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Matt and Colin meet at Shelia's house around 7:30PM.  Shelia had made arrangements for her parents to be out so that she could let the boys look through Rory's room.

Shelia explains that they've left it just like it was, but that mom is talking about packing his stuff away before long.  "I don't actually thinks she means it, but I think saying it helps her remember that he's gone."

Rory's room is fairly typical of a teenage boy geek.  He has a few posters of video games, some with overly sexy girls in action poses.  He has a TV and game consoles as well as several games.  Several binders line his book sheleves where his card collection is and several small shelves house the many figures that he has (Hero Clix and the like).

OOC: Colin I need a Fate Roll, you can add your Wisdom bonus to this one.  If that's over 16 then you can make a Notice Check DC 12.

OOC: Matt, IF Colin fails the Fate Roll then you can make a Notice Check DC 16.

Colin enters Rory's room with the same respect he would enter a temple. At first he touches nothing, he just takes a look around with his normal sight. Then he closes his eyes and concentrates for a moment.

Blackbird, I think that in this room there is something that bears a mark so evil that it killed a boy just like me... for no reason. I don't know if Rory's spirit is in peace or not, if he is, then I'm just trying to stop the... monster that killed him. If he isn't, but I really hope he is, then this is for him too. I'll try not to let my brain get in the way, and pay attention to my emotions. If you can, please help me find it.

When his eyes opens again, they shine with the luster of his ghost sight. He looks at the room, and turns around to take everything in. Then he begins to touch, very lightly, the objects that were used more often, the ones that he hopes still carry Rory's... soulprint. He tries to feel what he felt when he used them, when he looked at them, when he played with them. He even tries laying on his bed.

Rory, if you can hear me, please give me a hand.

OOC: Fate roll (1d20+2=14) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=695272) Barely missed :(

Matt at first stops in the door to Rory's room, since he'd been there a few times before when Rory was alive, when they'd sit for long hours and discuss one superhero or the other, Rory using his trading cards as the main referrence, Matt going off his encyclopedic memory on all things that go 'biff', 'pam' and 'pow'... He takes a few glances around, not really wanting to touch anything at all and suddenly not feeling like he should be there at all...

[OOC: To Notice or not to Notice, that is the Que-SHUN! (1d20+2=15) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=695671) ... dammit! Just barely missed here as well.]

"The taint of evil was here, but now it's gone.  In it's place is only the ghost of it."  Colin sees the blackbird sitting on Rory's desk.


Laying down on the bed Colin is flooded with a wave of dark emotions.  Fears and hatreds bundled together like kindling wiating for a match to light it.  They knot his stomach and shroud the ceiling in dark imaginings of Rory hurting teh people that have abused him.  Never as a monster, always as himself.  Colin can taste the pain of Rory's abuse in his mouth, like ash.  As he rolls from the desk he sees a ghost of Rory, writing at his desk, a leather bound journal.  He bundles it in a cloth and then hides it under the bottom drawer of his desk.  The ghost fades.

Shelia puts her arm through Matt's and her head on his shoulder, like she somehow felt his urge to bolt from the scene.  "If you guys can do anything to help find out what happened, I know my mom would really appreciate it."  She lifts her head to look into Matt's eyes, "So would I."

Colin rolls down from the bed and coughs loudly.

"Whoever did this deserve a special hell all for himself."

He coughs again, trying to chase the feeling away.

"I think I saw something, though."

He walks to the desk and slowly tries to put his fingers underneath the drawers.

Matt stiffens for a moment as Sheila looks into his eyes, then starts fidgeting as usual. "I, uh, that is, we'll try... and if we find whoever did this to Rory, I promise you I'll--" he chokes up a bit. "I'll make them pay, however I can."

He glaces over at Colin. "Find anything?"

Colin finds the journal.

It's wrapped in what looks to be the last remnants of a t-shirt.  The journal itself is leather bound and has Rory's name on it.

"Oh, I gave him that for Christmas one year.  I thought he'd lost it."  Shelia says.

The journal is a place for thoughts and drawings, most of which detail his fears over the last several years and his fantasies of hatred.  Many of the drawings are disturbing images, but also Matt and is able to point out the heroic symbols and elements of the various doodles.

The last few entries one symbol keeps showing up in several of the drawings.

OOC: Matt need an INT check DC 12

there are also several references to the growing feeling rory had that there was something dark inside him, and that he was both afriad and exilirated at the idea of it getting out and beating on the people that abused him and others.  Some of the last entries though catch everyone's attention;

"That is so messed up, why didn't he tell-- wait a second..." Matt looks over the drawings closer.

[OOC: I am so Smart, S-M-R-T, eh, I mean... (1d20+1=13) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=695726)]

Matt realizes the symbol is something familiar, it's from one of the collectible card sets that Rory collects.  Each of the sets has a specific symbol, and the one Rory repeats in the later pages of his journal is from one of the more recent ones.

Colin looks at the binders with Rory's card collection and nearly feels sick.

He used his passion to get at him. Oh I see a pattern here. People that think they can use what you love the most against you. I can't wait for you to taste threefold revenge, you sick bastard.

He slowly takes them out to compare the symbols on them, and scans every card of that set for any sign of magic.

Rory was a meticulous collector.  Each set is in it's own binder and the first page is the official card list for the set, with a checkmark next to each card that he has for the set.

As Colin flips through the set in question he sees no magic on any of the cards.

OOC: Colin Notice check DC 19, Matt Notice check DC 14

When they find find the right binder, Colin checks each card with a ferocious intensity.

You can't hide forever.

OOC: Notice check (1d20+7=22) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=695883). Come on!

There appears to be a card missing.  It's checked off the list, but the card itself seems to be missing.

Matt recognizes it as the card that he gave Rory on behalf of Logan Darklighter.

"Oh no." Matt pales. "You don't think..? No, not the cards... but in that case... Logan. Logan Darklighter. He's behind this." He clenches his jaw, and it feels as if something curls up inside him and dies.

"We gotta find the last card. We need to be sure." He turns to Sheila. "Do you know if anyone could have been inside here before us, aside from you and your parents? Do you know any place that the Marvels Universe Sandstorm card could have ended up, if Rory had it with him that day perhaps?"

Now I see what you meant with only the ghost of evil remains.

"Yes, Sheila. Without the card, we haven't really much to give to the PCD. If you can think of anyone please tell us. And... Matt, who is this Logan?"

"He's..." Matt looks down to the floor, trying to remember more about Logan. "The secretary for the Science Fiction and Fantasy club. He's like... supposed to be this really great guy that everyone loves, and I thought he was too, he helped me, and gave me the Sandstorm card to give to Rory, which... I did. And if that's what killed him, I--" Matt chokes up, tears forming at the edge of his eyes, but his eyes are cold, as if he's trying to stare something unseen lying on the floor to death.

"No one else has been in here." Shelia says, "Logan sent flowers, but he didn't come to the funeral.  Rory had mentioned him but my folks didn't invite him.  I know Rory didn't have any cards on him, we got all his stuff back.  Besides, you knew him Matt.  He wouldn't carry one of those around without a reason.  I remember the day he got it from you, I watched him put it in the binder."

Matt looks at Colin. "You don't think there's any chance the talisman could have, like, been consumed by the spell and ended up vanishing or something? You don't think you can do anything with your weird powers to, like, I don't know, see what happened or something? Or... you don't think there's a chance that it could have been something else, and not the card?" He sounds more than a little hopeful when asking the last question.

"Matt."
Colin puts both his hands on his friend's shoulders.
"Matt, look at me."
He shakes him gently until Matt finally shuts up and look at his eyes.
"Matt, there was no way you could know it. It's not your fault. It's not your fault at all. You've seen his journal. He knew that you were a true friend, that you cared about him, and you made him feel better. What happened to him is not your fault. You didn't buy that book that should have been burned, and you didn't cast that curse. It's not your fault, Matt."

Rory, help me please. Matt doesn't deserve this. Blackbird, guide me please. Show me how to ease his pain. He is already so... fragile.
Colin once again tries to empty himself to let the light of the spirits flow into Matt.

"I think the card either was consumed, or someone managed to retrieve it without being noticed. We'd better ask Donnie about this though."

Colin puts his palm on the binder, where the missing card was, but he doesn't really expects to feel anything.

"We shouldn't be so quick to put the blame on Logan either. We already know that with the right magic, it's possible to fool almost anyone. Maybe it was someone else that looked like him. Maybe he wasn't alone. We have to learn more, and be very careful. If it was him, he's very dangerous. I'll ask Chris if he can do some research on him and... I guess I'll do the same. We need proof."

Colin feels his head swim for a moment and then his sight leaves the room, as though it were the eyes of the blackbird.  It lights on the counter in the kitchen and looks down at a pile of mail.  There is an envelope, addressed to Emille Vandross.  The address is a PO Box in Chicago.

As his vision clears again, Colin's eyes go wide.
"I stand corrected." He turns to heir hostess. "Shelia, please, show us your kitchen. And if you could find a pair of tweezers it would probably be for the best."

I'm on to you, Vandross!

Colin looks for the envelope on the counter, picks it up with the tweezers, and looks at it against the light.
"Shelia, do you recognize whose writing is this on the envelope? Does the name Vandross mean anything to you?"

Shelia looks at the envelope.  He brow furrows for a moment and she takes it to stare.  "This is my handwriting, but."  she falls silent, then looks up at Colin, "I don't know this guy, who is he?"  she looks at the envelope again and then tears the end off of it, reaching inside she comes out with the card that was missing from the binder.  "What the hell?" 

Colin can see the taint of evil dripping from the card like blood, a smoldering malice still permeates it.

"No, Shelia! Put it down!" Colin shouts, grabbing her wrist.
"I'm sorry, but we don't know how it works, and it's a bad idea to touch it. This thing is... magic nuclear waste. Soul poison. If you could see it like I see it..." Colin shudders visibly.

"Let's talk about the card later. This envelope... we arrived just in time. Emille Vandross, if he really exist, is your brother's murderer, and he's guilty of so many other crimes they haven't yet invented the right sentence for him.
You really don't remember anything about taking the card, putting it in the envelope, and writing the name and address?  Then the only explanation I have is that he... hypnotized you. He made you do it and then forget it. So he could dispose of the evidence without even coming here. And I guess it happened recently too. How long does the mail usually remains on the counter, before being sent?"

Colin notices she's confused. "I know it's hard to take it all in at a time, but this man is really the worse bastard in Chicago since Al Capone. He's behind the traffic of superman too, he's everywhere, and we don't know what he can do. He is not only a gangster, he can also do magic, and of the worst kind. But he finally made a mistake, he didn't expect us here today, before the card was sent away. I really need your help, Shelia. I can try to help you remember how and why you prepared this envelope, but I need you to trust me. Are you going to trust me?"

"Um, maybe a day or two at the most."


Shelia takes Matt's hand and nods at Colin.  "Sure, If Matt trusts you I can."

Colin takes Shelia's other hand with a hand, the empty envelope with the other, and draws them together to his chest.. He closes his eyes, tries to sense what was done to her memory, and eventually to undo it. He wonders if he could see what she saw and doesn't remember.

Colin concentrates, but there is nothing there.  bits break through, moments of her wirting the envelope, and sealing it, but there is no emotion to it, no sense of self-awareness.

After Colin had tried to console him, Matt had just followed behind him quiet and morose, and when he saw that it was indeed the Sandstorm card he felt his heart sink a few more notches. However much Colin said he'd had nothing to do with it he just can't help but think... what if he'd acted out of spite that day as he'd felt like doing and just ripped up and thrown the card away? Or even kept it? When Sheila puts her hand in his he squeezes back gently, but it's more mechanically than out of any emotion or even concious thought, and otherwise remains quiet.

Colin lets her go with a sigh.
"I can't do it. He's good. I could see you writing and sealing that, but your mind wasn't there. He left no traces. I think we should take the card out of here, where he's gonna look for it if he doesn't receive the envelope, and to the PCD. They likely know how to deal with it, and that teacher from Miskatonic that they asked for help will know a way to find who enchanted this, like Donnie did."

He sees the unexpressed question in their eyes.
"Yes, I could probably touch it but... this thing just oozes evil. It's dripping evil, it's... disgusting. I'm glad you can't see it. I'm not sure I'm prepared for this kind of things."

Am I, blackbird? Can I touch that thing safely?

"No one is safe from it's darkness.  It already calls to the darkness inside all of you, and some are already feeling it.  Dispose of it quickly, for all your sakes."

Colin's eyes widen in terror.

"It is already beginning to affect you. I've got to take it away from you."
Colin takes it with the tweezers and puts it back in the envelope.
"I'm going outside, and I'll call the PCD so they can come and take it. Matt, please stay here with Shelia. It's poisonous, really. Try to... think happy thoughts."

Colin runs down the stairs, and out to the street, and then to the other side of the street too. Looking at Vandross' name on the envelope, he can't help but grit his teeth in anger, and he doesn't know how much of this anger is his own, and how much comes from the card. He flips his cell phone open, and calls Chris, who is actually on rapid dial.

"Chris? We found it! I have it right here.
Yes, the cursed talisman. And I have a lead on Vandross too, but, Chris, it's still active! It can kill again. What am I supposed to do with it?
It's a card, from some kind of trading cards game. Haven't you guys got a lead box or something for things like this?
It was starting to affect my friends and I got to take it out. I'm just outside their house.
Yes. Yes, I'm not going anywhere. Please hurry."

He flips his cellphone closed, and stays still for a moment thinking, tapping with the antenna on his lips. He flips it open again, and dials Donnie's number.

Matt remains standing still and silent, staring after Colin or more specifically the card, for a long moment concidering taking it. Maybe sew it into Logan's jacket, then just stand back and let justice come around. But no, it's a stupid thought he realizes, because not only is it still not guaranteed that Logan even had anything to do with this, something like that would probably hurt a lot of other people. He glances sideways at Sheila, tries to smile at her but fails, then just looks down at the floor. "I should probably go," he says, and starts toward the door. "I'll... see you monday, I guess. And... don't worry, okay. We'll take care of this." He looks back at her with a blank face, devoid of any emotion. "We're the good guys." Then he walks out.

Matt hears her open the door and yell after him, "I expect you to live up to that Matt."

Chris arrives in about twenty minutes with a woman.  "Colin, this is Detective Blaire Kellog.  Blaire, this is Colin."

Blaire smiles and Colin can see an aura of magic about her even without his ghost site.  She comes over to Colin and kneels down, taking a metal box from her purse.  "You can out that in here."  She says as she opens the box.  Once Colin sets the card inside she closes the box and the taint of the cards evil is blocked out.  Blaire sighs, "Okay, now we just have to find a way to destroy it.  Hopfully we can see where it leads to first."

"Detective Kellog, I just couldn't be more pleased to know you."

Colin lets the card slip from the envelope into the box, and as it's evil aura dissolves, he lets out a deep sigh. After he calms down he offers her his hand.

"Thank you for coming. That thing is so... wrong, I couldn't even bring myself to touch it. I mean, I'd love to help you with it, just... not today. I am not ready right now. But we have a couple leads on Vandross now. The first one is this envelope." he hands it to Chris "Vandross somehow compelled Shelia, Rory Burns' sister, to put the card in envelope and write the address, then he made her the forget about it. Maybe that's why it's so hard to get a hold of him. The other one... it may still amount to nothing, but it's worth looking into it. Rory got the card from another boy at our school, Logan Darklighter. I'm not sure i can believe Vandross is just a teenager, but that's what we got.."

Blaire shakes Colin's hand and while he's explaining what they've learned wraps the box with a piece of tattered cloth.

"I'll run down this address."  Chris says, "Likely a deadend though.  He's got a lot of PO boxes at various little mail stores, nothing concrete has come from them yet.  I'll also look into this Darklghter kid.  Maybe he's in the organization or another pawn.  Wont know until I do some digging."

"I'll see if I can get a feel for who put this enchantment on the card."  Blaire says, looking at the wrapped box.  "Then we have to get rid of it.  The Church of St. Michale should be able to help us there."

"He doesn't know we know about this yet though. Couldn't we send him an envelope with a fake card and set a trap for him?"


"I'd like to help you out with it, before you destroy it. Just not tonight. Chris and I have another... case, and it would be too much for me, now. I just need to... prepare myself."

"That's assuming that the person that picks it up is him, and that's assuming anyone picks it up."


"Uh, that's a nice thing to offer, but I'm a trained sorcerer and I'm gonna have to get professional help."  Blaire smiles, "Maybe if we have a chance I'll call you."

Colin looks down in embarassment.
"Oh, sorry,  I didn't mean that you weren't more than up to the task. It's just that... I feel abit like it's my responsibility to make sure who killed Rory gets what he deserves."