Approximately 10pm, Sunday, June 1st.
Having recently arrived in Vibora Bay, Kayla Wilson was still unfamiliar with the city and its rhythms. However, she sensed she was being followed almost as soon as she left the corner market parking lot. Trying not to let on that she knew, she stole a quick glance at her pursuer and recognized him as a 'hired gun' for the Hanzo clan of ninja. Knowing she could not risk his finding out where she and her sister had been hiding, she tried to lose him in the alleys and side streets. However, she noticed that her pursuer was not alone. Several others clad as ninja spread out in an attempt to cut off her escape. She did not recognize them as members of the Hanzo clan, their movements being all wrong. Giving up any pretense at subtlety and stealth, she immediately fled at top speed, ducking down alleys, jumping fences, climbing fire escapes and leaping from roof to roof. However, she could not lose her pursuers.
In the mean time, the Trismegistus Council's new trouble shooting team had just finished their weekly report to Alejandro Hornedo and were making their way to the back parking lot so that they could all head home. They were all stunned to see a female figure leap from the roof behind them to land in the parking lot before them, shortly followed by a dozen nightsuit-clad pursuers. Not sure what to expect, the team started making their way to their vehicles in order to get hands on their various weapons and gear. Julian Dumas, pulled out his radio and informed the police dispatcher of “Gang activity in the Coco Palm parking lot. Officer in danger.”
The girl took off, with her pursuers close on her heels. Suddenly a few members of the team sensed another presence and turned to see another figure standing atop the nearby clothing store. He chanted in an unknown language and thrust his staff forward. An arrow of fire shot forward, striking the pavement between the feet of the fleeing woman. Danny Chow's keen eyesight and Chi sense, recognized that the figure on the roof was not fully human. In fact, he appeared to be half Oni. Informing his companions, he moved to asses the woman's other pursuers and recognized them as some form of fire spirit.
Ezekiel Winston quickly cast a spell to protect his companions from demonic magics while Julian went to get his shotgun from his truck. The remainder of the team moved to assist the woman in escaping her pursuers.
The figure on the roof shook off a magical arrow from Ceridwen's Phantom Bow and obscured himself in a cloud of magical smoke. Julian climbed atop his truck and took a blind shot into the cloud. He was rewarded by a grunt of pain from within. He leaped up to the roof and Zeke quickly followed. Meanwhile, an arrow from Sonia Lior's crossbow sent one of the pursuers to the pavement, where he dissolved into a puff of noxious smoke.
After clambering to the roof of the clothing store, Julian found himself blinded by the smoke billowing around his end of the building. Zeke, however, had managed to climb up outside of the smoke cloud, but could not see their foe through the smoke. A ball of fire, struck the ground to his left with pop of a small fire cracker and choking cloud of fumes quickly engulfed him, leaving him coughing and wheezing. Julian also found himself choking on the putrid fumes. At the same time, the rest of the team were making quick work of the “Smoke Ninja” and Mike Silva took his chance to spread his wings and take flight toward the clothing store rooftop to assist his companions.
The cloud of smoke cleared to show the half-Oni sorcerer standing before them in robes of billowing smoke. As Zeke and Julian coughed the remainder of the choking smoke from their lungs, the Fiendish sorcerer recognized the semi-divine nature of Mike Silva and planted his staff in front of himself as a barrier between them. With an indecipherable but obviously unholy incantation, the sorcerer caused black flames to erupt around the staff and Mike found himself compelled to flee that awful power.
In response, Julian fired off a quick snap shot, but only managed a glancing hit. Zeke unleashed a bolt of hell fire, but the flames dissipated before reaching their target. Realizing that the last of his minions were being handedly defeated and still bleeding from the earlier shotgun blast to the stomach, the sorcerer knew he had no hope of wining or escaping this battle. Cursing his prey's good fortune to himself, he threw himself as close to his prey as he could. As he did, he slammed his staff into the rooftop, snapping it in two. The power within burst forth in a blazing conflagration, enveloping several members of the group in flames and causing them to stumble back with the blast of super-heated air. However, thanks to Zeke's enchantment and no small amount of good fortune, no one was seriously injured. The Oni-sorcerer, however, was reduced to a charred corpse.
The sound of approaching sirens convinced the group to flee the now burning clothing store roof top rather than answer awkward questions. Julian bundled up the obviously non-human corpse and threw it in the back of his truck for later disposal. Kayla quickly slipped off so that she could make her way home to check on the safety of her younger sister. The rest of the group scattered their separate ways.
After the battle, the group group split up and agreed to meet at a local coffee shop in a couple hours to discuss what had happened. Julian used the opportunity to find a decent place in the swamp to stash the corpse and Kayla swings by her apartment to check on her sister (who has gone to bed by the time Kayla gets there). After the group gets to the coffee shop, they get a call from Ceridwen informing them that "family issues" have come up and that she'll be out of town for a few days and won't be able to make the meet.
Mike and Danny had done a quick perusal of their respective libraries for information on Oni. Mike had come up empty, his library focusing more on a Judeo-Christian point of view. However, Mike's library was primarily Asian. He informed the group that Oni were typically punishment entities of the Underworld. Their powers will vary widely, though most are inhumanly strong and resilient and wield powerful magic. The Celestial Bureaucracy employs them in punishing sinners of various types. Most are cruel, vindictive and selfish by nature, making them pretty much evil in human terms. However, that is not true of all of them. Also, its very rare for one to make its way to the human world and when they do, they often go wild with their new-found freedom. However, this entity was, at best, half oni and thus not bound by the usual rules. None of the abilities it used appeared to be inherent and were all spells or came from the staff. The magic it employed was typical of Asian magic, which focuses on the five elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Iron and Wood. The staff was either a mockery of or a corrupted version of a Haribou (a Shinto 'Purification Staff'. Such staves are normally used to drive away evil spirits but this one was used to drive away a divine spirit. Also, they don't normally explode.
Kayla let the group know a little about herself and why the ninja were chasing her. The sorcerer was a high-priced mercenary sometimes employed by her former clan (the Hanzo clan) for specialized jobs. She guessed that he was after her because they were upset at her because she refused to complete her full initiation (which would have included killing her own family) and had fled.
After the meeting everyone but Zeke headed for home to get a little sleep. He decided to hit the streets to see if there was any word about town relating the any new heavy hitters moving in. He was keeping any ear out for anything that vaguely sounded like ninja setting up shop. However, all he got was a lot of talk about a new drug lord moving into town pushing his own brand of "Fairy Dust" (aka PCP).
June 2nd
That morning, Julian was visited at work by Det. Mark Wheedle. He'd had a long night. Apparently someone had called in a gang fight to dispatch but when units arrived on scene, there was no evidence of any gangs and the roof of the Old Navy was on fire. Also, the reporting officer was no where to be found and had never identified himself to dispatch. Mark wanted to talk to Julian since he knew Julian's weekly 'book club' meets at the Cocoa Palm. He asked if Julian had seen anything suspicious that night but Julian said that he didn't go that week, so he had no info.
Mike called Fred Johnson, his librarian friend, to see if he could set aside some books on Asian folklore, especially Oni, for him to pick up later.
Danny dropped by Marty Cho's grocery to let Marty know that a group of ninja had moved into town. Marty said he'd keep an ear out and let Danny know if he heard anything. He was concerned about how the local Tongs would react to this. He mentioned a “Ninjitsu Master” teaching down in the business district who was really just teaching “Tae Kwon Do or Karate or some such dressed up in black”.
Zeke went to visit Father Charley Gallagher (a retired exorcist) to see if he knew anything about Oni. Father Charley had never heard of them, but was on good terms with the local Buddhists down the way and agreed ask around to see if they knew anything. Zeke's demon really hated it when Zeke took communion. Afterwards, Zeke was called by Detective Mariska Alerton (VBPD Homicide) who asked him out to lunch. She'd been handed one of those “weird cases” that she occasionally hired Zeke to consult on (Zeke being a local "occult expert"). A bunch of cemeteries had been broken into over the last few weeks. No valuables were stolen but a few tombs were smashed in and the bodies taken. Also, at the most recent site, a dead body was found. It had been partially chewed. Zeke agreed to look into it for her and asked if he could get a copy of the case file to look over. He also let her know about the ninja assault incident and that he'd heard the word on the street about “Fairy Dust”.
When Mike took lunch, he came across a young boy of about 5 or 6, wandering the zoo where Mike worked. The boy was alone and crying. When he asked the boy what was the matter, the boy told him that he didn't want to go back to the orphanage he'd run away from because it was haunted. Mike called child services and the orphanage sent someone over to pick the boy up. Mike promised he'd come by and visit in the evening.
Sonja got a call from Johnathan Leer, editor of the Midnight Moon Weekly, asking if she could look into the recent rash of tomb-robbing and “dig up something juicy” that they could put in the paper. Sonja visited one of the cemeteries and spoke to the care taker but he wasn't a lot of help. He hadn't been in the cemetery that night and he hadn't noticed anyone suspicious before. Sonja looked over the scene and didn't find much of any use. She tried calling Julian to consult with him, but he was out on patrol and unreachable.
After work, Zeke and Julian met at a bar to go over the case file. They spent a couple hours going over the notes, looking for some pattern in the crimes or the victims that would suggest any particular magical ritual, however nothing jumped out at them. Then, when they got to the medical examiner's report on the body that had been found, they noticed that he had claw marks from some unidentified animal. It also had bite marks that were of the right size and shape for a human, but that the teeth were sharp and pointed. They both immediately concluded “ghouls”. Unfortunately, neither of them were strong on Arabic folklore. They called up Danny, Sonja and Mike for further consultation. Mike let them know he had a prior engagement investigating a haunted orphanage. The other two made there way there, however.
In the mean time, at the orphanage, Mike casually questioned the staff and little Johny about the ghost. He learned that stories about “Mary” cropped all over the state along with similar ghost and monster stories. It's common for children with hard lives to try to come up with reasons why things are so bad. They weren't keen on him coming around and visiting regularly as it's very hard on the children if they get attached to someone who just stops coming around one day. They needed more of a commitment, so if he wanted to volunteer time to help out around the orphanage, they'd be happy to let him sign up. Mike also noticed that one of the janitors kept looking at him funny.
Back at the bar, Danny didn't know much about ghouls, but Sonja had learned a few things over the years of dealing with the undead. She informed everyone that ghouls aren't truly undead as they never died. Instead, they were some sort of infection or curse that afflicted normal humans. They aren't known for bravery, being opportunistic scavengers that prefer to take the recently dead. The only attack live prey if they have the advantage of surprise and numbers. Also, they shouldn't be underestimated because, despite their appearance, they are not animals. They are fully intelligent but must hide from human society due to their repulsive appearance and smell. As a result, they tend to "nest" in out of the way places. Also, while sunlight causes them no particular harm, ghouls are naturally nocturnal and dislike bright light.
After interviewing the people at the orphanage, Mike pretended to go home, but instead made his way around back to watch the dumpster area to see when the janitor came out to empty the garbage. He only had to wait about an hour or so, just a bit after sundown, when the man came out the back door carrying a couple bags of garbage. Mike confronted the man who immediately fell to his knees and started fervently praying. Mike could tell that this was true, honest, Belief. The janitor, Tom, begged to know why it was that the Lord had sent a messenger to him. Mike managed to calm the man down and learned that Tom could “feel” when Mary had visited. Every morning when he came in, he could tell if she had been there. If she had a new child would be missing. No one believed him, however. Obviously the Lord and sent Micheal to him in answer to his prayers to help the children. Mike instructed Tom to call him on his cell the next time he felt Mary's presence.
The group at the bar decided to investigate another of the cemeteries. They made their way across town and managed to sneak in quietly. They found their way to the mausoleum that had been broken open. The tomb inside was empty. No solid traces of who had broken in were found but Julian noticed that there were no religious paraphernalia anywhere in the mausoleum. He could tell that it had been removed by the dust patterns. That's when it occurred to Zeke and Sonja that they weren't feeling the usual effects of consecrated ground, nor had they anywhere in the cemetery. Something had desecrated the grounds. Just then, as Danny took a look out the broken door to make sure no one had noticed them poking around for the last hour or so, the beam of a flashlight hit him full in the face. “Who the hell are you and what are you doing in there.” the owner of the flash light demanded. “Don't try anything 'cause I've already called the cops.” The others shrank back further into the mausoleum to avoid being seen. Danny quickly rushed over, tripping the man to the ground and delivered a nerve strike that paralyzed him. This allowed him to shut off the flashlight and everyone made a break for it. The group split up and hoped that the caretaker wouldn't be able to give Danny's description to the police.