Flint came to understand that he was in over his head, severely. It seemed like it would be another call for another mystery on January 30th, 2012. A lady came up to Nightfall LLC's 'office'. Flint was dumbstruck by what he considered one of the most beautiful women he has seen. She had blond hair tied back in a ponytail and an office pantsuit. What's more, she clutched her Franklin Covey day planner across her chest. Flint fumbled with the words as he invited her in and asked how they could help.
She explained that after the passing of her father, she inherited his boat. It wasn't too long ago from the sound of it. He had taken his sailboat out into lake Michigan one night, and never returned. The coast guard found the boat out there the next day drifting alone, with nobody aboard. He was declared missing, but due to the circumstances, and the open bottle of wine, they eventually declared it a suicide/accident. His body was never recovered. Now the poor woman had the boat to look after. She presented to us a handful of citations from the coast guard. They were all for failure to keep a boat tied at dock. Since the night of the father's death, about once every 2 or 3 days, the boat would be found adrift in the middle of the lake. No evidence of anyone on board using the boat, except each time an opened bottle of wine. This woman, Cathryn Applegate, suspected something strange.
Last night she hired a group of teenagers to stay the night aboard her boat. This morning she got a call from the coast guard that they found her boat again, and nobody aboard.
The group decided to split up for the investigation. Hank and John went check up on the kid's houses, see if they made it home. Flint and Cody wanted to check out the boat. Kent decided to stay behind, and do some actual 'police work', using his skills as an ex-detective.
Hank and John got nowhere, only finding out that the kids never came home. The parents didn't seem worried, but more concerned with 2 strange men asking after them.
Kent made a few calls to some of his old police buddies and found the kids were reported to be in the hospital for hypothermia.
Meanwhile, Cody and Flint went to check the dock. The dockmaster was very helpful and pointed them to the boat's slip. It wasn't there because the coast guard hadn't brought it in yet. Flint checked for magic residue surrounding the area or the rope, but found nothing. He did notice security cameras overlooking the marina. Cody flashed a government badge (whether it was real or fake, we don't know. There is a lot about Cody we don't know) and asked to see the security footage of the nights the boat went missing. The one camera always reported to cut out each incident. Cody left his number so the dockmaster would call when the boat came in. They found out everyone was headed to meet at the hospital where the kids were.
At the hospital, all but one of the kids was conscious. A jock, from the looks of it, was willing to answer some questions. Cody and John grilled him on the events. The kid remembered the partying on the boat like they were told too, then they all saw some strange symbol and freaked out and jumped. His memories were a jumbled mess. Cody got him to draw the symbol while John used his mind magic to check the kid's memories.
John could definitely sense that reality was trying to erase the supernatural events from the kids memory like it normally does. If they hadn't gotten to this kid, he would have had no memory of what happened at all. Paradox tends to reject supernatural events from reality, and those not awakened generally don't remember magical things happening soon after. But as John delved deeper into the memory of the boat, he saw something ... terrifying. Something from the memory had knocked John on his ass and got the kid screaming hysterically. Bloody horror screams filled the halls of the hospital. The group was escorted out, knowing little of the case. The symbol intrigued them. A few noticed it looked similar to one of the emblems of the magic houses.
They got a call from the dockmaster that the boat was back. It was nightfall, so detecting magic would be easier. They were all very eager to investigate the boat.
There it was, loaded in its slip and tied up properly. John used his psychometry to glean something from the boat's nature. When he touched it, the entire thing glowed! Arcane and magic runes covered the decks and hull. This was no normal sailboat. Flint almost cracked up when he recognized many of the runes were in elvish, as in the language from JRR Tolkein's work. They went inside and did indeed see evidence of a party. Open bottles of beer, food, and even condoms lying around.
The group decided to give sleeping aboard a try. Cody and Kent decided to stay while the others went back to pack some things.
As soon as Flint, John, and Hank got back to the marina, the boat was gone...
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