<

Pretending to be scared now will only seem more suspicious. Being avoidant though, you can work with.

"You know anything about the compound? Seems like if I walk anywhere near it they'll shoot me point blank."

The shopkeeper chuckles nervously, "Oh, that building used to be an old research facility before they took it over. It had two other buildings next to it before they demolished them." He pauses, "They got rid of them. But they didn't... do a good job of it..."

You gesture for him to continue.

"For a while... the sites were like sinkholes. They buried most of the debris, but you could watch them go down. Just... sinking the entire day."

Maybe there was more to that garage than you thought. If both buildings had deep enough underground floors they might have been connected.

"You think they were connected under there?"

He shrugs, "Maybe partially? I remember that shipment trucks would go down there, but only to the middle building."

There it is. Maybe the underground pathway isn't fully blocked out. If you're lucky, you could avoid anyone knowing how you got in entirely.

"You don't think they filled them in?"

The shopkeeper gets this troubled expression, "I can't say..."

"Right."



"The Bulls, they been around recently?"

The Bulls are known for cage fighting. Mainly making their money on childish stuff like cock fights or desperate people. They've had it out for the Wolves for dwindling their fighter base by paying off their contracts. Purely just to piss them off. It could have been a symbiotic relationship, if their leaders weren't hard headed as hell.

"I don't see them as often as before. Sometimes they'll come by just to shop around, but they keep to themselves," he pauses, seemingly lost in thought, "One did come by in the past week and asked me a few things. Stuff about other gangs"

"Other gangs?"

He gestures, "There's been an uptick in 'tourists' lately."

Hmm.. Everyone seems to be sensing blood about to hit the water. The Bulls would massively benefit with the Wolf Bite leader gone. While the Bite's are fighting over who's going to take over, they can snatch up more territory and fighters. Maybe crush them entirely.

Your goals would align momentarily in that sense.



You thank the shopkeeper for being helpful, but there's always that nagging thought in your mind.


You tried not to give too much info about yourself, just in case. But you wouldn't be surprised if he calls in right after you're out of earshot. It would put a massive dent in your plans. The Bites would go on high alert if they thought anyone was going to try breaking in.

You weigh now, the option of killing him. It would put him out of his misery of getting beaten down every other day. And it'll save you the trouble of worrying about what he's going to do.

Besides, you got all the useful information you could need. Right?



For the rest of the hour, you hole up in a dark alleyway to look over the items and only manage to set off FIREBALL once. You get slightly singed clothes and the heavy scent of burnt plaster for your trouble.

Here's what you find:

CERAMIC FROG (Enhancer) - Allows the user to leap up to 30ft forward or upward while held.

HARMONIC MUSIC BOX (Magitech) - Temporarily stuns all those within hearing range for the length of the song (30 seconds).

The CERAMIC FROG can prove very useful to you with your current mission. You reason that since it's a new acquisition, you won't squirrel it away in your INVENTORY forever. You'll keep it in your pocket just in case. Current value of 150C.

The HARMONIC MUSIC BOX is valuable as a low-grade magitech item. This you'll store away to repair and sell for later. Current value of 500C. Maybe 750C to start.

After another spellcard sets off, you decide to take a break from identifying. With some careful wall scaling you manage to make out the debris sites that the antique guy described.

There's an array of shallow holes along the surface of each previous building. Debris is scattered among it. It's not a neat clean up by any means, but you can identify some good spots to try weaseling down into.

You now have two ways of entering the compound for tomorrow's ambush:
>1) Scale it
>2) Go underground



As it gets closer to 6:30PM, you walk around and internally assess everything you've learned.

>1) Julien's made the Wolf Bite presence significantly worse on everyone in the city after overthrowing Akito
>2) The presence of magical objects that were not the norm before
>3) The new presence of the cult DB
>4) Eiko's odd attachment to the Bites
>5) Your interests align with the Bulls & other gangs


You pause your walk as an unfamiliar car pulls up to you suddenly. You brace yourself for the doors opening up and for people to rush out.

Instead, the tinted window rolls down, revealing a familiar figure.



Eiko's werewolf form is... larger than you expected. She practically has to hunch over the wheel to fully fit in the driver seat. Biceps bigger than your head. Impressive.

Reminds you of how close you got to getting mauled in your first encounter.

You make your voice playful, "Sooo, how'd it go?"

Her ears pull back in clear irritation, "Get in the damn car."

You snidely obey, peeling into the passenger seat of the beat up car. The cuffs are gone from her wrists and so is your jacket.

You sit back in your seat and you pull the mask down, "You're all big."

She huffs, reminiscent of an irritated teen, "It's the only way they take me seriously."

You nod, understandingly, "They bought it?"

She nods back, "For now. They're still mad they lost some grunts and they couldn't get anything else. Kept your jacket too."

"I bet as a trophy."

Eiko laughs dryly, wrinkling her snout, "God that'd be gross. Hung up on the wall and stinking up the place."

"It'll stiffen up like a dead body. Next thing you know, they'll be treating it like an heirloom and passing it around. Big game, big jacket."

She snorts and smacks her paw against the wheel. "Yeah, yeah. How did it go with you? Find anything useful?"

You shrug, "There's some activity with the other gangs around. Nothing good for y'all, that's for sure," you've considered how much to omit, "Danced around with some shop staff and got a mini history lesson about the Bites."

You watch Eiko's reaction carefully. Looking for some type of tell. Or giveaway. Although her wolf features are harder to read, her ears look more alert.

"What did they say?"

You roughly summarize it for her. The public perception & how it all started out, then on to how it is now. Eiko seems to be deep in thought as you speak. Features tight. You can almost hear the way her teeth seem to be grinding together.

There's some real beef there. You lean a little closer to the door in case you need to make a quick duck and roll escape.

Instead, she cusses Julien out under her breath for the rest of the ride.

"He never should've trusted him. Never should've taken that little bastard in."



Eiko's apartment is farther out in the edge of the city where there's a slight residential district. It's a five story building in surprisingly good condition. She even has a little garage to park her car at.

It's nice. Too nice for the type of girl she is, in the type of work she's in.

She grabs her bag from the trunk and leads you up the stairs still wolfed out. Thankfully, Eiko's still lost in thought, so there's little conversation as you absorb all the details of the building from entrance to floor.

Tacky cream painted walls and floors with lint-thin carpet. Wall art of random paint strokes and flowers. A heavy chemical perfume that tries to mask it all. It screams cut corners and overpriced. Gentrified, even here, in this gang-driven city.

Before she opens the door to her apartment, you almost imagine that you're going to walk into a secret rich kid's space. It would explain how she pays this off and her gang dues with no side jobs she's mentioned so far.

Instead, she opens the door to the most bare minimum apartment you've seen. Still large, as expected. But it reminds you of your college days, when all your furniture was found from dumpsters or other kids moving out.

It's too quiet, there's more space than there is anything to fill it. Nothing covers the walls except the windows. No plants, no decor, all function. A bare minimum of furniture occupies the living room like a checked list: couch, old coffee table, box tv stand, tv.

Damn bitch... you live like this?

She kicks her shoes off and gestures, "Set your stuff down next to the couch. That's where you'll be sleeping. I'll be ordering takeout for dinner, so just do whatever. Don't touch anything."

"No promises."

There's a good amount of ground to cover. You can try and explore and gather more clues about Eiko or talk to her directly. The more you understand her, the better you can gauge if she's a trustworthy ALLY. A common goal only gets you so far from being stabbed back once it's done.

Though, you have a feeling that if you want to explore her bedroom, she'd have to be DISTRACTED or PERSUADED.

Options:
>A) Explore Porch
>B) Explore Kitchen
>C) Explore Bathroom
>D) Talk to Eiko (Choose Subject)

>Ask if you can get a drink and what she wants.