Nazareth Awakened - Chapter 02: Wives of Solomon

[Rubberneck]

Before handing the keys over Law has Agnasci pass the shovels and flashlights through the fence (or over the top if they don't fit.) Once the rest of the group is in the cemetery Law grabs 'his' shovel and flashlight and begins looking for the plot.

 

[TillForPie]

Once the group has the flashlights and shovels in hand they begin looking for the plot, which is easier said than done. The huge cemetery is a maze. There are dozens of fields of tombstones - each with dozens or hundreds of rows of graves, some ancient and overgrown, others relatively new. Interspersed among the traditional graves are clusters of above-ground tombs ranging from simple stone sarcophagi to gated mausoleums. The signage is confusing and everything looks like everything else.[sblock=Finding the plot]Law's Roll: Intelligence 3 + Wits 2 - darkness 2 - maze-like 1 = Success with 1 success
Agnasci's Roll: Intelligence 2 + Wits 2 + Sense Consciousness 2 - maze-like 1 = Success with 2 successes
Harper's Roll: Intelligence 3 - Wits 2 - darkness 2 - maze-like 1 = Success with 1 success
Chance's Roll: Intelligence 2 + Wits 3 - darkness 2 - maze-like 1 = Success with 1 success
The group navigates the cemetery pretty quickly[/sblock]Despite the darkness and the maze-like nature of the cemetery the group finds itself honing in on the right group of graves at about 1:45 AM, not too long after their arrival. The section they find themselves in is comprised of somewhat recent burials, most of the occupants having died in the 80s and early 90s.

Agnasci, thanks to his night-vision, finds the right row and jogs down it toward where they've deduced plot 41,433 to be. He feels what they've come for long before he sees it. Somewhere up ahead and a few feet underground is a consciousness. It's incredibly faint - so faint at first it can hardly be said to exist at all. But with Agnasci focusing on it and very few other consciousnesses present to distract him he can be certain of what he's feeling. It registers as a human mind, except it's muted, desaturated. He hasn't used his mind-detecting spell to observe a person in a vegetative state but he imagines that this is what it'd be like.

The four mages gather around the tombstone, their flashlights converging on it:

PAUL CHERRY
APRIL 29, 1916
OCTOBER 8, 1990​

The grave lacks a visible plot number of any sort but Agnasci doesn't need it. He's detecting a consciousness beneath the surface here - and it's only about three feet down.

 

[Mosier]

"Here it is guys," Agnasci says to the others. "I sense him."

When Agnasci detects the consciousness, he'll try to cast Voice From Afar (as long as it still counts as being within sensory range). He'll attempt to say, "Magellan sent us" before starting to dig. Who knows? Maybe the thing can communicate telepathically, and Agnasci will get a response.

 

[TillForPie]

I'll give you sensory range considering how close it is combined with Agnasci's being able to detect its mind with his spell.

It takes Agnasci a few moments and more than one casting to get his message across. This thing still has mental resistance, whatever state it's in.

After a few more moments waiting for a response... nothing.

 

[Shayuri]

"Hold on," Chance says tensely. "I ain't diggin' up this thing without some magic first."

She starts with her old trick of changing how time works around her, making it far easier to avoid incoming damage...but then she switches things up a bit and applies some of her recent studies to the mix. She closes her eyes, trying to 'see' through her understanding of the space of the cemetary. To feel the relative locations of obstacles and distances to make the lack of light irrelevant.

(Temporal Dodge and the Rote, Spatial Map.)

 

[Rubberneck]

Law decides to take the better safe than sorry route as well, first casting Supernal Vision from his newly acquired Arcanum. Then he pulls up Entropic Guard.

"We are setting this thing free and letting it stay in Nazareth, hopefully it takes it as a sign of good faith and doesn't rip us limb from limb. Speaking of which where are we going to put this thing? I have no intentions of letting it shack up with me."

 

[Shayuri]

"Well, I'm glad we're havin' that conversation now and not after its outta the ground," Chance mutters. Her hands flutter around her midsection for a second...habitually seeking the hoody pockets she doesn't currently have.

"What about that mobile home out in the middle of nowhere the bikers were usin' before?" she suggests. "It's pretty much abandoned at this point, and too far from anything for anyone to care about. Could lock it up, cover the windows... Course, it's hard to keep an eye on it during the day."

 

[TillForPie]

OOC: Law would know that the trailer is no longer out in the desert. When the Tucson police (called by Faye - as hinted at by Donnie, Chance's coworker, over the radio) arrived they traced it via its VIN to Traci Mitchell, the woman whose house Law investigated. Like Law they found no trace of her at her home and she's now officially a missing person and the subject of an investigation by the Nazareth PD, though they have no leads to follow. BR's comment overheard by Agnasci ("third time's the charm") doesn't bode well for Traci.

The Winnebago is now in police custody.

 

[Rubberneck]

"The trailer has been impounded by the NPD. He needs a basement or something. Somewhere where there is no chance of light coming in, like an industrial shipping container. Well lets get to diggin."

Law will begin to dig up their new.... Friend.

 

[Shayuri]

"Now hang ON a second!" Chance snaps. "He waited this long, he ken wait a minnit longer while we figure out what to do with him, since I'm pretty sure we're all outta favors from Penrose at the moment. Now I don't have a basement where I'm at, least not that I ken get to. What about you?"