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

Fergus goes and locks the front door at Aiden's request all the while keeping his eye out for the Speakeasy and a workshop.

Aunt Flora said that I was something new and refreshing in Amber. Is that because I care about what happens to people in Shadow? I expected Aiden and Karlsen to be much more shocked at what I had done, but they have brushed it off as though it is a problem to be solved. For me it is real and now I must live with the consequences.

Fergus shakes himself from his thoughts and realises that there must be paperwork in the house that would identify the owners. He checks to see whether the woman who called herself Isabella had any identification on her or perhaps in a handbag. Then whilst looking for the other things he sets out to look for a study or a writing desk in the downstairs. He was curious about the offcial owners name on any correspondance from officialdom or services. They knew that the woman (who might be his mother) was called Isobel but not her surname. Additionally the papers might have other information in then like the location of any other propeties that she might own in the vacinity or contacts of people she might knew. Perhaps she had letters from people in this other family that might be of help?

Aiden enters the elderly Isabella's room and begins to search around.....

Karlsen will work his way around the ground floor. Is there a basement? Or an outbuilding? He will head for those next.

Doesn't take long for Fergus to find some documentation. Much of it refers to two women--Esmeralda Black (age thirty, hair red, eyes of gold and purple) and Isabella MacGregor (age sixty five, hair white, eyes black). They are listed as joint owners of this property for the last thirty years. A pair of wills leaves everything to each other, listing a prominent law firm--Fox, Lamb & Deerfield--as executors.

Aiden finds a very comfortable room, one with another cat curled up asleep on the bed. It wakes and watches him, but doesn't do much unless he approaches. A small table includes what looks like bottles of medicine. A cane leans up against the wall, near the bed. There's a box of fairly large coins under the bed, each of them gold. It is a bulky but not too heavy burden. Careful examination will show a hidden packet of paper money -- not a fortune but probably very useful and easy to carry. What looks like a gramaphone is in one corner. If he bothers to play it, he'll hear a string quartet of some kind in the recording.

Karlsen will soon come across a third cat, quite fat, sleeping in a window seat. Purring. This is within a music room, with instruments rather like a violin and a harp. The violin has been cared for, but doesn't seem to have been played for quite some time. A very nice but simple kitchen is the nearest thing to a workshop he finds. But within a second front parlor he finds the gadget Fergus described as a speakeasy.

Oh something doesn't add up here. If Esmerelda Black and Isabella MacGregor have owned this for the last thirty years and Esmeralda is only thirty then Esmeralda must have owned it when she was born. Since Isabella is probably of the family then she won't have aged, whilst her friend would have. To compensate for this they've created a new fictional person for the real Isabella and the other lady has taken over as Isabella as she is then the right age.

Fergus scans through the will to see if Isabella or Esmeralda left anything of interest to each other, particularly any other property.

Fergus then decides to take a quick look through the photo album to see if he can find any other clues before calling up the stairs.

"Aiden are any of the rooms up there decorated as a nusery?"

Karlsen calls out, "Found the speakeasy!"

He will continue to look for a basement, and any other Pattern/Sorcery/Logrus energy.

Aiden slides the packet of paper currency into an inside jacket pocket. He examines the gold coins more closely...mainly from curiosity....to see where they come from, when they were minted, etc..

He will also closely examine the bottles of medicine....After that, he searches under Isabella's bed as well as the closet.....

Aiden obviously didn't hear me. I'll ask again when he comes down and tell him that Karlsen has found the Speakeasy at the same time.

Fergus will continue looking through the photo album for a while and then will look for any letters that he can find. He'd not expecting too much in the way of letters as any relatives would probably trump Isobel in preference.

The cellar contains wine.

Isabella's bedroom seem to hold no new secrets. The coins are all local and seem to have been minted within the last three decades or so.

Letters reveal some bills, including for upkeep of a small private boat. The address of the place where it is being kept is included, not far from here as a matter of fact.

Fergus notices the mess he has created looking through all the papers and he imediately begins to sort all the papers out and put them neatly back into the drawer where they came from. He is tempted to sort them alphabetically but he is unsure of the correct item to do it on so instead he contends himself with doing it by date order.

By the time he is finished he is much calmer. He decides to head upsteais to go and find Aiden. He checks each room to see if there is a nursery up there.

"Aiden, Cousin Karlsen has found the Speakeasy and I have discovered a couple of things of interest. Perhaps we should all pool our knowledge downstairs before we use the device to summon the Authorities?"

[OOC - Yes I know there is no nursery but Fergus doesn't yet]

"Alright. That sound like a good idea. I'm pretty much finished up here." Aiden drops a couple of gold coins into a pocket and then slides the box containing the rest back under the bed.

Aiden rises and accompanies Fergus back downstairs to the livingroom...

Karlsen will look at the dust on the floor near the racks of the wine. Does the dust look disturbed? Do any of the racks look like they were moved? If not he will head back upstairs and meet the other two.

Once everyone is together back in the living room Fergus tells them what he has found.

"It appears from that paperwork that Esmerelda Black who is thirty and looks like the lady in the trump and Isabella MacGregor who is sity five have owned the house jointly for thirty years. If you work that out then Esmerelda has apparently owned it since she was born. I contend that instead once the ladies in question realised that Isabella would not appear to get older that they decided that the other lady would take on her identity. The will leaves everything to each other and the lawyers are Fox, Lamb & Deerfield."

"It seems also that they also own a private boat that is kept not far from here. It is possible that the real Isobel left in it so that might be worth checking out."

"Finally I could not see a nursey in the house, so assuming she is my mother, it would appear that Isobel has not been here since well before I was born which is perhaps a good twenty years."

"Did anyone else find anything else useful?"

"Keep the paperwork," Aiden says, "it might come in handy later if we decide to make any 'official' inquiries. There is a slim chance her lawyers may have information as to her whereabouts. "

"The only real thing of interest I found is this...," says Aiden, pulling the tiny box from inside his jacket. "I'll try not to break it this time," Aiden smirks.

"I would like to check out the boat. Did you find the number and location of the dock slip?"

"I have the location of the boat memorised and can find the will if you need it from the drawer."

Fergus is curious about the box but decides to ask Karlsen first about anything he has found.

"Karlsen. Did you find anything useful?"

Karlsen says in a puzzled voice. "No. Nothing out of the ordinary here. Are you sure we have exactly the right place? I saw a monocle wearer outside but that could just mean that we are close."

Karlsen uses all his lenses to look at the box. Does it have any enchantments on it?

Fergus pontificates on th question of the man with the monocle outside.

"It is entirely possible that they knew of Isobel or had some part in her dissappearance. In which case watching this house after I escaped them would be top of their list of things to keep an eye on in case I came back. If they were really smart then they would put the evidence from the monocle of us having spoken together in Karlsen's workshop with your arrival here. Do you think the monocled man saw us Karlsen?"

Karlsen, "You? No. You were in the house already."

(OCC - Does Karlsen think that the monocoled man saw him then quickly left? David wrote that he quickly passed from view, was that him hurrying or just that his path was only in view for a short time? He will pass his thoughts on to the others.)

"This monocled man; what did he look like? How was he dressed? Did he appear to be aware of you....meaning do you think he wanted to be seen? Did he seem to be watching the house or was he pretending to be unaware of it?"

(Occ - David? I was waiting for you to respond to my earlier question. Karlsen will answer Aiden's questions to the best of his ability.)

[There are no enchantments perceivable in or on the box. The monocled man was a tall thin man with a moustache, wearing blue and black clothes very much of the place and period. He watched the house as he walked by in the street, then doubled back to take another look. Quite nonchalantly. Were it not for the monocle, Karlsen might not have even noticed him doing it. He then passed out of view down the street. He must have seen Karlsen but reacted not at all. A few other pedestrians wandered by as well. A few of them had eye pieces, but none with monocles. Hardly any even glanced a the house.]

Karlsen conveys all of the above to his compatriots.

Hearing this Fergus looks to Aiden and says.

"Well there is definitely a danger here. If they saw Karlsen and myself together through Branwen's monocle then they would know I might be accompanying him. We should hurry I suspect if he has gone for re-inforcements."

"I agree that it is time to go. I doublt that we have anything more to learn here. So do we leave quietly? Or kick the ant hill?" He looks at Aiden. "We can leave an anonymous message and be descrete. Or have him," he points to Fergus, "leave a full visual one and watch from a distance. Bit of a risk with that though."

(Really is the last post for a bit. Have fun!)