Tuesday, June 24
"Michelle" wakes up with a blinding headache and lower back ache in addition to the numerous aches and pains from cracked ribs, cuts, bruises and so on. When she stumbles into the bathroom, she finds a note on the sink that reads, "You're going to need these soon." Under the note is a variety of feminine hygiene products.
Zeke takes Detective Mariska Alerton, his police contact, out to lunch to find out why she's been trying to get hold of him over the last couple days. He finds out that she's gotten approval to hire him as an 'occult expert' as they've got a new case that just screams 'spooky'. He agrees to check out the corpses and crime scenes that afternoon.
Tinker manages to finally finish decrypting the database on Steve's computer and turns over the results to "Michelle", who shares them with Kayla. both are baffled by the columns of seemingly random numbers.
That evening, the group gets together to discuss what Zeke and "Michelle" have found out.
The case the police need Zeke's help with involves several members of the Sovereign Sons and Trey Kings having been burned to death over the last several days. Julian mentions that he remembered seeing a newspaper article about one of the incidents. The bodies were burned evenly and completely through, though their clothes and the buildings they were in were completely untouched. When Zeke checked one of the crime scenes personally, he couldn't find any of the markings you would normally expect from cult activity and he could detect no traces of spell-casting, though there was definite residual mystical energy. He asks Danny and Julian to check out the scenes with him as they can both sense things that he cannot.
"Michelle" gives the group a printout of the data that was in the database. It's five columns of numbers. Zeke recognizes the first column as a series of dates. After studying the numbers for a while, he is struck by why he finds the numbers in the second and third columns so familiar: he's seen them on his GPS; they're longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates. He plugs the coordinates into his GPS and finds that one of the coordinate pairs is a match to the old hunting shack out in the swap where they had collected their first Fairy Dust sample and the date for those coordinates is this coming Saturday. After that, it doesn't take long for the group to deduce that the last two columns are probably kilos and dollars. They surmise that this was Steve's schedule for picking up shipments of Fairy Dust and that he'd been steadily ramping up his operation.
quotesTuesday, June 24 (Evening)
Zeke tired and sore after his last several days of mistreatment, decides to call it an early night and heads home.
The rest of the group stays together to discuss their current situation and prioritize the things they need to do: deal with Nigel, deal with the other captured thralls, get "Michelle" and Molly switched back, follow up on the information they found in Steve's database and get rid of Danny's tail.
After the meeting, "Michelle" heads over to the warehouse to check on Nigel. As soon as he opens the box, Nigel attacks him but "Michelle" just lets him wear himself out. This doesn't take long due to Nigel's current condition and afterward, "Michelle" feeds him. It's pretty obvious that Nigel is now a broken man and after eating starts pleading with "Michelle" to be let go. After listening for a while, "Michelle" manifests his full angelic form and warns Nigel that he is always being watched. So, he will know if Nigel tells anyone the truth about what happened. Nigel runs out into the night to try to make it back home.
After Nigel leaves, "Michelle" calls the rest of the group to inform them of what happened.
After getting the news, Julian heads over to the warehouse with bleach, paint thinner and other cleaning supplies and attempts to scrub the scene. When he arrives, he just kind of shakes his head and sighs at the evidence of how Nigel was treated.
Wednesday, June 25
Watching the morning news, "Michelle" sees a report about a missing man being found by police after a mugging down in the fish market district.
Julian, just after hearing the same news report on the radio in his office at work, gets called into his superior's office. He is informed that a Detective Mariska Alerton of the Vibora Bay PD called asking if they could borrow him for a while. It turns out that one of their consultants, a cult expert by the name of Zeke, recommended Julian due to his expertise with Voodoo cults. Figuring it'll be good publicity for the department, Julian's boss orders him to report to Det. Alerton and give her whatever assistance is required.
Shortly before lunch, Julian gets in touch with Det. Alerton and gets his first look at the crime scene. He can see from the scene and the reports that there's pretty much no physical evidence that's been left behind by the killer. He finds the spot where the three bodies were burned in the front room. After taking a look around the room, Det. Alerton warns him that the next thing she's going to show him is something they've been working very hard to keep out of the news. He's taken into the back where three other bodies were found; a young woman and two children. Julian can sense that a very angry (practically berserk) undead spirit was what was behind the attack.
He asks Det. Alerton if he can call in a psychic he knows to see if she can get a read on the place. Det. Alerton agrees on the condition that the psychic is able to be discrete and willing to work for free. They had enough trouble getting the funding needed to hire Zeke. Julian calls Kayla and leaves her a voice mail.
Det. Alerton informs Julian that she technically should not do what she's about to do, but he obviously knows how to treat a crime scene so she's going to head back to the office to catch up on some of the many other cases she's dealing with. She leaves Julian the files for the other two locations.
After getting off work and cleaning up, Kayla heads over to meet Julian. Donning a pair of rubber gloves, she touches the areas where the bodies were found but it doesn't trigger any visions so the pair head off to the next scene.
In the mean time, Sonia is visited by two agents of the Trismegistus Council, Donald and Ewa. They take possession of the thralls after a bit of tasering, leading to Sonia's feelings of Taser-Envy. She asks them what they are going to do with the thralls. She's told that they'll be taken care of while they go through the withdrawal process, which can be very rough. After that, the council will make sure that what they remember of their time as thralls will be very vague and dream-like so as not to let too much information out into the general population.
Julian and Kayla arrive at the second scene; another apartment. In this one the four bodies were found around a card table where a poker game was apparently taking place when the attack occurred. Julian can definitely sense that the spirit was here. Like the first scene, the victims were members of the Sovereign Sons. Kayla again fails to trigger any visions and Julian remembers that she can only see the future, not the past. Kayla does find that the phone has caller ID and checks the list to see who is on it.
Julian calls up "Michelle" and asks him to come and take a look around. "Michelle" suggests that they call in Danny but Julian reminds him that they still have to get rid of Danny's police tail. "Michelle" calls Sonia and asks her to go to Susan and let her know the plan for getting her back into society. Then he heads out to meet Julian and Kayla at the third crime scene.
Sonia heads over to the safe house where Susan is staying. There, she finds Susan hanging out with Sensei John. Sonia tells Susan that she should tell the cops that she was abducted but never got a good look at her kidnappers because she was drugged. She managed to escape and ended up wandering the streets for several days, lost and confused while the drugs ran their course. Sensei John says that he knows a cop that should be able to help them out by being the one to “find” Susan.
After delivering the message, Sonia decides to take a drive up to the Creek reservation to visit Dr. Joe and get the shotgun pellets dug out of her arms. On her way, she calls up "Michelle" to let him know what happened. "Michelle" then calls up Danny and tells him, “We've manage to get your Susan problem taken care of.”
Julian, Kayla and "Michelle" meet up at the third crime scene. This is a small house in Trey Kings territory, on the east side of Cypress Grove Park. Downstairs is a meth lab where two of the bodies were found. Obviously, it's already been thoroughly gone over by the police. Two more bodies, another gang member and a young woman, were on the main floor. "Michelle" gets no sense of demonic spirits and Kayla gets no visions but Julian can again feel that the angry spirit was here.
Julian decides to hit the streets to see what the word is on the attacks among the gang community and find out if there is any chance that the two gangs were working together. "Michelle" decides to give Rabbi Levy a call to see if he might know something about vengeful spirits.
Julian spends a few hours asking around town and going over the police files. He finds out that there is no way that the two gangs were working together as they've been fighting pretty viciously lately. Just a couple weeks ago, a gas station got blown up during one of their firefights. Julian does learn the various known hang outs of the victims and gets the names of some of their associates.
Before calling up Rabbi Levi, "Michelle" calls up Tinker and asks her if she can match the phone number from the caller ID to their owners. When "Michelle" does call the Rabbi, he asks what he knows about vengeful spirits. Unfortunately, he doesn't give the Rabbi much information to go on but Rabbi Levi agrees to help if "Michelle" can get him some more information. "Michelle" calls up Julian and conferences him in on the call. Julian relays what he knows and Rabbi Levi points out that if someone blew up a gas station on top of him, he'd probably be pretty angry about it.
Julian calls up Det. Wheedle, his contact in the VBPD, and asks if he can dig up any information about the gang fight that led to the gas station explosion. Det. Wheedle manages to pull the file and passes on some of the particulars. There were two gas station attendants on duty and one had his son with him. That one, Renee Sardou, is survived by a wife and daughter. Also, there were anywhere between six and a dozen or more gang members on each side of the fight. Unfortunately, eye witness accounts become unreliable and vary quite a bit when there's a chance of catching a stray bullet.
Julian, Kayla and "Michelle" head over to the gas station to have a look around. It is, not surprisingly, a burned out wreck. Julian can sense the presence of the vengeful spirit all over the scene. While looking around, he remembers that one of the ingredients they still need for the body switching spell is 'ghost essence'.
While looking around, Kayla trips over a bit of rubble and Julian has to catch her. When he does, she immediately goes limp and falls to the ground as she's beset by one of her visions. She sees Julian aiming his shotgun at something but he curses as his gun jams. He's somewhere out in the woods. When she comes to, she tells him what she's seen.
The group decides to check on the widow to see if she can give them any more information. Once they get to her apartment building, they debate for a while on the best way to approach her. They decide to buzz up to the apartment and ask Mrs. Sardou if she'd be willing to answer a few questions for the police. Julian and Kayla are let into the building and walk past a bored looking security guard before taking the elevator up to the fourth floor.
Julian talks to Mrs. Sardou for a bit when the daughter, Sabrina, mentions that her daddy sometimes comes to visit her after she's gone to bed. Julian, pretending to humor the girl, asks her a few questions. He learns that daddy is now an “angel” and that sometimes he visits to ask her how she's doing and to let her know that she shouldn't worry about him. She shows him a picture that she drew of her daddy with red, possibly fiery, wings.
When Danny leaves work, he notices that he's not being followed by the police anymore.
After leaving the widow, "Michelle" heads over to Rabbi Levi's to give him the new information. The Rabbi is a little surprised to find a young woman coming to meet him and "Michelle" has to do a bit of convincing to tell him what is going on. Unfortunately, Rabbi Levi doesn't know any way to capture 'ghost essence'. He does tell "Michelle" that to get rid of a vengeful spirit, you either have to know the proper rituals to drive it into the next world or you have to satisfy whatever it's goals are.
Around sunset, the group meets at the coffee shop to compare notes. Sonia informs the group that she'll go visit some friends of hers to see if they have any useful information on dealing with non-corporeal undead. "Michelle" hands over the information Tinker gathered from the phone numbers. Several of the names are gang members with various priors and a couple are currently on parole. The group decides that they should look up these other gang members directly. They also come to the conclusion that they need to find a way to get to the spirit before it can finish it's attack and leave. They also have also find a way to capture some of its essence for the spell.
quotesWednesday, June25 (Zeke's Day Off)
Zeke spends most of the day recuperating. While fiddling with the body switch spell, he takes a look at the section that Julian had pointed out to him as being odd. After spending some time examining the passage, he comes to the conclusion that what the wording actually means is that the names of the subjects must be carved into the candles in such a way that they will be read properly when viewed in the mirror. Wednesday, June 25 (evening)After the meeting, each of the group head back to their respective homes. Julian gives Zeke a call and fills him in on what they've found so far. After getting off the phone, Zeke calls up Det. Alerton to give her a report but her desk phone is answered by Donald Montoya, Det. Alerton's partner and no fan of Zeke's. Zeke leaves a message with Det. Montoya. Thursday, June 26At about 8am, Zeke gets a phone call from Det. Alerton. After fumbling about to find the phone and untangle himself from his bed sheets at the same time, he answers the phone and agrees to meet with her over breakfast. When they meet, she's not very happy with the story about a vengeful ghost as she can't really put that into an official police report. Julian, still on loan to the VBPD, tries to contact his mentor for advice on handling ghosts but isn't able to get in touch with him. Instead, he goes and visits Juba, the crazy old swamp-rat that lives at the edge of one of Julian's patrol routes. Juba doesn't go in much for Voodoo and all that other superstitious nonsense but his "gran'ma" used to tell him old stories. According to those you usually have to do something to appease the ghost: proper burial, accomplish whatever it is they're trying to do and the like. Sometimes you can hold them off with salt, ash or a bible or some-such rot but that's always a "tem'rary" thing. After leaving Juba's place, Julian heads back home to do some research on trapping and banishing ghosts. He comes across a spell that he's never had the guts to try. It's all about trapping and stealing the essence of a Loa. He does some work on modifying it with his Necromantic knowledge and figures he's got a few things that just might work. First, he prepares a mason jar with a few different rituals and ingredients, including a specially prepared wax to seal it. This should be able to capture a portion of the ghost's essence if he can "dunk" the jar in the ghost. After that, he puts together a mixture of ash, salt and a few more exotic ingredients. He should be able to pour this into a circle on the ground while performing the proper rituals to create a circle to trap the ghost in. If he can lure the ghost into the circle and anoint it with fresh chicken blood, it should hold the ghost indefinitely. "Michelle" decides that he should tell Molly the truth about why she's been so hungry these last few weeks. He wisely decides to do so before Kayla gets home from work. He takes her downstairs to show her his freezer and explains what he keeps inside. He warns her about the physical and spiritual dangers of consuming demon flesh while they are not in their right bodies (actually he explains that it would be a bad idea for her even if she were in her right body). During the whole conversation there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but no demon flesh is consumed. "Michelle" calls up Zeke and tells him about the conversation with Molly (who is now sulking in her bedroom). He asks Zeke to get the freezer out of the house in order to remove temptation from both himself and Molly. Zeke calls up Julian to make use of his pickup (at least this time he's borrowing it for something legal). Julian is suitably embarrassed by his lack of a driver-side window and explains how it's a bad idea to try and balance on the back of a motorcycle in the rain while carrying a truck fender and door. When they get to "Michelle's" place, the three of them load the freezer into Julian's truck. "Michelle" explicitly asks not to know where the freezer is going. After they leave, Zeke and Julian take the freezer over to Danny's place for safe keeping, much to Danny's surprise. On the way, Zeke is reminded of one other incident of a mortal consuming infernal flesh (the alligator) and figures it's definitely a good idea to get the freezer away from "Michelle" and Molly. The group gets together after the freezer is dropped off to discuss how to go about luring out the ghost. They decide that if they can get enough of the Sovereign Sons and Trey Kings into one place, it should appear. They decide to start a rumor about the two gangs challenging each other to a fight in Cypress Grove Park and hope that they both show up. Danny talks to his friend, Marty Cho (who knows darn near everyone in town) to get the rumor mill started. The group goes to the park about an hour before the scheduled fight in order to set up the circle and get themselves in position. They're a bit worried as it looks like a serious thunder storm is on its way in. Julian decides to set up the circle under the shelter of a picnic pavilion. While Julian is preparing the circle, Zeke curiously watches over his shoulder and, as the preparations continue, grows disturbed by what he sees. Yes, the circle looks designed to hold a spirit, but it's also designed to summon the spirit that it's going to hold. Zeke tries explaining this to Julian but Julian is convinced that he's got the spell right and that his modifications are solid. As 11:00pm approaches, the group finds various hiding spots. It isn't long before the two gangs show up and start talking at one another. A variety of pistols, knives and a shotgun or two can be seen and there appears to be about 10 to 15 people on each side. Shortly after the two gangs arrive, Julian notices some motion coming in from another direction. Taking a moment to get a good look, he can see about a half-dozen men, heavily armed and possibly wearing body armor, coming in. He tries to get Zeke's attention but with the wind, rain and thunder, Zeke can't hear a thing. He finally responds when Julian throws a rock at him. However, he can't figure out what Julian is trying to tell him, so he decides to sneak over to Julian's position. Unfortunately, he slips in the mud about half way across the gap. One of the gang members spots him and shouts, "AMBUSH!" and that's when the chaos starts. quotesThursday, June 26 (late and stormy)
The two gangs start firing at one another, each suspecting the other of planning the ambush. Quite a bit of lead fills the air but not much of it hits anyone. However, the leader of the Trey Kings is quickly felled by a shotgun blast from the Sovereign Sons' leader.
The unknown "commandos" continue sneaking up through the woods toward the firefight.
Kayla thinks she spots one of the gang members that the team needs as bait and sneaks up to the edge of the firefight in spite of the risk of lead poisoning. As soon as she enters the circle of the park lamp's light, she's spotted by some of the Sovereign Sons and, thinking she's a Trey King, they open fire on her. Fortunately, the Sovereign Sons' leader's shotgun blast catches a Trey King that stepped the wrong way at a bad time. Kayla knocks out her target, which draws the attention of the Trey Kings as well, several of whom open fire on her, giving her a chance to show off her mad ninja dodging skills. She slings the KOed gang member over her shoulder and starts running toward the circle Julian had built to capture the ghost.
In the mean time, Julian runs from the tree he is hiding behind to tackle one of the "commandos". He manages a solid shoulder block that stuns his target, then uses his 'Putrid Touch' spell to nearly rot the man's leg right out of its socket. The man's screams alert his compatriots, who had just started firing on the two gangs. To provide some cover fire for Julian, Zeke unleashes a fireball into a tree that one "commando" was standing behind. As a result, the "commandos" open fire on both Zeke and Julian. Seeing all this, "Michelle" starts making his way over to provide assistance.
During the general chaos and mayhem, the ghost materializes above the lamppost and begins frying gang members indiscriminately. After suffering losses to gunfire, being fired on by unknown assailants that have apparently surrounded them and now a flaming ghost appearing, several members of both gangs have had enough and decide to flee. However, the leader of the Sovereign Sons decides to take a few shots at the "commandos" to no avail. Also a few of the Sovereign Sons try shooting the ghost, but the bullets have no effect.
Zeke fires another blast to finish setting the tree on fire, causing the "commando" under it to move off. The "commandos" as a group start moving up on Julian's position and concentrate their fire on both him and Zeke.
Zeke: "That guy's trying to shoot me with a sub-machine gun! That makes him a bad guy!"
Julian retreats back away from the "commandos" so he can make it to the ghost trapping circle that Kayla is carrying the unconscious gang member toward. While Julian retreats, Zeke decides to blast a "commando" directly, KOing him.
Zeke: "All right, I guess I'll shoot back."
The rest of the gang members that haven't been gunned down or immolated, including the leader of the Sovereign Sons, decide now's the time to run away. The ghost continues frying those gang members that have been shot down but aren't quite dead yet.
Two of the "commandos" grab the nearest of their fallen comrades and start pulling him back toward the tree line while the third maintains covering fire directed at Zeke. "Michelle" moves up on the firing "commando" to try cutting him down. Zeke follows "Michelle's" attack with a fire bolt, finishing off the "commando".
Julian makes his way over to the circle only to find that Kayla has marred the circle when she dumped the gang member inside.
Kayla: "But... but... I'm just a ninja!"
Julian, thinking quickly, starts making repairs to the circle as well as performing on-the-fly modifications of the spell to "suck" the ghost into it.
The ghost, having run out of gang members, starts heading toward the "bait", taking pot-shots at Sonia and Danny on the way. Danny fires back with a chi-bolt but finds the ghost to be a surprisingly elusive target.
Danny: "I'm slow, but I'm inaccurate."
Zeke and "Michelle" take on the remaining two upright "commandos". Both take several rounds of SMG fire but neither goes down. In fact, "Michelle" is barely hurt even though several shots pinged off his helmet. In spite of this obvious display of supernatural power and resilience, the "commandos" maintain their combat discipline and continue to perform a fighting withdrawal.
The ghost hits Julian with a blast of ghost-fire and he is dismayed to find that his bone armor spell offers no protection against the spiritual flames. Even with the pain of having his soul burned, he manages to finish fixing and modifying the circle and it starts drawing the ghost into it. As the ghost is drawn forward, it brushes against Kayla, who's a little slow at jumping out of the way, burning her with its ghost-fire aura. As it is pulled into the circle, it fries the "bait" and unleashes another blast a Julian.
"Michelle" and Zeke finish off the two "commandos" and start heading back toward the circle to assist.
Danny manages to distract the ghost with a chi bolt and this allows Julian to anoint the circle, trapping the ghost. The ghost rages as its flame seems unable to cross the boundary of the circle.
This leaves the group with two conundrums: how to get the ghost's essence without breaking the circle and how to permanently banish it.
"Michelle", being the most resilient, takes the enchanted mason jar from Julian and plunges his hand into the ghost. Part of the ghost's essence is captured within the jar but this action also breaks the circle and causes "Michelle" intense pain as his angelic nature does not protect him from the ghost-fire.
Unfortunately, it is at this time that the necromantic energy that Zeke sensed building up in the circle since before the start of the battle gets released. His attention is so focused on trying to anticipate what it is that the circle will summon, he fails to notice when the dead bodies of the gang members behind him start getting back up and shambling forward as zombies.
Sonia: "I recover from being creeped out."
Julian uses his magic to seal the jar and manages to summon up enough energy to re-seal the circle at the same time. Then he and Zeke start arguing about how to permanently get rid of the ghost. Mean while, the rest of the team decide the zombies need to be death with. Sonia fires a crossbow bolt into a zombie, but it just continues shambling forward.
Sonia: "Hey! This is a no-shambling zone."
Several members of the group can now hear gunfire from the tree line where the "commandos" were.
"Michelle's" fiery sword and Kayla's ninja-to seem to be the most effective at dismembering the zombies, though Sonia's crossbow does enough tissue damage to hamper them significantly as well. Danny, however, finds that unarmed strikes, even when chi-enhanced, aren't quite so effective. As zombies attempt to rend and tear while being hacked apart, Zeke and Julian continue their "discussion".
After several moments of hacking and slashing, the group has manged to whittle the the dozen or so zombies down to two. A few notice that the sounds of gunfire from the tree line have ceased. The last two zombies are finished off and "Michelle" goes over to offer his help in getting rid of the ghost.
Zeke: "This is going to look so fucked up on a police report."
Julian tries to use his necromantic might to banish the ghost but fails.
Julian [OOC]: "Oh, wait, Presence Attack. That's based off Presence, isn't it?"
"Michelle" locks himself into a contest of wills, drawing upon his holy might to try to banish the spirit but its own will proves exceptionally strong as it fights back.
Julian: "Stomp him into the dirt for Jesus!"
Kayla: "Judiasim doesn't believe in Jesus."
Julian: "For Buddah, Allah, Vishnu, whatever!"
Kayla sneaks over toward the tree line to see what the gun fire was all about. When she gets there, all of the "commandos" are gone and she can see marks where a couple of bodies were dragged away.
After several tense minutes in a battle of wills, "Michelle" starts showing signs of exhaustion as sweat pores over him. Finally, he manages to compel the ghost to "BE GONE!" and it vanishes from the circle with a wail of frustrated rage.
About then the sound of sirens (probably both police and fire) can be heard heading to the park. The group scatters, not wanting to have to answer awkward questions.
After getting home and cleaning up a bit, Zeke calls Det. Alerton. Fortunately she's up late dealing with a load of paperwork. He gives her his report on the evening's activities. She's not very happy with the story of ghosts, zombies, gang fights, "commandos", burning trees and what not. Then Zeke asks her to help him find out if the right bodies were put in the right graves after the gas station explosion. This doesn't improve her mood as, at a minimum, it will involve her pulling case files that aren't hers and may involve the exhumation of bodies.
Group awards
Everyone who was present for all three sessions (Julian, Danny, Kayla and "Michelle") get 3 EPs.
Those who made 2 sessions (Zeke & Sonia) get 2 EPs.