Newcastle:Log

Prelude

The campaign began with Richard trying to locate Samuel to deliver the package (the contents of which were unknown) and ended up heading to Hoenheim college, knowing that this is a typical haunt of Samuel's. There, a man attempted to relieve him of the package. He resisted and repelled the man, and shot him in the back as he was fleeing. The man killed himself with a cyanide capsule. The man's ID stated that he was Haseed Raam, and he was carrying, among other things, a pin in the shape of a wreath of laurels. His cell phone had a few numbers in it that had been used frequently: A. & J.'s Pawn, a local pawn shop; Mr. Kabab, a local middle eastern restaurant; Bearing Sea Credit Union, a Northwestern credit union out of Washington and Alaska; and, most disturbingly, "Mom", which turned out to be a woman who had been in a dominant sexual relationship with Haseed.

Richard did some checking and eventually determined that Raam's apartment was on Cherry Street. He found nothing of value there, and it appeared that Raam lived alone, spent little time at home and subsisted primarily on takeout. At the apartment, Richard encountered the woman who called herself Mom, who threatened him, but for some reason backed off after running up on the wall like a spider to get past him.

Trevor met with Higgs, Bo and Mr. Stouphopolous at the harbor. They were receiving a questionable shipment of AKs and wanted to confirm that the weapons were Russian made originals and not the cheap Chinese knockoffs. It appeared, however, that the crate had already been partially unboxed prior to their arrival. During the course of the encounter, something killed Mr. Stouphopolous as well as Higgs and Bo. Trevor escaped, presumably due to his unwillingness to enter a warehouse where people had been killed.

After the horrifying events at the docks, Trevor tried to lay low for a while. He didn't initially return the calls from his employer that followed, instead opting to try to keep out of things and find out what the hell had happened. He eventually met with Susie who shared a building with him.

Devin, meanwhile, went to Richard's office, being as he was Samuel's backup designee for the package. When he arrived, however, Richard had already left. Samuel, however, showed up, apparently to accept the package, but then tried to kill Devin. Devin cut the empty skin open with an axe and hundreds of naked, shell-less hermit crabs poured out and scampered away (and leaving a mess of sloughed-off flesh behind).

Through some effort, he was able to meet up with Richard, who was having a professional discussion with Susie. This ended up resulting in a group discussion of their supernatural experiences, resulting in Devin deciding to explain to them the nature of his organization.

They also met Charlie Reston, an eccentric (and possibly autistic) man living in the same building as them who used a home-made "Spectrometer" to detect, apparently, supernatural forces.

Trevor picked back up with work and ended up smithing weapons (mostly modifying semis into fulls) for Spiru Demetredou, a Greek boss, and took Devon along for backup. They worked with an independent named Morton Kelly whom they believed might be a sorcerer of some sort, as he appeared to be using luck magic that was thwarted by Devon's magic suppressant token.

September 2010

Monday 8th

The party opened the box, since it was increasingly obvious uncovering its contents: a 1700's French flintlock pistol in brass with a bone handle. It was determined, by Devin, that the weapon was a Pugnalata Duello or "Duelist's Bane", part of a matched pair of weapons meant to be used exclusively against one another (and never EVER to be wielded together, regardless of the temptation to do so).

During the course of this, they were solicited by Johnmark and Nathaniel, a pair of eccentric Mormon-esque missionaries who solicited their membership in the Church of Infinite Brightness.

Tuesday 7th

In the name of increased security, Heather set up a camera in the hallway to monitor the coming and going of people in the area.

Trevor had Heather's apartment cased by criminals who said that the security there was generally legit, and the place wasn't easily accessible nor obviously there.

Trevor hired Susie and Richard to investigate events at the docks - discreetly - and Susie insisted on an anti-indemnity clause.

Richard went down to the docks and spoke with the wharfmaster, a woman named "Sally"; she directed him to Morton Upton who apparently runs the crews there and was more concerned about injured dock workers than helping Richard answer questions. He directed the question to Mr. Timothy Esmond who eventually called Richard back to tell him he had no comment well after it would be polite to call back.

Devin looked into the Church of Infinite Brightness, and was able to learn their party line and what their official beliefs were, which made them more unsettling and strange.

Wednesday the 8th

Susie had another dream about her sister's imprisonment and ended up meeting with Trevor to discuss more of the specifics of the job.

Richard returned to his office to find the mess that Devon left behind. Eventually, he met up with Devon again and discussed Samuel's apparent untimely demise, eventually deciding that he trusted Devon and would be willing to work with him.

Toward the end of the evening, while convening for pizza, Heather was able to discreetly snap a pic of some Italian men who appeared to be watching them.

Thursday the 9th

Richard checked out the Bearing Sea Credit Union and determined that Haseed alleged that he had a wife named Pajeet Raam and, through some manipulation, determined that they had a credit card maxed out at $30,000.

He also determined that Haseem's friend Macha Eprus worked at Crosstown Hardware and was connected to Pajeet in some way (playing with a cell phone can sometimes yield interesting results). However, when he arrived to question him, it appeared that some gangbangers were there to silence him. There was a shootout, in which Richard came out well ahead and Macha got shot.

Macha admitted to being a dealer for Haseem, but wouldn't admit to anything more before he ended up in the hospital.

Heather and Susie, meanwhile, following the inclination of Susie's notion that he sister's captor was a wax man, went to the Hope Thompson Wax Museum near Hoenheim, one of the five largest in the country. There, they encountered Clara (or not-Clara) Susie's sister, who was apparently in town performing some contract work. She was delighted to see Susie, but even being around her caused Susie considerable distress as she could tell that something was "off" an that this wasn't actually her sister. Clara stated she was staying at the Vanity Inn near Diamond Street and exchanged numbers with Susie, who did not tell her where she lived.

It was discovered that over the course of the past few months three Egyptian immigrants had gone missing - Hossam Armanious, Boutrous Fathy and Muhammed Nawal.

Reading through the police blotters and other documents also revealed that a woman named Kelsey Knight had reported her baby missing or kidnapped, but it was later determined that she had never had a baby.

Trevor inquired about purchasing a spectrometer from Charlie. He learned that the device used radioactive materials gathered from smoke alarms, and that Charlie was convinced that he could make a "microwave gun", but it was determined that such a "weapon" would be prohibitively large and require an enormous amount of power and start up times.

Because of its apparent similarities to her own issues growing up, Heather and Susie made contact with Kelsey Knight, who "worked" as a prostitute and was not well. She insisted that a man named Klaus (her landlord) had stolen her baby while she was afflicted with sleep paralysis. When recalling the situation, and the fact that people insisted she never had a baby, she stated that another working girl named Alice had helped her give birth in the restroom of a nearby gas station.

Alice asserted that there had been a baby, but it was stillborn and that they had thrown it into the bay. She was dodgy about a great many of the details and initially lied about knowing Klaus. Klaus, for his part, insisted that there hadn't been a baby at all (or it must have been the world's quietest baby as the neighbors would attest) and that Kelsey was sick and delusional, but that there wasn't much he could do (being not only a pretty hands-off landlord but also morbidly obese).

When they questioned Silas, the manager of the gas station, he admitted to seeing two women go in together and leave with a bundle, (which was backed up by the camera footage, which proved it was Alice).

Friday the 10th

The hunters went to meet Klaus again. While meeting him, Kelsey overdosed on crack, causing her to go into a coma. Devin took the opportunity to go through Klaus's apartment, acquiring a strange book from him. Klaus admitted, also, to knowing Alice, but still stuck with the story about the stillborn baby that the girl had delivered and the fact that he and Alice had had "a relationship" in the past.

Klaus also added that it was possible that Kelsey's being convinced about the nature of the situation was due to his handyman "Maurey" having been in there that day (likely the same one the worked with Devon and Trevor before).

Before they convened at the hospital, Derrick called to confirm that Samuel was actually alive, but required some pretty extensive skin grafts. He was, apparently, in a coma with a very poor prognosis.

The book Devin had recovered from Klaus's place was a journal, but the text was vague, cryptic and indecipherable.

They convened to the hospital to check on Kelsey. While they were there, Richard was able to determine that Macha was still in critical condition, being watched by a patient sitter so he wouldn't leave. The sitter was basically apathetic to Richard's somewhat enhanced interrogation techniques. He did, however, apparently scare off one of Macha's contacts - a woman identified as Haylee Martinez, connected to Cal-Mexican gangs down south before moving to Wisconsin, apparently to distance herself from the same.

They were able to meet with Klaus who expressed that he had no more information to give them. On the way out of the pizza place where they met, Richard was, again, mugged and, this time, knocked the mugger out. He was, apparently, a man named Greg Grey who was carrying a white lizard pointer, and a plastic bag containing what appeared to be drugs.

When they returned to the apartment building, they agreed to consolidate their living space, and moved Trevor's things down to Heather's basement suite. They then locked the book in a closet past the rest of the apartment.

Late into the wee hours of the morning, they were suddenly and surprisingly accosted by a wax lizard that manipulated them into opening the closet so it could try to steal the book. They were, however, able to kill it, which left behind a waxy residue.

Saturday the 11th

Susie, Devin and Heather went to investigate the missing Egyptian immigrants using both publicly available information and rumors to determine the whereabouts of their families. On the way, they stopped by the hospital to check on Kelsey, but she was still unconscious. They were about to speak to a Nurse Louisa Graham.

Richard and Trevor attended a meeting at hte Church of Infinite Brightness. They experienced Kal'el's sermon, on the topic of love being both an unstoppable force and an immovable object, and felt energized by it. Afterwards, they were able to speak to the man himself who cold read them and claimed to be invincible. Richard offered to prove it, but he didn't budge and Trevor kept him from shooting the man.

Devin realized that he was still carrying the book on his person even though he was completely certain he had left it at the apartment.

Devin determined that the book in question was the Book of Lies, and could give visions of the future in return for growing paranoia. It was, at one point, controlled by a cell of Aegis Kai Doru in Socal, but they lost it to a paranoid member who fled to Tijuana.

It was determined, also, that Boutrous Fathy was an illegal immigrant, and that his family was undergoing deportation. She also learned that Muhammed Nawal's family were still in the country as they were US citizens (his wife Miranda and son Pilgrim).

A little searching by Richard also learned that Alice had exceeded her three strikes for drug possession but was still out on probation, and that Kelsey had two prostitution busts from her juvenile record, but that her current status was on probation with violations resulting in 8 extensions of the term (to almost as many years).

The party decided to spend the evening in Little Italy to try to figure out what was up with the laurel wreaths. They ended up stoping at Bacco Italia Tavern where an elaborate assassination attempt took place against Morton Kelly, apparently because Dom Giacamo Giovanni had ordered him dead. The first assassin was a coffee boy who shot Morton, hitting his bulletproof vest. The second was the bartender who would have used a shotgun if Richard hadn't gotten him first.

Trevor brought Kelly to his stitch-man Eugene Huertz, who treated his (relatively trivial) injuries. They dropped him off afterwards.

Looking for Alice, the PC's ended up tipping her off by talking first to her associate Snowy (an extremely pale blonde who "works" with Alice). Ultimate, however, they abducted Alice and, through a series of increasingly serious threats, were able to get her to admit that Sparkle, the drug, was made (at least partially) from faerie dust and that she and Klaus had, in fact, stolen an imaginary baby from Kelsey, but that it wasn't against the law so there was nothing they could do. They also learned that Ms. Wacks, a woman Alice knew, worked at the Dreamland Relaxation Center, where she insisted memories and faeries might come from, which intrigued Susie. They ended up releasing Alice.

Sunday the 12th

Susie and Heather agreed to meet with not Clara for tea at C.U. Latte at 1PM, but first the planned to go to the Dreamland Center to meet Ms. Wacks. They made a big production of the situation and asked to see the sleep pods.

Meanwhile, Devon picked up some supplies at All Things Magickal and Mystickal, a shop run by a woman named Evory Rose. They did not, however, purchase any of the blood that was for sale there (which was only dubiously blood), nor the mirror that gave glances of what might be.

A comedy of errors meeting Clara at the coffeehouse and Ms. Wacks at Dreamland. Eventually, though, they went to see Easy A after losing a brown pickup truck that had followed them.

Due to strange occurrences, it was determined that Ms. Wacks and Not-Clara looked exactly the same.

When they returned, a man was outside the apartment; he identified himself as "Hector" and left behind a CD labeled "The Luck of the Irish" that clearly showed, after a 0 logo, a number of repetitions of Morton Kelly's shooting, showing clearly that he SHOULD have been shot in the head, as that is where the gun was pressed.

Richard, Trevor and Devin tried to confirm that Hector was absolutely the one who dropped the CD, but to no avail.

Monday the 13th

The PC's headed over to Haylee's, presumably in the hopes of tying her in on the things. They ended up kidnapping one of her dealers Christopher Hernandez, and eventually determined that he knew nothing of Hector. Likewise, when Haylee was questioned, she demanded to know if she was expected to be some sort of "Queen of the Mexicans" (although it was noted that she at least appeared to recognize him). They ended up taking a bag of Sparkle from the dealer for their trouble. The whole time, Haylee's bodyguard, "Big-J" Julio didn't say a word, but glared at Devin.

Norman Riqueti, Trevor's dirty cop contact (a skinny desk jockey) confirmed that the sparkles in Sparkle are just aluminum flakes, and are used to make it look special. He suspected voodoo, but admitted that he was no expert.

Richard's office had some notes in it, but one of his files had been stolen - a missing persons case involving an Egyptian named Saad Massri (requested by his sister Oba). He was a US citizen who worked in construction. He hadn't shown up for work in weeks. His girlfriend Anouri Haala was the daughter of another Egyptian man living in Newcastle.

Tuesday the 14th

Although they designated this a day off, Devin spoke to his brother, who was taking a couple days to fly out to Japan and promised to bring him back strange pocky flavors.

Trevor spoke with Charlie and discussed Sparkle with him. Charlie was convinced it was alive when all of it was together but not when any part was isolation, but that recombining it brought it back to life. This made him think crazy things about how life and death work, much to everyone's dismay.

Richard found a lockbox that he appeared to have hidden from himself with a disc or coin in it.

Det. Jack Beauregard spoke with Richard about the missing Egyptians and mentioned that Diego Neri was a public defender working on the Nawal case and that he might be able to give some access to his clients. He further noted that the Nawal case was different, as he was, in fact, not a Muslim like the others, not a legal immigrant like the others and may have disappeared at a different point than the others due to his family's reluctance to report him and face deportation.

Richard, Susie and Heather went to Dreamland and spoke to the disturbing Dr. Wiser who said that Clara was not in today, but that she would be tomorrow. They went to the Hope Thompson wax museum and saw all the figures, although Heather felt like there was one more that she could only almost remember.

The curator at the museum told them some basic and Clara tried to get more info online. She determined that Hope Thompson was an heiress that never married and that she owned her father's shipping company and found her first sculpture - Jack the Ripper - in a sealed shipping crate. They brought Charlie in who confirmed that the lump in Jack's hands was magic.

Trevor tried to BS into an interview with Hope Thompson, but her concierge, Lexington LeMarc, called him out on his BS.

They ended up arranging an ambush that evening (so much for days off) for Pajeet Raam. Trevor called her, she asked if he was followed, sight unseen, and demanded to know if the package had been placed. When he affirmed, she stated she needed a vessel - a young tender one - and would meet him in the park.

They prepared an ambush and ended up riddling her with bullets and chopping her up until she stopped kicking, then brought in Trevor's associated Jambi and Kage to clean up.

Eugene Huertz looked over the situation, determined that the only thing they had rolled up was a decayed blood stain and that Trevor was reacting to a massive dose of wasp venom.

Wednesday Sept 15

The first snow of the year. Richard opened the lockbox, which contained a coin or amulet that said "In hoc signo vinces", determined to have some relation to the Knights Templar (initially they thought it was the Order of Malta.

Richard called Nathaniel (who had Pajeet's phone) and left a message that he was going to "fucking kill Mom", which Nathaniel took to be some sort of code.

Ingrid Wacks, it was determined, immigrated from the Czech Republic in 2008 under a work visa sponsored by Dr. Wiser. She had a Bachelor's in Psychology with a focus on sleep studies. Susie and Heather tried the sleep pods and found them surprisingly comfortable and pleasant.

Trevor and Devin were seeking the Dog Man of Newcastle, a cryptid that had been spotted in the area. They met with Devin's professor, Dr. Martin J. Schultz, who ended up giving them a mysterious experimental drug called "Third Eye Candy" of his own devising. This made them see and track the dog man.

They had pizza with Ingrid who explained that Dr. Wiser had learned about sleep in Vietnam and had used that knowledge to help cure her dangerously severe childhood insomnia. She herself didn't have memories until she was about 11 or 12. She appeared to believe she was on a romantic date with Susie.

The characters were attacked by Nathaniel who possessed superhuman attributes, but they were able to pin him to the stoop and cover up the incident. They brought him to Eugene Huertz the stitch-man who amputated his leg and stabilized him - no questions asked.

They interrogated him and determined that Pajeet is a Rakshasa and she had granted him power, and that he was certain she was still alive.

Thursday the 25th

They fed their hostage and ate waffles. They took turns sleeping and watching him. They managed to get some information out of him concerning Muhammed Nawal who works with migrants from the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean regions. Boutrous Fathy was determined to be a compulsive gambler.

Trevor shot Nathaniel in the head, killing him. They then realized they had few plans for disposing of the body. They ended up putting him down the drain, however, when he melted into sticky blood, and Susie had to clean her drain thoroughly.

Richard incidentally determined that he had left voice mail messages for himself declaring that he was watching some creatures - at least 6 - "collecting". A second voicemail said that he was "compromised" and a third said that he had the package and left it "at the nexus" and that he's still waiting on the scroll and sword he was promised. The dates on the voicemail were all 01/01/2001 at 00:01. A series of touch tones also played, determined to be a cell number out of Walla Walla.

Clara sent a suggestive text to Susie, exacerbating her distress. Devin's brother Derrick, meanwhile, asked if he knew a good way to smuggle a wakizashi onto an airplane from Tokyo.

Devin and Trevor visited Dr. Martin Schulz again and attended his Modern Theory of Meta-Science 102 course. Learned about the architecture of James Wellborn Garrison and in the university buildings and the fact that it had occult significance. They advised him of the situation with the missing Egyptians, and he tied it into the Dog Man sightings (arguing that it is almost certainly a Jackal rather than a dog). He further warned them that cocaine aside, Sparkle was incredibly dangerous due to its dead faerie content.

Heather met briefly with Hector, who gave her the email [email protected] to contact him at. She sent him an email:

Email to Hector: Subj: <blank>; Body: Hello? -Heather

Reply: Me JayEmToo, You Jane; Jane - noise to the boys with the jackal faces. I’ve got some premium footage too hot for the Internet (I promise); have some snappics of a certain lady that maybe kind of isn’t around anymore, but she’s out walking in Daylight just yesterday, asking about Bad-luck Nate. Not safe to use real names after the initial contact – I have a traceroute the length of a phonebook, but that’s only good for one quiet round-trip, so it’s Jane and JayEmToo, and if you use my reality moniker, I’ll have to trace and dump on you. –JayEmToo

In the meantime, Devin tried to determine what could have happened to Richard's memories. He proposed a number of things that could have deleted or obscured memories: certain vampiric powers, a Mnemosyne clasp (a token that could store memories away), the water of lethe or a memory bauble (a device that can wipe memories). He couldn't conclusively point to any one of these as the culprit, however.

He further determined that it was generally agreed that simple weapons could not permanently kill a Rakshasa, and that a brahmastra (an ancient weapon of unknown nature) with a functional brahmadanda (a control rod for the same) would be necessary.

JM2 agreed to meet them at their apartment. He warned them that the Rakshasa could likely track by scent.

Meanwhile, Trevor was called to make a personal delivery of a high-powered sniper rifle (PSG-2 with teflon-coated discarding sabot depleted uranium core bullets). He was concerned and tried to undermine the delivery by determining the secret recipient. After many errors, they ended up having to deliver the weapon elsewhere (and probably pissed off Trevor's bosses) while "confirming" only that a woman may have picked up the weapon.

Friday Sept 26th

The plate on the vehicle they initially delivered the weapon to was a rental from a dealership (Drewry Ford / Lincoln-Mercury in Silverdale) and the vehicle was a loaner to a Ms. Ramona Scott. Determined to be a pseudonym.

The hunters then checked up on Kelsey, and learned that her mother Melissa Knight was in Arizona, her deceased father was Graham Knight. She was in a medically induced coma due to swelling. She was able to express that she had been taking Sparkle and that she was afraid that Klaus was visiting her, but she dropped unconscious without expressing anything further.

The hunters left the hospital to hunt down Pajeet and Nathaniel's contacts. They went to the apartment and confronted Resheed Hafri and a woman who looked exactly like Pajeet but, it turned out, was a daytime decoy (possibly originally name Pajeet) who had been modified to look like "Mother" Pajeet. They learned that Muhammed Nawahl had been the one to introduce them. It was revealed that Nathaniel had pictures of Susie, Heather and Richard, and a number of false Social Security Numbers. A third individual, Bhanti, was able to escape when, just prior to entering, Pajeet warned him of the intruders. They then made the situation look like spousal abuse just as a nosy neighbor suspected to tie up the situation.

They went to Dreamland again, and Ingrid scheduled a date with Susie, much to Susie's eventual dismay (after realizing what had happened).

They went to see Klaus at his apartment, and he initially hinted at believing that Trevor had taken his book before completely losing his shit over it as well as over Alice.

When they returned to the hospital as Kelsey was inbound for surgery, Heather had a strange experience wherein a man with a handful of flowers and a stick for a wand, who identified himself a Buridan, appeared to stop time and explained that he was going to kill Kelsey to fix the situation with her imaginary baby. He eventually relented and gave Heather five days to take care of it. Susie, who was also present, did not appear to know anything had happened.

Saturday the 27th

Kelsey emerged from surgery unconscious, but awakened an panicked, believing that Klaus was going to poison her further. Officer Martin Parker detained Trevor and Heather, questioning them about Kelsey, but eventually released them when Trevor was polite, but uncooperative.

Devin met with Dr. Schultz at the Kelp Pot to acquire more third eye candy, which he reluctantly gave him in an "increased homeopathic dose." Devin then wandered through town and eventually got into Hope Thompson's estate by claiming to be with FedEx. Hope's concierge prevented them from making anything but initial contact with the clearly pleasant high-spirited old lady.

Trevor and Susie, back at the apartment, inadvertently gave Charlie advice on cutting fish. They then made it to the hospital where Kelsey, thus sedated, continued to maintain that she had a baby. When Devin arrived, he saw an umbilicus coming from beneath Kelsey's sheets and followed it immediately.

They ended up following it to the second story of a place called "Club Cairo," where a band named Jackalman would be playing on Friday. While they were there a man named Jack Yengze - who knows the guy who owns the club - tried to buy drugs from them.

They returned to the hospital in a taxi. They discussed, however, whether a real baby would be murdered for, say, a sacrifice, if they eliminated the imaginary one. They again tried to convince her, but it was fruitless. Eventually, Kelsey insisted that if Alice told her she never had a baby, she would concede.

Quotes:

Trevor (as Klaus): "Anywhere beyond my doorstep - my one weakness!"

Devin: Enjoy the popsicle, because you don't have a baby!

Emirates Air Flight 1406 Tokyo to Walla Walla, carrying Derrick, went down in the Pacific Ocean with no known survivors.

JayEm2 knew nothing of Buridan and stated that Klaus had ties to vampires from the Invictus, but was not a vampire himself.

Richard Ivory was determined to have been a member of the New Knights Templar. The attack at the docks was rumored to have been werewolves.

Devin's brother ended up calling him to say he wasn't actually dead, and he was sorry the news made it to him so late - but that he had escaped using an artifact he had just happened to have.

They returned Klaus's book to him in return for a map of the leylines which they found to be mostly incomprehensible. Klaus wouldn't admit to anything regarding Alice however, and told the hunters that if they wanted to know something about it they would have to ask Alice herself.

They waited outside for Alice, who arrived at 11:00 PM. They weren't able to convince her to come with them, but they made her have a breakdown and grabbed her while she was catatonic.

While en route to the hospital, however, Klaus called them to demand to know where Alice was. He then attacked them - with superhuman strength and speed - on the road. They killed him, after a brief confrontation in which he referred to Alice as his daughter.

They told Alice that Klaus was dead, and she expressed relief and said that while she was no longer bound by any deals with him, she still was under the law of the "Faerie Queen" and not able to explain things further to them.

When they arrived at the hospital, with Alice willing to tell Kelsey the truth, Kelsey did not remember having a baby, but seemed to be aware of everything that had happened. Trevor convinced Alice that she needed to be Kelsey's friend... on pain of death.

Trevor and Devin returned to Klaus's apartment, but could not find the Book of Lies; they took a bag of cocaine worth about 8G, a butter sculpture of Klaus (which they cut up and left out to melt), a pair of fuzzy dice hanging from a towel hook, and a mannequin that looked like Alice in the closet (with acupuncture needles in it). Trevor ended up pushing to coke to one of his contacts with the Greek mob.

Richard, while at a bar listening to a story of the Dogman of Newcastle, traced the lines, which were in something of a chevron shape approaching Club Cairo.

Sunday the 28th

The PCs slept most of the day, having stayed up way too late and engaged in far too much activity the night before.

They went to Ingrid's apartment, where she was overdressed and believed she was on a date with Susie. She fretted over veal, asparagus and gelato. Susie had Heather keep Clara company.

Quotes:

Susie (to Heather): You are in an experimental phase as of now.

Trevor and Richard went to search for the Dog man and ended up meeting up with Prof. Schultz on the roof of the building next door to Club Cairo - a pretentious coffee house. The dog man showed up and ended up walking through the wall (after they spiked the hipster's punch with Third Eye Candy (causing them to believe the dogman to be a figment).

Richard touched the dogman, who was clearly a jackal, and felt an unearthly chill. The jackalman announced himself in Egyptian, and Prof. Shultz was able to identify it as Upuat, an Egyptian war god (sometimes called Wepwawet).

Monday the 29th

Devin learned that not only was there a visiting Egyptology exhibit regarding artifacts of the Nebty Dynasty and the first Pharaoh Djer.

Upon checking the leyline map, and learning that a nexus was the intersection of leylines, and that the transportation hub (at the bus/train/subway) was the meeting point of three leylines. They went there and the receptionist recognized Richard and directed him to his locker, #67. This opened to a Narnia-esque portal. They grabbed a machete and went in.

Meanwhile, the girls brought chocolates and a thank-you note to Ingrid, who seemed to have recovered from the previous night.

They went through the gate and ended up encountering a skittish truffle-gathering pigman who identified himself as Grubby. They questioned him, and he explained that there were no dreams in Dreamland, that they were in a place apart, and that this place was always here, but that a wizard had opened the gate.

He directed them to a steamer trunk that belonged to Richard in return for relieving his amnesia (though not completely). The trunk turned out to be full of supernatural artifacts and removed it from the locker.

Tuesday the 30th

They were unable to contact Alice, and everyone feared the worst. Richard was unwilling to break down the mental barriers necessary to remember more.

They met Ingrid and Clara together at the coffeehouse due to Richard's machinations. Richard was able to convinced Clara to go on a date with him at 8 PM on Friday.

The group went to Club Cairo that evening to scope the area out. Trevor acquired an authentic gold ankh to protect himself. Trevor hooked up with a club hopper and hung in VIP. Davin hung with Jack Yengze. Heather got her ass smacked by two Persian guys after negotiating with them for drinks. The girls were also picked up by a guy named Ryan who pretended to be gay to get their numbers. Devin ended up getting the shit kicked out of him for trying to steal a scepter from the Pharaoh's regalia.

October 2010

Wednesday the 1st

Devin bought ankhs for the entire group along with lily water. He brought his axe and wore a mask, fully intending to break in.

Heather determined that Ryan Guy was a journalism student at Hoenheim College. She concealed weapons and wore a flattering dress. Susie wore a flattering dress and did a poorer job of concealing her weapon. Trevor made a new gun and hired Jambi and Kage to act as getaway drivers. Richard just carried a concealed weapon in.

Devin crossed the fence, which unfortunately cost him his trench-coat, but he was able to evade the guards (although he was unable to talk his way in, which was his initial plan).

Devin managed to make his way in, and, after some trial and error (and leaving incontrovertible evidence of his break-in), reunite with the rest of the hunters. They tried to make their way into the VIP area, failing spectacularly. They then barged their way through using Trevor's contacts, but came to another impediment - being the guards in the area protecting the door. They started a fight.

The girls rushed past while the boys were overpowered by the guards. They came upon a ritual where four canoptic jars were placed around a square circumscribed within a cirle on the floor in chalk with a canoptic jar placed at each corner. In the middle was a body and standing at each corner, chanting, were cultists in robes, and a man in the corner masturbating. In the middle was a dead girl with her head covered.

They shot all dead except the man in the corner and one of them, whom they gravely wounded. He warned them they were "too late", and they finished him off. The girl was no one they recognized, and they took the man hostage, briefly, before finishing him off as well, and escaped via the roof when a SWAT team showed up and started making a mess of the place.

When they left, however, they noticed that a huge pyramid was in the middle of Black Lake. Richard stole a van and took it to the lake, where he took a boat to the middle and made his way up, noting the top was a large metal cap of some sort. He took a shot at it, after going over the barrier meant to keep people out, and was eventually arrested by the national parks services (but released after spending the evening in lockup).

Before going to bed, they emailed JayEm2, who was oblivious regarding the nature of the pyramid (he believed it had always been there).

Thursday the 2nd

The party went through the Egyptology exhibit, and were able to confirm that the artifacts in the exhibit were, in fact, the same ones from Club Cairo.

Alice called to demand to know why there was a pyramid. Susie spoke with Ingrid, who could now explain to them, for reasons she could not explain, that she was a faerie and that she needed them to kill Morton Wiser. Susie agreed to do this and everyone else agreed to back her up.

Devin threatened Dr. Schultz to get more Third Eye Candy, and he explained how he presumed a ritual of the sort they described would work (arguing that if it were interrupted, it would likely seek to continue itself regardless, unless the foci, the canoptic jars in this case, were destroyed). Incidentally he also explained the nature of Angel Coins, a French revolutionary talisman against death.

Samuel, discharged from the hospital, but horribly disfigured, had a theory that supernatural creatures and those present at the ritual should be aware that the pyramid does not belong.

They met with Charlie, who identified the candy as being pretty standard rock candy, save for the fact that it contained traces of penicillin. He was, in the meantime, making a meat man (which he could make twitch and wiggle with electrical impulses).

They then hatched a plan to kill Dr. Wiser.

Quote:

Jacob: Ocean's Eleven? You're more like "oh-shit's Eleven."

They broke into an adjoining vacant office and ambushed Wiser, activating the Eye of Hubris to prevent him from using power. They gunned him down in an ambush - killing a woman who was in the office with him, cut him open, extracting a key from his heart, and setting fire to the place after stealing some files.

Later, going through the files, he found that Susie was marked as a "Test Subject" in hers.

They met Ingrid at the coffee shop and let her handle the key, but did not give it to her. She informed them that she was free, and that she could now explain it to them. She told them that Dr. Wiser had seen to it that she was bound to him for as long as he desired and that he had reclaimed her from the realm of faerie for this express purpose.

Alice called them and explained that the Seelie and Unseelie courts (good and evil) were kept from battling one another by the presence of the Faerie Queen - who was housed within Dr. Wiser's body. Alice stated that she would be laying low during this time. Susie admitted that likely they had fucked up royally.

Saturday the 3rd

Richard spoke with Detective Beauregard, who called him to say that the case of the missing Egyptians had heated up with the death of Oba Massri, the adult daughter of missing Saad Massri, found dead with her throat slit the night previous. Now, Muhammed Nawal's wife, Miranda Ulther neé Nawal, was found dead as well, and his son Pilgrim was missing. Furthermore, Boutrous Fathy's family was now missing from immigrations.

Richard investigated the still-warm crime scene of the Nawal slaying, and determined that it was likely the body was placed above from below (rather than dropped off as previously presumed), but that an individual would either have to be impossibly nimble - climbing up the side while carrying the body - or have a ladder to do this.

Clara didn't show up for an expected meeting. They traced her phone's GPS and found the bullet riddled car in a parking garage in the northern part of Diamond Street with a couple of guys looking it over. They ambushed these men, who gave up without a fight and identified themselves as Sketchy and Glum, associates of Clara's.

Sketchy, whom Devin saw as a man-rat, and Glum, who appeared to be made out of mud, explained their business, and that of Clara, was actually assassination, and that she was supposed to take out Dr. Morton Wiser, but that "someone" had done it first, causing an offset in the timing, and very likely saving Clara's life, as a hit squad attempted to take her out, but must have mis-timed their attempt based on some unknown factor that was used as a reference.

Clara sent a text to Sketchy and Glum with some indication of her identity, giving GPS coordinates that corresponded to a manor in Blackgate. They broke in and attacked, storming the building and killing a number of guards, who attempted to repel them with guns and wax lizards.

They found Steven DiGionnero, the one who had tried to kill Clara, holed up in a panic room. He taunted them that as soon as night fell he would be able to kill all of them single-highhandedly. Devin, however, was able to unlock it with his magical key, and they interrogated and killed him by decapitation. Before they did, however, they discovered that he was allied with the Giovanni and that he was protected under some agreement due to his possession of a wreath of laurels. He also insisted that the faeries started it by "breaking the agreement."

Sketchy and Glum discovered, as they were leaving that the group were hunters, and freaked out, finally informing Clara that their contract was fulfilled and dropping them all off. Clara stayed at Susie's apartment until they could figure out how to handle things from here.

Sunday the 4th

The hunters prepared to descend into the sewers.

The party went to the hardware store and bought both headlamps and backup flashlights, along with chest waders and nylon ropes and supplies. Devin failed at just about everything research-wise.

Heather asked JayEm2 for the most updated maps of the sewer. The maps filed with the municipal have glaring inconsistencies. He was also able to send a grainy video of something walking through the sewer toward the camera man, and scurrying rats running past. becareful.avi

Trevor contacted municipal services to try to actually talk to someone who knows. He ended up discussing the Garrison house and finally noting that there are four Garrison houses that line up to not only the points of the pyramid, but also the walking path of the dog man. After some meander and confusion

Auset, nehas em her ab un! The zombie said, and Richard blew its head off. Eventually they super-soaked the zombie with holy water and it was destroyed. They panicked at the fact that it was sucking out Trevor's breath (and were convinced it was taking his soul) and decided to make their way out and rest to try again the next day.

The Church of Infinite Brightness left a note for them saying "Sorry I missed you" about them not attending services. Heather visited Clara who felt strange, but she couldn't pinpoint why.

Trevor collected five gallon jugs of holy water, and also made a number of electrum bullets, both out of a traditional blend and also out of "white gold", which is technically an electrum blend (by ancient standards)

Monday the 5th

In the morning, the group went into the sewer. They were able to force the lock on the grate separating the old sewer from the new (resulting in a strange change in pressure and a violent change in the sewage). They rounded a corner and found themselves face to face with the remains of Boutrous Fathy, who was oozing bile, and Saad Massri, who was swinging his blackened entrails at them. Both were chanting in a language that none of them recognized.

They fought Massri and Fathy, with their weapons apparently effective. Massri attempted to strangle Trevor with his entrails, but failed and was ultimately destroyed. Fathy, meanwhile, spewed bile at Susie, Devin and Heather. They were hit by a very serious blast of black bile and took serious injury. They did, however, defeat them, and made their way to the opening, when went some ways before it turned out to be a cliff outcropping over a muted landscape including the pyramid and a stone city with wisps of people. They made their way down and moved among the buildings. Nathaniel encountered them on the street and asked them for change after being convinced he didn't know Trevor.

They made it to the gate to the pyramid and talked to the architect, who told tem to "take the typical precautions" before entering the pyramid. They took off their shoes, because it appeared that this was the thing to do, and Heather and Richard were told to confess. Heather did, and they all entered (which made Heather and Richard especially uneasy). They heard 42 Negative Confessions[1] as they made their way in.

The high priest was waiting for them and insisted they had done nothing to stop him - they shot the jar containing the stomach, causing Richard to suffer agony and try to eat himself. They destroyed the other jars, resulting in the apparent death of the reborn Pharaoh (which appeared to be a baby, possibly Kelsey's) and injury to Richard and Devon. Devon also determined that he could not damage the jars without the use of electrum (which destroyed them quite handily). A few moments after the jars were destroyed, the pyramid began to collapse. When they returned to the streets there were ghosts about, but they seemed engaged in acts of debauchery.

They made their way out of the city and back to the cliff face where they were confronted by Upuat, who assaulted Richard (with Trevor intercepting the attack). They shot Upuat until he was stunned, but he managed to try to tear out Heather's Ka[2]. Flayer appeared and rescued Heather by body-slamming Upuat, much to her dismay, and her attempts to shoot him failed entirely.

They escaped back into the sewers, where Armanious was waiting, stomach ripped out through his splintered chest. He attempted to eat Devin, but they dispatched him with holy water.

Richard remembered how the locket works and where he got it, and he shared half the information with the group (nothing about the people he killed to take it). They cleaned up and went to see Dr. Huertz to acquire treatment. Detective Beauregard called them to let them know that the bodies had been found encased in asphalt. The party agreed that they now had need to spend time convalescing.

November 2010

Tuesday the 6th - Tuesday the 2nd of November

The player characters convalesced for an extended period of time to recover from their injuries and researching situations for a few weeks while they recovered.