What do you do with a group of gamers who struggle with successful skill-check rolls? Give them a game that rewards you for failing, of course. That’s why we’re revisiting that lockdown favorite, Monster of the Week.
A new group of hunters were luxuriating in the Ruby Room, Oakland’s landmark destination for ne’er-do-wells and those who are in between opportunities to contribute to the local tax base. Cryptozoologist and Evolutionary Biologist Dr. Charles “Chas” Calf discovered an interesting story while paging through the morning paper.
The Ruby Room – Combination dive bar and submarine
A recent burglary at nearby Northridge University has resulted in the brutal death of a university security officer. A quick call to the reporter who wrote the story, the group learned that some electronic components were stolen, in particular several control chips for robotics and drones. The security guard wasn’t merely killed; he was brutally torn apart.
Northridge University. Or Sweet Briar College in Virginia. I forget.
Unable to resist a good mutilated corpse, the group headed out of the city to the Northridge campus. After a quick reconnoiter of the campus, Erika Langendahlen (I’m certain that’s not the correct spelling), former Olympic bi-athlete and group van-owner, decided to go of investigating on her own in the Robotics building. Finding nothing there, she headed to the Computer Sciences building.
The rest of the group headed to Daisy’s Café to see if they could glean some information from the finals-weary students. Spotting someone who did not seem to fit in with the overall vibe of the school, they met Max Foulder, conspiracy-seer and dot-connector, and discovered he was her investigating the same crimes they were, so they decided to join forces and continue looking for answers.
Actually Daisy’s Cafe
One student let them know that the surviving security guard is named Pauline, and that her office is in the Administration building. In addition, they learned that the robbery/murder took place in the Computer Sciences building. So off they went.
With the group reunited at Computer Sciences, they discovered the electronics storeroom and after a thorough investigation that included falling off someone’s shoulders, falling off a shelving unit, tipping over said shelving unit, and ultimately knocking loose a suspiciously loose ventilation duct cover. The duct is large enough for something child-sized to get through.
Would you climb this shelf? Ebb Cantor would…
Next stop was the Administration building and the Security office, currently occupied by security guard Pauline. Pauline is understandably shaken up over the recent and brutal loss of her coworker. She was able to largely confirm what they already knew, but let them know that the first burglary involved the theft of a number of monkeys and chimpanzees.
Searching for more students to question, the group struck up a conversation with a student named Amy. As an opening move, teenage psychic and sentient shrug Ebb Cantor got things off to a poor start with a failed mind-reading attempt. After convincing her that they were not, in fact, Feds, and under the guise of Erika posing as a prospective transfer student (and with the assistance of divine being and “WTF?” generator Hanziezel), they were able to learn that Amy had been a Robotics student until recently when she dropped out of the program. It seems one of her professors, Dr. Beech, had confiscated her final robotics project, saying it was “too important.” Also, he was just really, really weird, you know? In addition, Amy let them in on the fact that she belonged to the Animal Freedom Militia. She also invited Erika to visit the Crazy Cats Club, an off-campus student hangout.
(Bryce) had been researching the previous burglaries, and noted that one of the burglaries was in the library. In fact, the stolen book was a very old manuscript that spoke of ancient pagan cults that believed in imbuing spirits into inanimate objects. No way that could be used for nefarious purposes, right?
A trip to the Crazy Cats Club reunited the group with Amy and introduced them to Robin, leader of the AFM. She insisted they were not responsible for the theft of the primates, and although she was glad that they were removed from the school, she was concerned that they had not turned up anyplace else.
False advertising – Every single cat was perfectly sane
Based on Max’s analysis of the timing of the previous burglaries, he predicted another break-in would occur as soon as tonight. Without knowing the target of the next theft, the hunters decided to stake out the Computer Sciences building. The stakeout started out to be uneventful, with the only movement being Pauline moving from building to building on her night rounds.
Shortly after Pauline entered the Medical building, the silence was shattered by the sound of her screams…
