Below is part 4 of the Curse of the Deadly Gym. You can read part 1 and 2 and 3 here.
I come back from paying the rent and close and lock the office door. I turn the sign on the door from open to closed. The last thing I want is for anyone to disrupt my concentration, while I get ready my tools ready for the investigation. Each tool has a purpose and when I handle each of them I take a moment to close my eyes and align with the energy of that tool.
First, I pick up a pouch of spectral dust. I use spectral dust when I don’t want to open my third eye. It helps me find supernatural emanations. It’s made of ashes and chalk dust.
Next I pick up a colored set of chalk. All the major colors are included in this chalk set. I can use the chalk to make a quick and easy evocation circle, or a sigil or whatever else I need to make on the fly for a magical working. When you’re a private occult investigator you don’t always have time to bust out the ceremonial tools and robes. Chalk like this makes the process a lot simpler.
Next I grab my trusty spyder knife. It’s a small blade and the hilt is made to look like a spider. It’s primarily a throwing knife, but I mainly use it for ritual purposes, such as pricking a finger for blood.
The crystal wand pistol is next. In supernatural situations, it fires an energetic blast, which can be useful for knocking the stuffing out of your average demon or ghost. It’s got no utility in situations with people, unless they happen to practice magic, so I also grab my trusty revolver. I load the revolver with ammo and make sure the safety is on. I always hope I won’t have to use a gun, but you never know.
I grab my trench coat, which doubles as my ritual robes. I’ve imbued the trench coat with protection magic that hardens it and makes it easier for me to shrug off magical attacks. It can be hot to wear in the summer, but I don’t go anywhere without it.
I take a moment and look myself over with a critical eye. I’m about to head over to Ackerbee’s house for dinner and I want to make sure I look reasonable. I tuck my spectral dust and chalks into a pocket in my coat and wear everything else on my belt, but to the side where it’s not too obvious. When I get there I’ll put a spell on the items so they seem to fade into the background.
I head out of the office and down to my car, an old 1970’s car, which I’ve done some work on so it meets the DEQ standards for the state. The sky overhead is dark, threatening to rain. I hop in the car and start driving toward Ackerbee’s place, eager to get the investigation and hopefully enjoy some free food.
Ackerbee lives in a typical middle class suburban neighborhood that’s far enough away from the city to give you the illusion that you’re close to nature, but close enough to give you all the comforts of downtown. His home has the same shape and coloring of the other homes, a squat two story house with blue walls and a white picket fence that looks like a comfortable form of misery to live in. they have even a small flower bed and lawn, just like everyone else on their block. If you go inside any of those homes, you’ll find that they are carbon copies of each other, bathrooms and bedrooms in the exact same space, not one inch more than the neighbor. I park in the driveway and walk up to the door.