Episode 7 – Maneater

Session 1

Sunday, June 15 (11pm or so)

After getting back from taking out the drug dealers in the swamp, the group (minus Julian) head back to Joe's office in order to wait for Julian. It gets rather late and a couple people have to leave early so that they can make it to work.

Meanwhile, Julian assists the local sheriff with the dead and unconscious drug dealers. The sheriff calls in the DEA as this is way bigger than he can handle. The DEA eventually arrive and take over the scene. They ask Julian plenty of questions and he gives the planned explanation of checking out the swamp as a favor to the local authorities and just “happening” to run across a rival gang hit. The sheriff backs Julian up and also doesn't tell the DEA about the 4 men brought in earlier. It's close to 3 am when Julian gets back to Joe's office and he has just enough time to be able to drive home, grab a shower & change of clothes before heading in to work.

Monday, June 16

Julian's not in the office long before he's called in to the Director's office. Apparently, the press has already gotten word about the bust and want to interview the 'local hero'. The Director basically tells Julian to 'Go get 'em!' before throwing him to the wolves. Julian spends the day doing various TV and newspaper interviews and manages to come across okay. He's not the most exciting interview, but he manages to avoid tasting shoe leather. By the end of the day, he's decided that he's going to spend a few night's at Zeke's place in order to avoid any visits from Mr. Guy Sweetland.

Mike calls in sick to work (rather Molly does it for him) and he, Molly and Kayla all decide to stay at his place for the time being.

Zeke spends most of his day researching a way to get Mike and Molly back into their proper bodies. He pours through his personal library and eventually comes across an passing reference to 'The Rite of An-Kormarn', a spell that might be able to fix the problem. About mid-day, he gets a phone call from Sonia, who has gotten word of a child disappearing from an Orphanage in Port St. Joe. She's heading down to find out if it's connected to Mary.

That evening, the team gets contacted about an “animal attack” down in the Catalina neighborhood that had occurred sometime the previous night. They ask to get a copy of the investigation file so that they can look it over. In the mean time, Zeke and Danny build a 'box' to keep Nigel in so that he doesn't have to remain tied to a chair for days on end. Danny also ministers to the damage Nigel has suffered from a combination of dehydration, restricted circulation, rope burns and muscle spasms.

When they get the copy of the case file Zeke and Julian go over it. From the photos and coroner's reports, they can tell this was not an animal attack. The corpses are completely dismembered and nothing was eaten. From the coroner's notes, the wounds were apparently inflicted by a single creature who's bite and claw marks defy easy categorization. From the spread of the claw marks, the size of the paw suggests something about the size of a black bear. Some of the clothing and body parts bear markings identifying the victims as members of The Sovereign Sons.

Tuesday, June 17

Zeke contacts Alex Kingston, his magical paraphernalia provider to see if he has a copy of the spell. He's told to come down to the shop and take a look through the books 'in the back' (where the real stuff is kept). Zeke spends pretty much the rest of the day digging through the stacks and finds another reference to the spell that names a specific book it can be found in, “Tellius's Treatise on Spirit Trapping”. Unfortunately, there is no copy of that book in Alex's store. Zeke decides it's time to try finding “The Hidden Shelf”, a magical book store that supposedly wanders the city.

Julian spends his day dealing with more press.

That evening, Zeke hears a report of another animal attack over his police scanner. He gets the group together and they head down to the scene. The police already have the scene blocked off when the group arrives, so they can't see much. They can tell, however that there's a lot of blood spread over a wide area. In a nearby alley, they come across some shredded clothing (but no blood). The rest of the group gets out of the alley and Mike (still in Molly's body) screams to draw the attention of the police. Pretty soon they're cordoning off the alley and asking her some questions. S/he stammers on about seeing something running down the alley but not being able to get a good look at it. The police take her/im contact information and tell her/im that they may be wanting a formal statement later.

Wednesday, June 18

Julian spends most of the day at work out in the swamp in order to avoid any more reporters. Around lunch time, he finds a spot where he can get a cell signal and gets in touch with Riona, the lead singer/guitarist for Wild Hunt (a band who's members are all Fae-Blooded) to see if she knows where 'The Hidden Shelf' is. She tells him she'll get back to him.

Danny, through his police contacts, finds out that Susan was released from the hospital on Sunday night. He also finds out that Tom the janitor is no longer in intensive care and is making a remarkably fast recovery. Zeke and Danny decide to go visit Tom to make sure he hasn't been enthralled by Mary or anything else sinister. As soon as Zeke walks in the room, Tom freaks out and starts screaming at the top of his lungs while trying to claw his way through the far wall. As orderlies and security fill the room, Zeke and Danny decide it's best to make a casual exit from the hospital. Danny does get a glimpse of Tom's chi and can tell that it resonates with 'celestial' energy.

A few hours later, Mike goes to visit Tom. The hospital staff are a little more discerning about who gets to visit Tom but after sending an intern up to his room to ask, Mike is allowed in. Tom is surprised by Mike's new “manifestation” but takes it in stride. He then lets Mike know how relieved he is as, earlier that day, a demon appeared in his room wanting to torment him in unspeakable ways. Mike reassured Tom that the demon would no longer be returning.

While Mike and Tom are visiting, Julian gets called back by Riona and is told to be in the alley off Mable Lane at 7pm. Zeke, Danny and Julian are in the alley at 7 and a door appears in the blank walk in front of them...

Session 2

Wednesday, June 18 (7 pm)

Zeke, Danny, Julian and Mike step out of the rain and into The Hidden Shelf. As soon as they cross the threshold, Zeke and Julian can feel the shop's magical wards strip away the majority of their magical powers. They ask the attendant behind the counter, Ghillie, where they can find a copy of “Tellius's Treatise on Spirit Trapping” and are directed into a back corner of the shop. Zeke and Mike head over to that section to look for the book. Julian starts perusing the Voodoo section but wanders over into what appears to be the 'Slavic' section and comes across a couple books that might be about vampires. Unfortunately, they're all written in various Eastern European languages. He jots down their titles just in case. Danny heads over to the Asian book section and finds a few good books on Feng Shui.

After about a half hour in the store, it's obvious that Zeke & Mike are having a bit of trouble finding what they want. The fact that almost none of the titles are in English is making things difficult. Danny heads over to help them out and in about another hour, they find a copy of the book. Unfortunately, the rituals in the book are in various different languages: Arabic, Aramaic, Latin, Ancient Hebrew, Ancient Greek and several less recognizable.

They take the book to Ghillie who is still at the counter to find out what the price will be. She takes out what appears to be a magnifying glass and scans over the contents of the ritual Zeke indicates being interested in. Zeke offers to trade his knowledge of how to render infernal beings vulnerable to mortal weaponry. Mike throws in an offer of a vial of demon blood. After examining the blood and determining that it's from a 'Lurker in Shadows' she agrees to the trade but she wants Zeke to make a copy of his spell first so that she can ensure its quality.

Zeke takes a couple hours to make a nice and detailed write-up of the spell including variant ingredient lists, detailed diagrams and the like. Ghillie is impressed with the quality of his work and he's allowed to make a copy of the spell. She even lends him her “magnifying glass” which translates the language of the spell into something he can read. It takes a few more hours to finish copying the spell and sometime after midnight the team leaves the store with the spell in hand.

On the way home, Danny notices that an unmarked police car is following him.

Thursday, June 19

Julian decides to leave early for his morning patrol in order to continue avoiding the press. At one point, he gets a call from Sonia, who made it back into town the night before. She tells him about catching Mary's scent in the orphanage down in Port St. Joe and that it was very prominent on one of the desk clerks there. He tells her to go ahead and inform the rest of the group and arrange a meeting at the coffee shop after everyone gets off work.

When Julian heads back into the office for lunch, he finds an envelope on his desk. The return address is from Sweetland's Restaurant, though there is no postage on it. Feeling paranoi-- "cautious", he slides the envelope into a large folder rather than open it immediately.

Zeke continues researching the spell he acquired the night before.

Kayla spends a normal day at work and Mike/'Molly continues to call in "sick" and so ends up spending the day listening to Molly/Mike complain about always being hungry. Danny also spends a normal day at work.

At about 5:30, the group meets at the coffee shop where Julian reveals the letter he received. No one can detect any magical, demonic or physical danger presented by the letter so Julian reluctantly opens it. It turns out to be a dinner invitation from Mr. Guy Sweetland himself. It seems he wants to thank Julian for his civic service in helping bust some serious drug dealers.

Sonia informs the group about what she learned in the orphanage down in Port St. Joe.

Zeke lets the group know a few things he's discerned about the spell he copied: They will need 7 specially made ritual candles which, fortunately, have fairly common ingredients that go into their making. They will also need Mike and Molly's True Names so that they can be carved into the candles (Mike mentions that this might be a problem as he doesn't know his). They will need 'the essence of a ghost' to make a special ink for inscribing the circle. Finally, they will need a flawless mirror of moonsilver. He had already talked to his magical paraphernalia provider who can get Zeke in contact with a few good chandlers that specialize in ritual candles. However, the group is on its own for the 'ghost essence' and 'moonsilver' (which is apparently a type of Faerie metal).

Julian has to rush home and get into his dress uniform to go meet with Sweetland at 7 pm. After changing, he heads to the restaurant and the rest of the group waits nearby in case there is trouble. Julian is led into a private dining area where he is eventually joined by Mr. Sweetland. No overt threats are made and the entire conversation is cordial but certain key things are brought to Julian's attention:

It turns out that Mr. Sweetland has "friends" in the DEA and there are rumors of several irregularities being found at the scene of the drug bust Julian was involved in that are making the DEA suspicious of his story. It seems that the group that performed the hit were very good at cleaning up after themselves. The evidence they did find along with testimony from the drug runners left alive suggests that there couldn't have been more than 8 or 10 attackers who took out roughly twice their number without taking any losses. This make it seem like a pro hit rather than just a gang fight. One of the drug cases had been opened and rifled through but there was no evidence of anything being taken from the scene. The wounds on the drug runners were very odd (cuts and burns plus wounds that looked to have been inflicted by shotguns and arrows though neither shells nor arrows were found). Also, Julian's timing was a little too fortuitous. Had he been there a bit earlier, he apparently would have walked into the middle of a fight. A little bit later and he wouldn't have heard the fighting and would potentially have blundered into their post-fight clean-up. Mr. Sweetland, of course, believes that these are simply unjustified rumors and that there isn't really any evidence.

He also mentioned that he's heard about the recent "animal attacks" that have been occurring around town. In fact, some compatriots of his were victims of an attack last night. He understands that Julian is a bit of an expert in these kinds of matters; after all, there was all that alligator business a week ago. Also, several people with "alternative" belief systems swear that Julian is a reliable person for dealing with problems that fall outside the experience of mundane authorities. So, he has not yet informed the police of the attack in the hopes that Julian would lend his expertise and look into the matter first. In return, he'll talk to his friends in the DEA about squashing the ridiculous rumors surrounding the drug bust and, if it turns out there is some truth there, Mr. Sweetland knows some very good lawyers.

Finally, as Julian leaves, Mr. Sweetland suggests that he should talk to his friends about proper firearm safety as one of Mr. Sweetland's associates just recently got his nose broken in "an unfortunate incident involving a handgun".

After Julian's meeting, he heads back home to change again. The team waits for dark and then heads out to the address Mr. Sweetland had given for the attack. The first thing the group notices is the police tail that's been following Danny. After a brief discussion about the importance of sharing information with the rest of the team the group decides to postpone the investigation. Danny is sent home to stay out of trouble and the police apparently continue following him rather than the rest of the group.

Zeke calls Det. Mariska Alerton to find out why Danny is being followed. It turns out that the woman Danny was suspected of stalking, Susan, disappeared after checking out of the hospital. Zeke warns her that the "animal attacks" aren't any kind of animal and that may actually be that Susan's been "infected" with something mystical.

While Danny cools his heels at home, Zeke and Julian decide to head back over to the scene of the attack on Sweetland's men. When they return, this time sans police observation, they look around and find that the location is a temp agency. After looking around outside and noting the locations of the security cameras they try the front door and find it unlocked.

The front of the shop looks like any a typical temp agency. However, when they go to the back it is obviously just a front. In the back they find a large open room that was apparently used to store something. The indentations in the carpet suggest that whatever was there had been moved recently. Like the other attacks, the area was covered in blood and body parts. Now that they were inside, they could tell that the back door had been recently replaced. The pair are careful not to disturb any bodies or leave any tracks in the blood and gore, which does hamper their investigation some. While taking pictures, Julian notices that some spots on the far wall, near the back door, appear to have been recently painted over. The size would be consistent with patching a bullet hole.

While Zeke and Julian were conducting their investigation, Susan and Kayla set about finding out where Susan lives so that they can try to find any evidence from that end. They learn her last name, Dean, by checking the missing persons reports in the newspaper. They then check the phone book and find two Susan Deans listed. They decide to try the address closest to the first attack, which is located in Catalina. Kayla climbs up to the apartment's rear balcony and jimmys her way inside to let Sonia in. They take a look around and confirm that this is the Susan Dean they were looking for. Kayla comes across Susan's diary and soon as she touches it, she collapses into one of her visions: trapped frustration; muted rage and hunger, as though experienced through some kind of filter; muted blues and greens but vivid reds and yellows; claws, fur, blood; charging someone, Danny, though he's radiating some sort of yellow-orange glow... Then she wakes up.

The team re-convenes at Wal-Mart to discuss their findings. Danny shows up after everyone else in order to not appear to be one of them. They discuss ways of ditching Danny's tail but ultimately decide not to in order to avoid making the police even more suspicious. It's decided that their next step will be to talk to Sensei John, Susan's Ninjitsu instructor, after his Friday evening class.

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Session 3

Friday, June 20

Julian looks into the temp agency he and Zeke had investigated the night before and finds the name of the owning company. He also gets the names of a few other companies owned by the same parent company (a couple of warehouses, a construction company and a line of check cashing and pawn shops). While working on all this and performing his normal duties, he also gives Zeke a call and leaves him a message to call back.

Sonia and "Michelle" decide they should check on Nigel as it's been a few days. They find his "pen" is a mess. Nigel himself is huddled in the corner covered in his own vomit. He's pale, sweating and shaking. "Michelle" recognizes these as possible withdrawal symptoms. They clean up Nigel as best they can as well as his "pen" and leave him more Gatorade and food.

Everyone else spends a relatively normal day at work.

Friday Evening

Julian heads over to Sensei John's dojo to scope out the place before Danny gets there and ask a few questions of his own. He watches a beginners class and feigns interest in getting some information about membership. The class ends about 9 pm and Julian takes this opportunity to "interview" Sensei John. Julian identifies himself as a park ranger that occasionally looks into some "weird" cases on behalf of the police (like the alligator incident from a couple weeks ago and the recent string of animal attacks). He ask if Sensei John knows anything about Susan Dean's disappearance and informs him that she may have been "infected" with something. Sensei John only knows that Susan hasn't been in class since she was mugged a week ago. Julian can also tell that Sensei John isn't really buying Julian's story about why he's interested in the case.

In the mean time, Kayla climbs up to the roof of a building across the street so that she as a good view of the dojo. Danny concentrates on losing his police tail. He heads down to a street that has lots of late night shopping, food and popular hangouts and appears to loose them in the foot traffic. Afterwards he walks over to the dojo.

Shortly after Julian leaves, Sensei John locks the door and heads into the back, turning out the lights on the way. Danny "sneaks" up to the door and Kayla is embarrassed on his behalf at his clumsiness. He picks the lock and lets himself in. He turns on the lights and calls out to Sensei John, who responds by asking the intruder to identify himself. When Danny let's him know who he is, Sensei John comes back into the main training area. As the two talk, Sensei John casually walks toward the school's weapon rack. Danny informs him that something bad has happened to Susan but he didn't have anything to do with it. He tries to explain about being a Spirit Hunter but Sensei John is a bit skeptical.

Kayla, from her perch, just barely notices something large and hairy crawling down the side of a building into an alley next to the dojo. She jumps down to the street, grunting from the impact, and speed dials Julian. The beast charges around the corner and through one of the dojo's plate glass windows, surprising Danny.

Sensei John, with a look of shock on his face but very fast reflexes, swiftly unsheathes a sword from its wall mounting and readies himself. Danny unleashes a quick attack at the beast but misses. The creature charges Sensei John who manages to deflect the attack and draws a bit of blood on the counter-attack but the strike doesn't bite nearly as deep as it should. Sensei John and Danny both fight the beast but don't seem to be able to significantly harm it. At one point, when the beast clips Sensei John's arm with a claw, Danny is surprised to learn that SJ knows the "Iron Shirt" technique.

After hanging up on Julian, Kayla charges across the street but hears flute music coming from the building the beast had climbed down. She alters her course and quickly climbs the building's fire escape. Once she reaches the roof, she spots a group of five men. The flute player is a tall blond young man who has some kind of sword sheathed at his side. The other four look to be street thugs, two of which are carrying guns and another a baseball bat. Kayla charges the group, slicing open the leg of one. In a panicked response, he fires off his pistol and doesn't come close to hitting. The others also attack, the fourth pulling out a switch blade, and several come close but none actually hit her. The flute player puts away his instrument and draws his sword while Kayla cuts down the switchblade user in one stroke. The flute-player attacks and something seems vaguely familiar about the way he does but Kayla's too busy defending herself to figure out what.

Back in the dojo, Sensei John puts some distance between himself and the beast by diving out the window it had shattered. He lobs some sort of round object back at it. Danny dives out of the way, not knowing what it is. Suddenly the dojo is filled with thick black smoke and Danny feels himself being drug out by Sensei John.

With amazing precision, Kayla cuts down the flute player, causing him to fall off the edge of the roof. She dives off after him while the three remaining thugs turn and run. She drives her sword through the flute player's guts as she lands.

Sensei John continues dragging Danny away from the dojo as they can hear the beast growling and snuffling around inside. Julian pulls up in his pickup just as Sensei John and Danny reach the curb. Danny lets SJ know that Julian is with him. Kayla quickly snatches the flute and stashes it in an inner pocket of her costume. The beast comes charging out of the remaining dojo window and Julian unleashes a shotgun blast, catching it in a forepaw but it doesn't slow down a bit.

Sense John throws himself and Danny into the back of the pickup. The creature alters course slightly and charges Julian but ends up eviscerating the fender of his truck. Kayla starts running toward the group and Sensei John leaps out of the bed of the truck, shouting something about the beast being unkillable, and throws Julian into the truck bed next to Danny who is getting up. SJ dives into the cab, slamming the door just as Danny leaps over the beast to throw a strike at its back. The beast wrenches the door off the cab as SJ floors the accelerator and the truck takes off. Kayla leaps into the truck bed next to Julian as it passes and the beast rushes after them. Julian unleashes another shot as it closes but it hardly notices the shot. However, the truck picks up speed and quickly out-paces the beast, leaving Danny alone on the street with the sound of sirens in the distance. He decides to leave in the opposite direction.

Julian directs SJ back to his house and calls Mike and Sonia. Everyone meets at Julian's place where Mike and Sonia learn what happened. SJ is introduced around to the group, who they are and what they do. Sonia and Kayla keep an eye out for the beast while Sensei John and the rest of the group compare notes. "Michelle" takes a look at the flute but can't make anything out of it. While ruminating on the fight, it occurs to Kayla that the flute-player's attack was very much like a Ninjitsu sword strike.

While talking to Sensei John about who would want to do something like this to Susan or why they would send the beast after him, it comes out that Susan and Steve (Sensei John's other top student) didn't get along well. Of course, Steve didn't get along with anyone. When Kayla describes the flute player, SJ confirms that it was Steve.

"Michelle" gives Danny a lift back to his scooter, where he recovers his police tail as well before heading home. Sonia gives Sensei John a lift back to his apartment so he can grab a change of clothes. There is a message on his answering machine from the police about an incident at his dojo. The pair concoct a cover story about being out on a date when the attack occurred.

They head back to the dojo where Sensei John is able to give a statement to the police and identify Steve's body. Sonia is impressed by SJ's ability to convey surprise and shock and apparently has the cops lapping up every word of his cover story as if it were gospel truth.

Sensei John collects his car and the two meet "Michelle" back at Julian's place where they and the rest of the group spend the night.

Saturday, June 21

Julian and "Michelle" head out to find a replacement door and fender for Julian's truck and find that the day has started out nice and rainy. As the day goes on, it develops into a full-blown thunder storm. Of course, they have to do all this on "Michelle's" motorcycle. While out, they stop by to knock on Zeke's door but no one answers.

Sensei John, Danny, Sonia and Kayla head back to the dojo (after Danny tries to loose his tail again). SJ calls his insurance agent and takes some photos while Kayla and Sonia look around. Sonia catches the beast's scent and knows she'd be able to recognize it again if she smelled it. Kayla, in spite of touching nearly everything in the dojo, is unable to trigger a vision. Danny helps SJ board up his windows, after which SJ pulls Steve's membership information from his office so that they have Steve's address. After that, they all head back to SJ's apartment.

Kayla again attempts to trigger a vision (unsuccessfully) and SJ is mildly put out by her walking around and touching all his stuff. There is a message on his answering machine from a mildly panicked Susan asking him to call her. He gives her a call and tries to calm her down. He finds out that she's back at her apartment and the group heads over.

They talk with Susan to find out what she knows. She has only vague dream-like memories of things after the night of the mugging. She remembers feeling really sick while walking home after a night out at a bar with some friends the night before the mugging. While the interview is going on, Kayla is still unable to trigger a vision while walking all over the apartment and touching everything in it (including Susan).

"Michelle" offers Susan the use of one of his safe houses while she tries to figure out what she's going to tell the cops about her missing week. After that, the group decides that they need to go check out Steve's apartment.

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