Sunday morning, June 22
Ebony, Sledge, and Theo revisited the pumping station, again, to see if they had missed anything.
But rather than it being deserted, they were surprised to see lights, and men in fluorescent overalls and hard-hats. These fellows were scrubbing things down and cleaning. When confronted, they grimly said nothing; closed-mouthed
Ebony phoned Ms Charleston, Oberon's PA. She said that these men were "Oberon's Cleaners" and that they were sent to clean the area of any "detritus and things suspicious". She offered to phone them to tell them to wait until the party had retrieved what they wanted. This was agreed.
The cleaners had not yet got as far as cleaning the ghoul quarters room, so the party checked there. Sure enough, they did find some more things; personal items. They bagged them up and took them back to Oberon's offices (upstairs above the Khyber Pass Bar & Grill) to Cello.
Cello cast her Locate Soul spell using each item, and got a reasonably accurate location as to where the two of the ghouls were.
The party met Mort around that area of town, and they cruised the streets of the general vicinity.
The first ghoul spotted was Rolly Barton. He was in a bad stage, in advanced ghoul-withdrawal. They didn't get much info from him, but he did give them enough clues to spot Sarah.
Sarah was more lucid. She seemed very scared of Vladislav. In fact, he was her master. Rolly's master turned out to be Dimetrius.
Jake the Blade was the next ghoul spotted; he was the ghoul of Petra. And finally they found Binro; he was the ghoul of Marceline. Both Jake and Binro were quite lucid.
After a lot of questioning, the party worked out the whole sorry story: The skeletal mummy and mist had scared the four ghouls away (assumedly from its powerful Fear aura), and then when they finally got brave enough to creep back to the nest, they found that most of the vampires had been staked. So, fearing reprisal from their masters (after all, the protect of the vampire nest was the ghouls' raison d'tre), they fled. They obviously didn't think too far in advance, because they would have known that a ghoul without daily blood from its master starts to go into ghoul-withdrawal.
With some subtle coercion, Ebony managed to find out that Sarah actually had one of the missing security tapes on her person. The party got it off her with promises of forgiveness from her master. The other nine tapes had been hidden away "in a secret location". None of the lucid ghouls would reveal where. Rolly didn't know.
Ebony managed to surreptitiously attach a GPS tracker pin to Binro's clothes. Then they showed Binro Sarah's tape and claimed that Sarah had told them where the rest of the tapes were.
Binro got worried and took off. So Ebony and Mort followed him with the GPS pin. He arrived at the Penitentiary. And allegedly visited the Warden Candy Clam there. Was she involved in this?
While Mort and Ebony were following Binro, Sledge went to follow Jake the Blade. Even after being shown Sarah's tape he just went and drank with some other bums.
Sunday afternoon, June 22
They needed to check Sarah's tape. It was a miniature digital tape, so Jacob volunteered one of the tape-players in STRIKE FORCE HQ.
With only Jacob, Ebony, Sledge and Mort in Operations Room Four, Jacob started the tape.
The date and time read: 20140618 0800
Jacob fast-forwarded to the next day, and the next.
20140620 0814 The cameras were low-light sensitive. A grey figure, in high contrast, came into view, walking down the tunnel. He was carrying a large bundle of stakes. It was very clear who it was.
"Mort!" gasped Jacob.
Mort walked under the camera and out of view. Jacob fast-forwarded.
20140620 0935 The lone figure of Mort, this time his back to the camera, wandered back down the tunnel. He now had no stakes.
"Burn the tape!" squeaked Mort. "Erase it!"
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Seeking Evidence
Saturday Morning, June 21
While Jacob, Sledge and Ebony were exploring the sewer pumping station at North Fifth Street and Fairmount Avenue, Mort was back at the apartment with Abu and Theo.
There was a knock on the door.
Two locksmiths arrived to fix the iron door. They were expected (Mina had arranged this the previous night), so Mort let them in, and they spent a few hours re-fitting and re-welding the iron door to the basement (this door had been smashed, six days ago, when the party broke in down here to kill the mummy - the first time)
An hour later, around 11:30 am, there was another knock on the door.
Mort opened it with the safety chain on. There were two thick-set men in suits, and the Elvira clone Cello; cleavage and all.
"Who are you?" said Mort.
"I am lady Cello," she said. "Oberon asked me to check out zees place."
"Well, you're not coming inside."
"But Oberon, he asked me..."
"Oberon doesn't own this place."
"I'm afraid he does."
"Prove it," said Mort, firmly. "Show me the title."
Cello's eyes blazed. But one of the suits stayed her arm.
"I will be back with ze title," she said. The three left.
Half an hour later, Ebony, Jacob and Sledge got back from their trip to the sewer pumping station.
"Cello is planning on returning here." said Mort.
"She must not see the Nexus, nor Mina's shrouded area," said Ebony. "I'll hide the iron door." She set about to pushing one of the bookcases to cover it. She did a good job too.
Mort asked Abu to put some power hieroglyphs on walls of the living room.
"We want something that the witch can detect as magic. To try to trick her,"
Abu explained that his knowledge only extended as far as placing glyphs on living tissue, not on hard walls. This was one of the things he was so interested in down below - the mummy had obviously done it, so he was trying to learn how.
"Well, put some normal hieroglyphs up. Maybe that will fool her."
Around 3pm, Cello and the two suits arrived back. Mort and the rest of the party let them inside.
Cello spent half the time in a magical trance, trying to sense any magic. There was none, and Mina's Shroud down in the cellar seemed to be working. Cello didn't detect anything.
Saturday Night, June 21
Mort no longer trusted the night. He always made sure he was firmly ensconced in his safe house before dark. Mort had also started the slow process of shifting safe-houses. He no longer trusted the party any more. It would take four days.
The rest of the team went to Khyber Pass Bar & Grill to do their nightly report to Oberon. Dimetrius and his elders, and Cello were there too.
Again, Mort's absence was noted.
Cello also pointed out Mort's distinctive rudeness and contempt earlier that day. Oberon explained to the party that if this kind of non-cooperation happened again, his men would be asked to show less restraint at not using excessive force.
"If you catch my drift," said Oberon.
The items recovered from the pumping station were taken note off. Cello said to leave them bagged and not to handle them too much.
"I can cast spells using zem," she said "Maybe locate zeir owners."
Cello took the items off to another room.
While they were waiting, Ebony and Jacob asked Oberon and Dimetrius more about the missing ghouls.
The current batch of Dimetrius's ghouls were made ten months ago. The previous batch had been killed in a gun fight with police. Only four were made this time: one for Dimetrius, Vladislav, Marceline and Petra. They chose them because they were "gypsies", but it turned out they were the homeless and bums. Dimetrius didn't know there was a difference.
This, apparently, was news to Oberon. He was not very pleased.
"Just because they are ghouls, does not make them bright."
To make a ghoul, a vampire just gets a person to drink his blood. Ghoul-ing enhances the ghoul's physical attributes. But there is a cost; the ghoul gets addicted to her master's blood. The ghoul is totally devoted to the master for half the number of days that she has been a ghoul. The master can detect if the ghoul is alive.
Cello returned some time later.
"These items are corrupted. There is no clear owner," she said. "I want you to return to the nest to locate some more items. Some personal items. They must not have been handled recently by anyone except the owner."
"We'll do it in the morning," Ebony said.
While Jacob, Sledge and Ebony were exploring the sewer pumping station at North Fifth Street and Fairmount Avenue, Mort was back at the apartment with Abu and Theo.
There was a knock on the door.
Two locksmiths arrived to fix the iron door. They were expected (Mina had arranged this the previous night), so Mort let them in, and they spent a few hours re-fitting and re-welding the iron door to the basement (this door had been smashed, six days ago, when the party broke in down here to kill the mummy - the first time)
An hour later, around 11:30 am, there was another knock on the door.
Mort opened it with the safety chain on. There were two thick-set men in suits, and the Elvira clone Cello; cleavage and all.
"Who are you?" said Mort.
"I am lady Cello," she said. "Oberon asked me to check out zees place."
"Well, you're not coming inside."
"But Oberon, he asked me..."
"Oberon doesn't own this place."
"I'm afraid he does."
"Prove it," said Mort, firmly. "Show me the title."
Cello's eyes blazed. But one of the suits stayed her arm.
"I will be back with ze title," she said. The three left.
Half an hour later, Ebony, Jacob and Sledge got back from their trip to the sewer pumping station.
"Cello is planning on returning here." said Mort.
"She must not see the Nexus, nor Mina's shrouded area," said Ebony. "I'll hide the iron door." She set about to pushing one of the bookcases to cover it. She did a good job too.
Mort asked Abu to put some power hieroglyphs on walls of the living room.
"We want something that the witch can detect as magic. To try to trick her,"
Abu explained that his knowledge only extended as far as placing glyphs on living tissue, not on hard walls. This was one of the things he was so interested in down below - the mummy had obviously done it, so he was trying to learn how.
"Well, put some normal hieroglyphs up. Maybe that will fool her."
Around 3pm, Cello and the two suits arrived back. Mort and the rest of the party let them inside.
Cello spent half the time in a magical trance, trying to sense any magic. There was none, and Mina's Shroud down in the cellar seemed to be working. Cello didn't detect anything.
Saturday Night, June 21
Mort no longer trusted the night. He always made sure he was firmly ensconced in his safe house before dark. Mort had also started the slow process of shifting safe-houses. He no longer trusted the party any more. It would take four days.
The rest of the team went to Khyber Pass Bar & Grill to do their nightly report to Oberon. Dimetrius and his elders, and Cello were there too.
Again, Mort's absence was noted.
Cello also pointed out Mort's distinctive rudeness and contempt earlier that day. Oberon explained to the party that if this kind of non-cooperation happened again, his men would be asked to show less restraint at not using excessive force.
"If you catch my drift," said Oberon.
The items recovered from the pumping station were taken note off. Cello said to leave them bagged and not to handle them too much.
"I can cast spells using zem," she said "Maybe locate zeir owners."
Cello took the items off to another room.
While they were waiting, Ebony and Jacob asked Oberon and Dimetrius more about the missing ghouls.
The current batch of Dimetrius's ghouls were made ten months ago. The previous batch had been killed in a gun fight with police. Only four were made this time: one for Dimetrius, Vladislav, Marceline and Petra. They chose them because they were "gypsies", but it turned out they were the homeless and bums. Dimetrius didn't know there was a difference.
This, apparently, was news to Oberon. He was not very pleased.
"Just because they are ghouls, does not make them bright."
To make a ghoul, a vampire just gets a person to drink his blood. Ghoul-ing enhances the ghoul's physical attributes. But there is a cost; the ghoul gets addicted to her master's blood. The ghoul is totally devoted to the master for half the number of days that she has been a ghoul. The master can detect if the ghoul is alive.
Cello returned some time later.
"These items are corrupted. There is no clear owner," she said. "I want you to return to the nest to locate some more items. Some personal items. They must not have been handled recently by anyone except the owner."
"We'll do it in the morning," Ebony said.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Dimetrius's Nest
Friday Afternoon, June 20
Mort arrived back at the apartment after doing his vampire slaughtering. His cognitive dissonance persuaded him that he had done a great thing today. But he did wonder if others might not feel the same way. So he kept quiet about it and didn't tell a soul.
Abu was down by the Nexus studying it. The rest of the party was having a quiet day, licking their wounds and relaxing.
Before dark, Mort took off and returned to his Safehouse.
Friday Sunset 8:33 pm, June 20
Mina arrived at the apartment soon after dark. She didn't look very pleased.
"Where is Mort and Juan?" she asked succinctly.
"Um ... Mort in his safe-house," said Ebony. "And Juan is at the bar. Why?"
"Apparently, that nest of vampires you found with the mummy," she said. "Well, they have been all been destroyed. All staked. The true death. Some time today. Know anything?"
They all shook their heads in denial.
Mina asked Ebony to contact Mort. She did via Mort's land-line (there being no cell reception in Safehouses). Mort assured her, through Ebony, that he was innocent.
Mina looked dubious at the news, but she continued:
"It was a nest controlled by a Eastern European vampire called Dimetrius. He, and his elders survived but not the rest. This is Oberon's area. Oberon will not be pleased."
Sure enough, Ebony got a ring.
"Oberon wants to see us, all of us," said Ebony. "And ... he does guarantee our safety."
Ebony, Jacob, Theo and Sledge headed off to the Khyber Pass Bar & Grill, Oberon's usual haunt. The place was packed; Juan was flat-out working the bar. The party was ushered upstairs to Oberon's room. It was full too: Oberon, Oberon's PA Ms Anderson, three other women in smart suits, an older vampire in a cliched red-lined Dracula cloak, an ancient vampire with the 1922 film Nosferatu look in dusty robes, two male vampires, and three female vampires. And one woman looking like Elvira: big hair, big boobs, big mascara.
Oberon came straight to the point.
"This is Dimetrius here," Oberon gestured to the Dracula clone, "his elder Vladislav," gesturing to the Nosferatu clone, "and his other elders Auroch, Livingstone, Giania, Petra, Marceline."
"Some ... amateur ... destroyed the rest of his family, in their nest where your group killed the Risen
yesterday. It was only the locked caskets of these elders that saved them. We do not know what happened to the servants."
"I have summoned you here for two reasons. The first to ascertain your guilt in this matter."
Jacob moved to speak, but Oberon silenced him with a wave.
"This lady," Oberon gestured to the Elvira clone. "Is Cello, a witch. She will cast a spell to check the truth of your words."
"I'm not having no witch cast spells on me," shrieked Theo. "I'm leaving."
Theo stormed out. Theo hated witches.
Mort arrived back at the apartment after doing his vampire slaughtering. His cognitive dissonance persuaded him that he had done a great thing today. But he did wonder if others might not feel the same way. So he kept quiet about it and didn't tell a soul.
Abu was down by the Nexus studying it. The rest of the party was having a quiet day, licking their wounds and relaxing.
Before dark, Mort took off and returned to his Safehouse.
Friday Sunset 8:33 pm, June 20
Mina arrived at the apartment soon after dark. She didn't look very pleased.
"Where is Mort and Juan?" she asked succinctly.
"Um ... Mort in his safe-house," said Ebony. "And Juan is at the bar. Why?"
"Apparently, that nest of vampires you found with the mummy," she said. "Well, they have been all been destroyed. All staked. The true death. Some time today. Know anything?"
They all shook their heads in denial.
Mina asked Ebony to contact Mort. She did via Mort's land-line (there being no cell reception in Safehouses). Mort assured her, through Ebony, that he was innocent.
Mina looked dubious at the news, but she continued:
"It was a nest controlled by a Eastern European vampire called Dimetrius. He, and his elders survived but not the rest. This is Oberon's area. Oberon will not be pleased."
Sure enough, Ebony got a ring.
"Oberon wants to see us, all of us," said Ebony. "And ... he does guarantee our safety."
 |
| Oberon's PA Ms Anderson |
Oberon came straight to the point.
"This is Dimetrius here," Oberon gestured to the Dracula clone, "his elder Vladislav," gesturing to the Nosferatu clone, "and his other elders Auroch, Livingstone, Giania, Petra, Marceline."
 |
| Vampire Dimetrius |
yesterday. It was only the locked caskets of these elders that saved them. We do not know what happened to the servants."
"I have summoned you here for two reasons. The first to ascertain your guilt in this matter."
Jacob moved to speak, but Oberon silenced him with a wave.
"This lady," Oberon gestured to the Elvira clone. "Is Cello, a witch. She will cast a spell to check the truth of your words."
"I'm not having no witch cast spells on me," shrieked Theo. "I'm leaving."
 |
| Superior Witch Cello |
Theo stormed out. Theo hated witches.
Ebony, Jacob and Sledge nodded wanly.
Cello stood up, stretched, jiggled her massive bust, and then began incanting in Latin and waving her arms around. She threw a handful of gold dust into the air, and it slowly drifted to the ground in a large cloud enshrouding the four.
Oberon spoke: "Did you stake, or destroy, or kill any vampires yesterday or today?"
"No," said Ebony.
"No," said Sledge.
"No," said Jacob.
"Do you know anyone who did?"
"No." "No." "No."
"Zey speak zuh truth," said Cello in her husky Romanian drawl.
Oberon pressed on, pushing the bounds of the spell.
"Have any of you harmed my servants, or any of my interests in the last year?"
"um,,, no... I don't think so", "no", "don't know", "um"
"Do any of you four, in the forsee-able future, intend to harm me, or any of my agents, or any of my interests, or connected interests, or future propositions in any way shape or form?"
Cello interrupted him.
"Incipient Veracity, she does not work that way," she said. "She can not foretell future events nor can she compel ze future actions. And anyway, the spell; she has worn off now."
"You work... for me!" exclaimed Dimetrius in a very strong Romanian accent.
Oberon waved him silent, then turned to the party.
"Which brings me to the second reason I asked you here. Your group has certain skills, and has shown certain success, so I, well Dimetrius here, intends to hire you to find out who did kill his family..."
"You work... for me!" exclaimed Dimetrius again.
"You will be well paid," continued Oberon. "But I... we want the guilty brought to me, or evidence of their death brought to me.
"We kill them very hard, dead," said Dimetrius. "True death."
Dimetrius passed them a briefcase.
"I want a report every night," said Oberon. "And if you need to contact someone during the day, my PA..." he gestured to the stunning woman in a smart suit next to him. "Ms Charleston here, will take your call. She is human."
Dimetrius also gave Jacob a list of the four servants (ghouls) that were supposed to have guarded the nest of coffins during the day: Jake the Blade, Sarah the Savant, Binro the Tramp, Rolly Barton. The last time they had been seen was just before sunrise on Thursday (the day of the mummy slaying).
The party returned to their apartment.
Mina was still there and she questioned them thoroughly. She also told them that Lord Defacto, the leader of the third vampire faction in Philadelphia, was making moves into Oberon's turf.
To lighten the mood, Theo asked Mina: "What is the collective noun for vampires? Is there an official term?"
"Well," she said. "I use 'coterie' for awake vampires, and 'nest' for sleeping ones. There's also some glib alternatives: 'clot', 'stackhouse', 'stoker', 'cloak', 'voraciousness', 'vein' and 'count'. So take your pick. But just don't let a vampire hear you."
"Not all vampires have my sense of humour," she said with a deathly dead-pan face, with emphasis on the word 'dead'.
"Not all vampires have my sense of humour," she said with a deathly dead-pan face, with emphasis on the word 'dead'.
Saturday Sunrise 5:32 am, June 21
As soon as the sun was up, Jacob, Sledge and Ebony left the apartment, just before Abu and Mort arrived. The three went straight to the sewer pumping station where they had defeated the mummy on Thursday.
All the coffins had been cleared away, but apart from that, the place hadn't been two badly disturbed. Jacob was in his investigative utopia. Straight away he found three stakes, so carefully bagged them. There was also several sets of boot prints in various parts of the tunnel.
While this was going on, Sledge found a small room near the pumping area with four double bunks.
All three of them checked this room out. This was presumably where Dimetrius's group's ghouls lived. There was a water boiler and a kitchenette. Jacob took samples.
They found a secret door in one of the walls. It lead through into a small room with several monitors on one wall. Pictures from CCTVs were shown. The cameras filmed the five main sewer lines (and paths) that entered the nest (the sewer pumping station area proper). There were no cameras on the nest itself, but this made sense because creatures of the Veil can not be filmed. The camera footage was recorded onto digital micro cassettes. But all the cassettes were missing, and there were none in the drives.
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Victory !
Thursday Morning, Early, June 19
Ebony was hidden in the morgue of the Eastern Regional Medical Center, North Philadelphia. She was watching the skeletal creature tear into one of the corpses there. It didn't stay for long, and turned into a mist, and seeped away.
Abu had given the group a Detect Risen Magic figurine a few days ago; it would vibrate when near anything with Risen magic. Luckily, Ebony was carrying this, and she used its vibrations to follow the mist. The mist seeped down a drain, and under the road. This allowed Ebony to track the thing from above ground, up on the road.
She texted the party, and they all soon arrived on the spot, and they all followed Ebony and her figurine.
After a few hours, at 6 am, it stopped, under a large intersection, the junction of North Fifth Street and Fairmount Avenue.
"Now we wait," Ebony said.
Thursday Sunrise 5:32 am, June 19
Sledge phoned STRIKE FORCE and updated Lieutenant Prospero. He arranged for the Police to cordon off the intersection. Detective Noble arrived to join them as well. According to her City Hall blue-prints, there was a large sewerage pumping station here; it was the confluence of several of the cities major sewer lines. The tunnels would be tall and walkable,
Thursday Morning, Late, June 19
They all went down a manhole down the street from the centre of the street to the south, armed with one air compressor, their firearms and several flashlights.
Down the tunnel, they came across a coffin, then another. Sledge couldn't help himself, and opened them both. One had a wispy haired old man, the other a healthy man in a suit.
Sledge searched them both and found wallets full of cash.
"Best let sleeping dogs lie," whispered Detective Noble.
He left the money.
They moved a bit closer to the pumping station, and came across more coffins. Some old wood, some stone, but most were normal coffins. There were 28 in all: three were stone, and seven were locked (from the inside, Ebony checked).
"But why are there no ghouls?" said Detective Noble. "Vamps never leave their coffins unprotected during the day. It doesn't make sense."
Abu's Detect Risen Magic figurine was now held by Jacob, who was upon the road standing in the middle of the intersection.
They guessed that the creature was hiding in one of the coffins, so did some triangulation, with the figurine, to try to narrow down which one.
They got it down to four coffins, so carefully opened each one: a nine year old boy, a woman, an old man, and a street thug in a hoody.
They narrowed this down further by lifting each coffin, in turn, and taking the coffin down the passage, to see if the figurine would stop vibrating. (It only had two modes: vibrating and not; at ten paces, it stopped dead.)
The lady vampire's coffin seems to be the likely candidate. They opened the lid again, and stepped back. Suddenly, she sat up ... well, she was shoved up. The creature was lying under her, and it sprang up.
Battle was met!
Everyone opened up with what they had: Sledge's twin .357 magnums, Detective Noble's police special, Mort's Glock 17, Ebony's oil. The enraged creature launched into Sledge as he blasted away, and it bashed and clawed him. Then it had a go at Ebony. It was so fast and quick, and it had to be hit in its head, that only Sledge could inflict reasonable damage on it. Noble got in a few desultory hits. Mort didn't even try. Ebony's oil was also very effective, and the creature roared and screamed, as it burned. And burned. And burned.
Finally, the creature collapsed, burning, and the group then carefully pounded the charred skeleton into powder. And then pounded the powder some more. And kept pounding it until there was no piece larger than soot.
Detective Noble had a specimen plastic bag and she swept all the dust into this. Then rinsed the sooty stain with water (from the open sewer) and kept that too.
"Now, I'll get some stakes," said Mort. "And kill all these vamps."
"No you won't," said Detective Noble. "Not all vampires are evil by definition. And we have no evidence than any of these ones are."
Mort fumed.
"And furthermore," she continued. "I think this is Oberon's claimed area. And if not, it is Defacto's area. We don't want either of them riled. So, we will put everything back to exactly how we found them."
So they carefully tidied the coffins up, and put them back to how they were.
Thursday Afternoon, June 19
They gave the ashes, and the sticky sooty paste to Abu. He put them into a canopic jar, and sealed it with a ritual and a hieroglyph.
"Safer to destroy this before nightfall," he mused.
Then, with police escort, they took the jar to the Sandmeyer Steel Company. There was an industrial iron furnace here. Abu tossed the canopic jar into the mix, and the party gleefully watched the jar, soot and ash be vapourized.
"Now we can say it is gone," said Abu.
Thursday Sunset 8:32 pm, June 19
Mina arrived to the apartment.
"I hear you finally did it," she said.
Nods all around.
Mina handed Sledge a briefcase.
"A token of my appreciation," she said.
Sledge opened it. It was $150,000 in small bills.
Thursday Midnight, June 19
Ebony then offered to perform with Mina in one of her nightly rituals.
Mina smiled enigmatically and nodded: "But, of course."
So Ebony undressed, and knelt with two other girls and Mina. Mina opened Ebony's neck and used her blood to paint around the circle and on the walls of the sarcophagus. Part-way through the ritual, Mina bit into her own wrist; black blood welled-up, and Mina fed it to Ebony.
Friday Sunrise 5:32 am, June 20
Mort snuck out alone, just after sunrise. He went to the intersection where they fought the mummy yesterday, and quietly slipped into the sewers. He was carrying a large bundle of stakes.
The coffins were all there, in the same positions. Mort then went methodically through each one, staking them all. He didn't open (or even touch) the seven locked coffins, but that still left twenty-one vampires destroyed. Two turned into aged partial skeletons, most into dried skeletons, and some into fresher corpses.
[ Unlike Buffy vampires, Twilight vampires and True Blood vampires, WoD vampires, when "killed", turn into the age the corpse would be, had it not become a vampire. So old ones turn into dust, and young ones into fresh corpses. ]
Ebony was hidden in the morgue of the Eastern Regional Medical Center, North Philadelphia. She was watching the skeletal creature tear into one of the corpses there. It didn't stay for long, and turned into a mist, and seeped away.
Abu had given the group a Detect Risen Magic figurine a few days ago; it would vibrate when near anything with Risen magic. Luckily, Ebony was carrying this, and she used its vibrations to follow the mist. The mist seeped down a drain, and under the road. This allowed Ebony to track the thing from above ground, up on the road.
She texted the party, and they all soon arrived on the spot, and they all followed Ebony and her figurine.
After a few hours, at 6 am, it stopped, under a large intersection, the junction of North Fifth Street and Fairmount Avenue.
"Now we wait," Ebony said.
Thursday Sunrise 5:32 am, June 19
Sledge phoned STRIKE FORCE and updated Lieutenant Prospero. He arranged for the Police to cordon off the intersection. Detective Noble arrived to join them as well. According to her City Hall blue-prints, there was a large sewerage pumping station here; it was the confluence of several of the cities major sewer lines. The tunnels would be tall and walkable,
Thursday Morning, Late, June 19
They all went down a manhole down the street from the centre of the street to the south, armed with one air compressor, their firearms and several flashlights.
Down the tunnel, they came across a coffin, then another. Sledge couldn't help himself, and opened them both. One had a wispy haired old man, the other a healthy man in a suit.
Sledge searched them both and found wallets full of cash.
"Best let sleeping dogs lie," whispered Detective Noble.
He left the money.
They moved a bit closer to the pumping station, and came across more coffins. Some old wood, some stone, but most were normal coffins. There were 28 in all: three were stone, and seven were locked (from the inside, Ebony checked).
"But why are there no ghouls?" said Detective Noble. "Vamps never leave their coffins unprotected during the day. It doesn't make sense."
Abu's Detect Risen Magic figurine was now held by Jacob, who was upon the road standing in the middle of the intersection.
They guessed that the creature was hiding in one of the coffins, so did some triangulation, with the figurine, to try to narrow down which one.
They got it down to four coffins, so carefully opened each one: a nine year old boy, a woman, an old man, and a street thug in a hoody.
They narrowed this down further by lifting each coffin, in turn, and taking the coffin down the passage, to see if the figurine would stop vibrating. (It only had two modes: vibrating and not; at ten paces, it stopped dead.)
The lady vampire's coffin seems to be the likely candidate. They opened the lid again, and stepped back. Suddenly, she sat up ... well, she was shoved up. The creature was lying under her, and it sprang up.
Battle was met!
Everyone opened up with what they had: Sledge's twin .357 magnums, Detective Noble's police special, Mort's Glock 17, Ebony's oil. The enraged creature launched into Sledge as he blasted away, and it bashed and clawed him. Then it had a go at Ebony. It was so fast and quick, and it had to be hit in its head, that only Sledge could inflict reasonable damage on it. Noble got in a few desultory hits. Mort didn't even try. Ebony's oil was also very effective, and the creature roared and screamed, as it burned. And burned. And burned.
Finally, the creature collapsed, burning, and the group then carefully pounded the charred skeleton into powder. And then pounded the powder some more. And kept pounding it until there was no piece larger than soot.
Detective Noble had a specimen plastic bag and she swept all the dust into this. Then rinsed the sooty stain with water (from the open sewer) and kept that too.
"Now, I'll get some stakes," said Mort. "And kill all these vamps."
"No you won't," said Detective Noble. "Not all vampires are evil by definition. And we have no evidence than any of these ones are."
Mort fumed.
"And furthermore," she continued. "I think this is Oberon's claimed area. And if not, it is Defacto's area. We don't want either of them riled. So, we will put everything back to exactly how we found them."
So they carefully tidied the coffins up, and put them back to how they were.
Thursday Afternoon, June 19
"Safer to destroy this before nightfall," he mused.
Then, with police escort, they took the jar to the Sandmeyer Steel Company. There was an industrial iron furnace here. Abu tossed the canopic jar into the mix, and the party gleefully watched the jar, soot and ash be vapourized.
"Now we can say it is gone," said Abu.
Thursday Sunset 8:32 pm, June 19
Mina arrived to the apartment.
"I hear you finally did it," she said.
Nods all around.
Mina handed Sledge a briefcase.
"A token of my appreciation," she said.
Sledge opened it. It was $150,000 in small bills.
Thursday Midnight, June 19
Ebony then offered to perform with Mina in one of her nightly rituals.
Mina smiled enigmatically and nodded: "But, of course."
So Ebony undressed, and knelt with two other girls and Mina. Mina opened Ebony's neck and used her blood to paint around the circle and on the walls of the sarcophagus. Part-way through the ritual, Mina bit into her own wrist; black blood welled-up, and Mina fed it to Ebony.
Friday Sunrise 5:32 am, June 20
Mort snuck out alone, just after sunrise. He went to the intersection where they fought the mummy yesterday, and quietly slipped into the sewers. He was carrying a large bundle of stakes.
The coffins were all there, in the same positions. Mort then went methodically through each one, staking them all. He didn't open (or even touch) the seven locked coffins, but that still left twenty-one vampires destroyed. Two turned into aged partial skeletons, most into dried skeletons, and some into fresher corpses.
[ Unlike Buffy vampires, Twilight vampires and True Blood vampires, WoD vampires, when "killed", turn into the age the corpse would be, had it not become a vampire. So old ones turn into dust, and young ones into fresh corpses. ]
Thursday, August 21, 2014
The Hunt Continues
Monday Morning, Early, June 16
Mina arrived at 4 am, with another young lady.
Jacob asked her "Is there any effect that Sledge will suffer for giving Oberon a feed."
"Oh yes," said Mina tactlessly. "It will shadow his soul."
But STRIKE FORCE had more pragmatic views.
"The taint of your souls," said Lieutenant Prospero. "Is a small price to pay for the power of the Nexus. This thing ought to be able to help us all."
Mina opened the neck of her lady companion, and used her blood to draw some more symbols on the walls of the tomb, in the sarcophagus itself, and inside the shroud circle on the floor.
Jacob asked what they were for, but she just mentioned "shroud augmentation".
Monday Morning, June 16
Mort researched all the places in town he could think of that might have reason to hold bodies or body parts. Then spent the morning phoning every one to see if anything mysterious had happened last night.
Sledge, Ebony and Jacob were already members of STRIKE FORCE, but Lieutenant Prospero wanted the entire group to join. Mort refused, despite the substantial benefits one accrues for belonging.
Monday Afternoon, June 16
Sledge's mum was a Dooley, and she wanted a "good catholic wedding" for Sledge's marriage to
Safiya. So, Sledge and Safiya went to Sledge's mum's local church. The priest, Father Patrick Maynard, was very happy to marry the two, provided that Safiya become a fully-fledged catholic, of course. Safiya agreed, so the priest enrolled her in a Wednesday night Catholic Christian Doctrine course.
"'Indoctrination', more like," muttered Jacob.
The last session of CCD would be on July 23, and Safiya would be confirmed on the following Sunday (July 27) . The marriage could take place after that.
"When the paint has dried" quipped the priest.
Sledge booked him for Tuesday July 29.
Monday Night, June 16
A formal agreement was reached with Mina.
Each day, Abu would have access to the tomb, to spend as much time as he likes documenting and studying the contents.
Each night, Mina would have it for her rituals.
Tuesday Morning, June 17
Mort got a call from the Eastern Regional Medical Center. One of the corpses down in the cancer morgue had been disturbed.
Wednesday Morning, June 18
Wednesday Afternoon, June 18
Wednesday Sunset 8:32 pm, June 18
STRIKE FORCE arranged the necessary warrants, permissions and paperwork so that the party could camp the night in each place: Mort went to the organ bank, Ebony the medical centre, Jacob the clinic and Sledge the hospice.
Thursday Morning, Early, June 19
At 3am, Ebony was crouched in a small cupboard in the morgue of the Eastern Regional Medical Center. She heard a loud bang. So, she stealthy crept out to see. Across the room, was a charred skeleton with glowing eyes, and with fresh organs peeping between its ribs. It was tearing into one of the corpses from the body drawers, with loud meaty rips, and wet slopping noises.
She silently texted the others in the group, then sat back and watched.
Mina arrived at 4 am, with another young lady.
Jacob asked her "Is there any effect that Sledge will suffer for giving Oberon a feed."
"Oh yes," said Mina tactlessly. "It will shadow his soul."
But STRIKE FORCE had more pragmatic views.
"The taint of your souls," said Lieutenant Prospero. "Is a small price to pay for the power of the Nexus. This thing ought to be able to help us all."
Mina opened the neck of her lady companion, and used her blood to draw some more symbols on the walls of the tomb, in the sarcophagus itself, and inside the shroud circle on the floor.
Jacob asked what they were for, but she just mentioned "shroud augmentation".
Monday Morning, June 16
Mort researched all the places in town he could think of that might have reason to hold bodies or body parts. Then spent the morning phoning every one to see if anything mysterious had happened last night.
Sledge, Ebony and Jacob were already members of STRIKE FORCE, but Lieutenant Prospero wanted the entire group to join. Mort refused, despite the substantial benefits one accrues for belonging.
Monday Afternoon, June 16
 |
| Sledge's mum |
Safiya. So, Sledge and Safiya went to Sledge's mum's local church. The priest, Father Patrick Maynard, was very happy to marry the two, provided that Safiya become a fully-fledged catholic, of course. Safiya agreed, so the priest enrolled her in a Wednesday night Catholic Christian Doctrine course.
"'Indoctrination', more like," muttered Jacob.
The last session of CCD would be on July 23, and Safiya would be confirmed on the following Sunday (July 27) . The marriage could take place after that.
Sledge booked him for Tuesday July 29.
Monday Night, June 16
A formal agreement was reached with Mina.
Each day, Abu would have access to the tomb, to spend as much time as he likes documenting and studying the contents.
Each night, Mina would have it for her rituals.
Tuesday Morning, June 17
Mort got a call from the Eastern Regional Medical Center. One of the corpses down in the cancer morgue had been disturbed.
Wednesday Morning, June 18
Lieutenant Prospero told the party that the police had been contacted by the Blue Pine Clinic. One of its patients had died last night, and had been stored on premises for the undertaker to collect next day. In the morning, it was discovered that the body had been ripped apart, and the stomach was missing.
The Blue Pine Clinic was about one kilometre from the Eastern Regional Medical Center.
Wednesday Afternoon, June 18
Safiya had her first CCD lesson. She began to ask Sledge all kinds of questions, none of which he knew the answer to:
- "Catholics regularly bow to, pray to, and kiss the feet of statues of Mary, yet the second commandment says not to bow to idols"
- "Matthew 6:7 says 'And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do', yet doing penance with the rosary is what else but meaningless repetition?"
- "Timothy 3:2 says 'A priest or bishop, then, must be above reproach, be the husband of one wife, be temperate, be prudent, be respectable...' yet the Pope says Catholic priests must be celibate. Who is right?"
Wednesday Sunset 8:32 pm, June 18
Mort had the original electric air compressor that they were hiring from the dive shop. They hired three more compressors, one each for Sledge, Ebony and Jacob. This would allow them to stake out four places at once.
After last night's clinic raid, they had four likely places where the mummy could strike, all within two to three kilometres of the Blue Pine clinic:
- Penn State Organ bank
- Eastern Regional Medical Center
- Blue Pine Clinic
- Eastern River Hospice
Thursday Morning, Early, June 19
At 3am, Ebony was crouched in a small cupboard in the morgue of the Eastern Regional Medical Center. She heard a loud bang. So, she stealthy crept out to see. Across the room, was a charred skeleton with glowing eyes, and with fresh organs peeping between its ribs. It was tearing into one of the corpses from the body drawers, with loud meaty rips, and wet slopping noises.
She silently texted the others in the group, then sat back and watched.
Thursday, August 14, 2014
The Nexus
Sunday Evening, June 15
"We need to get Abu down here," said Mort. "To identify all these magical hieroglyphs."
Abu was promptly phoned, and said he would be there within an hour.
Detective Noble started the grisly task of sealing the crime scene. Now that supernatural activity had ceased, she phoned in the mundane CSI guys.
Outside, the sun set.
Almost immediately, the charred pieces of the mummy skeleton melted into mist and floated up the stairs and through the ruined door. The party frantically followed it. The air compressor pump set was still sitting in Mort's hearse, so they couldn't try the mist-sucking trick. The mist got into the bathroom, and went down the bath drain.
"Damn damn damn," they swore.
Suddenly Mina was there, arriving in her usual enigmatic vampire fashion. She wandered around the basement looking at things.
"This is fascinating," she said. "These hieroglyphs and the Risen magic has made this area into a Nexus. A source of great power. It would take me almost a year to make something like this. I should like to use it."
"What about Oberon?" asked Ebony. "Doesn't he 'own' this part of the city?"
Mina looked at her.
"Yes. 'What about Oberon?' indeed. He would dearly love this. So would all other creatures of the Veil: the werewolves, sidhe, mages, demons, ghosts, sin-eaters, even the Promethean." She paused for thought. "I shall shroud it. Then they will not be able to find it."
Before the party or Detective Noble could reply, Mina was gone.
Abu bin Laden then arrived. His jaw dropped as he surveyed the place.
"This is a tomb!" he cried. "A fully-configured tomb. Look! See the shabtis, the scarabs; those bodies are lain out in the five symmetries. The canopic jars will contain their organs."
Abu was in happy-land as he started taking pictures of the tomb and making extensive notes. Mort followed his progress. Abu explained that the magical hieroglyphs (the ones that could not be photographed) can be copied, but that the copies must be kept 'a hand-span' apart, else they fade. He also pointed out that if you have one tattooed or drawn upon you, as the party had done with the cold hieroglyph, then you age one year per day. Mort pointed out that the Khalfanis, and Safiya and Osiris had the hieroglyphs on their bodies 'for ages', yet they hadn't aged. Abu could not explain why.
Sunday Night, June 15
Mina arrived, an hour later, with four girls in their early twenties. She barged in past Abu and started to set things up on the floor surrounding the sarcophagus. Abu protested, and she fixed him a feral gaze, and he withdrew silently. Then the four girls undressed, and knelt at the four corners. Mina bit each one in the neck, and didn't seal the wounds. The blood ran copiously down their fair bodies, and Mina used it to draw an unbroken circle around the sarcophagus. Mina then drew symbols in blood on her own naked body, and writhed in the centre (in the casket itself). After some minutes of orgasmic throes (the boys in the party watched in rapt lustful fascination), she stood up, and sealed the girls' wounds (with a lick).
"The Shroud is done," Mina said, as she dressed again. "This place is now protected from magical scrying. If that circle is broken, the Shroud will cease, and I will know, and I will kill whoever broke it. "
Mina collected her girls: "I strongly suspect that Oberon does not know of this Nexus. See that he does not. He now can not scry past the Shroud, and he will not want to send his ghouls* to cross the police lines. So you have some time before he will dare send anyone. I want you lot to take on the rent of this apartment. Keep it as your nexus. As your group Strike Force's nexus. As this Egyptologist's nexus. As my nexus." She tossed them a bundle of money ($1500).
"Oberon owns this region of the city," Mina went on. "This means any Veil activity here needs his approval. You are all Veil-aware, so that means if you take this as your apartment, as you are about to do, then you will need to contact him and get clearance. Again, I stress, he must not be told of the Nexus, the Shroud, nor my interest. I'll be back at 4 [ am ]." Mina then left.
The CSI guys arrived. Detective Noble set them to work and they tidied the place up, and hauled off all the body pieces.
"We can maintain the crime scene status for tonight, and tomorrow night, before it appears suspicious," said Noble.
"I guess I better go see Oberon," said Sledge.
Oberon was in the Khyber Pass Bar & Grill, in his offices upstairs. Sledge went up and spoke to him. Oberon was all smiles and teeth, and seemed genuinely touched that the party (the "cell" as he kept calling them) was seeking his permission.
"Yes, you can have that apartment," Oberon said. "The 'rent' is one drink a week. I will not kill the volunteer, just a single drink. Paid in advance"
Sledge said he needed to speak with the group as to whether this price was okay. And would return at midnight with an answer.
Sledge, Ebony and Jacob were happy with this 'rent'.
The vampire haters in the party: Mort and Juan, were not. Neither was Theo.
STRIKE FORCE sided with the ayes.
They argued long into the evening.
PRO: The ends justify the means. The powers of the Nexus help us immensely.
CON: Don't deal with vampires (Oberon). Don't let vampires use the Nexus (Mina).
Sunday Midnight, June 15
It was decided: Detective Noble brought in a "willing volunteer" from the police station, a young black girl Tyra, and gave her to Sledge. Tyra was on a charge for possession, and was happy to volunteer because all charges would be dropped. Sledge took her to Oberon, and he had his drink; he took a litre of her blood and sealed the wound. His glamour ensured that she didn't remember the ordeal at all.
* = A WoD ghoul is not the corpse-eating creature of lore, but is the term for vampire slaves. The vampire feeds his ghoul some blood, and then has a psychic connection.
Vampires have ghouls. Werewolves have "nonces". Sidhe have "fae bitches". Geists and Demons have "the possessed". Promethean have "Igors". Mages have "slaves". Risen have "the loyal".
Dave Dobbyn's song "Loyal" is about a Risen slave.
"We need to get Abu down here," said Mort. "To identify all these magical hieroglyphs."
Abu was promptly phoned, and said he would be there within an hour.
Detective Noble started the grisly task of sealing the crime scene. Now that supernatural activity had ceased, she phoned in the mundane CSI guys.
Outside, the sun set.
Almost immediately, the charred pieces of the mummy skeleton melted into mist and floated up the stairs and through the ruined door. The party frantically followed it. The air compressor pump set was still sitting in Mort's hearse, so they couldn't try the mist-sucking trick. The mist got into the bathroom, and went down the bath drain.
"Damn damn damn," they swore.
Suddenly Mina was there, arriving in her usual enigmatic vampire fashion. She wandered around the basement looking at things.
"This is fascinating," she said. "These hieroglyphs and the Risen magic has made this area into a Nexus. A source of great power. It would take me almost a year to make something like this. I should like to use it."
"What about Oberon?" asked Ebony. "Doesn't he 'own' this part of the city?"
Mina looked at her.
"Yes. 'What about Oberon?' indeed. He would dearly love this. So would all other creatures of the Veil: the werewolves, sidhe, mages, demons, ghosts, sin-eaters, even the Promethean." She paused for thought. "I shall shroud it. Then they will not be able to find it."
Before the party or Detective Noble could reply, Mina was gone.
Abu bin Laden then arrived. His jaw dropped as he surveyed the place.
"This is a tomb!" he cried. "A fully-configured tomb. Look! See the shabtis, the scarabs; those bodies are lain out in the five symmetries. The canopic jars will contain their organs."
Abu was in happy-land as he started taking pictures of the tomb and making extensive notes. Mort followed his progress. Abu explained that the magical hieroglyphs (the ones that could not be photographed) can be copied, but that the copies must be kept 'a hand-span' apart, else they fade. He also pointed out that if you have one tattooed or drawn upon you, as the party had done with the cold hieroglyph, then you age one year per day. Mort pointed out that the Khalfanis, and Safiya and Osiris had the hieroglyphs on their bodies 'for ages', yet they hadn't aged. Abu could not explain why.
Sunday Night, June 15
Mina arrived, an hour later, with four girls in their early twenties. She barged in past Abu and started to set things up on the floor surrounding the sarcophagus. Abu protested, and she fixed him a feral gaze, and he withdrew silently. Then the four girls undressed, and knelt at the four corners. Mina bit each one in the neck, and didn't seal the wounds. The blood ran copiously down their fair bodies, and Mina used it to draw an unbroken circle around the sarcophagus. Mina then drew symbols in blood on her own naked body, and writhed in the centre (in the casket itself). After some minutes of orgasmic throes (the boys in the party watched in rapt lustful fascination), she stood up, and sealed the girls' wounds (with a lick).
"The Shroud is done," Mina said, as she dressed again. "This place is now protected from magical scrying. If that circle is broken, the Shroud will cease, and I will know, and I will kill whoever broke it. "
Mina collected her girls: "I strongly suspect that Oberon does not know of this Nexus. See that he does not. He now can not scry past the Shroud, and he will not want to send his ghouls* to cross the police lines. So you have some time before he will dare send anyone. I want you lot to take on the rent of this apartment. Keep it as your nexus. As your group Strike Force's nexus. As this Egyptologist's nexus. As my nexus." She tossed them a bundle of money ($1500).
"Oberon owns this region of the city," Mina went on. "This means any Veil activity here needs his approval. You are all Veil-aware, so that means if you take this as your apartment, as you are about to do, then you will need to contact him and get clearance. Again, I stress, he must not be told of the Nexus, the Shroud, nor my interest. I'll be back at 4 [ am ]." Mina then left.
The CSI guys arrived. Detective Noble set them to work and they tidied the place up, and hauled off all the body pieces.
"We can maintain the crime scene status for tonight, and tomorrow night, before it appears suspicious," said Noble.
"I guess I better go see Oberon," said Sledge.
Oberon was in the Khyber Pass Bar & Grill, in his offices upstairs. Sledge went up and spoke to him. Oberon was all smiles and teeth, and seemed genuinely touched that the party (the "cell" as he kept calling them) was seeking his permission.
"Yes, you can have that apartment," Oberon said. "The 'rent' is one drink a week. I will not kill the volunteer, just a single drink. Paid in advance"
Sledge said he needed to speak with the group as to whether this price was okay. And would return at midnight with an answer.
Sledge, Ebony and Jacob were happy with this 'rent'.
The vampire haters in the party: Mort and Juan, were not. Neither was Theo.
STRIKE FORCE sided with the ayes.
They argued long into the evening.
PRO: The ends justify the means. The powers of the Nexus help us immensely.
CON: Don't deal with vampires (Oberon). Don't let vampires use the Nexus (Mina).
Sunday Midnight, June 15
It was decided: Detective Noble brought in a "willing volunteer" from the police station, a young black girl Tyra, and gave her to Sledge. Tyra was on a charge for possession, and was happy to volunteer because all charges would be dropped. Sledge took her to Oberon, and he had his drink; he took a litre of her blood and sealed the wound. His glamour ensured that she didn't remember the ordeal at all.
* = A WoD ghoul is not the corpse-eating creature of lore, but is the term for vampire slaves. The vampire feeds his ghoul some blood, and then has a psychic connection.
Vampires have ghouls. Werewolves have "nonces". Sidhe have "fae bitches". Geists and Demons have "the possessed". Promethean have "Igors". Mages have "slaves". Risen have "the loyal".
Dave Dobbyn's song "Loyal" is about a Risen slave.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
The End?
Saturday Afternoon June 14
Sledge and Safiya were kept unconscious with chloroform ("not chlorophyll" quipped Jacob wryly) while Mort attempted some skin excoriation to remove the playing-card-sized "loyalty" hieroglyph tattoos, (the top tattoo, a permanent version of the one Mort had drawn on Sledge).
Mort cut down to the fascia, with the scalpel from his med bag, in a neat square, and peeled the sheets of skin off. Then he tried the awkward task of stretching the surrounding skin back over the wound, and suturing it closed.
Ebony stayed and guarded the unconscious Sledge and Safiya, while Mort and Jacob took hand-sketched drawings of the four hieroglyph tats, and the fifth one of Safiya's, to Abu. He identified the hieroglyphs as Loyalty, Commune with the Dead, Speak Egyptian and Sixth Sense. The extra one was Cold.
Saturday Night June 14
Poor Sledge and Safiya were kept locked up in Mort's safe-house all night. They were in utter agony from the cuts, and were kept heavily sedated.
By the morning, the magical hold that the creature had over Sledge had waned, and he was back to his old self again. Safiya too. She turned out to be a Cairo student. Her and her brother, Osiris, had been kidnapped and bewitched months ago.
Sunday Morning June 15
As soon as it was light, Ebony checked out the Elfrith Alley mummy apartment. It appeared normal, however the solicitation of prostitutes (that Ebony was with two days before) was no longer there; not one. Ebony inquired around the local shops. The hos had been seen only last night.
Ebony quickly checked the parking garage and, sure enough, the Chevy Caprice was there. She contacted the party and they decided to call the Prospero and STRIKE FORCE.
Detective Noble arrived with some extra cops, and they checked out the site of the hos. The area had recently been sluiced down. Noble brought in the forensic boys. They found a severed finger up on one of the internal walls. It had a finger-print and was identified as one of the call-girls.
They updated Noble on everything else, including the magical tattoos and the mummy apartment, and asked for heavy help (like a swat team or a Special Patrol Group). Noble and Prospero were loathe to do this.
"When you have large police action against the Supernatural," Detective Noble said. "You get big breaking of the Veil problems. The officers that survive end up with mental scars which haunt them for the rest of their lives. Or else they go insane."
"But," she added. "We can help you in other ways."
Noble gave Sledge and Safiya some healing salves (which all but cured the frightful dermatological mess that Mort had inflicted on their backs), and she gave Ebony an Incendiary Stick. This looked like a common-or-garden wooden police baton, but if you twisted the handle a certain way, it would burst open and burn with the intense heat of white phosphorus.
"But don't let a vampire catch you with this," she warned. "Else they will kill you - utterly."
Sunday Afternoon June 15
Mort experimented with the Cold hieroglyph. He copied it onto Ebony's back using a permanent marker pen. And then poured some Nile water onto it, as suggested by Abu. Ebony found that if she concentrated on the drawing, then she could stick her hand into the freezer and the cold didn't affect her.
So Mort drew Cold tats on everyone with the marker pen. They worked on everyone except Juan.
Sunday Late Afternoon June 15
Wanting to do it before dark, they decided to go in to the apartment.
The apartment door was cold to the touch. Everyone activated their Cold hieroglyphs, and then Ebony picked the lock.
The entire room was cold. There were two skeletal dogs there. They attacked, but Theo made short work of them with his katana. No sign of any people, so they approached the basement door. It turned out to be solid iron and had been bolted and reinforced. They couldn't make any progress.
Lieutenant Prospero was phoned. He sent a squad car to secure the area, and sent Detective Noble with a police-issue hydraulic battering ram.
It was now 90 minutes before sunset.
A few solid bashes smashed the door frame, and the solid iron door tumbled down the stairs into the basement. In went some molotovs, which made fire and choking smoke.
Gun shots came from within.
Sledge came to the fore, and he shot at the shadowy figure down there. Sledge took some wounds, but the shooter was dropped. It was Dr Khalfani ("Mr Fez"). He was hiding behind a huge stone sarcophagus. Mrs Khalfani was cowering in the corner.
The room was bedecked like an Egyptian tomb: the huge stone sarcophagus centre stage, with hieroglyphs all over the walls, complete with canopic jars, shabtis, scarabs, and other funerary items ... and the pieces of twelve prostitutes scattered about. The place was also freezing cold, with ice on the floor.
Jacob, Juan, Mort and Theo lifted the lid of the sarcophagus together; it was very heavy. Ebony hurled in some litre containers of oil, and then her incendiary stick.
There was a roar and a scream. The lid shot up, out of their hands, as the thing within stood up violently. It leaped out of the sarcophagus and raked Theo. Then it bellowed, on fire, burning fiercely, and it ran from the room. Sledge opened up with his .357 magnums, called-shots to its head. He got in some good hits because it stumbled and fell on the stairs.
With the white phosphorus burning hot and fierce, it didn't take long for the creature to burn into a charred skeleton. There were about 40 minutes to sunset.
Dr Khalfani was still alive, barely, so they patched his wounds. Mrs Khalfani was none the worse for wear; a bit of smoke inhalation. Safiya's brother Osiris wasn't so lucky. His body, well, pieces of his body, were scattered with the prostitutes'. The intense cold had started to wane, so Detective Noble and Juan could come down.
Mort wondered if any of the hieroglyphs on the walls of the tomb were the magical type. Since they could not be photographed, he took some photos with his phone-camera of each wall, and sure enough, there were holes in the picture where the magical ones were. Maybe one in twenty.
Ebony gestured to the hieroglyph-encrusted sarcophagus: "At least, now we can replace the museum's one," she mused.
Sledge and Safiya were kept unconscious with chloroform ("not chlorophyll" quipped Jacob wryly) while Mort attempted some skin excoriation to remove the playing-card-sized "loyalty" hieroglyph tattoos, (the top tattoo, a permanent version of the one Mort had drawn on Sledge).
Mort cut down to the fascia, with the scalpel from his med bag, in a neat square, and peeled the sheets of skin off. Then he tried the awkward task of stretching the surrounding skin back over the wound, and suturing it closed.
Ebony stayed and guarded the unconscious Sledge and Safiya, while Mort and Jacob took hand-sketched drawings of the four hieroglyph tats, and the fifth one of Safiya's, to Abu. He identified the hieroglyphs as Loyalty, Commune with the Dead, Speak Egyptian and Sixth Sense. The extra one was Cold.
Poor Sledge and Safiya were kept locked up in Mort's safe-house all night. They were in utter agony from the cuts, and were kept heavily sedated.
By the morning, the magical hold that the creature had over Sledge had waned, and he was back to his old self again. Safiya too. She turned out to be a Cairo student. Her and her brother, Osiris, had been kidnapped and bewitched months ago.
Sunday Morning June 15
As soon as it was light, Ebony checked out the Elfrith Alley mummy apartment. It appeared normal, however the solicitation of prostitutes (that Ebony was with two days before) was no longer there; not one. Ebony inquired around the local shops. The hos had been seen only last night.
Ebony quickly checked the parking garage and, sure enough, the Chevy Caprice was there. She contacted the party and they decided to call the Prospero and STRIKE FORCE.
Detective Noble arrived with some extra cops, and they checked out the site of the hos. The area had recently been sluiced down. Noble brought in the forensic boys. They found a severed finger up on one of the internal walls. It had a finger-print and was identified as one of the call-girls.
They updated Noble on everything else, including the magical tattoos and the mummy apartment, and asked for heavy help (like a swat team or a Special Patrol Group). Noble and Prospero were loathe to do this.
"When you have large police action against the Supernatural," Detective Noble said. "You get big breaking of the Veil problems. The officers that survive end up with mental scars which haunt them for the rest of their lives. Or else they go insane."
"But," she added. "We can help you in other ways."
Noble gave Sledge and Safiya some healing salves (which all but cured the frightful dermatological mess that Mort had inflicted on their backs), and she gave Ebony an Incendiary Stick. This looked like a common-or-garden wooden police baton, but if you twisted the handle a certain way, it would burst open and burn with the intense heat of white phosphorus.
"But don't let a vampire catch you with this," she warned. "Else they will kill you - utterly."
Sunday Afternoon June 15
Mort experimented with the Cold hieroglyph. He copied it onto Ebony's back using a permanent marker pen. And then poured some Nile water onto it, as suggested by Abu. Ebony found that if she concentrated on the drawing, then she could stick her hand into the freezer and the cold didn't affect her.
So Mort drew Cold tats on everyone with the marker pen. They worked on everyone except Juan.
Sunday Late Afternoon June 15
Wanting to do it before dark, they decided to go in to the apartment.
The apartment door was cold to the touch. Everyone activated their Cold hieroglyphs, and then Ebony picked the lock.
The entire room was cold. There were two skeletal dogs there. They attacked, but Theo made short work of them with his katana. No sign of any people, so they approached the basement door. It turned out to be solid iron and had been bolted and reinforced. They couldn't make any progress.
Lieutenant Prospero was phoned. He sent a squad car to secure the area, and sent Detective Noble with a police-issue hydraulic battering ram.
It was now 90 minutes before sunset.
A few solid bashes smashed the door frame, and the solid iron door tumbled down the stairs into the basement. In went some molotovs, which made fire and choking smoke.
Gun shots came from within.
Sledge came to the fore, and he shot at the shadowy figure down there. Sledge took some wounds, but the shooter was dropped. It was Dr Khalfani ("Mr Fez"). He was hiding behind a huge stone sarcophagus. Mrs Khalfani was cowering in the corner.
The room was bedecked like an Egyptian tomb: the huge stone sarcophagus centre stage, with hieroglyphs all over the walls, complete with canopic jars, shabtis, scarabs, and other funerary items ... and the pieces of twelve prostitutes scattered about. The place was also freezing cold, with ice on the floor.
Jacob, Juan, Mort and Theo lifted the lid of the sarcophagus together; it was very heavy. Ebony hurled in some litre containers of oil, and then her incendiary stick.
There was a roar and a scream. The lid shot up, out of their hands, as the thing within stood up violently. It leaped out of the sarcophagus and raked Theo. Then it bellowed, on fire, burning fiercely, and it ran from the room. Sledge opened up with his .357 magnums, called-shots to its head. He got in some good hits because it stumbled and fell on the stairs.
With the white phosphorus burning hot and fierce, it didn't take long for the creature to burn into a charred skeleton. There were about 40 minutes to sunset.
Dr Khalfani was still alive, barely, so they patched his wounds. Mrs Khalfani was none the worse for wear; a bit of smoke inhalation. Safiya's brother Osiris wasn't so lucky. His body, well, pieces of his body, were scattered with the prostitutes'. The intense cold had started to wane, so Detective Noble and Juan could come down.
Mort wondered if any of the hieroglyphs on the walls of the tomb were the magical type. Since they could not be photographed, he took some photos with his phone-camera of each wall, and sure enough, there were holes in the picture where the magical ones were. Maybe one in twenty.
Ebony gestured to the hieroglyph-encrusted sarcophagus: "At least, now we can replace the museum's one," she mused.
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