The Guardians

Psy will go with Dan and Scott, she can stop them or the van with her powers and cause a stir cause the gang probly wouldnt expect a girl to be able to do anything to them.

Just to be different Ill go to southern gold. Someone has to. Clues cant just be from one place.

Deciding to split up, the Guardians head in different directions.

Southern Gold

Mephistopheles€™ target is nearest, and so he arrives there first. Flashing his badge at the police officers present, he is allowed past the police tape. Before heading in, he spends some time looking outside the shop. The windows are intact, and the only clue to be seen is some graffiti. It might say €œShadows€ but then the writing is so bad it might also say €œCheese and pickle sandwiches at low prices€. Mephistopheles decides to enter the shop.

He is greeted by a portly man of around fifty years old. Looking around Mephistopheles notices not much seems to have been stolen. He mentions this to the owner.
€œIt€™s true, they didn€™t steal much,€ the owner confirms. €œThey went for anything that had a night crystal in it and ignored everything else. The words night crystal ring a bell in Mephistopheles€™ mind. He thinks he might have seen something about them in the Guardians database. He asks the owner about them.

Night crystals are only to be found in one area, which was badly affected by the DNA wars which are responsible for the Gifted, among other things. Some experts believe that before their DNA was altered, they used to be mushrooms. Now they are beautiful gems, often used in jewellery, and sell at a high price. Mephistopheles decides to ask about the thieves.

They were six men, dressed like bikers. They€™d just come in, two of them held the owner down, the others grabbed all the night crystals they could find, stuffed them into sports bags and drove off. By the sound of the engines, they were riding quite powerful bikes.

Mephistopheles can go to the following places:

Guardian H.Q
Swiss-Anglo jewellers
Aces
Police Station

Swiss-Anglo Jewellers

Blur, Funkie Junkie and Psy enter the jewellery shop and start looking around. They are greeted by an elderly man with a shock of white hair. Of some note is his black eye. When asked who they are, the Guardians introduce themselves and ask about the theft. He tells you that the thieves were four men, dressed in biking leathers. They pushed him over, grabbed any jewellery they could find with night crystals inset and left, using sports bags to carry the stolen goods. When he€™d gotten up and tried to stop them leaving, one of them had punched him, resulting in the black eye.

Psy then asks if he€™d seen the van€™s registration number. €œVan?€ he asks. €œThey were riding bikes, there was no van! You people ought to do your homework more carefully in future!€

As the man is becoming quite agitated, the three decide not to ask any more questions. You lose 1 public opinion point.

Current public opinion: 49

Your next possible destinations are:

Guardian H.Q
Southern Gold
Aces
Police station

Aces

Marathon has been to Aces before, so knows what to expect. Stomper on the other hand only found out about his powers recently, so has never been inside before. The first obstacle is a man on the door called Henri, who stares for a while at Stomper in a way he finds quite disturbing.
€œHe€™s with me,€ Marathon tells him.
€œJust making sure,€ Henri tells him. €œAce is very particular. You can go in.€
€œWhat was all that about?€ Stomper asks.
€œOnly Gifted are allowed inside Aces,€ Marathon explains. €œHenri€™s gift is the ability to sense other Gifted.€

The inside of Aces is quite pleasant, with soft music being played and a large non smoking area. There is a pool table in one corner, currently occupied by two men in biking leathers. A middle aged couple are sitting at one table, while off in the corner sits a man in a wheelchair. Behind the bar is what appears to be an upright, humanoid looking lizard, who Marathon introduces to Stomper as Johnny.

If you want to leave, your possible destinations are:

Guardian H.Q
Swiss-Anglo jewellers
Southern Gold
Police station

Otherwise, what do you want to do next?

Start playing pool with the guys in biking leather, and in the middle of the game, ask them if they know anything about the Shadows.

Well, what can I say? My character was probably stoned at the time :proud:

Im going to the police station. Im doing my homework, and Ill look over all the evidence found by the police to see what they found, and whether its relevant.

Go to Aces and subtly enquire where i might be able to get some night gems if you catch my drift. ie. see who might be able to sell them to me.

While Stomper is getting aquainted with the bikers, Ill use the time to catch up with Johnny and get the current scoop on the Gifted, mainly any details of suspicious activity on their half.

Also, if things end up going pear-shaped with Stomper, I can give him a hand at clobbering the bikers before whisking him and our new prisoners to the police station. We might even meet the Funky Junky there :proud:

Dan and Martyn are out of time to act, the update will be with my next post.

Police station

Upon exiting the Swiss-Anglo jewellers, Funkie Junkie announces his intention of heading to the police station to compare notes. Psy and Blur haven€™t made any plans of their own, so decide to follow him.

Your requests to see Chief Inspector Lambert are denied, however. He€™s a busy man and doesn€™t want to be disturbed until you have some results. You instead meet Detective Sergeant O€™Hara, a no-nonsense thirty something woman with a dark complexion and brown hair. She takes you through what the police have discovered thus far.

1) Both jewellers reported that only items featuring night crystals were stolen. The reason why is unclear, as they aren€™t significantly more expensive than diamonds. It would have been easy to grab more than what they did, so selling the stolen goods can be ruled out as a motive.

2) As far as the police know, only one thing makes night crystals different from regular gems, and that is the way they glow in the dark, which is where they gained their name. In fact they are highly prized by the kind of people who lose their jewellery around the house, as they are easy to find by simply turning off the lights.

3) Although the thieves wore scarves around their mouths, one was caught briefly removing his on CCTV until chastised by another and replacing it. The image was successfully matched to Arnold Harris in the police mug books. He is known to be a member of the Shadows, a medium sized gang of bikers who are notorious for bar brawls. This is believed to be the first time they have committed an act of robbery, a fact corroborated by the un-professional manner in which the robberies were carried out.

4) Although it is believed the Shadows comprise of regular men, there is evidence that the gangs leader is Gifted, as he has been seen going into Aces, making this a task for the Guardians rather than regular police.

Unless there€™s something else you want to do at the police station, your possible destinations are:

Guardian H.Q
Swiss-Anglo jewellers
Southern Gold
Aces

Aces

While Marathon goes to chat to Johnny, Stomper strikes up a conversation with the two bikers. They are a little wary at first, but soon warn up to Stomper and start chatting about various subjects, such as sport and the part time barmaid. Not only is she described as dead fit, but it seems her gift is the ability to control liquids, making her cocktail mixing a sight to behold. Despite their tough appearance, they seem to be genuinely nice people. Eventually, Stomper manages to get the topic around to the Shadows.
€œYou don€™t wanna get involved with them,€ one of the bikers mutters. €œShow €˜im your arm, Dave.€
Dave, the other biker, takes off his jacket. His upper arm has possibly the biggest bruise Stomper has ever seen. It seems Dave and Ed were drinking in the same bar as the Shadows once. Dave accidentally knocked over one of their drinks, and the next thing he knows he€™s thrown against the slot machine so hard it€™s knocked over, nearly landing on a young couple who€™d mistakenly thought the bar was a good place for a date.

Speaking to Marathon, Johnny tells a similar story. The Shadows seem to believe the streets belong to them. Anyone provoking one in the slightest way had better be wearing armour, because they€™re in for a kicking. The leader comes in occasionally for a drink, but never stays for long without his cronies. Like all bullies, they seem to be cowards at heart, and would never attack someone without superiority in numbers being on their side.

Marathon then tells Johnny that apparently they€™ve taken to robbing jewellery stores. This puzzles him somewhat. Random acts of violence are more their style, he says. Of course sometimes one of the gangs hire them to rough someone up a bit. Thought of that way, maybe this new direction isn€™t as random as it seems? Unfortunately, he doesn€™t know where they go. They don€™t have a particular favourite place to hang out, it seems, and never seem to go home either.

While all this is going on, Mephistopheles arrives on the scene. Seeing how empty Aces is, it looks like his plan might not be such a good idea, but he looks around nonetheless. He sees Stomper and Marathon talking to the bikers and Johnny respectively. The only other people in the bar are a middle aged couple, who are ignoring the other patrons completely, and a man in a wheelchair who looks vaguely familiar. He€™s discretely watching Stomper and Marathon.

If you wish to leave Aces, your possible destinations are:

Guardian H.Q
Swiss-Anglo jewellers
Southern Gold
Police station.

Ill go back to Guardian H.Q