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Savannah Knights (mild update 06-10-05)
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<blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 20687" data-attributes="member: 63"><p>[Meta: Before the next game, our DM Jessica asked me, her boyfriend, to help her prepare for a scene in the next game. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was going to be, but she had several sheets of posterboard, lots of markers, and a street map of Atlanta downloaded off Yahoo!’s website. We set to work to making a path of posterboard roads that would follow a route between two locations on the map.]</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Max Dorman, the wealthy Savannah financier and closet Dragon, asks for the Bureau’s protection. He’s going to a business convention in Atlanta, and with the recent murders of Dragons, he doesn’t feel safe. He makes a special request that Michael, the knight who insulted him in Draconic and later seemingly forgot that he’d said anything, not be allowed as a bodyguard.</p><p></p><p>In the convention hall of a large hotel slightly outside downtown Atlanta, Iscalio Maxwell mixes drinks behind the bar while Madeline West and Finagle P. Luckshore sit in the security office checking the cameras and chatting with security guards. Jenny Windgrave, Tagin, and Cai Maxwell walk the floor of the convention hall, browsing among the various businessmen and women, waiters, and hotel security guards, on the lookout for suspicious characters. Jenny usually stays close to Dornankanir (Max Dorman’s real name as a Dragon), because Jenny’s the only one with healing magic. Even though Dragons are nightmarishly strong in their natural form, in human form they’re as weak as you or I, and can be killed by a simple gunshot. </p><p></p><p>Outside the main convention area, Keira McCormick, the ranking Knight on this mission, sits in her car in the parking lot, using her sorcery to try to detect any incoming magi. Atop the building, telepath Dalavar Kineil keeps an eye and his brain peeled, hoping to psionically hear any thoughts that might suggest someone’s trying to kill the Dragon. Everyone is linked through those lovely earpiece-shoulder radio sets, except for Iscalio and Finagle, who don’t have the radio because they have the hardest time blending in already (one being an albino, the other being a 16 year old kid).</p><p></p><p>Things are going smoothly, with everyone communicating back and forth regularly, until Keira radios in.</p><p></p><p>“I sense something powerful coming in. Can’t tell where it’s coming from, but . . . Ah! What the hell?!” Her voice gets distant; it’s still coming over the radio, but she’s obviously speaking to someone else, and not directly into the radio. Her voice seems amused, though, not frightened. “You scared me. What are you doing here? You’re not on this mission.”</p><p></p><p>There is a brief screech of some sort, and they can all make out the sound of a short, painful gasp.</p><p></p><p>Cai calls into the radio, “What’s going on, Keira? Keira, who is it? Keira?!”</p><p></p><p>Cai grabs Jenny and Iscalio and tells them to stay put; he’s going to check out what happened to Keira. As soon as he runs off, however, Dalavar’s voice comes over the line. “Oh no! Keira! I see someone down there. North side of the building, in the parking lot. Whoever it is heading in. . . . Oh <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />, he’s seen m-! No!”</p><p></p><p>They hear Dalavar scream in agony, and everyone winces at the noise before the line suddenly goes silent. A moment passes as everyone recovers from the surprise, but just before anyone starts to react, Dalavar’s voice returns over the line.</p><p></p><p>He’s laughing lightly and maniacally. “Oh, we’re all stupid fools! That lizard won’t see it coming! But the angel of death has passed over <em>me</em>.”</p><p></p><p>Dalavar continues to ramble softly, apparently unhinged by whatever he saw, and the noise over the line makes their radios useless for communication. Since Cai has run off toward the parking lot, Jenny calls to Tagin. She grabs him and Iscalio, then tells Iscalio to stop bartending and stay right next to Dorman. Tagin she wants to go get Finagle and see if they can see anything on the security cameras. She’s going to the roof to check out Dalavar and try to help him. The elevators are of course all being used by catering, so Jenny breaks into a run up six flights of stairs.</p><p></p><p>Cai reaches the parking lot and quickly sprints to Keira’s car. He stops, speechless at the sight of Keira lying slumped out the driverside window. A hole the width of a swordblade pierces the car door, lining up with Keira’s chest. The woman’s blood drips out of the hole down the car door, forming a small pool on the concrete. Cai grabs his own sword and ignites it warily, keeping it low to remain inconspicuous as he scans the parking lot for signs of danger. </p><p></p><p>As Jenny nears the top of the staircase, she can make out Cai’s voice on the radio, now that Dalavar has finally gone silent. “Keira’s dead. Looks like a sword to the chest.”</p><p></p><p>Iscalio replies back, “You gotta hide the body. She’s part Elvish. We can’t risk her going to a morgue.”</p><p></p><p>Cai’s reply is the sound of a car door opening and something being dragged out and shoved under the car. There aren’t that many places to hide a body in the middle of a parking lot. Before he stashes her body under the car, though, he makes sure to take her enchanted bullet clips, even though her gun was missing.</p><p></p><p>Jenny hoarsely calls that she’s reaching the roof, and she flings open the door, squinting in the sudden sunlight. She glances around, finding her bearings, and starts to head for the north side of the building (where Dalavar last was) when a cry of high-pitched, jeering voices comes from further down the roof. </p><p></p><p>“MEAT!”</p><p></p><p>Jenny’s head swings to stare at a tiny horde of a dozen three-foot long Gremlins scrambling across the roof toward her. She turns to try to run, when the door behind her clicks shut, locking her on the roof. Looking up at the top of the door, she sees a half dozen more Gremlins leering at her, chuckling as they shove the door tightly shut. Calling for help, Jenny activates her spear and sprints for the northern edge of the roof. The Gremlins cheer and give chase.</p><p></p><p>Finagle, in the security room, hears that the Gremlins from the Bureau must somehow have gotten free and are attacking Jenny, so he and Tagin run to try to help her. Madeline leaves with them. They break through the main convention room, but as they’re heading past Dornankanir he stops them, grabbing Tagin by his arm. The Dragon demands an explanation of what’s going on, but when Tagin can’t think of anything to say, Iscalio steps up. </p><p></p><p>“Just stay near me. The other knights are trying to stop the danger before it gets too close.”</p><p></p><p>Dorman nods and sighs, finishing off the rest of his drink. “That’s good to know. I have a very important business deal that I might be able to. . . .”</p><p></p><p>Finagle has already sprinted off, but Tagin, Madeline, and Iscalio look at Dorman in dismay as the man clutches his left arm and bends over in pain. The crowd screams in panic as Max Dorman collapses to the ground with a heart attack. </p><p></p><p>This is followed by the sound of a thousand cel phones dialing 911.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Chapter Ten: Dornankanir Falls</strong></span></p><p></p><p>Cai gets back inside and up to Dorman where a few doctors in the crowd are trying to check his vital signs while they wait for paramedics to arrive. Cai and Iscalio exchange knowing glances. It would be bad enough if Keira, a quarter-Elf, ended up in a morgue. It would be perfectly horribly bad if they let a Dragon end up in the public domain. Madeline reminds them quietly that if Dorman dies, his body will go back to Dragon form. Grimacing, Cai and Iscalio decide to try to load him in their own van and get him to the Bureau. </p><p></p><p>Tagin: “What about Jenny on the roof?” </p><p></p><p>Iscalio: “Oh, she’ll handle herself.”</p><p></p><p>On the roof, Jenny is by the edge, out of room to run. She bats away one Gremlin with the butt of her spear as it leaps at her, then stabs at another, missing the agile and tiny creature. A dozen snarling mouths pounce upon her, clinging to her clothes and hair and, well, skin as they tear into her flesh. Jenny flings one off the roof, and is contemplating jumping herself when the door to the roof bursts open, revealing Finagle. A moment’s hesitation later, Finagle shouts, “Guys! It’s me! Remember? Me and you? And you and me?!”</p><p></p><p>The Gremlins stop tearing at Jenny and turn to look at Finagle, smiling and shouting, “So happy together!”</p><p></p><p>Deep down, even more than wanting to kill stuff, Gremlins love a good song.</p><p></p><p>The Gremlins jump off Jenny and begin to dance around Finagle gleefully. Jenny slumps to the ground and tries to heal herself of the numerous tiny wounds across her body.</p><p></p><p>Back in the convention center, Iscalio and Cai’s attempts to drag Max Dorman’s body away are met with shock and refusal from the crowd of onlookers. When Iscalio draws his gun and threatens everyone to let them take the guy or he’ll shoot, he gets a spray of mace in his eyes. Hotel security chases after them, along with a small mob of business men and women as an ambulance siren approaches. Cai and Iscalio take the next best approach and hop into the minivan in hopes of pursuing the ambulance. Madeline and Tagin follow suit and run for the Cadillac.</p><p></p><p>Jenny radios and asks what’s going on. Cai replies that they’re the lizard had a heart attack and that the paramedics are taking his body; they’re going to try to stop the ambulance. Jenny asks them to wait for her, but Iscalio says, “Hell no. No time to waste.”</p><p></p><p>I helped the DM build the car chase. The hell if I’m not gonna get a chance to take part. Jenny glances to make sure Finagle’s still doing good with the Gremlins, and then she runs for the fire escape. She’s in a rush, so she jumps the last story and a half, falling on her side with a groan, but happy that she’ll be able to get to the rest of the party before they drive off.</p><p></p><p>Just then, they drive past her, zooming after an ambulance. Groaning in pain, Jenny slams her fist on the pavement and unsteadily gets to her feet. She runs to the nearest vehicle, a van reminiscent of the Mystery Mobile from Scooby Doo (i.e., Jessie picked a Hot Wheels car at random), knocks on the window, and commandeers the car for official . . . sorta police business. Shouting a promise to bring it back in one piece, she jumps in the car (and gags on the cloying smell of marijuana) and drives off after the rest of the group.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Alright, here’s the set up:</p><p></p><p>Ambulance, carrying Dornankanir who’s dying of a heart attack, has a 1 block head start on us.</p><p></p><p>Car 1, Minivan driven by Cai, with Iscalio riding “shotgun.”</p><p></p><p>Car 2, Cadillac driven by Madeline, with Tagin in the passenger seat. Madeline’s player asks if she can cast a siren spell, even though it’s not a normal cantrip. The DM says ghost sound works fine. Car 2 has a yowling siren to help keep cars out of their way.</p><p></p><p>Car 3, pot-mobile driven (perhaps in violation of that whole Lawful Good thing paladins are supposed to follow) by Jenny, 2 blocks behind the rest of the group due to her late start. Jenny would much have preferred a motorcycle or something, but she got a nice puke green van. Her rationale as to why it’s okay to steal a car and chase after an ambulance is because she’s an officer of a pseudo-government agency, and she’s well within her jurisdiction.</p><p></p><p>Jessie lays out on the ground the sheets of posterboard roads, three at a time, showing that the ambulance is ahead of the knights. It’s just after five o’clock, so traffic is heavy (there are lots of other Hot Wheels on the board, going in either direction). Driving past small blocks of stores and offices, the three bureau cars try to catch up with the ambulance and stop it before it can reach the hospital. Whenever we try to pass a car, we have to make a Controlled Driving skill check (and Madeline is the only person who ever took a defensive driving course). Also, if we want to try to speed up substantially, make a sharp turn, or swerve through an intersection and avoid cross traffic, Controlled Driving skill check.</p><p></p><p>We get our first big break when the ambulance driver fails his Driving check to get through an intersection, and has to wait for the cross traffic to dissipate. In the opening he created, the minivan and the Cadillac close to within three or four car lengths. Since most cars pull over to the side of the road when an ambulance tries to get by, Jenny has been able, through excessive speeding and divine bonuses to Reflex saves, to catch up to within one city block of the other cars.</p><p></p><p>The two pursuing knight cars are getting closer when the ambulance takes a sharp left turn at an intersection. Not expecting to have to turn, the Knights almost get themselves killed. Madeline is able to brake to a stop, but Cai skids out into the intersection and has to backtrack to get on the ambulance’s trail again. Jenny’s able to catch up more here, because she saw her teammates nearly get killed, and adjusted accordingly.</p><p></p><p>Cai willingness to take risks and pass three cars at a time through oncoming traffic nets him the lead ahead of Madeline. Only six car lengths behind the ambulance, the only real obstacle now are two more cars. Though both moved to the side of the road to give the ambulance clearance, they’re moving back quickly now.</p><p></p><p>Iscalio shouts, “I’ll clear the way!” and begins to roll down his window. He pops out the window and shoots at the rear tires of the car ahead of them. The driver of the car fails his driving check and skids off the road to the side. Cai shouts at his brother to stop shooting, but Iscalio fires at the next car. The driver of this car rolls a 1 on her check, and in panic tries to get away from the maniac shooting at her. Her car flips and begins to roll, but it slams against a light pole and stops suddenly. </p><p></p><p>Jenny has realized that she can’t possibly catch up in time, so she follows as best as possible, shocked at Iscalio’s reckless endangerment of human life.</p><p></p><p>As Cai edges toward the ambulance, he warns his brother not to dare to shoot out the ambulance’s tires, or he’ll throw him out of the car. They’re at a loss as to what to do, because the oncoming traffic’s too thick to try to get in front of the ambulance, and it’s one lane in each direction.</p><p></p><p>Then Madeline peeks to the side of the ambulance, driving in the middle of the road. Oncoming cars swerve to avoid her, so she’s able to edge up beside the emergency vehicle and drive parallel to it.</p><p></p><p>Then Tagin decides to fulfill the requirements of a classic chase scene. Yes, he opens his door and jumps onto the ambulance, holding his pistol in pants pocket. Hanging onto the side-view mirror and standing on the running board, Tagin points a gun to the window and shouts for the ambulance to pull over.</p><p></p><p>The frightened driver swerves to his left, almost smashing Tagin between the ambulance and Madeline’s car. Madeline steps on the gas and pulls ahead of the ambulance, while Cai bumps the fleeing vehicle from behind. All of this makes it very difficult for Tagin to hold on, so he shoots the window out and hangs on despite the jagged shards of glass digging into his arm.</p><p></p><p>The chase comes to a Y-shaped split in the road, and the ambulance driver, panicking from having a maniac dangling onto the side of his car, swerves directly onto the grass and tips the car sideways. The siren stops with a whimper as the ambulance plows across the ground, tossing Tagin away to land in a heap.</p><p></p><p>Madeline, Cai, and Jenny all pull up next to the overturned ambulance, as does a small crowd of onlookers. Cai calls the Bureau for a clean-up crew while Iscalio tries to handle the cops and Jenny runs to the back of the ambulance. As she reaches to pull the door open, the white metal bulges outward suddenly, and the vehicle begins to shriek as its frame is stretched from within. Jenny takes a few steps back, about to run, but then remembers the ambulance drivers. She runs for the cab of the ambulance, calling for Madeline just as the rear of the vehicle bursts to reveal a 20-foot long, scaled bronze Dragon, its eyes closed.</p><p></p><p>Madeline and Jenny pull the driver and the paramedic in the passenger seat free (sadly, the one in the back of the ambulance was crushed against the wall when Dornankanir reverted to his normal form), then Cai comes to help drag the two emergency workers away while Jenny runs to heal Tagin, who was knocked unconscious from the impact. She gets him clear of the area, and a few moments later the sundered ambulance’s fuel tank explodes, engulfing most of the evidence.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Hours later, when the telepaths and mages finish cleaning up the area, wiping minds and deleting cameras of the event, and dragging away the charred corpse of a Dragon, it simply appears that the ambulance lost control, tipped, and exploded. Thankfully, some pedestrians must have pulled the paramedics to safety. The body of Max Dorman was so charred in the flames as to be unrecognizable.</p><p></p><p>Back at the convention center, Finagle was able to eventually sing the Gremlins to sleep so the Bureau could come pick them up. Apparently someone freed them from their cages and transported them to Atlanta without anyone noticing. The Chief has set people to scour the Bureau facility for clues.</p><p></p><p>Keira McCormick’s body was recovered without anyone finding her first. The autopsy confirmed that it was a Bureau arcane blade that killed her.</p><p></p><p>Dalavar Kineil was not found. The Bureau believes he was abducted or perhaps killed.</p><p></p><p>The autopsy of a dead Dragon is difficult, especially when the body is severely charred, and magical detection will not work because of the dead Dragon’s aura. However, blood samples verify the presence of poison in the Dragon’s system. Normally it wouldn’t even have harmed him in draconic form, but as a human, it was enough to induce a heart attack.</p><p></p><p>The knights return to the Bureau and heal up, and the Chief gives them their orders. Except for Iscalio, they’re to return to Savannah immediately and find Michael. He’s not answering his cel phone, and he was on patrol on the “graveyard shift.” They ask if the Chief thinks Michael was involved, because of the incident earlier when he was seemingly controlled by an outside force, but the Chief shakes his head.</p><p></p><p>“Keira and Michael were a couple.” He pauses, looking at them gravely. “He deserves to be told as soon as possible.”</p><p> </p><p>Iscalio wants to know why he won’t be with the rest of the party, and the Chief tells him he’s suspended temporarily for flagrant endangerment of civilian lives. He wants Iscalio to write a report and give it to him before the night is over, but not to expect to be going back on field duty for a long time. With that, the Chief sends them off.</p><p></p><p>As Iscalio and the group parts ways, they wonder what could be going on. It seems obvious that someone in the Bureau is responsible for at least part of the problem, since the Gremlins were released, and the murderer used a Bureau sword. They have a few suspects, Michael being on top of the list, but with no real evidence to back it up, just hunches. </p><p></p><p>Jenny thinks it’s the church Dragon, Sexton, because of what Tagin told them about the Siren. The Siren was talking about how they can’t fight their instincts, and obviously Sexton is fighting his instincts by denying that he’s a Dragon. </p><p></p><p>Cai suspects the telepaths, though he can’t narrow it down to J’Qwuan, Autumn, or Neil (that’s what we all called Dalavar Kineil). J’Qwuan’s just creepy, and he let the Siren jump to her death. Autumn seems to taunt them a lot, but all she really does is hang around the Bureau. Neil, though, disappeared suddenly, and might even have left the Gremlins as a trap for whoever tried to come after him.</p><p></p><p>Tagin thinks it’s a demon, since apparently he possessed Michael (to insult Dornankanir) and Brian (to destroy the evidence of the tape) and the first murderer Jericho Wright (to kill a Dragon). But they have no clues to suggest a demon could even do that, so Tagin suggests that they do some research when they get back to the Bureau.</p><p></p><p>Iscalio leaves, and the party gears up to head to Bonaventure Cemetery in hopes of finding Michael. As they near the gate out of the Faerie World, Cai asks, “What’s the common link between all these victims so far? The Dragons, that tour guide, Keira, and Neil? What’s the connection?”</p><p></p><p>Jenny replies dryly, “Us.”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RangerWickett, post: 20687, member: 63"] [Meta: Before the next game, our DM Jessica asked me, her boyfriend, to help her prepare for a scene in the next game. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was going to be, but she had several sheets of posterboard, lots of markers, and a street map of Atlanta downloaded off Yahoo!’s website. We set to work to making a path of posterboard roads that would follow a route between two locations on the map.] Max Dorman, the wealthy Savannah financier and closet Dragon, asks for the Bureau’s protection. He’s going to a business convention in Atlanta, and with the recent murders of Dragons, he doesn’t feel safe. He makes a special request that Michael, the knight who insulted him in Draconic and later seemingly forgot that he’d said anything, not be allowed as a bodyguard. In the convention hall of a large hotel slightly outside downtown Atlanta, Iscalio Maxwell mixes drinks behind the bar while Madeline West and Finagle P. Luckshore sit in the security office checking the cameras and chatting with security guards. Jenny Windgrave, Tagin, and Cai Maxwell walk the floor of the convention hall, browsing among the various businessmen and women, waiters, and hotel security guards, on the lookout for suspicious characters. Jenny usually stays close to Dornankanir (Max Dorman’s real name as a Dragon), because Jenny’s the only one with healing magic. Even though Dragons are nightmarishly strong in their natural form, in human form they’re as weak as you or I, and can be killed by a simple gunshot. Outside the main convention area, Keira McCormick, the ranking Knight on this mission, sits in her car in the parking lot, using her sorcery to try to detect any incoming magi. Atop the building, telepath Dalavar Kineil keeps an eye and his brain peeled, hoping to psionically hear any thoughts that might suggest someone’s trying to kill the Dragon. Everyone is linked through those lovely earpiece-shoulder radio sets, except for Iscalio and Finagle, who don’t have the radio because they have the hardest time blending in already (one being an albino, the other being a 16 year old kid). Things are going smoothly, with everyone communicating back and forth regularly, until Keira radios in. “I sense something powerful coming in. Can’t tell where it’s coming from, but . . . Ah! What the hell?!” Her voice gets distant; it’s still coming over the radio, but she’s obviously speaking to someone else, and not directly into the radio. Her voice seems amused, though, not frightened. “You scared me. What are you doing here? You’re not on this mission.” There is a brief screech of some sort, and they can all make out the sound of a short, painful gasp. Cai calls into the radio, “What’s going on, Keira? Keira, who is it? Keira?!” Cai grabs Jenny and Iscalio and tells them to stay put; he’s going to check out what happened to Keira. As soon as he runs off, however, Dalavar’s voice comes over the line. “Oh no! Keira! I see someone down there. North side of the building, in the parking lot. Whoever it is heading in. . . . Oh :):):):), he’s seen m-! No!” They hear Dalavar scream in agony, and everyone winces at the noise before the line suddenly goes silent. A moment passes as everyone recovers from the surprise, but just before anyone starts to react, Dalavar’s voice returns over the line. He’s laughing lightly and maniacally. “Oh, we’re all stupid fools! That lizard won’t see it coming! But the angel of death has passed over [I]me[/I].” Dalavar continues to ramble softly, apparently unhinged by whatever he saw, and the noise over the line makes their radios useless for communication. Since Cai has run off toward the parking lot, Jenny calls to Tagin. She grabs him and Iscalio, then tells Iscalio to stop bartending and stay right next to Dorman. Tagin she wants to go get Finagle and see if they can see anything on the security cameras. She’s going to the roof to check out Dalavar and try to help him. The elevators are of course all being used by catering, so Jenny breaks into a run up six flights of stairs. Cai reaches the parking lot and quickly sprints to Keira’s car. He stops, speechless at the sight of Keira lying slumped out the driverside window. A hole the width of a swordblade pierces the car door, lining up with Keira’s chest. The woman’s blood drips out of the hole down the car door, forming a small pool on the concrete. Cai grabs his own sword and ignites it warily, keeping it low to remain inconspicuous as he scans the parking lot for signs of danger. As Jenny nears the top of the staircase, she can make out Cai’s voice on the radio, now that Dalavar has finally gone silent. “Keira’s dead. Looks like a sword to the chest.” Iscalio replies back, “You gotta hide the body. She’s part Elvish. We can’t risk her going to a morgue.” Cai’s reply is the sound of a car door opening and something being dragged out and shoved under the car. There aren’t that many places to hide a body in the middle of a parking lot. Before he stashes her body under the car, though, he makes sure to take her enchanted bullet clips, even though her gun was missing. Jenny hoarsely calls that she’s reaching the roof, and she flings open the door, squinting in the sudden sunlight. She glances around, finding her bearings, and starts to head for the north side of the building (where Dalavar last was) when a cry of high-pitched, jeering voices comes from further down the roof. “MEAT!” Jenny’s head swings to stare at a tiny horde of a dozen three-foot long Gremlins scrambling across the roof toward her. She turns to try to run, when the door behind her clicks shut, locking her on the roof. Looking up at the top of the door, she sees a half dozen more Gremlins leering at her, chuckling as they shove the door tightly shut. Calling for help, Jenny activates her spear and sprints for the northern edge of the roof. The Gremlins cheer and give chase. Finagle, in the security room, hears that the Gremlins from the Bureau must somehow have gotten free and are attacking Jenny, so he and Tagin run to try to help her. Madeline leaves with them. They break through the main convention room, but as they’re heading past Dornankanir he stops them, grabbing Tagin by his arm. The Dragon demands an explanation of what’s going on, but when Tagin can’t think of anything to say, Iscalio steps up. “Just stay near me. The other knights are trying to stop the danger before it gets too close.” Dorman nods and sighs, finishing off the rest of his drink. “That’s good to know. I have a very important business deal that I might be able to. . . .” Finagle has already sprinted off, but Tagin, Madeline, and Iscalio look at Dorman in dismay as the man clutches his left arm and bends over in pain. The crowd screams in panic as Max Dorman collapses to the ground with a heart attack. This is followed by the sound of a thousand cel phones dialing 911. [size=3][b]Chapter Ten: Dornankanir Falls[/b][/size] Cai gets back inside and up to Dorman where a few doctors in the crowd are trying to check his vital signs while they wait for paramedics to arrive. Cai and Iscalio exchange knowing glances. It would be bad enough if Keira, a quarter-Elf, ended up in a morgue. It would be perfectly horribly bad if they let a Dragon end up in the public domain. Madeline reminds them quietly that if Dorman dies, his body will go back to Dragon form. Grimacing, Cai and Iscalio decide to try to load him in their own van and get him to the Bureau. Tagin: “What about Jenny on the roof?” Iscalio: “Oh, she’ll handle herself.” On the roof, Jenny is by the edge, out of room to run. She bats away one Gremlin with the butt of her spear as it leaps at her, then stabs at another, missing the agile and tiny creature. A dozen snarling mouths pounce upon her, clinging to her clothes and hair and, well, skin as they tear into her flesh. Jenny flings one off the roof, and is contemplating jumping herself when the door to the roof bursts open, revealing Finagle. A moment’s hesitation later, Finagle shouts, “Guys! It’s me! Remember? Me and you? And you and me?!” The Gremlins stop tearing at Jenny and turn to look at Finagle, smiling and shouting, “So happy together!” Deep down, even more than wanting to kill stuff, Gremlins love a good song. The Gremlins jump off Jenny and begin to dance around Finagle gleefully. Jenny slumps to the ground and tries to heal herself of the numerous tiny wounds across her body. Back in the convention center, Iscalio and Cai’s attempts to drag Max Dorman’s body away are met with shock and refusal from the crowd of onlookers. When Iscalio draws his gun and threatens everyone to let them take the guy or he’ll shoot, he gets a spray of mace in his eyes. Hotel security chases after them, along with a small mob of business men and women as an ambulance siren approaches. Cai and Iscalio take the next best approach and hop into the minivan in hopes of pursuing the ambulance. Madeline and Tagin follow suit and run for the Cadillac. Jenny radios and asks what’s going on. Cai replies that they’re the lizard had a heart attack and that the paramedics are taking his body; they’re going to try to stop the ambulance. Jenny asks them to wait for her, but Iscalio says, “Hell no. No time to waste.” I helped the DM build the car chase. The hell if I’m not gonna get a chance to take part. Jenny glances to make sure Finagle’s still doing good with the Gremlins, and then she runs for the fire escape. She’s in a rush, so she jumps the last story and a half, falling on her side with a groan, but happy that she’ll be able to get to the rest of the party before they drive off. Just then, they drive past her, zooming after an ambulance. Groaning in pain, Jenny slams her fist on the pavement and unsteadily gets to her feet. She runs to the nearest vehicle, a van reminiscent of the Mystery Mobile from Scooby Doo (i.e., Jessie picked a Hot Wheels car at random), knocks on the window, and commandeers the car for official . . . sorta police business. Shouting a promise to bring it back in one piece, she jumps in the car (and gags on the cloying smell of marijuana) and drives off after the rest of the group. Alright, here’s the set up: Ambulance, carrying Dornankanir who’s dying of a heart attack, has a 1 block head start on us. Car 1, Minivan driven by Cai, with Iscalio riding “shotgun.” Car 2, Cadillac driven by Madeline, with Tagin in the passenger seat. Madeline’s player asks if she can cast a siren spell, even though it’s not a normal cantrip. The DM says ghost sound works fine. Car 2 has a yowling siren to help keep cars out of their way. Car 3, pot-mobile driven (perhaps in violation of that whole Lawful Good thing paladins are supposed to follow) by Jenny, 2 blocks behind the rest of the group due to her late start. Jenny would much have preferred a motorcycle or something, but she got a nice puke green van. Her rationale as to why it’s okay to steal a car and chase after an ambulance is because she’s an officer of a pseudo-government agency, and she’s well within her jurisdiction. Jessie lays out on the ground the sheets of posterboard roads, three at a time, showing that the ambulance is ahead of the knights. It’s just after five o’clock, so traffic is heavy (there are lots of other Hot Wheels on the board, going in either direction). Driving past small blocks of stores and offices, the three bureau cars try to catch up with the ambulance and stop it before it can reach the hospital. Whenever we try to pass a car, we have to make a Controlled Driving skill check (and Madeline is the only person who ever took a defensive driving course). Also, if we want to try to speed up substantially, make a sharp turn, or swerve through an intersection and avoid cross traffic, Controlled Driving skill check. We get our first big break when the ambulance driver fails his Driving check to get through an intersection, and has to wait for the cross traffic to dissipate. In the opening he created, the minivan and the Cadillac close to within three or four car lengths. Since most cars pull over to the side of the road when an ambulance tries to get by, Jenny has been able, through excessive speeding and divine bonuses to Reflex saves, to catch up to within one city block of the other cars. The two pursuing knight cars are getting closer when the ambulance takes a sharp left turn at an intersection. Not expecting to have to turn, the Knights almost get themselves killed. Madeline is able to brake to a stop, but Cai skids out into the intersection and has to backtrack to get on the ambulance’s trail again. Jenny’s able to catch up more here, because she saw her teammates nearly get killed, and adjusted accordingly. Cai willingness to take risks and pass three cars at a time through oncoming traffic nets him the lead ahead of Madeline. Only six car lengths behind the ambulance, the only real obstacle now are two more cars. Though both moved to the side of the road to give the ambulance clearance, they’re moving back quickly now. Iscalio shouts, “I’ll clear the way!” and begins to roll down his window. He pops out the window and shoots at the rear tires of the car ahead of them. The driver of the car fails his driving check and skids off the road to the side. Cai shouts at his brother to stop shooting, but Iscalio fires at the next car. The driver of this car rolls a 1 on her check, and in panic tries to get away from the maniac shooting at her. Her car flips and begins to roll, but it slams against a light pole and stops suddenly. Jenny has realized that she can’t possibly catch up in time, so she follows as best as possible, shocked at Iscalio’s reckless endangerment of human life. As Cai edges toward the ambulance, he warns his brother not to dare to shoot out the ambulance’s tires, or he’ll throw him out of the car. They’re at a loss as to what to do, because the oncoming traffic’s too thick to try to get in front of the ambulance, and it’s one lane in each direction. Then Madeline peeks to the side of the ambulance, driving in the middle of the road. Oncoming cars swerve to avoid her, so she’s able to edge up beside the emergency vehicle and drive parallel to it. Then Tagin decides to fulfill the requirements of a classic chase scene. Yes, he opens his door and jumps onto the ambulance, holding his pistol in pants pocket. Hanging onto the side-view mirror and standing on the running board, Tagin points a gun to the window and shouts for the ambulance to pull over. The frightened driver swerves to his left, almost smashing Tagin between the ambulance and Madeline’s car. Madeline steps on the gas and pulls ahead of the ambulance, while Cai bumps the fleeing vehicle from behind. All of this makes it very difficult for Tagin to hold on, so he shoots the window out and hangs on despite the jagged shards of glass digging into his arm. The chase comes to a Y-shaped split in the road, and the ambulance driver, panicking from having a maniac dangling onto the side of his car, swerves directly onto the grass and tips the car sideways. The siren stops with a whimper as the ambulance plows across the ground, tossing Tagin away to land in a heap. Madeline, Cai, and Jenny all pull up next to the overturned ambulance, as does a small crowd of onlookers. Cai calls the Bureau for a clean-up crew while Iscalio tries to handle the cops and Jenny runs to the back of the ambulance. As she reaches to pull the door open, the white metal bulges outward suddenly, and the vehicle begins to shriek as its frame is stretched from within. Jenny takes a few steps back, about to run, but then remembers the ambulance drivers. She runs for the cab of the ambulance, calling for Madeline just as the rear of the vehicle bursts to reveal a 20-foot long, scaled bronze Dragon, its eyes closed. Madeline and Jenny pull the driver and the paramedic in the passenger seat free (sadly, the one in the back of the ambulance was crushed against the wall when Dornankanir reverted to his normal form), then Cai comes to help drag the two emergency workers away while Jenny runs to heal Tagin, who was knocked unconscious from the impact. She gets him clear of the area, and a few moments later the sundered ambulance’s fuel tank explodes, engulfing most of the evidence. Hours later, when the telepaths and mages finish cleaning up the area, wiping minds and deleting cameras of the event, and dragging away the charred corpse of a Dragon, it simply appears that the ambulance lost control, tipped, and exploded. Thankfully, some pedestrians must have pulled the paramedics to safety. The body of Max Dorman was so charred in the flames as to be unrecognizable. Back at the convention center, Finagle was able to eventually sing the Gremlins to sleep so the Bureau could come pick them up. Apparently someone freed them from their cages and transported them to Atlanta without anyone noticing. The Chief has set people to scour the Bureau facility for clues. Keira McCormick’s body was recovered without anyone finding her first. The autopsy confirmed that it was a Bureau arcane blade that killed her. Dalavar Kineil was not found. The Bureau believes he was abducted or perhaps killed. The autopsy of a dead Dragon is difficult, especially when the body is severely charred, and magical detection will not work because of the dead Dragon’s aura. However, blood samples verify the presence of poison in the Dragon’s system. Normally it wouldn’t even have harmed him in draconic form, but as a human, it was enough to induce a heart attack. The knights return to the Bureau and heal up, and the Chief gives them their orders. Except for Iscalio, they’re to return to Savannah immediately and find Michael. He’s not answering his cel phone, and he was on patrol on the “graveyard shift.” They ask if the Chief thinks Michael was involved, because of the incident earlier when he was seemingly controlled by an outside force, but the Chief shakes his head. “Keira and Michael were a couple.” He pauses, looking at them gravely. “He deserves to be told as soon as possible.” Iscalio wants to know why he won’t be with the rest of the party, and the Chief tells him he’s suspended temporarily for flagrant endangerment of civilian lives. He wants Iscalio to write a report and give it to him before the night is over, but not to expect to be going back on field duty for a long time. With that, the Chief sends them off. As Iscalio and the group parts ways, they wonder what could be going on. It seems obvious that someone in the Bureau is responsible for at least part of the problem, since the Gremlins were released, and the murderer used a Bureau sword. They have a few suspects, Michael being on top of the list, but with no real evidence to back it up, just hunches. Jenny thinks it’s the church Dragon, Sexton, because of what Tagin told them about the Siren. The Siren was talking about how they can’t fight their instincts, and obviously Sexton is fighting his instincts by denying that he’s a Dragon. Cai suspects the telepaths, though he can’t narrow it down to J’Qwuan, Autumn, or Neil (that’s what we all called Dalavar Kineil). J’Qwuan’s just creepy, and he let the Siren jump to her death. Autumn seems to taunt them a lot, but all she really does is hang around the Bureau. Neil, though, disappeared suddenly, and might even have left the Gremlins as a trap for whoever tried to come after him. Tagin thinks it’s a demon, since apparently he possessed Michael (to insult Dornankanir) and Brian (to destroy the evidence of the tape) and the first murderer Jericho Wright (to kill a Dragon). But they have no clues to suggest a demon could even do that, so Tagin suggests that they do some research when they get back to the Bureau. Iscalio leaves, and the party gears up to head to Bonaventure Cemetery in hopes of finding Michael. As they near the gate out of the Faerie World, Cai asks, “What’s the common link between all these victims so far? The Dragons, that tour guide, Keira, and Neil? What’s the connection?” Jenny replies dryly, “Us.” [/QUOTE]
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