Day 0: I'm just calling up to tell you something terrible has happened

[Ezeze]

Kacey gets the faintest sense of amusement from the stranger in the plague mask. "Good" he says. "You're a very smart girl. You have a bright future ahead of you. Which is exactly why I don't want to see you lose it."

"So, here is the deal I propose. I will tell you everything I know about what happened to Ms. Barre, including answering all of your questions to the best of my knowledge. And, in exchange, you don't ask anything further. You back off. You leave it alone."

"Not forever. I don't think your sense of justice would allow that. Just... Until you are capable of dealing with the fallout."

[Mister Doctor]

The fact that Kacey did not stick around to actually talk to him meant that she also did not see Cole throwing his hands up in frustration. He gave Kacey a count of ten and then went back inside, looking for the stairwell the masked man had come up from.

---

Adversity Token: 2

[Dr Jackal]

Kacey rolls her eyes. "Well, mystery, do you really think I'm going to say no? Of course I agree." Also, you left me a loophole I could drive tractor-trailer through, so it's not like I lose anything by saying yes.

 

"Just out of curiosity, does the ren-faire outfit fit into this somehow, or is this just your Sunday?"

 

[Ezeze]

Mystery is busy with Kacey, making it easy for Cole to slip in the door before it closes and then, equally easily, down the darkened stairway he came up earlier. There isn't anything immediately, obviously special about it. Its walls are the same beige as the office walls upstaris. The steps themselves are government-issue nonslip rubber, perfectly matching the florescent light aesthetic of the rest of the building. The handrails are steel, once painted brown but now that paint has chipped off in everywhere but the least-touched places; along the bottom and right infront of and behind the studs connecting it to the wall. They go down half a story, reach a landing, then turn in the other direction. That repeats three more times - three stories down - far enough for the voices above to be totally silent solely from distance before the stairway opens onto a landing about the size of Cole's kitchen. The stairway runs along the Western wall. The Eastern and Southern walls are lined with steel shelving that's mostly emtpy, but with a half-dozen cardboard boxes standard sized for moving. The Northern wall turns into a tunnel. The carpet is brown and the walls are beige and the tunnel's terminus is obscured by a slight leftward bend that makes it impossible tell what's in it more than a couple dozen feet out - but for those couple dozen feet it is entirely unremarkable.

Upstairs, Mystery is engaging Kacey in conversation. Well, he said he'd answer all of her questions to the best of his abiltiy. 'What's up with your outfit' qualifies as a question, however she might have asked it. He'll take the long way around, though.

"In the mid 1800's this was a mining town. Silver mining, specifically. Owned by the Normel family who gave the town its name. They treated the miners as disposable - history repeats its self, huh? - Took scant little caution to prevent cave-ins or trap toxic gases or take care of injured or disabled miners. And worse, but more about that later. The miners didn't think they were disposable, though. They banded together. Made their own little organziation. Kept it secret, to work under the noses of the union busters. They briefly allied with the Knights of Labor but split with that organization in the 1880's after, well... Your history teacher can get into that with you."

"Kept the name, though. They went by - and still go by - the Silver Knights."

"Membership is open to anyone who worked in the silver mines and their children, and their childrens' children, and so on. I'm a member. You'll be eligible for membership, too, once you turn eighteen - even though neither your father nor your grandfather ever chose to join."
"But there is a world of difference between being eligible for membership and being a member. After you started asking questions about Ms. Barre's disapperance, we took a vote. Do we bring you in early to protect you, or stick to the codes? I won't bore you with politics, but there is some bad blood between some of our older members and your grandfather, and your father's choice of spouse didn't really endear him either. So the Knights voted not to tell you anything."

"A decision that I... disagree with."

"So I am here, filling you in while keeping my identity secret both from my fellows and our enemies. Hence, the 'ren-fare outfit.'"

Edited February 27, 2023 by Ezeze (see edit history)

[Dr Jackal]

"Fine, whatever. I'm just saying, this is a bit much. I mean, you could've bought a Spongebob mask for eight bucks off Amazon." Then again, I shouldn't complain. The plague doctor mask is probably why you can't smell Jackson's very obvious cigarette smoke. Jesus, that guy.

 

She takes a breath and waves off the tangent. "Never mind. You were talking about the Silver Knights, which sounds like Masonic Temple Lite so far." She pauses. "And I assume you mean that it was because mom was from outside the town, and not because she's, y'know, brown. Or worse ... a Papist. Anyway, please do go on about how this relates to Steph."

[Ezeze]

"Ah, well" Mystery responds. He shifts his weight and even the plague doctor outfit isn't totally enough to hide his discomfort. "Where the Silver Knights diverge from the Masonic Temple and other such organziations, is that... Well..."

"In the years since the mine closed down..."

"Our primary duty. That is, the thing we mostly do..."

"... is hunt..."

"... vampires."

He's totally sincere. Kacey can feel it in his gaze, right through the glass eyes of the birdlike mask. Hoping that she will believe him without the slighest trace of trickery or malice.

Meanwhile, Cole is downstairs and hears none of this. He disregards the tunnel to the North - he dosen't want to risk potentially wandering into an underground labrynth alone - and instead goes to look into the boxes.

A few of them are empty. More than he'd expected are filled with old bits of wire - the kind that no one really needs, but somehow never get thrown out. A VCR player, a tapedeck, a CRT television that might work, maybe, if you could figure out which of those wires go with it, find a power plug and needed to watch something in 240p, a short-wave radio, a geiger counter, and a package of expired sour cream and onion Eco-Chips. Cole didn't even know they'd ever made sour cream and onion potato chips. The common flavor didn't really fit the brand's too-cool-for-you image.

[Dr Jackal]

If Mystery was expecting ridicule, he doesn't get it ... although ridicule might have been preferable to Kacey's actual reaction. The cheerleader's eyes go wide, and her expression darkens in abject fury. She strides forward, apparently having forgotten that the informant has probably six inches and fifty pounds on her. She stabs a finger at the man's chest, while the other hands reaches into her bag menacingly. "Are you telling me that your little suburban dad beer klatch did something to my friend because they thought she was a vampire?" she shouts.

Edited February 21, 2023 by Dr Jackal (see edit history)

[Knave]

DiceBrawn d20+1
Fight d12+1
Grit d10
Charm d8
Flight d6
Brains14 d4 || StrengthsEasygoing: Get 2AT per failure
Protective: +3 to protect
Rebellious: +3 to persuade children or to resist persuasion from adults or children || FlawsIgnorant
Reckless

Adversity Tokens: 4

---

Jackson hears the accusation, and he doesn't even consider that Kacey might be mistaken. So - this guy was responsible for Steph vanishing. He busts the door open and rushes the bird-thing, aiming to rip the mask off like he's giving away a face masking penalty.

 

He grabs the protruding beak in a single calloused farmer hand and rips upwards, tearing the mask away from the stranger's head.

Edited February 21, 2023 by Knave (see edit history)

[Ezeze]

"!"

Mysterty doesn't have time to respond to Kacey's accusation before Jackson comes barreling through the door. With unexpected grace he bends down and sweeps at Jackon's legs. He'd likely have avoided the attack entirely - if it was an attack. And if he wasn't wearing a big, beaked-nose mask.

Jackson rolls over Mystery, but grabs the man's mask in the process and is still holding it when he hits the floor on his back. Successful, but winded and in a poor position to do any further fighting.

"Not what I meant, not what I meant!" Mr. Earles, the biology teacher explains in a panic. "The vampires took her. Not us!"

Edited February 21, 2023 by Ezeze (see edit history)

[Mister Doctor]

Cole knew he was running out of time. He had already stayed down here for longer than most of his conversations lasted and he could not imagine Kacey's lasting much longer. There was still one thing he wanted to do and he was glad none of the others were around to pressure him.

He reached inward and tried to focus, stretching his mind to a cold, dark, and hollow part of himself, trying to get a feel for the space in a way he could not exactly articulate. He knew the underground, he knew old secrets, he knew, he knew, he knew...

---

Adversity Token: 1

Going to spend an Adversity Token to use Intuituve

What do these tunnels look like they were intended for?

[Ezeze]

The tunnel he is staring in now is a commuter tunnel. When whoever built this bus station did so, they assumed traffit between this and another building in town would be so frequent, so common, that a tunnel between the two places would just make everything easier for everyone.

But the tunnel has clearly been out of use for a long time, now. Probably longer, even, than the bus station above. And there is just a little bit of wind on your face, where there definitely shouldn't be. Somewhere further along the tunnel there is an additional opening that wasn't originally planned.

[Mister Doctor]

Something like useful information received, Cole grabbed the Geiger counter from the box and ran back up the stairs as quickly as he could, only slowing down when he got halfway up the last flight of stairs. He did not immediately go and check on the others just yet, instead going and stashing the Geiger counter by the back door before creeping back to get a look at the Atrium.

---

Adversity Token: 1

[Knave]

DiceBrawn10 d20+1
Fight d12+1
Grit d10
Charm d8
Flight d6
Brains14 d4 || StrengthsEasygoing: Get 2AT per failure
Protective: +3 to protect
Rebellious: +3 to persuade children or to resist persuasion from adults or children || FlawsIgnorant
Reckless

Adversity Tokens: 4

---

From his position on the floor, Jackson is immediately conflicted. He feels a sense of panic that he just assaulted a teacher, which he figures might not look good on any putative scholarship application. On the other hand, he just got publicly schooled by a public school teacher, and a biology one at that, which is not ideal. Who knew Mr Earles had skills, other than conducting food tests?

 

He stands up slowly. It's quite a process getting someone so big up from the floor. Torn between the need to mollify the teacher and the need to retain some credibility, Jackson does neither, awkwardly hovering at an almost-intimidating distance, while looking to Kacey for help and direction. 

Edited February 23, 2023 by Knave (see edit history)

[Ozma]

Emily stops just short of shouting when Jackson dives out to attack their teacher, though she's still flabbergasted by her teacher's - her science teacher no less - claims.

 

She decides to stay quiet, and listens as the man talks with Kacey.

[Dr Jackal]

Kacey takes a moment to compose herself. "Not gonna lie, Mister E."Mystery" Vampires are a hard sell ... but I'm not sure it matters. People can be evil and prey on other people, and generally they die when you hammer a stake into their chest or cut off their head. So whatever you believe -- and however close that is to reality -- I'd kind of like to hear the rest. We'd kind of like to hear the rest."