Friday, May 14, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Ordus Magistora Illuminati: The Order of Enlightened Magai.
History:
The original founding of the Order has been lost to time. There are two predominately accepted stories as plausible: The most commonly accepted foundation story is that the order was founded by Constantine to combat Zoerasterian mystics as a 'parallel arm' of the official Roman Church. The other story is much older, that the Order was founded around 4000 BCE by Kufu to combat the 'Night Demons' summoned by Sumer that used to stalk the world as we know it. That modern civilization could not flourish until this war had finally ended, and the 'Prophet of Sumer' was entombed for all eternity within the Kufu pyramid in Giza. Most members stick with the first story, as the second is far to frightening to contemplate.
Of course, underneath all of this is a third story - one which is completely discounted by anyone with a shred of reason: the Ordus dates from the beginnings of humanity, when Neanderthalensis and Sapiensis were enthralled to Rhodesiensis. Supposedly the large cranium Rhidesiensis were innate mages, and they either created or enslaved the sub-geni of humanity with Neanderthalensis comprising the working caste and Sapiensis as the crafting / worker caste. As the tale goes, the reign of the Rhodesiensis ended in the last Ice Age when some sort of paranormal event smashed their civilization.
Goals:
To keep most of humanity blissfully unaware of the fact that yes, there are things that go bump in the night - and those things bump hardest against those who are aware of them.
In order to accomplish this the Order
* Keep an eye on the overall state of technology and scientific inquiry - co-opting those who meander into dangerous directions (or in rare cases, removing them).
* Maintain a modicum of stability within the political arena of the mundane world, specifically by preventing the 'outlawed' use of paranormal abilities to 'rig the game'.
* Endeavor to keep the politics of the paranormal world 'out of sight, out of mind'.
* Eliminate anyone or anything which would expose the paranormal to the mundane world beyond the currently engineered level of 'plausibly deniable mockery'. (While the paranormal are powerful, a planetary wide Inquisition would not be a pleasant repeat experience).
* In pursuit of the above, it is the responsibility of all members of the Order to ward humanity against the excesses of forbidden arts: Wu-jen Necromancy, Demonic summoning and trafficking in infernal Grimoires.
Membership:
Roughly 350 in North America, including everyone from Masters to those who are verified precogs to that one guy who's mastered a cantrip. Overall maybe 1500 - 2000 world-wide.
The original founding of the Order has been lost to time. There are two predominately accepted stories as plausible: The most commonly accepted foundation story is that the order was founded by Constantine to combat Zoerasterian mystics as a 'parallel arm' of the official Roman Church. The other story is much older, that the Order was founded around 4000 BCE by Kufu to combat the 'Night Demons' summoned by Sumer that used to stalk the world as we know it. That modern civilization could not flourish until this war had finally ended, and the 'Prophet of Sumer' was entombed for all eternity within the Kufu pyramid in Giza. Most members stick with the first story, as the second is far to frightening to contemplate.
Of course, underneath all of this is a third story - one which is completely discounted by anyone with a shred of reason: the Ordus dates from the beginnings of humanity, when Neanderthalensis and Sapiensis were enthralled to Rhodesiensis. Supposedly the large cranium Rhidesiensis were innate mages, and they either created or enslaved the sub-geni of humanity with Neanderthalensis comprising the working caste and Sapiensis as the crafting / worker caste. As the tale goes, the reign of the Rhodesiensis ended in the last Ice Age when some sort of paranormal event smashed their civilization.
Goals:
To keep most of humanity blissfully unaware of the fact that yes, there are things that go bump in the night - and those things bump hardest against those who are aware of them.
In order to accomplish this the Order
* Keep an eye on the overall state of technology and scientific inquiry - co-opting those who meander into dangerous directions (or in rare cases, removing them).
* Maintain a modicum of stability within the political arena of the mundane world, specifically by preventing the 'outlawed' use of paranormal abilities to 'rig the game'.
* Endeavor to keep the politics of the paranormal world 'out of sight, out of mind'.
* Eliminate anyone or anything which would expose the paranormal to the mundane world beyond the currently engineered level of 'plausibly deniable mockery'. (While the paranormal are powerful, a planetary wide Inquisition would not be a pleasant repeat experience).
* In pursuit of the above, it is the responsibility of all members of the Order to ward humanity against the excesses of forbidden arts: Wu-jen Necromancy, Demonic summoning and trafficking in infernal Grimoires.
Membership:
Roughly 350 in North America, including everyone from Masters to those who are verified precogs to that one guy who's mastered a cantrip. Overall maybe 1500 - 2000 world-wide.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Episode 3: Ghost Stories and Campfires in Arizona
Cast:
Jay playing Simon
Barbra playing Kerrigan
Alex playing Steven
Reecca playing 'Becca
The team was sent to Arizona with two goals in mind; the first was to investigate a series of hauntings reported at the Casa Grande national monument. The second was to look into a request for help from the Alpha of Phoenix Lobos tribe (Lycanthropic Coyotes).
First some background. Evidently there are two types of Lycanthrope: those who can keep their disease generally under control - these are the Lycanthropes. Then the others; those who go feral and become human hunter. The Lupus. The former are tolerated with some degree of wariness by the magical community. The latter are rightfully feared and reviled by everyone. Why is this relevant? Because it is the principal task of the Alpha of a clan to maintain control over his clan to keep the existence of the clan hidden from the mundane world, and also cull those who are unable to control their disease for whatever reason; usually either the newly turned lycanthropes who cannot control themselves, or those who loose the ability to control themselves due to age.
In any case David Cobb of Glendale Arizona had made a call out to Nigel for some help with a local Conspiracy Theorist cum reporter named Nyle Doyle who was digging around a recent 'Animal mauling' case (you guessed it, a newly turned Lycanthrope named Jacob Quinn who couldn't control his disease). Nyle was getting awfully close to the truth, close enough that Mr. Cobb felt that if the clan acted the paranoid reporter would probably have some sort of 'backup' plan that would cause far to much exposure to the clan.
So the group came in under the guise of the Ghost Hunters location scout team to interview Mr. Doyle about his paranormal knowledge. During the course of the interviews the group found out several things; Mr. Doyal had discovered, or guessed or stumbled into an awful lot of information close to the truth. That Mr. Doyle, was paranoid, and borderline schizophrenic - with strong OCD tendencies. That Mr. Doyle had covered his block in electronic surveillance and had converted a old bomb shelter from the 50's into an offline 'data store' and Panic room. That Mr. Doyle had heard quite a bit about the Casa Grande hauntings (and was in the process of looking into it) and had leads on many other interesting tidbits such as: Maricopa County Sheriff Arapayo may in fact be possessed. That the McCain compound and the Governors' mansion may be haunted. That Fred Hargrove - who runs a Checkers in Glendale may be a lycanthrope (based on red light camera surveillance footage). That Mr. Quinn was not the first 'animal mauling', and that in fact such mauling are usually discovered about a week after the full moon. Most importantly (in terms of this case) Mr. Doyles girlfriend at New Mexico State was murdered / killed in an animal mauling - which he had able to link to Lycanthrope activity (but not prove).
Needless to say, Nyle and Simon got along swimmingly.
The long of the short of it all is that after a couple of interviews, a few 'ride-alongs' and Kerrigan breaking into his house (with moderate difficulty) the group was able to redirect Nyles 'research' (for now) while convincing Mr. Cobb that the best way to throw off Nyle would be to act less like a military unit and more like a local gang. We'll come back to the redirection and its consequences in a bit.
In the interregnum, the group took around the Casa Grande Monument. Evidently archaeologist teams and the site curators had noticed an uptick in 'oddities' of late; walls being seen through early morning mist, music on the breeze, heat visions of Union Soldiers marching south, an entire catalog of sights, sounds and smells that added up to something being off. When they questioned the curator, Daniel Sandoval, they found out that site grid C5-13 had been disturbed recently - and surveillance showed that most recently that area had been worked by Dr. James Richardson, University Illinois, Champagne-Urbana.
So Simon did his usual voodoo and found the professors course summary and biography. Naturally, he took a peek at the underlying code of the page to see if there were any embedded or traceable information, which naturally brought down the site thanks to an algorithmic ward which induced paralysis in the viewer, and deleted the page. 6 hours later, those effected snapped out of the stupor - and Simon went about scrubbing the local computers for any malware.
That night the group set up some surveillance and camped out.
Kerrigan woke up in the middle of the night, with the van surrounded by a mist. Out through it she swore she saw walls with torches, so she was off to investigate. Luckily, or unluckily, Simon heard her go and grabbed the others to follow. Thus the group emerged from the mist much to the surprise of the inhabitants of the City of the Sun as the city-pueblo was called. This caused a bit of consternation among the group, as their van was gone and why on earth was there a Pueblo village there now instead of a Wall-mart?!
Eventually everyone calmed down, and between some Linguistic derring-do, 'becca's languages and lots of hand waiving, the group was able to figure out the goings ons of the natives. The local Shaman took them to the Grand lodge which was what once stood at site C5-13 (imagine a pueblo Haggia Sophia. You get the idea) and the Kachina and mask artifacts within the temple. After further though, detect magics and deductions, the group came to the conclusion that the removal of one of the Kachinas had been the cause of the disturbances.
After a few days of this (not to mention the unmarried men trailing about after blond Kerrigan and Rebecca like lovesick loons) the group decided to check out the 'holy site' on Picacho Peak. They traded for some backpacks and dried fish, and headed off to the South East. After a week of traveling (while avoiding the hottest part of the day in the desert) they made it. At the foot of the peak thy found the dessicated remains and effects of a Union Squad - demonstrating that they were not the first group to fall though this hole in space/time. They also found a narrow, spindly path up to the summit.
On the summit, across a narrow path with cliffs on either side they found a cave entrance. Inside was a tomb / shrine that looked to be at least hundreds of years old. The group also found a chimney / stair to a second level - which hid a large mock up of the solar system all the way out to Neptune. After a bit of experimentation they discovered that moving earth caused the chamber to move through time. So the group carved a note down below, and meandered their way toward the future. Eventually, they hit the 1700's (although the group didn't know this at first) which revealed a new addition downstairs; a 'telephone' / monograph / player / thing. So the group dialed it up to see what would happen.
The magical phone device was answered by a young professor at Yale, one Mr. Franklin who was able to arrange rapid transport for the group back to Boston. There the group were introduced to a young Nigel Pennington who by the mechanism of various broom closets sent the group back to the modern era.
"So now you know why I hired you all." Said Nigel, "we'd all met before. It would be foolish of me not to hire you when you showed up." with a grin.
Amazingly, Nigel was not found horribly murdered the next day by Eugene police.
Armed with this new information about the identity of the missing artifact(s), the group headed back to Arizona to pick up the Van, figure out what to tackle next with the ghosts, and to deal with Nyle. So they decided to kill two birds with one stone: they set Nyle to researching Professor Richardson. Unfortunately for him, he was successful.
A few days later Simon received a frantic call from Mr. Doyle. He was under attack by some sort of skinless thing. The party rushed off to his aid. End result, one dead stalker demon, one flayed Nyle Doyle, one burned down house of Mr. Doyle, and Simons close encounter with a 'Lord Voldermort' (as dubbed by the group) with a nasty affinity for turning incorporeal or gaseous and producing EMP effects.
A few days later Simon received a 'if you get this I'm dead' package from Mr. Doyle. Within it was information about how Dr. James Richardson is a real person who had never been to Arizona and some hints about a 'Multiplex Group' of Chicago and a 'David Reardon'.
The body count was considered to be high enough to call the mission a success for now, and as such, the Group headed back to Eugene for debrief and RnR.
Jay playing Simon
Barbra playing Kerrigan
Alex playing Steven
Reecca playing 'Becca
The team was sent to Arizona with two goals in mind; the first was to investigate a series of hauntings reported at the Casa Grande national monument. The second was to look into a request for help from the Alpha of Phoenix Lobos tribe (Lycanthropic Coyotes).
First some background. Evidently there are two types of Lycanthrope: those who can keep their disease generally under control - these are the Lycanthropes. Then the others; those who go feral and become human hunter. The Lupus. The former are tolerated with some degree of wariness by the magical community. The latter are rightfully feared and reviled by everyone. Why is this relevant? Because it is the principal task of the Alpha of a clan to maintain control over his clan to keep the existence of the clan hidden from the mundane world, and also cull those who are unable to control their disease for whatever reason; usually either the newly turned lycanthropes who cannot control themselves, or those who loose the ability to control themselves due to age.
In any case David Cobb of Glendale Arizona had made a call out to Nigel for some help with a local Conspiracy Theorist cum reporter named Nyle Doyle who was digging around a recent 'Animal mauling' case (you guessed it, a newly turned Lycanthrope named Jacob Quinn who couldn't control his disease). Nyle was getting awfully close to the truth, close enough that Mr. Cobb felt that if the clan acted the paranoid reporter would probably have some sort of 'backup' plan that would cause far to much exposure to the clan.
So the group came in under the guise of the Ghost Hunters location scout team to interview Mr. Doyle about his paranormal knowledge. During the course of the interviews the group found out several things; Mr. Doyal had discovered, or guessed or stumbled into an awful lot of information close to the truth. That Mr. Doyle, was paranoid, and borderline schizophrenic - with strong OCD tendencies. That Mr. Doyle had covered his block in electronic surveillance and had converted a old bomb shelter from the 50's into an offline 'data store' and Panic room. That Mr. Doyle had heard quite a bit about the Casa Grande hauntings (and was in the process of looking into it) and had leads on many other interesting tidbits such as: Maricopa County Sheriff Arapayo may in fact be possessed. That the McCain compound and the Governors' mansion may be haunted. That Fred Hargrove - who runs a Checkers in Glendale may be a lycanthrope (based on red light camera surveillance footage). That Mr. Quinn was not the first 'animal mauling', and that in fact such mauling are usually discovered about a week after the full moon. Most importantly (in terms of this case) Mr. Doyles girlfriend at New Mexico State was murdered / killed in an animal mauling - which he had able to link to Lycanthrope activity (but not prove).
Needless to say, Nyle and Simon got along swimmingly.
The long of the short of it all is that after a couple of interviews, a few 'ride-alongs' and Kerrigan breaking into his house (with moderate difficulty) the group was able to redirect Nyles 'research' (for now) while convincing Mr. Cobb that the best way to throw off Nyle would be to act less like a military unit and more like a local gang. We'll come back to the redirection and its consequences in a bit.
In the interregnum, the group took around the Casa Grande Monument. Evidently archaeologist teams and the site curators had noticed an uptick in 'oddities' of late; walls being seen through early morning mist, music on the breeze, heat visions of Union Soldiers marching south, an entire catalog of sights, sounds and smells that added up to something being off. When they questioned the curator, Daniel Sandoval, they found out that site grid C5-13 had been disturbed recently - and surveillance showed that most recently that area had been worked by Dr. James Richardson, University Illinois, Champagne-Urbana.
So Simon did his usual voodoo and found the professors course summary and biography. Naturally, he took a peek at the underlying code of the page to see if there were any embedded or traceable information, which naturally brought down the site thanks to an algorithmic ward which induced paralysis in the viewer, and deleted the page. 6 hours later, those effected snapped out of the stupor - and Simon went about scrubbing the local computers for any malware.
That night the group set up some surveillance and camped out.
Kerrigan woke up in the middle of the night, with the van surrounded by a mist. Out through it she swore she saw walls with torches, so she was off to investigate. Luckily, or unluckily, Simon heard her go and grabbed the others to follow. Thus the group emerged from the mist much to the surprise of the inhabitants of the City of the Sun as the city-pueblo was called. This caused a bit of consternation among the group, as their van was gone and why on earth was there a Pueblo village there now instead of a Wall-mart?!
Eventually everyone calmed down, and between some Linguistic derring-do, 'becca's languages and lots of hand waiving, the group was able to figure out the goings ons of the natives. The local Shaman took them to the Grand lodge which was what once stood at site C5-13 (imagine a pueblo Haggia Sophia. You get the idea) and the Kachina and mask artifacts within the temple. After further though, detect magics and deductions, the group came to the conclusion that the removal of one of the Kachinas had been the cause of the disturbances.
After a few days of this (not to mention the unmarried men trailing about after blond Kerrigan and Rebecca like lovesick loons) the group decided to check out the 'holy site' on Picacho Peak. They traded for some backpacks and dried fish, and headed off to the South East. After a week of traveling (while avoiding the hottest part of the day in the desert) they made it. At the foot of the peak thy found the dessicated remains and effects of a Union Squad - demonstrating that they were not the first group to fall though this hole in space/time. They also found a narrow, spindly path up to the summit.
On the summit, across a narrow path with cliffs on either side they found a cave entrance. Inside was a tomb / shrine that looked to be at least hundreds of years old. The group also found a chimney / stair to a second level - which hid a large mock up of the solar system all the way out to Neptune. After a bit of experimentation they discovered that moving earth caused the chamber to move through time. So the group carved a note down below, and meandered their way toward the future. Eventually, they hit the 1700's (although the group didn't know this at first) which revealed a new addition downstairs; a 'telephone' / monograph / player / thing. So the group dialed it up to see what would happen.
The magical phone device was answered by a young professor at Yale, one Mr. Franklin who was able to arrange rapid transport for the group back to Boston. There the group were introduced to a young Nigel Pennington who by the mechanism of various broom closets sent the group back to the modern era.
"So now you know why I hired you all." Said Nigel, "we'd all met before. It would be foolish of me not to hire you when you showed up." with a grin.
Amazingly, Nigel was not found horribly murdered the next day by Eugene police.
Armed with this new information about the identity of the missing artifact(s), the group headed back to Arizona to pick up the Van, figure out what to tackle next with the ghosts, and to deal with Nyle. So they decided to kill two birds with one stone: they set Nyle to researching Professor Richardson. Unfortunately for him, he was successful.
A few days later Simon received a frantic call from Mr. Doyle. He was under attack by some sort of skinless thing. The party rushed off to his aid. End result, one dead stalker demon, one flayed Nyle Doyle, one burned down house of Mr. Doyle, and Simons close encounter with a 'Lord Voldermort' (as dubbed by the group) with a nasty affinity for turning incorporeal or gaseous and producing EMP effects.
A few days later Simon received a 'if you get this I'm dead' package from Mr. Doyle. Within it was information about how Dr. James Richardson is a real person who had never been to Arizona and some hints about a 'Multiplex Group' of Chicago and a 'David Reardon'.
The body count was considered to be high enough to call the mission a success for now, and as such, the Group headed back to Eugene for debrief and RnR.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Episode 2: Goings on in Newport
Traveling to Newport:
Nigel sent the group off te Newport, Oregon. They stopped over in Eugene where they partook in the open air market of odds and ends. Kerrigan, naturally assumed it was all bunk.
From there the group meandered up the coast to Newport.
The Grand Victorian
The group was able to check in the Grand Victorian, a BnB turned rental property where their contact lived; one Melanie de'louis. A classic new age / mystic / airhead. Apparently she makes her living selling new agey knicknacks out of online or out of her basement apartment, with a sideline of tarot and palmistry. Needless to say, she was not taken too seriously.
The group were given several 'missions'; check out the lighthouse and find out what was up with the local Wendego population.
The Trouble With Ley Lines
The group headed a bit east, and introduced themselves to the local Yaquina tribe. There they met the Sweetwater family, most notably one Rebecca. After talking for a while the party decided to hire Rebecca as a local guide. She took the rest of the day off from her job as Sentry Market teller (provided so nicely by dear old dad) and head off into the wilderness of the coast range.
The group meandered for a bit, and was eventually ambushed, surprised by some Wendego at the summit of a mountain, where a shaman type was doing something or other in a Fairy Ring. Much shooting and panic later, the shaman died, somehow setting off a 'disturbance' in the local ley line network - causing only a minor earthquake downstream in LA.
This got the locals rather riled, so the group ran like hell to the Jesuit 'Recluse' where they stayed for a bit to rest and recuperate.
A day later when the group left? A running battle with the Wendego biker gang who had decided to ambush them. The leader was notable for his ability to summon and dismiss a Harley on command. This trick did not serve him to well when Kerrigan took matters into her own hands and backed over him twice while the rest of the group fought off the rest and worked to clear the dead fall across the road.
From there they ran to Yaquina, which had been fortified based on the groups cell phone calls back in the Mission. A fun little battle was had, and the group decided to retire back to Newport for a hot bath. After, of course, Kerrigan managed to run over the Death Head bikers once or twice with the Van – accidentally on purpose. Of course, he survived.
The Lighthouse
For something completely different, the Ghost Hunter team decided to investigate a rumored haunting. You see, Newport has this lovely Lighthouse. Its a rather important tourist attraction, with 'light' shows every dawn and dusk. There's just something idyllic about a lighthouse with a 10,000 candle bulb firing off its beam at sunset.
It turns out that there have been several reports over the years to strange goings ons out on lighthouse island, from priests trying to perform an exorcism going mad, to a winter caretaker slaughtering his family around the turn of the last century, to stories of the Yaquina tribe exiling criminals there to die. All sorts of potential negative psychic emanations, to quote Melanie.
In any event, Rebecca was able to borrow one of the families fishing boats to take the team out the island of said lighthouse – a featureless slab of rock generally home to Seals.
Soon enough the group was clambering rocks and traversing the 'path' to the lighthouse. Never mind that the isle was obviously not set up for visitors. And never mind that the door was locked. In spite of all of these obstacles the group - with a little help from Kerrigan and her 'doors are optional' skillset - was able to enter the building without incident.
The group traveled up and down the four levels, looking for clues. There were some odd stains on the wall, and the third floor held some sort of small computer system; the automation system for the light, but nothing obvious jumped out at them. So they took some scrapings of the 'odd stains', set up some monitoring equipment and meandered off.
That night Simon was seen being sociable and talking pleasantly with a woman in the bar, and Kerrigan was brought in by the local police for streaking on the main street.
Obviously something was very wrong.
So Rebecca and Steve gathered up the other two and took them to the hospital for a once over. This lead to a few akward questions about hallucinogenic substances and other activities, which were luckily answered to the satisfaction of the hospital staff. Form there the group dropped off their 'stain sample' at the Oregion Health Sciences Institute in Portland, and review the footage with Melanie. Her opinion? Some sort ... entity? or Wisp? was inhabiting the electronics in the lighthouse. Not long after the group took a call from a Dr. Ellis LaMont, who let them know there was something distinctly off about the fungus in the 'stain'. Perhaps necromancy? Overall she wasn't completely certain though.
Armed with this information, Melanie made the group some sort of 'exorcism toaster' device, with a crystal jammed into one of the sockets wrapped in aluminum. Don't ask.
And so the group returned to the lighthouse, and plugged in the toaster which started to glow a bit. Simon, being ever helpful, decided to 'supercharge' the deivce by hitting it with a stun rod. The effect was immediate: whatever was in the computer attacked them, and some sort of 'distortion field' centered on the toaster began to rapidly expand. The end result was the group ran for their lives, sort of defeating the entity while avoiding getting sucked into the doodaad.
A few days later the group got a call that something was 'seriously' wrong at the lighthouse. So they went back to investigate. The light house was filled with some sort of 'acidic' goo. So, a quick run to the hardware store to load up on bleach, baking soda, and Molotov cocktail material! This time Grandpa Sweetwater piloted the group out to the island himself on the tribe fishing boat. Never mind his penchance for wearing a yellow parka and sneakers. And not a whole lot else.
The group decided to 'take a peek', with Kerrigan approaching from the top floor thanks to a bit of climbing gear. They opened the main door went inside a bit, and yep! There was said goo. They poked at it. A pseudopod poked back. Hard. Needless to say, the end result of this was a very scorched lighthouse.
As it turns out, the electrical entity had created their own balanced ecosystem somehow. The entity was either supressing the growth or feeding on the fungus. Removal of the one? Total Chaos.
Team: 1
National Historical Monument: 0
Such is the life of a Ghosthunter.
Agate Beach vs. The Death Head biker Gang
Meanwhile, just a bit up that coast at Agate Beach, there was still the Wendego problem to deal with. The group had been in contact with Nigel and he pointed them towars an Alfred Gowan (aka Ayyef McGowan), just your typical couple mellinia cold gaul who happens to own a book and curiosity shop in Agate Beach. You see, what promped this line of inquery was the fact that the group did a bit of digging in between the lighthouse assualts. They put a 'tracking' spell on a bunch of rubber ducks and mapped the caverns under Agate Beach leading to Devils Cauldron. They then were able to find a group of Wendego guarding a cavern up on a mountain. Combat! Excitement! Giant acid spitting lizards! The group managed to survive, and amongst the bodies they cound a book with odd celtic markings on it. A bit of research later, and poof in the shop of Mr. Gowan.
He did not claim knowledge or ownership over the activites of the Wendego, saying they were a transient gang that had settled in recently. A few leads later, the goup was off to talk with the local Wendego tribe near Stiles, Oregon. Long story short, they found one Miss Berulah, in all Mumu covered 400 pounds of glory sitting in a rocking chair on her porch. She told them, in her own pecular broken english, that the newcommers had displaced them from the sacred sites, and were stirring up danger. Oh! and the group should not go wandering around in the dark near Bear Lake, Idaho.
So armed with this info, and the blessing of Nigel, Alfred (Ayyef) and Berulah, the group decided to assualt the underground Wendego lair. A bit of spelunking here, a little sneaking there, adn the group came to the 'guard post' of the underground structure. Which, if anyone has failed to pointed out, was definitely some sort of temple dedicated to Morrigu and the Green Man. In the Pacific Northwest. At least 2000 years old....
Moving on then! What followed was your classic 'sceak up and surprise' plan turned into 'scream and leap' when it all went south. The most notable thing? The tribe leader shooting at the group from across the cavern with his Desert Eagle, while dessicating his friends with some sort of temple inorder to regenerate. Oh and there was a Raven swarm as well.
But hey. The group got a nice Harley out of it....
Nigel sent the group off te Newport, Oregon. They stopped over in Eugene where they partook in the open air market of odds and ends. Kerrigan, naturally assumed it was all bunk.
From there the group meandered up the coast to Newport.
The Grand Victorian
The group was able to check in the Grand Victorian, a BnB turned rental property where their contact lived; one Melanie de'louis. A classic new age / mystic / airhead. Apparently she makes her living selling new agey knicknacks out of online or out of her basement apartment, with a sideline of tarot and palmistry. Needless to say, she was not taken too seriously.
The group were given several 'missions'; check out the lighthouse and find out what was up with the local Wendego population.
The Trouble With Ley Lines
The group headed a bit east, and introduced themselves to the local Yaquina tribe. There they met the Sweetwater family, most notably one Rebecca. After talking for a while the party decided to hire Rebecca as a local guide. She took the rest of the day off from her job as Sentry Market teller (provided so nicely by dear old dad) and head off into the wilderness of the coast range.
The group meandered for a bit, and was eventually ambushed, surprised by some Wendego at the summit of a mountain, where a shaman type was doing something or other in a Fairy Ring. Much shooting and panic later, the shaman died, somehow setting off a 'disturbance' in the local ley line network - causing only a minor earthquake downstream in LA.
This got the locals rather riled, so the group ran like hell to the Jesuit 'Recluse' where they stayed for a bit to rest and recuperate.
A day later when the group left? A running battle with the Wendego biker gang who had decided to ambush them. The leader was notable for his ability to summon and dismiss a Harley on command. This trick did not serve him to well when Kerrigan took matters into her own hands and backed over him twice while the rest of the group fought off the rest and worked to clear the dead fall across the road.
From there they ran to Yaquina, which had been fortified based on the groups cell phone calls back in the Mission. A fun little battle was had, and the group decided to retire back to Newport for a hot bath. After, of course, Kerrigan managed to run over the Death Head bikers once or twice with the Van – accidentally on purpose. Of course, he survived.
The Lighthouse
For something completely different, the Ghost Hunter team decided to investigate a rumored haunting. You see, Newport has this lovely Lighthouse. Its a rather important tourist attraction, with 'light' shows every dawn and dusk. There's just something idyllic about a lighthouse with a 10,000 candle bulb firing off its beam at sunset.
It turns out that there have been several reports over the years to strange goings ons out on lighthouse island, from priests trying to perform an exorcism going mad, to a winter caretaker slaughtering his family around the turn of the last century, to stories of the Yaquina tribe exiling criminals there to die. All sorts of potential negative psychic emanations, to quote Melanie.
In any event, Rebecca was able to borrow one of the families fishing boats to take the team out the island of said lighthouse – a featureless slab of rock generally home to Seals.
Soon enough the group was clambering rocks and traversing the 'path' to the lighthouse. Never mind that the isle was obviously not set up for visitors. And never mind that the door was locked. In spite of all of these obstacles the group - with a little help from Kerrigan and her 'doors are optional' skillset - was able to enter the building without incident.
The group traveled up and down the four levels, looking for clues. There were some odd stains on the wall, and the third floor held some sort of small computer system; the automation system for the light, but nothing obvious jumped out at them. So they took some scrapings of the 'odd stains', set up some monitoring equipment and meandered off.
That night Simon was seen being sociable and talking pleasantly with a woman in the bar, and Kerrigan was brought in by the local police for streaking on the main street.
Obviously something was very wrong.
So Rebecca and Steve gathered up the other two and took them to the hospital for a once over. This lead to a few akward questions about hallucinogenic substances and other activities, which were luckily answered to the satisfaction of the hospital staff. Form there the group dropped off their 'stain sample' at the Oregion Health Sciences Institute in Portland, and review the footage with Melanie. Her opinion? Some sort ... entity? or Wisp? was inhabiting the electronics in the lighthouse. Not long after the group took a call from a Dr. Ellis LaMont, who let them know there was something distinctly off about the fungus in the 'stain'. Perhaps necromancy? Overall she wasn't completely certain though.
Armed with this information, Melanie made the group some sort of 'exorcism toaster' device, with a crystal jammed into one of the sockets wrapped in aluminum. Don't ask.
And so the group returned to the lighthouse, and plugged in the toaster which started to glow a bit. Simon, being ever helpful, decided to 'supercharge' the deivce by hitting it with a stun rod. The effect was immediate: whatever was in the computer attacked them, and some sort of 'distortion field' centered on the toaster began to rapidly expand. The end result was the group ran for their lives, sort of defeating the entity while avoiding getting sucked into the doodaad.
A few days later the group got a call that something was 'seriously' wrong at the lighthouse. So they went back to investigate. The light house was filled with some sort of 'acidic' goo. So, a quick run to the hardware store to load up on bleach, baking soda, and Molotov cocktail material! This time Grandpa Sweetwater piloted the group out to the island himself on the tribe fishing boat. Never mind his penchance for wearing a yellow parka and sneakers. And not a whole lot else.
The group decided to 'take a peek', with Kerrigan approaching from the top floor thanks to a bit of climbing gear. They opened the main door went inside a bit, and yep! There was said goo. They poked at it. A pseudopod poked back. Hard. Needless to say, the end result of this was a very scorched lighthouse.
As it turns out, the electrical entity had created their own balanced ecosystem somehow. The entity was either supressing the growth or feeding on the fungus. Removal of the one? Total Chaos.
Team: 1
National Historical Monument: 0
Such is the life of a Ghosthunter.
Agate Beach vs. The Death Head biker Gang
Meanwhile, just a bit up that coast at Agate Beach, there was still the Wendego problem to deal with. The group had been in contact with Nigel and he pointed them towars an Alfred Gowan (aka Ayyef McGowan), just your typical couple mellinia cold gaul who happens to own a book and curiosity shop in Agate Beach. You see, what promped this line of inquery was the fact that the group did a bit of digging in between the lighthouse assualts. They put a 'tracking' spell on a bunch of rubber ducks and mapped the caverns under Agate Beach leading to Devils Cauldron. They then were able to find a group of Wendego guarding a cavern up on a mountain. Combat! Excitement! Giant acid spitting lizards! The group managed to survive, and amongst the bodies they cound a book with odd celtic markings on it. A bit of research later, and poof in the shop of Mr. Gowan.
He did not claim knowledge or ownership over the activites of the Wendego, saying they were a transient gang that had settled in recently. A few leads later, the goup was off to talk with the local Wendego tribe near Stiles, Oregon. Long story short, they found one Miss Berulah, in all Mumu covered 400 pounds of glory sitting in a rocking chair on her porch. She told them, in her own pecular broken english, that the newcommers had displaced them from the sacred sites, and were stirring up danger. Oh! and the group should not go wandering around in the dark near Bear Lake, Idaho.
So armed with this info, and the blessing of Nigel, Alfred (Ayyef) and Berulah, the group decided to assualt the underground Wendego lair. A bit of spelunking here, a little sneaking there, adn the group came to the 'guard post' of the underground structure. Which, if anyone has failed to pointed out, was definitely some sort of temple dedicated to Morrigu and the Green Man. In the Pacific Northwest. At least 2000 years old....
Moving on then! What followed was your classic 'sceak up and surprise' plan turned into 'scream and leap' when it all went south. The most notable thing? The tribe leader shooting at the group from across the cavern with his Desert Eagle, while dessicating his friends with some sort of temple inorder to regenerate. Oh and there was a Raven swarm as well.
But hey. The group got a nice Harley out of it....
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Episode one: Trapped in Durango
Cast:
Zhozha - Scholar
Melina Bettencourt - Debutant
Kerrigan - Fixer
Simon - Techie
Ian Brinks - Psychologist
Jonny Mounts - Cameraman / Key Grip
The above collection of people applied to a series of positions with the Ghost Hunters TV series, a show about the exploration of the paranormal and extraordinary airing weekly on the Science and Fantasy (Sci Fan! ) Network, Cable channel 605. Everything with the interview process seemed straightforward; from the usual Q&A, to the behavioral and psychological questions, the technical screen, on and on. Even the extensive paperwork covering liability and waivers for working with the company seemed… well , not too bad. But eventually everyone met Nigel Pennington.
Nigel is a flamboyant sort, straight out of the hooligan gangs of Manchester so it would seem. His diction was laced with outlandish witticisms as he struck the pose of an archetype ‘football hooligan’; attired with piercings and tattoos and the remnant of what appeared to be an 80’s Mohawk. Not the sort one would expect to be listed as the ‘Producer’ of a large scale television production. On the other hand, this is Hollywood. So who knows?
In any event, after a brief face to face with the entire group, Nigel informed them that they were hired as the pre-scouting team for the show. It would be their job to be ‘location scouts’; to examine various sites and properties to determine their suitability for television. The group’s first destination? The Stately hotel in Durango, Colorado.
On the next day they all gathered in the Studio parking lot to get outfitted for their expedition. There in the lot was a ‘corporate van’; a diesel 8 cylinder, four wheel drive monstrosity the interior of which had been gutted – the back rows replaced with electronic gear, servers, a generator, satellite uplink, and all sorts of goodies. Half the group packed into the van, the rest into Melina’s roadster.
They took a leisurely drive to Durango, taking two days thanks to their per diem and expense account. On arrival the group checked into the Stately, a hallmark of the old west as it is described. The Hotel is constructed in true 19th century throwback extravagance and splendor, all wood, brass, stone and polish. Not a shred of modernity immediately visible, except for the electric lights which had been reasonably camouflaged as gaslight. Soon the group was checked in for the night and ready to explore. They spent some time in the restaurant and saloon, enjoying themselves and interviewing the staff.
The main ‘ghost story’ they encountered was the odd happenings in room 14, which, once upon a time, had been room 13, where a woman disappeared or committed suicide, or something. The group set up their recording equipment and proceeded to sleep. The next morning reviewing the footage and sound instruments revealed some sort of St. Elmo’s fire and odd noises in the room. They choose to dig deeper.
Over the next couple of days the group managed to interview the Dean of Cultural Anthropology and Ft. Lewis College, a Vernon Nightfeather who is head of the Historical Society, dig through the local newspaper archives, and go over the Hotel with a fine tooth comb. They discover that there was all sorts of interesting occurrences back during prohibition, a potential suicide/disappearance (corroborating evidence for the room 13 rumors) and odd tales from back when the hotel was built in the 1850’s. Most importantly, they discovered there were once a couple of extra rooms down in the basement, which now appear to have been sealed off. So with the approval of the Hotel management, they open the rooms to find a still room with a ramp leading off to the North east, and an extra broiler room with coal chutes and a ‘well’ which seemed to drop much farther than expected.
Meanwhile the group was able to take more recordings of sounds and lights and oddness around room 14 and as it turns out, the basement itself. All clues pointing toward a spectral presence associated with those two locations.
The next day (Wednesday) the party descended down the ramp in the ‘still’ room they excavated. This lead to something unexpected: a large cavern. Inside the cavern the group found the remains of a shipping area, where barrels of liquor were assembled and carted out a tunnel which ‘appears’ to exit somewhere around the college for further distribution. As they were meandering around this area, one of the group also happened to notice a small, disused path heading further into the cavern. Curiosity should be listed synonymously with doom within the lexicon of Adventure.
The Party found themselves in a rather unexpected… place. A plaza. And ancient not quite ruin which displayed both Olmec and Anastazi characteristics. Within the center of a plaza was a now dry pool basin, with some sort of 9 foot tall manlike statue of Malachite with prostrate worshippers around its base. To the left and right were Olmec step Ziggurats, one with the upper step rimmed in Gold, the other silver. At the far end of the plaza was an Anastazi style ‘apartment’ complex, six floors high reaching over 70 feet into the air with openings within the roof of each building.
The group first explored the ziggurats, which lead to the first disaster. They ascended to the summit of the Ziggurat of Silver (or of the moon) where they found a large, stone basin? Brazier? Something along those lines, with a hole through the stem which appeared to extend down into the structure. Various ideas about human sacrifice were brandied about, until Melina tossed a burning brand down one of the vessels – which ignited the pooled natural gas reservoir below. Needless to say, both sconces exploded with a merry column of flame, badly singing several of the group. On the positive side, the cavern was no longer quite so dark and dreary with the lights on.
The group then decided to leave the Ziggurats for now and set about exploring the ‘apartments’. Therein they found several interesting bits. In the first room were the remains of a deceased Spanish Conquistador, some artifacts with appropriately dated his remains to the early 1500’s and hard to discern murals.
In the second room they explored they discovered another version of the statue. This statue was significantly odder: in front was some sort of votive altar. The statue had three distinct cone – shaped heads, facing left, straight and right respectively. Finally the statue was holding two objects: a ‘dog-lizard-fish with nasty teeth’, and a six armed baby holding various tools. Zhozha was naturally atwitter with the archeological implications of the site, but the rest of the group had decided the weirdness meter was getting a bit to high – so they decided to head back to the hotel.
And here’s where things started to get weird: Simon and Ian didn’t make it out of the cavern back to the shipping platform. In fact, they ended up back in the plaza. Those who made it out either went to the hospital to seek treatment for advanced singing, or went back into find the missing members of the group. Kerrigian tied a rope to herself, Simon and Ian, but she only had Simon with her when she reached the platform – the rope just ended with no Ian. So back in she went to look for him.
Ian at this point was thoroughly disgusted by the entire affair and as such decided to go an entirely different way. We traveled around the Sun statue and found a path leading away. Eventually he found another cavern with some sort of pool. And lying next to it was the unmistakable glow stick that had been dropped down the well. Looking up, Ian could swear he could see the faint ring of light shining down through the wellhead, but he wasn’t certain. But before he could be certain there was the unmistakable sound of wet claws scrabbling on the lake bank. Ian swung his flashlight around to reveal a Lovecraftian horror of the best sort, 100 pounds of *thing*, all teeth, muscular limbs and a fish tail – all poised to pounce. Worse, it wasn’t the only one.
The first creature sprang on Ian, biting him savagely. He was able to beat the creature off with this flashlight, gaining a momentary respite. But more were moving toward him. So he did the only sensible thing, Ian ran like hell back to the plaza.
There he found Kerrigan, who was able to startle the pursuing beasts with a couple of well aimed shots and enable their escape. This time, everyone was lucky and both Ian and Kerrigan arrived at the ‘shipping’ area.
The next morning the group reunited and headed over to see Vernon Nightfeather. Whereas in the last interview he was reticent and evasive, this time he seemed rather effusive with helpful suggestions, implying that the group would see increasing troubles unless and until they worked their way through the ‘curse’ they now found themselves under. He gave them some trinkets; malachite arrows and knives and a set of dream-catchers to help them on their path. Of course, Vernon couldn’t let them go without on last parting shot: “Remember, everyone dies in the end…”
In all of this Zhozha noticed something; the engraving of Lucifer in Dante’s Inferno bore an ominous resemblance to the three headed statue in the antechamber. With this, and some newly acquired holy water and gear from REI, the group headed back into the Undercity.
This time the group decided to explore further than the plaza. They headed in the direction opposite of the monstrous cavern. As they explored they ran into a series of, well, challenges for lack of a better description. Once it was giant bats. The next time they had to cross a rivulet in spite of an overwhelming urge to drink. Another was a group of faceless, pale figures who attacked them. Each encounter was punctuated by the presence of the glow-stick. Several members of the group suggested it was somehow guiding them.
Eventually the group came to a cavern which was ‘walled off’ by a giant expanse of… well, skin for the lack of a better term. Figures, hands and faces could be seen occasionally stretching against its taut surface. Melina thought to burn It with a portable welding torch, but it regenerated far to fast – and it seemed to cause agitation to the ‘figures’ inside the membrane. Next Kerrigan tried to walk around it, which seemed to work – except she realized that the wall didn’t curve. You simply started walking to the left or right and the person would end up back wherever they started.
Eventually one of them realized that tapping on the membrane caused it to vibrate like a drum, allowing them to produce something like speech or Morse or something. At least they could all understand. In a manner of speaking. One of the group lighted on the idea of telling their worst fault, at which point they disappeared into the membrane (for lack of a more coherent description). Each member of the group did this, and spend an indeterminate amount of time reconciling themselves with their regrets.
Eventually, they all found themselves reunited on a plain not far to an archway that lead unmistakably to a city. There they stood, staring in wonder – down below was an immense medieval city, teeming with… everything. Aliens to People from every era. Down below, in the center of the city they could see an immense statue, a Chrysler building in the central square of Mayberry, just like the three headed statue within the cavern where it all started. And the archway? Engraved in 5 foot letters about the walkway were three simple letters: D I S.
The group made their way down the broad avenue, marveling at the throng where they were greeted by a Roman Centurion. Several of the group spoke Latin well enough to pass a small amount of time as the crowd teemed around them. They spoke of the city and passing time and where they where. The Centurion? He simply wondered where his family had gone, and how he could get to Elysium.
So the group travelled onward ,toward the center of the vast circular city – coming to grips with centaurs, grey aliens in flight suits, winged demons and Lawyers until they reached the central plaza. A Hush fell over the city, as the moved toward the massive statue, which they now noticed had a small shack at one foot – a small shack with a distinctive glow-stick ganging from the knocker. In they all went; into the infinite darkness of the room with the well. There, standing in the infinitely bright glow of the basement of the Stately Hotel stood Vernon Nightfeather. You could hear a pin drop in the silence of that moment as it stretched on for an infinity as no one dared to breathe. Until he spoke:
“Remember, everyone dies in the end”
And with that his head blurred for an instant into three, and he stepped to one side as the wall instantly sealed itself encasing the group in darkness. Darkness broken only by hundreds of pale, faceless creatures climbing up the well, each toting a glow stick.
So it came to pass that each member of the group woke up. Except, it was apparently two days previously: Tuesday. They meandered around, and realized that the excavation into the boiler room had not yet happened. And Simon discovered that the noises that they had been recoding in the basement and in room 13 was snippets of conversation from their trek.
To which everyone basically quit and headed out to points yonder, where they discovered that the world was slightly different from what they remembered: Durango was far less ‘dangerous’ than they recalled.
Ian flew back to the UK.
Jonny and Simon headed back to LA.
Kerrigan, Melina and Zhozha? Well, they meandered over to the Hopi reservation and found a shaman to talk about ghost dances and curses. It was there that Zhozha realized that the dream catchers were gone. Except for Melinas’, which was now a silver, gold amulet with a Malachite center – which Melina swore her Grandmother gave to her. On further inspection Zhozha and Kerrigan realized that the amulet has the same street layout as DIS. Which irritated Melina to no end.
In any even the elderly Hopi woman they found told them they would have to find a way to break the curse – most likely by gathering all the cursed individuals and performing a ritual to destroy the amulet. With upset Melina even further.
Needless to say, each member of the group went their own way – and within a month or two each of them had died in some sort of tragic accident.
Whereupon they all woke up again. On Tuesday.
This cycle repeated a time or two, until they lit upon the idea of performing the ritual and breaking Melina’s amulet. The ritual was performed and eventually they all passed out from the exhaustion. And woke up the next morning, Wednesday.
This time the world was a bit different again: most importantly, Vernon Nightfeathers’ home was a ruin, since it evidently had never been rebuilt from when it was destroyed in the 30’s.
Ian, Zhozha , Jonny and Melina headed off for points unknown, quitting the Ghost Hunter staff. But Simon and Kerrigan decided to stay on, to discover what other strange and wondrous things awaited them.
Zhozha - Scholar
Melina Bettencourt - Debutant
Kerrigan - Fixer
Simon - Techie
Ian Brinks - Psychologist
Jonny Mounts - Cameraman / Key Grip
The above collection of people applied to a series of positions with the Ghost Hunters TV series, a show about the exploration of the paranormal and extraordinary airing weekly on the Science and Fantasy (Sci Fan! ) Network, Cable channel 605. Everything with the interview process seemed straightforward; from the usual Q&A, to the behavioral and psychological questions, the technical screen, on and on. Even the extensive paperwork covering liability and waivers for working with the company seemed… well , not too bad. But eventually everyone met Nigel Pennington.
Nigel is a flamboyant sort, straight out of the hooligan gangs of Manchester so it would seem. His diction was laced with outlandish witticisms as he struck the pose of an archetype ‘football hooligan’; attired with piercings and tattoos and the remnant of what appeared to be an 80’s Mohawk. Not the sort one would expect to be listed as the ‘Producer’ of a large scale television production. On the other hand, this is Hollywood. So who knows?
In any event, after a brief face to face with the entire group, Nigel informed them that they were hired as the pre-scouting team for the show. It would be their job to be ‘location scouts’; to examine various sites and properties to determine their suitability for television. The group’s first destination? The Stately hotel in Durango, Colorado.
On the next day they all gathered in the Studio parking lot to get outfitted for their expedition. There in the lot was a ‘corporate van’; a diesel 8 cylinder, four wheel drive monstrosity the interior of which had been gutted – the back rows replaced with electronic gear, servers, a generator, satellite uplink, and all sorts of goodies. Half the group packed into the van, the rest into Melina’s roadster.
They took a leisurely drive to Durango, taking two days thanks to their per diem and expense account. On arrival the group checked into the Stately, a hallmark of the old west as it is described. The Hotel is constructed in true 19th century throwback extravagance and splendor, all wood, brass, stone and polish. Not a shred of modernity immediately visible, except for the electric lights which had been reasonably camouflaged as gaslight. Soon the group was checked in for the night and ready to explore. They spent some time in the restaurant and saloon, enjoying themselves and interviewing the staff.
The main ‘ghost story’ they encountered was the odd happenings in room 14, which, once upon a time, had been room 13, where a woman disappeared or committed suicide, or something. The group set up their recording equipment and proceeded to sleep. The next morning reviewing the footage and sound instruments revealed some sort of St. Elmo’s fire and odd noises in the room. They choose to dig deeper.
Over the next couple of days the group managed to interview the Dean of Cultural Anthropology and Ft. Lewis College, a Vernon Nightfeather who is head of the Historical Society, dig through the local newspaper archives, and go over the Hotel with a fine tooth comb. They discover that there was all sorts of interesting occurrences back during prohibition, a potential suicide/disappearance (corroborating evidence for the room 13 rumors) and odd tales from back when the hotel was built in the 1850’s. Most importantly, they discovered there were once a couple of extra rooms down in the basement, which now appear to have been sealed off. So with the approval of the Hotel management, they open the rooms to find a still room with a ramp leading off to the North east, and an extra broiler room with coal chutes and a ‘well’ which seemed to drop much farther than expected.
Meanwhile the group was able to take more recordings of sounds and lights and oddness around room 14 and as it turns out, the basement itself. All clues pointing toward a spectral presence associated with those two locations.
The next day (Wednesday) the party descended down the ramp in the ‘still’ room they excavated. This lead to something unexpected: a large cavern. Inside the cavern the group found the remains of a shipping area, where barrels of liquor were assembled and carted out a tunnel which ‘appears’ to exit somewhere around the college for further distribution. As they were meandering around this area, one of the group also happened to notice a small, disused path heading further into the cavern. Curiosity should be listed synonymously with doom within the lexicon of Adventure.
The Party found themselves in a rather unexpected… place. A plaza. And ancient not quite ruin which displayed both Olmec and Anastazi characteristics. Within the center of a plaza was a now dry pool basin, with some sort of 9 foot tall manlike statue of Malachite with prostrate worshippers around its base. To the left and right were Olmec step Ziggurats, one with the upper step rimmed in Gold, the other silver. At the far end of the plaza was an Anastazi style ‘apartment’ complex, six floors high reaching over 70 feet into the air with openings within the roof of each building.
The group first explored the ziggurats, which lead to the first disaster. They ascended to the summit of the Ziggurat of Silver (or of the moon) where they found a large, stone basin? Brazier? Something along those lines, with a hole through the stem which appeared to extend down into the structure. Various ideas about human sacrifice were brandied about, until Melina tossed a burning brand down one of the vessels – which ignited the pooled natural gas reservoir below. Needless to say, both sconces exploded with a merry column of flame, badly singing several of the group. On the positive side, the cavern was no longer quite so dark and dreary with the lights on.
The group then decided to leave the Ziggurats for now and set about exploring the ‘apartments’. Therein they found several interesting bits. In the first room were the remains of a deceased Spanish Conquistador, some artifacts with appropriately dated his remains to the early 1500’s and hard to discern murals.
In the second room they explored they discovered another version of the statue. This statue was significantly odder: in front was some sort of votive altar. The statue had three distinct cone – shaped heads, facing left, straight and right respectively. Finally the statue was holding two objects: a ‘dog-lizard-fish with nasty teeth’, and a six armed baby holding various tools. Zhozha was naturally atwitter with the archeological implications of the site, but the rest of the group had decided the weirdness meter was getting a bit to high – so they decided to head back to the hotel.
And here’s where things started to get weird: Simon and Ian didn’t make it out of the cavern back to the shipping platform. In fact, they ended up back in the plaza. Those who made it out either went to the hospital to seek treatment for advanced singing, or went back into find the missing members of the group. Kerrigian tied a rope to herself, Simon and Ian, but she only had Simon with her when she reached the platform – the rope just ended with no Ian. So back in she went to look for him.
Ian at this point was thoroughly disgusted by the entire affair and as such decided to go an entirely different way. We traveled around the Sun statue and found a path leading away. Eventually he found another cavern with some sort of pool. And lying next to it was the unmistakable glow stick that had been dropped down the well. Looking up, Ian could swear he could see the faint ring of light shining down through the wellhead, but he wasn’t certain. But before he could be certain there was the unmistakable sound of wet claws scrabbling on the lake bank. Ian swung his flashlight around to reveal a Lovecraftian horror of the best sort, 100 pounds of *thing*, all teeth, muscular limbs and a fish tail – all poised to pounce. Worse, it wasn’t the only one.
The first creature sprang on Ian, biting him savagely. He was able to beat the creature off with this flashlight, gaining a momentary respite. But more were moving toward him. So he did the only sensible thing, Ian ran like hell back to the plaza.
There he found Kerrigan, who was able to startle the pursuing beasts with a couple of well aimed shots and enable their escape. This time, everyone was lucky and both Ian and Kerrigan arrived at the ‘shipping’ area.
The next morning the group reunited and headed over to see Vernon Nightfeather. Whereas in the last interview he was reticent and evasive, this time he seemed rather effusive with helpful suggestions, implying that the group would see increasing troubles unless and until they worked their way through the ‘curse’ they now found themselves under. He gave them some trinkets; malachite arrows and knives and a set of dream-catchers to help them on their path. Of course, Vernon couldn’t let them go without on last parting shot: “Remember, everyone dies in the end…”
In all of this Zhozha noticed something; the engraving of Lucifer in Dante’s Inferno bore an ominous resemblance to the three headed statue in the antechamber. With this, and some newly acquired holy water and gear from REI, the group headed back into the Undercity.
This time the group decided to explore further than the plaza. They headed in the direction opposite of the monstrous cavern. As they explored they ran into a series of, well, challenges for lack of a better description. Once it was giant bats. The next time they had to cross a rivulet in spite of an overwhelming urge to drink. Another was a group of faceless, pale figures who attacked them. Each encounter was punctuated by the presence of the glow-stick. Several members of the group suggested it was somehow guiding them.
Eventually the group came to a cavern which was ‘walled off’ by a giant expanse of… well, skin for the lack of a better term. Figures, hands and faces could be seen occasionally stretching against its taut surface. Melina thought to burn It with a portable welding torch, but it regenerated far to fast – and it seemed to cause agitation to the ‘figures’ inside the membrane. Next Kerrigan tried to walk around it, which seemed to work – except she realized that the wall didn’t curve. You simply started walking to the left or right and the person would end up back wherever they started.
Eventually one of them realized that tapping on the membrane caused it to vibrate like a drum, allowing them to produce something like speech or Morse or something. At least they could all understand. In a manner of speaking. One of the group lighted on the idea of telling their worst fault, at which point they disappeared into the membrane (for lack of a more coherent description). Each member of the group did this, and spend an indeterminate amount of time reconciling themselves with their regrets.
Eventually, they all found themselves reunited on a plain not far to an archway that lead unmistakably to a city. There they stood, staring in wonder – down below was an immense medieval city, teeming with… everything. Aliens to People from every era. Down below, in the center of the city they could see an immense statue, a Chrysler building in the central square of Mayberry, just like the three headed statue within the cavern where it all started. And the archway? Engraved in 5 foot letters about the walkway were three simple letters: D I S.
The group made their way down the broad avenue, marveling at the throng where they were greeted by a Roman Centurion. Several of the group spoke Latin well enough to pass a small amount of time as the crowd teemed around them. They spoke of the city and passing time and where they where. The Centurion? He simply wondered where his family had gone, and how he could get to Elysium.
So the group travelled onward ,toward the center of the vast circular city – coming to grips with centaurs, grey aliens in flight suits, winged demons and Lawyers until they reached the central plaza. A Hush fell over the city, as the moved toward the massive statue, which they now noticed had a small shack at one foot – a small shack with a distinctive glow-stick ganging from the knocker. In they all went; into the infinite darkness of the room with the well. There, standing in the infinitely bright glow of the basement of the Stately Hotel stood Vernon Nightfeather. You could hear a pin drop in the silence of that moment as it stretched on for an infinity as no one dared to breathe. Until he spoke:
“Remember, everyone dies in the end”
And with that his head blurred for an instant into three, and he stepped to one side as the wall instantly sealed itself encasing the group in darkness. Darkness broken only by hundreds of pale, faceless creatures climbing up the well, each toting a glow stick.
So it came to pass that each member of the group woke up. Except, it was apparently two days previously: Tuesday. They meandered around, and realized that the excavation into the boiler room had not yet happened. And Simon discovered that the noises that they had been recoding in the basement and in room 13 was snippets of conversation from their trek.
To which everyone basically quit and headed out to points yonder, where they discovered that the world was slightly different from what they remembered: Durango was far less ‘dangerous’ than they recalled.
Ian flew back to the UK.
Jonny and Simon headed back to LA.
Kerrigan, Melina and Zhozha? Well, they meandered over to the Hopi reservation and found a shaman to talk about ghost dances and curses. It was there that Zhozha realized that the dream catchers were gone. Except for Melinas’, which was now a silver, gold amulet with a Malachite center – which Melina swore her Grandmother gave to her. On further inspection Zhozha and Kerrigan realized that the amulet has the same street layout as DIS. Which irritated Melina to no end.
In any even the elderly Hopi woman they found told them they would have to find a way to break the curse – most likely by gathering all the cursed individuals and performing a ritual to destroy the amulet. With upset Melina even further.
Needless to say, each member of the group went their own way – and within a month or two each of them had died in some sort of tragic accident.
Whereupon they all woke up again. On Tuesday.
This cycle repeated a time or two, until they lit upon the idea of performing the ritual and breaking Melina’s amulet. The ritual was performed and eventually they all passed out from the exhaustion. And woke up the next morning, Wednesday.
This time the world was a bit different again: most importantly, Vernon Nightfeathers’ home was a ruin, since it evidently had never been rebuilt from when it was destroyed in the 30’s.
Ian, Zhozha , Jonny and Melina headed off for points unknown, quitting the Ghost Hunter staff. But Simon and Kerrigan decided to stay on, to discover what other strange and wondrous things awaited them.
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