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.