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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Golden Bee" data-source="post: 9597976" data-attributes="member: 7041055">Time of the Gargoyle / The Tenement by Oscar RiosIn darkened corridors, rats scurry openly amid the filth. The air is hot and reeking, stale and stagnant, as though no breeze has ever passed through the structure. Many who dwell here are sickly, erupting in coughing fits that often bring up blood.Two New York stories this week. In the first, the group was celebrating the opening of Manhattan’s latest club, The Gargoyle! And yes, the Gray Gargoyle might be history’s first masked vigilante to open his own themed nightclub, but when one has access to a derelict church, it just makes sense. Gia C.M, New Jersey's greatest magician and newest member of the investigator’s team, performed on stage along with stuntwoman Lala Santinella.Backstage, detective JP Diamond was following up on a hunch… when an old enemy came through a portal! The Enigmatic Illusionist, last seen in Paris, was back, but it was actually his younger self. And after taking the stage, he decided to kidnap the Gray Gargoyle… and sent him backward in time, before he could inconvenience crime lord King Solomon! (this could potentially undo the events of the very first written up adventure, Park Slope Snipe Hunt!)The players recruited a nearby Devika, and in a hurry, they were at Solomon's old mansion. There, they found a time machine, and did some research to catch the crooks before they could make a mockery of causality!The blackguards were hiding in New York just days after the 1929 crash. Fortunately, the players had jewelry on them, which they could pawn to get a taxi… and then push the driver into the passenger seat to give chase! After a criminal-thrashing, the group rescued the Gargoyle, who was happy to have Lala as a protégé but refused, once again, to let Devika into the prestigious Century Club. The teenager surprised everyone, however, declaring that she had built a much better club: her detective agency! And she didn't need a bunch of stuffy jerks’ approval. All she needed was the little things: , her million dollars and mystic powers. ***If that adventure was fanciful, the next one was anything but. The group (Lala, JP, and lawyer Tácito U. Velasco) were sent to investigate the disgusting Buckley Arms tenement. They needed to get signatures from residents and photos of code violations, so they could sue the landlord for improvements.Of course, the place was the dankest pit in Hell’s Kitchen. Overflowing mold, holes in the floors, rats by the hundreds, cockroaches by thousands, with a barely used heater and the worst bathroom New York had to offer. (Yes, bathroom, singular.)Along with that, they had four floors of desperate tenants, not all of whom spoke English. Tácito won the affection of the building’s Hispanic children, who were impressed that he was a tough-looking Mexican lawyer in a suit. Lala won over the Italian immigrants; New Orleans native JP did wonders with the African population. But a good deed is seldom easy.The owner, Mr. Grey (no relation to the gargoyle) was a despicable slumlord. His Black Diamond Gang made it clear to the residents that complaints would be dealt with violently. And if it weren't for the brave members of Ziegler Security Services, it would've ended there.Unfortunately, those miserable pricks decided to mess with a war veteran, a stuntwoman and THE JADE JAGUAR! It was a 12-on-3 fight, but spurred on by the cheering children of the apartment complex, Tácito delivered his second favorite type of justice: street justice.The players filed their report, and were waiting in the ZSS office when a phone call came in. Mr. Simone, Grey’s representative, came in with a sleazy settlement offer, most of which would be paid to the investigators. Wise-ass JP and his parrot Tango antagonized Mr. S… then handed the phone to their lawyer. Just in time for their enemy to threaten to Not the kind of thing you wanna say to an officer of the court.Velasco was just as good inside the witness box as he was in the boxing ring. The Buckley Arms would get improvements, massive ones, and a top to bottom cleaning. Grey would get dragged across the front page of every New York paper. A warning to slumlords: fix their buildings or Pay the price.</blockquote>

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