Murderverse Falls

[Caret]

Anya gets ready to chase after Adrianna, but stops herself. "Y-you know what? Forget it! You're gonna kill me sooner or later. I know it." She starts walking back to her cabin, but then she turns to everyone else. Her glasses are slightly fogged up with tears. "Sorry for snappin' at you guys. It's just... look. Luke clearly has Eki and I at his mercy, like it did all those months ago. Anythin' can happen to us at this point. I've been through something like this before. I shouldn't be scared, but at the same time... is there anything stopping me? At this rate, unless a miracle happens... me and Eki are powerless against him. But you guys aren't. You can still stop him. And... and..." Anya sobs a bit. "I don't know what else to say."

Eki runs up to Anya. "Anya, uh... i-if it makes you feel better, I'm scared too."

"I figured, but it's nice to know that I'm not alone. "

"...I... feel like I failed as well. No matter how hard I tried, I wasn't persuasive enough. Even revealing our role wasn't enough, and we've painted targets on ourselves in our process."

"It wasn't your fault, Eki. Really, the only person who's at fault is this Luke dude. And Adrianna. But it's hard not to feel guilty."

"...You're not wrong."

"...Vistin' the old world was fun, but I wish we didn't incur the wrath of another evil voice. At least he hasn't tried taking control of me, but still.  I just want to go home at this point."

"I agree. Eki and Anya stand in silence for a second, with each others' arms wrapped around their backs.

"Eki... you wanna do something fun? Wait, comforting. It doesn't have to be crazy goodtimes fun, just... something laid back, y'know. I think we need some comfort before... you know."

Just as Eki was about to say yes, Grunkle Ed tells them about the FBI's visit to town.

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation? Sounds like it comes from a mystery novel! Wait, it's a real government agency. To be fair, they have a good reason for investigating Ed! That man gives weird vibes. I'm still up for helping him though!"

"I agree, but... uh... I think we should investigate Mr. Groves after this."

"Hm... What do you think will happen if the FBI finds ut we're time travelers? Or that we have cape gliders? Or that we're magical?"

"Uh... we should avoid finding out." Eki sighs. "I'm reluctant to help out Mr. Groves, but at the same time, we can avoid dying tonight if we impress him."

"Sounds good!" Anya turns to Ed. "HEY ED! I'm willin' to help you and all, but why can't you do this sabotagin' stuff yourself?"

"Anya, it'll be your fault if he makes us do extra work."

[PointMaid]

Why can't I do it myself? Because they won't give me an inch of space here. They're watching me like a couple of wolves stalking a deer!

[awe921]

Catar exits their cabin, looks at her own wings, and sighs. Might as well try to narrow the options the CPR Doctor can guess from when they're acting this night... or, wait actually- no, better not think of it. The scum, especially, would be alert for that one.

Alright, time to become a cryptid.

1. You bat. Or well, you think of a mundane explanation for what you're about to do, and what you are. A case of "it's just a misidentified bat" could easily explain you away. You place stuff under your blanket to make a human-enough lump that is napping away for the day, and then you set off to enact the rest of your plan.
2. Convince someone who looks convincingly... nnnnormal enough to talk about the myth you are going to become, maybe even have them take a blurry, distant photo of you flying amidst trees as a silhouette in such a manner that it's hard to make you out... or just take a seemingly plain photo and ride on it being some CGI hoax. Your plan definitely would get under Renard's skin, and perhaps even pique his curiosity, and you shall be now known as the Pteurodon, a mysterious creature that lurks in this place. Better hope there are bats, especially fruit bats around to justify your existence...
3. Just find wherever they have set up camp or parked through the power of discrete flight. You feel particularly fruity today, so you buy a carton of fruit juice on the way. When they are away, swoop in and thrash the place, and then crush the carton of fruit juice in your mouth to leave behind a scent of juice. And probably lots of ants. This is a fruit bat scent, right? Hopefully.

[wingedcatgirl]

purr-yptid

1. Ed asks you to plant one item of false physical evidence, your choice, to make the Feds think it's mundane.
Guys, did you see the cat running around? Aww, so cute and mischievous, clearly everything that's happened here is just cute kitty shenanigans. There must be a whole clowder living here, and the disappearances are probably because people adopted stray cats and immediately ran back home to take care of them. Without telling anyone. Yep, that all adds up purrfectly.

2. Chat up either Renard (a big conspiracy theory guy, you hear) or Judge (a medical doctor as well as an FBI agent) and find another way to put them off the scent.
Whoa! There's a cat on your lap! You're trapped!! Everyone knows that ancient cat law forbids standing up when there's a sleepy purrbaby on you.

3. Do some discreet sabotage on their belongings so they'll be forced to return to Washington. D.C., not the state.
Uh-oh! While they weren't looking, it looks like someone sharpened their claws on all their important documents! Probably not Lucky, probably one of the other cats. There's just no way to tell.

[TenOfSwords13]

The FBI! Any real human's worst nightmare... right?

1: The most mundane, human item I can think of is a cheeseburger. So I shall plant a few dozen of them around the camp area.

2: I think I can convince Renard that he is an alien, if I hint heavily that I might be one (which I am not!), and then challenge them to a skateboard competition to prove to him that they are not human. It may not put them off the scent, but it would certainly stop Renard from investigating.

3: Steal their IDs and deep fry them at the diner. They will have to return to DC to get new ones, certainly!

[NebulaChimera2211]

They Know Too Much!

1. Ed asks you to plant one item of false physical evidence, your choice, to make the Feds think it's mundane.
Adrianna plants something like a used weapon to suggest a kidnapping or murder.

2. Chat up either Renard (a big conspiracy theory guy, you hear) or Judge (a medical doctor as well as an FBI agent) and find another way to put them off the scent.
Adrianna talks to Judge.
She points out the fact that the people are missing means there's little way to tell if they're alive or what killed them. Besides, they'll have been scattered around the country.

3. Do some discreet sabotage on their belongings so they'll be forced to return to Washington. D.C., not the state.
Adrianna gets some extra strength glue and glues their briefcases closed.
If they've left their computers around, she breaks them.

[PointMaid]

[In response to Catar] Well, that's at least part of what Ed asked you to do, anyway? Let's see how well you can do...

Catar has rolled a 6 on the first part -1 for item manipulation abilities, a 1 on the second part +1 for flying and looking the way she does, and an 8 on the third part +1 again for flying and looking the way she does. This gives her a final score of 16 points.

As difficult as it is for Catar to stuff things under her blanket to make a sleeping form, it turns out not terribly bad and is reasonably convincing!

The photo session doesn't go well at all. The person Catar ropes in to be her photographer turns out to have terrible photography skills and takes forever to get the kind of photo she wants, and more importantly, Agent Judge is incredibly not impressed and thinks the poor quality photo is probably just some kind of water bird, or maybe a regular bat. A kids' kite in the form of a dragon or something, even?

The direct approach is much more successful. You definitely convince the pair that you're an as-yet-undiscovered kind of giant fruit bat and they want to talk with some folks back in Washington DC, maybe some folks at the Smithsonian who would know about bat species in the Northwest.

[Kennifer]

1. Ed asks you to plant one item of false physical evidence, your choice, to make the Feds think it's mundane.
Guys, did you see the cat running around? Aww, so cute and mischievous, clearly everything that's happened here is just cute kitty shenanigans. There must be a whole clowder living here, and the disappearances are probably because people adopted stray cats and immediately ran back home to take care of them. Without telling anyone. Yep, that all adds up purrfectly.

Whoa! That is a very cute cat! There's some questioning about how some of the... messier disappearances might be related to people leaving to take care of cats, but after a while Agent Judge comes up with some (flimsyish) mundane explanation to those too. For now. (Rolled 4 +1 for kitty cuteness for a total of 5.)

2. Chat up either Renard (a big conspiracy theory guy, you hear) or Judge (a medical doctor as well as an FBI agent) and find another way to put them off the scent.
Whoa! There's a cat on your lap! You're trapped!! Everyone knows that ancient cat law forbids standing up when there's a sleepy purrbaby on you.

Lucky jumps gracefully into the lap of the nearest agent, curls into a ball, and begins purring up a storm. Awww! Yeah, they'll be distracted by the triangle ears and the meow meow for a while. (Rolled 8 +1 for kitty cuteness for a total of 9.)

3. Do some discreet sabotage on their belongings so they'll be forced to return to Washington. D.C., not the state.
Uh-oh! While they weren't looking, it looks like someone sharpened their claws on all their important documents! Probably not Lucky, probably one of the other cats. There's just no way to tell.

A couple things get shredded, but may be able to be reconstructed. Lucky did manage to make a bit of work for them at least, but not enough to send them home immediately. (Rolled 2 +1 for sharp claws for a total of 3.)

Lucky has a total of 17 points.

[PointMaid]

Jimothy has rolled a 1 on the first task, a 4 on the second +1 for skateboard skillz, and a 5 on the third task, giving him a total of 11 points

The cheeseburgers just make Renard and Judge think that, whatever is going on, it involves cheeseburgers. The number of mysterious cheeseburgers appearing is certainly weird and unlikely to be a coincidence.

Renard is, in fact, easily convinced that he is at least part alien. Judge, however, gives Renard a full physical and declares that there's no evidence that he's anything but human. Partially works?

Finally, the stealing IDs and deep frying them. They do have to go home to replace their IDs, but they're convinced more than ever that someone is trying to thwart them and they vow to follow up as soon as the IDs are replaced.

[Kennifer]

1. Ed asks you to plant one item of false physical evidence, your choice, to make the Feds think it's mundane.
Adrianna plants something like a used weapon to suggest a kidnapping or murder.

This works really well. Adrianna leaves some frayed rope and a fired gun, which definitely points to foul play, but of the variety that is probably best left to local law enforcement instead of the feds. (Rolled 10.)

2. Chat up either Renard (a big conspiracy theory guy, you hear) or Judge (a medical doctor as well as an FBI agent) and find another way to put them off the scent.
Adrianna talks to Judge.
She points out the fact that the people are missing means there's little way to tell if they're alive or what killed them. Besides, they'll have been scattered around the country.

Judge agrees with Adrianna on this, especially since the weapon they found earlier points to a more mundane (if horrific) crime. Getting her partner to agree might take a bit more convincing but Adrianna at least has the more skeptical agent on her side. (Rolled 6 +1 for people skills for a total of 7.)

3. Do some discreet sabotage on their belongings so they'll be forced to return to Washington. D.C., not the state.
Adrianna gets some extra strength glue and glues their briefcases closed.
If they've left their computers around, she breaks them.

What a mess! Even if they could get their documents (and thumb drives with backups of the documents) out of their briefcases, they've got no laptops to view them on. They'll be on the next flight home.(Rolled 10.)

Adrianna has scored 27 points.

[noodlesnook]

The Pelagic Avian Conspiracy

1) Seabird considers magicking something up with her ribbons, but then realises how stupid that would be. But by then, she's already conjured up a flashy banner in front of the check-in. It reads, in sparkly text:
NO PARANORMAL JUNK HERE, YO!
Seabird quietly facepalms and prays that the agents'll just think it's some practical joke.

2) An individual who awfully resembles Seabird in a trench coat, fedora, and glasses approaches Renard. They claim to be called "Regularbird", and they say they're willing to exchange some of the town's deepest, darkest secrets with the agent. Secrets such as:
"Y'know the diner actually gets their maple syrup from alien cow hybrids that live behind the dumpsters?"
What he doesn't know ( or what they hope he doesn't know ) is that this "Regularbird" character is actually Seabird, and their plan is to fill Renard's head with all their crazy, made-up theories, thereby making him seem like a total fool and convincing Judge that this town isn't worth their time.

3) Seabird once again adopts the persona of Regularbird, but this time as an actual, regular bird, flying around, tearing up the suitcases, and for the final touch... er... defecating all over them. Just bird things!

[Zanreo]

1. "False evidence, huh... but what would make this whole situation look LESS suspicious?" Neptune decides on leaving around some flyers for some "Secret Getaway for Years" vacation! Surely nothing suspicious about this

2. Talk to Renard and try to one-up every conspiracy theory he mentions. "The moon landing was faked? Oh, so you believe in the moon?" and so on. Hopefully he'll either want to investigate elsewhere or think you're not worth bothering with.

3. "Leave it to Nep!" Neptune sneaks into where they're staying when they're gone, and "accidentally" spills some soda on their important documents. She also tries tampering with whatever seems like important tools, hopefully in a way that can't easily be repaired right away.

[PointMaid]

Seabird has rolled a 9 on the first task +1 for being able to make ribbon projections, a 4 on the second task, and a 5 on the third task +1 for bird abilities. This gives her a final score of 20 points.

The 'No Paranormal Junk Here, Yo!' banner actually works a lot better than expected. The agents are quite convinced that something is going on but that whoever or whatever is behind it is mundane. Not really because of the content of the banner, but because what kind of paranormal going on or person would put up a banner like that? That would just be weird. Surely someone is just trying to convince them whatever is going on is supernatural, by reverse psychology. Right.

Chatting up Renard doesn't work as well. Mostly because Judge is already perfectly aware of Renard's tendency towards conspiracy theories, so she doesn't consider it the best measure of whether the town is worth their time or not.

Tearing up the suitcases and... well, yeah... will only work temporarily. Yes, they have to replace their stuff, but they'll do it in the biggest close town and be back. The bird or birds in this town seem destructive, and strange, and large, maybe they people have been carried off. Could be a new cryptid.

[Kennifer]

1. "False evidence, huh... but what would make this whole situation look LESS suspicious?" Neptune decides on leaving around some flyers for some "Secret Getaway for Years" vacation! Surely nothing suspicious about this

Well, Agent Judge is a bit interested... in what sounds like a spa getaway or something. Neither of the agents see it as suspicious, at least. (Rolled 10)

2. Talk to Renard and try to one-up every conspiracy theory he mentions. "The moon landing was faked? Oh, so you believe in the moon?" and so on. Hopefully he'll either want to investigate elsewhere or think you're not worth bothering with.

Renard just keeps trying to one-up you back, although you manage to distract him for a while. He's pretty annoyed with you by the end of it, though. (Rolled 2 +1 for determination for a total of 3.)

3. "Leave it to Nep!" Neptune sneaks into where they're staying when they're gone, and "accidentally" spills some soda on their important documents. She also tries tampering with whatever seems like important tools, hopefully in a way that can't easily be repaired right away.

The soda doesn't really ruin the documents to the point of being unreadable, but you do manage to short out one of their computers. It doesn't get them to leave the area but they're not able to get all their work done until getting the computer fixed. (Rolled 3.)

Neptune has a total of 16 points.

[Cutegirl920fire]

How can a Folk Hero cover up her tracks?

1. Ed asks you to plant one item of false physical evidence, your choice, to make the Feds think it's mundane.
Beforehand, Bunyan tells Babe to lay on her cabin bed and stay still the whole time so she can claim that he's a stuffed animal in case the agents ask. Considering all of the trees she cut down throughout her time in the town, she gathers all of the logs she could find and stack them together in the forest so the agents can assume that there's some lumberjacks doing their business in the town (which is technically true).

2. Chat up either Renard (a big conspiracy theory guy, you hear) or Judge (a medical doctor as well as an FBI agent) and find another way to put them off the scent.

"Oh, bonjour madame!" Bunyan greets Judge. "My name is Pauline and while I'm around 12 years old, you can tell that I'm very tall for someone my age. That's because I have Gigantism. Do you know of any people that had it too?"

Could Bunyan have changed her height to a much more reasonable height a child could've have? Perhaps, but she had a gut feeling that the agents are aware of someone with abnormal height being in the town, so she decided that staying at her default height of six feet would be a safer move, since she'll be screwed if they caught her or at least suspected her of being able to change her height. She picked Judge as due to being an medical doctor, she'll be more likely to believe Bunyan's claim instead of Renard who would've accused her of being an actual giant of folklore.

3. Do some discreet sabotage on their belongings so they'll be forced to return to Washington. D.C., not the state.

Paul Bunyan searches for wherever the agents could've set up camp and then hack at their belongings with her trusty axe. She intends to chop down and whack everything with her axe until everything is a big mess and heavily destroyed. She hides in a room, enters her spiritual body form and sneaks out before the agents could return.

[Kennifer]

1. Ed asks you to plant one item of false physical evidence, your choice, to make the Feds think it's mundane.
Beforehand, Bunyan tells Babe to lay on her cabin bed and stay still the whole time so she can claim that he's a stuffed animal in case the agents ask. Considering all of the trees she cut down throughout her time in the town, she gathers all of the logs she could find and stack them together in the forest so the agents can assume that there's some lumberjacks doing their business in the town (which is technically true).

This works really well. Not only does Babe pass convincingly as a stuffed animal, the stacks of wood are mundane enough to draw attention away from you. (Rolled 9 +1 for lumberjacking skills for a total of 10.)

2. Chat up either Renard (a big conspiracy theory guy, you hear) or Judge (a medical doctor as well as an FBI agent) and find another way to put them off the scent.

"Oh, bonjour madame!" Bunyan greets Judge. "My name is Pauline and while I'm around 12 years old, you can tell that I'm very tall for someone my age. That's because I have Gigantism. Do you know of any people that had it too?"

Could Bunyan have changed her height to a much more reasonable height a child could've have? Perhaps, but she had a gut feeling that the agents are aware of someone with abnormal height being in the town, so she decided that staying at her default height of six feet would be a safer move, since she'll be screwed if they caught her or at least suspected her of being able to change her height. She picked Judge as due to being an medical doctor, she'll be more likely to believe Bunyan's claim instead of Renard who would've accused her of being an actual giant of folklore.

Agent Judge finds you very interesting because of your height. She wants to give you an examination, for science, and your insistence that you're just tall gets the attention of Agent Renard as well. You've got them both on your tail now and have to give them the slip. (Rolled 1.)

3. Do some discreet sabotage on their belongings so they'll be forced to return to Washington. D.C., not the state.

Paul Bunyan searches for wherever the agents could've set up camp and then hack at their belongings with her trusty axe. She intends to chop down and whack everything with her axe until everything is a big mess and heavily destroyed. She hides in a room, enters her spiritual body form and sneaks out before the agents could return.

This works a lot better. Everything's a mess and they're on the next flight back to DC. Hopefully they've forgotten about wanting to examine you in the chaos. (Rolled 10 +1 for strength for a total of 11.)

Bunyan has scored 22 points.

[Cutegirl920fire]

"Phew!" Bunyan said after returning to her cabin to get Babe, who can move freely now. "That was a close one. How can they dissect a Servant as part of their experimentation on me?"

Bunyan heads to whenever the other campers are.

"So, we don't have the FBI on our trails, yippie!"

[Caret]

If Eki and Anya aren't mistaken, magic's existence should have been widely known by now. But apparently, magic is still seen as a myth here. They have a feeling this isn't the same old world they've spent years studying.

An Adventurer's Guide to Throwing Off Skeptics

1. Ed asks you to plant one item of false physical evidence, your choice, to make the Feds think it's mundane. Eki and Anya will design fake flyers calling for volunteers for the "Prankster Society of the Pacific Northwest" and stuff them in trash cans. Hopefully, this will convince Renard and Judge that whatever's happening here is just a prank meant to waste the government's time.
   
   
2. Chat up either Renard (a big conspiracy theory guy, you hear) or Judge (a medical doctor as well as an FBI agent) and find another way to put them off the scent. The feds are probably interested in the kids' animal traits and where they came from. That's a problem. Anya takes up the responsibility of chatting with them, since it's easier to hide her nonhuman features than Eki's. She scours her wardrobe for something that'll completely hide her tail, and also combs her hair so it covers the pointy ends of her ears. Once her preparations are complete, Anya will hit Judge up and tell her that Eki simply likes dressing up as animals, which explains their ears and tail. She'll also tell Judge that her whole future thing is just an elaborate joke.
   
   
3. Do some discreet sabotage on their belongings so they'll be forced to return to Washington. D.C., not the state.
   Simple. Just have other people do it for you so the FBI won't suspect a thing. Eki and Anya will recruit some local teens to smash up the feds' belongings and throw them into the river while the duo do normal teenager things far away from where the agents set up shop. If the teens ask for anything in return, Anya will let them borrow their skysail for a few hours. This is definitely a wise idea.
   

[PointMaid]

Eki and Anya have rolled a 1 on the first task, a 7 on the second task, and a 5 on the third task. This gives them a score of 13.

Eki and Anya's designs for the flyers are very different from the norms in this time and place, and their spelling and phrasing is off, too - in a future way, not a past way. After seeing them, Renard and Judge are even more convinced that there's something behind this they should be looking into.

The 'oh, she just likes dressing up as an animal, plus the future thing is an elaborate joke' is much more convincing. Judge and Renard are aware of people who dress up like animals, and things like the Creative Anachronism Society. Maybe similar but different, they figure?

The teen sabotage works, to a point. Sure the kids damage some stuff, but most of it can be replaced without heading home. And the agents are now focused on finding the saboteurs and getting them to talk.

[PointMaid]

This means that Adrianna has won the challenge and, with Ed's gratitude, will get the very secure cabin tonight. Congratulations!

We will let you talk among yourselves for now and go to Night Phase in about 24 hours

[wingedcatgirl]

Lucky washes his face smugly as the investigators retreat. Sure, he didn't do the most to drive them away, but he still did some, so he gets to be smug about success.

... a little less smug about who is getting rewarded. Well, there's at least two killers, so hopefully any CPR Doctors who decide to cosplay as vigilantes tonight have a backup plan in mind.

[TenOfSwords13]

Well, at least those FBI Agents are no longer here, looking into anything like aliens or murders. They really would have gotten in the way.

>Do a cool skateboard trick to celebrate my awesome efforts

[PointMaid]

>Do a cool skateboard trick to celebrate my awesome efforts

Nice kickflip!

[Cutegirl920fire]

Well, at least those FBI Agents are no longer here, looking into anything like aliens or murders. They really would have gotten in the way.

>Do a cool skateboard trick to celebrate my awesome efforts

Bunyan witnesses Jimothy do his skateboard trick and she's impressed by it.


"Ohlala! I like that trick! How did you do it?"

[wingedcatgirl]

Lucky is now batting playfully at Babe's tail.