Job Interview

Wednesday evening, July 23, 2014

Theo had headed into town because he thought that Ebony was to arrange the destruction of the cursed rings (that he and she were wearing). But no; Ebony sent him a quick text that the deal had fallen through. Vampire Defacto wanted to replace Vampire Oberon's ghoul rings with his own version of jewellery. So Theo turned the taxi around, and headed out.

Ebony was summoned to Oberon for a progress report. She managed to convince him that she didn't need the anti-ghoul ring, and that she could infiltrate Defacto better if not so encumbered.

After a bit of thought, Oberon was convinced, and duly pulled the ring off her finger.

Theo, had by now destroyed his phone - his new paranoid habit each day - so never got the chance to rid himself of his ring.

However, according to Ms Anderson, Oberon's PA, her master was getting more and more annoyed at Theo's reluctance to report in.

Thursday morning, July 24

Sledge had spent an exhausting night swotting up on politics. He had heard from Colleen that a high political knowledge was a useful requisite for him to have for the job interview (STRIKE FORCE Philadelphia Area Commander, vacated by Lieutenant Prospero) tomorrow.

When he awoke, he rose feeling ever-so knowledgeable. [ Shane spent experience to get Politics 1. ]

Thursday mid-morning, July 24

Not content with a bit of political knowledge, Sledge wanted more. He knew that Witch Cello could help him magically, so made a booking with her.

Cello sat him down on a chair, and then started her chant of political minutiae; obscure ramblings on UK and USA politics. Sledge drifted off into a restless, haunted sleep.

When he woke up, he had even more political knowledge and acumen. [ Shane spent more experience points to get Politics 2. ]

Thursday afternoon, July 24

The party was in STRIKE FORCE HQ. Alan Cumming's team, the Geist Squad arrived. The Geist Squad was the other team of hunters operating in Philadelphia. Lieutenant Prospero introduced them to the group.

• Alan Cummings: Natural leader of the Geist Squad. Was good with guns and rifles. Hated ghosts.
• Brian Hart: Dexterous and good with throwing and missiles. An Ebony analogue. Hated ghosts.
• Charis  Denton: Shotguns. Hated fae.
• Dennis Trevino: Brains of the group. Investigation. Medicine. Occult. A Jacob analogue. Hated mages.
• Edgar Willis: Big strong melee fighter. Hated demons.

Charis Denton

Alan Cummings

Brian Hart

Dennis Trevino

Edgar Willis

They had been a few hours north of Philadelphia fighting ghosts in a haunted house. In fact, they had two ghosts trapped in a "fish tank" - an enchanted ghost containment vessel. It looked like a glass fish tank, about 400 by 300 by 300 mm, with swirly moving mist inside.

Lieutenant Prospero decided that the captive ghosts should be destroyed, so everyone, from both groups, assembled themselves on the firing range, all equipped with etheric (anti-ghost) rounds. Some see-etheric gas was released, and the contained ghosts were let out.

The angry ghosts shot skyward, and both parties opened up, filling them full of etheric rounds. They don't last long and were destroyed.

[ As far as Morality was concerned, this was considered a "legal execution". Although sentient, the ghosts had committed evil acts, and they had been duly judged by a STRIKE FORCE leader. So no-one suffered a Morality hit. Even though it was like shooting rats in a barrel. ]

Thursday night, July 24

Sledge knew that empathy was another trait looked for by the appointments committee, so he started working on his Empathy. Swotting away late into the night.

Ebony was contacted by Ms Anderson again. She implored Ebony to get Theo to come in. As it was after dark, Theo had destroyed his SIM card again, so she had no way to contact him anyway. Not that she thought it would be any help.

Friday morning, July 25

Sledge woke up feeling refreshed. And empathetic. [ Shane spent more experience to get Empathy 1 ]

Friday late morning, July 25

The job interviews went ahead

Sledge went first. The appointments committee consisted of Ms Elgin and Lance Corporal Bolger from STRIKE FORCE New York, and Lieutenant Prospero (soon to be Captain).

Colleen had told Sledge that the appointments committee would be Chalet and Albus. She had made an educated guess, but turned out to be wrong. Sledge did not realize this at the time of his interview, so he tried to ingratiate himself into their good books by pretending to hate fae and the created (Chalet and Albus's hated). They were not impressed, and Prospero knew that Sledge hated werewolves (and not fae nor the created), so he was not impressed himself.

Then they moved on to a series of questions about the STRIKE FORCE constitution. Sledge kept saying that he'd delegate such minutiae to his staff.

After this, they went over his experience, and then talked about goals and the "where do you see yourself in five years" type questions, and usual interview fare.

Reginald's interview was next.

His knowledge of the Constitution was impressive, and he only failed on one of the constitution questions, but it was on an obscure article from the early days of STRIKE FORCE about how many muskets you can put into a hand-cart.

The appointments committee was a bit worried about Reggie's pedantry and attention to details and minutiae.

Then followed Detective Trisha Noble, and finally Alan Cummings.

Friday noon, July 25

Sledge and Detective Noble made the short short-list, and were both called in.

Friday afternoon, July 25

The appointments committee brought all four applicants in. They congratulated everyone on the high calibre of their resumes. And they then announced the new STRIKE FORCE commander of Philadelphia. Trisha Noble.

[ This was all rolled out. Sledge had 24 dice in his pool, Trisha had 22. Reggie had 16 and Alan 14. Reggie and Alan were soon out of the race, leaving Sledge and Trisha. But she lucked out, and beat Sledge across the line. ]

Detective Noble was to start immediately, and she was promoted to Second Lieutenant on the spot. She would become First Lieutenant when she passed a few more tests [ spent experience to raise her STRIKE FORCE merit to 5 ]

Sledge, Reggie, and Alan Cummings were warmly thanked for their efforts.

Second Lieutenant Noble then called the entire party for a STRIKE FORCE meeting.

"I plan to run your group as before," she said. "There will not be many changes. But two things I want to change: I want you to choose a leader for your group. You are currently a homogeneous mass of like-minds and it is harder to focus you like this. I want you to choose or elect a leader of your group. Give yourself a catchy name too. I find a hint of irony goes down well here."

"Secondly," she said. "What do we do about Theo? Staying out side of Philadelphia, he is next to useless. I know he had a run-in with Oberon, but I can not believe it is as serious as he makes out. I want you lot to resolve this problem."

They all nodded wanly.

Sledge asked about his wedding, and if anything could change re STRIKE FORCE protection. But Second Lieutenant Noble shook her head.

"Lieutenant... I mean Captain Prospero has arranged SWAT and a squad of uniformed officers to cover ground for your wedding. I fully support this action.

"And your Jacob has worked out a successful mix of diesel and rubber to burn in 44-gallon drums to make a smoke screen to shield your group from snipers."

Friday sunset, July 25

Ms Anderson phoned Ebony, and reminded her of her commitment to infiltrate Defacto. So she went to Defacto's base under the cancer hospital.

Defacto told Ebony about a new crowd in town, some werewolves, in the south-west (his area), and he wanted them investigated.

"We happen to know that they will be at a party tonight, on the New Jersey," Defacto said. "Show me how good your sneak skills are. Go and bug them."
,
The USS New Jersey was a WW2 Iowa class battleship, now a tourist site cum museum, and was moored in the Delaware river, in central Philadelphia.

Ms Reynold gave Ebony a special bug to plant. It was a hybrid; a mix of magic and technology.

Friday late evening, July 25

USS New Jersey in Philadelphia

Ebony, Reggie, Jacob and Sledge turned up at the New Jersey. Security was tight: there were vans labelled "Isaac's Security" about, and many uniformed security officers. Jacob used his Gem of the Veil, and sure enough, the Isaac's security staff were werewolves. A quick search on the net revealed Isaac's base was in the south-west of the city; so this was the crowd Defacto was interested in.

Reggie and Jacob stayed on the docks with the vehicle, while Ebony and Sledge fast-talked their way onto the battleship.

Mage Nonce was hosting the party and had booked the whole ship. Ebony managed to fast-talk herself and Sledge on board. While Ebony schmoozed herself with party guests, Sledge snuck down to the forward hold meeting room and planted Defacto's bug. Mage Nonce was in the meeting room with Werewolf Isaac (in human form) talking on things veil.

Mage Nonce

Interestingly enough, at that very moment, Ebony was dancing with Mage Nonce up on deck. Somehow he had two versions of himself running.

The party went on to very late. There were more gorgeous girls (human) here than you could shake a stick at. Ebony hooked up with one or three, and found a quiet cabin.

Sledge was propositioned many times by the gorgeous creatures in their low-cut straining tops, high skirt-hems, and even higher heels, but he was a good boy and kept saying he was keeping himself for his fiancee; the wedding being on Tuesday. The ladies thought this was very sweet, and thus redoubled their efforts.

Sledge consoled himself at the open bar, with his mates Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, Bud Weiser and Tom Collins.

Friday midnight, July 25

Sick of waiting and now bored, Reggie and Jacob repeatedly tried to ring Ebony and Sledge to return to the car so they could make their exit. But their pleas were ignored: Sledge was too drunk to comprehend what that noise his phone made meant, and Ebony was indisposed elsewhere, so, in a fit of pique, Reggie & Jacob headed home (to Reggie's safe-house).

Saturday very early, July 26

Sledge, by now, was utterly trolleyed. Ebony extracted him from a pool of his own vomit, and helped him back to the car ... but the car wasn't there of course. So they got a taxi. And had to pay the soiling fee - Sledge was sick in it.

Back at the Elfrith Alley apartment, Mina was there.

"Gosh," she smiled. "Look at you two... had a nice night?"

Ebony nodded. Sledge started to retch again.

"You will feel crap in the morning," she said. "I can fix you, now. Shall I?"

Sledge looked up bleary-eyed, blinked, then nodded.

Mina cut her own wrist and dribbled her blood into his mouth.

No sooner had he swallowed than he was sober again. Like a switch: from drunk to sober in less than a second.

"Damn!" cursed the sober Sledge. "Damn! I feel nothing!"

Mina chuckled.

He still stank of vomit and urine, so he had a shower.

Saturday early hours, July 26

Clean and in clean attire, Sledge wanted the drunk buzz again, so he and Ebony hit the bars. With vampire blood still fresh in him, the alcohol's effect was severely lessened; like by a factor of ten. Sledge won all the drinking games he entered, but all he received for his exploits was a bunch of fives; several bunches of fives. Maybe it was his incessant gloating and his lack of grace in victory.

They got home (the Elfrith Alley apartment) around dawn.

Saturday morning, July 26

The party met up again in STRIKE FORCE. Although Sledge's heavy drinking didn't get him drunk, the other alcohol effects were there. He reeked of bourbon, Victory gin, cheap sherry and stale beer. And his breath was rather potent.

Second Lieutenant Noble called them to order.

The Heart Pin

Wednesday morning, July 23

Theo (wearing Oberon's cursed tracker ring) was cowering down in the Nexus in Mina's Shroud (in the party's Elfrith Alley apartment). Ebony was not sure what to do about him, so phoned the others; she was worried that Oberon's goons would still be around.

Jacob, Reggie and Sledge made a habit of always spending the night in Reggie's class-5 safe-house. arrived. Despite being "off the grid", it had a land-line phone; hence Ebony could contact them. They soon arrived in Elfrith Alley.

When they had gone down into the basement, next to the Nexus, and saw Theo standing there, Jacob frowned.

"Didn't Mina say that you mustn't take those cursed tracker rings into her Shroud?" he said.

"Um," said Theo. "Well, nothing has happened, so it must be okay.

"We need to get you out of town," said Jacob. "Sledge has his magic No-eavesdrop Ruby. If you stay close to him, he can shield you."

So Theo stepped out of the Shroud and right next to Sledge, and upstairs.

On the off chance that Ms Anderson (Oberon's PA) had the apartment under surveillance, Ebony put a cheap disguise onto Theo. The group then left the apartment, and went to their car. Then headed for STRIKE FORCE. Sure, enough, Jacob noticed a suspicious vehicle following them.

In STRIKE FORCE offices, they split up. Sledge and Theo snuck out the back and into another vehicle. With this, he drove Theo to another rendezvous in a parking garage, changed cars, and headed out of Philadelphia. Sledge left the vehicle with Theo, and he took a taxi back in.

Theo's plan was to stay out of Philadelphia now during the day too.

Meanwhile, Ebony was phoned. It was Ms Anderson.

"You were noticed leaving your apartment with an extra," she said. "Who was it?"

"Uh... Trevor," lied Ebony.

"Is he new in your group?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Okay. I want to meet him. See that he is here at noon."

"Surely," said Ebony. "I'll tell him now."

Meanwhile, the interview times for the position of STRIKE FORCE Commander of Philadelphia (vacated by Lieutenant Prospero) had been posted on the STRIKE FORCE notice board. The interviews were on Friday (25th) morning, 30 minutes each. The short-list was four candidates:

• Sledge Hammer, Corporal
• Reginald Gates, Corporal
• Trisha Noble, Detective
• Alan Cummings, Lance Corporal

Wednesday late morning, July 23

Ms Reynolds, Defacto's PA

Ebony thought she had a way to get rid of the Oberon's tracker rings. Vampire Lord Defacto could apparently source some werewolf blood. And that would work according to witch Siri. She got on the phone and arranged for Siri to meet at noon. Then Ebony phoned Defacto's PA Ms Reynolds.

But Ms Reynolds would have none of this.

"You will need to speak with my Lord," she said. "Come around tonight."

Wednesday just after noon, July 23

Ebony's mobile rang. It was Ms Anderson.

"Where is this Trevor?"

"I told him noon," Ebony replied. "Maybe he's late."

"He better be here... or else."


Wednesday early afternoon, July 23

Jacob got a call. It was from Cello, the witch.

"Jacob," she said succinctly. "I would like you and your group to come visit me; this afternoon at five. My shop."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

When a normal witch says "jump". One is inclined to jump. When the most powerful witch in the tri-state area says "jump", you say "how high?"

Wednesday afternoon, July 23

Reggie, Sledge and Jacob visited Colleen Thomson.

Sledge quizzed Colleen on STRIKE FORCE procedures as to how they conduct interviews, and who would be coming from New York. Colleen had been across many interviews in her time with the organization, so she gave him a heap of tips.

[ Election mechanics:

1. Add the following merits, attributes and skills: STRIKE FORCE, Intelligence, best of Wits/Resolve, best of Presence/Composure, Politics, Empathy, best of Streetwise/Socialize, best of Persuasion/Intimidation, best of Academics/Investigation/Occult, best Physical skill  (minuses for zero-skills apply). 
2. Then roll repeatedly (candidates may spend WP), each roll being half a day.
3. First to 15 successes wins. 
4. If a draw, the drawers start again, with a (sum - 15) head-start. 

]

Sledge then asked Colleen to use Dolly to get some more premonitions about his Wedding. Jacob was a better candidate for readings; Sledge's mind wasn't attuned to this task as well as Jacob [ Intelligence and Occult ].

After the previous scary premonition of the bikers storming the wedding, Lieutenant Prospero had offered the Philly SWAT team and a few dozen normal cops to guard the wedding.

Jacob took the little plastic dolly, shut his eyes and let her whispers overwhelm him. A vision appeared in his mind. He was on the steps of the church, looking out over the police and SWAT officers standing around. Sledge and his new bride Safiya were descending the church steps. Suddenly, Safiya's head just exploded in a shower of blood and brain. Then the vision stopped.

They worked out where the sniper bullet would have come from.

Reggie suggested smoke to block the vision, so arranged with Prospero to get some 44-gallon drums to be filled with chipped rubber and old oil, enough to make a colossal cloud of smoke.

Jacob took Dolly again, and let her give him another vision. This time he was doing some lab experiments with beakers and stills; he reached for a glass valve and noticed his hands were old and liver-spotted. Then there was a flash of fire.

So, in this vision, Jacob was now aged: so that meant their smoke trick perhaps blocked the sniper bullet, and perhaps the wedding went through safely. Perhaps.

Wednesday late afternoon, July 23

The party arrived at Cello's "Ye Olde Magick Shoppe". It was set out like a new-age mystical shop with charms, trinkets, incense, etc, to keep the general mundane (non-veil) populous unaware. The mage haters of the group, Reggie and Leon, stayed in the car (Theo was a mage hater too, but he, of course, was currently miles away). So only Ebony, Sledge and Jacob entered Cello's shop.

They were shown through to Cello's office. Cello was there dressed in her velour form-fitting splendour.

After some polite introductions, and bergamot tea all round, she got down to business.

"I haf vatched your progress in Philadelphia over past few months with some interest," she began in her cultured Romanian drawl. "You seem trust-vorthy."

They just nodded. Sledges eyes affixed firmly on her decolletage.

"What I am about to tell you three, vill not be repeated outside this office. Is this clear?"

They all said "Yes, Ma'am."

"I haf a heart pin."

"A heart what?"

Heart pin pin-cushion

"A heart pin," she repeated. "A large magical needle. It go in heart and is magically linked to a duplicate pin which lives in a special pin-cushion. When the duplicate is removed from pin-cushion, the pin in heart also comes out. So the victim, she dies very quickly."

"How did you, a powerful witch, get this?" said Jacob.

"When I was small girl, Oberon, he did this. I did not know until last few years."

"Can't you just magic it away?"

"No. Is magic and any attempt like this causes fail. And death."

The party digested this for a while.

"So what can we do?"

"If you ever should be in Oberon's house, in vault, and you see pin-cushion, with single pin in, you take it and bring to me."

"Of course, lady," said Jacob.

Sledge's mercenary side couldn't stay silent.

"What's in it for us?"

Cello smiled.

"I am sure most powerful witch in Philadelphia can reward you suitable," she said.

Jacob was worried on another angle.

"Reginald, Leon and Theo are all mage-haters," he said. "They would feel no loss if you were to die,
Lady Cello."

"Then maybe it not good for you to tell them," she said. "But I trust you enough to leave that choice for you. Though, I do caution you that if others outside of your group know ... of my weakness, I will not be happy."

"Does Oberon use the pin cushion to threaten you?" asked Ebony.

Cello's mouth tightened and her eyes narrowed.

"He does not use it often," she said. "Maybe, one or two times in last year. He use it more to ensure my loyalty, my silence, and my magic with no questions. Some of his requirements are ... not good."

Conversation drifted onto other topics, and then Ebony decided to quiz Cello about the mechanics of the Oberon's tracking ring.

Cello admitted she was the one who created it, but she couldn't take it off Ebony, for obvious reasons. The location detection that Anderson and Oberon would use, was special copper bowls. Each bowl had a single enchanted marble attuned to the ring. The marble will rise up and freeze on the edge of the bowl closest to the ring. Oberon would have a bunch of these bowls in his other properties, scattered about Philadelphia. So, by triangulation, the location of the ring could be done. The range was about five kilometres.

Wednesday sunset 8:23pm, July 23

Ebony turned up at Defacto's base, under the Abramson Cancer Hospital, and was shown inside. Here she asked to take Defacto up on his offer for werewolf blood to remove the cursed Oberon rings.

"Yes," he said. "Of course. Give me a couple of hours to source the werewolf."

Ebony nodded.

"And," he said. "Would you prefer studs or sleepers?"

"What?"

"In return for removing your cursed ring, I will gift you some jewellery; ear jewellery."

"Cursed?"

"No. Of course not. You just can't remove it."

"Why?"

"There will be a small bang if they are removed."

"How is that not a curse?" whimpered Ebony.

"It is to ensure that you remain loyal to me," smiled Defacto innocently.

Ebony no longer wanted the werewolf blood, no longer wanted to lose Oberon's ring. Luckily, Defacto didn't seem to insist on her wearing the studs; maybe he was worried about the mixing of them with Oberon's ring.

Theo's Excursions

Monday afternoon, July 21

Theo left for the country again, for the night, to hide out of range of Oberon's tracking (Theo's cursed ring). This was becoming a normal nightly habit.

Monday evening, July 21

Sledge was in his private room in Pennsylvania Hospital convalescing.

During hospital evening visiting hours, he was visited by vampire noble Defacto and entourage. Defacto brought some gifts of flowers and chocolate and a "get well soon" balloon. He offered best wishes to Sledge, and presented his card.

Monday midnight, July 21

Sledge was dozing and woke up. There was a noise in the room.
He flicked on the torch app of his cellphone.

Crouched down by his storage box was a woman, dressed as a nurse, but it was a fetish nurse outfit. Bulging bust, cavernous cleavage, tiny skirt, seamed stockings and towering stilettoes. She paused staring into the light, like a possum caught in headlights, before running. This gave Sledge a chance to take a series of phone pictures.

Sledge then pressed the nurse-call button, and the normal night nurse arrived. She was horrified when she saw the pictures.

"We don't allow escorts in rooms, sir!" she blustered.

"It's not a whore," Sledge said. "She was stealing my stuff. She's a thief!"

Eventually he convinced the night nurse of this, and lodged a compliant.

A hospital security guard eventually got to Sledge's private room and Sledge eventually convinced him to check the CCTV of the hospital. Sure enough, this "lady" was spotted entering the main doors just before Visiting Hours had closed. She seemed to be alone. No sign of her exiting.

Tuesday morning, July 22

Sick of being cooped up, Sledge checked himself out of the hospital.

He headed in to STRIKE FORCE offices, and sought out Lieutenant Prospero.

"Can you tell me who else has applied for your position?"

Yes," said Prospero. "This information is not confidential. But I will tell all applicants. It is you, Reginald Gates, Alan Cummings, and Trisha Noble. You are all equal to corporal rank [ 3 dots ]"

"Detective Noble?"

"The same."

"Who is Alan Cummings?" asked Sledge.

"He is the leader of the other group of hunters working in Philadelphia."

"Another group like us?"

"Yes. They are currently north working around Doyleston."

Sledge digested this for a bit.

"Who is top contender of the four of us?" he asked.

"That has not yet been decided."

"Well, who actually makes the decision?"

"We will form a committee of three. Two are coming from New York STRIKE FORCE, and the third is me. Also, when we have made our choice, it must be vetted by Major Ewing."

Tuesday noon, July 22

Prospero didn't seem to mind Doctor Donald frequenting STRIKE FORCE offices, so he got chatting with Jacob.

"I'd like to build a created to help your team," said the doctor.

Jacob looked at him suspiciously.

"Go on," he said. "I am listening."

"See if your STRIKE FORCE boss can source a child corpse," said Doctor Donald. "I've not made a child-size created. It would be exceedingly useful. Good for small spaces. Would fit in an airline bag too."

Jacob went and asked Prospero, to see if it was allowed. And if he could get hold of a child's body.

"Although 'pragmatism' is my middle name," said Prospero. "This is a bit of a stretch..."

"I thought so," interrupted Jacob. "I'll tell the doctor 'no'..."

"Let me finish..." interrupted Prospero back. "I never said 'no'. You look at your own moral compass, Mr Bradshaw. I can make enquiries if you decide it would help STRIKE FORCE."

[ Jacob was being played by guest player Chris Whelan (not Ian), so we decided to defer this decision for when Ian was back. Especially since it might involve a Morality roll. ]

Tuesday afternoon, July 22

Theo left for the countryside again, for his nightly sojourn.

Tuesday sunset, July 22

Ms Anderson phoned Ebony

"My Lord wants to see Theo. Make sure he reports in tonight."

"He's gone," Ebony said. "He leaves town each night and dumps his phone."

"Oh dear... ah. Well, catch him tomorrow. I can probably hold off my Lord for the night. But it is imperative you phone me tomorrow the instant Theo appears. For his life's sake. His very life's sake."

Wednesday morning, July 23

Theo came into town with a new phone, and met Ebony in the Elfrith Alley apartment. Ebony phoned Ms Anderson, Oberon's PA.

"Make sure he doesn't leave!" she snapped. "Be there soon."

Elfrith Alley was only ten minutes' walk from Oberon's offices: the Khyber Pass Bar and Grill.

Ebony chatted innocently with Theo to pass the time, until, suddenly, there was a hammering on the door. She changed her mind.

"I think it is best you go hide," she whispered.

Theo scampered opened the secret door, and fled downstairs to the Nexus and into Mina's shroud.

Ebony let the guys in. They were some of Oberon's goons - three of them. Heavily armed with MP5s, and Taurus PT145s. One had a G36 assault rifle. They searched the apartment, but the secret door behind the cupboard in the living room was not breached.

Ebony was phoned again. It was Ms Anderson.

"It seems Theo just left town," Ms Anderson said. "How he do it so fast?"

Ebony had no idea. Ms Anderson wasn't convinced, but she summoned Oberon's men, and they left the apartment.

Ebony hissed down the stairs.

"Stay there, Theo!"

Bones' Destruction

Saturday early morning, July 19, 2014

Vampire Joel Grayling's body was lying on a table in STRIKE FORCE offices, still staked. Next to it was the casket containing the "spare" skeleton that Ebony had got STRIKE FORCE to source for her earlier attempt to trick Oberon, On a third table were the bagged bones of the Created that Ebony had recovered from beneath Defacto's garage.

Oberon had texted Theo, and Ebony: "Bring me those bones or else". Theo threw away the SIM card.

"What do we do now?" asked Ebony.

Reginald and Leon, as one, grabbed a STRIKE FORCE cleaver and decapitated Joel's remains, giving him the True Death. The party then watched, with some morbid satisfaction, as the remnants dissolved back to the body's true age - about 85 years; the skin tightened and dried to the bones, and the organs withered to a few husks in the rib cage.

They put the dry pieces in the casket with the spare skeleton.

"May as well burn that too," mused Ebony. "Oberon knows all now."

Lieutenant Prospero arranged for a police escort to take the three sets of bones to the furnace, which was now up and running, at Pennsylvania Hospital.

This trip was uneventful.

When they got there, the furnace was blazing bright and hot. Grayling's bones and the spare skeleton was burned first. The Created skeleton was then put onto the conveyor waiting to go into the furnace.

They needed to decide who would take the moral hit. Doctor Donald had pointed out that this Created was technically an "innocent". There was no indication that it was evil, and there was no indication that it posed any threat to the group, nor to the world.

None of these moral qualms affected Reggie. He stepped up in a flash.

"I'll do it," he snapped. And pushed the "go" button. [ He made his Morality roll. ]

The created's bones slipped into the 1200 C furnace.

Saturday sunrise, July 19

Sledge Hammer had been severely wounded by the gunfight, so the party checked him into the hospital; the very hospital where they had just finished burning the bones.

Sledge was put into surgery straight away.

In the recovery ward, he was visited by Doctor Bryan Philby, the heart surgeon and ... demon. Pete the orderly worked here too. Bryan recognized Sledge straight away, and told him he'd receive the "best care" here.

"I will personally see to you," said Dr Philby.

Later, Philby presented Sledge with the three bullets that they had extracted from his body.

Saturday late afternoon, July 19

Theo was becoming increasingly worried that Oberon would now be hunting him. This was not helped by Reginald starting up another sweep-stake as to when Theo would be killed.

He took off in a taxi a way out into the country. He was sure he could get his cursed ring out of range of Oberon's tracking. So stayed the night in a bedsit, some 100 km north of Philadelphia.

Sunday morning, July 20

The party visited Colleen Thomson and ex-Captain Lassard.

Theo wanted to try Colleen's Dolly to see if she could give him a fate reading. Colleen was happy to oblige, and handed the little doll to Theo.

Dolly didn't disappoint. Theo closed his eyes and let Dolly into his mind. Her gentle ethereal whispers faded away, and suddenly an image formed in his mind: on a grassy hill stood an old twisted oak. On a rope, twisting in the wind, was Theo's body. Hanged.

There was no indication of time, and not many landmarks around.

Sunday afternoon, July 20

Preparations for Sledge's and Safiya's up-and-coming wedding were well underway. It was now only nine days away. Plans had been made to change the exact time of the wedding to be plus or minus one or two hours, and they would contact all the RSVPed guests the day before. Mrs Hammer had invited a whole swag of Sledges relatives, so security was a  nightmare. The hope was that the Morte Christe biker invaders, seen in Sledge's Dolly-vision, would be fooled by this last-minute change of time.

Jacob commented soberly.

"Your vision had no indication of time," he said. "How do you know the vision wasn't of the new time?"


Sunday late afternoon, July 20

Theo went off into the country again. To get out of range again.

Monday morning, July 21

Lieutenant Prospero had some news.

My job application was approved," he said. "I have been confirmed as the new commander of STRIKE FORCE in New York. I shall be promoted to Captain Prospero."

Murmurs of congratulation all around.

"I'll be starting a week today. And it means the position for STRIKE FORCE commander for Philadelphia will now be open."

Reginald's ears pricked up.

"I will apply, sah!"

"Whoever gets the position," said Prospero. "will be promoted to First or Second Lieutenant depending on their current STRIKE FORCE standing."

We want those bones!

Friday midnight, July 18

The party turned up at Mina's and had a good long talk to Doctor Donald about the Created.

Doctor Donald briefed them on the mechanics of the Created:
A small subset of veil-aware humans, the Creators, (Doctor Donald was one) had the gift of being able to create. He did not know if this power was learned, or en-spelled or genetic; but with him, he was born with it. These Creators could construct a creature out of mundane materials and some magic items. Then, by imbuing a little piece of them [ permanent Willpower ] into this construct, they could bring it to life. This creature was called a Created and would actually be alive and sentient. "He" or "she" or "it" was utterly under the control of the creator, and would only attain true free will if its creator died.
[ C.f. Frankenstein's monster, or the Jewish golem, or voodoo zombies, or some flavours of necromancy ]

This skeleton that Ebony had recovered (from beneath Defacto's arms warehouse in Fishtown) was only dry bones, but there was the spark of life still in the skull. Doctor Donald was more than happy to coat the bones with the flesh to bring it alive, but the party would have none of this.

"Necromancy!" shuddered both Reggie and Jacob.

They managed to sway Ebony and Mina of the need to have this thing destroyed, and they decided that it should be incinerated. Not that there was actually any evidence of evil or malice in the bones.

So they packed up the bones for transport and headed to the car; Reggie's SUV. Donald was furious and he followed them in his own car in convoy.

Ebony got hold of Detective Noble and arranged for STRIKE FORCE to locate a single skeleton of a normal dead person. To give to Ebony. Ebony's intent was to pass off this fake skeleton to her "debtors" (Oberon or Defacto).

Saturday very early morning, July 19

On the way to STRIKE FORCE HQ, they were heading north on 611 and were just passing Lombard South Metro Station when, suddenly, the front wheels of Reggie's car were shot away. Luckily, he was a skilled driver and managed to swerve to the side without rolling it over.

The whole party evacuated the car as it was hit by another wave of gunfire.

Down the street there was a group of shadowy figures with automatic weapons, and they were blasting away at the party.

The battle didn't last very long. Jacob called for STRIKE FORCE backup, and the attackers knew that the police would soon be on the scene, so all four of them charged.

Reggie opened up with his MP5, Leon with his shotgun and Sledge with his twin magnums. Sledge was dropped, and both Reggie and Leon were injured. But all four attackers were dropped. One was dead, the other three unconscious. One of them was a vampire. He had taken a direct hit from Reginald's MP5 and the damage was enough to drop him. But before he could regenerate and recover, Reggie staked his heart. [ Stakes hold the vampire in suspended animation - basically unconscious - until the creature is killed (decapitated or burned) or released. ]

The vampire had a photo ID. It was Joel Grayling.

STRIKE FORCE support arrived soon after, and the mundane police cordoned off the street. The group was then escorted safely back to the Central Police Station and to STRIKE FORCE HQ.

Saturday early morning, July 19

STRIKE FORCE databases didn't take long to link Joel Grayling with Oberon.

So Reginald phoned Oberon. He got through to Ms Anderson who dutifully passed the phone to her master.

"We have Joel," said Reggie. "Lets make a deal. Remove Ebony and Theo's rings and you can have him back."

"Tell you what," replied Oberon. "Give me those bones and I'll remove their rings. And clear your blood rent debt."

"No can do," said Reggie. And he hung up.

While this was going on, Prospero was making calls. He wanted to find the closest furnace to STRIKE FORCE.

He got through to the Pennsylvania Hospital and, despite it now being 2 am, he confirmed that their furnace was currently running.

The plan was to incinerate the created's bones there.

The Created

Wednesday morning, July 16

In STRIKE FORCE HQ in Philly, there was a lot of gossip going around. Captain Lassard officially resigned from STRIKE FORCE, so that he could stay, and retire, with Colleen Thomson. They were planning to settle in Philadelphia. This, of course, meant that the STRIKE FORCE Commander position of the New York wing was now vacant. Whoever would get this position would be promoted to Captain.

Sledge, Reggie and Leon put their names forward (and presumably many more in New York). Lieutenant Prospero did likewise.

Reggie and Leon got an answer back straight away. They had interviews scheduled for Friday.

Sledge didn't.

Wednesday night, July 16

Ebony checked out the target warehouse on the corner of East Albert Street and Webb Street in Fishtown. It wasn't actually a warehouse but just a garage. But it was certainly surrounded by a group of heavily armed men. She didn't dare venture any closer, but just confirmed it was some men, with some dogs.

She went back to Defacto, and managed to wheedle out of him a bunch of incendiary grenades.

"In case you wondered," he added wryly. "They won't work on vampires."

Thursday morning, July 17

Mina's veil-aware lawyer Carole Christie got all the STRIKE FORCE charges dropped for Colleen.

Ebony mentioned to Prospero and the group that she was working for Defacto as part of a deal with Oberon. When she relayed the Fishtown address, he pointed out that this was the very "warehouse" where the Morte Christe bikers picked up the heavy weapons for their attack on the STRIKE FORCE Protective Custody apartment a week ago. And this garage was already owned by Defacto.

"Why would he want his own garage destroyed?" Ebony asked no-one in particular. Not that Defacto knew that Ebony knew this place was owned by him.

The garage was still being studied by mundane CSI and forensics. They were the heavily armed men (and dogs) that she had seen last night.

Prospero arranged for them to finish up today, before sunset, so that Ebony could burn the place tonight to maintain her cover and impress Defacto of her diligence and resourcefulness.

Sledge Hammer pondered Ebony's situation.

"Let me get this straight, Ebony," he said. "You are Mina's ghoul, yet Oberon gave you (and Theo) the cursed anti-ghoul rings, and Oberon wants you to get in with Defacto, to infiltrate and tell Oberon what is going on, but in secret you work for Mina. So you are working for all three of the vampire nobles of Philly, against each other."

Ebony nodded.

"How can this possibly not turn out badly?" said Sledge.

"Let's start a sweep-stake!" said Reggie. "As to how long Ebony will survive. I say four days."

"I say four weeks," said Leon.

"Two weeks," said Sledge.


Thursday night, July 17

With the police all gone, Ebony turned up at the Fishtown garage with her incendiary grenades and some containers of petrol. She took along Theo to do a Sixth Sense sweep, just in case.

Sure enough, Theo spotted a tingling source. Luckily, it was still early nightfall and they managed to get Siri to visit to pin-point the source. It was under the concrete, in the middle of the slab floor.

So Ebony hired a concrete cutter, Siri cast a Silence spell, and Ebony cut a rectangular slab from the concrete floor, then dug down. There was a skeleton there, lying face down, but it was made up of different bones; about ten different creatures.

Siri was still hanging around, so she cast some more spells and revealed that it was a Created creature. This is another type of veil creature of the type like Frankenstein's monster, or a Jewish gollum. Despite being a skeleton, and despite probably lying there since the concrete floor had been poured (forty years, give or take), it still had a "life spark" (revealed by Siri's spell).

Ebony put the created's skeleton safely in her car, then ignited the grenades and the petrol, and razed the garage entirely.

Then she took the skeleton to Mina's place, for storage and safety. To confirm Siri's life spark detection, Mina's veil detector "mushroom" showed its own little coloured dot where the skull was stored.

Just to be sure, Ebony asked Mina to split the bones up into four separate containers. To stop anything reforming.

And then, feeling a bit wan, Ebony took up Mina's nightly offer of a drink of blood. Mina happily cut her wrist and dribbled the delicious blood into Ebony's mouth.

Mina's knowledge of the Created was scant. So she searched through her contacts and got hold of a Doctor Thom Donald. He knew a lot about the Created, and he would be in Philadelphia tomorrow night.

Ebony went and reported to Defacto. He was very impressed she had burned the place.

Ebony then went and reported to Oberon. She did mention the created skeleton.

Friday midday, July 18

Reggie and Leon drove to New York. They went to the STRIKE FORCE HQ there and were both interviewed for the position of STRIKE FORCE Commander of New York.

Leon did not have much STRIKE FORCE experience [ one STRIKE FORCE merit dot ].

But the interviewer was quite impressed with Reggie. He was a STRIKE FORCE Corporal [ three merit dots ] and he knew the STRIKE FORCE Constitution pretty well.

Friday night, July 18

Doctor Donald arrived at Mina's abode. Ebony was already there. He had a look at the Created's bones and confirmed Siri's magic. He said that he could reskin and reanimate the creature if they so wanted.

"We will think about this," said Mina.

Ebony's cell rang. It was Oberon.

"Bring me those bones."


[ Abu's hieroglyphics analysis, roll 13, need sum=20: week1(19-25 jun)=6, week2(26jun-3jul)=0, week3(4-10jul)=3, week4(11-18jul)=6 ]

Critiquing Evidence

Tuesday afternoon, July 15

Colleen Thomson was facing a bunch of charges levelled by STRIKE FORCE, so the party gathered in STRIKE FORCE HQ (in Philadelphia). With them was Lieutenant Prospero, Colleen, her lawyer Carole Christie, and Captain Lassard.

They had a questioning session, and went through Colleen's charges, one by one:

Infiltration of STRIKE FORCE

Back in 2009, the Gem of the Veil (allows the owner to identify veil-creatures and type) was much more costly than it is today. In 2011, Mage-Tech (a large magical R&D operation run by the Mages) had made a major techno-magical break-through in the production of these gems. Production no longer required the essence of a ghost, or the entrapment of a ghost, that was required formerly. This allowed the gems to be made far more cheaply and fast, and thus, today, they are more ubiquitous.

So, back in 2009, STRIKE FORCE had to rely on its members who had the Sixth Sense ability to vet new applicants to the organization; STRIKE FORCE, of course, did not want veil creatures in its ranks! Corporal Trent Howes was the recruitment officer on the day when Colleen joined, and a Corporal Filling was his magical vetter. It turned out that Filling was a lazy sod, and had neglected to vet Colleen at all. Trent wasn't very pedantic on the rules and he had ticked the "veil check" box on Colleen's application form. Thus she had entered the STRIKE FORCE mundane section as a veil creature, strictly against protocol.

"I wonder how many other veil creatures snuck into STRIKE FORCE then?" said Reggie.

"Only three," said Colleen smugly. "But I outed them."

Bewitching of a STRIKE FORCE Officer

In 2009, Colleen started her career as an Admin flunky in the STRIKE FORCE mundane section. She caught the eye of a Lieutenant Lassard, and he made her his PA. Due to Colleen's fae powers, and her fetish Dolly, she helped Lassard achieve a remarkable collection of successes, thus he rose through the STRIKE FORCE ranks, and was promoted to Captain. Then he was set in charge of STRIKE FORCE New York.

All this time, no-one knew Colleen was a fae. Throughout all this, Lassard and Colleen fell in love. So, in some ways, he was bewitched.

Siri was called in, and she conducted some tests on Lassard. She could find no traces of magical bewitchment.

"But that doesn't preclude true love," she smiled.

Lassard agreed to go with Jacob and Reggie to a neurologist. Lassard was in the early stages of dementia. They concluded that, without Colleen's help, he probably couldn't do his job.

Accessory to murder of Trent Howes.
Accessory to escape of Werewolf Reginald Maudling.

Back in 2012, werewolf Maudling was sentenced to be executed by firing squad, and was on Death Row (in New York) awaiting this. Lieutenant Lassard and Colleen went into his cell to question the werewolf on another matter and when they left, Colleen had closed his cage door. She had not been trained on the Oldershaw lock that held Maudling's cage closed, and so she didn't latch it correctly. Maudling escaped soon after, killed Trent Howes who was the guard, and got away.

There was an extensive enquiry after the fact, and its main conclusion was "Lack of Training", and piled no blame on Colleen at all. If anything, Howes was the assigned guard, so he ought to have activated the Oldershaw lock himself.

Suspecting the worst, the party sent the mugshot of Maudling to Juan, still embedded in the Morte Christe bikers, and sure enough, Maudling was there. He was using a different name: Wilfred Owens.

Accessory to assault of Cletis Crawdad, twice.

In 2013, Cletis Crawdad was one of a group that STRIKE FORCE was hunting for armed robbery. (Even though Crawdad was a human, his group was known to have veil creatures, hence STRIKE FORCE got involved.) Colleen, a non-combatant,  was left with the vehicles while the rest of the heavily-armed squad entered the building. Unknown to them, Crawdad had snuck around and got to the vehicles. He surprised Colleen, took her captive, and raped her. Eventually, the squad arrived back, dropped him and rescued Colleen. Tempers were high, and Crawdad was badly beaten up by them.

Two weeks later, Crawdad was being transported out, chained up, and Colleen beat him up again herself. Lassard helped.

Although these assaults were noted at the time, no-one worried that they had happened.

Cletis Crawdad was later taken to the Philadelphia Eastern State Penitentiary, under Warden Clam, where he "escaped" in 2014, and joined Morte Christe bikers q.v.

Grand theft of STRIKE FORCE property: Toyota Prius

The Toyota Prius in question was the very car that Colleen had driven down to Philadelphia yesterday. It was formerly Lassard's but he had gifted to Colleen.


After hearing all this, lawyer Carole was pretty sure she could get all the charges dropped. Prospero agreed, and he concluded that the only reason that this witch hunt had begun was that Major Ewing hated fae. With this in mind, Prospero planned to go over Ewing's head, to the STRIKE FORCE commander of the entire USA, Lieutenant-Colonel Spalling.

"We better check who Spalling hates," said Leon.

They had a look through STRIKE FORCE's records at Spalling's distinguished career . It was pretty obvious: the number of werewolves that had died in Spalling's missions out-numbered all the other veil creatures three to one.

It was also concluded that Colleen would no longer be able to be part of STRIKE FORCE, and without her, Lassard should really resign his commission. Especially considering his dementia.

"I'm getting too old for this, anyway," he quipped wryly.

Tuesday afternoon, later, July 15

With his wedding exactly two weeks away (on 29th), Sledge phoned his mum with a bunch of last-minute panics. But his mother and fiancee had everything in hand.

"But you will need to choose a best man, dear," said Mrs Hammer patiently. "And get a suit for him and yourself. Safiya has sent through the correct colour for your bow-tie and cummerbund."

Sledge looked at his phone forlornly: "Contacts deleted."

It always said that.

Sledge eyed Reginald.

"You're my best man, Corporal Gates," he ordered.

"It would be an honour, sah," snapped Reggie.

"Your first duty. Contact my wife-to-be, and get the colour of the bow-tie and the cummer thing."

Yes, sah."

Tuesday night, July 15

Safely ensconced in his five-dot safe-house, Reggie, Jacob, Sledge and Leon slept the sleep of Morpheus.

Back in the Elfrith Alley apartment, Mina arrived to be greeted by Ebony and Theo.

They were pondering over a letter sent to them by Ms Anderson, Oberon's PA:

Dear party,

How are you?
I am good too.

On June 15th you struck a deal with my Lord Oberon that you would
provide him a certain weekly payment as lease for your Elfrith Alley
apartment. A certain tasty payment that he would savour.

You are four weeks in arrears.

Please expedite this matter forthwith.

Kisses
Ms Anderson, for Oberon Sanchez

This payment was, of course, a "drink". The party had done this once, back when they first took up the Elfrith Alley lease (they found a volunteer who didn't mind losing some blood), but lately had been distracted by their missions, and had forgotten about it.

The apartment was still valuable to them, and Abu ought to make a break-through any day now - he was still coming daily to work on the hieroglyphics of the tomb down in the cellar.

There was nothing for it: Ebony headed off to vampire Oberon at his offices Khyber Pass Bar & Grill.

It seemed Oberon wanted lives, now, not just drinks, and Ebony was not sure that she should deliver lives to him. Plus she was worried about her soul [[ Morality stat ]] if she headed down this dark path.

"You can do something else for me," smiled Oberon. "I gave you those rings for a reason. Go seek out Defacto. Maybe I clear your debt then."

Tuesday midnight, July 15

Defacto's business card detailed his address, so Ebony headed there.

Sure enough, in the morgue under the University of Pennsylvania: Abramson Cancer Centre Hospital, she found him. Like Oberon, Defacto was surrounded by a group of women, and some other vampires.

 Defacto was amused to see her. He straight away had a job to test her and her party's skills:
There was a warehouse in Fishtown. On the corner of Webb St and East Albert St.

"Raze it to the ground," he said.

Colleen's Problem

Monday late afternoon, July 14, 2014

Jacob and Reggie headed off to Sherman park. Sure enough, Colleen Thomson was there.

Apart from Captain Lassard, it seemed no-one in STRIKE FORCE had actually known that Colleen was a fae. When HQ was informed about this on Saturday (from the party's discovery), Major Ewing, STRIKE FORCE commander of the tri-state area, took this very personally.

Colleen claimed she was fleeing for her very life.

So, Jacob and Reginald took her to a motel.

"Do you trust us?" Reggie asked.

"Um... yes," she said. "I have no-one else."

"Okay then," said Reggie. "We want to borrow Dolly for a while."

Colleen's "Dolly"

Dolly was Colleen's plastic doll which she carried around with her. Sledge had found it the day of the biker attack on the STRIKE FORCE apartment last Thursday, when he went through Lassard and Thomson's gear (after they had hurriedly fled). He had got Theo to touch the doll, and it Sixth Sense tingled.

Colleen reluctantly handed Dolly over. Reggie stayed with Colleen, while Jacob took Dolly to Siri the witch.

Siri did some identification spells on Dolly and reported that Dolly was a Fetish. This is an enchanted item that holds a ghost voluntarily. The owner of the fetish has a symbiotic relationship with the ghost; the ghost grants the holder some powers and the ghost feeds [ willpower ] off the holder. Siri could not detect any malevolence - but then she could never be always certain.

When Jacob returned to the motel with Dolly, they asked Colleen for more information.

"Dolly is my ghost companion and she lives in this doll. She helps me see into the Hisil," said Colleen. "In fact, remember that ghost at the mayor's reception? Well, Dolly helped me that day. She can also read the future if she is in a good mood."

"So she can talk to you?"

"Not out loud; she talks in my head. She showed me the future through my own eyes. I saw me being executed by a firing squad."

Apparently, that was a common method of execution used by STRIKE FORCE on evil captive veil creatures.

"But you are not evil," said Jacob.

"Not what Major Ewing thinks," said Colleen. "He is a bit of a zealot. I bet fae is his hated foe."

"But he can't just kill you like that," said Reginald. "STRIKE FORCE has set guidelines for this, and ... and there has to be a trial, a court-martial. It's in the constitution: Section 104, Courts-Martial."

"He can rig the court-martial."

"Also," said Reggie. "You aren't a full STRIKE FORCE member, because you are not human. This means you can avoid a court-martial."

Colleen had not thought of this.

"Good thing I sought out you guys," she smiled.

"We need to get you a lawyer," said Jacob.

Monday sunset 8:29 pm, July 14

Jacob and Reginald updated the rest of the party, and they updated Lieutenant Prospero.

"Bring her in," he ordered.

Lawyer Carole Christe

Everyone met at STRIKE FORCE offices.

Theo and Ebony pointed out that they needed a veil-aware lawyer and that Mina probably had trustworthy lawyers, so they got hold of Carmine Roker, Mina's curator at her gallery. Carmine was very helpful and gave them a lawyer's name: Carole Christie, of Christie and Partners law firm.

They phoned Carole and arranged to meet her at STRIKE FORCE offices. It was after sunset now, so Mina would be up. Ebony phoned her, and she was more than happy to allow Carole to help. Theo had a smug grin.

"Happy for Mina to help us now, aren't we?" he said to no-one in particular.

Major Jack Ewing

Prospero agreed with the party that Major Ewing couldn't just summarily execute Colleen Thomson, no matter how much he hated fae. And, in fact, he confirmed Reggie's statement that Ewing could not even insist that she be tried in a court-martial.

Prospero phoned STRIKE FORCE's New York HQ. When he mentioned Colleen, it did not take long for him to be put through direct to Major Ewing.

Lieutenant Prospero stood holding the telephone headset out from his ear, while Major Ewing's voice screamed out, loud and clear to all in the room.

"Bring me that sidhe bitch!" he bellowed.

Prospero kept his cool despite the onslaught of Major Ewing's apoplectic bellows. He managed to get in his words while the Major gasped air between each tirade.

"Ms Thomson has got herself a lawyer..."

More raucous bellows and screams.

"... from Christie and Partners, and the lawyer pointed out that ...

More screams.

"... that because Ms Thomson is only an honorary member of STRIKE FORCE, being non-human, she is not subject to the normal STRIKE FORCE Court-Martial process..."

More hysterical screams.

"... and can opt for a civil trial...

Screams.

"... which she has done."

Screams.

"So," said Prospero over the top of more screams. "Sir Major, sir, can you please arrange to FAX the charges through to here, and I will see that the lawyer gets them."

Prospero repeated this sentence again, despite the screams which had now descended into vile threats and disgusting invective. Then he just hung up.

Prospero insisted that Colleen stay in the STRIKE FORCE cells. Carole agreed that it might be safer anyway.

Jacob then phoned Captain Lassard, and told him that Colleen was here. Lassard left New York headed for Philadelphia straight away.

While they were doing this, Sledge, who had heard about Colleen's Dolly's prognostication abilities, asked if he could talk with Dolly. Colleen agreed.

Sledge held Dolly to his head and opened his mind. Sure enough, he heard Dolly's voice in his head [ critical Perception roll ].

"Show me my wedding day!" he crowed.

Sledge was in the church. His mind's-eye "camera" was on him and his bride Safiya standing at the altar with the priest, and they were reciting their wedding vows. The view then panned clockwise, scanned over the party and groom's family, and looked down the aisle. The church doors suddenly exploded inwards, and Morte Christe bikers (he recognized some) rushed in, spraying automatic gun-fire over the pews and guests.

Back in the real world, Sledge yelped out loud, and the image vanished.

"Is that true?!" he stammered to Colleen. "My wedding was all shot up !"

"If you do nothing, the vision is pretty accurate," said Colleen. "But you can influence the results. It is not fixed in stone."

"Get Saturday's Lotto numbers!" said Leon.

"No," said Colleen, missing the joke. "It doesn't work that way. The image you get is always related to you. You can't ask about someone else's future."

Monday late evening, July 14

Reginald, Jacob, Leon and Sledge were at Reggie's safe-house; it had just had magical protections installed (similar effect to a Shroud or the no-eavesdrop ruby) [ he bought five dots in Safe-house Security ].

The pariahs with their cursed tracking-rings, Ebony and Theo, were in the Elfrith Alley apartment. Mina was down in the cellar at the Nexus.

There was a loud knock on the door. Theo peered through the peep-hole and saw a tall thin man, wearing sunglasses, and dressed in a black trench-coat. Not willing to face this guy alone, he summoned Mina. She came up from the cellar, wearing rubber gloves, just as Theo opened the door.

Instantly, her eyes gleamed feral red, and fangs extended, as did the man at the door.

Vampire Maurice Parsons

"Maurice!" hissed Mina.

Maurice fled, at supernatural vampire speed.

"Damn!" cursed Mina. "He is one of Oberon's. Maurice Parsons. That means Oberon will know I am here."

Theo frowned.

"You need to go to Oberon now," said Mina. "It is no secret that Ebony is my bitch. But you need to tell Oberon this. That is the reason I am here. He must not, of course, know about the Nexus."

Theo nodded wanly, darkly, and headed over to the Khyber Pass Bar & Grill; Oberon's haunt.

The bodyguards knew Theo pretty well these days, so they ushered him upstairs without a word. Oberon was there with his usual bevy of women, plus Dimetrius, Marceline, and Maurice.

Oberon cut straight to the point.

"Who owns the block where your apartment is, Theo?" he asked.

"Uh, you do, sir," said Theo.

"So why is dear Mina there?" The way Oberon said the word "dear" was as far from dear as one could get.

"Um.. she is... uh Ebony is a bitch ... I mean becoming ...ghoul to Mina," said Theo.

"This I know," said Oberon. "So is it not fair for you to become ... 'bitch' (such a lovely term!) to me? Theo, my bitch?"

"No, sir," stammered Theo. "Not at all."

Oberon gave a tiny nod, and suddenly, quick as a blink, four vampires were on Theo, one holding each limb. They held Theo down, back to the floor. Maurice held his jaw painfully open with cold dry fingers. Oberon cut his own wrist and let the black blood trickle into Theo's open mouth.

Theo (and no doubt Oberon) knew that ghouling [ verb, transitive ] is an entirely voluntary thing. A vampire can not force someone to become a ghoul. The human must want it; the magic requires tacit consent.

Nevertheless, Theo did his level best not to swallow Oberon's blood. He spat it out, coughed it out, and vomitted it out. Each time he did this, one of the vampires would punch him savagely in the solar plexus. Eventually, poor Theo passed out from the ordeal.

Tuesday early morning, July 15

Theo woke up. He was naked, in an alley, covered in blood, vomit and ... Tibetan whiskey.

Theo staggered out to the street. He soon got his bearings, and stumbled back to the Elfrith Alley apartment.
'
Ebony let him in. Mina was still there. He told Ebony and Mina of the encounter, and then had a shower. Afterwards, Mina diagnosed Theo's wounds [ 6 lethal points of damage ].

"I'll get you some poultices for your injuries," she said. "I feel a trifle responsible for this."

"A 'trifle'?" he mumbled as Mina swanned out.

As soon as Mina had left, there was a knock on the door.

Ebony peered trough the peephole and saw Maurice. Theo nodded wanly, and she let him in.

Maurice wandered about the apartment, idly looking around.

"Sorry about your wounds, old chap," said Maurice. he didn't sound sorry. "Nice place you have here. You do know Oberon owns this place?"

Theo scowled.

Maurice offered his wrist.

"Like a drink?" he sneered. "It will make you feel better."

Theo shook his head. Maurice then handed over his calling card, and left. Sure enough, the card tingled with Theo's Sixth Sense.

Mina arrived back with her poultices, and she gently applied them to Theo's wounds. They were steeped in magic and tingled the whole time. Soon he was right as rain.

Maurice's card was later put on a bus to Florida.

Tuesday morning, July 15

Lieutenant Prospero tore the paper off the FAX machine. It was from the New York STRIKE FORCE offices.

15-Jul-2014
Major Jack Ewing's Offices

Charges pertaining to Fae Colleen Thomson.
Member of STRIKE FORCE from 6-Jun-2009 through to 12-Jul-2014.
Adjutant to Captain Albus Lassard 3-Aug-2009 through to 12-Jul-2014.

6-Jun-2009
Infiltration of STRIKE FORCE: 
Ms Thomson infiltrated STRIKE FORCE, evaded the screening tests with fae magic, and did not declare her veil side.

3-Aug-2009 continuous to 12-Jul-2014
Bewitching of a STRIKE FORCE officer: 
Ms Thomson did bewitch Captain Albus Lassard with her fae powers, dulling his mind, and perverting his will. 

18-Oct-2012
Accessory to Murder: 
Accessory to Escape:
Ms Thomson did knowingly fail to secure the cage of Werewolf Reginald Maudling, who then broke out and killed STRIKE FORCE Lance Corporal Trent Howes. Werewolf Maudling then escaped STRIKE FORCE premises.

30-Sep-2013
Accessory to Assault: 
Ms Thomson failed to prevent the assault of Cletis Crawdad.

5-Oct-2013
Accessory to Assault:
Ms Thomson assisted in the assault of Cletis Crawdad.

14-May-2014

Grand Theft of STRIKE FORCE property:
Ms Thomson did knowingly steal a 2013 Toyota Prius registration IBR8K4WW which belonged to STRIKE FORCE.

END

Oh Dear

Saturday noon, July 12

STRIKE FORCE Lieutenant Prospero contacted the party.

"Go to Salisbury," he said, "and find out about those Morte Christe bikers. We want to know who hired them to shoot up our apartment. Maybe you could first find out where they got those heavy weapons from."

Juan was embedded in Morte Christe. So they tried him. He wouldn't answer his mobile, nor respond to texts.

Oh dear.

Saturday afternoon, July 12

The party headed south, across the border into Maryland, and to Salisbury.

Sure enough, on the south side of Salisbury, there was a park. And the bikers had made camp there.

"We still don't know why the police haven't just waded in and arrested them all," quipped Jacob.

"Maybe state jurisdiction?" said Ebony to no-one in particular.

The bikers were under surveillance by two patrol cars, but it was from a distance.

Jacob made his own observational position on the far side of the park, and, with binoculars, spotted Juan's bike. Eventually Juan was spotted too. Still alive. That was good.

Saturday evening, July 12

After dark, Ebony and Sledge, the good sneakers of the party, skulked into the camp. Ebony, surreptitiously dropped a pre-paid phone into Juan's pocket.

Sure enough, Juan contacted them later.

"Can't talk in camp," he whispered into his phone. "They have a phone detector set up. Call you back, noon tomorrow."

Sunday noon, July 13

Juan called the party.

"I know what you want. I know not who hired Morte Christe to attack that Fishtown place, Angel keeps very quiet. But we did go via a brick garage to get guns and RPGs. On the north corner of Webb St and East Albert St."

Straight away, they contact Prospero and relayed the address.

Prospero did some digging.

Sunday afternoon, July 13

Lieutenant Prospero called the party back.

"That dwelling is owned by a holding company, which is owned by a trust, which was formed by known associates - known ghouls actually - of Defacto. So I think we can make the connection..."

Nods all round.

"Unless you lot want to poke further, I'll order in the SWAT boys to take it out."

The party conferred a little, but they were pretty sure.

"Send in SWAT!"

While this was going on, Mrs Hammer, Sledge's mum, phoned Sledge and asked him for dinner. She also dropped some news.

"Your betrothed has been offered a job at the prison," she said proudly.

"Um," said Sledge weakly. "What prison?"

"The Eastern State Penitentiary. The warden herself called. Lovely lady, Candy or something. Said she knew you well."

Oh dear.

Sunday evening, July 13

Sledge rushed to his mum's apartment.

Sledge and Safiya's wedding was in sixteen days' time (29th July), so Safiya had started to make grand plans. And she couldn't wait to tell Sledge about them. She had selected several sets of vows, and asked him which ones he liked the best. He chose the ones that were the most soppy and twee - cloyingly so.

Safiya wanted a $60,000 wedding dress, so and didn't want to put too much "financial burden" on Sledge, and the prison job "just came up".

"They want me as an accounts clerk in the admin block of the prison," exclaimed Safiya proudly. "And I know Excel!"

Sledge managed to convince Safiya not to take the job.

Mrs Hammer also had received a large bunch of flowers, and a friendly "thinking of you" card - sent from the warden.

Theo was called around. he ran his fingers over the flowers and card. Sure enough, the ribbon tingled.

Sledge phoned the warden. Both her cell phone number and her home phone number didn't work. He phoned the prison after-hours line, but they just said try the warden on Monday.

Sunday sunset 8:29 pm, July 13

Reggie was in his safe-house with Jacob and Leon.

Ebony and Theo were back in the Elfrith Alley apartment when Mina arrived.

She offered Ebony a drink from her wrist as usual. And Ebony "declined with regret".

Mina took Theo aside for a good chat. He talked about getting the two STRIKE FORCE notables (Lassard and Thomson)  safely away to New York, the Morte Christe bikers, and the SWAT team.

Reggie and Jacob, and maybe Sledge, had been getting a trifle annoyed at the way Theo spilled his guts to Mina, and had warned him about this ... but they weren't here to stop him.

Sunday late evening, July 13

Mina was chatting with Ebony, and conversation got around to Oberon. Mina mentioned it was about time he got stirred up. So Ebony offered to, and she and Theo jogged around to Oberon's place, Khyber Pass Bar & Grill.

Oberon was quite happy to see them. They told Oberon about Defacto offering Theo his magic card (at the Mayor's do on Wednesday night), and how they had noticed that Oberon got rather annoyed.

Oberon, surrounded by his PA Anderson and some other babes, just laughed it off. Then asked the two if they'd like to work for him; go and pretend to work for Defacto,

"But keep me appraised," he added.

They would be interested, and Oberon offered them a brief-case of money for successful completion

Oberon's ring

($80K). He then gave them two filigree silver rings.

"Put them on please, they will help you resist Defacto's influence."

They both did. Worried that the rings might be cursed, they tested, and they could take the rings off.

"They will stop you becoming his ghouls," Oberon smiled.

When they got back to the apartment, Theo took his ring off and put it on the table.

Five minutes later, he happened to glance down and the ring was back on his finger.

Oh dear.

Theo and Ebony did some experimenting. The ring seemed to teleport back to your hand when you weren't looking or expecting it. You'd put your hand in your pocket, and when you took it out, the ring would be back. You'd look away, and then glance back at your hand, and the ring would be back.
It would never do it under direct observation. You could stop the transfer if you, or someone else, maintained a watch on the ring, or the hand. But even a glance away would be enough.

Mina was down in the basement in the shroud area. She listened patiently.

"That's a ghoul ring," she said. "It will be tied to Oberon, and stops you becoming a ghoul to another vampire. But I haven't seen them teleport like that. Oh ... and don't bring it into the shroud !"

Ebony was in the shroud, and had left her ring upstairs. It hadn't teleported down here.

"That was lucky!" she mused. "So it won't teleport into the shroud."

Mina didn't look very happy.

Sure enough, later, when Ebony was outside the shroud, the ring reappeared on her hand.

When Sledge got back from his mum's, he had the no-eavesdrop ruby. It behaved similar to the shroud (it prevented the ring returning to its owner when you stood near the ruby).

Monday morning, July 14

Sledge phoned the prison and eventually got through to the warden.

"Well, so nice to hear from you, Mister Hammer!" she said effusively.

Before he could answer, she continued.

"I see that your inaction to take out my escapees has resulted in the death of, what was it? five souls in Fishtown. I hope you regret changing sides. Their blood is on your group's hands."

This was news to Sledge. But he didn't let on. In the CCTV footage of the attack, they never saw anyone be injured. Prospero never said anyone was injured.

"Stay away from my family," he said. "She is not taking your job."

"Oh, don't be like that ..."

Sledge hung up.

Monday noon, July 14

Back in STRIKE FORCE HQ, the party had a meeting.

Reggie, Jacob, Leon and Sledge were concerned that Ebony and especially Theo were telling Mina too much. Reggie was so annoyed that he ordered a court marshal of Theo. Sledge was the highest ranking STRIKE FORCE member of the group, so he convened it.

Theo and Ebony argued that keeping a good vampire, Mina, on their side can only help them in the long run. And look at history: not only had Mina provide massive amounts of good and useful information, but she had also housed them to help them protect Lassard and Thomson, only a few days ago.

Reggie and Jacob argued the other way saying all the information and secrets they had given Mina had found its way into the hands of the bad Veil creatures, and that no good end would come of it.

Reggie had plenty of passages from the STRIKE FORCE constitution to back him up, and he liberally quoted them ad nauseam, disiecti membra poetae, gravida panis.

Theo was found guilty, but when they petitioned Lieutenant Prospero to punish Theo, he just said, irritated "Sort it out yourselves."

Monday afternoon, July 14

Ebony had arranged an appointment with Siri, to get Oberon's cursed rings identified, and maybe uncursed. So she and Theo headed there.

Siri ID-ed them as cursed Ghoul rings tuned to Oberon. Which meant they would reduce the chance of the wearer becoming ghoul to another vampire who wasn't Oberon. They also had a tracker, but not listener, on-board. And they had the Return-to-owner curse, which the Ebony and Theo had already divined the mechanics.

"How do we get them off for good?" asked Ebony.

"Not so easy," said Siri. "Four ways: One, get Oberon to take them off. Two, kill you. Three, Dispel Magic. Four: Metallic Consumption."

Ebony's ears perked up.

"I wouldn't advise Dispel Magic. It causes an explosion, which, in a confined space, would cause major damage, ..."

"Well, do it outside."

",,, and if we do it outside, with the ring off you, the problem then is that there will be fragments of silver filigree left after the detonation. And if they maintain any traces of the Return-to-owner magic, which is usually the case, then they will try to reform the ring, and will hurtle towards you at relativistic speeds."

"Let's not try that," said Theo.

"Metallic Consumption," continued Siri, "is safer by miles, but as these rings are silver, we will need a powerful silver antigen, namely werewolf blood. Two tablespoons ought to be enough for both rings. Oh, and it has to be fresh; no older than an hour. I can then dissolve them."

As Ebony and Theo were leaving Siri's, the rest of the group was in her waiting room. Sledge had brought in the ribbon that was tied around the flowers given to his mum by the warden.

Siri didn't take long to deal with this.

"That's demon magic," she said. "I can't do anything with that. Try Cello."

They traipsed over to Cello's offices. She came up with the same conclusion, but she did ID it as a tracker and listener, of demon magic.

Monday late afternoon, July 14

Jacob's mobile rang.

"Hi is that Jacob?" It was a woman's voice

"Speaking."

"This is Colleen Thomson, Captain Lassard's adjutant."

"Oh. Yes. Hi Colleen."

"I don't know who else to trust, but I need protection. Can't talk here. I'll be in Philly soon. Meet me at Sherman Park, under the Walt Whitman bridge. 6:30 pm."

"Uhm ... yeah. Very well. Protection from whom?"

A pregnant pause.

"STRIKE FORCE." she said. 

Oh dear.

Morte Christe Attack

Thursday after midnight, July 10

The party arrived safely at the STRIKE FORCE Protective Custody apartment, and tucked Lassard and Thomson into bed - one bedroom each.

Worried that something might pop out of the ether directly into Lassard's bedroom, ether-capable creatures: ghosts, mages, werewolves and fae being the likely candidates, Sledge and Reggie settled down with Lassard in his bedroom. Theo took up position in the living room. Jacob and Ebony were down the road, on guard in the Communications room monitoring all the security cameras. Everyone was in contact with everyone else with headsets.

Ebony's mobile rang. It was Juan. Juan was still embedded with the Morte Christe bikers, still in Salisbury, Maryland. This turned out to be very serendipitous.

"Morte Christe on its way to Philly. To Fishtown. Three hours." He hung up,

Fishtown was the suburb where they were.

Jacob made the call.

"Abandon the apartment!" he shrieked.

They put Lassard into one car, and Thomson in the other.

Sledge stayed behind in the apartment, just a bit, to go through Lassard and Thomson's gear. It had been a rushed evacuation, so the two charges had left everything. This was a perfect opportunity to see if there was anything suspicious. Nothing struck his eye except for a plastic doll, the size of a small cat, very old, missing an eye. It belonged to Colleen.

Lassard was taken to Reggie's safe-house with Sledge, Jacob and Leon.

Colleen was with Ebony and Theo. They found a random motel.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully.

Before Ebony and Jacob left the comms room, they left all the cameras recording.

Thursday morning, July 10

The returned Lassard and Thomson back to STRIKE FORCE HQ then headed back to Fishtown.

The front door apartment had been blown in, and the entry porch was charred and blackened. Inside, there were bullet holes all over the place, and the floor was littered with hundreds of 7.62mm cartridges. The beds were totally shot up; someone had stood by the beds and fired continuously into the mattresses.

But nothing seemed to be missing. They picked up Lassard and Thomson's gear, including the doll.

The group took the thumb-drives from the Comms room.

Thursday late morning, July 10

Back at STRIKE FORCE, the party played back the night's events:

A bunch of bikers, maybe twenty, armed with AK47s and two rocket-propelled grenades, had arrived about two hours after the evacuation. They blew open the front doors and ran inside firing madly about. The party didn't recognize any of the faces; none of the attackers were the four prison escapees.

Reggie phoned Angel but got nothing useful from him.

Terrence Montana

Juan never answered his phone.

Thursday sunset 8:31 pm, July 10

The trip to Mina's residence was uneventful. The Fleischer Art Memorial was all decked out for the Terrence Montana Exhibition. There were 240 guests, including Lord Defacto and his seven vampires plus both Siri and Cello, and the artist himself.

Lassard really enjoyed Terence Montana's work. It was abstract. Many of the pieces looked like someone had thrown a bucket of paint on a canvas; several buckets of paint. Another piece was as if someone had loaded a super-soaker with paint and squirted it at the canvas, then done it with some more colours.

"Reclining nude on the hoof"

On the plus side, it was safe to say that all the works were big and were colourful.

Theo was in the Veil security room, next to the big "mushroom". One of the operators pointed at some lights on the surface of it. Theo had a close look, and sure enough, there were four moving lights. The operator said these were out to the south, about 500 metres away, out in the surrounding Queen Village streets. Mina's security were already onto it. The party weaponed up and headed with them. Sure enough, four bikers were there. They took off.

Reggie got Prospero out of bed, and he sent out two squad cars.

Mina offered to let the party and their charges stay the night in her residence. She could offer them secure accommodation down in the lower levels of the Art Memorial. They agreed and settled in some guest chambers for the night...

... which was uneventful.

Friday morning, July 11

Reggie tried to contact Juan.

Juan wasn't answering his phone.

Neither was Angel.

Friday sunset 8:31 pm, July 11

Again, following the unexpected, the party dossed Lassard and Thomson down in Prospero's very own STRIKE FORCE office in the police station. They didn't tell Prospero,

The night passed peacefully.

Saturday morning, July 12

Lassard & Thomson were booked on the 10am flight to New York. So the party took them early to the airport and put them on the 8:30am flight.

All was uneventful.

Saturday late morning, July 12 

They reported back to Prospero. Job well done.

As a reward, Prospero said they could keep two of the borrowed magical items from the STRIKE FORCE magical armoury. They had a wee think and decided upon the Worm of Toulon, to be held by Theo, and the No-Eavesdrop ruby, to be held by Sledge.

Reggie pointed out that the STRIKE FORCE constitution strictly forbade non-humans from joining its ranks. Colleen Thomson was a fae, so was classed as non human, yet she was an adjutant. She'd have to be an honourary member. But if that was the case, then she should not be able to hold rank. That said, Prospero had not heard of the rank "adjutant" any way.

Prospero was planning to make some enquiries with the New York STRIKE FORCE big cheeses: Major Ewing and Lieutenant-Colonel Spalling.