Raiders of the Temple of the Last Crusade (Aiden, Fergus, Karlsen)

After leaving the money for his tea, Fergus follows Aiden to the front door and assuming that Aiden will be checking for traps reaches up and raps the smiling cat shaped knocker.

Fergus is unsure about the ettiquette for how long you wait before it is safe to assume that no one will be answering the door so he decides on 5 minutes as a suitable time.

If he gets no response after the allotted time then Fergus will eye up the lock and begin to stretch part of his fingernail and harden it filling it out to go into the lock. As it goes into the lock then he will push it out to fill the inner workings of the lock and turn his finger to try and move the locking mechanism to unlock it.

The primary reason they replaced the mechanical locks on my prsion door after they discovered my talent

"See anything unusual about the door Cousin?"

Karlsen will follow the others, he takes out Aiden's Trump and puts it into the cuff of his coat sleeve on the inside, in case he needs it fast. He then dons his glasses of true seeing, (occ - steampunk version of a mask!) and will go to the back of the house. He will observe the house using his various lenses.

When the other two give a signal he will approach the back door and carefully, but quickly inspect it for any magical, mechanical or electrical alarms.

As far as anyone can tell, the house appears ordinary in every way.

"No magical traps that I can see," says Aiden quietly. "Let's try the door."

Aiden makes a slow check of the porch and front door for any obvious physical signs of...anything.
( If nothing catches his attention, he will proceed to try the door to see if it's unlocked )

After a few moments, the door opens from the inside. The elderly lady in a long dark dress looks at the men on the porch through pinz-nez glasses. Her white hair forms something like a spiral, not an uncommon hairstyle from what they've seen (Fergus recognizes it as somewhat old-fashioned). She may once have been pretty but she is certainly a bit regal now--thin, but naturally so, with a straight back and piercing green eyes.

She smiles kindly enough. "May I help you?"

In mild surprise, Aiden touches the rim of hat in greeting. "Oh, ah, G'day. ma'am. My name is Aiden and this, here, is my cousin Benjamin," he says gesturing to Fergus beside him.

"We'd like to see Isabel, if she's handy."

"Isabel?" She smiles broader. "That is my name. Well, Isabella."

Something is wrong here. Whilst it is quite possible that Isabel could have aged since the trump was drawn, especially if she wasn't his Amber parent, it was less likely that her eyes could have changed color. If she was a shapeshifter then like him she could have changed them but there was no real reason for that. The most likely explanation was that whomever had imprisoned him had either taken Isabel somewhere else and put a guardian in her to keep watch or had set this person up here to watch for him after he had escaped prison.

It was however comforting to think that she did not have the monocle that was worn by the others of his enemies so far. At least she could not report straight back to her employers. He really didn't want to try anything on the street with so many festival goers around, though he would if he had to.

"Madame Isabella we are here on behalf of someone who is very concerned for your welfare. It seems that you have been out of contact with them for some time. May we come in and talk?"

"By all means," she says. Isabella opens the door wider and allows them inside. The paneled front room includes a staircase, a variety of small paintings, and a small chandalier.

She then leads them to what looks like a parlor. Two sofas, a bookcase, a desk, even a fireplace (unlit). "Would either of you like some wine? Sherry?"

Fergus takes a seat on the sofa.

I'll see what she has to say and if necessary then find out what we need the other way if we don't get anywhere.

"Not for me thank you, I'm not a big drinker. Cousin Aiden is more the drinker than me. Cousin?"

"Yes, thank you," Aiden says. "A little Burgundy would be nice, if you have it."

Isabella? An unlikely coincidence. Could she be shapeshifted...in disguise? But then I can't imagine she would have stayed here in any guise and not be found out her family...or others. No. She is not Isabel...But then, why is she here? A red herring? A setup? An agent? Maybe, but whose?

Aiden continues. "Perhaps i should explain further. We came seeking a young woman who lives here, or did, at one time. A woman with hair the color of flame. She was a traveler, not originally from this area. We think she may be a lost relative and are anxious to find her. I find it a strange coincidence that you share a similar name, and yet, you cannot be her....or can you?"

Aiden observes her closely to see if she's in some sort of disguise.


[OOC - David, would there be any way for me to tell if she is shapeshifted or magically aged by bringing the Pattern to mind? ]

(Occ - I have kind of written myself off screen! Since I'm not in the scene just roll on without me unless something happens outside, or they invite me inside.)

Karlsen settles down on a doorstep or convenient bench and pulls out a beautifully carved Meershaum pipe. He takes his time and cleans it out and fills it. He then slowly smokes it and appears to enjoy the day. He is using all his senses to listen and watch for any evidence of problems.

(Occ - There that should give you plenty of time to have your conversation inside.)

As she serves Aiden, the old lady smiles "That sounds like Esmeralda! She is the owner of this house. I'm merely the caretaker. Lovely lady, really. A little sad, and rather secretive. Sometimes went away for months at a time! As it happens, she left years ago and I'm sorry to say hasn't been back since." She sighs. "A great pity. She used to have nice little gatherings here. A favorite few, mostly poets and the like but overall a fairy eclectic group. She'd go riding in Octagon Park or sailing in her personal yacht. Where she came from, I've no idea. Refused to talk about it. But I like to believe here at least she was happy." She looks at Fergus. "And now, at long last, some of her relatives show up. I'm a little afraid to ask what might have prompted such a late inquiry."



Outside, Karlsen catches a glance of something familiar on the street. Someone in an ordinary (for here) brown suit, wandering outside the house as if on a constitutional. Middle-aged. A pointed beard. Tipping his hat to some other pedestrians.

And wearing a monocle.

She is clearly lying, but how to catch her out.

"The reason as to why we have only come seeking her now is that we have only just discovered of her existance. It would be most remiss of family to not visit a relative otherwise. Do you perchance have any photographs of the lady so we can confirm that she is indeed the person we are looking for?"

If the lady calling herself Isabella leaves the room to go and get the photos then Fergus will take the opportunity to whisper to Aiden.

"Something is wrong here. She is telling half-truths."

"I have a few," she says. "Wait a moment and I'll fetch the album." The old lady named Isabella exits the room.

Sometime soon what looks like a tabby cat emerges from under the sofa. It stares at Fergus, and inches up to him, sniffing.

[OOC - in every respect this seems like an ordinary domestic animal.]

Fergus is suspicious of the cat as he has never seen such a creature before, though he has read they are domestic pets of some kind. He shifts away from the cat and if it persists then he stands up.

Those glasses could well be showing everything to another observer. It may be time to act sooner rather than later.

He whispers to Aiden "Be ready" before the lady calling herself Isabella comes back.

Aiden winks at Fergus in acknowledgement, then turns his attention to the emerging tabby.

"And what have we here," he says bending down from the sofa and picking up the cat.

Stroking its chin and scrutinizing it carefully, he asks, "Are you a magical familiar?....a two way radio?

pet pet prrr...

The cat is a bit skittish, but also not-young and clearly used to people (at least to some extent). He begins purring as Aiden pets him.

Isabella returns with a photo album in hand. "Ah, I see you've found Jean-Luc! Or did he find you?" She goes over to Aiden, scratching the cat behind his ear. The feline approves. "He and his brothers have ever been a comfort to us, Esmeralda and myself."

(Occ - Does he appear to be looking towards the house? Or just wandering along? Karlsen will slip down his Trump lens and see if the monocle is a Trump. [remember he put them on instead of his mask.] If the man seems to be wandering down the street that Karlsen is on and Karlsen will pass in his field of view, after he takes a quick look through the Trump lens he will switch the Lenses of True seeing for his mask.)

Fergus waits until that woman calling herself Isabella settles down in a chair with the photo album before crouching down beside the chair. He puts his hand on the old lady's hand, obstensively to get a good look at the book, but soon his reasons become more apparent. He grips the woman's hand more firmly and exerts the full force of his will against hers, seeking to leech information from her mind. His disguise vanishes as he concerntrates on the connection, but luckily he still has the mask on, so his facial features are not revealed.

You will not move or cry out. Instead we are going to have a little private talk. Who are you really and what happened to the real Isabel?

As Fergus grips the woman's hand, Aiden quickly rises, with cat in hand, and moves across the room to the windows facing the street and looks out.

( If he sees nothing untoward, he will move around the room looking out all of the windows for any signs of reinforcements or suspicious looking people.)

Karlsen needs little effort to realize the man's monocle is a Trump, almost certainly of the same kind as the woman back in Amber possessed. He quickly passes out of view, however.



Isabella gasps, her eyes looking frightened, confused, then widening in something else. As her mouth opens she takes a series of extremely deep, fast breaths. Her body shudders. Her face goes very pale as her eyes roll in her head.

And she goes dead weight. Collapsing upon the sofa with a rattling gasp.

The album falls open, revealing a sepia-toned photograph, one of several. It clearly reveals the woman from the mysterious Trumps identified as "Isobel" and beside her, smiling, a younger version of this old woman, Isabella. They are arm-in-arm, caught in a moment of giggling.

The old woman twitches slightly, a bit of drool dripping from her mouth.

Hearing her loud, rattling gasp, Aiden turns his attention from the windows to the two on the sofa. "Benjamin, what's going on?"

"Problems. Maybe a mind trap." Fergus says quickly but he is unsure whether its a trap he's set off or a shock that the old woman has received.

No time to worry about anything else Fergus concerntrates on getting the old woman to breath properly willing her to live, in the meanwhile searching and sorting through her mind looking for something else that shouldn't be there. His mental processes naturally looking at those things that looked normal, those that were candidates for issues and those that looked downright wrong, concerntrating his efforts on the last of the neat piles. The thing he wanted to look at first was any memory of himself as the trigger seemed to be one of recognition.

Whilst it was possible that this was natural the way she had been reacting strongly indicated that someone had got there first. He needed to sift through the piles and find that other interference in her mind before it was too late in the meantime willing he to keep living. Once he'd found the problem he'd need to be able to rectify it.

Damn I wish this sort of thing came with a manual, like everything else I'm having to learn on the job.

"I wouldn't be surprised," answers Aiden. "Although I suppose it's also possible that your psyche is too strong for hers...if she's just human...."
"...or something else" Aiden mutters under his breath.

Aiden continues moving around the room scanning windows.

"Let me know if you need any help."