"Ahh yes, very strange and unique children indeed. I hear things... Have you seen any of the children behaving strangely? And yes, English is good. I must learn Englishes better as well, maybe you teach me sometime." He smiles.

(I will take you to the libraries after this conversation; just giving you a chance to talk some more.)

Right laughs, "Of course I've seen them behaving strangely. If they weren't, they'd go to normal school, wouldn't they? It's all part of the job. You'll have to be more specific than that, I'm afraid."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 19:23, Fri 14 Nov 2014.

"You know... You hear stories... Children with special abilities. They say sometimes the children can see things that we cannot. But you know, it is what you hear. Maybe the more difficult children are not so difficult at all but just special. I would love to know if this is the case... I wonder sometimes... is there a God? It would help confirm it... So I love searching for answers. I wonder if these Children have some of these answers."

Right nods to the man, "Who knows? I'll keep my eyes open, that's for sure. So far though, they seem just like your normal, run of the mill kids from troubled homes or who were just plain unlucky being born."

Unless the box mover has more to say about the children, or anything else, Right makes his way to a library at the first available opportunity.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:11, Mon 29 June 2015.

He smiles at you, "Yes, yes. If you ever hear any different, you tell me. I have an idea of how to help, and I have a suspicion, you kno?" He hands you a business card - School Supplies Co. - and promptly heads off with a quiet "Adios."

You head off to the library to begin your research.

The library greets you with a tight smile and leads you to the section of books about the school. There are exactly 3 books, including one on the history of the school.

With a quick read though, you discover the following:

- The school was founded in 1913 by a Martin Timshore; a neo-luddite expounding on the dangers of modern technology and consumerism.

- He was famously quoted for saying that technology would strip away our innocence and that the children of the future must be protected.

- He wrote a treatise entitled, "Patriotism through Tradition".

- He was married to a Silvia Timshore, and had a daughter called Abigail.

Right's brain buzzed alit with new leads. He used the library, and if necessary, town hall's public records, to dig deeper into the following:

-The contents of "Patriotism through Tradition"
-The fate of Abigail Timshore.
-The intersection of neo-luddism and the occult.

You find that one of the books is in fact Patriotism through Tradition.  It's a tattered copy, with pages missing and sections muddied up by greedy hands.  The book is bland and wordy, dry passages describing that nature is Chaos and that in order to harness chaos for good, humanity should be consistent, reliable and stick to tradition.  It hides all the basics of Luddite teachings in the guise of doing the right thing by society and country.  The book is occasionally illustrated with unrelated pictures similar to those that are spread throughout the architecture; once again filled with children fighting creatures, demons, mythological beings all made of gears and strange machinery.

Regarding Abigail Timshore, you find little details except that she died at the age of 10; believed to have fallen asleep reading by candlelight and burned to a crisp in her bed in 1912.

You know very little about Neo-Luddism except the obvious; and Martin's version seems to differ from what you have previously read.  It focuses more on technology being evil and sinful. You gather this from the little you've read but not much else.

You recognize one of the children from your classroom, Tom, a short boy with close cut black hair.  He approaches you and quietly asks, "What are you reading? Do you have homework too?" You swear you saw the light in the library flicker briefly as well.

Right soaks up the information contained in the books like a vast desert a spilled waterskin.

"I'm just reading a little bit of local history, Tom," Right responds to the boy. As the lights flicker, he stops reading entirely, and watches the library for any signs of movement. He waits until either something happens, or the boy responds.

Tom's young eyes look wide eyed for a moment and he whispers, "They're coming... Maybe they heard my dream last night..." He pivots around and then starts to back towards you, his hand outstretched as if to ask for yours. His breathing is ragged.

In the same instant, the shadows curl together like a coalescing fog of darkness, creating a smoky figure nearby with a curling shadowy tail.  It hisses quietly, the sound tinged with slight crackling as you might imagine a burning fire might make.  It hovers; watching perhaps? Or waiting for the perfect time to strike? The smoke seems to be getting thicker and stronger, and you notice singe marks appearing on the carpet floor beneath it.

Right's old Guardian instincts kick in even before conscious thought. He interposes himself between the smoke man and Tom, a battered old knife with a gleaming blade appearing in his hand before anyone could even notice the blur of motion.

He watches the figure, keeping himself between the two, but otherwise watching and waiting, preparing to counterattack if necessary. He also tries to recollect the nearest location of any weird architecture or geometry.

Tom hides behind you, gripping your arm tightly in fear. "He's connected to something... Do you see it? There's a cord leading into the smoke." He yells pointing.  You look at the creature but you don't see anything at all, just a pocket of smoke.  The creature advances ever so slightly, pockets of light appear within what you might imagine to be a head, claws begin to take shape in the air, 2? maybe 5? maybe more. The corner of the library that you were in is silent, but you hear muffled laughter; kids trying to be quiet and mostly failing.

Right grabs Tommy with his free hand and motions for him to stay behind him, but says, "Follow it for me, I can't see it". The laughter gives him pause. What if this were some kind of practical joke? Or what if the children were the ones summoning the smoke monster? It was not the ideal time to be forced into a knife fight.

Though he has perfect control over the tip of the knife in front of him, his mind is already perceiving his true body: countless heavy shields positioned in between him and the danger, an enormous blade, and perfect articulate control over the entire situation through endless biomechanical tentacles.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:45, Thu 12 Feb 2015.

The creature flickers as if trying to decide whether or not to come toward you. A hand reaches out towards Tom tentatively but suddenly the creature pulls back, the smoke string at its back seeming to pull it tight. It growls and a rumbling appears in your head and the taste of ash on your tongue. It hisses, "Children..." It's hand reaching out towards a row of books, burning each that it touches. Then it smiles, it's teeth are pin pricks of fire, and disappears. Tom collapses on the floor crying at your feet.

"This isn't over, Tommy. Follow it for me. I'll protect you. We need to make sure it won't bother anyone ever again." Right directs the child, trying to sound simultaneously comforting and authoritative. He dashes over to the row of books, where he had last seen the creature, hoping to find some sign of its passage beyond those he's already aware of.

Tom is reluctant to follow you at first but then calms himself down, focusing on the adventure you have proposed.  He stays firmly behind you.

As you move down the aisle, you note that six books were charred in all, each one unrecognizable except one titled "The Mark on the Door" - a Hardy boys mystery book. The floor there also is slightly singed but no other sign of the creature can be seen here.

[b]"Did you see where it went? Where did it go?" Right presses, as he continues to search the spot for clues. He gathers up the books, all six of them, and tries to determine the creature's vector based on the singe marks. He looks to Tom for any insight the child may possess.

For all his perfect mask of fear and courage, the only thing he felt was happy. He saw the creature. He knew its guise. It ran from him. It feared him. Whatever he sees, he can stab. Whatever runs from him can be killed by him.

Tom shakes his head, "No... No, I don't know. I don't know anything." He begins backing away from you, suddenly fearfully. His eyes glaze over, small specks of white light flickering across his pupils, suddenly a voice speaks, "Initiate the receipt. The quota.  Protocol liberty called." He falls to the ground in fits, white froth flowing from his lips, convulsing on the ground.

A short, kind looking librarian suddenly runs over, fussing over the boy, "What are you doing? Get him straight! Hold his arms and legs down... I need to check his tongue."

20:45, Today: Mr. Right failed (no successes) using 4d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s. Occult.
20:45, Today: Mr. Right rolled 1 success using 7d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s. Downloading Occult.

Right replays the child's words in his head over and over, but cannot seem to place them. He complies with the librarian, trying to fit in. He keeps hold of the boy and restrains him so that the short person can perform the first aid on him. He hopes he won't be asked to depart the library with him. He's got more research to do.

After a few minutes, the thrashing stops; the librarian seemed fairly unconcerned and knowledgeable about the whole thing. After a few more minutes of making sure Tom was alright, the librarian decides to escort him to his room early with orders to check in with the nurse and thanks you for your help.

Tom flashes you a look, you aren't quite sure what it means, and leaves with the librarian with his head down.

Right feels bad. Everything in his original nature screams at him to go with the boy, but he's spent months suppressing those feelings. This is just the most dramatic in a long series of temptations to return to his original purpose.

Battling with himself, he stays in the library and performs research. He's desperate to know what "the receipt", "the quota", and "protocol liberty" are.

Quick searches give you the basics; A receipt? A quota? These are words with definitions. But what quota? And what was received? Protocol liberty gives you more clues, protocol for a machine, protocol for a party or perhaps a task, or perhaps it's simply protocol as in a called program command in a script. Liberty? Freedom? Freeing? Lack of restraint? Or constraint? Taking liberty is perhaps to dare or taking initiative, but protocol liberty? Was this setting something free?

You process the information, nothing seems linked that you can tell, and nothing seems to point to better information for you around these items.

Right tries again, this time focusing his efforts on the smoke monster itself. He focuses his searches both on occult literature as well as on local newspaper articles.

You are amazed at how much on the occult is out there related to your search, you jot a few notes on some of the items:

- Television - A strange little show that had very strong supporters and opposition - where the smoke monster represented evil; or people's past; no on seems to agree on what it meant.

- Enenra - a japanese monster comprised of smoke. From your research: "It resides in bonfires and, when it emerges, it takes the form of a human. It is said that an enenra can only be seen by the pure of heart."

- Malta sighting of a Smoke Monster - "In the city of Valletta, capital of the island country of Malta in the Mediterranean Seas, a rather unusual anomaly took place on 29th October 1757, at around 1 a.m., when a massive black cloud closed in on the city. With deathly roars and a changing complexion, the cloud crossed the port, engulfing a ship and several boats, soon shattering them into pieces. The smoke monster covered a large area from the south-west to the north-east point of the city, leaving a trail of destruction as it over toppled houses and wrecked the light house. It finally crossed over the sea to Sicily. There were about 200 casualties and considerable damage to property. It was, in the opinion of the locals, a legion of demons sent to punish them for their sins."

- China & UK sightings - "As Lieutenant Ernest Bentley and Sergeant Utz were passing through the mountains near the Wha Chee village in China, they were confused to see a single pack of thick forestry amidst a huge shaven wasteland. Then they saw a group of children screaming at them not to enter the woods. An elderly woman, they saw, rushed in to collect some wood from the edges of the jungle, but soon returned screaming in horror, as a misty, dark, tubular smoke emerged from behind her and soon engulfed the terrorized lady. A similar incident was recorded in Edinburgh on November 23, 1904, when Mr. Godfrey Anderson was met with a black, smoky figure rising from the sewage, while he was enjoying an evening walk. The figure, four feet long and ten feet high, soon engulfed a horse standing nearby, and ripping off its throat, disappeared."

- Yet another sighting - In 1953, a farmhouse owned by Harold Crowther was attacked by a tall, black shadow person, which killed 53 of the farm pigs. Just 2 days afterwards, Mr. Crowther found, in the backyard of his house, a shapeless black cloud with two “prongs” projecting from its back. The entity, about 7 feet in height, approached him, stopped a few feet away, turned towards his outhouse and vanished.

- El Petizo - Similar legends are found in Argentinean folklore, where a dark, sinister creature called El Petizo is said to attack unsuspecting victims. It is said that the El Petizo is immune to firearms and knife stabs. It is known as a smoke or shadow creature that that attacks lone walkers in a northern area of Argentina. Several people have even been medically treated for wounds received during their El Petizo encounters. The attacks appear to persist until a rescuer comes to the victims aid, at which time the mysterious creature simply disappears. In one of these instances two people saw the creature - the victim and the rescuer. One quote - "The most recent victim of an attack by "El Petizo" was a boy heading to a mountain area on a bicycle to visit friends and do some hunting, bringing with him a shotgun and a knife. According to his story, after asking for reservations to be made in his name, he was toppled from his bicycle and found that a black shadow was facing him. The young man managed to unholster his shotgun and fire two shots, but when he saw that this had no effect, promptly drew his knife and stabbed it without causing any apparent harm. Frightened, the youth tried to escape, only to find that "El Petizo" knocked him down again without saying a word, dragging him by the hair to the side of the road. The young man stated that at that point he began screaming at the top of his voice and that this is what saved him: his cries were heard by a local man who rushed to provide assistance, only to find a black shadow dragging the boy by the hair. The fearful shape disappeared without a trace when it became aware of the other man's presence."

Eureka he thinks as he comes across the description of El Petizo. As he hungrily devours the knowledge, his eagerness turns to disappointment when it seems the creature's only weakness is other people, and all it seems to do is scare it off. He continues to research the topic, now that he's got a name to put to the idea. Hopefully he could find a way to kill it, or at least harm it.