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.

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.

Prep for the Arrival

Monday afternoon July 7

Prospero took the party to check out the STRIKE FORCE Protective Custody safe-house in Fishtown. It was a two bedroom ground-floor apartment in a six storey block.

There was a lounge/living area, kitchen, hallway, bathroom and laundry. The Fishtown suburb was pretty divey, so there were plenty of locks on the front door. The back door exited onto a blind alley with a one-way gate out to the street. Five other ground-floor apartments also shared this alley.

Every room, except the bedrooms and the toilet, had a CCTV camera in it, plus there were discreet cameras in the alley and one covering the front door.

Down the street, about three minutes walk, on the third floor, was another STRIKE FORCE apartment. Prospero told them that this was the Surveillance room, that monitored all the cameras in the apartment.

Monday sunset 8:32 pm, July 7

No-eavesdrop Ruby

Mina arrived at the Elfrith Alley apartment, and let herself in.

Sledge was fiddling with the No-eavesdrop Ruby. Mina saw him.

"Ooo ... a magic ruby?" she said. "May I see it?"

Sledge handed it over, without question.

Mina weighed it and had a closer look, then passed it back to Sledge.

"That works like my Shroud down in the cellar," she said.

Monday midnight, July 7

The group decided to check the STRIKE FORCE Protective Custody house after dark, so went down to Fishtown. The streets were teeming with whores and pushers and the dregs of society.

There were lights on in the safe-house, so, intrigued, they went to the Surveillance room to have a nosey.

It didn't take Ebony long to open the tricky security locks.

Inside the small apartment was a wall covered with monitors. Each labelled: "Gate", "Alley", "Laundry", "Hall", "Kitchen" and "Lounge".

Sledge and Ebony switched them all on, and they came on slowly.

At first the rooms showed up as empty, but all the lights were on. All were empty bar two.

On the screen labelled "Lounge", in the centre of the room, there was a woman, in her twenties, black-haired, topless, manacled to a chair, wrists and ankles, and a heavy iron chain on her neck. She was badly bruised, cut, and spattered in blood. It was all over the floor. She was slumped, head down, unconscious on the chair. She'd been badly beaten.

The "Kitchen" monitor revealed a heavy-set man, in a dress shirt and trousers. He was making himself a coffee. He drank it, then returned to the girl in the lounge. He lifted her head up. There was no response, so he let it drop again.

"Nothing to see here," said Jacob, and he turned off the monitors.

"Um ... I think we should phone Prospero," said Ebony.

Ebony phoned Prospero. It was well after 1 am. A tired voice replied.

Ebony mentioned where they were and what they saw.

"Turn the screens off," said Prospero. "Leave it."

"Yes, sir."

Tuesday morning, July 8

Sledge happened to notice something unusual about the No-eavesdrop Ruby. The Ruby had a pin, so that it could be worn like a medal. On this pin there had been threaded a tiny bead. Sledge was sure that this bead wasn't there yesterday.

"Seems Mina gave us a gift?" he said.

Theo checked it and there was no tingling.

"Maybe it is unique and can be tracked," posited Jacob.

Reggie put the bead on a Greyhound bus, and watched as it drove away.

"Track that, Mina," he muttered.

Tuesday afternoon, July 8

"Lassard and Thomson are on-time for tomorrow," said Prospero. "He's being well-guarded by Philly's Finest. So you lot will not be needed until the evening, after dark."

Prospero had Lassard's itinerary. He passed it to the group. You will be given passes to all these events.

• Wednesday night: a public meal at the Philadelphia mayor's house, Mitchell Nutter
• Friday night was home at the safe-house.
• Thursday night he was attending a function at the Fleischer Art Memorial

There was a pause as it sunk in.

"But that is Mina's house!" exclaimed Ebony.

The Fetch

Saturday Midnight, July 5

Reggie consulted his pocket edition of the STRIKE FORCE constitution, printed on rice paper.

He couldn't find any section in the constitution that specifically mentioned robbing of graves nor the violation of the dead.

"You can go ahead," he said dryly to Jacob.

Sledge and Theo set to digging, with Ebony, goggles and all, watching and guarding the whole time.

Sunday 2am, July 6

Theo's spade struck rotten wood. He scraped the grave dirt off the top of the 155 year-old coffin. The lid was broken, and it was no problem to take the skull from inside. He tossed it up to Ebony, who hid it in her backpack.

Theo and Sledge then back-filled the grave. And tidied it up to make it look undisturbed, best they could.

Everyone piled into Jacob's SUV. Ebony glanced behind with her etheric goggles. The graveyard still looked like it always did: the ghostly dome engulfing the entire cemetery, and the old ghostly church in the centre. But she noticed, etherically, that there was a ghostly coffin rising, vertically, out of the grave they had just dug, very slowly.

"Uh... we... better get going, guys," she said.

Jacob turned the key. Click, He tried again. Click.

The ghostly coffin slid further out of the ground, more than half way now.

"Try taking the skull out of the car!" squeaked Sledge.

Ebony took the skull a few paces away. Jacob turned the key again; it started this time.
Ebony ran back and jumped in. The engine kept running, so Jacob gunned it, and took off. Ebony cast a goggled-glance backward - the etheric coffin was now fully out. She thought she saw the ghostly lid fly open, like a door.

Jacob was soon on the interstate, travelling flat out, towards Philadelphia.

Throughout the whole trip, Ebony kept looking behind with her goggles. Something, a glowing speck, was up in the sky, a way in the far distance, but definitely following them.

Ebony phoned Siri.

"Siri, help!"

"Ebony? So you have the skull?"

"Yes yes. And it was guarded, and Jacob's car wouldn't start when we had the skull. And something's following us! Help!"

"Provided you maintain your speed you should be okay. We shall meet you in Tarquin square. Follow my vehicle when you get there."

Sure enough, Siri, her PA and the bodyguard were there. They waved at Jacob, who then followed in the SUV.

The convoy headed north from Philadelphia. The dot was still following, and it was closer.

Siri & Co drove into some woodlands, then left their car and walked.

The party followed likewise, skull and all. They ran.

In a clearing, in the centre of the woods, there was a campfire. Siri calmly knelt down next to it, thighs wide, and started a chanting ritual. Her soldier girl pulled out an MP5,  and her PA produced a pistol.

The party did likewise

A few minutes later, Siri was in some kind of trance, when something heavy-footed, but quick as a gazelle, came rushing down the forest path. It was a skeletal creature; all teeth and claws. It ran headlong into the clearing; well, it tried to, but instead it smacked into an invisible barrier on the edge of the clearing. Hardly stunned, it started to claw at the barrier. There was the horrendous noise like iron scraping on blackboard.

Reginald didn't need prompting. He opened up with his MP5, and emptied an entire clip (of 30) into the creature. Sledge blasted away with both magnums. Leo opened up with his shotgun. They all certainly hit the creature, but none of this fire-power seemed to do anything tangible. Ebony tried her final etheric grenade; the creature was caught in the blast, pieces fell off it, and it gave a keening roar.

Then Siri got to her feet. She extended both arms gracefully, thumbs crossed, fingers out-spread, and pointed her palms at the thing. She pronounced some throaty word, and a white-hot beam of fire shot from her palms right into the creature. It was utterly consumed by the fire.

The party rubbed their eyes as the after-burn faded.

"That," said Siri, "was a fetch."

"Thanks for warning us," said Reggie, sarcastically.

"I was not sure one would materialize. Best not to alarm you unnecessarily."

Ebony handed over the skull.

"Why d'you want the skull anyway?" she said.

"For magical experiments."

"What's so special about it?"

"Well, my research tells me that Thomas Mornay was cursed by a mage. The effects of a curse linger, you see."

"Why was there a fetch?" said Jacob. "Wasn't the guardian ghost enough?"

"They are different things. Fetches are physical manifestations of unrequited curses. Guardian ghosts look after a cemeteries, and all occupants therein."

"But if we destroyed the guardian ghost," asked Theo. "What happens to the cemetery then?"

"A good question," said Siri. "An unguarded cemetery is prone to ...  mischief. Grave-robbery, tomb-raiding, and plenty of foul misdoings; words with the 'necro' prefix. The parts of the dead are useful for many veil creatures."

Leon screwed up his face in disgust.

"Now, we must bid you all adieu," said Siri. "Thank you for your endeavours. Miss Stephenson has your reward."

Miss Stephenson handed to Ebony a colourless gemstone the size of a marble. It was cloudy.

"Here's your Gem of the Veil," she said. "Takes eight hours to link to the holder. Then it'll go clear."

Siri & Co departed.

The party stayed a little while to decide who would get the gem. Jacob got it.

Theo was feeling sick with guilt. [ His Morality stat dropped to 6. ]

[ Morality is an interesting WoD rule mechanic. All characters start with Morality of 7. Every in-game action has an associated morality: Examples: 10: lying, selfish thoughts; 9: selfish acts; 8: minor assault; 7: petty theft, 6: burglary; 5: assault, arson, rape; 4: man-slaughter; 3: murder; 1: mass murder. If your character performs (or sanctions) an action equal to or lower than your current Morality, then there is a chance that it will drop by 1 (24%@7). When this happens, there is a chance that your character picks up a derangement (12%@6). Morality can be recovered by XP and "concrete acts of contrition".
Creatures of the veil are counted as sentient beings, so that could be a problem if the Hunter character goes around killing them willy-nilly. So, we are playing with the Hunter rules mod which allows the morality-safe killing of evil veil creatures, plus the Hated creature concept which allows a character to go to town on his hated foe - even good ones. ]

Sunday morning, July 6

Jacob spent the day acclimatizing to the gem.

Monday morning, July 7

The party went into STRIKE FORCE and updated Lieutenant Prospero on Siri's job. He didn't pass judgement on them for working for a witch, nor for grave-robbing, as they expected he might. And he was very interested about the fetch, and had never met one personally.

"However," he said. "You will need to work out how you are going to pay the ten percent STRIKE FORCE tithe for the gem thing you got off witch Siri. So long as STRIKE FORCE gets the gross tithe, I don't care whether Jacob pays it solely, or if your group pays it."

Then he had some news.

"On Wednesday morning, the local STRIKE FORCE commander of the tri-state area is coming here from New York for three nights.  Captain Lassard is his name. He will be bringing his Adjutant with him: Colleen Thomson

The Philadelphia Police Department will cover him during the day, but I want you lot to organize night-time cover for him; especially Veil cover. I don't want him killed, bitten, possessed or demonized. Nor do I want to see his body parts available on Ebay. His Adjutant should be protected too, but not at his expense.

Do you think you can manage that?"

"Too right, sah!" snapped Reginald. "It would be an honour."

Prospero continued.

"Very good. We have a STRIKE FORCE 'protective custody' apartment that you can use: a ground-floor two-bedroom dwelling.

It has a security system with motion sensors and CCTVs, all controlled from a separate room nearby. This gives it adequate mundane protection.

A shipment of Veil weaponry has recently arrived, so I'm authorizing its use. It will be lent to your group for this job:

• silver bullets
• iron shotgun pellets
• Keep-me-here Grenade - stops teleports in or out for five rounds
• Non-eavesdrop Ruby - stops magical scrying
• Deadman's Candle - stops the casting of mage or fae spells in its area
• Worm of Toulon - a living worm that eats areas of rotting flesh and necrotizing fasciitis. Turns aggravated wounds into lethal wounds (so they heal faster).

Of Ghosts and Graves

Friday noon, July 4

The group got together in the Elfrith Alley apartment.

"I don't think we can handle the Warden," said Jacob. "Demons are too powerful."

The rest of the group nodded assent, with mutterings "too powerful", "reflexive teleports", "multiple forms".

"And we should stop working for veil creatures that we know nothing about," said Reginald. "It gets us into too much trouble."

"But Mina's trustworthy," said Theo.

"Really?" said Reginald. "Would you trust her with your life?"

Theo nodded. So did Ebony.

"We're hunters. Veil-aware humans. Why're we working for the creatures we hunt?"

"Well, they aren't all evil," said Theo. "Some are good. Like Mina. We don't hunt those ones."

"And Cello," added Ebony

"STRIKE FORCE doesn't have any work for us anyway," said Jacob. "Prospero says they are still recruiting."

"Where else do we find work?" asked Leon.

Just then Ebony's mobile rang. It was witch Siri.

Witch Siri

"I have a job for your group," she said in her dulcet tones.

"Yes," said Ebony enthusiastically. Ebony liked Siri.

"Meet me at Tarquin Square tonight, just on sunset."

"We'll do it!" said Ebony.

Ebony told the group. Reginald rolled his eyes.

"What were we just talking about?!" snapped Reggie.

"Well, it won't hurt to hear what Siri is offering."

Friday sunset, July 4

Siri the witch, her PA Miss Stephenson, and her bodyguard Jules (another girl in military fatigues with a side-arm) met up with Ebony and Jacob. The rest of the group, Leon, Reggie and Theo, hated mages and witches, so stayed back. Juan was still with the Morte Christe bikers. Sledge was having a meal with his fiancee Safiya and mum.

Siri outlined the job: It was to go to Salisbury (Maryland), three hours south of Philadelphia, to a graveyard on the north outskirts of the city. There was an 1859 grave of a Thomas Mornay, and Siri wanted his skull.

Payment offered for the job was a Gem of the Veil.

"We'll do it!" said Ebony.

"There might be a problem," said Siri sheepishly. "The graveyard will have a guardian ghost. You might need to deal with that."

Ebony hated ghosts.

"We'll do it!" she said.

Ebony and Jacob relayed the job to the rest of the group.

"Siri assured us that she won't use the skull for any evil purposes. She needs it for 'magical experiments'," said Jacob.

They grudgingly accepted. Reggie wanted to only investigate. He was not too happy about grave robbing. Neither was Theo.

"Why are we working for another veil creature?" said Reginald, annoyed.

Friday late, July 4

Still fearful of the Warden, the party stayed the night in Reginald's safe-house. All except Ebony, who was forbidden entry; she stayed in the apartment.

Mina was there too. She offered Ebony her wrist for a drink.

"Not tonight, thanks," said Ebony.

Saturday morning, July 5

The party headed down south to Salisbury, and had no trouble to find the Methodist Trinity church. The attached graveyard had about 1000 guests and was full; the graveyard was closed in 1950.

Contemporary geist theory states that the ghost of the last person to be buried in a cemetery becomes the guardian ghost. This ghost's task is to protect the graveyard from supernatural incursions, and would have this job (and could not "move on") until another occupant was buried. So when a graveyard gets full, it's a raw deal for the last one to be interred. In this case, parish records stated it was a John Smith.

The graveyard was surrounded by a cast iron fence, taller than a man, with spiked tops, and the only entry was a single iron gate next to the church building. This gate was padlocked closed each night.

The group had a wander through the cemetery. Despite being the height of summer, it still felt cold. And Theo's sixth sense was buzzing the whole time. But they found Thomas Mornay and John Smith's plots with no trouble.

Saturday noon, July 5

The party did a bit of research on Thomas Mornay and John Smith. Mornay was a blacksmith in 1850s, and he died in 1859 of "natural causes". Smith was an engineer who died in 1950 of a heart attack. Neither character appeared to be of any significance, and didn't make any impression on the local media of the time.

While they were back at the church, the Morte Christe gang happened to roar past on their way into Salisbury. The party chose to not let themselves be seen.

Saturday sunset 8:30 pm, July 5

The party waited outside the graveyard until it was dark. Ebony wore her Etheric Goggles. Sure enough, through the goggles, a ghostly dome could be seen surrounding the graveyard. In the centre was a small ghostly church (no sign of this in normal vision), and wandering around were five ghostly humanoid forms. They didn't react at all to any amount of shouting nor waving by the party outside the cemetery, However, the moment Ebony put her hand through the fence, the closest one reacted, and moved towards her.

The ghost drifted close. It was half skeletal, with chunks of rotting flesh drooling off it. Its eyes gleamed with a feral light. It bellowed and roared at her, trying to scare her. Then it turned inside out. Ebony managed to resist its scare, and found she could speak with it, so long as she had her hand through the fence. The rest of the group, standing nearby, could hear her but not the ghost.

It was indeed John Smith, but he was bitter at being last interred. When Ebony suggested she be allowed in the gate, he suddenly extended his fingernails, long as your forearm, and scratched her. The rest of the group, could see these nails. The theory was, that when the fingernails are corporeal, they are no longer etheric and are thus visible.

She asked about the other ghosts, and all he said was an abstruce "They're me".

Ebony moved to the iron gate, picked the padlock, and then pulled it open. Theo drew his katana and poured holy water on the blade.

Etheric Grenades

Ebony entered the graveyard, the five ghosts drifted towards her. She pulled one of her etheric grenades (obtained from STRIKE FORCE previously [ using Merit points ] ) and dropped it, then ran. The ghost recognized it too and attempted to run, but got caught by the etheric shrapnel.

Now the ghosts were wary, so when Ebony and Theo entered again, they were loathe to approach. However, one did, Ebony threw some holy water at it, and it just vanished. Another one drifted close, fingernails out and extended, and attacked. Holy water failed this time, but Theo could now see something to hit, so he swiped ... and missed. It clawed Ebony.

Theo struck again, and this time hit it. It drifted off, so Ebony threw a second etheric grenade, and caught it in the full blast. It vanished. And the other three ghosts instantly vanished too.

"Now we can dig up the skull in peace," said Ebony.

"Wait," said Reginald.