[VtR][Mature] Born into Darkness: Arc 1

Diego nods. He walks quietly to the backroom, drawing his knife as he goes. He holds so that the blade is concealed by his forearm.

"I recognize them," Beth answers Cole. "The guy who kidnapped me--the one Biggs fought--he had piercings like that, only more of them, like he was a higher rank or something."

What looks like it would be a door to a back room in fact leads to a crude stairway. Diego walks through into the dark space and heads up the stairs.

[sblock=Diego]Even in the darkness you can tell that you don't like the seventh, eighth and ninth stairs. Too high, for starters. Pulling on them shows they aren't even attached, the come off in his hands. The boards themselves have been shaved on the underside, any serious weight on them and a body'd fall through.
Not far though, they'd be stuck halfway in and halfway out of the stair.
There's space underneath; tight, but enough room for a man. Diego pokes around for a minute and comes up with a bunch of individually wrapped hard candies and an unpleasant feeling blade.

From the underside of the stairs (i.e. squatting down in this little pit under the trapped stairs) Diego can tell the staircase is more of a scaffolding. He could slip out of the space under the stairway to the right. Technically there should be a wall between this building and the next, but it' looks like it's been cut through.

Listening to echoes, the wind and generally trying to get a feel for the environment Diego has the sense of being in some kind of giant warren. [/sblock]

Archer refrained from touching things. The old man had died, a mixed blessing, and he didn't want to leave too much evidence of his identity or his colleagues' if cops became involved. He looked about the ceiling for a security camera, but didn't expect to see any if the owners wouldn't even invest in a fire extinguisher. Following that his priority was finding a powerful cleaning product (preferably bleach), gloves and a rag.

Bloodweaver1 said:

“If he will not volunteer the information we seek, then perhaps his corpse and this shop will. Mr. Archer, Mr. Diego, would you mind searching the shop’s back room? Ms. Beth and I will search out here.”

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"Can do, but we've got a body on our hands now so mind what you touch," Archer pointed out the knife embedded in the old man, "We need to clean up that in particular. Assuming Diego has a record, we don't want cops pulling prints off that knife. Then again, the store's owners may dislike the involvement of law as much as we would. Better to be safe in any case."

Bloodweaver1 said:

"They remind me of some of Giselle’s henchmen, but that could be just coincidence.”

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industrygothica said:

"I recognize them," Beth answers Cole. "The guy who kidnapped me--the one Biggs fought--he had piercings like that, only more of them, like he was a higher rank or something."

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"The plot grows thicker," Archer remarked as he rounded the store counter and started up the stairs Diego had gone up moments before.

In one night a number of potential connections had appeared. Archer was curious about where this was all going. The store visit seemed to hold more potential than he had estimated. Whatever information was held there could possibly benefit more than just the pursuit of Celeste.

Also, in hindsight, he thought it more likely they would keep cleaning equipment somewhere in the back. He decided to keep an eye out for as much, just in case.

Cole Braddock

“Possibly. None the less. Lets see what we can find, shall we. ” Replies Cole as he searches the corpse and then moves onto the room.

[sblock]

Diego will take the blade, especially if it looks and feels good. He doesn't take the candy though figuring he will let the others "discover" it. [/sblock]

Diego heads back into the main room. "Stairs are fake, sorta looks like they were meant to hold a person in place long enough for someone to come and get em." He pauses for a moment, as if considering the stairwell for the first time. "This place is way more than we thought it was. I'm for getting some Sucker or even Nice to check it out. Seems more of a ........ hive or a ......... oh what in the hell is that word.......... warren or something. It's tense."

He looks around the room and spots the man that had stabbed him. He walks over and pulls the knife out, wiping his fingerprints off the handle. He drops the knife and begins to walk outside.

Festy_Dog said:

Archer refrained from touching things. The old man had died, a mixed blessing, and he didn't want to leave too much evidence of his identity or his colleagues' if cops became involved. He looked about the ceiling for a security camera, but didn't expect to see any if the owners wouldn't even invest in a fire extinguisher. Following that his priority was finding a powerful cleaning product (preferably bleach), gloves and a rag.

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Archer turns up his auspex looking up at the ceiling above his head he sees a cunningly concealed trap door, a mass of tell-tale gouges around it suggest that it's used frequently as an egress.
At the far end of the ceiling, above the door leading out the alley, is a small wooden shelf, the Slasher was probably sitting on it (or crouching there isn't enough space to really sit even for a hunched old man).
There is nothing that looks remotely like it could be a security camera.

Bloodweaver1 said:

“Possibly. None the less. Lets see what we can find, shall we. ” Replies Cole as he searches the corpse and then moves onto the room.

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Searching the corpse is a quick affair. The old man is wearing a crude pair of jeans, the pants cut off to form makeshift shorts.
Two sheaths and several leather pouches and are attached by leather cords to his body. The sheaths are empty now, he obviously kept the two blade he was using in them.
There are also some unpleasant smelling substances in containers in the pouches, one in some sort of hollowed out horn or tooth and the other in what looks like a discarded woman's lip gloss container.
Other than that he has a few hard candies and a couple of dollars in his pockets.
Physically the old man has the body of someone whose had a hard life, his hands are a mass of calluses, he's heavily scarred, his back is bent, most of his teeth are missing (those that remain seem to be filed to points).
His fingernails seem to be abnormally long and very hard and his hands and arms are extremely developed.

Festy_Dog said:

"The plot grows thicker," Archer remarked as he rounded the store counter and started up the stairs Diego had gone up moments before.

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Archer bumps into Diego as he comes back down the stairs.
[sblock=Diego]The blade is an unplesant looking item: a small scythe with two blades. It can be held in one hand or two. It looks like it's half way between a farming implement and a surgical device.
It would be OK in a fight, the cutting edges are on the inner side of the blades. You could do a lot of really nasty damage to somebody if you could gore them with it.
It's too big for a pocket, so you've either touched of shadow it, or it's pretty visible.[/sblock]

OnlytheStrong said:

[sblock]
Diego heads back into the main room. "Stairs are fake, sorta looks like they were meant to hold a person in place long enough for someone to come and get em." He pauses for a moment, as if considering the stairwell for the first time. "This place is way more than we thought it was. I'm for getting some Sucker or even Nice to check it out. Seems more of a ........ hive or a ......... oh what in the hell is that word.......... warren or something. It's tense."

He looks around the room and spots the man that had stabbed him. He walks over and pulls the knife out, wiping his fingerprints off the handle. He drops the knife and begins to walk outside.

Click to expand...

Diego pulls the knife from the body, which gives a twitch and lets out a small stream of blood. He gets his hankerchief a bit dirty wiping off the knife blade, it falls to the ground with a clunk in the rapidly spreading pool of blood.

[sblock=Archer]You can see into the stairway behind Diego, your seeing-in-the-dark and heightened senses confirm what he says.

I.e. the stuff from this post[/sblock]

Cole Braddock

"Do any of you know what to make of these. I am afraid that my past dealings leave me at somewhat of a lose when it comes alchemy." Ask Cole as he present the strange looking viles.

"A false stairway with a false stair and a very real knife. We also have a trap door that leads to a second floor. Plus a building that is more of a warren than a real building. Sounds to me like further investigation is called for. Mr. Archer, is it safe to presume that we are alone or should we expect more company?" Asks Cole as he takes a better look at the the trap door in hopes of finding a way to opening it.

Getting something long and prodding at the ceiling (or standing on top of the counter top next to the cash register) allows Cole to push the trap door up. It slides up silently on wooden hinges.
The shaft goes straight up into darkness.

It's a tight fit but wide enough for a single person to crawl up at a time.