(Treasure Hunt) At the Proteus Fountain #1

[Chrisie]

The moon is nothing but the smallest sliver in the sky.

The air is cold and still.

Stark shadows of the Internationalist geometry is picked out by the floodlights illuminating the courthouse.



There, just outside 720 on 9th Street, the group can see the large fountain spraying cool water into the air. The site is surrounded by dozens of trees creating a small literal oasis in the courtyard at the entrance of the Gordon Schaber County Courthouse. The fountain itself is about 30′ in diameter and seems to be robustly sculpted in wrought iron, bronze and cooper.



As the group approaches they can see a small gang of about eight or so teenage skateboarders gathered not far from the fountain. The skaters are enjoying themselves rail-sliding, grinding and front-grinding along the steps and concrete barriers which serve double duty as seating in brighter weather.

A few of the skaters seem to be discussing some aspect of a broken board and trying to fuss over the wheels of another board between them; while occasionally looking up to admire the work of one of their number...

Claire Tunt Michael Redfill Teodor Raluca

[Claire Edmonton]

Claire arrives without much fuss, the deftness with which she parks her Rolls Royce camera-worthy, before she steps out to observe the distant skateboarders. If she were closer just then, it's likely the teenagers would have seen the threat in her eyes, an unspoken disdain for their existences that she felt no need to clamp down on just yet for the space between them. She should probably wait for the monk and the doctor, anyway, but it didn't mean she couldn't survey the place from here while she waited.

  1s Percep

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2014-01-03 10:39:06		Claire Tunt rolls 4 to Perception (10 Again)		5, 9, 2, 7		1 success

[Michael Redfill]

Michael isn't far behind in his Porsche. He spots the skateboarders, but doesn't pay any attention to them. After parking the car, the doctor heads out towards the fountain looking for anything that might indicate where the second clue is. The obvious answer would be 'in the water', but that is not certain.

After considering it for a moment, Michael focuses his attention on his eyes, until the lessons Teo has imparted allow him to see better than a normal person can in broad daylight.

Auspex 1 to enhance sight activated

He then looks at the fountain carefully

  Perception

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2014-01-03 10:59:44		Michael Redfill rolls 5 to Perception (Wits + Comp) (10 Again)		8, 2, 2, 4, 9		2 successes

[Chrisie]

The sudden presence of the troop of Kindred does attract the attention of the skaters. They thought they had this space to themselves and instinctive suspicion and wariness has made them pay attention.

Looking at the troop of Kindred the more confident of the skaters grips his board and seems to study the Vampires. Perhaps he's just seeing what the adults are up to.

Meanwhile the sheer dazzle and glare from the nearby floodlights has momentarily outshone Teo's and Micheal's ability to discriminate what they were looking for.

Their vision will settle soon.

Meanwhile Claire can see the skaters pay more attention to the Kindred.

Two of them, a boy and girl dressed in typical skater attire, seem to be mounting up on their boards and looking towards the fountain.

As Teo's and Micheal's supernaturally enhanced vision settles down from the lens-flare of the floodlights they can see around the coils of the iron and bronze the shimmer of the cold fountain water and, there, at the far edge of the fountain, perhaps the outline of something submerged and tubular...

[Michael Redfill]

Michael texts the other two:

Something in the water, probably the riddle. Need to get rid of skaters or convince them not to disturb the tube after we're done. I think we should discuss.

He then walks over to Claire and waits for Teo to join them.

Seeing as Auspex is no longer necessary, he turns the enhanced vision off. His memory automatically takes care of memorising where exactly in the fountain he saw something.

It's the middle of the night in winter. Couldn't they just stay at home?

Auspex 1 is off

[Claire Edmonton]

Claire used to be a punk kid like these ones. Well, she never cared about skateboards, and she was always exceedingly rich, but a decade..ish... ago, she could've been in a very similar scenario as this one. And she was suspicious at best of the ability of Teo or Michael to deal fairly with teenagers. So instead, she endeavors to handle this herself.

Thinking of her various methods of protective dissembling as she struts over to the two closest to the fountain, she offers them only a simple lift of her head to greet them before she says merely, "Hey, c'mere." Hopefully her leather jacket and boots helped seal the deal on her 'I'm like you' bit.

[Chrisie]

Teo's acute enough to detect that the kids have a plan in mind. Whatever they had in mind is also slightly derailed by Claire's beckoning of them.

As she hails them, they skate over. The kids glide their skates over and swiftly dismount close to Claire with a nifty synchronized ollie.

"Hi!" the girl says to Claire. The tousled haired girl says with some friendliness. The boy simply stares. Clearly impressed into silence by Claire's vivid and striking looks.

The girl looks to Michael, then back to Claire. "You looking for something? The guards can be real jerks." she offers, nodding towards the courthouse entrance.

[Claire Edmonton]

"Actually I was going to warn you about the same thing. One of those guys over there might take his bad day out on you, so you should probably clear out for awhile. Maybe get something to eat and come back in a few? It'll save you from being yelled at and me from having to listen to whining after the fact," she says, letting her initial impressions of Teo rattle around in the less mature region of her brain. She pauses for a moment as though reflecting in thought, before slipping a creased $50 bill out of her purse and offering it to the girl, "Here, it's my treat."