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 |
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".
"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"
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