Northport Chronicles

Session 49 "Mann's Isle"

2011-12-27T20:57:00.000-08:00

Racing away from the scene of the attack with a redcap in the boot, the group makes their way to a Dublin suburb, where Ms. McArthy's Summer court fae have a safehouse. After carting the unconscious redcap into the kitchen and making an attempt to patch and then tie him up, they proceed to question him.

In exchange for being allowed to leave unharmed, and promising never to fight or plot against the group, the redcap fills in some blanks...
1. His redcap troupe are wild fae mercenaries in the employ of the Cailleachan (Storm Hags). In particular of Cuimhne (Coovnee), one of the three hags who reside on the Isle of Mann.
2. The redcaps were accompanied by a Fomor sorcerer and sent to ambush Collin Madden just inside the never never.
3. They've taken Madden aboard a ferryboat called the Sea Maiden supposedly bound for Wales.
4. Cuimhne's base of operations is a rural house in a small village on the south side of the Isle. The redcap gives directions to the house.

After semi-seriously discussing breaking at least the spirit of their bargain and killing the redcap, they drive him into the countryside and let him go.

Afterward, they use their contacts with Detective Fraser to get the GPS location on the ferry. According to the radio logs, the vessel experienced engine trouble and returned to Dublin for docking. An authorized GPS ping reveals that the boat is actually in the sea near the Isle of Mann.

Taking a Summer court provided rented boat from Dublin, the group makes haste for the Sea Maiden, with plans on rescuing Madden. It's dark when they arrive in a small southern port. Between the darkness and the roughness of the sea, there's no real way to find the ferry. They hire a cab to take them to Cuimhne's house.

Though it takes some finessing of the nosy driver, they eventually get her to drop them off up the street from the house, in the rain. After discussing what to do next, Sheri finally convinces everyone that they should take the diplomatic approach. It's brought up that the Hags may not yet have chosen sides in the whole Balial vs. Atlal thing. A diplomatic gesture now could create an ally.

Conceding the point, they let Sheri and Daniel approach the house, while they remain ready to come to the rescue when the plan goes to hell. It doesn't, but it doesn't succeed either. A redcap glamoured in human guise answers the door. When they ask for the women of the house, their told she's not at home. When they ask about Madden, the guard lies and claims ignorance. He tells them that he will pass word of their visit to the mistress of the house when she returns.

Another cab ride takes them to a B&B in the village to the south. Unsure of their next step, they allow Connel to summon his new friend, The Morrigan. After introductions are made and credentials are verified, - mainly that the Morrigan is one of three sisters related to the Atlal who represents powers interested in stopping the rise of Geyaharu, Morrigan tells the group that the Hags were once a major threat. She tells of the old, temporary alliance of the Summer and Winter court to take out many of the most powerful hags. The Cailleachan were thought to have been destroyed, but they actually went into hiding.

She also tells them that the Hags have already made some sort of alliance with the Fomor, who are in many ways like Ashley's Atlal guardians, ancient servitors of the Balial, at least some of which are interested in bringing the Balial back. They have Madden on the Sea Maiden and are probably torturing him for the location of the Tuatha de Danaan's resting place, a secret that only Madden now knows.

She offers to send a guide to lead the group to the boat, but cannot aid them further while out at sea. Though practically no one has had great experiences with sea adventures (Connel didn't technically survive his last one), the group decides there's nothing for it but to rescue Madden.

A car ride brings them to their boat once more, and the Morrigan's guide, a giant Albatross, waits for them to board before leading them out onto the raging sea....

Name's in this Session:
Rhapsody, Connel, Daniel, Sheri, Mallick
Ashley, The Cailleachan (Storm Hags), Cuimhne (Hag), Redcap Captain?, The Morrigan

Session 48 "The Circus is in Town"

2011-11-21T14:05:00.001-08:00

The group starts off across the moor, following Mallick's tracking spell. The hills are gentle. Beforelong, a low mist forms, filling the hollows and valleys and making Mallick's smoke more difficult to trace.

An hour later the group stops at a stream filled with pink and purple stones. On the far side, a huge andtangled bramble blocks the path. The smoke trail winds through the thicket. After Rhapsody notes that thebramble has sharp, half inch thorns tipped with some form of milky substance, as well as plump, redberries, Mallick calls a bit of earth magic and asks the vines to part. The group proceeds.

Growing closer to the tower, they are able to make out windows, a red conical roof and a red flag, but nosign of movement. Madden's trail veers away after joining a path near the tower. It gets close to thetower, but never actually approaches it. Choosing his trail over the tower, they head off of the path againand into the brush.In a light copse a mile off the path, Mallick's tracking spell fails - or Madden's trace ends. Deducingthat Madden may have once again crossed over out of the Never Never, they decide to follow, and Mallickopens a way...

... Right into downtown Dublin. When Mallick steps through, people gawk and splutter. When Rhapsody stepsthrough in tiger form, people scream and wet themselves. It's touch and go for a few tense moments but aquick, mass hexing of people's cell phones and a quicker exit into a nearby alley manage to get the groupout of the area before the police arrive. Sorry, but no one bought the circus routine.

Later on, in a pub a good ways across town, where the group is lying low after their "circus" sightingincident, they discuss Madden's lost trail. Mallick informs the group that a way opened without a closeemotional or physical bond may not open in exactly the same place twice. In other words, just becauseMadden stepped through there, doesn't mean that they would. It's likely they are in the right town, andprobably even the right area, but without another tracking spell, they can't find Madden, and they don'thave anything of Maddens to cast another tracking spell.

After asking Ashley for advice, she informs the group that she can call Aeve McArthy and ask for help fromthe Summer court. Fearing the trail may grow cold, the group asks her to make the call.

Meanwhile, Connel has noticed a darkly sensuous woman making eyes at him from across the room. Her wordlessclues draw him to the back of the pub, with Sherri following along as backup. In the alley behind theestablishment she introduces herself as a friend who can explain much of his current condition. Unsure whyhe trusts her, still he does, and after telling Sherri where he's going, he goes for a stroll with thewoman.

She tells Connel that her name is Morrigan, and that he is a Revenant imbued with the powers of death byher sister, Macha, who is one of the Tuatha de Danan, or the Atalal. She explains that Macha is givingConnel this chance to continue the fight both as a favor owed to Connel's mother, and for the ancientpower's own ends, to help put down the Balial threat and more specifically Chereshe. She explains that hemust be wary of Summer's flame and the magic of Life, but otherwise his body will eventually recover fromjust about anything shy of complete incineration. Lastly she tells him the he can call on her in the futureby calling her name three times. The call can be made from anywhere, but she will answer quickest whencalled from a battlefield, or the resting place of dead warriors.

Back at the pub, a man named Brian arrives with a car from Aeve. Deciding they'd better make a sweep of thearea once more before going to the summer safehouse, they troll the streets in Brian's car. Ironically, asthe only member of the group not seen in the earlier way crossing now infamously known as "The CircusDisaster", Rhapsody opts to walk the streets where she can better use her nose.

At the entrance to a darkened street near the docks, Rhapsody chances upon the same fae smell thataccompanied Madden in the Never Never. Compelled by her nature to explore the dangerous street by herselfbefore calling the others, she follows her nose into trouble.At the entrance to a warehouse garage where the scent trail ends, she draws the attention of three would-betoughs with pistols. At their rough attempts to threaten her, she only asks what's in the warehouse? Whenthey offer to show her, and one places his arm around her, she gets catty.

Several gunshots and loosenedbladders later, one tough is dead, another is stunned and a third is several blocks away with no signs ofslowing.Unfortunately, the commotion quickly draws the attention of five humanoid creatures in jeans, t-shirts andred hats with wide mouths filled with sharp teeth and knives of one form or another. The redcaps throw openthe garage door and leap on the tiger, stabbing and biting, trying to bring Rhapsody down.

Drawn by the gunshots, and not far away to begin with, Daniel, Connel, Mallick and Sheri hurry to thesource of the trouble, rightly assuming it must be Rhapsody. Sheri's shamanistic powers, Connel's undeadstrength and Daniel and Mallick's magic, when combined with Rhapsody's claws and tiger allies quicklyoverpower the redcaps, who flee the scene into the depths of the warehouse, except for one who was knockedunconscious. Injured and with the police on the way, the group decides to flee as well, throwing the redcap into the boot ofBrian's car and heading for the Summer safehouse.

2011-11-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

...AAND we're back after a two year commercial break with the same story, same characters, new Dresden Files RPG system.

Session 47

Mallick was in the Red Court action and is taking hisR&R in Ireland. When it’s over, he will be relocated to the West Coastunder Warden Ramirez. He is doing a few odds and ends there for theWhite Council. He’s taking a cab back from a party at a pub on the coastto his hotel. Cab comes around a narrow road and he sees the signs ofan accident and several people on the side of the road. He sees whereanother car had gone off the ditch. He sees unconscious or dead peopleand that there was some sort of altercation. He also senses that therewas magic that was used.

The taxi driver slows down and pulls off the side of theroad, then gets out. Mallick sees Connell in his bloody and shreddedclothes not seeming to be injured, Rhapsody in her change of clothes ofsweats and a baby doll T-shirt, Sheri is unconscious. He does notice a verylarge humanoid form in the ditch and sort of hidden.

Connell goes to the cabbie and shows his ID and says thatthe ambulance is on the way and do not want to hold . Mallick sends thecabbie off. Connell sees Mallick’s sword on his back and Mallicknotices Connell’s shoulder rig. Mallick offers his hand to Connell. Mallickdoes notice that Connell gives off a magical vibe, but that it’s coldand he does notice that Connell looks to his eyes.

“I’m Warden Mallick?”

“That some sort of Irish government thing?” Connell asks.

“Warden of what?” Rhapsody demands as she gets up,standing protectively

over Sheri and Daniel, holding one of the tiny arrows.

Ashley says, “White Council? I think he’s all right. Weshould get Sheri and Daniel into the car.”

Mallick says, “Maybe we should discuss this somewhereelse.” He looks to Ashley, “We should hide the body. Is the cop clued in?”

Ashley nods.

Mallick uses his magic to cover the body of the giant inearth.

“Oh, not just a sword swinger,” Connell mutters.

Ashley, “He’s a wizard. A cop basically.”

Connell accepts this and nods.

They head towards Ashley’s house.

“What is the White Council. What’s a Warden?” Rhapsodydemands.

“And who sent you?” Ashley asks.

“Well, I was on vacation... supposed to be on vacation.The Council is the governing body for wizards, which you should be awareof...”

“I’m not a fucking wizard,” Rhapsody grumbles.

Mallick gets a strong scent of the sea, getting the sensethat they are all linked and on the same journey together, and stuckwith each other. He decides to use his Sight and focuses his attention onConnell, who he’s squished against. He Sees that he’s seated next toan undead thing that doesn’t smell bad. He smells like incense,preserving spices like an Egyptian mummy, his face is water logged, there are alot of wounds and there is a calmness in his eyes. There is no feelingof menace, but the man is dead. His skin has runes that he recognizesthem as Ogham, ancient Irish runes for the ritual that sustains him, hesuspects. Ashley is a seelie fey, radiating warmth and looks a bitmore angular and sharper of feature. She has a warriors caste. She isstrong and moderately powerful. He looks to Rhapsody and sees felineeyes. Turning his head, he sees her feral, tiger form, giving him alook of ‘don’t fuck with me’. Daniel has the glow of a powerfulpractitioner and radiates heat, a contrast between fire and water,thinking he may be a Summer Court vassal. Sheri radiates as though she isangelic, with a calm peaceful presence. She has Native American paintsrunning on her arms and face. In a duffle bag near Rhapsody, there issuper glowyness.

They get the spiel about the White Council. Rhapsodymutters about someone sleeping on the watch.

They fey don’t fall into the White Council’s jurisdictionand Mallick is not sure about the undead. Connell looks confused atthat.

Rhapsody is incredulous at the whole explanation of‘guardians against the supernatural’. She asks if the White Council and theWardens are all cracked up to be, good allies to have or what. Ashleysays they would be good to have as allies especially with what has beenhappening. Ashley pulls up to the bed and breakfast stating she wants tosee Mallick’s accoutrements, i.e. his Warden cloak.

Daniel wakes up and starts to work on getting himselfhealed and Sheri healed back up, both still sore and Daniel having aheadache. Mallick did feel the magical work going on. It wasn’t violatingany of the Laws.

With Ashley’s help, Mallick explains a bit more about theCouncil and Wardens to Connell’s satisfaction that Mallick is afellow cop.

Rhapsody explains to Sheri and Daniel about the newtagalong. Sheri goes to scan him and Sees him as a cop who likes to have agood time.

Mallick says that he wasn’t sent, but he’s here now andcan help.

Daniel asks about the meeting they were supposed to goto. They don’t know what happened to Madden. Ashley gets on the phoneand calls Madden, but it goes straight to voice mail.

Ashley wonders why Madden was taken.

Mallick gets a short version about the Altalal andBalial.

Rhapsody goes to see about getting the GPS on Madden’sphone. Daniel goes to call Det. Frasier. He asks if Frasier has heardfrom Madden. Frasier will go over to talk to the others.

Ashley thinks they were attacked by wild fae.

Rhapsody heads out and passes by Frasier.

The Detective arrives and enters. He is introduced toMallick and wants to see ID. Daniel fills him in on what happened. Frasierthinks it was a court job. Sheri points out that the mother or whomeverneeds to be moved.

Frasier throws a plastic bag on the table that has anecklace with a clay medallion, roughly molded. It’s a shieldingmedallion against scrying.

Mallick takes it and goes to a mirror to do a spell totry and see back in time to when the medallion was used. He etches sigilsin the mirror and invokes his spell. The mirror grows cloudy and hesees the hand of Madden holding the medallion up in the car. He mutterssomething to invoke the medallion and Madden looks up into the mirrorand takes a knife to his forehead and cut across it. He ducks andthen the mirror unclouds.

Ashley reveals that Madden was against the party doingwhat they come to do. He didn’t like Myrridan. If Madden was injured orlost, the rest of the Council might be too nervous to proceed. He takeshimself out of the equation to make them skittish about going forward.

He has the pull to use wild fae and the IRA to help withthe vanishing.

Meanwhile, Rhapsody pulls up a ways away from the scene.She heads back on foot through a field and hedge as the last of thepolice vehicles are leaving. She heads to where the Jaguar was. Rhapsodysniffs and finds some traces of Maddens blood to a line of trees. Shestarts to track and it grows faint, hard to follow. She finds footprints ofshoes and then they end at a large oak tree.

She walks around the tree, investigating. She findsnothing and heads back to the crash site and combs the area thoroughly tomake sure nothing was missed.

The rest of the group heads to the auto yard on the wayto the crash site. Mallick gets some of the blood in a vial.

Ashley calls McCarthy. “She wants a meeting with us.”

“’Cause those work out so well,” Daniel grumbles. “Herplace or ours?”

“Her place.”

They head to the scene. Rhapsody comes out. She leadsthem to a tree. Daniel informs Rhapsody of their working theory of Maddentrying to spoil their chances.

Mallick is trying to see if there is a thinning of thebarrier then opens the Way. Frasier declines going in. Mallick says‘do not accept anything from anyone’.

Sheri grins, “Even advice from wizards.”

Mallick sighs.

They arrive into a copse of trees. The sunlight seemsheavy. Rhapsody takes a deep inhalation and smells all sorts of wildlife,but does not smell Madden’s blood. There does look like something haspassed through the deep leaves.

Rhapsody removes her clothing and puts into her backpackbefore shifting to her tiger form. Mallick clears away dead leaves, drawsup a circle and does a basic tracking spell using smoke as a visualtrail sign.

They move along the path and Rhapsody uses her claws tomark the trees. At the edge of a clearing, there is a voice from thebranches above, a high and needling sound.

“Where art thou going, strangers?”

“The queen has given the White council permission to usethe ways and we are acting upon that grant.”

The creature hops down, it looks like drider with asprite body.

The creature goes in front of the group and says that thetreaty has been rescinded. The creature wants to have payment. Hecreature wants to know if the ‘friend’ is tasty.

Mallick offers the spiderfae spam and Vienna sausages.Sheri agrees and gains the spiderfae’s attention. Mallick tosses the spamto the fae, who sniffs at it. He agrees to let half the group go for thespam, but wants a thimbleful of blood.

Rhapsody sits on the trail, tail flicking. The spiderfaewants her blood. She gives her blood into the thimble. The littlefae deliver the thimble of blood to the larger fae. He licks the thimbleclean.

They come out of the wood and a cold wind blows over thegroup over the moors. In the distance is a tower.

Continued Session Notes 46

2008-10-02T08:17:00.001-07:00

Rhapsody Session 46

They head to the standing stones and act touristy. A guy wanders up near the group and stays for a few moments before heading back down. A couple also meanders up and they are discussing what else they have to do today.

At the Burrem, Rhapsody notices that some of the dolmans seem to be like doorways. As they head out, Sheri sees someone who looks like dude on the motorcycle talking to someone else.

While getting gas, Sheri is sure that she sees motorcycle guy again.

They head back to the bed and breakfast. Mrs. McFarland is cooking and has the group eat. Later they head to the pub. Motorcycle dude is not there, but there is a live band and the group. Rhapsody is dancing and sees a guy enter who has a demeanor about him that he knows how to handle himself in a fight. Daniel can actually see that the guy his carrying a gun.

He stands at the door for a moment and look around. He stops when he sees Sheri and Connell, and then starts to head for them. Daniel goes up to Rhapsody and dances with her as they move a little closer to where their friends are.

The guy asks if he can join Sheri and Connell and they agree. He sits down and seems friendly, then introduces himself as Willy. He says he has a message and pulls out his billfold and business card. Ms. McCarthy would like a visit from them. It is not a name they recognize.

Willy stands up as Frasier enters and they spot each other. Willy hands Tim a card. Tim explains that McCarthy is of the high court and is interested in any supernaturals that come in. Tim asks Sheri to dance as the group kills more time till they go to meet McCarthy.

They get to the Kingfisher Lodge, which is towards the coast. Tim warns the group that Madden didn’t make all the preparations to meet with McCarthy and to not tell any details about their purpose there, just to stick to the basic that they are there for Atlantean research.

They are led to a meeting room and there is a very attractive blonde seated at the end of the table. There is a guy in form fitting black spandex doing acrobatics and juggling. He is dismissed and they have an audience over tea with Ms McCarthy who is curious as to the group’s activities. The group glosses over what has been happening stateside and McCarthy mentions that she’d like to know of any danger that would present itself.

They are dropped off at the B&B and go to bed. Connell awakes to the sense of someone watching him. He feigns rolling over and reached under the pillow for the gun as he peers for the peeper. In the corner of the room, in the deeper shadows, there is something there. He sits up and turns on the lamp. The shadows constrict in and then something about one and a half feet tall spins out with four limbs comes out.

“Humble servant comes to invite you to a meeting with Master Craddig. Master Craddig is ruler of lower courts.”

Rhapsody and Connell are going to meet with Craddig. However, Connell has the critter lead him off while Rhapsody goes to get dressed. After an hour, Connell returns and says that the unseelie were offering the same help as the seelie. Also specifically offering him help.

Rhapsody goes to bed, then wakes up and heads to the bathroom with stomach pains. Daniel hears her and Rhapsody grumbles she’s fine, even as she vomits.

In the morning, Rhapsody is pissed, Daniel is hung-over and the other two are their normal selves. The council has the decision and they go meet with Madden. Madden is not there. Ashley arrives. They wait 15 minutes and Connell goes out to wait another 10, then returns and they all head out.

Out of town, they see where a car went into a ravine. Madden’s car is at the bottom but no Madden. No tracks but there are blood and the window is smashed out. They spread out and look for tracks or any other signs. Daniel notices there is glass all over the road. Connell tries one of his Mindtime peeks and sees a vision of the Jaguar skidding and a hand on the wheel, the window is busted out. It goes into the grass and goes down.

Rhapsody notices a transport truck coming and she yells out as she leaps to knock them out of the way. She only manages to grab Ashley as Connell becomes sandwiched by his leg. Connell and Tim’s car go rolling down the ravine. The Lowry is hanging partially on the ravine. Rhapsody gets up to head to the driver’s side of the truck.

Sheri calls for holy strength. Ashley rolls to her feet with her gun ready. Tim holds his gun up as well. Rhapsody runs up to the truck as she changes. Daniel looks around and gets a shield up as he goes to the Lowry. Two men pop up with automatic rifles and start spraying at Daniel and Rhapsody. Daniel tries to dive down the ravine but is hit. The bullets are absorbed by the shield, save for the last, which get through the last of the shield and the armor, grazing his arm. Rhapsody ducks the bullets coming at her. Sheri notices that rocks and dirt and mud start coming down from the opposite side and land on the Jag.

Rhapsody leaps up and goes after the gunmen. The first one she hits is eviscerated. She misses the second one as he leaps back and brings his gun to bear. Sheri notices a pair of arms holding a boulder and then hurls it at the Jag. Sheri leaps out as the boulder lands, smashing the car. Something roars through the bushes as Ashley shoots at the bushes. The one that leapt back lets loose at Rhapsody and she tries to dodge by going further into the truck, but gets hit with the burst. Daniel and Sheri hear some sort of buzzing, as small shapes dart through the air. Sheri avoids being hit from two small arrows as does Daniel. Connell start to lift the car and wiggle out from under it. Daniel tries to get up to the road for some cover.

Rhapsody goes after the other gunman and misses with her first strike but nails with the second and guts the guy. Daniel gets under the truck and channels essence. Sheri aims and fires but misses the hill giant’s neck as it dodges. Connell still tries to wiggle out and manages to do so. Ashley opens fire on the giant, hitting in the right leg, torso and the head. The Lawry rolls forward and hits the rental exposing Daniel. One of the zippies returns and fires at Daniel, hitting with both arrows, one crippling his leg. Sheri dodges one and gets hit in the arm with the other shot. A third zippy comes out and goes after Tim, he dives out of one arrow’s path into the mud, the other ends up in his ass.

Ashley switches targets and hits one of the zippies with a shot, making it scream and zip sideways. Rhapsody summons a tiger to protect Daniel. Connell takes aim at the giant and hits twice. The giant slides down and is still. Sheri calls down the holy fire on the zippy that hit her, bug zapping it. The giant starts to sizzle, blood bubbling up from the bullet wounds. Four arrows are launched at Sheri by the two remaining zippies. The second and the last arrow hit Sheri in the torso, stopped by the vest and the last is also stopped. Daniel launches a soul fire at one of the zippies which dodges. The truck takes off with Rhapsody in the back. Tim takes a double tap at the same zippy that Daniel fired at. He missed the first shot and with the second.

Tim fires at the zippy again, and misses. Ashley fires at the zippies and the shots are dodged. Rhapsody pulls an Indy and climbs to the top of the trailer. The two remaining zippies fly off. The driver is trying to shake Rhapsody off and manages to do so. She heads back to the group. Daniel falls into unconsciousness. Rhapsody takes out the arrow from Sheri and she also falls unconscious. Connell, Rhapsody and Ashley clean up the scene of evidence of their presence before heading to Ashley’s house.

Continued Session Notes 44-45

2008-10-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

SESSION 44

Ramirez is up at the controls talking with Muller. The largest and only sea serpent the group has ever seen breaks the water 100 yards from the boat. The size is easily enough to eat the boat. The boat rises on the wave and Myrddin says “NO” as the group is hurled off the boat. A sword appears in Myrddin’s hand as the boat is consumed with him. The group hits water and come up sputtering in time to see a second wave to smash into them. Daniel saw that Connel’s body was flung upwards. Sheri sees a tentacled white form coming after her. Sheri whips out a survival knife and slashes, but misses. One of the tendrils tries to grab on to her foot and she dodges it easily.

Daniel channels some essence and looks for Connel, but doesn’t see him. Rhapsody shifts into her hybrid form and sees Daniel, then swims towards him. Sheri feels a hand grab her clothes from behind and tugs her up towards the surface. Rhapsody doesn’t see the thing as it grabs hold of her and yanks her downwards. Ramirez has Sheri and is flying up with his telekinesis. Daniel swims up to the surface and he sees a huge coil of the serpent roll through the water and he levitates, asking where anyone else is.

Muller breaks the surface, coughing and sputtering. An amorphous shape below her is heading for her. Ramirez says he can’t lift more than Sheri and will take her to shore to return to the others. Rhapsody claws off the tentacle holding her and swims for the surface. Sheri hears a couple shots as she flies away with Ramirez. Daniel sees Connel floating face down. He channels and heads towards the unconscious cop.

Two more squid like things head towards Rhapsody and then two more shapes dart though the water. Daniel sees a shape jump over the top of Connel’s body and sees that it’s a seal. Rhapsody sees there are two and the seals move to her and she takes hold of the two and they zip her away. The water grows dark as the serpent breaks , spiraling Muller out of the way from the force of the wave. Daniel fall floats to the side as it shoots up past him. It leans like a giant tree and slams into the water, sending a huge wave.

Ramirez drops off Sheri to swim to the shore as they are close. Daniel sees Muller wrestle with a tentacle and he casts levitate on her. The spell grabs hold, there is a tug-o-Muller game at hand. She fires a few shots and the levitate pulls her up out of the water after she fires a few shots and it lets go. The seals with Rhapsody have surfaced so she can get air and they keep going.

Daniel goes towards shore with Muller. He catches up with the others, the seal that latched on to Connel deposits him on the shore. Muller does CPR. It’s not working and can’t revive him. Daniel tries magic to see if that works, but it does not. There is silence, but for the lapping of the waves. Rhapsody sees if the seals are selkies, but they just bark at her. Though one is Eric, one of the selkies they had met and he gives them direction to the park.

Ramirez calls for help and they wait for an hour before a government sedan shows up. They get to the hospital and Connel is wheeled away. Muller gets clothes for Rhapsody. They then drive to the Underground headquarters. They get to a room to rest and Daniel calls Ashley and gets her caught up on events. Rhapsody checks messages on the borrowed phone and finds a voice mail from Amy. Amy says Jenny’s freaking out. Rhapsody assures them that they will go. Rhapsody drops the bomb on the pregnancy thing.

After initial silence, then some discussion as to the pieces of the puzzle they have, but wondering who or what they are missing. They get to the park and have Ramirez put Connel away so that Chereshe doesn’t get him. At the cave, they see Jenny wailing and keening. Once she notices the group, she goes to Daniel and takes him towards the pool. Daniel channels essence in case he needs air, and she does pull him into the water and whispers “Geyaharu is coming, the father is dead …. The spire will rise, heed the mother, arm the son… A messenger is coming…” They head back to the car.

They get to FBI headquarters and Ramirez goes check on the body, and Connel never made it there. They go to the hospital to talk to the mortician. Daniel gets a message that Ashley is coming into town and will call. Rhapsody calls Roland and not much has developed other than the Ferals are reorganizing under a feral tiger. Rhapsody cursed and walked from the phone, thinking it’s Loknath. Daniel asks if he knows the name Voliss. He remembers the name mentioned in Europe, in Istanbul. A powerful practitioner. He offers to get more information, but has not heard of the name ‘Chalmers’.

They catch up to Ramirez, Rhapsody goes to track Connel’s scent. She finds faint traces but did not find anything solid. They talk about perhaps Rhapsody calling out Loknath and if he is defeated, she takes over the Ferals. They get to a safe house and Roland calls back, informing Rhapsody that Voliss is in Venice, Italy. Muller finds something on Chalmers. It happens to be the Chalmers Davidson Trench, which is a hundred miles long, a perfect place for an Balial lord to set up an HQ.

They get sleep and wake up to a phone call. Ashley has a flight ready for the three; Sheri, Rhapsody and Daniel. Daniel works on hiding the weapons, Rhapsody checks in the sword she got from Loknath and they are off to London.
____________________________

Session 45

Daniel bypasses security with the bag of guns as Rhapsody checks in her sword. Rhapsody gets a few books to read as the group waits for the flight.

Daniel sees a shabbily dressed individual who looks like a hobo who just pulled what he could off a clothesline. He realizes after a few moments, it's Connel who seems to be dozing off. Daniel pokes Rhapsody and she stands to walk past to catch his scent, and it is Connel. "Where the hell have you been?" He blinks awake and looks up, remembering her and says, "I have no fucking clue."

Ashley blinks and has Connel go with her to the women's bathroom, having a few women leave who are a bit scandalized as she shoves Connel into a stall. Rhapsody goes with them and guards the door. Ashely has Connel strip and does a very thorough exam of him and comes back to report to Rhapsody that Connel doesn't have any marks of the Balial or Chereshe.

There is a crashing sound, and Connel is going after Ashley, triggered by the words 'Balial' and 'Cheresche'. Rhapsody tries to trip up Connel as she changes, but he leaps over her and grabs Ashely around the neck, starting to throttle her. Ashley tries to break free but can't. Rhapsody finishes changing and breaks Connel's grip and shoves him back. It takes a moment, Ashley is trying to breathe through a damaged windpipe and Connel regains his senses, moving towards the elven woman. "She need oxygen." "Don't let that bastard near me,"

Ashley gasps out. Rhapsody has shoved Connel back and is between the two. "Daniel, get your ass over here!" she bellows. Daniel and Sheri go running to the bathrooms. They see some women talking to a security officer. Daniel does some healing on Ashely and then does a hideaway on himself and Connel. The boys go to the men's restroom and try to figure out what is going on. The girls assure the cop that everything fine and nothing of note happened.

They finally decide to keep Connel with them and figure out what's going on. Connel calls Ashley 'bitch' a few times when referring to her and is confused as is everyone as to where this anger is stemming from. "I thought men liked the 'C' word." Everyone looks at Sheri and laugh. They get onto the plane and sit the first class lounge. Rhapsody calls Roland to try and help figure out anything undead that would look and be alive to everything else, but have phenomenal strength and agility, and prone to rage that was not a vampire. Roland will look into it. As there is no trust with Connel yet, as he cannot prove one way or another, he has Rhapsody call his mother, not that provides any conclusive proof.

He does say he had a vision of the plane leaving after he got out of the morgue, which is why he was at the airport. They also call Rameriz who wigs out and Rhapsody also sends him to find something on wrathful dead. They get off on Gadwick International Airport. They take the tube to London proper. They get to a townhouse, go to the basement, go through a tunnel to another townhouse, into a garage and into an SUV At a cottage, they set the gear down.

A fairly short and scruffy man approaches and nods at Ashley. He takes the SUV keys, heads out and leaves. They rest and relax for the night. Connel, in the morning, realize that the breakfast he eats, provides no real sustenance nor joy for the eating. Not even bacon After more trains and ferries, they get to a youth hostel in Shannon Island and up the stairs to a study where a man is. He is short, bald and dour looking. He introduces himself as Mr. Madden. There is a little girl with dark hair, about 6 years old, looking out the window. She is gifted. Rhapsody sees that she is more than a child and is really a lithe little creature with wings sprouting from her back.

The girl is introduced as Kaylee. The girl goes up and takes Connel's hand. "Well you're a strange one aren't you?" She then returns to the window. "Ms Walsh says you have a bit of temper. We don't know how we can trust you. She's given me all the information, so far. Is there anything you'd like to say in your own defense." "Only that if something happens, I have no control." Kaylee says, "He can be trusted." Door opens and there is a really good looking man in a sport jacket, jeans and hiking boots.

Connel recognizes him as an authority figure who is introduced as Detective Frasier. Madden has folks sit or stand as they like asks if they know why they are gathered. "Waiting to give exposition?" is Rhapsody's glib reply Madden explains that they are here to see the Danaan Mother, who is the last Altalal lord. Shannon and the major cities are ruled by the seelies. The wild areas are where the unseelie rule.

There are some of the descendants of the Atlalal who have sided with the unseeilie. In order to keep the Mother hidden from the unseelie, they need to take every precaution, thus the multiple modes of transport. They want the group to lay low till they can verify nothing has followed from Northport, especially since Connel had blurted London to Rameriz. The Detective will give them fake ids and set them up in a bed and breakfast.

They are to play the tourist group and not cause any trouble or call attention to themselves. Rhapsody is Katrina Williamson. They get a rental car and head to the bed and breakfast and meet Miss McFarlan who shows them to their rooms and gives them sandwiches to eat. The group decide to head down to the town, realize their funds are trackable and call Frasier who has some cash sent to a bank for them to withdraw.

Getting some new clothes, they head to the Conch, which is the public house. Miss McFarlan is serving and says that she does own the place and it was in the family for a few generations. The group appear to relax and settle in for vacationing, though the tranquil area and it's quaintness still keep them on edge.

They head up to the house and see a bonfire up on one of the hills. The following morning, Miss McFarlan says she has no knowledge of why there would be such, other than perhaps the local kids having one for a party. The group heads out to the standing stones, still acting all touristy.

Session Notes Continued 42-43

2008-10-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

Session 42

Rhapsody keeps watch for the spider thingies should they mosey upwards. Ten minutes go by as Muller is watching over the unconscious pair. Muller manages to bring Daniel back to consciousness. Rhapsody notices kobolids moving into position, one with a rifle of some sort. Rhapsody gets the rifle and starts to take aim at the one with the rifle. Muller catches Daniel up on events.

Muller uses her mental abilities to make the kobalid with the gun stand up and scream, holding his head. Rhapsody fires and wings the kobalid, Connel fires and drops it. Another kobalid dives for the gun. Rhapsody fires as does Connel, while the other two take off through the trees to get around the house. Rhapsody drops one and Connel manages to hit cover on the other as it flees through the trees.

They notice that the zombies are congregating at the side that the group is mostly seen. The other side is clear.

Connel tries to force a vision to see what would happen with the group getting off the roof, towards the woods to the back. He sees Rhapsody carrying Daniel and Sheri, running through the woods with everyone else.

As the group climbs down the ladder, Rhapsody throws shingles at the zombies to keep them interested in one side. After hopping down with Sheri, she picks up Daniel and they get moving. After a few moments Daniel tries to cast his essence shield and as he gets it up, there is a huge clap of thunder. Rhapsody covers him and Sheri, thinking it gunshots, but it was 3 lightning hits in a single location from what they see. Daniel gets himself healed back up to full. But he goes to try to heal endurance damage on Sheri and comes back to consciousness.

Connel is watching the woods and gets flashes in his head, seeing several of the spider demons probing the woods. They keep going and head south, parallel to the shoreline. Another thunderbolt strikes.

Rhapsody is somewhat leading and finds a dirt road. The continue south and Rhapsody notices as they cross a ravine. There is movement, something through the tall grass. They keep going and three spider demons spring out and attack.

Rhapsody steps in after the one on Daniel and knocks it down. She goes after the one on Sheri and it dodges, then attacks Rhapsody and hits both times and Rhapsody is down and unconscious. Demon attacks Connel who gets out of the way of the first one but is hit with the second attack makes Connel go down as well. Sheri calls for holy fire on the one that attacked Connel. Muller goes to one knee and takes shots at the one on Rhapsody. She hits both times and knocks it off the unconscious tiger. Daniel pops a soulfire at the same demon, hits and fries it, blowing it up from the inside out.
The one remaining demon spins around and lunges at Daniel, but doesn't penetrate his armor. Sheri doubletaps and it dodges the first shot, then the second shot is also avoided. Muller aims and also doubletaps, winging it with one bullet. Daniel tosses off another soulfire and hits it with a glancing blow.

The spider heads to stab at Daniel and he dives out of the way. Sheri doubletaps, and hits, dropping it. After healing and getting folks mobile. They got the top of the hill and see warehouse buildings, docks at the waterline, but no shambling hordes of zombies.

They hunker down and get healed up and energies restored before going invisible with Daniel's hideaway spell. As the go towards the buildings, two fengral demons walk past them. They go further and Daniel gets Connel fully healed, endurance and health before shielding himself and renewing the hideaway.

A fengral demon climbs down the building and lands about 10 feet from the group and keeps going. Rhaps opens the door to the warehouse and they head in. They turn to the left and Rhaps peeks in a door and it's the main warehouse. There is a faint glow and the walls seem to be covered in a fleshy substance. Rhaps reports and the hideaway fades. They decide to wait till Daniel is full and then go in with a new hideaway.

They head in and find the sac, that appears to be around the node they are looking for. Connel mindviews inside the sac and sees layers, and layers, of eggs.

They head back and Daniel tells of his idea for using a truck or something to be driven through the door to hopefully explode. They go out and find a truck, they find desiel fuel and load up the truck, then try to figure out who was going to go in
______________________________________________

Session 43

The group is on the dock, with a truck loaded with barrels of fuel as the storm rises in force. It was determined that both Rhapsody and Sheri would have to push the vehicle up the hill and someone (Daniel) would go in and open the roll gate.

Daniel starts to work on getting an invisible spell going but as he does so, Connell grabs his head and starts to scream. Rhapsody pounces him and claps a hand over his mouth, then knocks him out. She tucks him under a tarp and Daniel casts his hideaway on the group then on himself.

Sheri invokes the strength of ten as she and Rhapsody push the truck towards the building. Daniel heads into the side doors into the overpowering reek of the critters inside. He cuts through the hall and makes his way carefully towards the door. There is a close call where a spider demon skittles by, but takes no notice of him. He makes his way to the main room and sees the egg sack. He finds the lock and kicks it loose.

The door starts to open up as the truck crests the hill and they shove the truck in. Muller dives out of the truck, Daniel dives out of the building. The lighter is blown out a couple times before it catches and follows the line.

There are mild explosions as the cans go up and a large wall of flame that steadily eating up the egg sack. Spider demons try to tip the truck and get it away as others are trying to put it out. The group gets to the dock and they hear the mother of all spider demons scream.

Several demons scurry out of the building and they are clutching spores of some sort. They scurry by the group and jump into the water. They hear a cry and they see the biggest spider demon dragging itself and the egg sack body behind it as flaming eggs fall off.

Sheri throws Connell over her shoulder and scuttle runs as the others follow. They charge the demon and they move to the side. Daniel sees one of the demons close to the build turn and start scuttling towards the visible part of the group.

Rhapsody kills the demon as it runs by her. She looks over and nothing else seemed to have seen her. The mother spider is still dragging itself. It gets one claw into the water and the pillar of fire from Sheri finishes it. It collapses.

Daniel puts out another hideaway after it is determined to leave the unconscious Connell where he is, and under cover. They get to the burning building and Daniel can sense the nexus. They can make out swirling smoke and energy.

Daniel gathers up energy and launches a soul fire. The blue line of energy flies through and hits the nexus. It puts out the fire from wave in a circle. They retreat back over to where Connell was as he's coming to. He tells of the vision with the zombies and the circle and the hooded figure enveloped in power.

He tries to get a sense of where the last nexus is. They pull out a map and figure out the general area. They head out after a few moments. As they get to the chain linked fence, Sheri sees along the back of the gate house, and there are a few bicycles on a bike stand.

"Hey guys, I found transportation."

Twenty minutes later they are getting into Dickinson lane. At the end, towards the square, where the eye of the storm is located, is a wall of zombies. As Daniel cant' get a read with the eclipsing power of the square, they head towards Champlin Square and get up to the steps of a bed and breakfast. Suddenly, all the essence from the town square vanishes and they can then sense the essence in the house.

Connell takes a step up and falls to his knees, coughing up blood. "I can't do this, guys. Dammit." He goes and sits on the corner of the porch.

The group sticks together and head up, searching the house. There are signs of violence and in the basement there is a bedroom, like that for a caretaker, and the single bed in the center has been torn apart. There is a putrescent corpse with a fleshy flower sticking out of the torso of the corpse. There is the same yellowish goop dripping out of the flower.

Daniel starts to channel. The flower rises up and there is stalk that heads from it to the hole. It expands and explodes all over the room, sending mold everywhere, covering the group. Muller, Sheri and Daniel start to go into horrible, wracking coughs. The goop burns and Rhapsody is not in uncontrolled fits.

Rhapsody goes to hit the nexus and whacks at it with the club. The blow crumples the flower and some yellowish sappy goo starts pumping from the stock as the feral and the others are blown away.

Sheri's eyes are bleeding and Daniel is breaking out in sores, retching some, but in control. Rhapsody attacks the nexus again. Arcane energy rocks the room and the hole is destroyed. They get into a bathroom and hit the shower to get the stuff off with water. They get into borrowed clothes and when they get outside, Connell is gone.

After a few minutes while Sheri and Daniel gathers essence and does some healing, the group gets on their bikes and heads to the square. There are bodies lying over the ground, some two deep. Sixty feet into the zombies, Connell is crawling towards the bodies. The group heads over the bodies and pass Connell who is struggling forward.

The fire is still smoldering from the bonfire. There is a figure in ash grey robes stumbling out from behind the fire, appearing to be crying.

"I came so close to it!" He tears off his hood and it's Priest. He's anguishing and tearing at his hair.

Daniel goes into the circle, followed by the others. Muller steps in and there is a sound like a rubber band strumming. "So glad you could make it."

Sheri sees the flaming elemental that is the bonfire. The ground rumbles and four 12 foot golems stand up. Smaller rocks tumble through their skull like heads. The elementals attack.

Rhapsody summons five tigers. Sheri invokes her holy strength. Daniel sees that Priest as one hell of a shield on him. He says something to the elementals, one arm looks bluish-shiny like metal, and the other is blue, but more like it's partially ethereal. He has a line of power, making him glow. Daniel starts to channel and he uses the shotgun on the lead elemental. Muller panics and runs, hitting the barrier of the circle and flying back about 12 feet. The fire elemental rises to 30 feet and shrieks and Priest speaks. The four earth elementals attacks, one for each of the party members. One reaches down and bear hugs Sheri. It sinks partially into the ground with her as it squeezes. Daniel and Rhapsody dodge their attacks. Muller is squeezed into the ground and is half buried. She screams.

Rhapsody has the tigers attack Priest to try and wear down the shield. She goes after the elemental holding Sheri. Clawing and punching has little to no effect. The cats pounce and some manage to get in through the shield but not to Priest. Sheri tries to break out and does not break free, though the showing is impressive. Priest mutters an incantation and the winds pick up around him and the tigers get spun like a roulette ball. Daniel heads over to soulfire the elemental holding Sheri. The shoulder is hit and knocks out some of the material that makes up hits body. Muller screams some more. Connell is at the outside of the circle and he bounces off. The two earth golems attack. One gets Daniel, the shield holds, but he feels a strain on his shoulder as he's encased up to his neck. Rhapsody dodges. Priest points at Rhapsody and the fire elemental rushes at the feral, screaming and launches two jets of flame at her. Rhapsody is not fast enough to avoid the blasts.

Rhapsody attacks Priest and staggers him with the first blow, and then the second is blocked with his metallic arm. Sheri prays for holy fire on Priest and a pillar of fire strikes out at him, bowing him down, then he stands up as it washes off him, but more of his shield is dissipated. He says something and earth closes over Sheri's face, and she begins to suffocate. Priest tries to punch Rhapsody and she dodges. Daniel glares at Priest. The earth elemental gets up behind Rhapsody and envelops her and sinks almost fully into the ground.

Priest laughs and the elemental cries out that it wants Sheri, sliding over towards her, but backs off when Priest calls it off. The elementals shift for the group to face the fire. Air is let into Sheri's prison to let her breathe.

"Try anything and I will not release you before you die. You will be crushed."

Priest steps around the other side of the fire, incanting, the rashes start to itch furiously. Rhapsody tries to shift and escape, but doesn't work. Sheri calls holy fire on her elemental. It shifts and doesn't free Sheri, but squeezes her.

Sheri can see a bit of dark tendril shadow start making its way along the ground coming towards her. She loses sight of it and then sees a smoky tendril come over the edge of the view port and the tendril slides into Sheri's mouth and nose. Her awareness is drawn out and she is in a grey black void. On the 'floor' is a hunched over, naked figure, crouching. He's emaciated and wounded, but somewhat familiar. He raises his face that is disfigured and in pain. It's Willard.

Willard screams and a piece of flesh rips away from his arm. "Chereshe found out it was me that was helping you out. He either finally caught on or knew all along." More if his flesh is rent away in a sizzling line. He knew Priest stole the key, he wanted to see how the world would react to an arcane catastrophe so he can summon the other two thirds of the Balial of the triumvirate. The pyramid corrupted Priest. To prevent the spread, the flower must be destroyed. The bodies must be burned. You would have to have deep magic healing. I'll give you the energy of shadow for a little while. The key is in his chest. Cheresche has Lascitide's key…. Early has Sin's. Find Lord Voliss! Heresche is in Chalmers."

He touches Sheri and she is back in the elemental, the wills herself out as she sees things in shadow. Sheri's shadowy face looks at Daniel. After trying to make him shadowy, she goes over to Priest. Kneeling next to him is a blue kobalid ogre thing, conversing with him. Sheri goes up Priest's robes. She sees runes along his body, at his chakra at his chest, there is the pyramid that is Cheresche's key.

Priest screams as the pyramid is yanked out. Sheri flows out of the circle with the pyramid. The fire elemental and the earth elementals head for Priest as he rips at his robes. The blue kobalid leaps over the fire after Sheri.

Sheri is taking on solid form as she moves. Rhapsody leaps over the fire and moves to shoulder check the ogre. She doesn't knock him away, but is right with it. Priest is between a rock and a hot place. Daniel channels and gets Muller to drag her away. Ogre grabs a corpse and throws it at Sheri. It hits solidly and Sheri goes down. Rhapsody leaps upon the ogre's back and tries to dig for the heart, but the claws don't go throw. She's thrown off and the ogre shifts and turns into the lawyer from hell. The elementals continue to paste Priest. Daniel keeps channeling and fleeing with Muller, who does have a pulse. Lawyer boy tries to grab Rhapsody but she dodges out of the way.

Rhapsody dodges and heads for where Sheri fell. She grabs Sheri and leaps way, but gets her foot caught and falls, rolling, though she manages to protect Sheri. The earth elementals look around and go back to earth. The fire elemental incinerates Priest and then goes after Sheri. Daniel puts Muller down, takes note of where she was left, and channels, then launches a soulfire at the elemental. It's knocked sideways, shrieking and falls a sheet of flames as it diminishes in size. It rears up and turns into a jet of flame that eats its way towards Daniel. Lawyer leaps at Rhaps and she dodges.

Rhaps manages to get on her feet again and away from Lawyer. She rummages in the backpack for the whistle. The fire elemental tries to bite Daniel's head, it hits but doesn't penetrate the shield, though it does eat away at some of it. Daniel launches another soulfire at the fire elemental and it hits. It shrinks a bit more, almost human sized, landing amongst bodies and flees to the bonfire. "This isn't over!" and dissipates into the fire.

Rhapsody comes up with the whistle as she leaps up into the roof of a building. Lawyer leaps up and Rhaps blows the whistle that just sounds everywhere. He falls off the roof. Daniel goes back to Muller The storm is dissipating.

Rhapsody looks for Lawyer boy and he is gone. Rhaps gets Sheri and heads back towards the square, whistle in the corner of her mouth. She finds Connell and picks him up as he is out asleep or unconscious and heads towards Daniel. Rhaps stands watch for Lawyer boy as Daniel heals. Sheri is still out. Landline of a nearby house has no favorable results.

Daniel heals Sheri further, she wakes and pukes. She fills in folks about what Willard said, at least the bullet points. Rhaps goes to find the pyramid. It's gone. Daniel heals Muller. Rhaps asks if Daniel can summon Adelita. Rhaps does a small shrine to the kittes. Then she starts lobbing propane on fire to get things exploding.

There is a light in the sky swooping in low, is a fire eagle with Pukwudji riding on her back. Adelita turns to human form. They take off to get help. A helicopter arrives. After talking with Ramirez, Daniel calls Ashley. Ramirez gets a cutter to act as a floating quarantine. After a couple hours Meriden arrives and gets to healing. As he is healing, he bursts out where he is seeing to Connell and everyone goes outside.

At the island, a sheet of pure fire coats over the area. Meriden is displeased that Hashunka was summoned, but is startled to find out that Adelita likes Daniel and was the one the summoned her mother. Still, he warns that having such an entity drawn out into the mortal realm will have consequences. At this time, most of the party is too exhausted to give more than a token grunt of caring.

Once everyone is healed, Meridan and Ramirez are filled in on everything.

Session Notes Continued 35-41

2008-10-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

Session 35

With in the week following the defeat of Fiachra, Connel continues working and on the second day, and they have cleared everyone's account for the moment with false identities, complete with papers.

Rhapsody's is Raina Nalaal. Daniel is David Matthews. Sheri is Sarah Willaims.
Puk had a dream Sheri was whisked away by a creature with five arms. They head over to the entrance to the Spirit Realm. They don't find anything. They head towards the nearest gas station and don't find much of anything. Daniel says he can try magically and they head back to beach.

They head out and Connel puts out a report on the bike. A couple hours later, they find out where it was found, abandoned and had been in a wreck. Interviewing the folks at the gas station, they get the camera tapes and see a Roto Rooter van speed by.

At the precinct, they get to the traffic control cameras and find the time frame when Sheri disappeared. They get the license number and see a black taloned finger on the hand that's on the window. Connel puts out an APB on the van. There was a huge flare of magic and they head towards it.

Puk sees a rope and they head down the alley. The rope dangles over the lip of the building. Connell goes out to check out the doors then calls dispatch to see what business operates from the address. Rhapsody smells the goblins. The two businesses are Med Tech Pharmaceutacals and an Imporium the private residence of Harold Windslow.

Puk goes up the rope, it gets cut, he turns to an owl and circles. A few seconds later, there is some commotion from the roof. Rhapsody leaps up and only gets into the second floor. Connel, while looking around, gets a call from dispatch of a break in at the location. Connel has them hold off the nearest unit till he says otherwise.

Daniel levitates Rhaps and Connel upwards.

As Daniel gets Rhaps's sword, and a cop car pulls up. Connel gets their attention and Daniel vanishes. Rhaps hears something on the floor below and heads to look.

Daniel gets to the 2nd floor and sees one of the cops looking in the Escalade. He calls Connel and tells him. Connelt tells him to hang up, which he does. Then Connel wonders what he will do about it.

Rhapsody heads right and then up a stairwell, following the scent with Puk. Connel follows behind and uses his gift to follow behind.

Rhaps sees nothing but feels two sharp stabs in her back as something buries weapons into her and she falls forward. Pukwudji yells, 'Watch out!' and they see insect legs, tho huge and sharp like blades, withdraw. Connel catches up.

Daneil calls and they figure out their're on different stairwells. Daniel hears something come from the stairs above and head down towards him. He tries to go through the door and they pass him by on the stairwell.

Rhapsody waits to heal up some and then she is racked with pain in her stomach then heads up to follow and catch u pwith Connel and Puk. The door to Harold Windslow's place has been battered down. Daniel catches up and gives Rhaps her sword. They find a floor safe in the apartment that has been ripped open. Daniel finds a book.

Rhapsody says to Daniel that they may have gotten the itme for Lascitide. They head down the stairs and hear gunshots. When they get to the bottom, they see the bodies of the two officers. Rhaps finds the scents and they go after the one that leads to the alleyway. Connel pulls the Escalade away as the others head to track the critter. They find nothing and the scent is fading fast.

Connel goes to talk to the cops, giving very bare basics of what happened. Rhaps calls Ramirez. They get the video from the cars and head to Rameriz and Muller to look at the tape. The critter that attacked Rhaps was the thing that Puk saw in his vision taking Sheri.

______________________________________________

Session 36

Dan and Avendi get back to the cottage. There is a message from Sheri, saying she is drained and is too tired to see where she is, but things she's at the McDOnald's of Sutter Street & 32nd Ave. Rhaps calls Connell

Connell gets there first and sees Sheri there in a booth, wrapped in a quilt. He looks around and goes over, telling Sheri looks like shit.

Connel hand over his backup gun and as he touches Sheri, he gets a vision of the warehouse, a cloaked person with a staff, and a glowing column of fire being made.

The other two show up and Sheri

Sheri doesn't have anything she was wearing before, including the pendant of protection after she was taken to a warehouse. Sheri saw the pyramid, Chereshe's key.

Thinking perhaps that Cheresche was gonna use Sheri as the vessel for Lascitide.

Sheri remembered that the fire elemental melted her sword.

They hear a fire truck go by and they get into the vehicles to follow.

Rhaps gets a call from Martin. She passes it to Daniel. He talks to Martin saying they have something they'd want and would like to meet. And he tells Martin that, no, they did not cause the damage.

Rhaps, Sheri and Daniel suit up in the the fire fighting gear and they head in. The crew that came in head out, minus one. The captain of the crew tries to get them to get out, but Rhaps tosses him out.

They head further in and get to a room like where Sheri was held. Tangled up in chains from the ceiling is the firefighter. RHaps moves towards him and a column of smoke and ash comes down to coaleasce into an elemental. He says he does not want Rhaps or Daniel, but wants Sheri to finish the compact as was promised.

It warns Daniel to not utter a syllable or he will die in fire.

It starts for Sheri, warning her that if she doesn't give herself to it, it will kill Daniel and Rhapsody. Puk tells Sheri there is a door with little flame. Sheri tries a mind scream, which doesn't quite work, so it lashes out. Daniel tries to dismiss, telling it to begone. A cold wind draws around it. It hisses and implodes.

Rhapsody takes off the kit and goes in tiger form, tugs the fireman down, catches him, sets him down and gets dressed, then picks up the firefighter and head after them.

The other firefighters get the trio out of there and the paramedics see to them. The firecheif has Rhaps, Daniel and Sheri sit to the side. Daniel does his hideaway and they head to the SUV to meet up with Martin.

Rhapsody asks Puk who the best healer of the spirit folks. Puk says that would be Old Turtle Woman. Rhaps tells the group that after she reverted from the feral form, she had sharp stomach pains that passed eventually.

They call Martin to set up a meet and head to the docks. Daniel passes over the book and tells Martin what happened. What was stolen was an Atrucian Seal regarding flames of the living and the dead. Rhapsody notes the pyramid was there as well.

Another of the Sentinels was killed an attacked, something was stolen. A Sumerian idol with earth affinities.

They head to the spirit realm cave to rest at the Elk lodge, then head to the lake. Midafternoon of the second day they get to the lake. They pick blackberries and munch. After a while, a girl comes, and Puk says it's Old Turtle Woman's granddaughter. She is offered blackberries and is asked if her grandmother is taking visitors. She goes to check and returns in a boat, with which she takes the group to an island.

Sitting inside her lodge is a very old woman and she has everyone sit around her fire. Rhaps tells her what happened and said she come to Old Turtle Woman as she is the greatest healer Puk knows.

Old Woman Turtle has everyone leave and Rhapsody

Rhaps awakes is on the canoe, with OWT who is throwing pebbles. She tells Rhaps that a new spirit is bound to her. And when she transforms, the spirit clings tightly in fear so causes the pain. When it feels that RHaps will hold it, the pain will stop. It is an old soul and she doesn't know when it will reach maturity.

Rhapsody accepts this and only tells the others that OTW says she is okay.

Sheri remembers that the robe guy said something about completing the Seal of Scamandril. Daniel remembers something in Fiachra's book. They go to the lodge and one of the Brothers enters and gives Daniel the book.

Scamandril is an Atlantean artificer, the premier artificer of the last age. Connel gets the camera for them to take pictures of the book for Underground.

Daniel stays behind as does Sheri. RHaps takes Connel to meet with Charlie.

______________________________________________

Session 37

Daniel researches the book as Sheri trains her mindtalk ability. Connell is dropped off with Charlie for training and Rhaps head to the cottage for some downtime.

Ashley calls and Rhapsody tells her of their adventures with the fire elemental. She's spoken with Meriden who is trying to get the group an audience with the De Danan (Atalal lords) to help with information to try and get Cheresche's location. Rhaps requests that another medallion be made as Sheri's lost hers. This first day goes by uneventfully.

While relaxing in the forest, napping, Sheri dreams that she is back in the cottage, working at the computer. The doorbell rings, she goes to answer it, she notices that she's Rhapsody in one of the mirrors in hallway. You open the door as there is a full fledged grim reaper screams a death scream as it lashes with a scythe.

Sheri runs to get Daniel.

Rhapsody is at her computer and gets an IM. She clicks on it and it says, "Knock knock." Rhapsody grabs weapons and her speakers as a Sesame streets.

One of these kids are of on their own
One of these kids is not protected

Doorbell rings. "That's a little gift for you"

Rhapsody goes around the house, armed, calling Ramerez. She waits and the driver leaves. She gets the tag from the door.

Sheri calls and tells of the dream she had. Rhapsody tells of the incident and the doorbell rings again. A jag is parked in front. A blonde guy in a nice suit with a suitcase.

He introduces himself as Brian Wallace and says he represents Lord Cheresche. Depending on the aswer to his question, Cheresce would give some leeway. He goes into the house by pushing the door off its hinges to opne it. The question he wants answered is the location of the Voice. Rhapsody tries to break for the car, but he appears and shuts the door. The call ended as if Rhaps went into a tunnel or out of service range.

Sheri goes to flag down a car, a van with an ugly guy pulls over. They don't get the ride.

Rhapsody gets a beer from the fridge, offers one to Wallace, but he declines. The offer is that there will be the cessation of hostilities for 6 months or until the agreement is broken by Rhaps or her friends, in return for the location and access to the Voice. Rhaps declines to make an agreement and notes that either their all in or no one is in, in such deals. Wallace asks if she is sure as a friend of theirs will be dead. Rhapsody says she is sure as she'd rather be dead than to give Cheresche anything and she goes furry.

Sheri flags down a car driven by a pair of black guys and they get a ride. Daniel does hideaway on the license plate.

Again, Rhapsody declines in giving the name. Wallace attacks, Rhapsody blocks then slices open his stomach. However, he ends up healed and Rhapsody is wounded.

Rhaps tries to grab hold to toss Wallace into the living room. She misses, and he drives an elbow into her face, and his knee comes up and hits, rockng her back

Sheri tells the guys to drive like they're invisible as Daniel uses hideaway on the car as the cops get behind and start chasing.

Rhaps summons her tigers. Wallace grab ahold and shoves Rhapsody into the ceiling and she moves to protect her stomach, then drops to the table. Two tigers attack and Wallace dodges.

Rhaps feints a kick to Wallaces groin, but doesn't fall for it, and she goes out the window. Three kitties attack but he dodges them Rhaps goes into full tiger and books it. Wallace goes through the window, followed by the kitties.

Rhaps heads for the trees, then to the pastures. She hops over the fence and Wallace leaps over, trying to catch her and she evades. As he falls, Rhapsody is in the copse and activates her camoflague. Wallace's eyes glow as he looks around, then is mobbed by tigers.

The tigers move to keep Wallace pinned and Rhapsody tries to sneak towards one of the houses. Wallace snaps the necks of the remaining tigers.

"This is a delaying tactic at best. The offer still stands. We can still go back to the house and sign papers and you will live. Or perhaps I will go back to the house and wait. Do you see the futility of your actions."

He gets out the cellphone and calls. After the call is over he says that the offer was increased to a year.

Rhaps tries to scoot away, but she is seen and he leaps out at her. She tries to flip him over, but he keeps hold and tries to drive a knee into her. She manage to block that.

Meanwhile, one of the brothers almost looses control of the car.

They keep rolling and Wallace pummels Rhaps into unconsciousness. He then drags Rhaps through the woods to the car. He gets out a bag and gives a call, asking what is to be done with Rhaps. He squirts something out of syringe and Rhapsody is injected. Rhapsody is stuffed in the back seat

At this time Sheri and Daniel arrive. Daniel calls Rhaps' phone and they hear it inside the house. The black guys ask if there is anything they can help with. The driver says he'll take care of things and goes up to Wallace. Sheri and Damien see the front door bashed in.

Sheri exclaims about the door being bashed in. Wallace says that Rhapsody was rather inhospitable and she is in the back of the car. Daniel says that they should leave. Sheri is trying to convince the two good Samaritans to get in the car and they leave.

Wallace tells them the deal. After some discussion and hemming and hawing, Daniel answers with a soulfire. It hits him, knocking him back against the Jag, arcs and swirls around, then redirects towards Daniel, nuking his shield. Sheri tries a holy fire, knocks him down to his knees and they see this form of a giant undead monstrosity flicking in and out of existence. It's screaming and he stands. In an inhuman voice says, "Don't do that again!"

Back in lawyer form, he jumps and runs after Sheri. Sheri does another fire and Wallace dives out of the way. Wallace comes up onto his feet and tries to grab Sheri by the throat and dares Sheri to do it again. Daniel draws his knife.

"The blade you've drawn suggests you don't wish to sign the contract, is this true?" Wallace turns Sheri around and has an arm lock around her neck as he holds her a shield.

Daniel says, "Yeah."

"Very well," and he punches Sheri on the side of the head. She survives and manages to stay conscious.

Daniel charges and misses completely.

Wallace drops Sheri and the air suddenly gets very thick, like a storm brewing. A thin line of light appears above the gravel of the driveway and starts to spread. And in a blink, a portal opens up, and through it steps Meirden with robes and his sword glittering and he charges and swings his sword at Wallace.

Wallace grabs the upraised hand and they struggle back and forth. Daniel goes to heal Sheri.

Meridan gets a swipe in along the torso. It hisses and blackness, Meridan also staggers, but the golem flashes in again, but Wallace is still injured.

Sheri hits Wallace with the holy flames again. He uses the opportunity to shove his sword through the now mostly flesh golemn form. He is then knocked away and Wallace golemn turns and hisses at the group, before running away at inhuman speed.

"Never been bit by my own sword." Meridan says.

Daniel opens the door and Rhapsody tumbles out.

Meridan says that Sheri needs to stay with him and that Daniel and Rhaps will need to go to the voice. Daniel gets Rhaps' normal stuff, Daniel gives Sheri his knife after packing the sleeping tigress into the Escalade.

Meridan opens the portal and takes Sheri through. Daniel drives off.
______________________________________________

Session 38

Rhapsody wakes up and she and Daniel catch each other up on the events and head to a wal-mart to get leathermans. And they head off to get a new vehicle and get a brand new suburban. Daniel gives Ashley a call. Rhapsody doesn't draw, so they went back to walmart and got clay for Daniel to try to sculpt with.

Sheri wakes up in a bed in a small room in a cottage. Looking out the window there is a beach with horses running along the shoreline. Sheri walks around to see if there is anyone else about. She finds a basket in the kitchen with bread, cheese and some other munchies. As she eats, she hears footsteps and sees Meriden walking up, attired in his tweed suit.

"Oh good, you're awake. I keep this place for times of convalescence."

Meriden thinks that the glimpses of Wallace was its true form and a powerful minion of Cheresche, Sheri calls it the 'Reflectadon'. They were among the upper echelons of guardians for the Balial.

Meriden gives Sheri a new amulet. He has been trying to get the shades of the Altalal, called the Tuatha de Danaan. Sheri follows Meriden to the beach, scaring the horses.

"I'm not sure exactly where you'll land, but it will be some where in Northport."

She goes through the portal and is in a hallway, and finds she's in the Northport General Hospital.

Rhapsody goes to UPS to try and pick up the package that was to be delivered. Rhaps leaves amessage for connel to call them back. There is a small item wrapped and there is a note that says 'Blow this to run away from Mr. Wonderful'. In the paper is a silver Atlantean whistle that has runes.

Connel gets back in from a day's hike with Charlie and gets Rhapsody's message.

Pic of sculpture is sent to Robert Kennedy and Ashley. Daniel uses his soulfire and Rhaps' club to try and channel through the club to 'purify' the soulfire through.

They get to Charlies and stay there the night. Following day, at breakfast, Connel sees a raging fire and a robed figure holds the pyramid to the fire. One of the arms is translucent and made of patterns of swirling…

Connel blinks awake in his breakfast and tells of the vision.

Sheri calls Daniel.

Connel's phone ring. Rameriz says that there was an incident on Coving Island, something widespread. Connel puts on the radio and finds a news station.

The report is of a nuclear sub has run aground and Essex is under quarantine due to the radiation.

They pick up Sheri and go to the docks and are met by Agent Richards. Rameriz meets them and takes them below to explain the situation

They head into the island. Daniel sees a body. They check it out and just see it to be a dead man. They try the guy's car and it doesn't start. They also find a high heel, then a bit in the grass another one. Rhaps changes, tries to track and looses the track.

10 mins up the road and they ifnd another car. They open the door and a woman with a gaping hole falls out. There is yellow goo in the car which smells like ammonia to Rhapsody.

Muller says there's something thinking near by. A shape runs by in the shadows. They continue on. After a few moments, Daniel senses an essence spike in the south.

Connel uses his mindtime and sees a figure walking down the road, shuffling, there are others, all once human in various states of decomposition, towards the town square. Several of them have the holes in their chest, but not all.

Thye have Rhaps go to the square, after Daniel does a hideaway on her. She sees the circle and makes note of the runes. She sees a figure move in a second story window. She gets back to the group, they head for the Zodiac and as they get to the car in the ditch they see the woman is gone. They get to the parking lot and Connel notices that he's been scratching.

They get to the pier and hear something splash. The Zodiac is half deflated when they get there. They try the radio, then fire off a flare.

Sheri shines a flashlightthrough the office doore, the beam crosses something like the spider beast thingie, comes into being. The shadowy shape lunges at Sheri and she manages to dodge out of the way.

Rhapsody swings and misses the shape. Sheri tries to find a clean shot as does Connel. Muller says it's thinking something. Daniel sees it go out the door.

Muller says that it's calling for help. Sheri fires a double-tap, the first shot misses, and the second shot does as well. Rhapsody sees it and rips a hole in the ceiling. Connel goes outside after it. He sees six figures shambling towards the doors. He fires a shot at the head, it takes one step forward and falls as the head explodes. Daniel hears a thump and sees a shape at the window of the office. He tosses a soul fire at said shape and it drops.

Sheri goes to shoot two of the zombies in succession and they keep walking. RHaps waits till they get closer. Connel aims another head shot and misses. Muller shoots and hits a shoulder. Rhaps lops off a zombie head. Connel dodges one zombie to be grabbed by the other. Rhapsody disarms one of the ones attacking and the other grabs on to her. Daniel pops a shield on Connel.

Rhapsody rips into the guts of the zombie and doesn't quite kill it. Daniel puts a shield on Rhapsody then hears a window break. Sheri takes a shot on one zombie on Connel. Connel tries to break the grapple and gets out. Daniel hears a thumping sound and there is a sharp pain, which he survives and he remains conscious. There is a grey hook embedded in him. Zombie bites Rhapsody's shield. The other zombie tries to grab Rhaps and misses. Connel's zombie tries to grapple him and succeeds. Muller takes three shots at the thingie attacking Daniel. The hook slides out of Daniel as the creature leaps back.

Sheri goes to drag Daniel out. Rhapsody gets out of the brawl. Muller backs towards the front doors, taking a couple of shots at nothing. Connel tries to beak out but still doesn't make it. The two zombies latch on to Rhapsody. Connel keeps his zombie from munching on him. Daniel tries to do lesser healing and just can't concentrate through the pain.

Rhaps tries for a head shot and misses. Sheri tugs Daniel away. Muller goes up and puts the gun to Connel's zombie's head and fires, killing it, deafening the cop. Daniel tries to heal himself again and fails. Rhaps gets chomped by the first zombie at the jugular and something gets in through its teeth as does the other zombie. Connel goes up and uses Muller's maneuver, killing a zombie.

Sheri fires at a critter and the first shot misses, then the second hits, knocking it backwards. The hooks leaves gouge marks on the carpet as it slides back. Muller doubletaps at the creature as well and misses. Rhaps beheads the last zombie and Daniel tries to heal himself, but is still not successful. Connel notices the critter and fires three shots, hitting with the first, missing the second and third shot. It disappears back into the gloom.

They get to the parking lot and Connel stabilizes Daniel as they see figures in the diminishing light coming up the road.

______________________________________________

Session 39
Shapes continue to approach out of the treeline out of the town along the road. There
appear to around 30. Rhapsody picks up Daniel and they head down the shoreline trail.
Connel’s hairline is itchy as he sweats, and Daniel is also feeling itchy.
The trail is fairly easy, but there are some rocky areas to climb up. After about 4
minutes, Daniel tries to do some healing again and succeeds. The area around where
Daniel was impaled knits together but leaves a splotchy looking bruise.
They hear a helicopter off in the distance. Sheri goes to aim up the flare gun. The
engine on the helicopter stutters and off towards the trees towards town is a blinking
light, and then it descends rather rapidly. There is the distant sound of crashing metal
and there is a slight glow.
Muller stops and concentrates to see if she can sense anyone. And yes, she can, but it’s
no one she recognizes.
They continue south and come to a place where the trail goes into the woods or go
towards the rocky areas where it’s harder going and slow. The itch has started on
Rhapsody as it becomes to the point of distraction for Connel, and it’s getting that way
for Daniel.
After another fifteen minutes they are going over rocks. Rhapsody stops and smells
kobalid, up the trail. Connel shines a light and only sees about thirty feet behind.
Daniel heals himself, but the stain doesn’t go away. They continue on.
They climb up an area of scree and rock, Daniel senses another large essence
expenditure from town, which continues for at least a minute. They continue on and
look for a defensible position. Connel sees nothing but feels something hit him from
behind and pierces his back it’s a prick, but does get through the armor and physical
shield. He gets knocked to the ground, gashing his hand on a rock.
Rhapsody and Sheri look over and first think that Connel just fell, but see a distortion
and one of the cloaked spider thingies.
Rhapsody waits for Sheri who does a double-tap. It jumps off Connel’s back and seems
to rise straight into the air. The first shot misses and the second shot hits, knocking
it sideways and it veers off. Rhapsody leaps up with her sword and misses her strike.
Muller shines her flashlight around and it’s right at her face when it is shown in the
light. One of it’s lower legs takes Muller right through the neck, her shots go wild and
she falls with a thud, gurgle screaming. It turns and faces Sheri. Daniel doesn’t see
the critter, and goes to assist Muller but is unable to heal. Connel shines his light right
on it and shoots at it and hits but does little damage, the second shot also hits more
squarely, spinning it and hits the rocks, but it stands back up.
Rhapsody goes to try and chop the bug and hits, chopping down the middle, almost
cleaved in half.
From somewhere down the coast area, Connel sees a red dot move across the rocks
onto Sheri.
“Sheri, drop!”
Sheri drops and rolls. High powered rifle fires and misses. Daniel tries to heal Muller
and she calms her thrashing, but does pass out. Connel shines his light towards the
snipers.
Rhapsody is about to chop off the things leg. She tries to get folks to cover, and they
hear a growling from where the shot was. They recognize the sound of the kobala
giant things. Daniel puts up a physical shield. Connel uses his view ability to try and
See where the sniper and kobalid is. One of the man sized ones is in black leather and
has a high powered rifle aimed. Other kobalids are around. A figure comes up behind
the kobalid, almost looking like a Hollywood mummy, wrapped in gauze with just an
opening where eyes would be, but there is only darkness. It reaches to the kobalid and
rips it head off.
Connel relates what he saw and they hear screaming kobalids. Rhapsody sees a
coalesced darkness coming across the rocks. Rhapsody gives Sheri the club as she
readies her sword. The darkness jumps on a rock and the darkness dissipates.
“You must follow me if you wish to live,” it says in a hollow and gravelly voice.
Sheri asks who it works for. Rhapsody says there is no time and they follow. Connel
sees zombies making their way through the meadow. Daniel is getting winded. They
pause, Rhapsody hands Sheri Muller and Rhapsody picks up Daniel.
Ten minutes into the woods, he turns and stops and asks if Daniel can mask them for 10 minutes. They wade into a creek as Daniel gets ready to cast. Then they go once the hideaway is cast. Sometimes he stops and looks around as if trying to figure out which
way to go. After another 6 minutes, they come to a dirt road and head down it where
there are mailboxes with driveways. He heads down one and Daniel is able to drop the
spell.
The mummy says that there may be zombies and any sound will alert them. There is
an open garage, sprawling porch, no car and no lights. Rhapsody goes to the garage
and the door into the house is open. Rhapsody activates camouflage and searches the
house. It’s clear.
Mummy man says he doesn’t have much time. The ritual was of Chereshe, but was
not he who created it. It is a sorcerer who has gained immense power from the key.
The circle is where it was cast in the center. There are four compass points where the
zombies bring him energy to give him more powerful. He suggests killing the guardians
at the cardinal points and destroy the points, then face the sorcerer. There is no way
to protect themselves from the goings on. He came himself and had helped before with
the phone calls. The flying things are called Fengral demons. Nothing begins to unravel
and fade. He says that the sorcerer is north of the town square.
Daniel does a healing on Muller and the others search the house for supplies. They get
food. Rhapsody finds a 9mm handgun on a shelf in the closet with a box of ammo.
Sheri sees a zombie out the window and signals the others. They head out the back
door. They pad out the door as quietly as possible. They go out through the shrubs
and head back towards town. They get to the main cross street, avoiding a few other
zombies that are milling about.
They see there are half a dozen zombies just either standing around, one shuffling down
the street away from the party and they keep around the houses out of sight, sneaking
around.
Daniel is about to do a hideaway, Muller has him stop and senses someone not too far.
It’s one of the helicopter pilots who is hiding. Muller doesn’t know who it is, so the
group agrees his best bet is probably to nuke the points. Daniel casts his spell and they
head down the street.
They see a group of 7 kobalid, the medium sized ones moving around in flack vests, just
wearing them and not much else. Connel has his spear and hands the shotgun to Daniel.
Daniel gets a sense of where to go and leads the way towards the Griswald inn. There
are a lot more zombies around and the group looks around for cover as the spell ticks
down. They go into the Victorian house. Rhapsody camouflages herself and stealths in,
she can only tell that there have been zombies, but can’t tell if there are any.
They look out the back and there are two zombies but nothing else. With a small
planning discussion, Muller then opens the door and curtain, Rhapsody steps out and
chops the head in two of one zombie. Sheri steps up with the club and bashes the head
in of the other one, falling to its knees and it groans. Connel comes in next to use the
spear and just barely misses. Daniel soulfires and turns the zombie to ash.
Somewhere through the trees towards the Griswald inn there is some other hissing
growl. They sneak out into the yard. Half way through the yard, Daniel steps on the
squeaky toy. On the other side of the yard, something starts hitting the fence, then it’s
joined by another, then another. Fingers tug at knotholes and they peek on the side to
the Griswald and see hedges and old trees and really nothing else. They get to the gate
and open it the squeak of the hinges not loud enough over the groaning.
Next yard has trees and a trampoline and four zombies. Rhapsody sees four zombies.
A zombie comes into the alley, followed by others. The group goes into the yard and
closes the gate.
Rhapsody goes to engage one zombie and cuts it in half. Sheri whiffs at her zombie as
she gets caught in the grass. Then Connel tries and whiffs as he gets caught in a garden
hose. Daniel tries to attack the same one with his knife and also whiffs. Muller
tries to knock the zombie down and pops it in the knee and it falls back partially. The
zombie tries to grab Sheri and she backs away.
Rhapsody sticks the sword it the zombie’s head but it’s still moving. Sheri goes for a
fresh one and hits, the head snapping and it collapses. Connel tries to hit and whiffs.
Daniel tries to stab and also whiffs but takes off a finger. Muller tries to kick in the
head and only gives a glancing blow. It tries to grab Daniel and manages to latch on to
his knife arm and gets a good grip on Daniel. One turns and lunges for Sheri, who dives
out of the way in style. The zombie half pulls itself off the sword.
Rhapsody goes to help Daniel and split it the back side of the skull and falls down. Sheri
attacks and misses. Connel goes for the zombie torso and only pins it briefly. Daniel
goes to help Connel and whiffs. Muller jumps on its back and tries for a stab to the
head, sticking the knife in, it’s still alive and writhing. The zombie on Sheri misses.
Rhapsody goes and punts the half zombie over the fence. Sheri goes and nicks it in
the shoulder. Connel sticks it in the chest. Daniel goes to check out the house, he picks
in the back door with his light and sees nothing. Muller looks around and runs over
towards a shed in the yard and grabs a shovel. Zombie turns and goes after Daniel.
Rhapsody goes up and kills the zombie, then the fence falls down. They go through
to the other side of the house. In the living room there is balcony and Connel sees a
zombie kid launches itself at him. Connel dodges. Rhapsody kills the child.
They go up and see the portico outside. Other zombies hear the ones in the house.
Rhapsody tells Daniel to levitate who he can, she’s going onto the roof. She leaps up as
Daniel readies a spell.
Rhapsody sees a kobalid with a rifle. She hucks a shingle to try and distracted and
beans a zombie on the head. Muller turns and trains her gun, firing at the window with
three shots. The kobalid drops back into the window. Sheri double taps to the window
enough to keep out of the window.
-----

______________________________________________

Session 40

Sheri goes to help Connel suppress the zombies coming up the stairs. Rhapsody gets a cable to act as whip. Daniel starts up his whirlwind and Rhaps turns into her female form as the others join up on the portico and get lifted up in the wind. Daniel directs the maelstrom towards the Griswald. Daniel sees the kobalid peek up to shoot again, and tries to get the whirlwind to an area of the roof that his … passengers can be set down. Daniel does get hit but his shield takes the damage. Connel and Sheri land hard on the porch, sense of balance gone and Sheri almost falls, but Rhaps grabs hold of her and yanks her back. Connel slams into a window, is knocked out for a second. He wakes and is rolling off the portico and into a rose bush. He turns around and pukes. Rhapsody gets the cable she took to Connel and yanks him back up. Daniel helps Muller and Sheri tries to get inside. She gets the window open and sees the bedroom is pink and froofy. Rhaps looks around for threats. Daniuel helps Muller inside who says that there is something really angry and then goes into the room. Sheri goes to listen at the door but hears nothing. Rhapsody tears down the trellis that zombies are climbing and heads insoide to listen ad the door. Daniel, Connel and Muller get their weapons ready and Muller concentrates that it something beyond that door. Rhaps peeks out and she is shot in the head, which makes her jerk and she falls down, growling in anger. Sheri prays for strength. Daniel casts hideaway on Rhapsody. Connel projects his sight down the hall to find the shooter. She sees two human-sized kobalids. Rhaps goes down the hall. The kobalid takes a shot, but misses as it’s a blind shot. Rhaps gets the gun up and swats her target into the other kobalid with a wet crunching sound. The one thrown, falls down and doesn’t get up. The other raises its gun and fires, but misses, taking out part of the wall. Sheri hauls down the hall with the club. Daniel follows as does Connel and Muller. Rhapsody tries to pounce the kobalid and it manages to dodge out of the way near the stairwell. Sheri and the others keep going down the hall. The kobalid dives down the stairs. Rhapsody follows and lands on the kobalid, killing it. Muller and Connel get the rifles, Connel tries to See through the door near the staris that they see before the group heads to the kitchen. Muller backs him up as he goes to listen at the door. He hears thumbping coming right at the door before it splinters open. Connel goes flying backwards, ass over teakettle. The ogre sized kobalid charges and trips over Connel. Rhapsody turns around and leaps forward, letting instinct take over to try and get the back of the neck, but the kobalid rolls out of the way. Muller spins and takes a double-taps, missing both times. Sheri pulls a Rhapsody to club the kobalid like a baby seal and connects, slamming it at the back of the head to where it’s stars and birds have stars and birds. The kobalid was in a study eating bodies. The group goes to the kitchen. Rhpaosy gets the door down towards the basement and they head down, Connel pausing to go back and grab a huge butcher knife. Rhaps leads, taking her sword to be at the ready. Rhaps gets to the bottom of the stairs, and there is a stonework narrow hall. At the end is a door on the left and right side. She senses something move from the left to the right. Rhaps has Sheri shine the light to the right. They go around and Rhaps sees at the opposite wall is a door that shuts as they approach. Rhaps opens the door and gets stabbed once by one of the spider critters, sensing enough to get out of the way of the second hit. Muller takes cover, shines a light and catches sight of a piece of it, enough to take shot. Rhaps tries to hit and barely misses. Sheri tries to hit and misses. Connel searches for it and doesn’t see anything. Daniel goes to secure the door. No one sees anything, but Daniel gets pounced as he is shoving the rifle in the door handle as a bar. His shield and armor take a good portion of the damage, but he’s also skewered. Rhaps is fast enough to go after the critter. It dodges, but it’s off Daniel The door shakes as Muller braces, and there are many voices in a cacophony beyond. Sheri spies it in the corner and hits with the second shot. It shrieks as the first shot richochets around the room and hits a bottle. Connel spots it and fires and makes it shriek as it falls into the wine rack. Rhapsody runs up and splits through the carapace and kills it. Muller rolls away from the door as the guardian comes in. Made up of bodies, it looks like a zombie millipede and lunges for Muller. It grabs her and yanks her into the darkness and there is a struggle and gunshots and screams. Rhaps goes after and misses on her attack. Sheri comes in and doubletaps, hitting with both shots. Connel comes up to join the shooting range, but it’s moved behind the crates. Daniel heals himself. Rhaps goes up to the crates and attacks. She misses as the zombipede as it splits into two segments. One left behind snatches rhaps and peels her arm like a banana. Sheri goes after it and calls down the holy fire. Conel goes and catches up to Rhaps and Sheri. Daniel goes up to Muller and does a little bit of healing. Muller passes out and Daniel looks at her. “Well, that’s what I was hoping to avoid…”
Rhaps stys where she is to heal some. Sheri guards Rhaps and Connel. Rhaps notices a crate being flung and yells move as she tries to push the two out of the way. They all get hit and are under the crate. Daneil runs up, sees everyone and hurls a soulfire at it. It goes after Daniel. Rhaps lifts the crate up and holds it, telling Connel and Sheri to go. Sheri scrambles out and goes to club the thing and whooshes as her leg gives out a bit. Connel slowly gets himself out. The zombiepede hits Daniel, but only backhanded him into a crate. Rhapsody gets out from the crate, grabs her sword and takes a swing, missing. Sheri raises the club and calls down holy fire and it collapses into ash. There is a hundredfold scream and the other heads to the group. It splits into four 12 body segments. Rhapsody summons kitties and gets four to come. Sheri leaps up onto the crates and the thing rises up and digs up under her armpits, scraping on bone and she survives but falls unconscious between Rhaps and Connel. Connel shoots at it with a doubletap and hits with the first one and misses with the second. Daniel tosses a soulfire and misses. Another segment comes over and hits Rhapsody. The kitties come into being. The one guarding Daniel runs up and slams into the segment, knocking it down and wrestling with it. Two go after the one that had hit Sheri and miss, as does Rhapsody and does Connel. The last kitty tackles Rhapsody’s attacker and knocsk behind crates. Daniel launches a soulfire at it and it doesn’t dodge, getting toasted, the energy cumulating and the creature explodes as do the other segments. At the back of the room is a blackened circle and a crack in floor where essence has pooled.
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Session 41

Daniel waits to get his essence built back up as Rhapsody refortifies the door. Muller and Sheri are unconscious still. In the crates are jams and jellies and canned fruits. Connel comes over to Daniel and he can see that there is tainted energy flowing into the crack in the ground even without the guardian.

Connel found an old coal shoot on one of the walls and didn’t see or hear any zombies. Rhapsody goes to human form to crawl up to scout out the shoot. (whoo, the episode nude flash)

It is agreed that Daniel should see to healing first to see who they can get up and
around. He casts on Sheri first and is successful, and is also successful with Muller, though both are unconscious. Rhapsody shimmies up the coal shoot and gets to the door and tries it but finds it locked, probably padlocked from the outside. Hearing nothing outside, she slides back down and sees Connel reviving Muller and Sheri.

Muller is still out as Sheri is caught up by the others as to what happened. Rhapsody
goes to keep a watch on the fortifications. Muller wakes up in a little ball of pain and they also catch her up. Sheri sits with Daniel in the circle to work on healing endurance damage.

Sheri says, “Don’t think about the fact we have to do this three more times.”
And they banter about the occult and points of power. Daniel does some more healing.
As he tries to heal Connel, there is a magical backlash, which hurts Connel, causing the cop to lash out. Daniel tosses in the soulfire and there is an explosion of white light that shakes the house and pushes some of the crates back. Sheri gets hit on the head with a jar of canned peaches.

One of the support beams has cracked and a zombie falls down. Rhapsody squishes it
with a crate. She is handed a 12 gauge and heads up the shoot after squishing another
zombie. She shoots the door and weakens it enough to have killed the lock. She gets
out and keep swatch after telling the others to come up. Daniel follows and takes the
shotgun while Rhapsody helps folks out of the shoot.

Rhapsody uses her camouflage ability to scout down the alley some and sees zombies to
the south that are shuffling around. Daniel tosses on his hideaway spell and they head north down the alley. Four blocks up Daniel senses another one of the pulses coming from the north east.

As they get near to where the area where Muller sensed the survivor of the crash, they can see the glow of flames a bit in the distance. They consider the option of checking the crash site and decide to go on with their mission. Daniel puts up another hideaway on the group. The cemetery to the north is decided would make the most sense as the northern point. At the cemetery there are zombies around. They get into the graveyard and as Daniel is about to put another hideaway, there is a pulse from the building atop of the hill.

Sheri does another healing on herself as Daniel does another hideaway. They go slower
and in the parking lot, Rhapsody notices that there is a spider demon just above the
door with 30 zombies. They go around seeing if there is a storm cellar or another coal shoot. As they discuss how to get in, a child’s high voice is heard singing a church song. Rhapsody moves up and looks through the distorted stained glass window and sees that there are a couple of pews inside with a candle burning, in front of that is a girl in a Sunday’s best dress, playing with dolls, singing.

Rhapsody looks around and suddenly looks up and sees the little girl, kicking her feet, as she seems to be looking down at the group. The spider goes up to her and grabs its leg and lowers on the other side. They scout around and find a place in the chain link fence that’s pulled up enough to get out into the woods. In the woods is a house which Rhapsody scouts out and finds clear. They set up a ladder to get Connel and Muller to the roof.

Back at the chapel, they get into position to attack. Rhapsody attacks and lands a blow, knocking off the roof. Daniel lets off his soulfire and hits, finishing it off. Rhapsody grabs a zombie and throws it into another. Two zombies attack and she scoots out of the way. Muller takes a couple of shots into the crowd. Connel waits as the zombies turn in their direction. Rhapsody heads back towards the group and they lead the zombies in a chase. Muller and Connel keep the zombies’ attentions as the others head back to the chapel. Rhapsody opens the door and the little girl looks up with her dolls. On the back wall is a black hole with taint seeping into it.
“You should leave,” the girl says.
“Someone sunk our boat,” Daniel replies.
The girl stands up, “Last chance.” The girl turns to ash and heads for Daniel, trying to get into his mouth and nose.
Daniel’s shields help and it puffs around him. Rhapsody tries to claw at the dust, but nothing happens. Daniel goes for a shot at the crack. There is a green burst as the building shake. There is a ghostly, “NOOOOO!”

From the floor when the ghost is settling down, there are six forms coalescing of
ash and dust, looking squat and demonic. Benches and the floor start to smoke and
smolder.

The girls’ face forms and goes after Rhapsody. She doesn’t dodge out of the way and
feels the dust and ash start to choke. She tries to Heimlich herself with a bench and
fails catastrophically, knocking out what air she had left and breathing in a bit more of the dust. Sheri takes out the club. Two ash demons leap out at her and she tries to dodge. She barely manages to dodge out of the way for the first blow and the second is also avoided. One lunges at Daniel and it’s evaded, a second attack is also. Two attack Rhapsody and she avoids them. Daniel tosses another soul fire at it. The building shrieks as do the demons.

Rhapsody’ belly burns some, and tries to hit her stomach again. But fails and flails.
Sheri calls down holy fire and hits Rhapsody, but the ash flies out of her. Sheri dodges one ash demon but not the other. One behind Daniel tries to piggy back him for
a grapple and misses as the one in front takes two swings and misses both times.
Rhapsody dodges three blows and gets hit with the second of the second ash demons.
Daniel launches another soulfire to the hole again, causing more debris to rain down.
Ashley flies up in the air and goes after Sheri. Rhapsody uses the pew to bat at an
ash demon and knocks it into the wall. Sheri attacks an ash demon with spiffy club
and disintegrates it against the wall. The ash demons go after Daniel, the first one
misses, the second hits and washes on the shield some, the third lands squarely, fourth is dodged and the last one does hit but the armors take the damage. Daniel fires his shotgun.

Ashley chokes Sheri. Rhapsody kills one ash demon and misses a second. Sheri goes
after an ash demon and hits, dusting it. Daniel dodges one hit from a demon, the
second hits and gets through the last of the armor, the third also punches through and causes Daniel to fall limp and unconscious. Ashley continues to choke Sheri. Rhapsody knocks off two more ash demons. Sheri tries to club the last demon and it dodges out of the way. The demon turns and attacks Rhapsody who dodges. Sheri remains
conscious. Rhapsody summons tigers. Sheri does a mind scream as she drops the club
and feels her scream inside her and Sheri vomits ashes to the ground.

Ashley half forms is on the ground and crawls under one of the benches. Rhapsody
launches off a pew and smacks the hole with the spiffy club, the hole explodes and the tiger goes flying backwards. The girl rises into the air and disintegrates into ash and dust. Sheri still vomits out ashen and blood. Rhapsody picks up Sheri and Daniel and has her tigers do hit and runs as she moves forward to get to the house. One tiger is downed. Rhapsody gets over the fence and goes for the house. She tries to leap up and misses. A zombie lunges after and the tiger intercepts. Rhapsody leaps up and gets help up. Sheri’s holy strength fades out but she survives, but goes unconscious.

Session Noted Continued 31-34

2008-10-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

Session 31

Daniel asks Pukwudgi if he goes off to the spirit world. The spirit warns that if Sheri calls out to him, Fiachra might hear that too. Rhapsody gives Puk a pouch of loose Native Spirit tobacco, which amuses him before he leaves.

Connel asks some probing questions as he tries to figure out the plan against Fiachra. Daniel calls up Gwyddion to see if it's possible to fake a key.

When asking about the book, Gwyddion mentions the sorcerers that Fiachra had sent out. They were followed to the former Soviet Union and found notes the same as from the book for another summoning. He's trying to bring more of his guardians to this plane. Some sort of wyrms.

They head back into town and drop Connell off to go meet up with the rest of the Underground, then head to Roland's to return the car. During dinner, Roland doesn't offer any more help, but as the group is still needing wheels, he offers the Escalade to them.

The following morning, the group drives into town and coordinate for Gywddion to meet Connell. They meet at the Super 6 and discuss plans. Pukwudji appears and volunteers to take the book to the Elk Brother's lodge to keep hidden and safe.

They go to the cave and Gwyddion's soldiers unpack all manner of impressive ordinance. All of the bullets are silver and they all head out into the spirit cave with Sheri and Pukwudgi leading towards the lodge. Outside the lodge one of the brothers is watching. He nods in approval to Sheri.

Sheri asks if they may hide the book in the lodge. The Elk Brother agrees to do this and he will keep it safe.

Pukwudgi leads the way to the wolf lords, decked out in a WWII army helmet and his face painted in camouflage.

They get into the Wolf Clan's territory. Pukwudgi has his costume put away and warns that they go in quietly. Wolves shadow their progress in the trees and they make their way to the dens. The Wolf Lord walks out and acknowledges Sheri.

He calls out Otome as Sheri confirms that they are on their warpath. The Fox Woman knows of a better place and Pukwudgi says he can take them.

The group on the physical side drive to the meeting spot to find Pukwudgi who takes them nearer the gate.

On an idea from Gwyddion, Daniel wings a 'circle of destruction' as if they are going to try and destroy the book.

Daniel puts an essence shield on Rhapsody to help insulate her against Fiachra's will. After an hour, they put the book away.

After a while, Otome comes out and says that the others are on the other side of the gate.

Hours pass and Daniel senses a disturbance in the forest. It stops after a few moments and 15 minutes past, and she begins to smell ferals but Fiachra she does not.

Daniel calls out, "Fiachra."

No answer. There is the snapping of branches and Gregor steps out of the trees, dressed.

Gwyiddion throws his hand down to the dirt and there's a rippling force that blows into the ferals as the energy hits them. He mutters some incatation and he's holding a crystal and a wind comes out of no where. A wave of wind lifts the group up.

They are 20 feet up. The first rank of ferals is still down, the second rank is coming in and Gwyddion opens up with his gun. Daniel put up a shield, Rhapsody summoned kitties. Sonja also opens fire.

Pukwudgi runs by Sheri, yelling, "It's time, it's time!"

They go through, Sheri going in the middle of the group.

Gregor sees the tigers and heads for cover. He jumps onto a boulder, turns and gets ready to meet the tigers. Two meet him this turn. One goes high, one goes low, but he manages to dodge out of the way.

Gwydion makes a feral explode as it leaps up and he shoots it.

Jerry, the heavy gunner, sprays the area. The soldiers spread out and take cover. Two wolven ferals go for sheri's team at their back. A couple soldiers fire. One is hit and the other manages to duck out of the way.

Sheri takes aim to fire. The first shot wounds for a glancing hit. The second hits more solidly.

The feral gets in close, and is about to jump one of the ones that shot him and is levitated upwards. In his hands are guns and he fires.

Connel also fires from where he's at.

Daniel is trying to find Fiachra. He scans where he can and can tell there is more than the 30 back in the woods.

The ferals start to retreat.

The kitties attack Gregor and only one manages to get a hit. He attacks the cats and manages to kill one.

Gwyddion tossed out another grenade and blew up a tree a feral ducked behind.

Ramirez fires at the one he holds aloft and shatters its head.

Sheri fires one carefully aimed shot at a Feral and hits it, dropping it.

Daniel scans for Fiachra. There is a flash of memory of him flying waving into existence down at the middle of the tornado.

______________________________________________

Session 32

Daniel sees Fiacra coming down with three other winged things. Fiacra swoops down and tries to grab hold of Daniel who tries to dodge, and the wind is knocked out of him as he's snatched.

Unable to do anything else, Rhapsody readies her club for the flying raptor females should they near. As for her cats, the one wounded is killed, while two of the others rip into Gregor and take him down.

Sheri is keeping the area covered and hears as Sonja gives out a strangle cry as she's ripped into by one of the raptor women.

One of the other raptors flies after Connel, but Rhapsody intercepts with the club, taking in the torso, and still tries to reach out for Connel. She misses the cop and gets caught into the whirlwind. The Feral is whirled around and then slammed into the ground.

The third bird goes for Gwyddion and he dodges. He notices Daniel is gone and takes a couple of shots at Fiacra, missing.

Sheri takes a shot at the bird on Sonja, but misses and hits Sonja's body. Two of the other soldiers ready weapons, one taking a shot the other pulling his sword. The one misses and the other advances.

"Where is the book?" Fiachra demands, "Tell me now or I'll rip your arms from their sockets."

"Over there!"

"Where, I don't sense it."

Daniel soulfires. "Not my fault you can't sense anything." The spell fizzles.

Connel shoots at the one that attacked him with a silver slug filled shotgun and hits.

Gwyddion says, "You might want to hold on, I'm going to send this after Fiachra, without us." He mutters in what sounds like Gaelic and there seem to be blue lights in the wind like eyes and are set down. A vaguely birdlike form of wind, dust and leaves head after Fiachra and Daniel.

Rhapsody goes to tear apart the raptor and the kitties rend Gregor.

"Where did you send it?" Fiachra demands and shifts to take hold of Daniel's arms and starts to pull.

Daniel looks up and sees energy around Fiacra and doesn't say anything as he starts to tear his arms. He starts to channel essence out of instinct, but doesn't cast anything.

Connel takes a shot at the other raptor that's fleeing and misses.

Sheri sees the raptor turning her attention on her and she takes another careful shot and the bird manages to dodge. It gets about 12 feet up and it's telekinetically thrown into a tree. Gunfire erupts after the bird and it tries to dodge out of the way. It gains its feet and tucks its wings in as she books it through the trees.

Otome runs to the group. "Someone has followed Pukwudgi through the portal. Something with power."

Fiachra threatens Daniel again and he just says that he already told him. He starts to pull and then they are rocked by a blast of cold air. Daniel blacks out for a couple seconds and he sees he's plummeting to the trees. He manages to get his levitate spell off and slows his fall to a drift. He manages to see Fiachra wrestling with something as he falls into the treetops and howls.

Rhapsody goes after where Fiachra and two of Gwyddion's men to go on ahead, the tigers following. Ramirez and Mulder volunteer to go after Pukwudji and they go with Otome.

The others go after Fiachra.

Rhapsody smells a Fiachra beast and is ready as it and another leaps out. She meets one and sends the kitties after the other. She uses the club and it cracks its neck and sends it to the ground. The kitties goes after the others and it bulls through them, then tries to grab one, but it dodges.

The two Atlantean warriors come up and aim, but don't shoot yet.

"Watch the treeline!" and four Ferals start to pour out of the trees.

Rhapsody goes after the beast and misses as do all but one of her kitties.

Sheri shoots at the nearest Feral and it dodges out of the way.

Daniel hears Fiachra roar and the elemental vault up into the sky. The group hears Gwyddion speaking under his breath in Gaelic.

The trees and brush get trampled towards Daniel.

The other three Ferals and close with the warriors. One goes after Connel, one after Rhapsody and one after Sheri. Sheri gets hit, but her armor takes the damage. Sheri is only knocked back. Connel gets hit and swats him with a claw. Connel is knocked unconscious, gravely wounded. The one after Rhapsody misses.

The beast goes after Gwyddion and he rolls out of the way.

The others let loose. The beast gets riddled with bullets but is still on its feet. The Feral that hit Connel takes a round in the chest and flies back.

Daniel stumbles towards the gunfire as he uses his essence to use hideaway.

Rhapsody slams the club in the head, killing it. She looks to the Feral and asks, "Ready?" as the tigers attack. The first one misses, the second hits and the third kills the wolf.

Daniel still hears the crashing of a tree limb behind him and sees Fiachra. H reaches down to feel the ground. "I know you're here." He lokos around. "Your trail ends here." He starts to smash trees around the area.

Daniel channels and tries to keep out of the way of the raging Balial

Sheri summons her holy strength letting the thing attack her, drawing her kukri for a parry.

The Atlanteans pulls swords to defend. One of them does go down under a Feral. One Atlantean knocks down the Feral. The other wolf goes after Sheri and she parries and takes off an arm.

Rhapsody walks over and rips the Feral's leg off that was after Sheri. The two kitties after the Fiachra beast miss. The other kitty leaps onto the other Feral from the back and knocks him down.

Fiachra slams more trees and goes up then gets slammed into by the elemental again.

Atlanteans gang up on the beast and take it down. And Stumpy is taken down.

Sheri stablizes Connel and carries him. Two kitties guard the two.

Daniel casts a healing but it fails as he maintains his hideaway.

The group gets to the ravine and Rhapsody uses her camoflague ability and heads off on her own, leaving the cats guarding Connel, Sheri and Gwyddion.

Fiachra has quieted and gone up the ravine.

Rhapsody, ahead of the others, smells then sees two Ferals guarding the passage up the side Fiachra went. She stealths forward to attack position.

Daniel channels to cast his healing.

Rhapsody gets to see into the clearing and there is Fiachra talking to other Ferals. They spread out and she heads back to report to Gwyddion.

Daniel having his presence of mind restored as the pain fades some, he works on dismissing the essence of his failed casting. He sees several shapes run by him in the woods, bent over large wolf like forms.

Rhapsody gets to where she smells the group of Ferals and moves around them, though she will reach the others at the same time as the wolves. She bellows, "INCOMING," then attacks as the pack starts to split off to surround the Atlanteans. She cracks an arm of the wolf with the club.

Sheri sees the one attacked by Rhapsody and sets the cop down.

Two of the warriors aim at the one Rhapsody hit and fire with their assault rifles, they hit and it falls.

The Ferals jump out of the trees and attack. Three go after the kitties, the first two miss, the third is hit with the second attack and kills the one guarding Gwyddion. Another Feral goes after a tiger and kills it. Feral attacks an Atlantean and removes an arm. A Feral kills the last kitty and the last Feral goes after a warrior. The warrior sees it coming and tries to parry, but fails., almost losing a leg, but dodges the last strike.

Armless misses a shot at the Feral. Legoless takes a swipe with his sword but misses. One goes to the aid of Legoless and hits with his sword, but only nicks him. Another warrior attacks the one after Armless and hits, doing a good amount of damage.

Gwyddion attacks the one that took out a tiger and misses.

Daniel drops his hideaway and works on healing and manages fix more of the damage.

Rhapsody goes to the next Feral and bashes him in skull, caving his head in.

Legolass misses. Armless strikes and also misses. One of the warriors with Legolass hits and drops him with evisceration. One over Armless misses. Last guy goes after one and just barely misses.

Gwyddion attacks twice the first striking a leg, and the second hits through the knee and sticks in through the shoulder and to the chest.

First feral goes after one of the unwounded warriors and dodges out of the way. Secodn one goes with two attacks, the warrior parries cutting into the Feral's arm. The wolf still goes with the second attack and hits, and takes out an Arm. Feral goes after Gwyddion and his leg and cripples him. The last Feral goes after one of the uninjured warriors with two attacks. And he dodges out of the way of both strikes.

Sheri goes after the nearest feral and misses.

Daniel works on healing.

Rhapsody goes up and bashes another one in the head.

Sheri goes to the nearest to slice and dice. She hits and cuts it in face, severing the lower jaw almost completely off.

The Feral with the crippled leg goes after Gwyddion and is parried, getting it's arm severed. The one Rhapsody bashed goes after her and totally misses her as he attacks the wrong one. The jawdropped one goes after Sheri and is parried, taking it's arm off and finishes it off. The undamaged one goes after the warrior and missed.

Daniel finishes healing himself.

Armless relieves a Feral of his leg. One of the undamaged one goes after the same Feral and hits, taking an arm.

Sheri goes to help Gwyddion and misses.

Rhapsody kills the Feral with the brain damage.

The Atltanteans, first misses, the second, misses, the third hits and kills it. And the last Feral is put down.

Daniel catches up to the group.

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Session 33

Heavy Machine gunner - Fallon

Gwyddion has Fallon prepare the machine gun.

Daniel has Sheri and Gwyddion make in a circle with him after drawing one around the unconscious Connel.

Once Connel is up, Rhapsody heads out to check on Fiacra and Daniel works on healing Gwyddion.

Rhapsody gets to the edge of the clearing and sees that Fiacra is in his beast form.

"I smell you, Rhapsody. My patience is not endless. Bring your worst."

"Right, be back."

Daniel finishes healing who he can, and expounds on Fiacra's shield.

Connel says he had a vision of Rhapsody killing Gwyddion and Sheri.

That pauses the group and they discuss the vision. Rhapsody is going to be more aware of her amulet.

Donovan steps into the trees and fires the rocket launcher. Shields flare and Fiacra challenges which is denied as Fallon opens fire.

A veil is lifted and there are Ferals, around 30 of them, bears, wolves and other animals, as well as woolly mammoth Fiacra beasts and an Oriental woman who had dropped the veil.

"You had your chance, now you will die. Kill them."

The horde charges.

As they are prepared for the fight, there are huge wolves behind them, bear headed Natives with the Elk Brothers, cries from above.

"We are here, Drum Sister."

The Wolf Lord and his pack leap over the group and head to engage as the eagles are striking from above.

Sheri calls forth Holy Fire on Fiacra. Lightning and fire rain down and crunch at one of his wings. Rhapsody summons four kitties to protect Sheri, Connel and Gwyddion, even against her. Wolves meet Ferals and the Wolf Lord battles a Bear Feral. The sorceress gets ready to cast. The ground begins to rumble underneath everyone. Daniel moves a little ways to get to more stable ground as he keeps channeling. Connell gets a blade from Donovan and starts heading towards Fiacra and the sorceress.

The group starts to advance with the Elk Brothers. Rhapsody tells the Native spirits that if she attacks their Drum Sister to put her down. Rhapsody is in front. A bear Feral is launching himself at Rhapsody as a mammoth beast is lumbering between the group and Fiacra. Atilita, the eagles, is attacking the beast. Rhapsody gets ready to hit the bear coming at her and hits him, the Feral not moving quite fast enough out of the way, but still tries to take a bite out of her, missing spectacularly. Daniel launches his soulfire at the sorceress and misses just ever so barely. The sorceress casts and jumps off the ledge, fading away. One of the wolves of the Wolf Lord flies near the group, blood pouring out and is then still.

Fiacra's wing looks healed. The other guardian beast takes one of the Elk Brother's spears about 3 feet into its neck. It snaps it as it takes it mostly out. Sheri goes after the bear and hits with a decent slice, taking off an ear. A wolf Feral comes in from the right and meets it with his blade, he slices across the chest and then stabs into the Feral. The wolf attacks and misses. The kitty latches onto the neck and shakes, killing the wolf. Connel Sees that a blast of energy from the side near some rocks and hit Daniel and warns him.

One of the guardian beasts advances to where it will be near Rhapsody. Rhapsody turns to the bear and rips its head off, then throws it at Fiacra. Two cat Ferals rush the line from the left and Donovan and Fallon both meet them. Sheri goes after the Ferals attacking Gwyddion's boys and hits. The Guardian Beast rears up and its tentacles shoot out towards the group, one going for Rhapsody, she manages to parry. The other tentacle goes after Donavan who manages to get out of the way. Conell tries to get a vision of the witchy poo, not getting anything new. Daniel soulfires at the other beastie and hits, doing some damage to it, making the tentacle that was hit fall to the side and spasm. One of the Elk Brothers leaps and lands on the chest on the Guardian beast and uses his antlers to gouge at it.

The Wolf Lord is surrounded by four Ferals, he spins with his spear and yells out a war cry. He hits one wolf feral across the jaw. The Feral turns into a naked person, falls and then runs away. Sheri goes after the mammoth and hits, deep into the leg and it comes down onto its leg, the appendage crippled. Rhapsody tries for a head shot as it falls down, and misses at the last second, the tiger getting out of the way of the tusk that came after her. Gwyddion helps Fallon and Donovan against their Feral, lopping the head off. The Guardian beast tries to munch Rhapsody and hits, it shakes its head and Rhaps is injured, but not down. One tentacle goes for Sheri, the other for Connel. Sheri dodges out of the way and her guardian kitty attacks, grabs a tentacle and rips it off. The other tentacle attacks Connel and he dodges. Connel's kitty pounces misses. Rhapsody sees four figures join Fiacra up on the rock. He turns and talks to them. Rhapsody recognizes him. He has two women with him and one man. They all have trenches on. The man turns to her and smiles. It's Loknath, the one who killed her family and turned Rhaps into a Feral. Daniel soul fires the other beastie and hits, under the chin and into its face. Atilita takes advantage. She puts her talons to the tusks and flips it over to its side. Connel tries to go for the heart of the beast and pulls back as he swings. A soulfire comes at Daniel from the boulders and he manages to get out of the way.

Quick look around shows good guys vs bad guys is pretty even. The Elk Brother notices that Rhapsody and her tigers are heading towards Fiachra, though specifically at Loknath.

Loknath, points and eight more tigers come out and head for Rhapsody's tigers.

The beastie goes to chomp Gwyddion, and hits, picking him up off the ground and shakes him, then flings him away.

Donovan and Fallon yell for Gwyddion, as a tentacle clamps onto Donovan, yanking him into the air with one arm pinned. The other tentacle goes after an Elk Brother and is hit.

Sheri goes after the mammoth in the neck. Connel goes to help Sheri and just gets a glancing blow, not getting through the fur. Daniel also goes to stab the mammoth and hits, managing to bleed it some.

Rhapsody is still going after Loknath. She kills both tigers she aims for. Two of her kitties kill Loknath's that they are facing.

Donavan tries to break free, and is whipped around. Fallon jumps up to try and sever the tentacle and misses. Sheri tries to carve mammoth again and is nudged back a little. Daniel attacks and misses. The evil kitties miss one and kill another. The other two go after Rhapsody and she bonks it on the head. The other kitty does slash her.

Loknath and the others throw off their trenchcoats and transform, him being the largest tiger they've seen.

Donovan goes into the critter's maw, head and shoulders go in, the rest come back out ripped. Fallon goes berserk. The tentacle goes for Sheri and hits, getting a hold of her and lifting her up into the air. A soulfire is launched at Daniel and he scrambles out of the way.

One of the Elk brothers is brought down by three Ferals. He comes up, heavily wounded. He spins around and guts one, but is not looking so good. Connel goes to attack the mammoth and manages to stab it up in through the jaw, as it comes down at him and the blade slices the brainpan. Sheri is flung out and over the battle, landing opposite Gwyddion. She hits the back of a bear Feral, knocking him off balance.

Atalita, done with the critter, goes after the sorceress. Sheri attacks the Feral that she landed on and misses. Rhapsody kills one of the evil kitties and misses the other. Her kitties kill all but one. Fallon runs up with Daniel behind Rhapsody. Evil kitty attacks Rhaps and is rent. The other kitty misses its target. The other tigers and Loknath are spreading out and approaching, but waiting for Rhaps to finish.

In her mind, Rhapsody hears Fiacra says, "This is your last chance Rhapsody, surrender to me join me and I will slay him for you. He won't even see it coming."

Rhapsody replies with a one fingered salute.

One of the Elk Brothers goes down, the other lowers its head and charges the bear Feral attacking Sheri, and sticks it with the antlers, then flings him. Bear hits the ground, mauled, one paw useless.

Rhapsody kills the last evil spirit kitty. Her kitties go after Loknath but are intercepted and are destroyed. The other tigers jump out at Rhapsody. Rhapsody parries one and slices the Feral, taking away its arm. It falls and rolls to the side. The second Feral slices at Rhapsody, and the third she blocks.

Fallon takes a stab at one of the ones standing and hits with a low jab in the torso. Sheri huffs her way towards the group. Daniel soulfires at the one Fallon hit for a little damage, singing him. Connel attacks the same one, but it manages to dodge out of the way.

Sheri sees that the good guys have won out in the major battle, with extremely heavy losses. The Wolf Lord has a shredded arm as he's on the ground on his knees. Naked humans are slinking away. Two Bear Brothers are still standing, Elk Brother is standing, the other having disappeared. Atalita and the eagles are not to be seen.

Rhapsody attacks the Feral in front of her and though she tries to block, RHaps takes out her heart and throws it at Loknath. Sheri attacked and barely misses. The one that is surrounded lashes out at Connel and he's hit and goes partially through the armor for a good gash. Fallon chops through the shoulder to the sternum and the Feral falls to the ground. Daniel comes up short and assesses the situation. Connel lops the head off the one Rhapsody removed the arm from.

______________________________________________

Session 34

Fiacra spreads his wings and tentacles sprout out from under the wings. They shoot out, striking at Elk Brother, but it is easily sidestepped. Rhapsody attacks Locknath and swings with her club, missing, then barely misses with her claw. Elk Brother launches his spear at Fiachra, who bats it out of the air with one of his tentacles. Sheri calls for the Holy Fire on Fiachra, the drums loud in her ears. The lightning strikes Fiachra, and he looks over at Sheri. Locknath attacks with the sword and misses both times as well. Connell tries to hit Locknath and is easily dodged. Daniel goes to attack Locknaht with the dagger and he hits. The Wolf Lord jumps in and attacks Fiachra, one of the tentacles picks him up and throws him off.

"know that when I kill your allies, they are gone for good," Fiachra says both vocally and mentally.

Fallon rushes in and take on Locknath, but is dodged.

Rhaposdy, with a small request for help from her murdered family, embeds the club into Locknath's side, and misses with her claw hit. Sheri lets loose with a Mind Scream against Locknath and it gets through his defenses. Fiacra sees Locknath get hammered and heads towards the group. He launches a tentacle at Sheri, and she dodges out of the way. He uses two claws against Rhapsody and connects, the blow knocking her unconscious. His other claw is redirected to Fallon and severs him in two. Connel still goes after Locknath and misses. Elk Brother comes up fvom behind and gores Fiachra with his antlers. Fiachra is then attacked by Wolf Lord and bites into the side of the Balial. Daniel hadokens Fiachra and hits, then he steps to be shielding Rhapsody. Fiachra is staggered and he's trying to get rid of the Wolf Lord still on his back.

Fiachra tries to get rid of Wolf Lord with his tentacles and the Wolf Lord dodges the hits and is still is latched on. He then chomps Elk Brother and crunches into the shoulder and is flung into the cliff and lands. Sheri tries her Mind Scream at Fiachra and it doesn't get through. Wolf Lord pulls himself up a bit and tries to chomp down on Fiachra's neck and he clamps on. Fiachra visibly goes limp for a moment as the tentacles fall in that time as his neck is torn into. Daniel fires a soulfire but it's dodged. Locknath drops his sword, and goes as near to full tiger and starts to run away. Connel changes targets and attacks Fiachra but doesn't quite get there.

Fiachra's claws rip into the Wolf Lord and he is flung into the cliff. There is an audible snap and disintegrates as he hits the rocks at the bse of the cliff. The remaining Elk Brother gets to his feet and yells in anguish. The Elk, looking more bestial, leaps up and charges at Fiachra, the tentacles tripped him up and he slides to the side. Sheri attacks Fiachra and hits, sinking the whole of her kukri into the back of her neck. Fiachra screams, the tentacles whipping around, knocking Daniel off his feet. Connel goes to club on the head of Fiachra. Daniel calls for Hashunka.

There is an eagle's cry and a firebird appears. She lands on the clifftop and transforms into her 'human' guise. "I sense my daughter, is she well here?"

Hashunka helps Elk Brother to his feet. She transforms into her winged form, picks up Fiachra and flies off with him.

Rhapsody wakes and looks around as much as she can and says, "Shit."

Daniel goes to look for Adelita.

The others look for survivors. Gwyddion is dead.

Further down the ravine is a rockslide, Daneil senses her in the rockslide. Adelita calls for Daniel. He manages to get the rocks off her and get her out. Underneath is also a leg and hand of the sorceress. Daneil heals Adelita.

Connell and Sheri make a triage to get the injured former Ferals tended to. Rhapsody looks for Locknath and starts tracking him.

Sheri goes over to where Elk Brother is drumming, he's near the spot where Wolf Lord was killed. Other spirits are also gathering around him.

Rhapsody follows the trail of blood through the woods and it leads to the cliff ledge and it disappears. She heads back towards the group.

Connel went to get a cell phone to get help for the survivors, and also broke the news to the surviving team.

Rhapsody, while heading back, sees a survivor and keeps going. She gets to her clothes and goes to track survivors.

Ashley gets the truck and they start hauling the dead elves and it takes them the rest of the night.

They have the funeral service for the elves, then get back towards the Escalade and head towards the entrance to the Elk Brother's lodge. They go through the cave and there is smoke from the lodge and there is flute music comeing from inside. Pukwudji is sitting inside, Muller's arm is bandaged up.

The book is safe, thanks in part to the two Underground members. It was one of the eagle women harpies who had great magic with her.

They leave the book behind with the Elk Brother.

They head to the Oracle and hike up. As they get near they hear voices. Rhapsody goes on a head and finds a little two man tent by the remains of a fire. The pair continue to talk about what's going on and finally Rhapsody speaks up startling them.

They promise to take the pair out after they rest. They talk to the oracle and find out there is nothing new to be reported other than Fiachra is bound.

After sleeping a whole day, theyhead out. Rhapsody takes the 'scenic' route so that the couple doesn't know where exactly the pool was.

On the radio report is about an 'alternative religion' who was trying to get more members with torture, drugs and other methods.

"great, Dirty Sherri."

Connel heads to the Underground base.

Session Noted Continued 24-30

2008-10-02T07:40:00.000-07:00

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.
______________________________________________

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.

______________________________________________

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.
----

______________________________________________

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.

______________________________________________

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.

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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.

Session Noted Continued 18-23

2008-10-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

Session 18 & 19
No notes for now. Basic recap from GM notes

All are a little suspicious and surprised to find her alive. She explains. Back at the Sentinel safehouse they do the ritual with Priest there and discover that Rhaps gives off a Fiachra vibe. She's almost shot by the Sentinels then and there. Instead they decide to distance themselves from the group.

Willard gets ahold of the group and tells them that Chereshe wishes to meet them. A neutral park in the city is chosen.

In the park, they meet Chereshe, Willard and some of his bodyguards, He tells them they failed and he has decided they are useless. Before he can strike them down Myrddin and a group of mysterious elves appear. Myrrdin throws down with Chereshe, sucking him into a gateway of some kind. The Elves kill the bodyguards, Willard escapes in a panic.

Gwyddion reveals himself to be a Sidhe warrior. Part of a group dedicated to fighting the Baal, and tells them that Myrddin bought them time to rescue Jenny.

Daniel summons the air spirit which leads them in the general direction of Jenny's current location, in Gwyddion's car. There's some interesting invisible driving to evade the cops as they speed down the freeway to a mortuary and cemetary in one of the suburbs.

Sneaking into the mortuary they find a secret passage through the fridge. At the base of the stairs they are trapped by a fire demon the room starts to get very hot. It is Sherry who is shown the way out. Rhaps guards there escape and kills the demon. Further on they find an underground chamber with a large, locked iron door. Zombies literally start coming from the walls. Ghost like demons attack as well. Large melee ensues. Its a near thing but the enchanted weapons given them by the Elk Brothers make the difference. Rhaps tears through the door eventually and they take out the last guard/torturer.

They find that Jenny has had her eyes put out and apparently drowned. No wait, she still has a pulse. They take her to yet another safehouse, this time one that Myrddin had set up.

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Session 20

During the time in the safe house, the girls teach Daniel how to fight with a knife. A couple days pass, and as the group are starting suffer cabin fever, there is loud bang in the living room and smoke.

In the living room is Myrdin, and he is nursing a broken and mangled arm. He looks like hell. He slumps to the couch as Gwyddion runs to him. Daniel moves to do some healing. Myridin asks if they got the girl.

She is a water spirit, to awaken her powers she needs to reconnect with her past.

Gwyd turns and sits on the couch. The ritual is one that his people excel; it will hide their presence from the Atlantean lords. They may have to stay for another week. In order to contact Pukwudgi, he'd need a token to prove he is a friend when he steps outside the wards. If he's lucky, he'll be back in four days at the soonest, and seven at the latest.

On the fourth day they haven't heard anything, however, Jenny stirs and has a pulse. By midday, she is awake, breathing and acting like a normal person, which means she's wigged about her lack of sight.

Daniel checks in with Priest. Her daughter is fine and she is with her father and they are both taken out of the city, being held in a secret location. Daniel doesn't want the information where they are yet. He tells Jenny that her daughter is fine. She asks to talk to her.

Daniel says he'll try to arrange it. Jenny is asking why this was done to her and Sheri tells her it's probably to speed up her Second Sight. She said she had the strangest dreams; there was a pool of water, she can't place where it was. She was placed in water, and she thought she was going to drown.

She starts wailing about the pain and how it hurts till she finally exhausts herself back to sleep. They watch the news and there is a report on missing persons. There is a story of Sheri Hanson missing. Sheri sends a couple of e-mails.

Gwyddion arrives with a suitcase. Pukwudgi sends a message to meet him at the beach. He opens the suitcase up and there are 5 amulets made of bronze with runes and seem to be Celtic in nature. They won't work on a close physical level. He reminds them that they have this last chance to walk away.

Daniel, "Which pill Neo?"

Rhapsody, "The bronze one."

He takes out dagger and pokes their fingers and with a drop of blood on the amulet. They go to Jenny's room. They get her amulet activated and on her. They head to the kitchen and they use the ritual to see if Rhaps still bears Fiachra's mark. There is no mark shown where Rhaps is, and his mark his shown in the national forest.

Gwyd gives them a credit card to use what they need. They head to a lot to get a van. Once the van is purchased, they head to the beach and head to the cave. Pukwudgi is sitting at the mouth of the cave.

Sheri goes with Pukwudgi to the spirit realm in the cave. When they get out of the cave, it's dark, as opposed to light as it was. She sees the lodge over to one path. Pukwudji pauses then goes and gets the others. They follow along and they hear the sound of a river and as they come through the underbrush, they come to the river. There is a path along side it The three now wait at the river as Sheri and Pukwudgi head up the trail.

There is a cave and a firelight coming from inside the cave, and there is the low murmuring of voices from inside. Sheri needs to go into the cave on her own. She goes in and sees the others that have the heads of animals in there; Bear, Wolf, Raven, Buffalo, etc.

Next to Bear, who is female, a Native American man with a flannel shirt and Levis is sitting there. He smiles at Sheri as she comes in and is the only one to recognize her. The one on the other side of the fire is a female with a Turtle Head.

Elk Brother is there and he steps forward. They are speaking of the new threats and that the Sea Grandfather is right and that the battle concerns them all.

The old man asks what Sheri came for. She tells them that she was councilled that the woman with them has great water medicine. They ask where she is now and Sheri tells them that she is near the river.

They send Pukwudji goes to get the others and they head to the cave and sit with the elders around the fire. Bear Woman takes Jenny's hand and pulls her near and feels over her eyes. The girl is a spirit of the water. She gives Jenny some herbs for the pain and starts to doze then falls asleep.

She was drawn away from her true self, taking a path that she was not meant to take. She needs to be returned to her true path. They need to find her home and lead her back to it and she will be well again. She may need to submerge herself in her home waters. A woman with a coyote head comes in and the elders begin to depart, after bidding the others to rest.

The old man stays and passes around the pipe to any who wants it. He introduces himself as Charlie, one of the last of his people to share the Spirit Cave. After a while he leaves and the party rests in the cave.

They wake up on the beach by the ocean and head out to go get a hotel suite for the month at least while the card lasts. They get another vehicle, mountain bikes, clothes, and a few other items. Jenny wakes up and they talk about where she was before she moved to where she met Dan. She was adopted. They decide to check on her parents. They call Priest to see if they can protect them or at least keep an eye on them.

Jenny would prefer them protected without them being worried. Priest calls back in the morning and has them, they are the recipients of a prize and going on vacation. She starts to prod as to where she was adopted.

There's a trailer park north of Northport, called Pine Meadows. There are no bodies of waters very close, but it is close to a river in the national forest, roughly 15 miles away. They head out to the river.

They get to the river, pulling up and walk down to the shore. Jenny goes in the water and then goes in further to dunk herself in the water. She remembers a body of water, that was a pond or a lake and not in the sun.

Daniel offers to try and summon a water spirit.

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Session 21

They head to the trailer park, only person out there is someone doing yard work, seems folks are out at their jobs, etc. They park the van, Daniel and Sheri head out to ask the guy working about a pond. He doesn't seem to know of anything like that.

Getting back into the van, they drive up and get over to the side to start walking and looking around. Sheri suggests splitting up the group to cover more ground. Daniel says he'll stay with Jenny if the other two want to range on ahead.

Rhapsody summons her tigers and sends them out in different directions to find bodies of water, like a pond or a lake. The group continues on and they see one of the tigers ahead. It leads the way off the trail. As the others take a break, Rhapsody goes into her cat form and follows to see where it leads, marking a trail

The cat leads to a ravine that has a bit of a stream where it pools into some little ponds of water. It sits down by the water and then disappears. Rhapsody goes upstream for about 10-15 and there is not much change, then heads downstream for the same amount of time. The stream doesn't become anything, but there is a particular pool where she sniffs the water and tastes it, where it's bitter. Looking at the water, there is an unnatural film on the water. It was faint enough that she would have not noticed it in human form. She heads back to the others.

They look over the map and the stream moves rather parallel of the trailer park, and then away from it. They decide to head back. Daniel asks Rhapsody to get a sample from the stream. She takes a canteen and gets the water. She feels she is being watched and sees a bobcat watching, and then it vanishes. She sniffs the air to see if it is a bobcat, and there is the slight whiff of something more than a bobcat… and it is similar to that of Fiachra. She changes back and runs back to the others.

Meanwhile, back on the trail, Sheri and Daniel get a chill and look around as Rhapsody bursts out of the brush, startling them. Rhapsody motions for them to go as she is keeping her tiger form.

Halfway back to the van, Rhaps senses an animal, keeping pace with them. She sniffs and it vanishes. As they get into a clearing, there is a crow that looks at them, caws and leaves. The animals are paying a lot of attention to them. They get to the road and get to the van. The tires are slashed and the bike wheels are trashed.

Rhapsody summons three more tigers as they look around the area of the van. Rhapsody finds a large print like that of the Fiachra-dog. Daniel starts to channel essence to put a shield on Jenny and one on him.

Daniel called Gwyddion and explaining that they are being hounded by Fiachra. As they round the bend, Fiacra stands there with two of his dogs. He states he is surprised that Rhapsody has returned after getting out his control and has brought tantalizing prizes.

The fiacra-dogs span around to flank the group and the tigers move to keep guard of them. Fiacra asks what happened to Cheresche. Sheri asks about a sacred pond and Fiacra is surprised, then looks at Jenny and understands.

Fiacra's goal is also now to get Jenny to her power. Cheresche would have wanted for Jenny to get her powers back to find Lasitide. He wants to have access to see the future to change, though he doesn't wish the Voice to be used to summon Gaea-Haru.

He offers to help in exchange of having access to the Voice's abilities.

Daniel suggests, since they are talking, Fiacra plays nice, they get the Voice's abilities, if he gives her eyes as tokens of faith and see if Jenny would help him. Fiacra seems willing to help as Daniel proposed.

Rhapsody finally says that the best bet to get the Voice restored is to ally with Fiacra for the time being. The area that is shunned by the animals is a place that was a gate to the elemental realm that has been corrupted.

Jenny wants to go with Daniel as they agree to have Fiacra fly them to the area of the corrupted gate. Fiacra transforms and flies off with Daniel and Jenny. One of the beasts trots off after them. He drops them off in a clearing and tells them that his minions will watch over them and to not wander off as he retransforms and heads back for the others.

Fiacra goes and gets Rhapsody and Sheri. Daniel is able to sense essence in vicinity, like a place of power. A few minutes later, the group is reunited. Fiacra leads the way through the dense underbrush to a cleft in the rock, pushing plants aside.

There is a pool and looks to be rocks jutting out of the pool. All plant life is dead around it. There is a film covering the water everywhere. Fiacra says that it was once a spring and the water bubbles and hisses as it's turned caustic.

It is an unnatural blight. Fiacra goes around the pool and there is an old wheel to a vehicle and heavy ruts going down the ravine.

"Do you sense them?"

There is something moving amongst the rocks on the other side of the pool. There is a red glint of eye and then it's gone. Jenny is completely quiet and is almost comatose in Daniel's arms, tense, but not reacting to anything.

"The Voice…. She is having trouble."

The gate, Fiacra senses, leads elsewhere. They discuss options on how to deal with the critters, to kill them first and go from there. Daniel can possibly banish the spirits if they are indeed spirits. He moves Jenny out about 50 yards to where she is coherent again and speaks to her.

Fiacra heads over towards Daniel and Jenny. Fiacra gives a plan to Daniel, using Jenny to draw out the critters, Daniel between them and her to banish them or keep them from Jenny. Daniel reluctantly agrees and Fiacra does a more formal introduction since he doesn't know Daniel's name.

Daniel lowers the shields. Rhapsody summons four tigers. Daniel creates a shield to hide him from the critters from sensing essence. Everyone gets into position.

Ten minutes later, the first form starts to come out of the pool. It looks like an emaciated humanoid figured, made of acid and goop. It has two leg-like appendages, big red-slitted eyes that make up most of its face. It moves up to where it's ten feet from the water and thirty feet from Jenny. After a few moments, another starts to emerge.

Daniel throws essence to banish the first one and it's encased in the magic and it is squeezed till it disappears. The one that was just emerging launches itself at Daniel.

Rhapsody goes to make like Babe Ruth and tries to strike the critter. However, it was anticipated others and spins in the air. Sheri holy fires it and it's knocked sideways in the air into the clearing. Daniel, based on the first one, realizes how much essence he needs and starts to channel essence for a soulfire, tossing it at the spirit and it dodges. The acid spirit heads towards Daniel and tries a flying tackle, leaping and bounding, hitting and causing acidic damage as it wraps around him. Two more get out of the pool and head for Sheri.

Rhapsody goes to hit one with the club and it is banished. Fiacra appears behind Daniel. The spirit looks scared as the Atlantean grabs it around the throat and yanks it off Daniel then rends it, also making it disintegrate. Sheri moves back and draws her spiffy kukri then decides to go after it and slashes it, wounding it as it took out one of its eyes. Daniel looks over and soulfires the one on Sheri and finishes it off. There are only two left and they've retreated through the gate.

Fiacra looks over and says that one or more must go through the gate. There is a physical talisman on the other side that must be destroyed. To do so they'd have to go into the pool. Daniel rests up a bit.

Fiacra admits that can't go through realms yet as he's still too newly summoned. Daniel has the best chance of cleaning the pool and getting Jennifer back since he has the best bet of seeing the item. He sets up his shielding and makes himself invisible after testing the shield on the acid. He then casts so he can have a bubble of air around him.

Daniel takes a plunge into the pool. At the bottom, he sees a glowing light and goes into it. He almost trips into a barrel at the bottom of the pool. He goes towards the light and everything is a red haze for a moment and in soupier water. A creature lunges at him.

He blasts at the creature and doesn't dodge at all. Its hit and is pushed back by the soulfire and it regains its balance, going near the portal, slashing around the area. Daniel gets out of the water and into red air in a desolate area.

The other creature is on the pool's edge, peering down into the water. Daniel finds a natural black rock pedestal and sees a red and yellow sphere of energy. He moves over out of line of sight of the creature, but is point blank of the orb.

The creature lunges up and goes to the pedestal and it screams and hisses as it tries to find the cause. It dives into the water before the sphere glows bright and then implodes. The trail of energy going to the gate is starting to taper off. He passes by the creatures and bumps the second one as the gate wavers and close. A hand grabs Daniel's ankle. They are tied in the tug of war.

Sheri is looking for a vision of the gate and sees the bubbles and knows there is a desperate situation right now. Daniel's leg up to the knee slides into the portal. Daniel is up to his thigh when he is yanked up the other way. Daniel feels something grate into his shield. Fiacra pushes Daniel up to the surface and he swims to the shore. A few seconds later, Fiacra comes out of the water.

Daniel tells of the barrel down at the bottom, which is what caused the opening of the acidic gate. They need to get the site cleaned up for the correct gate to open up.

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Session 22

Group discusses options. Fiacra asks if there are any Covens they know that could help. Rhapsody calls Amy. After a very brief explanation, Amy agrees to call in her coven to do the clean up. Fiacra suggest that the witches not actually ‘see’ where the Voice’s location is for fear of Chereshe’s minions.

He also wants to be allowed to exist in the woods and for the group to not interfere with him and he will not interfere with them. He says that he hasn’t been in the world long enough to know what his long term goals are, but he will be seeking power. All he wants to have is a truce.

Daniel and Sheri ask if there are any weaknesses about Chereshe that he’d be willing to part with without compromising himself and his loyalty to the Balial. He only says to seek answers from the book used to summon him.

Amy calls back and says that she can get together enough to do a cleansing and they agree to meet in the morning. Daniel is going to stay the night with Jenny and Fiacra as Sheri and Rhapsody head through the woods.

Fiacra gathers wood and starts a fire and informs Daniel there will be animals guarding and not to wander too far.

The girls finally get to the roads. They get to a hotel, sleep a couple hours and meet Amy and her cover members at the Village Inn, and finally manage to convince them to be blindfolded part of the ways to the grove.

They get to the grove and give Daniel his breakfast. Amy and the others invite Daniel and Sheri in the ritual as they get ready to do the magic. They finish the incantation after they draw a star into the ground. Essence is pulled from the casters and the water starts to wave.

The water churns and bubbles as the canister rises, rusted and noxious. The gunk from the bottom gathers and shrinks to nothingness. The canister begins to implode and shrinks and is also soon gone.

Fiacra lunges out and looks at Manny and Jasmine and says they are marked as Chereshe’s. As Sheri starts to trance out to Sight them, Manny goes up into the air. Sheri calls down holy fire, reasoning that if he’s not lying, he won’t get burned. Manny gets fried and starts to fall, Rhapsody goes tiger and goes after Manny.

Rhapsody finds Manny and brings him back to the others. Fiacra moves over to them and says that Jasmine cannot leave. Jasmine blubbers that yes that they dealt to get more power. Daniel turns to ground essence and sees Jenny is in the water and she disappears.

A water based female form comes out of the water. There seems to be blood running from the eyes for a few seconds and it stops. The Voice steps out onto the edge of the beach, and in a voice that is and is not Jenny’s that Jasmine granted power for the attack at the apartments.

The Voice moves to Jasmine and takes her to the water’s edge and willingly, the witch follows her into the pool, both disappearing beneath the water.

Amy is crying and Rhapsody glances at Manny’s body and Fiacra notes that the death is a ruse. He says that beheading would keep him from going back to Chereshe. Rhapsody nods , takes Manny’s body back to where the trees where that he fell in and tears off his head as Jasmine’s body floats up into the water.

Sheri and Amy talk, Amy wanting to know what she can since she has been brought too far and has lost two of her coven. Amy says she’ll stay right there while Sheri talks to the others to see if she will be told everything.

Daniel starts to tell her what has been going on. Amy is given Jenny’s amulet and she says that she will think on what she wants to do and how much she wants to be involved. But first she wants to bury her friends.

------

They head back to the Voice and she doesn’t come back. Fiacra says that she needs time to acclimate and to find attendants for the Voice. They head out, get new tires and go on their way. They call Priest and meet with him at the warehouse.

They get the book back and head out, then Daniel suggests that they go to Italy to track down the origins of the book. Daniel calls Gwyddion to see if they can get help getting armed in Italy. He evades some questions as to Fiacra’s whereabouts and how the Voice is safe. He asks if there are folks in Italy that could help them.

Sheri, meanwhile, is asleep in the van. She dreams that she is in the woods. She looks over and sees Pukwudji. She realizes she’s in the Ewok forest and wearing the headdress of one of the Ewoks.

Sheri says that the Sister of Water has gone into her home. The Elk Brothers are worried for Sheri. That some might say that they are angry that they have not been fighting with the weapons granted. Pukwudji says they are worried about the ancient old whiteman god in the forest and he is disturbing things.

Pukwudji says that he things Sheri needs to see something and leads her along into the woods. She realizes the look of the woods has changed. Pukwudji says that they are in the past, but not too far back.
Sheri comes upon a backpack and then hears Fiacra and scared voice. Fiacra is holding a hiker and there is another hiker off to the side. Fiacra draws a line of blood along the hiker’s chest. He makes him his lieutenant and he drops the man to the ground. The man does a feral change and turns into a wolf. Fiacra lets the wolf go off into the woods, after directing him to feast on flesh.

Pukwudji notes that Fiacra is not nature’s friend as he claims and is only helping to have power for power’s sake.

Sheri is woken and she tells of Pukwudji’s warning and the events of the dream. They head out to meet with Gwyddion and the guy with him. He introduces Gerald who starts to peruse the book. Daniel tells Gwyddion where Fiacra is and that he is guarding the Voice.

Gwyddion tells that the ship and the receipt on the yacht, front for a man Arthur Ottovan. He’s been around for a long time and may have been the one that tracked down the key. There also lies the riches that he had access to.

The Risen is a new cult based around the Balial.

They are tracking those leads, but it will take time. Chereshe is the bigger threat. However, they decide to have Sheri go talk to the Elk Brothers about getting them to help transport them to Fiacra along with the strike force.

____________________________________________

Session 23

Gwyddion was going to speak to Myrddin and suggests that they arrange the backdoor attack in the meantime. Sheri tries to contact Pukwudgi but to no avail. They make arrangements to meat with Gwyddion later and then head to the caves that led to the Elk Brother’s lands.

Once there, Sheri does another round of meditation and she does find Pukwudgi who comes down the beach. She offers him a little pouch of tobacco and starts to tell of the decision to go on the warpath against Fiacra. They head to the spirit world to talk more fully about the decision.

A little further discussion and Pukwudgi thinks that Sheri should talk to the Elk Brothers, then leads the way to the lodge, smoke is coming from the opening. Not wanting to be rude, Rhapsody and Daniel stay on the other side of the stream as Sheri goes to the lodge.

One of the Elk Brothers is resting as Sheri enters and greets her. He sits up and scoots to the fire, asking if Sheri is seeking something. Sheri acknowledges that she and her friends are going on the warpath against Fiacra.

The Elk Brother tells Sheri that they need Wolf Brother to get close to the Beast Lord’s den. Sheri replies that they wish to go to battle within a sun. Wolf Brother will know Sheri for one of those protected by the Elk Brothers. Sheri is told that an offering of meat would be a good token.

Pukwudgi heads over and tells Daniel and Rhapsody that drum sister has gone crazy.

Rhapsody goes hunting and after about half an hour, finds deer and she moves up to a stalking position and then launches herself at the largest buck, killing it. She goes to her hybrid form and carries the buck back.

Pukwudgi reluctantly takes them to wolf clan’s lands. They see a totem of wolf heads and continue on. 10 minutes later, there are shapes in the woods, moving along side them. They leave the trees and a promontory where there are several lodges. There are bloodstains on the rocks and there are 20 large wolves behind the group. Pukwudgi nudges Sheri to greet the lodges.

A flap opens from one of the lodges. Not as tall as the elk brothers, but more rangy and muscular with the head of the wolf comes out with obsidian blades and demands to know what the Sister of the Elk Brothers want. Rhapsody gives the offering. The Wolf Brother has her give the deer to the wolves behind them as Sheri asks if the Wolf Brother is interested in a special hunt.

Wolf Brother wants to know what they offer him to lead the hunt of the Beast Lord. Wolf Brother tells them to sit while he goes to think of what he wants from them, and Daniel immediately has his butt on the ground.

He comes back out with a woman that has the head of a fox. “Ottomae will help you. Wolves go to hunt and fight, but they will not be fighting. Ottomae knows the ways. In return, you all will come to my aide in a hunt.”

He will not take only their words to give them aid, has them spill blood as well. When it is time for their hunt, they are to send someone to the Wolf Brother to get Ottomae.

They head back out to the beach then back to their hotel suite to have some downtime. In the morning, the phone rings. Daniel picks it up and it’s Gwyddion and asks to meet in the same place in an hour.

At the park, Gwyddion says that he spoke to Myrddin. He can banish Fiacra but needs him in a higher plane. He can do one or the other but not both. When asked what higher plane, he mentions that his ancestors have a higher connection to a sephiroth called the Indigo Realm. Fiacra has to be banished as soon as he’s there, which is why Meriden cannot do both.

Gwyddion has a key to the indigo realm, keyed to the spot to where Meriden will be waiting. Daniel suggests contacting Amy. Fiacra, in the girl’s body he was summoned in, went to the girl’s home.

Pukwudgi knows of one spirit that knows how to get to the higher worlds. Nashunka (fire eagle) is not friendly to the spirits of the first world and says she is crazy.

Cut scene:

“Nashunka,” Elk Brother affirms as Sheri asks.

The drummer Charlie Whiteeagle could take them to her realm.

They go to the reservation and to Charlie’s house. Charlie affirms that Nashunka is a cranky old woman and her nest is Mt. St Helen’s, the active volcano.

Sheri calls Amy to see if she knows anyone that can gate. She does, but doesn’t know if this person is one of Chereshe's or not. Sheri tells her to hold off.

They go to a store to get supplies and head out. They stop at a motel along the way and talk with Charlie.

The next day they head up the trail. They pass a few hikers. At one of the breaks, Charlie senses a place he could get into Nashunka’s realm. As they go off the trail, they find a hole near a break of trees. Daniel and Rhapsody shine light and see it’s a lava tube.

They climb down and walk up the tube a little ways. He finds a good spot, sits down and meditates for a few moments and chants. There is a popping sound and a rush of hot air that immediate chaps the lips.

There is a steady wind that blows as Charlie announces their arrival. Charlie asks if it’s okay if he stays there. He gives them a blessing before they head off.

Little over a half hour of walking, there is a split in the tube. Daniel votes going right as Sheri sits to meditate and prays for a vision. In her vision she sees herself standing before the tube and sees a huge bitey snake on the left arm.

They head right and after a while they see a red, hazy light coming from outside. They ponder how to get out and Pukwudgi peeks in. They toss him a rope and he ties it to a rock for them. Pukwudgi tells Rhapsody that there is a very wild spirit that might make her lose control. She hands Daniel her silver loaded gun.

Pukwudgi stops after a moment and says that he thinks they’re being watched. They look up and through binoculars and see eagles. And he notes that they are also being followed and they see a serpentine tail slither by.

They continue onwards at a slightly faster pace. In the crevasse of a large boulder, Rhapsody sees another serpentine shape slither on ahead. Pukwudgi thinks they might be fire serpents.

They skirt around the boulders and the serpent behind them rears and spits out molten lava at Sheri, who manages to dodge it. Sheri thinks it’s because they left the path and starts to head back. Daniel puts up a shield

Snake gets about 10 feet from Sheri and rears up. Sheri is ready to dodge and looks it in the eyes as the snake strikes, but latches onto the vest. It lets go and hisses as does her vest as there is some residual heat.

Daniel keeps channeling his essence. The second snake comes down from the boulders and heads towards Sheri. Rhapsody asks if Nashunka will get mad if they kill the snake. Pukwudgi urges to kill them. Sheri draws her kukri and attacks but it only skitters along the scales. Rhapsody fires her 10mm at the snake attacking Sheri and manages to kill it. It falls to the ground and writhes in death throes. Pukwudgi turns and is in time to meet the other snake that is going for Sheri. He tries to jump on its back. He sticks the knife under the skull of the snake. It thrashes and throws the little spirit as it raises up and dies, making Sheri jump out of the way.

A short squat figure with a snake’s head steps around from the boulder where the second snake came out. He tells them that they must go back and that they will die if they proceed. He doesn’t listen to anything they say and finally disappears.

Pukwudgi leads the way for a bit. Rhapsody gives Pukwudgi her kukri. Daniel keeps channeling for a while longer.

They hike through a forest of blackened pines and come to a cleft in the rock, the path leading right to a rickety bridge that crosses the ravine. There is a black lava flow at the bottom of the ravine, just thick enough to break a few bones before cracking through into the lava.

Rhapsody and Fiachra (AIM session) between 17 & 18

2008-10-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

Rhapsody and Fiachra (AIM session)

Rhapsody awakens. She is naked. There is great pain. The flesh of her stomach is only partially knitted together. Bright blood leaks from the seams where once her body was nearly seperated in halves. Her toes and legs tingle. Breathing hurts.

The rough ground on which she lays is uneven. She can feel twigs and sharp object poking into her shoulders and neck. The smell of green forest leaks into her conscious and birds chirp somewhere nearby. She lies in a small clearing near a trickling stream. Majestic oaks and other broad leafed trees block out most of the setting sun.

Rhapsody raises her head to look around to get a sense of where she's at, as well as listening for anyone else that may be around.

She gets the sense that she's deep in the wilderness. There's no sounds but the quiet of nature, no background hum of man that comes even in a large park. Though she's not in feral form her senses are still sharp. She smells the lingering traces of Him and a stronger odor from a nearby tree. A marking. He isn't present.

Rhapsody moves to a sitting position, as much out of stubbornness as testing to see where her healing is at and what her body will handle.

It's agony. She nearly reaches a sitting position before the world spins and she sinks back to the earth, falling into darkness.

When she wakes again its too the orange glow of a small fire. The pain is still there but not quite as severe. Her bones ache fiercely. Turning her head she sees the young teen from the pool sitting close by, roasting a large chunk of spitted flesh over the fire. The firelight reflects from her inhuman eyes. She's dirty and naked too, though it doesn't seem to bother her in the least.

Rhapsody raises her head again, having the look of irritation that felines are well known for. She tries sitting up again.

This time she manages it, though there's still ample pain. The girl turns her head at the motion and smiles, but does nothing else.

"There a reason we're out here, or did you decide a change a scenery would be nice?"

Fiachra flips the meat causing red juice to dribble and drip into the flames. "The unpleasant aroma of man." She said man like others might say garbage. "It offended me."

"And I'm still alive, why?"

"Do you crave the alternative?"

"I neither crave it nor fear it... call it curiosity..." she smirks.

A slight tilting of her head, like she's giving your comment some thought, then. "You are hungry. I believe your stomach is healed enough, you should eat." She profers the meat, only barely cooked, toward Rhapsody. Upon smelling the blooded flesh Rhapsody realizes that her pain was masking a hunger. She suddenly wonders how long she was unconscious for.

Rhapsody does have a stubborn pride about her, but she is also practical. She takes the meat and does start to eat it so her body has fuel to pump up her healing. "You didn't answer my question," she notes.

"I answer what questions I wish, when I wish." Fiachra smiles as she/he/it? says this. Where before the voice had been one to match the teen form now it sounds deeper, a bit more throaty and monstrous.

The change seems to mildly upset the Atlantean Lord. "Why those fools chose an immature female I will never know." These words are also spoken in the deep voice. "I will answer you though. I kept you alive for company. After thousands of years of solitude I chose not to endure any more of it."

"And just perhaps because I didn't wish to take any more lives..."

"Oh no? You certainly seemed to get off on it."

"To... get off on it. Ah yes, an expression this host did know." Fiachra smiles. "Is not the baby joyous in its birth, though it causes those around him blood, pain and hardship? It was not their deaths that I revelled in Rhapsody but my rebirth. I am thankful to those that died so that I might live again."

Rhapsody finishes eating, "So you are equating yourself to a child that didn't know better at the time. Interesting how you Atlantean lords give the same spiel..."

Fiachra tenses for a moment. "You are... familiar with we Atlanteans?"

"Familiar enough to be irritated."

"How came you and your band to the place of my rebirth?"

Though Fiachra still looks the girl, the voice and presence comes across as extremely masculine, as if the girl is but a delicate shell that might peel away from the beast at any moment. His question is asked casually but Rhapsody senses an intense interest in her answer.

Rhapsody tries to shift to tiger form, mostly to be more comfortable and to heal faster. Either way, by voice or by thought, she answers, "The rebirthing event seems to have garndered attention, in the way of the sacrifices that were called and clues left. Considering the general consensus of 'whatever causes that much death in its wake for a rebirth is not a good thing', there were plans made of stopping it. which, evidently, did not happen."

Fiachra shakes his head as Rhaps attempts the change. "I have suppressed your beast for the time being. I somehow thought you might be better company in your weaker form. Besides, even with the meat, you are very weak. You would have died had I not already shared my power to sustain you."

At her words he replied. "Evidently."

"Tell me, what other Atlantean Lords have you met?"

"Chereshe."

The light in Fiachra's eyes intensifies, as if drawing the flame within them. He hisses, "Alithel mog'hras uin Chereshe!"

"He sent you against me?"

"Again, with the whole: considering the general consensus of 'whatever causes that much death in its wake for a rebirth is not a good thing', we were teaming up to stop that from happening as you seem to have a bad rep... compounded by the killings that were being investigated. Then again, Chereshe is a manipulative little bastard."

"Yes, that he is, though it ill suits you to speak with such direspect of your betters. The fact that you were not taken in by his manipulations tells me that he has not been summoned long."

"Right, when I meet my 'betters', I'll give them their due respect, as I did to the Elk Brother."

Fiachra seems lost in thought before continuing. "However long our... relationship lasts, remember that I will not play manipulative games with you Rhapsody Avendi. I am power uncorrupted by morality or mercy. I am the perfection of flesh, the epitomy of the supremecy of the beast." The body stands as Fiachra continues to speak, slowly shedding layers of skin like a snake. "I am Fiachra, beholden to but one and you would do well to call me friend..."

The change is something like a feral's, only smoother. Instead of the beast that wrecked such destruction on Rhapsody and the others at the asylum a graceful man stands before the fire when the metemorphosis is complete. As she watches Fiachra's hair grows long and silver. He is perfectly muscled and stands seven feet tall.

Rhapsody nods once, "At this point, I'm close to just walking away and letting you Atlanteans have each other..."

Fiachra, in his new, still naked, Atlantean form stalks around the fire. He seems more full of himself now, more confident even. To Rhapsody's last comment he replies, "You remind me of myself ages ago. For that fact alone I wish walking away was still an option for you Rhapsody Avendi."

He stops at her feet. The fact that both are naked should be awkward, but both are so comfortable and unaware of the fact that it isn't.

"I am still willing to help you find him you know..."

Rhapsody smiles, though it's not a friendly expression as much as it is a showing of teeth. "I'm more true to my beast side.... I'm a solitary hunter in this."

"You don't wish to be beholden to me is more the truth." He turns and walks to the edge of the firelight. "Tell me more of your dealings with Chereshe."

Several sets of glowing eyes reflect the light of the fire in the shadows beyond the clearing. Coyotes perhaps.

"I do not like being beholden to anyone." She glances at the eyes passively. "Evidently he is also impressed with my band's innovation in finding him."

"Chereshe is a schemer. Why destroy an enemy when you can make them an ally? He was always the subtle one. Tell me, how did he come to be summoned?"

"I imagine similiar to you: Artifact, sacrifice, vessel, and the ritual."

"Yes, but not the book-" Here he looks as if he just remembered it. -"The book! Your allies back in the man city have it. Ah well, it will have to be retrieved. In due time." He takes a step toward the darkness and the animals scatter without a sound. He grins and turns back. "Who summoned him? With what artifact?"

"Still rather fuzzy on who summoned him and 'twas some sort of pyramid that I recall seeing."

He nods. "What do your people know of the Baal? of my culture and people?

You realize that you are extremely thirsty as well. Your mouth is dry.

"Nothing...." She looks around for water.

There's the trickling stream about ten paces away.

"Nothing at all? But surely you jest. Our great people, who traversed the planes of existence have been forgotten by all?"

Rhapsody starts to move towards the water. "I do not jest. Atlantis is a myth to this world now."

He shakes his head and watches your pained attempt to reach the water with mild interest. "And what of the gifted in your society? Who rules your petty cities?"

Rhapsody doesn't ask for help, nor does she expect it. "Magic is disbelieved. Gifted and those touched by the supernatural are also myths to the mundane people of the world."

Fiachra stands. "Hard to believe, but then there are many things in this time that are hard to believe. I am still hungry. I'll get us more food. You rest."

The words seem to register in a feral part of Rhapsody's brain. She finds that she can't resist them and is growing tired. He smiles as if he can feel her struggling to disobey his words. She falls asleep as he transforms into great beast and stalks out of the camp.

Some time later she awakens to the cold. It is still dark, though it feels closer to dawn. The fire has long since burnt out. Her belly pains her but not nearly like it did before.

There's no sign of Fiachra.

Rhapsody lies quietly for awhile before sitting up. She attempts a change and finds she is still unable to transform. Another few minutes and she stumbles to her feet. The pain is worse but it doesn't prevent her from a shuffling walk. Naked and alone, she heads off into the dense forest. At least attempting to escape.

She finds an animal trail and makes a little better time, though she quickly begins to tire. Maybe two hours after journey started she's circumventing a wide patch of briars when she hears a terrible roar from the direction she came from. Fiachra must have noticed she was gone.

The fear inspired by that roar gives her a surge of energy and she was moving down the trail with more speed now. She was surprised when she felt the tingle of the change. Maybe distance or time has loosened Fiachra's power over her. A few limping strides and she is a beautiful tiger loping through the pine and broad leafed forest. Two miles further on and she's completely healed of the mortal wound that hampered her.

There are more roars a little closer and she takes off with more speed. literally gliding through the heavy undergrowth. Moving down a stream and over a patch of bare rock seems to help as Fiachra's roars grow more distant. The forest canopy is so thick that she's guessing he can't fly to catch her, for fear of losing her scent trail.

Several hours later, exhausted and sore, the tiger stumbles through a heavy shrub and lands on a paved road. Picking a direction at random she moves off along the side of the highway, ducking into the bushes when cars go by. Another half hour of this finds her at a out of the way gas station and general store. A pickup in the parking lot looks rather inviting and she's barely conscious, having used up all and more of her energy.

She transforms, climbs into the back and pulls an old tarp and a wooden crate of supplies over her and passes out.

When she wakes its to the sound of traffic. She peeks over the edge and finds that she's at the end of a small line of cars waiting at a traffic light. Making her sore muscles work, she heaves herself over the side and heads down an alley.

Twenty minutes later she's in a phone booth calling Sherri's number. It's raining. She's in a small town north of Northport on the Canadian border. She's naked and fingering a deep scar across her belly that travels almost all the way around her. She thinks with some humor that at least it'll be covered by her underwear.

"Hi, Sherri, its me. Yeah, I'm okay, Can you come get me?"

Session Notes Continued 16-17

2008-10-02T07:32:00.000-07:00

Session 16

Rhapsody notices the boat stops rocking for like 10-15 seconds. Ramirez, who is also awake, didn't notice.

A while later, Willard knocks at the door and comes in and relays that Chereshe said its time. He asks if the group is sure he can't come along. Rhapsody doesn't answer.

Chereshe arrives and double checks intentions. Stockman is also going to be joining in the recon mission.

They head out to the docks and both Stockman and Daniel put up essence shields. Ramirez and Muller say that they will meet up with the group at Rhapsody's place.

Stockman said that he wasn't really working for Chereshe for a while, not included the months he spent working towards getting Chereshe summoned. Daniel says that he was with the group because Chereshe kidnapped his friend. Rhapsody and the others because Myrddin let the pieces fall into place.

They head to 'Ammunation' and get outfitted. Stockman has the card and says that he'll pay. Rhapsody calls Priest and tells him what happened.

Stockman did some checking in the boardwalk area that has an undeveloped area that had an asylum there.

Ramirez calls and says that they're not going to be along on the mission. Rhapsody asks them to research the asylum.

The group heads up along the overgrown area north of the Boardwalk. They come up to a broken fence with a graffiti-covered no trespassing sign.

Rhapsody takes point with Stockman coming up second and both Daniel and Sheri brining up the rear.

She notices trails and as she comes through some trees, there is the scent of essence. She stops and sees a line of singed trees and brush. Rhapsody calls up Stockman and indicates the line. He moves over to take a better look. After a few tests, there doesn't seem to be any adverse affects to the group.

They go forward and come up to a crumbling brick wall. The asylum is in view in an opened field. The windows are mostly boarded up, a few still that have glass on the second story. Daniel uses his magic to make the group invisible, with aid from a crystal pendant lent to him by Stockman.

They head eastwards, keeping downwind as much as possible. Round the side of the building there is a gazebo. 30 yards from the gazebo, Rhapsody smells the dog beastie thing. She stops and tells Stockman. They wait for the others and tell them about the beastie.

Further around there is an apparent employee parking lot and a back door. The door has had the plywood that had boarded it peeled away. They are about 50 yards away from the building. The bottom windows are mostly boarded as are the second floor windows.

Stockman catches up as do the others. Rhapsody has them wait and she goes to investigate and smells the beasties inside. Daniel refreshes the invisibility. They see an elderly woman pushing a cart towards the backdoor.

Rhapsody moves towards the parking lot to get downwind wind. She pulls out a piece of a person from her cart, hefting it and waddles into the opening. Rhapsody heads forward to take a sniff and smells some of the beasties and some of the feral.

Rhapsody heads the way again to get a better idea of what is going on. About 30 feet in is the reception area. Medical beds in the hallway. They get to the desk and hear an echo through the hallway, a moaning sound, then something clanking as it's bumped. The blood leads towards the east hall.

Daniel peeks to see if there is anything useful like a map or fire escape plan. Rhapsody sees remains and bones that are less than a month. Looks like it was built in the 60's.

They head down the east hall. Its dark enough that those sans the acute sense of sight can hardly see. Rhapsody heads towards the door that says stairwell near the elevator. She reports back and Daniel tries using a wind spell to not squeak, which seems to work. Rhapsody goes up to listen at the door of the landing.

There's a loud metal scrape, like someone or something bumping into the bed. Folks scoot from the door. Rhapsody votes for going down, they go past the door and Rhapsody has hard time seeing. She listens at the door and hears the squeak of hinges, there's the click-clack of nails on the pavement.

There snuffling at the basement door. The door bumps and then the click of it going back up the stairway. Rhapsody keeps and ear out as Stockman pops on a pen light to look around. Rhapsody stays at the door to listen.

The others go through and find a closed door. Stockman has his gun at the ready and Daniel opens the door and Stockman scans the area. There was the scent of chemicals inside and nothing else. They head back down the other way.

They come to a big storage room with trays, bed pans and the like. They head further down the hallway. They find their way to the boiler room and open the door. They head back to the other door they bypassed and open it up. This one is a supply room with cabinets and has remains of old medical equipment.

They head down the other hallway. At the end, they find a set of stairs going upwards. Stockman goes up to the corner and says that it goes up to the second floor and the first as well. They go back to check the other door which is another small storage room, of old pool supplies.

They get back to Rhapsody and they heard voices. They head to the other stairwell and Daniel refreshes the invisibility. They head to the second landing. Daniel does his anti-squeaking trick. There is a figure at the other end of the hall, step out of a doorway, heading into an opposite door.

As they proceed, Rhapsody detects more of the bestial smell. Rhapsody starts to back up as do the others. Sheri clips a bottle and it clinks along. The beast growls and Antonio steps out behind it. He looks out the door and then raises his head, then the beastie charges down the hall.

(Rhapsody the queen pin)

Antonio goes fuzzy and changes into his hybrid form. Sheri double-taps at charging beastie and takes a few chunks out of it. Rhapsody and Stockman get clipped by the beastie, the mage's shield flares a bit and Rhapsody stumbles back into the room. Daniel also gets clipped and spun. The dog skids past Sheri as she ducks into one of the rooms. Rhapsody takes off her coat and vest to change, biding her time. Stockman takes three shots at the dog from where he's plastered against the wall. Two shots get it the neck, and one the chest. The critter falls with the tentacles writhing.

Antonio takes a burst of speed as he goes into kitty form and heads towards Stockman, latching on to the shield and starts rending big chunks off the shield. The dog thing shudders and lay still on the floor. The bag lady steps out of the hall from the room where Antonio was, and she's grown and has tentacles coming from her back and waving around. She propels herself down the hall and goes down the first stairwell. Sheri prays for strength from the Elk Brothers. Rhapsody pops out and shoots at Antonio but only grazes him with the shot. Stockman lashes out with soulfire at the leopard. The cat yowls and stumbles backwards, looking pissed.

Daniel moves by them to look in the room that Antonio and the Bag Lady stepped out from. He looks in the room, its bloodstained and there's a pallet made of trash. There's a big symbol of Fiachra painted on the wall. There are the chewed on remains of the body the Bag Lady had brought in.

Antonio spin kicks against Rhapsody's door, closing it and launches himself at Stockman again. Stockman is bowled over and he cries out, Daniel sees the rake against Stockman's shoulder after taking down the shield. From the first floor, there is the yapping of something else coming. Sheri moves over towards Antonio to hack and slash and the leopard rolls over the prone man as the kukri embeds itself between the mage's legs. Rhapsody opens the door, goes around and fires at Antonio once. The leopard dodges out of the way. Stockman finishes speaking a spell on the amulet and he vanishes. Daniel heads over towards the opposite room and looks at the bars, thinking to take out the bars in the window.

Antonio crouches, ready for an attack. The clatter and clicking of nails coming up the stairs, there's a second beast looking like the first, looks at Rhapsody. Sheri steps out into the hall, backs away and fires at the beast, double-tapping and hits with the first shot staggers it back and the second shot takes out some ceiling. Rhapsody peeks in and double-taps Antonio, the first shot tearing into his shoulder, and the second going into the wall, and she ducks back Daniel goes back to the doorway and starts drawing essence for a soulfire.

Antonio jumps for the window, the bar and boards go flying and he lands on the ground. The big dog snakes four of tentacles at Rhapsody and manages to wrap her up, tugging her in towards its maw. Sheri steps up to go slicing and dicing, however, she whiffs as it steps back. Rhapsody goes feral and plants her feet to resist the tugging. Daniel walks out and soulfires the critter it howls as its enveloped and the critter collapses.

Rhapsody grabs stuff and hops down. There are clouds rolling in, supernaturally fast, and there is hum in the air. Sheri reloads, and Daniel says he doesn't know how much help he'd be, but he'd follow Rhapsody if she decides to slug it out.

______________________________________________

Session 17

The girls rip open the boards and move into the main entrance. Daniel tries to get a feel for where the source of the energy ripple is and points the way. Rhapsody leads after giving her Glock with the silver ammo to Sheri.

Rhapsody smells a powerful feralness in the air and can’t tell if there are a lot of ferals, or just one very powerful one. She pauses a moment as the door is locked, then goes THROUGH the doors, sending them flying into the pool room. In the center of the almost empty pool is a young girl. Bits of bone and rotted flesh are around the girl in the stagnant water, there is a book on one of the piles. Around the girl are five Ferals, three are wolves, two are leopards.

In front of the girl, who looks like she has not moved from where she is in days, perhaps weeks, is the homeless woman. The lip of the pool is hiding the last of the Fiachra beasties and it pulls itself up and lunges at Rhapsody.

The dog is fast and attacks. Rhapsody dodges to the side, but still gets raked along the side of her neck. She tries to claw into it with the intention of throwing it back in the pool, but only manages to grasp at the tentacles that writhe out of the way and just ends up falling back down. Daniel starts to channel essence for a Soul Fire. Sheri moves to the edge of the pool and fires with one gun, but the tendril lady ducked.

The dogbeast tries to take another chomp off Rhapsody, picking her up. She beats at it, but can’t get the proper power to the blows at it. Daniel moves over behind Sheri.

The tentacles of the beast try to get wrapped around Rhapsody, but she manages to squirm out of the way. She focuses and manages to summon 3 of her tigers. Sheri fires the other gun at ‘granny’ and misses again.

Rhapsody tries to claw into the beastie and is unable to do so. She has two of her tigers guard Daniel and Sheri as the third tries to leap into the fray, but is also ineffective. Daniel soulfires the book, the fire curves around the prone baglady and there is a crackle of energy. There is an explosion of energy and the book flies into the air then falls down, two of the ferals are thrown back. Rhapsody notices that when the two ferals get blasted to the side, she feels that the girl is sighing in pleasure of the pain of it and seems to strengthen from it. The first presence of Fiachra in her head, and asks “Why are you fighting on their side? You should be with me.”

Sheri hears drumming and sees Pukwudgi who says “heeeyaaa! Drum Sister, are you perhaps in need of assistance?”

One of the wolf ferals bends down and jump towards Sheri. The tiger protecting her leaps down and is caught by the wolf and torn apart, but it had done its job. Tentacle lady heads towards Daniel and his tiger leaps down and moves out of the way of the tentacles as she lashes out. The other two wolves move to guard the girl.

Rhapsody whiffs in her attack as does her tiger. Daniel’s guardian lunges at the tentacle lady and manages to connect as it leaps upwards and manages to latch onto her throat and rips it. She screams as the tiger rips into her. The focus girl screams again in pleasure. Daniel backs up towards the door and draws his handgun.

Pukwudgi says, “Drum Sister, Myrddin says that all the violence is gonna bring Fiachra sooner! It leads me to believe the opposite would affect her in the other way, hey?”

Daniel scoffs, “Right, hug the nearest feral?”

“No, no, don’t any of you have the healing arts?”

Daniel hehs, “That’d be fine if we didn’t have to kill everything to get to her."

Pukwudgi grins, “Well, no plan is perfect, eh?”

Sheri blasts the wolf feral with a silver round. It takes the shot in the shoulder, howls in pain and falls on the corpse of the bag lady. Rhapsody tries a hammer throw with the dog but is unable to do so. The dog tries to shake Rhapsody, but she manages to keep that from happening. Again she tries to hammer throw the dog and at least manages to get a hold of it. Sheri uses the magnum on the wolf but it moves out of the way and the shot sinks into the already still bag lady. The dog beast tries to get out of Rhaps’ grip, but she maintains it. The two leopards that were blasted are getting up. Pukwudgi runs and leaps into the pool, changing into a bobcat type creature. He lands on the wolf and they are tussling.

Rhapsody hears the voice in her head. “Join me and I will help you find him, I know who you search for. Trust me, you are like a child of mine and together we will find him.”

Rhapsody again tries the hammer throw, she manages to huck the beastie at one of the wolves and it smashes into it, the other moves out of the way, the girl is buried underneath as the beastie is scrambling to get on its feet. A wereleopard jumps up and charges at Rhapsody, and she’s pretty sure it’s Antonio. Antonio hits and catches her in the upper torso with his claws. Daniel goes into the pool and fires at the big, squirmy dog thing and hits. The dog shifts and is thrown off. The girl is partially covered in hair; one arm is longer than the other, tipped in claws. She's transforming into something.

“Have you made up your mind? The time quickly draws to a close when you have a choice.”

Rhapsody: “Made up my mind? Yes. Fuck you.”

“Perhaps we will get to that.”

Pukwudgi is on the wolf’s back, yanking out big clumps of hair, screaming native war cries gleefully. Sheri takes a shot at the big dog with the .357 and misses. Rhapsody slashes at Antonio’s throat and connects, ripping it out. Antonio stumbles back, grabbing at his neck and slides down. The girl grows about four feet and her mouth extends into a muzzle with teeth as she laughs pleasurably.

Daniel fires at the dog and misses. One of the wolves heads towards Daniel and his tiger intercepts and they start to thrash. Sheri fires at the dog and misses. Rhapsody hops down by Daniel. Wolf and the tiger and the tiger barely dodges out of the way. The squished one staggers to its feet, as does the one that dodged as well. The leopard lopes at Pukwudgi and it lunges at him and the little Indian jumps up Matrix style as he gets out of the way. Daniel shoots the one that is grappling with his guardian tiger, and hits. Sheri fires at the dog and misses.

Rhapsody remains guarding. The two ferals after Pukwudgi starting chasing him around, as they claw at him, but he seems to be having a wonderful time. Sheri fires with the .357 and keeps up the suppressive fire, the dog moves however. Fiachra-girl doesn’t seem to be doing much other than basking in the carnage.

Rhapsody has one tiger attack but doesn’t do any damage to the wolf. The other she has go over and help Pukwudgi as she continues to guard. The two ferals that were knocked down are entangled. Pukwudgi-cat runs between the leopards legs, turns around and bites the bigger cat on the ass. Pukwudgi grins, “Whoops.”

The wolf attacks the other tiger and she dodges. The squished wolf gets up and is healing, but Fiachra-girl rips off its head and exults in the rush of energy. Daniel takes another shot at the wolf fighting his tiger and misses. Rhapsody grabs the werewolf and throws it at the dog beast. She misses barely but the werewolf crashes into the wall of the pool. The one wolf turns around to attack the tiger helping Pukwudgi and misses. The other that got bit turns and swipes, but misses.

Pukwudgi tries to jump off its shoulders and doesn’t quite make it to where he wanted to go and is now back in front of the feral. Daniel shoots at the big dog and misses. Sheri pops a silver round into Antonio’s head. Rhapsody’s tigers claw the wolf in the face. The other tiger goes to bite the leopard in the ass, tearing its tail off.

The wolf attacks the tiger and hits. The tiger returns the attack and gets it against the wall, and gets it down for the count. The leopard gets the rest of its ass chewed and dies. Rhapsody goes over to do a Babe Ruth impersonation, though Fiachra-girl seems to lean into the blow, and tears at her shoulder and she’s spun around. She turns around and her arm is healing and she was actually IN pain. The dog bounds over to engage Rhapsody and bites her. Sheri goes up and takes a shot at the wolf in the corner and misses. The other wolf fights the tiger, but is ineffective. Pukwudgi goes after the other wolf in the corner. Daniel gets into a closer position.

Rhapsody tries to clock Fiachra-chick again and she dodges it. The dog tries for another bite but misses. The tiger kills the other wolf. The other tiger comes after the beastie’s ass, sliding under it and takes out groin and guts. The beastie stands and falls back as Fiacre gets off more on the carnage. Sheri shoots at the other wolf and hits the ground, but it staggers up and is still alive. Daniel sees the book's right between Fiachra-girl’s legs and he moves around to behind Fiachra-girl. Rhapsody tries to hit Fiachra-girl again and smacks her across the jaw, sending her head whipping around and teeth flying. The last bit of humanity leaves her and she is completely bestial. Sheri edges a little around the pool and holds position.

Fiachra grabs Rhapsody and throws her up into the rafters, hits the roof, and falls back onto the floor. The tigers try to attack and they are thrown off. Daniel backs away and gets ready for a whirlwind to try and get the book. Fiachra goes after the tigers, reaches out with one clawed hand to squish it and tries to bite the others, and kills them both. Rhapsody gets to her feet and picks up her club. Sheri double-taps into Fiachra's back, who turns her head at the last second and dodges out of the way of the two shots. Daniel starts heading towards Rhapsody. Pukwudgi lets out a string of curse words as he looks up at Fiachra and says, “Guys... I think we fucked… Drum Sister, what do we do?!”

Rhapsody charges Fiachra and gets backhanded, so her swing misses. Sheri calls Pukwudgi over and he hops over Fiachra's tail and scrambles up. Rhapsody goes for another crack at Fiachra and hits, catching her across her face.

Fiachra glares at Rhapsody, “You would have served me ably.”

“Woulda, didn’t-a, not gonna.”

Fiachra turns around for a roundhouse clawing at Rhapsody, and she connects, sending the tigress into the wall of the pool, her torso almost separated from the rest of her as she goes down. Fiachra reaches down and grabs Rhapsody’s torn body, turns and goes out the window, through the plywood covering. Pukwudgi clasps hands with Sheri and lets her gain essence. Fiachra jumps out the window and Sheri runs to the window, praying for holy flame. Fiachra is running across the grassy meadow, wings emerging from his back.

Fiachra’s voice says, “You will serve me…” in Rhapsody’s subconscious.

Sheri uses her holy flame and it hits, but it’s not enough. Fiachra still takes off to the air and leaves with Rhapsody. Meanwhile, there is a feral that blinks and lunges at Sheri and Pukwudgi and Daniel sends a soul fire blast, frying the feral, disintegrating it. Daniel goes and gets the book that was left behind.

Session Notes Continued 13-15

2008-10-02T07:25:00.000-07:00

Session 13

Sheri starts to dig for her cell phone to call Priest. On the third ring he picks up. Sheri starts to tell Priest what’s going on. He asks if they are being followed and she doesn’t think so. Daniel listens in curiously. Sheri does remember the safe house and Priest says there is somewhere there to meet them.

Dan says that he can almost guarantee that they are not being followed. Dan introduces himself and says that whoever the people are, they ran off with a friend of his from high school.

Shaw asks how Dan knew all this was going down, to which he replies, “A little spirit told me.”

Shaw gives Daniel directions and Dan says that he had a spirit keeping an eye on Jenny. He then asks what the Voice thing is about and Sheri gives a little explanation.

Shaw asks if Jenny is really the voice as Dan has never seen her do any prophecy. He also asks how they knew where the Voice was.

Rhapsody wants to note that her apartment was broken in and the spell was stolen to find the Voice.

Dan’s phone starts to ring. He picks up and his buddy says he’s almost done with Dan’s car, and wants to know where Dan is with his truck. He advises Dan to be careful there's some kind of gang war going on nearby.

They pull into the docks district and the garage door is open. Dan pulls in and asks who they are again. They all check to see if they have been followed and no one sees anything.

An older guy in his 60’s who looks like a dock worker flips the light on and closes the door behind the group. Daniel heals himself and Rhapsody pokes at him and looks at her wounds. Shaw sees what’s going on and everyone gets their turn at being healed.

Priest arrives and walks up after his bodyguards scan the area and give him the all clear. Rhapsody explains to Priest what happened. He and Rhapsody agree that their adversaries need the Voice. Daniel agrees to help out.

They take the truck to get cleaned up. In the other car, Priest asks what they know of Murdock.

------

At St. Sebastian’s the group reconvenes in Pennington’s room. Daniel walks in and sees the group talking to Pennington and realizes he’s a ghost. Pennington asks what Daniel knows of Jenny, to which he replies that he didn’t know Jenny had any sort of magic, but did thing it was a odd that an air elemental agreed to watch out for her.

Pennington asks a few more questions about Jenny and they decide to look into the girl’s past. Pennington has been studying and that she is Pre-Lemurian, possibly Atlantean, who was a seer. They need to find the Voice, Daniel says that he can call the spirit he had set to watch Jenny.

Daniel manages to call the spirit and he sees it take ethereal shape. The spirit says she went west, north westerly, she’s at sea. Priest is going to see if they can figure out how they went and see if they can get a flight plan, but there wasn’t one.

The maintenance guy is on the news telling there were people looking for one of the tenants. A cop runs up to take him away for a statement. The party notices on the scene, two men in government-issue suits pulling the maintenance guy out of the way.

Sheri suggests praying for guidance as Rhaps gives Erik a call and tells him that the Voice was taken and in trouble. As she prays, they go and get equipped in the basement on the other side of the church and they re-arm and get outfitted.

Sheri is asking for a vision. Pukwudgi is sitting there saying that the Old Man told him to give a message. The others that smell of ocean follow him and that the girl need to be found before they break her. They need to hurry and that she’ll not last long. Old Blue Eyes is afraid that the other ocean people, there is a big bad one holding the girl. The boomsticks will not help. They go out there he’ll watch, but the group needs spirit weapons.

Sheri asks how to get good spirit weapons. Pukwudgi will take her to the Elk Warriors to get spirit weapons. She will meet him as soon as she can and goes to meet up with the others. Sheri conveys the message from Pukwudgi.

They head to Rhaps place and as she goes up she smells someone in her house and an FBI agent and his partner there: Agent Ramirez and Agent Muller who start questioning her. She has the walkie-talkie phones on so the party hears everything. Finally Sheri says that they might as well take them along.

Sheri gives some more information and the agents are going to follow. The third time Sheri pauses to look she finds the correct place. They put the phones on walkie-talkie mode again as Sheri heads down. The agents pull in so they can over hear.

Sheri finds the rocky area and looks around. Pukwudji pops his head out and asks if she is ready to meet the warrior brothers. Sheri says yes and climbs over the rocks and follows along to the cliffs. The agent asks if it is someone they know. Rhaps says no.

They go to a crevice and the walkie-talkie signal is lost. Sheri feels along the wall as she follows the spirit. After a while, she sees sunlight and they are out in the Washington rain forest. It looks more primeval than she has ever seen before.

Sheri makes her way over the mossy rocks and comes to a creek. On the other side there is a lodge, smoke coming out from it. Puk heads towards the lodge, Sheri following and calls out to the lodge, wanting an audience and waits. After a moment, a taller Native man pokes his head out with pronged antlers that are growing out. Puk makes introductions and says that the gods from across the water is awakening, getting his curiosity so invites Puk and Sheri in.

Finally, the agents voice concern as Rhapsody paces back and forth and Rhaps sets down the trail.

The Elk Brother sits on the opposite side of the fire and motions for Puk and Sheri to sit. He wants to know more about the gods from across the water. Puk motions to Sheri. Sheri tells of Blue Eyes from Across the Water came to her in a vision and needed her help. That he is opposed from Dark Ones from Across the Water that is interfering in all worlds. Sheri tells of what happened to Jenny. That there was ceremonies of a sickening nature, using an old sacred thing that changed people.

The Elk Brother is wondering why the white gods will not help.

Puk says that the Old Blue Eye means well but the warriors are not prepared for what they will face and that he and his brother can make the weapons. The Elk Brother is affronted and finally needs to think about helping.

They lose the tracks and split up to search. Rhapsody and Dan head up to the cliffs and find the cave via the scent Rhaps finds. The agents are still searching as the two go into the crevasse.

The Elk Brother says he must consult his brother. He must think.

Rhapsody and Dan get into the forest. They are stopped as a spear is thrown in front of them. The person tells them to leave, and Rhapsody says not with out her friend. Spear is thrown and hits Rhapsody. Rhapsody throws the spear and misses. He gives warning again and Rhapsody says ‘fine’, which catches him by surprise.

The Elk Brother comes in and mentions meeting Rhapsody and that she shows the respect deserved to them. Sheri says they are there for weapons to fight gods. That they are on quest that is very difficult.

It has been many moons since a warrior came to the lodge to ask for aid. Their own people shun them. They call Sheri White Elk Warrior. They give her an antler with a pictogram on it. They will aid her and her hunting party.

He takes Sheri’s kukri and runs blood on the blade and then pulls out other weapons for the rest of the group. Sheri thanks her Elk Warrior Uncles and goes to meet up with Dan and Rhaps. They are given weapons and head back. Pukwudgi leads them a different way and they meet up with agents.

Sheri tells them the general direction where Jenny is at and their contact was a Amerindian, a dwarf, named Pukwudgi.

Erik left Rhapsody a message and when called back, he says they have some friends searching the waters. There is a ship with a helicopter, the Marianne and Humbolt squids in large quantities around the waters of the tanker.

Ramirez goes to see if they can get transport to the tanker. Muller asks a few questions about being Jenny’s friend and why they are lending themselves into getting into trouble. Ramirez is able to get a trawler.

---------------------------------------------------

Rhapsody texts Priest the tanker name and that they are with the two agents. A fisherman is there and comes over towards Ramirez. Ramirez says they don’t want to get him in trouble, etc. The fisherman holds out his hand for getting paid.

The get onto the trawler and Ramirez warns them about the operation. And that they have backup in place, though the answer seems curt. Sheri invokes her sight to get a true vision. Ramirez has a basically good aura around him, but he works for and organization called the Undergounds. He knows that he’s dealing with other supernaturals. He knows they are up against more than just kidnappers and that there is no backup. They are there to follow up on the missing agent. Muller also has a good aura, more pure and that’s all Sheri gets as Muller pulls a gun.

“Muller, what’s going on?”

“I got scanned.”

Ramirez says they’re not FBI and that they are here to help Jenny.

They fill in more details of critters and what they might encounter. Muller and Sheri figure out that they can communicate.

______________________________________________

Session 14

They came to a stop and loaded onto the dinghy. They come up towards the hull of the ship and it appears to be the aft section.

Ramirez says that they need a plan. Dan suggests Ramirez levitating up. They see the huge anchor chain and approach closer to take a look. More of the squids dart back and forth.

Ramirez says he can get up there and can make sure the coast is clear and then catch anyone who should fall. He concentrates for a few moments and rises up, guiding himself up along the chain.

Rhapsody follows up on the chain, moving up fairly easily. Daniel follows suit and makes up. Rhapsody helps him up and they get into where the chain is stored. They go further and see the huge winch mechanism. They don’t see or hear anything.

Sheri looks over and feels a metal ladder, rungs on the side of the wall, near the anchor tube. Ramirez heads down first. Everyone is at the bottom and Ramirez comments that it’s darker down there.

Sheri cuts off a piece of her skirt to put over the flashlight and they have some illumination. They see a metal staircase leading up to a hallway. The group follows Ramirez.

Moving down the hallway, they go another 40 feet and come to a wider passage that has several hallways leading off. There is a light there. Rhapsody takes out a highlighter and uses that to mark where they’ve been.

Muller suggests straight. They head down that hallway and Sheri starts the mind-whispering to Muller. It splits to two hallways with a door on either end up on a short flight of stairs. They talk about what to do and hear the sound of footsteps. They move back down the hallways, and Rhaps smells that it was one of the goblinoids.

They see a humanoid figure walk by to the other side of the passage. It goes 15 feet down the passage and it stops. It then turns, and sniffs the air then heads down the passage towards the group. It draws a blade.

Muller, “Plan, quick. Sheri says we need to dispatch it and I agree.”

Rhapsody volunteers to be bait and let the thing see her while the others attack it. They all pull out their knives; Rhapsody moves over towards the passage, acts surprise and runs back. The goblin follows and realizes too late that others are there. Sheri manages to stick it, slashing its throat. It spurts out blood.

They dump the body back at the chain room. They head up towards where the goblin was coming from. It winds up two stories and they come to an access door. It smells and sounds like outside to Rhaps and Muller says there is no one outside the door.

The door opens up on deck near some crates. They move to check around back in the aft section. They move from cover to cover, staggering the approach. Before Ramirez is able to run past, Rhapsody sees that there is someone above them, smoking. She saw the light from the cigarette and warned Ramirez. Sheri could see it was wearing clothes, and had something underneath a jacket.

They pull back to discuss options and decide to keep together. There are two man sized creatures that just spoke to the guard and are heading down towards the group. They go back towards the crates by the stairs to hide. The critters walk by.

They head after them to silence them first, trying to sneak up on the critters. Dan stumbles a little and they all freeze, but it didn’t sound like they were heard. Rhapsody leads the way and pauses, seeing and smelling that they went where the initial goblin was headed, not where it was killed.

They decide to go with Daniel’s idea of going aft on the inside. The get to an alcove with the door labeled in Russian. They don’t hear, sense or smell anything, and they open the door and see it’s one of the tanks. They close the door and head down the hall. They come to a wider area with restrooms and a stair way that leads both down and up. They check the stairs and it also leads outside.

They continue on and get to a corner and see a door opening and two men walk out. They appear to be crewmen, talking and laughing. They head down a hall and had food. Dan sees the two large critters move down the hall toward where the blood was. The group decides to make an interception.

They head down and where the large opening is there is a bad smell and Rhapsody stops everyone at the scent. They decide to deal with the threat before them. Rhaps goes to see one of the large ogres there. Rhapsody reports and they decide to backtrack. They get to where the restrooms are and see one of the critters coming out. It sees the group and yells at the other one who comes out, looks and starts to take off. Rhapsody goes into feral form and chases after the one running.

The critter jumps up at Rhapsody as she leaps and manages to get entangled with the critter. Ramirez uses his telekenetics to get the goblin to the ceiling. Rhapsody and Sheri book it after the one critter that was running away. Rhapsody catches up and strikes at it with her club and splatters its head.

They toss the bodies into the oil tanks. Dan unscrews the light bulb and they try to decide how and when to deal with the ogre. Sheri, Muller and Dan say aft and thus the party heads to aft. They get to a corner and they hear footsteps. They see a group of men, heading towards the stairs. In the front of the group, Rhapsody sees Alexi with four other men with guns. He stops at the bottom of the stairs and speaks in Russian and looks down the hall, then takes a breath. He talks to them as he looks around and pulls out a radio. He has the men ready their weapons and move towards down the hall way.

They get to the alcove, Rhapsody grabbing Sheri and Dan, sprinting with them down the hallway. Seems they got to cover before they were seen. Rhaps peeks and sees figures coming down and a taller figure behind them. Everyone picks their target and Rhaps gets ready.

Ramirez pops out, and they all fire. Sheri fires her first three shots. Daniel uses soulfire on one of the soldiers and hits his target. Ramirez takes his shots at the two next to each other and hits one once and the other twice with his shots. The targets that were fired upon and hit multiple times were dropped. The other two hit with the soulfire and the one shot are to their knees. Muller shoots at hers and hits three times and the one is knocked of their feet. There is a brief illumination as the one that fell accidentally hits the trigger.

Rhapsody heads after Alexi, leaping over the fallen soldiers and Alexi spins and is starting to change and takes off running. Rhapsody catches up to him and cracks him in the shoulder. Alexi finishes his transformation, growling as his clothing rips. He goes full bear and books it, Rhapsody gives chase.

Muller runs up to the guys moving on the ground and double taps one of them on the head with her pistol. Daniel blasts his target again before he can bring his gun up to bear and fries him. Ramirez says they need to do more to them since the ones in the ambulance got up. Dan does pick up an assault rifle as zombies are dispatched via super slick sacred spiffiness weapons

Rhapsody catches up with Alexi and slams him with the club, knocking him into the railing. The group runs to catch up with the ferals. Alexi comes up swinging but Rhapsody gets a hit in first and slams Alexi again in the face. Alexi staggers and tries to hit Rhapsody and manages to connect with a blow.

Sheri finds Alexi’s clothing remains. Rhapsody slams Alexi again and makes him slump to the ground. She takes her claws and RIPS Alexi’s head off. The group catches up and sees the blood all over the place. They go where Alexi was coming from and peek around the corner.

They look around and they see the hall, down by the light is a big ogre looking thing. The alarms go off. And they hear people coming down the stairs coming from the other direction. Ramirez is around the edge and sprays a couple of burst, scattering the figures as they return fire.

Dan moves to fire upon the ogre with his soulfire but fizzle before it gets there. The firefight continues. Dan tries again and manages to hit, though the burst takes a few moments to get there. It tenses for the blow, but it still hurts so it starts stomping towards them. Sheri gets a bit freaked and lashes out with holy fire. Sheri hears war drums in her head and there is the smell of wet hide and a rumble in the hallway and from behind Rhapsody there is a jet of flame. The ogre has a surprised look in its face and is fried. It gets up after being blasted and continues stomping towards the trio.

Dan tosses out another soulfire that basically clotheslines it and it falls. The group starts to head down the hallway, Rhapsody tosses the ogre back to try and trip up their pursuers. As they com up to the wider area, there are two soldiers that toss out flash-bangs. Rhaps and Sheri manage to avert their heads, but Muller gets it right in the face, which knocks her on her ass.

Sheri pops off a shot but misses. The soldiers fire at Sheri and at Rhapsody. Sheri is hit and is knocked on her ass from the impact. Rhapsody is also hit and is wounded badly but is still up and she snarls.

Dan kneels by Sheri and works on healing as he tells Ramirez to TK them or something. The one that fired at Rhapsody steps out and is yanked into the air via the TKing.

Rhapsody throws Alexi’s head at the other shooter’s head and knocks him on his ass with a little damage. Sheri looks up and shoots with the .357 Magnum hollow-points and the guy’s back explodes, still hanging in the air. Ramirez tosses the assault rifle and shoots at the guy crawling away as everyone takes cover.

Dan pops open the tanker room to take a look. He sees the man in the suit, smiles and zaps Dan with soulfire and is drained of some essence as he is flung back. The man reaches forward and closes the door.

Rhapsody stops the guy from totally locking the door. Sheri prays to the Elk Brothers for some more power. One of the soldiers gets up to attack Muller and Rhapsody sees it so goes and pops off the head. Dan heals Muller’s blindness.

Rhapsody starts to opening up the doorway, stepping to the side. There is a diffused red light there, and she smells lots of different things. Muller peeks in and crawls onto the catwalk to look down.

“Oh my God!” she says.

Sheri works on healing herself some more.

Ramirez says, “Oh SHIT!” The other ogre thing is coming his way and starts firing at it.

Daniel grabs an assault rifle and goes through into the hold, and peeks down. He sees on the metallic floor, a glowing magical symbol, about 30 feet across, in the middle is an inky blackness. Hanging above it on a chain is Jenny.

“JENNY!” he says.

Rhapsody goes in and waits for Sheri and Ramirez to get inside. Sheri goes for the shoot and scoot at the ogre with her 357. It doesn’t dodge so she hits, it hits the ground and she leaps through the door. Ramirez goes in after.

Sheri blinks, “Holy shit! That thing was in my phone!”

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Session 15

There is a 30 diameter magic circle filled with shadowy tendrils reaching a little bit out of it and the darkness is about 20 feet with Jenny dangling above it. Rhapsody shifts to her bestial form and summons her totemic animal, calling forth four spirit tigers that come into being next to her. As they form, there is the smell of primal jungle and fur in the air. Sheri looks to the suit to see if she has a clear shot, but the lighting is not that great, and she can see the guy having a shield.

'Ramirez, help Jenny!?' Sheri orders

'Uh... right?. Shit...?

Sheri shoots and the suit tries to dodge out the way, but doesn't quite get out of the way. There's a spark of energy off the suit's shields as he runs towards around the entity. The shot ricochets off the physical shield.

Daniel gathers what energy he has and uses his magic to levitate. He steps off the catwalk, heading towards Jenny.

Ramirez freaks a little at the appearance of the cats, scampers a little and looks over towards Jenny. As he concentrates, she begins to sway in the chains a bit, towards the group. Muller takes a couple shots at the enemy mage, but misses as he goes behind darkness.

Daniel sees the darkness roil and two tentacles reaches out, and he feels cold as one of the tips gets a hold of his foot. 'Get it off! Get it off!?

Rhapsody sends two of the tigers down after the mage. She goes down herself and strikes at it with her club. The club disappears into the darkness and shredded shadow flies as the mass recoils from it, but damage is not telling.

Sheri starts to pray, calling for the strength of the Elk Brothers and she hears the drums in her ears.

Daniel flails a little, still saying 'Get it off, get it off.' He uses his knife to slash off the tentacle, and the tip dissipates, as the rest of it flops back into the mass.

The two tigers move towards the suit and he fires at one and it roars in pain.

Ramirez says, 'I can't get it,' as he is unable to get the chain undone.

Muller pops a new clip into her gun and fires three shots into the darkness. But there seems to be no reaction whatsoever.

Daniel is about 8 feet from Jenny and two more tentacles reach up for him. He manages to dodge the first one and the second latches on up to the knee and tugs him down about four feet.

The two tigers both attack the mage; the other two come down to move in a flanking position around the opposite side. Rhapsody hits with the club, slugging it with the first hit and it recoils back away from the other two blows.

Sheri goes sliding down the ladder and goes down a little faster than she wants and stumbles a little but manages to get back on her feet again.

Daniel tries to slash at the tentacle and is unable to get a hit on it.

Ramirez stops what he's doing and comes down the ladder.

Muller moves around to get a bead on the mage. 'I don't see the mage. I see your tigers, but the mage is gone,' she telepathically tells Rhapsody.

Daniel is sucked into the darkness, completely enveloped and he can't seem to move at all. He comes through to a glowing green area in the middle and in the center is a man with his legs folded under him. All he sees is a silhouette.

'Stop struggling, it won't hurt as much.'

'Let me go, it won't hurt at all.'

'Sorry against orders.'

Rhapsody's tigers go after the mage, they get caught up and the guy in the middle says, 'Oh look kitties.'

Rhapsody moves into the circle and tries to bash a couple times but misses.

Sheri moves up and tries to hit, missing.

Daniel is still stuck. 'I don't suppose we can just send you back where you belong?'

'Send me back? I'm a general in the coming army.'

'Exactly why you shouldn't be here.'

'Be quiet and we won't have to kill you.'

Daniel builds up the energy and fires as the guy looks up in surprise.

'GODDAMMIT! FUCK! You're going to pay for that.'

The tendrils tighten around Daniel and squish him.

The mage says, 'Stop fooling around and kill them all.'

The general replies, 'Yeah, yeah I''m getting to it, remember, the lord said that we didn't have to kill them at all.'

Ramirez scoots down. Muller is scooting around the outside, trying to find the mage.

The darkness expands and launches three attacks against Rhapsody, she dodges the first one and the other two wrap around her. Rhapsody gets drawn into the blackness.

'What's up Pussycat'?

Rhapsody realizes who it is. 'YOU!' she snarls at Willard.

The two cats on the outside prowl around the circle.

'Enough of this now. Well done, everyone, I needed a first hand display of your abilities.' The voice has no apparent source.

'Lord Chereshe.' Willard smiles.

Chereshe tells Willard to take down the darkness. He's hesitant but Chereshe tells everyone to not take any hostile action. The darkness fades away and those caught are set down. There seems to be some kind of mind control preventing hostile action.

Bugs and flies scurry from the room and they coalesce, forming into a person who looks like a younger, more perfect version of Foster, dressed in simple black and blue robes.

'Neat trick' Daniel said.

Chereshe admonishes Willard for injuring Daniel. Willard complains of being zapped. Chereshe looks over to see how bad Daniel is. He has Rhapsody dismiss her tigers and says Fiachra would appreciate her trick.

Daniel is healed, but in a way distasteful way that makes him feel icky inside.

Chereshe says that he only partially expected them to get this far. 'I'm glad you're all here. It seems that somewhere in our recent past we came to a misunderstanding. Which is the leader? oh wait... there is no true leader in this land of the democracy.'

'What do you want with Jenny?' asks Daniel.

'Oh, I didn't know the Voice was reborn till you all brought her to my attention. I have no plans to hurt her. But the rest of you?'

'The beast responsible for the murders is Fiachra, another Atlantean lord.' Chereshe admits to taking Foster's body and the four sacrificed to bring him there. He's just an old power trying to bring a new age to the world. An age where all can profit, and be brought into new awareness. He claimed to be a harbinger of Gaeaharu, the great lord.

Willard, 'Yeah guys, we're working for the wrong side!'

Mr. Tweed a.k.a. Myrddin, is an old immortal sorcerer who has a grudge against the Atlanteans. He wants to present his side of the story.

Fiachra is doing what he thinks is best, but has fallen to a more bestial state. If he is summoned here before Gaeaharu, he would cause mass carnage.

Chereshe asks for neutrality to listen to his side of the story. He has Ramirez go up and take down Jenny, who is under what Chereshe calls a potion's influence.

The voice is the counselor of Gaeaharu.

He believes that Fiachra has an invoker attempting to bring him into this realm. The beasts are gathering essence to bring the Lord into the realm.

The pyramid artifact was used to summon Chereshe. There is an artifact like it that can be used to summon Fiachra.

They decide to do a trial alliance.

Rhapsody starts to say, 'I'm sor? wait a minute, no I'm not, never mind.'

The guards come in and Chereshe sends them back to their posts.

Chereshe suggests discussing things further on the yacht. Men are summoned to take Jenny out of the compartment and onto the yacht. They head off and the others move forward, giving them space to discuss.

They get into the yacht and Chereshe leaves them. Willard stayed there until Rhapsody booted him out of the room much to his protests. Healing is done and Sheri seeks a vision, but she is blocked or there's some kind of a null zone in seeking the vision. Rhapsody changes and washes up.

Jenny wakes up as the others are discussing what to do and who to trust. She starts to wig a little. She told she was kidnapped, but her kid is fine. Daniel demonstrates with putting up a shield and Rhapsody throws a glass at him, and it bounces off.

Jenny finally tells that she had dreams, one a couple months ago that Sarah that she caught something at school. She saw one of her classmates sneeze and it spiraled to where her kid was in the hospital.

Muller finds a shipping invoice: Kronighauser Inc

Chereshe shows up and talks to Jenny but does allow for someone to go with a video camera to show her that her daughter was okay. The group decides to work with Chereshe to keep Fiachra from coming to being. They want to do some recon first and are allowed to rest on the yacht.

INTRO thru Session 12

2005-12-23T07:19:00.000-08:00

NORTHPORT

Northport is a thriving city situated on the pacific coast, northwest of Olympia, Washington. Sea trade and the fishing industry gave the city it's humble beginnings and still play an important part in it's modern successes. Nevertheless, it's population of 122,000 have diversified and the cities economy now relies on technology, manufacturing, education and tourism in equal proportion. Northport has fine parks and museums, a moderately ranked college, is the headquarters of several national and international corporations and was ranked fourth best city in Washington in 1985.

These are things you will find mentioned on the cities official website. What you won't find there is any note on the supernatural activity centered around the city. No mention will be made of the unusually high missing persons ratings, unexplained deaths or bizarre crimes. Neither will there be statistics on the rapid increase in cult activities. No, to find such information you must talk to the people of Northport, and even then most citizens will be ignorant of the truth. To really get the scoop, you must go to the gifted of Northport, those people who know the truth, or at least pieces of the truth.

No one is certain what caused the surge in magic that has made Northport special. It has happened elsewhere in the world to be sure, in some places more than others. Beginning in the 1980's Northport became one of these magical nexuses. The population of gifted began increasing, both through birth, manifestation and immigration. The walls between realities have thinned. Spirits are prone to restless activities. Lycanthrope prowl the wilderness of forest and street. Vampires and worse creatures lurk in shadow, and sorcerers and saints wield magical powers for good and evil. This could be the reason Bill Gates chose Seattle over Northport when looking for a home.

This place is special and you may count yourself warned should you choose to call it home. Walk carefully and with both eyes open. Oh, and don't forget your umbrella, it rains a lot.

Archy Kennedy, (Seeker's council Scholar)

The average citizen in this setting will not know that the supernatural exists. Through a mixture of secretiveness on the part of the gifted and the mundane's propensity to rationalize, they either fail to see past the deception or turn a magical incident into a strange but explainable one. This is not to say that there are not "mundane" organizations and individuals aware of what's going on, only that 'the cat isn't out of the bag' when it comes to the general public. With the steadily increasing amount of gifted activity, it's anyone's guess exactly how long the cat will remain IN the bag.

THEME
Some theme words for this campaign will be: dark, mysterious, dangerous, supernatural, gritty.

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Notes on the Witchcraft Campaign. (What we have written of our adventures so far.)
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Rhapsody – A Summons

Rhapsody awoke a few moments before her alarm clock buzzed. She slid out from under the covers and walked barefoot over towards her kitchen to get the coffee started. Her steps slowed from as wariness crept in, her senses telling her there was someone there.

She approached cautiously, seeing no signs of forced entry as she passed the doors and windows. Seated at her preferred chair with her favored mug in his hand was an older man. He was dressed impeccably in a dark tweed suit, a matching hat resting easily on the table just to his left. And of course, at perfect ease as though he were a long time friend on a casual visit.

“Care for some coffee?”

“Who are you?” she demanded.

Unruffled, the gent motioned to a chair across from him. “Please have a seat.”

“I prefer to stand. Now, who are you?” she responded with ice in her tone. Her annoyance level was rising at the audacity of this man acting as though he had every right to be in her kitchen, uninvited

“My dear have I given you any reason to not trust me?”

She arched an eyebrow, “Breaking and entering.”

He seemed a little offended at the idea. “I assure you, I did not break anything.” Then he seemed to realize where he was and what he had in his hand. “Yes, but I see... your mug, your coffee… good coffee too… There is much to explain…. And no time… no time…

“I need your help… but I have to go.” He took a pen and a pad of paper from his coat pocket and quickly wrote before dropping the note onto the table. “I will see you soon, Rhapsody.” He picked up his hat…

The alarm went off, startling Rhapsody awake. Immediately, she went into the kitchen. On the table, was a note written in an elegant script giving only the name ‘Misty Baker’ and a phone number.

***

As she waited for Professor Walter’s Literature class to get underway, Rhapsody’s thoughts briefly went to the note in her pocket. The name and the number meant nothing to her. However, that did not stop her from taking a second glance at the note, the number committed to memory, and tucking the piece of paper into her pocket.

Sherri, an infrequent attendee in any of the classes they shared in common, was murmuring to her friend, Jessica as they both sat down to Rhapsody’s right.

“So what happened again?”

Jessica shrugged as she twirled her hair. “They were attacked by some homeless guys and Melissa was killed. Misty somehow got away. God, I don’t even know why they were down in that neighborhood at that time of night.”

“Well, Melissa liked her clubbing and her partying.”

“Yeah, but Misty was more sensible… Only thing I can think of is that they were there for some sort of pick up. And I’m sure Misty is totally freaked. She wasn’t in class earlier today. Ugh, could you imagine the last thing you see is some homeless guy doing what he wants to you?” she gave a dramatic shiver for emphasis.

“Where did this happen again?”

“Down on 34th and Williams… Least that’s what it said on the paper.”

Before the girls could discuss any more, Professor Walters came in and announced the pre-exam was to take place to see what was needed for review before the final test later in the week.

After class was over, Rhapsody headed towards the library to use the computers there to see if there was a listing for the phone number that she was given and also to see if perhaps it matched any numbers on public file for Misty Baker. Her path took her right behind Sherri and Jessica as they also headed to the library.

Nothing turned up, and by request, Rhapsody looked up the article in the paper and only saw the small blurb as to the incident.

Rhapsody showed the phone number to the other two, “This familiar to you?”

They shook their heads.

“Not even Misty’s number… Think I should call her?” Jessica asked.

Rhapsody nodded. “That might be a good idea, see how she’s doing.”

Jessica called and talked with Misty for a few moments. “She’s totally freaked out and hysterical, saying something about monsters.”

“Monsters?” Sherri asked. “Think maybe she took a hit of something bad?”

Jessica shook her head, “No. She doesn’t do that at all.”

“Does she live nearby at the dorms?”

“No, she and Melissa have an apartment downtown,” she replied as she grabbed for a magazine.

Rhapsody took the periodical and handed it over to Jessica. As her arm brushed against the arm of Sherri, she caught a sudden whiff of essence. She looked at Sherri who seemed staring at a distance place for a moment then snapped out of it.

“Are you still on that stupid diet, Sher?” Jessica asked. Without waiting for an answer, she announced, “Gonna be late, see you later if you’re not going to class.”

Rhapsody stood up.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to go see the area the murder took place. See if I find anything the cops didn’t find.”

“I’ll go with you.”

Rhapsody nodded.

They made a stop to Rhapsody’s Harley so she could pick up her jacket and they headed down in Sherri’s SUV. As they drove, Rhapsody tried the number the gentleman gave her. She got the answering machine for a Detective Connel.

As they entered the neighborhood, Rhapsody ignored the catcalls from a bunch of would be tough teens and started stalking around the area. Sheri followed a little dubious about the whole situation. About a half an hour later, Rhapsody found a spot where there was fairly fresh blood just outside the mouth of an alley.

She turned down the alley and caught another scent of essence, just a little above the bloodstain. Wanting to get a higher view and to see if that scent came from above, Rhapsody leapt up to the fire escape latter and pulled it down. Once she had climbed above the area, there was no trace of the scent. However, as she looked around, she saw figure at the mouth of another alley that ducked out sight.

Rhapsody went back down to the ground and headed towards where she saw the woman vanish. Around the corner there was an open gate and a closed door. She proceeded in with Sheri asking what was going on.

Inside, the shadows seem more alive and are clinging to the walls. The woman stepped forward a little bit.

“Who are you?”

“Rhapsody.”

“Jen,” replied Sheri.

“What are you doing here?”

“Investigating the murders that happened, what are you doing here?”

She studied Rhapsody and Sheri. “You are not police.”

“Correct. The incident was brought to my attention by an older gentleman.”

“Who is this … older gentleman?”

Rhapsody shook her head. “I do not know. Who are you?”

She shook her head, "Aah, ah. I'm the one asking questions this time. My mysteries will remain my own for now."

“Are you the only one that commands the shadows?”

“There are others with that ability.” She seemed confident or at least satisfied with the responses and she turned and walked around the corner, disappearing.

Rhapsody and Sheri turned to head back to the car. As they reached the mouth of an alley, a police car passed by and slowed when they emerged. An officer walked out, looked to be fairly young, but didn’t have the demeanor of a rookie.

“Hi. Mind if I ask what you ladies were doing in there.”

Rhapsody shrugged. “I thought I saw a kitten in there, and I went to see if it was okay.”

The cop blinked. “A… kitten…”

She motioned to a pile of refuse where the shadows made things hard to see. “Just turned out to be trash.”

“I see… Do you have identification?”

Both Sheri and Rhapsody handed over their IDs.

“Please, wait there.”

Rhapsody moved, not to where she was requested, but leaned against the wall of the building by the mouth of the alley. Satisfied that neither was going to run, the officer handed the IDs to his partner. After a few moments, they were returned.

“Please be careful ladies. This is a pretty bad neighborhood, especially for girls like you.”

Suppressing a sneer, Rhapsody tucked her card away and resumed walking towards the car.

“Whew… glad that…. HEY!” Sheri threw open her car door and looked where her stereo had once been.

“At least they left the car,” Rhapsody noted. “Let’s head back; I have classes I want to attend.”

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SESSION BREAK
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After the afternoon class, Rhapsody received a call from Detective Conell in reference to her earlier call. Her mobile number was on the caller ID and ‘Mr. Tweed’ had insisted that he call the number. Once hearing about the description of the gentleman, Rhapsody gave a brief explanation of why she was involved and only that Mr. Tweed had appeared in her kitchen.

After the call, she calls Sheri to let her know about the call from the Detective and that Mr. Tweed had paid him a visit before she heads home.

Later on that night, Sheri calls Rhapsody to see if she’s had any revelations or if anything else had come up. Rhapsody states that she doesn’t think that the Shadow Woman is the threat, but knows what is going on and what they are up against. She also thinks that allies are being gathered to fight whatever it is that killed Melissa Parker.

----------

The following day, Rhapsody received a call from a detective Johnson regarding the report that she gave to Conell, mostly asking if she knew the victims or anything like that to which she answered without giving out any additional information

Sheri calls afterwards to report that Misty had ‘lost it’, claiming that Melissa was there with her. Rhapsody asks for Misty’s address and when Sheri cannot provide it, she intends to head downtown rather than school to see if she could find Misty’s place. Sheri notes that it may be just as well that she doesn’t go at all since the cops would probably be there in short order and there is nothing that they can do. They agree to meet at Café Galactica and go hunting for critter causing this mess.

Rhapsody calls Conell and tells him that she has a lead on Melissa’s murder over at the initial murder scene, and also tells him that she is heading down there. Conell suggests that she does not, and she replies with ‘Suggest away’ and hangs up on him before going to rendezvous with Sheri.

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SESSION BREAK
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Rhapsody waits at the coffee shop for Sheri, who insists on getting herself a raspberry frappe before they heads out to the crime scene to meet up with Connel.

Meanwhile, Connel arrived at the site and saw a kid sitting on a dumpster. The kid stared at him for a moment before taking off. Connel made his away down the alley and towards a crossway that he recognized from his visions

Willard, having been released from the police, headed to his beautician class.

Rhapsody and Sheri arrived in The Tombs near the alley way. Sheri checked her locks as Rhapsody headed towards the mouth of the alley and saw Connel. The three met up and exchanged greetings.

Connel asked why the two were involved in this case. Again, Rhapsody told him about Mr. M and that she believes that he is gathering people for this case. Connel asked Rhapsody if she has any experience in investigation, to which she replies that she is studying for investigations and interning over at one of the precincts.

“Were you assigned to this case?” Connel asked.

“Absolutely not,” Rhapsody replied almost flippantly, which took the detective by surprise.

Connel began to insist that the girls talk to the police, and then clarified that they speak to Det. Johnson as the investigator in charge.

Behind them came a tap-tapping sound. As the trio turned, they saw Mr. M himself coming down the alley. Mr. M informed them that Det. Johnson is ill-equipped to deal with the case.

Rhapsody asked, “Who else do we need?”

At the same time, Connel asked, “What the hell are you talking about?”

Mr. M explained that there was a threat beyond what the police could handle ad noted Sheri sensing the growing shadows. He instructed the trio to go to St. Sebastian’s church where they would find more clues and someone that would be able to explain. With that, he vanishes.

Connel goes to his car to call Det Johnson who is at the murder scene of Misty Baker. Johnson tells him that the last person Misty called was Sheri’s number, so Connel decides to take the girls to the site before going for questioning. They leave Sheri’s car over at a local police station and head downtown.

While Connel is on the phone, Rhapsody sees the shadow lady for a brief moment, takes a deep breath, but doesn’t smell anything.

On the way, Connel calls Willard and ‘requests’ that he meet him at the murder scene. Connel comments about Melissa’s body being there. Sheri states that she feels that the more there are delays, the worst things will get.

Det. Johnson meets the trio and wonders, after Connel’s explanation, as to why they haven’t gone to the precinct yet. Connel goes to see the murder scene as the Detective questions Sherri.

Sherri tells what happened in the phone conversation with Misty and is asked if she ever seen Willard, as Willard walks up and asks for Connel. Det. Johnson requests that Willard leave his firearm in his car, then turns to Rhapsody and asks if she has anything to add. Rhapsody says no.

Connel sees the forced entry to the apartment and closet and the blood splatters. He notices that it is inconsistent with firearms and the victim showed signs of strangulation like the mortician, so he looks at the crime scene photos.

Finally, the four head to the church and Sheri asks if the cops ever thought of giving Misty police protection. Connel says that from what they know, it wasn’t warranted.

Connel also fills Willard into the fact that it was Mr. M that wanted them to go to the church.

St. Sebastian’s cathedral is in the middle of downtown. The sign outside shows a requiem mass for Robert Foster as they arrive.

As they enter the church, the younger members feel the power of the building. Connel heads to a priest and lets them know about why they are here. Rhapsody describes Mr. M, but Father Samson doesn’t recognize the man.

Willard asks if the padre knows of any dead people getting up and killing. A voice from behind him says that ‘he wouldn’t know of such things’. Rhapsody and Willard both turn to see the ghost of an older man wearing 40’s clothing, about 60 years old. Willard makes an excuse to go pray or something.

Rhapsody hangs back to hear what Willard and the ghost have to say. Sheri thanks the priest and goes to where it looks like Rhapsody and Willard are talking though Willard is introducing himself.

Sheri activates her divine sight and basks in the splendor of the church. The ghosts possesses Connel enough saying that there are things that cannot be revealed that are still true.

They all go downstairs after getting the priest distracted by falling candles, Rhapsody having to stop Connel from helping. There is a set of living quarters and Willard shuts the door behind the group as they enter.

As Willard starts to explain to the ghost, Connel is wondering who he is talking to. The ghost goes out after proof then returns in a solid form, introducing himself as Mr. Pennington.

Rhapsody, again, describes Mr. M and Willard recounts what has been happening. Mr. Pennington looks at Rhapsody after she introduces herself and reaches into a space behind him to pull out a book that he starts to study.

“You four are in a prophecy,” he announces. “It is a good thing you arrived; this man… is he… Mr. M” he shows a woodcut, Greek in style. “Well, you four are the seekers of the voice of Amphitrite. She was an oracle in Ancient Greece.” He excuses himself to get more information.

“Think it’s the shadow woman?” Sherri asks.

Mr. Penning returns with further information. “Amphitrite is the eldest of the daughters of Nerius, the Old Man of the Sea and she was the first wife of Poseidon. A cult built up around them, Apo cyma adelfosyni, The Brotherhood of the Wave. They said that they were into spirit summoning and had a woman that clamed to be the voice. They were imprisoned for conspiracy during WWII.

“You four will save the world from the Second Rising.

“The four will come and speak the words of the Voice. By their deed we will be freed from the reign of the Second rising.

“She who carries the curse of the line of Avendi shall appear as a member of the four.”

Connel decides he has enough and goes to check out the service. Mr. Pennington goes back to his non-corporeal state. He informs the remaining three that he used to be a professor and asks if they have any affiliations with Seekers. Rhapsody knows of them a little bit in her travels, but none are associated with them.

Above, Robert Foster’s mass begins.

Bishop Donavan walks over and takes Connel to the side to speak to him. Connel talks about the murders and that he was told that there may be leads here and confuses the elderly bishop. After getting no answers, he rejoins the group and they make to depart from the church.

As they go up to the door, they find it locked. There is a surge of power and Rhapsody goes to find Mr. Pennington, but as he said he was going to look for further information, he doesn’t appear to be present.

Above, the choir’s is held on a single note like it is paused in time.

Sheri prays for visions as the other three look for alternatives out.

Rhapsody sniffs around and they start to hear a chanting and feel another burst of power.

Willard grabs the bed frame for a battering ram. “Coincidence… yeah…”

Sheri gets a vision then collapses. From the floor she sees a vent shaft as the boys put their muscle to work against the door. “There are visions, and then there are visions.”

The girls move tables and Sheri mutters that Bob Foster is NOT a good man.

The guys punch a hole through the door and on the other side is a gargoyle-like face looking back and growling.

Connel steps back. “Whoa… ugly...” he comments.

The ventilation shaft goes in then up. Rhapsody gets a toolbox and a screwdriver, pops the lid, grabs the Mag-lite and heads in, then upwards.

At the door, a face peeks in after the creature is told to move away. Connel looks out the hold and gets grabbed, then slammed into the door.

Sheri plays relay between the guys and Rhapsody.

Connel smashes the arm and takes a shot as Willard tries to stab at the arm to make it let go of the detective. The guys and Sheri cover the stairs as they hear a deep growl.

Another voice says, “Alexi, what’s going on?!”

“A man with a gun, sir!” Alexi replies.

Rhapsody continues in the vent and sees the lid of the casket has been thrown off. The congregation is frozen, and there are two bodies laid out in front of the casket. There are 2 creatures guarding the main doors.

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SESSION BREAK
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Sheri continues to watch the door, moving to a corner for more cover as Connel covers the hole. Willard begins to summon his magic for a shield, as he moves further into the room.

Rhapsody sees the voice belonging to the man in the suit that says, “Keep them there until we are done with the ritual.”

He takes something from a box and sets it down, then begins to murmur in what sounds like an incantation. Rhapsody scoots back towards the group, and as the box is commanded to be opened, everyone feels a sudden jolt of magic.

Sheri holds her position, looking at the others. “What are we going to do?”

No real answer emerges as Connel moves to peek again and Willard meets up with Rhapsody at the opening for the vent.

“Looks like we can get out through the vent.”

Connel shakes his head, “I can’t fit in there, and I’d have to wait till someone opened the door.”

A clawed hand reaches in through the hole and tries to snatch the detective’s gun, but he manages to pull it away and it only scratches a little at the metal. Connel fires at the hand and the owner pulls back and seems to be cowering away from the opening.

Willard starts to strengthen his shields as chanting begins again. Rhapsody reports the layout of the sanctuary above.

Connel peeks out the door again and sees a massive shape pass by. “A fur coat?” he queries.

“So bashing is a bad idea now?” Sheri asks.

Connel shrugs, “Only way I can get out. Someone want to help?”

Willard and Rhapsody head back into the ventilation shaft, though as he is going first, he manages to bang a little bit, making some sound. As he gets to the grate he draws in his power to blast the underlings until he sees the essence being funneled. He switches targets to the head guy, the soul fire causing the shield around him to diminish noticeably.

Meanwhile, Connel has picked up the bed frame and heads back to the door to bash the hole bigger, this time with Sheri’s help, and they get another chunk out of the door. Unable to do much more, Rhapsody just keeps her senses peeled.

After Willard’s attack, 2 creatures are sent in through the vents after them. They rip off the grate as Rhapsody and the mage start scooting backwards. One of them manages to grab a hold of Willard’s arm and yank him back; however, he manages to squirm away. Rhapsody, using her gymnastic ability, is able to get her self to the opposite shaft that leads to the fan and readies her gun.

The critter lunges at Willard, but he manages to drop down the shaft, and has a hard landing below. Rhapsody has her gun readied and fires at the critter, pretty much blowing half its head off.

Willard looks up as he tries to shield. “Did you kill it?” just as it screams.

The critter tries to grab Rhapsody’s gun, but she manages to scoot out of the way and double taps, killing it. “Yes,” she replies to Willard.

A voice from behind the critter that retreated says, “Come out!”

Willard replies with, “Suck me!”

Connel and Sheri start to crack the door. Rhapsody reaches forward, grabs the corps of the critter and drops it down the shaft.
“Present for you Connel.”

Willard and Rhapsody shove the body out after she sees the opening to the vent is covered with something heavy.

Sheri looks to Connel after they break out another chunk. “Cover me, I’m going in.” She glances in for a peek, but a clawed hand slashes at her face. Connel catches her as she falls, unconscious from shock and Willard snags her gun

Willard goes to widen the door more and Rhapsody helps this time. Rhapsody goes through and the critters attack, but miss as she dodges out of the way. Both Willard and Rhapsody fire at the critters, but also miss.

A feral bear approaches Rhapsody as critters leap for her. She dodges the little adversaries, but the bear hits her, causing her to snarl.

Willard: “Cool, she’s hot and mean.”

Rhapsody changes to her feral hybrid form, surprising Alexi, the bear and nearly ripping his throat out. Willard throws soulfire at one of the critters. One of them goes down the stairs after Willard and lunges, missing and falling near Connel who shoots it in the head.

Rhapsody sees a huge 15 foot tall figure at the pulpit and snarls to the folks down stairs to get the fuck up there.

The critters continue to attack and in her head, Rhapsody hears ‘Abase yourself to the spirit before you.” And she does, unable to be offensive.

The critters continue their attack as Connel and Willard go up, the detective surprised to see a tiger up there. After a few moments, Rhapsody feels the bear take a deep breath under her.

Willard miscasts one of his spells as Connel is slashed. One critter latches onto Rhapsody, doing significant amount of damage as the bear stands and throws her into the frozen congregation. She plays dead as she works on recuperating, even though she still cannot move.

Sheri finally stumbles up the stairs and calls holy fire down on the bear, again sending it prone. She realizes that if she can siphon the energy from the church, she can disrupt the spell casting up front.

Too close to use his gun, Connel slashes with a knife at a critter, but ends up getting cut for his trouble.

Outside, they hear sirens and the ritual is interrupted. The man curses and shoots at Willard and Connel, hitting the younger man and disabling him. However, the second shot to the detective misses, though ends up clipping the critter and killing it as he goes to check on Alexi.

Sheri holy fires another critter, turning it to cindery pieces and Connel shoots at the caster, which gets through the shield enough to injure him. He shoots again, this time at Connel and Sheri, missing.

The congregation awakes and panics. Rhapsody changes to her full tiger form and remains playing dead as she still cannot move.

Connel goes to check on Willard, even though that means that the bear, now up and fried, takes the injured caster out the door, scaring the hell out of cops trying to bash in the door. The freaked out congregation try to make a mass exodus.

Sheri goes over and finds the box, tapping it shut and tucks it under her arm. Connel is taken to the officers in charge as the paramedics go to Sheri and Willard. Connel starts to explain what happened, indicating he had no idea of a bear and a tiger as animal control is called.

Animal control arrives and fires some tranquilizers into Rhapsody, making her groggy as they load her up into the van and hang out to see about the bear that escaped.

____________________________________________________________
SESSION BREAK
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Rhapsody wakes up in the truck, waiting a few moments to get her head together. As the truck stops, she bashes opens the door which surprises the car behind the van and scares the bejesus out of an elderly couple as she hops on the hood of their car. She takes off to a strip mall, but finding no clothing store, she takes off into the city. She manages to find a Salvation Army store and find clothing so changes back to her human form, gets dressed and heads back to the church.

Connel asks Sheri where Rhapsody is, Sheri says to deal with that later. She asks him to take possession of the pyramid even if it is removing evidence from the scene. Connel reluctantly agrees and then informs the sergeant in charge that he is seeing Sheri to the hospital. He overhears one of the medics saying that the guy in the casket is not dead.

Connel goes to his car and drives Sheri to the hospital as Sheri says she isn’t sure that the pyramid will be safe. Connel starts to question to what he’s being witness. He reaches to touch the box then stops and recoils from it.

Sheri suggests that Connel look into Robert Foster and find out what he can and to work on making it his case. She also states that things have become personal.

Connel expresses regret at bringing Sheri into everything and aggrees that the pyramid is not safe at the precinct.

C notes that he thinks they are being followed. Sheri asks if he can call for backup, which he does and reports the black van tailing them. They come to a stop and Connel looks back, and then begins to struggle in breathing. He stumbles out as does Sheri, trying to get away where they can breathe. Sheri grabs the pyramid and gets to the sidewalk.

The van doors open and masked men come out. Connel is unconscious and on the ground. Sheri goes down the alley, but collapses even as she hears the sirens.

Willard wakes up as he is rushed into the ER. He’s wheeled into the OR and he sees a man in a dark suit looking at him intently and he can tell the man is gifted. He tries to put up a shield, but passes out.

Rhapsody gets to the church, finds that Connel & Sheri went to the hospital and looks around. She sees Pennington and motions him to the side to chat with him. She relates what happened, which disturbs the ghost and she agrees to return to talk further with him. She catches a ride and sees Connel’s car.

She has the driver stop and ignores him as he tries to get her number. Rhapsody tells the officers she was supposed to meet up with Sheri and Connel heard they left and was trying to find them. She asks if she can look around and see if perhaps she might find something they missed. Evans takes her around and she finds the plunger of a syringe. She also smells something on it, the scent of tranquilizers. She also smells chlorine. Evans takes Rhapsody to the station to get a statement.

Sheri wakes up to the smell of chlorine. She tied and can more feel than see a bag over her head. She hears a rhythmic sound of a machine. Her wounds burn from the way her head had lolled. She tests her bonds for a moment.

“Are you awake?” she hears in a Spanish accent.

“Kind of… Don’t feel too good.”

“I imagine not. Let’s start with the simple questions. What is your name?”

“Sheri Hanson.”

“You and your friends caused a lot of trouble.”

During the verbal fencing, Sheri and her captor each believe the other is the one that did the summoning. Her captor accuses Sheri of the summoning and she starts to explain it wasn’t her. He pauses and returns a while later with another.

Again they start the questioning and Sheri feels magic being invoked.

A cultured voice states that she is a servant of the One, as they are.

They take the mask off her and Sheri sees the Spaniard in a business suit and a smaller man next to him as she is released.

“So you were there to stop those people?”

Sheri tries to explain, but she is still loopy from the injuries and she is questioned about her friends.

The smaller man heals Sheri’s wounds and then leads her to the hall and into an office to a cot, apologizing again and lets her rest after leading her to another room and sees Willard there. She is asked who she is and they are surprised that Sheri confirms he is one of her friends.

Rhapsody is down at the station as Connel shows up. They go to check on Willard, Rhapsody being the one driving. Connel calls ahead, but the hospital reports that Willard is missing and that the bear has not been found.

Connel wonders how they can lose a bear and Rhapsody mentions that he could’ve gone into his human form and escaped notice. Connel starts to question and Rhapsody answers which just beat down on Connel’s sense of reality as they head back to where Connel was ambushed.

At the site, Rhapsody tries to track Sheri unsuccessfully and so they decide to go the church. They see the bodies that are human where the critters had fallen. In the janitor’s quarters, Rhapsody calls in Mr. Pennington and he appears after a couple of attempts.

Pennington asks about selkies, Rhapsody knows a little about them. He says they are linked to the voice and that the Voice is the link as she is either with selkies or seen with them.

Connel’s phone rings and says that their friends have been found.

Sheri is roused and is told Willard is being healed. They say that the cops are looking for them. Willard looks around and tries to go back to sleep but I made to get into the van. Sheri sees Willard as she also climbs in.

Sheri questions the Spaniards as they claimed the church as their domain and mentions that they should look into Robert foster. It is explained that it is a sentinel’s crossroads.

Rhapsody and Connel pull into the parking lot of the park and Connel requests that she stay in the car. Rhapsody acquiesces after a moment.

“Detective Connel, we found your friends and they are fine.”

Sheri pokes her head out.

Connel questions the 2 who claim to be allies. Connel motions Sheri over and Willard tumbles into the back of Connel’s car to sleep. Sheri smoothes things over and Rhapsody offers her place for Sheri and Willard to rest and for everyone to be more comfy.

Sheri tries to explain to Connel and Rhapsody that the men are Sentinels, basically holy warriors for the 1 true God.

They get to the condo and Rhapsody goes to change her clothing. The summoners knew of the Sentinels and made a distraction to use their place a power. They summoned a varghest, a lesser demon and the Sentinels responded to the threat.

They do know of Mr. Pennington, but the varghest is not the monster that the 4 have been after. The pyramid is set on the table and Rhapsody relates what happened.

Connel is asked if she is convinced of things being the truth, which of course inspires mocking from Willard.

The cultured man says that the dead goblins are humans and part of a violent cult to explain why Connel had to open fire.

Robert Foster is a solitaire who died of a heart attack, but now in a coma at the hospital.

Connel gets a call, 2 murders at the boardwalk, strangulation like Melissa.

The men leave and Rhapsody requests names. The larger man is Marcus, the smaller man says to call him Priest.

____________________________________________________________
SESSION BREAK
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The group heads down to the Tombs and along the Boardwalk to the scene of the newest murder. When they arrive, Connel insists that Sheri and Willard stay in the car, but allows Rhapsody to come out since she is an intern.

Willard looks around for gifted in the crowd gathered around and spots one of the bystanders, a guy who is wearing a black leather jacket and looks like Brad Pitt.

Rhapsody also sees the guy make eye contact for a moment as she goes with Connel under the tape. Connel is the only detective there and asks the officers who called the scene in. He’s pointed out to a homeless woman who is standing off to the side. She called it in at 8:04pm. Forensics has yet to arrive and there is an ambulance nearby. Connel and Rhapsody realize the time is when the shit hit the fan at the church. Connel goes to talk to the homeless lady and the BLJ guy heads off. Rhapsody goes to see if she can find his scent and realizes it’s the scent of the shadow woman… the smell of dead flesh.

Rhapsody sees 2 men going to where the guy went and that they are also highly essenced.

Connel calls the lady over and she asks if there is a reward. Connel asks what she saw. She was walking, saw the hole in the fence that wasn’t there before, went to look and saw the bodies. She didn’t see anyone else around that she had noticed. Connel finally gives her a fifty, a card to a shelter and his card to call if she should think of anything. She starts to leave and then comes back to return the watch she had picked off the male.

Forensics arrives and begins their investigations. One of them mentions this scene wasn’t as bad as the one across town. Time of death was around 7:30ish… not quite 4 bodies.

Connel asks the boys in blue if there was anyone else, and is told there are 2 other officers wandering around. Connel hears the forensics guy as he points to the body and said, “I've done this one already.” Connel goes over to look… and sees Misty… no rigor mortis.

The other guy hands over a wallet proclaiming the black man to be Harold Jacobs, 32 years old, lived in the neighborhood. Connel tells them to track any connections of Harold to Misty. Connel calls the detective working cross town and speaks to Monica Williams. Det. Williams tells him that their perp might be the guy who likes bodies. They decide to share info as they can.

Rhapsody tells Connel she’s going to follow someone that stood out and have Sheri and Willard go with her. Connel asks that she keep them out of trouble. Rhapsody’s response was, “Yeah, right.” She goes to the others and asks if they noticed Mr. Essence. Willard confirms. Sheri tells about her vision again, Robert Foster at the foot of a void.

They hear a trash can bang and Willard puts up an essence shield as they head forward and down an alley. Rhapsody heads down first and sees BLJ holding up someone against a wall. Behind him are the other 2 she saw head down the alley after him.

Willard says, “Hey guys, what’s up?

BLJ, woodsy looking guy and an Italian guy is what they see. The other two give a wild scent Rhapsody recognizes as those of feral. The cop in BLJ’s hand is passing out and at his feet is an unconscious cop.

BLJ guy demands to know who the group is. Willard introduces himself and asks why he’s roughing up the cop.

Rhapsody asks who he is…. And there is a question duel, BLJ not giving any information despite the group’s willingness to share. The other two do state they are not with the Sentinels. The blonde is Greg, and the Italian guy is Antonio

As the question and answer session, continues, there is a call on the cop’s radio for them to report in. As the caller on the other end gets no response, BLJ drops down and grabs one of the revolvers, training it on the two groups. He shoots Rhapsody, grazing her, Sheri and Willard duck for cover. Antonio and Greg transform to a leopard and wolf respectively.

Rhapsody also transforms and is shot again, this time hit. Sheri tries to fry BLJ with a holy bolt. Rhapsody goes up after BLJ, following Antonio. Connel hears the ruckus, gives orders for a cop to stay as he goes to check things out. Sheri goes to examine the unconscious cops; both are alive, just out.

Rhapsody goes tiger on the roof for speed as she follows Antonio who is after BLJ.

Connel finds the group and asks where Rhapsody is. Willard said that she went up.

Rhapsody follows the two into an apartment and bedroom. Going around a corner, she sees Antonio on a couch. BLJ has a woman with a claw at her neck. He states he’s willing to bet that they will not endanger the woman. Rhapsody calls his bluff by attacking. He throws the woman and the two females collide. Antonio goes after BLJ and Rhapsody checks the woman who is injured, but alive. She resumes chase.

Another cop comes to tell Connel that there is something going on at the crime scene. Connel gives Willard his backup revolver and they head to the scene.

Rhapsody goes out the window and finds the scent of BLJ and Antonio. She hears the cops who heard the breaking glass and leaps up, using her camouflage ability to hide from them until they enter the building. She hears the sounds of squealing tires and sees Antonio on top of a speeding GTO. She charges it and gets her arms into the driver windows, holding on and she’s shot at again.

Connel, Sheri, Willard all hear the shots as they go to the crime scene.

Rhapsody swings her body after nodding towards Antonio. She manages to use her weight and that of the leopard to drag the GTO to its side and leap clear as its inertia carries it a distance and grinds to a halt.

Back at the crime scene, the forensics team is dead, the black victim is missing and Connel complains that they are supposed to go to the morgue first, and then walk away. He and Willard go to check the bodies. Sheri looks around and sees a shape in the ambulance. It looks like a huge dog, with tentacles that are in the body of one of the paramedics.

Willard sees it, “Connel, this is your department.”

The dog-thing leaps at Sheri, who manages to dodge out of the way. Willard shoots it and misses so hides behind Connel. Connel shoots it and hits it in the head. It snarls and leaps away.

Meanwhile, Rhapsody notes the license plate of the car and the sound of sirens approaching grows louder.

Willard uses his soul fire to see if it takes away the marks on the paramedic, but it does not, though Connel does see the ‘flames’.

BLJ breaks through the top of his car with a gun and shot gun, the latter he aims at Rhapsody and fires. Rhapsody ducks but still gets hit, so she plays dead. BLJ fires at Antonio and hits him as well, then turns as Greg shows up. BLJ turns and fires at G, but clicks empty. He leaps to a building and goes up as G helps Rhapsody to an alley.

Sheri heads to where she heard the shots and sees the ferals limping to the alley. Greg growls at Sheri, but Rhapsody tells him she’s okay.

Willard gets in the car after handing the pistol back to Connel. The surviving and conscious cop asks if Connel saw what happened. Finally the back up arrives.

Greg leads Rhapsody into the sewers.

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Session 7

Connel pulls out his badge as the backup arrives. Willard is in the car and Sheri is hanging with Connel. Connel sends officers to those subdued by Leather Jacket Guy.

An officer reports the victim in the apartment. Sheri goes to rest in the car. Plain marked car comes up; a balding heavy guy comes out to scream at Connel. Apparently it’s the police commissioner.

Eventually, they take Sheri and Willard to the police station, and have some other detectives to question them. They are immediately separated.

Willard is asked what happened. He explains that detective Connel was asking questions, that he got a call in regards to the line of questioning, so took them with him, told them they couldn’t got to the scene, they wandered off, they found the cops being mugged or something and gave a description of Leather Jacket Guy and a rough and vague description of Greg. They yelled at them and they ran off because they were raising enough noise. He said he was there with his friends, checked the cops, and headed back to the crime scene and lost track of Rhapsody when there was something, a huge dog that Connel shot at that was attacking people. One of the officers said that there was something going on at the crime scene.

Meanwhile, Sheri is being questioned. Connel drove them, protecting them, said to not wander far and not to get into trouble, and there was some psycho guy that shot, then climbed up the building to escape. When they got back to the scene there was a huge dog that was mauling people. It was in the ambulance, charged Sheri, then ran off, scared of the gun fire that Connel shot. Who was with them with in the alley? Sheri and Rhapsody, she thinks Willard was in the car. One cop getting beat up the other unconscious on the ground. She remembers Willard was behind her, and first shot she lost track of him and thought he went back to the car.

They ask that the two not leave. Willard is of course flippant. Across the way, they see Connel talking to the head honchos of the precinct. The two are free to go home. Willard requests to be taken to his car. They grudgingly do so, taking him back to Misty Baker’s apartment complex. An officer offers to give Sheri a ride home or to her vehicle, she chooses to go the precinct, gets her car and goes home to rest.

Meanwhile back at the sewers, Rhapsody is in the older sewers where she is heading along. The previous injury that Leather Jacket Guy hit on her shoulder is still painful and the sewage is not helping. She makes her way up a ladder and looks around, Greg is also still in his feral form.

He leads over towards a recessed door to a warehouse and they head over a block where there is an old Toyota pickup and gives the address to her condo. He gets out a pack and gets back to his human form and escorts her up to her apartment.

Greg raids the beer stash and Rhapsody does say she’ll be okay. And they start explaining why they were at the scenes. Greg and Antonio were working under the assumption that the killer could’ve been a different sort of lycan. They exchange information and Rhapsody shares her theory that it’s a type of vampire, but not the one that pulled a gun on them.

Sheri is in a dream. She’s hit by the smell, the smell of the ocean, and she can feel the sand between her toes as she walks along the beach. The day is over cast as she walks towards the rocks, she hears flute music.

She heads towards the sounds of the flute, winding around the rocks. There is a very small man, native wearing a loincloth and a beaded necklace. In front of him is a fire, he stops playing. There is a salmon cooking on a rock next to the fire, and shell fish next to the fire also cooking.

“Welcome, Drum Sister.”

“I thank you, Flute Man.”

He seems to like the name. “Care for some fish?” He kneels down to see if the fish is done.

“Yes, share the goodness.”

He pops open a shellfish, slurps it, picks another and hot potatoes it to Sheri and he starts to eat, not talking or anything. Sheri will scan the horizon and make note of the area, looking for selkies.

Sheri looks to herself to see what she is wearing. She is wearing a burgundy gauzy skirt.

A few minutes go by and FM says, “Have you come here to simply share my fire, or is there something you seek, Drum Sister?”

Sheri ponders, “Well, I have been thinking about a big man of the waves. Maybe a god perhaps.

“God?”

“A shaman of great power, perhaps. I’ve heard speak of a Brotherhood of the wave.”

“A brotherhood of the wave? I have heard… You seek an Old One? You path lies along the way of the Great Spirit. It is not often that a Drum Sister of the Great Spirit seeks an Old One.”

“Are there spirits? Swimming Sisters?”

“There is the otter sister… the salmon... what do you seek, they are all around us?”

“They are selkies.”

“Ah, you speak of the skoshas. The travelers from across the waves, they have traveled here.”

“What are they like? Are they like otter woman or different?”

“They are more like you, Drum Sister, and others.”

“What do I call you?”

“You can call me Pukwudji. Of the honochenokai. We are called the little mysteries by Mother Toad. Brother to the Raven and Brother Coyote. And what of you, Drum Sister, have you a name?”

“They call me Sheri.”

Sheri looks down and in her fanny pack, she fishes out a pouch of tobacco, which she takes out and offers to him. “Please take a gift.”

“We need no gift. We can take what we want and I have taken your measure. Have more shell fish… So you seek, ocean spirits. These, skoshas? I have spoken with them before, , but not lately. You need 3 gifts for them. Go out to their rocks at midnight, bring with you a lantern, a fish, and a gift of silver. By the lantern they will know you, by the fish they know you as friend, and by the silver they know you respect them. They are amongst Brother Seal and his kin.”

“I understand, thank you.”

“I am glad you have come, it is not often I get visitors.”

“I am glad I came too.”

She sits and watches the waves, and next thing she hears is the alarm, but wakes up refreshed.

By the morning Rhapsody is healed. She skips morning classes and goes in later.

Willard also ditches.

Sheri calls Rhapsody, mentions the dreams. Asks about the selkies and that they were talking about them in the dream. She doesn’t want to talk about last night. Sheri is surprised that Rhapsody is going to class…. Then there is a knock at the door, Sheri’s dad.

Wayne is leaning against the door. “Honey? You’ve got a message on the machine, what happened last night?”

“There was some bad trouble.”

“What were you doing? Is this something that is going to be in the papers? Are you okay?”

Sheri BS’s about what happened, something about the Russian Mafia, clues at the church, helping Rhapsody find things for her internship. Connel left the message.

“I’m glad you’re okay, but I don’t like what’s going on here… Is this gonna be in the papers, is this something I’ll have to be explaining to the other … “

Sheri calls Connel back. It rings a few times, and there is man’s voice, “This is Det Walter Harrison.”

“Det Connel. Please”

“Sheri Hanson returning his call.”

“Det Connel is taking a few days leave. Can I take a message? Sheri Hanson you said. If there is no message, he should be back next week.”

Sheri sees Rhapsody in class.

Willard wakes up, listening to Manson and NIN and starts doing some research. A knock on the door, and through the hole, he sees a man in a three piece suit, late 20’s early 30’s, clean cut. Seems mundane.

He opens the door a little. “What do you want?”

“I have a message for you. Mr. Robert Foster would like to see you.”

“Why? He was supposed to be dead.”

“An unfortunate misunderstanding. He would like to thank you for that not being the case.”

“Where does he want us to meet?”

He hands out a piece of paper with directions. Willard calls Rhapsody and lets them know of the meeting. The girls are hesitant, Valamorte Café is where Rhapsody suggests. Foster can’t make it and gives assurance that he means no harm.

Rhapsody asks Willard impression of him since he spoke to Foster on the phone. He didn’t get any impression that Foster was being false. Rhapsody prefers to not let anyone go in alone. Willard asks if Sheri is too paranoid to go.

Sheri goes to seek visions as Rhapsody and Willard go to get their phones upgraded.

Sheri sits there for a half hour and sees a series of images, and feels water, and she breaks the surface and sees rocks in the mist jutting from the rocks. She’s inside the tower and sees Foster, laying in a bed, medical equipment hooked up to him. He looks to be unconscious, and looks to be men guarding him.

She jumps as something slams at the door. She flashes to the outside, and the water is beating against the tower. She sees the water rising. She flashes inside and the guards have their guns out, the top of the tower blows off as a huge storm brews. There is a scream, and as she looks around, all the guards are wilting, their flesh decomposing as they turn to dust. She hears a loud hiss, and sees the bed and Foster is coming off the bed and over his features again is the shape she saw before. Foster is in a panic, the heart monitor flatlines and she’s back in the courtyard.

Willard tells Rhapsody of his vision for his death mobile. Rhapsody goes to call Priest. She informs him of the meeting. Priest is willing to send some men. Rhaps calls Greg, but he’s not there. She leaves a message for him to call him back.

They pass by the church, but there are still forensics, cops and government agents. Rhapsody calls Connel and no answer. She calls Priest to get Connel’s information and to find out what happened that Connel is no longer on duty.

Rhapsody tells Sheri to stop and she pulls up next to the dark blue suburban. A dark complected man rolls down his window and nods to Rhapsody. She asks for the information, and he relays that there was time to do a basic recon, there is a security force, 8 men on the outside. Looks to be expecting trouble. There are 2 entrances. There are 4 and they give a panic button and offer a wire, Rhapsody turns it down. She gives him the frequency of the walkie talkie.

They head to Foster’s. There is a video screen and they are buzzed up. They get out and head up to the door and it opens and they go into a foyer. They are asked to wait and the butler goes off and in 5 minutes, another man comes to escort them to Foster.

They get to a pair of double doors and he turns and scans them. He opens the doors and the bed matches Sheri’s vision. Foster is propped up in his bed. There are six men that are standing around.

“Ah… I’m glad you could make it. I just … I’m going to be leaving town soon, and I wanted to share what information I have of what you may be facing.”

He has one of his men bring over some papers. He opens up and takes out cashier’s checks, each for 25000 dollars.

Robert tells that he was given a drug that is a derivative of a fish poison used in voudon rituals that puts someone into a death like state. He still is partially paralyzed. He knows them as The Dread Society. They approached him 8 months ago and attempted to recruit him for 2 months for his knowledge and gifts as a practitioner. He mainly uses his gifts in the business world. He refused. They are well connected and were able to alter some of his accounts as a warning.

Sheri tells them the theory as to why he was being used at the church. He would have to assume that they had the mortician in on thing. Sheri asks if he is from an unusual family lineage. He made his fortune from the ground up.

The man who did the recruiting had a small tattoo in the shape of a wave, underneath his watchband. Willard tells of the whole incident. Willard hints to Shari to tell of the vision. Shari tries to establish contact with Willard.

Rhapsody asks what the Society was offering, which was power, everlasting life. He prefers to do things on his own and felt there was some duplicity. Shari tries some divine sight on Robert Foster. Everything in the room is warded for protection.

Rhapsody asks for more information. Robert says that what he can do is allow Willard to use his occult library. Willard prods at Sheri to tell about what she saw. During his coma and in sleep, he was plagued by dreams of a very powerful being that made some connection with him. He is trying everything in his power to not be taken over. Thus his powerful shielding.

Sheri warns about Alexi. He is versed and protected against the werebear. He did research the name but found next to nothing. They tell a little about the prophecy just because the link with water that seems more than coincidental.

Sheri thinks perhaps the people at the church might be good? Things may not be as they appear. The group goes to the library.

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Session 8

New Players
Reginald Winter – college professor some time colleague of Robert Foster
Patrick Shaw – guard hired on by Robert Foster

Sheri looks for selkies and the voice as Willard looks at his necromancy interest. Rhapsody looks more to the legends. Rhapsody’s walkie-talkie beeps and is informed there is a visitor arriving and he is described. Rhapsody rattles off the plate and is confirmed, she knows it is Professor Winter.

Reginald heads up to the doors, and Foster has Shaw escort him in. At the door, another guard is using a wand scan on Reginald before he’s allowed. He sees all the equipment and realizes there is something else odd.

Reginald goes over towards and asks what’s wrong and Robert said there was a mix up… and Foster confesses that he had another reason for calling him in, wanting to talk more about his apparent gifts that runs more towards healing. He wishes Reginald to try and heal his injuries and dismisses everyone but Shaw, who mumbles something about wanting a sandwich and a beer.

Robert says that there are certain dangers that he should be wary of. He has Shaw roll back the rug to display a warding circle that his enemies are after him in a metaphysical sense rather than physical.

Shaw is requested to place Foster in the circle. Reginald sees that by all appearances Foster has had a stroke. Shaw goes to watch the windows. Foster props himself up as best he can and launches into a small incantation. Reginald feels that there is something happening. Everything outside the circle seems dimmed.

Foster turns and says that the ward is activated. Reginald rubs his hands together, trying to put together his intellectual resources. He’s about to start when the intercom beeps and is informed another visitor has arrived.

Rhapsody gets another call over her walkie-talkie that there is someone else, guessing government vehicle. She requests that they are kept an eye on and to inform her if he is allowed in. He is.

Foster and Winter begin the beginning again. He feels that there is no more glass bubble around Foster once the ward went up. Reginald takes a few moments and gets into what he has to do. He feels something is working when he is distracted by something happening off on the grounds (essence spike).

Willard asks the guys in the van if they felt the essence spike, they say no and Sheri says she did feel it. Rhapsody says to go investigate as she didn’t sense anything.

Foster is placed back in bed by Shaw and the rug replaced. Shaw goes to inform the others about potential threats on the property and he tries to call the outside guys, checking their status.

Everything is good, but Shaw requests them to do another check.

Reginald asks what happened. Foster said perhaps harmful magics. Rhapsody, Willard and Sheri meet up with the inside force. Rhapsody asks if there is something going on. Shaw says there is another visitor that might have something to do with what’s going on.

Shaw is informed there is no contact and he sends a team then he goes towards the north side of the house. Willard asks to speak with Foster. The other guards come in, Jim is sent to arrange the flight ASAP. Rhapsody greets Reginald and Reginald is surprised to see her there.

One of the guards asks if the government guy has arrived. He is in the waiting area. Willard goes down with two guards to check the guy out. Rhapsody goes over towards the window to take a peek outside

Shaw heads around the house. There is another essence spike coming from a line of trees on the north side of the property. Shaw takes out his binoculars to take a look around and sees the rest of the outside security team heading towards the tree line. He notices something come out of the trees just as he was about to set the binoculars down.

There are 2 ethereal creatures heading towards the house. Shaw goes to the windows to get a mind link going with Reginald.

Reginald’s reaction to the mind speak is to look up and around at the ceiling asking, “God?”

Rhapsody looks out and sees the beings and points them out to Reg.

The beings are 7-8 feet tall, vaguely female. Shaw tries mindfire, creating a ball and throws it at the beings. The ball explodes and does nothing other than to gain attention to Shaw.

Willard gets to the room with the secretary with the guy that has been waiting. Willard looks to see if there is any essence, and it is higher than normal, though nothing active. The security is radioed that there is a problem. The two guards look at each other and bolt out of the room. Willard goes back towards Foster’s room and does see him pull something out.

Rhapsody watches but doesn’t do anything, yet. Reginald is stunned at what he’s seeing. The critter speeds up and rushes towards Shaw and he runs away from it. The first essence comes up to the bay windows and hits the ward. Its fingers sink in and looks like its trying to do something.

Rhapsody asks if Foster knows what it is. Rhapsody and Reginald move away and the second one who just wanted to scare Shaw away and joins the first. Rhapsody and Reginald know that if they are ethereal that nothing physical would affect them and that to get the summoner that had a pact with them made

Foster sends a soulfire that splits to hit the two figures and they jolt and then suck the energy. “Oh crap.”

Willard enters the room as Rhapsody turns to leave. She sees the agent by the guards and they are arguing. Rhapsody tries to get a radio and misses, but startles a guard. He lashes out but she dodges. Reginald looks out. The agent is saying he’s here to help, so Rhapsody says ‘so come with me.”

Agent goes with Rhapsody. Reginald stays put. A hairline crack works its way up the window. The two spirits converge on the crack. Shaw goes to head over to the security shed for an ATV. Willard asks what Foster wants to do.

Rhapsody goes around the outside; the agent sees the spirits and asks what they are. Rhapsody says spirits and that the summoner needs to be dealt with. They start heading towards the tree line.

Sheri tries her holy fire; Shaw sees the pillar and the spirits are unaffected. More cracks form along the glass. Shaw gets the four wheeler and is not getting the maximum power from it. Rhapsody goes to get the other ATV. Willard gathers essence. Foster asks Willard to strengthen the wards. He cannot. Reginald calls in the guards to the fracturing windows and goes by Foster. Foster says it’s time to roll him out of there, Reginald releases the breaks.

Shaw finds the next gear and manages to take off. Rhapsody gets the other ATV and takes off. The agent hops on behind her. Willard goes with Reginald and Rob and mentions to the guards to leave. The glass shatters in as one guard was about to mess up the wards, the guards look out, two guards turn.

Ethereal tendrils try to grab Willard miss. Sheri gets into the tree line he tries to gear down and gets a little bogged down, hits a rock and almost flips the ATV, but he falls off, but rolls with the fall and isn’t harmed. Willard bolts of fire at the one not swatting at him and hits, it arcs its back and the shape dims after the hit.

Rhapsody catches up with Shaw. Reginald is still pushing Rob on the bed. Sheri has no idea what the hell to do. Willard tells her to go after Rhapsody. She perched on the window and leaps out after using strength of 10.

Foster says look out and Reginald sees the one creature that got hit latches onto the bed shield. It clamps on to the shield and starts munching. The other one goes after Willard again, but he feels cold as they wrap around him and start to pull essence away. He starts to weaken. Shaw hears sounds of fighting, including loud roars.

Rhapsody slows and maneuvers through the trees, but sees a glimpse of a large creature, about 11 feet tall, no neck, huge arms, narrow waist, very ogrish in stature and appearance with a mouth full of teeth.

Willard tries to go into the pentagram, but there is no effect, so he tries to get enough essence for a bolt of soulfire. It sucks the soulfire and the creature seems to become more powerful. Reginald gets down the hallway, still pushing the hospital bed and yells at Willard to run.

The spirit looks up and yells at the one on Willard and that one leaves. Willard flips off the first one. “Foster, the ones it ain’t looking.” Foster, as if reading his mind, blasts it and it dissipates.

In the clearing, there is an average guy in a circle of sand, leaves whip around the circle. There are 6 child sized critters like at the church.

Rhapsody aims the ATV at the guy in the circle and leaps off. The agent grabs on to it and then leaps off, but the ATV goes past him... Shaw pulls out his gun to fire and just barely misses. Willard calls up some more soulfire to aim at the spirit and gets a solid hit and it slithers around foster to get away from the line of sight.

Willard: “STOP! WAIT!”

Reginald tries to get them to stop Foster says to keep going. Foster yells that he can’t hit it. The spirit latches onto the shield and it dims a bit.

Shaw double taps, the first shot hits and the guy falls. Rhapsody calls in the Sentinels for back up. The demonic ogre goes after Rhapsody and misses as she dives out of the way. A little one goes after her too and misses.

Two go for the cop and takes two shots at one, hits with one and knocks it to the ground. The other one jumps high and takes a grazing hit. Three go after Shaw and he dodges one, the other two claw him and one gnaws on the vest. The other however, latches onto Shaw’s arm.

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Session 9

Sheri bounds across the grounds towards the tree line. Willard jumps under the bed, holding onto the bard, leaning out to try and get a shot in. Reginald and Foster are having an argument regarding going or staying. Willard begins to summon essence.

Shaw strikes out at the critter that is gnawing on his arm, aiming for the creature's head. It skids off its head as it moves to the side. Rhapsody drops her gun and goes into her feral form. Reginald screams hysterically for Willard to hit the ethereal creature.

The little critters make their attack. The one near Rhapsody snarls and leaps up, trying to latch onto her back, but she rolls with the attack and deflects it. One of the other creatures is knocked back by two shots from the agent, though he gets hit by the other. The three near Shaw circle around. One jumps in and as Shaw attempts to deflect with his martial arts skill, but it only rakes along the armor. The second one leapt in and its side stepped and pushed aside. The third avoids the armor and gouges across the collar bone, opening him up pretty good.

Sheri keeps booking it across the grounds still. In the clearing, Rhapsody notices that the mage has pulled out a walkie-talkie and is talking into it. The wind that was whipping around the circle, then moves in the circle, and the mage is lifted up off the ground, the mage is still wounded.

Foster yells to Willard that his resources are tapped and that it's up to the necromancer to kill the ethereal being. The one spirit lifts up off of Foster’s shield and it spits out essence around Foster to make its own barrier. Willard holds his attack till he can get a better attack.

Shaw moves to attack the critter, the first strike missing, but the knee hits the face of the critter, smashing in some teeth and it falls back. Rhapsody tries to grab the goblin next to her to throw at the mage, but misses, so steps back, ready to defend herself.

The goblin leaps to try and gnaw on Rhapsody and gets a scrape. The agent goes down as the remaining critter rides him to the ground. One of Shaw’s critters leap out and Shaw easily deflects the attack. The second on Shaw tries to leap in, but misses and the third does manage to get a bite in, latching onto his leg.

Sheri enters the tree line, leaps over the abandoned ATV and keeps heading for the clearing. Sheri starts to slow down, being more wary and sees the Sentinel’s blue Chevy van speeding in with a smashed grill and broken window.

The guards slam open the doors to the elevator to get to the roof of the building. The spirit latches back onto Foster’s shield as it pulls the essence from it. Reginald pushes buttons.

Willard tries to get around behind the spirit and begins to summon essence to blast through the shield the spirit put up. He lets loose his gathered energies and it blasts in through the shield a bit, the spirit looking around back at the necromancer.
Shaw tries to grab a hold of his pistol which he had dropped, faking one critter out and rolls to his feet with his gun in his hands. He double taps, missing wide with the first and hits with the second shot as they did attack so couldn’t dodge. The critter is hit in the shoulder which is spun around and knocked to the ground. The other two attack , and he dodges the first one and tries to dodge the second, but only partially does so, but the vest takes the rest of the damage.

Rhapsody is healed up from the previous bite. She tries to grab the critter and it evades. The critter leaps high to attack and claws into her but doesn’t manage to get in a bite as Rhapsody evades.

Critter on Shaw leaps and attacks, but then scrapes off the armor. The second one attacks and hits, getting through and doing some damage, brining Shaw down to his knee. The huge thing attacks Rhapsody and she dodges out of the way, rolling under the strike.

Sheri gets into the clearing and into chaos, whipping out the borrowed kukri. Rhapsody yells out, “Mage, above!” as she notices the newcomer to the mass mayhem. Sheri looks around, sees the mage getting away, and goes towards the goblinoid critters attacking Shaw. Sheri cackles as she slices the critter in half, coming up with the blade.

The spirit lunges out at Willard who tries to dodge out of the way and does so ever so barely as misses and falls into the hall. The doors close. Foster screams to see where the helicopter is. Willard waits to replenish his essence and waits to be dodging.

Shaw double taps at the one attacking him. The first shot misses as it flings itself away. The second shot hits, exploding its head.

Rhapsody attacks the ogre, plunging her claws into its arm, ripping out its bicep and she snaps a bite at it with nip to the shoulder rather than the neck.

There is calm in the elevator. Reginald hums a bit of “The Girl From Ipanema”, Foster glares at him and he stops.

Critters grrr and the one that was shot by Shaw tries to crawl away. The big ogre tries to slam Rhapsody but just flails ineffectively at her with the first one but the return strike connects, staggering her back.

The one remaining goblin that has finished tearing up the cop lifts the gun and tries to shoot Rhapsody, managing to hit.

Sheri looks around and sees the critter that shot Rhapsody and goes for a run-by slashing. The critter shoots and misses. Sheri misses as the critter rolls away. Everyone hears the helicopter approaching the compound.

Willard says, “I hope that thing don’t fly faster than that chopper.”

The spirit flies in and latches onto the shield again. The elevator starts to get dark as something approaches. The door opens up.

Willard: “Get him out of here.”

Willard uses up the remaining essence to shoot the critter… and misses as he stumbles out of the elevator.

Shaw reloads his gun and walks towards the critter that’s crawling away to take a shot and misses as it rolls to the side.

Rhapsody rips the ogre’s throat with her claws. Reginald lets out a yell and runs down the hall with the bed. Sheri dodges as the critter shoots at her but misses as she trips. Several Sentinels come out and kill the last creature.

Willard sits down beside the elevator, depressed. “Guys, I quit. Someone else come and kill these things, I can’t. And the big bad thing is coming. And I really don’t need to go to jail right now, so I’ll see you at the car.”

The spirit finishes the shield as the chopper begins to land. Willard, Reginald and Foster are enveloped in shadow as there is evil laughter, though muffled as if under water.

“Hey guys…” and all the others hear after that is the evil laughter.

Rhapsody was running back to the mansion. The Sentinels check with Sheri and head back to the mansion as Sheri explains that the others are allies.

Willard sits down as Reginald keeps screaming. Willard feels hands grabbing him by the collar and lifting him up, saying, “I will remember you,” then he’s dropped.

Reginald is knocked out presumably.

Rhapsody sees from the field, the darkness by the chopper. She also sees something of great essence and power, wearing shadow like a cloak vestments around it. One of the guards stumbles out and his throat is slashed.

Leaning out copter is Alexi. The figure looks to Rhapsody then gets into the copter. Rhapsody goes to her hybrid form to climb up to the roof. She comes up onto the lip of the landing and the copter is ascending.

The shadow has now left the building. Rhapsody moves to throw the dead body, but as she is about to do this, she sees Alexi leveling a large rifle and leaps out of the way as he fires, missing her.

Willard is singing into the walkie–talkie, as he stands up and walks off towards the car. One of the sentinels growls to get the thing shut off. One of the Sentinels starts to bandage Shaw. Rhapsody peeks and gets shot at again, starting to swear under her breath.

Sheri shoots at the copter and misses. Shaw tries his mind fire and misses. Rhapsody goes to the elevator, checks on Reginald and he is alive. Sheri kicks the dead guard out of the way and heads down with the unconscious professor.

Shaw gets bandaged up. Rhapsody drops off Reginald by the elevator doors and heads to the library. Shaw gets to the elevator, sees Reginald and goes to the helipad. He sees the other guards with their throats ripped out, the bed and the holes made by the power rifle.

Shaw asks about the cleaning up and the large Italian guy says it will be taken care of and that they are working on a story as to what happened. One of the other guys comes back in and the large guy tosses him a wallet. He looks at it and tosses it to Shaw and there is a government ID card from the agent that got mauled.

The sentinel takes the ID card and gets on the phone. Willard goes to the roof, listens. “So they kidnapped him again, that’s a good cover story, right?”

Shaw suggests leaving the country as the Sentinel says, “Get what books you want, there is about to be a large fire.”

Willard reminds about the secretary. Two Sentinels are dispatched to go find her

Rhapsody is taking books after getting dressed.

Books are being picked and pushed to get into the van and X-tera.

Rhapsody goes to retrieve her weapon as Shaw has any ways of being identified. Rhapsody rips off the head of the agent so the body can be used to fake Shaw’s death. Shaw throws several fireballs out to set the place on fire.

The Sentinels give directions to the wharf section to a warehouse area. The garage is opened up and there is enough room to park.

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Session 10

People new to the group are brought up to speed a little bit. Shaw is told of the group that was after Foster and that has now succeeded in using him as a vessel for the entity they had summoned. Sheri tells of her theory of this Dread Society being part of the Brotherhood of the Wave that wish to enact a second coming or second rising, perhaps of Poseidon but that’s just a guess.

Reginald starts using his healing ability to try and do some healing on Shaw. The psychic residue of the pain is just too much and he staggers back. He tries again… he manages to do some healing, but it backlashes again at him. He goes for the third time charm and manages to do some more healing again, this time not getting the backlash thrown, so he continues… but gets the backlash.

Sheri says that she had a vision of the entity superimposed on Foster looming over a pile of corpses. Rhapsody says wryly that they DID just burn a bunch of bodies.

The leader of this Sentinel group says that the secretary is being taking care of. She will be well, but just have odd lapses in memory. He suggests that everyone lay low for a few days and asks if there is anything that needs to be done.

The garage door is pulled open for the bug and the X-tera. Rhapsody offers Shaw a room at her condo for the time being. All head to Rhapsody’s place and unload the books.

Sheri says that it should be soon that they seek out the selkies to find any information that way. They also start discussing where to go as in what they need to do, what needs to be researched, etc.

Rhapsody has a messenger go and open a new account with the cashier’s check given to her by Foster. Sheri starts helping with the research, Reginald offers his knowledge in languages. Sheri, Reginald, and Rhapsody hit the books for a while. Shaw goes to lie down and rest.

Friday morning all wake up and breakfast is both made and had. Reginald tries some more healing on Shaw and manages to a little, but ends up with another backlash. He does try for a third, doesn’t manage to heal but doesn’t get backlash.

Shaw goes shopping for weaponry and his usual gear he likes to have. Sheri also goes shopping but for silver, a lantern and will get the fish last. Reginald, Rhapsody and Willard stay to do research.

Around 10, Reginald finds a passage in the ‘Arat’s Dissertations on the Element of Water’ regarding the Voce of Amphitrite. Shaw returns around the same time Sheri does. On the television, there is a story on the Foster mansion going up in flames. Details are sketchy as the investigation continues into the possibility of criminal activity.

Reginald does some healing on Willard and does very well, but then needs a nap. He then calls Harold Mortenson, a contact of his in regards to the author who goes to do a little research on the subject.

Around lunch time, Priest calls Rhapsody saying that they found some information on the artifact and they agree to meet at her place at 8pm. Shaw takes a tour of the condo/penthouse. From the upstairs balcony, he sees a man down at the end of the block, smoking a cigarette, but something strikes him odd. He heads out as folks are researching or making dinner.

He comes around the corner and sees the guy at the far end. As he gets a little closer, he sees the guy is wearing jeans, shirt, and long trench coat, has headphones and looks to be hanging out, waiting. The guy glances over as Shaw walks over and asks for a light as he pulls out a smoke.

Shaw starts with some small talk. “I’ve never seen you around here before.”

“I’m not from around here.”

“Me neither. Thanks for the light.” And he wanders off.

Shaw takes his time and as he heads back to the condo he sees a Caddy pull up and Priest and his driver get out and head up the stairs. He doesn’t notice any weapons and heads in. The doorbell rings and Shaw asks Rhapsody to describe her visitors, which she does. As Priest enters, he is introduced to the other two.

Has any one hear of the Atalan, Pre-Lemurian culture linking to Atlantis. Said to have 2 factions within the culture, purveyors of light and higher learning, the others the ‘bad guys’. The picture of a small copper pyramid with glyphs inscribed. These glyphs are what are known of the Atalan and that the artifact is extremely old.

Spoke of it before as a conduit, which is incorrect. It’s a matrix, it store essence, and when opened, it affects another being’s essence. It can be used to change that being. The longer it’s opened, the more it spreads and changes. It is unknown if there is a limit or if it can be recharged or not.

Willard keeps offering steak to Rhapsody. The culture does have links to the ocean and water. Plato had mentioned about Atlantis. The theory is that the split society destroyed each other. Some think the Atalan were the good side, and the bad were the Balial.

Atalan went for spiritual supremacy and the Balial went for the physical.

The group tells of what happened at Foster’s. Foster had the link forged initially at the funeral via the pyramid focus which allowed the being to track Foster once the shields went down.

Silver ammunition is requested.

Priest asks what is to be one with the pyramid. Suggestions are to have it destroyed if possible, or put away. Rhapsody asks about the vamps and Priest says that the vamp case has been covered and is possibly a federal case. Connel is also under wraps, administrative leave.

Priest is told about the two ferals and the vamp, which Shaw recognizes as the guy outside as BLJ guy. He asks about the info from Pennington and the selkies, which they have not yet contacted. Priest mentions wariness about meeting now that he knows they are being watched.

Start speaking of what is to be done. Reginald says he’s not bait.

They head out to find the selkies. They go to the shore and Sheri lights the lantern as midnight approaches. Off in the distance they can hear the barking of the seals. Sheri looks for a flat enough space to put the offerings. Rhapsody keeps an eye out for the vampire. Willard goes to watch the parking spots.

Sheri goes into a visionary state in case it’s not a physical manifestation. Rhapsody sees a boat, a skiff out on the water, and there is a light coming from it. Sheri also sees it and there is a guy in the boat, wearing a hat and other fishing attire. Fairly young, mid 20’s and he’s rowing the boat. It skids in to the shore and he gets out.

“Ahoy there!”

“Ahoy.”

“I saw your light. Is there something wrong?”

Everyone answers negatively and he goes and sees the offerings. Everyone tries to make some excuse, Rhapsody tries to say what they are doing, but is talked over.

The guy goes to his boat and Rhapsody makes a comment about selkies which gets him out of the boat again and Rhapsody mentions the voice of Amphitrite. He asks what they want with selkies and the voice and who they are.

Ladies get into the boat and they go to a bunch of rocks. The girls notice that the oars are pulled out and see that the seals are guiding the boat to shore. They’re lead up on the rock on the island to an old woman. She wears very tattered clothing, looking the part of a matron.

“Who have you brought me Eric, it’s not often we get visitors out here.”

“Friends, grandmother. Friends who come seeking advice.”

“Ahh, they wish to speak to the Voice, ahh? You seek someone that I used to be, but am no longer.”

“Grandmother, then the voice went away

“It has moved on yes”

“We sought information of the weaknesses of a dark entity that was released recently.”

“I have seen such in my dreams, though the voice has left me. You seek the voice, she is not far, and I know that. She not of the ocean as we are. As all of our kind she is tied to the water, but she is not of our kind, the term is Nereid. You have the information to find her; you must follow that to its conclusion.”

“The dark entity is also associated with the water, but in a negative way.”

“Yes. The Second Rising. It is coming.”

“What is the second rising?”

“None are sure, but the first was before the age of Greece. I can tell you that it was on the right path.”

“Was it the time of the Atalan, or Lemuria?”

“It very well could have been.”

“Thank you and is there any other advice you can give us?”

“If indeed you come across these… 'Risen', you have friends among the selkies. Remember, we will do what we can to help you.”

They bid farewell.

“There is said to be a spell to find the voice, but she couldn’t find it, but that you are in the right path.” Eric gives a card.

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Session 11

Late morning, Willard heads out, intending to go to class, until Rhapsody reminds him that it’s Saturday, so he leaves to go get more sleep.

Reginald had a seeking spell faxed to him. It has to be cast in the presence of a water spirit. Willard calls to say that Pennington has information. Shaw and Prof Winter offer their services, the former for employment. Prof Winter heads out to the university as the others pile in to the X-tera to head to the church.

On the way to the church they stop for gas. Sheri tries to pay and the card is denied, and she finds that she hasn’t enough cash. Sheri goes for the other card in the car and that is also denied. Rhapsody hands out some cash.

Rhapsody calls Priest and asks him to look into things as it seems that someone is working against their finances.

They pull up to the church, and the site has been cleared. They head to the side door and head to Pennington’s rooms downstairs, passing by the custodian who asks what they are doing. Rhapsody says that they are to meet Mr. Pennington, but the custodian doesn’t know who that is. Rhapsody asks if they can wait for their friend and they are directed to the break room upstairs.

They sit, and they hear a cough and Pennington walks out of the wall.

Pennington had the seekers find an original translation of the prophecy:

Shepherds of the blood are born in the northern most of harbors

Beyond the placid waves a towering wall grows that will shadow the land in emerald silence

Only the voice can lead the shepherds to calm the second rising

A dark tiger of the line of Avendi shall heed the old man's call

Four will carry the torches into the night and though they stumble or perish the brand must remain lit

From forgotten ruin, the greatest temple must never be raised again

Else the gods of perfect flesh shall rule forever

And woe befalls the world of man.

Pennington states there is more, but is more in Earl’s room below. They tell Pennington of the selkies and the spell that needs the presence of a water spirit. Pennington can point to the direction of a coven that can help with the summoning of a water spirit.

Pennington checks and Earl has left. They head downstairs and Pennington pulls out a book, and appears to be corporeal. Shaw pokes him and he is real.

In the book there is a ritual that Pennington thinks will be most helpful. The key is knowing the correct rune for the Atalan. It would pinpoint the location of Atalan energies and might be useful. Rhapsody draws the symbols from the pyramid and Pennington does some searching and researching.

He narrows it down to 3. There is a catch; each one might the key to the ritual. Each time it is tried, they must expend valuable resources. Pennington has enough for one. He upends 3 moderately sized diamonds provided by the Sentinels.

Rhapsody calls Reginald to let him know they need the books he has. He says he’ll be there in an hour. They ask about the coven. Miss Amy O’Donnell is the high priestess of the coven Pennington mentioned. Tell her it’s a seeker matter.

They head to the park to meet up with Amy, a red-headed, willowy, slender young lady. Rhapsody is straight forward about what they want. Amy does agree to help and they agree to meet the following night.

They head back to the church and Reginald is there. They have agreed on a sigil and are ready to proceed with the ritual. Off the coast, the light burns into another rune. Another light forms in an area of the boardwalk near where the first murder was. Then one by one, little dots appear around the runes in the city, numbering over a hundred, mostly in the Boardwalk area. 3 are right outside her home.

Three dots are burnt near Rhapsody’s place, two near Sherri’s, three near Willard’s and no dots near the prof’s. They go out to get money, Rhapsody checks her accounts and they’re fine. They head to Sheri’s and she calls her card company and they look into her purchases as they see a purchase for a car. Sheri gets the ball rolling to get the credit card investigated.

Back at Rhapsody, her condo has been ransacked, safe opened and everything taken. Rhapsody calls the front desk and they call the cops.

Shaw and Sheri head to her place and they see cop cars there. Shaw stays inside the car as Sheri goes up to see what was going on. The cops report ‘some’ damage done. Sheri uses her divine sight and sees that 2 of them are standard issue cops. Third one is greedy, doesn’t care about wrong or right, and she gets the sense he’s on the take.

Sheri fills in reports and heads out. Rhapsody calls Willard and gets no answer. She calls Sheri and they go to see Willard’s place and it’s also been hit. They ask to move the ritual and get it rescheduled for midnight. They go to dinner and head back to Rhapsody’s and find Willard there and they fill him in.

Willard is left behind when he goes to get food and the time comes for the ritual.

Rhapsody sees the shadowy lady. Sheri true sights her and sees that she’s a vampire but on the side of the group. Sheri has information about the other vampire.

The other vampire is named Randall and has been asking. He’s protected by something powerful. He’s looking for a book with a dragon on the cover. Perhaps thinks that they have the book. And to let them know that there will be no repercussions from their society.

Same night that they ran into Randall, there were more murders. Sheri gives more information about the critter that took Melissa. The woman had run into it. The Nomads thought it was a Feral.

Her name is Raven.

They head to Amy’s and do the ritual.

She looks around and sees a man in a dirty t-shirt, jeans, no shoes, yelling at Jenny to shut the kid up. They head into a bedroom, a 2 year old screaming and pale thin woman on the bed who gets up to see to the kid. They go outside and find the name of the complex as the Hacienda Apartments.

They return to Amy’s house and head out; Rhapsody reports what she saw to Shaw and to Sheri. They decide to go out the next day.

In the morning they head first to the college and go to the marine geology labs to find the map as it corresponds to the marine maps to see if there is anything odd in the area. They don’t really find much of anything of use.

They head to the Apartments via bus and look around. Not finding the right place, they pretend to be telemarketers and survey takers, calling the numbers from the phone book till Rhapsody finds the most likely apartment.

Heading up to see, Rhapsody does see that the woman inside is the woman she saw. As they are about to retreat and go see Pennington for more information as to how to approach the woman, 2 sedans pull up and 4 men get out of each car. Rhapsody can sense they are supernatural and Shaw looks for cover.

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Rhapsody session 12

Dan tells his buddy he’s gotta work and scoots out the door. He uses his abilities for invisibility and to levitate… then decides to grab Joey’s keys off the counter to borrow his friend’s vehicle. He gives a quick apology as he tries to get away with ducking in and ducking out, taking off in the 78 Ford truck.

Sheri looks to Rhapsody and asks if she thinks that scooting into the Voice’s home might provide cover. Rhapsody says that it’s a good idea. Sheri says that she’ll try to sweet talk her. Four of the thugs pull handguns and they start to shoot as they come up the stairs. The other four are going for cover behind two of the cars where they parked.

Rhapsody says, “Forget it and let’s go!”

Shaw plans for cover, Sheri plans for cover but doesn’t see anything she can use so ducks and goes low as she can.

Rhapsody runs for the Voice’s door. The thugs shoot at Rhapsody. First takes two shots and misses completely, the shot going into the wall and the other through Jenny’s neighbor’s window. The second almost hits but Rhapsody ducks and skids to the door. Sheri keeps low. Shaw turns around and boots at the door and kicks it open. He crouches into the doorway. The other two thugs fire at Rhapsody. One shot grazes the shoulder and she ducks the second shot. The other four pull their guns to shoot.

Rhapsody bursts into the apartment and hears Jenny scream inside. She runs towards the back of the apartment and as she moves, she smells Alexi and starts to transform, just a hair before he fires a shotgun. Rhapsody dodges to the side into the bathroom. Sheri skitters into the apartment Shaw’s in. Shaw peeks around to take a shot. He nails the thug in the upper torso and sends him flying back down the stairs. More shots into the door and through the wall that destroy the home entertainment center behind Shaw.

Rhapsody finishes changing, rips off the bathroom sink, steps into the hall way and throws it at Alexi. The bear bats the sink into the drywall. He levels the gun and shoots Rhapsody with silver shot. Sheri goes to the bedroom to see posters of 80’s hair bands and a waterbed, and then tries to pull down a bookshelf in front of the window, but fails. Shaw shoots and hits, spinning the guy, but not quite knocking him off the landing. Shaw sees that his first target is getting up, shoulder mangled, but looking around for his gun. Shaw takes a hit, his vest blocking the shot, but knocks him to his back. Rhapsody hears Jenny scream and the baby start to scream, but also senses another in the bedroom.

Dan comes around the corner and continues on to around the building to NOT get shot and pulls to the side behind the building where he isn’t seen. Rhapsody pounces at Alexi so he can’t use the gun, going for the throat. He manages to redirect her into the wall and presses the attack to drive her through into the bedroom of the neighboring apartment, scaring the hell out of a guy in his 60’s who starts to babble incoherently. Sheri gets her body infused with her divine strength of 10 and tugs down the bookcase. Shaw shoots at the guy on the railing, pulping the thug’s lower neck and jaw. The body falls down with a splat. Shaw gets hit but his vest takes the damage.

Daniel starts to head towards the patio to scale the 6’ tall fence while gathering his essence, slides it the grass... and is working at getting over. Rhapsody goes after Alexi and manages to do some damage. He returns attack, the only one to get through only a glancing blow. Sheri takes a shot at a guy coming up the stairs and does hit, seeing him flinch, but doesn’t seem to slow him down at all. Shaw shoots and hits, knocking the guy backwards down the stairs. The guy that had fell down staggers to his feet, the white of bone showing in his face.

“They don’t feel pain!” Shaw yells to Sheri.

“Some sort of zombie things!” Sheri cries out.

“Zombies…that’s only in the movies,” thinks Shaw.

Thugs shoot, one missing Shaw, the other hitting. Sheri is hit through her bookcase via a perfect shot and the second at her misses.

Daniel gets his spell done and uses ‘hideaway’ so he’s not easily seen. Rhapsody and Alexi still duke it out. Rhapsody misses with one hit; the other manages to claw the bear very good. Alexi tries to grab and throw Rhapsody out the window, but doesn’t quite get a hold of her, so claws at her, ripping in as well as she did to him. Sheri fires and the guy hits the stairs, as he dodges out of the way of the first shot but gets hit with the second, a chunk of flesh and bone flies up and the zombie guys crawls up the steps. Shaw goes for a fire attack at the one crawling up the stairs and its hair catches flame.

“Great, we have flaming zombie on the steps. That made it better.”

Daniel sees a man in a suit and trenchcoat walking out with Jenny over his shoulder. The guy has a massive shield around him and he’s making his way towards a fire escape ladder and starts moving down it. Daniel moves around to the other side of the apartments and finds a covered walkway. Rhapsody aims a claw to Alexi’s throat but misses, her follow up does a good bit of damage. Again Alexi tries to get her through the window but is not able to get a hold of her. Sheri shoots and barely misses. She says that she’s getting tired of this "Mexi stand off". Shaw fires and hits and makes the target vanish in a red misty spray. Two shots are fired at Sheri and the glass breaks out from a shot and cuts her. Two shots are fired at Shaw and miss by a long shot.

Daniel waits for the trenchcoat gathering his magical energies. He sees the guy coming down, Jenny appears to be unconscious and dude has a handgun in his hand. Rhapsody tries to claw Alexi and he barely manages to block. Alexi however misses with two blows and comes with a savage hit that knocks Rhapsody to the ground. Rhaps remains conscious, but plays possum for now. Sheri heads out. Shaw gets attacked by the critter that comes out over the gun. He parries it and it falls to the living room where Shaw almost severs the head from the spinal column with the blast of the gun. It shudders for a moment and then lays still. Thug shoots and misses Shaw as do the others.

Alexi gets back down to a human form and gets the shotgun. Rhapsody goes to fly out the window and Alexi takes his shot. She makes it through the window but is unconscious. Sheri gets to the sliding glass door, gets to the balcony and hops down and heads down another apartment or two but does see the ladder down from Jenny’s apartment. Shaw shoots, the one in front that is visually impaired is hit in the hip, which spins him around and knocks him down. The second manages to dodge out of the way. Shaw does realize that he’s out of rounds. He is shot at and his vest takes the bullet that does hit, and it stuns him a little.

Daniel sees Trenchcoat and he walks by, so he follows as he keeps charging up. Trenchcoat stop and looks in Daniel’s general area and also starts to gather essence. Daniel backs up towards the corner to get to cover. Trenchcoat raises his gun and scans the area. Alexi cocks the shotgun and turns and heads out the back. He leaps out and misses Sheri as he leaps across and lands in the yard. Sheri takes a double-tap shot at Alexi, hitting him with the first shot and staggers him forward, but misses with the second. Alexi takes a shot at Sheri and hits, staggering her back as she tries to catch her breath. Shaw kicks out at the first guy and misses, then hits at the second, but the guy gets his shot off first and knocks him down. The guy that was missed tries to jump on Shaw and fails miserably.

Trenchcoat does not appear around the corner this turn. Daniel is still slowly backing away, looking for secondary cover for when he attacks. He makes it fine there and ducks down by the concrete steps. Alexi turns and sprints the rest of the way down the hall. Sheri moves to the interior of the apartment and leans against the bed. The 2 year old is huddled in the corner, crying. Sheri calls 911 on the cellphone. Shaw gets ready with a mindfire shield. Thugs at the cars start going up the stairs. The one with Shaw tries to grapple him and actually makes it through the shield. The one with a gun tries to shoot him but the shield manages to come up before then. Thug grabs a hold of Shaw in a full nelson as the fire flares up, making the guy scream. The bullet managed to get through, but was somewhat melted and even got through armor. Carpet flashes and starts to burn.

Daniel can sense the shield and stay hunkered down, capping the essence and keep it. He sees Alexi step out of the hall with a shot gun and scans the area. Daniel soulfires Alexi and turns and seems to see Daniel. Alexi brings up the shotgun and both shotgun and soulfire go off at the same time. Daniel does get hit, but doesn’t go down, just fell back a little ways.

“Devouring beasts are one thing, but devouring beasts with shotguns is another thing entirely.”

A Lexus shows up and Trenchcoat tosses the girl in. Sheri talks to 911 and tries to calm the kid down as she looks through the door and sees the opening in the hall, the sink and settling fur. Shaw goes for flaming martial kick at the guy with the gun. He gets caught up on the corpse on the floor. The thug steps back and shoots, but gets fried a little with the mindfire shield. Flames are working their way towards the couch along the rug. The other is still on fire and falls to the ground, crawling towards the bedroom. The other thug comes into view to shoot and misses. Shaw ducks into the hall. The thugs look at Rhapsody’s unconscious form and go through the window and heads towards Jenny’s apartment bedroom.

Trenchcoat hops into the car. Alexi uses suppressing fire to keep Daniel down. Daniel tries to see the license plate and is at a bad angle as he’s keeping his head down. Sheri hears someone approaching and readies a shot after setting up the dresser as cover. One of the thugs comes in and looks towards the kid, but now her. Sheri blasts at him and knocks him back into the wall, staggering him and drops his gun at the first shot. The second shot also hits and gets him underneath his jaw and almost falls, but rights himself again. Shaw is moving to get out of the flaming apartment, out the bedroom, out the back door and takes down the shield. Thug tries to crawl after the dresser after Sheri, who shoots, thug ducks down and just drops out of the line of fire. The other fires and misses.

Alexi jumps into the Lexus; Daniel is still hiding and gathering essence to cast. The Lexus pulls away and Daniel works on healing himself with a spell. Rhapsody regains consciousness and goes to full tiger form. She leaps up into the window, back into the apartment and sees the thugs, but doesn’t smell Sheri, so waits for a few moments. Sheri double-taps as the thug jumps up and she gets the gun in its mouth and blows its head off. The second shot is fired at the other thug and hits it in the shoulder and it staggers back into the doorframe.

Daniel watches the car and decides to start making his way towards the apartment, heading back into the hallway to the courtyard. He sees Shaw who’s limping over towards Jenny’s balcony. Sheri draws the kukri to be in total defense but sees Rhapsody hop out and knock the thugs head off its shoulders. Sheri picks up the girl and heads out. Rhapsody hops to the ground, growling. Shaw heads down the ladder.

Daniel is not seen and pauses to listen. Sheri is comforting the little girl (Jessica). Sheri’s Strength of 10 stops affecting her and she has someone take the kid. Shaw has her lay down and works on first aid. Sheri goes unconscious. Daniel materializes and Rhapsody growls as Shaw grabs the gun.

Daniel introduces himself and offers to get them away. They all get into the truck, Daniel makes the truck unnoticeable and they take off.