Casa Del Paranoia

[ArchonAres]

Salem's Condo is fairly nice, and a relatively short drive to the north side of town. A small gift wrapped box and card sit in front of the dark wooden door, and Salem scoops them up before unlocking the both locks holding the door open for his guests. He waits patiently for them to enter, before entering himself and locking the original two locks, plus an interal deadbolt.

The living room is fairly spacious, mostly taken up by a heavy oak entertainment center, stuffed to overflowing with a fairly large TV, several video gaming devices, and a bookshelf full of DVDs. A single over-sized and overstuffed couch sits directly across from the TV, and two heavily cushioned black leather La-z-boy recliners flank it. A small oak coffee table is littered with D&D books and a laptop. A shined silver keg sits in the corner, off to one side, with a small potted fern atop it.

The walls are a nice beige, just like the outside of the building, and contains a mix of tasteful glass-like shelves hold a few novels, and the occasional decorative axe, sword, or dagger. A single picture of what is presumably Salem's family is hung above the TV, right between an a pair of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles posters (one from each of the first two movies, both with a quartet of signatures).

The kitchen is separated by a bar/cabinet set that forms a little window. On said bar, sits a hunting rifle that's been partially taken apart, along with some basic gun cleaning supplies. Also a handful of notes and what look like they might be photographs. From a telescopic lens.

"Please excuse the mess, and don't go near the windows," The Moros says as he waits for everyone to settle in, indicating a window in the kitchen, and another near the entrance, both draped over with heavy dark brown curtains.

Once they're all at least somewhat situated, Salem points to Kite, "Start googling up the obituaries over the course of the last six months. Check for anyone named Camille, or any fortune tellers that have died, strangely or otherwise. Alfar, pull up fortune tellers in the area so we can start calling them up one by. Gallows, if you have any contacts in your profession, call them and see if anyone knows anything at all. Vaeltia, call up your friend in the PD. See if he can get us anything."

[Gallows]

Gallows took only a cursory glance around Salem's place as they walked in. He was a little pressed for time to be taking in the scenery. Besides, he felt like it would have been a bit rude. There would be plenty of time to learn about Salem's living habits after Rosetta was safe.

"I don't think I know anyone in the funeral home business who will be of any particular help," admitted Gallows. "Not unless I have a specific dead body to go off of. If we can find this Camille or a dead fortune teller, I might be able to find out where they were taken care of. The funeral director who handled them will be able to tell us more about the family than we'll get from obituaries. In the meantime, I can help with the other searches."

[DaveJ]

Kite eyed Salem with a concerned look. “Salem, listen to me, you need to calm down.” Kite patiently tried to explain his viewpoint to the near-frantic Moros. “Yes, we do need to check obituaries, reports on attacks, missing person reports, and the like. However, it is still premature to start checking random fortune tellers, especially with what we don’t know.” Kite closed his eyes as he went over his mental list. “We don’t know if random fortune tellers will tell us the truth over the phone, meaning that the one we’re looking for may tell us that he doesn’t know what we are talking about, while someone attempting to scam us may try to lead us on, wasting precious time.” Kite took in a deep breath. “And it isn’t just that. What if there isn’t much of a fortune teller community? What if someone recognizes the card, and doesn’t want to get involved? What if the fortune teller purchased a hand-drawn deck from a completely separate artist? What if…” Kite paused, as he considered a new possibility.

“What if the fortune teller is allied with the killer?“ Kite solemnly considered the thought aloud, and took a moment to let the idea sink in. “A turnaround time of 2-4 hours between dumping a body and abducting someone new is extremely short… for one person,” he explained, “but not for two people.” Kite looked at everyone before continuing. “It’s just a guess, of course… like everything else it’s just an educated guess. However, it would explain the last timeline.” he grimly concluded. “And if the fortune teller is involved, either willingly or not, letting him know that a bunch of random people are looking for him will not help us locate the killer, but could imperil Rosetta and other innocents.”

Kite sighed as he noticed that Salem still eyed him, and his argument, dubiously. “Listen, if you really want to do this, let me make an alternative suggestion.” he started. “Instead of calling a bunch of fortune tellers, go to the people who supply them their tools of the trade.” he pulled out his phone and pushed some buttons. “Here - I see a listing of only 5 New Age stores in Sacramento. There may be more than what is listed here, but I doubt it's more than ten.” Kite put his phone away as he continued to speak. “We go to the proprietors of these stores with the card in hand. We say that we like the style, and that we would like to know who the artist is – we can even hint that we might like to commission a deck.” He paused a moment so as to let his idea sink in. “The proprietors of these stores are far less likely to lie to us, and it is their business to know the artistic value of the materials they sell, and..." he added, "...they may possibly know more about the local fortune teller community than anyone else.” Kite took in a breath as he finished his argument. “And as a bonus…” he concluded, “…we don’t tip off anyone that an investigation is taking place.”

[Vae]

The only female of the Sacramento Arrows stepped into the Condo, she took a look around, noting what she could. “Totally prepared for a zombie apocalypse, aren’t you, Salem?”

But then he’d probably be leading the zombie apocalypse.

“First things first, Salem. One, I still have to maintain a semblance of a normal sleep schedule, even on weekends.” She glared at him. “School, Work and West -- I can’t exactly have too many late nights. And Two, I severely doubt that my friend in the PD is up right now, he works first shift. I’ll see if I can get ahold of him tomorrow, but tonight is essentially a cut line of communication.”

[ArchonAres]

Salem nodded, checked his watch and frowned at the time, nodding for Vaelia's words, "Alright, calls will be forced onto a hold until tomorrow then. But if this is the same individual that took Rosetta, he's escalating. That means everything else needs to go on hold until we find him. Aegis, use the table in the kitchen, or use the coffee table. Tell me everything you can about that card, that might be even vaguely relevant. Gallows... we've got a name, and a general description of what the individual might have looked like based on the victims. Will that be enough for you to at least get started?"

He paused as he considered Kites words very carefully, then nodded, "You're absolutely right that the community may be a dead end, or possibly aligned with our target. But as long as we ask the right questions, we can get useful information from them. The first question will have to relate to 'do you use or sell hand drawn Tarot cards?'. Anyone who doesn't can be removed from our list. That'll narrow down an already small community fairly quickly. But, given our time of day, we'll have to delay that. Also, having their retailers is good. We can search that list too, and cross reference what we learn from the local psychics. Start with websites for now, and we can see if its a big thing for any of the retailers or fortune tellers. Just remember that anything you say has to have you sounding like an interested customer, rather than an investigator. That goes for gypsies and suppliers alike. We can't assume that he isn't linked to the suppliers as well."

Salem looked calmly at the group then added, "All our knowledge assumes that Camille died prior to the first murder. She could have died quite a bit before then, but anything more than six months is unlikely, so for now, focus your searches on events within six months prior to the first disappearance. There was a stressing event that started this, and it could have been either Camille's death, or seeing someone who looked so much like her that he just had to have her, among other things."

Salem stopped, and turned on his TV, patting a few buttons until the laptop's display appeared on the screen, and brings up a map, then highlights I-80, "Most of the dumpsites have been on I-80, so we have to assume this is relative to the killer in some way. Its entirely possible he lives or works in that area, so pay special attention to any articles, shops, gypsies, or even obituaries that relate to it in any way. If anything looks suspicious, tab back o the map and mark it."

Salem walked over to his bar, and looked at the contents for a moment, "We've probably got less than a week to find Rosetta. I'd like to do it before he starts cutting on her."

[DaveJ]

“If we are all going to do this,” Kite says, “let’s first get a sense of where everyone’s skills lie.” He sighs a moment as he considers his options. “I guess I'll go first. I’m trained as a psychiatrist.” He clears his throat before continuing. “In my case, that means that, in addition to being a medical doctor, I have training in psychology – I’m good analyzing what people are thinking, and I am good at speaking with others.” Kite looks at Salem “That probably means I’ll be put to best use in the field, speaking with people.”


Kite looks around the room. “Does anyone else here have a similar skill set?” he asks aloud. “Also, who here has had experience in academic or journalistic research? How about in computer use - specifically 'information extraction?'” Kite looked again at Salem. “Let’s at least see first what our strengths and weaknesses are before people are assigned to tasks.”

[Matamune]

OOC

Sorry, everyone. Exams tomorrow, so I'll do a proper post after them.

Alfar follows everyone into the room and mostly keeps to himself. He has been accused of trying to take charge too many times today already, so he stays quiet and waits for the chaos to calm down. Kite's idea to describe each other's skills seems good to him, so he takes some time to think on how to better describe his skills.

[Gallows]

Gallows had to fight to keep from grinding his teeth as everyone spoke. It was hard to listen to talk of planning, or any sort of delay, when literally every second that passed was another chance for Rosetta to get cut up or killed.

"All right," Gallows said slowly. "Skills. I am decent at investigating and very good at forensics. Not much good with computers, though. I can talk to ghosts, but can't command them." He turned to Salem. "You're right, we have a name and general description. Going to funeral homes is still going to be nowhere near as fast as checking obituaries. Also, like Vaeltia said, it's too late to be making calls now. I'm all in favor of us sharing our skills, and making plans, but there is something we can do now. Get online, look up obituaries on the websites of the different newspapers in the city. There's no need to wait on that."

[ArchonAres]

Salem fought hard not to let the anger show on his face, but it still came through in his words, "I just said calls were on hold till tomorrow. Now I'm an anthropologist, and if its one things I learned getting my PhD and working to help close the occasional case with the local Police, it was how to do research without waiting till the last minute. So let's stop wasting Rosetta's time and start searching. I'll do it my damned self if none of you want to save her life."

With that he plops down on the couch in front of the computer (or turns it to face him in another seat if someone else is there), and begins typing. As he does, the TV screen splits to show the map on one side, and the obituary search on the other, "Gallows, can you do anything at all about calling up the other recently deceased, or Camille at all? Leonard has a few tricks to help you, if you need it."

At the mention of his name, the ephemeral familiar would float into the room, looking at the crowd of Awakened with a mix of amusement and annoyance.

  Researching Camille's Death, 11suxx

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2012-04-01 20:14:45		[03] Salem rolls 6 to Researching Camille's Death (Extended, total 2hrs, Academics 2 + 1 Research specialty +3 int) (10 Again)		4, 4, 10, 9, 7, 6, 9		3 successes
2012-04-01 20:14:45		[02] Salem rolls 6 to Researching Camille's Death (Extended, total 2hrs, Academics 2 + 1 Research specialty +3 int) (10 Again)		8, 5, 6, 6, 9, 10, 10, 1		4 successes
2012-04-01 20:14:45		[01] Salem rolls 6 to Researching Camille's Death (Extended, total 2hrs, Academics 2 + 1 Research specialty +3 int) (10 Again)		2, 2, 2, 9, 3, 10, 9		3 successes
2012-04-01 19:49:25		Salem rolls 6 to Researching Camille's Death (Academics 2 + 1 Research specialty +3 int) (10 Again)		7, 10, 1, 4, 2, 2, 4		1 success