Part 1: Murder Returns to Timber Grove

[sniderman]

Although humanity remains blissfully unaware, each of you knows that monsters DO lurk in the shadows, feeding on fear and ignorance -- and usually just feeding.

At some point in your lives, each of you have encountered the paranormal -- barely escaping the experience with your lives and sanity intact. The only reason you're alive today is due to the action and intervention of "Societas Malleus et Sudis" AKA "The Society of Hammer and Stake," a secret underground organization tasked with investigating and eradicating supernatural threats to humanity. The price of your salvation was to become secret members as well. When contacted, you are expected to come where needed, bringing your knowledge, your experience, and your bravery to thwart these arcane, evil forces.

That time has come.

Just yesterday as you checked your personal email, a cold chill raced down your spine when you saw that one message came from "The Society". Remembering your debt, you clicked on the message and read the following:

Good morning:

Less than 48 hours ago, the bodies of two park rangers were discovered in the Tillamook State Forest 40 miles west of Portland, Oregon. Each of the victims had been beheaded. These murders are identical to the infamous “Paul Bunyon Butcher” killings that occurred in that same forest 40 years ago. The original killer, Logan Baxter, was caught shortly after the original killings and has been behind bars ever since. However, it is believed that these new killings are not the work of a typical copycat killer for two reasons:

One: the cuts that severed the heads from the victims were so keen, it would have taken a blade of unimaginable sharpness to make the cut so cleanly. This was not the work of a run-of-the-mill axe murderer.

Two: Baxter himself, who’s in the deepest of prison isolation, apparently knew of the murders and the nature of the crime scene before anyone could inform him. When asked how he knew, he claims a “demon” told him.

The Society needs you to travel to Timber Grove, Oregon, a small town on the edge of the Tillamook State Forest, and investigate these murders. Baxter will soon be transferred to a state psychiatric hospital for observation. While he’s being transferred, The Society has arranged a stopover for him at the County Jail in Timber Grove where you have been authorized to interview him for 30 minutes. Hopefully you can get him to reveal what he knows about this new crime and his “demon” informant.

Enclosed is a description of the five members we have assigned with investigating this situation. Make contact with each other upon your arrival and pool your talents to get to the bottom of this. As always, the true nature of your investigations and the existence of The Society must be kept secret. Good luck.

"Lux Pugnat Tenebris Aeternum"

You've each made arrangements for leave from your respective occupations, using vacations and/or sabbaticals as the reason. Travel arrangements had been made by The Society, and it's only a matter of hours before you find yourself in the Forest Grove Holiday Inn where you’re all staying. As you each check into the small hotel in the even-smaller town, you recognize each other as fellow Society members from the description in your emails. You offer each other a terse word of greeting and make arrangements to meet in the hotel lobby in 10 minutes. Baxter will be arriving at the County Jail about an hour after that, so you have some time to introduce yourselves to each other and plan what to do.

[[CM NOTE: I'll let you know when the time for your "appointment" draws near. The five of you are now in the lobby. Let me know what you have in hand, what you say to each other, and what you'd like to do in the hour preceding the interview with Baxter.]]

[kmelion]

Wearing a corduroy sports coat, Jack finds a corner of the lobby that is unoccupied and pulls his tablet out of his messenger bag. He will compare the original murders to the current ones.

If allowed, I would like to search to see if there are any local superstitions involving things that decapitate. All of this will use my computer skill.

If approached I will be polite, but reluctant to relate how I was brought into the Society.

[segeorge]

Webber returns to the lobby, having been using his smart phone researching (OK – Googling) information on the original Paul Bunyon case – especially any references that Baxter made at the time to demons or his motive (using Computers skill). Webb’s wearing a charcoal gray three piece suit, with navy blue tie and flannel-gray fedora. At 5’10” with a slim build, his average features and demeanor add to an overall unassuming presence that often helps in his line of work.

He quickly spots Jack and approaches, slipping his smart phone into his jacket pocket:

“Hi; Jack, right?” Then, indicating Jack’s tablet, “Anything new? Or just checking ebay?” Webb offers a practiced, friendly smile.

(If it's OK, Webb will be carrying a Smith & Wesson MP 9 in a shoulder holder [and his concealed carry permit in his wallet)

[funfungiguy]

Lucas comes down to the lobby and greets the others in a friendly confident manner. He's 5'11" and about 175 pounds, mid-20s, clean shaven, brown hair, athletically built, and wearing sneakers and blue jeans and a black t-shirt. He's carrying a black hooded sweatshirt with "Aztec Wrestling" in red letters, and a backpack over one shoulder. A thin black beanie does a poor job of covering disfiguring cauliflower ears.

He then sits down in an empty chair and pulls out a tablet and keyboard and begins researching any details he can pull up regarding the original murders and Baxter's trial. Did Baxter claim innocence? What kind of damning evidence weighed against him? (I'll use my Journalism skill to research details of Baxter's murder trials.)

(Lucas, if permitted, carries in his backpack a tablet/keyboard, a water bottle and a few energy bars, a really cheap first-aid kit, a small flashlight, and a small notebook and some pens and markers. He also carries his wallet, a multi-tool, a smartphone. He's got earbuds, charging chords, a couple flashdrives, and a small detachable microphone that he uses for interviews.)

[merias]

Magnus enters the hotel lobby and spies his colleagues. He is a tall, gaunt, 40-something man with a hook nose, wearing jeans, well-worn hiking boots and a navy fleece pullover. The latter is not hiding a telltale bulge on his left hip. His unkempt brown hair is graying over the ears.

"Afternoon, gents. Nice place we have here, eh?"

"Oh, I see you're all on those damned smart phones, I can't stand those things. I've never had my feet fail me, there is just no substitute for good, old-fashioned legwork."

Magnus will interview the hotel desk attendant, asking if he or she was on duty the day of the murders and generally looking for information on the hotel visitors that day - how many, any that appeared unusual, etc. If asked, he'll say he is a private detective hired by the family of one of the park rangers.

OOC: He carries a notebook, pencil, pocketknife, prepaid flip-phone, passport, money clip and keyring with a standard handcuff key, firesteel and LED flashlight. On his hip is a SIG 9mm with 13+1 rounds. If he is venturing out into the woods, he will have a small fanny pack with a quart nalgene bottle of water, a few energy bars, 50 feet of paracord, emergency blanket and some water purification tablets.

[Magnus' father is a retired diplomat, and years ago arranged for him to have a diplomatic Canadian passport, allowing him to avoid any border searches or pesky questions about his business].

[greyarea]

Hal Armitage returns to the lobby. The hair of his cowlick is wet, as he just washed his face quickly, accenting the white streak in the otherwise black hair. His green eyes sparkle. He wears dark green slacks, a button-down shirt, waistcoat, and tweed blazer with patches on the arm. He walks with a black cane with a nice headpiece: some kind of squid whose head is the handle and the ten tentacles wrapping down the black wood. At 6' he's quite tall, and his barrel chest and lantern jaw don't seem to fit the academic stereotype.

He pulls the pocketwatch from his waistcoat and checks the time again.

I quite agree, good Magnus, that the Google beast is no match for time in a good library, museum, or reading room when it comes to true research. That said, I'm not bereft of technology myself: I find it makes notekeeping a bit easier. A good smartphone can be handy business.

I say we interrogate this Baxter fellow, then head to do some research to find out what we might be up against.

Hal has his wallet in his inside pocket with normal cards, a smartphone in his waistcoat pocket (opposite of his watch) with notebook, flashlight, camera, and other usual functions, a bag of tobacco and a lighter in the left coat pocket, a pipe in the right. He also has a pocket notebook and hard pencil as well.

Unlike the others he has no telltale bulge of armament at hip, ankle, armpit, or small of back. Let us hope there is no firefight...

[segeorge]

I quite agree, good Magnus, that the Google beast is no match for time in a good library, museum, or reading room when it comes to true research. That said, I'm not bereft of technology myself: I find it makes notekeeping a bit easier. A good smartphone can be handy business.

I say we interrogate this Baxter fellow, then head to do some research to find out what we might be up against.

Having initially held back a comment concerning the use of technology, Web decides it may now be even more applicable, as he ponders how the Society works:
A matter of selecting the appropriate tool for the task, eh, Professor?
He continues in a lower voice, so as not to be overheard by anyone not in their group, Speaking of which, this is the first time I’ve been contacted out of the blue. Is this the usual Society protocol? Is there a ‘Jim Phleps’ sifting through our dossiers for the most appropriate agents? Or do you think it’s a matter of who’s at hand? I mean, I live in Oregon -- I drove here. But Magnus is Canadian. What about the rest of you?

[greyarea]

Hal Armitage, Yes, the tool most applicable. Quite right.

Well, I happened to be in the area at an the annual Archaeological Linguistics Conference, which, by chance, was held in Crater Lake Hotel this year. I was invited to give a talk on dead languages of the Pacific Northwest, which I co-presented with Susan Elewonibi of the Wuikinuxv Nation up in BC. She gave specifics of their language while I gave a framework of dead and cryptid languages and their influence on contemporary tongues. It was quite well received.

That said, I'm not sure if I was called in because I'm the "appropriate tool for the job" or because of my proximity. I teach and do research out of G.U.E. Tech out east, and I don't know if I would have been called here from there. A few hours by car doesn't seem much worse than a plane ride in, so who know's what The Society's plan for bringing us in is. That said, I'm not sure this is the best place for us to be discussing or speculating on their business.

[segeorge]

David Webber Hm, Fair enough.
He gives a quick glance around to see if anyone could have overheard.

Most of what Hal said went completely over Web's head, but to be collegial, he asks G.U.E. Tech?

[greyarea]

Hal raises his eyebrows at David. G.U.E. Tech? George Underwood Edwards Institute of Technology? I'm surprised you haven't heard of it. Of course, it's no Harvard or MIT, but having more famous neighbors shouldn't mean you're a nobody. We were fairly big back in the 80s but seem to have fallen off in popularity since then. Perhaps not as well known as Rochester Poly or Illinois Tech....hmmm He gazes off into space, pulling unlit the pipe from his pocket and tapping it against his teeth in contemplation. ...we could use some better marketing I suppose...