Session 24
Pukwudgi looks down and says he thinks it is hot down there before he heads off across the bridge. Daniel summons essence and Rhapsody heads across the bridge. Rhapsody gets ¾ of the way of cross and it starts to fray some. Daniel goes out next and five feet out, his foot slips, he falls and gets clotheslined in the groin before he starts to tip over.
Daniel manages to cast and feels it floats below the rope. The right rope snaps and falls to the other side. He uses his levitate to get to where Rhapsody is. They hear Pukwudgi yell and then see the little Indian running towards them with a very large komodo dragon-like creature, around 30 feet long.
Sheri looks across the gorge and takes aim to shoot at it with her .357 gun and misses. Rhapsody also takes a shot and hits its tough hide. She hits it in the shoulder and does see blood flow, but isn’t sure how much the hide is acting as armor.
Pukwudgi slides to a stop and says, “You broke the bridge!”
He reaches for his knife, that is not there, and then goes for the kukri he was lent. Daniel tosses out a soulfire and hit it in the mouth, halting its charge. It coughs a bit on the soulfire and hot ash billows from its mouth as it looks at Daniel. A line of red, shiny spikes emerge as it resumes its charge. Pukwudgi runs forward, and tries to get up on its neck and manages to cling to its back, the kukri stuck in the hide. The monster is still charging and Daniel dodges out of the way. One of its legs goes over and it scrambles back as it hisses.
Sheri does a double-tap and hits, though the first shot fragments on the critter’s hide. The second shot hits under the neck and takes a big chunk with it. It hisses and looks over at Sheri. Rhapsody moves to a spot, aims and fires at the lizard’s head, managing to hit.
Pukwudgi yells out, “Watch out Drum Sister, it spits!” as the head explodes. “But not like that!”
The lizard slide forward and off the ledge and Pukwudgi is caught by his belt. The lizard hits the crust and crashes through as the spirit starts to climb up.
Rhapsody pulls up the rope that had snapped when Daniel was hit. Daniel casts levitate on himself to go done and get to Pukwudgi. He hooks his arms to Pukwudgi’s and keeps him from sinking with the lizard.
Rhapsody tells Pukwudgi not to play with the big lizards anymore. Pukwudgi reports that it’s all clear now. As Daniel rests, he and Sheri yell about how to fix the bridge. Daniel casts the invocation on Sheri... but he misses, levitating a rock a little bit. Next little bit and Daniel starts to pull her in. Pukwudgi mimes pulling rope.
They continue on and in a bowl, they see stakes in a circle and as they get closer, they see Spirits tied and coals under them that burn away their essence. One with a jack-rabbit head tries to talk Pukwudgi into helping them, and then tries to bargain leading the group out if they help them.
Sheri eventually promises to help the Spirits in one way or another. The badger insists that Sheri gives her word, which she does. They tell the group they will find her in the crater of the mountain. As they go up, Pukwudgi states that it may have not been wise to have made the promise.
Rhapsody notices a shadow on the ground and looks up in time to see a huge eagle swoop down from the sky. She yells out, “DUCK!” Everyone hits the ground. The eagle catches the back of Pukwudgi’s hair and soars off with him. It tosses him up and catches him in his claws then disappears around the side of the mountain.
They decide to continue up the mountain, the grade continuing to become steeper. The last 300 yards is almost sheer in places. The rock is hot to the touch, they can grip, but it’s very uncomfortable. They find at the base of one of the fissures blood and bone, both cooked and charred into the rock.
Rhapsody climbs upwards to judge the going a little bit and sees a few places where the going would be a bit harder, but not by much. They debate about how to get up the rest of the way. They decide on Rhapsody going first, Sheri in the middle and Daniel to use his magic to help catch should they fall.
Almost getting up to the first third-way mark, Daniel slipped a little and Sheri slid down further, getting a good gash in her calf. Sheri takes a moment to heal herself some before resuming the climb but she slips a little again and manages to recover and the catches up.
Daniel slips a bit but catches himself. Sheri slides a little as well, but also recovers, getting her hand cut on a rock. Daniel slips again and recovers.
Daniel again slips on the way up, and Sheri does as well at the last leg. Sheri is hurt again. Rhapsody helps pull the other two up on the lip of rock. Steam and sulfurous vapors rise from the crater. There is no path. They sit and rest and Daniel heals up Sheri a bit.
They head out again, going down the crater, the fumes strong and their feet hot from the lava. There is a steep decline where the vapors are coming from, a pathway leads to a cave. The snakeman stands at the mouth of the cave.
The snakeman crosses his arms as the group approaches. “You disregarded my warning. What brings you to the cave of Hashunka.”
Sheri says that they are on a quest of the utmost importance. The snakeman says that Hashunka will decide that.
In the cave, vapours and fire comes out of cracks. The air is so hot that it is difficult to take in anything more than a shallow breath and all exposed skin feels as though it has a bad sunburn. As they get closer, there is a pedestal in the lava with Pukwudji curled up on the pedestal.
Daniel moves forward and bows. They stand and wait to be recognized by the beautiful, mature Native woman with burning ember eyes.
“Very well,” she says at last, in a harsh voice. “What do you want from me?”
Sheri begins to explain what is going on. Daniel asks if there is anything she values. The only thing she values is her daughter and she would trade her daughter for Pukwudgi. She found the wizard who stole her daughter who was still an egg, but he let himself be destroyed rather than say where the egg is. And his magics still protect her.
She found him on the coast, south of her mountain on the realm of men. His name was Alejandro. He belonged to a coven from across the sea. There was a necklace that she gives to the group. She waves her hand and the wall melts away into a dark passage. The floor drops out from under them and they slide all the way down and past Charlie.
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Session 25
The group gets back into the van and Charlie wishes them good luck. They get back to the city in the evening and head into their suite. Rhapsody hops online and starts to see what she can find about the cross, but doesn’t find much of anything.
They try calling Priest, but end up having to leave a message, which disturbs the party a bit as it was unprecedented. Rhapsody calls Professor Winters and after some discussion sends him a picture of the cross via a yahoo mail account.
They get to the campus library. About half an hour later, Marcus calls Rhapsody and wants to discuss Priest with her. She informs him of their location at that library. At the outside of the parking lot, along the curb of the street, she sees a Lexus sedan that wasn’t there.
Down of the book aisle, there is a white shape that runs across, which Sheri noticed. Daniel stands up and goes near the bathroom where the fire escape plans to get a layout of the exits of the library. Rhapsody texts Marcus to meet at a sports bar.
Sheri prays to see if they are in a state of danger. She sees the van driving with a chain dragging behind it. Then she sees the mouse who says that he has a message from Pukwudgi. Pukwudgi can escape but to not let Nashunka know so when they have the daughter.
They go to check the side door, which is open. When they go to peek out and the sedan is gone. They check the van a little and then head out to the sports bar. They meet up with Marcus and sit at a table.
He tells the group that Priest is missing, his house destroyed and the artifact is missing. It happened 3 days ago and they assume to be Chereshe. They are breaking ties with the group. They get food and head back to the library. On the way, Rhapsody gets a message from the professor and has him send his progress to the email addy.
They get back to the hotel, but nothing from the professor. In the morning, Rhapsody calls the Professor who says he’ll be sending it momentarily. Rhapsody orders room service and as she’s eating she gets the email. The gists of it, there were a few references in Foster’s books by an organization that was started in the middle ages. Interested in knowledge and power, perhaps behind the scenes in many world powers, or not. Deal in the occult. They are very secretive, world wide network of sorcerers with a knack of binding spirits. Had a hand in the witch hunts. There was a pamphlet about the Rosicrucian that was later mocked as faked.
Foster was offered membership in the order and had declined. They were persistent, but so was he and they didn’t bother him anymore. He believed they had a network on the west coast of North America, though he couldn’t prove it. He found them to not be particularly religious.
Of the name Alejandro, he only found one reference that wasn’t European based. During the first invasion of the conquistadors, there was a captain in the Spanish royal navy by the name of Alejandro de Espinoza, and he came up the coast and may have come as far as present day Washington.
There is a note at the bottom that says there is not mention of organizations he was part of, but being a captain, he may have been a knight and of a wealthier, noble family. He also found several references to the Seekers organization, though he’s not familiar, but he believes that the ghost is a member and there is another name: Robert Kennedy.
Rhapsody recalls a campus newspaper article written by a Robert Kenney in the X-Paper, which is a conspiracy and occult paper. Williard mentioned it. They head to the campus again to get a copy of the paper.
One story amidst the crap is the wild animal attacks on the rise. Gang violence is on the rise and might be with some alignment of the stars. There are also dog attacks and police casualties. Also tigers and bears being spotted.
They head to the SUB. Rhaps sees Robert and goes to sit with him. She asks about the article about the animal attacks. He tried to do interviews but was declined.
They get to the vehicle and there is a piece of paper. On the paper, it says “I’m not a complete idiot but appearances must be maintained. I’ll meet you and your friends who were sitting at the next table at the designated spot.”
They head to the public library to do research and to kill time, but don’t find anything new. They head off to meet with Robert.
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Session 26
Shaw has his little encounters.
------
The group gets to the restaurant and head over to sit with Robert and Rhapsody makes
the introductions. They start to answer questions, then give him the run down of
everything that had happened.. Robert tells them of a vampire syndicate in town and
there is a guy named Roland that is in charge and is losing lieutenants to him. Fiachra
getting folks from Gregor’s people. He tells them that the Rosicrucians have an outpost
in Northport. There is an apartment owned by Harold Releneck who is the only link to
the Rosicrucians that Roberts know.
Robert heads out and they head towards the hotel when Shaw calls them and tells
them of his little problem. They pull up across the building.
Below him, Shaw hears the stairwell door open. Rhapsody sees three obvious Feral
(wolves) pacing around the front of the building. She looks around to see where there
may be a way for Shaw to get out.
Shaw, meanwhile, hears footsteps coming up and he looks around and tries to sneak his
way into the hall, and manages to get the hallway door open quietly. He goes towards a
different stairwell to head up towards the roof.
The Ferals are trying to remain hidden as the group moves to see the building behind.
Shaw goes to the elevator and hits the button, then runs and goes to the stairwell
to head to the 7th floor. He hits the landing as he sees the wolf Feral as it comes up
the stairs. He has his gun out and double-taps at the wolf. First shot takes it in the
collarbone and knocks it back down the stairs and he’s through the door.
The rest of the group parks the van and heads into the stairwell after the feral that was
guarding it. Shaw jams the leatherman into the emergency keyhole between the doors.
He’s working on getting the doors open.
Rhapsody goes into her Feral form and heads upstairs. Shaw gets the Leatherman in
and opens the door. He jumps forward to grab the cables, swinging and then starts to
climb down. Rhapsody heads up and sees the Feral as it sees her. She gets the jump
on it and lashes out with her hands, severing a good chunk, and with the second hit,
decapitates the wolf.
The doors up above Shaw are torn open and two wolf heads peek down. One grabs the
cable starts to shake it. Shaw falls and managed to slow his fall, but still falls almost 40
feet. He’s lost the Leatherman, but has the gun and the knife.
Rhapsody opens the door to the hallway and sees four ferals halfway down the hall but
she continues up. Shaw tries to open the doors and notices the cables are starting to
move on the elevator. He sees another Feral and it charges him, Shaw double-taps and
it drops. He runs out the front door.
Shaw calls and finds that the group is on the roof. He heads to the van and hears the
door burst open behind him. Three ferals, mostly in quadruped form are loping after
him. Rhapsody moves to climb down the side of the building.
Shaw turns and shoots, the first one tries to dodge out of the way. The second one
doesn’t dodge and gets hit in the thigh and it falls, the third one’s shot went off.
Rhapsody and the Feral hit the street as she digs her claws in deep, and yanks out the
heart. The two Ferals that had dodged and fallen, turn tail and run.
Rhapsody drops the heart next to the corpse that is shifting back to human form. Sheri
and Daniel meet up with two Ferals also heading down. The one in the back notices
them. Sheri pulls her .357 and double-taps. That Feral goes sliding down. The second
one attacks Daniel and hits but bounces off his shield.
The Feral lands on the stairs and goes after both, splitting its attacks. Sheri gets hit in
the arm and it’s crippled. It lunges at Daniel who dodges out of the way. Sheri doubletaps
at the Feral the first shot grazing it and the second shot misses entirely.
Rhapsody gets into the stairwell and heads upwards. The Feral that dodged picks up
the one that was groggy and runs down, meeting up with Rhapsody. One demands who
she is, but Rhapsody only attacks. She hits the one that was already wounded and he
falls to the floor. The Feral standing gets past Rhapsody and attacks, but she dodges.
Shaw says ‘hi’ and takes two shots at the Feral, grazing with both shots.
Rhapsody attacks and removes the hearts of the two Ferals on the stairs. As Daniel
and Sheri come down, civilians are coming out, see the guns and duck back behind the
doors. Daniel heals Sheri some and then they head out as the emergency vehicles show
up.
Daniel drives to a parking lot. Shaw tells the group what happened to him and
Rhapsody explains Fiachra’s ‘recruitment’ and they catch him up on everything else.
The following day they head out to Ammunation.
Rhapsody listens to the message from Gwyddion. They tracked down the source of
the package the book arrived. Dominic Spomelli, who went crazy and burnt down his
antique store with him in it, but the book in question, was sent after his supposed
death. Possible he faked his own death.
Fiachra was seen in his mortal guise in the city. Two of Gwyddion’s men followed them
to meet with two solitaires. Evidently he’s making some deals with them and it doesn’t
seem to be interested in turning them into Ferals. He gives the names of Misha and
Carol Harding.
There is another call and the voice says, “Get out of the room now!”
Rhapsody grabs the laptop and her backpack and is out the door. Sheri and Daniel are
right behind. Shaw is almost out the door after grabbing his bag and is blown out the
window and he remains conscious. They others are knocked off their feet from the
concussive force.
( They blew up Shaw, those bastards! )
A shrouded black figure makes its way across the parking lot, the ends of the coat are
wispy. Rhapsody is unable to smell him. He throws his trenchcoat back and has two big
guns. He has a fedora and his face is shadowed.
----
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Session 27
Rhapsody takes out her gun to do a double-tap at the black guy. Sheri had the wind knocked out of her and is unable to do anything. Daniel plans on getting horizontal on the building side of the balcony to start channeling. The guy in black is heading towards Shaw with guns drawn.
Rhapsody fires and would’ve hit, but nothing happens other than the pavement kicking up dirt. The guy walks towards Shaw. Daniel channels. Sheri scoots behind Rhapsody to get to some cover.
The feral grabs her club and leaps over, landing on a car, crunching it, and bats at the guy, sending him through another car, but he doesn’t crash into it, just goes through it. Sheri waits till she sees the shadow guy to unleash holy fire. Daniel puts up a shield around himself.
Rhapsody moves over to guard Shaw as Sheri waits for line of sight. Daniel peeks up to assess the situation as he channels some more essence. Rhapsody sees the shadow appear behind Sheri as it levels its guns to shoot.
There’s a weird buzzing sound as Sheri is hit with essence bullets, one through the shoulder and one through the torso.
Sheri starts to go over the rail, Daniel ready a soul fire, the shadow notices Daniel’s glow and is going to dodge after taking a shot a Sheri, as Rhapsody starts to summon her tigers, managing one more to spread out to cover the others. The shadow turns and shoots at the one in front of him, then jump sideways into the wall. Sheri leaps over the rail and lands near her guardian kitty. Daniel tries to hop down as well and is fine. The tigers move near the folks they are protecting.
The shadow appears at the edge of the roof and fires at Rhapsody and she dodges. Daniel fires off a soulfire, making the guy dodge rather than shoot, rolling back out of sight.
Sounds of the siren’s are getting closer. They head to the van, Rhapsody grabs Shaw. Daniel pulls the door open on the van and the guy is there and fires two shot, hitting him with both on the chest.
Sheri moves after shadow with the kukri. Daniel is about to soulfire. Shadow will try a shot at Sheri and at Daniel. Rhapsody is going to move to the van to swipe at the guy. Daniel is hit with the essence bullet as he tries to dodge instead, losing a little intelligence. Sheri also got hit but isn’t affected as she goes after the guy with the kukri and just barely misses. Rhapsody tugs Sheri out of the way to swipe at the guy in the van again and hits, popping the side of the van some as he spits out black ichor. The tigers surround the van.
Rhapsody punches the shadow again with the claws of the club across the face, turning into a pile of blood goo. It moans and disintegrates. Three police cars come into the lot as the van is pulling out, blocking the two exits to the street.
Sheri guns it to go through the bushes, but ends up clipping a car and takes the bumper off the SUV as the cops aim and then follow them in their car. One cop car is out of the chase as it’s clipped.
They try to get onto the freeway, passing a tractor trailer and get into a ditch. There is steam coming out and they get onto the highway into rush hour traffic. They slow down and Rhapsody gets Sheri to get out of the driver’s and switch.
Rhapsody drives down the median to get back on the highway. She goes down the off-ramp, trying to lose the cops. She sees a traffic jam and goes over a curb, kills a hot dog stand. One cop still behind them they go through construction zone and the cop ends up hitting at dirt hill and unable to pursue.
They go behind a Wal-Mart and Daniel uses his spell to hide the van. Rhapsody gets her shirt on and drives to a parking garage. After wiping for prints, she sets the dead van on fire and they head out of the garage, carrying the unconscious Shaw.
They get out into an alley and a restaurant worker gives them an odd look before heading back in. Daniel gets Shaw healed back to consciousness. Rhapsody heads out to see where they are. Daniel does hideaway on the others and they head to a park. Rhapsody gets clothes as Daniel and Sheri work on healing.
Rhapsody has a message on her phone from Robert about Alejandro. They meet up with Robert again at the Panda Café and let him know of what they’ve been through.
The garrison was in modern Northport harbor, near the shoreline pier. Alejandro’s journals were gone, but the friend found the journals of a monk that shared …
Doce Palomas Mission.
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Session 28
They head to the Doce Palomas mission. Shaw heads to the apartment he was staying at and takes the spear with him. They read the overview and looked around. Daniel notices that the fountain has the Virgin Mary with a dove in her hand. There is not water. Around it is a stone ledge with a rose motif. What catches his eye is that the statue looks very anachronistic, it’s newer.
The circle seems to be a ritualistic type circle and it could have been a containment circle, perhaps, or ornamental.
They see a woman with the park service come out of the office. She says that when it rained that the documents were damaged and being restored. The statue was replaced in the ‘50’s by the historical society.
The woman leaves and the trio look over the fountain, and they are fairly certain that there is no secret catches. Daniel gets the addy Historical Society and Sheri calls. She is misinterpreted by the woman who answers and gives the name of ‘Lucy Finklestein’ who is part of Dr. Andrew’s staff.
While waiting for the bus, they head to the fountain and Sheri is trying to call for a vision. After 15 minutes, the most she gets is a molten tear. The rest of the vision is fuzzy and unclear. They catch the bus downtown and head to the Historical Society.
The old lady, Mrs. Fields is there. Daniel smooth talks her. The statue was brought to the warehouse and it was sold in 1964 to an art collector. There is a photo of the statue with 12 doves , though the arm is missing, ala Venus de Milo.
As Mrs. Fields doesn’t like having historical artifacts sold, and for Daniel, she’ll look up the name. Rhapsody returns with the photo and photocopies. Mrs. Fields gives Daniel the name and address of the art collector who is in Santa Cruz, Frank Fritzinsky. Sheri gets another vision seeing the photo copy of the tear rolling the down the cheek of the statue.
As they walk out, in the realtors office, the group sees their photos, including Shaw, on the television wanting for questioning in the chase. Rhapsody calls Gwyddion to let him know what’s going on..
Amy got water from the pool and made a little elemental watchdog. The Voice spoke. The Voice said, “The withered hand of god reaches for the golden whip. The second pillar is set to be raised. The forest burns under the eagle’s shadow, the beast lies shackled in the lake.”
According to the informant, Fiacra was not there, but some of the Ferals were there. Amy decides that she’s in on this. Lasitide is the one set to be summoned by Cheresche.
They find a wi-fi hotspot and Rhapsody looks on line for some info on Fritzinsky. She finds a reference to an art auction hosted by Howard Fritzinksy of Julian, Fitzinsky & Smith Inc. She at least finds the contact information for the company.
There’s a college student that is folding his clothes and keeps looking at the group, then doesn’t fold the rest and heads out, obviously suspicious. They head out and walk the other way as the guy puts his laundry in his truck and goes into the coffee shop.
Rhapsody calls the auction house, giving the name Anne Jacobs. The receptionist will get back with them on the morrow.
They get the call from Gwyddion to pick up the cash and there are also supplies for changing the hair styles. They change and Rhapsody’s phone rings. Lt. Daniels calls, suggesting that they come in for questioning.
Rhapsody calls Robert and lets him know what was going on and has him call Amy to give her the info. Also asks if his friend with no life could remove the police records of their cellphones. They head to the Boardwalk to find a place to squat and look through the paper for vehicles.
They get fast food and find an abandoned apartment and bed down for the night. Sheri has a nightmare that doesn’t allow her to rest. As she awakes, she’s sure she sees a silhouette in the window, and as she rubs her eyes and the shadow is gone. As it was her watch, she keeps awake. She hears something, like scuffling, outside the window.
Sheri wakes up Rhapsody. Rhapsody goes to the window and outside she sees five individuals, all dressed casual gangster-like. They are whispering. Two of them have strong essence scents and it takes a moment and she can smell unlife coming from them.
After they finish talking, one staying in front, the others spread out. The one that stayed is talking in a cellphone and has not moved. Daniel makes an essence shield on himself and on Sheri, though.
A female figure walks up to the cellphone guy wearing a coat lined in fur. They talk and seem to argue. He pushes her away and her hood falls back revealing Raven. A Honda Civic, all pimped out, pulls up and four more come out of the car. The last one out is very large, he reaches into the back seat and pulls out a sheathed sword and goes over to the other three, talks with the one who pushed Raven. Raven has flung her hands in the air and is leaving. At the other end of the building, Rhapsody hears a door open.
She changes and calls her kitty spirits as they heads towards the back to deal with vanguard rather than the foreguard. Rhapsody smells a vampire in the bathroom door in the hallway. She signals the tigers to hang back a little as she moves forward, sensing the vamp as she passing by and he levels a gun at her. Rhapsody whirls and literally disarms the vampire.
Daniel casts a physical shield on himself. One of the cats hops over Rhapsody to let Sheri move. The front doors slamming in, someone shouting to go around that way. And the guy trying to shut the door in desperation. Rhapsody rears up and strikes off the head of the vampire. Daniel moves as the tigers allow. Sheri sees a jacket clad person with a gun step into her sights, and she fires. The guy dodges back out of the way faster than visually trackable.
Vamp re-emerges to take a shot a Sheri. Sheri crouches to shoot. Daniel channels some more essence. A vampire kicks in the door with a shotgun and shoots at the tiger, which manages to dodge the blast. Rhapsody leaps over the spirit and goes after the vamp’s neck, but he manages to shoulder her over the top of him. Daniel tosses out the soulfire, the vamp dodges back and the blast also misses Rhapsody. Sheri takes cover as she covers the corner. The vamp pops out and she takes her double-tap and hits with the first shot in the shoulder, and the second shot doesn’t hit.
Rhapsody attacks the guy with the shotgun and grabs him in the chest and spin him around for a shield. Swordman gets over the fence and is grabbed by kitty, slashing up his arm. He reverses the grip on the sword to stab at the tiger and hits, the fur flies and it disintegrates. The one after “neo” pounces and misses. The other tiger hits his target and chews on him. Sheri waits for a shoot of opportunity. Neo shoots at the kitty, killing it. Another person coming through door shoots at the cat and it’s still up. Daniel goes through the door.
Daniel aims to soulfire Swordboy. Swordboy will try to jump at Rhaps and cleave her. New vamp jumps the fence as well with two nines to aim at Daniel. Sheri is gonna head out the back and doubletap a target. Neo and new vamp are taking shots at tiger. Rhapsody rips the head off her body shield. Tiger that was in the living room goes after Neo and is blasted away. Remaining vamp leaps out to shoot at Sheri and hits, but doesn’t get through armor and she manages to keep her feet. Sheri double-taps at Swordboy and grazes his scalp and he manages to dodges the other shot, leaping into the bushes, partially visible. Gunboy hits the kitty as he leaps over the fence with only one shot. The kitty meets and greets and slams them through the fence. Daniel does a soulfire to Swordboy and he rolls in the bushes, dodging out of the way.
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Session 29
Rhapsody tries to grab the vampire’s sword as she leaps at him. Instead, he sets for the attack and impales the tiger, but wastes no time in stepping back and recovering. Sheri sets out to call holy fire on Swordboy, and even though he sees it coming, the fire hits him. There is a horrible stench that invades everyone’s senses. It threatens to raises the bile in everyone’s throats, and they hear a voice say to lay down their arms and to surrender as it feels like there is skittering insects all over them. Swordboy, not affected, takes a swipe and hits Rhapsody, critically wounding her. She manages to stay conscious and does not immediately die.
A swarm of bugs comes over the still vampire and then it coalesces into Chereshe. Swordboy tries to skewer Rhapsody. She lashes out as he tries to parry, but he fails and she lays into him, with an uppercut with claws, which rends the vamps’ face and sends him flipping over to land on his face. Chereshe has just turned solid as Rhapsody’s tiger attacks. The Atlantean lord catches the spirit after enlarging his hand to a shield and drains the tiger till it dissipates. Sheri hits the Chereshe with the holy fire and it affects the shield around him. He looks to Sheri and tells her to grovel before him, she feels his will overpower her and she drops to the ground.
Chereshe is turning and placing the same command in Rhapsody’s mind to grovel. Rhapsody grabs swordboy’s sword and holds it defiantly against Chereshe. He states, “Fiachra has given you strength, do you think that is really enough or is this just a noble gesture.” Rhapsody attacks and manages to hit. Chereshe puts a hand up and the sword flairs as it hits his shield, making her hand go cold, but it gets through and hits him. Chereshe attacks as his bones are shredding through the skin as large talons and lashes out at the Feral, who manages to luck out and dodge by the skin of her fangs.
“I shall devour your rotting flesh!” the Atlantean lord declares.
Rhapsody lashes out with the sword again and hits, slicing through his leg and partially into the other, making him scream and fall. Daniel and Sheri scream in conjunction with Chereshe, but the bugs leave their minds and they can act on their own. Darkness rolls in from every direction and lap up against Rhapsody. She takes a swing where Chereshe was and only hits dirt. Sheri heads towards where Chereshe was and is swinging with her kukri.
“Watch it, you almost hit me!” Raven’s voice says as she grabs hold of Sheri’s wrist.
The group follows the voice that directs them and are out in the street where there is a Humvee parked. The door opens and a cultured looking man in a suit and red scarf motion for all to get in.
Swordboy steps out of the shadow and his face is knitting. The man tells the driver to wait, leans over Sheri and doubletaps Swordboy and knocks him down before they drive off. There is dead silence till Rhapsody says she’s hungry after Daniel heals her.
Rhapsody asks if Raven will introduce them. She does introduce them to Roland, the leader of the vampires of Northport. He has some sort of European accent.
The get to Roland’s estate and are treated to fresh clothes, shower, food and rest. A rather large (chubby) guy walks down the stairs and looks in the room. Guy looks like a nerdy computer programmer. He asks what Daneil is doing and asks to learn the healing. He comes in and looks at Rhapsody who asks who he is.
He replies that he’s Freddy. Roland returns and they talk of the goings on and Roland is interested in the items to avoid detection.
Around dinner time, Freddy returns. The piece was tracked down and there is a bid on it. They should know in the morning if the bid is accepted and if so, they should have it within the next day or so.
Following day, they go out to get the statue and bringing back to the manor. In the garage, Daniel sets up a circle to try and call forth the flame spirit the statue. Sheri and Freddy help and with in the circle it starts to get warm as other elementals are coming in and burn the garage down.
Daniel feels something open up inside the statue, and it sucks all the essence in. He hears a screech in his mind and he manages to stop the outflow. Sheri gets drained down bare essence and tries to stop it again, Daniel tries to lend aid and can see that she’s just too new to essence channeling and doesn’t have the right technique to shut it down. Daniel tries to shut it down, but doesn’t succeed and Sheri falls to her knees. On the second attempt, Daniel is able to stop the flow and Sheri collapses and whatever portal was inside the statue seals up again.
The spirit is trapped in there, but it’s a portal to another place and it was taking the essence. Daniel’s guess is that he can physically go there. Though he was trying to not be sucked in, he could’ve gone in physically or astrally, and since he was hanging on , it was draining essence.
Daneil goes with a smaller flow of essence to go in through the portal. Once the link is established, the tug is felt and his astral self is sent hurling.
______________________________________________
Session 30
As Rhapsody lowers Daniel down and his body dissolves. Sheri is also still unconscious. Rhapsody snarls a curse. Roland asks if that was supposed to have happened.
A few moments pass by and the statue starts to rock, then the ceramics starts to crack, then splits down the center. There is a vertical slit in the space time continuum, which widens and through out steps out a very beautiful woman with auburn hair. She looks to be Amerindian, Spanish descent. In her arms is Daniel.
Daniel’s clothes are trashed, there are bruises on his face and several days of facial hair. His arm is hanging down with a nasty, healing wound that is about a foot long. The woman breaks the circle. She hands Daniel over to Rhapsody.
“Are you Rhapsody? I believe we must go and see my mother.”
Rhapsody agrees but notes that her friends need to recover first. She goes with Adelita as she goes off to explore
Roland is watching the girl with much interest.
----
Raven returns and asks how things went. Adelita inspects her. Daniel wakes slightly and the spirit looks over him worriedly.
Rhapsody and Sheri head out with Raven to meet up with Connell at the park. Rhapsody asks where he was. He says he was recruited by a government organization that keeps tabs on the supernatural crap.
Connell can get rid of much that is plaguing them financial and officially, if they play nice.
They head back and tell Daniel the plan, he disagrees and instead they arrange to meet at the FBI office. Once there, they fill out the paperwork to get them officially off the cops’ list.
Connell forces a vision and see Willard vaguely mentions a cop, but doesn’t seem that they are actively after him. They agree to meet and head to return Adelita to her mother. Connell has to meet with Muller and Ramirez before they head out.
Connell eventually shows up at the station and they head out. They answer Connell’s questions along the way. They get to Charlie’s and Rhapsody goes to knock on the door. Charlie comes out and once hearing that the group has found Hashunka’s daughter, he gets dressed. Once he has his coffee, they head out.
They get to the trail head and go to the lava tube. Charlie takes out his drum and beats out a steady rhythm. Daniel and Rhapsody look over to Adelita who is just looking around.
Once the world shifts, and the party heads up to familiar territory. They hike about a half hour and look ahead, they see the snakeman. He scrambles down and looks do Adelita and bows to her on one knee. The snakeman summons the large lizards to take them to Hashunka.
The get to the precipice and they wait. Shadows form and five large eagles descend from the crater. The eagles pick the party up and carry them to the top. They get to the trail and they follow Adelita.
Hashunka steps out of the confines of the cave, wearing a feathered cloak and her eyes glowing. The two meet up and they speak mentally and then Hashunka embraces Adelita. When they part, Hashunka is in flamey tears.
Pukwudji wanders out and walks over to give Sheri a hug. Sheri asks that perhaps with her good feeling that she considers the spirits on the poles. After a moment she agrees, because of Adelita’s fondness for Daniel. They are brought back to Malkuth.
Adelita walks back over to Daniel, leaving Hashunka scowling saying that if he remembers, to call on her and she will hear and remember.
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