Roger and Mitch Visit Dixon
Michael
Tuesday. August 14, 1973.
The Tuesday surveillance plan sounds good to the oft cautious Roger. He might take the opportunity to execute on the Dixon A Street and environs brown-out on Tuesday, leading to van sittings being justified, so he could settle into driving around and spying on the house from telephone poles. Note: the brown-out plan is just a minor power flicker, with any interference immediately undone. Hopefully nothing PG&E would deeply investigate other than a quick check at the local transformer.
It all seems reasonable. We could break in to the A Street house during the day while nobody's home, plant some bugs, steal Bernie's hairbrush. Mitch could maybe Shasta-vision in and recon first if that's help (not sure it would, but it seems a safer remote-view target than Agrigenics HQ).
At around 6:45 in the morning on Tuesday, August 14, a minor power fluctuation cascades through the oldest part of Dixon, California. The light bulbs in the old Victorians in the center of town flicker and then are restored. If anyone does call the power company itself, the system checks out, and besides: there's a Black lineman out there working at 7:30 responding the customers' needs.
A bird's eye view of the house on A Street shows that it's a fixer-upper for sure, but there's been a lot of work done on it. The paint job is fresh, and bright and sprightly: a deep rich blue with bright green trim. Just enough on the side of Victorian-nostalgia hippie to betray its owners and residents as being young people, but not a total visual nightmare like so many flophouses in the Haight were back about five years ago. There's a bright yellow smiling old-fashioned wooden sun effigy (the design looking like it was copies from, like, a Renaissance emblem book) on the front gate, with a handpainted, lower-case Uncial sign that simply says, "beale farms." The front garden has a bunch of flowers in boxes and on bushes, cultivated weeds like milkweed and heather, an herb garden; basically every square inch possible is covered in growing things.
There's Bernadette's car (did I already say what make and model it was? can't find it anywhere) and an orange Microbus (naturally) in the driveway; the old carriage house is not being used as a car garage, interestingly. The carriage house also has some very obvious add-ons—ventilation and its own power supply—that Roger's Streetwise under normal circumstances might peg as an "indoor grow" type situation. Roger hopes they're growing something in there as innocuous as weed.
Their garden, in the back, on an eighth-acre of land (it looks like what was once an adjoining lot was bolted on to the house's lot) is positively fecund. From this distance Roger can't pinpoint all the vegetables on the grow in the backyard, but the density is tremendous and the variety impressive, everything from root vegetables to leafy greens to tomatoes to even a very small grape trellis. Chicken coops indicate the Beale folks own a dozen or more hens. They're the only house in the neighborhood with anything near this kind of home agriculture; the house definitely is a sore thumb amongst the more dilapidated older houses around here. Roger's initial casing makes him think many of the other residents of this neighborhood are old natives of Dixon who've lived here since the turn of the century.
At around 7:45, Bernadette, in her overalls and (this time, non tie-dyed) t-shirt emerges from the front door holding her keys and gets into her car. She drives off of A Street towards the I-80 interchange. For the next half-hour, hour, no one emerges from the house until about 8:30 when a young man comes out of the front door to walk a giant Irish wolfhound. (Will stop there, but Roger's beginning to suspect that the queen bee goes off to work and the boys stay here at home and handle the domestic business: that's including the Beale Farms business. Very modern.)
Bill
Very modern, but very annoying for breaking and entering. Roger will keep watching, but definitely take note of the comings and goings from the carriage house. He’ll “switch poles” from time to time to keep cover, and report in to the AgriGenics watching team via radio.
Jeff
Laser mics on three front windows try to pick up some breakfast chatter
Clairvoyance into the carriage house, see what they're growing
Michael
I'm going to do an Observation-14 roll for Roger and an Electronics Operation (Surveillance)-14 roll for Mitch secretly right now. But Mitch can do his Clairvoyance-12 (+5 for a half-hour of Extra Time, -5 for never having seen inside the carriage house) roll. Corruption is available for Clairvoyance of course.
Jeff
>>>> FAILURE by 3
Doh
If Mitch is hanging out in the van all day he'll have time to rest and retry, but if something happens to prevent that, then it would be prevented
Michael
Got it. Will total up times and lay out the first bit of the morning for you two and your surveillance.
So, the routine of Beale Farms, plus any chatter Mitch can pick up from his laser mic:
In the early morning, Mitch can hear with the mic a lot of shuffling around in the house: dishes being washed in the kitchen, cabinet doors being opened, the door to the back garden opened when one of the Beale boys goes out to feed the chickens and clean out the coops or walk "Uncle Albert" (presumably the name of the Irish wolfhound), etc. Not a lot of chatter, though. At one point, Mitch hears something odd—a murmured chanting, but as he listens more closely he realizes that it's the Oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ mantra: one of the Beale boys is meditating. For the most part, the Beale boys don't really talk to each other: there are murmured "thank you"s and "I'll go out to feed the chickens" but nothing in the way of sparkling conversations: the entire life of the house seems to disappear as soon as Bernadette leaves for work. Now, at one point before Mitch decides to scry (unsuccessfully) on the carriage house, one of the boys goes, "I'm on shack duty today, right?" to another, who says, "Yep. Batches D42 through D50 by the time she gets back tonight." The first one says, "Wish me luck," and this is when Roger and Mitch can see a Beale boy, at around 9 am, go out to the carriage house. He has a key and he unlocks the single heavy-looking door to the building. I'll say Roger's Observation roll has allowed him to get into position to see a sliver of the inside, and he sees what looks like a tiny "airlock" area. There is lab equipment, specifically, a pair of smocks, long blue rubber gloves, and breathing masks—basically, two full sets of medical/bio-lab protective equipment—hanging there, and before the door shuts behind the Beale boy, Roger can see him starting to reach towards the smocks.
It's around this time that Mitch tries and fails to see inside the shack. So by now it's about 9:30, 9:45.
Jeff
Tantalizing! Was Mitch in position to observe the guy exiting the main house and going to the carriage house without obstruction for a period of no less than two seconds?
Also seems like resting and retrying the clairvoyance is the best course of action
Michael
Answer to this is yes, he was walking and fiddling with keys and opening the heavy door long enough... let's say 10 seconds or so.
Probably people walking by the two-man electrical team here thinking bad things about union members when one of them gets to take brief catnaps in the van for most of the shift.
Jeff
Answer to this is yes, he was walking and fiddling with keys and opening the heavy door long enough... let's say 10 seconds or so.
Enough time to Detect and Aura Sight him!
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS by 5
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS by 6
>>>> ANALYZE … FAILURE by 1
Doh!
>>>> ACTIVATE … FAILURE by 2
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS by 7
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS by 7
Doh!
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS by 1
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS by 2
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS by 9
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS by 4
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS by 9
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS by 9
Okay! Just barely
Aura sight! Failure!
Detect! Failure!
Aura sight re-try! Success!
Detect re-try! Success!
Six seconds and 2 FP
Michael
All right, well here's what I can tell you about the Beale Boy (likely either Thaddeus or Ross, given he's white and about to go into their weird agricultural science shack) about to go into the carriage house: his aura is peaceful, unbothered... in fact almost supernaturally so. Maybe it's just from the regimen of meditation that the Beale Boys fit into their busy, chore-filled days... or maybe it's not. But there's no sign of any major physiological damage or long-term illnesses here, except the slightest indication in his aura of vitamin deficiency somewhere in his past: slightly brittle bones, slightly poor eyesight. He eats healthily but hasn't always. He's slightly underweight.
As far as Detect (History B), I can repeat verbatim what I said about Bernadette through the scrying window, and I quote: "If Mitch used Detect (History B) on the street and caught this level of taint, he'd think she was a cultist or believer of some kind, or maybe someone who is on a day-to-day basis exposed to the energies of a subduction zone."
Jeff
Wait, is this a history-b house? Mitch Detects at the house and environs
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS by 4
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS by 5
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS by 2
Dr. Cronk Rolls: [5, 4, 1] Result: 10 [3, 2, 1] Result: 6 [6, 5, 5] Result: 16 Reason: Activation on 14-, Perceive effective skill 15, Analyze effective skill 14 for Detect and 15 for Aura Sight
Sigh
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS by 6
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS by 6
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS by 0
Mitch is having a time today
Michael
What's the FP total spent now after both the failed Clairvoyance and failed divination rolls?
Jeff
Bernie has him spooked I guess!
He's down to 1 I think, if he didn't recover any between the various attempts at psychic recon
9 FP spent
Time to lounge in the back of the van with his paperback copy of Chester Anderson's the Butterfly Kid
Michael
Okay. There are multiple sources of History B energy on the second floor of the house (looks like there are two floors to this house plus a loft/attic). Mitch focuses in on the source and the room, which he would guess is the master bedroom given its placement (a nice southeastern exposure and generous window coverage). There are somewhere between three and five distinct sources of History B energy in that area of the house and since he passed his second analysis roll on the button, Mitch's guess is they are glyphs, not reality shards. There is also less-focused, less powerful, more diffuse History B energy in the carriage house, but it's so diffuse that Mitch can't even identify a single for-certain source there.
Bill
Roger will continue to monitor the mundane ways he has, wait for the kid to come out, get timing for how long he was in there, etc. He's now also planfully casing the place for what looks like will be a necessary B&E.
Michael
Will likely fast-forward to the point when Mitch has rested and let you know what is Observed in that period. Off work early today, so sometime this afternoon. Will do Jo's visit to the ruins of Downer Ranch as well.
Over Mitch's (90?) minute reading break from roughly 10 to 11:30 am, Roger continues to give the house and its environs his best efforts of Observation as he moves the utility truck to various power poles within a lineman's crows-nest view. No one comes out of the carriage house or the main house at all during that time. At around 11:15 am (Mitch is at 9/10 FP at this point), a young East Asian man comes out of the front door of the Beale Farms house walking a rickety old bicycle. He takes it down the porch and front path, opens the gate, takes the bike onto the street, hops on, and pedals off east on A Street towards the center of town.
Jeff
Best to scan him I guess
>>>> ACTIVATE … FAILURE by 1
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS by 5
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS by 0
Grr
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS by 5
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS by 0
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS by 5
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS by 5
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS by 5
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS by 5
Jeezie creezie
Michael
(You back down another 3 FP, back down to 6?) Same general profile as Beale Boy Number One: peaceful aura but it feels off somehow, same general skinny, slightly-malnourished physiology showing up in his recent past, same prolonged low-level exposure to History B. He gets a little bit happier as he gets up to speed on his bike, though: as if getting out into the fresh air away from that house is lifting his spirits in a more authentic way than the "peace" he feels inside.
Jeff
Just 1 additional FP, aura sight and detect only cost an FP per re-try
Michael
8/10 then.
Jeff
Yeah, I can try clairvoyeuring again
Michael
Absolutely, Mitch is trying again at putting a window inside the carriage house. Now you've seen the airlock but not what's beyond, so I guess it just makes sense to try the carriage house itself with the 40-minute -5/+5 with Extra Time version of the roll at Clairvoyance-12? Which would mean you'd need until about noon to get penetration into the carriage house.
Bill
If there was a way to intercept the kid on his bike in the road that doesn’t require running full out, Roger would like to wave him down. He’s got an idea for an in-cover approach that might start a friendly interview.
Michael
Oh sure, we can put you between him and Main Street.
Bill
Sweet. Roger, still in full lineman overalls, waves him down. “Hey kid: can I ask you a question? Is there a place I could take a break in town, without, you know, upsetting the more, uh, provincial types?” He’ll point briefly to the skin on the back of his hand.
Roger’s play is to use shared experience of prejudice to open up and get the kid’s take on the town, and so the kid’s usual town interactions.
Michael
(Daaamn racial solidarity as a HUMINT intelligence ruse, I love it)
Bill
The Green Book stands as an amazing work of HUMINT itself. Prayer to patron saint Harriet Tubman here.
Michael
I'm gonna give you an Acting-14 check here, your usual 12 but with a +2 which is the flipside of your usual Social Stigma penalty. That will act as your Reaction roll and a success will give you an automatic "Good" reaction which is enough for, say, general information like what you requested.
Bill
>>>> SUCCESS by 6
Michael
Quite good, there.
The Presumed Stephen Chun stops the bike and puts his feet on the ground. He listens to what Roger asks and stares blankly for a moment and then says, "Oh. Oh." He looks at Roger and then says, "Aw, well, the people in town are pretty nice," somehow with both a blank affect and with a vocal intonation that conveys a syrupy sunny optimism that seems a bit like a put-on.
"Nobody's gonna give you any problems, friend. I'm just heading down there now to the general store now for some lunch for me and my friends. They do sandwiches, pizza, all that kind of stuff. Reasonably priced, too." Huh. All that lovely organic food in the garden and Stephen's picking up lunch for him and the Beale Boys?
Bill
"Yeah, good to know I can get food. But can I use their bathroom? Anywhere okay to do that?"
Roger glances back over at the farm, with a hopeful look.
Michael
Stephen audibly tsks. "Of course you can! I mean, you work for the county, right? They're not gonna bother you!" Stephen admittedly might have a different experience being Chinese (and yeah, may also be in a cult that alters his ordinary emotional reactions) but Roger feels like he's telling the truth; Stephen's never seen any anti-Black prejudice here in Dixon and he figures Roger's overalls and job will give him a little extra shield from such things. (Detect Lies-10 check made secretly, defaulting from Psychology minus 4 with the +2 bonus again.)
Stephen didn't pick up anything from Roger's body language saying, "Hey brother, can I use your commode"
Bill
Alright, well, given the middle of the street in broad daylight isn't the best place to hypnotize, black bag, or otherwise grill this one, Roger lets the conversation peter out naturally with maybe one more question like, "Well, I guess I'll check out the general store. What're you getting there? What's good on their pizza?"
(He can always just pop in the farm and try for a bathroom break with the others; probably equal chance given their apparent rose-colored glasses.)
Michael
Stephen says to try the pizza with sausage and peppers. These dudes aren't vegetarian? Roger asks himself.
Roger taking his "lunch break" means we can zip ahead to Mitch's second Clairvoyance attempt at a 12 again.
Jeff
>>>> FAILURE by 2
And the streak continues
Def gonna have to put CP into boosting Clairvoyance
Maybe he'll get a third bite at the apple later
Michael
Snakebit!
Bill
Roger may take the van into town for lunch; I mean, sausage sounds good, and if he happens to spot Stephen running other errands, he's got cover if spotted back. Does Mitch come with, or relax in the shade somewhere, keep up the watch, and await his pizza delivery?
What does Mitch want on his pizza?
Michael
Mitch is gonna be in the back of the van finishing this Clairvoyance attempt until 11:55 at which point he can have as much FP-restoring rural town deli pizza he wants.
Jeff
If Roger thinks having a white guy with him when he asks to use the restroom inside the A street house, or anything, Mitch will back him up. There's probably too many of them to just go in ikoters blazing but if we could be sure there was just one guy in there Mitch would be up for that
Bill
Roger would point out it's only day one of surveillance. He thinks ikoters blazing is maybe not quite needed yet. Feels like Mitch is frustrated by the slow pace of gaining knowledge. Roger tries to be gentle asking how the "scrying" is going.
Jeff
Mitch chows gloomily on a slice and admits that it isn't going great so far. Maybe the site is warded, but more likely Mitch has just been in the wrong headspace. After lunch he'll need another hour to rest before he's topped up and ready to try again; he'll spend at least some of that time meditating on the topic of Shasta-vision and his ambivalence to it.
Bill
After lunch, Roger will leave Mitch to concentrate, and get back out to peeping. There’s a considerable pile of cigarette butts to be found underneath the power lines and telephone poles of Dixon. Roger won’t try to infiltrate the house with a ruse until Mitch has gotten some kind of success.
Michael
Jeff, I like the idea of a Meditation-17 check for Mitch to try and help to break the remote viewing impasse.
Bill: Also, in that period after lunch, Roger sees Stephen either departing the general store or returning to the house on A Street (Stephen had first run to the post office where the Beale Farms P.O. Box is, presumably to pick up their mail) with a couple of bags of groceries and one bag of lunch goodies from the general store (at least one bag of potato chips can be seen poking out of the top of the brown paper bag, as well as what looks like a submarine sandwich or two).
About a half-hour after Stephen returns to the house, once Roger and Mitch have resumed surveillance, Roger sees Stephen takes a small bag of garbage (the same bag he got from the corner store, by the looks of it) out the front door of the house, goes next door, looks up and down the street and at the neighbor's house and proceeds to stick this garbage in the neighbors' can. Roger can give me a Psychology-14 roll.
Bill
>>>> SUCCESS by 2
Jeff
>>>> SUCCESS by 11
Michael
Hot damn, talk about breaking impasses.
If before Roger had only an inkling about the psychology of the little beehive here at the Beale Farms "corporate HQ," this sneaking-off-to-get-subs-and-chips thing tears it. These men working for Bernadette love their processed treats, despite working and living in an organic agricultural paradise. So much so that they are buying, eating, and putting the garbage and all evidence of having had snacks and unhealthy lunch in a neighbor's bin so Bernadette won't find out. Whatever mysterious shit they're up to in the carriage house, underlying all their behavior as men who stay at home and do chores for Bernadette is the petty rebellion of having a baloney and cheese on white bread with salty potato chips. (Not sure if Roger had necessarily interfaced with Mitch on his aura vision of these young men being recently malnourished, but that's more grist for the mill, so to speak.)
Mitch takes some time after lunch to re-center himself, to think about the general challenges in not only doing remote viewing at sea level, away from the liminal mountaintops, but the specific challenges being faced here; a half-day so far and nothing to show for it but two periods of mental exhaustion. And then Mitch thinks a little bit about good old Pat Price for a moment, and his tendency to have an easier time just letting his subconscious drift towards "the most important thing in the area" with Zen-like detachment. Like a moth to a flame or iron filings to a magnet. Maybe the faint diffuse History B isn't the most important thing for Mitch to see here. Maybe it's essentially irrelevant. Maybe instead it's those powerful singular sources of History B energy in the master (mistress?) bedroom. That's what SANDMAN standard operating procedures would say, ironically. If there's glyphs? They gotta be confirmed and staked out. So maybe in the afternoon Mitch tries for the bedroom instead. (For the Meditation crit, Jeff, will give you a +2 to your Clairvoyance so feel free to use the full 40 minutes and get a Clairvoyance-14 or take less Extra Time at a 12, if you like.)
Jeff
No reason to take less Extra Time as far as I know, so
>>>> SUCCESS by 5
Finally!
Michael
Mitch finds his mind's eye inside a well-appointed master bedroom. The window shades are shut, sending an ambient yellow-brown illumination the tone of weak tea throughout the room. The walls and the ceiling are covered in dark, billowing tapestries; on the ceiling over the bed is a typically dorm-room-like zodiac-wheel tapestry, the constellations are picked out in silver thread. An old-fashioned vanity, seemingly a bit out of character for what URIEL knows of Bernadette, sits against the northwest wall. Instead of lots of makeup on the vanity, there are racks of necklaces, bracelets, rings, and other jewelry. Silver is preferred, it seems, with some necklaces made of fabric, macrame, crystals and the like. A close look at the jewelry reveals a good amount of them have vaguely "occult" motifs. A quick Occultism roll sees Mitch observing most of the stones and crystals have traditionally protective or grounding qualities: tiger's eye, a black gem that could be obsidian or black tourmaline or both, and citrine abound. A door to the northeast leads presumably to the upstairs hallway, a smaller door on the eastern wall feels like a likely closet. Both doors are closed. From the fine details of the Detect (History B) effort Mitch made earlier, three of the sources of History B energy are likely in or around the closet; the other was located somewhere near the center of the room. Under or around or otherwise close to the bed.
Jeff
I can look around within the area, right? Can't open the closet door, but can look under the bed.
Probably I don't want to light it all on fire.
Michael
Yeah, I would say "under the bed" wouldn't require a new roll, but, like, "in the closet behind the door" would. Under the bed is a whole lot of nothing: dust bunnies only. There is an area rug that the bed partly rests upon (the floors in here are hardwood and exposed) but nothing of note. [Secret Search-10, defaulted from Perception-15, roll made] Mitch's wizard eye looks under the bed and is disappointed with what he's found, and realizes there isn't anywhere else the History B energy could be... but then the eye rotates upwards at the zodiac on the ceiling. Behind the ceiling tapestry, of course. Without Detect he won't be able to confirm it and without a new Clairvoyance roll he won't be able to see it, but Mitch bets the possible-glyph is up there, on the bare ceiling.
Jeff
Hmm. It's not clear to me why you would want to put any kind of glyph behind a tapestry over your bed, but History-B is all about vibes.
Mitch is paranoid enough w/r/t Bernie and remote viewing at the moment to consider the possibility that it's some kind of trap set up specifically for somebody like him.
The closet situation seems easier to get a handle on. If Mitch has seen all there is to see in the bedroom, let's try moving to the closet.
>>>> FAILURE by 3
Dang.
Michael
Mitch spends 30 seconds to try and see beyond the closet door, but the attempt is a failure. Anything else you want to do with the already-open farseeing lens in here (use Detect again, etc.)? Attempting to move the lens again from this location will be assessed a -1 for the failure above.
Jeff
Oh, I forgot I can detect through the scrying sensor-that-isn't
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS by 9
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS by 3
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS by 6
Michael
Analysis by 6, eh? Okay, so Mitch is now very sure that there is a fairly large glyph, three to four feet in diameter, on the ceiling behind the zodiac tapestry. Whether it's painted on the ceiling or exists on a placard or some other surface, he can't tell. As he looks more closely at the ceiling through his magic mirror, Mitch can see that the tapestry has been presumably tacked and re-tacked up there multiple times. Mitch wants to see and sense more using Detect here, but the analysis roll is short of a critical. But Mitch can get a handle on the power of this glyph, and he determines it is decidedly more powerful than the computer-aided generic etched SANGUSH and GU.SHUB glyphs that URIEL has out on indefinite loan. Could it even affect a regimen-trained and Danbe-and-ASL-aided Sandman? Mitch thinks yes. Anyone lying on the bed looking up would get a face full of this thing. The glyphs in the closet are smaller in size, about the size of a standard piece of paper or a bit larger, and they are stacked one on top of the other, low in the closet. Again, no clue as to which glyph they bear, but the power level is similarly remarkable.
Jeff
Is there anything visible that counters the working theory that the glyph is Bernie's tool for keeping the Beale Boys under her thumb, they lie down in her bed and get the whammy, and that's the basic thing that happens there?
If I projected my perception into the closet would I be able to suss out the nature of the glyphs therein better, or is my inability to move things (or see in the dark) such that it probably isn't worth the effort?
Michael
There's nothing to counter that idea, no, although the question becomes how exactly it's being done and what that means for Bernadette's expected abilities, but a Hidden Lore (History B)-16 roll would be useful.
Jeff
Am I under the impression that these glyphs are all from the same hand/source or can I not tell that and would merely be guessing from the relative power levels being the same?
>>>> SUCCESS by 2
Michael
You shouldn't have any problems seeing with low-light: I believe Clairvoyance avoids all penalties to see in the dark. The question is, if the glyphs are, like, inside individual envelopes which themselves are inside a lockbox which is then inside a drawer or something, you'd have to sit there and penetrate each layer.
I think with an analysis MoS of 6 you can tell they're written in the same "hand," even without seeing them. There's a same-y flavor, a bouquet to their energy.
Jeff
Mitch is not rolling super well today
The best intel I can probably get now, then, is what glyphs those inside the closet are. May as well try for it.
>>>> SUCCESS by 6
Michael
That's still enough of a success for Mitch to figure, okay, the obvious use of glyphs here would be something like a KI.AG Love Me glyph or a SHEG Obey Me or even a NAM.HILI Fascinate or a HUL Delight glyph to yeah, bind these boys to Bernadette's service more tightly. She also might have a custom glyph up there, one of the ones that reinforces NLP or memetics or mundane brainwashing; they're not part of the standard "alphabet" of glyphs per se but if you're skilled enough in "freehand" symbol drawing, you can do a lot to bolster Anunnaki mind tricks.
Jeff
Of course if they're sneaking sausage pizza they're probably due for a refresher
Michael
Well, Mitch can now see inside the closet. On the hangers in here is a lot of hippie-wear of the type Mitch has already seen Bernadette wear to work at Agrigenics, but also some casual-tony stuff, like, Mitch has Fashion Sense now, he can tell, these are like designer golf and tennis outfits. Not at all hippie "crunchy," really. Bernadette even has a few business suits. A chameleon, this one. The closet is a semi-walk-in, in that there's a whole area to the right away from the clothes rail, dominated by a good-sized dresser. Where the mirror would be is an antique head and shoulders portrait of Beale Downer; from his age in the photo and having read the Downer hagiography, Mitch guesses it dates from the turn of the century when he was in middle-age and the Pruists were just beginning their slippage into decline. The glyphs are not in the dresser. The glyphs are in the small 2 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot cubic safe that's on the floor next to the dresser. On top of the safe is an antique oil lamp. Mitch guesses it's from the era of the photo, maybe a little older.
Jeff
Hmm I feel like it would be useful to know if these glyphs are "old relics" of the Pruists or some more recent vintage
So I guess I'll try to clairvoy into the safe, as discussed. Is Mitch's effective skill now 12 or is it lower due to his failures?
>>>> SUCCESS by 6
Michael
It would be lower immediately after failing, yes, but your last "move wizard eye" roll was a success. Okay, so it is somewhat to Bernadette's credit that the three glyphs in this safe, written apparently on durable oak tag (these sheets of cardstock don't look especially old to Mitch's eye) are stored face down so Bernadette herself doesn't get an eyeful when she takes them out. But Mitch has a strong feeling these glyphs were written by Bernadette in the past few years; the paper is just not that old by the looks of it.
Jeff
Is there anything beyond inductive reasoning that leads Mitch to conclude that Bernie was the author of these glyphs?
It's tempting to light the glyphs on fire, but I suppose it wouldn't accomplish anything and would be counterproductive in the medium term.
Instead Mitch will try to relocate his scrying sensor to the interior of the carriage house, because while it's probably just a bunch of grow lights and mystery plants, I'm still curious about it.
>>> FAILURE by 1
Dang it, as soon as I switch gears back to the carriage house I fail!
How much time have I spent? How much do I have left? Can I try one more time, or is it time to call it a day?
Michael
Let's see... Clairvoyance into the bedroom took from 12:30 to 1:10, changing perspectives to the closet another thirty seconds, give another few minutes here and there for all the Searching, and now a failed roll to get into the carriage house... it's probably a little before 2 in the afternoon at this point?
Maybe later if you needed rest between the bedroom and second carriage house attempt.
And no, there isn't, although the evidence is as can be seen highly suggestive.
I suppose anybody could have inscribed the glyph on her ceiling and in her safe. Perhaps someone else, the mysterious Mr. Butler.
Do Roger and Mitch have anything more they want to do surveillance-wise at around 2 pm? Are we taking this into the "Bernadette comes home from the office" nighttime hours?
Bill
Once Mitch wakes and laconically reports in to Roger, there’s really only one thing left to scope out, and that’s whatever’s exterior of the security system on the grow room or whatever it is. Because it looks like B&E is the only option. Roger will continue to watch the house, although less visibly. If he gets movements on all the guys, and they’re looking like they’ll be away from the barn for a bit, he’d try to sneak up and get a closer look to its power supply, etc. from the outside. If there’s no good opportunity, then it’s back to Mitch.
Michael
Interesting. I think another Observation-17 roll (+3 in bonuses thanks to being here all afternoon and having no one say boo, plus having a specific target to examine and taking the extra effort to get up close) should cover the power supply check-in and casing the rest of the house.
Bill
>>>> SUCCESS by 12
Michael
Oh now that's a crit
Maybe it's just the osmosis of having had time to do a really, really thorough bit of surveillance, but it's Roger's decided opinion by about 3 pm that Bernadette hasn't set up any kind of extra security on the main house. She feels secure by default here. Points of entry are: first floor front porch door, rear door opening onto the nice organic garden, a side door off the first floor kitchen, and a number of very easy-to-open-looking second floor windows.
Now, the carriage house is a slightly different story. Roger has now examined the power supply up close, and it is wired for more than one would expect from a standard garage or workshop outbuilding. But there's also something funny about the foundation. It's not original to the antique carriage house. And as Roger traipses very close to the carriage house while one of the Beale Boys is still doing his day's work in there (we'll say this is after Mitch's latest failed Clairvoyance attempt so he can be backup and give Roger a high sign if anyone unexpectedly comes out of either structure) Roger can see that the door to this building, plus the area where the building meets the soil, is hermetically sealed. Some kind of metal addition to the foundation of this building is evident and Roger surmises that this carriage house is, in essence, has been built or rebuilt with some kind of airtight seal, like a secure bio-lab or quarantine facility would be. Further inspection of the HVAC vent confirms extra filtration, the likes of which are not standard for residential properties. Bernadette and friends want to make sure whatever is inside here doesn't escape if there happened to be, say, an accident. It's nothing that would necessarily alert anyone to their doing anything weird in there (that's of course if this was all disclosed as part of renovations permits and so forth) but a close set of observations makes clear: there is some serious precaution being taken here to make sure what's inside doesn't mix with what's outside and vice versa.
Bill
Wow. This lady’s got a serious bankroll. Also equipment note for B&E: hazmat and flamethrower. Oh wait, never mind: we’re got Mitch.
Roger’s a little spooked by this, in two senses of the word. He can’t believe this kind of setup could be anything other than some form of the Man. Agent 00 might believe in supervillains, but in Roger’s experience, this kind of stuff is an agency, if not the Agency. Or us.
Michael
Is there anything you two want to do with the final part of your full day's surveillance of Beale Farms House?
Bill
Roger’s done. But up to Mitch if he wants to keep trying.
Jeff
I guess there's probably time to try to Shasta-vision into the carriage house one more time? Even if there isn't a History-B taint there, better to see what they're growing with Mitch's own eyes than not.
I'll go ahead and roll one last time.
>>>> SUCCESS by 3
Michael
Inside the carriage house is, as expected, a full-on bio lab. Tad-or-Ross is in a protective suit with a filtration mask and goggles. Not one bit of his flesh is exposed. On the central lab table Mitch can see a series of baggies with sealed samples of soil, each marked with a different number/letter combination: D44, D47, and so on. Ross-or-Tad is in the midst of transferring some of the soil from D46 into a series of white germinating trays; ordinary seed packets are evident on the lab table: cucumbers, tomatoes, all kinds of other fruit and vegetable types seen in the Beale House's garden. These germination trays will sit under one set of grow lamps in one of the lab's large cabinets. Further along in the grow cycle, Mitch can see a set of trays where the plants are growing larger and fruiting under powerful fluorescent lights; instead of soil they are being fed through a series of sluices of constantly circulating water. The labels here, in the D20's and D30's, seem to indicate earlier batches germinated in soil and then moved to hydroponic growing once the root structure was established. The liquid medium reservoir for each sample is separated and labeled by their sample number as well. The soil gives off the most powerful History B energy here; the liquid mediums also have a tinge of History B energy here, but Mitch now understands why the energy was so diffused when Detecting from outside; the energy exists as a faint patina in specific areas throughout the carriage house: on the sample baggies on the lab table, in the growing medium, and in drawers on the wall with labels D49 through D96. But pointedly there is not a History B patina on any of the grown fruit and vegetables.
Jeff
Weird, not quite what I was expecting. Mitch will think about what this odd pattern of History-B taint means.
>>>> SUCCESS by 8
Michael
So are the kids growing their veggies in a medium cultivated from the old Downer Ranch? Is there some special History B quality to the soil? And are Bernadette and/or the B-Boys aware of said qualities? The answer to all these questions seems a reasonable "yes." Mitch did detect a very faint subduction zone at the old cult ranch of course. What would plants grown in soil that was on the ontological borderland between Histories A and B result in? There are hundreds of subduction zones all over the globe, with a lot of them in the Middle East, of course; humans have been growing food in them since 535 AD. It hasn't ever resulted in any kind of mass-History B belief event. So the purpose of this very careful sequestration and quarantine and growth of plants is still unknown to Mitch, but if he were a betting man, he'd say that Miss Fry and company are carefully looking for some very special spot or spots at the old Downer Ranch. Maybe one of these samples will one day grow something alien, unusual, and in the process Beale Farms will have found the epicenter of the (presumed) reality temblor from decades ago at the ranch. But that's just Mitch theorizing and free-associating after a very tiring day.
Jeff
Yeah today def took a lot out of him.