Piece of Mind: Thin Air

Kristen walks towards the house with eyes focused at her feet, avoiding dipping her expensive new Vittorio Valsecchis into the puddles.

ooc: Spot check 2

Is the roller down for everyone?

OOC: Really, really sorry about the delay. I lost internet access after heading home from university, and I've just got it back.

Hawk locked up the car, and headed towards the house, following the others.

Spot: 4

Hawk parks the car on the street in front of Gold’s house and the team walks up the missing researcher’s drive. Decker observes stairs that could lead to a side or back entrance along the west side of the house.

Kristen sees Decker moving toward the stairs and follows.

Decker motions for the team to follow as he leads them to the stairs at the west side of the house. Taking the stairs to the entrance he takes another quick look around to make sure no one is watching before beginning his work. Meticulously Decker inspects every inch of the door to determine if the entrance is protected by any kind of security system.

OoC:

Spot: 13 There got it.

I take 20 searching the door: 26

While Decker inspects the door, Brandon wiggles in place in the group while he plays games on his cell phone. It looks as if he's either doing some sort of bizarre dance or has to pee, depending on how you look at him.

The rear entrance is located at the southwest corner of the house, a door and a window opening to the kitchen, another window opening on the dining room. The wall of the dining room blocks the view of the door from the street. A rear porch light flickers on in the late afternoon gloom, tripped by a motion sensor.

Aside from a swatch cleared to provide a fire break, the rest of the large lot is covered with thick fir trees – if there is a neighbor to the rear, the property is not visible. Dense foliage also conceals the yard from the neighboring home to the west.

Decker carefully inspects the door frame as the others wait, out of the rain on the polished hardwood of the porch. There is no sign of an alarm.

“Well no alarm… That will save us some time.” Decker says as he retrieves his lock-picks from his jacket and begins to work on the lock.

OoC:

I take 20 on the disable device to open the lock. Total: 28

Brandon investigates the rest of the outside of the house for any clues or signs of forced entry, while trying to call his mother again on the cellphone.

OOC: Investigate 23

Brandon makes his way around the exterior of the house as Decker works on the lock. The home and yard appears well-tended. Checking the windows reveals no signs of attempted entry. A character generally uses Search to discover clues and Investigate to analyze them, so I treated your roll as Search check and applied a +2 Int bonus. You can resolve the details of Brandon’s call to mom yourself...

Decker manages to pop the pins on the deadbolt and the internal lock on the knob after a couple of minutes. The door opens, the rubber weather stripping at the bottom swishing across the floor, admitting the players to the kitchen. To one side is the dining room, beyond a doorway lies a hallway leading to the living room, a den, and a small bathroom, and stairs leading to the second floor. The house is silent and still.

The furnishing are simple, the decorations personal – light pine furniture, photos of family and friends, a couple of framed posters from the Texas International Blues Festival and Poor David's Blues-o-rama, both in Dallas. In the den are a widescreen television and an impressive stereo system, with an equally impressive CD collection. The blues theme is carried here as well: Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Charley Patton, John Lee Hooker, Lead Belly, Robert Johnson, Johnny Shines.

Upstairs are three bedrooms: the master bedroom and bath; a second bedroom, adjacent to the hall bath, that is clearly Annalee’s owing to the University of Miami memorabilia, framed photos, frilly comforter; and a third that’s been converted to a study. In the study are a desk with a computer and two bookshelves groaning under the weight of texts on medical psychology, pharmacology, and physiology