The wards over Talion's complex remained so they were forced to head to the outside of the area before they could get in. From the outside, they could see that the walls had been covered with graffiti and littered with garbage.

 … but, more than that, the countryside surrounding the complex was overgrown... and not in a normal way. There were vines everywhere. Most of them measured at least three feet long and corresponded to no known indigenous plant life.

 People were still recovering from the storm and so yards were likewise covered in the vines... yards and even roofs that had not been properly cleaned. It was as though nature had completely retaken the land that humans had inhabited only three days ago.

 Talion had given you card keys to gain entry to the complex. A synthetic named Vulcan was supposed to still be there, ready to teach any who would come the art of metalworking.

“L'Institut Adoni has seen better days.  I see that the gardeners have been derelict in their duties.” Mistral remarked drily as the cabal observed the overgrown tangles of vines blanketing everything.  She lowered herself and gently lifted a vine with gloved fingers to get a closer look at it, trying to deduce its nature.  As she examined it she remarked to Prometheus, who had never been here to her knowledge, “Within this complex the walls between this world and the realms Supernal are thinner than anyplace else.  It is... une expérience.”  Toward Sal she said, “How it might affect you I cannot say, Monsieur Sal.  Perhaps not at all.  Nonetheless, préparez-vous.”

As she examined the resonance surrounding the place, Mistral seemed to fade into the periphery even to those looking directly her way.  It became easy to forget she was even there.

Argentus examined the plants as they moved along toward the institute.  He was hopeful that while they were aggressive in growing, they wouldn't be aggressive against animal life.  "Jitters, could you be ready to clear us a path if this stuff starts getting actively unruly?"  He asked the recently emancipated squirrel.

He thumbed his keycard and looked around at the exterior of the Adoni institute in the daylight for the first time, wondering what it must have looked like a few months ago.

OOC: just an FYI, the vines are outside the institute too, in yards, on houses, everywhere, blanketing the wilderness like kudzu.

 Jitters nodded and drew his sword. "It will be done!"

 The gate itself was inside a small guardhouse and, inside lay a destroyed synthetic. The gate mechanism clanked for a moment as the card reader returned power to the structure.

 Once the group was inside, the door automatically closed and the power turned off once more.

 Inside, the institute was covered in the same tangle of vines but was in far less disarray. Within the main wall, there were several smaller, gated communities that served as dormitories for the people working and learning there.

 To the right is the sprawling college building of the institute that was the group's destination and, to the left is another walled off section. Mistral and Noah were the only ones to have seen what was behind those walls (ie. the bringing of the supernal realms together. it's also where Talion's house and all his magic stuff is)

Mistral arose, letting the vine fall, and said, “In case it was not obvious, this overgrowth n'est pas naturel.  The wards upon the complex remain potent and unbroken, but I suspect something has taken residence for which the wards do not account.  Perhaps some experimental work of l'Institut run wild in the absence of its caretakers.  Our will-working is excepted from these defenses, par bonheur.”

Inside the complex, Mistral faded into the vine-shrouded surroundings as she quickly assessed the space for danger.  Her voice came like a whisper out of shadow to say, “Our objective is to the right, on le campus universitaire.  That is where we will find notre ami Vulcan.”  She moved in that direction, unseen to all but the most keen of observers.

Noah was lingering behind as he was keeping low to the ground and moving more like a giant snake rather than clambering around. This was far enough away from people that he was getting around fine but this was Talion tech. So his paranoia was cranked up to the max as he was expecting nano death beam lasers like a daft punk disco. Or phantom pains that give backhanded compliments. Perhaps even a flock of Mondays.

Noah followed along keeping his eye out for a solar beam cannon or something expecting the absolute worst of the worst.

 The closest to the group was the gated community nearest the group. There were a series of houses, all identical, lined up in neat rows around a cul de sac fenced in neatly with a white picket fence.

 Before the storm, it likely would have looked like something you'd see in an 80s TV show of middle class America.


 This looked to be housing where people lived who worked on-campus. The doors were locked and, though everything was overgrown, nothing seemed to be particularly damaged.

OOC: this is a quick rundown of the gated neighborhood. It's a place where teachers live... you'd have to break in somewhere if you wanted to look further.

 Now... to Talion's place (and the place with the stable supernal realms) or to the Institute?

"Thanks, Jitters."  Argentus replied to his most loyal vassal.

Suspecting that he's the only actual metalworker in the group, and frankly not wanting to trespass or pry into things he shouldn't, he kept on track toward the Institute and Vulcan.  He wondered briefly how different working with cold iron would be from forging precious metals, but deep down he knew it would be a very, very great deal different.

Sal followed quietly, wondering about the vines.

Mistral quietly checked for names of the residents, whether on mailboxes or any other sort of directory.  As she searched she said, “Doctor Lennis may hold residence here.  Items of strong sympathy to the Doctor would be of use to me in tracing her, when the time comes.”

---

Wits + Investigation to search for names on the residences, looking primarily for the Doctor’s, but any other interesting names will be duly noted:

• 10:08, Today: Mistral rolled 2 successes using 6d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 1,9,7,9,2,4.  Wits + Investigation.

Noah snaked along staying just about in the middle of the road, poking his head up to look at each place. "Each house has an itty bitty team of nanite clusters present. From the looks of it, they eat leaves and sticks that get blown onto the house to help with upkeep. They would need help to keep the house looking new but it is going to be a long time before any kind of rot sets in."

He set his chin back down and continued sneaking around. "May need to search the primary estate, they had been dating. If the worst-case should happen I did see where she signed her name on the tower, it would give you access to her true name."

 Mistral and Noah

 Mistral did indeed find Emily's house in the Cul de sac though it looked to have been lived in recently and only recently vacated. There were plenty of sympathetic links left behind.


 Argentus (and Sal?)

 Argentus headed out toward the actual Institute and found it to be a sprawling megaplex, with entire buildings dedicated to a single craft or profession. Leatherworking, textiles, robotics, mechanics, electricians, and more. This was the place to go if you wanted to learn to make something or do a job. One thing it seemed to lack were classes related to art, language, or history. It seemed far more focused on marketable skills than educational value.

 It took some time before he found the smithy. Inside, he saw a shop dedicated to all forms of metalworking (an anvil, a forge, metal casting and all manner of tools). In the corner was a deeply tanned and muscular looking synthetic with a leather apron, deactivated and sleeping upright.

Argentus approached the synth he assumed was Vulcan and looked for how to reactivate him.  He had been around a number of them, especially lately, but he'd never had need to learn about activating them.

Mistral found Doctor Lennis’s residence, and quickly gained entry by reaching a hand through a small, swirling portal to unlock the front door from the inside.  Within the darkened residence she spotted a number of personal effects left behind.  She remarked, “The Doctor still lived here up until the day of her disparition.  She had not committed to living with Talion.”

Doctor Lennis’s Adoni Institute professor identification badge lay in a bowl near the entrance, complete with a terrible-quality picture of the woman printed on it.  Mistral tucked this into a jacket pocket and moved on.  She found the main bathroom and began idly searching the countertops.  As she went she wondered aloud, “One wonders if she shares Monsieur Talion’s devotion.  Did he show you the ring?”  She found an old hairbrush on the bathroom countertop and held it up to the light, finding a number of sandy-blonde hairs caught in it.  Into the same pocket it went, and she went to the study next.

Mistral slowly walked along the bookshelves, examining the spines.  She stopped and pulled a book from the shelf, a well-worn and dog-eared paperback copy of Carl Sagan’s ‘The Demon-Haunted World’, with Emily’s name hand-written on the inside cover.  Mistral remarked, “A fine read for un scientifique, and a fitting title for present circumstance, non?  She must have read this dozens of times.  I like her.”  Mistral tucked this book into the same pocket, which one might expect to be bulging by now, though it didn’t in the least.  She turned for the door, running a hand gently along Noah’s scaled flank and saying as she passed, “I have what I need from here.  Onward to l'Institut, mon dragon.”

Later, Mistral found Argentus in the smithy as he examined the musclebound synth blacksmith, who appeared to be inert.  She turned to Noah and asked, “Run diagnostiques?”  She took a moment to supernally-survey Vulcan’s mind to judge its state before moving on to browse the materials on hand.  If Vulcan could make cold iron, she couldn’t help but wonder what other interesting substances he might work in.

---

Int + Mind + Investigation to assess the state of Vulcan’s consciousness:

• 22:45, Today: Mistral rolled 3 successes using 9d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 1,9,10(+5),2,5,6,8,4,2.  Int + Investigation + Mind.

Then Wits + Investigation to see what’s in the shop!:

• 22:45, Today: Mistral rolled 5 successes using 6d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 8,8,9,3,10(+5),10(+6).  Wits + Investigation.

 A quick look at the synth revealed little. However, putting hands on him revealed a small button on the back of his neck hidden under his skin. A quick press and he opened his eyes, waking to life with a bit of confusion. "Wha-? Students? Is it class time already?"

 His voice was enthusiastic and did not quite match his burly demeanor.

Sal said to the burly synth, "Do you know the date and time?"

Prometheus was not an investigator for the most part.... or at least not a searcher. Cyberspace he could do, but not a women's physical life. As such he had followed Sal and Argent into the Institute. He had to admit he was concerned by the knowledge the Supernal was closer here....

For by that same logic, so was the Abyss. Still they had a job to do.

As he followed Sal and Argent into the institute he quickly became distracted by the Vines and lagged behind the group. An experiment, Noah had called it... and maybe it was. But the ease that they brushed it off concerned him. 3 days wasn't very long and they had already consumed a small city block by the looks of things.

Catching up to the rest he said, "Noah.... I don't suppose you can fly up and see how far these Vines go once we go outside again? I really don't want to wake up in a week's time to find them covering all of Long Island."

While he did that, he looked around the room, trying to see if the Vines had entered the building. He would try to sense the Vines if he had to, but he had a feeling Sense Life targeting that plant would possible be a bad idea.

For that matter he wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of casting Magic in here at all.

OOC:
Prometheus would have started this scene with Organic resilience and Force Sight active, rolls below.


04:33, Today: Promethius rolled 2 successes using 5d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 8,6,3,6,10(+6).  Perception (Wits + Composure).

4:30, Today: Promethius rolled 2 successes using 7d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 1,6,4,8,8,2,2. Force Sight

04:29, Today: Promethius rolled 3 successes using 8d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 4,3,2,7,8,10(+2),9,3.  Life Armor.

 The synthetic looked at Sal for a moment and blinked, as though he were looking at something internally. "It is October 23, 3:27. This is an odd time to have class. Most of my classes have ended by now and this shutdown was not part of my normal maintenance cycle. May I ask what is going on?"

 Strangely, there were no vines inside the institute.

"Talion and I are not close enough for him to have allowed me to see a ring. Given where he is from for all I know he could be a new king Solomon." He smiled at the book. "I half expected 'The Notebook" Novel by Nicholas Sparks. You can learn so much about a person by raiding their book shelves."

Noah took Mistral's contact as comfort and walked like a stalking cat more than a snake. When she came to the forge synth Noah shook his head. "He's in good condition. Looks like he has just been shut down for some time and without a network to lock into he can't get any news updates." Noah set his giant bag down that had been resting between his wings. "Standard model I take it, big guy?"

"Technician log in, the Dragon of Purgatory. Log in passphrase: It was you who broke my mason plate."

He tilted his head side to side as if humming a tune in his head. "The whole network went down and Alyssa is catatonic without a network and she is the closest hub."

"Effectively the whole world turned upside down, Lotta racism hit real fast. We are currently on the mend here on out until we get all syth tech back into full swing."

He nodded at the mention of getting a look around and pulled out one of his little bee drones, offering Prom a slate to control the tiny camera drone.

 The large synth nodded with a smile. "Yes, I am a repurposed labour unit, renamed Vulcan. It sounds as though some terrible things have happened while I was deactivated. I hope my students are okay.

 So, what brings you to the smithy today?"