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Message: <blockquote data-quote="skotothalamos" data-source="post: 7994368" data-attributes="member: 83398">Later that night, Thor and Rian separated from the rest of the group to coordinate the search for Dr. von Recklinghausen. Dr. Aubrey, Joe Actual and Zamfir headed to The Cracked Cauldron wine bar to meet with Danoran Consulate security chief LeBrix to get his uncensored version of the morning's events.He told them that Nilasa had been visiting the consulate regularly since she started dating security guard Braden, and had brought breakfast that morning, clearly as a distraction for the security staff. At the time, the consul was meeting with an unknown Risuri guest in the basement. LeBrix first became aware of the situation when he heard gunshots from the fourth floor. Investigating, he found the Risuri stranger in the hallway. He shouted orders to LeBrix as though he were in charge and then rushed out of the embassy in pursuit of someone.When the blonde stranger returned, he was injured and smelled of burnt industrial oil. This stranger ordered the Danoran consul to have her on-site cleric heal Nilasa's facial lacerations post-mortem, and then had the consul order LeBrix to cover up the Risuri person's role in the morning affairs. LeBrix offered the cover story that Nilasa had stolen some valuables and that LeBrix had been the one to shoot her.Witness testimony from bystanders on the street, according to LeBrix, indicated that Nilasa had been seen flying out of the fourth-floor window, then two gunshots dropped her to the fence and a man matching the description of Dr. von Recklinghausen had taken items from her as she died and then fled the scene.Based on his assessment of the situation, LeBrix believes that Nilasa stole his files on an investigation into wide-spread smuggling from Danoran-owned factories in Parity Lake. He had uncovered what appeared to be a large amount of industrial supplies going missing somewhere between being loaded onto barges on Parity Lake and arriving at the Flint docks at the other end of the Stanfield Canal.However, when he told the consul, Methia DuNadria, what he had found, she ordered him to drop the investigation and took his files into her own office. LeBrix hasn't pursued the investigation in a few months.After promising to look into this matter again, even if only to find out why Nilasa wanted this file, LeBrix agreed to share any information he found with Joe Actual.The constables then headed for their last stop of the night: the apartment of Professor Lynn Kindleton of Pardwight University. She was the last of von Recklinghausen's references. As they arrived, they noticed that many streetlights around the apartment building had gone out.They approached Kindleton's flat carefully, with Dr. Aubrey's owl Loki scouting ahead. The stairwell and landing light inside Kindleton's building were also extinguished. Joe Actual led the way to a landing with three doors, two of which had light coming from them. Opening one, he discovered Professor Xambria Meredith washing her face. She was surprised to see Joe and asked if he had come to report on more information about her cultist grad student. As Joe tried to explain the situation Xambria grew alarmed and asked why Joe had turned off the the landing light. When Joe said it was that way when she arrived, she told him that the light in her room had been left on when she came to the bathroom, but was now off.Loki scouted out Xambria's room (right next door to Professor Kindleton's), and discovered a blond man in a police uniform lurking near the doorway. The owl immediately fled. Joe followed and found the room empty. Going to the open window to see where the man had run to, Joe was clawed across the face by the invisible man, blinding him. The others tried to follow, but the shadows around them seemed to grow thick and began to grab at them and hold them in place.Dr. Aubrey tried to use Suggestion to make the invisible man surrender, but it failed. However, the effort of resisting that compulsion made him visible, revealing a man who seemed to be made of shadows. Rapidly, the shadows dissipated. revealing bare muscle and sinew in Zamfir's torchlight before the torch extinguished itself and they lost sight of the man again.He seemingly fled out the window and disappeared into the night. After this encounter, the constables had a brief chat with Lynn Kindleton, who mentioned that she had already spoken to an officer earlier that day at her office. She said that she told him the same that she was telling them: she went to school with von Recklinghausen, briefly dated, and remained friends. Recently, he needed to travel to Flint and she gave him a letter of recommendation. He stopped by for lunch within the past week, but that's the last she saw of him.The constables headed back to RHC HQ with much to sort out...</blockquote>

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