(Orchard Operation) Soot Blackened Fruit

[Colonel Worm]

Worm walks in and he has to fight off two impulses at once:

1) Immediately start shopping for a crazy, old lamp (he's just moved into a new apartment after all).
2) Loudly greet the employee as is his custom.

He resists. No time for lamps. Or Hearty Hellos. Besides, the customer service representative seems otherwise occupied. (Time theft. The Colonel approves.)

Instead he follows Rhodes further into the store, relying on the Dread Lord to remember the way. Trying not to speak. Always difficult for Worm.

He does catch a glimpse of the curly-haired somebody Sera called out earlier. Then she's gone. Of course, the Goblin wants to follow her. Thrill of the hunt and all that.

Another impulse he struggles to deny.

Distracts himself by looking for anything out of the ordinary in their surroundings. Something beyond even the disarray of the junk wares.

All while Rhodes appears to be...staring at the ceiling?

Perception, 1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-09-30 20:10:06	Colonel Worm rolls 4 to Wits + Composure -1 (clarity) (10 Again)	3, 8, 2, 2	1 success

Equipment:
Khuri knives (+ sheaths) x 2 2L*
Brass Knuckles x2 1B (in pants pockets)
Kevlar Vest (thin)
Reinforced Clothing (Motorcycle jacket)
Advanced First Aid Kit
Water bottle (in first aid kit exterior pocket)
Bag of Beef jerky
Tree tags
Cigarettes + Lighter

[Seraphina]

Was it always this cluttered? She wonders as they walk in. Maybe she had been too focused on getting baghead to Funderland and safe.

But the unknown Ling goes one way, the sign for mirrors points another. Leaving her at a crossroads.

The Gate had been a mirror last time, would they replace it with another mirror? Or would they go another route, create it in something else, something that the unknown girl knew about?

Her mouth forms a tight line. Splitting the party was always a bad idea, especially with an unknown Ling who might be working with Anne. But she could also know they were there and was leading them somewhere.

Or they could ask.

Urgh!

Looking to Rhodes, there was a brief look of confusion.

The ceiling? Did he know something they didn’t?

But she decides to just take a look, really look around. There had to be something to let them know they were on the right track.

3 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-01 09:22:35	Seraphina rolls 5 to Looking Around(Wits3+Comp3)-1 Clarity (10 Again)	3, 9, 10, 4, 10, 4, 6	3 successes

Hedgespun jacket(+1 INT, +1 DEF), Hedgespun Necklace(+1 singing), dagger, 2 bottles of water, bag of trail mix, gauze and tape, costume jewelry for trading(one necklace, one pin) sun catcher for trading, gardening gloves, notebook with pencil

Health 7
WP 3

[Ram]

No instruction on the rogue Changeling. In fact Rhodes was looking at the ceiling. Trying to fullfill a catch? Ram wasn’t sure.

He saw a sign pointing to mirrors though.

“Umm, vanities?” he said questioningly, pointing out the store’s directions. It seemed the obvious way to go to him but he wasn't the one in charge.

[Gerrit]

The shop's inside was almost overwhelming. Gerrit was no neat-freak by a long shot, but seeing all those things cramped into the room made him a bit uneasy. There were just too many cark corners that could hide God knows what. He continued to let Rhodes and Seraphina lead - if the Colonel could hold back, so could Gerrit.

Equipment: Backpack - First aid Kit, Rope, a separate bag, a bottle of water, a notebook and a pen, Tags for Rhodes' Contract.

[Saber Sloth]

The curly haired Flowering disappears into the depths of the store, as the Lost chose the more direct rote towards their goals.

Rhodes, eyes turned heavenward, notices very familiar 'landmarks', cutting away the confusion of the aisles, and making a beeline towards the backwall of mirrors. Where once a gilded gate resided. The rest of the Lost trailing after him.

Sera, looking around them, starts to see more familiar things. Bits and bobbles and shoes stacks up on top of white painted vanities, reflecting the items in the attached, dusty mirrors, and the rack of mothball scented coats that Circe hid in, when Rhodes smashed the mirror Gate, forcing it closed and making sure the Orchard's patrolmen couldn't follow them through.

Colonel Worm sees neat note cards giving arrow-y directions to different things, an arrow pointing the way they came, saying they missed the lamps. An ones in various highlighter shades of loud neon saying yes, mirrors/vanities this way!!

The Lost now face a the entire backwall covered in mirrors. Long mirrors, short mirrors, round mirrors, square mirrors, modern mirrors, antique mirrors, and any one of them might be a Hege Gate. Or they could be made into a Hedge Gate.

Okay folks! If you have Hedge Gate Sense, you can roll that now! If you're Clarity is 6 or higher you can try Kenning, it will coast a WP per roll!!

Or if you don't want to try and find the Mirror Gate, you can always knock on the frame and spend a Glamour, or roll Wyrd and force a Gate to open. There are risks when creating your own Gate of course, you never know what's waiting on the other side...

[Rhodes]

"Stores like this move their stock around all the time," Rhodes explained quietly, "but walls, pipework, rafters - that stays the same. These things are as much about positioning as what it there. Almost.... like Feng shui in execution. The right piece... in the right place." Arriving at the Mirrors, he looked around, checking they could act largely undisturbed.

He had to conserve his strength. In hindsight, hardening his mask may not have been the best choice... "It should be somewhere nearby - everyone take a look around. If we can't find it, I suppose we can blunt force it." Rhodes began looking at the mirrors, looking for any symbology that might stand out. There were more magical ways, but they were.... taxing.

[Colonel Worm]

Rhodes explains his thing for the ceiling and Worm nods his understanding. Finally getting it.

Clever girl. Or guy. Or Monarch. Whatever.

Thing is, Worm's not much of a gate-master. And he's a little too muddled to ken the thing out.

So he's kind of stuck here. Unless he forces an access point. But that's a little much. And risky to boot. That's an 'if all else fails' thing, not a now thing. The Colonel trusts that someone in their little band has the know-how. Even if he doesn't

So, he stays on watch while the others locate door number one. Pretending to browse, but keeping his eyes on the angles. Especially since there's an unknown Changeling lurking about. Nobody needs any surprises.

Perception, failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-04 07:41:41	Colonel Worm rolls 4 to Wits + Composure -1 (clarity) (10 Again)	7, 1, 5, 7	failure

But, he keeps getting distracted by his own reflection in all those mirrors. Damn, someone come and get your man before he causes a riot in the reflective surfaces aisle.

[Seraphina]

Sapphires widen slightly, this was a lot of mirrors. But the area seemed familiar to her, things were recognized.

But had the Gate been moved to a new mirror? She wasn’t any good at finding Gates, it had never been a skill she had acquired. So she frowns, debating the options.

Glancing to Rhodes, “Finding the right things was never a skill I had.” Another frown. Maybe it was time to start learning? “Do any stand out to you?”

Maybe she could look and find something familiar? So she steps up to the mirrors to look at them. Looking for anything that stood out from the other mirror.

4 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-04 11:34:26	Seraphina rolls 4 to Remember the mirror?(Int+Comp)-1 (10 Again)	2, 10, 10, 10, 4, 3, 8	4 successes

Hedgespun jacket(+1 INT, +1 DEF), Hedgespun Necklace(+1 singing), dagger, 2 bottles of water, bag of trail mix, gauze and tape, costume jewelry for trading(one necklace, one pin) sun catcher for trading, gardening gloves, notebook with pencil

Health 7
WP 3

[Ram]

Ram was a bit confused. He had thought they'd come to make at this location to hopefully be in the same relative location in the Hedge. Apparently they were looking for a specific mirror. A mirror had no idea what it looked like. Which made him kind of useless.

Ram blew out his cheeks and went up to a random mirror. He couldn't use glamour because that would open a gate anyway. Which meant trying to open it through the Wyrd, and hope he came across the mirror at random... and that his connection to the Wyrd was strong enough to open it. All down to chance and luck.

He gently touched the mirrors surface like it was made of icing we could just scratch off.

"Open," he said softly, letting his connection to Fairie... the Battlefield and the promises made there... pull on him, his finger, his words, and the mirror. And...

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-04 19:05:07	Ram rolls 2 to Wyrd (10 Again)	2, 4	failure

Nothing.

He moved onto the next one.

[Gerrit]

Great. They apparently had no real navigator with them. Gerrit balled his hands into fists and shoved them into his pockets. Spiraling into negativity this early was useless, so he tried to make himself useful some other way. He spoke up in a raspy, hushed voice. "I think blunt forcing it should be our last resort. Who knows where we'll end up if we just take a shot in the dark." Half a year ago he probably would have kept his opinion to himself, but life in Sacramento had changed the Ogre.

Sera seemed deep in thought - maybe that'll get them there - and Ram apparently favoured the blunt force suggestion. Sore, scab-ridden hands scratched against the rough denim of his pair of jeans, taking his mind off of the things that could go wrong, and bloodshot eyes watched the nooks and crannies of the shop.

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-05 07:23:32	Gerrit rolls 5 to stay on the look-out (Wits 3 + Comp 3 - Clarity 1) (10 Again)	2, 6, 3, 2, 2	failure

He couldn't stop turning towards the others, though. The stubborn part of him wanted to find a solution to their road-block, or at least watch the others find it - so that he didn't really focus on watching out for anything fishy.

Equipment: Wallet with some money, backpack - Copy of The Paradise of Shelesh.


Hardened Mask