[d&d] The Fall Of A City [8/8]

"Wanna talk about it?"
I ask, toying with the core before sitting on the table.

 

She hesitates before sliding the photo album over with a page open. It's a photograph of Pinky and what looks like a security guard in front of a venue. There's people surrounding them, so it looks like the entrance.

 

I take the album, flipping through some of the pages to try and find another picture with the two in it.
"...Someone you knew?"

 

You see photos of a few different people, but eventually the photos just seem to be the same people over and over again.
You find a particular photo in the album that is the same security guard fellow with many things that look like gems, sprawled across the floor in front of him. He's pretty happy here.

"Someone you would've known too, if they didn't all disappear from A.R.M.A."

 

"So, what, they all just disappeared one day?"

 

"Slowly, but surely, they did." "Some actually disappeared without a trace, others were killed or taken from us."

 

"Huh... So, what's with this core, then? Is it special or something?"

 

She points to the security guard guy in the photo.
“He used to appraise these cores and buy them off of us whenever we had them. I don’t know what you could use them for, but I wouldn’t throw it away.”

 

"May I have a look? I used to deal with those type of items on a daily basis."

 

I give you the core.

 

What would I roll, @Nem ?

 

Arcana and Investigation check.

 

"So, was he a part of A.R.M.A., or nah?"

 

Arcana: 11 +5INT +4prof =20
Investigation: 10 +5INT +4prof =19

 

"Yes. And one of the members who disappeared on their own."
She holds back tears.
"I don't know why the hell H.E. gave you this task if he knows they're all likely gone. And that I'll never see them again.."

You inspect the intricate piece of technological (and apparently magical) marvel.
It looks like a rock made of metal and wires. If you were imaginative enough, it could even look like a heart of some sort. Red lights show through small openings in the metal. Small spikes surround the rock, colored red too. These details suggest that it powers something, a machine? No damage seems to be done to it, it was clearly removed from whatever it was powering extremely carefully or it wasn't powering anything at all.
Judging from the subtle violet-crimson mist seeping through small cracks, it's magical.

 

“Hey, it’ll be fine. Relax. We’ll find ‘em. Wherever they are.”
I say reassuringly.

 

"You know there's a lot of things in our way, right?"

 

"I mean, I figured, what with the Eye and all, but that's no reason to sit and wallow. Besides, Cassy would probably yell at me if I did just that."

 

Pinky glances at you with confusion and subtle surprise.
"Cassy?"

 

"Friend 'a mine. Kinda the whole reason I have this."
I gesture to my mask.