Coriander Society Adventures Ep. 1

Along the rooftops of the Aelburg canal on a dark and stormy night in Northport, an unnamed woman races to a roof through the fire escape stairs while armed gangsters are in pursuit. Reaching the top, she is faced with a 10ft gap to the next rooftop over as well as the leader of the gangsters, later to be revealed as Johnny Pavlo who is a top Lieutenant for crime boss Lincoln Giotto, brandishing a machete and Tommy gun. Unbeknownst to her and the pursuers, Gastone Tosto enters the scene concealed within the duct of a vent hood after witnessing the chase on his way home and deciding to follow. Gastone chooses to observe at first, but soon fires a sleep dart from his watch to down one of the goons. At the same time, on the opposite rooftop with a shattered glass ceiling, Asena stumbles upon the conflict while taking the scenic route home from her job as a lounge singer. Johnny Pavlo orders his goons to close in which is met is response to a guttural hiss from the unnamed woman. The strange behavior of the woman piques Asena’s interest and she effortlessly leaps the gap between rooftops clearing the 25ft diagonal. Landing in front of the woman, Asena hisses in response and the amulet around her neck, an ancient fossilized tooth, begins to pulsate – a phenomenon Asena had never experienced before. A glowing red light can be seen in the woman’s eyes as she bounds to the other roof from a standstill, skirting off into the shadows. A fight ensues between the gangsters, Gastone, and Asena. The goons fire on both Gastone and Asena, where Gastone is able to demonstrate his novel polymer suit and its ability to harden, absorb, and reflect impact; Asena displays parahuman reflexes and strength by catching a bullet and launching it back towards her assailant. Stunned at this, Johnny Pavlo clambers away back down the fire escape. After a scuffle, the goons are knocked unconscious or make an escape down the building to find they’ve been left behind.

Gastone and Asena introduce each other, with Gastone – not knowing what to make of Asena – revealing he is going after Johnny Pavlo but does not know who the woman was. Asena heads back to the other rooftop to examine the shattered glass and now visible blood. She finds a body pooled in blood laying the lobby of the building below. Gastone makes his way to the edge of the building, finding a contraption that when scanned with one of his gadgets becomes known to emit high levels of UV radiation. Gastone forgets the limitations of being a normal human and decides to try and jump the gap, failing miserably and sustaining significant injury while falling down the side of the building. Effortlessly, Asena leaps down the shattered ceiling and meets Gastone in the lobby. She examines the body by smelling it, leading to further confusion from Gastone. Flipping the body over, the pair find the trench coat is torn and the victim has deep claw-like gouges across his back. On the body, they also find a bottle marked with 3 X’s and trace alcohol, tar and gravel in the treads of his shoes, and a torn notebook page with an address for the Essex Hotel on the 13th floor.

Before heading to Essex Hotel, Gastone and Asena stop the bar, Wound, at the edge of Aelburg and Hillvale for steaks. In conversation, Gastone shares that he has lived in Northport his whole life working as a prop designer by day and a vigilante by night. Asena on the other hand is not from Northport and only arrived recently. Gastone decides to follow the note and asks Asena if she wants to join, to which she agrees but only if he sweetens the deal. An interesting handkerchief, now stained with steak blood from Asena eating with her hands, is enough for Asena to agree to go along.

They head to Essex Hotel walking right past the front desk lady, Miss Rascal, and take the elevator to the 13th floor. The Essex Hotel is home to a new investigative agency, Carmichael and Carmichael, which recently lost all of their contracts. Of note, no one has ever noticed more than 1 Carmichael at a time. Despite being around 1am, the light is on and Asena and Gastone make their way inside to find a disheveled John Carmichael, smelling of booze, in an equally disorganized room. Gastone begins to explain why they arrived and the story around the body. Upon hearing the description, John goes pale, rouses Charlie in the corner who wakens in a panic, and sends Charlie along with the 7ft tall Ben out to patrol the hallway. Gastone hands over the note and John explains the handwriting belongs to Foster Talon, a straight and true private eye, and asks if the pattern of the blood pool could be interpreted as an angel’s wings. After Gastone agrees, an electric blue and purple-striped cat, Chester who John says he found in the jungles around the Sunken Circle of Tlaecelel, jumps on John’s shoulder and looks at the group with a calm face and large, golden eyes. John explains that “stuff” has been going down in Northport, and if Gastone and Asena want to be on the in, they need to be aware this is deep and heavy. John rattles off about the Carringtons’ connection with the Army of the Eclipse, evil scientist Dr. XORBIUS BRANDT who no one has seen for a while, Omelan spies, a bat-mobile like vehicle lighting up the night sky, and lastly the Angel Killer. Most information on the Angel Killer case has been locked down by Northport authorities to prevent public panic. From his vigilante work, Gastone knows the Angel Killer is a sort of an intermittent serial killer whose profile will change with a 3-6 week pause between bouts of killings. The victims cover a wide range of demographics, the first being those in the food industry, second models or actors, third those in financial sectors, poor to high profile, criminals and prize fighters, and then recently went quiet for a while.

John explains his investment in the case came from a lounge singer at a bar he frequented became one of the Angel Killer’s victims. He continues to debrief about his personal theory on the profiles the Angel Killer chooses. There is a pantheon and he believes the victims are chosen based on their match to description of one of the deities. It feels ritualist, and he is deeply concerned about what might happen if their pantheon is filled. The last murder before Foster Talon occurred 4 weeks prior, marking the start of a new profile believed by John to be the God of Pride based. Of the 8 pantheon members, Pride is the last one yet to be found by the Angel Killer. The profile they should be looking for a male, tall, large flame, and assured of themselves – confident. Appearance is important but the real nuance is how they carry themselves. John very briefly entertains the idea of requesting Opal Donahue, a rich heiress who runs a school for gifted youngsters and has wide-reaching resources, for help; unfortunately, that door is now closed for John. The party hashes out the remaining details of their night, the unnamed woman and the UV emitting gun. According to John, the woman doesn’t meet the profile of any of the known gifted, adolescents of Northport who developed super powers; the contraption looks like it could be the work of Dr. XORBIUS BRANDT but seems like small fry work compared to his usual.

As the episode comes to an end, everyone agrees everyone is sus, and John devises a plan to send Gastone and Asena off to meet Opal, under strict instruction to not mention his name, where Asena will be introduced as a gifted and Gastone as a protégé investigator to fill the role John once had.