Clean up Crew: Into the Muck

[Asclepius]

After taking in the surroundings, there was a moment where relief has somewhat taken the Arrow for a moment. Thank goodness that we are not walking into the centre of that fortification of muck and filth... Yet. What is this though? Gives me a chill looking at it. Could this perhaps be something linked to the goings on? I should let Skye know, but any communication could give our presence here away...

Time to be assertive. She has told me countless times, that she trusts me. Lets just get in and get eyes on what this odd shadow construction is. The Arrow brings his eyes back to the material world of which he was accustom to. He looked about for his fellow Arrow, Making attempts to grab her attention with a quick hand wave towards her when within her line of sight.

When Skye would look in his direction, the Arrow gave a grimace to her, he would also silently indicate towards the double doors. He Knew that they were going somewhere that held a lot of emotions given the briefing, but, the Arrow reminded himself internally that this was just a fact finding mission, they did not need to get involved. A small but potentially futile attempt to calm the nerves, what he had seen in the shadow realm had him certainly on edge and the danger was feeling like it was climbing with every step.

Gear

Ski mask x1 (Worn on head)
Male Gloves (wearing on hands)
Kevlar vest thin (Worn under shirt)
Wedding ring (worn)

Ski mask x1 (Passed over to Skye)
Female Gloves (Past over to Skye)

Smartphone (in pocket)
Car keys (in pocket)
Combat knife (dedicated tool in sheath)
Flashlight (in pocket)
Pepper Spray (in pocket)

Spells

Invisible to Machines
Gain Skill Life (Stealth) = 2suxx
Peer Across the Gauntlet

Stats

Health:
Mana and Willpower:
Defense: 2
Speed: 10
Initiative: 6
Armor: 1 /2 Kevlar vest thin (1 /2)
Spell tolerance: 3/2
Active spells: 3/6
Paradox spells cast: 0

[Skye]

Looking towards her fellow arrow as he tries to get her attention, he was to serve as the guide here after all. Yes she would need to take some deeper looks in a more unfiltered supernal manner at some point as well but at present that was hardly the most pressing matter just yet.
Not having expected this building to really be the ideal one for them but well if he indicated towards it then it must be right, only guessing from the look of his eyes that things looked rather poor behind them but not quite sure exactly what he was trying to portray. Damn, really need to discuss sign language after this.

Well if her were indicating towards them then they would likely need to go there and with the kind laziness of humans that came with time all the better, opening up the door just enough to slip inside first, and quickly moving for cover whilst waiting for him to follow them by. A bit reluctant to use any more arcana inside but invisible to the electronic eye as they were meant nothing if a human would sneak up on them.

Sense life (humans, canines, rats), 1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2026-04-30 13:48:30	Skye rolls 7 to Sense Life (Life+gnosis+EX-3/tol) (10 Again)	3, 1, 9, 5, 2, 2, 5	1 success

Gear

Hand towel (in pouch), light black gloves covering her hands and fingers, knivesx2 (+1), kevlar vest thin under shirt, LED flashlight (small), copy of city map for the area around plant (roughly 3 mile radius) folded, athletic running shoes, dark none descript clothes, wooden coin necklace (dedicated tool, around her neck under shirts). Dark leather medium pouch strapped to her leg, plastic water bottle (50cl water filled).

Spells

[3/3$] Combo Organic Resilience and pulse of the living world (armor 4, cloaked)
[8$] Body Mastery +2 (Cloaked)
[8R$] Honing the form Dex (+4, cloaked)
[3$]Invisibility to machines (cloaked)
Gain skill stealth 3

Stats

Health:
Mana:
Defense: 2 (7 when dodging)
Speed: 14/18
Initiative: 7/11
Willpower:
Armor: Organic resilience 4, Kevlar vest thin 1/2(bulletproof), Iron Skin 1/bashing
Spell tolerance: 6/3
Spell control: 5/6
Paradox spells cast: 0

Notes

Hair temporary colored auburn, hands/wrists/face/neck/ears covered in simple makeup to give herself a healthy Caucasian appearance.

[ReubanBrightwood]

Asclepius does enough to convey direction of travel and a degree of discomfort about it, hopefully Skye got the message.

She herself slips through the door into a corridor maybe twenty meters long into a wider open space the blue light makes more sense as a number of desks are set up in that space, no cubicles, no walls just desks, chairs, and cabinets creating an open but still garden maze like structure. A few of the desks are manned and the blue light comes from computer screens, now past the door a faint sound of conversation can be heard, someone on the telephone.

With silent exerting of her will Skye casts her spell she can detect 8 humans in her sensory range, 1 canine, and 17 rats. Two of the human presences are roughly in her location while six of them are further up ahead as is the canine. The rats are scattered throughout her senses some ahead, some behind, some above, some below, some roughly in her location.

[Asclepius]

There was a mild reluctance to the Arrows movement, part of him wanted to leave but another wanted to find out what was going on as well. With the Indication to Skye seemingly understood, he attempted to follow suit and slip through the door and kept low, making his way to cover nearby to her.

He felt the sense that a spell had fired off and with no reaction from the room or Skye, he could only keep cautious. After all, as far as he knew thanks to dropping his mage sight, he had no way currently of confirming if skye had cast it herself. As the Arrow looked ahead, he reminded himself that he had seen that there was darkness that shrouded the area, and it was only getting darker the further they went towards it, something that kept his stomach feeling heavy even more so then the idea of getting caught. From the current position, he did spot the signs that people worked away at their computers, the blue light had given that away. This will be a problem, we were bound to come close to someone sneaking through here. Fingers crossed, we can be like ghosts an go unseen. His eyes went to his fellow Arrow, he awaited on the verdict of what she was assessing, he had assumed that she was weighing up the odds of if we should continue. He motioned a quick gesture of thumbs up and a thumbs down. Wish I Brought some pen and paper or something. a small whiteboard and wipeable marker would be good to have right now, if it could be carried conveniently. I just can't risk getting my phone out.

Gear

Ski mask x1 (Worn on head)
Male Gloves (wearing on hands)
Kevlar vest thin (Worn under shirt)
Wedding ring (worn)

Ski mask x1 (Passed over to Skye)
Female Gloves (Past over to Skye)

Smartphone (in pocket)
Car keys (in pocket)
Combat knife (dedicated tool in sheath)
Flashlight (in pocket)
Pepper Spray (in pocket)

Spells

Invisible to Machines
Gain Skill Life (Stealth) = 2suxx
Peer Across the Gauntlet

Stats

Health:
Mana and Willpower:
Defense: 2
Speed: 10
Initiative: 6
Armor: 1 /2 Kevlar vest thin (1 /2)
Spell tolerance: 3/2
Active spells: 3/6
Paradox spells cast: 0

[Skye]

17 rats? 17! In such a narrow area, one dog sure that was not strange better base guard animal you had to search for, geese being quite excellent but not really for this kind of thing but 17 rats yikes that was a lot. Sadly not really able to keep the spell active, her pattern already brimming with far to many spells to keep that one up as well.

Positioning herself behind a desk in such a manner that she would not be seen should one of the humans farther down the corridor come towards the door, nor be instantly seen by someone opening the door they had just come through whilst making sure to keep her fellow arrow in sight.

Pointing first to herself, then to him, drawing her arms back to make a plus sign with her index fingers and raising six fingers to indicate the amount of humans around, making another plus sign before putting her hands together in the shape of a maw clamping down to indicate the canine. Giving it a couple of seconds of breathing room before pointing to her own ear and over towards the sound of the one talking not having a clue if it was with someone else, on the phone or ideally just rehearsing something. Lastly motioning her hands to point at first him, then both her own eyes eyes, shifting the pointing down the corridor where the humans where with a questioning nod followed by a slow shake of the head before cocking her head to give him the most inquisitive look to make certain they did indeed need to venture down there before making any rash moves, he were the one whom could see the spiritual side in proper after all and they needed to find the damn source connected to rats here if there was one, then they could escape and regroup with information in hand.

Gear

Hand towel (in pouch), light black gloves covering her hands and fingers, knivesx2 (+1), kevlar vest thin under shirt, LED flashlight (small), copy of city map for the area around plant (roughly 3 mile radius) folded, athletic running shoes, dark none descript clothes, wooden coin necklace (dedicated tool, around her neck under shirts). Dark leather medium pouch strapped to her leg, plastic water bottle (50cl water filled).

Spells

[3/3$] Combo Organic Resilience and pulse of the living world (armor 4, cloaked)
[8$] Body Mastery +2 (Cloaked)
[8R$] Honing the form Dex (+4, cloaked)
[3$]Invisibility to machines (cloaked)
Gain skill stealth 3

Stats

Health:
Mana:
Defense: 2 (7 when dodging)
Speed: 14/18
Initiative: 7/11
Willpower:
Armor: Organic resilience 4, Kevlar vest thin 1/2(bulletproof), Iron Skin 1/bashing
Spell tolerance: 6/3
Spell control: 5/6
Paradox spells cast: 0

Notes

Hair temporary colored auburn, hands/wrists/face/neck/ears covered in simple makeup to give herself a healthy Caucasian appearance.

[ReubanBrightwood]

The arrows try to silently convey information to a moderate degree of success but progress is stalled past the door, at what point does caution become indecision? When balancing risk to reward where does the line lie? Do they dare to progress further into the compound or has the mounting danger and risk reached a point they can no longer deem it worth pushing on?

[Asclepius]

The Arrows eyes watch as his ally repositions herself behind a desk. He continued to watch as Skye began a intense round of hand gestures to convey words to him, He did his best to understand what she had tried to communicate to him.

You, me, Plus, Six, plus, something that bites. Listen that way? or hear that way? Me, look? Down the corridor, Do I hear them down the hall?

Attempting to communicate back to Skye following her method of hand signals. Man, there has to be a better way then this. The Arrow begins to point to his eye with one finger, he then moves both his hands with the index fingers pointed in a x formation, he followed it up lastly with a point to his ear.

After he had finished communicating to Skye what he thought she was asking, he turned his thoughts to the room ahead, once again he was left with a moment to back out of this but that would waste the efforts they had made to get in there. No, they needed to progress further, for one thing this was the site of the mages downfall and also because a darkness loomed over this area and that had stood out to the Arrow, it had to be a clue. Perhaps another means of getting back there or another way to secure safe passage back there was possible, they should at least look for it before charging silently forward and potentually blowing their cover. If there was six people ahead and they were passing two of them as they went, then it was going to make things very difficult. They would need to draw the people out the get in safer.

One final look to Skye, it was clear there was conflict on his face. He motioned back to the way they had come, they were pushing their luck as it was and this seemed a push too far without a stratagy in place.

Gear

Ski mask x1 (Worn on head)
Male Gloves (wearing on hands)
Kevlar vest thin (Worn under shirt)
Wedding ring (worn)

Ski mask x1 (Passed over to Skye)
Female Gloves (Past over to Skye)

Smartphone (in pocket)
Car keys (in pocket)
Combat knife (dedicated tool in sheath)
Flashlight (in pocket)
Pepper Spray (in pocket)

Spells

Invisible to Machines
Gain Skill Life (Stealth) = 2suxx
Peer Across the Gauntlet

Stats

Health:
Mana and Willpower:
Defense: 2
Speed: 10
Initiative: 6
Armor: 1 /2 Kevlar vest thin (1 /2)
Spell tolerance: 3/2
Active spells: 3/6
Paradox spells cast: 0

[ReubanBrightwood]

With no definitive choice from Skye one way or the other it falls to Asclepius to make the call, and seeing as he had gestured to back off and so that's what happens, with no one yet alerted to their presence getting out the way they came in is easy enough and so that is what they do, the arrows leave. It's evident something nasty and foul and hidden has taken up residence in this place, something they feel unprepaired for, something that might require them to return before to long ... maybe once they have got some sign language under their belts.

At 30 days, its been a week without activity and the only plan presented is to leave so I'm calling this one. If you want to come back another time you can.