Getting Settled In America (Candice Morgan's story)

Candice Morgan, a bright and young woman at 21 years of age has moved to Detroit. She has been provided with a batcher's pad in a fairly safe suburb of Detroit and is officially signed up as a student for the upcoming semester in August. In the meantime she's been given the next two months to get her affairs in order. Its been a hard couple of days getting the place organized, unpacking her things and getting them set up in the proper places. She also had to make arrangements with her student visa, get important ID's as well as get accustomed to the neighborhood. Driving on the opposite side of the road took some getting used to, but she learned quickly and has spent some time driving around the city getting a ley of the land.

Detroit has proven to be on the surface an urban metropolis, but one that is on the constant decline. She's seen her first taste of the poverty stricken ruins of the city and can't help but feel empathy for these people. Indeed, a city like this would be a perfect hiding spot for witches and other dark powers she presumes. What better way to hide than in a place where crime and corruption run rapid. Vigilance is definitely something she will need to keep in mind while she is in the city.

One of the first tasks she wishes to do, is take part in one of the guided tours of Wayne State University. What better is there get an advanced look see at the important buildings and get a sense for any form of magical presence on campus. She does have her doubts however considering that many professors are on holidays at this time of the year, but that does leave her a chance to see if there is any lingering spells in the area and determine which departments should be thoroughly investigated.

Thus Candice makes the proper arrangements and is set for a guided tour this Thursday, joining a group of potential students in seeing the campus. She hopes that it is the first step to unraveling a mystery.

As Candice finishes making arrangements to tour the Campus, she hears the door across the hall open. A fellow resident of the apartment has left the door open while the television blares loudly.

It is clearly the news, speaking with a self absorbed quality that Candice can make out easily though the closed door of her own apartment. Hadn't she seen a noise pollution rule in the lease?

... police are concerned about the vandalism of some the oldest graves in Detroit. It is clear that some sadistic soul has caused this horrible tragedy...

Candice listens to the report her ears perking to the situation. She thinks to herself. Even though the TV was loud, it did bring up a valid point.

"Humm, vandalized graves. This could warrant some further investigation."

Candice goes onto her computer and quickly logs onto the internet and looks up articles about the vandalism. Simple overturned gravestones wouldn't concern her, but grave robbery could be hints of witchcraft at work. She learned in her studies that witches have been known to make use of reagents from the bodies of the dead and if this was a grave robbery, it could be a hint of something sinister. She had time to look into this, as the campus tour would not be until tomorrow.

The search quickly brought up hits from CNN. This was breaking news and the first article was sketchy at best...

At Six thirteen PM this evening, police were contacted by Robert Hewe, a security guard at one of Detroit's oldest grave yards, Woodmere Cemetery. The guard reported that several graves had been unearthed. He could see damage to at least one of the ancient coffins.

Police responded immediately but found only six empty graves. There is no sign how the remains of these people were moved as Hewwe insists that it would be noticed if someone carried the remains to ones' car and simply drove away.

We are told that the ground is being examined for any forensic evidence that could detect the identity of these terrible grave robbing vandals.

Candice takes in the information and decides that it would be good to pay a visit to the Woodmere Cemetery, although breaking it would be out of the question considering she has no talent in breaking and entering. Still, doing a walk about on the outskirts of the cemetery would be a good idea tonight, maybe she will be able to spot someone and observe the happenings.

Candice dresses in some jeans, sneakers and a hoodie and grabs her things. She brings her dagger, flashlight (a normal one and a penlight) and a digital camera for taking pictures and puts them into her backpack. She leaves her purse but takes a few bucks for expenses and her drivers license. She leaves her license it in the glove compartment of the car. She locks up her apartment and drives out to a lot near the location. She parks her car in a nearby lot. She leaves her driver's license in her glove compartment, not wanting to leave anything identifiable on herself and locks up her car tightly. She then proceeds to do a walk about around the outskirts of the graveyard, keeping an eye out for anything unusual while trying to remain low key to the residents there (and keeping a wide birth of any police vehicles).

As Candice walks about, she can see that the graveyard seemed to be placed in a ill used area of Detroit. Decay seems to to have crept about the street. The graveyard is framed by an abandoned parking lot and a small cluster of buildings with tattered 'for lease' signs. The street itself sees little traffic that Candice can see. Besides Candice herself, she sees no other person.

During her walk about the cemetery, she finds that a wrought iron fence surrounds the perimeter. There are only two gates - one on the north side and one on the south. A small gravel road leads off the main road, allowing visitors to park in a small lot near a small building. The entire cemetery appears to be open to the elements.

Candice looks at the gates knowing she has no chance to open them. She does take a look to see if they are locked which she suspects they likely are, considering the break in's. After checking this she continues her walk around the perimeter looking from the outside into the graveyard, watching and listening for anything suspicious and occasionally using her flashlight to get a better look into the darkness of the location. The culprits after all might hit other areas of the graveyard tonight.

Update:

Seeing the gates are open she is very surprised.

"Could the grave robbers be here? This is worthy of investigation."

Candice puts on a pair of gloves from her backpack and then makes sure her hoodie is up and then goes through the gate slowly to avoid making too much noise. She goes through the gate, closing it behind her (So security does not suspect) and heads out into the graveyard. She feels a tinge of guilt that she's breaking and entering, but if the grave robbers are here she needs to ascertain their identities and see what they're up to. She does keep in mind that the Knights advocate planned action over "on the fly" conflicts and thus she intends not to interfere with their activities, only gather information. If mages are involved, she'll need to gather data first on their identities and activities and make proper plans before confronting them in a better venue and ready to use Gnostics and her blessed sword to even the odds. She also knows that she has to watch out for security. Surrender is not an option, for one trespassing conviction would be a deportation order and an end of her task here in the city. Thus she sticks to her penlight to get around at least until she's some distance from entry point in order to avoid tipping off any watchmen that might be looking. She listens and watches for anything out of the ordinary as she moves through the graveyard.

"Hey, miss, who you talkin' to?" An older Black man in a faded Security guard uniform hurries up to her. "Don't be closing the gate. People will think we're closed. They get mighty upset if they can't spend time with their loved ones."

The guard took a moment to open the gate. Satisfied, he began to walk the gravel road. As Candice moves in, she realized what the guard refers to. Two families are visible to her- an older couple sitting on a bench before an elaborate grave stone. A few yards in the distance, a young couple with a girl no more than ten stand before another grave.

No one glances to her. The guard has moved off, perhaps assuming that she, too, has come to grieve.

(umm the quotes were ment to be thoughts not me actually speaking. Forgot to put thinks though)

Candice nods to the man not wanting to give too much of herself away and allows the guard to go off.

"Odd why it would be open at this time of night." she thinks

Candice continues into the graveyard, staying a good distance away from the mourners. She does give a glance to the little girl though, wondering if she's their grandaughter as she doubts that they'ed allow such a child run around a graveyard at night alone.

She observes where the guard is going and tries to slip off and take a closer look further into the graveyard and hopefully examine the gravesights that have been robbed, or other potential targets.

[I advice that you use italics for thoughts. Quotations mean that your character is speaking.]

Candice observes the girl interact with the young couple that she is standing with. Surely, she is somehow associated with them.

At seven o' clock at night, these two families appear to be the only mourners in the cemetery. As Candice moves through the hedged path, she hears voices up ahead. Male voices. A few yards down the way, she sees two men in police uniforms evaluating the path. They appear to be deep in conversation, gesturing to the ground.

They do not see her.

John pulled up on his motorcycle and looked at the gates. Shouldn't be too hard, he thought.

He got off his bike and took his helmet off. The feeling of loss still weighted heavy on his soul. He would have to grieve later as now it was time to work.

He walked into the cemetery and began to look around. He kept his pistol in the holster as inside his jacket as always. He had his messenger bag strung across his shoulder. He also had the fake Chicago police badge in his pocket.

(Oh so its only 7 PM in the evening. I thought it was later, maybe about 11 or midnight. I was told that the game time related to when the post was made and I made my first post at 11 PM. Might have done things differently if I knew the time in game.)

Candice blends in as best she can among the tombstones and gets in close enough to overhear the conversation of the police officers. It could perhaps give some facts on the situation. With the police there, it probably means the culprits won't be paying the place a visit, but still examining the evidence would be a good start, that is if she can sneak past the police to take a closer look.

[What I meant by time related is that when the thread starts, I will state the time. The date will be the date that the thread starts. We can't do the time when you post because as the thread goes over a few days, the times would be very irregular.]

Candice, roll dex stealth to try and sneak up on the police



As John moves into the cemetery, he observes two families. An older couple sitting on a bench before an elaborate grave stone. A few yards in the distance, a young couple with a girl no more than ten stand before another grave.

There is no sign of any commotion. Clearly, the police are keeping this very low profile.

Should one try and find where the culprits raised the coffins over the fence? This would certainly be a difficult task. Perhaps if it was simply gruesome harvesting, the coffins would still be on the premises.

John decided to check the exterior perimeter of the fence to see if there were signs of someone lurking or hopping it.

Spoiler:

As John checked the exterior, on the opposite side of the East and west gates he saw something lying on the ground. He was alarmed for a moment that it was a snake- at night?- but as he neared, he noticed that it was a piece of rope. One of the ends was frayed, suggestive that it may have frayed and snapped.

[(How do we roll the dice? I used a dieroller on one of the sites and got the result below: Is there a real dieroller built into this chat or one we should be using?]

2010-07-10 06:41:01 Canduce Morgan rolls 4 dice to Stealth Roll 8,10,3,1,4 (2 successes)

We're storing our sheets here:

http://sheetgen.dalines.net/wiki/WikiStart

There is a dice roller there. Please provide a copy of your rolls.

[ok here is the dieroller results from the site you gave me. Should we use that one or the one I already rolled?]

2010-07-10 22:21:58 Candice rolled 4 dice to "Graveyard Sneak" 3,1,5,8 (1 successes)

here is the link

http://sheetgen.dalines.net/wiki/WikiDiceRoller?hash=aa6a7215

[We use the die roller on wiki. simply roll the action then post the roll.]

As Candice neared the police officers, one was gesturing to the ground and speaking. "It's clear that nothing was dragged down this path- we would see the drag marks from such a heavy coffin. "
"All the other paths have already been checked. There is no sign of machinery, so they weren't lifted out.."

Candice lays low and listens, using a gravestone to block Line of Sight from the police. If anything revealing herself to the police would be a bad idea at the moment. It would be prudent to eavesdrop on the conversation and wait a bit until the police move on and then investigate further once its safe.

The police man's partner concurs and the two police men turn and head further within the cemetery, leaving Candice hiding behind one of the grave stones. How should she best decide if this is the work of witches?

After the police officers go out of sight, she gets up and continues to move through the cemetery, looking for the location where the robberies took place. She hopes to take a look at the scene to see if there is any ambient magical energy she can sense with her magical sense ability.

Candice can not detect any magics at all. As she moves through the cemetery, she sees only simple, tastefully decorated grave stones. As she nears the opposite area of the East gate, she notices two police officers walking away from her, heading towards the East Gate.

Glancing behind them reveals yellow caution tape attached to trees that sections off a fair bit of the cemetery beside the exterior wrought iron fence. It looked unlikely that she could get near the area with the police watching. Perhaps she could exit the cemetery and walk up the exterior fence.