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AGELESS Campaign Episode 2 - Temple of the Cat-Goddess
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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 4751230" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter Seventeen, “The Intruder” September 1st, 1882, 8:30 P.M.</strong></p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, as Roy and Abigail are heading upstairs alongside each other from the second to third floor they hear a 'clunk' sound from further up on the fourth floor, even though no one from that floor (Roy and Fish) have gone up to their rooms yet after dinner. Abby stopped and stood stock-still, holding out her hand to interrupt the probably about to be dirty joke Roy was telling. "You don't suppose Fish is taking an alternative route upstairs?" she asked, clearly not thinking so. "Get help or check it out ourselves?" The opt on the second choice, quietly making their way upstairs and then slide open the door, startling a man who has a slight expression of surprise on his face. </p><p></p><p>Roy states, "You'll be wanting to sit down in that chair behind you, friend, right now or else." Roy very quickly pulls out his pistol and say, "I warned you." Roy thinks to himself, ‘I hope he sits down.’ The man begins to momentarily lean in the direction of the chair, but then springs backwards towards and through the center of the open window in a move very similar to how a pole vaulter clears a pole. Roy's gun is pointed as the man continues to tumble and roll across the third floor dormer roof of Abigail's room. </p><p></p><p>Roy shoots at the figure but misses. He turns to Abby, "At least that warned the rest of them. Go downstairs and tell them what we saw and where he went. And get Fish up here quick!" He moves onto the roof and try to keep an eye on the intruder. The man rolls off the dormer roof and falls to the porch roof below. The man continues to tumble across the porch roof towards the pillar on the east side of the stairs. Roy curses under breath, "I'm gonna f***in' kill myself, I just know it,” as he tries to follow.</p><p></p><p>The fired shot is heard throughout the area. Ruby and George are having their conversation in the bathroom in the southeastern corner of the third floor. Down at the bar Sol, Fish, John, Lawrence and Luiz hear the shot three stories above. In the President's office James and Mina hear the shot. Fish yelps, "Trouble!" -- and sprints toward the stairs. Lawrence freezes as Fish yells, "Trouble." He says to no one in particular, "I'm getting too old for this." The forger-turned-deputy makes his way upstairs to the third floor.</p><p></p><p>Ruby heard the shot and it sounded close. "What was that?" Ruby said out loud, not wasting any time to jump out of the tub. She grabbed a towel, ran to her room, grabbed her gun and ran into the hallway, dripping bubbles the whole time. Holding the towel precariously closed with one hand she said to no one, "What WAS that?" </p><p></p><p>Above, Abigail watches as Roy makes a perfect swan-dive leap out the window and then tumbles across the dormer roof to her room and over the side just as the man did before him. When he thinks he can, Roy decides to take another shot. Abby clenched her teeth at being relegated to nothing more important than getting help. She waited just long enough for Roy to jump out the window, then sent a magic missile down at the fleeing thief before she turned, glanced quickly around the room to make sure the man didn't have an accomplice, then ran for the door to do as Roy has suggested. The missiles strike the man as he rolls off the porch roof and onto the pillar, clearly inflicting damage but not enough to stop him. </p><p></p><p>Outside, Thomas, Alsoomse and Nanuet turn and look up in the direction of the shot. Looking at a part of the building 120 feet to their east they see a man in dark clothing fall onto the porch roof directly above the front steps on the north side of the building. The man rolls off the porch roof beside the pillar and as he is falling the 23 foot length to the ground wraps his arms and legs around the pillar to slow his descent.</p><p></p><p>Thomas, hearing the shot and seeing the man tumbling off the roof and sliding down the pillar, distractedly says "Excuse me, please" to Alsoomse and Nanuet, and then breaks out into a run towards the man, whilst tossing off his dinner jacket and rolling up his cuffs. As he does so, he believes he sees the small figure of Roy sail out the window in a perfect dive, in pursuit of the man. </p><p></p><p>The man reaches the base of the pillar and seeing the half-ogre charging across the lawn, crouches down behind the steps. Roy reaches the edge of the porch roof and manages to stop himself before he falls over. Peering over and down, he sees the man crouched down in the corner and becoming translucent. Roy fires a shot down, the bullet going through where the man is as he fades from sight. Thomas reaches the front steps in time to see Roy's bullet travel through the fading image of the man who then vanishes before his eyes. </p><p></p><p>"Sonofab***h!" Roy yells loudly. He peers down to see if anyone is standing on the porch. When he sees Thomas, he says, "Did you see what I seen, Doc?" He'll jump down into Doc's, hopefully, upstretched arms. When he's back on the ground, he'll look up at Doc. "What the f*** was that all about?!" Roy's still plenty mad about all this. </p><p></p><p>Thomas replies, "I am not entirely sure, Huggins, but assuming whoever that was is not still about under cloak of invisibility (and your shot at him would likely have struck if that was the case), then I believe some other form-altering magicks are afoot here. We should likely summon the others here immediately. Kindly call for them, Roy, whilst I examine the area." </p><p></p><p>Just after he sets Roy down, Thomas dons his spectacles, and then quickly mutters an incantation for Detect Magic, roughly focused on the spot where they last saw the man. The spell draws Thomas's attention to a couple of items lying in the dirt, which appear to have been pushed down by a hand print. He sees that they are a small vial made of dark glass and a wooden cork, each of which still have enough magical elixir residue on them for detection. The spell also has Thomas now noticing a powerful magical aura around the ornate front doors to the building and magical glass on both of the large front windows of Luiz's office. </p><p></p><p>Hardin comes dashing outside, guns drawn, but too late to do any good. "What in blazes is going on out here? Are we under attack already?" The tone in his voice indicates he wouldn't be too unhappy if they were... Roy explains the situation and excuses himself to go back to his room and look if anything is missing. Hardin nods at Roy, half-listening, and watches the beast bound away, trying to sniff out a trail. He cocks his head for a moment, thinking.</p><p></p><p>Nanuet hears the commotion and responds as quickly as possible. "Maska, come!" he says as he moves quickly towards the house following Thomas. Hearing what is going on he kneels down to Maska and says "OK girl, find him!" and sets her loose in the area where the man was last seen. Hardin quickly holsters the Colt Lightening and reaches around behind his back, under his coat-tails. His right hand emerges with a huge long-barreled Colt hand-cannon. He grins, "Just in case..." He starts walking slowly after Maska, raising the weapon to the ready. </p><p></p><p>Thomas stoops and picks up the vial and cork, fastening the stopper, and pocketing it for future examination. "Roy, we should tell the others that our mysterious interloper might still be afoot. It is probably best that we fan out and search carefully, keeping within eyesight and earshot of one another. Unless I am mistaken, I believe Nanuet and his companion might be of some assistance in this regard, perhaps tracking him from this spot where he disappeared." As he says this, Thomas sees Maska run up to the very spot, and notices that Roy has left the area. </p><p></p><p>Roy sees Ruby leaning out of the third floor window, trying to see what's going on. "Oh, Roy, hey. What's going on? I thought I heard a gunshot." She adjusts the towel, pulling it a little tighter. Lawrence reaches the third floor and hearing Ruby’s voice heads to that room. "What's going on? Is anyone hurt? Whoa." He turns his eyes from Ruby. "Sorry Ruby. I didn't realize you were not decent." </p><p></p><p>"Not decent?" She adjusts the towel again, "What are you talking about? I'm always more than decent. I should be insulted," she laughed. "Did YOU see what happened? I don't think anyone is hurt up here. Roy's at a loss for words for some reason but otherwise I don't know what is going on." Lawrence replies, "I didn't mean anything by it. Just that you're wearing just a towel and all." He looks pointedly at her face. "Ahem. All I heard was a faint gunshot and then Fish said there was trouble. Where is Fish, was it an accident?" </p><p></p><p>Ruby replies, "Yes, I suppose it's not the usual outfit you see women in," Ruby laughed. "I don't know where he is or what is going on at all. I'm not exactly in the position to go exploring and I'm not sure I am needed to go running off. So unless I hear something else I will probably go back to my bath. " Roy has arrived on the third floor and states, "Well if it makes you uncomfortable, by all means feel free to not wear it," with a wink. "I don't know what was going on, but somebody was rifling through my room but it looks like he got away. He just kind of... disappeared. Literally. Anyway, I'm going to go see if he took anything." </p><p></p><p>Although he's the first person from the lobby up the stairs (zoinks! can that boy ever move!), Fish is too late to intervene. Ruby's bare legs distract him, but he quickly gathers from what the ladies tell him what has just transpired. His brow furrows, and he immediately dashes to his own room to check the duffle under his bunk.*</p><p></p><p>Roy tells of the man vanishing in midair. Ruby interjects, "Oh, invisible huh? I can do that...." her voice trailed off as she realized she was alone. She shrugged. Lawrence and Roy and Fish had all hurried off to check their rooms and Ruby found herself standing alone, wet and chilled in the hallway. She went back to her room and looked around for a bit to see if anything was out of place. Once she was pretty sure nothing was missing she returned to the bathroom and reheated and rebubbled her bath. Someone would let her know if things were amiss and she was needed. She settled in the bath again and hoped for a quiet rest of the night. </p><p></p><p>Maska and Nanuet find no fresh tracks. They do discover another trail two porch pillars away (the northeast corner pillar of the front porch) that has the exact same scent. Nanuet guesses it to be around two hours old, which would have been when the group would have been sitting down to start dinner. The pillar was painted recently enough that scratches are visible where the man apparently climbed up. </p><p></p><p>Backtracking on the trail from this pillar it heads northeast across the dirt lawn, soon intersecting with one of the stone bicycle paths heading northeast along the river. About a half-mile east they reach a point where the smaller St. Johns Creek flows into the river. </p><p></p><p>At that spot they find evidence based upon the indentations on the shore, where a small boat appears to have been pulled up onto the shore and temporarily hidden in the reeds. Nanuet finds four sets of footprints in the damp marsh-like soil, two fresh and two a few hours older, both from the same pairs of feet. The larger pair appear to be from a male wearing either mocassins or some similar type of form-fitting shoe. The other pair of shoes appear to be from a woman's boots. The boat is now gone and they do not see it on the river. </p><p></p><p>After a quick stop downstairs to let the Parker's and anyone else still downstairs what had happened, Abby continued on outside still in her stocking feet. Nanuet will gather the group together and explain what he and Maska found. "There was no trail leading away from here, but I did find the trail leading to the house. It lead me northeast to the river where I found signs of a boat and a second set of footprints. Did anyone get a good look at the person? The tracks seem to indicate a man and a woman exited and returned to the boat." </p><p></p><p>Abby states, "I saw him, but he obviously knew what he was doing. He was all in black, including wearing soft shoes that would be exceptionally silent. It couldn't have been more than luck that Roy and I heard him before Roy reached his room.” Nanuet says, "That explains the tracks I found at the river. They were some sort of soft sided form fittings shoes. Perhaps we need to start a watch, have someone keeping a lookout at all hours of the day and night?" Luiz says that he spoke to the Delroy-Kingsleys and that Jasper, Obie and Enoch will take turns guarding at night from the front porch and around the house with their hound dogs. </p><p></p><p>Thomas says, "Indeed, that's probably a good idea, contingent upon whether we discover further intrusion into the more secure areas have occurred or not." He looks around at the assembled group, and lowers his voice: "We should also ask Mr. Parker and Dr. Chernoviz as how well any staff or associates related to the estate have been vetted. I do hate the very thought of mentioning this, but I am concerned that our intruder might have had a greater knowledge of the interiors than what might be gleaned from a cursory external perusal of the house and surrounding area. The fact that he struck whilst we were at dinner puts me at great unease." A bby nodded. "Best to look into every possibility, no matter how careful Mr. Parker may be." </p><p></p><p>Abby says, “He was fairly non-descript, although he did have a rather long nose. He was searching Roy's room, and if he was here for some time we should all check our belongings. He couldn't have taken anything large, but he had pouches on his belt, so small things could be gone." Walking up after retrieving his dinner jacket, Thomas says "Agreed, and I would add that his acrobatic departure indicates professional training or experience, similar to what one would expect from a circus performer or show gymnast. And then there is this..." Thomas removes the vial and stopper from his pocket.</p><p></p><p>"I imagine that we will find that this is some potion, likely of wizard magic devising, that enabled our unwelcome guest to dissipate his form, as opposed to merely cloaking him in invisibility. So what we have is a trained professional of some sort, with some kind of magical assistance or backing. We should ascertain whether any of the inner sanctums of the house were violated ... my guess is that he was not here to rifle through our undergarments." </p><p></p><p>"Well, maybe not yours..." Abby said with a grin. "I'm sure you're right, and if he's that professional he'd have a chance at finding some of the secret places. Mr. Parker should do that search, although someone with sharp eyes should help with that. It didn’t take long for our lives to get exciting, did it?" Thomas looks down into Abigail's eyes, and smiles, saying "Well, Miss Marsters, it is always exciting whenever you are around." </p><p></p><p>Taking just a moment too long to reply to appear unflapped by the compliment she answered, "I hope you like things exciting then. It's certainly nice to be appreciated. And when are you going to start calling me Abigail? It's perfectly alright, you know." Thomas bows slightly, "Well, old habits die hard, and I imagine I do not need to remind you that Queen Victoria's subjects throughout the world embrace decorum and etiquette above all else... Abigail." </p><p></p><p>She replies, "Indeed, and I have the finest manners in the world, when they're required. But it's nice to hear my name spoken by a friend," she said, giving him a gracious curtsey the equal of his bow, followed by lifting up her foot in just stockings. "Loses a bit of effect without shoes, doesn't it?" </p><p></p><p>Both fourth floor residents discover that they items appear to have been looked at, although nothing seems to be missing. Sol stops by to check each room and find out the status. Sol informs James that "None of the small staircase panels or trap doors appear to have been disturbed so the intruder stuck to the main staircases. He appears to have entered from the porch roof to and checked out most rooms on the third and forth floor. There is no evidence that the second floor or roof were breached." </p><p></p><p>After a half-hour Luiz returns with the vial and says, “I have analyzed the residue from the vial and cork, it is clearly an Elixir of Ethrealness. There are several variations on this type of potion. It was first invented seventy-five years ago by the renowned French alchemist Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, who is still alive and also one of the French wizards on the list of fifty-two that we mentioned after dinner. However, this specific version of the elixir is not the one by Gay-Lussic.</p><p></p><p>This one appears to being a fast-acting version that is created for and used almost exclusively by the Swiss military. Producing this version of the elixir requires some very special equipment and also a rare component, the blood of an elusive ferret-like animal that lives in the Swiss and Italian Alps. A small number of these elixirs are commercially available, sold on the black market by corrupt members of the Swiss Army’s Quartermaster Corps. The current retail cost for a single-dose vial of this type of elixir is in the $1,200 to $1,500 range.”</p><p></p><p>Sol says, “I am acquainted with two individuals in the Jacksonville area who traffic in high-priced contraband goods, including magical elixirs. It probability came from one of them. I had planned to introduce either Lawrence, Benjamin or Roy to each of these individuals within the next week. We could make inquiries about this specific type of elixir. I sincerely doubt that either would reveal the identity of their customers, but we could possibly get a message delivered to the purchaser through the seller.” </p><p></p><p>James tells the others, “The intruder’s identity remains a mystery. We have no reason to believe that the French wizards are aware of our activities yet. It is possible that the archmage in New Orleans could have discovered Benjamin’s recent activities.” Luiz interjects, “Doubtful, I am familiar with that man from my time in France. He would not have been sneaking around. His style would be with a direct confrontation in the most flamboyant manner possible.”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 4751230, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter Seventeen, “The Intruder” September 1st, 1882, 8:30 P.M.[/B] Meanwhile, as Roy and Abigail are heading upstairs alongside each other from the second to third floor they hear a 'clunk' sound from further up on the fourth floor, even though no one from that floor (Roy and Fish) have gone up to their rooms yet after dinner. Abby stopped and stood stock-still, holding out her hand to interrupt the probably about to be dirty joke Roy was telling. "You don't suppose Fish is taking an alternative route upstairs?" she asked, clearly not thinking so. "Get help or check it out ourselves?" The opt on the second choice, quietly making their way upstairs and then slide open the door, startling a man who has a slight expression of surprise on his face. Roy states, "You'll be wanting to sit down in that chair behind you, friend, right now or else." Roy very quickly pulls out his pistol and say, "I warned you." Roy thinks to himself, ‘I hope he sits down.’ The man begins to momentarily lean in the direction of the chair, but then springs backwards towards and through the center of the open window in a move very similar to how a pole vaulter clears a pole. Roy's gun is pointed as the man continues to tumble and roll across the third floor dormer roof of Abigail's room. Roy shoots at the figure but misses. He turns to Abby, "At least that warned the rest of them. Go downstairs and tell them what we saw and where he went. And get Fish up here quick!" He moves onto the roof and try to keep an eye on the intruder. The man rolls off the dormer roof and falls to the porch roof below. The man continues to tumble across the porch roof towards the pillar on the east side of the stairs. Roy curses under breath, "I'm gonna f***in' kill myself, I just know it,” as he tries to follow. The fired shot is heard throughout the area. Ruby and George are having their conversation in the bathroom in the southeastern corner of the third floor. Down at the bar Sol, Fish, John, Lawrence and Luiz hear the shot three stories above. In the President's office James and Mina hear the shot. Fish yelps, "Trouble!" -- and sprints toward the stairs. Lawrence freezes as Fish yells, "Trouble." He says to no one in particular, "I'm getting too old for this." The forger-turned-deputy makes his way upstairs to the third floor. Ruby heard the shot and it sounded close. "What was that?" Ruby said out loud, not wasting any time to jump out of the tub. She grabbed a towel, ran to her room, grabbed her gun and ran into the hallway, dripping bubbles the whole time. Holding the towel precariously closed with one hand she said to no one, "What WAS that?" Above, Abigail watches as Roy makes a perfect swan-dive leap out the window and then tumbles across the dormer roof to her room and over the side just as the man did before him. When he thinks he can, Roy decides to take another shot. Abby clenched her teeth at being relegated to nothing more important than getting help. She waited just long enough for Roy to jump out the window, then sent a magic missile down at the fleeing thief before she turned, glanced quickly around the room to make sure the man didn't have an accomplice, then ran for the door to do as Roy has suggested. The missiles strike the man as he rolls off the porch roof and onto the pillar, clearly inflicting damage but not enough to stop him. Outside, Thomas, Alsoomse and Nanuet turn and look up in the direction of the shot. Looking at a part of the building 120 feet to their east they see a man in dark clothing fall onto the porch roof directly above the front steps on the north side of the building. The man rolls off the porch roof beside the pillar and as he is falling the 23 foot length to the ground wraps his arms and legs around the pillar to slow his descent. Thomas, hearing the shot and seeing the man tumbling off the roof and sliding down the pillar, distractedly says "Excuse me, please" to Alsoomse and Nanuet, and then breaks out into a run towards the man, whilst tossing off his dinner jacket and rolling up his cuffs. As he does so, he believes he sees the small figure of Roy sail out the window in a perfect dive, in pursuit of the man. The man reaches the base of the pillar and seeing the half-ogre charging across the lawn, crouches down behind the steps. Roy reaches the edge of the porch roof and manages to stop himself before he falls over. Peering over and down, he sees the man crouched down in the corner and becoming translucent. Roy fires a shot down, the bullet going through where the man is as he fades from sight. Thomas reaches the front steps in time to see Roy's bullet travel through the fading image of the man who then vanishes before his eyes. "Sonofab***h!" Roy yells loudly. He peers down to see if anyone is standing on the porch. When he sees Thomas, he says, "Did you see what I seen, Doc?" He'll jump down into Doc's, hopefully, upstretched arms. When he's back on the ground, he'll look up at Doc. "What the f*** was that all about?!" Roy's still plenty mad about all this. Thomas replies, "I am not entirely sure, Huggins, but assuming whoever that was is not still about under cloak of invisibility (and your shot at him would likely have struck if that was the case), then I believe some other form-altering magicks are afoot here. We should likely summon the others here immediately. Kindly call for them, Roy, whilst I examine the area." Just after he sets Roy down, Thomas dons his spectacles, and then quickly mutters an incantation for Detect Magic, roughly focused on the spot where they last saw the man. The spell draws Thomas's attention to a couple of items lying in the dirt, which appear to have been pushed down by a hand print. He sees that they are a small vial made of dark glass and a wooden cork, each of which still have enough magical elixir residue on them for detection. The spell also has Thomas now noticing a powerful magical aura around the ornate front doors to the building and magical glass on both of the large front windows of Luiz's office. Hardin comes dashing outside, guns drawn, but too late to do any good. "What in blazes is going on out here? Are we under attack already?" The tone in his voice indicates he wouldn't be too unhappy if they were... Roy explains the situation and excuses himself to go back to his room and look if anything is missing. Hardin nods at Roy, half-listening, and watches the beast bound away, trying to sniff out a trail. He cocks his head for a moment, thinking. Nanuet hears the commotion and responds as quickly as possible. "Maska, come!" he says as he moves quickly towards the house following Thomas. Hearing what is going on he kneels down to Maska and says "OK girl, find him!" and sets her loose in the area where the man was last seen. Hardin quickly holsters the Colt Lightening and reaches around behind his back, under his coat-tails. His right hand emerges with a huge long-barreled Colt hand-cannon. He grins, "Just in case..." He starts walking slowly after Maska, raising the weapon to the ready. Thomas stoops and picks up the vial and cork, fastening the stopper, and pocketing it for future examination. "Roy, we should tell the others that our mysterious interloper might still be afoot. It is probably best that we fan out and search carefully, keeping within eyesight and earshot of one another. Unless I am mistaken, I believe Nanuet and his companion might be of some assistance in this regard, perhaps tracking him from this spot where he disappeared." As he says this, Thomas sees Maska run up to the very spot, and notices that Roy has left the area. Roy sees Ruby leaning out of the third floor window, trying to see what's going on. "Oh, Roy, hey. What's going on? I thought I heard a gunshot." She adjusts the towel, pulling it a little tighter. Lawrence reaches the third floor and hearing Ruby’s voice heads to that room. "What's going on? Is anyone hurt? Whoa." He turns his eyes from Ruby. "Sorry Ruby. I didn't realize you were not decent." "Not decent?" She adjusts the towel again, "What are you talking about? I'm always more than decent. I should be insulted," she laughed. "Did YOU see what happened? I don't think anyone is hurt up here. Roy's at a loss for words for some reason but otherwise I don't know what is going on." Lawrence replies, "I didn't mean anything by it. Just that you're wearing just a towel and all." He looks pointedly at her face. "Ahem. All I heard was a faint gunshot and then Fish said there was trouble. Where is Fish, was it an accident?" Ruby replies, "Yes, I suppose it's not the usual outfit you see women in," Ruby laughed. "I don't know where he is or what is going on at all. I'm not exactly in the position to go exploring and I'm not sure I am needed to go running off. So unless I hear something else I will probably go back to my bath. " Roy has arrived on the third floor and states, "Well if it makes you uncomfortable, by all means feel free to not wear it," with a wink. "I don't know what was going on, but somebody was rifling through my room but it looks like he got away. He just kind of... disappeared. Literally. Anyway, I'm going to go see if he took anything." Although he's the first person from the lobby up the stairs (zoinks! can that boy ever move!), Fish is too late to intervene. Ruby's bare legs distract him, but he quickly gathers from what the ladies tell him what has just transpired. His brow furrows, and he immediately dashes to his own room to check the duffle under his bunk.* Roy tells of the man vanishing in midair. Ruby interjects, "Oh, invisible huh? I can do that...." her voice trailed off as she realized she was alone. She shrugged. Lawrence and Roy and Fish had all hurried off to check their rooms and Ruby found herself standing alone, wet and chilled in the hallway. She went back to her room and looked around for a bit to see if anything was out of place. Once she was pretty sure nothing was missing she returned to the bathroom and reheated and rebubbled her bath. Someone would let her know if things were amiss and she was needed. She settled in the bath again and hoped for a quiet rest of the night. Maska and Nanuet find no fresh tracks. They do discover another trail two porch pillars away (the northeast corner pillar of the front porch) that has the exact same scent. Nanuet guesses it to be around two hours old, which would have been when the group would have been sitting down to start dinner. The pillar was painted recently enough that scratches are visible where the man apparently climbed up. Backtracking on the trail from this pillar it heads northeast across the dirt lawn, soon intersecting with one of the stone bicycle paths heading northeast along the river. About a half-mile east they reach a point where the smaller St. Johns Creek flows into the river. At that spot they find evidence based upon the indentations on the shore, where a small boat appears to have been pulled up onto the shore and temporarily hidden in the reeds. Nanuet finds four sets of footprints in the damp marsh-like soil, two fresh and two a few hours older, both from the same pairs of feet. The larger pair appear to be from a male wearing either mocassins or some similar type of form-fitting shoe. The other pair of shoes appear to be from a woman's boots. The boat is now gone and they do not see it on the river. After a quick stop downstairs to let the Parker's and anyone else still downstairs what had happened, Abby continued on outside still in her stocking feet. Nanuet will gather the group together and explain what he and Maska found. "There was no trail leading away from here, but I did find the trail leading to the house. It lead me northeast to the river where I found signs of a boat and a second set of footprints. Did anyone get a good look at the person? The tracks seem to indicate a man and a woman exited and returned to the boat." Abby states, "I saw him, but he obviously knew what he was doing. He was all in black, including wearing soft shoes that would be exceptionally silent. It couldn't have been more than luck that Roy and I heard him before Roy reached his room.” Nanuet says, "That explains the tracks I found at the river. They were some sort of soft sided form fittings shoes. Perhaps we need to start a watch, have someone keeping a lookout at all hours of the day and night?" Luiz says that he spoke to the Delroy-Kingsleys and that Jasper, Obie and Enoch will take turns guarding at night from the front porch and around the house with their hound dogs. Thomas says, "Indeed, that's probably a good idea, contingent upon whether we discover further intrusion into the more secure areas have occurred or not." He looks around at the assembled group, and lowers his voice: "We should also ask Mr. Parker and Dr. Chernoviz as how well any staff or associates related to the estate have been vetted. I do hate the very thought of mentioning this, but I am concerned that our intruder might have had a greater knowledge of the interiors than what might be gleaned from a cursory external perusal of the house and surrounding area. The fact that he struck whilst we were at dinner puts me at great unease." A bby nodded. "Best to look into every possibility, no matter how careful Mr. Parker may be." Abby says, “He was fairly non-descript, although he did have a rather long nose. He was searching Roy's room, and if he was here for some time we should all check our belongings. He couldn't have taken anything large, but he had pouches on his belt, so small things could be gone." Walking up after retrieving his dinner jacket, Thomas says "Agreed, and I would add that his acrobatic departure indicates professional training or experience, similar to what one would expect from a circus performer or show gymnast. And then there is this..." Thomas removes the vial and stopper from his pocket. "I imagine that we will find that this is some potion, likely of wizard magic devising, that enabled our unwelcome guest to dissipate his form, as opposed to merely cloaking him in invisibility. So what we have is a trained professional of some sort, with some kind of magical assistance or backing. We should ascertain whether any of the inner sanctums of the house were violated ... my guess is that he was not here to rifle through our undergarments." "Well, maybe not yours..." Abby said with a grin. "I'm sure you're right, and if he's that professional he'd have a chance at finding some of the secret places. Mr. Parker should do that search, although someone with sharp eyes should help with that. It didn’t take long for our lives to get exciting, did it?" Thomas looks down into Abigail's eyes, and smiles, saying "Well, Miss Marsters, it is always exciting whenever you are around." Taking just a moment too long to reply to appear unflapped by the compliment she answered, "I hope you like things exciting then. It's certainly nice to be appreciated. And when are you going to start calling me Abigail? It's perfectly alright, you know." Thomas bows slightly, "Well, old habits die hard, and I imagine I do not need to remind you that Queen Victoria's subjects throughout the world embrace decorum and etiquette above all else... Abigail." She replies, "Indeed, and I have the finest manners in the world, when they're required. But it's nice to hear my name spoken by a friend," she said, giving him a gracious curtsey the equal of his bow, followed by lifting up her foot in just stockings. "Loses a bit of effect without shoes, doesn't it?" Both fourth floor residents discover that they items appear to have been looked at, although nothing seems to be missing. Sol stops by to check each room and find out the status. Sol informs James that "None of the small staircase panels or trap doors appear to have been disturbed so the intruder stuck to the main staircases. He appears to have entered from the porch roof to and checked out most rooms on the third and forth floor. There is no evidence that the second floor or roof were breached." After a half-hour Luiz returns with the vial and says, “I have analyzed the residue from the vial and cork, it is clearly an Elixir of Ethrealness. There are several variations on this type of potion. It was first invented seventy-five years ago by the renowned French alchemist Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, who is still alive and also one of the French wizards on the list of fifty-two that we mentioned after dinner. However, this specific version of the elixir is not the one by Gay-Lussic. This one appears to being a fast-acting version that is created for and used almost exclusively by the Swiss military. Producing this version of the elixir requires some very special equipment and also a rare component, the blood of an elusive ferret-like animal that lives in the Swiss and Italian Alps. A small number of these elixirs are commercially available, sold on the black market by corrupt members of the Swiss Army’s Quartermaster Corps. The current retail cost for a single-dose vial of this type of elixir is in the $1,200 to $1,500 range.” Sol says, “I am acquainted with two individuals in the Jacksonville area who traffic in high-priced contraband goods, including magical elixirs. It probability came from one of them. I had planned to introduce either Lawrence, Benjamin or Roy to each of these individuals within the next week. We could make inquiries about this specific type of elixir. I sincerely doubt that either would reveal the identity of their customers, but we could possibly get a message delivered to the purchaser through the seller.” James tells the others, “The intruder’s identity remains a mystery. We have no reason to believe that the French wizards are aware of our activities yet. It is possible that the archmage in New Orleans could have discovered Benjamin’s recent activities.” Luiz interjects, “Doubtful, I am familiar with that man from my time in France. He would not have been sneaking around. His style would be with a direct confrontation in the most flamboyant manner possible.” [/QUOTE]
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