The Bikers

Thursday afternoon, June 26

The party arrived at Morgan Village just after lunch. They passed through the little village (Holiday Inn, hotel, general store, gas station and a few houses), and traversed down the southern edge of the Morgan Woods, along an unsealed road, and stopped at where the Morgan creek left the woods (about the middle of the bottom edge of the rectangular woods).

Here, Cello cast her Locate Person spell using belongings of Cletus and Drowbar.

• Cletus was located in the general store of Morgan (bordering on SW corner of the woods)
• Drowbar was in the north-eastern corner of the woods.

Jacob and Leon went into Morgan to investigate and, sure enough, spotted Cletus. He was with two others. They were on heavy motor-bikes, and dressed as bikers. The gang patch name was "Morte Christe".

Asking around, the bikers had been in this area for "about a month". The four escapees had escaped the penitentiary six days ago.

While the group was waiting by the creek, several bikers passed by, some going west and some east. In fact, this kept up all day.

Jacob & Leon returned and the whole party went west down the road. There was a big biker camp here, on the SE corner of the woods, with heaps of bikers, like about 40. The party withdrew back to the Morgan creek and made camp (a la RV) there.

Having no further need for Cello, Jacob took her back to Philly (she had been paid her $2000 in advance).

Thursday night, June 26

All the bikers came into Morgan and went to the Morgan hotel to drink and party.
Reginald reconnoitered and hung about in a corner of the bar.

Leon and Theo kept guard in camp, fishing in a swimming hole of the Morgan creek. Leon caught a huge cat-fish.

Ebony and Sledge sneaked down the road to the site of the biker camp. Sledge had his gen II night-vision goggles, and Ebony had her Etheric goggles (which act as gen 3 night-vision goggles). There were two biker chicks in camp tidying, and no-one else. Ebony and Sledge melted into the forest and headed down a forest path to the site of where Drowbar had been located by Cello's spell.

Thursday midnight, June 26

An hour later they came to the site. There was a clearing in the forest with two log cabins, a well, a small woodshed and an outhouse. It looked olde worlde, but it was all faux and made of modern materials.

They snuck inside, the place wasn't even locked, and did a little search. They guessed seven were staying in the cottages.

The bikers left the hotel at 2 am and headed back to their camp.

They then followed some other forest paths. They found nothing of significance, but this took a goodly time and it was 5 am by the time they got back to the RV to sleep.

Thursday 5:10 am, June 27: New Moon

Friday sunrise 5:34 am, June 27

Brother Theo was up at first light to perform matins, and Reginald for his morning acoustic calisthenics. They then proceeded to make a noisy breakfast, much to the annoyance of the sleepy Sledge and Ebony.

Then fished all morning. Leon caught another cat-fish.

Friday midday, June 27

Not wanting to give the bikers any grounds for suspicion, they upped camp and headed into Morgan to the Holiday Inn camp-ground. Jacob got himself a room here too.

Friday sunset 8:33 pm, June 27

Theo and Jacob arrived at the Morgan hotel before dark and got an outside table near the door. Theo had his back to the door so that all the bikers would need to pass near him.

Sure enough, the entire Morte Christe gang arrived, and they streamed in to the hotel. Theo made careful note as to how many set off his Sixth Sense veil detection.

The total was 34 bikers, 10 biker-chicks. 15 of the bikers set off Theo's detector and 1 of the girls. So this meant 16 were either fae or werewolves.

Meanwhile, Ebony and Sledge snuck back into the forest and headed down a second forest path off the biker camp. This lead about twenty minutes to another clearing. In here, were some standing stones. But Ebony's etheric goggles revealed a hovering, swirling cloud-like mass, the size of a bear, right in the centre of the circle. This thing didn't appear in Sledge's goggles at all. Many of the stones of the circle had been scratched, too, by large claws.

They headed back up to the cabins, and waited, and waited. The intent was to take out some of the bikers, so Sledge had his PSG1 with a night-scope (gen 2).

Saturday early morning, June 28

Drowbar arrived with six others. Sledge decided not to make the kill shot, after all.

Sledge and Ebony headed back to the standing stones. It was the same as before (cloud and all), but there was fresh urine on the grass. So they headed back through the forest to Morgan.

Saturday morning, June 28

Jacob phoned Cello and described the standing stones. He deliberately didn't mention what Ebony had seen.

She said standing stones are normally built on the site of ley line crosses. She suggested a nexus could be built there.

The Warden's Problem

Tuesday afternoon, June 24

Prospero introduced a new party member to the group: an ex-soldier, good with a shotgun, named Leon [ new player David Campbell's character ]. Prospero adjudged that Leon was totally trust-worthy hence that was a good enough recommendation for the group.

When they got back to the apartment, Abu was working down in the Nexus, like he had been for the past week. Sledge asked him how he was progressing.

"In one week, I think," said Abu. "I will know how to engrave the glyphs on human skin and how to activate them,"

"Will they still age you a year per day?" asked Sledge.

"Oh yes," replied Abu. "That is the next problem for me to solve."

Sledges' phone rang. It was the Warden of the Eastern State Penitentiary, Candy Clam, asking to speak to Mort. Sledge explained that Mort was no longer here in Philadelphia. In that case, the Warden wanted the see the party, and she demanded, vehemently, that they go to her office. Now.

So they all went out there.

Angel

The Warden had heard about the group (somehow through the Veil grapevine), plus she did know about Brother Theo when he himself worked with Peter, the Prison Chaplain, two weeks back. She seemed to know the party were Veil-aware, and could handle it. She didn't reveal her demon nature, nor did she seem to know that they knew that she was a demon. But then maybe she knew that they didn't know, or that she knew that they knew, but knew that they didn't know that she knew.

Anyway, she wanted to employ them to do some work for her.

"I run a tight ship here," she hissed, eyes flashing a feral gleam, her irises aglow. "No-one escapes from my prison, alive. No-one.

Bogan

Four felons some how got away four days ago. So I want them caught. With extreme prejudice. If they die in the capture, so be it. We will shed no tears."

She tossed down four personnel files: Angel "eyes" Fornel, Bogan Baltimore, Cletis Crawdad, Drowbar Wolven.


"They are all in for armed robbery, 8 and 12 years a piece," she continued. "And are ex bikers. They were last seen in Morgan forest, two hours to the East of the city. The local police did a cursory search, but I pulled them back. I was worried about Veil breaches. Although, two are human, Angel is fae, and Drowbar is werewolf.

Cletis

If you happen to catch the escapees alive, phone my cell before you bring them in. If they happen to die, bring me their hearts. Any questions?"

"Yes," said Ebony. "I thought this was a male prison."

"It is."

"Then why is Fay one of the escapees?"

"Fae," said the Warden wearily. "Fairies, faeries, sidhe..."


"She?" said Ebony. "'She' is a girl?"

Drowbar

"S I D H E! It is from the Irish gaelic word for fairy."

"Sid he?"

"No! Pronounced 'she'!"

As payment for successful completion of this "job", the Warden offered the group a Veil item. A Ring of Power Healing. This item is attuned to one person over a week. After that it will increase rate of healing by about 20 times: [ Normally, Bash damage is healed in 15 mins, Lethal damage in 2 days, and Aggravated damage in 1 week. With the ring: 1 minute, 2 hours, 12 hours ]

Tuesday late afternoon, June 24

The party returned to STRIKE FORCE HQ to do some research.

Morgan forest was about 10 to 15 km on one edge and 5 km on the other. On the West end was the village of Morgan and the Morgan creek flowed through the woods.

They also selected some special weaponry [ by spending Endowments ]. Leon got some iron shotgun pellets, iron being good on fae. Reginald got a clip of silver 9 mm bullets for his MP 5, and an iron hammer. Sledge got a clip of silver .357 magnum shells. Silver was effective against werewolves, of course.

"We will need a witch," said Jacob. "To locate the escapees easily."

They contacted Siri and arranged a meeting. Siri's Locate Person spell could only cover a few kilometres. That was too small, so Siri suggested they try Nonce or Cello.

Nonce couldn't do much more range than Siri.

After some attempts, they managed to get through to Cello (the best witch in Philly) and arranged a meeting. Cello's spell could stretch to 12 km, so they asked to hire her. Her rates were one grand per casting that spell, or two grand for the whole day, but she wasn't free until Thursday daytime. So they booked Cello.

Tuesday night, June 24

Mina arrived at the apartment.

"If you guys can find out what happened to Mort," she said. "There's ten thousand dollars in it for you. I would like to know. It seems that demons got him. You know the Warden is one?"

"Yes. And Warden Clam doesn't seem to know," said Ebony. "We did ask."

"You working for her?"

Ebony nodded.

"Do tell."

After Mina had listened, she gave some suggestions, but the group already knew of the iron and silver.

Mina offered Ebony a "drink", but she graciously declined.

Wednesday, June 25

Juan had taken possession of Mort's hearse - Mort had donated his safe-house apartment (no longer safe) and his hearse to the group. Juan started the pimping process. He was heading for this:

Thursday morning, June 26

Sledge hired an enormous RV motor-home, at $350 a day.

 Jacob had an RV and he picked up Cello, to keep her separated from the mage-haters: Reginald, Leon and Theo, and they all headed for Morgan.

Payment in Kind

Monday 5 am, June 23

The party went to Oberon's place, half an hour before sunrise, and told him all about Mort, in every sordid detail.

As an elder vampire, Oberon was well-versed in facial control and keeping his emotions in check. Nevertheless, his eyes burned like hot coals, and his calm visage revealed the truly horrendous form beneath, if only for a fraction of a second.

"Bring me the tape," he said.

"We will get it for you tonight," they replied meekly.

Since it was only half an hour until sunrise, Oberon dismissed them. "I need to make some calls."

Monday morning, June 23

After breakfast, the party (sans Juan) went to STRIKE FORCE to report in to Lieutenant Prospero, and to fetch the security tape. Here, the Lieutenant introduced Reginald Gates to join the team [ Darryl's new character ].

Gates was an ex-corporal from the marines, and self-styled STRIKE FORCE expert. He had memorized the STRIKE FORCE constitution, and was always the one to push correct protocol and procedure. He always addressed his superiors as "Sah!"

The spent the rest of the day bringing Reginald up to date.

Monday sunset 8:33 pm, June 23

Straight after dark, the party hurried to Khyber Pass Bar & Grill and up to Oberon's offices. They quickly handed over the tape. Oberon dismissed them while he viewed it.

When they returned an hour later, he had his PA, the curvy Ms Anderson, give them a brief case

"So the culprit was right under your nose all the time," he said coldly. "You will find your reward in there."

Not fully trusting Oberon, they took the case to a deserted back-alley, and examined it thoroughly. There was a tiny locator GPS pin on the back-hinge, and Jacob spotted a rune by the handle. Sledge was brave enough to open the case. Inside was a pile of uncut diamonds. Each time one was taken out, the rune flashed.

Ebony phoned Oberon and got his PA.

"Um, what's with the rune on the case?" said Ebony.

"If you separate the diamonds from the case," she grinned. "They will melt." Then she hung up.

Jacob thought about this for a while.

"Diamonds can't melt," he said. "I think they can burn, but you need to get damn hot for that."

"Let's get a second opinion," said Sledge.

Sledge managed to track down the phone number of witch in town (using STRIKE FORCE's database), who was not Cello. This one was called Siri, so he rang her and arranged a meeting.

Monday night, June 23

Siri met the party in a quiet square, and she identified the rune as a combination Counter and Messenger.

"There will be another rune, somewhere, paired with this one," she said. "It will count removals from the case."

She also spotted a Fire rune on the case too, which the party hadn't noticed.

"That one can be triggered from a distance," she said wryly.

"How come all you witches are so attractive?" stated Ebony, unable to be discrete.

Siri smiled.

"You will find that all creatures of the veil," said Siri. "Witches included, tend to go in extremes on the human scale. Scary and ugly at one end, and beautiful and well-wrought at the other end."

Monday night, later, June 23

There was a street of Jewellers in Philadelphia, so the party took the uncut diamonds and case there, and found a jeweller who was still open. The owner was quite happy to value them, but it would take all the next day. He also assured them that diamonds do not melt. So the party left only the diamonds with the jeweller, and took the case away.

Ebony stuck the now-empty case on the back of a Greyhound bus which was leaving town.

Tuesday afternoon, June 24

They returned to the jeweller. The place was still intact. There wasn't a smoking crater 20 metres deep, nor was there a fleet of ambulances carting off badly-burned corpses. The jeweller had valued the uncut diamonds at $430,000. He was happy to buy them off the group for that value, less 20%, so they agreed and got a bank cheque for $344 K.

They went and opened a party bank account.

Reginald, who knew the STRIKE FORCE constitution backwards, was happy to point out that STRIKE FORCE required its members to pay 10% gross on any income they made while doing "Veil business", so they ended up with $301 K in the end.

When they were paying STRIKE FORCE its cut, Lieutenant Prospero had some news.

"It seems your mate Mort was caught in JFK airport, New York, yesterday," he said. "The silly fool was trying to smuggle some Semtex in his carry-on luggage onto the plane."

Jacob laughed.

"Oberon, I bet!" snorted Sledge.

"So Oberon does know?" said the Lieutenant.

"Yeah"

"I see. That might explain the Semtex..."

"But how could Oberon possibly work so fast?" said Jacob. "And Mort was travelling under different papers and stuff, like you said, Lieutenant."

"Um... no," said Prospero. "Mort had never joined STRIKE FORCE. He was entitled to nothing..."

Prospero paused, mid sentence, as if gathering his thoughts, then suddenly burst out hysterically: "Nothing! You hear me?! Nothing!"

Jacob and the others took a worried step back. Prospero calmed a little.

"So ... we didn't actually give him papers. He was travelling under his own passport with his own name: Mort Gezkowski."

While this sank in, Prospero continued.

"Anyway, it was day-time. Mort was put into an airport holding cell while enquiries were made, and while Homeland Security and the Guantanamo Butt-reamers were fetched. But then, mysteriously, he vanished from his cell, late afternoon. The CTV camera recording in his cell was all blurred out at the time.

"Luckily, we have top men in the airport..."

Prospero cast his gaze off into infinity in the best STRIKE FORCE manner, and said, again: "Top men."

"So they managed to get to his cell before the CSI boys arrived," he continued. "And do you know what they found?"

"Erm... no"

"I'll tell you!" said Prospero. "Sulphur, an iron powder residue, and a burnt circle on the floor. You know what that means?!"

"Demons!" cursed Jacob.

Prospero nodded sagaciously.

"Thanks to you lot, we know that the Penitentiary Warden Clam is one," said Prospero. "You think she is involved?"

Blank looks all around.

"There is no love lost between demons and vamps. So, if the demons got Mort, maybe he is still very much alive."

Mort's Departure

Sunday afternoon, June 22

Jacob, Mort, Ebony and Sledge were in STRIKE FORCE Operations Room Four, and had just viewed the security tape which clearly showed Mort with the stakes. Theo was in the hire-car baby-sitting Dimetrius's ghoul Rolly Barton.

Jacob texted Lieutenant Prospero and he joined them, and was updated.

"You have committed a grave act, Mort," began the Lieutenant. "While those staked vampires are creatures of the Veil, we don't have direct evidence that they are not innocents."

"But they are vampire scum and deserve to die," said Mort.

Prospero just looked at him coldly, and continued: "You will not be sanctioned. STRIKE FORCE has clear policies regarding this. We will not turn you over to Oberon, but nor will we offer you refuge or succour. And anyway, you have not yet ... even ... joined our ... team ..."

"I was only up to page four of the Constitution!" protested Mort.

Prospero addressed the group: "Is this the only tape?"

"No," said Jacob. "While we are sure that the actual nest wasn't under direct surveillance, there were other cameras, other tapes."

"Can you get the other tapes?"

"We're working on it."

The plan was to get Ebony and Mort into the prison after dark and get the tapes. They knew that the prison was always looking for cleaners, and Mort had Joan, the HR lady's mobile number. So he rang her, and got transferred to the Night-time super. And it turned out that they did need extra help for tonight; 9 pm until 5 am.

The security tape was secured in a STRIKE FORCE safe.

The party headed back to the Elfrith Alley apartment, and deposited Rolly in an upstairs room. They were very careful not to let him see the iron door down to the cellar (and Nexus). Rolly was in severe ghoul-withdrawal, so he probably wouldn't have noticed it anyway. He had soiled the hire-car several times with blood, copious vomit, urine and large amounts of sticky cloying diarrhoea. Ghoul diarrhoea is particularly obnoxious in that it is tinged with coagulated vampire blood remnants, so not only reeks like the very stench of hell, but stains too. The car-hire firm certainly made a loss on the $100 car-soiling fee that day.

"You needn't think we will have your business ever again, Ms Mendoza," the disgusted rep said.

Sunday sunset 8:33 pm, June 22 

Ebony and Mort went out to the Eastern State Penitentiary. They were both in disguise. Ebony had to look like a man (they didn't hire women cleaners for a male prison), so they christened her Edward; and Mort didn't want to be spotted in case someone had seen the tapes. They were met by the Night-time super who let them in and told them to begin cleaning Wing B.

"The crims are all locked up secure," he said wryly. "But don't stray too close to the bars."

Half an hour into the shift, Mort's cell phone rang. It was Mina.

"So it was you."

Mort stammered: "Was me what?!"

"You know very well what. How long do you think you can evade Oberon, you little worm?"

Mort squeaked: "Was me what?!"

"I'd advise you to get to your safe-house ... now." She then hung up.

Mort panicked, and turned to Ebony/Edward.

"I have to go. Now." He scurried off

"What about my ride?" said Ebony, as Mort vanished through the doors.

Sunday 9 pm, June 22

Sledge, Theo and Jacob went to report in to Oberon. They updated him on the progress about the ghouls and the tapes, and the prison. And were very careful not to mention the tape that showed Mort's guilt.

Oberon wanted all four ghouls brought in to him, and he would get his guards to personally deliver Binro to the prison to retrieve the tapes in the morning. Sledge managed to convince Oberon that it would take all their effort to recover Binro, and that they'd get the other ghouls tomorrow. Oberon grudgingly agreed.

So they headed out to Fairmount. Binro still had the GPS tracker pin on him so was very easy to track down. When they promised to him that his Mistress Marceline had all forgiven him, and that she was dying to feed him, he was happy to go with them back to Oberon's.

Binro was delivered to Marceline, and they embraced and fed.

Sunday 10 pm, June 22

Sledge went to visit his fiancee Safiya at his mum's place, to see how she was getting on. She was in good health, and her CCD lessons progressing well, which meant the marriage date was fast approaching. This would be a good thing, for Sledge's loins ached with unrequited desire.

His cell phone rang. It was Mina.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she said.

"Tell you what?"

"That it was Mort!"

"How did... what was Mort ...  do?"

"I thought so," she said. Then hung up.

"Shit" said Sledge.

Sunday midnight, June 22

Mort, ensconced in his safe-house, got the warden's phone number (via Sledge via STRIKE FORCE Contacts and Investigative techniques).

Bearing in mind that Oberon was going to use Binro to get the tapes in the morning, the NEW plan was now to alert the Warden, so that hopefully she would hide the tapes somewhere else, before Binro arrived.

Mort rang the warden from his safe-house's land-line.

"Hello, Candy Clam," he said.

"Who is this?"

"Just a friend ... You have some tapes. They are in danger."

"How did you get this number?"

He hung up.

Monday 2 am, June 23

Ebony had finished four corridors (of the seven) when she was sent to clean the upper corridor of the admin block.

Demon Warden Candy Clam

Warden Candy Clam's door was slightly ajar. There was flickering coming from within the room, as if there was a fire in there.

Ebony glanced inside, surreptitiously and quietly. There was a tall woman in a smart suit, her back to the door. There was a safe in the wall, and it was open. Inside were stacked tapes. However, the room stank of sulphur and there was a flaming torch, floating, next to the woman. Ebony quickly withdrew, and made some loud cleaning-type noises out in the corridor.

The flickering instantly stopped and the door flew open. It was the indeed the Warden, fierce feral beauty and all. Her eyes blazed, literally, for a fraction of a second. She stared at Ebony, long and hard.

"You are new here," said Ms Clam. It wasn't a question.

"Uh, yes, Miss," stammered Ebony in her best baritone. "Edward Bounty"

"Carry on, Edward," said Ms Clam and she slammed the door, then strode past Ebony carrying a satchel. Ebony got another whiff of sulphur.

Monday 3 am, June 23

Sledge, Jacob and Theo were in the apartment chatting about their latest information.

Suddenly, Mina walked in, in her usual elegant unassuming (and silent) style, as if she owned the place.

"I caught the tail end about Mort," she said.

"Mort staked the vampires," said Jacob suddenly, as if lifting a great weight. "Sledge said you knew that, right?"

"Well, I was 75% sure," said Mina quietly, her eyes a seething cauldron of rage. "But now I am 100%."

Mina calmed herself, and took some deep breaths - even though she wasn't technically alive and didn't need to breathe, some old habits were hard to stop.

"I certainly will not tell Oberon," she said. "It was his faction that suffered here, and that helps me. That said, in some cases, blood.. nay, vampire blood is thicker than water. So maybe I should..."

They all looked worried.

"... or not. But when Oberon does find out," Mina went on. "and, rest assured, he will find out, Mort's life will be short, and his demise unpleasant. Oberon has a long reach.

And how will you lot ... cover yourselves? How long have you known?"

"Since yesterday afternoon..." began Jacob.

Mina interrupted: "... and you never told Oberon this night?"

"Um no..."

Monday 3:30 am, June 23

Jacob contacted Lieutenant Prospero about the latest news. Bearing in mind that Mina now knew, and Oberon was probably not far off from knowing, Prospero suggested to Jacob to tell Mort to pack up and leave. Now.

"I hear Invercargill in New Zealand is a nice place to visit," said Prospero drolly. "I'll have someone meet Mort in Philly airport with papers and stuff."

Jacob relayed this news to Mort in his safe-house.

Monday 4 am, June 23

Ebony/Edward finished her shift early. The Night-time super was so impressed with her work efforts (she had done the work of two men, and faster than two men) that he let her go an hour early (on full pay).

Ebony grabbed a taxi and went straight to the Khyber Pass Bar & Grill and up to Oberon's rooms; the guards were used to her now, so motioned her through with a curt nod. She told Oberon what she saw, and that Warden Clam had taken the tapes. He summoned Cello (who was very disgruntled at being woken at 4 am) and Ebony related her tale.

"Interesant. It seems ze warden; she is a demon," said Cello. "You smelt sulphur. The floating torch you saw is ward to stop magical scrying. Why the Marceline ghoul would contact demon, I have no idea."

"We will have to ask dear Binro," said Oberon ominously. "Leave this to us."

Cello also gave Ebony some tips about demons. Salt burns them; just ordinary table salt - iodized or not. A line of salt will stop them crossing (but does not stop their magic). And then Oberon dismissed Cello.

As Ebony was leaving the building (it was only a short walk to the Elfrith Alley apartment), she thought she heard a terror-tinged hysterical scream coming from Oberon's rooms.

Monday 4:30 am, June 23

Ebony arrived back at the apartment. Jacob, Sledge and Theo were there, Rolly Barton asleep upstairs, and Mina was downstairs in the cellar, at the Nexus.

"You look wan and tired, Ebony" said Mina, entering the room.

"An exhausting cleaning shift at the prison. I did all Mort's work too."

"Here," said Mina proffering her wrist. "Have a drink."

Ebony looked at Mina's delicate wrist and could almost taste the delicious blood.

"Go on," said Mina with a coquettish smile. "You know you want to."

Ebony looked again and nodded. Mina slashed her own wrist with an elegant fingernail, and pressed the gushing wound to Ebony's mouth. Ebony drank greedily and thirstily. All her tiredness melted away.

Ebony then updated the party, and Mina, about the demoness Warden and her visit to Oberon, and the salt. They updated her on Mort.



When Mort arrived at the Philadelphia International Airport, he was greeted by a guy in a suit, all sleep-deprived eyes and stubble aplenty.

"You Mort Gezkowski?"

"Who's asking?" said Mort in his usual inimitable style.

"Lieutenant Prospero woked me up to tell me to give you this."

He handed Mort a single envelope and strode off.

Mort opened the envelope. It was a greeting card with a single white dove in flight, on a sky-blue background, with the words "Bon Voyage !". Inside, under the card's printed "Have a great trip!", there was a note, hand-written in pen:

Maybe you should have joined STRIKE FORCE.

So it is Revealed

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!"

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.

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."

Oberon's PA Ms Anderson

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."

Vampire Dimetrius

"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."

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'.

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.