Liz nods to Brian. “If you need any help, I’m great with kids.”
She works on distracting Mrs. Polini so Brian can talk to one of the kids. “Mrs. Polini, do you have a picture of your husband? I know it must be a difficult subject for you, but it might help us in our investigation. Any information you can give can aide us in stopping this ahem unnatural activity…”
Can’t roll right now, but I will roll for charm when I get home.
Liz rolls 17 for Moves - Charm. No ghost…think I did that right…
Brian nods to Kris, saing “Good”, then nods to Liz as she leaves to distract Mrs Polini. He then asks the kids to continue.
Liz rolls 17, no ghost, to CHARM Mrs. Pogoni. (yes, you did that exactly right.)
“Mrs. Polini, do you have a picture of your husband? I know it must be a difficult subject for you, but it might help us in our investigation. Any information you can give can aide us in stopping this ahem unnatural activity…”
Mrs. Pogoni leads Elizabeth into her bedroom, chatting animatedly about her husband and all the good times they used to have. She shows Liz a photo of them on their wedding day… Mr. Pogoni is (was) a large, muscular, handsome man, who bears no resemblance whatsoever to the bespectacled person in the children’s drawings. They remain in there for a short while, chatting about girly stuff I don’t understand to one another, as Brian takes his chance to speak with the children out of their mother’s hearing.
“He’s a funny cartoon who visits us sometimes. He makes himself look like the pictures on the TV and sometimes even puts on shows for us! He can look like anybody he wants too, see?” The children show off their drawings to Brian, who acts suitably impressed.
“He only comes when Mommy isn’t watching. I think he knows she wouldn’t like him very much. Usually he comes when we’re watching cartoons. He likes cartoons, but mostly he likes those boring grown-up shows where boring grown-ups talk about boring grown-up stuff and they kiss a lot which is gross! But he’s nice and sometimes he will watch cartoons with us instead.”
“I dunno.”
“No, Mr. Cartoon Man never talks. He shows us pictures and makes funny faces for us but he can’t talk, he’s just a cartoon!”
Meanwhile…
Kristopher goes back downstairs to find Louis and Don arguing about the television. Louis seems certain that Don has been messing with the disassembled television; Don, of course, denies having anything to do with it. A quick glance shows that the reason they are arguing is that the vacuum tube, previously removed by Kristopher, has been replaced into the television. Nothing else appears to have been done here.
The cushion remains on the floor, and the duct-tape remains stuck over the outlet, near the other television.
Meanwhile…
Gerald stands in the stairwell, staring vacantly into space at nothing in particular. Perhaps he is thinking deep thoughts. Perhaps he is just wondering if he should change his hairstyle yet. Most likely, however, he’s imagining a world full of magic and technology, where people are paid to hack into computer networks for great corporate giants. 
(Gerald! Come home, Gerald!)
Brian says to the kids:
“Do you think you could introduce me to Mr. Cartoon Man sometime? He sounds like a lot of fun”
Once he gets his answer he tells the kids that he has to go for a few minutes to have an urgent meeting with his friends, but he’ll be back later to meet Mr. Cartoon Man.
He then calls Liz, asking her to come back downstairs to Don’s place. Excuses himself from Mrs Polini and heads to the hallway.
On the way he and Liz grab Gerald and drags him down to Don’s with them.
Once together with Kris and Louis he tells them what he found. "We’ve found our ghost. It seems to like hanging out with the kids. They call it Mr. Cartoon Man. It appears when their mom isn’t around. I know where I want to be at 8.
We are going to need mom out of the way for a bit so I can meet this ghost. I want to see what we’re dealing with. Hopefully the kids aren’t in immediate danger.
Oh, and by the way, no proton packs. I don’t want to expose the children to unnecessary danger."
"Professor, perhaps you can stay and observe this apartment while we head up to the top floor to talk to Dr. Panama. I’ll ask the kids’ Mom to step out for awhile and let he know we’ll provide some free babysitting if she wants to run to the store. Looking at her, she’ll probably take the chance to have a break.
Oh, and get this. The TV downstairs is reassembled, with all essential parts back inside. The cushion and duct tape are still on the outlet, though."
Kris moves to talk to Mrs. Pogoni, “Mrs. Pogoni, most of us need to head upstairs to talk to the tenant there. However, our good Professor would very much like to stay here to look a bit more. Better yet, we’d love to offer you the chance to get a break for a little bit. If you like, go to the store or just take a nice break for awhile and the Professor will gladly stay and take care of your kids. Don’t worry, he’s perfectly nice and good with kids.” Kris isn’t sure about the “good with kids” part, but he figures it might work.
Kris sounds surprisingly smooth and convincing as he talks to Mrs. Pogoni.
Kris rolled an impressive 23 with no ghost.
Brian nods. Good plan. Maybe Gerald can stay with me and get an insight to what we’re dealing with.
Maybe Gerald can use his Parapsychology skill here
Brian heads back up with Kris and assures the kids and apartment are in good hands.
Once she is gone he asks the kids… so lets meet this Mr Cartoon Man. My good friend Gerald here would like to meet him too.
Not many people posted today; not surprising, it’s a nice summer weekend and I woulda been outside myself if it weren’t 4000 degrees here!
[COLOR=“Black”]Mrs. Pogoni agrees that she could use some time alone, and isn’t so dumb as to give up an offer of free baby-sitting; she doesn’t think twice, but grabs her purse and books it downstairs as fast as she can go!
I was uncertain as to where Kristopher wanted to end up, so he’ll be in the hallway as if he were halfway to wherever he wants to have ended up having gone. If that makes any sense to anyone other than me, seek professional help! q;}[/COLOR]
Elizabeth and Don and Louis remain in Don’s apartment. They have the distinct feeling they are being watched, but nothing obvious happens.
Liz and Lou, feel free to make an OBSERVATION roll using whatever skill you feel is appropriate, to see if you notice anything else happening.
Gerald, still dazed, takes a seat with the children in one of their bedrooms. They, and Brian, sit back to watch the television.
“We just turn it to cartoons…” say the kids. “Then sometimes, while we’re watching, Mr. Cartoon Man will come by. Sometimes he doesn’t tho.”
The cartoon today is an afterschool special featuring various Schoolhouse Rock cartoons.
You watch, and wait…
Prof and Gerald, feel free to make an OBSERVATION roll using whatever skill you feel is appropriate, to see if you notice anything else happening.
Brian sits back and observes the kids and the TV, looking for any ghostly activity
Brains roll 22, no ghost. If Gerald doesn’t come back in time, can the GM roll for him?
Kris heads upstairs to Dr. Panama’s apartment, assuming others are coming with him.
When he gets there, he knocks on the door. If no one comes to the door, he knocks again and listens for noise inside.
Sorry! Been crazy busy trying to pack and move.
Liz looks around Don’s apartment. She gets goosebumps and feels like someone else is in the room. She decides to sweep the apartment again with her PKE meter.
“Don,” she says as she’s noting the spikes on the machine, “My associates said that you don’t know who owned the TV that you busted and that you’re kind of a tech guy. Do you mind telling me how you tinkered with it?”
Liz used Brains for Observation roll. 14. No ghost.
Neither Louis nor Gerald have posted recently; their characters remain in Don’s apartment and Mrs. Pogoni’s apartments, respectively.
Brian and the kids continue to watch the cartoons, but nothing unusual happens. Yet. The children seem to be entertained, tho, so that’s something.
Liz is correct; her PKE meter fluctuates wildly, indicating the presence of a mobile entity of some sort. It isn’t possible to pin down any information yet, but there’s definitely something here… in fact, the duct tape *just *fell off the wall entirely, leaving the outlet completely uncovered. The high PKE readings indicate that it was the result of ghostly energies.
Don explains that he found the television in the basement, among a previous tenant’s discarded junk, and replaced it there when he decided he didn’t want it anymore. He says that the entire device had been burned out, as if by a surge of electricity; he replaced and repaired it as much as he had to, and got it working again… briefly.
Kristopher is traveling alone to the fourth floor. From here, the stairway continues up one more floor, leading to the roof.
The door to the fourth-floor apartment, unlike the others in this building, has been replaced by something sturdier. Vault-quality steel, likely several inches thick, is held in place by substantial reinforcement to the door frame, also of steel. Aside from a large thick steel handle, a large combination dial is the only visible feature to this seemingly impenetrable barrier.
There is no response to Kristopher’s knocking.
Weekend doldrums or lack of interest? I’m gonna assume the former, but players who continue to remain unresponsive should know that the game will continue without them, if need be.
Real life has become a bit intrusive here so I may miss a turn from time to time.
Kris is undeterred by the steel door and knocks even louder, deafeningly loud if need be.
Kris rolls a 15 for muscles, pounding on the door.
If nothing happens, Kris will briefly go upstairs to the roof and examine how dangerous it looks to try to pry off boards from Dr. Panama’s windows and enter through there. Kris is still planning to get in, no matter what. 
Brian sits patiently with the kids. He has his video camera ready to film anything that shows up.
he will stay there watching the kids until the mother gets home, whether the ghost shows up or not. He uses the apartment phone to call Don’s place for updates periodically.
While he’s waiting he makes notes:
Things we know:
The ghost seems obsessed with TV’s
It can control and repair multiple TVs easily, or so it seems
It doesn’t show itself often, and then only to kids
Things we don’t know and need to find out:
Why does it want TVs on?
Is it looking for something on TV?
What happened to the old TV from the basement, before Don got a hold of it, that is
Who is the Ghost?
What is its motivation? Why is it here?
Why does it show itself to the kids?
Does it have a connection to the old TV? If so, whose stuff is it that’s abandoned downstairs.
Where can we find out this information?
-Seems that there is no further info at the apartment building, aside from the top floor tenant
If only we had a way of easily researching this information. Maybe a computer, no, many computers all connected together via a network similar to what they have at the university, only country, or even world wide.
-Note to self. Invent this asap
We should investigate these tomorrow if we learn nothing else at the apartment.
Lou uses two Brownie Points and his BRAINS. 11, no ghost.
Elizabeth and Louis remain in Don’s apartment. Don has long since excused himself, and is currently standing over the kitchen sink, eating take-out fried chicken directly from the bucket. He is paying no attention whatsoever to the Ghostbusters, who remain on high alert for unusual activity.
Elizabeth’s PKE Meter has just turned itself off. Perhaps the batteries have run low. Might be time to recharge them.
Lou didn’t actually use any Brownie Points, and so none have been removed from his total.
Louis notices that his jumpsuit has come unzipped, and casually refastens it. He thinks nothing of this, as it is a new jumpsuit and he’s probably just not used to wearing it yet.
Brian must have dozed off for a moment… the channel has been changed in the children’s bedroom, and is now showing a game show where contestants have to guess famous people’s names from a rebus-like cartoon. Quite boring, really, and even the kids seem disinterested.
Kristopher realizes, after knocking non-stop for an entire minute at a stretch, that either nobody is behind the door at all, or they simply are not going to answer it right now.
He makes his way up to the rooftop. All around him, the city awakens as the sun drops toward the horizon and the streets fill with people and cars, all yelling and honking at each other, and not necessarily in that order. Hey, he can see the Ecto-Mobile from here, and there’s Lou’s Indian motorcycle parked nearby. A few people stand nearby, examining the vehicles, but they don’t seem any *immediate *threat…
Atop the roof, Kristopher sees a variety of objects. A trio of pigeon coops, long since abandoned by their pigeons, stand near the north end of the roof. Next to it is a heap of building materials… lumber, tools, bags of now-hardened concrete, etc… which appears to have been abandoned some times ago, although not as long ago as the pigeon coops. In the southwest corner is a pile of metallic items, mostly rebar and old storm gutters, also looking abandoned. Here and there across the rooftop, various chimneys and vents stick up out of the roof, and there are numerous patches where leaks have been repaired… or not. It might not be a bad idea to be careful where one steps, up here.
Kristopher leans out over the edge, and assesses his chances of climbing down to the fourth floor’s boarded-up windows without falling to his death. He realizes that they are not good chances, and he’s pretty sure the insurance forms he filled out upon being hired by JT Roth don’t cover suicide… which climbing out over the edge, alone and un-equipped, would most certainly be.
Gerald continues to stare into space, daydreaming perhaps…
The time is now 7:00 PM local.
I knew I was gonna end up doing that.
I hope you have all enjoyed your relative safety up to this point! :::evil laugh:::
Brian wakes after dozing off. He realises the channel has changed. He asks the kids why did they change it?
and no mention of me inventing the internet? 
“We didn’t.” :eek: