21:14 <Crion> The Baltimore County Courthouse is an incredibly ugly building. 21:19 <Crion> There's the old historic courthouse over on Washington Avenue, of course, but they haven't used that one in quite some time -- needed more space due to all the crimes, you see. So they built this hulking new thing on Bosley Avenue in Towson, Maryland, and well...does it even do good a job looking imposing? Mostly it just looks like some kind of nondescript processing center...? https://i.im 21:19 <Crion> gur.com/Dxyosbq.jpg 21:19 <Crion> https://i.imgur.com/Dxyosbq.jpg 21:20 <Crion> It is, however, quite large. And somewhere inside of there is the Department of Records. 21:24 <VoxPVoxD> It's dark on New Year's Day as Stewart pulls in, preparing to break and enter into a government building. 2020 is starting strong. At least it's not cold. 21:26 <VoxPVoxD> As the others file out of the cars: "Clerk's office is supposed to be on the second floor." That's the floor above ground level, in case any foreigners are reading this. 21:27 <CBN> Tony clears his throat and coughs into his hand. "So uh. Who's got a plan?" 21:27 <Crion> It's nighttime and it's a holiday, but that doesn't mean the courthouse for an entire county is going to be completely vacant. This time the guards are actual cops, and there's probably also janitors roaming around, doing janitor work. 21:28 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Can't handle the security cameras unless this were somebody's home." 21:28 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Does anyone sleep in their office often enough for that to be true?" 21:29 <banana> Melanie's interested mostly in continental and moral philosophy, as well as the sociology of overlooked groups; she doesn't recognise the implications of Brutalism, just the angles. It's not a friendly place and not meant to be. 21:30 <banana> She can't quite file out of a car but she can sort of snap out in a way that looks like it should come with the noise of splitting wood. "We probably don't need to avoid people this time." 21:31 <CBN> Tony: "Yeah, we aren't carrying a body, but they're closed for the holiday, right?" 21:31 <Crion> Benjamin Best: "There's holding cells but I doubt they keep anyone there overnight or anything. Plus a jail cell probably isn't home?" 21:32 <VoxPVoxD> Are there any cameras or anything visible on the outside of the building? 21:33 <dammitwho> Maggie nods. "Yeah, I mean, we're still breaking in." 21:34 <banana> Melanie: "Are we? There are experts here in looking up the kind of information we need." 21:34 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's kind of leaning away from the conversation, eyes darting between the lights as he tries to see around obstacles. "Let me just check something real quick--" 21:35 <Crion> Cameras on the main doors, cameras on the corners, cameras facing the parking lot -- this is a modern courthouse and it has the security system of one. Stewart can tell -- while carefully staying out of the range of them -- that they're off two main sorts, however. The important ones (that is, the ones tracking the public coming and going) are those modern sort that sit inside an opaque glass 21:35 <Crion> bubble and pretend not to be cameras. But on the service doors, the cameras are boxy and old, probably very low resolution...and much easier to physically fuck with. 21:36 <Crion> Ben, drily: "And me without my ski mask. Oh. Wait." He pulls a ski mask out of his coat pocket; did he have that in his trunk of horrors? "I've only got the one, though." 21:37 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart reports back. "The cameras watching the service entrance are old and exposed, so if we want to Splinter Cell it that's the way in." 21:37 <CBN> Tony: "I don't know what that is but the first part sounds good." 21:38 <banana> "Tony could do it, but the public records office is public.. we'd only need to persuade a clerk to give us expedited and perhaps extra-authorised access." 21:38 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart checks his phone. What time is it, anyway? 21:39 <Crion> Around 9 PM on a Thursday. 21:40 <Crion> Well, that's around what time it was when you dropped the body off. You can have waited until later if you wish. 21:40 <VoxPVoxD> "You think someone's in the office this late?" 21:40 <CBN> Tony: "It's public, but do you think these are the kind of people who would get a phone call if someone shows up asking about them?" 21:41 <banana> Melanie: "Yes, but it would be whoever most needs the overtime..." 21:41 <Crion> A quick Google from Stewart will reveal lobby hours are 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. 21:41 <Crion> Melanie is of course correct: you can just, come back tomorrow and talk to someone. 21:42 <Crion> But Ravens did ask Stewart to get his phone TO the records themselves. 21:44 <trenchfoot> It can't be that much more of a crime to do so now versus in daylight hours. Probably less likely to be spotted. 21:44 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart shakes his head. "I don't think this gets easier tomorrow. I've got to actually have the papers in hand to show them to Ravens." 21:45 <banana> Melanie: "Okay. When we figure out a way in I'll keep watch.. let me just set up a preset text message." 21:45 <banana> Actually participating in the sneaking-around would not end well. 21:46 <CBN> Tony: "Can anyone climb on walls like a spider? I know some of us can turn sort-of-invisible. Because maybe someone just does one or both of those?" 21:47 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I can hide from people and cameras and stuff, but I can't hide *other* people... I can go in alone?" 21:48 <VoxPVoxD> "Maybe shut things down so you guys can follow me in." 21:48 <banana> Melanie: "I can conjure a hungry midnight so black our eyes fail." 21:50 <banana> "Just to be clear, other people's eyes would fail even worse, it's not totally useless." 21:50 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "That sounds like it'd be better if something bad happens and we need to escape." 21:50 <dammitwho> Splinter Cell? Maggie looks questioningly at Melanie. Splinter? 21:50 <Crion> Ben: "The Oracle isn't really into the whole...sneaking...thing. And I'm a horse vet in real life." 21:51 <banana> "More guys keeping a lookout is still useful." Melanie commiserates. 21:51 <VoxPVoxD> "So let me just duck in, and then I'll text Melanie when the security's down. As long as you guys walk around like you know where you're supposed to be doing janitors won't bat an eye." 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> *supposed to be going 21:52 <CBN> Tony: "You can do cameras too? Cool beans." 21:55 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's wondering if he should get a silencer... much harder to carry a silenced gun, and also what the fuck. He banishes the thought with a shake of his head, walks out of the corona of a streetlight and vanishes. The rest is a series of locks popping open silently, and then a computer and a tape recorder shutting down, and then a text to Melanie. 21:56 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Well. That was fast." It's not clear how fast she expected it to be, but she's still impressed. 21:56 <VoxPVoxD> < 👍 > 21:56 <Crion> Ben: "Yeah, I should probably stay out here." He looks around. "Oh, where'd he--" 21:56 <Crion> "Huh." 21:56 <banana> "He's in." 21:56 <banana> < swordfish > 21:57 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart meets them at the stairwell. Once everyone's in, presumably the building's ample signage directs them straight to the county clerk's office? 21:57 <Crion> The County Register is in the Clerk of the Court's office, which Stewart can tell from a handy building map in the security office isn't just, like, one person's corner space -- it takes up much of the first floor, with record storage in the basement. 21:58 <Crion> The cameras are off, but you still have a couple patrolling cops to navigate past. 21:58 <banana> Melanie: "Let's see how many entrances there are. Hopefully we can get someone loitering near each of them to warn whoever's gone inside." 22:01 <Crion> Ben frowns. "Isn't the point not to run into loiterers?" 22:03 <CBN> Tony: "What if we just all, or mostly, go in? Ben you can probably hang out though, I don't know if you need to be in for this many pennies and pounds and stuff as a full-on...courthouse break-in. Just yet." 22:04 <Crion> Ben: "Yeah. I mean I like you guys, but...I don't know any county police." 22:04 <Crion> He'll offer Tony the skimask. 22:05 <CBN> Tony raises a hand to decline: "Thanks but, if they can still see me then that won't do much." And with that he steps into a well-shaded spot along the building perimeter and, with the faint sound of wind rustling through cornstalks, vanishes. 22:05 <Crion> Ben blinks. Useful trick. 22:07 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Think Melanie's got me. We're nifty like that." 22:09 <banana> Melanie does, but it's kind of ugly. "Here-" She ushers Nels into a closet, and when they come out again darkness spills forth with them, a black fog filled with ancient forests on moonless nights. 22:09 <banana> Thankfully it's metaphysical. Humans won't actually see a cloud of Hiding Magic, which would defeat the point. 22:11 <Crion> The Clerk's office actually opens in a decently-sized lobby area with a long desk and a couple booths, sort of like a bank lobby or the DMV. It's completely empty this time of night...except for that vacuum cleaner Stewart can hear in the distance as he comes in. Someone's cleaning the offices. 22:12 <Crion> Good news is, as long as they're vacuuming, you know where they are. 22:14 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart, sotto voce as the others appear: "Records are down there." 22:15 <CBN> Tony gives an invisible thumbs-up, looks at his hand, realizes no one can see it, shrugs, and continues to follow close behind. 22:17 <banana> Just how Shy is the Light around half of us, anyway? Is it a matter of groping our way along by tough? Melanie doesn't understand that contract at all. Hiding is one thing but not being seen by the world is.. worrying. 22:26 <Crion> The motley gets to work. While Stewart is messing around with computers, Nels pokes around and finds what she assumes is the entrance to the stacks -- looks like a basement door, but it's got a bit too much security on it for that. She's been back long enough that this likely isn't her first time seeing a keypad-entry door. It's a lock just like any other, and just as easily bypassed by the 22:26 <Crion> Lost. 22:26 <banana> Quietly (her words are cloaked in darkness too, little wisps of black vapour coming out of Melanie's mouth with each one): "There's some interesting stuff here. I didn't know they track Family Court outcomes after the case ends.. it's like a feedback thing from social workers.." 22:26 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart checks the computers. Everything boots up okay, but there's a login. Stewart doesn't have any magic for cracking digital locks, but... wait. Among the post-its clinging to every side of the monitor, there's U: mkeagan P: +erpsru1e 22:26 <VoxPVoxD> "No way," he breathes. 22:27 <VoxPVoxD> That's... 22:28 <VoxPVoxD> That's very convenient! Stewart logs in, finds the directory. Not yet digitized... but Stewart finds the specific information Ravens needs: where in the stacks to find the truck depot's files. 22:28 <dammitwho> Maggie looks around at the computers and the file cabinets and then kind of shrugs. She's reasonably sure the Google doesn't search the computer you're already on... 22:29 <CBN> Tony pokes around the nearest shelves, but he's honestly way more lost if he's looking for stuff in the real world, and indoors. A real 0-for-2 on his strengths here. But gosh darn it he tries. 22:30 <Crion> Stewart's phone screen lights up. A new app has installed itself...and has opened to a black screen. On it, a cartoon raven drawn in white paces back and forth with four or five frames of animation, CAWS, then resumes pacing in a loop. 22:30 <trenchfoot> So long as he does his best. 22:30 <Crion> It seems to be waiting for something. 22:31 <VoxPVoxD> Waiting for... Stewart to do something? 22:31 <banana> Melanie's found a series of increasingly interesting public records which have no relevance to the task at hand. You could spend a long time in here just reading. 22:31 <Crion> Yes. Ravens did want to see the physical documents. 22:32 <Crion> A pop up: do you approve of RAVENS having access to the following functions: Wifi, Camera? 22:32 <VoxPVoxD> Oh right! Right. It can't just-- right. Yeah, sure. 22:32 <VoxPVoxD> So let's go into the stacks. 22:33 <banana> Careful, that counts as making a promise! 22:34 <Crion> The stacks are through the door that Nels found -- well, technically, a small room with a bunch of tables in it is through that door, with an elevator in the back and a stairwell to its left. 22:35 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart would be more weirded out by Ravens's facility with his phone, but for some reason his mind's still stuck on the literal username/passworld post-it. 22:36 <trenchfoot> Wait, what's wrong with that? 22:37 <banana> "We're going down?" 22:38 <Crion> Down the stairs or the elevator -- it's only one floor, but carts sitting around the antechamber make it clear why an elevator was installed -- are the stacks. The lights are off, but a simple flick of a switch turns them on. Unless you prefer the dark. Either way, the raven on Stewart's phone is flying now, though it still seems to be some kind of idle animation. 22:38 <VoxPVoxD> "Yeah, the records are in the basement. Not digital yet." 22:39 <VoxPVoxD> Shouldn't be too hard to find the box or drawer in here... 22:42 <CBN> Tony is heartened by the prospect of records being not digital, but still, just looking around at the rows of records makes him question if he really knows numbers, or the alphabet, all that well. 22:42 <Crion> It's not! In fact, this is in the fairly well-organized part of the stack -- big shelves of giant accordian folder racks, each properly labeled, each containing original documents in reasonably well-sealed individual folders. 22:45 <trenchfoot> From the fragments of television Nels has watched, that seems unusual, but television lies about a lot of things. 22:45 <Crion> The deed for the truck depot is easily located. It gives you a few new pieces of information: first, a name and address for T&T Ltd Holding's signatory, the guy putting his signature on all these records. Alec Rafferty; the address is down in Annapolis. Google Maps puts it near the Statehouse. Huh. 22:45 <Crion> Second, it reveals that T&T is a "d/b/a". 22:46 <Crion> The company's full name is Timur & Tamerlane Holdings. 22:47 <VoxPVoxD> Anything else we can find under that name? 22:47 <banana> Melanie's searching for it on her phone too, because it rings horrible bells. 22:48 <banana> Wait, this isn't a Shakespeare thing after all. Fuck her memory, but also.. interesting. 22:48 <Crion> Sadly, the records upstairs were indexed by address -- there was no way to cross-reference by company, and likely that information isn't kept in a centralized database for reasons. However, Ravens is going wild on the screen. Take a photo of the deed? 22:49 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart squares it up in the camera and snaps. 22:50 <Crion> The bird twirls around -- and then the number 6 appears on the screen below it as it starts flying away from the screen. 22:50 <Crion> As Stewart turns, the cartoon bird on the screen turns too to keep facing the same direction -- deeper into the stacks. 22:50 <Crion> It's guiding you. 22:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart blinks. He's starting to feel uncertain, but he follows instructions 22:51 <Crion> A minute later, you arrive at another folder, and pull it out to find another Timur & Tamerlane property. It wants a photo of this one, too. 22:51 <Crion> Then the number goes down to 5. 22:52 <trenchfoot> ...that seems very powerful. 22:52 <Crion> All in all, it takes about twenty minutes to nab the rest. 22:52 <VoxPVoxD> This is where some interstitial challenge or wave-based combat would be happening while Stewart has to shepherd Ravens around the stacks. 22:52 <VoxPVoxD> He's physically relieved when that doesn't happen. 22:52 <VoxPVoxD> Weird feeling. 22:54 <banana> Melanie: "Who is Ravens, anyway?" This is a lot more boring than the records room. 22:54 <Crion> As you touch the last deed -- to a residential property in Catonsville -- the lights flicker...but hold. Anyway, this looks like a rental property. 22:57 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Ravens is the Autumn Court computer system. I don't know how the magic or, like, awareness works. Maybe Ravens is a hob somehow? Not sure." 22:57 <VoxPVoxD> He looks up sharply when the lights flicker. 22:58 <Crion> There's a man standing at the far end of the stacks. Watching you. 22:58 <Crion> The brief impression of a man-- 22:58 <trenchfoot> Uh. 22:58 <Crion> He smiles. 22:58 <trenchfoot> Um. 22:58 <Crion> Then he's gone. 22:58 <VoxPVoxD> ...Gary? 22:59 <banana> To Tony: "The answer to your earlier question is yes." 22:59 <dammitwho> Whom? 23:00 <CBN> Tony frowns. 23:01 <Crion> Gary / Beaumains / The Red Knight / Бог радуется в вас / Dieu se Réjouit en Vous / خدا از تو خوشحال می شود / God Above Rejoices in You -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PregTv3YJ8 23:02 <Crion> You're one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan, designed and directed by his red right hand. 23:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "...we've got to get out of here." 23:03 <Crion> Well, go ahead. The elevator door's right there. 23:04 <Crion> ...Except you no longer seem to be making progress towards it, when you walk in its direction. 23:04 <banana> Melanie: "That's not working. Everyone gather close. We can break out of enchantments.. it doesn't matter WHO they think they are.." 23:04 <CBN> Tony frowns more deeply. 23:08 <VoxPVoxD> "Listen, this is just... he's just folding space on itself so we can't reach a door. It can't hurt us, and it can't last. Melanie's right, we should stay close." 23:08 <VoxPVoxD> It can't last forever... but it can last a while. Stewart sounds more confident than he feels. 23:09 <banana> "It'll last as long as it takes the Wyrd to realise his pedantic trick. Not very." 23:13 <CBN> Tony thinks for a long minute. Which they definitely have. "Look around. What's the biggest cabinet drawer here?" 23:14 <CBN> Tony: "Because we don't need that door." 23:20 <Crion> The stacks seem to have turned into an ersatz maze, though a very simple one -- the main goal is to stop you from reach the stairs or elevator, and the stacks loop back on themselves to try to enforce that. 23:26 <banana> Melanie: "This way- this way is through!" Her words are a lot more urgent than her actions; she steps out of the folded stacks with the disdain the spell deserves, but there's no point hurrying to a door without her friends. She's standing just outside, comically out of reach, looking for 'Gary'. 23:28 <dammitwho> "HrrrrrrrRRRRRRRuuuuurrmmm!" Maggie rumbles as she simply picks one direction and begins to charge forward. Space attempts to bend around her, but it has to negotiate the contractually-defined nuances of her nature in order to derail her. Ultimately, the quality of "here, there, and inbetween" is forced to acknowledge that Maggie Bakehead can't be required to run around in circles, no matter 23:28 <dammitwho> what a higher-up might say. Sorry buddy. Union policy. 23:30 <trenchfoot> It takes Nels a bit to find the way, but she does and suddenly she realizes that only Stewart is left in horrible bent space. 23:30 <CBN> Tony trudges out of the room that never stopped being a piece of shit. "God that fucking sucks. I'm gonna " He trails off into barely audible, poisonous, black rumbling. 23:35 <CBN> Tony concentrates, invoking the bargain he made when he broke through the Hedge: Show me where they are, and I will give them what they deserve. He sniffs the air, mumbles, "Fucking Gary, piece of shit, locks us in a god damned basement, trap me in a space again and see how it fucking goes," and on, and on. 23:36 <Crion> Tony's nose knows...and is...surprised? 23:36 <Crion> How is it possible for a man to be in two places at once? 23:36 <Crion> Fucking wizards. 23:37 <banana> "Point us at him Tony. Can he hear us? Can he hear a challenge?" 23:37 <VoxPVoxD> To the others, Stewart seems to be running in place. 23:37 <CBN> Tony scowls under the flickering basement flourescents. "Well hey the good news is, we might get to kick his ass twice. The bad news is, he might have two asses to kick." 23:38 <CBN> Tony: "Anyway, I know where he is, but, it's two places at once." 23:39 <banana> Melanie: "Is one of them here? Is he, in the Hammurabian sense, assaulting us?"