(PrP) Lair of the Beast

[Chris Laurent]

Hesitation? Check. Doubt? Check. Shitty cat piss filled trap? ..Maybe? Where the fuck is Tristan?

"Yo where's Tristan?" Chris asks softly to Odin as the kid looks through the fridge. "The attic?" Now its Chris's turn to look over his shoulder and he sees Viola heading into the basement? Shit. A soft tap on Odie 's shoulder. "Stay with her" a nod towards the basement door. Fingers curl into fists and relax into open hands as Chris moves to the door to the backyard and takes a peak outside.

The hell did the cop go to. This is how things go to shit and the urge to fade into a shadow and wait for things to hit the fan is almost too strong to resist. No, have to keep everyone together.

[Tristan Hardt]

It doesn't take an investigatory genius to piece things together: someone's been using that little trap door. Tristan frowns to himself, considering his options.

But there really is only one; he has to chance the trap door. And be ready for anything hiding on the other side. Shit luck that the Moon is wearing the wrong face tonight. The grizzled cop doesn't have a pet spirit on tap to pay for all the... effort this could take.

Speaking of effort... getting the door open isn't gonna work with both his hands full. He opts to set down the gun - it's for show, anyway - and clears away what little clutter there is above the door before giving it a solid tug. The flashlight shines down the opening and Tristan's eyes follow it. Let there be some cat creature hiding here. He would see it.

  4 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-03-11 12:23:25		Tristan Hardt rolls 7 to Wits 4 + Composure 3 to look down the open trap door (w flashlight) (10 Again)		8, 10, 9, 3, 7, 6, 2, 9		4 successes

[Yumyumcrow]

THE HOUSE

The basement cellar turns out to be white washed and filled with a mix of cleaning supplies and taxidermy equipment. There are a couple of amateurish attempts at preserving cats and a very good example of a preserved dog. The rest of the space is cupboards and tables.

Viola spots the capes. So does Odie. They haven't been moved. Both are squared away in a corner and would have been well hidden if it were not for the light. If or when the pair move to inspect the capes, they find that both the objects are of a decent size, more like cloaks, and that they are thickly lined with cat fur; occult looking symbols have been embroidered onto the capes with a little too much order to be random designs. One cape has been shredded and is stained with brown.

Chris, hovering by the back door, can hear very faint shuffling and creaking sounds from the garden shed.

THE SHED

There is a tense moment as the trap door yields and, muttering, opens. Beneath the shed is a small cellar of an irregular shape, carved from the living earth by a previous owner many decades before. Whatever the space's original purpose was has been lost.

For now it is a sickening place of torture. There are crates in which live cats are held, hissing and mewling in angry terror. There is a table with cat skins on it and a rack upon which more skins are being tanned. There are a variety of nasty looking implements on the table and hanging from the wall. There are buckets as well, stained black in the harsh light and shadow act by Tristan's torch - fortunately the buckets are empty otherwise even the Elodoth's Hishu stunted nostrils would be assaulted by rotting stench.

Cat eyes gleam fearfully in the murky gloom, awaiting their fate.

[Viola Jones]

Viola grunts and snatches the cloaks.

"I came down here since I knew these were here already." she tells the fucking idiot as calmly as she can, "I'm gonna take 'em and show 'em to the Pack's Bone Shadow. Who just happens to be our fucking Beta." the growl comes thicker from her near-man throat. "Who by the sounds of it, hasn't come inside with the rest if us. I'm gonna go see what the fuck's up, and back up our Beta. Not go flouncing around in the fucking attic." grunting, growls and barely repressed anger.

The Near-Man Rahu fists the cloaks tightly, hauling them up, before turning back to the stairs, to do percisly what she said she would.

[Chris Laurent]

Huh, noise in the shed. Confident that Viola will at the least make a scene if shit its the fan. Not that Chris has anything against Viola, just Rahu and all.
Chris slinks into the backyard, moving cautiously towards the shed. Hopefully its the Beta, if not welp that's what the Crescent's legacy is for. Hands rise to block and strike if it comes to it. Feet treading softly across the ground as Chris moves to look into the shed. The hell are these cat things anyway.

  3 suxx to sneak through the backyard

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-03-12 11:08:53		Chris rolls 5 to Sneaking into the yard (Dex3+Ste2=5) (10 Again)		7, 9, 7, 4, 10, 10, 5		3 successes

[Tristan Hardt]

This is... Gratuitous. Cruel. To hunt is one thing; to torture is another. Hell, Tristan has no love for cats, but seeing this mess here just pisses him off. Animals can't be responsible for this kind of crap. It's all too human.

Why the creature they'd taken down had reverted to a normal house-cat is beyond him, but the cats here are pawns. Living tools. More and more, as the sight of the racks and cages and tools hits him, the attack in the house seems justified. Whoever had done that? Interrupted the ritual? Tristan would give him a damn medal.

This little operation would need to end. But first... Tristan picks over the place in earnest. He does his best to ignore the yowling, hissing cats and tries to make sense of this shit-show. Most of it is obvious, but if he leaves and misses some crucial detail? He'd never get over it.

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-03-13 19:03:49		Tristan Hardt rolls 5 to Wits 4 + Investigation 1 to study the scene (10 Again)		7, 4, 2, 1, 10, 4		1 success

[Yumyumcrow]

Tristan steels himself as he takes stock of the small room.

It would appear that someone was attempting to make a cloak of some kind, from carefully prepared cat skins. The way the leather for this cloak was sourced is just plain awful.

The Elodoth is so engrossed - or perhaps enraptured in fascinated horror at the revelation - that he does not notice Chris' arrival until the Blood Talon is standing over the cellar's entrance.

Over at the house Viola comes to a stop at the backdoor. Their Blood Talon Irakka had been standing watch but now it seems he has vanished into thin air. The air from the garden is still and heavy in the velvet night.