blahCHARACTERS:
Alexandra "Alex" Scott (Kathy) - Television Journalist
Carole LaFlamme (Angela) - Bookstore Owner
Constable Andrew Harkness (DavidM) - Police Officer
Jennifer Upton (Ellie) - Sophomore University Student
Doctor Jason Harris (Mark) - Doctor
March 12th, 2014 (Wednesday)
In the Carleton tunnels near Prescott House, Jennifer Upton is somewhat flabberghasted, and decides to try to Sense the Unknown, but senses nothing out of the ordinary. She attempts to draw some Insight into what SAVE knows about the matter [flipping a Token Dark], and remembers that she read a SAVE article about the investigation into a student death, one Jacob Hess, in 2009 that was ruled a suicide. SAVE has always been suspicious of Hess's death, and Jennifer decides that she needs to talk to the other envoys. She heads out of the tunnels, seeking a breath of fresh air after her strange experience below ground.
Alexandra Scott decides that she needs to get some fresh eyes on matters, and that a meeting of the SAVE cell would be a good idea. Before she makes those calls, however, she decides that it's time to pay a visit to Paterson Hall, and chat with Religious Studies associate professor Noel Salmond. She calls the office, and learns from the secretary there that Professor Salmond will be in the office from 1 to 5 pm. She declines to make an appointment, and says that she'll drop by to see him during the afternoon.
At the scene of the crime in Ottawa's Chinatown, Constable Andrew Harkness and his partner, Eddie Hanson, are relieved when one of the Ottawa PD detectives, James Whalley, arrives on the scene to take charge of the case. Andrew and Eddie brief the detective on what they've learned from their canvassing of the area, and Whalley credits them for good work, and then gives them a couple of other assignments for the case. The two take a break from their work, and over coffee and donuts discuss their love lives. Eddie's a bit distraught over the state of his love life, but Andrew tells him that he'll find the right girl sooner or later. He confides in Eddie that Rachel is pregnant, and the two talk about what he and Rachel plan to do. Once they're finished, they head back out on their job. Eddie tells him that he's going to be protective of Andrew now that there's a baby on the way. Andrew regrets telling him the news.
At LaFlamme Books, Carole LaFlamme returns from her coffee run to find that the black birds that were in the area of the bookstore seem to have departed. There are still one or two of them in the area of the store, and she gets creeped out by them. Carole attempts a Sense the Unknown on the area with the birds, but gets nothing [she failed the check]. She goes back into the store, and finds that business has picked up somewhat. Karl says that they've received a shipment of new books; he can handle the customers with their assistant, Suzie, while she takes care of the book shipment. Hopefully, there's some more of the Mark Ravenwood book in the new arrivals. For the next hour or so, she deals with the book shipment (though there are only 20 more copies of the book in question), and is just about ready to do some lunch. Looking over some invoices, Carole munches on a Mars bar, and sees there are several titles unaccounted for. Looks like she'll need to call the suppliers to find out what happened to the books.
Alexandra arrives at Paterson Hall around 1:20 pm, and heads up the offices of the Religious Studies department. She charms her way into a chat with Professor Noel Salmond, who's a bit surprised to find the reporter wants to talk to him, but when she mentions Helen Johnson's death, he says he should have expected this. He tells her the police have already spoken to him about matters, but she is able to convince him to tell her what he knows [she rolls a Colossal Success, and flips a Token Light]. She learns that Helen Johnson had a meeting with him at 7:15 pm the night of March 10th, and she left around 8:30 pm (as near as he can recall). She said she was meeting friends back at Precott House. He tells her that Helen started taking a course with him back in December of 2013. The course was "Dichotomy Between Religion and the Occult", about the subject of the occult and how it fits into various religious beliefs. Salmond says that Helen asked him several times over the last couple of months about what he knew about "evil artwork and paintings". He referred her to several art books, but he doesn't know whether she pursued them or not. Alexandra thanks him for his time. Before she leaves, Salmond says that Helen was a bright, articulate girl who had a lot to live for, and he hopes the police find whoever killed her, and quickly.
After lunch, Jennifer pays a visit to LaFlamme Books, and finds that Dr. Jason Harris is also present, looking for a couple of books by his favourite authors, Derek Ludlum, a writer of social and psychological horror novels. Jennifer doesn't say too much to Jason, though she does keep looking at him when he's not noticing (despite their age differences, she has something of a crush on him). Jason and Carole catch up a bit on things SAVE, the doctor being disappointed to learn that nothing seems to be happening in the city at the moment, but Jennifer says she's not so sure. Taking the girl aside for a moment, Jason and Carole learn what she saw in the Carleton tunnels near Prescott House earlier that morning. Carole chastises her for going down into the tunnels alone like that, but Jennifer bristles at this, saying she's not a little girl and that she's got as much right to look into the matter as the others, if not more - she lives in Prescott House, and she's feeling protective of the others. While that's true, both Carole and Jason point out that she's a relatively new SAVE field agent. Carole says that perhaps it's time to call SAVE into the affair, especially after Jennifer tells her and Jason about the death of Jacob Hess. To take their minds off the subject for a few moments, Carole asks the two of them what they know of ravens and crows...
Friday night's game session of the Chill 3rd Edition campaign was a pretty satisfying one for me. The plot was somewhat developed, several interesting things came to light during the course of the investigation(s), and there was a fair modicum of roleplaying on the part of the player characters. All of the players told me that they had a pretty good time of it, though Mark mentioned that he wants a bit more involvement on the part of his character in stuff. The problem at the moment is I don't really have a lot to give him in this regard, as Jason Harris is more a medical man than anything else and his devotion to the cause makes him a bit tricky to work other stuff around. Ah well, we'll see what I can come up with for his character.
Overall, a good game session last night of Chill 3rd Edition, and I'm rather looking forward to the next gaming session coming up on Friday night.