Encounterlogs
Meridiths Odd Encounter Sr Deacon 240209
In Haven, Meridith's curiosity draws her to a forgotten and haunted graveyard on Elm Street, where the restless spirits disturbed by recent construction work create an atmosphere of palpable unease. Armed with her rapier and longbow, she explores the eerie landscape, only to discover the graveyard has been desecrated with bodies exhumed and piled up carelessly. The ghosts, angry and confused, exert an oppressive presence, resulting in a bone-chilling encounter that leaves Meridith in tears and gasping for air. Nonetheless, harnessing her inner courage, she pushes forward, her fear becoming a cloak she wears but does not succumb to. Arriving at the foreman's trailer, Meridith assesses her options: call the police or take matters into her own hands. Opting for action, she sets the explosives found in the trailer, destroying the equipment that desecrated the graveyard. The resulting explosion is both triumphant and chaotic, forcing Meridith to leave before the authorities arrive, her bold act leaving a question mark on her future.
Elsewhere and later, during a hunting training session in the north woods, Magnus and Meridith find themselves on a different quest when they realize that a powerful enchanted shard belonging to Magnus has been stolen. Magnus's scent memory leads them to the Black Rose Bookstore, where security camera footage reveals a scrawny man with brown hair is the thief. The trail heats up near Rosie's, the Lodge, and Antler's, tightening the net around their suspect. After transforming into a dog to amplify his senses, Magnus locates the suspect in the parking lot of the Antlers, switching back to human form to take swift action. In a race against time, Magnus confronts and physically restrains the thief out in the open, threatening him while Meridith searches the man's car. Despite attracting public attention and risk, Magnus intimidates the man into submission, while Meridith shows support to reinforce the seriousness of the situation.
(Meridith's odd encounter(SRDeacon):SRDeacon)
[Thu Feb 8 2024]
On Elm Street
It is afternoon, about 8F(-13C) degrees, and there are a few dark grey stormclouds in the sky.
(The characters discover an old, forgotten graveyard on the outskirts of Haven. It's haunted by several restless spirits who have been disturbed by recent construction work. The spirits are not inherently evil but confused and angry, lashing out at anyone who dares to enter their resting place. The characters need to find a way to calm them down and allow them to rest in peace again. This could involve finding out what disturbed them and fixing it, or helping them fulfill their last wishes, or even just convincing them that they are dead and it's time to move on.)
Meridith sorts his backpack on her shoulder, looking like any other student in town. But hers hides a rapier, a bow, and set makes a lazy stroll to the woods
This Storyrunner is testing Meridith targets.
Strolling through the woods, Meridith will find herself walking a little further than she originally intended this afternoon as her feet wander and take her wherever they may. It's up elm she finds herself walking now, and as she passes a small marker, they'll realize they're not exactly in the town 'proper' anymore. Up ahead though is something not yet seen before - a large abandoned patch of ground up in the distance. The only thing that really seperates it out is that it's clear of trees where much of the forest isn't, and the remains of some wrought-iron fencing that surrounds it at the outer edges. It's enough to spark the curiosity at the very least.
Meridith pauses. Once out of sight of the town, she sets her backpack down, pulling out a set of steel bracers, a rapier and a longbow. She strings his bow, sets it over her shoulder with a quiver. She begins to make her way towards the clearing with curiosity
Moving closer to this patch of land, Meridith can see long grass growing over the cleared ground. Passing the barrier of the wrought-iron, she'll feel a soft breeze that's somehow colder than the wind that already blows past to leave small patches of gooseflesh along her skin. Through the patches of grass, Meridith can see small mounds here, and the remains of stones every so often. Staring ... her eyes begin to plot out the ground in logical blocks and a grid blossoms in her mind that overlays the ground. A graveyard or cemetary perhaps. Those small stone remains are evenly spaced and it's easy to assume they may be what's left of the headstones that once sprouted up from the ground here.
Meridith treads carefully, the blade hold in her hand, drifts slow lazy arcs as she walks. She avoids the mounds, the spaces between markers where the dead may dwell. Wishing not to disrupt them. She looks for signs, names, anything that indicate who or what is buried here
Alas, something has already disturbed these dead. Up a little further, the other half of this cemetary looks as though it's been dug up by any number of various pieces of large construction equipment. There's a shoddily constructed trailor up ahead and pallets with materials. Perhaps the most morbid is a stack of what may be bodies like linkin logs in black bags outside that main trailer. Fully within the confines of the burial ground Meridith can feel the presence of something else, now. It's not hard to guess there's potential for spiritual unrest here, as the dead and buried are being dug up wholesale! BUt how well equipped is our young adeventurer to deal with such things?
Meridith takes a slow deep breath as a chill runs down her spine. "Oh my god, great...spooky cemetary and they're dug up and it's in the woods and...fuck...!" She grumbles and shifts forward. While a supernatural being in her own right, barely aware as she might be, she knows little of ghosts and spirits and how to handle them. Still, she has gumption. Surely gumption will help. She treads forward. There's a culprit, she decides, and that's who she'll turn her attention to!
Looking about, the only real destination that Meridith might have is that foreman's trailer off in the distance a little bit. Of course that means traversing the rest of this burial ground and passing that gigantic pile of bodies. Gumption fortifying the woman, she trudges that direction but with every step, things get spookier and colder by the moment. The air turns to a bite that stings at bared flesh and Meridith's breath will come out of her lips as plumes of steam easily visible to her eye all of the sudden. Everytime her eyes leave the ground, it's as if she can just feel the hands clawing just beneath the dirt reaching for her ..
Call the cops, a quiet voice in Meridith mind tells her. She knows better, but her phone lacks service, and walk away? From trouble? From danger? From mystery? Secrets hide behind every thing that lays before her. What if this is the missing piece? She hesitates as she trudges and begans to let out shuddering terrified gasps, for a moment her step hitches and she covers her mouth. Frozen.
All of the sudden, Meridith can feel something like hot breath wash across the back of her neck! If she turns about, she'll find nothing to see. Each step she takes feels more like a cloak of dread and the anticipation of something horrible that wraps about the frame of Meridith like a blanket cozy and tight. Frozen like that, now it's not just what she feels but what she sees. Flickers of movement just outside the edge of her vision that make her feel paranoid because each time she checks there will be nothing to look at directly. It's a matter of intuition, but she'll discover that if she doesn't try to look at anything directly and just lets her eyes slide toward whatever draws them without focus she can almost begin to make some things out. Frozen still, that trailer is still twenty or thirty feet away. The temperature doesn't drop further but it remains too cold to be natural, like icy crystals inside her lungs.
Meridith is hyperventilating. A spiked heartrate and a dizzy sensation reminds her, she is just a young girl. She's small. She's fragile and she's weak. She's in way over her head, and she has no business pretend to do these heroics. She is chided for believing otherwise, a quiet dread. Hot tears begin to drip down her face, a soft whimper. Then she goes still, eyes closing.
Slow even breath, her eyes open. One in, one out, then she takes a step. The dread cloaks her, she doesn't master it, she doesn't shrug it off, but she steps forward because it is the only way to go. The heavy clouds dispel from her lungs from the cold. She can accept she's out of her depths here, the only way is forward.
You know what they say. Courage isn't the lack of fear, but the will to move forward despite it. They also say any courage is fool's courage. Stepping forward is hard, making that first pace. The second comes a little easier, and the next a little easier still. Keeping those eyes straight forward, she begins to make out what appears to be a battlefield all around her. The half-formed shapes of soldiers and natives battling it out furiously around her like she's walking through someone ghost of a memory. Right before her she see's the ghostly form of a Brave come running past. She can't hear the war whoop he must be giving off but her mind can fill in the blanks, as she watches a tomahawk comes swinging down toward her head! Only to pass through her and leave a stretch of DEAD cold through her as a parting gift. Still, she forces herself toward the trailer. Making it to the door is almost an achievement in itself, somehow the feel of the trailer's physical presence now in front of her like an anchoring force in the here and now.
Meridith exhales deeply, she was frozen as the tomahawk came towards her, a blade flashes up, much too late, as it passes through her. Despite the insanity of the moment, her crystaline thought is, I'm really glad I didn't have to fight AGAINST the natives. She rubs the back of her head, the absurdity helping relieve her but for a moment. She presses onward, head on a nervous swivel as she approaches. She hesitates.
Meridith studies the trailer a moment, and stares behind her at this ghostly never ending battle and holds a hand over her heart.
Meridith takes a moment and then attempts to force the door open.
The fear courses through Meridith's veins like ice water and stepping into the trailer itself, is maybe a bit of an anti-climax considering how much effort or strength of will it may have taken to reach this point. Inside is a plain-looking trailer as one might expect of any construction site. It's a desk, and some file cabinets and a lot of paperwork. A sorry excuse of thin carpeting covering the floor and an unadorned lightbulb hanging from wiring in the middle of the ceiling. The far corner carries the cage where things like Semtex are stored for the occasional blasting needs. Two options sit in front of Meridith now. Her mind's already given her one of them, calling the police. If she reports the discovery of the dead they'll shut down whatever construction is ongoing here. On the other hand, there's a cage full of mild construction-grade explosives right over there too. That'd be enough to take care of the machinery outside.
It may not be enough to free these souls, but it would certainly be enough to put a stop to the unrest caused by disturbing their burials.
Meridith straightens up. The realization strikes her, all the pieces coming together. She knows how this world works. Companies like this, illegal digging operations, they don't... the law isn't here to stop them. She shifts and turns her gaze to the demolition gear and takes a somber moment to make a decision.
"I suspect you didn't send me here to become a terrorist..." She takes a deep breath but steps inside, the door closes behind her and the world of the mystical for a moment is shut away. Leaving this young college student to decide what is right. She moves to the explosives, studying them, searching for familiarity. That she could do this without blowing herself up.
But this isn't just a question of the mundane? Outside the spirits of people long dead wage and endless battle, disturbed in their rest from forces too ignorant and greedy to understand or care. She is not just a young college girl. She's more. She doesn't know what, but she knows she is something. And action is her responsibility. She sets about the task of destroying this equipment using their own explosives.
While the woman's skill isn't much, it's lucky for her that Semtex and the explosives used here on construction sites like this one are fairly self explanatory. The tubes or sausages are packed like putty, easily moldable into shapes or along structured lines or in the cracks and creases of digging and excavation equipment. Each one has electronic counterparts but she's probably seen enough movies to put this stuff together in some fashion right? No fuses, just detinators so maybe Meridith will be able to get enough distance. Still, she doesn't have a ton of experience when it comes to this sort of thing, does she? Google is her friend on the setup, all she has to do now is count her blessings, pray to whatever Gods choose to listen, and press the button.
Meridith takes a quiet moment to steel herself, gazing upon this surreal moment, gazing at the equipment. She takes a moment and closes her eyes, and offers out a quiet prayer. For a moment, it's the beauty of it that draws her. There is justice in this, right? Some kind of cosmic metaphor? These people died in a pointless battle. Dug up by pointless greed. And end in an explosion. She opens her eyes, and hits the button.
For a moment, nothing. She takes a moment and stares down. "Uh o-" The world around her is reduced to a terrifying explosion, she is thrown off her feet and back and the world rings. She gazes at the beautiful aurora of flame and destruction and finds a soft smile plays at her lips.
Beautiful.
And as she presses that button that will cross her into the realm of eco-terrorism? Spiritual terrorism? In either case that blossom of color plumes bright in the night for that brief moment before she's being thrown backward by the concussive wave of pressure that comes RAILING off of the blast. Shrapnel and pieces of digging equipment and Blackcat crawlers go flying and when Meridith can finally manage to find her equilibrium as her ears settle into a dull roar of muted sound she'll discover she's managed to miraculously dodge most of the dangerous debris. However, that IS sure to draw the police one way or the other, so it's time to hightail it out of her before she has more than a little explaining to do!
OOC: Thank you for participating! If you need a teleport or anything when you head down please let me know!
Magnus was with Meridith if you want to pull them along.
(A powerful artifact in your target's possession is stolen by a group of thieves who are unaware of its supernatural properties. Your target must track down the thieves and retrieve the artifact before it causes untold damage.)
The two of them have been out hunting in the north woods, corpses of kobolds, rats, and a few golden hounds litter the space in the woods where the Magnus and Meridith have been training. "Good, good. You are progressing nicely in your training. Professor Williams will be pleased that her lessons are sinking in." Raising up his broadsword to clean it of blood, Magnus glances aside to Meridith as he asks, "Like you said, some new armor would not be asmiss. Chain mail could be nice, but I believe for mobility some thick leather in a cuirass or breastplate may assist you a bit better."
Meridith beams towards Magnus, looking prideful and content. She flashes her blade through the air, clearing the blood off of it. She polishes the rest off of it. Then nods. "Hmm, a good thought, never really uh...worn chainmail, I guess it'd be heavy?"
"A bit heavier than well trapped leather, certainly. It sort of hangs heavy across the shoulders, but a belt keeps up the lower part." Magnus notes as he motions across his broad shoulders and waist, where a belt would be. "But leathers, you can strap them by the arms, wrap around the shoulders, and with a tight fit, you'll feel like you're wearing nothing at all. Better for that fencing sword you're wielding."
The woods near the pair are unusually quiet, given the pair have been out hunting in this area. The coppery scent of blood hangs in the air. A breeze carries it off, somewhat, but the chill seems to freeze it in place against the moving air. An occasional bird's cry can still be heard from further away, a little early for spring, but perhaps it is just wishful thinking on the bird's part.
As the pair celebrates their victory and the advanced lessons, Magnus goes to check for something that was in his pocket. Something important. Something powerful. Only, it is not there any longer. Which leads to some interesting questions about the object in question, where it has gone, why Magnus had it in the first place, and why he no longer remembers the object or having it. Shenanigans are in play, and Magnus is a bit behind the ball. And if he wants to keep that item out of the wrong hands, he will need to do some work, fast. Perhaps even enlisting Meridith as an assistant of sorts for the process.
Patting himself down, Magnus narrows his eyes. "Hrm...no...that's not it. Oh. It's not here any longer." he opens a pocket in his hunting gear and checks, and then checks his other pockets. "I had a shard. Small, about 3 inches long. Something I found while on the other side of the Wilds gate. It's a piece of enchanted wood from a ritual, infused with magical energy." he mulls over his steps as he asks Meridith, "Someone bumped into me at the Black Rose Bookstore while I was looking for some books on it. Do you think they pickpocketed me?"
Meridith takes a deep breath watching worriedly over at Magnus. "...Ah," she hesitates. "I don't remember seeing anything like that on you, are you sure you brought it with you?" a doubt lingers on the edge of her voice as she considers the possibilitiy. "It could be, do you want my help in looking for it?"
"Yeah." Magnus says as he shoulders his weapons and pats his armor, "Let's go and see if we can find these thieves. Put your skills to work." he closes his eyes as he attempts to remember the thief and sniffs the air, trying to remember the scent.
While the Black Rose may be a prime space to look, given Magnus's close affiliation with the place, it is certainly a place to start looking for the missing item. Or at least start looking for whomever may have been involved in relieving him of its presence and usage. Given where they are in the woods and the relative close proximity to a road and a vehicle.
A pair of scents cling to Magnus, one for the shard itself, the Wilds having its own distinctive blend of aromas to carry with it, and another of an aftershave unfamiliar to Magnus's olfactory senses previously. But given the primordial tie between scent and memory creation, he does suddenly recall bumping into a scrawny man back in the store. The man had brown hair, brown eyes, in a heavy, black wool coat, with jeans and work boots. Obviously the man is shorter than Magnus, but he was only a little taller than Meridith for references.
The man likely did not tarry at the store after he lifted the item though, if in fact, that is who stole it. So they may need to hurry in order to catch the scent of the man before he gets too far away. Who knows what sort of trouble he could get up to with an artifact, especially if he does not know what it is or could do.
Meridith nods to Magnus, but appears to have little in the way of supernatural or even natural talent for such tracking. Looking pretty, medicine and apparently, swordsmanship are of her premier talents. Of little use here, but she makes a cute sidekick
After a short drive, Magnus and Meridith arrive at the bookstore and Magnus mentions, "The parking lot. I'm going to go inside and see if I can find the security cameras. Can you...can you type for me?" Magnus says as he holds up his massive hands, his giant sized fingers are huge as he wiggles them. "Keyboards are rough." he says as he motions towards the back office where he works. "We're looking for...a guy, a little taller than yourself. heavy wool coat, jeans, work boots. Brown hair and eyes. See if you can see him leave on the camera and what car he gets into."
Meridith nods to Magnus. Typing! She can type. She follows after Magnus into the back office. "I guess they don't sell keyboards at the giant and tall store huhn...?" She smirks faintly and moves to load up the cameras, helping him trawl through footage for a lead.
"I don't believe they do." Magnus rumbles as he shakes his head, reaching up to brush his long hair and braids out of his face as he watches the footage as well.
It takes Meridith a little bit to find it, because it goes all the way back to yesterday. But with some guidance from Magnus on how to use the system and some short cuts, combined with when Magnus was in the store narrowing it down, they are on their way to finding an exact moment of contact with the individual.
The culprit does not purchase anything in the store. He seemed to be hanging out, chilling, relaxing all cool in the store, browsing for literally hours, before Magnus arrived. Then he just positions himself to get bumped into nonchalantly. He does not look all that special. No symbols visible to the camera. Just a guy. Who lifted a potentially powerful object off Magnus, and likely still does not know what it even is.
With that in mind, it is easy to see him in the parking lot, getting into a beat up Chevy sedan, blue, and drive off toward the bridge. If he is a newcomer, he may not have a place to stay in Haven properly, which means if he is still here, he is either at the Antlers or possibly he left Haven altogether.
Meridith yelps excitedly when she finds him, waving to get Magnus attention even though he probably recognized it first.
"There." Magnus says as he points to the man, as they follow the camera footage out to the parking lot, Magnus pats Meridith on the back and says, "Good job." he motions for her to follow as he heads towards the door. "You drive, I'm going to stick my head out the window and smell. Are you allergic to dogs?" he asks as he takes a glance towards the bathroom of the bookstore.
Meridith follows Magnus quickly, taking a copy of the image of the man for her phone before following after. "No, wh-" She doesn't bother. She gets a sense she's about to find out anyway. "It'll be fine," she insists with a curious gaze following Magnus' before she heads to get the van running.
A quick jaunt to the bathroom to get out of eyesight of the unaware, and then Magnus(Dog) comes out a few minutes later, wagging it's tail as it has the car keys in it's mouth. It bounds over to Meridith as it wags it's tail, dropping the keys at her feet and giving a friendly bark.
Meridith stares at Magnus(Dog) a moment. She puts her hands on her hips and just...enjoys this moment. She has heard of such things but...seeing a friend vanish and a dog return takes some getting used to.
Meridith says "...Magnus? "
A bark comes back in reply as the friendly husky sits down and lifts it's paw up to shake, then paws at the keys and nudges Meridith with it's nose. Magnus(Dog)'s ears perk up as it's nostrils flare, sniffing the air.
Meridith snatches up the key and pivots, she gets in to the front seat and starts the engine...then hesitates and opens the pessenger side door.
Hopping up in the seat, Magnus(Dog) uses it's jaw to close the door to the minivan as it then paws at the power window to put it down enough to stick it's head out. Giving Meridith a bark, Magnus(Dog) uses it's nose to poke her hand and then it pokes the seatbelt.
While a normal, or even superhuman, nose could not normally detect the traces of some guy's aftershave twenty-four hours after passing, Magnus(Dog) has the benefit of even further enhanced dog olfactory senses! But it really is not the trail of aftershave that draws him, even if it is a note in the melody of aromas available for him to smell along the way. The Wilds scent from the shard is really the smell to hone in on.
But given the man drove away, it rather sealed off those scents for the duration of his car trip. It is not like it is summer where rolling through town with the windows down is fashionable (and even then, who does that these days with AC so cold it can cause frost to form on windshields in 90 degree heat?), despite the fact that is exactly what Magnus(Dog) and Meridith are about to do. Hopefully Meridith does not get too cold. Magnus(Dog) just looks like he is out for a leisurely, fun ride through town, without a care for the cold.
Once the pair are under way, it should not take them long of cruising down Elm to Franklin to eventually Hart, where near Rosie's, the Lodge, and Antler's, Magnus(Dog) picks up the trail. It goes all around outside, between those three locations, hinting that the culprit has been lingering in this part of town, going back and forth between those points. A couple of trails head off toward down town proper, but they are more faint and lack the Wilds flavor that Magnus(Dog) is looking for.
Meridith is freezing her bits off under the chill. She shivers and squirms in her seat and rubs her arms and drives diligent and carefully through the streets of Haven, along with her dog teacher, chasing down a stolen magical artifact.
Raising a paw to pat on Meridith's arm, Magnus(Dog) points with his nose at the Antler's parking lot, giving a soft bark as he motions towards it.
Meridith nods and turns on her signal as she moves to turn on to the street and pull into the parking lot.
As they park, Magnus(Dog) wriggles out of the seat and jumps into the back of the car, as Meridith can hear the sickening sound of a shifter changing back into his other form.
Meridith stares at the scene, she can't help herself.
In the PG-13 version of this scene, the camera does not show any more than Magnus's lower back. In the Rated H for Haven version, Meridith gets to see all of the blood, muscle, and skin form back into place in all of Magnus's nude glory in the back seat. Giggity. But as Magnus is changing, the shard thief comes out of the door of the Antlers, heading toward his car in the parking lot. The pair does not have a lot of time until this becomes a car chase and risks leaving Haven entirely!
All seven feet of Magnus is naked in the back of the minivan, crouched down and slightly sweaty from his change from an animal. He searches around in the back of his van and pulls out a duffel bag of clothes, clearly used to this sort of situation, as he slips on some pants over his naked body and pulls down a tank top, while slipping on some shoes he keeps for such an occasion. Running his hands through his long hair and braids to get some of the wild mess out of them, Magnus looks back to Meridith in the driver's seat. "There he is!" Magnus exclaims as he whips open the sliding side door of the minivan and tears off towards the man at full speed, which is...insanely fast for a person.""
Meridith takes a moment to collect herself upon seeing the sight and just shudders. It ends pleasantly enough, but the moments before stand out. Turning ashen, she none the less collects herself and throws the van in drive, trying to pull out to block the culprits vehicle from driving off.
The guy does not even see Magnus coming, which says something, given the size of the man-dog teacher. The van pulling up to block his vehicle in gets more of the culprit's attention though, because it means Meridith almost hits the guy with the car in the process, slamming on the brakes just in time to prevent turning him into a pancake, which might have broken the shard in the impact.
"Wha tha hell, eh?! Can't ya see Iyam walkin' heyah?!" the man says, throwing up his hands toward Meridith through the windshield. He swats the hood of the car and prepares to walk around toward his sedan. That leaves his back to Magnus when he gets there.
Bulldozing the man at full speed, Magnus tries to grab him up in his arms and attempts to pin the man up against the side of the van, grappling with him as he says, "I'm with security, and you've stolen something. Give me the thing you stole and nobody gets hurt."
Meridith lets out a sharp. "Hey! What the hell are you doing!" she blinks, unsure if she needs to pretend here, the guy seems exactly like he's just a normal dude who got cut off. As someone descends on him she relaxes and opens the car door, shifting out. She leaves the engine running, and gazes about.
Meridith lets out a sharp. "Hey! What the hell are you doing!" she blinks, unsure if she needs to pretend here, the guy seems exactly like he's just a normal dude who got cut off. As Magnus descends on him she relaxes and opens the car door, shifting out. She leaves the engine running, and gazes about.
"I ain't take nothin'. I ain't sayin' nothin'. Ya can call the cops, and my lawyah!" the man shouts back at Magnus, clearly already familiar with normal security procedures. He may not yet be acquainted with Haven security measures however. The guy puts his hands up though, assuming the position. "Ya got nothin' on me," he declares, cocky as shit, maybe not even recognizing Magnus from the deed the day before. Or maybe he does, and he is just a really convincing actor.
There is a bit of public attention, doing this sort of thing out in public, and some onlookers start filming. Someone is almost assuredly calling the sheriff's department. The man puts up no fight whatsoever, just shaking his head and staying in place against the van. Of course, it is unlikely he would be getting away with Magnus holding him there if he tried either.
Meridith hmms, and given the situation, she moves to scan the car. A man when approached like this might dispose of the evidence. She checks the bushes, the driver and passenger seat swiftly.
Patting the man down, Magnus searches his pockets as he pulls the man's arm back in a chicken wing against the car, "Look, we can wait for the police to arrive, sure. I'll tell them all about how you've been pickpocketing people, including me, at the Black Rose Bookstore. You were just there yesterday. I bet they'd love to hear all about your crimes, or should we wait for them to attempt to stop me from some assault and battery, my friend. You can tell me where the shard is or I can wring your neck until it pops out of your strangled body." he growls.
Meridith chimes out, "I've seen him do it," she insists.
Elsewhere and later, during a hunting training session in the north woods, Magnus and Meridith find themselves on a different quest when they realize that a powerful enchanted shard belonging to Magnus has been stolen. Magnus's scent memory leads them to the Black Rose Bookstore, where security camera footage reveals a scrawny man with brown hair is the thief. The trail heats up near Rosie's, the Lodge, and Antler's, tightening the net around their suspect. After transforming into a dog to amplify his senses, Magnus locates the suspect in the parking lot of the Antlers, switching back to human form to take swift action. In a race against time, Magnus confronts and physically restrains the thief out in the open, threatening him while Meridith searches the man's car. Despite attracting public attention and risk, Magnus intimidates the man into submission, while Meridith shows support to reinforce the seriousness of the situation.
(Meridith's odd encounter(SRDeacon):SRDeacon)
[Thu Feb 8 2024]
On Elm Street
It is afternoon, about 8F(-13C) degrees, and there are a few dark grey stormclouds in the sky.
(The characters discover an old, forgotten graveyard on the outskirts of Haven. It's haunted by several restless spirits who have been disturbed by recent construction work. The spirits are not inherently evil but confused and angry, lashing out at anyone who dares to enter their resting place. The characters need to find a way to calm them down and allow them to rest in peace again. This could involve finding out what disturbed them and fixing it, or helping them fulfill their last wishes, or even just convincing them that they are dead and it's time to move on.)
Meridith sorts his backpack on her shoulder, looking like any other student in town. But hers hides a rapier, a bow, and set makes a lazy stroll to the woods
This Storyrunner is testing Meridith targets.
Strolling through the woods, Meridith will find herself walking a little further than she originally intended this afternoon as her feet wander and take her wherever they may. It's up elm she finds herself walking now, and as she passes a small marker, they'll realize they're not exactly in the town 'proper' anymore. Up ahead though is something not yet seen before - a large abandoned patch of ground up in the distance. The only thing that really seperates it out is that it's clear of trees where much of the forest isn't, and the remains of some wrought-iron fencing that surrounds it at the outer edges. It's enough to spark the curiosity at the very least.
Meridith pauses. Once out of sight of the town, she sets her backpack down, pulling out a set of steel bracers, a rapier and a longbow. She strings his bow, sets it over her shoulder with a quiver. She begins to make her way towards the clearing with curiosity
Moving closer to this patch of land, Meridith can see long grass growing over the cleared ground. Passing the barrier of the wrought-iron, she'll feel a soft breeze that's somehow colder than the wind that already blows past to leave small patches of gooseflesh along her skin. Through the patches of grass, Meridith can see small mounds here, and the remains of stones every so often. Staring ... her eyes begin to plot out the ground in logical blocks and a grid blossoms in her mind that overlays the ground. A graveyard or cemetary perhaps. Those small stone remains are evenly spaced and it's easy to assume they may be what's left of the headstones that once sprouted up from the ground here.
Meridith treads carefully, the blade hold in her hand, drifts slow lazy arcs as she walks. She avoids the mounds, the spaces between markers where the dead may dwell. Wishing not to disrupt them. She looks for signs, names, anything that indicate who or what is buried here
Alas, something has already disturbed these dead. Up a little further, the other half of this cemetary looks as though it's been dug up by any number of various pieces of large construction equipment. There's a shoddily constructed trailor up ahead and pallets with materials. Perhaps the most morbid is a stack of what may be bodies like linkin logs in black bags outside that main trailer. Fully within the confines of the burial ground Meridith can feel the presence of something else, now. It's not hard to guess there's potential for spiritual unrest here, as the dead and buried are being dug up wholesale! BUt how well equipped is our young adeventurer to deal with such things?
Meridith takes a slow deep breath as a chill runs down her spine. "Oh my god, great...spooky cemetary and they're dug up and it's in the woods and...fuck...!" She grumbles and shifts forward. While a supernatural being in her own right, barely aware as she might be, she knows little of ghosts and spirits and how to handle them. Still, she has gumption. Surely gumption will help. She treads forward. There's a culprit, she decides, and that's who she'll turn her attention to!
Looking about, the only real destination that Meridith might have is that foreman's trailer off in the distance a little bit. Of course that means traversing the rest of this burial ground and passing that gigantic pile of bodies. Gumption fortifying the woman, she trudges that direction but with every step, things get spookier and colder by the moment. The air turns to a bite that stings at bared flesh and Meridith's breath will come out of her lips as plumes of steam easily visible to her eye all of the sudden. Everytime her eyes leave the ground, it's as if she can just feel the hands clawing just beneath the dirt reaching for her ..
Call the cops, a quiet voice in Meridith mind tells her. She knows better, but her phone lacks service, and walk away? From trouble? From danger? From mystery? Secrets hide behind every thing that lays before her. What if this is the missing piece? She hesitates as she trudges and begans to let out shuddering terrified gasps, for a moment her step hitches and she covers her mouth. Frozen.
All of the sudden, Meridith can feel something like hot breath wash across the back of her neck! If she turns about, she'll find nothing to see. Each step she takes feels more like a cloak of dread and the anticipation of something horrible that wraps about the frame of Meridith like a blanket cozy and tight. Frozen like that, now it's not just what she feels but what she sees. Flickers of movement just outside the edge of her vision that make her feel paranoid because each time she checks there will be nothing to look at directly. It's a matter of intuition, but she'll discover that if she doesn't try to look at anything directly and just lets her eyes slide toward whatever draws them without focus she can almost begin to make some things out. Frozen still, that trailer is still twenty or thirty feet away. The temperature doesn't drop further but it remains too cold to be natural, like icy crystals inside her lungs.
Meridith is hyperventilating. A spiked heartrate and a dizzy sensation reminds her, she is just a young girl. She's small. She's fragile and she's weak. She's in way over her head, and she has no business pretend to do these heroics. She is chided for believing otherwise, a quiet dread. Hot tears begin to drip down her face, a soft whimper. Then she goes still, eyes closing.
Slow even breath, her eyes open. One in, one out, then she takes a step. The dread cloaks her, she doesn't master it, she doesn't shrug it off, but she steps forward because it is the only way to go. The heavy clouds dispel from her lungs from the cold. She can accept she's out of her depths here, the only way is forward.
You know what they say. Courage isn't the lack of fear, but the will to move forward despite it. They also say any courage is fool's courage. Stepping forward is hard, making that first pace. The second comes a little easier, and the next a little easier still. Keeping those eyes straight forward, she begins to make out what appears to be a battlefield all around her. The half-formed shapes of soldiers and natives battling it out furiously around her like she's walking through someone ghost of a memory. Right before her she see's the ghostly form of a Brave come running past. She can't hear the war whoop he must be giving off but her mind can fill in the blanks, as she watches a tomahawk comes swinging down toward her head! Only to pass through her and leave a stretch of DEAD cold through her as a parting gift. Still, she forces herself toward the trailer. Making it to the door is almost an achievement in itself, somehow the feel of the trailer's physical presence now in front of her like an anchoring force in the here and now.
Meridith exhales deeply, she was frozen as the tomahawk came towards her, a blade flashes up, much too late, as it passes through her. Despite the insanity of the moment, her crystaline thought is, I'm really glad I didn't have to fight AGAINST the natives. She rubs the back of her head, the absurdity helping relieve her but for a moment. She presses onward, head on a nervous swivel as she approaches. She hesitates.
Meridith studies the trailer a moment, and stares behind her at this ghostly never ending battle and holds a hand over her heart.
Meridith takes a moment and then attempts to force the door open.
The fear courses through Meridith's veins like ice water and stepping into the trailer itself, is maybe a bit of an anti-climax considering how much effort or strength of will it may have taken to reach this point. Inside is a plain-looking trailer as one might expect of any construction site. It's a desk, and some file cabinets and a lot of paperwork. A sorry excuse of thin carpeting covering the floor and an unadorned lightbulb hanging from wiring in the middle of the ceiling. The far corner carries the cage where things like Semtex are stored for the occasional blasting needs. Two options sit in front of Meridith now. Her mind's already given her one of them, calling the police. If she reports the discovery of the dead they'll shut down whatever construction is ongoing here. On the other hand, there's a cage full of mild construction-grade explosives right over there too. That'd be enough to take care of the machinery outside.
It may not be enough to free these souls, but it would certainly be enough to put a stop to the unrest caused by disturbing their burials.
Meridith straightens up. The realization strikes her, all the pieces coming together. She knows how this world works. Companies like this, illegal digging operations, they don't... the law isn't here to stop them. She shifts and turns her gaze to the demolition gear and takes a somber moment to make a decision.
"I suspect you didn't send me here to become a terrorist..." She takes a deep breath but steps inside, the door closes behind her and the world of the mystical for a moment is shut away. Leaving this young college student to decide what is right. She moves to the explosives, studying them, searching for familiarity. That she could do this without blowing herself up.
But this isn't just a question of the mundane? Outside the spirits of people long dead wage and endless battle, disturbed in their rest from forces too ignorant and greedy to understand or care. She is not just a young college girl. She's more. She doesn't know what, but she knows she is something. And action is her responsibility. She sets about the task of destroying this equipment using their own explosives.
While the woman's skill isn't much, it's lucky for her that Semtex and the explosives used here on construction sites like this one are fairly self explanatory. The tubes or sausages are packed like putty, easily moldable into shapes or along structured lines or in the cracks and creases of digging and excavation equipment. Each one has electronic counterparts but she's probably seen enough movies to put this stuff together in some fashion right? No fuses, just detinators so maybe Meridith will be able to get enough distance. Still, she doesn't have a ton of experience when it comes to this sort of thing, does she? Google is her friend on the setup, all she has to do now is count her blessings, pray to whatever Gods choose to listen, and press the button.
Meridith takes a quiet moment to steel herself, gazing upon this surreal moment, gazing at the equipment. She takes a moment and closes her eyes, and offers out a quiet prayer. For a moment, it's the beauty of it that draws her. There is justice in this, right? Some kind of cosmic metaphor? These people died in a pointless battle. Dug up by pointless greed. And end in an explosion. She opens her eyes, and hits the button.
For a moment, nothing. She takes a moment and stares down. "Uh o-" The world around her is reduced to a terrifying explosion, she is thrown off her feet and back and the world rings. She gazes at the beautiful aurora of flame and destruction and finds a soft smile plays at her lips.
Beautiful.
And as she presses that button that will cross her into the realm of eco-terrorism? Spiritual terrorism? In either case that blossom of color plumes bright in the night for that brief moment before she's being thrown backward by the concussive wave of pressure that comes RAILING off of the blast. Shrapnel and pieces of digging equipment and Blackcat crawlers go flying and when Meridith can finally manage to find her equilibrium as her ears settle into a dull roar of muted sound she'll discover she's managed to miraculously dodge most of the dangerous debris. However, that IS sure to draw the police one way or the other, so it's time to hightail it out of her before she has more than a little explaining to do!
OOC: Thank you for participating! If you need a teleport or anything when you head down please let me know!
Magnus was with Meridith if you want to pull them along.
(A powerful artifact in your target's possession is stolen by a group of thieves who are unaware of its supernatural properties. Your target must track down the thieves and retrieve the artifact before it causes untold damage.)
The two of them have been out hunting in the north woods, corpses of kobolds, rats, and a few golden hounds litter the space in the woods where the Magnus and Meridith have been training. "Good, good. You are progressing nicely in your training. Professor Williams will be pleased that her lessons are sinking in." Raising up his broadsword to clean it of blood, Magnus glances aside to Meridith as he asks, "Like you said, some new armor would not be asmiss. Chain mail could be nice, but I believe for mobility some thick leather in a cuirass or breastplate may assist you a bit better."
Meridith beams towards Magnus, looking prideful and content. She flashes her blade through the air, clearing the blood off of it. She polishes the rest off of it. Then nods. "Hmm, a good thought, never really uh...worn chainmail, I guess it'd be heavy?"
"A bit heavier than well trapped leather, certainly. It sort of hangs heavy across the shoulders, but a belt keeps up the lower part." Magnus notes as he motions across his broad shoulders and waist, where a belt would be. "But leathers, you can strap them by the arms, wrap around the shoulders, and with a tight fit, you'll feel like you're wearing nothing at all. Better for that fencing sword you're wielding."
The woods near the pair are unusually quiet, given the pair have been out hunting in this area. The coppery scent of blood hangs in the air. A breeze carries it off, somewhat, but the chill seems to freeze it in place against the moving air. An occasional bird's cry can still be heard from further away, a little early for spring, but perhaps it is just wishful thinking on the bird's part.
As the pair celebrates their victory and the advanced lessons, Magnus goes to check for something that was in his pocket. Something important. Something powerful. Only, it is not there any longer. Which leads to some interesting questions about the object in question, where it has gone, why Magnus had it in the first place, and why he no longer remembers the object or having it. Shenanigans are in play, and Magnus is a bit behind the ball. And if he wants to keep that item out of the wrong hands, he will need to do some work, fast. Perhaps even enlisting Meridith as an assistant of sorts for the process.
Patting himself down, Magnus narrows his eyes. "Hrm...no...that's not it. Oh. It's not here any longer." he opens a pocket in his hunting gear and checks, and then checks his other pockets. "I had a shard. Small, about 3 inches long. Something I found while on the other side of the Wilds gate. It's a piece of enchanted wood from a ritual, infused with magical energy." he mulls over his steps as he asks Meridith, "Someone bumped into me at the Black Rose Bookstore while I was looking for some books on it. Do you think they pickpocketed me?"
Meridith takes a deep breath watching worriedly over at Magnus. "...Ah," she hesitates. "I don't remember seeing anything like that on you, are you sure you brought it with you?" a doubt lingers on the edge of her voice as she considers the possibilitiy. "It could be, do you want my help in looking for it?"
"Yeah." Magnus says as he shoulders his weapons and pats his armor, "Let's go and see if we can find these thieves. Put your skills to work." he closes his eyes as he attempts to remember the thief and sniffs the air, trying to remember the scent.
While the Black Rose may be a prime space to look, given Magnus's close affiliation with the place, it is certainly a place to start looking for the missing item. Or at least start looking for whomever may have been involved in relieving him of its presence and usage. Given where they are in the woods and the relative close proximity to a road and a vehicle.
A pair of scents cling to Magnus, one for the shard itself, the Wilds having its own distinctive blend of aromas to carry with it, and another of an aftershave unfamiliar to Magnus's olfactory senses previously. But given the primordial tie between scent and memory creation, he does suddenly recall bumping into a scrawny man back in the store. The man had brown hair, brown eyes, in a heavy, black wool coat, with jeans and work boots. Obviously the man is shorter than Magnus, but he was only a little taller than Meridith for references.
The man likely did not tarry at the store after he lifted the item though, if in fact, that is who stole it. So they may need to hurry in order to catch the scent of the man before he gets too far away. Who knows what sort of trouble he could get up to with an artifact, especially if he does not know what it is or could do.
Meridith nods to Magnus, but appears to have little in the way of supernatural or even natural talent for such tracking. Looking pretty, medicine and apparently, swordsmanship are of her premier talents. Of little use here, but she makes a cute sidekick
After a short drive, Magnus and Meridith arrive at the bookstore and Magnus mentions, "The parking lot. I'm going to go inside and see if I can find the security cameras. Can you...can you type for me?" Magnus says as he holds up his massive hands, his giant sized fingers are huge as he wiggles them. "Keyboards are rough." he says as he motions towards the back office where he works. "We're looking for...a guy, a little taller than yourself. heavy wool coat, jeans, work boots. Brown hair and eyes. See if you can see him leave on the camera and what car he gets into."
Meridith nods to Magnus. Typing! She can type. She follows after Magnus into the back office. "I guess they don't sell keyboards at the giant and tall store huhn...?" She smirks faintly and moves to load up the cameras, helping him trawl through footage for a lead.
"I don't believe they do." Magnus rumbles as he shakes his head, reaching up to brush his long hair and braids out of his face as he watches the footage as well.
It takes Meridith a little bit to find it, because it goes all the way back to yesterday. But with some guidance from Magnus on how to use the system and some short cuts, combined with when Magnus was in the store narrowing it down, they are on their way to finding an exact moment of contact with the individual.
The culprit does not purchase anything in the store. He seemed to be hanging out, chilling, relaxing all cool in the store, browsing for literally hours, before Magnus arrived. Then he just positions himself to get bumped into nonchalantly. He does not look all that special. No symbols visible to the camera. Just a guy. Who lifted a potentially powerful object off Magnus, and likely still does not know what it even is.
With that in mind, it is easy to see him in the parking lot, getting into a beat up Chevy sedan, blue, and drive off toward the bridge. If he is a newcomer, he may not have a place to stay in Haven properly, which means if he is still here, he is either at the Antlers or possibly he left Haven altogether.
Meridith yelps excitedly when she finds him, waving to get Magnus attention even though he probably recognized it first.
"There." Magnus says as he points to the man, as they follow the camera footage out to the parking lot, Magnus pats Meridith on the back and says, "Good job." he motions for her to follow as he heads towards the door. "You drive, I'm going to stick my head out the window and smell. Are you allergic to dogs?" he asks as he takes a glance towards the bathroom of the bookstore.
Meridith follows Magnus quickly, taking a copy of the image of the man for her phone before following after. "No, wh-" She doesn't bother. She gets a sense she's about to find out anyway. "It'll be fine," she insists with a curious gaze following Magnus' before she heads to get the van running.
A quick jaunt to the bathroom to get out of eyesight of the unaware, and then Magnus(Dog) comes out a few minutes later, wagging it's tail as it has the car keys in it's mouth. It bounds over to Meridith as it wags it's tail, dropping the keys at her feet and giving a friendly bark.
Meridith stares at Magnus(Dog) a moment. She puts her hands on her hips and just...enjoys this moment. She has heard of such things but...seeing a friend vanish and a dog return takes some getting used to.
Meridith says "...Magnus? "
A bark comes back in reply as the friendly husky sits down and lifts it's paw up to shake, then paws at the keys and nudges Meridith with it's nose. Magnus(Dog)'s ears perk up as it's nostrils flare, sniffing the air.
Meridith snatches up the key and pivots, she gets in to the front seat and starts the engine...then hesitates and opens the pessenger side door.
Hopping up in the seat, Magnus(Dog) uses it's jaw to close the door to the minivan as it then paws at the power window to put it down enough to stick it's head out. Giving Meridith a bark, Magnus(Dog) uses it's nose to poke her hand and then it pokes the seatbelt.
While a normal, or even superhuman, nose could not normally detect the traces of some guy's aftershave twenty-four hours after passing, Magnus(Dog) has the benefit of even further enhanced dog olfactory senses! But it really is not the trail of aftershave that draws him, even if it is a note in the melody of aromas available for him to smell along the way. The Wilds scent from the shard is really the smell to hone in on.
But given the man drove away, it rather sealed off those scents for the duration of his car trip. It is not like it is summer where rolling through town with the windows down is fashionable (and even then, who does that these days with AC so cold it can cause frost to form on windshields in 90 degree heat?), despite the fact that is exactly what Magnus(Dog) and Meridith are about to do. Hopefully Meridith does not get too cold. Magnus(Dog) just looks like he is out for a leisurely, fun ride through town, without a care for the cold.
Once the pair are under way, it should not take them long of cruising down Elm to Franklin to eventually Hart, where near Rosie's, the Lodge, and Antler's, Magnus(Dog) picks up the trail. It goes all around outside, between those three locations, hinting that the culprit has been lingering in this part of town, going back and forth between those points. A couple of trails head off toward down town proper, but they are more faint and lack the Wilds flavor that Magnus(Dog) is looking for.
Meridith is freezing her bits off under the chill. She shivers and squirms in her seat and rubs her arms and drives diligent and carefully through the streets of Haven, along with her dog teacher, chasing down a stolen magical artifact.
Raising a paw to pat on Meridith's arm, Magnus(Dog) points with his nose at the Antler's parking lot, giving a soft bark as he motions towards it.
Meridith nods and turns on her signal as she moves to turn on to the street and pull into the parking lot.
As they park, Magnus(Dog) wriggles out of the seat and jumps into the back of the car, as Meridith can hear the sickening sound of a shifter changing back into his other form.
Meridith stares at the scene, she can't help herself.
In the PG-13 version of this scene, the camera does not show any more than Magnus's lower back. In the Rated H for Haven version, Meridith gets to see all of the blood, muscle, and skin form back into place in all of Magnus's nude glory in the back seat. Giggity. But as Magnus is changing, the shard thief comes out of the door of the Antlers, heading toward his car in the parking lot. The pair does not have a lot of time until this becomes a car chase and risks leaving Haven entirely!
All seven feet of Magnus is naked in the back of the minivan, crouched down and slightly sweaty from his change from an animal. He searches around in the back of his van and pulls out a duffel bag of clothes, clearly used to this sort of situation, as he slips on some pants over his naked body and pulls down a tank top, while slipping on some shoes he keeps for such an occasion. Running his hands through his long hair and braids to get some of the wild mess out of them, Magnus looks back to Meridith in the driver's seat. "There he is!" Magnus exclaims as he whips open the sliding side door of the minivan and tears off towards the man at full speed, which is...insanely fast for a person.""
Meridith takes a moment to collect herself upon seeing the sight and just shudders. It ends pleasantly enough, but the moments before stand out. Turning ashen, she none the less collects herself and throws the van in drive, trying to pull out to block the culprits vehicle from driving off.
The guy does not even see Magnus coming, which says something, given the size of the man-dog teacher. The van pulling up to block his vehicle in gets more of the culprit's attention though, because it means Meridith almost hits the guy with the car in the process, slamming on the brakes just in time to prevent turning him into a pancake, which might have broken the shard in the impact.
"Wha tha hell, eh?! Can't ya see Iyam walkin' heyah?!" the man says, throwing up his hands toward Meridith through the windshield. He swats the hood of the car and prepares to walk around toward his sedan. That leaves his back to Magnus when he gets there.
Bulldozing the man at full speed, Magnus tries to grab him up in his arms and attempts to pin the man up against the side of the van, grappling with him as he says, "I'm with security, and you've stolen something. Give me the thing you stole and nobody gets hurt."
Meridith lets out a sharp. "Hey! What the hell are you doing!" she blinks, unsure if she needs to pretend here, the guy seems exactly like he's just a normal dude who got cut off. As someone descends on him she relaxes and opens the car door, shifting out. She leaves the engine running, and gazes about.
Meridith lets out a sharp. "Hey! What the hell are you doing!" she blinks, unsure if she needs to pretend here, the guy seems exactly like he's just a normal dude who got cut off. As Magnus descends on him she relaxes and opens the car door, shifting out. She leaves the engine running, and gazes about.
"I ain't take nothin'. I ain't sayin' nothin'. Ya can call the cops, and my lawyah!" the man shouts back at Magnus, clearly already familiar with normal security procedures. He may not yet be acquainted with Haven security measures however. The guy puts his hands up though, assuming the position. "Ya got nothin' on me," he declares, cocky as shit, maybe not even recognizing Magnus from the deed the day before. Or maybe he does, and he is just a really convincing actor.
There is a bit of public attention, doing this sort of thing out in public, and some onlookers start filming. Someone is almost assuredly calling the sheriff's department. The man puts up no fight whatsoever, just shaking his head and staying in place against the van. Of course, it is unlikely he would be getting away with Magnus holding him there if he tried either.
Meridith hmms, and given the situation, she moves to scan the car. A man when approached like this might dispose of the evidence. She checks the bushes, the driver and passenger seat swiftly.
Patting the man down, Magnus searches his pockets as he pulls the man's arm back in a chicken wing against the car, "Look, we can wait for the police to arrive, sure. I'll tell them all about how you've been pickpocketing people, including me, at the Black Rose Bookstore. You were just there yesterday. I bet they'd love to hear all about your crimes, or should we wait for them to attempt to stop me from some assault and battery, my friend. You can tell me where the shard is or I can wring your neck until it pops out of your strangled body." he growls.
Meridith chimes out, "I've seen him do it," she insists.