[MISSION] IN THE SHADOW OF THE DRAGON

[khuimods]

Characters: All! Those signed up to teams will have comment headers; there will be opportunities for non-teamed characters.
Date: Feb 15-28, running into the first week of March
Location: Around Aifaran
Situation: The Sentry has called on outside help from the Dreamfolk to deal with a challenging situation
Warnings/Rating: None yet, will be added as needed.


In the early morning hours of February 15th, a fire starts at city hall. The blaze burns hot and quick, but fire teams are able to put it out by the time the sun comes up. The Sentry holds a press conference that afternoon, sharing that the fire is determined to be arson. Witnesses describe someone wearing an ill-fitting Sentry uniform hurrying away from the scene.

The Sentry will announce that, due to the strain on their resources dealing with storm recovery, they are commissioning outside assistance to deal with a number of incidents similar to this one. Dreamfolk in particular are being called upon to once again use their unique abilities to aid the archipelago.

Those who report to the Verdant Sentry Headquarters are briefed on the situation: a contingent of the Sentry is departing Aifaran for the Zoech Lowlands to search for the people missing from Cape Averi. The outpost was found empty after the storm; at first this was presumed to be the fault of the Dreaming, but now they aren't so sure.

Those who choose to assist the Verdant Sentry will be given a small stipend and extended a certain degree of authority to act on the Sentry's behalf. The 'deputized' Dreamfolk will be responsible for investigating discrete incidents to help make up for the reduction in Sentry forces in Aifaran. They are being entrusted not only with these cases, but with the reputation of the Sentry itself.

Although they are requesting this assistance, the Sentry remain tight-lipped about Cape Averi beyond the bare-bones logistics. Their suspicions are not made public, and nor will they be shared with the assembled volunteers unless these investigations intersect. Abuse of this power will not be tolerated.

---

OOC Notes: Characters will be provided with tools needed to conduct the investigation, such as gloves and basic forensics gear (fingerprint dust, evidence collection bags, etc). They will also be handed paperwork

If you did not sign your character(s) up for a team, you can submit a summary of what the character will look into and we will provide a reply as to the findings and effects. This will be a one-time thing for these characters in order to maximize the time for the main mission logistics.

Comments

[psituational]

This is someone X hasn't met before. She has long green... hair?... and ears somewhere between an elf's and an aspen's, pointing straight out. X watches her with interest until she mentions getting the mystery going, at which point he collects himself and nods silently in agreement, stepping towards the files spread out on the table. Time to get started.

"Not officially," he answers Pepper's question quietly. "Not like this. Do you have any advice?"

[unfavorableinstigation]

"You know me, Kai," Nita gently points out, smile briefly resurfacing as she looks up from the files.

She returns to reading and silence, though she's very much paying attention to Pepper's next answer. Any advice would be good to have, here.

[lasergrenades]

"Welcome to the party, Kai," Pepper says, and there's some genuine amusement in her tone. This is a good crew of people to be working with, even with a range of experience.

"Well, as far as advice: wear gloves when you touch evidence, take notes, trust your gut if you get a hunch. It might not pan out, but the only way to hone gut instinct is to start using it," she suggests after a moment. "Specifically for this case? You'll probably get a better feel for it when we go hands-on, so I think we can do a short overview intro type thing and then dig in. Sound good?"

[squidiot]

"Right! Duh-doi." Kai smacks her forehead. "You were reading, so I didn't see your face so much."

She nods aggressively at Pepper's advice, trying to stamp it into her brain. She can be silly, but she's been on Important Missions before. Not like this, because this is definitely not her forte, but she'll try.

[lasergrenades]

"Alright, so, here's basically what we know so far," Pepper begins, reaching for one of the pages she's set out on the table. "A bunch of evidence from totally separate cases was stolen and the lock-up area was sort of trashed. It took a while to hunt everything down, and it's worth checking to see if there's anything else missing from the records, just in case."

She reads out the list of known items that were stolen: a padlock broken by bolt cutters and a confiscated journal containing family trees with a history of native magic, taken from the safe the padlock belonged to; a set of weighted dice and a bag of several hundred rhinn; and a set of forged documents that faked an official watermark.

"Now, inside the secured area, locks and seals were broken to get through them, but the keypad and lock at the entrance are completely fine. Which means whoever this was probably had the access code and maybe stole some keys," she relates, tapping a set of printed photos of the scene and the undamaged door. "On top of that, the security cams were tampered with and one of the night shift guards looks like they were drugged." Pepper lowers her voice and glances to the hallway. "And two junior officers have been out sick since the break-in. This is why my boss's boss's boss thinks it might have been an inside job. I think it's possible, but I'm not 100% convinced yet. It fits almost too well."

The redhead glances around at each of them. "We've got a couple different leads to pursue, but we don't all have to go together to follow each of them. Do you guys feel up to splitting into two groups? I'd like to go talk to the officers - they might be responsive to someone at the same paygrade as them - and taking another pass at the evidence lockup might turn up something other people missed. We can swap yimo numbers to keep in touch."

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita frowns, increasingly so as the explanation goes on, nodding at intervals as the details paint a progressively worse picture.

"So it might as likely be a frame-up..."

One more nod.

"I'm up for the splitting, as long as we don't look out of place anywhere we shouldn't draw too much of the wrong attention.""

She's finally gotten her yimo, not just a username setup on the Network, so at least that's sorted.

[psituational]

The whole thing is much more official than X is used to, but if he doesn't think about that part, then the rest makes sense. Everything Pepper says and suggests makes sense. Talk to the officers who might have had something to do with the break-in, look through the lockers one more time, gather more of the pieces and see if they make a picture.

X stirs and steps forward, reaching for his yimo. "I'll join you talking to the officers," he says, "if Nita and Kai are both alright with that."

[squidiot]

"Yeah, probably a good idea," Kai says to X. "I probably shouldn't talk to officers. They'd probably think I'm just a dumb kid anyway." And you do nothing to dissuade the notion, Kai.

"I am good at finding stuff," she says, "so looking around's fine by me."

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita nods - at X's statement, not Kai's; Kai's earns a cautious look.

"My sister would call that quitter talk," she says, "but I think I could help more with the lockers myself, anyhow."

So that was double the agreement.