Mystery 1

Intro

 * The group left the kebab shop and headed towards the Academy of Natural Sciences. When they got closer, they saw police barricades set up around the area. The team decided to look for another way in. "They can't have every road blocked," said Frank. After spending some time checkign every other way in, it turned out that they did, in fact, have every road blocked. Having no back way in, and after discussing the possibility of climbing an adjacent building and moving to the museum across the connected roofs, the team decided to try to bluff their way through a police barricade and gain access through the roof. Pulling up to a barricade, Frank Smith rolled the window down and told the officer "There's an electrical issue in that building, I need to get in to fix it before it starts a fire!"

The Mystery Begins...

 * The officer waved Frank & Co through the barricade on the condition that he check in with Detective Pat Eagan and get an escort to the building he needed to check. Frank dropped the rest of the group off in the alley behind the museum and headed back to check in with Eagan as promised. Eagan, busy getting reports from officers investigating the museum, ignored Frank for a while.


 * Back in the alley, Delta tossed Tea Mongerer up to the fire escape, only to find it was locked. After unlatching the ladder, Tea Mongerer threw it down to his allies below. Loudly, as it turns out. Zachariah Silversmith, with his hearing still partially enhanced, heard approaching footsteps and warned the group. Delta and Tea Mongerer quickly scaled the fire escape as Zach cast a hurried spell to enhance his legs and leapt up to the first floor landing. Catching up to the others quickly with his rapidly-failing leg enhancement, the trio continued towards the roof. Aldrich Gresham, being too slow to scramble up the fire escape and having no magic at his fingertips to throw himself upwards, reached into a nearby trashcan and grabbed the first glass bottle he could find, then threw himself behind a dumpster as the first officer rounded the corner of the alley. Spotting part of his foot sticking out from behind the dumpster, the two officers moved in to investigate as Delta and Tea Mongerer debated body slamming them from the "top rope" about 50 feet above the alley. When Al refused to answer the officers' questions, they picked him up and dragged him down towards where Detective Eagan was directing the investigation.


 * Up on the roof, Tea Mongerer and Delta discussed the merits of throwing Tea Mongerer through the 12' high plexiglass wall that ringed the roof of the Museum. Zach cast a divination spell to observe the other roof from a bird's eye view above it to check it for any police. He confirmed it was clear, then noticed a figure crouched behind a maintenance shed behind them. He informed the other two, and when Delta drew shkler revolver Heinz popped up, hands in the air, and called out to the group that he was not a threat. After swapping a bit of information, the group learned that Heinz knew a bit about magic (having identified Zach's divination spell), and was in the area investigating the same mysterious deaths that drew the MOPS crew here. Though he hadn't seen the bodies yet, since they were "burned and melted" according to the police reports he'd heard over his scanner he had a few guesses as to the cause. "Could be an Ifrit," he continued, "Or some other general fire spirit, I guess. Melting isn't really an Ifrit's style, but honestly? I'd need more info to make a good guess." As the group discussed, Al was dragged up to Detective Eagan.


 * When Al continued feigning drunkenness, Eagan asked Ramirez and his partner to toss Al into a nearby squad car until they had time to deal with him. Noticing Frank standing nearby as he watched Al be put into the car, Eagan waved Frank over and asked what he wanted again. "Some kind of electrical... something? What's up?" "There's a high priority electrical issue in that building," Frank said, pointing to the building his new friends were on top of, "And unless it's dealt with immediately it could cause a fire." "Alright Ramirez, take him down there to check it out, and keep me posted." As the two made their way towards the nearest entrance of the building, Frank told Ramirez he had to run out on short notice and didn't have a key to the building. "But we patrol this area constantly, so half these swanky places don't even bother locking their doors at night. Let's try a few, maybe we'll get lucky." The first two doors they tried were locked up tight, but the third swung open when they tried its handle. "Alright I'm gonna stay out here, it's nearly six in the morning and I've been up for over a day. I'm not hauling myself up and down those stairs. You need anything let me know, otherwise you know where to find me." Leaning against the wall in the doorway, he lit a cigarette as Frank tromped upwards to join his friends.


 * Up on the rooftop, Heinz was swapping info with the MOPS trio. "So you guys are freelance, right? You don't look like cops," he grinned, looking from Delta's scales to Tea Mongerer's mask, "and you're sure as hell not with The Bureau. So I'm guessing freelance, yeah?" The group nodded, and asked who he worked with. "Nobody. Used to run with a group of hunters, but we uh... didn't see eye to eye. So they took off. Past six, seven months though, it's just been me. I'm not a hunter really, but I go in, grab some info, throw it up on the 'net for someone else to come clean up. There's always some witch or warlock looking for ghouls' toes or minotaur testicles to give their next spell a little extra punch, you know what I mean?" He nudged Zach, who did not know what he meant. "So here's the deal," he continued, "I'm gonna let you guys take the lead on this one. I'm not cut out for hunting, but here," he said, rummaging through his pockets and coming out with a scrap of paper and a bit of charcoal, "Here's your number, you need any info you gimme a call. If you can get a picture of the thing, I can help you out, or if not just send me a shot of the bodies and maybe I can take a guess." Frank emerged from the stairwell behind him as Heinz passed Zach the scrawled number. Turning to leave, he nodded to Frank and disappeared down the stairwell.


 * With most of the group back together, the next task was to get Al free from the squad car he was handcuffed in. 'Borrowing' a key from Frank, Zach prepared a spell to unlock the car door and allow Al to escape. He began to chant an incantation as the key spun and melted in his hands, and after a minute or so the door opposite the group of police unlocked itself with a loud KNOCK. Eagan shot Al a look, assuming he'd banged on the window, but quickly turned back to his work. Al spotted an opportunity, and rolled out the newly-unlocked door and snuck across the street to a dark alley. Cutting down the alley, Al noticed a policeman on patrol passing in front of the other end of the alley. With that way blocked off, he crept slowly back across the road towards the building the rest of his group had scaled. As he got to the base of the ladder, Zach came down to help out with his handcuffs. Not wanting to draw more attention, he waved down Delta to deal with the cuffs more stealthily. Easily snapping the chain between the cuffs, Delta led the others back up to the rooftop. While Al and Tea Mongerer quietly argued over what "quietly unlock that fire escape" meant, Zach conjured a wall to use as a ramp to get over the museum rooftop's plexiglass wall and the group hopped over onto the museum's roof.


 * After some investigation, the group discovered scorch marks on the floor of the Special Exhibits Prep room. Unfortunately the door was locked with a keypad, so the team couldn't get in to check it out. By casting his consciousness down the hallway, Zach was able to overhear a conversation between a 'Chris' and a 'Ferrara' wherein Ferrara mentioned that three people had died and pleaded with Chris to close the museum. Not wanting to damage the museum's image or alarm local residents, Chris declined. The museum would open as usual. The gang continued their nocturnal exploration, but didn't turn up much before the morning crew started filtering into the building. The only notable discovery was a Libra Mystica that called to Delta and Zach as they entered the library. There were some small shamanic fetishes in the North American Hall that tingled when Zach touched them, but they were placed back into their display. As Al, Zach, and Frank headed up the stairs back to the roof, Delta and Tea Mongerer waited for the elevator. The doors opened and the cleaning woman inside screamed in terror at the masked man and lizard thing looming in the doorway. After a failed attempt by Tea Mongerer to convince her that he was part of the Mexican Wrestling exhibit, Delta reached in and pressed the button for Ground Level and the pair raced up the stairs to the roof. With Security hot on their heels, the party sprinted up Zach's wall and vaulted across the gap back to the other roof. Sustaining some minor injuries but soldiering on, everyone was able to hide before the guards made it to the roof. As Frank headed down to check in with Ramirez, Tea Mongerer split off to find a costume shop to disguise himself in. After Frank went in to check out the museum, the group realized they had never traded numbers and had no way to get in touch with Frank. Al texted his mom to see if she had his cousin's number, and eventually got in touch with his Aunt Ruth (Frank's mom). While he waited on a response, Al headed out to find some casual clothes to change into. Delta flipped through the Libra while Zach twiddled his thumbs, and the group waited to contact Frank. Al got his cousin's number and sent it to the group, and Frank filled them in on the current status from inside the museum. When the rest of the group had regrouped on the rooftop, they headed down into the museum.


 * After spending a few hours searching the museum, the group was only able to find a bit more information. There'd been a delivery of bones and artifacts from an Egyptian tomb. The museum recently received a load of fossils from the Mesozoic Era that the group watched Dr. Ferrara prepare for display. The current featured exhibits in the North American hall were a Wendigo's Paw and a large, mismatched rack of elk antlers that had been part of a tribal shaman's ritual headdress. There was a rattling in the vents. Which of these were secretly sinister, and which were harmless? Seeking more information, Zach briefly questioned Ferrara, who left in tears when he mentioned her team. Al and Zach each talked to Chris Larsen at one of the information booths, and a quick check of the museum's website revealed the names of all active staff: Prof. Josh Singer, Toxicology & Mycology; Dr Kelley Morrison, Archaeology (Acquisitions); Dr Jennifer Sofia, Archaeology (Prep & Maintenance); Dr Francesca Ferrara, Archaeology (Research); Michelle Fitzsimmons, Intern; Chris Larsen, Administrator. While the team regrouped in the Museum Commons, they noticed Detective Eagan in the lobby in plainclothes. He crossed the lobby and leaned against the wall in a corner as he looked at the crowd in the lobby. While the group was discussing the implications of him being here, they heard a loud scream from upstairs. Eagan took off across the lobby and up the stairwell, followed quickly by Delta and Tea Mongerer. Al, Zach, and Frank headed up the cafe stairs to the second floor. The area was nearly empty as people streamed down the stairs and out of the museum, and since they didn't see Eagan or their compatriots, the trio crossed to the stairwell they'd gone up and headed up another floor. Delta and Tea Mongerer followed Eagan to the Asian & African Hall, where the others caught up to them. Tea Mongerer pushed his way through the crowd and saw what everyone was clustered around- the partially-missing remains of a middle aged man. Half his torso was gone, with bubbling, melted skin around the area. He was lying near a destroyed entrance to a vent, the metal corroded and melted away. As Tea Mongerer tried to slip away, Eagan noticed him and pulled him aside. Frank followed them to the Library, and as Eagan questioned Tea Mongerer about who he was and what he was doing in the museum the night before, Frank jumped in and explained everything. Eagan, out of his depth and running on fumes, roped in the MOPS crew to help out. They helped him clear the Hall of civilians, with Tea Mongerer drawing the bulk away with promises of selfies and autographs in the Lobby downstairs. Eagan explained to Frank and Al that three similarly-damaged bodies were found the night before in the Special Exhibits Prep room, as Delta kicked in the door to that same room on the floor below. Searching the scene, shklee determined that something (or somethings) burst from inside one of the wooden crates and sprayed something in four different spots. There were bits of skin and hair fused into the carpet in some spots, as well as areas where it looked like part of the carpet had been torn up. Part of a wall was warped and crumbling, and the wooden crates looked about the same. Checking the shipping label on the box that had housed whatever burst out, Delta determined that it had come from the Gobi Desert. Shklee checked out the stairwell attached to the room as Zach moved to the Ground Level to check the Staff Room door they'd seen Ferrara enter earlier. Zach and Delta, from different viewpoints, saw Ferrara, Chris, and a woman they didn't recognize silently sitting around a table in various states of shock and anxiety. They got a text from Frank asking them to come up to talk to Eagan, and as Zach ascended the nearby stairs Delta texted back that shklee'd found something, and asked the group to come down and meet shkler in the Special Exhibits Prep room. Al and Zach each checked out the body and the surrounding area, and mentioned to Eagan that there was a rattle in the heating system. He explained it away as a loose casing on a furnace fan in the maintenance area downstairs. Most of the group headed downstairs to meet up with Delta, but Zach stayed behind to check out the body with Eagan.


 * Intrigued by the carnage in the Special Exhibits Gallery, Al began to sift through the debris in search of a greater understanding of the threat at hand. Frank continued downstairs to meet up with Delta, who was keeping an eye on the trio at the staff room lunch table. "I think you'll be better off talking to them than me," shklee rasped. Frank stepped in and convinced them that he was working with Eagan, who needed them upstairs. They collected Tea Mongerer on their way through the lobby, and hopped in the elevator. While they were on their way up, Zach cast a spell to peer back in time to when the attack happened. He saw a spray of greenish-black liquid come out of the vent and coat a nearby man, who immediately collapsed. A thick red worm erupted out through the rapidly-melting vent cover. Sinking its toothy maw into the man's shoulder, it tore off a chunk of his torso and disappeared down the vent shaft. As chaos erupted, the spell faded and Zach snapped back to the present time. He filled in Eagan while he texted the group what he saw in the past. Downstairs, Al felt his phone buzz but was far too invested in analyzing the crates and carpet to bother with it yet. Another level down, Delta searched through the staff room for evidence of how these crates got here. A thorough investigation revealed a folded up intake form for the crates, signed off on by Dr Kelley Morrison. "Gotcha bitch" rasped Delta, running upstairs to join the others. While passing through the Special Exhibits room, shklee pulled Al away from his search of the crates, informing him that shklee'd already found where the crate came from. Al's search was not in vain however, as he had found a nondescript matchbook. It only had 8 matches left in it, but ultimately Al felt good about his search of the room. He checked his texts as they ran upstairs to join the others, and with a foreboding feeling of familiarity he realized what they were dealing with. Walking into the room, he announced, "This is a Mongolian Death Worm. Native to the Gobi Desert, they can spray venom a good few feet and tear off chunks with their powerful mandibles. They only come out in the heat, and sleep through the cold. They can only be killed by dousing them with water, then completely severing their head. Well, head... section? The part with the teeth." The group made a plan to drop the temperature of the building, and lure the worms to the furnace room. Delta, meanwhile, convinced Tea Mongerer to confront Morrison about the hidden intake form. "Oh, I've been looking for that! I needed to file that, but I lost it somewhere along the way," she said, reaching for the form. Delta refused to relent, and convinced Tea Mongerer to continue interrogating Morrison about her role in the worms' appearance. When shklee wouldn't give it up, Frank stepped in to convince shkler to back down. Eventually, the group sent Chris and Morrison down to the furnace room to drop the temperature. After convincing Ferrara to leave the building, the group split to start collecting buckets of water. Making their way down to the basement with Eagan, they encountered a seemingly lost Chris and Morrison. It turned out that neither had ever been down to the furnace room, and had only ever asked maintenance to adjust the temperature. As the maintenance staff had all taken off after the last attack, the group split up to look for the furnace (with Delta keeping a close eye on Morrison). Eventually Zach and Chris found the furnace and texted the others to meet up with them. Tea Mongerer, not having a phone, and Eagan, who wasn't included on the group text, continued on their merry way, exploring room after room of specimen labs and preparation facilities. Zach found a quarter wedged into the thermostat in the furnace room, and upon removing it the gauge dropped about 15 degrees. Turning it down to the minimum setting of 50°F, he and Chris settled in to wait for the others.


 * When the group gathered in the furnace room, Zach barred the door against worms with Al, Frank, and himself in the hallway and Tea Mongerer, Delta, and Eagan in the furnace room. As Frank shifted his bucket nervously, he knocked something off the back of Al's coat who bent to examine it. "A piece of dry eggshell?" As he examined it, the vent above him burst open and one of the worms lunged down onto him, coating him with venom. The group fell on it together, quickly dousing it, freezing it down, and hacking off its head. As it died, it burst with a screech and a spray of acidic venom. Another vent inside the room burst open, and another worm lunged at Tea Mongerer and Delta as a scream echoed down the staircase from upstairs. Recognizing it as a woman's scream from the first floor, Delta tossed shkler axe to Frank as shklee sprinted upstairs with Zach in tow. Al lit one of his matches, holding it to the fire sprinklers to try and douse the area. The metal sprinkler head blackened in the flame, but no water came out. The match burned down, burning Al's fingers, who grunted "ow" and dropped it. As the match burnt out, Al's voice boomed "OW" from around the floor. Trying to douse the worm, Tea Mongerer threw his mop bucket, the last source of water they had, towards it. The bucket slipped out of his hands and bounced off the wall, sliding behind Eagan who was backing away from the encroaching worm and knocking his feet out from under him. His head bounced off the concrete floor and he laid still. Tea Mongerer leapt in to restrain the worm as Frank brought Delta's battleax around in a wide overhead arc, slicing through a sprinkler pipe and cleaving the worm's head in one fluid swing. The worm popped with a scream and a wave of venom, catching both heroes in the spray. The trio ran to a nearby prep room with a utility sink to wash the venom off themselves before collecting Eagan and heading upstairs to rejoin the other two.


 * Zach and Delta, meanwhile, had followed the panicked screams to the Dinosaur exhibit, where Ferrara had been backed into a corner by another worm. This worm was significantly larger than the other two, and was steadily advancing on the terrified archaeologist. As the worm reared to strike, Zach, who had magically enhanced his legs, dove in and knocked Ferrara out of harm's way, catching the blast of venom instead. Delta fired at the worm, but missed wide as the shot gashed Ferrara's leg. Zach threw up an ice wall barrier between himself and the worm that it quickly began dissolving, and scrambled up the back of it to vault over the worm to safety. He sprinted across the hall, pulling the fire alarm on his way to the cafe kitchen to wash off the bubbling venom. When the sprinklers still didn't turn on, Delta shot at the worm again with shkler huge revolver, putting holes into its slimy hide. Realizing shklee couldn't kill it without a source of water, shklee slung Ferrara over shkler shoulder and bolted for the exit. The worm blasted another spray of venom at them as they passed, and Delta rolled to put shklerself between the venom and Ferrara. Blinking the searing venom from shkler eyes, Delta burst through the exit doors and made a beeline for the nearest fire hydrant. Putting the muzzle of shkler revolver to the hydrant, shklee turned to wait for the worm to make it to the street. "Drop the weapon and step away from the woman!" came a wavering voice from behind shkler. Turning, Delta saw barricades being erected in the intersection in much the same way as last night. An officer on the opposite corner had his gun pointed at shkler. When reasoning didn't work, shklee put down Ferrara, who tried to convince the officer that Delta had just saved her. While they shouted to each other, the gun still pointed at Delta, the rest of the group burst out of the other exit with an unconscious Eagan and called to the officer to help them with Eagan. The officer, forgetting Delta for the minute, radioed for an ambulance as a squad car pulled through the barricades. Pulling up next to them, Detective Whetstone stepped out shaking his head. "Of course it's you guys. I knew I hadn't seen the last of you." After he'd handed Eagan and Ferrara over to the EMTs, Whetstone turned back to the group. "I don't know what's going on around here, but we haven't heard from Eagan all day and we've got crazy stories flying from civilians about monsters and murders and mayhem in there. I need one of you to tell me what, exactly, is going ON." Al briefed him on what had happened so far, and Whetstone agreed to let the group handle the third "escaped biological hazard" since they'd taken care of the two others. The group asked for a water source, and Whetstone waved over a fire truck parked at the nearby barricade. While they hooked it up, Delta ran into the cafe to wash the venom out of shkler eyes and mouth, and found Zach doing the same. He wove a quick spell to stitch up some of his wounds, and the two rejoined the others. With the firefighters behind them, hose at the ready, the group moved towards an exhibit where Delta smelled blood. Hearing a rustle, but not able to see into the shadowed pile of rubble, Delta and Tea Mongerer crept closer to the exhibit. Tea Mongerer grabbed a match from Al while he and Frank ducked outside to grab flashlights, flicking it lit and peering closer into the exhibit. Al and Frank returned with flashlights, and Tea Mongerer called back to them "Point the flashlights here!" as he tossed the nearly-burnt match into the darkened exhibit. As the match guttered out, his voice boomed from inside the exhibit "POINT THE FLASHLIGHTS HERE!". As the voice boomed, the huge worm burst from the rubble, striking towards Tea Mongerer and Delta. The firemen blasted it with water, pushing it back and slowing it. Zach hurled an ice missile from the Mezzanine which burst against the worm in the high pressure stream from the firehose, sending a spray of razor sharp shards flying at Delta, who was plugging fist-sized holes into the side of the worm. Tea Mongerer dove through the icy spray, kicked off the wall, drove his elbow into the side of the worm's head to knock it off balance, and finished with a mighty cleave of the battleax, lopping the worm's head clean off. The worm's dying shriek and spray were washed away by the flood from the firehose, and the group breathed a sigh of relief as its body flopped to the ground.


 * Sorting through the rubble in the exhibit, the group found a clutch of eggs dissolving in the inch-high water flooding the area. Not satisfied, Delta and Tea Mongerer grabbed the firehose (the firemen having left to catch their breath after the adrenaline subsided) and doused the area even more thoroughly. Doctor Morrison ran in from the 1st floor lobby, screaming at them for destroying all the eggs. "We could have studied them! We could have grown some, we could have kept them contained!" Tea Mongerer restrained her, and carried her out to the police waiting outside while the group split to check the building for any other worms or egg clutches. Noticing a blood trail in a nearby vent, Delta unloaded the firehose down the vent, 'to be safe'. Having swept the building again, the party regrouped to discuss medical help. Al, as usual, knew a guy, but Delta called up Heinz to see what he could offer. The group began to debate using Kam Chan, Al's chop surgeon down in Chinatown, or using Heinz's contact Rick Freeman who was a 15min walk from the museum.


 * To be concluded....

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