[trv123]

Having engrossed herself in simply taking in the conversation to this point, Calico decides to chime in once more. "My talents are varied, but in general they revolve around… stealth and misdirection.  With a little magical support thrown in for good measure.

But, regarding our current investigation, I will mention that I just finished a job targeting the Yellow Lotus Triads.   It could be unrelated, but it seems just as likely that it isn't, which is the only reason I mention it."

[Mercy Merchant]

Tanya smiles at Calico and looks expectantly at Earlybird as the limo pulls up to a stop at the temple.  Alphonse comes around and opens the door for everyone, making sure to assist the ladies out.  Tanya stands at the curb looking at the temple.  She has visited the temple a couple of times with Ni Ni and although it has been a while since she was last here, the building layout is compartmented in her mind somewhere and she accesses that file.  She turns to the driver and motions to the car.  "Thank you, Alphonse.  I do not know how long I will be, but probably a couple of hours at least.  I will contact you when we are ready to leave if you have other things to do.

Pulling up memories of the temple from a couple of visits.  Memory of Temple 10d6 + 2d6 Photographic Memory: 12d6t5 5

The limousine drives off and the group of four waits for the other two to arrive.  The lush greenery of Portland Avenue Park does a good job of concealing the buildings of the temple grounds, but the tops of the distinctive roofs can still be seen.  It is hard to imagine the serenity of this place being disturbed by death.  Tanya shakes her head at the waste.

[Stoneglobe]

Receiving Tanya's private message caused me to pause for a moment as memories from 6 months ago washed over me once again. Wishing I had a whisky to give my brain the mental jolt it needed I'm forced to settle for a quick shake of the head whilst I regain my composure. Stabbing my finger at the commlink screen I select the private channel she has opened.

>>That's not exactly something I currently feel like sharing. Given that you have recognised me I won't deny there was a photo of me doing the rounds several moths ago but I would prefer it not to become public knowledge. Some of those we are currently occupying our time with might not be quite so understanding of my previous associations as you seem to be. Perhaps, once we have put our current business to bed, we could indeed find something to discuss over dinner and drinks. I'm sure the conversation could be quite stimulating.<<


Pulling into a free space I thumb the biolock on the glove compartment and return the Colt to it's holster. I pause for a second to savour the warm glow of a returned safety blanket before pocketing my commlink and getting out. Popping the trunk I grab my camera and then wander over to where the rest of the party waits.

[skulldixon]

After Finding a Parking spot, Kumiho pockets his drone in his bag -  along with a few other items, then walks over to where the others wait.

I assume their is someone we should speak with first. i wouldn't want to get someone excited by us snooping around before they knew who we were and how we are allowed to investigate.

[Jayde Moon]

The peacefulness of the afternoon and the Temple grounds belies the violence that occurred here the night prior.  As the team assembles, a Chinese man approaches, addressing Tanya.

"Miss Lady Marisart," he begins.  "The Hong Ji said to expect you and grant you and your friends access to the Temple grounds.  Please, feel free to explore as you need."

The man holds a finger to his ear and utters something under his breathing Chinese.

Walking the temple grounds it is easy to forget that there is a darker purpose to your visit, which you are reminded of at the first set of blood spatters.  Wishing to take a look at the area as a whole, the group moves on, finding the spots where four men lost their lives.  Entering into the room where they are being kept, one had been killed with a garrote, another with a tight shot grouping, a third stabbed from behind, and the fourth bearing no noticeable mark.

The area where the artifacts were kept was locked for the night but the lock has been broken, ripped apart with brute force.

There are several possible points of entry, some investigation might help paint a clear picture of what occurred.

[Stoneglobe]

Before the man can depart I step in front of him. Pulling out my commlink and activating the notes app once again ."I have a couple of initial questions which I'm hoping you can answer. How dispersed were the bodies of the security and were they found in locations that were part of a regular security patrol? Also is there any evidence that they fought back in any way such as discharged firearms or defensive wounds?

Also, please could you arrange for us to interview the monks before we depart today. I am aware but that they were sleeping but this does not mean that they will not be able to help us.

Finally I understand that the security recordings have been tampered with. Gesturing at Kumiho, My colleague here will require access to the system host.

[skulldixon]

Kuimiho bows towards the temple's representative, following the Detectives lead. I am sure that your people have already looked the host over, but a second set of eyes could not hurt. I'll only need to be give limited access - this way I can look around for any clues that may have been missed.

[Poindexter]

Tanya smiles.  >>OK.  So far we have an experienced thief, an investigator, a gun and a decker.  I already have some idea of Calico's qualifications but will let her speak for herself.  And you, Earlybird.  I am assuming that flying the helicopter is not your only ability?<<

He cocks his head to the side with a pleasant and warming smile. "I thought I went over that. Skilled in small unit tactics, medicine, firearms, and anything that flies."

[Señor T]

Cal briefly bends down and examines the blood spatters and signs of battle as they pass, looking for bullet holes and broken branches--clues pointing to how the attack took place--then jogs to catch back up as they enter the room where the bodies are being kept.

Once inside, he examines the wounds briefly, spending a little more time on the body without any sign of physical injury. "Sure seems like a team with varying specialties that took them by surprise at once judging from the lack of attacker corpses and varying methods employed. And given the lack of security footage and how clean the job was, I'm guessing something was planted in the system while a previous group had oversight of facility security. Neutralize the system, get in, neutralize the guards, bust the lock, grab and get out." He finishes looking at the last corpse and turns to the Chinese man. "My only real question is how they got in and out... is there any underground access? If not, then there's got to be a camera or witness that saw them come or go."

[Poindexter]

The skinny little elf in the nice suit has never been much of a detective, but he's always been a smart guy. He looks around the scene, looks back and forth to where each of the four men must have been killed, then back to the bodies, then back again with his arms crossed and his right hand stroking his beardless chin in thought. Clueless as to the feauxpass he may be about to commit, he reaches into his pocket, fishes out his nicstic, raises it to his lips, and takes a deep hit from it while he ponders the activities of the night before. He's still holding in the hit while the gears in his head turn. This is two assailants; One sneaky stabby, the other's a mage with a good pistol arm. Naw, two assailants is too risky. This had to been three guys; Sneakystabby, Magey, and Shootey. Naw dude. This scene has balls written all over it. Whoever did this, did it with some frakkin stones. This was two assailants. He's only just now noticing the look of expected anger on the face of the man who accompanies them, just waiting for Bird to exhale those chemical laden fumes into his temple. Frag me... -GULP- He holds the hit in until he absolutely can't hold his breath anymore, hoping it will minimize the telltale vapor, and almost passes out in the process. When he finally exhales, he and the man are happy to see that all the vapor has been absorbed inside his lungs.

After giving a sheepish and apologetic grin to the man, Bird turns his attention back to the team. "Feels like two, maybe three men. My gut is sayin two, though. Whadda yall think?"

[Mercy Merchant]

Tanya frowns at Easybird then smiles.  "Of course.  You are correct.  How odd.  I usually do not forget things like that.  I am sorry for asking twice."

She shakes her head as the group waits for the other two.  Once all are together, Tanya notices the Temple man approaching.  As he finishes his say, she bows low and thanks him in Chinese before continuing in English.  "Thank you for your assistance.  My companions and I will get to the bottom of this.  Please tell me now if there are places that you do not want us to go for religious reasons.  Try to give us all the assistance possible per the guidance of the Hong Ji."  She motionss to John.  "This is Mr. Chance.  He will be leading this part of our investigation." 

Tanya steps back and lets John ask his questions then follows the others to the Temple buildings.  On the way she licks in a private channel to Monique.  >>Hey.  I will brief you in full later.  I am at the Taoist Temple looking into a theft and some killings.  Be ready to receive some images that we can go over later.  Keep this channel open.  Ta<<  Stopping to look at the lock she bends over to examine what is left of it.  She opens her small purse and pulls out a set of goggles, putting them on and firing up the wireless controls.  Tanya examines the lock in minute detail, taking full advantage of the vision magnification capability of the goggles.  She toggles on the image link capability and sends what she is seeing to the team on their net and another set back home to where Monique can look at it as well.  When done with the lock, she stands and pushes the goggles onto her forehead before moving into the storage room.  Standing at the entry, she looks  around to get a feel for the room then goes to the storage locations of the individual pieces that were taken.  She sends a second note to Monique alerting her that more is coming, then pulling the goggles back down over her eyes, she spends long minutes poring over every bit of evidence that she can see, careful to not disturb anything John might want to look at.  She is looking for anything out of the ordinary and looks at everything.  From personal knowledge, she knows that many thieves simply cannot resist leaving a tell, or marker, behind as some sort of deranged message daring the authorities to catch them.  She is also looking for minute traces of something the thieves might have left behind unintentionally, hairs, fibers, a single blood drop, that sort of thing.  Monique asks her to repeat some views for a better look or different angle and she complies.

[trv123]

As the others scrutinize various aspects of the scene, Calico wanders slowly and soundlessly around, alternately examining the scene as a whole and specific details.  She had never been one to solve problems with analysis and deduction, preferring  to empty her mind and wait for inspiration to strike.  Periodically switching between normal and astral perception, she  examines randomly but carefully, hoping to spot that one detail that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.

Perception 11-2 for spell: http://orokos.com/roll/344444 two hits

[Jayde Moon]

@ John Chance

Taking a closer look at the spots where the four men died, there is no evidence that they even had a chance to fight back.  Your chaperon indicates he was the man who was shot died near the front gate.  Chance can see that it was at close range with a tight grouping of four shots to the chest that suggest a semi-automatic weapon.  The wounds, in his experience, indicate a light pistol using armor piercing rounds.  This is based off of the size of the entry and exit wounds.

The man with seemingly no injuries was in the center of the courtyard and would have had a line of sight to the gate.  Actual inspection of the man shows that his neck was snapped.  Lack of bruising at the neck indicates an extremely quick and brutal kill.

The garroted man and the stabbed man were found on paths from which assailants could have hid in bushes and jumped out at the appropriate moments.  The stabbed man's wounds are from a large, broad bladed knife, a combat blade of some sort.  The strike was precise, entering between ribs, through a lung and probably piercing the heart.


@ Tanya

The lock, as mentioned before, was physically torn apart.  It doesn't look pries, as if with a crowbar.  It's a standard maglock on a door that enteres into a viewing room which is open during the day.  There are other items within the room that were left behind.  The chaperon informs you, when you ask, that these items are of little value besides the spiritual one they hold for visitors to the temple.

The lock looks like somebody just clawed fingers into it and ripped it most out, leaving it hanging.  The door is strong wood, so it's not an impossible feat, but a damn impressive one.  An augmented troll, perhaps... or a spirit.

Despite looking, there are no signs of any calling cards and the site seems clean.


@ Calico

Calico can see traces of magic throughout the courtyard.  With no real skill to assense, she can't read any of it, no way to tell if it's ambient to the temple or had anything to do with the attacks.


@ Kumiho

Given a mark on the host you are able to access the camera feeds.  Unfortunately, at about 1am, the cameras go dark, probably hit by a decker for the assault.  Working around the time in question, you can see the men on guard.  One stays at the front gate, one hangs in the open courtyard, and two men on patrol.  They come on at 8 and are replaced at 4.  The replacements are dead when the cameras resume recording at 2 and discovered by the shift change at 4 in the morning.

Working around the times involved you continue looking for something, anything that might help when you see a dark Ford Americar parked in the distance with a line of sight to the front gate.  It's there from sundown until the cameras go dark.  When he cameras come back up... it's gone.

[Mercy Merchant]

Tanya finishes her examination of the storage room and again pushes the goggles back on her forehead before asking the guide if the front door had been locked as well or open.  She returns to the room where John is examining the bodies and remains in the doorway so as to not disturb any evidence that might remain on the bodies.  She watches the FBI man at work for a few seconds then says on the team net, >>I do hope I am not disturbing any of you.  I have to say this seems very professional and very amateurish at the same time.  There is no reason that these guards were killed other than to kill them.  I could have either avoided or subdued them, given where they were taken down.  And the lock on the storage room is certainly not corp or mil grade.  I could have opened it in a few minutes at most, probably faster if I were already prepared for the type of lock it was.  These guys did not even try.  A very strong person or a spirit just ripped the lock apart.  None of this was necessary, especially since they almost certainly knew how much time they had until the next shift came on.<<  Still in the doorway, she turns to the chaperone.  "Would you please do a very thorough check to be sure that only those four items were taken?  It is possible that all of this destruction is meant to focus attention and that something else was the real target.  Please make sure that every item is accounted for.  Is there a safe, perhaps, with something far more valuable?  If so, I would like to examine the safe and its contents.  It might be important." 

[trv123]

"Hmmm" Calico muses, adopting an air of competent expertise that is entirely manufactured. "There's a magical aura throughout this place, but it's ... vanilla.  Either this is simply the normal ambient magical aura of this place, which is possible, or ..." her voice trails off ominously before continuing, "this place has been magically cleaned by someone of exceptional skill."

*I have GOT to learn how to do this assensing thing* she thinks, glancing casually around to see how her line of bulldrek is being received.

Bullshit DP 16-2 for spell: http://orokos.com/roll/344481 five hits