Jimmy Finn solo Assignment - Chapter 1, Part 1 - 0

((Before you can begin this adventure a player character generated bio must be posted to the forum))

Jimmy Finn found himself resting in his barracks room in the I.B.P.H. after returning from the terror of the temple in Mexico. A new strange and bloody world screams burned in Jimmy's dreams as he try and go to sleep. The red glare of the alarm clock on the night stand sats mocking poor Jimmy as it counted down the hours of the night. Slowly poor Jimmy began to drift of to sleep.

*BUZZ BUZZ* *BUZZ BUZZ*

With some effort Jimmy grunted and reached for his Blackberry in his night stand drawer. A text message scrolled across the screen "Harbinger: My office NOW!"

Rubbing the exhaustion from his eyes Jimmy dressed and gathered his belongs and stepped out into the barracks hallway, the bright florescent lights burned his sleep soaked eyes, causing him to think at first he was imaging the two figures standing in the hallway. Instantly Jimmy's "Cop Sense" took over. Both of these men and yes they were definitively male were not exactly right. There builds were off; to much muscle in some places and green skin; Jimmy's hand reached for his 45 when it flooded back into his mind...

These were the those Orcs. Shrugging it off Jimmy walked past them leaving them to play with, was that a Ipad? Whatever.

The hot sweltering Alabama night slapped Jimmy across the face as he left the barracks and head over to the main office building to find Harbinger's office. Jimmy crossed the court yard and entered the main building, the cold air of the strikingly cold office building made the fresh sweat on his face near freeze. Thinking to himself "No A/C humming, have to look into how they keep this place cold with out no A/C". Jimmy always hate unsolved mysteries and this seemed like an easy one to crack when he was board. Moving through the night dimmed lights of the office building Jimmy made his way to the door to Harbingers office and lifted his fist to knock.

"It's OPEN! Get in here what took you so long" A gruff obviously Harbinger voice with a thick southern twang bellowed from the other side before his fist hit the door. Opening the door Harbinger stood circling behind his desk holding a tumbler of ice and a light brown liquid in one hand and what could only be one his no filtered lucky strikes in the other. Jimmy's "Cop Sense" told him that was normal what wasn't normal was the small diminutive yet beautiful female all of 10 inches tall sitting on a stack of folders on Harbingers desk. Her little gossamer wings buzzing quickly. Snapping his vision quickly around the room to take in the dim smoke filed cube; there in the shadowed corner across the room from him a think wisp of man; 5'2" tall approx., black hair, pale skin, approx. 100 pounds. sunken features. Sitting in harbinger's chair another man, tall and willow like with odd blue spirals painted on his checks and wearing a leather apron over a puff sleeved white shirt. Small specticals perched on the tip of his nose and a New York Yankee's cap trying unsucessfully to tame the mass of white hair sprouting from his head.

The entire situation reads acid trip, but this you realize is now the norm of your life, but what the hell...

"Breathing behind me..." raced through Jimmy's head as he dropped to the floor rolling on to his back, pulling his 45. A massive blue creature of muscle wearing is that chain mail looked down at him. With the speed of thought Jimmy flipped off his safety and sighted center mass on the massive Smurf man's chest.

"Hold it Jimmy! Don't go shooting our guests now!" Harbinger had crossed the room and was placing his hand on the slide of Jimmy's 45. How did he move so fast and how the hell had he not split his scotch.

"Sir THUD! come away from there. Why would you startle him so?" The voice was human as of such but brings the thoughts fresh made shoes to poor Jimmy's mind as he stared up at the giant Smurf and at Harbinger. Jimmy's rattled mind decided that it was coming from the man resting in Harbinger's high back office chair.

"To see if he is worthy of this charge..." The Smurf speaks! A voice that immoderately conjures images of wind scoured glaciers and crackie rock cliffs.

((Once you posted your expanded player bio for Jimmy, you can post a response to this post. Please read the Rule section for help if you haven't done so already or contact me directly.))

Jimmy carefully lowered his gun, but kept it at the ready. He scanned his eyes over the occupants of the room, and decided that the smurf would likely be the hardest to take out (if it came to that) and that he was the most unnerved by the man with the sunken eyes.
"Guests, huh? And who are these guests?" He was still uncomfortable with some of the weird creatures on the base, and being confronted with so many at once was off-putting. It was difficult to see their movements clearly through the smoke, and he had no doubt that each of them was armed in one way or another.
A charge, wonder what that's all about. Sounded like a job to Jimmy, but from what he could see none of the other members of his team were present. Interesting. He tried to regain some composure, and turned to Harbinger. "What did you want me for, sir?"

Harbinger snorted as he Hauled Jimmy to his feet and walked back behind his desk. "Yes, yes straight to business. Can take the man off the force, but never get the cop out of the man." Harbinger waved his hand rapidly and shooed the small man in the apron out of his chair. With a grunt and flop he dropped into his chair. "These folk are looking for an investigator."

"He's cute." The small diminutive woman flittered into the air and buzzed around Jimmy. Small glittering flakes of dust fell from here and quickly faded into the air.

(Cop sense: Small female; apparent age 19, approx 6” tall red hair, green eyes, golden complexion, and attractive on a small scale; on first impressions she is nude on closer inspection she is wearing a body suit, form fitting and the same exact color as her skin. Fast moving wings very much like dragon fly wings. Thoughts of hot summer days in the park invade your mind as you look upon her.)

“You sit back down. I won’t have you spreading all that sprite dust around my office. Stuff gets in my nose and itches for weeks.” Harbinger snapped as he pointed back at the stack of papers on his desk. The small woman quickly zipped back to her seat and sat down, dejected and sullen.

Harbinger just sighed and looked at Jimmy almost apologetically. “Look Finn, They need a cop.”

The ‘Smurfs’ craggy voice boomed from behind Jimmy, “Nay, I say we can handle this affair ourselves. My brothers and I can find the naïve and bring him to heal.”

“Sir Thudd you know the reason why we are here.” The man in the apron responded with a sharp fast retort.

“But we don’t.” Replied Harbinger flatly as he stared down the big blue guy. “And if you don’t start talken some sense I am going to tell Finn here to go back to bed and I am going to commence to whoopen some fairy butt.”

The dark man hiding in the shadows crept forward and flinched as the light hit his face. “We are here because there have been a string of murders, prominent individuals from all four courts cut down and none of our normal investigative techniques have worked and well to be honest none of the Queens trust each other. As you can plainly see that doesn’t make for a cooperative environment.” The slight man paused and pulled a silver cigarette case from his inside pocket, removed a small cigarette and began to puff on it till it light on its own.

(Cop sense: Slight build male; apparent age indeterminable, approx 5’7”, weight 110 lbs. black hair but into a mop shoulder length, black sunken eyes, pale complexion. He is dressed in a grey flannel suit with a cream colored scarf and dark brown leather Gatsby. Way too much for this heat. Accent: proper British. Thoughts of brisk autumn afternoons, with cold gusty winds and think blanket lanes of red and gold heather invade Jimmy’s mind.)

“So you have come to us.” Harbinger deadpanned.

“Against mine and my Queen’s better judgment.” The big 'Smurf' intoned still standing like a glacier at the door.

'The naive'? Is that a title or something? Jimmy decided to save that question for later, when he knew more about the people he'd be working with. Multiple Queens too...Are they from a beehive or something?
Trying not to become distracted by thoughts of whether pixy dust was possibly a drug, he turned to face the blue man and held out a hand in greeting. "Jimmy Finn, investigator. So there've been four murders so far, all prominent figures? Were they working on something together?" His mind buzzed with questions, but he knew he had to pace himself or risk missing out on valuable information. He gave Harbinger a sidelong glance; the man didn't seem to know much more about this case than Jimmy himself did. No matter. He was sure he'd be in this thing up to his neck soon enough.

The big blue 'Smurf' thrust his hand out and gripped Jimmy's hand in the huge vice. The massive meat hook was like ice with a coating of sand paper. "Sir Thud. Yes you can say they were working on something together. They were all working to kill each other."

(Cop Sense: Starting to sound like gangland violence.)

"There has been more then four, but the four were what got the Queens to agree we needed outside assitance." The little winged woman sang in her sing song voice. "When all four of the courts Knights murdered at the same time the Queens decided to send us one of each court to seek the one that marks the way."

Harbinger snorted "I hate it when they call me that! So all four knights dead huh? That's interesting and clues?"

"If we had any idea who the culprit was we would not be here would we!" The blue hulk spat at Harbinger.

"You best watch you manners son or I will have me a new troll skin rug!"

"The one who marks the way"? Interesting. Jimmy made a mental note of the title for later investigation. Right now, he needed to focus on the case at hand, and as interesting and elusive as Harbinger's personal history was, it was not his priority right now.

The handshake had been almost unexpected, but it seemed that either the customs of...whatever the hell this guy was and humans were similar, or he was well-versed in human etiquette. Either way, it'd probably make things a lot easier for the both of them. "Four murders all at the same time? So this had to be pretty well-organized, and at least four assassins working together. Were the victims killed in public, or private? What was the cause of death?" Despite the apparent notoriety of the quartet of victims, as far as Jimmy could tell none of the four strangers in the room seemed to be wrought with grief. Good. I can be a little less gentle with my questioning.

It was odd, though, that none of them had a clue who the murderer (or, more likely, murderers) could be. Surely one of them must have some idea, even if there was no proof yet. He looked around the room, sensing for if any of the other non-humans seemed more open to questioning.

The small little woman turned on her perch atop the stack of papers on Harbinger's desk. "That's just it no one knows how they died." The small woman's voice again brings thoughts of wild flowers on the summer air to Jimmy's mind. She simply flutters her wings as she looks at the others for permission to continue.

"Go ahead Bella tell him the rest". The brisk windy voice of the man with the sunken eyes from the corner added.

Jimmy turned away from the big blue guy to renew his interview of the 'witness' only to realize the hulking moron was still gripping his hand.

"Sir...Thud, right? Anything you need to add?" Jimmy didn't want to anger one of the guys hiring him, but he did want freedom of movement. He tugged at his hand in annoyance.

((-If Thud has anything to add, Jimmy will listen, ask for clarification on anything vague, then try to turn back to the fairy-woman and ask about the presence of wounds on the bodies
-If Thud has nothing to say, Jimmy will ask why he hasn't let go of him and continue to try to escape his grip
-If none of those is possible, Jimmy will simply turn and try to continue talking with the room's other occupants from where he stands, ignoring Thud, and ask about the presence of wounds on the bodies.))

Sir Thudd blinks stupidly at Jimmy. "Anything else? How do you mean?" The big blue moron let's go of Jimmy's hand and thinks about the question.

Jimmy: "What kind of wounds are present on the bodies"

The man in the apron looks down at the desk as he replies, "We found no wounds on any of them."

(Cop sense: He is leaving something out.)

Jimmy gave the smurf a sidelong glance (Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, I see) and took a few steps toward the man with the apron. "Really? So there were no wounds, no markings, nothing at all to clue you in on what happened to these people?" He gave the man a hard look and shook his head.

((-If the man doesn't reply, Jimmy will turn to the fairy and ask "Do you have anything for me to go on, or am I to assume that they all died of simultaneous natural heart attacks?"
-If the man does have other clues, Jimmy will ask for details before asking the other people in the room for more input.
-If no one has anything to say, Jimmy will turn to Harbinger in exasperation and ask "Why am I even here if there's no case to solve?"))

Jimmy stares at the room waiting for a reply when none are forth coming he states flatly in a cold cop tone:

"Do you have anything for me to go on, or am I to assume that they all died of simultaneous natural heart attacks?"

The man in the grey flannel shirt speaks slowly and hesitantly, "We are really not sure if they died simultaneously. Only that the four knights died on the same night. They were all found in their homes dead. The other three died on different days." The grey flannel suit turned and looking to the man with the apron. "Chuck maybe we should just take him and show him the bodies?"

"Maybe that is best, Will you open the way then Cambridge." (Cop Sense: Chuck must be the guy in the leather apron and the grey flannel suit must be named Cambridge. Bella the name of the small fairy woman.)

"Just one cotton picken moment. We haven't settled on a price. I'm not even sure we gonna take this case." Harbinger interrupted them. "Human's that go running off with fairies some times don't come back. You want me to send my best investigator off with you. No bargain struck nor guarantees of his safe return. Do I look like I was born yesterday?"

Cambridge cleared his throat before he spoke: "Quite, quite right. The Fae Queens have agreed to pay 1 coffer of gold each and have sworn the safety of your man. But as the queen's have no knight to enforce this safety really it will be up to him to protect himself. But no loyal Fae will harm him nor bar his return." Cambridge reached into his coat and retrieved a small parchment. "As you can see here is the pledge with all four Queens seals. Payment when the case is solved, He will be returned solving the case or not in one fort night as per the pledge."

Harbinger turned and looked Jimmy right in the eyes as he spoke; "What you think son? I won't send you off with these story telling fae with out your ok?"

Jimmy was hooked on the case and he knew it. A look at the bodies would be a great start, though it was too bad they were so far apart. Oh well, it'll make it easier to spot similarities in the different environments at least.

A coffer of gold? Suddenly his interest in the case was even stronger than before. And a fortnight to solve it, not bad for what might turn out to be a quadruple homicide in a foreign environment. It's been a while since I faced a challenge like this!

He. nodded. "As long as you trust your pledge, I'm ready to leave immediately." He always carried a notebook or two and some pens with him, and he had his sidearm with him. If need be, he could ask these 'fairies' for a weapon when he was there.

((-If Harbinger trusts them, Jimmy will ask if there is anything specific he needed to bring
-If not, Jimmy will ask why, and take the case anyway (if he is permitted to).))

Jimmy nodded. "As long as you trust your pledge, I'm ready to leave immediately." He always carried a notebook or two and some pens with him, and he had his sidearm with him.

"Ok, son. Just remember these guys don't like iron. Take this." Harbinger reaches into his desk drawer and pulls out a small 9' double edge dagger in a leather belt sheath. "It's not much but it will make even big blue over think twice about acting up." (Cop sense: blade is high illegal in New York and most urban environments.)

"As for the deal." Harbinger snaps at the group of fae. "Not good enough. Four coffers of earthly gold paid up front with four more when the case is solved."

Cambridge and Chuck look at each other for a moment before Cambridge turns his gaze on harbinger. "Two before and four if the case is solved."

"Done!" Harbinger announced and shook the thin fae's hand. Cambridge and chuck both stepped forward and placed two small chests onto the desk. Each chest measured 8"x4"x4".

Harbinger opened each to inspect their contents. "This is earthly god yes?" Cambridge and Chuck just nodded their heads yes. Moving quickly Harbinger dropped the contents of one of the coffers in a small leather pouch produced from another desk drawer and tossed it over to Jimmy. "For Expenses. Try and bring back receipts. The don't take credit or dollars normally and you don't want to owe these sneaky cusses anything."

Jimmy pushed back his trench and slid the knife behind his belt, then let the trench fall back into place as he saluted Harbinger, pouch in hand. "Alright, I'm ready." He was interested in what he might need such a blade for, though if the smurf was any indication there could be some pretty big critters over there. I'll find out soon enough.

He turned to the fae and ran his free hand through his hair. "So, ready to leave?"