(House Call) Door Knocking

[Thomas Land]

Thomas watches Circe ascend with more than a touch of jealousy. Her success is only a further reminder of his awkwardness, his various inabilities.

But he can't give up! There's more to discover upstairs. And so, he tries again to wade through the trash blocking his way. A look of concentration seeming more a snarl on his Mole's face.

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-07-25 07:48:47		Thomas Land rolls 4 to Dex2 + Ath0 - 1 Unskilled (10 Again, WillPower)		1, 2, 9, 7		1 success

This time he makes headway, huffing and puffing in the rank closeness of the house.

[Mhairi Ankaa]

Mhairi waited until both Circe and Thomas met her on the second floor.

Fell-flames warily watching the hissing cats, keeping her focus off the corpse of the women who's locket they were after.

"So..." Mhairi begins, "Here she is, and her locket...or I think it's the locket we're after is right there, around her neck....um. How...? How are we wanting to uh-proceed?"

They were going to have to touch the corpse, but desperately Mhairi speaks, hoping to delay the inevitable.

Ack! Sorry guys the summer's melted my brain! I forgot I was up!

[Circe]

"Ow, ow, ow," Clearing the stairs and concentrating to climb them hadn't helped too much. Sure she got up the stairs but she was neither quiet nor unscathed.

Then came the scene before Mhairi. Circe turned to Mhairi to whisper: "Gotta say, I ain't surprised. So we kick the cats?" After a moment of thought she pointed at Mhairi with one hand and Thomas with the other, "Unless, can either of you charm cats with a taste for human flesh?"

[Thomas Land]

The gruesome scene before them both repulses and intrigues Thomas. What has happened here? And what, precisely, is so important about this locket?

At Mhairi's question and Circe's prompting, the Beast gives a low, long hum: "Hm-hmmmmm..." Beady eyes examine the feral cats. "I can, um, give it a shot..." He is a Beast, after all. Though, having a bit of help from the Wyrd can't hurt. So, he holds his breath and wills himself a little extra luck before kneeling down and trying to call the cats over.

"Here, kitties..." he whispers into the gloom, once he's on their level. The cajoling tone of his voice an odd fit for this typically awkward creature. He holds out a clawed hand, trying to seem welcoming. "Good kitties..."

  Calling Cats, 2 suxx

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-08-03 20:12:20		Thomas Land rolls 7 to Presence1 + Animal Ken2 +4 Favored Fate Bonus (10 Again)		9, 4, 4, 9, 7, 7, 6		2 successes

[Circe]

"Good luck with that Tommy, I'll prep for junk tossing," Circe would let Thomas try to coax the cats away. Meanwhile, she'd try to spot something that could be used to drive them off.

  3 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-08-03 23:05:13		Circe rolls 6 to Search for throwable junk (10 Again)		2, 2, 9, 10, 7, 3, 10, 7		3 successes

On finding anything really useful, she'll collect a couple in case they need to drive off the cats.

[Yumyumcrow]

Circe ducks into the bathroom and collects a couple of cleaning products from a dingy cupboard. Small enough to fit into her hand but chunky enough to pack some weight if thrown.

Not that they would be needed. While the Fairest is away, Thomas Land comes to the rescue. Socially awkward, this uncertain hero is quiet and soothing enough to draw off the flighty cats. Big eyed, hungry, mangy, they slowly head towards the mole man. Their mews are pitiful.

That left the body, mauled and bloody. The locket gleamed from under it.

[Mhairi Ankaa]

Quickly Circe and Thomas set to work, both seeing to very different ways to take care of the cats.

The wisp flashes the mole-man a smile for his gentle way with the poor mangy cats. With Circe off trying to arm herself with junk to toss, that left Mhairi....
....and the body.

The wisp swallows, and starts forward, gingerly, hoping not to draw attention of the cats back onto her, and reaches for the gleaming necklace, fell flames searching for a clasp, hoping that she wont have to...touch the corpse longer then she'd have too.

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-08-04 23:13:52		Mhairi Ankaa rolls 5 to Perception (Wits 3 + Composure 2) (10 Again)		2, 2, 2, 5, 8		1 success

[Circe]

Circe came back ready to pass out "ammo" but saw Thomas was pulling it off, "Oh. Good job then I guess," she sounded unhappy. Whether it was the pathetic state of the felines or not getting to attack was unclear. Instead, she waited for Thomas to do his thing and get the cats out of the way.

Looking to Mhairi she smirked, "I lift, you snatch?" was her offer to the issue of the locket. If Mhairi goes for the chain then Circe will follow her lead.

[Yumyumcrow]

While Thomas painstakingly draws off the mangy cats, Circe and Mhairi set to work.

Its a grizzly task: the unfortunate woman had twisted unnaturally as she had fallen and the cats had worried her body afterward. Thankfully, between the two of them, Mhairi is able to retrieve the locket. It is everything Hulumere Wibble had described.

The room beyond is the only clean room in the house: a shrine to a band from the psychedelic era of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Cheshire Cats. A single seat sits in the middle of the room, surrounded on all sides by memories.

Outside, a dog barks.

[Thomas Land]

Seeing that his compatriots have retrieved the locket, Thomas gives each cat one final pat and stands, approaching Mhairi and Circe, eyeing the locket.

But, before he can ask to examine the trinket, the unusually clean room draws his attention. It's odd, in such a filthy home, for one space to be kept so spotless. "Hm-hmmmmm," the Mole-Man hums as he turns and enters this shrine.

What could such an odd disposition of the room's furnishings imply? Why was this space kept so orderly when the rest of the house was allowed to slip into squalor? Thomas sets about sweeping the area for clues.

  3 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-08-06 09:58:52		Thomas Land rolls 7 to Intelligence4 + Investigation3		9, 2, 4, 6, 3, 10, 9		3 successes