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.

The Mayor's Reception

Wednesday late afternoon, July 9

Since the party knew that Lassard's adjutant Colleen Thomson was a fae, on the trip back to the STRIKE FORCE safe-house, they quizzed her.

"What kind of abilities do you have?" Reggie asked.

Thomson didn't even blink.

"I'm have some sidhe Perception skills: Detection (both discrete and discreet), Hyper-perception, Veil-view, Clairvoyance, Clairaudience and a few others."

No martial help there, then.

Wednesday sunset, July 9

They all got dressed up for the mayor's reception in dinner jackets and black bow-ties. It was to be held at the ceremonial mayor's residence.

The core group arrived early and made their acquaintances with the major's security staff. Most of the four storey 1700s palace was covered by CCTVs, and most of the garden estate too. There was a separate security room with an armoury and screens all over the wall.

Head of security was Jeremiah Charleston. He, and three others, were veil-aware (indicated by Jacob's Gem of the Veil).

The 180 guests started arriving around 8 pm, but it wasn't until after 9 that everyone had arrived..

Theo was dressed to mingle, as was Jacob. Sledge, Leon and Ebony were stationed in the security room, and Reggie flitted between.

Captain Lassard was a superb mingler, and Thomson his perfect foil. Theo dutifully followed the two as they went from group to group in the main hall. Gone was the bumbling fool; Lassard was in his element.

The first group they visited was Oberon's entourage. He was there with his PA Ms Anderson, Dimetrius, Marceline and Petra, and two more vampires who were introduced as Formosa and Ken Tucky.

Vampire "Lord" Defacto

Theo met "Lord" Defacto for the first time, Defacto was the third vampire noble in Philadelphia (Oberon and Mina being the other two, of course). He was there with an entourage of seven guests; all vampires but one.

Next was Doctor Bryan Philby, demon and heart surgeon, with his group of four; two men and two women. Jacob's gem revealed one of the men, "my good Orderly Pete", as a werewolf, but the other three "staff nurse Olga", "nurse Cassandra" and "just Mike" were just plain humans (albeit veil-aware). Interestingly, Bryan did not show up as a demon with Jacob's gem. This meant he was probably using the (active) demon "spell" Spoof.

Demon Dr Bryan Philby

Cello was the highlight of the guests, as she no-doubt intended, and was dressed in a figure-hugging black number, with stuck-on diamond patterns in the shape of mythical animals. Her gown went tight down her leg, and had a side slit right up to her waist. But her decolletage and cleavage was her forte and she didn't disappoint tonight; magic must have been used to stop them spilling because even the slightest move had her twins lolling and jiggling like two angry over-weight cats fighting in a bag.
She had some Ryan-Gosling-esque eye-candy in a bow-tie ensemble on her arm

While this was happening, Sledge and Leon made their way out to the guest car park and checked on the guests' vehicles (with Charleston's approval). Defacto's limo had nothing suspicious in it, but the trunk of Oberon's limo was full of heavy weapons - machine guns, SMGs and small arms. Bryan Philby's Estima had two empty chilly bins in the back, each with cold packs. Cello had a sporty number; all clean.

Later on in the mingle, Defacto summoned Theo. Theo wandered over.

"I have heard good tales of you and your group ... of experts," he said in a pithy Philly drawl. "I might have some work for you."

Defacto gave Theo his card.

Jacob happened to glance at Oberon the instant this exchange was happening. For a fraction of a second, Oberon's face was black with rage, showing the monster within, before he regained control and returned his normal arrogant countenance.

The finger food, vol-au-vents and champagne flutes were carried around by the Mayor's wait-staff on silver trays. This made Philby's werewolf Pete rather uneasy every time he reached for a snack. Silver burns werewolves; comparable to a human holding a yellow-hot (930 C) piece of iron.

Wednesday evening, July 9

The gong was sounded and everyone was seated.

Much to Pete's horror, all the cutlery and serving spoons were solid silver too. And the salt & pepper shakers. And the gravy boat. Pete was seated next to Dr Philby, who ended up having to fill Pete's plate. Werewolves eat a lot, so Philby was kept busy. Pete ate with some plastic utensils he had brought with him.

Part-way through the first course, Philby caught Theo's eye and gestured him over.

"Lord Defacto tells me you and your group are superb at solving the unusual," said the doctor.

"Ahm...," said Theo. "Yeah..."

"Here's my card," said Philby as he placed it in Theo's top pocket. "I probably have some work for you."

Wednesday evening, later, July 9

Adjutant Thomson walked over to Jacob.

"There is a veil presence upstairs," she said. "I just started to sense it now."

Jacob contacted group and they sprung to action.

They told Charleston, and he assigned another three men to go with the party; one of the three was one of the veil-aware chaps.

Guns out, they all headed to level four in the lift.

Reggie assigned the non-veil-aware guys to descend on the fire-escape stairs.

Level four was clear, and three too.

Ebony was wearing her etheric goggles. On level two, she spotted something in the hallway, and went hysterical.

"It's a ghost!" she squeaked. "An old lady, skeleton, glowing eyes, old-fashioned dress. Horrible grimace. Sharp tearing teeth. Evil evil evil. She is coming!"

Ebony cleared her voice for a moment.

"Sledge, see the vase. Aim for that, where the stem narrows. Fire when I say."

Quick as a flash, Sledge drew his .357 magnum, loaded with the etheric rounds.

Theo felt his Sixth Sense prickle.

"Now!" shrieked Ebony.

Sledge fired. In the open, the .357 magnum pistol is loud at the best of times. With etheric rounds, you can't actually see the bullet (it is ethereal), and it does no damage to real world objects. But the barrel pressure to accelerate an etheric round to bullet-speed is actually higher than with normal fully-jacketted rounds, so not only does the gun's recoil kick like a mule, it is louder by 25% too.
In the narrow hallway, it was deafening.

"You got it!" yelled Ebony gleefully, over the ringing of everyone's ears. "It's running! Yah! Stupid evil ghost bitch. Yeah, run you whore! Run! Now, Sledge, aim for the door handle of the far door. Fire when I say."

Sledge sighted up his still smoking gun.

"Now!"

Some of the group managed to block their ears this time, as Sledge's magnum sounded again.

"You got it. It's down!"

As they raced towards where Ebony said it had fallen, there was a cacophony of gunfire just ahead of them, and the stairwell safety-glass door exploded in a hail of bullets.

Everyone dropped to the ground, and sought cover.

All was quiet for a second or two, then a security man crept sheepishly around the corner. It was one of the non-veil-aware guys that Reggie had assigned to the stairwells. He had obviously panicked.

Ebony pointed to a spot on the ground.

"I can see it fading," she said. "The evil ghost."

Reggie went below to the guests. The noise of the gunfire had been quite obvious down here. Almost everyone was on their feet, with security staff everywhere, guns all out. The mayor had been shepherded away.

Philby had his hands on the shoulders of Pete, physically holding him down. Pete was beginning to change into the first werewolf form the Hishu. Werewolves are incredibly strong, but so too are demons; almost the case an irresistible force meets an immovable object. Needless to say, both were trembling with effort.

Cello was sitting coolly and serene, her heavily mascaraed eyes flickering around.

Lassard was blithely eating away as if nothing had happened.

You could hear a pin drop (and Lassard's munching).

Reggie announced: "Ladies and gentlemen, it is all under control, and you may return to your seats."

Sledge joined him on the floor, as the guests started to meander back to their seats.

Pete calmed down too, and managed to reverse his change, though his shirt was split.

"I need to go outside," said Pete.

As Pete brushed past him, Sledge said "Meow."

Pete paused. If looks could kill, Sledge was dead fourteen times over.

All the vampires obviously heard this altercation too;  they all glared at Sledge. Dimetrius and his girls extended their fangs.

Cello looked up, and put her napkin to her mouth.

Sledge heard her husky tones in his ear - some kind of ventriloquism spell: "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Pete walked outside.

Rather than reveal the ghost, the party made up an excuse to Charleston that the felon had crashed through a window and run off into the night. No foot prints were found, but the mayor's security could conduct a search in the morning.

Wednesday midnight, July 9

The rest of the evening passed without incident, and the party bundled their charges into their limo and headed for the STRIKE FORCE safe-house.

Greet the Guests

Tuesday evening, July 8

Mina arrived to the Elfrith Alley apartment just after dark.

Theo confronted her about the bead.

"Mina," he asked. "Did you put a bead onto our No-eavesdrop ruby?"

Mina just looked at him like he was stupid.

"Yes."

"But why?"

"Well, I was worried that I might need to track you," with a little laugh. "If necessary."

"Why not ask us?"

"I didn't want to worry you," Mina answered matter-of-factly. "Now excuse me."

She then bustled herself down the stairs to the Nexus in the basement.

Another woman arrived at the apartment who introduced herself as Mina's friend Carole. Carole was a witch, and Mina was planning to do some more magic on the Nexus.

Ebony joined Mina and Carole downstairs. Mina offered Ebony a drink. Ebony assented, much to Mina's delight. Mina punctured her own wrist and gave it to Ebony, who sealed her lips on the wound and took a good long suck. That also meant Ebony was allowed to help with the ritual. Ebony just followed Carole's orders; she didn't understand what was going on. But she did know that she and Carole were naked, while Mina wore a shift. The basement door was kept well-locked to stop the helpful intentions of the rest of the party.

While this was going on, the rest of the group searched the entire apartment for more beads. They found a bag of thousands of them in a wardrobe of one of the bedrooms.

Theo put some of the beads in his pocket.

"You're no longer welcome in my safe-house," snapped Reggie sulkily. "You can be tracked now."

Tuesday midnight, July 8

The ritual was complete, and Carole left. Mina and Ebony came upstairs.

The group asked her about her do on Thursday night at her home, the Fleischer Art Memorial.

"We are having an exhibition of the works of the artist Terence Montana, an abstract artist of some repute. My curator, Carmine Roker, organized that. She would have emailed to all our interested parties. I guess your man Lassard is one of them."

"How many members on the email list?"

"I'm not sure. Ten thousand?"

"We're the security detail. Can we look over the security of the exhibition?"

Mina looked at them for a minute.

"Yes. I'll tell Carmine that it's okay."

Captain Lassard

Wednesday morning, July 9

The party duly turned up at Philadelphia airport to welcome the arrival of Captain Albus Lassard and Adjutant Colleen Thomson. The rest of Philly STRIKE FORCE was there too, plus a heap of Police escorts. The mundane police would look after and escort Lassard and Thomson during the day. The party had them for the night.

Jacob had his Gem of the Veil, and surveyed the scene. The STRIKE FORCE members (and the party) all showed up with glowing hearts, as you'd expect of the veil-aware, but Colleen had shimmery green around her. And an oak leaf tiara.

Adjutant Thomson

"She's a fae," Jacob hissed at the group. "A damn sidhe."

Lieutenant Prospero was summoned rapidly and briefed. He didn't know and was as surprised as the party.

Prospero distracted the adjutant and let the party question Lassard.

"Oh yes," Lassard smiled. "She's a fairy. My little she."

"Sidhe?"

"Yes, she is," he quipped. "Anyway, pleased to meet you, brave brave guards."

The party all mumbled introductions.

"Speak up. Speak up. No need to mumble."

They all headed back to STRIKE FORCE HQ.

Wednesday late morning, July 9

Lassard and Thomson had a good long talk to the group. Lassard gave the impression that he was a bit dithery and past-it, and Thomson gave the impression that she had all the brains of the two. But the party couldn't work out if this was an act or not. Sometimes Lassard was sharp as a tack.

Reggie asked him point-blank about the Fleischer Art Memorial.

"You know you goin' to a vampire house?"

"I like Terence Montana," Lassard sniffed. "Good art."

"But the exhibition'll be full of vampires."

"You're my brave security detail. You will protect me."

Wednesday noon, July 9

The party turned up at the Fleischer Art Memorial. They met with the curator Carmine Roker, and she was only too happy to show them the building's security details. For a start, there was a bunch of security guards wandering around with side-arms, and some more guards, out of public view, with SMGs. In one room was Terrestrial Security with CCTV screens all over the walls. In another concealed room was Veil Security which contained a large glowing mushroom, tall as a man, with tiny moving lights all over it. There seemed to be some non-linear non-euclidean transformation that mapped 3D terrestrial space around and inside the building to a spot on the 2D surface of the mushroom. But the party couldn't work it out, though they did manage to spot a group of six glowing pin-pricks that the guard said represented their very selves. There was a collection of large non-moving blobs on another part of the mushroom, one of which was very bright.

"Those are our employers," said Carmine dryly.

Carmine also gave them guest list for "Terence Montana Art Exhibition Opening Night Reception". There were 240 guests expected. The notables were vampire Lord Defacto and party of seven, and witches Siri and Cello.

Wednesday late afternoon, July 9

Prospero got the party the list of notables who were expected at the Mayor's reception tonight. There were 180 guests, and the notables on that list were the vampire Oberon and party of six, vampire Lord Defacto and party of seven, witch Cello plus one, and demon Bryan Philby (the cardio-thoracic surgeon) plus four.