Downtime: January

[crowmod]

downtime, january 2021

the story so far...

♦️ On July 13, 2020, MACUSA’s National Archive was robbed. Operation Crowbar is tasked with recovering the five pieces of art which were stolen. These include: a chatty portrait of a lewd wizard who lived in the 1700s, Wymerus the Weird; an opulently decorated egg; a cursed crystal bowl; an antique ash wand, circa the Roman empire; and a goblin-wrought silver dagger.

♦️ The aurors were first tasked with investigating the National Archive itself as to determine how the theft had been achieved. They were assured it could not have been an inside job, but it seemed an impossible heist without some sort of internal assistance. The thieves’ point of contact was eventually revealed to be Wymerus, in his painting form.

♦️ Getting set up in deep cover identity, Rory Howlan & co were invited to a lavish penthouse party hosted by Liberatore Rubio, a notorious Vegas socialite. Here, they met many interesting figures, amongst them: party girl Persefani Pahlke and her enterprising younger brother, Perseus; wealthy widow Ava Canny; Oleander de Santis, the kept pet artist of a noted eccentric billionaire; and a mysterious man conducting business behind closed doors with Rubio.

♦️ While attending a high-end art auction in New York, where a second decorative egg was slated to be sold, the aurors had a front row seat to a second heist attempt. This time they were able to apprehend Hiro Hunter, a bee animagus and thief-for-hire who executed the archive theft. Unfortunately, Hiro never met their employers, but did reveal their method: a custom-made vanishing cabinet in the shape of a kitty backpack, provided to them by the masterminds.

♦️ They also acquired an egg of their own, and after close inspection the team learned it was an ornate puzzle box, which contained a mysterious magically sealed silver phial. Meanwhile, the Oddtree twins lead two teams of aurors in providing security measures for Vegas’s week-long celebration of Halloween.

♦️ At the Halloween party, the thieves returned to make another heist attempt. In the chaos caused by a divertive explosion they set off in the hotel’s vault, the robed assailants managed to capture Ava Canny from her hotel room, much to the chagrin of Keeley Little, her assigned bodyguard. In the hotel basement, Teagan Oddtree and Astrid Weird accompany Everett Oddtree to investigate the explosion, where they encounter another cloaked figure. Astrid saves Everett’s life when he is tossed down a twenty-story staircase well, leaving Teagan on his own to confront the thief. Before he can do anything, he is poisoned with a paralytic potion. He sees the two thieves make off before being rescued by Eleanor Oddtree. Meanwhile, downstairs, Dakota Inoue happens on the thieves’ failed target by luck: a third egg.

♦️ In the coming months, the aurors deal with the fallout of the attack on Felix Felicis. X Quintana examines the eggs and discovers that they contain samples of human blood and flesh, magically preserved. Aurors look into Ava Canny and what enemies she might have and learn that she had altered her will just a week before her disappearance – to the benefit of the charitable Makepeace Foundation and the detriment of the National Archive. And while performing additional security at the Felix Felicis casino, a few interesting rumors are overheard: Liberatore Rubio is looking for a loan, someone is trying to buy another decorative egg, and Hiro Hunter is out on bail after being captured.

♦️ Late in December, a retinue of aurors is sent to recover the third and final egg. Madison Maddox & Linden Krup do manage to locate it in the refrigerator, while the others turn up little of interest: Wendelin Sparks finds a picture of a young Ava Canny and an unidentified man, while Sidney Rucker finds a parselmouth-speaking, apparently cursed collection of snake skins.

♦️ The aurors are given New Year’s Eve off the job, where many wacky hijinks ensue. But when they arrive back at work, where there is still much to be done. This brings us to…

downtime: january

Morale amongst the Oddtrees is low this unseasonably warm winter month. Even with the egg that was initially stolen recovered, they’re facing immense pressure from higher-ups to wrap up the investigation and recover the rest of the missing artwork quickly. Nobody at the DMLE expected this case would take more than a handful of months, and the diagnostic work X Quintana has been performing on the eggs has also put them way overbudget.

Rank-and-file aurors might be feeling this way too; many were lured to this placement with the promise of an easy promotion, a little downtime from strenuous fieldwork, or favors owed by higher-ups. Instead, they’ve found themselves entrenched in an exhaustive investigation that doesn’t seem to be moving anywhere quickly. On top of that, the Oddtrees have requested that everyone stay in Vegas in case of off-hours emergencies.

The family itself however seems exempt from this rule; Everett has been in charge of the office, as Eleanor has long been away on business in Olympus, TN since Christmas, and Arden Oddtree has been abroad in London consulting his contacts at the MoM’s auror department. Everett basically lives in the office, which is kept open at all hours this month, encouraging its occupants to work overtime in hopes of making a breakthrough.

Cooped up and with the holiday party season over, most have nothing to do but retreat into their work…

makepeace & canny

Characters Involved: Teagan Oddtree, 2 volunteers

Any auror office worth its salt has a yarn-and-thumbtack case board, and the one that Vigilance Pryor has constructed in their office is a shining example of the art. They’ve been meticulously adding to it since settling in in August, and the latest addition to the board is the photograph of a young Ava Canny found at the apartment during the previous mission.

A full color polaroid, the photograph depicts a much younger Ava Canny. She retains her gothic fashion sense, although instead of her current 1790s aesthetic, it’s a much more contemporary 1990s look: hair dyed jet-black and crimped, combat boots impressively large, choker made of plastic wiring rather than velvet. She’s standing on a concrete park bench with a New York City skyline in the background, and twirls her black lace parasol coquettishly before taking a young man’s hand so she can jump down. When she does, he turns to face the camera, and the embroidered serpents on the sleeves of his robe all seem to hiss and bite at Ava’s hand. She doesn’t notice or doesn’t care; they both smile at the camera, her broad and jubilant, him reserved and wry, and then the scene resets.

While it’s a sweet picture, it is not particularly inspiring. Vigilance is able to glean a little information from it, however: it was taken in 1998, when Ava was 21 years old and unwed (then known as Ava Graves), near Belvedere Castle in Central Park, just blocks from the Upper West Side campus of McGilliguddy University, Ava’s alma mater. Her companion is Alistair Makepeace, the current director of the charitable Makepeace Foundation to which Ava intends to donate her fortune when she passes away.

Although a possible motive for her kidnapping, when Vigilance and Indigo Blue visit the Makepeace Foundation in early January, they find Alistair entirely willing to comply with their investigation. He’s wholly distraught by her disappearance, and cancels his meetings for the afternoon to chat with the aurors. He tells them he hasn’t spoken to Ava since last summer, but does know that she was particularly upset with the National Archive as the decorative egg that was stolen had once belonged to the family of her late husband, Anton.

He privately confides to them that while he did know about the change to her will, it was largely a symbolic gesture of discontent; the Makepeace Foundation is a major donor to the National Archive as well, and most of her money would end up there eventually anyway. Still, he says, he is not eager to make the transaction, as he knows in his heart that she’s alright, somewhere. He tells them they should feel free to visit or call him any time and sees them on their way out. As they’re leaving the building, Indigo gets a strange chill that they can’t quite shake.

That seems to be that on the Makepeace lead, until early in the morning on January 13th, when Teagan Oddtree stops by to chat with Vigilance. It’s pushing two AM, and everyone is sleep deprived this month – so when Teagan sees the picture out of the corner of his eye, he thinks at first he’s hallucinating it. But a double take reveals he thought exactly right: he recognizes Alistair Makepeace. He’s the man who poisoned him on the roof of Felix Felicis on Halloween.

what's happening with the eggs

Characters Involved: X Quintana, Verity Fortuin, 4 volunteers

With all three decorative eggs in their possession, there’s a 24-hour rotation providing extra security in the office and the lab. Francis Darling and Remora Statler are the aurors on duty the evening of January 15th – 16th, but they have plenty of company in the lab tonight. X Quintana, along with Verity Fortuin, Ichabod Godfrey, and Sage Wisecarver, have been trying to discern the purpose of the Eggs since they acquired the third one in December, but have made little headway.

What they do known is this: the Eggs are masterfully crafted, and while they are all enchanted, the subtlety of these spells makes it difficult to pin down their exact purposes. The first contains shards of human bone, the second a phial of human blood, and the third a piece of desecrated human flesh. Although X has been hesitant to run too many tests on the small samples, she has been able to date them to approximately 1650, give or take fifty years, as well as discern that they are from three separate people, all of magical heritage.

They learned this all in the first few days the final egg is in their possession, and all progress has stagnated since then. Tonight is no different; X has been running diagnostic tests on the shells of the eggs for hours now, occasionally enlisting the help of her volunteers, but nothing interesting has happened. Just after 3:00AM, X volunteers to make a Starbucks run, collects orders, and heads out.

Verity is a particularly bad sport about being bored and ropes Darling into a game of table tennis in the adjacent rec room. In the lab, Ichabod decides to run a few tests of their own while X isn’t staring over their shoulder. This common spell used to assist in artificing and other physical magics causes corporeal objects to become briefly and selectively incorporeal, allowing the caster to make internal modifications to a device or object. Ichabod isn’t expecting any particularly trouble from the Eggs, lightly enchanted as they are… but as soon as they cast the spell there is a wrongness on the air.

In the rec room, Verity and Darling feel a chill go through them. Before they can react, the power cuts out – and the office’s security system triggers, magically sealing all the doors until it is disarmed. Although Verity tries to light her wand, the pair quickly find that their magic isn’t working properly. Separated from the rest of the group, they have very little to do but wait in the dark to be released.

Back in the lab, the Eggs are limned by an eerie blue glow, bright enough to illuminate the entire room. The corporeality spell has worked – nobody is able to touch any of the Eggs as their hands just go straight through them. Remora tries to throw the building breaker, luckily located in the lab, to get the power back on – but their hand goes straight through that, too. In a mild state of panic, they try to move the switch by means of magic – and realize that their wand isn’t working, either. Sage keeps their wits about them, and tests the limits of the spell: they find that anything in the room which is inherently magical (the Eggs, the switch, the panic doors, any magical instruments in the lab) is incorporeal, while nonmagical items such as tables, chairs, and the floor remain corporeal.

Meanwhile, approximately three minutes into the whole ordeal, Verity is beginning to lose her cool. Darling is doing their best to comfort her when a cool female voice interrupts. Slightly garbled and difficult for Darling to understand, it speaks directly to Verity, and she goes stiff and catatonic. They spend the rest of the blackout attempting to rouse her, but she doesn’t respond.

In the lab: the Eggs have started to move of their own accord, still incorporeal to the three aurors in the room. It looks as if an invisible figure is picking each one up in turn to examine it. The third one is just getting turned over mid-air when the security shutoff trips and the lights come back on. The Egg falls to the table, lands balanced perfectly on its tip, and vibrates like a tuning fork for a few moments before falling prone.

Before anyone has much of a chance to react, X throws the door open, demanding to know what happened. When nobody has satisfactory answers for her, she sends them all home, leaving the office under the guard of herself and Everett Oddtree.

when in doubt...

On January 18th, the aurors will have a chance to spend a day in MACUSA’s extensive library, researching whatever topic they so desire. This will be an IC/OOC event with an RNG element where your characters might be able to dig up a little extra information… or something wacky and fun.

the last american basilisk

Characters Involved: Arden Oddtree, Byron Thorne, & 3 Volunteers

On the morning of January 19th, Byron Thorne delivers his report on the basilisk poison used on Teagan to a recently returned Eleanor Oddtree, who sits down to read it immediately. After she finishes, she praises Byron for a job well done and asks him to recount the information to Arden Oddtree on her behalf, as she has to leave on business – strange, as she’s only been back in the office for four hours at this point. Regardless, Byron does, and Arden decides to follow up on a few leads he found.

Llewyn Llewellyn and Sidney Rucker accompany Arden on his excursion to a magical wildlife rehabilitation center in Colorado. This is the location of the only known living basilisk in America. The magizoologist in charge of the operation doesn’t seem keen to let them observe the beast, but Arden manages to talk him into it.

As an extraordinarily dangerous creature, the basilisk is kept in a private enclosure. The great serpent is a male, easily identifiable by its extravagant frills. The magizoologist says this particular basilisk is about 150 years old. And, he adds, the aurors don’t have to worry about becoming petrified even through the dispersive glass that encases the creature. Just then, its massive body undulates, and it lifts its head to look at the aurors. Even from this distance, the aurors see immediately that the snake’s eyes have been violently gouged out, leaving terrible scars across its face.

Llewyn sets about interrogating the magizoologist, who says that the basilisk lost its eyes in the 1920’s after causing a handful of deaths and petrifications in Olympus, TN. The mob that pinned it down and gouged its eyes out lost a few to their haphazard, blindfolded excursion, but the serpent was overwhelmed by numbers. Grievously injured, it continued to cause havoc for a few more years, until it was eventually peacefully captured by Newt Scamander and relocated to the rehabilitation center. Llewyn asks if there’s any way the eyes could have been preserved, but the magizoologist doesn’t know anything about that. Having decided that this basilisk could not have possibly been the source of the vitreous humor which poisoned Teagan, Arden grows frustrated and rounds the aurors up to head back to the office.

But during all this, Sidney has been having a private moment with the great beast. As their companions interrogate the magizoologist, Sidney walks up the glass barrier to get a closer look at the creature. It flicks its tail side to side, and Sidney could swear that it’s looking right at them, even if it doesn’t have eyes. In a moment of empathy, Sidney can’t help but feel immense sorrow that this fearsome monster has been brought so low. But just as they’re thinking it, the snake hisses at them, its frill flaring menacingly. Sidney's blood runs cold as the snake rears its head back and strikes at them, but the glass barrier holds strong and the moment passes. They’re still gathering their wits about them when Arden comes to collect them.

Meanwhile, Byron and Wendelin Sparks are sent uncover to the underworld speakeasy Death & Co to meet with a secretive alchemist whom Byron suspects to be the source of the particular poison brew used on Teagan. They’re met with immediate suspicion by the bartender when they ask after Mister Pfeillfrosch, but after the bartender disappears for a moment she returns from the backroom and ushers them in.

Pfeillfrosch is a stout older gentleman with a wide mouth, and he looks over the aurors like they’re a tasty afternoon snack. He asks what they’re after, but immediately clams up when the aurors ask after a powerful paralytic poison. Pfeillfrosch is pale in the face as he prepares a couple drinks for the two aurors. Wendelin sees him slip something into their drink. Not letting up on their interrogation, the aurors again push towards a basilisk poison, but the man abruptly announces that he has to leave and heads into the backroom of the backroom.

After the man leaves, Byron and Wendelin find themselves promptly asked to leave Death & Co by the bouncers. Thinking quickly, but perhaps not cleverly, Wendelin downs the poisoned drink before they can be thrown out. It’s a fast-working poison, and Byron has only minutes to transport them to Eshmun Extramundane. Luckily, the world-class healers at Eshmun are able to both administer an antidote and recover a small sample of the poison from Wendelin’s stomach.

They’re going to be feeling like they have a nasty flu for a week or so, the healers inform them, but they’ll make a full recovery. And now they have a souvenir for their troubles at Death & Co.

a visit from the president

Characters Involved: Camilla Harkaway, Linden Krup, & 3 Volunteers

On January 22nd, Camilla Harkaway gets very last-minute notice from her younger brother, MACUSA president Caleb Harkaway, that he intends to come visit her in Vegas for dinner. Linden Krup is invited, as well. As a presidential visit requires appropriate security, Everett Oddtree also sends [VOLUNTEER J], Rosamond Urquhart, and [VOLUNTEER L] along with them.

Caleb treats the group of aurors to dinner at a five-star restaurant that has been booked out just for the occasion. Besides a few of his own security people, they have the place to themselves and are able to speak freely about the progress being made on Operation Crowbar – as much as Linden and Camilla want to share with him, anyway.

Usually fairly boisterous and full of that singular energy only teenage boys possess, Caleb seems particularly subdued this evening. After all pleasantries have been exhausted, he gets to business. He says that he’s been working the Department of Obscuria and Secrecy, America’s answer to British Unspeakables, on a top-secret initiative, and his insider information there has led him to believe that his long-time best friend Perseus Pahlke, as well as his sister Persefani, have gotten involved in a dark magic operation that is way over their heads. He wants the aurors to check in on the Pahlkes and see if they can remove them from the influence of this circle of dark wizards.

The Department of Obscuria and Secrecy is approximately the CIA to the DMLE’s FBI, and the departments historically do not get along. [VOLUNTEER J], however, is tasked with liaising with the DOS agent who is the lead on this case, a woman named Marceline Deveraux. Like [VOLUNTEER J], she is an agent on a specific case, and they’ve been asked to keep it from their coworkers and superiors unless absolutely necessary.

Meanwhile, Rosamond and [VOLUNTEER L] are tasked with checking up on the Pahlkes. When they arrive at the Pahlkes’ residence, Perseus answers the door, but Persefani is nowhere to be found. Although wary, Perseus lets the aurors in and gets them tea while they explain their concerns to him. Initially defensive, Perseus does eventually admit that Persefani has been distant and moody lately, although he can’t imagine she’s gotten involved in any sort of dark magic.

Just as he makes this admission, Persefani arrives home. High on an unidentified magical substance, she isn’t much help to the aurors. Perseus tries to shoo them out of the apartment, but Rosamond insists on seeing Persefani into the bathroom when she declares she’s going to be sick.

In the living room, Perseus and [VOLUNTEER L] sit in tense silence. Sensing a crack in his armor, [VOLUNTEER L] presses the issue of Persefani’s delinquency, saying that they just want to help the two siblings. Perseus wavers for a moment, but then snaps that he isn’t going to tell the auror anything, getting up and storming off to his room.

In the bathroom, Rosamond holds Persefani’s hair as she vomits. She tearfully admits that she is, in fact, high on an illegal drug, and begs not to be arrested. Before Rosamond can offer her any assurances, an unnatural chill goes through the room. “Did you feel that?” Persefani asks, seemingly sober in a moment. “That keeps happening to me…” she mumbles in an aside.

At this point, Perseus interrupts, and insists the aurors leave unless they have a warrant. After he closes the door on them, the two aurors can hear the faint sounds of a heated argument between the two siblings, although they can’t make out any details of it.

kit & rory

Characters Involved: Kit Mulholand and Rory Howlan

Kit Mulholland and Rory Howlan are the aurors on guard duty the evening of January 25th, and it’s a particularly quiet night in the office. Nobody is working late, and Everett Oddtree is getting his two hours of daily shut-eye upstairs in the hotel. It is once again the middle of the night, as it so often is when strange things happen, and any conversation these two might have been having has given way to companionable silence.

Just when it seems like nothing interest is going to happen at all this evening, at a quarter past three, Rory feels a chillness pass through him. Before he can comment on it to his partner, Kit delivers his second prophecy.

It is, perhaps, not as grandiose as his first, at just four unassuming words. But as he delivers it, Rory finds it strikes an uncanny horror into his heart:

The door is ajar.
Kit collapses, and Rory finds himself unable to move for a few long moments until Kit comes to. Then, the chill and the fear are gone, and it’s almost like nothing happened at all.

threads!

⬦ IC - SCENES: For reactions or miscellaneous scenes around the office this month.

⬦ IC - FOLLOW UP: If your character has questions or additional input about their scenario, that stuff can all go here.

⬦ OOC - VOLUNTEER SLOTS: These all need to get filled! Please take one! Take two!!!

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!