether the security was damaged beforehand or not or turned off or say spraypainted black by professionals a la 


Speaking of Auspex let's also do an Auspex roll at difficulty 9 (since this doesn't directly effect her) to see if Lux gets any premonitions or epiphanies regarding what's going on. You can't botch this roll. As for security I'm going to assume that since Istvan didn't have any dots invested in the Domain (Security) background and seemed to intend that the place be private and tucked away that there were no security cameras in the immediate area.

You said Gary'll find out pretty easily about Verna's police call. He'll obviously want to be all up on that particular pie (the pie being what the police did and found and getting all 'dem records staying informed etc), but of course he'll also be doing his own thing. If you need specifics, I'll mostly leave it to you because -- as I think I mentioned when I scraped Lux's hack-job sheet together -- the kind of contacts and influence that Gary's got isn't something I personally know a lot about or really enough to properly BS from a player perspective. 

This will not be necessary if he does the first Influence (Police) roll. If he's also or instead using his contacts let's go with a Contacts roll (difficulty 7).

Then there's René. Did René fail to show up for his next shift yet? Has the warehouse kerfluffle had any effect on whether or not René is Officially Missing? Is there potential police interest in René's whereabouts? Whether there is or not there is obviously Gary interest in René's whereabouts, so he's going to want to do his thing and try to talk to people at the hospital. Obtain security footage if possible, maybe of the parking lot or front of the hospital as well. Did René take his own car when he left? If so, where's the car now? Was anybody else seen to be driving it? Can we find out who? 

By Wednesday Rene still isn't reachable through his cell phone or at the hospital operator. If he's done an Influence (Police) roll it may answer some of his questions regarding asking around about Rene.  If Gary is going to ask around the hospital after Rene he should do a Social + Investigation roll. What he gets on this will especially depend on successes. Getting security footage is going to be very difficult without exerting his Influence (Police). As for some of the questions about the car it's going to be Perception + Investigation.

He'll want to obtain phone records for both René and Stephen Andrássy, doing whatever he needs to do to obtain them. How he'd go about this I would guess depends on any police findings he's aware of. Do either of the phones have GPS? He'll be on that too. Gary's obviously assuming that there's a connection between the disappearances and he wants to make sure none of the fall-out is going to fall towards his Lady Regnant. 

Let's see how the other rolls go and find out from Jamie if either of them are using burners.

Unless it's very clear that the place was besieged by something supernatural Gary will be directed to start looking into the whereabouts and movements of Laurel Hensley, Vampire Hunter (?), but it won't be the main emphasis of his investigation by any means, rather just: this is an avenue that shouldn't be ignored but until further information turns up we do not think it is etcetera etcetera. If this is how it goes Lux will try to confirm the Laurel Vampire Hunter hypothesis by talking to Amber. I just want to emphasize again that this is (probably) not going to be the main focus.

Let's see. What else? This isn't very organized, for which I apologize. My brain's kind of all over the place. Okay. That's all Gary. Gary's all you. Go Gary Go. Back to Lux specifically.

Lux is going to get Molly's # and try to contact her re: René. Lux knows that Molly's warned René to warn István about Laurel before. Lux also knows that Molly was present when István staked Vex. Her angle with Molly is one-part 'okay, she might have perspective' and one-part 'is she involved?' Lux does not know Molly and Nathan have been 'not speaking' like a pair of highschoolers. Haha. 

Depending on what's up, Lux is also going to get in touch with Kali and/or Summer. If Summer, all, 'Dude, this guy was going to be a big help to our Sect. I want to find out what happened to him. Wanna help?' If Kali, well - again, it just kind of depends on what information the first night's poking around at the warehouse gets. She's going to think about letting the Tremere know their Ancilla has been snatched (if nothing else, it'll be a nice continuance of her Hey, Hey, I Have A Crush On You, Malcolm, I'm Totally Tremere Friendly' play), but that's not going to happen immediately.

Let me know if she eventually goes to the Tremere about his disappearance.

IF they do go into the warehouse and look around or IF Lux sees photographs of the warehouse's interior post-crime then Lux is going to see Amber's murals. I'd say considering their art-based relationship she'd recognize Amber's style without a roll, but I'm down for rolling if you'd like. IF she does see the murals, she's going to put together the Lasombra Ghoul + Camarilla Tremere Haven = Lasombra + Tremere = Sabbat + Camarilla = Oh. Then she's going to want to talk to Flood and she'll make overtures. How? I don't know yet. Depends on what all she finds.

Is she going to the warehouse with Gary or later? I'd still say that an Intelligence + Crafts roll would work, but again you may also want to throw out a Dexterity + Stealth.

2.

Errantry

[Influence (Police) + Manipulation. Diff: 6. Does Persuasive Specialty count?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )

Errantry

[If it does, that's 7 suxx.]

Errantry

[Perception + Investigation. Floor 1. We'll WP this.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 7) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Errantry

[Perception + Investigation. Floor 2.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )

Errantry

[Perception + Investigation. 3.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Errantry

[Lux's straight Auspex roll. Omens? Diff: 9.]

Dice: 2 d10 TN9 (8, 9) ( success x 1 )

Errantry

[Hospital time. Manipulation + Investigation. Persuasive maybe counts since he's trying to get people to tell him things? Enchanting Voice maybe applicable here too since he's asking around and talking to people?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )

Errantry

[w/ Enchanting Voice that's 4 suxx. w/ Specialty that's 4 suxx. w/ Enchanting Voice and Specialty that's 5 suxx.]

Errantry

[If Lux needs stealth for accompanying Gary all legally, Dex + Cel + Stealth.]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 6, 7, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )

Errantry

[If she doesn't need stealth, can those be for this roll instead? Hah. This roll: Intelligence + Crafts.]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Errantry

[Did I miss another Influence (Police) + Manipulation roll necessary somewhere in all of that? I feel like I did but I can't find where, so have this just in case.]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7) ( success x 5 )

Howl-Witnessing

[Damn Lux. That is a lot of rolls. Witnessed!]

Errantry

[Wait. Forgot one. Re: questions about the car. Perception + Investigation.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 8, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Howl-Witnessing

[Double-witnessed!]

3.

If Gary is even a step behind it still means he is three steps ahead of anyone else on this trail, sniffing their way up this alley, looking for a walking corpse and for its ghoulish servant. And he's gaining ground fast. Gary spins some kind of story, the kind of story friends believe without asking many questions, because Gary had friends in low places, but some of them are in high places now.

Gary gets access to the scene and his first sweep is alone. Gary loves working with Lux, thrills at being in he presence, but maybe his domitor knows he works best on his own. A lone wolf. Or maybe he knows and is willing to sacrifice the indulgence of her graces to do her bidding with such efficiency.

Gary reports back that the place has been heavily disturbed. The door is battered down and he things it was with inhuman strength or by supernatural forces, but he really can't tell. It has since been boarded up with some great care, so someone still gives a shit about the place. A crawlspace up to the attic seems like it was picked for valuables, with places where it looks like things were tucked away and gathering dust now vacant, though the filing cabinets and libraries weren't really touched. The perpetrator or perpetrators were after specific goods of a clandestine nature.

There is blood on the front door frame. No, not living blood. Vitae.

And it's in the basement too. A spray like a blade wound, but not enough to make him think someone was decapitated. Yes, Gary has seen decapitations.

And someone wanted to make a point down there. The place was trashed. Expensive equipment smashed. Hard drives were taken from the computers, but Gary says it looked like that happened after the fact, a fact later confirmed by the police reports he digs up.

Digs isn't really the word. Gary does a thorough excavation of the investigation. A Detective Fuller, with the major crimes unit, is on the robbery case and also looking into the possibly linked disappearances of Doctors Rene Jacobs and Stephan Andrassy.

They have pulled phone records, but the only records they have are for phone numbers registered to Dr. Jacobs and given to coworkers, or that of his pages on the night in question, or given to Verna for Dr. Andrassy and Dr. Jacobs, and are these the same numbers? Some vampires keep many phones, and Gary will no doubt need Lux's help sifting through these for notable combinations of digits.

[ I am leaving this open ended because you need to talk to Jamie about what the police got from Verna and the hospital staff when it comes to phone numbers and from there find out which Lux recognizes from her own communications with Istvan and Rene. Note: Flood didn't use his regular phone for any of the calls, but he did call Rene on his cellphone, so the number for the burner he used will show up as a call made during suspicious hours, and it will also show up on the hospital call records, along with a text message from the number sent stating: "Istvan would like to speak with you. Please call at your earliest possible convenience." Let me know if this is information the police would have after you check with Jamie. As for GPS both Rene and Istvan's phones were ditched, as was the burner, considering ghoulnapping and warlocknapping was happening. ]

They have asked questions. Dr. Jacobs left work early the night in question. He told his supervisor he had a prior engagement and needed to leave early. He would have been disciplined, except he never came in for any of his other shifts that week. Hasn't since.

Dr. Andrassy is harder to investigate. How can someone who never wanted to be found in the first place be found after his disappearance?

Gary asks his own questions, because Gary isn't the type to trust this kind of work to rookies. He is the one who finds out Rene's car had been sitting in the parking lot, abandoned, but there had been a doctor's parking sticker on it so it wasn't towed until the police came looking for him. It's gone, but he knows it was searched by the police, in the course of the investigation.

Gary also finds out that Dr. Jacobs had a visitor earlier in the night, a friend from school, but had stayed for most of the rest of his shift. The visitor was a tall, dark haired man in a suit, but hadn't made much of an impression on anyone. Dr. Jacobs had received a few calls later, but had asked for them to be held. He'd left under the circumstances described to other investigators: Prior plans. Had  to duck out early. The supervisor had not been pleased, neither had the nurses or other doctors left dealing with a busy holiday night shift. No one remember seeing him leaving with anyone in particular.

The police department had spent longer than normal running tests on the blood samples from the warehouse. Two different sources. They'd kept coming back funny. They were only able to get results from the one in the basement, and Gary may suggest it's because the one near the frame was exposed to sunlight. Gary is one of the sharper tools in Lux's shed. The samples from the basement comes back as... Highly oxygenated, low in plasma, thickened somehow... Preserved, but thickened like preserves. They had asked investigators if someone at the lab might have been working on hematology.

And that's when Gary gets to talking with a certain security guard. He gets a funny feeling when he's asking him about the night in question and presses further in that enchanting voice of his. Notices his verbal magic slapping up against something firmer and more ingrained, but tries still to burrow through it. The guard doesn't really remember anything, but maybe he'd walked over to check on Dr. Jacobs once while on his rounds? He'd looks so busy all night. The doctors are always so busy.

Lux hears this all, reported back, in the echo chamber of time. It is like she has heard it before. It is like she will hear it again. Istvan has been taken. Somewhere deep down inside, though, she knows he is still... No, not alive. Only that he still is. And when she returns with Gary to the scene of the crime, to see first hand the fruit of her very private detective's labors, she will see those murals and instantly recognize them at Amber's work.

4.

Beautiful. Okay. Let's see. Questions which occur to me.

1. The blood in the lab and the blood on the doorframe. Once Lux goes w/ Gary on the second visit: would she be able to tell by scent (with Heightened Senses and *cough* familiarty) whether any of it belongs to István?

2. Looks like the phone stuff is information the police would have. According to Jamie, István had a burner, but René "has a legit contract with a provider" and a paper trail. They didn't have multiple phones and for the past three months they've only had the two numbers. Re: René's phone records. They'll be trying to pinpoint times. The last time István contacted (or István's phone was used to contact) René. When René decided to hold his calls at the hospital (or is that a matter of course for him). When the last attempted call to René's phone or at the hospital was made, how long before he left work early, etc.

3. Re: GPS. But is it possible to find out generally where they were ditched? Because if they were ditched, somebody had to ditch them, and if somebody ditched them, maybe a CLUE. (grin) No stone unturned, wot wot.

4. Let's revisit the possibility of obtaining security camera footage of the parking lot, front & back of the hospital around the time René punched out. If it is possible, the answers to the following questions are what's looked for: [a] Was he alone? [b] What car did he get into? [c] What direction was he last seen heading? If this is possible and there is a glimpse of René getting into either Flood's car or Alain's van, do we have a clear enough shot to get the license plate, either partial or full?

Hmm-mm-mm. And that has me wrung-out of thoroughness at this juncture in time, hah.

Okay. Lux wants Flood. Now. But she's not going to call him the night she goes to the warehouse (which was -- the 29th? 30th?). She'll try him the night after that. Is he taking calls from his favourite Toreador who isn't an Antitribu? (Lux: That better be me. And I am far better than Alain.) What else she does and what other Kindred she contacts (if any) is going to be dependent on that.

She's still got Gary trying to uncover more information (as above), because if she can find out anything about the movements of whoever actually did the taking (ghouls, Flood's pack, some other Sabbat pack who got the information from Flood via Amber somehow? But applying occam's razor here) she wants to know.

Along that vein, she is going to be contacting Nate right away about that old man ("Flood's grandfather or something") he found and where said old man was and what his name was etcetera etcetera.

She's also going to give Gary instructions regarding Amber, but I suspect this is something I need to talk to Niko about, just because we're going to need to figure out when Lux and Amber hadplans to meet up next.

Annnd … Yup. I can't think of anything else at this point in time. May do a moodposty ding at some point.

Love!
Jess

5.

1) For all blood related rolls you're asking about it will be Perception + Alertness. Has Lux come in contact with Istvan's blood before? If so the difficulty is 6, if not it's going to be 8. Do we agree that's fair? That's with the difficulty adjustment for Heightened Senses. At difficulty 6 she'll be able to sniff and tell it's different blood upstairs versus downstairs, even if she fails to identify upstairs' as blood she knows.

2) Calls. Lots of questions. Well... I mean, you know when most of the calls were, but to review:

Rene made a call to Istvan right after Flood left (around midnight) which is when he's reported to have had a visitor;

Rene asked the operator to hold all calls after the visitor left and he made that call;

Rene received a burner call through the hospital operator that he was paged with much later;

a burner call was placed to Rene's phone ten minutes after the page and went unanswered;

and then fifteen seconds later a text message was sent to the same burner phone that said, "Istvan would like to speak with you. Please call immediately," maybe fifteen to thirty minutes before he left.

Note: Gary and Lux don't know that Rene didn't have a burner and they haven't checked Istvan's records to see if he received calls from Rene after that text message was sent or if he called the number from another line.

3) GPS is a tricky thing. If it wasn't set to do so it won't be exact. I don't think it's likely either Rene or Istvan had their phones continuously tracking their exact locations, do you? There are cell phone towers that could identify the area in which the phone was ditched, down to the general neighborhood, though. Right? Is that how this stuff works? I think it is. Istvan's phone was ditched as soon as Flood realized it was locked, which was on the drive back west into the city from downtown Denver, and before even leaving the western reaches of East Denver. Flood crushed it to Hell in his bare hand out of frustration and dossed it down a drain pipe. Rene's phone was tossed once he got into the vehicle they left the hospital in.

4) Flood's comings and goings from the hospital that busy evening... Well, the Lincoln Navigator that Flood has been driving around is a rental acquired through his Influence (Transportation). Sometimes it's a Cadillac, sometimes it's an Infiniti, but he'll usually hop in whatever luxury SUV they've got available, and the tapping of Influence (Transportation) isn't actually for the vehicle (he has more than enough Resources to grease palms). It's to make sure it can't be traced back to him. That's what he took the first trip to St. Luke's, but he certainly didn't use the visitor parking lot. Even when he went to Istvan's I established IC that Flood parked a block or two away. I think that should be enough to show it's his modus operandi when it comes to Shit May Go Down. After clearing the warehouse with his pack it would've been impossible for Kate to move a body on a motorcyle, so he gave he the SUV. That means the second time he went with Alain in the Mystery Machine. Again, Flood wasn't going to hop out right in front of the lobby or coax Rene into a van in front of cameras. Since we never did any rolls for Alain I'm going to say that means Flood went in solo, especially after the Toreador antitribu's dismal showing keeping his shit together at the warehouse. That's probably why Flood gave him a Rene chewtoy. To help get his frustration out so he stops nibbling on his ductus.

That leads us into to the lightning round...

Security footage revisited: As it's a missing persons case there's a chance the tapes have already been pulled, and Gary has access to the details of the investigation, so I think he'd be able to get a copy of the tapes. That's a lot of tape. And if that night the ER was as busy as we are assuming it was...

Well, Gary and Lux will be looking for someone that doesn't show up on security tapes. They know he had a visitor, though only at an approximate time. Once again that visitor doesn't show up on camera and is it harder looking for something that isn't there? Is it easier?

Do they see Rene walking out of the ER and going up to his office, ostensibly alone, around midnight? Yes.

Do they see him walking out around the time he said he was leaving, after phone records show he received unanswered calls and a suspicious text? Yes. They just see him leaving along, of his own accord, and walking out of view. No one remember seeing a Stealthy Flood pillow talking him off on a romantic getaway.

What does it all mean? I think at this point it depends on what they make of it. Lux seems to have her ideas.

The old man? Is still an old man. He is just being old elsewhere. Nate knows things, right? Just not when he shouldn't advertise knowing them.

But there is a Toreador who wants to see a Lasombra about a horse. I think Lux already has her ideas. I know Flood would never dodge her calls. It looks like that is the direction in which we're headed.

6.

For the records,

Tithe
[Hey. Who's blood is *this*? Perception + Alertness.]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
and so it is done.