So it is Revealed

Sunday morning, June 22

Ebony, Sledge, and Theo revisited the pumping station, again, to see if they had missed anything.

But rather than it being deserted, they were surprised to see lights, and men in fluorescent overalls and hard-hats. These fellows were scrubbing things down and cleaning. When confronted, they grimly said nothing; closed-mouthed

Ebony phoned Ms Charleston, Oberon's PA. She said that these men were "Oberon's Cleaners" and that they were sent to clean the area of any "detritus and things suspicious". She offered to phone them to tell them to wait until the party had retrieved what they wanted. This was agreed.

The cleaners had not yet got as far as cleaning the ghoul quarters room, so the party checked there. Sure enough, they did find some more things; personal items. They bagged them up and took them back to Oberon's offices (upstairs above the Khyber Pass Bar & Grill) to Cello.

Cello cast her Locate Soul spell using each item, and got a reasonably accurate location as to where the two of the ghouls were.

The party met Mort around that area of town, and they cruised the streets of the general vicinity.

The first ghoul spotted was Rolly Barton. He was in a bad stage, in advanced ghoul-withdrawal. They didn't get much info from him, but he did give them enough clues to spot Sarah.

Sarah was more lucid. She seemed very scared of Vladislav. In fact, he was her master. Rolly's master turned out to be Dimetrius.

Jake the Blade was the next ghoul spotted; he was the ghoul of Petra. And finally they found Binro; he was the ghoul of Marceline. Both Jake and Binro were quite lucid.

After a lot of questioning, the party worked out the whole sorry story: The skeletal mummy and mist had scared the four ghouls away (assumedly from its powerful Fear aura), and then when they finally got brave enough to creep back to the nest, they found that most of the vampires had been staked. So, fearing reprisal from their masters (after all, the protect of the vampire nest was the ghouls' raison d'tre), they fled. They obviously didn't think too far in advance, because they would have known that a ghoul without daily blood from its master starts to go into ghoul-withdrawal.

With some subtle coercion, Ebony managed to find out that Sarah actually had one of the missing security tapes on her person. The party got it off her with promises of forgiveness from her master. The other nine tapes had been hidden away "in a secret location". None of the lucid ghouls would reveal where. Rolly didn't know.

Ebony managed to surreptitiously attach a GPS tracker pin to Binro's clothes. Then they showed Binro Sarah's tape and claimed that Sarah had told them where the rest of the tapes were.

Binro got worried and took off. So Ebony and Mort followed him with the GPS pin. He arrived at the Penitentiary. And allegedly visited the Warden Candy Clam there. Was she involved in this?

While Mort and Ebony were following Binro, Sledge went to follow Jake the Blade. Even after being shown Sarah's tape he just went and drank with some other bums.

Sunday afternoon, June 22

They needed to check Sarah's tape. It was a miniature digital tape, so Jacob volunteered one of the tape-players in STRIKE FORCE HQ.

With only Jacob, Ebony, Sledge and Mort in Operations Room Four, Jacob started the tape.

The date and time read: 20140618 0800

Jacob fast-forwarded to the next day, and the next.
20140620 0814 The cameras were low-light sensitive. A grey figure, in high contrast, came into view, walking down the tunnel. He was carrying a large bundle of stakes. It was very clear who it was.

"Mort!" gasped Jacob.

Mort walked under the camera and out of view. Jacob fast-forwarded.

20140620 0935 The lone figure of Mort, this time his back to the camera, wandered back down the tunnel. He now had no stakes.

"Burn the tape!" squeaked Mort. "Erase it!"

Seeking Evidence

Saturday Morning, June 21

While Jacob, Sledge and Ebony were exploring the sewer pumping station at North Fifth Street and Fairmount Avenue, Mort was back at the apartment with Abu and Theo.

There was a knock on the door.

Two locksmiths arrived to fix the iron door. They were expected (Mina had arranged this the previous night), so Mort let them in, and they spent a few hours re-fitting and re-welding the iron door to the basement (this door had been smashed, six days ago, when the party broke in down here to kill the mummy - the first time)

An hour later, around 11:30 am, there was another knock on the door.

Mort opened it with the safety chain on. There were two thick-set men in suits, and the Elvira clone Cello; cleavage and all.

"Who are you?" said Mort.

"I am lady Cello," she said. "Oberon asked me to check out zees place."

"Well, you're not coming inside."

"But Oberon, he asked me..."

"Oberon doesn't own this place."

"I'm afraid he does."

"Prove it," said Mort, firmly. "Show me the title."

Cello's eyes blazed. But one of the suits stayed her arm.

"I will be back with ze title," she said. The three left.


Half an hour later, Ebony, Jacob and Sledge got back from their trip to the sewer pumping station.

"Cello is planning on returning here." said Mort.

"She must not see the Nexus, nor Mina's shrouded area," said Ebony. "I'll hide the iron door." She set about to pushing one of the bookcases to cover it. She did a good job too.

Mort asked Abu to put some power hieroglyphs on walls of the living room.

"We want something that the witch can detect as magic. To try to trick her,"

 Abu explained that his knowledge only extended as far as placing glyphs on living tissue, not on hard walls. This was one of the things he was so interested in down below - the mummy had obviously done it, so he was trying to learn how.

"Well, put some normal hieroglyphs up. Maybe that will fool her."

Around 3pm, Cello and the two suits arrived back. Mort and the rest of the party let them inside.

Cello spent half the time in a magical trance, trying to sense any magic. There was none, and Mina's Shroud down in the cellar seemed to be working. Cello didn't detect anything.

Saturday Night, June 21

Mort no longer trusted the night. He always made sure he was firmly ensconced in his safe house before dark. Mort had also started the slow process of shifting safe-houses. He no longer trusted the party any more. It would take four days.

The rest of the team went to Khyber Pass Bar & Grill to do their nightly report to Oberon. Dimetrius and his elders, and Cello were there too.

Again, Mort's absence was noted.

Cello also pointed out Mort's distinctive rudeness and contempt earlier that day. Oberon explained to the party that if this kind of non-cooperation happened again, his men would be asked to show less restraint at not using excessive force.

"If you catch my drift," said Oberon.

The items recovered from the pumping station were taken note off. Cello said to leave them bagged and not to handle them too much.

"I can cast spells using zem," she said "Maybe locate zeir owners."

Cello took the items off to another room.

While they were waiting, Ebony and Jacob asked Oberon and Dimetrius more about the missing ghouls.

The current batch of Dimetrius's ghouls were made ten months ago. The previous batch had been killed in a gun fight with police. Only four were made this time: one for Dimetrius, Vladislav, Marceline and Petra. They chose them because they were "gypsies", but it turned out they were the homeless and bums. Dimetrius didn't know there was a difference.

This, apparently, was news to Oberon. He was not very pleased.

"Just because they are ghouls, does not make them bright."

To make a ghoul, a vampire just gets a person to drink his blood. Ghoul-ing enhances the ghoul's physical attributes. But there is a cost; the ghoul gets addicted to her master's blood. The ghoul is totally devoted to the master for half the number of days that she has been a ghoul. The master can detect if the ghoul is alive.

Cello returned some time later.

"These items are corrupted. There is no clear owner," she said. "I want you to return to the nest to locate some more items. Some personal items. They must not have been handled recently by anyone except the owner."

"We'll do it in the morning," Ebony said.

Dimetrius's Nest

Friday Afternoon, June 20

Mort arrived back at the apartment after doing his vampire slaughtering. His cognitive dissonance persuaded him that he had done a great thing today. But he did wonder if others might not feel the same way. So he kept quiet about it and didn't tell a soul.

Abu was down by the Nexus studying it. The rest of the party was having a quiet day, licking their wounds and relaxing.

Before dark, Mort took off and returned to his Safehouse.

Friday Sunset 8:33 pm, June 20

Mina arrived at the apartment soon after dark. She didn't look very pleased.

"Where is Mort and Juan?" she asked succinctly.

"Um ... Mort in his safe-house," said Ebony. "And Juan is at the bar. Why?"

"Apparently, that nest of vampires you found with the mummy," she said. "Well, they have been all been destroyed. All staked. The true death. Some time today. Know anything?"

They all shook their heads in denial.

Mina asked Ebony to contact Mort. She did via Mort's land-line (there being no cell reception in Safehouses). Mort assured her, through Ebony, that he was innocent.

Mina looked dubious at the news, but she continued:

"It was a nest controlled by a Eastern European vampire called Dimetrius. He, and his elders survived but not the rest. This is Oberon's area. Oberon will not be pleased."

Sure enough, Ebony got a ring.

"Oberon wants to see us, all of us," said Ebony. "And ... he does guarantee our safety."

Oberon's PA Ms Anderson

Ebony, Jacob, Theo and Sledge headed off to the Khyber Pass Bar & Grill, Oberon's usual haunt. The place was packed; Juan was flat-out working the bar. The party was ushered upstairs to Oberon's room. It was full too: Oberon, Oberon's PA Ms Anderson, three other women in smart suits, an older vampire in a cliched red-lined Dracula cloak, an ancient vampire with the 1922 film Nosferatu look in dusty robes, two male vampires, and three female vampires. And one woman looking like Elvira: big hair, big boobs, big mascara.

Oberon came straight to the point.

"This is Dimetrius here," Oberon gestured to the Dracula clone, "his elder Vladislav," gesturing to the Nosferatu clone, "and his other elders Auroch, Livingstone, Giania, Petra, Marceline."

Vampire Dimetrius

"Some ... amateur ... destroyed the rest of his family, in their nest where your group killed the Risen
yesterday. It was only the locked caskets of these elders that saved them. We do not know what happened to the servants."

"I have summoned you here for two reasons. The first to ascertain your guilt in this matter."

Jacob moved to speak, but Oberon silenced him with a wave.

"This lady," Oberon gestured to the Elvira clone. "Is Cello, a witch. She will cast a spell to check the truth of your words."

"I'm not having no witch cast spells on me," shrieked Theo. "I'm leaving."

Superior Witch Cello

Theo stormed out. Theo hated witches.

Ebony, Jacob and Sledge nodded wanly.

Cello stood up, stretched, jiggled her massive bust, and then began incanting in Latin and waving her arms around. She threw a handful of gold dust into the air, and it slowly drifted to the ground in a large cloud enshrouding the four.

Oberon spoke: "Did you stake, or destroy, or kill any vampires yesterday or today?"

"No," said Ebony. 

"No," said Sledge.

"No," said Jacob.

"Do you know anyone who did?"

"No." "No." "No." 

"Zey speak zuh truth," said Cello in her husky Romanian drawl.

Oberon pressed on, pushing the bounds of the spell. 

"Have any of you harmed my servants, or any of my interests in the last year?"

"um,,, no... I don't think so", "no", "don't know", "um"

"Do any of you four, in the forsee-able future, intend to harm me, or any of my agents, or any of my interests, or connected interests, or future propositions in any way shape or form?"

Cello interrupted him.

"Incipient Veracity, she does not work that way," she said. "She can not foretell future events nor can she compel ze future actions. And anyway, the spell; she has worn off now."

"You work... for me!" exclaimed Dimetrius in a very strong Romanian accent.

Oberon waved him silent, then turned to the party.

"Which brings me to the second reason I asked you here. Your group has certain skills, and has shown certain success, so I, well Dimetrius here, intends to hire you to find out who did kill his family..."

"You work... for me!" exclaimed Dimetrius again.

"You will be well paid," continued Oberon. "But I... we want the guilty brought to me, or evidence of their death brought to me.

"We kill them very hard, dead," said Dimetrius. "True death."

Dimetrius passed them a briefcase. 

"I want a report every night," said Oberon. "And if you need to contact someone during the day, my PA..." he gestured to the stunning woman in a smart suit next to him. "Ms Charleston here, will take your call. She is human."

Dimetrius also gave Jacob a list of the four servants (ghouls) that were supposed to have guarded the nest of coffins during the day: Jake the Blade, Sarah the Savant, Binro the Tramp, Rolly Barton. The last time they had been seen was just before sunrise on Thursday (the day of the mummy slaying). 

The party returned to their apartment. 

Mina was still there and she questioned them thoroughly. She also told them that Lord Defacto, the leader of the third vampire faction in Philadelphia, was making moves into Oberon's turf.

To lighten the mood, Theo asked Mina: "What is the collective noun for vampires? Is there an official term?"

"Well," she said. "I use 'coterie' for awake vampires, and 'nest' for sleeping ones. There's also some glib alternatives: 'clot', 'stackhouse', 'stoker', 'cloak', 'voraciousness', 'vein' and 'count'. So take your pick. But just don't let a vampire hear you."

"Not all vampires have my sense of humour," she said with a deathly dead-pan face, with emphasis on the word 'dead'.

Saturday Sunrise 5:32 am, June 21

As soon as the sun was up, Jacob, Sledge and Ebony left the apartment, just before Abu and Mort arrived.  The three went straight to the sewer pumping station where they had defeated the mummy on Thursday. 

All the coffins had been cleared away, but apart from that, the place hadn't been two badly disturbed. Jacob was in his investigative utopia. Straight away he found three stakes, so carefully bagged them. There was also several sets of boot prints in various parts of the tunnel.

While this was going on, Sledge found a small room near the pumping area with four double bunks.

All three of them checked this room out. This was presumably where Dimetrius's group's ghouls lived. There was a water boiler and a kitchenette. Jacob took samples.

They found a secret door in one of the walls. It lead through into a small room with several monitors on one wall. Pictures from CCTVs were shown. The cameras filmed the five main sewer lines (and paths) that entered the nest (the sewer pumping station area proper). There were no cameras on the nest itself, but this made sense because creatures of the Veil can not be filmed. The camera footage was recorded onto digital micro cassettes. But all the cassettes were missing, and there were none in the drives.