Sephar splits up into multiple mice and rats, likely half a dozen or so, if they're to be found in the Opera House.
You say "You manage to find a nest of mice, and utilise them."
Sephar says "Keen."
You say "So. You scamper."
Sephar scampers between walls, poking into rooms with mouseholes or other holes to take a look around and avoid tempting mouse traps and the like.
Sephar looks for sparkly green bits.
You say "You see the odd sparkly green bit, especially on costumes, and in some people's offstage jewellery, but nothing obvious as a big shiny green necklace."
Sephar says "Ah... okay. Then I'll start scampering into the dressing rooms, and starts searching in the nooks and crannies, especially, perhaps, the women's dressing room?"
<
You say "There are a couple of general dressing rooms, large ones, where the chorus changes,
and three smaller ones which the female soloists get. (There are similar ones for the male actors.)"
You say "You do notice that girl who Daimon took off for lunch earlier, scampering around with
others of her age."
Sephar says "I'll put two mice in each of the female soloists rooms, first checking if anyone is in
there, and then take a little time to search it and not be seen if someone is in one of them."
Sephar says "Is she in the general dressing room?"
You say "She's in the general dressing room."
You say "You can get into one of the female soloist rooms, but the other two are both fairly
well-sealed against mice in the walls."
Sephar hrms quietly.
Sephar says "Okay... I'll search the one soloist's room first."
You say "Love letters, cards from friends wishing her luck, costume, some stage pearls to go with
it, personal belongings, no emerald necklace."
Sephar nods.
Sephar says "Are they all scampering or is one quieter and not quite playing with the others?"
Sephar says "All the girls her age, that is."
You say "A couple of the young female chorus are sitting round reading, rather than scampering."
Sephar grins.
Sephar tries to possess one of the reading chorus memebers, then.
<
<
You say "You're in. You look out through her eyes at a fairly steamy romance novel she's
reading."
Sephar reads just the rest of the paragraph... sighs, sets down the book, and walks over to one
of the closed dressing rooms... (let go of all but two of the mice)
His steel-grey eyes glittered in the light from the humming computer screens, as he
seized her in his tempestuous embrace. "Dana," he snarled, "have you never mounted a
Unix box before, woman? Don't you realise what you're doing to me..."
Sephar laughs quietly.
Sephar knocks on the dressing room door.
A voice from inside calls, "Yes?"
Sephar says "Is there anything you need, Ma'am?"
Sephar readies one of the mice to hurtle into the room if the door opens at all.
The voice calls back, "No, thank you. I just need to rest my eyes a little."
Sephar says "Yes, Ma'am."
Sephar goes to the other one and tries the same.
You say "No answer at all from there."
Sephar tries the doorknob, then.
You say "It's locked."
Sephar says "Mechanical lock?"
Demiurge nods.
Sephar suddenly remembers the stage manager's keyring in Hitherby's hand and grumbles softly...
Demiurge will assume that Hitherby gives it to you if you go back to get it.
Sephar does so, then... picking the book up as she walks by it again...
Sephar marks the passage carefully, tucks it in a pocket and goes to find Hitherby.
Sephar also picks up a pen whenever/wherever possible and tucks it into her breast pocket.
You say "Hitherby, I will assume, helpfully hands over the keys."
Sephar goes back and gently knocks on the empty one again.
You say "Still no answer."
Sephar then eyes the lock, eyes the keys and tries the ones that look the closest.
Sephar should work in parallel... so also poises a mouse to the side of the door with the woman
in it and then uses remote control attunement to strobe every electronic device she can get at in
the occupied dressing room.
You say "Sephar, make an Int roll."
<
You say "Hm. As you have your nose next to it, Sephar, while trying keys, you notice there are
some small scratches round the lock. Very much like the new ones you're making while trying the
keys in it."
Sephar urghs quietly.
You say "Aha! You hit an electric heater inside!"
You say "And... yes, you just found the right key. It turns."
Sephar giggles and turns up the heat, and opens the door to peek in.
You say "Inside the room is a comfortable mess, with the dressing-table laid out neatly with
makeup and hairbrushes, costumes hanging up on the wall, and a scatter of books and magazines
and scores on the sofa at the side."
Sephar walks into the room, closes the door behind her and quietly searches through the dressing
table and under the sofa bits and anywhere a necklace might be.
There is some stage jewellery in one of the drawers, in particular a pair of green-stone earrings,
but no necklace.
Sephar sighs softly and looks at the earrings closely.
You say "They're glass in a nice setting, and probably look quite convincing from a distance. Big
dangly ones."
Sephar thinks a bit and then pockets them.
Sephar then steps from the dressing room and locks it behind her.
You say "You manage to do this without getting noticed."
Sephar then sets the earring in a corner, sits back down in the chair she was reading in, opens the
book to the passage and then lets her host go.
You say "You're out."
You say "The girl blinks, and goes back to her reading."
Her red hair swirled round her shoulders as she laughed in his face. "UNIX! Bah. The
future, my friend, belongs to Windows..." Her words were silenced by a kiss.
Sephar 's mouse is still by the other door, and he's cranking the heat as best he's able. The second
mouse scurries to where the earrings were placed and puts them inside the wall it came out of...
one at a time if necessary.
Sephar . o O (She must be a demon...)
Demiurge nods. Mouse hides earrings in wall.
Sephar sees if he can find another of the mice that he'd let go earlier, and if so scurries through
the main dressing room to look through that lively chaos... under things, through the back panels
of the makeup tables...
<
There is a sudden screech. "Rat! It's a rat! Eeeeeeeeeee!" Things are thrown.
Sephar jumps away from thrown things, takes a little more time to be less visible...
Powder-puffs rattle against the wall, and slippers hit things, but they miss Sephar.
Sephar whews... scampers back to the hole to think things through a bit and wonder if the heat
is actually getting to the woman in the solo dressing room at all.
You say "Your nearby mouse hears the rattle of a window being raised in that room, Sephar."
Sephar says "Ah. A window outside?"
You say "You think so."
Sephar 's nearby mouse scurries back to the hole as well, and then contemplates. Voice contact...
You say "Hm. At a -2 to your roll, Sephar, you could try it."
Sephar nods.
Sephar says "But I'd have to be hearing her? Or since I've heard her would that work?"
You say "You'd have to be currently in conversation with/hearing her."
Sephar nods.
Sephar says "Uhm.. how far away is a way out to climb up to that window?"
You say "There's a window down the end of a nearby corridor, and there are pigeons outside."
Sephar says "Ah. I'll take a pigeon (winged rats!) then and fly one out to see her."
Sephar will land on the sill of the open window
Sephar will then peek into the room.
You say "You find the right window. Inside, a woman is lying on the sofa, with one of those
ice-bag-things on her eyes, in a cotton wrapper, clearly trying to get comfortable again. It is much
more neatly arranged than the other rooms, with everything lined up in place and
compartmentalised."
Sephar tries to possess the woman that is lying down.
<
You say "You're in. You Have Control."
Sephar takes the ice bag off and looks around quietly.
Sephar checks the obvious compartments for jewelry, trying not to mess up the perfection of the
room.
There is some stage jewellery - with red stones - and some personal jewellery, enamelled earrings
- but nothing with big green stones.
Sephar settles back into place, covers her eyes and slips out.
---