Saturday, June 21 (afternoon)
While "Michelle" and Julian are out hunting for truck parts, Sonia and Kayla head off in search of Steve's home to see if they can gather any clues. They track down the address to a gated subdivision in the Far Easton district. They find a nicely concealed spot to climb the subdivision wall and get a bit turned around among all the cul-de-sacs but eventually manage to find his condo. After breaking in they take a couple hours to dig through his stuff, trying to be careful not to leave any traces. They find that he was an avid reader of classic literature in various languages and also had a large collection of classic films. In his office they find his laptop and, after a call to Julian, decide to take it with them. They then wait until sundown to make their way back out of the subdivision.
Julian and "Michelle" spend the whole afternoon hunting down a new door and fender for Julian's truck and eventually manage to find them. Julian gets the call from Kayla while negotiating the final price on the parts. Then the two drive the parts back to Julian's place. Unfortunately, Julian finds it rather hard to simultaneously carry a fender and a truck door while balancing on the back of "Michelle's" motorcycle. Julian manages to not loose his seat but he's not so fortunate with the door and fender, which get a few new scrapes and dents when they hit the pavement. The door's window also shatters. As they are picking up the pieces a police officer pulls up. Fortunately, the officer recognizes Julian from the news reports and is willing to let them off with a warning. After the officer leaves Julian calls Kayla and asks her to come pick them up with her car; thus avoiding any further mishaps on the way home.
When Kayla and "Michelle" get back to "Michelle's" place they hand the laptop over to Tinker to see if he can find out what's on it.
Sunday, June 22 (morning)
When Julian heads out to get his morning paper, he finds an unmarked manila envelope on his doorstep. When Danny comes over to to help Julian with repairs, the envelope is still sitting in the middle of Julian's living room floor, unopened. Danny heads out to the back to set things up and hunt down a tarp to keep the rain off their heads. Julian eventually works up the nerve to open the envelope and inside he finds surveillance photos of himself entering and leaving Sweetland's restaurant, evidence photos of Julian's old door and fender, the coroner's report on Steve and an unnamed man found on the nearby rooftop and a disposable cell phone.
Julian checks the phone's message history and finds a single out-going call. He hits 'redial' and Agent Deitel (Julian's contact in the DEA) answers. Agent Deitel explains that Julian has ended up on the DEA's radar after the business with the drug bust and then meeting with Sweetland (who the DEA has had under surveillance for a while). He's told that there's pressure coming 'from above' to consider Julian a 'dead-end' but that the agent in charge of the investigation is a bit of a bulldog. Julian is told not to call Agent Deitel at the office or at home. He's to use only the cell phone in the envelope to call this one number and not use it for anything else.
After the phone conversation, Julian goes out back to give Danny a hand and the two spend a damp day on truck repairs. When Danny leaves, Julian notices the car across the street pull out to follow Danny and Julian gives the two officers inside a friendly wave.
In the mean time, Tinker has managed to break into Steve's computer. He finds encrypted email files and an entire encrypted hard drive.
Sunday, June 22 (afternoon)
Sonia and "Michelle" head over to the warehouse to check on Nigel. They find him in marginally better condition and "Michelle" cleans up Nigel while Sonia cleans out his 'pen'. While cleaning him up, "Michelle" manages to talk to Nigel. He's not terribly cooperative at first as he's still angry over being held prisoner and "tortured" over the last two weeks. However, "Michelle" manages to learn that he had scheduled meetings with Mary every Wednesday in his mirror. He also finds out that drinking Mary's blood, that first time, just seemed like a good idea at the time. Once he started drinking it, it make him feel much stronger, more energetic and made his senses sharper. Now Nigel is worried about what may happen to his family and that they probably think he's dead.
Kayla has become worried that no one has heard from Zeke for the past four days and goes to his apartment. However, when she knocks, no one answers his door, so she breaks in. She finds no one home. His apartment is meticulously clean with the exception of the bathroom where things are scattered all over. She becomes more worried and calls Julian who heads over shortly after Danny leaves.
When he arrives, Julian can tell that there are definite signs of a struggle in the bathroom. There is a partial foot-print on the sink and there are also fingerprints on the mirror which look like what would be found on a doorway when someone is forcibly pulled through. He also finds Zeke's magical rod in his lab where he was working on the body switching spell. Looking at the spell, Julian notes an odd passage about 'the light of the candles reflected in the mirror making all appear right'. However, he's not sure what it is about that passage that bothers him. Not wanting to mess with Zeke's work in progress, Julian leaves the notes and spell as he found them and he and Kayla take the mirror off Julian's medicine cabinet and head over to the group's weekly meeting with Alejandro.
Sunday, June 22 (evening)
The group talk with Alejandro and explain about Zeke going missing. He takes them downstairs to his own lab, which is just off the restaurant's dry storage room. When the mirror is revealed, Danny can see that it's not reflecting chi the way a mirror normally would. There are small "cracks" where chi is flowing back and forth. Alejandro can detect residual magic in the mirror. He figures that he might be able to devise a finding spell using the mirror and a few personal items of Zeke's. Kayla and Julian head back to Zeke's apartment to see what they can find.
In the mean time, Sonia and "Michelle" ask Alejandro if he knows where the can get a "moonsilver mirror" for the body-swap spell but he, personally, doesn't know where to get one. "Michelle" also confesses to Alejandro about the Nigel situation. Alejandro is not happy learning about this as the group's purpose is to protect people form magical predators and threats, not become them.
Zeke and Kayla return with Zeke's magical rod, his diary of poems and his toothbrush. The group leaves as Alejandro begins work on the finding spell.
Monday, June 23 (morning)
Everyone goes to work and let's Alejandro and Tinker do their things.
Monday, June 23 (afternoon)
Tinker has managed to break the encryption on the email files and on the hard drive. He's found several emails containing vague references to dates, times and dollar amounts. Kayla and "Michelle" conclude that Steve must have been a dealer and that these were sales appointments. On the encrypted drive, Tinker has found a database that is, itself, encrypted and she starts working on breaking into that.
Alejandro informs the group that he's completed the spell. Julian calls off work with an appointment to get his truck window repaired. Danny calls off work to find a vehicle better suited to Florida's rainy season than the moped he's currently driving. He finds a beat up used economy car that smells strongly of feet, has "mushy" brakes and is sluggish both to start up and turn off.
When the group arrives at Alejandro's lab, he's assembled a locket for them. Inside the locket are ground up bits of the mirror, scraps of paper from the poetry journal and ground up bits from Zeke's spell rod. When Julian dangles the locket from its chain and thinks about finding Zeke, the locket pulls in an eastward direction. Piling into Kayla and Danny's cars (with "Michelle" choosing to take her own bike in spite of the rain), the group proceeds to follow the locket.
quotesMonday, June 23 (late afternoon)
The group follows the locket which leads them out of town. They travel the highway and find emselves heading toward the nearby town of Vicksburg. At the outskirts of town, the locket leads them to a decommissioned high school. They circle the property once just to make sure. They then drive a little further down the road and about a mile or so away they find a park-and-ride lot in which to leave their cars.
After a damp walk back up to the school, the group head around to the back to sneak in. Climbing the fence proves easy enough but Julian and Mike find the landing a tad harder and messier. Mike's landing isn't as unpleasant since Julian (involuntarily) cushioned his fall. They sneak up to the back door in the dim light of a rainy late afternoon. The door is chained shut, but Kayla makes quick work of that and the team is greeted by ghoul-stench as soon as they slip inside. Sonia can also sense the presence of a vampire somewhere on the school grounds. Julian steps back out to summon his bone armor.
While doing that, a pack of 4 ghouls charges the group from down a side hallway. Kayla and Danny step up to engage, quickly downing two of the group. Danny tells the rest of the team to hunt for Zeke as they've got things under control. "Michelle", now in full angel mode, charges down the hall with the rest of the group following.
"Michelle" and crew eventually come to a stairwell heading both up and down one floor. They elect to head down and continue following the locket. Meanwhile, Danny and Kayla drop another ghoul and give chase as the last one takes off running. They quickly run it down and finish it off. Certain that any element of surprise they may have had is completely gone, they set out to try to catch up to the rest of the group.
They catch up shortly before "Michelle" and the rest find the locket pointing toward a door marked maintenance. Kayla gives the door a quick check to see if its open and as the door opens a crack, the ghoul on the other side yanks it open. The ghoul then swipes at her. She engages the ghoul and can see Zeke tied to a chair just past the ghoul. Next to him in the small room is a large ornate mirror.
Seeing an opening, Danny tumbles past the combatants and notices a pair of magical circles inscribed on the floor. Unfortunately, he's already crossed them.
As Kayla is finishing off the ghoul, a man bearing a strong resemblance to Zeke steps out of the mirror. Kayla recognizes him as Ormyas, Zeke's demon. Kayla removes Zeke's gag and he tries to warn them to stop Ormyas. Ormyas raises his hands, and out in the hallway three beings appear. They are all roughly human-sized though obviously not human beings. They all have black leathery skin and braided whips where their arms should be. Danny moves up to attack Ormyas but is forced back as a wave of mental pain sweeps through his body.
In the hallway, Julian, Sonia and "Michelle" engage the whip-beasts. Sonia's crossbow and Julian's gun don't seem to be as effective as "Michelle's" angelic fire-infused machette. The beasts themselves, however, make use of their long reach and whipping arms to keep the three heroes busy.
Zeke yells at Danny to block Ormyas's vision while Kayla cuts him free. Danny grabs Ormyas around the head and holds on for all he's worth. Ormyas, unfortunately, is unable to break Danny's grip. When Zeke tries to stand, he finds his muscles have cramped severely and he can barely walk. However, he appropriates Kayla's sword and begins trying to awkwardly carve a new containment rune in his own chest.
Thinking quickly, Kayla manages to sneak past Danny and Ormyas and begins smashing the mirror. As she jumps up and down on the mirror's remnants, Ormyas vanishes. Outside, "Michelle" finishes off two of the whip beasts and Sonia and Julian account for the third. "Michelle", once the fury of the battle has died down, she can sense that they are a form of minor demon. Zeke identifies them as 'Wielders of the Lash', a type of minor torment demon.
There is a brief debate as to the best way for Zeke to finish slicing himself up to complete the rune, including the idea of breaking Kayla's sword (an idea that she's to terribly thrilled with). Sonia offers up the head of one of her silver arrows, which suits Zeke's needs nicely and proves to be slightly less likely to open a major blood vessel.
After Zeke's done with his self-mutilation session, the group heads outside to hopefully avoid being ambushed while they're injured. They quickly make their way back outside and safely back in the fading sunlight they take stock of their situation. After a bit of debate, they decide that now is their best chance to take Mary down. If they leave now, she'll just find a new hiding place and they'll be back to square one.
Resolved to finish this, they head back into the school. Sonia combines her ability to sense the undead (and vampires specifically) with "Michelle's" tracking skills. While making their way through the school to find their nemesis, a couple members can sense that they are being followed. Kayla and Danny sneak a short way down a side hallway to try to ambush their pursuers but after several moments, no one follows. A quiet noise is the only warning they get as the trio of ghouls, who had snuck around the long way when they noticed two of the group separating off, attack them from behind. A desperate fight begins with three on two odds. The rest of the group hears the fight and realizes that something's gone wrong. When the full group arrives, the three ghouls are finished off in short order.
After taking a few moments to tend to new wounds, the group presses on. Eventually Sonia and "Michelle" lead the group to a door marked "Nurse's Office". Stepping forward, "Michelle" kicks in the door...
quotesMonday, June 23 (late afternoon)
Inside the room, the group can see that the nurse's office has had a wall knocked out to join it with a neighboring classroom. The floor is covered in rugs and heavy drapes hang from the walls. There are several free-standing mirrors scattered around the room and at the far end is a large bed in which Mary lies. Flanking the bed are two ghoul bodyguards.
"Michelle" charges into the room at one of the ghouls. Sonia follows after, quickly unleashing a crossbow bolt at the sleeping Mary. Only after the bolt is released does she realize that it's really a ghoul glamored to look like Mary.
The ghoul being charged steps up to engage "Michelle", and the other ghoul reveals itself to be the real Mary, who charges forward and drops Sonia with a single slash of her claws.
The rest of the group piles into the room with Zeke and Julian staying out in the hall in case of reinforcements. Danny moves over to one of the mirrors and smashes it. He then turns to assist Kayla in attacking Mary while "Michelle" and the ghoul take turns swiping at one another. Julian enters the room from the classroom door and shoots Mary in the back and taunting her.
Several human thralls step through the mirrors and open fire on the heroes with pistols. Zeke steps into the room via the classroom door and knocks one of the mirrors over onto one of the gunmen, who seems to disappear. In return, he is shot in the thigh from across the room. He tries the same trick with another nearby mirror but the gunman steps aside just in time.
Mary continues to fight with Julian, Kayla and Danny. However, having to split her attention is seriously hampering her and she takes a couple of serious shots. The mirror that was knocked over first is picked up from the other side and the gunman steps back through. Zeke takes the thrall's pistol from him but gets shot again by the thrall on the other side of the room. The disarmed thrall then steps forward and grabs Zeke up in a bearhug.
"Michelle" finally manages to dispatch the ghoul she's been fighting but drops unconscious when shot by a newly arriving human thrall with a shotgun. Mary makes multiple attempts to grab one of the heroes fighting with her but they take turns luring and dodging while the other two attack. Eventually, Mary grabs Sonia, who is just starting to come to, and pulls her through one of the mirrors.
Julian takes the shotgun away from the thrall that shot "Michelle". He then charges up to the mirror. He can see that Mary is in a smaller room with a bricked-up doorway and two other mirrors. He fires a point-blank shotgun blast at Mary. Unfortunately, some of the scatter-shot also catches Sonia, sending her back to dreamland. Kayla rushes up behind Julian and pushes him through the mirror but doesn't have enough momentum to carry herself through.
Marry attempts to throw Sonia through one of the other mirrors and Julian tries to throw himself in the way but is a hair too late. Kayla leaps through the mirror and places herself between Mary and the second mirror to keep Mary from escaping through it. Danny charges the mirror in the 'bedroom' and throws a kick through it at Mary.
As Zeke continues to struggle with the thrall that has him bearhugged, three of the others run around to the opposite door to get behind him. However, the first one to get into position hesitates at the thought of shooting his companion and loses the opportunity. The last thrall realizes that "Michelle" is starting to come around and fires his pistol at her. However, her angelic armor absorbs the shot completely. "Michelle" swiftly gets back to her feet and leaps across the room to dispatch the thrall.
Mary charges Julian, carrying him through the mirror with her. She then attempts to throw him back through the mirror but he braces himself and she merely ends up ripping his shirt.
Two of the three thralls who flanked Zeke open fire (the third having lost his shotgun to Julian). Fortunately, Zeke manages to twist himself in time to put the thrall holding him between himself and the gunshots. One of the shots hit, stunning him, allowing Zeke to shove himself free. Michelle dives between the two of them and charges the thralls down the hall. The unarmed thrall sees a vengeful warrior angel charging at him with sword blazing and decides that it would be a good idea to be anywhere else.
Julian, recovering from the attempted throw, swings his shotgun around at hip level and blasts Mary full in the gut, doubling her over and dropping her to one knee. Kayla follows up with an attack through the mirror, catching Mary in the side of the head. However, due to Mary's vampiric resilience, the blow feels to Kayla more like hitting a wall with a steel pipe. Mary does keel over unconscious though. Danny follows up with a full strength punch to the head to keep her down.
Zeke fires both his pistols, dropping the thrall that had grabbed him. "Michelle" chops down another of the thralls while Danny rushes back into the 'bedroom' to assist his comrades. Zeke unleashes a hellfire blast that completely incinerates the final thrall.
After the battle, the group takes stock of their situation. Sonia catches the scent of children and they are tracked down to a locked classroom. Tom the Janitor is called to come take the children and turn them over to the police. The group remembers to have Zeke out of sight when Tom shows up, however Tom is rather unnerved at the sight of Sonia's 'monstrous aura' ("It's... it's... hungry and it wants to eat me. I can tell.") After calming Tom down, they concoct a story about about Tom happening to see the children being led into the school and how he managed to sneak in and rescue them.
After Tom leaves, Mary's head is separated from her body and the two are burned with the ashes scattered separately. After tossing the ghouls into the small room with 3 mirrors all the mirrors in the school are smashed to make sure any remaining enchantments on them are broken.
The two surviving human thralls are taken to the home of Victor Harker (Sonia's rich friend who finances her vampire hunting activities). They are locked into a basement storage room until a couple of Trismegistus Council members can come collect them for rehabilitation.
Finally, after they get back to Vibora Bay, realizing they need a doctor, Julian calls up Joe, the Creek Medicine Man they'd helped a few weeks back. He asks if Joe can patch up him and his friends who'd had a nasty "hunting accident".
quotesGroup awards
Everyone who was present for all three sessions (Julian, Danny, Sonia, Kayla and "Michelle" get 3 EPs.
Zeke gets 2 EPs.