Sledge's Faux Pas

Friday Morning, June 13

Ebony was on watch. "Mister Fez" left the apartment, and Ebony followed him to the parking garage. He drove off in his Chevy Caprice. She returned to the watch, and soon after, the other older woman (she guessed Mrs Khalfani) left. Ebony followed her, and she went to a nearby supermarket on foot.

Ebony phoned it in, so Sledge Hammer and Mort joined her. They ambushed poor Mrs Khalfani, shot her up, and left her, bandaged and unconscious, in a skip in an alley. Apart from the groceries, they found $1000 and the apartment keys on her.

Summoning the rest of the group (Jacob and Juan), they entered the apartment building, then burst into the apartment itself. Safiya and Osiris were there, but put up no resistance when threatened with guns and knives. They were soon zip-tied to the chairs in the kitchen, and gagged.

The apartment appeared totally normal with standard accouterments and furnishings, with two bedrooms, an open-plan living area with kitchen, bathroom and shower.

However, in the hallway was a door, presumably down to the basement, cold to the touch. In fact, it was so cold that the door handle was beaded with ice, and was steaming. No-one was brave enough to open it, so they went back to question the brother and sister.

Juan was groping away on the squirming Safiya, when he noticed a tattoo of a hieroglyph on the nape of her neck. Mort took a picture of it, with his phone, planning to send it to Abu to get it indentified. But the photo showed no tat - just the smooth olive skin of the girl.

Sledge tried tracing the picture onto a piece of paper. This worked okay. So Mort took a photo of the hieroglyph on the paper. Again, nothing on the camera - just paper.

"Hmm," said Sledge. "Curious. Try it on me. See if we can photograph it then."

So Mort copied the hieroglyph onto Sledge's nape using a vivid permanent marker pen.

Sledge suddenly went quiet and stared vacant. Mort frantically tried to rub it off.

Sledge then blinked, and reacted violently. He drew both his .357 magnums and blasted away at Mort, luckily missing him.

Mort, Ebony, Jacob and Juan fled. Sledge opened up on them. He got two good shots into Ebony as she was last to scamper from the apartment. Rather than pursue, he secured the apartment.

The party gathered a block away to lick their wounds. Ebony was badly wounded, so they took her to a hospital.

Jacob phoned the fiasco in to Prospero.

"Oh dear," he said.


Friday Evening, June 13

They thought they'd ask Mina for advice. Mina was not particularly interested.

"Clean up your own dirty work," she said. "And anyway, that is Oberon's area. See if he will help... ha ha... maybe not. He sure hates Mort. Good luck!"

Apparently, the recent mummy killings were no longer being done in "vampire style", so the vampires no longer seemed to be so interested in getting the killings to stop.

Oberon was in the Khyber Pass Bar & Grill. But he didn't seem particularly interested in helping out either, when Ebony approached him. She did recall that one of the hos was a vampire girl any way. So maybe Oberon already knew.

While this was going on, Mort was outside in his hearse, being too scared to enter a place where Oberon frequented. Alert, more out of fear than anything else, he happened to catch notice of a shadowy figure on a nearby roof-top. He ducked... as a 7.62mm full metal jacketed round crashed through the back window, through his head-rest, and buried itself in the dashboard paneling. (It was Sledge with his scoped PSG1 sniper rifle). Mort floored the accelerator and took off.

The party stayed the night in Mort's safe house. Luckily, Sledge had not been there, so would not know how to find it. [ Merit Safe Houses are unlocatable by definition ].

Saturday Morning, June 14

Early in the morning, Sledge's mother contacted the group.

"I'm worried about my boy," she sobbed. "He's taken up with a moslem girl, a terrorist!, and they are going to get married."

A plan to rescue Sledge formed.

"Invite him and his betrothed to your place, for lunch. We will ambush him and take him away from those awful Egyptians."

Saturday Noon, June 14

Sledge and Safiya arrived and Sledge's mom's fourth-floor apartment, for lunch.

Sledge's mom greeted them and, as per tradition, got Sledge to place all his weapons on the mantelpiece in the lounge before entering the dining room for the roast chicken lunch.

This is where the party struck, hitting Sledge with a taser (donated from Prospero). Safiya screamed and tried to run, but they easily grappled her down.

Sledge and Safiya were zip-tied, and laid down in the lounge and their backs were exposed.

Sledge had four hieroglyphs tattooed on his back (from nape to midback). Safiya had five.

"We need to get these off," said Mort.

STRIKE FORCE

Wednesday Night, June 11

The group decided a full-scale stake-out of this Elfrith Alley apartment was in order. There was a bunch of whores hanging around the entrance to the "2nd Street" subway station, mainly black girls, so Ebony mingled with them. There was much jostling and shoving as they viewed her as competition, but when she made it clear she wasn't looking for their business, they stopped. Or maybe it was because Sledge started throwing around Grants (Ulysses S Grant, $50 bills).

Mort IDed one of the hos as a vampire, so he stayed well clear of the solicitation (collective noun for whores), just in case she happened to be one of Oberon's.

Theo was still working in the Penitentiary, and Juan was back at his work (Khyber Pass Bar & Grill). Vince? Well, Vince hadn't been seen since the morning, when they were in the Old Fireman's Hall. He always was an elusive fellow.

Mort and Sledge's phones both suddenly rang, almost to the second.

"Hello" they both said simultaneously.

"It's the Coroner," said Mort.

"It's Lieutenant Prospero," said Sledge.

"I have to go down to the Thomas Jefferson morgue," they both said in unison. "There's been another killing."

So they both left together, in Mort's hearse, leaving Ebony and the hos.

At the morgue, they were both ushered in to the slab by Lieutenant Prospero and the Coroner. Naked, and blooded, lying there, was the body of Vince. Well, pieces of the body of Vince; he had been ripped apart.

"That is Vince," Sledge and Mort both said in harmony, voices a third apart.

The coroner had been busy: "He is missing several organs: the liver, bladder and gall bladder. He's only been dead for three hours."

"So he is dead then?" observed Sledge.

Mort checked under the nails. Sure enough: traces of fibre.

Lt. Harold Prospero

Mort and Sledge said their fond farewells to Vince "we never did know him very well", and then Lt.
Prospero beckoned them away: "Come with me."

They left the morgue, and he escorted them to the Police station. Here, he took them to an office, and sat them both down. There was another man and a woman in the room too.

"This is Detective Trisha Noble," the lieutenant said, gesturing to the woman; the rather attractive young woman.

She nodded. Sledge just stared at her substantial chest.

"And this is Jacob Bradshaw," he gestured at the other man. "A Scientist from Penn State."

Det. Trisha Noble

Mort acknowledged Jacob, but Sledge was too busy staring at the detective.

"Are you married?" he asked.

The lieutenant continued: "I think it is time that we reveal ...all. Detective Noble, Mister Bradshaw
and I know about the Veil. We know of the supernatural, the Supernatural and the forces of darkness. Though, as far as we can ascertain, we are the only three in the Philadelphia Police Department who do..."

"It IS a mummy" squeaked Mort, excitedly.

"Yes, we gathered this. And we plan to use your group, and your somewhat unconventional investigative techniques, to continue the hunt for it."

Mort and Sledge were already on their phones to Ebony, Juan and Theo. Though, for some reason, they couldn't get a signal: "No service".

"We belong to a group called..." continued the lieutenant, then he paused, hand on heart, and looked off into the far distance: "STRIKE FORCE."

"It is a large organization," he carried on. "And we have top men in most cities of the States." He added with the best Peter Griffin side-ways glance, "Top men. And many in other parts of the world."

He paused, and said dramatically with the infinity stare "STRIKE FORCE... has resources, and endowments, that members may use..."

"Can we join?!" squeaked Sledge.

"Yes, we wish you to pledge," said Prospero. "And I also want to embed Mister Bradshaw, here, into your group."

[ Ian, having retired Vince character, rejoins the party ]

"Yes yes," said Sledge, impatiently. "But I want to join Strike Force..."

"You must say it with a pause," interrupted the Lieutenant. "Raise your chin and focus your eyes to the horizon before you say it. Right palm on your heart. Then say the words, chest forward, 'with authority and resonance'."

He stared to the distance and intoned: "STRIKE FORCE."

Sledge repeated: "STRIKE FORCE."

Mort tried too: "STRIKE FORCE."

Jacob too:  "STRIKE FORCE."

Trisha did too, which was impressive when she out-thrust her chest: "STRIKE FORCE."

[ In WoD terms, STRIKE FORCE is a Tier-three organization, also known as a "Conspiracy" ]

"What happens if you don't say it right?" asked Mort.

"Bad things happen," said the lieutenant. "Bad things. I have heard whispered tales of dread 'minus one dice on all rolls for the rest of the Chapter' whatever that means."

"Do you have a constitution?" asked Mort.

"We sure do," said Prospero. He handed Mort a hard-bound book, the size of a church bible, with 6-point type printed on wafer thin rice paper. It was full of 1800s archaic legalese; with its quadruple-nested subordinate clauses, complex and ambiguous prepositional phrases, regular and obscure latin quotes (exempli gratia, in fide scientiam, coque natibus, purificatus non consumptus, pedicabo et in equitibus, et cetera), and archaic phrases like 'the party of the first part hereafter referred to as' and 'excepting in cases where hither-to unforeseen circumstances ameliorate the intent of the parties' providence'.

"STRIKE FORCE ... was started by Abraham Lincoln himself, in 1863, during the Civil War." the lieutenant added. "The vampires were pro-slavery, you see, and they ran the big farms. So there was quite a bit of preternatural and unorthodox fighting going on in the background, which didn't make the papers. Hence, .... STRIKE FORCE."

While Mort was struggling with the heavy constitution, Detective Noble walked over to Sledge (who was still drinking her in, like a dehydrated man) holding an elaborate ornamental dagger. She took his left ring finger, and jabbed it with the pointy end of the knife, drawing blood.

"Ow!" yelped Sledge.

Trisha quickly placed his bleeding finger onto what looked like a red stamp-pad. It blotted the blood away, leaving no trace.

"Say 'I, your-name, do hereby pledge myself to, my all," she paused, and looked into the distance as she intoned. "STRIKE FORCE'."

Sledge was getting the hang of it now: "I, Sledge Hammer, do hereby pledge myself, my all, to," he did his best resonant voice so far: "STRIKE FORCE !"

He felt a tingle in his core, and then a jolt.

"You are now pledged," said Trisha. "Welcome to ... STRIKE FORCE !"

"So, I can date you now?"

She smiled thinly: "That is not part of the deal."

Mort rubbed the back of his neck.

"I can sense something in this room," he said. "Something magic or dangerous."

Lieutenant Prospero reached into a drawer of the desk, rummaged around a bit, and produced a ruby gem, the size of a marble. Mort's Sixth Sense hackles rose even more.

"This is a non-eavesdrop gem. It stops us being overheard in this room both magically and mundanely. This is why your phones don't work too."

"Is that an Endowment?" asked Mort.

"Aye," said the lieutenant. "We have some resources which are made available to members and pledges in the form of Endowments."

"I want a flame-thrower!" snapped Sledge.

"We must be careful with fire weapons. The Philly vampires do not approve, as fire is the bane of vampires too, and they try to control all sources. If they catch you with fire weapons, you'll be killed with extreme prejudice. They could well have ghouls, aka slaves of vampires, infiltrated in the police. Also, the mages don't appreciate fire neither, and, as you know, the mages control the Internet, so don't try to order this stuff online."

The talk drifted on. Prospero and Noble knew of the three different vampire clans in Philly: the leaders being Oberon, Mina and Defacto. There were also two packs of werewolves, one cabal of mages, some fae activity, some witches and a some demons. Plus the usual collection of ghosts and hauntings you'd expect in a big city. The recent mummy attacks was the first risen activity that they knew of - well, not counting ten years ago.

While they were there, Prospero used his police contacts to find out about the Elfrith Alley apartment, and whether he could find any evidence that would allow a police bust of this dwelling. There were two couples living in the ground floor apartment, both from Egypt and recently moved in: brother and sister Osiris and Safiya Runihura, and Dr Gahiji Khalfani and his wife Nailah. Dr Khalfani was an anesthetist at the Thomas Jefferson Hospital, and the only income earner for the apartment. They all had legit travel and work visas.

---

Sledge, Mort and Jacob arrived back at Elfrith Alley and updated Ebony about STRIKE FORCE. So far, only Sledge and Jacob were members, but Prospero wanted them all joined up.

"Besides," added Sledge with a leer. "You get endowments!"

They took turns watching the apartment as the night grew on.

One of the Egyptian women left. Ebony followed her. She went to a 7-11, and returned. But the rest of the night passed uneventfully.

Thursday Day, June 12

'72 Chevy Caprice

That afternoon, Ebony was again on watch. A man, in a fez, left the apartment. She followed him, and he went to a nearby parking garage and hopped into "a red 1972 Mitsubishi Ferrari" - car identification was never her strong suite, it was actually a tomato-red 1972 Chevy Caprice - and drove off. She noted down the licence plate, phoned it through to Prospero, and returned to the apartment.

Prospero reported that the car had, indeed, been stolen.


Thursday Evening, June 12 

Sledge was on watch. Just after dark, a tall man in a hoody, left the building and walked quickly down the street. Sledge happened to be on watch, so he followed the chap, unseen, using his shadowing skills. The mark rounded a corner into a blind alley. Sledge snuck up, glanced in and saw the hooded figure scaling the walls, like a spider. Guessing that this was the creature, he quietly left it and returned to Elfrith Alley.

He phoned this in, and Mort straight-away phoned the Coroner.

"I bet there will be another killing tonight," Mort boasted.

Friday Morning, early, June 13

Around 1am, Ebony was on watch again. The "Mitsubishi Ferrari" pulled up in the alley, next to the apartment building. (It was a narrow street and, during daylight hours, this act would block traffic, though, at 1am, few were about.) Mister Fez got out, opened the trunk, got out a length of thick hose, fist-sized diameter, and fed it through the barred partial-window that led to the basement of the apartment. He then emptied the contents of whatever was in the trunk down the hose into the basement.

Then he packed up and drove off.

Ebony assumed he'd return the car to the parking building, so she went there, and sure enough, it was. She popped the trunk and found that it was full of plastic water containers, all empty, and coil of hose. There were still remnants of the liquid in them, so she took a sample and returned to the alley.

Jacob got woken, and he took the sample to analyze it with the police's gas chromatograph. It was water from the Nile.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully.

Friday Morning, June 13

Mort was awoken by his phone. It was the Coroner.

"You were right," he said. "A tramp, near Elfrith Alley, ripped apart. Missing eyeballs and, kidneys."

The Penitentiary

Wednesday Morning, June 11

The Old Fireman's hall opened at 10 am, so the party visited then. There was no change to the Sixth Sense of Theo nor Mort. So nothing there.

They then headed back to the Fleischer Art Memorial. It was open and the staff very friendly. There was no sign of the vampire ball the night before, though the staff were happy to talk about it. Theo and Mort's Sixth Sense rang plenty of alarm bells near the centre of the facility, but there was no easy way to get below ground to investigate more. However, they suspected that with the strong concentration of vampires here, that there probably wouldn't be any mummy activity. They were also not keen to take on a nest of vampires; even during the day.

Next stop was the Eastern State Penitentiary.

Wednesday Afternoon, June 11

Upon arriving at the penitentiary, the security checks were very thorough.  Visiting hours were 2 pm to 5 pm, so they timed that right. Juan had plenty of his relatives locked up here, so he gave a name for the party to visit: Jose Direction, and they went to the visiting cubicle (with glass screen and telephones) to speak with him. Inmate Jose had some surprising information: there had been a murder last night, in wing B. Jose didn't know many details, but he was in wing A, and the seven wings didn't really mix. But he did know of an inmate Eric Fulby who was in wing B.

So Sledge asked to visit Eric Fulby. Eric was very loquacious when plied with cigarettes. An inmate named Gavin Summerfield had been killed: "he was a prick, so no loss there". Violently. At 2 am.

Mort contacted the coroner. Yes, there had been a murder last night in the penitentiary. And yes, it was messy: the victim, an inmate named Gavin Summerfield, had been torn apart, but not drained. It was put down as just "another prison killing" even though Gavin was alone in a locked cell. But the prison had a rather bad record of "extra-judicial killings" (as the coroner wryly observed), and weren't particularly enthusiastic nor tenacious to have them solved.

"The heart was missing too," added the coroner adroitly.

Mort wanted to come immediately.

"You're not blowing up another damn lung!" snapped the coroner.

"No no. I just want to check his fingernails"

So Mort took off to the coroner's hospital.

While this was going on, Brother Theo, using the full weight of his Episcopalian Benedictine rank, was ingratiating himself into the confidence of the prison chaplain Peter. Peter was delighted to have Theo perform some ceremonies. Theo wanted to bless the cell where the murder took place, and Peter managed to get the Warden Candy Clam to allow this. So those two, plus Sledge, went to the very cell.

The place hadn't been cleaned yet and there was blood all over the walls. It looked as though someone had taken some buckets of paint and hurled them all over the walls and bed of the small cell. Theo's Sixth Sense was actually stronger in the central circle area (where the seven wings' corridors met) rather than in the cell. But they didn't want to tarry in the circle.

On the way back, Theo and Sledge managed to convince the guards to show them the CCTV pictures of the time of the killings. There were no cameras in each cell, but the corridors and the central circle area were certainly covered. Around 1:30 am, a mist could be seen to seep up through the drains in the floor of the central circle. It was quite slow, and when the footage was played back at normal speed wasn't obvious at all. But at enhanced speed, the mist rose, then flowed, with creepy intent, down the corridor of wing B, and into Gavin's cell.

"We get a lot of mist around here," quipped the guard. "It's a damp hole."

Back in the city centre, Theo had joined the coroner and checked out the body of inmate Gavin. Sure enough, under the fingernails, were traces of fibre.

The rest of the party returned to town too. Ebony checked out the Philly Library records of the old city. Apparently, the Eastern State Penitentiary was built in 1829 on an old Unami indian graveyard - that explained the ley-line conjunction.

Some other trivia about the prison: Al Capone and Willie Sutton had been locked up here. In 1924, Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot sentenced Pep "The Cat-Murdering Dog" (an actual dog) to a life sentence, and was assigned an inmate number (C2559), and a mug shot. Pep had killed the governor’s wife’s cherished cat.

Ebony had an idea: "I wonder if the Sixth Sense is stronger in Elfrith Alley now, since last night?"

Wednesday Evening, June 11

Back to Elfrith Alley.

Both Theo and Mort's Sixth Sense was definitely stronger than they previous night. The strongest Sixth Sense reading was at a T-intersection at the mouth of the alley itself. This was next to two apartments: one of four storeys and ten apartments, and the other with six storeys and twenty apartments.

Judicious phone calls to the superintendents in each building revealed some apartments for rent. In the four storey building, there was one apartment on the ground floor. They managed to wangle an after-hours appointment, went in and had a look around. It had a basement which extended under the alley. The Six Sense reading down here was stronger again. They guessed the source must be through the brick wall in the basement of the apartment across the alley (of the six storey building)

Ebony went to the door of this apartment. There was the sound of a TV on inside. She hammered on the door. It opened with a safety-chain. A woman in her thirties answered. She was olive-skinned, with angular features.

"Hello," said Ebony. "I'm doing a survey on apartment living..."

"Not interested," said the woman, as she slammed the door. She had an Egyptian accent.

On the Hunt

Tuesday Afternoon, June 10

After visiting the mummy expert, Abu Bin Laden, they headed back to the Old Town of Philadelphia. Juan was feeling ill, so went back to the Khyber Pass Bar & Grill. Ebony and Vince went out to reconnoitre the ley-line intersections from Abu's map.

Sledge & Mort went to hire some diving gear plus a compressor. They planned to suck and bottle the mummy mist if they could get close enough to it. Abu was asked about this (over the phone), but he did not know if it would work. Sledge went over-board and spent $1000 on gear hire (for three days) including a high-pressure air-compressor, a full wet-suit, and full aqua-lung, and the works (spear gun, flippers, weight belt, dive watch, etc).

While they were walking back to Mort's hearse, Mort spotted a cop standing by the hearse, examining it. Mort hid, and Sledge engaged the officer with some cock-and-bull story about Mort being in Chicago and him lending the car to Sledge. The cop asked Sledge to accompany him to the station.

"Am I under arrest?"

"Well, I didn't want to arrest you, but if you won't come, then 'yes'."

"On what charge?"

The officer read from his patrol-car laptop screen: "'Discharging a firearm, multiple times, in the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Radiology lab', 'Assault of a security officer at the Penn Museum', 'Robbery of a priceless Egyptian sarcophagus from the Penn Museum'... shall I go on?"

At the station,  a Lieutenant Prospero conducted the questioning. He seemed very reticent to actually lay charges on Sledge, and said he would waive the lot if Sledge brought the rest of his band in for questioning. All of the group: Mort, Ebony, Vince, Theo and Juan were identified quite accurately.

The Lieutenant tried phoning them all. Only Mort and Ebony turned up.

They all denied everything. So the Lieutenant showed the recordings from the security camera mounted in the Penn Museum's loading bay, which showed the group entering and leaving the Penn Museum several times, examining the downed security guard (already down), and carrying the two-ton sarcophagus with the forklift.

The group neglected to ask the obvious question as to why couldn't the police use the recordings to show how the security guard was murdered, so Lt Prospero never volunteered it.

The Lieutenant released them all, but said he still wanted to speak to Juan, Theo and especially Vince (who had also discharged his weapon in the radiology lab).

According to the Lieutenant, the frightened hospital staff had claimed the whole thing was some elaborate prank, with some joker dressed up as a flaming mummy; needless to say, a particularly violent and dangerous prank that involved high calibre pistol discharges in a crowded hospital, and setting of uncontrolled fires.

Evidently, Dr Imelda Hyde had changed her beliefs too, and she now thought the whole thing was some sick prank, or, more likely, an elaborate grift to steal the priceless ancient sarcophagus of Ahmenra. She had laid a complaint along these lines that the party, lead by Mort, had engineered to steal it.

Tuesday Night

Abu's Philadelphia city map had four likely spots where ley-lines crossed.

1. Eastern State Penitentiary in Fairmount
2. Elfrith's Alley in the Old Town
3. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Washington Square West
4. Fleischer Art Memorial in Queen Village

Not heeding the old adage "never split the party", they split up.

Ebony and Vince got to the Historical Society building at 11:30pm. Ebony was a dab hand at sneaking, and locks and alarms. She managed to bypass the security system of the building, and her and Vince broke in. Down beneath the cellar, carved into the living rock, was a chamber with an altar, manacles and a cell. It showed no signs of recent use. No-one was there.

Sledge and Mort went to the Fleisher Art Memorial. There was some grand ball in progress here, and the place was full of well-dressed folk. Sledge and Mort walked in, unchallenged, and Mort suddenly realized that the entire crowd was vampires. They beat a hasty retreat and weren't stopped.

They rejoined each other and got to the Old Town district at about 1am. Elfrith's alley itself didn't yield anything suspicious, neither below ground down in the subway station, nor on rooftop nearby. However, perceptive Theo did notice that the "bad vibes" were a little stronger here than they were the other day when he was at this same spot.

They checked some other buildings in the general area: Betsy Ross's cottage (broke in), the Arden theatre (was open) and the Penn View hotel (was open), revealed nothing of interest. The Old Fireman's hall was closed, and its alarm was beyond Ebony's skill, so they left that place planning to visit in the morning at 10am.

Dangerous Encounter

Monday Night, June 9

Having just destroyed and sank Ahmenra's sarcophagus in the Delaware river, the party were heading back to bed, when Sledge's police scanner reported yet another murder - number five.

They headed to the site, and it was near the other murders. It was in a blind alley, but there were so many cop cars and wandering police that they couldn't get close.

From a distance and using his telescopic sight, Vince could see into the alley and there was a mist on the ground, but it was fast dissipating.

So, they returned to the museum, and back to the loading bay. One of the security guards, from earlier that night, was dead on ground by the loading-bay roller-door. He had been drained.

Weapons out, Sledge, Ebony, Mort and Vince, snuck inside.

There was a skittering on the lino and another skeletal dog rounded the corner. Sledge and Vince opened up and blasted it to oblivion, then turned to see a lurching mummy attack Mort and Ebony. Mort was desperately using his spray-can flame to try to burn it as it punched into him. Sledge managed to hit it with bullets, but they didn't seem to have any affect. So he tried a head-shot; this had a bit more success. It eventually went down in a conflagration. Mort's ribs took a pounding; broken.

Another skeletal dog joined the fray, and it launched itself into the unlucky Ebony. It landed a few bites on her, before they managed to destroy it too.

Around the corner, towards where the store room was (where the sarcophagus was stored originally), the walls and floor were covered in ice. Ebony ventured into it, but the extreme cold forced her back.

Mort phoned Mina. She seemed to be very busy; no help there.

"Maybe I shouldn't have threatened Oberon," he mused laconically.

Suspecting they were in over their heads, or else were suffering from extreme cowardice [ everyone had spent almost all their Willpower points ], the party withdrew and headed home to bed.

One point of note: this mummy they fought and burned was slow and shambling; nothing like the lightning-fast thing they had awoken in the hospital.

Dr Abu bin Laden

Tuesday morning, June 10

Mort's Occult Usenet post had got a response from a Dr Abu bin Laden, who, serendipitously, lived in Philadelphia.

So Mort had a chat with him on the phone, and then he, Sledge, Vince and Ebony went around to Abu's place.

Abu lived in a run-down semi-detached house in the poorer suburbs of Philly. When they arrived, the perceptive hairs on the back of Mort's neck stood on end (Sixth Sense ability).  After some formal introductions and a bit of awkwardness when no-one wanted to admit that they knew about the Veil [ the forbidden knowledge of the supernatural that mundanes are not aware of ] , they got talking.

Abu had an extensive library on mummies, and it was these actual books that was giving Mort the hebegebes.

Abu answered some question about mummies:

• They are correctly called "The Risen".
• Fire is their nemesis. 
• Head-shots might work, but body shots do not.
• The newly risen "harvest" organs from the living when they first rise. These organs become part of them.
• Blood can also be harvested.
• The Risen have a repertoire of spells. Things like heal, turn into mist, cause extreme cold, raise zombies (which look like mummies), and make skeletal dogs (or other animals).
• The Risen rise as powerful, and during the cycle, get weaker and weaker. They then must "sleep" for a while and then can rise again. There seemed to be no defined time as to how long they need to "sleep" (in a special ensorcelled sarcophagus), nor how long they stay "awake". 

"The cycle is decades," said Abu. "And sometimes centuries."

"Nothing about ten years then?" commented Vince.

Abu could not think of any Risen cycle that was ten years, so he couldn't help there.

"What is the significance of the location of the murders?" asked Sledge. "They all seem to be in the same area"

Abu had a look on a map of Philadelphia, and pronounced that this was near the conjunction of two ley-lines.

"Also, if the creature's sarcophagus is destroyed, then it must make a new one. This ensorcellment must also be done at such a ley-line conjunction."

He marked on the map the few places where this could be done.


The party thanked Abu for his help, and left.

Mort, worried about Oberon, then bought an anti-vampire "gun" on the black veil market. For $1500, it was like a mortar, a meter long, and fired a large wooden stake-like bullet. The guy who sold it, Fat Freddy, warned Mort that if any vampire spots him with said gun, then "you are so dead".

Dr Imelda Hyde then rang.

"Who killed my guard?" she began.
"Uh..."
"Where's the sarcophagus?" she asked.
"Dunno" lied Mort.
"The guards said they helped load it onto a truck. Your truck"
"Umm"
"And the police want to speak with you. I told them you'd contact them"
"Uhmm"